Fukushima : Les aveux de Tepco. Mais que cachent ces aveux? 

Une nouvelle catastrophe est-elle à craindre sur Fukushima?

Centrale atomique de Fukushima, Tohoku, Japon

Retour sur les événements. Il existait une "peur latente d'une fermeture de la centrale de Fukushima jusqu'à ce que des mesures draconiennes de sécurité soient mises en place" écrit Tepco dans un rapport-confession de 32 pages intitulé "Politique fondamentale pour la réforme du dispositif nucléaire de Tepco" plus d'un an et demi après l'accident. Tepco avoue avoir négligé les risques d'un accident nucléaire ou d'une catastrophe naturelle.
 
Ce rapport de 32 pages indique qu'avant même le tsunami géant de mars 2011 qui a submergé la centrale, la compagnie savait que les systèmes de défense et de protection étaient insuffisants. Elle n'avait toutefois pas agi, probablement par peur des coûts que cela allait représenter. "Il y avait cette inquiétude que si de nouvelles et sévères mesures étaient imposées, cela provoquerait une préoccupation sur la sûreté de toutes les centrales existantes", et pourrait "donner plus de vigueur au mouvement antinucléaire." Tepco craignait de devoir renforcer la sécurité des installations nucléaires japonaises. Tepco n'était pas prêt à payer ou à entreprendre un retour en arrière sur sa stratégie industrielle. Mais...

-En décembre 2011, Tepco avait toutefois fait un premier mea culpa dans un rapport dans lequel la compagnie soulignait l'insuffisance de sa préparation.
 
-En juillet 2012, le rapport parlementaire présidé par le Dr. Kurokawa de l'Université de Tokyo attaque bille en tête le système culturel japonais de collusion et la paralysie du système en même temps que la dépendance des autorités locales. Un nouveau rapport, officiel cette fois, mettait sévèrement en cause le gouvernement et Tepco, fustigeant leur aveuglement face aux risques et leurs erreurs : "le principal problème provient du fait que les compagnies d'électricité, dont Tepco, et le gouvernement n'ont pas perçu la réalité du danger, car ils croyaient au mythe de la sûreté nucléaire au nom duquel un accident grave ne peut se produire dans notre pays".

Consécutif à un séisme de magnitude 9 et à un tsunami géant, l'accident de Fukushima, le pire depuis celui de Tchernobyl (Ukraine) en 1986, avait provoqué d'importantes émissions radioactives dans l'air, les eaux et les sols de la région de la centrale, située à 220 km au nord-est de Tokyo. Une centaine de milliers de personnes ont dû quitter leur domicile.
 
Les autorités japonaises ont depuis complètement changé leur politique à l'égard de l'énergie nucléaire: alors qu'avant l'accident elles envisageaient d'augmenter la production, elles ont annoncé à la mi-septembre vouloir sortir progressivement et totalement du nucléaire d'ici à trente ans. Sans qu'ait été précisé comment concrètement compenser l'arrêt du nucléaire, trois principes ont été édictés : arrêter les réacteurs déjà en service au bout de 40 ans d'existence, n'accepter le redémarrage des réacteurs dont le fonctionnement est suspendu qu'après des examens concernant leur sûreté, et ne plus construire de centrales.

Mais le problème majeur aujourd'hui concerne la décontamination et l'élimination des déchets nucléaires. A ce jour il n'existe aucune position clairement définie par le gouvernement japonais. L'un des responsables de la nouvelle autorité de régulation du nucléaire m'a confié "off" que le Japon est en totale contradiction avec sa politique nucléaire annoncée. Tokyo déclare avec effets de manches qu'il entreprend sa sortie du nucléaire "dans les 30 ans" mais ne dit rien de ce qu'il va faire de ses innombrables tonnes de déchets radioactifs, comment les retraiter, et de ce que le Japon fera une fois le retraitement de ces déchets accompli. Quel usage?

En outre les réacteurs nucléaires japonais ne sont pas stabilisés, les émanations se poursuivent. D'autres catastrophes en puissances sont redoutées en raison du positionnement de ces centrales sur des failles sismiques. Le silence des autorités sur les 257 tonnes de Corium atteint des sommets d'irresponsabilités alors que des technologies existent ailleurs pour déterminer sa location, par les Gamma par exemple, le Corium comporte des radionucléides émetteurs de rayonnement Gamma, mais rien n'est révélé sur leur présence (sauf si le Corium a bien pénétré les enveloppes des réacteurs depuis le printemps 2011, en Mai 2011 par exemple). Un silence bien bruyant.

