高裁裁判官が避難区域を視察　原発事故巡る訴訟で初 via 日刊スポーツ

Posted on 2019/05/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

東京電力福島第1原発事故の被災者ら約3650人が国と東電に損害賠償などを求めた訴訟の控訴審で、仙台高裁の裁判官3人が27日、避難指示が出た福島県浪江町と富岡町を訪れ、被害の実態を調べた。

（略）

上田哲裁判長らは、浪江町の旧避難区域にある自動車整備業紺野重秋さん（81）の自宅を訪問。2017年春に避難指示が解除された後も福島市で生活する紺野さんは、町には事故前約2万人が住んでいたが「約千人しか帰っておらず、営業が成り立たない」と裁判長らに説明した。

上田裁判長らはその後、南に約20キロ離れた富岡町に移動。避難区域の中でも、放射線量が高く帰還の見通しが立たない帰還困難区域に防護服を着て入り、美容室を営んでいた深谷敬子さん（74）の自宅兼店舗を視察した。人間の背丈ほどまで雑草が伸びた庭を進み、つる植物に覆われた玄関から家に入った。

深谷さんは取材に「老後を楽しみにしていたのに、何もかもが駄目になった。裁判官には現実をよく見て、被害を受けた人たちの希望を聞いてほしい」と語った。

原発事故を巡る同種の訴訟で高裁裁判官が現地を視察するのは初めて。（共同）

全文は高裁裁判官が避難区域を視察　原発事故巡る訴訟で初

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The City in the Shadow of an Aging Nuclear Reactor via BBC

Posted on 2019/05/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

This model Soviet city, or atomograd, was purpose-built in the 1970s to entice skilled workers to work in the nuclear power plant. Decades on, what does daily life look like?

By Daryl Mersom

Metsamor has been described as one of the world’s most dangerous nuclear power plants because of its location in an earthquake zone.

It sits just 35km (22 miles) from Armenia’s bustling capital, Yerevan, with distant views of snowy Mount Ararat across the border in Turkey.

The plant was constructed around the same time as Chernobyl in the 1970s. At the time the Metsamor reactor provided energy for the growing needs of a vast Soviet Union, which once had ambitious plans to generate 60% of its electricity from nuclear power by 2000.

But in 1988 everything changed; the 6.8 magnitude Spitak earthquake devastated Armenia, killing around 25,000 people. The nuclear power plant was swiftly closed down because of safety concerns over an unreliable electricity supply to power the plant’s systems. Many of the plant’s workers returned home to Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

Thirty years on, Metsamor plant and its future remain a divisive topic in Armenia. One of its reactors was restarted in 1995 and now generates 40% of Armenia’s energy needs. Its critics argue the site remains extremely vulnerable to earthquakes due to its location in an area of seismic activity. Its supporters, however, including government officials, argue it was deliberately originally built on a stable basalt block and insist further modifications, such as improved fire doors, have been made to make it even safer.

[…]

This model Soviet city, or atomograd, was purpose-built to entice skilled workers from across the USSR, from the Baltics to Kazakhstan. It was planned for 36,000 residents with an artificial lake, sports facilities, and a cultural centre. In its heyday the shops were well-stocked and rumours about the high quality of the butter reached Yerevan.

[…]

But the population didn’t remain static. The same year as the earthquake locals were joined by refugees fleeing Azerbaijan due to conflict in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory. In the first year of the conflict over 450 people were housed in Metsamor’s vacant dormitories. Those people settled down and now live in homes they have built themselves, on the site where the proposed third housing district of the atomograd would have been located.

[…]

Today Metsamor has a population of over 10,000 people with lots of children. In the apartment blocks 5km from the cooling towers, the people balance their worries over energy scarcity against the potential threat posed by the plant. “The black years of electricity shortages are so strong in people’s minds,” says Katharina Roters, a photographer who has documented the city, “that they cannot consider life without the plant.” From 1991-1994 the country suffered an energy crisis where at times the population was left with no electricity at all. 

[…]

So why do they stay? Roters found mixed attitudes towards the nuclear power plant. “The families that no longer work at the plant tended to be frustrated about the economic situation in Armenia, whereas those who still worked at the plant were much more positive.”

Read more at The City in the Shadow of an Aging Nuclear Reactor

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鳩山元首相　欧米で東京五輪を「放射能オリンピックと命名」と指摘 via デイリー

Posted on 2019/05/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　鳩山由紀夫元首相が１２日、ツイッターに、欧米で東京五輪に対する懸念が広がっているとする投稿を行った。

（略）

「例えばノーベル平和賞を受賞した核戦争防止国際医師会議は、放射能オリンピックと命名して放射能汚染リスクの残る東京でのオリンピック開催を疑問視している」と記した。

鳩山氏は「日本では報道されないが、欧米でこのような動きが広まってきていることは理解すべきだ」としている。

全文は鳩山元首相　欧米で東京五輪を「放射能オリンピックと命名」と指摘

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Fukushima aims to boost school-trip visitors with new plan focused on teaching about 3/11 disaster via The Japan Times

Posted on 2019/05/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

In an effort to increase the number of students visiting for school trips, Fukushima Prefecture has created a series of travel routes it will propose this fiscal year to schools outside the prefecture to provide them with an opportunity to learn about the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent nuclear meltdowns.

