原発３０キロ圏外自治体も支援を　脱原発をめざす首長会議 via 西日本新聞

Posted on 2015/07/11 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　現職、元職の市町村長らでつくる「脱原発をめざす首長会議」は１１日、都内で集会を開き、原発事故時の住民避難などの対策に自主的に取り組む、原発から３０キロ圏外の自治体への支援を求める緊急アピールをまとめた。近く原子力規制委員会や内閣府に提出する。

アピールは、規制委が４月に改定した原子力災害対策指針で「３０キロ圏外でも防護措置が必要となる場合がある」との記述が削除され、３０キロ圏外の避難は規制委が事故後判断するとされたことを受けたもの。

続きは原発３０キロ圏外自治体も支援を　脱原発をめざす首長会議

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , | Comments Off on 原発３０キロ圏外自治体も支援を　脱原発をめざす首長会議 via 西日本新聞

反原発小説の先駆者「井上光晴」を現代に問う via レイバーネット

Posted on 2015/07/11 by yukimiyamotodepaul

秋沢陽吉「井上光晴ー虚構のありか」は、井上の反原発小説の先駆性を鋭く論じた 力作評論である。かつて、「地の群れ」などでアクチュアルな問題を前衛的な手法で 描いて状況を厳しく問うてきた井上も、高橋和巳などと同様、時代の「軽小短薄」化 とともに忘れさられつつある作家だった。（写真＝井上光晴）

しかし、２０１１年３月１１日の福島原発事故の大惨事が、その忘却された作品を よみがえらせたのである。著者の秋沢自身が福島県海岸通りの北に位置する地方都市 でこの震災に遭遇し、被爆もしている。同時に著者はかつて井上が主催した山形文学 伝習所で学び、亡くなるまで教えを受けてきた文学生でもあった。

その秋沢をして、井上の反原発小説の神髄に触れ得たのは、３．１１の被災以後だ ったと告白する。これは実際恐ろしいことである。人間は自分が体験しないことはつ いに理解できないのか、という問いかけでもある。この評論は自身の被災体験をもと に井上作品が現実をしのぐ勢いでせまってくる創作の秘密を明らかにしている。

井上の核文学の金字塔は、反核小説「明日ー一九四五年八月八日長崎」であり、反 原発小説は「西海原子力発電所」である。前者は１０年、後者に至っては２０年以上 も埋もれていた作品だが、震災事故を契機に再刊されたのである。秋沢はこれらの作 品の驚くべきリアリティーと想像力を内容に則して論じているが、井上独特のねじれ た作品構造がていねいに説明されていて、はじめての読者にも手がかりになるだろう

続きは反原発小説の先駆者「井上光晴」を現代に問う

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on 反原発小説の先駆者「井上光晴」を現代に問う via レイバーネット

原子力規制委の認可なくで再稼動できるのか via Blogos

Posted on 2015/07/10 by

原子力規正法で30年を経過した原子炉は原子力規制委員会の認可を得なくてはならないと規定されているが、認可がないまま川内原発を再稼動していいのか。法を無視することに対して菅直人衆議院委員が質問趣意書を提出した。

　質問趣意書は、本会議や委員会などで口頭による質問ではなく、国会議員が内閣に対し見解を文書で質問するもの。一定の条件はあるが議長に対して提出し承認を受けた後、内閣に送られ７日以内に文書で回答すると国会法第74条で規定されている。議員個人で使うことができるため、大会派、政党に所属しない議員でも活用できる制度だ。

　菅衆議院議員が提出した質問趣意書は下記に転載するが、法を無視して再稼動となれば、法律の意味がなくなる。憲法に違反し、法にも違反することでできる日本にしていいのかも問われるのではないだろうか。
[…]

もっと読む。

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on 原子力規制委の認可なくで再稼動できるのか via Blogos

Rules eased to compensate more ill Hanford workers via The Tri-City Herald

Posted on 2015/07/10 by

New rules that will make compensation easier to obtain for ill Hanford workers have taken effect.

