China is reconsidering building nuclear reactors in Britain
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China poised to pull plans for UK nuclear plants https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/china-poised-to-pull-plans-for-uk-nuclear-plants 5 June 20 LONDON (BLOOMBERG) – China’s ambassador to the UK said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to seek alternatives to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in the 5G network could spoil plans for Chinese companies to build nuclear power plants and the HS2 high-speed rail network, the Sunday Times reported.Mr Liu Xiaoming signalled that Beijing is viewing the decision over Huawei as “a litmus test of whether Britain is a true and faithful partner of China”, the newspaper reported the ambassador telling business leaders, saying that the words were “interpreted as a threat by those listening”.
China General Nuclear Power Corp plans to build its own nuclear reactor at Bradwell in Essex, according to the newspaper report. China has a minority share in nuclear power plants at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell C in Suffolk, both in partnership with EDF of France. |
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Kim Jong Un unlikely to use nuclear weapons – an alternative leader of N Korea might be worse
Kim Jong-un: Terrifying reason behind North Korean leader’s nuclear obsession exposed, Express UK By JOSH SAUNDERS, Jun 5, 2020
KIM JONG-UN is considered one of North Korea’s most feared leaders because he has successfully produced a stockpile of nuclear missiles – but one expert claims the hermit state head would not use them and instead there is a more chilling reason behind his obsession with world-ending weapons……….
Mr Mikul told Express.co.uk: “He essentially became westernised, so you can see why there is a big difference between him and the other leaders of North Korea.
“while no one likes to see the continued success of a brutal dictator” things could be a lot worse if he had died – as was believed in April and May.
Despite the threat perceived by the US Department of the Defence, Mr Mikul believes the weapons may be more symbolic and a way to secure their regime.
If Kim Jong-un was to die, he fears there would more risk from the hermit state due to “no clear successor” being named.
He believes – if it happened – that there could be a “fight at the top” among the inner circle, which in turn could collapse the regime.
Nuclear power plants in the path of oncoming Cyclone Nisarga
 Concerns raised over nuclear and chemical plants in  Maharashtra as cyclone Nisarga heads towards the state Opindia, 2 June, 2020, OpIndia Staff As the Cyclone Nisarga is heading towards the coasts of Maharashtra, a huge concern has been expressed regarding the nuclear and chemical plants that may come in its direct path. Expectedly, the cyclone will enter the coasts late Tuesday night or early Wednesday.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray while updating about the cyclone said, “Care is being taken to prevent power outages. Precautions are being taken at chemical units and nuclear power plants in Palghar and Raigad.” Maharashtra posses a string of chemical and nuclear plants. In Palghar, the oldest Tarapur Atomic Power Plant complex and other power units are present while Mumbai has the BARC set up and Raigad houses power, petroleum, chemicals, and other major industries besides the Mumbai port trust, the Jawaharlal Nehru Post trust and vital installations of the navy. People living in non-pucca houses have been shifted to safer shelters for them and slum dwellers have been asked to vacate for their own safety. As per reports, 50 patients were shifted from the Bandra Kurla complex COVID-19 hospital to the Goregaon NESCO hospital. Rescue operations underway…….. The Indian Meteorological Department announced that depression in the Arabian Sea may develop into a cyclonic storm in the next 12 hours and further intensify into a severe cyclonic storm within 24 hours. The deep depression – ‘Cyclone Nisarga’, which is headed towards the coasts in Maharashtra and Gujarat, is likely to hit the western coast on Wednesday……. https://www.opindia.com/2020/06/cyclone-nisarga-creates-concerns-for-nuclear-and-chemical-plants-maharashtra/ |
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China’s nuclear power ambitions face delays, waste problems, and the growing success of renewables
It’s a pity that nuclear energy is so easily described as “climate-friendly”. Yes, the actual nuclear reactor can be said to be cutting carbon emissions. But why does everyone ignore the huge carbon emissions from the entire nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining through to burial of radioactive wastes? Why ignore the emissions of ionising radiation, another unseen, but dangerous pollutant?
And why ignore climate change’s effects on nuclear power? Far from nuclear energy stopping global heating, it’s more likely that global heating will stop nuclear power. Nuclear is highly water-guzzling, so most reactors are perched neat the sea, or near rivers – meaning in danger of sea level rise, as well as other extremes such as hurricanes. The water requirements mean that nuclear is affected by extreme heat – and plants have to cut down, or even shut down.
