Posted on 04/07/2011 6:30:19 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Japan's Other Nuclear Disaster
Yas Idei, 04.06.11, 06:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated April 25, 2011
At the nuke dump in Rokkasho, a nation's hunger for power has spawned a financial catastrophe.
In many ways the 11,000 villagers in Rokkasho, on the northeastern tip of Japan's main island, are blessed. While other towns in the remote region are run-down and financially strapped, Rokkasho boasts gleaming public buildings, immaculate recreation facilities and free picture-phones in every home. Rare in a land of massive public debt, its government has a $100 million surplus. At $170,000 per capita income is triple Tokyo's.
The reason for Rokkasho's good fortune is its decision three decades ago to host a nuclear waste dump, as well as uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing plants.
/snip
The power industry's plan to send many tons of spent fuel to Rokkasho from its 54 domestic nuclear plants has been scuttled by 18 safety-related delays so far in the start of uranium reprocessing. The delays, in turn, have left Japan's nuke plants sitting on 13,000 tons of waste. Unless Rokkasho begins reprocessing, they could run out of storage capacity within a matter of years. JNFL now hopes to begin reprocessing in October 2012--after spending another $2.5 billion. Plutonium reprocessing and fast-breeder reactors, which other nations have largely abandoned, are more doubtful still.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
P!
That’s quite a story, and quite a mess. It sounds very much like Japan’s “Big Dig”, and is no doubt part of the reason why Japan was in such dire financial condition long before the first quake hit.
Actually is not as bad, considering that $30 Billion, while a lot, it *may* solve their nuke waste problem.
Take a look at this Zero Hedge posting:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.