福島原発告訴団が都内で集会 via Reuters

Posted on 2017/09/23 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　津波対策を怠り福島第１原発事故を防げなかったとして、業務上過失致死傷罪で強制起訴された東京電力の勝俣恒久元会長（７７）ら旧経営陣３人の裁判に関し、福島原発告訴団と支援団は２日、東京都内で集会を開き、「公判によって今まで隠されていた事実が明らかになる」と元会長らの刑事責任を訴えた。

(略）

　告訴団は２０１２年に勝俣氏らを告訴・告発した。

全文は福島原発告訴団が都内で集会

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Natural’ quake detected near N. Korea nuclear site via France 24

Posted on 2017/09/23 by yukimiyamotodepaul

China said a magnitude 3.4 earthquake detected in North Korea on Saturday was a “suspected explosion”, raising fears the isolated state had conducted another nuclear bomb test just weeks after its last one.

An official at South Korea‘s meteorological agency said they were analysing the tremor, which they put at magnitude 3.0, but the initial view was that it was a natural quake.

[…]

The earthquake was detected in Kilju county in North Hamgyong Province, where North Korea‘s known Punggyeri nuclear site is located, the official said.

 Read more at Natural’ quake detected near N. Korea nuclear site 
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原発避難者訴訟　千葉で報告集会　「こんな判決おかしい」…国の責任認めぬ判決に不満続出 via 産経ニュース

Posted on 2017/09/23 by yukimiyamotodepaul

「こんな判決はおかしい」。千葉地裁で２２日に判決が言い渡された東京電力福島第１原発事故避難者の集団訴訟で、阪本勝裁判長は東電の責任を認め、総額約３億７６００万円の損害賠償の支払いを命じる一方、国の責任については認めなかった。閉廷後、弁護団と原告は県弁護士会館（千葉市中央区）で行った支援者らへの報告集会と記者会見では、判決内容に不満を訴える声が次々とあがった。（橘川玲奈、長谷裕太）

判決では、原告が求めていた「ふるさと喪失慰謝料」の一部を認めるなど踏み込んだ部分もあったが、東電と国の責任を認めた前橋地裁判決と異なる判断に、失望を声が渦巻いた。

（略）

約２時間の集会の最後には、滝沢事務局長が原告や弁護団などを代表して、声明を発表。「国の法的責任を認めさせることや、本日の判決で不十分だった損害賠償認容額の是正のために控訴することも含め、被害の完全賠償が実現するまで、今後とも総力を挙げて闘う」と宣言。参加者から拍手が起こった。

全文は原発避難者訴訟　千葉で報告集会　「こんな判決おかしい」…国の責任認めぬ判決に不満続出 

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男性は同町に代々続く家の生まれ。第二次世界大戦で学校教師だった父と次兄は開拓団員として旧満州に渡り、その後死亡。海軍に入隊した長兄も戦死。父と２人の兄という働き手を失った一家は終戦後、貧困に苦しみ、「私が家を守り家族を養わなければならなかった」と振り返る。

そのため稲作や養蚕などでありとあらゆることに脇目もふらず働いた。地域の発展のため、区長を４期８年、町議を４期１６年つとめた。「地域のため、私なりに大変努力した」。戦争で失った父や兄、地域の戦没者のために町戦没者遺族会会長も約２０年つとめてきた。

国のために亡くなった父や兄と同様に、事故前は地域の発展のために、国や東電が「絶対安全安心」として推進する原発を「信じてきた」と話す。

だが、絶対安全安心だったはずの福島第１原発で事故が起き、先祖から受け継ぎ、自身も発展のために尽くした故郷を離れることを余儀なくされた。現在も帰還困難区域に指定されている自宅には、今も家族の遺品などが眠り、持ち帰ることは叶わぬままだ。

（略）

迎えた判決日。男性は判決前には穏やかな表情を浮かべていた。しかし判決を聞き、顔には強い怒りがにじんだ。

「三権分立を信じていたのに、裁判官は行政にベッタリの判決をした」と痛烈に批判。今後も故郷を取り戻すため、「こんなことでは終われない」と、法廷で闘い続ける姿勢をみせた。（長谷裕太）

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「お父さんに負けたなんて言えない」　原発事故後、千葉に避難した菅野美貴子さん via 産経ニュース

