Fukushima
Update
By Kenji Tateiwa, Tokyo Electric Power
Company.
Kenji Tateiwa
Kenji Tateiwa is Manager of Nuclear
Power Programs at Tokyo Electric
Power Company’s (TEPCO) Washington
Office, where he leads collaborative
efforts with U.S. organizations.
Kenji received his BS
and MS in nuclear
engineering from
Kyoto University.
He began his career
at TEPCO in 1996
at Fukushima
Daini, then at the
headquarters,
specializing in severe
accident analysis.
After receiving an
MBA from Stanford,
Kenji led TEPCO’s
involvement in the nuclear new build
project at the South Texas Project site.
Kenji has coped with the Fukushima
accident from day one, playing a key
role as liaison between TEPCO and
nuclear experts around the world.
An interview by Newal Agnihotri,
Editor of Nuclear Plant Journal, at
the American Nuclear Society Utility
Working Conference in Amelia Island,
Florida on August 11 ,2014.
1.
What is the radiation level in the
town of Naraha, which is within the initial
evacuation zone of 20 km-radius from the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?
I lived in Naraha 15 years ago when
I was working at TEPCO’s Fukushima
Daini nuclear power plant. When I visited
Naraha this year in July, I saw a moni-
toring post in front of the local Tatsuta
train station. It read 0.24 micro-Sievert
per hour, which is slightly higher than
what the natural background radiation in
that area used to be prior to the accident.
However, even if you were to stand there
for an entire year, you would be exposed
to 2.1 mSv (210 mrem), which is less
than the worldwide average annual expo-
sure from natural radiation. It is impor-
tant to put the number into perspective so
that people can make
sensible decision of
whether they need to
be worried about ra-
diation in that area.
Restriction in Naraha
has been gradually
relaxed since the ac-
cident and currently
people can stay in
town during daytime.
Reopening of the Tat-
suta train station in
June 2014 was a very
positive event for the
local community that
is expecting complete
lifting of the evacuation order and return
of local residents sometime after spring
of 2015.
2.
Does the public have a say in what
happens regarding decontamination and
decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi?
Yes, TEPCO is working closely with
the Japanese government in ensuring
that the local community has a say in
the decisions we make at Fukushima
Daiichi. For example, the groundwater
bypass is a system that we built to pump
up the groundwater before it becomes
contaminated by getting in contact with
the reactor buildings and the turbine
buildings. We had been consulting with
the local fishermen’s association to obtain
their consent in discharging the clean
groundwater to the ocean, but that process
had taken more than a year. We engaged
them in numerous dialogues on how we
are going to operate this system, how we
are going to monitor the groundwater,
and what would be the criteria for the
radioactivity in the groundwater that
would be allowed for discharge to
the ocean, etc. We finally agreed on a
criterion that is more stringent than the
drinkable water standard of the World
Health Organization. Because of the very
understandable distrust towards TEPCO,
it took a long time before we were finally
given the green light to start pumping up
the water and discharging it to the ocean.
3.
How is TEPCO taking advantage of
the experience in Three Mile Island and
Chernobyl?
TEPCO has been working very
closely with the experts in the US who
have dealt with TMI, both from the
government sector and the industry
sector. For example, Lake Barrett, who
was the Site Director for the US NRC
at TMI during the recovery, is TEPCO’s
advisor on D&D efforts and so we interact
with him frequently. Also we work
closely with EPRI, that has accumulated
invaluable knowledge related to technical
aspects of the TMI accident. The U.S.
has abundant experience in the field of
decontamination and decommissioning
other than that related to TMI. TEPCO
is working closely with Savannah
River National Laboratory located at
the Savannah River Site and Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory located
at the Hanford Site, among other
organizations in the field of D&D.
In addition, TEPCO has been
tapping into the expertise of worldwide
experts through the International Expert
Group (IEG). The IEG currently advises
the International Research Institute for
Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID), but it
was originally formed under the initiative
of TEPCO. The IEG is comprised of
experts from five countries: the US, UK,
France, Russia, and Ukraine. TEPCO
works in close collaboration with both
IRID and IEG in order to learn lessons
from the experiences in these countries,
including that of Chernobyl.
4.
Is Unit 4 the lead unit in the
Fukushima Daiichi efforts?
Unit 4 is the lead in terms of
removing fuels from the spent fuel
pool. There have been concerns that the
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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2014
