Japanese reaction to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

Japan towns, villages, and cities around the Daiichi nuclear plant. The 20km and 30km areas had evacuation and sheltering orders, and additional administrative districts that had an evacuation order are highlighted.

Fukushima I and II Nuclear Accidents Overview Map showing evacuation and other zone progression and selected radiation levels

The Japanese reaction to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A nuclear emergency was declared by the government of Japan on 11 March. Later Prime Minister Naoto Kan issued instructions that people within a 20 km (12 mi) zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant must leave, and urged that those living between 20 km and 30 km from the site to stay indoors. The latter groups were also urged to evacuate on 25 March.

Japanese authorities have admitted that lax standards and poor oversight contributed to the nuclear disaster. They have come under fire for their handling of the emergency, and have engaged in a pattern of withholding damaging information and denying facts of the accident. Authorities apparently wanted to "limit the size of costly and disruptive evacuations in land-scarce Japan and to avoid public questioning of the politically powerful nuclear industry". There has been public anger about an "official campaign to play down the scope of the accident and the potential health risks". The accident is the second biggest nuclear accident after the Chernobyl disaster, but more complex as all reactors are involved.

Once a proponent of building more reactors, Prime Minister Naoto Kan took an increasingly anti-nuclear stance in the months following the Fukushima disaster. In May, he ordered the aging Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant be closed over earthquake and tsunami fears, and said he would freeze plans to build new reactors. In July 2011, Mr. Kan said that "Japan should reduce and eventually eliminate its dependence on nuclear energy ... saying that the Fukushima accident had demonstrated the dangers of the technology". In August 2011, the Japanese Government passed a bill to subsidize electricity from renewable energy sources. An energy white paper, approved by the Japanese Cabinet in October 2011, says "public confidence in safety of nuclear power was greatly damaged" by the Fukushima disaster, and calls for a reduction in the nation’s reliance on nuclear power.

As of August 2011, the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is still leaking low levels of radiation and areas surrounding it could remain uninhabitable for decades due to high radiation.

Assessment and requests for help

Prime Minister Kan visited the plant for a briefing on 12 March. He had been quoted in the press calling for calm and minimizing exaggerated reports of danger. Kan met with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on 15 March and lamented the lack of information. According to press accounts, he asked, "What the hell is going on?" Secretary of Government Yukio Edano stated around 18 March, "We could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation."

The Japanese government asked the United States to provide cooling equipment to the plant. As of 15 March, the U.S. had provided 3,265 kilograms (7,198 lb) of "special equipment", a fire truck, to help monitor and assess the situation at the plant.

The French nuclear accident response organization Groupe INTRA shipped some of its radiation-hardened mobile robot equipment to Japan to help with the nuclear accident. At least 130 tonnes of equipment has been shipped to Japan.

Japan requested that Russia send the Landysh, a floating water decontamination facility originally built with Japanese funding and intended for decommissioning nuclear submarines.

Former chiefs of key nuclear safety commissions and government agencies have apologized for overlooking important nuclear safety concerns.

Evacuations

U.S. military dependent-family dog is unloaded off an evacuation flight from Japan

After the declaration of a nuclear emergency by the Government at 19:03 on 11 March, the Fukushima prefecture ordered the evacuation of an estimated 1,864 people within a distance of 2 km from the plant. This was extended to 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) and 5,800 people at 21:23 by a directive to the local governor from the Prime Minister, together with instructions for residents within 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of the plant to stay indoors. The evacuation was expanded to a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) radius at 5:44 on 12 March, and then to 20 kilometres (12 mi) at 18:25, shortly before ordering use of seawater for emergency cooling.

The Guardian reported at 17:35 JST on 12 March that NHK advised residents of the Fukushima area "to stay inside, close doors and windows and turn off air conditioning. They were also advised to cover their mouths with masks, towels or handkerchiefs" as well as not to drink tap water. Air traffic has been restricted in a 20-kilometre (12 mi) radius around the plant, according to a NOTAM. The BBC has reported as of 22:49 JST (13:49 GMT) "A team from the National Institute of Radiological Sciences has been dispatched to Fukushima as a precaution, reports NHK. It was reportedly made up of doctors, nurses and other individuals with expertise in dealing with radiation exposure, and had been taken by helicopter to a base 5 km from the nuclear plant."

