Anti nuclear protest: 45,000 people march in Taiwan
45,000 people join anti-nuclear rallies in Taiwan, Straits Times, MAR 14, 2015 TAIPEI (AFP) – Thousands of people took to the streets in Taiwan on Saturday to call for the island to scrap its use of nuclear energy and to voice opposition to controversial plans to ship nuclear waste abroad, organisers said.
Protesters in central Taipei waved placards and dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with slogans including “Goodbye to nuclear energy” and “We don’t need nuclear power”, just days after Japan marked the fourth anniversary of an undersea earthquake which triggered a massive tsunami and nuclear disaster.
Taiwan’s government has faced growing public pressure over its unpopular nuclear energy facilities……….
We urge the government to reform its energy policy and focus on green energy and saving energy,” said one of the rally’s organisers Tsui Shu-hsin.
“Politicians should listen to the voices of the people… so Taiwan can become nuclear-free.” The government says that Taiwan will run out of energy if it ditches nuclear power, which currently supplies about 20 per cent of the island’s electricity.
The Taipei rally drew around 30,000 people, while two other rallies held simultaneously across the island had a combined turnout of 15,000, according to estimates by organisers. Police estimates were not immediately available.
Organisers were also collecting signatures in a bid to stop a plan by the state-run Taiwan Power Co to process its nuclear waste abroad, which they said was aimed at extending the operations of two plants which are approaching capacity.
The plants, which currently store the spent fuel rods, were launched in 1978 and 1981 and will each be decommissioned once they have been operational for 40 years.
“Taiwan is earthquake-prone like Japan and it is smaller so nuclear facilities are much closer to our homes,” said Wu Bor-chyun, a banker who was living in Japan at the time of the 2011 nuclear accident.
“Nuclear power is not safe and it is very costly. Taiwan should heed the lessons in Japan.”http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/45000-people-join-anti-nuclear-rallies-taiwan-20150314#sthash.Y0GCWbnB.dpuf
Fish and wild foods still showing radioactivity in Fukushima area
The decline in contamination has been very slow among bottom fish, including karei flat fish and ainame greenling caught off Fukushima. The same is true of freshwater fish, including iwana, caught from rivers, lakes and ponds in Fukushima, Miyagi, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures.
As for mushrooms and wild vegetables, samples from 11 prefectures, including Fukushima, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka, exceeded the threshold between April 1 last year and March 1, according to the data.
Produce worries easing but some fish, wild foods still a problem in wake of Fukushima meltdowns, Japan Times BY MIZUHO AOKI STAFF WRITER MAR 12, 2015 The public panic over the threat of radioactive food has subsided in the four years since the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant experienced three reactor core meltdowns and spewed massive amounts of fallout, but worries persist.
Seikatsu Club, a mail-order food delivery co-op, maintains an online database that includes more than 700,000 results of radiation tests on food items. Page views have fallen to about one-tenth of their peak in 2012, said Hiroshi Tsuchida, a quality management division chief with the co-op, but there are people who still visit the site almost daily.
“For such members, we are continuing testing and disclosing all the data on our website,” Tsuchida told The Japan Times. “In Ukraine, there are screening devices at markets where people check food even today, nearly 30 years since the (start of the Chernobyl) nuclear disaster. I believe we should do the same.”
Despite the lingering fears, however, overall contamination levels of farm produce and seafood from Fukushima and neighboring prefectures have declined significantly……..
But concern remains over fish, wild vegetables and wild game. Between April 1 last year and March 1, around 292,000 such samples were tested for radioactive cesium and 502, or 0.17 percent, exceeded the safe threshold, the health ministry said. In fiscal 2012, that ratio stood at 0.85 percent. Continue reading
Asian and Pacific green Parties unite in aim for nuclear free region
Green Parties call for a nuclear free region on anniversary of Fukushima, Global Greens 10 March, 2015 “……The Green Parties of the Asia Pacific region offer our sincere condolences for the tragedy suffered, and our solidarity with the people and Green Party of Japan.
