Nuclear Reaction Blog

Fact not fiction: Renewable energy is safer than nuclear power

Justin McKeating — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:05:00 +0200

Take a look at what Jan Bens, chief of Belgium’s nuclear watchdog FANC, had to say about wind turbines the other day:

"The harbour of Antwerp is being filled with windmills, and the chemical industry is next to it. If there is an accident like a break in one of the wings, that is a guillotine. If that goes through a chloride pipe somewhere, it will be a problem of a bigger magnitude than what can happen at [Belgian nuclear power plant] Doel. Windmills are more dangerous than nuclear power plants.”

Wind turbines are more dangerous than nuclear power plants? Tell that to the people of Chernobyl and Fukushima, Mr Bens.

It’s such a mind-boggling thing to say, I’m not sure where to begin. This is just a theory but it’s possible that Mr Bens is just a little confused. Maybe he watched the movie Mission Impossible 3 and mistook it for a documentary…

Yes, wind turbines are clearly dangerous. If you’re a ruggedly handsome superspy flying recklessly through a wind farm in a helicopter while someone is firing missiles at you and you’re trying to save someone’s life, that is. If you’re not, you’re perfectly safe.

De Morgen, the media outlet that ran the Bens/dangerous windmills story in the first place, was so surprised by his outburst that it followed up with an opinion piece that called Bens Nuclear Ali, comparing him to former Iraqi information minister Comical Ali, who steadfastly said Iraq was winning the war with the US even as American tanks were rolling into Baghdad.

So why would Mr Bens say such an unbelievably ridiculous thing? Can he really mean it? Or could the actual reason for his outburst be him trying to deflect attention from the news that his organisation has just sanctioned the reopening of two nuclear reactors in Belgium which were closed after cracks were found in their reactor vessels?

It’s not a handful of microscopic cracks we’re talking about here, but more than 8,000 cracks in the Doel 3 reactor and more than 2,000 in Tihange 2. There is no certainty about how the cracks occurred, only guesses and assumptions.

Guesses and assumptions on emergency planning are also why Greenpeace Belgium has filed a lawsuit against the Belgian government for gross negligence. A document filed with the case refers to a review showing the emergency plans are completely inadequate.

And really odd in some details. For example, emergency evacuation centres for Doel include a deteriorated, now unused slaughterhouse and other centres between 14 and 20 km of the reactor. Would you like to be evacuated to a slaughterhouse? Would you like to be evacuated to a centre only 14 or 20 km from a reactor accident, when people in Chernobyl were evacuated within 30 km and people in Fushima within 20 km, plus a few areas up to 50 km away?

Experts and other nuclear watchdogs seriously doubt the safety of Doel 3 and Tihange 2, including, the French nuclear watchdog ASN, Dieter Majer, the former head of the German nuclear control agency, and Willy De Roovere, the guy Bens replaced as FANC director

When did you last hear a coalition of experts and watchdogs warn about the safety of a wind farm?

This is how and why wind energy and nuclear power are so completely different. Talking about the dangers of wind compared to nuclear is like talking about the dangers of kittens compared to tigers.

Do wind farms need “emergency contingency planning”? When was the last time we had a meltdown at a wind farm? Does wind power have the potential to cause the destruction we see at Chernobyl and Fukushima?

Why am I even asking these questions? Thanks making us laugh, Mr Bens, but can we have a more serious contribution to the debate next time?

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May 21st to May 22nd, 2013

Christine McCann — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:01:00 +0200

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

Nuclear Regulation Authority

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) announced this week that it will accept findings from a panel of experts, which determined that fault lines running beneath reactor #2 at Japan Atomic Power Company’s (JAPC) Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture are active. Japanese law prohibits operation of nuclear reactors over active faults, because of the risk they could incur if a major earthquake strikes. In addition, the agency ordered JAPC to study the effects of seismic activity on the spent fuel pool located within reactor #2. It is the first time that the NRA has said a plant is unsafe to operate because of fault lines, and the decision could have major ramifications for both JAPC and the entire nuclear power industry. NRA Chair Shunichi Tanaka said, “We have accepted the report from the panel of experts, and that means that we’ve acknowledged that an active fault requiring consideration lies beneath the nuclear reactor.”

Although the NRA does not have legal authority to order the permanent shutdown of the plant, the decision means that the reactor will probably never operate again. A second reactor at the plant is more than 40 years old, and most experts believe that the NRA will not allow it to restart, although a decision has not yet been made. The utility also operates one reactor at the Tokai #2 plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, but local opposition to restarting that reactor has been significant, and gaining local approval to bring it online again is unlikely. (Source: Nuclear Intelligence Weekly)

JAPC has lambasted the announcement. The company insists that the fault lines are not active and plans to continue its own studies of the area. It will release a report in June. NRA Chair Shunichi Tanaka noted, “We do not deny that the conclusion may change if new data show up. So I think that I should not say anything decisive at this stage.” But most analysts do not believe that the NRA will change its decision. Because the reactor was built in 1987, JAPC believed that it would operate for at least an additional 14 years before being decommissioned. The company currently does not have enough reserve funds to cover costs, but maintaining an inoperable plant indefinitely would also be expensive. Credit rating firms in Japan have already lowered their ratings of JAPC.

JAPC is owned by several regional utilities, including TEPCO (the largest shareholder, with 28.23% stock), Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), Chubu Electric, Hokuriku Electric, Tohoku Electric, Electric Power Development Company (widely known as J-Power in Japan), and Chugoku Electric Power Company. The utilities have jointly pledged to support JAPC financially through next April. However, KEPCO, Chubu Electric, Hokuriku, and Tohoku are responsible for guaranteeing JAPC’s debts, which currently total approximately 100 billion yen. Moreover, analysts say that if the company folds, decommissioning and costs of storing or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel could grow significantly, placing the financial health of the shareholding utilities in jeopardy, during a time when they are already struggling themselves. “There is a possibility that the power companies will have to shoulder a total of 500 to 700 billion yen,” admitted one government official. Utilities are reportedly imploring the government to provide assistance, but have not been successful so far. In the meantime, the public is growing angry at having such costs past along to them in the form of electricity rate increases.

TEPCO

TEPCO’s legal woes continue to worsen. A group of 700 residents from the Hippo District in Miyagi Prefecture have filed suit against the utility, charging that they should receive the same amount of compensation as victims from Fukushima Prefecture. Parts of Miyagi, which is located just 50 km from the site of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, register higher radiation levels than those in Fukushima Prefecture. Plaintiffs are demanding 70 million yen ($690,000) in damages. Currently, government compensation guidelines only guarantee compensation, radiation testing, and health checks for those living in Fukushima Prefecture. After considerable negotiation by Miyagi residents, the utility agreed to compensate those in some of the highly radioactive areas of Miyagi, as well, but they only receive about half of what Fukushima residents do, despite the fact that some of them are living in more radioactive areas. One resident, Takeo Hikichi, noted, “We in Marumori Town have been exposed to as much radiation as our peers in Fukushima, or even more, depending on the area. We cannot accept the kind of compensation scheme that discriminates against us just because of the prefectural border.” Koji Otani, one of the attorneys who filed the complaint, added, “Damages from the nuclear accident do not stop at the border. We hope that the compensation program is carried out in a way that reflects the reality of people’s lives.”

In other legal news, Japan’s Lower House of Parliament has approved a new bill that will extend the statute of limitations beyond the current three years, for those filing compensation claims against TEPCO. Many victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster have complained that TEPCO has dragged its feet in processing claims and has underestimated appropriate recompense. Some of those cases are still in mediation, which could extend beyond the current March 2014 deadline. The bill is expected to pass in the Upper House and be enacted during the current Diet session.

Nuclear Politics in Japan

Kyodo News is reporting that the United Nations may omit nuclear crises from its upcoming disaster prevention plan, even those for which earthquakes and tsunami are contributing factors, according to insiders familiar with the topic. The UN will meet to discuss the prevention issues at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in March 2015, but preparatory talks are being conducted this week at a three-day meeting in Geneva. The new outline (a change from the previous action plan, called the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015) was suggested by an official from the Japanese government, which is taking a central role in drafting the new plan. Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and anti-nuclear activists have pointed out avoiding discussion of nuclear disasters in this forum may mean that they are not addressed at all. Previously, Margareta Wahlstrom, Special Representative to the UN Secretary General for Risk Reduction, highlighted the urgency of dealing with nuclear crises, and the Chair’s Statement issued following the 2011 UN Global Platform Meeting focused on international cooperation where nuclear safety is concerned.

In a new blow for nuclear power companies, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) said that it will not complete a study of rate increases requested by Tohoku Electric and Shikoku Electric Power Company in time for the utilities to impose higher rates by July 1, as they had hoped. Both companies filed the requests in February, with Tohoku requesting an 11.41% hike and Shikoku asking for a 10.94% rise in consumer rates. However, so many utilities have requested rate increases this year approvals are backed up. Analysts say that the rate increases may not take effect until September, in order to accommodate the delayed METI schedule and to avoid raising rates for consumers in August, often the hottest month of the year.

As part of a three-year agreement signed at the end of last year, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) plan to visit Fukushima for five days in July, in order to provide technical assistance with radiation and waste disposal issues. Municipal officials are still struggling with how to decontaminate forested areas that cover 70% of the prefecture. The IAEA team plans to upload radiation data to a public website for residents’ use. In addition, officials will open an emergency-response training center.

Radiation Contamination

Scientists from the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology are reporting that tests conducted on plankton samples gathered at 10 sites in the Pacific Ocean, between Hokkaido Prefecture and Guam, showed evidence of radioactive cesium-134. The samples were collected in January and February 2012. The discovery is significant because plankton is a primary food source for larger fish, and the research confirms that radioactivity is affecting the food chain. All samples contained cesium-134, but the most radioactive samples, measuring 10.5 Bq/kg, were collected at approximately 25 degrees north latitude and 150 degrees west longitude. The group’s findings were reported at a meeting of the Japan Geoscience Union.

Decontamination and Nuclear Waste Disposal

Officials from the Environment Ministry have announced that they plan to build permanent nuclear waste storage facilities on government-owned land in Miyagi, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, and Chiba Prefectures, but will avoid areas that may be ravaged by earthquakes, tsunamis, or landslides. Waste storage has been a thorny issue for residents, who are concerned about the health effects of living near nuclear waste.

Nuclear power is safe and pigs can fly

Justin McKeating — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:34:00 +0200

That’s the lesson Greenpeace Sweden sent to the nuclear industry once again today as we flew our paramotor glider over the unprotected Ringhals nuclear power plant in southwest Sweden, near Gothenburg.

With simple gear and without hindrance, our Greenpeace activist dropped pig-shaped balloons from the glider onto the reactor roof as part of our ongoing “stress test” of nuclear reactors.

And once again we see that nuclear reactors are both vulnerable and unprotected from threats – deliberate or accidental - from the air. The next time it might not be a Greenpeace paramotor approaching the plant – it could be a falling passenger jet.

So why are we highlighting these dangers? Because nobody else – especially the nuclear industry - will.

After the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011, the EU decided that all member states needed to "stress test" their nuclear power plants. In a summary report, the European Commission identified several shortcomings at nuclear power plants in Europe.

But the stress tests missed a number of serious security risks. To highlight security risks, 70 Greenpeace activists conducted complementary, peaceful stress tests at two Swedish nuclear power plants in October 2012, revealing how accessible nuclear power plants are to unauthorized persons. The response from industry and authority was to build yet another fence and increase vehicle checks.

Today’s additional stress test reveals yet another example of the long list of risks connected to nuclear power, none of which are taken seriously enough by authorities and industry. Despite the repeated reports, studies and test, reactors are allowed to continue in operation as if nothing is wrong.

This is completely unacceptable. Sweden’s environment minister Lena Ek must put safety first and take all of the country’s reactors out of service as soon as possible.

The other nuclear nations would do well to pay attention. How vulnerable are their reactors? Don’t waste billions in a doomed attempt to upgrade inherently unsafe reactors when that money could finance an energy revolution in renewables and energy efficiency.

We don’t have to worry that accidents and attacks on wind farms and solar power arrays might cause catastrophic damage. So let’s take the stress out of electricity generation and drop nuclear power. The nuclear pig is never going to fly.

(Images © Greenpeace / Johanna Hanno)

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May 17th to May 20th, 2013

Christine McCann — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:01:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO announced yet another leak on Friday, this time from a tank holding treated water near reactors number 5 and 6 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The 27 cubic meters of spilled water had already been absorbed into the ground, but officials said that radiation was below detectable levels. After a valve was closed, the leak stopped.

But, the next day, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck approximately 50 km from the plant. TEPCO initially reported that there was no damage, but then said that an additional leak of four liters had occurred in the wake of the quake. Officials believe that because the tank was filled to capacity, water sloshed out. They plan to move some of the water from that tank to another storage area.

TEPCO

TEPCO reportedly plans to submit applications to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) to restart reactors #1 and #7 at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture a few weeks after the agency begins to accept them on July 19, although company officials are currently denying those claims. If so, the move will come despite widespread local opposition and the fact that both of those reactors are built on fault lines that are most likely active. A year ago, TEPCO submitted a business plan to the government that included plans to restart all seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant by this April. That goal was never realized. Now, although the NRA has said that it will only perform safety inspections at three reactors at a time, TEPCO is hoping that its reactors will be among the first. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors are boiling water reactors (BWRs), the same as those that experienced meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Company officials say that they are working on installing filtered vents, newly-required for BWRs, in time for the NRA inspections. “We’re willing to spend any amount of money on safety measures [to ensure the restarts], even though our finances are tight,” one official said. Meanwhile, the company admitted last November that costs for compensation to victims, decommissioning of the reactors, and decontamination could top 10 trillion yen. The government has already allocated 5 trillion yen to prevent TEPCO from going under.

However, most analysts believe that restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors will be an uphill battle. More than two years after the triple meltdown that destroyed several reactors at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, tens of thousands of residents are still unable to return to their homes because of high radiation levels. The governor of Niigata, Hirohiko Izumida, flatly declared that he won’t consider granting approval to bring the reactors online again until the root causes of the Fukushima disaster have been determined. “We won’t discuss resuming operations of the reactors until results of the review into the crisis at the Fukushima #1 plan are presented,” he said. While Kariwa Mayor Hiroo Shinada has said he will approve the restarts if the NRA declares the reactors safe for operation, Kashiwazaki Mayor Hiroshi Aida has been vocal and direct about his concerns: “The situation’s not up for discussion now, as new safety standards have yet to be introduced.”

Moreover, despite its current optimism, TEPCO may never get the chance to try to win local municipal approval. The utility’s own seismic studies show movement within the last 200,000 to 330,000 years in fault lines running beneath both reactor #1 and #7, as well as #2, #3, #5, and #6. Although current law prevents building reactors over faults that have moved within the last 120,000 to 130,000 years, the NRA plans to unroll new seismic guidelines in July, which will change the definition of an active fault to any which has shown movement within the last 400,000 years.

Nuclear Politics in Japan

Japan is continuing to promote nuclear sales to other countries, despite the fact that all 50 of that nation’s reactors are idled in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Recently, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed nuclear technology agreements leaders from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey, and he will reportedly meet with Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, at the end of the month. That move is certain to engender criticism; India has not yet signed the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Toshimutsu Motegi, recently said that the country aims to increase nuclear exports from the current 300 billion yen to 20 trillion yen by 2020.

Juan Carlos Lentijo, who recently headed a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that was investigating the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, has said that TEPCO’s recent plan to pump groundwater from the area near the Fukushima plant and release it into the sea may hold merit. Currently, approximately 400 tons of groundwater leak into the basements of reactor buildings housing crippled reactors each day; as it does, it too becomes highly radioactive and subsequently needs to be stored. TEPCO is running out of space, and has proposed the current plan to pump the water, which officials say is less contaminated than that of nearby rivers, into the ocean. Local fishermen remain concerned about the effect on the reputation of their catch, and have not yet agreed to the plan.

