April 1, 2011
By ALI GOMAA
Cairo
LAST month, Egyptians approved a referendum on constitutional amendments that will pave the way for free elections. The vote was a milestone in Egypt’s emerging democracy after a revolution that swept away decades of authoritarian rule. But it also highlighted an issue that Egyptians will grapple with as they consolidate their democracy: the role of religion in political life.
The vote was preceded by the widespread use of religious slogans by supporters and opponents of the amendments, a debate over the place of religion in Egypt’s future Constitution and a resurgence in political activity by Islamist groups. Egypt is a deeply religious society, and it is inevitable that Islam will have a place in our democratic political order. This, however, should not be a cause for alarm for Egyptians, or for the West.
Egypt’s religious tradition is anchored in a moderate, tolerant view of Islam. We believe that Islamic law guarantees freedom of conscience and expression (within the bounds of common decency) and equal rights for women. And as head of Egypt’s agency of Islamic jurisprudence, I can assure you that the religious establishment is committed to the belief that government must be based on popular sovereignty.
While religion cannot be completely separated from politics, we can ensure that it is not abused for political gain.
Much of the debate around the referendum focused on Article 2 of the Constitution — which, in 1971, established Islam as the religion of the state and, a few years later, the principles of Islamic law as the basis of legislation — even though the article was not up for a vote. But many religious groups feared that if the referendum failed, Egypt would eventually end up with an entirely new Constitution with no such article.
On the other side, secularists feared that Article 2, if left unchanged, could become the foundation for an Islamist state that discriminates against Coptic Christians and other religious minorities.
But acknowledgment of a nation’s religious heritage is an issue of national identity, and need not interfere with the civil nature of its political processes. There is no contradiction between Article 2 and Article 7 of Egypt’s interim Constitution, which guarantees equal citizenship before the law regardless of religion, race or creed. After all, Denmark, England and Norway have state churches, and Islam is the national religion of politically secular countries like Tunisia and Jordan. The rights of Egypt’s Christians to absolute equality, including their right to seek election to the presidency, is sacrosanct.
Similarly, long-suppressed Islamist groups can no longer be excluded from political life. All Egyptians have the right to participate in the creation of a new Egypt, provided that they respect the basic tenets of religious freedom and the equality of all citizens. To protect our democracy, we must be vigilant against any party whose platform or political rhetoric threatens to incite sectarianism, a prohibition that is enshrined in law and in the Constitution.
Islamists must understand that, in a country with such diverse movements as the Muslim Brotherhood; the Wasat party, which offers a progressive interpretation of Islam; and the conservative Salafi movements, no one group speaks for Islam.
At the same time, we should not be afraid that such groups in politics will do away with our newfound freedoms. Indeed, democracy will put Islamist movements to the test; they must now put forward programs and a political message that appeal to the Egyptian mainstream. Any drift toward radicalism will not only run contrary to the law, but will also guarantee their political marginalization.
Having overthrown the heavy hand of authoritarianism, Egyptians will not accept its return under the guise of religion. Islam will have a place in Egypt’s democracy. But it will be as a pillar of freedom and tolerance, never as a means of oppression.
Ali Gomaa is the grand mufti of Egypt.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
01/04 Shiites in Iraq Support Bahrain’s Protesters
Shiites in Iraq Support Bahrain’s Protesters
Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times
Responding to a call by the cleric Moktada al-Sadr, thousands of Iraqi Shiites demonstrated in Baghdad last month in support of Shiite protesters in Bahrain.
By TIM ARANGO
Published: April 1, 2011
BAGHDAD — The violent suppression of the uprising in Bahrain has become a Shiite rallying cry in Iraq, where the American war overturned a Sunni-dominated power structure much like the one in place in Bahrain.
Ahmad Chalabi, an erstwhile American partner in the period before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and a Shiite member of Parliament, on Friday denounced what he called a double standard in the Western powers’ response to the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East — particularly in Bahrain, where a Sunni minority dominates a vast and restive underclass made up of his Shiite brethren.
“They called for international action in Libya,” Mr. Chalabi said in a meeting hall on the grounds of his farm outside Baghdad. “But they kept their mouths shut with what is happening in Bahrain.”
The Iraqi Parliament briefly suspended its work to protest Bahrain’s crackdown on largely peaceful protesters, and the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, also a Shiite, recently said in an interview with the BBC that the events in Bahrain could unleash a regional sectarian war like the one that menaced Iraq just a few years ago.
In the Shiite-dominated south, there have been calls to boycott goods from Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy that sent troops to support the Bahraini government. Followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr have taken to the streets to support the demonstrators in Bahrain. And, perhaps most notably, members of the marjaiya, the top Shiite leadership in the holy city of Najaf — usually silent on political matters — have spoken out, including at Mr. Chalabi’s event on Friday, when a Najafi cleric said, “We have tears in our eyes, and our heart aches.”
Mr. Chalabi, in an interview, said it was the first time the marjaiya in Najaf had participated in a political event.
In contrast, few Sunnis have been vocal about Bahrain, and Sunni preachers during Friday Prayer have not made it a rallying cry in the way their Shiite counterparts have. In Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, some have criticized the politicians who are making an issue of Bahrain. In response to the crisis, the authorities in Bahrain have suspended flights to and from Iran and Iraq, the countries in the region with the largest Shiite populations.
Several hundred people — members of Parliament, clerics, Bahraini opposition figures — attended the gathering for Mr. Chalabi’s nascent organization, the Popular Committee in Iraq to Support the People of Bahrain. Outside, artists painted murals.
“This painting represents the connection between Iraq and Bahrain,” said Shurhabel Ahmed, who was working on a section depicting a symbol of the protest movement that had been torn down by the authorities: Bahrain’s Pearl Monument, surrounded by date trees. “This represents the Arab countries,” he said of the trees. “The red is the roots of the tree — the bloodshed.”
Mr. Chalabi called his effort nonsectarian and said some Sunni members of the opposition in Bahrain had been scheduled to attend. “They refused to let them out,” he said. “They stopped them at the airport.”
One Sunni who did attend the gathering was Salah al-Bander, a British citizen originally from Sudan and a former Bahraini government adviser who gained prominence five years ago with a written exposé describing the systematic oppression of Bahrain’s Shiite population. The episode became known as “Bandergate.”
“In Bahrain, it is largely viewed as a Shia uprising,” he said in an interview. “It’s not true. Some Sunnis are among the detainees.”
But the Iraqi Shiite outcry, and especially the meeting that Mr. Chalabi held on Friday to discuss Bahrain’s Constitution, risked lending credence to the claims of the Bahraini ruling class that the uprisings were not the result of indigenous aspirations, but of foreign meddling, especially given Mr. Chalabi’s well-known ties to Iran.
Mr. Bander said the event on Friday — and the broader outcry over Bahrain from Iraq’s Shiite-dominated leadership — sent a message that Iraq was becoming a voice in regional affairs. “Iraqis have been terribly engaged with what’s been going on inside in the country,” he said. “I think Iraq is giving a very powerful dimension to this.”
Indeed, the uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East have had the effect of emboldening Iraqi officials, at least in terms of their rhetoric, to trumpet the country’s own version of democracy — even though it remains violent and shaky and is one that was forced upon it by an American invasion and occupation.
“Iraq was able to free itself and impose a democratic system,” said Mr. Chalabi, who played a large role in persuading the administration of President George W. Bush to invade Iraq, and whose exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, provided some of the faulty intelligence about Iraq’s weapons programs under Saddam Hussein.
He added later, “Whoever doesn’t think Iraqis can take a role in this, they are mistaken.”
Other officials here are also quick to criticize what they see as a double standard toward the Arab uprisings in the policies of the United States, which still has nearly 50,000 troops throughout Iraq.
“We thought it was excellent when President Obama said, ‘Mubarak, you have to go,’ ” said Jabr al-Zubaidi, the former finance minister who is now a member of Parliament. “We didn’t hear that with Bahrain.”
In response to calls for a tougher stance on Bahrain, James F. Jeffrey, the American ambassador to Iraq, told reporters, “We are concerned of course with anything that can trigger any sort of sectarian outbreak or disagreement, discord, diplomatic struggle, or even worse, throughout the region.” He said Bahrain’s crisis should be resolved “on the basis of dialogue, engagement, no violence on either side, to work towards a more democratic and free system.”
Ahmad Chalabi, an erstwhile American partner in the period before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and a Shiite member of Parliament, on Friday denounced what he called a double standard in the Western powers’ response to the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East — particularly in Bahrain, where a Sunni minority dominates a vast and restive underclass made up of his Shiite brethren.
“They called for international action in Libya,” Mr. Chalabi said in a meeting hall on the grounds of his farm outside Baghdad. “But they kept their mouths shut with what is happening in Bahrain.”
The Iraqi Parliament briefly suspended its work to protest Bahrain’s crackdown on largely peaceful protesters, and the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, also a Shiite, recently said in an interview with the BBC that the events in Bahrain could unleash a regional sectarian war like the one that menaced Iraq just a few years ago.
In the Shiite-dominated south, there have been calls to boycott goods from Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy that sent troops to support the Bahraini government. Followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr have taken to the streets to support the demonstrators in Bahrain. And, perhaps most notably, members of the marjaiya, the top Shiite leadership in the holy city of Najaf — usually silent on political matters — have spoken out, including at Mr. Chalabi’s event on Friday, when a Najafi cleric said, “We have tears in our eyes, and our heart aches.”
Mr. Chalabi, in an interview, said it was the first time the marjaiya in Najaf had participated in a political event.
In contrast, few Sunnis have been vocal about Bahrain, and Sunni preachers during Friday Prayer have not made it a rallying cry in the way their Shiite counterparts have. In Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, some have criticized the politicians who are making an issue of Bahrain. In response to the crisis, the authorities in Bahrain have suspended flights to and from Iran and Iraq, the countries in the region with the largest Shiite populations.
Several hundred people — members of Parliament, clerics, Bahraini opposition figures — attended the gathering for Mr. Chalabi’s nascent organization, the Popular Committee in Iraq to Support the People of Bahrain. Outside, artists painted murals.
“This painting represents the connection between Iraq and Bahrain,” said Shurhabel Ahmed, who was working on a section depicting a symbol of the protest movement that had been torn down by the authorities: Bahrain’s Pearl Monument, surrounded by date trees. “This represents the Arab countries,” he said of the trees. “The red is the roots of the tree — the bloodshed.”
Mr. Chalabi called his effort nonsectarian and said some Sunni members of the opposition in Bahrain had been scheduled to attend. “They refused to let them out,” he said. “They stopped them at the airport.”
One Sunni who did attend the gathering was Salah al-Bander, a British citizen originally from Sudan and a former Bahraini government adviser who gained prominence five years ago with a written exposé describing the systematic oppression of Bahrain’s Shiite population. The episode became known as “Bandergate.”
“In Bahrain, it is largely viewed as a Shia uprising,” he said in an interview. “It’s not true. Some Sunnis are among the detainees.”
But the Iraqi Shiite outcry, and especially the meeting that Mr. Chalabi held on Friday to discuss Bahrain’s Constitution, risked lending credence to the claims of the Bahraini ruling class that the uprisings were not the result of indigenous aspirations, but of foreign meddling, especially given Mr. Chalabi’s well-known ties to Iran.
Mr. Bander said the event on Friday — and the broader outcry over Bahrain from Iraq’s Shiite-dominated leadership — sent a message that Iraq was becoming a voice in regional affairs. “Iraqis have been terribly engaged with what’s been going on inside in the country,” he said. “I think Iraq is giving a very powerful dimension to this.”
Indeed, the uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East have had the effect of emboldening Iraqi officials, at least in terms of their rhetoric, to trumpet the country’s own version of democracy — even though it remains violent and shaky and is one that was forced upon it by an American invasion and occupation.
“Iraq was able to free itself and impose a democratic system,” said Mr. Chalabi, who played a large role in persuading the administration of President George W. Bush to invade Iraq, and whose exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, provided some of the faulty intelligence about Iraq’s weapons programs under Saddam Hussein.
He added later, “Whoever doesn’t think Iraqis can take a role in this, they are mistaken.”
Other officials here are also quick to criticize what they see as a double standard toward the Arab uprisings in the policies of the United States, which still has nearly 50,000 troops throughout Iraq.
“We thought it was excellent when President Obama said, ‘Mubarak, you have to go,’ ” said Jabr al-Zubaidi, the former finance minister who is now a member of Parliament. “We didn’t hear that with Bahrain.”
In response to calls for a tougher stance on Bahrain, James F. Jeffrey, the American ambassador to Iraq, told reporters, “We are concerned of course with anything that can trigger any sort of sectarian outbreak or disagreement, discord, diplomatic struggle, or even worse, throughout the region.” He said Bahrain’s crisis should be resolved “on the basis of dialogue, engagement, no violence on either side, to work towards a more democratic and free system.”
01/04 Reactor Core Was Severely Damaged, U.S. Official Says
Reactor Core Was Severely Damaged, U.S. Official Says
Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Japanese firefighters looked for bodies of victims of the earthquake and tsunami in a flooded area of Ishinomaki on Friday.
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID JOLLY
Published: April 1, 2011
WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday that roughly 70 percent of the core of one reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan had suffered severe damage.
