Repowering Japan

   It’s starting to sound like I do nothing but sit in front of the boob tube, but there was another one of Ikegami Akira’s television specials on Saturday night that is worth mentioning. Part of FujiTV’s series Ano Hi o, Wasurenai: Higashi Nihon Daishinsai kara 1 Nen (I’ll Never Forget That Day: A Year after the Tôhoku Earthquake and Tsunami), Ikegami’s program dealt with both the mechanism of the deadly quake and the energy crisis that has confronted Japan in its wake.

   While last year’s tsunami was directly responsible for the shutdown of the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power plant, subsequent, and might I add legitimate, concerns about the safety of nuclear energy have resulted in all but two of Japan’s 54 commercial nuclear reactors being idled[1]. The remaining two are also scheduled to be shut down soon[2], meaning that a country which once depended on nuclear energy to produce 31.4% of its electricity has had to make up the shortfall by importing more natural gas and coal precisely at a time when fresh tensions in the Middle East are driving fuel prices up.[3] Incidentally, 80% of Japan’s oil and 20% of its natural gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring how crucial it is that Japan address its energy needs before another oil shock brings the country to her knees.[4]

   Fortunately, Japan has options.

   By sheer coincidence, I happened to be speaking to an engineer who had just come back from the Kyûshû Electric’s Hatchôbaru geothermal power plant located in central Ôita prefecture near the Asô-Kujû National Park. The largest of 17 geothermal power plants in Japan, Hatchôbaru along with the neighboring Ôdake geothermal power plant produces 122,500kW of electricity, which only amounts to about 1% of Kyûshû Electric’s capacity. The potential for geothermal energy in Japan, however, is great.

    I may be oversimplifying this, but wherever volcanoes are found, a power plant can be set up using the steam generated by heat of the volcano’s magma. Japan, with its 119 active volcanoes—the third most numerous in the world—has the potential to produce some 23,470,000 kW of this clean energy. At present, though, Japan ranks 8^th in the world in geothermal energy production, producing only 536,000 kW. What’s more Japan has not built a new geothermal power plant in over ten years. Only 0.3% of Japan’s electricity is currently being supplied by these geothermal plants. In spite of that, a surprising 70% of the word’s geothermal power plants are using turbines produced by Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi and Toshiba.

   If Japan has the capacity and the technology, what then is preventing the country from taking advantage of this resource?

   One, the initial costs can be quite high. Drilling the wells needed for a geothermal power plant costs several million dollars each (I’ve heard as much as five million dollars). And because the wells can only be used for about a year, as many as twenty wells may have to be drilled. The largest geothermal power plant in Iceland has 28 wells.

   Two, the hot spring industry is against it. They worry that if the water is diverted for use in the production of electricity there won’t be any left for the spas Japanese love so well.

   And, three, most of Japan’s volcanoes are located in National Parks which have strict regulation on development.

   In February of this year, however, the Ministry of Environment has signaled that it is willing to consider opening up National Parks for the development of geothermal power. Officials from Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have also been to Iceland to see how Japan might benefit by taking advantage of this natural resource, which has the potential of producing as much as 20 nuclear reactor’s worth of electricity.

   Ikegami’s special also looked into Brazil’s biofuel industry. A similar system has already been adopted in Miyako-jima (Okinawa prefecture), where bi-products from shôchû and sugar production are being used for bio-fuels and the fiber from sugar canes is burned to produce electricity. The aim is to make the island completely energy-self sufficient.

   Other towns in Japan have also taken the initiative, including one farming village in the Tôhoku region—the name escapes me right now—which currently produces enough energy from biomass and other sources that it is able to sell its excess electricity back to the power company.

   While Japan may not realistically be able to do without nuclear power in the short-term—the demand for electricity, particularly in the summer is still too great—I do think there are things that the country can start doing today to encourage the use and production of alternative energy sources. I’ll address this issue in a day or two. (For more on this, go here.)

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[1] According to a recent poll by Tôkyô Shimbun, 80% of Japanese asked were in favor of phasing out nuclear energy.

[2] By law, nuclear reactors in Japan must be idled every 13 months in order for safety checks to be conducted. Once shut down, however, public pressure has prevented them from being put back online.

[3] Before the earthquake, Japan got 31.4% of its electricity from nuclear power plants, 60.3% from thermal power plants, 8.1% from hydropower, and 0.5% from renewables such as wind and solar. Today, 7.3% of electricity is generated by nuclear power plants, 86.3% by thermal power plants, 6.1% by dams, and 0.6 by renewables.

[4] That Japan had the infrastructure in place to compensate for a loss of over 23% of its nuclear power capacity is truly amazing. I don’t think America would be able to make up

Hot Spot

   City-dwelling Japanese tend to keep to themselves. Strangers are usually shunned; neighbors treated only slightly less icily. In the first ten years that I lived in my apartment building, I never once had a conversation with the Hashimotos, a retired coupled down the hall, that was not related to the weather.

  "Rain, again," Mr. Hashimoto would say one day.

   "Yep, rain again," I would reply.

   "It's getting hot," he might say another day.

   "It sure is," I would say back.

   And so on. 

   But then our son was born and suddenly we've got the perfect ice-breaker for beginning conversations with all sorts of people we would never have imagined talking to before.

   "So cute," a stranger might say. "Is he a boy?"

   "He is, yes."

   "And how old is he?"

   "He's a year and a month old."

   "You don't say! He looks so much older. My grandson's two years old, but your son is much more alert."

