Sinister dangers from Japan’s “Nuclear Village”
if Hirose and others like him outside of the ‘‘nuclear village’’ are right in their warnings, then we in other countries will need more information, not less, as Japan debates putting its reactors back online
GREG RAY: Beware nuclear village Newcastle Herald, By Greg Ray Nov. 14, 2013 “I’M a Japanese woman from Kyoto,” last night’s surprise email began…..
….I bought a copy of Japan-based Australian journalist Mark Willacy’s book, Fukushima, hoping it would help me cut through some of the myths and lies about the nuclear accident. It did that, and more, alerting me to much wider issues in Japan’s nuclear industry.
Willacy criticised Japan’s “nuclear village”, a club of politicians, scientists, journalists and business people who tightly control information about the atomic energy industry in Japan. Journalists and others who dare to disagree with the village-approved line risk being ostracised and ridiculed, Willacy wrote.
So I sought books by Japanese writers from outside “the village”, and found Fukushima Meltdown, by Takashi Hirose.
Even allowing for the possibility of a certain amount of overstatement – Hirose’s book is rather emotional behind its facts and figures – the descriptions of Japan’s 50-plus nuclear power plants make scary reading. Hirose itemises their locations relative to geological faults and volcanoes, their various levels of preparation for predictable disasters and their histories of accidents and problems.
In addition to the “normal” nuclear power plants (off-line since the Fukushima melt-downs), Japan also has a fast-breeder reactor with a terrible accident history, some reactors that use deadly plutonium as well as uranium for fuel and the Rokkasho Village nuclear fuel reprocessing facility. Continue reading
High Alert Time for Japan and nuclear power
Japan and nuclear power High alert The riskiest part yet of the Fukushima clean-up is soon to begin The Economist, Nov 16th 2013 | FUKUSHIMA AMONG the twisted metal and random debris that litter much of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the fourth reactor looks in relatively good condition. A new structure covers the damage from a hydrogen explosion that blew its roof off days after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the plant in March 2011. But the building is still unstable, and its spent-fuel storage pool highly dangerous. This month Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) will start plucking out over 1,500 radioactive rods from the pool in order to store them more safely. Over the pool a crane waits to start the procedure, and a yellow radiation alarm stands at the ready. Experts call the operation the riskiest stage of the plant’s clean-up so far.
Even the pro-nuclear ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wants to take TEPCO in its current form out of the decommissioning process, which will take 40 or more years. A new entity, including the utility’s staff but separate from its commercial side, would take charge……..Junichiro Koizumi, a popular LDP former prime minister, has stepped in, calling for an immediate end to nuclear power. After he broadcast his views at a press conference, a poll showed that three-fifths of those who were surveyed backed his plan.
Mr Koizumi still knows how to rouse the public, says Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo, but there is little chance that Mr Abe’s commitment to nuclear power will change. His government’s links to the “nuclear village” are too strong. Big business is clamouring for the power stations to restart. Mr Koizumi’s style is certainly more orthodox than Taro Yamamoto’s. At a garden party, the new member of parliament dared to hand a letter to the emperor, Akihito, about the impact of the Fukushima catastrophe. Such direct contact with a near-divine was considered an outrage by everybody in the establishment (except Akihito, who carried on chatting with him). Japan’s nuclear-energy drama is far from over. http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21589912-riskiest-part-yet-fukushima-clean-up-soon-begin-high-alert
Radioactive water “gushing” out of holes in Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 1 containment vessel
NHK: Holes near bottom of containment vessel identified for first time at Fukushima plant — “Gushing out” of Reactor No. 1 — Similar damage suspected at Units 2 and 3 (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nhk-holes-found-near-bottom-of-reactor-no-1-containment-vessel-at-fukushima-plant-leak-is-gushing-out-similar-damage-suspected-at-units-2-and-3-video
NHK WORLD, , Nov. 13, 2013: A robot at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has for the first time identified exactly where highly radioactive water is leaking from a reactor […] the lower part of the No.1 reactor’s containment vessel. […] A camera on the robot captured images of water leaking from 2 holes in the containment vessel […] TEPCO engineers […] say one of the leaks looks as if tap water is gushing out. Radiation levels in the area were extremely high at 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts an hour. Engineers suspect that damage to containment vessels at the No. 2 and 3 reactors is also causing similar leaks […]
