US Nuclear Regulatory Commission: It's All About Politics?

If Japan's Madarame's Nuclear Safety Commission is "all about money", the US counterpart, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, seems all about political infighting.



It's Chairman Jaczko (Democratic appointee) vs Commissioner Svinicki (Republican appointee), with a former chairman fanning the infighting.



From Politico (8/16/2011):

NRC infighting goes nuclear



By DARIUS DIXON | 8/16/11 4:20 PM EDT



It's war at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.



NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko regularly faces the sharp end of Republican spears for his work to shut down the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, but his biggest clash appears not to be with Capitol Hill but with fellow NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki.



Jaczko, a Democrat and former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Svinicki, a Republican, have sparred over everything from serious issues including safety reviews and agency budgets to minor items like foreign travel requests.



The tension between Jaczko and Svinicki is so thick that the two haven’t addressed one another in months, sources tell POLITICO.



“There’s been a history of punches and counterpunches,” David Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’s Nuclear Safety Project and a longtime observer of the NRC, said of Jaczko and Svinicki. “I don’t know who started it but at some point it doesn’t matter. It takes two to fight.”



... Dale Klein, a former NRC chairman, said he believed the report presented a tamer version of accounts than what was collected by investigators.



Klein described Jaczko’s behavior as “ruling by intimidation” and by cornering his colleagues on agency issues through the media. When it came to Jaczko’s interactions with Svinicki, he said, “While I was there, he would oftentimes yell at her.”



Before retiring from the NRC, Klein said he gave Jaczko a warning. "I had told him early on, several times, that the title is chairman — not dictator," Klein said.



The latest skirmish came last month after Jaczko went to the National Press Club to announce his plan to have the NRC review recommendations of a special Fukushima task force in 90 days. One problem: The chairman went forward with the proposal without convincing his fellow commissioners to support it, and his announcement was widely seen as a maneuver aimed at painting his colleagues into a corner. (Jaczko told the other commissioners about his plan, but there was little to no negotiation.)



Three commissioners — Svinicki, William Magwood and William Ostendorff — quickly moved to block the 90-day timetable.



For his part, Jaczko struck back last week, writing a memo saying his colleagues have a "preoccupation with process at the expense of nuclear safety policy."



Jaczko’s 90-day proposal was “the classic example of what not to do,” Klein said. “What’s magic about 90 days?



"That’s not the way that you’re going to build a consensus..."



(The article continues.)

Consensus? In nuclear safety?



Then Japan's NSC and NISA should be lauded for their exemplary consensus building over the decades.

More about → US Nuclear Regulatory Commission: It's All About Politics?

Today's Nuclear Safety Commission Meeting Has a Noisy Audience

(Update) It's unreal. The commission members continue the meeting, totally ignoring the questions from the audience who want Tomari Nuke Plant stopped and inspected properly. At one point, the commission head, Haruki "Detarame" Madarame declared the meeting over.



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It looks like something very unusual is happening. There are a lot of people attending the Nuclear Safety Commission's meeting on August 11 which is open to public, and they are shouting at the commissioners.



The NSC is discussing the nuclear power plant maintenance schedule. Why is it an issue that attract so many people? It's because of one nuclear power plant in Hokkaido that has been "testing" the reactor for over 5 months after the regular maintenance was over.



Even though the "testing" is done on a full, commercial scale, Hokkaido Electric Power who owns the plant, Tomari Nuclear Power Plant, is calling it "testing" so that they can continue to generate power without going through the so-called "stress test".



The NSC meeting today is supposed to endorse the re-start of "commercial" operation of the reactor without the stress test, and that's what people who fill the room are upset about.



But shouting down the commissioners? And apparently the commissioners don't even try to rein in the crowd, as one reporter tweets "guilty conscience, maybe?"

More about → Today's Nuclear Safety Commission Meeting Has a Noisy Audience

Another Tokyo University Professor Haruki "Detarame" Madarame Tells Like It Really Is: "It's All About Money, Isn't It?"

The current chair of the Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission is Haruki Madarame, who's been dubbed "Detarame" Haruki in Japan, or "Falsehood, nonsense" Haruki. "Detarame" nicely rhymes with his last name.

He was a professor at Tokyo University before he became the chair of the NSC in April 2010. He gave an interview to a citizens' group back in 2005 on nuclear energy. Far from being "falsehood" or "nonsense", his talk was very frank, and totally made sense.

