(This post is by Christine McCann)

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

State of Nuclear Politics in Japan

A 15-page document obtained by the Associated Press shows that although officials submitted a report to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan, detailing possible outcomes of the nuclear disaster, including reactor meltdowns, explosions, and cooling system failures, the Japanese government kept the information hidden. The report assumed the real possibility of evacuating greater Tokyo, with a population of over 35 million people, but Kan and other government officials publicly said that those evacuations would not be necessary. Japan is still refusing to officially release the report. Earlier this year, officials admitted that they had failed to release System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI) data that would have allowed residents to avoid fleeing to more radioactive areas.
 
Japan’s Cabinet is expected to approve a new bill limiting the life of nuclear reactors to 40 years, but which would allow for a 20-year extension in “exceptional” cases. The original bill said that requests for extensions “must be endorsed,” provided that the operator fulfilled certain safety standards, which have not yet been defined by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA). However, that wording elicited considerable concern from lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), who said it was a virtual guarantee that reactors could stay online for 60 years. The new language says that extensions “may be endorsed.”
 
Nuclear Crisis Minister Goshi Hosono said that the new nuclear oversight agency, expected to be created in April under the authority of the Environment Ministry, will be called the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA).
 
A government panel investigating the Fukushima nuclear disaster announced that it will issue its final report by the end of July. The panel’s interim report, published on December 26, was highly critical of both Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) and the government in their response to the crisis. Yotaro Hatamura, who is chairing the panel, said the group will continue to explore how the government made decisions, the ways in which the public was kept informed, and the extent of damage. The panel has invited a team of foreign experts to advise them in February.

Yukio Edano, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), has apologized on behalf of government officials who took no meeting minutes during the Fukushima nuclear crisis, in spite of the fact that Japanese law compels them to do so. Edano was Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time. He said he has asked officials from NISA to try to compile minutes from notes taken by various attendees.

TEPCO has shut down reactor 5 at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture for routine maintenance, leaving just one reactor (6) providing service to the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, and just three active reactors in Japan as a whole. That reactor will go offline in March. The utility has submitted stress test results for reactors 1 and 7 to NISA, but has not yet published results for reactors 2 through 6.

Also this week, Chugoku Electric disabled reactor 2 at its Shimane plant for scheduled maintenance. Ninety-four percent of Japan’s reactors are now offline.
 
Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, encouraging the use of renewable energy. In an interview prior to the meeting, Kan said, “I would like to tell the world that we should aim for a society that can function without nuclear power.”   
 
The international non-profit organization Reporters Without Borders has released its annual Press Freedom Index, which analyzes freedom of press in nations around the world. Japan’s ranking dropped 11 places from last year’s Index, from 11 to 22.  The organization explained its decision in a press release: “Japan coverage of the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident gave rise to excessive restrictions and exposed the limits of the pluralism of the country’s press.”

Records collected by the Mainichi Daily News show that in spite of a 1974 pledge by power companies to avoid making political donations, executives (including many from TEPCO) have made huge contributions to both political parties, purchased tickets to fundraising events, and made individual contributions to candidates.
 
An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team is conducting an inspection at Kansai Electric’s Ohi nuclear plant, after NISA approved the stress tests that the utility conducted on two reactors there. The IAEA team will submit a report by the end of this month.
 
NISA will instruct operators of nuclear reactors to prepare for earthquakes that strike 5 km or more from their plants, and advise them to equip plants to withstand a quake greater than the largest ever experienced in that area. The agency based the decision on new seismic data.
 
The Mayor of Hakodate, Toshiki Kudo, is demanding that METI shut down construction on the Oma nuclear plant in Aomori Prefecture in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Kudo said, “Building a new nuclear plant is unacceptable.”

Japan and the Ukraine are negotiating a formal bilateral agreement that will guarantee cooperation in nuclear accidents. Japan hopes to learn from the Chernobyl event, which occurred in the Ukraine in 1986.
 
TEPCO

TEPCO is negotiating with the government’s Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund to accept a 1 trillion yen injection of capital, in order to keep the company solvent. However, TEPCO officials will reportedly only accept the funding if they are allowed to maintain management independence, with no voting rights for the government even if it purchases a majority of shares. The Liability Fund has said it will not provide funding unless TEPCO is effectively nationalized, allowing the government to make major management changes.
 
Officials at TEPCO say that they will once again make no new hires through the next year, in an effort to cut costs to pay compensation to the victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The utility said that the hiring freeze might be extended to spring of 2014 if necessary.

TEPCO estimates that decommissioning the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will cost 1 trillion yen in the first decade alone. That number will rise considerably, as the decommissioning process is expected to last 40 years.

Contamination (Includes Economic Impact and Human Exposure)

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare is still trying to determine the location of almost 3,000 cesium contaminated cows, but admit that consumers have probably eaten some of the radioactive beef. In July, inspectors identified 4,626 cows that had been fed contaminated rice straw. Of those, 1,630 have been tested; 6.4% were found to have cesium levels higher than those permitted by law. However, six months later, officials have been unable to track the remaining 2,996 cows.
 
Fukushima Prefecture revealed that radioactive gravel was probably used to construct three temporary housing complexes. Earlier this month, officials discovered that contaminated gravel from a quarry in Namie had been shipped to over 200 construction companies; they are now trying to track its whereabouts.
 
Rice farmers belonging to the Japan Agricultural Cooperative said they will restrict rice planting in areas where measurements of radioactive cesium were high last spring. The group is trying to regain consumer confidence.

Decontamination

Critics are charging that the winning bid by Maeda Corp. to decontaminate the area around Nahara, which falls within the no-entry zone in Fukushima Prefecture, is “outrageously low.” Officials from the Environment Ministry said that the bid fell below their own undisclosed cost estimate. Maeda won the contract for 16.5 million yen. Tadasha Watanabe, Vice Chair of Nahara’s Reconstruction Council, who also owns a construction company, estimated the actual cost of decontamination at more than 100 million yen. Maeda insists that the low cost will not affect work quality.

The Mayor of Kawauchi Village, which straddles the no-entry zone within 20 km of the Fukushima Daiichi plant and the zone just outside of that area, is urging all residents to return to the village by March. The municipal government will decontaminate areas, including schools and homes, and provide temporary housing for those whose homes are in the no-entry zone, which remains uninhabitable. Residents have expressed concern about the viability of the plan and say they are worried about safety. One resident mused, “I don’t believe that the plant has been brought under control. What will happen if another powerful earthquake strikes? This is impossible.”

The Environment Ministry said it will complete decontamination in areas with less than 50 millisieverts per year of radiation by 2014, in an effort to repopulate the area. Ministry officials plan to concentrate decontamination efforts on schools, parks, hospitals, and fire departments.
 
Compensation

Residents from 26 municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture that are not eligible for compensation from TEPCO are continuing to demand recompense for emotional suffering caused by the nuclear crisis. Over 70 municipal officials met with TEPCO President Toshio Nishizawa this week to present their case. In the meantime, the central government plans to allocate 40 billion yen in additional assistance for those affected.
 
Other Nuclear News

A US government panel exploring the issue of radioactive waste has released a report, advising establishment of a permanent central storage location for spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s 104 reactors. Previously, officials had planned to store it at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. However, local opposition to the plan resulted in its shutdown. The report states, “This generation has a fundamental ethical obligation to avoid burdening future generations with the entire task of finding a safe, permanent solution for managing hazardous nuclear materials they had no part in creating.”