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Kan reveals Tokyo nuclear evacuation plans

Tokyo correspondent

Updated September 19, 2011 09:49:05

Japan's former prime minister Naoto Kan has revealed he contemplated evacuating as many as 30 million people from Tokyo and surrounding areas during the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Speaking to Japan's Kyodo News, Mr Kan, who was prime minister during the nuclear crisis, said evacuations on such a scale may have led to Japan being unable to function.

Mr Kan has since resigned from the prime ministership and can now speak more openly about the crisis.

He said he asked experts for "simulations of the worst case scenario" at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

He said the experts explained that people living 200 to 250 kilometres from the plant would have to be evacuated.

He said he contemplated the chaos that would have ensued if such a measure had been taken.

''It was a crucial moment when I wasn't sure whether Japan could continue to function as a state,'' he said.

''I felt that the risk was at its highest during the first 10 days [after the disaster struck].''

Mr Kan also said there were no effective safeguards in place because ''we had never foreseen a situation in which a quake, tsunami and a nuclear plant accident would occur at the same time."

He also delivered a less-than-flattering assessment of TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The former primer minister accuses the company of wanting to abandon the stricken nuclear plant at the height of the crisis and let its workers walk offsite for the reactors to bubble away.

Mr Kan says such a situation was "impossible" and he rejected TEPCO's request.

He also accused the firm of failing to communicate properly with both him and its head office.

Mr Kan says TEPCO could not explain to him what was happening with the venting process at Fukushima to release radioactive steam.

''Even TEPCO officials [who were with me] at the prime minister's office were unable to fully explain why they were not doing the venting so I wasn't sure whether there was good communication between the TEPCO head office and the Fukushima plant,'' he said.
www.abc.net.au

Japanese nuclear energy experts discuss Fukushima

Japanese experts on nuclear energy are discussing ways to contain the nuclear accident in Fukushima at their first conference since the accident.

The Atomic Energy Society of Japan started a 4-day conference in Kitakyushu City, southwestern Japan, on Monday.

Society president and University of Tokyo Professor Satoru Tanaka said in an opening address that the society finds it extremely regrettable that the accident in Fukushima has had such a huge impact on the people of Japan and caused them such great worry.

Professor Hisashi Ninokata of Tokyo Institute of Technology, who leads a subcommittee investigating the accident, said even experts had had too much confidence in the safety of Japan's nuclear power generation. He said the society should face the accident squarely and work hard to contain it.

During the morning session, Japanese nuclear experts discussed how to contain the Fukushima accident and help affected areas recover.

About 7,000 atomic energy experts at universities, research institutes, and power companies are members of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan. The society postponed its annual conference after the accident in Fukushima.

Monday, September 19, 2011 13:42 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp

Fukushima evacuees drive to homes in no-go zone

Some evacuees from the no-entry zone around the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant have been allowed to briefly visit their homes in private vehicles.

Residents of Kawauchi Village have begun driving home to retrieve some of the belongings they left behind during the evacuation in March.

Two hundred and 25 people from 90 households are scheduled to visit their homes on Monday.

This is the second chance for evacuees to briefly go home. Only two people per household were allowed to go the first time, and they were taken on buses. This time, evacuees can use their own vehicles and can take as many people as the vehicles can carry.

Some early arrivers were seen reporting at a village facility. The village is providing them with two-way radios for emergency communication.

A 66-year-old man returned with his wife from Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo. He said he had borrowed a truck from an acquaintance so he could get his bed.

The vehicles will be tested for radioactive contamination when they come out of the no-go zone. They will be decontaminated if the amount of radioactive substances exceeds new and stricter limits.

Home visits in private vehicles are due to continue until late November.

Kawauchi Village Mayor Yuko Endo said it is sad that people have to go through tests and procedures just to go back to their own homes.

Monday, September 19, 2011 12:44 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp

no reports of protesters on nhk...

@lillymunster lilly, i think you may be right with your theory about corium in #2 torus. there are signs.

look at the 3 torus temps and radiation. they are synchronously rising. very synchrone.

@Edano Almost identical changes. I had to look twice, thought I had the radiation chart open twice by mistake.

@Edano the sensors say there is still water at 40-50c range?

@Edano if there is water and corium is dropping in there should be steam somewhere. Or the sensors are in a part of the torus where the corium is not? They are still on the increase.

they should have a bunch of sensors around the torus, so that we would know better.

the rising began around sept 10.

@Pedro Jesus this is lilly's turn :)

@Pedro Jesus personally, i am (was) sceptical about it, but when i see the synchrone data, i admit the possibility.

@Pedro Jesus more pictures and notes on the corium movement here www.houseoffoust.com

@Pedro Jesus Dean had also mentioned that the concrete is heavily filled with rebar that would melt easily and cause a network of holes in the concrete.

@lillymunster :) yes i know :)