They should help more workers receive $150,000 compensation plus reimbursement for current medical expenses related to Hanford exposures that may have caused certain cancers. Their survivors also may be eligible to claim the compensation.

The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program initially required Hanford employees to have their radiation exposure estimated to show that it was high enough that it may have caused cancers that current or former workers developed. If the estimate was too low, they were denied compensation.
[…]
The latest workers who can be automatically compensated worked for Hanford construction contractors between 1984 and 1990, or for any subcontractor during that period. There are concerns that inconsistent or too little radiation monitoring was done for those workers to adequately estimate their radiation exposure.

In March, the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health met in Richland and recommended that compensation rules for those workers be eased. But the rule took effect only after the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services accepted the rule and then Congress did not object during a 30-day period.
[…]
The new special exposure cohort does not include Department of Energy workers or the workers for prime contractors. The excluded contractors include Battelle, Westinghouse and Hanford Environmental Health Foundation from 1984-90 and Rockwell Hanford Operations, UNC Nuclear Industries and Boeing Computer Services Richland from 1984 through June 28, 1987.

The cancers covered by special exposure cohort, with some restrictions, include bone and renal cancer, some leukemias, lung cancer, multiple myeloma, some lymphomas, and primary cancers of the bile ducts, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, gallbladder, liver, ovary, pancreas, pharynx, salivary gland, small intestine, stomach, thyroid and bladder.

To qualify for the new special exposure cohort, workers must have been employed at Hanford for at least 250 days.

[…]
Compensation rules were eased earlier for most Hanford employees from Oct. 1, 1943, through 1983. The subcontractor and construction contractor employees are the first to have eased rules for employment more recently than 1983. Easing rules for additional workers could be considered.

The program, administered by the Department of Labor, has paid $1.4 billion in compensation and medical benefits to Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory employees or their survivors. The payments covered compensation not only for radiation-caused cancer and berylliosis, but also compensation for wage loss or physical impairment caused by exposure to toxic substances.

For information on filing a claim, call the Hanford Resource Center in Richland at 888-654-0014.

Read more.

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Rules eased to compensate more ill Hanford workers via The Tri-City Herald

Long-term low-dose radiation exposure may increase leukemia risk via Reuters

Posted on 2015/07/10 by

(Reuters Health) – In a long-term study of more than 300,000 workers in France, the U.S. and the U.K., those with many years of exposure to low doses of radiation had an increased risk of dying from leukemia.

Medical workers and even patients are also exposed to much more radiation than was common decades ago, the study authors point out, but it’s unclear what amount of low-level exposure raises cancer risk, they say.

“A lot of epidemiological or radiobiological studies have brought evidence that exposure to ionizing radiation can cause cancer and leukemia,” said lead author Dr. Klervi Leraud of the Radiobiology and Epidemiology Department at Fontenay-aux-Roses in Cedex, France.

Workers exposed to ionizing radiation who are later diagnosed with leukemia can already ask for financial compensation in the U.S., the U.K. or France, Leraud told Reuters Health by email.

Leukemia is a cancer of the tissues that make blood cells, and it’s known to be caused by exposure to high doses of radiation, like that released by the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. In the years following those bombings, leukemia cases increased among the survivors, the authors note in The Lancet Haematology. But such high doses are rare today.

For the new study, researchers considered 308,297 nuclear energy workers whose radiation exposures were monitored. All had worked for at least a year for the French Atomic Energy Commission or similar employers or for the Departments of Energy and Defense in the U.S., or were members of the National Registry for Radiation Workers in the U.K.

The workers were followed for an average of 27 years, with data on exposure and health status through the early- to mid-2000s, depending on their country. Researchers looked for deaths from leukemia or lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system that also involves blood cells.

About 22 percent of the workers had died by the end of follow-up. There were 531 deaths due to leukemia and 814 due to lymphoma.

[…]
In the U.S., the average person’s yearly exposure to ionizing radiation in 1982 was 0.5 mGy, but by 2006 it had risen to 3 mGy, largely due to medical exposures, Leraud and colleagues write.