However, Lentijo, who believes that TEPCO’s ongoing water crisis is one of its biggest hurdles, said that if the inflow of groundwater is reduced, then the utility may be able to repair leaks in the buildings and eventually enter them in order to determine the state of the reactors. He still believes, as do other experts, that decommissioning the reactors could easily take as long as 40 years.

Atsuyuki Suzuki, President of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which operates the beleaguered Monju fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, has resigned in the wake of a scandal in which the agency admitted that it had neglected to perform safety inspections on almost 10,000 pieces of equipment, some of it critical for safe operation of the reactor. An NRA statement last week said, “The Japan Atomic Energy Agency cannot sufficiently secure the safety of Monju. We see deterioration in its safety culture.” NRA Chair Shunichi Tanaka added that Suzuki has provided poor leadership and did not prioritize safety. The reactor was first brought online in 1994, but a serious sodium coolant leak and subsequent cover-up by JAEA led to a fifteen-year shutdown. In 2010, the reactor was restarted for testing, but an equipment accident ceased operations before the reactor could reach full capacity. So far, the failed project has cost the Japanese taxpayers approximately one trillion yen.

Radiation Contamination

For the first time since the Fukushima disaster first began to unfold, farmers in the Miyakomachi District within the city of Tamura, located just 15 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, began to plant rice this week, in an effort to resurrect an industry that has been decimated by the nuclear disaster. Miyakomachi is the only district in Tamura in which decontamination has been completed, although officials still do not deem it safe enough for residents to spend the night there. That restriction is providing additional hardship for paddy workers, some of whom have to travel more than an hour each way to tend to their fields. Farmers are currently using potassium-enriched fertilizer in order to prevent radiation in the soil from bring absorbed into the rice. Officials said that all rice will be checked for contamination before being sold.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May 14th to May 16th, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:29:00 +0200

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

Nuclear Regulation Authority

A panel of seismic experts from Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has determined that a fault running directly beneath Japan Atomic Power Company’s (JAPC) Tsuruga power plant in Fukui Prefecture is active, which means that the reactor will almost certainly never go online again. It is the first time since the March 2011 nuclear disaster that a reactor has been declared unsafe to operate (not counting the Fukushima reactors, which were damaged in triple nuclear meltdowns as well as hydrogen explosions in March 2011). The NRA will make a formal decision on the reactor’s future next week, on May 22. A second reactor at the plant, also currently offline, is 43 years old and will probably be decommissioned because of its age and pending NRA rules that will declare nuclear reactors older than 40 years inoperable except under special circumstances. JAPC also owns two reactors at the Tokai nuclear power plant, but one was decommissioned in 1998, and local opposition to restarting the second one remains strong. Ultimately, the company could be forced to declare bankruptcy. JAPC is claiming that the decision is premature and inaccurate. They claim that the fault, which sits near two other fault lines, is not active, nor are those that are located nearby.

The financial implications of the Tsuruga closure are immense and could cast ripples across the entire nuclear power industry. JAPC is owned by several regional utilities, including TEPCO (the largest shareholder, with 28.23% stock), Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), Chubu Electric, Hokuriku Electric, Tohoku Electric, Electric Power Development Company (widely known as J-Power in Japan), and Chugoku Electric Power Company. The utilities have jointly pledged to support JAPC financially through next April. However, KEPCO, Chubu Electric, Hokuriku, and Tohoku are responsible for guaranteeing JAPC’s debts, which currently total approximately 100 billion yen. Moreover, analysts say that if the company folds, decommissioning and costs of storing or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel could grow significantly, placing the financial health of the shareholding utilities in jeopardy, during a time when they are already struggling themselves. “There is a possibility that the power companies will have to shoulder a total of 500 to 700 billion yen,” admitted one government official. Utilities are reportedly imploring the government to provide assistance, but have not been successful so far. In the meantime, the public is growing angry at having such costs past along to them in the form of electricity rate increases.

In other news, the NRA said this week that the Monju fast-breeder reactor, which is located in Fukui Prefecture and is operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), is being shut down for the time being, as a result of egregious safety violations. Last summer, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA, which has since been disbanded and replaced by the NRA) discovered that JAEA had failed to conduct safety checks on almost 10,000 pieces of equipment, some considered critical to nuclear safety. The shutdown will probably extend into the new year.

The incident prompted NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka to deride JAEA and its president, Atsuyuki Suzuki, for a lax safety culture. An NRA statement said, “The Japan Atomic Energy Agency cannot sufficiently secure the safety of Monju. We see deterioration in its safety culture.” Tanaka added that Suzuki has provided poor leadership and did not prioritize safety. Suzuki has been cavalier about the charges, saying that some of the errors were unavoidable. The NRA’s strong response is considered rare in a culture where collusion between government monitors and the nuclear industry has been the norm.

The shutdown means that the Monju reactor, which has a flawed history, will not be able to conduct operational testing, as JAEA had hoped, by the end of this fiscal year, and will once again cast doubt on the success of the Japanese nuclear fuel cycle, which depends on recycling used fuel but which has never been realized. The reactor was first brought online in 1994, but a serious sodium coolant leak and subsequent cover-up by JAEA led to a fifteen-year shutdown. In 2010, the reactor was restarted for testing, but an equipment accident ceased operations before the reactor could reach full capacity. So far, the failed project has cost the Japanese taxpayers approximately one trillion yen.

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO officials announced yesterday that a leak of highly radioactive water from a belowground storage pit which occurred in April, originally estimated at 120 tons, was actually much smaller: approximately 20 liters. TEPCO President Naomi Hirose nevertheless acknowledged that it is “a fact” that contaminated water leaks are occurring. Officials are blaming a faulty water gauge for the discrepancy. Equipment at the beleaguered plant continues to malfunction and fail, and experts have questioned how workers will effectively decommission the reactors there—a process expected to take more than 40 years—if safety equipment keeps breaking down.

TEPCO

Toshimitsu Motegi, head of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), said that the government will encourage Japanese fishermen to allow TEPCO to release groundwater gathered near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean, after the utility’s attempts to do so failed. Earlier this week, TEPCO officials met with leaders and representatives from the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations (FPFFCA) in Iwaki, to explain that groundwater is seeping into the Fukushima reactors, becoming contaminated and further exacerbating TEPCO’s ongoing war with vast amounts of highly radioactive water that needs to be stored at the Fukushima compound. Each day, approximately 400 tons of groundwater seep into the plant’s crippled reactors and become radioactive. Officials plan to dig 12 wells to pump out groundwater and release it to the sea before it can seep into the reactor buildings. They estimate that doing so will reduce the inflow by 100 tons per day, or 25%. Tests conducted on 200 tons of that pumped groundwater show lower radiation levels than those of nearby rivers and streams (which have also been contaminated), and officials insist that the water is safe.

Leaders of the FPFFCA had initially indicated that they would authorize the plan, and when TEPCO met with the group, it assumed that their approval would be pro-forma. However, a high percentage of FPFFCA members expressed concern about whether the action would further damage the reputation of Fukushima Prefecture’s seafood, an industry that has been decimated by the nuclear disaster over the past two years. Distrust in the company remains widespread and deeply rooted, and many fear that the utility will be unable to prevent more leaks of radioactive water like the ones that happened last month. One member noted, “An explanation from TEPCO alone will not be enough to win the confidence of union members.” Another noted, “If something happens at the plant, it will directly hit the image of local products.” Some fishermen expressed confusion about the difference between contaminated water and the groundwater, but one union leader said that this illustrated the problem: “Many of our members got a wrong idea that contaminated water would be dumped into the sea after being treated, but if that is the case, then it will be impossible for consumers to understand [the difference between groundwater and treated water].” Others said that they did understand the difference, but did not trust TEPCO to refrain from also releasing the ever-growing supply of radioactive water that is currently being stored in hundreds of tanks onsite. One representative said, “Even if it is groundwater, damage to the public perception of fishing will be unavoidable and could hurt our trial operations” as fishermen try to regain their place in the marketplace.

“We should start all over,” a TEPCO official admitted. The government will now conduct information sessions with small groups of the FPFFCA’s 1,499 members, a process expected to take at least a month, in an effort to sway their decisions. The move is a blow to TEPCO, which had hoped to begin releasing water into the sea this week. (Source: NHK)

Nuclear Politics in Japan

A new survey conducted by Japan’s Mainichi Daily News shows that mayors of eight out of 11 municipalities located within 30 km of Chubu Electric’s Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Shizuoka Prefecture oppose restarting the reactor there. Some insist that the utility needs to guarantee how it will dispose of spent nuclear fuel before they will grant their approval, and four of the mayors said that they will never give their permission for restarting the reactor, even if the NRA declares it safe to restart. The mayor of Makinohara, Shigeki Nishihara, explained, “The power station is situated in an area where the epicenter of the Tokai quake is expected to be located. [Based on historical and seismic data, experts widely predict that a massive earthquake will hit the Tokai region within the next few decades.] There is a large population, and industrial facilities are concentrated around the plant.” Shizuoka Governor Heita Kawakatsu is up for reelection in June, and has promised to put the restart issue up for public referendum if re-elected.

A group of lawmakers from the ruling pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are joining forces to promote the restart of nuclear reactors across Japan, despite widespread public opposition to nuclear power. A group of Diet members met this week to strategize; they plan to submit a proposal pushing their agenda by the end of this session of Parliament, which concludes in June.

Japan’s Council on Natural Energy, which includes representatives from a majority of the country’s prefectures as well as from major corporations, has compiled a proposal urging the government to develop renewable energy targets as part of the national basic energy plan. In addition, the group said that renewable energy rates need to be determined as soon as possible.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May 10th to May 13th, 2013

Christine McCann — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:30:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

In a surprise move, the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations has delayed making a decision on TEPCO’s recent request to divert a quarter of the 400 tons of groundwater that currently pour into reactor buildings each day at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. TEPCO hopes to pump the water before it can become radioactive, and release it into the ocean. The utility has said that radiation tests conducted on 200 tons of water pumped from the 12 wells show that contamination levels are “the same as rivers in surrounding areas,” which were contaminated by the disaster but are already flowing into the ocean. However, many members want confirmation that the government will monitor the situation. Some are concerned that there will be no way to determine whether TEPCO is dumping groundwater with very low-contamination levels, or highly radioactive water which is currently being stored onsite. Tetsu Nozaki, who leads the Federation, said that the group will not make a decision on the matter until at least June. “As for giving our consent,” he said, “that is something that must go back to the drawing board.”

This winter, TEPCO plans to remove the cover over reactor #1 at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, in order to remove highly radioactive debris left over from the 2011 hydrogen explosion and to install a crane that will be used to remove spent fuel. Workers will then install a new cover. The current shield was put in place in October 2011, in order to reduce the amount of radiation that leaks into the atmosphere. Officials said that they expect atmospheric radiation levels to rise during the process, but insist that they will not have a major impact on people’s overall exposure to contaminants. The entire process is expected to take four years.

Nuclear Politics in Japan

Despite numerous public opinion polls showing that the nation is seeking an end to collusion between the government and the nuclear industry, Japan’s pro-nuclear administration is once again expressing support for nuclear power providers. This week, Toshimitsu Motegi, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), announced that the government will take the lead in trying to convince local officials and residents of the safety of nuclear power, in order to facilitate the restart of reactors nationwide. “Nuclear plant operators have been forced to bear a heavy burden. The government will now come to the front for explanations to municipalities.” He did not discuss the burdens borne by those who were forced to evacuate their homes and livelihoods in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that he plans to lead the charge in promoting Japan’s nuclear technology to the international community, despite widespread public opposition to such exports. Earlier this month, Abe traveled overseas to sign agreements with both the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has issued a formal warning to three companies caught up in a decontamination scandal affecting worker safety, and for the first time, has publicly named them: Yamoto Engineering Service, Sowa Kogyo, and Aguresu. Four additional companies reportedly escaped disciplinary action because of a paperwork loophole. The firms are accused of illegally assigning workers to install pipes at the crippled plant, and dispatching workers from more than one firm. A majority of decontamination workers assigned to deal with radioactive waste leftover from the Fukushima nuclear disaster do not work directly for TEPCO, but rather, for multiple layers of contractors and subcontractors, making it tough to regulate whether or not firms are following labor laws and protecting workers’ safety, including regulating their radiation exposure. Late last year, the Ministry criticized eight firms accused of misrepresenting the amount of radiation to which workers had been exposed, but refused to identify the companies.

Approximately 150 members of the National Police Agency (NPA) and the Coast Guard staged a joint anti-terrorism drill this week at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, located approximately 10 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, where three nuclear meltdowns occurred in March 2011. Participants were forced to wear protective gear, as radiation levels in the area remain dangerously high. The event was observed by officials from the Defense Ministry and Self-Defense Forces (SDF). After the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, security experts warned that terrorists could gain access to both central control rooms and reactors themselves, leading to a nuclear crisis. However, the Fukushima Daiichi crisis showed that disabling a plant’s cooling functions and power sources could also produce catastrophic results, prompting this most recent drill. One NPA official noted, “The disaster revealed how vulnerable nuclear power plants are. It’s become much easier for nuclear power plants to be targeted by terrorists, as the disaster has exposed facilities’ weak points.” Nevertheless, at the current time, utilities, rather than the central government, are responsible for establishing security against terrorist attacks at nuclear power plants. Recent recommendations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) advised that the government should oversee that task, but a proposal to do so will not even be presented until next year.

The Environment Ministry plans to create guidelines that would allow residents forced to evacuate their homes in the case of disasters—including those involving nuclear meltdowns—to bring their pets with them to evacuation centers. In the months following the Fukushima crisis, many people chose to live in their cars rather than abandon their companion animals; in the no-entry zones, scores of cats and dogs were found dead after starving to death. The new regulations will aim to prevent those scenarios in the future.

Nuclear Regulation Authority

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) will reportedly prevent the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) from restarting the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture for the time being, charging the entity with poor safety management. In addition, JAEA will be ordered to revamp its safety and inspection practices, a move that could lead to serious delays in restarting the reactor. Late last year, the JAEA was charged with failing to perform safety checks on nearly 10,000 pieces of equipment at Monju (out of 39,000), some of which were “Class-1” elements, considered crucial to the reactor’s safety. Moreover, seismic experts suspect that fault lines below the reactor may be active, which would legally prevent the reactor from being restarted. JAEA officials, including President Atsuyaki Suzuki, have dismissed the claims, saying that the almost 10,000 ignored safety checks were minor and should have no consequence. In addition, Suzuki insists that the earthquake experts who warn of active fault lines are wrong. In December, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said the operator “lacks the basic safety culture” needed to manage the facility. The Monju reactor, which was supposed to play a critical role in Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle, first went online in 1994, but almost immediately shut down in 1995 after a serious sodium coolant leak and fire. JAEA officials tried to cover up the accident, resulting in public outcry. The reactor remained offline until 2010, but another accident involving heavy equipment that fell into the reactor vessel shut it down again. So far, the project has cost nearly 1 trillion yen in taxpayer funds.

The NRA has asked Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), operator of the only two online reactors in Japan, reactors #3 and #4 at the Oi power plant in Fukui Prefecture, to examine three fault lines beneath the facility, which it believes could move in tandem if a massive earthquake strikes. However, KEPCO officials said that the study is unnecessary, and there is no need to consider how the faults might move simultaneously.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May 7th to May 9th, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:27:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

In its ongoing efforts to control massive amounts of radioactive water building up at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, including approximately 400 tons of groundwater that flow into the reactor buildings each day and subsequently become contaminated, TEPCO officials said this week that they plan to divert a portion of the groundwater before it can become radioactive, and release it into the ocean. Workers have already dug 12 wells near the reactor buildings, which collect the groundwater. Toshihiko Fukuda, head of the Nuclear Quality and Safety Management Department at TEPCO, said, “We would like to release that water into the ocean if we can gain the understanding of the relevant officials.” Members of local fisheries cooperatives, whose livelihoods have suffered significantly since the Fukushima disaster first began to unfold, said that they want to see that radioactivity in the water is closely monitored.

