Photos of #Fukushima I NPP in Late 2013: Still Very Much Cluttered and Contaminated

While I'm at it, I might as well show the most recent photos that TEPCO released which, I think, show what lack of money and planning (and lack of decision-making itself) has done (or hasn't done, in this case) at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in the past two years and nine months.

Some areas inside the plant compound today look exactly the same as in March 2011.

From TEPCO's photos and videos library, 12/11/2013 (text is my translation of the explanation in the accompanying PDF document):

4 meters above the sea level (Onahama Peil - average sea level used for the plant), ocean-side (east) of Reactors 1 - 4:

While a temporary storage area for equipment and materials has been secured,

other areas are still littered with debris; it is difficult to decontaminate:

10 meters above the sea level, around Reactor buildings:

While a temporary storage area for equipment and materials, pathway for vehicles and heavy equipment have been secured,

other areas have pipes for transferring (contaminated) water and electric cables running and are still littered with debris; it is difficult to decontaminate:

Some vehicles turned upside down by the tsunami,

have been removed.

Debris removal will continue systematically, says TEPCO [meaning "extremely slowly, piece by piece").

I still vividly remember Mr. Michio Ishikawa of Japan Nuclear Technology Institute on April 29, 2011 on an all-night TV program. To the astonished fellow guests (or guests who were feigning astonishment), Mr. Ishikawa, a strong proponent of nuclear energy, said as a matter of fact that all nuclear fuel inside the reactors had been melted down, the government was lying about it, and some of it would be already outside the Pressure Vessels.

He also said, "This is a war."

"Take the debris clean-up job for example. They are picking up the debris and putting them in containers, as if this is the peacetime normal operation. This is a war. They should dig a hole somewhere and bury the radioactive debris and clean up later. What's important is to clear the site, using the emergency measures. Build a bridgehead to the reactor.

"The line of command is not clear, whether it is the government, TEPCO, or Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

"Look squarely at the reactors and find out the true situation. [Trying to do something with] the turbine buildings is nothing but a caricature [a joke, a manga, a diversion]."

No one took his word seriously, and we are where we are today as the result. Mr. Ishikawa's remark on core melt was not even in the news the next day. Hardly anyone talked about it even on Twitter. "Why should we listen to a pro-nuke shill?" was part of the attitude of net citizens in Japan who turned against nuclear energy after the Fukushima accident.

So today, radioactive debris continues to litter the site, hindering workers' efforts. We have been doing something with the turbine buildings (all the contaminated water from the reactor buildings goes to the turbine building basements, from which the water goes either to another building for storage or to the cesium absorption system (SARRY, or on rare occasions, Kurion).

Tweet

(OT) US Fed to "Taper" QE by $10 Billion, Stock Market Soars

The quantitative easing (QE) that was started in September 2012 will continue at $75 billion a month, instead of $85 billion.

Much like the federal budget forged by GOP's Paul Ryan and Dem Senator Patty Murray, which does nothing of actually reducing deficit but only reducing the rate of deficit increase.

After the initial plunge on the FOMC announcement, the US stock market swung the other direction and ended the day at all-time high (Dow, S&P500):

As yet another sign of great "recovery", the mortgage application plunged to the 13-year low (from Zero Hedge):

Bullish for the stock market!

The Bernanke Fed said:

Reflecting cumulative progress and an improved outlook for the job market...

Cumulative progress of 0.1% taking from 99.9%, and an improved outlook for the job market expressed by the lower unemployment rate, because they stop counting people whose unemployment benefit has run out even though they are still looking for jobs.

The unemployment rate is set to dramatically fall next year, as the Ryan-Murray budget deal is making sure of it by cutting the extended unemployment benefit beyond 26 weeks.

Bullish for the stock market! Just keep buying the risk assets, as almost all bearish investors have thrown in the towel. Even people like Hugh Hendry, who is effectively saying, "Nothing matters but trends."

Japanese yen has turned even lower against US dollar, at 104 yen per dollar. Hello more carry trade.

Nikkei futures (in yen) to 15,895, more than 300 points higher than Wednesday's (Japan time) cash close (15,587):

Economically ignorant Prime Minister Abe (just like his US counterpart) will exclaim, "See, my Abenomics is working!"

Tweet

#Fukushima I NPP: 63,000 Bq/L of All-Beta One Day, ND the Next Day, All Thanks to TEPCO's Mix-Up (Literally)

The news yesterday (12/16/2013) was that 63,000 Bq/Liter of all-beta that includes strontium-90 was detected in the groundwater sample from an observation hole right on the embankment near the open channel in the plant harbor. The fear was that the groundwater high in all-beta, well exceeding the TEPCO's in-house limit of 10 Bq/L for strontium, was leaking unchecked into the harbor, because the in-the-ground impermeable waterglass wall is not in place at this particular observation hole.

This sudden spike made no sense, as this observation hole, No. 0-3-2, had never had such a high number for all-beta - for that matter, not even for gamma nuclides (cesium).

Then the next day it all made sense. At some point between the collection of the samples and the measurement, TEPCO managed to mix up the sample from the hole No. 0-3-2 with the sample from the hole No. 1-16, which was found with 1,700,000 Bq/L of all-beta on the same December 16, 2013.

Another example of the deteriorating quality of the workers at the plant, AND of the managers who are supposed to train and oversee the workers.

From TEPCO's handout for the press, 12/17/2013 (English labels are by me):

Now, an interesting question is: Where is the groundwater that is sampled at the hole No. 1-16 coming from?

Note that the amount of radioactive cesium is below detection levels (2.8 Bq/L for cesium-134, 1.5 Bq/L for cesium-137), but all-beta (at least half of it is strontium-90) is 1.7 million Bq/L.

At first, I thought this water may be coming either from the leaky tanks that store waste water after cesium absorption and desalination (reverse osmosis), or the tanks that store treated waters, as that would explain the lack of cesium and abundance of all-beta.

Then, on close examination of the numbers for all-beta (see the table; click to enlarge),

• Water sample from the hole No. 1-16: 1,700,000 Bq/L

• Treated water (after cesium absorption and desalination): 19,000 Bq/L (8/9/2013)

• Waste water (after cesium absorption and desalination): 75,000,000 Bq/L (8/9/2013)

The water from the hole No.1-16 contains too much all-beta if it comes from treated water tanks, and contains too little all-beta if it comes from waste water tanks that are leaky. Besides, both treated water and waste water do contain radioactive cesium above the detection limit.

So my brilliant idea is not so brilliant after all, but there is one another, more likely possibility (h/t Kontan_Bigcat).

The water that is finding its way to the hole No. 1-16 may have come from the trenches, either from Reactor 2 or Reactor 3, and filled with the highly contaminated water from April/May of 2011 when the water leaked from the reactor buildings into the turbine buildings after it cooled the broken reactors then into the ocean via the trenches that connect the turbine buildings and water intakes at the embankment.

The reason for the non-detectable levels of radioactive cesium may be that radioactive cesium has been absorbed by the dirt/soil after two years and 9 months.

Whether or not this trench water has been leaking has been discussed at the meetings of Nuclear Regulation Authority, which usually end with one or more commissioners and/or experts scratching their heads at TEPCO's non-explanation. But as this blog wrote in July this year, detection of significant amounts of radioactive materials along the embankment started right after TEPCO started driving the sheet piles into the embankment and into the sea floor of the open culvert in the plant harbor in April in its effort to "stop" the groundwater from flowing into the harbor.

Looking at the cesium content of the trench water (7/31/2013 post) as of 7/31/2013, it is not likely that this water is currently leaking from the trench into the surrounding soil (cesium content is too low in the sample water from the observation holes).

Tweet

Evans-Pritchard: China-Japan Rearmament is Keynesian Stimulus, If It Doesn't Go Horribly Wrong

An "IF" in capital letters, but even if it does go wrong and things come to a head between China and Japan, it will still be a great Keynesian stimulus for the US and Europe, whose economies have been suffering "long malaise".

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, on-again-off-again Keynesian (I think it's "on" now, since the Great Recession induced by the Lehman collapse), says Japan is ready for a fight if necessary; at the same time he seems to think that mishap is not necessarily by China or Japan but by the United States, and fear the cascading effect outside the parties directly involved, as he cites the Agadir crisis in 1911.

With the flip-flopping president who are surrounded by advisors whose expertise (if that) is only in the US domestic politics, the probability of the mishap is rather significant, I'm afraid, no matter how much Japan's PM Shinzo Abe tries to flatter the US president.

