Nuclear Evacuees

Fukushima Update Summer 2016, by Kick Nuclear London

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Fukushima Update Summer 2016

Five years after the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, 400 tonnes a day of radioactive water continues to pour into the Pacific Ocean. There are now over 30 million 1-tonne, 1m3 black plastic bags containing radioactive debris from the ‘cleanup’, piling up along the coast, in fields, around blocks of flats, along the edge of school grounds. These bags were designed to last a maximum of 5 years but there is still no permanent home for them – and there won’t be until at least 2020.

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was built on an ancient riverbed. For the last five years, water coming from the hills behind the site has poured down this old riverbed, passing through the multiple cracks and holes in the basements of the reactor buildings, where it mixes with the escaped nuclear fuel, becoming radioactive before flowing on into the Pacific Ocean. About 400 tonnes a day. In order to stop this flow, site owners Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) have attempted to surround the plant with an ‘ice wall’. Brine, cooled to -30 degrees C, passes through pipes set into the ground, freezing the soil around them. One problem with this is that the ice wall only goes down 30 metres. Any cracks, fissures or porosity in the bedrock beneath it will provide a route for the deadly contamination to find its way into the ocean – for centuries. Another problem is the risk of thawing should there be an interruption to the electricity required to freeze and maintain the ice wall – also for centuries. A third problem is that now the size of the pool of lethal water has been increased, from inside the building basements to the much larger area within the ice wall as well. In the event of an earthquake fracturing the ice wall or the bedrock beneath the site, this pool will escape. Also the newly waterlogged ground within the ice wall could cause the reactor buildings to subside. Tepco recently admitted that the ice wall will let through 50 tonnes of contaminated water a day anyway. Better than 400, but still a permanent ecological catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the 800,000 tonnes of poisoned water in tanks on the site remains a problem. Tepco claim to be filtering the worst radionuclides out through the ALPS filter process. This produces a thick, highly radioactive sludge which still needs to be stored. And the remaining water still contains tritium – radioactive hydrogen – which cannot be safely removed [1]. Tepco want to dump this in the Pacific, claiming that it will be diluted and therefore not a problem. However they are finding it hard to convince local people, including fishermen, that this is a good idea.

Last year Tepco finished removing the used nuclear fuel from reactor 4. But there are still tonnes of used nuclear fuel in large, swimming pool-like ‘spent fuel pools’ on top of reactor buildings 1, 2 and 3. These are harder to work on due to the massive levels of radioactivity in the buildings. Should another earthquake collapse the buildings or crack and drain the pools, the exposed fuel would catch fire and release massive amounts of radioactivity, causing a global catastrophe.

Tepco have begun preparations to empty spent fuel pool 3, which involves a new floor, 6 metres above the roof, with a 75 tonne crane, and 22 cameras so that workers can operate all this remotely. We’ll just have to wait and see how this turns out, again hoping nothing goes wrong.

Why are Tepco stopping work at Fukushima Daiichi for 2 days during the 42nd G7 summit? The venue is 700km away in Mie prefecture. Does work at Fukushima pose a risk to the bigwig delegates? If so, does it not also pose a risk to the citizens of Japan during the other 363 days of the year?

During the recent multiple earthquakes on the island of Kyushu, the Abe administration ordered NHK, the Japanese equivalent to the BBC, to only repeat government statements and consult no external experts. Not wanting anything to get in the way of restarting the other nuclear power plants?

Back in 2012, Prime Minister Noda established a policy to phase out nuclear power by 2030. Giving the impression that it represented the official views of the US, Washington DC-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) was among those who strongly objected and when Shinzo Abe became PM in December 2012 he overturned the nuclear phase-out policy. In 2014 CSIS revealed that it had received at least $500,000 from Japan – one of its top three donors. Other CSIS donors from this time include a number of Japanese and US nuclear industry companies … [2] [3]