TEPCO has said that radiation tests conducted on 200 tons of water pumped from the 12 wells show that contamination levels are “the same as rivers in surrounding areas,” which were contaminated by the disaster but are already flowing into the ocean. Currently, the utility is storing 280,000 tons of water in hundreds of tanks at the facility, and more builds up each day. An estimated 100,000 additional tons are contained within the reactor buildings themselves. A recent massive leak of radioactive water from belowground storage pits left officials scrambling to find a place to hold 120,000 tons of water. The leaking pits were lined with two sheets of polyethylene and one layer of bentonite clay. Criticism of TEPCO over that incident has been widespread; although the Environment Ministry requires bentonite layers to be at least 50 millimeters thick, the bentonite lining the TEPCO storage pits is just 6.4 millimeters thick. So far, only 8,000 tons have been transferred, but the company hopes to move the remaining water to aboveground tanks by the beginning of June. The new plan would divert approximately 100 tons of groundwater each day to the ocean. Three hundred tons of water will continue to flow into the buildings and become contaminated, eventually requiring storage space.

TEPCO officials are warning that recent attempts to transfer highly radioactive water from leaking belowground storage pits to sturdier aboveground tanks may result in increased radiation levels around the boundary of the Fukushima Daiichi. The company previously said that it would attempt to keep annual radiation levels there lower than one millisievert, but now says that dosage levels could rise as high as 7.8 millisieverts per year.

Starting in the fall, TEPCO said that it will remove the cover of reactor #1 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, in order to remove fuel rods from the reactor’s spent fuel pool. However, officials are already warning that the work could result in a “slight rise” in radiation levels near the plant.

Radiation Contamination and Other Effects of the Disaster

Highly radioactive hotspots have been discovered by the non-profit Citizen’s Radioactivity Measuring Station in two parking lots in Fukushima City, after local residents expressed concern about both the central government’s and municipal officials’ ability to provide adequate monitoring of the situation. Cesium levels greater than 430,000 Bq/kg were measured in soil there; airborne environmental radiation measured 3.8 microsieverts per hour, which exceeds government standards for evacuation. The lowest levels were 100,000 Bq/kg, meaning that they cannot legally be incinerated, and will need to be removed by the government and stored in a temporary storage facility for radioactive waste. A local official noted, “It’s the first time that soil with cesium levels exceeding 100,000 Becquerels was found on the grounds of an urban area, [as opposed to] sludge accumulated in ditches.” The parking lots are connected to a library/public hall in Matsuki, and a library/museum in Moriai. Residents, including children, frequent both locations.

For the first time in more than two years, fishermen in Ibaraki Prefecture have resumed sardine fishing, after conducting weekly radiation checks over the course of four months, between August and December of last year. Members of the fisheries cooperative there had voluntarily halted fishing shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, because of contamination concerns. Now, the cooperatives have declared, “test fishing found no safety problems.” One fisherman, Heishiro Suzuki, said, “I’ve got misgivings about whether consumers will buy our fish, but we must move forward, one step at a time.” The fish will be sold in Tokyo, after undergoing radiation screening before and after being processed.

Victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster continue to experience discrimination against actual or perceived radiation exposure, according to Sachiko Banba, an activist from Minamisoma who is trying to change public perception on the issue, especially among children, the next generation. So far, she has hosted public radiation learning sessions for more than 1,500 attendees in an effort to counteract misinformation and intolerance. Many people, she says, question whether it is safe to marry those who have been exposed, or have children with them. “It’s due to people’s ignorance,” Banba explained. “There are still people who think that radiation is something contagious. By gaining correct knowledge, I hope children in Fukushima will be able to talk about radiation exposure when they are asked about it.”

Evacuation

Japan plans to redefine evacuation zones in the town of Futaba, starting May 28. Currently, the entire town is uninhabitable, but officials say that a small part of the town, where radiation levels are 20 millisieverts per year or less, will be established as an area eligible for preparations to lift evacuation orders. However, the majority of the town, where annual radiation levels still exceed 50 millisieverts per year, will be declared unlivable for at least the next four years, and possibly longer.

Decontamination and Nuclear Waste Disposal

Japan’s Minister of the Environment, Nobuteru Ishihara, announced this week that Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures will meet the government’s self-imposed deadline of March 2014 for disposal of debris from the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. However, he said that the nuclear crisis has impeded waste disposal efforts in Fukushima, where officials are struggling to find temporary storage locations, and the Ministry will miss that deadline. Ishihara admitted, “Completion of the [debris removal in Fukushima] will be difficult.” Overall, almost 26 million tons of waste need to be removed from the area, but so far, the government has dealt with only 40% of earthquake waste, and just 2% of debris generated by the tsunami. Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures were able to send a combined 670,000 tons of their waste to 17 other prefectures to be processed, but residents in those areas were often afraid to accept waste from Fukushima because of fears of radioactivity. Environment Ministry officials have promised to announce a new schedule for Fukushima sometime this summer.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May 3rd to May 6th, 2013

Christine McCann — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:04:00 +0200

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

This edition of The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update is abbreviated as a result of reduced news coverage during Japan’s annual Golden Week holidays. Extended coverage will return next week.

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO officials are admitting that radioactive tritium—which can cause health issues if ingested, and which has a half-life of more than 12 years—has been found in wells which were recently drilled near the Fukushima Daiichi plant in order to determine whether ground water is being contaminated. Out of eight wells, tritium was discovered in two. Water samples measured 3.8 Bq/cm³ , which, although lower than government-set limits, nevertheless raise concern that water is leaking. TEPCO said it believes that the contamination is not a result of recent leaks in belowground storage pits used to hold highly radioactive water, but rather, from leaks that occurred last year. Officials have promised to continue to investigate the issue.

Also this week, workers discovered highly radioactive debris, emitting 540 millisieverts of radiation per hour, near reactor #3. The debris was removed using a remote-controlled crane, but TEPCO was not able to confirm whether or not workers had been exposed to radiation.

TEPCO

Jiji Press is reporting that TEPCO workers who were at the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in the days immediately following the disaster may have been encouraged not to complain about high levels of radiation to which they were being exposed, because of a perception that such concern would negatively affect efforts to control meltdowns at the plant. By March 14, 2011, radiation levels at the main gate had already reached 3.2 millisieverts per hour.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, in order to sign a nuclear cooperation treaty, exploring the importation of Japanese nuclear technology to the Middle Eastern country. Earlier that week, Abe signed an agreement with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to to transfer nuclear technology to United Arab Emirates. Ultimately, the goal is for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Inc. and French company Areva to build a 5,000-megawatt plant in Turkey by 2023, at a cost of $22 billion. Turkey is a highly seismic country and is prone to major earthquakes, but Abe insisted, “We have raised standards, lifting us to the highest ranks in terms of nuclear safety.” Meanwhile, the Fukushima plant, site of three meltdowns, have suffered numerous accidents over the past month, including several power outages, numerous leaks of highly radioactive water, massive waste storage issues that the utility itself admits has reached “crisis” stage, and other equipment failures.

Etsuko Akiba, a member of Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), is once again in the spotlight for ongoing inappropriate relationships with the nuclear power industry, despite promises from the government that it would work to promote transparency and end collusion in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Akiba founded a non-profit organization, the Asca Energy Forum, devoted to promote nuclear power in 2001. Since then, members of the nuclear industry, including TEPCO, have given millions of yen to support its activities, even after the Fukushima disaster. Until she was appointed to the JAEC in 2010, Akiba served as its president, and since then, has continued a warm relationship, occasionally even missing JAEC meetings, for which she is paid through taxpayer funds, to attend the organization’s events. Ironically, Akiba was at an Asca event on March 11, 2011, the day the Fukushima nuclear disaster first began to unfold.

Members of the International Nuclear Regulators Association, including representatives from Japan, the US, and South Korea, gathered in Tokyo this week to discuss responses to the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The three-day meeting, led by Shunichi Tanaka, Chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), is being held behind closed doors in order to encourage open communication among the participants, according to Association officials.

Japan’s Reconstruction Minister, Takumi Nemoto, traveled to the Ukraine this week in order to tour the Chernobyl power plant, site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. Nemoto hopes to learn lessons about nuclear waste storage and cleanup, as well as how to best support victims of the Fukushima disaster, including those who were forced to evacuate and who may never be able to return to their homes. Volodymyr Kholosha, who heads the Ukraine’s State Agency on Exclusion Zone Management, emphasized the importance of both countries working together and learning from one another’s experiences.

Decontamination and Nuclear Waste Disposal

New information is emerging regarding widespread and pernicious influence of so-called yakuza organized crime gangs in Japan’s decontamination industry, a trillion yen business that has flourished in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. A recent court case in Yamagata revealed that a gang member hired several workers to perform decontamination work, taking a large portion of their wages and giving some of that to his yakuza gang. He admitted that lax background checks of workers, which many subcontractors insist they don’t have time to conduct because of worker shortages and short time frames to complete jobs, made it easier to slip below the radar. A police official connected to the case noted, “The Yamagata case is just the tip of the iceberg.” Several decontamination workers, who were employed by other subcontractors, spoke to reporters from the Asahi Shimbun anonymously, out of fear of retribution from the crime gangs. They complained of being threatened by supervisors who barely hid their gang affiliations.

Japanese and French companies to build Turkey’s nuclear reactors: What could go wrong?

Justin McKeating — Sat, 04 May 2013 12:14:00 +0200

Look at what we have here:

A $22 billion dollar deal for a Japanese-French consortium to build Turkey’s second nuclear power plant.

What could possibly go wrong? Let’s see, shall we?

The French company contracted to help build the Turkish reactors is AREVA, which has a long, embarrassing history trying to build nuclear facilities. The prototype untried and untested next-generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) the company is building at Olkiluoto in Finland is currently seven years late, 5.1 billion euros over budget, and inundated with safety and construction problems. The EPR being built by EDF at Flamanville in France is five years late, its cost has rocketed 5.4 billion euros to 8.6 billion (leading to major partner in the project Enel pulling out), and it too has suffered the same safety and construction problems as its sibling in Finland.

Despite of all that, what has AREVA decided to do? To join a consortium with Mitsubishi to build another prototype untried and untested nuclear reactor, the ATMEA-1, in Turkey with all the trial and error, cost-and-schedule overruns that will follow. Remember that the $22 billion quoted is not a final figure and can be expected to balloon dramatically.

In Japan, the Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to worsen. Only two nuclear reactors are online. The rest are closed and many may not reopen if surveys find they are built on or near earthquake faults. Meanwhile, despite having its nuclear fleet out of action, Japan suffered no blackouts during last year’s hot summer and is expecting no need for power rationing this year. In short, the Japanese nuclear industry is in total disarray.

So what has the Japanese government decided to do? To export nuclear technology to Turkey (as well as to the Saudia Arabia and United Arab Emirates). Shouldn’t the Japanese nuclear industry clean up its own mess before thinking about making another one somewhere else?

Why is Turkey looking to squander - at the very least - $22 billion on costly nuclear, delays, risks and uncertainty when the country is rich in renewable energy? Just last month Turkey’s energy minister announced plans to supply 30 per cent of the country’s total energy production by 2023 from renewables. Someone should tell the minister he cannot face in both directions when it comes to nuclear and renewable energy.

Just think of the renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects $22 billion could buy for Turkey. By giving that massive sum to the nuclear industry, the Turkish government is erecting a roadblock to a clean, safe and sustainable future. We are asking them, please, to tear down the nuclear barrier and open the road.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 30th to May 2nd, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:52:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO continues to struggle with a worsening situation at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant, as ground water enters reactor buildings at 75 gallons per minute, and then becomes highly contaminated. Coupled with between 200 and 400 tons of water intentionally poured over the reactors each day to keep them cool, officials are scrambling to figure out where to put all of the radioactive water—and will need to do so for years. Recent leaks in belowground storage pits have heightened concerns about storage options and contamination of the ground and nearby ocean. Indeed, greenling fish captured within TEPCO’s port in February contained a record 740,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium, showing that nearby ocean waters there are highly contaminated. Insiders say that TEPCO assumed it would be able to release the water into the ocean, but public opposition to such a plan has been strong, and the international community expressed outrage when the utility did so immediately following the disaster in 2011. Experts warn that radioactive ocean water that washes ashore could evaporate, sending radioactive particles back into the environment to be rained down upon inhabited areas.

Currently, storage tanks cover 42 acres of the facility, and TEPCO is planning to mow down a nearby forest to build more. Right now, the company is storing more than 280,000 tons of water—enough to fill 112 Olympic-sized swimming pools—but that figure increases daily, and will for several more years, until workers are able to repair the reactor buildings. TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono recently admitted that the problem is overwhelming: “The water keeps increasing every minute, no matter whether we eat, sleep, or work. It feels as if we are constantly being chased, but we are doing our best to stay a step in front.” Tastsujiro Suzuki, who helped TEPCO draft its cleanup plan, said, “We were so focused on the fuel rods and melted reactor cores that we underestimated the water problem. Someone from outside the industry might have foreseen the water issue.”

The ongoing water crisis, along with numerous other recent incidents, including power and equipment outages, have many experts questioning whether or not the plant will be able to withstand the next large earthquake, as well as how makeshift equipment setups will survive the decommissioning process, which is expected to take more than 40 years. In addition, they say, TEPCO is ill-equipped to see the process safely through its completion, and the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has appointed only nine inspectors to oversee an army of 3,000 workers. Tadashi Inoue, a nuclear expert who helped draw up the decommissioning roadmap, said, “TEPCO is clearly just hanging on day by day, with no time to think about tomorrow, much less next year.”

Meanwhile, a team of 19 inspectors from the NRA met for the first time to study the root causes behind the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, including whether or not the massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused damage to the reactors there. Such a discovery would have an immense impact on the nuclear industry across Japan, a country that is riddled with seismic faults. A previous panel appointed by the Diet, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, said that the earthquake did cause damage before the subsequent tsunami struck, although a similar government-appointed panel disputed that claim. Early in 2012, TEPCO willfully misled Diet investigators who wanted to enter the plant to conduct an onsite assessment of possible earthquake damage, telling them that the area was shrouded in “pitch-black darkness” and unsafe to enter. In fact, that was not true. In addition, the NRA group will examine how the reactors’ fuel rods melted; how a massive plume of radiation escaped the plant; what caused an explosion in reactor #4; and what caused a still-unexplained leak in reactor #1 immediately after the earthquake, including whether or not isolation condensers were damaged there. The team will conduct onsite surveys, and plans to submit a report to the IAEA by the end of this year, in advance of a report that will be released by that agency by the end of 2014. (Source: NHK)

TEPCO

Eight utilities across Japan have posted record losses this fiscal year, totaling 1.59 trillion yen ($16 billion), in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. TEPCO experienced the biggest deficit, 685.2 billion yen, marking the third consecutive year that the company has lost money. Officials attribute the losses to ongoing maintenance costs for idled reactors, significant safety upgrades required by the NRA in the wake of the Fukushima catastrophe, and a rise in natural gas prices. In the case of TEPCO, those cost burdens also include massive compensation payments to victims of the nuclear disaster. Although TEPCO President Naomi Hirose has said that the company will once again earn profits by the end of fiscal 2014, analysts say that the prospect of actually doing so is dim: the company’s business plan required restarting all seven reactors at the company’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture beginning this April, but new NRA safety regulations will not even be unveiled until July, and safety assessments are expected to take at least several months, assuming that no additional upgrades are ordered by inspectors. TEPCO’s own surveys recently showed that fault lines beneath almost all of the reactors there are probably active, in which case most or all would have to be decommissioned. Hirose acknowledged the difficulties during a recent press conference, saying, “Unless we make efforts with considerable determination, it will be difficult to move into the black.”

