Stop the nuclear insanity.

why did they build this there in the first place? The Japanese standards must be no better than American.

that would be the question...

At least Japan is starting to do something bout the most glaring offenses.

That is, more than 45 years ago when much, much less was known about geological faults in the area. Although the city of Fukui up the Sea of Japan coast from Tsuruga had had a major earthquake in 1948, it was thought at the time that Tsuruga was in a more stable geological area and that the seismic design of the unit could withstand a similar earthquake. Also, the Tsuruga unit is in a relatively sparsely populated area, and Fukui Prefecture (where Tsuruga is located) welcomed the reactor at the time because it would bring lots of jobs and money to what had been a fairly poor area of the country.

probably time to mothball it anyway...

Such naivete about earthquakes. If Japan and the world don't learn from Fukushima, then just too stoopid.

That 1948 earthquake was a really bad one. But apparently it was not so bad in Tsuruga, which perhaps gave people there a false sense of security.

There is yet another nuclear reactor at Mihama just down the coast a little bit from Tsuruga, that was completed in 1967 and went into operation in 1970. I imagine that one will be mothballed as well.

Those 3 are that nuclear energy is currently dangerous, dirty and expensive especially when you factor in long term storage for spent fuel.