His assessment of the damage to Reactor No. 1 was the most specific yet from an American official on how close the plant came to a full meltdown after it was hit by a severe earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11.
Japanese officials have spoken of “partial meltdown” at some of the stricken reactors. But they have been less than specific, especially on the question of how close No. 1 — the most badly damaged reactor — came to a full meltdown.
Mr. Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, suggested that the worst moments of the crisis appeared to be receding, saying that the best information the United States had received from the Japanese authorities indicated that water was once again covering the cores of the stricken reactors and that pools of spent fuel atop the reactor buildings were “now under control.”
In addition to the severe damage at Reactor No. 1, the Energy Department said that Reactor No. 2 had suffered a 33 percent meltdown. Mr. Chu cautioned that the figures were “more of a calculation” because radiation levels inside the plant had been too high for workers to get inside, and sensors were unreliable.
He called the nuclear crisis in Japan “a cascade of events” that led to multiple failures of backup systems. He told reporters at a breakfast that while officials were reviewing the accident to see if American nuclear plants needed significant changes, he did not want to overreact or rush into changes whose effects might not be fully understood.
“First and foremost, we are trying to make sure that fuller damage is not done,” he said.
Questioned about the long-term effects of Japan’s effort to “feed and bleed” the reactors — pouring in cooling water, then releasing it as steam into the atmosphere — he said there was an effort now under way to “minimize the release” of radioactivity into the air.
“They’re trying to reach a steady state,” he said, in which cooling could take place with minimal radioactive releases into the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Japan and the United States combined efforts on Friday in a final search for thousands of people still missing after the earthquake and tsunami. The three-day effort will be the last big sweep before officials in Tokyo shift their focus to a daunting national reconstruction effort.
In the largest rescue mission ever carried out in Japan, 18,000 Japanese searchers have been joined by 7,000 American sailors and Marines, in an operation using 120 helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft and 65 ships to scour a coastal area from the northern tip of Iwate Prefecture to the southern end of Fukushima Prefecture.
“Until now,” said Minako Sawamura, a spokeswoman for the Japanese military in Sendai, “the search has focused on finding survivors on land. But the tsunami carried many people with it when it washed back out to sea. So we’re making an effort, including from the air, to find those people.” The National Policy Agency still lists 16,464 as missing, and the number of dead at 11,620.
In a symbolic gesture to show the changing emphasis in Tokyo, Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, showed up for a news conference Friday morning dressed in normal business attire, the first time since the disaster struck that he had not appeared in one of the blue work jackets officials have worn to indicate the seriousness of the situation.
“We want to show that the government is looking to the future, considering the reconstruction plans,” Mr. Edano said.
Japanese nonetheless remain concerned by the drama at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 140 miles north of Tokyo. Since the quake and tsunami hit, the plant has sustained fires and explosions at several reactor buildings. Radiation leaks have included some into the sea near the plant. The operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said this week that four of the six reactors there would be scrapped.
Attempts to cool the reactors and spent-fuel pools, and efforts to answer the critical question of where the radiation leaks are coming from, are being hindered by highly radioactive water in turbine buildings attached to Reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Junichi Matsumoto, a Tokyo Electric Power spokesman, said at an afternoon news conference that the pumping of the contaminated water was continuing successfully.
Tokyo Electric Power said late Thursday that the groundwater near the plant had also been contaminated. The company initially said the radiation was 10,000 times the normal level, then later questioned its own data. It did the same with a report that the level of iodine 131 in seawater near the plant had fallen below 2,000 times the statutory limit, compared with a level of more than 4,000 times the limit on Thursday.
On Friday, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy head of the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a news conference that the government had questions about the company’s figures and had asked it to review the data.
Tokyo Electric officials said they would recalculate the figures after an error was discovered in a computer program. The company has several times issued radioactivity reports only to retract them after experts questioned their validity.
Questions about the credibility of the data have added to a sense that the authorities are uncertain about what is happening inside the reactors of the damaged power plant.
David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and David Jolly from Tokyo. Reporting was contributed by Makiko Inoue, Ken Ijichi, Moshe Komata and Chika Ohshima from Tokyo.
02/04 Regulator Says Radioactive Water Leaking Into Ocean From Japanese Nuclear Plant
April 2, 2011
By KEN BELSON and HIROKO TABUCHI
By KEN BELSON and HIROKO TABUCHI
TOKYO — Highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near a crippled reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, safety officials said Saturday, the latest setback in the increasingly messy bid to regain control of the reactors.
Although higher levels of radiation have been detected in the ocean waters near the plant, the breach discovered Saturday is the first identified direct leak of such high levels of radiation into the sea.
The leak, found at a maintenance pit near the plant’s No. 2 reactor, is a fresh reminder of the dangerous consequences of the strategy to cool the reactors and spent fuel storage pools by pumping hundreds of tons of water a day into them. While much of that water has evaporated, a significant portion has also turned into runoff.
Three workers at the plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company, have been injured by stepping into pools of contaminated water inside one reactor complex, while above-normal levels of radiation have been detected in seawater near the plant.
Workers are racing to drain the pools but have struggled to figure out how to store the irradiated water. On Saturday, contaminated water was transferred into a barge to free up space in other tanks on land. A second barge also arrived.
But with so much contaminated water injuring workers and escaping into the ocean, some experts in the nuclear industry are now starting to question the so-called “feed-and-bleed” strategy of pumping the reactors with water. “The more water they add, the more problems they are generating,” said Satoshi Sato, a consultant to the nuclear energy industry and a former engineer with General Electric. “It’s just a matter of time before the leaks into the ocean grow.” Tokyo Electric said that it had not identified the original source of the contaminated water. Some experts say it could be from excess runoff from the spent fuel pools or a broken pipe or valve connected to the reactor.
The leaks could also be evidence that the reactor pressure vessel, which holds the nuclear fuel rods, is unable to hold all of the water being poured into it, Mr. Sato said.
Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University, said that the leak discovered Saturday raised fears that the contaminated water may be seeping out through many more undiscovered sources. He said unless workers could quickly stop the leaking, Tokyo Electric could be forced to re-evaluate the feed-and-bleed strategy.
“It is crucial to keep cooling the fuel rods, but on the other hand, these leaks are dangerous,” Mr. Iguchi said. “They can’t let the plant keep leaking high amounts of radiation for much longer,” he said.
Plant workers discovered a crack about eight inches wide in the maintenance pit, which lies between the No. 2 Reactor and the sea and holds cables used to power seawater pumps, Japan’s nuclear regulator said.
The space directly above the water leaking into the sea had a radiation reading of more than 1,000 millisieverts an hour, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Tests of the water within the pit later showed the presence of 1 million becquerels per liter of iodine 131, a hazardous radioactive substance. However iodine 131 has a relatively short half life of about eight days.
Mr. Nishiyama also said that above-normal levels of radioactive materials were detected about 25 miles south of the Fukushima plant, much further than had previously been reported.
The pit was filled with four to eight inches of contaminated water, said the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric. Highly radioactive water has also been discovered in the reactor’s turbine building in the past week.
Workers had started to try to fill the crack with concrete, Mr. Nishiyama said late Saturday.
Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University, said that the leak discovered Saturday raised fears that the contaminated water may be seeping out through many more undiscovered routes. “It is crucial to keep cooling the fuel rods, but on the other hand, these leaks are dangerous,” Mr. Iguchi said. “They can’t let the plant keep leaking high amounts of radiation for much longer,” he said. Workers will try to patch up the crack with concrete, the company said.
Saturday’s announcement of a leak came a day after the U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Reactor No. 2 at the Fukushima plant had suffered a 33 percent meltdown. He cautioned that the figures were “more of a calculation.” Mr. Chu also said that roughly 70 percent of the core of Reactor No. 1 had suffered severe damage.
The crisis at the nuclear plant has overshadowed the recovery effort under way in Japan since the 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami hit the northeastern coast on March 11. The country’s National Police Agency said the official death toll from the disaster had surpassed 11,800, while more than 15,500 were listed as missing.
Earlier Saturday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan made his first visit to the region since last month’s disaster, where he promised to do everything possible to help. His tour came a day after asking Japan to start focusing on the long hard task of rebuilding the tsunami-shattered prefectures.
“We’ll be together with you to the very end,” Mr. Kan said during a stop in Rikuzentakata, a town of about 20,000 people that was destroyed on March 11. “Everybody, try your best.”
Dressed in a blue work jacket, Kan also visited with refugees stranded in an elementary school and then visited a sports complex about 20 miles south of the disabled nuclear plant. The training facility has been turned into a staging area for firefighters, Self-Defense Forces and workers from Tokyo Electric.
Ken Ijichi and Moshe Komata contributed reporting.
Although higher levels of radiation have been detected in the ocean waters near the plant, the breach discovered Saturday is the first identified direct leak of such high levels of radiation into the sea.
The leak, found at a maintenance pit near the plant’s No. 2 reactor, is a fresh reminder of the dangerous consequences of the strategy to cool the reactors and spent fuel storage pools by pumping hundreds of tons of water a day into them. While much of that water has evaporated, a significant portion has also turned into runoff.
Three workers at the plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company, have been injured by stepping into pools of contaminated water inside one reactor complex, while above-normal levels of radiation have been detected in seawater near the plant.
Workers are racing to drain the pools but have struggled to figure out how to store the irradiated water. On Saturday, contaminated water was transferred into a barge to free up space in other tanks on land. A second barge also arrived.
But with so much contaminated water injuring workers and escaping into the ocean, some experts in the nuclear industry are now starting to question the so-called “feed-and-bleed” strategy of pumping the reactors with water. “The more water they add, the more problems they are generating,” said Satoshi Sato, a consultant to the nuclear energy industry and a former engineer with General Electric. “It’s just a matter of time before the leaks into the ocean grow.” Tokyo Electric said that it had not identified the original source of the contaminated water. Some experts say it could be from excess runoff from the spent fuel pools or a broken pipe or valve connected to the reactor.
The leaks could also be evidence that the reactor pressure vessel, which holds the nuclear fuel rods, is unable to hold all of the water being poured into it, Mr. Sato said.
Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University, said that the leak discovered Saturday raised fears that the contaminated water may be seeping out through many more undiscovered sources. He said unless workers could quickly stop the leaking, Tokyo Electric could be forced to re-evaluate the feed-and-bleed strategy.
“It is crucial to keep cooling the fuel rods, but on the other hand, these leaks are dangerous,” Mr. Iguchi said. “They can’t let the plant keep leaking high amounts of radiation for much longer,” he said.
Plant workers discovered a crack about eight inches wide in the maintenance pit, which lies between the No. 2 Reactor and the sea and holds cables used to power seawater pumps, Japan’s nuclear regulator said.
The space directly above the water leaking into the sea had a radiation reading of more than 1,000 millisieverts an hour, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Tests of the water within the pit later showed the presence of 1 million becquerels per liter of iodine 131, a hazardous radioactive substance. However iodine 131 has a relatively short half life of about eight days.
Mr. Nishiyama also said that above-normal levels of radioactive materials were detected about 25 miles south of the Fukushima plant, much further than had previously been reported.
The pit was filled with four to eight inches of contaminated water, said the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric. Highly radioactive water has also been discovered in the reactor’s turbine building in the past week.
Workers had started to try to fill the crack with concrete, Mr. Nishiyama said late Saturday.
Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University, said that the leak discovered Saturday raised fears that the contaminated water may be seeping out through many more undiscovered routes. “It is crucial to keep cooling the fuel rods, but on the other hand, these leaks are dangerous,” Mr. Iguchi said. “They can’t let the plant keep leaking high amounts of radiation for much longer,” he said. Workers will try to patch up the crack with concrete, the company said.
Saturday’s announcement of a leak came a day after the U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Reactor No. 2 at the Fukushima plant had suffered a 33 percent meltdown. He cautioned that the figures were “more of a calculation.” Mr. Chu also said that roughly 70 percent of the core of Reactor No. 1 had suffered severe damage.
The crisis at the nuclear plant has overshadowed the recovery effort under way in Japan since the 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami hit the northeastern coast on March 11. The country’s National Police Agency said the official death toll from the disaster had surpassed 11,800, while more than 15,500 were listed as missing.
Earlier Saturday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan made his first visit to the region since last month’s disaster, where he promised to do everything possible to help. His tour came a day after asking Japan to start focusing on the long hard task of rebuilding the tsunami-shattered prefectures.
“We’ll be together with you to the very end,” Mr. Kan said during a stop in Rikuzentakata, a town of about 20,000 people that was destroyed on March 11. “Everybody, try your best.”
Dressed in a blue work jacket, Kan also visited with refugees stranded in an elementary school and then visited a sports complex about 20 miles south of the disabled nuclear plant. The training facility has been turned into a staging area for firefighters, Self-Defense Forces and workers from Tokyo Electric.
Ken Ijichi and Moshe Komata contributed reporting.
