Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Indirect effects

The Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant was closed in 2007 because of earthquake damage, leaving Tokyo struggling to generate all the electricity it needs

Salmon stocks in the Shinano gawa (in the north of the island) dwindled. Investigations revealed that East Japan Railway (JR East) had been fiddling the meters

JR(East) had a permit to extract up to 317 tonnes of water per second from the Miyanaka dam for its hydro electric plant

The gauges were set never to read more than 317. The salmon were left with not enough water to swim in

The Japanese government have revoked JR’s permit

If an alternative source of 450 MW cannot be found, Japan’s legendary trains will no longer run on time