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@dean hi

dead

@dean I realised that when I checked the international laws what a total waste of paper one of the international 'agreements' has only 5 members

@dean it is depressing

@dean so them booting Kan out is going to achieve what? do they think the people will be placated ? I think they want Kan out because he refuses to play the tepco game

@all Good Morning...Good Evening...Hello!

@all Can't stay long...saying "bye!" for now

Just overheard a phone call in the lobby, lady sitting next to me on phone with husband. Los Alamos, he said mandatory evac, worried because "if it reaches the lab, there will be big trouble, because the fire Dept wont know what to do".

@Panserbjorne9 is that the research lab?

@Elaine couldn't tell, he just said "lab". He was calling from there. Sounded seriously spooked. Felt a little bad for eavesdropping :(

400 TEPCO shareholders submit anti-nuclear power motions
Satoru Otomo stands next to solar panels that belong to the Yamanashi Natural Energy Power Co. he operates in Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture. (Mainichi)
Satoru Otomo stands next to solar panels that belong to the Yamanashi Natural Energy Power Co. he operates in Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture. (Mainichi)

A total of 402 individual shareholders in Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, have submitted motions against nuclear power generation to the utility for the upcoming regular shareholder meeting.

Such motions have been submitted to TEPCO's annual shareholder meeting every year, but were voted down by an overwhelming majority of its shareholders. This year, however, such motions have drawn close attention from the public because of the nuclear crisis.

In 1989, a recirculation pump had broken at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 2 Nuclear Power Plant, prompting citizens who were opposing nuclear power plants to buy shares in the power supplier and set up a "Nuclear Phase-out TEPCO Shareholders' Movement."

The organization had acquired enough shares to gain the right to make the proposal at shareholder meetings by 1991. Since then, the organization has submitted proposals for the abolition of nuclear power stations to TEPCO's annual shareholder meetings.

During the June 28 shareholder meeting, the organization will demand that TEPCO shut down its older nuclear power stations on a step-by-step basis and abandon building any new nuclear power plants.

While calling on TEPCO to phase out its nuclear power plants, the motion the group has submitted for this year's shareholder meeting stops short of demanding the immediate shutdown of all its nuclear plants so that it can be supported by as many shareholders as possible, according to group member Yui Kimura.

The group will also point out during the June 28 meeting that the share prices of Okinawa Electric Power Co., which has no nuclear power plants, remain high while other power suppliers' share prices have plummeted following the Fukushima crisis.

Satoru Otomo, 53, a dentist living in Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture, who is participating in the movement, said the group has been successful in encouraging TEPCO to introduce safer and environment-friendly energy sources.

"We're proud that we've led TEPCO in the field of natural energy sources," he said.

In 1999, the organization proposed to TEPCO that it should create a fund aimed at providing subsidies for the introduction of solar power and other environment-friendly energy sources. Its proposal was voted down at the company's shareholder meeting that year, but the firm actually created such a fund the following year, even though the fund ended in 2010.

Otomo says some of the proposals the group made at TEPCO shareholder meetings have been actually put into practice.

Otomo, an amateur astronomer, moved to Hokuto at the foot of Mount Yatsugatake, where beautiful starry skies can be seen because the air is clear, and began generating his own solar power in 1993. He set up a solar power generation company, Yamanashi Natural Energy Power Co., in 2006. His company's 360 solar panels set up around his rice paddies have an output of 34.4 kilowatts and the power generated by the panels is sold to TEPCO.

Otomo criticizes TEPCO for what he calls its bureaucratic culture.

"In short, TEPCO is just like a government organization. It has a deep sense of sectionalism and sticks to its rigid internal manuals," Otomo says. "There're some insiders who are critical of its nuclear power generation, but can't speak out against it."

Otomo recalls he was asked by a TEPCO employee in charge of eco-friendly energy to urge the national government to promote the introduction of such energy sources. He responded by compiling a leaflet appealing to legislators for the need to rely less on nuclear power.

Kimura, 58, participated in anti-nuclear power activities after she was shocked at the Chernobyl nuclear crisis in 1986 when her eldest daughter was 3 years old.

"Do you think it's acceptable for us to use such dangerous substances for the sake of our luxurious lifestyles, and make our children and grandchildren pay for that?" she said.

@Veenie Well there it is. Time will tell what comes of it. Here's where whoever broke international law to buy $600,000 worth of devalued TEPCO stock back in May gets to flex their muscle.

I couldn't find any corroboration for that Japanese story, but it must have come from somewhere.

OK, here's www.reuters.com 6:21pm EDT update:

Firefighters were able to douse the flames on the one-acre "spot fire" just inside the southwestern boundary of the lab site, about 25 miles outside Santa Fe, authorities said.

Buildings still have not been touched by flames, and authorities said there was little threat to sensitive areas of the 28,000-acre complex.

The laboratory's plutonium facility is on the northeast side of the complex, while the fire seems to be moving south and east, said another lab spokesman, Kevin Roark.

I've seen several people point out that New Mexico is no stranger to wildfires, and this facility is well protected against them.

@elaine Yes, don't you love disaster plans that rely on "seems to be"?

@elainekirk It's not like a flood that lasts for three months. But don't you love the way the much maligned (by the energy industry) global warming changes are slowly, in their opening salvoes, making mincemeat of the myth of nuclear safety?

@lillymunster The sandbags are holding?