Notes

According to a May 2, 2011 AERA article, the Defense Ministry at first denied Shimizu had even boarded an SDF aircraft, though it later admitted to giving the green light for Shimizu to be transported to Tokyo, though without Kitazawa’s knowledge.
The Special Law for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness defines specific events at nuclear facilities. At the occurrence of such an event, the facility operator must immediately notify the competent minister and the heads of related local governments. When the competent minister recognizes that the specific initial event is commensurate with an emergency (an “Article 15” emergency), the minister immediately reports to the prime minister, who declares a nuclear emergency and establishes the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters in Tokyo, which he/she will head. The prime minister will also instigate the Local Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters at a predetermined “off-site center” near the plant.
Japanese family names and many first names are written using Chinese characters, or “kanji,” which were adopted as the first writing system in Japan and remain at the heart of the modern reading and writing system used today. The character for Kan’s name is 菅 while the “kan” in “kan-koku” (Korea) is 韓.
Article 28 of the law states that “Should a special need be recognized when pursuing emergency disaster response measures in the event of an extremely unusual or devastating disaster, the Prime Minister may ... establish on an ad hoc basis and with Cabinet approval a headquarters for emergency disaster control within the Prime Minister’s Office.”
“The purpose of this Act is to strengthen nuclear disaster control measures ... by providing special measures for the obligations, etc. of nuclear operators concerning nuclear disaster prevention, the issuance of a declaration of a nuclear emergency situation and the establishment, etc. of nuclear emergency response headquarters, and the implementation of emergency response measures and other matters relating to a nuclear disaster, taking into consideration the particularity of a nuclear disaster, thereby protecting the lives, bodies and properties of citizens from a nuclear disaster.” (Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness)
“Uranium reconversion” is a process in which enriched uranium is converted into uranium oxide for fabrication into fuel assemblies used in nuclear power plants
Another of Japan’s big three daily newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun, also noted the benefits of the peaceful use of nuclear power, but not as enthusiastically as the Yomiuri, which remains staunchly pro-nuclear even today.
The article was published in the Yomiuri on New Year’s Day 1955 with the headline “Promoting the Commercialization of Japan’s Private Nuclear Power.” It was written by Shoriki himself and included a translation of a letter addressed to Shoriki from Hopkins.
While the Yomiuri became a champion of nuclear power, it also scooped the Dai-go Fukuryu-maru incident and even ran a front page feature on March 21, 1954, sub-headlined “We don’t want to be guinea pigs” showing images of the ship’s crew and their radiation burns. The article’s ultimate objective, however, was to play down the impact of the accident. The main headline read: “Toward the peaceful use of nuclear power” and the ¥235 million nuclear power development budget that had been passed through congress just three days before the accident was hidden away and given no mention.
Two weeks later Yates repeated his proposal for Japan to build a nuclear plant, but this time he avoided specifying Hiroshima as a preferred location. Again it was given front-page coverage in the Yomiuri, while a small article about another death in Hiroshima from radiation sickness was hidden away near the bottom of page 8.
Moritaki soon grew skeptical about nuclear power, having become aware of radiation sufferers in the industry worldwide, including uranium miners in the United States. He was also wary of the potential for terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities.
The nation’s first research reactor achieved criticality in 1957, also in Tokai-mura.
Japan’s US30 billion Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Processing Facility in the far north of the country, built for high level nuclear waste monitoring and fuel manufacturing and reprocessing, construction of which was started in 1993, has yet to go into full operation.
There are four types of nuclear radiation: alpha, beta, gamma and neutron radiation. While alpha radiation can be easily stopped, even by a piece of paper or a layer of skin, beta radiation can be stopped by, for example, a thin sheet of aluminum. Gamma penetrates all of these and can only be halted by thick slabs of concrete or lead. Alpha radiation thus cannot penetrate skin, but is highly dangerous if inhaled or digested. Beta particles, however, can pass through unprotected skin, and sources include strontium-90, a “bone-seeker” that can cause bone and tissue cancer as well as leukemia, and iodine-131 and cesium-137 – both of which can be deadly if unchecked. Clothing provides little protection against gamma rays, which can pass through the entire body and cause multiple organ damage. Radiation is also used in smoke detectors (alpha) and in the treatment of cancer and sterilizing medical equipment (gamma). Due to the high kinetic energy of neutrons, neutron radiation is considered to be the most severe and dangerous radiation to the whole body when it is exposed to external radiation sources. Neutrons readily pass through most material, but interact enough to cause biological damage.
