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Page added on March 14, 2015
Fukushima’s 4th Anniversary Brings Hope
The catastrophe that began at Fukushima four years ago today is worse than ever.
But the good news can ultimately transcend the bad — if we make it so.
An angry grassroots movement has kept shut all 54 reactors that once operated in Japan. It’s the largest on-going nuke closure in history. Big industrial windmills installed off the Fukushima coast are now thriving.
Photo by Takeshi Garcia An angry grassroots movement has kept shut all 54 reactors that once operated in Japan. It’s the largest on-going nuke closure in history
Five US reactors have shut since March 11, 2011. The operable fleet is under 100 for the first time in decades.
Ohio’s Davis-Besse, New York’s Ginna, five reactors in Illinois and other decrepit American nukes could shut soon without huge ratepayer bailouts.
Diablo Canyon was retrofitted — probably illegally — with $842 million in replacement parts untested for seismic impact. Already under fire for illegal license manipulations and an avoidable gas explosion that killed eight in San Bruno in 2010, Pacific Gas & Electric has plunged into a legal, economic and political abyss that could soon doom California’s last reactors.
Meanwhile, Germany is amping up its renewable energy generation with a goal of 80 percent or more by 2050.
France — once nuke power’s poster child — has turned away from new reactor construction and is moving strongly toward renewables.
Worldwide the Solartopian revolution is ahead of schedule and under budget. Predictions about its technological and economic potential are being everywhere exceeded.
More than twice as many Americans now work in solar as in coal mines. As the head of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund recently put it: “We are quite convinced that if John D Rockefeller were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy.”
Even America’s Tea Party has developed a green wing promoting renewables.
Vital focus now centers on battery breakthroughs needed to escalate rooftop solar, electric cars and other post-nuke game-changers.
But there’s plenty of bad news. The State Secrets Act of Japan’s authoritarian Abe regime renders unreliable all “official” information from Fukushima. Grassroots nuclear campaigners are under serious attack.
At least 300 tons of radioactive water still pour daily into the Pacific Ocean. The utility wants to dump even more untreated outflow into currents that are already testing radioactive along the California coast. Details of fuel rod bring-downs and site clean-ups remain unknown.
Thyroid damage rates are soaring among downwind children. Abe is forcing evacuees back into areas that are seriously contaminated. Fukushima’s owner (Tepco) is the #1 money funnel to his Liberal Democratic Party, which flips untold billions back to the utility.
More than 128,000 petitioners asking that the world community take charge at Fukushima have been ignored by the United Nations since November, 2013.
Throughout the world decaying reactors threaten our survival. Ohio’s Davis-Besse containment is literally crumbling. Diablo Canyon is surrounded by 15 known fault lines, one just 700 yards from the cores. New reactor sites in Finland, France and Georgia show slipshod construction, substandard parts and corrupted supervision that would make them instant threats should they go on line.
Citizen activism challenges all that. Today Solartopian activists will picket Japanese consulates worldwide.
An evolving electricity boycott to “unplug nuclear” and a growing grassroots demand for green energy herald a new era of people power.
Four years after the endless Fukushima disaster began, that renewable revolution defines our survival.
It’s a fight we can’t afford to lose. It’s a victory we must soon embrace … with the utmost relief and joy.
20 Comments on "Fukushima’s 4th Anniversary Brings Hope"
Makati1 on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 8:14 am
Hmmm….
“Four years after tsunami, Japanese coastal town near nuclear plant remains deserted”
“Four utilities to decommission five aging nuclear reactors”
“Over 200 seawalls exist only on paper”
“70% of disaster-related suicides recorded in Fukushima in 2014”
“Japan Gets a Look at Its Future Population Drain in Fukushima Today”
“Fukushima residents torn over nuclear waste storage plan”
“Japan PM vows new five-year plan to rebuild from 2011 disaster”
“Court battles could further delay nuclear reactor restarts”
“FOUR YEARS AFTER: More than 60% of evacuees still stuck in temporary housing”
http://ricefarmer.blogspot.fr/
And, finally:
“France’s nuclear love affair too strong to let Areva fail”
“US Clean Energy Companies Added Fewer Jobs In 2014, Signaling Slowdown In Sector’s Jobs Growth: Report”
“China approves first nuclear project since Fukushima”
Kenz300 on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 9:07 am
The disaster at Fukishima continues today with no end in sight.
TEPCO and the government of Japan have not been open and honest about this disaster from the first day.
An independent body needs to be formed to oversee the cleanup and make public weekly reports on the progress or lack of progress in cleaning up this disaster. How much will this ultimately cost the taxpayers of Japan? How much have the taxpayers pumped into TEPCO to keep the company going?
Now that aging nuclear plants are starting to be decommissioned we will begin to see the true cost of nuclear power. The cost to cleanup and store nuclear waste FOREVER is too high a price to pay.
