Peace Radio Program -'A Peace of the Action' is dedicated to commentary on peace and social justice issues. Radio Adelaide 101.5 fm every Sunday at 12.30pm
Celebration of successful first year: Sunday 2nd September. 2pm - 4pm at the Ira Raymond Room, Barr-Smith Library, University of Adelaide. All welcome.
Guest speaker: Dr Ian Maddocks, of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Catering courtesy of Caffe Buongiorno, 140 Rundle Mall, Adelaide.
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SALA (South Australian Living Artists) Festival. In the Mix 3rd - 19th August on display at the Grange Hotel, 489 the Esplanade, Grange. Ph: 8356 8111. Photographs by Fernando Goncalves and paintings by Vesna Rozman. "What does human life really mean to us given our vastly different historical, cultural and class backgrounds?"
Launch: Sunday 5th August at 2.30pm, Grange Hotel, by Greg Mackie OAM, Executive Director Arts SA.
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HIROSHIMA DAY RALLY 11am Saturday 4 August, Parliament House. SEE ENCLOSED LEAFLET.
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Advance notice: APC's AGM will be held on Saturday 20th October at the Friends' Meeting House at 40a Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide at 2pm. Guest speaker will be Karranjal John Hartley, who will present his Walmbaji Family Violence Awareness Program (The Fires of Our Ancestors Are Burning)
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Art Auction for Friends of the Earth. A really fun night, with live music by Amoebius Trip, food, drink, an award-winning auctioneer, door prizes, and amazing artworks to be auctioned! Held as part of SALA Festival, the Auction features the work of many local and interstate artists, including the Tjanpi Desert Weavers (as featured at this year's Womadelaide), Deni Odlum, Laura Wills, Sam Jeffries, Alisa Teletovic, Fleur Elise Noble, Mitch, Matt Sheehy, Shani Louey-Gung, and many others! Including weavings, handmade homewares, jewellery, paintings, prints, henna, sculpture, and more.
Money raised goes towards supporting indigenous traditional owners in the Northern Territory in their campaign against the proposed nuclear waste dump on their traditional lands.
Saturday 4 August : Viewing from 4pm, Auction at 7pm at North Adelaide Institute (Community Centre), 176 Tynte St, North Adelaide. More works welcome (contact Sophie - 0422 487 219 or sophie.green@foe.org.au for more info), and a catalogue will be available closer to the night. http://cleanfutures.blogspot.com

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Our MOB 07 : A Statewide Celebration of Regional and Remote South Australian Aboriginal Artists
4 August to 9 September. Our MOB 07 is paying tribute to the diversity and vitality of South Australian Aboriginal art that shows the energy and spirit of contemporary Aboriginal traditions. During the SALA Festival, the Adelaide Festival Centre celebrates with all South Australian Aboriginal artists and invites you, our audience, to share, to learn and enjoy Our Mob. Launch 7 August, 6-8pm, Artspace. Entertainment: Nganampa music
RSVP for launch (08) 8216 8850 or artspace@adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au
Also launching Our Place: images of remote South Australia by Stewart Roper. Exhibition Dates 4 August - 9 September. Venues Artspace & Theatre Foyers, Adelaide Festival Centre. Visiting artists-in-residence 8 & 9 August Exhibition opening times Wed-Sat 12noon to 5pm, Sun 10am to 4pm plus theatre performance times. For info contact (08) 8216 8600 email artspace@adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au Group visits welcome (please notify us if bringing a large group) Adelaide Festival Centre, Artspace (upper level, Dunstan Playhouse via Festival Drive or Dunstan Playhouse) disability access via Festival Bridge from North Terrace or Adelaide Festival Centre Amphitheatre Ramp
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RAWA Event - An opportunity to hear first hand the condition of women in Afghanistan today, from Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) representative, Sohaila. Supported by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Australian Education Union and Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan. Wednesday 8 August 2007, 6.30pm at Australian Education Union building, 163 Greenhill Road, Parkside Enquiries P: 83333479 or W: www.sawa-australia.org

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Ngutto ("gaining knowledge") - Indigenous Literacy Day Fundraising Event.

