7 October 1999 Edition
Dicing with nuclear death
Two recent nuclear incidents have raised the alarm again about lax safety measures applied in the nuclear industry. Japan and South Korea have added their names to the long list of worldwide nuclear disasters, but it is not necessary to travel as far as Asia to discover the risks of nuclear energy. In the Irish case, it is sufficient to travel as far as Dundalk or Drogheda, where people living in pockets of abnormally high rates of cancer are only too well aware of the dangers of radioactive contamination through the Sellafield experience.
In the latest nuclear scare this week, 22 workers suffered from radioactive contamination at a nuclear plant in South Korea, 400 kilometres southeast of the capital Seoul, after heavily radioactivity contaminated water was allowed to circulate freely within the plant.
This comes after more than 10,000 out of the 300,000 people living in the vicinity of the nuclear plant in Tokaimura, 95 miles from Tokyo, have sought medical checks after the area was showered by levels of radiation several thousand times higher than normal. The uncertain future for these people will be the legacy of the worst nuclear industry incident in Japan's history. It is now known that the primary causes of the chain reaction that punched a hole through the roof of the building, spewing radiation into the atmosphere, was the casual conduct of three workers in the private-run JCO plant, who tried to speed up their work by dissolving 16kg of enriched uranium in nitric acid - exceeding by seven times the maximum recommended amount of 2.4kg.
How could this happen? One senior government adviser suggested that the men had ``simply forgotten'' that they were dealing with 19 per cent enriched uranium rather than the ``ordinary'' 2 per cent enriched. But following police raids on the headquarters and administrative offices of the JCO company, stories began to leak about the possible existence of an illegal company manual encouraging this cutting corners policy. Environmentalists have pointed out that the accident highlighted the safety regulation flaws in Japan's nuclear sector, as the Tokaimura incident is the 19th, albeit the most serious, in the last 12 months.
Japan depends on its 51 nuclear plants to produce 34 per cent of its electricity, and the government wants to increase the electricity production through nuclear fission to 42 per cent in the next ten years.
Sellafield has played its part in another scandal on the Japanese nuclear industry. Only three days before the nuclear incident, two British armed plutonium ships arrived in Japan. The two British Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (BNFL) freighters left Britain and France respectively on 19 and 20 July and headed for Japan, carrying an estimate 446 kilograms of highly radiotoxic plutonium, contained in 40 mixed oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel elements.
The environmental organisation Greenpeace denounced the risks to public health and the environment posed by this highly dangerous transport operation, highlighting the failure of the Japanese, French and British governments to conduct an international environmental impact assessment. There was also opposition from coastal nations whose governments were not consulted about route, security or emergency planning. Among those who lodged objections and were deliberately ignored by the British, French and Japanese governments are: Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Mauritius, Fiji, the South Pacific Forum, South Korea and the Association Caribbean States.
Although the combined cargo contained enough plutonium to construct nearly 100 nuclear bombs, the freighters had no armed military escort. The Japanese government, its industrial partners Mitsubishi and Toshiba, and the Japanese electricity utilities TEPCO and KEPCO have chosen to operate in secret rather than apply open and effective security measures.
Only last week it was revealed that vital quality checks on MOX, produced in the existing MOX Demonstration Facility in Sellafield, had been by-passed and data sheets falsified. BNFL pronounced the fuel safe despite the fact that basic safety tests had not been carried out. Sellafield's many nuclear ``incidents' are a consequence of structural deficiencies.
Despite its appalling safety record, however, the British government has ignored petitions for the closure of Sellafield, and a new £300 million MOX fuel plant has been built on to the nuclear plant. The MOX plant, working at the moment as a ``demonstration facility'', has been waiting for three years for the British government's permission to officially start production. In the meantime, however, it is already following the established pattern, producing plutonium and falsified documentation.
