Switzerland reopens door for new nuclear power plants

By AFP
August 28, 2024

The four nuclear power plants currently in service provide around a third of Switzerland's total electricity production - Copyright AFP Fabrice COFFRINI

Switzerland said Wednesday it was open to building new nuclear power stations in the long term, given new geopolitical uncertainties, climate targets and population growth boosting the demand for electricity.

The Swiss approved the gradual phase-out of nuclear power in a referendum in 2017, by banning the construction of new power plants.

That law was the result of a long process initiated after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, triggered by a tsunami.

However, “since 2017, the situation on the electricity market has changed radically”, Energy Minister Albert Rosti told a press conference, following a government meeting.

Furthermore, last year voters backed a new climate bill aimed at steering the country towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

Rosti said new nuclear power was “not an option” in the short or even medium term.

“But to be ready, if it is necessary in the long term, in the next 15 years I would say, we must start now,” he stressed.

His ministry will submit an amendment to the nuclear energy law by the end of the year.

Parliament would then have to debate it and the public would have to vote in a referendum.

“We are not saying that in 10 years there will be a new power plant… but we are responsible for leaving the door open to all possible technologies,” said Rosti, stressing that if the process was not initiated now, it will “perhaps be too late in 20 years”.

As the wealthy Alpine nation hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the government said it needed to be open to different technologies — and the ban on new nuclear plants was “not compatible” with that objective.

The four nuclear power plants currently in service provide around a third of Switzerland’s total electricity production. They can continue running as long as they remain safe.

When they eventually have to close, the government fears renewable energy might not be able to plug the gap.

“At the time, we had imagined producing the missing electricity using gas-fired power plants,” but “this option has become almost unthinkable” to achieve carbon neutrality, Rosti explained.

He said the lifting of the ban on new nuclear power plants was a “fallback option, just in case”.

The announcement was immediately criticised by Greenpeace Switzerland as well as centrist, socialist and environmentalist parties.

“The construction of a new nuclear reactor will come too late to effectively reduce our carbon emissions and will not free us from our dependence on third countries for our energy supply,” said Greenpeace Switzerland.

Technical issue forces Fukushima nuclear plant to delay trial removal of radioactive debris

This handout photo taken on August 22, 2024 shows pipes for the installation of a telescopic device to be used for the removal of radioactive debris in Fukushima reactor. — AFP pic

Friday, 23 Aug 2024

TOKYO, Aug 23 — The operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant said this week’s trial removal of radioactive debris from a battered reactor has been postponed due to a technical issue.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) was aiming to remove a tiny sample of the estimated 880 tons of radioactive debris believed to sit inside reactors at the tsunami-hit nuclear plant.

But after carrying out the preliminary steps of the trial retrieval yesterday morning, a Tepco spokesperson said the operator had “decided to suspend the work”.

The trial removal will not resume on today as the operator has to “investigate the cause of the trouble,” another spokesman Tatsuya Matoba told AFP today.

“We can’t exclude the possibility that we resume this Saturday, but personally I’ve never experienced this kind of operation starting on Saturday or Sunday,” he said.

He added that it was also unclear whether the work would resume next week.

“It depends on how deeply we’ll investigate,” he said.

Three of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s six reactors were operating when a tsunami hit on March 11, 2011, knocking down cooling systems and sending them into meltdown in what became the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

In three units of the Fukushima plant, fuel and other material melted and then solidified into highly radioactive “fuel debris”.

The tiny sample was to be studied for clues about the condition of the inside of the reactors and their hazardous contents, a crucial step towards decommissioning the plant.

The debris has radiation levels so high that Tepco has had to develop specialised robots that can withstand them to function inside.

Removing it has long been dubbed the most daunting challenge in the decades-long project to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Tepco deployed two mini-drones and a “snake-shaped robot” into one of the three nuclear reactors in February, as part of the preparations for the removal task.

The latest probe, equipped with a robotic arm, is expected to take about a week to reach radioactive debris inside the reactor and should emerge again with the sample next month.

Japan began almost a year ago to release wastewater from the stricken plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The step has sparked a diplomatic row with China and Russia.

Both countries have banned Japanese seafood imports, although Tokyo insists the discharge is safe, a view backed by the UN atomic agency. — AFP

 

Attempts to Remove Nuclear Fuel Debris from Fukushima Plant Delayed on First Day

Written: 2024-08-22 

Photo : YONHAP News

Operators aborted an attempt to remove nuclear fuel debris from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday.

According to Kyodo News and NHK, Tokyo Electric Power Company(TEPCO) began its preparation, but soon suspended the operations due to an error during the installation of the removal device.

TEPCO explained that it does not plan to resume its removal process on Thursday and that it has yet to reschedule another attempt.

Thursday was supposed to be the first day of removing nuclear fuel debris, considered the most difficult task for decommissioning the cripple nuclear power plant.

Less than three grams of nuclear fuel debris is slated for collection in the first stage and it is expected to take another week for a new removal device and a total of two weeks to complete the removal.

UN nuclear agency head to visit Russia's Kursk plant next week

This photographs shows a view of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in southern Ukraine on June 15, 2023.

U.N. nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi is set to visit Russia's Kursk nuclear power plant next week, according to an agency spokesperson's statement on Thursday.

Haberin Devamı

The visit comes in the wake of Ukraine's recent surprise counteroffensive in the region.

"We can confirm (it's planned for) next week," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesperson said, without providing additional details.

On Aug. 9, the IAEA urged both Russia and Ukraine to exercise "maximum restraint" to "avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences" as fighting approached the power plant.

Grossi stated that he was "personally in contact with the relevant authorities of both countries" and would "continue to update the international community as appropriate."

The Kursk nuclear power plant consists of six units. Two are currently in shutdown, two are fully operational, and two are under construction, according to IAEA information.

Two and a half years into the conflict, Ukraine launched an unprecedented cross-border assault on Aug. 6, catching Russia off guard and surprising even its close allies. Kiev claims to have captured dozens of settlements, prompting tens of thousands of Russian civilians to flee the area.

The IAEA has consistently warned about the risks posed to nuclear plants by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. On Saturday, the agency cautioned that the safety situation at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was "deteriorating" following a nearby drone strike.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, seized by Russian forces early in the war, has been the target of repeated attacks, with both sides accusing each other of carrying out these strikes. IAEA is concerned about nuclear safety in the region amid continued military operations.

Japan: Robot's Attempt To Get Nuclear Fuel Sample Of Damaged Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Suspended

The work was stopped Thursday morning when workers noticed that five 1.5-meter (5-foot) pipes used to maneuver the robot were placed in the wrong order and could not be corrected within the time limit for their radiation exposure, the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said.

Associated Press
Updated on: 22 August 2024 

Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Photo: AP

An attempt to use a telescoping robot to remove a sample of melted fuel from a wrecked reactor at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was suspended Thursday due to a technical issue.

The collection of a tiny sample of the debris inside the Unit 2 reactor's primary containment vessel would start the fuel debris removal phase, the most challenging part of the decades-long decommissioning of the plant where three reactors were destroyed in the March 11, 2011, magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The work was stopped Thursday morning when workers noticed that five 1.5-meter (5-foot) pipes used to maneuver the robot were placed in the wrong order and could not be corrected within the time limit for their radiation exposure, the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said.

The pipes were to be used to push the robot inside and pull it back out when it finished. Once inside the vessel, the robot is operated remotely from a safer location.

The robot can extend up to 22 meters (72 feet) to reach its target area to collect a fragment from the surface of the melted fuel mound using a device equipped with tongs that hang from the tip of the robot.

The mission to obtain the fragment and return with it is to last two weeks. TEPCO said a new start date is undecided.

The sample-return mission is a first crucial step of a decades-long decommissioning at the Fukushima Daiichi. But its goal to bring back less than 3 grams (0.1 ounce) of an estimated 880 tons of fatally radioactive molten fuel underscores the daunting challenges.

Despite the small amount of the debris sample, it will provide key data to develop future decommissioning methods and necessary technology and robots, experts say.

Better understanding of the melted fuel debris is key to decommissioning the three wrecked reactors and the entire plant.

The government and TEPCO are sticking to a 30-40-year cleanup target set soon after the meltdown, despite criticism it is unrealistic. No specific plans for the full removal of the melted fuel debris or its storage have been decided.

Japan’s seafood experiment clears the air on safety of water discharge from Fukushima nuclear plant

A look inside the marine organisms rearing test facility at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on June 28, 2024. 

ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY

Audrey Tan and Walter Sim
Updated
Aug 19, 2024


FUKUSHIMA – Tanks full of seafood are not what one usually expects to find at a nuclear power station.

Yet, The Straits Times discovered quite a spread at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station during a visit there in June.

Flounder, abalone and seaweed – all delicacies of north-eastern Japan – were being reared on site, though they were not bound for the dinner table.


Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has far greater aspirations for them.

The cameras in the flounder tanks provide a clue to their existence: By live-streaming the activities of these fishes 24/7, Tepco wants to show the world that water being discharged after treatment from the nuclear plant – the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster – is safe and has no negative impact on life underwater.

Sources of contaminated water include seawater used to cool the remaining nuclear fuel, as well as groundwater and rainwater that seep into the damaged reactors.

Within the marine life breeding facility, tanks are colour-coded.

Seafood in yellow tanks is reared in water that has been processed through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) that removes radioactive material, and then diluted with seawater. This same mixture is what the plant discharges into the ocean.

Blue tanks contain fish reared in regular seawater.

Mr Kazuo Yamanaka, who oversees the marine organisms rearing test laboratory at Fukushima Daiichi, on June 28. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY


Mr Kazuo Yamanaka, who oversees the marine organisms rearing test laboratory at Fukushima Daiichi, told us during our visit: “When there were discussions over the release of the ALPS-treated water, we heard concerns from fishermen who were worried about the damage to their trades through harmful rumours.”


The fishing industry in Fukushima had expressed worries that consumers would be afraid of consuming seafood in the area.

“We spoke to locals and stakeholders in the fishing industry, who said they wanted to see flounder and abalone moving and growing healthily in seawater that has been mixed with ALPS-treated water,” Mr Yamanaka added.

At the marine organisms rearing test facility, flounders are raised in two environments: natural seawater and ALPS-treated water diluted with seawater. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY


Tepco started rearing the marine life in September 2022, about a year before the first discharge of ALPS-treated water into the Pacific Ocean began on Aug 24, 2023.

Japanese media reported that outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to visit the crippled nuclear plant on Aug 24, to mark the first anniversary of the first treated water discharge.

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Radioactivity concentrations in the tissues of marine organisms are also monitored regularly, with the results published on Tepco’s website.

Eight batches of treated water have been released so far, with the most recent starting on Aug 7 and expected to end on Aug 25.

With the completion of the discharge of the seventh batch on July 16, about 55,000 cubic metres of water – enough to fill about 22 Olympic-size pools – has been discharged into the ocean so far.

Japan plans to continue releasing the diluted ALPS-treated water from Fukushima Daiichi over the next decades in a series of batches.

