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Glad to be of help.
Massive earthquake in Japan...
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TEPCO boss wanted use of SDF plane / Minister nixed March 11 plan to rush to HQ
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu tried to fly to Tokyo from Aichi Prefecture on an Air Self-Defense Force airplane on March 11 after the massive earthquake that struck that day, but his permission to use the aircraft was revoked shortly after it took off, it has been learned.
About 20 minutes after takeoff, the ASDF C-130 Hercules transport plane carrying Shimizu was ordered by Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa to change course and return to Komaki Air Base in the prefecture.
Shimizu's attempt to rush to TEPCO's Tokyo head office on the ASDF plane to help manage the response to the disaster had been authorized by the Cabinet's emergency response team, government sources said Tuesday.
The defense minister had not been informed of the plan, ministry officials admitted.
When Kitazawa learned of the plan, he said the aircraft should be kept available to use for disaster-relief efforts, and immediately revoked permission for Shimizu to use the plane, the sources said.
However, Kitazawa's order did not reach officers at Komaki Air Base until more than 10 minutes after the plane took off, according to the sources.
According to the ministry, the aircraft took off from Komaki Air Base at 11:30 p.m. on March 11.
On March 11, the earthquake and subsequent tsunami inflicted critical damage to TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and also brought highways and Shinkansen and other train services to a standstill, reducing Shimizu's options for getting to Tokyo from Nara, where he had been for business.
The TEPCO president's use of the ASDF plane was suggested by members of the Cabinet's emergency response team to the head of the Defense Ministry's Operation Policy Bureau, Shuichi Sakurai, the sources said.
At about 9:40 p.m., Sakurai instructed the bureau's contingency response section chief, Kazunori Inoue, to assess the plan's feasibility, according to the sources.
Ministry bureaucrats compiled for Inoue a plan to fly Shimizu on the C-130 from Komaki Air Base to Iruma Air Base in Saitama Prefecture, before ferrying him to TEPCO's head office in central Tokyo in an SDF helicopter, the sources said.
That plan was not conveyed to the defense minister until 11:20 p.m., at which time Kitazawa ordered the plan be scrapped, insisting the top priority for SDF transport capabilities was helping disaster victims, the sources said.
However, for unknown reasons Kitazawa's order was not immediately communicated to Komaki Air Base, the sources said.
The communication delay meant the plane had already been in the air for about 20 minutes by the time it was told to turn around and land at the Komaki base, they said.
The plane was subsequently used to transport an SDF medical team and other personnel to the disaster-stricken region, according to the sources.
Upon being informed of the disaster, Shimizu went from Nara to Nagoya by train in a bid to reach Tokyo, the sources said.
He had hoped to fly to Tokyo in a helicopter owned by a TEPCO affiliate, but was forced to abandon the idea because the Civil Aviation Law forbids private-owned helicopters flying after 7 p.m.
With all land routes in chaos, the TEPCO president inquired about using an SDF plane to get to Tokyo, the sources said.
The defense minister's intervention meant Shimizu did not arrive in Tokyo until about 10 a.m on March 12.
(Apr. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110426005409.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu tried to fly to Tokyo from Aichi Prefecture on an Air Self-Defense Force airplane on March 11 after the massive earthquake that struck that day, but his permission to use the aircraft was revoked shortly after it took off, it has been learned.
About 20 minutes after takeoff, the ASDF C-130 Hercules transport plane carrying Shimizu was ordered by Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa to change course and return to Komaki Air Base in the prefecture.
Shimizu's attempt to rush to TEPCO's Tokyo head office on the ASDF plane to help manage the response to the disaster had been authorized by the Cabinet's emergency response team, government sources said Tuesday.
The defense minister had not been informed of the plan, ministry officials admitted.
When Kitazawa learned of the plan, he said the aircraft should be kept available to use for disaster-relief efforts, and immediately revoked permission for Shimizu to use the plane, the sources said.
However, Kitazawa's order did not reach officers at Komaki Air Base until more than 10 minutes after the plane took off, according to the sources.
According to the ministry, the aircraft took off from Komaki Air Base at 11:30 p.m. on March 11.
On March 11, the earthquake and subsequent tsunami inflicted critical damage to TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and also brought highways and Shinkansen and other train services to a standstill, reducing Shimizu's options for getting to Tokyo from Nara, where he had been for business.
The TEPCO president's use of the ASDF plane was suggested by members of the Cabinet's emergency response team to the head of the Defense Ministry's Operation Policy Bureau, Shuichi Sakurai, the sources said.
At about 9:40 p.m., Sakurai instructed the bureau's contingency response section chief, Kazunori Inoue, to assess the plan's feasibility, according to the sources.
Ministry bureaucrats compiled for Inoue a plan to fly Shimizu on the C-130 from Komaki Air Base to Iruma Air Base in Saitama Prefecture, before ferrying him to TEPCO's head office in central Tokyo in an SDF helicopter, the sources said.
That plan was not conveyed to the defense minister until 11:20 p.m., at which time Kitazawa ordered the plan be scrapped, insisting the top priority for SDF transport capabilities was helping disaster victims, the sources said.
However, for unknown reasons Kitazawa's order was not immediately communicated to Komaki Air Base, the sources said.
The communication delay meant the plane had already been in the air for about 20 minutes by the time it was told to turn around and land at the Komaki base, they said.
The plane was subsequently used to transport an SDF medical team and other personnel to the disaster-stricken region, according to the sources.
Upon being informed of the disaster, Shimizu went from Nara to Nagoya by train in a bid to reach Tokyo, the sources said.
He had hoped to fly to Tokyo in a helicopter owned by a TEPCO affiliate, but was forced to abandon the idea because the Civil Aviation Law forbids private-owned helicopters flying after 7 p.m.
With all land routes in chaos, the TEPCO president inquired about using an SDF plane to get to Tokyo, the sources said.
The defense minister's intervention meant Shimizu did not arrive in Tokyo until about 10 a.m on March 12.
(Apr. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110426005409.htm
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Rules near N-plant put doctors in tight spot
Akihiko Kano and Yukiko Takanashi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
Residents of Fukushima Prefecture near a crippled nuclear power plant are having a hard time getting treatment in hospitals and even having their lives put in danger by government rules that have disrupted the area's medical system.
The situation is particularly bad in areas designated by the government as evacuation-prepared areas, which are between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. In much of these areas, the government has restricted hospitals' ability to accept inpatients.
Meanwhile, many residents have returned to their homes from evacuation shelters after a government advisory urging them to stay indoors was canceled. This has apparently increased the number of patients being taken to hospitals by ambulances. Doctors at restricted hospitals, however, have no choice but to send these patients to other medical institutions, some more than an hour away.
"If these circumstances don't change, some lives that could've been saved will be lost," said one doctor who has had to send patients away.
After the government issued a voluntary evacuation advisory, the population of Minami-Soma, about 70,000 before the March 11 disaster, dropped to about 10,000. According to one estimate, the figure has since risen back to about 40,000.
Joji Shindo, a doctor in charge of a clinic in the city's Haramachi district, said he felt nervous on April 9 when a 78-year-old resident was brought to his clinic in an ambulance. Shindo believed the man might have had a heart attack and thought he should be taken to a hospital. But since the clinic is inside an evacuation-prepared area, local hospitals could not accept inpatients.
The government made the rule because it thought it would be difficult to evacuate inpatients in an emergency.
The man was finally taken to Sendai Kousei Hospital in neighboring Miyagi Prefecture. Fortunately, his heart was fine and he was released a few days later. "It pains me to think about having to send patients who need urgent treatment for brain or heart issues to faraway hospitals," Shindo said.
According to the city's doctor association, none of the four general hospitals in the Haramachi district are allowed to accept inpatients. Although there are still two hospitals in the city that can accept inpatients, both are more than 30 kilometers from the nuclear plant--and they are almost full.
Katsutoshi Kashimura, head of the doctors' association, said, "Under the circumstances, our only option is to send patients to hospitals in Fukushima and other faraway places. The longer trips mean patients' conditions could worsen or their lives could even be in danger."
Many local practitioners agreed that JA Kashima Kosei Hospital in the city should be allowed to accept inpatients, even if all the other hospitals cannot. Kashima Kosei is 33 kilometers from the nuclear plant and outside the evacuation-prepared area. But the prefectural government decided the hospital was to be treated the same as facilities inside the zone, barring the hospital from accepting inpatients.
Before the disaster, there were 69 inpatients at the hospital, all of whom have been transferred to other facilities.
"The purpose [of the restrictions] is to not have any inpatients and other weakened people in the areas. Just a few kilometers doesn't change the situation," a prefectural government official said when asked about the situation at the hospital.
===
Confusion over helicopters
Many doctors and medical officials in the area believe helicopter ambulances cannot enter the area within 30 kilometers of the nuclear plant because the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry on March 15 banned flights over the zone.
In Fukushima Prefecture, Fukushima Medical University Hospital contracts a private ambulance helicopter company for emergency flights. Hospital officials expressed worry that helicopter pilots could be exposed to radiation. One official said, "We understand the notice as prohibiting us from using the chopper [inside the 30-kilometer zone]."
But the ministry has said exceptions could be made for rescues. "It's not a problem if ambulance helicopters enter the zone," one ministry official said. But the exception to the rule was apparently not communicated to doctors and hospital staff.
The Soma regional firefighting headquarters said there were seven requests for ambulance helicopters from inside the 30-kilometer zone in March and April.
===
Almost empty of patients, hospitals barely getting by
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Hospitals and clinics in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture--a city whose land spreads across three different types of evacuation areas near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant--are in serious financial straits as many of them are not allowed to accept inpatients.
Income has plunged as the facilities can only earn money through counseling and treating outpatients, while costs related to staff and medical equipment for inpatients have remained about the same.
Parts of the city have been split into three areas by the central government: a no-entry zone within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima plant, an evacuation-prepared zone between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers from the plant, and a planned evacuation zone where residents have been instructed to leave within a month. Some areas of the city are not subject to the evacuation plans.
Onoda Hospital in the Haramachi district resumed seeing outpatients on April 4 after the hospital evacuated its inpatients and closed following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake. More than half of the hospital's staff of about 200 has left the city. Now, only about 20 people work at the hospital, and many of the rest have been asked to stay home until they are called in. The hospital said there is no work and it would be difficult for it to continue paying these employees salaries.
"The more patients we accept, the more we go into the red," the chief of the hospital's secretariat said. "Even if the central government gives us some compensation, the hospital has to find the money until we get paid. We're literally standing on the edge of a cliff."
Other hospitals in the same district, including the Watanabe and Omachi hospitals, are facing similar circumstances.
Smaller clinics also are having trouble keeping afloat.
Kanno Kids Clinic in the Haramachi district reopened April 11, but only a few patients have come in. Before the earthquake, more than 70 percent of the clinic's patients were children younger than school age. But many of the city's children have been evacuated after their parents were told that children are easily affected by radiation.
The clinic had averaged about 60 to 70 patients a day, but has been seeing less than 10 percent of that since the earthquake.
"Our income is almost nonexistent. I don't even know if we can survive for another two or three months," said clinic director Hiroyuki Kanno.
(Apr. 28, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110427006007.htm
Akihiko Kano and Yukiko Takanashi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
Residents of Fukushima Prefecture near a crippled nuclear power plant are having a hard time getting treatment in hospitals and even having their lives put in danger by government rules that have disrupted the area's medical system.
The situation is particularly bad in areas designated by the government as evacuation-prepared areas, which are between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. In much of these areas, the government has restricted hospitals' ability to accept inpatients.
Meanwhile, many residents have returned to their homes from evacuation shelters after a government advisory urging them to stay indoors was canceled. This has apparently increased the number of patients being taken to hospitals by ambulances. Doctors at restricted hospitals, however, have no choice but to send these patients to other medical institutions, some more than an hour away.
"If these circumstances don't change, some lives that could've been saved will be lost," said one doctor who has had to send patients away.
After the government issued a voluntary evacuation advisory, the population of Minami-Soma, about 70,000 before the March 11 disaster, dropped to about 10,000. According to one estimate, the figure has since risen back to about 40,000.
Joji Shindo, a doctor in charge of a clinic in the city's Haramachi district, said he felt nervous on April 9 when a 78-year-old resident was brought to his clinic in an ambulance. Shindo believed the man might have had a heart attack and thought he should be taken to a hospital. But since the clinic is inside an evacuation-prepared area, local hospitals could not accept inpatients.
The government made the rule because it thought it would be difficult to evacuate inpatients in an emergency.
The man was finally taken to Sendai Kousei Hospital in neighboring Miyagi Prefecture. Fortunately, his heart was fine and he was released a few days later. "It pains me to think about having to send patients who need urgent treatment for brain or heart issues to faraway hospitals," Shindo said.
According to the city's doctor association, none of the four general hospitals in the Haramachi district are allowed to accept inpatients. Although there are still two hospitals in the city that can accept inpatients, both are more than 30 kilometers from the nuclear plant--and they are almost full.
Katsutoshi Kashimura, head of the doctors' association, said, "Under the circumstances, our only option is to send patients to hospitals in Fukushima and other faraway places. The longer trips mean patients' conditions could worsen or their lives could even be in danger."
Many local practitioners agreed that JA Kashima Kosei Hospital in the city should be allowed to accept inpatients, even if all the other hospitals cannot. Kashima Kosei is 33 kilometers from the nuclear plant and outside the evacuation-prepared area. But the prefectural government decided the hospital was to be treated the same as facilities inside the zone, barring the hospital from accepting inpatients.
Before the disaster, there were 69 inpatients at the hospital, all of whom have been transferred to other facilities.
"The purpose [of the restrictions] is to not have any inpatients and other weakened people in the areas. Just a few kilometers doesn't change the situation," a prefectural government official said when asked about the situation at the hospital.
===
Confusion over helicopters
Many doctors and medical officials in the area believe helicopter ambulances cannot enter the area within 30 kilometers of the nuclear plant because the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry on March 15 banned flights over the zone.
In Fukushima Prefecture, Fukushima Medical University Hospital contracts a private ambulance helicopter company for emergency flights. Hospital officials expressed worry that helicopter pilots could be exposed to radiation. One official said, "We understand the notice as prohibiting us from using the chopper [inside the 30-kilometer zone]."
But the ministry has said exceptions could be made for rescues. "It's not a problem if ambulance helicopters enter the zone," one ministry official said. But the exception to the rule was apparently not communicated to doctors and hospital staff.
The Soma regional firefighting headquarters said there were seven requests for ambulance helicopters from inside the 30-kilometer zone in March and April.
===
Almost empty of patients, hospitals barely getting by
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Hospitals and clinics in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture--a city whose land spreads across three different types of evacuation areas near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant--are in serious financial straits as many of them are not allowed to accept inpatients.
Income has plunged as the facilities can only earn money through counseling and treating outpatients, while costs related to staff and medical equipment for inpatients have remained about the same.
Parts of the city have been split into three areas by the central government: a no-entry zone within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima plant, an evacuation-prepared zone between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers from the plant, and a planned evacuation zone where residents have been instructed to leave within a month. Some areas of the city are not subject to the evacuation plans.
Onoda Hospital in the Haramachi district resumed seeing outpatients on April 4 after the hospital evacuated its inpatients and closed following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake. More than half of the hospital's staff of about 200 has left the city. Now, only about 20 people work at the hospital, and many of the rest have been asked to stay home until they are called in. The hospital said there is no work and it would be difficult for it to continue paying these employees salaries.
"The more patients we accept, the more we go into the red," the chief of the hospital's secretariat said. "Even if the central government gives us some compensation, the hospital has to find the money until we get paid. We're literally standing on the edge of a cliff."
Other hospitals in the same district, including the Watanabe and Omachi hospitals, are facing similar circumstances.
Smaller clinics also are having trouble keeping afloat.
Kanno Kids Clinic in the Haramachi district reopened April 11, but only a few patients have come in. Before the earthquake, more than 70 percent of the clinic's patients were children younger than school age. But many of the city's children have been evacuated after their parents were told that children are easily affected by radiation.
The clinic had averaged about 60 to 70 patients a day, but has been seeing less than 10 percent of that since the earthquake.
"Our income is almost nonexistent. I don't even know if we can survive for another two or three months," said clinic director Hiroyuki Kanno.
(Apr. 28, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110427006007.htm
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Liquefaction victims in line for financial aid
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The government plans to provide financial assistance for the reconstruction of houses damaged by soil liquefaction in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake.
The financial aid will be distributed across an extensive area, including Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures and Tokyo, a government official said Tuesday.
It will be the first time the Law on Support for Reconstructing Livelihoods of Disaster Victims will have been applied because of damage caused by liquefaction.
The government will make a formal decision on the matter by the end of this month.
In Chiba Prefecture, which suffered the worst liquefaction damage, about 12,000 residential units and other properties in Chiba, Urayasu and three other cities either sank or became uneven due to liquefaction, according to the prefectural government.
In Ibaraki Prefecture, damage was reported in Itako and other cities.
Under the law, financial support can be provided to rebuild houses destroyed or damaged due to natural disaster. To date, houses that sink or become uneven have not been deemed eligible for such aid.
For this reason, the heads of local governments concerned called on the government to include liquefaction victims in a list of people to be granted financial support.
The government plans to issue a notice from the Cabinet Office stating assistance will be provided to liquefaction victims under the law, the official said.
Under the law, disaster victims can receive up to 3 million yen, including 1 million yen in basic support funds, for the reconstruction of damaged or destroyed houses.
In the aftermath of the torrential rains that hit Niigata and Fukui prefectures in 2004, application of the law was expanded to provide funds to help finance restoration of houses that were flooded with earth and sand.
At a House of Councillors Audit Committee session Monday, Ryu Matsumoto, state minister in charge of disaster management, said the government was "reexamining the standards for application of the law, while taking into consideration the recent liquefaction damage."
A fund established to facilitate aid under the law currently has a balance of about 54 billion yen.
However, financial aid for the restoration of houses destroyed or damaged because of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami will total 1 trillion yen to 1.5 trillion yen, according to an estimate by the National Governors' Association.
