Fukushima Nuclear Crisis
Update for March 23rd – March 26th, 2012
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis
EMF Computer Protection
Magnetic Field Detector
March 28, 2012
by Justin McKeating
Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the
ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant.
State of Nuclear Politics in Japan
TEPCO shut down reactor #6 at its
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata prefecture on
Sunday evening , leaving just one reactor still operating in
Japan: Hokkaido Electric’s reactor #3 at the Tomari plant in
Hokkaido Prefecture. That reactor is scheduled to shut down
for routine maintenance on May 5. In spite of repeated
doomsday cries by the nuclear power industry of widespread
blackouts, Japan has experienced neither blackouts nor power
loss.
Newly obtained documents show that NISA was
aware of vulnerabilities in Japanese nuclear plants over a
year before the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last March , but failed to
address them out of concern that the revelations might
result in lawsuits against the plants’ operators.
The Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) has endorsed
the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA’s) approval
of stress tests conducted by Kansai Electric Power Company
on reactor #3 and #4 at its Oi nuclear plant in Fukui
Prefecture. The decision on whether to restart the idled
reactors now moves to the central government, where Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda will meet with Cabinet Secretary
Osamu Fujimura; Yukio Edano, the head of the Ministry of
Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI); and Goshi Hosono,
Nuclear Crisis Minister to discuss the issue. They are
widely expected to approve the restarts as early as next
week. Noda, who has been pushing hard to restart the Oi
reactors, said this week that he plans to enlist “the entire
government” in his efforts.
However, Noda faces an uphill battle in trying
to convince local authorities that the reactors are safe for
operation . Municipal officials in both Fukui and nearby
Shiga Prefectures are bitterly opposed, insisting that the
government needs to first determine the causes of the
Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Although a government panel is
working on that report, it will not be released until at
least July. The governor of
Fukui Prefecture, Issei Nishikawa, said, “The government
must give clear answers about the impact of the earthquake
and the age of the nuclear units [in the Fukushima]
accident…There is no change in the stance that we won’t
allow the restart of nuclear plants currently under
maintenance, unless the government responds to the
prefecture’s request.” Fukui Prefecture is home to 13
nuclear reactors. Shiga Governor Yukiko Kada added, “What
lessons about safety have been learned from the Fukushima
nuclear accident? I believe it is still too early.”
A group of Fukui Assembly members is standing
together to demand that the government refrain from
restarting the Oi reactors unless it can prove that nuclear
power is necessary (currently, every reactor but one in the
country has been shut down, and yet no blackouts have
occurred) and establish new safety standards that reflect
the causes of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
In addition, Haruki Madarame, the head of the
NSC, clarified that the NSC endorsement was not a judgment
on whether or not reactors should be restarted . Madarame
has repeatedly said that a second round of stress tests,
confirming that massive radiation releases will not occur in
the case of a disaster, needs to be performed before
reactors can be determined safe. “I hope there is an
evaluation of more realistic, actual figures,” Madarame
noted.
The NSC has recently revised guidelines for
nuclear plants, covering safety design, resistance to
seismic shock and tsunamis, and ability to withstand nuclear
meltdowns, as well as overall disaster management. In
addition, they call for significantly expanding the
evacuation zones around nuclear plants, increasing them from
10 to 30 km. However, no timetable has been established for
enacting the new rules , since legislation to create a
proposed new nuclear regulatory entity, the Nuclear Safety
and Security Agency (NSSA) has stalled in Parliament , where
some members are asking if the agency can maintain
independence from the nuclear industry and can meet
international safety standards. Originally, the government
had hoped to begin operations at the new agency on April 1;
now, there is a possibility that the bill may not be passed
before this session of the Diet concludes on June 21.
In yet another scandal, four out of 12 members
of a Fukui Prefecture panel that will evaluate the safety of
restarting Oi reactors #3 and #4 received grants from an
organization directly connected to Kansai Electric, the
plant’s operator . One additional panelist received grants
from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd, the builder of the
plant. The grants for the five members totaled 7.9 million
yen since 2006. Prefectural officials have no rule requiring
that panel members reveal relationships with the nuclear
power industry, and say that they will still enlist the
panel’s aid in determining whether to restart the Oi
reactors. The revelation is sure to raise concerns among
local government officials and many residents, who are
seriously questioning the decision to evaluate the reactors’
safety before determining the cause of the Fukushima crisis.
In another sign that many local municipalities
and Japanese citizens have lost faith in the central
government’s ability to regulate the safety of nuclear
power, Shiga Prefecture has established its own guidelines
for evacuating in the case of a nuclear disaster . Although
the government has proposed increasing evacuation zones from
10 km to 30 km, Shiga Prefecture’s own research shows that
simulated radiation plumes could extend as far as 43 km from
the Tsuruga nuclear plant in nearby Fukui Prefecture, and
they have set their zones accordingly. It is the first
prefecture to do so.
