Environment-Japan: Quake Devastates Nuclear Power Plans

[jpak]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38587

TOKYO, Jul 18 (IPS) - Reports of radiation leakages at a nuclear power plant, following the Niigata earthquake on Monday, have raised widespread public alarm and dealt a devastating blow to the government’s plans to boost the nuclear power industry, both domestically and abroad.

''The problems now being reported from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant are deeply alarming. They prove that Japan is not prepared for a nuclear power disaster especially during an earthquake and can never be,’’ Prof. Hiroaki Koide, nuclear safety specialist at Kyoto University, told IPS.

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The Tokyo Newspaper, a leading daily, in a report questioned the reliability of data for building sites provided by industry and government experts after it was revealed that the site was on a faultline and susceptible to tremors. The Asahi newspaper carried details of how TEPCO underestimated the amount of radioactive water that leaked into the sea.

Hideaki Ban, director of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Centre, said the accident reveals poor planning and the determination of the government to expand nuclear power along with top electric companies.

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[phantom power]

1. Enjoy your new coal plants, professor.