Chairman of Japan's Keidanren: "Restart of Hamaoka Nuke Plant Will Be a Role Model for the World"

Hilarity (depravity, head in the sand, selective hearing/seeing, whatever you want to call it) continues in Japan. Keidanren (or Federation of Economic Organizations in English), Japan's powerful big business lobby, has been unabashedly pro-nuclear, as if Fukushima never happened. For that matter, as if Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl never happened.

Just so you know before you read the Yomiuri article below, this particular plant is built practically on sand dunes (liquefaction anyone?), with reactor buildings closer to the ocean protecting the turbine buildings. The plant has been plagued with troubles even after the cold shutdown in May last year at the order of then-PM Naoto Kan, like condenser pipe breakage. (For more about Hamaoka Nuke Plant, read my posts here.)

But worst of all is its location - it is right near the expected epicenter of the Tokai earthquake when it comes.

But Mr. Yonekura, MBA 1965 from Duke University, is pleased that Hamaoka will be safe.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (10/4/2012):

再稼働なら世界的模範…米倉会長が浜岡原発視察

If restarted, Hamaoka will be a role model for the world, says Chairman Yonekura [of Keidanren]

経団連の米倉弘昌会長は３日、政府の要請で昨年５月から全面停止している中部電力の浜岡原子力発電所（静岡県御前崎市）を視察し、中部電力から地震・津波に対する安全対策などの説明を受けた。

Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura of Keidanren visited Chubu Electric Hamoka Nuclear Power Plant (Omaezaki City, Shizuoka Prefecture) on October 3. The plant has been stopped since May last year at the request from the national government. Mr. Yonekura was briefed by Chubu Electric on safety countermeasures against earthquake and tsunami.

米倉会長が原発施設を視察するのは初めてで、米倉会長は安全性が確認された上で、浜岡原発を再稼働させるべきだとの認識を示した。

It was the first time that Chairman Yonekura visited any nuclear power plant. He shared his understanding that Hamaoka Nuke Plant should be restarted upon confirmation of the safety.

米倉会長ら経団連関係者は、発電所敷地内に津波が直接侵入するのを食い止める防波壁（海抜１８メートル）の工事現場や、原子炉建屋外壁の強化扉の設置状況などを見て回った。中部電力は来年１２月の完了に向け、津波対策工事を進めている。

Chairman Yonekura and his group of Keidanren members toured the plant, visiting the site where a seawall (18 meters above the sea level) is being built that would prevent the tsunami from breaching the compound, and the installation of the reinforcement doors to the exterior of the reactor buildings. Chubu Electric has been carrying out construction projects for tsunami, which are scheduled to be finished by December next year.

米倉会長は視察後の記者会見で「着実に安全性が強化されていると感じ、安心した。住民の信頼を勝ち得て、再稼働に持っていけるとすれば世界的な模範ともなる」と述べた。

In the press conference after the visit, Chairman Yonekura said, "I felt the safety was being strengthened steadily, and I felt relieved. If we could win the trust of the residents and restart the plant, it would be a role model for the world."

Oh yes the plant is safe. It even has the nuclear safety research laboratory on site.

The plant has put in place measures to prevent hydrogen gas from accumulating inside the reactors. What are the measures? Electric drills and cutters on top of the roof of the building so that 5 workers can climb up the roof and use the tools to cut out a hole in an emergency where a core melt may be happening after the cooling of the reactor stops for whatever reason (earthquake, tsunami, power outage, etc.).

I still remember the scene from a Godzilla movie where Godzilla was destroying the nuclear power plant modeled after Hamaoka. I wish I could find the video again.

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