Venue: Sarah's Café, Leigh Street Date: Tuesday August 14 at 6pm Price: $10

2007 Miles Franklin Winner Alexis Wright (Carpentaria, Plains of Promise) will join renowned author and commentator Anita Heiss (Not Meeting Mr Right, Yirra and her Deadly Dog, Demon, I'm Not Racist, But…) and local Indigenous writers and storytellers Uncle Lewis O'Brien, Dylan Coleman, Natalie Harkin and Jared Thomas in an evening of readings in support of Indigenous Literacy Day.

The Indigenous Literacy Day Fundraising Event will also feature popular Adelaide Indigenous band "the MERRg", who performed recently at the MusicSA "Louder Than Words" showcase and as part of the Dreaming Festival at Woodford, QLD. In 2006 "The MERRg" made it to the final 5 of the Music OZ's ATSI section of the MUSIC OZ unsigned acts awards.

The entry fee for the event is $10 and all proceeds go to literacy programs and book purchase for young Indigenous people. Nicholas Jose, Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide, will introduce the speakers.

Ngutto celebrates the achievements of Indigenous Australian writers and storytellers and contributes support from the Adelaide Indigenous community to young Indigenous people. The event has been coordinated by Arts SA, the Australian Society of Authors and the University of Adelaide, with support from Sarah's Café, Imprints Booksellers, authors Ann James, Frane Lessac, Linda Jaivin, Kerry Reed-Gilbert, and publishers Scholastic, Aboriginal Studies Press, Allen & Unwin, Random House and Wakefield Press.

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Indigenous Literacy Day takes place on September 5 2007. It is an initiative of the Fred Hollows Foundation, the Australian Publishers Association (APA), and the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) to increase literacy in remote Indigenous communities. Publishers, booksellers, businesses, schools and individuals are encouraged to participate. Contact: Tamara Watson Ph: 8463 5450 Email: watson.tamara2@saugov.sa.gov.au

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Advance notice: WALK AGAINST WARMING ! Australia ’s community day of action on climate change.

To take place on the SUNDAY which is 2 weeks before the 2007 federal election. Details notified later.

Show the next Australian Government you support courageous action on climate change. Unite with thousands of other Australians and be the voice for our planet and for our children’s future. www.walkagainstwarming.org

Coordinated through Conservation Council of SA. Ph: (08) 8223 5155 or dominic.nicholls@ccsa.asn.au

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The Big Switch – Your Voice, Your Future. Be the Solution! For information see www.thebigswitch.org.au

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Consult Aborigines and then plan how to help
Malcolm Fraser in The Age, July 13, 2007
There is general agreement that we are long overdue in introducing policies and actions that will improve the wellbeing of Australia's indigenous population. That is why there is general approval that the Federal Government is now seen to be doing something. Much of the reaction to this initiative has, however, been superficial.
Aboriginal leaders, and many others, have been asking for action over the entire life of the Government. Why has the Government been so slow to act?
Why has so little planning gone into this action plan? Why are survey teams visiting Aboriginal communities only after the announcement of the plan? Normally assessments are made before policy is announced. Then there is a clear idea of how many doctors and nurses are required, and how much money will be needed.
And this is not just a matter of health professionals. It is also a question of putting much greater funds into Aboriginal education, of bringing services to remote communities, which can enable their inhabitants to gain skills and thereby reasonable employment. Services are taken to remote, very small, white communities. The School of the Air is a good example. Why do we do so much worse for Aboriginal communities?
Canada has shown us what can be achieved, if we are prepared to put much greater resources into health and education. The Government has spoken of a six-month action plan. But what is needed is a 20-year plan, designed to enable many more Aboriginal Australians to play full and productive roles in national life, while understanding and respecting their own culture and historic tradition.
The Labor Party has not been particularly vigorous, during the past 10 years, in championing a better deal for Aborigines. They have done little to press the Government, even where there are clear failures, such as the fall in the number of Aboriginal students in our universities in the years since this Government came to power. Now Aboriginal people are asking whether this Government initiative is aimed at disempowering them even more.
What is the Government's real agenda, many are asking? Why does the explanatory memorandum on the legislation to amend the Aboriginal Land Rights Act read: "The principal objectives (of this bill) are to improve access to Aboriginal land for development, especially mining …" What has that got to do with child abuse? And what logic is there in the proposal to remove the permit system, whereby Aboriginal leaders decide who can come onto their land? Surely that will only enable non-indigenous pedophiles to have easier access to Aboriginal children. Yet non-indigenous pedophiles are a significant part of the problem.
The Government constantly highlights the misdeeds of Aboriginal people, giving the impression that practically all are addicted to alcohol and drugs, abuse their children, and are prone to domestic violence. The reality is very different. There are many fine Aboriginal communities where these problems are dealt with effectively by their leaders when they arise.
A more effective strategy would be to highlight the communities that are getting on top of their problems, while tackling the problems of dysfunctional communities with minimal publicity. When the situation improves, then the improvements can be publicised. In that way, respect for Aboriginal Australians would grow among the wider community, and so would Aboriginal morale. But this Government seems more interested in suggesting that Aboriginal people are incapable.
The Government has undertaken a highly complex and important task. So far the initiatives have caused many fears. It will only succeed if the Aboriginal community is consulted and fully involved in planning the strategy. If this is done, and there is a willingness to provide the necessary resources over many years, then it will be possible to build a better future.
Malcolm Fraser was prime minister from 1975 to 1983.