Experts argue that the cozy relationship between regulator and nuclear operator and other special interest groups, a form of government failure often referred to as “regulatory capture,” is not limited to Japan. Former US NRC chair Allison Macfarlane has said that a similar system existed in the US Atomic Energy Commission, which was abolished in 1975, was well known for its unhealthy role in both regulating and promoting nuclear power.
In Feb. 2016. a TEPCO spokesperson, Yukako Handa, told The Japan Times that if directions in the company’s disaster management manual had been complied with, meltdown would have been declared.http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/02/24/national/tepco-admits-initial-assessments-fukushima-meltdowns-wrong/#.WCv_Rndh2CR
The RCIC system is able to maintain its own mechanical power, operating on high-pressure steam from the reactor itself, and thus only needs DC battery power to operate the control valves. Those turn the RCIC on and off as necessary to maintain correct water levels in the reactor. If run continuously, the RCIC would overfill the reactor and send water down its own steam supply line. During an SBO emergency situation the RCIC system may be “black started” with no AC and manually activated. The RCIC system condenses its steam into the reactor suppression pool. It can make up any water loss from either one of two sources: a makeup water tank (condensate storage tank) located outside the containment, or the suppression chamber, a large water storage pit located in the lower part of the containment vessel.
Operation Tomodachi was a US Department of Defense initiative undertaken jointly with Japanese authorities. It started on March 12 and lasted until May 4 and involved around 24,000 US service members, 189 aircraft and 24 naval ships, and cost almost $90 million. The relief efforts focused on the transport of emergency supplies and deployment of Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel and equipment, and the search of disaster zones for stranded victims. US forces helped rescue about 20,000 people in the first week after the quake, and worked to restore transportation facilities such as Sendai Airport.
Since the Fukushima nuclear accident the four reactors at the Hamaoka plant have been shut down, and another civil suit, supported by a local mayor, seeks to have the plant permanently decommissioned. Asked about his feelings toward Ishibashi Madarame commented: “Because of the accident there’s a need to take another look at things, including the earthquake engineering guidelines ... Ishibashi contributed a lot to the revisions to the earthquake guidelines and his comments there are important.”
The film outlined the positive benefits of atomic energy and was also shown in Japan, where it was aired on Matsutaro Shoriki’s Nippon TV channel.
These workers are often called “gamma sponges,” “dose fodder” and “jumper” – the latter due to their willingness to jump in and out of high-dose environments.
Three of the GE designers of the Mark-I, known as the “GE Three,” resigned due to flaws in the reactor that had not been corrected despite their warnings. One of them, Gregory Minor, died of leukemia.
Shin Morie in his essay “What’s the worker situation inside the nuclear power plants?” reports that the worker in question had fallen from the top of a 26-foot-high tank in Reactor 3 and had suffered serious head and leg injuries. He was wearing no helmet or harness. Despite the severity of his injuries, officials reportedly detained the unnamed worker and transported him elsewhere for full body radiation monitoring and by the time they had transported him to a hospital he was dead. Morie says that in TEPCO’s official statement regarding the incident, the utility claimed the worker had been sent to hospital without delay.
