Open Intelligence / Energy

Travel’s Nancy Trejos sat down recently with Shigeki Takizaki, the minister for public affairs for the Embassy of Japan, to find out what tourists need to know about returning to Japan. Excerpts:

Please update us on recovery efforts and how they are affecting tourism.

How has the disaster affected tourism? Visitors have been declining dramatically. It is very serious now, and the Japanese government is committed to a kind of campaign in which we’re insisting that Japan is open for business and travel. In autumn, the season in Japan is the best. Most of Japan is quite safe, and even surrounding areas, except for 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) around nuclear facilities, are now safe. We’d like as many foreigners as possible to go to Tohoku (the region where Fukushima is located). It has a lot of nice scenery and hot springs and people are very kind.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission may force the nation’s nuclear power plants to reevaluate their earthquake detection and safety systems and the manner in which they calculate their resistance to earthquakes as a result of unexpected damage to American and foreign reactor complexes caused by recent earthquakes.

The decision to send a formal Augmented Inspection Team followed the notification by Dominion Power, which owns and operates the North Anna plants that the ground motion of the Virginia earthquake, measured at 5.8 in magnitude, “may have exceeded the ground motion for which it was designed.”

All of the nation’s nuclear power plants, which were designed in the 1950s and 1960s, were supposed to be able to handle the acceleration of the ground motion and shaking associated with the largest historically recorded earthquake within a 50 mile radius of the site. For North Anna, a ground motion of .12 of normal gravity is the “design basis” incorporated into the plant’s license. That was based on an earthquake of a magnitude 4.8, and the plant was designed to withstand the gravitational tug resulting from an earthquake of 5.1 in magnitude.

"Fukushima has created public awareness on a section of nuclear workers castigated as ‘radiation- exposed people’ but forming the dark underbelly of an industry that depends on them," says Minoru Nasu, spokesperson for the Japan Day Labourers Union.

Nasu, a long-time labour activist, says that while nuclear industry relies heavily on unskilled workers it has left it to thuggish subcontractors to marshal them as daily wagers.

described as "human auctioning," Nasu told IPS. Labourers gather at the crack of dawn at designated places such as public parks to be picked up by toughs who take them to the nuclear plants.

And there is some evidence that the dangers of nuclear power have been underestimated in the past. An Associated Press analysis of a preliminary government report on nuclear reactor safety found that the risk of an earthquake causing a severe accident at a U.S. nuclear plant is as much as 24 times greater than previously thought, suggesting an urgent need for upgrades.

But for some opponents of nuclear power, no amount of planning or patching is enough. The risks to the environment and human health, they say, far outweigh whatever benefits nuclear power might have to offer -- even if those benefits include reducing the nation's reliance on fossil fuels.

Among those critics is the actor Alec Baldwin, whose thoughts on the subject carry added weight with his admitted interest in entering politics. Earlier this month, he told The New York Times that while a run is not imminent, he has his eye on the mayor's office.

The Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability has an answer, and it's anything but business as usual. By deploying a mix of renewables and energy efficiency technology, they argue, Japan's need for electricity could be met three years sooner than through nuclear and conventional fossil fuel power.

All told, Japan's earthquake and tsunami have knocked out at least 15,000 megawatts of electricity generating capacity -- that's greater than the total summer peak demand for all of New York City

Rebuilding with renewables would restore the country’s capacity more cleanly. The initial cost would be higher but spread across the lifetime of the initiatives, it would only amount to an additional 10 percent more per year. The study authors argue this would be more than justified by the positive economic impact of meeting Japan's power needs years before conventional plants could be brought on-line.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA)’s daily press conference is ongoing (August 29). The NISA spokesman Moriyama mentions neptunium-239′s conversion ratio to plutonium-239 as 1 to 1. According to the June 6 estimate by the NISA: Plutonium-239: 3.2×10^9 Neptunium-239: 7.6×10^13 So, now it is: Plutonium-239: 7.6 x 10^13, or 76,000,000,000,000 or 76 terabecquerelsThe amount of plutonium-239 has increased 23,000-fold.