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For those who would like a refresher on....
1. Whether Kosovo really was a war with humanitarian aims
2. Media strategies to keep us asleep
3. Whether the change of guard in the UK will prevent it from launching further wars
go to: http://www.medialens.org/alerts/index.php

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Flyby News Update - Editor - Jonathan Mark
Article re demonstration at office of John Conyers, Democratic Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee
24 July 2007 - The Conyers Legacy
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25021 By David Swanson
About 47 of us spent 8 or 9 hours yesterday in jail for protesting a man who, at least when he woke up yesterday morning, only thought of himself as on the side of those who protest power.
While hundreds of us lined the hallways outside Chairman John Conyers' office, one of his staffers approached the door to his office but was unable to enter. The place was wall-to-wall media inside, with Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood giving a press conference in Conyers' office in his absence. They'd gone in to speak with Conyers, but it would take him quite a while to show up.
The staffer was annoyed and complained to his colleague "It's bad enough they shut the office down with phone calls." Another staffer, this one rather pleased about it (the police, too, were on our side and three of them quietly accepted Impeach Bush and Cheney shirts), told me they were getting a pro-impeachment phone call every 30 seconds. They were also flooded with Emails and with thousands of faxes yesterday. But the message was not getting through to the Congressman.
He and several staffers met with Sheehan, McGovern, and Yearwood. It was a heated discussion. Conyers began by proposing to discuss impeachment sometime in August at a town hall meeting. We've been doing those for years. We held a huge one in Detroit in May that Conyers agreed to speak at. He showed up and left before it started. Yearwood, Sheehan, and McGovern told Conyers his time was up. What was Conyers' objection to moving forward on impeachment now? Well, he said, if he were to do that Fox News would go after him and accuse him of being partisan. I kid you not. The Democratic Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is basing his decisions on whether a Republican cable TV station would approve. As Cindy Sheehan told me outside the jail last night: "If I based my decisions on Fox, I would never do anything."
As long as Conyers is working for Fox, maybe our next sit-in needs to be in their studios.
But Conyers expressed another concern as well. He's concerned about his legacy. I wish there were a kind way to tell him that he is about to flush it down the toilet. Conyers' judiciary committee staffers, who were in the meeting yesterday, including Ted Kalo, Perry Appelbaum, and Jonathan Godfrey, produced a year and a half ago one of the best reports summarizing and documenting the crimes of Bush and Cheney. Conyers is aware that Bush and Cheney are killing people every day that he refrains from fulfilling his oath of office. He knows that nearly a million Iraqis and 4,000 U.S. troops lie dead already. He knows that this president and vice president kidnap, torture, and murder human beings. But when pressed to act with the urgency appropriate to saving lives, Conyers replied that our nation has always killed people and that he wasn't "going to play politics."
At other times, Conyers told our delegation that they needed to wise up and move from working on justice to doing politics. But politics has become a bad word because of the way Conyers uses it. He places elections highest in the order of priorities and refuses to do his job in between elections because that would be "politics."
We elected Democrats in 2006 so that Conyers would have the committee chairmanship and move on impeachment. If he fails to act, he will quickly discover that yesterday was just a warm-up.
This Thursday & Friday, members of ImpeachForPeace.org, World Can't Wait, and After Downing Street will meet to discuss impeachment with Congress Members Maxine Waters and Keith Ellison, and with the offices of Jerrold Nadler, Adam Schiff, Robert Wexler, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. We'll be delivering petitions for impeachment from all over the country.
Now is the moment for every member of Congress to take a stand for justice. Which side are you on, John?
Your legacy, Chairman Conyers, is about to be remade by the American people, and all the good and noble things you have done will be overshadowed by your grand finale: the enabling of fascism in our country.
# # # This David Swanson's article has been linked to the issue posted at www.FlybyNews.com

