This summer is going to be interesting... After last year's cluster-coitus, everybody was advised to cut power usage as much as possible because of the shortage of nuclear power. This year there seems to be no sense of urgency even though the problem is going to be worse, because all nuke plants have been shut down due to safety fears.

The slack will be partially/mostly made up by reactivated or expanded fossil fuel burning - another depressing development. Air quality and our wallets have been impacted. The price of electricity has gone up 10-15 percent this year and should continue to creep up.

Our

The little reactor that could in Hokkaido (northernmost major island of Japan) has finally been shutdown, leaving Japan without any nuclear power for the first time in 42 years. Fossil fuels are what's keeping us going now, largely. Where will Japan's future lead?

I had no idea it would come to this for y'all. Welcome to our world, and I pray you can afford it. I always envied Japan for it's self sufficient take on everything. Living on an island can't be easy. Add the huge population? So, yes, I've always admired Japan's ability to deal.

Sigh. We are what we are, no matter where we are, lan. For obvious reasons? May I refer you to a book that Cope directed me to a long time ago? "Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software" by Steven Johnson.

It gave me an odd peace of mind. We will all be OK. No matter what. We're fkn' hardwired. We can't help it.

AllMyLoveLea

I'm impressed the Japanese can all agree on something so important.
Over here we can't agree on ANYTHING! and NOTHING! gets done.

Congrats to the Japanese.

Lea, I have always respected Japan for it's striving for self-suffiency as well. That book sounds fascinating. Right now I am bound and determined to pass the highest level Japanese proficiency test so I am trying to read as much Japanese as possible, but I will keep it in the loop.

Yes Nuke, you do have something there. I really doubt they are all out forever, but at least we all agree on something and are taking it slow.

My interest in past disasters in Japan had me looking at the 3.11 earthquake again. Magic wiki ball says:

"The World Bank's estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster in world history."

Japan, being a small, but proud country loves to point out things it is number 1 in, I am sure we'd all like to take a pass on this particular number 1.

So TOKYO DENRYOKU, better known as TEPCO now worldwide, put out it's last report, which when to great lengths to exonerate itself from blame for the accident. Critics decry this stance, asking how such a response is going to help prevent further accidents. I concur.

Excusorama

So TEPCO's excuse laden report was followed up by an extensive report by an independent committee (itself almost an unknown concept in Japan.

The report is scathing, clearly elucidating the man-made elements of the crisis. It's most scathing crticism is as follows: “What must be admitted, very painfully, is that this was a disaster ‘Made in Japan,’ ” Mr. Kurokawa said. “Its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to ‘sticking with the program;’ our groupism; and our insularity.”

Anyone who has spent some amount of time has come across these "cultural conventions". I remember myself commenting to friends years back how this kind of thinking in a nuclear crisis was a recipe for disaster.

I add to those conventions: a reluctance to take action, or alter a plan in the absence of instructions from authority - which also greatly exacerbated the crisis.

Having said that, the director of operations at F. Daiichi, in the midst of the crisis was ordered by the misinformed government and TEPCO to cease using seawater for cooling because of fear of another criticality. He knew this to be poppycock and that above all the reactors must be cooled, so he said "understood" and then kept his workers cooling them anyway. In the weeks following he was given a simultaneous reprimand and accolade by the gov't and TEPCO.

He was later diagnosed with, I believe, stomach cancer, which was determined to be unrelated to the radiation.