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud this week, in order to discuss exporting Japanese nuclear technology. Two days later, Abe signed an agreement with United Arab Emirates President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, finalizing a similar technology exchange agreement. This is the first nuclear export technology deal signed by Japan since the Fukushima nuclear disaster first began to unfold in March 2011. Many people in Japan oppose the export of nuclear power, questioning both its safety and its morality.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), which operates the Monju fast breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, submitted a report to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) this week, insisting that eight faults located beneath the reactor are not active. The report was a response to a request from the now-defunct Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), after new information emerged about an active fault line 500 meters away from the reactor. The NRA has promised to conduct its own safety assessment on Monju, as well as at other reactors where faults are suspected of being active, including those at the Oi power plant, where the only two operating reactors in the country reside. (Source: NHK)

Japan’s National Police Agency has unveiled two new radiation-proof vehicles, which come equipped with air-pressurized interiors and radiation monitors. The two lead-laden cars are designed to be used during a nuclear emergency, and will be stationed at the Fukushima Daiichi plant and in Tokyo, respectively. Officials said that the Tokyo-based car will be on standby in case a nuclear crisis unfolds in other parts of Japan, but did not clarify what would happen if access to roads were impeded by earthquake or tsunami damage, as well as traffic from those evacuating. The cars, each of which weighs 21 tons, cost a combined $3 million.

Nuclear Waste Management and Disposal

Japan’s Environment Ministry will begin test drilling in nine locations in Naraha, Okuma, and Futaba next week, in an effort to determine the best location for temporary storage sites for over 28 million cubic centimeters of radioactive waste. However, local opposition to the plan has been significant, threatening the schedule for waste disposal, which is scheduled to begin in January 2015. A Ministry official acknowledged the challenges, admitting, “We are at the 11th hour [of our deadline].” (Source: Jiji Press)

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 26th to April 29th, 2013

Christine McCann — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:40:00 +0200

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

This edition of The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update is abbreviated as a result of reduced news coverage during Japan’s annual Golden Week holidays. Extended coverage will return next week.

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO admitted this week that 13 of 22 samples of groundwater collected near belowground water storage pits adjacent to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors are contaminated, with radioactivity measuring between .03 to 0.48 Bq/ml. The samples collected include traces of strontium-90, which can cause both bone cancer and leukemia. Strontium-90 has a half-life of 28.9 years. Three of the seven storage pits there have recently leaked highly radioactive water, and the utility is struggling with how to handle and where to store an ongoing influx of groundwater, which enters reactors at a rate of 400 tons per day. That water also becomes contaminated and then needs to be stored. TEPCO officials are insisting that the water, which was gathered in monitoring holes ranging between five and 15 meters deep, falls within a normal range of radioactivity, and the contamination was not definitively caused by the recent radiation leaks.

Now, a panel of government-appointed experts is exploring new ways of preventing additional groundwater contamination, including a plan to build subterranean walls around the crippled reactors. Two firms, Taisei Corporation and Kajima Corporation, have submitted proposals to build walls of absorbent, clay-like material.

TEPCO

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is once again pushing to promote nuclear power at the expense of the Japanese people. Speaking to a group of TEPCO executives last week, Abe promised that he will provide additional governmental financial support to the company to cover burgeoning costs of compensation to victims of the disaster, decommissioning of the crippled reactors, and decontamination of areas destroyed by radioactivity—in essence, passing those costs to the Japanese people. In addition, Abe formally requested that Kazuhiko Shimokobe, Chairman of TEPCO, stay on in his post. Shimokobe’s term is set to expire at the end of June. “We must accelerate efforts to deal with the accident and to rebuild Fukushima. To do so, it is extremely important to properly revitalize TEPCO as a private company. I want you to be committed to the work,” Abe said to Shimokobe.

Meanwhile, TEPCO is working to improve its public image by employing more women in high-visibility positions, including the chairperson of its press conferences, a daily news briefer, and recently, one of its executive positions. Nuclear power in Japan has traditionally been a male-dominated profession.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

Japan has formally decided not to order mandatory power saving targets this summer, although it will ask residents and businesses to observe “voluntary” power conservation on weekdays between 9 am and 8 pm, starting on July 1 and ending September 30. Despite fear mongering over the last year by power companies, which threatened widespread blackouts while just two of the country’s 50 nuclear reactors are operating, Japan suffered no power outages last summer even through record-breaking heat. Now, utilities have admitted that they expect a 6.3% power surplus this summer.

Japanese nuclear utility Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) is actively planning to restart two more nuclear reactors at its Takahama power plant in Fukui Prefecture, once the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s (NRA) revised nuclear safety standards are released on July 18. KEPCO currently operates the only two online reactors in the country, at the Oi nuclear power plant, also in Fukui Prefecture. Company officials said that they believe upgrades they are making to the reactors there will allow them to pass NRA inspections, but obtaining consent from municipal leaders may prove far more difficult. Protests against the restart of the Oi reactors sparked nationwide anti-nuclear demonstrations, and recent polls show that 70% of Japanese people oppose nuclear power. In addition, inspection requests from other nuclear power companies could slow down the NRA’s response time, delaying any possible restarts.

In a sign of the vastly different world that has emerged in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a cooperative formed between the municipal government and a Tokyo food distribution firm has opened a new hydroponic vegetable factory in Kawauchi. The group aims to grow vegetables in a sealed factory, away from fresh air and sunlight, in an effort to protect them from ongoing threats of radiation contamination there, as well as to renew consumer faith in Fukushima-raised produce, which has suffered considerably since the nuclear crisis first began. The new facility will eventually employ 25 workers and will produce over 100 varieties of vegetables beneath LED and florescent lights when it reaches full capacity over the next three years. The cost of the project is 580 million yen; of that amount, 200 million yen came from government reconstruction subsidies.

Takumi Nemoto, Japan’s Minister of Reconstruction, will travel to Ukraine next week in order to tour Chernobyl, site of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe. Nemoto said he hopes to find “common points and differences” and learn more about waste disposal and reconstruction from local officials there.

Japan’s nuclear industry is at risk of eventually becoming irrelevant, as the vast majority of its domestic nuclear reactors remain offline, and efforts to export nuclear technology to foreign countries are threatened by Russian state-operated nuclear energy corporation Rosatom. The Russian firm, which produces pressurized water reactors (PWRs), successfully elbowed out Japanese firm Toshiba for a contract in Finland. Rosatom has also competed with Japanese nuclear companies for contracts in Vietnam, Lithuania, South Africa, and Turkey.

27 years since Chernobyl and what have we learned?

Justin McKeating — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:26:00 +0200

April 26th marks the 27th anniversary of the devastating accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

The radiation released into the atmosphere by the exploding nuclear reactor found its way across Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and large parts of Europe.

The contamination still lingers in many places - the disaster has a legacy that continues even now.

So today, we remember those who died in the Chernobyl accident and those who must still live with the terrible after effects of the radioactive contamination that still blights their lives.

Chernobyl should have been the world’s last nuclear accident. Enough of us shouted “NO MORE CHERNOBYLS!” But those with the money and the power and that strange ability to put profits before the protection of people carried on regardless.

And sure enough, in March 2011, a quarter of a century after the horror of the Chernobyl disaster, we watched on as Japan suffered earthquake, tsunami, and then nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The warnings of Chernobyl had not been heeded. The warnings that the Fukushima nuclear reactors were vulnerable were not heeded. Once again it was the people, not the nuclear industry that paid the price.

The comparisons between Chernobyl and Fukushima are stark. Thousands upon thousands of people displaced from their homes to face uncertain futures. Melted reactors too dangerous for humans to approach for decades. Homes, schools, soil, food and water contaminated. Uncertainty about the long-term effects of the radiation that has spewed into the environment. Fear and anxiety that will creep across generations.

So today we remember both Chernobyl and Fukushima. There should never have been another Chernobyl. There should never be another Fukushima. Let us shout “NO MORE CHERNOBYLS AND FUKUSHIMAS” until we are heard.

It’s time we all stopped paying the price for nuclear power’s mistakes.

You can help by signing our petition to make the big, rich companies that supply nuclear reactors part of the responsibly for nuclear disasters that now rests with nuclear operators.

Companies like GE, Hitachi and Toshiba that supplied the flawed reactors at Fukushima should pay some of the costs. Right now they don’t have to. Making them more responsible for the costs of a nuclear disaster would at least help reduce some of the mistakes that lead to accidents.

It’s time to make the entire nuclear industry face its moral and financial responsibilities. It’s time to think of people not profits.

(Image: October 2005, Chernobyl. Remains of a fairground in the town of Pripyat, left abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. 10/24/2005 ©Greenpeace/Steve Morgan)

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 23rd to April 25th, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:22:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO workers reconnected power to the spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor #2 on April 22, after it was out for almost six hours. The utility was forced to intentionally disconnect power to vial cooling functions at the pool after two dead rats were discovered near a transformer; one had been electrocuted, fueling fears that they had damaged or shorted out the system. In addition to testing cooling equipment, workers repaired yet another hole through which the rodents had chewed in order to enter the transformer casing. Earlier this month, cooling functions failed for more than 29 hours when another rat ran across wires of an outdoor control box, electrocuting itself and disabling the entire cooling system. Then, as workers were later trying to install rodent-proof netting around the control box, they accidentally touched the wires, once again shorting the cooling system. TEPCO is now trying to rat-proof electrical equipment at the plant, but had not yet gotten to the transformer at pool #2 when the most recent damage occurred.

In response to orders from Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) to install multiplex power distribution systems in an effort to prevent further power outages, TEPCO intentionally disconnected power to the spent fuel pool at reactor #3 yesterday. Officials estimate that it will take 33 hours before the work is completed and power can be reconnected. They also plan to install a multiplex power distribution system in the spent fuel pool at reactor #4; power will be disconnected from that pool for approximately nine hours. In both instances, TEPCO said that temperatures in the pools are not expected to rise past safe levels.

A monitoring group established by Fukushima Prefecture to oversee decommissioning at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, where three meltdowns occurred in 2011, said this week that efforts to store massive amounts of radioactive water at the plant are being poorly managed. “It requires sophisticated supervision to store contaminated water. The work is sloppy,” the report said. The panel conducted on-site investigations of belowground storage pits and aboveground tanks. Over the past month, three of seven storage pits experienced leaks; efforts to move the contaminated water to aboveground tanks were further complicated when pipes leaked on two separate occasions. One council member noted, “The leakages could have been prevented if [the lining of the storage pits] had been 50 cm to one meter thick.” In actuality, the innermost layer was only 6.4 mm thick.

TEPCO

In an effort to meet new safety regulations that are scheduled to be enacted by the NRA in July, TEPCO will reportedly develop its own version of filtered vents for its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant in Niigata Prefecture. Generally, utilities contract such design work to specialists, but TEPCO hopes to save considerable time and money—the design and manufacture of such equipment can take several years—by cutting corners and doing the work itself. Filtered vents help reduce the amount of radiation that escapes from reactors during nuclear emergencies. They were previously not required for boiling water reactors (BRWs) in Japan, and when the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant began to melt down, massive amounts of radioactivity were released into the atmosphere.

In a rare move, Tohoku Electric Power Company said this week that it will seek over 20 million yen ($203 million) in damages from TEPCO for lost business in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Since the crisis began, Tohoku has experienced a 10% drop in electricity sales, as many of its customers were forced to evacuate, and businesses that purchased its power went out of business. In addition, Tohoku announced last month that it was shelving long-standing plans to build the Namie-Odaka new nuclear plant, located just 10 km from the site of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, after realizing that nearby residents would never grant permission for reactors there to go online. TEPCO continues to be hit with lawsuits resulting from the disaster, and has so far doled out more than 2 trillion yen in damages to residents forced to evacuate. That number is expected to rise.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

Toshimitsu Motegi, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), said recently that he believes that at least one nuclear reactor could be restarted by autumn. New, stricter NRA safety regulations will be unveiled on July 18, and NRA Chair Shunichi Tanaka has said that safety assessments of each reactor will take at least several months. However, even if the NRA declares reactors safe to operate, Japanese nuclear operators have traditionally been required to obtain consent from nearby municipalities. That task promises to be difficult; anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan has been growing since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Recent polls show that 70% of the country supported abolishment of nuclear power.

For the first time since the Fukushima disaster, Japan is on the verge of signing deals with both Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to export nuclear technology. In the case of Turkey, Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. will partner with French firm Areva to build four nuclear reactors. Work there is expected to begin in 2020 and is worth 2 trillion yen. The move is controversial in Japan, where anti-nuclear sentiment has grown significantly since the Fukushima disaster first began, and many people disapprove of exporting nuclear technology.

The city of Osaka, which is the largest shareholder of Kansai Electric Power Company, plans to once again submit a proposal during a June shareholders’ meeting to eradicate nuclear power generation by the company. This is the second time that the city will be presenting such a plan; last year, the proposal was rejected.

Residents of Shimane Prefecture have filed suit against Chugoku Prefecture, in an effort to prevent the utility from starting a new nuclear reactor there, which is currently under construction but almost completed. The 428 plaintiffs charge that 469,000 residents living within 30 km of the reactor will be in danger if a nuclear accident occurs.

A panel of seismic experts appointed by the NRA to determine whether or not fault lines beneath reactor #2 at Japan Electric’s Tsuruga power plant in Fukui Prefecture are active will reportedly release their findings in May. In Japan, it is illegal to operate nuclear reactors that sit atop active fault lines. The NRA recently changed the definition of an active fault from that which has moved within the last 120,000 to 130,000 years to any movement within the last 400,000 years. An earlier report by the panel said that the fault lines were probably active, but the NRA agreed to review additional data submitted by the plant’s operator and others.

Radiation Contamination

The Sendai High Court has rejected an appeal filed on behalf of children in the city of Koriyama, which argued that the city was required to evacuate school children because of their risk of radiation exposure. Japan’s annual radiation exposure limit is 20 millisieverts, and although most areas of the town measure lower than that, there are hot spots where contamination is more severe. However, plaintiffs charge that children should not be exposed to higher levels than international standards allow: 1 millisievert per year. The International Commission on Radiological Protection says that there is no safe threshold for radiation, but a lower court threw out the case, saying that there will be no danger to children unless exposure levels reach 100 millisieverts per year. Attorney Toshio Yanagihara, who argued the case, criticized the ruling, saying, “[the children are] victims with absolutely no responsibility for the nuclear accident.” The original lawsuit was filed in June 2011, but was rejected in December 2011, and subsequently appealed. This decision is also eligible for appeal.

For the first time in more than two years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster first began to unfold, Russia said this week that it will partially lift bans on food processed in Fukushima and other eastern prefectures of Japan. However, the ban remains on seafood originating from or processed in Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamaguta, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Chiba, and Niigata Prefectures. Seafood from other areas of Japan will be subject to spot radiation testing. The nuclear disaster has had a profound impact on the livelihoods of fishermen, farmers, and other food manufacturers in the eastern part of Japan, after radiation fears led to drastically reduced production and sales of their products. Many have still not recovered.

Nuclear Waste Disposal and Management

Fukushima Prefectural officials are trying to figure out how to dispose of 17,000 tons of rice, much of it contaminated, which was produced in 2011. During radiation safety testing, some of the rice measured higher than government standards for radioactive cesium; those samples, along with other rice harvested from that district, were forbidden for sale or distribution. In all, rice from 71 districts in 13 municipalities was affected. Now, many waste disposal sites cannot effectively process rice without the small grains getting caught in their systems, and those that can are hesitant to accept it because of residents’ fears of radioactivity. So far, only 10% of the rice has been incinerated, despite a goal to dispose of it by the end of this year.

Nuclear accidents: the guilty should pay, not the innocent

Justin McKeating — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:04:00 +0200

One of the many outrageous scandals surrounding the Fukushima nuclear crisis is the way the people of Japan have had to bail out TEPCO, the utility whose negligence allowed the accident to happen.

Just this week we’ve seen how TEPCO are refusing to repay the 10.5 billion yen ($106 million) it cost the Japanese government to conduct decontamination work around the damaged Fukushima reactors.