In the new study, the researchers calculate that for each gray (1,000 mGy) of total radiation exposure, a worker’s risk of leukemia rose three-fold. The effect was greatest for chronic myeloid leukemia, with a 10.45-fold risk increase per gray.
[///]

Read more.

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Long-term low-dose radiation exposure may increase leukemia risk via Reuters

Estimates to ensure nuclear plant safety soar past 2 trillion yen at 11 utilities　via The Asahi Shimbun

Posted on 2015/07/10 by

Japan’s 11 utilities plan to spend at least 2.4 trillion yen ($19.69 billion) to improve the safety of their nuclear plants, 1.5 times higher than an estimate made 18 months ago, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

Some of the companies surveyed did not include costs for anti-terrorism measures in their estimates, so the total for safety upgrades will increase.

All 48 nuclear reactors across the nation have remained offline after the Fukushima nuclear crisis triggered by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. The power companies are seeking to resume operations of their reactors after satisfying stricter safety standards imposed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority after the Fukushima accident.

The Asahi Shimbun asked 10 power firms that have nuclear facilities, as well as Electric Power Development Co., which is building a reactor, how much they planned to spend as of June 2015 to upgrade their equipment to clear the new NRA standards.

In January 2013, the 10 operators said they would spend 1 trillion yen on safety measures, while the figure rose to 1.6 trillion yen by January 2014.

[…]
Chugoku Electric Power Co., whose Shimane No. 2 reactor in Matsue is being examined, has set up walls to block radiation for a building that will serve as a headquarters to handle emergencies after the NRA demanded that the company act properly to prevent workers’ exposure to high levels of radiation.

Although Chugoku Electric initially estimated its upgrading costs at 100 billion yen, its total expenses now exceed 200 billion yen.

Precautions to prevent fire damage at the Onagawa No. 2 reactor in Miyagi Prefecture, such as burying fuel tanks for emergency power generators underground, have raised the safety improvement costs for Tohoku Electric Power Co. from 154 billion yen to more than 300 billion yen.

Five of the 11 firms did not include expenses needed to introduce special facilities to respond to terrorist attacks. The NRA has mandated that nuclear operators set up such measures by July 2018.

Read more.

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Estimates to ensure nuclear plant safety soar past 2 trillion yen at 11 utilities　via The Asahi Shimbun

「津波予測できた」と証言　千葉の原発避難者訴訟 via 東京新聞

Posted on 2015/07/10 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　東電福島第１原発事故に伴う避難者らが国と東電に慰謝料などを求めた集団訴訟の証人尋問が１０日、千葉地裁（広谷章雄裁判長）であり、原子力規制 委員会の前委員長代理の島崎邦彦東大名誉教授が原告側証人として出廷、「どの程度の津波が来るかは予測できた。有効な対策は可能だった」と、震災前の国や 東電の対応を批判した。

規制委委員を務めた専門家が原発事故に関する訴訟で証言するのは異例。厳しい指摘は、国や東電の対応に影響を与えそうだ。

続きは「津波予測できた」と証言　千葉の原発避難者訴訟

 

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on 「津波予測できた」と証言　千葉の原発避難者訴訟 via 東京新聞

US Air Force drops (expensive) mock nuclear bomb in Nevada via RT

Posted on 2015/07/10 by yukimiyamotodepaul

The United States Air Force is taking steps to update the Cold War-era B61 nuclear bomb to Mod 12 ‒ or twelfth iteration ‒ completing tests with a mock up version of the weapon in Nevada’s Great Basin Desert.

The B61 has been a top weapon in the US nuclear arsenal since its development at the height of the Cold War in 1963. The intermediate-yield thermonuclear weapon can be delivered by a supersonic aircraft. It is designed to cause a two-stage radiation implosion, but it is a “gravity bomb” – which just means that it’s unguided.

[…]

This seems to be at odds with Obama’s promise of not fielding any new nuclear warheads, which he made during a speech in Prague in 2009. In that same speech, he explained his vision of a United States with less reliance on nuclear arms, and ultimately a world where nuclear weapons are a thing of the past.