We use this anniversary to remind the Governments of the world, that it is the responsibility of all nations to ensure the safety of our planet.
There is no doubt, the suffering for the Japanese people has been immense, especially for those living in and around Fukushima, and it is not yet over. The world has already witnessed suffering following nuclear disasters in Chernobyl (Ukraine), Khystym (Russia), Sellafield (United Kingdom), and Three Mile Island (USA). However, there are currently 71 new nuclear plants under construction around the world, the majority of which are in the Asia Pacific region (China 26, Taiwan 2, India 6, Japan 2, Pakistan 2, South Korea 5). (3)
It is time we fully committed to a nuclear-free world.
Whether your country is listed as one of these constructing further nuclear plants or not, we are all implicated in the nuclear supply chain – through uranium mining, refining, power generation, radioactive waste, nuclear weapons, or through complicity by not discouraging the practice of our trading partners.
Green Parties around the globe oppose the expansion of nuclear power and are working to rapidly phase it out. Nuclear energy is not the emissions-free solution that the world needs to address climate change, in fact, it is a net producer of greenhouse gases.(4)
As we have seen with Fukushima, the human and planetary costs are too high, and when examining the nuclear supply chain, it is simply ineffective at reducing emissions.
We need to stay focused on transitioning to clean renewable energy sources – these are not only safer, but offer a more equitable solution. We can achieve economic development with genuine quality of life through a sustainable smart green economy. Examples of this kind of development include community-based, co-operative, renewable energy operations complemented by reduced energy consumption through electricity saving government policies.
At this critical moment, we ask the people Asia Pacific to call on their governments to:
- Commit to a nuclear-free world.
- Move to clean equitable renewable energy solutions for your country
- Provide democratic process in citizens’ referenda on nuclear power.
- Ensure information transparency, participatory democracy, social and environmental justice for residents living near power plants and nuclear waste fields.
- Prioritise in decision-making the wellbeing of our planet and future generations.
Signatories:
The Asia-Pacific Greens Federation (APGF) Coordination Committee
The APGF’s members are:
- Australia: Australian Greens
- India: Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UKPP)
- Indonesia: Sarekat Hijau (Indonesian Green Union)
- Japan: Greens Japan
- Korea, Republic of: Green Party Korea
- Mongolia: Mongolian Green Party
- Mongolia: Civil Will Green Party of Mongolia
- Nepal: Nepali Greens (Green Civil Society)
- New Zealand: Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
- Pakistan: Pakistan Green Party
- Taiwan: Green Party Taiwan http://www.globalgreens.org/news/green-parties-call-nuclear-free-region-anniversary-fukushima
Another major leak of radioactive water at Fukushima nuclear facility
Japan TV: “Radiation levels surge” at Fukushima — “Another major leak” — “Massive leak of … highly contaminated water” — “Hundreds of tons… breached barriers” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/groundwater-radiation-levels-surge-fukushima-after-another-major-leak-750-tons-water-relatively-high-levels-radioactivity-video?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
TEPCO, Mar 11, 2015 (emphasis added): Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report — Tepco Reports Rainwater Containing Strontium90 Found Seeping Into Ground At Fukushima Daiichi Tank Area; No Leakage Into Ocean… approximately 750 tons of rainwater containing Strontium90 may have seeped into the ground… [TEPCO] explained that the water is unlikely to leak out to the ocean through any of its drainage channels but it is monitoring the situation… the total amount of nuclides emitting beta rays such as Strontium90 ranged from 150 to 8,300 Bequerels per liter… it is investigating the cause of the rainwater contamination…
Asahi, Mar 11, 2015: [TEPCO] reported a massive leak of radioactive rainwater… on March 10. It said hundreds of tons of contaminated rainwater breached barriers surrounding storage tanks for highly radioactive water and seeped into the ground… Highly contaminated wateralso leaked from the same area and seeped into the ground in summer 2013… In the latest leakage, workers discovered bubbles at the junctions of side ditches in the area. Officials said this indicated that contaminated rainwater had seeped through the junctions and into the ground.
