Safe Tokyo Olympics questioned by new reports

Last active reactor at Ohi plant will shut down September 15th for maintenance. Japan is to be without nuclear power for the 1st time since May 2012. Safety inspections will require six months work minimum. Meanwhile a senior official of Tokyo admitted during a meeting with opposition lawmakers on Friday 13 September that the massive radioactive water buildup at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is "not under control." That view directly contradicts Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's statement last week to the International Olympic Committee in pushing Tokyo's bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Also at a meeting Friday, a government panel decided on a scheme to more actively solicit technical proposals in and outside the country to address the difficulties of handling the toxic water as I reported weeks ago already, Japan is unable to face the crisis alone. Also Twitter and Japanese blogs have been filled with indignant posts over the past few days about the way Japan’s Olympic committee president Tsunekazu Takeda reassured international media on Sept. 4 that Tokyo was safe from the radioactive-water problems at the Fukushima NPP. Because it is expected that required safety inspections will take six months, it appears that Japan will likely be without nuclear power for the remainder of 2013.

With its nuclear plants idle, Japan will be forced to continue relying on expensive energy imports, which, combined with rising electricity prices in Japan, could threaten Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plans for an economic revival. A government source said that Abe plans to visit the Fukushima complex on Thursday September 19th.

Ref: http://tinyurl.com/Fukushima-unsafe-says-Tepco