Nuclear Power and Fukushima Finances 3

Mutual Dependence & Mutual Profit


Over its 45-year lifespan, a nuclear power reactor will bring in about 121.5 billion yen (about $1.6 billion at 78 yen/dollar) in government subsidies to the prefecture and municipalities around its location. This funding system is deeply entwined in the region.

Nuclear Power and Fukushima Finances 2

Kakuei Tanaka and Money for Nuclear Power Plant Localities


In the Fall of 1972, then Fukushima Governor Kimura Morie approached Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei with a request. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor No 1 had been operating for two years, but the only income to its host locality was property taxes, a source of funds that would decline as the plant depreciated. To Governor Kimura, this was unfair. Prefectures and localities in which the plant's electricity was consumed reaped taxes on this consumption. 

Gov't to designate 'difficult-to-return zones' near crippled Fukushima nuclear plant

The government is expected to consider designating areas that are exposed to more than 50 millisieverts per year of radiation from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant as zones that are difficult for local residents to return to possibly for the next several decades and buying out tracts of land there.


Article at Mainichi Daily News: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/12/14/20111214p2a00m0na021000c.html

Speculating about future cancers from nuclear accident

Last week, the Associated Press ran a story speculating that future cancers from the FDII accident might be hidden.

This notion of 'hidden' cancers is silly and unscientific. The scientific standard for drug development, that if there is no statistically significant difference, then there is no effect, applies here. If there is no statistically significant rise in cancers, then there was no effect. But, without control populations, there will be no sound way of determining statistical significance.


My hypothesis is that more cancers may be found simply because no population has been studied with this thoroughness for the time they are planning. My concern is that, whether more are found or fewer are found, the results will not be able to be tied to the accident because no control populations are in the study. To be scientifically valid, there need to be control populations away from Fukushima, preferably a set of smaller populations scattered around Japan. While the government study may protect the children, scientific value will be lost without controls.

A third of Namie, Fukushima, residents will not return

A survey of town citizens by the town of Namie, Fukushima, found that a third of its evacuated residents do not plan to return.

Essentially all of Namie's residents evacuated following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The survey was distributed to 18,448 of 24,200 evacuated residents in November. Of these, 10,487 (56.8%) responded. Of these, 43.7% answered that they would return if infrastructure is restored and if other residents return "to some degree." Another 15.7% would return if radiation declines and infrastructure is restored, and 5% would return if the evacuation zone is lifted. A full 32.5% responded that they will not return.



Sources:

1) Nihon Keizai Shimbun, North Kanto Edition, 2011 Dec 3, pl 38

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)

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。