In Japan, in proportion to the recent rise of the energy cost, the electricity charges are increased by 30 or 40% for the past several months. Some people insist the nuclear power plants should be re-run in order to have the power rate reduced. It seems, however, a plot by the power companies that would not lose the chance to get profit to run the nuclear power plants. Without running them, they are losing so much as billions of Yen in a year to maintain the resting nuclear power plants.
Compared with the renewable energy, the cost of nuclear power generation has turned out to be much more than expected. In addition, there are too many issues regarding nuclear power plant's operation. Risk for another serious accident, no policy/idea to deal with Plutonium produced and with the used nuclear fuel/
contaminated water and the unforeseeable future of the crippled nuclear power plants in Fukushima and so forth.
As a matter of fact, there are two serious problems in front of us regarding the sequel of the accident in Fukushima.
The first is the fragility of the pressure vessel supporting structure. There have been a series of pretty big aftershocks around Fukushima. So far, they have not further devastated the plant yet. There could be the other structures vulnerable to further quake. If those structures fail to stand, it will result in further contamination of radiation all around. It would be quite tough for them to manage the situation.
The other issue is the childhood thyroid cancer in Fukushima. It's been argued as a consequence of mass screening with sensitive ultrasonogram. But during 3 years between two mass screenings in Fukushima, there have been 68 new cases found in 2016, which should be regarded most probably as a sequel of the nuclear accident. A recent research published in Nature has disclosed close relationship between the air radiation dose and the occurrence of childhood thyroid cancer as well as the protective effect of evacuation.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32139763/
It takes more than, at least, 20trillion JPY to recover the crippled nuclear power plants in Fukushima. Even if it should be achieved, more than 1000 victims of nuclear power plant accident related deaths and tens of thousand of people eternally losing their home land could not be recovered. Re-run of nuclear power plants in the country of earth quake is an insane decision.
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