(The latest example of flattery is Abe's mimicking President Obama in using teleprompters for the first time to deliver his speech at a hastily scheduled press conference on December 14, 2013, probably just to show off his brand-new toy...image from Yasumi Iwakami)

From The Telegraph (11/26/2013; emphasis is mine), by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:

China-Japan rearmament is Keynesian stimulus, if it doesn't go horribly wrong

Asia is on the cusp of a full-blown arms race. The escalating clash between China and almost all its neighbours in the Pacific has reached a threshold. All other economic issues at this point are becoming secondary.

Beijing's implicit threat to shoot down any aircraft that fails to adhere to its new air control zone in the East China Sea is a watershed moment for the world. The issue cannot easily be finessed. Other countries either comply, or they don't comply. Somebody has to back down.

The gravity of the latest dispute should by now be obvious even to those who don't pay attention the Pacific Rim, the most dangerous geostrategic fault line in the world.

Japan’s foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, accused China of “profoundly dangerous acts that unilaterally change the status quo”.

The US defence secretary Chuck Hagel called it “a destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region” and warned that the US would defy the order. The Pentagon has since stated that US pilots will not switch on their transponders to comply, and will defend themselves if attacked. Think about this for a moment.

Mr Hagel asserted categorically that Washington will stand behind its alliance with Japan, the anchor of American security in Asia. “The United States reaffirms its long-standing policy that Article V of the US Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands,” he said.

Whether China fully believes this another matter, of course. The Senkaku islands offer a perfect opportunity for Beijing to test the resolve of the Obama Administration since it is far from clear to the war-weary American people why they should risk conflict in Asia over these uninhabited rocks near Taiwan, and since it also far from clear whether President Obama's Asian Pivot is much more than a rhetorical flourish.

Besides, Beijing has just watched the US throw its long-time ally Saudi Arabia under a bus over Iran. It has watched Moscow score an alleged victory over Washington in Syria. You and I may think it is an error to infer too much US weakness from these incidents, but that is irrelevant. Beijing seems to be drawing its own conclusions.

Even if the immediate crisis can be defused, we are clearly sliding into a new Cold War. While it is dangerous, it could have paradoxical and powerful side effects. Rearmament lifted the world economy out of slump in the late 1930s, working as a form of concerted Keynesian fiscal stimulus. It could do so again.

The parallels are not exact. They never are. But an Asian arms race would almost certainly tackle some of the underlying causes of the long malaise in the Western economies. It would soak up much of the Asian "savings glut" and the excess industrial capacity in China, and would help to narrow the perennial East-West trade gap.

This would be an answer of sorts to the West's "secular stagnation" – to use the term of former US treasury secretary Larry Summers – or the liquidity trap as others call it. But be careful what you wish for.

I don't wish to become entangled in debate over whether other states impose such ADIZ identification zones beyond their territorial waters, as asserted by Beijing. It is political infantilism to see and judge such disputes through a moral prism, as if our Hobbesian world conforms to codes of right and wrong. What we are dealing with is a great power collision of epochal proportions.

The Asian arms race is young, but clearly under way already. China has launched its first stealth drone, known as Sharp Sword. It developing indigenous aircraft carriers. Its “Two-Ocean-Strategy” implies a fleet of five or six carrier battle groups.

Japan is already rearming. It is building a de facto marine force. It has launched its largest warship since WW2, an 800-foot long DDH-class helicopter carrier, an aircraft carrier in all but name. Tokyo is developing its own version of the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency. Spending on warships and aircraft will jump by 23pc this year.

When I visited the spanking new buildings of the Japanese defence ministry in Tokyo in March, it already seemed like another world from the run-down digs of the old Self-Defence Force that I had visited six years earlier.

You could feel the emergence of a new military power, pacifist still in name only. The message that came through loud and clear from talking to officials is that Japan is ready for a fight if necessary, and is convinced that it can sink or shoot down any force sent by China into Japan's waters and airspace – whether to close in on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, or to ratchet up pressure against Okinawa.

I was shown detailed maps tracing movements of Chinese DDG warships and Yuan-class submarines that left me deeply alarmed over where this is going. Japanese officials said Chinese naval officers on patrol were not responding to normal signals.

"What we don't know is whether Chinese officers follow any international code of conduct? Do they understand what is banned and not banned? Does the Communist Party control their own military?" said one defence planner.

"Two thousand years ago under the Han Dynasty, the emperor put his right hand on the wheel of his chariot and told his general that everything inside the borders was the domain of the emperor, and everything outside was left to the commander. That has plagued China throughout its history, and it is the delicate issue we now face," he said.

There is no red telephone between Tokyo and Beijing to defuse a crisis if it erupts, nothing comparable to the Washington-Moscow "hotline" during the Cold War.

While the US and China were able to calm the waters after an American military jet collided with a Chinese fighter in 2002 – killing the Chinese pilot – it is unlikely that any such mishap between China and Japan could be contained at this stage.

Today's escalating spat has echoes of the Agadir crisis in 1911, the stand-off between Wilhelmine Germany and the Franco-British Entente in the final years before the First World War.

In case you have forgotten, Kaiser Wilhelm sent the warship Panther to Morocco in 1911 to prevent French annexation. The Kaiser picked his moment well. The French were violating earlier accords.

Yet his real purpose was to probe and weaken Britain's entente with France (not a formal alliance) by picking on an issue where London had little natural sympathy for French actions.

The Agadir Crisis backfired against the Kaiser. The Entente did not break. But that is hardly a reassuring episode. The chain of events that followed were catastrophic.

France felt emboldened by British backing, with ripple effects through the Franco-Russian alliance. Russia then felt more able to push its luck when the Serbian crisis hit in 1914. Agadir fed an overwhelming sense of fury in Germany, a feeling that Britain had become an enemy.

America is now having to walk the same sort of tightrope that Britain had to walk – and walked badly – from Agadir to Sarajevo. One misjudgement by either side in the East China Sea could change our world entirely. If you are not concerned, perhaps you should be.

"Mr Hagel asserted categorically that Washington will stand behind its alliance with Japan, the anchor of American security in Asia."

Well, ever since Evans-Pritchard wrote this article (11/26/2013), the US has been busy pleasing Beijing while throwing Japan under the bus (here and here). The US State Department's deputy spokesperson even said the US was happy to see changes in South Korea, which announced it would now allow airlines to file flight plans with Chinese authorities over the disputed territories.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Abe is busy meeting and speaking with the heads of the ASEAN nations in an effort to form a united front against China, whom they perceive as encroaching on the neutral or international (and disputed) space.

Tweet

(OT) Shutting Down Comment Section Temporarily

Probably due to the uncontrolled comment section of this blog and most likely due to the comment section of the particular posts (here and here, comments hidden) which is full of totally irrelevant comments, I've started to receive strange emails on strange topics from people I don't know and who should not have my personal email address.

The two events may not be related, though I suspect they are, judging by the content of the emails. I am shutting down the comment section temporarily (comments are restricted to members of this blog, which means me and myself). I am reporting these suspicious emails to the email provider, and doing whatever necessary (though I don't know what) to protect my privacy.

I am not for restricting the freedom of speech, but my right to privacy comes first, and this is my personal blog. I hope the shut down will be temporary.

Tweet

(OT) Friday Humor: Sing Along! "The NSA Is Coming to Town..."

You better watch out, you better not Skype, you better Log Out, you better not type, The NSA is coming to town.

courtesy of ACLU...

Tweet

(OT) Year-End Recital Music

Just because I'm playing these pieces of music tomorrow, you get to hear them...

Frank Bridge: Sally in Our Ally (1916)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Devertimento D-Dur, Presto (K-136) (1772, when he was 16), Mito Chamber Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa (1990, when Ozawa was 55)

Astor Piazzola: Jean y Paul (we're playing the strings arrangement of this piece)

Tweet

#Fukushima I NPP: Workers Cleaning Out and Water-Proofing the Drainage Channel in Effort to Prevent Contaminated Water from Flowing into Ocean

Images of what it feels like to not have money to spend to do anything substantial.

There was a discussion on Twitter last night between two level-headed people I follow on the cost of decommissioning Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, decontaminating areas in Fukushima Prefecture, and paying compensations to the people who have been displaced by the nuclear accident - namely the residents in the former evacuation zones around the plant.

While the Japanese national government puts the cost of decommissioning of the plant, decontamination and compensations at only a few trillion yen (tens of billions of US dollar), the two's tentative conclusion was that it would be at least 20 trillion yen, probably more because the government didn't spend enough on the get-go in 2011, and therefore it would cost more in the future.

In other words, penny wise pound foolish.