NHK, Mar 11, 2015: Radioactive rainwater leak at Fukushima plant — The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says an estimated 750 tons of rainwater with relatively high levels of radioactivity has been leaked… TEPCO officials said the rainwater was 15 centimeters deep at 10:30 PM on Monday, but the figure had fallen to 8 centimeters shortly after 8 AM on Tuesday… They say the water inside the dam contained up to 8,300 becquerels per liter of beta-particle-emitting substances. TEPCO officials say all the water has now been collected. They say the drainage channel to the ocean is buried underground and it is unlikely that the water flowed into the ocean.
Jiji Press, Mar 11, 2015: TEPCO initially put the amount of leaked rainwater at 400 tons. The number was revised to 747 tons.
Arirang, Mar 12, 2015: Another major leakat… Fukushima nuclear power plant earlier this week may have raised radiation levels in nearby waters. [TEPCO] told Seoul-based Yonhap News that the radiation levels in water collected on Wednesday were 30 times higher than the sample collected on Monday. TEPCO said earlier this week that nearly [750] tons of contaminated rainwater had escaped the plant.
NHK, Mar 11, 2015: Groundwater radiation levels surge after leak – [TEPCO] says levels of radioactive material in groundwater have surged 30-fold, apparently after contaminated rainwater leaked outside a barrier… [It] estimates the leak at about 750 tons of rainwater, and it says levels of beta ray-emitting substances [were] 8,300 becquerels per liter. On Wednesday, TEPCO measured 11,000 becquerels per liter in groundwater… up from 370 becquerels…
32 million people in Japan are exposed to radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster
The 2015 Fukushima Report is available for download in English at http://www.greencross.ch/en/news-info-en/case-studies/fukushima-report.html.
As with the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which impacted 10 million people, Japan is expected to see increased cancer risk and neuropsychological long-term health consequences. The stress-related effects of evacuation and subsequent relocation are also of concern. The evacuation involved a total of over 400,000 individuals, 160,000 of them from within 20km of Fukushima. The number of deaths from the nuclear disaster attributed to stress, fatigue and the hardship of living as evacuees is estimated to be around 1,700 so far.
“Our local presence and ongoing activities to help the communities impacted by radioactive contamination in Chernobyl and Fukushima gives us first-hand experience of the human and environmental consequences of nuclear disasters,” said Adam Koniuszewski, Chief Operating Officer of Green Cross International, who recently shared the stage with former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan for a conference on nuclear power. “This is why we are demanding more transparency and better governance around nuclear power and the risks involved, and a better assessment of its mounting costs. The management of nuclear waste in increasingly burdensome and the cost of decommissioning plants is escalating. In the meantime, renewable energy solutions are getting cheaper. Over the last five years the cost for utility scale solar has declined by 78 per cent, and by for wind by 58 per cent.”……….
About Green Cross International:
GCI is an independent non-profit and nongovernmental organization founded in 1993 by Nobel Peace Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev. It addresses the interconnected global challenges of security, poverty and environmental degradation through global advocacy and local projects. GCI is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has a network of national organizations in 27 countries http://www.gcint.org/
For further information, please contact:
Green Cross International (GCI)
Etienne Lacombe-Kishibe
Communications Coordinator
Phone: +41 22 789 08 13
Mob: +41 78 839 79 03
Email: etienne.lacombe(at)gci(dot)ch
Website: http://www.gcint.org http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/03/prweb12577655.htm
Nuclear wastes out of control? Fukushima’s bags of radioactive trash pile up
The fruits of the laborers’ efforts are stacked in those giant sacks—5.5 million of them and counting. They are spread out across Fukushima province, along roadsides, in parking lots and backyards. They are tagged and bar-coded so authorities know what’s inside and how radioactive it is – and when the bags might start to wear out.
As the bags pile up and workers fan out across the landscape, some locals are questioning the cost-benefit analysis.
