Forgotten calamity

The commemoration of the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a specail poignancy this year. For the second time the Japanese have been hit by nuclear disasters. The lesson of Fukushima has been a profound one. I vividly recall the celebrations when as a ten year old child I heared that we had drop a 'Tommy" bomb on the hated Japanese. The cost in mass slaughter did not worry us because we had been conditioned to hate the Japanese. Fukushima has dropped out of the headlines in the UK for understandable reasons. It will return.
 

On August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m., Nagasaki was destroyed by an atomic bomb.

Tomihisa Taue  Mayor of Nagasaki  August 9, 2011

 

The unimaginable cost of Fukushima is slowly emerging.

Crisis-hit Tokyo Electric posts $7.4 bln quarterly loss

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/08/09/tepco-idUKL3E7J82TD20110809?feedType=RSS&feedName=tnBasicIndustries-SP

By Taiga Uranaka 
TOKYO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co , the operator of Japan's stricken nuclear plant, reported a $7.4 billion quarterly loss, nearly as big as its market value, due to a massive provision to compensate victims of the nuclear disaster, soaring fuel costs and a dive in sales. 
The March meltdown at the Fukushima complex in northeast Japan spawned the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl and put the very existence of Asia's largest utility, commonly known as Tepco, in doubt. 

 
The company, which aims to start paying compensation in October, said on Tuesday it still doesn't know how much the total compensation will be in the end, as the crippled nuclear reactors continue to spew radioactive material. 

 
Tepco's chances of survival improved after parliament last week passed a bailout backed by taxpayer funds and contributions from other utilities to help shoulder a compensation bill that analysts estimate could climb as high as $130 billion.