「不適合」原発　規制委の停止判断は当然 via 西日本新聞

Posted on 2019/04/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

原子力発電所の新規制基準は東京電力福島第１原発事故のような過酷事故を二度と繰り返さないために設けられた。その原点に立ち返れば、原子力規制委員会が下した判断は当然だ。

規制委は、原発への設置が遅れているテロ対策施設「特定重大事故等対処施設（特重施設）」について、事業者側が求めた経過措置期間の延長を認めず、５年の設置期限内に完成しなければ「基準不適合」として運転を停止させることを決めた。

新規制基準下で最も早く再稼働した九州電力の川内原発１号機（鹿児島県薩摩川内市）は来年３月に、２号機は来年５月に設置期限を迎えるが、特重施設の完成は１年程度遅れる見込みという。期限後は完成検査が終わるまで運転できない。運転中の関西電力と四国電力の３原発５基も期限内に工事が終わらず順次、運転停止となる。玄海原発３、４号機（佐賀県玄海町）も同様に期限に間に合わず運転を停止させられる見通しだ。

（略）

事業者にとっては、想定外の急展開だったかもしれない。

九電の原子力発電本部長など電力５社の原子力部門の責任者が顔をそろえ、施設の完成が「遅れる」と規制委に伝えたのは１７日の意見交換会の場だ。特重施設の審査に時間がかかり、工事も大規模になったと訴え、期限延長などの対応を検討してもらう腹づもりだったようだ。

確かに期限が来たからといって、直ちに原発の安全性が損なわれるわけではない。しかし、期限が迫ってから突然、「実は間に合いません」と言って、何とかしてもらえると思っていたのなら論外だ。更田豊志委員長が「工事の見通しが甘かっただけでなく、規制当局の出方に対しても甘かった」と苦言を呈したのはもっともだ。

新規制基準を守らず、原発の安全性向上にきちんと向き合わない事業者に、原発を運転する資格はない。このことを肝に銘じるべきだ。

全文は「不適合」原発　規制委の停止判断は当然

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“ここにも ふくしま PASS THE BATON”　福島の「Jヴィレッジ」から福島の魅力を伝えるリレーバトン広告がスタート！via Jiji.com

Posted on 2019/04/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

(抜粋）

■2020年3月までに全12回のリレーバトン（広告掲載）を実施
“ここにも ふくしま PASS THE BATON”プロジェクトは、朝日新聞（全国版）朝刊に、2020年3月まで毎月最終土曜日に広告の掲載を予定しております。
日本酒や農産物、ものづくりなど様々なテーマにおいて、それに携わる福島の人々から生まれ、県内にとどまらず県外の人々へ繋がっていく想いや、県外で感じられる福島の魅力をお伝えします。

全文は“ここにも ふくしま PASS THE BATON”　福島の「Jヴィレッジ」から福島の魅力を伝えるリレーバトン広告がスタート！

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Taiwan’s president reaffirms anti-nuclear stance at march via The Washington Post

Posted on 2019/04/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Saturday reaffirmed her opposition to nuclear power before marching with anti-nuclear protesters, reviving an issue that has proven politically divisive in the past.

Tsai said at a news conference that her administration was taking efforts to promote renewable energy and reduce the need for nuclear power.

“In the past, people often said we won’t have electricity without nuclear power, or that Taiwan does not have the conditions to develop renewable energy, or even that renewable and green energy are too expensive,” Tsai said. “But after the efforts we have made since taking office, such talk has dissipated.”

She also vowed to reach her targets in reducing emissions from thermal power plants and to retire current nuclear power plants, though without giving any timeline.

[…]

Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party has long opposed the nuclear industry, particularly construction of the high-tech island’s fourth nuclear plant on the tip of the island, north of Taipei. Nuclear power now accounts for about 15% of Taiwan’s electricity generation, according to the World Nuclear Association.

The main opposition Nationalist Party has promoted nuclear power as one of the best ways to provide reliable energy to the island. The issue has in the past sparked occasionally violent clashes between proponents and supporters.

Read more at Taiwan’s president reaffirms anti-nuclear stance at march

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Fukushima Daiichi operator warned for lax security via NHK World–Japan

Posted on 2019/04/27 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has issued a warning to the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for not complying with rules to safeguard nuclear materials. The regulator says the company was not keeping a list of keys to the reactor buildings.

Tokyo Electric Power Company is working to decommission the plant. The company told the regulator last December that a key to one of the buildings was missing.

