Opposition to nuclear energy grows in Japan

Opinion polls show the Japanese people oppose nuclear plants going back into operation. It underlines the scale of the problem facing the government in convincing everyone that it's safe. Julian Ryall reports from Tokyo.

Deutsche Welle, 21 Oct 2016

Before October 16, Ryuichi Yoneyama had contested four regional elections and been soundly beaten each time. Now, however, the 49-year-old qualified doctor and lawyer is to be sworn in as governor of Niigata Prefecture after defeating a candidate who had the backing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and was considered the firm favorite.

Yoneyama worked hard for his victory over Tamio Mori, a former bureaucrat with the construction ministry, but when the voters stepped into the voting booths there was a single issue that occupied their minds.

Mori and the LDP want to restart the world's largest nuclear power station, the sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which lies on the prefecture's coast. They insist that as Japan moves towards the sixth anniversary of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, triggering the second-worst nuclear crisis in history, new safety measures have been implemented that ensure the same thing could not happen in Niigata.

The voters did not agree, with 528,455 supporting Yoneyama's pledge to not grant approval for Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant to be restarted. In comparison, 465,044 voted for Mori.

Nationwide opposition

Those figures are broadly replicated across Japan, with a poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on October 15 and 16 determining that 57 percent of the public is against the nation's nuclear power plants being restarted, and just 29 percent supporting the resumption of reactors that have nearly all been mothballed since 2011.

At present, only two of the nation's 54 reactors have been restarted - and that after much wrangling through the courts after local residents and environmental groups expressed their opposition.

Nevertheless, a report issued by the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ) in July predicts that seven additional reactors will be on-line by the end of March next year and a further 12 will be operational one year later.

But as the opinion polls show, the majority of the public is against a policy that the government tells them is in the nation's best interests.

Poll: 57 percent of the public is against the nuclear power plants being restarted

"Since the accident at Fukushima, many people have realized the negatives that go along with the positives of nuclear power, and they simply do not want to take that sort of risk again," said Hiroko Moriwaki, a librarian who lives in Tokyo.

"And many think that we do not need to," she added. "Since the disaster, the reactors have not been operational and look around you; we have all the electricity that we need, there are no blackouts and everything is normal.

"Just after the earthquake, we were told to do everything we could to save energy, but not any more," Moriwaki told DW.

"So maybe we have reached the point where we don't actually need nuclear energy and that this is in fact an opportunity that the country can take advantage of," she said.

Japan is an advanced and industrialized nation with vast amounts of skills and technologies that could be put to use to develop and then commercialize new sources of safe, environment-friendly energy, she said.

As well as solar and wind power, which are already visible across Japan, there are moves afoot to harness Japan's tidal and wave energy, while vast amounts of potential geothermal energy remain virtually untapped.

"We have so much technology, so wouldn't it be best to divert some of that away from more investment in nuclear energy and put it into fuel sources that are safer and do not harm the environment at all?" Moriwaki asked.

The government says Japanese
 industry needs a secure supply
of energy

Japan's energy needs

Critics of this approach - of which the government is one - say Japanese industry needs a secure supply of energy right now and that Japan is presently importing 84 percent of its energy needs, primarily in the form of coal, gas and oil. And that is both expensive and to blame for the nation's emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases climbing.

Still, the Japanese public is far from convinced that nuclear energy is the answer.

"It's complicated and we keep hearing from the government how important it is to have the nuclear plants operating again, but after Fukushima, I think, a lot of people no longer trust the operators or the government," said Kanako Hosomura, a housewife whose family home is north of Tokyo and only about 250 km from the Fukushima plant.

Inquiries after the disaster revealed that TEPCO ignored experts' warnings about the potential size and power of tsunami and had failed to take precautions such as ensuring a backup power supply in the event the generators used to cool the reactors were out of operation.

