Four Years Later in Japan

A reporter and a cameraman from Jiji Tsushin went to Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on February 26, 2015 and made the video available on Jiji's site and on Youtube on March 2.

So what has changed? Reactor 3's top floor has been cleaned of debris, although the lower floors are still full of debris (1:50). Slightly murky Reactor 4's Spent Fuel Pool on the operating (top) floor is now empty except for a few control rods (3:10); workers had finished removing all 1,535 fuel assemblies from the pool in December last year. The cask used to transport the fuel assemblies from the pool to the common spent fuel pool on the ground is still at the pool side.
The cooling system for the frozen soil wall is housed in a new building (3:40). (Yes, they still do plan to build the frozen soil wall in the ground around the reactor buildings and turbine buildings.)

At about 50 seconds into the video, the reporter and the cameraman go to the location where they can see across the reactors (with Reactor 1 being the closest). The guide, a TEPCO worker, tells them to be brief because the radiation is high and there is nothing to shield the radiation (coming from the reactors?). The guide says, "It's 300 microsieverts/hour."

TEPCO's president Hirose just said in his address to TEPCO employees on the anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear accident that there are over 7,000 workers working at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

Reuters Japan has a collection of 70 photographs titled "Four Years Ago in Japan". While the nuclear accident that was triggered by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 has been the focus (often the only focus) for many, the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami looks just like a nuclear bomb detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, or incendiary bombs dropped on Tokyo on March 10, 1945.

Photo 1, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture

"Smoke rises from houses damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, March 12, 2011.
REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak"

Photo 8, Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture

"A mother tries to talk to her daughter who has been isolated for signs of radiation after evacuating from the vicinity of Fukushima"s nuclear plants, at a makeshift facility to screen, cleanse and isolate people with high radiation levels in Nihonmatsu, March 14, 2011.
REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao"

Photo 9, surreal Otsuchi City, Iwate Prefecture on March 14, 2011

Photo 21, a piano, almost like an objet d'art, in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture:

"A piano is submerged in water in the area devastated by tsunami in Rikuzentakat, March 21, 2011.
REUTERS/Damir Sagolj"

And this, I believe, is near Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, right by the ocean. Rows and columns of "fre-con" bags(flexible container bags) stuffed with contaminated soil and debris removed as the result of the government effort to "decontaminate" the villages, towns and cities in Fukushima, temporarily stored outside, right by the ocean.

When the earthquake/tsunami hit on March 11, 2011 in northern Japan, they feared the death toll would be in hundreds. Then over 1,000. Then thousands.

As of March 10, 2015, 15,891 people are dead, 2,584 missing, 6,152 injured (from wiki, data compiled by National Police Agency). The number for death does not include 3,194 deaths (as of September 30, 2014) after the earthquake and tsunami. Many, particularly the elderly, died of cold and unsanitary conditions at the shelters.

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The International Workshop on Radiation and Thyroid Cancer in Tokyo, February 21-23, 2014

The workshop is ongoing, co-hosted by the Ministry of the Environment, Fukushima Medical University, and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.

Presenters include expert researchers from around the world, including Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in radiological research and thyroid cancer research.

The link to the English program: http://www.nsra.or.jp/safe/crpph2014/program-e.pdf

The link to the Japanese program: http://www.nsra.or.jp/safe/crpph2014/program-j.pdf


Live webcast in English:



Live streaming video by Ustream

Live webcast in Japanese:



Live streaming video by Ustream

I caught a tweet by a nuclear researcher in Japan viewing the live webcast, in which he mentioned a presentation that the higher intake of natural iodine in Japan than outside Japan through normal diet before the accident was one of the reasons why the ratio of iodine-131 and radioactive cesium in people exposed to Fukushima-origin radiation is different from the ratio of iodine-131 and radioactive cesium in the atmosphere. (I'm assuming the ratio of iodine-131 was much lower in people than in the atmosphere.)

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Photos of #Fukushima I NPP in Late 2013: Still Very Much Cluttered and Contaminated

While I'm at it, I might as well show the most recent photos that TEPCO released which, I think, show what lack of money and planning (and lack of decision-making itself) has done (or hasn't done, in this case) at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in the past two years and nine months.

Some areas inside the plant compound today look exactly the same as in March 2011.

From TEPCO's photos and videos library, 12/11/2013 (text is my translation of the explanation in the accompanying PDF document):

4 meters above the sea level (Onahama Peil - average sea level used for the plant), ocean-side (east) of Reactors 1 - 4:

While a temporary storage area for equipment and materials has been secured,

other areas are still littered with debris; it is difficult to decontaminate:

10 meters above the sea level, around Reactor buildings:

While a temporary storage area for equipment and materials, pathway for vehicles and heavy equipment have been secured,

other areas have pipes for transferring (contaminated) water and electric cables running and are still littered with debris; it is difficult to decontaminate:

Some vehicles turned upside down by the tsunami,

have been removed.

Debris removal will continue systematically, says TEPCO [meaning "extremely slowly, piece by piece").

I still vividly remember Mr. Michio Ishikawa of Japan Nuclear Technology Institute on April 29, 2011 on an all-night TV program. To the astonished fellow guests (or guests who were feigning astonishment), Mr. Ishikawa, a strong proponent of nuclear energy, said as a matter of fact that all nuclear fuel inside the reactors had been melted down, the government was lying about it, and some of it would be already outside the Pressure Vessels.

He also said, "This is a war."

"Take the debris clean-up job for example. They are picking up the debris and putting them in containers, as if this is the peacetime normal operation. This is a war. They should dig a hole somewhere and bury the radioactive debris and clean up later. What's important is to clear the site, using the emergency measures. Build a bridgehead to the reactor.

"The line of command is not clear, whether it is the government, TEPCO, or Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

"Look squarely at the reactors and find out the true situation. [Trying to do something with] the turbine buildings is nothing but a caricature [a joke, a manga, a diversion]."

No one took his word seriously, and we are where we are today as the result. Mr. Ishikawa's remark on core melt was not even in the news the next day. Hardly anyone talked about it even on Twitter. "Why should we listen to a pro-nuke shill?" was part of the attitude of net citizens in Japan who turned against nuclear energy after the Fukushima accident.

So today, radioactive debris continues to litter the site, hindering workers' efforts. We have been doing something with the turbine buildings (all the contaminated water from the reactor buildings goes to the turbine building basements, from which the water goes either to another building for storage or to the cesium absorption system (SARRY, or on rare occasions, Kurion).

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(UPDATED: USGS Says 7.3) Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake Off #Fukushima Coast, Max 1-Meter High Tsunami Expected

(UPDATE 7) Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority says there is no damage/problem reported at nuclear power plants in Tohoku (Higashidori, Onagawa, Fukushima I and II) and Kanto (Tokai II).

(UPDATE 6) It seems the municipalities in Miyagi, Iwate (prefectures north of Fukushima) are playing it extremely safe, in light of the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami. A number of municipalities that suffered grave damages in 2011 are issuing the evacuation recommendations to the residents in coastal areas. They include: Rikuzentakata (Iwate), Ofunato (Iwate), Ishinomaki (Miyagi), Higashimatsushima (Miyagi).

(UPDATE 5) Workers at the plant are safely inside the Anti-Seismic Building on site, says NHK. (It is NOT that they were evacuated from the plant.) The workers were working near the seawall at 2 in the morning injecting water glass into the soil to build the impermeable wall in the soil to prevent the groundwater from leaking into the plant harbor. Yes, that same operation which actually caused the groundwater to rise and go over the wall. Ugh.

----------------

This, on top of heavy rain due to Typhoon No.27. It is raining in Fukushima and wide areas in Kanto and Tohoku. According to JMA, "Heavy rain and gale" advisories have been issued for Fukushima, and "heavy rain and flood" warnings have been issued in Kanto.

(UPDATE 4) 30-centimeter high tsunami in Ayukawa, Miyagi Prefecture observed at 3:07AM.

(UPDATE 3) JMA has expanded the area with tsunami advisories: Fukushima Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Iwate Prefecture, Ibaraki Prefecture, Kujukuri/Sotobo (Pacific Ocean side) area of Chiba Prefecture

(UPDATE 2) USGS puts the magnitude at 7.3, significantly larger than what JMA has announced. The epicenter is 326 kilometers east of Namie-machi, in the Pacific Ocean.

So far, no report of tsunami.

(UPDATE) NHK News reports (2:29AM, 10/26/2013) that TEPCO ordered workers working at the seawall at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant to move away from the seawall.