Fukushima nuclear plant cleanup has cost $13 billion and counting After 4 years, Fukushima nuclear cleanup remains daunting, vast LA Times, By JULIE MAKINEN contact the reporter 12 Mar 15 “…..Karimata is in charge of the work here in an evacuation zone about 12 miles north of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant—part of the most extensive, and expensive, nuclear cleanup ever attempted.
The scale and complexity of what Japan is trying to do in the aftermath of the 2011 meltdown at Fukushima is mind-boggling. Decontamination plans are being executed for 105 cities, towns and villages affected by the accident at Fukusima Dai-ichi, 140 miles northeast of Tokyo.
Many Japanese regard this massive undertaking as a solemn obligation to right a terrible wrong. Others, even some of the people directly affected, question whether it’s a quixotic waste of resources.
Karimata’s delegation marches up a side street to check on a brigade of laborers wearing gloves, masks, helmets and fluorescent vests with radiation detectors tucked in their chest pockets. Some are spreading fresh soil in the yard of an uninhabited home. Next door, workers are up on a scaffold, preparing to wipe down the roof and gutters.
Across the street, near a bamboo grove, two men are erecting a plastic frame to support a massive double-lined garbage bag about the size of a hot tub. Dozens of identical black sacks, each weighing about a ton and stuffed with radiation-contaminated soil, leaves, wood chippings and other debris, stretch out behind them, awaiting transport at some uncertain date to a yet-unspecified final resting place.
Four years after the Great Tohoku Earthquake shook northern Japan to its core, touched off a deadly tsunami and precipitated the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster, hundreds of square miles remain off-limits for habitation due to radioactivity. Some 79,000 people still cannot return home.
But unlike the 1986 accident at Chernobyl, where authorities simply declared a 1,000 square-mile no-habitation zone, resettled 350,000 people and essentially decided to let the radiation dissipate over decades or centuries, Japan is attempting to make the Fukushima region livable again. It is an unprecedented effort.
The sheer manpower and money dedicated to the house-to-house effort is staggering: Continue reading
Japanese public to bear the costs of scrapping 5 old nuclear reactors
Five ageing nuclear reactors to be scrapped in Japan Sun Daily, 12 March 2015 -TOKYO: Japanese power companies are expected to announce the decommissioning of five ageing nuclear reactors next week, local media reported Thursday.
Four operators – Kansai Electric Power Co, Japan Atomic Power Co, Chugoku Electric Power Co and Kyushu Electric Power Co – will decide on Wednesday to scrap the reactors, which went into service in the 1970s, Kyodo News agency reported without citing any sources.
The operators will avoid the cost of beefing up safety measures to meet higher standards following Japan’s worst nuclear accident in Fukushima prefecture in 2011, Kyodo said.
The Industry Ministry said in January that the cost of decommissioning reactors, which can run to hundreds of millions of dollars and take decades until the property is ready for other uses, should be met by the general public……..http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1353191
Prolonged exposure to radiation is taking health toll on Fukushima’s kids
TV: Officials lying, many more kids getting cancer after Fukushima — Report: 1,200+ deaths from “illness caused by prolonged exposure” — Mom: “I’m really worried… children not the same… sick… nosebleeds, rashes.. white blood cells decreased” — Radiation by school 100 times normal (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/tv-fukushima-residents-govt-lying-im-really-worried-many-children-same-sick-nosebleeds-rashes-incredible-fatigue-white-blood-cells-decreased-radiation-levels-school-100-times-normal-video?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
ABC (Australia), Mar 11, 2014 (emphasis added): Radiation levels posing cancer risks… Before the disaster, there was just one to two cases of thyroid cancers in a million Japanese children but now Fukushima has more than 100 confirmed or suspected cases, having tested about 300,000 children… It is expected that thyroid cancers could turn up about four to five years after a nuclear disaster… [Megumi] Muto said her daughter and son, like many other children, had not been the same since experiencing the Fukushima fallout. “They had rashes on their bodies then nose bleeds. My son’s white cells have decreased and they both haveincredible fatigue… both have multiple nodulesaround their thyroids. I’m really worried.”… Mutowanted to move her family out of Fukushima city but she said she could not afford to.