The government also came under fire after the media reported that it did not have a full understanding of the severity of the crisis, while it was also issuing statements that the situation was completely under control at the same time as drawing up plans to evacuate tens of millions of people from a huge swathe of eastern Japan.

"When it comes down to it, I have a young son and a family and their safety is my number one priority," said Hosomura. "Maybe Japan was lucky the Fukushima disaster was not worse than it was. Maybe next time we will not be so lucky."

Map showing Japan's nuclear plants (AFP Photo)

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"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”

Kabul locked down as minority Hazaras protest over power line

Yahoo – AFP, May 16, 2016

Kabul locked down as minority Hazaras protest over power line

Kabul (AFP) - Tens of thousands of minority Shiite Hazaras marched through the streets of the Afghan capital Monday to protest at the proposed route for a major power transmission line, in a brewing political crisis for the beleaguered government.

Security forces locked down central Kabul, blocking key intersections with stacked shipping containers as the protesters marched on the presidential palace -- demanding that the line linking energy-rich Central Asia pass through a central Hazara-dominated area in Afghanistan.

The demonstration highlights the war-torn nation's turbulent politics. It follows one of the biggest anti-government rallies for years last November, which was sparked by the beheading of a group of Hazaras.

Some protesters threw stones at officials and banged on the sides of containers but the demonstration was largely peaceful.

"(President) Ashraf Ghani is hiding himself behind blast walls," Dawood Naji, a Hazara leader, told flag-waving demonstrators, drawing rousing applause.

"We can break down these containers if we want but we are here to protest in a civilised way for our rights."

Authorities shut down roads to the presidential palace, fearing a repeat of the violence in November when protesters tried to storm the compound.

The 500-kilovolt TUTAP power line, which would connect the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with electricity-starved Afghanistan and Pakistan, is seen as a crucial infrastructure project.

But it has been mired in controversy, with leaders from the minority group demanding that the line be routed through Bamiyan which has a large Hazara population.

The line was originally set to pass through the central province but the government decided to reroute it through the mountainous Salang pass north of Kabul, saying the shorter route would speed up the project and save millions of dollars.

Persecuted community

Hazara leaders in the ethnically divisive nation lashed out at the Pashtun president, saying the decision to reroute the line was a sign of discriminatory policies -- a charge that Ghani denies.

"Bamiyan has seen no development in 15 years (since the Taliban were toppled from power)," Hazara lawmaker Arif Rahmani told AFP.

"We are demanding justice, not charity."

The rally comes in the midst of the Taliban's annual spring offensive launched last month and authorities have warned that it could be targeted by insurgents.

"Staging peaceful protests is the civil right of every Afghan citizen," the interior ministry said in a statement.

"We respectfully request that our countrymen not allow the enemy (to) misuse this opportunity and disrupt public security."

The dispute, which highlights the challenges of modernising the country, threatens to overshadow the TUTAP project, which is due to be implemented by 2018 and could help ease nationwide blackouts.

Hazara protesters repeatedly heckled Ghani during an anti-corruption summit in London last week.

The president faces rising unpopularity amid endemic corruption, rampant unemployment and growing insecurity.

The three million-strong Afghan Hazara community has been persecuted for decades, with thousands killed in the late 1990s by Al-Qaeda and the mainly Pashtun and Sunni Taliban.

There has been a surge in violence against the community, with a series of kidnappings and killings in recent months that have triggered a wave of fury on social media.

Last November thousands of protesters marched coffins containing the decapitated bodies of seven Shiite Hazaras through the Afghan capital.

Their bodies were found in the southern province of Zabul, which is under Taliban control and has been the scene of clashes between rival militant factions.

Ghani called the killings "the shared pain of a nation" and accused the militants of trying to divide Afghanistan.

Chinese prosecutors announce probe into deadly warehouse blasts

Chinese prosecutors are to probe whether deadly blasts at a warehouse in Tianjin were due to illegal storage of dangerous materials, state media say. The explosions killed 112 people and injured hundreds.

