Nepal disaster should make Tokyo relook reactor plans

ONE of the most shocking things about the massive earthquake in Nepal (apart obviously from the deaths of thousands) is the fact that it was able to trigger an avalanche on the mighty Mount Everest. If an earthquake can "move mountains" of that size, what can it not do?

What indeed? The question adds piquancy (to put it mildly) to charges by experts in Japan that the country's Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) has "ignored seismology" in giving the regulatory green light to the restart of nuclear reactors in the earthquake-plagued country.

A Japanese court has meanwhile rejected a legal bid to block the reopening of the Sendai nuclear power plant on safety grounds. This has removed one of the last big hurdles to switching reactors back on after the 2011 Fukushima crisis paralysed the industry.