What's more, the national government under the DPJ administration (Messrs. Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda) didn't pay anything to deal with the problems at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, saying it was TEPCO's problem not theirs. (They didn't even offer emergency food for the workers who remained at the plant after March 11, 2011.)

Despite the promise by the LDP administration under Shinzo Abe that the government will be at the "forefront" in dealing with the accident, no money has gone to help TEPCO and workers trying to maintain the plant and contain the contaminated water. 21.5 billion yen has been pledged by the government to come up with a solution to the contaminated water, but it is just a pledge at this point.

So, when I saw this tweet and photographs from TEPCO, I was puzzled at first (I couldn't figure out what the workers were doing), and saddened when I realized what they were doing.

【福島第一の雨水対策】発電所敷地から海までつながっている排水路。ここに汚染水が流れ込むことがないように、現在排水路を防水し蓋がけを行う作業を進めています。その様子をこちらから→http://t.co/JyKh9pNHDk pic.twitter.com/cikpPwVrmV

— 東京電力　株式会社 (@OfficialTEPCO) December 12, 2013

"Countermeasures for rainwater at Fukushima I NPP: The drainage channel that goes through the plant compound to the ocean. In order to prevent contaminated water from flowing into this drainage channel, we are waterproofing the channel and covering it. You can see the details here (link to Facebook page)."

The workers are manually cleaning out the open drainage channel that goes directly into the ocean where rainwater and contaminated water (high in beta-nuclides) have flown since the accident.

These photos are posted only on TEPCO's Facebook page (or else I couldn't find it at TEPCO's website). According to the Facebook entry by TEPCO:

...こちらは、排水路を暗渠（あんきょ）化する対策です。
排水路は海までつながっています。この排水路に、汚染水が流れ込むことがないように、排水路の表面に防水を行い、上部に蓋がけを行っていく対策です。

This measure is to turn the drainage channel into a culvert. The drainage channel leads to the ocean. To prevent the contaminated water flowing into this channel, we are waterproofing the surface of the channel and putting the cover over the channel.

写真右下は、排水路に残っている水をバケツに汲み上げている様子です。
通常、ポンプで汲み上げるのですが、水位が低くなるとポンプでは汲み上げることができないため、最後は作業員の方一人一人のこうした地道な手作業です。

The lower-right photo shows the workers scooping the remaining water in the channel with buckets. Normally, we use a pump, but as the water level goes low, the pump does not work. So, in the end, it is the patient manual work by each worker that does the job.

水をすっかり汲み上げたあと、排水路内をきれいに清掃し、その後エポキシ系樹脂を塗っていきます。（写真下）

After the water is completely drained, we clean the channel, and apply epoxy resin on the surface (Photos at the bottom)

排水路の総延長は1,300ｍに及びます。
徐々に上流側のほうの排水路の作業を行い、年内の暗渠化を目指してまいります。

The drainage channel is 1,300 meters long in total. We will gradually work upstream, and aim at turning the channel into a culvert within this year.

When the earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear accident hit Japan in March 2011, I remember having read several financial analysts outside Japan who said, "This may be Japan's end game, as it has no other choice but to print money in enormous quantities to pay for the disaster recovery and reconstruction." I thought so too. I thought, "The government should properly panic and commandeer all available resources and spend literally tons of Bank of Japan notes to contain the disaster."

It was a make-or-break moment.

Well the DPJ government panicked the wrong way and put their collective head in the sand, like the mascot of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant (ostrich); it resorted to the cheapest option of "talking" - everything is fine, there is no (short-term) health effect, only the baseless rumor of radiation harming the farmers in Fukushima, it's TEPCO's problem, etc., etc..

Sometime in middle of 2011, I think, I saw Mr. Taro Yamamoto, now an Upper House Councilman, in one of those mind-numbing Japanese TV talk-shows. The other guests were all saying that Japan has to spend money on economic growth, as if there had been no earthquake/tsunami/nuclear accident. Yamamoto said, "We should spend whatever it takes to end the nuclear accident, decontaminate, test foods, whatever it takes. Even we go broke as a nation as the result, as long as people are here and are healthy, we will be able to recover some day."

Yamamoto was roundly ridiculed by the guests and the viewers.

I totally agreed with him. Now it's rather late. All the money that Abe is making Kuroda to print goes to financial institutions and accumulates at the central bank as "excess reserve" for the financial institutions to bet on risky assets.

Just like it's been happening in the US ever since Blackhawk Ben and Hank (Paulson) threatened the Congress with one sheet of paper and got $700 billion (70 trillion yen) in the fall of 2008 to save banks.

Tweet

(OT) Sign Language Interpreter at Mandela's Funeral Made It All Up

(UPDATE) Mr. Thamsanqa Jantjie says he was hallucinating, seeing angels, according to AP. He insists his sign language is proper, which is vehemently contested by sign language experts and people who use sign language. They say it was gibberish.

Meanwhile, New York Post (only one of so many) is rather upset with the president of the United States taking a selfie with a leggy blonde who happens to be the prime minister of Denmark.

===============================

You can't make things like this up, but this unnamed man apparently did.

From AP via My Way News (12/11/2013):

Mandela ceremony interpreter called a 'fake'

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A man who provided sign language interpretation on stage for Nelson Mandela's memorial service, attended by scores of heads of state, was a "fake," the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa said on Tuesday.

Asked about the claim by The Associated Press, South Africa's government said it was preparing a statement.

Three sign language experts said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages. South African sign language covers all of the country's 11 official languages, according to the federation. It wasn't immediately clear if the unidentified man was using a different method to communicate.

The unidentified man seen around the world on television next to leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama "was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for," said Bruno Druchen, the federation's national director.

Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter who also watched the broadcast, said in a telephone interview that the man on stage purporting to sign was an embarrassment.

"It was horrible, an absolute circus, really really bad," she said. "Only he can understand those gestures."

South African parliament member Wilma Newhoudt, a member of the ruling party who is deaf, also said the man communicated nothing with his hand and arm movements. AP interviewed both Druchen, who also is deaf, and Newhoudt by telephone using an interpreter.

The man's identity hasn't been disclosed.

Video from UK's Telegraph:

Tweet

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Saving Money Comes First Before the Need to Monitor Groundwater Leak Inside the Harbor in a Hilarious NRA Meeting

What's more pressing at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is not measuring radiation levels around the SGTS pipe where 25 sieverts/hour radiation source may be inside (to be sure, again, this 25 sieverts/hour was NOT measured but derived by calculation), nor removing the fuel assemblies from the Spent Fuel Pool on the top floor of Reactor 4 (again, not individual "fuel rods" that are inside a fuel assembly), which has the lowest radiation levels of all reactors (except for Reactors 5 and 6, which are in cold shutdown in the true sense of the word).

It is, as late-Masao Yoshida, Fukushima I NPP Plant Manager at the time of the accident, said, what to do with the contaminated water that keeps increasing. Of particular concern (supposedly) of the national government and TEPCO is whether the contaminated groundwater (albeit low contamination of gamma nuclides) is leaking into the plant harbor.

In the embankment between the plant harbor and the turbine buildings for Reactors 1 through 4, workers have been injecting waterglass into the artificial soil there to create impermeable walls in the soil to stop the flow of groundwater into the harbor. Never mind that their very work causes the groundwater to rise and go over the top of the underground impermeable wall, or go somewhere else and find its way to the ocean anyway.

From TEPCO, 12/8/2013 (red lines: silt fences, green lines: soil amendment by waterglass, yellow dots: groundwater monitoring locations):

TEPCO has been frequently monitoring radioactive materials (gamma nuclides such as cesium, all-beta including strontium, and tritium) in the water samples taken from these numerous observation holes in the embankment. However, samples from the seawater in the harbor are taken far less frequently. Nuclear Regulation Authority has been calling for continuous monitoring of seawater for some time, and the topic came up in the third meeting of NRA's ocean monitoring group on December 9, 2013.

But the word that came out of NRA Commissioner Kayoko Nakamura was, "Continuous monitoring system is an expensive purchase..."

From independent journalist Ryuichi Kino, and a togetter on the December 9 NRA meeting on ocean monitoring:

(Kino summarizes the relevant part of the meeting in a dignified way...)

汚染水の漏洩を検知する連続モニタリング装置の設置について、東電は南側放出口と北の放出口に３か所を検討していて、海が荒れているので設置方法に時間かかっているなどと説明。委員から、なぜ開渠内（防潮堤内側の護岸付近）につけないのか理解できないと疑問の声

TEPCO is considering three locations near the south discharge and the north discharge to install continuous monitoring system to detect the leak of contaminated water, and explains it is taking time to install because of the rough ocean. People questioning, why not install inside the open channel (inside the harbor near the embankment)?