News 24 (SAPA), Mar 10, 2015: A total of 1232 deaths in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture over the past year were linked to the nuclear accidentfour years ago, up 18% from a year earlier, a news report said on Tuesday. A death is considered nuclear-related if is not directly resulting from a nuclear accident but is due from an illness caused by prolonged exposure. Namie town, close to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, had the largest number of deaths at 359, followed by 291 in Tomioka town, which is also near the complex, the Tokyo Shimbun reported.
ABC (Australia) video transcript, Mar 11, 2014:
- Headline: Fukushima residents have taken cancer and radiation testing into their own hands, saying authorities are lying to them about the safety of their community.
- Matthew Carney, ABC correspondent: It’s a heartbreaking time for Megumi Muto. Her daughter is being tested to see if the lumps in her thyroid gland have grown… Megumi isconvinced exposure to high radiation levels after the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns is the cause.
- Megumi Muto, Fukushima mother (translated): I feel angry. I think the authorities hide the real dangers, and now many more children are being diagnosed.
- Carney: Many residents in Fukushima don’t trust the government or TEPCO.
- Muto: Since the disaster my kids have been sick with nosebleeds, rashes and lethargy. Fukushima used to be a safe… area, but not now.
ABC (Australia) audio transcript, Mar 11, 2014:
- Michael Brissenden, ABC: the issue of long term health implications like cancer are causing the greatest concern and controversy in Japan…
- Matthew Carney, ABC correspondent: [Fukushima residents say the local and central] governments failed to protect the children. And they do not trust what the government or TEPCO… are telling them about radiation levels and safety. They’re conducting their own radiation tests and near this school in Fukushima City, the monitor reads 3 mircosieverts an hour. That’s about 100 times the rate of Tokyo.
- Sumio Kunno, nuclear plant engineer: I have to investigate and inform the public of the facts… They’re still not decontaminating areas where children live or play.
Nuclear blackmail – South Korean computer hacker demands money
Hacker demands money to withhold information on S. Korean nuclear reactors Korea Times, SEJONG, March 12 (Yonhap) — A hacker who had posted inside information on South Korea’s nuclear power plants made a fresh threat Thursday, demanding money in exchange for not handing over sensitive information to third countries.
Using an account under the name of the president of an anti-nuclear group in Hawaii, the hacker posted additional files on Twitter, which reportedly included documents concerning the country’s indigenous advanced power reactor 1400.
“Need money. Only need to meet some demands… Many countries from Northern Europe, Southeast Asia and South America are saying they will buy nuclear reactor information. Fear selling the entire information will undermine President Park (Geun-hye)’s efforts to export nuclear reactors,” the posting said.
The hacker did not say how much money he wanted but warned that South Korea will end up losing much more if it tries to save a few hundreds of millions of dollars…….The latest posting marked the sixth of its kind since Dec. 15…….
In the latest posting, the hacker “congratulated” the KHNP for finding 7,000 viruses but claimed 9,000 more were awaiting his or her order.
The information released Thursday reportedly included the transcript of a telephone conversation between President Park and the U.N. chief, Ban Ki-moon, on Jan. 1. http://www.koreatimesus.com/hacker-demands-money-to-withhold-information-on-s-korean-nuclear-reactors/
Japan’s manufacturing industries have adjusted, and thrive, without nuclear power
Life without nukes: Japan Inc thrives, CNBC 12 Mar 15 Mia Tahara-Stubbs Tuesday, 10 Mar 2015 Japan’s economy is thriving despite the four-year shutdown of the country’s nuclear power stations following the massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, analysts say……..“Japanese manufacturers have adapted to the 30 percent electricity price increase by cutting back on energy consumption,” said Japan Research Institute (JRI) chief researcher Takumi Fujinami. “Higher prices haven’t had much of an effect on manufacturers’ bottom lines because electricity represents only around 5 percent of raw material costs.”
Toyota, for example, which generates around a fifth of sales from the two million cars it makes in Japan every year, is forecast to post a 15 percent on-year jump in operating profit to 2.78 trillion yen ($22.9 billion) this fiscal year – its second straight year of record profits.
