This has to be the work of the nuclear industry lobby because there are way too many unanswered questions about the safety of nuclear facilities in Japan.  As anyone who follows us knows, we are relatively unbiased on the nuclear issue, rather leaving the decision up to the Japanese people with the understanding that they accept the responsibility of their decision which could mean a change in lifestyle that a non-nuclear powered Japan would mean (and solar is neither the short-term nor long-term answer) to the destruction of the landscape that an accident like Fukushima can cause.

That said, the government has been less than honest about this accident and the safety of nuclear facilities all over Japan.  The prudent thing for local authorities to do (they have the ultimate authority to restart the facilities, a situation which the national government certainly rues) is to force the Tokyo government to reveal all records and data about Fukushima and the plants in their particular region before allowing the reactors to restart.

Economy, Industry and Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said Saturday that local authorities should allow the restart of nuclear power plants that are currently out of service.

He said that the ministry had finished rigorous checkups to make sure the plants have taken the proper measures to deal with major accidents.

Of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors, 35, including six at Fukushima Daiichi and several others that stopped due to the quake, are out of operation.

Kaieda said that the rest of the nuclear plants in Japan are safe and their reactors should resume operations as soon as their ongoing regular checks are completed. He said nationwide inspections this week have found that nuclear power plants are now prepared for accidents as severe as the one that crippled Fukushima Daiichi.

Of particular concern is the suggestion that all facilities have now been made safe from a Fukushima type earthquake and tsunami….in a mere 3 months.  If such measures were this simple, why was TEPCO allowed by the nuclear regulators to ignore pleas from scientists, who study such things, to retrofit Fukushima prior to the event?  Worse, these regulators, despite government plans to create an independent body of regulators (nothing is truly independent from the government), are still in charge and are the ones who certify the safety of all reactors.

Based on the lack of credibility that the government has earned for itself in the aftermath of March 11, their assurances of reactor safety is not very comforting.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency instructed Japanese nuclear operators to improve their preparedness for severe accidents earlier this month and conducted nationwide on-site inspections this week.

The inspections focused on measures to reduce the risk of hydrogen explosions inside containment buildings as one of the lessons learned from the Fukushima crisis, the world’s worst atomic accident since Chernobyl.

Nuclear plant operators have already taken other steps to improve accident management since the disaster to maintain core cooling capacity during blackouts.

Other safety measures including securing back-up power sources to cool down reactors in case the external grid malfunctions.

The Fukushima crisis shattered Japan’s confidence in the safety of nuclear energy and prompted anti-nuclear sentiment. But there are also concerns that Japan will face a serious summertime power crunch unless more of its reactors get back on line.

Kaieda said he will visit the various prefectures that have nuclear plants to explain to local communities that safety measures have been confirmed and that the plants play an important role in the communities’ economies.

It is sad to think that these small measures, which have so quickly been implemented in nuclear plants all over the nation, are all that were needed to prevent the current hellish crisis in Fukushima.  And like all things government, after failing the people in the first place, it now wants people to trust them fully even as the head of the nuclear safety agency admits that no one has yet looked at the regulations to see if they are effective.

Where are the hourly radiation data?  Where are the internal discussions on the safety of school children in Fukushima?  What are the projected increases in health problems for everyone remaining in the Fukushima area?  Are evacuations determined on the basis economic or health considerations?

Perhaps Kaieda will personally guarantee the safety of these plants and the people who live around them when he goes to surely “win their understanding” about restarting the reactors.

In other news, the government plans to check the health of 2 million residents in Fukushima prefecture.

The Fukushima prefectural government said Saturday that it will conduct health checks on 2 million residents to ease their concerns over the effects of radiation exposure.

Checkups will start at the end of June with an examination of 28,000 people in three municipalities nearest the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant—Iitake village, Kawamata and Namie.

Local residents have been complaining about the lack of information being given out by authorities on the harmful effects of radioactive substances.

About 90,000 residents of the prefecture have been displaced since the March 11 crisis.

Of course, it is doubtful that any radiation illness will be found as most people in the area have not been exposed to acute radiation in high levels.  The concern is for long-term chronic low-level radiation exposure, the effects of which may not be known for years.  The government is well aware of this and will use these checks to say, “See…there is no problem”.