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