China to Dominate Nuclear as Beijing Bets on Homegrown Reactors
China probably won’t hit its nuclear energy target this year, but that’s unlikely to derail a broader ambition to become the planet’s chief proponent of the climate-friendly [what!!] fuel
Bloomberg, 1 June 20
Green light for Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant, but is it viable?
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The NRA’s approval means the long-troubled and controversial plant has moved closer to going into operation. Here’s a look at the Rokkasho plant and the problems it has faced.
What is the Rokkasho reprocessing plant? The plant at Rokkasho is a 3.8 million square meter facility designed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s nuclear reactors.
Construction began in 1993. Once in operation, the plant’s maximum daily reprocessing capacity will be a cumulative total of 800 tons per year.
During reprocessing, uranium and plutonium are extracted, and the Rokkasho plant is expected to generate up to eight tons of plutonium annually. Both are then turned into a mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel at a separate MOX fabrication plant, also located in Rokkasho, for use in commercial reactors. Construction on the MOX facility began in 2010 and it’s expected to be completed in 2022.
The Rokkasho reprocessing plant can store up to 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s power plants on-site. It’s nearly full however, with over 2,900 tons of high-level waste already waiting to be reprocessed.
Why has it taken until now for the Rokkasho plant to secure approval from the nuclear watchdog? Decades of technical problems and the new safety standards for nuclear power that went into effect after the 2011 triple meltdown at the power plant in Fukushima Prefecture have delayed Rokkasho’s completion date 24 times so far. It took six years for the plant to win approval under the post-3/11 safety standards.
There has also long been concern and unease over the entire project — and not just among traditional anti-nuclear activists — which the government has been forced to address. Japan is the only non-nuclear weapons state pursuing reprocessing. But as far back as the 1970s, as Japan was debating a nuclear reprocessing program, the United States became concerned about a plant producing plutonium that could be used for a nuclear weapons program.
The issue was raised at a Feb. 1, 1977, meeting between U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale and Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda.
“Reprocessing facilities which could produce weapons grade material are simply bomb factories,” noted a declassified U.S. State Department cable on the meeting. “We want to cooperate (with Japan) to keep the problem under control.”
…….. technical mishaps led to plans being made and then scrapped for many years, while arms control experts continued to worry that Japan could end up stockpiling plutonium that could lead to proliferation problems.
After the 2011 disaster, the NRA created tougher measures to minimize damage from natural disasters, forcing more construction and upgrades at the plant, leading to higher costs.
The Tokai plant halted operations in 2007. The decision to scrap it was made in 2014, as it was judged to be unable to meet the new safety standards. But little progress is being made, due to uncertainty over where to store all of the radioactive waste.
Safety concerns over the Rokkasho plant have remained, especially since 2017 when it was revealed that Japan Nuclear Fuel had not carried out mandatory safety standards for 14 years
By the time of the NRA announcement on May 13, the price tag for work at the Rokkasho plant had reached nearly ¥14 trillion.
What happens next? The NRA is soliciting public comment on its decision until June 12, but the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry is expected to formally approve the decision. After that, the Aomori governor would be asked to give his approval, though that is not a legal requirement. The last bureaucratic hurdles would then have been cleared to start operations at the plant by the spring of 2022.
However, there are other issues that could force a delay to the start of reprocessing. Japan had originally envisioned MOX fuel powering between 16 and 18 of the nation’s 54 commercial reactors that were operating before 2011, in place of conventional uranium.
But only four reactors are using it out of the current total of nine officially in operation. MOX fuel is more expensive than conventional uranium fuel, raising questions about how much reprocessed fuel the facilities would need, or want…….
Japan finds itself caught between promises to the international community to reduce its plutonium stockpile through reprocessing at Rokkasho, and questions about whether MOX is still an economically, and politically, viable resource — given the expenses involved and the availability of other fossil fuel and renewable energy resources. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/31/national/social-issues/aomoris-rokkasho-nuclear-plant-gets-green-light-hurdles-remain/#.XtQfrTozbIU
Coronavirus pandemic hampers Japan’s nuclear regulators’ probe into Fukushima disaster
Nuclear regulators’ Fukushima crisis probe hit by coronavirus, https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200530/p2g/00m/0na/054000c May 30, 2020 (Mainichi Japan) TOKYO (Kyodo) — A probe by nuclear regulators into the causes of the March 2011 Fukushima crisis has been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, with the dispatch of staff from Tokyo postponed for fear of spreading infection among the some 4,000 on-site decommissioning workers.The Nuclear Regulation Authority had resumed its investigation last October, deeming radiation levels in some areas of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had lowered sufficiently enough, nearly a decade since the disaster.
