The Great East Japan Earthquake,tsunami, and nuclear meltdown: towards the (re)construction of a safe,sustainable, and compassionate society in Japan's shrinking regions

Japan's rural regions have been shrinking for the entire post-war period, and successive efforts to revitalise rural society have failed. This article examines whether the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, present the Japanese state and society with a watershed opportunity to rethink regional revitalisation and national energy procurement strategies. The article begins by summarising the events of March and April 2011, examines possible approaches to the reconstruction of communities in the Tōhoku region, and critiques problems of governance in post-war Japan that the disaster reveals. It concludes by pulling together the information and analysis presented into a discussion of the prospects for achieving the three-point vision for a safe, sustainable, and compassionate society that Prime Minister Naoto Kan set the Reconstruction Design Council.     

Conditions for a 100% renewable energy supply system in Japan and South Korea

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident, alternative energy paths have been discussed for Japan, but except for a few studies the assumption is usually made that Japan is too densely populated to be suited for a near-100% sustainable, indigenous energy provision. The studies emphasizing renewable energy have proposed the use of photovoltaic power as the main source of electricity supply, in combination with diurnal battery storage and supplemented by other renewable sources such as wind, hydro, and geothermal power. Here, an alternative approach is explored, with wind and derived hydrogen production as the main energy source, but still using solar energy, biofuels, and hydropower in a resilient combination allowing full satisfaction of demands in all sectors of the economy, i.e., for dedicated electricity, transportation energy as well as heat for processes and comfort. Furthermore, the possible advantage of establishing a regional energy system with energy interchange and coordinated management of the mix of renewable energy resources across a wider region is discussed. As the closest neighbor, the energy system of South Korea is considered, first regarding the possibility of a similar full renewable energy reliance, and then for possible synergetic effects of connecting the Korean and the Japanese energy systems, in order to be able to better cope with the intermittency of renewable energy source flows.     

Is Nuclear Power Environmentally Sustainable?

The sustainability of nuclear energy is discussed in terms of its environmental impacts and its utilization of resources. The reactors in the present generation of fission reactors extract only a small percentage of the energy available from uranium. A solution to the long-term management of highly radioactive used reactor fuel is also a key factor in fission's sustainability. Recycling used fuel for enhanced energy production in advanced reactors and the mitigation of the long-term management of the remaining wastes, ideally with their ultimate destruction by nuclear transmutation, are technologies that need to be developed in order to ensure the long term sustainability of nuclear fission. In contrast, nuclear fusion, while not yet available for power production, promises to be inherently sustainable.     

The similar effects of low-dose ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation from background environmental levels of exposure

The meltdown and release of radioactivity (ionizing radiation) from four damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Facility in Japan in March 2011 continues to contaminate air and ocean water even 1 year later. Chronic exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation will occur over large populations well into the future. This has caused grave concern among researchers and the public over the very long period of time expected for decommissioning alone (current estimate from official sources is 30–40 years based on TEPCO in Mid-and long-term roadmap towards the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power units 1–4, 2011) and the presumed adverse effects of chronic, low-dose ionizing radiation on children, adults and the environment. Ultimately, radioactive materials from Fukushima will circulate for many years, making health impacts a predictable concern for many generations (Yasunari et al. in PNAS 108(49):19530–19534, 2011). There is long-standing scientific evidence to suggest that low-dose ionizing radiation (LD-IR) and low-intensity non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation (LI-NIER) in the form of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields and radiofrequency radiation (RFR) share similar biological effects. Public health implications are significant for reconstruction efforts to rebuild in post-Fukushima Japan. It is relevant to identify and reduce exposure pathways for chronic, low-dose ionizing radiation in post-Fukushima Japan given current scientific knowledge. Intentional planning, rather than conventional planning, is needed to reduce concomitant chronic low-intensity exposure to non-ionizing radiation. These are reasonably well-established risks to health in the scientific literature, as evidenced by their classification by World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer as Possible Human Carcinogens. Reducing preventable, adverse health exposures in the newly rebuilt environment to both LD-IR and LI-NIER is an achievable goal for Japan. Recovery and reconstruction efforts in Japan to restore the communications and energy infrastructure, in particular, should pursue strategies for reduction and/or prevention of both kinds of exposures. The design life of buildings replaced today is probably 35–50 years into the future. Cumulative health risks may be somewhat mitigated if the double exposure (to both chronic low-dose IR from the Fukushima reactors and LI-NIER [EMF and RFR] in new buildings and infrastructure) can be dealt with effectively in early planning and design in Japan’s reconstruction.     