The people of Japan are doing just fine with 54 nuclear reactors shut down. They need to keep them shut down and begin to figure out how they will clean up and pay for storage of the nuclear waste from them.
There are safer, cleaner and cheaper ways to boil water to produce electricity..
U.S. Solar Energy Industry Achieves Record-Shattering Year
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2015/03/u-s-solar-energy-industry-achieves-record-shattering-year
paulo1 on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 9:08 am
Thanks Mak,
A little reality is necessary on this important issue.
Follow the money, power, and payoffs (political contributions) and a bigger story will prevail.
ghung on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 9:49 am
“Today Solartopian activists will picket Japanese consulates worldwide.”
One wonders how many of these activists put their money where their mouth is. I, for one, couldn’t continue to speak out against nasty grid power, especially nuclear and coal, while writing a check every month to support these things. Wasn’t easy and wasn’t cheap, but seemed like the right thing to do, for all the good it’ll do. At least I don’t worry about where my next electron will come from.
Weeks like we’ve had recently only remind us to not take this energy endowment for granted. It’s a lesson society-at-large needs to learn.
paulo1 on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 10:17 am
We all have to scale down, Ghung.
Where I live all grid supply is by Hydro, about as reneable as you can get. (Not including dam construction and line maint. supplies and transportation). However, if I could switch to a system like yours I would, but 50 deg+ north and the cloudy wet coast, plus we get marine overcast for 1/2 the day in late summer, and fog in the sunny fall which after a time does not burn off ….Sept usually, solar just isn’t realistic for us.
What we can do is reduce our use as much as possible. We have energy efficient appliances, pre-heat wood fired HW which feeds into our HW tank, and excellent passive solar. Yesterday, we had a fast moving cold front which turned southeast gales to storm force westerlies. It knocked out our power for 3-4 hours. Due to passive solar we continued with our books until called out to fix son’s woodshed when wind knocked steel roof off post and beam poled structure. When I got home power was on again.
I/we do not ever take our energy supply for granted because we lose hydro several times per year in storms. We are set up to stay warm, fed, washed, and entertained for days without power if need be, but the joy of a long hot shower is absolutely wonderful as far as I’m concerned.
TemplarMyst on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 10:40 am
Well, I certainly applaud those who have gone off grid and are looking forward to the energy draw down. More power to you.
I’d be a hypocrite if I said I could do the same, or advocate the same. So I remain on the other side of the argument.
But I suppose the power down and live with less approach will get a boost as more renewable power is brought online and the baseload is removed.
We’ll have to live off the intermittent feeds. There won’t be any industry to support much else.
Plantagenet on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 10:42 am
China just announced they are building more nukes. The obama administration intends to let Iran build nukes. India is building nukes
Announcements of the death of nuclear energy are premature
Davy on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 12:11 pm
Wow, planter, lets just call it a terminal illness then becuase what you just said ain’t much and with allot of talk.
Apneaman on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 1:25 pm
Hey Lil Planter, is that the same Obama administration that said it was going to close Guantanamo? Says unemployment is 5.5%? The economy has completely recovered? America is energy independent?
Nuclear plants delayed in China, watched closely in Ga., South Carolina
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150216/PC05/150219428
Cost, build delays are eyed for nuke reactors
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2288840-155/cost-build-delays-are-eyed-for
Nuclear Power Firms Feel Squeeze
Cost overruns, delays plague current projects, clouding development of future reactors
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nuclear-power-firms-feel-squeeze-1425591380
TemplarMyst on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 8:10 pm
Apeneaman,
We’ve been over this in detail before. If there’s anything that can save our energy bacon it’s nukes. Energy density being the key.
At this point what’s keeping nukes out of the picture is fracked natural gas. And that will keep them out of the picture for a while, I imagine.
If the energy descent is what is desired, fine. I think it was GregT who sited Hippocrates. Do no harm.
I’m still willing to argue doing nothing will do more harm than pursuing a risky technology.
Apneaman on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 9:00 pm
Then we will have to give up capitalism, because it does not look affordable even with the subsidies. It’s that the way things are vs the way we would like them to be thing again. I’m one of the first people who will suffer and possibly die with out electricity.
TemplarMyst on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 9:10 pm
Mebbe, but a significant part of the cost comes back to the level of effort needed to accommodate the fear of radioactivity.
Which argument goes around and around, I realize.
And yeah, the way they are vs the way they ought to be. Granted.
I’ll be one of the first to go too. Oh well.
Makati1 on Sun, 15th Mar 2015 11:28 pm
Many nuke plants started will never be fired up, if they are even completed. Why? The crash of the system that pays for them. The inability of consumers to buy their product. The lack of need of that product. The fact that there will be more and more ‘Fukushimas’ in the near future as the antiques now on line melt down or require more maintenance than they can pay for.