Still, Fujinami noted that manufacturers need to plan for higher energy costs going forward.
“The days of cheaper electricity are over and probably won’t be coming back,” he said. “It’s time for the Japanese economy to make the transition to a less industrial, more service sector-oriented economy.”…….
Ahead of December’s snap elections, Japan’s big business lobby Keidanren called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to “provide the general public with a lucid explanation of the necessity of nuclear power” in order to “accelerate the process for restarting nuclear power plants,” according to a policy proposal published in October.
Abe has responded to business demands, pledging to begin putting nuclear reactors back online without setting any firm dates, but public sentiment remains a hurdle.
Fifty-six percent of respondents in a nationwide Nikkei newspaper poll conducted in August were opposed restarting the reactors, in line with other regional polls.
“The fact that there is still not a single reactor running in the country, in spite of the strong desire of the political and economic elites to bring back nuclear energy, attests to the continuous obstacles public opinion presents,” said Sophia University professor of politics Koichi Nakano.
Voters remain worried because the Fukushima plant does not appear to be “under control.”
Tokyo Electric Power Company – the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant – confirmed those fears last month, admitting that highly radioactive material has been seeping into the sea for nearly a year.
“Fukushima is obviously not under control and it’s out of the question that other reactors are restarted before it is,” said Coalition Against Nukes representative and National Confederation of Trade Union executive committee member Kenichi Igarashi……..http://www.cnbc.com/id/102494249#.
Four years later – all Japan’s nuclear reactors remain closed
“Some people will suffer a great deal if the nuclear power plants are not restarted. And those people are extremely influential in the corridors of power, and Prime Minister Abe is their man,”
Japan’s Nuclear Reactors Remain Offline 4 Years After Fukushima Meltdown VOA, Brian Padden March 11, 2015 SEOUL— In Japan thousands of people are still homeless and all of the nation’s nuclear reactors are still offline, four years after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami caused the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised a five-year reconstruction plan for the areas still devastated by the disaster, but he remains a nuclear energy advocate despite strong public opposition.
More than 120,000 residents who lived within 20 kilometers of Japan’s Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima were evacuated in March of 2011 after the damaged nuclear plant started leaking radiation.
These nuclear refugees still cannot return home because of high radiation levels, and they still worry about suffering from long-term health implications like cancer due to the radiation exposure.
Professor Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan, said they have come to symbolize the danger of nuclear power.
“These people all understand very well about the myth of safety that the government and utilities have propagated over preceding decades,” said Kingston.
Prime Minister Abe vowed this week to come up with a new-five year plan to rebuild the Pacific coastal region that was ravaged by the tsunami. The government has reportedly already spent $50 billion in the hardest hit areas.
Japan has allocated more than $15 billion for a project to lower radiation in towns near the plant where radioactive trash is being kept in 88,000 temporary storage facilities.
Tokyo also plans to build a more permanent nuclear storage facility near the plant, despite opposition from some residents.
After the Fukushima disaster, all of Japan’s 48 nuclear reactors were shut down. They remain closed because of safety concerns and because opinion polls indicate more than 60 percent of the public now oppose nuclear energy.
Yet Abe, who recently won re-election by a wide margin, remains a nuclear power supporter. Professor Kingston said the prime minister’s unpopular stand was somewhat calculated in that it garnered him the support of business leaders with vested interests in the nuclear industry.
“Some people will suffer a great deal if the nuclear power plants are not restarted. And those people are extremely influential in the corridors of power, and Prime Minister Abe is their man,” said Kingston…….http://www.voanews.com/content/japan-observes-anniversary-of-earthquake-tsunami-disaster/2675471.html
Japan must face the problems and politics of demolishing dead nuclear reactors
Questions remain over future plan for Japan’s aging nuclear plants Japan Times, 12 Mar 15 BY ERIC JOHNSTON As the debate about what to do with Japan’s aging nuclear reactors intensifies, questions remain about the ramifications of decommissioning plants, and how to tear down the facilities in a way that’s efficient, affordable, safe, and that has the support of the local community.
