Japan closing 5 reactors but U.S. still running its Fukushimas

The Japanese nuclear industry has announced it will permanently close five more of its remaining 48 "operable" nuclear reactors by March 2015, leaving the country with 43 reactors "operable" but still not actually "operating." Two of the plants to be decommissioned are the same GE Mark I boiling water reactors identical to Fukushima. Despite the political landscape in Japan still promoting nuclear power, the anti-nuclear movement there continues to campaign to keep all of Japan's reactors closed indefinitely.

Public, political and economic pressure in the U.S. contributed to the recent permanent shutdown of Vermont Yankee, a Mark I, but the U.S. continues to operate 22 more of these Fukushima-style reactors (and eight similar Mark IIs.) Beyond Nuclear campaigns for the prompt and permanent closure of all the world's "Fukushimas." More