Nuclear plant on fault line causes fears of Fukushima repeat

The last remaining nuclear power plant still in operation in Japan since March 2011 could be situated above an active fault line in the earth’s crust, warns a Japanese geologist, risking a Fukushima-scale disaster.

Mitsuhisa Watanabe is a tectonic geomorphologist and one-fifth of a five man team charged by the Nuclear Regulation Authority with the task of investigating the tectonic landscape beneath the nuclear plant in Oi, Fukui Prefecture, the only plant to have resumed operation since last year’s nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

Watanabe’s research strongly suggests that the plant, including important water pipe equipment for half of the plant’s nuclear reactors, is located above an active seismic fault.

The geologist, along with other experts on the panel, have determined that the underground structure on which the plant stands has showed movement as long ago as 125,000 years. Watanabe suggests that this underground movement is due to faultline activity, and has called for the plant to cease operation immediately until further research has been carried out, concerned that failure to do so could result in a repeat of Fukushima, the tsunami-triggered nuclear meltdown that left hundreds of thousands of people without homes. “We are not seeking to decommission the plant,” Watanabe said. “We should first stop operation and then carry out underground investigation thoroughly before reaching a conclusion.”

Whilst it is against government regulations to run a nuclear plant under an active fault line (where ‘active’ is classed as any seismic fault that has shifted in the past 130,000 years), the plant is still in operation. Watanabe claims that the line has showed activity in the past 130,000 years, though other members of the team are reluctant to close the plant, suggesting instead that the land scarring is due to nothing more than a past landslide, rather than any seismic activity. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology researcher Norio Shigematsu has cautioned jumping to any conclusion until more experts are consulted.

The experts may remain in disagreement, but the several thousand protesters that joined together in Tokyo’s government district this Sunday spoke with a different voice, as shouts of “No need to wait for the panel’s finding! We must stop the Oi plant now!” could be heard outside parliament. After the Japanese government’s declaration in September of their plans to phase out nuclear power in Japan by 2040, the issue of nuclear power and public safety has never been so important.

Watanabe is keen that seismologists do not underestimate the possible effects of future earthquakes. “We have to sound the alarm as soon as we find the possibility of active faults,” he said. “The accident in Fukushima had really never been imagined. Scientists must learn from that.”

Sources include Japan Today

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Mount Fuji: A sleeping menace?

Japan’s most famous landmark, Mount Fuji, is at a greater risk of erupting since last year’s catastrophic earthquake, official sources suggest.

And what’s more, the Japanese government currently has no official plan of action constructed to deal with such an event, revealed Toshitsugu Fujii, newly-posted head of a Japanese disaster response task force at Mount Fuji. Whilst more than a year has passed since the 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear meltdown which it triggered on March 11, 2011, the government is still in the process of constructing a disaster response plan, despite strong evidence to suggest that last year’s disasters have increased the likelihood of the volcano, which last erupted in 1707, coming back to life with a terrifying bang.

The Great East Japan Earthquake triggered a series of tremors, including a 6.4 magnitude aftershock directly below Mount Fuji, which put a 20 metre-long crack in its side, increasing the pressure in the volcano’s magma chamber. Researchers at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention have been analysing the effects of the tectonic movements caused by the 2011 earthquake, estimating that Mount Fuji’s magma chamber currently experiencing atmospheric pressures of 15.8 kilograms per square centimetre. It takes as little as 0.1 megapascals of pressure to trigger a volcanic eruption. Mount Fuji clocks in at 1.6 megapascals. Numerous examples of volcanoes erupting following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake have been recorded, including Chile, Sumatra and Kamchatka. Should Fuji erupt, its effects could be felt as far away as Tokyo, over 100 miles away. So why isn’t a disaster response strategy of higher priority?

It may be that a cleft in the Japanese government is hindering progress in this area. Within the Japanese bureaucracy, the teams charged with creating disaster prevention and response plans for potential earthquakes, work separately to those dealing with volcanic eruptions. Without any concrete evidence confirming Mount Fuji’s imminent volcanic eruption, these teams remain divided as to whose responsibility this case is.

Local communities are loath to discuss the threat, concerned that media attention will impact upon tourism. A book published in 1983 wrongfully warning of an imminent eruption was blamed for driving tourists away and causing a $3 million loss in revenues for a prefecture bordering the volcano.

But despite resistance, it seems that Mount Fuji’s eruption is a possibility which cannot be ruled out. It may have been 300 years since its last activity, but if recent evidence is to be believed, Mount Fuji quietly remains a very real threat to Japan.

Sources include Reuters, Bangkok Post

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“No more Nukes!”: Japan’s nuclear dilemma

More than a year on from the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in March 2011, concerns deepen  in Japan as the prospect that the country will once again revert to nuclear power as a principal national energy source looms on the horizon.  Still fresh in the memory of many Japanese citizens, the Fukushima disaster and its consequences form a central point of conflict when it comes to many government policies regarding the proposed switch-on of nuclear plants, as many people fear a repetition of last year’s catastrophic events.

Since the reopening of the Oi nuclear power plant (near Fukushima) at the beginning of this month, thousands have taken to the streets in the capital in protest, bearing banners bearing the words “No Nukes!”.  The protest in Yoyogi Park in central Tokyo on 16^th July this year represented one of largest of these protests and was reported to have continued throughout the day, despite the stifling summer weather in the city. The Japanese police have been present at such protests in Tokyo and on certain occasions have intervened. However, despite the large number of people present there appears to have been few reports of violence by the protesters themselves.

Concerns regarding the Japanese nuclear switch-on could also be fuelled by recent reports of dishonest radiation level recordings in the Fukushima plant after the disaster and the results of a government enquiry into the safety of Japan’s other, currently inactive, nuclear power plants. In particular this report appeared skeptical about the plants’ capacity to withstand a disaster such as that at Fukushima, if history were to repeat itself.

As Japan emerges from the wake of last year’s nuclear catastrophe, it is perhaps difficult to reconcile a need to move beyond what has happened and the need to approach Japan’s energy needs. At the moment it appears, by evidence of the large scale rallies and protests, that many people are keener to err on the side of caution. For example, with the reopening of the beaches near the Fukushima plant early last week, a sobering reminder of the dangers of the radiation emitted by the plant after the tsunami was put in place as radiation readings were set to be shown twice a day, as reassurance but also a means of recollection for those who have now dipped their toes back in the water.

News sources: Labornet Japan, The Guardian online, BBC News website

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At The Japanese Connection, we have over twenty five years’ experience in providing professional, accurate and reliable Japanese interpreters and translators working in a wide range of fields. Whether it is for a conference, a deposition or a trip to Japan with a Japanese business partner, we can offer you a high-quality Japanese language service tailored to meet your individual interpreting or translation needs. For more information and for a free quick quote, please visit our website or contact us.