In Japan they are called them atomic power stations, not thermal power stations. And this has got nothing to do with the war. The plants are called 原発, short for 原子力発電所, and atomic explosions are called 原子爆弾. 原子 just means ‘atom’.
Nuclear weapons are 核兵器, with the 核 for nucleus in there, and it’s also in 核家族, nuclear family. So there’s no stigma attached to the word.
「福島の3号機はプルサーマル」 http://on.wsj.com/dPEJWY
This “Japanese-English” word “プルサーマル” means “plutonium thermal use.”( プルサーマル - Wikipedia ) I suppose that the word “thermal” in this context signifies “thermal-neutron reactor.”( Thermal-neutron reactor - Wikipedia )
"Nuclear experts are particularly worried about the No. 3 unit, . . . , because it uses an unconventional fuel called MOX fuel, short for mixed oxide. It is made by mixing low-enriched uranium with plutonium that has been recycled from a global stockpile of defunct nuclear weapons. " Japan Struggles to Control Reactors - WSJ
“Thermal neutron reactor” translates as “熱中性子（型原子）炉” in Japanse.
主要国の電源別発電電力量の構成比（電気事業連合会） http://bit.ly/froMXk
The purple parts refer to electricity from nuclear power(原子力).
danya
“In Japan the nuclear plants are called thermal plants”
I believe in Japan a thermal power is a 火力発電。and nuclear power is 原子力発電. I have never heard the two confused. Where did you get the idea that thermal power means nuclear power in Japan?
原子力発電の割合(the percentage of electricity from nuclear power)
日本(Japan) ２４％
フランス(France) ７７％
韓国(R.O.K.) ３４％
アメリカ(the U. S.) １９％
I cannot read the kanji above but I live in Japan and on maps, on signs and in negotiations when speaking English the term thermal plant is used.
We do the same thing in upstate NY. The neighborhoods surrounding the prototype reactor plants do not even know what is there. I believe we had a sign that read something like ‘Knolls Atomic Facility.’
I have never visited a Japanese nuclear power station but I have never heard of a nuclear power station in Japan not referred to as a nuclear power station. I cannot imagine that Japanese people do not know what a nuclear power station is especially those who live near by. Am I missing something?
Perhaps it is me; I am missing something, and I believe most Japanese people do know what a power station is (especially now) but the above is my experience. And I regret that I poorly know Japanese. The kanji discouraged me from the start.
I have never heard anybody in Japan speaking euphemistically about nuclear power. A thermal power station is, as Steve says, a non-nuclear power station (coal, gas, etc). Are you sure they’re nuclear? Whereabouts do you live?
The news has only called them ‘atomic power stations’, and used ‘thermal power’ when contrasting with fossil fuel driven plants.
This video taken by a couple of Japanese journalists might be of interest. They drive / walk to within 1km of the Fukushima site and measure radiation levels as they go. Subtitles in italian.