Jiji Press, , Nov. 14, 2013: […] “Part of the containment vessel is damaged, and water leaking from there is likely to be flowing down into the ground via the pipe,” a TEPCO official said. […] Water used to cool molten fuel debris is believed to be leaking from the three reactor containers, with highly radioactive water accumulated in the basements. The newly found incident is the first apparent identification of a containment vessel-basement flow […]
See also: Japan’s worst-case scenario assumed “significant public exposure” to occur by end of March 12 because of pressure buildup that would damage No. 1 reactor container (VIDEO)
Radiation fears severely damaging South Korea’s seafood traders
Fish Is Off the Menu in South Korea Over Radiation Fears Koreans Avoid Seafood Over Fears of Fukushima Contamination, WSJ, By KWANWOO JUN 14 Nov 13, SEOUL—”There have been no buyers yet,” said fish trader Choi Mi-ja as the clock ticked toward 3 p.m., some 10 hours after her store at the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market opened for the day.“In 26 years in this business, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Ms. Choi added, standing by tanks where live, locally bred flatfish and Russian-imported king crabs were displayed.
Ms. Choi’s predicament provides a taste of the psychological impact of Japan’s nuclear crisis on South Korea’s seafood industry. Sales of marine products have plummeted in recent months as three out of every four Koreans say they have cut back on fish consumption following leaks of radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.
The fears come despite Seoul imposing some of the toughest restrictions on seafood imports from Japan. Since September, it has blocked all fishery imports from eight prefectures surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi plant, on Japan’s Pacific coast.
Around 80% of seafood consumed in South Korea is caught locally, where there is no evidence of any impact from the nuclear disaster. Despite the facts, many Koreans are shunning seafood……..http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303289904579196893701088208
Robot finds leaks in Fukushima nuclear plant’s Reactor 1,
Robot detects locations of radioactive leaks at crippled Fukushima nuclear plant RT.com November 14, 2013 For the first time, a remote-controlled robot has detected the exact spot of radioactive water leaks from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant’s Reactor 1, local media reported.
The robot was sent close to the lower part of the Reactor 1 containment vessel at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi on Wednesday. Its camera captured images of radioactive water leaking from two holes of the vessel into the building housing the reactor, NHK television reported. ……… However, TEPCO engineers said that they cannot estimate the amount of water that leaked through the holes, NHK reported. They also admitted that Reactors 2 and 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi have similar problems.
TEPCO is now planning to use robots to locate other leaks which have been causing concern, as it is important not only in solving water contamination problems but also in carrying out decommissioning of the reactors…….http://rt.com/news/fukushima-robot-detect-radiation-729/
Fukushima cleanup costs – $250-$500 billion!
The staggering costs to clean up Fukushima Smart Planet By Tyler Falk | November 12, 2013 More than two years since the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the Fukushima power plant meltdown is still a major, global environmental problem. And the staggering price tag for cleaning it up continues to rise.
The Japanese government just announced that it’s borrowing about $30 billion more to cover costs related to Fukushima, bringing the total amount the Japanese government has borrowed to clean up the mess to around $80 billion, more than three times the amount BP spent to clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. That money will go into cleanup, along with compensation for the people who may never go back to their homes near the contaminated area, and the decommissioning of the nuclear reactors. But it’s not money that the government is on the hook for, Reuters reports:……
it should hardly come as a surprise that the cleanup is proving so costly. Independent estimates put the total economic cost of the disaster at $250-$500 billion. Tepco has said it will need $137 billion to cover costs related to Fukushima. And if Chernobyl is any indication, the costs will likely continue for decades to come. And the real issue might not even be the cleanup costs or health concerns, but the fact that a large, productive area of land (of which Japan doesn’t have much to begin with) is now essentially useless and will be for many years, decades, or possibly centuries to come……. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/the-staggering-costs-to-clean-up-fukushima/33974
Frustration and resignation of Fukushima evacuees who won’t be going home
“No matter how much they decontaminate I’m not going back because I have children and it is my responsibility to protect them,” said Yumi Ide, a mother of two teenage boys from Tomioka..
