March 14, 2012

Mar 14, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • 474,000 tons of earthquake/tsunami debris remains piled up in the Fukushima no-go zone. The Environment Ministry says the debris has contamination levels as high as 59,000,000 Becquerels per kilogram. The Ministry also reports that much of the rubble has much lower Cesium levels, such as 1,300 Becquerels for burnable rubble in the town of Namie and 200 Becquerels for non-burnable material in Namie and Minamisoma. Nearly all of the debris remains where it was deposited by the March 11 tsunami. (Mainichi Shimbun) [comment – We should keep in mind that about 20 million tons of debris remains to be processed outside the no-go zone.]
  • A new national poll finds that only 7% of the population says they do not approve of assisting in tsunami debris disposal. The poll was run by NHK by advertising for volunteers over the age of 20. More than 1000 responded. 57% say local municipalities ought to accept and process the tsunami debris, and 32% are undecided. (NHK World) [comment – Compare this to the fact that only 2.5% of Japan’s local governments are actually in favor of helping. What we have here is proof that Japan’s local governments cater to the phobic whim of a vocal minority at the expense of the rational majority.]
  • Prime Minister Noda and seven of his Ministers are making a formal request for 44 prefectures to assist in tsunamis debris disposal. The proposal was not extended to the three hardest-hit prefectures – Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate. The government wants the 44 prefectures to dispose of 4 million tons of debris already identified as “safe” by experts. There is more than 20 million tons yet needed to be handled. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
  • The Science Ministry reveals that the contamination dispersal from Fukushima is about one-tenth that of Chernobyl. The ministry compared data from the Fukushima accident collected between March and November 2011, with data from Chernobyl disaster collected for three years and eight months after April, 1986. Cesium contamination levels found out to 33 kilometers from Fukushima compare favorably with those out to 250 kilometers from Chernobyl. (Kyodo News)
  • The April food contamination guidelines for Cesium contamination in food have been clarified. Foods with less than 50 Becquerels per kilogram of cesium will unconditionally pass. Any food with between 50 and 100 Becquerels per kilogram will also pass, but the source must be tested three times a week if produced in Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and/or Chiba Prefectures. Similar follow-up tests will be required at least once a week in Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Saitama, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures. The remaining 30 prefectures will not be subject to the guidelines. Foods above 100 Becquerels will be discarded and the sources of the foods will be subjected to testing more than 3 times per week. Also, the ceiling for milk will be lowered from the current 200 Becquerels per kilogram to 50 Becquerels, and for water from the present 200 Becquerels to 10. (Japan Times)
  • It seems the formal creation of Japan’s new nuclear regulatory body is being delayed. Opposition parties in the Diet say they will oppose the bills that would make the new agency official by the first week of April. The root issue is how the body will be organizationally situated. Will it be an adjunct of a non-vested ministry (e.g. Ministry of the Environment) or a more independent group reporting to the Cabinet itself? If it was a ministry adjunct, would it be able to make independent, objective regulatory judgments? As an independent body the new group would have an easier time dealing with crisis management. The opposition parties want these points to be debated in the next ordinary session of the Diet rather than outside the formal process, which now is happening. Not only will the delay set back decision-making timetables, but it will also postpone the decision on idled nuke restarts. (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • The Fukushima Investigative Committee created by former P.M. Naoto Kan says they will not make hearings with politicians public. “I don’t think showing all the exchanges of words would fulfill transparency and openness,” Committee chairman Yotaro Hatamura said. “At the beginning, I thought we should make various things open as much as possible, but I have started to notice that there are more important things,” he added, suggesting that participants would be more frank in expressing their views in closed hearings. Naoto Kan has yet to be questioned and will only be subjected to the panel’s scrutiny if he approves of it. To date, a total of 10 politicians have been questioned, including then-industry minister Banri Kaieda and then-science minister Yoshiaki Takaki. All future politician hearings will be closed to the Press, however the final report will be released in July. (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • Japan’s oldest nuke is nearing its 42 anniversary and is the focus of the “aging” controversy. The Tsuruga unit #1 has been idled since late January of last year for a regular 14-month-long “check-up”. It’s now ready to restart, pending the stress test results. Unlike many other idled nuclear facility sites, Tsuruga Mayor Kazuharu Kawase supports the restart if it passes all safety examinations. He says the 40 year limit on an operating license is “logically invalid” and nuclear plants should not be shuttered based on merely a number. Antinuclear activist Tetsuen Nakajima of Fukui says, “It remains unclear how the aging affected the troubled reactors at the Fukushima complex. Degraded reactors should be decommissioned in succession before they cause catastrophic situations.” (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • TEPCO reports that they have begun the paving of the sea bottom of their quay “in earnest”. They describe the material being used as “solidified mud” (“armouring material”) to “prevent diffusion of marine soils”. (TEPCO Press Statement)