Fukushima – Selling Out the Next Generation
Inside the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant’s station unit Number 3, which was idled after the 2011 disaster in Fukushima, in the Ehime prefecture of Japan, January 23, 2014.
Japan has restarted its first nuclear reactor to generate power since 2013.
And that’s really bad news.
Remember what happened in 2013? Why Japan closed all of its reactors abruptly and why we’re still tracing the spread of radioactive material across our Pacific Coast and into the atmosphere?
See more news and opinion from Thom Hartmann at Truthout here.
First there was an earthquake that did significant damage to that island country – and then a tsunami quickly followed.
And what happened next was the largest nuclear meltdown in the history of the world and the evacuation of 160,000 locals who lived in the area of the Fukushima power plant.
We know now that TEPCO – the owner of the Fukushima plant – had been warned years earlier about the dangers of an earthquake and a tsunami hitting the plant.
No one did anything about it then – but even if they had – do we have any reason to believe it would have been enough?
Because that’s the gamble that the Japanese nuclear industry is making with all of our futures right now.
The simple fact about nuclear power generation is that the risks and the costs dramatically outweigh any benefit.
We’ve seen some of the risks – in Chernobyl we saw how human error can cause a meltdown.
In the Three Mile Island incident we saw how the private corporations aren’t afraid to cut corners to pad their bottom line – even if that risks a partial nuclear meltdown.
And in Fukushima we saw what happens when corporate negligence meets a natural disaster.
Considering nuclear power’s track record and the staggering risks involved, it’s amazing that anyone will insure the projects. The simple fact is that without government backing, like the Price-Anderson Act here in the US, nuclear power would be impossible, because no private insurance company will cover it.
And to add insult to injury, nuclear power is actually NOT an “alternative energy” source – it’s an incredibly fossil-fuel-intensive process.
We can start with how much cement is required to contain and protect the reactors and other sensitive parts of the plants.
Cement and concrete are hugely greenhouse gas intensive to produce – and the only way we know how to protect our power plants is to use more concrete.
Beyond that, the size of the projects require tons of truckloads of materials being hauled in and away, adding to the toll of carbon costs.
Even if we just look at the material inputs used in nuclear power (it is carbon-intensive to mine uranium, and it is carbon intensive to enrich the uranium), we still don’t know what to do with the nuclear waste.
The reality is that there are economically viable and truly clean energy alternatives: geothermal, solar, wind and tidal wave power are all options for Japan, for example.
And they’re options that have none of the risks and none of the costs associated with enriched radioactive material.
And bringing those renewable options online isn’t nearly as costly in terms of carbon as it is to bring a nuclear power plant online.
The reality is – the only reason anyone wants to bring these power plants back online is that when for-profit companies like TEPCO run nuclear power with massive government subsidies and insurance, it can be hugely profitable.
Nuclear is not a bridge fuel – it is not a clean alternative – and it can’t be our future.
In the 1940s scientists marveled at the idea of using fission to safely create large amounts of energy indefinitely, and they were wrong.
The only reason we’re clinging to that fantasy today is that the for-profit nuclear owners – think Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons – don’t care about the costs of nuclear power to society.
They’ll happily sell the future of life on Earth – just to make a buck today.
Which is why both Japan and the United States should “just say no” to nuclear power.
Source: Truth out
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/32314-fukushima-selling-out-the-next-generation
Fukushima fishermen give nod to TEPCO’s plan to release treated water into sea
Fisherman operating in waters close to the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant formally approved a plan by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to discharge radioactive groundwater into the ocean after decontamination treatment.
The Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations gave the green light to TEPCO’s “subdrain plan” at an extraordinary meeting on Aug. 11.
TEPCO is expected to start discharging treated water as early as next month.
It will pump contaminated groundwater accumulating in areas around reactors damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster for processing and then release it into the sea.
The fishermen’s federation submitted a written request to the central government and TEPCO setting certain conditions for giving its approval to the subdrain plan. It warned the utility against discharging highly radioactive water inside the reactor buildings even after decontamination treatment and called for strict monitoring of standards for the release of water. It also insisted on compensation in the event the local fishing industry suffers losses as a result of groundless rumors.