この疑問は今に始まったことではない。今年１月に東電が護岸に観測用井戸を掘って地下水を分析したという時に会見で聞くと、港湾内で何点か測っている、海でも測っているので変化はわかる、問題ないという主旨の回答があった。同じ回答を今でもしてる

The question is nothing new. When I asked TEPCO in January this year when they started digging the observation holes along the embankment and analyzed the groundwater samples, TEPCO answered that they were measuring in several locations inside the harbor, and they were measuring in the ocean, too. They could detect the change that way, no problem. That was the answer then, and that is the answer now.

今問題になっているのは護岸からトレンチ由来、あるいは建屋由来の高濃度のものが出ているかどうか。連続監視は高濃度のものが出たらすぐにわかるようにするのが目的なので、近いほうが変化はわかる。けれども東電は港湾の外で測ることに固執。理由がわからない。

What's at issue now is whether the highly radioactive water from the trench [where extremely radioactive water from March/April 2011 from the reactors sits] or from the reactor buildings is leaking from the embankment or not. The purpose of continuous monitoring is to know immediately if highly radioactive water is leaking. To monitor the change, it's better to monitor closer [to the embankment where the leak may be occurring]. But TEPCO insists on monitoring outside the harbor. I don't understand the reason.

規制委の中村佳代子座長「連続モニタリングは高い買い物」。だから選定に時間かかると。はて、どういう意味なのか。高い安いの問題ではなく、委員から出ていた意見は「早く」やること。のんびり半年、１年かけてやるようなものではない

NRA's Kayoko Nakamura says, "Continuous monitoring is an expensive purchase." So it takes time to select [the equipment], she says. Well, what does that mean? It's not the matter of how expensive or how cheap; the opinion of the members is to do it "soon". It is not the thing to be done leisurely over six months or a year.

中村座長は精度が重要ともいう。すでにこれまでの精度にも疑義が出ているのでこれは重要だけど、東電がいったいどこのメーカーや専門家となにを検討しているのか、中身の公表がないので、やっぱり設置が遅れている理由はわからない

Ms. Nakamura also says accuracy [of measurement] is important. It is important, as the accuracy has been questioned before. But no information has been disclosed as to which manufacturer and/or experts TEPCO is consulting with and on what. We still don't know the reason why the installation hasn't been done.

(The same discussion, from the togetter; it reads almost like a farce, a comedy routine, where research experts are at a loss what to do with TEPCO...)

TEPCO says it wants to install continuous monitoring instruments OUTSIDE the plant harbor. From NRA's reference document for the meeting (English labels and comment are mine):

森田：前回も同じこと言ったが。港湾の外につける意味が分からない。5・6放水口は、港湾の中の水を吸い上げているので、外につける意味が（ないんじゃ？）
Morita [from the Fisheries Agency]: As I said before, I don't understand why you want to install [the continuous monitoring system] outside the harbor. The discharge for Reactors 5/6 pumps out the water from inside the harbor, so there is no point in installing it outside.

森田：漏れているのが海渠だと言われているので、そちらにつけるほうが。港湾の外、日々のデータが取れるのか？
Morita: The water is leaking into the open channel, or so it is said. Doesn't it make more sense to install the instrument there? Can you collect daily data outside the harbor?

[To this, TEPCO answers in non-answer by talking about detection limit...]

東電：検出限界値、0.1Bｑ/L。全βを排除するかというのが問題だが、20Bq/Lを目安に。
TEPCO: Detection limit is 0.1Bq/L. The problem is whether to exclude all-beta, but we are aiming at 20Bq/L.

青山委員：全βの連続モニタリングなんて、技術的・機械的に可能なの？(頭を抱える青山委員)
Aoyama [chief researcher from Meteorological Research Institute]: Is it even technically and mechanically possible to continuously monitor all beta? (and Mr. Aoyama buries his head in his hands.)

青山：γ線は、セシウム137？
Aoyama: gamma rays, you mean cesium-137?

東電：監視は、セシウム134・137
TEPCO: Cesium-134 and -137 will be monitored.

青山：いまの東電さんの説明は理解できません、誰が理解できたひとがいたら説明してください
Aoyama: I don't understand TEPCO's explanation. If anyone understands, please explain.

堀口委員：森田委員からもありましたが、私も港湾内に設置しないというのは理解できません。港湾内にないのは奇異に感じる。おそれがあるところをモニターしないと。本末転倒。一番重要なところが抜けている
Horiguchi [National Science Laboratories Environmental Risk Research Center]: Like Mr. Morita, I don't understand either why the monitoring instruments are not going to be installed inside the harbor. Monitoring should be done at the locations where the leak is suspected. We're getting our priorities wrong. The most important thing is not being done.


中村座長：装置を導入購入するには、必ず放射線の専門家の意見を参考にして、高い買い物ですし、と
Commissioner Nakamura: When you purchase the instrument, make sure you consult radiation specialists. It's an expensive purchase, you know...

Well the priority seems to be the cost.

After the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, they still think of cost as outlay of money to purchase goods and services. They don't consider the social cost of not starting monitoring the water inside the harbor as soon as possible, particularly inside the open channel right outside the embankment.

As it stands, TEPCO plans to start continuous monitoring OUTSIDE the harbor hopefully next spring, maybe fall.

For TEPCO and the national government, time is indeed money - i.e. money saving.

Reference documents (in Japanese) for the meeting: http://www.nsr.go.jp/committee/yuushikisya/kaiyou_monitoring/20131209.html

Cheerful Commissioner Kayoko Makamura:

Tweet

(OT) Obama Administration Welcomes the Passage of Japan's State Secret Protection Law, and Japanese Press Goalseeks

In the minds of the Japanese press and their readers, the United States government under the Obama administration dislikes - if it doesn't, it should and it must - the Japanese "right-wing" administration of Shinzo Abe, and it condemns - if it doesn't, it should and it must - the State Secrecy Protection Law that just passed the Upper house in Japan.

So when the Japanese reporters write about the US reaction (if any) to the law, they try their best to elicit the response they want to hear; failing that, they still hear what they want to hear and write about what they believe they hear. In other words, they goalseek.

First it was Mainichi Shinbun (12/7/2013) who reported on the US reaction to the passage of the State Secret Protection Law:

ハーフ副報道官は「情報の保全は同盟国間の協力に決定的な役割を果たす」と述べ、日米両政府が共有する情報の保全が必要であるとの認識を示した。ただ、ハーフ氏は「表現の自由、報道の自由などの普遍的価値の共有が我々の同盟関係の基盤である」とも述べ、同法を根拠に言論の自由を制限することがないよう日本政府に求めた。

Deputy Spokesperson Harf said "Information security plays a critical role in alliance cooperation," indicating security of information shared by both the Japanese government and the US government is necessary. However, [Ms.] Harf also said, "A foundation of our alliance is a shared commitment to universal values such as freedom of expression and freedom of the press," by which remark she requested the Japanese government not to limit the freedom of speech based on the [State Secrecy Protection] Law.

Thus, according to Mainichi, the US Obama administration has expressed concern that the Japanese government may restrict freedom of speech under the law.

That's odd, I thought, coming from this US administration.

Then, the Asahi Shinbun reporter whom I follow on Twitter tweeted about part of the US State Department Press Briefing on December 6, 2013, which concerned the State Secrecy Protection Law that passed the Opper House on December 6 (Japan Standard Time) and became the law of the land . He said:

秘密保護法の制定は米政府が日本に長年求めていたとの指摘については、米国務省の報道官はコメントしなかった

There was no comment from the [deputy] spokesperson to the reporter when he pointed out that the State Secrecy Protection Law had long been requested from the United States for Japan to prepare it.

That piqued my interest further. So I followed the link in the tweet to the State Department Daily Press Briefing (transcript) page (12/6/2013) to find out exactly what was said and who it was who asked the questions.

Here's the transcript of the section about Japan (emphasis in the transcript is mine):

QUESTION: On Japan?
MS. HARF: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: National secret protection law has finally passed the parliament in Japan today. Can we have any comment on that?
MS. HARF: I do. Just give me one second. As you know, information security plays a critical role in alliance cooperation, and we welcome progress on strengthening policies, practices, and procedures related to the protection of classified information. A foundation of our alliance is also a shared commitment to universal values, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, so those are – that’s our response to that. Obviously, we’ll continue talking to them about it if --
QUESTION: Is the freedom --
MS. HARF: -- it’s a topic that comes up.
QUESTION: The last part is regarding this huge national debate in Japan that law might – press – the freedom of press practice in Japan. Is that the reaction you are making?
MS. HARF: Well, as I said, a key part of our alliance is also the – our shared commitment to freedom of the press, and we believe it’s also important to protect classified information. So obviously – I know there’s been some debate about this there, but this is the extent of our response to that.
QUESTION: Did you know that – I mean, can you comment on this law’s character? It has been long requested from the United States for Japan to prepare it.
MS. HARF: I just don’t have any further comment on this new Japanese law.

