The TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.) has decided on investment amounting as much as 220 billion Yen to support the Japan Atomic Power Company (Japan Genden - Tokyo) to re-operate its plant at Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. The Genden explains about its request for help of a total of 350 billion Yen to big electric power companies on account of huge cost necessary to safety measures for re-operation.

RESTARTING OBSOLETE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IS DANGEROUS

The TEPCO’s decision is harmful in three terms; firstly, reactors at the Tokai plant nearly escaped a severe accident nine years ago.

All power sources might have lost

On March 11, 2011, during the Great Eastern Japan Earthquakes, the Tokai’s reactors automatically stopped. Routine power source, too, halted mechanically, and three emergency diesel generators instead worked to secure electricity necessary to operate. But a pump to take in sea water for the diesel generators got out of order by tsunami. As a result, two of the generators supplied electricity indispensable to cool down reactors.

An external power source recovered later. On March 15 the reactors were kept cool in the water with a temperature below 100 degree Celsius. Recovering efforts were made desperately for several days after the earthquakes: repetitions of water supply and steam release by operating valves. It took more than twice of time than usual to cool the reactors. Height of the sea waves reached 5.4 meters against the breakwater of 6.1 meters. If the water level had been superior, all the power sources might have been lost in the same way as at Fukushima Dai-ichi.

The Japan Genden does not deny a possibility of the same situation as that at Fukushima where all cool-down operations failed. The Tokai reactors are of the same type of the TEPCO’s, a boiling water reactor (BWR). They are 41years old and should be decommissioned.

Rejection of agreements concluded with municipalities

Secondly, 40 million people live in the Kanto area and one million reside in the radius of 30 km of the Tokai station. Furthermore, if an accident should happen, inhabitants in Fukushima should be affected again fatally as the two prefectures are neighbors. A new accord requests the company to follow conditions if it decides on re-operation; it demands agreement from six municipalities located inside the 30 km radius, including Mito City. If these terms are violated and construction jobs begin, that infringes human lives and dignity.

Court ruling ‘Innocent’ for former TEPCO managers

Thirdly, the Japan Genden is a company which depends on investments by nine electric power companies. The biggest shareholder is the TEPCO Holdings Co. That means the Genden is a TEPCO’s subsidiary. It is quite convenient for TEPCO to generate electricity to sell it in the Kanto market where demand is enormous.

As for another TEPCO’s plant located at Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture, it faces strong resistance of local people against re-operation. TEPCO wants to again start reactors there, too. And therefore it is eager to re-operate BWRs of Genden.

Former managers of TEPCO were ruled recently innocent by the Tokyo District Court in the criminal tribunal of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-chi.

A state’s institute, the Earthquake Investigation and Research Headquarters, had announced ‘a long-term prospect’ earlier in 2002; it pointed out a possibility of earthquakes and tsunami of a scale of M8.2 to take place off the coast of Fukushima. An estimated height of tsunami, in the maximum, was calculated as 15.7 meters, according to the report. The TEPCO’s former managers clearly acknowledged the risk. But the Tokyo District Court acquitted them, without accusing of their negligence of responsibility to take right measures.

The court prefers profits of monopolies to human lives. The Abe government shares the same position. We cannot accept this stance.

December 10, 2019