新型节能电源控制技术在电除尘器上的应用

对当前电除尘器的主流节能技术进行了综合分析和论证,指出应通过先进的电源控制产品优化除尘器运行方式来实现除尘器的节能高效运行,利用高频电源技术达到电除尘器节能减排的目的。     

Local energy governance in post-Fukushima Japan: a survey of citizen willingness to participate in local energy policy deliberations

Employing a social survey, this paper examines citizen attitudes towards local energy governance in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent nuclear power plant accident. The survey found that public comment and random sampling citizen deliberation led to a greater willingness to participate in discussions of municipal heating and power (energy) policy for a resilient community than did conventional citizen committee membership. The former mechanisms provided opportunities for individuals with considered viewpoints to participate in a public dialogue on energy and environment issues in post-disaster Japan. Respondents who did not have clear ideas about a roadmap for nuclear power generation showed a lower willingness to participate in local energy policy formulation processes.     

基于LMDI的我国能源消费因素分解研究

经济飞速发展使我国能源消费急剧增长,能源消费与能源供给、环境污染矛盾日益突出。在分析我国能源消费和能源消费强度变化趋势的基础上,运用LMDI法将我国1996--2010年能源消费变化分解为产出效应、结构效应和强度效应,探讨产出提高、结构调整、效率提高对我国能源消费和能源强度的影响。结果显示,生产规模扩大对能源消费起到正向的拉动作用,结构调整对缓解能源消费增长还有较大的上升空间,能源强度对能源消费的抑制效应自“十一五”期间起作用逐步显现。     

Uranium resource economics: An application of energy analysis

Current economic assessment implies that there are considerable quantities of uranium available for use in present thermal reactors, albeit at very high costs. However, this method of appraisal contains a fundamental contradiction concerning the relationship between the price of electricity and the cost of uranium concentrate. Derivation of real costs with the technique of energy analysis is used to correct this basic inconsistency. This approach demonstrates that the amount of economically recoverable uranium is substantially less than previously expected. Consequently, if current forecasts of nuclear power growth are achieved then serious shortages of uranium will occur in the foreseeable future.     

The risks of radiation

Summary The risks of radioactivity are a really complicated matter, yet they are much better known than are the risks relating to thousands of chemical poisons that occur in our environment. The greatest mistakes are probably made in the definition of safety margins. Except for the bombs dropped in Japan and one other case in the Marshall Islands, there has always—luckily—been a wide safety margin between fallout radiation and doses dangerous to health; the margin has actually been about 1000-fold. The Chernobyl dose of 0.5 mGy/year that we received is only 1/1000 of the acute dose of 0.5 Gy which would cause a slight and nonpermanent change in the blood picture.There is no such safety margin with respect to many air pollutants. The safety standards for sulfuric or nitric oxides, ozone and so on, have been set only just below the level that already causes a health hazard, and these standards are exceeded once in a while. Otherwise, traffic would have to be forbidden and many industrial plants, especially power stations using coal, would have to stop working whenever a low-temperature inversion occurred. Environmental radioactivity does not represent a likely health risk in Finland unless a nuclear war breaks out. Air pollutants, on the contrary, are a real and almost daily health risk that should be carefully considered when decisions about our energy production are being made.In spite of what happened at Chernobyl, global consumption of nuclear power will double by the year 2000, since there are about 140 nuclear power plants presently under construction. It is not likely that another catastrophe like Chernobyl will happen, yet nuclear plant accidents are of course possible, even if their likelihood is diminished by improving reactor safety and even if any eventual damage could be expected to be smaller. If a reactor is hooded by a containment structure, no significant release of radioactive materials should be possible even in case of an accident. However, we must be prepared to protect the population with carefully planned civil defense and radiation protection measures.I would like to sum up all of this as follows: The risks of radiation are a fact, but the fear they arouse is often disproportionate. There are risks related to all other methods of energy production as well; nuclear power is no exception in that respect. It is good that we aim at greater safety, but I hope that false presumptions will not lead us to mistaking a less safe alternative for a safer one.     

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN TRANSITION

At a time when future sources of energy are under close scrutiny, both in terms of availability and suitability, geothermal energy ranks among the candidates for inclusion in any appraisal of alternative forms of supply. The use of geothermal energy for the production of electricity and for supplying domestic and industrial heat is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and its application remains closely constrained by favourable geological conditions. Yet exploration in several countries shows that geothermal energy may emerge as an important adjunct to total energy supply in many localities. McNitt outlines some of the economic and technological parameters of this energy source. Small scale geothermal power stations are more economic and less capital intensive than conventional plants, which make them of particular interest for developing countries with small electricity systems and competing demands on limited capital resources. The principal capital expenditures in the development of geothermal sources include exploration, steam production, installation of generating plant and the cost of effluent disposal. The wider use of low grade geothermal heat is also examined, in addition to the environmental problems occurring to the development of geothermal energy. The scope for technical co-operation in the development of geothermal energy is substantial, and it is likely that this source of energy will undergo more intensive development on the local scale in the future.     

Toward energy and livelihoods security in Africa: Smallholder production and processing of bioenergy as a strategy

The past few years have seen a phenomenal rise in the production and consumption of biofuels and biodiesel at the global level. This development is of special significance to Africa, where about 550 million people (75% of the total population in Sub‐Saharan Africa) depend on traditional biomass (wood, charcoal, cow dung, etc.) and lack access to electricity or any kind of modern energy service. Derived from plants and agricultural crops, biofuels and biodiesel represent modern forms of bioenergy and more efficient use of biomass energy. Beyond efficiency, modern bioenergy offers tremendous opportunities to meet growing household energy demands, increase income, reduce poverty, and mitigate environmental degradation. In the African setting, energy and livelihoods security are indeed inseparable. This paper argues economic, social, and environmental benefits of modern bioenergy can be realized through a strategy that centres on smallholder production and processing schemes and pursuit of a livelihood approach to energy development. Such a scheme opens up new domestic markets, generates new cash incomes, improves social wellbeing, enhances new technology adoption, and lays the ground for rural economic transformation and sustainable land use. The paper concludes by underlining the vital importance of considering sound property rights and strategic planning of sustainable development as tools for sustainable energy and livelihoods security.     

NUCLEAR POWER IN THE USSR

This article examines the role of nuclear power in the USSR. Since the beginning of development of power reactors in the Soviet Union in the 1950s, their contribution had grown to six per cent of all electric power by 1980. Reactor development has proceeded rapidly, with a number of reactor designs in use. Fast breeder reactors and designs for specialized applications are under development. It is anticipated that the Contribution of nuclear power will continue to grow.
Cet article étudie le rôle de l'énergie nucléaire en URSS. Depuis le début de la construction des réacteurs nucléaires en Union Soviétique dans les années 50, leur part dans la production totale d'électricité a atteint six pour cent en 1980. La construction des récteurs s'est faite rapidement, avec divers types de réacteurs. Actuellement, on procède à la construction de surrégénérateurs à neutrons rapides ainsi que de réacteurs pour des besoins spéciaux et on prévoir que la part de l'énergie nucléaire continuera à croitre.
Este articulo examina el papel de la energía nuclear en URSS. Desde el comienzo del desarrollo de los reactores nucleares en la energía nuclear ha crecido hasta representar el seis por ciento de la potencia eléctrica en 1980. El desarrollo de reactores ha sido rápido y diferentes dise˜os está en uso actualmente. Se encuentran en desarrollo los reactores regeneradores rápídos y también dis˜os para applicaciones especializadas. Se anticipa que la contribución de la energía nuclear va continuar en aumento.     

