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Two in Three Japanese Want Complete Eradication of Nuclear Power By 2030
By Christine McCann* – In spite of dire predictions of blackouts from power companies and some government officials, Japan has experienced no power loss this summer, even during the heaviest period of usage on August 3.
Photo: Greenpeace
Analysts say that electricity sales to households fell by 12.4% from last year, after voluntary power saving advisories were established.
Japan has begun posting select comments from the public on the government’s pending decision about how much nuclear energy the country should use by 2030: 0%, 15%, or 20-25%. Over 90,000 comments were received.
70 Percent of Japanese Say “No” Nuclear Power
Officials plan to convene with experts beginning next week to assess the opinions. However, the Noda administration has never said how much weight public opinion, which is overwhelmingly anti-nuclear, will hold.
Recent surveys show that approximately 70% of the public embraces the 0% option and believes that nuclear power should be completely eradicated by 2030. Meanwhile, in the face of so much opposition, officials are now waffling on the 2030 deadline. But no new goal date has been given.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said this week that approximately two tons of alkaline water leaked from a desalination system at the Oi power plant, as a result of a malfunction in the tank’s measuring equipment. Officials from Kansai Electric, which operates the plant, insist that the reactors are safe.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered reactors #3 and #4 restarted in July, in defiance of overwhelming public opposition to the move. Meanwhile, scientists are now conducting seismic studies of the ground immediately beneath the reactors after new revelations that active faults may lie there. If active faults are indeed discovered, they could be shut down permanently and decommissioned.
TEPCO
Revelations about how TEPCO dealt with the Fukushima nuclear crisis in the days immediately following the disaster continue to surface, as reporters broaden their examination of videotapes recording teleconferences conducted between TEPCO’s main offices and the plant’s emergency headquarters.
This week, The Daily Yomiuri reported that executives from the utility, including Managing Executive Officer Akio Komori, began to draw up plans to evacuate workers as they realized that efforts to vent steam from reactor #2 were failing, and a hydrogen explosion would likely occur.
However, just last week, Masao Yoshida, then Plant Chief at the Fukushima Daiichi facility, said he never thought about abandoning the plant as the crisis was unfolding. The tapes do not clarify whether officials planned to evacuate all workers, or just some.
TEPCO officials have long denied that they planned to evacuate all staff from the plant, but former Prime Minister Naoto Kan and other government officials said that they were.
Tokyo Government to Terminate Exclusive Contract with TEPCO
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will reportedly terminate an exclusive contract with TEPCO to sell electricity generated at dams in Tokyo to the utility. The municipal assembly currently has a contract with TEPCO that extends through 2019, but hopes to end it next year in order to increase competition within the power industry and encourage new players.
The Assembly plans to award a new contract to the highest bidder. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said he will present a proposal to the municipal assembly in September, but TEPCO said it has no plans to terminate the contract before the end date.
State of Fukushima Reactors
Residents, many who have been permanently displaced from their homes, have long protested the restarts, and the Fukushima municipal government has officially declared its opposition to restarting any reactors in the Prefecture.
Hosono made the announcement during a trip to the Chiba Institute of Technology, where a new robot prototype, “Rosemary,” was unveiled. Rosemary is stronger and more stable than a previous robot called Quince, which met a tragic demise when its cable became entangled in debris in reactor #2.
Nuclear Power Industry Corruption
A citizens’ group is protesting the ethics and impartiality of municipal officials tasked with deciding whether or not nuclear reactors should be restarted around Japan, after it conducted a survey that showed nearly 20% of 100 officials with authority to decide on the restarts had taken money from the nuclear industry.
The amount of money received—listed as “donations” or “research funds”—ranged from 30,000 yen to 42.61 million yen per person. In all, the group discovered that 140 million yen ($1.8 million) was distributed to local officials just in 2010 and 2011.
Satoshi Shinkai, who serves as head of the group’s secretariat, said, “In order to restart reactors whose operations are currently suspended, the consent of prefectural governments is vital. The councils play important roles in giving that consent. But we found that their members are not in positions to be impartial.”