   "He certainly does keep us on our toes."

   And, before we know it, we're talking about all sorts of personal things that you'd really rather not hear about. Oh, well. Conversational beggars can't be choosers. The Hashimotos have even invited my wife over to their home--a first! (She learned that Mr. Hashimoto was actually Professor Hashimoto. He retired several years ago from his post at the "prestigious" Kyûshû University.)

   Almost everyday, my wife takes our now fifteen-month-old son to the local park to let him run around, to get his "yah-yahs" out. (Let me tell you, the kid has more energy than the Energizer Rabbit.) More often than not, she finds herself caught up in a conversation with another parent.

   Two weeks ago, my wife met a woman who had been living in Saitama. After chatting for some time, the woman explained that the reason she had brought her children back to Fukuoka, her hometown, was that a number of radiation hot spots had been found in Saitama.

   "It hasn't been reported much in the news," she explained, "but there are hot spots all over the Kantô region now.

   Scary stuff, especially when you've got young children. No wonder the woman fled. 

   The Dai-ichi nuclear power plant at Fukushima, which has reportedly been stabilized, continues to release radiation into the air where it is carried by the caprice of winds north, south, east, and west. When it rains, the radiation falls back to earth, contaminating the soil. 

   Weather Tech reported that "Japanese news sources are now reporting the discovery of 'numerous hotspots' throughout Japan with radiation levels exceeding the 20 millisieverts per year evacuation limit. Though multiple radioactive hot spots have been detected over a wide area at distances of up to 200 kilometers, evacuations will not be mandated in the affected areas. Instead Japan will designated homes in the hot spot areas, on a house by house basis, as being eligible for financial and other relocation assistance and encourage residents in the affected homes to voluntarily evacuate instead."

   A citizens’ map of radiation levels, maintained by bloggers, MEXT, and local goverments, is available online.

   More information on hotspots can be found here. I will try to translate this later today.

Lights out, Fukuoka

   Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, concerned citizens throughout Japan have demanded that the nation's nuclear power plants be shut down until the safety of the reactors can be determined. In Kyûshû, where some thirty percent of electricity production comes from nuclear power, this has meant residents, businesses, and governmental bodies have been asked to conserve energy by 15% during the summer months when demand for electricity peaks.

   Efforts to lower demand can be seen everywhere. Public offices have raised the thermostats on their air conditioners to 28℃ (82.4°F), and turned off the air conditioning completely in half of the city's subway stations. Interior lights on trains (pictured above) and university hallways have also been turned off.

   In a country where an abundance of illuminated billboards and flashing neon lights ensures that it is bright enough for a person to read a newspaper outside in the middle of the night, this new darkness will take some getting used to. 

I love you, Fukushima

 

   A love song for Fukushima: I love you and I need you, Fukushima by Inawashi Rokos. All profits from the sale of this single will be donated to help the prefecture of Fukushima deal with its nuclear accident.

   Inawashi Rokos (猪苗代湖ズ) is a collaborative effort of four musicians from different rock groups, yet all of whom hail from the stricken prefecture: Shinji Matsuda, drummer (The Black Horn); Masashi Yamada, vocalist (Sanbo Master); Toshimi Watanabe, guitar & vocals (Tokyo No.1 Soul Set); and, Michihiko Yanai, guitarist & producer (Kaze to Rock).

   The song can be purchased at Ototoy for ¥420.

Fukushima

Yesterday the incident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was raised to a level seven - the maximum - on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), putting the accident on a par with Chernobyl. Earlier in the day, the government expanded the evacuation area around the crippled nukes and created a two-kilometer zone that is off-limits to all but those engaged in disaster relief. All grim news, indeed, but how serious is it? While the Fukushima accident is now rated at the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, in which 64 people were confirmed to have died, in terms of casualties and effects on the environment, this accident is far less significant. So far. The Economist posted the following of nuclear incidents.

A week and a half ago, the AFP and Air Photo Service released a dozen photos, bird's eye shots of the crippled Fukushima power plants, taken by an unmanned drone that show the extent of the damage to the nuclear reactors.

 

 Photos by AFP/Air Photo Service

Sleepless in Tokyo

   Every December first, U-CAN Inc., a publisher of correspondence courses and educational software, releases a list of new and popular words which capture the zeitgeist of the year. In previous years, winners of the top honor have included: "revenge" (リベンジ) coined by Daisuke Matsuzaka in 1999 when he lost to the Chiba Lotte Marines and vowed to get ribenji; "manifest" (マニフェスト) in 2003 which has since come to mean campaign promises; "around forty" (アラフォー) originating from a TBS drama of the same name staring the former Takarazukaactress Yûki Amami, and in 2010, iPad.

   This year edaru (枝る, edaru) must surely be the favorite to win the prize in 2011. Meaning "to work without sleep or break" (不眠不休で働く) or "work to the extreme of exhaustion (極限まで睡眠を取らないこと・寝る間も惜しんで働くこと), the word is derived from the name of Yukio Edano, Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Kan government, who by some accounts went for more than 100 hours without sleep as he dealt with the twin crises of the tsunami and subsequent explosions at the Fukushima reactor site. 

   The frequency of Edano's appearances on television was cause for concern not only for viewers in Japan but in neighboring Korea as well, inpriring Twitter users to post messages of encouragement and pleas to get some sleep. The Twitter hashtag #edano_nero" (from the imperative word for sleep!) and #edano_go_to_bed were at one time trending in Japan.