``Assurances given by Kansai Electric (KEPCO) that the British produced plutonium-MOX fuel due to be loaded into the Takahama power station is safe should be rejected'', said Sanae Shida, executive director of Greenpeace in Japan. ``There has been no independent safety assessment following the revelation two weeks ago that BNFL bypassed vital safety checks at its MOX demonstration facility in Sellafield when producing plutonium-MOX for Kansai. BNFL and Kansai cannot be permitted to be both judge and jury in this scandal.''
The environmental organisation pointed out that the two companies have now conducted a paper review of the quality and safety related data held at Sellafield, relying on statistical analysis rather that physical examination to pronounce the fuel safe for use. Greenpeace has also warned that the plutonium MOX fuel is unsafe and its production technology is flawed.
Activists in British Columbia have successfully halted logging in the upper Elaho Valley, despite court action to evict them. Tree sits and on-ground support actions are currently underway to protect this 1,000-year-old forest from being clear cut. The action camp has been steadily growing since it started.
Armed policemen in Nigeria prevented 10,000 workers protesting against the granting of huge allowances to legislators. One placard carried by the workers read: ``We no go gree, Monkey dey work Baboon dey chop: (We won't agree, monkeys working while baboons are enjoying the fruit of monkey's labour).''
The last in a series of rallies all over Australia warned the government that the unions would not accept new federal legislation that seeks to restrict union rights and promote individual employment contracts. About 10,000 workers attended the rally in Sydney. Earlier in the month, 80,000 turned out in Melbourne.
Attacks on north American farms growing genetically modified corn have intensified in recent weeks. After a corn crop was destroyed in Bangor, Maine, another crop was destroyed in Leete Flats, Vermont.
Over 20 activists who chained themselves to the doors of the governor's office in Voronezh, Russia - to protest about a plan to load the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant with plutonium fuel - have been arrested. Activists from Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Finland and Britain took part in the action.
Two men were wounded in Chiapas as tension over road building in the Zapatista heartland intensified. About 12,000 people have protested in San Cristo'bel, Altamirano and Ocosingo.
Australian miners' union, the CFMEU, won a significant victory when it forced the state to pay the Aus$6.3 million owed to workers in entitlements, following the closure of the Oakdale mine. The decision followed a 24-hour nationwide coal strike over the Oakdale case.
In the latest nuclear scare this week, 22 workers suffered from radioactive contamination at a nuclear plant in South Korea, 400 kilometres southeast of the capital Seoul, after heavily radioactivity contaminated water was allowed to circulate freely within the plant.
This comes after more than 10,000 out of the 300,000 people living in the vicinity of the nuclear plant in Tokaimura, 95 miles from Tokyo, have sought medical checks after the area was showered by levels of radiation several thousand times higher than normal. The uncertain future for these people will be the legacy of the worst nuclear industry incident in Japan's history. It is now known that the primary causes of the chain reaction that punched a hole through the roof of the building, spewing radiation into the atmosphere, was the casual conduct of three workers in the private-run JCO plant, who tried to speed up their work by dissolving 16kg of enriched uranium in nitric acid - exceeding by seven times the maximum recommended amount of 2.4kg.
How could this happen? One senior government adviser suggested that the men had ``simply forgotten'' that they were dealing with 19 per cent enriched uranium rather than the ``ordinary'' 2 per cent enriched. But following police raids on the headquarters and administrative offices of the JCO company, stories began to leak about the possible existence of an illegal company manual encouraging this cutting corners policy. Environmentalists have pointed out that the accident highlighted the safety regulation flaws in Japan's nuclear sector, as the Tokaimura incident is the 19th, albeit the most serious, in the last 12 months.
Japan depends on its 51 nuclear plants to produce 34 per cent of its electricity, and the government wants to increase the electricity production through nuclear fission to 42 per cent in the next ten years.
Sellafield has played its part in another scandal on the Japanese nuclear industry. Only three days before the nuclear incident, two British armed plutonium ships arrived in Japan. The two British Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (BNFL) freighters left Britain and France respectively on 19 and 20 July and headed for Japan, carrying an estimate 446 kilograms of highly radiotoxic plutonium, contained in 40 mixed oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel elements.