It is not yet clear how the government will procure those funds, observers said.
(Apr. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110426004794.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The government plans to provide financial assistance for the reconstruction of houses damaged by soil liquefaction in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake.
The financial aid will be distributed across an extensive area, including Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures and Tokyo, a government official said Tuesday.
It will be the first time the Law on Support for Reconstructing Livelihoods of Disaster Victims will have been applied because of damage caused by liquefaction.
The government will make a formal decision on the matter by the end of this month.
In Chiba Prefecture, which suffered the worst liquefaction damage, about 12,000 residential units and other properties in Chiba, Urayasu and three other cities either sank or became uneven due to liquefaction, according to the prefectural government.
In Ibaraki Prefecture, damage was reported in Itako and other cities.
Under the law, financial support can be provided to rebuild houses destroyed or damaged due to natural disaster. To date, houses that sink or become uneven have not been deemed eligible for such aid.
For this reason, the heads of local governments concerned called on the government to include liquefaction victims in a list of people to be granted financial support.
The government plans to issue a notice from the Cabinet Office stating assistance will be provided to liquefaction victims under the law, the official said.
Under the law, disaster victims can receive up to 3 million yen, including 1 million yen in basic support funds, for the reconstruction of damaged or destroyed houses.
In the aftermath of the torrential rains that hit Niigata and Fukui prefectures in 2004, application of the law was expanded to provide funds to help finance restoration of houses that were flooded with earth and sand.
At a House of Councillors Audit Committee session Monday, Ryu Matsumoto, state minister in charge of disaster management, said the government was "reexamining the standards for application of the law, while taking into consideration the recent liquefaction damage."
A fund established to facilitate aid under the law currently has a balance of about 54 billion yen.
However, financial aid for the restoration of houses destroyed or damaged because of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami will total 1 trillion yen to 1.5 trillion yen, according to an estimate by the National Governors' Association.
It is not yet clear how the government will procure those funds, observers said.
(Apr. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110426004794.htm
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Radioactive material 'down to 1/100'
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The amount of radioactive material emitted from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has decreased to about one-hundredth of the level recorded earlier this month, the Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission has said.
The commission also said Monday the concentration of iodine-131 in seawater sampled near the plant had dropped to below the government-set limit for the first time since surveys started on March 21. However, the panel said high amounts of radioactive material were still being emitted by the plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Co., at about 10 billion becquerels per hour.
"We shouldn't take the figures for granted. We must continue to carefully observe the situation," a commission spokesperson said.
The commission calculates the volume of radioactive material discharged based on radiation measurements taken at several places around the plant. Radioactive emissions on April 5 were estimated at 1 trillion becquerels per hour.
"Radiation dosages around the plant are on a downward trend. Emissions of radioactive material have diminished to about one-hundredth [of levels earlier this month]," the commission told reporters Monday.
(Apr. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110426005027.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The amount of radioactive material emitted from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has decreased to about one-hundredth of the level recorded earlier this month, the Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission has said.
The commission also said Monday the concentration of iodine-131 in seawater sampled near the plant had dropped to below the government-set limit for the first time since surveys started on March 21. However, the panel said high amounts of radioactive material were still being emitted by the plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Co., at about 10 billion becquerels per hour.
"We shouldn't take the figures for granted. We must continue to carefully observe the situation," a commission spokesperson said.
The commission calculates the volume of radioactive material discharged based on radiation measurements taken at several places around the plant. Radioactive emissions on April 5 were estimated at 1 trillion becquerels per hour.
"Radiation dosages around the plant are on a downward trend. Emissions of radioactive material have diminished to about one-hundredth [of levels earlier this month]," the commission told reporters Monday.
(Apr. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110426005027.htm
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Just wondering, has anyone heard anything recently about the two iRobot 710 Warriors that were supposed to be sent to Fukushima at the same time as the Packbots?
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Grey Havoc said:
I haven't seen anything in the news over here. Browsing the iRobot site it seem like the Warriors are a bit wider than the Packbots - given that the Packbots have reportedly had problems with some obstacles in the plant the Warriors' deployment might have been cancelled.
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F-X Bidders Could Gain From Tsunami Damage
Apr 29, 2011
By Bradley Perrett
BEIJING — Enlargement of the Japanese F-X fighter program is under consideration as the repair of all 18 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-2B trainers damaged in the March 11 tsunami looks increasingly unlikely.
The defense ministry’s initial assessment — that it will be lucky to repair as many as three of the aircraft — also seems to raise the possibility of the F-X program being pursued more urgently. Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the Eurofighter consortium are competing for the order for 40-50 fighters, with the prospect of further production after the initial requirement — replacement of F-4EJ Phantoms — is met.
Just pulling apart the damaged 18 F-2Bs and examining them will cost ¥13.6 billion ($166 million), the ministry tells the Asahi newspaper.
The air force had 33 F-2Bs before 18 were submerged at Matsushima air base by the tsunami, according to Forecast International data (Aerospace DAILY, March 18). So repairs, if any, will leave only 15-18 available.
As a result, the country appears to have four choices: accept a reduction in aircraft numbers, build replacement F-2Bs, acquire Boeing F-15Ds from U.S. stocks, or add units to the F-X program.
Although there is no official comment on the matter, neither of the first two options looks easy.
Since the damaged aircraft are all two-seaters, the training fleet has taken a heavy hit; restoring its numbers should be a priority.
And while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is still building the last few F-2s before closing its production line this year, its suppliers have already stopped making parts and systems.
So placing an order for more aircraft would now be unusually costly — even if Japan wanted to spend more money on the 1990s model instead of moving on to a new type.
Indeed, the cost of restarting parts production is probably a reason behind the ministry’s bleak assessment, although it could presumably look at using some of its stock of spare parts to refit the damaged aircraft.
Japan flies the F-15DJ, a close derivative of the F-15D, as a conversion trainer for its F-15J force. Potential issues with acquiring secondhand F-15Ds include availability, remaining fatigue life, and their suitability as replacements for the F-2Bs, which were used to train pilots for F-4EJs as well as F-2As.
As to the fourth option, the ministry has not raised the possibility with bidders of enlarging the F-X order to replace the F-2Bs, says an executive from one of the bidders, but it would not be expected to do so until it knew how many of the drenched fighters could be saved.
The aircraft types confirmed as competitors for the F-X order are the Lockheed Martin F-35, Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Eurofighter is represented by BAE Systems in association with Sumitomo Corp.
Responses to a request for proposals are due by September. First deliveries are due in 2017, but Eurofighter and Boeing have warm production lines from which they could conceivably divert two-seaters ordered by other customers.
Restoration of fighters soaked in salt water may seem improbable, but in the 1990s the Greek air force recovered a Mirage 2000EG that had crashed at low speed into the sea on final approach. That aircraft was pulled from the water after three days and eventually put back into service.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/asd/2011/04/29/01.xml&headline=F-X
Earlier article below.
Three Contenders Remain For Japan F-X
Apr 29, 2011
By Leithen Francis, Bradley Perrett
Singapore, Beijing
Sometime this year, a Japanese technician will perform the final piece of work on the last F-2 fighter to leave the Nagoya works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. With that, Japan’s 45 years of post-war fighter production will cease and the progressive loss of skills already under way in systems manufacturing will have spread to every stage of building combat aircraft.
This fact looms large for officials in charge of charting the path for the next fighter program. The sooner a new fighter goes into production, the sooner this highly specialized industry can be revitalized.
The defense ministry says three groups have responded to its April 13 request for proposals (RFP): BAE Systems with Sumitomo Corp., offering the Eurofighter Typhoon; Lockheed Martin with the F-35; and Boeing with the F/A-18E/F.
The ministry said last year it would also be interested in the Lockheed Martin F-22, Boeing F-15 and the Dassault Rafale. But the U.S. will not export the F-22, and the F-15 is out because Boeing believes Japan’s air force is leaning toward a completely new aircraft type. Dassault Rafale declined to comment.
The RFP was issued early this year because the ministry and Japan Air Self-Defense Force (Jasdf) hope to make a recommendation in time for the procurement to be included the fiscal 2012 budget. To ensure inclusion in 2012, the contenders have until the end of September to respond. A winner is to be selected and a recommendation made to the cabinet by the end of December, leaving three months for parliament to decide.
Japan’s defense guidelines say 40-50 F-X fighters will be ordered, with the first 12 to be delivered by March 31, 2017. The F/A-18E/F and Eurofighter Typhoon programs are more mature than the F-35’s, so it is easier for these two to meet the deadline. The F-35 program has had many delays, but Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 general manager, Tom Burbage, told Aviation Week in March that they could deliver as soon as fiscal 2016.
Early delivery is an important factor also because the F-X is needed to replace the F-4s, all more than 30 years old. Shigeru Iwasaki, Jasdf chief of air staff, is coy about when the F-4s will go. It depends on the accumulated flight hours on the airframe, but it may happen within the next 10 years, he says. If so, Mitsubishi will have to quickly ramp up F-X production. Some industry executives say the tight deadline for first deliveries and the ministry’s concerns about cost mean the first batch of F-Xs might be fully imported.
Japan requires local manufacturing of military aircraft, along with domestic development of some parts and systems. But licensed production there, particularly for short production runs, has proven expensive. The country also tends to change the aircraft design, to the extent that the F-2 was really a new aircraft following the F-16 configuration. Quite apart from the expense, design changes take time. Some industry executives say Japan is unlikely to make any significant changes because these would escalate costs and upset deadlines.
Some relief for Japan’s fighter production base is coming from an unfortunate circumstance. The ministry believes that 18 F-2Bs that were submerged in the March 11 tsunami can be salvaged. Work began on April 17. The engines, electronics and at least some electro-mechanical systems presumably need to be replaced. The ministry does not yet know how much the repairs will cost.
In the F-X program, the Typhoon and F/A-18E/F will likely cost less than F-35s, but Lockheed Martin could argue that the F-35 could also satisfy Japan’s longer-term F-XX requirement to replace the air force’s older F-15s, so production costs would level out over time.
As the newest aircraft, the F-35 has the advantage of fifth-generation fighter technology. But it may be hard to persuade the ministry that there will be no more delays and cost overruns. The defense budget is constrained and future military spending is likely to decline, say industry executives. The reconstruction costs in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis are further straining the national budget.
Some industry executives are wondering if the FX decision will really be made this year. It will be a political challenge for the government to allocate money for new fighters when it is still grappling with national rebuilding costs. There is also the risk that public dissatisfaction over handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis will force out Prime Minister Naoto Kan and, with him, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. A new defense minister could insist on reviewing as big a program as the F-X before letting it proceed.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awst/2011/04/25/AW_04_25_2011_p35-314011.xml&headline=Three
Apr 29, 2011
By Bradley Perrett
BEIJING — Enlargement of the Japanese F-X fighter program is under consideration as the repair of all 18 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-2B trainers damaged in the March 11 tsunami looks increasingly unlikely.
The defense ministry’s initial assessment — that it will be lucky to repair as many as three of the aircraft — also seems to raise the possibility of the F-X program being pursued more urgently. Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the Eurofighter consortium are competing for the order for 40-50 fighters, with the prospect of further production after the initial requirement — replacement of F-4EJ Phantoms — is met.
Just pulling apart the damaged 18 F-2Bs and examining them will cost ¥13.6 billion ($166 million), the ministry tells the Asahi newspaper.
The air force had 33 F-2Bs before 18 were submerged at Matsushima air base by the tsunami, according to Forecast International data (Aerospace DAILY, March 18). So repairs, if any, will leave only 15-18 available.
As a result, the country appears to have four choices: accept a reduction in aircraft numbers, build replacement F-2Bs, acquire Boeing F-15Ds from U.S. stocks, or add units to the F-X program.
Although there is no official comment on the matter, neither of the first two options looks easy.
Since the damaged aircraft are all two-seaters, the training fleet has taken a heavy hit; restoring its numbers should be a priority.
And while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is still building the last few F-2s before closing its production line this year, its suppliers have already stopped making parts and systems.
So placing an order for more aircraft would now be unusually costly — even if Japan wanted to spend more money on the 1990s model instead of moving on to a new type.
Indeed, the cost of restarting parts production is probably a reason behind the ministry’s bleak assessment, although it could presumably look at using some of its stock of spare parts to refit the damaged aircraft.
Japan flies the F-15DJ, a close derivative of the F-15D, as a conversion trainer for its F-15J force. Potential issues with acquiring secondhand F-15Ds include availability, remaining fatigue life, and their suitability as replacements for the F-2Bs, which were used to train pilots for F-4EJs as well as F-2As.
As to the fourth option, the ministry has not raised the possibility with bidders of enlarging the F-X order to replace the F-2Bs, says an executive from one of the bidders, but it would not be expected to do so until it knew how many of the drenched fighters could be saved.
The aircraft types confirmed as competitors for the F-X order are the Lockheed Martin F-35, Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Eurofighter is represented by BAE Systems in association with Sumitomo Corp.
Responses to a request for proposals are due by September. First deliveries are due in 2017, but Eurofighter and Boeing have warm production lines from which they could conceivably divert two-seaters ordered by other customers.
Restoration of fighters soaked in salt water may seem improbable, but in the 1990s the Greek air force recovered a Mirage 2000EG that had crashed at low speed into the sea on final approach. That aircraft was pulled from the water after three days and eventually put back into service.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/asd/2011/04/29/01.xml&headline=F-X
Earlier article below.
Three Contenders Remain For Japan F-X
Apr 29, 2011
By Leithen Francis, Bradley Perrett
Singapore, Beijing
Sometime this year, a Japanese technician will perform the final piece of work on the last F-2 fighter to leave the Nagoya works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. With that, Japan’s 45 years of post-war fighter production will cease and the progressive loss of skills already under way in systems manufacturing will have spread to every stage of building combat aircraft.
This fact looms large for officials in charge of charting the path for the next fighter program. The sooner a new fighter goes into production, the sooner this highly specialized industry can be revitalized.
The defense ministry says three groups have responded to its April 13 request for proposals (RFP): BAE Systems with Sumitomo Corp., offering the Eurofighter Typhoon; Lockheed Martin with the F-35; and Boeing with the F/A-18E/F.
The ministry said last year it would also be interested in the Lockheed Martin F-22, Boeing F-15 and the Dassault Rafale. But the U.S. will not export the F-22, and the F-15 is out because Boeing believes Japan’s air force is leaning toward a completely new aircraft type. Dassault Rafale declined to comment.
The RFP was issued early this year because the ministry and Japan Air Self-Defense Force (Jasdf) hope to make a recommendation in time for the procurement to be included the fiscal 2012 budget. To ensure inclusion in 2012, the contenders have until the end of September to respond. A winner is to be selected and a recommendation made to the cabinet by the end of December, leaving three months for parliament to decide.
Japan’s defense guidelines say 40-50 F-X fighters will be ordered, with the first 12 to be delivered by March 31, 2017. The F/A-18E/F and Eurofighter Typhoon programs are more mature than the F-35’s, so it is easier for these two to meet the deadline. The F-35 program has had many delays, but Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 general manager, Tom Burbage, told Aviation Week in March that they could deliver as soon as fiscal 2016.
Early delivery is an important factor also because the F-X is needed to replace the F-4s, all more than 30 years old. Shigeru Iwasaki, Jasdf chief of air staff, is coy about when the F-4s will go. It depends on the accumulated flight hours on the airframe, but it may happen within the next 10 years, he says. If so, Mitsubishi will have to quickly ramp up F-X production. Some industry executives say the tight deadline for first deliveries and the ministry’s concerns about cost mean the first batch of F-Xs might be fully imported.
Japan requires local manufacturing of military aircraft, along with domestic development of some parts and systems. But licensed production there, particularly for short production runs, has proven expensive. The country also tends to change the aircraft design, to the extent that the F-2 was really a new aircraft following the F-16 configuration. Quite apart from the expense, design changes take time. Some industry executives say Japan is unlikely to make any significant changes because these would escalate costs and upset deadlines.
Some relief for Japan’s fighter production base is coming from an unfortunate circumstance. The ministry believes that 18 F-2Bs that were submerged in the March 11 tsunami can be salvaged. Work began on April 17. The engines, electronics and at least some electro-mechanical systems presumably need to be replaced. The ministry does not yet know how much the repairs will cost.
In the F-X program, the Typhoon and F/A-18E/F will likely cost less than F-35s, but Lockheed Martin could argue that the F-35 could also satisfy Japan’s longer-term F-XX requirement to replace the air force’s older F-15s, so production costs would level out over time.
As the newest aircraft, the F-35 has the advantage of fifth-generation fighter technology. But it may be hard to persuade the ministry that there will be no more delays and cost overruns. The defense budget is constrained and future military spending is likely to decline, say industry executives. The reconstruction costs in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis are further straining the national budget.
Some industry executives are wondering if the FX decision will really be made this year. It will be a political challenge for the government to allocate money for new fighters when it is still grappling with national rebuilding costs. There is also the risk that public dissatisfaction over handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis will force out Prime Minister Naoto Kan and, with him, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. A new defense minister could insist on reviewing as big a program as the F-X before letting it proceed.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awst/2011/04/25/AW_04_25_2011_p35-314011.xml&headline=Three
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Irony strikes yet again.
Blast may have helped cool rods
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A hydrogen gas explosion at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 15 may have helped prevent spent fuel rods from melting down by causing a flow of water into the pool the rods are stored in, according to research by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
It seems that shocks from the explosion damaged a water gate and caused water to flow into the pool from a neighboring part of the facility, TEPCO said.
The explosion, which the company assumes was caused by hydrogen gas, was so strong that the outer walls of the reactor building collapsed.
At the time of the explosion, the spent fuel rods had been overheating. If that had continued, the company said, the rods might have melted, spewing a far larger quantity of radioactive materials into the air than actually happened.
The nuclear power plant lost its external electricity supply when it was hit by tsunami following the March 11 earthquake. As a result, injection of coolant water into the pool of the No. 4 reactor also stopped.
