Has Japan learned anything from Fukushima disaster?

So far it hardly looks like that at all.  The government is planning to restart more nuclear power plants and start of finishing building new ones.  Zero nuclear in 2040 policy was abandoned just 9 days after its announcement to the rest of the world.  Japanese government already restarted two of Ohi reactors without applying appropriate safe measures: there is no vent with radioactive filter attached, and there is no earthquake-proof building which could serve as a command centre in an emergency although several earthquake specialists have suggested that the area might be an active fault zone.   Kepco who owns Ohi reactors says they will build these within four years and raise the breakwater within two years.  Furthermore, no appropriate disaster-prevention measures have been applied to the area within a 30 – km radius of the plant.

The Prime Minister Noda appointed new nuclear power regulation authority members without gaining the parliament’s approval. All the staff working for the NRA is from old system of nuclear power group.
There is still luck of transparency – The New nuclear regulation agency banned Akahata newspaper reporters and some freelance journalists to attend their press conference recently.  Akahata newspapers is one of a few newspapers that report the truth about Fukushima.  Also one of very popular radio show called “Tanamaki Journal” was made to stop broadcasting from 1^st Of October, 2012.  Since Fukushima disaster happened, nuclear engineer Prof. Koide* appeared on the show almost every day to warn the citizens to get out of Fukushima while the government kep saying it’s safe, to inform what was going on in the Fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant and to answer questions from the listeners.  So many people including me have been benefiting from his knowledge.  I wouldn’t be writing this blog unless I learned so much from him through the show.

*Mr. Koide works at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute as an assistant professor and has been campaigning against nuclear for over 40 years in Japan.  He published several books to reveal a myth of nuclear power energy, and toured around Japan to give lectures (which are highly popular) to inform citizens the truth about Fukushima disaster and the danger the radiation.
Reference:  The Truth About Nuclear Power http://www.japanfocus.org/-Koide-Hiroaki/3582