Thom Hogan talks about the worldwide supply problems (and Sony mulls two-week summer break to save energy)
As you know Sony had to delay the recent NEX and SLT camera announcements. Some of my sources already saw the cameras and they still don’t know when Sony will release them (a possible date is May 26th). The reasons for the delay are well known. In his latest post Thom Hogan made a brief desription about what’s going on with the digital camera production problems in Japan. It perfectly fits with the info I received from my sources: “I see several different estimates from various sources within Japan, but in no case does the Northern Japan power grid (which includes Tokyo itself) look like it will be anywhere near handling the demand this summer. There could be 50% shortfalls some days, and the average shortfall in July and August could reach 30%. That means frequent and long power blackouts, which is bad news for the camera industry. Sensor fabs, for instance, of which several are in the area, need continuous power (on top of the temperature issues in many critical processes, you’ve got to maintain continuous air filtration to avoid contamination). High quality glass factories can’t be turned on and off easily with rolling blackouts. It appears that the deeper into the supply chain you go (e.g., back to chemicals and raw materials), the worse the problem gets: those plants can’t be toggled on and off at whim. Many need long warm-up periods or continuous power to operate.”
and…
“Between the March quake and early winter when things even up a bit in the power realm, I’m guessing that the output of the plants in the affected area could be less than 50% of normal. That could mean nearly nine months of significantly reduced production of everything from Nikon FX bodies, to Nikon/Canon/Panasonic lenses, to Sony CMOS sensors, to all those proprietary lithium batteries, and more.”
Sony is also considering having all its employees in Japan take two-week summer vacations to save energy (Source: Breitbart)
I guess the Tsunami-Fukushima disaster will affect the digital camera industry for the whole year and maybe more. Le’s hope Japanese engineers can fix the Fukushima plant as soon as possible…
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Comment from Sensel: Andrea: The Fukushima plant is almost en...
Comment from gigino: Sure that salt water is a terrible coola...
Comment from Carl: Salt water is a terrible choice of coola...- Comment from Carl: Fukushima no.1 is never going to reopen....
Dodgy
2 years ago |The reality is the damaged Fukushima Daiichi is contributing to only 10~20% of the entire shortage, rests are many quake-damaged non-nuke plants (output of Fukushima plant is only 200MW, but they claim 1200MW short). The electric company is purposely propagating this blackout information to allude how they are dependent on nuclear energy (make easier for them to get consensus on rebuilding nuke plant), so the real shortage might not cause a blackout but politically motivated one might.
gigino
2 years ago |Who ever is in charge of the company who owns the Fukushima plant, should be prosecuted for crime against humanity.
They way the handled the crisis for the first 48 hours, when instead of immediately pouring sea water on the 40 years old reactor , they waited and see if the could save it, was the main cause of the troubles they run in to afterward. After the first 2 days, what ever they did, was too little and too late.
The reactor number 3 was supposed to be retired last year, but the company was able to get 1 year extension and probably they were hoping to extend it even further, maybe bribing someone.
Many things were not right at that plant, which is probably why they refused help from abroad, wen the accident happened. They were afraid of being exposed.
Just think of the livelihood of all those fishermen and farmers. They have lost everything for ever.
Carl
2 years ago |Salt water is a terrible choice of coolant. Combined with the intense heat and pressure in a reactor, it can corrode the zircalloy cladding on the uranium, increasing production of radioactive nasties.
gigino
2 years ago |Sure that salt water is a terrible coolant, but it would have ben better than no water at all for 2 days, which was their choice.
Carl
2 years ago |Fukushima no.1 is never going to reopen. After they remove the cores it’ll be decommissioned.
But TEPCO’s problems are deeper than just issue’s with one power plant. In fact the whole Japanese model of having regional monopolies is inherently broken, as there’s already enough spare capacity in the western half of the country to cover the shortfall, but they just can’t get to it. Half of the country is run at 50Hz and the other at 60Hz, which is pretty much unheard of in the developed world, and the three frequency converter stations that connect the two grids have a combined capacity of a paltry 1GW.
Sensel
11 months ago |Andrea: The Fukushima plant is almost entirely lost! Out of all the reactors on that site, most had core meltdowns with at least one (for now) breaking through the containment vessel at least in part.
You need to read the NYTimes article on the Japanese nuke industry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/world/asia/25myth.html
We probably have the same problem in the U.S. but, as always, a big accident has to happen before we recognize it and deal with it. I can only hope and then complain to my elected representatives about ensuring nuclear safety at aging plants and my strong desire to see the old plants shut and use of more renewables in our electrical grid.
I am pro new nuclear but the kind that does not use dangerous uranium and pellets in rods. The new nukes, I think only one under construction in the U.S., can be shut of instantly and safely. The radioactive material in new nukes is easier to handle and less dangerous as waste.