- The Japanese government has approved the Nuclear Regulatory Authority Commissioners. The Lower House endorsed them on Thursday and the upper House of Councilors on Friday. This ends behind-the-scenes criticism that the NRA commissioners lacked official status. On Feb. 4, a junior bureaucrat who used to work for the Industry Ministry demanded the commissioners be replaced because they were appointed by the former PM Noda and the Democratic Party of Japan. The head of the meeting ruled him out of order since the now-in-power Liberal Democratic Party of Japan pushed the appointments through last September as a compromise with the former PM. One official said, “No matter how we replace the commissioners, we would be criticized for being arbitrary.” The confirmations should also stop on-going rumors that Chairman Tanaka’s past connection to the nuclear community might compromise his objectivity. He was past Chair of Japan Atomic Energy Commission. Since his appointment, opposition parties have praised Tanaka for his stance toward nuclear power. The other four NRA members are Kenzo Oshima, former ambassador to the United Nations, Kunihiko Shimazaki, former head of the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction, Kayoko Nakamura from the Japan Radioisotope Association, and Toyoshi Fuketa from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. (Kyodo News Service; Mainichi Shimbun)
- Now that the NRA has been formally approved, controversy over who makes the final decision on nuke restarts has re-surfaced. Prime Minister Abe’s decision to reopen mid-to-long-term national energy policy is seen as being possibly in conflict with the NRA’s independence. Cabinet Secretary Yoshide Suga says there is no controversy as far as he is concerned, “The NRA commissioners should draw up safety standards with confidence. The government will decide whether to reactivate nuclear reactors at its own discretion.” After the congressional approval, Cabinet Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said, “I think we can start full-fledged discussion [about national energy policy] from around March.” The current lame-duck policy calls for an end to nuclear power by 2040, but no formal strategy was developed for doing it. Prime Minister Abe called it “irresponsible” and has vowed to concoct a policy that is practical. (Mainichi Shimbun; Kyodo News Service)
- The structural stability of Fukushima Daiichi unit #4 has been verified by an outside expert. All previous analyses have been done by Tepco consultants. This most recent inspection used a non-company-vested expert for the first time. Due to on-going concerns about the building’s ability to survive another severe earthquake, the structure is inspected every three months. The expert says the fuel pool is level and the supporting primary containment is not distorted. The slight bulge in the west wall of the outer building that has caused all the concerns seems to be lessening with time. When first measured more than 18 months ago, it was said to have an eight inch bulge. The expert says his calculations now show a 2 inch distortion. (NHK World) It should be noted that one NHK TV reporter doubts the objectivity of the expert’s assessment because his name has not been released and also because only one expert was used.
- Fukushima Prefecture says they have found 3 child thyroid cancer cases, but they cannot be due to the nuclear accident. All three have successfully undergone surgery to remove the cancerous material and are doing well. Shinichi Suzuki, Fukushima Medical University professor, said that since it takes 4-5 years for low-level-radiation-caused thyroid cancers to develop it is unlikely that these are accident-related. Of the estimated 360,000 children that might have ingested detectible levels of radioactive Iodine, about 38,000 have been checked. Ten have been discovered to have cancer in some form, but only 3 of the thyroid variety. Some media reports find the non-Fukushima conclusion hard to believe since F. Daiichi has been compared to the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine. The japan daily Press says calling the three cases “coincidence” makes no sense. (Mainichi Shimbun; Japan Daily Press)
- Tohoku Electric Company has applied to the Tokyo government to raise their household electric rates. Tohoku Electric supplies much of Honshu Island’s northeastern population, including Miyagi Prefecture, which suffered the greatest damage and loss of life due to the 3/11/11 tsunami. The company says the increase will be about 11.5%. Corporate and industrial users will see a ~18% rate-hike in July, but needs no government approval for it. Tohoku Electric says they have avoided rate hikes for the region until now, but the combination of the government moratorium on nuke operations plus the high cost of non-nuclear fuels for replacement power has given them no other choice. Tohoku President, Hiroaki Takahashi, says they regret having to raise costs to the disaster-hit region, but economics absolutely dictate it. He added that restarting the Higashidori nuclear station could cause them to reduce rates in the future. (Kyodo News; Sankei Shimbun)
- The NRA says they will inspect F. Daiichi unit #1’s controversial isolation condensers. Chairman Shunichi Tanaka made the announcement on Wednesday. The NRA wants to see if speculation on earthquake damage prior to the tsunami, made by the Diet’s accident investigation panel (NAIIC), has merit or not. The NAIIC said some of plant workers reported water leaks on the fourth floor, which houses the condensers, prior to the tsunami hitting. Since the allegations could not be verified or refuted without visual inspection, the NAIIC said the issue must remain open. The four investigations made by other official groups made no mention of such worker allegations. The NAIIC said if the rumors were true, then the unit#1 accident may have been caused by the quake and not by the tsunami. Chair Tanaka said, “We need to conduct an inspection while looking at a decline in the radiation levels inside the reactor building [in the] not-too-distant future.” He stressed that the radiation levels on the fourth floor of unit #1 remain too high for the NRA inspection at this time. The radiation levels there are in the “dozens of millisieverts” range which is, by Japanese health standards, too great for a civil inspection. (Mainichi Shimbun)
- Fukushima Brewers say their Sake is safe because their radiation limits are lower than the national standard for drinking water. They have detected absolutely no radioactive Cesium in their products since they began testing after the 2011 accident. Not only do they screen all rice shipments before beginning the brewing process, but they continue testing through shipping bottles off to market. 25 Fukushima breweries unveiled their latest stock in Tokyo’s Ginza Shopping District on Tuesday. They say their sales have been hurt by people fearing radiation as well as those who don’t trust anything produced in the Prefecture due to the possibility of contamination. (NHK World)
- Toshiba announced they have developed a robotic “dry ice vacuum” for removal of radioactive contamination. The dry ice is vaporized and blasted at walls and floor. It rapidly evaporates and makes the surface material airborne. It is immediately sucked into a high-volume vacuum nozzle. The rapid nature of the evaporation dislodges any contamination that has adhered to surfaces. The machine is rated at 22 square feet per hour, but can hold only a half-hour’s volume of dry ice. The goal is to complete testing in 2-3 weeks so the robot can be used at Fukushima Daiichi. Another robotic device was sent to F. Daiini for testing in December, but had difficulty climbing stairs plus the robot froze in place when the dry ice vacuum was started. Toshiba feels their design modifications will avoid these problems in the future. (Japan Daily Press)
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