Over 50,000 people were evacuated during 12 March. The figure increased to 170,000–200,000 people on 13 March, after officials voiced the possibility of a meltdown.

On the morning of 15 March, the evacuation area was again extended. Prime Minister Naoto Kan issued instructions that any remaining people within a 20 km (12 mi) zone around the plant must leave, and urged that those living between 20 km and 30 km from the site should stay indoors. A 30 km no-fly zone has been introduced around the plant.

Evacuation flight departs Misawa

On 16 March, the U.S. Embassy advised Americans in Japan to leave areas within "approximately 50 miles" (80 km) from the plant. Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said before the United States Congress, believing the Japanese government was not telling the full story, "We would recommend an evacuation to a much larger radius than has currently been provided by Japan." Spain advised to leave an area of 120 km, Germany advised to leave even the metropolitan area of Tokyo, and South Korea advised to leave farther than 80 km and plans to evacuate by all possible means. Travel to Japan is very low, but additional flights are chartered to evacuate foreigners. Official evacuation of Japan was started by several nations. The US military expects to voluntarily evacuate over 7000 family dependents from Japan, and has moved ships under repair away from Japanese ports.

Of 90 bedridden patients moved from a hospital in the town of Futaba-machi, a sample of three patients were tested and shown to have been exposed to radiation. The patients had been waiting outdoors for rescuers before being moved by helicopter at the time an explosion happened. On 25 March, residents in the 30 kilometer circle were urged to leave their houses as well.

On 30 March the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovered 20 MBq/m² of Iodine-131 samples taken from 18 to 26 March in Iitate, Fukushima, 40 km northwest of the Fukushima I reactor. The IAEA recommended expanding the evacuation area, based on its criteria of 10 MBq/m². Japanese Secretary Yukio Edano stated the government would wait to see if the high radiation continued. On 31 March the IAEA announced a new value of 7 MBq/m², in samples taken from 19 to 29 March in Iitate. The material decays at 8% to 9% each day.

On 11 April, with ongoing concerns about the stability of the reactors, Japan considered extending the evacuation zone around the Fukushima I. Then, on 21 April 2011, the Japanese government declared a 20-km zone around Daiichi as a "no-go" zone, and threatened anyone who entered or remained in the zone with arrest or detention and fines. The order affected 80,000 residents. Shortly thereafter, on 22 April, the Japanese government officially announced that the evacuation zone would be extended from the 20 km "circular" zone to an irregular zone extending northwest of the Fukushima site. Then, on 16 May, the Japanese government began evacuating people from outside the official exclusion zones, including the village of Iitate, where high levels of radiation had been repeatedly measured.

Evacuees from the radiation zone have reported that some evacuation shelters, including ones run by the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, have refused to allow them entrance to their facilities, claiming that the evacuees could be carrying radioactive contamination with them. The shelters have required the evacuees to present certificates obtained by the government of Fukushima prefecture stating that the evacuees are "radiation free".

As of September 2011, more than 100,000 Fukushima Prefecture residents are still subject to a range of evacuation measures, forcing them to live outside their home cities and towns. Some locations near the crippled nuclear power plant are estimated to be contaminated with accumulated radiation doses of more than 500 millisieverts a year, diminishing residents' hopes of returning home anytime soon. Even areas away from the nuclear plant are still suffering from a sharp decline in tourism and sluggish financial conditions.

As of September 2011, nature reclaims the 20-kilometre evacuation zone, “Fukushima's $3.2 billion-a-year farm industry is being devastated, and tourists who hiked the prefecture's mountains and surfed off its beaches have all but vanished”.

Evacuation drills

In Japan each fiscal year a prefecture, that has nuclear power-stations on its territory, is legally due to hold nuclear accident disaster drills. How to evacuate the population out of the 10 kilometer evacuation-zone according the governmental anti-disaster guidelines. The Fukishima Daiichi accidents proofed this 10 kilometer a big underestimation of the evacuation zones, that would be really needed to protect the population of the prefecture from escaping radiation in a proper way. On 5 September 2011 three prefectures -- Aomori, Fukushima and Ibaraki -- were are unable to hold the drills before March 2012. Six prefectures, including Hokkaido and Fukui, had not taken a decision to hold a drill, and were awaiting new governmental guidelines how far to evacuate. Four other prefectures, including Ehime and Saga, planned to hold drills by establishing temporary guidelines and by expanding evacuation zones on their own. The Nuclear Safety Commission aimed to review the evacuation zones and other policies by the end of October.