02/04 コーラン焼却抗議拡大、米軍撤退後のアフガン治安に暗雲
2011年4月2日23時24分
米国のキリスト教会でコーランが焼かれた事件をきっかけにしたアフガニスタンの騒乱が拡大している。北部で１日、千人を超す群衆が国連施設を襲ったのに続き、２日は南部など各地に飛び火。米軍撤退開始を７月に控え、実現可能性に疑問符が付きかねない。
群衆に襲われた北部マザリシャリフの国連事務所は、自爆テロを警戒して、高さ３メートルほどのぶ厚い壁に囲まれていた。
群衆に対し、地元警察は当初、警告射撃で解散させようとしたが失敗。群衆の一部は武装。壁によじ登り、警備員から銃を強奪、火を放った。国連の外国人職員７人が死亡。鎮圧されるまで約３時間かかった。
治安が悪いアフガンで、マザリシャリフは最も安全な都市の一つとみられてきた。米軍の撤退開始に合わせて始まるアフガン警察・国軍への治安権限移譲では、最初の実施地域の一つに決まっていた。
駐アフガン外交関係者は「アフガン側の治安能力不足は明らか。権限移譲を予定通り進めるかどうか、議論は必至だ」と指摘する。
反政府勢力タリバーンの根拠地だった南部カンダハルでは２日、国連事務所や州政府庁舎へ向かおうとするデモ隊と警察部隊が衝突し、地元当局によると、少なくとも９人が死亡、７０人以上が負傷した。北部タカール州でも千人規模のデモがあったと報じられた。
首都カブールでは２日、北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）軍駐屯地前で２人が自爆。侵入を試みた別の２人が射殺された。市民１人が巻き添えとなり、ＮＡＴＯ軍兵士３人も負傷した。
騒乱の背後関係について、マザリシャリフの当局者は「タリバーンが扇動した可能性がある」として騒乱に加わった２０人以上を拘束した。カンダハルの当局者も「武装勢力が便乗している」と指摘した。
タリバーンの報道担当者はロイター通信などに対し、カブールの自爆への関与を認めつつ、「デモは我々とは無関係。良識あるイスラム教徒の純粋な行為だ」と主張した。
アフガンの一般市民の間では、米軍などの軍事作戦による市民の巻き添えに、批判が渦巻いていた。非武装の民間人３人を殺害した米軍兵士が３月下旬、軍法会議で禁錮２４年の判決を受けた。その兵士らが遺体をもてあそんでいる画像を独誌が報じ、アフガンのテレビでも放送された。
政権基盤が弱体化するカルザイ大統領は、欧米批判で求心力の維持を図ってきた。先月２４日には声明を出し、それまでアフガンではあまり知られていなかったコーラン事件を強く批判するとともに、米当局に関係者の処罰を求めた。デモが起きる背景につながった可能性がある。（ニューデリー＝武石英史郎）
米国のキリスト教会でコーランが焼かれた事件をきっかけにしたアフガニスタンの騒乱が拡大している。北部で１日、千人を超す群衆が国連施設を襲ったのに続き、２日は南部など各地に飛び火。米軍撤退開始を７月に控え、実現可能性に疑問符が付きかねない。
群衆に襲われた北部マザリシャリフの国連事務所は、自爆テロを警戒して、高さ３メートルほどのぶ厚い壁に囲まれていた。
群衆に対し、地元警察は当初、警告射撃で解散させようとしたが失敗。群衆の一部は武装。壁によじ登り、警備員から銃を強奪、火を放った。国連の外国人職員７人が死亡。鎮圧されるまで約３時間かかった。
治安が悪いアフガンで、マザリシャリフは最も安全な都市の一つとみられてきた。米軍の撤退開始に合わせて始まるアフガン警察・国軍への治安権限移譲では、最初の実施地域の一つに決まっていた。
駐アフガン外交関係者は「アフガン側の治安能力不足は明らか。権限移譲を予定通り進めるかどうか、議論は必至だ」と指摘する。
反政府勢力タリバーンの根拠地だった南部カンダハルでは２日、国連事務所や州政府庁舎へ向かおうとするデモ隊と警察部隊が衝突し、地元当局によると、少なくとも９人が死亡、７０人以上が負傷した。北部タカール州でも千人規模のデモがあったと報じられた。
首都カブールでは２日、北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）軍駐屯地前で２人が自爆。侵入を試みた別の２人が射殺された。市民１人が巻き添えとなり、ＮＡＴＯ軍兵士３人も負傷した。
騒乱の背後関係について、マザリシャリフの当局者は「タリバーンが扇動した可能性がある」として騒乱に加わった２０人以上を拘束した。カンダハルの当局者も「武装勢力が便乗している」と指摘した。
タリバーンの報道担当者はロイター通信などに対し、カブールの自爆への関与を認めつつ、「デモは我々とは無関係。良識あるイスラム教徒の純粋な行為だ」と主張した。
アフガンの一般市民の間では、米軍などの軍事作戦による市民の巻き添えに、批判が渦巻いていた。非武装の民間人３人を殺害した米軍兵士が３月下旬、軍法会議で禁錮２４年の判決を受けた。その兵士らが遺体をもてあそんでいる画像を独誌が報じ、アフガンのテレビでも放送された。
政権基盤が弱体化するカルザイ大統領は、欧米批判で求心力の維持を図ってきた。先月２４日には声明を出し、それまでアフガンではあまり知られていなかったコーラン事件を強く批判するとともに、米当局に関係者の処罰を求めた。デモが起きる背景につながった可能性がある。（ニューデリー＝武石英史郎）
02/04 コーラン焼却までの映像、米教会が自身のサイトに掲載
2011年4月2日23時25分
アフガニスタンでデモ隊が国連事務所を襲撃した事件。問題の発端となった米フロリダ州のキリスト教会は３月下旬、イスラム教の聖典コーランを「公開裁判」にかけて「有罪」判決を下し、燃やすまでの様子を記録した映像を自分たちのインターネットサイトに掲載していた。
同サイトによると、裁判で「検察」側は、コーランは永遠の起源を持たず、神聖ではない、などと主張。ターバンを巻いた男性がコーランを弁護してみせたが、灯油をかけて燃やすとの「判決」が下された。
この教会のテリー・ジョーンズ牧師は昨年も、米同時多発テロが起きた９月１１日に合わせてコーランを焼く計画を公表し、国際的な批判を浴びた。その際は、アフガニスタン駐留米軍のペトレイアス司令官らが計画中止を呼びかけたのに応じ、矛を収めていた。
だが今回、ついにコーランを焼却したことの波紋が広がり、実際に人命が失われる事件に発展した。ジョーンズ牧師はＡＦＰ通信に対し、アフガニスタンでの襲撃について「衝撃を受けた」としながらも、「責任があるとは感じない。行いも変えない」などと語った。（ニューヨーク＝春日芳晃）
同サイトによると、裁判で「検察」側は、コーランは永遠の起源を持たず、神聖ではない、などと主張。ターバンを巻いた男性がコーランを弁護してみせたが、灯油をかけて燃やすとの「判決」が下された。
この教会のテリー・ジョーンズ牧師は昨年も、米同時多発テロが起きた９月１１日に合わせてコーランを焼く計画を公表し、国際的な批判を浴びた。その際は、アフガニスタン駐留米軍のペトレイアス司令官らが計画中止を呼びかけたのに応じ、矛を収めていた。
だが今回、ついにコーランを焼却したことの波紋が広がり、実際に人命が失われる事件に発展した。ジョーンズ牧師はＡＦＰ通信に対し、アフガニスタンでの襲撃について「衝撃を受けた」としながらも、「責任があるとは感じない。行いも変えない」などと語った。（ニューヨーク＝春日芳晃）
02/04 「試練に立ち向かう日本から学ぶものある」来日の独外相
2011年4月2日21時30分
松本剛明外相は２日、来日したドイツのベスターベレ外相と外務省で会談した。冒頭、ベスターベレ氏は「困難な試練に立ち向かう日本国民の姿勢から学ぶべきものがある」と見舞い、松本氏は「援助に感謝している」と応じた。
ベスターベレ氏は東日本大震災を受けて日本への支援と連帯を表明するため訪日したいと日本側に伝え、実現した。外務省によると、訪問先の中国から２日に羽田空港に到着し、同日中に帰国の途につくという。
３月末、菅直人首相と電話会談したメルケル・ドイツ首相は「放射線汚染地域で活動できるロボットを提供する用意がある」と表明。会談ではこうした提案を受けて、福島第一原発の事故対応についても意見交換したとみられる。
ドイツでは、３月２７日のバーデン・ビュルテンベルク州議会選挙で連立与党が敗北し、環境政党・緑の党が躍進。メルケル首相は「福島原発の大事故を巡る議論が敗因となったのは明らかだ」と述べている。
ベスターベレ氏は東日本大震災を受けて日本への支援と連帯を表明するため訪日したいと日本側に伝え、実現した。外務省によると、訪問先の中国から２日に羽田空港に到着し、同日中に帰国の途につくという。
３月末、菅直人首相と電話会談したメルケル・ドイツ首相は「放射線汚染地域で活動できるロボットを提供する用意がある」と表明。会談ではこうした提案を受けて、福島第一原発の事故対応についても意見交換したとみられる。
ドイツでは、３月２７日のバーデン・ビュルテンベルク州議会選挙で連立与党が敗北し、環境政党・緑の党が躍進。メルケル首相は「福島原発の大事故を巡る議論が敗因となったのは明らかだ」と述べている。
02/04 原発事故、独外相「最大の透明性図ることこそ重要」
2011年4月2日23時0分
松本剛明外相は２日夜、来日したドイツのベスターベレ外相と外務省で会談し、福島第一原発の事故対応について意見交換した。会談後の共同記者会見でベスターベレ氏は「最大の透明性を図ることこそが重要だ」と述べた。
この会見で松本氏は、原発事故の収束にめどがついた時点で「事故を検証し、原発の安全性について報告を出す」と表明。ベスターベレ氏はこうした姿勢を評価した。
これに先立つ会談では、松本氏が「原発については最大の透明性をもって国際社会に説明している。国際社会に冷静な対応を呼びかけている」と伝えた。また、今回の事故について「しっかりと検証し、国際社会と共有する」とも述べ、日本の取り組みに理解を求めた。
会見で松本氏は「エネルギー政策は原子力の安全が大きな要素になる。まず安全性の議論を行う」と述べた。ベスターベレ氏は「国際的な安全基準の確立が必要だ。質の向上、安全性の向上を、国際的に図っていかないといけない」と指摘。こうした取り組みを国際原子力機関（ＩＡＥＡ）で進めることが重要との認識を示した。
ドイツからは、使用済み核燃料一時貯蔵プールへの注水用に、ドイツ製の生コン圧送機が１台提供されている。ベスターベレ氏は会見で、この圧送機が長いアームで７０メートルの高さから放水でき、「キリン」という愛称があることを紹介し、「追加で４台投入する」と表明した。また、ベスターベレ氏は「危機的な状況が安定した後には、経済的な復興に日本のパートナーとして支援していきたい」と表明した。（松村愛）
この会見で松本氏は、原発事故の収束にめどがついた時点で「事故を検証し、原発の安全性について報告を出す」と表明。ベスターベレ氏はこうした姿勢を評価した。
これに先立つ会談では、松本氏が「原発については最大の透明性をもって国際社会に説明している。国際社会に冷静な対応を呼びかけている」と伝えた。また、今回の事故について「しっかりと検証し、国際社会と共有する」とも述べ、日本の取り組みに理解を求めた。
会見で松本氏は「エネルギー政策は原子力の安全が大きな要素になる。まず安全性の議論を行う」と述べた。ベスターベレ氏は「国際的な安全基準の確立が必要だ。質の向上、安全性の向上を、国際的に図っていかないといけない」と指摘。こうした取り組みを国際原子力機関（ＩＡＥＡ）で進めることが重要との認識を示した。
ドイツからは、使用済み核燃料一時貯蔵プールへの注水用に、ドイツ製の生コン圧送機が１台提供されている。ベスターベレ氏は会見で、この圧送機が長いアームで７０メートルの高さから放水でき、「キリン」という愛称があることを紹介し、「追加で４台投入する」と表明した。また、ベスターベレ氏は「危機的な状況が安定した後には、経済的な復興に日本のパートナーとして支援していきたい」と表明した。（松村愛）
02/04 放射性物質予測、公表自粛を 気象学会要請に戸惑う会員
2011年4月2日19時25分
福島第一原発の事故を受け、日本気象学会が会員の研究者らに、大気中に拡散する放射性物質の影響を予測した研究成果の公表を自粛するよう求める通知を出していたことが分かった。自由な研究活動や、重要な防災情報の発信を妨げる恐れがあり、波紋が広がっている。
文書は３月１８日付で、学会ホームページに掲載した。新野宏理事長（東京大教授）名で「学会の関係者が不確実性を伴う情報を提供することは、徒（いたずら）に国の防災対策に関する情報を混乱させる」「防災対策の基本は、信頼できる単一の情報に基づいて行動すること」などと書かれている。
新野さんによると、事故発生後、大気中の放射性物質の広がりをコンピューターで解析して予測しようとする動きが会員の間で広まったことを危惧し、文書を出した。
情報公開を抑える文書には不満も広まり、ネット上では「学者の言葉ではない」「時代錯誤」などとする批判が相次いだ。「研究をやめないといけないのか」など、会員からの問い合わせを受けた新野さんは「研究は大切だが、放射性物質の拡散に特化して作った予測方法ではない。社会的影響もあるので、政府が出すべきだと思う」と話す。
だが、今回の原発事故では、原子力安全委員会によるＳＰＥＥＤＩ（緊急時迅速放射能影響予測）の試算の発表は遅すぎた。震災発生から１０日以上たった２３日に発表したときには、国民に不安が広まっていた。
気象学会員でもある山形俊男東京大理学部長は「学問は自由なもの。文書を見たときは、少し怖い感じがした」と話す。「ただ、国民の不安をあおるのもよくない。英知を集めて研究し、政府に対しても適切に助言をするべきだ」
