UPDATED FUKUSHIMA CIVILIAN PANEL REPORT HIGHLIGHTS LARGELY UNADDRESSED “HUMAN FACTORS” AS IMPORTANT AS EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI IN 2011 REACTOR DISASTER

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation have joined forces to re-release an independent investigation of the "lessons learned" from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. The report was originally released in late Feb. 2012, just before the one-year mark on the
nuclear catastrophe.

It had first reported that Prime Minister Kan's administration was drawing up contingency plans to evacuate 30-50 million people from the metro Tokyo area, if a "demonic chain reaction" of atomic reactor meltdowns, and high-level radioactive waste pool fires, were to have unfolded in mid-March 2011.

Volunteers Crowdsource Radiation Monitoring to Map Potential Risk on Every Street in Japan

As reported by Democracy Now! on the Pacifica Radio Network:

Safecast is a network of volunteers who came together to map radiation levels throughout Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011. They soon realized radiation readings varied widely, with some areas close to the disaster facing light contamination, depending on wind and geography, while others much further away showed higher readings. Safecast volunteers use Geiger counters and open-source software to measure the radiation, and then post the data online for anyone to access. Broadcasting from Tokyo, we are joined by Pieter Franken, co-founder of Safecast. "The first trip we made into Fukushima, it was an eye-opener. First of all, the radiation levels we encountered were way higher than what we had seen on television," Franken says. "We decided to focus on measuring every single street as our goal in Safecast, so for the last three years we have been doing that, and this month we are passing the 15 millionth location we have measured, and basically every street in Japan has been at least measured once, if not many, many more times."

Mayor of Town That Hosted Fukushima Nuclear Plant Says He Was Told: “No Accident Could Ever Happen”

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! on Pacifica Radio, reports from Tokyo:

'We speak with Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of the town of Futaba where part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located. The entire town was rendered uninhabitable by the nuclear disaster. We ask him what went through his mind after the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011. "It was a huge surprise, and at the time I was just hoping nothing that had happened at the nuclear power plant. However, unfortunately there was in fact an accident there," Idogawa recalls. He made a decision to evacuate his town before the Japanese government told people to leave. "If I had made that decision even three hours earlier, I would have been able to prevent so many people from being exposed to radiation." For years he encouraged nuclear power development in the area; now he has become a vocal critic. He explains that the government and the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company, always told him, "’Don’t worry, Mayor. No accident could ever happen.’ Because this promise was betrayed, this is why I became anti-nuclear." '

On Hiroshima Day, 2010, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps visited Futaba and Okuma, the host towns of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As part of a nation-wide speaking tour organized by Green Action of Japan, Kevin met with the vice mayor of Futaba, and the mayor of Okuma. Kevin also spoke to a community meeting of citizens concerned about the risks at the nearby six atomic reactors. They wanted to learn about leaks of radioactivity from high-level radioactive waste storage pools in the U.S. The meetings, event, and speaking tour were part of a last gasp effort to prevent the loading of "Pluthermal" (mixed oxide plutonium, or MOX) nuclear fuel into reactors across Japan. However, just the next month, in September 2010, pluthermal was loaded by Tokyo Electric Power Company into Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3. It was just six months before the nuclear catastrophe began. Unit 3 suffered the largest exlosion of all, after its reactor melted down.

Tokyo’s governor election becoming a referendum to end nuclear power in Japan

Opposition to atomic power is growing stronger throughout Japan despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to restart the country’s 48 remaining reactors shuttered for post-Fukushima safety re-evaluations. In fact, the nuclear power issue is now the major campaign issue in the February 9^th election for the nation’s capitol high office of Governor of Tokyo.  Metropolitan Tokyo and its 13 million people consume more than 10% of the nation’s total electric power supply and represent the fourth largest stockholder in Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), operator of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.  TEPCO’s largest stockholder---at 50.1%---is now the Japanese government’s Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, which aims to restart nuclear reactors.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa has announced that he is running as an independent candidate for the Governor’s office principally on the “zero nuclear power” platform; no restart of reactors shutdown after Fukushima and no new reactors.  Hosokawa has the support of the charismatic and influential former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Their union has forged a powerful political alliance to solidify a new national energy policy around an anti-nuclear position. Koizumi succinctly summed up the Tokyo election as “a battle between the group that says Japan’s growth is possible without nuclear power generation and the other group that says Japan cannot grow without nuclear energy.”

Similarly, a former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe and Kenji Utsunomiya, former president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, are running on the “zero nuclear power” position but more broadly pledging to also tackle other Tokyo issues including social security and employment.

Public opposition to nuclear power and its translation into a rising political power has prompted the Abe government to delay a formal announcement of its national energy policy which is known to support the restart of the nation’s nuclear reactors, build more reactors and increase the export of Japanese nuclear technology. Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi was quoted to say “We are hoping to proceed as soon as possible, but we have received about 19,000 public comments,” adding “We shouldn’t decide on it too hastily.”

We hear from our colleague Aileen Mioko-Smith with Green Action Japan who points out “The Abe government and electric utility efforts to restart nuclear power in Japan is happening fast and heavy. We need all the help we can get!”  She adds, “Five utilities have submitted a total of 14 nuclear power plant restart applications to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), and the NRA is reviewing these applications with the aim of restarting nuclear power. How to prevent this restart is the key issue. This is the moment for effective NGO action. If we are successful, Japan can end nuclear power and serve as a role model for the world.” The merger of the anti-nuclear movement, public outrage and influential political coalitions is now making that role model a reality.

Beyond Nuclear on Thom Hartmann: "Military poisoned by Fukushima radiation"

On Thursday evening, Jan. 2nd, Thom Hartmann hosted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on his television program, in a segment entitled "Military poisoned by Fukushima radiation," to discuss the apparent radiation sickness and maladies suffered by sailors who served on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, which was anchored just a mile or two downwind and downstream from Fukushima Daiichi in Japan during the first, worst days of the catastrophe.

Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds Energy Education has commented on the sick sailors in a podcast.

The re-launching of the lawsuit, brought by 71 sick (half with various cancers) Reagan crew men and women against Tokyo Electric Power Company, comes after the recent exposé by the Tampa Bay Times about sick U.S. Navy sailors who were ordered to dump radioactive wastes, over the course of 15 years, into the Atlantic Ocean, a half-century ago, aboard the Calhoun County.