Tepco continue par conséquent et malgré ses aveux de négligence criminelle, de jouer son rôle de Shogoun du nucléaire alors que mois après mois des pans entiers de l'opacité du village nucléaire nippon explosent au grand jour. Les rapports officiels, les médias, la société civile. Le nucléaire et le triangle de fer demeurent néanmoins les meilleurs alliés que le Japon ait produit depuis 50 ans (Bureaucracy and Iron Triangle).

Reste donc une inconnue, le Japon a-t-il des ambitions militaires recourant au nucléaire? Des experts parlent d'une période de 3 semaines pour créer ces armes nucléaires dans les laboratoires militaires du Japon et pour disposer d'une force de frappe considérable en raison des quantités de plutonium accumulées par le Japon et l'industrie nucléaire japonaise aidée en cela par ses partenaires industriels et commerciaux francais. La France qui entretient les mêmes relations commerciales avec d'autres pays de la région asiatique et en particulier… avec la Chine avec laquelle le Japon est en querelle récurrente depuis près d'un siècle! La dernière étant cette bataille navale liée aux querelles territoriales des iles Senkaku Diaoyu en Mer de Chine.

Qu'en adviendra-t-il? L'Asie de l'Est a-t-elle dépassée les bornes du raisonnable et est-elle en voie de durcissement politique? Une nouvelle guerre froide? Trop tôt pour le dire.

Mon reportage sur RTL France dans la matinale de Bernard Poirette du 13 Octobre. Journal de 08:30.

http://lnk.nu/rtl.fr/272b

Have Japan and South Korea tried to normalize relations with DPRK? 

It was the expected plan with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits, says  Kazuya Iwamura, a well known expert on North Korea. He was the Kyodo news bureau Chief in Pyongyang from 2003 to 2008. 

2 options: 1) Historical aspect to stabilize relations with Japan's neighbors who are still suffering the memories of the Pacific War and the colonization of East Asia by Japanese militarists under Hiro-Hito. 2) The second reason advanced by Iwamura is about security issues. In the early 2000, North Korea had 100 missiles pointed, the Nodong, towards eventual enemies (US, and its allies South Korea, Japan). But Pyongyang today has 200 Nodong missiles. Ready to be launched. The normalization process has been discussed for years between Tokyo and Pyongyang, secretly, but it now returns to  the news since August after talks were held in China between North Koreans and Japanese diplomats. Objectives: denuclearisation, regional security, international crisis management, the whole world could benefit from this diplomatic normalization, Iwamura says. The issue of abductees (Megumi san) remains also a painful issue. For this it will be necessary to go beyond usual maneuvers assumed by Japanese right wing and its counterparts in the US. I have had several contacts with the Koizumi administration and it seems to me that, very close to him, all was made to try to advance on the issue of regional security but Washington stopped all efforts. Junichiro Koizumi a charismatic leader had to give up, not the diplomacy. Today this process continues. But for some reasons, it is always in such difficult negotiations that international crisis happen and stop or slow down negotiations process, such as the territorial issues of the Senkaku Diaoyu (Japan China) and the Takeshima Tokto. (Japan South Korea).

Français: 1) Aspect historique: stabiliser les relations avec les voisins du Japon qui souffrent encore des souvenirs de la guerre du Pacifique et de la colonisation de l'Asie de l'Est par les militaristes nippon sous Hiro-Hito. 2) Seconde raison avancée, les questions de sécurité régionale. Début des années 2000, la Corée du nord avait 100 missiles NODONG pointés sur d'éventuels ennemis, aujourd'hui Pyongyang dispose de 200 missiles NODONG. Prêts au lancement. Le processus de normalisation qui est discuté depuis plusieurs années entre Tokyo et Pyongyang, en secret, revient dans les titres de l'actualité depuis Août lors d'entretiens tenus en Chine entre diplomates nippons et nord Coréens. Objectifs: dénucléarisation de la péninsule de Corée, sécurité régionale, gestion de crise internationale, le monde entier pourrait bénéficier de cette normalisation diplomatique avance Kazuya Iwamura. La question des personnes enlevées (Megumi san) reste également un sujet douloureux. Pour cela, il sera nécessaire d'aller bien au-delà des manœuvres habituelles assumées par l'aile droite japonaise néo-conservatice et ses homologues des États-Unis. 

A suivre. 