火山防災に携わってきた小山真人静岡大教授は、かつて雲仙岳の噴火で火砕流の危険を伝えることに失敗した経験をふまえ、「通知は『パニック神話』に侵されている。住民は複数の情報を得て、初めて安心したり、避難行動をしたりする。トップが情報統制を命じるのは、学会の自殺宣言に等しい」と話している。（鈴木彩子、木村俊介）
福島第一原発の事故を受け、日本気象学会が会員の研究者らに、大気中に拡散する放射性物質の影響を予測した研究成果の公表を自粛するよう求める通知を出していたことが分かった。自由な研究活動や、重要な防災情報の発信を妨げる恐れがあり、波紋が広がっている。
文書は３月１８日付で、学会ホームページに掲載した。新野宏理事長（東京大教授）名で「学会の関係者が不確実性を伴う情報を提供することは、徒（いたずら）に国の防災対策に関する情報を混乱させる」「防災対策の基本は、信頼できる単一の情報に基づいて行動すること」などと書かれている。
新野さんによると、事故発生後、大気中の放射性物質の広がりをコンピューターで解析して予測しようとする動きが会員の間で広まったことを危惧し、文書を出した。
情報公開を抑える文書には不満も広まり、ネット上では「学者の言葉ではない」「時代錯誤」などとする批判が相次いだ。「研究をやめないといけないのか」など、会員からの問い合わせを受けた新野さんは「研究は大切だが、放射性物質の拡散に特化して作った予測方法ではない。社会的影響もあるので、政府が出すべきだと思う」と話す。
だが、今回の原発事故では、原子力安全委員会によるＳＰＥＥＤＩ（緊急時迅速放射能影響予測）の試算の発表は遅すぎた。震災発生から１０日以上たった２３日に発表したときには、国民に不安が広まっていた。
気象学会員でもある山形俊男東京大理学部長は「学問は自由なもの。文書を見たときは、少し怖い感じがした」と話す。「ただ、国民の不安をあおるのもよくない。英知を集めて研究し、政府に対しても適切に助言をするべきだ」
火山防災に携わってきた小山真人静岡大教授は、かつて雲仙岳の噴火で火砕流の危険を伝えることに失敗した経験をふまえ、「通知は『パニック神話』に侵されている。住民は複数の情報を得て、初めて安心したり、避難行動をしたりする。トップが情報統制を命じるのは、学会の自殺宣言に等しい」と話している。（鈴木彩子、木村俊介）
02/04 落書き・侵入…東電へ抗議過熱 自衛に寮表札の社名隠す
2011年4月2日11時39分
危険な状態が続く東京電力福島第一原子力発電所。国民の不安といらだちが募る中、東電や社員への苦情や脅迫、嫌がらせが目立ち始めた。東電は社員の安全を守るため、社員寮の表札から社名を消した。警視庁も警戒を強める。
３月下旬、東京都中央区の東電の社員寮。入り口に掲げられた表札に黒い粘着テープが貼られ、社名が隠された。
東電東京支店が同月２２日、２３区にあるすべての社員寮に、表札にある社名を消すよう指示したためだ。２３区には家族寮と独身寮が複数ある。各寮は、アクリル板や粘着テープを社名の上に貼ったり、社名を抜いた新しい表札に取り換えたりする作業に追われた。
東京支店は「社員と家族の安全を守るため」と説明する。
きっかけは、渋谷区にある東電のＰＲ施設「電力館」の壁に震災後、赤いスプレーで「反原発」と落書きされているのが見つかったことだという。
同支店によると、２０日午後６時半ごろ、巡回中の警備員が通りに面した外壁に縦約１メートル、横約３メートルの落書きを見つけ、警視庁渋谷署に通報した。当時、福島第一原発では自衛隊や東京消防庁による放水が始まったものの、放射能漏れが止まらず、緊迫した状態に陥っていた。
渋谷署によると、落書きは人通りが多いはずの２０日午後５時からの１時間半の間に書かれたとみられる。同署は器物損壊容疑で捜査を始めた。
電力館はリニューアルオープンに備えて全面休館中。２０日から再開の予定だったが、震災で当面、延期する方針だ。
１８日には「計画停電で電車が遅れ、腹が立った」という自称日雇い労働者の男性（４１）が本社（千代田区）の敷地内に小石を投げ込んだ。３１日には、街宣車に乗った東京都の無職の男が福島第二原発のゲートを壊し、敷地内に侵入。建造物侵入などの疑いで福島県警に逮捕された。
◇
都内のある支社の幹部は「地元の警察署員から『原発問題の影響もあり、社員の安全にはくれぐれも気をつけてください』と注意を受けた。危機感は持っているが、そもそも、こちらが迷惑をかけている側でもあるので……」と複雑な表情だ。
都内にある勝俣恒久会長の自宅では、東電から要請を受けた警視庁が１８日に警察官の詰め所を設置し、警戒を強めている。
東電関係者によると、東京支店で電話相談を受け付けるコールセンターには連日、原発事故や計画停電への苦情・抗議が殺到。電話応対の処理能力を超えているという。同センターに直接来て、「なぜ電話に出ないんだ」といらだちを職員にぶつける人も出ている。
都内の浄水場の水道水から基準を超える放射性ヨウ素が検出されたと公表された２３日以降は、放射性物質への不安や「東電はどう責任をとるつもりか」といった抗議も寄せられている。
東電の男性社員は「自分だけでなく、家族も相当まいっている。妻は『肩身が狭い。近所の人からも白い目で見られている気がする』と話していた」と嘆く。
東京支店幹部は今の心境をこうもらした。「抗議に対応している社員の中には『自分も福島に行って手伝いたい』と希望する者もいた。原発事故の収束がうまくいかない中で、お客さんには申し訳ないという気持ちでいっぱいだ。今は我慢するしかないとみんなで言い合っている」
危険な状態が続く東京電力福島第一原子力発電所。国民の不安といらだちが募る中、東電や社員への苦情や脅迫、嫌がらせが目立ち始めた。東電は社員の安全を守るため、社員寮の表札から社名を消した。警視庁も警戒を強める。
３月下旬、東京都中央区の東電の社員寮。入り口に掲げられた表札に黒い粘着テープが貼られ、社名が隠された。
東電東京支店が同月２２日、２３区にあるすべての社員寮に、表札にある社名を消すよう指示したためだ。２３区には家族寮と独身寮が複数ある。各寮は、アクリル板や粘着テープを社名の上に貼ったり、社名を抜いた新しい表札に取り換えたりする作業に追われた。
東京支店は「社員と家族の安全を守るため」と説明する。
きっかけは、渋谷区にある東電のＰＲ施設「電力館」の壁に震災後、赤いスプレーで「反原発」と落書きされているのが見つかったことだという。
同支店によると、２０日午後６時半ごろ、巡回中の警備員が通りに面した外壁に縦約１メートル、横約３メートルの落書きを見つけ、警視庁渋谷署に通報した。当時、福島第一原発では自衛隊や東京消防庁による放水が始まったものの、放射能漏れが止まらず、緊迫した状態に陥っていた。
渋谷署によると、落書きは人通りが多いはずの２０日午後５時からの１時間半の間に書かれたとみられる。同署は器物損壊容疑で捜査を始めた。
電力館はリニューアルオープンに備えて全面休館中。２０日から再開の予定だったが、震災で当面、延期する方針だ。
１８日には「計画停電で電車が遅れ、腹が立った」という自称日雇い労働者の男性（４１）が本社（千代田区）の敷地内に小石を投げ込んだ。３１日には、街宣車に乗った東京都の無職の男が福島第二原発のゲートを壊し、敷地内に侵入。建造物侵入などの疑いで福島県警に逮捕された。
◇
都内のある支社の幹部は「地元の警察署員から『原発問題の影響もあり、社員の安全にはくれぐれも気をつけてください』と注意を受けた。危機感は持っているが、そもそも、こちらが迷惑をかけている側でもあるので……」と複雑な表情だ。
都内にある勝俣恒久会長の自宅では、東電から要請を受けた警視庁が１８日に警察官の詰め所を設置し、警戒を強めている。
東電関係者によると、東京支店で電話相談を受け付けるコールセンターには連日、原発事故や計画停電への苦情・抗議が殺到。電話応対の処理能力を超えているという。同センターに直接来て、「なぜ電話に出ないんだ」といらだちを職員にぶつける人も出ている。
都内の浄水場の水道水から基準を超える放射性ヨウ素が検出されたと公表された２３日以降は、放射性物質への不安や「東電はどう責任をとるつもりか」といった抗議も寄せられている。
東電の男性社員は「自分だけでなく、家族も相当まいっている。妻は『肩身が狭い。近所の人からも白い目で見られている気がする』と話していた」と嘆く。
東京支店幹部は今の心境をこうもらした。「抗議に対応している社員の中には『自分も福島に行って手伝いたい』と希望する者もいた。原発事故の収束がうまくいかない中で、お客さんには申し訳ないという気持ちでいっぱいだ。今は我慢するしかないとみんなで言い合っている」
25/03 “心の家”を建て、明日に向けて家族の絆を
2011年3月25日
「あっ、結婚式のアルバムだ…」
もと家があった所から数百メートルも離れたところで、わが家と思しきがれきの中からそれを見つけ出し、丁寧に泥をはらいながら呆然と見入る被災者の姿が画面に映し出された…。
それまで東日本大震災の大津波の脅威や、被災の悲惨な状況に声を詰まらせながらもテレビを見ていた私でしたが，ついに涙がとめどなく溢れ出てきました。建築や住まいの専門家として、その非力にわが身を恥じ入るばかりで言葉を失いました。
大災害が起こるたびに幾度となく聞かされた「自然の脅威」の言葉に怒りさえ覚えます。少年時代に体験した伊勢湾台風、そして阪神大震災や中越地震では現場にも赴き、その対処策などに挑んで来たつもりなのですが…。震度６強、あるいは震度７の揺れにも耐えた構造物や住まいも、その後に起きた大津波の容赦ない巨大な水圧に、一瞬にして流されてしまったのです。ただただ、お一人でも多くのご家族のご無事の再会と、急場の避難所での健康をお祈りするばかりです。
皮肉にも、つい先日のクライストチャーチの地震や阪神大震災のような直下型の地震とは違って、関東大震災など沖合の深い所を震源とするプレート型の地震は、連鎖によってさらに増幅し、巨大地震になるといったお話をしたばかりでした（同コラム３月４日）。
１９９５年１月１７日発生の阪神大震災の後、私は厚生省（現厚労省）の「大規模災害救助研究会」（１９９９～２０００年）で、防災、福祉、医療、報道さらに復興住宅などの専門メンバーの一員になりました。ここで出た、救助と避難生活でのご提案をお伝えしたいと思います。しかし、この度は大地震と大津波さらに原発事故の三重苦の被災者の方もおられ、南北５００キロにも及ぶ広域広範な地域で数十万規模の人々が被災している中で、参考となるかどうか…。
救援物資供給に手間が掛かり、避難所暮らしも長くなりそうな中、お願いしたいことは、その避難所のなかで、あえて意識的に「時間」と「空間」を構築することだと思うのです。「時間」とは、日常の生活を極力規則正しくし、３度の食事をし、排便をし、きちっと睡眠をとる。そして誕生日などの行事も積極的に行って、平生の時間を意識することです。
そして「空間」とは段ボールなど簡単なついたてで区画し、最低限のプライバシーを確保することです。まさしく想像の中で“心の家”を建てるのです。ここに仏壇、ここが台所、そして収納などと、わずか２畳ほどのスペースでも家族の生活の場をつくるのです。さらに避難所を小さな町と例え、まさしく家族、近隣、学区などフェース・トゥー・フェースの絆のネットワークを意識的に構築するのです。サポート側もこうした単位をまとめ、村や町を意識し、復興への足掛かりを皆で作ることで明日を意識することができると思うのです。
今まだ余震も続き、不明者捜索の最中ですが、アメリカ留学中の私の娘の友人たちをはじめ、世界中からエールが届いています。皆が「何か役に立ちたい！」、そして「がんばれ・ジャパン！」と見守ってくれているのです。
今年はお彼岸を過ぎても零下になるなど例年になく寒い毎日ですが、もうすぐ桜の花も咲いて暖かい春が来ます。そのうち電気も通じ、水道も復旧し、鉄道も通じることでしょう。復興住宅も各地に建設され始めており、各市町村都道府県の集合住宅も提供されています。やがて新たな街もできます。私からも僭越ですが… “Ａｌｗａｙｓ ｂｅ Ｓｔｒｏｎｇ” の言葉を送りたいと思います。
天野彰（あまの・あきら）
岡崎市生まれ。日本大学理工学部卒。一級建築士事務所アトリエ4A代表。
「日本住改善委員会」（相談窓口・東京都渋谷区松涛１－５－１／ＴＥＬ０３－３４６９－１３３８）を組織し「住まいと建築の健康と安全を考える会 （住・建・康の会）」など主宰。住宅や医院・老人施設などの設計監理を全国で精力的に行っている。ＴＶ・新聞・雑誌などで広く発言を行い、元通産省「産業構造審議会」や厚生労働省「大規模災害救助研究会」などの専門委員も歴任。「日本建築仕上学会」副会長とＮＰＯ法人「国産森林認証材で健康な住環境をつくる会」代表。
著書には、新刊『建築家が考える「良い家相」の住まい』（講談社）、『六十歳から家を建てる』（新潮選書）、『地震から生き延びることは愛』（文藝春秋）、『新しい二世帯「同居」住宅のつくり方』（講談社＋α新書）、新装版『リフォームは、まず３００万円以下で』（講談社 実用ＢＯＯＫ）など多数。
「あっ、結婚式のアルバムだ…」
もと家があった所から数百メートルも離れたところで、わが家と思しきがれきの中からそれを見つけ出し、丁寧に泥をはらいながら呆然と見入る被災者の姿が画面に映し出された…。
それまで東日本大震災の大津波の脅威や、被災の悲惨な状況に声を詰まらせながらもテレビを見ていた私でしたが，ついに涙がとめどなく溢れ出てきました。建築や住まいの専門家として、その非力にわが身を恥じ入るばかりで言葉を失いました。
