原発事故、調書5人分を追加公開 今回も経営陣は公開されず 政府の事故調査・検証委 via 産経ニュース

政府は14日、東京電力福島第1原発事故をめぐり、政府の事故調査・検証委員会が関係者を聴取した「聴取結果書(調書)」のうち5人分を新たに公開した。

(略)

今回公開されたのは、事故当時の福島県生活環境部次長や福島第1原発運転員ら。東電経営陣は今回も公開されなかった。

政府は当初、個別の調書は非公開としていたが、事故当時、福島第1原発所長だった吉田昌郎氏=平成25年7月死去=の調書内容が昨年相次いで報道されたこ とを受けて方針を転換。本人の同意が得られた分を順次公開しているが、「第三者の権利や利益、国の安全に関わる部分を除く」として一部黒塗りとなってい る。

全文は原発事故、調書5人分を追加公開 今回も経営陣は公開されず 政府の事故調査・検証委

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Legal fallout via The Economist

THE world’s biggest nuclear power plant runs along nearly 4 kilometres (2½ miles) of the coast of the Sea of Japan. At full pelt it generates enough electricity to supply 2.7m households. But the seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex sit idle, along with the rest of Japan’s nuclear-power facilities. Four years after meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, all Japan’s 48 usable reactors are the focus of safety concerns. An industry that once produced nearly a third of Japan’s electricity remains paralysed.

The government badly wants some of the idle reactors put back to work to cut a huge bill for imported fuel. On April 22nd it got a shot in the arm when a court on Kyushu, the third-largest of Japan’s four main islands, rejected an attempt to block the restart of two reactors at the Sendai plant. It said the reactors were safe to operate, despite active earthquake faults and a volcano in the area. Kyushu Electric, the plant’s owner, believes it could be generating power again by July.

[…]

Yet the ruling contrasted with another one handed down a week earlier by a court in Fukui prefecture, down the coast from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. That decision blocked Kansai Electric Power from restarting two reactors at its Takahama site. It said stricter government-induced regulations after the Fukushima disaster were no guarantee that another disaster could be prevented. The court warned of “imminent danger” to local citizens if the reactors were restarted.

The decision surprised the government. It is formulating a new energy plan that calls for nuclear power to meet up to 20% of Japan’s electricity needs by 2030. The Fukui ruling will not derail that, the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, insists. He says the new regulations are among the world’s strictest.

[…]

Kansai Electric has challenged the Fukui ruling. Experts say the company will very likely get a higher court to overturn it. But the longer legal tussles drag on, the older the reactors become, putting their eventual operation in doubt. The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), Japan’s new watchdog, is reviewing about 20 reactors for compliance with its regulations. Luc Oursel, the late chief executive of Areva, a French nuclear giant, predicted in 2013 that two-thirds of Japan’s plants would eventually restart. Few believe that now.

For Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the ruined Fukushima plant, these issues are a matter of life and death. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is its only remaining viable nuclear facility. The company says it loses ¥100 billion ($835m) per reactor every year that the reactors are down. The plant’s chief, Tadayuki Yokomura, says that TEPCO has poured $2 billion into reinforcing the facility against earthquakes and tsunamis. There is, he insists, no reason why all seven reactors cannot be restarted. The problem is that he has yet to convince the public of that.

Read more at Legal fallout

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特集ワイド:「忘災」の原発列島 再稼働は未来へ無責任 城南信金トップ退く、吉原毅理事長に聞く via 毎日新聞

(抜粋)

やはり、この人は怒っていた。「再生可能エネルギーの推進は何のためか。それをすっかり忘れていませんか、と申し上げたかったんです」

「原発即時ゼロ」を掲げる金融界の旗手は本店の応接室で、椅子から身を乗り出すようにして一気に語り始めた。

まず、怒りの矛先を経済産業省が4月28日に公表した2030年の電源構成案に向けた。太陽光や風力などの再生エネは22〜24%。欧州や米国で主流の40〜50%程度と比べると、日本の及び腰が際立つ。その一方で、経産省は原子力比率を20〜22%と設定したのだ。

「脱原発」を訴えるのに自身の机を離れることをいとわない。構成案の発表日もそうだった。衆議院第1議員会館で開かれた「再生エネ30%以上」を 目指す市民団体の集会に顔を出し、居並ぶ国会議員にこうくぎを刺した。「再生エネを進める本来の目的は原発ゼロにするためなのです。原発との両立はあり得 ません」。相手の肩書などでためらったりはしない。あくまでも直球勝負を貫く。

