nuclear-news

Proposed nuclear reactor restarts in Japan – ‘woefully unprepared for accidents’

critics say the offsite center in Oi is woefully unprepared for a severe accident on the scale of Fukushima. 

Fukushima Watch: Japan Gets ‘Feudal’ on Reactor Restarts  By Chester Dawson and Mitsuru Obe, WSJ, June 12, 2012  As the Japanese government moves full steam ahead with plans to bring back online the first nuclear reactors since last year’s crisis in Fukushima, the town of Oi is preparing to roll out the futons for a pair of long-term visiting V.I.P.s from Tokyo. The two high-ranking government officials are being sent to the rural seaside town as part of a promise made last month by nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono, in order to pave the way for restarts of Oi’s No. 3 and No. 4 reactors—a controversial decision amid widespread public anxiety about nuclear safety.

To many in Japan, the move brings to mind a modern-day interpretation
of the feudal-era practice of “sankin-kotai,” or alternating
residency, in which local warlords returning to their seats in the
countryside were forced to leave their families in Tokyo, as
high-class hostages….. Mr. Hosono’s move to shore up confidence in
the safety of Japan’s idled nuclear plants by putting senior officials
on the front lines comes amid criticism that not enough has been done
to prevent another accident and prepare for worst-case scenarios. Yet
critics say offsite centers like that in Oi remain vulnerable to some
of the same problems that rendered Fukushima’s emergency response
center useless within hours of the disaster……
critics say the offsite center in Oi is woefully unprepared for a
severe accident on the scale of Fukushima. A report issued by a
Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission expert panel earlier this year
found that all 20 centers are located within 13 kilometers of their
respective plants—in one case just 2 kilometers away. Only two are
equipped with air filtration systems—and even those aren’t designed to
protect against contamination by radioactive noble gases like xenon.

What’s more, many of the centers are vulnerable to tsunamis, since
they were built less than two kilometers from the shore and at
elevations under 10 meters. The NSC report concluded that a
“fundamental rethink” of Japan’s network of offsite centers was needed
to prevent a recurrence of the paralysis that gripped authorities in
Fukushima.

So far, no major upgrades have been made to Oi’s Nuclear Emergency
Response Center, which is just seven kilometers away from the reactors
and less than a dozen meters from the edge of Obama Bay, according to
local officials……
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/06/12/fukushima-watch-japan-gets-feudal-on-reactor-restarts/

June 13, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety