Most Japanese oppose nuclear power restart; support drops for PM Shinzo Abe
Japan PM Abe’s support slips, majority oppose nuclear restart http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3191885/Japan-PM-Abes-support-slips-majority-oppose-nuclear-restart.html By REUTERS, 10 August 2015 TOKYO, Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has slipped to just over 30 percent and a majority oppose the planned restart of a nuclear reactor that went offline after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, a poll by the Mainichi newspaper showed on Monday.
The three-point decline to 32 percent – the lowest since Abe returned to office in December 2012 – comes as voters fret over a shift in security policy that would end a ban on the military fighting overseas to defend a friendly country. That could let Japan’s troops fight abroad for the first time since World War Two.
Abe’s ratings began dropping sharply after scholars told a parliamentary panel in June the legislation would violate Japan’s post-war, pacifist constitution. Abe says the change will boost deterrence and make war less likely but critics fear Japan could get embroiled in a U.S.-led conflict.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the weekend survey opposed Kyushu Electric Power Co’s restart of a reactor at its Sendai plant in southwest Japan, set for Tuesday. Thirty percent supported the reboot, the first in nearly two years, which will reopen the nuclear sector.
Opposition to Abe was higher among women than men. Only 26 percent of female voters backed his government compared to 40 percent of men.
Japan’s fragmented opposition parties, however, are not benefiting from Abe’s woes. Support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was flat at 28 percent but that of the main opposition Democratic Party was just 9 percent.
Nor has any LDP rival so far indicated a desire to challenge Abe in a party leadership election that must be held next month. (Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Alan Raybould)
Japan’s govt pursuing nuclear power, while having no effective plan for wastes
It was bureaucrats who made the plan to demand each prefecture to build it. There has been no viable explanation why each prefecture has to be responsible for the solution.
This is a typical example of negative aspect of top-down style bureaucracy in Japan
No Exit for Radioactive Wastes http://hitaku7664.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/no-exit-for-radioactive-wastes.html While Government of Japan promotes nuclear policy of resuming some nuclear power plants, the people in the area suffered from radioactive materials emitted by broken First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant are still living with great amount of contaminated soil, grass or trees. Although the government decided that those contaminated wastes should be treated by each prefecture, programs to build processing facilities are deadlocked by firm opposition by the residents. The government is facing a necessity for changing their plan.
Ministry of Environment designated radioactive waste, caused by the accident in Fukushima, with 8,000 Becquerel per kilogram or more as necessary to be under control of public sector. Concerning firm opposition from Fukushima, if those waste would be concentrated to Fukushima, the ministry decided that the disseminated waste should be processed in each prefecture.
Among five prefectures around Fukushima in need of building processing facility, Miyagi and Tochigi have been seeing strong protest of the residents. In Tochigi, although the ministry determined the place for the facility in Shioya Town, the people there organized broad movement against the plan. They pointed out fundamental contradiction of Ministry of Environment that it was building environmentally harmful facility in the place close to a water source which the ministry had formerly registered as a pure water source to be protected.
Chiba has been regarded as the place where the facility would be build first. Tokyo Electric Power Company offered an unused land in Chiba city for the facility. But, residents started protesting activities, arguing that the reason of selecting the place was unclear or liquidation caused by great earthquake would be concerned. Two thousand metric tons of radioactive waste in Chiba has still no way to go.
Now, the question is whether the decision of Ministry of Environment to process radioactive waste in each prefecture was right or wrong. The lawmakers passed a law which determined that national government would deal with radioactive waste caused by Fukushima accident. But the law did not require each prefecture to build processing facility. It was bureaucrats who made the plan to demand each prefecture to build it. There has been no viable explanation why each prefecture has to be responsible for the solution.
This is a typical example of negative aspect of top-down style bureaucracy in Japan. The key is whether bureaucrats would admit their wrong decision and change the course to plan B.
Digital archives on Fukushima documents
NPO launches digital archives on Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan Times, BY KEIJI HIRANO, 11 Aug 15 KYODO A Tokyo-based nonprofit organization has launched a digital archive of public documents on the 2011 nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, so people can examine whether administrative bodies have pursued appropriate policies since the disaster started.
There are currently over 3,000 documents organized by Access-Info Clearinghouse Japan on file, totaling some 60,000 pages obtained from central government offices and local-level authorities through freedom-of-information requests or from the home pages of each administrative body.
“Some of the official documents may be stored as historical papers in the future, but others may be eventually lost after they’ve been screened,” said Yukiko Miki, who heads the NPO.
“It is necessary to create conditions to allow people to access these documents even 20 or 30 years later to ensure effective follow-up on radioactivity impact, which must have a late onset, and examine policies over the disaster as it will take a long time to put it under control,” she added.
The documents on the archives include summaries of teleconferences involving the government, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the Fukushima No. 1 complex, which came from the Cabinet Office, as well as those on decontamination and radioactive waste owned by the Environment Ministry.
Papers filed with the Radiation Medical Science Center of Fukushima Medical University, including those on health monitoring, and summaries of joint press conferences of the government and Tepco are also available.
Users of the archives are able to find their target documents through keyword retrievals.
“Information disclosure allows us to examine policy decision processes, and the public examination will push administrative bodies to make better decisions,” Miki said. “This type of scrutiny will lead to better administrative work, particularly on behalf of those affected by the disaster.”
As only portions of some documents were disclosed, the NPO has posted them on the archives as they are…….
Touching on the lawsuit and the launch of the archives on the nuclear disaster, Miki said: “I believe we have to take concrete action to achieve our right to know rather than merely insisting on it.”
She said her organization will continue seeking the disclosure of official documents, such as records of the nuclear disaster dosimetry and policy records on evacuations of those living near the Fukushima complex, to improve and expand the archives in the span of 10 to 15 years.
The URL of the archives, which is available without charge and only in Japanese, iswww.archives311.org. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/31/national/npo-launches-digital-archives-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/#.VcpzcXGqpHx
Solar power races ahead as China builds huge station in Gobi desert
China builds huge solar power station which could power a million homes, http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/china-builds-huge-solar-power-station-which-could-power-a-million-homes-10446840.html The Independent, ALEXANDRA SIMS, 08 August 2015 China is set to build a giant solar power station in the Gobi desert, which could generate enough energy to supply one million homes. The proposed power station will measure 10 square miles and generate 200 megawatts of solar energy.
The plans will fall in line with the Chinese government’s ambitious initiative to reduce the country’s fossil fuel energy by 20 per cent by 2030 in addition to cutting its green house gas emissions.
Construction began six years ago on the country’s first large –scale power station, according to National Geographic.Recent photos from NASA satelites show that the solar panels making up the plant cover an area roughly three times bigger than was seen three years ago.
China is quickly becoming a world leader in solar power.
According to the International Energy Agency, the country produces two-thirds of all solar panels and it gained more solar capacity than any other country in the world last year. China invested $83.3 billion dollars last year into renewable energy, more than any other country, according to a report from the UN Environment programme.
The United States, despite being the second highest investors in renewable energies, invested less than half this amount.
Jennifer Morgan, director of the climate program at the World Resources Institute told National Geographic: “China is largely motivated by its strong national interests to tackle persistent air pollution problems, limit climate impacts and expand its renewable energy job force.”
She added that China, presently the greatest emitter of greenhouse gases, will be able to meet its pledge if it continues with its new emphasis on renewables.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said: “China’s carbon dioxide emission will peak by around 2030 and China will work hard to achieve the target at an even earlier date,” according to Reuters.
A global boom in solar power could be on the cards, according toBloomberg New Energy Finance, as panels get cheaper and batteries become more advanced.
By 2040, they predict, in moves led partly by China, solar power could account for one-third of new electricity.
Standards for nuclear related deaths in Fukushima
Fukushima Pref. eyes uniform standards for recognizing deaths as related to nuke accident http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=368 26 June 2014 The Fukushima prefectural government is considering correcting municipal imbalances in standards for recognizing local people’s deaths as being related indirectly to the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Co. Specifically, the local government is seeking to have city, town and village offices share information on the causes of deaths believed associated with the nuclear disaster caused by the March 11, 2011 killer earthquake and tsunami.
At a prefectural assembly session on June 25, a senior prefectural government official in charge of compensation for damage from the disaster said it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify a relationship between deaths and the accident due to the long period of time that has lapsed, adding that the local government will call meetings with municipalities as needed to exchange information and share examples of accident-related deaths.
According to the prefectural government, 1,729 people had died as a result of lingering effects of the accident as of June 25, exceeding the 1,603 deaths caused directly by the disaster. The government intends to provide municipal authorities with information on accident-related deaths in an aggressive manner to help standardize norms for identifying such fatalities.
Note: Nuclear accident-related deaths result from deterioration in health conditions following protracted life in shelters as evacuees and they are recognized by a panel of experts such as medical doctors and lawyers set up by each municipality. A sum of 5 million yen is paid as consolation money to a family in the case of the death of a main income earner and half the sum for other dead family members.
(Translated by Kyodo News)
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
Typhoon Soudelor hits Taiwan, then China’s coast – danger to nuclear stations
Typhoon Soudelor toll rises to 17 in China: state media http://news.yahoo.com/typhoon-downgraded-china-killing-five-taiwan-030301544.htmlShanghai (AFP) – The number of people killed by Typhoon Soudelor in China rose to 17, state media reported on Monday, with five more missing.
Three people were killed by a mudslide and one was missing after being swept away by floods in Ningde, in the eastern province of Fujian, the Fujian Daily reported.
In neighbouring Zhejiang province 14 were killed and four were missing, the official news agency Xinhua said earlier, quoting local officials as saying that the dead and missing may have been washed away by floods or buried under ruined homes.
The total direct economic losses in the two provinces were estimated at around eight billion yuan ($1.31 billion), figures from state media showed.
Billed as the biggest typhoon of the year last week with winds of up to 230 kilometres (140 miles) an hour, Soudelor — named for a Micronesian chief — has since weakened.
It made landfall in Fujian on Saturday night after leaving six people dead in Taiwan — including two twin sisters and their mother, who had all been swept out to sea.
It also knocked out power to a record four million households on the island. [Taiwan’s nukes in danger from typhoon,too]
Some 379 people were injured by the storm in Taiwan, which saw rivers break their banks under torrential rain and towering waves pound the coastline.
The China Meteorological Administration lifted its typhoon warning Monday as the storm weakened and moved further inland.
Ageing plant and risks raise widespread concern about Japan’s nuclear restart
Local campaigners say the plant operators – Kyushu Electric – and local authorities have yet to explain how they would quickly evacuate tens of thousands of residents in the event of a Fukushima-style meltdown.
A survey by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper found that only two of 85 medical institutes and 15 of 159 nursing and other care facilities within a 30 km radius of the Sendai plant had proper evacuation plans.
About 220,000 people live within a 30km radius – the size of the Fukushima no-go zone – of the Sendai plant; a 50km radius would draw in Kagoshima city and raise the number of affected people to 900,000.
“The local authorities may have approved the restart, but they are completely out of touch with public opinion.”
Japan split over restart of first nuclear reactor since Fukushima disaster, Guardian, Justin McCurry, 10 Aug 15 Rising costs from gas and oil are sited by supporters of a programme to bring reactors back on line, but ageing plant and risks raise widespread concern An otherwise unremarkable town in south-west Japan will be propelled this week to the forefront of the country’s biggest experiment with nuclear power since theFukushima disaster in March 2011.
After months of debate about safety, Japan will begin producing nuclear energy for the first time in almost two years close to the town of Satsumasendai as early as Tuesday.
Restarting one of the Sendai nuclear plant’s two 30-year-old reactors represents a victory for the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who insists that without nuclear energy the Japanese economy will buckle beneath the weight of expensive oil and gas imports.
But his call for Japan to confront its Fukushima demons has been greeted with scepticism by most voters, whose opposition to nuclear restarts remains firm, even in the face of rising electricity bills. Continue reading
With 2020 Olympics in mind. Japan’s govt trying to coerce Fukushima evacuees back
Even with the massive cleanup, only about one-fifth of the 6,200 displaced residents of Iitate are willing to return, according to a recent head count by village officials.
4 Years After Fukushima Nuclear Calamity, Japanese Divided on Whether to Return By MARTIN FACKLER, NYT< AUG. 8, 2015 ITATE, Japan — For four years, an eerie quiet has pervaded the clusters of farmhouses and terraced rice paddies of this mountainous village, emptied of people after the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 25 miles away, spewed radiation over a wide swath of northeastern Japan……….
They accuse Tokyo of repeating a pattern from the early days of the disaster of putting residents at risk by trying to understate the danger from the accident. They say the central government is trying to achieve its own narrow political interests, such as restarting the nation’s powerful nuclear industry, or assuring the world that Tokyo is safe enough to host the Summer Olympics in 2020.
“If the national officials think it is so safe, then they should come and live here,” said Kenichi Hasegawa, a former dairy farmer in Iitate who has organized more than 3,000 fellow evacuees — almost half the village’s pre-disaster population — to oppose the return plan. “The government just wants to proclaim that the nuclear accident is over, and shift attention to the Olympics.” Continue reading
China’s massive solar farm going ahead fast in Gobi desert
China builds huge solar power station which could power a million homes, http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/china-builds-huge-solar-power-station-which-could-power-a-million-homes-10446840.html
The Independent, 08 August 2015 China is set to build a giant solar power station in the Gobi desert, which could generate enough energy to supply one million homes. The proposed power station will measure 10 square miles and generate 200 megawatts of solar energy.Thousands hospitalised as Tokyo experiences record heat wave
Japan in Hot Water — Longest Heatwave on Record for Tokyo, Tens of Thousands Hospitalizedhttp://robertscribbler.com/2015/08/06/japan-in-hot-water-longest-heatwave-on-record-for-tokyo-tens-of-thousands-hospitalized/
This morning, at 10:53 AM local time in Tokyo, the temperature was a sweltering 95.2 F (35.1 C) and climbing…
For six days running thermometers in that city have been above 95 degrees F (35 C). That’sthe longest unbroken string of 95 degree + highs Japan’s capital has experienced since record-keeping began 140 years ago in 1875. In other words, parts of Japan are experiencing never-seen-before heat.
All told, recent days have seen fully 25 percent of Japan’s cities and towns hit temperatures above 95 F. It’s a heat that sinks bone deep. That gets into the blood. That makes it hard to keep going outdoors. A heat that causes injury and, sometimes, death. And over this summermore than 35,000 people have been hospitalized throughout Japan due to heat injury. Of those, more than 850 have remained hospitalized for three weeks or more. And from this grim tally 55 have now lost their lives.
Hot Ocean Waters Breed Heat Domes
The record hot air temperatures have come on due to a combination of factors. First, the ocean around Japan is abnormally warm. Recently, near-Japan sea surface temperatures have ranged from 2-5 degrees Celsius above established averages. That’s excessively hot water, especially when one considers that El Nino will typically draw the warm waters south and eastward. But this year is not at all typical with unusual-to-record heat now ranging much of the Pacific Ocean basin.
(Extreme sea surface temperatures and a heat dome high pressure system are setting the stage for record heatwaves and tragic heat injuries in Japan. Ocean temperatures in the region have ranged up to 5-6 C above average for this time of year. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)
Near Japan, the added ocean warmth lends both heat and humidity to the air about the archipelago land mass. A combination that can push wet bulb readings into ranges that are ever more difficult for human bodies to manage.
Concordant with the exceptionally hot waters surrounding Japan is a heavy heat dome high pressure system dominating the atmosphere above it. This heat dome, as with many weather systems under the regime of human-caused climate change, has been doggedly persistent. Setting up an excessively long-lasting period of record heat that has now continued off and on for weeks.
Multiple Heatwave Mass Casualty Events for Record Hot 2015
Japan joins India, Pakistan, and the Persian Gulf Region as locations experiencing heat capable of producing mass casualty events this year. In India, more than 3,000 lost their lives due to high heat and humidity during late May and early June. In Pakistan, more than 1,500 died due to the heat even as hospitals were overwhelmed by related injuries. And in Iran last week, wet bulb temperatures rocketed to a stunning 34.7 C.
Under human-forced climate change it’s a sad fact that heatwaves proliferate. We are now four times more likely to experience a heatwave on any part of the globe than we were back during the 1880s. Before our fossil fuel burning warmed the global climate by 1 degree Celsius. And as maximum temperatures and humidity push toward and past the wet bulb limit of 35 C, we are unfortunately likely to see more and more of these heatwave mass casualty events.
1 This Month
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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