But perhaps the main feature of this 5th year of the catastrophe is the process of forgetting Fukushima. Having denied that there had even been a meltdown for the first two months, when they knew at the end of the first day they had one meltdown, and knew within three days that they had three meltdowns, Tepco and the Japanese government now insist that it is the evacuations and the fear of radiation that cause stress and death, not the radiation itself. Is it better that the population remain in place, quietly absorbing radiation, and concentrate on remaining cheerful and optimistic? Many of the 100,000 evacuees are to have their compensation cut off and are being told it’s safe to return to areas that have up to 20 milliSieverts a year (mSv/yr) of radiation. Yet in Chernobyl areas with 1-5mSv/yr were ‘areas with relocation rights’, while areas over 5mSv could not be lived in or even farmed. Under the Japanese Atomic Energy Basic Law, the maximum annual exposure limit for the public used to be set at 1 mSv. But people are now being forced to accept a revised threshold 20 times greater.

The word ‘radiophobia’ is being used to describe the Japanese peoples’ fear of radiation. As if fear were the problem and not the huge amounts of dangerous radioactivity initially released, and the chronic internal exposure to low-level radiation via the ingestion of contaminated food and water and the inhalation of radioactive dust. People whose kids run a high temperature, have nosebleeds, develop a cancer, are told that their worry about radiation is irrational. All so that the other nuclear power plants can be restarted, so that money can be made and ‘restoration’ can proceed, in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? This is, perhaps, the greatest crime to emerge from this tragedy.

[1]www.ianfairlie.org/news/fukushima-evaporating-tank-contents-is-not-the-solution/

[2] www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=15416

[3] http://carnegieendowment.org/2015/09/29/wagging-plutonium-dog-japanese-domestic-politics-and-its-international-security-implications-pub-61425

Produced by Kick Nuclear, London: www.kicknuclear.com

previous Fukushima Updates can be found here

福島 最新情報 2016年夏

福島第一原子力発電所で原子炉３基が炉心融解（メルトダウン）を起こしてから5年が過ぎました。1日400トンの汚染水が太平洋に流れ込み続けています。「除染作業」で出た汚染土は、重さ１トン、大きさ１立法メートルのビニール袋（フレコンバッグ）に入れられ、海辺や野原、住宅、学校の周りに3000万個以上も積み上げられています。フレコンバッグの耐用年数は最大5年とされていますが、いまだに汚染土の最終処理場は決まっていません。決まるのは2020年以降になる見通しです。

福島第一原発は昔の河床の上に建っています。この5年間、原発の後方にある岡から地下水がこの河床に流入し、いくつもの亀裂や穴を通じて原子炉の建屋底に入り込み、溶け出した核燃料と混ざって汚染された状態で太平洋に漏れ出しています。1日に約400トンもです。この流れを止めるため、東京電力は「凍土壁」で原発を囲おうとしています。摂氏マイナス30度の塩水を地下に埋設したパイプに通し、周囲の地盤を凍らせようというのです。問題の一つは、凍土壁の深さが地下30メートルにすぎないという点です。それより深くにある岩盤の亀裂や穴は、非常に危険な汚染水が何百年にもわたって海へ流れ込むルートであり続けます。二つ目の問題は、凍土壁を凍らせた状態で何世紀も維持するために必要な電力が途切れた場合、溶けてしまう恐れがあることです。三つ目の問題は、建屋の地下だけではなく、凍土壁で囲まれたもっと大きなエリアに汚染水が溜まることです。地震で凍土壁や原発の下にある河床が決壊すれば、ここに溜まった汚染水が流れ出します。さらには、凍土壁で囲まれた建屋を含む部分に水が溜まり地盤沈下を起こす可能性もあります。東電は最近、凍土壁が出来ても1日50トンの汚染水が流出することを認めました。400トンよりはましかもしれませんが、環境にとっては永久的な大惨事です。

一方、原発敷地内のタンクに収容されている80万トンの汚染水も問題として残ります。

東電は多核種除去設備（ALPS）のフィルターで最も影響の大きい放射性核種を取り除くとしています。しかしALPSを使えば放射性の泥が残り、それを保管する必要があります。しかもALPSではトリチウム（放射性水素）が取り除けず、これを安全に除去する方法はありません[1]。東電はALPSで処理した汚染水を太平洋に流す考えで、薄まるから問題はないと言い張っています。しかし、漁業関係者をはじめとする地元住民から賛同を得るのは難しいでしょう。

