A Fukushima, le drame du retour via Rédacteur

Posted on 2019/04/13 by nfield

Sous la contrainte, 23% de la population réfugiée après la catastrophe du 11 mars 2011 est rentrée dans les communes de l’ancienne zone d’évacuation… Une tribune de Cécile Asanuma-Brice, chercheuse en sociologie urbaine, adjointe au directeur du bureau CNRS Asie du Nord.

[…]

Un véritable bras de fer

Pourquoi une telle politique de contrainte au retour sur des territoires ruraux, en proie au déclin démographique avant l’évacuation ? La gestion de l’accident nucléaire de Fukushima est l’occasion, pour les autorités internationales de gestion du nucléaire (AIEA, UNSCEAR, OMS, ICRP) omniprésentes sur le territoire japonais depuis les évènements, de montrer au monde qu’un accident de cette taille peut être surmonté. La prise en charge de l’évacuation des habitants est jugée comme trop coûteuse par ces organismes, qui avaient annoncé la couleur dès leur 3e symposium des ” experts ” les 8 & 9 septembre 2014. En grande partie infiltrés par les lobbys nucléaires qui rationalisent leur réflexion en terme de coûts-bénéfices (1). Si la sécurité du nucléaire est leur affaire, c’est en ce qu’elle permet l’acceptabilité de sa continuité. C’est la raison pour laquelle le seuil de radioactivité jugé ” raisonnable ” (2) pour le citoyen moyen, est passé de 1 à 20 msv/an depuis la catastrophe. Grâce à cette mesure, la réouverture d’une bonne partie de la zone d’évacuation a pu être effective à Fukushima. Il est fort à parier que cette zone d’évacuation ne sera plus, lors d’un prochain accident, où qu’il soit.

[…]

La fermeture des logements provisoires

La politique de réouverture d’une partie des territoires contaminés de la zone d’évacuation autour de la centrale nucléaire de Fukushima-Daiichi s’est accompagnée de la coupure des aides financières aux réfugiés ainsi que de la fermeture progressive de l’ensemble des logements provisoires présents sur les trois préfectures touchées par la catastrophe : Iwate, Miyagi et Fukushima.

[…]

Le relogement en cités d’habitat collectif fixe les désagréments acceptés parce qu’on les croyait momentanés

Mais peu de personnes rentrent dans ces territoires encore hautement contaminés par endroit. Ainsi, dans la ville de Namie, la dernière a avoir été réouverte, et l’une des plus controversées en raison du taux de contamination encore extrêmement élevé (nous avons relevé des taux à 5 microsieverts /heure dans une voiture sur une route qui relie Namie à la ville de Fukushima le 22 mars 2019), seul 6,1% de la population initiale est rentrée. 9% de la population pour la ville de Tomioka et 18,5% pour le village d’Iitate. En moyenne, sur l’ensemble des territoires rouverts à l’habitat, seulement 23 % de la population est rentrée (3).

Une partie limitée des habitants a pu investir dans la construction d’un nouveau logement ailleurs. Ce n’est malheureusement pas le cas de la grande majorité de la population, relogée dans des logements collectifs publics construits à cet effet. Si les logements provisoires étaient particulièrement mal adaptés à la population évacuée (4), ces logements collectifs ne le sont guère plus. Les habitants de cette région étaient pour la plupart d’entre eux issus de la campagne et vivaient dans de vastes fermes avant la catastrophe. La vie dans ces espaces extrêmement confinés a été insoutenable pour beaucoup de ceux que nous avons interviewés (5).

Les personnes, souvent âgées, qui ne peuvent pas rentrer et qui ont dû accepter d’être relogées en logement collectif, voient leur calvaire se fixer pour aboutir à une situation désormais sans solution. Ils sont contraints de payer le loyer de ce nouveau logement et les charges qui lui incombent. Ce à quoi vient s’ajouter l’achat d’une alimentation qu’ils produisaient avant.

