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In Defense of the Public Interest: Connecting and Amplifying Independent Voices around Nuclear Accidents

français | 日本語訳

Akio Matsumura

Excerpts from the Asahi Shimbun Editorial on Nov 23, 2016:

For planet Earth, the passage of five years and eight months represents nothing but a flash. 

The Magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck eastern Japan on November 22, 2016, believed to an aftershock of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, served as a wake up-up call, for us humans whose memories are woefully short. 

This time, many people became alarmed when they learned of the temporary failure of the cooling water pump for the spent nuclear fuel pool at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO). In the immediate aftermath of the March 2011 disaster, however, the shutdown of the cooling water pump at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant presented a serious threat to the spent nuclear fuel. A possible massive release of radioactive substances was feared.

We are concerned that this particular lesson from the 2011 disaster may have already been forgotten. 

We must all learn humbly from each disaster. It is up to all of society--individuals and corporations alike--to keep planning viable countermeasures steadily and surely. 

Ultimately, that is the only way to prepare for the next disaster, which may strike even today.

Japan’s government and the Tokyo Metropolitan government flood the news with promotions of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. With this excitement in the foreground, we take little notice of the fact that there is little to no news of how repairs proceed, whether the crews face difficulty, and how many areas cannot even be entered at Fukushima’s nuclear site.… Continue reading

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Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima: Nobel Peace Prize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s Global Survivors

français  |  日本語訳

Akio Matsumura

I announced the creation of the Nuclear Emergency Action Alliance (NEAA) on March 22, 2016. That same day, we witnessed the tragedy of a terrorist attack in Brussels. People began to contemplate the reality of increasing risk of terrorist attack on one of the 430 nuclear plants in 31 countries.

The Fukushima accident taught me that a nuclear power plant accident can have an unimaginable impact over human life for centuries. The accident has caused untold harm to those whose lives were disrupted by the plant. If things had gone worse, we don’t know how we would have calculated the cost of 24,000 years of environmental harm on future generations. It is my important discovery that we failed to understand the radiation from the nuclear bombs and the radiation from the nuclear accident are little different in terms of the risk for human life.

There are two strong different opinions in regard to the nuclear bomb and the economic necessity of the nuclear power plants. Japan, of course, is a country that has seen the downside of both technologies. When President Obama visited Hiroshima, he painted “a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare, but as the start of our own moral awakening.”

I believe this message was appreciated by hibakusha, the world’s younger generations, and the people of Japan. To some, President Obama’s trip was controversial; would President Obama apologize to the hibakusha? Should he?… Continue reading

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Introducing the Nuclear Emergency Action Alliance: Taking the first steps after nuclear disaster

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Akio Matsumura

On the occasion of the 5th year of the Fukushima nuclear accident, I wrote an article entitled ”Our Lessons from Fukushima: New Concerns for the Future.” It was a pleasure to receive so many positive responses from friends and other readers.

Many readers also indicated their frustrations with the reality that many unsolved issues continue: 400 tons of contaminated water from the Fukushima plant run into the sea every day; no repository sites have been designated for radiation waste materials; and no scientific solutions regarding clean-up of the melted reactors are expected for at least 40 years. Readers have also appreciated my concern about the high probability of terrorists’ attacks upon the many nuclear power plants around the world and the need to establish some mechanisms and strategies to tackle the situation following such attacks – post-event planning and interventions. It was gratifying to learn that the organizations Physicians for Social Responsibility/International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (PSR/IPPNW Switzerland) published this article in English and French. (IPPNW was award the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.)

We have learned that even one mishap or mistake from any one of the many hundreds of nuclear power plants would cause a tremendous human and environmental loss for many decades, if not centuries. Damage incurred from a nuclear attack or a “dirty bomb” would be so large it would prove hard to calculate, but the costs are sure to be much larger than development and implementation of alternative energy sources.… Continue reading

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Our Lessons from Fukushima: New Concerns for the Future

français | 日本語訳

Akio Matsumura

This week people across the world are commemorating the fifth anniversary of the worst nuclear power accident in history, which occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant in Japan on March 11, 2011.

Many aspects of the crisis continue to affect human and environmental safety. There are still 178,000 evacuees in total (99,750 at Fukushima) who do not know when they can return home. 400 tons of contaminated water run into the sea every day. Frequent torrential rains wash away radioactive materials remaining at the site into the sea. 814,782 tons of contaminated water are stored at about 1,000 tanks, with more tanks built every month. The 7,000 workers at the site undertake dangerous tasks every day. The dedicated workers have solved many problems so far, but many continue to perplex managers and cleanup crews. No one approaches reactors 1, 2, and 3 due to strong radiation, and no scientific solution is expected for at least forty years. Unfortunately, future disruption cannot be discounted – the possibility of another strong earthquake in forty years is non-zero.