Many fishermen initially opposed the TEPCO plan as processed radioactive water had never been discharged into the ocean.
TEPCO’s delay in disclosing the leakage of radioactive water into the sea each time it rained heavily also hampered its negotiations with local fishermen as it undermined their confidence in the company. The matter only came to light in February.
TEPCO then made an intensive effort to explain the subdrain plan would help reduce the flow of contaminated underground water into the ocean. This convinced the prefectural fishermen’s federation that the work could drastically decrease radiation levels in nearby waters, prompting it sign off on the plan.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201508110060
Amid protests, Kyushu Electric restarts Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima
SATSUMA-SENDAI, Kagoshima Prefecture–Kyushu Electric Power Co. activated the No. 1 reactor of the Sendai nuclear power plant here on Aug. 11, the first to be restarted in Japan under new safety regulations instituted after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The reactor is the first of 43 across the nation to be brought back online, ending a period with no nuclear power, which lasted for a year and 11 months.
As anti-nuclear protesters rallied around the Sendai plant, located in Satsuma-Sendai city, work to restart the No. 1 reactor began in the central control room at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 11.
Kyushu Electric workers pulled a lever to remove the control rods that had curbed nuclear fission in the reactor.
The 32 control rods began to withdraw, reactivating the reactor.
The reactor is expected to reach criticality, in which nuclear fission is self-sustaining, at around 11 p.m. on Aug. 11. Steam produced from the heat generated by the nuclear fission will drive a turbine to produce electricity.
The generation and transmission of electricity is expected to begin on Aug. 14. The output will be raised gradually, reaching full power generation in late August and shifting to a commercial operation in early September.
In a statement, Kyushu Electric Power President Michiaki Uriu said, “The activation of the nuclear reactor is one of the important steps in the process for restart. We will continue to deal sincerely with the government’s inspections and proceed with the subsequent process by putting a top priority on safety.”
In September 2014, the Sendai nuclear power plant passed the new safety regulations for the first time in the nation. In March this year, the Nuclear Regulation Authority started the inspection process that is required before a nuclear reactor can be reactivated. In July, nuclear fuel was brought into the reactor.
As operations of the reactor had been suspended for about four years, Kyushu Electric proceeded cautiously with the preparations.
All nuclear reactors in Japan were taken offline soon after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered three meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Though Kansai Electric Power Co. temporarily operated the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors of its Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture to deal with an electricity shortage, it suspended operations again in September 2013.
The electric power industry is pushing for the restart of idled nuclear reactors. The Abe administration also regards nuclear power as vital to the nation’s power needs.
Kyushu Electric plans to restart the No. 2 reactor at its Sendai nuclear power plant in mid-October. Preparations for a restart are progressing at the No. 3 and the No. 4 reactors of Kansai Electric’s Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture and the No. 3 reactor of Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture.
One stumbling block for the Takahama plant is a temporary injunction the Fukui District Court issued in April this year to prohibit the restart.
Meanwhile, anxieties remain among residents living near nuclear power plants over insufficient emergency measures in the event of a nuclear accident. For example, the formulation of evacuation plans has been delayed for some medical and welfare facilities that house many elderly people.
In the Kyushu region where the Sendai nuclear power plant is situated, volcanic activity poses a threat. Therefore, some opponents argue that it is necessary for nuclear power plants to take safety measures against major eruptions.
The spread of summer power-saving campaigns and solar power generation have reduced concerns over electricity shortages even when no nuclear reactors are operating. A stable electricity supply is continuing across the nation even amid a serious heat wave.
Opposition to the restart of nuclear plants remains strong among the public.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201508110066
Lifting of Japanese food ban to require more time: minister
Taiwan is working toward lifting a ban on food imports from Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, but the timeline will depend on further evaluations by health authorities, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said yesterday.
“I believe we are moving in that direction,” Lin said in response to questions on whether Taiwan is working toward lifting the ban on Japanese products from areas affected by the nuclear disaster.
