Japan and Nuclear Energy “Should Japan continue to use nuclear energy, and if so, to what extent, and when?”

Japan and

Nuclear

Energy

“Should Japan continue to use nuclear

energy, and if so, to what extent, and

when?”

Anti-Nuclear

Shoya Takahata

Natsuko Cynthia Ohkawa

Yusuke Takahata

SHOYA

• Disadvantages of Nuclear Power:o Economic

o Environmental

o Food

o Health

o Political

o Personal

o Community

Economic insecurity• Construction cost

o Expected to be between$6billion to $9billion for 1100MW plant

• What is costing so much?

o Land, Cooling towers and other facilities to run Nuclear

o Interest rate is high (almost double the price)

• Maintenance cost

o expected to be 1,200,000,000,000 yen for 9 nuclear power plants in Japan

o Labor costs and cost of equipment

Environmental insecurity

• Radioactive waste can damage the environment

• Low-level waste, Intermediate-level waste are 97%

• High-level waste (3%) but 12,000 tonnes world wide

• Takes 100,000 years to be non harmful

Food insecurity• After the Fukushima incident,

price of the vegetable went low

o Chiba, Ibaraki, Gunma, Fukushima, Tochigi

• Compared with 2010, which was a bad harvest, 2011 had the same amount of vegetable being able to sell

o Chiba:14% Ibaraki:39% Gunma:17% Fukushima:18% Tochigi: 24%

Health insecurity• Stochastic health effects

o Causing cancer in a long run

o Causing mutation

Teratogenic and genetic

• Non stochastic health effects

o Acute, immediate response in body

Skin burn, nausea, hair loss, dysfunction of organs, and death

• Children are more likely to be harmed

o More cell movements for radiation to interrupt

• Mental Health and stress

o The younger the child is, the more sensitive to stress

o Anxiety and irritation

Political insecurity

• After Fukushima incident, policy making was important

• Government was expected to make a quick response to repair the accident

• Government was pressured to create a good policy

Personal insecurity• As long as there is a nuclear power

plant, it is a threat for the citizens

• After the incident in Japan, many people cannot go back to their home

• People who work in Fukushima nuclear plant is in personal risk

Community insecurity

• Community also broke after the Fukushima incident

• Evacuation

oCannot start their business again

o In some area, people cannot enter

o It is hard to create a new community in the temporary housing

CYNTHIA

• Case Studies:

oChernobyl

oFukushima

Chernobyl Disaster

• Nuclear power plant accident on April 26, 1986 in the Ukraine

• Explosion of the core reactor during a planned power reduction

• Scattering of radioactive materials led to the graphite moderator catching fire

Radiation

• Radioactive materials spread to the western Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

• The Ukraine, Belarus, Russia were most contaminated

• High radioactivity level

o 350,000 people to be evacuated to other locations

Contamination

• The smoke from the explosion contained radioactive materials

• Particles in the atmosphere rose up the clouds

o Black Rain

• High Iodine, Cesium, Strontium levels in surrounding regions of water

Thyroid Cancer

• 31 firemen and rescue workers of the disaster passed away due to radiation exposure

• Post-disaster: 6000 children and adolescents developed thyroid cancer

• 4000 out of 5 million in contaminated regions have already died from thyroid cancer

Deformities

• Farmers in the Ukraine have claimed that 350 animals were born with deformities

o Extra limbs, missing body parts and bones, deformed skulls

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

• After the Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011, the following tsunami hit the nuclear power plant

• The core reactor shutdown, but the cooling system failed

→ meltdown of three reactors

• Fixed radiation zones

→ 156,000 people displaced

Food and Health • World Health Organization estimated:

o Population of Fukushima prefecture have a higher risk of developing cancer

o Girls exposed as infants have 70% higher chance of thyroid cancer

• Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare:

o High radioactivity in milk and vegetables

• Iinternational Atomic Energy Agency:

o Tokyo’s drinking water exceeded safe level

Clean Up Process• Power plant is leaking radioactive water into the

Pacific Ocean

o Prime Minister Abe orders the government to step in

• Leakage of 300 tons of contaminated water

o Emergency measure to prevent further leaks

• Decontamination process: building chemical underground walls

o Can take decades and be costly

Cost of Disaster

• August 2013 estimate: Japan will need $58.1 billion

• The government only has $10 billion

• Chernobyl and Fukushima case studies show strong influences in:

oEnvironmental Security: Black rain and leakage

oHealth Security: Cancer and Deformities

o Food Security: Contaminated and uneidble

o Personal Security: displacement

oEconomic Security: expensive decontamination

YUSUKE

• Alternative Energy

• Conclusion

2010 2011 2012 20130%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

28.6

10.71.7 1

25

25

27.6 30.3

29.3

39.542.5

43.2

7.514.4 18.3 14.9

8.5 9 8.4 8.5

1.1 1.4 1.6 2.2

The Ratio of Power Generation

Geothermal & etc.HydroelectricityPetroleum & etc.LNGCoalNuclear energy

• By shutting down reactors:o Increase in

undersupply by strongly relying on thermal power generation

o Causing a great increase in CO2 emission

o Losing an important “baseload electricity source”

Innovative Energy&

Environmental Strategy

Innovative Energy &

Environmental Strategy

• Aiming for 0 nuclear reactors in 2030

• “This innovation not only substitutes nuclear reactors to renewable energies, but also constructs a new structure that every single citizens becomes discrete power plant stations instead of passive consumers of electricity”o Diffusion of solar

power and storage battery to ordinary households

• Issue #1: Unavoidable strong dependence on ME

• Issue #2: Preparation of additional facilities for renewable energy

2030

2010

0% 10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

26

12

8

23

2

21

24

38

29

6

10 Nuclear energy

Hydroelectric-ity

Renewable energy

Coal

LNG

Petroleum

Geothermal Power Generation

• Plenty of resources; the 3rd biggest resource in the worldoNot used frequently: standing 8th in the

world in regard to the installed capacityoCovers only 0.3% of total electric energy

in JapanoResearch has been stagnated since

2003 until 3.11

• Economic efficiency

• Influence to the government

• Coexistence with local people

Conclusion• Nuclear power plant violates all 7 insecurities directly and

interrelatedly to extreme points, if there is no nuclear plants, we can finally be free from fear and threat.

• These case studies of Chernobyl and Fukushima indicate the negative influences of the use of nuclear energy. They threaten the human security in various aspects; therefore, it would be dangerous for Japan to continue it's use.

• In order to free Japan from fear and threat, it is necessary to discover a possible baseload electricity source, replacing from nuclear power to alternative energies such as geothermal power, in practical timescale.

THE END

INTERMEDIATE SEMINAR

PAUL BACON

JULY 17, 2014