The truth looks rather different. A testimony, ominously titled ‘China, India and Pakistan – growing nuclear capabilities with no end in sight,’ was given to Congress by Dr. Ashley J. Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“The nuclear weapon programs in these three countries are worthy of attention because they are active, expanding, and diversifying,” the testimony warns.

India and Pakistan are not members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which came into force in 1970.

Read more at US Air Force drops (expensive) mock nuclear bomb in Nevada

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on US Air Force drops (expensive) mock nuclear bomb in Nevada via RT

Nuclear Facilities in 20 Countries May Be Easy Targets for Cyberattacks via The New York Times

Posted on 2015/07/10 by yukimiyamotodepaul

WASHINGTON — Twenty nations with significant atomic stockpiles or nuclear power plants have no government regulations requiring minimal protection of those facilities against cyberattacks, according to a study by the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

The findings build on growing concerns that a cyberattack could be the easiest and most effective way to take over a nuclear power plant and sabotage it, or to disable defenses that are used to protect nuclear material from theft. The countries on the list include Argentina, China, Egypt, Israel, Mexico and North Korea.

[…]

The report also concludes that President Obama’s global initiative to sweep up loose nuclear material, which will be the subject of his third and final nuclear security summit meeting this March, has slowed substantially.

[…]

The Nuclear Threat Initiative, which publishes an annual index of nuclear security around the world, notes that a dozen countries have eliminated all weapons-usable nuclear materials since the summit meetings began. Many more have greatly improved the security surrounding lightly guarded materials, which are stored every place from hospitals to research reactors on university campuses.

But at the very moment that the black market in nuclear materials remains active, the report found that 24 nations still had more than 2.2 pounds of weapons-usable nuclear material, “much of it still too vulnerable to theft,” and many have just begun to think about their vulnerability to cyberthreats that could enable an attacker to sabotage a site without breaking through fences or risk setting off perimeter alarms.

[…]

“Too many states require virtually no effective security measures at nuclear facilities to address the threat posed by hackers,” the study, in which the Economist Intelligence Unit also participated, concluded. Of the two dozen nations with weapons-usable material, nine got the maximum score for cyberindicators, and seven got a score of zero.

In 23 nations that possessed no weapons-usable materials, but had nuclear power plants or other nuclear facilities that contain fuel that could be converted to weapons use, 13 got a zero score.

More than 80 percent of all nuclear stockpiles are classified as military material, meaning they are largely used in weapons programs, and all of those are outside international security review, including the guidelines issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency for the protection of civilian nuclear stocks.

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Nuclear Facilities in 20 Countries May Be Easy Targets for Cyberattacks via The New York Times

柏崎刈羽原発 経団連会長が視察「極限の安全性追求」via 毎日新聞

Posted on 2015/07/10 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　経団連の榊原定征会長は１５日、東京電力が再稼働を目指している柏崎刈羽原子力発電所（新潟県柏崎市、刈羽村）の６、７号機などを視察した。電力コスト 削減を目指す経団連は、安全が確認された原発の再稼働を支持している。視察を受けて榊原会長は「原発事故の教訓を生かして、極限の安全性を追求している姿 勢を感じた」と述べ、同原発の安全対策が原子力規制委員会の新基準に適合しているとの認識を示した。

　榊原会長の原発視察は、東北電力女川原発（１４年７月）、東京電力福島第１原発（１４年１２月）に続いて３回目。原発の安全対策を実際に見る目的だ。

（略）

榊原会長は、首都圏に電力供給している東電の原発が稼働していない現状について「（燃料代の高い火力発電によって）電力コストが高くなり、国にも損失」と指摘。「できるだけ早く再稼働をしてほしい」と述べた。【種市房子】

全文は柏崎刈羽原発 経団連会長が視察「極限の安全性追求」

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on 柏崎刈羽原発 経団連会長が視察「極限の安全性追求」via 毎日新聞