600 plus earthquakes in 5 days,nuclear plants said to be safe
From April 14th to April 19th 2016, 665 earthquakes : 72 were above magnitude 4, 10 above magnitude 5, 6 above magnitude 6, 1 above magnitude 7. But the Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority tells us that the 3 nuclear plants in Southern Japan, the Sendai nuclear power plant, the Genkai nuclear power plant and the Ikata nuclear power plant, are safe depite more than 600 earhquakes within 5 days, out of which 89 were above magnitude 4.
The Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority tells us that the 3 nuclear plants in Southern Japan, the Sendai nuclear power plant, the Genkai nuclear power plant and the Ikata nuclear power plant, are safe depite more than 600 earhquakes within 5 days, out of which 89 were above magnitude 4.
Questions and answers: The Kumamoto earthquakes
The series of huge earthquakes and aftershocks that have been rattling wide parts of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures since Thursday have raised fears that other regions in the nation might be struck by similar jolts in the near future.
Here are some questions and answers on seismic activity in Japan:
What type of earthquakes struck Kumamoto?
The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake is actually a series of quakes that are being caused by two plates slipping against each other along an active inland fault. The events take place at a relatively shallow depth and cause the destruction of bedrock.
It is the same type as the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 that hit Kobe and surrounding cities, killing over 6,000 people.
In contrast, the Great East Japan Earthquake that hit the Tohoku region in 2011, was caused by accumulated stress resulting from one tectonic plate being forced underneath another, resulting in what is called a “megathrust quake.”
What is unique about the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake?
Whereas often a huge temblor hits first, followed by smaller aftershocks, a number of strong quakes have occurred following the first magnitude-6.5 quake on Thursday. The shaking has affected much wider areas than other quakes in the past, experts said.
The magnitude-7.3 quake that according to the Meteorological Agency was the main tremor struck the region 1½ days after the first one.
Why did we see such big quakes in relatively rapid succession?
Experts say the reason is not entirely known.
Of the 2,000 active faults around Japan, some 100 are designated by the government as key active faults. The Futagawa and Hinagu faults, along which the recent quakes occurred, are among the 100 most active and dangerous faults in the country.
The central government has conducted research on these 100 active faults over the past decade or so but was not able to predict the quakes that took place in Kumamoto, said Hiroyuki Fujiwara, a seismologist at National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention.
Are the focal points of quakes moving or expanding?
Fujiwara said the magnitude-7.3 quake on Saturday caught seismologists by surprise as they thought the initial quake — which turned out to be a precursor for Saturday’s — was an isolated tremor in a small section of the Futagawa fault.
Other quakes then took place further east. Some researchers say quakes may take place in succession along the lines of long faults, but no solid theory to explain such a scenario has been found, Fujiwara said.
Are these quakes precursors for others, especially along the Median Tectonic Line — the largest fault running from central Honshu to Kyushu?
Experts are not sure.
“We can explain what has happened, but it’s really hard to say what will happen,” Fujiwara said.
Takeshi Sagiya, a professor at Nagoya University’s Disaster Mitigation Research Center and an expert on crustal movement, said it is too early to worry about such a scenario.
Sagiya said he is more concerned about the southwestern side of the Hinagu fault in Kumamoto, where seismic activities appear to have been spreading in recent days.
A level-6 quake on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 may hit the fault in the near future, Sagiya said.
Is the small eruption of Mount Aso on Saturday related to the quake?
The view of volcanologists, as well as the Meteorological Agency, has been that the eruption was not triggered by the Kumamoto quakes, as its characteristics are no different from small-scale eruptions that have taken place before.
“There is probably no causal connection” between the earthquakes and the eruption, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Saturday. “But we will keep monitoring (the volcano).”
Are the quakes in Kyushu and the magnitude-7.8 quake that hit Ecuador over the weekend — the largest since 1979 — related?
Fujiwara said they are not.
“The two locations are so far away from each other it’s impossible to suspect a link,” he said.
Are nuclear power plants in Kyushu safe?
Many citizens and anti-nuclear activists have expressed concern over the nuclear power facilities in Kyushu, in particular the two reactors running at the Sendai power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, the only commercial nuclear plant now in operation in Japan.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority, however, has maintained that the Sendai plant does not need to be shut down because the strongest temblor registered at the plant since Thursday night was 8.6 gal (a unit used in seismology to express the acceleration of an earthquake), far lower than the safety level that would trigger an automatic reactor shutdown.
The criteria was set between 80 to 260 gal, depending on the direction of a shake and the strength of key components in the Sendai reactors.
All other reactors have been stopped in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdown crisis, while power companies have applied for the NRA’s safety checks to restart many other reactors under the new safety standards drawn up after the Fukushima crisis.
At the Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, the strongest of the recent shakes was 20.3 gal. The reactors at the plant have long been shut down, but had they been active, they would be automatically shut down with a temblor of between 70 and 170 gal.
The Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture, which is also undergoing safety checks, is right by the Median Tectonic Line. The three reactors there have not shown abnormal activity since the quakes, according to Shikoku Electric Power Co. and the Ehime Prefectural Government.
Japan’s Constitution Allows Nuclear Weapons, Says Shinzo Abe
Japan’s constitution does not ban the country from having nuclear weapons, contrary to popular belief, officials under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe insisted recently.
The Japanese Cabinet wrote in a response to lawmakers’ inquiries Friday that the nation could own and use nukes, the Asahi Shimbun of Tokyo reported. But it then noted that the government “firmly maintains a policy principle that it does not possess nuclear weapons of any type under the three non-nuclear principles.”
The statement concerned Article 9 of Japan’s constitution, which condemns war and establishes the country as a pacifist nation. The 1947 regulation prohibits Japan, the only country to suffer atomic attack, from having a traditional military and also renounces offensive weapons, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The provision has been reinterpreted over the past few decades, most recently by Abe, who in 2012 started his second period as prime minister. In July 2014, Abe allowed Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to become more assertive and militarily assist foreign countries, in part to strengthen the relationship between Japan and the United States, the New York Times reported.
Last week, Abe’s government referenced a 1978 address by then-Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda suggesting that nuclear weapons were constitutionally acceptable, the Asahi Shimbun reported. “Even if it involves nuclear weapons, the constitution does not necessarily ban the possession of them as long as they are restricted to such a minimum necessary level,” it read.
Jun Okumura, a scholar at Tokyo’s Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, told the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong the recent announcement was likely “something of a surprise to the Japanese public.” But residents might not need to worry: Yasuhisa Kawamura, a representative of the Foreign Ministry, declared at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington Friday that “it is unthinkable that Japan use or possess nuclear weapons,” USA Today reported.
Japan’s defense policy also made international news recently when American presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested Japan and South Korea start to protect themselves “against this maniac in North Korea” (dictator Kim Jong Un) instead of relying on U.S. troops, according to CNN.
Calls to shut down Japan’s Sendai nuclear plant, near to earthquake zone
Despite assurances, quakes prompt calls to switch off Japan’s nuclear reactors, Japan Times, BY ERIC JOHNSTON STAFF WRITER 19 Apr 16, OSAKA – Despite official assurances of no abnormalities at nuclear power plants in Kyushu and nearby areas after a series of earthquakes rocked the region, calls in and outside of Japan are growing to shut down the nation’s only two operating reactors at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Since Thursday, the Meteorological Agency has recorded nearly 530 quakes at level 1 or above on the Japanese intensity scale in Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures. This includes more than 80 registering a 4 or higher on the scale. The agency has warned that seismic activity in the region may continue over the next week, possibly prompting more deadly landslides.
But despite the frequency of the quakes, the Sendai plant, just over the border from Kumamoto in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, has continued to generate electricity since the initial magnitude-6.5 quake rocked Kumamoto on Thursday, followed by a magnitude-7.3 temblor early Saturday………
with continued quakes and aftershocks, fears are growing about what the constant shaking could mean in terms of cumulative damage that could result in a nuclear crisis.
An online Japanese- and English-language petition by a former Kumamoto resident to shut down the Sendai plant had drawn over 42,000 signatures worldwide as of Monday morning, while anti-nuclear activists in Fukui Prefecture have also criticized Kyushu Electric Power Co. and the NRA for continuing to operate the plant.
In Saga Prefecture on Sunday, about 100 mayors and town heads belonging to the Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan added their voices, calling for the central government and the NRA to re-evaluate the way earthquake safety standards for nuclear power plants are calculated.
They also want the government to grant localities within 30 km of a nuclear power plant the legal authority to approve or reject reactor restarts.
The decision to keep the Sendai reactors running is also drawing criticism overseas……..http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/18/national/despite-assurances-quakes-prompt-calls-switch-off-japans-nuclear-reactors/#.VxaeG9R97Gh
Japan’s nuclear regulator to provide daily information on condition of 4 nuclear facilities near earthquake region
NRA to issue nuclear plant info every day amid quake concerns, Japan Times 19 Apr 16 KYODO The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Tuesday it will begin providing information every day on the safety of four nuclear plants located around the region hit by the series of earthquakes that started last week.
The nuclear watchdog will update information on the condition of the Sendai, Genkai, Ikata and Shimane nuclear plants and radiation levels around them at 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day to address public concerns………
The only two commercial reactors currently operating in Japan are at the Sendai complex in Kagoshima Prefecture. The facility is operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co.
Until now, the NRA has not provided such information to the public unless an earthquake measuring at least lower 5 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 is registered in the location of a nuclear plant, even when a strong earthquake occurs in a neighboring area.
When the quake hit Kumamoto on Thursday night, the NRA did not provide any information about the safety of the four plants until Friday morning. The slow response prompted the government to instruct the NRA to improve its information disclosure.
Under the new rules, when an earthquake measuring lower 5 or higher is recorded in Kyushu, the NRA will also provide information immediately with data about the nuclear plants.
Kyushu Electric’s Genkai power station is located in Saga Prefecture, northwestern Kyushu, while Chugoku Electric Power Co.’s Shimane plant is in Honshu, northeast of Kumamoto. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/19/national/nra-issue-nuclear-plant-info-every-day-amid-quake-concerns/#.VxamldR97Gh
Indian navy announces test of 1st nuclear-propelled ballistic missile submarine
India tests 1st nuclear-propelled ballistic missile submarine RT.com 19 Apr, 2016 India’s first submarine capable of firing nuclear ballistic missiles, the INS Arihant, is undergoing sea acceptance trials and will be commissioned after their completion, the Navy has announced.
“INS Arihant is now undergoing sea acceptance trails as it had already passed several deep sea diving drills. The submarine will be commissioned after completing all the sea trials,” said H.C.S. Bisht, Vice Admiral of the Indian Navy. The 6,000-ton vessel is the first nuclear-powered submarine that can launch nuclear-capable missiles manufactured by India – the first nation to announce it has accomplished this feat after the five original nuclear powers…….https://www.rt.com/news/340146-arihant-nuclear-submarine-trial/
Japan’s ‘press club’ system, government pressure criticised by U.N. rapporteur on freedom of expression
U.N. rapporteur on freedom of expression slams Japan’s ‘press club’ system, government pressure, Japan Times BY SHUSUKE MURAI STAFF WRITER 19 Apr 16 After a week of conducting interviews, a United Nations expert on freedom of expression concluded Tuesday that Japan’s media independence is being jeopardized by government pressure, however inconspicuous it may be.
David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, also said the organizational structure of the media industry in Japan has undermined journalists’ ability to counter such pressure.
“The theoretical possibility of government regulation and organization … combined cause media freedom to suffer; media independence to suffer,” Kaye told a news conference Tuesday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo.
It was his first official news conference since his original visit in December was postponed at the request of the Foreign Ministry because it was “unable to arrange meetings” with officials at that time.
Kaye pointed out there is “serious concern” about the ability of journalists to independently report on sensitive issues such as nuclear power due to the pressure exerted when the government flexes its regulatory muscles.
In February, communications minister Sanae Takaichi ominously noted that under the Broadcast Act the government can legally suspend the licenses of TV stations and networks if their programming is found to contain political bias.
Although government officials insist the remark was simply a factual statement about the law, the existence of the policy itself may reasonably be perceived as a threat to media freedom in Japan, Kaye said.
“I think this is a significant problem that the Broadcast Act allows for regulation by the government of the media,” he said, adding the law should be amended to prevent the state from being in a position to adjudicate what constitutes “bias.”
Meanwhile, Kaye also pointed out that the kisha club system in Japan — media associations formed around certain groups and government organizations through which reporters are granted access — should be abolished to regain media independence……….
The full report on Kaye’s investigation will be published in 2017 to be submitted to the U.N.’s Human Rights Council. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/19/national/u-n-rapporteur-freedom-expression-slams-japans-press-club-system-government-pressure/#.VxbkGtR97Gh
India plans 1,250 MW Solar Power Projects Over Waterways
Indian Company Plans 1,250 MW Solar Power Projects Over Water Bodies http://cleantechies.com/2016/03/29/indian-company-plans-1250-mw-solar-power-projects-over-water-bodies/ by SAURABH on MARCH 29, 2016 Government-owned power generation company in the western state of Maharashtra has revealed expansive plans to utilise water bodies and generate solar power.
Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (Mahagenco) recently floated tenders for the preparation of detailed project reports for setting up solar power projects over water bodies in the state.
Mahagenco plans to set up these projects in partnership with other government agencies that own these water bodies through a revenue-sharing model. The company plans to set up projects on a) reservoirs and canals and, b) lakes and other water bodies.
The company aims to replicate the canal-top solar power projects implemented in the neighbouring state of Gujarat. Canal-top solar power projects have dual advantage of little to no requirement of land requirement to set up the solar panels, thereby making substantial savings on project’s capital cost, and limiting the loss of water from canals/reservoirs due to evaporation.
Water bodies owned by villages and local self-governing bodies will also be roped in to set up such solar power projects. Mahagenco plans to implement these projects through net-metering scheme. Solar power projects set up at such water bodies will inject electricity during the day and the local utility will supply electricity to villages during the night. The balance in electricity units shall be settled on monthly basis. This will reduce the electricity bills for villagers and also improve electricity supply.
After the successful implementation of canal-top solar power projects in Gujarat several other states have announced plans to implement similar projects. Punjab, Damodar Valley Corporation and Kerala have publicly announced targets to set up projects over canals, reservoirs and other water bodies.
Facts on Fukushima today
164,865: Fukushima residents who fled their homes after the disaster.
97,320: Number who still haven’t returned.
49: Municipalities in Fukushima that have completed decontamination work.
45: Number that have not.
30: Percent of electricity generated by nuclear power before the disaster.