Since Taiwan tightened regulations on imported Japanese food on May 15, “to date there have been no safety concerns associated with food products imported from Japan,” Lin said.
Lin said the Ministry of Health and Welfare is conducting further assessments and the government is also looking at how other countries have been dealing with the situation.
“Basically, the vast majority of countries are moving toward lifting restrictions, but we still hope that the Ministry of Health and Welfare can give a clear explanation of [the results of] its assessments at an appropriate time,” Lin said.
Even if the ban is lifted, Lin added, the new regulations implemented in May are to continue.
The new measures require Japanese food product importers to present certificates that show the place of origin of their products and radiation inspection results for certain types of products, such as tea, baby food and aquaculture products.
The new regulations were imposed after it was found in March that products from five restricted areas in Japan had made their way into Taiwan through the use of false labels.
Taiwan currently bans food imports from the Japanese prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba, which were affected by a meltdown in March 2011 after Japan was struck by a disastrous earthquake and tsunami.
Source: Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/08/11/2003625096
Fukushima governor seeks safety first
The governor of Fukushima Prefecture says Japan’s nuclear energy policy should place utmost priority on ensuring people’s safety and giving them a sense of security.
Masao Uchibori issued a statement in response to the restart on Tuesday of a nuclear plant in southwestern Japan, the first time in nearly 2 years for a nuclear facility in the country to come online. He said the government’s policy should reflect the lessons learned from the accident at the Daiichi plant in Fukushima.
He said his prefecture will continue pressing the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company to scrap all nuclear plants in Fukushima. TEPCO is the Daiichi plant’s operator.
Uchibori said the prefecture will also do its utmost to realize its basic principle for reconstruction — fostering a society that does not depend on nuclear power.
Former residents of Namie Town, which was designated a no-entry zone after the nuclear accident, expressed mixed emotions at the news of the restart of the Sendai plant.
An 83-year-old man was against the move, saying the suffering endured by the evacuees in Fukushima can never be understood by others.
A 44-year-old woman said the restart probably can’t be avoided. Even so, it gives her complicated feelings. She said she believes the normal order of business is to restart nuclear reactors only after confirming that all safety measures are in place — such as securing a final disposal site for spent nuclear fuel and designating evacuation routes in case of emergencies.
The woman said she wants the government to think more about protecting lives than profits, by looking at issues from the people’s perspective.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150811_20.html
Sendai nuclear plant restarted
A nuclear reactor has been restarted in Japan for the first time in nearly 2 years.
The No.1 reactor at the Sendai nuclear plant in southwestern Japan is the first to go back online under new regulations introduced after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.
On Tuesday morning, workers at the plant’s central control room operated a lever to pull out the reactor’s 32 control rods. Plant operator Kyushu Electric Power Company says there’s been no trouble so far.
If all goes well, the reactor is due to achieve a sustained nuclear chain reaction in about 12-and-a-half hours and begin generating power on Friday. After gradually raising output, Kyushu Electric plans to begin commercial operations in early September.
The utility says it will watch carefully for any abnormalities in equipment operation, as the reactor has been kept offline for more than 4 years.
The 2-reactor Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture last year cleared the new, rigorous regulations introduced after the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It completed all necessary inspections on Monday.
The reactor is the first to go online since September 2013, when the Ohi nuclear plant in central Japan halted operations.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150811_17.html
Efforts to improve nuclear plant evacuation roads – Protesters rally at Sendai nuclear power plant
Some residents near the nuclear power plant in Satsumasendai City in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, are questioning the feasibility of evacuation plans drawn up by local communities.
9 towns and cities within 30 kilometers of the plant have already drawn up evacuation plans for their residents. But some of the roads designated as evacuation routes have problems.
In Takae Town, a prefectural highway turns into a single-lane road with narrow sections where there are no sidewalks. Other sections are close to the mouth of a river and the sea and could be flooded in the event of tsunami.
An NHK survey shows that 6 of the 9 municipalities have acknowledged problems including traffic jams that might occur during evacuations.