An investigation revealed that workers did not notice the key was missing for more than a week because there was no list of keys.

NRA officials found more than 9,000 keys to open another padlock on a door of the reactor No.1 building.

[…]

The officials say they will abide strictly by the rules to protect nuclear materials.

Read more at Fukushima Daiichi operator warned for lax security

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A Gripping History of the Nuclear Disaster at Chernobyl via Undark

Posted on 2019/04/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

In “Midnight in Chernobyl,” Adam Higginbotham offers a thorough and readable account of one awful night in the Ukraine and its consequences.

BY Henry Fountain

[…]

A new book offers perhaps the clearest, and fullest, look at the catastrophe yet. Adam Higginbotham’s “Midnight in Chernobyl,” is a compelling and comprehensive account of one awful night in Ukraine and the consequences that were felt worldwide. Higginbotham’s observations, and his writing, are so sharp there is no need to overdo anything for dramatic effect. Told so clearly and in such detail, the story is dramatic — and horrific — enough.

[…]

Higginbotham introduces us to a few people who have never received much notice. Chief among these is Maria Protsenko, the architect of Pripyat, the city of nearly 50,000 that was built for the Chernobyl workers. Like most of the Soviet Union’s privileged atomic cities, Pripyat was a clean, comfortable place, a glorious testament to the Soviet system, and Protsenko’s job for seven years had been to make it even more glorious. 

Her world changed in an instant when the reactor exploded. Pripyat, just a few miles away, was heavily contaminated immediately, though it took the authorities a day and a half to order an evacuation. (This was just one of many examples of Soviet officialdom’s callousness and irresponsibility in handling the disaster. Another was telling the evacuees to plan to be away for a few days; in reality they would be gone forever.)

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Protsenko, who in the space of 36 hours went from proudly planning Pripyat’s expansion to calculating how many buses would be needed to get its residents to safety. (Precisely 1,225, as it turned out.) Ever the dutiful technocrat, she rode the last one, zig-zagging across the ghost city to pick up stragglers.

It’s this kind of detail that makes Higginbotham’s book so gripping. His accounts of the “liquidators,” or clean-up workers, are especially riveting — including the “bio robots,” men who had to clean lethally radioactive debris off the roof of the plant by hand after mechanical robots failed, and the workers whose job was to enter the destroyed reactor building itself, hunting for the remaining uranium fuel in an effort to allays fears that another, potentially worse, explosion was possible.

No aspect of the disaster and its aftermath are ignored. Higginbotham describes how members of a hunting and fishing association were enlisted to exterminate the dogs and other pets Pripyat residents were forced to leave behind. He recounts the woeful tales of plant operators and first-responding firefighters who lived their final days in a Moscow hospital, having been so heavily irradiated during the accident that they had no chance of survival. 

He devotes a full chapter to the unprecedented job of building the sarcophagus, which was constructed by thousands of workers, many of whom only toiled for a short time before being sent home, having reached radiation exposure limits. One task was almost suicidal: finding solid supports among the radioactive ruins for the massive roof beams that were lifted by crane operators working behind lead shields.

[…]

With his detailing of the reactor’s many design flaws — which were long known in Moscow — and discussion of the inevitability of an accident, Higginbotham makes it clear where Brukhanov and others lie on the victim-villain scale. In a very clearly written book, it is perhaps the ultimate moment of clarity.

Read more at A Gripping History of the Nuclear Disaster at Chernobyl

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福島原発で合鍵９千本の管理不備 第１の扉に汎用品の南京錠 via 福井新聞

Posted on 2019/04/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

原子力規制委員会は２６日、東京電力福島第１原発で、核物質の防護措置が徹底されない違反が２件あったとして、東電に注意文書を出した。昨年１２月、１号機の原子炉建屋につながる扉に汎用品の南京錠が使われ、事務棟のキャビネットなどから、厳重に管理されていない合鍵が約９０５０本見つかったという。

（略）

昨年１１月には、東電社員が同建屋にある別の扉の鍵１本をレジ袋に入れて着替えていたところ、同僚がゴミと誤認して捨てた。

全文は福島原発で合鍵９千本の管理不備 第１の扉に汎用品の南京錠

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検査不正製品、全１７原発に納入 via Reuters

Posted on 2019/04/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

電線大手フジクラや日立化成などの製品で発覚した一連の検査不正問題で、東京電力福島第１原発を含む国内にある全１７原発に、これらのメーカーから必要な検査をしなかったケーブルや蓄電池などが納入され、安全上の重要度の高い機器でも多く使われていたことが２６日、電力１０社や原子力規制委員会への取材で分かった。

