N-crisis upgraded to '7' / Fukushima accident boosted to top level of global scale
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raised the provisional severity level of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Tuesday to the worst rating of seven on an international scale, equivalent to that of the 1986 Chernobyl crisis.
The agency had previously rated the accident as a five.
The agency, under the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, said the amount of radioactive material, calculated based on the reactors' estimated condition, reached "more than several tens of thousands of terabecquerels."
A terabecquerel equals 1 trillion becquerels.
The level is defined as a "major accident" under the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), or the highest level on its scale from zero to seven.
According to the agency, the total amount of iodine-131 and cesium-137 emitted between March 11 and at 11 a.m. Tuesday reached 370,000 terabecquerels according to the reactors' estimated condition. Within this assessment, cesium levels were converted to their equivalent in iodine-131 levels.
Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission, meanwhile, announced Tuesday that the total amount of iodine and cesium emitted between March 11 and April 5 was 630,000 terabecquerels (again, with cesium levels converted to the iodine equivalent), calculated according to the amount of radiation observed around the facility.
"The total amount of radioactive materials emitted thus far is equal to about 10 percent of that released in the Chernobyl accident. The amount of radiation exposure is small," said Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama.
According to the commission, the current volume of radioactivity being emitted is about one-ten thousandth of that monitored at its peak.
The agency decided to raise the INES level not only because of the calculated radiative material released into the atmosphere but also because of the widespread ramifications of the accident.
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Effect on health, environment
By Kyoichi Sasazawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
For an incident to be rated on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), it is assessed by the nuclear supervisory authorities in the nation where it occurred and is then reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
In Japan, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is in charge of the assessment.
Last month, the nuclear safety agency provisionally rated the Fukushima crisis at level 5. However, domestic and international experts argued the provisional level should be 6 or higher based on the facts that high levels of radiation were measured around the facility and significant amounts of radioactive material had escaped.
In the Chernobyl crisis, about 5.2 million terabecquerels of radioactive material was emitted into the air in the space of 10 days.
The amount of radioactive material aerially emitted from the Fukushima No. 1 plant right after the accident was about 10 percent of that of Chernobyl. But the scale of the Fukushima accident still stands out among other nuclear power accidents that have happened around the world.
Also, a large volume of radioactive material has been dumped into the sea in the current incident. Since work to bring the situation under control has run into one complication after another, an end to the crisis could be months or even a year away, with the amount of nuclear leakage increasing.
The assessed INES level reflects negative impacts on health and the environment. It will be important to carefully monitor the incidence of leukemia and cancer as well as soil contamination. The crisis also could strongly affect the international image of Japan.
Evacuation area around N-plant expanded
The government has designated five new localities in Fukushima Prefecture to be subject to evacuation in addition to areas within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has announced.The newly designated "deliberate evacuation area" covers Katsuraomura, Namiemachi and Iitatemura, as well as parts of Kawamatamachi and Minami-Soma, Edano said in a Monday afternoon press conference. Parts of these localities are within 20 kilometers of the plant and residents already have been asked to evacuate after the nuclear crisis erupted.
The total population of the five localities is about 115,000.
If residents in the newly designated area stay in their homes, they could be exposed to as much as 20 millisieverts in the year after the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant started, Edano said.
In making its decision, the government took into consideration standards set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which set radiation exposure limits to between 20 millisieverts and 100 millisieverts a year during nuclear emergencies. The latest evacuation decision, therefore, was made to prevent damage to residents' health.
After local governments involved agree to the plan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan will officially order the designations based on the Law on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness and ask residents to evacuate in about one month.
Residents of areas between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers of the plant have been asked to stay indoors and voluntarily evacuate as soon as possible. Areas in this range that will not be part of the deliberate evacuation area will become an "emergency evacuation preparation area," where residents will be asked to be prepared to stay indoors or evacuate to safe places more than 30 kilometers from the plant in an emergency.
Localities to be designated as the "emergency evacuation preparation area" are Hironomachi, Narahamachi and Kawauchimura, as well as parts of Tamura and Minami-Soma. Portions of these areas 20 kilometers or nearer to the power station will continue be subject to last month's evacuation instructions.
Evacuation plans baffle residents
Not enough explanation. Not enough help. And not enough time.Residents of five municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture have been disheartened and confused by the government's decision to newly designate these areas as planned evacuation zones due to radiation leaks from a crippled nuclear power plant.
The residents could have to leave their homes within a month.
"What should I do with my cows?" a cattle farmer in one town said. Another resident said: "[The government's] explanation left many questions unanswered. I don't know what to do."
The entire village of Iitatemura has been designated as a deliberate evacuation area. Iitatemura Mayor Norio Kanno explained the government plan to the head of each administrative area in the village Monday.
