Being here in Japan for an extended period of time and visiting a number of nuclear sites has been a very unsettling experience, literally unsettling as I have had to get used to the aftershocks of local earthquakes – the one just before I arrived was enough to raise the alarm about nearby Tomari nuclear power plant which had to have emergency generators brought in for cooling after a power failure, and it wasn’t even running. That is one of the striking stories, the cost of keeping unused plant in working order but not running; that and the unbuild plant in Ohma which has been under construction since the 70’s. Leaving aside the economics it really doesn’t seem sustainable to keep on plugging away at making this industry fly. Here at Ohma we met an activist who keep an off grid home in the shadow of the construction site and has held out from selling the land for 40 years. A plucky story of resistance which ended up being one of my artworks for the show – blog on that to come later.
http://www.cnic.jp/english/?p=4135
A good article on the problem with all the Plutonium in Japan. But don’t worry, the extreme right wing government has plans to change the constitution to allow Japan to militarise and they fancy making use of it somehow. Rokkasho reprocessing plant is still not operating although they put on a good show in the visitor centre!
Fukushima is a world stage disaster and yet it doesn’t get talked about enough apparently, despite the government’s plans to release vast quantities of Tritium polluted water stored on site into the Pacific Ocean – trying to get it out of the way well in advance of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. All seems very unsettling indeed and makes me want to get back to my own little safe corner of Wales – Oh, but wait a minute Hitachi are there, building their ABWR there instead of building it in Japan.
Power In the Land : Pŵer yn y tir 
Great to see this Helen, look forward to seeing images of the show.