1.7: Percent of electricity generated by nuclear power after the disaster.
3: Reactors currently online, out of 43 now workable.
54: Reactors with safety permits before the disaster.
53: Percent of the 1,017 Japanese in a March 5-6 Mainichi Shimbun newspaper survey who opposed restarting nuclear power plants.
30: Percent who supported restarts. The remaining 17 percent were undecided.
760,000: Metric tons of contaminated water currently stored at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
1,000: Tanks at the plant storing radioactive water after treatment.
7,000: Workers decommissioning the Fukushima plant.
26,000: Laborers on decontamination work offsite.
200: Becquerels of radioactive cesium per cubic meter (264 gallons) in seawater immediately off the plant in 2015.
50 million: Becquerels of cesium per cubic meter in the same water in 2011.
7,400: Maximum number of becquerels of cesium per cubic meter allowed in drinking water by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ……………http://www.fukushimawatch.com/2016-04-14-harsh-reality-every-statistic-you-need-to-know-about-the-incredible-damage-of-the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-since-2011.html
India ‘s nuclear programme reported as unsafe, by Harvard think tank
US think tank ranks Indian Nuclear programme as unsafe, http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/04/17/foreign/us-think-tank-ranks-indian-nuclear-programme-as-unsafe/PT, 17 Apr 16 An independent US report has declared the Indian nuclear programme not only unsafe but also called for a satisfactory international oversight.
The recently released report by the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School identified problems arising from the gaps in the commitments that India made after the nuclear deal, and focused on India’s separation plan, its Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol.
The report observes that India is currently running three streams that include: civilian safeguarded, civilian un-safeguarded, and military.
The Separation Plan did not extend safeguards to a number of nuclear facilities that serve civilian functions, and consequently these facilities may also be used in India’s military programme.
The safeguards agreement also allows India to store, use, or process nuclear material subject to safeguards at a facility that is not under continuous safeguards. In addition, the agreement contains provisions for the substitution of unsafeguarded material for safeguarded material.
India negotiated with the IAEA a much more limited additional protocol: the reporting and access provisions of India’s additional protocol are effectively restricted to India’s export activities. Consequently, India’s safeguards agreement and its additional protocol do not have any practical application to its uranium and thorium mines, heavy water production facilities, nuclear fuel cycle-related research activities, or plants where it manufactures equipment for its nuclear facilities.
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to announce convoluted new public liability insurance policy
NPCIL to get nuclear liability policy soon: Official, Economic Times By IANS | 17 Apr, 201 CHENNAI: India’s atomic power company, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is confident of getting the public liability insurance policy in 10-15 days time, said a senior official.
Once the policy is received, then the company can go ahead in full steam to start its project in Haryana, said the official, speaking to IANS on the condition of anonymity.
“The negotiations as to the risk coverage conditions with the insurers are over and issues have been sorted out. We are confident of getting the policy in 10-15 days time,” the official said.
While the official declined to comment on the premium to be paid to get the policy to cover public liability up to Rs.1,500 crore per year, per accident industry sources had earlier told IANS that it will be around Rs.70 crore.
The proposed policy would cover the liability towards public as a consequence of any nuclear accident in the plants covered under the policy and also the right of recourse of NPCIL against equipment suppliers.
The insurance coverage will be for all the NPCIL’s plants – like a floater cover.
When a nuclear accident happens and the Rs.1,500 crore cover is exhausted, then there will not be any insurance cover for subsequent accidents that might occur during that policy year. According to the NPCIL official if such a situation occurs, then the policy coverage will get automatically reinstated to Rs.1,500 crore on payment of premium. ………
The insurance pool was formed as a risk transfer mode for the suppliers and also NPCIL. ……..http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/npcil-to-get-nuclear-liability-policy-soon-official/articleshow/51867511.cms
Unbelievable Censorship of Japan’s Recent Earthquakes
I find it extraordinary that The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post have NOT run a single story in their print and online versions respectively of the earthquakes in Japan.
NHK reports that the second earthquake has been measured as a 7.3, with 41 people reported dead, and over 170,000 people evacuated. How can this story not be newsworthy? The airport and port are closed and so are major roads and the bullet train:
Scale of quake damage growing. NHK April 17, 2016,http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20160416_24/ The major earthquakes continuing to jolt areas in Japan’s southwestern region have so far left a total of 41 people dead.
Early on Saturday, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit areas in Kumamoto Prefecture in the Kyushu Region. It registered an intensity of 6-plus in the prefecture on Japan’s seismic scale of 0-to-7…Utility services have been disrupted. Hundreds of thousands of households are without electricity, gas and tap water.
Yesterday, on the front page of the print edition The Wall Street Journal ran a story “Japan’s Subzero Rates Cast Chill Over Markets” (4/15/2016, A1, A7) but there was no mention of the first earthquake anywhere in the print version of the paper.
Today’s WSJ print version has no mention at all of the earthquake in the front section and if there is any mention anywhere else its so buried I cannot find it.
The electronic version of the The New York Times from yesterday and today carry no mention that I can find of the earthquakes in Japan.
Today, The Washington Post has an article on “Why Mr. Obama Should Visit Hiroshima” (editorial) but like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, there is NO story on the earthquake that I can find in the electronic version delivered to my email.
I do NOT understand how two significant earthquakes in a geologically active zone with 41 people reported dead, over a hundred thousand evacuated, and an operational nuclear plant in the vicinity are not newsworthy, particularly given the risks are not over:
Seismic activity poses increasing risk. NHK,http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20160416_16/
Gen Aoki, the head of the agency’s earthquake and tsunami monitoring section, said the buildup in seismic activity means there’s an increased risk that buildings will collapse and mudslides will occur. He called on residents to stay safe.
It is my conclusion that there is a deliberate and concerted effort to help protect Japan’s economy from bad news, even during the occurrence of large earthquakes that pose the potential for catastrophic results.
I really don’t know what else to say. Its really unbelievable.
My thoughts go out to the people of Kyushu region whose tribulations are being disregarded in order to perpetuate myths about the global economy.
http://majiasblog.blogspot.fr/2016/04/unbelievable-censorship-of-japans.html?m=1
Japanese Government Learned Nothing From Fukushima
410 consecutive earthquakes since 14 April, including 162 of more than 3.5 magnitute, but the Japanese government keeps two reactors at the Sendai plant in operation ….
They have learned nothing from Fukushima.
Landslides sever National Route No. 57 in Minami-Aso, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. Aso-ohashi bridge also collapsed.
410 quakes felt in Kyushu, 162 with magnitudes of at least 3.5
The number of earthquakes that could be felt by people reached 410 by 10 a.m. on April 17 following the start of seismic activity in Kumamoto Prefecture on April 14, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Quakes with magnitudes of 3.5 or larger accounted for 162 of the total by 8:30 a.m. on April 17, the largest among inland and coastal earthquakes since 1995. The previous high was set after the Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture in 2004.
“After the magnitude-7.3 earthquake that struck at 1:25 a.m. on April 16, the number of earthquakes increased sharply,” said Gen Aoki, director of the agency’s earthquake and tsunami monitoring division.
He urged people in the affected areas to remain alert amid the ongoing aftershocks.
“Earthquake movements are actively continuing in areas from Kumamoto Prefecture to Oita Prefecture,” Aoki said. “The soil could have become loose due to the rain that started to fall on April 16, so I want people to exercise caution against strong tremors or rain.”
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201604170042.html
The No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture
Government lets Sendai reactors continue operations
The government on April 16 said there is no need to shut down two nuclear reactors in Kagoshima Prefecture, citing relatively low seismic movements around the nuclear plant.
Cabinet ministers met on April 16 to respond to the Kyushu earthquakes and discuss what to do with the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors of the Sendai nuclear power plant located in Satsuma-Sendai, Kagoshima Prefecture.
Environment Minister Tamayo Marukawa, who serves concurrently as state minister for nuclear emergency preparedness, mentioned the stricter safety standards implemented by the Nuclear Regulation Authority on nuclear power plant operations. Under the NRA’s standards, adopted after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, 620 gal is the maximum seismic acceleration allowed for reactors to continue running.
Marukawa said the maximum shaking recorded on the Sendai plant grounds was 12.6 gal.
“The NRA has judged there is no need to stop the Sendai plant,” she said.
The two reactors are the only ones currently operating in Japan.
The series of earthquakes that began in Kumamoto Prefecture on April 14 have spread eastward to Oita Prefecture. Kagoshima Prefecture lies at the southern end of Kyushu.
“Under the current circumstances, there is no need to stop the plant because (the shaking) is sufficiently low,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said after the April 16 meeting.
The Japanese Communist Party on April 16 called on the government to shut down the Sendai plant as a preventive measure because the quake activity was spreading through Kyushu.
The party said major problems would arise in evacuations if a nuclear accident arose at the Sendai plant because quake damage has rendered the Shinkansen bullet train line and expressways unusable.
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201604170031.html
Complex geology behind Kumamoto jolt
The earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture early Saturday had a magnitude of 7.3, the same as the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, in which more than 6,400 people died or remain missing.
The Saturday quake had more than 10 times the energy of the magnitude-6.5 earthquake that occurred Thursday evening, which caused strong shaking in limited areas. On Saturday, violent tremors measuring as high as upper 6 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 were felt over a wide area.
Experts said the earthquake occurred as multiple faults moved in conjunction with each other, and warned that earthquakes will continue over a wide area.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, this is the first magnitude-7 class earthquake with a shallow focus since a magnitude-7 quake in the Hamadori area in Fukushima Prefecture, that is believed to have been an aftershock of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. In the Kyushu region it was the first of that size and type in 11 years, since the magnitude-7 earthquake with its focus in the Genkainada sea in western Fukuoka Prefecture in 2005.
According to the agency’s analysis, Saturday’s quake was a “strike-slip” type, in which the fault involved moved horizontally due to its being pulled to the northwest and southeast. Thursday’s quake and the 1995 Hanshin earthquake involved the same “strike-slip” mechanism.
Yuji Yagi, an associate professor of geodynamics at University of Tsukuba, analyzed the seismic waves from the Saturday quake and said the fault appeared to have moved over an area about 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide.
The underground destruction stretched northeast from the quake’s focus and continued for about 20 seconds.
The focus of Saturday’s quake was located on the northern side of the Futagawa fault zone, which cuts east to west across Kumamoto Prefecture and is at least about 64 kilometers long in its entirety.
The government’s Earthquake Research Committee had deemed there to be “an almost zero to 0.9 percent chance” of a magnitude-7 earthquake occurring in the northeast part of the Futagawa fault zone within 30 years.
The Hinagu fault zone lies to the south of the focus of Saturday’s quake, stretching at least about 81 kilometers. Part of the Hinagu fault zone is believed to have moved in the Thursday earthquake.
Yasuhiro Suzuki, a professor of tectonic geomorphology at Nagoya University, said part of the Futagawa fault zone moved in the Saturday morning earthquake. “It’s appropriate to think of the Hinagu and Futagawa fault zones as connected active faults. The earthquake on Saturday occurred in conjunction with the quakes that have happened from Thursday on, so it appears that part of a very large fault moved,” Suzuki said.
According to Takeshi Matsushima, an associate professor at Kyushu University of solid-state geophysics, the ground in the Kyushu region is subject to forces that pull it north-south. This creates the Beppu-Shimabara rift zone, in which the ground is subsided from Oita to Kumamoto. It contains the Hinagu and Futagawa fault zones, as well as the Beppu-Haneyama fault zone.
Seismic activity has intensified from the southwest to the northeast of the rift zone.
Regarding this fact, the Japan Meteorological Agency said at a Saturday press conference that “large earthquakes have occurred in three locations: Kumamoto, Aso and the central areas of Oita Prefecture.”
The government’s Earthquake Research Committee has decided to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday regarding the quakes. It will examine the causes of the seismic activity and prospects for the future.Speech
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002881595
Seismic activity could move east, trigger quakes in active faults
Seismologists fear that the series of earthquakes rattling Kyushu could trigger temblors in other active faults in the southwestern island, which extend eastward into central Japan.
A number of active faults dot the so-called Beppu-Shimabara Rift, which traverses Kyushu island from east to west, extending to the Median Tectonic Line. This is the nation’s longest tectonic line, and it spans about 1,000 kilometers from the Kanto Plain through Gunma, Nagano, Wakayama, and Tokushima prefectures to Kyushu island in southern Japan.
Ichiro Kawasaki, professor emeritus of seismology at Kyoto University, said: “The epicenter (in the latest series of quakes that began April 14) is gradually moving eastward. When a fault moves, it tends to move other faults that run on an extended line.”
He explained that when an earthquake occurs, other faults around it are exerted to different pressure, which could trigger other quakes.
That view was echoed by Kazuro Hirahara, a Kyoto University professor of seismology and head of the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction.
“The epicenter of the earthquake in Oita Prefecture, (which occurred early on April 16) is about 100 kilometers from that of the Kumamoto quakes, and therefore it is hard to think that the quake was an aftershock,” he said, adding that there was a possibility the Beppu-Haneyama fault zone in the prefecture may have been stimulated.
“Quite frankly, there is no telling what may happen in the days ahead,” he said. “If some part in the Median Tectonic Line moves, there is a chance it could have an impact on the predicted Nankai Trough Earthquake in the long run.”
Shinji Toda, a Tohoku University professor of earthquake geology, pointed out that the seismic activity could also move southward.
The Slow Bleed: Fukushima Five Years On
Fukushima, Reactors 3 and 4
By Vincent Di Stefano
The meltdown of three nuclear reactors at Fukushima in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami of 11th March 2011 seems to have quietly slipped out of our collective awareness – as quietly as the cauldrons of radioactive elements that were once within the active cores of the reactors invisibly bleed into the groundwaters and seawaters of the region. This event has become yet another minor detail in the distorted mosaic of ruin that mirrors the latter days of a civilisation in free-fall.
Arnie Gundersen is looking a little weathered these days. He has just returned from a five-week long speaking tour of Japan. He spent much of that time in the company of many whose lives have been indelibly seared by the Fukushima catastrophe. What he reports is unlikely to appear in the mainstream media, but such has ever been the case when it comes to the hidden machinations of big government and big business.
What Gundersen has to say is worth closely attending to. As a nuclear engineer, he has been deeply involved in the American nuclear industry for over four decades. He has a special interest in the design and safety of containment structures and holds a patent for a nuclear safety device. He has also managed and coordinated nuclear projects at 70 nuclear power plants in the US and is a former nuclear industry senior vice-president. He knows the industry well, particularly its toxic underbelly.