Yellow tanks house fish reared in diluted ALPS-treated water, while blue tanks house fish reared in regular seawater. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said the release meets international safety standards and would have “negligible radiological impact on people and the environment”.

In Singapore, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) ensures food safety through a surveillance and monitoring regime, while the National Environment Agency (NEA) keeps watch over ambient radiation levels in Singapore via a network of 40 stations, and through regular sampling and laboratory analysis of Singapore’s waters.

In a joint response, the agencies said that no radioactive contaminants have been detected in food imports from Japan since 2013. Such contaminants had been detected in Japanese food imports in 2011 and 2012. Food imports from the East Asian country into Singapore have made up less than 1.5 per cent of total food imports over the past decade, with less than 0.01 per cent of food coming from Fukushima prefecture in 2022, they noted.

As for ambient radioactivity levels, these have remained within natural background levels, the agencies said


Making space

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station sits on a sprawling compound measuring 3.5 sq km, about 10 times the size of the Singapore Sports Hub.

More than a decade since the plant was hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that resulted in the 2011 nuclear disaster, the plant still bears visible reminders of the incident.

The four buildings that house the nuclear reactors are still on site, and highly radioactive fuel debris still remains in two of them. Seawater is continually needed to cool the molten fuel.

Any water that comes into contact with the radioactive material – including the seawater used for cooling, as well as groundwater and rainwater that seep into the damaged reactors – becomes contaminated.

At Fukushima Daiichi, this contaminated water is treated via ALPS to remove most of the radioactive elements before it is stored in tanks.

Looking over the compound from a meeting room where we were briefed on safety protocols, we could see that most of the campus was covered with huge vats of blue, white and grey, which are used for storing the treated water.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station sits on a sprawling compound measuring 3.5 sq km, about 10 times the size of the Singapore Sports Hub. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY


As at January, there were more than 1,000 tanks on site, storing about 1.37 million cubic metres of water – equivalent to 548 Olympic-size swimming pools.

But as works to decommission – or to safely close and dismantle – the plant progressed, space was needed to construct new facilities.

Mr Junichi Matsumoto, Tepco’s chief officer for ALPS-treated water management, said: “Storing this treated water on site was always a stopgap measure – there is space for only so many tanks. That is why the Japanese government, after thorough consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, made the decision to discharge it.”

Japan first announced plans to discharge the treated water into the Pacific Ocean in 2021.

The Japanese authorities requested technical assistance from the IAEA to monitor and review those plans.

In 2023, the IAEA’s safety review concluded that Japan’s plans to release treated water stored at Fukushima Daiichi into the sea were consistent with its safety standards.
The treatment process

ALPS removes most of the radioactive elements from contaminated water via a series of chemical reactions.

But tritium – a radioactive form of hydrogen (H) – cannot be removed since water (H2O) containing tritium has chemical features almost identical to water with ordinary hydrogen.

The Fukushima plant is not the only nuclear station to discharge tritiated water – or water that contains tritium.

“Most nuclear power plants around the world routinely and safely release treated water, containing low-level concentrations of tritium and other radionuclides, to the environment as part of normal operations,” the IAEA added.

To allay concerns, Tepco further dilutes the ALPS-treated water with seawater before discharging it into the ocean.

A sample bottle of ALPS-treated water. PHOTO: TEPCO


Tritium concentrations in the ALPS-treated water diluted with seawater are less than 1,500 becquerels per litre (Bq/L), a unit of measurement for radioactivity.

The World Health Organisation’s guideline for the limit of tritium in drinking water is 10,000 Bq/L.

Mr Matsumoto said each batch of treated water released into the ocean involves stringent testing.

Workers check the ALPS-treated water for radioactive materials before discharge.

They also collect seawater samples from monitoring points around the power station after the discharge begins.

“Each time, the results have corresponded closely with our pre-discharge simulations, with levels of radioactive materials remaining well within agreed-upon safety standards,” added Mr Matsumoto, who is also corporate officer and general manager of Tepco’s Project Management Office.

The IAEA also independently monitors the tritium concentrations in each batch of treated water discharged by the nuclear power station.

The SFA and NEA told The Straits Times that tritium has not been detected in seafood imports from Japan.

But tritium is not a concern in seafood imports because it emits weak radiation, the agencies said in a joint response.

“The Japanese government has set a concentration limit for tritium at 1,500 Bq/L for the discharge of its treated nuclear wastewater and the international safety limit set by the World Health Organisation and Codex for tritium in food is 10,000 Bq/kg,” said SFA and NEA.

Mr Kazuhiro Shiono, 39, an employee at Marufuto Chokubaiten – a store selling seafood products at the Onahama Port about an hour’s drive from the nuclear plant – told The Straits Times that he was not worried about the discharge of the ALPS-treated water.

The entrance of the revitalised Onahama fish market in Fukushima on June 29. ST PHOTO: SAMUEL RUBY

“(Tepco) is releasing properly treated water in the ocean, not contaminated water. It is only water that has been properly treated. That is what the government is saying, and I’m absolutely relieved about that,” said Mr Shiono.

“If there were problems with the data, I’d be dead by now... I’ve been eating a lot of fish and giving fish to my own children,” added the father of two.
What is radioactivity?

It is the emission of radiation, a form of energy. There are two types of radiation – ionising radiation and non-ionising radiation.

Non-ionising radiation has enough energy to move atoms in a molecule around or cause them to vibrate, but not enough to remove electrons from atoms. Examples of this kind of radiation are radio waves, visible light and microwaves.