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Laurie Kiek

It is with the deepest regret that we say farewell to our long-time member Laurie Kiek, who passed away on Wednesday 25th July, after a long illness. Laurie was a dedicated APC member, a peace and human rights worker for more than 60 years. He is sadly missed. Our condolences go to his family.

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Armenians and Turks cried and sang together - in remembering Hrant Dink
May 14, Melbourne, Australia - by Jackie Mansourian
As people began arriving for the event honouring Hrant Dink on the evening of May 14, an older Armenian gentleman approached me. By then, the unease and doubts related to the complexities of the event were in full bloom. Would this initiative of Melbourne PEN, to build on the process of reconciliation between Armenians, Turks and Kurds and at the same time remember Hrant's life and death, 'work'? Would Armenians and Turks and Kurds attend? Would other Australians come, listen and understand the significance of such a gathering? Would the 'denialists' and nationalists from the Turkish side rupture the potential unifying force of Hrant? Would Armenians faced and well-prepared for denial, respond by lashing back or quietly flee with fear? It was all unknown.
The gentleman spoke to me in Armenian, 'When I met Hrant (here in Melbourne) he gave me an embrace, which I still feel inside me,' holding his arms up as if still feeling something profound and sincere. It was then that I knew the evening would be a beautiful and passionate remembrance to a man of great generosity and compassion. The level of love that this older man had for Hrant, gunned down on January 19, 2007 in Istanbul, would be the glue that held us together.
Over 180 people entered the extraordinary glass-walled ampitheatre in the heart of Melbourne - the BMW Edge. The choice of venue was important - a space that didn't belong to any of the communities, but in a sense belonged to everyone. Most of the people were Armenians, Turks or Kurds living in disparate parts of the city - Turks in the north west and Armenians in the outer south east from where ne'er the twain shall meet. Ethnic and community networks and media had mostly been used to publicise the event - as had various networks of writers' organisations.
Some community organisations decided that they could not publicise, nor attend this event. For some, the concept was offensive - the mistrust of the other, whether Armenian, Turk or Kurd was embedded in their inter-twined yet unreconciled history of each other. As the coordinator and someone trying to work through some of these deep walls of fear and mistrust, all I could do was to listen and also reassure that this was an event to honour Hrant, an Armenian Turk, a Turkish Armenian, who held both identities equally close and proud. I also clearly stressed that this was going to be an event to honour Hrant the writer, the editor of the newspaper which dared to build bridges of communication through the truthful and honest exploration of minority rights, identity, history and the power of the State in Turkey.
It was Melbourne PEN's separateness from the communities themselves and the focus on Hrant as a writer that allowed acceptance to the dual nature of this event - a tribute to Hrant firstly, but equally important a tribute that openly brought together Armenians, Turkish and Kurds not only as audience but as writers, musicians, actively collaborating. It was to be a memorial event that both mirrored and initiated a process of reconciliation between these affected communities. This was a writers' organisation using its position to work with and bring together affected communities of a complex and fraught history and of a current political order in their homeland of Turkey which further entrenched their mutual fear and enmity. Melbourne PEN consciously chose this process of organising the event - to bring the diverse writers and community members together. But this would only work if Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish writers and musicians agreed - if they wanted to be part of an event that honoured Hrant andimportantly, if they agreed to share the platform with one another, as an example to the meaning and relationships of reconciliation. The response was truly overwhelming.
I was deeply moved by emotional and passionate conversations I had with every artist who contributed, whatever their age, whatever their ethnicity. Their love and respect for Hrant and his work was profound. A Turkish contributor, Volkan Kemal who put together a powerful visual display of Hrant's life and funeral, cried when I approached him 'We lost our hearts when we lost Hrant ' and continued that we had to think about what we had to do if we didn't want to lose other 'Hrants' of Turkey and the world.
I contacted a Turkish Australian poet - a man I had recently met and with whom I easily connected, as did our families, especially our sons. Hidayet Ceylan had written a poem for Hrant after his death. When I told Armenian collaborators and community members about this prior to the event, I could sense with their brief silence over the telephone that something of the knot of suspicion was loosened. At the end of the evening, I saw Hidayet receiving and giving many embraces from Armenians in the audience. They had not known each before.
When I told Turkish and Armenian contributors that a young group - a young Armenian Australian man, Ivan Khatchoyan and a Turkish Australian woman Aysu Cogur would sing and perform together, and were doing this on the pledge that that ' It is through understanding each other that we will get though what happened in the past,' yet another foundation of mistrust was unsettled.
Every writer and musician performing on the evening made a very profound effort to cross their own cultural boundaries - to reach out to the other through their writing and singing.
My own writing, as an Armenian Australian, was an attempt to explore and understand the grief and trauma for the Turkish people of Anatolia who had witnessed the Armenian massacres and deportations, and who had lost their Armenian friends and neighbours. What did it mean for them as well? My eleven year old daughter told me that people sitting behind her in the audience were crying during this reading. I explained to her that many people there still had a lot of unfinished sadness, whether they were Armenian or Turk about things that happened a long time ago in the homeland of her great grand-mother. In her wise words, 'Maybe they need to cry more.'
The Kurdish band 'Baran', consciously integrated the duduk, an iconic Armenian traditional instrument in their performance. They do not normally play duduk - but through this sincere effort, they were at once reaching out to the Armenians and at the same time, showing the whole audience how easily and respectfully cross-cultural relations could begin. The artist played the ney and the duduk - he could do both. It required effort, it required love, it required understanding of the difference and the sameness of each instrument.
When the Aphrodite Peace Band, sang in Turkish and Armenian, Sari gelim, a favourite song of Hrant's, my daughter told me that the same people who were crying in the audience, were singing this song of love, as were many others. Armenians, Turks and Kurds were singing a fusion of each others' languages. The audience felt the power of this honest effort to reach and be respectful of them and to remember and honour a man that they all deeply admired and loved.
Melbourne PEN took a risk in organising this tribute to Hrant. It cannot be compared to the risk that Hrant and other courageous writers in Turkey and throughout the world take to write truthfully, to write freely and to write openly even at the cost of their own personal freedom, and their lives. It is a risk worth taking more and more often.