Posted on 2017/09/22 by nfield

「お父さんに負けたなんて、言えないよ」。千葉地裁での判決後、福島県南相馬市から千葉市へ避難している原告、菅野美貴子さん（６２）は、２年前に６４歳で他界した夫の秀一さんを思い、つぶやいた。

[…]

体が不自由だった秀一さんの受け入れ先があると聞き、千葉市の老人ホームに避難。７月に現在の自宅に移った。「放射線量が高く故郷には戻れない」と、店は２４年夏に閉めた。故郷や生業を奪われた憤りから、訴訟で闘うことも決めた。

孤独な避難生活に「前向きにならなくては」と思い立ち、２５年１月からは秀一さんのヘルパーだった女性とともに市内で居酒屋「しのぶ」を営む。「お客さんはいい人ばかり」。徐々に楽しみも見つかった。

宮城県多賀城市と横浜市に住む２人の息子は「いつでも来ていいよ」と言ってくれるが、今も千葉市を離れないのは、避難生活を支えてくれた友人がいるからだ。「人間がどのように生き、死んで行くかを自身で決める自由がある」。法廷では、こう意見陳述した。

判決では、計約８９０万円の損害が認容された。一方で、原発事故への国の責任を否定する内容には到底、納得がいかない。「息子のところへはまだ行けない。とにかく落ち着いて静かに暮らしたい」。涙をにじませ、足早に職場へ向かった。（橘川玲奈）

 

全文

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Nuclear Plants Plus Hurricanes: Disasters Waiting to Happen via Common Dreams

Posted on 2017/09/22 by nfield

Throughout the world, some 430 reactors are in various stages of vulnerability to natural disaster, including ninety-nine in the United States.

by
Harvey Wasserman

Although the mainstream media said next to nothing about it, independent experts have made it clear that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma threatened six U.S. nuclear plants with major destruction, and therefore all of us with apocalyptic disaster. It is a danger that remains for the inevitable hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters yet to come.

During Harvey and Irma, six holdovers from a dying reactor industry—two on the Gulf Coast at South Texas, two at Key Largo and two more north of Miami at Port St. Lucie—were under severe threat of catastrophic failure. All of them rely on off-site power systems that were extremely vulnerable throughout the storms. At St. Lucie Unit One, an NRC official reported a salt buildup on electrical equipment requiring a power downgrade in the midst of the storm.

[…]

“In addition to reactors, which at least are within containment structures, high-level radioactive waste storage pools are not within containment, and are also mega-catastrophes waiting to happen, as in the event of a natural disaster like a hurricane,” says Kevin Kamps of the activist group Beyond Nuclear.

In 1992 Hurricane Andrew paralyzed fire protection systems at Florida’s Turkey Point and so severely damaged a 350-foot-high tower it had to be demolished. The eye of that storm went directly over the reactor, sweeping away support buildings valued at $100 million or more.

There’s no reason to rule out a future storm negating fire protection systems, flinging airborne debris into critical support buildings, killing off-site backup power, and more.

As during Andrew, the owners of the nuclear plants under assault from Harvey and Irma had an interest in dragging their feet on timely shut-downs. Because they are not liable for downwind damage done in a major disaster, the utilities can profit by keeping the reactors operating as long as they can, despite the obvious public danger.

Viable evacuation plans are a legal requirement for continued reactor operation. But such planning has been a major bone of contention, prompting prolonged court battles at Seabrook, New Hampshire, and playing a critical role in the shutdown of the Shoreham reactor on Long Island. After a 1986 earthquake damaged the Perry reactor in Ohio, then-Governor Richard Celeste sued to delay issuance of the plant’s operating license. A state commission later concluded evacuation during a disaster there was not possible. After Andrew, nuclear opponents like Greenpeace questioned the right of the plant to continue operating in light of what could occur during a hurricane.

[…]

 

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Tepco again ordered to pay damages in nuclear disaster, but not state via The Mainichi

Posted on 2017/09/22 by nfield

[…]

The Chiba District Court ruling follows a Maebashi District Court decision in March that found negligence on the part of both Tepco and the government played a part in the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl and ordered them to pay damages.

[…]

The focal point of the Chiba case was whether the government and Tepco were able to foresee the huge tsunami that hit the seaside plant on March 11, 2011, and take preventive measures beforehand, with conflicting claims made by the parties regarding the government’s long-term earthquake assessment, which was made public in 2002.

The assessment, made by the government’s earthquake research promotion unit, predicted a 20 percent chance of a magnitude-8-level tsunami-triggering earthquake occurring along the Japan Trench in the Pacific Ocean within 30 years, including the area off Fukushima.

Based on the assessment, the plaintiffs argued that, with the plant standing on ground roughly 10 meters above sea level, a tsunami higher than the ground striking the plant could have been predicted.

They then claimed that the disaster was therefore preventable if emergency power generation equipment had been placed on higher ground, and that the government should have made Tepco take such measures by exercising its regulatory powers.

The government and Tepco, for their part, claimed the assessment was not established knowledge, and that even if they had foreseen a tsunami higher than the site of the plant and taken measures against it, they cannot be held liable as the actual tsunami was much higher at around 15.5 meters.

The government also argued that it obtained regulatory powers to force Tepco to take anti-flooding measures only after a legislative change following the disaster.

In Friday’s ruling, the court found the government not liable, saying that while the government indeed has such powers, not exercising them was not too unreasonable.

While ordering Tepco to pay damages, the court determined that the plant operator did not commit serious negligence that would have required a higher compensation amount, saying it did not totally leave anti-tsunami measures unaddressed.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers criticized the ruling as unfair, in that the court did not recognize the state’s liability. But they still positively rated the court’s acknowledgement of the loss of the plaintiffs’ hometown, jobs and personal relationships, and compensation for such a loss.

In March, the Maebashi District Court in Gunma Prefecture recognized negligence on the part not just of Tepco but also the government, saying they were able to foresee a tsunami high enough to inundate the plant.

It was the first such ruling issued among around 30 suits of the same kind and the first to rule in favor of plaintiffs.

The Maebashi court acknowledged that the government had regulatory authority over Tepco even before the accident, noting that “failing to exercise it is strikingly irrational and illegal.”

The court awarded to 62 of 137 plaintiffs a total of 38.55 million yen in damages, far less than the 1.5 billion yen sought in total. Many of the plaintiffs have appealed the district court decision.

[…]

 

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Forty years of impasse: The United States, Japan, and the plutonium problem via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Posted on 2017/09/22 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Abstract

Recently, records have been published from the internal discussions in the Carter administration (1977–80) on the feasibility of convincing Japan to halt its plutonium-separation program as the United States was in the process of doing domestically. Japan was deeply committed to its program, however, and President Carter was not willing to escalate to a point where the alliance relationship could be threatened. Forty years later, the economic, environmental, and nonproliferation arguments against Japan’s program have only been strengthened while Japan’s concern about being dependent on imports of uranium appears vastly overblown. Nevertheless, Japan’s example, as the only non-weapon state that still separates plutonium, continues to legitimize the launch of similar programs in other countries, some of which may be interested in obtaining a nuclear weapon option.

Read the full article at Forty years of impasse: The United States, Japan, and the plutonium problem 

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東京大学　福島放射能汚染の調査研究本が10万ダウンロードを記録 via 大学ジャーナルオンライン

Posted on 2017/09/22 by yukimiyamotodepaul

福島第一原発事故の被災地支援に取り組んでいる東京大学農学生命科学研究科。その調査研究活動結果をまとめた本のダウンロード数が100,000回を突破した。

　東京大学農学生命科学研究科では福島第一原発事故の被災地支援に取り組んでおり、震災直後から様々な分野の研究者がボランティアとして調査研究を行い、現地の住民と交流しながら現場主義で活動を進めている。

これらの調査研究活動結果は、中西友子特任教授が中心となってまとめ、2013年と2016年に2冊の本をpringer社から出版し、それぞれの本のダウンロード回数が106,000回と40,000回を記録した。Springer社から出版される本の中で、ダウンロード回数が100,000回を越える本はわずか5％にも満たず、しかも日本人の著者の本では滅多にないという。

農学生命科学研究科における福島の復興支援活動は現在も続いており、新たな研究成果をまとめ、現在、3冊目出版に向けて準備中。

続きは東京大学　福島放射能汚染の調査研究本が10万ダウンロードを記録 

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Belarus Proceeding With Russian-Built Nuclear Plant Despite Accidents, Quake Worries, And Neighbors’ Objections via RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty

Posted on 2017/09/22 by yukimiyamotodepaul

With the construction of Belarus’s controversial Astravets nuclear power plant hurtling forward, the dissonance between Minsk and Vilnius over the project could not be greater.

Lithuania — whose capital lies less than 50 kilometers from Astravets — has protested vehemently against the construction of the plant since it was announced in 2008.

Along with objecting to Minsk’s decision to build the plant so close to Vilnius — which along with Astravets is in a seismic-activity zone — Lithuanian officials are concerned that Minsk has not allowed a full inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Adding to the worries in Vilnius is the secrecy of Belarusian officials when faced with 10 accidents and three deaths that occurred during the construction of the plant, which began in 2013.

[…]

Apparently Nontransparent

Belarusian officials were slow to report any of the string of accidents that occurred during construction, including when a 330-ton nuclear reactor shell fell and was damaged on July 10, 2016, ultimately having to be replaced.

[…]

While addressing a visiting group of journalists during an August 23 tour of Astravets, Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadzyuk said Minsk had provided Lithuania “with all the answers” to its worries regarding the plant and complained that officials in Vilnius have been “politicizing” the issue.

Lithuanian officials reject that claim, saying Belarus has ignored their concerns about the plant.

[…]

Quaking Worries

Lithuania is also worried about the seismic activity that has occurred in the region where the plant is being built, pointing to two minor earthquakes in 1987 and a report by the Belarusian Academy of Sciences in 1993 that stated Astravets was unsuitable as a location for a nuclear plant because of the tremors.

A serious earthquake also shook the region in 1908 and there have been a total of 40 known earthquakes in the East Baltic Sea region since the 17th century.

[…]

Poland recently joined the boycott of Astravets energy.

“I think that the technologies are not safe and a lack of safety resulted in the Chernobyl disaster,” said Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski on August 6. “Therefore we are against the Astravets nuclear power plant and we are not going to buy its energy.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meanwhile, issued a recommendation on June 27 for the construction at Astravets to be suspended.

[…]

“Our nuclear power plant [being built at Astravets]…is a fishbone in the throat of the EU and the Baltic states,” said Lukashenka in an address at Minsk’s Belarusian Agrarian Technical University.

Lithuanian officials also note with concern the creation of a new military unit — ostensibly to protect the nuclear plant — and an air base being built near Astravets at which the troops stationed there will undergo training in Belarus and Russia.

Read more at Belarus Proceeding With Russian-Built Nuclear Plant Despite Accidents, Quake Worries, And Neighbors’ Objections 

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Vatican signs treaty to ban nuclear weapons via Crux

Posted on 2017/09/22 by yukimiyamotodepaul
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister, signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations Sept. 20. “Nuclear arms offer a false sense of security,” the archbishop said. “Peace and international stability cannot be founded on mutually assured destruction or on the threat of annihilation.”

ROME – The Holy See ratified and signed the new U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and the high-level Vatican diplomat who signed the treaty told a U.N. conference that the Catholic Church supports efforts “to move progressively toward a world free of nuclear weapons.”

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister, signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations Sept. 20. More than 40 other countries signed it as well. The treaty would enter into force 90 days after at least 50 countries both sign and ratify it.

Also at the United Nations, Gallagher addressed the 10th Conference on Facilitating Entry into Force of Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a treaty the Vatican adhered to in 1996. The text of his speech was released at the Vatican Sept. 21.

The Vatican, he said, believes “a nuclear test ban, nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament are closely linked and must be achieved as quickly as possible under effective international control.”

[…]

“The rising tensions over North Korea’s growing nuclear program are of special urgency,” he said. “The international community must respond by seeking to revive negotiations. The threat or use of military force have no place in countering proliferation, and the threat or use of nuclear weapons in countering nuclear proliferation are deplorable.

“Nuclear arms offer a false sense of security,” the archbishop said. “Peace and international stability cannot be founded on mutually assured destruction or on the threat of annihilation.”

Read more at Vatican signs treaty to ban nuclear weapons

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