大災害が起こるたびに幾度となく聞かされた「自然の脅威」の言葉に怒りさえ覚えます。少年時代に体験した伊勢湾台風、そして阪神大震災や中越地震では現場にも赴き、その対処策などに挑んで来たつもりなのですが…。震度６強、あるいは震度７の揺れにも耐えた構造物や住まいも、その後に起きた大津波の容赦ない巨大な水圧に、一瞬にして流されてしまったのです。ただただ、お一人でも多くのご家族のご無事の再会と、急場の避難所での健康をお祈りするばかりです。
皮肉にも、つい先日のクライストチャーチの地震や阪神大震災のような直下型の地震とは違って、関東大震災など沖合の深い所を震源とするプレート型の地震は、連鎖によってさらに増幅し、巨大地震になるといったお話をしたばかりでした（同コラム３月４日）。
１９９５年１月１７日発生の阪神大震災の後、私は厚生省（現厚労省）の「大規模災害救助研究会」（１９９９～２０００年）で、防災、福祉、医療、報道さらに復興住宅などの専門メンバーの一員になりました。ここで出た、救助と避難生活でのご提案をお伝えしたいと思います。しかし、この度は大地震と大津波さらに原発事故の三重苦の被災者の方もおられ、南北５００キロにも及ぶ広域広範な地域で数十万規模の人々が被災している中で、参考となるかどうか…。
救援物資供給に手間が掛かり、避難所暮らしも長くなりそうな中、お願いしたいことは、その避難所のなかで、あえて意識的に「時間」と「空間」を構築することだと思うのです。「時間」とは、日常の生活を極力規則正しくし、３度の食事をし、排便をし、きちっと睡眠をとる。そして誕生日などの行事も積極的に行って、平生の時間を意識することです。
そして「空間」とは段ボールなど簡単なついたてで区画し、最低限のプライバシーを確保することです。まさしく想像の中で“心の家”を建てるのです。ここに仏壇、ここが台所、そして収納などと、わずか２畳ほどのスペースでも家族の生活の場をつくるのです。さらに避難所を小さな町と例え、まさしく家族、近隣、学区などフェース・トゥー・フェースの絆のネットワークを意識的に構築するのです。サポート側もこうした単位をまとめ、村や町を意識し、復興への足掛かりを皆で作ることで明日を意識することができると思うのです。
今まだ余震も続き、不明者捜索の最中ですが、アメリカ留学中の私の娘の友人たちをはじめ、世界中からエールが届いています。皆が「何か役に立ちたい！」、そして「がんばれ・ジャパン！」と見守ってくれているのです。
今年はお彼岸を過ぎても零下になるなど例年になく寒い毎日ですが、もうすぐ桜の花も咲いて暖かい春が来ます。そのうち電気も通じ、水道も復旧し、鉄道も通じることでしょう。復興住宅も各地に建設され始めており、各市町村都道府県の集合住宅も提供されています。やがて新たな街もできます。私からも僭越ですが… “Ａｌｗａｙｓ ｂｅ Ｓｔｒｏｎｇ” の言葉を送りたいと思います。
天野彰（あまの・あきら）岡崎市生まれ。日本大学理工学部卒。一級建築士事務所アトリエ4A代表。
「日本住改善委員会」（相談窓口・東京都渋谷区松涛１－５－１／ＴＥＬ０３－３４６９－１３３８）を組織し「住まいと建築の健康と安全を考える会 （住・建・康の会）」など主宰。住宅や医院・老人施設などの設計監理を全国で精力的に行っている。ＴＶ・新聞・雑誌などで広く発言を行い、元通産省「産業構造審議会」や厚生労働省「大規模災害救助研究会」などの専門委員も歴任。「日本建築仕上学会」副会長とＮＰＯ法人「国産森林認証材で健康な住環境をつくる会」代表。
著書には、新刊『建築家が考える「良い家相」の住まい』（講談社）、『六十歳から家を建てる』（新潮選書）、『地震から生き延びることは愛』（文藝春秋）、『新しい二世帯「同居」住宅のつくり方』（講談社＋α新書）、新装版『リフォームは、まず３００万円以下で』（講談社 実用ＢＯＯＫ）など多数。
02/04 自粛しても委縮はしない。
2011年4月2日
灯の消えた銀座４丁目方向（３月２８日、ＰＭ９時ごろ筆者撮影）
天野彰（あまの・あきら）
岡崎市生まれ。日本大学理工学部卒。一級建築士事務所アトリエ4A代表。
「日本住改善委員会」（相談窓口・東京都渋谷区松涛１－５－１／ＴＥＬ０３－３４６９－１３３８）を組織し「住まいと建築の健康と安全を考える会 （住・建・康の会）」など主宰。住宅や医院・老人施設などの設計監理を全国で精力的に行っている。ＴＶ・新聞・雑誌などで広く発言を行い、元通産省「産業構造審議会」や厚生労働省「大規模災害救助研究会」などの専門委員も歴任。「日本建築仕上学会」副会長とＮＰＯ法人「国産森林認証材で健康な住環境をつくる会」代表。
著書には、新刊『建築家が考える「良い家相」の住まい』（講談社）、『六十歳から家を建てる』（新潮選書）、『地震から生き延びることは愛』（文藝春秋）、『新しい二世帯「同居」住宅のつくり方』（講談社＋α新書）、新装版『リフォームは、まず３００万円以下で』（講談社 実用ＢＯＯＫ）など多数。
灯の消えた銀座４丁目方向（３月２８日、ＰＭ９時ごろ筆者撮影） 春とは言え、まだまだ寒さが続く毎日です。被災地の人々には本当に辛い日々と思われます。講演などで何度か訪れた岩手県の釜石市や久慈市の友人らとようやく連絡が取れ、詳細が分かるにつれ、彼らの心情は我々などがとうてい計り知れるものではないことを実感します。天候など構っておられないほどの惨状で、「生きていることが不思議だ」とも言う。片づけの手を止めては茫然として辺りを見回し、落胆し、自力で何とかするしかないと覚悟し、自らを励まし、なぐさめ、そしてまた気を取りなおすことの繰り返しと言う。
阪神大震災以降の２０００年前後、厚生労働省（当時は厚生省）援護課による「大規模災害救助研究会」で私は専門委員を務めました。震災直後からの５年間において、避難所生活から仮設住宅の建設、そして復興への道について分析研究しました。例えば長引く避難所生活で求められていたものは、大空間の中での各自のプライバシーを確保しつつ（前回参照）水場や仮設トイレなど設置することでありました。また、被災地ごとのコミュニティづくりなど日常をどう暮らすかのソフト面や、さらに衣食住とともに「医職充」や情報伝達の重要性などについて提案。仮設住宅の早期の建設のために建設場所を設定したり、公園や校庭などに地下槽を設けて、当面はそこに医療テントなどの災害用品を備蓄し、その後その槽を一時的な屎尿溜め（しにょうだめ）にしたりすることなどを提言しました。
「地震に勝つ家 負ける家」（山海堂）
阪神大震災以降の２０００年前後、厚生労働省（当時は厚生省）援護課による「大規模災害救助研究会」で私は専門委員を務めました。震災直後からの５年間において、避難所生活から仮設住宅の建設、そして復興への道について分析研究しました。例えば長引く避難所生活で求められていたものは、大空間の中での各自のプライバシーを確保しつつ（前回参照）水場や仮設トイレなど設置することでありました。また、被災地ごとのコミュニティづくりなど日常をどう暮らすかのソフト面や、さらに衣食住とともに「医職充」や情報伝達の重要性などについて提案。仮設住宅の早期の建設のために建設場所を設定したり、公園や校庭などに地下槽を設けて、当面はそこに医療テントなどの災害用品を備蓄し、その後その槽を一時的な屎尿溜め（しにょうだめ）にしたりすることなどを提言しました。
「地震に勝つ家 負ける家」（山海堂） しかしながら、今回の災害はあまりにも広範に渡り、巨大津波によって街が根こそぎ被害を受けており、入り組んだリアス式の地形の複雑さにも圧倒されて、阪神と比較する方策すらなく、あんたんたる思いでいます。業界仲間は、実際に現地に入って仮設住宅を建てるにしても、津波への恐怖感から人々が海抜にこだわっていて、高台の平坦なところがなかなか見つからず困窮（こんきゅう）していると言います。まずは壊滅した自治体の仮庁舎をつくるところからのスタートになると思いますが、今後については私の知り得る限りの方策を少しずつお伝えして参りたいと思います。
あれから３週間が経ち、今も身内が見つかっていない友人も多い中、驚くべきはそんな彼らが気丈にも「私たちは津波だけだった。南相馬など原発周辺の人たちはさらに大変だ」と気遣っていることです。さらに避難所のテレビで知った暗くなった銀座や渋谷の繁華街の映像を見て、「自粛は良いが、産業や商売が“萎縮”しては経済が衰えてむしろ困る」などと心配もされていることも合わせてお伝えしたい。
「転ばぬ先の家づくり」（祥伝社）
津波による原発の重大事故の収束は火急ですが、それによる停電や極端な節電で、鉄道、さらには産業すべてが萎縮してしまうことは、大きな二次災害とも言えるでしょう。それでは過酷な生活を強いられている被災地の人々の救援や復興活動にも影響し、遅れることにもなりかねないのです。鉄道はもとより、医療・福祉は最優先で、さらには産業や職場の電源はなんとしても確保すべきで、商店や飲食店もせめて看板と商品へのライティングぐらいはすべきです。
計画停電をするなら、地域エリアごとに消す“計画”だけではなく、工場やオフィスなどの操業時間の調整や、夏場に向けて冷房の温度設定など、限られた総電力量のバランス“計画”を緻密に練ることが大事でしょう。我々もそれに合わせて、夕げの支度など生活時間の調整やクーラーなどの使用計画を立てるのです。これで毎日の生活をむやみに暗くする必要もなくなるのではないでしょうか。
取りあえずこれから先の２，３か月、関東は冷暖房の必要のない季節となります。節電をこまめにしつつも、被災した友人が言うように、自粛、自粛と言って街を、商店を、そして職場をむやみに暗くして、消費意欲を阻害したり、労働意欲を萎縮させたりすることがあってはなりません。停電を恐れてコンサートや催事などを取りやめず、各職場はむしろ今まで以上に明るくしっかり働き、消費を、そして雇用を増やす勢いで努めて平生の生活を送ることが、災害からまぬがれた私たちの務めではないかと思うのです。
こんな時だからこそ、読者の方に阪神大震災直後に出版した拙著「地震に勝つ家 負ける家」（山海堂）と、この３月に出たばかりの「転ばぬ先の家づくり」（祥伝社）を各１０名様に謹呈いたしたいと思います。ご応募は私のプロフィールのホームページから、どちらのご本がご希望かを明記の上でどうぞ。
あれから３週間が経ち、今も身内が見つかっていない友人も多い中、驚くべきはそんな彼らが気丈にも「私たちは津波だけだった。南相馬など原発周辺の人たちはさらに大変だ」と気遣っていることです。さらに避難所のテレビで知った暗くなった銀座や渋谷の繁華街の映像を見て、「自粛は良いが、産業や商売が“萎縮”しては経済が衰えてむしろ困る」などと心配もされていることも合わせてお伝えしたい。
「転ばぬ先の家づくり」（祥伝社）津波による原発の重大事故の収束は火急ですが、それによる停電や極端な節電で、鉄道、さらには産業すべてが萎縮してしまうことは、大きな二次災害とも言えるでしょう。それでは過酷な生活を強いられている被災地の人々の救援や復興活動にも影響し、遅れることにもなりかねないのです。鉄道はもとより、医療・福祉は最優先で、さらには産業や職場の電源はなんとしても確保すべきで、商店や飲食店もせめて看板と商品へのライティングぐらいはすべきです。
計画停電をするなら、地域エリアごとに消す“計画”だけではなく、工場やオフィスなどの操業時間の調整や、夏場に向けて冷房の温度設定など、限られた総電力量のバランス“計画”を緻密に練ることが大事でしょう。我々もそれに合わせて、夕げの支度など生活時間の調整やクーラーなどの使用計画を立てるのです。これで毎日の生活をむやみに暗くする必要もなくなるのではないでしょうか。
取りあえずこれから先の２，３か月、関東は冷暖房の必要のない季節となります。節電をこまめにしつつも、被災した友人が言うように、自粛、自粛と言って街を、商店を、そして職場をむやみに暗くして、消費意欲を阻害したり、労働意欲を萎縮させたりすることがあってはなりません。停電を恐れてコンサートや催事などを取りやめず、各職場はむしろ今まで以上に明るくしっかり働き、消費を、そして雇用を増やす勢いで努めて平生の生活を送ることが、災害からまぬがれた私たちの務めではないかと思うのです。
こんな時だからこそ、読者の方に阪神大震災直後に出版した拙著「地震に勝つ家 負ける家」（山海堂）と、この３月に出たばかりの「転ばぬ先の家づくり」（祥伝社）を各１０名様に謹呈いたしたいと思います。ご応募は私のプロフィールのホームページから、どちらのご本がご希望かを明記の上でどうぞ。
天野彰（あまの・あきら）岡崎市生まれ。日本大学理工学部卒。一級建築士事務所アトリエ4A代表。
「日本住改善委員会」（相談窓口・東京都渋谷区松涛１－５－１／ＴＥＬ０３－３４６９－１３３８）を組織し「住まいと建築の健康と安全を考える会 （住・建・康の会）」など主宰。住宅や医院・老人施設などの設計監理を全国で精力的に行っている。ＴＶ・新聞・雑誌などで広く発言を行い、元通産省「産業構造審議会」や厚生労働省「大規模災害救助研究会」などの専門委員も歴任。「日本建築仕上学会」副会長とＮＰＯ法人「国産森林認証材で健康な住環境をつくる会」代表。
著書には、新刊『建築家が考える「良い家相」の住まい』（講談社）、『六十歳から家を建てる』（新潮選書）、『地震から生き延びることは愛』（文藝春秋）、『新しい二世帯「同居」住宅のつくり方』（講談社＋α新書）、新装版『リフォームは、まず３００万円以下で』（講談社 実用ＢＯＯＫ）など多数。
02/04 Contaminated groundwater detected for first time near Fukushima plant
2011/04/02
Groundwater near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was confirmed contaminated with radiation for the first time.
Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said Thursday that water taken from a groundwater discharge facility near the building housing the No. 1 reactor contained iodine-131 about 10,000 times the acceptable levels.
Referring to the detection of contaminated groundwater, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Friday, "We will have to conduct proper monitoring of the effects on seawater and the surrounding regions."
Government officials were also planning to strengthen checks for radiation contamination of groundwater and the ocean.
Highly contaminated water believed to have leaked from the reactor cores has already been detected in concrete trenches within the plant grounds.
While a connection is still not clear, the detection of contaminated groundwater could mean that highly radioactive water from the reactor cores has leaked outside of the plant site.
TEPCO officials said the contaminated water was taken from a facility that discharges water to a ditch after groundwater has been pumped up from a depth of about 15 meters.
The pumps are located around the reactor building and designed to prevent the building from moving due to the buoyancy of the groundwater.
A water sample taken Wednesday from the discharge facility detected iodine-131 with a radiation level of 430 becquerels per cubic centimeter.
Officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency asked TEPCO to check into the type and amount of radioactive material found in the water. TEPCO is now reanalyzing the water samples.
TEPCO officials did not deny the possibility of a connection between the groundwater and the contaminated water found in the basements of the turbine buildings of the reactors.
However, it is possible that radioactive substances emitted from the Fukushima plant dispersed into the atmosphere and returned to the ground as rainfall.
After the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, the pumps removing groundwater stopped operating so groundwater has not been flowing directly into the ocean through the discharge ditch.
Sources said the possibility was low that the groundwater would leak into the ocean and raise radiation levels in seawater to the level detected Thursday.
Seawater near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has been found contaminated with iodine-131 at 4,385 times greater than the acceptable levels.
The science ministry has expanded measurement points to up to about 30 kilometers off the coast from the Fukushima No. 1 plant and continues to check the water at the surface and seabed.
On March 23, surface water was found to have iodine-131 about twice the acceptable levels at a point about 30 km off the coast. On Wednesday afternoon, water from about 10 km off the coast was also found to have iodine-131 at twice the acceptable levels.
While iodine-131 is normally not found near the seabed, levels about one-fourth the acceptable standards have been detected.
Meanwhile, TEPCO officials on Friday began spraying synthetic resins using a sprinkler truck within the Fukushima plant grounds to prevent the spread of dust containing radioactive materials. The water-soluble resin is used in civil engineering work and creates a film when it dries.
Officials said the resin could contain the dust for between six months to a year.
Work also began on Friday to pump in fresh water to tanks within the Fukushima plant from U.S. military ships.
Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said Thursday that water taken from a groundwater discharge facility near the building housing the No. 1 reactor contained iodine-131 about 10,000 times the acceptable levels.
Referring to the detection of contaminated groundwater, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Friday, "We will have to conduct proper monitoring of the effects on seawater and the surrounding regions."
Government officials were also planning to strengthen checks for radiation contamination of groundwater and the ocean.
Highly contaminated water believed to have leaked from the reactor cores has already been detected in concrete trenches within the plant grounds.
While a connection is still not clear, the detection of contaminated groundwater could mean that highly radioactive water from the reactor cores has leaked outside of the plant site.
TEPCO officials said the contaminated water was taken from a facility that discharges water to a ditch after groundwater has been pumped up from a depth of about 15 meters.
The pumps are located around the reactor building and designed to prevent the building from moving due to the buoyancy of the groundwater.
A water sample taken Wednesday from the discharge facility detected iodine-131 with a radiation level of 430 becquerels per cubic centimeter.
Officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency asked TEPCO to check into the type and amount of radioactive material found in the water. TEPCO is now reanalyzing the water samples.
TEPCO officials did not deny the possibility of a connection between the groundwater and the contaminated water found in the basements of the turbine buildings of the reactors.
However, it is possible that radioactive substances emitted from the Fukushima plant dispersed into the atmosphere and returned to the ground as rainfall.
After the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, the pumps removing groundwater stopped operating so groundwater has not been flowing directly into the ocean through the discharge ditch.
Sources said the possibility was low that the groundwater would leak into the ocean and raise radiation levels in seawater to the level detected Thursday.
Seawater near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has been found contaminated with iodine-131 at 4,385 times greater than the acceptable levels.
The science ministry has expanded measurement points to up to about 30 kilometers off the coast from the Fukushima No. 1 plant and continues to check the water at the surface and seabed.
On March 23, surface water was found to have iodine-131 about twice the acceptable levels at a point about 30 km off the coast. On Wednesday afternoon, water from about 10 km off the coast was also found to have iodine-131 at twice the acceptable levels.
While iodine-131 is normally not found near the seabed, levels about one-fourth the acceptable standards have been detected.
Meanwhile, TEPCO officials on Friday began spraying synthetic resins using a sprinkler truck within the Fukushima plant grounds to prevent the spread of dust containing radioactive materials. The water-soluble resin is used in civil engineering work and creates a film when it dries.
Officials said the resin could contain the dust for between six months to a year.
Work also began on Friday to pump in fresh water to tanks within the Fukushima plant from U.S. military ships.
02/04 Japan working with U.S., France to contain crisis
2011/04/02
Prim Minister Naoto Kan and French President Nicolas Sarkozy shake hands before their summit meeting in Tokyo Thursday. (Shiro Nishihata)
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to accept assistance from the United States and France after failing to make significant inroads in resolving the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Both the United States and France apparently fear that nuclear power generation could suffer a significant setback if the crisis, now entering its fourth week, continues.
The United States has 104 nuclear reactors, the most in the world, followed by France with 59 and Japan with 54.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew into Tokyo on Thursday to discuss with Kan how France can help Japan bring the hobbled plant under control.
"I came to Japan to convey a sense of solidarity," Sarkozy told a joint news conference with Kan after the summit. "I believe Japan can definitely overcome this."
The president stressed France's stand on promoting nuclear power has not changed, despite the crisis.
Nuclear power generation is a core industry in France, supplying about 80 percent of the country's electricity.
France is apparently worried that the accident in Japan could fuel skepticism about nuclear power generation across the world, affecting its own nuclear power policy.
The country has offered dosimeters and protective clothes as well as nuclear experts to help Japan contain the crisis.
A senior official with the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, "France and Japan will very likely deepen their cooperation regarding the nuclear plant."
The United States is now the primary support for the Kan administration's battle to make the plant safe. However, this was not the case before, according to sources.
The United States had signaled its willingness to extend a helping hand to Japan in the early stages of the crisis. But when the U.S. governmental Nuclear Regulatory Commission arrived in Tokyo and asked for data on the reactors, only a few representatives from Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant, came forward to work with them, according to the sources.
The Japanese government established an official bilateral consultation framework on March 22 after it realized leaving TEPCO officials to deal with the U.S. team by themselves was a poor approach.
At a gathering also attended by the industry ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, NRC staff were outraged when TEPCO officials refused to disclose data on the status of reactors, the sources said.
TEPCO officials were quoted as saying that the gathering was intended only to exchange information.
The U.S. side has provided many kinds of assistance, including robots, expertise on shielding and remote control.
Both the United States and France apparently fear that nuclear power generation could suffer a significant setback if the crisis, now entering its fourth week, continues.
The United States has 104 nuclear reactors, the most in the world, followed by France with 59 and Japan with 54.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew into Tokyo on Thursday to discuss with Kan how France can help Japan bring the hobbled plant under control.
"I came to Japan to convey a sense of solidarity," Sarkozy told a joint news conference with Kan after the summit. "I believe Japan can definitely overcome this."
The president stressed France's stand on promoting nuclear power has not changed, despite the crisis.
Nuclear power generation is a core industry in France, supplying about 80 percent of the country's electricity.
France is apparently worried that the accident in Japan could fuel skepticism about nuclear power generation across the world, affecting its own nuclear power policy.
The country has offered dosimeters and protective clothes as well as nuclear experts to help Japan contain the crisis.
A senior official with the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, "France and Japan will very likely deepen their cooperation regarding the nuclear plant."
The United States is now the primary support for the Kan administration's battle to make the plant safe. However, this was not the case before, according to sources.
The United States had signaled its willingness to extend a helping hand to Japan in the early stages of the crisis. But when the U.S. governmental Nuclear Regulatory Commission arrived in Tokyo and asked for data on the reactors, only a few representatives from Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant, came forward to work with them, according to the sources.
The Japanese government established an official bilateral consultation framework on March 22 after it realized leaving TEPCO officials to deal with the U.S. team by themselves was a poor approach.
At a gathering also attended by the industry ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, NRC staff were outraged when TEPCO officials refused to disclose data on the status of reactors, the sources said.
TEPCO officials were quoted as saying that the gathering was intended only to exchange information.
The U.S. side has provided many kinds of assistance, including robots, expertise on shielding and remote control.
02/04 INTERVIEW: Japan must distribute iodine tablets urgently
REUTERS
2011/04/02
2011/04/02
PARIS -- Japanese authorities grappling with a nuclear disaster must hand out iodine tablets now and as widely as possible to avoid a potential leap in thyroid cancers, the head of a group of independent radiation experts said.
France's CRIIRAD group says Japan has underestimated the sensitivity of the thyroid gland to radioactivity and must lower its 100 millisieverts (mSv) threshold for administering iodine.
Failure to do so quickly could lead to an even higher jump in thyroid cancer cases in coming years than is anticipated, Corinne Castanier told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
"They should still do it (distribute iodine) now because the contamination continues but it will be less efficient. They have to limit the damage. It's not too late to act but they have to distribute them as widely and as fast as possible," she said.
In 2009 France lowered the threshold at which it administers iodine pills in case of nuclear disaster to 50 mSv, a measure of the amount of radiation received by people, from 100 mSv, following guidelines established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the wake of the Chernobyl accident.
The WHO also set its threshold for children, pregnant women and women breastfeeding at 10 mSv.
In a nuclear accident, it is the discharge of iodine 131 into the atmosphere that constitutes the greatest health risk. The nuclide's radioactivity halves after 8 days.
If radioactive iodine is breathed in or swallowed, it will concentrate in the thyroid gland and increase the risk of thyroid cancer, the WHO said.
This risk can be lowered by taking potassium iodide pills to saturate the gland and help prevent the uptake of radioactive material when given before or shortly after exposure.
On March 16 Japanese authorities advised people living in a 20-km radius of the crippled plant to take iodine tablets five days after the catastrophic 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.
