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The debate over the geologic anomalies under the Oi nuclear station continues. The outcome of the issue is under the spotlight because the government approved the restart of units 3&4 earlier this year. A second investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority’s expert panel was held this past weekend and they remain deadlocked on the site’s seismic status. Four of the group, including team leader Kunihiko Shimazaki, say it is not unlikely that the anomalies, called “crush zones”, are seismic and they might move during a severe-enough earthquake. However one group expert, Ritsumeikan University professor Atsumasa Okada, disagrees. He said, “The possibility (that it was from a landslide) is fairly high” and “can be explained as a landslide.” NRA team-leader Shimazaki said Okada’s view did not necessarily provide a basis for denying the existence of an active fault. He adds that a consensus conclusion “won’t be easy to obtain.” Shimazaki added that a final decision could take months. After the early December inspection, Kansai Electric was instructed by the NRA to double the length of the trench they had excavated to see if the anomaly persisted and extended under the emergency cooling intake structure for the two currently-operating Oi units. Kepco says the longer trench further demonstrates the crush zone is not active. The NRA has told Kepco to deepen and lengthen the trench even further so that the team can re-inspect at some future date. Reporters asked if the continuing work wasn’t a waste of time and money, causing Shimazaki to respond, “We do not see anything wasteful.” If the geologic anomalies are found to be seismic, the NRA could order Oi unit’s 3&4 to be immediately shut down. (Mainichi Shimbun; NHK World; Kyodo News Service; Japan Times; Yomiuri Shimbun)
- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Fukushima Daiichi and said, “The massive work toward decommissioning is an unprecedented challenge in human history.Decommissioning work is hard work, but it is progressing. We owe it all to you. We, the government, will give full support.” Dressed in coveralls and a face mask, Abe inspected units 3 and 4 from a vehicle. Most Japanese pundits expect Abe to push for restarts of the now-shuttered reactors in Japan, which is said to be in opposition to the news media polls taken concerning the issue. But poll-indicated antinuclear sentiment did not lead to success at the ballot box earlier this month for parties championing an end to nuclear power. At Kawauchi City, Abe said he and the LDP want to establish a “responsible energy policy” while promising to support energy alternatives and renewables. He added that he would like to see all nukes which pass the new NRA safety regulations operating in the next three years. NRA chief Shunichi Tanaka says that is a deadline the NRA finds impossible to meet. Abe also said he will reconsider his predecessor’s policy of nuclear abolition by 2040. He said former-PM Noda’s policy was essentially a political wish, “A hope does not immediately become a policy.We will promote a responsible energy policy.” Abe told reporters he will strengthen the power of the Reconstruction Agency and resolve the former government’s bureaucratic structure that kept relevant government ministries and agencies from doing their job. Before visiting F. Daiichi, the new PM went to the “J-village” in Nahara which serves as the home base for the workers laboring at the damaged power complex. He told the staff, “Thanks to your efforts, work has made progress toward the goal of decommissioning the reactors,” Abe said. “I know your families are also under strain as you have to work around the turn of the year. Please ensure safety while you work.” (Japan Today; News on Japan; NHK World; Yomiuri Shimbun)
- Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi says any reactor restarts will be entirely up to the NRA. “We will entrust the safety of reactors to the NRA, which is independent. There will be no restarts if safety is not confirmed,” Motegi told a press conference on Friday. He stressed that safety would come first before “any other factors,” including the potential economic damage from not restarting reactors. He also pointed out that his party, the LDP, was instrumental in creating the NRA and fully supports its decision-making. (Japan Times)
- In a Monday television interview on TBS, PM Abe reinforced his desire to build modern, safety-enhanced nukes in Japan. He pointed to advanced boiling and pressurized water reactor systems now being built elsewhere in the world, “New nuclear plants would be completely different from the old ones from 40 years ago like the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, which caused an accident. We’ll approve the construction of new plants while getting the people’s understanding on these differences.” When asked why he favored new nukes when news media polls showed more than 70% of the public want nuclear energy abolished, Abe said there is a silent majority open to building new nukes as evidenced by his party’s landslide victory in December. Abe stated, “The people are uneasy about how we will deal with our current power demands, and that’s why those who carelessly touted an end to nuclear power plants failed to receive the people’s trust…voters did not trust (candidates) who played word games, like pushing for ‘ending’ nuclear power or ‘graduating’ from nuclear power.” He added that continuing protests in Tokyo are attended by an active minority and do not reflect the public’s will. (Japan Daily Press, Mainichi Shimbun; Japan Today)
