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Nuclear Emergency Declared At 2 Plants In Japan
Hugh Pickens writes "CBC reports that Japan has declared a state of emergency and called for mass evacuations near two nuclear power plants following cooling systems failures that led to radiation escaping from a reactor at one location. The emergency declarations, which include five reactors at the two plants, followed Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the country's northeast coast. In a troubling announcement, Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official Ryohei Shiomi said a monitoring device outside the plant detected radiation that is eight times higher than normal and an evacuation zone has been expanded from three kilometres around the plant to 10 kilometres."
Wonder how many of the usual "Nuclear Energy is cheap, safe, clean and does the dishes AND the laundry" posts we get today.
Face it: if the (unlikely) worst happens and a reactor does blow up in japan, the current recession is child's play.
I hope this disaster let some people come to their senses. I mean those who said in the last year that a equilibrated mix of energy production, including nuclear power“ is the way to go for the future. This technology is _not_ safe, nor is it clean. It's a threat to people and we need to push hard for renewable energy as soon as possible! I live in Germany. We had a sound exit strategy for nuclear power that would have allowed us to get nuclear-free in the foreseeable future. Conservative politicians, like Angela Merkel (CDU) and neo-liberals, like Guido Westerwelle (FDP), alike have recently diluted this sound strategy, because they thought it to be the work of crazy left-wing politicians and ecologists. It's not. We need to get out of nuclear power and we need to do it fast.
If it wasn't for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the 'American Tourists' (GI's and Marines) would indeed have got a warm reception (hot lead and cold steel) from the Japanese people.