Revising the Nuclear disaster response: widening evacuation zones

On 20 October 2011 the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan published it's views on the evacuation zones around nuclear plants in case of accidents. In stead of the 10 kilometers evacuation-zone previously thought to be sufficient to protect inhabitants, a circle of 30 kilometer was proposed as Urgent Protective Action Planning Zones, or UPZ. This definition was in line with the emergency-response requirements proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This draft-plan included the designating of areas within 5 kilometers of plants as precautionary action zones, here residents should immediately evacuate in the event of an accident. Residents within a radius of about 50 kilometers should be prepared to take immediately action to prevent internal exposure to their thyroid-glands by taking in iodine tablets. Further studies were planned with experts and municipalities. Inplementation of this plan would mean a major review of all anti-nuclear disaster programs by local governments, and it would increase the number of municipalities involved up to around 130, about 3 times more than the figure at that moment.

Meltdowns and radiation

Three of the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi overheated, causing meltdowns that eventually led to hydrogen explosions, which released large amounts of radioactive gases into the air.

Nuclear meltdowns at three of Fukushima Daiichi’s six reactors went officially unacknowledged for months:

In one of the most damning admissions, nuclear regulators said in early June that inspectors had found tellurium 132, which experts call telltale evidence of reactor meltdowns, a day after the tsunami — but did not tell the public for nearly three months. For months after the disaster, the government flip-flopped on the level of radiation permissible on school grounds, causing continuing confusion and anguish about the safety of schoolchildren here in Fukushima.

At 12:33 JST on 13 March the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, was reported to have confirmed that there was a "significant chance" that radioactive fuel rods had partially melted in Unit 3 and Unit 1, or that "it was 'highly possible' a partial meltdown was underway". "I am trying to be careful with words... This is not a situation where the whole core suffers a meltdown". Soon after, Edano denied that a meltdown was in progress. He claimed that the radioactive fuel rods had not partially melted and he emphasized that there was no danger to the health of the population. Edano later said that there were signs that the fuel rods were melting in all three reactors. "Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening".

In April 2011 the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that some of the core of a stricken Japanese reactor had probably leaked from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of the containment structure, implying that the reactor damage was worse than previously thought. If molten fuel has "left the reactor’s pressure vessel and reached the drywell in substantial quantities, it raises the possibility that the fuel could escape the larger containment structure, leading to a large-scale radioactive release".

According to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, "by April 27 approximately 55 percent of the fuel in reactor unit 1 had melted, along with 35 percent of the fuel in unit 2, and 30 percent of the fuel in unit 3; and overheated spent fuels in the storage pools of units 3 and 4 probably were also damaged". The accident has surpassed the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in seriousness, and is comparable to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The Economist reports that the Fukushima disaster is "a bit like three Three Mile Islands in a row, with added damage in the spent-fuel stores", and that there will be ongoing impacts:

Years of clean-up will drag into decades. A permanent exclusion zone could end up stretching beyond the plant’s perimeter. Seriously exposed workers may be at increased risk of cancers for the rest of their lives...

On March 24, 2011, Japanese officials announced that "radioactive iodine-131 exceeding safety limits for infants had been detected at 18 water-purification plants in Tokyo and five other prefectures". Officials said also that the fallout from the Dai-ichi plant is "hindering search efforts for victims from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami".

A report from the Japanese Government to the IAEA says the "nuclear fuel in three reactors probably melted through the inner containment vessels, not just the core". The report says the "inadequate" basic reactor design — the Mark-1 model developed by General Electric — included "the venting system for the containment vessels and the location of spent fuel cooling pools high in the buildings, which resulted in leaks of radioactive water that hampered repair work".

As of July 2011, the Japanese government has been unable to control the spread of radioactive material into the nation’s food, and "Japanese agricultural officials say meat from more than 500 cattle that were likely to have been contaminated with radioactive cesium has made its way to supermarkets and restaurants across Japan". Radioactive material has also been detected in a range of other produce, including spinach, tea leaves, milk, and fish, up to 200 miles from the nuclear plant. Inside the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant, all farming has been abandoned.