The prefectural government of Kagoshima has started repair work such as widening roads and reinforcing embankments at 11 sections of such routes. However, the work is expected to take 7 to 8 years to complete.
Some municipal offices are improving forestry roads that can be used for evacuation. Officials say if a disaster causes traffic congestion, authorities may redirect people and vehicles to use forestry roads for evacuation.
Yuichi Kojima, a senior Kagoshima prefectural official, says the prefecture is giving top priority to improving evacuation routes and will also work with local municipalities to secure smooth evacuations.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150810_21.html
Protesters rally at Sendai nuclear power plant
Protesters are rallying outside the Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan in a last-ditch effort to stop the restart of a nuclear reactor at the plant. The restart will be the first under new safety rules established after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
About 200 activists from both in and out of the prefecture gathered in front of the plant early on Tuesday morning.
Using loudspeakers, they shouted “Don’t forget the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi!” and “Do not restart the Sendai plant!”
Police officers and the plant’s guards are deployed around the protesters.
A 22-year-old student taking part in the rally said the plant’s restart is not an issue limited to Kagoshima, but also affects other areas.
He said he does not want the plant to be restarted under the current conditions. He said he is worried that the local emergency evacuation plan is inadequate, especially for old people.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150811_11.html
Reactor in Kagoshima poised for restart despite public opposition
SATSUMASENDAI, Kagoshima Pref. – Kyushu Electric Power Co. said Monday it will restart the No. 1 reactor at its Sendai nuclear plant on Tuesday, marking the country’s first long-term return to nuclear power since the Fukushima crisis.
The reactor, in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, will be the first to go live under new safety standards that were put in place in 2013. The standards were drawn up after the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in March 2011.
The restart, strongly pushed by the pro-business administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will deal a tough blow to anti-nuclear activists and citizens who have been calling for abolition of all nuclear power plants.
Advocates of the restart include the prefectural government as well as residents of Satsumasendai who appreciate the impact of nuclear-power related subsidies on public works projects and the effect the plant has on local service industries.
Meanwhile, the Abe Cabinet risks losing popularity among voters. A poll by the Mainichi Shimbun on Saturday and Sunday found that 57 percent of people are opposed to reactivating the Sendai plant, while 30 percent support it. The survey polled 1,015 respondents nationwide.
Abe has maintained that utility companies, not the central government, should decide whether to restart reactors if the Nuclear Regulation Authority declares them safe under new inspection standards.
But at the same time his administration has been promoting the reactivation of suspended commercial reactors, citing the huge cost of importing fossil fuels for thermal power plants.
Tuesday’s restart would come despite local worries that Kyushu Electric Power and local politicians and businesses have been pushing for it without addressing what would happen in the event of an emergency.
A protest rally in front of the plant Monday drew former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who was in office at the time of the events of March 11, 2011.
With the exception of Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi No. 3 and 4 reactors in Fukui Prefecture, which were restarted in summer 2012 under the old safety measures and ran until early autumn 2013, all of Japan’s 43 remaining operable nuclear reactors have been shut down since the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent meltdowns in Fukushima.
“Like Tepco and Fukushima at that time, Kyushu Electric will not take responsibility for evacuation in case of an emergency,” Kan told the rally. “Under current laws, neither Tepco nor Kyushu Electric have responsibility to ensure the safety of residents.”
Local governments hosting nuclear plants are required to draw up evacuation plans for those living within 30 km of the site.
But nuclear plants like Sendai are often located in isolated areas along a coast, where access roads are sometimes few and where many local residents are elderly and would require special care and assistance.
“The plans Kagoshima Prefecture has drawn up are unrealistic,” said Katsuhiro Inoue, a member of the Satsumasendai Municipal Assembly from the Japan Communist Party.
“They assume the main access road closest to the plant will be usable in the event of accident, and they don’t answer basic questions of how long it might take to move those who are elderly outside the 30-km radius of the plant, or what might happen to people who live more than 30 km away and try to evacuate,” Inoue said.
In May 2014, the prefecture calculated how long it would take to evacuate the nearly 215,000 people who live in Satsumasendai and nine other towns within 30 km of the plant.
