The nuclear crisis report New York Times  and  The Guardian stem from failures of cooling systems at the reactors of 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi plant. Adjacent nuclear plant, Daini, saw three more reactors loose their cooling systems, and work underway tryies to determine whether systems could be revived or need injections of cooling seawater.

Critics of nuclear energy have long argued at the viability of nuclear power in earthquake-prone regions like Japan. Reactors are designed with these concerns in mind, but preliminary assessments suggests too little attention was paid to the tsunami threat. Reactors withstood the earthquake,  it was ocean waves damage to generators and backup systems, that impacted the ability to cool reactors.

Japan is a world top consumers of nuclear energy. Its 17 nuclear plants and 55 reactors provide some 30% of its electricity needs. To make plants earthquake proof, operators are required to build on bedrock to minimise shaking and also raise anti-tsunami seawalls for plants along the coast. But power companies have discretion in deciding whether a site is safe.

Nuclear advocates also have a reply case in  arguing that excavation of fossil fuels has its own catastrophic accidents with mining collapses and horrific oil spillages.


Electronics impact
Market research iSuppli  news flash is based on 2010 where Japan accounted for 13.9 % of all global electronic equipment factory revenues, including manufacturing of all electronic equipment, computers, consumer electronics devices and communications gear.

Japan produced $216.6bn worth of electronic equipment in 2010, compared to $1.6bn worldwide. It also accounted for 16.5% of global consumer electronics equipment factory revenue that year, representing 10.2% worldwide data processing revenue.

Japanese suppliers accounted for more than a fifth of global semiconductor production in 2010, companies headquartered in Japan generating $63.3bn in microchip revenue in 2010,  representing 20.8% of the worldwide market. Not all  production is located in Japan, but a large percentage is produced in Japan manufacturing facilities.

Supply chain impact
Major impact on Japan’s semiconductor production is not likely to be direct damage to production facilities, but disruption to the supply chain. Suppliers are likely to encounter difficulties in getting raw materials supplied and distributing and shipping products out.

DRAM manufacturing in Japan accounts for10% worldwide supply based on wafer production. The 2 major DRAM fabs in Japan, are operated by US based-Micron and Japan’s Elpida, and have not been directly affected. 

Toshiba Corp mainly accounts for 35 % of global NAND flash production in terms of revenue and Japan HQ companies in 2010 ranked 3rd in semiconductor production among the world's major chip regions set against Asia-Pacific region 1st place, the Americas 2nd slot and with Europe/Middle East/Africa at 4th slot.

In 2010 Japan accounted for 6.2% of the world’s $86.3bn in global production of large-sized LCD panels in 2010 (10-inches and larger in the diagonal dimension).  Japan also accounts for 14 % of LCD TV panel production and  home to many higher-generation fabs, including the world only 10th Generation LCD fab operated by Sharp Corp.

The Japanese display research team issued a preliminary view that the Sharp fab had not been directly impacted by the quake, given its remote location and that only one large LCD fab may be in the impact zone.

More significant may be the impact on Japan’s production of components for LCD panels, as it holds a very high share of the components market, including glass, colour filters, polarizers, cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).