Ionising radiation has enough energy to knock electrons out of atoms. In large doses, it poses a health risk in living things as it can damage tissue and DNA in genes.
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Ionising radiation in the form of alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays or neutrons is produced by unstable forms of elements, which are the fundamental building blocks of nature.

There are some elements with no stable form that are always radioactive, such as uranium.

Ionising radiation comes from X-ray machines, cosmic particles from outer space and radioactive elements.

Japan ends megaquake advisory on Nankai Trough disasters


Aug 15, 2024, 

TOKYO - Japan on Thursday ended its call for higher-than-usual risks of a major earthquake, one week after a strong tremor on the edge of the Nankai Trough seabed zone caused the government to issue its first-ever megaquake advisory.

Citizens can now return to normal life as no abnormalities were observed in the seismic activity of the Nankai Trough located along Japan's Pacific coast in the past week, said Yoshifumi Matsumura, the state minister for disaster management.

A Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) expert panel on Aug. 8 released an advisory that there was a "relatively higher chance" of a Nankai Trough megaquake as powerful as magnitude 9, after a magnitude-7.1 quake hit the country's southwest.


While the advisory was not a definitive prediction, the government asked residents of a wide range of western and central regions to review evacuation procedures in case of severe earthquake and tsunami disasters.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cancelled a diplomatic tour to Central Asia and Mongolia over the weekend to prioritise disaster management.

On Aug. 9, a magnitude-5.3 earthquake hit eastern Japan near Tokyo, but its epicentre was located outside of the Nankai Trough zone where the JMA signalled the chance of a megaquake, and the damage was small as only three mild injuries were reported.

Central Japan Railway ended its week-long precaution of reducing the speed of trains running near coastal areas, although the risk of another natural disaster, approaching Typhoon Ampil, forced the company to cancel high-speed trains connecting Tokyo and Nagoya on Friday.

Japan has predicted a 70%-80% chance of a Nankai Trough megaquake occurring in the next 30 years.

The government's worst-case scenario has estimated that a Nankai Trough megaquake and subsequent tsunami disaster could kill 323,000 people, destroy 2.38 million buildings and cause 220 trillion yen ($1.50 trillion) of economic damage.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. More than 15,000 people were killed in a magnitude 9 quake in 2011 that triggered a devastating tsunami and the triple reactor meltdowns at a nuclear power plant in northeast Japan. 

REUTERS

Weeklong Japan megaquake alert ends

Public urged to remain vigilant and prepared


PUBLISHED : 15 Aug 2024
WRITER: Kyodo News

Signage showing evacuation routes from the shore in the event of an earthquake is put up at Shirahama beach in Wakayama Prefecture, as seen on Friday. (Photo: Kyodo)

KYODO - A weeklong government call for increased preparedness based on an advisory over a potential megaquake along the Pacific coast officially ended 5pm on Thursday, after no new major seismic activity was confirmed around the Nankai Trough.

The Nankai Trough megaquake advisory, the first since the system was implemented in 2017, prompted the central government and local communities to intensify disaster preparations over the past week. It also negatively impacted some tourism-related businesses during the summer holiday season.

Japan, a quake-prone nation, has long feared a magnitude 8 to 9 quake along the Nankai Trough within the next 30 years, with predictions that a wide area could be jolted and vast coastal regions engulfed by massive tsunami.

The megaquake advisory was issued just hours after a M7.1 quake rocked southwestern Japan on Aug 8, with its focus located in waters off Miyazaki Prefecture, on the western edge of the Nankai Trough.

The advisory is intended to inform the public of the higher-than-usual risk of a large-scale quake around the Nankai Trough for a week. The government is urging the public to remain vigilant and prepared, as the possibility of a major temblor has not been eliminated.

The Nankai Trough is an ocean-floor trench that runs along Japan's Pacific coast where the Eurasian and Philippine Sea tectonic plates meet.

The Japan Meteorological Agency stated that as of Wednesday, it had detected no seismic activity indicating any concerning changes in the presumed area where the megaquake could originate.

According to the Cabinet Office, the advisory has been applied to 707 municipalities across 29 prefectures where strong shaking and large tsunami are expected in the event of a major quake.

The government estimates that, in a worst-case scenario, a megaquake in the Nankai Trough could result in over 200 trillion yen (UScopy.36 trillion) in damage.

A M9.0 earthquake with an epicentre near land would increase the damage due to the collapse of housing and infrastructure, as well as reduced business activity.

Kuroshio in Kochi Prefecture, western Japan, where a 34-metre tsunami is expected in the event of a megaquake, responded to the advisory by establishing a disaster response headquarters and increasing the number of disaster response staff.

According to the prefecture, over 100 evacuation centres have been established, with up to 63 people having sought refuge.

Some beaches in western and southwestern Japan that were closed for swimming following last week's quake have reopened.

History shows that a major earthquake around the Nankai Trough occurs every 100 to 150 years. About 80 years have passed since the most recent.

The quake that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggered massive tsunami and led to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster. It registered a M9.0, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Japan.

Japan’s PM cancels overseas trip after experts issue ‘megaquake’ warning


The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued its first-ever warning of the risk of a huge earthquake along the Pacific coast


Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies
Fri 9 Aug 2024

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has cancelled a visit to central Asia this weekend after experts warned that the risk of a “megaquake” occurring off the country’s Pacific coast had increased following Thursday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the south-west.

Kishida, who is battling low approval ratings and faces challenges to his leadership in a ruling party presidential election next month, announced his decision at a press conference on Friday.


Tokyo braces for another ‘big one’ on 100th anniversary of deadly quake

He had been due to hold a summit with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the Kazakh capital Astana on Friday evening and to meet the Mongolian president in Ulaanbaatar on Monday, according to the Kyodo news agency.