In the best case scenario, officials estimated it would take almost 10 hours to evacuate 90 percent of the population.
In the worst case, the prefecture concluded, it could take almost 29 hours.
Source: Japan Times
EDITORIAL: Trials of ex-TEPCO bigwigs a chance to take fresh look at disaster
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is hit by tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. will stand trial over their criminal responsibility for the 2011 disaster at TEPCO’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
For the second time, the Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution has rejected an earlier decision by prosecutors not to indict the three, setting the stage for the forced prosecution of these three individuals.
They will be accused of professional negligence resulting in the deaths of people who were in hospitals when the disaster happened and other tragedies.
A report issued by the Diet’s Fukushima nuclear accident investigation committee states, “It is clear that the accident was a man-made disaster.”
But no government officials or TEPCO employees have been punished, either politically or administratively. In other words, no one has been held accountable for the nation’s worst nuclear accident.
Many Japanese citizens still feel that justice has not been meted out with regard to that harrowing disaster. Many are also concerned that a similar accident may occur again if nobody is held responsible for what happened in 2011.
A second decision by the independent judicial panel of citizens to demand the criminal prosecution of the three former TEPCO executives should be viewed as indicative of the disturbing and disquieting feelings among many citizens.
The system of forced indictment through the judgment of citizens was introduced in 2009, along with the “saiban-in” citizen judge system. Until that time, public prosecutors monopolized the power to decide whether to indict a suspect. The new system is intended to ensure that public opinion is reflected in the process of criminal prosecution, at least to a certain degree.
In reversing public prosecutors’ decision not to indict the suspects on grounds that there is no compelling case for holding them liable for negligence, the panel of citizens made a grave decision to force trials of the three individuals.
The court should, of course, consider carefully and fairly whether the former TEPCO executives should be held liable for the misfortunes of disaster victims from the viewpoint of evidence submitted.
At the same time, one question that needs to be asked is how TEPCO implemented measures to protect the nuclear plant from a possible tsunami and ensure the plant’s safety.
Collectively, the trials will offer a great opportunity to take a fresh look into the accident from a perspective that is different from those of the investigation committees set up by the government and the Diet.
There have not been many opportunities for people to talk about the disaster in public. But the three former TEPCO executives will probably be given opportunities to speak in the courtroom. The court can also order submission of specific pieces of evidence.
Future public debate on issues concerning nuclear power generation will benefit greatly if the trials uncover unknown facts in the process, such as chronological changes in the utility’s decisions concerning safety measures for its nuclear power plants and the ways the government and other public organizations influenced the company’s policy.
The nation’s judiciary has a long history of handing down rulings related to nuclear power generation. But in most of the past cases concerning the construction and operations of nuclear power plants, the courts ruled against opposing local residents.
The question is whether all these court rulings in favor of nuclear power were influenced in any way by the perception that there is no way to stop the expansion of electricity production with atomic energy based on the government’s energy policy.
The judiciary’s attitude to nuclear power generation has also been called into question by the accident.
In considering the criminal liabilities related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which has caused an unprecedented scale of damage, are the traditional criteria, like “specific predictability,” sufficiently effective?
The trials should prompt the judicial community to have more in-depth debate on this question.
We strongly hope the trials will be conducted in a way that lives up to people’s confidence in the judicial system.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
Japanese Government Slick Propaganda to Minimize the Fukushima Situation in the eyes of the UN
After reading that article, I believe that this kid will be a tool for the the Japanese Government, which will be using that kid testimony to minimize the desperate extent of the situation in Fukushima, to justify its non evacuation of many people, the financially forced return of the previoulsly evacuees to go back to live in contaminated villages and to promote an illusory criminal reconstruction in the eyes of the world at the UN….She has been coached to that effect…..At least that is the impression this article gives me….
I must add that to use a victim, a youth, as agent for their propaganda, is pretty slick, sly and devious, on the Japanese government part…
Poor kid, she is being manipulated without even be aware of it….Sad, disgusting…
“… it is not the entire area of Fukushima Prefecture, but only some regions that people cannot live in. Most of Fukushima is safe to live in.”
