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Japan and Nuclear Energy

Japan and Nuclear Energy. “ Should Japan continue to use nuclear energy, and if so, to what extent, and when ?”. Anti- N uclear. Shoya Takahata Natsuko Cynthia Ohkawa Yusuke Takahata. SHOYA. Disadvantages of Nuclear Power: Economic Environmental Food Health Political Personal

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Japan and Nuclear Energy

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

  2. Anti-Nuclear Shoya Takahata Natsuko Cynthia Ohkawa Yusuke Takahata

  3. SHOYA • Disadvantages of Nuclear Power: • Economic • Environmental • Food • Health • Political • Personal • Community

  4. Economic insecurity • Construction cost • Expected to be between$6billion to $9billion for 1100MW plant • What is costing so much? • Land, Cooling towers and other facilities to run Nuclear • Interest rate is high (almost double the price) • Maintenance cost • expected to be 1,200,000,000,000 yen for 9 nuclear power plants in Japan • Labor costs and cost of equipment

  5. 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

  6. Food insecurity • After the Fukushima incident, price of the vegetable went low • Chiba, Ibaraki, Gunma, Fukushima, Tochigi • Compared with 2010, which was a bad harvest, 2011 had the same amount of vegetable being able to sell • Chiba:14% Ibaraki:39% Gunma:17% Fukushima:18% Tochigi: 24%

  7. Health insecurity • Stochastic health effects • Causing cancer in a long run • Causing mutation • Teratogenic and genetic • Non stochastic health effects • Acute, immediate response in body • Skin burn, nausea, hair loss, dysfunction of organs, and death • Children are more likely to be harmed • More cell movements for radiation to interrupt • Mental Health and stress • The younger the child is, the more sensitive to stress • Anxiety and irritation

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. Community insecurity • Community also broke after the Fukushima incident • Evacuation • Cannot start their business again • In some area, people cannot enter • It is hard to create a new community in the temporary housing

  11. CYNTHIA • Case Studies: • Chernobyl • Fukushima

  12. 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

  13. Radiation • Radioactive materials spread to the western Soviet Union and Eastern Europe • The Ukraine, Belarus, Russia were most contaminated • High radioactivity level • 350,000 people to be evacuated to other locations

  14. Contamination • The smoke from the explosion contained radioactive materials • Particles in the atmosphere rose up the clouds • Black Rain • High Iodine, Cesium, Strontium levels in surrounding regions of water

  15. 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

  16. Deformities • Farmers in the Ukraine have claimed that 350 animals were born with deformities • Extra limbs, missing body parts and bones, deformed skulls

  17. 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

  18. Food and Health • World Health Organization estimated: • Population of Fukushima prefecture have a higher risk of developing cancer • Girls exposed as infants have 70% higher chance of thyroid cancer • Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: • High radioactivity in milk and vegetables • Iinternational Atomic Energy Agency: • Tokyo’s drinking water exceeded safe level

  19. Clean Up Process • Power plant is leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean • Prime Minister Abe orders the government to step in • Leakage of 300 tons of contaminated water • Emergency measure to prevent further leaks • Decontamination process: building chemical underground walls • Can take decades and be costly

  20. Cost of Disaster • August 2013 estimate: Japan will need $58.1 billion • The government only has $10 billion

  21. Chernobyl and Fukushima case studies show strong influences in: • Environmental Security: Black rain and leakage • Health Security: Cancer and Deformities • Food Security: Contaminated and uneidble • Personal Security: displacement • Economic Security: expensive decontamination

  22. YUSUKE • Alternative Energy • Conclusion

  23. By shutting down reactors: • Increase in undersupply by strongly relying on thermal power generation • Causing a great increase in CO2 emission • Losing an important “baseload electricity source”

  24. Innovative Energy&Environmental Strategy

  25. 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” • Diffusion of solar power and storage battery to ordinary households

  26. Issue #1: Unavoidable strong dependence on ME • Issue #2: Preparation of additional facilities for renewable energy

  27. Geothermal Power Generation • Plenty of resources; the 3rd biggest resource in the world • Not used frequently: standing 8th in the world in regard to the installed capacity • Covers only 0.3% of total electric energy in Japan • Research has been stagnated since 2003 until 3.11

  28. Economic efficiency • Influence to the government • Coexistence with local people

  29. 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.

  30. THE END INTERMEDIATE SEMINAR PAUL BACON JULY 17, 2014

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