“Steam dryers in Boiling Water Reactors, located in the upper steam dome of the reactor pressure vessel, are not pressure retaining components and are not designed and constructed to the provisions of Section III of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. As such, these components do not correspond to any specific safety class referenced in the Code. Although the steam dryers in BWRs perform no safety function, they must maintain the structural integrity in order to avoid the generation of loose parts that may adversely impact the capability of other plant equipment to perform their safety functions.” From “BWR Steam Dryer Issues and Lessons Learned Related to Flow Induced Vibration” by Chakrapani Basavaraju et al, presented at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference in Paris, July 2013
On January 6, 2001 MITI was incorporated into a new ministry known as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
Responding to a 2004 story in the Independent titled “Only nuclear power can now halt global warming”, Meredith Austin, a former systems analyst for General Electric Nuclear Energy Division in San Jose, wrote: “During the period of time I worked in the industry, we came dangerously close to being forced to call for the complete evacuation of a three-state area in the USA, because of a chemical and electrical fire at a nuclear power complex. I personally witnessed abundant cheating, and deceptive practices. I personally witnessed the use of threats and intimidation, to keep whistleblowers in line. I personally witnessed the use of character assassination ploys against employees who had been unable to keep their personal testimony in line with business needs.”
Part of the letter read: “One very relevant discovery was made during this inspection which General Electric deliberately failed to note in the attached inspection document as well as notify the customer TEPCO. The steam dryer was found stored 180 degrees from its proper position. ... We submitted visually recorded tapes to the TEPCO for MITI ... with visual cracking intentionally omitted as directed by GE management per TEPCO request... The above dryer was rotated in error... ”
Sato is no relation to his Nobel Peace Prize-winning namesake who was Japanese prime minister of samurai descent from 1964 to 1972 and was responsible for introducing the three non-nuclear principles (non-production, non-possession and non-introduction of nuclear weapons)) in Japan, though it was later suggested he was sympathetic toward US plans to store nuclear weapons in Japan.
In his memoir, Politics and life, Nakasone recalls having witnessed, from afar as a member of the Imperial Navy, the detonation over Hiroshima and wrote how he could “still remember the image of the white cloud” of the Hiroshima bombing and how that memory had “motivated me to think and act toward advancing the peaceful use of nuclear power.”
Shoriki’s friend, Nakasone, would succeed him five years later, and in his memoirs, Nakasone says he was assistant to Shoriki before taking over the science ministry post where he “wrote all the nuclear energy legislation.”
The opening was too small to remove Kanno’s body, so the receptacle had to be dug up and cracked open. Police also had located his car, which was parked some distance away with the keys still in the ignition. Within a month, of the incident, a petition demanding clarity in the case had been signed by 4,300 people – more than the population of the village in which Kanno lived – had been delivered to the police. The case remains unsolved.
In the year following the original March 11 disaster, there were 8,112 aftershocks recorded, 666 of which were of magnitude 5 or greater, according to the Meteorological Agency.
Put into context, the electricity required to power the cooling pump systems for the reactors at 1F are estimated to be equivalent to the electricity demand for as many as 864,000 US homes.
In a boiling water reactor, the steam that is produced to drive the electricity-generating turbines is returned to its precipitous state via condensers, which are cooled by water from the natural water source – in Fukushima Daiichi’s case, the sea – via a system of pumps. The water produced from the condensed steam is recycled in the generation process, but the water used for cooling is returned back to the original source, though now considerably warmer.
The temperature increase can be as much as 30 degrees F, which experts say can have a serious adverse impact on aquatic life. At no stage does this seawater enter the reactor containment system for power generation purposes, for the simple reason that that the generation process does not rely on such huge quantities of replenishable water. However, if it were to be used, over time the saline content would corrode the reactor’s metal components, making them unusable.
In late 2013, TEPCO admitted that it was extremely unlikely that the water injected by the fire trucks had actually reached the reactor cores and had in fact flowed through pipes that led to other parts of the building.
Re-criticality is the resumption of the heat-producing chain reaction referred to as fission. Inside a reactor that has shutdown, this could happen in the absence of mechanisms that should be in place to prevent fission, for example coolants.
According to the book No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power, the crew used 75 lbs of boric acid-treated rice balls. Later they used socks filled with polyethylene, it states.
Growing public cynicism of official comments was most poignantly portrayed in an Asahi Shimbun survey showing 94 percent of Fukushima residents did not believe then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s December 2012 claim that the nuclear crisis had been contained.