In the United Kingdom, these concerns formed the basis of a policy that has led to the decommission of numerous power stations, two of which began operating in the 1950s……
Seven of Japan’s 48 commercial reactors are at least 40 years old — in principle their maximum operating life. Another five are at least 35 years old and their fate will have to be decided within the next few years.
Kyushu Electric plans to decommission the 40-year-old Genkai No. 1 plant, while Kepco is expected to shut down the Mihama No. 1 and 2 reactors, both of which are over 40 years old. Chugoku Electric plans to decommission the 41-year-old Shimane No. 1 reactor, while the Tsuruga No. 1 reactor, which is 45 years old and run by Japan Atomic Power, will be closed.
Decommissioning a plant is a decades-long process that does not necessarily immediately involve the most crucial step of tearing down the reactors and hauling away radioactive material.
“During the decommissioning of the Berkeley power station in southwest England, we’ve left the reactor building standing because it’s safer to remove the nuclear material in another 60 years,” Franklin said. “We’ve closed the doors on the reactor building until 2074.”
However, he acknowledged publicly visible gestures were important because they could help reassure local communities that the plant was actually being dismantled.
“A skyline change helps garner support for the decommissioning process and for difficult decisions, such as not tearing down and hauling away nuclear materials in reactor buildings,” he said.
“In one case, we destroyed the plant’s cooling towers, which were not actually a major hazard but could be seen for miles. If you live nearby and you see them come down, you feel progress is being made, and that’s more effective than simply telling people about the progress.”
Perhaps the biggest lesson the U.K. learned was that effective decommissioning starts with addressing the corporate and bureaucratic culture at a nuclear plant.
“Changing your culture from making something — electricity — to actually taking power stations down requires a huge cultural change on a nuclear site. That’s something we’re really working on sharing with Japanese nuclear operators,” Franklin said. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/11/national/questions-remain-over-future-plan-for-japans-aging-nuclear-plants/#.VQH9CNKUcnk
Pro nuclear signs to be removed from deserted town of Futaba
Deserted Fukushima town to remove pro-nuclear signs 7 News, Tokyo (AFP) 10 Mar 15 – A Japanese town that was evacuated after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has decided to remove street signs trumpeting the benefits of atomic power, an official said Tuesday.Deserted Futaba town, which plays host to the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, is set to earmark cash to remove huge signboards erected in 1988 and 1991, a town official told AFP.
“Nuclear power: the energy for a bright future,” says one sign written in the style of a haiku poem at the entrance to the town. “Nuclear power: for development of our homeland, a prosperous future,” reads the other.
Futaba’s 6,300 residents were ordered to flee their homes in the days after reactors began melting down at Fukushima when an enormous tsunami swamped their cooling systems.
They are still unable to return because of fears over elevated levels of radiation that leaked from the plant, and many remain in poorly-constructed temporary homes…….
0,000 people remain displaced because of the no-go zone around the plant.
Scientists warn that it may be many years until it is safe to return and say that some areas may have to be abandoned forever.
Campaign groups say unemployment is high and levels of depression and other illness are far above normal in displaced communities. https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/26585240/deserted-fukushima-town-to-remove-pro-nuclear-signs/
Video: Fukushima had “meltdown, melt-through, & melt-out within days of quake”
Video: Fukushima had “meltdown, melt-through, & melt-out within days of quake” — US Gov’t: Analysis says containment vessel fails after fuel melts through barrier — Experts: Corium may have melted out to reactor building, prepare for radiation doses over 200,000,000 microsieverts/hour http://enenews.com/video-fukushima-meltdown-melt-melt-days-quake-govt-analysis-shows-containment-vessel-failed-after-fuel-melted-barrier-experts-corium-melted-container-reactor-building-prepare-radiation-levels-20?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
Jiji Press, Mar 5, 2015 (emphasis added): Where is the melted fuel in the stricken reactors at Fukushima No. 1? This remains a question… cosmic rays [are being used] to “see through” the reactors… [Prof. Fumihiko Takasaki of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization calls the] nuclear disaster a “national crisis”… muon detectors were… placed last July at reactor No. 1… As detector units can’t be placed underground at reactor 1, any melted fuel in the underground part of the reactor will go undetected.
