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Japan Restarts Two Nuclear Reactors
Published on Jun 8, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced that he had approved the restarting of two nuclear reactors to avoid an imminent energy crisis. All fifty of the country's reactors were shut down following the meltdown at Fukushima. Before that, atomic energy produced nearly thirty percent of Japan's electricity.
Despite recent surveys showing most people in Japan want to abandon atomic energy, the prime minister said he had no choice -- parts of the country are facing a severe power shortage. After the prime minister's announcement, thousands of angry protesters gathered outside Noda's official residence to show their discontent.
Ministers say the alternative to nuclear energy, fossil fuels, would drive up electricity bills, harm small businesses and still leave a severe power deficit. Noda is hoping that the promise of tougher safety measures will help avoid another Fukushima -- but many do not agree with his decision.
Al Jazeera's Dominic Kane reports.
- There have been a number of arguments that I've seen across the Internets, supporting the restart these nuclear plants because it is claimed that there is no ''reasonable alternative.'' I call BS on that. REASONABLE ALTERNATIVE: Geothermal
Japan sits upon a vast resource of energy resultant from the volcanic/tectonic pressures there. The reason why geothermal isn't considered there nor globally (the US has the world's largest supply of geothermal energy), is because like solar energy, there's no way to charge anyone for the resource. They can only charge for the costs of the readily available technology and equipment that is needed for the energy production itself. So since the geothermal resource is FREE, this Capitalist Cancer we call the global economy isn't interested in anything that they can't claim is scarce in order to be able to screw people out of their money with.
The reality is, we could provide for the entire world's power needs via geothermal sources. But we will never do this as long as The Corrupted are allowed to continue to run things. The Capitalist business model requires an artificial scarcity design be imposed in order for it to function at all. But the earth is abundant with more resources than even the 7 billion people living upon it requires. And with advances in technology, we have almost made the idea of scarcity obsolete. However, THE BIG LIE is continued in order to enrich a few.
- The Geothermal Resource
The United States has more geothermal capacity than any other country, with more than 3,000 megawatts in eight states. Eighty percent of this capacity is in California, where more than 40 geothermal plants provide nearly 5 percent of the state’s electricity. In thousands of homes and buildings across the United States, geothermal heat pumps also use the steady temperatures just underground to heat and cool buildings, cleanly and inexpensively.
Below the Earth's crust, there is a layer of hot and molten rock called magma. Heat is continually produced there, mostly from the decay of naturally radioactive materials such as uranium and potassium. The amount of heat within 10,000 meters (about 33,000 feet) of Earth's surface contains 50,000 times more energy than all the oil and natural gas resources in the world.
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