On Nuclear Waste Bill, Senators Look to Public for Help By MATTHEW L. WALD. NYT 29 June 13After the Obama administration abandoned plans in 2009 to bury nuclear waste at a repository in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, a spot chosen by leading senators more than 20 years earlier, a study commission recommended that a new location be picked through “a consent-based process.”
On Thursday, a group of senators introduced a bill, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act, that would establish such a process, based in part on public comments solicited online by the bill’s sponsors — a practice generally reserved for rules proposed by federal agencies. Call it consent-based legislation.
“The Senate did something highly unusual,” said Per F. Peterson, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a public policy expert. He said the way the legislation was developed resembled the process used by the study commission, which held hearings around the country. Taking public comment “establishes a strong foundation for the legislation to be successful if passed by the Senate and then by the House,’’ he said…….
Under the new bill, a new federal agency would be empowered to cut a deal with a state and local governments, subject to approval by Congress.
It does not define the elements of such a deal, but the expectation is that the government would offer what amounted to a handsome dowry for an ugly bride: money for roads, universities or other goodies.
In the interim, the bill would allow above-ground storage of nuclear waste in a central location, a temporary resolution to a problem that has arisen asreactors retire and the waste is orphaned.
The bill was introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development; Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the subcommittee’s ranking Republican; Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the ranking Republican member.
A major earthquake hit eastern Japan on March 11, 2011. The Fukushima Daiichi NPP was critically damaged and has been emitting large amounts of radionuclides since that time. This earthquake-vulnerable country has nuclear power plants nationwide. A small but increasing number of municipalities are adopting antinuclear policies. Regarding the Ohma NPP project, however, politicians and local municipalities are clear about having no plan to give it up.
The town of Ohma, where the nuclear power plant is under construction, is situated at the northernmost tip of Honshu, the largest Japanese island. There are two large plots of land, about one hectare in total, in the middle of the planned NPP premises. Their former owner was the late Asako Kumagai, who opposed the NPP project and did not agree to sell the land to the Electric Power Development Company (J-Power), the would-be operator of the plant. Because of the disagreement with Ms. Kumagai, the company reviewed the construction plan and moved the reactor core position, which was originally very close to her land, about 200 meters. (The reactor core will still be only 300 meters away from the land, if completed.)
Atsuko Ogasawara is Asako Kumagai’s daughter. The mother and daughter together built a log house on one of the plots to show their resistance, but Asako passed away in 2006, before moving into the house. Atsuko Ogasawara has been guarding Asako House ever since.
Ms. Ogasawara, whose home is located in Hakodate, the city facing Ohma across the Tsugaru Strait, visits Asako House several times a week to take care of the house and the vegetables she raises there. The antinuclear action she is most committed to is to request people to write to her at Asako House. She always carries prepaid postcards on which the address of Asako House is printed. The one-kilometer pathway J-Power prepared to allow access to Asako House is unpaved and fenced in on both sides. If someone writes to her, a mail carrier must visit the house, treading the pathway. This whole routine implicitly tells the company, and the neighborhood that cannot see the house from the outside, that Asako House is there, and has not been abandoned.
When I visited Asako House in 2008 for the first time, soon after the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry granted a reactor construction license to J-Power, the movement against the Ohma project was rather small. Subsequently, however, geomorphologists have reported that it is highly possible that there are active faults in the areas near the planned NPP site, and in 2010 a group of Hakodate residents filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government and J-Power to suspend construction. Ogasawara joined the group and delivered a speech during the first oral proceedings.
While having a bright and cheerful character, Ogasawara is often filled with emotion and moved to tears when talking in public. I believe that at such a time she strongly wishes she could show the audience to her late mother. When the Ohma NPP project was announced, many local landowners were against it and refused to sell their land at first. However, one after another, they gave up and finally Asako became the only landowner to own major plots of land in the very center of the premises. In the town, where a great majority of the population was in favor of the project, Asako faced a very lonely struggle.