He quite readily admitted, among other things, that:

• He and his fellow nuclear scientists in Japan didn't quite know what they were doing;

• There is no such thing as safe nuclear technology;

• The nuclear power generation was filthily profitable;

• It's all about money - if someone's unwilling to have a nuclear waste dump in his backyard, tell him you'll pay him twice the amount promised before. If he still says no, tell him you'll pay him 5 times as much, or 10 times as much.

Somewhere down the line, someone will say yes, and that's all that matters. And Madarame saw nothing wrong with that. In fact, he didn't see anything wrong with any of his positions, because that was how it was.

Too bad it had to take the Fukushima nuke accident for the average Japanese to realize not only they'd been served with imperfect and dangerous "clean energy" technology but also that a nuclear expert like Madarame at the nation's top research institute knew quite well about the danger and the nature of the nuclear technology and industry and was openly telling people about it. Laughing, as if it was a funny joke.

Quite a contrast to another Tokyo University professor, Tatsuhiko Kodama, who seems to have inspired many people beyond Japan's border.

Madarame also said in the interview, "Trust us." And trust we did.

Here's the 2005 interview video with English subtitle (EX-SKF/Tokyo Brown Tabby):

More about → Another Tokyo University Professor Haruki "Detarame" Madarame Tells Like It Really Is: "It's All About Money, Isn't It?"

More on the NSC Disclosure of Radiation Survey on Fukushima Children in Late March

(The original post is here.)

Tokyo Brown Tabby found a one-page document (no detailed data) that Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission created on May 12 and last modified on May 13 that simply says:

"Yes, we tested 1,080 children aged 0 to 15, and no one exceeded the threshold of dose equivalent of 100 millisieverts."

According to Tabby, the NSC person said:

"It's not that we withheld this information, but nobody asked us about this already-uploaded-data until a reporter from Tokyo Shinbun did at the press conference on July 4. "

So, I decided to look up three additional documents: the transcript of the press conference on July 4, and the NSC minutes of the meeting on May 12 and the transcript of the press conference on May 12.

First, the transcript of the July 4 press conference. It's in Japanese only, but I can assure you (and you can verify it if you read the language) that there is NO TOKYO SHINBUN reporter asking the question of thyroid radiation of Fukushima children. The NSC person that Tabby talked to did say there was a reporter from Tokyo Shinbun who asked that question.

Conclusion: the NSC edited out the reference from the transcript.

Second, the NSC minutes of May 12 meeting, to see how this information was handled by the Commissioners in the meeting.

The segment where the Commissioners discussed the radiation exposure survey for children in Fukushima reads as if the the survey was done as an exercise to see if SPEEDI simulations had been accurate and if they had indeed predicted the radioactive fallout as would be revealed by the survey. And since no child exceeded 100 millisievert dose equivalent, nothing needed to be done further:

班目委員長: どうもありがとうございました。他に。そうしたらもう１件、ＳＰＥＥＤＩを活用したというか、この結果を活用した例といった方がよろしいのかもしれません。資料第４－３号がございます。これは、事務局の丸山安全調査管理官から、ご説明をよろしくお願いいたします。

Madarame: Thank you very much. Is there anything else [to add]? [Seeing there was none] In that case, here's another example of using SPEEDI, or I should say using the [simulation] results of SPEEDI, as the Reference No. 4-3 [that's the one-page document]. Mr. Maruyama will explain.

○説明者（丸山安全調査管理官） 資料第４－３号に基づきご説明を申し上げます。「福島県における小児甲状腺被ばく調査結果について」ということでございます。平成２３年３月２３日のＳＰＥＥＤＩの試算を踏まえ、原子力安全委員会緊急技術助言組織より、特に、感受性の高い小児への健康影響をより正確に把握するため、屋内退避区域あるいはＳＰＥＥＤＩを用いた試算（３月２３日公表分）で甲状腺の評価線量が高いと評価された地域の小児の甲状腺線量の実測を原子力災害対策本部事務局あてに依頼した。その結果、原子力災害現地対策本部において、いわき市、川俣町、飯舘村において、小児甲状腺被ばく調査を実施した。

Maruyama: Allow me to explain the data, the Reference No.4-3 titled "The survey result of the thyroid gland radiation in children in Fukushima Prefecture". Based on the SPEEDI simulation on March 23, 2011, the NSC advised the Headquarters for the Nuclear Disaster Countermeasures [which was set up by the national government] to conduct the actual survey of children in the areas which the SPEEDI simulation showed potentially high levels of dose equivalent radiation on thyroid gland and in "stay indoors" areas. The Headquarters for the Nuclear Disaster Countermeasures did the survey accordingly in Iwaki City, Kawamata-machi, and Iitate-mura.

