Japan Railroad Workers Doro-Chiba-Stop Discharging of Contaminated Water into the Sea!

Japan Railway Workers Union-Stop Discharging of Contaminated Water into the Sea!

August 9, 2013/ issue 56
International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba (National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba)
Stop Discharging of Contaminated Water into the Sea!
August 9, 2013
International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the Abe administration are intending to discharge contaminated water into the sea. We must immediately stop their policy, overthrow them and launch the work to terminate the Fukushima nuclear accident and to decommission all the nuclear plants.
We urgently ask you all over the world, as the first step, to send messages of denunciation to TEPCO and the Abe administration, which are evading the responsibility for tackling with contaminated water from the stricken nuclear plant and are abandoning necessary action to prevent sea water contamination, while spreading false information to minimize the real danger.
“Cooling down” operation of molten nuclear fuels has been continued from the moment immediately after the nuclear accident. The problem is the whereabouts of the molten nuclear fuels are still unknown and which part of the molten nuclear fuels, partly or nearly whole, is cooled down is also not identified. Without knowing what is actually happening in the wrecked nuclear reactors, cooling work is being continued only to prove “no abnormality has been found” (wording of regular reports of TEPCO).
To cope with the inevitable rapid increase of contaminated water, a special tentative device was introduced to get rid of radioactive cesium and salt (seawater was poured into the reactor to prevent melt-down) for the reuse as cooling water.
Meanwhile, as was anticipated, it was disclosed that about 400 tons of groundwater was flowing daily into the quake-stricken underground structures of the reactor buildings, to which highly contaminated water is falling down.
TEPCO took makeshift measures (really makeshift!) as follows:
Firstly, construction of a group of tanks on the ground to store contaminated water.

Secondly, setting-up of a new multi-nuclide removal equipment called ALPS, and of pools to store treated water which is expected to contain “no radioactive nuclide except tritium.” But how the ALPS system actually works has not yet been testified in a large-scale utilization. Furthermore TEPCO is trying to appease fishermen, who are seriously concerned about the flowing of treated water into the sea, by saying, “treated water including radioactive tritium will be thinned down in the sea”.
In fact the ALPS is not yet in operation and TEPCO is obliged to discharge contaminated water directly into the pools, which are nothing but a simple pools lined with a few layers of water-proof sheets. As an inevitable outcome, contaminated water began to leak and seeped into the underground.
The media, whose ordinary behavior is information blackout, was forced to publish this serious development and TEPCO decided in haste to build more tanks on the ground (instead of welding, bolt-nut connection was used for construction!) to transport contaminated water in the pools.
Groundwater, coming from west of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, runs eastward through the site of the plant and flows into the sea.
TEPCO’s urgent countermeasures in a corner were:
Firstly, to release a part of the groundwater coming from the west into the sea (groundwater bypass) in order to reduce the groundwater to seep into the reactor buildings.
Secondly, to construct underground shielding walls (solidified simply by water glass) on the east side of the reactor.
These two makeshift measures are, however, met with severe criticism. As for the groundwater bypass, there is a danger for groundwater to be mixed with contaminated water seeping from the pools and fishermen are angry at discharging of contaminated water into the sea.
A question is rising on why the underground shielding walls were not built on the west of the reactor buildings. TEPCO’s blunt answer was: they could not afford the cost.
The level of the contaminated groundwater without exit is rapidly rising. It is quite natural that a bucket is easily flooded when water is supplied into it with the tap wide open and the holes at the bottom of the bucket are stopped up one by one.
In faces of this serious situation, TEPCO and the Abe administration are totally at a loss. But they cling to neo-liberalism, according to which it matters for them not at all what is actually happening to Fukushima people and how heavily the oceans of the whole world are contaminated. On the contrary, the plight of the people means for them another opportunity to make profit by

ALPS, and of pools to store treated water which is expected to contain “no radioactive nuclide except tritium.” But how the ALPS system actually works has not yet been testified in a large-scale utilization. Furthermore TEPCO is trying to appease fishermen, who are seriously concerned about the flowing of treated water into the sea, by saying, “treated water including radioactive tritium will be thinned down in the sea”.

In fact the ALPS is not yet in operation and TEPCO is obliged to discharge contaminated water directly into the pools, which are nothing but a simple pools lined with a few layers of water-proof sheets. As an inevitable outcome, contaminated water began to leak and seeped into the underground.

