Scenario Planning Study: Mitigating Grey-Zone Military Attacks on Nuclear Power Plants in Japan

This study aims at revealing the relationships among risk assessment result, risk perception model and risk acceptance model of the residents near nuclear power plants in Japan. Risk acceptance model is based on the trust of resident to nuclear power plants (NPPs) companies. The risk perception of the residents is very fragile and is not always based on objective technical knowledge. In addition, there are two models of risk acceptance: traditional trust model and salient value similarity model. In order to discuss the risk communication framework between NPPs with residents, applicability of two modes on the perception of the residents should be investigated. The author collected questionnaire from local resident near Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP in Niigata, Japan. Severity of risk is significantly affected by the extents of risks, not by amount of knowledge. Radiation relating hazard is normally evaluated higher risk. Risk acceptance level is significantly related to the factors of social benefits and trust to the NPPs company, not by regional interest nor amount of knowledge. Furthermore, value similarity model was not significant in this study. The results demonstrated that risk acceptance model of local residents near NPPs could be arranged by traditional trust model. In order to establish mutual trustworthy relationships between local residents and NPPs engineer, expert knowledge in nuclear power, communication skills, and expertise in safety are necessary to the engineers.

The March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami sparked a humanitarian disaster in northeastern Japan. They were responsible for more than 15,900 deaths and 2,600 missing persons as well as physical infrastructure damages exceeding $200 billion. The earthquake and tsunami also initiated a severe nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Three of the six reactors at the plant sustained severe core damage and released hydrogen and radioactive materials. Explosion of the released hydrogen damaged three reactor buildings and impeded onsite emergency response efforts. The accident prompted widespread evacuations of local populations, large economic losses, and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants is a study of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. This report examines the causes of the crisis, the performance of safety systems at the plant, and the responses of its operators following the earthquake and tsunami. The report then considers the lessons that can be learned and their implications for U.S. safety and storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, commercial nuclear reactor safety and security regulations, and design improvements. Lessons Learned makes recommendations to improve plant systems, resources, and operator training to enable effective ad hoc responses to severe accidents. This report's recommendations to incorporate modern risk concepts into safety regulations and improve the nuclear safety culture will help the industry prepare for events that could challenge the design of plant structures and lead to a loss of critical safety functions.In providing a broad-scope, high-level examination of the accident, Lessons Learned is meant to complement earlier evaluations by industry and regulators. This in-depth review will be an essential resource for the nuclear power industry, policy makers, and anyone interested in the state of U.S. preparedness and response in the face of crisis situations.

Many small contracting firms are used to maintain nuclear power plants in Japan. The accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant raised the serious question as to whether safety standards can be upheld with this system. A review of regulations governing Japan's nuclear utility industry derived two imperfect information models that implied opposing incentives for utility companies to use contract workers rather than hire employees. We then analyzed the dataset of nuclear plant worker's exposure to radiation in the power generation industry. The results suggest that using contract workers enables the utility companies to implement lower standards than those imposed by regulations and to reduce costs by circumventing responsibilities legally imposed on employers. caused one of world's worst nuclear accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). It had been believed that Japan's nuclear utility industry could safely withstand such natural disasters. After the accident, the question of whether nuclear plants were prepared for future disasters became a critical and controversial issue. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between occupational risks and types of employment at Japan's nuclear power plants. The practice of replacing permanent employees with temporary workers has been spreading throughout all major industries in developed countries. Thus, employees of contracting firms who are doing their jobs on sites specified by the host plant (hereafter, contract workers) are becoming more important. These workers are similar to temporary agency workers, but with the important difference that contract workers include many permanent employees. With the demand for contract workers increasing, differences in the working conditions of these workers and the host company's employees have become important subjects of study, because these differences might compromise the safety conditions on industrial sites. In the United States, safety and health education and training (hereafter, safety training) of contract workers attracted attention following the 1989 Phillips Petroleum

The accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Japan on 11 March 2011 has led to widespread public exposure to high levels of radiation. At present, the government allows people to live in an area where the level of radiation is lower than 20 mSv/year. But, unless the level of radiation is reduced markedly to lower than 1 mSv/year, people should not be allowed to return to the area. Nevertheless, Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters removed the designation of ‘zones in preparation for emergency evacuation’ on 30 September with this fundamental problem yet to be solved. The paper examines the legal context for this problem.

Reviewed by: Beyond Fukushima: Toward a Post-Nuclear Society by Koichi Hasegawa Daniel P. Aldrich (bio) Beyond Fukushima: Toward a Post-Nuclear Society. By Koichi Hasegawa; translated by Minako Sato. Trans Pacific Press, Melbourne, 2015. xvi, 228 pages. $89.95. This important new book tackles a question that has vexed many observers since the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami set off meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants in Japan. While in the early 2000s many observers had proclaimed the start of a global nuclear renaissance, the inability of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to prevent and then successfully contain a nuclear accident at Fukushima put that on hold. A number of governments around the world, including those in Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland, used Japan's nuclear accident, rated at the maximum level of the International Nuclear Event Scale, as a policy window to change their energy policies. Uranium prices have dropped precipitously as the market envisions less global demand for nuclear fuel; the countries building the most new nuclear plants are primarily authoritarian ones (for example, China and Russia). [End Page 475] Domestic critics of Japan's advanced commercial nuclear power program envisioned that Japan would follow suit. They believed that the Fukushima meltdowns along with massive antinuclear rallies (some of which had more than 150,000 participants), citizens' referenda on energy selection in several major cities, and widespread opposition to nuclear would provide sufficient weight to their arguments and shift Japan away from atomic energy. The forced evacuation of more than 140,000 residents from towns like Namie, Futaba, and Ōkuma near the Fukushima plants and the continued dislocation of thousands of evacuees in temporary shelters throughout the country even now remain front page news. TEPCO's mismanagement of the disaster site, its inability to stop the outflow of contaminated water, and its need for financial rescue from near bankruptcy due to compensation for evacuees have caused dismay. Yet the current Japanese government under Prime Minister Abe Shinzō continues to push for full nuclear restarts for its remaining 48 commercial reactors and for a closed fuel cycle complete with fuel reprocessing. In this book, Hasegawa, like other scholars, including Richard Samuels and Richard Hind-marsh and Rebecca Priestly,1 explores why Japan's energy policy has not changed course more drastically as a result of the catastrophe. Through a comparative policy analysis of Japan and other advanced, industrial democracies, Hasegawa reveals what may help move Japan beyond Fukushima. Hasegawa argues that institutions, and not ideas or interest groups, have been the primary movers behind Japan's policy choices about atomic energy. A framework of financial redistribution to depopulating host communities known in Japan as the Dengen Sanpō (Three Power Source Development Laws, Dengen sanpō kōfukin seido) has given incentives to rural towns to invite in nuclear facilities.2 Once the initial plant is completed and the town budget has been boosted by hundreds of millions of yen a year in new buildings, roads, elder care facilities, assistance for business relocation to the area, and other infrastructure, host communities often are forced to invite in additional plants. The amount of money received from the initial plant wanes over time, so local officials must ask for additional plants to keep up their budgets and avoid dropping spending levels. Critics have called this a "cycle of addiction" and a "culture of dependency,"3 and others [End Page 476] have pointed out that the actual economic impact of hosting is, at best, mixed.4 As a result, a number of towns host as many as seven nuclear power plants (such as the the city of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Niigata) while others, like Futaba, hosted six. Beyond the demand side for nuclear facility hosting, other institutional factors such as a well-insulated nuclear bureaucracy (p. 27), site selection in impoverished rural areas with weak civil society organizations (p. 34), and a national judicial system which rarely takes activist or antigovernment stances (p. 202) have helped Japanese authorities develop their nuclear program from the top down. Japan also lacks a Green Party which has made environmental issues a top priority and has been able to serve as a coalition...

This paper summarizes ageing countermeasure program of the nuclear power plants performed by the Japanese Government and industries and related activities, and describes current research program and utilization of the research results for the aged nuclear power plants. Regulatory bodies (NISA of METI: Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry') reviewed the ageing issues of nuclear power plants to enhance countermeasures for the aged plants. Nuclear Power Plant Life Engineering Center (PLEC) entrusted by NISA is carrying out the task relating to the aged plants.

The Japanese government’s decision to continue restarting nuclear power is shaped by a combination of domestic political concerns, energy security challenges, and its ability to meet climate change commitments and targets. Nuclear power plants have started to come back online, but there is still a question regarding the scope and timing for restarting the remaining reactors. In this paper, we apply a model of collective decision-making processes (CDMPs) to assess the political will for restarting nuclear power plants in Japan.

This study explored public attitudes towards the “local agreement” process as it relates to the restart of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Japan. Conflicts have arisen over not only whether NPPs should be restarted, but also how and by whom the local agreements on their restart should be made. Using exploratory factor analysis on the data from an online monitor questionnaire survey conducted in four prefectures with NPPs in Japan, this study identified three latent factors behind public attitudes: “the conventional decision makers,” “those negatively affected,” and “those benefitting from the restart.” A multi-regression analysis of factor scores showed that opinions on restarting NPPs, prefectural referendums, and the geographical range of local agreements were related to attitudes towards local agreements. There were also differences in attitudes towards local agreements according to prefectures, gender, and age, while where respondents live in relation to the nearby NPP had little influence. To design a more socially acceptable local agreement process, it is necessary to reconcile such differences. By providing a better understanding of the local politics regarding restarting NPPs in Japan, this study paved the way for resolving conflicts over local agreements.

Nuclear Energy: A Perspective on Recent Results on the Removal of Strontium from Waste

Highly sensitive mutational responses of the stamen-hair system of some Tradescantia clones heterozygous for flower color (blue/pink, the blue being dominant) to low-level radiation and chemical mutagens, as demonstrated in the last decade, seem to endorse this system to be the most promising biological tester for detecting the genetic effects of mutagens at low levels. Two triploid (thus sterile) clones, KU 7 and KU 9, have been established as those suitable for in situ monitoring of environmental mutagens. In situ monitoring with such Tradescantia clones was first tried in 1974 around a nuclear power plant in Japan, then has been repeated until 1979 around more nuclear plants. About 260,000 to 1,570,000 stamen hairs were observed per year per nuclear plant (about 12-million hairs in total), and the data of pink mutation frequency were analyzed statistically. Significantly increased mutation frequencies were observed and were correlated to the operation periods of the nuclear facilities and to predominant wind direction, but not to other environmental factors. Considering physical monitoring data of radiation dose in the air, internal exposure due to incorporation and concentration of man-made radioactive nuclides seems to be of a greater importance in increasing mutation incidence.

Highly sensitive mutational responses of the stamen-hair system of some Tradescantia clones heterozygous for flower color (blue/pink, the blue being dominant) to low-level radiation and chemical mutagens, as demonstrated in the last decade, seem to endorse this system to be the most promising biological tester for detecting the genetic effects of mutagens at low levels. Two triploid (thus sterile) clones, KU 7 and KU 9, have been established as those suitable for in situ monitoring of environmental mutagens. In situ monitoring with such Tradescantia clones was first tried in 1974 around a nuclear power plant in Japan, then has been repeated until 1979 around more nuclear plants. About 260,000 to 1,570,000 stamen hairs were observed per year per nuclear plant (about 12-million hairs in total), and the data of pink mutation frequency were analyzed statistically. Significantly increased mutation frequencies were observed and were correlated to the operation periods of the nuclear facilities and to predominant wind direction, but not to other environmental factors. Considering physical monitoring data of radiation dose in the air, internal exposure due to incorporation and concentration of man-made radioactive nuclides seems to be of a greater importance in increasing mutation incidence.

By earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">th</sup> 2011, Fukushima nuclear power plant No.1 has generated severe accidents to emit high level radiations and to contaminate foods, water and others with radio isotopes. Such an accidents has given very important messages such as unclearness for safety and cost effectiveness of nuclear energy and important of clean renewable energies including photovoltaics instead of nuclear energy to us. This report presents outline of accidents by the Fukushima nuclear power plant and difficulty of further installation of new nuclear power plants in Japan. An idea such as the "Fukushima Solar Village" plan has been proposed to attain employment security, to maintain power supply from those areas to metropolitan cities and to overcome several problems occurred by nuclear power plant accident. Accelerating plan such as further installation of photovoltaic power generation systems in Japan has also been proposed in order to overcome several problems occurred by Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.

In mutual review of the contracting state based on IAEA international agreement in 2005, the Japanese government have received comment that total exposed dose of nuclear power plants in Japan has a different trend compared to other major countries. Analysis focused to the current state was executed based on the report of the annual dose to radiation workers, etc.. As a result, it is clearly that duration of plant operation is shorter than other countries. In other words, inspecting activities, duration of the activity and number of workers is more than other countries. However, annual average dose per radiation worker has been decreasing in recent years owing to continuance dose reduction measures. As a tendency in the near future, annual total dose will increase with large scale of maintenance such as modification for prolonged operation of the preceding plant in the future. On the other hands, there is expectation that new plants have one of the lowest dose is achieved by reflecting the finding of the preceding plant and it is thought that the annual dose per nuclear power plant decreases. This report includes the result of the analysis and measures and the prospect in the future.

Human behavior is posing a serious threat to the ecological environment of the global ocean. This paper explores three important issues related to the marine environment: nuclear pollution, ocean acidification and marine microplastic pollution. First, the problem of nuclear pollution focuses on the potential threat to marine ecosystems and human health from nuclear sewage discharge from the nuclear power plant in Japan. Although the Japanese government has taken some response measures, the relevant risks and impacts still need attention to and addressed. It is suggested to strengthen supervision and management, promote technological innovation, and reasonably support the affected communities. Second, the ocean acidification problem is exacerbated by excessive atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions, which has a serious impact on marine life and ecosystems. The article advocates reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, promoting renewable energy development, and strengthening international cooperation and scientific research to protect marine ecosystems. Finally, in response to marine microplastic pollution, it calls for strengthening the development and use of plastic alternatives, improving waste management and treatment, and promoting innovation in microplastic detection and removal technologies. Addressing these issues requires the combined efforts of governments, researchers and the public, including enhanced monitoring, research and development of effective management policies.

On 11 March 2011 the Great Tohoku earthquake ( M w 9.1, Global Centroid Moment Tensor) struck northern Japan’s Pacific coast. The estimated number of deaths (including missing) was more than 18,000, and the estimated economic losses were on the order of at least 2×1013 Yen (about US$ 2.5×1011). The tsunami caused a Level 7 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai‐ichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) which required the evacuation of a large region due to radioactive contamination, and necessitated ongoing efforts to stabilize the situation with the long term goal of decommissioning the destroyed reactors. For a significant period after the accident all nuclear power plants in Japan were shut down; at this moment, two reactors at the Ohi NPS in Fukui Prefecture have been restarted. The Fukushima calamity prompted extensive reexamination and soul searching by the Japanese government, stakeholders, and a variety of public and nongovernmental entities. Scores of reports have been written by individuals, regulators, and organizations worldwide. Now that almost two years have passed, it is time to sum up the lessons learned and to start moving forward—to move from discussions of what went wrong to discussions about what we must do right. In this article, a seismologist (R. J. G.), a probabilistic risk practitioner (W. E.), and a nuclear safety expert (J. N.) pool their respective knowledge to provide a unified view of where we are and where we should go. Some of the lessons to be learned apply particularly to Japan, but in many cases the lessons apply everywhere. In the mid‐1960s Japan, an earthquake‐prone island nation without significant petroleum deposits, was faced with the question of how to secure reliable electric power supplies. The government, with the cooperation of major industry groups, opted to commit heavily to nuclear power. In the face of …