White House Science Advisor: U.S. government not considering getting rid of nuclear energy

In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun on 24 July, White House Science Adviser John Holdren stated that the White House is not considering even looking into the possibility of abandoning nuclear energy. "President Obama's position is that nuclear energy is an important part of dealing with climate change and that it's use should continue."

Source:
Asahi Shimbun, 2011-07-25, http://www.asahi.com/international/update/0724/TKY201107240399.html (accessed 2011-07-25)

Government paralysis and crippling mistrust

The key to understanding Japan's nuclear policy crisis is clearly grasped in a New York Times article by Norimitsu Onishi and Martin Fackler. The article, "In Nuclear Crisis, Crippling Mistrust," incisively details how mistrust of the bureaucracy he heads and the companies it oversees crippled Prime Minister Naoto Kan's ability to deal with the unfolding triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daichi power plant.

Events since that June 12 article make it clear that mistrust is paralyzing Japan's nuclear energy industry and policy, and hampering its handling of earthquake and tsunami recovery unrelated to nuclear energy.

Three debacles since June 12 have exacerbated mistrust and helped drop the cabinet's approval rating 9 points to 16% in just one month..

53 of 59 Fukushima Prefecture mayors support getting rid of nuclear power

In a poll of Fukushima Prefecture mayors conducted between June 29 and July 7, the Fukushima Minpo found that 53 of 59 supported Governor Sato's call for ridding the prefecture of nuclear power. Of the remaining 6 mayors, those of Date, Tamagawa, Naraha, and Iitate were noncommittal. The mayor of Koriyama did not respond.

Source:

Fukushima Minpo, online edition, 2011-7-8, http://www.minpo.jp/view.php?pageId=4147&newsMode=article&blockId=9863856 (accessed 2011-7-13)

From becquerels Bq to sieverts Sv for cesium in meat

It is difficult to convert becquerels to sieverts, a unit indicating the degree of harm to the human body, because there are too many variables.

The Asahi Shimbun reported Tuesday that an adult could get a dose of 3.9 millisieverts by eating 200 grams of meat with 3,400 becquerels per kg every day for a year.

A dose of 100 millisieverts is believed to increase the chance of death by cancer by 0.5 percent.

From: The Japan Times

The "Tibet of Fukushima"

Before construction of the plant, the coastal area was a barren, little-populated highland dubbed the "Tibet of Fukushima." At the time, most local residents eked out a living in agriculture, and needed to go out of town as seasonal migrant workers during winter.

But the plant brought stable jobs, tax revenues and other big money projects to the local economy.

"I couldn't feel happier because I was able to receive a monthly salary and didn't need to go away from home to work," Naganuma said, adding he had "never expected (such a disaster) would occur."

See full story at The Japan Times.

Source:
Reiji Yoshida, Takahiro Fukada "Fukushima plant site originally was a hill safe from tsunami," The Japan Times, Online Edition, 2011/7/12, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110712x2.html (accessed 2011/7/12)

My Fallout History 私の核実験被ばく歴

1951年から1970年までの間、米国ネバダ核実験場では放射性物質を大気に出した核実験が９３以上行われた。総出力は広島の16キロトンと長崎の２１キロトンと比べて、その核実験の総出力が110キロトンまでであった。

1982年から1993年まで米国の国立がん研究所（NCI)が上述の核実験による甲状腺の内部被ばくに関する調査を行った結果、以下の群別分布を試算した。

核実験場から2000ｋｍぐらい離れた小さい時代のミネソタ州自宅までも広がった。

Restart of reactors in Saga Prefecture

The first battleground for Japan's nuclear future is taking shape in Saga Prefecture, home to Kyushu Electric Power's Genkai and Sendai nuclear power plants.

[site fights] Civil society capacity or jobs?

Moved from Great Tohoku Revival, 2011-7-4

In his book, Site Fights, Daniel Aldrich argues that "public bads" are sited where civil society is weakest, where local associations are least able to organize resistance. He blames Tokyo Electric Power's siting of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as an example. [p. 32]

However, there is a gap in his analysis. As a proxy for civil society capacity, Professor Aldrich uses the decline in employment in the primary sector between 1980 and 1995.

Reconstruction Minister Blasts Tohoku Official — for ‘Bad Manners’

Update: Minister resigns the next day (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110705x1.html). He didn't even know where some stricken areas are located.

