Prabir Purkayastha: If you really look at what is happening, what we have is a historical split between the east and the west, which could be the outline of what could emerge at least in the near future, unless Gaddafi has the strength to push his troops right up to Benghazi. Aijaz Ahmad The real […]
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バケツとホースが最後の手段である日本の原発は人間使い捨て制度の象徴
日本の海外イメージはハイテク日本。日本人も同じイメージの日本を抱いていた。外国でも日本でも、日本は特にロボット先進国だと見られていた。確かに日本の技術者は様々なロボットを開発してきた。産業用ロボットから介護ロボットまで、日本のロボット開発と使用の例は限りなく、日本産業の明るい未来の象徴であるかのように見られた時代もあった。 だからこそ、東京電力と日本政府の福島第一原発冷却難航を見た海外のメディアは首を傾げているのだ。「日本は何でロボットを使って核燃料棒を冷却しないのか？ そんなロボットは日本にはないのか？ どうしてなんだ？」そんな疑問が上がっている。 ブログやツイッターでは日本人も原発事故用ロボットの不在について同じような質問や意見を交わしている。ハイテク日本にもかかわらず、緊急作業にあたる労働者や冷却作業にあたる自衛官や緊急消防援助隊員や警視庁機動隊員等が致命的な被曝の危険をおかして働かなければ東日本を救えぬかもしれないというような状態になってしまったのは、一体何故なんだと考えはじめている人もいるようだ。 日本の技術レベルでは原発事故用ロボットはまだ作れないという訳ではないだろう。問題は科学や技術ではなく政治と経済ではないのか。韓国の科学者は原発修理用のロボットをもう開発しているが、一般的には韓国でも使用されていないそうだ。韓国原子力研究所のキム・スンホ氏は、「原発業者は制御不能のシビアアクシデントの可能性を想定したがらないから」 事故用ロボット使用を一般化できるような予算が出ないと言う。福島で今すぐ冷却等に使えるようなロボットが無いのは、短期的利益を社会の安全や労働者の健康より優先するという考え方のせいではないのか。危険だが稀なシビアアクシデントへの対応策の為に大金を投資するのは、企業や官僚の見地だけから見ると「効率的じゃない、費用対効果に見合わない、儲けにならない」。 そんな見地から設計されたから、今回のような「想定外」の大事故に直面すると、日本の原発は従事者を危険に晒すバケツとホースでの放水に頼るしかなくなっている。福島第一原発事故は金のために人間を使い捨てにすることを厭わない制度の象徴と見てもいいだろう。そんな制度は原発より恐ろしい。 古橋芳恵はMRZineの編集長。 | Print
Fukushima: Village Officials Defy National Government, Leading Exodus from Nuclear Nightmare
Villagers of Kawauchi-mura, located between 20 km and 30 km from the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant and told by the national government to just stay indoors, defied the instruction and began to collectively organize their own “complete village evacuation,” heading for Koriyama City outside the 30 km-radius zone from the Fukushima 1 reactors. According […]
TEPCO: Profits of Death
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. “Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, a Japanese environmental group, has documented previous safety problems and cover-ups by Tepco at the Fukushima reactor complex: cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit92/nit92articles/nit92coverupdata.html” (Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “Fact Sheet on Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant,” 11 March 2011). | Print
Prime Minister Naoto Kan: “In the Worst Case, Eastern Japan Will Be Ruined”
At last, the prime minister of Japan faced up to the inconvenient truth. Had he done so from Day 1, and based his evacuation plan on the possibility of this worst case scenario, it would have been possible to evacuate tens of millions more people, in orderly fashion, than we can now. The criminal government […]
Cesium and Radioactive Iodide in Fukushima City Tap Water
The emergency response headquarters of Fukushima Prefecture announced, on 16 March 2011, that abnormal radioactive elements have been found in Fukushima City tap water: radioactive iodide, at the level of 177 becquerel per kilogram; cesium, 58 becquerel per kilogram. They are still below the national safety standards for food and water intakes during a nuclear […]
Fukushima Governor’s Desperate Plea for Help
Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato sent an urgent plea for help to Prime Minister Naoto Kan. This is his plea: Because of the ongoing nuclear emergency, distributors have begun to refuse deliveries to even areas outside the exclusion zone and the zone where residents are advised to stay indoors. For instance, tanker trucks have turned back […]
Turning Japan into the Land of the Burning Sun
“Economic and Financial Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, at a post-cabinet-meeting press conference on the 15th of March, said this about Japan’s nuclear power policy: ‘There is no alternative energy source if we want to secure a lot of energy. To support the Japanese economy, we have no choice but to use nuclear power. The people […]
Monday Update on Fukushima Reactors
As of 11:30 pm EDT Monday 3/14/11 Three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear facility were operating at the time of the earthquake — Units 1, 2, and 3. The reactors shut down when the earthquake hit, but even after they stopped producing power, the reactor cores were very hot and […]
