March 11, 2018 is the 7th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Like every year, the whole country of Japan stopped all activities at exactly 14:46, ie the time of the earthquake on March 11, 2011, which led to the tsunami and nuclear disaster.
As every year, an official ceremony was held in Tokyo in the presence of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Prince Akishino and his wife, representing the Japanese Imperial Family, along with survivors of the disaster.
In total, more than 18,000 people were killed or missing in the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami. But more than 3,600 people have since died, mostly in the Fukushima region, from illness or suicide.
Officially, the Fukushima nuclear accident caused no deaths, but it displaced more than 73,000 people to avoid radiation exposure.
Meanwhile, overcoming the consequences of the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl accident will take many years.
The decommissioning of the nuclear plant is still ongoing, and a major new step will begin this year, with the cleanup of fuel in the reservoir of one of the plant’s reactors.
The cores of the three reactors number 1 to 3 were melted in the accident and still need to be cooled continuously. Tepco, the plant operator, is still determining the exact location of the melted fuel in these three reactors, in order to further prepare the necessary conditions for its extraction. go out.
Currently, people have to use robots to get inside the reactors. Tepco said it still has to develop the technical means to do the removal of fuel from the reactors, and it could only start doing so in 2021.
Partially treated radioactive water storage tanks at Fukushima. (Photo taken on February 23, 2017.REUTERS/Tomohiro Ohsumi/Pool).
However, this year Tepco will start taking fuel out of reactor 3’s reservoir. At the end of February, they finished building a roof over the reservoir to prevent radioactive material from escaping when refueling. fuel out.
As for reactor 4, because the core did not melt, the cleanup of fuel in the reactor’s reservoir ended at the end of 2014.
The two reactors 5 and 6 were not damaged much, so there are not many special difficulties.
A huge amount of water has been used to cool the reactors, not to mention the amount of rainwater contaminated with radiation when passing through the nuclear plant. In total, about 1 million cubic meters of radioactive water are currently being stored at the plant site, mostly in 1,000 containers. This volume of water increases every day. However, Tepco says it has succeeded in reducing the rate of increase in the volume of radioactive water.
Since mid-2017, people have built an “ice wall” to prevent the surrounding water from being contaminated with radiation. To limit the spread of radiation, a waterproof wall has been erected since 2016 on the sea side, and the land of the plant has been completely filled with concrete.
The radioactive water has been partially treated, but currently no solution has been found to remove one of the radioactive isotopes, tritium. Some experts have suggested dumping that volume of radioactive water into the sea, but the Japanese government has yet to take a decision. According to Satoru Toyomoto, one of the officials in charge of decommissioning Fukushima in Japan’s industry ministry, they are discussing different options.
Tepco plans to store 750,000 cubic meters of solid waste from here in 2029, some of which is radioactive waste, compared with 350,000 cubic meters last year. Four warehouses for storing solid waste have been completed and a second warehouse started construction last month.
About 6,000 people now work every day at the Fukushima nuclear plant site, down from previous years. According to Tepco, the working conditions of this team are gradually improving. Between April 2017 and December 2017, 58 workers were infected with more than 20 millisieverts, the annual limit for those working at the nuclear plant, as assessed by Tepco. During the period from April 2016 to March 2017, this number was 216 people.
The problem is that for decades to come, Tepco will still need a lot of highly qualified staff to work at the Fukushima plant, which today few young Japanese want to work in the nuclear energy industry. However, the company insists that demand for workers is currently “stable”.
Since 2015, the Japanese government has restarted the country’s nuclear plants, after shutting them all down due to the Fukushima disaster. But the Japanese people do not fully agree with this. From Kyoto, correspondent Alexandre Barbe sent a report:
As time goes by, in the minds of the Japanese people, the memory of this disaster is gradually fading. Mr. Kaito expressed regret: “I have the impression that people are becoming less aware of what happened, while there is a lot of work to be done in the reconstruction. Everyone has to monitor the situation closely. Personally, as a Japanese citizen, I really want to do something for the accident areas.”
In addition to reconstruction and displacement, there is one issue that is dividing Japanese public opinion: how to deal with nuclear power plants? For Yusuke, it was necessary to restart those factories. According to him, the Japanese economy still needs atomic energy. However, the risks of accident or terrorism must be taken into account, in order to have the right balance.
But for Seiko, the risk of a nuclear disaster again outweighed the economic benefits. She said:
“I was in Kobe during the 1995 earthquake and in Tokyo during the 2011 earthquake. So I think this disaster will happen again. Does Japan really need atomic energy or not? Since the Fukushima accident, people keep saying that we have to save energy and the reality is that we still live comfortably while almost the entire nuclear power industry is shut down. Why restart nuclear power plants?
While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants to continue restarting the nuclear energy industry, only a third of Japanese people support it, according to polls.
Due to very few natural resources, without nuclear, Japan could only produce 6% of the energy it needs, most of it imported from abroad. In 2010, with all nuclear power plants in operation, Japan is still only 20% self-sufficient in energy.”
Looking back at the tsunami – Fukushima nuclear disaster.