chronology of 1981 tsuruga accident from japanese press

8/7/2019 Chronology of 1981 Tsuruga Accident From Japanese Press

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* Waste May E{aae n'eaked,Fr&wtr, Storage Faciltt'y T,S e ahed iTe ar F'ukrni F[-fflasntFepund to ffie Cclmtameiffim'$ed

of atomlc power announce the suspeeted leak of radioactivlLyfrom the Tsuruga Atomlc Power Plant at a hastlly called pressconference shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday. About 30 noedla peopleattended the conference held at the mlnlstry ln Kasunlgasekt'Tokyo.

International Trade and Industry Mlntstry

RlatdStorYosPage? .'An abnorrnany hfgh eoncentratlon of radloactsubstances has been detected in the seabed soil neadrain outlet of a nuclear power plant h TsurugFukul Prefecture, tlre Natural Resources and EnerAgency announced Saturday.Agency officials said they The focus of the investigatcould not unclerstand why tlre is 'expected to center onseahed rvas contamlnated, as suspectd leakagethe clrain in question. was radioactive waste waterdesigned to discharge rain- the ordinary watr drainawater and non-radioactive system, they added.waste water. The Tsuruga The di$covery olNuclear Power Plant is radloactive contaminationoperated by the Japan Atomic sent a "shock wavel' throu

Power Co. government energy officIlowever, a preliminary in- who are striving to expeditevestigation conducted by an much-


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City Tense Followitog [,eakOf Ra di"{l[i"* Substances'fStlltL:C;.\. rukui Prcl'.(li)odo) --'l'he citv ot'lsttt'rtgarlas lillcd \r'ith tcnsion Saturdily:rftcr it r|as lound that unustlitlamounts o( radioaclivc sul)'

stiir)ccs har.l lu-'ctt dctcctcd lrt a\r'ater oullct of the JapilnAtonlic I)or|cr Co.'s 'I'surugaNuclcar Po\\'cr I)lant.'l'hc suspectt'd lcllkagc ofradioactivity f t'onl tlle plilrltmay' have a grcat influcnce onthc outcomc ol toda)"s nral'ot'alclct-tion irt thc town otKulxrkau a, Kochi Pt't'lt'ctttrc.$lrt'r't, the ptint:irV camp;tilittissu(' is \\'h('thcr or not a nucl('arporver plant slrottld llc con-stru('le(l in the towll.'l'itrleslri Kurihara. ;rssistantnravor of 'lsuruga. said lrc hltdinstl'uct('d city oflicials con-ccrnurl to dclve into the causc'ofthc lerkrgc ot radioactivitY as.soon ls hc r,vls inlorltrcd ot it bythc atonlic po\\'er colllPan-v.At prcs{.'nt. thc anrount ofrirdioJctivitV in thc ilir is n()r-mal antl lhcrelore tht're lnn)'l)cno hi'alth hazal'd. Kuriharaslid. Ilut hc cxp|cssed anrict-vov(.r thc possil)lc advcrse cf-

lccts on thc local Iishcl'Ylitrsint'ss.Yonesul(c lrvagott, rlircctor oflhc 'l'sut'uga- po$cr plillit, saidhe $ould take mt'asttrcs toprevcnt the lcaklgc ofraclioactivit)' frotn thc pl;tnt assoon as tlrc causc $'as found.j\lcan\\'hile, tllc JaPanSoci al isl I'artY issuctl astatc|rlcIrt Protcsting thc]cakagc lroln thc Tsuntgapllrlt. ln thc statcmont. th0 .JSI'saitl it \r'as n0\\' clear thatnuclclr po\\'er gcnclatioll \rasvcl')' rlangcrous alld that itst rious)5' al l'cctod thc Iivcliltoodantl Iivcs ol local rcsidcnts.n n anti'nuclcar Po\rcr Urotll)in Ftrkui Pre'tccltlrc lllso

prot('sted the lcakagc atid ttt'gt'dthrt tho prefectural gttVt't'n-ment titke nlor'c stl'ing(-lltsuf et], mcasurcs.l,t'ltrlors of thc g,rotlp crllul atthc irrcfcctural govcrnnlcllt inI.'ukui and dernandt'd thrt thcgo\,(.nrm(.nt fintt thc (atlse oftlie lcakage at an carl-\'(latc :llldlllorv local rcl)res{'l}lilliVt's toconduct ltlr on thc sP0[ sul'\'t'-v.

u4V..l:iiil;1n't\

An aerial view ol the Japan Atomic Power Co.'s TsurugaPlant in Tsunrga. Fukul Prefecture. Unusual amounls of cobalt60 and manganese 54, radloactlve substances. bave beendetected at a wateroutlet rnarked with an'X'.


