- Hindsight nay-sayers concerning the spent fuel pool cooling system outage are now dominating the Press coverage in Japan. To begin, while it seems obvious that the outage culprit was a rat, Tepco says they really aren’t sure and threw the door wide open for speculations in the news media. A Tepco spokesman said, “We suspect a small animal may have caused a short circuit in a switchboard. We cannot be sure exactly what it was, but can say what we saw at the scene was the body of a dead animal below the switchboard.”The truck holding the failed equipment is the last left from the temporary fleet they began using several weeks after 3/11/11. All other truck-based switchboards have been moved indoors at the station. But, many critics say Tepco’s efforts in this area have been poor. Muneo Morokuzu, a Tokyo University professor, told AFP, “Despite the fact it is now two years since the crisis began, TEPCO is still doing a very poor job. A short circuit caused by a small animal is not an unforeseeable event,” adding that it is something construction sites have to deal with. He continued, “At the very least, the switchboard that provides power to the cooling system for the pool on reactor 4 should have been more reliable” because that pool contains more than 1,100 nuclear fuel rods. TEPCO official Masayuki Ono poured fuel on the fire by saying,”We can’t deny criticism that our decision-making and handling (of the decommission work) has not been perfect.” Ono added that Tepco has been working on installing backup power supplies, but the job has not been completed. Prof. Masanori Aritomi of Tokyo Institute of Technology voiced yet another assumption when he said, “Due to the recent strong wind, seawater and sand from the nearby beach might have been blown into the power panel. Salt in the sand and seawater could have caused the power panel to short out,” rather than the electrocuted rat. Tepco’s Ono tried to put everything in perspective when he told the Press, “It takes time for temperatures to rise in spent fuel pools even if their cooling systems are down. There is no need to take the same emergency countermeasures as those for nuclear reactors.” As proof, Tepco showed that in the 39 hours of the SFP cooling system outage, the unit #4 pool’s temperature increased 6.3oC, and the other pools only 1 degree Celsius. In response, Tokyo University professor Muneo Morokuzu said, “Overseas experts and others have been giving considerable attention to [Japan’s] management of spent nuclear fuel. It was understandable that soon after the March 2011 crisis, TEPCO had to deal with the situation using emergency measures. But now, even more than two years since the accident, their handling of the latest case is dismal.” (Japan Today; Yomiuri Shimbun; Mainichi Shimbun; Japan Times)
- Not to let the political opportunity pass, Tokyo ordered Tepco to install multiple power supplies to the SFP cooling systems. Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tepco has been instructed to have multiple power supplies as quickly as possible. He said the reason is to restore the public confidence that has been lost since Monday. Suga added that the three hours it took Tepco to alert the Press of the problem was too long, thus their risk management systems need to be improved as well. (NHK World) [comment – Why doesn’t the government order the scare-mongering Japanese Press to clean up its act?]
- The Nuclear Regulatory Authority will extend a “grace” period on nukes in order to meet some of the new regulations. It seems the NRA has divided the proposed regulations into those to be implemented before restarts, and those that can wait for up to five years. The latter deal with possible airplane crashes and extraordinary terrorist acts. Those that must be met before restarts include increased tsunami protection, improved earthquake resilience for those plants near possibly-seismic geologic faults and back-up water-flow pathways for keeping reactor fuel cores and SFPs cooled. The upgrades that will be given the grace period include auxiliary control rooms and ancillary cooling systems in the event of terrorist attacks. (NHK World)
- Tokyo says Tepco owes them ~$110 million in decontamination costs, but the company isn’t so sure. Given the government’s past record of loose spending with funds earmarked for disaster recovery, Tepco wants to make sure they are paying for actual decontamination expenses. The company declines to comment on the specifics. Tokyo submitted a bill to Tepco in February for more than $150 million, of which the company has repaid about $40 million. The law forcing Tepco to repay the government for decontamination was enacted by the Naoto Kan regime soon after 3/11/11. All Tepco will say is they “cannot judge whether it [the unpaid part of the bill] is a demand based on the special law.” The majority of the unpaid monies were spent on subsidizing local governments and publicity-related expenses. The special law leaves indirect costs related to decontamination in a gray area. (Jiji Press; Japan Times; Kyodo News)
- While property values are dropping across Japan, they are going up significantly in the tsunami-disaster hit areas of Tohoku. The major increases are in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures where a demand for property has jumped because of tsunami refugees wanting to rebuild on higher ground or relocate in communities near their former homes. Wakao Izumisawa of Yamada, Iwate, thought reconstruction would have been lively, at this point; but the opposite is happening. She sees no signs of the disaster-hit area being rebuilt. She cannot understand why land prices are rising at a time when they should be falling like the rest of Japan. The main price increases are in the upland locations nearest where the tsunami hit. A builder in Otsuchi Town says, ”If land prices rise further, more and more residents will leave here to settle elsewhere.” In Miyagi Prefecture, the rate of appreciation has risen 1.4%, the highest in Japan. Miyagi builders said that many refugees wanted to rebuild on higher ground, but are resigned to locations on tsunami-swept land which is less expensive. On the other hand, real property values in Fukushima Prefecture have dropped about 1.9%, which is typical of the rest of the country. (Mainichi Shimbun)
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