2 in the morning and there are workers working in the area (between turbine buildings and the plant harbor) with high radiation.

The word TEPCO and so NHK used is "退避" (retreat and avoid danger, take shelter), not "撤退" (evacuate).

===================

Japan Meteorological Agency has issued tsunami advisories for Fukushima Prefecture:

Tsunami Warnings / Tsunami Advisories

Issued at 02:14 JST 26 Oct 2013

******************Headline******************
Tsunami Advisories have been issued for the following coastal regions of Japan:
FUKUSHIMA PREF.

*******************Text********************
Tsunami Advisories have been issued for the following coastal regions of Japan:

FUKUSHIMA PREF.

***********About Tsunami Forecast************

Marine threat is in place.
Get out of the water and leave the coast immediately.
As the strong current will continue, do not get in the sea or approach coasts until the advisory is cleared.


Though there may be slight sea-level change in coastal regions, no tsunami damage is expected.

******* Earthquake Information ********
Occurred at 02:10 JST 26 Oct 2013
Region name FUKUSHIMA-KEN OKI
Latitude 37.2N
Longitude 144.6E
Depth about 10 km
Magnitude 6.8

The tsunami is expected to hit the coast at 02:40AM, Japan Standard Time (just about now as I post this)...

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Large and Strong Typhoon No.26 Approaching Kanto and Tohoku, #Fukushima I NPP Prepares by Releasing Low Contamination Water to Make Room in Tanks

(UPDATE) The amount of water released from the notch tanks (2) is 40 tonnes so far, according to Jiji. Cesium-137 in the water was 21Bq/L, within the provisional standard at Fukushima I NPP of 25Bq/L.

=====================

From Japan Meteorological Agency's English Site:

It looks like Fukushima will be in the north-west quadrant of the area with 50 knots or more wind.

As for TEPCO's preparation, the company finally has a standard (after more than two and a half years) for the release of rainwater inside the dam (or low barrier) that surrounds the water storage tanks (both contaminated and treated). The standard has been approved by Nuclear Regulation Authority. According to Jiji Tsushin (10/16/2013):

セシウム１３７の濃度が１リットル当たり２５ベクレル未満なら排水

If the density of cesium-137 is less than 25Bq/L, [the rainwater inside the dam] will be released.

TEPCO Nuclear has just tweeted:

お知らせ■台風接近に伴う降雨の影響により、福島第一のCエリア(東・西)ノッチタンクの水が排出基準を満たしていることから、本日AM5:40に排出を開始しました。今後、タンク群の堰内の水を新たにノッチタンクにくみ上げる予定です。http://twme.jp/tenu/00IO

Due to rainfall as the typhoon approaches, as of 5:40AM this morning we started discharging the water from the notch tanks [short, square tanks] in the East-C and West-C areas, as the water meets the standard for discharge. We plan to pump water from the dams surrounding the tanks into this notch tanks. http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2013/1231442_5117.html

The link in TEPCO's tweet has more details of this standard:

• Cesium-134: 15Bq/L

• Cesium-137: 25Bq/L

• No additional gamma nuclides

• Strontium-90: 10Bq/L

They are 1/3 to 1/4 of legal limits for the discharge from a functioning nuclear power plant.

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Japanese Upper House Election: PM Abe "I'm Healthy Because I Eat Fukushima Rice, and LDP/Komei Stable Majority Will Result in Proud Japan"

After re-reading what Mr. Masao Yoshida said last year and thinking about what he and his men had to go through at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after March 11, 2011, it is almost revolting to relate to you what the current prime minister of Japan is saying to win the election for the LDP candidates.

Prime Minister Abe, whose party is set to win a landslide in the coming Upper House election (on July 21), has been going all over Japan to give campaign speeches for LDP candidates, probably inhaling oxygen regularly.

Unlike a handful of candidates that I've listened to (Taro Yamamoto, for one), Abe's speeches are totally devoid of meaning but sprinkled with sound bytes like "recovery" "strong" "proud" that he utters with his high-pitched voice, no doubt aimed at making people look longingly over the horizon for the better, brighter, and fuzzy future for the nation of the rising sun. (Never mind the dog shit at their feet, and it is the nation of the setting sun seen from the US...)

Here are two gems from the recent Abe's utterance.

First, from his July 4 appearance in Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture in support of LDP's Masako Mori, the minister in charge of consumer affairs and increasing the number of children in Japan who has declared all-out war to eradicate "baseless rumors" to help farmers in Fukushima Prefecture by forcing retailers to carry Fukushima produce. She is from Fukushima Prefecture, naturally.

Video from Merx.me:

At about 7 minutes into the boring speech:

課題があります。それは風評被害です。
残念ながらまだ風評被害があって、オイシイ、オイシイ、福島の農産品、値段が低い、あるいはなかなか売れない、世界でもまだ日本からの福島県産の輸入を認めてもらえない。これを変えていく。

We have something we should deal with. And that's baseless rumors. There are baseless rumors, unfortunately, and delicious Fukushima produce can only get low prices or it is hard to sell them. Countries still do not allow import of Fukushima produce from Japan. We will change that.

At about 11 minutes:

今日、私は、こうやって元気いっぱいお話をさせていただいています。何故、私が、こんなに元気かといえば、実は毎日、お昼、官邸で福島産のお米を食べているからであります。

首脳会談をやるたびに、私は、相手の首脳にいってるんです。私は福島産のお米を食べているんですよ。そういっています。
しっかりと風評被害を払しょくして、インフラを加速化して、福島の復興、全力でとりくんでいきます。

そして、何よりも、福島の子供たちの健康を森さんとともに断じて守っていく、このこともお約束申し上げるしだいであります。

Today, I am speaking to you full of vigor and health. Why am I so full of vigor and health? To tell you the truth, it's because I eat rice from Fukushima at my official residence everyday for lunch.

When I meet foreign leaders at summit meetings, I tell them, "I am eating rice from Fukushima". I am saying that.

I will eradicate baseless rumors completely, accelerate [the buildup of] infrastructure, and do my best for the recovery of Fukushima. And above all, I will protect the health of children in Fukushima at all cost, together with Ms. Mori. And that is my promise.

(Well, is it any wonder that foreign leaders seem to avoid Mr. Abe at all cost?)

Then on July 8 in Narashino City in Chiba Prefecture, Mr. Abe equates the LDP majority in the Upper House (and the coalition majority already in the Lower Hosue) to "proud Japan", one of his buzz words he thinks will inspire the Japanese.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (7/9/2013):

安定多数によって、誇りある日本をつくっていく

I will win the "stable majority" and create a proud Japan

So, winning the stable majority by LDP and Komei will make Japan proud. Such nonsense, such light-weight.

"Stable majority" means LDP and Komei Party win enough seats in the coming election (half of Upper House is up for election, 122 seats) so that their overall seats are 129. A simple majority is 123. Winning the stable majority in the Upper House means the ruling coalition will rule more than half of the 17 standing committees. LDP/Komei is expected to easily pass 123 seats. Currently the two parties hold 102 seats (LDP 83, Komei 19).

An Asahi Shinbun's China correspondent sadly observed in a recent ASEAN meeting in Brunei that Japan was becoming irrelevant to the world politicians, as he related the Chinese foreign minister having a casual and friendly chat with the US NSC Asia Division director, with both speaking in fluent Japanese. Japanese foreign minister didn't talk to anyone other than at official meetings, and no one sought him out for a chat or any kind of informal talk. Japanese foreign minister couldn't even talk to the US counterpart, Secretary John Kerry.

I guess they don't want to hear about baseless rumors and Fukushima rice.

For those Japanese citizens who are highly critical of secular Egyptians wanting none of the Islamic president (who seem to be the majority in Japan), citing "rule of law" and "democracy", when the LDP/Komei landslide happens in about 10 days, it will be their chance to follow their own advice and fully support LDP and Mr. Abe and their policies, to show the world how rule of law and democracy should work.

Japanese are in their own bubble, politicians and citizens alike, as not even the triple meltdown of nuclear reactors woke them up.

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#Radioactive Japan: "Eat and Support" Fukushima Rice, Without Knowing and Without Choice

From rice to be grown and harvested in 2013, the national government is buying up 250,000 tonnes for the government's rice reserve; of that, 40,000 tonnes, or 16%, may come from Fukushima Prefecture. The Fukushima prefectural government is encouraging farmers to participate in the government bidding if they fear "baseless rumors" driving down the price for their rice in the open market.

