政府は原発から半径２０キロ圏内の警戒区域と、年間２０ミリシーベルト以上の計画的非難区域を新たに３つに分け、放射線量が年間２０ミリシーベルト未満の地域を、解除準備区域と称して、除染して近く住民を呼び戻し、多額の国税を投じて復興するという。
「直ちに健康への被害はない」とういうことだろうが、気休めにもならないような安全宣言を行うのではなく、原発担当相を初め、原発関連事業に関わってきた経産官僚、東電の原子力関係者や御用学者は、皆、家族ぐるみで、この準備区域に率先して土地を買い、転居して、廃炉に至るまでの陣頭指揮をとるべきである。 国民の原発政策に対する疑念や不信感は、それほど増大しているということを政府はしっかりと認識すべきである。
もしDeceptionという言葉にいささかなりとも異議があるのなら、日本政府は直ちにＮＹＴや、CNNに対して強く抗議すべきであるし、日本のメディア各社は、毒にも薬にもならない、どうでもいいようなニュースを報じているべき事態ではあるまい。それこそ、国を代表する首相が全国民を欺いていると全世界に向かって報じられているのだから。。
http://enenews.com/deception-nyt-experts-seriously-doubt-govt-fukushima-claims-fear-japan-only-trying-to-appease-growing-public-anger
ENERGY NEWS
Deception? NYT: Experts seriously doubt gov’t Fukushima control claims — Fear Japan only trying to “appease growing public anger”
Cold Shutdown
- Gov’t expected to declare soon it has finally regained control of [...] reactors
- Announcement facing serious doubts from experts
- Many experts fear:
- 1) Gov’t is declaring victory only to appease growing public anger over the accident
- 2) It may deflect attention from remaining threats to the reactors’ safety
- Some experts [...] say proclaiming a cold shutdown may actually be deceptive, suggesting [...] plant is closer to getting cleaned up than it actually is
- Experts point out, damaged fuel cores have yet to be removed from plants that suffered meltdowns decades ago
- Soviet officials simply entombed the damaged reactor in a concrete sarcophagus after the explosion [at Chernobyl]
Quake
- A large aftershock [...] could knock out the jury-rigged new cooling system
- [Large aftershock] is considered a strong possibility by many seismologists
- Kudo and other experts said their biggest fear was that another earthquake or tsunami could knock out Tepco’s makeshift cooling system
- They noted that it was not built to earthquake safety standards
- Vulnerable equipment [is] connected to reactors by more than a mile and a half of rubber hoses
- “All it would take is one more earthquake or tsunami to set Fukushima Daiichi back to square one [...] Can we really call this precarious situation a cold shutdown?” -Kudo
NEWS ANALYSIS
Japan May Declare Control of Reactors, Over Serious Doubts
Tepco Via Jiji Press/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Workers sprayed water in March to cool the spent nuclear fuel in a reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: December 14, 2011
TOKYO — Nine months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing a meltdown at three units, the Tokyo government is expected to declare soon that it has finally regained control of the plant’s overheating reactors. Related
More Radioactive Water Leaks at Japanese Plant (December 5, 2011)
Times Topic: Japan — Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis (2011)
Reuters
Leakage from an evaporation condensation apparatus inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.But even before it has been made, the announcement is facing serious doubts from experts.On Friday, a disaster-response task force headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will vote on whether to announce that the plant’s three damaged reactors have been put into the equivalent of a “cold shutdown,” a technical term normally used to describe intact reactors with fuel cores that are in a safe and stable condition. Experts say that if it does announce a shutdown, as many expect, it will simply reflect the government’s effort to fulfill a pledge to restore the plant’s cooling system by year’s end and, according to some experts, not the true situation.If the task force declares a cold shutdown, the next step will be moving the spent fuel rods in nearby cooling pools to more secure storage, and eventually opening the reactors themselves.However, many experts fear that the government is declaring victory only to appease growing public anger over the accident, and that it may deflect attention from remaining threats to the reactors’ safety. One of those — a large aftershock to the magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11, which could knock out the jury-rigged new cooling system that the plant’s operator hastily built after the accident — is considered a strong possibility by many seismologists.They also said the term cold shutdown might give an exaggerated impression of stability to severely damaged reactors with fuel cores that have not only melted down, but melted through the inner containment vessels and bored into the floor of their concrete outer containment structures.“The government wants to reassure the people that everything is under control, and do this by the end of this year,” said Kazuhiko Kudo, a professor of nuclear engineering atKyushu University. “But what I want to know is, are they really ready to say this?”Perhaps to give itself some wiggle room, the government is expected to use vague terminology, announcing that the three damaged reactors are in a “state of cold shutdown.” Experts say that in real terms, this will amount to a claim that the reactors’ temperatures can now be kept safely below the boiling point of water, and that their melted cores are no longer at risk of resuming the atomic chain reaction that could allow them to again heat up uncontrollably.And indeed, experts credit the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, with making progress in regaining control of the damaged reactors. They say the plant’s makeshift new cooling system, built with the help of American, French and Japanese companies, has managed to cool the reactors’ cores, including the molten fuel attached to the outer containment