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@lillymuster It really is alarming how little information locals receive. I'd be most uncomfortable at six miles, seems way too close. It's difficult for me to see how any build plan that requires emergency evacuation zones for the local population can be accepted by local authorities. Those that do permit such atrocities on their doorsteps are either naive or corrupt. They're certainly negligent.

@lillymunster Yes, seems that's how it so often is. As populations grow and land becomes scarcer, the inital boundries put in place to prevent harm to local residents are pushed closer and closer to the danger zone. This is inevitable without clear reminders of the threat, or where there are no firm and long-lasting planning restrictions. And yes, it's also sadly inevitable that it's the worst off members of our societies who have no choice but to live there. :(

@lillymunster The non-reviews required for re-licencing are frankly scandalous. We should seriously question the judgement of anybody prepared to ignore such obvious risks, and anyone who can deny that a Fukushima could ever happen to them.

@lillymunster I'm not so familiar with how the US or the NRC is run, but from here it seems the Reps generally to want fewer restrictions not more, and I'm guessing their first call of duty is to attack anyone trying to change the status quo by improving saftey conditions - they simply cannot allow economic growth to be hampered in any way, it's their biggest fear. As I see it this matter needs firm and decisive leadership, and the NRC need the power and the incentive to be able to confront, condemn, and close down nuke power companies who fail to meet the very highest of standards. If the NRC are unable to meet this requirement then an alternative body should.

@es , good morning, in my understanding the Reps' attempts to dislodge Jaszco have two motivations. Firstly he is the protege of Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, a Dem. who strongly opposes the use of Yucca Mountain as a storage facility. Jaszco is his point man to keep that use blocked. Second, Reid won his last re-election in a very close race. Anything that works against him must be good.

Hokkaido Elec. Power Co. to probe e-mail deception
Hokkaido Electric Power Company admits that it urged employees to attend a symposium and express views in support of one of its nuclear energy projects.

Officials from the utility, which covers Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, held a news conference on Friday about the 2008 symposium.

The move comes after 2 other utilities in Japan admitted using similar forums to manipulate public opinion in favor of their nuclear projects.

The symposium in Hokkaido was about a project involving plutonium-uranium oxide, or MOX, fuel at the Tomari nuclear power plant. The meeting was sponsored by the Hokkaido prefectural government and local governments of municipalities hosting the power plant.
The utility said its public relations department sent out e-mails to nuclear power-related offices asking them to have as many people as possible attend the symposium and speak in favor of the MOX project. www3.nhk.or.jp .............Morning all! Hopefully this isn't too old.

@Peter Melzer OK, that would make sense. Cheers.

Latest animation of the wave height projections from Irene polar.ncep.noaa.gov

@All hi again, looking relatively good weather wise for Japan, bullet dodging weather wise seems to continue! After crossing the northeastern tip of The Philippines Typhoon Nanmadol has weakened to a category 3 system, it's central eye is now again over water in the Luzon Strait and conditions are favorable for reintensification before land interaction with Taiwan around the 29/30, it will cross onto the mainland as a weak category 3 system bringing flooding and Gales to much of the island, destructive winds may be felt along much of the south eastern seaboard and adjacent inland, model guidance here after is not great with most models simply stalling the system and dissipating it, even if it were to move northward toward Japan it should be so significantly weakened that it will pose little threat. Talas to the east still lies in some difficult conditions but better times seem to be ahead with intensification forecast by all models and met agencies but the system has struggled to consolidate and deep convection seems to have subsided a lot compared to the explosive convection witnessed around 48 hours ago. Poleward outflow has been stunted from the beginning but seems to be picking up, this will help the system greatly should it establish an outflow channel, it is forecast to do so unfortunately that channel will lie directly over the east Japanese seaboard and bring falls of possibly 200mm+(that's the bad news), thankfully the storms never underwent direct cyclone interaction, competing high pressure steering ridges have kept them apart and DCI is no longer possible due to the great distances and relative weakness of both systems, in the later an upper level anticyclone(area of high pressure-acts like a blocking mechanism) currently strengthening over the sea just south of Kyushu will prevent Talas being able to cross onto southern Japan(and no doubt block Nanmadol too, should it make a comeback it will most likely push the system into eastern China or the Korean peninsula), another high pressure ridge to the west will create a very small channel available for travel just off the eastern coast of Japan(this is where the poleward outflow I talked of is) preventing a fast recurve to the northeast as usually seen, the system may still affect this eastern part of Japan but is not expected to impact the area until at least Friday of next week but being such a large system it’s affects may begin to be felt as early as late Tuesday early Wednesday in south eastern areas of Japan(NOTE: as currently modeled). Certainly not out of the woods yet but it could have been so much worse….remembering, I am no met! Good luck Americanos with Irene, there's no dodging her!:-)

@Cat Yeah, the greediest shareholders rule the roost :(

@es. I think it has reached a terrifying scale where the good of the people is no longer a consideration. There used to be a fear that robots would take over the world, and find that humans were an inconvenience. I think corporations took over, and found the same thing.