For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won’t be going home BY SOPHIE KNIGHT AND ANTONI SLODKOWSKI IWAKI, Japan Mon Nov 11, 2013 (Reuters) – For many of Japan’s oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, there is a shared understanding on one point – Japan’s government is unable to deliver on its ambitious initial goals for cleaning up the areas that had to be evacuated after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster……. Continue reading
Japan’s electricity companies profitable without using nuclear power
Fukushima Watch: Some Power Companies in Black without Nuclear Restarts WSJ, By Mari Iwata, 12 Nov 13 Many of Japan’s power companies generated a profit in the first half of the year. While that’s good news for shareholders, it’s an awkward outcome for utilities that have insisted they cannot stay out of the red without restarting their nuclear reactors. The latest earnings show that many of Japan’s major utilities generated a profit in the first half of this fiscal year, even without the help of their nuclear power plants.
Amid uncertainty about whether nuclear restarts can win regulatory approval, that is good news for shareholders. But it puts the utilities themselves in a difficult position, since they have been loudly complaining that without their nuclear plants, they will remain in the red.
Five of the nine regional utilities that have nuclear power plants posted a net profit for the six months ending Sept. 30. They include Tokyo Electric Power Co., whose Fukushima Daiichi plant in northern Japan was at the center of the nuclear crisis that led to the shutdown of nuclear plants amid safety concerns. Also making profits were Tohoku Electric Power Co.,Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Kansai Electric Power Co. and Chugoku Electric Power Co…….
epco was the biggest gainer, with a ¥616 billion ($6.19 billion) net profitfor the six months. That compared with a ¥299 billion net loss a year earlier and a ¥627 billion net loss in the same period the previous year as the company struggles to pay for the cleanup and decommissioning of the Fukushima plant…..
“Tepco’s profit is false, coming from the government’s handouts,” said Akiko Sekine of Greenpeace Japan.
But she said that for other utilities, the figures showed there may be life after nuclear power.
“They have said they wouldn’t be able to get by without restarting reactors, but it seems they can,” she said…… http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-379528/
Only one seventh of true radiation is measured by dosimeters
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Japan’s plan to make radiation readings come out looking better
Plan to lower radiation readings OK’d JIJI NOV 12, 2013 Japan Times, 12 Nov 13 To facilitate the return of evacuees, the Nuclear Regulation Authority has approved a change in the way radiation doses are monitored around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station that will effectively result in lower readings, but observers warn this could raise public mistrust. Continue reading
Two former Japan Prime Ministers call for ending nuclear power
Japan Ex-Leaders Join Calls Against Nuclear Power TOKYO November 12, 2013 (AP) abc news, By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer, Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday that the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, should take advantage of his high public support and sway in parliament to “do the right thing.”
“Prime Minister Abe should use the power given to him to do what the majority of the people want,” Koizumi said in a speech at the Japan Press Club. “It can be achieved. Why miss this chance?”
Koizumi, who supported nuclear power during his 2001-2006 term in office, said that with Japan’s nuclear plants all offline for safety checks it would be easiest to begin the phase-out soon…….
Polls have shown the majority of the public, jittery over radiation risks, prefers to shift away from the nuclear plants that provided nearly a third of Japan’s power generation capacity before the accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, the worst since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Even within Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, opinions over the future for nuclear power are divided.
Japan’s rapid turnover in leadership over the past two decades means there are plenty of former prime ministers. At least three, including Koizumi, have said they support ending use of nuclear power.
Their support could help reinvigorate the anti-nuclear movement, which has lost some of its vitality nearly three years after the Fukushima accident.
Another former prime minister, Morihiro Hosokawa, said in an interview published in the Tokyo Shimbun on Tuesday that he also favors an end to reliance on nuclear power.
