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Japan could halt all nuclear reactors... and still function!

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robdogbucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 12:46 PM
Original message
Japan could halt all nuclear reactors... and still function!
So, Japan in dependent on nuclear power, eh?

Where are all the shills that claim they/everyone must have nuke power or else?

Anyone interested? Anyone have an opinion? Why don't we try it here?

Necessity is the Mother of Invention.





Nearly 90% of Japan's nuke reactors to be halted

One of the reactors at a nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan is due to be halted for regular inspections on Sunday. With the planned shutdown of this and 5 other facilities, nearly 90 percent of the country's nuclear reactors will be offline ahead of winter.

Shikoku Electric Power Company says it will suspend operations of the No.1 reactor at the Ikata power plant for routine checks on Sunday...

...However, there are hurdles to be cleared. The country's 2 nuclear safety watchdogs must screen the results of the tests, and then the central government will decide whether to restart the reactors. Finally, any restart has to be approved by the municipalities hosting the reactors.

Japan's remaining 6 active reactors will be halted for regular inspections by next spring. If the currently suspended reactors are not back online by then, all the country's nuclear facilities will be out of operation.

Saturday, September 03, 2011 03:03 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/03_04.html






Fukushima leaders, residents hold Tokyo rally for full-scale nuclear compensation

Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato, farm and business leaders joined residents of the prefecture in Tokyo on Sept. 2 to demand full-scale compensation for evacuees and other victims of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The protest, which drew about 400 representatives from Fukushima agricultural cooperatives and business and industry groups to Tokyo's Kensei Kinenkan hall, followed the central government's release of midterm guidelines for nuclear disaster compensation. Also present were 11 Diet members from Fukushima Prefecture.

Gov. Sato called on the participants to make their demands for compensation heard in the heart of Tokyo and thence throughout Japan to prevent the nuclear crisis from being forgotten. The participants adopted a petition and other documents calling for the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to compensate those who have voluntarily evacuated, although the midterm guidelines do not cover such people.

Kozo Watanabe, a senior member of the House of Representatives of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and representing the Fukushima No. 4 constituency, said, "Fukushima residents accepted nuclear power plants under a national policy. The state should assume final responsibility. We will definitely realize budgets and laws (to provide compensation)..."

(Mainichi Japan) September 3, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110903p2a00m0na006000c.html




Cesium beyond limit found in Chiba, Saitama tea

The Japanese health ministry says radioactive cesium exceeding the government's safety limit has been detected in tea leaves in Chiba and Saitama prefectures, near Tokyo.

This is the ministry's first discovery of radioactive substances beyond the legal limit since it began unannounced tests of food products last month.

The tests were started in order to verify local government data using different numbers and kinds of food samples.

The ministry says the leaves of one type of tea from Chiba Prefecture contained 2,720 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, more than 5 times the safety limit...

Saturday, September 03, 2011 22:23 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/03_17.html




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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 12:54 PM
Response to Original message
1. And replace it by burning OIL! Yippee!
"What will replace Japan's lost nuclear power? Oil.

...In this context, Schaeffer means 'alternative fuel' in the exact opposite sense of what it usually denotes – as Japan turns from nuclear energy to burning fossil fuels.

As Schaeffer points out: "About 27 percent of their power needs come from nuclear plants. So if they take them all offline, they are going to have to compensate for the shutdown by running their generators on other fuels."

And oil will likely be the natural choice to replace. "

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0316/What-will-replace-Japan-s-lost-nuclear-power-Oil

Don't let hundreds or thousands of additional deaths interfere with your dogma.
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robdogbucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 01:12 PM
Response to Original message
2. Shill #1 reporting for duty I see
but wrong industry. This one has their liplock firmly on the oil industry's love muscle. I guess this will bring out all the dig and burn folks, right after one another, full of insults, but no real comment or plan or discussion.

Unfortunately, I was looking for opinions of common folks, not dial up propaganda.


Next.




Tax the Rich out of existence.
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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 04:12 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Apparently no else feels it's worth discussing, despite your command to do so.
Would posting on an oil industry-shill website help? :shrug:
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robdogbucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 04:47 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Thanks for you comments
you represent your position well.

If all you can do is spin and try to insult and put words into my mouth I am disappointed but not surprised.

It is a Saturday and folks appear to have many other things to do aside from discussing this now. That's cool and if you look around almost everyone else is preoccupied with early, and I mean really early, presidential election politics.

I look forward to more of your wisdom though, if this is all we have here today.