東電は昨年、第４号炉からの使用済み核燃料の取り出しを終えました。しかし第１～３号炉の建屋内にある大きな貯蔵プールにはまだ多数の使用済み核燃料が置かれています。建屋内の放射線量がとてつもなく高いため、除去作業は困難を極めます。また地震が来て建屋が壊れたり、プールに亀裂が入って水が漏れたりすれば、むき出しになった使用済み燃料に火がついて大量の放射線物質をまき散らし、世界的な大惨事を引き起こすことでしょう。

東電は第３号炉の貯蔵プールから使用済み燃料を取り出す準備を始めましたが、屋根の上方６メートルに新たな床を作り、75トンのクレーンを使い、22個のカメラを設置して作業員が遠隔作業できるようにしなければなりません。われわれは何事もないよう祈りながら、どのような結果が出るか見守るしかありません。

第42回目の先進７か国（G7）伊勢志摩サミットが開かれた際、東電は何故２日間にわたって福島第一原発での作業を中止したのでしょうか。開催地の三重県からは700キロも離れた場所です。福島第一原発での作業が、各国首脳を危険にさらすのでしょうか？もしそうなら、残り363日の毎日の作業で日本に住んでいる市民達を危険にさらしているのではないでしょうか。

熊本地震が起こり、安倍政権はNHKに対して、政府の公式見解だけを繰り返し、外部の専門家に意見を聞かないよう命じました。他の原発の再稼働を進めていく上で邪魔が入らないようにしたいのではないでしょうか。

2012年、当時の野田首相は2030年までに脱原発を目指す政策を打ち出しました。ワシントンDCにある米戦略国際問題研究所（CSIS）はあたかも米国政府の公式見解であるかのように見せかけながら政策に反対しました。安部首相が2012年12月に就任し、脱原発の方針は覆されました。CSISが2014年に公表した情報によると、日本から少なくとも50万ドルの寄付金を得ています。これは寄付金額の上位3位に入るほどで、他にも日本や米国の原発関連企業が寄付の提供者に名を連ねています。[2][3]

しかし、原発事故から5年目を最も特徴付けるのは、福島が忘れ去られようとしていることでしょう。事故初日には１基、3日以内には３基の原子炉でメルトダウンが起こったことが分かっていたにもかかわらず、東電と日本政府は最初の2カ月間この事実を否定してきました。今となっては、被曝そのものではなく、避難や被曝を心配することがストレスや死亡の原因になると主張しています。住民がその場にとどまり、黙って放射能を浴びながら、明るく楽しく暮らしていくのが良いとでも言うのでしょうか。避難した10万人のうち多くの人々への補償が打ち切られ、年間20ミリシーベルト（mSv）の放射線量の地域へは帰還しても安全だと言われるようになりました。チェルノブイリでさえ年間１～５

mSvの放射線量の地域は「移住権利ゾーン」に指定され、５mSvを超える場所では居住することも、農業を営むこともできません。日本の原子力基本法の附則では一般の線量限度が「１年間につき1mSV」と定められています。実際にはその20倍もの被曝を強いられているのです。

日本では「放射線恐怖症」という言葉が使われています。危険な放射性物質が大量に放出され、汚染された食品や水の摂取、放射性埃の吸気被曝で低線量の内部被曝を慢性的に強いられながら、あたかも恐れを抱くことが問題であるかのような表現です。子どもたちが熱や鼻血を出し、がんを発症しているのに、被曝を心配するのが非合理的だと言われるのです。他の原発を再稼働するために、経済的な利益を得るために、「復興」が進むために、そして 2020年の東京オリンピックに間に合うために？このことはおそらく、原発事故の悲劇から生ずる犯罪のうちで最大なものでしょう。

[1] http://www.ianfairlie.org/news/fukushima-evaporating-tank-contents-is-not-thesolution/

[2] http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=15416

[3] http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2015/09/29/wagging-plutonium-dog-japanesedomestic-politics-and-its-international-security-implications/ii96

