51 of Japan's 54 Reactors - 94 Percent Offline

Story from NHK World: Another reactor to be shut down for inspection
Thursday, January 26, 2012 04:52 +0900 (JST)

Not long ago the amount of nuclear reactors that were shutdown in Japan for inspection was 93%. However today (26 Jan 2012) yet another reactor is shutdown.

Read below the news report:

The operator of a nuclear power plant in Shimane Prefecture, western Japan, says it will shut down another reactor for regular inspections. The decision means that 51 of Japan's 54 reactors - 94 percent - are now offline.

The Chugoku Electric Power Company says it will begin Thursday evening shutting down reactor-2 of its Shimane power plant. The work is scheduled to be completed early Friday morning. The plant's only other reactor is already offline for regular checkups. With the addition of the ongoing shutdown, all the nuclear power plants run by the company will be suspended.

The company is conducting stress tests on its reactors, a prerequisite for deciding whether to resume operations. But protests from local government mean that there is still no indication whether the company can restart its reactors. The Shimane Prefectural government and the local municipality insist that the utility should first thoroughly examine last year's nuclear accident in Fukushima and seek more understanding of local residents.

All 54 reactors in Japan will be offline by late April if there are no restarts before then.

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So that's how it is, I'm thinking that this is for the best because of the many earthquakes that have hit Japan lately. None of the earthquakes have done any serious damage as of yet, they have been around M5. However because experts are expecting some M9 earthquakes in the near future the choice to shutdown reactors to me is for the best.

French Nuclear Waste Train Leaves For Germany

It was a miniature D-Day for Anti-Nuclear protesters battling against riot police on Wednesday at Normandy.

Protesters stand by a burning barricade near Lieusant, Normandy, Wednesday, Nov.23, 2011. AP photo

And the reason behind the protests?
A train carrying treated nuclear waste from France back to Germany left nuclear giant Areva's rail yard in northwestern France on Wednesday despite fierce protests. Riot police battled hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters who delayed the departure of the train, the last returning waste to Germany, which has said it will abandon nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
There have been a growing anti-nuclear movement ever since the Fukushima disaster in Europe and with Germany announcing they will shut down their nuclear reactors by 2022 now also French politics are suggesting the same. France have the largest number of nuclear reactors in the eurozone with 54 nuclear reactors. On the table is that 24 of the 58 nuclear reactors would be shut down before 2025.

With the situation not getting any better at the Fukushima plant, with the twitters from TEPCO workers are now showing that there is not much they can do to the damaged reactors anymore. They can't even enter the reactor building number 3 and do anything to the reactor unit that blew up back in March 2011 because of the radiation that is to high for humans. The workers there are at the damaged plant now only maintain the pumps and electricity to the plant with no plan to actually get the situation under control. In the wake of Chernobyl and Fukushima along with many small nuclear disasters over the years politics and people are more and more starting to wake up to the fact that nuclear power is not under human control. And when things goes wrong the possibility for rendering whole countries useless for living are frightening. Protests are growing not only in Japan but also all over the world. All along the nuclear supporters claim that there are no other choice that we need nuclear power to sustain our living. However looking at Germany and how they have over the years helped with investments to residents in form of solar panels and alternative energy sources the fact of the matter is that most houses fitted with solar panels in Germany are almost self sustaining in their energy demands. It seems that Germany really do have a plan to really get away from nuclear energy without any of the downsides of nuclear power. I just hope the media would actually bring forth the plan Germany have instead of spreading the lies about Germany digging their own grave and causing more CO2 emissions when they abandon nuclear power. Last I checked solar panels don't spew out CO2.

Video showing riot police battling protesters can be viewed below.

French police have battled anti-nuclear protesters as the last train carrying German nuclear waste treated in France set off on its journey home.

A mobile police canteen was set on fire by demonstrators on Wednesday and at least three people were hurt, two protesters and a riot officer.

You can read the small original story at Hürriyet Daily News
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=french-nuclear-waste-train-leaves-for-germany-areva-2011-11-23

Fukushima Reporters Turn Off Cameras When Radiation Spike

A few days ago journalists where allowed to take a bus tour around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The reporters filmed and took photos of the damaged reactor buildings, although the journalists where not allowed to step outside during the tour it looked like things where somewhat under control at the plant.

But it was not, what the media don't show you is the fact that the tour was controlled. No free press to be found here. Fukushima reporters where controlled by a male on the bus. After the tour passed Nr. 3-4 reactor building probably heading to reactor Nr. 1 the dosimeters were showing 300 microsievert /hour. (Shown in the video text 0.3 = 300) The limit for workers at Fukushima is 250 microsieverts / hour...