Deutsche Welle, 16 Aug 2015

State prosecutors in China said on Sunday they had started an investigation to see whether owners of the warehouse where the explosions occurred were guilty of violating laws on the storage of hazardous chemicals.

The announcement comes as authorities confirmed that hundreds of tons of the toxic chemical sodium cyanide had been on the site of the blasts late Wednesday evening in a mostly industrial area of the northern port city of Tianjin, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing.

Such a large amount would be a clear violation of rules cited by state media that a maximum of 10 tons of the chemical may be stored at any one time. Chinese laws on hazmat storage also stipulate that such substances should not be kept closer than 1 kilometer from residential areas and public structures.

The Chinese military is helping with cleanup operations

Sodium cyanide can form a flammable gas upon contact with water, and members of the public have questioned whether this fact had been taken into account by firefighters responding to the accident. At least 21 firefighters were among those killed in the warehouse fire and ensuing explosions, making the disaster the deadliest for the Chinese fire brigade in more than six decades.

Eighty-five of the 1,000 firefighters sent to combat the blaze remained unaccounted for on Sunday, with 88 bodies of victims still unidentified.

In addition to the 112 people confirmed dead, more than 700 people were hospitalized with sometimes serious injuries. Many were hurt by glass shattered in the huge fireballs that rose over the city on Wednesday night.

The explosions caused massive
blast waves

Official reassurances

In the face of internet rumors to the contrary, authorities have sought to reassure the public that the air in Tianjin remains safe to breathe, despite slightly raised levels of some pollutants.

In a bid to further dispel public mistrust, the Chinese premier Li Keqiang arrived in the city on Sunday afternoon and came within a kilometer of the blast site without wearing any form of protective clothing.

Li also visited those injured and displaced by the disaster.

The government has also shut down a total of 50 websites and 360 social media accounts for "creating panic by publishing unverified information or letting users spread groundless rumors," according to the Cyberspace Administration of China.

The Tianjin accident was one of the deadliest to occur in China in recent years. In June 2013, a fire at a poultry plant in the northeastern province of Jilin killed 121 people. In August 2014, 97 died in an explosion at a metal plant in eastern Jiangsu province.

tj/sgb (AP, dpa, AFP)

An aerial view of Tianjin Port, October 2012. (File photo/Xinhua)

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Li Keqiang pledges affordable housing for all in China

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-03-13

A monitor at Beijing Railway Station broadcasts Li Keqiang's press
conference live, Mar. 13. (Photo/CNS)

China will adopt a varied approach in regulating the housing market, and curbing speculation and investment-oriented purchases, the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, said on Thursday.

At a press conference held at the end of China's annual "lianghui" — the twin meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing — Li said China will increase the supply of ordinary commercial housing in the market.

A long-term mechanism will be built to ensure steady and sound growth of the housing market, the premier said.

Li said the goal of the government on the housing issue is to provide adequate housing for the entire population, noting that some 100 million Chinese still live in poor, run-down areas of cities.

He said the government will redouble efforts to overhaul run-down areas this year, pledging to rebuild 4.7 million shanty houses as proper housing.

More government-subsidized housing such as public rental properties will be built, and efforts will be made to ensure that housing is distributed equitably, he said, adding that "a small action is more important than a thousand words."

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Residents protest alleged ground water pollution

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang | Mon, 12/13/2010

Dozens of residents of Kadu Agung village in Tigaraksa district, Tangerang regency, staged a rally Monday at the local legislative council office protesting ground water pollution allegedly caused by a salt factory.

The residents accused salt producer PT Lautan Garam of randomly disposing its waste around their neighborhood, polluting the ground water they usually consume.

“The taste of the water in our wells has turned salty,” protestor Bustami said.

Residents ask both the Tangerang legislative council and regency administration to inspect the ground water and take stern measures against the firm if the pollution is indeed caused by the waste the company has disposed, he said.

Bustami said the firm began producing salt in the village ten years ago, after which local residents began to complain about the ground water tasting salty.

