Green Action Japan: Why we should be worried about the Oi Nuclear Plant Restart

Oi Nuclear Plant; red lines depict earthquake faults. (Photo: Green Action Japan)

Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan (via Deep Kyoto) tells us why we should be worried:

Estimated number of people living within 30 kilometers of Fukui’s 14 reactors: 1,249,981 (Fukui Shimbun, Oct. 21, 2011)

Distance from the Ohi reactors to central Kyoto city: 60 kilometers

The following message is from Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan:

The red lines on this photo depict the shattered zones (earthquake faults) under the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant. The information is from Kansai Electric is laid over the Google Earth by Professor Mitsuhisa Watanabe, tectonic geomorphologist, Toyo University (Tokyo, Japan.)

The F-6 fault which is suspected of being an active fault is marked. The boat-shaped blue shows the location of the original trench excavation.

Professor Watanabe inspected the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant site yesterday (June 27, 2012) with 5 members of the Japanese Diet. He confirmed 3 locations where the F-6 fault which is suspected of being an active fault can be examined by excavation. According to Professor Watanabe, the process to confirm whether this fault is active or not can be undertaken within a one week period (this includes the time required for refilling the excavation).

Government regulations state that category “S” equipment which require rigorous seismic resistance standards are “not assumed to be built over active faults.” Yesterday, it was confirmed during the on-site examination that the pipes for the emergency coolant intake from the ocean are “S” category, and they cross over the F-6 fault.

The Fukui prefecture newspapers report on the above issue today. Below, see Kansai Electric’s original sketch of the Northwest Wall of the trench. The sketch depicts a classic active fault. This controversial sketch was not submitted by Kansai Electric during the recent government back-check of Ohi.

Yuichi Sugiyama, a prominent member of the government’s back-check committee, in an interview with Kyodo (article 26 June) stated, “It is necessary to make an onsite examination of the shattered faults once more. We have only seen part of the past inspection records. We need to examine all of the information.”

(Original Japanese of Sugiyama quote:「現地で破砕帯をもう一度調査するべきだろう。過去の調査記録も一部しか見ていないので、全部確認するべきだ。」)

Photos: Oi Restart Protest • Sapporo & Shinjuku Solidarity Protests

(Photo: Serinomichi on FB)

The scene at the Ooi nuclear plant, where activities are due to recommence later today. It appears that the riot police had to climb a mountain to arrive at the plant, as the only road providing access is blocked by protestors. Workers at the plant have been shipped in by ferry....

Sapporo residents demonstrate solidarity with Oi protesters.

(Photo: Hokkaido Shimbun via Escape All Npp on FB)

Two lovely women holding hydrangeas at the Shinjuku solidarity protest today.

(Photo: Ruthie Iida of Faces of Japan)

This evening, the Oi nuclear power plant is due to re-start.

Protestors have been camped outside the premises since yesterday evening, blocking the road, making a big noise, and making life miserable for the grim-faced police assigned to protect the entrance of the plant and ensure that work goes on inside as scheduled.

Tonight’s NHK news brushed off the pandemonium in Fukui Prefecture and featured a two-hour special on scenic Greece. Other channels continued with the standard game shows and dramas, as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

Well, what’s happening right now is way out-of -the-ordinary, and is being documented by independent news agencies round the clock.

Streaming Videos of "No Restart" Protest Rally at the Oi Nuclear Plant

Head's up from Kimberly Hughes on the streaming video IWJ_OITA1 and Koichi Hanafusa on the Oyasumi Irene. (Another link, Iwakumiyasumi, via Martin Frid at Kurushii)

Demonstrators at the Oi Nuclear Plant restart protest are chanting "Saikado Hantai!" ("Against the Re-start!") like a mantra, prayer; beating instruments...

(Poster for 7.1.12 Oi Nuclear Plant Restart Protest.

Image: www.nihon.jpn.org/nonukes/

(Demonstrators at Oi Nuclear Plant. Photo: Ryusaku Tanaka Journal)

NOTE THE YELLOW...Post 3.11 Nuclear-Free Japan organizers borrow the color of the Okinawa Movement to express solidarity...

(Demonstrator at June 30 rally in Ginowan City for a V-22 Osprey-free Okinawa.

Photo: Masami Mel Kawamura)

(Photo: Haruko Ishikawa on FB)

The Japanese Nuclear-Free Movement, has now matched the scale of the Okinawan Movement.