Since the Fukushima accident, we were fortunate to quickly receive opinions and recommendations across many fields. Nuclear scientists, medical doctors, military personnel, seismologists, biologists, oceanographers, volcanologists, journalists, spiritual leaders, parliamentarians, students and grass-root organizations, and public opinion leaders all weighed in. The horizontal perspective that emerged offered a different view than was possible from any single discipline, no matter how expert the practitioner. The Japanese benefited from these messages that cut through the confusion that pervaded the media at the time.… Continue reading

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Understanding the Nuclear Challenge and Three Other Security Threats

français

Akio Matsumura

The way we wage war is changing. Cyber war’s secret infiltrations. The Islamic State’s conquering of vast swaths of land and resources. The UN and the other political entities we developed in the 20th century were not meant to handle such problems and will likely fail to do so. The incremental reforms have not kept up with the pace of changes led by technology and unsatisfied young people. Indeed, these new problems require new approaches. There is a mismatch between the potential consequences of the security problems we face today and the architecture we have to address them.

Four problems loom more menacing than the rest. Each challenges the security architecture on which we’ve depended for 25 years and threatens to spill over into a flood we cannot stem.

  1. Middle East: The region is hitting a low point. Civil War in Syria, expanding war against the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, conflicts between Sunnis and Shias in the region, and nuclear negotiations with Iran.
  2. Pakistan: One neighborhood over, Pakistan has nuclear weapons, tribal conflicts, and a rivalry with India pushed to the brink by state-sponsored terrorism.
  3. Eastern Ukraine: President Putin’s slow creep at the border is getting more dangerous.
  4. China: A huge overinvestment in real estate has left a bubble waiting to collapse. The resulting many ghost towns might cause uprisings and threaten the nation’s stability to a degree we haven’t seen. Especially tightly wound are the autonomous regions of Xinjian and Tibet.

Among the four ongoing conflicts, the potential global risk of the Middle East conflicts is far above the other three cases.… Continue reading

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Japan’s Nuclear Water Woes

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Almost four years ago, we switched our focus on this website from international security to the unknown issues at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants – the potential consequences of a larger accident there were impossible to ignore. We covered the meltdowns themselves, the unimagined consequences of an accident with the cooling pool of Reactor No. 4, the ice walls, and the potential for radiation to harm humans, wildlife, and the environment itself.

Perhaps most important, we linked together physicists, biologists, decision makers, nuclear experts (and more nuclear experts), physicians, journalists, UN officials, spiritual leaders, teachers and students to build a more comprehensive understanding of nuclear power’s relationship with people and the environment that surrounds it. We are often restricted, in engineering and science as well as business and politics, to narrow, vertical styles of thinking. Our mission is to connect professions — and individuals at their top – horizontally. The debate over the effects of March 11, 2011, will continue on for decades, and probably remain unresolved. We hope we were able to broaden the conversation.  From this point on, Finding the Missing Link will turn its focus back to issues of security, religion, and politics across the world, building on what we learned through our work on Fukushima, and hoping to build connections otherwise unmade.

Earlier this month Gordon Edwards sent us the following Associated Press article, which descriBes in detail where the clean up of the nuclear power plants stands now and what issues TEPCO and Japan will face going forward.… Continue reading

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Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Sanctity of Remembering

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Dear Mr Matsumura,

The novel The Sanctity of Remembering was written to resurrect Nagasaki and Hiroshima and to purge modern history of the myth and abuses that still surrounds the use of atomic bombs. While changing the voice of America by one and thus one at a time the novel took on both form and purpose. A voice previously not yet heard was to be created in the art of fiction, the best conveyance of truth. As in all poetic prose the plangent sound of the ill treated and unexpected becomes audible as I knew it might if I just stayed the task and kept writing and revising until help arrived. I wrote the novel because I conceived that one nation under God conceived in liberty would so endure and one world under the same God would learn to know each other in the truth. My characters were charged to address all on this globe in every way they knew until all things are made new. Too bad I have only a novel to give to the cause but it is a good one and I am happy to have it completed to honor another anniversary in Japan. I was exposed to four atomic bombs as teenage soldier in the United States Army and this is the fallout and my fall out and my fall in to the ranks of truth seekers without borders. Also know please that this specially conceived commentary is very much overdue.… Continue reading

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Abnormalities, Deformities, and Resilience: New Research on Radiation and Wildlife in Chernobyl and Fukushima

日本語訳 | français

Dear Akio,

Thank you for the opportunity to share a brief summary of my research activities in Ukraine, Belarus and Japan, as well as my vision for future studies in these regions. My goal for the coming year is to further strengthen our ongoing multinational collaborative, continue our ongoing research efforts in both Fukushima and Chernobyl, and obtain support to coordinate and initiate new avenues of research involving researchers in Japan and elsewhere. 

