Court Orders Japanese Nuclear Reactor Shut Down

[struggle4progress]

March 24, 2006 8:04 p.m. EST
Julie Farby

Tokyo, Japan (AHN)—In response to a lawsuit by residents who feared it could leak dangerous radiation during a powerful earthquake, the Kanazawa District Court in northwestern Japan ordered the shutdown of the country’s second-largest nuclear reactor.

Judge Kenichi Ido ruled that the reactor, operated by Hokuriku Electric Power Co., could expose residents to radioactivity should a powerful earthquake occur.

Kyodo News Agency reports the 135 plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in May 2005 claiming they would be in constant danger because the reactor is near a fault line that a government committee says a quake with a magnitude of 7.6 could strike ...

According to the Associated Press, in 2004, five workers were killed when a corroded pipe at a reactor in western Japan ruptured and sprayed them with boiling water and steam in the country's worst nuclear plant accident ...

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7002915996

[Massacure]

1. I love how this mentions how hot steam sprayed five workers

Considering that is not something unique to nuclear plants.

[struggle4progress]

2. Perhaps the dead workers' families would enjoy hearing your comment.

[skids]

3. No, gross incompetence isn't unique to nuclear...

...but the potential for dire conseqences of that incompetence...