citja comments

Next month the first new geothermal plant since 1999 will start operating.

There is an abundance of geothermal power sources. It is estimated that the country should be able to generate as much as 23 million kilowatts of energy, the third largest in the world after the United States and Indonesia.

Several factors make the threshold for getting a project built in Japan much higher than the threshold for getting a project approved, James said. Those factors include:

A shortage of the qualified engineers required to oversee each project of 1 megawatt or larger. A shortage of qualified construction companies. A shortage of suitable land. A shortage of grid access: “Each utility has unique demand and land limits that determine how much of the approved pipeline can be approved for interconnection,” James said. “The market is huge, and the market is valuable,” James stressed. “But it has limits, and those limits are important to understand.” http://theenergycollective.com/stephenlacey/300581/japan-s-solar-market-surge-blows-away-earlier-forecasts

The NRA have said the current safety standards at all of the atomic plants are not high enough to allow any reactors to restart until new safety standards are agreed and the plants updated to those new standards which could take 3-5 years, or more. At least on the surface, the NRA seems to have the backing of PM Abe who said no reactors would be restarted for three years.

The NRA is also investigating four atomic power plants which might be on active fault lines, this involves a total of 14 reactors.

Following Japan's nuclear disaster, France reviewed the safety standards of its own atomic plants and found them lacking. The EU investigated the safety standards all its reactors and also found them lacking. One reactor was discovered to be able to go into meltdown within 60 minutes of power loss. The EU will now spend 25 billion Euro to update the safety standards for the reactors.

The country is facing for the first time since nuclear energy was begun, a summer with zero reactors operating.

If and when the NRA and the gov't decides to restart the reactor, priority should be given to the Tohoku Power Co.

My assesement of the iPad is only based on my experience. I never mentioned another form of tablet because I don't have any experience of them, or if people want to use another tablet instead of the iPad, or another company instead of Apple, that's fine in my book. Buy and drive the car you can afford and like.

I don't think iPads are expensive, and when I buy a new macbook pro at the end of this month, it will be a 2011 refurnished model for ¥69,000. Is that expensive? Come this autumn, there probably be a 7" iPad for about $200.

I never said anyone should buy Apple anything, like I said, I just gave my experience. I also have a Wins 7 laptop which I need for some stuff I do. I like Wins 7, but not sure about Wins 8?

basroil,

yes, I accept I made an error in my counting. The max capacity by KEPCO during the summer would be thermal, 17.7GW + hydro 4.2GW = reactors, 2.36GW + overnight pumped 2.1GW + buying from other power companies, 6GW. Total would be about 33GW and if only 90% was possible that would still be about 29GW, which is what KEPCO says it needs for summer demand.

So why didn't didn't KEPCO request to run 3 reactors?

People need to realize, there are places outside of Fukushima with higher levels of radiation than in Fukushima. It's becoming a national problem, not just a local prefecture one.

Radiation from the atomic power plant has reached Okinawa.

love Freddie Mercury and love the Queen, such a great band and what a performer Freddie was!

I don't understand how this is the fault of the driver, who must be gutted and will probably never drive again. I sense a suicide here. The age of the driver is not part of the equation. Why wasn't the baby in a pram? Sadstory for everyone.