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Subscribe to RSSNearly a year after a tsunami and 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel travels to the evacuation zone surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The plant suffered a triple meltdown in the wake of the earthquake, turning the neighborhoods in the 12 mile radius of the plant into ghost towns. Engel journeyed near the mangled plant which remains very much a hotspot. Radiation levels were so high, the NBC News team on the ground had to wear face masks and full body suits. Even as NBC News drove half a mile from the reactor, radiation monitors were screaming in alarm.
TOKYO -- Japan on Saturday approved the resumption of nuclear power operations at two reactors despite mass public opposition, the first to come back on line after they were all shut down following the Fukushima crisis.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, his popularity ratings sagging, had backed the restarts for some time. He announced the government's decision at a meeting with key ministers, giving the go-ahead to two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co at Ohi in western Japan.
The decision, despite public concerns over safety after the big earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant, could open the door to more restarts among Japan's 50 nuclear power reactors.
But the decision risks a backlash from a public deeply concerned about nuclear safety. As many as 10,000 demonstrators gathered outside Noda's office on Friday night amid a heavy police presence to denounce the restarts, urging the premier to step down and shouting "Lives matter more than the economy."
"Prime Minister Noda's rushed, dangerous approval of the Ohi nuclear power plant restart ignores expert safety advice and public outcry and needlessly risks the health of Japan's environment, its people and its economy," environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement.
Rachel Maddow discusses the ongoing nuclear disaster in Fukushima a year after the Japan earthquake and tsunami. Rachel also talks with Salon.com's Mariah Blake about Texas billionaire Harold Simmons' huge nuclear waste dump over the Ogallala Aquifer located beneath the Great Plains.
The decision is a victory for Japan's still-powerful nuclear industry and reflects Noda's concerns about damage to the economy if atomic energy is abandoned following the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
The restart is being closely watched as an indicator of how aggressively the government will act to approve operations at other reactors. It has been pushing hard to bring some reactors online as soon as possible to avert power shortages as demand increases during the summer months. It says the reactors in the town of Ohi are particularly important because they are in an area that relied heavily on nuclear before the crisis, and have passed safety checks.
"Safety is our main concern," said trade and industry minister Yukio Edano. "We have approved the beginning of the restarting process. It will take some time for the reactors to begin generating electricity."
But officials acknowledged that a completely fail-safe disaster prevention plan was impossible.
Will Japan build a backup Tokyo?
"There is no such thing as a perfect score when it comes to disaster prevention steps," Trade Minister Yukio Edano told a news conference after the announcement.
Japan's disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011 contaminated the land around it so badly that the area was effectively a write-off. Today the radiation-infected area is known by a name Ray Bradbury would like: "the exclusion zone." NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports from inside the zone, part of his report for Rock Center with Brian Williams airing Wednesday, Mar. 7, at 10pm/9c on NBC.
"But, based on what we learned from the Fukushima accident, those measures that need to be taken urgently have been addressed, and the level of safety has been considerably enhanced (at the Ohi plant)," he said.
Edano, who holds the energy portfolio, said the government policy to reduce Japan's dependence on nuclear energy in the medium- to long-term was unchanged despite the decision.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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nuclear done right is better than coal
It's the "done right" that tells the tail. Japan was done right, where did that get them. Russia certainly didn't plan for Chernobyl to explode. Again, there is no such thing as fail safe.
Nat gas, wind, and solar are also better than coal.
a
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_alOq958fk
Ban Tuna!!!
Nothing is risk free, there are always trade offs. Natural gas has radon, coal has radioactive material. I'm not sure that wind and solar are cost effective without tax incentives. It's kind of like, pick your poison. I'm sure there will be those that say they have the answer.
So here we are on the eve of nuclear restart in Japan, a country in which 70% of its population do not approve of such a restart, and I'm still wondering if TEPCO ever found the cores of reactors 1-3. Remember that? When they were speculating about breaches and China Syndrome and all that?
That question remains unresolved as far as I'm aware and it's apparently been pushed completely out of the conversation since early spring. Where are the cores? Nobody's saying much about that anymore. The Japanese government has taken it upon themselves to make this restart decision for their people and they can't even say for sure what the status is from the LAST nuclear disaster.
...and all just in time for a mega typhoon...
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/07/169783.html
Alarms went off Sunday evening and early Monday at a reactor at the Oi nuclear power plant in western Japan as it prepared to be reactivated Wednesday as only the country's second operating reactor, but government officials ruled out any delay to the schedule...
The first alarm sounded around 6:20 p.m. Sunday indicating a rise in pressure at a tank for the No. 4 reactor's primary coolant system. The second, which went off around 1:20 a.m. Monday, showed an auxiliary motor for the reactor's emergency diesel generator was malfunctioning, Kansai Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant in Fukui Prefecture, said.
But the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the incidents will have no impact on the reactor's planned restart as the pressure rise was marginal and the generator itself was functioning normally, although the motor for its maintenance may have broken.
Safety first, right? LOL.
Actually depending on what actually caused the alarms it really may have no impact on start-up of the reactor. It's not that unusual that during startup of power plants that alarms happen that are simple and quick to correct and startup goes on.