In the past, educational tours that focused on the 2011 disasters — promoted by the prefecture as “Hope Tourism” — were offered mostly to high school students, while plans focused on history and nature were tailored to children in elementary and junior high schools.

By combining the two, the prefecture hopes to provide students with a more comprehensive experience and hopefully dispel any prejudice they may have about Fukushima. The plan also involves having officials visit high schools in other areas to talk about the importance of visiting Fukushima Prefecture.

For example, the prefecture proposed to a high school a three-day trip: On the first day, students will visit the Hamadori coastal region damaged by the 2011 tsunami, experience nature and wildlife in the Urabandai region on the second and study history in the city of Aizuwakamatsu on the third.

Sites like J-Village, which fully reopened on April 20, along with the Tepco Decommissioning Archive Center in the city of Tomioka and the prefecture-run archive facility on the March 2011 disasters — which is set to open in July 2020 — will serve as central locations for the tours.
The prefecture is looking to use such locations to highlight travel routes that will bring visitors to the region and promote them by collaborating with organizations like Fukushima Prefecture Tourism and Local Products Association.

[…]

Hope Tourism, which began around 2016, involves having visitors to the Hamadori coastal region learn about the earthquake-triggered tsunami and nuclear disasters and meet people actively involved in helping the area recover. The number of junior and high school students who have taken part has increased from 35 students in fiscal 2016 and about 230 in fiscal 2017 to roughly 600 students in fiscal 2018.Read more.

This section features topics and issues from Fukushima covered by the Fukushima Minpo, the largest newspaper in Fukushima Prefecture. The original article was published on April 25.

Read more at school-trip visitors with new plan focused on teaching about 3/11 disaster

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福島産米検査、緩和拡大へ　サンプル「抽出」を容認 via 沖縄タイムス

Posted on 2019/05/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

東京電力福島第１原発事故後、福島県が全ての県産米の放射性物質を調べている「全量全袋検査」について、サンプルだけを調べる「抽出検査」への緩和を認める地域を拡大することが２６日、分かった。従来は避難区域にならなかった市町村に限り早ければ２０２０年産米から切り替える方針だったが、かつて一部地区が避難区域に指定された市町村も加える。

（略）

検査の実務を担う市町村の負担が減り、正常化に向けた動きと歓迎する向きがある一方で、全量全袋という厳しい検査を緩めることによる風評被害を懸念する声もある。（共同通信）

全文は福島産米検査、緩和拡大へ　サンプル「抽出」を容認

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US conducted nuclear experiment in February via NHK World

Posted on 2019/05/25 by yukimiyamotodepaul

A US government laboratory says the country held a subcritical nuclear test in the state of Nevada on February 13.

The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory made the announcement on Friday.

The test was the first of its kind since December 2017, and the second under the administration of President Donald Trump. It was the 29th in the United States.

The laboratory says the experiment, dubbed “Ediza,” used high explosives to implode plutonium and captured “numerous, detailed scientific measurements.”

[…]

The government is modernizing the country’s nuclear arsenal through nuclear tests, and introducing low-yield nuclear weapons.

The latest test was conducted just before the second US-North Korea summit in February, meaning the Trump administration was demanding Pyongyang abolish its nuclear weapons while it was trying to enhance its own.

The revelation is expected to prompt criticism from anti-nuclear groups.

Read more at

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米ネバダ州、核実験で放射能汚染 via ロイター

Posted on 2019/05/25 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　米核研究機関が西部ネバダ州の地下施設で２月に実施した臨界前核実験後、実験に用いた核物質封じ込め用容器の付近で少量のプルトニウムによる汚染が確認されたことが２５日、米大統領とエネルギー長官への助言機関「防衛核施設安全委員会」の報告書やエネルギー省の核安全保障局（ＮＮＳＡ）への取材で分かった。外部への影響はないとしている。

（略）

容器の接続部品のワッシャーに亀裂が見つかっており、微量の放射性物質漏れが起きた可能性もある。ＮＮＳＡは共同通信の取材に、汚染の「原因は調査中」とした上で、「被ばくした作業員はいない」と説明した。

全文は米ネバダ州、核実験で放射能汚染

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Nuclear waste: A hot business? via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Posted on 2019/05/25 by yukimiyamotodepaul

By Thomas Gaulkin,

It usually takes decades for defunct nuclear plants in the United States to be taken apart and cleaned up so the land can be developed for other purposes. Long after the main facilities are dismantled and their sites remediated, spent fuel remains radioactive and takes years to cool off in pools before it can be safely placed in concrete cylinders—dry casks, in industry lingo—for interim storage that could last years or even decades. Utility companies stuck with these useless sites often delay the costly cleanups as long as they possibly can.