An additional 100 assembly members have not yet replied to the survey; the group plans to continue to conduct research and tally results as they are received.
That amount does not include donations to victims of the disaster. The companies and organizations involved are the Federation of Electric Companies of Japan, known as Denjiren; Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.; Chubu Electric Power Company; Japan Atomic Power Company; Chugoku Electric Power Company; and Kyushu Electric Power Company.
Donations?
The so-called “donations” were made to the Aomori prefectural government, Rokkasho village government, Shizuoka prefectural government, Matsue city government, and Saga prefectural government. Each of those locations plays host to a nuclear power facility. Other local governments have been promised funding—some of which is undisclosed—so analysts expect the total amount of payments to rise.
Notably, even after the Fukushima disaster, TEPCO and Tohoku Power Company allocated 400 million yen to Rokkasho Village, which abuts the future site of TEPCO’s Higadori power plant. In the meantime, TEPCO was busy petitioning the government for 3 trillion yen ($13 billion) in public funds, which it eventually received, effectively putting it under state control.
In a special business plan presented to the government in May of this year, TEPCO promised that it would “abolish donations.” Officials from TEPCO and Tohoku insist that the money was not a donation, and rather, part of original construction costs. However, documentation and budgets from the original plans show no evidence of that.
Contamination, Including Human Exposure
Fukushima Prefecture said that it will begin testing all rice harvested in the prefecture—which is sold in 30 kg bags—this weekend in order to accommodate the early harvest. Last year, a scandal erupted when radioactive rice exceeding government limits was discovered after prefectural officials declared it safe for human consumption. The government safety standard for rice and other food has since been lowered, from 500 Bq/kg to 100 Bq/kg. Officials say that rice that exceeds legal limits will be discarded.
Decontamination and Waste Disposal
Hosono said that the government will begin geological surveys of the areas immediately, promising that the waste will be moved to permanent sites within 30 years, although the government has yet to even determine where those sites might be, much less obtain consent from local authorities.
Two sites are in Futaba, nine are in Okuma, and one is in Naraha, where residents were recently given permission to enter their homes but are still forbidden from staying overnight because radiation levels there remain too high.
Widespread Local Opposition
The government originally hoped to store waste at one central site, but retreated after an Environment Ministry study said that such a plan would require a five square kilometer area to store 28 million cubic meters of contaminated soil—enough to fill 23 Tokyo Domes—stirring widespread local opposition.
Residents of the 12 municipalities, who do not believe that the waste will be removed within 30 years and who fear deleterious effects from radiation and loss of income from locally grown and made products, are protesting the decision. Many believe that the move will prevent residents and businesses from returning, and towns will remain abandoned.
Futaba Mayor Katsutaka Idogawa questioned the safety of the decision, stating, “The central government should build up discussions by listening to the intentions of local people.” The government plans to make final decisions regarding locations of the sites by March of 2013; storage will begin in 2015.
Evacuation
The Japanese central government is surveying evacuees of Katsurao Village, in an effort to determine whether they want to establish a temporary town until they can once again return to their homes.
The village is located 30 km from the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and experts estimate that the town will be uninhabitable for the next ten years or more as a result of the nuclear crisis. The government plans to follow suit with other towns where radiation levels remain dangerously high. Analysts estimate that at least 15,000 people will remain displaced from their homes for at least a decade. (Source: NHK)
Other Nuclear News
Japan is now operating only 2 of 54 reactors, with restarts for the remainder uncertain. Germany plans to completely eradicate nuclear power, and Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland are considering following suit.
*This Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update, August 17th – August 20th, 2012, by Christine McCann, was published by Greenpeace on August 22nd . Go to Original.
Read also:
Fukushima Disaster “Could Have Been Foreseen and Prevented”
The Year After the Great East Japan Earthquake
The Sun Saves Germany from Post-nuclear Blackouts
‘Nuclear Plants Are Toxic Assets with No Warning Labels’
Media Blackout of Nonviolent Protest at Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant
Filed under: Asia, Market Lords, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples 
2012-08-23 05:26:23
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