"It's very regrettable [that Iitatemura was included], but we don't have any option but to ask residents to leave the village for the time being," Kanno said. The village will decide later where and how to evacuate residents.
According to Kaname Hirose, superintendent of schools in Iitatemura, this uncertainty has prevented primary and middle schools in the village from scheduling ceremonies held to mark the new academic year.
Before the crisis erupted, these schools had been planning to hold ceremonies on April 20 or later.
The village office held a meeting for companies based in the village, too.
Kazuhiro Hayashi, 67, president of a parts processing company, was unconvinced by what he heard at the meeting.
"Why was our village designated as a deliberate evacuation area even though radiation levels have fallen?" he said. "In the worst-case scenario, I'll have to lay off my employees."
After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Hayashi's company continued operating a factory that makes parts for precision instruments such as cameras. It operated at full capacity with about 70 workers, including some who had been fired by other companies. Hayashi is not prepared to shut his factory when jobs are at stake.
"If the government won't guarantee the livelihoods of my employees, I'll operate our factory until the government orders us [to stop]," Hayashi said.
A 61-year-old farmer in Iitatemura who raises prime beef cattle is refusing to leave the town and the cattle he considers "like family."
"We've constantly improved the quality of our beef over the years. Even if an evacuation order is issued, I can't leave now. I'll stay here with my cattle until the end," he said.
Part of Kawamatamachi has been designated as a deliberate evacuation area. High levels of radioactive cesium were detected in the Yamakiya district in the eastern part of the town, forcing farmers to stop working in their fields.
A 64-year-old farmer who raises about 80 cows in Yamakiya has mixed feelings about whether to stay or go.
"If I could leave, I'd want to do that. But I have my cows here," she said. "I don't know what to do."
Many parts of Minami-Soma have been designated as areas where residents are urged to stay indoors since March 11. But complicating matters, the city has both a deliberate evacuation area and an "emergency evacuation preparation area," where residents are asked to always be prepared to stay indoors.
A disaster safety division chief of the city, feels the blame for this confusion rests with the government.
"The government didn't give us any information in advance. We have to quickly figure out where to draw the line that separates the areas," the official said.
According to the official, more than 30,000 people are still in the city. Asked about the city's plan to reopen primary and middle schools that would hold ceremonies for the new academic year in late April, he said, "We might have to review the timing."
Residents who evacuated earlier--in the expectation it would only be temporary--also have been disappointed by the latest developments.
Kotoko Okamura, 54, who worked in the fishing industry in Namiemachi--a town designated Monday as a deliberate evacuation area--is staying at a Fukushima hotel. Although she longs to return, she is not sure when, or whether, she can go back.
"I think I won't be able to return to my hometown again," Okamura said.
The March 11 tsunami destroyed Okamura's house. She took shelter at an evacuation center with her husband and second-eldest son.
"I wanted to return to our town if the nuclear power plant is brought under control," she said.
But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano's announcement Monday that the evacuation areas were being expanded shattered her hopes.
"Where can I go next? I want the government to give more consideration to people like me who have no place to go," Okamura said.
Masamichi Nishio, president of the National Hospital Organization Hokkaido Cancer Center, believes the government should have given more thorough explanations about the situation.
"Considering the possible health risks to children and pregnant women, setting up deliberate evacuation areas and emergency evacuation preparation areas makes sense," Nishio said.
"But the government should explain to residents the reasons for the evacuations and provide detailed data and science-based information about health effects. The government also should help residents prepare to evacuate and get their lives back in order. Giving ambiguous explanations will only confuse residents," he said.
Brain death declared for organ donor under 15
The Japan Organ Transplant Network said Tuesday a child under the age of 15 was declared brain dead earlier in the day, in the nation's first such case under the revised Organ Transplant Law.The declaration was made at 7:37 a.m. Tuesday for a boy in the 10-to-14 age range who had been at a hospital in the Kanto-Koshinetsu region after a traffic accident, the network said. Several of the boy's organs will be transplanted at Osaka University Hospital and four other medical institutions, it added.
The boy is set to become the first brain-dead donor aged under 15 in line with the revised law that took effect in July to allow organ transplants from brain-dead people aged under 15.
According to the organization, the boy was taken to the hospital after suffering serious head injuries in the traffic accident. On Monday morning, three members of the boy's family were informed by his chief doctor and a transplant coordinator that his brain was highly likely to have lost most of its functions. His family then gave consent to donate his organs.
Based on the law, the patient's first brain-death diagnosis was made at 8:25 p.m. Monday and a second, confirmatory diagnosis was made Tuesday morning, the organization said.