Once it is purchased by the national government, Fukushima rice becomes just "rice".

The reserve rice will be released to the market a few years later as the need arises (shortage of rice, request from food companies) and as part of the regular inventory control. The consumers won't be able to tell it is rice from Fukushima, or the products (rice crackers, miso, shochu, etc.) is made with rice from Fukushima.

This year, farmers in some of the areas that weren't planted because of the nuclear accident (i.e. former evacuation zones) are happily growing rice with full intention of selling to consumers as long as it is judged "safe" (i.e. testing below the national government's safety standard of 100 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium).

From an article on January 24 this year that appeared in a Fukushima local paper (Fukushima Minpo, the link already expired), archived at this blog:

政府が農家や集荷業者から買い上げる平成２５年産の「備蓄米」２５万トンのうち、県は全国最多の４万トンの配分枠を申請し、認められた。県内の前年の契約実績２１４トンの約２００倍。備蓄米は入札で価格が決まるため、東京電力福島第一原発事故に伴う風評被害の影響がない。県内では作付け再開地域を中心に価格下落への懸念があり、県は不安を抱く農家に備蓄米制度の活用を呼び掛ける。

Of the 250,000 tonnes of 2013 rice that the national government plans to buy from farmers and distributors for its rice reserve, Fukushima prefecture has asked for 40,000 tonnes allocated for Fukushima, the largest amount in the country, and the request has been approved. The amount is about 200 times more than 214 tonnes in 2012 that were actually purchased by the government. Since the price of rice for the rice reserve is determined by auctions, it won't be affected by baseless rumors after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. Farmers in the areas set to resume rice-growing fear the price drop. The prefectural government will encourage these farmers to utilize the rice reserve system.

県などが２３日に福島市のパルセいいざかで開いた２５年産米作付けに関する説明会で各市町村の担当者らに示した。

The prefectural government explained to municipal officials in a meeting regarding the rice growing in 2013 on January 23 in Fukushima City.

農林水産省によると、入札は一般競争入札方式で、作付け前の１～６月までに数回行われる。審査登録した農家や集荷業者などが参加でき、一番安い価格から落札される。本県の場合、配分枠の４万トンに達するまで応札できる。

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the bidding is done by open bidding. There will be several biddings from January to June, before the planting. Farmers and distributors registered [with the Ministry] can participate, and the lowest bid will be successful. In case of Fukushima Prefecture, farmers and distributors can bid until the allocated 40,000 tonnes are bought by the government.

入札予定価格は全国一律で、２４年産米の平均落札価格は６０キロ当たり１万３４０６円だった。市場流通米と比べ、農水省は「輸送費や販売促進費を除いた価格と同水準」としているが、入札は収穫前のため、市場価格と開きが出ることもある。

The purchase price by the government will apply to all rice, and the average price for the 2012 rice was 13,406 yen per 60-kilo bag. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the price is "equivalent to the market price when transportation costs and sales and promotion expenses are deducted". However, since the bidding is done before the harvest, it is possible that the price will be different from the market price.

応札増加を目指し、都道府県別の入札予定枠は、２５年産米から拡大された。県は風評対策を含め、「農家の希望に応えられる数量」として４万トンに設定。一定の収入を確実に見込める利点などを示しながら生産者らに活用を呼び掛ける。

In order to encourage more bids, the bidding allocations for prefectures have expanded for the 2013 rice. Fukushima Prefecture applied for 40,000-tonne allocation in order to "meet the demand from farmers" as a countermeasure against baseless rumors. The prefectural government will encourage farmers to utilize the system by pointing out the merit that a certain level of income is guaranteed under the system.

県によると、本県の２４年産米の収量は約３６万トンだった。

According to the prefectural government, Fukushima had 360,000 tonnes of rice harvested in 2012.

So, Fukushima Prefecture is planning on selling over 11% of this year's harvest to the national government, who buys up rice using taxpayers' money.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture (February 2013), Koshihikari rice grown and harvested in "Nakadori" in Fukushima (including cities like Date, Fukushima, with high soil contamination) in 2012 was selling for 15,034 yen per 60 kg bag in the open market as of December 2012, which was about the same price level as rice from other prefectures.

And that was the lowest-priced rice from Fukushima. Go figure.

The latest auction results announced by the Ministry of Agriculture (5/28/2013) shows 11,000 tonnes of rice from Fukushima Prefecture have been purchased by the national government in 8 auctions.

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#Radioactive Japan: LDP's Policy Chief Sanae Takaichi Declars "No One Has Died from Fukushima Nuclear Accident, We Have No Choice But Use Nuclear Plants"

That's how Asahi Shinbun reports. It is hard to tell for certain without the full context, but I think she meant "no one died from acute radiation sickness caused by the nuclear accident", just like many foreign experts including former NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko (though now a changed man, it seems, after having visited Fukushima in 2012) have said over the past two years.

People in Japan who read the Asahi article are outraged. Several workers have died at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant while working to contain the accident. There are people who committed suicide after the nuclear accident because of radiation contamination ruining their crops and cattle. There are people who died of hunger and thirst inside the 20 kilometer evacuation zone, as officials, being bureaucratic officials, prohibited the family members from entering the zone to rescue their parents, siblings, relatives. (Why these people nonetheless followed the officials' orders is another issue.) That zone wouldn't have been set if there had been no nuclear accident. There are people who died on the way to distant shelters, who died at shelters for lack of food and heat, and who wouldn't have needed to be taken to the shelters, spending 10 or more hours on an uncomfortable bus, if there had been no nuclear accident.

But they certainly did not die from acute radiation sickness, for sure.

From Asahi Shinbun (6/17/2013):

「原発事故による死亡者は出てない」自民・高市政調会長

"No one has died from the nuclear accident", says LDP's Policy Bureau Chief Takeichi

自民党の高市早苗政調会長は１７日、神戸市の党兵庫県連の会合で、「事故を起こした東京電力福島第一原発を含めて、事故によって死亡者が出ている状況ではない。安全性を最大限確保しながら活用するしかない」と原発再稼働を目指す考えを強調した。

Sanae Takaichi, Policy Bureau Chief of LDP, said in a meeting of Hyogo Prefecture LDP in Kobe City on June 17, "It is not that there has been a death from the nuclear accident, including at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. We have no choice but utilize nuclear power plants as long as we secure maximum safety", emphasizing her (the party's) intention to restart nuclear power plants.

　原発事故により多くの避難者が出ている現状で「死亡者が出ていない」との理由を挙げて、再稼働方針を強調する姿勢には、批判が出る可能性もある。

Emphasizing the policy to restart nuke plants because "no one has died" may draw criticism, when there are many people displaced because of the nuclear accident.

　自民党は参院選公約の最終案で、再稼働について「地元自治体の理解を得られるよう最大限の努力をする」と推進する考えを盛り込んでいる。高市氏は産業競争力の維持には電力の安定供給が不可欠としたうえで、「原発は廃炉まで考えると莫大（ばくだい）なお金がかかるが、稼働している間のコストは比較的安い」と語った。

The final draft of LDP's campaign promise for the coming Upper House election includes the push for restart of nuclear power plants by saying the party will "make maximum effort to win the understanding of local municipalities". Ms. Takaichi said the stable supply of power is indispensable for maintaining the competitiveness of industries, and that "a nuclear power plant costs enormous amount of money if we think about the cost of decommissioning, but while it is operating the cost is relatively cheap."

Her boss, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has been busy peddling Japanese nuclear power technologies and plants in Asia and central Europe, saying his country has learned the lessons from Fukushima and the country's nuclear technology is better than ever.

In other words, après moi, le déluge.

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Naoto Kan Was Guest of Honor at an Anti-Nuclear Event in San Diego, California, Said It Was He Who Stopped TEPCO from "Abandoning" #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

An environmental activist group called "Friends of the Earth" held an event on June 4, 2013 in San Diego, California, in which they featured former NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko and former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The event seems to be part of the group's ongoing effort to shut down San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant that provides (if the two reactors are operating) 20% of electricity in San Diego County.

I suppose Mr. Naoto Kan to the people outside Japan ("hero" who "saved" the world from the bigger disaster) is like Mr. Toru Hashimoto to some people inside Japan ("hero" who speaks the uncomfortable truth).

So what did Mr. Kan tell the adoring US audience? It looks like the same stuff he's been selling for the past two years: TEPCO wanted to abandon the site, and he was the one who stopped them from doing so.

