The next Japanese nuclear crisis : Hamaoka

This can easily be avoided if the plant is shut down...

Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant must be shut down

Chubu Electric Power Co. should shut down its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant. Its security standards no longer hold water, and I want Japan to become a country that can steadily overcome anticipated crises. This is the conclusion I reached after speaking with government officials in Tokyo following a brief tour of the Sanriku and Fukushima districts.

The Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant is located in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture. The dangers associated with the plant are common knowledge among nuclear power plant opponents. Two of the three reactors in operation are boiling-water reactors -- the same type as those at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. But the real point of concern is the fact that they sit right above the spot where a massive Tokai region earthquake is predicted to strike.

The consequences would be of massive squale...

Katsuhiko Ishibashi, 66, an emeritus professor at Kobe University who coined the phrase "genpatsu shinsai," which describes a combined earthquake and nuclear power plant disaster, has previously pointed out the plant's precarious standing. In the May 2011 editions of the monthly magazines "Sekai" and "Chuokoron," he warned there would be severe consequences if a major earthquake were to strike the Hamaoka plant.

"In a worst-case scenario ... a radiation cloud would drift over the Tokyo metropolitan area, and over 10 million people would have to evacuate. Japan would lose its capital." "The U.S. military bases at Yokota, Yokosuka, Atsugi and Zama would not be able to function, producing a large global military imbalance," he reportedly told the magazines.

But it seems they do not plan to do it or even think about it :

In the wake of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Chubu Electric Power Co. announced that it would delay the construction of new reactors at the Hamaoka plant, but the reactors now in operation have been kept running. The power company, which worries about the cost of securing an alternative source of power, does not consider stopping the reactors an option.

If they are delaying the ``construction`` of those plants, that means they have ALREADY BEEN APPROVED by the Japanese government. That means there's no plans AT ALL to dismantle that nuclear power plant... so the chances of it being closed are very very slim...

Since the government doesn't plan to do anything about it, it's up to the Japanese activists in the area to act...

reply to post by Vitchilo


I hope I'm alone in thinking this, but I'd rather deal with rolling blackouts or cut back power than the risk resulting from nuclear accidents. Life alive and fairly healthy is better than life with lots of technology and increased cancer. TEPCO and the greedy elite need to go.

Thank god they did the right thing!

Kyodo reports that Hamaoka nuclear plant -- "most-dangerous" in Japan say many -- is now completely shut down.

Hell yeah!