This is not a situation that is unique to Japan. According to a study by Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, as of 2011, some 75% of the 65,000 tons of spent fuel generated in the U.S. is stored in pools at reactor sites, including inside BWR buildings. This amounts to 30 million spent fuel rods each giving off “about 1 million rems (10,000 Sv) of radiation per hour at a distance of one foot — enough radiation to kill people in a matter of seconds.” Nuclear fuel pool structures in the U.S., meanwhile, are “ordinary industrial structures” some of which “are made from matericommonly used to house big-box stores and car dealerships.” Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the U.S. Reducing the Deadly Risk of Storage. Robert Alvarez. Institute for Policy Studies, p.1
In his book Site Fights, Daniel Aldrich says: “By placing atomic reactors in rural, depopulating, often poverty-stricken areas ... decision makers hoped to avoid controversy and strife.”
Saburo Shiroyama’s 1960 novel Ougon-kai (Gold Gorge), which is based on the Tagokura incident, includes characters who are opportunists aware of the potentially huge compensation payouts and who push up the village’s population. However, a Yomiuri Shimbun article at the time said that the villagers harbored wartime military deserters, though historian Iizuka says advanced farming practices, the building of a school-cum-civic hall and other improvements were the main reasons for the population growth.
The Tagokura incident contributed to a new 1961 Act on Special Measures for public land acquisition.
Between 1947 and 1954 the village grew by five additional households and 66 residents. See note [41] above.
In 2014 the lake was included on UNESCO’s “Eco-park” list along with the rest of the Tadami area.
The report was penned by panel chairman Takashi Mukaibo, a nuclear engineer who spent his entire career promoting nuclear energy and also served as Japan’s first science attaché at the Japanese Embassy in Washington in 1954, a key year in the Japan-US nuclear power alliance.
Me de miru Tokyo Denryoko Genshiryoku hatsudensho.http://www.kagakueizo.org/movie/industrial/4275/
Japan signed the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency on October 26, 1956.
As of mid-2016 this situation continues.
The HPCI is designed to inject large quantities of steam-generated water into the reactor via a turbine pump at pressures as high as 700 kPa. It is activated when either the reactor water level is too low or pressure in the containment vessel climbs too high. If pressure decreases while in operation, the HPCI is set to automatically switch off. It has a coolant flow that is 680 to 1270 cubic meters per hour – up to seven times bigger than the RCIC.
Subsequently TEPCO officials looked to another novel method to check the water situation – Google Earth. However the images on the site were from before the explosion of reactor 1 and what they thought was steam rising from the plant was in fact a cloud.
J-Village is an extensive soccer training facility that was purpose-built for the Japan national football team. Built largely with TEPCO funds, but also sponsored by the local government and Japan Football Association, the utility used the facility as a base for plant workers in the aftermath of the nuclear accident. At the peak of the accident, more than 1,000 workers passed through the facility each day to be monitored for radiation and dispose of contaminated clothing, among other things. From the 15th it also became a base for SDF forces, helicopters and a decontamination center.
Plutonium in a MOX-fueled reactor reduces the safety margins for shutting down a reactor, and in the event of an accident increases the radiological impact on the human population. Spent MOX fuel requires 150 years of cooling prior to disposal, thus the spent fuel temperature in a pool with MOX fuel is even more at risk in the event of a loss of cooling incident.
One worker in his 30s received 678 mSv, while another one in his forties received 643 mSv. They told the health and labor ministry that they didn’t remember whether they wore protective masks or not when a hydrogen explosion occurred at reactor No. 1 on 12 March. At the time of the accident, the annual permissible dose for emergency situations was 100 mSv, but this was raised to 250 mSv by the government just after.
Documents suggest that TEPCO knew about the hydrogen buildup inside reactor 3 well before the March 14 explosion. At a news conference in May 2011, NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama lamented “TEPCO’s failure to report the facts to NISA,” which prevented the body from notifying the public.