(略）

１０社は問題の製品の一部を交換し、それ以外は性能試験や点検などで安全に影響がないことを確認でき、使用を継続するとしている。

全文は検査不正製品、全１７原発に納入

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Eyewitness account: the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster via BBC Histories Magazine

Posted on 2019/04/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

On 26 April 1986, an experiment on the cooling pump system at Chernobyl power station, in the then-Soviet city of Pripyat, Ukraine, went badly wrong. The nuclear reactor exploded, causing a fire that raged for nine days and emitting large quantities of radioactive debris. Fallout settled largely in nearby Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, but the radioactive cloud covered much of Europe. At least 30 people died during or shortly after the incident, with many thousands of cancer cases since linked to radiation exposure. Shortly after the catastrophe, journalist Svetlana Alexievich visited the region affected by the Chernobyl disaster. Here she describes her experiences…

At the time that the Chernobyl incident happened my sister was in hospital in Minsk, so I was spending almost all of my time with her there. It just so happened that on one of those days a Swedish friend of mine called me and told me about a serious accident at a nuclear power station. We hadn’t been told anything about it.

[…]

When I first visited the zone, everyone had bewildered, almost crazed faces. They looked on while they sheared the upper, infected layer of earth and buried it in special pits. They buried earth in earth. They buried eggs and milk, and infected animals they had shot. They just kept burying and burying. The information about Chernobyl in the papers was straight out of a military report: an explosion, an evacuation, heroes, soldiers… The system was reacting as usual when faced with extreme conditions, but a soldier with an assault rifle in this new world cut a tragic figure. All he could do was amass an enormous dose of radiation and then die when he returned home.

[…]

Among the stories that stand out for me are those of the firemen who, on the night after the explosion, found themselves on the roof of the reactor and were exposed to radiation 1,000 times exceeding a lethal dose. When they were taken to the hospital, even the doctors, auxiliary medical staff and their relatives had to wear protective clothing just to be around them. They were no longer human beings, but objects to be decontaminated. Scientists, doctors, family and loved ones – all were afraid of them, of going near them. The irradiated lay on the other side of a boundary, posing us new moral questions.

[…]

I saw a terrible sight that I’ll never forget when they evacuated people from the infected villages. All around the buses gathered the pet cats and dogs that had been left behind. People were afraid to look them in the eye, and turned away; only the children cried. Soldiers went into the villages and shot the animals… Man saved only himself. An old bee-keeper told me that his bees refused to leave their hives for a week. Fishermen recalled that they couldn’t dig up a single worm – they had gone deep into the earth. The bees, the worms and the beetles knew something that people didn’t.

The government did everything in its power to keep the people as ignorant as possible. That’s because, if the people had known more, they would have demanded checks on food products, dosimeters [radiation detectors], and medicines to cleanse the body – and the government had no intention of providing these things. That’s why they lied. At one point they promised to give everyone dosimeters; they did give them to some, but people began to panic so they quickly changed tack.

[…]

Svetlana Alexievich is a journalist and author who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. Her books include Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future (first published 1997; updated version Penguin Classics, 2016).

This article was first published in the December 2016/January 2017 issue of BBC World Histories magazine

Read more at Eyewitness account: the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster

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Japan needs thousands of foreign workers to decommission Fukushima plant, prompting backlash from anti-nuke campaigners and rights activists via South China Morning Post

Posted on 2019/04/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

・Activists are not convinced working at the site is safe for anyone and they fear foreign workers will feel ‘pressured’ to ignore risks if jobs are at risk
・Towns and villages around the plant are still out of bounds because radiation levels are dangerously high

Julian Ryall  

Anti-nuclear campaigners have teamed up with human rights activists in Japan to condemn plans by the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to hire foreign workers to help decommission the facility.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has announced it will take advantage of the government’s new working visa scheme, which was introduced on April 1 and permits thousands of foreign workers to come to Japan to meet soaring demand for labourers. The company has informed subcontractors overseas nationals will be eligible to work cleaning up the site and providing food services.

About 4,000 people work at the plant each day as experts attempt to decommission three reactors that melted down in the aftermath of the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the huge tsunami it triggered. Towns and villages around the plant are still out of bounds because radiation levels are dangerously high.