As of August 2011, the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is still leaking low levels of radiation and areas surrounding it could remain uninhabitable for decades due to high radiation. It could take “more than 20 years before residents could safely return to areas with current radiation readings of 200 millisieverts per year, and a decade for areas at 100 millisieverts per year”.

Six months after the beginning of the Fukushima crisis, Mycle Schneider says the situation remains desperate:

...the technical situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is everything but stable. Families and farmers in the region remain desperate. Evacuated families had to leave their pets starving and don't know if they ever can go back to their homes. Farmers had to kill their cattle and destroy their harvests. Some finished by killing themselves. A French independent radioactivity-measuring lab announced recently that it identified up to 700,000 becquerel of cesium per square meter on grass in a primary school in Fukushima City, over 60 kilometers from the Daiichi plant.

Radiation in schools

Because of radiation concerns, tens of thousands of children are being kept inside school buildings during the hot summer, where some wear masks even though the windows are kept shut. They are banned from their own school playgrounds, unable to play in local parks and kept inside by their parents. Workers are removing the surface soil from schoolyards contaminated with radioactive particles from the nuclear plant, despite often having nowhere to dump the soil, except in holes dug in the same grounds.

The results of a scientific survey conducted in March show that about 45 percent of 1,080 children in three Fukushima communities tested positive for thyroid exposure to radiation. The government has said that the levels were too low to warrant further examination.

The government has "flip-flopped" on radiation standards in schools, causing "continuing confusion and anguish about the safety of schoolchildren in Fukushima".

As of September 2011, a total of 16 elementary and junior high schools in Fukushima communities remained closed.

Hotspots

In October 2011, radiation levels as high as those in the evacuation zone around Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have been detected in a Tokyo suburb. Japanese officials said the contamination was linked to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Contaminations levels “as high as those inside Fukushima's no-go zone have been detected, with officials speculating that the hotspot was created after radioactive caesium carried in rain water became concentrated because of a broken gutter”.

In October 2011 the Japanese ministry of Science launched a telephone hotline to deal with public concerns about radiation exposure in areas outside Fukushima Prefecture. Concerned Japanese citisens had taken up a new hobby: walking with Geiger-counters through their city or village in search for all places with raised radiation levels. Whenever a site was found with a radiation dose at one meter above the ground more than one microsievert per hour and higher than nearby areas, this should be mentioned at the hotline. One microsievert per hour is the limit above this topsoil at school playgrounds would be removed, subsidized by the state of Japan. Local governments were asked to carry out simple decontamination works, such as clearing mud from ditches if necessary. When radiation levels would remain more than one microsievert higher than nearby areas even after the cleaning, the ministry offered to help with further decontamination. On the website of the ministry a guideline was posted on how to measure radiation levels in a proper way, how to hold the dosimeter and how long to wait for a proper reading.

TEPCO response

There has been considerable criticism to the way the plant operator TEPCO has handled the crisis. Kuni Yogo, a former atomic energy policy planner in Japan’s Science and Technology Agency and Akira Omoto, a former Tepco executive and a member of the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission both questioned Tepco's management's decisions in the crisis. Reports in the The Yomiuri Shimbun portray Prime Minister Naoto Kan repeatedly ordering TEPCO to take actions such as opening steam valves with little response from the utility.

On 1 April 2011, ABC News reported that the plant's operators were "woefully unprepared for the scale of the disaster". Water is still being poured into the damaged reactors to cool melting fuel rods. John Price, a former member of the Safety Policy Unit at the UK's National Nuclear Corporation, has said that it "might be 100 years before melting fuel rods can be safely removed from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant".

Three weeks after the beginning of the disaster in Fukushima, Spiegel Online reported how "helpless and casual" TEPCO has been in its improvised efforts to cope with the accident. The company hasn't put forward a strategy to regain control over the situation in the reactors. Helmut Hirsch, a German physicist and nuclear expert, says "they are improvising with tools that were not intended for this type of situation". There are roughly 400 workers onsite risking their lives to prevent the situation from deteriorating even further, who sleep in a building on the plant grounds. Each man has been given a blanket and they lie on the floor in hallways, in stairwells and even in front of the clogged toilets.