"Japanese authorities should have given out iodine tablets in a radius of 100-150 kilometers around the Fukushima-Daiichi plant and done so right after the accident," Castanier said.
"There is no major negative impact in iodine tablets so they should distribute them as widely as possible," she said.
The level of radioactive iodine found in seawater near the stricken nuclear power plant was 4,385 times the legal limit on Thursday, the Japanese nuclear safety agency said. That was the highest level registered since the crisis began.
Radioactive discharge levels from the Fukushima plant were very high in the first days after the accident, Castanier said.
France's CRIIRAD group says Japan has underestimated the sensitivity of the thyroid gland to radioactivity and must lower its 100 millisieverts (mSv) threshold for administering iodine.
Failure to do so quickly could lead to an even higher jump in thyroid cancer cases in coming years than is anticipated, Corinne Castanier told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
"They should still do it (distribute iodine) now because the contamination continues but it will be less efficient. They have to limit the damage. It's not too late to act but they have to distribute them as widely and as fast as possible," she said.
In 2009 France lowered the threshold at which it administers iodine pills in case of nuclear disaster to 50 mSv, a measure of the amount of radiation received by people, from 100 mSv, following guidelines established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the wake of the Chernobyl accident.
The WHO also set its threshold for children, pregnant women and women breastfeeding at 10 mSv.
In a nuclear accident, it is the discharge of iodine 131 into the atmosphere that constitutes the greatest health risk. The nuclide's radioactivity halves after 8 days.
If radioactive iodine is breathed in or swallowed, it will concentrate in the thyroid gland and increase the risk of thyroid cancer, the WHO said.
This risk can be lowered by taking potassium iodide pills to saturate the gland and help prevent the uptake of radioactive material when given before or shortly after exposure.
On March 16 Japanese authorities advised people living in a 20-km radius of the crippled plant to take iodine tablets five days after the catastrophic 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.
"Japanese authorities should have given out iodine tablets in a radius of 100-150 kilometers around the Fukushima-Daiichi plant and done so right after the accident," Castanier said.
"There is no major negative impact in iodine tablets so they should distribute them as widely as possible," she said.
The level of radioactive iodine found in seawater near the stricken nuclear power plant was 4,385 times the legal limit on Thursday, the Japanese nuclear safety agency said. That was the highest level registered since the crisis began.
Radioactive discharge levels from the Fukushima plant were very high in the first days after the accident, Castanier said.
02/04 Obama lauds Japanese courage in letter to emperor
2011/04/02
U.S. President Barack Obama signs a condolence book at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on March 17. (Toshihiko Ogata)
U.S. President Barack Obama signs a condolence book at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on March 17. (Toshihiko Ogata)U.S. President Barack Obama sent a letter to Emperor Akihito, extending his sympathy to victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 and expressing admiration for the "courage" of the Japanese people, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Thursday.
In the letter, dated March 24, Obama expressed "the deep sympathy felt by all Americans for the suffering of the Japanese people."
"The devastation and loss of life caused by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami was heartbreaking," he said, adding "our prayers are with you in this time of grief."
After the devastation and loss of life, Obama said he was confident that "Japan will rebound from this tragedy even stronger than before and set an example for other nations through your resilience."
Obama also said the United States will continue to support the people.
"As the people of Japan recover and rebuild, the United States will stand steadfast by your side as a friend, partner, and ally."
He also wrote that he was moved by the courage of the Japanese.
"I speak for all Americans in expressing admiration for the courage, strength and determination with which the people of Japan are responding to this crisis," the letter said.
In the letter, dated March 24, Obama expressed "the deep sympathy felt by all Americans for the suffering of the Japanese people."
"The devastation and loss of life caused by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami was heartbreaking," he said, adding "our prayers are with you in this time of grief."
After the devastation and loss of life, Obama said he was confident that "Japan will rebound from this tragedy even stronger than before and set an example for other nations through your resilience."
Obama also said the United States will continue to support the people.
"As the people of Japan recover and rebuild, the United States will stand steadfast by your side as a friend, partner, and ally."
He also wrote that he was moved by the courage of the Japanese.
"I speak for all Americans in expressing admiration for the courage, strength and determination with which the people of Japan are responding to this crisis," the letter said.
02/04 Devoted volunteer firefighters fight through tragedy
2011/04/02
Members of the No. 1 branch of the Otsuchi fire brigade stand by the ruins of a coastal wall destroyed in the March 11 tsunami in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture. (Kazumasa Sugimura)
OFUNATO, Iwate Prefecture-- From time to time, Yoshinori Murakami puts down his shovel to retrieve a photo album or stray picture from the detritus covering the roads.
The 33-year-old volunteer community firefighter clearing streets said any memento, no matter how muddied or damaged, could mean a world of difference to residents who lost so much after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
His personal mission also helps to keep his mind off the deaths of his wife, Taeko, 30, and his youngest daughter, Nozomi, 1--a tragedy he has yet to come to terms with.
"I feel that for now, it is better for me to be on my feet and doing something," Murakami said.
Volunteer firefighters like Murakami in northeastern Japan are working through their losses to clear rubble and restore some sense of normalcy in their communities.
In many rural communities where fire departments are not readily available, volunteer fire brigades, many of whose members hold regular jobs, act as the first line of defense in disasters.
According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, Iwate Prefecture had 23,420 fire brigade volunteers as of April 2010, close to 12 times the 1,944 fire department officials in the prefecture.
Following the March 11 quake, volunteer firefighters directed evacuees to shelters, rescued stranded survivors, administered life-saving techniques and put out fires.
Six members of the No. 3 division of the Otsuchi Fire Brigade No. 1 branch in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, risked their lives against the oncoming tsunami to shut eight passageway gates in a 6.4-meter-tall, 1-kilometer-long seawall.
Although the tsunami exceeded all expectations and destroyed a large part of the wall, they closed all the 5-meter-wide steel gates in a little over 10 minutes and escaped to higher ground.
"It was like playing tag against a tsunami," recalled Kunihiko Nakamura, 46, a member of the brigade division.
Norimitsu Ueno, the 55-year-old team leader, and another member then rushed back to help evacuate residents.
All six volunteer firefighters of the unit, along with another who joined later, lost their homes in the disaster. Their family members are living in evacuation shelters.
About a dozen members of another fire brigade in the community had also tried to shut gates at a seawall. Several of their bodies have since been found.
Despite the deaths of their comrades, the seven members of the No. 3 division have stuck together to help their community.
They have been staying at the office of Nakamura's trucking business in preparation for any event.
Nakamura's parents are still missing.
"Devotion," said Hajime Iwama, the 55-year-old deputy leader of the brigade that lost members when asked why the volunteers risked their lives. "I think it all comes down to that."
In Ofunato, Murakami says he remains committed to "help reconstruct the city where I was born and brought up."
Yet a mixture of guilt after the disaster also led Murakami to put on the happi coat of his volunteer fire brigade. That was on March 17, the day after he cremated the bodies of Taeko and Nozomi.
When the quake struck, Murakami was visiting his in-laws about a 20-minute drive from his home where Taeko and Nozomi remained.
After taking three times the usual time to drive home after the shaking stopped and the tsunami water receded, Murakami found his home in a shambles. The windows were broken and a huge pile of debris covered the entire main room.
Assuming that Taeko and Nozomi had fled to higher ground, Murakami began a three-day frantic search at evacuation shelters.
After finding no leads, Murakami returned to his home on March 14.
Amid the debris in the living room, he noticed a foot. When he removed the dirt and foliage that had piled up, he found the body of his wife and dead daughter curled up in her arms.
Nozomi's face had a peaceful look, as if she were napping in her mother's arms, he said.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Murakami could only apologize for failing to find the two earlier.
He retrieved a photo album from the wreckage and cried, regretting that he could not find his digital camera that held pictures of a recent family trip to Sendai.
The only fortunate thing that came out of the disaster was that Murakami's older daughter, Yu, 4, was unhurt. She had been at the day-care center when the disaster struck.
But since that day, Murakami has been unable to explain to Yu that "Kaka" (mother) and "Nono" (Nozomi) are not coming back.
Murakami himself has yet to fully accept the fact that Taeko and Nozomi are gone.
He says he still sees Nozomi saying "bye-bye," one of the first words she had just learned to utter, and Taeko smiling as he leaves for work each morning.
So from 8:30 a.m. each day, Murakami boards a small fire engine with his colleagues and removes debris. At night, he patrols the dark city, which still does not have electricity, and sleeps in a barn.
When he comes across a photograph, he holds on to it until the evening when he tries to find the rightful owner.
"I was born and raised here, so I can tell who it belongs to," Murakami said.
(This article was compiled from reports by Tomomi Abe, Takaaki Ikeda and Kazumasa Sugimura.)
Members of the No. 1 branch of the Otsuchi fire brigade stand by the ruins of a coastal wall destroyed in the March 11 tsunami in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture. (Kazumasa Sugimura)OFUNATO, Iwate Prefecture-- From time to time, Yoshinori Murakami puts down his shovel to retrieve a photo album or stray picture from the detritus covering the roads.
The 33-year-old volunteer community firefighter clearing streets said any memento, no matter how muddied or damaged, could mean a world of difference to residents who lost so much after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
His personal mission also helps to keep his mind off the deaths of his wife, Taeko, 30, and his youngest daughter, Nozomi, 1--a tragedy he has yet to come to terms with.
"I feel that for now, it is better for me to be on my feet and doing something," Murakami said.
Volunteer firefighters like Murakami in northeastern Japan are working through their losses to clear rubble and restore some sense of normalcy in their communities.
In many rural communities where fire departments are not readily available, volunteer fire brigades, many of whose members hold regular jobs, act as the first line of defense in disasters.
According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, Iwate Prefecture had 23,420 fire brigade volunteers as of April 2010, close to 12 times the 1,944 fire department officials in the prefecture.
Following the March 11 quake, volunteer firefighters directed evacuees to shelters, rescued stranded survivors, administered life-saving techniques and put out fires.
Six members of the No. 3 division of the Otsuchi Fire Brigade No. 1 branch in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, risked their lives against the oncoming tsunami to shut eight passageway gates in a 6.4-meter-tall, 1-kilometer-long seawall.
Although the tsunami exceeded all expectations and destroyed a large part of the wall, they closed all the 5-meter-wide steel gates in a little over 10 minutes and escaped to higher ground.
"It was like playing tag against a tsunami," recalled Kunihiko Nakamura, 46, a member of the brigade division.
Norimitsu Ueno, the 55-year-old team leader, and another member then rushed back to help evacuate residents.
All six volunteer firefighters of the unit, along with another who joined later, lost their homes in the disaster. Their family members are living in evacuation shelters.
About a dozen members of another fire brigade in the community had also tried to shut gates at a seawall. Several of their bodies have since been found.
Despite the deaths of their comrades, the seven members of the No. 3 division have stuck together to help their community.
They have been staying at the office of Nakamura's trucking business in preparation for any event.
Nakamura's parents are still missing.
"Devotion," said Hajime Iwama, the 55-year-old deputy leader of the brigade that lost members when asked why the volunteers risked their lives. "I think it all comes down to that."
In Ofunato, Murakami says he remains committed to "help reconstruct the city where I was born and brought up."
Yet a mixture of guilt after the disaster also led Murakami to put on the happi coat of his volunteer fire brigade. That was on March 17, the day after he cremated the bodies of Taeko and Nozomi.
When the quake struck, Murakami was visiting his in-laws about a 20-minute drive from his home where Taeko and Nozomi remained.
After taking three times the usual time to drive home after the shaking stopped and the tsunami water receded, Murakami found his home in a shambles. The windows were broken and a huge pile of debris covered the entire main room.
Assuming that Taeko and Nozomi had fled to higher ground, Murakami began a three-day frantic search at evacuation shelters.
After finding no leads, Murakami returned to his home on March 14.
Amid the debris in the living room, he noticed a foot. When he removed the dirt and foliage that had piled up, he found the body of his wife and dead daughter curled up in her arms.
Nozomi's face had a peaceful look, as if she were napping in her mother's arms, he said.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Murakami could only apologize for failing to find the two earlier.
He retrieved a photo album from the wreckage and cried, regretting that he could not find his digital camera that held pictures of a recent family trip to Sendai.
The only fortunate thing that came out of the disaster was that Murakami's older daughter, Yu, 4, was unhurt. She had been at the day-care center when the disaster struck.
But since that day, Murakami has been unable to explain to Yu that "Kaka" (mother) and "Nono" (Nozomi) are not coming back.
Murakami himself has yet to fully accept the fact that Taeko and Nozomi are gone.
He says he still sees Nozomi saying "bye-bye," one of the first words she had just learned to utter, and Taeko smiling as he leaves for work each morning.
So from 8:30 a.m. each day, Murakami boards a small fire engine with his colleagues and removes debris. At night, he patrols the dark city, which still does not have electricity, and sleeps in a barn.
When he comes across a photograph, he holds on to it until the evening when he tries to find the rightful owner.
"I was born and raised here, so I can tell who it belongs to," Murakami said.
(This article was compiled from reports by Tomomi Abe, Takaaki Ikeda and Kazumasa Sugimura.)
