Friday, May 6, 2011

The good news just keeps rolling in.


Hey there! Delightful to see you today. What’s doing? We have a guest post from Tokyo Paul today so fill your mug, snag a muffin from the top shelf and listen while Paul delights you with news from the Japanese government.

“I'm watching the government-sponsored news channel right now, and they're doing a story about another nuclear facility just to the west of Tokyo about the same distance as Fukushima is to the northeast of us.

The gist of the story is that the safety standards at the other plant are even worse than the ones at Fukushima. The operators of the facility are claiming that the 12 m seawall is adequate although the big earthquake produced a tsunami which was measured at 20 m at some points.

To allay fears, the operators have put a power generator on the roof of the facility. That's a really handy place to put it when the tsunami hits and knocks the building down. They are also going to build another concrete wall around the facility, and they will manage to get that done by the year 2014.

Even the government, which is not been really forthcoming with information about Fukushima, is saying that this new facility seems dangerous to them. Talk about an understatement!

They are also saying that this facility was knowingly built in an area where eventually an earthquake of magnitude 8 is expected.

Neng, where are those air tickets out of here again?

Follow-up:
Here is an update on the other nuclear power plant that I mentioned before. It is called Hamaoka and as I mentioned, it is between Tokyo and Osaka in an area called Chubu.

All of Japanese society, especially their bureaucracies, operate on the principle of “Let's think about it, and move slowly so as not to cause confusion.”

However, the government sent inspectors to inspect the facility just yesterday and found that they thought it was unsafe. Less than 24 hours later, they are recommending that the whole facility be shut down immediately.

The operator of the nuclear facility, Chubu Electric, told the government that they would think about it. They pointed out if they shut down the facility, they will lose money.  Who woulda thunk

Neng, where are those suitcases?”
--
Paul Gilbert
Tokyo, Japan

Bob’s comment:
Aren’t government wonderful? Luckily we don’t get all the government we pay for, eh? Ignore the problem till disaster strikes then find a scapegoat who, hopefully, would have been with a former government. And I like the Chubu Electric reaction, don't you. Never mind if thousands of people could die, the important thing is that we'll lose money! Priorities, huh!

Visit my other blogs:
 

0 comments: