Report on the 21st SVCF regular Diet meeting
The 21st SVCF regular meeting was held on November 8, 2012 in meeting room No. 103, located in the basement of the House of Councilors Members’ Building. Approximately 40 people showed up for the meeting. At the onset, President Yamada briefed on his second U.S. 20-day Speaking Tour, which was held in the latter part of October this year.
After this, Auditor Iemori reported on the monthly activities from October to November and Vice President Sasaki gave an accounting report issued as of September 30, 2012. For details, see below With a set of eye-catchers to be worn, regular Member Okamoto explained a drive among the public, to collect signatures for the petition.
Vice President Shiotani proposed a theme on “How SVCF should proceed on supportive actions for the returnees to Kawauchi Village” and a lively exchange followed on issues of cost burdening, of the relations between the SVCF’s primary objective and its ancillary activities, and of the concept of voluntarism and its raison d’être. Finally, member Hirai, another Auditor, introduced a proposed bus tour to Kawauchi Village. The meeting ended successfully at the scheduled time.
Diet members who came to salute the meeting were Hiroe Makiyama, House of Councilors, Shino Aihara, House of Councilors, Satoru Arai, House of Representatives, and Ippu Watanabe, House of Representatives. Six Diet member secretaries did the same on behalf of their respective superiors.
President Yamada has completed his U.S. Speaking Tour and is back in Japan.
Following his previous tour from July to August, President Yamada has once more visited the U.S. for three weeks, from mid-October to his return on November 2.
With the assistance of “Fukushima Response Org.” which had prepared the first tour, President Yamada visited 12 cities on the West and East coasts, where he held 16 lectures, mainly for university students.
Thanks to President Yamada’s two Speaking Tours, the Corps’ messages are rooted firmly and seem appreciated in the U.S. Among others, SVCF have obtained decidedly affirmative support from faculty members engaged in all American higher education. New networks and linkages are taking form. This Speaking Tour resulted in 16 lectures on various occasions. The total number of participants was approximately 1,300.
SVCF arranges a bus tour to Kawauchi Village
SVCF is planning and organizing a day-trip bus tour to Kawauchi Village, in order to give the participants better knowledge of Kawauchi, with the assistance of the Kawauchi Sightseeing Association. This tour is also open to non-SVCF members.
Date and time: Depart Tokyo Station at 7 a.m. on December 1. Estimated time of return is 8 p.m.
Fee: 6 000 yen, including bus fare, lunch, and travel insurance.
Maximum number of participants 30. At least 25 pre-bookings are required, otherwise the trip is cancelled.
Deadline for enrollment: November 25, Sunday, 2012
Applications on Internet, http://goo.gl/zSXek, or fax 03-5980-8536
Note: Your enrollment is binding after we have confirmed your fee payment.
Join the petition signature campaign, by acting in the streets, creatively and with ingenuity!
SVCF, a public interest incorporated association, has launched a campaign for collecting signatures supporting the request to allow SVCF to participate in the clean-up works of Fukushima Daiichi NPP. The campaign has been going on since October. Petition forms are available on the website（https://svcf.jp/pdf/121018 _shomeiyoushi.pdf). Every supporter is kindly requested to access the above website to fill in the form.
The campaign will close on December 15, and the petition will be submitted to the Government and to the Diet in January.
For information, a street campaign for collecting signatures will be held around the Namba Station, Osaka on November 18 (Sunday), and at the 7th debrief session of the JAEA at Toranomon, Tokyo, on November 28 (Wednesday).
SVCF’s renewed application has been refused by TEPCO, as before
On November 9 (Friday), 7 SVCF members visited the Head Office of TEPCO to receive the reply to the application for permission to observe the Fukushima Daiichi NPP. The reply is in response to our second request in writing for site observation, which was handed over on October 15.
The content of the second reply is similar to the first one, again rejecting our application, saying that “It is difficult to accept SVCF’s request in fear of any adverse effect in the proceedings of the site work.”
TEPCO’s first reply given on September 28 commented that “Visitation by ordinary people at the cleanup site may interfere with the work, in view of the situation whereby the on-site cleanup work is still being executed under difficult and unsafe conditions. Therefore no ordinary people can be accepted on site.”
However, SVCF is an approved public interest incorporated association authorized by the Government Cabinet Office to perform the cleanup works of the Fukushima Daiichi NPP. Thus we, members of the operational unit of SVCF, can not be regarded as “ordinary people” as defined by TEPCO.
Accordingly we submitted our repeated application for site observation on October 15.
TEPCO specified in this reply some candidate spots for observation where “only governmental or administrative agencies directly in charge of such as Stabilization of the reactor, Investigation of the accident, Restoration or Execution of mid and long term Countermeasures, will exceptionally be accepted when they need access for the performance of their duty.”