As far as I'm concerned, he was the prime minister of Japan who hid behind a middle-level manager at TEPCO when the water with low-level contamination had to be discharged into the ocean to make room for the highly contaminated water. Kan's cabinet didn't notify the neighboring countries, didn't have the guts to announce the discharge. Instead, a manager at TEPCO did the press conference, and then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said they sent a fax to IAEA about the discharge and that it should be sufficient.

From Friends of the Earth blog (6/4/2013):

Former Japanese Prime Minister Naota Kan warned today that restarting the damaged San Onofre nuclear reactor is driven by the same industrial and regulatory forces in the United States that are seeking the restart of Japanese nuclear reactors. He told a nuclear safety seminar that the worst-case nuclear accident at Fukushima-daiichi would have required evacuating a 190-mile radius from from the disaster, an area in which 50 million people live, threatening the entire future of his nation.

The major safety risks of restarting the San Onofre nuclear reactor located between Los Angeles and San Diego was put in the context of the devastating accident at Fukushima during an international seminar held at the San Diego County Government offices today.

Guest of Honour, former Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, described in detail the March 2011 accident at Fukushima-daiichi, the consequences of the earthquake and tsunami that led to the meltdown of three reactors, the threat from the hundreds of tons of high level nuclear waste spent fuel at the site, and the ongoing challenge to control the hazards at the site today.

...Naoto Kan described how the operator of the Fukushima-daiichi nuclear reactors, Tokyo Electric Power Company, wanted to abandon the site. Kan refused to accept this given Fukushima's six reactors and the hundreds of tons of spent fuel pools that would devastate central Japan.

Naoto Kan told the seminar that it would have been be such a terrible disaster, many times greater than Chernobyl, that it would be definitely necessary to evacuate Tokyo and wider region. Naoto Kan explained that he was confronted with having to consider a worst case scenario that would have required a radius of 190 miles from Fukushima to be evacuated affecting 50 million people.

Kan told of the 160,000 people that remain displaced from Fukushima, with families scattered across Japan.

“Until March 2011 I thought about how to safely operate nuclear power. After Fukushima, my whole mindset has changed … and that we must now not operate nuclear reactors,” said Naoto Kan.

(Full article at the link)

In Japan, if the "industrial forces" mean electric power companies, yes they want to restart. They are bleeding money. Regulatory forces? If that means the Nuclear Regulatory Authority, so far they haven't shown much eagerness to restart anything anytime soon, to the surprise of many in Japan. The ones who want the restart of nuclear power plants in Japan are in those municipalities where nuclear power plants are located. They want money (government subsidies, electric power companies' gifts and donations), they want jobs.

Even when there is no government subsidy, Mayor of Tokai-mura, where J-PARC (that leaked radioactive gold and mercury into the environment through ventilation fans without anyone realizing that the extra-strong proton beams had evaporated the gold plate in their Hadron Collider by accident) is located, wants the restart of J-PARC experiment as soon as possible. Why? Because it is such a prestige and honor to have an advanced technological facility like this in his village!

(Never mind they were using ventilation fans like any household or restaurant kitchen...)

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AP: #Fukushima I Nuke Plant "Struggles to Keep Staff", and "Happy" Has Cumulative Radiation Exposure of Over 300 Millisieverts

The worker who tweeted from the plant for two years, "Happy", has a cumulative radiation exposure of more than 300 millisieverts from 20 years of working in the nuclear industry, according to the AP article that extensively quotes him.

The article says the reason for the veterans like "Happy" quitting the Fukushima I Nuke Plant job is their cumulative radiation exposure approaching levels risky to health.

TEPCO, being TEPCO, denies there is any problem of finding workers, even though the plant workers get $100 a day while workers doing the decontamination work in far less contaminated areas outside the plant are paid $160 a day.

From AP (5/23/2013; emphasis is mine):

Stricken Japan nuke plant struggles to keep staff

YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) — Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that melted down in March 2011 after being hit by a tsunami, is finding that it can barely meet the headcount of workers required to keep the three broken reactors cool while fighting power outages and leaks of tons of radiated water, said current and former nuclear plant workers and others familiar with the situation at Fukushima.

Construction jobs are already plentiful in the area due to rebuilding of tsunami ravaged towns and cities. Other public works spending planned by the government, under the "Abenomics" stimulus programs of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is likely to make well-paying construction jobs more abundant. And less risky, better paid decontamination projects in the region irradiated by the Fukushima meltdown are another draw.

Some Fukushima veterans are quitting as their cumulative radiation exposure approaches levels risky to health, said two long-time Fukushima nuclear workers who spoke to The Associated Press. They requested anonymity because their speaking to the media is a breach of their employers' policy and they say being publicly identified will get them fired.

TEPCO spokesman Ryo Shimizu denied any shortage of workers, and said the decommissioning is progressing fine.

"We have been able to acquire workers, and there is no shortage. We plan to add workers as needed," he said.

The discrepancy may stem from the system of contracting prevalent in Japan's nuclear industry. Plant operators farm out the running of their facilities to contractors, who in turn find the workers, and also rely on lower-level contractors to do some of their work, resulting in as many as five layers of contractors. Utilities such as TEPCO know the final headcount — 3,000 people now at Fukushima Dai-ichi — but not the difficulties in meeting it.

TEPCO does not release a pay scale at Fukushima Dai-ichi or give numbers of workers forced to leave because of radiation exposure. It does not keep close tabs on contracting arrangements for its workers. A December 2012 survey of workers that the company released found 48 percent were from companies not signed as contractors with the utility and the workers were falsely registered under companies that weren't employing them. It is not clear if any laws were broken, but the government and TEPCO issued warnings to contractors to correct the situation.

Hiroyuki Watanabe, a city assemblyman for Iwaki in Fukushima, who talks often to Fukushima Dai-ichi workers, believes the labor shortage is only likely to worsen.

"They are scrounging around, barely able to clear the numbers," he said. "Why would anyone want to work at a nuclear plant, of all places, when other work is available?"

According to Watanabe, a nuclear worker generally earns about 10,000 yen ($100) a day. In contrast, decontamination work outside the plant, generally involving less exposure to radiation, is paid for by the environment ministry, and with bonuses for working a job officially categorized as dangerous, totals about 16,000 yen ($160) a day, he said.

Experts, including even the most optimistic government officials, say decommissioning Fukushima Dai-ichi will take nearly a half-century. TEPCO acknowledges that the exact path to decommissioning remains unclear because an assessment of the state of the melted reactor cores has not yet been carried out.

Since being brought under control following the disaster, the plant has suffered one setback after another. A dead rat caused a power blackout, including temporarily shutting down reactor-cooling systems, and leaks required tons of water to be piped into hundreds of tanks and underground storage areas. The process of permanently shutting down the plant hasn't gotten started yet and the work up to now has been one makeshift measure after another to keep the reactors from deteriorating.

Thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods that are outside the reactors also have to be removed and safely stored. Taking them out is complex because the explosions at the plant have destroyed parts of the structure used to move the rods under normal conditions. The process of taking out the rods, one by one, hasn't even begun yet. The spent rods have been used as fuel for the reactors but remain highly radioactive.

One Fukushima Dai-ichi worker, who has gained a big following on Twitter because of his updates about the state of the plant since the meltdowns, said veteran workers are quitting or forced to cut back on working in highly radiated areas of the plant as their cumulative exposure rises.

"I feel a sense of responsibility to stick with this job," he told AP. "But so many people have quit. Their families wanted them to quit. Or they were worried about their children. Or their parents told him to go find another job."

Known as "Happy-san" to his 71,500 Twitter followers, he has worked in the nuclear industry for 20 years, about half of that at Fukushima. He has worked at bigger contractors before, but is now at a mid-level contractor with about 20 employees, and has an executive level position.

"If things continue the way they are going, I fear decommissioning in 40 years is impossible. If nuclear plants are built abroad, then Japanese engineers and workers will go abroad. If plants in Japan are restarted, engineers and workers will go to those plants," he said in a tweet. Most of Japan's nuclear plants were shut for inspections after the Fukushima disaster.

His cumulative radiation exposure is at more than 300 millisieverts. Medical experts say a rise in cancer and other illnesses is statistically detected at exposure of more than 100 millisieverts, but health damage varies by individuals. He was exposed to 60 millisieverts of radiation the first year after the disaster and gets a health checkup every six months.

Nuclear workers generally are limited to 100 millisieverts exposure over five years, and 50 millisieverts a year, except for the first year after the disaster when the threshold was raised to an emergency 100 millisieverts.

The workers handle the day-to-day work of lugging around hoses, checking valves and temperatures, fixing leaks, moving away debris and working on the construction for the equipment to remove the spent fuel rods.

Other jobs are already so plentiful that securing enough workers for even the more lucrative work decontaminating the towns around the plant is impossible, according to Fukushima Labor Bureau data.

During the first quarter of this year, only 321 jobs got filled from 2,124 openings in decontamination, which involves scraping soil, gathering foliage and scrubbing walls to bring down radiation levels.

"There are lots of jobs because of the reconstruction here," said bureau official Kosei Kanno.

A former Fukushima Dai-ichi worker, who switched to a decontamination job in December, said he became fed up with the pay, treatment and radiation risks at the plant. He has 10 years of experience as a nuclear worker, and grew up in Fukushima.

He warned it would be harder to find experienced people like him, raising the risk of accidents caused by human error.

He accused TEPCO of being more preoccupied with cost cuts than with worker safety or fair treatment. The utility went bankrupt after the disaster and was nationalized by a government bailout. Even if TEPCO somehow obtains workers in quantity in coming months, their quality would deteriorate, he said.

"We're headed toward a real crisis," said Ryuichi Kino, a free-lance writer and photographer who has authored books about the nuclear disaster and has reported on TEPCO intensively since March 2011.

Under the worst scenario, experienced workers capable of supervising the work will be gone as they reach their radiation-exposure limits, said Kino.

He believes an independent company separate from TEPCO needs to be set up to deal with the decommissioning, to make sure safety is not being compromised and taxpayer money is spent wisely.

Watanabe, the assemblyman, said the bigger nuclear contractors may go out of business because they are being under-bid by lower-tier companies with less experienced, cheaper workers. That is likely to worsen the worker shortages at the skilled level, he said.

Happy-san has the same fear. Some of the recent workers, rounded up by the lesser contractors, appear uneducated and can't read well, he said.

Although life at the plant has calmed compared to right after the disaster, Happy-san still remembers the huge blast that went off when one of the reactors exploded, and rubble was showering from the sky for what felt like an eternity.

"We had opened the Pandora's box. After all the evil comes out, then hope might be sitting there, at the bottom of the box, and someday we can be happy, even though that may not come during my lifetime," he said.

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#Radioactive Japan with Nothing Better to Do: Police and Japan Coast Guard Held Joint Anti-Terrorism Exercise to Protect #Fukushima I Nuke Plant from Terrorists

Jiji Tsushin's article has no information as to who the Police or the Coast Guard think would be the supposed "terrorists" who would attack Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

Jiji Tsushin (5/11/2013):

原発テロ想定、合同訓練＝警察と海保、福島第２で－特殊部隊も参加し「銃撃戦」

Police and Coast Guard held joint exercise against terrorism on nuclear plant at Fukushima II (Daini), with special force staging "gun battle"

東京電力福島第１原発をテロリストが襲撃するという想定で、警察と海上保安庁が１１日、合同訓練を行った。同原発は東日本大震災で脆弱（ぜいじゃく）性が露呈し、現在も不安定な状態で廃炉に向けた作業が続いている。警備体制を不安視する声があるため、訓練を公開。テロ対策の専門部隊も参加して「銃撃戦」を交わすなど実戦さながらの訓練を披露した。

On May 11, Police and Japan Coast Guard held a joint exercise on the assumption that terrorists were attacking Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Vulnerability of Fukushima I Nuclear Plant was exposed in the March 11, 2011 disaster, and work toward decommissioning is on-going today in a situation that is still unstable. The exercise was open to the public, as there are those who have expressed doubt about the security system. A special force for counter-terrorism also participated in a mock gun battle.

訓練は、第１原発から南に１０キロ余り離れた福島第２原発で実施。原発に常駐する福島県警の銃器対策部隊や千葉県警の特殊部隊「ＳＡＴ」など警察官約８０人と、海保のテロ対処部隊ら海上保安官約７０人が参加した。第１原発へのテロを想定した合同訓練は震災後初めて。

The exercise was carried out at Fukushima II (Daini) Nuclear Power Plant, about 10 kilometers south of Fukushima I (Daiichi) Nuclear Power plant. About 80 policemen from the Fukushima Prefectural Police Firearms Countermeasure Unit which is stationed at the nuclear plant and from the Chiba Prefectural Police Special Force "SAT" (Special Assault Team), and about 70 officers of Japan Coast Guard including the Coast Guard Counter-Terrorism Unit participated. The joint exercise against terrorist attack on Fukushima I Nuke Plant was the first after the March 11, 2011 disaster.

Jiji has a photo of Coast Guard officers with machine guns, dressed in black-and-yellow radiation protection gear and looking like a bee or fly, having subdued the "terrorists" on board a ship:

Let's see... To disable the plant and stop the cooling of the reactors and Spent Fuel Pools, all you need would be to release a boat-load of rats and mice and wait... Or simply wait until all those huge steel tanks that are not welded start to leak, in about 3 years. Or just continue to let TEPCO do the work and wait.

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Tokyo Shinbun: Worker Who Tweeted from #Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and His Two Years of Being Jerked Around by TEPCO and Government

The worker who tweeted for two years from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is no longer there, but he was recently interviewed by Tokyo Shinbun. He shared his first-hand knowledge of how it was like to work at a nuclear plant that went spectacularly bust, under the conflicting and useless direction from both TEPCO Headquarters in Tokyo and the national government under then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

People on Japanese Twitter, blogs, and message boards have been accusing the worker whose Twitter name is "Happy" as TEPCO agent of disinformation. I've been following him and reading his tweets, but I don't get that feeling. As far as I know, he is a worker at either one of the first-tier subcontractors or one of the major local subcontractors of a first-tier subcontractor.

In the interview with Tokyo Shinbun, "Happy" describes what was effectively "TEPCO that couldn't say no".

"Prime Minister says 'Work 24 hours a day', so do something!"

Instead of shielding the workers at the plant from the ignorant politicians and bureaucrats so that they could do the job, TEPCO headquarters was nothing more than a messenger boy.

Then the national government under the Democratic Party of Japan interfered with the work for their convenience, and it was not just Naoto Kan. "Happy" says the probe of Reactor 2's Containment Vessel was originally scheduled in December 2011, but since then-Prime Minister Noda needed to declare "cold shutdown state" (to the snicker and ridicule around the world except at IAEA and NRC) and he didn't want to have a potentially dangerous work during that month, the DPJ government told TEPCO to delay the work until after the New Year.

From Tokyo Shinbun, as archived at Asyura (5/5/2013; as article links don't last long at Tokyo Shinbun):

つぶやく福島作業員　政府・東電に振り回された２年間 （東京新聞）

Worker Who Tweeted from Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and His Two Years of Being Jerked Around by TEPCO and Government

東京電力福島第一原発事故の発生当初から収束作業に従事し、現場の様子をツイッターでつぶやき続け、その内容を七万超の人が注目している「ハッピー」さん。福島第一の近くに家があり、作業員としてここで長年働いてきた。このほど本紙の取材に応じ、二年間を超える収束作業で感じた疑問などを語った。　（片山夏子）

He worked at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant since the beginning of the nuclear accident and tweeted the situation. His tweets as "Happy" are followed by more than 70,000 people. His home is near the plant, and has worked at the plant for many years. We interviewed him recently, and he told us what he thought during the past two years of his effort to control the situation.

◆まるで戦場

It's like a war zone.

　二〇一一年三月十四日昼、３号機原子炉建屋で水素爆発が起きた時、ハッピーさんは近くで作業をしていた。突き上げる衝撃、すさまじい爆音に襲われ、がれきがバラバラ降ってきた。

When the hydrogen explosion happened in the Reactor 3 building on March 14, 2011, "Happy" was working nearby. The ground shook with deafening explosion, and debris rained on him.

　「ここで死ぬかもしれない」

"I may die here."

　まるで戦場だった。建屋から煙が上がり、すすで全身が真っ黒になった人、防護服が血に染まった人もいた。怒号が飛び交う様子はとても現実とは思えなかった。

It was like a war zone. Smoke rose from the reactor building, and there were people who were coated with black soot, and whose protection gear was bloody. People were shouting. It didn't seem real.

　ハッピーさんがツイッターを始めたのは水素爆発から六日後の二十日のこと。

"Happy" started to tweet on March 20, six days after that hydrogen explosion.