The environmental organisation Greenpeace denounced the risks to public health and the environment posed by this highly dangerous transport operation, highlighting the failure of the Japanese, French and British governments to conduct an international environmental impact assessment. There was also opposition from coastal nations whose governments were not consulted about route, security or emergency planning. Among those who lodged objections and were deliberately ignored by the British, French and Japanese governments are: Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Mauritius, Fiji, the South Pacific Forum, South Korea and the Association Caribbean States.
Although the combined cargo contained enough plutonium to construct nearly 100 nuclear bombs, the freighters had no armed military escort. The Japanese government, its industrial partners Mitsubishi and Toshiba, and the Japanese electricity utilities TEPCO and KEPCO have chosen to operate in secret rather than apply open and effective security measures.
Only last week it was revealed that vital quality checks on MOX, produced in the existing MOX Demonstration Facility in Sellafield, had been by-passed and data sheets falsified. BNFL pronounced the fuel safe despite the fact that basic safety tests had not been carried out. Sellafield's many nuclear ``incidents' are a consequence of structural deficiencies.
Despite its appalling safety record, however, the British government has ignored petitions for the closure of Sellafield, and a new £300 million MOX fuel plant has been built on to the nuclear plant. The MOX plant, working at the moment as a ``demonstration facility'', has been waiting for three years for the British government's permission to officially start production. In the meantime, however, it is already following the established pattern, producing plutonium and falsified documentation.
``Assurances given by Kansai Electric (KEPCO) that the British produced plutonium-MOX fuel due to be loaded into the Takahama power station is safe should be rejected'', said Sanae Shida, executive director of Greenpeace in Japan. ``There has been no independent safety assessment following the revelation two weeks ago that BNFL bypassed vital safety checks at its MOX demonstration facility in Sellafield when producing plutonium-MOX for Kansai. BNFL and Kansai cannot be permitted to be both judge and jury in this scandal.''
The environmental organisation pointed out that the two companies have now conducted a paper review of the quality and safety related data held at Sellafield, relying on statistical analysis rather that physical examination to pronounce the fuel safe for use. Greenpeace has also warned that the plutonium MOX fuel is unsafe and its production technology is flawed.
Activists Defy Order in Elaho Valley
Activists in British Columbia have successfully halted logging in the upper Elaho Valley, despite court action to evict them. Tree sits and on-ground support actions are currently underway to protect this 1,000-year-old forest from being clear cut. The action camp has been steadily growing since it started.
Nigerian Police End Protest
Armed policemen in Nigeria prevented 10,000 workers protesting against the granting of huge allowances to legislators. One placard carried by the workers read: ``We no go gree, Monkey dey work Baboon dey chop: (We won't agree, monkeys working while baboons are enjoying the fruit of monkey's labour).''
Australians Rally
The last in a series of rallies all over Australia warned the government that the unions would not accept new federal legislation that seeks to restrict union rights and promote individual employment contracts. About 10,000 workers attended the rally in Sydney. Earlier in the month, 80,000 turned out in Melbourne.
US GE Attacks Continue
Attacks on north American farms growing genetically modified corn have intensified in recent weeks. After a corn crop was destroyed in Bangor, Maine, another crop was destroyed in Leete Flats, Vermont.
Anti-Nuclear Activists Arrested
Over 20 activists who chained themselves to the doors of the governor's office in Voronezh, Russia - to protest about a plan to load the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant with plutonium fuel - have been arrested. Activists from Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Finland and Britain took part in the action.
Men Wounded in Chiapas
Two men were wounded in Chiapas as tension over road building in the Zapatista heartland intensified. About 12,000 people have protested in San Cristo'bel, Altamirano and Ocosingo.
Union Victory
Australian miners' union, the CFMEU, won a significant victory when it forced the state to pay the Aus$6.3 million owed to workers in entitlements, following the closure of the Oakdale mine. The decision followed a 24-hour nationwide coal strike over the Oakdale case.