Well, it may be possible to interpret her remark "A foundation of our alliance is also a shared commitment to universal values, freedom of expression, freedom of the press" as a caution, a warning to the Japanese government as Mainichi reported, but it is also possible to interpret it as simply delivering the statement that the US-Japan alliance is based in part ("a foundation") on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, therefore there is not much to be concerned about.

But it still doesn't satisfy my curiosity as to who asked the questions. The reporter seemed to want to elicit the particular response from the spokesperson when he asked if the US State Department thought the law might suppress the freedom of speech and freedom of press in Japan.

So I watched the video of the press briefing. The video was much more instructive than the transcript.

It was a Japanese reporter, probably from a major Japanese newspaper (my guess is Asahi) who asked the questions about Japan's newly-passed State Secrecy Protection Law.

Ms. Harf, in response to the request for comment on the passage of the law, flipped through the loosely bound papers in front of her and delivered the sentences (as opposed to speaking to the reporters) from the paper she located:

As you know, information security plays a critical role in alliance cooperation, and we welcome progress on strengthening policies, practices, and procedures related to the protection of classified information. A foundation of our alliance is also a shared commitment to universal values, freedom of expression, freedom of the press

Watching the manner by which the sentences were delivered (reading off the words rapidly and business-like), I do not get the impression at all that these sentences form a criticism, or at least a caution, from the US to the Abe administration as reported by both Mainichi and Asahi.

Rather, my take after watching the video is still that she is saying that "foundation" of "shared commitment to universal values, freedom of expression, freedom of the press" has already been in place, and the US government is not too worried about that aspect of the alliance.

The reporter asked, But, but, what about the press freedom? Is the last part of your comment a criticism of the law?

Well clearly not. Ms. Harf's answer (or rather, the sentences that she was told to deliver) is instructive if you read carefully.

First, "our shared commitment to freedom of the press". Note that it is just a "commitment", little more than a promise. It is not obligation for the government to guarantee under the Constitution (which is what it is).

Then, her last remark of "this new Japanese law". It is "Japanese" problem, whatever the problem may be, not the US.

The reporter could have framed the question in a way relating more to the United States interest - i.e. defense alliance against China in the Far East. The US government could care less, probably, about what's happening in Japan. A protest against the law for the concern of freedom of speech? That's Japan's problem.

Sadly for the Asahi reporter that I follow, her remark is about emphasizing the supreme importance of freedom of the press, and about the US government's continuing the effort to talk with the Japanese counterpart on the importance.

Tweet

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO Estimates 25 Sieverts/Hour Radiation at the Bottom of Exhaust Stack for Reactors 1 and 2

Let's get back to Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, which feels to be working much better than the National Diet in Tokyo if you don't look very carefully.

Remember the exhaust stack between Reactor 1 and Reactor 2, the bottom of which was found in August 2011 to be emitting extremely high radiation? In fact, it was so high that the dosimeter went overscale at 10 SIEVERTS/Hour on the surface of the pipe (see my post from August 2, 2011).

TEPCO finally did the measurement on November 22, 2013 to find out how high.

The conclusion is that it may be as high as 25 sieverts/hour on the surface of the radiation sources, which TEPCO thinks two (see the above gamma camera photo).

The ambient air dose rates near the location were so high that the measurement was done with what looks like a 20-foot pole.

From TEPCO's Photos and Videos Library, 12/6/2013 (Japanese):

There are reports by the media and blogs that this 25 sieverts/hour radiation was actually measured. It wasn't. TEPCO measured the ambient air dose rates around the two locations where TEPCO thinks the radiation sources exist, and calculated the possible radiation level right at the radiation source.

The highest ambient air dose rate measured was 95 millisieverts/hour, at 1.5 meter from where the STGS (standby gas treatment) pipe is connected to the exhaust stack:

(From TEPCO)

Tweet

(UPDATED) (OT) Japan's State Secrecy Protection Law Passes Upper House Anyway

(UPDATE) Do you want to know what else was passed along with the State Secrecy Protection Law? Two laws to limit the welfare payment for the poor. Unlike the US, Japan's public welfare system pays monthly lump-sum money directly to the recipients. Citing "fraud" (if I remember right, 0.2% of the total payment), the lawmakers in the Upper House voted to practically force family members to take care of the welfare recipients in their families. They increased the fine for fraud from 300,000 yen (US$3,000) or less to 1 million yen (US$10,000) or less. All these to reduce the welfare cost that the national government pays out, to save money.

These are on top of the intimidation and scolding that are dished out to the applicants by the municipal officials in charge of welfare.

Who voted for these two laws? Everyone except for members of Communist Party (11), Social Democrats (3) and two independents (including Taro Yamamoto).

Japan's "right-wing" administration curtails personal freedom and privacy citing the national security, benefits large corporations at the expense of the weakest in the society by cutting their benefits. In other words, they are doing exactly the same as the US's "left-wing" administration.

But that point is completely lost on net citizens of Japan on Twitter. It is also almost completely lost on them (and the media that expresses outrage over the law) that the passage of the State Secrecy Protection Law is the logical result from the two preceding laws that were voted in with overwhelming approval both from the ruling coalition and the opposition (except Communist Party and Social Democrats) - national ID number law and the law to create the national security council copied from the United States.

==========================

The opposition was in disarray, with Democratic Party of Japan walking out at one time, only to come back 10 minutes later to cast votes.

LDP's Minister in charge of consumer affairs and women and children issues, Ms. Masako Mori, has been for some reason in charge of answering questions on the law, to the great frustration of both the opposition and Japanese citizens because of her very flimsy grasp of what the law is about (it is probably because she doesn't have a clue either).

Her statement on the passage, according to Jiji Tsushin (12/7/2013; part):

「政府としてあらゆる手段を使って国民に法律の必要性と、懸念に対する説明を丁寧にしていきたい」と述べた。「緊張する国際情勢の中、国民の命と国家の存立を守るため、喫緊に成立させる必要があった」

[Mori said] "The national government will carefully explain to the citizens using all means available the necessity of this law, and address citizens' concerns." "We needed to pass this law urgently in order to protect the lives of the citizens and the existence of the nation in the tense international situation."

That's "women's power" for you, as touted by the Abe administration (with Ms. Mori as an great example) and by, most recently, the US Vice President Biden on his brief visit in Tokyo on the way to the more important visit to Beijing (where he practically approved China's newly declared Air Defense Identification Zone).

The "tense international situation" Ms. Mori is referring to must be the one that exists with China, which is more manufactured by all parties involved (Japan, China, and the US) than actual.

As an aside, the incompleteness of this headline over at Zero Hedge struck me:

"Japan Secures Final Passage Of Secrecy Bill - Designed by Kafka & Inspired By Hitler?!!"

The most direct design inspiration (or lack of design so that more can be added later - hmmm that sounds quite familiar in the US...) is the US's Patriot Act and what the US NSA and NSC have been doing under the two administrations. Just like the Japanese politicians and industrialists who badly wanted to have their own atomic power after they saw the destruction that the atomic bombs caused in their own country, LDP politicians (for that matter, DPJ politicians too) wanted to have a sweeping power over citizens in the name of national security. It probably makes them feel like they are actually doing something important.

Tweet

Democratic Party of Japan Just Submitted the Parliamentary Motion of Non-Confidence Against the Cabinet in the Lower House

DPJ submitted the motion to the chairman of the Lower House (House of Representatives) in the Japanese Diet at 5:27PM on December 6 (according to a tweet by Taro Yamamoto, who is a member of the Upper House).

There are 57 DPJ members in the Lower House, more than enough to submit this motion (which needs 51). It's not known whether Communist Party or Social Democratic Party joins DPJ in submitting the motion. The head of Social Democratic Party, Mizuho Fukushima, tweeted the DPJ's decision.

DPJ is doing it to stall the vote on the State Secrecy Protection Law in the Upper House.　There is not even the remotest chance that the motion will pass the Lower House where the ruling coalition holds 325 seats out of 480 (see wiki on Japanese National Diet for numbers).

