Seismologists warn Japan against nuclear restart

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

Two prominent seismologists said on Tuesday that Japan is ignoring the safety lessons of last year's Fukushima crisis and warned against restarting two reactors next month.

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Seismic modeling by Japan's nuclear regulator did not properly take into account active fault lines near the Ohi plant, Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist at Kobe University, told reporters.

"The stress tests and new safety guidelines for restarting nuclear power plants both allow for accidents at plants to occur," Ishibashi told reporters. "Instead of making standards more strict, they both represent a severe setback in safety standards."

Experts advising Japan's nuclear industry had underestimated the seismic threat, Mitsuhisa Watanabe, a tectonic geomorphology professor at Tokyo University, said at the same news conference.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/26/us-japan-nuclear-idINBRE85P0FP20120626

[tpsbmam]

1. Sounds soooooooooooooo bloody familiar.......USA ignores these kinds of warnings all the time

and then we end up paying for it. Whether it's fracking or nuclear waste or tighter regulations on off coast oil drilling or so many other issues where sound reasons NOT to do those things are completely ignored in favor of profits, profits, profits & expediency. We could all end up paying the price for this one, the Japanese most direly.

[Voice for Peace]

2. even when warnings are written in stone, few pay attention.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/world/asia/21stones.html?pagewanted=all

[grahamhgreen]

3. And let us warn the administration of the same.

[ladjf]

4. To be such intelligent people, the Japanese have made and seem to be continuing to make

very dangerous decisions regarding nuclear power. nt

[NickB79]

5. Are there any reactors that aren't near fault lines that would be safer to restart?

I understand why they feel the need to restart a couple reactors; they're concerned about black-outs and heat-related deaths in case they have a summer heat wave. I'm just wondering why the Ohi plant was chosen to be the one to fire back up.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. I think the Ohi plant was chosen because

it serves the Kansai area, which is where the major cities of Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka, as well as Keihanshin (probably Japan's largest concentration of industrial production) are located and which is predicted to have a hot summer.

[NickB79]

7. I've heard that Japan's grid isn't fully connected nation-wide. Is this true?

For example, power from a reactor in the southern portion of the country can't be easily sent north, and vice versa. Is this true?

BTW, one of my best friends has been living in Kagoshima for the past year teaching English to high-schoolers and says it's beautiful. Before that he lived on one of the southern islands (I forget where but he said it had massive insects). My wife and I hope to visit it one day.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. Japan uses 2 currents

100 volts, 50 amps, and 100 volts, 60 amps. I'm not sure where the dividing line is, but the Tokyo area and the Osaka area are on different systems, so yes, the national grid isn't fully integrated.