January 25, 2012

Jan 25, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Ex-Prime Minister Kan’s Fukushima investigative panel says they will conclude their work and publish a final report in July. Panel leader Yotaro Hatamura said the panel plans to hold hearings with cabinet ministers involved with accident decisions during the weeks following March 11. The panel wants to know how information on the accident was provided to local residents, how the extent of the damage was communicated and how the chain of responsibility was structured. Hatamura added they will meet with “foreign experts” in February to discuss what other issues should be investigated. (NHK World)
  • NISA has said they will require nuclear plant operators to consider and protect against earthquakes greater than those predicted for their locations. This marks the first “beyond design basis” regulatory requirement in Japan. The agency will also pressure nuclear utilities to consider potential quakes from faults now considered “inactive” since one such fault produced a Richter Scale 7 temblor in Fukushima Prefecture in April. (NHK World) It’s about time! If the US NRC and IAEA “beyond design basis” recommendations made since the mid-1990s had been implemented in Japan, it is not unlikely that the Fukushima accident would never have happened.
  • Kawauchi town in Fukushima Prefecture wants residents to return home in March. The rural town is located between 8 and 12 kilometers southwest of Fukushima Daiichi, in a low contamination region. The local government has been quietly decontaminating schools and playgrounds, along with public facilities, in the hope that the cleanup will draw citizens back. “Most residents seemed to agree with our explanations and plans to a certain extent,” said a senior town official. On Jan. 31, the municipal government will officially ask evacuees to return home, hoping they will move back by the end of March. School and town hall operations will be resumed in April. This will mark the first attempted repopulation of a town inside to 20km no-go zone. (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • The supermarket property where radium filled bottles were discovered in October seems riddled with the stuff. To date, at least ten spots on the Tokyo Setagaya ward premises have been found to have buried debris containing Radium-226 isotopes. The more they search, the more they find. Owners of the property, Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives, said, “We have never possessed any radium, and we don’t know why radium was buried there.” It is estimated the cost of cleanup could exceed one million yen. The Cooperative says it isn’t their fault so they should not be held financially responsible for the decontamination, “Similar things could happen again in the future. We want the government to consider countermeasures such as bearing decontamination costs.” A science ministry official said, “Countermeasures have been discussed within the ministry.” (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • The Tokyo-based citizen’s group trying to start an open nuclear energy referendum is in trouble. They have two weeks left before the petition statute runs out and they need 120,000 more signatures. The group is making a final push to beat the deadline. They were averaging ~30,000 signatures per week, but interest has dropped considerably the past few weeks. The group blames public apathy due to pro-nuclear Press coverage in Tokyo for their impending failure. Nonetheless, spokespersons for the group express optimism. If the petition drive is successful, it would pressure the Tokyo city government to put the nuclear issue to a public vote. (Asahi Shimbun)
  • Fukushima’s government has announced that they will consider providing compensation to Fukushima residents not currently receiving funds. Western and southern regions of the prefecture have complained about being excluded from the financial benefits which spurred Governor Yuhei Sato to take matters into his own hands. He proposes a $520 million fund to assist those not covered in the Tokyo-based compensatory program. (JAIF)
  • Another nuclear power plant will be shut down on Wednesday for routine maintenance, inspection, and refueling. TEPCO’s Kariwa unit #5’s shuttering will leave only four of Japan’s 54 nuclear plants operating. Kariwa unit #6 will be the only remaining nuclear plant operating in the Tokyo region. TEPCO says they will make up for the loss by boosting the capacity of several thermal units (i.e. coal, oil, or gas-fired) beyond their design limits. (JAIF) Maybe the citizens of Tokyo should start wearing their paper face masks again to keep the increased fossil pollution out of their lungs?
  • While most media outlets in Japan report that NISA has given the OK for Oi units #3 & #4 to restart, the reality is very different. NISA has accepted the TEPCO submittal of stress test results. NISA finds the numbers acceptable, which they published in a “draft” report made public two weeks ago. But…NISA has not given the nukes the OK to restart. The International Atomic Agency stress test review team is in Japan and they began their study of the Oi data, along with NISA, on Monday. Once the IAEA finishes its review, NISA will incorporate their findings into a final, conclusive report at some point next month…or perhaps in March. IAEA plans to finish its Oi review by January 31 and issue a summary report on its findings before they leave. (Japan Times)