TEPCO could face 2 trillion yen ($23.6 bln) in special losses in the current business year to March 2012 to compensate communities near its crippled Fukushima I nuclear plant, according to JP Morgan. As of June 2011, TEPCOs stock has "slumped 91 percent, erasing 3.2 trillion yen ($40 billion) in market value".

Japan plans to put TEPCO under effective state control so it can meet its compensation payments to people affected by radiation leaking from its Fukushima I plant. Tokyo will set aside several trillion yen in public funds that TEPCO can "dip into if it runs short for payouts to people affected".

Business reaction

On the 14 March, the first full business day after the accident, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index fell 6%, followed up by another 11% drop on 15 March after the government warned of elevated radiation risks. Likewise, plant owner TEPCO's shares fell 62% in the four days following the accident, then started a 14% recovery. However, by 29 March, TEPCO shares had fallen further, reaching a 34-year low.

There have been blackouts throughout Tokyo and eight other prefectures. These blackouts have depressed economic output and made it harder for the economy to recover from the earthquake. Due to a combination of lack of electricity and panic, Japanese car makers have closed down factories, and airlines have cancelled flights to Japan.

The Japanese National Strategy Minister suggested nationalizing TEPCO on 28 March, in response Secretary Edano denied that approach was being considered. On 13 April, the government considered a plan to limit TEPCO's liability to approximately 3.8 trillion yen (US$45 billion).

Some foreign firms (including SAP, Dow Chemical, IKEA, BNP Paribas, and H&M) have moved staff from Tokyo westward to Osaka or to other countries, as did some Tokyo embassies (including those of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark) reshuffles to Osaka. Some airlines (KLM, Air France, Lufthansa and Alitalia) changed destinations from Tokyo's Narita airport to Kansai airport in western Japan for some period afterward.

On an annual food safety exhibition in Tokyo held on 26 to 28 October 2011 machines were showed that could measure radiation: on conveyor belts food and other objects could be proofed by a radiation sensor, the outcome could be read within 12 seconds. In this way a large number of objects could be checked in a very short time. Despite the huge price: 56,000 dollars, farmers, beef processors and restaurant chains showed great interest. Smaller devices to check food on radioactivity were shown, testing food placed in beakers. These could be used by smaller firms or even in households. The cheapest offer of this small machines was still around 9,000 dollars.

Anti-nuclear protests

Anti-Nuclear Power Plant Rally on 19 September 2011 at Meiji Shrine complex in Tokyo.

There have been many anti-nuclear protests in Japan during 2011. On 27 March at least 1000 people attended the monthly demonstration of the Japan Congress Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in Tokyo after advertising on social network sites. Protesters have typically been polite and restrained, but the government is "acutely aware that public anger against nuclear power is growing", and that is forcing Japan's leaders to rethink the country's energy policies.

On March 26 two dozen Diet members signed a letter calling on the government to "immediately get young children and pregnant women out of the 30-km danger zone around the heavily damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant". The statement also called for "extending the current 20-km mandatory evacuation zone radically to avoid further exposure and discontinuing official declarations that there is no immediate harm to human health, charging they aren't properly transmitting to the public the dangers of possible long-term radiation harm". The statement, drawn up by anti-nuclear groups, is to be delivered to Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

As of March 30 there was growing consensus that the severity of the Fukushima nuclear disaster had surpassed the Three Mile Island accident to become the world's second-worst nuclear accident. The early effects on Japanese public opinion and government policy were felt. NGOs and anti-nuclear groups gained credibility, including Greenpeace, which launched a study on the impact of the Fukushima crisis.

On March 31 an anti-nuclear activist attempted to drive into the radiation-leaking Fukushima I complex, and later crashed through a locked gate at the Fukushima II power plant.

In mid-April, 17,000 people protested at two demonstrations in Tokyo against nuclear power. One protester, Yohei Nakamura, said nuclear power is a serious problem and that anti-nuclear demonstrations were undercovered in the Japanese press because of the influence of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. He said that "If the mass media shows anti-nuclear-power activities like demonstrations, they risk losing TEPCO as an advertiser."

