Most Japanese want an end to nuclear

A new poll by NHK shows that 70% of the Japanese public want to reduce or abolish nuclear power in the future. About 2,600 randomly selected adults were polled nationwide over 3 days through October 30th.
1,775 people responded. According to NHK, 24 percent of respondents said all nuclear power plants should be shut down and 42 percent said the number should be reduced. 23 percent said the existing facilities should be maintained and 2 percent said they want more nuclear plants.49 percent of respondents said they are very afraid of another nuclear accident and 37 percent are worried to a certain extent.

UPDATE: TEPCO says nuke may still be critical

"Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) pumped water mixed with boric acid into the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant early on Nov. 2 after finding traces of xenon, a radioactive gas that might indicate nuclear fission has taken place.

Officials of the company said that some parts of the reactor may have reached criticality, a state of self-sustaining nuclear fission. Fuel believed to have melted in the accident triggered by the March 11 earthquake may have caused the fission. The boric acid was pumped into the reactor to suppress the reactions.

Radiation levels near the Fukushima plant have not shown any unusual surge, but the latest development may hinder plans by the central government to bring the Fukushima nuclear accident under control by the end of the year." Asahi Shimbun

Update on November 2, 2011 by admin

The New York Times has also reported on this story.

Fallout forensics hike radiation toll

"The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the shattered plant."

 For original story and images, see Nature.

Japan could at least scale down if not close out nuclear program

Japan economy minister, Yukio Edano told Reuters during a break at a ministerial meeting hosted by the International Energy Agency in Paris that Japan would reduce if not eliminate its use of nuclear energy.  “I am certain that we are going to reduce nuclear power generation but whether we are going to reduce it to zero is a separate issue,” Edano said.  He said that a complete pullout from nuclear power was still under consideration, although new prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda appears more favorable to nuclear than his predecessor, Naoto Kan who declared the need to Japan to abandon nuclear energy. Edano (pictured) was seen daily at press briefings during the early stages of the Fukushima-Daiichi reactor crisis.

Fukushima Meltdown - the book - available on Amazon Kindle

An English translation of veteran anti-nuke writer Hirose Takashi’s Japanese best seller, Fukushima Meltdown: The World’s First Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear Disaster is now available at Amazon Kindle Books. We are not going to learn what happened at Fukushima by reading the mainstream media, or by studying the pronouncements of the Japanese Government and TEPCO.  For people who want to know what went wrong at Fukushima, what went haywire with the media, and what is likely to happen next in earthquake-prone Japan, this is a must read.