１）対象者数、でございます。３月２６日から２７日、いわき市の保健所で測定数は１３４人。３月２８日から３０日、川俣町公民館６４７人。３月３０日、飯舘村公民館２９９人。合計１，０８０人でございます。注書きに書いてございますが、なお３月２４日に川俣町において測定を行っていますが、バックグラウンドが高かったことから測定結果には含めておりません。

No.1, the subjects. 134 children were surveyed on March 26 and 27 in Iwaki City, 647 children on March 28 to 30 in Kawamata-machi, 299 children on March 30 in Iitate-mura. Total of 1,080 children were tested. It's in the footnote but the survey done in Kawamata-machi on March 24 was excluded because of the high background radiation.

２）測定方法、でございます。「緊急被ばく医療ポケットブック」（平成１７年３月 財団法人原子力安全研究協会）の「頸部甲状腺に沈着した放射線ヨウ素の測定」に基づき、ＮaＩシンチレーション式サーベイメータを用いて実施したということでございます。

No.2, method of measurement. It was done using the NaI scintillation survey meter based on the manual issued by the Nuclear Safety Research Association [which was set up as a government association in 1964] in 2006.

３）結果、でございます。対象者は０歳から１５歳でございます。小児甲状腺被ばく調査を実施した０歳から１５歳までの１，０８０人の小児については、スクリーニングレベル０．２μＳｖ／ｈ（１歳児の甲状腺等価線量として１００ｍＳｖに相当）を超えるものはなかった。以上でございます。

No.3, the result. The subjects were aged zero to 15. Among 1,080 children tested for thyroid gland radiation, there was no one who exceeded the screening level of 0.2 microsievert/hour (dose equivalent of 100 millisieverts at thyroid gland for 1 year old). That's all.

○班目委員長 どうもありがとうございました。それではこれにつきまして、何かご質問、ご意見はございますでしょうか。よろしゅうございますか。これは実は、こういう形で、紙で出すのは初めてかもしれませんけれども、実際には４月の時点で既にこのような調査が行われ、特に問題のある結果は出ていない、ということは公表済みだということでございます。改めて、こういうきちんとした形で発表しておきたいということで、今日の日付になっているというものでございます。よろしゅうございますでしょうか。それでは大変ありがとうございました

Madarame: Thank you very much. Is there any question on this issue? No? About this survey, this may be the first time it was published on paper, but I've been told that it was announced in April that there was such a survey, and there was no problem. But we wanted to publish in a more formal way, so it was published with today's date. Is there any comment or questions? Thank you very much.

So they tested children in Kawamata-machi on March 24, one day after the SPEEDI simulation showed high radiation levels. If they were high levels, they weren't reported as such on March 25. Asahi Shinbun that day said 0.24 microsievert/hour was detected from one boy in Kawamata-machi, and the number was much lower than 2 microsieverts/hour (?), so it was safe, no problem. I have no idea where Asahi came up with the "2 microsieverts/hour" number as the threshold number.

If I remember right, Kawamata-machi had been receiving the evacuees from the areas closer to the plant since March 12. So had Iitate-mura.

Also, Maruyama or Madarame didn't mention 45% of children had the radiation exposure at thyroid gland in the May 12 meeting. That information clearly didn't come out until the Tokyo Shinbun reporter asked on July 4.

Third, the transcript of the May 12 press conference. This one's easy. IT DOES NOT EXIST. The NSC started to publish the transcript of the press conference from May 19. Prior to May 19, there was no transcript, there was no recording of the press conference. How convenient. We would never know whether the Commissioners even mentioned anything about the survey in the press conference, or whether there was any reporter who did ask.

More about → More on the NSC Disclosure of Radiation Survey on Fukushima Children in Late March

Radiation at Thyroid Gland Found in 45% of 1,000 Children Tested in Fukushima

(More information in the new post.)

The Nuclear Safety Commission headed by Haruki "Detarame" Madarame disclosed on July 4 that the test conducted in late March had found 45% of 1,080 children tested in Fukushima Prefecture had internal radiation exposure at thyroid gland, according to Tokyo Shinbun.

