Sony's made from Sunshine?

[allhatnocattle]

So there is the earthquake in Japan. Japan is huge importer of oil. Huge importer of everything in fact. And the nuclear thing seemed not so so bad, but since yesterday it's been looking pretty bad. This much you know already

Comments

[pastorlenny]

Certain TP posts can have very far-reaching impact.

[fizzyland]

Indeed they do. Can you imagine if every consumer product price jumped around as much as oil?

[allhatnocattle]

Yeah, but that's obvious. Anytime the supply is threatened the price goes up. Invasion of Kuwait. Invasion of Iraq. The Opec crisis of the 70's. etc.

And when demand goes up, slow and sure with emerging economies, the prices rise slow and sure.

But demand went up fast in last few days. There are several reacters off line right now. 4 just in one plant. Price of should have followed suit.

I don't think they'll just mothball every reactor, that's just silly.

[squidb0i]

Hefty reviews of existing and probably a moratorium on new, but not a total abandoning of nuclear.

Re: I don't think they'll just mothball every reactor, that's just silly.

[allhatnocattle]

I never said they would. But it's possible, especially considering their bad experiences with nuclear. Regardless, their nuclear won't be on line for years and years to come. Probably decades.

Re: I don't think they'll just mothball every reactor, that's just silly.

[squidb0i]

They have a total of 53 reactors, minus the six currently clusterfucked.

Re: I don't think they'll just mothball every reactor, that's just silly.

[allhatnocattle]

Never said all 53 would go offline. But six are off line now. 2 that will never go back to work. 4 that will likely never go back to work. So there are six which provide energy that will need to be replaced sooner then later. Yes, that energy will have to be replaced somehow.

One clusterfuck in Japan has atomic energy commisions all over the world closely reviewing their own systems and practices. I can't imagine Japan not reviewing theirs. If the Japanese plants are as bad as some are reporting, then a few more will go off line soon.

[mrsilence]

Drop in actual demand.

They're not going to be able to switch or build new oil-powered power plants overnight, so I wouldn't expect oil prices to change on that basis.

[nevermind6794]

Correct.

Also, prices were probably artificially high. And who knows, maybe Japan will end up investing in technologies that get them off oil.

[mrsilence]

Dare I suggest tidal power?

I genuinely cannot think of any other viable alternatives for Japan.

[nevermind6794]

That's probably true. I don't know off the top of my head, but I'm thinking that there might be wind coming off the mountains and a geothermal seam somewhere that they can use.

I read that they were going to try space-based solar power a while ago; not sure what happened with that.

[gunslnger]

So riddle me this. Why did oil fall today? Makes absolutely no sense.

Because the price is not dependent on just Japan. There's other things going on in the world too. For example, it looks like Gaddhafiblahblah might win his civil war and restore "stability" there, that affects the price. And the price was already inflated so it's reasonable for it to come back down a bit.

[allhatnocattle]

When Qaddaffi went bonkers on the protesters, 2% of the world's supply was at stake and oil flew. We saw time and time again that instability in the middle east raises the price of oil.

[gunslnger]

Yep.

[kylinrouge]

Just not for supply reasons.

[tcpip]

Actually... no. Japan is not going to switch from nuclear.