文責：キック ニ・ ュークリアー http://www.kicknuclear.com

Fukushima Update Summer 2016, by Kick Nuclear London

‘The Babukshkas of Chernobyl’ documentary

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Some thoughts by Lis Fields
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I found this documentary about “the last specimens of a dying species” inspiring, frustrating and heartbreaking.
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It was inspiring to see these elderly women who’d survived the horrors of the Nazi invasion and the Stalin years still so resilient, strong-willed and self-sufficent. And defiant: “I won’t go anywhere [else] even at gunpoint”.
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But despite the glorious bright colours of their headscarves and textiles, and the lush green forest around them, their lives are extremely tough: they are living in dire poverty, in decrepit shacks, most of their food grown or foraged from their contaminated land and the surrounding forest. Their meagre pensions are sometimes delayed for months at a time. Apart from one or two elderly neighbours they are isolated as most of their fellow villagers are long gone – dead or living elsewhere. One woman says the doctors used to come once a month to check their blood pressure and give them pills and shots, but not any more.
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I feel that these women have been utterly failed by their government and the nuclear industry: why should they have to choose between “five happy years” in their contaminated rural homes or “fifteen years condemned to a concrete high-rise on the outskirts of Kiev”? If they had been rehoused in cottages on plots of uncontaminated land would they still want to return to their old homes?
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Why should they be more afraid of starvation than radiation? One Babushka says “They told us our legs would hurt [if they returned to contaminated home], and they do. So what.”
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Holly Morris, co-director of the film, says in her 2013 TED talk:
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“These women have outlived their counterparts who evacuated by some estimates by 10 years” and “Could it be that those ties to ancestral soil, the soft variables reflected in their aphorisms actually affect longevity? The power of motherland, so fundamental to that part of the world, seems palliative. Home and community are forces that rival even radiation”.
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In 2011 Morris observed that “No health studies have been done, but anecdotal evidence suggests that most of the Babushkas die of strokes (my emphasis) rather than any obvious radiation-related illnesses, and they’ve dealt better with the psychological trauma.”
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If the ‘anecdotal evidence’ is true and most of the Babushkas do indeed die of strokes, perhaps these strokes very much the consequence of their chronic exposure to the high levels of radiation in their food, water and air:
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“Radiation-induced cardiovascular diseases (CVD) include coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis/atherosclerosis in the vascular system. Strokes are usually included in studies on CVD …. It is now well established (Little MP et al, 2008; Kreuzer et al, 2015) that cardiovascular risks are raised after moderate to high exposures to radiation. In fact, these risks limit the survival times of cancer patients after radiation treatment (Heidenreich and Kapoor, 2009).” Ian Fairlie, TORCH-2016 page 70.
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I’m with film critic Ben Kenigsberg who observes:
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“Although the danger of the surroundings is suggested through the constant presence of beeping meters, “The Babushkas of Chernobyl” could have done more to shed light on its subjects’ health. Ivanivna, we’re told, was at the reactor site the night of the disaster and had her thyroid removed two years later. Late in the film, she receives a test (briefly interrupted by a ringing cell phone, in an endearing comic moment) in which she learns that her cesium level is elevated but that she’s within the “maximum average dosage.” What does that mean, exactly? The movie implies that the women’s happiness has been a great benefit to their well-being.”
‘The Babukshkas of Chernobyl’ documentary

Statement to PM Shinzo Abe & Ambassador Keiichi Hayashi, 11.3.2016

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Read out at the Remember Fukushima Vigil outside the Japanese Embassy London on 11 March 2016

Statement to:

Mr Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan

Mr Keiichi Hayashi, Ambassador of Japan to the United Kingdom

The decision last week to indict executives of Japan’s largest energy utility, Tokyo Electric Power Company, for their failure to prevent the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi is a major step forward for the people of Japan. The fact that this criminal prosecution is taking place at all is a vindication for the thousands of civilians and their dedicated lawyers who are challenging the nation’s largest power company and the establishment system. It is a devastating blow to the obsessively pro-nuclear Abe government, which is truly fearful of the effect the trial will have on nuclear policy and public opinion over the coming years.

