Living in North America, it has been an amazing "journey" since 3/11/11 following the daily developments in Japan and the slow realization, that in reality, the Japanese people have ZERO say in the running of their Country especially where Nuclear Energy is concerned because those in charge are merely figure-heads for the "Utility Gangs" that are "calling the shots" as they say in the USA!
This is not just a Japanese problem, President Obama did not even mention Nuclear Energy in his acceptance speech at the DEM convention, yet soon after, the DOD sent a group to Japan to "urge" Japanese Leaders to embrace the use of nuclear energy and gave Japan got a modern Patriot antimissile system as a Thank You gift!
"How would any Country pay for a Trillion Dollar Eco-Disaster like Fukushima if (In Japan's case, another one) one occurred in your Country?"
The answer is important because Fukushima proved to all of us, that Nature can destroy any land based nuclear reactor, any place anytime 24/7/365 for any number of "reasons" such as any one or more of these:
~ Tornado strike?
~ Earthquake?
~ Human error?
~ Tsunami?
~ Power outage?
~ Pipe break?
~ Test gone wrong?
~ Old fuel issues?
~ Terrorist attack?
~ Hurricane?
~ Plane crash?
~ Heavy rains/River floods?
~ Metal Fatigue?
~ Nuclear Ransom?
~ Solar Flair?
~ EMP?
~ Lightning?
~ Dam Failure?
~ Fire?
~ Operator suicide?
~ Jihadist?
~ CME?
~ Carrington Effect?
~ Cyber-warfare?
~ Meteror?
~ Aliens?
~ Volcano/Eruption?
~ Stuxnet ?
~ Bad Luck?
~ Murphy's Law?
... Just a few of the ways Nuclear Power Plants (NPP's) can FAIL.
Now adding "insult to injury" the burning of radioactive debris in Japan, is spreading Globally and adding to the radioactive pollution in the air we all breathe, so it is no longer "JUST" a Japanese problem!
Unless the Japanese people demand their Leaders follow Germany's example of going NN Nuclear NW, they are allowing their Leaders to put their entire Country, the Children of Japan and their Japanese Way of Life at RISK, in order generate profit for their "Utility Gangs".
As I see it, these "Utility Gangs" are waging a "Fiscal War" against the people of Japan, too many of which, are now only starting to realize they are not only under attack but they are losing the ability to live in a safe, healthy, GREEN environment.
Strait Talk. Former IEA boss Nobuo Tanaka says blockage of sea lanes like the Strait of Hormuz could have disastrous economic consequences for Japan, unless the country pursues nuclear power.
WARSAW — Japan is headed for a possible economic catastrophe if it does not pursue nuclear power.
So said Nobuo Tanaka, the former director general of the International Energy Agency (IEA), in an address to the World Nuclear Power Briefing 2012 Europe conference here last week.
Tanaka noted that geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East could double the price of oil and natural gas.
That would have disastrous consequences for Japan, which is the world’s third largest importer of oil according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and which currently relies heavily on liquefied natural gas imports to help replace power capacity lost to the shutdown of 52 of the country’s 54 nuclear reactors following meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March, 2011.
Tanaka said that as the U.S. grows more energy independent, it will have less incentive to patrol sea lanes including the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf - through which much of Japan’s oil and a fair amount of its natural gas flow. An Israeli air strike on Iran would also adversely affect supply and prices.
“If blockage (of Hormuz) happens, the oil price will double and then the Japanese current account surplus will disappear very quickly and even go to a huge deficit,” said Tanaka, who headed the Paris-based IEA from 2007 to 2011, and who is now a global associate for energy security and sustainability with Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics.
He foresaw the country’s surplus flipping from a $108 billion surplus in 2011 to at least a $72 billion deficit, which, he said, would undermine confidence in Japanese bonds and lead to a flight of capital and manufacturing.
“So this may lead us to a significant - not energy crisis - but an economic crisis or catastrophe,” said Tanaka.”The best way to at least reduce the risk is starting nuclear reactors at this moment. But the current government is in no way promoting that.”
Tanaka’s presentation last week preceded the election to power over the weekend of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party under the next prime minister Shinzo Abe. The LDP is expected to be more favorable to nuclear than the Democratic Party government it will replace.
The outgoing government, led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, has waffled over a commitment to phase out nuclear by 2040.
For more on Nobuo Tanaka’s presentation, see my post at the Weinberg Foundation.
Photo of Nobuo Tanaka by Mark Halper.
More Japanese power, on SmartPlanet:
- Nuclear or not to nuclear: Japan struggles with the question
- Japan dials up wind energy
- How to avoid a nuclear meltdown: question authority
- Utility-scale solar plant for Fukushima
- From Fukushima’s home country: Nuclear will double
- Safe nuclear: Japanese utility elaborates on thorium plans
- Nuclear down, CO2 up in Japan, Germany
- Fukushima’s lesson: ‘Alternative’ nuclear, not ‘no’ nuclear