　理由は二つあった。一つは情報が錯綜（さくそう）し、不安をあおる報道もあったこと。もう一つは、福島県南相馬市に小さな子どもと住む知人に、現場で起きていることを冷静に伝え「必要以上に心配することはないよ」と伝えるためだったという。

There were two reasons. First, communication was garbled and confused [in the early days of the accident] and there were media reports that fanned fear. Second, he wanted to tell his acquaintance who lived in Minamisoma City in Fukushima with small child[ren] that "there is no need to worry too much", by calmly describing what was happening at the plant.

　つぶやきの中で自分のことを「オイラ」と書き、「です」ではなく「でし」で結ぶことが多い独特のメッセージ。初めのころ、読み手は子どもがいるお母さんが多かった。「助けられました」「救われました」というお礼や温かい言葉が寄せられた。

His tweets are unique. He calls himself "oira", writes "deshi" instead of "desu" [in closing a sentence]. In the beginning, many of his readers were mothers with children, who replied to him saying "You helped me", "You saved me".

◆命は二の次

Life is on the back burner

　ハッピーさんのつぶやきには現場で感じる政府や東電への率直な疑問が多い。

Many of "Happy"'s tweets include frank doubts he felt as he worked at the plant, toward the government and TEPCO.

　政府や東電が、根拠のない楽観的な見通しを示したり、きちんと説明しない発表をするたびにいらついた。事実をありのまま伝えないことで、かえって不安をあおっていると感じたという。

He was irritated each time the national government and TEPCO showed optimistic prospect without basis, or made presentations without full explanation. He says he felt not telling the facts was fanning the fear.

　事故発生当初、作業工程の調整がなされないまま、現場に指示が飛んだことにも閉口させられた。電気系と配管系の作業が同じ場所で同じ時間にぶつかり、片方の作業ができなくなるなどの混乱が起きた。

He was also annoyed at the instructions without coordinating the work processes, which caused confusion in the early days of the accident. [At one time] electrical work and pipe work were scheduled on the same location at the same time, and one of the work couldn't be done.

　混乱の跡は、二年たった今も福島第一の各所に残る。ほぼ同じ場所に汚染水の移送ホース、電源ケーブルや機器を制御するケーブルが乱雑に設置されている点などがそうだ。緊急作業だったとはいえ、誤作動や漏電の恐れがあり、今後の不安要因になっている。

The result of the confusion is still visible in many places at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant even after two years. Hoses to transfer contaminated water, power cable and control cables for equipments are installed in a messy way in the same location, for example. Even if it was an emergency, there is a possibility of malfunctioning and short circuit.

　「総理が二十四時間作業しろと言っているから何とかしろ」。こんな指示が現場に飛んだこともあった。無理やり二十四時間体制のシフトを組んだが、作業効率が落ちた。

"Prime Minister says 'Work 24 hours a day', so do something!" was one of the instructions to the plant. So they set up 24-hour shifts, but work efficiency suffered.

　現場の状況も考えず毎月発表された工程表にも悩まされた。「政府がやるって発表しちゃったから作業を急いでくれ」と言われ、準備もできていないのに夜中に駆り出されたこともあったという。

He was bothered by the time schedule of work published every month without considering the situation at the plant. At one time, he was told to hurry up the work because the national government had already publicly announced it, and he was called to the site in the middle of the night even though no preparation had been made.

　特に、防護服を着ての夏の作業では何度も倒れそうになった。「休め」とは言われるが、工程表はそのまま。作業員の命や安全は、二の次になっていると感じた。

He almost fainted a number of times during the summer with full protective gear. He was told to "rest", but the time schedule for work remained the same. He felt that life and safety of the workers were put on the back burner.

◆コスト優先

Cost comes first

　一一年九月、ハッピーさんの耳に、政府と東電が「冷温停止」に「状態」をくっつけて新語をつくり、年内にも福島第一が「冷温停止状態」になったと宣言する、との情報が入ってきた。

In September 2011, a piece of information reached "Happy" that the national government and TEPCO [HQ] were going to create a new word by combining "cold shutdown" and "state" and declare within the year that Fukushima I Nuke Plant achieved "cold shutdown state".

　だが、溶け落ちた核燃料の状態もわからない。原子炉の冷却にしても、ポンプ故障だけでなく、配管の詰まりや破損などで止まる可能性がある。原子炉の温度計が不安定な動きをし始める中で、炉内が一〇〇度以下と言えるのかどうか…。「冷温停止なんてあり得ない」と思った。

But they didn't know the condition of the melted fuel. Reactor cooling could stop, not just because of the pump failures but also because of clogged or broken pipes. Thermometers attached to the reactors had started to behave erratically. How could anyone say the temperature inside the reactors is below 100 degrees Celsius? "Happy" thought, "Cold shutdown cannot be happening."

　さらに十一月ごろには、「事故収束」まで宣言するらしい、との情報が入ってきた。

Then in November, he heard that they were going to declare, in addition, "end of the accident" [restoration of the plant to the normal state].

　「まさか」と思ったが、十二月に実施する予定だった２号機の格納容器の穴開け作業が年明けに延びるなど、宣言の妨げになるかもしれない危険な作業は延期され始めた。

"That cannot be", he thought, but the work to drill a hole in the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel, which had been scheduled in December, was delayed until after the New Year. Other dangerous works that could mar the declaration started to get postponed.

　これまでも「選挙があるから、それまで危険な作業はするな」「担当大臣が明後日、海外に行くから今日中にやれ」と現場で指示されるなど、政治の動きに振り回されてきたが、まただった。

The work at the plant had been at the mercy of the politicians before. "There is an election coming, so don't do dangerous work until after the election." "Minister in charge will go on an overseas trip the day after tomorrow, so finish the work within today."

　収束宣言後、事故現場では、コスト優先の契約が目立つようになり、危険手当や給与の削減など作業員の雇用条件が悪化した。事故後に福島第一に導入された設備類は、保守管理のことを十分考慮していない仮設のものが多い。耐久性のあるものに交換すべきだと東電に提案しても、「予算がない」と却下されることも増えた。

After the declaration of end of the accident, there were more work contracts whose priority was to cut costs, and employment condition for the workers deteriorated with the cut in hazard bonus and pay. Many of the pieces of equipment that were installed at Fukushima I Nuke Plant after the accident were temporary, without ample consideration for maintenance. When he [his company] suggested to TEPCO that they should be replaced with durable [permanent] ones, the suggestion was often turned down by TEPCO, who said "There is no budget".

　ハッピーさんは、東電が会社再建を急ぎながら、事故収束も進めることに大きな疑問を感じている。コスト優先では、経験豊かな作業員も雇用が安定しないため集まらず、廃炉作業も進まない、と危機感を抱いている。

"Happy" doubts if TEPCO could rebuild itself and end the accident at the same time. With cost cutting as a priority, experienced workers won't come to work at the plant because their employment is not stable, and the decommissioning work won't make progress, he fears.

　「国がいくら税金を投入しても、東電の借金になるだけ。東電が民間企業である以上、コストを優先するのは当然。これでは廃炉は遅々として進まない。世界を揺るがした原発事故なのだから、国と東電は収束作業を専門に担う組織をつくって強力に進めるべきだ」

"No matter how much taxpayers' money the national government pours in, it simply becomes TEPCO's debt. Since TEPCO remains as a private company, it naturally puts cost-cutting as priority. As such, decommissioning won't make much progress. It is the nuclear accident that has shaken the entire world, and the government and TEPCO should create a new organization that focus only on ending the accident and move aggressively."

(First-pass quick translation, subject to change later.)

The nuclear accident that has shaken the world seems to have been forgotten by most people in the world, particularly those in emerging nations like Vietnam and Turkey, who want Japanese-made nuclear reactors and plants in their respective country, probably because of Fukushima. They think Japan has learned a lot from the accident (which in their mind is probably long over) and the knowledge and the expertise from the accident will be highly beneficial for their countries' push for nuclear energy.

And so it goes, until next time.

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Long Shadow of Chernobyl: 224 Bq/kg of Cesium-137 in the Ashes from Burning Wood Pellets Made from Trees in Shikoku

And of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons by world nuclear powers, which did not stop until 1980 (China).

One of my twitter followers lives in southwestern Japan. A while ago he sent me the result of the test he had it done with the ashes from burning wood pellets in his stove this winter. The lab test, using the germanium semiconductor detector, found 223.8 Bq/kg of cesium-137.

