東京電力柏崎刈羽原発で外部からの侵入を検知する設備が長期間機能していなかった問題で、設備の故障から復旧まで３０日以上かかった例が２０１８年度以降計１１１件あったことが、東電が設けた第三者委員会の報告書で分かった。同原発でテロ対策が軽視され、ずさんな管理が常態化していた実態があらためて明らかになった。
弁護士ら第三者による独立検証委員会がまとめた報告書によると、原子力規制庁がことし２～３月に実施した検査で判明した。復旧までの期間は最長で３３７日かかるケースもあった。
（略）
復旧までの間、カメラでの監視や作業員による巡視といった代わりの措置が適切に取られておらず、これらが核燃料の移動を禁じる原子力規制委員会の是正措置命令につながった。
また、他人のＩＤカードを使って中央制御室に不正に入室した問題に関しては、０９年８月～２１年１月に他人のＩＤで周辺防護区域に通じるゲートを通過した例が、さらに１２件あったことも分かった。
原因はいずれもカードの取り違えで、見張りの警備員が目視で確認するゲートは通過したが、生体認証が必要な次のゲートは通過できなかったという。
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More than 400 claims have been filed against the French government for nuclear tests on French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996. Scientists say about 110,000 people have been affected by radioactive fallout.
It’s been nearly two decades since France stopped testing nuclear weapons in French Polynesia.
But many across French Polynesia’s 118 islands and atolls across the central South Pacific were disappointed last month when President Emmanuel Macron, on his very first trip to the territory France has controlled since 1842, failed to apologize for the nearly 200 nuclear tests conducted between 1966 and 1996.
“Faced with dangerous powers in the concert of nations, I wish to say here that the nation owes a debt to French Polynesia,” Macron said in a July 27 speech. He went on to admit that the tests on the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls were “not clean in any way” — but stopped short of an official apology.
Guillaume Colombani, who works for Radio Te Reo-o-Tefana, said while they weren’t expecting an apology, it was still devastating not to get one.
“So, when you do something wrong, whatever it is, if you go and see the people you have hurt and you say, ‘Listen, I’m sorry for what I’ve done,’” said Colombani, “it is easier for the community to say, ‘OK, we accept, here’s forgiveness,’ or ‘No, we don’t accept. You have to do something for us.’”
Colombani, 41, grew up in Tahiti during the last decades of the nuclear tests and said he remembers seeing images of blue lagoons turning white after bombs were set off. He can recount the hyper-polarization of the issue and the anti-nuclear demonstrations spurred across the Pacific.
Although testing stopped more than two decades ago, its legacy lives on in French Polynesia’s politics, health, economy and environment, he said.
Scientists have long estimated some 110,000 people were affected by the radioactive fallout — many of them French Polynesians who worked at the testing sites. However, a study released earlier this year revealed that France underestimated the level of toxic exposure during the atmospheric tests that took place in the 1960s and ’70s.
The Mururoa Files was based on a two-year investigation of more than 2,000 declassified French state documents as well as various interviews conducted in French Polynesia.
[…]
That’s two to 10 times higher than the estimates given by France’s Atomic Energy Commission in a report produced nearly a decade after testing stopped. The findings compiled by Philippe and his team found, among other things, that one reason the estimates of radiation exposure were so low is that France did not take into account contaminated drinking water.
Ultimately, this systematic underestimation not only made it more difficult to link cases of cancer to the nuclear tests, but it also made it harder for victims to get compensated.
[…]
One upside of the release of this study, he said, was the French government’s commitment to open more government archives to the public — a commitment that President Macron made on his recent trip. The French government did not respond to The World’s request for comment about Marcon’s trip.
The underestimation of the radioactive fallout also made it difficult to fully understand the scope of irreversible environmental damage from the nuclear testing.
Keitapu Maamaatuaiahutapu, a physicist and climate scientist at the University of French Polynesia, said the destruction was particularly bad when the testing went underground in the mid-’70s and bombs were set off in boreholes drilled into the atolls.
These bombs had power “100 to 1,000 times more than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,” he said.
Whole lagoons full of coral were decimated and fish populations were poisoned for years. Now, there’s also a concern that the atolls may break apart — a process being sped up by rising ocean levels due to climate change, he said.
“And the release of the radioactivity from those holes,” Maamaatuaiahutapu said. “Not only would that create [a] tsunami, but it would pollute the ocean.”
France continues to control all of the information about the damage caused by nuclear testing, including heavily guarding the test sites themselves, he said, so there might not be a way to tell when something might happen. Both the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls are more than 700 miles away from the main island of Tahiti.
Experts said that French Polynesians who are loyal to France don’t want to criticize Paris, because it supports the territory with some $2 billion a year.
On the other hand, the independent movement, which both Maamaatuaiahutapu and Colombani are part of, supports every effort to hold France accountable, and to spread the word about nuclear tests across the Pacific — a place known mostly for its beauty.
[…]
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Two men developed throat cancer after being employed at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and one of them reportedly died from the illness—the first known cases of the condition linked to working at the site.
The unnamed men, one in his 60s and another in his 40s, had removed debris and measured radiation doses at the plant to rid the surrounding area of radioactivity in the aftermath of one of Japan’s worst nuclear disasters. In 2011, a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which killed more than 15,000 and displaced over 160,000, also caused nuclear meltdowns, leaving some parts of Fukushima prefecture uninhabitable.
Japanese news outlet NHK reported the employee in his 40s has died after developing cancer in 2019. He was a radiologist hired by a partner company of TEPCO, the company that owns the Daiichi nuclear power plant. The man in his 60s worked for TEPCO.
The Japanese ministry of health on Wednesday linked the men’s illness, pharyngeal cancer, to their time working at the Fukushima plant.
Former plant workers earlier filed damage suits, claiming to have developed cancer from working at nuclear plants. Cases of leukemia, thyroid and lung cancers have been reported. But proving the link in a court of law has been difficult.
In May, a Sapporo Court dismissed a 63-year-old man’s claim seeking the equivalent of nearly $600,000 in damages from TEPCO, the newspaper Japan Times reported. The court ruled out a causal relationship between his job and his illness, arguing that the latency period—the time from when cancer starts to when it was diagnosed—began before the employee started working at the plant.
To determine whether cancer was caused by work conditions, a team of doctors must review each case and note a number of criteria. In the past, a former nuclear plant chief died of esophageal cancer, but TEPCO said his case was not linked to his work at the Fukushima plant.
In the two recent cases, both men did not have underlying lifestyle risks, such as smoking or excessive drinking, that would have contributed to their illness. The period between the time of exposure and the onset of disease was also longer than five years. A shorter period would have given room to believe that the cancer started developing before their exposure.
Both men also had more than 100 millisieverts of radiation in their bodies, the level at which cancer is increasingly evident. Typically, an individual is exposed to about 2.4 millisieverts annually.
TEPCO was not immediately available for comment and has not released a statement regarding the confirmed cases.
[…]
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国際シンポジウムⅡ（脱原発・エネルギー政策課題）「原発事故から10年～エネルギー政策転換～」 日 時 2021年８月６日（金） 16：00～18：00 配 信 YouTube原水禁チャンネル 主 催 被爆76周年原水爆禁止世界大会実行委員会 登壇者 コーディネーター：藤本泰成（原水爆禁止日本国民会議共同議長） パネリスト：松原弘直（環境エネルギー政策研究所（ISEP）理事）、Stefan Wentzel（ドイツ・緑の党）、金賢雨（韓国・脱核新聞運営委員長） 基調提起：武藤類子（福島原発告訴団代表） 内 容 国際社会に先駆けて「脱原発」という課題に向き合ってきたドイツと、日本同様に米国の影響の下、原発社会を構成してきた隣国の韓国からゲストを迎え、福島原発事故の反省にたって、今日本の進むべき道がどのようなものかを考えていきます。
By Beata Cymerman
[…]
The government of Poland didn’t immediately release an official statement regarding the catastrophe. Poland was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. After the day of the explosion, April 26, no information was presented by the Polish media. One of the first people informed about the catastrophe was Prof. Jaworowski – Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection (CLOR) in Warsaw. He obtained information about the catastrophe from BBC radio and connected it to the unusual measurements from the Mikołajki station.
Together with the President of Polish National Atomic Agency, he set out to monitor the situation. After taking several more measurements on the same day, it became clear that they were dealing with a high radiation risk. Despite the obstacles presented by the Soviet bureaucratic system and with the help of Jaworski’s wife, who was affiliated with the Polish Academy of Science, they managed to directly inform the Prime Minister of their findings.
On April 29, members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (KC PZPR) and the government appointed Government Commission took measures to combat the crisis. The priority was overcoming the effect of exposure to the radioisotope I – 131, which greatly increases the risk of thyroid cancer. The rapid action of administering iodine, which began on the afternoon of April 29, serves as a model for action in the event of a radioactive crisis. It was the largest preventive action in the history of medicine performed in such a short time. In just three days, 18.5 million people were administered iodine solution, adults as well as children. In comparison, in Russia, iodine was distributed a month after the catastrophe.
From personal stories from our parents, I know that we were told not to eat salad, mushrooms and not to drink milk, while friends told us about the radioactive cloud coming to Poland. But there weren’t any official restrictions. Children had to go to school as normal. Moreover, the national bank holiday on May1, and the obligatory march that was customarily held on that day, went on as planned. That shows how the Soviet Union worked, placing political interests over human health.
The first plans to build nuclear power plants in Poland began in 1956. The initial plan was to build an experimental power plant with a capacity of 200-300 MWe on the Narew and Bug rivers. In 1956, the office of the Government Plenipotentiary for the Use of Nuclear Energy was established (renamed in 1973 the Office of Atomic Energy) and operated until 1980.
[…]
Żarnowiec, the first power plant in Poland, was meant ultimately to consist of four power units fueled by WWER-440 reactors with a total capacity of around 1600 MW. It was the first step towards developing a nuclear energy plan in Poland; the second included the construction of the “Warta” nuclear Power Plant at Klempic.
The construction works on the Żarnowiec plant lasted till 1989, but were abandoned after mass protests by ecologists over the Chernobyl catastrophe. Unfortunately, this story hasn’t taught us anything. In 2011, Żarnowiec was selected along with two other sites (Gąski and Choczewo) as the site for Poland’s first nuclear power plant, to be built by 2020. A government study in 2014 assumed the opening of Poland’s first nuclear power plant in 2024. In early 2015, the Treasury Minister estimated this date to be 2027. The plans were not implemented.
The Polish ruling Law and Justice party created an official energy document called the Polish Energetic Policy (PEP2040). The document announces the construction of 6 nuclear power units by 2043 in Poland with a total power output of 6-9 GW, with the aim of reducing GHG emissions. The first unit is planned to become operational in 2033. Currently, negotiations are taking place to select a partner to build and operate the nuclear power plant – the USA, Korea and France are under consideration. The atom is presented as a remedy for the elimination of polluting carbon energy.
In Poland, green conservatism, whereby nuclear energy is seen as a way of achieving carbon neutrality, is gaining popularity. But not only the conservatives, but also the leftist political fractions such as Razem, support the idea of nuclear energy in the energy mix. New groups and projects supporting nuclear power have developed in Poland (Fota4Climate, website “Green atom”). Even activists are divided into nuclear opponents and enthusiasts. How is that possible, if we have so much to fear after the history of Chernobyl?
[…]
Alternatives in the form of citizen energy projects struggle within a capitalistic scheme based on nuclear energy or offshore energy sourcing. Despite the enormous potential of solar and wind energy, the Polish government blocked developing this infrastructure in 2016 – the so-called Distance Act was adopted. The law stipulates that wind turbines with a capacity of more than 40 kW can only be built at a distance of at least 10 times their height (including the rotor with the blades) from residential and mixed-use buildings, as well as areas of high environmental value. In effect, only large, off-shore wind farms can be built on the Baltic sea. There is a hope in increasing interest in solar citizen energy, with the government starting the “My electricity” programme, financing photovoltaic installations.
[…]
In Poland, it is hard to break through to the public discussion with anti-nuclear arguments. The government maintains its willingness to invest in nuclear energy despite its unprofitability, high costs, risks and lack of public support in order to replace coal-fired power plants with nuclear ones.
Few people in Poland are interested in discussing the sourcing of the uranium and connect this problem with energy security. Few people care about radioactive waste. We need more discussions, focusing not only on the costs and time of building a nuclear power plant, but also energy security, the consequences of failure and the non-sustainability of uranium. We need anti-nuclear rhetoric. Will we learn our Chernobyl lessons?
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新潟県の柏崎刈羽原発で核セキュリティ上の違反が相次いだ問題で、東京電力がセキュリティ設備を自主管理に切り替えたことが原因の1つと分析していることが分かった。
[…]
関係者への取材によると、東京電力が原子力規制委員会に提出する「改善措置計画」の中で、自らで管理するようになったことが原因の1つと分析していることが判明。東電は管理する職員は増やさず、機器が壊れても代替設備で賄えばよいという悪い習慣が定着したとしている。 「改善措置計画」は22日にも提出される。（ANNニュース）
Former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Greg Jaczko, explains why U.S. nuclear programs are not up to par in fighting climate change.
Findings suggest the Royal Navy’s Faslane base on the Clyde may have to be closed down due to the high risk of inundation in coming years and the dangers that could present.
The Trident missile store at Coulport, also on the Clyde, and nuclear submarine scrapyard at Rosyth, on the Forth, are also likely to be affected by flooding due to a combination of rising sea level, higher rainfall and frequent storm surges, the analysis found.
Six further nuclear sites in England are also under threat.
[…]
The report, by Dr Paul Dorfman, a former Ministry of Defence (MoD) advisor and chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group think-tank, concludes “near-term climate change risk to nuclear is very great” and “UK nuclear military installations are on the front-line of climate change”.
The document states: “Present UK coastal military nuclear infrastructure is profoundly vulnerable to flooding from sea level rise, storm intensity and storm surge, with inland nuclear facilities also facing inundation and flooding.”
It warns there is also “significant risk” to stockpiles of military radioactive waste from “climate-drive extreme weather”.
The report points out that previous predictions have under-estimated the magnitude and pace of changes caused by rising world temperatures and claims government safety regulators have been “relatively complacent” about the threats in the past.
[…]
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新潟県の東京電力柏崎刈羽原発７号機で、施設内の多数の火災感知器が適正な位置に設置されていないことが２０日、分かった。約１００カ所に上るとみられる。出火時に煙や熱の検知が遅れ、初動対応の遅れにつながる可能性がある。東電は施設内の火災感知器の設置状況について点検を進めており、結果を２３日までに公表する。
東電によると、新規制基準に基づいて新たに設置する火災感知器について、原子力規制庁の検査官が今年２月、７号機の蓄電池室にある煙感知器１台が適切に設置されていないことを指摘した。
新規制基準では消防法施行規則に基づき、空調の吹き出し口などから１・５メートル以上離す必要があるが、問題の感知器は１・５メートル未満の位置に設置されていた。
東電は感知器を移設し、７号機全体の感知器の点検を行った。しかし、４月にも規制庁の検査官が２月とは別の火災感知器で同様の不備を見つけた。
（略）
柏崎刈羽原発を巡っては、東電が１月、７号機の安全対策工事完了を発表。その後、火災防護工事の漏れなどが発覚した。ほかにも、原発所員による中央制御室への不正入室や、侵入検知設備の機能喪失といったテロなどを防ぐ核物質防護体制の不備が判明した。
核防護不備問題を受け、原子力規制委員会は４月、核燃料の移動を禁じる是正措置命令を出した。東電に対しては、今月２３日までにこの問題の原因究明などに関する報告書の提出を求めている。東電は命令解除まで同原発を動かせない。
A nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois. Taken by photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com).
