October 24, 2012

Oct 24, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • A global poll shows that nuclear support is increasing but still lags behind all other electricity sources. The Poll (Ipsos MORI) across 24 countries was compared to a similar one taken in April. 21 of the countries showed increased backing for nuclear The greatest decline is in Japan, which dropped from 41% favorable down to 36%. The countries showing the greatest favorable responses are (in order) India at 75%, the United States at 66%, and, Great Britain and China (tied) at 59%. The country with the greatest relative increase is Great Britain, jumping from 49% to 59% favorable. Italy, which has said they will abolish nukes, showed a small favorable upswing. The countries with the lowest favorable percentages (but still-greater than last April) are Mexico and Germany (both 26%), and Argentina (29%). Robert Knight, research director at Ipsos, said, “There’s no doubt global public opinion has recovered somewhat since Fukushima. But while the global picture is still not that encouraging for the nuclear industry, there are several countries where optimism about the future of nuclear energy is once again justified.” (NEI News)
  • German industrial giant Siemans is withdrawing from the solar energy business. They say low international demand and falling fossil-fueled energy prices no longer make it a good business investment. Siemans is discussing sale its solar generation units because they are losing too much money. The company will continue to manufacture solar technology, such as turbines and generators. Siemans was the first international giant to abandon the nuclear power business and focus on renewables in September of 2011, after Germany announced its plans to abandon nukes. Other German firms are also finding the transition to the solar option a problem, including the bankruptcy of Germany’s largest solar panel manufacturer in April of this year. Siemans says they cannot compete because Chinese companies market at a much lower cost. (NHK World)
  • A member of Japan’s new nuke safety agency (NRA) says they are considering expanding their definition of active earthquake faults. The current designation is that the fault has moved within the past 130,000 years. The NRA has not said how much they will magnify the definition, but seismologist Kunihiko Shimazaki suggests a 400,000 year standard, “I have never used 120,000 and 130,000 years (when talking about active faults).” (Kyodo News Service)
  • The NRA has posted their worst-case radiation projections for Fukushima-level accidents at all 16 Japanese nuclear power stations. The assumptions are based on all reactors at each location having concurrent meltdowns due to a prolonged loss of emergency cooling operations, causing a massive release of radiation into the atmosphere. The suppositions include weather patterns recorded over the past year. The NRA used the IAEA-recommended projected exposure level of 100 millisieverts over a seven day period as their criteria for evacuation. At 12 of the stations, the 100 mSv/week locations all fall within the proposed emergency preparedness zone of a 30km radius. The four stations that are projected to have “hot spots” outside the 30 km radius are Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (Niigata prefecture), Fukushima Daiini, Oi (Fukui Prefecture) and Hamaoka (Shizuoka Prefecture). The farthest hot spot (42km) is projected for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility if all seven reactors experienced full meltdowns at essentially the same time. The NRA projections are intended to serve as a reference for local emergency planning. The NRA also emphasizes the prognostications are estimates and not to be taken as expected. One NRA official said, “The calculations are based on hypotheticals and there are limits to their accuracy and reliability.” (NHK World; Mainichi Shimbun; Japan Times)
  • Greenpeace says government radiation monitoring posts in Fukushima are unreliable. The populist antinuclear group says they have found one spot reading 13 times the radiation limit now in vogue across Japan. “We also found that official monitoring posts placed by the government systematically underestimate the radiation levels. Official monitoring stations are placed in areas the authorities have decontaminated. However, our monitoring shows that just a few steps away the radiation levels rise significantly. Decontamination efforts are seriously delayed and many hot spots that were repeatedly identified by Greenpeace are still there,” said Rianne Teule, Greenpeace’s radiation expert.The locations were in public parks and near school facilities. The antinuclear group said officials were wasting time cleaning up evacuated areas and should prioritize decontamination efforts in places where people live, work and play. Greenpeace adds that the government ought to publicize more accurate data. Greenpeace Japan nuclear campaigner Kazue Suzuki said current decontamination efforts are “misguided”. He added, “The government continues to downplay radiation risks and give false hope (of returning home) to victims of this nuclear disaster.”(News on Japan; Japan Today; Kyodo News Service)
  • One bag of rice from Fukushima Prefecture shows a higher-than-standard level of Cesium contamination. The bag registered 110 Becquerels per kilogram, and the national limit is 100 Bq/kg. As a result of this single reading, all 320 bags of rice produced by a Sukagawa farm are being withheld from shipment. It should be noted that Japan’s Cesium standard is ten times lower than the internationally-recommended limit of 1000 Bq/kg. (Kyodo News Service)
  • The honorary Chair of Japan Airlines, Kazuo Inamori, calls nuclear energy a “necessary evil”. “It’s necessary to have nuclear energy if we want to maintain the sophistication that Japanese society has,” Inamori told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. He added he believes Japan’s policy goal of no-nukes in the 2030s is unrealistic. He also said the real problem behind the nuclear issue in Japan is that Tokyo has never provided sufficient nuclear information to the public. In addition, Inamori says the lack of information is why Japan has not adequately dealt with the nuclear waste issue. (Kyodo News Service)