Currently, TEPCO is injecting water into the pool with a pump originally meant to pour fresh concrete. Although about 70 tons of water is assumed to be evaporating every day from the pool, company officials said even considering evaporation, the water level is not rising as much as expected.
The company checked the reactor facilities, suspecting water might be leaking from the pool, but cannot confirm water leakage into the bottom structures of the reactor building.
The utility believes one possible answer is that water pumped into the spent rod pool is flowing back across the damaged gate into the No. 4 reactor well located next to the pool.
When the earthquake occurred, the No. 4 reactor was under repair. Covers of the pressure vessel and containment vessel were open at the time and the whole of the well, including the pressure vessel, was filled with water.
The water was injected to allow the removal and transfer of nuclear fuel rods from the pressure vessel to the pool without exposing them to air.
TEPCO assumes that a series of incidents occurred in the following way:
-- The water level inside the pool decreased and parts of the spent fuel rods became exposed.
-- Metal covering the overheated fuel rods reacted chemically with water and discharged a large quantity of hydrogen gas.
-- The gas was ignited and exploded, damaging the gate.
-- As a result, hundreds of tons of water entered the pool and the overheating of fuel rods ended.
(Apr. 29, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110428006723.htm
Blast may have helped cool rods
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A hydrogen gas explosion at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 15 may have helped prevent spent fuel rods from melting down by causing a flow of water into the pool the rods are stored in, according to research by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
It seems that shocks from the explosion damaged a water gate and caused water to flow into the pool from a neighboring part of the facility, TEPCO said.
The explosion, which the company assumes was caused by hydrogen gas, was so strong that the outer walls of the reactor building collapsed.
At the time of the explosion, the spent fuel rods had been overheating. If that had continued, the company said, the rods might have melted, spewing a far larger quantity of radioactive materials into the air than actually happened.
The nuclear power plant lost its external electricity supply when it was hit by tsunami following the March 11 earthquake. As a result, injection of coolant water into the pool of the No. 4 reactor also stopped.
Currently, TEPCO is injecting water into the pool with a pump originally meant to pour fresh concrete. Although about 70 tons of water is assumed to be evaporating every day from the pool, company officials said even considering evaporation, the water level is not rising as much as expected.
The company checked the reactor facilities, suspecting water might be leaking from the pool, but cannot confirm water leakage into the bottom structures of the reactor building.
The utility believes one possible answer is that water pumped into the spent rod pool is flowing back across the damaged gate into the No. 4 reactor well located next to the pool.
When the earthquake occurred, the No. 4 reactor was under repair. Covers of the pressure vessel and containment vessel were open at the time and the whole of the well, including the pressure vessel, was filled with water.
The water was injected to allow the removal and transfer of nuclear fuel rods from the pressure vessel to the pool without exposing them to air.
TEPCO assumes that a series of incidents occurred in the following way:
-- The water level inside the pool decreased and parts of the spent fuel rods became exposed.
-- Metal covering the overheated fuel rods reacted chemically with water and discharged a large quantity of hydrogen gas.
-- The gas was ignited and exploded, damaging the gate.
-- As a result, hundreds of tons of water entered the pool and the overheating of fuel rods ended.
(Apr. 29, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110428006723.htm
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Govt panel to overhaul disaster readiness plans
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A government panel has decided national disaster readiness plans need to be overhauled to strengthen preparations for major tsunami in light of the Great East Japan Earthquake that has left more than 25,000 people dead or missing.
The Central Disaster Prevention Council, chaired by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, agreed Wednesday to ask both the central and local governments to draw up specific proposals after compiling expert opinions by around autumn, council members said. The panel also intends to reassess its projections on how much damage could be caused by a huge tsunami triggered by three simultaneous ocean-trench earthquakes that experts predict will someday hit the Tokai region.
The existing disaster management plans categorize natural disasters into four types: earthquakes, damage caused by wind or floods, volcanic hazards and snow-related damage. For each category, the council has created countermeasures and emergency plans. Tsunami are addressed under earthquakes but take up just two pages of the about 400-page disaster management plan. The overhaul could place tsunami in a fifth independent category.
The Basic Law on Natural Disasters obliges concerned government bodies and local governments to work out plans to prepare for disasters based on central government measures. The council is expected to ask for additional preparations to be made.
In January 2006, the council of 26 members including ministers and experts projected that 2,700 people could be killed if an earthquake equivalent to the 1896 Meiji-Sanriku quake that killed 21,959 people struck. But the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused damage far beyond these estimates.
At the outset of a council meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday, Kan said: "This earthquake far surpassed the expectations and projections made by the Central Disaster Prevention Council. We need to make a drastic review of disaster countermeasures."
Also on Wednesday, the council set up a new research committee on earthquakes and tsunami.
The council currently projects a triple earthquake in the Tokai region could kill about 25,000 people. However, it will reexamine its casualty projections to take a subsequent tsunami into consideration, which could cause massive damage stretching from the Kanto region to Kyushu along the Pacific coast, the panel members said.
In last month's disaster, local government offices that were supposed to play a central role in disaster management were devastated and had no control of the situation. The council therefore plans to examine where local government offices should be built and how they could maintain their administrative functions in the event of a major disaster.
The current national guidelines do not set criteria for buildings to be used for evacuation in case of tsunami more than three meters high. To better prepare for such large tsunami, the council intends to create specific guidelines, such as what floor people should evacuate to, the members said.
(Apr. 29, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110428005520.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A government panel has decided national disaster readiness plans need to be overhauled to strengthen preparations for major tsunami in light of the Great East Japan Earthquake that has left more than 25,000 people dead or missing.
The Central Disaster Prevention Council, chaired by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, agreed Wednesday to ask both the central and local governments to draw up specific proposals after compiling expert opinions by around autumn, council members said. The panel also intends to reassess its projections on how much damage could be caused by a huge tsunami triggered by three simultaneous ocean-trench earthquakes that experts predict will someday hit the Tokai region.
The existing disaster management plans categorize natural disasters into four types: earthquakes, damage caused by wind or floods, volcanic hazards and snow-related damage. For each category, the council has created countermeasures and emergency plans. Tsunami are addressed under earthquakes but take up just two pages of the about 400-page disaster management plan. The overhaul could place tsunami in a fifth independent category.
The Basic Law on Natural Disasters obliges concerned government bodies and local governments to work out plans to prepare for disasters based on central government measures. The council is expected to ask for additional preparations to be made.
In January 2006, the council of 26 members including ministers and experts projected that 2,700 people could be killed if an earthquake equivalent to the 1896 Meiji-Sanriku quake that killed 21,959 people struck. But the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused damage far beyond these estimates.
At the outset of a council meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday, Kan said: "This earthquake far surpassed the expectations and projections made by the Central Disaster Prevention Council. We need to make a drastic review of disaster countermeasures."
Also on Wednesday, the council set up a new research committee on earthquakes and tsunami.
The council currently projects a triple earthquake in the Tokai region could kill about 25,000 people. However, it will reexamine its casualty projections to take a subsequent tsunami into consideration, which could cause massive damage stretching from the Kanto region to Kyushu along the Pacific coast, the panel members said.
In last month's disaster, local government offices that were supposed to play a central role in disaster management were devastated and had no control of the situation. The council therefore plans to examine where local government offices should be built and how they could maintain their administrative functions in the event of a major disaster.
The current national guidelines do not set criteria for buildings to be used for evacuation in case of tsunami more than three meters high. To better prepare for such large tsunami, the council intends to create specific guidelines, such as what floor people should evacuate to, the members said.
(Apr. 29, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110428005520.htm
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Decontamination of radioactive water at Fukushima plant may begin in June
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The decontamination of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could begin in June, according to the unified command headquarters in charge of dealing with the nuclear crisis.
The headquarters, set up by the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., announced its plan to process the highly radioactive water Wednesday. Equipment for the waste processing facility will be moved to the power station in May, a headquarters official said.
According to the plan, radiation-contaminated water will be moved to the waste facility, where a separator will remove oil and another device will absorb radioactive cesium using zeolite. The process using the absorbent mineral is expected to reduce radioactive cesium to 0.001 percent of its original level. In the next stage, other radioactive substances will be removed through precipitation using special chemicals. By the end of the process, radioactivity in the water will be reduced to 0.0001 percent of its original level, the official said.
The water will be then be returned to the reactors and used to cool them after going through a desalination process. Part of the contaminated water is seawater TEPCO has been using to cool the reactors.
The facility can process about 1,200 tons of contaminated water a day. According to the headquarters, the facility could clean the 87,500 tons of radioactive water currently at the Nos. 1 to 4 reactors in 73 days. "Even if all 500 tons of water being injected into the reactors every day leaked, the facility could decontaminate all the contaminated water this year," the official said.
TEPCO will store radioactive materials and other waste from the cleansing process at the Fukushima plant. The official said the headquarters had yet to decide how the waste will finally be disposed of. Kurion Inc., a U.S. nuclear waste management company, Areva SA, a French nuclear power company, and some domestic firms will provide equipment and technology.
The headquarters official said it is planning to install an underground tank that can store up to 10,000 tons of water in case the facility cannot process the amount of water anticipated.
Of all the contaminated water at the nuclear plant, TEPCO has prioritized transferring water leaked from the No. 2 reactor to the waste processing facility, as this water is the most radioactive. But so far the water level at the No. 2 reactor has not declined significantly, the official said.
Goshi Hosono, secretary general of the headquarters, said, "We also need to figure out what to do with the highly radioactive waste produced in the decontamination process."
Goshi also serves as a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
(Apr. 29, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110428006443.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The decontamination of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could begin in June, according to the unified command headquarters in charge of dealing with the nuclear crisis.
The headquarters, set up by the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., announced its plan to process the highly radioactive water Wednesday. Equipment for the waste processing facility will be moved to the power station in May, a headquarters official said.
According to the plan, radiation-contaminated water will be moved to the waste facility, where a separator will remove oil and another device will absorb radioactive cesium using zeolite. The process using the absorbent mineral is expected to reduce radioactive cesium to 0.001 percent of its original level. In the next stage, other radioactive substances will be removed through precipitation using special chemicals. By the end of the process, radioactivity in the water will be reduced to 0.0001 percent of its original level, the official said.
The water will be then be returned to the reactors and used to cool them after going through a desalination process. Part of the contaminated water is seawater TEPCO has been using to cool the reactors.
The facility can process about 1,200 tons of contaminated water a day. According to the headquarters, the facility could clean the 87,500 tons of radioactive water currently at the Nos. 1 to 4 reactors in 73 days. "Even if all 500 tons of water being injected into the reactors every day leaked, the facility could decontaminate all the contaminated water this year," the official said.
TEPCO will store radioactive materials and other waste from the cleansing process at the Fukushima plant. The official said the headquarters had yet to decide how the waste will finally be disposed of. Kurion Inc., a U.S. nuclear waste management company, Areva SA, a French nuclear power company, and some domestic firms will provide equipment and technology.
The headquarters official said it is planning to install an underground tank that can store up to 10,000 tons of water in case the facility cannot process the amount of water anticipated.
Of all the contaminated water at the nuclear plant, TEPCO has prioritized transferring water leaked from the No. 2 reactor to the waste processing facility, as this water is the most radioactive. But so far the water level at the No. 2 reactor has not declined significantly, the official said.
Goshi Hosono, secretary general of the headquarters, said, "We also need to figure out what to do with the highly radioactive waste produced in the decontamination process."
Goshi also serves as a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
(Apr. 29, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110428006443.htm
blackkite
Don't laugh, don't cry, don't even curse, but.....
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Prime minister Naoto Kan(菅 直人) requested Chubu Electric Power Company, Incorporated(中部電力) to stop operating Hamaoka(浜岡) Nuclear Power Station's No.4 and No.5 reactor until Chubu Electric Power finish to construct 15m height Tsunami fence(two or three years later), because there is a 87% possibility of magnitude 8 class massive earth quake near power station in Shizuoka prefecture.
Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station locate middle of Japan.
Prime minister Naoto Kan does not requested other electric company to stop operating nuclear power station.
And Masao Yoshida(吉田 昌郎), the director of No.1 Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, many people said that he grasp Japanese Fate.
He is worrying about another massive earth quake and Tsunami, it's fatal, he needs high and strong Tsunami fence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4qAmKtPJJ4
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xijs2p_yyyyyy-yyyy-yyyyyy-yyyy-yy-4-4-5y4y_news
Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station locate middle of Japan.
Prime minister Naoto Kan does not requested other electric company to stop operating nuclear power station.
And Masao Yoshida(吉田 昌郎), the director of No.1 Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, many people said that he grasp Japanese Fate.
He is worrying about another massive earth quake and Tsunami, it's fatal, he needs high and strong Tsunami fence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4qAmKtPJJ4
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xijs2p_yyyyyy-yyyy-yyyyyy-yyyy-yy-4-4-5y4y_news
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![jp_npp-location[1].jpg](/data/attachments/53/53710-dc7f843c345cf66bd26f8e65cfa0a4fa.jpg)
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blackkite said:
To be honest I don't know why the government hasn't stepped in and offered to help speed up construction of higher tsunami sea walls where they're needed - in addition to tsunami-proofing the power station buildings too.
Also, If I recall correctly the 87% chance is of a mag 8 earthquake hitting in the next 30 years.
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I'd say Kan is for the high jump after this latest mess.
In other news (heads up to the EX-SKF blog), from Robotland:
Swedish Demolition Robots Arrive at Fukushima Nuclear Plant
[PHOTO CREDIT: Brokk/ NyTeknik]
Swedish Brokk, the world´s leading manufacturer of remote controlled demolition machines, is delivering two Brokk 330 Diesel robots and a brand new larger robot to Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
The first task for the machines is to provide access to highly contaminated areas and clean up contamination. “One key difference between Brokk’s demolition robots and other robots currently on site is that our machines are capable of carrying out multiple different and tougher tasks, such as tearing down concrete structures and take care of heavier contaminated materials” says Martin Krupicka CEO of Brokk.
The first contact with Brokk and its Japanese partner BGE Company Ltd was taken soon after the accident at Fukushima, as Brokk demolition robots are known globally for decommissioning and material handling in radioactive environments.
Brokk has successfully delivered robots for demolition, decommissioning and disposal of radioactive material to the nuclear industry for over twenty years, including to the USA, France, Great Britain, Russia and Japan. Brokk machines have for example been used for decommissioning and cleanup at Chernobyl in Urkraine. Brokk was chosen for this extremely challenging work by Taisei Corp, which works for TEPCO at Fukushima, because of our extensive experience in the nuclear industry. Brokk has over two hundred machines at various nuclear sites worldwide.
Etiketter: Brokk, Demolition robot, Sweden
http://robotland.blogspot.com/2011/05/swedish-demolition-robots-arrive-at.html
In other news (heads up to the EX-SKF blog), from Robotland:
Swedish Demolition Robots Arrive at Fukushima Nuclear Plant
[PHOTO CREDIT: Brokk/ NyTeknik]
Swedish Brokk, the world´s leading manufacturer of remote controlled demolition machines, is delivering two Brokk 330 Diesel robots and a brand new larger robot to Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
The first task for the machines is to provide access to highly contaminated areas and clean up contamination. “One key difference between Brokk’s demolition robots and other robots currently on site is that our machines are capable of carrying out multiple different and tougher tasks, such as tearing down concrete structures and take care of heavier contaminated materials” says Martin Krupicka CEO of Brokk.
The first contact with Brokk and its Japanese partner BGE Company Ltd was taken soon after the accident at Fukushima, as Brokk demolition robots are known globally for decommissioning and material handling in radioactive environments.
Brokk has successfully delivered robots for demolition, decommissioning and disposal of radioactive material to the nuclear industry for over twenty years, including to the USA, France, Great Britain, Russia and Japan. Brokk machines have for example been used for decommissioning and cleanup at Chernobyl in Urkraine. Brokk was chosen for this extremely challenging work by Taisei Corp, which works for TEPCO at Fukushima, because of our extensive experience in the nuclear industry. Brokk has over two hundred machines at various nuclear sites worldwide.
Etiketter: Brokk, Demolition robot, Sweden
http://robotland.blogspot.com/2011/05/swedish-demolition-robots-arrive-at.html
blackkite
Don't laugh, don't cry, don't even curse, but.....
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Thanks starviking! You are right.
TEPCO begin to install air cooling system for #1 reactor and #1 reactor primary containment vessel from 8Th of April(today),it will take one month to complete air cooling system. If air cooling system function well, #1 reactor will reach the cold shut down condition within few days.
Source:Internet.
空気式放熱装置：air fin cooler, 原子炉建屋：reactor building, 圧力容器：reactor vessel, 格納容器：primary containment vessel(PCV).
熱交換器：heat exchanger.
TEPCO begin to install air cooling system for #1 reactor and #1 reactor primary containment vessel from 8Th of April(today),it will take one month to complete air cooling system. If air cooling system function well, #1 reactor will reach the cold shut down condition within few days.
Source:Internet.
空気式放熱装置：air fin cooler, 原子炉建屋：reactor building, 圧力容器：reactor vessel, 格納容器：primary containment vessel(PCV).
熱交換器：heat exchanger.
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Here's a couple of older, but still relevant, articles from Japan Security Watch:
Ministry of Defense to scale back MSDF, ASDF Earthquake Efforts
BY Kyle Mizokami– April 30, 2011
Posted in: aircraft, airlift, ASDF, disaster relief, Japan Self-Defense Force, MSDF, Tohoku Earthquake, Uncategorized
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said today that the MoD is planning on reducing the presence of the Air and Maritime Self Defense Forces in the earthquake-affected area.
“The MSDF and ASDF will have to return to their original roles in intelligence-gathering and surveillance as the need for them to transport supplies and rescue people is slightly changing,” Kitazawa told a news conference.
But regarding the Ground Self-Defense Force troops engaged in providing support to the victims and searching for missing people, Kitazawa said, “I will not let disaster-hit victims lose the sense of security provided by having uniformed SDF personnel near them.”
The Self-Defense Forces have been spearheading the earthquake relief effort, operating at their highest tempo ever. The ASDF committed 21,600 of 45,000 total ADSF personnel and 481 of 805 aircraft to the effort. The MSDF committed 14,100 of 46,000 total MSDF personnel and at one point 60% of the total fleet.
ASDF aircraft are expensive to fly, and now that the roads have been reopened there is less of a need for air transport. As for the MSDF, ships are probably running low on supplies and fuel, and embarked helicopters probably need service — many were sent to sea on only 24 hours’ warning.
And, as Surveillance To Go Nowhere notes, “a lot of the SDF soldiers are just tired”.
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=5919
A Heavy Toll
BY James Simpson– April 25, 2011
Posted in: disaster relief, domestic ops, GSDF, humanitarian, Japan, Japan Self-Defense Force, Military, MoD, News, search and rescue, Tohoku Earthquake
Last week, an enlisted man in the MSDF tried to avoid a second deployment to the Tohoku disaster area by exposing himself in a video store. This is just one example of the psychological price of the SDF’s disaster relief efforts. As 25,000 troops head to the region in a surge designed to locate and retrieve the remaining bodies of the missing, it would be foolish to overlook the lasting effects on those serving their country. Thankfully, the Ministry of Defense has apparently recognized this and will begin conducting psychological check-ups of GSDF troops deployed to the region one-month, six-months and one-year on from their deployment.
A Kyodo release on the condition of SDF relief workers gives some insight into the stresses involved:
“This is the most dreadful sight that I have ever seen,” a veteran member of the Ground Self-Defense Force said, while his colleagues were recovering a burned male body from the debris in the coastal city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, about one month after the disaster.
Looking back at the early days of the rescue operations, a GSDF member said, “It was like hell…Bodies were everywhere, but we put priority on finding survivors.”
[...] Some personnel sometimes cry even when they sleep, probably because they remember the distressing scenes in their dreams.
There is already one psychotherapist working with GSDF members in Fukushima, according to a Yomiuri report yesterday:
Ito Arizono, 29, provides precious relief to GSDF members whose physical and mental fatigue has been accumulating since the disaster struck more than a month ago.
In a consulting room in the GSDF’s base in Fukushima, experienced GSDF members tell Arizono about their worries.
Some have a somber manner, and some speak in detached tones, but the common thread, Arizono said, is “a sense of anxiety stemming from their experience of seeing a large number of dead bodies over a long period of time.”
The consultations with the GSDF members are unlike anything else in her professional experience, Arizono said. While listening to them describe atrocious scenes they have witnessed, she tries to create a supportive atmosphere.
For some, these efforts will have come too late. In Japan Business Press, one SDF official paints a harrowing picture of relief efforts: the smell on land, decomposition, inadequate protective clothing supplies, lack of communications equipment, the list goes on…
That said, there are two problems with assigning 100,000 personnel to these efforts. The first is that it is almost impossible to find replacements.
At the moment the same units and the same personnel work for three weeks in the disaster area, then have one week for rest and recuperation, then work another three weeks and so on.
The police and the fire department replace their personnel every week or so, but for the SDF, as it is trying to maintain a system with 100,000 personnel involved, it is very difficult to get hold of replacements.
In the weeks and months ahead, the situation on the ground is going to be even more terrible and the SDF personnel are going to realize this fact.
Some GDSF personnel involved in the first tour are already dead. Faced with the huge numbers of dead bodies he came across during his tour, one SDF member could no longer take it and committed suicide. You could call this death in the line of duty. A GSDF Sergeant Major in his 50s has also fallen ill and died. This is also death in the line of duty.
The SDF is stretched thin and years of neglect are exacting a heavy toll on the minds, bodies and wallets of those working so hard to get everything back to normal. As the same SDF official states: “With each passing day they see more things that they don’t want to see, smell more things that they don’t want to smell, and morale inevitably starts to flag.” Japan must protect its protectors, not just now, but from here on.
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=5888
Ministry of Defense to scale back MSDF, ASDF Earthquake Efforts
BY Kyle Mizokami– April 30, 2011
Posted in: aircraft, airlift, ASDF, disaster relief, Japan Self-Defense Force, MSDF, Tohoku Earthquake, Uncategorized
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said today that the MoD is planning on reducing the presence of the Air and Maritime Self Defense Forces in the earthquake-affected area.
“The MSDF and ASDF will have to return to their original roles in intelligence-gathering and surveillance as the need for them to transport supplies and rescue people is slightly changing,” Kitazawa told a news conference.
But regarding the Ground Self-Defense Force troops engaged in providing support to the victims and searching for missing people, Kitazawa said, “I will not let disaster-hit victims lose the sense of security provided by having uniformed SDF personnel near them.”
The Self-Defense Forces have been spearheading the earthquake relief effort, operating at their highest tempo ever. The ASDF committed 21,600 of 45,000 total ADSF personnel and 481 of 805 aircraft to the effort. The MSDF committed 14,100 of 46,000 total MSDF personnel and at one point 60% of the total fleet.
ASDF aircraft are expensive to fly, and now that the roads have been reopened there is less of a need for air transport. As for the MSDF, ships are probably running low on supplies and fuel, and embarked helicopters probably need service — many were sent to sea on only 24 hours’ warning.
And, as Surveillance To Go Nowhere notes, “a lot of the SDF soldiers are just tired”.
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=5919
A Heavy Toll
BY James Simpson– April 25, 2011
Posted in: disaster relief, domestic ops, GSDF, humanitarian, Japan, Japan Self-Defense Force, Military, MoD, News, search and rescue, Tohoku Earthquake
Last week, an enlisted man in the MSDF tried to avoid a second deployment to the Tohoku disaster area by exposing himself in a video store. This is just one example of the psychological price of the SDF’s disaster relief efforts. As 25,000 troops head to the region in a surge designed to locate and retrieve the remaining bodies of the missing, it would be foolish to overlook the lasting effects on those serving their country. Thankfully, the Ministry of Defense has apparently recognized this and will begin conducting psychological check-ups of GSDF troops deployed to the region one-month, six-months and one-year on from their deployment.
A Kyodo release on the condition of SDF relief workers gives some insight into the stresses involved:
“This is the most dreadful sight that I have ever seen,” a veteran member of the Ground Self-Defense Force said, while his colleagues were recovering a burned male body from the debris in the coastal city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, about one month after the disaster.
Looking back at the early days of the rescue operations, a GSDF member said, “It was like hell…Bodies were everywhere, but we put priority on finding survivors.”
[...] Some personnel sometimes cry even when they sleep, probably because they remember the distressing scenes in their dreams.
There is already one psychotherapist working with GSDF members in Fukushima, according to a Yomiuri report yesterday:
Ito Arizono, 29, provides precious relief to GSDF members whose physical and mental fatigue has been accumulating since the disaster struck more than a month ago.
In a consulting room in the GSDF’s base in Fukushima, experienced GSDF members tell Arizono about their worries.
Some have a somber manner, and some speak in detached tones, but the common thread, Arizono said, is “a sense of anxiety stemming from their experience of seeing a large number of dead bodies over a long period of time.”
The consultations with the GSDF members are unlike anything else in her professional experience, Arizono said. While listening to them describe atrocious scenes they have witnessed, she tries to create a supportive atmosphere.
For some, these efforts will have come too late. In Japan Business Press, one SDF official paints a harrowing picture of relief efforts: the smell on land, decomposition, inadequate protective clothing supplies, lack of communications equipment, the list goes on…
That said, there are two problems with assigning 100,000 personnel to these efforts. The first is that it is almost impossible to find replacements.
At the moment the same units and the same personnel work for three weeks in the disaster area, then have one week for rest and recuperation, then work another three weeks and so on.
The police and the fire department replace their personnel every week or so, but for the SDF, as it is trying to maintain a system with 100,000 personnel involved, it is very difficult to get hold of replacements.
In the weeks and months ahead, the situation on the ground is going to be even more terrible and the SDF personnel are going to realize this fact.
Some GDSF personnel involved in the first tour are already dead. Faced with the huge numbers of dead bodies he came across during his tour, one SDF member could no longer take it and committed suicide. You could call this death in the line of duty. A GSDF Sergeant Major in his 50s has also fallen ill and died. This is also death in the line of duty.
The SDF is stretched thin and years of neglect are exacting a heavy toll on the minds, bodies and wallets of those working so hard to get everything back to normal. As the same SDF official states: “With each passing day they see more things that they don’t want to see, smell more things that they don’t want to smell, and morale inevitably starts to flag.” Japan must protect its protectors, not just now, but from here on.
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=5888
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On the issue of robots at Fukushima, there has been some talk of sending a Japanese robot originally developed for lunar exploration, Tri-Star IV. However while the bot seems to be quite capable of handling rough terrain (including rubble), the fact that the current prototype appears to be a proof of concept demonstrator, without the hardening/shielding, or indeed the sensors, that the final article would have as standard, may scuttle that idea, unless they can quickly retrofit it without impacting mobility and performance.
A few more details here (heads up to robots.net):
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/05/02/video-tricycle-robot-tri-star-iv-overcomes-sand-and-rubble-could-be-used-in-fukushima/
A few more details here (heads up to robots.net):
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/05/02/video-tricycle-robot-tri-star-iv-overcomes-sand-and-rubble-could-be-used-in-fukushima/
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Do not ask for whom the bell tolls....
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.6ddcbc57a3d9d10ad0e2f7b757e9b37a.401&show_article=1
It tolls for Kan.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.6ddcbc57a3d9d10ad0e2f7b757e9b37a.401&show_article=1
It tolls for Kan.
blackkite
Don't laugh, don't cry, don't even curse, but.....
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TEPCO repaired water level gauge of Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Station #1 reactor and find that reactor water level is very low, water level is less than 4m measured from the bottom of the reactor vessel. All fuel already melted down and accumulated bottom part of the reactor vessel but still cooled by water injection. Reactor vessel temperature is low, 100 to 120 degree centigrade. Cooling water is leaking from bottom of the reactor vessel. TEPCO already injected total 10,000ton water to the reactor vessel,but 3,000ton is unknown. It means the possibility of Primary Containment Vessel brake. To construct closed loop cooling system is hard because cooling water radioactivity level is very high. (NHK news 12/5/2011)
実際の水位：actual water level , 溶けた燃料：melted fuel
実際の水位：actual water level , 溶けた燃料：melted fuel
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(Via MSNBC)
How one Japanese village defied the tsunami
51-foot floodgate was costly, 'but without it, Fudai would have disappeared'
By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA
The Associated Press
updated 2 hours 38 minutes ago 2011-05-13T10:08:37
FUDAI, Japan — In the rubble of Japan's northeast coast, one small village stands as tall as ever after the tsunami. No homes were swept away. In fact, they barely got wet.
Fudai is the village that survived — thanks to a huge wall once deemed a mayor's expensive folly and now vindicated as the community's salvation.
The 3,000 residents living between mountains behind a cove owe their lives to a late leader who saw the devastation of an earlier tsunami and made it the priority of his four-decade tenure to defend his people from the next one.
His 51-foot floodgate between mountainsides took a dozen years to build and meant spending more than $30 million in today's dollars.
"It cost a lot of money. But without it, Fudai would have disappeared," said seaweed fisherman Satoshi Kaneko, 55, whose business has been ruined but who is happy to have his family and home intact.
The gate project was criticized as wasteful in the 1970s. But the gate and an equally high seawall behind the community's adjacent fishing port protected Fudai from the waves that obliterated so many other towns. Two months after the disaster, more than 25,000 are missing or dead.
"However you look at it, the effectiveness of the floodgate and seawall was truly impressive," current Fudai Mayor Hiroshi Fukawatari said.
Towns to the north and south also braced against tsunamis with concrete seawalls, breakwaters and other protective structures. But none was as tall as Fudai's.
The town of Taro believed it had the ultimate fort — a double-layered 33-foot-tall seawall spanning 1.6 miles across a bay. It proved no match for the March 11 tsunami.
In Fudai, the waves rose as high as 66 feet, as water marks show on the floodgate's towers. So some ocean water did flow over but caused minimal damage. The gate broke the tsunami's main thrust. The two mountainsides flanking the gate also offered a natural barrier.
Ten-term mayor
The man credited with saving Fudai is the late Kotaku Wamura, a ten-term mayor whose political reign began in the ashes of World War II and ended in 1987.
Fudai, about 320 miles north of Tokyo, depends on the sea. Fishermen boast of the seaweed they harvest. A pretty, white-sand beach lured tourists every summer.
But Wamura never forgot how quickly the sea could turn. Massive earthquake-triggered tsunamis flattened the northeast coast in 1933 and 1896. In Fudai, the two disasters destroyed hundreds of homes and killed 439 people.
"When I saw bodies being dug up from the piles of earth, I did not know what to say. I had no words," Wamura wrote of the 1933 tsunami in his book about Fudai, "A 40-Year Fight Against Poverty."
He vowed it would never happen again.
In 1967, the town erected a 51-foot seawall to shield homes behind the fishing port. But Wamura wasn't finished. He had a bigger project in mind for the cove up the road, where most of the community was located. That area needed a floodgate with panels that could be lifted to allow the Fudai River to empty into the cove and lowered to block tsunamis.
He insisted the structure be as tall as the seawall.
The village council initially balked.
"They weren't necessarily against the idea of floodgates, just the size," said Yuzo Mifune, head of Fudai's resident services and an unofficial floodgate historian. "But Wamura somehow persuaded them that this was the only way to protect lives."
Construction began in 1972 despite lingering concerns about its size as well as bitterness among landowners forced to sell land to the government.
Even current Mayor Fukawatari, who at the time helped oversee construction, had his doubts.
"I did wonder whether we needed something this big," he said in an interview at his office.
The concrete structure was completed in 1984. It spanned 673 feet from end to end. The total bill of 3.56 billion yen was split between the prefectural government and the central government, which financed public works as part of its post-war economic strategy.
On March 11, after the 9.0 earthquake hit, workers remotely closed the floodgate's four main panels. Smaller panels on the sides jammed, and a fireman had to rush down to shut them by hand.
The tsunami battered the white beach in the cove, leaving behind debris and fallen trees. But behind the floodgate, the village is virtually untouched.
'Thankful now'
Fudai Elementary School sits no more than a few minutes walk inland. It looks the same as it did on March 10. A group of boys recently ran laps around a baseball field that was clear of the junk piled up in other coastal neighborhoods.
Their coach, Sachio Kamimukai, was born and raised in Fudai. He said he never thought much about the floodgate until the tsunami.
"It was just always something that was there," said Kamimukai, 36. "But I'm very thankful now."
Fudai's biggest casualty was its exposed port, where the tsunami destroyed boats, equipment and warehouses. The village estimates losses of 3.8 billion yen ($47 million) to its fisheries industry.
One resident remains missing. He made the unlucky decision to check on his boat after the earthquake.
Wamura left office three years after the floodgate was completed. He died in 1997 at age 88. Since the tsunami, residents have been visiting his grave to pay respects.
At his retirement, Wamura stood before village employees to bid farewell: "Even if you encounter opposition, have conviction and finish what you start. In the end, people will understand."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43018489/ns/world_news-asiapacific#
BELOW: Fudai's 51-foot floodgate looms over a beach in northeastern Japan. It was criticized as being a wasteful public works project in the 1970s but protected the town when it was hit by a tsunami on March 11. PHOTO CREDIT - Associated Press
How one Japanese village defied the tsunami
51-foot floodgate was costly, 'but without it, Fudai would have disappeared'
By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA
The Associated Press
updated 2 hours 38 minutes ago 2011-05-13T10:08:37
FUDAI, Japan — In the rubble of Japan's northeast coast, one small village stands as tall as ever after the tsunami. No homes were swept away. In fact, they barely got wet.
Fudai is the village that survived — thanks to a huge wall once deemed a mayor's expensive folly and now vindicated as the community's salvation.
The 3,000 residents living between mountains behind a cove owe their lives to a late leader who saw the devastation of an earlier tsunami and made it the priority of his four-decade tenure to defend his people from the next one.
His 51-foot floodgate between mountainsides took a dozen years to build and meant spending more than $30 million in today's dollars.
"It cost a lot of money. But without it, Fudai would have disappeared," said seaweed fisherman Satoshi Kaneko, 55, whose business has been ruined but who is happy to have his family and home intact.
The gate project was criticized as wasteful in the 1970s. But the gate and an equally high seawall behind the community's adjacent fishing port protected Fudai from the waves that obliterated so many other towns. Two months after the disaster, more than 25,000 are missing or dead.
"However you look at it, the effectiveness of the floodgate and seawall was truly impressive," current Fudai Mayor Hiroshi Fukawatari said.
Towns to the north and south also braced against tsunamis with concrete seawalls, breakwaters and other protective structures. But none was as tall as Fudai's.
The town of Taro believed it had the ultimate fort — a double-layered 33-foot-tall seawall spanning 1.6 miles across a bay. It proved no match for the March 11 tsunami.
In Fudai, the waves rose as high as 66 feet, as water marks show on the floodgate's towers. So some ocean water did flow over but caused minimal damage. The gate broke the tsunami's main thrust. The two mountainsides flanking the gate also offered a natural barrier.
Ten-term mayor
The man credited with saving Fudai is the late Kotaku Wamura, a ten-term mayor whose political reign began in the ashes of World War II and ended in 1987.
Fudai, about 320 miles north of Tokyo, depends on the sea. Fishermen boast of the seaweed they harvest. A pretty, white-sand beach lured tourists every summer.
But Wamura never forgot how quickly the sea could turn. Massive earthquake-triggered tsunamis flattened the northeast coast in 1933 and 1896. In Fudai, the two disasters destroyed hundreds of homes and killed 439 people.
"When I saw bodies being dug up from the piles of earth, I did not know what to say. I had no words," Wamura wrote of the 1933 tsunami in his book about Fudai, "A 40-Year Fight Against Poverty."
He vowed it would never happen again.
In 1967, the town erected a 51-foot seawall to shield homes behind the fishing port. But Wamura wasn't finished. He had a bigger project in mind for the cove up the road, where most of the community was located. That area needed a floodgate with panels that could be lifted to allow the Fudai River to empty into the cove and lowered to block tsunamis.
He insisted the structure be as tall as the seawall.
The village council initially balked.
"They weren't necessarily against the idea of floodgates, just the size," said Yuzo Mifune, head of Fudai's resident services and an unofficial floodgate historian. "But Wamura somehow persuaded them that this was the only way to protect lives."
Construction began in 1972 despite lingering concerns about its size as well as bitterness among landowners forced to sell land to the government.
Even current Mayor Fukawatari, who at the time helped oversee construction, had his doubts.
"I did wonder whether we needed something this big," he said in an interview at his office.
The concrete structure was completed in 1984. It spanned 673 feet from end to end. The total bill of 3.56 billion yen was split between the prefectural government and the central government, which financed public works as part of its post-war economic strategy.
On March 11, after the 9.0 earthquake hit, workers remotely closed the floodgate's four main panels. Smaller panels on the sides jammed, and a fireman had to rush down to shut them by hand.
The tsunami battered the white beach in the cove, leaving behind debris and fallen trees. But behind the floodgate, the village is virtually untouched.
'Thankful now'
Fudai Elementary School sits no more than a few minutes walk inland. It looks the same as it did on March 10. A group of boys recently ran laps around a baseball field that was clear of the junk piled up in other coastal neighborhoods.
Their coach, Sachio Kamimukai, was born and raised in Fudai. He said he never thought much about the floodgate until the tsunami.
"It was just always something that was there," said Kamimukai, 36. "But I'm very thankful now."
Fudai's biggest casualty was its exposed port, where the tsunami destroyed boats, equipment and warehouses. The village estimates losses of 3.8 billion yen ($47 million) to its fisheries industry.
One resident remains missing. He made the unlucky decision to check on his boat after the earthquake.
Wamura left office three years after the floodgate was completed. He died in 1997 at age 88. Since the tsunami, residents have been visiting his grave to pay respects.
At his retirement, Wamura stood before village employees to bid farewell: "Even if you encounter opposition, have conviction and finish what you start. In the end, people will understand."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43018489/ns/world_news-asiapacific#
BELOW: Fudai's 51-foot floodgate looms over a beach in northeastern Japan. It was criticized as being a wasteful public works project in the 1970s but protected the town when it was hit by a tsunami on March 11. PHOTO CREDIT - Associated Press
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blackkite
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Hi! Today's TEPCO press release.
Please watch attachment and appendix.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11051703-e.html
Please watch attachment and appendix.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11051703-e.html
blackkite
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Oh stalker! P.C game?flateric said:
I believe Mr.Masao Yoshida is very fine and fighting with this difficult situation.
80,000 people within 20km radius measured from No.1 Fukushima site already escaped.
Total 480 ton water is injecting to the three reactor vessels everyday and become contaminated water.
blackkite
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TEPCO released new pictures yesterday.
TEPCO explained that tank base level is 10m from normal sea water level and tank height is 5m, so Tsunami height is 15m!!!
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/110311/
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will deliver shilded forklift to TEPCON next month.
TEPCO explained that tank base level is 10m from normal sea water level and tank height is 5m, so Tsunami height is 15m!!!
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/110311/
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will deliver shilded forklift to TEPCON next month.
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Via Spacedaily.com:
Doctors defy radiation woes in Japan's Fukushima
by Staff Writers
Fukushima City, Japan (AFP) May 17, 2011
When other doctors fled, 72-year old Kyohei Takahashi stayed, and hundreds of patients in the tsunami-hit Japanese town of Minamisoma near a crippled nuclear plant will never forget.
Dr. Takahashi has defied radiation fears and worked gruelling hours for the past nine weeks to do what he considers his duty.
"As a doctor, I thought, I shouldn't retreat," he said. "I told myself: who will do it if I don't?"
Takahashi says he decided to keep his clinic open when other doctors closed shop and fled after the Fukushima nuclear power plant, just 25 kilometres (16 miles) south of Minamisoma, was crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami.
"It was utter panic," the doctor recalled. "The telephones didn't work, the shops were closed, people had disappeared and no hospitals were open except this one. The city was completely dead."
Takahashi, who specialises in obstetrics and gynaecology, accepted anyone who came for help, mostly elderly people who remained in the stricken city following a government order to stay indoors or evacuate.
Together with four clinic workers, he has examined as many as 120 patients a day, many of them suffering pneumonia as they withstood freezing temperatures without electricity, running water or enough food after the disaster.
"Doctors are there to work in this kind of adversity," he said. "This is my mission -- maybe it's the last chapter of my medical career."
The city turned into a virtual ghost town after the nuclear power plant was engulfed by the monster tsunami triggered by the nation's biggest recorded earthquake, and then rocked by a series of explosions and fires.
The atomic plant, some 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of Tokyo, has since been belching radioactive materials into the air, soil and ocean in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
When medicine, oxygen tanks and other medical equipment were running short, Takahashi called everyone he could think of, including the office of Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Tokyo.
Working any contact he could, Takahashi scratched by, securing drugs and medical equipment from personal contacts and the Self-Defence Forces.
His efforts inspired others.
"At one stage I ran away, but I decided to return home because Dr.Takahashi was staying here," said Yaeko Aihara, 74, who visited the clinic for treatment of an ailment.
"We definitely need doctors amid this kind of hardship."
Since the disaster, foreign medical teams have also arrived.
Among them is a Thai medical team that has partnered with Fukushima Medical University and is working with Japanese counterparts to prevent infectious diseases among children in shelters, officials said.
The first foreign medical team to arrive were two doctors and two nurses from Jordan who in late April joined Japanese medical workers in examining people in shelters.
They were checking evacuees' conditions with ultrasonic equipment and made their diagnoses through interpreters at a school gymnastics hall in Minamisoma, a centre for people evacuated from the no-go zone around the plant.
"People here are suffering because they have left their homes and are now staying with too many people in a limited area," said Omar Nayel Zubi, a 50-year-old Jordanian doctor.
Mohammed Rashaideh, his colleague and fellow-countryman, said: "On many occasions, the Japanese government and people have helped us back in Jordan. We have to pay them back and we help them as much as we can."
The 34-year-old Jordanian said he was not worried about radiation from Fukushima.
"Radiation levels are quite low, even in this area, only 25 kilometres away from the accident," he said. "No one should be worried. People should not overreact."
Shinya Takase, the Japanese doctor heading the joint team, said their medical support not only helped improve evacuees' health but also encouraged local people who were traumatised by nuclear fears.
"They came here with high ambitions and helped us a lot," said Takase. "Their appearance in Fukushima is meaningful.
"They have proved that medical activities can be carried out safely here. It is significant that foreign doctors joined our team."
Kazuya Murata, a 70-year-old evacuee, said: "They came here from the other side of the Earth. We thank them a lot. And I was relieved that I'm in good health because of the experts."
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Doctors_defy_radiation_woes_in_Japans_Fukushima_999.html
Doctors defy radiation woes in Japan's Fukushima
by Staff Writers
Fukushima City, Japan (AFP) May 17, 2011
When other doctors fled, 72-year old Kyohei Takahashi stayed, and hundreds of patients in the tsunami-hit Japanese town of Minamisoma near a crippled nuclear plant will never forget.
Dr. Takahashi has defied radiation fears and worked gruelling hours for the past nine weeks to do what he considers his duty.
"As a doctor, I thought, I shouldn't retreat," he said. "I told myself: who will do it if I don't?"
Takahashi says he decided to keep his clinic open when other doctors closed shop and fled after the Fukushima nuclear power plant, just 25 kilometres (16 miles) south of Minamisoma, was crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami.
"It was utter panic," the doctor recalled. "The telephones didn't work, the shops were closed, people had disappeared and no hospitals were open except this one. The city was completely dead."
Takahashi, who specialises in obstetrics and gynaecology, accepted anyone who came for help, mostly elderly people who remained in the stricken city following a government order to stay indoors or evacuate.
Together with four clinic workers, he has examined as many as 120 patients a day, many of them suffering pneumonia as they withstood freezing temperatures without electricity, running water or enough food after the disaster.
"Doctors are there to work in this kind of adversity," he said. "This is my mission -- maybe it's the last chapter of my medical career."
The city turned into a virtual ghost town after the nuclear power plant was engulfed by the monster tsunami triggered by the nation's biggest recorded earthquake, and then rocked by a series of explosions and fires.
The atomic plant, some 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of Tokyo, has since been belching radioactive materials into the air, soil and ocean in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
When medicine, oxygen tanks and other medical equipment were running short, Takahashi called everyone he could think of, including the office of Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Tokyo.
Working any contact he could, Takahashi scratched by, securing drugs and medical equipment from personal contacts and the Self-Defence Forces.
His efforts inspired others.
"At one stage I ran away, but I decided to return home because Dr.Takahashi was staying here," said Yaeko Aihara, 74, who visited the clinic for treatment of an ailment.
"We definitely need doctors amid this kind of hardship."
Since the disaster, foreign medical teams have also arrived.
Among them is a Thai medical team that has partnered with Fukushima Medical University and is working with Japanese counterparts to prevent infectious diseases among children in shelters, officials said.
The first foreign medical team to arrive were two doctors and two nurses from Jordan who in late April joined Japanese medical workers in examining people in shelters.
They were checking evacuees' conditions with ultrasonic equipment and made their diagnoses through interpreters at a school gymnastics hall in Minamisoma, a centre for people evacuated from the no-go zone around the plant.
"People here are suffering because they have left their homes and are now staying with too many people in a limited area," said Omar Nayel Zubi, a 50-year-old Jordanian doctor.
Mohammed Rashaideh, his colleague and fellow-countryman, said: "On many occasions, the Japanese government and people have helped us back in Jordan. We have to pay them back and we help them as much as we can."
The 34-year-old Jordanian said he was not worried about radiation from Fukushima.
"Radiation levels are quite low, even in this area, only 25 kilometres away from the accident," he said. "No one should be worried. People should not overreact."
Shinya Takase, the Japanese doctor heading the joint team, said their medical support not only helped improve evacuees' health but also encouraged local people who were traumatised by nuclear fears.
"They came here with high ambitions and helped us a lot," said Takase. "Their appearance in Fukushima is meaningful.
"They have proved that medical activities can be carried out safely here. It is significant that foreign doctors joined our team."
Kazuya Murata, a 70-year-old evacuee, said: "They came here from the other side of the Earth. We thank them a lot. And I was relieved that I'm in good health because of the experts."
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Doctors_defy_radiation_woes_in_Japans_Fukushima_999.html
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A couple of items from JAPAN SECURITY WATCH. The first being this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBHzkAdfEY0&feature=player_embedded
It's a short video, with footage taken over a three day period, from March 19th to March 21st, showing JMSDF and JGSDF units doing disaster relief work. Most of the video focuses on a LCAC from the LST JDS Oosumi, although there is some good shots of a JGSDF unit (ID currently unknown) transporting to a nearby town (I think) supplies brought ashore by the LCAC. EDIT: The supplies that are being delivered/distributed, apart from fuel, seem to be a mix of Type I/Type II Combat Rations and 'Training Rations'. Didn't see any medical supplies, but they were probably in there as well. Most likely Survival Ration packs would have been reserved for delivery by helicopter/airdrop to more remote or cut off areas. More on the different types of rations here:
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=6050
The second item is this article:
WSJ Japan Real-Time: SDF to get extra hazard pay?
BY James Simpson– May 16, 2011
Posted in: blogosphere, disaster relief, domestic ops, Japan Self-Defense Force, Military, personnel, search and rescue, Tohoku Earthquake
Yoree Koh at Japan Real-Time, the Wall Street Journal’s magazine-like answer to Japan coverage, put out a very interesting post last night hinting at great compensation for those SDF members involved in disaster relief efforts in Tohoku:
The Defense Ministry is considering whether to increase the daily extra compensation allotted to SDF personnel to as much as 42,000 yen ($520) per day, according to local media reports. It would make it the highest pay doled out to SDF members to date, exceeding the 24,000 yen daily remuneration given to those who were dispatched to Iraq to assist with U.S.-led reconstruction efforts. Ministry officials declined to comment, saying the matter is still being deliberated.
The current amount for a search and rescue operation isn’t exactly generous–about 1,620 yen per day (or just over $20)–and doesn’t factor in some of the most crucial, dangerous and mentally exhausting tasks required in the March 11 aftermath. In special crisis situations, this amount can be raised to 3,240 yen.
See the full article at Japan Real Time
If this is brought into effect, it will be great news for the troops who will quite probably suffer physical and psychological damage simply from operating in an area full of hazardous waste and raw destruction for such a long time. However, whether this is retroactive to include those involved in the initial operations and at the height of the body-recovery surge is a question the article doesn’t have any answers to.
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=6164
EDIT2: The JRT link mentioned above:
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/05/16/disaster-relief-troops-to-get-pay-hike-from-20-a-day/?mod=WSJBlog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBHzkAdfEY0&feature=player_embedded
It's a short video, with footage taken over a three day period, from March 19th to March 21st, showing JMSDF and JGSDF units doing disaster relief work. Most of the video focuses on a LCAC from the LST JDS Oosumi, although there is some good shots of a JGSDF unit (ID currently unknown) transporting to a nearby town (I think) supplies brought ashore by the LCAC. EDIT: The supplies that are being delivered/distributed, apart from fuel, seem to be a mix of Type I/Type II Combat Rations and 'Training Rations'. Didn't see any medical supplies, but they were probably in there as well. Most likely Survival Ration packs would have been reserved for delivery by helicopter/airdrop to more remote or cut off areas. More on the different types of rations here:
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=6050
The second item is this article:
WSJ Japan Real-Time: SDF to get extra hazard pay?
BY James Simpson– May 16, 2011
Posted in: blogosphere, disaster relief, domestic ops, Japan Self-Defense Force, Military, personnel, search and rescue, Tohoku Earthquake
Yoree Koh at Japan Real-Time, the Wall Street Journal’s magazine-like answer to Japan coverage, put out a very interesting post last night hinting at great compensation for those SDF members involved in disaster relief efforts in Tohoku:
The Defense Ministry is considering whether to increase the daily extra compensation allotted to SDF personnel to as much as 42,000 yen ($520) per day, according to local media reports. It would make it the highest pay doled out to SDF members to date, exceeding the 24,000 yen daily remuneration given to those who were dispatched to Iraq to assist with U.S.-led reconstruction efforts. Ministry officials declined to comment, saying the matter is still being deliberated.
The current amount for a search and rescue operation isn’t exactly generous–about 1,620 yen per day (or just over $20)–and doesn’t factor in some of the most crucial, dangerous and mentally exhausting tasks required in the March 11 aftermath. In special crisis situations, this amount can be raised to 3,240 yen.
See the full article at Japan Real Time
If this is brought into effect, it will be great news for the troops who will quite probably suffer physical and psychological damage simply from operating in an area full of hazardous waste and raw destruction for such a long time. However, whether this is retroactive to include those involved in the initial operations and at the height of the body-recovery surge is a question the article doesn’t have any answers to.
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=6164
EDIT2: The JRT link mentioned above:
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/05/16/disaster-relief-troops-to-get-pay-hike-from-20-a-day/?mod=WSJBlog
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Sankei: 6 Fighters from Matsushima Base Can Be Restored
BY James Simpson– May 19, 2011
Posted in: Air forces, aircraft, analysis, ASDF, bases, cooperation, F-X, featured, fighters, hardware, Japan Self-Defense Force, Military, MoD, Tohoku Earthquake, traditional press, U.S.-Japan, US
Today (May 19th), the Sankei released an update on the F-2B fighter trainers damaged at Matsushima Air Base during the tsunami. In summary, it’s pretty bad news: of the 18 trainers, only 6 will be recoverable, apparently through salvaging components from all 18 and sourcing new ones from the manufacturer. The article suggests that this has left Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force without a thorough F2 pilot training course. With the economy down the pan for far too long, significant public debt and the need to repair the extensive damage caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami, Japan cannot afford to replace these lost fighters any time soon.
Here is a rough translation of the article:
A Third of Tsunami-Damaged F2 Fighters Restorable – Repair Cost = ¥5 – 6 Billion per Plane
Of the 18 F2 fighters damaged by the tsunami that hit ASDF Matsushima Airbase (Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture) following the Tohoku Earthquake, at best only a third (six total) can be restored, according to a Ministry of Defense investigation. Assembling the parts needed for repair will take up to 5 years, and each fighter will cost ¥5 – 6 billion per aircraft. The damaged F2s were used for training pilots, so the MoD is hurrying to find out if it can substitute actual combat F2s for training in the interim.
Although the restoration of the disaster-affected areas is included as part of the FY2011 First Supplementary Budget, the inspections of the F2s put the total cost at ¥150 billion. The MoD is planning to make a firm request for the money for full repairs during plans for the Second Supplementary Budget.
Salt from the ocean water penetrated the fuselages of the F2s, causing further damage following the initial water damage. When engineers from the manufacturer gave the fighters a full health-check at Matsushima Airbase, they concluded that only 6 could be repaired.
From here on, all the planes will be stripped of their parts and their airframes reconstructed. These desperate measures are a result of severe financial constraints, and the MoD just cannot afford ¥120 billion for each new airframe.
This fall, Japan was to receive its final F2, and as production has already wound down, the MoD is seeking confirmation from the manufacturer as to whether it still has stock or not, or whether it is possible to produce new parts.
Around 40 SDF members on the F2 training course were transferred to Misawa Airase (Aomori Prefecture) from April and are currently continuing their training. Until the repair work on the damaged F2 is finished, F2 pilots need a new alternative training course. The prominent alternatives being considered by the ASDF are:
(1) using actual combat F2s for training,
(2) sending pilots to the US to train with F16s, which share the same base fuselage,
(3) initially training on F15s before moving onto the F2s.
The ASDF currently has around 80 F2s. In comparison to the F4 and F15, the F2 is considerably better at attacking ground and sea targets.