Ils se retrouvent isolés, sans lien avec la nature qu’ils côtoyaient au quotidien avant le désastre, sans leurs animaux interdits dans ces cités, et cela de façon désormais pérenne. En quelques mois, pour le seul département de Fukushima, ce sont 21 cas de morts en solitaire qui ont été dénombrées au sein des logements publics issus de la reconstruction (6).

Mesure des vies et des morts induites

Parmi les 2267 décès classés comme induits par le désastre nucléaire, 200 personnes seraient décédées du fait de la mauvaise gestion du refuge. L’espoir infiniment cultivé par les autorités d’un retour potentiellement possible dans les territoires d’origine n’a pas permis l’établissement d’une réelle politique du refuge. Dans l’attente, les familles ou individus n’ont pas déménagé pour refaire leur vie ailleurs, mais sont partis en transhumance d’hébergement en hébergement.

Les 200 décès recensés sont tous des personnes qui ont déménagé plus de six fois en huit années. Parmi elles 11 se sont volontairement donné la mort. Pendant ce temps, dans la gare de Fukushima, un compteur affiche les jours restant avant l’ouverture des jeux olympiques, qui s’ouvriront à grands frais, sur les lieux du désastre.

En savoir plus

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Secret Plutonium Shipment via Fairewinds Energy Education

Posted on 2019/04/13 by nfield

By Sue Prent

Lately, Americans are experiencing an unprecedented volume of top-down lies emanating from the White House and its circle of acolytes like Energy Secretary Rick Perry. This steady drip of obvious misinformation often renders us somewhat deaf to actual situations of public deception. And, so it is that the latest act of deception perpetrated on the people of Nevada by the U.S. Department of Energy is being met with little attention outside of the state of Nevada.

Not known for candor even in more transparent times, the DOE is now headed by one of President Trump’s hand-picked lackeys, Rick Perry, whom, you may recall, didn’t even know that this job involved oversight of our country’s nuclear stockpiles when he accepted the job. 

Like its quasi-independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has long behaved more as a captive instrument of the nuclear industry when it comes to nuclear energy, the DOE seems to enjoy carte blanche to do as it pleases with little regard to human safety and security issues. The people who live in the states in which DOE activities take place are permitted little say in any DOE matter.

[…]

It was well-known in Nevada and by the federal government that the Nevada legislature, its Governor, and the majority of Nevada voters were opposed to the DOE plan to transport shipments of weapons-grade plutonium in temporary storage containers to a resting place near Las Vegas. We’re talking a metric ton of plutonium, here, even though “a little dab will do ya.” 

While the state was seeking an injunction to prevent the shipments from happening, the DOE did its secretive thang. As of January 17, 2019, Nevada’s Chief Deputy attorney General Wayne Howell had maintained to the judge that the U.S. government had failed to satisfy any environmental review standards having submitted no  evidence to support their assertion that the shipments would pose no threat to the people of Nevada or the environment. Essentially lawyers for the DOE argued that details of the shipments were classified and the state would just have to trust them. The judge said she would rule on the matter shortly.

Chomping at the bit, the DOE didn’t wait for that decision before secretly sending its first shipment from South Carolina to Nevada. They didn’t even wait for the state to make their case in court.  In fact, it was revealed on January 30 that the first shipment to Las Vegas was actually secretly transported in November of 2018.  There had been a deadline of January 1, 2019 to get the plutonium out of Dodge…er…South Carolina, so the DOE just went ahead and did it.   

Newly elected Governor Steve Sisolak is beyond livid and wants a word with Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the state of Nevada is demanding that the secret shipment of plutonium be removed from the state, post haste.

“State officials believe the plutonium shipped into the state was in a powder or granular form, which they say is more volatile and dangerous than the form used in the core of nuclear bombs. Now, in the latest filing in the appeals court, Nevada is arguing that the presence of the plutonium in the state will lead to increased radiation exposure equivalent to receiving 100 to 200 X-rays per year for three years. The state’s attorneys argued that constitutes irreparable harm to Nevada and the public.”

As of Friday, March 15, (the court-ordered deadline for a reply), the federal government has not yet responded to Nevada’s demand that the material be removed.

