このような事実が明らかになる中で、朝日新聞は、関西電力が原発再稼働に前のめりになっているという報道をしているが、日本中いつどこでどのような大きな地震があってもおかしくないといわれているようなこの時代に、利権のために正常な判断力を持てなくなってしまったごくごく少数の立地自治体の意見や、総理や原発担当相など、少し前に言ったことの責任すらとらない無責任な政治家の判断で、再稼働が決定されるなどというようなことは断じてあってはならないことである。
Does anyone care ? この期に及んでも、原子力村に取り込まれた政府関係者がcareするのは、自分たちの利権であって、人の命や安全、放射能による環境汚染の甚大さではない。週刊朝日によれば、フクイチの安全宣言は、原発作業員の危険手当を支払わなくてもよくするために、行われた措置ではないかとさえいう。
以下WSJの記事と京大小出助教のラジオ対談の一部を転載する。
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/02/15/thermometers-a-hot-topic-at-fukushima-daiichi/
FEBRUARY 15, 2012, 10:59 AM JST
Thermometers a Hot Topic at Fukushima Daiichi
By Phred Dvorak
Fukushima Daiichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Tuesday said that one of the thermometers attached to its No. 2 reactor was almost certainly on the blink.
- European Pressphoto Agency
- Tepco workers set up temporary pressure gauges in the No. 2 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in June.
The news prompted a collective sigh of relief that the steadily rising temperatures the thermometer had been logging weren’t a sign that the damaged reactor was once more spinning out of control.
But the malfunctioning thermometer is also the latest troubling reminder of how fragile Tepco’s grip on the stricken nuclear plant is.
The antics of that thermometer -– one of six key gauges that tell the outside world how hot the fuel in the crippled No. 2 unit likely is — have transfixed Fukushima Daiichi watchers this month. The No. 2 reactor is one of those whose fuel rods are thought to have melted during the March accident at the nuclear plant.
In December, Tepco said that all the reactors had cooled to well below 100 degrees centigrade, meaning they were no longer releasing radiation or in danger of restarting a nuclear reaction. But in early February, Tepco said one of No. 2’s thermometers was registering steadily rising temperatures — from around 50 degrees C on Feb. 1 to around 70 C five days later.
By Sunday, Feb. 12, Tepco said the temperature was heading up toward 90 C, despite weeks of cooling counter-measures like an increase in the amount of water pumped into the reactor, and the injection of boric acid -– a chemical that helps prevent a nuclear reaction from occurring.
By Tuesday, the thermometer reading was hovering around 250 C – even as the two others in closest proximity were logging a steady 30 C. Tepco said that discrepancy, as well as the lack of other signs of a nuclear reaction such as an increase in steam or radiation levels, probably meant a broken wire somewhere.
Still, a faulty thermometer at No. 2 raises troubling questions. With all the punishment Fukushima Daiichi’s equipment has gone through –- nuclear meltdowns and explosions, not to mention the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami that started everything off – it’s no wonder things are breaking down.
But radiation levels are still so high around many of the reactors that the equipment can barely be checked, let alone replaced. That’s the case with the thermometer in question, which is inside the highly radioactive containment vessel of No. 2.
Tepco says it usually checks up on, and adjusts, such gauges every 13 months at routine inspections. But those won’t be possible at Fukushima Daiichi, where experts expect it’ll take six years just to plug leaks in the reactor buildings and 10 years before people can start the process of removing melted fuel.
So what happens in the mean time if more of the thermometers at No. 2 -– and other damaged reactors –- break down? And what about other gear Tepco is relying on to judge the safety and stability of the plant?
Tepco says it should be able to figure out No. 2’s temperature by estimations from readings at all the thermometers there – including 30 others in more peripheral positions. And it’s hard at work thinking up alternate ways of figuring out just what’s going on inside the reactors.
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http://hiroakikoide.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/tanemaki-2012feb13/
2月13日 2号機300℃超 圧力容器底の温度計「「そうであればどこかで壊れた。（他の温度計もアテにしては）もちろんいけない」」小出裕章（MBS）