The F2 fighter belongs to the the ASDF. Its airframe is based on an enlargement of the USAF’s F16, and unique Japanese technology was installed in a joint US-Japanese development program. Production began in 1988, with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries responsible for 60% of the production in Japan. Each airframe costs ¥120 billion a piece. The F2 embarked on its maiden flight in 1995, and from 2000 has been deployed with fighter squadrons at Misawa (Aomori) and Tsuiki (Fukuoka) Airbases. It is the successor to the F1, the first domestically-produced supersonic fighter. Before its inception, at the point of the debates about the “Next Generation Fighter” (FSX), there was a plan for the plane to be entirely of national manufacture. However, because this became a political problem between Japan and the United States, it was decided that it would be developed jointly by the U.S. and Japan.
If anyone can clarify that final sentence, I’d much appreciate it – let me know in the comments. [Thanks, Michael Cucek!]
[H/T: @JS_Susumu - Surveillance to Go Nowhere]
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=6170
BY James Simpson– May 19, 2011
Posted in: Air forces, aircraft, analysis, ASDF, bases, cooperation, F-X, featured, fighters, hardware, Japan Self-Defense Force, Military, MoD, Tohoku Earthquake, traditional press, U.S.-Japan, US
Today (May 19th), the Sankei released an update on the F-2B fighter trainers damaged at Matsushima Air Base during the tsunami. In summary, it’s pretty bad news: of the 18 trainers, only 6 will be recoverable, apparently through salvaging components from all 18 and sourcing new ones from the manufacturer. The article suggests that this has left Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force without a thorough F2 pilot training course. With the economy down the pan for far too long, significant public debt and the need to repair the extensive damage caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami, Japan cannot afford to replace these lost fighters any time soon.
Here is a rough translation of the article:
A Third of Tsunami-Damaged F2 Fighters Restorable – Repair Cost = ¥5 – 6 Billion per Plane
Of the 18 F2 fighters damaged by the tsunami that hit ASDF Matsushima Airbase (Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture) following the Tohoku Earthquake, at best only a third (six total) can be restored, according to a Ministry of Defense investigation. Assembling the parts needed for repair will take up to 5 years, and each fighter will cost ¥5 – 6 billion per aircraft. The damaged F2s were used for training pilots, so the MoD is hurrying to find out if it can substitute actual combat F2s for training in the interim.
Although the restoration of the disaster-affected areas is included as part of the FY2011 First Supplementary Budget, the inspections of the F2s put the total cost at ¥150 billion. The MoD is planning to make a firm request for the money for full repairs during plans for the Second Supplementary Budget.
Salt from the ocean water penetrated the fuselages of the F2s, causing further damage following the initial water damage. When engineers from the manufacturer gave the fighters a full health-check at Matsushima Airbase, they concluded that only 6 could be repaired.
From here on, all the planes will be stripped of their parts and their airframes reconstructed. These desperate measures are a result of severe financial constraints, and the MoD just cannot afford ¥120 billion for each new airframe.
This fall, Japan was to receive its final F2, and as production has already wound down, the MoD is seeking confirmation from the manufacturer as to whether it still has stock or not, or whether it is possible to produce new parts.
Around 40 SDF members on the F2 training course were transferred to Misawa Airase (Aomori Prefecture) from April and are currently continuing their training. Until the repair work on the damaged F2 is finished, F2 pilots need a new alternative training course. The prominent alternatives being considered by the ASDF are:
(1) using actual combat F2s for training,
(2) sending pilots to the US to train with F16s, which share the same base fuselage,
(3) initially training on F15s before moving onto the F2s.
The ASDF currently has around 80 F2s. In comparison to the F4 and F15, the F2 is considerably better at attacking ground and sea targets.
The F2 fighter belongs to the the ASDF. Its airframe is based on an enlargement of the USAF’s F16, and unique Japanese technology was installed in a joint US-Japanese development program. Production began in 1988, with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries responsible for 60% of the production in Japan. Each airframe costs ¥120 billion a piece. The F2 embarked on its maiden flight in 1995, and from 2000 has been deployed with fighter squadrons at Misawa (Aomori) and Tsuiki (Fukuoka) Airbases. It is the successor to the F1, the first domestically-produced supersonic fighter. Before its inception, at the point of the debates about the “Next Generation Fighter” (FSX), there was a plan for the plane to be entirely of national manufacture. However, because this became a political problem between Japan and the United States, it was decided that it would be developed jointly by the U.S. and Japan.
[H/T: @JS_Susumu - Surveillance to Go Nowhere]
http://newpacificinstitute.org/jsw/?p=6170
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As I mentioned in an earlier post, it has been proposed that a Japanese robot developed for Lunar exploration, Tri-Star IV, should be used at Fukushima. Below is a link to a short summary of the proposal at the blog of the new "Robotics Task Force for Anti-Disaster" (ROBOTAD). Apparently, the proposal if accepted, would have Tri-Star IV onsite and operational within a month. Not much meat in the summary though.
http://66.196.80.202/babelfish/translate_url_content?.intl=us&lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwp.me%2fP1tzLE-7J
Original Link:
http://wp.me/P1tzLE-7J
It is possible that if Tri-Star IV is called upon, it will be modified with some of the components and sub-systems (especially the sensors) listed at this link: http://roboticstaskforce.wordpress.com/english/list-of-radiation-resistive-equipments-developed-for-spacecraft-2011-04-23/
http://66.196.80.202/babelfish/translate_url_content?.intl=us&lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwp.me%2fP1tzLE-7J
Original Link:
http://wp.me/P1tzLE-7J
It is possible that if Tri-Star IV is called upon, it will be modified with some of the components and sub-systems (especially the sensors) listed at this link: http://roboticstaskforce.wordpress.com/english/list-of-radiation-resistive-equipments-developed-for-spacecraft-2011-04-23/
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An article from the WSJ/JRT on some of the interesting effects of current power consumption reduction efforts in Japan: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/05/19/japan%e2%80%99s-new-weekend-thank-god-it%e2%80%99s%e2%80%a6wednesday/
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The following tells a dire story:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110521002673.htm
And:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/05/fukushima-blame-game-i-didnt-say-that.html
EDIT: Also via the EX-SKF blog, two items. First, a PowerPoint presentation, apparently put together by someone at the Union of Concerned Scientists and originally posted at Fairewinds Associates: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/05/fairewinds-associates-how-ges-mark-1.html
Haven't had a chance to go through it properly yet, so I don't know just how accurate it is, but it looks interesting, nevertheless. However, given that it is from the UCS there may be some bias involved, so be advised.
And below is a survey (contamination) map released by TEPCO on May 21st.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110521002673.htm
And:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/05/fukushima-blame-game-i-didnt-say-that.html
EDIT: Also via the EX-SKF blog, two items. First, a PowerPoint presentation, apparently put together by someone at the Union of Concerned Scientists and originally posted at Fairewinds Associates: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/05/fairewinds-associates-how-ges-mark-1.html
Haven't had a chance to go through it properly yet, so I don't know just how accurate it is, but it looks interesting, nevertheless. However, given that it is from the UCS there may be some bias involved, so be advised.
And below is a survey (contamination) map released by TEPCO on May 21st.
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Nishioka's article spurs moves to unseat Kan
Takeo Azuma, Yoshifumi Sugita and Takeshi Yonekawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
Moves to oust Prime Minister Naoto Kan are gaining momentum within the ruling and opposition parties, spurred by a Yomiuri Shimbun article written by House of Councillors President Takeo Nishioka that openly demands Kan's immediate resignation.
Kan has categorically refused, and has hinted he may battle such a move by reshuffling the Cabinet or dissolving the House of Representatives. The political fray over Kan's position is expected to intensify before the current Diet session ends June 22.
Written as an open letter to Kan and published Thursday, Nishioka's article said, "You have continually shirked your duties as prime minister since the March 11 disaster."
Nishioka also wrote, "You have neither the passion, determination or skill" to lead the nation and "the serious problems caused by the nuclear crisis cannot be solved" unless Kan steps down now.
"Everything is wrong," Nishioka said in reiterating his call for Kan's resignation at a press conference in the Diet building on Thursday.
"I want a prime minister capable of describing Japan's current situation and policies to attend the [Group of Eight major nations] summit."
Later Thursday, Nishioka delivered a speech at a study meeting of about 20 upper house lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Japan who are close to former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa. Nishioka harshly criticized the government's response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and a series of accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Nishioka's demand that Kan resign had wide repercussions. Nishioka is one of two heads of the country's legislative branch, which together with the judicial and administrative branches constitutes the three supreme powers of the nation.
Deputy lower house speaker Seishiro Eto, who temporarily gave up his Liberal Democratic Party membership to take the post, expressed his support for Nishioka during a press conference Thursday night.
"Either Nishioka or the prime minister has to quit," Eto said. "I'll cooperate with Nishioka."
Nishioka's article triggered moves to unseat Kan among DPJ members who are critical of the prime minister. Sixteen DPJ lawmakers who were elected in the proportional representation section of the lower house election met in the Diet building Thursday and decided to distribute to all DPJ lawmakers what they called "a document listing the problems of the Kan administration, including its initial response to the nuclear crisis."
The 16 pro-Ozawa lawmakers left the DPJ parliamentary group in February in protest against the Kan administration. They also likely will support a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet, if it is submitted by the opposition parties.
Group leader Koichiro Watanabe, a member of the lower house, said, "We share Nishioka's feelings."
In the DPJ, some pro-Ozawa lawmakers have already launched a petition with a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet in mind.
Ozawa is said to tacitly approve their anti-Kan campaign. "We have no choice but to make a better selection, though it's with great regret," Ozawa said. "Once my comrades make a decision, I'll act with them."
A core member of the petition group said they had collected signatures from more than 90 DPJ members.
Shinji Tarutoko, chairman of the lower house Fundamental National Policies Committee, and others have formed suprapartisan groups with junior and mid-career LDP lawmakers, which some observers view as like-minded efforts to encircle the prime minister.
"A coalition [between the DPJ and LDP] for a limited time is one way to go," Tarutoko said during a meeting of his group on Thursday. "We should first solve such problems as [post-disaster] reconstruction and nuclear accidents immediately.
"Then we should separate into ruling and opposition parties and seek the people's mandate [in a lower house election]."
In view of the growing anti-Kan campaign in the DPJ, some LDP members have begun to insist that their party should submit a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet before the current Diet session ends June 22.
"We should martial all possible means to force the prime minister to step down quickly," former LDP Secretary General Makoto Koga said at a meeting of his faction on Thursday.
Other LDP members said opposition parties should submit a no-confidence motion to the Diet regardless of whether the Kan administration accepts the opposition parties' request for the government to submit a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 to the current Diet session.
New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi, however, said at a press conference on Thursday, "We should have an idea where our majority will come from if we're going to submit a no-confidence motion."
The LDP is seeking the best timing for a no-confidence motion, putting pressure on the government and the DPJ while working in tandem with New Komeito.
===
Kan rebuffs demand to quit
Kan, meanwhile, will likely try to ward off growing pressure on him to resign by employing both soft and hard tactics.
At a plenary Diet session on Thursday, Kan stressed, "There is no reason at all for me to resign at this time."
Manabu Terata, a former adviser to Kan who is close to the prime minister, told reporters at the Diet building on Thursday, "If a no-confidence motion is passed, the prime minister should dissolve the lower house for a snap election."
Terata's comment apparently was aimed at forestalling moves to oust Kan by hinting at a possible dissolution of the lower house. Many of the DPJ lawmakers critical of the prime minister are junior lawmakers whose electoral bases are relatively weak.
In contrast with this hard approach, the prime minister and his supporters also will likely employ soft measures toward opposition parties.
The DPJ leadership is ready to significantly review the main policies in its manifesto for the 2009 lower house election, including the child-rearing allowance. The DPJ also is calling on opposition parties to cooperate to pass a basic reconstruction bill, saying it is willing to talk with them about revisions.
Referring to a possible extension of the current Diet session, a senior member of the DPJ's Diet Affairs Committee said, "It's possible to accept it [the extension] if it's short."
However, some DPJ members are concerned about a Diet extension, as it likely would give opposition parties more opportunities to pressure Kan. A DPJ official close to Kan said, "It [the Diet extension] could accelerate the approval of a no-confidence motion, as the prime minister might make another political gaffe."
As moves to force Kan out intensify, a senior DPJ official said in a tone of self-mockery: "This is it. Everyone in the party has had a meltdown."
The English translation of Nishioka's open letter to Kan will be carried on The Daily Yomiuri's Commentary page on Tuesday.
(May. 21, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110520005166.htm
Takeo Azuma, Yoshifumi Sugita and Takeshi Yonekawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
Moves to oust Prime Minister Naoto Kan are gaining momentum within the ruling and opposition parties, spurred by a Yomiuri Shimbun article written by House of Councillors President Takeo Nishioka that openly demands Kan's immediate resignation.
Kan has categorically refused, and has hinted he may battle such a move by reshuffling the Cabinet or dissolving the House of Representatives. The political fray over Kan's position is expected to intensify before the current Diet session ends June 22.
Written as an open letter to Kan and published Thursday, Nishioka's article said, "You have continually shirked your duties as prime minister since the March 11 disaster."
Nishioka also wrote, "You have neither the passion, determination or skill" to lead the nation and "the serious problems caused by the nuclear crisis cannot be solved" unless Kan steps down now.
"Everything is wrong," Nishioka said in reiterating his call for Kan's resignation at a press conference in the Diet building on Thursday.
"I want a prime minister capable of describing Japan's current situation and policies to attend the [Group of Eight major nations] summit."
Later Thursday, Nishioka delivered a speech at a study meeting of about 20 upper house lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Japan who are close to former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa. Nishioka harshly criticized the government's response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and a series of accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Nishioka's demand that Kan resign had wide repercussions. Nishioka is one of two heads of the country's legislative branch, which together with the judicial and administrative branches constitutes the three supreme powers of the nation.
Deputy lower house speaker Seishiro Eto, who temporarily gave up his Liberal Democratic Party membership to take the post, expressed his support for Nishioka during a press conference Thursday night.
"Either Nishioka or the prime minister has to quit," Eto said. "I'll cooperate with Nishioka."
Nishioka's article triggered moves to unseat Kan among DPJ members who are critical of the prime minister. Sixteen DPJ lawmakers who were elected in the proportional representation section of the lower house election met in the Diet building Thursday and decided to distribute to all DPJ lawmakers what they called "a document listing the problems of the Kan administration, including its initial response to the nuclear crisis."
The 16 pro-Ozawa lawmakers left the DPJ parliamentary group in February in protest against the Kan administration. They also likely will support a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet, if it is submitted by the opposition parties.
Group leader Koichiro Watanabe, a member of the lower house, said, "We share Nishioka's feelings."
In the DPJ, some pro-Ozawa lawmakers have already launched a petition with a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet in mind.
Ozawa is said to tacitly approve their anti-Kan campaign. "We have no choice but to make a better selection, though it's with great regret," Ozawa said. "Once my comrades make a decision, I'll act with them."
A core member of the petition group said they had collected signatures from more than 90 DPJ members.
Shinji Tarutoko, chairman of the lower house Fundamental National Policies Committee, and others have formed suprapartisan groups with junior and mid-career LDP lawmakers, which some observers view as like-minded efforts to encircle the prime minister.
"A coalition [between the DPJ and LDP] for a limited time is one way to go," Tarutoko said during a meeting of his group on Thursday. "We should first solve such problems as [post-disaster] reconstruction and nuclear accidents immediately.
"Then we should separate into ruling and opposition parties and seek the people's mandate [in a lower house election]."
In view of the growing anti-Kan campaign in the DPJ, some LDP members have begun to insist that their party should submit a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet before the current Diet session ends June 22.
"We should martial all possible means to force the prime minister to step down quickly," former LDP Secretary General Makoto Koga said at a meeting of his faction on Thursday.
Other LDP members said opposition parties should submit a no-confidence motion to the Diet regardless of whether the Kan administration accepts the opposition parties' request for the government to submit a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 to the current Diet session.
New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi, however, said at a press conference on Thursday, "We should have an idea where our majority will come from if we're going to submit a no-confidence motion."
The LDP is seeking the best timing for a no-confidence motion, putting pressure on the government and the DPJ while working in tandem with New Komeito.
===
Kan rebuffs demand to quit
Kan, meanwhile, will likely try to ward off growing pressure on him to resign by employing both soft and hard tactics.
At a plenary Diet session on Thursday, Kan stressed, "There is no reason at all for me to resign at this time."
Manabu Terata, a former adviser to Kan who is close to the prime minister, told reporters at the Diet building on Thursday, "If a no-confidence motion is passed, the prime minister should dissolve the lower house for a snap election."
Terata's comment apparently was aimed at forestalling moves to oust Kan by hinting at a possible dissolution of the lower house. Many of the DPJ lawmakers critical of the prime minister are junior lawmakers whose electoral bases are relatively weak.
In contrast with this hard approach, the prime minister and his supporters also will likely employ soft measures toward opposition parties.
The DPJ leadership is ready to significantly review the main policies in its manifesto for the 2009 lower house election, including the child-rearing allowance. The DPJ also is calling on opposition parties to cooperate to pass a basic reconstruction bill, saying it is willing to talk with them about revisions.
Referring to a possible extension of the current Diet session, a senior member of the DPJ's Diet Affairs Committee said, "It's possible to accept it [the extension] if it's short."
However, some DPJ members are concerned about a Diet extension, as it likely would give opposition parties more opportunities to pressure Kan. A DPJ official close to Kan said, "It [the Diet extension] could accelerate the approval of a no-confidence motion, as the prime minister might make another political gaffe."
As moves to force Kan out intensify, a senior DPJ official said in a tone of self-mockery: "This is it. Everyone in the party has had a meltdown."
The English translation of Nishioka's open letter to Kan will be carried on The Daily Yomiuri's Commentary page on Tuesday.
(May. 21, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110520005166.htm
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Lopsided lighthouses, and worse
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami severely damaged nearly half the coastal lighthouses and other navigation signal facilities in disaster-hit areas, according to a regional coast guard office.