In late May 2011, a rock festival was held on Atsuko’s plots, surrounded by cranes and plant facilities under construction, including the bizarre containment vessel. The festival attracted many supporters and music lovers, and was covered by multiple media outlets. Atsuko, who took over her mother’s lone struggle, is no longer alone.
If you wish to send a postcard to Atsuko, please address it to:
The address: Ms. Atsuko Ogasawara Asako House 396 Aza-kookuto , Oma-machi Shimokita-gun , Aomori Pref. 039-4601, Japan
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大間原発反対に孤軍奮闘「あさこはうす」/Lonely Battle Against Ohma Nuclear Plant
Microbes can be used to generate natural gas from inaccessable coal beds , at pretty good cost effectiveness.
Or coal that has been mined can be crushed , add some moisture to it and get the right temperature in a reactor vat, and then use the microbes to generate methane for a methane power plant with turbines.
This is far more efficient and clean burning than a convential coal plant. And much cheaper without the super toxic waste going to the environment.
The output of the turbines, Co2, water vapour and nitrous oxides can go directly to a large greenhouse containing algae, which can absorb the Co2 and nitrous oxides in a beneficial way. older algae can be harvested to produce oil from pyrolysis reactions or it can be partly dried to create food for farm animals.
Nuclear power is not understood by the public, and there is a lot of fear, cost overruns, and problems turning it on or off, and dangers to the public that are not being disclosed openly. A lot of secrecy surrounds nuclear power, and still would even for thorium. After three mile island, the quake that caused a tsunami and wrecked the nuclear reactor in Japan, Chernobyl, and the threat of weaponization of nuclear materials and possible terror threats make nuclear power really a no go solution.
Walking in woodlands after a misty rainshower does wonders for ones health. It feels terrific. We need to get back to basic non-nuclear clean and safe electrical power that is decentralized and safe for the public. Listening to Yo Yo Ma’s bach cello concertos feels really good. Listen to ‘the essential yo yo ma’ for inspiration.
Super clean coal and methane meets these requirements, while nuclear does not. It is also far more economical.
Special care must be taken to manage safely the groundwater impact of any coal or methane based solution right from extraction from the ground all the way to disposing of the waste from the crushed coal microbe laden vat constituents once all the methane has been extracted from the crushed coal.
A citizen’s group 「子どもと一歩の会」 held a film event of “Nuclear Nation” at the Health and Culture center in Ohtsunashirozato-city in Chiba prefecture. About 180 people attended the event. Former Futaba Mayor, Mr. Idogawa was invited to make an speech in front of the audiences after the film was shown.
Mr. Idogawa commented that the Japanese Government and Tepco have been just thinking of how they can get away with their responsibilities of the nuclear accident and starving the evacuees into surrender by giving a small amount of money.
Mr. Idogawa is worried about the deal that the evacuees have been accepting: it’s been more than 2 years since they have been forced to live in the temporarily accommodation. They have been going ahead with receiving a small amount of compensation to end their life in the temporarily accommodation and being compelled to accept the whole thing. He condemned the deal as a negative precedent for the residents with cheaper compensation settlement over the nuclear accident, but with a long term suffering for their future.
Toshihide Tsuda, Professor at Okayama University Graduate School of Environmental Science who look into the situation from an epidemiological standpoint indicated that “this is nothing else but an (thyroid cancer) outbreak!”
Prof Tsuda said that if the correlation between thyroid cancer and radioactive exposure is not established, then claims for compensation will suffer. Professor Tsuda criticized the fact that things are being handled in such a way that policies change according to rumors. Also, he proposed that “decision-making be based upon documents and figures”.
Kazuo Shimizu, President of the Japan Thyroid Gland Association, who was the sole member of the panel to remain, asserted that the statistical investigation was “inadequate. I am going to appeal to the committee about this matter.”
