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WTF Japan? - Firms linked to municipal assembly members received nuclear facility contracts
Firms linked to municipal assembly members received nuclear facility contracts
December 22, 2013
By SATOSHI OTANI/ Staff Writer
ROKKASHO, Aomori Prefecture--With the public alarm over the safety of nuclear facilities following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, municipal assembly members would be expected to monitor closely any local nuclear-related project and avoid any appearance of impropriety.
However, The Asahi Shimbun has learned that did not occur in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, which is home to a number of facilities connected to the nation's nuclear fuel recycling program.
Five construction companies in the village won construction orders totaling at least 520 million yen ($5 million) in fiscal 2011 and 2012 after the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. All five companies were headed by individuals related to incumbent Rokkasho municipal assembly members.
....
The five companies in question are now headed by either the wife, son or younger brother of a Rokkasho municipal assembly member. However, all five assembly members once served as president of the companies and three were the founders.
The assembly members connected ...
December 22, 2013
By SATOSHI OTANI/ Staff Writer
ROKKASHO, Aomori Prefecture--With the public alarm over the safety of nuclear facilities following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, municipal assembly members would be expected to monitor closely any local nuclear-related project and avoid any appearance of impropriety.
However, The Asahi Shimbun has learned that did not occur in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, which is home to a number of facilities connected to the nation's nuclear fuel recycling program.
Five construction companies in the village won construction orders totaling at least 520 million yen ($5 million) in fiscal 2011 and 2012 after the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. All five companies were headed by individuals related to incumbent Rokkasho municipal assembly members.
....
The five companies in question are now headed by either the wife, son or younger brother of a Rokkasho municipal assembly member. However, all five assembly members once served as president of the companies and three were the founders.
The assembly members connected ...
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/AJ201312220026
Background
Rokkasho: nuclear white elephant or yen sucking black hole?
...Two decades and $21 billion after construction commenced, Japan’s nuclear reprocessing and waste storage facility at Rokkasho may finally start operating in 2014, but probably later. There have been numerous delays and large cost overruns, but the operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL), is hopeful because Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has revived prospects for restarting nuclear reactors. The Japan Atomic Energy Commission and JNFL want to get the facility running as soon as possible, but the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) is busy reviewing applications to restart 12 reactors based on the new safety guidelines issued in July 2013.
...
Much more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/09/21/commentary/rokkasho-nuclear-white-elephant-or-yen-sucking-black-hole/
...Two decades and $21 billion after construction commenced, Japan’s nuclear reprocessing and waste storage facility at Rokkasho may finally start operating in 2014, but probably later. There have been numerous delays and large cost overruns, but the operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL), is hopeful because Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has revived prospects for restarting nuclear reactors. The Japan Atomic Energy Commission and JNFL want to get the facility running as soon as possible, but the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) is busy reviewing applications to restart 12 reactors based on the new safety guidelines issued in July 2013.
...
And
Rokkasho and a hard place
The government’s fudge on its nuclear future remains unconvincing
Nov 10th 2012 | ROKKASHO
THIS remote north-eastern coastal village in Aomori prefecture would delight a North Korean or Iranian spy. Not because of the rolling countryside, but the uranium-enrichment facility, the plant undergoing testing to make nuclear fuel by reprocessing spent uranium and plutonium, and the stash of a good part of Japan’s stockpiles of more than nine tonnes of separated plutonium—enough, experts say, to make more than 1,000 nuclear warheads.
The Rokkasho plant seems an anomaly in a country that forswears nuclear weapons and that has shut down all but two of its 54 nuclear reactors. Yet the same government that says it wants to phase out atomic energy by the end of the 2030s also insists that it is committed soon to start reprocessing enough nuclear waste at Rokkasho to provide fuel for Japan’s nuclear-power plants to go flat out into the 2050s. It does not take much prodding for officials to concede a potential contradiction, big enough to render Japan’s nuclear policy almost meaningless.
The key to understanding the contradiction is this village of 11,000, and the immense leverage its plant has over national nuclear policy. Near-countrywide disgust followed the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant last year. Yet, officials say, Rokkasho has helped force the administration of Yoshihiko Noda to water down its plans for ending dependency on nuclear power, even though the prime minister’s popularity is plunging. Polls suggest many of the electorate favour a firmer anti-nuclear stance.
The plant plays a strong hand, though its completion is 15 years behind schedule and it has been a financial black hole. Rokkasho’s mayor, Kenji Furukawa, argues that if the plant were suspended after {Yen}2.2 trillion ($28 billion) had been spent on it, the blow to a once-poor fishing and farming village would be devastating. Rokkasho has grown dependent on the reprocessing complex for nearly all its jobs and income.
A stronger economic argument...
The government’s fudge on its nuclear future remains unconvincing
Nov 10th 2012 | ROKKASHO
THIS remote north-eastern coastal village in Aomori prefecture would delight a North Korean or Iranian spy. Not because of the rolling countryside, but the uranium-enrichment facility, the plant undergoing testing to make nuclear fuel by reprocessing spent uranium and plutonium, and the stash of a good part of Japan’s stockpiles of more than nine tonnes of separated plutonium—enough, experts say, to make more than 1,000 nuclear warheads.
The Rokkasho plant seems an anomaly in a country that forswears nuclear weapons and that has shut down all but two of its 54 nuclear reactors. Yet the same government that says it wants to phase out atomic energy by the end of the 2030s also insists that it is committed soon to start reprocessing enough nuclear waste at Rokkasho to provide fuel for Japan’s nuclear-power plants to go flat out into the 2050s. It does not take much prodding for officials to concede a potential contradiction, big enough to render Japan’s nuclear policy almost meaningless.
The key to understanding the contradiction is this village of 11,000, and the immense leverage its plant has over national nuclear policy. Near-countrywide disgust followed the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant last year. Yet, officials say, Rokkasho has helped force the administration of Yoshihiko Noda to water down its plans for ending dependency on nuclear power, even though the prime minister’s popularity is plunging. Polls suggest many of the electorate favour a firmer anti-nuclear stance.
The plant plays a strong hand, though its completion is 15 years behind schedule and it has been a financial black hole. Rokkasho’s mayor, Kenji Furukawa, argues that if the plant were suspended after {Yen}2.2 trillion ($28 billion) had been spent on it, the blow to a once-poor fishing and farming village would be devastating. Rokkasho has grown dependent on the reprocessing complex for nearly all its jobs and income.
A stronger economic argument...
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21566018-governments-fudge-its-nuclear-future-remains-unconvincing-rokkasho-and-hard-place