NRA officials had repeatedly traveled to the site from Tokyo and succeeded last December in filming scattered debris and a damaged ceiling on the third floor of the No. 3 reactor building, where a hydrogen explosion occurred during the crisis triggered by the quake-tsunami disaster.
In late March, the watchdog set seven priorities in conducting the probe for the time being, including checking the radiation levels on the fourth floor of the No. 3 reactor building, and radiation contamination levels at the No. 2 reactor facility.
The NRA originally intended to send its staff to the plant every one or two weeks in April and May, but the plan came to a halt following the government’s declaration of a state of emergency over the coronavirus on April 7 for Tokyo and six other prefectures, which was expanded nationwide on April 16.
“It would be impermissible should the virus be brought from Tokyo in any case” to the Fukushima complex, NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said.
The nuclear watchdog was compelled to cancel the planned dispatch of its staff for the probe because any coronavirus infection among the employees at the plant could stop their decommissioning work.
The state of emergency declaration was lifted on Monday for the entire nation, but the NRA fears it may take even more time before staff can enter the site again.
Further delays in the resumption of the probe could affect the NRA’s goal of compiling a report by the end of the year.
“We can’t do it during the summer period,” a senior NRA official said, as it will be impossible to carry out an investigation under the summer heat wearing heavy radiation protection gear.
The NRA is looking to restart sending the staff from the fall, according to sources close to the matter.
Extreme heat, humidity, air pollution – combined threat to South Asia
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South Asia’s twin threat: extreme heat and foul air https://climatenewsnetwork.net/south-asias-twin-threat-extreme-heat-and-foul-air/
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Chinese involvement in Sizewell nuclear plant the ‘next Huawei
Telegraph 27th May 2020, Chinese involvement in Sizewell nuclear plant the ‘next Huawei’, MPs warn.
Call for energy policy and how the UK interacts with China to be reviewed.
Chinese involvement in the Sizewell C nuclear power station will be the
“next Huawei,” MPs have warned, as they called for an entire overhaul
of the energy policy.
It comes after EDF, the French energy company on
Wednesday submitted an application to build the next nuclear power plant in
Suffolk, which it intends to develop with the state-owned energy company,
China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN).
However Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the
former Conservative leader, warned the power plant was “the next
Huawei”. “It is another major manifestation of the problem we face
having set out on the wrong path with China years ago,” Sir Iain told The
Daily Telegraph.
The way that China plans its nuclear weapons strategy
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The role of nuclear weapons in China’s national defence, The Strategist,
27 May 2020, Fiona S. Cunningham At the end of April, two upgraded Chinese Type-094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) reportedly went into service. But China’s SSBN capability is a far less important component of its nuclear deterrent than its land-based missile force. And that nuclear deterrent plays an important but limited role in China’s national defence. Absent major strategic change, the role of nuclear weapons in China’s national defence strategy is unlikely to expand. And absent major technological change, the relative importance of China’s sea-based deterrent is also unlikely to grow.
Although the commander of US Strategic Command, Admiral Charles A. Richard, recently stated that he could ‘drive a truck through China’s nuclear no first use policy’, that policy has played a critical role in China’s nuclear force development since 1964. China’s nuclear force structure is optimised to ride out an adversary’s nuclear strike and then retaliate against an adversary’s strategic targets, rather than credibly threaten first use. China’s operational doctrine for its nuclear forces doesn’t include plans for the first use, or threat of first use, of nuclear weapons in a conventional conflict. While Chinese leaders and strategists have debated changes to the no-first-use policy from time to time, there’s no sign that China plans to abandon it. The policy was most recently reaffirmed in China’s 2019 defence white paper.