He was upset, thinking it is from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, until I pointed out to him that there was no cesium-134 found. The cesium in the ashes is most likely from the fallout from atmospheric testing, and the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

He burned 600kg of wood pellets made from cedar trees in Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku Island in southwestern Japan. According to the pellet manufacturer, the concentration factor was about 375, and radioactive cesium (Cs-137) in the pellets was estimated to be about 0.59 Bq/kg.

He said he will "entomb" the ashes with concrete and bury.

The chart plotting the historical monthly fallout in entire Shikoku (4 prefectures, as they didn't start measuring the fallout in Ehime until 1977) shows the spike from the Chernobyl accident was less than that of the atmospheric testing, and larger than that from the Fukushima accident. (The chart was created from data at Japan Chemical Analysis Center. Y-axis in log scale.)

In 2012 he tested the ashes from burning the wood pellets from a different company, and to his great dismay the test found 1,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium (Cs-137) in the ashes. He had already spread some of those ashes on his home garden. Those pellets, it turned out, were made from trees from Europe (Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria) that the manufacturer had started to purchase in 1994 . That manufacturer told him that it had never ever occurred to them that the trees were contaminated from the Chernobyl accident, and there was no regulation on importing. The manufacturer told him that they chose European trees because they were cheap, and supply was steady.

April 26 marks the 27th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant accident.

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IAEA Team's Initial Review of Japan’s Plans to Decommission #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: "Define an end-state of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station site"

That was what struck me when I read the IAEA press release. The observations and other recommendations they made after visiting Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on April 17, 2013 and meeting with government and TEPCO officials are what you would expect - i.e. nothing new.

But this suggestion by the IAEA team led by Juan Carlos Lentijo, IAEA Director of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, must have confounded the Japanese, who continue to operate on a crisis mode on a low budget after more than 2 years (TEPCO) and who somehow believe decommissioning will be done in less than 30 years (METI and the government):

"Launching efforts to define an end-state of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station site would help focus decommissioning efforts. This effort should be pursued with effective stakeholder involvement."

What end result do you want? What do you want to have happened to the plant and the site by the end of decommissioning? Then, can you figure out the steps to get there?

For those of you who think the so-called "roadmap" is what spells out such things, you're asking too much. There is no hard-thinking in the roadmap, and there is no end-game envisioned; it doesn't even include budgeting or solid human resource management for the project that will last for at least several decades. TEPCO and the government are probably hoping that by doing the work day after day transferring water and picking up rats diligently will somehow result in decommissioning in several decades from now. (You can review the roadmap yourself at TEPCO's sites, in Japanese here, only digest version in English here.)

Browsing the news in Japan on the IAEA visit and the initial review, I didn't even find a mention of this particular point. It probably totally lost on the reporters, too.

From IAEA press release (4/22/2013):

IAEA Team Completes Initial Review of Japan’s Plans to Decommission Fukushima Daiichi

22 April 2013 | Tokyo, Japan -- An IAEA expert team today completed an initial review of Japan's efforts to plan and implement the decommissioning of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The International Peer Review of Japan's Mid-and-Long-Term Roadmap towards the Decommissioning of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Units 1-4 conducted its visit from 15 to 22 April 2013.

As requested by the Government of Japan, the IAEA team held extensive discussions with officials from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The team also met with officials of the Nuclear Regulation Authority. The team visited the nuclear accident site to gain first-hand information about conditions at the power plant and progress toward decommissioning the facility.

"Extraordinarily committed workers have made significant accomplishments at Fukushima Daiichi since the March 2011 accident, but Japan continues to face difficult challenges as it works to decommission the site," said team leader Juan Carlos Lentijo, IAEA Director of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology. "We saw that TEPCO has achieved the stable cooling of the reactors and spent fuel pools at the site."

The 13-member IAEA team examined a wide variety of issues related to decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, such as the Roadmap's overall strategic approach, the current condition of the reactors and spent fuel pools, the management of the huge amount of accumulated water at the site, as well as the radioactive releases.

In a draft report delivered to Japanese authorities today, the team acknowledged a number of accomplishments that have been made to prepare Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station for decommissioning. For example:

• Japan has addressed the plant's decommissioning in a timely manner, as demonstrated by its early preparation of the Roadmap and its acceleration of plans to remove fuel from the spent fuel pools at Units 1-4. In addition, Japan has logical and rational plans for the most complex task: removing damaged fuel from the reactors;

• TEPCO has successfully deployed advanced and large-scale treatment technologies for decontaminating and desalinating highly radioactive water that has accumulated at the site; and

• The Government of Japan and TEPCO have recognized the importance of effective stakeholder involvement and public communication in dealing with decommissioning programmes.

In addition, the IAEA team provided advice in areas where current practices could be improved. For example:

• Launching efforts to define an end-state of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station site would help focus decommissioning efforts. This effort should be pursued with effective stakeholder involvement;

• An assessment of TEPCO's incident reporting and communication practices - with the government, the regulator, and the public - could help to enhance stakeholder trust and respect;

• TEPCO should continue its efforts to improve the reliability of essential systems, to assess the structural integrity of site facilities, and to enhance protection against external hazards; and

• Measures should continue to improve management issues regarding radioactive releases and radiation exposures from the site, particularly issues created by the storage of accumulated water. The team encourages Japan to assess the overall benefit of the site-boundary dose limit, particularly in relation to the radiation levels at the site boundary due to solids and liquids stored at the site.

"Our team received good cooperation from all our Japanese counterparts, who are remarkably dedicated to moving forward quickly, yet safely," Lentijo said. "I hope our mission can help their progress, and I know the international community is learning many lessons from the Japanese experience."

The IAEA team's final report will be delivered to Japan within one month.

Japan's request for the mission came in the context of the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety, endorsed by all IAEA Member States in September 2011. The Action Plan defines a programme of work to strengthen the global nuclear safety framework, and it encourages the use of peer review missions to take full advantage of worldwide experience.

The IAEA team also took photos on their own and shared them on Flickr. In this photo, Reactor 2 almost looks pristine, as if nothing has happened in March 2011. (Click to enlarge.)

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Former US NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko: "All 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the United States have a safety problem that cannot be fixed"

From New York Times (4/8/2013), right after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission effectively shelved the idea of filtered vent:

Ex-Regulator Says Reactors Are Flawed

WASHINGTON — All 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the United States have a safety problem that cannot be fixed and they should be replaced with newer technology, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Monday. Shutting them all down at once is not practical, he said, but he supports phasing them out rather than trying to extend their lives.

The position of the former chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, is not unusual in that various anti-nuclear groups take the same stance. But it is highly unusual for a former head of the nuclear commission to so bluntly criticize an industry whose safety he was previously in charge of ensuring.

Asked why he did not make these points when he was chairman, Dr. Jaczko said in an interview after his remarks, “I didn’t really come to it until recently.”

“I was just thinking about the issues more, and watching as the industry and the regulators and the whole nuclear safety community continues to try to figure out how to address these very, very difficult problems,” which were made more evident by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, he said. “Continuing to put Band-Aid on Band-Aid is not going to fix the problem.”

Dr. Jaczko made his remarks at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington in a session about the Fukushima accident. Dr. Jaczko said that many American reactors that had received permission from the nuclear commission to operate for 20 years beyond their initial 40-year licenses probably would not last that long. He also rejected as unfeasible changes proposed by the commission that would allow reactor owners to apply for a second 20-year extension, meaning that some reactors would run for a total of 80 years.

Dr. Jaczko cited a well-known characteristic of nuclear reactor fuel to continue to generate copious amounts of heat after a chain reaction is shut down. That “decay heat” is what led to the Fukushima meltdowns. The solution, he said, was probably smaller reactors in which the heat could not push the temperature to the fuel’s melting point.

The nuclear industry disagreed with Dr. Jaczko’s assessment. “U.S. nuclear energy facilities are operating safely,” said Marvin S. Fertel, the president and chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s trade association. “That was the case prior to Greg Jaczko’s tenure as Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman. It was the case during his tenure as N.R.C. chairman, as acknowledged by the N.R.C.’s special Fukushima response task force and evidenced by a multitude of safety and performance indicators. It is still the case today.”

Dr. Jaczko resigned as chairman last summer after months of conflict with his four colleagues on the commission. He often voted in the minority on various safety questions, advocated more vigorous safety improvements, and was regarded with deep suspicion by the nuclear industry. A former aide to the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, he was appointed at Mr. Reid’s instigation and was instrumental in slowing progress on a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles from Las Vegas.

