Nuclear Restart Generates Power, Protest in Japan

...Building on their Friday night momentum, protestors on Monday staged their largest rally yet, with tens of thousands of people congregating at Yoyogi Park, and then marching in three groups through the capital.

This rare display of public discontent by the Japanese, bringing together citizens from all walks of life, shows no signs of waning...

..."Never in my 39 years of my life have I ever tried to voice my views out loud like this," said Hitoshi Iwata, a Tokyo office worker who took to the streets after learning of the event through social media. "I expected the Fukushima case would turn society away from nuclear power," he said. "But when things started to move on the contrary, the sense of disappointment was so strong I felt a compelling need to voice my protest." National Geographic

And this, from Tokyo Reuters:

Nuclear issue puts increasing pressure on Japan government

Japan's government came under fire on Tuesday over its handling of public hearings on nuclear energy policy, threatening to dent already sagging support for the ruling party ahead of an election many expect to be this year.

The latest furor follows Monday's massive rally in Tokyo against nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, an issue now so contentious that lawmakers and analysts say it could trump taxes as the focus of lower house elections, which must be held by September 2013 but could come sooner.

Fukushima vs. Chernobyl: How Have Animals Fared?

For a little bird, bee or butterfly trying to make it in the world, which is the worse place to land: Fukushima or Chernobyl? On the one hand, there’s the risk from the release of radioactive materials that occurred in Japan just over a year ago. On the other, there’s the threat of mutations from accumulated environmental contamination over the past quarter-century from the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine. New York Times

Japanese report: Fukushima catastrophe caused by systemic negligence and “captured regulator”

In a harshly worded executive report that might as well describe the nuclear cabal  in the United States, a Japanese parliamentary panel concluded that the on-going nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima Dai-Ichi is the combined negligence of government, regulators and the nuclear industry.  In fact, the panel’s finding that “The regulator has been captured by the industry it regulates” serves a clear global warning where increasing reactor power output for greater profit, flawed designs and construction, aging reactors, human error and the steady deterioration of oversight and enforcement are converging on the next nuclear catastrophe.

The panel states, “they effectively betrayed the nation's right to be safe from nuclear accidents. Therefore, we conclude that the accident was clearly ‘manmade.’” Without question, this includes the General Electric Corporation. It was GE that manufactured and marketed the seriously flawed reactor design, the Mark I Boiling Water Reactor and its unreliable containment in the first place.

It is a profoundly unsettling but not surprising finding that the “regulators did not monitor or supervise nuclear safety... They avoided their direct responsibilities by letting operators apply regulations on a voluntary basis.”  In fact, the Japanese regulators and nuclear power industry were mirroring the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission “regulations” that currently allow 22 Fukushima designed GE Mark I reactors in the US to operate with the original unreliable containment and failed experimental “hardened vent” that was voluntarily installed in 1989. One US Mark I, the Entergy FitzPatrick nuclear power plant in upstate New York, “volunteered” not to install anything on its vulnerable containment.

The collusion of government, the regulator and private industry to promote and shield the nuclear industry’s financial interest has always undermined the governance of and protection from its inherent dangers. The result in Japan is now yielding the unacceptable consequence for the public health from the risks of radiation exposure, large population displacements caused by mass evacuations without foreseeable return, the dissolution of families, the broad disruption of lives and livelihoods and the long-term contamination of vast areas of land and resources.

Update on July 13, 2012 by admin

See Karl Grossman's article in Counterpunch which discusses the Fukushima findings in light of the US and global nuclear industry and the regulators which fall short in their missions due to "regulatory capture". Karl also published "The Nuclear Cult: Zealots of the Atom" at Counterpunch.

Take action on Fukushima lessons learned

Submit comments and questions to the scientific panel or attend the DC meeting!

Next Thursday, July 19, 2012, at an initial meeting of a National Academy of Sciences panel, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will discuss its actions following the Fukushima disaster in Japan. NRC is paying for this NAS study. There will be time for public comment and those wishing to attend should contact NAS at fukushima@nas.edu. NAS is taking comments on the committee membership for the next few days ONLY, and general questions on the study can be submitted by the email above. NAS is expecting to release the report in early 2014. Beyond Nuclear will keep you updated as much as possible. No further meetings have been scheduled.

Background: At the recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Committee directed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to contract with the National Academy of Sciences [NAS] for a study of the lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. According to the Senate report, the following areas should be examined:

--the lessons that can be learned;

--the lessons' implications for conclusions reached in earlier NAS studies on the safety and security of current storage arrangements for "spent" [emphasis added] nuclear fuel and high-level waste in the United States, including an assessment of whether the amount of "spent" fuel currently stored in reactor pools should be reduced;

--the lessons' implications for commercial nuclear reactor safety and security regulations; and

--the potential to improve design basis threats assessment.

This study shall build upon the 2004 NAS study of storage issues and complement the other efforts to learn from Fukushima that have already been launched by the NRC and industry. The study should be conducted in coordination with the Department of Energy and, if possible, the Japanese Government. The Committee expects the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, and the Department of State to assist the National Academy of Sciences in obtaining the information it needs to complete this study in a timely manner.

Fukushima residents charge Tepco officials with criminal negligence for nuclear catastrophe

TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata (2nd L) bows to apologize to Ikuhiro Hattori (2nd R), chief of Zengyoren, Japan Fisheries Cooperatives at TEPCO's headquarters in Tokyo, April 6, 2011CNN reports that 1,324 Fukushima Prefecture residents have accused 33 Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) officials, including its current chairman (Tsunehisa Katsumata, photo, left), as well as its former president (Masataka Shimizu), with criminal negligence. The Fukushima District Public Prosecutor's Office must now decide whether or not to file formal charges.

"The Fukushima nuclear accident is the worst corporate crime in Japan's history and caused significant damage to the life, health and assets of the people of Fukushima and the rest of Japan," the group said on its website, dubbed the Plaintiffs Against the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

"We lost our homeland, filled with beautiful nature, and our irreplaceable community. We shoulder the heavy burden of a divided local community and we are sitting in the midst of a suffering which shall never end," said the group.