Anti-nuclear "Cassandras" finally being listened to?

In an article entitled "Japanese Officials Ignored or Concealed Dangers," the New York Times has reported that Japanese anti-nuclear activists, lawyers, and university professors have warned about earthquake and tsunami risks at various Japanese nuclear power plants for decades. Their warnings and lawsuits have often fallen on deaf ears, however, including in courts of law also under the influence of a politically powerful nuclear power industry. 

More insights into the three meltdowns at Fukushima from Dr. Chris Busby

Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and Graham Nash call for action against new nuclear loan guarantees

Nash, Raitt, and Browne, flanked by environmental and congressional allies, at a Nukefree.org press conference against nuclear loan guarantees on Capitol Hill, 2007"We may be on the brink...of stopping the US nuclear industry from building new reactors," write musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and Graham Nash in a new posting on the Nukefree.org website. Join their call by phoning your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urging them to block the $36 billion in new nuclear loan guarantees proposed by the Obama administration in the Fiscal Year 2012 federal budget, with the first congressional subcommittee votes expected to happen in the next few weeks.

Venting failures at Fukushima Dai-Ichi highlight identical risks at nearly two dozen U.S. reactors

The New York Times, in an article entitled "In Japan Reactor Failings, Danger Signs for the U.S.," has reported that the hardened vent retrofits on the Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3 General Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactors failed to reduce pressure (by releasing radioactive steam to the environment) due to the lack of electricity from earthquake and tsunami damage. This led to hydrogen gas build up, and then massive explosions that damaged or utterly destroyed the three reactor buildings. On April 13th, Beyond Nuclear filed an emergency enforcement petition calling upon NRC to immediately suspend the operating licenses at 21 U.S. GE BWR Mark 1s.

Why did Japan wait until now to admit three meltdowns?