Japan yesterday restarted a second nuclear reactor after a shutdown triggered by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi crisis, as Tokyo pushes to return to a cheaper energy source, despite widespread public opposition.
Kyushu Electric Power said it restarted the No. 2 reactor at Sendai, about 1,000km southwest of Tokyo at 10:30am.
The same power plant’s No. 1 reactor was restarted in August, ending a two-year nuclear power hiatus. Engineers will now spend several days bringing the newly restarted reactor up to operational level before running it commercially from next month.
The restart comes more than four years after a quake-sparked tsunami swamped cooling systems and triggered reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, prompting the shutdown of Japan’s 50 reactors and starting a pitched battle over the future use of atomic power.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pushed for a restart, saying that atomic energy is necessary to power the world’s third-biggest economy.
However, the public is largely opposed to atomic energy after the Fukushima Dai-ichi crisis sent radiation over a wide area and forced tens of thousands from their homes — many of whom will likely never return — in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
The government will continue to restart reactors that are deemed safe under the nation’s standards, upgraded since the accident in 2011, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
“There is no change to this policy of the government,” Suga told a press conference.
About 70 people gathered in front of the Sendai plant to protest the latest reactor restart, according to public broadcaster NHK.
“Many people are still concerned about the restart of nuclear power plants,” Ryoko Torihara, head of the citizen group against the Sendai nuclear plant, told NHK.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace criticized “the Abe government’s disregard for public safety,” and said that Japan has demonstrated that it does not need nuclear power.
“Nuclear energy will not make any significant contribution to Japan’s energy mix — not now or in the foreseeable future,” Greenpeace Japan energy campaigner Mamoru Sekiguchi said.
“Rather than risking the safety of Japanese citizens for a dangerous and outdated energy source, the Japanese government should be creating policies that support the transition to safe, clean renewable energy,” he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS