Kyushu Electric waters down finding on nuclear business scandal

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) — Kyushu Electric Power Co. angered industry minister Yukio Edano on Friday as it watered down a third-party finding that the Saga governor was behind a scandal of misrepresentation of public opinion on its nuclear power business in the region, in a final report on the problem.

Kyushu Electric submitted the report to the government the same day making no clear reference to whether the governor bears any responsibility for the problem, prompting Edano to brand it « out of the question » and say his ministry may urge the company to refile it.

An investigative panel headed by lawyer Nobuo Gohara said last month senior officials of Kyushu Electric tried to manipulate a state-sponsored TV program in June to make local communities appear supportive of restarting reactors at its Genkai power plant in Saga Prefecture.

The panel said Saga Gov. Yasushi Furukawa’s remark to Kyushu Electric’s senior officials prompted the company to solicit e-mails in support of restarting the reactors for the TV program.

The TV program was broadcasted at a time when public concern about nuclear power plants was on the rise following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crisis, triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Gohara angrily told reporters in Tokyo that artificially « crafted opinions » at nuclear power-related events used to play a role in advancing the nation’s nuclear power operation.

Kyushu Electric President Toshio Manabe downplayed the significance of his company’s effectively ignoring the findings of Gohara’s panel, telling reporters, « It couldn’t be helped » that his company and the panel differ over the governor’s involvement in the scandal.

Kyushu Electric decided at an extraordinary board meeting on Friday to let Manabe stay at his post, after Manabe in July in parliament suggested he would resign. The utility announced a three-month salary cut for Manabe and Chairman Shingo Matsuo over the scandal.

Concerning a public discussion meeting in December 2005 on the proposed introduction of the « pluthermal » nuclear generation technology at the plant, the utility admitted in the report that it had prepared « questioners » tasked with stating opinion in favor of the introduction.

Kyodo Press, October 15, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/10/15/20111015p2g00m0dm016000c.html

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 NISA secretly calculated Fukushima meltdown risks / Agency considered worst-case scenario of ’China syndrome’

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency secretly calculated the possibility of a worst-case meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 power plant, it has been learned.

The agency was working on the calculations just as TEPCO was saying the nuclear fuel in three reactors at the plant was « slightly damaged. »

The trial calculations were made under the premise that the nuclear fuel at the plant’s No. 1 to No. 3 reactors would melt down entirely, developing into a so-called China syndrome, the worst-possible scenario.

Coined in the United States, China syndrome refers to an imagined worst-case meltdown of nuclear fuel that burns through the bottom of a containment vessel and eventually through the Earth’s crust until finally reaching China.

The trial calculations were carried out first on March 25, two weeks after the March 11 accident, followed by further calculations on April 6, 7 and 13.

The fact that the calculations were carried out secretly was revealed Friday by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES), an independent administrative institution, which had been commissioned by the agency to undertake the trial estimations.

The calculations indicated that if cooling water could not be injected, erosion could continue for more than 10 days, badly damaging the three-meter thick concrete walls of the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors’ containment vessels, the JNES said.

The erosion of the bottom of the No. 1 reactor’s containment vessel bottom would possibly stop after the vessel wall was eroded to a depth of 1.8 meters in eight days, according to the calculations.

When the JNES calculations were being conducted, both the agency—the nuclear safety watchdog of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry—and TEPCO publicly said the nuclear fuel in the reactors was « slightly damaged. »

In announcing the calculation results Friday, the JNES said it had roughly gauged the extent to which the floor of the containment vessel bottoms, called « pedestals, » would be eroded should all the nuclear fuel drop through the pressure vessel of the three reactors.

The calculations were carried out based on different scenarios. In one of them, all reactor cores dropped out at the same time, and in another, melted fuel jetted out of the vessels, the JNES said.

It said the calculation results were conveyed to the agency, but it is unknown whether the information was shared with the Cabinet Office or other government organizations.

Regarding the announcement of the calculations a half year after the outbreak of the crisis, the JNES said although the calculations were exclusively for the sake of studies within the agency and TEPCO, it decided to make them public as the initial phase of coping with the crisis has finished.

On April 18 the agency acknowledged the reactors’ fuel had begun to melt down, but TEPCO failed to acknowledge the possibility of a meltdown until April 20.

Yomiuri Shimbun , October 16, 2011
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111015002539.htm

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 NISA : TEPCO lax on anti-quake measures at Fukushima plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. failed to take anti-quake measures on about 600 important pieces of equipment at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, even though revised safety guidelines in 2006 required such action.

TEPCO’s lax practices were described Oct. 13 at a Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) meeting, in which nuclear experts were questioned. NISA officials said the utility did not conduct strength tests and implement reinforcement work on key equipment, including control rods in the No. 1 to 6 reactors that adjust the nuclear fission process within the reactors.

« TEPCO also did not conduct tests on a large majority of the piping » at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Masaru Kobayashi, director of the Seismic Safety Office at NISA, said.

After the anti-quake guidelines were revised, TEPCO submitted an interim report to the central government in March 2008 in which it concluded that reinforcement work was not needed. It cited the results of tests on the pressure vessel and other important equipment.

TEPCO officials planned to include what would be done on the 600 or so other important pieces of equipment, such as those related to the control rods and other piping, in a final report.

At that time, TEPCO told NISA officials the final report would be submitted after autumn 2010.

According to Kobayashi, a document compiled by NISA in the summer of 2008 had wording that said reinforcement work was being implemented at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

But on Oct. 7, TEPCO officials told NISA officials that the reinforcement work was never conducted.

It is unclear what led to the change on TEPCO’s part because no records remain of communications exchanged in 2008.

« We assumed that an evaluation was being conducted, but we did not undertake a sufficient response. It is very regrettable, » Yoshinori Moriyama, NISA’s deputy director-general for nuclear accident measures, said at a news conference.

The Hamaoka nuclear plant of Chubu Electric Power Co. and TEPCO’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant are the only commercial nuclear plants for which final reports on the anti-quake measures have been submitted to the central government.

Operations were suspended at the Hamaoka nuclear plant after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Asahi Shimbun , October 15, 2011
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110140327.html

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 TEPCO failed to report re-evaluation of quake resistance for equipment at Fukushima plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has failed to submit a report to the government on the re-evaluation of quake resistance of most of the equipment at its Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant more than five years after the country’s safety guidelines were revised.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) announced on Oct. 13 that TEPCO has not filed a report on re-evaluation of quake resistance for « S-class » equipment at the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant as required by NISA in accordance with the revision of the nation’s quake-resistant design guidelines. The guidelines were revised in 2006, upgrading the anticipated acceleration of a quake by 1.6 times the previous figure for the plant.

While NISA is planning to evaluate how the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake affected the power plant by the end of this year, the absence of necessary TEPCO reports could push back the plan.

In March 2008, TEPCO filed an interim report on seven primary S-class pieces of equipment at the Fukushima plant’s No. 1 through No. 6 reactors, such as their reactor pressure vessels and containment vessels, stating that reinforcement of such equipment was unnecessary. However, the utility has not filed a report on over 100 other pieces of equipment at the plant, according to NISA.

Since TEPCO has not laid out a calculation formula for re-evaluating the quake resistance of the equipment, NISA suspects that the utility has hardly started working on the re-evaluation.

« It is very regrettable since it has already been five years since the re-evaluation task started (in 2006), » said Yoshinori Moriyama, deputy director-general for nuclear accident measures, during a press conference on Oct. 13.

In response, TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said, « Our compilation of the report was delayed while we were responding to the Niigata Chuetsuoki Earthquake (in 2007). We had been proceeding with our preparations for the report as of March 11 this year, but we were not ready to submit it at that time. »

Mainichi Shimbun , October 14, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/10/14/20111014p2a00m0na010000c.html

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 Tsunami twice as high as anticipated could hit Hamaoka nuclear plant, says researcher

The Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, could be hit by a tsunami 1.5 to 2 times as high as anticipated for defense systems currently being constructed, according to a researcher at the University of Tokyo.

Associate professor Yoshinobu Tsuji of the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute made the announcement to reporters on Oct. 13 during a meeting of the Seismological Society of Japan in the city of Shizuoka. According to his findings, a tsunami 15 to 20 meters high could hit the Hamaoka plant.

The Chubu Electric Power Co., which operates the Hamaoka plant, is building an 18 meter protective barrier on the estimation that a tsunami as high as 10 meters could strike.

Tsuji examined historical documents and determined that after the 1498 Meio Tokai Earthquake there was a tsunami that reached around 10 meters in height that hit an area of the city of Iwata, around 30 kilometers west of the Hamaoka plant.

When a reporter asked what this could mean for the Hamaoka plant, Tsuji responded that because of the plant’s position by a shallow seabed that sticks out into the ocean, the energy of a tsunami could easily become focused there, leading to the possibility that a tsunami « 50 percent higher, or even twice as high could come. »

Tsuji’s prediction that a tsunami as high as 20 meters could strike is likely to stir debate.

The Chubu Electric Power Co. responded to the Mainichi, « We cannot comment as we do not know the details of associate professor Tsuji’s research. »

Mainichi Shimbun , October 14, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/10/14/20111014p2a00m0na017000c.html

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 5 big tsunamis may have hit nuclear plant village in past 1,000 years

TOKYO (Kyodo) — A geological study has indicated an Aomori Prefecture village which hosts a nuclear power plant may have been hit by huge tsunamis at least five times during the past 1,000 years, a researcher said Saturday.

The tsunamis that broke over Higashidori village are believed to have reached up to 1.3 kilometers inland, according to Kazuomi Hirakawa, a specially appointed professor at Hokkaido University.

The village hosts Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s Higashidori nuclear power plant, which faces the Pacific Ocean, while other nuclear-related facilities, including a temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, are also located in the area surrounding the village on the Shimokita Peninsula.

Hirakawa examined geological layers around 6 kilometers away from the Higashidori plant and located 5 meters above the sea level in mid-July.

He found a sediment layer, which is believed to have been created by tsunami above an ash layer caused by the eruption of a volcano on the Korean Peninsula in 947, and another sediment layer below the ash layer.

The layer above the ash layer may have been created by tsunami in the wake of a big earthquake in 1611, which also caused tsunami damage to Hokkaido, according to Hirakawa.

The past findings of big earthquakes centered off Hokkaido being brought about every 500 years and causing tsunami suggest Higashidori village must have been hit by tsunami on several occasions.

While Tohoku Electric simulated a 6.5-meter-high tsunami in constructing the plant, the latest finding by Hirakawa will cast doubt on whether it is sufficient.

Referring to the existence of many nuclear facilities on the Shimokita Peninsula, Hirakawa said, « It is necessary to conduct various examinations again there » in order to check their safety.

His research was conducted after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was severely damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Kyodo Press, October 8, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/10/08/20111008p2g00m0dm021000c.html

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M-9 quake strikes off Tohoku about every 440 years : research institute

An earthquake as powerful as the magnitude 9 Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 occurs off the Tohoku region about every 440 years, university researchers estimate.

The estimate, made by a research team led by University of Tokyo Earthquake Research Institute professor Kazuki Koketsu, suggests that the frequency of powerful quakes, previously thought to hit the region once every 1,000 years, is far higher. Experts say there is a so-called « super cycle » of powerful quakes, like the M-7 earthquakes that strike off Miyagi Prefecture at about 37-year intervals.

The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred at the fault line where the North American Plate — on which the northern half of Japan sits — and the Pacific Plate meet. Strains — which had accumulated around the fault as the Pacific Plate sank beneath the North American by about eight centimeters a year — were relieved, triggering the powerful temblor.

The team analyzed the amounts of energy released when the March 11 quake and previous earthquakes that had struck off Miyagi Prefecture, and calculated the volume of strains that accumulated in these quakes’ epicenters by using a global positioning system.

The researchers then divided the amount of energy released by the quakes by the volume of strains that had accumulated over a year, based on which they estimated that a huge earthquake occurs at 438-year intervals.

Mainichi Shimbun , October 10, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20111010p2a00m0na012000c.html

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 Extra school texts on radiation fail to detail nuke accident

TOKYO (Kyodo) — The education ministry on Friday unveiled supplementary school texts on radiation compiled in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, but critics blasted them for failing to adequately describe the disaster or associated health risks.

The three texts are for elementary schools and junior and senior high schools respectively and describe the basic nature of radiation and day-to-day radiation exposure.

But critics say they fail to refer closely to the disaster at the Fukushima complex and the health risks caused.

For example, the materials for elementary school children touch on health risks only by noting, « It has not been clearly proved that exposure to radiation of less than 100 millisieverts at one time causes cancer and other diseases by itself, but it is important to minimize the exposure as much as possible. »

Masako Sawai, researcher at the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, said the supplementary materials « should have clearly noted how the (radioactive) contamination has spread following the nuclear disaster and how it will affect our future. »

« As children are forced to face radioactive materials into the future, the government has a responsibility to explain the post-disaster situation and risks caused by radiation, » Sawai said.

Kyodo Press, October 14, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/10/14/20111014p2g00m0dm012000c.html

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