Three months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, thousands of anti-nuclear protesters marched in Japan. Company workers, students, and parents with children rallied across Japan, "venting their anger at the government's handling of the crisis, carrying flags bearing the words 'No Nukes!' and 'No More Fukushima'." The ongoing Fukushima crisis may spell the end of nuclear power in Japan, as "citizen opposition grows and local authorities refuse permission to restart reactors that have undergone safety checks". Local authorities are skeptical that sufficient safety measures have been taken and are reticent to give their permission – now required by law – to bring suspended nuclear reactors back online. More than 60,000 people in Japan marched in demonstrations in Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukushima on June 11, 2011.

In July 2011, Japanese mothers, many new to political activism, have started "taking to the streets to urge the government to protect their children from radiation leaking from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant". Using social networking media, such as Facebook and Twitter, they have "organized antinuclear energy rallies nationwide attended by thousands of protesters".

In July 2011, the Hidankyo, the group representing the 10,000 or so survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan, called for the first time for the elimination of civilian nuclear power. In its action plan for 2012, the group appealed for "halting construction of new nuclear plants and the gradual phasing out of Japan’s 54 current reactors as energy alternatives are found". Sumiteru Taniguchi, director of the Nagasaki Council of A-Bomb Sufferers, has linked the Fukushima disaster to the atomic bombings of Japan:

Nuclear power and mankind cannot coexist. We survivors of the atomic bomb have said this all along. And yet, the use of nuclear power was camouflaged as 'peaceful' and continued to progress. You never know when there's going to be a natural disaster. You can never say that there will never be a nuclear accident.

In August 2011, about 2,500 people including farmers and fishermen marched in Tokyo. They are suffering heavy losses following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and called for prompt compensation from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government, chanting slogans such as "TEPCO must pay compensation swiftly".

In September 2011, anti-nuclear protesters, marching to the beat of drums, “took to the streets of Tokyo and other cities to mark six months since the March earthquake and tsunami and vent their anger at the government's handling of the nuclear crisis set off by meltdowns at the Fukushima power plant”. An estimated 2,500 people marched past TEPCO headquarters, and created a human chain around the building of the Trade Ministry that oversees the power industry. Protesters called for a complete shutdown of Japanese nuclear power plants and demanded a shift in government policy toward alternative sources of energy. Among the protestors were four young men who started a 10-day hunger strike to bring about change in Japan's nuclear policy.

Tens of thousands of people marched in central Tokyo in September 2011, chanting "Sayonara nuclear power" and waving banners, to call on Japan's government to abandon atomic energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Author Kenzaburo Oe, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1994, and has campaigned for pacifist and anti-nuclear causes addressed the crowd. Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who composed the score to the movie "The Last Emperor" was also among the event's supporters.

Political reaction

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's ruling party suffered embarrassing losses in April local elections after the Japanese leader came under fire over the nuclear disaster, further weakening his influence and bolstering rivals who want him to quit once the crisis ends.

Fukushima Governor Yūhei Satō refused to meet former TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu on two occasions due to his anger at the utility's handling of the disaster. Shimizu later resigned.

Problems in stabilizing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have hardened attitudes to nuclear power. As of June 2011, "more than 80 percent of Japanese now say they are anti-nuclear and distrust government information on radiation". The ongoing Fukushima crisis may spell the end of nuclear power in Japan, as "citizen opposition grows and local authorities refuse permission to restart reactors that have undergone safety checks". Local authorities are skeptical that sufficient safety measures have been taken and are reticent to give their permission – now required by law – to bring suspended nuclear reactors back online.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan took an increasingly anti-nuclear stance in the months following the Fukushima disaster. In May, he ordered the aging Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant be closed over earthquake and tsunami fears, and he said he would freeze plans to build new reactors. In July 2011, Kan said that "Japan should reduce and eventually eliminate its dependence on nuclear energy in what would be a radical shift in the country’s energy policy, saying that the Fukushima accident had demonstrated the dangers of the technology". Kan said Japan should abandon plans to build 14 new reactors by 2030. He wants to "pass a bill to promote renewable energy and questioned whether private companies should be running atomic plants".

Benjamin K. Sovacool has said that, with the benefit of hindsight, the Fukushima disaster was entirely avoidable in that Japan could have chosen to exploit the country's extensive renewable energy base. The biggest positive result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster could be renewed public support for the commercialization of renewable energy technologies. In August 2011, the Japanese Government passed a bill to subsidize electricity from renewable energy sources. The legislation will become effective on July 1, 2012, and require utilities to buy electricity generated by renewable sources including solar power, wind power and geothermal energy at above-market rates.