応接室で向き合った吉原さんがさらに構成案への批判を強める。「原子力比率20〜22%は、実質的には原発を推進することです」

経産省の電源構成案には、原発依存を続けたいという政府の本音が透けて見える。どういうことなのか。

(略)

◇拝金主義、日本は病んでいる

震災以降、リーダーシップを取り、さまざまな脱原発策や被災地支援に取り組んできた。内定取り消しとなった被災地の大学生を採用。義援金として3 億円を被災地に拠出した。本店や店舗の電力供給元を東京電力から、ガスで発電している新規の電力小売会社へ切り替え、保有していた東京電力の株式も売却し た。顧客向けには省エネの設備投資をすると金利を優遇する商品を販売した。経済界の大半は原発再稼働なのに、これほど「原発即時ゼロ」にこだわるのはなぜ だろうか。

「信用金庫の原点に返るべきだ」。10年11月、理事長に就任して以来、「あるべき姿」を徹底してきたから、という。

「目先の利潤追求が信金の目的ではありません。経済的に強い者がさらに強くなり、弱い人たちが苦しいままという『お金のもたらす弊害』を是正し て、困っている人たちを助ける『社会貢献企業』こそあるべき姿です。この原点を忠実に実行しようとするならば、脱原発を進め、原発事故で困っている人々を 支援するという選択肢しかない」。原発は「信用金庫の原点」の対極に存在する、というのだ。

(略)

1年ほど前のこと。原発推進派のある官僚と話した。「使用済み核燃料は何万年も保管せねばならず、将来へのツケが大きすぎる」と問いただしたとこ ろ、次の言葉が返ってきた。「いつまで生きるつもりですか? あなたも10年、20年もしたら死ぬでしょう。何万年というそんな先のことを心配してどうす るんです?」。国の行政を担う官僚の無責任さに仰天した。

「脱原発」の熱意が結びつけたのか。同じく脱原発を訴える小泉純一郎元首相を昨年7月、同信金のシンクタンク「城南総合研究所」の名誉所長に迎え入れた。小泉氏は「勉強会や講演会を通じ、脱原発の国民運動を地道に続けたい」と話しているという。

吉原さんも思いは同じだ。拝金主義、未来への無責任……そんな現状を少しずつでも変えていきたい。脱原発に向けて幾つもの壁が立ちはだかるが、一 つの光明を見いだした。それは前出の福井地裁の再稼働差し止め決定だ。「原発の危険性について事実を論理的に積み重ねた極めて論理的で常識的な判断だっ た。拝金主義に対抗できる論理だ」

全文は特集ワイド:「忘災」の原発列島 再稼働は未来へ無責任 城南信金トップ退く、吉原毅理事長に聞く

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Filmmakers Ash and Kamanaka discuss radiation, secrets and lives via The Japan Times

Dreux Richard

Ian Thomas Ash and Hitomi Kamanaka are perhaps the two most widely viewed filmmakers who have produced documentaries about the effects of radioactivity in Fukushima since the March 11, 2011, disaster. Ash’s commitment to the subject arose after the multiple nuclear meltdown. Kamanaka, on the other hand, has been Japan’s designated nuclear documentarian for nearly two decades.

In a number of ways, they are each the other’s mirror image. Ash is a foreign filmmaker who produces films in Japanese. Kamanaka also made her first widely distributed film about radiation exposure by traveling abroad: She went to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state and to Iraq, where she documented the effects of depleted uranium on Iraqi citizens after the first Gulf War. She has continued to travel since, making films in Sweden and, most recently, Belarus.[…]

Read more and watch video.

See also Violent Far-left Extremists in Fukushima?
and KJ81 Preview: Filmmaker and Activist Kamanaka Hitomi
and Rokkasho, Minamata, and Japan’s Future: Capturing Humanity on Film

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Taiwan tells Japan to check food labeling before involving WTO via Want China Times

Japan should check false labeling problems that have given rise to Taiwan’s decision to impose tighter regulations on imported Japanese food before taking the case to the World Trade Organization, the head of an agency dealing with Japan said Tuesday.

Lee Chia-chin, chairman of the Association of East Asian Relations, was responding to remarks made at a news conference earlier in the day by Yoshimasa Hayahsi, Japan’s minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, that Japan does not rule out the possibility of taking the case to the WTO.