“I can’t understand why they want restarts of the nuclear plants when there is no place to discard the nuclear waste,” said Hosokawa, who served as prime minister for eight months in 1993-94. “It would be a crime against future generations for our generation to restart nuclear plants without resolving this issue,” he said.
Koizumi likewise emphasized his concern over nuclear waste disposal, especially in a densely populated, land-scarce country like Japan.
Experts have questioned whether earthquake-prone Japan can safely store nuclear waste under any scenario.
“I think it is too optimistic and irresponsible to assume we can find a final radioactive waste storage site in Japan, after the accident,” he said.
Even burying it underground for 100,000 years could expose future generations to harmful radiation, he said.
“What language should we use to convey the hazards to those people in the future?” he said…….. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/japan-leaders-join-calls-nuclear-power-20859089
Another $5 billion borrowed by Japan for Fukushima nuclear cleanup
Japan readies additional $30 billion for Fukushima clean-up: sources BY YOSHIFUMI TAKEMOTO TOKYO Tue Nov 12, (Reuters) – Japan’s government is finalizing plans to borrow an additional 3 trillion yen ($30 billion) to pay for compensating Fukushima evacuees and cleaning up the area outside the wrecked nuclear plant, said people with knowledge of the situation.
The additional borrowing would mark both a recognition of the project’s mounting costs and the difficulty of hitting initial targets for reducing radiation levels in the towns and villages hardest hit by the fallout from the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
The new government borrowing program would increase the amount earmarked for Fukushima-related expenses to the equivalent of just over $80 billion, according to government officials with knowledge of the developing plan who asked not to be named.
That $80 billion excludes the cost of decommissioning Fukushima’s six reactors, a process expected to take decades.
The new funding, which is being reviewed as part of the regular budget-setting process, would increase the amount earmarked for paying for work crews to decontaminate Fukushima towns and villages by about $500 million, according to the sources.
The rest of the extra funding raised by the government would be used to defray the cost of creating a storage facility for the radioactive waste, including topsoil and leaves collected from the evacuated zone, and would be available to pay compensation to more than 50,000 nuclear evacuees who remain shut out of their homes more than two and a half years after a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered meltdowns and explosions at the Fukushima plant…… http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/11/12/us-japan-fukushima-borrowing-idINBRE9AB0H520131112
Doubts about Fukushima evacuees ever going home
Fukushima residents may never go home, say Japanese officials Admission deals blow to government assurances that radiation near the Daiichi nuclear plant can be brought down to safe levels Justin McCurry in Tokyo theguardian.com, Wednesday 13 November 2013 Japanese officials have admitted for the first time that thousands of people evacuated from areas near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant may never be able to return home.
A report by members of the governing Liberal Democratic party [LDP] and its junior coalition partner urges the government to abandon its promise to all 160,000 evacuees that their irradiated homes will be fit to live in again. The plan instead calls for financial support for displaced residents to move to new homes elsewhere, and for more state funding for the storage of huge quantities of radioactive waste being removed from the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant.
The parties’ admission that some areas closest to the wrecked facility will remain too contaminated for people to make a permanent return is a blow to official assurances that radiation can be brought down to safe levels.
The government has come under pressure to abandon those promises amid evidence that attempts to reduce radiation to its target of 1 millisievert a year are failing. Decontamination is woefully behind schedule in seven of the 11 selected towns and villages, forcing authorities to concede recently that they will not complete the work by the March 2014 deadline…….
“At some point in time, someone will have to say that this region is uninhabitable, but we will make up for it,” the LDP’s secretary general, Shigeru Ishiba, said recently. It now appears that officials will abandon efforts to clean up highly irradiated areas closest to the plant and focus on areas where there is a more realistic chance of success……. The last category includes the small town of Okuma, where evacuated residents told the Guardian over two years ago that they had given up all hope of ever returning…… http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/12/fukushima-daiichu-residents-radiation-japan-nuclear-power
South Korea could find nuclear power much more costly
Nuclear power could be more costly than thought, The Hankyorheh, S. Korea, : Nov.12,2013 Analysis shows that if full range of costs is factored in, nuclear energy is not as low-cost an option as the gov’t says By Hwangbo Yeon, staff reporter
A newreport suggests that nuclear power would lose its price competitiveness if taxes on power sources like coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) were collected more fairly and costs of transmission grid construction and social risks were assessed.