Whom do you work for BTW?

I don't work anymore in case you would ask. I am happily retired.

I am just a concerned citizen, you know one person, one vote, etc.

I did have among my cases over 30 years, ones representing oil and oil products companies when I was working. You know, the construction of gas-powered, combined cycle co-generation plants in the middle of refineries in urban settings. Representing said dig and burn energy companies in their workplace issues with employees, unions, neighbors, other companies, etc. Suits over bad batches of tanker oil sold to unsuspecting buyers, etc. Valero, Chevron, etc. Even some cases of underground contamination from abandoned gas stations whose tanks had leaked gas over the years into the local water table, etc. I did get to know several employees of those companies, clients in the course of the cases we represented them on. I got a feel for how those individuals' view the world of markets and consumers and how they think about energy and political issues in particular.

One of them and I had an email exchange when the Deepwater Horizon's GOM gusher happened last year. I asked him what the fuck were they going to do to stem the flow from that disaster and his response was "they have dispersants that will sink it all and get it out of sight. Problem solved." That was after he first suggested they could burn it all off like they had done before and I had countered that most of it was below the surface and how could they burn that?

Voila! That's what happened. They used dispersants and it is gone from sight. Problem solved.


That's the way the energy industry folks I know view these problems. Profits first. Everything else a distant second consideration.

Your experience?






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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 06:05 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Thanks for asking.
I have my own computer software consulting biz. I apologize for the snark, but I do get tired of attempts to flog the Fukushima horse back to life.

The fact is that everything in Japan will be slightly more radioactive from now on. The fact is also that the radiation from Fukushima is far less dangerous than the smoke generated by people who are illogically afraid of radiation. Than the effects of global warming which are turning the Earth rather quickly into Venus. The fact is also that though maybe 100 people will die over time because of Fukushima, not one individual has died yet.

I'm not sure why pointing out these facts makes me a shill in some DUers minds, or why anyone thinks corporations would waste their money by infiltrating a largely inconsequential message board. I'm not sure why solar panel makers and wind turbine makers escape the scrutiny of other "energy industry folks" when they're just as concerned about their bottom line.

And I don't care. I care about the world my kids will grow up in, and I believe if nuclear power doesn't make it a better place, it won't ruin it quite as fast as everything else.
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robdogbucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 02:43 PM
Response to Original message
3. Another option maybe?
TED Case Studies
November, 2002
by Tomoyoshi Hisamori

I. Identification
1. The Issue

This case study considers the significance of the natural gas brought from the Sakhalin Project in Far East Russia for Japan's energy supply, and assess the environmental impact. The natural gas project will supply a huge amount of natural gas, which contain over 100 years' worth of Japan's natural gas consumption needs. This project will achieve a fervent wish of Japan to secure a stable energy supply. Recently, two measures, Pipeline Natural Gas (PNG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), to supply rich natural gas from Sakhalin to Japan have been considered among the Sakhalin Project consortium. Each measure has both good and bad points. However, sharp increases in imports of Sakhalin natural gas might have a significant impact not only on Japan's fragile energy structure of supply, but also may apply global warming issue.


2. Description

1) Project Background


The Sakhalin Project is developed offshore Sakhalin Island, which is approximately 450 kilometers north of Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan. The project involves eight mining areas, and the multinational consortiums including the Japanese companies make investments in developing each area. I will focus on two sub-projects, which are called the First and Second Sakhalin (Sakhalin-1 and -2) projects, which have already started working.

Originally, the Soviet government proposed the Sakhalin Project at the fifth Japan-Soviet Union Economic Joint Conference in 1972. The Soviet Union needed to develop the far east area and Japan needed to diversify energy resources shared a mutual interest. Therefore, the joint venture invested by Japanese companies and Soviet Union companies began exploration. Sakhalin-1 project covers three mining blocks, Odoptu, Chaivo, and Arkutun-Dagi, which is 25 kilometers east offshore of the Sakhalin Island. However, during initial phases of the exploration, the project made no business sense because of low crude oil prices and the chaos caused by the collapse of the former Soviet Union in1992. After the formation of the Russian government, the new joint venture organized by Sakhalinmorneftegaz (SMNG, Russia, 23 percent), Rosneft (Russia, 17 percent), Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development (SODECO, Japan, 30 percent), and Exxon (U.S., 30 percent) has resumed exploration. In 2000, Rosneft and SMNG had disposed of their half equity to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC, India)...

http://www1.american.edu/ted/gas-russia-japan.htm



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