Fukui reactor to go offline, leaving only 2 online in Japan

Great! Only 2 reactors away from the dream of a nuclear-free Japan!

Won't be long before the global warming bunch starts up.

i dont see no blackout!! leave all off, and dont anything (TEPCO) estrange to the lines!

Just wondering ... does the government have a time table to ask the local residents, or will the government just use their prerogative if and when each NPP gets to be restarted?

Just to make clear: I am not pro-nuclear, but let's face it, Japan would still need several years to be able to switch to alternative energy sources. TEPCO likewise needs income to be able to pay off compensation. Until then, it's either using several of the existing nuclear plants, or fully rely on oil and other existing non-nuclear power generators.

so from 53 to .... 2 ? Colossal landmass waste of yen building all those reactors.

Another dawn will arise.

The dawn of global warming. Is that ok Aqualung? Kisses and hugs.

Two too many.

Sure, I can save electricity - when it actually reduces my electric bill.

Otherwise, can't say I feel Tepco's pain. Nope, nothing.

go ahead and cheer for your nuclear free japan. mean while we have a record high trade deficit. rising carbon emissions. less national security because we have to import from places like Iran.

don't even talk about wind and solar, unless you like paying a lot more for your electricity and everything else.

we need to turn the nukes back on use them until we can replace their capacity with geothermal.

sunhawk

go ahead and cheer for your nuclear free japan. mean while we have a record high trade deficit. rising carbon emissions. less national security because we have to import from places like Iran.

Maybe your nation should have thought of that before building poorly built reactors in earthquake and tsunami zones. If you had used your brains in the first place you wouldnt be in this mess now so thank your own incompetent countrymen dont blame the concerned people

hey the nuclear part of the reactors were built just as well as any. it was the diesel part that failed. plus there was a once in a century earthquake that generated a huge tsunami. every where in japan is an earthquake zone.

sunhawk

hey the nuclear part of the reactors were built just as well as any. it was the diesel part that failed.

So the diesel part as you call it was an integral part of the NPP's backup system and it failed because of poor design, poor foresight, and poor planning.

plus there was a once in a century earthquake that generated a huge tsunami.

Indeed there was and given these have occurred in the past and will occur in the future this should have been part of the initial planning. So again poor planning.

every where in japan is an earthquake zone.

Indeed it is so its all the better that safer non nuclear methods of power generation be found. You said it yourself the whole country is prone and given the pathetically poor handling of this crisis, the poor design and contingencies then its probably a good thing that they are shutting these disasters of plants down.

and at this very time when the nation faces an energy crisis, the US and Israel are bitching at Japan for being reliant on Iranian crude. The Arabs and South East Asia are going to squeeze every sen out of us.

I am not an expert and cannot tell whether it is true or they are still running. I mean if it is possible to cheat and run NPPs when declared being shut down. Don't call me lunatic, businessmen will kill their own mothers for 20 bucks. That's the only thing I can tell for sure.

On the other side, if it is true, it seems they are preparing the big one, earthquake, that scientists said would hit Japan or possibly Tokyo within 4 years with an 80% of chance.

sunhawk: "it was the diesel part that failed."

That's putting it to simply. Why did the diesel part fail? Because it was put in THE BASEMENT in an area known to have suffered from MAJOR tsunami and earthquakes?

Sorry, my friend, it was TEPCO and the government that failed -- everything that failed after was collateral damage from their very, very, VERY poor and scandalous decisions. Turning the NPPs back on is like begging for another disaster, since clearly you have not learned from the last.

Yep, who cares for lung cancer, acid rain, climate change or the hundreds of deaths in coal mines every year if we just get rid of the evil nuclear power.

Zichi-san, You have exceeded yourself today on these posts. Well done!

Pull the plug on the remaining two ..It'll pave the way for a world where we can safely go out and breathe the air again.

The only problem with coal is that more people died last year (and the year before, and the year before that) trying to provide coal to the world than died as a result of a nuclear reactor failure. Each source of energy has its trade-offs... with some being more deadly than others.

Pull the plug on the remaining two ..It'll pave the way for a world where we can safely go out and breathe the air again.

Umm... you DO realize that what's replacing the nukes is going to increase the soot and particulate matter suspended in the air, right? Safely breathing the air is one thing you WON'T be doing - not for a long time.

True enough, but a cubic meter of uranium mined provides power for a significantly longer period of time than a cubic meter of oil pumped out of the earth, a cubic meter of LNG, or a cubic meter of coal mined. The risks are mitigated in that less mining is necessary to create an equivilent amount of power. If ALL uranium mined was applied towards nuclear power, those miners would have entire months where they were sitting idle. Because of the construction of nuclear weapons, however, they are continually put at risk.

a cubic meter of uranium mined provides power for a significantly longer period of time than a cubic meter of oil

And after use is a liability that needs to be stored safely for a significantly longer time (thousands of years) than anything else used to provide power.

go nuclear who wants polluted air ?

As I've said previously, EVERY method of power generation involves trade-offs. It is up to each community to decide which negative aspects they can best live with, then act to get things going in that direction. All I was doing here was point out that the other methods besides nuclear power are not "squeaky clean" at all. Even wind power, which you would think would be the cleanest and safest, involves large tracts of land/ocean - rendering those areas unnavigable. In addition if you talk to any enviromental group, the aerial fauna killed by the blades as they turn is unacceptable. Geothermal power at first glance sounds like a no-brainer for a place like Japan, but most of the geothermal concepts I've seen involve drilling deep to tap the heat welling up from the mantle. Some of the oldest geothermal power plants in operation have seen a reduction in efficiency - apparently because they were cooling off the surrounding rock faster than the heat from below was re-heating it.

Every single apartment block should have a combination of wind and solar generated power.Anyone presently living in such a block in Japan will know that on the roof is just an empty space!No provision for renewable energy generation is made by ordinance or statute.

The only reason I can see for this is that providing almost free energy is not good 'Eco' business.

The Japanese are being manipulated by their media to consume more 'Eco' products yet at the same time the energy used to manufacture them is choking thousands of people to death and harming millions more;in the case nuclear, the problems with waste , fallout and their lethal effects on life show that it is time to adopt a new paradigm..

It is time for Japan to show the world that humans can really have a future by taking care of the earth now ...

Wee, say goodbye to a lot of industry that uses power.

storing nuclear waste isn't a problem inherent in the waste itself. it is all those anti nuclear environmentalists that fight all attempts to bury it in a deep hole in the ground. the uranium came from a deep hole in the ground it should be safe to put radioactive stuff back in the ground.

looking forward to a setsuden summer, and the next super-cool Biz fashions. Can't wait to see Noda (or whoever's next) modelling Oz-style salarymen-in-shorts outfits; and a cork hat of course

go nuclear who wants polluted air ?

You mean as opposed to polluted water, polluted food, polluted pollen, polluted soil, polluted buildings....?