China’s top leaders in the politburo and Central Military Commission exercise strict control over both the formulation of nuclear strategy and the authority to alert or use nuclear weapons. To ensure they’re not used accidentally, mistakenly or without authorisation, nuclear weapons are kept off alert in peacetime and warheads are stored separately from delivery systems in a central depot deep in the country’s interior. There are two potential changes to the threat environment that could prompt Beijing to rethink its restrained nuclear posture: a dramatic increase in the intensity of the US threat China faces and a radical technological change that weakens its retaliatory-only policy.
If Chinese leaders concluded that a future conflict with the US posed an existential threat rather than a limited war, they could look to nuclear weapons as insurance against a conventional defeat that eliminated the Chinese state. But such a change is by no means a given. Chinese strategists stress a number of reasons for the country’s restrained nuclear strategy, including the difficulty of controlling nuclear escalation and geography. China’s large size provides it with non-nuclear options for defeating a conventional military threatening its survival. An increase in US hostility wouldn’t remove these incentives for restraint.
A breakthrough in the development of counterforce technology is also unlikely to change China’s retaliatory nuclear posture, unless it were so radical that it made that posture unviable. Those changes would have to enable the US to credibly threaten to destroy most of China’s retaliatory force. It would also have to render China’s other options for ensuring a survivable nuclear force futile, such as expanding its arsenal size or shifting to a launch-on-warning alert status. Such radical technological change is unlikely, despite persistent US efforts to improve its counterforce capabilities. Regardless of whether either of these situations come to pass, China’s land-based missile force is unlikely to be displaced by its sea-based deterrent as the primary leg of its retaliatory nuclear capability, for four reasons………..
This piece was produced as part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy: Undersea Deterrence Project, undertaken by the ANU National Security College. This article is a shortened version of chapter 7, ‘The role of nuclear weapons in China’s national defence’, as published in the 2020 edited volume The future of the undersea deterrent: a global survey. Support for this project was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-role-of-nuclear-weapons-in-chinas-national-defence/
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Government-owned Chinese company wants to build Sizewell nuclear plant
 State-owned Chinese company bids to build second UK nuclear plant, SMH, By Latika Bourke May 27, 2020 —A Chinese state-owned company blacklisted in the United States has applied to build a second nuclear plant in Britain amid growing concern in the UK government’s ranks about Chinese investment in critical infrastructure.China General Nuclear Power Group’s application creates a new headache for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is already facing a backbench revolt over his approval of Chinese firm Huawei to supply Britain’s 5G networks.
The UK does not have an investment review process like Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board. However, Johnson has flagged a tightening of foreign investment rules in the wake of the pandemic and subsequent alarm about dependence on China. CGN, on Wednesday, submitted its planning application to build the Sizewell reactor in Suffolk, England with its French partner EDF. The project, estimated to cost at least £20 billion ($A37 billion) would be financed through private investment and construction would begin by the end of 2021 if approvals are given. CGN’s initial stake in the project would be 20 per cent compared to EDF’s 80 per cent. The same consortium was approved to build Britain’s Hinkley Point power station in 2016. The then prime minister Theresa May temporarily halted the project over concerns about Chinese investment in critical infrastructure but eventually gave the project the go-ahead. However, in August last year the Trump Administration placed CGN on the US entity list accusing it of acting contrary to the United States’ national security. The US has accused the Chinese company of stealing US nuclear technology for military use.
Sizewell’s approval process is expected to take at least 18 months at the same time as the government is being urged to tighten foreign investment rules. Former Conservative party leader and backbench MP Iain Duncan Smith told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that China must not be allowed to make any further inroads into the UK’s critical infrastructure. “We simply cannot go further down the road of becoming more dependant on China,” he said…….. https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/state-owned-chinese-company-bids-to-build-second-uk-nuclear-plant-20200527-p54x37.html |
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Britain will have to decide whether it wants nuclear power stations funded — and powered — by China.
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Times 24th May 2020, The great China dilemma: Caught between two superpowers, Britain faces difficult decisions on everything from nuclear power to medicine. On the picturesque Suffolk coast, a battle is intensifying that will help define Britain’s relationship with China. In one corner is a group of celebrities and locals, including the Love Actually actor Bill Nighy, and Andy Wood, chief executive of Adnams brewery in Southwold. In the other are two nuclear power giants, Electricité de France (EDF) and China General Nuclear (CGN).