02/04 Experts: Scrapping Fukushima plant could take decades
2011/04/02
Regaining control of the four stricken reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could take months or years, according to nuclear experts.
And, even if the reactor cores can be cooled below 100 degrees, known as the "cold shutdown" stage, decommissioning will take several decades.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled the cooling system at the Fukushima plant. Since then, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), has been using fire trucks and electric pumps to try to cool the cores.
In a properly functioning nuclear reactor of the type used at Fukushima, water is pumped into the reactor core and evaporates after contact with the fuel rods. That steam is condensed using seawater and recirculated, maintaining the pressure level within the core.
However, the workers at the Fukushima plant are currently only able to pump water into the system. Pressure within the core increases because of the resulting steam. If that pressure rises excessively, there is a danger of damage to the core pressure containers and containment vessels.
To prevent that, steam containing radioactive materials has been vented into the atmosphere to reduce core pressure. In addition, some of the water pumped into the cores appears to have leaked, raising concern that the sea near the plant may have been contaminated.
A quick restoration of the cooling system is considered essential to preventing further contamination.
External power has been restored to all four reactors and lights have been turned on in the central control rooms. After monitoring equipment is back up and running, the next task for TEPCO will be to identify what parts of the reactors have been damaged.
There is a strong chance that pumps and other cooling equipment would have been damaged. But, with high radiation levels being recorded in much of the nuclear plant site, the time available to workers to repair the cooling system is limited.
If the cooling system cannot be restored, TEPCO will have to continue pumping in water from external pumps. That would likely entail further leaks of radioactive material onto nearby land and into the sea.
Another key challenge will be removing radioactive water from the basements of turbine buildings next to the core buildings. The idea of constructing new storage pools to take the water has been suggested, but TEPCO still faces many months of stopgap measures to deal with the large volumes of water.
Even if a cold shutdown of the four reactors is achieved, a long process of removing radioactive materials from the cores would still lie ahead.
The key question will be what to do with fuel rods that are thought to have been seriously damaged by the malfunctioning cooling system. Officials will have to decide whether to try to remove and process the fuel rods or to simply bury the reactor cores, complete with the fuel, in concrete.
Those rods are likely to have been partially melted and may have been deformed by the cooling problems. There is also a good chance that plutonium and uranium have been released.
If a decision is made to try to remove the rods, the first task would be to clean up the area around the core, which has been contaminated with high levels of radiation, in order to allow workers to get to the core. Officials would also have to work out ways of safely removing the melted fuel rods.
Once the rods were removed, processing the fuel would then pose a major challenge. They would continue to release high levels of radiation for years.
There are currently no facilities in Japan where fuel can be buried deep underground.
There is a facility in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, that can process spent fuel rods for reuse. But an official with Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., the operator of the Rokkasho facility, said, "We have never accepted fuel that has been heavily damaged (and which is releasing much greater levels of radiation than normal)."
After the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union, that plant's No. 4 reactor was encased in concrete.
However, Keiji Miyazaki, professor emeritus of nuclear reactor engineering at Osaka University, warned that heat from the encased fuel could crack the concrete and release radioactive material into the atmosphere.
"(We should) use the decision made after the Three Mile Island accident in the United States to remove the fuel as a reference point. The fuel should be removed regardless of how much time, money and labor is required. We should work with other nations on this," Miyazaki said. "Because four reactors have been damaged, it will take a number of years to remove the fuel."
Tetsuo Itoh, who heads the Kinki University Atomic Energy Research Institute, said: "I believe a stone coffin would be the best way to prevent a further spread of radioactive material. However, we need to consider whether the fuel should be encased as is or whether it should be moved to a different location. That will depend on the extent of damage to the fuel."
Even an undamaged nuclear reactor takes decades to decommission. After the fuel rods are removed, all of the pipes to the core have to be sealed. The inactive reactor then has to be kept airtight for five to 10 years, allowing radiation levels within the core to fall. The core is then dismantled and removed. Finally, the building that houses the core is taken down. In order to stop radiation from leaking into the atmosphere, more contaminated parts of the building have to be removed before parts with low levels of radiation.
The problem at Fukushima is that the shells of the reactor buildings, which would normally be the last parts removed, have been blown apart by hydrogen explosions. Other parts of the buildings, such as the turbine rooms, have been contaminated with highly radioactive water. New structures will probably have to be erected to prevent further leaks.
Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear engineering professor at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said, "Looking at past examples of dismantling reactor cores in Japan, it will take a minimum of between 20 and 30 years to complete the work and return the site to (being) an empty lot."
And, even if the reactor cores can be cooled below 100 degrees, known as the "cold shutdown" stage, decommissioning will take several decades.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled the cooling system at the Fukushima plant. Since then, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), has been using fire trucks and electric pumps to try to cool the cores.
In a properly functioning nuclear reactor of the type used at Fukushima, water is pumped into the reactor core and evaporates after contact with the fuel rods. That steam is condensed using seawater and recirculated, maintaining the pressure level within the core.
However, the workers at the Fukushima plant are currently only able to pump water into the system. Pressure within the core increases because of the resulting steam. If that pressure rises excessively, there is a danger of damage to the core pressure containers and containment vessels.
To prevent that, steam containing radioactive materials has been vented into the atmosphere to reduce core pressure. In addition, some of the water pumped into the cores appears to have leaked, raising concern that the sea near the plant may have been contaminated.
A quick restoration of the cooling system is considered essential to preventing further contamination.
External power has been restored to all four reactors and lights have been turned on in the central control rooms. After monitoring equipment is back up and running, the next task for TEPCO will be to identify what parts of the reactors have been damaged.
There is a strong chance that pumps and other cooling equipment would have been damaged. But, with high radiation levels being recorded in much of the nuclear plant site, the time available to workers to repair the cooling system is limited.
If the cooling system cannot be restored, TEPCO will have to continue pumping in water from external pumps. That would likely entail further leaks of radioactive material onto nearby land and into the sea.
Another key challenge will be removing radioactive water from the basements of turbine buildings next to the core buildings. The idea of constructing new storage pools to take the water has been suggested, but TEPCO still faces many months of stopgap measures to deal with the large volumes of water.
Even if a cold shutdown of the four reactors is achieved, a long process of removing radioactive materials from the cores would still lie ahead.
The key question will be what to do with fuel rods that are thought to have been seriously damaged by the malfunctioning cooling system. Officials will have to decide whether to try to remove and process the fuel rods or to simply bury the reactor cores, complete with the fuel, in concrete.
Those rods are likely to have been partially melted and may have been deformed by the cooling problems. There is also a good chance that plutonium and uranium have been released.
If a decision is made to try to remove the rods, the first task would be to clean up the area around the core, which has been contaminated with high levels of radiation, in order to allow workers to get to the core. Officials would also have to work out ways of safely removing the melted fuel rods.
Once the rods were removed, processing the fuel would then pose a major challenge. They would continue to release high levels of radiation for years.
There are currently no facilities in Japan where fuel can be buried deep underground.
There is a facility in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, that can process spent fuel rods for reuse. But an official with Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., the operator of the Rokkasho facility, said, "We have never accepted fuel that has been heavily damaged (and which is releasing much greater levels of radiation than normal)."
After the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union, that plant's No. 4 reactor was encased in concrete.
However, Keiji Miyazaki, professor emeritus of nuclear reactor engineering at Osaka University, warned that heat from the encased fuel could crack the concrete and release radioactive material into the atmosphere.
"(We should) use the decision made after the Three Mile Island accident in the United States to remove the fuel as a reference point. The fuel should be removed regardless of how much time, money and labor is required. We should work with other nations on this," Miyazaki said. "Because four reactors have been damaged, it will take a number of years to remove the fuel."
Tetsuo Itoh, who heads the Kinki University Atomic Energy Research Institute, said: "I believe a stone coffin would be the best way to prevent a further spread of radioactive material. However, we need to consider whether the fuel should be encased as is or whether it should be moved to a different location. That will depend on the extent of damage to the fuel."
Even an undamaged nuclear reactor takes decades to decommission. After the fuel rods are removed, all of the pipes to the core have to be sealed. The inactive reactor then has to be kept airtight for five to 10 years, allowing radiation levels within the core to fall. The core is then dismantled and removed. Finally, the building that houses the core is taken down. In order to stop radiation from leaking into the atmosphere, more contaminated parts of the building have to be removed before parts with low levels of radiation.
The problem at Fukushima is that the shells of the reactor buildings, which would normally be the last parts removed, have been blown apart by hydrogen explosions. Other parts of the buildings, such as the turbine rooms, have been contaminated with highly radioactive water. New structures will probably have to be erected to prevent further leaks.
Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear engineering professor at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said, "Looking at past examples of dismantling reactor cores in Japan, it will take a minimum of between 20 and 30 years to complete the work and return the site to (being) an empty lot."
02/04 Kan to review energy policy on nuclear reactors
2011/04/02PrintShare Article
Construction of the Oma nuclear power plant in Oma, Aomori Prefecture, has been suspended. (Yoshiaki Ishige)
Editor's note: We will update our earthquake news as frequently as possible on AJW's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/AJW.Asahi. Please check the latest developments in this disaster. From Toshio Jo, managing editor, International Division, The Asahi Shimbun.
* * *
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Thursday the government will review its basic energy policy that includes increasing the number of nuclear reactors by 14 from the current 54 by 2030.
"Based on the examination results of the current accidents (at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant), we need new discussions about nuclear power and other energy policies," Kan said at a joint news conference with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Kan also said that after the nuclear crisis is settled, the government will discuss whether to maintain the current system of depending on private companies, including Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant, for all of the nation's electricity supply.
"It is necessary to hold discussions about how electric power companies are operated, including the point of whether current private companies should be maintained," Kan said.
Kan and Sarkozy earlier Thursday held talks at the Prime Minister's Official Residence about nuclear power generation and other issues.
Before that meeting, Kan held discussions with Japanese Communist Party Chairman Kazuo Shii, who later quoted the prime minister as saying the government wants to review plans to construct new nuclear reactors.
Of the 14 planned new reactors under the basic energy plan approved by the Cabinet in June last year, two are currently under construction.
However, the crisis at Fukushima plant has shattered the public's confidence in the safety of nuclear power plants.
"It is unavoidable to review the (basic energy) plan," a senior official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
Construction of the Oma nuclear power plant in Oma, Aomori Prefecture, has been suspended. (Yoshiaki Ishige)
Editor's note: We will update our earthquake news as frequently as possible on AJW's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/AJW.Asahi. Please check the latest developments in this disaster. From Toshio Jo, managing editor, International Division, The Asahi Shimbun.
* * *
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Thursday the government will review its basic energy policy that includes increasing the number of nuclear reactors by 14 from the current 54 by 2030.
"Based on the examination results of the current accidents (at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant), we need new discussions about nuclear power and other energy policies," Kan said at a joint news conference with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Kan also said that after the nuclear crisis is settled, the government will discuss whether to maintain the current system of depending on private companies, including Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant, for all of the nation's electricity supply.
"It is necessary to hold discussions about how electric power companies are operated, including the point of whether current private companies should be maintained," Kan said.
Kan and Sarkozy earlier Thursday held talks at the Prime Minister's Official Residence about nuclear power generation and other issues.
Before that meeting, Kan held discussions with Japanese Communist Party Chairman Kazuo Shii, who later quoted the prime minister as saying the government wants to review plans to construct new nuclear reactors.
Of the 14 planned new reactors under the basic energy plan approved by the Cabinet in June last year, two are currently under construction.
However, the crisis at Fukushima plant has shattered the public's confidence in the safety of nuclear power plants.
"It is unavoidable to review the (basic energy) plan," a senior official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
13/10/2008 Củng Lợi khoe thân hình gợi cảm
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Củng Lợi khoe thân hình gợi cảm Ngoài 40 tuổi, minh tinh của điện ảnh Hoa ngữ vẫn giữ được khuôn mặt tươi trẻ và dáng vẻ cân đối. Với áo bó sát, người đẹp lộ ra vòng một quyến rũ khi chụp bộ ảnh mới.
Hoài Thu
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28/10/2009 Tào Dĩnh tràn căng sức sống
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Tào Dĩnh tràn căng sức sống Người đẹp từng gây ấn tượng qua bộ phim "Quan huyện 9 tuổi" khoe nét tươi trẻ, yêu kiều trong bộ ảnh mới. Tào Dĩnh (Cao Yinh) là gương mặt thân quen với màn ảnh Việt Nam qua những bộ phim như Vận mệnh đào hoa, Quan huyện 9 tuổi, Mặt trời lặn sau Tử Cấm Thành, Nữ luật sư xinh đẹp... Cô cũng thể hiện tài năng ca hát khi thể hiện thành công các ca khúc trong các phim mình đóng. Bên cạnh đó, chiều cao 1,68 cùng khuôn mặt cá tính đã giúp Tào Dĩnh trở thành người mẫu sáng giá của các hãng thời trang trong nước. Cô được coi là người đẹp đa tài, nổi danh trong nhiều lĩnh vực, đặc biệt là phim ảnh và MC. Đến nay, mỹ nữ Trung Quốc đã đóng gần 200 bộ phim. Bộ ảnh trên International Online:
Hoài Thu
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