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By John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com
Category: Investment, Energy
July 26, 2012 (Investorideas.com Energy Newswire) Seventeen months after the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the Tokyo Electric Power Company's six-reactor complex at its Fukushima Daiichi, discussions continue about the possible effects of the radiation "dusting" the prefecture's inhabitants received, and their consequences.
The 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami double punch that effectively destroyed Tokyo Electric Power Company's power plant complex has effectively become the newest "ground zero" in the debate over nuclear power. Advocates pro and con debate the implications of everything from the amount of damage to the release of radionuclides to the long term health effects on the Japanese population.Far outside most media coverage, 2012 is shaping up to be the media battleground between the massed proponents of the ongoing 'safety' of nuclear power, as opposed to a motley coalition of environmentalists, renegade nuclear scientists and anti-nuclear opponents, largely bereft of media contact.
The stakes are high - quite aside from Japan 's multi-billion dollar investment in civilian nuclear energy, dating back to the 1960s, there remains the issues of Fukushima 's radioactive debris polluting neighbours.
All sides in the debate are playing for massive stakes, with the Japanese government and the nuclear industry broadly indicating the issue is under control. Accordingly, every issue from the amount of radiation released to the long term health consequences of the Fukushima disaster are subject to acrimonious debate.
That said, there is an involuntary irradiated "test" Fukushima group monitored since March 2011 displaying disturbing health abnormalities that may ultimately decide the debate, should the global media report it, forcing governments to debate its consequences.
The children of Fukushima .
The issue of nuclear radiation on human health cites besides Fukushima the August 1945 U.S nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the April 1986 explosion of the Chernobyl reactor complex in Ukraine , but in reality, there are no comparisons to evaluate Fukushima.
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Citizens who wanted to voice their opinions on energy policy at eight public hearings overwhelmingly called for Japan to give up nuclear energy by 2030.
The government held the meetings to solicit views on its three proposed options for the ratio of nuclear energy in Japan’s overall power generation in 2030--zero percent, 15 percent and 20-25 percent.
Seventy percent of those who applied to speak at the hearings supported the zero-percent option. Eleven percent supported the 15-percent option, and 17 percent backed the option of 20-25 percent. Two percent gave opinions different from the three options.
Of those wanting to voice their opinions, only those chosen through a drawing are allowed to speak at the hearings. Participants at the first five hearings were not allowed to state opinions other than the government's three options.
The eight hearings were held between July 14 and July 29, and three more are scheduled for Aug. 1 and 4.
At the hearing in Hiroshima on July 29, 62 percent of people who applied to speak supported the zero-percent option.
“We want to say ‘no’ to nuclear power generation from Hiroshima, where an atomic bomb was dropped,” said one woman in Hiroshima who works part-time.