The special committee of the Japanes Lower House investigating the Fukushima disaster had requested to TEPCO to submit its procedural manuals for accidents by the end of the whole first week of September. But when the accident manuals were submitted to the Diet committee most of the contents was blacked out and heavily redacted. On 12 September 3 pages were presented, including a cover sheet, containing an index of actions to be taken in serious accidents. Most of the index was blacked out and TEPCO did collect the papers immediately after the meeting, explaining that this was restricted information with copyrights, that was not allowed to be made public. The special committee did ask the industry ministry to order the utility to resubmit the manuals in their original form, as required by law. NISA said it would consider what actions to take.

As of September 2011, there is a complex power struggle underway over the future of nuclear energy in Japan involving political, governmental, industry, and union groups. Despite the seriousness of the Fukushima crisis, Japan’s "historical commitment to nuclear power -- and a fuel cycle that includes reprocessing and breeder reactors -- still has powerful supporters".

On 6 October 2011 a government panel proposed to ease the legal restrictions for exposure to radiation in the contaminated area's with readioative fallout, because in their opinion it would be extremely difficult to limit exposure below the legal limit of 1 millisievert per year. In stead the target should be set between 1 and 20 millisieverts in line with the recommendations by the International Commission for Radiological Protection. Targets should be lowered in steps as decontamination would be successful. Targets might differ by region and residents should have a voice in setting the targets.

On 11 October 2011 Tatsuya Murakami, the mayor of the village Tokai, said in a meeting with minister Goshi Hosono, that the Tokai Daini reactor situated at 110 kilometer from Tokio should be decommissioned, because the plant was more than 30 years old, and the people had lost confidence in the nuclear safety commission of the government.

The assembly of prefecture Fukushima has adopted a motion that asks for the scrapping of all 10 nuclear reactors in the prefecture. The majority vote was on Thursday 20 October 2011, after the petition was submitted by a civic group in June. The petition urged the decommissioning of all reactors run by TEPCO in the prefecture -- six at the Daiichi plant and four at the Daini plant. This was the first time in Japan that a prefecture hosting nuclear plants has voted to adopt such a petition. Although TEPCO was planning to decommission four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, TEPCO still had detailed plans to exploit the remaining six reactors.

In his answer to TEPCO, after its request of 120 billion yen as government compensation, the minister of Industry Yukio Edano on Monday told TEPCO on 24 October 2011 to cut "at least" 2.5 trillion yen in its costs over the coming 10 years before TEPCO would receive any funds to help it to pay the compensations over the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant. This target was the outcome of a report from independent commission, that the Japanese government received at 3 October, in it their thoughts about how TEPCO's special business plan should be compiled as a precondition to receive financial aid from a state-backed body set up to help it meet its massive compensation obligations. Next to cost-cutting this special business plan would also include restructuring measurements. First plan would be an "emergency" plan, and the second plan should have a "comprehensive" character. This last plan should be completed in spring 2012.

In October 2011, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the government will spend at least 1 trillion yen ($13 billion) to clean up vast areas contaminated by radiation from the Fukuahima nuclear disaster. Japan "faces the prospect of removing and disposing 29 million cubic meters of soil from a sprawling area in Fukushima, located 240 kilometers (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, and four nearby prefectures".

On 28 October 2011 from the 55 nuclear reactors in Japan, 44 were taken off the grid and off line, most times because they underwent safety inspections. Tress-tests demanded by the Japanese government were performed at 18 reactors. From the reactors still in operation, 4 more would be closed down before the end of 2011, the rest would follow in the first months of 2012. None of these reactors were to be taken in production, because the Fukushima disaster had raised serious safety concerns among local authorities, and they were reluctant to give permission to restart.

An energy white paper, approved by the Japanese Cabinet in October 2011, says "public confidence in safety of nuclear power was greatly damaged" by the Fukushima disaster, and calls for a reduction in the nation’s reliance on nuclear power. It also omits a section on nuclear power expansion that was in last year’s policy review.

