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Court rules against suspension of nuclear reactors in southwestern Japan

15 Comments

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The decision comes as the central government pushes nuclear power so the country can rely less on fossil fuels to achieve decarbonization goals

Reliable cheap energy that is needed for present day needs and future plans.

6 ( +17 / -11 )

An accident waiting to happen. These judges will have blood on their hands if there is a disaster.

-9 ( +11 / -20 )

Good news! We don't need even higher energy costs than we already have to deal with!

-2 ( +9 / -11 )

Risk has to be evaluated. The plant is past its design limits PLUS it is near two geographical risks, a fault and a volcano. Once there is a problem, it is too late. The people who would be affected can see the risk, but those outside the danger zone are not motivated to see it.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

The judges will follow the establishment/ government policy. They always have done. None of them would risk a career-disputing decision, or go against the state.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Govt and industry go hand-in-hand. The people....

1 ( +6 / -5 )

What?? The courts sided with a major company and not the people?! Say it ain't so! Don't be surprised when the very same courts side with the company execs who will suddenly say they have no recollection of restarting the plant WHEN (not if!) major disaster hits, with maybe one or two suspended sentences over falsified data for good measure.

In any case, we all know that when the company restarts the NPP and there is more electricty generated that they will reduce our energy bills, since said bills have repeatedly gone up citing high demand and low supply.

-6 ( +9 / -15 )

Sadly, Japan needs nuclear energy. The urban organization of Japanese cities, and the architecture of Japanese houses, heavily rely on electricity. Just take a look at the multicolor lights in any Japanese city. In Europe, as a comparison, the use of lights is less intrusive and less exaggerated.

Moreover, Japanese houses use large amounts of electricity, especially for air conditioning (both in summer and winter). Many homes in Western Europe (including the most important countries such as Italy, Germany, France, and the UK) rely in winter on central heating systems powered by gas boilers that distribute heat through radiators or underfloor systems. In Japan, heating is based on electricity, mainly electric heaters, kotatsu, and air conditioners (kerosene heaters are a minority and are used in rural areas).

In such a scenario, nuclear energy is the most economical and environmentally friendly energy production (of course if there are no nuclear accidents).

Unfortunately, Japan is also strictly related to earthquakes, and the Japanese nuclear plants are old. And TEPCO is not trustworthy.

-6 ( +10 / -16 )

comment

The_BeagleToday  05:08 pm JST

The decision comes as the central government pushes nuclear power so the country can rely less on fossil fuels to achieve decarbonization goals

Reliable cheap energy that is needed for present day needs and future plans.

Do you know that in 2011, the situation was so critical that the evacuation of Tokyo was considered by Naoto Kan the prime minister at the time. In the worst-case scenarios, not only would evacuation have been necessary, but it would have been impossible to live there for 70 years. Naoto Kan said that such an event could have jeopardized the nation very existence.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Recent years, Japan's LDP government, authorities or major media are often urging caution about mega quake that will cause serious damages to extensive "Southwestern Japan".

But, they including Judges continue to distract eyes from risk of complex disaster that mega quake cause nuclear disaster despite lesson from March 2011 when mega quake and tsunami caused even nuclear disaster.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

a major earthquake/tsunami off tokyo is more life threatening.

~17,000 people lost their lives in 2011 because of the tsunami. the earthquake did not cause the daiichi meltdown, the tsunami did.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

While people are considering the risks of nuclear power accidents, perhaps the govt should be looking into environmentally safer methods of producing energy: solar farms, wind farms, etc. ?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

lol. The Japanese people having any say of what goes on around them. lol. They have no rights. It’s all business. Waste of money to even try.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Moreover, Japanese houses use large amounts of electricity, especially for air conditioning (both in summer and winter)

Sounds like a big city resident. Residential use is just 15% of the total. Outside of the large cities, people are more sparing with their energy use and rarely run the AC at night. A lot of older apartments have a main breaker of 60 amps, and that won't run much. Most heavy power use is industrial and commercial.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Rubber stamp corruption in effect! Totally against the local populations wishes!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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