May 30, 2012

May 30, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • The World Nuclear Association has created an educational video “Fukushima and Chernobyl: Myth versus Reality”, which I recommend to everyone. Here’s the link… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ncm8KwxWNg
  • Ex-Prime Minister Naoto Kan is once again apologizing for the Fukushima accident, but this time some people have said “enough”. In Kan’s testimony before the Diet commission, he said, “The disaster was triggered by a nuclear power plant that was maintained as part of national policy, and the government is predominantly responsible for it. I once again apologize for not having been able to stem the disaster as the person responsible for the country.” Futaba mayor Katsutaka Idogawa criticized Kan for blaming the inadequacy of NISA officials for the government’s poor initial response, saying, “If that’s the end of the story, it would offer no solutions.” Meanwhile, one evacuated Futaba woman said, “It’s too late to receive expressions of regret or apologies. It really doesn’t matter to me anymore.” Namie mayor Tamotsu Baba also said Kan’s blaming the accident on the government is insufficient, “That’s tantamount to saying that the Prime Minister’s Office lacked a sense of crisis.” (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • In addition, Kan has gone on record as categorically denying he wanted seawater injection to #1 RPV stopped. Records show that the F. Daiichi plant manager was ordered to stop seawater injection the night of March 12 “in accordance with the intentions of the Prime Minister’s Office.” When the panel asked for his recollection, Kan said, “Since this is a matter over which I have been criticized harshly many times, I think it is appropriate to explain in detail what actually happened. TEPCO liaison Ichiro Takekuro decided on his own to tell Yoshida to suspend the operation…I don’t understand why he did this.” Takekuro was part of the prime minister’s advisory group in the PM’s office, at the time. But, Takekuro tells a different story, “I did not want it continuing as I had not finished my explanation about it to the prime minister.” Upon ending his briefing, Takekuro called plant manager Yoshida (over the only land-line available) and told him, “We cannot obtain the prime minister’s approval [for using seawater], so please take some time before starting seawater injections.” Reminded of this, Kan snapped back, “It is wrong to consider statements made by people from the power utility at my office as instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office.” To make his response sound even more disingenuous, his hand-picked investigative panel reported in February that Kan had grave concerns about seawater injection and told his staff about it. Kan says his concerns were with the sea salt and its potential damage to the reactor’s internal materials, and that he was not concerned about the potential for seawater causing recriticality. Upon hearing this, a panel member asked why Kan’s aides “took the trouble of showing you reference material proving there was no correlation between seawater injections and recriticality.” Kan responded, “I don’t have any recollection of such a thing.” Lastly, when accused of his contradicting the testimony given to the panel by Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, Kan responded, “I can hardly believe the TEPCO chairman was really informed of key technicalities by the utility’s people in charge of the matter.” Although the article says Kan seemed well-prepared for facing the panel, his response to inquiries appears to inconsistent and contrary. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
  • Fukushima Gov Yuhei Sato has testified that he was not informed of the accident at Fukushima by Tokyo. This is a possible violation of Japanese law which states that all local officials are to be made aware of the emergency situation as soon as a formal accident declaration is made. Sato says it was more than six hours after the accident began before he found out about it, and then only because he learned of it by watching a TV news report! Sato also commented on his office having not used SPEEDI data to plan public protection actions. He said his office was literally flooded with SPEEDI data, but before it could be analyzed and used for planning purposes, Tokyo issued an evacuation order without consulting the prefectural government. It was more than a month before he found that the government’s evacuation decision did not include SPEEDI data. This unexpected action by Tokyo caused considerable chaos among his staff, which was exacerbated when the unit #1hydrogen explosion occurred. (Japan Today)
  • Disaster minister Goshi Hosono says that he regrets the Japanese government’s reluctance to admit the three meltdowns at Fukushima until nearly 4 months after-the-fact. He feels they had enough information to draw the meltdown’s conclusion by the end of the accident’s first week. In his talks with professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University, Hosono said he believes the government’s communication with the public following the nuclear accident was “problematic”. If it had openly admitted the meltdowns, people could have had more trust in the government. (Kyodo News)
  • Kansai Electric Company (Kepco) urged Prime Minister Noda to approve the restart of Oi units #3&4 as soon as possible. Kepco head Makoto Yagi says, “The final decision rests with the government or the prime minister.” The weather in the Kansai region is heating up and without the two nukes, there’s the real possibility of rolling blackouts once the summer hits in full. One cannot simply start a nuke quickly. After a prolonged outage, including maintenance and refueling, there are weeks of tests that must be run before the plants can provide electricity to the local infrastructure. Kepco has been given approval by the host community of Oi, which in the past was all that a nuke restart needed. Due to the Fukushima accident, local officials of three Prefectures and the meddling mayor of Osaka have demanded that they also be given determining power over the restarts. (Japan Times)
  • Industry minister Yukio Edano has gone on record as opposing temporary restarts of Oi units #3&4. He cited his personal safety concerns as the reason behind his decision. Edano said that temporarily reactivating the Oi reactors “could be taken as allowing them to operate when (electricity) is in short supply even though they may not be safe. As the government, we can hardly propose such a measure to the people of Fukui Prefecture and the town of Oi, who will suffer severe effects if an accident occurs there.” (Japan Times)