If such a price structure is realized, it stands to undermine claims of the superior cost-effectiveness of nuclear power, which the government has used to argue for its expansion.
The report on a price recalculation scenario for different power generation facilities was presented at a recent Power Industry Research Association seminar by Hanbat National University professor Cho Young-tak…….
The cost-effectiveness reversal becomes even more conspicuous when nuclear power accident risk costs and price variations from the introduction of shale gas are also factored in. The price of nuclear power rises from as low as 95 won to as much as 143 won when conditions such as damage payment costs (based on the compensation levels for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan) and a 25% drop in gas import costs due to shale gas are taken into account. This range is well ahead of the 88-102 won for coal and 92-121 won for LNG.
Japan blocks interviews with Fukushima residents
Top nuclear official blocks interviews with people over Fukushima exposures; Only allowed to talk to “friendly” gov’t leaders — Reuters: “No matter how hard they try, radiation isn’t going down” -Resident (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/top-nuclear-official-blocks-interviews-with-people-over-fukushima-exposures-only-allowed-to-talk-to-friendly-govt-leaders-reuters-no-matter-how-hard-they-try-radiation-isnt-going-down
The Mainichi, Nov. 11, 2013: NRA chairman blocks interviews with Fukushima residents over exposure doses […] NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka intervened to limit such interviews to friendly local government leaders, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned. Tanaka’s action is igniting a chorus of protests from members of the NRA’s expert panel […] The panel under NRA Commissioner Kayoko Nakamura’s leadership started deliberations in September by inviting five outside experts, including those in charge of emergency radiation medicine. […] However, when NRA Chairman Tanaka learned of the proposal in late October he rejected it […] Masafumi Yokemoto, professor of environmental policy at Osaka City University […] criticizes NRA Chairman Tanaka for meddling in the expert panel’s deliberations and blocking interviews with evacuees to draw a foregone conclusion that the repatriation of evacuees is the only viable option. […]
Reuters, , Nov. 11, 2013: […] Some had hoped the decontamination project employing thousands of temporary workers to strip trees, spray roads and remove topsoil would be enough […] 90 percent of the projected reduction in radiation comes from natural decay of radioactive particles over time.[…] “No matter how hard they try to decontaminate, radiation isn’t going down. So even though we have decided to go back, we can’t,” said Keiko Shioi, a 59-year-old housewife from Naraha, near the nuclear plant. […]
NHK WORLD, Nov. 11, 2013: Experts call for change in radiation measuring […] A panel of experts is urging the Japanese government to change the way it measures radiation exposure for evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear accident when they return home. […] To date, officials have estimated exposure based on radiation levels in the environment. But the panel says they should measures exposure by equipping individuals with radiation monitors called dosimeters. Radiation measurements made by dosimeters tend to be one-third to one-seventh of readings estimated through environmental monitoring. […] The panel also calls for assigning local government officials and health nurses as advisors in each community. […]
NHK Newsline, Nov. 11, 2013 (h/t Anonymous tip): […] The proposal comes at a time when the government is aiming to lift the evacuation advisory for areas where annual radiation doses are estimated at 20 millisieverts or lower. […] The new method is expected to help promote returns of evacuees as well as reduce costs for decontaminating areas tainted by radioactive fallout.
NHK Newsline, Nov. 11, 2013 (at 0:45 in): Readings on such devices [personal dosimeters] tend to be one-third to one-seventh lower than estimates based on environmental monitoring. […] Radiation measurements made by dosimeters tend to be one-third to one-seventh of readings estimated through environmental monitoring. […] “Individual monitor readings don’t necessarily reflect different radiation levels in a household.” -Fukushima evacuee
Watch NHK’s broadcast here
1 This Month
19 May – Webinar No To Nuclear: Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War
1 June Webinar – The High Cost of Nuclear Power – Register
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
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