To be continued.

Kazuya Iwamura, Kyodo News

ABE Shinzo elected president of the LDP

A heir of a Japanese political dynasty leader of the conservatives

Abe Shinzo at Yasukuni shrine

Japan LDP conservative party new president is ABE Shinzo, 58. Elected at LDP Tokyo headquarters wednesday september 26th. He is a former prime minister (90th), and defeats former Defense minister ISHIBA Shigeru. ABE is the nationalists' candidate. Behind the scenes, the Senkaku Diaoyu crisis. He'll be the candidate of the Japanese conservatives if a general election is called by current Democratic party leader and current prime minister NODA. ABE Shinzo is a recurrent visitor of the Yasukuni Shrine inflaming China and Korea. In 2006, at 52, he was Japan's youngest post-war head of government but has given up his job as prime minister in 2007 September 12th because of a series of financial scandals involving some of his cabinet ministers, he also had been unable to pass the anti-terrorism laws at the Diet and he allegedly was said he resigned due to stress and physical problems he encountered during his administration. The political heritage of Japan Inc. proved the strong impact of dynasties on Japanese politics.

Senkaku - Diaoyu islands territorial war 

Japan Coast Guards start to impose a security cordon around the islets. Impressive naval battle on the blue! An expert tough naval water cannon battle between Japan Coast Guards and Taiwan Coast Guards and fishing ships happened morning of Sept. 25. Taiwanese boats entered the waters around the disputed Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday, were fought by the Japanese Coast Guard, just a day after two Chinese surveillance ships arrived on zone for defense patrol. Extraordinary pictures via Twitter Facebook from local Asian web networks.

(From Webpic. from pic.twitter.com/oQ51DaHP)

#Senkaku impressive use of water cannon by japan coast guards on #taiwan trawlers entering near #senkaku #china shy. twitter.com/joeljaponrtl/s…
— Joël Legendre (@joeljaponrtl) September 25, 2012

The Senkaku Diaoyu

When East Asian peace and development are threatened!
Live on RTL MONDE

尖閣諸島。 RTLのフランスのニュース。
The link of ｍy news-report on RTL MONDE French news channel 13:00 23 Septembre 2013 anchored by Daniel Férin. We reported live about the Senkaku-Diaoyu crisis from Beijing and Tokyo. Picture: the disputed Senkaku islets.

http://lnk.nu/rtl.fr/25qr

RTL MONDE "L'effervescence entre la Chine et le Japon à propos de 5 îlots et 3 rochers inhabités, soit 7 km carrés de territoires que les 2 pays se disputent. Fiévre nationaliste ou intérêts économiques, nous essayerons d'en savoir plus avec nos correspondants à Pékin et à Tokyo. ils seront en direct sur RTL.

(The turmoil between China and Japan about 5 islets and 3 uninhabited rocks, or 7 square kilometers of territory for which two countries compete. Nationalist fever or economic interests, we will try to find out more with our correspondents in Beijing and Tokyo. Live on RTL)


-尖閣諸島 Senkaku soft or hard landing, answer is with Chinese? If China appears as violent state, Japan will enter into diversifying its economy shifting towards other nations, Asia and others while reinforcing her defense. Diplomatic battles and major geopolitical and industrial shifts ahead. Development and social fault between Japan and China.


-To read with caution. "Map of Senkaku Islands in World Atlas published in China in 1960... Jiji news agency reported on Sunday that among the recently declassified documents in the National Security Archives at George Washington University was a May 1971 CIA report compiled to study the territorial claims for the Senkaku islets... they found yet another Chinese map showing that the islets were Japanese. This one was published in 1966 in an atlas for the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution"

http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/the-map-is-the-territory/

Chinese tourists flow to Japan 

Unheard Senkaku Diaoyu islands protests

京都で撮影された中国からの観光客、着物のファッションショーを観覧（2012年9月20日）。These tourists from China are filmed in Kyoto, they attend a Kimono fashion show in Kyoto on Thursday September 20th 2012 while China and Japan allegedly are on the verge of a "war." This group of hundred young tourists are unaffected by the Senkaku Diaoyu islands friction, and as loads of other Chinese tourists, are touring Kyoto, Arashiyama and Nara on sightseeing while Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese nationalists politicians and their troops are making lots of noise about some strategical (but lost in the middle of the sea) rocks and islets in the China seas and thoroughly monitored by Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese governmental ships. Maybe attention should also be focussed on what ordinary people wish to do and how they wish to live freely their existence. Japanese war alike channels ignored these hundreds (thousands a week I'm told) of visitors to Japan, Tokyo Ginza included, and preferred to excite viewers and audience with pictures of calls for war? Huh! Media and psychology...

