10 Years since the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

March 17, 2021

By Philip White*                              March 2021

Philip White was international liaison officer for the Tokyo-based Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center at the time of the Fukushima nuclear accident. In 2014 he completed a PhD on public participation in Japan’s nuclear energy policy-forming process.

  • Remembering the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
  • How the disaster unfolded
  • What’s the situation now?
    Evacuees — Health issues — Liability and compensation — Decontamination of the environment and agriculture — Radioactive water and fishing — Decommissioning of nuclear power plants — Cost
  • Post-Fukushima energy policy
  • Putting it in perspective
  • References

    Remembering the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Ten years ago, three of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station suffered melt downs in the days following a Magnitude 9 earthquake that struck off the northeast coast of Japan on 11 March 2011. Along with the 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the former Soviet Union, it was one of the two worst nuclear power accidents in history.

On the tenth anniversary, it is important that we remember what happened then and what has happened since. It is in the interests of those who caused the accident that we forget. We must refuse to do so, for the sake of the victims and to prevent more disasters in future.

The most important take-home message is that the disaster is far from over. In order to win the bid for the (now postponed) 2020 Olympics, then Prime Minister Abe asserted that the nuclear accident was ‘under control’. The government now calls the games (if they are ever held) ‘the recovery Olympics’, with the torch relay route running through Fukushima Prefecture. But despite the efforts of the Japanese Government and the nuclear industry to lull the Japanese public and the world into a false sense of security, the fact is that radioactive contamination remains and many people continue to suffer.… Read more >>

FoE, Nuclear

‘Junk agroecology’: How corporations are co-opting peoples’ solutions to the food crisis

October 27, 2020

FoE International reports:

A new report launched October 13th exposes how agribusiness corporations like Nestle, Cargill, Unilever and Pepsico, together with the World Economic Forum, are using public private ‘sustainable agriculture’ initiatives to promote an environmentally and socially destructive model of food production, while undermining genuinely sustainable food systems and their democratic governance. With the backing of some high profile conservation NGOs, global agribusiness giants are using these initiatives to co-opt and weaken concepts of ‘sustainability’ and ‘agroecology’, allowing them to pursue a corporate profit-driven agenda and shape global public food policy in their interest.

“Junk Agroecology: The corporate capture of agroecology for a partial ecological transition without social justice” examines three high profile public-private initiatives:

  • “Sustainable Agriculture Initiative” (SAI);
  • “New Vision for Agriculture” (NVA);
  • “New Food and Land Use Economy Coalition” (FOLU).

It is published during a UN Committee on World Food Security virtual meeting in which world leaders are discussing how to transform global food systems and tackle the devastating impacts of COVID-19.(1)

“Under the umbrella of public-private initiatives such as SAI, NVA and FOLU, global agrifood corporations are attempting to portray themselves as holding the solutions to problems they played a key role in creating. Their ‘junk agroecology’ allows them to continue profiting without addressing the socio-economic, political and ecological injustices on which the agrifood system is based, or the exclusionary and short-sighted ideology that legitimises it.”
— Katie Sandwell from the Transnational Institute (TNI).

More details at FoE International

Food, Old_Notes

Adelaide FoE meeting this Thursday at 6pm

October 27, 2020

David Noonan is our guest speaker at this meeting, talking about matters nuclear: the waste dump and Olympic dam mine.

BHP now faces a $6.3 billion (US dollars) law-suit in the UK on behalf of 200,000 Brazilian people. The case alleges the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP was “woefully negligent” in the run-up to the 2015 dam failure that led to Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

Mayors of two towns wiped out by the Samarco disaster assert that BHP has been using delaying tactics to avoid paying compensation to thousands of people affected by the flood of tailings waste.

There have long been calls from environmentalists and others for Australian mining companies to be required to apply Australian standards to their overseas mining operations. The logic is sound given the often inadequate practices of Australian mining companies overseas.

But the logic is also a little shaky given that mining standards in Australia leave much room for improvement. Olympic Dam is a case in point.

