January 8, 2015

Jan 8, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Japan’s NRA will begin assessing nukes for anti-terrorist measures. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has anti-terrorist regulations, but evaluation of licensees has been delayed until July, 2018, in order to fully focus on natural disasters and other severe accident precursors. The new regulations include having remote emergency control rooms that can be used if the main operating facility is in jeopardy. These remote control rooms will be required to survive worst-case attack strategies, such as suicidal plane crashes similar to the World Trade Center of September 11. 2001. The facilities will be able to bring the reactors into a cold shutdown condition by lowering pressure and maintaining coolant flow to the core. These facilities will be built about 100 meters from reactors in case of a terrorist attack. The NRA feels the first nuke stations to be evaluated will be Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture and Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001834791
  • Niigata’s governor refuses to allow the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa station (K-K) to restart. Governor Hirohiko Izumida has balked at extending a possible approval since restarts became an issue more than two years ago. He met with Tepco President Naomi Hirose on Tuesday for their annual New Year’s confab. The two men have not met since last January, and the meeting on Tuesday lasted only 15 minutes. Tepco wants to bring two of the K-K units online by March, 2016, or their currently thin profit margin will slip into a deficit condition. Izumida says he does not feel Tepco has thoroughly examined the causes of the March, 2011, nuke accident at F. Daiichi. Until he is satisfied, the governor will not even begin to consider restart approval. He said, “There has not been a sufficient investigation into the causes of the (Fukushima) accident nor in-house disciplinary actions, so we cannot stand at the starting line of discussions on safety.” One of the governor’s criteria is that all Tepco executives involved with the accident release their formal testimonies given to the Diet’s investigation of 2011 (NAIIC). Some Tepco officials have allowed this to happen, but not all. Japan’s Press has once again found voices of sympathy to support an antinuclear politician’s position. Hitotsubashi University professor Takeo Kikkawa says Tepco’s attempt to restart any K-K unit “an illusion”. K-K is a seven unit station, the largest in the world, with a full power output of nearly 8.000 MWe with all units operating. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201501070051 — http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2015010600925 — http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/restart-of-japans-largest-nuclear-plant-still-in-doubt
  • Kansai Electric Co. (Kepco) and Japan Atomic Power (Japco) to decide on the fate of older units. Kepco President Makoto Yagi told Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa on Tuesday that the utility would soon announce what it plans to do with all 11 reactors it operates in the prefecture. Takahama units #1&2 will reach their initial licensing limits of 40 years by November, and all three Mihama units will have exceeded 40 years in February, 2016. The other six units owned by Kepco, including the four Oi reactors, are at least five years from the 40-year standard for initial licensing. Yagi added that he is willing to consider safety agreements with communities outside of the 30 kilometer emergency planning zones around the three station in the prefecture. He said, “We don’t insist on 30 kilometers (from nuclear power plants).” Japco President Yasuo Hamada also met with Governor Nishikawa and reported that studies are still being performed on possible earthquake faults under Tsuruga unit #2, so it is not known what its fate will be. Tsuruga unit #1 is the oldest of Japan’s currently-idled nuclear fleet at 44 years. Hamada implied that it might be decommissioned rather than run through the NRA’s restart program. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/01/07/national/kepco-faces-decision-on-aging-fukui-reactors/#.VK1EoKMcQdU — http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150107p2a00m0na008000c.html
  • NRA Chair Shunichi Tanaka says 2015 will be a crucial year for nuclear safety. At least four nuke units are expected to restart this year, at Takahama and Sendai stations. Tanaka believes restarting a nuclear power plant is when the units face particularly dangerous risks of accidents or trouble. His rationale is that the units have been down for two or more years and have a lot of new safety equipment that’s never been used before. The Sendai restarts are assumed to be the first, and Tanaka promised that NRA inspection of the process will be diligent. It is important to note that 2015 will witness the first International Atomic Energy Agency evaluation of the NRA. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • The IAEA will observe the situation with Fukushima and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in mid-February. This will be the third IAEA mission with the Fukushima accident, and the first with respect to K-K station. The F. Daiichi visit will assess the status of the decommissioning, situation with radioactive water buildup, and damaged fuel removal processes. The K-K assessment will focus on post-Fukushima accident mitigation measures and compare them to international standards of safety. The K-K investigation is due to a formal request made by Tepco. It will be the first station-specific assessment made by the IAEA since 3/11/11. http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2015/01/330451.html — http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • Japan’s GEPR group has posted an informative radiation-based video interview. GEPR’s head, Nobuo Ikeda, and Japanese-Caucasian journalist Morley Robertson discus the Japanese versus Western Press coverages about F. Daiichi. One of the most important observations is that Japan’s Press tends to avoid using sensationalist terminology, while the Western Press literally drips with the melodramatic. Robertson and Ikeda agree that there are socio-political agendas adhered to by Japan’s news media, either blatantly antinuclear (e.g. Asahi and Mainichi Shimbuns) or more objective (e.g. The Japan News/Yomiuri Shimbun). But neither camp resorts to much sensationalist terminology, if any at all. When the Western Press searches the Web for Fukushima News, the antinuclear Japanese press comes up first due to a higher level of immediate internet activity. The Western Press takes the antinuclear perspective and adds the sensational terminology because that’s what sells to their audience. The Western Press seldom takes the time to expand their search to more objective Japanese Press outlets, so all the Western audience hears is melodramatic versions of the Japanese antinuclear Press. There’s much more, but in the interest of brevity, we ask interested readers to use the link (below). Be advised, the interview is an hour in length and while most of the dialogue is English, there are occasional ~5 minute-long summations in Japanese. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4752ZOpfSxk#t=18
  • Nuke evacuees are not the only post-3/11/11 litigious demographic. Sendai District court says it will rule on a suit filed by some of the families of those lost to the tsunami in Miyagi Prefecture. The claim includes the relatives of one employee and 25 students of a driving school in Yamamoto. All 26 died on that fateful day. They want about $19 million in compensation from Joban Yamamoto driving school. The plaintiffs charge that inadequate tsunami evacuation measures had been taken. One parent said, “Whatever decision the court makes, we’d like to keep on pressing the importance of disaster countermeasures at private firms.” Another eleven of the school’s employees died, and their families have joined in the suit. In addition, the relatives of one bank employee who died in Onagawa have linked in the filing. The father of the driving school’s teacher, Maki Okubo, said, “When a tsunami hits, I want to see companies drop everything and make sure to get their employees to safety right away.” There was about a one hour delay between the precursor earthquake and the school’s order to evacuate. Maki’s father believes this was unforgivable. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150107p2a00m0na010000c.html