Arnie Gundersen served as an expert witness in the investigation of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, and found that releases of radioactivity from that particular event were 15 times higher than the figures published subsequently in a government report. He is no stranger to the prevarication and deceit that have too often accompanied statements made by the nuclear industry and its government supporters.
Gundersen has been an active critic of the nuclear industry for over two decades. More recently, he has co-authored a Greenpeace International report on Fukushima. He was among the first North American commentators to speak publicly and forcefully on the implications of Fukushima in the days and weeks after the meltdowns. And since that time, he has been tireless in his efforts to provide an informed narrative of developments at Fukushima and their consequences for both the inhabitants of Japan and on the global community.
Arnie Gunderson reports that the Japanese Government continues to put the interests of Japanese banks and power companies ahead of the safety of its people. Within a short time of the Fukushima meltdowns in 2011, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) who were in power at that time arbitrarily raised the “acceptable” limits of radiation exposure twenty-fold: from 1 millisievert (mSv)/year – the maximum dose recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection – to 20 mSv/year. In 1998, over a decade beforehand, Rosalie Bertell presented the findings of a number of independent studies published in peer-reviewed journals, including the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed unequivocally that radiation doses as low as 2.5 mSv/year were associated with significant increases in the incidence of leukaemias and myelomas, and cancers of the pancreas, lungs and female reproductive organs in nuclear industry workers.
As Japanese medical practitioners begin to encounter the effects of radiation exposure in their patients – particularly children – the government now refuses to pay doctors who record a diagnosis of radiation-induced sickness in their patients. This will come as no surprise to those who followed the actions of the Soviet government and later, the Russian, Ukraine and Belarus governments in their concerted suppression of medical reports dealing with the consequences of radiation exposure on the lives of their citizens after the Chernobyl meltdown.
Rearranging the Deck Chairs
Temporary housing for Fukushima evacuees
Over 100,000 people are still not able to return to their homes in Fukushima prefecture since the meltdowns. In a disturbing disclosure, Gundersen reveals that many of the evacuees have received virtually no information regarding the issue of radiation exposure either from the Japanese government or from TEPCO, the operators of the Fukushima power plant. The subsistence stipend that they have received since being evacuated will cease in March 2017. Considerable pressure is being put on former residents by the government that they now return to Fukushima and tough it out regardless of the ongoing contamination. Many have grave concerns regarding the effects of such a move on the future health of their families.
30 Million Bags of Radioactive Debris
Another remarkable aspect of the present situation concerns the manner in which highly contaminated materials – which include radioactive soil, leaves and other debris – have been dealt with. Thirty million tons of such debris has so far been gathered from throughout the Fukushima prefecture. Much of this is now stored in over 9 million large plastic bags scattered throughout the affected areas. Three years after being filled, the bags have started to disintegrate and nobody seems to know what to do next since their contents need to be kept isolated for at least another 30 years. One favoured option is to incinerate them. This would certainly decrease their number, but would inevitably result in the further dispersion of radioactive elements in aerosol form around Japan.
There are clearly some who still hold to the old but ultimately banal adage that, the solution to pollution is dilution.
Contaminated Water Storage Tanks at Fukushima
Dwarfing the problem of solid wastes is the ongoing leaching of radioactive elements from the melted reactor cores into groundwater and seawater. For the past five years, between 200 and 500 tons of groundwater flow through the reactors every day as a result of multiple cracks in the containment structures. Some of this water has recently been diverted away from the reactors, but an estimated 150 tons of groundwater continue to flow through the reactors daily. This irradiated water inexorably flows on, steadily bleeding into the northern Pacific. Furthermore, 700,000 tons of highly radioactive water salvaged from cooling operations since the meltdown is presently stored in massive tanks that now pepper the reactor site. More are being built as contaminated water continues to accumulate.
The Tragic Absurdity
It is common knowledge that engineers will be busy for the next 30 to 40 years in their efforts to put the lid on the cauldron of radioactivity that seethes in the reactor basements at Fukushima. Meanwhile, the Pacific tectonic plate continues its own inexorable movement beneath the continental Okhotsk plate on which Japan sits creating the conditions for future mega-thrust events like that which shook the region on 11th March 2011. The unspoken terror is that it could all turn again in the blink of an eye.
Despite what has happened at Fukushima, the Abe Government is determined to restart Japan’s nuclear reactors that were all shut down after the 2011 earthquake. Widespread anti-nuclear protests throughout Japan have been ignored and three nuclear power plants in Kagoshima and Fukui prefectures have been restarted since August 2015. Over the next year, a further six to twelve reactors are slated to resume operations. Business reigns as usual.
There are many who proudly insist on riding the nuclear beast regardless of the human and environmental consequences. They insist that this is the way of the future and a “necessary” solution to the problems of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and an ever-accelerating movement towards numerous tipping points which include ocean acidification, loss of polar albedo effects due to melting of polar ice, and the bubbling up of vast new wells of methane gas from the melting of northern permafrost and sea-floor deposits. In the immortal words of Edwin Arlington Robinson, what folly is here that has not yet a name?
