Tokyo Haneda Airport
Tokyo Tower
(Click to enlarge.)Fukushima Shocks
Let's check what they say in the world about the Fukushima incident.
1)
Why Fukushima Isn’t Like Chernobyl
March 29, 2011
Despite media hype about the radiation dangers, the Fukushima nuclear crisis won't end like Chernobyl, Alexander Sich tells The Diplomat...
So, you’d say it was unfair to draw parallels between Fukushima and Chernobyl?
They are very, very different and it’s very unfair to draw that parallel. There are two parts to this. One is the myths that currently surround Chernobyl. The other is the sheer difference between the incidents—the causes of the accidents and the structural, engineering and physics differences...
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/03/29/why-fukushima-isn%E2%80%99t-like-chernobyl/
2)
Lesson from Fukushima
March 29, 2011
Three Miles Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima for the past 4 decades, not bad at all. That is taking into account some 400 odd NPP (nuclear power plant) we have around the world today. What if the number of NPP in operation today is 4000!? Can we cope with a nuclear accident every other year around the globe?
http://plasmania.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/lesson-from-fukushima/
3)
A Nuclear Third Way
By JULIAN HUNT and GRAHAM O'CONNOR
Published: March 24, 2011
...
• Fission
Modern power stations using fission, which harnesses energy from the radioactive decay of uranium and other fissile materials, are considerably safer than older ones such as Fukushima — constructed 30-40 years ago...
• Fusion
The principle of controlled thermonuclear fusion is to extract energy from processes similar to those occurring inside the Sun, where hydrogen atoms are fused together to form helium. This is a “clean” process with negligible long-lived radioactive waste....
• Hybrid
The long-term future of nuclear may lie with a still-little-known third option: combining nuclear fission (atoms splitting) and fusion (atoms merging) in a single “hybrid” reactor. Indeed, without publicity, governments, agencies and research institutes are already moving tentatively in this direction...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/opinion/25iht-edhunt25.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=third%20way&st=cse
4)
Fukushima Inspiring Change in China and Germany
...
Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision last month to shut down Germany's oldest nuclear reactors and temporarily scrub life extensions for the rest was widely seen as a sop to voters in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Well, Merkel's Conservative Democrats lost the state to the Green Party, and she hasn't looked back. Last week a document leaked from Germany's Economy Ministry and reported by Bloomberg revealed plans to revamp the power grid--a precondition to replacing nuclear energy with solar, wind and other renewable power sources.
...
Problem is that China's nuclear exuberance outstripped the process of training nuclear operators and inspectors. That inspired surprisingly frank criticism from National Nuclear Safety Administration director Li Ganjie two years ago -- to little apparent effect.
Confronting proposals to more than double the pace of China's nuclear construction schedule, Ganjie courageously warned an IAEA meeting in Beijing that "over-rapid expansions" could diminish reactor quality and safety. Ganjie lost that round, and China's nuclear capacity goal for 2020, already set to jump more than four-fold to 40 gigawatts, shot up to 86 GW.
Now we're hearing a different tune. Last week AP cited state media reporting that, "China is likely to scale back its ambitious plans ... under a new policy that stresses safety instead of rapid development." AP quoted deputy director of the China Electricity Council, Wei Zhaofeng, predicting that the policy change would trim growth by 10 GW.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/fukushima-inspiring-change-in-china-and-germany
5)
Fukushima's GE nuke reactor design led scientists to quit in 1975
The nuclear reactor design at Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi plant has been deemed controversial for more than 35 years.
March 16, 2011 - New York
...
"The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant," Bridenbaugh told ABC News in an interview.
He added: "The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release."
...
In 1986, for instance, Harold Denton, then the director of NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, spoke critically about the design during an industry conference.
http://www.andhranews.net/Intl/2011/Fukushimas-GE-nuke-reactor-design-led-4457.htm
6)
TEPCO finally released pictures of tsunami invading the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, though of Daini (NO.2).
(Click to enlarge.)http://sankei.jp.msn.com/economy/photos/110409/biz11040919130010-p10.htm
7)
The Global Reach of the Fukushima Disaster
Randy Hildebrand – Wed Mar 30, 6:15 pm ET
They claim that the levels of radiation that have drifted to Iceland are "0.0001% to 0.00001% that of the radiation that reached Iceland after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster." They also say that the radiation Iceland received from Chernobyl was well within limits safe for humans.
...
Thomas Varela reports that radiation from Fukushima may reach France on Wednesday, March 30. The radiation levels expected are supposed to be comparable to those in Iceland, or less than 0.0005 Sieverts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110330/hl_ac/8169953_the_global_reach_of_the_fukushima_disaster
8)
Inside the Danger Zone
Japanese authorities are telling people to stay away. Not everybody is listening. NEWSWEEK heads toward Fukushima.
Donald Weber / VII for Newsweek
Silence hangs over the town of Minamisoma, 32 kilometers north of the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Here in the so-called buffer zone on Japan’s northeastern coast, three weeks after the quake, the government’s warning for residents to stay indoors still stands. Most of the locals can’t avoid leaving their homes occasionally to pick up food packets at government-run distribution centers, to search the handful of open shops for other supplies, and to check on friends and neighbors. In an atmosphere of growing uncertainty, the Fukushima Prefecture Social Health and Welfare Office, on the town’s deserted main street, serves as an information clearinghouse—and a focal point of fear.