According to the Nevada Independent,

“the plan to temporarily store plutonium in Nevada is the result of the DOE’s failure to meet a deadline to complete construction on a South Carolina facility that is meant to repurpose excess plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors. A federal judge in May ordered that one metric ton of plutonium be removed from the site [in South Carolina].”

As citizens around the U.S. look the other way, because this latest ‘deception’ does not pertain to their state, just remember that almost every state in the union has an atomic or nuclear facility of one type or another. In an effort to push the Atoms for Peace program back in the 1950s, those in power decided that if they wanted public support for nuclear power, the best thing to do was to create a federal lab, test reactor, nuclear power plant, uranium mine, or waste dump in as many locations as possible throughout the U.S. That strategy was implemented to make sure that every state possible would get federal dollars and jobs to strengthen its economy and be ‘beholdin’ forever to nuclear energy.

Don’t look now, but what is your friendly federal government bringing into your state via the feds secret backdoor? Gotta keep that war-machine going!

Read more.

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Department of Labor adds dozens of steps that may delay healthcare for Cold War nuclear workers via KNOX News

Posted on 2019/04/13 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Brittany Crocker

Sick and injured Cold War nuclear workers are likely to see delays in their health care claims because the Department of Labor has added dozens of steps to the process, according to a home care provider that helps the workers.

The program provides medical care to former nuclear and uranium mine workers who were exposed to radiation and other toxic substances without their knowledge was established by Congress in 2000.
 New rule changes to the program — called the Energy Employees

Occupational Illness Compensation Program — will increase the nine-step home health care preauthorization process to 36 steps, said Emily Baker, a spokeswoman for Professional Case Management, a home care provider for nuclear and uranium workers. Those additional steps could add two months to the process, she said.

[…]

Professional Case Management sued the Department of Labor last month to try to stop the changes from going into effect, and more than 2,000 wrote and called the Department to protest the changes, according to the provider.

“These sick people can’t navigate all this red tape,” said Harry Williams, a 73-year-old former Oak Ridge nuclear security officer who helped lobby for the program’s creation. 

Read more at Department of Labor adds dozens of steps that may delay healthcare for Cold War nuclear workers

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Los Alamos National Laboratory site resumes shipping nuclear waste via Santa Fe New Mexican

Posted on 2019/04/13 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Safety problems for the past five years prevented Los Alamos National Laboratory from using an important building built to temporarily store and load drums of radioactive waste. But officials on Friday said the structure, known as the Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing Shipping Facility, or RANT, has reopened.

The building passed safety inspections earlier this year following upgrades — including a new concrete roof and walls and steel reinforcement panels — to safeguard it from seismic events.

[…]

Workers loaded and delivered 42 55-gallon drums of nuclear waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad on April 11, the lab said in a news release Friday.

The type of nuclear waste sent to the plant is known as transuranic waste and includes items such as gloves, tools, clothing or soil that have been contaminated with plutonium or other highly radioactive material. The lab already generates more of this waste than anywhere else in the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, the lab said.

Before reopening the RANT building, waste had been loaded in a more high-risk environment — at an outdoor area near the lab’s plutonium facility.

[…]

Concerns that an accident could cause serious radiation exposure to workers and the public first closed the RANT facility in 2014.
In a report that year by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, independent advisers to the Department of Energy secretary found managers at the lab had underestimated the seriousness of potential accidents at a high-level nuclear building. As a result, the advisers said, safety measures in place at the facility would not protect workers, or the public living around the lab, from serious radiation exposure in the event of an accident.

[…]

Infrastructure and building safety has been an ongoing issue at LANL. The plutonium facility, known as PF-4, has been plagued by problems, and safety board advisers say lab managers have been slow to make crucial upgrades to ensure it meets federal nuclear safety standards, particularly related to the building’s ability to withstand an earthquake without serious consequences.

For decades, LANL also has struggled to deal with the waste created during the Manhattan Project and Cold War, much of which remains buried in deep and shallow pits throughout the laboratory. Following the 2014 WIPP accident, shipments of waste stalled and moved more slowly off the lab property — and at nuclear sites throughout the nation.

The RANT facility is situated at Technical Area 55, also shared by Area G, the lab’s largest nuclear waste disposal sites.

Read more at Los Alamos National Laboratory site resumes shipping nuclear waste

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伊方原発廃棄物や避難に不安の声 愛媛県などの周辺自治体 via 福井新聞

Posted on 2019/04/13 by yukimiyamotodepaul

原子力規制委員会は１３日、四国電力伊方原発のある愛媛県で、原発周辺自治体の首長らとの意見交換会を開いた。首長からは、廃炉で発生する低レベル放射性廃棄物の処分場がないことや、事故時の避難対応などで疑問や不安の声が出た。

（略）

愛媛県の中村時広知事は、放射性廃棄物について「最終処分が見えず、不安が払拭できない」と指摘。処分場の確保に向けた国の対応を求めた。

更田豊志委員長は「電力会社による、処分場所を見つける努力が何より（重要なこと）だ」などと応じた。

全文は伊方原発廃棄物や避難に不安の声 愛媛県などの周辺自治体

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Japan ‘Nuclear Energy Village’ website pulled after critics say it plumbed ‘new level of insensitive’ via The Japan Times

Posted on 2019/04/13 by nfield

A website created by the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum to educate the next generation on nuclear energy was taken down Friday after drawing criticism on social media, with some Twitter users calling the effort “inappropriate” given that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear disaster happened “just several years ago.”

The website, published Monday by JAIF, which is a nuclear energy lobby group, was called “Atsumare! Genshiryoku Mura,” which roughly translates to “Come gather! Nuclear Energy Village” and its homepage was adorned with warlords, ghosts and clowns along with a slew of colorful characters and other comical touches.

The site came down on Friday, to be replaced by an apology message from JAIF saying the site had been pulled due to “inappropriate language.” The lobby group added, “We apologize for any inconvenience or unpleasantness you may have experienced.”

The page featured pop-ups that read “Excuse me, what village?” and an image of a pirate ship being steered by foreign nationals that linked users to interviews with employees from overseas that were taking part in the project.

“We understand that various opinions are being expressed,” said a JAIF representative before the site was pulled, adding that the purpose of the website was to “provide support for young people involving themselves in nuclear energy in spite of adversity, and to respond to students who have questions and concerns about it.”

[…]

Before the website was published, the JAIF posted on Twitter that people “should look at the website before criticizing it.”

“By just being polite, we’re not reaching our target audience,” the representative said.

In October, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. roiled the Twittersphere when it posted a picture of the inside of No. 4 reactor at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant with a controversial caption. At the time, a flood of users criticized the company, saying it hadn’t taken responsibility for its role in the March 2011 nuclear disaster.

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A Huge Amount of Nuclear Fallout Is Embedded in Glaciers, And They’re Starting to Melt via Science Alert

Posted on 2019/04/12 by nfield

David Neild

As we continue to see warming glaciers collapse and melt into the ocean, we’re potentially looking at a ticking time bomb of buried nuclear material, according to new research.

Scientists have analysed 17 glacier sites and found fallout radionuclides (FRNs) trapped within ice surface sediment called cryoconite at all of them – covering the Arctic, Iceland, the European Alps, Antarctica and other areas. In some cases concentrations of radioactive material are orders of magnitude higher than in areas that don’t have glaciers.

The findings highlight just how far fallout from nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima can travel, as well as sounding a warning that ongoing climate change could come with another unwanted consequence – re-released radioactive material.

“Research into the impact of nuclear accidents has previously focussed on their effects on human and ecosystem health in non-glaciated areas,” says one of the team, Caroline Clason from the University of Plymouth in the UK.

“But evidence is mounting that cryoconite on glaciers can efficiently accumulate radionuclides to potentially hazardous levels.”

