Saturday, March 26, 2011

GE's responsibility must be severely questioned

Hi my American friends. You might be interested in the following three sites. Thanks and regards, Kosuke

No.1
Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest
Damaged Japanese Nuclear Plant Has Five Mark 1 Reactors
No.2
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/15/this_could_become_chernobyl_on_steroids
No.3
General Electric Mark I Reactors in the United States
http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/accidents/gemk1reactorsinus.pdf

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: How similar is the plant in Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi plant, to many of the nuclear power plants in this country?
ARNIE GUNDERSEN: It’s almost identical to 23 of them. For instance, the Quad Cities and the Dresden plant in Illinois, the Vermont Yankee plant here in Vermont, Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Pilgrim in Massachusetts—it’s almost identical to those and more than a dozen others.

You know, this reactor design, this containment design, has been questioned since 1972. The NRC in 1972 said we never should have licensed this containment. And in 1985, the NRC said they thought it was about a 90 percent chance that in a severe accident this containment would fail. So, that we’re seeing it at Fukushima is an indication that this is a weak link. It’s this Mark I, General Electric Mark I, containment. And we have—essentially one-quarter of all of the nuclear reactors in the United States, 23 out of 104, are of this identical design.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

universal brotherhood


Although I have thought Japan should reduce its security dependence on the US military gradually and embark on its own defense policy as a normal country, this time we Japanese really appreciate American military support for earthquake and tsunami victims.

Under the Koizumi cabinet, we Japanese strongly supported the US in the wake of 9/11. Americans must remember that. This time, the US is strongly suppporting us. Thanks a lot.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Let's hang on, Japan! Let's hang on Tohoku!


I am not a computer geek at all. But afer spending one hour, I managed to make this graphics.

This says, "がんばろう、日本!がんばろう、東北!
(Ganbarou, Nippon! Ganbarou, Tohoku!)"

In English, this means "Let's hang on, Japan! Let's hang on, Tohoku!"

Please spread out this graphics to your friends.

Thanks and regards,

Kosuke