Arnie Gundersen’s Report
The video clip below presents an interview between Arnie Gundersen and Margaret Harrington recorded soon after he returned from a recent speaking tour of Japan. The first 25 minutes of the interview offers deep insight into how the worst industrial accident in the history of humanity has affected the people of Japan, and how the Japanese government now increasingly serves the interests of power companies and their financial backers rather than those of its own people. Arnie Gundersen is unambiguously clear regarding the nature of what has gone down in Fukushima in this presentation. And the moral abandonment of both the Japanese government and TEPCO in the downplaying of the present and future consequences of the meltdown are not lost on him.
The second half of this clip offers a detailed review by Gundersen of the developments at Fukushima over the past five years. A separate high-definition version of the second segment can be accessed here.
http://www.countercurrents.org/stefano150416.htm
Not far from Sendai nuclear reactors, Japan gets second earthquake, mag 7.3
Japan’s Kumamoto rocked by magnitude 7.3 earthquake 24 hours after first shock, SMH April 16, 2016 Tokyo: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck southern Japan early on Saturday, killing at least 11 people, injuring many more and bringing down buildings, media reported, just over a day after a quake killed nine people in the same region.
Authorities warned of damage over a wide area, as reports came in of scores of people trapped in collapsed buildings, fires and power outages.
Residents living near a dam were told to leave because of fears it might crumble, broadcaster NHK said…….
People still reeling from a magnitude 6.5 quake on Thursday poured onto the streets after the Saturday quake struck at 1.25 am……….
M7.0 earthquake in Japan – same area as yesterday’s foreshocks. https://t.co/eSYh0m7VMI. Hearts out to them pic.twitter.com/41M2BGRmRR……..
Japan is on the seismically active “ring of fire” around the Pacific Ocean and has building codes aimed at helping structures withstand earthquakes.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/japans-kumamoto-rocked-by-magnitude-74-earthquake-just-24-hours-after-first-shock-20160415-go7ucs.html#ixzz45xKID5Fc
Parents, Radiation Safety Experts Petition Against 2020 Olympics in Radioactive Fukushima
Young Athletes, Women, More Susceptible to Radiation Dangers Washington, DC — Apr 14, 2016 / (http://www.myprgenie.com) — On March 11, 2016, the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima triple nuclear meltdowns, the Japanese Olympic Minister Toshiaki Endo stated that preliminary softball, baseball and possibly other games would likely be moved from the host city of Tokyo to Fukushima Prefecture. In fact, organizers are already far into the process of developing J Village, located 19 km (12 mi) from the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, into a training facility for Japan’s soccer team and possibly more uses. J Village was used as a disaster staging and support facility during the early days of the ongoing catastrophic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
In a stunning development in 2013, Japan’s Olympic bid was won by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he promised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that it (Fukushima Daiichi) “has never done, and will never do, any damage in Tokyo”. Now, according to the Olympic Minister’s recent statements and credible news reports in Japan, the IOC and IPC will be required to use venues not only in Tokyo as originally agreed upon, but also in Fukushima Prefecture, not far from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster site. “The Abe administration’s willingness to expose both their own population and the world’s to lethal particles in order to deny the horrendous contamination of their land, is morally reprehensible”, says Mary Beth Brangan, Co-Director of Ecological Options Network.
The person in charge of decommissioning at Fukushima Daiichi has publicly stated that there is no solution in sight to the massive radioactive releases at there and appealed to the international community for assistance. Radiation has been documented well beyond Fukushima to several areas around Japan that have been used for the past 5 years for the open storage and subsequent incineration of toxic and radioactive tsunami rubble, garbage, and more. Cesium 134, 137 and other cancer causing radionuclides from the disaster have been found in tap water and vacuum cleaner bags sampled at different locations around Japan. Hundreds of radioisotopes are released in nuclear accidents, many of which are long-lived and remain hazardous for millions of years. Once inhaled, they pose a significant health risk to everyone in affected environments and to athletes during strenuous competition. Women and children are the most vulnerable as stated in the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR 7) report issued by the National Academy of Sciences.
“Instead of spending money on the Olympics, Japan should spend it ensuring that citizens of its country are not forced to live in contaminated areas in the same prefecture where Japan now wants to host some of these games”, states Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Specialist at Beyond Nuclear. “In 2012, the UN Commissioner on Human Rights traveled to Japan and concluded that the government should “reduce the radiation dose to less than 1mSv/year” in accordance with recommended international standards. Instead, Japan is forcing some evacuees to be exposed to up to 20 times this amount, while telling the world, and the Olympic committee, everything is fine.”
Presidential candidate and US Senator Bernie Sanders has called for the immediate closure of the aging and leaking Indian Point nuclear reactors near New York City. Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN) is asking other leaders to also make an informed decision where nuclear hazards are concerned by calling for an immediate halt to the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics games planned in Fukushima Prefecture. Petition recipients include UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and others.
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of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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