Because of the motion of non-confidence in the Lower House, the Upper House session, which was scheduled at about right now, will be delayed by 3 to 4 hours.

LDP and Komei have already decided to extend the Diet session for two more days.

Citizens are gathering in central Tokyo around the Diet building and protesting. This picture is from earlier today, at the
the Diet Members' Office Building　for the Upper House (from this tweet):

There's some protest event, organized probably by labor unions, about to start in the Hibiya outdoor music amphitheater:

Members of Democratic Party of Japan in the Upper House had all voted for the creation of the Japanese version of NSC (National Security Council) and the national number ID ("My Number") law, both of which will give more power to the executive branch.

Tweet

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman: IAEA's Recommendation to Release Water from #Fukushima I NPP Appropriate

US NRC Chairman Allison MacFarlene is in Japan right now, and she spoke with the reporters on December 6 at the US Embassy in Tokyo.

From Jiji Tsushin (12/6/2013):

汚染水の海洋放出検討は妥当＝ＩＡＥＡの勧告支持－米原子力規制委員長

It is appropriate to consider releasing the contaminated water, as IAEA recommended, says US NRC Chairman

来日中のマクファーレン米原子力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ）委員長は６日、国際原子力機関（ＩＡＥＡ）調査団が東京電力福島第１原発事故の影響で蓄積する放射能汚染水について、海洋に放出する可能性を含めて検討すべきだと勧告したことは「妥当だ」と述べ、支持する考えを示した。東京都内の米国大使館で記者団に答えた。

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman MacFarlane indicated her support for the IAEA recommendation to consider releasing the contaminated water accumulating at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant as the result of the nuclear accident into the ocean. She said the recommendation was appropriate. She spoke with the press at the United States Embassy in Tokyo.

ＩＡＥＡ調査団は４日に、基準値以下の汚染水であれば「放出することを含めた選択肢を検討すべきだ」との報告をまとめていた。

The IAEA delegation issued a report on December 4 that recommended considering alternatives including releasing into the ocean if radioactive materials in the water are below the legal limit.

また同委員長は、福島第１原発事故を原因とする汚染物質が米西海岸地域に与える影響に関する報道が米国内で出ていることについて問われ、「人々が放射線の影響を心配するのは当然だ」と指摘。一方で、「米国（の海）に到達する放射線の量は最大でも飲料水基準の１００分の１未満」との予測に言及し、冷静な対応を呼び掛けた。

Chairman MacFarlane was asked about reporting in the US on the effect of radioactive contaminants from the Fukushima I NPP accident on the west coast of the US. She pointed out that it was natural for people to worry about the effect of radiation, but she referred to the estimate that "the density of radioactive materials that will reach the US (coastal water) will be less than 1/100th of the standard set for drinking water" and called for calm response.

Other than certain blogs and websites that continue to grossly exaggerate the Fukushima nuclear accident (almost to the point of falsifying, by withholding or ignoring data and by declaring "they lie") after nearly two years and 9 months, I don't see much reporting on the Fukushima accident in the US.

There is no mention of the press conference at the US Embassy website yet.

In order to release the treated water from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, ALPS has to be in full operation (to remove gamma nuclides other than cesium, and alpha and beta nuclides (including strontium)), but it isn't. The system continues to have minor problems that prevent the system from operating fully. Then, currently there is no large-scale system that could remove tritium (whatever the US Energy Secretary says about Kurion), thus dilution as recommended by IAEA.

=====================

By the way, the US NRC has been ordered to resume the licensing review of Yucca Mountain Waste Repository, after the "US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a 2-1 decision August 13 that NRC had violated the law when it suspended the congressionally mandated review of the Yucca Mountain repository license application in 2011 and ordered the agency to restart that process".

From Platts.com (11/18/2013; emphasis is mine):

US NRC to resume Yucca Mountain waste repository licensing review

The commissioners of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered agency staff Monday to complete and publish a safety evaluation report on the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada, nuclear spent fuel and waste repository.

"The Commission has also requested [Department of Energy] to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement requested by the staff in order to complete [NRC's] environmental review of the application," NRC said in a statement Monday.

The multi-volume safety evaluation report, or SER, reflects NRC staff's assessment of the repository proposed for the site roughly 95 miles (about 153 km) outside Las Vegas and is considered in NRC's determination of whether the facility would meet regulatory requirements. Volume 3 on the post-closure safety of a repository at Yucca Mountain is central to making that determination.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents the US nuclear power industry, was among those who have recommended that completion of the SER be a top NRC priority. NEI did not respond immediately Monday to a request for comment on the commission's order.

YUCCA DECISION NOT IMMINENT

NRC spokesman David McIntyre said in a post Monday on the agency's blog that the commission's order does not "signal that a licensing decision is imminent. Before a final licensing decision can be made, the adjudicatory hearing must be completed, and the Commission must perform its own review."

Calls for completion of the SER were included in comments NRC staff and licensing participants filed with the commission September 30.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a 2-1 decision August 13 that NRC had violated the law when it suspended the congressionally mandated review of the Yucca Mountain repository license application in 2011 and ordered the agency to restart that process.

Gregory Jaczko, the NRC chairman in 2011, attributed the suspension to NRC's lack of funds to complete the work. The agency began what it called an "orderly closure" of its Yucca licensing activities in 2010, the same year DOE dismantled the Yucca Mountain program and left the repository license application at NRC under review.

NRC staff estimated in comments to the commission in September that it is possible SER Volumes 2-5 could be completed in about 12 months at a total cost of less than $11.1 million, the amount of carryover funds NRC has available to complete the review.

DOE told the commission in its comments that the department "is committed to complying as expeditiously as possible with any NRC order, subject to the availability of funds." DOE said it has about $15.4 million in unobligated Yucca carryover funds that could be used to support participation in an NRC licensing proceeding. The department added that it also has $29.5 million in Nuclear Waste Fund money that is obligated on existing contracts and that about $18.1 million of that obligated money could be used for DOE work needed to support an NRC licensing proceeding.

NRC's McIntyre said Monday that the commission's order does not direct staff to resume an NRC licensing board's adjudicatory hearing on the application, nor does it reactivate the Licensing Support Network, or LSN, a system created by NRC as a web-based document storage and retrieval system that could be used as tool during legal discovery in a Yucca licensing proceeding.

"The Commission said it would consider the future of the LSN and the adjudicatory hearing once the tasks it directed today are completed and it can determine what tasks it can perform with whatever available funds remain," McIntyre said.

Tweet

(UPDATED) (OT) Japan's Upper House Special Committee on National Security Just Passed the State Secrecy Protection Law; It Now Goes to the Floor

The bill no one in the ruling coalition or in the opposition seems to have a firm grasp of to ask intelligent questions and give intelligent answers has just passed the Committee vote by the majority (4:08PM, December 5, 2013).

According to the party newspaper of Japanese Communist Party (tweet), an LDP member of the Committee submitted a motion to stop the discussion, and the Committee chairman declared, in the middle of discussion, that there be a vote. The majority voted for the bill, and the Committee was adjourned in confusion.

There is no filibuster in Japan's Upper House. The US Senate had one until very recently when Dirty Harry effectively ditched this long tradition of more than 200 years.

The bill immediately goes to the Upper House session. LDP and the coalition partner Komei Party seem to want to pass the bill within today, the last day of the Diet session.

Rushing the bill full of holes doesn't make sense politically for the ruling coalition. Frogs are to be boiled slowly.

Citizens have been gathering around the National Diet building, and I see more net citizens tweeting that they are on their way to the Diet building, even if that means they are "terrorists" (according to LDP's Ishiba) shouting and demonstrating against the government.

Citizens report a sudden increase of the police in the area surrounding the Diet building.

Japanese Communist Party wants to submit the parliamentary motion of non-confidence against the cabinet in the Lower House, which may result in the resignation of the cabinet and the Lower House election. But it needs 50 members of the Lower House to submit the motion. There are only 8 Representatives from Communist Party, and unless the second largest party in the Lower House (Democratic Party of Japan, 57 Representatives) joins Communist Party, that is not going to happen.

NHK says it didn't broadcast the committee proceedings, because there was very little interest from Japanese citizens.

One logic repeated by LDP members of the Diet is: "Since we won the election, we have the mandate. We can do whatever we want, and that's what the voters want us to do."

Does it sound familiar?

By the way, US Vice President Joe Biden (expert on foreign relations and national security, said the Japanese media) was in Japan on December 3rd. I'm sure he instructed Abe very well.