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:* fi[o d,ioo,ttiwe Waste Water SpiWed - 4/4i?f,ish*p Sccwrred lWmecfu ffiAt TserruEga N'"P(Dw-er FHare tA large arnount of high-level radioactive waste 'Plant 'oificials and workerswater sfiineo frorn the slorage tanks ilslde the waste admitted to the investlsatorsstorage facility on mao.rt C al*uruga lru.ru* po**; ffii U"l"-'ffJr}tt?f"TjriiPlant in F\kui Prefecture, a government sunrey witer ha


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tcam exarnined mud samPlescollectecl frcm manholes of the.drain near the $l astereprocessing plant and 9,{)'llpico-curies of cobalt 60 and l,'158pico-curies of manganese 54were detected per gram of mud.'lhcy saicl the source 0f thecontamination had not Yet beentraced but said evidence so farpointed to the posslbilitY thatraclioactive waste might haveseeped into the drain from thesiorage facilitl,.The officials saicl JapanAtumlc Power reported that 6lpico-curies.of cobalt {i0 and l0pico-curies ef mangancse 54were detected in seabed soilsamples taken near thedrainage outlet.The cornpanY had beenprompted to check soil sarnplesf ollowing the disc0verY'lhursday that 0.:l plcit-curies ofcobalt 60, some l0 times thenormal levet, had been detectdin gulfweed takcn florn theseabed oithe bay, to#ard whichthe plant faces.

Operatlons at the plant havebeen suspended since theileginning of thi$ nnonth after aradioactive water leak at'tributed to reaclor rna]function-was detected.The officials said that theconcentration of radioactivc$ubstances in the grlfweed wasnot so high as lo harm humanhealth. n"o fishing oilcrationsare allowed in the baY.They sald the drainagesystern,,in',.question. was for thepurposc oI draining rainwaterand .non-radioactive wastewater from the administrationbuilding of the plalrt.It is !heoretlcally improlratrle,therefore. ' for radioactivlty-laced waste water to have foundits way luto the IraY via theoutlet in question; theY said.'fhe radioactive waste rvaterls released into the outer watersot the bay through a differentchannel altogether, accordingto the officials.

ease woultt be likely to boosmolale of anti-nuclearvironmentalists and caproblems 'for the nationuclear energy policy an hole.The nuclear reactor atplant is of the hoiiing waterand has an output capacit35?.000 kw. It stilrted uP 0ption in 1970 as the natisecond commercial nucpower reactor. Of Japan.nuclear reactors now in cmercial operation, elerbactors, including the Tsufsactor, are of the same t,?Tlre Japan Aiomie Powerestablished by the natpolver companies, is the Pioin nuclear power genratioput into.operation Japan'$cotrnn')ercial nuclear ptplant in tbarakl Frefectu1966.Acljacent to th compaTsuruga plant standsgovernmental Nuclear ReL Fuet Developrnent Codcmonstration plaff {oadvanced thermal reaknown as "l'ugen."The company is 'scheilulect to fruitd anotherin the vieinity of the Tsuplant. lntroducing a Pre$surwater reactor rvith an ocapacity of 1"16 milliort kw.Ttle l0-year-otd Tsunuclear power plant. houJhas lreen involved in a totalincidenti to d&te.

FukuiFishBannedNAGoYA {liyodoAuthorities at Nagoya's cewholcsale markel $iatubanned ali deliveries ofrorn Fukui Prefecture aftedeteclion 0l highccntrationE of cobalt 60other radioactive substancthe seabed ofi lhe prefectur'['he rban followeemergency meeting of mofficials.0saka's central rnarketakes large quantities ofrom f'ukui, but has noannounced $'hethr it'ivilsimilar action.'Some fish from the aretaken to the Nag0ya markSaturday moming, befordelivery ban was amounceThe market $e[s aLloutons of fish a day, abopercent ot it frofi Fukuotlrer parts of the Hokregion.It is not knowtr how lonban wiu stay in effect.

' ;f,sf:ifi*;'#i -3R'4iri*"!i;l'::i'


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F'irm Says 56 En posed 4'


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PowerFirm Says Radioactivity Leak, +/n lTraced to Seepage Into Old Manholes 'Japan Atomic Power Co.Wednesday announced theresults of its investigation lntothe cause of the TsurugaNuclear Power,Plant accident

that exposed 36 workers to highlevels of radiation. It reportedthat the leakage of rddioactivesubstances lnto a general wastewater outlet caused theseepage 0f some radioactlvervaste water into old manholeslocated at a bend in a steel pipelinking the first and secondmanholes for ttie general wastervater outlet.The radioactive wrste w'aterih question overflowcd from astorage tank of sludge on MarchB. The. company's investigationalso showed:-A hole about three cen-timeters in diameter wasdiscovered,in a wall dividing awaste wash water tank and thesludge storage tank thatoverflowcd on March B.*Part o{ the overflowedsludge found its waY lnto agroove about 20 cm wide andsome B cm deep.Investigators estimated thafa total of 16 tons of waste waterhad ovcrflowed before workerslearned of the accident andclosed the valves.Below the groove along thewall is a one-meter thick con-crcte floor, and a manhOle wasburied 0.5 meters below theconcrete floor for the generalwastg water outlet. the in-vestigators said.In the meantime, the atomic

power company announced ithad reassigned YonesukeIrvagoshi. director o{ theTsuruga Nuclear Porver Plant,and other gxecutives of thepower plant Wednesday inconnection wlth the accident.The company, headqudrteredin Tokyo and ,headed byShunichi Suzuki, plans to takepunltive measures againstexecutivc officials ot thecompan), awaiting the com-pletion of an investigation bYthe Natural' Resources andEnergy Agency.Fabrication of DataOfficials of the Irukui LaborStandards Bureau Wednesdaybegan an investigation intosuspected falirication of data onthc amounts of radiation to.which workcrs at the TsurugaNuclear Power Plant in FukuiPrefecture were exposed.Pocket detector cards sub-mitted by Japan Atomic PowerCo.. the operator of the plant, tothe lrureau Monday andTuesday showed the radiationtotaled I,831 millirem fromMarch B when the radioactiveleakage occurred at tlte plant toApril L5 when plant employeescompleted removal ofradioactive waste water .and

that the maximum radiation anindividual worker was exposedto was 50 millirem.However, the company'sannouncement tlesday saidthe radiation totaled 1,961rnillirem and that themaximum radiation an in-dlvidual worker was exposed towas lSSmillirem.The bureau rvill ask thecompany to submit the pocketdetector cards again and othep.data to inves[lgate whethersome, workers Qjsposed ofradioactive waste waterwnhout using Geiger counters.The company said it 'hasestablished fact-finding teamslroth at the company's headoffice here and at the Tslrugaplant to investigate the leakage.

,A company official denled Ithat radioactive waste water ;was discharged into manholes ,at the plant 'and said the :leakage was PossiblY related toa mlshap at a filter sludge tankMarchS.The Ministry of International ITtade and fndustry ls co'n-stdering penalizing the com- 'pany for its repeated attemptsto conceal accidents at theplant.