Radioactive fallout that lands on snow and ice forms a heavier sediment than when it lands elsewhere. It’s then captured and stored in cryoconite – at least until the ice starts melting.

Caesium and americium was among the dangerous radioactive material found by the researchers. At Switzerland’s Morteratsch glacier, they logged their highest caesium-137 recording – 13,558 Becquerel-per-kilogram. The legal limit for caesium-137 in meat eaten by humans is 1,500 Bq/kg.

[…]

The small silver lining of the research is that the team thinks cryoconite could be helpful in cleaning up land contaminated by nuclear accidents. The work is continuing into how well the sediment holds fallout, and where that fallout might go next.

“Very high concentrations of radionuclides have been found in several recent field studies, but their precise impact is yet to be established,” says Clason.

“Our collaborative work is beginning to address this because it is clearly important for the pro-glacial environment and downstream communities to understand any unseen threats they might face in the future.”

The results of the research have yet to be published, but were recently presented at the 2019 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Read more.

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【原発避難者から住まいを奪うな】「新元号」「新紙幣」の陰で取り残される避難者たち。福島県知事は一度も面会する事無く粛々と切り捨て。支援続ける避難当事者の想いとは…　via 民の声新聞

Posted on 2019/04/12 by nfield
  • 2019/04/12
  • 22:33

結局、福島県の内堀雅雄知事は〝予定通り〟に粛々と原発避難者支援策を打ち切った。3月31日で避難指示区域外からの〝自主避難者〟向け家賃補助制度が終了。国家公務員宿舎から退去しない避難者には、2倍の家賃請求が始まった。既に避難指示が解除された区域からの避難者に対する住宅提供も終わったが、新元号と新紙幣の〝祝賀ムード〟にすっかり隠れてしまった原発避難者の「切り捨て」。元号が変わったら、原発避難は現在進行形では無くなるのか。当事者でありながら支援活動も続けている避難者の想いを軸に、改めて考えたい。なぜ原発避難者支援が必要なのか。

【知事会見で淡々と「今後も支援する」】
　今月1日。午前10時から開かれた県政記者クラブとの定例会見。まず、福島中央テレビの男性記者が「今日、新元号の発表がありますけれども、新しい時代への想いをお聞かせください」と尋ねた。「平成」に替わる新しい元号の発表を控え、記者クラブからの最初の質問もまた、「新元号に対する知事の想い」だった。知事会見までもが改元に伴う空虚な祝賀ムードに包まれた。
　前日には、原発事故による避難指示が出されなかった区域からの避難者（いわゆる〝自主避難者〟）への家賃補助制度や、既に避難指示が解除されている5市町村（南相馬市、川俣町、葛尾村、飯舘村、川内村）からの避難者に対する仮設住宅の供与（みなし仮設住宅としての借り上げ住宅を含む）が打ち切られている。全国12カ所（山形、茨城、埼玉、東京、神奈川、京都）の国家公務員宿舎に身を寄せている避難者は退去を求められ、応じない場合は今月から2倍の家賃を請求される。福島県生活拠点課によると、3月26日時点で2倍の家賃を請求される避難者は約60世帯だという。
　年度が変わり、様々な想いや事情で避難を継続する人は、本当の意味で〝自力避難者〟となる。避難指示区域の内か外かという、放射線防護の点では何ら意味の無い〝線引き〟も無くなる。それでも、原発事故避難者の住宅問題に関して質したのは河北新報一社だけ。内堀知事の回答も、用意したペーパーを読み上げるだけの無機質なものだった。
　「国家公務員宿舎への使用貸付でありますが、2年間の経過措置として実施して来たものであります。経過措置後の例外的な措置として特別な事情のある世帯に限り延長する事としております。いまだ住まいを確保出来ていない世帯については、今後も戸別訪問等を通して一日も早く新たな住まいを確保出来るよう県として支援して参ります」
　河北新報の記者は、引き続き国家公務員宿舎に入居し続ける避難者の数についても質したが、内堀知事は「具体的な部分については、担当部局に直接、聴いていただければと思います」と答えなかった。新元号や〝働き方改革〟に関して雄弁に答えたのとはあまりにも対照的な姿勢だった。東京五輪を軸とした「復興ムード」の中、「原発避難者対策はもう終わった話だ」。そんな想いが透けて見えるようだった。

[…]

全文

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TEPCO to start removing fuel at Fukushima’s No. 3 reactor via The Asahi Shimbun

Posted on 2019/04/12 by yukimiyamotodepaul

The operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will start removing nuclear fuel from the No. 3 reactor as early as next week through equipment controlled remotely due to high radiation levels inside the building.

