Wednesday, September 7, 2011

07/09 Typhoon No. 12 caused deep-seated landslides




This photo taken Monday shows a mud slide in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture.

Large mud slides in Wakayama and Nara prefectures resulting from Typhoon No. 12 are suspected of being deep-seated landslides, according to a specialist.
Unlike shallow landslides in which topsoil 0.5 meters to 2 meters deep comes loose, the bedrock beneath the topsoil also moves in deep-seated landslides, causing enormous damage.
Typhoon No. 12 brought record rainfall to the Kii Peninsula, where fragile bedrock allowed massive amounts of rainwater to permeate underground. This has sparked concerns that more deep-seated landslides could occur in the region.
Kyoji Sassa, a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, has warned the peninsula will frequently be hit with similar landslides in the future due to its geological features.
Sassa analyzed news photos following Typhoon No. 12 of a mud slide in the Fudono district of Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, and suspects it is a deep-seated landslide. He also believes a mountain collapse in Gojo, Nara Prefecture, could be a deep-seated landslide.
Asahiko Taira, a geologist and executive director of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, said the Kii Peninsula is formed with Shimanto-tai strata, which are highly prone to landslides.
The strata began forming 20 million to 100 million years ago by colliding tectonic plates. In a process of repeated collisions and transformations, land mass was pushed upward and cracks dozens of meters deep were formed, which is where rainwater can accumulate.
"The deep-seated landslides were caused as rainwater infiltrated deep cracks over long periods of time," Sassa said. "Similar large-scale collapses may occur when [the strata] absorb large quantities of water."
According to a map of areas that could be hit by deep-seated landslides drawn up by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry in August last year, about 34 percent of the land in Nara Prefecture is at particularly high risk.
The map also indicates the remaining areas of the prefecture and neighboring Wakayama Prefecture are also at high risk of deep-seated landslides.
(Sep. 7, 2011)

07/09 Kan: Nuclear crisis 'man-made' / Ex-PM says poor flow of info hindered N-plant accident response




Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun
The ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant should be considered a "man-made disaster," and poor communication with the plant's operator hindered the initial government response, former Prime Minister Naoto Kan has told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
In an exclusive interview, Kan also said he felt "very sorry" for residents of Fukushima Prefecture who would not be able to return to their homes for a long time due to the nuclear crisis.
"There in fact were various opinions [regarding the safety of the plant] before the accident, but no well-thought-out preparations were made," he said. "In that sense, the nuclear accident should be considered a man-made disaster."
Referring to the response to the accident by the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission, Kan said the two watchdogs had been "unable to foresee the possibility that all power sources could be lost" at the nuclear complex.
As a result, neither the agency nor the commission could deal effectively with the circumstances that arose after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems, he said.
Kan said there also were problems with the flow of information from the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The former prime minister said he ended up calling Masao Yoshida, the head of the plant, in a bid to gauge what was actually happening.
Kan revealed that the off-site emergency response center near the plant, though supposed to serve as a front-line command center in the event of a crisis, was vacated soon after the accident.
"As a result, arrangements that had been assumed in accident simulations hardly worked at all," said Kan, who stepped down late last month.
Kan was frustrated by the lack of details TEPCO provided soon after the disaster.
"Although I instructed the utility to vent [vapor in the nuclear reactor containers], TEPCO failed to do this, and I wasn't told of the reasons for that failure," he said. "Even as I sought an explanation for this situation, I couldn't tell whose decisions I was being given. It was like a game of Chinese whispers."
Kan visited Fukushima Prefecture on Aug. 27, the day after he officially announced he would resign as prime minister. He conveyed to the prefectural governor his view that people in some radiation-affected areas might be unable to return to their homes for a long period. He also called for the Fukushima government's approval to have temporary storage facilities for radiation-tainted materials built in the prefecture.
"I felt very sorry for all the victims of the disaster, but I thought it was my responsibility as prime minister in office at the time of the March 11 disaster to speak about the worst possible scenario," he said.
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Excerpts from Kan interview
Following are excerpts from former Prime Minister Naoto Kan's interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident, one of the biggest challenges he faced while in office.
Question: What do you think was the biggest factor behind the nuclear crisis?
Kan: All the crisis-management arrangements that had been made prior to the accident failed to function properly.
Q: Do you wish you had responded differently to the crisis?
Kan: Nobody can be 100 percent perfect, but I believe I did what I should have done.
Q: It seemed the government and TEPCO were often one step behind developments during the crisis.
Kan: That accident was beyond our expectations, so there were no preparations to cope with it properly. It had been assumed there was no possibility the plant's power sources would be lost, so it was only natural that we were one step behind as the crisis unfolded.
Q: When did you contact the head of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Mr. Masao Yoshida?
Kan: Whenever I needed firsthand information about the conditions at the nuclear plant and what decisions were being made there. Mr. Yoshida gave me adequate answers, but it couldn't be helped that information I obtained from TEPCO's head office was incomplete and insufficient.
Q: Was the lack of accurate information the biggest problem?
Kan: Definitely. That I could not get correct information stemmed from shortcomings in the system.
Q: Was it your idea to have Self-Defense Forces helicopters drop water into pools for storing spent nuclear fuel at the plant reactors?
Kan: That was basically done at my request. The temperature of the spent nuclear fuel pool was rising alarmingly, and the United States was also expressing concern. The SDF operation drastically changed the mood of the people involved. Everybody suddenly became very positive about tackling the crisis.
(Sep. 7, 2011)

07/09 South Korean cartoonist to promote Miyagi Prefecture

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Miyagi prefectural government plans to invite a famous cartoonist from South Korea in December to publicize its recovery from the March 11 disaster to South Koreans.

The local government plans to have him visit different areas of the prefecture and convey what he has experienced to people in South Korea through newspaper illustrations and a Web site, it has been learned.

The prefectural government hopes his renderings of actual conditions in the prefecture will lessen South Koreans' concerns about radiation and tsunami in Japan. They plan to have him interview okami (female) innkeepers, sushi cooks and craftspeople.

The cartoonist is Huh Young Man, known for his cartoons about cooking. His representative work "Sik Gaek" became a bestseller, with more than 1 million copies sold in South Korea. Originally a newspaper series, his cartoons inspired a film and a TV series.

The prefectural government plans to invite him in mid- to late December for five days and have him visit a kokeshi (wooden doll) maker in Osaki, a sushi restaurant in Shiogama, an inn in Shiroishi and speak with people there. The government also plans to ask him to visit a rice-farming family and a cattle farmer.

Huh's cartoons are scheduled to appear in Sunday editions of JoongAng Ilbo, a major newspaper in South Korea, and on a major Internet site.

There is also a possibility that his drawings will be utilized in travel agency merchandising.

In South Korea, people are concerned about the current situation in Japan, and Japanese food has been removed from shelves at some supermarkets. The number of South Korean tourists to Miyagi Prefecture drastically decreased after the March 11 disaster.

Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai visited South Korea at the end of August and promoted Miyagi Prefecture's safety to South Korean municipalities and media.

(Sep. 7, 2011)