- Volunteers have “flocked” to Minamisoma to assist in tsunami debris disposal and decontamination so residents may return to their homes. While decontamination is a concern, it seems the main job is removing tsunami debris and the reestablishment of infrastructure. Many of the roughly 4,000 homes damaged or destroyed by the quake and tsunami had been untouched since 3/11/11. In July, between 150 and 200 volunteers showed up weekly. In August the number of helpers has swelled to over 300 per week. One 70-year-old man had driven a small truck for two-and-a-half days from Miyazaki Prefecture. Many of the volunteers said they had never volunteered before the post-disaster recovery efforts. Masataka Miyazaki, 38, from Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, spends most of his weekends in Minamisoma. He says, “People really appreciate it when you clean their homes and remove rubble for them, and it makes me happy to be able to play a part in the reconstruction.” Masaru Shimada, 54, from Saitama, says he’s “becoming attached to the area. What I’m doing might just be for my self-satisfaction, but I want to be able to see the recovery through.” (Mainichi Shimbun)
- National Policy Minister Motohisa Furukawa has said he feels the undamaged units at both Fukushima power stations should never be restarted. He made this brash statement last Thursday at a meeting of evacuees from Kawauchi village. Tepco plans to decommission and dismantle units #1 through #4 at F. Daiichi, but has not made any such plans for the other units in the prefecture. Furukawa says Tepco should also dismantle the fully functional units #5&6 at F. Daiichi and units #1-4 at F. Daini. All six units were automatically shut down on 3/11/11 and have been kept inactive due to Japan’s fear-predicated moratorium on nuclear operations. (Japan Times)
- On Sunday, the Tokyo government met with the mayors of Okuma, Futaba and Naraha to explain plans for temporary waste storage facilities. The Tokyo contingent included environment minister Goshi Hosono and reconstruction minister Tatsuo Hirano. The meeting was a briefing on environmental tests Tokyo wants to run before any decision is made. After the meeting, the three mayors declined comment on what was proposed. (Kyodo News) Tokyo says they are looking at 12 sites within 15 kilometers of F. Daiichi, and will either buy or lease the locations from the local communities. A Nahara farmer opposes the plan because he feels it will discourage residents from rebuilding their community. On the other hand, an Okuma resident says protests against the plan will only delay community decontamination and keep people away from their homes for a longer period. (NHK World)
- Power companies have handled the summer demand across Japan. So far there has been enough electricity generation to accommodate usage. To date, no rolling blackouts have been needed, mostly due to voluntary power conservation efforts by customers. The most critical situation is with the Kansai Electric Company, which was heavily dependent on nukes before the current moratorium. Thanks to the Oi unit #3&4 restarts, Kansai has 29,880 Megawatts (MWe) of available capacity. The highest demand this summer was on August 3 with 26,820 MWe used by the system. However, if the Oi plants were not restarted, Kepco would only have had 25,420 MWe available on that date and localized rolling blackouts would have been considered. The company is literally keeping its fingers crossed that old, previously-mothballed thermal (fossil-fueled) plants continue to operate and not suddenly drop off the grid due to mechanical failures. (Yomiuri Shimbun) On Sunday, two thermal units experienced problems. The Karita plant, a fluidized bed coal-fired system, was forced to cut its power output in half because of a failed fuel pump. Its peak output is 375 megawatts (electrical). Also, a fire at the Sendai refinery knocked out one of its three gas generators. (NHK World)
- Attendance at the weekly antinuclear protests in Tokyo has dropped dramatically. On July 27, metropolitan police estimates of the numbers of protesters ranged between 14,000 and 17,000. This past Friday, the estimated attendance was about 1,000. The reduced numbers have happened in spite of intensive advertising by antinuclear activist groups on the internet. (Japan Today)
- Friday’s demonstration marked the 67th anniversary of Japan’s surrender that ended World War II. A number of elderly demonstrators tried to make a comparison between today’s government and the one that controlled Japan during WWII. One man spoke to the crowd through a microphone saying the current Tokyo policy on nuclear energy reminded him of WWII’s totalitarian regime. He said, “At that time, Japanese people received orders from the government and big businesses that slighted their lives. What’s happening with nuclear power plants now is that the government and big business are disregarding people’s lives.” He added that nuclear weapon’s dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended WWII and nuclear accidents could end Japan. (Japan Today)
- A worker at F. Daiichi was found to have misused his dosimeters. A contractor’s crain operator was on break from his job. When he left his job-site, he also left his two dosimeters (pocket APD and LED badge) behind, along with his worker ID. Another worker found his ID and badge dosimeter and returned them to him, but not before reporting it. The APD, however, could not be found. In order to insure a temporary appraisal of his on-the-job exposure, other workers doing the same work at the same location had their APDs checked. Their average exposure was the one temporarily given to the worker. His badge dosimeter will be analyzed in order to establish his actual exposure. (Tepco Press Release)
- International antinuclear group, Greenpeace, has demanded that 12 nukes in Europe be shut down immediately, largely because of Fukushima. The extremist organization (prone to exaggerating anything nuclear) says that out of the “stress tests” that all 143 European nukes have taken, they discovered that the dozen identified plants may have flaws overlooked by those analyzing the data. Greenpeace says this makes them unsafe during earthquakes and/or flooding. The 12 plants are located in Belgium (Doel and Tihange), Great Britain (Wylfa) and France (Fessenheim and Gravelines). (Kyodo News)
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