April 24, 2013
Japanese Communist Party councilor Inoue Satoshi on April 23 demanded at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, not discharge radioactively-contaminated water into the sea.
In order to prevent any more radiation leaks, TEPCO keeps cooling the nuclear fuel that melted down following the 2011 accident. An enormous amount of water containing radioactive materials has been piling up in storage tanks at the plant.
In addition, serious accidents have occurred one after another. In March, the cooling system of spent nuclear fuel storage pools abruptly shut down due to a power failure. In April, it was discovered that the waterproof sheets on the floor of the underground storage pools got holes in them and the tainted water leaked into the ground.
Inoue criticized the power company for transferring the water in the damaged pools to another underground pool instead of tanks on the ground after the leakage. He said to Hirose Naomi, president of TEPCO, “You thought it unnecessary to install more water tanks on the ground because the polluted water is to eventually be discharged into the sea, didn’t you?”
Hirose answered, “We won’t release the water into the sea without hesitation.”
The JCP parliamentarian responded, “Then is it OK to do so ‘with hesitation’? If radiation-contaminated water is poured into the sea, the fishing industry and the environment will be damaged badly. The utility should pledge not to release the water into the ocean and take every possible measure to prevent that.”
Inoue also criticized the government for shifting responsibility to deal with the nuclear accident onto the company. “The administration should abandon its policy to restart nuclear reactors and set out on the road toward decommissioning all nuclear power plants in the country,” he stressed.
In order to prevent any more radiation leaks, TEPCO keeps cooling the nuclear fuel that melted down following the 2011 accident. An enormous amount of water containing radioactive materials has been piling up in storage tanks at the plant.
In addition, serious accidents have occurred one after another. In March, the cooling system of spent nuclear fuel storage pools abruptly shut down due to a power failure. In April, it was discovered that the waterproof sheets on the floor of the underground storage pools got holes in them and the tainted water leaked into the ground.
Inoue criticized the power company for transferring the water in the damaged pools to another underground pool instead of tanks on the ground after the leakage. He said to Hirose Naomi, president of TEPCO, “You thought it unnecessary to install more water tanks on the ground because the polluted water is to eventually be discharged into the sea, didn’t you?”
Hirose answered, “We won’t release the water into the sea without hesitation.”
The JCP parliamentarian responded, “Then is it OK to do so ‘with hesitation’? If radiation-contaminated water is poured into the sea, the fishing industry and the environment will be damaged badly. The utility should pledge not to release the water into the ocean and take every possible measure to prevent that.”
Inoue also criticized the government for shifting responsibility to deal with the nuclear accident onto the company. “The administration should abandon its policy to restart nuclear reactors and set out on the road toward decommissioning all nuclear power plants in the country,” he stressed.