[…]

Companies are desperately short of labourers, in part because of the construction work connected to Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, while TEPCO is further hampered because any worker who has been exposed to 50 millisieverts of radiation in a single year or 100 millisieverts over five years is not permitted to remain at the plant. Those limits mean the company must find labourers from a shrinking pool.

In February, the Tokyo branch of Human Rights Now submitted a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva demanding action be taken to help and protect people with homes near the plant and workers at the site.

[…]

Cade Moseley, an official of the organisation, said there are “very clear, very definite concerns”.

“There is evidence that foreign workers in Japan have already felt under pressure to do work that is unsafe and where they do not fully understand the risks involved simply because they are worried they will lose their working visas if they refuse,” he said.

[…]

In an editorial published on Wednesday, the Mainichi newspaper also raised concerns about the use of semi-skilled foreign labourers at the site.

“There is a real risk of radiation exposure at the Daiichi plant and the terminology used on-site is highly technical, making for a difficult environment,” the paper said. “TEPCO and its partners must not treat the new foreign worker system as an employee pool that they can simply dip into.”

The paper pointed out that it may be difficult to accurately determine foreign employees’ radiation levels if they have been working in the nuclear industry before coming to Japan, while they may also confront problems in the event of an accident and they need to apply for workers’ accident compensation. TEPCO has played down the concerns.

Read more at Japan needs thousands of foreign workers to decommission Fukushima plant, prompting backlash from anti-nuke campaigners and rights activists

Related article: Tepco says foreign workers on new visas can work at crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant via Japan Times

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原子力発電はバベルの塔 via Blogos

Posted on 2019/04/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

わたなべ美樹

(略）

今回は、私の「脱原発」についての考えを述べたい。
２０１３年の参院議員初当選以来、 「原発ゼロへの道筋を作りましょう」と繰り返し 言ってきたが、国をその方向に動かせなかった。

当初は私も、高速増殖炉「もんじゅ」の 核燃料リサイクル構想などを聞き、 永久にコストの安い電気をつくることができ、 ゆくゆくは途上国のエネルギー政策に貢献できる 素晴らしい技術かもしれないと思っていた。

だが、２０１１年３月１１日の東日本大震災に伴う 福島第１原発事故は大きな転換点だった。
福島県は妻の田舎で繋がりも深い

エネルギー政策を審議する参院経済産業委員として、 福島第１原発と同県大熊町を視察した際、 人っ子一人いないゴーストタウンの光景に 大変な衝撃を受けた。
崩れた安全神話を目の前にした。

（略）

私が参院議員に当選した１３年当時は、 自民党内にも「脱原発」の雰囲気がまだあった。

その頃の主たる議論は「東京電力をどうするか」だった。

私は、東電は上場企業として、巨額の負債を抱えており、 国民との合意のなかで、一度「整理」をしてから 前に進むのが、あるべき姿ではないかと、 経営者目線の提言を続けた。

しかし、東京電力が存続されるという方針が決まり、 そこから巨額の負債の返済のため、コストの安い原発を 再稼動する流れが出来上がっていく。

コストが安いとはいえ、福島のように事故がおきたら 「安い」は当然あてはまらない。

（略）

しかし、昨年策定された「第５次エネルギー基本計画」 で「原発を事実上残す」という方針が示された。

「何年までにゼロ」と決めれば、そこに創意工夫が 始まる。「原発ありき」と決めた段階で何も起きない。

ワタミグループは震災以降、風力や太陽光など 自然エネルギーへと本格的にかじを切った。

農業と環境エネルギー事業を手がける子会社、 ワタミファーム＆エナジーは、新時代の主力事業 とさえ位置づけている。さらに、世界の外食企業で 初めて、再生エネルギー１００％を目指す「ＲＥ１００」 をワタミは宣言し、４０年までにその実現を目指して、 いる。秋田県で巨大風車、北海道ではメガソーラーが 今日も稼動し、全国の和民などの店舗では電力使用量を 「見える化」するシステムなどを導入し、 原発ゼロへ一歩ずつ創意工夫をはじめている。

「ＲＥ１００」はワタミの他にも、ソニーやイオン、 海外だとアップルやＰ＆Ｇなど、その輪が年々広がって いる。政治家より経営者の方が、理想を実現しやすい と感じてしまうこともある。

全文は原子力発電はバベルの塔

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