Nearly 50,000 tons of sludge at water treatment facilities has been found to contain radioactive cesium as the result of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Over 1,500 tons is so contaminated that it cannot be buried for disposal. Water treatment facilities in eastern and northeastern Japan have been discovering sludge containing cesium. The health ministry says there is 49,250 tons of such sludge in 14 prefectures in eastern and northeastern Japan.

At North Anna nuclear plant, reassurances but no final data on quake impact, Washington Post by Brian Vastag, September 2, 2011:

[...] Yet nearly two weeks after the quake, Dominion officials were unable to say whether the quake shook the facility more than it was designed to handle. “I don’t have those numbers,” Daniel Stoddard, Dominion’s senior vice president for nuclear operations, said repeatedly. It will be another week before final analysis of the “shake plates,” which recorded ground motion at the site, is finished, he said, although a Dominion spokesman had promised that analysis by Friday. In the control room, a 1970s-era seismic detector failed to record data for a critical eight seconds when primary power went down, slowing the company’s analysis. The company has added a battery backup to the unit to prevent a recurrence. [...]

Detection of radioactive materials in the soil in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, TEPCO Press Release, September 3, 2011:

As a result of plutonium and strontium analysis in the soil from the samples at the 3 periodic sampling spots collected on August 15, plutonium 238, 239, and 240 and strontium 89 and 90 were detected as shown in the attachment 1 and 2. [...] Today, we informed the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the government of Fukushima Prefecture of the results.

As part of monitoring activity of the surrounding environment, we conducted an analysis of plutonium contained in the soil collected on March 21 and 22 at the 5 spots in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. As a result, plutonium 238, 239 and 240 were detected. (Previously announced) As a result of plutonium analysis in the soil from the samples at the 3 periodic sampling spots collected on May 26, plutonium 238 was detected as shown in the attachment 1. In addition, as a result of nuclide analysis of the gamma ray contained in the soil, radioactive materials were detected as shown in the attachment 2.

Since plutonium and uranium were detected from the samples at the 3 periodic sampling spots collected on April 11 and 25, we conducted americium and curium analyses. As a result, americium 241, curium 242, 243, and 244 were detected as shown in the attachment 3. Today, we informed the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the government of Fukushima Prefecture of the results. We will continue conducting the similar analysis.

Attachment1: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: Plutonium analysis result in the soil(PDF 9.34KB) Attachment2: Result of gamma ray nuclide analysis of soil(PDF 10.9KB) Attachment3: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: Americium and curium analyses result in the soil(PDF 12.2KB)

Curium: As compared to a competing thermoelectric generator isotope such as 238Pu [Plutonium-238], 244Cm [Curium-244] emits a 500 time greater fluence of neutrons, and its higher gamma emission requires a shield that is 20 times thicker — about 2 inches of lead for a 1 kW source, as compared to 0.1 in for 238Pu

First out of the first nuclear power plant site in the town trace curium Hukushima Ookuma, Kyodo, June 13, 2011

Google Translation

Alec Baldwin Knocks Nuclear Power, Calls Reactors ‘Filthy’, September 2, 2011:

Transcript Summary Even without catastrophes, nuclear reactors are filthy, contaminating processes Big lie is that nuclear is clean power Only in America are solar, wind power not consistent 30 sq mile solar array in southwest would power 1/4 of country

‘Filthy, contaminating processes’: Yucca Mountain — Unanswered Questions. The Bryan Times by Richard Shamp, July 11, 2002:

"It's not food any more, it's simply radioactive materials", as the young man at the Citizen's Radioactivity Measuring Station in Fukushima City said of the radioactive mushroom in Germany's ZDF program aired on August 9. Wild mushroom harvested in a town in Fukushima tested highest ever radioactive cesium so far in food after the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident that I'm aware of: 28,000 becquerels per kilogram.