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\2 The fapan Timer Tfrursday, Aprit 23,,1981_ Tsuruga Accident - More a Crime\ lVnat happened at Japan Atomic Power Company's Tsuruga\ plant is more a crime than an accident. Although investigationis still in progress. there is little doubt that the leak of radioac-

. tivity there was caused by a faulty design of facnities and opera-I tionat errors and the resulting O'amage magnified by the com-\ pany's wiliful attempt to hide all this.' A large volume of radioactive waste water.overflowej.-en _March 8 from one of the disposal tanks, inqnda.tingd'secuon of a" buildin$'s-ci5ncrete floor. More than 50 personnel were thrownin to remove it with buckets. They exposed themselves toradioactivity in the process.For more than a month or before government lnspeetors weresurprised recently by detection ot radioactivity in the common-purpose sewers in the plant's compounds, the company failed toreport ttte accident and what was done to,limit it to the,regulatory authorities.The investigation so far shows that the radioactive wastewater found its way into a conduit for non-radioaetive wastewater beneath the floor and into the adjacent bay. Fortunatelyhowever, neither the seawater nor the marine life in the areahas been found contaminated to any dd,ngerous degfee.The initial spill-over is said to have been caused by erroneousoperation of valves. Investigators suggest that the radioactivewaste water might have seeped through some possilrle cracks inthe concrete base or been dumired through manhoies in thestorage facility. These openings can lead the contaminatedwater to the conduit as the waste storage and disposal facilitie$are laid out now following an earlier expansion.The basic lesson of the Tsuruga aceident is that it rvas causedprimarily by a human error in the operation and design of thewaste disposal system, and not by any mechanical orengineering defect in the reactor itself. Leaks are known to haveoccuffed at the same plant in January, though on a.smaller

-or scale, are also attributed to operational errors.(. The plant's operator did not inform the government of theseaccidents. Nor did it notify the inspectors stationed there. Noentries were made in the log, it is said, concerning ttre leaks. In., other words, the company as well as the plant managementj trieO to "cover up" the w'hole thing.L- t'tre Ministry of International Trade and tndustry has in-dicated its intention of taking legal action against the company.It is certainly necessary to punish the operator for so blatanta disregard of public safety. For its own part, the governmentcannot escape the blame forhaving been negligent in the area ofnuclear power administration.Pro-N Power Mayor Reelectedln the mayoralty election held on Sunday in Kubokawa, KochiPrefecture, townspeople returned to office the same man theyousted only last month in a recall ,.vote over his prematureinitiative in supporting a survey for the possible siting of anuclear power plant. The election result, however, may notnecessarily promise an ultimate victory fortthe pro-surveygroup in this small seaside community of 18,000.ln the March B referendum Mr. Susumu Fujito was supportedby the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) and, indirecny, by theelectric power industry and other pro-nuclear groups. But anti-nuclear residents who opposed his decision to invite the surveyoutvoted, by a narrow margin, those who backed his decision.In his campaign for Sunday's election Mr. Fujito put asige thenuclear issue, saying that another referendum should be heid- todetermine whether the town shoulil play host to a nuclear plaht.Instead he concentrated on other measures to promote regional' development. But his victory was as narrow as his defeatln therecall vote.

One piausible explanation of his comeback may lre that he wonvoter confidence primarily because of his record - and hispromise - as a local administrator, and not as a nuclearproponent. If that is the case, there is no assurance that the pro-


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2 The fapan Timer Friday, April 24, 1981 f, 3 ffiS,,1t{$3r.EI (B)M[Tt Team Continues ProheOf Tsuruga Radioactive Leak ITSURUGA, Fukul Pref .'(Kyodo) - Officials of theMlnistry of lnternational Tradeand Industry Thursday con-tinued their lnve$tigation intothe cause of the radioactivewaste leak at the TsurugaNuclear Power Plant of JapanAtomic Power Co.No announcement was madeon the progress of the ln-,vestigation being conducted bya l0-man team headed bySusumu Takashima. an in-spector of the Safety InspeciionDepartment of n'IITI's NaturalResources and Energy Agency.It was believed that the ln-vestigatlon centered on: whyradioactive waste water leakedinto a non-radioactive wastewater diainage systenx Jvhysgsiqlq-llz.-updsed- qnlv bJnuclear fission in a nuclear-@+-reactor. u'as detected in thetu-..-'...-........-drainaqe svstem: and thcr.'reoperating conditibnst of thereactor at the time of the leakaccident.The team was also scheduledto conduct an experiment to,discharge colored water intothe manholes in the radioactivewaste storage facility to find outthe routes the colored waterwould take.. It is believed that radioactivewaste water that spilled from asludge filtering tank inside thestorage {acility found its $'ayinto the non-radioactive wastewater drainage system throughthe manholes.rVeanwhile, labor safetyofficialii of the Labor Ministry,.together with officials of the,Fukui Labor Standards Buteau,questioned employees of theJapan Atomic Power Co. and ltscontractors who were exposedto large doses of radiation whilecleaning radioactive wastewater from the tank.

