Bungling, cover-ups define Japanese nuclear power

This one paragraph keeps jumping out in the articles about the problems with the nuclear power plants by Tepco in Japan:

Tepco has safety violations that stretch back decades. In 1978, control rods at one Fukushima reactor dislodged but the accident was not reported because utilities were not required to notify the government of such accidents. In 2006, Tepco reported a negligible amount of radioactive steam seeped from the Fukushima plant — and blew beyond the compound.

Since Fukushima provides power for the Tokyo, there have been rolling blackouts for the last four days. It is mind boggling that that Government regulators would not have paid attention to problems with the nuclear power industry. There are a long list of problems at the nuclear power plants that go unreported and regulators turn their heads. We would expect the Japanese Government to pay much more attention after this.

Authorities said Tokyo and its surrounding area will avoid a massive blackout Thursday night despite fears that Japan's crippled energy grid was being over-taxed by cooler temperatures.

Power demand surged Thursday morning as more people turned their heaters on to combat near-freezing conditions. Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda told reporters that if demand had risen to the same level again in the evening, large swaths of the Tokyo metropolitan area would be without power.

"Normally the peak electricity use usually starts in the evening, and if electricity demand continues at this rate it could lead to a widespread blackout," he said earlier in the day. "We ask that businesses and consumers cut back on their electricity use."

Oil and gas here in the United States need explored to the fullest extent because after these problems in Japan, the American people are not going to want to live anywhere near a nuclear plant even though they are relatively safe today. How does anyone know if the people in charge would be telling the truth? Frankly building a nuclear power plant, no matter the safeguards, on an earthquake area seems stupid. Japan went the nuclear power plant route because of the high cost of importing oil. That is why Obama and this Administration is stupid for not exploring all drilling options in the United States to cut our dependence on foreign oil.

We have noticed during this disaster a lack of comment by the IEAE people from the United Nations. When researching why found this:

Japanese media have criticised the government's handling of the disaster and operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. for its failure to provide enough information on the incident.

The IAEA, which has as a mandate to share information with member states when there is a nuclear emergency, has also been criticised in the media and in comments posted on its Facebook page for providing scant and out-of-date information.

The IAEA says it can provide only the information it receives and verifies.

The head of the IAEA, is heading for Japan today to try and get an understanding of what is happening since the IAEA isn't happy with what they have been receiving from the people in charge:

The U.N. atomic energy chief said he planned to fly to Japan on Thursday to seek first-hand information of what he called a very serious situation at a stricken nuclear power plant in his home country.

Yukiya Amano said he intended to request an extraordinary meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation governing board as soon as possible after he returned to Vienna.

Amano's announcements of his trip and the IAEA board session made clear his growing concern over the crisis in Japan.

It also suggested frustration at the Vienna-based agency, which is tasked with fostering the safe use of nuclear energy, about the lack of speedy and detailed information from Japan.

"It is different to receive facts by email from Tokyo to sitting down with them and exchanging views," Amano told a news conference. "We always need to improve the flow of information."

He said he hoped to meet high-level Japanese officials but left open whether he would go to the site of the severely damaged Fukushima plant during his one-day trip.

Amano said it was not the time to say whether developments at the site had spun out of control, as suggested by a European Union energy official in remarks that hit global shares.

The IAEA said it was seeking more information about the water levels at the reactor's spent fuel pools, which are essential for cooling down the high-level radioactive material.

The world will be waiting to see what the new Chief Yukiya Amano of the IAEA will be saying following his visit because right now confidence in how the situation is being handled at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is almost nil.

Bungling, cover-ups define Japanese nuclear powerBy YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer
Thu Mar 17, 3:58 am ET

TOKYO – Behind Japan's escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses.

Leaks of radioactive steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all.

In one case, workers hand-mixed uranium in stainless steel buckets, instead of processing by machine, so the fuel could be reused, exposing hundreds of workers to radiation. Two later died.

"Everything is a secret," said Kei Sugaoka, a former nuclear power plant engineer in Japan who now lives in California. "There's not enough transparency in the industry."

Sugaoka worked at the same utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant where workers are racing to prevent a full meltdown following Friday's 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami.

In 1989 Sugaoka received an order that horrified him: edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video being submitted to regulators. Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co., but nothing happened. He decided to go public in 2000. Three Tepco executives lost their jobs.

The legacy of scandals and cover-ups over Japan's half-century reliance on nuclear power has strained its credibility with the public. That mistrust has been renewed this past week with the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. No evidence has emerged of officials hiding information in this catastrophe. But the vagueness and scarcity of details offered by the government and Tepco — and news that seems to grow worse each day — are fueling public anger and frustration.

"I can't believe them," said Taketo Kuga, a cab driver in Tokyo, where low levels of radiation was observed Tuesday, despite being 140 miles (220 kilometers) away from the faulty plant.

Kuga has been busy lately driving to airports and train stations people eager to get out and flee southward. And it unsettles him the information about radiation is all over the Internet, hours before officials make their announcements.

"I don't feel safe," he said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. official Takeshi Makigami says experts are doing their utmost to get the reactors under control.

"We are doing all that is possible," he told reporters.

Worried that over-dependence on imported oil could undermine Japan's humming economy, the government threw its support into nuclear power, and the industry boomed in profile and influence. The country has 54 nuclear plants, which provide 30 percent of the nation's energy needs, is building two more and studying proposals for 12 more plants.

Before Friday's earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima crisis and sent the economy reeling, Japan's 11 utility companies, many of them nuclear plant operators, were worth $139 billion on the stock market.

Tepco — the utility that supplies power for Japan's capital and biggest city — accounted for nearly a third of that market capitalization, though its shares have been battered since the disasters, falling 65 percent over the past week to 759 yen ($9.6) Thursday. Last month, it got a boost from the government, which renewed authorization for Tepco to operate Fukushima's 40-year-old Unit 1 reactor for another 10 years.

With such strong government support and a culture that ordinarily frowns upon dissent, regulators tend not to push for rigorous safety, said Amory Lovins, an expert on energy policy and founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

"You add all that up and it's a recipe for people to cut corners in operation and regulation," Lovins said.

Competence and transparency issues aside, some say it's just too dangerous to build nuclear plants in an earthquake-prone nation like Japan, where land can liquefy during a major temblor.

"You're building on a heap of tofu," said Philip White of Tokyo-based Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, a group of scientists and activists who have opposed nuclear power since 1975.

"There is absolutely no reason to trust them," he said of those that run Japan's nuclear power plants.

Excerpt: Read More at Yahoo News