Lee said the government came up with the stricter measures after it was discovered in March that food items from five nuclear-affected prefectures had made their way illegally into Taiwan and that their labels had been tampered with.

After the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, Taiwan banned foods from the five prefectures most affected by radiation from the disaster — Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba.

“Taiwan cannot accept this (the false labeling) and thinks Japan should get to the bottom of the matter,” Lee said.
[…]
Under the new regulations that will take effect May 15, importers of Japanese food products will be required to present certificates of origin to prove that the imports are not from any of the five prefectures. For some imports such as tea, baby food, and dairy and aquatic products, radiation inspection certificates will also be required.

Lee noted that Taiwan is a major consumer of Japanese agricultural products and said it can certainly ask Japan to heed its food safety concerns.

“After Japan has fully investigated the false labeling, it will certainly lessen the pressure to impose stricter regulations,” Lee said.

He said he would advise Japan not to threaten to take the case to the WTO.

With such friendly bilateral relations between the two sides, “we can talk about everything, but taking the case to the WTO could sour bilateral ties,” he said.

Read more.

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台湾、日本からの食品輸入すべて停止 協議物別れで15日から実施 via 産経ニュース

台湾当局が東京電力福島第1原発事故後に導入した日本の食品に対する輸入規制を強化する問題で、日台双方の窓口機関による協議が13日、台北市内で行われた。関係者によると協議は物別れに終わり、15日から日本からの食品輸入が全て停止することが確実になった。

協議には、日本側から農林水産省や経済産業省の課長級も出席した。台湾は震災以降、福島など5県の食品の輸入を禁じており、(1)日本から出荷される全て の食品に都道府県別の産地証明(2)東京都や静岡県など特定地域の水産品、茶類、乳幼児食品など3分類800品目超の「高リスク産品」に放射線検査証明- の添付をそれぞれ求めている。

台湾側は今年4月16日、規制強化を一方的に発表。日本側は「科学的根拠に欠ける」として撤回を求めていた。

続きは 台湾、日本からの食品輸入すべて停止 協議物別れで15日から実施

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Violent far-left extremists in Fukushima? 中核派と福島 via documenting ian, blog

Today, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) hosted a screening of my film ‘A2-B-C’, which documents the health of children living in contaminated areas of Fukushima after the nuclear meltdown on March 11, 2011. The screening was followed by a press conference focused on the cancellations of the screenings of the film in Japan (INFO).
Before the press conference began, I struggled with how I was going to explain something which I am still finding difficult to understand. I also see the issue of the cancellations of ‘A2-B-C’ as a symptom of a much larger problem affecting press freedom in Japan, and I was hoping that the screening and press conference could also be an opportunity to speak about this much larger issue.
[…]
The attendees at today’s press conference were there not only to see ‘A2-B-C’ but also to hear why the screenings of ‘A2-B-C’ had been cancelled.

The A2-B-C Screening Committee cancelled all domestic screenings of the film after learning that one of the mothers in ‘A2-B-C’ was rumoured to be a member of Chukaku-ha, a communist political group whose tactics in the past have included violent confrontations with the authorities. The medical clinic that appears in the film, where children are seen receiving thyroid examinations, was also said to be tied to this group.

It should be noted that in Japan the two main accusations that are hurled at someone to discredit them are that they are either ethnically Korean or communist; accusing someone who is speaking out of being Korean or a communist is a rhetoric often employed in Japan when no other logical argument can be found.

Watch press conference.

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Nuclear waste stored in ‘shocking’ way 120 miles from Ukrainian front line via The Guardian

Experts raise concerns over waste stored in the open air at Europe’s largest nuclear power station, as the conflict increases Ukraine’s reliance on power from its ageing plants

Concerns have been raised by environmentalists and atomic power experts over the way waste is being stored at Europe’s largest nuclear power station, in crisis-ridden Ukraine.

More than 3,000 spent nuclear fuel rods are kept inside metal casks within towering concrete containers in an open-air yard close to a perimeter fence at Zaporizhia, the Guardian discovered on a recent visit to the plant, which is 124 miles (200km) from the current front line.

“With a war around the corner, it is shocking that the spent fuel rod containers are standing under the open sky, with just a metal gate and some security guards waltzing up and down for protection,” said Patricia Lorenz, a Friends of the Earth nuclear spokeswoman who visited the plant on a fact-finding mission.

“I have never seen anything like it,” she added. “It is unheard of when, in Germany, interim storage operators have been ordered by the court to terror-proof their casks with roofs and reinforced walls.”

