The mayor of Tsuruga City in Fukui Prefecture went to China to exchange ideas with his pro-nuke Chinese counterpart in Haiyan County in Chekiang (or Zhejiang) Province in China. Tsuruga is home to the fast breeder Monju, and Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant, the 2nd oldest nuclear power plant in Japan.
Haiyan County's nuclear power plant, Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, puts Fukushima I Nuke Plant (for that matter, any of the nuclear reactors anywhere) to shame with 6 operational reactors, 4 under construction, and 1 planned, albeit the size of the reactors are not large.
Kyodo News (4/23/2012):
敦賀市長ら原発推進で意見交換 中国浙江省で
Mayor of Tsuruga City exchange views on promoting nuclear power with officials in Chekiang Province in China
【海塩共同】福井県敦賀市の河瀬一治市長は２３日、中国の原発立地県である浙江省海塩県で地元当局者らと会談した。東京電力福島第１原発の事故の教訓を生かしつつ、原発を推進して地域活性化につなげるべきだとの認識で一致した。
Kazuharu Kawase, Mayor of Tsuruga CIty in Fukui Prefecture, met with the local officials in Haiyan County in Chekiang Province in China on April 23. The county has a nuclear power plant. They all agreed that nuclear power plants should be promoted to revitalize the local economy, while learning the lessons from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.
河瀬市長は「日本では反原子力の動きが活発化し冷静な議論ができない雰囲気さえある」と指摘。「日本のエネルギー自給率が低いことも考える必要がある」「（原発は）雇用確保と地域活性化につながっている」などと述べ、原発推進の立場を強調した。
Mayor Kawase pointed out that the anti-nuclear faction has become quite active in Japan, and the atmosphere is such that cool-headed discussion may not be possible. He emphasized his stance as pro-nuclear by saying "We have to take into consideration the low energy self-sufficiency in Japan", and "Nuclear power plants create jobs and revitalize the local economy".
その上で、原発分野の人材育成などに共同で取り組むため、海塩県と協定を結びたいと提案した。
The major then proposed an agreement with Haiyan County to jointly develop human resources in the nuclear power sector.
Lessons learned by the mayors in Fukushima where Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is located (Futaba, Okuma) are clearly not learned by the mayor of Tsuruga, that the once-in-10-million-years accident did happen and wiped out their "jobs and local economy" completely. I guess the Tsuruga mayor is counting on the normal distribution, that a "5-sigma" event won't happen in his lifetime.
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3 comments:
The residents, businesses and local governments of cities like Tsuruga, who received significant economic benefits from the nuclear industry, should be made to pay a disproportionate share of the Fukushima cleanup and victim compensation claims.
Their collaboration with the enemy enabled the nuclear nightmare the world now faces. They should be made to pay back from their ill-got gains.
The officials of these communities should certainly not be traveling overseas promoting nuclear energy. Their money belongs at home, to pay compensation to victims.
Where I ask is the contrition? If anything, Kawase and his kind should be traveling to Fukushima and humbly apologizing to the vicitms whose lives he has helped destroy.
Yet instead he goes to China, a country upwind of Japan, to encourage the Chinese to expand their investment in the technology of death and destruction.
Does this sound like a man with a conscience?
Another one will happen somewhere in 12 to 15 years, if we are lucky, and completely wipe out all economy in that area.
Nuclear power is false economy.
Very funny.
By the way, Ex SKF, have you been able to find any data on radioactivity level of effluent from debris incineration in Tokyo etc.?
In case you did not see this:
http://japanfocus.org/events/view/136
Japan's Nightmare Fight Against Radiation in the Wake of the 3.11 Meltdown Koide Hiroaki, a researcher at Kyoto University's Nuclear Reactor Experiment Research Center, speaks with Watanabe Taeko
Apr. 01, 2012
—The fight against radiation and contamination has entered a second year and new issues are emerging. First I would like to ask about plans to widely disperse contaminated rubble, which are troubling the nation.
As far as radioactivity is concerned, the fundamental rule is to make it compact and seal it off, not dilute and spread it. Scattering rubble all over the country violates the rule. National policy at present consists of two pillars. One is for local governments throughout the country to burn contaminated rubble in incinerators. The other is for each local government to dispose of the ashes as it wishes. Both are wrong.
Although it is not good to scatter the rubble . . .
Radiation should not be handled except at facilities designed for that purpose. It should not be burned in an ordinary incinerator. If you do that, radioactive matter will disperse. If radioactive contaminated rubble has to be burnt throughout the country, then the first thing that has to be done is to check whether the facilities have the capacity to prevent radiation from scattering. If it seems that radiation may scatter, then equipment must be added to prevent it. Unless that is done, burning should not take place.
—Do you mean adding a filter?
Yes. Most incinerators are equipped with a bag filter. If that is correctly used, then I think that cesium can be processed. However, it is necessary to check whether radiation can, in fact, be captured by a filter. If a bagged filter doesn't work, then it is necessary to add a ceramic or high performance filter to contain radiation.
Next, one should never allow each local government to bury the ashes. My proposal is to return the ashes to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In the past, ashes following a meltdown have been used as material for making concrete. At Fukushima Daiichi, a concrete sarcophagus may be constructed over the power plants. Also, it will be necessary to build dams underground to prevent contaminated water from leaking out. For that, massive amounts of concrete will be necessary. So, my idea is to use the ashes to make concrete.
Ideally, incinerators should be used exclusively to handle the rubble at the actual site. But the country has not created appropriate incinerators. Even now the rubble is exposed to the air. If this situation continues unchecked, children in the contaminated areas will continue to be exposed to radiation.
I want to protect children from exposure to radiation. Children here includes those in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and all other areas. I think that the main issue is how we can best reduce children's exposure to radiation. We cannot wait until an incinerating facility for exclusive handling of radiation-contaminated rubble is available. But if it can't be helped that the entire country accepts the rubble, the two conditions that I posited must be fulfilled.
About half a month ago, thirty some members of Osaka's Ishin no Kai (Mayor Hashimoto's group) asked me about disposal of contaminated waste. My proposal was that it should not be done unless the two conditions have been met. But they ignored this. It seems they are claiming that, "Koide says that the rubble must be accepted." People at large, too, are angry, saying that Koide is saying something preposterous. But I am saying no such thing.
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