DESIGN OF DESALTING PLANTS FOR CONJUNCTIVE OPERATION1

ABSTRACT The selection of an evaporator design must reflect the balancing of captial cost (primarily in heat exchanger surface and vessels) against operating cost (primarily steam cost) to achieve minimum cost. In a conjunctive plant the tendency is to select a low-capital cost, high-operating cost plant. In addition, it is advantageous to use a high-capacity plant which needs to be operated much less of the time than a plant which is sized just at the needed rate. For example, in the study of a possible system to satisfy a future increase of 450 MGD in water supply to New York Qty, a plant of 750 MGD capacity was selected as optimum. This plant, of the advanced VTE-MSF process type, would have a performance ratio of 9 lb product/1000 Btu as compared to 10-13 normally used for base-loaded plants. Steam would be supplied by a multi-unit dual-purpose nuclear power plant. The most economical type of energy supply would be “interruptible”; the steam would be used by a low pressure turbine to generate electricity during periods of peak electrical demand but would be available to the desalting plant at other times. The low pressure turbine would be available as spinning reserve during desalting plant operation. It is estimated that the desalting plant would have a load factor of 27 per cent over its life.     

Electricity supplies for the primary aluminium industry

The historical relationship between aluminium smelting and hydroelectric development is examined. Data on hydroelectric schemes presently planned or under construction are used to project the quantities of aluminium which could be produced using hydroelectric power by the year 2000. Projections of aluminium demand are made and these are compared with the projections of hydrobased aluminium supply. It is concluded that the majority of the world aluminium capacity which will be installed up to the end of this century will have to rely on non-hydroelectric power, based on coal or nuclear energy. The sensitivity of the projections to the assumptions is tested and the conclusions are found to be robust.     

Causal interactions between environmental degradation,renewable energy,nuclear energy and real GDP: a dynamic panel data approach

Renewable energy as well as nuclear energy are low carbon power that presents the life cycle emissions of greenhouse gases than fossil fuel energy. However, analyzing the relationship between the consumption of renewable energy, consumption of nuclear energy, CO₂ emissions and economic growth is crucial for the economic and energy policy decision; we address this question for developed countries. This paper deals with the relationships between nuclear energy, environmental degradation, real GDP and renewable energy. We apply a panel data model for a global panel consisting of nine developed countries during the period 1990–2013. The group studied consists of Canada, France, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA. The empirical findings suggest that: (1) a causal link between emissions and real income, (2) a unidirectional causality running from renewable energy to nuclear energy, (3) a unidirectional causal relationship running from capital to environmental degradation, (4) a unidirectional causal relationship running from income to nuclear energy consumption, since the growth hypothesis is valid, (5) a unidirectional causality running from capital to income, (6) no an outstanding role of renewable energy use in the contribution of CO₂ emissions.     

Environmental pollution,hydropower and nuclear energy generation before and after catastrophe: Bathtub-Weibull curve and MS-VECM methods

In this paper, the life span of hydro and nuclear energy generations and the relationship between hydro and nuclear energy generations, environmental pollution, and economic growth were investigated for Japan covering the period of 1960–2018 by employing the Bathtub-Weibull curve and Markov switching-vector error correcting (MSVEC) method, respectively. According to the Bathtub-Weibull curve analysis, a rising failure rate for nuclear energy was found, indicating that the life of nuclear energy has expired, but a decreasing failure rate for hydroelectric energy has been detected. Then two different MSVEC models were used. The MSVEC method, unlike traditional approaches, determines the relationship between variables under different regimes. The results of MSVEC methods indicate three important points. First, regime-dependent asymmetry and regime changes are crucial for policy recommendations. Second, the shocks to hydropower and nuclear energy generations cause temporary deviations from the long-run growth path in both regimes. Lastly, the increase in hydropower generation leads to a decrease in environmental pollution and an increase in GDP, and an increase in nuclear power generation increases pollution and growth in both regimes.     