The hospital's abuse prevention panel confirmed there was no physical abuse of the boy involved in this case as required by law, it added.
The organs scheduled to be donated are heart, lung, liver, pancreas and kidney. An operation to harvest the organs was set to be carried out beginning 5 a.m. Wednesday.
"Our son told us he wants to do a job that would be of great service to society," his parents said in a statement that was read by Juntaro Ashikari, the network's medical section head, at a press conference Tuesday. "His wish didn't come true as his brain didn't recover. But his body hung in there with all the strength he had left. We've all agreed this is an action that would suit him. If parts of his body continue to live on in someone else, we feel it will offer a small measure of comfort in the grief we feel at losing him."
Under the revised law, organ donations from brain-dead patients aged under 15 are allowed with the consent of their families unless the child had previously clearly expressed a will to refuse to donate organs. In this case, the boy did not leave any instructions about organ donation before he died.
The law also requires institutions harvesting organs from such brain-dead children to confirm the children were not victims of physical abuse.
The revisions to the law were prompted by new guidelines set by the World Health Organization last year that call on people to receive organ transplants in their own countries rather than overseas. However, whether the number of organ donations from brain-dead children will rise is in doubt, as determining whether children's brain deaths were caused by abuse is difficult and many hospitals are not yet capable of handling organ donations from children.
Soichiro Kitamura, president emeritus of the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, said: "Children account for more than half the patients who have had organ transplants overseas. If child patients come to be able to receive organs from children [in Japan], that would be socially significant."
Last summer the power-usage standard
Power-conservation targets for large-lot users this summer will likely be based on peak-demand periods marked during the extreme heatwave of last summer, according to government sources.The government will set the targets in an attempt to avert widespread blackouts, and they will be finalized at the end of this month at the earliest, the sources said.
The targets will at first apply to the areas serviced by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co., but could be expanded if necessary, the sources said.
In the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government called on large-lot electricity users--that is, those with maximum consumption of 500 kilowatts or more per hour--to voluntarily cut consumption by about 25 percent this summer.
Commercial users with power consumption of less than 500 kilowatts per hour were asked to cut back by about 20 percent.
Maximum consumption is the upper limit set under contracts between business users and power companies.
To enforce the targets for large-lot users, the government is considering invoking Article 27 of the Electricity Business Law, which could mean fines for noncompliance, the sources said.
Some industry groups have complained that it is difficult to plan changes to factory operations to accommodate electricity cutbacks, because the definite targets have not yet been decided.
The government is leaning toward making the targets by-percentage reductions from peak consumption levels last summer, the sources said.
For large-lot users that used less electricity last summer relative to other years--for example, a factory that did not operate full time due to renovations--the targets would be set against their average consumption over several years.
During the extraordinary heat wave in 2010, peak demand in TEPCO's service area--Tokyo and surrounding areas--was 60 million kilowatts per hour.
The utility's supply capacity this summer is expected to be about 45 million kilowatts per hour, the sources said.
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Keidanren calls for cooperation
The business sector has begun making plans to reduce electricity consumption.
Hiromasa Yonekura, president of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) said at a press conference Monday that the nation's largest business lobby had called for about 1,600 member firms and other organizations to produce their power-saving plans by Wednesday next week.
"To avoid setbacks to the economy, it's crucial to make every possible effort to minimize the impact of any electricity shortage," he said.
Yonekura stressed the problem was one for the business world as a whole. Companies in certain fields would find it harder to cut back on electricity use than those in other fields, he said.
Heavy machinery giant Komatsu Ltd. said it plans to reduce its electricity usage this summer by 25 percent to 30 percent from a year before. The company's factories have a system that uses residual heat produced in the manufacturing process to generate power.
Toshiba Corp. has been negotiating with its trade union to have its factories run on weekends and let staff take weekdays off, with a view to cutting electricity consumption by about 30 percent.
Automakers are considering a proposal for different firms to coordinate their operations to limit the number of plants operating on the same day, with a goal of cutting industrywide electricity consumption by 25 percent.
For some industries, such as semiconductor makers, interrupting production would be extremely problematic, because it would result in disproportionate declines in output, according to analysts.
To address the problem, Nippon Keidanren has urged member companies to "pool their efforts" so that some firms' inability to reduce power consumption will be balanced by major reductions by other firms.
To encourage cooperation of this sort, the government plans to authorize certain firms to calculate their electricity savings collectively, the sources said.
The Fair Trade Commission has said the concept does not violate the Antimonopoly Law, as the pooling can be regarded as beneficial to the public.
The commission on Monday published on its Web site seven recommended ways of cutting electricity usage.
They include different firms coordinating their factory operations, as the automaking industry is considering, and industrial organizations encouraging member firms to introduce more energy-efficient equipment.
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