vessels.Experts also say a new shedlike structure built over the heavily damaged Unit 1 reactor building has helped cap the plant’s radiation leaks into the atmosphere. The building was one of three reactor buildings destroyed in hydrogen explosions in March that scattered dangerous particles over a wide swath of northeastern Japan.Still, experts say the term is usually reserved for healthy reactors, to indicate that they are safe enough that their containment vessels can be opened up and their fuel rods taken out. But they warn it may take far longer than even the government’s projected three years to begin cleaning up the melted fuel in Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged reactors. This has led some experts to say that proclaiming a cold shutdown may actually be deceptive, suggesting the Fukushima plant is closer to getting cleaned up than it actually is.“Claiming a cold shutdown does not have much meaning for damaged reactors like those at Fukushima Daiichi,” said Noboru Nakao, a nuclear engineering consultant atInternational Access Corporation.In fact, experts point out, damaged fuel cores have yet to be removed from plants that suffered meltdowns decades ago. In the case of Chernobyl, Soviet officials simply entombed the damaged reactor in a concrete sarcophagus after the explosion there in 1986. Some experts said talk of a cold shutdown deflected attention from the more pressing problem of further releases of radioactive contamination into the environment. In particular, they said there was still a danger to the nearby Pacific Ocean from the 90,000 tons of contaminated water that sit in the basements of the shattered reactor buildings, or are stored in fields of silver tanks on the plant’s grounds.“At this point, I would be more worried about the contamination than what’s happening inside the reactors,” said Murray E. Jennex, an expert on nuclear containment at San Diego State University.Mr. Jennex said he believed the government’s claim that the reactors themselves were now stable, and particularly that the resumption of the heat-producing chain reaction called fission was no longer possible. While the discovery last month of the chemical xenon, a byproduct of fission, in one of Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors briefly raised alarms that a chain reaction had restarted, Mr. Jennex said enough of the radioactive fuel had decayed since the accident in March to make that unlikely.Other experts disagreed. Kyushu University’s Mr. Kudo said that the restart of fission, a phenomenon known as recriticality, could not be ruled out until the reactors could be opened, allowing for an examination of the melted fuel. But he and other experts said their biggest fear was that another earthquake or tsunami could knock out Tepco’s makeshift cooling system. They noted that it was not built to earthquake safety standards, and relied on water purifiers and other vulnerable equipment connected to the reactors by more than a mile and a half of rubber hoses.“All it would take is one more earthquake or tsunami to set Fukushima Daiichi back to square one,” Mr. Kudo said. “Can we really call this precarious situation a cold shutdown?”
TOKYO — Nine months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing a meltdown at three units, the Tokyo government is expected to declare soon that it has finally regained control of the plant’s overheating reactors.
Related
More Radioactive Water Leaks at Japanese Plant (December 5, 2011)
Times Topic: Japan — Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis (2011)
Reuters
Leakage from an evaporation condensation apparatus inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
But even before it has been made, the announcement is facing serious doubts from experts.
On Friday, a disaster-response task force headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will vote on whether to announce that the plant’s three damaged reactors have been put into the equivalent of a “cold shutdown,” a technical term normally used to describe intact reactors with fuel cores that are in a safe and stable condition. Experts say that if it does announce a shutdown, as many expect, it will simply reflect the government’s effort to fulfill a pledge to restore the plant’s cooling system by year’s end and, according to some experts, not the true situation.
If the task force declares a cold shutdown, the next step will be moving the spent fuel rods in nearby cooling pools to more secure storage, and eventually opening the reactors themselves.
However, many experts fear that the government is declaring victory only to appease growing public anger over the accident, and that it may deflect attention from remaining threats to the reactors’ safety. One of those — a large aftershock to the magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11, which could knock out the jury-rigged new cooling system that the plant’s operator hastily built after the accident — is considered a strong possibility by many seismologists.
They also said the term cold shutdown might give an exaggerated impression of stability to severely damaged reactors with fuel cores that have not only melted down, but melted through the inner containment vessels and bored into the floor of their concrete outer containment structures.
“The government wants to reassure the people that everything is under control, and do this by the end of this year,” said Kazuhiko Kudo, a professor of nuclear engineering atKyushu University. “But what I want to know is, are they really ready to say this?”
