茨城県の橋本昌まさる知事（７１）が１０日、東京電力福島第一原発事故後、運転停止が続く日本原子力発電東海第二原発（茨城県東海村）について「再稼働を認めない」と、同日告示された知事選の出陣式で発言した。
橋本氏はこれまで実効性のある広域避難計画策定など厳しい条件を挙げながらも、再稼働自体は否定していなかった。しかし、この日は報道陣に対し、「条件は撤廃し、無条件で認めない。子供を持つお母さん方から原発は止めてくれと言われ、県民の思いはそうなのかと感じた」と説明した。
知事選には橋本氏、新人で元ＩＴ会社役員の大井川和彦氏（５３）（自民、公明推薦）、新人でＮＰＯ法人理事長の鶴田真子美まこみ氏（５２）（共産推薦）の３人が無所属で立候補している。大井川氏は原子力政策について「県民本位の徹底した安全対策」を掲げ、７月２０日の記者会見では「住民投票の実施も選択肢の一つ」と語っていた。鶴田氏は再稼働反対を一貫して主張し、１０日の演説でも「茨城県で始まった原発を止めたい」と訴えた。
On the eve of his appearance at a Victoria University event in Wellington, comic book author Fumio Obata talks to Guy Somerset about his ongoing project chronicling the aftermath of the Fukushima tsunami and nuclear disaster.
At art school, Fumio Obata was taught the importance of “the theme, having something of your own, something only you can do”. The theme that has preoccupied Obata for the past five years is one he has truly made his own. He has been chronicling, through striking comic book reportage, the devastating consequences of the magnitude 9.1 earthquake that struck off the northeast Pacific coast of Japan in March 2011, causing a tsunami and meltdowns and radioactive contamination at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Published in Italian magazine Internazionale and on his website, Obata’s comic strips capture the long-term effects of Fukushima and explore some of the knotty social, political and environmental issues raised by the disaster and its aftermath. The strips are destined to become his second book, his first being 2014’s internationally successful graphic novel Just So Happens, for which The Observer reviewer Rachel Cooke praised his “crazily accomplished” storytelling and described him as “a talent to watch”.
[…]
A YouTube video on Obata’s website gives a sense of what such reporting can entail. In it, dressed in a white protective suit, he walks through an eerily desolate ghost town that is about two kilometres from Fukushima and part of the designated exclusion zone.
“If you become friends with a resident, they have a pass and you can go there with them,” he says. He and his friend wore protective suits, but clear-up and other workers don’t. “They don’t become ill. They say it is fine. Even in the exclusion zone, it’s not all equally radioactive. Because particles are not going to be evenly dispersed. When you walk around with the Geiger counter, you notice that sometimes the figure is very low, then you go several feet away from that spot and the figure jumps up. Even outside the exclusion zone, if you go to the bits closest to the zone you find the figures are very high.”
Obata’s reporting, which he describes as “a kind of journalism, but I’m more doing my philosophical take on it”, begins with him taking photographs and recording interviews.
[…]
One of the most affecting stories Obata tells is that of Norio Kimura, whose father, wife and seven-year-old youngest daughter Yūna were lost in the tsunami. While the bodies of his father and wife were found in April 2011, Yūna’s remained missing. After the official search for her ended, Kimura continued looking, taking 1000km round trips to do so. After five years and nine months, a piece of bone was discovered that DNA testing proved was one of Yūna’s.
“Yūna was torn apart into small pieces, taken away with contaminated debris, now stored around anonymously,” reads one of the story’s panels. “Had they done the search longer and more carefully from the start, she could have been found a lot earlier, with her body almost intact too.”
The story ends with a panel reading: “A child has been left out alone in the shadow of the reconstruction. And her presence now poses a lot of questions to us.”
[…]
“The father I met is very vocal because he’s angry. He’s just full of anger. He’s trying to change something about the law, for the love of his daughter. It’s very moving. That’s why he basically opened up to me. His story is still developing and he’s still searching for the remains of his daughter.”