Lautan Garam spokesman Hutami Wijaya said he had never heard of any complaints from locals before and that the firm was now trying to communicate with the residents.

“With the residents’ objections we will likely close the salt factory here and relocate it to East Java,” he said.

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Cities in dire need of better sanitation

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/08/2010 8:38 AM

The Health Ministry renewed calls Wednesday for cities to focus on health concerns attributed to rapid urbanization, in line with celebrations to commemorate World Health Day, which this year is themed “Urban Health Matters”.

The Health Ministry’s Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health Tjandra Yoga Aditama said the government would accelerate sanitation development for settlement programs across 330 cities and urban areas in the country to meet a 2014 deadline.

Of that number, 63 areas are vulnerable to water waste problems, 80 suffer garbage or solid waste problems and eight are vulnerable to drainage problems.

The targets for the 2010-2014 mid-term national development plan for sanitation development include improving solid waste management for 80 percent of the households in urban areas.

The ministry is also offering awards for healthy cities and healthy traditional market, Tjandra said.

“Currently there are 77 cities in the country that are receiving guidance on improving their health condition, 33 of that number have gained the ‘healthy city’ award,” he said.

According to Tjandra there are several criteria used to judge whether a city is “healthy”, including housing conditions, public facilities, the availability of healthy food and healthy recreational or tourism areas.

Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said Wednesday that addressing the urban health issue required extra effort due to the unique nature of the issue.

“Urban health problems are more complex and varied because they are a combination of conventional and modern problems,” she said.

Conventional health problems, she said, included infectious diseases, malnutrition and environmental diseases, and that “modern” problems included degenerative diseases, obesity, drug abuse and pollution.

“There needs to be a commitment from the cities’ authorities for development that includes health awareness,” Endang said.

The government’s previous efforts to provide important infrastructure, access to social and health services, as well as education opportunities, have failed to keep up with urbanization and its associated problems, she said.

This year’s 62nd commemoration of the World Health Organization (WHO) aims to highlight urban health matters associated with worldwide rapid urbanization.

“About one-third of the total population of Southeast Asia lives in cities,” he said.

“This figure increases to more than one-half worldwide and is expected to grow to 60 percent by 2030 and 70 percent by 2050,” Indonesia’s WHO representative Kanchit Limpakarnjanarat said.

“Urbanization is increasing quickly in Indonesia. The national health agenda should make urban health one of its primary concerns,” he said. (dis)

When Planning Mega-Cities, What We Don’t Know is as Crucial as What We Do

Jakarta Globe, Girish Nanda, March 16, 2010

It was none other than Donald Rumsfeld who, in a moment of uncharacteristic clarity while serving as the US secretary of defense in 2002, broke down intelligence gaps into“known knowns” (things we know), “known unknowns” (things we don’t), and “unknown unknowns” (things we don’t know that we don’t know). While he directed his words at the ongoing war in Afghanistan, recognizing what you know and what you don’t is critical in any context.

Urban planning in Asia’s mega-cities is one area where such knowns and unknowns intersect. Things we can know include government policy, regulations, key performance indicators and the modern urban planning goals of sustainability, reduced carbon emissions and urban social equality. Known problems include bureaucracy, corruption and lack of enforcement.

Known unknowns include the questions of how to plan a city that is slum free, and exactly when collapse will ensue when an urban center develops without adequate transportation systems.

Planning also involves unknown unknowns. These are not scenarios involving factors we have yet to contemplate — such as how to respond to a particular flood or earthquake — but unknown gaps in our knowledge. We cannot precisely predict these new problems, but it is certain that they will arise.

Two core components of city planning are long-term planning, often in the form of a master plan, and medium-term planning, often framed in five-year dollops.

