Tthe man who predicted the worst nuclear disaster in the world since Chernobyl saw another.
“There is a strong possibility that there is another nuclear disaster in Japan and the company that manages the largest nuclear power plant here cannot be trusted,” said Toshio Kimura, a nuclear engineer who predicted Japan’s nuclear disaster. in 2011 six years before it occurred. The daily beast.
The company he is referring to is his former employer, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), which operated the Fukushima plant that suffered a historic nuclear demolition in March 2011 after a huge maritime earthquake triggered it. a tsunami that flooded its reactors and released deadly radiation and forced the evacuation of 160,000 people.
A year after the incident, an investigation by a Japanese parliamentary court concluded that, “although triggered by these cataclysmic events,” the disaster was “deeply man-made” and can be attributed to “a multitude of mistakes and intentional negligence that left Fukushima plant unprepared for events. “
Last week, the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) effectively banned TEPCO from restarting its Kashiwazaki plant, which is one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants on the sea coast. of Japan after it was found that the complex was full of security flaws this could make it a target for terrorists.
Inspectors found 16 places where unauthorized entry to the plant was possible and an attempt was made to do so. Although the utility company had informed the government of some of its defective equipment, they had lied about the backup systems that were supposed to fix the problem.
“It’s just another example of this company, which covers bad things, as they always do. That can only be said [TEPCO] it is in no way qualified to run a nuclear power plant, ”Kimura said.
In 2005, after retiring from the company, Kimura wrote in an article that “if the [Fukushima] the plant is affected by a tsunami, the pumps must use seawater as coolant and emergency energy will probably be lost. And, as a result, there will be a fusion of the reactor core. ”His prediction came true in 2011.
“Are they fucking with us?”
– Toyoshi Fuketa, president of the NRA.
In Kimura’s new book How nuclear energy will destroy the nation, notes that TEPCO’s persistent cover-ups have led to fundamentally flawed nuclear safety regulations. Now, it is clear that the Japanese nuclear authority agrees with him.
After obtaining preliminary approval to open certain units, the utility company hoped to restart the Fukushima nuclear power plant as early as this year. But last week’s announcement served as a de facto order to suspend operations until “the company reaches a state where self-sustaining improvement can be expected,” the ANR said. The restart would have increased the company’s profits by an estimated $ 950 million annually.
At a press conference on the TEPCO plant earlier this year, ANR President Toyoshi Fuketa, while discussing the company’s inability to take effective alternative measures to address security issues, he threw in an angry throw, “Was it dishonesty?” He said. “Did they notice the problem and do nothing? Are there any problems with your technological prowess? Are they fucking with us? “
Although authorities have finally derailed TEPCO’s immediate nuclear plans, experts say Japan’s nuclear dangers are far from fixed.
“TEPCO has lied and falsified crucial safety data while operating nuclear power plants. A year or so is a slap in the face for a company that has tricked regulators and systematically changed security, “Jeff Kingston, a professor at Tokyo Temple University who has investigated the nuclear crisis, told The Daily Beast of Japan for more than a decade.
“He will get approval once he avoids shooting himself in the foot,” he added.
The Kashiwazaki plant has become a symbol of TEPCO’s ineptitude and the dangers of nuclear power in an island country where earthquakes are frequent. Japan is located in the “Ring of Fire”, a region around much of the Pacific Ocean coast, where volcanic eruptions and frequent earthquakes are common. Building nuclear reactors in Japan is a bit like building wind turbines made with razor blades and rotting wood in the US tornado alley. Not the best place to do it.
But today, there are still four nuclear reactors in operation in four Japanese prefectures – two in Fukui, one in Saga and one in Kagoshima – and all are affected by safety issues such as malfunctioning refrigerant pumps, leaks inappropriate steam and anti-terrorism. measures.
The Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), which operates two of its nuclear power plants, is at the center of a corruption scandal involving massive bribes and bribes to and from a city official for three decades. Late last year, the Osaka district court ruled that two reactors at the Oi plant in Fukui were vulnerable to a major earthquake despite being approved to restart it by the ANR. Last year, KEPCO’s plant in Takahama had to suspend operations of two nuclear reactors after failing to build adequate anti-terrorism facilities.
The Genkai power plant in Saga, operated by Kyūshū Electric Power Company, has also suffered many problems since it was reactivated in March 2018, including steam leaks and malfunctioning cooling pumps. Last month, a local district court rejected a lawsuit from residents to stop production, ruling that the plant was safe enough from volcanic and seismic activity under the new guidelines.
Japan’s nuclear power plants have long been notorious for poor security and were often supplied by labor by organized crime groups before and after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Even now, background checks are not mandatory. The situation is so dire that two former rival party prime ministers held a joint press conference in March this year calling on Japan to abandon nuclear power. The majority of Japanese citizens seem to share their vision, with 53 percent opposing restarting the country’s nuclear reactors.
But this is no longer just Japan’s problem. Last week, the government announced that in two years’ time, Japan will release radioactive waste into the ocean that is still overflowing from its 2011 nuclear accident. Although officials have assured that the water will be safe, they have not mentioned that much of the treated water contains lethal levels of other radioactive materials.
What about the people of Japan and the countries that share their ocean when the next nuclear accident occurs? It is possible that this is just an earthquake and neither TEPCO nor the government that should regulate them have a promising track record when it comes to managing nuclear power.
Ten years after the Fukushima incident, TEPCO is still cleaning up the disaster and pouring tons of seawater into the wreckage of the reactors every day to cool them. It will take decades to dismantle the plant, although there will be a disaster waiting to happen.
Japan’s aging nuclear power plants are time bombs waiting to explode. Even if terrorists don’t stumble upon lax security and steal materials to get a dirty bomb, Mother Nature and Entropy can do the job for her.