The Japan Meteorological Agency on Thursday issued its first-ever warning of the risk of a huge earthquake along the Pacific coast after a quake on the southernmost main island of Kyushu triggered a tsunami warning. No deaths or major damage have been reported.


The agency’s warning that the risk of a huge earthquake occurring along the Nankai Trough was higher than usual does not mean that a quake will definitely occur in the coming days. Public broadcaster NHK said Kishida’s overseas trip had been cancelled so that he could prepare for any eventuality.

The meteorological agency’s megaquake advisory warned that “if a major earthquake were to occur in the future, strong shaking and large tsunamis would be generated”.

It added: “The likelihood of a new major earthquake is higher than normal, but this is not an indication that a major earthquake will definitely occur during a specific period of time.”

The advisory concerns the Nankai Trough “subduction zone” between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean, where massive earthquakes have hit in the past.

The 800-kilometre (500-mile) undersea trough runs from Shizuoka, west of Tokyo, to the southern tip of Kyushu and has been the site of destructive earthquakes of magnitude 8 or 9 every 100 to 200 years.

These so-called “megathrust quakes”, which often occur in pairs, have unleashed dangerous tsunamis along the southern coast of Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active countries.

In 1707, all segments of the Nankai Trough ruptured at once, unleashing an earthquake that remains the nation’s second-most powerful on record after the March 2011 earthquake along the north-east coast.

That quake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people and led to a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Although it is impossible to predict the precise timing of earthquakes – apart from automated warnings that a quake could occur within seconds – government experts believe there is a 70% to 80% chance of an megaquake measuring magnitude 8 or 9 happening around the trough in the next 30 years.

In the worst-case scenario, the disaster would kill 300,000 people, with some experts estimating a financial hit as high as $13tn.

“The history of great earthquakes at Nankai is convincingly scary,” geologist Kyle Bradley and Judith A Hubbard wrote in their Earthquake Insights newsletter, but added that there was no need for the public to panic.

There was only a “small probability” that Thursday’s quake was a foreshock, Bradley and Hubbard wrote, adding: “One of the challenges is that even when the risk of a second earthquake is elevated, it is still always low.”

Nuclear threats are increasing – here’s how the US should prepare for a nuclear event

Cham Dallas, University of Georgia
Sun, August 4, 2024 

THE CONVERSATION

A visitor to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum views a photo of the aftermath of the 1945 bombing. Carl Court/Getty Images


Because several generations have passed since the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare – some may think the threat from nuclear weapons has receded. But international developments, including nuclear threats from Russia in the war in Ukraine, have brought a broader awareness of the vulnerability to global peace from nuclear events.

I’ve been studying the effects of nuclear events – from detonations to accidents – for over 30 years. This has included my direct involvement in research, teaching and humanitarian efforts in multiple expeditions to Chernobyl- and Fukushima-contaminated areas. Now I am involved in the proposal for the formation of a Nuclear Global Health Workforce, which I proposed in 2017.

Such a group could bring together nuclear and nonnuclear technical and health professionals for education and training, and help to meet the preparedness, coordination, collaboration and staffing requirements necessary to respond to a large-scale nuclear crisis.


What would this workforce need to be prepared to manage? For that we can look back at the legacy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as nuclear accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima.

The Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall after the blast. Maarten Heerlien/Flickr, CC BY-SA

What happens when a nuclear device is detonated over a city?

Approximately 135,000 and 64,000 people died, respectively, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The great majority of deaths happened in the first days after the bombings, mainly from thermal burns, severe physical injuries and radiation.

The great majority of doctors and nurses in Hiroshima were killed and injured, and therefore unable to assist in the response. This was largely due to the concentration of medical personnel and facilities in inner urban areas. This exact concentration exists today in the majority of American cities, and is a chilling reminder of the difficulty in medically responding to nuclear events.

What if a nuclear device were detonated in an urban area today? I explored this issue in a 2007 study modeling a nuclear weapon attack on four American cities. As in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the majority of deaths would happen soon after the detonation, and the local health care response capability would be largely eradicated.

Models show that such an event in an urban area in particular will not only destroy the existing public health protections but will, most likely, make it extremely difficult to respond, recover and rehabilitate them.

Very few medical personnel today have the skills or knowledge to treat the kind and the quantity of injuries a nuclear blast can cause. Health care workers would have little to no familiarity with the treatment of radiation victims. Thermal burns would require enormous resources to treat even a single patient, and a large number of patients with these injuries will overwhelm any existing medical system. There would also be a massive number of laceration injuries from the breakage of virtually all glass in a wide area.

Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Koriyama in this March 13, 2011 photo. Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files

Getting people out of the blast and radiation contamination zones

A major nuclear event would create widespread panic, as large populations would fear the spread of radioactive materials, so evacuation or sheltering in place must be considered.

For instance, within a few weeks after the Chernobyl accident, more than 116,000 people were evacuated from the most contaminated areas of Ukraine and Belarus. Another 220,000 people were relocated in subsequent years.

The day after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, over 200,000 people were evacuated from areas within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the nuclear plant because of the fear of the potential for radiation exposure.

The evacuation process in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Japan was plagued by misinformation, inadequate and confusing orders and delays in releasing information. There was also trouble evacuating everyone from the affected areas. Elderly and infirm residents were left in areas near radioactive contamination, and many others moved unnecessarily from uncontaminated areas (resulting in many deaths from winter conditions). All of these troubles lead to a loss of public trust in the government.