Public reaction

The news of the contamination of foods with radioactive substances leaking from the Fukushima nuclear reactors damaged the mutual trust between local food producers including farmers and consumers. Everywhere in Japan banners and stickers were found with: "Hang in there, Fukushima!", numerous harmful rumors on Fukushima products could be found online. Many rumors that were discriminatory to Fukushima and other messages slandering Fukushima people could be found on the Internet. The source of cesium was found to be rice straw that had been fead to the animal. But a notice of the Japanese government that was sent to cattle-farmers after the nuclear accident made no mention to the possibility that rice straw could be contaminated with radioactive materials from the plant.

Scientific reaction

On 25 October 2011 the university of Hiroshima disclosed a plan to train the staff of the Japan Red Cross staff in how to respond to nuclear disasters like the one in Fukushima. The papers were to be signed on 26 October 2011. The president Toshimasa Asahara of the University said, he hoped that the university staff would also learn from the experience of the Red Cross in the care for disaster-disasters, including those in other countries. The University of Hiroshima University did establish a leading research center into the effects of radiation on the human body and health: the Research Institute for Radiation, Biology and Medicine, due to decades lasting studies after the effects on local population, that survived the atomic-explosion of Hiroshima in 1945.

Financial liability

Under Japanese law the operator is liable for nuclear damage regardless of culpability except in cases of exceptionally grave natural disasters and insurrection. Government spokesman Edano said this exception would be "impossible under current social circumstances".

Reactor operation is prohibited unless the operator concludes a private contract of liability insurance as well as an indemnity agreement with the government for damage not covered by private insurance. An amount of coverage of 120 billion yen per installation is required. The Japan Atomic Energy Insurance Pool does not cover damage caused by earthquakes and tsunamis. If damage exceeds the amount of coverage, the government may give the operator the aid required to compensate the damage, if authorized by the Japanese Diet. On 13 April, the government considered a plan to limit TEPCO's liability to approximately 3.8 trillion yen (US$45 billion).

Compensation Payments

the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund

On 21 October the president of TEPCO Toshio Nishizawa said that his company hoped to avoid capital injections from the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, a foundation of the Japanese government. TEPCO would need financial aid from this fund to be able to pay the huge compensation payments due to the nuclear disaster at its Fukushima nuclear power plants. At a press-conference in Tokyo Nishizawa made the following remarks:

"We would like to properly conduct compensation by receiving financial assistance, while also taking rationalization measures to turn around management and keep on going as a private company, I think it's the best option for all to avoid capital injection as much as possible."

TEPCO might claim in October 2011 the sum of 120 billion yen of government compensation for the nuclear accident, this is the maximum amount set by a contract between the government and TEPCO. Compensation payments to people and companies that suffered damages through the crisis at that date already exceeded 150 billion yen. These compensation payments could rise up to 4.54 trillion yen (4,500,000,000,000 yen or around 59,008,000,000 US dollar) by March 2013, as was reveiled by a report made by a commission of the Japanese government According to an estimate by a report compiled by a government panel, compensation payments could reach 4.54 trillion yen by March 2013. Special Government bonds, that carry no interest but could be cashed when necessary, would raise the money needed. The fund has also the right to make capital injections to TEPCO by subscriping shares. In close cooperation with this fund Tepco tried to seek financial backup for the future.

Compensation criteria for the tourist industry

On 26 October TEPCO revised its criteria in calculating the damage suffered by tourist businesses after the crisis. Initial calculations by TEPCO included a minus of 20 percent of the calculated losses. In the first announcment 21 September 2011 TEPCO said, that this 20 percent was thought to be caused not by radiation fears, but through the impact of the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. The new criteria offered two options:

• 10 percent reduction, no limit to the period.
• 20 percent reduction, but the period is shortened to 31 May 2011, between the first of June and 31 August the rate would be zero.

The first criteria were based on data on the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake that hit Kobe and surrounding area, this provoked much opposition.

Renewable energy

In September 2011, Tetsunari Iida launched the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation, which is backed by ¥1 billion (US$13 million) from Japan's richest man, Masayoshi Son. The foundation will bring together some 100 experts from around the world to analyse obstacles to implementing renewable energy, and offer policy recommendations to the new Japanese government.

See also

• International reaction to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
• Nuclear renaissance
• Nuclear energy policy
• Nuclear power debate
• Anti-nuclear movement
• Anti-nuclear protests
• Timeline of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
• Protective Action Guide for Nuclear Incidents
• Radiation monitoring in Japan