Tweet

(OT) Team Obama Changes Course, Appears to Accept China Air Defense Zone, Says Foreign Policy Magazine

Japan looks so solidly under the bus now, even as the ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party and Komei Party (plus Your Party and probably Japan Restoration Party) pushes the passage of the State Secrecy Protection Law in the Upper House of the Japanese national Diet, trying to do the bidding - supposedly - of the US Obama administration.

From Foreign Policy (12/4/2013; part, emphasis is mine):

Team Obama Changes Course, Appears to Accept China Air Defense Zone

Top Obama administration and Pentagon officials signaled a willingness to temporarily accept China's new, controversial air defense identification zone on Wednesday. Those officials expressed disapproval for the way in which the Asian power has flexed its muscles, and cautioned China not to implement the zone. But they also carved out wiggle room in which the United States and China ultimately could find common ground on the issue, indicating that they may be willing to live with the zone for now -- as long as China backs off its demand that all aircraft traveling through it check in first.

"It wasn't the declaration of the ADIZ that actually was destabilizing," said Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, America's highest-ranking military officer. "It was their assertion that they would cause all aircraft entering the ADIZ to report regardless of whether they were intending to enter into the sovereign airspace of China. And that is destabilizing."

That's a change from just a few days ago, when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden demanded that China take back its declaration of the zone. And it's another demonstration that China's recent decisions have forced the United States to tread carefully. On Wednesday, Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for more than five hours, according to a senior administration official. In brief public remarks midway through the marathon session, Biden didn't mention the air defense zone at all.

...In meetings in Beijing on Wednesday, Biden laid out the U.S. position in detail, reiterating that the United States does not recognize the new zone and has deep concerns about it, a senior administration official said. Biden told Xi that the United States wants China to take steps to lower tensions in the region, avoid enforcement actions that could lead to crisis, and to establish communication with Japan and other countries in the region to avoid altercations, the administration official added. Privately, Biden did not call for the air defense identification zone it to be rolled back -- something administration officials had done Monday while Biden was visiting Japan. Instead, the vice president asked the Chinese leader to be careful about how his country operated the zone going forward.

"He indicated to Xi that we are looking to China to take steps as we move forward to lower tensions, to avoid enforcement actions that could lead to crisis, and to establish channels of communication with Japan, but also with their other neighbors to avoid the risk of mistake, miscalculation, accident or escalation," the official told reporters in Beijing.

(Full article at the link)

"As long as you don't actually implement and enforce it, your ADIZ is OK with us in the US (wink wink)" is essentially what VP Biden and General Dempsey are saying.

Much like President Obama issuing executive orders to let businesses break the law (Obamacare) for one year without penalty.

Meanwhile, after the all-night session in the Upper House that covered pending legislations including the State Security Protection Law, the Special Committee for National Security of the Upper House is in session right now. There is no TV station covering the proceeding, and the livecast of the Upper House is sketchy at best due to a large number of access requests from net citizens. So here's Yahoo Japan, if you're interested and understand Japanese, who has started the netcast:

Live streaming video by Ustream

The choreography is that the Committee vote is expected in the afternoon, and then the bill goes to the full Upper House floor either in the evening for vote or tomorrow, by extending the Diet session by one day. Watching the questions and answers in the Committee, neither side - the Abe administration and the ruling coalition, or the opposition - doesn't seem to quite know what they are talking about.

Remember Boy Wonder, aka Mayor of Osaka City of comfort women fame? He's trying his best to get his name printed in the newspaper by making fuss about the law that he and his party are quite in favor of. Right now, Boy Wonder is saying he thinks the law is necessary, but he doesn't agree with the vote today.

Just like in the Lower House, his party will be happy as long as the bill is not voted on today.

It is all happening as the US has thrown Japan under the bus and Japan doesn't even know it.

Tweet

Japan's Major Newspapers Have Timely "Scoops" on the Government "Suppression" of Information on Nuclear Issues After the Fukushima I NPP Accident

as the vocal opposition to the State Secrecy Protection Law (which is now in the Upper House) from the press, legal experts, scholars, celebrities, net citizens and citizens in the real (physical) world continues in Japan.

Mainichi, Asahi, and Tokyo Shinbun in particular have been expressing the fear, real or imagined, that anything related to the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident can be categorized by the national government as "state secret" and suppressed.

As if to prove their point, Mainichi and Asahi each published an article, supposedly disclosing the secret documents (both of which appear, simply, not to have been designated for public release and consumption - i.e. internal ministerial documents) related to the nuclear accident that they had obtained (Mainichi through information disclosure request, Asahi through insider leaking the information).

First, Mainichi says it has obtained a 30-page document, a report of the visit to Chernobyl in March 2012 by the delegation of the Cabinet Office, through information disclosure request. No reason is given why Mainichi requested this report one year and eight months later.

From Mainichi Shinbun, via Yahoo News (12/1/2013):

東京電力福島第１原発事故への対応の参考にするとして内閣府が２０１２年３月、ロシアなどへ職員を派遣し、旧ソ連チェルノブイリ原発事故（１９８６年）の被災者支援を定めた「チェルノブイリ法」の意義を否定する報告書をまとめていたことが分かった。同法の理念を受け継いだ「子ども・被災者生活支援法」の法案作成時期と重なるが、非公表のまま関係の近い原発推進派の団体などに配られていた。

It has been revealed that the Cabinet Office complied the report that denied the significance of [so-called] "Chernobyl Act", which was established to support the victims after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 in the former Soviet Union. The Cabinet Office had sent officials in March 2012 to Russia and other countries to help decide the government response to the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. It was when the "Children and Disaster Victims Support Act", which inherited the principle from the Chernobyl Act, was being drafted. However, the trip report was never made public; instead it was distributed to pro-nuclear groups that had a close association [with the officials who went on the trip].

支援法は、線量が一定以上の地域を対象に幅広い支援をうたって１２年６月に成立したが、今年１０月に支援地域を福島県内の一部に限定した基本方針が決まっており、成立を主導した国会議員らからは「国は早い時期から隠れて骨抜きを図っていたのではないか」と不信の声が上がる。

The "Children and Disaster Victims Support Act" was passed in June 2012, promising extensive support for [people] in the areas with certain levels of radiation exposure. However, in October 2013 the basic policy was set to limit the support areas to part of Fukushima Prefecture only. The members of the National Diet who led the effort to pass the Act now suspect that the national government was secretly planning to water down the Act from early on.

報告書はＡ４判３０ページで、内閣府原子力被災者生活支援チームが作成。毎日新聞の情報公開請求で開示された。調査団は同チームの菅原郁郎事務局長補佐（兼・経済産業省経済産業政策局長）を団長に、復興庁職員を含む約１０人。ウクライナ、ベラルーシ（２月２８日〜３月６日）とロシア（３月４〜７日）を２班で視察し、各政府関係者や研究者から聞き取りした。

The 30-page trip report was written by the Cabinet Office Support Team for Nuclear Disaster Victims, and it was obtained by the information disclosure request from Mainichi Shinbun. The 10-person delegation was headed by Ikuro Sugawara, assistant Secretary General of the team (and Director General of Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau at Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). The delegation went to Ukraine and Belarus (from 2/28 to 3/6/2012) and Russia (3/4 to 3/7/2012) in two groups, and interviewed government officials and researchers there.

報告書は、チェルノブイリ法が年間被ばく線量１ミリシーベルトと５ミリシーベルトを基準に移住の権利や義務を定めたことについて「（区域設定が）過度に厳しい」として「補償や支援策が既得権になり、自治体や住民の反対のため区域の解除や見直しができない」「膨大なコストに対し、見合う効果はない」「日本で採用するのは不適当」などの証言を並べ、同法の意義を否定。両事故の比較で、福島での健康影響対策は適切だったと強調もしている。

While the "Chernobyl Act" confers the right to relocate [to residents] in the areas with annual radiation exposure exceeding 1 millisievert and the obligation to relocate in the areas with annual radiation exposure exceeding 5 millisieverts, the report denies the significance of the "Chernobyl Act" by saying "(Designation of the areas) are too strict", and citing testimonies such as "Compensation and support schemes become vested rights, and lifting or modifying the designated areas cannot be done due to opposition from municipalities and residents", "there is no benefit that justifies the enormous cost", "The Chernobyl Act is not appropriate to adopt in Japan". In comparing both nuclear accidents, the report also emphasizes that the [government] measures against health effects in Fukushima Prefecture were appropriate.