The number of thyroid cancer cases is likely to be 45 to 270 times bigger than the figure predicted by the Fukushima Medical University
Ryuichi Kino was born in 1966. He became a freelance writer in 1995 after a carrier in production editing. He wrote the book “Kensho, Fukushima Genpatsu Jiko Kaiken, Toden/Seifu wa Nani wo Kakushita no ka (Iwanami Shoten)” (What Did TEPCO and the Government Conceal about the Fukushima Nuclear Accident?) Official Blog: “Kino Ryu ga Kaku”: http://kinoryu.cocolog-nifty.com/
On June 5 at 10:15 a.m., with a 15-min. delay, the Fukushima Prefecture panel investigating on the impact of radiation on residents’ health (with Hokuto Hoshi as Chairman) started its evaluation meeting. Discussions were focused on thyroid cancer screening results, despite a host of other issues on the agenda, i.e. the health examination conditions and the problematic Basic Survey whose response rates continue to show the stagnant figure of roughly 23%.
Shinichi Suzuki, professor at Fukushima Medical University and a member of the prefectural panel reported that the number of persons with or suspected of developing thyroid cancer lumps has increased to a total of 28. He instructed that surgery be conducted on 13 cases. A post-surgery pathological examination has revealed that one person had only a benign tumor. The remaining 12 cases developed a papillary thyroid cancer. At the previous evaluation meeting, it was announced that only 10 people developed or were suspected of developing a malignant tumor. After surgery 3 were confirmed to have thyroid cancer.
Outline of Thyroid Cancer Screening Results by the Fukushima Health Management Survey Panel
Results reported at previous evaluation meetings have already received large media coverage. Thyroid cancer screening results drew diverse responses from the media. The national and the Fukushima editions of the Asahi Shimbun, for instance, projected different perspectives.
Radiation Effect Denied: 12 Cases of Thyroid Cancer Confirmed (Fukushima Minpo, June 6, 2013)
So far, Professor Suzuki has maintained that on average just one or two in a million of children contract thyroid cancer. On March 3, 2012, the online version of the Nagasaki Shimbun reported that Professor Suzuki indicated that ongoing serious medical examinations might lead to diagnoses of micro cancers regardless to the effect of radiation exposure, which is likely to increase the percentage of cancer cases.
1st Anniversary of the Great East Japan Catastrophe: Low-Level Radioactive Contamination/Infant Thyroid Cancer, Nagasaki University/Fukushima 2 (Nagasaki Shimbun, March 5, 2012)
In the document “Research Background and Purpose” submitted to the Ethical Committee of Fukushima Medical University, upon mentioning that “regardless to radiation exposure, on average 0.1~1% and plus respectively through ordinary palpation tests and ultrasound diagnoses, thyroid cancer might be detected”, Professor Suzuki’s team gave the following observations.
– However, only one or two children in a million contract thyroid cancer per year and the large number of cases are diagnosed with just benign lumps.
– For now as a basic child health control, we believe that information on the thyroid condition is going to appease concerns. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to gather basic information about infant health.
This means that Fukushima Medical University did not expect an increase in infant thyroid cancer after predicting a rise in the percentage of the overall thyroid cancer cases thanks to ultrasound diagnoses.
Infant Thyroid Cancer Screening as Part of the Prefectural Resident Health Survey
If a correspondence is established between cases of thyroid cancer reported at the evaluation meeting and a target population of 1 million, the number of both confirmed and suspected cases of thyroid cancer can be respectively estimated to a maximum of 269 and 91 for the years 2011 and 2012. The number of thyroid cancer cases is likely to be 45 to 270 times bigger than the figure predicted by the Fukushima Medical University (Since papillary thyroid cancer can almost perfectly be diagnosed via cytological examination, the number of thyroid cancer cases confirmed by the Fukushima Medical University is likely to turn out to be extremely thin. Fukushima Medical University doesn’t provide for details on the difference between “confirmed” and “suspected” cases of thyroid cancer).