ANN News from the private Japanese KHB Channel did a story and we can clearly hear how the reporters are being told to put down their cameras.

Author aristoman007 (youtube) Henry living in Japan 100km from Fukushima have been watching the news reports and here now gives us his take on this and what is already known to many of us about the continuing media blackout of the Fukushima Disaster.

36 reporters where on the tour, 19 of them belonged to the press club of the parliament and seven to the press club of the Fukushima prefecture management. The remaining ten journalist’s were reporters represented from abroad. Independent journalists and Internet reporters have not been granted access.

More media blackout from TEPCO and the Japanese media is clearly not FREE. Radiation levels where going up during the tour, although this is only my take on the video shown here we can see some static (audio and video cuts) this is a common thing when dealing with high radiation. Electronic equipment don't work well near affected areas.

This can also be found on Australian Cannonball Nuclear News

Trolls Posing as Nuclear Power Supporters at Public Meetings

The Kyushu Electric Power Company in Japan has been accused of misleading the public by stacking meetings with employees posing as ordinary citizens supporting nuclear power.

Broadcast: 17/10/2011
Reporter: Mark Willacy

Transcript:

ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: Following the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the role of nuclear power in Japan is a topic of hot debate.

TEPCO, the power company which owns the Fukushima plant, has been heavily criticised for its response to the meltdown and for not revealing the full extent of the danger.

Now, another nuclear power company has also been accused of misleading the public.

The Kyushu Electric Power Company was found to have stacked public meetings with employees posing as ordinary citizens supporting nuclear power.

And the minister in charge of the nuclear industry has slammed the company, condemning it for watering down an independent report that found it guilty of twisting public opinion.

The ABC's North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

MARK WILLACY, REPORTER: The independent report into the Kyushu Electric Power Company was as unequivocal as it was damning. It found the nuclear power plant operator stacked a public meeting with undercover employees. It found Kyushu Electric had also sent in fake emails to a TV program about nuclear power. And it found the local governor had also conspired with the company to manipulate public opinion.

But the company has simply shrugged off the findings.

TOSHIO MANABE, KYUSHU ELECTRIC PRESIDENT: I believe it's unavoidable that there's a difference in opinion. We have our own view.

MARK WILLACY: In its official response to the independent findings, the company offered a watered-down report with hardly a mention of the governor's name. It prompted an angry response from the minister in charge of the nuclear industry.

YUKIO EDANO, INDUSTRY MINISTER: What were they thinking by submitting such a report to the people? They have some nerve doing this.

MARK WILLACY: Kyushu Electric's attempt to wriggle free of this scandal even drew a sharp rebuke from the author of the independent report.

NOBUO GOHARA, INDEPENDENT PANEL HEAD: It was just arrogant. They picked only the parts which were convenient for them.

MARK WILLACY: But in the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns, the atmosphere in Japan has changed in more ways than one, and the minister is now considering ordering Kyushu Electric to resubmit its report.

YUKIO EDANO: How can a public service company in good governance pick just the good parts from an independent report? It's a very serious problem.

MARK WILLACY: Kyushu Electric's audacious attempt to manipulate public opinion has only served to heighten scepticism here about the nuclear power companies, with many questioning the lengths the companies will go to to promote their business interests.

Mark Willacy, Lateline.
ABC Lateline Story and Video - Japanese nuclear company twists public opinion

Emails About Fukushima Disaster UK Gov Departments and Nuclear Industry

Hi folks, FC from FlyingCuttleFish brought up an interesting thing on the chat earlier today. There have been emails released under the Freedom of Information Act that reveal some disturbing things. These emails that have now been released are between different UK Government Departments and the Nuclear Industry during the Fukushima Daiichi crisis.

So what are these email saying? I have embedded the whole document. So you can read them all here. However I would like to qoute some of the things being said here.

Take this first one sent March 13 2011:

"With regard to the nuclear events in Japan. I have been watching over the weekend. We need to work together on this and have very strong coordinated messages. There is a risk here that this event could impact on the global industry. We need to ensure the anti-nuclear chaps and chapesses do not gain ground on this. We need to occupy the territory and hold it.


From web searches I can see anti-nuclear people across Europe have wasted no time of blurring this all into Chernobyl and the works."


Well we all know now that it is a Cernobyl disaster.. Chernobyl on steroids even. There is no blurring going on anymore with this. Another Email from March 13 reads:

"We need to highlight that radiation that has been released has been done so through controlled venting. The explosion whilst visually dramatic is part of the saftey system, the building has protected the reactor."
Nuclear FOI documents