支援法の成立を主導した谷岡郁子元参院議員（当時民主）は「視察自体聞いていない」。川田龍平参院議員（みんな）は「できるだけ被害を矮小（わいしょう）化したい意図が当時からあったことが分かる。支援法つぶしが目的だろう」と話した。

Ms. Kuniko Tanioka, former Councilor (then of Democratic Party of Japan) who led the effort to pass the Children and Disaster Victims Support Act says, "I haven't heard about the visit itself." Councilor Ryuhei Kawada (of Your Party) says, "It's clear that [the government] intended to downplay the damage at that time. The purpose was probably to squash the Children and Disaster Victims Support Act."

菅原氏は「自分は支援法に関与していない」と反論。一方で、支援法が低線量被ばくによる健康影響の可能性を認めて自主避難者の意思を尊重しているのに対し、菅原氏は「当時健康影響は過剰に強調されていた。それより心のケアが大事だと伝えるため、報告書を持っていろんな人に説明した」と述べ、チェルノブイリ法や支援法と異なる理念を広めるのに使ったことは認めた。これまで原発を推進する立場の有識者団体や、支援法を主導した議員とは別の一部議員などに配ったという。

Mr. Sugawara argues that he wasn't involved with the Children and Disaster Victims Support Act. However, he admits that he used the report to spread a different idea from the Chernobyl Act and the Children and Disaster Victims Support Act, and says "At that time the health effects were exaggerated. So we explained to people by showing the report that the psychological care was more important." The report was distributed to pro-nuclear expert groups and members of the Diet who were not leading the effort to pass the Children and Disaster Victims Support Act.

また当時復興相として調査を指示した平野達男参院議員は「チェルノブイリ法の実情を見てくるよう指示した」と説明したが、「今読めば一方的過ぎると言われても仕方ない」と内容の偏りを認めた。菅原氏らが報告書をどう使ったかは知らなかったといい、「結果としてそういう（公表せず一部の人に配る）使われ方をした。いろいろな考え方を持っている人に配るべきだった」と話した。

Councilor Tatsuo Hirano, then-Minister of Reconstruction who ordered the trip says he instructed the officials to see how the Chernobyl Act was implemented, but he admits that the report may be biased. "You could say it is one-sided, if you read it today." Mr. Hirano says he didn't know how the report was used by Mr. Sugawara and his people. "The report ended up (being distributed to a small number of people without being made public). It should have been distributed to people with different opinions."

Haven't heard of it? Well Ms. Tanioka, it was your party who was in charge of the national government at that time. According to Mainichi, the report is biased because it lacks more dire testimonies, comments, research results from Ukraine and Belarus.

The so-called "Chernobyl Act" is revered in Japan among people who are worried about the effect of radiation from the accident as the infallible and scientific standard to deal with a nuclear accident and the victims of a nuclear accident.

Then, Asahi says it has obtained a document created in March 2011 right after the start of the Fukushima I NPP accident by an official at Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (which was simultaneously the promoter and the regulator of the nuclear industry in Japan at that time).

(Asahi also says it was TEPCO who caused the nuclear accident, not the 9.1 earthquake and huge tsunami caused by the quake.)

From Asahi Shinbun (12/2/2013; part):

福島事故直後に「原子力再生」　経産省が機密文書

Confidential document by METI: "Nuclear power revival" right after the Fukushima accident

２０１１年３月に東京電力が福島第一原発事故を起こした直後、経済産業省が「原子力の再生」や「原発輸出の再構築」をめざす内部文書をつくっていたことがわかった。事故の混乱が続いている最中にもかかわらず、原発推進政策の維持を図ろうとしていた。

Right after Tokyo Electric Power Company caused the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry created an internal document for "the revival of nuclear power" and "rebuilding the nuclear power plant export", it has been revealed. The ministry was trying to maintain the policy to promote nuclear power in the middle of confusion after the nuclear accident.

朝日新聞は、３月下旬の日付で情報管理が必要な「機密」扱いの「原子力エネルギー再復興へ向けて」と題する文書を入手した。関係者によると、原発にくわしい幹部がつくり、エネルギー政策にかかわる幹部級に配られた。事故後の方針を確認したり政策を立案したりするたたき台の一つになったという。

Asahi Shinbun obtained the "classified" (meaning the document requires access control) document dated in late March 2011 and titled "For the revival of nuclear power". According to the source, the document was created by the officials knowledgeable about nuclear power (plants), and distributed to the officials involved in energy policies. This document became one of the bases for confirming and planning the policies after the accident.

冒頭の「趣意」には「原子力なきエネルギー安定供給は成り立たない」「原子力存続に向けた政府の再決意を表明する」と書かれている。そのうえで「原子力再生を果たし、インフラ輸出基盤を再構築」と記し、原発の維持と輸出促進を確認した。「経産省の再生そのもの」とも強調し、最重要政策に位置づけている。

The "Executive Summary" at the top says "There is no stable energy supply without nuclear power," and "This is to declare the renewed determination by the national government to continue nuclear power." Further, it says "[We will] revive nuclear power, and rebuild the base for infrastructure export," reaffirming the maintaining of nuclear power plants and promotion of the export [of nuclear power plants]. It emphasizes [the revival of nuclear power] is "the revival of METI itself", and positions it as the most important policy [of the government].

輸出では「今回の悲劇に潜む情報を分析し、世界に共有する」としている。原発輸出を進める安倍政権は「事故の経験と教訓を世界と共有する」と唱えており、その原型と言える。

In the export [section], it says "we will analyze the information from this tragedy and share it with the world". The mantra of the Abe administration, in promoting the export of nuclear power plants, is "to share the experience and lessons of the accident with the world", and this internal document may have served as a prototype.

さらに、（１）（事故の）応急措置（２）緊急時宣言（３）原子力規制委員会の形成（４）東電解体と新電力事業体制の確立、という項目があり、とるべき具体策が並ぶ。このうち規制委は１２年９月、民主党政権でつくられた。文書では新基準で審査したうえで「合格原発の稼働」としており、民主党政権や「原発活用」を掲げる安倍政権の再稼働方針とも重なっている。

Further, there are sections discussing the detailed plans such as: (1) Emergency response to the accident, (2) Emergency declaration (3) Forming the Nuclear Regulation Authority, (4) Dissolution of TEPCO and establishment of new electric power business structure. The Nuclear Regulation Authority was set up in September 2012 under the DPJ administration. According to the document, [nuclear power plants] to be inspected under the new standard and "restart the plants that pass the inspection", which dovetails with the policy under the DPJ administrations and the Abe administration whose policy is to "utilize nuclear power plants".

当時、経産省資源エネルギー庁にいた官僚は「原発に知見のある幹部が文書をつくった。政策に通じた幹部の考えが実現するのは自然の流れだ」と説明する。

A bureaucrat who worked at the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy under METI at that time says, "The document was created by high-ranking officials knowledgeable about nuclear power plants. It is only natural that the ideas from the officials who know a lot about policy-making get implemented.

特定秘密保護法案では原発にかかわる文書なども秘匿されかねない。国民がこれらの政策立案過程を検証できなくなる恐れもある。

Under the State Secrecy Protection Law, documents related to nuclear power plants may be concealed. Citizens may not be able to examine the policy planning process.

As usual in Japan, neither newspaper even lets the readers see the documents. There is no link, no embed. We as the readers have to take their word for it.

Both Mainichi and Asahi had more than a year, if they wanted, to dig up and report their respective information, and examine the policy planning process as much as they liked. They didn't. But suddenly, with the State Secrecy Protection Law with its potential threat to press freedom which they didn't bother exercising much since the start of the nuclear accident, they cough up the information as if to prove their worth to the public.

Tweet

(OT) Discussion of Japan's State Secrecy Protection Law in Upper House Abruptly Halted to Allow Public Hearings

I was watching the main floor discussion of the State Secrecy Protection Law in Japan's Upper House (House of Councilors) in the Japanese National Diet via the live feed by the Upper House. All of a sudden there was a motion from an LDP member for a break, and the motion was granted by the chairman. The chairman then interrupted the Special Committee chairman who was reporting the discussion in the Committee.

The Upper House livecast screen says "House of Councilors main session is in a break".

The reason is apparently to allow a so-called public hearing in Saitama City in Saitama Prefecture to proceed as scheduled at 3:20PM. The public hearing was hastily scheduled yesterday by the ruling coalition.

You know how one of these public hearings go. It's nothing but formality, one item on the check-off list.

Since the bill passed the Lower House on November 26, more celebrities, scholars, citizens, foreign journalists (here's one from the New York Times Tokyo Bureau chief, in Japanese) and ex-government officials (like Morton Halperin, here) and heads of international institutions have joined the chorus of opposition to the Japanese domestic law.

My TL is full of tweets that say things like:

"See how the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemns the law! Japan should listen to what the UN says!"

Tweet