Unless:
1. The wind blows
2. It rains
3. You eat the food
4. You breathe
“…there is a lot of good news about Fukushima too.” Do tell!!!
Then, come back in 20 years and let us know which cancer(s) you have faced, if you have had a child with birth defects…at 16, it is so very easy to manipulate you. You want to go ‘home’…it just isn’t there anymore.
Ayumi Kikuchi, left, practices the speech she will give at a United Nations event with her English teacher, Fumi Arimura, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 23. She attends the relocated Futaba High School, now operating in the city of Iwaki.
Fukushima high school evacuee to share experiences at United Nations
IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture–A high school student who thought she was only temporarily fleeing her home during the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and remains an evacuee to this day, will address an event at the United Nations headquarters this month.
Ayumi Kikuchi, 16, a former resident of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, located near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that suffered a triple meltdown, was asked by school officials to give the speech in New York City.
A nonprofit organization that deals with the issues of human rights, health and the environment contacted the prefectural Futaba High School, which now operates out of the nearby city of Iwaki. It invited a student from the prefecture to come and share their experiences of having lived through those trying events and the aftermath.
“At that time, I was a sixth-grader in my elementary school, and we were going to graduate in a few days,” Kikuchi says in her speech. “My home was 4 kilometers from the plant. At that time, I didn’t understand why we had to leave our home, and I thought we could come back home soon.”
However, she has been forced to live in various shelters over the years, including the Saitama Super Arena and one set up at the former Kisai High School in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture.
“I wondered what’s going to happen to us (at the time),” she said. She remembered watching the events unfold on the news.
“I went back to my home only once after the accident,” she wrote. “There were many houses left collapsed and roads still had cracks. Nothing seemed to have changed since the disaster. However, the inside of my house was totally different from what I remembered because of animal excreta and rain leaking in.”
The high school student said she hopes to one day work for the local government to help restore her town to what it once was.
Her school, which has a history of more than 90 years, will close after her class graduates. Four other relocated high schools are also scheduled to close.
“Many graduates are feeling very sorry and regretting that their old school is forced to close even though the school or the students have done nothing wrong themselves,” Kikuchi says in her speech.
In her message, Kikuchi will call on people to help one another in times of disaster. She also plans to ask people to share and pass on the memories that result from such devastating events.
“I want people to know about Fukushima’s situation accurately,” she wrote. “People in other countries may think that Fukushima is uninhabitable and may wonder why people don’t flee from Fukushima. In fact, however, it is not the entire area of Fukushima Prefecture, but only some regions that people cannot live in. Most of Fukushima is safe to live in. Also, various movements toward reconstruction have been made, and there is a lot of good news about Fukushima too.”
Fumi Arimura, an English teacher at Kikuchi’s school, helped her write her 10-minute speech. Kikuchi leaves for the United States on Aug. 2.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201508010022
Judicial review panel votes to indict ex-Tepco execs
(Left to right) Former Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro.
Three former top executives at Tokyo Electric Power Co. are set to be hauled into court over their alleged responsibility for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.
The Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution voted Friday that Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tepco at the time of the disaster, and two former vice presidents, Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro, should be indicted for professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
The announcement by the panel of citizens came more than four years after the massive tsunami of March 11, 2011, knocked out the critical cooling functions at Tepco’s Fukushima No. 1 plant, leading to three of the six reactors there melting down.
Prosecutors have twice previously decided not to seek such indictments, saying Tepco could not have expected such a massive tsunami to hit the nuclear plant and cripple its critical safety systems.
But on Friday the committee overrode the prosecutors’ decisions for a second time, which will lead to a compulsory indictment of the three Tepco executives. They were all responsible for major disaster prevention planning.
Holding a news conference at the Tokyo District Court, representatives of a group of Fukushima residents and others who have filed criminal complaints against the executives said they were elated.
“I want (the Tepco executives) to tell the truth” during the upcoming trials, said Ruiko Muto.