TemplarMyst on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 11:07 am
Makati1,
The nukes could come online and be maintained and provide a very meaningful assist with climate change. But they cannot do it with below-cost natural gas. That is their primary competitor in the electricity market, and that nat gas is the result of all the financial shenanigans we’ve been discussing. Leverage on top of leverage on top of leverage.
The fuel bundles were removed from San Onofre 2 and 3 without incident and in the space of a very short period of time. They are now in the cooling pools, where they will need to stay for 18 months before they are cool enough to avoid melt.
And melt is the word. They won’t explode. The cores in Fukushima and TMI did not explode. They did at Chernobyl, and look at the countryside 30 years after the event.
Want to restore nature? Blow up an old graphite reactor and scare everyone away. Wait a short while, and nature will return with a vengeance. Despite all the radionuclides, despite all the fear humans have, the wolves, eagles, beavers and other flora and fauna just moved back in and started to undo all the damage humans had done, with their collectivist farms and canals and fertilizers and on and on.
Judging by Chernobyl, we outta be setting more of these things off, if nature is our primary concern…
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:04 pm
Temp, your optimism is refreshing don’t get me wrong. I will be the Devils advocate with your NUK ideas. I am not going to comment on the safety or dangers. I am not the forum expert on NUK. I can tell you this from a macro systematic look at NUK we have seen the last of any meaningful build out IMHO.
The global economy cannot support it. Fossil fuels are relatively cheaper and in conjunction with AltE NUK is cost disadvantaged. The capital cost of a build out are enormous. It seems only China has the drive to build and the system to shove it through. China is a economic dead man walking and will not be able to maintain the huge build outs of everything from A to Z in China and the third world.
Economic growth is faltering and with it large capital projects. Existing plants may get built out, a few new ones, and a whole lot of talk that goes nowhere again IMHO. Economics, public opinion, broke governments, and zero financial support from the private sector will keep NUK”s hands tied.
Personally I believe in the name of cushioning the descent we need to keep NUK that is built out. It must be maintained as long as possible and more resources devoted to waste management.
So in conclusion it appears there are no resources to dump NUK and none to build out more. Let’s make do with what we have and be as safe as possible. There are no good options one of those is NUK but it is and it can. It is not some dream that will never be realized in a collapsing world.
TemplarMyst on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:10 pm
Davy,
Well, sticking to the optimistic view, I wouldn’t advocate build out of the current nuclear model.
Current plants under construction are using the old paradigm of large, centralized plants. That model does not seem overly viable present day.
The R&D in the nuclear field is on small modular reactors, powered by either uranium or thorium. They’re still on the drawing board, but they should be able to demo viability and cost within 10 years.
If we have that long. Who knows. I’ve made the argument other AltE techs will not be able to drive the electric we will need.
I’m still sticking to my perspective that we have to draw down carbon to stand any chance of avoiding Hades on Earth. No amount of AltE will permit us to do that. Heck, Germany can’t even power existing infrastructure at this point, and they have constructed a massive AltE buildout.
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:50 pm
Fair enough Temp. I remember when the Missouri governor was after start up money to make the modular NUK plants here in our state. It went somewhere else but still no functioning plants anywhere. I don’t think your ideas will scale personally with thorium or small modular NUK. It may have a niche roll to play like AltE. Anything and everything will be needed in a few short years as we drop off the energy cliff.
TemplarMyst on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:12 pm
Davy,
I’ll respectfully disagree on the ability of small modular nukes to scale up. That is what they are designed to do. You plug the modules together to generate whatever level of juice you require.
They would be able to be dropped into existing infrastructure. No need to build a new grid, or cabling all over God’s creation. And they function rain or shine, hot or cold. Think of a nuke sub on the land.
That’s the idea, anyway. NuScale is the only major company still pursuing at the moment, but there are over a dozen venture capital-based companies running computer simulations. Bill Gates is backing one of em, and Richard Branson has his fingers in another, I believe.
I’ll dig up a link to a talk Gates gave on energy and post it here a bit later.
Davy on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:21 pm
Temp, I hope you are right but I have grown very skeptical of any potential silver bullets. The idea sounds feasible. I still doubt it will mitigate the liquid fuel crisis ahead which is the real danger with no solution.
GregT on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:24 pm
The first thing to fall apart as we drop off of the energy cliff will be our economies.
Anyone who believes that ‘they’ are going to scale up alternate electric power generation in any meaningful amount, would be wise to stock up on electronic gadgetry now while the stuff is still available, and/or affordable. Anyone who doesn’t believe that ‘they’ will think of something, would be wise to invest in alternate for themselves, as well as stock up on whatever gadgetry that they think that they may want or need.