Nitrogen is used in some BWR reactors to deal with hydrogen accumulation caused, for example, when the zircaloy alloy used to house the uranium pellets melts and reacts with oxygen in the pressure vessel’s water. Nitrogen is known to limit oxygen concentration to a level where combustion is impossible.
China Syndrome is the title of the 1979 American thriller movie. Starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas, it tells a fictional story of an accident at a nuclear plant outside Los Angeles. The expression came to be used to refer to a hypothetical nuclear accident.
Two-thirds of the 150 hours recorded over TEPCO’s emergency videoconferencing system was without audio. The entire data package, which is not complete, mostly shows tiny, blurred-out faces of unidentifiable officials sitting around conference tables and many parts of the audio track, especially where names are mentioned, are redacted.
Believing a ruptured reactor 2 containment vessel would expose the 720 staff workers who remained at 1F, Yoshida later told a government committee that he had told them to “Take shelter, get automobiles.” “Somebody who relayed my message,” he continued “told the drivers to go to the Fukushima No. 2 plant. I thought I was saying, “Take temporary shelter somewhere near the Fukushima No. 1 plant, where radiation levels are low despite its location on the plant site, and wait for the next instruction.”
The “Independent Investigation Commission on the Fukushima Nuclear Accident” was set up by a private think-tank called Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation. This commission was unique compared to others set up in the aftermath of the disasters in that it sought opinion from the public and experts but was shunned by both TEPCO’s president Shimizu and plant chief Yoshida. It was, however, the first time Prime Minister Naoto Kan agreed to being questioned by such a committee.
One Fukushima worker said all those employed onsite were forced to sign a gagging order that prohibits any discussion of work with outsiders, and requests for interviews by the media must be rejected. Some have broken rank but will only speak on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
A Kyodo News headline reading “NRC recognizes appropriateness of Japan’s 20-km evacuation order” quoted the US Ambassador to Japan as saying: “After a careful analysis of data ... our experts are in agreement with the response and measures taken by Japanese technicians, including their recommended 20 km radius for evacuation ...”
The Diablo Canyon plant, which today is California’s only nuclear power plant following the closure of San Onofre, is located 85 feet above sea level.
Bill Borchardt also told NRC members at the time that in addition to the RASCAL data they had received some calculations that showed the 50-mile mark to have doses “beyond protective action recommendations,” meaning “you may have to evacuate beyond 50 miles.”
A “rad” is a unit measuring the dose that is absorbed by an entity when exposed to radiation. A dose exceeding 100 rad may induce radiation poisoning, degrading DNA and symptoms such as infection and bleeding, which may need bone marrow transplants to cure. Whole body doses in excess of 1,000 rad bring about neurovascular symptoms such as a diminished level of consciousness that are considered to be fatal.
There were in fact four CH-47s in total, two undertaking the water drops, one for water drop operations backup, while the fourth was for medical emergencies.
Some months later during testimony at a government investigation, Yoshida himself talked about the futility of the aerial drops, commenting that even if they had managed to get every drop of the water load onto the target, it would have been comparable to “the piss of a cicada.”
When Casto’s staff called a Japan manufacturer to try and get additional nozzles made they were told that it had recently sent out an identical type to the Tokyo Fire Department.
Later investigations suggested that the sound was probably a hydrogen explosion in reactor 4.
The ineffectiveness of decontamination efforts is highlighted in a September 2015 report by Greenpeace, in which the environment NGO states that radiation monitoring and sample analysis concludes that the “decontamination and propaganda efforts of the (Shinzo Abe-led Japanese) government – aided by the International Atomic Energy Agency – have largely failed to reduce radiation risks to the population, and serve only to provide justification for exposing citizens to levels that are clearly unsafe.” “Fukushima disaster: Ongoing nuclear crisis. The Failure of radioactive decontamination in Iitate.” http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/Iitate_Brief_Jul2015_EN.pdf
Edokko, the name given for those people born and raised in Tokyo, reportedly make up around 1.25% of the capital’s total population.
This figure is based on a rough Japanese government estimate that some 1 million Fukushima residents live in areas contaminated to cancer-inducing levels comparable to Chernobyl.