Muto said many elderly people who evacuated from the radiation-contaminated areas have since died in shelters away from their hometowns, while numerous people still living in Fukushima are being exposed to radiation via contaminated materials from the heavily damaged plant.
Muto said many people outside the prefecture have the impression that the nuclear crisis is over.
“If who should be held responsible is not made clear, (the dead) victims won’t rest in peace,” she added.
Before the catastrophe, Tepco had conducted simulations and concluded that critical facilities at Fukushima No. 1 would be flooded and critically damaged if a major earthquake struck off the Tohoku coast and tsunami of more than 10 meters in height hit the plant.
But prosecutors concluded that it was impossible for Tepco to predict such gigantic tsunami would actually hit the plant, as opinions from quake experts were not established regarding the possibility of such a powerful quake.
The judicial review committee said the Tepco executives were obliged to prepare for a worst-case scenario even if the possibility of such a disaster was considered very small.
The simulations provided a good indication that a major crisis was possible, but the three neglected their obligation to prepare for such an eventuality, the committee concluded in a 30-page document explaining its decision.
The panel pointed out that 44 patients who were forced to evacuate from a hospital located 4.5 km from Fukushima No. 1 died after their health conditions deteriorated because of the move. The committee alleged that their deaths were caused by the meltdown crisis.
Meanwhile, no health damage has so far been confirmed to have been caused by radiation from contaminated materials released from the plant.
The committee said one person who was exposed to radiation from contaminated materials has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, but a causal link with the meltdown disaster has not been established.
The central government is preparing to allow the reactivation of some commercial reactors suspended in the wake of the Fukushima crisis.
Muto said she hopes the findings in the upcoming trials will prompt a change in the national nuclear policy and lead to the abolition of all nuclear power plants.
Source: Japan Times
Nuclear watchdog proposes raising maximum radiation dose to 250 millisieverts
Nuclear plant workers in Japan will be allowed to be exposed to more than twice the current level of radiation in emergency situations, according to the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s Radiation Council.
The radiation exposure limit will be raised from the current 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts in emergencies, the radiation council announced in a report released July 30.
The higher level is still only half of the accepted international safety level of 500 millisieverts set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, an influential independent organization that provides guidelines on radiation protection, for rescue workers in emergency situations at nuclear facilities.
The new cap will be activated from April 2016 after revisions to the nuclear reactor regulatory law and the Industrial Safety and Health Law.
The limit was temporarily raised to 250 millisieverts by the radiation council following the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
The decision was quickly made by the council members through e-mail discussions as the 100 millisieverts limit could have caused a shortage of workers tackling the emergency at the plant. Later, the limit was returned to 100 millisieverts.
Under the revised law, the exposure limit for plant workers will be immediately raised to 250 millisieverts when certain conditions arise, including the risk of radioactive materials leaking from the facility into the surrounding area.
The workers affected will include employees of utility companies and their contractors, inspection officers from the Secretariat of the NRA and other on-field workers.
Of the 174 workers who were exposed to radiation doses more than 100 millisieverts following the Fukushima accident, six were exposed to 250 millisieverts or more.
The radiation council decided that workers are protected if they wear masks and other gear even when exposed to 250 millisieverts. The health damage from acute radiation poisoning below that limit is negligible, it said.
The council’s report calls for nuclear plant operators to carefully explain to workers tackling emergency situations about their tasks and obtain their consent to work in such an environment.
It also requests utility companies to conduct proper training of workers, while one of the council members also called on them to conduct follow-up medical checks to detect cancer and other illnesses.
The report also acknowledges that nuclear plant workers could be required to engage in tasks that cause them to be exposed to more than 250 millisieverts in acute emergency situations.
At Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, which the company aims to restart in August, workers will carry out their tasks with an exposure limit of 100 millisieverts until the maximum limit is raised to 250 millisieverts.
A plant worker who has worked at nuclear facilities for 20 years said he suspects that workers from subcontractors will agree to work under the raised limit.
“The cancer checkups and other measures also sound to me as stopgap efforts to ease our anxiety,” he said.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201507310057
Three former TEPCO executives to stand trial – Residents hail indictment decision
Three former TEPCO executives to stand trial
Three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company will face mandatory indictment over the March 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Nobody has been held criminally responsible so far for Japan’s worst nuclear accident.