Who will pay if TEPCO continue to refuse to honour their obligations? The Japanese people, of course. When it comes to nuclear power, it’s always the people who pay and the companies that profit.

The Japanese people have already paid out 1 trillion yen to keep TEPCO afloat thanks to its incompetence at Fukushima. Further taxpayer trillions are budgeted to support the 160,000 victims who cannot go home. Yet the disaster was so huge those trillions are nowhere near enough to help people recover what they have lost.

However, this fight against the unwillingness to face responsibility is not over. Greenpeace continues to press for nuclear companies to be made fully liable for any accidents they cause.

Last week, together with other NGOs, Greenpeace Japan campaigners presented a proposal to amend the Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage to the Chair of a government committee examining potential changes to the law in Japan.

They demanded changes that would give priority to protection of victims, which is currently stated as one of its double objectives with promotion of nuclear business. They also emphasised minimizing the burden on taxpayers while at the same time adequately compensating victims. The stockholders and creditors related to the Fukushima nuclear power plant must be liable for damages before the people are made to pay via increased tax or electricity charges.

Not only that but, nuclear reactors must be made subject to the Product Liability Law. This means the manufacturer of a nuclear reactor, along with all other companies supplying materials for it, must be held liable for damages above everyone else. Are you listening, General Electric, Hitachi and Toshiba? Where has your ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ gone?

Basically, it’s the “if you break it, you bought it” principle. It’s about holding those who have been closely involved accountable and not punishing the innocent. Who could argue against that? The people of Japan have suffered enough since the events of March 11 2011 without having their pockets picked as well.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 19th to April 22nd, 2013

Christine McCann — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:55:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

For the third time in five weeks, vital cooling functions at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors’ spent fuel pools were halted as a result of an ongoing rodent infestation, highlighting ongoing hazardous, fragile conditions at the plant. Workers intentionally disabled cooling at reactor #2’s spent fuel pool, after two dead rats were found near a transformer controlling the cooling system. One of the rats had been electrocuted. Earlier this month, cooling functions failed for more than 29 hours when another rat ran across wires of an outdoor control box, electrocuting itself and disabling the entire cooling system. Then, as workers were later trying to install rodent-proof netting around the control box, they accidentally touched the wires, once again shorting the cooling system. Checking the system was expected to take three to four hours, at which point workers planned to reconnect power. If fuel in the spent fuel pools overheats, it could eventually begin to melt down and release massive amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. TEPCO is now trying to rat-proof electrical equipment at the plant, but had not yet gotten to the transformer at pool #2.

Juan Carlos Lentijo, head of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) assessment team inspecting the Fukushima Daiichi plant for the first time since the 2011 nuclear crisis began, announced that decommissioning of the Fukushima reactors may exceed 40 years, far longer than TEPCO’s projected timeline. “In my view, it will be near impossible to ensure the time for the decommissioning of such a complex facility in less than 30, 40 years, as is currently established in the roadmap,” Lentijo said. He noted the makeshift equipment being used there and the recent spate of accidents and and glitches that have plagued the plant, including multiple power losses, numerous leaks of highly radioactive water, and worker errors. Dealing with radioactive water storage, he said, needs to be TEPCO’s highest priority, calling it “the most challenging issue.” But, he pointed out that equipment malfunctions are likely to continue, and emphasized the importance of responding to accidents in a timely manner. The IAEA team will release a report on the decommissioning process, as well as the current state of affairs at the plant, sometime within the next month.

TEPCO has resumed efforts to remove highly radioactive water from several leaking belowground storage pits at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Over the last month, three of the seven storage pits began to leak, and efforts to transfer the water to aboveground tanks were further hampered when additional water began to leak from pipes connecting the tanks. Approximately 23,000 tons of water needs to be transferred, but the utility is struggling with where to put it. Each day, between 300 and 400 tons of water is poured into crippled reactors there, in an effort to keep them cool; the process results in highly contaminated water. Experts estimate that an additional 400 tons of groundwater seep into the reactor basements each day through cracks and holes in the damaged reactor buildings; that water must also be stored. The recent leaks have resulted in at least 32,000 tons of water spilling into the ground. TEPCO said that it will not be able to transfer all of the water until at least June; since the utility has been unable to find the source of the leaks, ground contamination will continue until then. Officials insist that none of the water has reached the ocean, which is only 800 meters away. However, in other news, Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) officials released a new report this week showing that radioactive strontium-90, which can cause bone cancer and leukemia, could reach legal limits in groundwater at the plant within 10 years. Strontium-90 has a half-life of 28.9 years.

The water storage issue continues to become more dire, prompting Toshimitsu Motegi, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), to announce that the ministry will partner with TEPCO to find better ways to address the crisis. TEPCO continues to try to build more storage tanks.

In the meantime, TEPCO is now admitting that 14 workers who were tasked with dealing with the highly radioactive water were working without dosimeters, meaning that it will be difficult to assess how much radiation exposure they received during the dangerous work. The infraction occurred on April 6, the day after the leaks were first discovered, and TEPCO became aware of the situation on April 8.

TEPCO

Despite the fact that Japan injected one trillion yen in government funding into TEPCO to keep it afloat, in effect nationalizing the utility, TEPCO officials are now refusing to reimburse the government’s Environment Ministry for 10.5 billion yen in costs required to decontaminate areas around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which were befouled in the wake of the nuclear disaster there. Under a Special Measures Act concerning decontamination, the government says that TEPCO is required to pay the costs, but officials are balking. “We don’t know if these costs are covered by the special measures law,” one said. The Ministry has already requested payment twice, but so far, TEPCO has refused to comply. Because the government did not specify any timelines in the legislation, no interest or fines can be levied against TEPCO for not paying, and if the utility refuses, those costs would be passed along to taxpayers.

TEPCO admitted this week that even more faultlines below its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture may be active, calling into question the future of the reactors there. Officials said that new data suggests that reactors #3, #5, #6, and #7 were built on top of active faultlines. Previous studies showed that reactors #1 and #2 also on top of active faults. In Japan, it is illegal to operate nuclear reactors that sit atop active fault lines. The NRA recently changed the definition of an active fault from that which has moved within the last 120,000 to 130,000 years to any movement within the last 400,000 years.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

Analysis by The Daily Yomiuri (which recently rebranded itself as The Japan News in its online English versions) reveals that over 40% of 389 radiation monitoring stations across Japan have no backup power sources. Experts say that if a tsunami, earthquake, or other disaster were to disable the monitoring stations, officials would be hard-pressed to make accurate decisions regarding evacuation routes in the case of a nuclear disaster. To compound the problem, local municipalities are in charge of the stations, rather than the central government, resulting in inconsistencies in the way they measure radioactivity. For example, in Shimane Prefecture, two new monitoring stations were recently installed, but they only measure up to 10 microsieverts per hour. The national standard for evacuation is 500 microsieverts per hour, but these stations have no capacity to measure that amount. In addition, local officials complain that inadequate government subsidies make upgrades difficult. “The subsidies provided by the government were not enough to cover the costs of a [backup] power generator,” complained Hisnobu Ishiyama, an official with Niigata Prefecture.

Local elections in Kakegawa and Fukuroi have resulted in two incumbent anti-nuclear mayors being re-elected, calling into question the future of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station. Both towns are located in Shizuoka Prefecture. In addition, the mayors of nearby Kikugawa and Yaizu said that they “will not recognize” requests to restart the Hamaoka reactors. In Japan, local consent has long been considered vital to restarting nuclear reactors, although that requirement is not codified into law. Fukuroi Mayor Hideyuki Harada declared, “Even when the new safety measures at the plant are completed, I still will not approve reactor restarts.” Kagegawa Mayor Saburo Matsui agreed: “It’s very hard to say that this is really the place for a nuclear plant.” Hamaoka operator Chubu Electric had no comment.

Radiation Exposure

Tests performed by the Asahi Shimbun show that mud at the bottom of two school swimming pools, which have not been drained since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, contain as much as 100,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium. A third pool contains at least 8,000 Bq/kg; Japanese law requires any waste containing more than 8,000 Bq/kg to be processed by the central government. Although water in the pool has prevented large amounts of radiation from escaping into the atmosphere, the Fukushima Prefecture Board of Education reports that 63 other swimming pools, possibly also containing highly radioactive mud, were emptied into rivers and irrigation canals. Two years after the disaster first began to unfold, many lessons remain unlearned. One Fukushima official in charge of decontamination noted, “We have concentrated on decontamination of the pools and not thought about the mud.”

Oi Nuclear Reactors

Kansai Electric Power Company, which operates the only two online reactors in Japan, submitted a report to the NRA this week, insisting that the Oi reactors are safe and will meet upcoming operating regulations that the agency will formally unveil in July. Last week, NRA officials agreed to make a special exception for the Oi reactors, allowing inspectors to examine the plant for safety violations now rather than waiting until July. Kansai Electric insists that the plant does not require an anti-tsunami wall, and said that there are no active faults beneath the facility. Seismic experts have disputed that statement. The NRA is in the process of conducting its own assessment of the reactors, including field tests, and plans to release its findings by the end of June. “It is difficult to say what we will finally decide about the Oi plant,” said Shunichi Tanaka, Chair of the NRA.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 12th to April 18th, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:30:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO admitted that two more leaks of highly radioactive water were discovered at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant this week, bringing the total number of leaks that have been discovered within the last two weeks to at least five. Last week, the utility said that water was leaking from three of seven in-ground holding tanks. Initially leaks were discovered in tanks #2 and #3; over 120 tons of contaminated water (32,000 gallons so far) had seeped out of tank #2. Although workers tried to transfer that water to tank #1, they soon discovered that that tank was leaking as well, eventually prompting the NRA to forbid further use of belowground tanks. TEPCO has long struggled with where it will put the increasing amounts of contaminated water that are generated at the plant each day; approximately 400 tons of groundwater seeps through cracks of the damaged reactors each day, mixing with an additional 300 tons of water that the utility must pump in daily in order to keep melted fuel cool. All of the water is contaminated and must be stored, but TEPCO is running out of places to put it, and has finally admitted that the situation has reached a “crisis” stage.

This week, workers tried to move water from leaking tank #3 to tank #6, but their efforts were thwarted when they found that a pipe being used to transfer the water was also leaking. In just eight minutes, approximately 22 liters of contaminated water leaked out.

Then, a second pipe leak was discovered when water was being transferred from tank #2 to an aboveground tank. Although only six gallons of water leaked this time, the discovery is significant because it means that transferring contaminated water from tank #2 will once again be delayed, and the leak, which is considered significant, will continue. So far, TEPCO has not been able to locate the cause of the leaks, despite making considerable effort to do so. Workers are attempting to repair or replace the pipes.

In response, TEPCO President Naomi Hirose held a press conference, only the second since the leak crisis began, and apologized for the fiasco. He said that the utility is racing to build more aboveground tanks and promised that all water would be transferred by the end of June. A total of 23,600 tons of water needs to be relocated. Until then, radioactive water will continue to contaminate the ground near the tanks. Although officials insist that none of the water has reached the sea, the ocean is only 800 meters away.

A group of 12 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began investigating the Fukushima Daiichi plant this week, in an effort to assess decontamination efforts there. In addition, investigators are expected to question TEPCO officials about a recent spate of accidents at the plant, as well as to examine radiation levels and waste management issues, particularly those concerning water storage. In the past three weeks, there have been at least eight accidents, including multiple power losses, radiation monitoring malfunctions, accidental shutdown of a water decontamination system, and at least five leaks of radioactive water affecting both storage tanks and pipes. Three of the storage tank leaks are ongoing. Decontamination is expected to take at least 40 years, possibly longer, and many analysts have begun to question whether TEPCO can adequately manage the gargantuan task ahead. Equipment at the plant is steadily aging, and much of it is still makeshift and temporary, more than two years after the disaster first began to unfold. This is the first time that the IAEA has sent a team to evaluate the decommissioning process at Fukushima; they expect to produce a report within the next several months.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

On Wednesday, French nuclear supplier Areva sent a shipment of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel from the French port of Cherbourg, bound for Kansai Electric’s Takahama nuclear power plant, which is still offline in the wake of the Fukushima crisis, in Fukui Prefecture. The move shows that Kansai hopes to restart reactors there soon; the fuel is slated to arrive in Japan within the next six to eight weeks. Despite the fact that 70% of the Japanese public opposes nuclear energy, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is committed to restarting nuclear reactors there.

Radiation Exposure

A group of children from Fukushima Prefecture are suing the town of Koriyama, charging that all children there should be evacuated in order to protect them for radiation contamination as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The case, originally filed in 2011 on behalf of the children by their parents and anti-nuclear activists, was rejected by a lower court and is now being heard by an appeals court. Japan’s annual radiation exposure limit is 20 millisieverts, and although most areas of the town measure lower than that, there are hot spots where contamination is more severe. However, plaintiffs charge that children should not be exposed to higher levels than international standards allow: 1 millisievert per year. The International Commission on Radiological Protection says that there is no safe threshold for radiation, but a lower court threw out the case, saying that there will be no danger to children unless exposure levels reach 100 millisieverts per year. Political activist Noam Chomsky, who is working to draw attention to the case, said, “There is no better measure of the moral health of a society than how it treats the most vulnerable people within it, and none are more vulnerable, nor more precious, than children who are the victims of unconscionable actions.”

Oi Nuclear Reactors

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has announced that it will begin the process of assessing reactors #3 and #4 at Kansai Electric’s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture beginning on Friday. Although other offline reactors will not be assessed until at least July 18, when the agency formally releases new safety standards, officials agreed to make an exception for the Oi reactors, which are the only online reactors in Japan, so that they have continue running. Kansai Electric has promised that by the end of June, the reactors will meet the new standards.

Meanwhile, a Japanese court has rejected efforts to close the Oi reactors, after anti-nuclear activists filed suit claiming that the reactors are not safe to operate until investigators determine whether or not they sit atop active fault lines. The NRA recently decided to expand the definition of active faults from those that have moved within 130,000-140,000 years to any that have shown movement within the last 400,000 years, a far stricter definition.

Decontamination and Nuclear Waste

Officials in Yamagata Prefecture are refusing to accept soil from Fukushima Prefecture, which was destined for a local waste processing facility, out of concern by residents that it may be radioactive. The soil, which came from a former electronics component factory, is contaminated with high levels of lead; there are no waste facilities able to process it in Fukushima. This is the third time that Yamagata officials have refused waste from Fukushima Prefecture.

Japanese court’s verdict on request to shut down nuclear plant puzzling

Justin McKeating — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:31:00 +0200

The law in any country can be a complex business. That said, the verdict on Tuesday by a court in Japan to allow the Ohi nuclear reactors to stay open is especially puzzling.

Green Action, a campaign group, filed a lawsuit asking the court to shut down the reactors, the only two currently operating in Japan. In addition to Green Action and co-plaintiff d Mihama no-Ka, more than 260 people from the area around the plants were represented in the case.

To recap: Reactors 3 and 4 at the Ohi nuclear power plant are operating without new safety measures designed in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. There are three active earthquake faults nearby and the plant may be sitting on another.

There was massive, local opposition when the reactors were restarted.

The court’s verdict this week? Nothing to worry about. Carry on, Ohi!

According to Green Action the court declared: “Ohi is prima facie safe (safe until proven otherwise)”.

Think about that. The Ohi nuclear reactors are “safe until proven otherwise”. Lots of things are safe until proven otherwise. A shark is perfectly safe until it bites you. A gun is perfectly safe until it shoots you.

Not only that…

The court ruling is stating there is no legal requirement in Japan to meet the first golden rule of nuclear safety, the ability to shut down a reactor within the required time in the event of an accident/earthquake. This is not true. Ohi received its licensing permit on the premise that it met this shut down time limit. The Fukushima Daiichi accident would have been much worse if the reactors had not shut down properly on 11 March 2011. It’s a travesty that after Fukushima, a court would say that Ohi is prima facie safe until it’s proven otherwise,” stated Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Green Action and co-lead plaintiff of the lawsuit.

