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[User N. Ame]

I've long wondered if Japan's decision to initiate an ambitious nuclear power program in the hottest earthquake region on earth wasn't one of the more short-sighted energy policy moves ever made.

And as with past industrial disasters in Japan, this latest accident is being guarded with secrecy and misinformation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2128302,00.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-07-17-japan_N.htm

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T145880.htm

[Apsara]

I was pretty suspicious when I first read that 1.5 litres of contaminated water leaked- in disasters officials at Japanese corporations seem to have a habit of playing down the problem and then gradually admitting to more and more. I most recently read 1,200 litres- who knows what the real figure is.

Amazing that they would store nuclear waste in drums that would leak if they tipped over, but then remembering that they were mixing radioactice chemicals in buckets instead of a cooling tower in Tokaimura a few years ago, I'm not really so surprised.

You'd think Japan would be particularly careful given its history to avoid inflicting a nuclear disaster on itself, but no, nuclear power plants only have to be able to withstand a magnitude 6.5 quake- in a country that regularly has much bigger quakes.

Nuclear-free NZ is looking pretty good right now...

[Yawarakaijin]

Were any of you surprised at the statment that went something like this..."the earthquake was stronger than what the nuclear plant was designed to withstand."

Excuse me? As far as I know the Japanese scale goes up to 7. If there is one thing you are going to design that could withstand a 7 on the Japanese scale.....wouldn't it be a nuclear powerplant? In fact, if you are going to all the expense of building the worlds biggest nuclear powerplant, wouldn't you design it to withstand MORE than the strongest of quakes possible?

[gaijinalways]

The nuclear energy's safety record here is not comforting. But the California's Diablo reactor is similar, built　on a major fault line.