December 19, 2012

Dec 19, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • It seems that both sides of the nuclear issue are touting Sunday’s election as a pro-nuclear victory, but these speculations seem to be premature. The victorious Liberal Democratic Party of Japan has not clarified its stance on nuclear energy policy, taking a wait-and-see posture counter to the knee-jerk antinuclear policy advocated by the lame-duck Democratic Party of Japan. Before they were deposed in 2010, the LDP was decidedly pro-nuclear. However, post-Fukushima, the LDP has taken a neutral position on the nuclear issue. When will we find out on which side of the atomic fence they stand? A subcommittee of the Industry Ministry’s Advisory Committee for Energy and Natural Resources, which has been discussing the country’s energy policy, will have all of its members replaced and make a fresh start early next year.The Industry Ministry’s Expert Panel on Future Energy Policy is scheduled to compile measures for energy system reform next month. After these bodies have made their proposals, we will find out what the LDP’s opinion on nukes actually is. However, pressure is already being placed on the LDP to remove the policy of nuclear abolition from the table. Makoto Yagi, chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, said he wants the incoming government to work out a “realistic” national energy policy, adding there are too many insurmountable challenges to be overcome with the DPJ’s existing policy of no-nukes by 2040. There is little doubt, however, that the LDP will support the restart of the idled nukes that comply with the new regulations being created by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority, in order to ease the financial burden caused by Japan’s large increase in fossil-fuel imports resulting from the DPJ’s moratorium on nuclear operations. The LDP victory has been taken as a mandate to revive Japan’s crumbling economy and the curbing of fossil-fuel imports is high on the list. With next summer’s upper house election looming on the horizon, it is doubtful that the LDP will do anything that might drive voters away from their party. (Yomiuri Shimbun; Japan Times)
  • The “third force” antinuclear parties of Japan suffered a humiliating defeat at the polls, this past Sunday. They now turn their focus on next summer’s upper house (House of Councilors) election. The Diet’s upper house is similar in function to America’s Senate or Britain’s House of Lords. Terms of office last for six years, with half of the 242 seats being contested every three years. Currently, the DPJ has the most seats in the upper house with 90, closely followed by the LDP (the new lower house majority party) with 87. None of the new “third parties” hold any upper house seats because they have all formed since the last election in 2010. The most successful of the new “third parties” in the lower house is the Japan Restoration Party, headed by popular antinuclear mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto. The Restoration Party won 54 lower house seats, making it the front-runner of the new parties by a wide margin. The Restoration Party has enough lower house members to legally submit budget-related bills and no-confidence motions against the Prime Minister’s Cabinet. With respect to the upper house election, however, the Restoration Party might not be able to post candidates because current law prohibits local government-based parties from running. Hashimoto wants to change the rule, saying, “If the rules governing Upper House candidates are changed to allow local government heads to run for an Upper House seat, we’ll take up the challenge.” The situation for the media-darling Tomorrow Party is much gloomier. Tomorrow Party bell-weather, Shiga Governor Yukiko Kada, hoped to garner at least fifty lower house seats when they posted 121 candidates. However, they only won nine. After the election results were in, Ms. Kada said, “It was a huge shock to see no movement of votes toward our efforts to get out of nuclear power. We didn’t have time to get our new party going and our message didn’t resonate.” What she will do next on the national level is unknown, though she did say she will continue to work as governor. It seems the Tomorrow Party has no plans for the summer’s upper house election. (Japan Times)
  • Tepco’s reform task force says the Fukushima accident was caused by insufficient technological capacity and failure to make on-going safety improvements over the years prior to 3/11/11. The technological shortcomings were due to not considering the rare-but-not-impossible earthquake and tsunami impacts with respect to the F. Daiichi plant’s design. This was exacerbated by the false belief that existing safety measures were more than sufficient to protect the plant systems. The task force added that Tepco should have revised its policies of nuclear management following problems and scandals existing over the years prior to the accident. Management and plant operators should have been held accountable for establishing a safety culture, but this did not happen. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
  • The municipal assembly of Hakodate, Hokkaido Prefecture, approved funds to file a lawsuit to stop construction of a nuke on the northern tip of Honshu Island. They say they will definitely file the suit if construction continues past this coming spring on the partially-completed unit at Oma, 30km across the Tsugaru Straits from Hakodate. The assembly believes the safety of the Oma plant cannot be guaranteed in light of the Fukushima accident. If the plant is completed and has a Fukushima-level accident, Hakodate could suffer severe damage, officials stated. The assembly first plans on taking their appeal to Tokyo once the new administration is in place. If the government refuses to freeze construction at Oma, the municipality says they will probably sue both J-Power (the plant’s owner) and the government. The Hakodate assembly has set aside more than $270,000 to pursue the legal action. (Kyodo News Service; Japan Times)