They also lnvestigated'whether there was anynegligence on the part 0f JapanAtomic Powelco.6 Executives DemotedJapan Atomic Power Co.Wednesday demoted six topexecutives of its Tsuruganuclear power plant in FukuiPrefecture for concealing theMarch B radioactive leakageincident which led to pollution' of nearby "sea water.But the utility company

u'!thheld punishment againstother people responsible for theaccident.

ping down from the post.Akira Machidii, a director ofan engineering firm employedby the power company, wasappointed to succeed Iwakoshl.Board Director TatehikoArima of the Japan At0micPower Co. was also lamed tolead an lnvestigative body.

Oi Plant Inspected. FUI{UI (Kyodo) - Officialsof the Fukui prefecturalgovernment Thursday in-spected the Oi Nuclear PowerPlant of Kansai Electric PowerCo. in Oi, Fukui Prefecture.after it. was disclosed thatradioactive primary . qoolantwater was spiiled from its No. Ireactor due to errors in regularcheckup proce(gres.Prefecturai officials .alsoquestloned employees of KansaiElectric Power Co. tThe Ol Nuclear Power Planthas been ufidergoing a rcgularcheckupsinceFeb.2. 'Workers were to , checkvarious parts of the rcactor

' facilitles after. removing thecoolant water but radioactlvewater remained in the systemwhen the workers attempted todismantle it for the inspection. .Kansal Electric officials toldprefectural offieials that theaccident was not reported to the. head of the plant because thevolume of spilled radioactive, water was not large and that thewater whs not paiticulqrly'radioactive.FishBanLiftedNAGOYA (Kyodo) * TheNagoya Central WholesaleMarket Monday lifted the defacto. ban on flsh shipmentsfrom Fukui Prefeeture lmposedafter it was announced that ra-dioactive substances had beenfound ln Tsuruga Bay on April

18.

Specialists Defusetsomb in AornoriAOMOI1I (Kyodo) - Bomb' disposal specialists of theGround Self-Defense ForcesThursday successf ully removedan unexpioded shell found ncar.an oil tank here early thismonth.During the operations, alrout2,000 loeal residents wereevacuated and all area streetswere closed to traffic.The Japanese NationalRailways (JNR) also canceiedthe 11 train runs in.the area.schedulerl for Thursdav.The nmerican-made unex-ploded shell was found in thecompound of the Aornori oilstorage base of Shell Oil K.K, onApril 6.


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Po,wer Fiim PresidemtAp ologizes for N -Ac:cid,ent

Shunichi Suzuki, president ofthe Japan Atomic Power Co.,told a Diet comtnittee meetingFriday tbat his compdnY'ssafety promotion system wouldtie thoroughly reviewed toprevent a recurrence ofradioactive waste leakage fromits plant.I"le made this remark at theHouse of Councillors'Trade andIndustry Committee meeting.

2 The fapan Tinner Saturday, April 25, 1981 *rmineaa.t (C)

As part o{ its investigationinto the March B accident at theTsuruga Nuclear Power Plant,the committee. summonedSuzuki and two other executivesof the company for testimony.This was the second time thatpower company executiveshave been summoned by theDiet for testimony on nuclearpower plant accidents. In Aprill977, executives.'of KansaiElectric Power Co. weresummoned after someit'regularities of nuclear fuelrods at its Mihama plant we|erepdrtcd.Aftcr apologizing for theserious environmentaldisruption caused by theradioactive waste leakage.Suzuki said at the committeemeeting that his companywould retrain its employees andreorganize the company'sstructure.The three companyexecutives thed answeredqueitions lry Shozo Harada ofthe Liberal"Democratic Partyand Isamu Shimizu of the JapanSocialist Party in the morningsession.Answering questions byFlarada, Tadakazu Asada, anexecutive director of thecompany, said that the" plant