This will mark Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s first attempt to remove spent fuel from one of the three reactors that experienced a meltdown during the 2011 nuclear accident.

All spent fuel has already been removed from the No. 4 reactor.

TEPCO workers will use remote control to remove nuclear fuel assemblies kept in the pool on the upper floors of the No. 3 reactor building.

[…]

The 566 nuclear fuel assemblies in the storage pool will be removed under a plan expected to take two years to complete.

TEPCO wants to remove the assemblies as quickly as possible owing to concerns that another major earthquake or tsunami could further damage the reactor building and equipment. The No. 3 reactor will also serve as a test case for eventually removing spent nuclear fuel from the No. 1 and No. 2 reactor buildings.

Under the plan, workers will be stationed in a control room about 500 meters from the reactor building and use remote control equipment while observing the process through monitors.

Each nuclear fuel assembly will be lifted and transferred to a special transport container that can hold up to seven such assemblies in water. The container will then be carried out of the reactor building by crane, which will then lower the container outside of the building to a trailer about 30 meters below at ground level.

[…]

While the No. 2 reactor building did not suffer major structural damage, large amounts of radioactive materials are believed to be trapped inside the building, meaning radiation levels are also very high there.
The level at the top floor is so high that any worker remaining there for one hour would quickly exceed the annual radiation exposure level.

After decontamination, the upper part of the No. 2 reactor building will have to be taken apart to remove the spent fuel. However, this poses the major problem of preventing the spewing of radioactive materials during that process.

“To be honest, it will be difficult to say that no problems will emerge that will force a change in plans,” said Toyoshi Fuketa, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

(This article was written by Hiroshi Ishizuka and Chikako Kawahara.)

Read more at TEPCO to start removing fuel at Fukushima’s No. 3 reactor

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WTO upholds South Korea ban on some Japan seafood imports over Fukushima nuclear disaster via The Japan Times

Posted on 2019/04/12 by yukimiyamotodepaul

GENEVA/SEOUL – The World Trade Organization on Thursday ruled in favor of a South Korean ban on imports of some Japanese fishery products introduced in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, reversing an earlier decision against the restrictions.

The decision, delivered by the WTO’s appellate body for dispute settlements, the highest judicial entity of the organization’s mechanism to resolve disputes, leaves Japan with no legal recourse in a battle that has dragged on for years.

The appellate body invalidated the conclusions of a dispute settlement panel that made the earlier decision because, it said, the panel “erred in its interpretation and application” of WTO rules on food safety.

The appellate body, however, did not look at the details of the amount of contaminants in Japanese food products or how much protection South Korean consumers should have.

[…]

The South Korean government welcomed the decision Friday, saying it will maintain the current import ban on fishery products from Fukushima Prefecture and surrounding areas.

The ban will remain in place unless it is officially proven that there is no problem with importing fishery products from the areas concerned, Yoon Chang-ryeol, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said during a press briefing.

The situation will continue to weigh on Japan, which aims to achieve the early reconstruction of areas affected by the March 2011 disasters.
The ruling could also have an impact beyond South Korea.
At present, 23 countries and regions have import restrictions on Japanese food products.

China, which last year started easing its own restrictions on importing Japanese food items, may become more cautious going forward. Taiwan, which has been in a political bind after voters in a referendum last year approved keeping its import ban, will likely feel it has renewed justification to do so despite pressure from Japan.

Read more at WTO upholds South Korea ban on some Japan seafood imports over Fukushima nuclear disaster

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