It has been estimated that the Fukushima accident emitted at least 168 times more radioactive cesium-137 than the Hiroshima bomb.
The lifespan of radionuclides is called a “half-life.” Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years, meaning half of its radioactive potency will be lost after 30 years and that new amount will be halved again after another 30 years, and so on. Iodine-131 has a half-life of 8 days.
Yamashita earned notoriety shortly after the disasters for claiming that “people who smile will not be affected by radiation, while those who fret about it will.”
Research into the subject date back to the 1970s and British scientist Alice Stewart’s pioneering studies into industrial epidemiology and the effects of low-level radiation, which she found was far higher than was being officially being acknowledged. Her research earned her accolades, and the ire of governments and the global nuclear industry. Stewart is also credited with uncovering the link between fetal X-rays and child cancer.
The Gray (Gy), or milliGray (mGy) is used in the nuclear industry as a measurement of how much radiation is absorbed in tissue after exposure.
According to government figures, Japan’s 3,088 hot spring resorts receive a total of 127 million visits each year. The average time spent in the baths is less than 10 minutes. Radon, which is produced by the decay of radium, is a WHO-listed carcinogen, and is listed as one of dozens of minerals in Japan’s hot springs. Radon onsen form one of 11 types of onsen types found worldwide, and some bath houses in Japan (and other nations) use the apparent therapeutic effects of radon as a sales point. However, according to Nagasaki radiation researcher Shunichi Yamashita, the few onsen that do contain radon contain amounts that are almost unmeasurable or close to zero.” Other surveys suggest the majority of onsen visitors are aged 50 and over.
WHO says: “The estimated increased risks over what would normally be expected are: all solid cancers - around 4% in females exposed as infants; breast cancer - around 6% in females exposed as infants; leukemia - around 7% in males exposed as infants; thyroid cancer - up to 70% in females exposed as infants (the normally expected risk of thyroid cancer in females over lifetime is 0.75% and the additional lifetime risk assessed for females exposed as infants in the most affected location is 0.50%).”
In October 2014 a California federal judge preserved the $1 billion class action against TEPCO by the plaintiffs, saying that the utility’s negligence had been shown to be the cause of the Navy personnel’s injuries. In April 2016, meanwhile, Law360 reported: “The Ninth Circuit on Monday granted a group of U.S. sailors’ request that it expedite a $1 billion lawsuit alleging Tokyo Electric Power Co. is responsible for radiation injuries the sailors say they suffered during their response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. … While TEPCO did not take a position on the motion to expedite, it did take the opportunity to counter some of the plaintiffs’ allegations, particularly that it caused them any injury.” Other recent reports claim the deaths of several claimants due to their radiation-related illnesses.
A Fukushima resident told of several attempts to claim due to loss of earnings and other accident-related hardships, but eventually gave up after the helpline official refused to talk.
Even according to an Agency for Natural Resources and Energy report titled “Energy in Japan: 2010” nuclear was still the cheapest energy source in Japan, the average price being reportedly ¥5.5 per kilowatt hour. Other energies listed in the report included solar (¥49 per kWh); oil (¥13.6); wind (¥11.5); hydro (¥10.7); oil (¥13.6); LNG (¥6.4); and coal (¥5.7).
In September 2016 the government announced it would make the public pay as much as $90 billion more toward the decommissioning of the Fukushima reactors.
Preliminary figures released by Japan’s Finance Ministry reveal in fact that the deficit is even higher – some ¥11.5 trillion ($112 billion) in 2013, on the back of a weak yen, a rise of 65 percent on 2012.
Indeed, so crucial was the need for these trucks at 2F that Masuda turned down a request to send some of them over to 1F.
Reportedly, the 95-ton pumps cost over $1.5 million each, and Japan had to spend a similar amount per pump to have them flown over via the world’s largest jet plane, the Antonov An-225.
Normally a “fast-breeder” is a kind of nuclear reactor that produces more fuel than it consumes.