The master plan is an assessment of what a city and its supporting structure should be in about two to three decades. Columbia University professor Elliot Sclar aptly describes the two extremes of such plans: At their best, “master plans project positive visions of what a city could be if it was to create an attractive environment for urban existence,” and at their worst they “reduce themselves to architectural fantasies superimposed upon bureaucratically created land-use maps.”

Unfortunately, in terms of the Asian mega-cities experience, we are seeing more of the latter. Medium-term plans are similarly often filled with vague yet technical details intended to be in alignment with the long-term plan, but which in practice are largely steps backward. For many detractors, chiefly car users, this could be the definition of Jakarta’s busway system.

But it is not just transport planning that is a challenge in 21st century Asian mega-cities. These cities already suffer from unresponsive infrastructure, combative sanitation systems and a dearth of clean water that, when combined with elusive livelihood opportunities, add up to a feeling of living in unending, unforgiving and unalterable poverty.

But despite the problems, Asia’s mega-cities will also be the cities facing the highest rates of population growth in the coming decades. There is still no shortage of takers for the wonders of the urban pull. These movements put stress on city administrations which often lack the manpower, expertise and capability to effectively address any of these problems outright.

While city planning ideally should focus on achieving vibrancy, sustainability and liveability for all, these ideals are often constrained by outdated government policies, a lack of policy, funding shortfalls, general bureaucratic hurdles and, sadly, appeasing the interests of competing elites only too happy to skew urban budgets to suit their needs.

For example, in Cairo one gated colony intends to hold 500,000 people and will include hospitals, universities, malls and a water park. Moderating this pattern of exclusive development is no easy matter for city authorities, however, with heavy pressure on them from elites to conform. How to mitigate this inherent conflict of interest might well be an unknown unknown because many authorities would not recognize this as an issue yet, especially as senior members of local authorities tend to live in such “favored” ghettos.

However, as the urban poor are better educated about their rights, and as advocacy groups remind public officials that infrastructure and city services cannot be developed at the behest of market forces alone, access to such resources might become more widespread. Soon, planners and politicians will realize the effect of such public development in increasing life chances and reducing overall costs.

For example, developing full clean water and sanitation coverage in Jakarta, in addition to conserving water resources for the future, could also reduce future costs in the health care sector and also increase labor productivity.

Then there’s the edifying effect of growing up in a green, clean, disease-free city that supports positive life chances rather than trying its best to snuff out any semblance of well-being in the metropolitan life. Of course solving mega-city problems may cost mega-bucks, with bills eventually running into billions of dollars in annual costs for all of Asia’s mega-cities combined. But decisions on whether to spend large sums of money now do not take into account future money saved by their ripple effects, and thus potential long-term benefits have been ignored by urban planners. Reforms in this kind of financing are still moving at an inappropriately slow pace.

The adequacy of planning methodologies used in “traditional” urban areas is being called into question in the 21st century when they are trotted out, unchanged, for use in the latest booming cities. While the changes around the globe brought about by explosive growth and development have had far-reaching effects, have changes in urban planning kept pace? In today’s world, have master plans assisted citizens living in mega-cities or confused them with irrelevant policies and goals? Do master plans actually curb city planners’ natural reactive tendencies?

Jakarta, by the standards of other Asian cities, is still a green city, with parks and mature trees relatively abundant. But spatial plans in all mega-cities need more regular review and even stronger enforcement as competing land-use battles intensify. The spatial plan in Jakarta is reviewed just once every five years, internally by the very government agencies it is meant to guide. More frequent monitoring of the zoning rules may save more trees from wayward developers flouting building and green-zone codes.

One unknown unknown that planners have yet to discover is that transparency and accountability, when applied in the context of megacities, are two key performance indicators in planning that are not the burden that some may perceive. Countries such as China and India have taken steps toward openness, giving citizens the right to information about how they and their cities are governed. Cities have not collapsed as a result. Indeed they are better for it. This is how it should be, because mega-cities are here to stay.

Girish Nanda is a program officer for Strategic Asia, a Jakarta-based consultancy promoting cooperation among Asian countries.