China and France want to build Sizewell C, a nuclear power station capable of supplying 7% of the UK’s electricity. The Stop Sizewell C campaigners share one concern with some politicians, notably the hard right of the Conservative Party: why is Britain relying on China to
supply its electricity? “China is adept at cyber-attacks,” said Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C. “I would doubt whether there could be a 100% cast-iron guarantee that operating systems were immune to that. Even if you set aside security concerns, you’ve got real vulnerabilities with a government that is prepared to use economic sanctions.” Sizewell is just a part of the communist state’s Belt and Road initiative to dominate the world with cash, technology and influence. It plans to use the UK as a showcase for its nuclear technology, with state-owned CGN providing 20% of the funds for Sizewell.
China is also helping bankroll the delayed and over-budget Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset. However, the bigger prize lies on the Essex coast at Bradwell. There, 40 miles east of London, CGN wants to install its homegrown HPR1000 nuclear reactors. CGN will be the two-thirds owner of the Bradwell plant, EDF the junior partner.
EDF and CGN claim that the power stations will be impervious to cyber attack. In
Britain, a new China-sceptic organisation, the China Research Group, has been formed by Tory MPs led by Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee. It is a far cry from the “golden era” in Sino-British relations promised by David Cameron in 2015, when Chinese
president Xi Jinping visited the UK and the pair drank pints in a pub. At CGN, concern is growing about the rising tide of Sinophobia and its investment in the UK. As the Chinese embassy in London pumps out defensive statements about China’s role in tackling Covid-19, Britain will have to decide whether it wants nuclear power stations funded — and powered — by China. CGN’s UK chief executive, Zheng Dongshan, is understood to have
pressed energy minister Nadhim Zahawi for clarity around the UK’s intentions on new nuclear. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/the-great-china-dilemma-6rdmhw3wl |
Climate: Cyclone Amphan disaster in India, Bangladesh
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Cyclone Amphan leaves thousands homeless in eastern India as PM Narendra Modi offers help, SBS News, 23 May 20, Authorities have begun assessing damage and clearing roads in the wake of Cyclone Amphan, which has killed more than 90 people and left millions displaced in eastern India and Bangladesh.
Several thousand people have been left homeless after the most powerful cyclone in more than a decade hit India and Bangladesh this week, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the area on Friday and pledged aid. Cyclone Amphan killed at least 96 people, officials said, after it swept in from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday. Eighty fatalities were in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and 16 were in neighbouring Bangladesh, after winds of up to 185 km per hour caused flooding, blew away roofs, uprooted trees and ripped up power lines…… The total death toll is expected to rise as communications are restored and authorities reach villages cut off by blocked roads, particularly in India’s low-lying Sundarbans delta, home to four million people and thick mangrove forests that are a critical tiger habitat. In the Sundarbans’ Gosaba, an administrative area of the river delta that juts into the sea, the storm completely destroyed around 26,000 homes and damaged another 14,000, local disaster management official Pradip Kumar Dalui said. The cyclone also damaged some 19 kilometres of embankments around Gosaba, causing 13 breaches that led salty water to inundate swathes of land, Prime Minister Modi said. …. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/cyclone-amphan-leaves-thousands-homeless-in-eastern-india-as-pm-narendra-modi-offers-help |
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South Korea risk of power disruption, as nuclear spent fuel builds up, with storage shortage
Wolseong reactors at risk of shutdown due to spent nuclear fuel storage shortage, Pulse News, By Oh Chan-jong and Choi Mira 2020.05.22 South Korean nuclear reactors responsible for nearly a quarter of the country’s power supply at cheap price could undergo disruption due to shortage of space to store spent nuclear fuel.
Failure to begin construction to add storage facilities within 100 days would lead to total shutdown of the Wolseong 2, 3 and 4 reactors that each can generate 700 megawatts of power, equivalent to the anticipated capacity of a solar farm that the government plans to build in Saemangeum with an investment of 10 trillion won ($8.09 billion). The Wolseong 1 reactor was already unplugged last year…….. https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2020&no=525749
Time that Japan faced up to the folly of its nuclear fuel cycle dream
As the situation stands, plutonium will start to pile up with no prospects of it being consumed. Reducing the amount produced is also an issue that needs to be addressed.
The United States and Britain have already pulled out of a nuclear fuel cycle.