Perhaps to give itself some wiggle room, the government is expected to use vague terminology, announcing that the three damaged reactors are in a “state of cold shutdown.” Experts say that in real terms, this will amount to a claim that the reactors’ temperatures can now be kept safely below the boiling point of water, and that their melted cores are no longer at risk of resuming the atomic chain reaction that could allow them to again heat up uncontrollably.
And indeed, experts credit the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, with making progress in regaining control of the damaged reactors. They say the plant’s makeshift new cooling system, built with the help of American, French and Japanese companies, has managed to cool the reactors’ cores, including the molten fuel attached to the outer containment vessels.
Experts also say a new shedlike structure built over the heavily damaged Unit 1 reactor building has helped cap the plant’s radiation leaks into the atmosphere. The building was one of three reactor buildings destroyed in hydrogen explosions in March that scattered dangerous particles over a wide swath of northeastern Japan.
Still, experts say the term is usually reserved for healthy reactors, to indicate that they are safe enough that their containment vessels can be opened up and their fuel rods taken out. But they warn it may take far longer than even the government’s projected three years to begin cleaning up the melted fuel in Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged reactors. This has led some experts to say that proclaiming a cold shutdown may actually be deceptive, suggesting the Fukushima plant is closer to getting cleaned up than it actually is.
“Claiming a cold shutdown does not have much meaning for damaged reactors like those at Fukushima Daiichi,” said Noboru Nakao, a nuclear engineering consultant atInternational Access Corporation.
In fact, experts point out, damaged fuel cores have yet to be removed from plants that suffered meltdowns decades ago. In the case of Chernobyl, Soviet officials simply entombed the damaged reactor in a concrete sarcophagus after the explosion there in 1986. Some experts said talk of a cold shutdown deflected attention from the more pressing problem of further releases of radioactive contamination into the environment. In particular, they said there was still a danger to the nearby Pacific Ocean from the 90,000 tons of contaminated water that sit in the basements of the shattered reactor buildings, or are stored in fields of silver tanks on the plant’s grounds.
“At this point, I would be more worried about the contamination than what’s happening inside the reactors,” said Murray E. Jennex, an expert on nuclear containment at San Diego State University.
Mr. Jennex said he believed the government’s claim that the reactors themselves were now stable, and particularly that the resumption of the heat-producing chain reaction called fission was no longer possible. While the discovery last month of the chemical xenon, a byproduct of fission, in one of Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors briefly raised alarms that a chain reaction had restarted, Mr. Jennex said enough of the radioactive fuel had decayed since the accident in March to make that unlikely.
Other experts disagreed. Kyushu University’s Mr. Kudo said that the restart of fission, a phenomenon known as recriticality, could not be ruled out until the reactors could be opened, allowing for an examination of the melted fuel. But he and other experts said their biggest fear was that another earthquake or tsunami could knock out Tepco’s makeshift cooling system. They noted that it was not built to earthquake safety standards, and relied on water purifiers and other vulnerable equipment connected to the reactors by more than a mile and a half of rubber hoses.
“All it would take is one more earthquake or tsunami to set Fukushima Daiichi back to square one,” Mr. Kudo said. “Can we really call this precarious situation a cold shutdown?”
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20111216/t10014696851000.html
海外メディア 冷温停止を疑問視
12月16日 17時50分
野田総理大臣が、「原子炉は『冷温停止状態』に達した」と述べ、事故の収束に向けた工程表の「ステップ２」を完了したことを宣言したことについて、海外のメディアは宣言の信ぴょう性を疑問視する見方を伝えています。
このうち、アメリカの新聞「ニューヨークタイムズ」は電子版で、「専門家は『冷温停止状態』の宣言を強く疑問視している」としたうえで、「年内にステップ２を達成するという公約を果たすための、現実を無視した宣言であり、原子炉の安全性への脅威から目をそらせることがねらいだ」とする専門家の見方を伝えています。また、アメリカのＣＮＮテレビは、「冷温停止は象徴的な節目ではあるが、放射性物質の除染など事故の完全な収束には１０年以上かかる可能性があり、状況が大きく変化するわけではないとの指摘もある。日本政府や東京電力は、何とか国民をなだめようとしているが、国民の間には強い怒りや批判の声が渦巻いている」と伝えています。このほか、中国国営、新華社通信の英語版は、複数の専門家の話として、「損傷した原子炉内の温度を正確に測定することはできず、原子炉がどれほど安定した状態にあるかを断定することはできない」としたうえで、「世界の人々に間違った印象を与えるおそれがあり、日本政府はステップ２を年内に達成するということに固執しすぎるべきではない」と伝えています。