Only one day into this blog, I get reminded of the importance of central government control versus regional government control, which I neglected to add to the outline for this blog.


The reminder is a gaffe by the new Reconstruction Minister Ryu Matsumoto, who lost his temper when Miyagi Governor Murai kept him waiting for a meeting, then blasted the Governor for his lack of manners and failing to remember his military training, and finally threatened to destroy any media company that reported his outburst.

This incident is symptomatic of the Tokyo establishment's attitude toward both the regions and the news media.

Sources:
Takashi Mochizuki, The Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/07/04/reconstruction-minister-blasts-tohoku-official-for-bad-manners, 2011-7-4 (accessed 2011-7-4)

Searchina, http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2011&d=0704&f=national_0704_069.shtml, 2011-7-3 (accessed 2011-7-4)

An exploration of why Fukushima Prefecture chose to host nuclear power and what its choices are after nuclear power

(Moved from http://greattohokurevival.blogspot.com/2011/06/fukushimas-choice-exploration-of-why.html , 2011-7-3)

Fifty years ago, villages along Fukushima Prefecture's coast decided to bid on Tokyo Electric Power Company's solicitation for sites to host its first nuclear power plant. Last Wednesday, almost a hundred days into its struggle to cope with one of histories biggest earthquakes, one of its biggest tsunamis, and its biggest nuclear energy accident, Fukushima's Recovery Commission decided to eliminate Fukushima's dependence on nuclear energy.

[site fights] Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West

Moved from Great Tohoku Revival, 2011-7-3

Shortly after the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami precipitated the nuclear crisis unfolding in Fukushima, Daniel Aldrich was quoted in The New York Times. Immediately after reading that article, I ordered Prof. Aldrich's book Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West. With even a casual glance through this book, it is clear that it is must reading for anyone planning to participate in Tohoku's revival.

Tohoku's Nuclear Villages: Small, Unsophisticated and Rich

In his very timely book Site Fights, Daniel Aldrich describes at length the subsidies, both exposed and hidden, that are used to persuade and reward villages that host nuclear plants. Martin Fackler reports that in 2009 alone, Tokyo gave $1.15 billion for public works projects to communities that have electric plants.


Using data from the 2005 census and 2007 data for fiscal strength (http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/eStatTopPortal.do), I plotted fiscal strength versus population for 271 municipalities in Tohoku, excluding Akita and Yamagata Prefectures, but adding Ibaraki and Chiba Prefectures.

[Fukushima History] Fukushima's Nuclear Coast - Japan's version of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Fewer than ten pages into his 364-page history of Fukushima Prefecture, Kaichiro Oishi states two features of Fukushima's history that are relevant to how Fukushima got into its current nuclear position and to how Fukushima will proceed into it future.

First, with the exception of the Aizu district in western Fukushima in the late 19th century, Fukushima has almost never endeavored towards regional development independent of the central national government and central national sources of capital.

Second, the development of Fukushima's nuclear coast was Japan's version of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the United States with one major difference. While TVA embraced grass roots populism, Japan's plan for Fukushima contained none. It was only a means of supplying electricity to the center of economic recovery, the Tokyo-Yokohama area.

Source:

福島県の百年 (県民100年史)

Oishi, Kaichiro, Fukushimaken no Hyakunen (Fukushima Prefecture's One Hundred Years, Yamakawa Insatsu, Tokyo, 1992

[Fukushima History] 1873: Asaka Irrigation Project - an early Meiji national project

After the Meiji Restoration, the new government transformed Japan's warlord clans into the current prefectures in several steps. First, in 1871, the clans were converted to prefectures. Then over a period of a few years, these prefectures were consolidated. Today's Fukushima resulted from the consolidation of 10 clans and 10 sub-clan areas.

Futaba Memorial Nuclear Energy Park

In the wake of the triple meltdown nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan is seeing a public backlash against nuclear power. A recent poll showed that an overwhelming majority of Japanese, 82 percent, support getting rid of the nation's reactors. The Governor Sato of Fukushima has committed himself to ridding his prefecture of nuclear power. At this point, it appears certain that nuclear power's days in Fukushima Prefecture are coming to an end.

But there is an alternate outcome and this blog begins an exploration and tracking of that outcome. That possible outcome is that the Futaba coast around Fukushima Daiichi will instead be turned into a nuclear energy plantation, precisely the opposite of the currently accepted scenario.