I know. They are safe. And they are clean... Until they get hit with a tsunami because they get built, by, wreckless, secretive, bold people, on a fault line and the get rocked by an earthquake, and something like that always happens, then its not just a secretary out with the drunk boss,
We’ll never know how many have been killed there, they don’t pride themselves in disclosure like we do.
But I think they’ve figured out not to build on a fault line. I suspect they’ve had enough of nukes
“But I think they’ve figured out not to build on a fault line.”
I don’t know if the plant is “on a fault line” or not, but earthquake damage had nothing to do with the problems there. What caused them was the tsunami, which knocked out power used to circulate coolant.
There were backup generators, but the real failure in planning was not storing them in watertight bunkers. If that simple precaution had been taken, there would have been no release of radioactive material.
Even then, backup generators were brought in before things went south - sadly the connectors on those generators weren’t the right type. The rest is history.
“I suspect they’ve had enough of nukes”
Perhaps. Japan is of course extra sensitive about nuclear, as the only country ever to get hit by nuclear weapons in anger.
Looking forward though, nuclear power is an extremely important strategic capability. Perhaps LENR will pan out, but if not it’s critical that the US lead on nuclear power. The Chinese are investing heavily.
BTW, thorium based nuclear power has many advantages over U/Pu generated power. There’s a great deal of research going into it at the present time.
One last fact for you - of the powers that possess nuclear weapons, the US is the only one that presently cannot produce new plutonium “pits” - the key component to making nuclear weapons.