According to the data from Fukushima Prefecture, 13,000 becquerels/kg of cesium-134, and 15,000 becquerels/kg of cesium-137 were detected from the mushroom. The town, Tanakura-machi, is located at about 73 kilometers southwest of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. From Yomiuri Shinbun (9/3/2011):

Fukushima Prefecture announced on September 3 that 28,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from wild mushroom, Lactarius volemus, harvested in the mountains in Tanakura-machi. The level of radioactive cesium vastly exceeds the national provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg.

ALARMIST predictions that the long-term health effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident will be worse than those following Chernobyl in 1986 are likely to aggravate harmful psychological effects of the incident. That was the warning heard at a conference on radiation research in Warsaw, Poland, this week. "We've got to stop these sorts of reports coming out, because they are really upsetting the Japanese population," says Gerry Thomas at Imperial College London, who is attending the meeting

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency report that the release of radioactivity from Fukushima is about 10 per cent that of Chernobyl.

[...] Dominion expects to build the new plant [a third reactor at North Anna]. On Friday, bulldozers moved dirt in early preparations for the reactor’s containment building, designed to be sturdier than the existing structures. Company official Page Kemp said Dominion could receive a license for the reactor in 2013 or 2014.

June Allen’s foresight on North Anna, Washington Post by Peter Galuszka, September 2, 2011:

[...] Now, according to an Associated Press investigation, the earthquake dangers faced at North Anna are seen as 38 percent more likely to cause damage to the cores of the two nuclear reactors at the plant than thought 20 years ago. [..] In 1967, when North Anna was on the drawing board, an environmental consulting firm found evidence of fault lines near the planned nuclear site, according to a report prepared in 2005 by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. In 1970, a construction excavation wall collapsed and inspecting geologists reported finding a major fault line. Vepco did not report the fault to federal regulators for three years. Vepco got its license to proceed with the plant. [June Allen, who headed the North Anna Environmental Coalition and who died in 2010] and other grass-roots activists smelled something rotten. In 1973, they formed their coalition and sued, claiming Vepco was lying about the fault lines. In 1975, the NRC accused Vepco of deleting files listing the fault lines in its reactor applications. The following year, Vepco was fined $32,000 for making materially false statements in its North Anna application. [...]

Plugging reactors no longer stated goal for Tepco, Japan Times, July 20, 2011: [...] A cold shutdown is usually defined as bringing the temperature of the reactor-core coolants to below 100 degrees. But this has been redefined as bringing the temperature at the bottom of the pressure vessels to below 100 degrees and reducing the release of radioactive materials from the reactors [...]

Contamination Outside Fukushima, Asia Pacific Journal by Matthew Penney, September 4, 2011:

The Japanese government has taken the position that no one outside of the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi plant is likely to suffer health effects from the radiation that has been released since March. Many Japanese, especially parents of young children, are doubtful.

[The August 22 issue of AERA magazine, published by Asahi Shimbun, ran a feature on contamination in the Kanto region which] begins by reiterating a point that has been made frequently by critics of the Japanese government – that we simply do not know what effects low levels of radiation and the presence of isotopes in the human body will have on long-term health.

On September 1st, CNN correspondent Brian Todd interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps after the revelation by Dominion Nuclear -- 8 days after the 5.8 magnitude quake that was epicentered just miles from its North Anna nuclear power plant -- that vertical dry casks had shifted up to 4 inches, and horizontal dry casks had suffered surface damage. As documented in CNN's transcript, Kevin said: "[We are] Very concerned because this material is ultra-hazardous inside. This is high-level radioactive waste. If you lose radiation shielding, you can deliver a fatal dose in a few minutes' time to a person at close range." Unfortunately, James Acton, Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, largely downplayed the risks of dry cask storage (however, the same group also invited the CEO of Areva Nuclear to keynote its nuclear weapons non-proliferation conference a few years ago, despite France's willingness to sell atomic technology even to the likes of Khaddafi in Libya). Beyond Nuclear, and nearly 200 additional environmental groups, has called for hardened on-site storage as a needed safety and security upgrade on risky pool and dry cask storage, vulnerable to accidents from natural disasters or operator errors, or even terrorist attacks.