The prosecution inquest panel of randomly-selected citizens voted for the indictment on Friday, disagreeing for a 2nd time with prosecutors who had dismissed the complaint filed against the officials. The prosecutors said the officials could not have predicted a quake and tsunami on the scale of the March 11th disasters.
The decision leads to the mandatory indictment of former TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro for professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
Court-appointed lawyers will act as prosecutors in the trial.
In its decision, the panel said TEPCO should have taken measures to protect the plant from tsunami and flood-triggered serious accidents after it had made a projection of a 15.7-meter tsunami hitting the plant.
The panel said TEPCO could have foreseen that in a worst-case scenario, flooding would result in a massive release of radioactive substances or other severe situations. The panel said that if TEPCO had taken appropriate precautions, a serious accident like the one in March 2011 could have been avoided.
Prosecutors in 2013 dismissed the initial complaints filed by Fukushima residents and others against more than 30 former TEPCO officials for failing to take precautions against major quakes and tsunami.
The case was taken up for reconsideration by the inquest panel, which decided in July last year that the three officials should be indicted.
But prosecutors dismissed the case again in January, sending it back to the inquest panel.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150731_32.html
Residents hail indictment decision
The leader of the residents, Ruiko Muto, has praised the panel’s decision.
Muto said she believes a court will determine who was responsible for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and give a fair judgment.
She said that 110,000 people are still unable to return to their homes. She added that having the former executives face a criminal trial will help prevent a recurrence and create a society in which people can live in peace.
The residents’ lawyer, Hiroyuki Kawai, also said that if the former officials had escaped indictment, the real cause of the accident would have been covered up forever.
He expressed hope that the trial will find out more about what caused the nuclear accident.
TEPCO declined to comment on the decision or the criminal complaint that led to it.
But it said in a statement that it wants to renew its heartfelt apology to the people of Fukushima and many others for causing trouble and concern.
The firm said it will do its utmost for compensation, plant decommissioning and decontamination, based on the principle of seeking reconstruction of Fukushima. It added that it is fully resolved to improving the safety of nuclear power plants.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150731_80.html
Robot probe into No.2 reactor may be delayed
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it may have to postpone plans to send a robot probe into the plant’s No.2 reactor due to difficult preparations.
Tokyo Electric Power Company was planning to send a robot into the containment vessel of the No.2 reactor in August. The purpose is to capture video images of molten nuclear fuel for the first time.
The utility assumes the fuel penetrated the reactor core and is inside the containment vessel.
The plan involved using a pipe sticking out of the container as an entry point for the robot. But some concrete blocks are blocking the way and need to be removed.
Workers found that the remote-controlled machinery they wanted to use to remove the blocks cannot operate in some areas of the reactor building due to an eroded floor and other reasons.
TEPCO says it is now considering using chemicals to clear the blocks or developing new machinery to remove the blocks.
Due to these reasons, the utility says the probe may be postponed from August until December or later, in the worst case.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150731_06.html
Fukushima plant tunnels clear of radioactive water
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has finished removing highly radioactive water from underground tunnels linked to the reactor buildings.
More than 10,000 tons of highly contaminated water flowed into the tunnels outside the buildings for reactors No.2 and 3. Experts feared that the water might seep into the sea.
The concern led the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, to try and block any more tainted water from entering the tunnels.
The firm has been filling the tunnels with cement to pump out contaminated water since November.
It finished draining the No.2 reactor building’s tunnels late last month. The company says it also completed similar work on the tunnels connected to the No.3 reactor building on Thursday.
The firm will continue the work to fill the tunnels with cement until sometime late next month.
The utility initially attempted to freeze radioactive water in sections where the tunnels connect to the reactor buildings. But this did not work.
The government and TEPCO had placed top priority on addressing the highly radioactive water in the tunnels due to a fear that it might badly pollute the sea near the plant. The latest achievement will significantly reduce that risk.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150731_01.html
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