However, an encouraging fact about nuclear fallout (and not generally known) is that the actual area that will receive dangerous levels of radioactive fallout is actually only a fraction of the total area in a circle around the detonation zone. For instance, in a hypothetical low-yield (10 kiloton) nuclear bomb over Washington, D.C., only limited evacuations are planned. Despite projections of 100,000 fatalities and about 150,000 casualties, the casualty-producing radiation plume would actually be expected to be confined to a relatively small area. (Using a clock-face analogy, the danger area would typically take up only a two-hour slot on the circle around the detonation, dictated by wind: for example, 2-4 o'clock.)

People upwind would not need to take any action, and most of those downwind, in areas receiving relatively small radiation levels (from the point of view of being sufficient to cause radiation-related health issues), would need to seek only “moderate shelter.” That means basically staying indoors for a day or so or until emergency authorities give further instructions.

The long-term effects of radiation exposure

The Radiation Effects Research Foundation, which was established to study the effects of radiation on survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has been tracking the health effects of radiation for decades.

According to the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, about 1,900 excess cancer deaths can be attributed to the atomic bombs, with about 200 cases of leukemia and 1,700 solid cancers. Japan has constructed very detailed cancer screenings after Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima.

But the data on many potential health effects from radiation exposure, such as birth defects, are actually quite different from the prevailing public perception, which has been derived not from validated science education but from entertainment outlets (I teach a university course on the impact of media and popular culture on disaster knowledge).

While it has been shown that intense medical X-ray exposure has accidentally produced birth defects in humans, there is doubt about whether there were birth defects in the descendants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors. Most respected long-term investigations have concluded there are no statistically significant increases in birth defects resulting in atomic bomb survivors.

Looking at data from Chernobyl, where the release of airborne radiation was 100 times as much as Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, there is a lack of definitive data for radiation-induced birth defects.

A wide-ranging WHO study concluded that there were no differences in rates of mental retardation and emotional problems in Chernobyl radiation-exposed children compared to children in control groups. A Harvard review on Chernobyl concluded that there was no substantive proof regarding radiation-induced effects on embryos or fetuses from the accident. Another study looked at the congenital abnormality registers for 16 European regions that received fallout from Chernobyl and concluded that the widespread fear in the population about the possible effects of radiation exposure on the unborn fetus was not justified.

Indeed, the most definitive Chernobyl health impact in terms of numbers was the dramatic increase of elective abortions near and at significant distances from the accident site.

In addition to rapid response and evacuation plans, a Nuclear Global Health Workforce could help health care practitioners, policymakers, administrators and others understand myths and realities of radiation. In the critical time just after a nuclear crisis, this would help officials make evidence-based policy decisions and help people understand the actual risks they face.

What’s the risk of another Hiroshima or Nagasaki?

Today, the risk of a nuclear exchange – and its devastating impact on medicine and public health worldwide – has only escalated compared to previous decades. Nine countries are known to have nuclear weapons, and international relations are increasingly volatile. The U.S. and Russia are heavily investing in the modernization of their nuclear stockpiles, and China, India and Pakistan are rapidly expanding the size and sophistication of their nuclear weapon capabilities. The developing technological sophistication among terrorist groups and the growing global availability and distribution of radioactive materials are also especially worrying.

In recent years, a number of government and private organizations have held meetings (all of which I attended) to devise large-scale medical responses to a nuclear weapon detonation in the U.S. and worldwide. They include the National Academy of Sciences, the National Alliance for Radiation Readiness, National Disaster Life Support Foundation, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, and the Radiation Injury Treatment Network, which includes 74 hospitals nationwide actively preparing to receive radiation-exposed patients.

Despite the gloomy prospects of health outcomes of any large-scale nuclear event common in the minds of many, there are a number of concrete steps the U.S. and other countries can take to prepare. It’s our obligation to respond.

This article is an update to an article originally published in 2015 that includes links to more recent research and updated information on the threat of nuclear incidents. It was updated again in August 2022 to add a reference to nuclear threats related to war in Ukraine.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Cham Dallas, University of Georgia

Read more:


75 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vatican is providing moral guidance on nuclear weapons


A restart of nuclear testing offers little scientific value to the US and would benefit other countries


How American journalists covered the first use of the atomic bomb

Cham Dallas has received funding from: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), through the State of Georgia Division of Public Health (DPH), Georgia Emergency Preparedness (Hospital Preparedness and Ebola Emergency Training) U.S. Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), through the State of Georgia Division of Public Health (DPH), “Georgia Hospital Emergency Preparedness Exercises” U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), “Veterinary Medicine Training for the AMA Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS) Curriculum United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), “FSIS/FERN Food Emergency Management Program Cooperative Agreement” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Center for Mass Destruction Defense, a CDC Specialty Center for Public Health Preparedness” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (HRSA #BTCDP 05-080), “Bioterrorism Training and Curriculum Development Program He is affiliated with: Senator Max Cleland (D-GA); Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA); Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA); Congressman Jody Hice (R-GA)

Slow down to save the planet, says Japan’s rock star philosopher Saito


By AFP
August 1, 2024


Kohei Saito's argument that capitalism is the root cause of climate change and we need to stop chasing growth to save the planet has struck a chord in Japan 

- Copyright AFP Philip FONG

Katie Forster

As Tokyo’s millions put in another day’s work on the coalface of capitalism, celebrity Marxist philosopher Kohei Saito and his friends are clearing rocks from a muddy mountain stream.

Saito’s core argument — that capitalism is the root cause of climate change and we need to stop chasing growth to save the planet — has struck a chord in the world’s fourth-largest economy, especially among young people.

