TEPCO, Mitsubishi plan coal-fired power plants at Fukushima

Why not use something more cleaner?

And this reduce carbon into the atmosphere how....? Japan already decided not to meet its carbon reduction promise, but to return to an earlier, less stringent number. Sure made a lot of friends worldwide that way! .

while cash-strapped TEPCO will be in charge of running the facilities,

Fool me once, shame on you Fool me twice, shame on me, and Japan

How can CO2 level reduce in atmosphere.

Wouldn't that entail using Fukushima's radioactively contaminated groundwater, thereby increasing atmospheric radiation dispersion?

While it would be better to build a natural gas-fired power plant at the proposed site, the problem is that getting the natural gas to the power plant is a very expensive proposition. Coal can be shipped in by existing train lines, especially from the coal mines in Hokkaido (I believe there's talk that some of the closed coal mines in Hokkaido may reopen due to soaring coal demand for power plants).

Besides, we're NOT talking the coal-fired power plants in China with their uncontrolled smokestack emissions. This proposed power plant uses coal in a very clean manner, probably better than the required standards for coal-fired power plant emissions in the USA and EU.

"Why not use something more cleaner?" sersiouly? do you belive in magic fairy dust too? Something did exist that was cleaner. it was called Nuclaer power. You see the world in only black and white.

"And this reduce carbon into the atmosphere how" It DOESNTY! But do you want food on your table? Do you want light to see that food? If we keep buying LGP from China Japan will go broke. And if we dont do something else then we will have no power!

"Wouldn't that entail using Fukushima's radioactively contaminated groundwater, thereby increasing atmospheric radiation dispersion?" explain how anything you said just made any sense whatsoever. you oinions, football, cars, mud. thats bad right? You just put a bunch of words together that you think make sense but they dont.

"While it would be better to build a natural gas-fired power plant at the proposed site, the problem is" THE PROBLEM IS Japan has ZERO natural gas!!!!! It is spending TRILLIONS buying LGP gas from China. The SAME country that is increasing it "defensive air borders" or whatever right now over the Senkaku islands.

I am sorry, but everyone here is veiwing this issue in Black and White. It is not so simple as "just do this" "build B" open you eyes. There are NO right choices to be made here! but something must be done.

Japan could lead the world in clean energy. Why go back to dirty energy now? Doing the right thing might not be the cheapest but Japan will reep rewards later when other countries follow.

China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium - Telegraph

China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium The Chinese are running away with thorium energy, sharpening a global race for the prize of clean ... www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9784044/...

The thorium blueprints gathered dust in the archives until retrieved and published by former Nasa engineer Kirk Sorensen. The US largely ignored him: China did not.

Mr Jiang visited the Oak Ridge labs and obtained the designs after reading an article in the American Scientist two years ago extolling thorium. His team concluded that a molten salt reactor -- if done the right way -- may answer China's prayers.

Mr Jiang says China's energy shortage is becoming "scary" and will soon pose a threat to national security. It is no secret what he means. Escalating disputes with with India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and above all Japan, are quickly becoming the biggest threat to world peace. It is a resource race compounded by a geo-strategic struggle, with echoes of the 1930s.

His mission is to do something about China's Achilles Heel very fast. The Shanghai team plans to build a tiny 2 MW plant using liquid flouride fuel by the end of the decade, before scaling up to commercially viable size over the 2020s. It is also working on a pebble-back reactor.

He estimates that China has enough thorium to power its electricity needs for "20,000 years". So does the world. The radioactive mineral is scattered across Britain. The Americans have buried tonnes of it, a hazardous by-product of rare earth metal mining.

China is already building 26 conventional reactors by 2015, with a further 51 planned, and 120 in the pipeline, but these have all the known drawbacks, and rely on imported uranium.

The radioactive groundwater flows from the plant to he sea, so it is unlikely to be a problem for coal-powered plants, which I assume will be built away from the Daiichi site. On the other hand, the CO2 will be a problem.

Serious energy conservation forever, not for a few weeks. Reduce nighttime lighting. Hire people to replace all windows with double pane energy conserving windows. Stop building housing with a paltry 35-years or so lifespan. Insulate them. Solar panels everywhere. Wind, geothermal. Back to cloth bags instead of plastic. Tear up parking lots for farms and start composting instead of throwing organic leftovers into the trash/landfill. Unite Japan under one (not the current two) energy grid.

Oh, there is lots that could be done. Going back to nuclear or revving up coal plants is not sustainable. Japan could indeed lead the way towards a sustainable lifestyle. Don't know how much of this planet could or would follow, but we have to start somewhere. Why not here?

i think replacement with windmills would send better message

Three different Mitsubishi organizations are involved. Mitsubishi is not amateur on solar Energy, getting C out from CO2, either. Looks like TEPCO employees are not going to be unemployed under Mitsubishi leadership. Better than TEPCO align with a money seeking some shady operation company.

I do think while Mitsubishi building this super-clean coal-fired power plant may work for the next 40 years, the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) mentioned by J.basher may become the best long-term solution for all of eastern Asia, especially since thorium is just about as common as lead! And unlike uranium-fueled reactors, LFTR's are extremely safe to run even in earthquake-prone areas like Japan, since an emergency shutdown of the reactor is only dumping the liquid fuel out of the reactor. LFTR's could provide more than the current Japanese electric power needs for potentially several thousand years.

Raymond: Don;t worry: The organization of Mitsubishi is huge. It even has Airplane maker and car makers. It has distinguished chemist, chemists, chemical engineers, environments, etc, etc and they will operate professionally. It also can hire academic people.,

@ranger_miffy: I agree on most of your comment, but you got the point of unifying the power grid wrong. It is a common misconception that the 50/60 hertz "divide" is a problem. It's no different than non-synchronized grids in e.g US or Europe, or between Hokkaido and Tohoku grids. It represents a transmission bridge that now and then may be congested, that's all.

Coal fire power plants which use carbon dioxide harvesting technology possibly is the best energy solution on long term.

If only we could harness the energy of the earthquake.

Microwave power plans please! No earthquake, free energy.

Ok we all have some knowledge of environmental science 101. Please tell me how the word energy efficient can be used with a pollution based dwindling non renewable energy source. That is suppose to replace a nuclear power plant. Boggles the mind .

Today;s JT Technology Board has caption of

Hitachi begins construction of test facility for CO2 capture technology

Like Iris stated, this is far beyond Env Sci 101 people's guess now.