Industry experts said that ideally the waste store would have a secondary containment system such as a roof.

[…]

The share of Ukrainian electricity provided by nuclear rose by around 10% in the last year, as conflict in the Donbass region threw Russian gas supplies into doubt.

Coal supplies too had to be tortuously re-routed from Ukraine’s east through Russia, to keep up a pretence they are being sourced internationally and avoid the impression of buying energy direct from the separatist rebels who are fighting Ukrainian soldiers.

As a result, uranium fuel supplies are fast becoming a new east-west battlefield in the post-Soviet great energy game.

“Nuclear energy is the only possible option for us to replace the generated electricity that we lost [from coal and gas],” a government source told the Guardian. “After the start of open war with Russia, it was understood that all our other strategies in the energy sphere would become impossible.”

Some 60% of Ukraine’s electricity is now produced by 15 ageing reactors – concentrated in four giant plants. Nine of these will reach the end of their design lifetimes in the next five years, and three have already.

Most of Ukraine’s nuclear fleet depends on Russia’s Rosatom to supply its enriched uranium fuel – and to whisk away the resulting radioactive waste for storage.

Read more at Nuclear waste stored in ‘shocking’ way 120 miles from Ukrainian front line

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<社説>核のごみ 原発政策を根本から改めよ via 琉球新報

(抜粋)

政府は原発から出る核のごみ(高レベル放射性廃棄物)の最終処分に関する基本方針を7年ぶりに改定する。自治体が名乗り出るのを待つ方式から、政府が「科学的有望地」を示し、調査を申し入れる仕組みに変える。
電力会社でつくる原子力発電環境整備機構に任せきりとの批判をかわすのが狙いだろう。実際、公募方式にして13年間、手を挙げる自治体は一つもなかった。方針転換は必然だが、それで進展するとも思えない。
原発の使用済み核燃料を再処理してプルトニウムとウランを回収し、残った廃液にガラスを混ぜてガラス固化体にし、地中に埋める。これが政府の考える処分方法だ。
そもそも最初の段階である再処理自体おぼつかない。青森県六ケ所村の再処理工場は1997年完成の予定が何度も延期し、今は来年3月完工予定だが、再延期の可能性もある。福井県の高速増殖原型炉「もんじゅ」に至っては95年の事故後ほとんど停止している。
仮に再処理できたとしても、その後の地層処分は可能なのか。使用済み核燃料や廃液の放射線は近づくと十数秒で致死量に達する。安全な水準に下がるまで 10万年かかる。世界で唯一、処分場建設が始まったフィンランドの例を持ち出して推進派は安全と強調するが、そこは19億年もほとんど動きのない地層だ。 地震大国の日本で10万年も動かない地層があるのか。

エネルギー基本計画で政府は「回収可能性を担保する」と述べた。将来掘り返すこともあると説明し、「そこを最終処分場にはしない」と説得材料にするのだろ う。だが政府の言う「当面」が「永久」になる例はいくらでもある。99年の辺野古移設計画の「15年使用期限」がいい例だ。信じろと言う方が難しい。
使用済み核燃料は国内に1万7千トン以上ある。各原発の燃料プールと六ケ所村の一時保管場所で保管するが、既に容量の73%が埋まっている。再稼働すれば数年で満杯になる。
原発は「トイレなきマンション」と言われてきた。再処理や地層処分という「出口」も確立できないままの原発維持政策は無責任過ぎる。最低でも再稼働への作業や原発輸出は今すぐ止めるべきだ。

全文は<社説>核のごみ 原発政策を根本から改めよ

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Imprisoned Nuclear Activist Nun Granted Victory On Appeal via NPR

From the moment she was taken into custody in 2012, outside a building that stores enriched uranium in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Sister Megan Rice has argued she’s been driven by one thing — a desire to spread a message.

“And we all know that nuclear energy is linked inextricably with nuclear weapons,” Rice told a group of activists in remarks captured on YouTube.

Prosecutors accused her of violating the Sabotage Act, intending to hurt the government’s ability to wage war or defend itself.

But a federal appeals court has handed a victory to the 85-year-old nun. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit voted two-to-one to throw out the most serious charge, sabotage, against Rice.

The court said no rational juror could have concluded the nun and her two collaborators cut fences at the nuclear site to let al-Qaida slip in. And the court majority wrote, “it takes more than bad publicity to injure the national defense.”

Continue reading at Imprisoned Nuclear Activist Nun Granted Victory On Appeal

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