By now we're all aware of the seismic event that took place 130km off the coast of Honshu, Japan, on Friday 11th March. The magnitude 8.9 (that's a big one) event occurred at a depth of roughly 24km in the subduction zone interface of the Pacific and North American plates.
Japan operates a number of nuclear power stations that have been affected by the resulting Tsunami, and although they have been shut down, at least two of them are reported to be having cooling issues. This makes me nervous, because if a nuclear "incident" of any kind results from this, it is likely that it will have a disastrous effect on the industry as a whole. Thousands of people can be killed in the coal industry every year, and nobody thinks twice about it, but if one person gets a radiation burn, the entire planet goes into a flap and nuclear power generation is set back another 30 years. It's absurd, but that's the way it is, and if the uranium price takes a dive, then I will not need the much awaited visa. I will be out of a job, and significantly out of pocket too, as all shares and share options will become worthless overnight.
It is fortunate that unlike the Ukrainians, the Japs are both technologically advanced, and non-secretive. If anyone has the ability to maintain the integrity of these systems, it is they who can be relied on. So I'm holding both thumbs.
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