The verdict ignores the fact that nuclear power is inherently unsafe. Uranium mining to make nuclear fuel for reactors isn’t safe. The nuclear waste produced by reactors isn’t safe.

In between, you have accidents, leaks, incompetence and cover-up. The list is almost endless.

Green Action are, needless to say, appealing the court’s verdict. Our hopes and best wishes are with them.

Will a court help Japan avoid the next Fukushima Disaster?

Justin McKeating — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:32:00 +0200

The verdict in a lawsuit launched by a group campaigning against the restarting of two reactors may answer that question soon.

The group, Green Action, filed a lawsuit asking the court to shut down the only two operating reactors in Japan at Ohi. The case is against nuclear utility KEPCO, the Ohi operator, and Japan’s government. The concern is that the Ohi reactors face a level of earthquake risk that they are not built to withstand and licensed for.

As we’ve seen in the two years since the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, earthquakes and nuclear reactors are a terrifying combination.

If the court agrees that the reactors should be shut down, Japan would be nuclear free again. The verdict could also have far-reaching consequences for the nuclear industry as a whole.

Seismic surveys have found that the Number 3 and Number 4 reactors at the Ohi nuclear power plant are close to three active earthquake faults. If all three faults were to intereact at the same time, the strength of a resulting quake would be big enough to impede the safety systems of the reactors.

Specifically, the control rods that are supposed to immediately shut a reactor would not be able to work quickly enough, within a time frame required by regulation.

Greenpeace supports Green Action and Japanese citizens in this trial. The technical arguments of the case are here

For Green Action the issue is one of human rights, based on the potential delay or disruption of the safety system from an earthquake. If this happened, there could be a catastrophic accident at Ohi that could result in damaging exposure to radiation for the plaintiffs.

This does not even take into account that – as the Fukushima disaster has shown – even a functioning shut-down system at a reactor does not necessarily prevent a meltdown of nuclear fuel and a major release of radiation.

So Ohi 3 and 4 must close. The Japanese government and the nuclear utilities must stop cutting corners and safety margins, sometimes even going against their own inadequate regulations.

A shutdown can be done and soon. The Japanese government has just announced that it expects no blackouts or the need for power saving measures this summer even though 48 of Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors are now out of action. In some areas people were able reduce their electricity use by as much as 15%.

The Japanese government should support its people’s fantastic example. Shut Ohi 3 and 4. Forget the nuclear past and look to the sustainable future. We hope the court agrees with our verdict.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 9th to April 11th, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:09:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO is continuing to struggle in its efforts to manage highly radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as the situation goes from bad to worse. Earlier this week, the utility announced two leaks in belowground pits, where highly radioactive water used to cool the crippled reactors there was being stored. Approximately 120,000 liters (32,000 gallons) of radioactive water leaked into the ground from tanks #2 and #3. TEPCO continues to insist that none of that water reached the ocean, which sits 800 meters away, but local fishermen, who have already had their lives destroyed by the nuclear disaster, are skeptical. In response, workers were ordered to transfer 9,200 tons of water from tank #2 to tank #1. There are seven pits at the facility—TEPCO calls them tanks—each consisting of a hole dug into the ground and then lined with two layers of polyethylene, and an outer layer of clay. Each layer is separated by felt. Most are the size of several football fields. Two belowground tanks are currently not being used; one other one contains 3,000 tons of less-contaminated water.

On Tuesday, TEPCO admitted that tank #1 was also leaking, meaning that three of the seven tanks were suddenly compromised. Initially, officials planned to move the water from leaking belowground tanks to others that were not leaking. Despite protests from local residents, as well as their own misgivings, officials said there was not enough room in the aboveground tanks to accommodate almost 27,000 tons of water currently being stored in the pits, as well as 400 tons of contaminated water that is produced each day in the process of keeping the reactors cool. Aboveground tanks currently onsite can only accommodate an additional 21,900 tons. Leaks in the reactor buildings mean that groundwater may continue to seep into basements, becoming contaminated and exacerbating the problem, for up to four more years before that problem will be fixed, according to TEPCO officials. Masayuki Ono, TEPCO’s General Manager, said, “We cannot deny the fact that our faith in the underwater tanks is being lost.” However, he added, “We can’t move all the contaminated water to above ground tanks...There isn’t enough capacity and we need to use what is available.”

However, by midweek, Toshimitsu Motegi, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), had forbidden TEPCO from continuing to use the belowground tanks, and criticized the company for its slow response to an increasingly serious situation.

Accordingly, TEPCO said that it will build 38 new aboveground steel tanks, with a combined capacity of 19,000 tons, by the end of May. Transferring the water to the new tanks will take until approximately the end of June, which means highly contaminated water will probably continue to leak into the ground until then. TEPCO has promised to increase the number of radiation monitors in the area. Water from tanks #1 and #2, where leaks are most significant, will be moved to existing tanks on the premises. TEPCO President Naomi Hirose promised that none of the contaminated water would be released into the ocean. “That will never happen,” he said. “There is no change in our policy to use all available means to manage the water.” Immediately following the onset of the disaster, TEPCO was criticized for releasing vast amounts of low-level radioactive water into the ocean, a move with garnered widespread international criticism.

On Thursday, the utility encountered more difficulties, when 22 liters of highly radioactive water containing 6.3 billion becquerels of radioactivity leaked from a pipe being used to temporarily transfer water from tank #2 to another pit, which officials do not believe is leaking at the moment.

Meanwhile, TEPCO admits that it still has no idea what is causing the leaks in the tanks, and has now begun arguing with Maeda Corp., the construction firm that installed the belowground pits, over who should be blamed for the issue, which is clearly widespread and may affect all seven of the belowground tanks. Maeda Corp. constructed the pits using plans provided by TEPCO, and says that the design was unconventional for a belowground tank. TEPCO insists that the design has successfully been used in the past for farm reservoirs, with no issues. Experts surmise that a leak-detecting pipe inserted between the polyethylene sheets may have caused a gap, and the immense weight of the water then displaced it. However, workers will not be able to determine the exact cause until the tanks are completely drained.

In other news, TEPCO officials announced this week that an underwater fence installed in an ocean port near the plant, which was designed to keep radioactive sea life from further contaminating the food chain, has been damaged in two places during a recent bout of inclement weather.

Nuclear Regulation Authority

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has approved draft regulations that will be required to restart Japan’s nuclear reactors, and has opened them up to the public for comment for the next 30 days. Once finalized, they will be enacted beginning in July. Experts say that the rules, many of which require time-consuming and expensive upgrades, may render some reactors not worth restarting, and will result in others not being able to be restarted for years. Although utilities will have a five-year grace period in order to construct off-site control centers, other requirements will be mandated immediately, and restarts will not be allowed until they are completed. The new rules include installation of filtered vents in all boiling water reactors, something that will affect more than half of the country’s 50 reactors; installing new ones could reportedly take years. Plants close to the sea will be required to build seawalls in order to reduce damage from tsunamis. Companies hosting reactors on fault lines or near volcanoes will have to submit studies showing that they are not at risk—another process that is both time-consuming and expensive. And, electrical cabling at all plants will be required to be flame retardant. Analysts note that many older plants may have to be completely rewired, at astronomical cost and significant technical difficulty. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, all of Japan’s reactors were taken offline. Two, reactors #3 and #4 at the Oi power plant in Fukui Prefecture, were restarted last year, despite widespread public protest, but those will be shut down again in September for routine maintenance. The Oi reactors will then also be required to meet the new NRA standards before being brought online again.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

A parliamentary panel, which was formed after the Diet’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission advised parliamentary monitoring of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster, is being criticized for its strongly pro-nuclear makeup and the fact that it took close to a year to even bring the group together for the first time. In its inaugural meeting on April 8, the Special Committee for Investigation of Nuclear Power Issues met with former members of the Commission, whose report, published in July, said that the disaster was “man-made.” Kiyoshi Kurokawa, who led the Commission, criticized how long it had taken the panel to meet for the first time, noting, “I have been given an opportunity [to speak to this newly-formed group] nine months after submitting the report to the Lower House Speaker.” Members of the panel apologized. Kurokawa was blunt about current conditions at the plant, saying, “The disaster has not been brought under control.”

Analysts have noted that of the 40-person panel, 24 are members of the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and several others are declared proponents of nuclear power. One LDP senior official admitted, “We avoided anti-nuclear lawmakers,” even snubbing a high-ranking member of their own party who wanted to join the group but who had made anti-nuclear statements. The report urged Parliament to investigate the root causes of the Fukushima disaster, which have never been determined; many suspect that the March 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused fatal damage to the Fukushima reactors, but TEPCO continues to dispute that, and actively discouraged a group of Diet investigators from doing onsite evaluations by lying about dangerous conditions there, including claiming “pitch black darkness” within a building when, in fact, strong lighting with backup had already been installed. Another LDP member was frank in his assessment of the possibility of investigations into the cause of the meltdowns. “If we conduct an additional onsite investigation, the establishment of the regulations standards will be pushed back from July, delaying the restarts of reactors.” Prime Minister Abe and the nuclear industry have both been exerting significant pressure to restart reactors across Japan. Currently, no date has been set for the Parliamentary panel to meet a second time.

For the first time since the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, Japan’s central government will reportedly not require residents and businesses to observe power saving targets this summer, a period in which usage normally increases because of hot weather. Officials will make a final decision later this month. Japan is producing more thermonuclear fuel than before the disaster and last summer, residents reduced their overall power usage by as much as 15% in some areas. Sources quoted by the Asahi Shimbun said that the government expects power companies to produce a 6.3% average surplus nationwide, even though 48 of 50 of the country’s nuclear reactors are currently offline; as a result, power-saving goals will not be put into place. The predicted surplus notwithstanding, Prime Minister Abe is continuing to push for restarting reactors, despite widespread opposition to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that it plans to send inspectors to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant next week to investigate process in decommissioning the reactors there, as well as a slew of recent mistakes and equipment failures that have threatened the safety of the plant. Over the past few weeks, there have been two power outages, one of which was caused by a rat running across a wire, and one which occurred when workers failed to disconnect power while trying to install rodent-proof netting; they accidentally touched the wiring, shorting out the system again. A water purification system was shut off when a worker accidentally hit the wrong switch. Radiation detectors malfunctioned. Three separate leaks occurred in belowground holding tanks containing highly contaminated water. And, there have been other, more minor, equipment malfunctions. Some experts say that TEPCO is incapable of managing the disaster, and the task should be given to the government and outside experts. The IAEA team will be led by Juan Carlos Lentijo.

Anti-nuclear campaigners who have been camped out in front of the METI building since September 2011 (six months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster) say that they will fight a lawsuit newly filed by the government in an effort to force them to move their tents. One of the activists highlighted the importance of the demonstration effort, saying, “I’d like to appeal to the public for the importance of the tents. They represent the public’s voice for a nuclear-free Japan.” Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba, which is still a ghost town after residents were forced to flee in the wake of the Fukushima crisis, agreed: “State-owned land belongs to the public,” he said. “We want the government to listen to the voices of the public.”

Decontamination and Nuclear Waste

The Environmental Management Bureau, which operates under the auspices of Japan’s Environment Ministry, has begun conducting surveys in Naraha for possible temporary storage sites for radioactive soil and other waste. Eight other municipalities are also candidates for the storage facility, but surveys have not yet been done in any of them. Naraha has been named a “zone preparing for the lifting of the evacuation order”, and the government plans to allow residents were evacuated to return in the near future. However, many have expressed grave concern about their safety if they return to an area hosting a nuclear waste repository, and said that although the government has promised that the facility will only be a temporary one, they worry that it will become permanent and they will be stuck with it forever.

Nuclear safety? Depends on who you ask

Shawn-Patrick Stensil — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:10:00 +0200

Nuclear safety regulators from around the world are in Canada’s capital this week to discuss what lessons they should learn from the Fukushima disaster. It’s a bad choice of venue.

Canada’s approach to nuclear safety isn’t one to emulate. In Canada, the nuclear regulator is a promotional agency first and a safety watchdog second.

After investigating the disaster, the Japanese government's Independent Investigation Commission conclude Fukushima was not the result of a freak act of nature and was instead due to collusion between the government, the regulator and plant operator TEPCO.

This collusion was driven by the Japanese government’s desire to promote its nuclear industry. There was an implicit understanding between the Japanese government, reactor operators and the national reactor safety watchdog that nuclear profits go before nuclear safety.

In this topsy-turvy world, greed is a virtue and respect for human security a vice and as a Canadian, I’ve seen this same reversal of priorities at play here in Canada’s nuclear industry.

In 2008, Canada’s federal government fired Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) president Linda Keen. Behind her firing was Keen’s imposition of more modern international reactor safety standards on Canada’s nuclear industry.

Keen’s enforcement of nuclear safety standards probably cost the powerful Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin billions in profit. The company didn’t take this loss lying down.

SNC-Lavalin wanted to boost its profits building new reactors in Ontario by cutting back on safety systems. It hoped to build a reactor on the cheap with a pre-Chernobyl, pre-September 11 Canadian reactor design. Because of Keen saying safety came first, SNC-Lavalin lost the contract.

More than a little enraged, SNC-Lavalin used its backroom influence over Canada’s Conservative government to get Keen fired and replaced with a more industry-friendly regulator. We quickly saw the impact on Canada’s nuclear regulator.

The Canadian commission’s new president was quick to establish his mandate and put industry profits ahead of safeguarding Canadians. He even provided promotional quotes for Canadian reactors in industry press releases.

And remember that outdated reactor design that couldn’t pass modern, post September 11 safety standards under Linda Keen? Under Canada’s new industry-friendly nuclear safety watchdog, it curiously now seems to meet Canadian safety standards.

Like Japan, Canada’s nuclear industry has been allowed to pull the strings of its own regulator.

No one dared mention this today at the conference, probably because other safety regulators at the conference are living under similar conditions in their own countries.

Last week, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Gregory Jaczko said that the existing fleet of reactors should be shut down because of the accident risks.

Jaczko has full liberty of expression on reactor risk since he was forced to resign as chairman of the NRC last year. Some say Jaczko was forced to resign because he was pushing US reactor operators to carry out expensive reactor upgrades in light of Fukushima. Sound familiar?

The fate of Canada’s Keen and America’s Jaczko point to a pattern: when nuclear regulators prioritise protecting people above the industry they are quickly shown the door.

Keen and Jaczko lost their jobs because their definition of “safety” was different than that of their national governments. For them, safety meant safeguarding health, property and livelihood.

But for their governments and most of the regulators gathered in Ottawa this week “nuclear safety” means something entirely different: protecting the profits of nuclear companies.

I’m on the side of Keen and Jaczko.

(Photo: Satellite image showing damage at Fukushima 1 Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant after an earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.)

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 5th to April 8th, 2013

Christine McCann — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:42:00 +0200

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO is once again under fire this week, after two separate leaks were reported in underground tanks designed to hold radioactive water used to cool reactors. On April 5, TEPCO reported that 120 tons (almost 29,000 gallons or nearly 110,000 liters) of highly radioactive water had leaked from tank #2, which is approximately the size of several football fields and holds 13,000 tons of water. There are seven tanks at the facility, each consisting of a hole dug into the ground and then lined with two layers of polyethylene, and an outer layer of clay. Each layer is separated by felt.

Officials said that water leaking from tank #2 contained 6,000 Bq/cm ³of radiation, based on water discovered between two of the polyethylene sheets, for a total of 710 billion becquerels. However, experts suspect that the water may actually be far more radioactive, because levels of water within the tank itself measured 290,000 becquerels. They surmise that groundwater may now be seeping in, diluting the water found beneath the plastic sheets. If so, the overall amount of water leaked may actually be 50 times more radioactive than TEPCO has admitted, for a whopping total of 35 trillion becquerels. Hideo Yamazaki, a professor at Kinki University, said, “I cannot understand why TEPCO used a lower figure as the basis for this calculation. Such calculations should be conducted strictly from the viewpoint of ensuring safety.” Professor Masanori Aritomi, from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, agreed: “There’s a common understanding that such calculations should be based on the initial concentration of radioactive substances. I’m afraid TEPCO is underestimating the seriousness of this incident.”

