World Japan halts last nuclear reactor at Ohi

[KaerfNomekop]

Japan is shutting down its last functioning nuclear reactor, with no timetable for a restart.

Reactor 4 at Ohi in western Japan will stop generating electricity in the early hours of Monday.

Analysts say Japan will be without nuclear power until December at the earliest, the longest shut-down since the 1960s.

The Japanese public turned against nuclear power after the meltdowns at the Fukushima plant in 2011.

Before the accident, which was caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami, nuclear plants supplied about 30% of Japan's power.

But since then the plants have been closed, either for scheduled maintenance or because of safety fears, and have not been restarted.

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[Accname]

I like nuclear power plants. They are clean and efficient. Coal is a much worse power source.
And all the green alternatives are just not efficient enough at this point in time.

 

[KMilz]

With the first functional fusion reactor set to begin operating in... what, 2050 or whatever?... we shouldn't have to worry about green energy for much longer. That shit should bulldoze every other source of energy, as long as we can afford to build 'em.

But if 30% of their power came from nuclear plants, who's supplying the energy now? Are they importing it from other countries, or did they just entirely rework their energy supply infrastructure in these past couple of years and I never paid enough attention?

 

[Accname]

They probably have backups, like any decent country has.
But they will probably have to import from china soon.

 

[Darthfett]

I don't understand why people are in such fear of nuclear power. It took a MASSIVE earthquake (fifth largest in history) AND a tsunami to damage the plants (many of which were not adequately protected from tsunami). There were 130,000 buildings that completely collapsed. Despite this, there is not one recorded death that is a direct result of the nuclear power plants (the tsunami/earthquake provided over 15,000 deaths).

 

[Accname]

I think there are several deaths as a result of the collapsed powerplant. All the workers sent there to fix the leak died from the radiation already. The radiation in the water was said to be so high, that when you touched it, your skin peeled off of your flesh.