workers had apparently un-derestimatecl the scliousness of.the accident because the

radioactlve waste was designedto remain in the storage facilityeven when some irregularities. occurfed.The closed system failed, andabout 16 tons of radioactivewaste w6ter leaked from thestorage facility into tfie non-radioactive waste waterdrainage system, Asada said.Ijowver, he estimated theamount of the waste wateru'hich leaked out of the plant atabout 3 tons.It was reported immediatelyafterthe accident thatabout 40tons of the radioactive wastewater had leaked out of theplant.Asada also indicated thepossibility that the waste watermight hav also spilled f.ronrsmal\ spaces between walls ofthe storage tankand the sludgpilltering tank.The company has conductedan xperimen[ to discfiarge testwater into this srnall space. 'l'hetest watcr u'as later detected inthe r- non-radioactive wastewater drainage system, he said.At the committee meeting,Harada also. questioned theresponsibility of the Ministry ofInternational" Trade and In-dustry (MITI) for the accident.Shingo Mqrlyama, dlrcctorgeneral of Mttt's NaturalResources and Energy Agency,r replied lhat his agency has hadno knowledge about the locationof the non-radioactlve ivastervater drainage system.The conrpnny failc.d to specifythe location in its report iiledwith the agency to obtain ap-proval fgr the construction ofthe plant. l\loriyama said./


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Rele&,se oI N-Plunt,,Wa,terSoid Commoit'

An executive 0f Japan AtomicPower Co. told a Diet com'mittee meeting TuesdaY that ithad been a customary Practicefqr -{!; con-rpany ejgployees to,discharse facilitv-cleanlng--ater into a general-Purposedrain outside lts plant.-The water discharggd in sucha manner included, accordingto him, that used to clean thefloor of the radioactive wastetreatmenl facilities.To discharge the water, hesaid, the company employeQsoften. uscd a manhole whichmany lnvcstigators now suspectto be the major route of theradioactive waste leakageaccident.This was revealed in in'tensive questionlng of witnesseson a series of radioactiveleakage incidents at the Plant at ,the Science and TechnologYCommittec of the House ofReprcsentatives.

Following a similar Dietappearance'last lrridaY'Shunichi Suzuki, President ofJapan Atomic Power Co..Chuichi Asada. executivedircctor, and Tctsuro ltakura.head of the cofnpany'stechnblogy dePartment, wcreclosely e*amined bY Dietrnentrom various Parties'In answcr to a question bY aSocialist Dietman, ltakura saidthe manhole ln question wasbuilt at lirst to drain rainwaterthrough two Pipes' And headmitted the PossibilltY thatradioactive waste watcr couldhave flown into it.This implies waste watcrcoffialthoush small. llowcd into thcUrasoko BilY facing lhc nuclcar

Dower Dlant.-T68il6-atso said one ot thepipes was locked iiP in 1977when 'the faci,litie$" wel ex-,tended, and another PlPe wasburied after the March I in:ciclent in which waste wateroverlowed a filtcr sludgestorage tank.Reiterating his aPologY forthe incidents, Suzuki suggestedhe would resign when Probesinto the cause of the incidentsare con'rpletedIIe also said his companyr.r,outd make a drastic retorm ofits structure and Pcrsonnel'education to prevent similarincidents in the future.The trio also facedquestioning at thc House of,Councillors' Commerce andlndustry Committee TuesdaYaftcrnoon.At the committee meeting.the ruling Liberal-DemocraticParty also sought an cx-planation of the incidcnts I'romofficials of the MinistrY of In'-ternational Trade and lndustrY(MITI) and the science andTechnology Agency.The party plans to decide onits attitude toward the incidentson the basis of a MITI interim.report to be compiled ThursdaY-and 0plnions lrom lhe NuclearSafety Commission.Jane Fonda ArrivesNARITA, ChibA PTCf.(Kyodo) Jane Fonda.American Actress, arrived here

Tllesday afternoon.F onda, 43, Plans to Promotethe movie "Nine tol"ive" whichshe . produced and stars in'during . hcr second visit toJapan.

chronology of 1981 tsuruga accident from japanese press

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