[…]

Companies like Holtec International (which Salsberg reports has deals for several plants that are being retired up and down the east coast and in Michigan) will take on the nuclear facilities, their multibillion-dollar funds set aside for the decommissioning process, and the prospect of lucrative government compensation. (Since there’s no national long-term disposal site for high-level civilian nuclear waste, the concrete cylinders have to stay where they are until a long-term repository is created.)

Holtec claims it can safely store spent fuel in its specialized cylinders after only two years of cooling, instead of the five to 10 years of cooling now required. But opponents and some officials worry that encouraging commercialization of nuclear waste storage will jeopardize safety, and that the speedier decommissioning projects will hit more snags than they already do. Salsberg notes that Holtec International has “never managed a decommissioning start to finish.”

It’s also not clear that moving spent fuel from cooling pools into storage canisters a few years more quickly than it otherwise might be moved will make the former sites of nuclear power plants—still burdened with dry casks full of nuclear waste—all that attractive as developments sites.

Read more at Nuclear waste: A hot business?

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除染土利用の実証試験を初公開　福島県飯舘村で農地造成 via 沖縄タイムス

Posted on 2019/05/24 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　環境省は２４日、東京電力福島第１原発事故で帰還困難区域となっている福島県飯舘村長泥地区で、村内の除染で生じた土を農地造成に再利用する実証試験の現場を初めて報道機関に公開した。

福島県の除染土は第１原発近くの中間貯蔵施設で保管するが、環境省は最終処分量を減らすために放射性物質濃度が比較的低い土壌を再利用する方針を掲げている。

長さ約２０メートル、幅約３メートルのベルトコンベヤーが装備された分別機と呼ばれる機械で放射性セシウム濃度を測定。１キログラム当たり５千ベクレル以下の土だけを選別する。

続きは除染土利用の実証試験を初公開　福島県飯舘村で農地造成

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Chernobyl vs. Fukushima: Which Nuclear Meltdown Was the Bigger Disaster? via Live Science

Posted on 2019/05/24 by yukimiyamotodepaul

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer 

The new HBO series “Chernobyl” dramatizes the accident and horrific aftermath of a nuclear meltdown that rocked the Ukraine in 1986. Twenty-five years later, another nuclear catastrophe would unfold in Japan, after the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered a disastrous system failure at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Both of these accidents released radiation; their impacts were far-reaching and long-lasting.

But how do the circumstances of Chernobyl and Fukushima compare to each other, and which event caused more damage? [5 Weird Things You Didn’t Know About Chernobyl]

[…]

“As a result, more fission products were released from the single Chernobyl core,” Lyman told Live Science. “At Fukushima the cores overheated and melted but did not experience violent dispersal, so a much smaller amount of plutonium was released.”

In both accidents, radioactive iodine-131 posed the most immediate threat, but with a half-life of eight days, meaning half of the radioactive material decayed within that time, its effects soon dissipated. In both meltdowns, the long-term hazards arose primarily from strontium-90 and cesium-137, radioactive isotopes with half-lives of 30 years.
And Chernobyl released far more cesium-137 than Fukushima did, according to Lyman.

“About 25 petabecquerels (PBq) of cesium-137 was released to the environment from the three damaged Fukushima reactors, compared to an estimate of 85 PBq for Chernobyl,” he said (PBq is a unit for measuring radioactivity that shows the decay of nuclei per second).

[…]

In the years that followed, cancers in children skyrocketed in the Ukraine, up by more than 90%, according to Time. A report issued by United Nations agencies in 2005 approximated that 4,000 people could eventually die of radiation exposure from Chernobyl. Greenpeace International estimated, in 2006, that the number of fatalities in the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus could be as high as 93,000 people, with 270,000 people in those countries developing cancers who otherwise would not have done so.

[…]

No-go zones
Japanese authorities created a no-go zone around Fukushima that extended for 12 miles (20 kilometers); the damaged reactors were permanently closed, while cleanup efforts continued.

The extent of Fukushima’s environmental impact is still unknown, though there is already some evidence that genetic mutations are on the rise in butterflies from the Fukushima area, producing deformations in their wings, legs and eyes. [See Photos of Fukushima’s Deformed Butterflies]

Radiation from contaminated water that escaped Fukushima reached North America’s western coast in 2014, but experts said that contamination was too low to pose a threat to human health. And in 2018, researchers reported that wines produced in California after the Fukushima accident had elevated levels of radioactive cesium-137, but the California Department of Public Health declared that the wines were not dangerous to consume.

[…]

The Fukushima nuclear power plant is still open and active (though the reactors that exploded remain closed); nonetheless, ongoing concerns about safety linger. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) recently announced that it would not hire foreign workers coming to Japan under newly relaxed immigration rules; TEPCO representatives cited concerns about the ability of non-native Japanese speakers to follow the plant’s highly detailed safety instructions, The Japan Times reported yesterday (May 23).

In the end, both disasters provided important lessons for the world on the inherent risks of using nuclear energy, Lyman told Live Science.

Read more at Chernobyl vs. Fukushima: Which Nuclear Meltdown Was the Bigger Disaster?

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