In addition, the utility determined that 120 tons of water leaked, based on water levels within the tank. If groundwater has entered the tanks, it means that the original water levels might be even lower than thought, and more highly radioactive water may have escaped.

Officials said that the leak was first discovered on April 3, but they waited two days to report it to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), saying, “We believed a detailed investigation was needed [before submitting the report].” Based on falling water levels in the tank, officials now believe that the leak began as early as March 20, but the discrepancy wasn’t investigated at the time and was simply attributed to margin of error. At the same time, radioactivity concentrations in the water changed, but again, the utility failed to notice. Earlier this month, TEPCO was widely criticized for failing to report power loss to spent fuel pools, which could have ultimately resulted in a major nuclear disaster, to the NRA, local government officials, and the media for several hours.

On April 7, TEPCO reported a second, smaller leak in tank #3, which holds 11,000 tons. So far, water levels in that tank have not dropped significantly. Officials suspect that both leaks are a result of failures in the polyethylene sheets. A TEPCO spokesman explained, “There is the possibility that joints in the water-shielding sheets have been damaged. The sheets turned out not to have the ability for which they were designed.” Officials believe that the issue may be a result of inadequate seals on the sheets, resulting in their being compromised when the weight of the water caused stress on seams. However, that theory cannot be tested until water is drained from the pools and the structure is examined. Experts are now raising concerns that all seven underground tanks, which are all constructed similarly, may be at risk of leaking. Some have charged TEPCO with trying to save money by cutting corners and digging what are essentially storage pits, rather than building more expensive steel-reinforced tanks.

TEPCO has been grappling with issues regarding contaminated water since the disaster first began in March 2011. Each day, the utility pumps 370 tons of water into the damaged reactors in order to keep them cool. In addition, an estimated 400 tons of groundwater seep into the reactor basements, through cracks in the buildings. That water also becomes contaminated. The plant currently has capacity to store 325,000 tons of water in hundreds of holding tanks on the premises, but has already used 80% of that space. Overall, the Fukushima Daiichi facility is currently holding 370,000 tons of radioactive water, including water in the reactors themselves. More tanks are being built. But, because the decommissioning process is expected to take 40 years or more, company officials are scrambling to come up with a better plan. So far, they have not been able to do so.

Meanwhile, the utility admitted that power to critical cooling systems at reactor #3’s spent fuel pool was lost for a second time in less than a month, after workers installing a net designed to keep rodents away from a switchbox accidentally touched cables, causing a short in the system. Power was out for several hours, and although temperatures at the pool did not go up significantly, analysts say that the incident highlights poor safety conditions at the plant. The power loss could have been avoided had TEPCO purposely shut power down before beginning the job, but workers neglected to do so. The company admitted that it made a poor choice, saying, “We are sorry for causing the trouble. We will be more careful so that we will not make [more] mistakes.” Workers were installing nets in response to a larger power loss last month, in which cooling systems connected to several spent fuel pools at the plant were halted for over 29 hours, after a rat ran across cables on a switchbox that had been operating outdoors on a truck for more than two years. The spent fuel pool at reactor #3 contains 566 fuel assemblies (of these, 514 contain spent fuel.)

The leaks and power losses follow several other problems and missteps over the past few weeks, in which a water purification system stopped when a worker accidentally hit the wrong switch, and alarms connected to radiation monitors near the plant’s main gate went off, signaling high radiation levels. Officials said that incident was presumably caused by an equipment malfunction.

In fact, experts say that many of the problems that the plant is currently facing are the result of TEPCO’s failure to replace and upgrade temporary and makeshift equipment, more than two years after the nuclear disaster first began to unfold. This week, 10 members of the Diet’s investigative panel into the causes of the Fukushima disaster, led by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, testified before a special Lower House committee. Their report, which was released last July, said that the Fukushima nuclear crisis was “a man-made disaster.” On Monday, Kurokawa observed, “Obviously, the crisis is not yet under control,” referring to the many recent technical and human failures. He added, “Moreover, a response to victims of the crisis has not been progressing.” Another member, Shuya Nomura, criticized Parliament for leaving all decision making to TEPCO and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administration, rather than overseeing the process. “The public is extremely concerned, especially about the latest contaminated water leak. Many people worry if it’s a good idea to leave the plant up to TEPCO and the regulators. Is it all right to leave the response to contaminated water and other problems to the discretion of TEPCO and the executive branch of the government? As representatives of the people, Diet members should have expertise and get involved with the mindset of the general public,” he said.

In response to the recent leaks, the NRA has ordered TEPCO to find the cause and determine its environmental impact, adding that it may increase monitoring at the Daiichi plant. Nevertheless, analysts say that TEPCO continues to respond to crises only after they occur, rather than proactively working to prevent them. For instance, the company set up a task force to address water capacity issues at the plant, but only did so this week, two days after the leaks in holding tanks occurred.

TEPCO is currently working to transfer water from tank #2 to another tank, a process that will take five days; they hope to finish Wednesday. By that time, an additional estimated 47 tons of highly radioactive water will have leaked into the ground.

Officials insist that none of the water has seeped into the ocean, which lies approximately 800 meters away. Nevertheless, local fishermen remain highly concerned that their livelihoods, already destroyed by the Fukushima disaster, will be further damaged. “I am afraid that we will continue to be plagued by this kind of problem until the reactors are finally decommissioned [40 years from now]…We fishermen are the ones who will have to suffer until the end, due to the increasing amount of contaminated water at the plant,” lamented one fisherman.

In other news, workers have begun to move spent fuel assemblies from a combined storage pool to a depot on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The depot will temporarily store dry casks containing the spent fuel rods, which need to be moved from the common pool, in order to make room for spent fuel that will be transferred from the pool at reactor #4 beginning in November.

TEPCO

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe admitted last week that it will be difficult to restart four reactors at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daini power plant, located approximately 10 km from the crippled Daiichi plant, because of staunchly anti-nuclear sentiment by local residents. “Even if safety is secured, it is difficult to restart operations without the understanding of local residents. It is not easy with evacuees still unable to return to their hometowns,” he said. However, he added that TEPCO, rather than the government, should decide whether or not the plant should be permanently decommissioned. Abe, who has been pushing hard for restarting reactors across Japan, was speaking before a Lower House Budget Committee meeting.

Nuclear Regulation Authority

The NRA said this week that it will require nuclear power companies which host reactors within 160 km of volcanoes to assess risks and determine how long it would take to transfer nuclear fuel from those reactors before lava reached them. Experts say that the new ruling will affect the majority of Japan’s nuclear reactors, most of which sit relatively near to volcanoes, and may lead to decommissioning for some.

However, NRA officials also decided to relax new requirements—originally scheduled to take effect in July—mandating offsite control rooms located at least 100 meters away from nuclear reactors. Instead, officials said that utilities will have up to five years to build those, as well as to install remote-controlled cooling systems. In the interim, the NRA said that power companies can use mobile operation centers. The original regulation was prompted by the Fukushima crisis, during which TEPCO officials were unable to use central control rooms to manage the emergency because radiation levels there were too high.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

New analysis by the Asahi Shimbun shows that the cost of reprocessing Japanese nuclear fuel has tripled since 1995, from 44 million yen to 122 million yen ($1.28 million), further raising the overall cost of nuclear power. Japan hoped to process nuclear waste by removing plutonium, which would then be used to make new nuclear fuel. However, the remaining highly radioactive waste must be treated via a process called vitrification, in which radioactive materials are encased into glass, in order to more easily disposed of them. Currently, it is a complex and expensive process. Initially, reprocessing was supposed to be done for a short time by Great Britain and France, while Japan readied its own reprocessing facilities at the Rokkasho plant in Aomori Prefecture, slated to open in 1997. However, completion of that facility has gone through 19 delays and numerous technical issues. Meanwhile, the costs of transporting fuel overseas and the vitrification process itself have gone up considerably. The reprocessing plant in Britain has also suffered problems, including leaks of highly contaminated waste.

Yesterday, the government filed suit against protesters who set up tents in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) building in September 2011 and have been camping there ever since, in an effort to demonstrate against the dangers of nuclear energy. The government is now trying to force the protesters to leave the area. One activist said, “[We] intend to show that this is an important location to conduct a national debate on nuclear power.”

Decontamination

A new exposè by The Mainichi Daily News shows that workers tasked with decontaminating cities and towns near the Fukushima nuclear disaster are living in Spartan conditions and receiving very low pay, as multiple layers of contractors and subcontractors shave off percentages of their wages. Workers are forced to sleep in tiny areas, and most are provided only vegetables to eat, despite working in fields all day, clearing radioactive grass and brush. “We aren’t treated like human beings,” said one worker. “We were treated almost unbelievably roughly, especially as we were doing hard physical labor.” The government mandates that decontamination workers receive 10,000 yen ($100) per day in hazard pay on top of regular wages, but once that’s subtracted, many firms are only paying approximately 1,000 yen ($10) to each worker per day. One contracting firm said, “We did pay the workers danger pay [as required by law] in addition to their pay, but in the absence of a labor agreement with the workers concerning deductions, we subtracted costs for room and board.” Another firm representative noted the difficulty of working with so many layers of contracting and subcontracting firms, each of which takes a share of the profit. He noted, “You can’t really turn a profit unless you hit the workers’ wages or shave them down somehow. In the end, the whole system is designed to make money for the big construction companies at the top.”

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 2nd to April 4th, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:43:00 +0200

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

TEPCO

TEPCO President Naomi Hirose, as well as the utility’s executive Vice President and Managing Executive Officer, will each be fined 5% of one month’s salary. The move comes in response to an incident earlier this month, in which power was cut off to cooling functions at the plant’s spent fuel pools for more than 29 hours after a rat ran across wiring at a temporary switchboard being that had been sitting on a truck for more than two years. TEPCO did not notify NRA officials for more than an hour after the discovery, and waited several hours before notifying local government officials, media, and the public about the situation, which could have eventually led, had the spent fuel rods overheated, to large releases of radioactivity. Critics charge that the fines, comprising a small amount of a single month’s salary, are too small.

TEPCO announced this week that in order to stay financially solvent, it needs to cut an additional 100 billion yen from operating and procurement costs this year, in addition to 3.36 trillion it has already pledged to cut by 2021 as part of a business plan it submitted to the government last year. The company is staggering under massive cleanup and compensation costs in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, and was forced to ask the government for 1 trillion yen last year. Lawsuits against the company are pending and expected to grow, further increasing the company’s liability. Experts estimate that the overall cost of the Fukushima disaster will be as much as 10 trillion yen—equal to 2% of Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP). TEPCO announced losses of 120 billion yen in fiscal year 2012, which ended last week, but claims that it will operate in the black by the end of the year.

In addition, the company said that it is putting plans to restart reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture on hold; they will not restart any time soon. Last year, TEPCO submitted a business plan to the government that included restarting one reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant this month, and restarting its remaining six reactors over the next year and a half. However, new NRA safety regulations will not take effect until July, and inspections to ensure reactors meet those new standards are expected to take months.

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO reported that an alarm was triggered near the main gate of the Fukushima Daiichi plant on April 3, signifying radiation levels higher than .0001 Bq/cm³. However, officials said that no major changes in radiation levels were recorded nearby, and no abnormalities were noted in either water injection or cooling systems at the plant’s reactors. Officials are blaming the incident on an equipment malfunction, but have ordered all workers to wear facemasks for the time being.

On Thursday morning, the utility also reported that its advanced liquid processing system (ALPS) was unintentionally halted after an employee hit the wrong switch. The system is designed to remove many radioactive substances from water used to cool reactors (with the exception of radioactive tritium, which it is not able to filter out) and had been in testing mode since Saturday. The system was restarted that same morning.

Nuclear Regulation Authority

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said this week that nuclear reactors aged 40 years or older which pass newly-defined standards will be allowed to operate for an additional 20 years. Those requirements include ultrasonic examinations of reactors, tests to determine strength of concrete used to build containment vessels, installation of more than two cooling water injection pipes, and use of non-flammable power cables. Last June, Japan enacted a law stating that reactors older than 40 years would be dismantled. In August, while being questioned by members of Parliament, NRA Chairman Sunichi Tanaka promised to hold a hard line on shutting those reactors down, saying, “This system is needed to ensure the safety of old power plants. We should strictly check nuclear reactors and take the stance of not allowing those beyond 40 years to operate.” The country currently has three reactors that are older than 40 years, and 13 more will reach that point within the next ten years.

(Source: NHK)

In addition, NRA Chair Tanaka said that the agency is drafting new safety goals that it will present next week, including establishing a limit of one major nuclear disaster per reactor every million years. The purpose of establishing the limit, Tanaka said, was to acknowledge that major nuclear disasters do occur, and to dispel the so-called “nuclear safety myth” in Japan, in which the nuclear power industry long claimed that nuclear accidents were impossible in that country. That myth was shattered in March 2011, after three separate reactors experienced core meltdowns, as well as hydrogen explosions that sent massive amounts of radioactivity into the environment.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

Japan plans to overhaul its national power system, requiring companies to fully separate power generation and distribution functions by 2020, with efforts to begin the process starting in 2015. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pushed hard for the move in a country where the high cost of electricity has often been a disincentive in bringing in new business. The end result, lawmakers say, will be increased competition in the energy market as smaller producers, including renewable energy providers, are able to enter the market without paying exorbitant prices for transmission to incumbent companies that own power grids, as well as lower costs for consumers. The influential power industry, which holds regional monopolies, has long fought the proposed changes, fearing increased competition, but since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it has lost some political capital. The Mainichi Daily News reported that one official at a power company lamented, “If certain customers got lower prices, other customers would demand the same, and there would be no end to it.” The plan was approved by the Cabinet this week, and now heads for passage by Parliament.

Japan’s central government has announced plans to build a new reactor decommissioning research center in Naraha, Fukushima. The new facility, located approximately 25 km from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, will include a simulated reactor where scientists can use robots to simulate the steps required to dismantle TEPCO’s crippled reactors. That process is expected to take at least 40 years. The Naraha facility is slated to open in March 2015.

Contamination and Other Long Term Effects of the Nuclear Disaster

A new study by the Minamisoma Municipal Board of Education reveals that only 56% of elementary school-aged children and only 67% of junior high-aged children have enrolled in local schools, after many were forced to evacuate following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Officials say that many parents fear exposing their children to high radiation levels in Minamisoma; in addition, some are hesitant to uproot their children from the schools and towns to which they evacuated. “I think that this is because schoolchildren have gotten used to their lives in schools in areas where they are taking shelter. However, we’re determined to continue our efforts to create an environment in which children can study in the city without concern,” said a Board of Education official.

Evacuation and Repopulation Issues

The municipal government of Naraha has distributed tablet computers to all 7,600 of the town’s evacuees, in order to allow them to access information about radiation levels, live footage of conditions, and notices from town officials. Many are living in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures. The town is the fourth municipality to distribute tablet computers to residents forced to evacuate in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters. Residents can currently visit their homes during the daytime, but persistent high radiation levels in the area have prevented them from returning full-time. (Source: NHK)

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for March 29th to April 1st, 2013

Christine McCann — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:45:00 +0200

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

TEPCO

Last week, a third-party panel of external experts appointed by TEPCO and led by former US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chair Dale Klein, released a report accepting responsibility for the Fukushima nuclear disaster as well as approving a TEPCO-created plan for reforms at the utility. Reversing the company’s earlier claims that the disaster was entirely caused by the March 2011 tsunami, the panel said that emphasis on the economic bottom line, rather than safety, led to failures at the plant. “Our safety culture, skills, and ability were all insufficient. We must humbly accept our failure to prevent the accident, which we should have avoided by using our wisdom and human resources to be better prepared,” admitted TEPCO President Naomi Hirose.

