"The people that are saying we need nuclear power and we have the technology to safely store nuclear waste for 250,000 years are the same ones who claim that we can't use solar because we have no way to store the electricity overnight! If we have the technology to do one, we ought to be able to figure out the other." ---Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Associates (pictured left)
Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the switching off of the last of their nation's 50 nuclear reactors Saturday, waving banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol.
Japan was without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when the reactor at Tomari nuclear plant on the northern island of Hokkaido went offline for mandatory routine maintenance.
"Today is a historic day," Masashi Ishikawa shouted to a crowd gathered at a Tokyo park, some holding traditional "koinobori" carp-shaped banners for Children's Day that have become a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement.
The activists said it is fitting that the day Japan stopped nuclear power coincides with Children's Day because of their concerns about protecting children from radiation, which Fukushima Dai-ichi is still spewing into the air and water.
Whether Japan will suffer a sharp power crunch is still unclear.
Electricity shortages are expected only at peak periods, such as the middle of the day in hot weather, and critics of nuclear power say proponents are exaggerating the consequences to win public approval to restart reactors. Associated Press
Japan is nuclear-free today but could still be devastated by a radiological accident that would dwarf Chernobyl if Unit 4 collapses and the fuel catches fire. Organizations around the world are urged to sign on to this letter to the UN's Ban-Ki Moon and Japan prime minister Noda to get international help. TEPCO is looking at as much as a 10-year plan to shore up Unit 4. But an earthquake tomorrow could topple it. It's a preventable disaster but it could take the international community to prevent it.
A Greenpeace paraglider dropped a smoke bomb onto the Bugey French nuclear reactor to highlight a potentially catastrophic lack of security around the power station, reports The Daily Mail. Two members of the environmental group were arrested following the stunt at the Bugey plant in southeastern France which came four days before France's presidential election runoff. To demonstrate the plant's vulnerability to terror attacks, the pilot threw a red-smoke flare onto the roof of the reactor building before landing nearby.
May 8, 2012