Japan and Food Security since Fukushima

Japan is to give up its nuclear industry by... the 2030s

RTL MONDE Magazine. Après la décision du Japon "de sortir du nucléaire" j'enquête à Tokyo et dans plusieurs régions du Japon sur l'un des sujets les plus inquiétants aujourd'hui: la sécurité alimentaire causée par les craintes de radioactivité. Coup de projecteur. 

I report for our News Channel RTL MONDE about Japan after Japan's decision to phase out nuclear energy in the 2030s and investigate on the pressing radioactivity fear on "food security"! (Anchored with Marie Guerrier in place of Daniel Férin)

"Japan is going to exit nuclear energy in the horizons of the 2030s, Japan announced its decision Friday. Such a shift of national policy would have never happened without the Fukushima catastrophe. Because actually it was the opposite that was planned prior to Fukushima. Japan wanted to increase the share of nuclear energy in its production of electricity. But... there was the tsunami of March 2011 and a total reconsideration of Japanese energy politics. An other consequence of the catastrophe at the power plant of Fukushima is the worrying of people about the effects of radioactivity..." 

Development on RTL MONDE starts at 13:00 
URL: http://lnk.nu/rtl.fr/25ju

The scary diagram Tepco and Government want to keep secret

Japan Nuclear Industry

This extraordinary picture is the diagram explaining the correlation of the Japanese Nuclear Power Village. 60% of Japanese economy works with the nuclear industry, from industry to services and it finances huge amount of the Japanese media.

Fukushima safety versus "man-made nuclear betrayal"

IAEA Team visiting Fukushima

"Manmade nuclear betrayal" is the expression used by a Japanese panel on Fukushima. I was reading again the Tepco front page and I want to write about future energy plan because I found this paragraph by Tepco absolutely scary.

"Among those who engaged in the emergency works at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in the period from March to June, there are some people whose internal exposure doses have not been measured and who we cannot contact (10 people as of December 17, 2011). It needs for security and relief of identical person to evaluate the radiation exposure. If you know something about the person who can't get communication, please contact to our call center."  (In: Status of Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Stations after Great East Japan Earthquake (tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np) )

"Radiation exposure" indeed. I watched last week a remarkable (but late) NHK TV special about the nuclear workers, the "cleaners". Terrifying news is the amount of radiation these workers endured in the last year or at the time of the interviews, some got 12 to 13 mSv already. Daily dose was slightly under 1 mSv a day, obliging the subcontractors to hire permanently new staff, in their 20's years old included. "Why haven't these stories been available before ?"

Now that Japan is embarked into new roadmap about its energy policy, people seem to talk more. The new head of Japan's biggest electric company aired concerns about the possibility that Japan could phase out nuclear power, saying such a move would necessitate a "complete" revamping of its investment and fuel-procurement plans and could be detrimental to the country's energy security as well. Based on Japan's past experience with oil shortages in the 1970s it'd be wiser to have diversity in Japan's energy mix, both in the kinds of fuels used and the places they are bought from. Says who? Naomi Hirose, president of Tokyo Electric Power this week. 

After the oil shocks, "we had to sharply hike rates twice, and Japanese society fell into chaos." Hirose's comments come as a threat while the situation is entirely different today. No NPP for a year and Japan works pretty well. So, where is the truth? But it comes a week before the administration of Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announce a long awaited decision on Japan's future energy mix, following last year's devastating accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant.

If Japan phases out nuclear power, Japan will have to draw a new map in terms on investment and fuel-procurement plans. Could be detrimental to the country's energy security? Critics say no. Since last year Japan worked out without needing nuclear energy. The fear Japanese have is about the consumption peak, at this moment they can need more energy access. Does it have to come from the nuclear power supply?


Safety and information, not deceitful communication

Improvement is necessary related to the selective presentation of information by Tepco, for instance on the Fukushima buildings and reactors 1 2 3 4. Tepco constantly denied access to information or delayed this access, say, when situation becomes hot... Then they find a couple of guys to file a story. So did the JP administration. 

Same with the work made on the Dai Ichi plant. Offering proper information on what constitutes dangers is not part of Tepco corporate culture. I wish I could go to Dai Ichi NPP tomorrow but Tepco does not invite us and if it does, it is so controlled that what we see is simply an inch of the reality, it often brings biased views. 