The associate professor at the University of Tokyo has sold half a million copies of his latest book and last month spoke at music festival Fuji Rock, headlined by The Killers.

He has become a face of the global movement for “degrowth” — a word that “kind of freaks people out”, Saito told AFP as he tended to his slice of collectively owned land on the capital’s western outskirts.

“Maybe it’s not the best way to convince people, especially in America,” said the 37-year-old, whose hit title “Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto” came out in English this year.

But using the term is one way to “provoke or challenge” widely accepted economic principles which are leading to environmental ruin, he said.

Saito is not a member of the Japanese Communist Party and he rejects the need for top-down, Soviet-style systems.

Instead he believes in grassroots change led by projects such as Common Forest Japan, his attempt to reconnect with nature and build a democratically run community.

“Unless the left or liberal, progressive side offers a more attractive vision of the future… right-wing populism will take advantage of this crisis,” Saito said.

He is a regular TV news talk show guest, and recently made headlines for saying he was boycotting the Olympics, citing its “excessive commercialism” and “double standards” over Israel’s participation and Russia’s exclusion.

– ‘Degrowth isn’t just frugal living’ –

Saito’s calls for a world where fewer things are produced — reducing carbon emissions — and a break with overconsumption and long working hours have resonated with those disillusioned with the status quo in Japan.

The Japanese version of “Slow Down” came out in 2020, when the pandemic brought many industries to a standstill.

“I didn’t expect this was something people would be interested in, because Marx is outdated” and degrowth could sound like “some kind of negative dictatorship”, he said.

Yet coming of age after Japan’s 1980s boom years, Saito’s generation has seen decades of economic stagnation despite the pursuit of growth, he contends.

So “that kind of discussion has some attraction, especially to young people who don’t fetishise the old kind of Japanese miracle any more”.

New technologies such as electric cars, carbon capture or nuclear fusion cannot solve the climate problem in a system that is always seeking greater profit, Saito said.

Banning private jets and “excessive public advertisements” as well as “introducing a much more radical wealth tax” could be a starting point instead.

“But I also want to emphasise that degrowth is not simply about giving up everything and living in frugality,” said Saito.

It’s about challenging capitalism’s sense of “scarcity” that makes people insecure about the future — a stress they try to overcome with shopping and other intensive consumption which in turn “destroys the planet”.

– ‘No greedy behaviour’ –

On the mountainside, the slim, round-spectacled philosopher, his wife and two children, and around 20 others climbed up the stream’s banks, home to worms and wild mushrooms.

They moved stones and branches to allow the water to flow more easily, trying to reduce the risk of landslides.

Although his ideas could sound far-fetched to minds “almost dominated by the logic of capital”, Saito says the forest project exemplifies a society where there is “no greedy behaviour — because it doesn’t make sense”.

Growing up in Tokyo, Saito wasn’t much of a hiker and his parents weren’t political.

He discovered socialist thinkers like Noam Chomsky as a teenager interested in his “criticism of American imperialism”. Years later, Japan’s 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster brought home “the unsustainable relationship between humans and nature”.

While pursuing his PhD in Berlin, Saito investigated Marx’s take on ecology in the German’s notebooks from his later years.

The idea of degrowth dates back to the 1970s, but has gained traction recently with a slew of new books including “Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World” by economic anthropologist Jason Hickel.

Saito makes clear in “Slow Down” that for now his ideas only apply to the world’s rich countries, which are disproportionately responsible for climate change.

Despite being a keen observer of local politics, as a philosopher, he says tricky decisions, like how much new infrastructure is too much, are not his to make.

“I’m not a good politician. Because politics is about compromise, right?”

Re

FREE PAUL WATSON

Japan asks Denmark to extradite anti-whaling activist Paul Watson

Denmark announced Thursday that it has received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant. Watson, the 73-year-old founder of Sea Shepherd, is facing charges related to a 2010 confrontation with Japanese whaling ships, raising concerns over his potential extradition and the motivations behind Japan's request.


Issued on: 01/08/2024 - 

File photo of NGO Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder, Paul Watson of Canada, posing on board of the "Brigitte Bardot", a Sea Shepherd multihull moored in Paris, on January 15, 2015. 

© Loic Venance, AFP

By:NEWS WIRES

Denmark's justice ministry said Thursday that it had received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was detained in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant.

Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd activist group, was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, over a 2010 altercation with Japanese whaling ships.

Watson, who featured in the reality TV series "Whale Wars", founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), and is known for direct action tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.

"The Ministry of Justice received a formal extradition request regarding Paul Watson from the Japanese authorities yesterday," the ministry told AFP in an email.

It said it would forward the case to Greenland police, "unless the ministry on the present basis finds grounds to reject the extradition request beforehand".

If the case is forwarded to Greenland police, they will investigate "whether there is basis for extradition", including whether it is in accordance with the extradition act applicable to Greenland, the ministry said.

But the ultimate decision on Watson's extradition will be made by Denmark's justice ministry, it added.

A custody hearing will be held in Greenland on August 15, pending a Danish decision on the extradition request.

Read more  Greenland arrests anti-whaling activist and Greenpeace co-founder Paul Watson

'Personal vendetta'

Watson was arrested after arriving in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, when the ship John Paul DeJoria docked to refuel.

The vessel was on its way to "intercept" a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.

One of the activist's lawyers, Francois Zimeray, said he was "not surprised" by the extradition request.

"Japan has a personal vendetta against Paul Watson, and this so-called offence is the pretext for revenge against a man who defied and therefore humiliated them," Zimeray told AFP.

He said an extradition to Japan would be a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, since "the country does not respect international standards on fair trials and prisons."