3 months, that seems to be the amount of time that these government people must feel safe to disclose what they had known all along. After 3 months, people may forget, and/or people will give up because the disclosure is too late.

The NSC says the levels were low, and there was no need for more detailed evaluation.

If you look at the numbers, though, you may wonder how they came to the conclusion. To them, 100 millisieverts per year body dose equivalent for 1 year old (or 0.2 microsievert/hour) was acceptable because the ICRP says so. Since the highest they found was 50 millisieverts per year body dose equivalent, they concluded there was no need for further testing.

From Tokyo Shinbun (7/5/2011):

東京電力福島第一原発の事故で、国の原子力安全委員会は四日、三月下旬に福島県内の第一原発周辺の市町村に住 む子供約千人を対象に行った放射線被ばく調査で、４５％の子供が甲状腺に被ばくしていたことを明らかにした。安全委の加藤重治審議官は「精密検査の必要は ないレベル」と話している。

Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission disclosed on July 4 that the survey done in late March on 1,000 children living near Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant had revealed that 45% of the children were exposed to radiation at the thyroid gland. Commissioner Shigeharu Kato says "The radiation level was not the level that would require more detailed examination."

　調査は国と同県が三月二十六～三十日に、甲状腺被ばくの可能性が高いと予想されたいわき市、川俣町、飯舘村で、ゼロ～十五歳までの千八十人を対象に実施。４５％の子供に被ばくが確認された。

The survey was conducted by the national government and the Fukushima prefectural government from March 26 to 30 in Iwaki City, Kawamata-machi, and Iitate-mura, where the authorities expected the high probability of internal radiation exposure at the thyroid gland. 1,080 children aged zero to 15 were tested, and 45% had the internal radiation exposure.

　安全委によると、最高値は毎時〇・一マイクロシーベルト（一歳児の甲状腺被ばく量に換算すると年五〇ミリシーベルト相当）に上ったが、９９％は毎 時〇・〇四マイクロシーベルト以下。同様の換算で年二〇ミリシーベルトに相当するが、加藤審議官は四日の記者会見で「換算するには（調査の）精度が粗い。 精密測定が必要な子供はいなかった」と述べた。

According to the NSC, the highest dose was 0.1 microsievert/hour (body dose equivalent of 50 millisieverts per year at thyroid gland for 1 year old). For 99% of the children tested, the dose was 0.04 microsievert/hour or less, which is the dose equivalent of 20 millisieverts per year at thyroid gland for 1 year old. However, Commissioner Kato said in the press conference on July 4, "To consider body dose equivalent, the survey was too coarse. There was no child who need further detailed examination."

　 国際放射線防護委員会（ＩＣＲＰ）勧告では、年間一〇〇ミリシーベルトの被ばくで発がんリスクが０・５％高まるとして、同量を緊急時の年間被ばく 限度としている。今回の調査でも一〇〇ミリシーベルトを基準とし、一歳児の甲状腺被ばくの年換算でこれに相当する毎時〇・二マイクロシーベルトを超えた場 合、精密検査をする予定だった。

According to the ICRP recommendation, 100 millisieverts per year will increase the risk of cancer by 0.5%, and that amount is set as the maximum annual exposure limit in a nuclear emergency. In the survey this time, the standard was set at 100 millisieverts, and the detailed examination was to be done if 0.2 microsievert/hour dose was found, which would be the dose equivalent of 100 millisieverts per year at thyroid gland for 1 year old.

　国が国際原子力機関（ＩＡＥＡ）に提出した報告書では、千八十人の子供の甲状腺被ばくを調査したことを記しているが、何割の子供が実際に被ばくしていたかは明らかにしていなかった。

The Japanese government submitted the report to the IAEA which mentioned the survey done on 1,080 children for radiation at the thyroid gland, but the government did not disclose what percentage of the children were actually affected.

So the Japanese government was secretly testing the children in Iitate-mura, as it scoffed at the suggestion by IAEA that the radiation level in the village was very high and evacuation should be considered. All back in late March when it could have made a difference.

According to Tokyo Brown Tabby who read the Japanese post and called up the NSC, the NSC says the data was uploaded in May to the NSC website. So far I haven't managed to locate it. The NSC also says they informed the parents. I hope so.

More about → Radiation at Thyroid Gland Found in 45% of 1,000 Children Tested in Fukushima