Ooi Nuke Plant Restart: Senior Vice Minister Tells KEPCO "Lowly Jellyfish Should Never Stop a Modern Nuclear Power Plant!"

Little does he know about nuclear power plants.

As the readers of this blog have tirelessly pointed out, jellyfish and nuclear power plants go together very well. (For more info, here, and here, for a start.)

But never mind that. To Seishu Makino, Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, it's all about your fighting spirit. Against jellyfish.

From Jiji Tsushin (7/9/2012):

関西電力大飯原発３号機（福井県おおい町）がフル稼働に達したのを受け、安全監視の現地責任者の牧野聖修経済産業副大臣は９日未明、同町で記者団に「行き詰まっていたエネルギー政策が一歩前進した喜びはあるが、４号機の再稼働までミッション（任務）は続く。今まで以上に気を引き締め、安全のための職務を遂行したい」と語った。大飯４号機は１８日に原子炉を起動し、２１日にも発電と送電を再開する予定。

On the resumption of full operation of Reactor 3 at KEPCO Ooi Nuclear Power Plant (Ooi-cho, Fukui Prefecture), Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Seishu Makino, who is in charge of special surveillance on site to secure safety, spoke to the press in Ooi-cho in the early hours on July 9. "I am happy that it is a one step forward for the energy policy that has been deadlocked. But the mission [he actually said this word in English, instead of using the perfectly good Japanese word for it] continues until Reactor 4 restarts. We will gird ourselves more, and perform our duty to insure safety", he said. Reactor 4 at Ooi is scheduled to restart on July 18, with power generation and transmission to restart on July 21.

また、３号機の海水取水口周辺でクラゲが大量発生し、出力低下が懸念されたことには、「科学技術の粋を集めた原発で、クラゲごときに惑わされてはいけない」と関電に対策を指示したと述べた。

Commenting on the concern for the power decline because of jellyfish swarmed near the water intake for Reactor 3, he said he instructed KEPCO to come up with countermeasure, because "We must not be disturbed by [lowly creasures like] jellyfish, at a nuclear power plant built with the best of science and technology."

That this person can only talk in cliches is amazing, and in this case extremely funny (for Japanese speakers).

One of my Japanese Twitter followers just tweeted me that the jellyfish at Ooi Nuke Plant are recognized as "enemy" of some sorts by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Science. Enemy, like a alien monster in a Godzilla movie.

NISA's email to journalists on the Ooi jellyfish that swarmed the water intake apparently describes the incident as "jellyfish attack/invasion" (クラゲ来襲）. Any Japanese who sees this word 来襲 would associate it with those alien monsters from outer space to be repelled by Godzilla or Ultraman.

The follower who tweeted the NISA's characterization of the incident astutely observes that this senior vice minister sounds (and looks, too) like the fictional minister in charge of science and technology who appears in those Godzilla/Ultraman movies and makes a futile attempt after futile attempt to direct the Self Defense Force to repel the alien monster invasion, telling them "We can't be defeated by such a creature! We will commandeer the best of the best of our science and technology to repel and destroy it!"

Someone already created an image of jellyfish swarming and protesting "再稼動反対　Saikado Hantai" (against restart).

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