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Editorial: Time to set a course away from Japan’s troubled nuclear fuel cycle https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200518/p2a/00m/0na/029000c, May 18, 2020 (Mainichi Japan) The Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facility being constructed in the northern Japan prefecture of Aomori has cleared a safety inspection by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). Spent fuel from Japan’s nuclear power plants will be reprocessed at this facility, which will play a key role in Japan’s “nuclear fuel cycle” policy. Under the policy, uranium and plutonium extracted from such fuel is to be processed for further use. Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., the operator of the reprocessing facility, aims to complete construction by autumn next year, but there are no immediate prospects of the facility going into operation. On top of this, due to changes in the circumstances surrounding nuclear power, the meaning of the facility’s existence is no longer clear. The first issue to consider is declining demand for the use of fuel to be reprocessed at the facility. Such fuel was originally destined to go mainly to the Monju fast-breeder reactor in the western Japan prefecture of Fukui, but a spate of problems with the sodium-cooled reactor led to a decision in 2016 to decommission it. There are no plans to construct a replacement facility. There were also plans to use reprocessed fuel at nuclear power stations to generate electricity, but there are only four reactors that can handle it, far fewer than the 16 to 18 originally planned. As the situation stands, plutonium will start to pile up with no prospects of it being consumed. Reducing the amount produced is also an issue that needs to be addressed. Japan already possesses more than 45 metric tons of surplus plutonium, and there are fears in international society that it could be converted for use in nuclear weapons. In 2018, the government pledged to reduce the amount. A realistic approach is not to reprocess the fuel in the first place. Forming the backdrop to Japan’s persistence with fuel reprocessing is the problem of how to handle the large amount of spent nuclear fuel being stored on the grounds of the reprocessing facility. If Japan gives up on its nuclear fuel cycle policy, then the spent fuel will be sent back to nuclear power plants across the country. But those facilities are already pressed for storage space, making it difficult for them to accept the spent fuel. The total cost of the reprocessing facility, including construction and maintenance costs, stands at 14 trillion yen. Some of the cost will be tacked onto electricity bills. There is a need to rethink the question of whether the public is receiving benefits commensurate with the huge investment into the facility. NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said he would check with the minister of economy, trade and industry whether operation of the reprocessing plant was in line with the nation’s energy policy. In the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami and the ensuing nuclear disaster, many countries across the world turned in the direction of abandoning nuclear power. There are sufficient uranium resources in the world, and the justification for reprocessing as “effective utilization of limited resources” has faded. The United States and Britain have already pulled out of a nuclear fuel cycle. Japan must avoid a situation in which it wastes time by sticking to a national policy and becomes laden with risks. The country should squarely face up to the fact that it is in a no-win situation, and search for an alternative to the nuclear fuel cycle policy. |
3600 working in Nuclear power plants in Japan – concerns raised over coronavirus
| N-reactor inspection cannot abide by physical distancing rules, causing coronavirus fear in locals |
http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=12907, April 29 & May 3, 2020
Seven civil organizations in Fukui on April 28 jointly demanded that KEPCO suspend operations of reactors at all NPPs in the prefecture and cancel all work to bring offline reactors back online or decommission them in order to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further.
According to KEPCO, the number of workers will increase by about 1,800 to check on the No.3 reactor at the Oi NPP. Of them, about 900 will come from outside Fukui. At the Oi NPP, the Nos.1 and 2 reactors are currently under the process of decommissioning with about 1,800 workers working daily. Thus, the number of workers in three reactors combined will reach 3,600.
Japanese Communist Party member of the Oi Town Assembly, Saruhashi Takumi pointed out, “The reactor buildings are hermetically closed. Many workers work close together in a confined space. So, the ‘three Cs are unavoidable, but our town has a limited number of hospital beds to treat patients with coronavirus infection. If a mass infection occurs, medical facilities in the town will soon be overwhelmed.”
JCP member of the Fukui Prefectural Assembly Sato Masao criticized KEPCO by saying, “The utility places priority on the resumption of operations of reactors at its NPPs over preventive measures against the coronavirus.”
Apart from the Oi NPP, KEPCO has the Takahama NPP and the Mihama NPP in Fukui Prefecture, and about 4,500 workers and 3,000 workers work at those plants every day, respectively.
* * *
KEPCO postpones regular inspection of No.3 reactor
KEOCO on May 2 announced that it will postpone a regular inspection of the No.3 reactor at its Oi NPP for a few months.
1 This Month
10 June – Assessing Canada’s Investments in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IiqHA5feRhaEBycOLNTJlA#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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