...
In the parking lot, government officials in white hazmat suits swept Geiger counters over anxious residents who waited patiently in line. Kenji Sasahara, 45, a public-health physician, explained that the town’s 9,783 remaining residents—perhaps one third of the pre-earthquake population—had voluntarily come forward to be screened. In return, the government issued all but three of them a certificate stating that their radiation level was below 0.0001 millisievers, indicating no detrimental impact to the human body. Three, who worked near the plant, registered higher levels and were given high-pressure hot showers to remove iodine. Then they, too, were released.
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/04/03/inside-the-danger-zone.html
9)
Fukushima and Japan’s comprehensive security: deja vu?
March 29th, 2011
Author: Dennis T. Yasutomo, Smith College
Media reports indicate that after the 11 March earthquake, Japanese residents of Sendai had a 30 minute warning before the tsunami hit. In a sense, the Japanese had expected this for 30 years. The longer-term question is what will happen in the next 30 years.
...
One of the more striking images coming out of Sendai is the partnership between the Japanese Self Defence Force (SDF) and the US military in ‘Operation Tomodachi’ (‘Operation Friendship’), emerging on the heels of recent military exercises. This joint approach was initially envisaged as a response to a military attack on Japan. Instead, natural disaster has brought the two forces together. Although cooperation is strong now, questions arise as to whether the SDF’s attention will turn inward, and away from Operation Tomodachi, and perhaps whether the US will need to take a stronger lead role, which may lead to bilateral friction. But the original comprehensive security concept reflected, in part, Japanese concern over a perceived slippage in American military power after the fall of Saigon, with a sense that the US would not be eager to come to Japan’s aid. This recent cooperation may have set aside any current doubts.
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2011/03/29/fukushima-and-japan-s-comprehensive-security-deja-vu/
10)
Russia Halts Nuclear Waste Dumping in Sea
By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
Published: October 22, 1993
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Bowing to protests from Japan, the United States, and other countries, Russia said today that it had suspended plans to dump low-level nuclear waste into the Sea of Japan this weekend.
But Russia coupled the suspension with an appeal for foreign financial help to speed construction of a nuclear waste-processing plant, and said that if it took more than 18 months to build one the Russian Navy might be forced to resume disposing of the waste at sea.
A Russian ship discharged 900 tons of radioactive water from scrapped nuclear submarines into the sea last weekend, causing a public uproar in Japan just days after President Boris N. Yeltsin had gone to Tokyo to try to improve relations there.
Until today, the official Russian position was that the disposals were routine and that the proper international agencies had been notified. After Yeltsin's Departure
Mr. Yeltsin told Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa of Japan last week that the ocean dumping would stop, but not when it would stop. News that the Russian Navy had gone ahead within hours of Mr. Yeltsin's departure from Japanese territory made the Russian President seem cynical or hypocritical to many Japanese.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/22/world/russia-halts-nuclear-waste-dumping-in-sea.html
Is it enough?
It is not bad for mankind to talk about and learn anything from the Fukushima event.
**** **** ****
APPENDIX.
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan:
Results of the inspection on radioactive materials in fisheries product
Prefecture...port...Sampling...Item...Caesium (Bq/kg)...Ｉodine (Bq/kg)...Facility
...............................................................
Chiba...Katsuura...5, April...Alfonsino..Not detectable...Not detectable...National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Fisheries Research Agency, Japan
...............................................................
Tokyo...Habu...30, March...Fukutokobushi abalone...Not detectable...Not detectable...National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Fisheries Research Agency, Japan
...............................................................
Ibaraki...Hokota...4, April...Monkfish...Not detectable...21...Ibaraki Prefecture Environmental Radiation Monitoring Center
...
http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/e/inspection/index.html
21 Bq/kg x 2.2 x 10-8 Sv/Bq = 46.2 x 10-8 Sv/kg = 0.462 maicro-sievert/kg
For milk, the allowable limit is 300 Bq/kg; for a vegetable, 2000 Bq/kg concerning Ｉodine-131
As a result, the Japanese Government assures that these fisheries products are safe for consumers.
**** **** ****
The Tokyo governor election was conducted today, ending with the victory of incumbent governor Mr. Shintaro Ishihara.
Without the 3/11 Disaster, it should have been a hard election for the third term governor Mr. Ishihara.
In the 2007 election Mr. Ishihara won 2,810,000 votes. Though he started his career as author, he was elected as Upper-House member of the Japanese parliament in 1968. So, for 43 years, he has taken an active part in the Japanese politics.
Yet, it will be his last term. But, it is very extraordinary even in the Japanese standards of seniority that Governor Mr. Ishihara continues his public service while his eldest son is now the Director-General of the major opposition party LDP.
Local elections, the 3/11 Disaster victims, and the Fukushima issue are the three main themes for TV programs tonight in Japan. Though my TV set has been out of tune these days, I checked it all tonight.
And, it is still unknown when Japan can enjoy this spring fully.
(The magic moment makes reality a dream and a dream oblivion leaving consciousness...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpePWo56zm4)