Japan Hopes IAEA Report Will Dispel
Distrust Abroad
Fukushima Power Plant
EMF Protection Devices
Magnetic Field Detector
September 08, 2011
The government will promise to provide more information
on the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
in a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency to be
submitted by the end of the month.
The administration of Naoto Kan, which left office at the
start of this month, faced criticism from many countries for
failing to disclose information about the disaster,
including hydrogen explosions at reactor buildings and leaks
of radioactive water into the sea.
Critics say a lack of trust in the Japanese government's
openness about the disaster led to a sharp fall in foreign
tourists and restrictions on Japanese food imports in some
countries.
An approximately 500-page report, to be submitted to the
IAEA's board of governors and the IAEA general conference in
Vienna from mid- to late September, will try to address that
distrust.
The current draft says: "We recognize that it is our
responsibility to provide accurate information about the
accident, including lessons from the accident, to the
international community."
It continues: "We paid attention to
recording facts accurately and evaluating the response to
the accident as objectively as possible." http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201109089690
The Noda administration is expected to approve the report
at a meeting of the headquarters for nuclear disaster
measures on Sept. 11, exactly six months after the Great
East Japan Earthquake.
It is a sequel to a report submitted by the Kan Cabinet
to the IAEA's ministerial meeting in June.
After taking office as prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda
said Sept. 2 that dealing with the nuclear accident and the
aftermath of the March 11 earthquake would be his
government's top policy priorities, and stressed the
importance of regaining the trust of the international
community.
The original report in June listed 28 lessons to prevent
a recurrence of the Fukushima accident. The new draft
discusses concrete measures.
To secure emergency electricity sources in accidents,
power supply vehicles have been deployed and measures have
been taken to prevent power lines from falling down,
according to the report. It says the government also plans
to install larger-capacity storage batteries at nuclear
power plants.
The government says it will review the roles and
responsibilities of the headquarters for nuclear disaster
measures and other agencies because of problems caused by a
lack of clarity in the division of roles between the
government and electric power companies.
Laws, regulations and guidance for dealing with this
issue will also be rewritten, the report says.
All electric utilities and nuclear power plants will be
linked to the government using teleconferencing systems so
that information can be gathered and instructions issued
promptly.
In the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, environmental
monitoring equipment and facilities operated by local
governments were damaged. The report refers to a government
plan to set up a new nuclear safety agency under the
Environment Ministry in April to reinforce safety
regulations, and says that agency will be responsible for a
new emergency environmental monitoring system.
The draft report also lists key goals in the effort to
cut radiation levels at the Fukushima plant. Among the goals
for the second phase of that plan, due to be completed by
January, are improving the water-circulating cooling systems
designed to bring the temperature of the reactors below 100
degrees (cold shutdown), and installing covers over the
reactor buildings to contain the spread of radioactive
material.
The draft report also says the government will compile a
mid- to long-term road map by the end of the year for
removing damaged fuel from the reactors and that a pool for
storing removed spent fuel will be set up within three
years.
The government panel to investigate the nuclear accident,
formed during the Kan administration, is scheduled to
compile an interim report by the end of the year and produce
a final report by summer 2012. The Noda Cabinet is expected
to put together a new report based on that panel's findings.
http://www.emfnews.org/store
|