Despite being known for its technologically advanced robotics, Japan had no robots that could effectively operate in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. Some experts argue this is another legacy of the nuclear safety myth and a focus on developing consumer-targeted humanoid bots for private use. Through the newly established International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID), billions of yen have been spent since on developing small, crawler bots to get inside reactors 1 and 2 – some with the help of overseas entities – though none has yet to discover the precise location of the fuel debris.
Dozens of so-called “diagnostic” robots developed by companies such as Toshiba and Mitsubishi have been deployed at the Fukushima plant to assist in the decommissioning process, some giving an insight into the state of two of the stricken reactors. As of mid-2016, however, none had definitively located the melted fuel, though in February 2017, some progress has been made in this area.
As this book goes to print, TEPCO reported Feb. 2, 2017 that cameras inserted inside reactor 2 had located a 1-sq.-meter hole where the fuel had apparently melted through steel grating directly beneath the reactor pressure vessel. The utility estimated that the radiation levels there were 530 Sv/hr – sufficient to cause death in less than a minute. The highest radiation level that had been recorded inside the ruined reactors until then was 0.73 Sv/hr. TEPCO had previously claimed that muon tomography inspections had confirmed their belief that no fuel had leaked out of the pressure vessel.
A Becquerel is a unit used to measure radioactivity, or radioactive decay.
Below that level it was found that there was a thick layer of impermeable clay that would prevent water from entering.
According to Mabuchi, neither was the government itself convinced: In the fine print of the LDP’s plan for the wall there is a caveat that should the ice wall plan fail, a clay wall would be built in its place, he says.
In March 2016, TEPCO announced it would start releasing the water into the ocean later that year. Barrett and other pro-nuclear commentators, backed up by a Canadian academic study (URL below), claim that levels of the only isotope remaining in the stored water after treatment, tritium, “are not a meaningful health risk.” However, Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace, disagrees, saying tritium is a “relatively hazardous” radionuclide, whose beta particles inside the human body are more harmful than most X-rays and gamma rays. Furthermore, organically bound tritium absorbed by marine life and humans presents “an additional risk,” Burnie says, adding “major uncertainties” in the long-term effects posed by radioactive tritium means “the planned release of billions of becquerels by TEPCO cannot be considered an action without risk to the marine environment and human health.” Burnie also claims that the ALPS treatment has not completely eliminated all of the other radionuclides, such as strontium and cesium.http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/hpcdp-pspmc/33-4/assets/pdf/
CDIC_MCC_Vol33_4_6_Wanigaratne_E.pdf
One prefectural survey estimates that 47 percent of evacuated families are living apart and almost 60 percent of those are scattered over multiple locations.
Police estimates were about one-fifth that number.
At the time of writing, the plant remained offline due to objections by Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida, who believed TEPCO first needed to do more to probe the reasons behind the Fukushima meltdowns.
According to the Sept. 2016 IAEA report, by idling its reactors after the 2011 disasters Japan’s dependence on imported energy rose from 80 percent in 2010 to 94 percent in 2013, while electricity prices increased by up to 25 percent and could surge further. IEA said it “is important for the nuclear industry to be re-established in Japan provided that safety is maintained at the highest standards possible.”http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/EnergyPoliciesofIEACountriesJapan2016.pdf
In July 2012 two reactors at the Oi nuclear power facility in Fukui were restarted, despite experts’ warnings of geological faults running beneath the plant and frequent demonstrations by thousands of residents. The reactors were switched off in September 2013, and eight months later the Fukui court made a ruling that blocked any reactor restart.
The IAEA requires that postulated initiating events (PIEs) – events that have a probability of occurring once every 10,000 years – must be taken into account when designing safety measures at nuclear plants. Geller says there is evidence to show that three major tsunami have occurred in Japan over the past 3,000 years but that safety designs at many Japanese plants do not reflect the “pretty big to ignore” risks, which he estimates at 5 percent (for a plant with a 50-year lifespan).
Tsuruga and Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture and the Hamaoka and Shika plants in Shizuoka and Ishikawa, respectively, are all located on geological faults.