Of 251 such facilities on the Pacific coast of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, 122 facilities suffered extreme damage, with some knocked down or washed away, the 2nd Regional Japan Coast Guard Headquarters said.
With the harvest season for seaweed and other marine products now under way, the headquarters, based in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, is readying urgent stopgap measures to prevent accidents.
There are reportedly 63 damaged facilities in Miyagi Prefecture, 47 in Iwate, 10 in Fukushima and two in Aomori.
Regarding the type of damage, 46 facilities' lighting systems were disabled due to such reasons as electrical troubles. Structural collapse affected 46 facilities. Twenty facilities were displaced from their original locations, and six facilities are now lopsided after their foundations shifted.
Some safety signals to assist maritime navigation are visual, such as lighthouses and radiant-light systems, while others alert vessels via radio waves or sonar. The Japan Coast Guard sets up the signals near capes, breakwaters and shallow waters.
Lighthouses are the most common type of signal facility in the disaster-hit prefectures. Of 202 lighthouses, 87, or 43 percent, were damaged on March 11.
At Kamaishi Port in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, the lower section of a 10-meter-high lighthouse is now submerged in the sea, after the breakwaters the lighthouse had stood on were damaged. It stands with a pronounced tilt, and its lighting system is not functional.
A six-meter-high lighthouse at Mutsugaura Port in Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture, was washed away along with the breakwater structures.
At Sendai Shiogama Port in Sendai, breakwaters collapsed, and the 16-meter-high lighthouse on top of them now stands at an angle.
Since late March, the regional headquarters has been carrying out provisional restoration work, such as installing basic, battery-powered lighting equipment in damaged lighthouses, and floating illuminated buoys in areas where breakwater facilities were completely washed away.
The headquarters said it has completed such emergency work at 110 locations.
(May. 21, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110520005021.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami severely damaged nearly half the coastal lighthouses and other navigation signal facilities in disaster-hit areas, according to a regional coast guard office.
Of 251 such facilities on the Pacific coast of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, 122 facilities suffered extreme damage, with some knocked down or washed away, the 2nd Regional Japan Coast Guard Headquarters said.
With the harvest season for seaweed and other marine products now under way, the headquarters, based in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, is readying urgent stopgap measures to prevent accidents.
There are reportedly 63 damaged facilities in Miyagi Prefecture, 47 in Iwate, 10 in Fukushima and two in Aomori.
Regarding the type of damage, 46 facilities' lighting systems were disabled due to such reasons as electrical troubles. Structural collapse affected 46 facilities. Twenty facilities were displaced from their original locations, and six facilities are now lopsided after their foundations shifted.
Some safety signals to assist maritime navigation are visual, such as lighthouses and radiant-light systems, while others alert vessels via radio waves or sonar. The Japan Coast Guard sets up the signals near capes, breakwaters and shallow waters.
Lighthouses are the most common type of signal facility in the disaster-hit prefectures. Of 202 lighthouses, 87, or 43 percent, were damaged on March 11.
At Kamaishi Port in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, the lower section of a 10-meter-high lighthouse is now submerged in the sea, after the breakwaters the lighthouse had stood on were damaged. It stands with a pronounced tilt, and its lighting system is not functional.
A six-meter-high lighthouse at Mutsugaura Port in Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture, was washed away along with the breakwater structures.
At Sendai Shiogama Port in Sendai, breakwaters collapsed, and the 16-meter-high lighthouse on top of them now stands at an angle.
Since late March, the regional headquarters has been carrying out provisional restoration work, such as installing basic, battery-powered lighting equipment in damaged lighthouses, and floating illuminated buoys in areas where breakwater facilities were completely washed away.
The headquarters said it has completed such emergency work at 110 locations.
(May. 21, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110520005021.htm
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1,400 residential areas at risk because of March 11 damage
The Yomiuri Shimbun
More than 1,400 locations in residential areas are in danger of landslides and other accidents as a result of damage from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry.
The ministry compiled the results of surveys--conducted by municipalities in nine prefectures, including Iwate Prefecture--on the effects of the disaster and subsequent aftershocks on the ground in residential areas. A total of 1,432 residential locations were judged to be at risk.
Also, landslides and cracks were found at 1,171 locations on natural slopes in 17 prefectures, according to emergency inspections. Of them, 49 locations were thought to be in need of urgent repair.
Repeated aftershocks loosened the ground in disaster-hit areas, and experts have warned that such ground is at high risk of collapsing due to heavy precipitation in the rainy season.
Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba and Niigata prefectures conducted the surveys.
A total of 6,372 cases were reported by Friday and 1,432 of them were judged "dangerous." The latter number is a record high, far exceeding the 515 cases identified after the 2004 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake.
There were 98 residential locations deemed dangerous in Iwate Prefecture and one on a natural slope. In Miyagi Prefecture, 886 residential locations were so identified. In Fukushima Prefecture, 269 locations were judged to be dangerous in residential areas and 16 on natural slopes.
The damage was especially noteworthy on reclaimed residential land in Sendai. Cracks and landslides occurred mainly in reclaimed land at the foot of a steep range of hills. In Sendai's Taihaku Ward, about 100 households have been told to evacuate.
(May. 22, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110521002708.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
More than 1,400 locations in residential areas are in danger of landslides and other accidents as a result of damage from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry.
The ministry compiled the results of surveys--conducted by municipalities in nine prefectures, including Iwate Prefecture--on the effects of the disaster and subsequent aftershocks on the ground in residential areas. A total of 1,432 residential locations were judged to be at risk.
Also, landslides and cracks were found at 1,171 locations on natural slopes in 17 prefectures, according to emergency inspections. Of them, 49 locations were thought to be in need of urgent repair.
Repeated aftershocks loosened the ground in disaster-hit areas, and experts have warned that such ground is at high risk of collapsing due to heavy precipitation in the rainy season.
Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba and Niigata prefectures conducted the surveys.
A total of 6,372 cases were reported by Friday and 1,432 of them were judged "dangerous." The latter number is a record high, far exceeding the 515 cases identified after the 2004 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake.
There were 98 residential locations deemed dangerous in Iwate Prefecture and one on a natural slope. In Miyagi Prefecture, 886 residential locations were so identified. In Fukushima Prefecture, 269 locations were judged to be dangerous in residential areas and 16 on natural slopes.
The damage was especially noteworthy on reclaimed residential land in Sendai. Cracks and landslides occurred mainly in reclaimed land at the foot of a steep range of hills. In Sendai's Taihaku Ward, about 100 households have been told to evacuate.
(May. 22, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110521002708.htm
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Grey Havoc said:
Much as I dislike Kan's recent ill-thought out actions, Ozawa and his friends, and the main opposition LDP are as crooked as you can get in politics.
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From Bloomberg
Fukushima Station Considered as Site for Nuclear Graveyard
By Shigeru Sato - May 26, 2011
Japan’s atomic energy specialists are discussing a plan to make the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant a storage site for radioactive waste from the crippled station run by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The Atomic Energy Society of Japan is studying the proposal, which would cost tens of billions of dollars, Muneo Morokuzu, a professor of energy and environmental public policy at the University of Tokyo, said in an interview yesterday. The society makes policy recommendations to the government.
“We are involved in intense talks on the cleanup of the Dai-Ichi plant and construction of nuclear waste storage facilities at the site is one option,” said Morokuzu.
Radiation leaks from the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima rank the accident on the same scale as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The 20-kilometer exclusion zone around Fukushima has forced the evacuation of 50,000 households, extermination of livestock and disposal of crops, drawing comparisons with the Ukraine plant.
Areas up to 30 kilometers from Chernobyl remain “a dead zone,” Mykola Kulinich, Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan, said in Tokyo on April 26, the 25th anniversary of the disaster.
Waste Proposal
Tokyo Electric shares have plunged 85 percent since the day before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima plant. The stock today rose 2.2 percent to 322 yen in Tokyo.
Local authorities in Fukushima, 220 kilometers (137 miles) north of Tokyo, aren’t aware of a proposal to make the Dai-Ichi station a nuclear waste storage site, said Hisashi Katayose, an official at the prefectural government’s disaster task force. He declined to comment.
Building storage for radioactive waste at Fukushima could take at least 10 years, said Morokuzu, one of 50 people on a cleanup panel that includes observers from Tokyo Electric and the Trade Ministry. Tokyo Electric would need five years to complete decontamination of the reactors, which includes removal of hydrogen to prevent explosions, he said.
Japan’s three storage facilities for highly radioactive waste are at Rokkasho, at the northern tip of the country’s largest island of Honshu, and a nearby site at Sekinehama. The third site is at Tokaimura in Ibaraki prefecture, near Tokyo.
Intermediary Use
As the sites are for intermediary use, the nation is still searching for a deep underground storage site for the waste, according to the World Nuclear Association. The selection is due to be completed by 2025 and become operational from 2035, the London-based association says.
About 90 percent of the world’s 270,000 tons in used nuclear fuel is stored at reactor sites, mostly in ponds of seven meters deep, such as those exposed at the Fukushima site when hydrogen explosions blew the roofs off reactor buildings.
“Intensive discussion is needed before reaching any conclusion on what to do with the Fukushima site,” said Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan. “This is one that the government should take responsibility for and make the final decision.”
In the past two weeks, the utility known as Tepco has said fuel rods in reactors 1, 2 and 3 had almost complete meltdowns. That matches U.S. assessments in the early days of the crisis that indicated damage to the station was more severe than Tepco officials suggested.
Melted Rods
“Most of the fuel rods melted and damage to the cores is most severe in the No. 1 reactor, followed by the No. 3 and then No. 2,” spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said in Tokyo May 24.
The utility on April 17 set out a so-called road map to end the crisis in six to nine months. Tepco said it expects to achieve a sustained drop in radiation levels at the plant within three months, followed by a cold shutdown, where core reactor temperatures fall below 100 degrees Celsius.
“We have yet to determine how to deal with the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant site, or how to store reactor parts after decommissioning,” Megumi Iwashita, a spokeswoman for the company said by telephone. “Tepco will determine at the right time taking the government’s advice.”
Waste Disposal
The disposal of high-level waste is more complicated since it needs to be solidified into borosilicate glass and placed inside heavy stainless steel cylinders about 1.3 meters high, the World Nuclear Association said. The casks are then usually transferred to interim storage sites before a long-term underground repository is built.
Besides Japan, Russia, Belgium, China and the U.S. are working on plans to build final storage sites, though progress is slow. Belgium will not begin construction until 2035, according to the association. China expects to select a site by 2020, while France and Russia are still investigating areas.
The U.S. plan to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, in 2002 was overturned by President Barack Obama, whose administration terminated the project’s funding this year.
This leaves the U.S. with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which began work in 1999 storing defense-related nuclear waste 2,150 feet below the surface. The facility has a 10,000-year regulatory period, according to the U.S. Department of Energy website.
Three Mile Island
For cleaning up Fukushima, Japan’s disaster has more similarities to the accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in the U.S. in 1979, not Chernobyl, Morokuzu said. Three Mile Island is in a decommissioning process, while Chernobyl was entombed in concrete and steel.
Three Mile Island had a partial meltdown of a reactor, causing the most serious nuclear plant accident in the U.S. Removal of fuel was completed in 1990 and the plant will be decommissioned when the license for an operational reactor at the site expires in 2034.
Japan’s efforts to find other places to store high-level nuclear waste included offering 2 trillion yen ($17 billion) over 60 years to the town of Toyo on Shikoku island to accept a facility. The proposal in 2007 was backed by Mayor Yasuoki Tashima in his re-election bid. He lost.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net undefined undefined -0- May/26/ :36 GMT
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/fukushima-may-become-graveyard-for-radioactive-waste-from-crippled-plant.html
Fukushima Station Considered as Site for Nuclear Graveyard
By Shigeru Sato - May 26, 2011
Japan’s atomic energy specialists are discussing a plan to make the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant a storage site for radioactive waste from the crippled station run by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The Atomic Energy Society of Japan is studying the proposal, which would cost tens of billions of dollars, Muneo Morokuzu, a professor of energy and environmental public policy at the University of Tokyo, said in an interview yesterday. The society makes policy recommendations to the government.
“We are involved in intense talks on the cleanup of the Dai-Ichi plant and construction of nuclear waste storage facilities at the site is one option,” said Morokuzu.
Radiation leaks from the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima rank the accident on the same scale as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The 20-kilometer exclusion zone around Fukushima has forced the evacuation of 50,000 households, extermination of livestock and disposal of crops, drawing comparisons with the Ukraine plant.
Areas up to 30 kilometers from Chernobyl remain “a dead zone,” Mykola Kulinich, Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan, said in Tokyo on April 26, the 25th anniversary of the disaster.
Waste Proposal
Tokyo Electric shares have plunged 85 percent since the day before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima plant. The stock today rose 2.2 percent to 322 yen in Tokyo.
Local authorities in Fukushima, 220 kilometers (137 miles) north of Tokyo, aren’t aware of a proposal to make the Dai-Ichi station a nuclear waste storage site, said Hisashi Katayose, an official at the prefectural government’s disaster task force. He declined to comment.
Building storage for radioactive waste at Fukushima could take at least 10 years, said Morokuzu, one of 50 people on a cleanup panel that includes observers from Tokyo Electric and the Trade Ministry. Tokyo Electric would need five years to complete decontamination of the reactors, which includes removal of hydrogen to prevent explosions, he said.
Japan’s three storage facilities for highly radioactive waste are at Rokkasho, at the northern tip of the country’s largest island of Honshu, and a nearby site at Sekinehama. The third site is at Tokaimura in Ibaraki prefecture, near Tokyo.
Intermediary Use
As the sites are for intermediary use, the nation is still searching for a deep underground storage site for the waste, according to the World Nuclear Association. The selection is due to be completed by 2025 and become operational from 2035, the London-based association says.
About 90 percent of the world’s 270,000 tons in used nuclear fuel is stored at reactor sites, mostly in ponds of seven meters deep, such as those exposed at the Fukushima site when hydrogen explosions blew the roofs off reactor buildings.
“Intensive discussion is needed before reaching any conclusion on what to do with the Fukushima site,” said Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan. “This is one that the government should take responsibility for and make the final decision.”
In the past two weeks, the utility known as Tepco has said fuel rods in reactors 1, 2 and 3 had almost complete meltdowns. That matches U.S. assessments in the early days of the crisis that indicated damage to the station was more severe than Tepco officials suggested.
Melted Rods
“Most of the fuel rods melted and damage to the cores is most severe in the No. 1 reactor, followed by the No. 3 and then No. 2,” spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said in Tokyo May 24.
The utility on April 17 set out a so-called road map to end the crisis in six to nine months. Tepco said it expects to achieve a sustained drop in radiation levels at the plant within three months, followed by a cold shutdown, where core reactor temperatures fall below 100 degrees Celsius.
“We have yet to determine how to deal with the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant site, or how to store reactor parts after decommissioning,” Megumi Iwashita, a spokeswoman for the company said by telephone. “Tepco will determine at the right time taking the government’s advice.”
Waste Disposal
The disposal of high-level waste is more complicated since it needs to be solidified into borosilicate glass and placed inside heavy stainless steel cylinders about 1.3 meters high, the World Nuclear Association said. The casks are then usually transferred to interim storage sites before a long-term underground repository is built.
Besides Japan, Russia, Belgium, China and the U.S. are working on plans to build final storage sites, though progress is slow. Belgium will not begin construction until 2035, according to the association. China expects to select a site by 2020, while France and Russia are still investigating areas.
The U.S. plan to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, in 2002 was overturned by President Barack Obama, whose administration terminated the project’s funding this year.
This leaves the U.S. with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which began work in 1999 storing defense-related nuclear waste 2,150 feet below the surface. The facility has a 10,000-year regulatory period, according to the U.S. Department of Energy website.
Three Mile Island
For cleaning up Fukushima, Japan’s disaster has more similarities to the accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in the U.S. in 1979, not Chernobyl, Morokuzu said. Three Mile Island is in a decommissioning process, while Chernobyl was entombed in concrete and steel.
Three Mile Island had a partial meltdown of a reactor, causing the most serious nuclear plant accident in the U.S. Removal of fuel was completed in 1990 and the plant will be decommissioned when the license for an operational reactor at the site expires in 2034.
Japan’s efforts to find other places to store high-level nuclear waste included offering 2 trillion yen ($17 billion) over 60 years to the town of Toyo on Shikoku island to accept a facility. The proposal in 2007 was backed by Mayor Yasuoki Tashima in his re-election bid. He lost.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net undefined undefined -0- May/26/ :36 GMT
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/fukushima-may-become-graveyard-for-radioactive-waste-from-crippled-plant.html
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Miyagi areas devising restoration plans
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Fifteen coastal towns and cities in Miyagi Prefecture battered by the Great East Japan Earthquake are formulating their own restoration plans, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The Iwanuma city government plans to utilize traditional yashikirin woods that surround houses as an anti-tsunami measure, while the Wataricho town government is studying the construction of evacuation buildings in coastal areas.
The main theme of plans by the 15 local governments is to construct towns or cities that can withstand disasters by learning from their experience of the massive quake.
Besides Iwanuma and Wataricho, the other municipalities devising their own reconstruction plans are: Sendai, Kesennuma, Minami-Sanrikucho, Onagawacho, Higashi-Matsushima, Matsushimamachi, Ishinomaki, Shiogama, Shichigahamamachi, Tagajo, Natori, Yamamotocho and Rifucho.
Officials and experts in each coastal community are discussing a number of projects, but the progress of their talks varies. The Natori city government was the slowest off the mark, but it plans to formulate a plan within the year.
"We will discuss the matter by creating a study panel comprising representatives of farmers and other residents," a Natori official said.
Fourteen municipalities plan to compile restoration plans within the year. The exception is Wataricho.
Iwanuma will devise a plan to efficiently use Igune, a local name for yashikirin woods, to counter the force of a tsunami. Igune is planted around houses in agricultural villages on the Sendai Plain to reduce the effect of wind and snow. The city also plans to use debris left in the wake of the tsunami to build "hills" in coastal sections of the city.