Japan Raises Radiation Dose Safety Limit for Nuclear Emergency Workers
Even in the best case scenario available at this point, all workers at Fukushima 1 and 2 battling to save the lives of others must have already suffered great harm to their health, and the harm is about to become greater. — Ed. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has determined that the existing […]
原発事故の恐怖
抜粋: 核反応が止まった後も崩壊熱つまり膨大な熱が出続けるので、長時間”冷やす”ことをしていないと炉心が溶けてしまう。・・・ 一部で、チェルノブイリ事故の後、”日本の原発は格納容器があるから安全だ”ということがいわれたが、それは間違いだ。シビアアクシデントでは、格納容器も破壊されてしまう。・・・ 原子炉の事故では、気象などに左右され高濃度の放射能汚染地帯であるホットスポットが数百キロ先まで点在する。 全文: 「原発事故の恐怖」は『徹底検証：21世紀の全技術』（現代技術史研究会編, ISBN-13: 9784894347632, 藤原書店、2010）からの抄本。原子力資料情報室のウェブサイトからダウンロードできる。市民に緊急情報を伝えるためにMRZineに非営利で再版した。 | Print
Japan: Race against Time to Avert Complete Meltdown
“Pray for Japan.” — Carlos Latuff Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “Fact Sheet on Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant” (11 March 2011); Union of Concerned Scientists, “Nuclear Crisis in Japan: What We Know” (11 March 2011); Philip White, “On the Nuclear and Earthquake Disaster Unfolding in Japan” (12 March […]
Fukushima 1: Water Level Failing to Rise, Unit 2 Fuel Rods Remain Exposed
15 March 2011, 04:59 Around 11 PM on the 14th, Unit 2 of the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant had suffered a breakdown of its cooling water injection system, and its fuel rods became fully exposed. At 1 AM on the 15th, Tokyo Electric Power recovered its ability to inject seawater into the Unit 2 […]
Nuclear Accident ABCs
In reporting on the nuclear situation in Japan, terms describing the possible state of the reactors have been used by Japanese officials and international experts. Unfortunately, these terms are not always used consistently. We discuss some of them below. The reactor core containing nuclear fuel is the “engine” of a nuclear power reactor. The reactor […]
Fukushima 1: Unit 2 Fuel Rods Again Fully Exposed
15 March 2011, 01:05 Tokyo Electric Power announced that, at around 11 PM on the 14th, it became impossible to inject cooling water into the Unit 2 reactor of the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in a precipitous decline of the water level, so Unit 2’s fuel rods probably became fully exposed again. Also, […]
Fukushima 1: Reactor Container Building Collapses
Note: The image, captured by NHK on 12 March 2011, around 4:30 PM, shows that the outer walls of the container building of Unit 1 of the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant have completely disappeared. The document above is an extra published by Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) on 12 March 2011. Cf. “福島第１原発１号機で爆発、天井崩落 炉心溶融か” (Nikkei, 12 […]
An Appeal to All Foreign Embassy Personnel and International Media Present in Japan, regarding the Nuclear Disaster
You have seen the Japanese government’s response to the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan. Top officials have been slow to expand the exclusion zone around the Fukushima 1 and 2 Nuclear Power Plants. They have been less than forthcoming in providing information about exactly in what state the reactors in trouble are. By failing in […]
Slouching towards Fukushima
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print
Update on Fukushima Reactor
Update at 11pm EST Saturday 3/12/11: On Saturday March 12 at 3:36 pm local time (1:36 am EST) an explosion occurred in the Unit 1 reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. (Original reports suggested that the explosion took place in an adjacent turbine building, but we no longer believe this is the case.) […]
Sunday Update on Fukushima Reactors
As of 7 pm EDT Sunday 3/13/11 We reported earlier about the situation at Fukushima Dai-Ichi reactor Unit 1. The nuclear crisis in Japan took a turn for the worse as serious problems developed in reactor Unit 3. Officials from Tokyo Electric reported that after multiple cooling system failures, the water level in the Unit […]