- A majority of evacuees from Okuma and Futaba towns are willing to accept temporary decontamination waste storage in their neighborhoods. 788 evacuees were polled and 305 agreed to respond, with 76% of them answering they would “understand” or “be inclined to understand” the need for low level waste storage. 24% responded in the negative to both queries. As for the conditions of acceptance, 70% of the positive responders want “continual assistance to help end the evacuation and rebuild lives” while 67% wanted “acceptable land purchase prices”. 63% desired “safety of the facility”. Two-thirds of those opposed said they would not accept such a facility under the proposed conditions, and one-fifth say they will not accept any conditions whatsoever. Nine of the 11 locations the government wants to run environmental studies on are inside the Okuma municipality within 3 kilometers of the coast. Five Okuma locations are within three kilometers of Fukushima Daiichi. Two proposed sites are in the Futaba municipality, immediately adjacent to the F. Daiichi station. One facility is proposed to be adjacent to the undamaged F. Daini nuke in Nahara town. (Asahi Shimbun)
- Another nuclear safety issue is emerging which can be traced back to the first five days of the Fukushima accident. Nukes approved for construction prior to 1975 have been required to use flame-resistant cabling with their safety equipment, but those before that date were not. Thus, concerns about fire prevention now exist with 13 of the fifty nukes in Japan. Companies owning the pre-1975 nukes say they have flame-retardant coatings on all cabling, but the NRA and the new Industry Ministry doubt these claims. “Even if the fire-resistant agents do not burn, the flammable cables inside would burn. Those cables may also be aging and deteriorating. We can’t recognize them as being equivalent (to non-flammable cables),” one source said. Critics point to the smoke seen coming from F. Daiichi units #1 and #3 following their respective hydrogen explosions as the source of their concerns. Equipment controlling the reactor “safety system” which includes control rods, the core cooling systems, and associated instrumentation could be compromised during an F. Daiichi-type accident without flame-retarding cable coatings. It is expected that the new safety rules being created by the NRA will require the post-1975 guidelines. This could further delay possible restarts for the 13 affected plants if all safety cabling has to be replaced before resumption is allowed. (Mainichi Shimbun)
- American expert Dr. John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that PM Abe seems to be following the best policy path for Japan’s energy future. He says, “I do think that he has heard the voters’ negative feelings on nuclear power, and I understand that.” However, he questions the public’s understanding of the difficulties inherent with a whole-sale switch-over to renewables, “I suspect that while people are angry about nuclear power, though, they haven’t been entirely realistic about alternative energy sources. There’s a view that somehow solar or wind power is an easy alternative—that all we have to do is pick it. I haven’t seen very good discussion about alternatives to nuclear power anywhere in Japan—nor, for that matter, about nuclear power itself. I would fault both political parties for not conducting an information campaign. Because alternative energy sources like solar and wind aren’t realistic in the near term, the only option is to import large quantities of fuel oil or natural gas.” He added that political chaos led to Japan’s currently-teetering electrical infrastructure and caused a form of nation-wide post-traumatic stress, “The March 11 disaster had a drastic impact on Japan. What was even more traumatic was that the corporate and political leaders failed to lead effectively during the crisis. There was no effective response, and the citizens felt even more vulnerable because they weren’t hearing [in the Press] that their leaders knew what was going on or had a plan.” Dr. Hamre feels the Japan’s people want strong leadership, but the past few regimes have been just the opposite, “If you have ineffective political leadership, everybody loses confidence.” (Nippon.com)
- More than 300,000 people displaced by the 3/11/11 quake and tsunami continue to live in temporary housing, largely due to government inaction on a 2011 promise to build more than 23,000 emergency public housing units. Only 40 have been completed, about 1,600 are incomplete and paperwork for another 7,300 is awaiting approval. Some officials blame it on a lack of available land along the hilly and mountainous Tohoku coast. The best housing locations were those inundated by the tsunami. They add that some local officials are hindering the necessary paperwork needed to speed up the process. (NHK World; Japan Today)
- America sent a special nuclear accident response team to Japan five days after the outbreak of the Fukushima accident, and the Tokyo government literally ignored the team’s radiation monitoring data. One local official from the F. Daiichi no-go zone says, “It is outrageous that the government did not inform us about the radioactive data at that time.” Here’s the link to the report… http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/12/202165.html
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