Dr. Jaczko visited Fukushima last summer. Maybe it was that visit that influenced him. If you haven't seen the NHK documentary of that visit, see my post from December 30, 2012. In the documentary, he seemed to be genuinely touched by the devastation in Namie-machi, and by the people's lives destroyed by the nuclear accident.

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(OT) Effect of Radiation on Living Organisms from Nuclear Accidents in Fukushima and Chernobyl

Birds, butterflies, King Kong, Godzilla...

I happened to pick up a tweet that had a link to the presentation Professor Timothy Mousseau of University of South Carolina, discussing the effect of radiation on living organisms in the contaminated areas in Fukushima and in Chernobyl.

In February last year, Professor Mousseau announced the result of his initial research on birds in Fukushima Prefecture, and it was "an immediate negative consequence of radiation for birds".

From Professor Timothy Mousseau's presentation on March 11, 2013 the 1st day of the Fukushima Symposium by Helen Caldicott Foundation (where former PM Naoto Kan made a video appearance):

A humorous page with our favorite radiation mutant monsters:

"Note lack of decomposition" - Are we supposed to infer that irradiated trees don't decompose? Or is it just a matter of no water or moisture to expedite decomposition?

Number of birds plotted against the air dose rates, for both Fukushima and Chernobyl.

So, do birds avoid high radiation areas? Were there birds in those high radiation areas before the nuclear accident?

Or are we supposed to conclude that birds died off or failed to reproduce in the high radiation areas?

(Oh wait, is King Kong big because of irradiation?)

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Power Back On, Cooling of Reactor 1 SFP Resumed

(UPDATE-2) Common Spent Fuel Pool cooling is scheduled to resume at 8AM on March 20.

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(UPDATE) Jiji Tsushin reports that TEPCO hopes to resume cooling of the SFPs of Reactor 3 and Reactor 4 at about 8PM (Japan Time). (It's about 3:45PM in Japan now.)

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Information from NHK Kabun (Science and Literature) tweet, about 20 minutes ago:

１９日午後２時２０分頃、福島第一原発の電源復旧。１号機燃料プールの冷却再開

At about 2:20PM on March 19, power was back on at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Cooling of Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool resumed.

No information about other Spent Fuel Pools or other facilities. No details as to what caused the power failure to begin with.

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Chief Cabinet Minister's Word on #Fukushima I Nuke Plant's Power Outage: "There Is No Worry, In a Way"

Totally incomprehensible remark from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga during the morning press conference on March 19, 2013.

As Jiji Tsushin reports (3/19/2013):

菅義偉官房長官は１９日午前の記者会見で、同原発の停電について「冷却のための代替手段に万全の対応をする予定なので、ある意味で全く心配ない」と述べた。

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said during the press conference in the morning of March 19 about the power outage at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, "Since we are going to thoroughly prepare for the alternative methods of cooling, there is absolutely no worry, in a way."

Here I thought the redundant methods of cooling, not to mention the redundant power supplies, had long been installed at the plant. Maybe Mr. Suga meant the alternative methods of cooling by the new LDP administration under Mr. Abe.

What he means by "in a way" is totally lost on me.

Power is not back on yet, and the TEPCO spokesman says they haven't identified the location of the problem though they are narrowing down. The temperature of Reactor 4's SFP is 30 degrees Celsius, up 5 degrees since the power outage. The spokesman seems to be regurgitating what he was told to say without understanding any of it, and it is evident by the way he tries to answer questions from the reporters.

Needless to say, Chief Cabinet Secretary doesn't seem to have a clue of what he's saying, either.

And as usual, there are people on Twitter spreading wild information like "They've been doing the vent! It's dangerous!" and people retweeting anxiously.

I guess nobody has a clue.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Cannot Cool Spent Fuel Pools, Cause Unknown

(UPDATE-4) As of 2:20PM on March 19, 2013, cooling of Reactor 1's Spent Fuel Pool resumed. No information about other SFPs and facilities affected by the power outage.

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(UPDATE-3) The temperature of Reactor 4's SFP is 30 degrees Celsius, up 5 degrees since the power outage.

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(UPDATE-2) More than 15 hours after the power outage (Japan Time 10:30AM on March 19), there is still no power. TEPCO is having a press conference right now. The new spokesman who croaks is not very good at explaining things in a straight-forward way. (My guess is that he doesn't know well what he is talking about, unlike his predecessor Matsumoto.)

In June 2012, cooling of the Reactor 4 SFP stopped for about 30 hours when the pump of the secondary cooling system burned out.

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(UPDATE) Jiji Tsushin says the water temperature of Reactor 4's Spent Fuel Pool (the "hottest") is about 25 degrees Celsius. The safety standard for the SFP temperature is 65 degrees Celsius, and it is estimated it will take about 4 days without power to reach that temperature. In the Reactor 4 SFP, both used and new fuel assemblies are under 7 meters (23 feet) of water. Fuel assemblies are 4-meter (13 feet) long. According to the plant operator (announcement from May 2012, in Japanese only), it takes about 3 weeks for the water 5 meter deep (i.e. still leaving 2 meters of water above the fuel assemblies) to evaporate.

The common pool has old fuel assemblies whose decay heat is already very low.

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It took three hours for TEPCO to announce the power outage at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. (Same old, same old...)

From Kyodo News (3/19/2013):

福島第１原発で停電　使用済み燃料プール冷却が停止

Power outage at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, cooling of spent fuel pools stopped

東京電力は１８日、福島第１原発で午後７時前に停電があったと発表した。１、３、４号機の使用済み燃料プール代替冷却システムなどが停止し、１９日午前０時２５分時点で復旧のめどは立っていない。事故対応に当たっている免震重要棟も一時的に停電したが、すぐに復旧した。

TEPCO announced on March 18 that there was a power outage at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant slightly before 7PM. Cooling systems for the spent fuel pools in Reactors 1, 3, 4 has stopped, and as of 12:25AM on March 19 there is no knowing when the systems will be back. Power went out also in Anti-Seismic Building temporarily but it came back on quickly.

原子力規制庁によると、１～３号機の原子炉への注水に問題は生じていない。燃料６３７７体を保管する共用プールの冷却も停止した。

According to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, there is no problem in injecting water into the reactors. Cooling of the common spent fuel pool, which contains 6,377 fuel assemblies, has also stopped.

東電は「配電盤か、接続されたケーブルが原因の可能性がある」としているが、規制庁、東電とも原因を特定できていない。東電が停電を公表したのは、発生約３時間後の午後１０時すぎだった。

According to TEPCO, the problem could be either the switchboard or the cables connected to the switchboard. Both the Nuclear Regulatory Agency and TEPCO have been unable to identify the cause. TEPCO announced the power outage after 10PM, three hours after it had taken place.

The plant receives its electricity from Tohoku Electric Power Company. There is no problem receiving this external power.

(H/T reader Beppe)

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"3.11.: Surviving Japan" Movie by Christopher Noland in Select Cities in the US from March 11, 2013

If I remember right, Chris Noland was right there in Japan when the March 11, 2011 triple disaster struck.

From the press release that Mr. Noland emailed me:

Seattle − February 12, 2013 – The lingering effects of the March 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disasters are captured on film by Christopher Noland, a young American living and working in Tokyo during the catastrophic events. The only film of its kind takes an in-depth, critical look into how the Japanese government, and the Tokyo Electric Power Company© (TEPCO), managed the nuclear crisis and tsunami relief efforts, plus explore the future of nuclear power.

The documentary will be shown in limited release−to coincide with the second anniversary of the March 2011 disaster−in 11 cities across the U.S. during the weeks of March 11th and 18th respectively, including: New York, Los Angeles, Laguna Niguel, Calif., San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Honolulu, and Portland. For theater information, please visit http://www.tugg.com/titles/311-surviving-japan (or http://www.311SurvivingJapan.Com)

“I spent six months volunteering in northeast Japan after the Fukushima disaster, and subsequently interviewed individuals from all walks of life, including TEPCO employees,” stated Christopher Noland, Director, “3.11: Surviving Japan.” While documenting the cleanup efforts, I quickly uncovered the Japanese government’s inadequate responses, and how officials misled the Japanese people regarding life-threatening radiation levels, emergency food and water supplies. “

“The film offers unique insights into a post-disaster present-day situation where millions of people are left to fend for themselves, and are blatantly told that a nuclear fall-out environment is safe.”. -Christopher Noland, Director, “3.11: Surviving Japan”.

For those of you in the States who wants to go, the tickets are available online only. Visit the site 3.11.: Surviving Japan for details.

Preview of the movie:

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