Chubu Electric is postponing plans to being
construction on a new reactor at its Hamaoka plant in
Shizuoka Prefecture . The work was originally scheduled to
begin in 2016, but in light of the public’s concerns about
nuclear safety and lack of faith in the government’s stress
tests, as well as new studies showing that the Hamaoka plant
sits on a large fault line and is at significant risk of
being struck by a major earthquake in the near future, the
utility has shelved the project.
A group of scientists from Hiroshima University,
Nagoya University, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth
Science and Technology, among other institutions, have
discovered two new, active faults that place the Tokai and
Kanto regions (including Tokyo) at risk for earthquakes as
powerful as magnitude 9.
Longtime diplomat and president of the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Sadako Ogata, is
criticizing Japan’s efforts to export nuclear technology to
other countries . “I wonder if it is appropriate to take
technology that did not work well in one’s own nation to the
outside world,” Ogata said.
TEPCO
A draft version of TEPCO’s business plan,
formulated by the utility and the government’s Nuclear
Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, shows that Japan’s
central government will assume two-thirds of TEPCO’s voting
rights , including authority to choose outside board members
and oversight of major decisions, such as mergers and
management changes. In exchange, the government will inject
more than a trillion yen ($12.1 billion) of public funds
into TEPCO. The plan reportedly calls for breaking TEPCO
into four companies, responsible for procuring,
transmitting, and retailing power, as well as managing
corporate affairs. In addition, the business plan stipulates
that TEPCO will eventually provide consulting services to
power companies in countries with emerging nuclear programs,
in order to raise additional revenue.
Meanwhile, in light of the government’s recent
decision to award six million yen to each victim of the
Fukushima Daiichi disaster who is unable to return to his or
her home for at least five years, TEPCO will request up to
900 billion additional yen from the government to cover
compensation costs , bringing the total amount of government
assistance to over 2 trillion yen. This amount does not
include the 3 trillion yen injected into TEPCO to keep it
afloat.
State of the Reactors
TEPCO is reporting that the results of an
endoscopy into reactor #2 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant show that water levels are far lower than previously
thought . The utility had estimated that water in the
reactor, which is required to keep melted fuel cool and
prevent recriticality, was approximately three meters deep.
In fact, it is only 60 cm deep. TEPCO insists that the fuel
is not in danger of overheating, and continues to pump in
nine tons of water every hour. However, experts say that the
low water levels show that leaks in the containment vessel
are far greater than previously thought, and may make
repairing and decommissioning the crippled reactors even
more difficult. TEPCO attempted an endoscopy in January, but
the effort failed because the scope used was too short.
Contamination
Researchers from Tokyo University’s Radioisotope
Center are conducting a study on radioactivity in cedar
pollen. Initial results confirm earlier hypotheses that
radiation levels are low , and “so far, pollen does not seem
to be a main source of [radioactive] cesium” when inhaled by
humans. The average measurement was approximately 0.082
microsieverts per week, which is small. The Center will
continue to gather samples through April 14, as pollen and
allergy season continue.
Other Nuclear News
Leaders from 53 nations are convening this week
in Seoul, South Korea at the second Nuclear Security Summit
, in order to discuss how to protect nuclear power plants
from terrorism and natural disasters. The Netherlands has
been chosen to host the next Summit, in 2014.
The Metropolitan Council of Busan has submitted
a unanimous recommendation to the President of South Korea,
asking that the Kori nuclear power plant be permanently shut
down . Last month, the plant chief at South Korea’s Kori
Nuclear Power Plant, near Busan, intentionally ordered
workers to conceal a significant power failure, raising
questions about the safety of nuclear power in South Korea
and the ability of its nuclear regulator, the Nuclear Safety
and Security Commission (NSSC), to monitor reactors. Both
external power sources and a backup generator failed. Plant
officials did not report the incident for over a month, and
only did so when a member of the Busan Assembly accidentally
heard about it at a restaurant, and ordered an investigation
into the matter. In addition, no emergency warning was
issued to local residents, in spite of a legal obligation to
do so.
Over 1,000 anti-nuclear demonstrators gathered
to protest against the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant
last week , after a judge ordered that the State of Vermont
could not prohibit the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) from extending the plant’s 40-year license, which
expired this week, by 20 years. More than 130 demonstrators
were arrested, including a 93-year old woman. The Governor
of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, expressed frustration that the
plant, which is owned and operated by Entergy Nuclear, has
been allowed to stay open over the vehement objections of
local residents: “I am very supportive of the peaceful
protesters gathered today in Brattleboro to express
their—and my—frustration that this aging plant remains open
after its agreed-upon license has expired.”
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