Watson was arrested on the basis of an Interpol "Red Notice" issued in 2012, when Japan accused him of causing damage and injury to one of its whaling ships in the Antarctic two years earlier.

He faces a charge of causing injury, which can carry up to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($3,300).

He also faces a charge of forcible obstruction of business, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison or a fine up to 500,000 yen.

Japan is one of only three countries in the world to permit commercial whaling, along with Iceland and Norway.

'No regrets'

Watson's wife on Thursday appealed to Denmark's King Frederik X and Queen Mary to secure his release.

"Please, Denmark, release Paul!" Yana Watson posted on Facebook, posting pictures of him with their two young sons.

"He has diabetes Type 1. Japanese prison will be lethal for him," she said.

Earlier this week, the head of the French branch of Sea Shepherd said Watson did not regret his actions despite the risk of extradition.

"Paul is doing well, he is in good spirits. He has no regrets," Lamya Essemlali said in a statement after visiting Watson in custody on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron's office has asked Danish authorities not to extradite Watson, who has lived in France for the past year.

Read moreFrance urges against anti-whaling activist Watson's extradition to Japan

A French online petition urging Macron to demand Watson's liberation has garnered more than 675,000 signatures, while another Sea Shepherd France petition urging Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen not to extradite Watson had almost 27,000 signatures as of Thursday.

Famed environmentalist and primatologist Jane Goodall has also called for his release, saying he was "simply taking action to try to prevent the inhumane practice of killing whales, which most countries have banned decades ago".

(AFP)

Paul Watson Nabbed in Greenland

by Don Kimball

 August 1, 2024
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Photo taken by Don Kimball outside the German Consulate in NYC in 2011 demanding Captain Watson’s release.

Captain Paul Watson, a co-founder of Greenpeace and the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), has been in jail in Nuuk, Greenland for over a week, after federal police from Copenhagen, Denmark boarded his vessel, the John Paul Dejoria, while it attempted to dock and refuel enroute to the Northwest Passage. Its mission was to intercept the new long-range Japanese whaler Kanjei Maru. Sailing under the flag of St. Kitts, Watson, an American-Canadian Citizen, and his crew of 25 volunteers were swarmed by 14 Danish SWAT team officers as they took the captain away in handcuffs on an arrest warrant from the Japanese government.

Watson, an environmental and animal rights icon and star of the Animal Planet TV series “Whale Wars”, speaking on Monday, July 29 from his cellblock in Nuuk where he is being held without bail, said there are no problems in the cellblock that he shares with 9 other prisoners. Watson noted that eight, of them were Inuit, the indigenous peoples who are the majority of the population of Greenland, and have been inhabiting the island since 2000 BCE. When questioned why Japan would go to such lengths to have him arrested and detained he called the charges, “politically motivated”, and that, “he embarrassed Japan, and this is their revenge.”

For years, under Watson’s iron hand and steel will, the SSCS fleet of converted cargo ships and trawlers, equipped with a helicopter, harassed illegal Japanese whaleling operations in the Antarctic Ocean. Watson said the whalers harpooned as many as 6,500 whales for what the Japanese call “scientific experiments”. Watson has lawyers working his case from all over the world, including one from France where he lives (in a boat of course) on the Seine River with his wife and child. Watson lamented that he would have had a first class seat for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, if it hadn’t been for Danish cooperation is apprehending him on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to trespass on a Japanese whaler, or something akin to elevated-aggravated teasing. He also said that additional frivolous charges may be forthcoming from the scary samurai’s of the sea.

Watson believes that Japan wants to “shut him up”, and not just about their illegal whaling operations, but for his outspoken criticism about the continued failures by the Japanese government and the corporation TEPCO after the nuclear disaster there in 2011. Clean-up costs have already surpassed $200 billion according to the National Institute of Health’s, National Library of Medicine and National Center for Biotechnology Information. TEPCO is now intentionally dumping water used for cooling the reactors and laced with Tritium into the Pacific, some 13 after the meltdown of the three reactors at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant. Paul said, similar to fears Julian Assange had of being extradited from England to the US, for his courageous but sometimes controversial actions, that if he is taken to Japan, “he may never see home again.”

Numerous calls to the Danish consulate in Washington, DC, Chicago, Il, NYC and Los Angeles, CA inquiring as to when Denmark would release Captain Watson on bail, went unanswered. Watson, because of his non-compromising position against whale hunting, has been in this precarious position before. Held in Germany in 2011, on similar charges of little merit, he escaped German custody and spent six months in exile avoiding apprehension.

Watson has France’s President Emmanuel Macron, movie star Bridget Bardot and world renowned Ethologist Jane Goodall calling for his release. It was France’s Secret Service that sank Greenpeace’s anti-nuclear sailboat, the, Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, NZ in 1985 when they placed a bomb on board, killing one of the crew.

Watson was “forced out” of the SSCS in 2022, but still has ties with the French and Brazil chapters. Now operated by property mangers from Florida, Watson said the substantial donation to the SSCS from life-long animal activist, philanthrope and beloved TV personality, the late Bob Barker, is a big point of contention. He called what happened, “a hostile takeover”, of the SSCS. He now has his own foundation, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, calling themselves, “Neptune’s Pirates”.

Paul said there will be a hearing by the High Court of Greenland on August 15th to determine if the case would proceed, and says that if it does he could still appeal the ruling in Denmark itself. He asks his supporters to put pressure on the Danish government to release him immediately as his actions to defend whales from being hunted down by Japanese whalers is wholly justified as it has been illegal to hunt whales since the International Whaling Commission ruling banned it in 1986.