ID :
180574
Sat, 05/07/2011 - 18:06
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/180574
The shortlink copeid
Paper warning of Fukushima nuke plant risks draws attention on Net
TOKYO, May 7 Kyodo - A short paper penned 16 years ago by an anti-nuclear scientist is drawing attention on the Internet for having warned about the dangers posed by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and other old atomic plants.
Jinzaburo Takagi, the former director of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center who died in 2000, also cautioned the government and utilities about their stance of not assessing safety risks for nuclear power stations beyond assumed scenarios.
The four-page paper in Japanese, entitled ''Nuclear Facilities and Emergencies -- with Focus on Measures against Earthquakes,'' appeared in the October 1995 issue of the Physical Society of Japan, the journal of a physicists' group, after the Great Hanshin Earthquake hit the city of Kobe and its vicinity in January that year.
Based on data from the Kobe quake and other sources, Takagi, a former associate professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, addressed in the paper issues related to anti-quake designs and the obsolescence of nuclear power plants as well as quake fault lines.
Takagi blasted the government and power companies for ''refusing to consider emergency measures in the event of an earthquake because they assume nuclear power plants will not break down in an earthquake and have stopped taking further steps at all.''
He also argued the Great Hanshin Earthquake raised an alert about the lack of preparedness for emergency situations at nuclear power facilities, such as being ''attacked by a tsunami along with a quake.''
''Discussions on the safety of nuclear power plants or disaster preparedness measures on the assumption of those situations occurring have been shunned, on the grounds that it is 'inappropriate' to make such assumptions or such discussions have some ulterior motive,'' he said.
But Takagi said he ''believes thinking out measures by making all possible assumptions is a more level-headed and realistic approach.''
The paper cited Fukushima Prefecture's Hamadori coastal region as one of the areas with a concentration of nuclear facilities that could face a situation ''beyond what has been imagined'' if a major earthquake strikes. The region hosts the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power stations of Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Fukushima Daiichi is also referred to in the paper as an ''obsolete nuclear power plant that raises the greatest concerns'' and requires holding concrete discussions on its decommissioning.
The paper has been made available to the public on an Internet database. One twitter poster said, ''An alarm of this kind was most probably given the silent treatment.''
Baku Nishio, a current co-director of the information center, said, ''After going through it again, I am surprised to learn that all the problems that are happening now are packed into this compact paper. We should give heed to his words now, but not as about something that happened in the past.''
Born in 1938, Takagi studied nuclear chemistry at the University of Tokyo and served as assistant at the university's laboratory for nuclear studies and assistant professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, before joining in the establishment of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo.
He was the director of the center, which networks scientists, activists and citizens in seeking a nuclear-free world, from 1987 until 1998. He was known as a ''citizen scientist'' critical of ''big'' science and technology and nuclear power. A recipient of the Right Livelihood award, said to be an ''alternative Nobel Prize,'' Takagi died of colon cancer in 2000. His books have gone through reprints since the March 11 disaster.
Jinzaburo Takagi, the former director of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center who died in 2000, also cautioned the government and utilities about their stance of not assessing safety risks for nuclear power stations beyond assumed scenarios.
The four-page paper in Japanese, entitled ''Nuclear Facilities and Emergencies -- with Focus on Measures against Earthquakes,'' appeared in the October 1995 issue of the Physical Society of Japan, the journal of a physicists' group, after the Great Hanshin Earthquake hit the city of Kobe and its vicinity in January that year.
Based on data from the Kobe quake and other sources, Takagi, a former associate professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, addressed in the paper issues related to anti-quake designs and the obsolescence of nuclear power plants as well as quake fault lines.
Takagi blasted the government and power companies for ''refusing to consider emergency measures in the event of an earthquake because they assume nuclear power plants will not break down in an earthquake and have stopped taking further steps at all.''
He also argued the Great Hanshin Earthquake raised an alert about the lack of preparedness for emergency situations at nuclear power facilities, such as being ''attacked by a tsunami along with a quake.''
''Discussions on the safety of nuclear power plants or disaster preparedness measures on the assumption of those situations occurring have been shunned, on the grounds that it is 'inappropriate' to make such assumptions or such discussions have some ulterior motive,'' he said.
But Takagi said he ''believes thinking out measures by making all possible assumptions is a more level-headed and realistic approach.''
The paper cited Fukushima Prefecture's Hamadori coastal region as one of the areas with a concentration of nuclear facilities that could face a situation ''beyond what has been imagined'' if a major earthquake strikes. The region hosts the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power stations of Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Fukushima Daiichi is also referred to in the paper as an ''obsolete nuclear power plant that raises the greatest concerns'' and requires holding concrete discussions on its decommissioning.
The paper has been made available to the public on an Internet database. One twitter poster said, ''An alarm of this kind was most probably given the silent treatment.''
Baku Nishio, a current co-director of the information center, said, ''After going through it again, I am surprised to learn that all the problems that are happening now are packed into this compact paper. We should give heed to his words now, but not as about something that happened in the past.''
Born in 1938, Takagi studied nuclear chemistry at the University of Tokyo and served as assistant at the university's laboratory for nuclear studies and assistant professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, before joining in the establishment of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo.
He was the director of the center, which networks scientists, activists and citizens in seeking a nuclear-free world, from 1987 until 1998. He was known as a ''citizen scientist'' critical of ''big'' science and technology and nuclear power. A recipient of the Right Livelihood award, said to be an ''alternative Nobel Prize,'' Takagi died of colon cancer in 2000. His books have gone through reprints since the March 11 disaster.
