December 30, 2013

Dec 30, 2013 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Tepco has requested $10 billion to cover their new compensation pay-outs. This is the fifth time the company has submitted their estimated needs to meet the government’s mandated evacuee stipends. In all, the five requests total nearly $48 billion. The reasons posted by Tepco for the new estimate include redefinition of loss of property, damages due to procurement of houses (presumably for building temporary rural waste facilities), damages after evacuation orders are dissolved, and mental anguish with those whose return cannot be forecast. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu13_e/images/131227e0101.pdf
  • PM Shinzo Abe pledged to increase financial support to quake/tsunami victims. This should not be confused with pay-outs to Fukushima evacuees. Rather, it is intended to assist municipal recovery in the three prefectures hardest hit, primarily due to the tsunami – Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima (outside the nuclear evacuation zone). Disaster-area municipalities are facing on-going difficulties with the public insurance program due to increasing medical costs and decreasing insurance premium revenues. It is intended that this boost in money will help for at least three more years. The proposed amount will be announced before March. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2013122700796
  • Rural decontamination teams can work overnight in some evacuation zone locations. Tokyo says workers will be allowed to stay overnight in areas where residents are allowed to visit during the daytime. One stipulation concerns work with projects deemed indispensable for zone restoration and revival, so long as the measured exposure levels are below the 20 millisievert per year limit. Local governments and businesses have asked for this because daytime access is slowed at times by workers traveling to their and from job sites, causing congestion on the roads. Tokyo said the allowance for overnight work will begin immediately in Iidate village. Other municipalities can apply for similar approval as long as locations in their communities meet the stipulations. Director of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences Makoto Akashi says strict monitoring of exposure will be needed for each worker, including their off-work hours. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • About one-fourth of Fukushima’s citizens have answered the prefecture’s radiation survey. The analysis began a few months after the accident. It is designed to provide reasonable estimates of individual exposures due to the F. Daiichi accident during the early weeks of the crisis. The surveys were intended to cover about 2 million people, but as of September only 23.6% have completed and submitted the forms. The survey asks about time outside the home, eating habits and other behaviors that may have affected exposure, both internally and externally. Fukushima officials feel the reasons for the low response include the difficulty of filling out paperwork, insufficient explanation, and reluctance to try and remember what residents were doing early-on in the crisis. The prefecture is trying to simplify the survey in order to get more residents involved. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131227_06.html
  • The number of Japanese nukes asking for restart is now sixteen. The latest submittal is from the Tohoku Electric Company for Onagawa unit #2. The Onagawa station was closest to the quake epicenter on 3/11/11, and experienced a bit higher than F. Daiichi. Quake damage was limited to non-safety systems, such as potable water. The anti-tsunami barricade much higher and more robust than at F. Daiichi, completely protecting the station. Tohoku’s Executive Vice President Shigeru Inoue said, “Some minor damage resulted due to the quake, but we have confirmed the soundness through on-site checks. Having our safety improvement measures checked will also bring a sense of reassurance to the local people.” It should be noted that more than 200 nearby residents fled to the station to avoid the tsunami that swept their homes away, and were sheltered for more than a week at no cost until they could re-locate elsewhere. The Onagawa units are Boiling Water Reactor types, thus staff is installing hardened, filtered depressurization systems on each. Unit #2’s installation should be finished early enough to pass the government’s inspection in time to restart in 2016. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131227p2g00m0dm049000c.html
  • Tepco’s special rehabilitation plan was submitted Friday and has caused some controversy. The plan was co-opted by Tepco and the government’s Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund. Jiji Press says success hinges on restarting two Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nukes by July 2014. Because of the de-facto nuclear moratorium imposed on Japan by then-PM Naoto Kan, Tepco has been forced to re-start moth-balled fossil fuel (thermal) units. Also, the company has been forced to continually run thermal power plants designed for handling short-term demand peaks. As a result, Tepco’s fossil fuel importing costs nearly doubled from 2010 to 2012. They have stayed at the high level since. Tepco has experienced company-wide staff cutbacks and other cost-cutting measures, but the more than $2 billion outlay for fossil fuels has only been superficially impacted. One Tepco executive says, “No matter how much restructuring measures we take, we cannot achieve a turnaround unless we trim fuel costs.” Meanwhile, Japan Real Time (Wall Street Journal) says the announcement by Tepco is hiding its real plan for the future, and adds that the Tokyo government is abetting the company’s lack of disclosure. JRT says it is unlikely that the two K-K units will be restarted because of opposition from Niigata prefecture’s governor, thus Tepco should have identified what they will do to prevent financial collapse without the K-K unit restarts. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2013122700849 — http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/12/27/tepco-has-a-plan-for-the-future-but-wont-say-what-it-is/