At present, there is no other central group organizing or sponsoring such activities and we are thus missing invaluable opportunities to observe and understand the impacts of radiological accidents on natural populations that may be critical for predictions of long-term impacts on human populations stemming from nuclear accidents and other sources of radiation in the environment. Without such research there can be no confidence in assessments of the hazards to human populations living in or visiting Japan in the future.

Best wishes,

Timothy Mousseau, PhD
University of South Carolina
Mutant Dandelions in Fukushima. Photo by Timothy Mousseau
Mutant Dandelions in Fukushima. Photo by Timothy Mousseau

The Chernobyl + Fukushima Research Initiative

Timothy Mousseau, PhD

The Initiative and Its Research

The Chernobyl + Fukushima Research Initiative (CFRI) is centered at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and began formal research activities in Ukraine in 2000, Belarus in 2005, and Fukushima, Japan, in July 2011. To date, the group has conducted more than 30 research expeditions to Chernobyl and 10 expeditions to Fukushima.

The nuclear accidents at both Chernobyl and Fukushima released enormous quantities of radioactive elements that were dispersed by the prevailing weather at landscape scales with approximately 200,000 km2 and 15,000 km2 land area significantly contaminated in these regions, respectively.… Continue reading

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Landmark Court Ruling Puts Safety First in Japan, Olympics Should Do the Same

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by Akio Matsumura

A district court in Japan has ruled that the two Oi nuclear reactors cannot be restarted by the Kansai Electric Power Company, citing structural deficiencies . The Fukui District Court said in its ruling, according to an editorial in the Mainichi Shimbun:

“Individuals’ personal right to protect their lives and livelihoods are of the highest value under the Constitution. The court then concluded that ‘it would be only natural to suspend nuclear plants if they pose specific risks of danger -- though it would be an extreme argument to say the existence of such plants is impermissible under the Constitution.’"

Until this ruling, Japan’s federal government and legal system had made decisions in favor of strengthening its economy and minimizing imports. This court ruling emphasized caution and prioritized human and environmental health above trade balances.

Summarizing further, the Japan Times wrote:

The crucial point of the ruling is its contention that it is inherently impossible to determine on scientific grounds that an earthquake more powerful than assumed in the operator’s worst-case scenario would not happen. It noted that since 2005, four nuclear power reactors around the country have experienced quake shocks more powerful than the maximum level anticipated on their sites. It is “groundless optimism” in this quake-prone country that such a temblor would never hit the Oi plant, the ruling stated.

We will have to wait and see whether Japan respects the Fukui Court’s decision or proceeds with its planned restarts.… Continue reading

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Unwelcome Science: Japan Ignores UN Rapporteur’s Call for Better Fukushima Health Measures

français | 日本語訳

Akio Matsumura

“Why don’t we have a urine analysis, why don’t we have a blood analysis? Let’s err on the side of caution.”

UN Special Rapporteur Anand Grover, who visited Fukushima in 2012, spoke in Tokyo this month about the continued lack of appropriate health research surrounding Fukushima and related health issues.

Since shortly after the Fukushima accident three years ago, doctors throughout Fukushima prefecture have been looking for unusual cysts, nodes, and other bumps that might indicate thyroid cancer, one possible effect of radiation. The numbers of irregularities the doctors have been finding is alarming, but also puzzling: By most counts, thyroid cancers should only begin to show up five years or so after radiation exposure.

What, then, should Japanese doctors and health officials do with this information?

Information and caution, it turns out, are unwelcome in Japan. The country plans to restart its nuclear reactors and move Fukushima’s refugees back into the former evacuation zones. Any studies pointing to negative effects of radiation exposure will hinder this move toward economic progress.

So, Japan has taken subtle measures to slow any proof that these moves aren’t in its citizens’ best interest. Japan can hamper scientific studies that can lead to new information and evidence in two ways: by cutting funding and by imposing a culture of secrecy and an unwillingness to talk to the press among researchers. A March 16 article by David McNeill in the New York Times chronicled this process. Timothy Mosseau, a researcher from the University of South Carolina, has found his three trips to the Fukushima area “difficult.”… Continue reading