Sendai has made "securing energy" one of the main pillars of its restoration plan as gasoline and gas supplies were disrupted by the quake. The city will have electric vehicles on standby for a disaster and its own emergency stockpile of gasoline. It also plans to establish more than one route along which gas supplies and other essential items can move.
As a number of people survived the tsunami by evacuating to steel-reinforced buildings, Wataricho is planning to construct such buildings near the coast for this purpose.
The Ishinomaki municipal government aims to utilize renewable energy sources such as tidal power and wind power generation to secure electric power generation facilities within the city. After the quake, a wide area experienced power outages and fuel shortages.
The city also experienced traffic jams in urban areas, hampering transport of materials. To reduce its dependence on automobiles, the city will build a light rail transit (LRT) system.
The plans of the municipal governments are not that different from those of the central and prefectural governments, especially in moving houses to higher ground. However, municipalities do not have the revenue for such a big undertaking as building an LRT system, so negotiations and coordination with the central and prefectural governments will be necessary.
Compared with the general progress in formulating restoration plans in Miyagi Prefecture, municipalities in two other severely hit prefectures--Iwate and Fukushima--are relatively slow.
In Iwate Prefecture, out of 12 coastal municipalities hit by the tsunami, only a few, including Kuji, have a clear idea of what to do. Reconstruction of coastal communities in Fukushima Prefecture has yet to move into full gear.
(May. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110526006118.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Fifteen coastal towns and cities in Miyagi Prefecture battered by the Great East Japan Earthquake are formulating their own restoration plans, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The Iwanuma city government plans to utilize traditional yashikirin woods that surround houses as an anti-tsunami measure, while the Wataricho town government is studying the construction of evacuation buildings in coastal areas.
The main theme of plans by the 15 local governments is to construct towns or cities that can withstand disasters by learning from their experience of the massive quake.
Besides Iwanuma and Wataricho, the other municipalities devising their own reconstruction plans are: Sendai, Kesennuma, Minami-Sanrikucho, Onagawacho, Higashi-Matsushima, Matsushimamachi, Ishinomaki, Shiogama, Shichigahamamachi, Tagajo, Natori, Yamamotocho and Rifucho.
Officials and experts in each coastal community are discussing a number of projects, but the progress of their talks varies. The Natori city government was the slowest off the mark, but it plans to formulate a plan within the year.
"We will discuss the matter by creating a study panel comprising representatives of farmers and other residents," a Natori official said.
Fourteen municipalities plan to compile restoration plans within the year. The exception is Wataricho.
Iwanuma will devise a plan to efficiently use Igune, a local name for yashikirin woods, to counter the force of a tsunami. Igune is planted around houses in agricultural villages on the Sendai Plain to reduce the effect of wind and snow. The city also plans to use debris left in the wake of the tsunami to build "hills" in coastal sections of the city.
Sendai has made "securing energy" one of the main pillars of its restoration plan as gasoline and gas supplies were disrupted by the quake. The city will have electric vehicles on standby for a disaster and its own emergency stockpile of gasoline. It also plans to establish more than one route along which gas supplies and other essential items can move.
As a number of people survived the tsunami by evacuating to steel-reinforced buildings, Wataricho is planning to construct such buildings near the coast for this purpose.
The Ishinomaki municipal government aims to utilize renewable energy sources such as tidal power and wind power generation to secure electric power generation facilities within the city. After the quake, a wide area experienced power outages and fuel shortages.
The city also experienced traffic jams in urban areas, hampering transport of materials. To reduce its dependence on automobiles, the city will build a light rail transit (LRT) system.
The plans of the municipal governments are not that different from those of the central and prefectural governments, especially in moving houses to higher ground. However, municipalities do not have the revenue for such a big undertaking as building an LRT system, so negotiations and coordination with the central and prefectural governments will be necessary.
Compared with the general progress in formulating restoration plans in Miyagi Prefecture, municipalities in two other severely hit prefectures--Iwate and Fukushima--are relatively slow.
In Iwate Prefecture, out of 12 coastal municipalities hit by the tsunami, only a few, including Kuji, have a clear idea of what to do. Reconstruction of coastal communities in Fukushima Prefecture has yet to move into full gear.
(May. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110526006118.htm
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Marine debris hampers fishing
Masatoshi Yamada, Kiyohiko Yoneyama and Shigehisa Hanamura / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
Fishermen trying to resume their trade after the March 11 tsunami have been plagued by the massive amount of debris the disaster left in the sea, but cleanup efforts have been hampered by a lack of reliable information on both the amount and location of debris.
Ports and fishing grounds are clogged with driftwood and waste from the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake. There also are many wrecked houses and vehicles in the water.
At Miyako Port, a major landing port in Iwate Prefecture, five crew members on a trawler removed a three-meter piece of driftwood from the water last Friday.
"This is much harder than landing a catch of fish," one fisherman said.
Six of the 12 trawlers operating out of the port started collecting debris in their fishing grounds May 16. As of Sunday, almost all the trawlers were participating in the work.
In the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2011, the government appropriated 351.9 billion yen for removing debris and other waste resulting from the disaster. Fishermen are being paid about 12,000 yen per person daily to remove debris from the sea.
Some trawlers at the port managed to resume cod fishing last month, but their nets sometimes are damaged when they catch on such underwater debris as refrigerators, washing machines, driftwood and small boats.
Because of leaking oil from drums sunk in the ocean, they sometimes cannot sell fish they do catch. As a result, some fishermen are cleaning up their fishing grounds as they fish.
Members of the fishing industry have started making similar efforts in Miyagi Prefecture as well.
"We've already received requests exceeding our funding [from the first supplementary budget]," a Fisheries Agency official said.
Toshiaki Kanazawa, a 56-year-old president of a fishing company in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, said with a sigh: "The amount of the debris hasn't gone down at all. How long do we have to be in this situation?"
===
Only 30% of ports start work
To facilitate the delivery of relief supplies, debris cluttering the sea routes to some ports where cargo ships can dock, including Sendai Shiogama, Kamaishi and Ishinomaki, has been removed faster than on routes to other ports.
Of 260 fishing ports hit hard by the disaster in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, however, only about 30 percent have started removing debris from their sea routes, according to the Fisheries Agency.
The Miyagi prefectural government aims to finish clearing debris from major ports by the end of June and at other ports by late September, to prepare for salmon fishing with gill nets in the autumn.
The Iwate prefectural government also wants to finish getting rid of debris by around September, but large waves, strong winds and aftershocks sometimes disrupt the work.
Debris is also hindering the aquaculture industry in disaster-hit areas.
In Yamadamachi, Iwate Prefecture, about 4,000 rafts used to farm oysters and scallops were lost in the tsunami. Kokichi Sasaki, 67, head of a local aquaculturing union, said: "Cars and boats have been sunk in the sea. Even if we build a new farming facility, the oysters would just be damaged."
Yozo Okawa, a 69-year-old executive of the Sanriku-Yamada fisheries cooperative, said it would take several weeks to retrieve rafts floating on the sea and several months to remove the debris in the ocean.
"Delays in the removal will directly affect fishermen's living," he said.
As for the debris in fishing grounds, municipalities have commissioned companies to remove it and local fishermen also are helping. The Miyagi prefectural government aims to finish getting rid of the debris in fiscal 2012, but prospects remain gloomy for Iwate Prefecture.
"We have no clue when it'll be finished," one Iwate prefectural official said.
===
No clear picture yet
How much debris actually is there in the sea?
Based on an analysis of satellite images and other data, the Environment Ministry has estimated debris from the disaster in the three Tohoku prefectures at about 24.9 million tons.
But a ministry official said, "We're not sure how much of that has been swept out to sea."
The Fisheries Agency and the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry also have yet to gain a clear picture. Officials say estimating the amount of debris in the sea is difficult because even if some is removed, more flows in with the tide.
The Iwate Fishery Technology Center attempted to ascertain the amount of debris in Ofunato Bay, but it could not adequately survey the seabed because massive amounts of debris hampered its efforts.
As a result, the Yoshihama fishery cooperative in the city plans to examine the debris on its own using special underwater cameras that can be operated from vessels.
"We want to know the current state of the seabed. We can't wait for the local government's survey results," said Hisao Shoji, head of the cooperative.
Osamu Baba, a professor at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology specializing in marine economics, said: "A thorough survey of underwater debris must be conducted, using all the vessels available. Not only fishing boats but also boats owned by the prefecture's fisheries experiment station, universities and fisheries high schools. We can then remove it more effectively."
(May. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110526005611.htm
Masatoshi Yamada, Kiyohiko Yoneyama and Shigehisa Hanamura / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
Fishermen trying to resume their trade after the March 11 tsunami have been plagued by the massive amount of debris the disaster left in the sea, but cleanup efforts have been hampered by a lack of reliable information on both the amount and location of debris.
Ports and fishing grounds are clogged with driftwood and waste from the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake. There also are many wrecked houses and vehicles in the water.
At Miyako Port, a major landing port in Iwate Prefecture, five crew members on a trawler removed a three-meter piece of driftwood from the water last Friday.
"This is much harder than landing a catch of fish," one fisherman said.
Six of the 12 trawlers operating out of the port started collecting debris in their fishing grounds May 16. As of Sunday, almost all the trawlers were participating in the work.
In the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2011, the government appropriated 351.9 billion yen for removing debris and other waste resulting from the disaster. Fishermen are being paid about 12,000 yen per person daily to remove debris from the sea.
Some trawlers at the port managed to resume cod fishing last month, but their nets sometimes are damaged when they catch on such underwater debris as refrigerators, washing machines, driftwood and small boats.
Because of leaking oil from drums sunk in the ocean, they sometimes cannot sell fish they do catch. As a result, some fishermen are cleaning up their fishing grounds as they fish.
Members of the fishing industry have started making similar efforts in Miyagi Prefecture as well.
"We've already received requests exceeding our funding [from the first supplementary budget]," a Fisheries Agency official said.
Toshiaki Kanazawa, a 56-year-old president of a fishing company in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, said with a sigh: "The amount of the debris hasn't gone down at all. How long do we have to be in this situation?"
===
Only 30% of ports start work
To facilitate the delivery of relief supplies, debris cluttering the sea routes to some ports where cargo ships can dock, including Sendai Shiogama, Kamaishi and Ishinomaki, has been removed faster than on routes to other ports.
Of 260 fishing ports hit hard by the disaster in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, however, only about 30 percent have started removing debris from their sea routes, according to the Fisheries Agency.
The Miyagi prefectural government aims to finish clearing debris from major ports by the end of June and at other ports by late September, to prepare for salmon fishing with gill nets in the autumn.
The Iwate prefectural government also wants to finish getting rid of debris by around September, but large waves, strong winds and aftershocks sometimes disrupt the work.
Debris is also hindering the aquaculture industry in disaster-hit areas.
In Yamadamachi, Iwate Prefecture, about 4,000 rafts used to farm oysters and scallops were lost in the tsunami. Kokichi Sasaki, 67, head of a local aquaculturing union, said: "Cars and boats have been sunk in the sea. Even if we build a new farming facility, the oysters would just be damaged."
Yozo Okawa, a 69-year-old executive of the Sanriku-Yamada fisheries cooperative, said it would take several weeks to retrieve rafts floating on the sea and several months to remove the debris in the ocean.
"Delays in the removal will directly affect fishermen's living," he said.
As for the debris in fishing grounds, municipalities have commissioned companies to remove it and local fishermen also are helping. The Miyagi prefectural government aims to finish getting rid of the debris in fiscal 2012, but prospects remain gloomy for Iwate Prefecture.
"We have no clue when it'll be finished," one Iwate prefectural official said.
===
No clear picture yet
How much debris actually is there in the sea?
Based on an analysis of satellite images and other data, the Environment Ministry has estimated debris from the disaster in the three Tohoku prefectures at about 24.9 million tons.
But a ministry official said, "We're not sure how much of that has been swept out to sea."
The Fisheries Agency and the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry also have yet to gain a clear picture. Officials say estimating the amount of debris in the sea is difficult because even if some is removed, more flows in with the tide.
The Iwate Fishery Technology Center attempted to ascertain the amount of debris in Ofunato Bay, but it could not adequately survey the seabed because massive amounts of debris hampered its efforts.
As a result, the Yoshihama fishery cooperative in the city plans to examine the debris on its own using special underwater cameras that can be operated from vessels.
"We want to know the current state of the seabed. We can't wait for the local government's survey results," said Hisao Shoji, head of the cooperative.
Osamu Baba, a professor at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology specializing in marine economics, said: "A thorough survey of underwater debris must be conducted, using all the vessels available. Not only fishing boats but also boats owned by the prefecture's fisheries experiment station, universities and fisheries high schools. We can then remove it more effectively."
(May. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110526005611.htm
- Joined
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- 20,031
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TEPCO fax about seawater not passed to Kan for hours
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. notified the government's nuclear safety agency by fax 3-1/2 hours before it started injecting seawater into the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's No. 1 reactor, TEPCO said Wednesday.
The agency, however, did not pass this message to the Prime Minister's Office, casting new doubt over the central government's crisis management.
The revelation comes at a time when debate is raging over whether Prime Minister Naoto Kan instructed TEPCO to stop the injection, possibly worsening the nuclear crisis.
At a press conference on Wednesday, TEPCO said it sent the fax from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture to the agency at about 3:20 p.m. on March 12, saying it would start injecting seawater into the reactor based on the Law on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness as soon as it could make the necessary preparations.
However, the agency did not inform the Prime Minister's Office about the fax, according to the agency.
Furthermore, when TEPCO started injecting seawater at 7:04 p.m., it phoned the agency to inform it, but the agency said it could not confirm this.
According to TEPCO, the fax was sent to the agency nearly three hours before Kan and his Cabinet ministers started discussing at the Prime Minister's Office at 6 p.m. whether the injection was the correct course of action.
Although TEPCO started injecting seawater into the No. 1 reactor at 7:04 p.m., it discontinued the injection at 7:25 p.m. after it was informed that Kan and the ministers were discussing the possibility that putting seawater in the reactor could cause re-criticality--the achievement of criticality even though mechanisms designed to prevent this have been activated.
The injection was halted for 55 minutes, TEPCO said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano defended the government's actions Wednesday morning.
"During our meeting from 6 p.m., we heard from TEPCO it would take some more time until it began the seawater injection," Edano said to reporters.
He said that the fact the Prime Minister's Office did not know about the fax did not contradict his previous explanation that the office was unaware of the start of seawater injection.
The agency is under the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.
(May. 26, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110525006496.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. notified the government's nuclear safety agency by fax 3-1/2 hours before it started injecting seawater into the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's No. 1 reactor, TEPCO said Wednesday.
The agency, however, did not pass this message to the Prime Minister's Office, casting new doubt over the central government's crisis management.
The revelation comes at a time when debate is raging over whether Prime Minister Naoto Kan instructed TEPCO to stop the injection, possibly worsening the nuclear crisis.
At a press conference on Wednesday, TEPCO said it sent the fax from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture to the agency at about 3:20 p.m. on March 12, saying it would start injecting seawater into the reactor based on the Law on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness as soon as it could make the necessary preparations.
However, the agency did not inform the Prime Minister's Office about the fax, according to the agency.
Furthermore, when TEPCO started injecting seawater at 7:04 p.m., it phoned the agency to inform it, but the agency said it could not confirm this.
According to TEPCO, the fax was sent to the agency nearly three hours before Kan and his Cabinet ministers started discussing at the Prime Minister's Office at 6 p.m. whether the injection was the correct course of action.
Although TEPCO started injecting seawater into the No. 1 reactor at 7:04 p.m., it discontinued the injection at 7:25 p.m. after it was informed that Kan and the ministers were discussing the possibility that putting seawater in the reactor could cause re-criticality--the achievement of criticality even though mechanisms designed to prevent this have been activated.
The injection was halted for 55 minutes, TEPCO said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano defended the government's actions Wednesday morning.
"During our meeting from 6 p.m., we heard from TEPCO it would take some more time until it began the seawater injection," Edano said to reporters.
He said that the fact the Prime Minister's Office did not know about the fax did not contradict his previous explanation that the office was unaware of the start of seawater injection.
The agency is under the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.
(May. 26, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110525006496.htm
- Joined
- 9 October 2009
- Messages
- 20,031
- Reaction score
- 10,590
Radioactive water storage leak?
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday water levels at a spent fuel treatment facility at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant dropped about five centimeters in 20 hours after the utility stopped moving highly radioactive water to the facility, fueling concern over a leak of contaminated water.
On May 17, TEPCO began transferring radioactive water from the No. 3 reactor turbine building to a "miscellaneous solid waste volume reduction treatment building," which is housed in the waste treatment facility at the No. 3 reactor. But shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday, the plant operator stopped moving water because the facility had filled to 3,660 tons, close to its capacity of 4,000 tons.
However, water levels at the building fell 4.8 centimeters from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday, according to TEPCO. A five-centimeter drop means about 60 tons of contaminated water somehow escaped from the facility.
"Work to prevent water pipes from leaking in the building has been insufficient, so water could have leaked into aisles next to the storage container or other places," a TEPCO official said.
(May. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110526005290.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday water levels at a spent fuel treatment facility at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant dropped about five centimeters in 20 hours after the utility stopped moving highly radioactive water to the facility, fueling concern over a leak of contaminated water.
On May 17, TEPCO began transferring radioactive water from the No. 3 reactor turbine building to a "miscellaneous solid waste volume reduction treatment building," which is housed in the waste treatment facility at the No. 3 reactor. But shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday, the plant operator stopped moving water because the facility had filled to 3,660 tons, close to its capacity of 4,000 tons.
However, water levels at the building fell 4.8 centimeters from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday, according to TEPCO. A five-centimeter drop means about 60 tons of contaminated water somehow escaped from the facility.
"Work to prevent water pipes from leaking in the building has been insufficient, so water could have leaked into aisles next to the storage container or other places," a TEPCO official said.
(May. 27, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110526005290.htm
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