The symbolic color, yellow, was intentionally adopted by earlier Post-3.11 Nuclear-Free organizers in Fukushima, to express solidarity with Okinawans protesting US military expansion & V-22 Osprey aircraft deployment in their prefecture, explains Satoko Norimatsu in "Fukushima and Okinawa – the “Abandoned People,” and Civic Empowerment" published by APJ last fall.

Hydrangea Revolution: 100,000-200,000 Japanese citizens rally for a Nuclear-Free Japan

(Photo: Chie Matsumoto on FB)

Via Chie Matsumoto, a reporter with LaborNet Japan:

We did it!! Revolution Hydrangea in Japan, where people say there never is a revolution. We figured nearly 100,000 were there.

The Diet/PM's office area is the most restricted area for demonstrations, but we flooded onto the streets and started walking toward PM's office in hopes of getting our voices heard.

Very peaceful demo. Respect to all who are determined to raise their voices until their fight is won and keep all power plants shut.

Via Temple Valley Times, estimates of rally participants:

Asahi Shimbun: 150-180,000

NHK TV: more than last time [next day's report estimated 100,000]

Police: about 17,000

Rally Organizer: 150,000

Sankei Shinbun: less than 20,000

TBS TV: 200,000

TV Asahi: 40-50,000

Kimberly Hughes notes that Bloomberg has reported more than 100 million Japanese citizens are against the nuclear power.

Two Japanese seismologists warn Tokyo against nuclear restart at Ohi Plant in Fukui

Via Reuters, "Seismologists warn Japan against nuclear restart":

Seismic modeling by Japan's nuclear regulator did not properly take into account active fault lines near the Ohi plant, Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist at Kobe University, told reporters.

"The stress tests and new safety guidelines for restarting nuclear power plants both allow for accidents at plants to occur," Ishibashi told reporters. "Instead of making standards more strict, they both represent a severe setback in safety standards."

Experts advising Japan's nuclear industry had underestimated the seismic threat, Mitsuhisa Watanabe, a tectonic geomorphology professor at Tokyo University, said at the same news conference.

"The expertise and neutrality of experts advising Japan's Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency are highly questionable," Watanabe said.

After an earthquake in 2007 caused radiation leaks at reactors north of Tokyo, Ishibashi said Japan was at risk of a nuclear disaster following a large earthquake, a warning that proved prescient after Fukushima.

While it is impossible to predict when earthquakes will happen, Ishibashi said on Tuesday the magnitude 9 quake last year made it more likely "devastating" earthquakes would follow.

Commuters signal "Vote of No Confidence" in Tokyo's Nuclear Restart

Photo: Ryusaku Tanaka Journal

Happy 97th Birthday & Many More, Grace Lee Boggs!

People are aware that they cannot continue in the same old way but are immobilized because they cannot imagine an alternative. We need a vision that recognizes that we are at one of the great turning points in human history when the survival of our planet and the restoration of our humanity require a great sea change in our ecological, economic, political, and spiritual values. - Grace Lee Boggs

Happy 97th Birthday, Grace Lee Boggs, born June 27, 1915!

More about the Love Celebration for Grace Lee Boggs in Detroit and upcoming speaking events throughout North America at Boggs Center website & The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century book website.

Ruthie Iida's exuberant explanation of the meaning of "Hydrangea Revolution"

Love Ruthie Iida's exuberant explanation of the meaning of the name"Hydrangea Revolution" at Kanagawa Notebook:

I did not hear the term “Hydrangea Revolution” until this morning, when I opened up Facebook to find a post from Jacinta [friend of Ruthie's, who lives in Tokyo], along with her own beautiful photographs of hydrangeas taken in her neighborhood. After reading that one post, the phrase seemed to pop up repeatedly, all day long.

The Friday demonstrations have been compared to the big, bold, brazen blooms ( are they not? nothing wimpy about hydrangeas) that are made up of myriads of tiny blossoms pressed together. What began as a series of small symbolic gatherings has become a huge, spirited protest that the media can no longer ignore...

I haven’t made it to Tokyo on a Friday yet, but I’m proud to be on the same side as such good people. I’m part of the big, brazen bloom….Woo-hooooo!

HYDRANGEA REVOLUTION: Another video of the 6.22.12 "No Restart" protest rally at PM's House

This amazing video of the 6.22.12 rally outside of the PM's house gives a sense of the enormity of feeling against nuclear restarts in Japan. Partipants are not simply chanting, but screaming "Saikado Hantai!" ("Against the Re-start!"), not in unison, but passionately, discordantly...

(Via ヒマナイヌチャンネル)