Street Roots • Aug. 28-Sept. 3, 2015
News
Page 7
In spite of all this, a power
company announced that a severe
accident that lets out radioactive
substances on a large scale
happens only once in a million
S ap p oro
years. Ino said: “Recently,
Kagoshima District Court overruled
the petition to prohibit the
operation resumption of Sendai
Nuclear Power Plant of Kyushu
Power Company. The judge
certified that level of accident rate
as well. That means the nuclear
power community’s message of ‘an
accident happens almost never’ is
very well disseminated.”
In August, Sendai Nuclear Power
Fukushima lì (4î
Plant was the first plant to resume
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R
C p W (4) ;
.
operation after the new regulation
standard was put in place by the
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METI (Ministry ofEconomics,
Nagoya
Kobe _ ,
Trade and Industry). “Though the
government and the electric power
companies boast that it is ‘the
world’s strictest safety standard,’ it
is in fact much more lax than those
in the U.S. and Europe,” says Ino.
The most serious deficiency of
the new regulation standard is,
according to Ino, the fact that they
deleted the location site evaluation
Japan Nuclear power plants map, with Fukushima I nuclear accidents.
guideline. The old standard strictly
regulated the radiation exposure level
NUCLEAR, from page 5
of the inhabitants of the surrounding areas. The new one
deleted that part, he claims.
lOOkW,” said Ino. “They do not want to decommission
“It is because they cannot find any location, even a less-
Takahama. These two stations are equally dangerous, but
populated area, that meets the standard if they deal with the
the decision is made based on economic rather than safety
possibility of an accident as grave as Fukushima,” claims
reasons.”
Ino; “The new standard also inherits the conventional
Today, there are approximately 430 nuclear power units
design criteria which assumes only a malfunction of a single
in operation in the world. When a nuclear reactor operates
machine.
However, we have a significant chance of a
for bne year, it is called one reactor-year. The global nuclear
simultaneous malfunction of a number of machines caused
plant operation amounts to 16,000 reactor-years so far.
“During this period, there have been five major accidents, by earthquakes and tsunami. If it happens, it would be
extremely difficult to implement the three principles of a
namely Three Mile in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, Fukushima
Daiichi, Daini and Daisan in 2011. That means a big accident nuclear reactor shutdown; namely shutdown, cooldown and
contain. Therefore, I would say this new regulatory standard
once in every 3,200 reactor-years. If we divide this with 430
units, we have a possibility to have a major accident every , is set rather to reopen the nuclear power plants which
already exist, than to enforce the safety measures.” /
7.4 reactor-years.” @
At a review meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in August 2013, members discussed a case
based on the assumption that “the coolant is lost due to
major damage in the pipework,” “the emergency reactor
core cooling system does not function because electricity
both from the grid and from emergency generators is
knocked out,” and “containment vessel spray does not
work.” The director of the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant said,
“In such a situation, we currently have no measure to
prevent reactor core damage.”
As for the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, because there are
several caldera volcanoes nearby that have a history of large-
scale eruptions, it runs a risk of being affected by volcano
eruptions. The plant is located, according to the Nankai
Trough earthquakes plan, in the area of “over intensity 5.”
In addition, both Sendai and Takahama have adopted
Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) made by Mitsubishi.
Fukushima used the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), and
nitrogen was filled up inside the containment vessel to
prevent hydrogen explosion, which resulted in no explosion
in the containment vessel. On the other hand, the PWR
containment vessel is filled with air, not nitrogen. If
hydrogen, generated by a serious accident, explodes inside a
containment vessel, there is a possibility that the
containment vessel is destroyed. “The ideal measure is to
decommission the reactor. But the realistic measures we
can take right away are: to fill the containment vessel with
nitrogen, to install a core catcher to receive the melted
reactor core, to conduct an assessment, not only by a power
company alone but also a cross-check assessment by
independent organizations,” adds Ino.
In the 2030s energy target ratio, set by METI, nuclear
power represents 20 to 22 percent. “This figure is feasible
only by restarting a number of old nuclear power plants,”
says Ino. “I think for future energy policy we should
establish such a system that citizens can reach a public
consensus through discussions based on accurate
information, including power companies’ opinions as well as
critical opinions.
“In face of the government’s attitude that takes the
operation resumptions for granted, if citizens give up,
nobody can stop this trend. Citizens’ movements can
influence the courts. As scientists, our role is to offer
scientific information about what can happen and to validate
irresponsible explanations given by government and power
companies. It is up to citizens whether to take it seriously
or not. The last resort to stop the real danger is, I believe,
in the power of citizens.”
Courtesy of INSP News Service www.INSP.ngo/ Big issue
Japan
ACHIEVEMENT, from page 4
area of research is new. What are the questions you now have?
A.W.: Does that mean if you’re looking at a 30year-old
person in this cohort, at the cellular level they are closer to 45,
for Instance?
G.M.: We don’tknow yet exactly what that means. Other
studies show that they have higher blood pressure, they
seem to have higher body mass and more fat. It seems like
they are farther down the road toward eventual health
problems than their peers. We know that a lot of the
problems people eventually have with diabetes and heart
disease don’t start in middle age. They start in childhood
and adolescence, and they progress at a slow pace. With
strivers, these problem seems to be starting faster.
A.W.: Is it normal to have such a disparity between
biological and chronological aging? What is the relationship
between the two?
G.M.: They are highly related. The distance between
them tell us something about how much stress people are
under and what underlying health risks there are. For
example, if you look at cancer cells from a 20 year old, those
cells look like they are 50 or 60. If you look at liver cells
from someone who is obese, (those cells) look about five
years older than someone who is not obese. What we know
is that agitation from chronological age ... is a risk factpr
(for) already having health problems, or that yoy will have
them in the future.
A.W.: Suppose you sat one of these high-achieving people
down and you told them their health is poor because they've
worked so hard to have a good career and a stable life. Do you
think that is something they would realize about themselves?
G.M.: That’s a good question. We don’t know the answer
yet.
A.W.: You've said repeatedly during this interview that this
ìéjì
L
J
G.M.: This is very early stage work and raises more
questions than answers. The next steps are figuring out
some of the most pressing questions about how
generalizable (the findings are). Is it something about the
kids we’re studying, or more broadly applicable to other
kids, other places, other classes? That’s the main thing we
want to know right now.
There is still uncertainty about what this means for actual
health problems or mortality. What does it mean for long
term disease? Everything we studied so far is a biomarker -
a precursor of disease. It doesn’t mean you have the health
problems. Finding out whether these kids are the ones who
go on to have heart attacks and strokes is 40 years down the
line. We can’t get answers immediately like we could if we
were studying fruit flies or bacteria. If you want to do
studies with kids, you have to follow them for decades and
decades.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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