Mr. Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Manager, Countermeasure Dept. for Fukushima Daiichi NPP, Division of Nuclear Power & Location, TEPCO, also explained to us in detail about current progress of the work in line with the released information “The Points of Work Progress along the mid and long term Road Map”.
Regional Exchange Meetings will be held in Shizuoka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka
Mr. Yamada, President of SVCF, has held discussion meetings with SVCF members and supportive members in six cities since October. Further meetings are scheduled as follows. All interested persons are welcome.
SHIZUOKA: Nov. 11 (Sat) 18:00－20:00 at the Special Conference Room in “PARCHE”, 7th Floor, Shizuoka Station Bldg.
HIROSHIMA: Dec. 2 (Sun) 13:00－15:00 at Hiroshima Office Center Telephone: 082-263-8600
FUKUOKA: Dec. 2 (Sun) 18:00－20:00 at 4th Floor, Mainichi Fukuoka Kaikan, No. 1-16-1, Tenjin, Naka-ku
Those who wish to join the meetings are kindly requested to call 03-5980-8535 Shinoda of SVCF administration office for registration.
Monthly Report of the Watchers’ Team (Summary) Oct., 2012
(A. Summary of TEPCO Home Page article/B. Comment by Watchers’ Team)
1. Spent Fuel Pool
A. (TEPCO):
All of the water temperatures in Unit 1-4 are below 30 degrees Celsius. The water temperature of the common pool is approximately 30 degrees Celsius.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
All temperatures are stable. The current information does not clearly show the sufficiency of preparedness for a big earthquake, a tsunami and other disasters.
2. Reactor Cooling
A. (TEPCO):
The temperatures are stable and they are in between 30-45 degrees Celsius approximately at the bottoms of the reactors and the gas-filled portions of the primary containment vessels.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
Same as item 1
3. Accumulated Water Storage
A. (TEPCO):
Increase in the volume of water per year; Approx. 145 kilotons
Capacity of the existing tanks; 238 kilotons
Amount of the stored water; 219 kilotons
Capacity of the tanks under construction (to be completed in Dec.); 79 kilotons
Capacity of tanks planned to be built; Approx. 300 kilotons
B. (Watchers’ Team):
Reduction of influx of water by lowering the groundwater level by means of well-digging and pumping up water, and decontamination of the stored contaminated water by the operation of the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) are being prepared. Both measures have technical uncertainties and need to be watched.
4. Marine Pollution
A. (TEPCO):
Driving of the steel pipe sheet piles is being prepared. Decontamination of the seawater in the harbor is just about started.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
Exchanging the silt fences, operating the seawater decontamination facilities, and other measures are being carried out, but the effects are not apparent.
5. Rubble and Cut Trees
A. (TEPCO):
The rubble and the cut-down trees are stored in the temporary storage facilities, and they are going to be shielded with soil covering.
Rubble; Total of 54,000 cubic meters (equivalent to 14 facilities of 4,000 cubic meters)
Cut trees; Total of 68,000 cubic meters (equivalent to 115 facilities of 600 cubic meters)
B. (Watchers’ Team):
The rubble continues to pile up. The cut-down trees are also increasing because of installing more storage facilities for contaminated water. A future plan, following the current temporary storage facilities, does not seem to be established.
6. Radiation Exposure of Workers
A. (TEPCO):
(1) 234 TEPCO employees out of 351 were exposed to more than 75 mSv dose, and they would be transferred from Fukushima Daiichi NPP by Oct. 11.
(2) The number of workers exposed to external radiation was 5,513 in September, and the maximum value of worker dose was 18.57 mSv.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
(1) The employees of the subcontractors might have been dismissed.
(2) The dose rate is approximately 40 micro Sv/h at the bus stop in front of the entrance of the quakeproof building. Accumulated dose is estimated to be approximately 40 mSv in a year, in case of staying on the site 4 hours a day.
(Regulation: 50 mSv/year max. and 100 mSv/5 years max.)
Midterm Financial Report
Statement of Balance Sheet
As of Sept. 30, 2012 (Unit: Yen)
Subject Amount
I Assets
1. Current assets
Total current assets: 4,285,694
2. Fixed assets
Total fixed assets: 729,167
Total assets: 5,014,861
II Liabilities
1. Current liabilities
Total current liabilities: 129,646
Total liabilities: 129,646
III Net assets
1. Restricted net asset
Restricted net asset: 0
2. Unrestricted net asset: 4,885,215
Total net assets: 4,885,215
Liabilities and net assets total: 5,014,861