Another panel in the same story is of a city skyline at night and reads: “The nuclear plant was built to provide electricity to the capital region. By knowing Fukushima today, Tokyo could look arrogant, with all the excess of lights and luxury.”
It’s a point elegantly distilled – even poetically so.
[…]
“When a tragedy happens, we tend to think there’s a victim and there’s an offender. There’s going to be people who get accused and there are victims who get all the sympathy from the public. But sometimes it’s not like that. Sometimes you can’t make things black and white.
“What’s happening with nuclear is one of these things. If you start reading just a short history of the nuclear industry, or nuclear technology, you see a lot of people believe in the technology and I can’t blame them, because I can’t prove them wrong. They get accused and the people who accuse them have right things to say and I can’t blame them either.
“So basically there are no answers to it and it’s very uncomfortable for the human mind not to have answers. You need a bit of patience and courage to accept that. This is one of the things I am going to say at the end, I think: it’s difficult to accept an open ending but you’ve got to have the courage.”
As for Tokyo: “The consumption of energy really helped to establish today’s Japan’s reputation. And I’m part of it. I can’t really criticise it. I just have to take in the contradiction and try to respond.”
Read more at The comic strip journalist who reports on the fallout from Fukushima
In the 80s the horror of nuclear war was brought home by CND, Raymond Briggs and Threads. That moment is worth remembering now we have two monsters threatening global mass murder
Ican’t remember exactly when I stopped dreaming of nuclear annihilation. It must have been the 90s, when my fear of nuclear war was subsumed by other fears, maybe even some optimism. This fear was huge during the 80s. When the great storm of 1987 hit, I remember all the trees crashing and electricity going off and thinking: “Well I suppose this is it. Something to do with Iran,” and going back to sleep. Slow environmental collapse took over from the imagining of a nuclear winter. Now I fear terror and robots more. Both on the same day sometimes.
It is remarkably easy, though, to resuscitate that old fear because it was all-engulfing at the time. The doctrine of mutually assured destruction was its highest goal. Those were the days, my friend. We thought we would all end.
And here we are back again with Trump, who is forever warning us that the world is hell but threatening to make it more so.
[…]
“Fire and fury” is an attempt at biblical language to describe mass murder. This is being said while people remember Nagasaki and recount the details of the aftermath. A place, we are told, where the living envied the dead, where skin hung off children like cloth, where victims lay in darkness, their wounds full of maggots.
Yet anyone who opposes nuclear weapons is accused of being naive beyond belief. Disarming in a multilateral world is an impossible ideal. As that ideal gets further away, so, until recently, has the idea of nuclear war.
This was not always the case. In the 80s, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was huge and multi-generational. Indeed, on the huge CND march in 1983, when a million people came out on the streets, some of us were frustrated by how polite it all was. I had been at Greenham Common and wanted more direct action. CND seemed too woolly, and indeed there was a lot of criticism of Greenham as a women-only space from within its ranks.
Nonetheless Michael Heseltine, minister of defence in 1983, was absolutely determined to undermine CND by spying on and bugging activists. CND was seen as a threat in itself.
[…]
But that moment is worth remembering now we have these two narcissistic monsters (the other being Kim Jong-un) threatening each other with warheads. How can this be de-escalated? “Nuclear war. LOL,” as Twitter would have it. “We will all be gone in a flash.” No we won’t. Only the lucky ones will.
I know this because the horror of nuclear weapons was brought home to us in the 80s. The terror was domesticated, and it was domesticated through the culture. This was extremely important. The “protect and survive” leaflets of 1980 were seen as a kind of joke by many. The peace campaigner EP Thompson, of course, produced Protest and Survive as a response. The government had suggested that you could construct a fallout shelter out of cardboard. Or get under the table.
[…]
Threads, shown on the BBC, was even darker. Sheffield town hall is hit as warheads burst over the North sea. There is looting, cholera and typhoid. A year later, some of the smoke and soot clears but cancer is everywhere. Ten years later, life is returning to a medieval barbarism, with the government communicating to its small population only through radio.
Read more at Trump’s ‘fire and fury’ has revived my nuclear nightmares
関西電力の岩根茂樹社長は９日、美浜原子力発電所（福井県美浜町）での安全徹底を誓う行事の中で「美浜で永続的に原子力事業を営みたい」と述べた。40年超の運転となる３号機の再稼働に加えて、１、２号機の廃炉に対応したリプレース（新増設）も示唆した。
11人が死傷した３号機の蒸気噴出事故から13年を迎えた行事で語った。行事終了後、岩根社長は新増設について「東日本大震災前に調査して中止になったが、この地でリプレースしたいという気持ちは変わっていない」と発言。国のエネルギー基本計画での新増設の位置付けなどが課題になるとの見方を示した。
関電の原発では高浜２号機のクレーンが倒壊する事故が１月に発生した。
任期満了に伴う茨城県知事選が１０日告示され、午後５時に立候補届け出を締め切った結果、現職知事最多の７選を目指す橋本昌氏（７１）、新人で元ＩＴ企業役員の大井川和彦氏（５３）＝自民、公明推薦＝、新人でＮＰＯ法人理事長の鶴田真子美氏（５２）＝共産推薦＝の無所属３氏による争いが確定した。投開票は２７日。
県医師連盟、県農政連などの推薦を得た橋本氏と大井川氏が対決する保守分裂選挙となった。(略）
日本原子力発電東海第２原発（東海村）の再稼働を争点に激戦が繰り広げられる。
原発再稼働について橋本氏は「安全と避難体制の実効性が確保されなければ認められない」としていたが、１０日の街頭演説などで「無条件で認めない」と述べ、反対姿勢を鮮明にした。大井川氏は「全くの白紙」とし、鶴田氏は廃炉を主張している。
１１年の東京電力福島第１原発事故直後の高濃度汚染水を処理した際に出た汚泥と廃液計約６００立方メートルが、敷地内の海抜が低い場所の建屋地下に６年間も保管されていることが９日、分かった。
（略）
問題の汚泥と廃液は、仏・アレバ社製の処理装置で１１年６～９月、約７万６０００トンの汚染水を処理して発生。１京ベクレルもの放射性物質が含まれると推計されている。これらが１～４号機の原子炉建屋などと同じ海抜１０メートルのエリアにある「プロセス主建屋」地下階の貯槽（鉄筋コンクリート造り）にためられている。
メルトダウンした東京電力福島第１原発構内を先月２７日、取材した。１～３号機に残る溶融燃料の取り出しや、放射性汚染水の処理といった課題を抱える中、作業環境の改善は進んでいる。
「食堂ができるまで構内で温かい食事をしたことがなかった。今では構内唯一の楽しみです」。構内にある「大型休憩所」の食堂で、同僚と昼食をとっていた５０代男性が語った。
(略）
休憩所は２０１５年５月に完成。作業員にとっては構内で唯一の「憩いの場」だ。食堂は、地元企業などが出資した「福島復興給食センター」（福島県大熊町）が運営。福島産の食材を使ったメニューは２種類の日替わり定食と麺、丼、カレーの計５種類（いずれも３８０円）で、１日最大３０００食分を調理して食堂に届けている。
（略）
がれき撤去などが進み、全面マスクなどが不要なエリアは拡大したものの、炎天下での作業には熱中症の危険が伴う。東電は協力企業に対し、午後２～５時は作業を控えるように求めている。
作業環境改善の一方、廃炉達成（４１～５１年目標）の道のりは果てしなく遠い。先月２１日には、３号機の原子炉格納容器内で溶け落ちた燃料とみられる塊が見つかったものの、取り出しのめどは立っていない。
汚染水対策も道半ばだ。構内には貯蔵タンクが林立している。汚染水浄化後に残る「トリチウム水」の処理が課題になっているが、東電の川村隆会長が、海洋放出について「（東電として）判断はもうしている」などと述べたと報道され（東電は否定）、地元漁協が抗議する事態となった。
現場では１日約５６００人が作業し、そのうち半数は汚染水対策に当たる。男性作業員は「事故を起こさず、一歩ずつ着実に前進することが信頼回復への近道ではないか」と話す。【鈴木理之】
A suspected unexploded bomb has been found at the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
The US is thought to have dropped the 89cm-long (3ft) device during WW2.
It was found by workers building a car park at the site where a four-decade-long decommissioning process is under way.
[…]
It is not uncommon for unexploded WW2 devices to be found in Japan over 70 years on from the end of the war.
The Fukushima area was previously home to a Japanese military base.
Read more at Fukushima disaster: ‘WW2 bomb’ found at Japan nuclear site
廃炉作業が行われている東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の構内から３００メートルほど離れた駐車場の工事現場で、１０日朝、不発弾と見られるものが見つかり、警察が、爆発するおそれがないか確認作業などを進めています。東京電力によりますと、原発構内での作業はふだんどおり行っているということです。
１０日午前７時半ごろ、福島第一原発の構内から西に３００メートルほど離れた発電所施設の管理区域外の駐車場で、駐車場を広げるため掘削工事をしていた業者が、掘り出した土砂の山から不発弾と見られるものを見つけました。
東京電力から通報を受けて現場を確認した警察によりますと、見つかったものは、長さ８５センチ、直径１５センチほどの大きさ
(略）
東京電力によりますと、この場所には太平洋戦争中に旧日本軍の飛行場があり、終戦間際に空襲を受けたことがあったということです。
“No more hibakusha”
These words express the heartfelt wish of the hibakusha that in the future nobody in the world ever again has to experience the disastrous damage caused by nuclear weapons. This summer, the wish has moved many nations across the globe and resulted in the creation of a certain treaty.The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which of course prohibits the use of nuclear weapons, and furthermore their possession or deployment, was adopted this July by 122 nations, a figure representing more than 60% of the United Nations’ member states. This was a moment when all the efforts of the hibakusha over the years finally took shape.
I would like to call this treaty, which mentions the suffering and struggles of the hibakusha, “The Hiroshima‐Nagasaki Treaty.”
[…]
Moreover, the nuclear-armed states are opposed to this treaty and there is no end in sight to the road towards “a world free of nuclear weapons,” the realization of which is our objective. The human race is now faced with the question of how this long awaited treaty can be utilized to make further progress.
I hereby make the following appeal to the nuclear-armed states and the nations under their nuclear umbrella. The nuclear threat will not end as long as nations continue to claim that nuclear weapons are essential for their national security. Please reconsider your policies of seeking to protect your nations through nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligates all its member states to achieve nuclear disarmament. Please fulfill this obligation. The whole world awaits your courageous decisions.
To the Japanese government I have this appeal to make. Despite the fact that the Japanese government has clearly stated that it will exercise leadership in aiming for a world free of nuclear weapons, and play a role as a bridge between the nuclear-armed states and the non-nuclear-armed states, its stance of not even participating in the diplomatic negotiations for the Nuclear Prohibition Treaty is quite incomprehensible to those of us living in the cities that suffered atomic bombings. As the only country in the world to have suffered wartime atomic bombings, I urge the Japanese government to reconsider the policy of relying on the nuclear umbrella and join the Nuclear Prohibition Treaty at the earliest possible opportunity. International society is awaiting the participation of Japan.
[…]
Six years have elapsed since the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident. As a city that has experienced the threat of radiation, we stand with the victims in Fukushima Prefecture and offer them our support.
A nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois. Taken by photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com).