BHP orchestrated approval in 2019 for a massive new tailings dam at Olympic Dam ? Tailings Storage Facility 6 (TSF6). This tailings dam is to be built in the same risky ‘upstream’ design that featured in both the Samarco disaster and the January 2019 Vale Brumadinho tailings dam disaster that killed over 250 people – mainly mine workers ? in Brazil.
— “BHP betrays international safety efforts” by Dr Jim Green and David Noonan, in The Ecologist

Zoom details: FoE Adelaide meeting
Time: Thursday, Oct 29, 2020 6:00pm Adelaide
Part One: Guest Speaker David Noonan, talking about Nukes — Oct 29, 2020 6:00pm Adelaide time
<tea break> 6:40-6:50
Part Two: Oct 29, 2020 6:50pm More discussion with David,
followed by details of the Transforming SA document,
and a discussion of FoE Adelaide activities.

Come along! It’ll be good to see you.

… Read more >>

Nuclear, Old_Notes

UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons signed by 50 states

October 27, 2020

ICAN Australia reported on Saturday, Oct 24th:

History was made today as the number of countries ratifying the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons reached 50. Honduras ratified the treaty overnight bringing the world a step closer to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Just a day ago, on United Nations Day, Jamaica and Nauru ratified the treaty.

This milestone means the treaty will become international law on January 22, 2021, increasing pressure on nuclear armed states and other countries to support the treaty. It now has 84 signatories and 50 states parties.

Entry-into-force will cement the illegality of nuclear weapons in international law. This change will influence the behaviour of states, even those which don’t join the treaty, interrupt the flow of funds to nuclear arms producers, stimulate debate and increase pressure on treaty hold-outs.

Why is entry-into-force important?

  • All countries that have ratified the treaty will be bound by it.
  • It establishes clearly that nuclear weapons are inhumane, unacceptable, and now illegal, and that no state should possess, use or threaten to use them.
  • It puts Australia out of step with international law on nuclear weapons.
  • A ban treaty can change the behaviour of countries that haven’t joined, as demonstrated by the bans on landmines and cluster munitions.
  • More financial institutions will divest from companies that produce nuclear weapons, in line with policies to exclude weapons banned by international law.
  • It creates pressure and momentum for more nuclear weapons abolition action.

Just days before the 50th ratification, the US tried to obstruct the treaty’s progress by urging states parties to withdraw. This brazen, and unsuccessful, attempt to undermine international law demonstrates significant desperation to prevent the ban taking effect.

Our next step is to ensure Australia joins this growing global movement by signing and ratifying the treaty.

… Read more >>

Nuclear

Australia needs to deal with the “facts and the reality” of the changing energy system — Audrey Zibelman, AEMO

October 21, 2020

The outgoing head of the Australian Energy Market Operator, Audrey Zibelman, says Australia needs to deal with the “facts and the reality” of the changing energy system, and not get bogged down by the politics of energy that questions whether the grid should be transitioning or not.

In her first interview since announcing her end-of-year departure from AEMO … Zibelman tells RenewEconomy’s Energy Insiders podcast that technology change is unavoidable, not political.

Zibelman also reveals AEMO’s key role in a new global partnership – the Global Power System Transformation Consortium – that brings together six leading energy system operators from Australia, the US and  Europe with the aim of “fomenting a rapid clean energy transition at unprecedented scope and scale.”

Zibelman says the sharing of knowledge and experience was the key goal of the new consortium that includes independent system operators (ISOs) from Australia, California, Texas, Ireland, Denmark, and the UK, all of whom are at the leading edge of the clean energy transition.

It also involves key global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, as well as research groups such as Australia’s CSIRO, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, Imperial College London, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US. It intends to share its information with grid operators in developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

“It’s actually a collaborative that’s made up of five of the six of the power system operators around the world to have more than 50 percent renewables in their mix,” Zibelman tells the Energy Insiders podcast.

“We’re looking at these issues around how do we integrate these resources better …. so that we can work together and solve these problems.”

Zibelman did not say much more about the Global PST Consortium, before its official launch next week, but its website shows that it appears to be more than just a collaboration and sharing of information.

… Read more >>

Clean Futures