The State of Affairs and Ongoing Challenges of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster —A Civil Society Response Towards Recovery
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The State of Affairs and Ongoing Challenges of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster —a Civil Society Response Towards Recovery Our Path to a Nuclear-Free Japan —Policy Outline for a Nuclear Phaseout Special Edition for WCDRR 2015 Citizens' Commission on Nuclear Energy March 2015, Tokyo, Japan Citizens’ Commission on Nuclear Energy (CCNE) Table of Contents PREFACE TO THE WCDRR 2015 EDITION .................................................................................................. II AUTHORS, TRANSLATORS AND EDITORS.................................................................................................IV EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................................................VI PROLOGUE: WHY SHOULD WE AIM FOR A NUCLEAR-FREE SOCIETY? ........................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................. 1 0-1 WEAKNESSES IN THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION ................................................ 2 0-2 PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ACCIDENT ......................................................... 3 0-3 ETHICAL DISQUALIFICATIONS OF NUCLEAR POWER ............................................................................................. 5 0-4 NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SHUTDOWN BY LEGAL MEANS ..................................................................................... 6 0-5 COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF NUCLEAR POWER .......................................................................................... 7 0-6 THE “3E” ARGUMENTS TOTALLY UNDERMINED ................................................................................................. 7 0-7 THE FOUR PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL REASONABILITY .............................................................................................. 8 0-8 THE PROBLEMS OF A TIGHT POWER SUPPLY-DEMAND BALANCE AND COST INCREASES ............................................ 9 0-9 POLICY REFORM THAT REFLECTS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE ................................................................................ 10 0-10 OUR VIEW ON THE NUCLEAR RESTART ISSUE ................................................................................................. 10 0-11 REALISATION OF A NUCLEAR-FREE SOCIETY IS NOT DIFFICULT ........................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 1 AN OVERVIEW OF THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ACCIDENT AND THE “RESTORATION OF HUMANITY” ............................................................................. 12 1-0 OVERVIEW AND STRUCTURE OF CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................... 12 1-1 A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE DAMAGE AND ITS PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTICS .............................................. 13 1-1-4 PROTECTION OF RESIDENTS FROM EARLY-STAGE RADIATION EXPOSURE FAILED, MANY LATER EXPOSED AND SUBJECTED TO SERIOUS HEALTH RISKS .................................................................................................................................. 18 1-2 THE PRINCIPLES UNDERPINNING THE “RESTORATION OF HUMANITY” ................................................................. 29 1-3 PRINCIPLES FOR ASCERTAINING AND ASSESSING THE DAMAGE ........................................................................... 35 1-4 COUNTERMEASURE 1: THE RIGHT TO HEALTH ................................................................................................. 40 1-5 COUNTERMEASURE 2: SUPPORT FOR EVACUATION AND RESETTLEMENT .............................................................. 51 1-6 COUNTERMEASURE 3: DECONTAMINATION ..................................................................................................... 60 1-7 COUNTERMEASURE 4 FOOD SAFETY AND THE RESTORATION OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES ................................. 67 1-8 COUNTERMEASURE 5 COMPENSATION ........................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER 2 THE ACTUAL STATE OF THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT REACTORS AND ISSUES SURROUNDING THE ACCIDENT SETTLEMENT ............................................................................. 76 2-0 OVERVIEW AND STRUCTURE OF CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................... 76 2-1 THE STATE OF FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT AND UNRESOLVED ISSUES ......................................... 79 2-2 NECESSITY FOR CLARIFICATION OF THE CAUSES OF THE ACCIDENT ...................................................................... 82 2-3 CURRENT STATE OF POST-ACCIDENT OPERATIONS AND ORGANISATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS REQUIRED TO BRING THE ACCIDENT TO A CLOSURE ................................................................................................................................... 85 2-4 AIR COOLING—A DRASTIC SOLUTION TO THE WATER CONTAMINATION PROBLEM ................................................ 90 2-5 HOW SHOULD THE DESTROYED REACTORS BE FINALLY DISPOSED OF ................................................................... 92 2-6 WORKER HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND EXPOSURE REDUCTION IN THE PLANT SITE ................................................ 94 i Preface to the WCDRR 2015 edition We are pleased to present our report, The State of Affairs and Ongoing Challenges of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster—a Civil Society Response Towards Recovery, on the occasion of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR 2015) in Sendai, Japan. The report intends to answer questions such as: - What have been the impacts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster? - What is the current condition of the victims of the nuclear disaster? - What is going on at the nuclear plant site and what risks still exist? - What mistakes did authorities make in response to the nuclear disaster? - What countermeasures are now necessary to cope with the situation? The present report is a provisional and partial translation of the comprehensive Japanese report, Our Path to a Nuclear-Free Japan: Policy Outline for a Nuclear Phaseout, published in April 2014 by the Citizens’ Commission on Nuclear Energy (CCNE), Tokyo. The full report comprises seven chapters, of which the first three chapters have been translated into English to meet the special interests of the WCDRR delegates as well as experts on disaster control and prevention tasks worldwide. The translated chapters are as follows: (also available for download from the CCNE website: www.ccnejapan.com/?p=2048) Prologue: Why Should We Aim for a Nuclear-Free Society? Chapter 1: An Overview of the Damage Caused by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident and the “Restoration of Humanity” Chapter 2: The Actual State of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Reactors and Issues Surrounding the Accident Settlement The remaining chapters deal with radioactive waste issues (Chapter 3), regulation standards, seismological issues and contingency planning (Chapter 4), financial considerations and sustainability issues (Chapter 5), and the democratic process towards the energy shift (Chapter 6). Please visit the website for a detailed table of contents. The full English edition will appear by July 2015. As such, the references to these chapters (Chapters 3 to 6) that appear within the current text have been left as they are. An executive summary in English covering all the chapters is already available for download from the website. The Japanese Government and the organisers of WCDRR 2015 are inclined to exclude topics related to the nuclear disaster from the congress agenda. This has been criticised by delegates from international and Japanese civil society organisations (CSOs). CCNE, too, finds such avoidance quite inappropriate, unprofessional and unethical, given that the convention this time is being held in the region severely affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, which resulted in an unprecedented complex disaster of quake, flood and radioactive fallout. Even after four years now, more than 120 thousand people are still in exile from the nuclear disaster exclusion zones. (This accounts for nearly 55% of the total number of the people still in refuge from the March 2011 disaster.) That is the reality we face, no matter what your political position is or what technological viewpoints you hold regarding the pros and cons of nuclear power. Please also be reminded that the state of nuclear emergency declared by the Japanese Government in March 2011 has not yet been lifted. The disaster is far from over and the victims need care and support. Hopefully, our report will give you a clear idea about the actual state of affairs of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Your comments and advice, particularly those from your expertise and experience in disaster response and prevention, are most welcome. ii In the text of the report, the names of new laws and institutions we propose in our policy outline are given in “quotation marks” while existing laws and institutions are without quotes. Update information is added in [square brackets] to help readers understand more recent developments in the issues. CCNE is an independent think tank funded by the Takagi Fund for Citizen Science (www.takagifund.org/e/about) with the support of individual donations from concerned civil society members