Today we stand here in solidarity with the people of Fukushima and Japan to demand a nuclear-free society. Fukushima disasters are not over. The tragedy is still continuing. A similar accident could happen any time anywhere in the world. It is hard to understand how Japan can justify restarting its nuclear reactors and exporting nuclear technology after the Fukushima disaster. Suddenly during 6–8 April 2015, the monitoring posts in Minamisoma detected very high radioactivity.

We now know that a civil nuclear disaster results in devastation similar to a nuclear war. We have the right to live in a world free from this nuclear brutality. Governments have an obligation to protect their citizens and future generations. Children played no part in the policy which led to the disaster at Fukushima. Yet, it is the young and unborn who are the most vulnerable to radiation. They are the future. Nothing is more important than protecting them.

Nuclear power, even without accidents, inevitably creates permanent and deadly contamination. It damages or destroys people’s health, the eco-system and the environment. From uranium mining to nuclear waste, nuclear energy is incompatible with life. Radiation has assaulted people in Japan, UK and other parts of the world repeatedly. The genetic disease will be transmitted into the future generations.

We say, “Enough is enough!” The latest polling shows 59% of Japanese people oppose restarting nuclear reactors, including Sendai. The NRA decision ignores the majority opinion.

The people of Japan, still suffering the ongoing tragedy of Fukushima, understand that the NRA is not protecting the public but only the interests of an industry in crisis. Sendai reactors are now set to restart in July. But, there are more and more sings of volcanic activities in Kyushu which will force Sendai Nuclear Power Plant to be shut again soon.

Sendai, Ikata and Takahama may make headlines in Japan and elsewhere today as a step toward restarts, but it does not change that for an entire year and 10 months, as of 11 August 2015 Japan has been nuclear free.

This is in large part due to the commitment of the people of Japan who have taken to the streets to protest nuclear restarts, have fought and won in courts, have massively reduced energy demand, and rapidly expanded clean, renewable solar panels.

This is impressive leadership from the people which has advanced Japan’s future despite the determination of the Abe Government and dirty energy industries to drag Japan backward into the energy dark ages.

The people have proven their commitment to a clean energy future, and they’ve shown the world that it is possible. It is happening now.

For the sake of our children and future generations, this planet must be protected from deadly nuclear contamination. We, as world citizens, demand the Japanese government implements the following:-

  • Evacuate children and young people from contaminated areas.
  • Reinstate the pre-Fukushima radiation safety standards.
  • Provide uncontaminated water and food to all children and young people.
  • Give free and prompt medical checks and treatments for all those exposed to Fukushima radiation.
  • Monitor contamination accurately and publicise the data immediately.
  • Stop futile and costly decontamination projects.
  • End the state myth that radiation below the so-called “safety” limit is safe.
  • Stop suppressing radiation-related health data and statistics.
  • Abolish nuclear energy and switch to renewables.
  • Abandon nuclear fuel recycling.
  • Stop exporting nuclear power and technology.
  • Disclose up-to-date information on the state of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
  • Take responsibility for decommissioning Fukushima reactors.
  • Prosecute those responsible for the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.
  • Protect the civil rights of anti-nuclear and anti-radiation citizens.
  • Respect freedom of expression and speech.
  • Comply with Japan’s ‘No-Nuclear weapon principles’.
  • Uphold the Peace Constitution. The article 9 should be kept as it is without expanding interpretation for more military action overseas.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukushima – Japan should share the lessons of these tragedies with the international community, and lead the world towards a nuclear-free future. Remember Fukushima – No to nuclear power! No to restart of Sendai, Ikata and Takahama.

Saikado Hantai. Saikado Hantai, Saikado Hantai, 再稼働反対！再稼働反対！再稼働反対! No to restart of Nuclear Reactors!!

Shigeo Kobayashi on behalf of Japanese Against Nuclear UK

Reverend Gyoro Nagase on behalf of Nipponzan Myohoji

Rik Grafit-Mottram on behalf of Kick Nuclear

Professor Dave Webb, Chairman, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Dr Kate Hudson, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Statement to PM Shinzo Abe & Ambassador Keiichi Hayashi, 11.3.2016