Not telling the truth on the spent fuel rods to the public and saying that reactor 4 is to be cleaned by late 2013 by showing new rods on official Tepco pictures (not contaminated) is an example of Tepco's poor communication, or say of malign type of expression to deceive the media especially when these pictures are not provided in accurate timing. 

Currently there are 1,331 used nuclear fuel and 202 unused nuclear fuel in the reactor 4 storage pool. A pool reinforced indeed but to levels which critics say, here again there are two sort of critics with those who work for Tepco and the others, who say Fukushima reactors cannot sustain new natural disasters. This is physics, meteorology and geological sciences and... luck or not. Quantifiable? Time will prove.

So I say again to Tepco: Don't wait for troubles to come and preach that you are sorry. Invite the foreign media and brief them seriously before we attempt to investigate more by entering the plant. Some talk about doing it without asking the permissions. Our interest is to check if Tepco and Co respect the mid-to long term roadmap toward the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units 1 to 4.

One thing is: How, at the beginning, could Japan go for such reactors as Fukushima, the GE Mark 1, with confinement of the reactors which in case of accident see the formation of an uncontrollable corium, but with no confinement of the storage pool? This is where we are today, and an accident of high intensity is at risk to turn Fukushima and Japan into a nightmare. 

A Japanese University professor friend of mine, Mr K. speaks perfect English, told me 2 weeks after March 11 2011 that "when GE sold this Mark 1 nuclear reactors to Japan, the American maker told the Japanese that this was not earthquake prone, Japanese did not care about it" he added. Terrible right? Who is lying who is telling the truth?

One other of my sources, an American, who visited Japanese nuclear plants in official capacity told me about the dangers for mothers and children: "it is now our duty as specialists and independent inspectors to go and explain to the Japanese people and to go to Fukushima to tell them the truth, the reality." 

He is one of the IAEA monitoring team's member...!


Edited: 07 Sept. 15:35


n.b. So much information that never goes out in France or in the rest of the world despite our daily efforts, world capitals such as Paris are careful on news from Fukushima, is it because the IAEA Charter says the organization is here to promote the nuclear energy? Why this "shield" on Fukushima information? On Fukushima NPP, on the food chain contamination, on spreading of cesium, it has been over a year I spoke about it repeatedly. Nuclear nations such as France are timid, just reactive. In the U.S. and UK, the Chinese and Russians media appear even more talkative! Why is that so? Tepco does not communicate information. Reacts only later. Adds "chart", removes embarrassing questions, modifies its press statements, hesitates, changes positions on facts, does not comment on answers or avoid follow-ups. Its executives do not remember etc. We can not believe what we are told at Tepco press conferences, it is based on our daily tracking since March 11, 2011. In fact we saw a lot of propaganda on the extraction of a new rod midsummer, but then nothing on the shields to protect and reinforce the NPP R4, nothing came here on the shield because, as far as we can understand, Tepco will not admit that there is danger in the pool of R4 or elsewhere. Why reinforce when "it is safe, with no harm for health" etc.. are we served on each hot topic. On this R4 shield, we talked about "building structures" on the radio (live) with the head of the IRSN, Thierry Charles, who was a guest. His concern was so keen on the "risk of abuse". Disturbing nonetheless. Since then, new concerns and revelations appear from Fukushima: On the wall of R4, a gaping hole in the bottom of the building, hidden by trucks and cranes. Concern also lately about suspicious white fumes. Should the government set a crisis on the "psychological" Tepco? And why such a mess in the political life about the instability of the Noda government following the demonstrations against the nuclear industry, now in 100 Japanese cities on weekly basis, since prime minister Noda announced he would reduce the dependance on nuclear power supply? Shogun Tepco is maybe in a bad posture but the "Japanese nuclear village", as it is called, is still exerting a huge domination on media: "When middle management loses its nerves, there is a sort of self-restraint imposed within the newspapers not to handle articles that criticize corporations.” However, it depends on which media, which television etc. He said that he still believes that the Mainichi and Chunichi Tokyo Newspaper are doing solid investigative journalism. TEPCO has an advertising budget of about twenty-three or four billion yen ($230 to 240 million) a year. A lot of that was to keep the media under control," says Hajime Kitamura, publisher of Shukan Kinyoubi  (Friday Weekly).

Edited: 08 Sept. 11:45