The Japanese limits are based on the assumption that 50% of nationally distributed foods are contaminated….
[…]
There is no new scientific information that supports the need of a new risk assessment.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
At WTO, Japan Demands China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to Drop Their Food Import Bans after Fukushima Nuclear Accident Because “Any Contaminated Products Can Not Be Traded” in Japan
China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan continue to ban food import from Japan after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, and Japan doesn’t like it. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged in his “growth strategy” that he wants to make Japanese agriculture “strong”. One of the clear gauges of this “strength” is apparently how much agricultural products Japan can export, particularly from the nuclear-disaster-affected Tohoku and Kanto. So his government used a committee at the World Trade Organization to demand these three countries drop the bans.
Country-specific restrictions should be based on science, Japan and WTO say.
In the meeting of the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Committee that ended on June 28, the Japanese government demanded China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to correct (revise) the import restrictions on Japanese agricultural products. The countries continue to place the import restrictions following the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The Japanese government had refrained from naming the countries, but used the opportunity to express strong concern as the import restrictions from these countries have been going on too long.
Regarding the food safety, in addition to the international sanitary and phytosanitary measures, countries are allowed to use their own judgment. In the latter case, the health risk evaluation based on scientific evidence would be necessary.
WTO members celebrated the 50th anniversary of 186-member Codex Alimentarius, which sets international standards for food safety, by calling, on 27–28 June 2013, for continued support for the body, and for trade measures to be based on science.
The calls came in a two-day meeting of the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Committee, which consists of all 159 WTO members and deals with food safety and animal and plant health — measures having an increasing impact on trade.
They echoed a paper circulated by Brazil (document G/SPS/GEN/1253), which described food safety as an important contributor to food security, and said international standards and guidelines should be based on science, that confidence in Codex and other international standards-setting bodies should be strengthened, and that any measures that apply higher standards should also be justified by science.
“The increase in the number of SPS measures that are not based on international standards, guidelines and recommendations, or that lack scientific justification, is a point of concern that has often been raised by many members in the SPS Committee and other contexts,” Brazil observed.
A political body like WTO insisting on science. Fantastic.
So, if people in the world don’t want to eat food that contains more than normal amount of radioactive cesium, or don’t want to eat genetically-modified food, both of which are supposedly proven “safe”, what does WTO do? Force-feed them?
Import restrictions in response to Japan’s nuclear power plant accident.
Japan updated members on the latest situation and said radiation levels are generally within normal safety levels, and that any contaminated products could not be traded. Many trading partners have lifted their import restrictions, Japan said. However, restrictions remain in Hong Kong China and Chinese Taipei although Japan is starting to work with them on analysing the situation. China remains a major trading partner that still has import bans and Japan has not been able to discuss this bilaterally, Japan said. China said that only products from seriously polluted areas are affected.
Just by looking at the daily updates by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and periodic updates from municipal governments, not to mention citizens’ groups, it is easy to note that food items being sold on the market in Japan continue to be found with radioactive cesium. The levels may be below 100 Bq/kg in most cases, but they are actively “traded”, contrary to the Japanese government’s claim.
I do not know what “normal safety levels” for the radiation levels in Japan at this point, but judging by the way the national government is trying to return the evacuees in the former “no-entry” evacuation zones, as long as the annual external radiation exposure is less than 20 millisieverts, it is safe. (More in later post.)
After the March 11, 2011 triple disaster, people in Taiwan collected and donated a large amount of money (second-largest, in fact, almost the same as the US, at 2.9 billion yen) to help people in the disaster affected Japan. China, in addition to monetary donation (920 million yen), offered the Putzmeister crane to be used at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Hong Kong gave 700 million yen to Japan.
And Japan turns around and use the WTO to force them to drop the food bans. Not a way to treat generous neighbors.
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