Japan has a 45 year history with nuclear reactors and they have over 50 of them online now. Japan’s safety record has been superb over those 45 years. Japan has more than one hundred 5.0 or greater earthquakes every year. Japan had over one dozen 7.0 earthquakes over the last ten years. Their nuclear reactors have endured trouble-free throughout. Its taken the largest Japanese earthquake on record coupled with a massive tsunami to stress their oldest nuclear reactor to its limits.
It would be typical of the cowardly socialist Liberals to use this Japanese tragedy to halt the development of safe, clean nuclear energy in our United States. We should not let that happen. Hopefully more sensible heads prevail. We need nuclear energy in this country, we need it on a massive scale, and we need it immediately.
TEPCO press release on Article 15 incident.
At2:46PM on March 11th, turbines and reactors of Tokyo Electric Power
Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 (Boiling Water
Reactor, rated output 460 Megawatts) and Units 2 and 3 (Boiling Water
Reactor, Rated Output 784 Megawatts) that had been operating at rated
power automatically shutdown due to the Miyagiken-oki Earthquake.
After the shut down, the values of radioactive materials (iodine, etc)
measured by the monitoring car have been increasing. Increase in the
measured value has also been recognized in one of the monitoring posts.
Furthermore, today at 3:29PM, radiation dose measured at site boundary has
exceeded the limiting value. Therefore, at 4:17PM, it was determined that
a specific incident stipulated in article 15, clause 1 has occurred.
We will endeavor to secure the safety and alongside, continue monitoring
the environment of the site periphery.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031224-e.html
“Japan has a 45 year history with nuclear reactors and they have over 50 of them online now. Japan’s safety record has been superb over those 45 years.”
So one melt down in 45 years is acceptable to you?
Well...
there was that critically accident
On 30 September 1999, at a Japanese uranium reprocessing facility in Tokai, Ibaraki, workers put a mixture of uranyl nitrate solution into a precipitation tank which was not designed to dissolve this type of solution and caused an eventual critical mass to be formed, and resulted in the death of two workers from radiation poisoning.