Impact of the earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004, on the groundwater regime at Neill Island (south Andaman)

The aquifer and groundwater regime has been affected by the earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004, particularly on the islands and coastal regions of India. The groundwater regime on many islands of Andaman and Nicobar islands, which is the only source of fresh water on the islands, has been found to be deteriorated. Detailed hydrogeological studies have been carried out at one of the tiny islands of Andaman, namely Neill Island, and results have been compared with prior observations. It has been found that the shell limestone aquifer at a few places has developed cracks due to the earthquake and these openings have allowed quick movement of seawater into the aquifer resulting into deterioration of groundwater quality. In the places where the aquifer is at sea level, the tsunami waves have caused seawater ingress. Most parts of the island which have hard mudstone as a base and where the aquifer lies much above sea level, did not show any change in groundwater regime.     

Steam demand reduction of water–gas shift reaction in IGCC power plants with pre-combustion CO2 capture

This paper presents the results of system assessments that were conducted to compare conventional and advanced water–gas shift reactor sections. The latter are specifically tailored for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycles (IGCC) power plants with pre-combustion CO₂ capture. The advanced shift reactor section comprises four staged reactors with distributed feeds of synthesis gas and quench water in between the reactors. Conventional shift reactor sections consist of two sequential reactors with intermediate cooling, where the entire synthesis gas stream passes both reactors.The advanced shift reactor section reduces the steam requirement of the water–gas shift reaction up to 70% in comparison with conventional configurations, at carbon dioxide capture ratios of approximately 85%. This reduction allows for lower electric efficiency penalties, thus higher net electric outputs for IGCC power plants with CO₂ capture. For each case, the CO₂ capture ratio was optimised for the lowest specific lost work per amount of captured CO₂. Both the number of reactors and the total catalyst volume are higher for the advanced shift reactor sections, resulting in increased capital expenses. In case of four staged reactors, the additional expenses are expected to be outperformed by the increased revenues associated with the higher net electric output.     

Development of a PEMFC-based heat and power cogeneration system

Hydrogen-fed proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has to overcome high installation and operation cost before being adopted as a distributed power candidate. Cogeneration of power and heat is a good approach to increase hydrogen energy utilization rate. A PEMFC-based power and heat cogeneration system is proposed and established in the current study to investigate system’s technological and economical feasibility. This cogeneration of heat and power (CHP) system composes of a 2.5-kW fuel cell stack, hydrogen supply system, air supply system, water and heat management system, and heat recovery system. The control strategies to automate the system operation are realized by a programmable automation controller (PAC) system. Detailed measurement of the system is also constructed along with a web-based human–machine interface (HMI) platform to facilitate experiments and demonstration. Preliminary testing of the CHP system shows good performance of heat and power outputs. System’s electrical power conversion efficiency and thermal efficiency of the CHP system are measured at 38% and 35%, respectively. System combined efficiency therefore reached about 73%.     

From wasteland to waste site: the role of discourse in nuclear power's environmental injustices

The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, I examine interdisciplinary literature to reveal the environmental injustices associated with the front and back ends of nuclear power production in the USA – Uranium mining and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) storage. Second, I argue that the injustices associated with nuclear power are upheld, in part, through discourse. This essay examines how the term “wasteland” is invoked in relation to HLW waste storage in the USA and contributes to the discursive formation of nuclear colonialism. Examination of this discourse not only contributes to current literature on nuclear colonialism but also to environmental justice research by arguing for the importance of examining the discursive aspects of environmental injustices. Further, the essay adds to current scholarship in energy justice by highlighting the environmental injustices associated with nuclear power.