Another Nuclear Reactor in Japan Leaking Radioactive Water

Takahama nuclear power plant west of Tokyo leaks radioactive water

A pressurized water reactor (PWR) at Japan’s Takahama nuclear power plant, located in Fukui Prefecture, about 120km northwest of Osaka metropolitan area (pop: ~ 19 million) and 380km west of Tokyo, is leaking radioactive water.

The reactor would have been the fourth resume operation after the the nationwide shutdown of nuclear power stations that followed the triple  meltdown at Fukushima in March 2011.

At least 34 liters of radioactive water (about 64,000 becquerels of radioactivity) have escaped Takahama’s reactor No. 4, said the plant operator, Kansai Electric Power.

Unit 3 was restarted January 29, 2016, despite strong objections by various rights groups. “Restart of the Takahama plant is a human rights injustice toward children and those with handicaps,” said Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of the antinuclear group Green Action.

“There is no evacuation plan in place for the tens of thousands of people with special needs — inpatients and outpatients at hospitals and various facilities, those in day care, and those with handicaps living at home. When others can flee, there are no vehicles to transport these people nor medical care prepared at the evacuation site.”

[More than 180,000 people live in 12 towns and cities within 30km radius of the leaky reactor, in Fukui, Kyoto and Shiga prefectures.]

The government introduced additional “safety measures” soon after the Fukushima disasters; however, reactors that didn’t meet the new safety standards were somehow made exempt from the regulation, and allowed to restart.

In April 2015, the Fukui District Court overturned an earlier decision approving the restart the of Takahama reactors 3 and 4 and ordered them to remain offline due to “safety concerns.” The court ruled that guidelines issued by Japan’s governmental Nuclear Regulation Authority.

“The new regulations are not reasonable, therefore there is no need to study whether the Takahama plant satisfies them. There is little rational basis for saying that an earthquake with a magnitude that exceeds the safety standard will not occur. It is an optimistic view,” ruled the local judge.

The court also rejected an appeal by Kansai Electric Company in May, 2015.

Map of Japan’s Nuclear Power Plants. Click image to enlarge.

Unsurprisingly, influential members of Japan’s “fifth Column”, which support the Abe government and the nuclear mafia, namely a former Tokyo high court judge and current Chou Law School Professor Jun Masuda, as well as Japan’s newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, heavily criticized the presiding Judge Hideaki Higuchi.

Masuda said: “It seems the judge has already had the idea of demanding absolute safety from the beginning. Judges are not experts on nuclear power plants, so it is imperative that they humbly pay attention to scientific knowledge. I doubt the presiding judge took that into consideration.”

The reactionary newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun pinioned: “We have no choice but to call it an irrational decision,” and, “Such a stance seeking zero risk is unrealistic.”

Abe’s government overrode the judge’s ruling and ordered the reactors’ restart.

It All Happens in a Flash

“Safety-related action” automatically shuts down South Korea’s nuclear reactor

The auto shutdown at the 587-megawatt Kori No. 1 reactor occurred on Thursday raising the tally of nuclear reactors closed to six and increasing the probability of power blackouts this winter, Reuters reported.

The reactor was commissioned in 1978, and had recently returned online after a 180-day overhaul, the report said.

South Korea’s peak demand could exceed 81,000 MW this winter, some 5,000 MW short of total supply capacity, according to industry data.

Of the other 5  nuclear reactors currently offline, three are shut due to fake safety certificates,  a fourth awaiting a license extension beyond its 30-year life span, and a fifth is shut down for maintenance until 2014.

The Kori Nuclear Power Plant is located in Gori, near Busan (metro population: 8.2 million), South Korea’s second largest metropolis after Seoul. It is owned and operated by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a subsidiary of KEPCO.

Kori Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1. Source: KNHP [KHNP is a subsidiary of  Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), accounting for about 40% of South Korea’s electric power supply, both nuclear and hydro.

Fake Parts, Bogus Cetificates

South Korean nuclear regulators discovered about a thousand more fake parts supplied for their nuclear plants with bogus quality certificates in 2012.

• In November 2012, eight companies were found to have submitted 60 fake  certificates that covered more than 7,000 parts mostly used in the two reactors that were reportedly shut.

• S. Korean government is planning an additional 11 nuclear reactors, to add to its existing fleet of 23.

• About 12,500 tons of nuclear waste filled more than 70 percent of the country’s  storage capacity at reactor sites, as of June 2012.

Related Links

• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster – by Country
• Nuclear Power

• S. Korea: Nuclear Waste Storage Facility Reaching Full Capacity Posted on November 20, 2012
• Japan Underestimating Nuclear Fallout Risks: U.N. Posted on November 27, 2012

TEPCO Continues to Contaminate the World

What would it take for the Asian countries most at risk from Fukushima nuclear disaster to team up and declare the Japaneses government ‘Legally Incompetent,’ on grounds of their inability to deal with an ongoing major nuclear disaster that would likely pose an existential threat to other nations in the region and beyond, and then appoint an international team of guardians and conservators to oversee the day-to-day running of the country?

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Another tank leaking toxic water at Fukushima nuclear plant: Operator

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of Japan’s nuked Fukushima nuclear power plant, said another tank holding highly radioactive coolant is leaking, and that some of the toxic liquid likely entered the Pacific Ocean.

The leaked fluid contained 200,000 becquerels per liter of beta-emitting radioactive isotopes including strontium 90, according to the company. The legal limit for strontium 90 is reportedly 30 becquerels per liter.

In August, at least 300 tons of highly toxic water escaped from one of the hastily built holding tanks. TEPCO has been pumping hundreds of tons of water a day to keep the reactors cool. The tanks are used to store the highly toxic wastewater.

On October 1,  TEPCO admitted it had found yet another leak at the plant, which caused 4 tons of radioactive water to enter the sea.

The criminally negligent government of Japan and TEPCO apparently won’t rest until the entire region, the country, the sea and all of its content, is contaminated with radiation.

This is now a matter of urgent global security, but the government in Japan has not taken any steps to address the worsening disaster.

Japan’s False Bravado

Hubris can only stem from ignorance, and it usually results in major downfalls and death. And no one could possibly know this better than the Japanese.

Yoshinoya Holdings, a Japanese fast-food chain, announced yesterday plans to grow rice and vegetables on a farm in Shirakawa, located less than 100 km (60 miles) from the nuked Fukushima power plant.

Up to quarter of a million people living nearest to Fukushima nuke plant were ordered to move out after the March 2011 mega earthquake and tsunami caused triple reactor meltdowns, contaminating the ground, water air and everything.

The government reluctantly established a 20-km compulsory evacuation zone and various voluntary evacuation zones have since been set us from site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

FIRE-EARTH experts have advised all of their colleagues and friends who live anywhere in Japan to obtain a Geiger counter and to NOT leave home without it.

What would it take for the Asian countries most at risk from Fukushima nuclear disaster to team up and declare the Japaneses government ‘Legally Incompetent,’ on grounds of their inability to deal with an ongoing major nuclear disaster that would likely pose an existential threat to other nations in the region and beyond, and then appoint an international team of guardians and conservators to oversee the day-to-day running of the country?

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NPS Prompt Report

• Overflow of Water from the Dike of H8-South Area at Fukushima Daiichi NPS Oct 2, 2013

• Overflow of Water from the Notch Tank Which Locates at the East of the H5 Area Tank and Stores Water inside the Dike at Fukushima Daiichi NPS (Follow-up Information) Oct 1, 2013