The report said that TEPCO will establish an internal supervising unit to monitor safety compliance, pay more attention to risk management, and communicate more effectively with the public. Some analysts have criticized the company, saying that the reversal is simply an effort to gain local approval for restarting its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors in Niigata Prefecture, on which the utility is depending to return to financial solvency. Hirose has denied those assertions, and said that TEPCO is trying to prevent another disaster. But last month’s equipment failure at the plant, in which cooling functions at spent fuel pools housing 8,800 nuclear fuel assemblies were lost for more than 29 hours after a rodent chewed through wires, has many experts questioning whether the utility can truly manage functions at the crippled reactors. “We learned that it only takes one rat, not even an earthquake or tsunami, to paralyze the plant,” said Yukihiro Higashi, a professor at Iwaki Meisei University who sits on a Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) panel responsible for overseeing safety at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Higashi added, “People in Fukushima are under constant fear of another serious accident that requires evacuation.”

More than two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, TEPCO just this week began to distribute claims forms to victims who were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses in the no-entry zone, and are now eligible to claim the value of those properties. Approximately 50,000 households located in 11 municipalities are affected, and damages may reach as high as $7.6 billion. TEPCO apologized for taking so long to begin the compensation process. (Source: NHK)

In a speech to a Diet budget committee, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe admitted this week that restarting reactors #5 and #6 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, as well as four reactors at the nearby Fukushima Daiini plant, located approximately 10 km from the site of the nuclear disaster, is unlikely as a result of strong local opposition to the plan. Fukushima officials have declared that the prefecture will become completely nuclear free, but TEPCO has so far refused to officially announce plans for decommissioning the six reactors.

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TEPCO has resumed testing of its advanced liquid processing system (ALPS), which the utility says will filter the majority of radioactive substances from water used to cool crippled reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, unlike earlier purification systems, which were riddled with technical difficulties and failures. However, the new system does not remove radioactive tritium. Experts estimate that 230,000 tons of water being stored in tanks at the Fukushima compound are contaminated with hundred of trillions of becquerels of tritium. If tests are successful, officials said that the new system will begin operating in approximately four months. Last month, TEPCO said it wants to dump massive amounts of cooling water into the ocean, but local fisheries cooperatives have raised strong opposition to the plan. The utility previously released low-level radioactive water into the ocean in 2011, a move that prompted significant international criticism.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

A recent report by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) reveals that Japanese utilities are spending 1.2 trillion yen per year in personnel, depreciation, and maintenance costs for 48 idled reactors around the country, despite the fact that no electricity is being produced while they are offline—and those costs are being passed along to consumers via their electricity bills. Ministry officials did not break down how much each of the nation’s nine utilities is spending in upkeep costs to maintain the offline reactors.

Anti-nuclear activists are celebrating a decision by Tohoku Electric Power Company to scrap plans for building a nuclear power plant in Namie and Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture. Namie town officials originally signed an agreement with Tohoku Power to build the reactor just 10 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 1967. Nuclear opponents protested the decision, but many residents were swayed by money being funneled into nearby towns by the nuclear power industry, including TEPCO. “Initially, most of the residents who owned land on the planned site opposed the project. [But] opponents almost disappeared because we saw, under our nose, how those towns prospered,” said Sakae Ishida, a Namie resident who protested the plant’s construction but eventually agreed to sell his farm to Tohoku. Since the Fukushima disaster, public opposition to nuclear power has grown significantly, and in 2011, both Namie and Minamisoma passed resolutions formally opposing the plant. Last week, Tohoku finally relented and reversed its plans for construction, admitting that local anti-nuclear opposition led to its decision. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration is continuing to push for construction of new reactors in Japan, as well as restarting reactors idled since the Fukushima disaster. Power companies have submitted plans for 11 new reactors, with construction already begun on three.

Last Friday, thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in order to peacefully protest nuclear power and commemorate the one-year anniversary of the first weekly gathering. Since March 29, 2011, the group has gathered every Friday, for a total of 48 times. The Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes (MCAN) organized the protests.

Contamination and Other Long Term Effects of the Nuclear Disaster

In yet another example of the long-ranging effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, economists report that more than two years after the crisis first began to unfold, the market for vegetables harvested from Fukushima Prefecture has virtually collapsed, as a result of fear of high radiation levels in food and lack of public confidence in government regulations and monitoring. One Tokyo vegetable dealer noted, “There are no takers even now. Some supermarkets in Western Japan don’t accept them at all, and there are no deals.”

Evacuation and Repopulation

This week, the government reclassified the town of Namie into three zones and allowed evacuees whose homes are in zone one (“areas being prepared for lifting of evacuation orders”) and zone two (residency restriction areas) to return for day trips to collect possessions and clean. Residents are still forbidden from staying overnight because of high annual radiation levels, which in some areas are as high as 50 millisieverts. Those who lived in the third zone, comprising approximately 17% of the population, are still forbidden from returning home; experts estimate that those areas will be off-limits until at least 2017, and possibly longer. Municipal officials said that they hope to decontaminate zones one and two and reestablish infrastructure within the next four years, at which point residents could potentially return for good. However, analysts point out that delays in decontamination and lack of storage sites for radioactive waste mean that it may take far longer. Namie was home to 21,000 residents before the nuclear disaster; all were forced to evacuate and have been living away from their homes for over two years. Earlier this month, cooling functions in spent fuel pools were halted at the Fukushima Daiichi plant for more than 29 hours, after a rat chewed through wires and caused a blackout. Despite re-zoning and government promises to decontaminate and rebuild, many say that they are afraid to return.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for March 26th to March 28th, 2013

Christine McCann — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:19:00 +0100

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

State of the Fukushima Reactors

TECPO officials report that they have disconnected all equipment from a switchboard that was disabled by a rat last week, leading to loss of cooling functions for more than 29 hours at four of seven spent fuel pools at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Those spent fuel pools are home to 8,800 nuclear fuel assemblies that could melt down if allowed to overheat. The rat was electrocuted after running across cables on the switchboard, which had been sitting on a truck outdoors since March 2001 and was also exposed to the elements. The incident elicited significant international criticism and highlighted TEPCO’s lax handling of the crippled reactors and critical safety equipment, more than two years after a massive nuclear disaster that led to three core meltdowns. The utility said that cooling functions have now been connected to switchboards in indoor, rat-proof locations.

TEPCO

This week, TEPCO expanded areas eligible for compensation for loss of profits as a result of contamination fears, as well as costs of radiation testing, to Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures. Producers, processors, and distributors working in the forest, fisheries, and agricultural sectors will be eligible. Six other prefectures, including Fukushima, are already eligible for such compensation.

Nuclear Regulation Authority

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) announced this week that it plans to launch an investigation into the root causes of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which resulted in three core meltdowns in March 2011. In addition, panel members will explore the total amount of radiation that leaked from the plant during the meltdowns, several hydrogen explosions, and their aftermath. Previous investigations, while laying blame on the government, TEPCO, and the nuclear industry for poor crisis management, lax attention to safety, and collusion, have been unable to determine whether the nuclear crisis was caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake or a subsequent tsunami, as TEPCO has long insisted. “Nobody has inspected the site very closely and we still have to sort out a lot of technical questions that remain unresolved. We have conflicting views, particularly about how the earthquake impacted key safeguard equipment, a key question that needs to be addressed,” said Tetsuo Omura, an NRA regulator. If, in fact, the reactors suffered damage from the earthquake, the discovery will have significant and long-ranging ramifications for reactors nationwide, in a country riddled with seismic faults. The investigation, which is the first effort that the NRA made to determine the role the earthquake played in the disaster, will begin in April, although the agency cautions that high radiation levels at the plant mean that it could drag on for decades. In the meantime, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing hard to restart reactors in Japan, despite widespread public opposition to nuclear power.

Other Nuclear Politics in Japan

For the first time, Google Street View has enabled online virtual touring of the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture, where 21,000 former residents were forced to evacuate their homes and their lives in the wake of the nuclear disaster. This is the first mapping project that Google has conducted in the no-entry zone, off limits because of exceedingly high radiation levels. Two years after the crisis first began to unfold, Namie is essentially a nuclear ghost town, marked by debris from the tsunami, empty homes and shops, abandoned schools, and a ship dragged in from the coast which now sits by a road. Many residents who fear that they will never be able to return to their homes have welcomed the opportunity to see the town they were unexpectedly forced to flee. Namie Mayor Tamotsu Baba noted, “Those of us in the older generation feel that we received this town from our forebears, and we feel great pain that we cannot pass it down to our children. We want this Street View imagery to become a permanent record of what happened to Namie in the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.” The virtual tour can be accessed at Google Street View: Namie

Bowing to public anti-nuclear pressure, Tohoku Electric Power Company, which has had plans in place to build a new nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture since 1968, announced this week that it is abandoning its plans to construct the so-called Namie-Odaka plant. Tohoku President Makoto Kaiwa admitted that building new reactors just 10 km from the site of the Fukushima disaster would be inappropriate; many evacuees from the area have still not been given permission to return to their homes.

The Federation of Electric Power Companies reports that Japanese nuclear power providers are storing a combined 26.5 tons of fissile plutonium both domestically and abroad, but because all but two of the nation’s nuclear reactors are currently offline, they have no current plans to use it. The announcement is sure to garner negative responses from the international community, which has pointed out that if terrorists obtain plutonium, they can use it to make nuclear weapons. The group was delivering a report to the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC).

Meanwhile, Tatsujiro Suzuki, Vice Chair of the JAEC, said that the nation needs to rethink spent fuel reprocessing, and not do so unless it knows how it will use the extracted plutonium. During that process, plutonium is removed from spent fuel and can then theoretically used to make mixed-oxide fuel (MOX). However, the process is both expensive and has been fraught with technical difficulties, and has never been successful in Japan. “Under the current sequence, first a reprocessing plan is submitted and then where to use the plutonium is considered…and that leads to an increase in [plutonium] stocks,” Suzuki said.

A group of 40 nuclear scientists and specialists appointed by The Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) to study the causes of the Fukushima disaster has published an interim report, but it reached no new conclusions about the disaster. However, an AESJ survey of current executives and former members shows that many now believe that they had too much faith in the nuclear industry—some using the word arrogant—and admit that they were hesitant to question large power suppliers.

Contamination and Other Long Term Effects of the Nuclear Disaster

A new study conducted by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and presented to a meeting of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science reveals that rock shells, a univalve mollusk common along the coast of Japan, have virtually disappeared from a 30 km stretch along the Fukushima coast, including the area that is home to the doomed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Scientists say that the March 2011 tsunami was probably not enough to decimate the rock shell population there and suspect that radiation may have contributed to destroying their habitat, but have not yet been able to confirm that hypothesis. Toshiro Horiguchi, head researcher at NIES, noted, “It will be necessary to conduct culture experiments to study how radioactive materials affect the habitat of rock shells.”

A study conducted by researchers from the University of Tokyo shows that elderly residents at nursing care facilities in Minamisoma who were forced to evacuate after the Fukushima nuclear disaster were 2.7 times more likely to die if their evacuation center lacked heat and did not provide lunch over the course of a week. In many evacuation sites, people were unable to use heaters because they drew radioactive air inside. Shuhei Nomura, who led the study, said, “It’s Tohoku, so it must have been really freezing. I believe that they lost their physical strength at that time.”

And, in another example of the far-reaching effects of the nuclear disaster, officials from the Torikawa Nursery School in Fukushima City said that 43% of children aged 3 to 5 at the school are showing signs of flat footedness, a three-fold increase from before the nuclear crisis began. School officials attribute the rise to less outdoor exercise, including walking, because areas near the school remain radioactive, although the schoolyard has finally been decontaminated. Flat footedness can lead to fatigue and impedes the body’s ability to absorb impact.

Scandals and Collusion Within the Nuclear Power Industry

In a long-standing, ongoing scandal, Kyushu Electric Power Company has admitted to ordering 150 employees to attend a public townhall-style meeting on nuclear power in Saga in 2005, in order to sway the results. Records show that the Kyushu employees comprised 83% of the meeting’s audience and contributed more than 50% of the public comments, including “Nuclear power is needed to maintain standards of living” and “There is no solution to the energy problem other than nuclear power.” This newest scandal follows revelations last year that in 2011, employees were ordered to submit emails expressing support for nuclear power to a television show designed to measure public opinion on the issue. Former Kyushu President Toshio Manabe was forced to resign in the wake of that scandal; the company’s Chairman was also forced to step down.

The Mainichi Daily News has uncovered new information showing that Kansai Electric Power Company (known as KEPCO) paid more than 20 million yen per year to fund a pro-nuclear non-profit organization, Josei Shokuno Shudan WARP-LEENET, whose mission is ostensibly to provide educational lectures to housewives, but whose actions clearly promote nuclear power. For instance, women who signed up for cooking classes were invited to lectures on nuclear power. Those on a bus tour were taken to nuclear plants in Fukui Prefecture. KEPCO covers nearly half of the group’s annual operating budget. Chiiko Inouye, the organization’s spokesman, said, “The funding might be cut [as a result of these revelations] and if that happens, we won’t be able to hold the lectures.”

A non-profit organization, ASCA Energy Forum, which was founded by JAEC Commissioner Etsuko Akiba, has been awarded a no-competition, sole-source contract for a large waste disposal project worth 140 million yen over six years. The project was awarded by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO); when the project was first introduced, Akiba sat on a subcommittee of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy’s Advisory Committee, and supported the introduction of the waste disposal project. Last week, nuclear power companies (including TEPCO) and the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan admitted that they paid a collective 18 million yen after the Fukushima disaster, including approximately 10 million yen from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) to promote public acceptance of nuclear waste disposal. Akiba has refused to comment.

Uranium mining stopped in Australian national park

Justin McKeating — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:29:00 +0100

Wherever uranium miners move in to do what they do, human rights have a tendency to move out. That’s why the victory of Jeffrey Lee, who has secured protection for his land from uranium mining at Koongarra in Australia, sends a strong message to the nuclear industry that people must come before profits.

Jeffrey is senior custodian of Koongarra, about 12 square kilometres of land within the traditional area of the Dojk clan. The area, which is surrounded by a national park, also has a large uranium deposit. French nuclear giant AREVA has been eyeing the uranium with greedy eyes for some time now. But Jeffrey said no. “I could be a rich man. Billions of dollars… you can offer me anything but my land is cultural land.”

If you look at what AREVA had done in other countries with its uranium mining industry, you can well imagine why Jeffrey did not want to sell his land.

Look at AREVA’s toxic legacy in Niger – people’s homes contaminated and radioactive sludge leaking from storage pools.

Look at the more than 1,000 workers who fell ill while working at AREVA’s COMUF uranium mine in Gabon.

Look at the cover-up of a radioactive leak at the company’s KATCO uranium mine in Kazakhstan.

I could go on but I think you get the picture.

Not wishing to see his own lands subject to the same destruction, Jeffrey campaigned long and hard to protect the area. Finally, this year, he saw legislation that repealed the exclusion of Koongarra from Kakadu National Park. With Koongarra now part of Kakadu, the land is legally protected from uranium mining.

According to Aboriginal beliefs, the land includes places where the Rainbow Serpent entered the ground and a giant blue tongue lizard still lurks. The area also has rock art dating back thousands of years.

Who in their right mind would want to build a uranium mine in such a place?

It’s a great victory and one that should make the nuclear industry pause from putting its destructive, toxic and radioactive chase for uranium and profits ahead of people.

Jeffrey Lee’s victory is an important start. There are two other areas in Kakuda where mining has been allowed and should not be. One has had problems with contamination and water use for decades. Mining in the other has been halted by the determination of the people of the area who want it also included in the park.

Exploiting nuclear power means exploiting people and the environment. You can’t have one without the other. It’s time the nuclear industry faced up to that fact.