The media, whose ordinary behavior is information blackout, was forced to publish this serious development and TEPCO decided in haste to build more tanks on the ground (instead of welding, bolt-nut connection was used for construction!) to transport contaminated water in the pools.

Groundwater, coming from west of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, runs eastward through the site of the plant and flows into the sea.

TEPCO’s urgent countermeasures in a corner were:

Firstly, to release a part of the groundwater coming from the west into the sea (groundwater bypass) in order to reduce the groundwater to seep into the reactor buildings.

Secondly, to construct underground shielding walls (solidified simply by water glass) on the east side of the reactor.

These two makeshift measures are, however, met with severe criticism. As for the groundwater bypass, there is a danger for groundwater to be mixed with contaminated water seeping from the pools and fishermen are angry at discharging of contaminated water into the sea.

A question is rising on why the underground shielding walls were not built on the west of the reactor buildings. TEPCO’s blunt answer was: they could not afford the cost.

The level of the contaminated groundwater without exit is rapidly rising. It is quite natural that a bucket is easily flooded when water is supplied into it with the tap wide open and the holes at the bottom of the bucket are stopped up one by one.

In faces of this serious situation, TEPCO and the Abe administration are totally at a loss. But they cling to neo-liberalism, according to which it matters for them not at all what is actually happening to Fukushima people and how heavily the oceans of the whole world are contaminated. On the contrary, the plight of the people means for them another opportunity to make profit by “reconstruction” business and by carrying out the policy of joining the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) at the sacrifice of agriculture, fishery and other industries and also by restarting nuclear plants and exporting them abroad.

We must sincerely listen to the words of a nuclear plant worker engaged in a work to calm down the nuclear disaster and respond his demand.

“My opinion is that the work to settle the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant accident should be separated from TEPCO and the necessary amount of budget should be spent in the works having any possible risks.”

As is reported by the Doro-Chiba Quake Report issue55, Doro-Mito waged strike on July 16 to prevent regular non-demounting heavy inspection of the contaminated train. The company’s plan was crushed. Doro-Chiba keeps solidarity with Doro-Mito, who is paving the way of successful struggle against work exposed to radiation at the forefront through strengthening unity in the workplace. We are determined to expand all over Japan the struggle against the work exposed to radiation. A new outlook to crush the Abe administration and to abolish all the nuclear plants, all of which expose workers to radiation, will be gained through carrying out the struggle based on the steadfast principle.

Workers and people all over the world!

We ask all of you to send messages of denunciation to the diabolic policy and deeds of TEPCO and the Abe administration, as we exposed above. It will enormously encourage us in Japan in our struggle.

Please send your messages to the following addresses and also to us by e-mail:

Shinzo ABE, Prime Minister:
https://form.cao.go.jp/kokusai/en_opinion-0001.html

Shun-ichi TANAKA, Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority:
qainfo＠nsr.go.jp

Naoki HIROSE, president of TEPCO:
https://www4.tepco.co.jp/en/other/contact/general-e.html

PS:

1) Prime Minister Abe declared on the 68th commemoration ceremony of the Atomic bombing on Hiroshima on August 6, in the presence of old-aged Hibakusha (A-Bomb victims) whose urgent demand is to abolish all nuclear plants, “Japanese government will carry out the policy of restarting nuclear plants in view of stable supply of energy and lower energy cost with priority on safety.”

This statement of Abe, who puts money above human life, was met by a stormy protest of workers and people who gathered to Hiroshima with a firm determination to abolish all nuclear plants and weapons.

2) In the course of working out this report, an astonishing announcement is published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the boss of atom mafia and aggressive promoter of nuclear plant policy. Contrary to its former statement, the Ministry admitted that 300 tons of contaminated water flows to the Pacific Ocean every day. We remember that METI has categorically and totally neglected the proposition of Hiroaki KOIDE, a researcher of Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, among other experts, who has been insistently demanding to set up underground shielding walls, surrounding the whole area around Fukushima Daiichi No.1 to No.4 reactor buildings since the time immediately after the melt-downs of nuclear reactors in March 2011.

Thus the state power has exposed its inability of ruling and emerged as a bitter enemy of the working class and people not only in Japan but also all over the world. Now is the time for us to stand up resolutely and vigorously for a struggle to overthrow the Abe administration in solidarity with the fighting people across the world.

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