Science (AAAS), Mar 5, 2015: Fukushima Daiichi… won’t be truly safe until engineers can remove nuclear fuel… But first, they have to find that fuel… [TEPCO] thinks… fuel in the Unit 1… dropped to the bottom of the containment… engineers need much more detail about its location and condition… By the end of this month, Takasaki says, the detectors may have absorbed enough muons to confirm there is no fuel left in the reactor core… [Detectors]won’t be able to map fuel that may have flowed to the bottom of the containment vessel.
Wall St Journal: Fuel rods… melted fully out of their pressure vessel [says Tepco]… but it likely stopped as Tepco began [injecting] seawater [See: Tepco: We should have told public this sooner… water injections failed to cool melted fuel]… Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says it remains unclear why the fuel rods didn’t also breach the containment wall. “Why this didn’t happen is still unknown”…
U.S. NRC — State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analyses (SOARCA) Report (pdf), Oct 2012: Fukushima Daiichi… presented… many insights with potential parallels to SOARCA’s analysis of… Peach Bottom, a similarly designed plant… in the SOARCA scenarios, significant hydrogen release [begins with] failure of the containment pressure boundary, which… results from molten debris failing the drywell liner… (i.e., drywell liner melt-through)… TEPCO has announced… the fuel did not move laterally across the drywell floor [and melt through the liner]… In the analyses presented in this report, hydrogen [was] released via the failure of the drywell liner by melt-attack.
Argonne National Lab (USA), MCM (Switzerland), Sep 2014: location of 1F corium — Critical questions relate to the extent of core melt and the extent to which it has melted through RPV and penetrated into the primary containment… “hot particles”… may be throughout the reactor building [and] water collection system and even released to surroundings… Identification of hot particles… is going to be critical for safe decommissioning… [the equipment] must withstand extremely high radiation – perhaps up to greater than 200 Sv/hr.
More from MCM: Most molten core appears to be contained within the primary containment, although a very small extent of melt-through to… cannot be precluded.
Symposium sponsored by Consortium for Japan Relief — Chim Pom, published Feb 2015: “Media never reported that the whole process — meltdown, melt-through, and so-called melt-out — happened, was done within a few days after the earthquake.”
Japan’s piles of radioactive trash
Radioactive Fukushima, Asia One Reuters, Mar 11, 2015 “…..Today, four years after the disaster, residents are torn over government’s plan to build a radioactive waste storage site in the shadow of the wrecked nuclear plant, reported Reuters.
Norio Kimura, 49, who lost his father, wife and daughter in the tsunami, walks to where his house used to stand before it was washed away by massive waves.
Kimura knows the brokers are circling, ready to offer a deal for his land to build the waste storage facility.
He has vowed not take it.
“I can’t believe they’re going to dump their trash here after all we’ve been put through,” he told Reuters.
Japan has allocated more than US$15 billion (S$20.7 billion) to an unprecedented project to lower radiation in towns around Fukushima. Every day teams of workers blast roads with water, scrub down houses, cut branches and scrape contaminated soil off farmland.
That irradiated trash now sits in blue and black plastic sacks across Fukushima, piled up in abandoned rice paddies, parking lots and even residents’ backyards.
Tokyo plans to build a more permanent storage facility over the coming years in now-abandoned towns close to the Fukushima nuclear plant – but like Kimura, many locals are angry that the government is set to park 30 million tons of radioactive debris on their former doorstep.
According to Reuters, some 2,300 residents who own plots of land in Futaba and Okuma which the government needs for the waste plant face what many describe as an impossible choice. The storage site will be built if the government can lease or buy enough land – whatever concerns the last hold-outs may have.
– See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/radioactive-fukushima#sthash.gzfTklgA.dpuf
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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