Govt may let evacuees return when plant stabilizes

[nadinbrzezinski]

Japan's industry minister has hinted that the government may be able to tell evacuees if they can return home when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is stabilized.

Banri Kaieda spoke to reporters on Sunday shortly after Tokyo Electric Power Company presented a road map to cool down the reactors and significantly reduce radiation leaks in 6 to 9 months.

Kaieda called the plan an important step for moving from the first-aid phase to the stabilization phase.

He urged the utility to implement the road map and move up the schedule if possible.


Monday, April 18, 2011 00:27 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/17_16.html

Why am I reminded of both Chernobyl and TMI? By the way this is NHK and this is crazy. EXCLUSION ZONE... learn to repeat it after me.

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Return in just 150,000 years.

Make sure you mark that down in your calendar. You don't want to miss it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Alarmist!

140,000 years might just do the job.

[Ozymanithrax]

5. What is ten thousand years between friends?

140,000 it is.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. I'm a master at negotiation.

Cheers

[Ozymanithrax]

11. You should be President.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. Try to keep it down to a dull roar.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. *

[Junkdrawer]

2. I saw that a day or two ago. Just crazy, but it fits with everything the gov't has done to date....

I guess they figure that they can explain away the inevitable excess cancer deaths. We'll see....

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Well now we have three accidents

one in a police state, the other two in Democracies. The behavior has been the same regardless.

All is safe.

Why? The COST of buying everybody out is insane... quelle surprise that they cannot get PRIVATE INSURANCE?

Where the heck is the "free market" in this?

[Junkdrawer]

9. Yep. I posted this a few weeks ago...

The Japanese Government Can't Afford to Tell the Truth About Fukushima

Back in the dawn of the Nuclear Industry, when the costs of a meltdown were calculated, a funny thing happened: no insurance company wanted to touch it. So governments stepped in and insured the power companies at tax payer risk. In the US, it was the Price-Anderson Act. The same thing is true in Japan.

This is profound. Because normally it's the job of government to force the industry to do the right thing. But now, every yen of cleanup and relocation costs are born by tax payers. And Japan, with the highest per-capita deficits in the world, may not be able to pay all the costs. Especially if, say, a 50 mile or 100 mile evacuation zone were declared and if this zone were later to become permanent.

Atomic Cleanup Cost Goes to Japan's Taxpayers, May Spur Liability Shift

Japan’s taxpayer, not the nuclear industry or insurers, will cover most of the cleanup cost from the worst accident since Chernobyl, a financial rescue that may spur moves by nations to make companies assume more liability.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., in its 13th day fighting to avert a meltdown at its Fukushima plant 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Tokyo, at most is required to cover third-party damages of 120 billion yen ($2.1 billion) under Japanese law. Should the government declare the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that flooded its reactors an “exceptional” act of God, the utility may be off the hook in paying compensation that may be demanded by injured workers, farmers and shareholders.

...

The Japanese government may pay as much as 1 trillion yen to compensate businesses and individuals for damages from the nuclear accident, or eight times the maximum cost for Tokyo Electric, the Tokyo Shimbun reported on March 12, without saying where it got the information

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-23/nuclear-cleanup-cost-goes-to-japan-s-taxpayers-may-spur-liability-shift.html

It's time to repeal the Price-Anderson Act. If nuclear power is so safe, let them buy insurance like any other industry.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=755466

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Kudos and indeed that is the case

if this is repealed all those plants will decom on their own, because the market will speak... (Has spoken)

[damntexdem]

4. Yeah, who care about old radiation.

Just worry about the new stuff.

Hey, it has half-lives -- whether of hours, days, years, millenia ...

;-)

[hlthe2b]

6. Wishful thinking....

Throwing these devastated residents a "bone" to keep them from losing all hope, I guess. I am so very sorry for those people so tragically affected by not one but three devastating tragedies. It remains beyond comprehension.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. we did the same at TMI

who was one of the major producers of milk back then? It wasn't California either.