Quake in Japan Raises Fears About Nuclear Safety

Japanese authorities today suspended the operation of a nuclear power plant after a radiation leak and other damage from a deadly earthquake on the nation’s northwestern coast raised new concerns about the safety of Japan’s accident-plagued nuclear industry.
Tokyo Electric Power, an electric company that operates the nuclear plant near the city of Kashiwazaki, said it had found more than 50 problems at the plant caused by Monday’s earthquake. While most of the problems were minor, the largest included 100 drums of radioactive waste that had fallen over, causing the lids on some of the drums to open, the company said.
On Monday, the company said that the earthquake also caused a small fire at the plant, the world’s largest by amount of electricity produced, and the leakage of 317 gallons of water containing trace levels of radioactive materials into the nearby Sea of Japan.
The company announced today that it had detected tiny amounts of radioactive material in an air filter in one of the plant’s seven reactors, though the company said it was unlikely that the material had entered the atmosphere outside the reactor.
The company said it was still examining how the tainted water had leaked out, but it said the level of radioactivity was too low to endanger humans or the environment.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe criticized Tokyo Electric for being “too slow” in reporting the problems to the government and the public.
“Nuclear power can only operate with the people’s trust,” Mr. Abe told reporters. Power companies “must accurately and swiftly report what is happening,” he said.
Television footage showed rescuers digging through buildings in Kashiwazaki that were toppled by the earthquake, which local police said killed at least nine people and injured another 1,000.
Japan’s meteorological agency said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.8; the United States Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.6.
Japan’s military used warships and trucks to carry rice balls, bread, and water to the remote region in Niigata prefecture, about 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, where the earthquake struck on Monday morning.
But relief efforts were slowed by landslides and gaping cracks in the earth that severed rail lines and roads, local media reports said.
About 13,000 residents fled their homes, the media reported. Television pictures showed many people sleeping on blankets and futons in school gymnasiums that had been turned into makeshift shelters.
In Tokyo, government ministers scrambled to reassure the public about the safety of the nation’s nuclear power plants, which have suffered a string of accidents and cover-ups in recent years.
The economic ministry, which regulates the power industry, moved swiftly to reprimand Tokyo Electric for failing to report the leak into the Sea of Japan to authorities for some six hours.
The ministry also ordered suspension of the plant’s operations until safety could be ensured, and dispatched a team of inspectors to survey the damage.
Nuclear safety can be a particularly sensitive issue in Japan, the only nation to be attacked with atomic weapons when the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in 1945.
Nuclear safety experts said the authorities apparently feared the accidents related to this week’s earthquake could raise fresh public doubts about Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors, which the resource-poor nation relies on for about a third of its electricity and to lessen its dependence on energy from the Middle East.
“This will stir new debate about whether nuclear plants are safe enough,” said Haruki Madarame, a professor in nuclear safety engineering at Tokyo University. “Authorities will have to show the public that they are taking all reasonable steps to ensure safety.”
Japan is also one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world, and it has strict regulations that are meant to prevent earthquake damage to its nuclear plants.
These regulations include building nuclear plants on solid bedrock to limit shaking from earthquakes, and erecting anti-tsunami walls at plants along the coast, like the Kashiwazaki plant.
Tokyo Electric said the damage from the earthquake did not threaten the safety of the reactors at the Kashiwazaki plant. Four reactors were operating at the time, and all shut down safely, the company said.
However, it said that the force of the shaking caused by the earthquake had exceeded the design limits of the reactors, suggesting that the plant’s builders had underestimated the strength of possible earthquakes in the region.
The chief government spokesman, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, said the designs of other nuclear plants may have to be reexamined after Monday’s earthquake to make sure they are strong enough to resist all potential earthquakes. Nuclear safety experts said Monday’s earthquake struck as power companies were examining reactors to see if they met new safety standards set last September.
The experts said the unexpected strength of the earthquake’s tremors may force authorities to set even tougher standards, and carry out fresh seismic studies to determine if they were underestimating the size of potential earthquakes.
The suspension of operations at the Kashiwazaki plant, which can produce up to 7,219 megawatts, comes as Tokyo faces the summer months of peak power use.
In March, another nuclear plant operator, Hokuriku Electric Power, shut down a reactor after admitting it had covered up a 15-minute uncontrollable nuclear chain reaction in 1999. Three years ago, Japan’s deadliest nuclear accident killed four workers at a nuclear plant when a steam pipe burst.