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http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit119/nit119articles/kkearthquake.html

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Earthquake - Japan's Nuclear Safety Shaken to the Roots
CNIC Report (23 July 2007)
At 10:13 am on July 16 a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck just off the coast of Niigata Prefecture on the Japan Sea side of Honshu, Japan's largest island. As a result of the quake, four reactors (units 2, 3, 4 & 7) at Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant shut down automatically. At the time, unit 2 was being started up after a periodic inspection, while the other three units (1, 5 & 6) were still shut down for periodic inspection.
We express our condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives as a result of the earthquake. So far eleven people are reported to have died. We are also concerned for the well-being of those who survived, some of whom are members of CNIC. Their suffering is likely to continue for some time. Perhaps the only fortunate thing amidst this misery is that the nuclear reactors shut down. If they had not done so, there could have been a nuclear disaster in which a huge amount of radioactive material was released into the environment.
As a result of the quake, a fire occurred in a transformer outside a building in unit 3. The transformer was part of the external power supply system. It appears that a short in an electric circuit gave rise to a spark, which set fire to insulating oil. The ground beneath the transformer was raised by 30 cm, while the ground next to the transformer, where the electric cables ran, subsided by 15-25 cm. TEPCO believes that the relative movement caused a short circuit and that this gave rise to the fire.
The fact that it took two hours to put out the fire exposed TEPCO's lack of preparedness. However, it turns out that TEPCO is not the only power company that is ill prepared to respond to such situations. Responses by power companies to a survey by the Mainichi Shimbun revealed that although power companies prepare for fires, no special consideration has been given to the particular problems of fires which occur as a result of earthquakes (Mainichi Shimbun, 20 July 2007). This is incredible, given that throughout Japanese history, whenever there was an earthquake, fires caused at least as much damage as the earthquakes themselves.
Despite the potential seriousness of this fire, TEPCO failed to announce whether there was a continual external supply of power and whether the emergency generator started up. This is very important information, because if the external power supply and diesel generators had failed, it would have been impossible to maintain a continual flow of coolant to the reactor. Even after automatic shutdown, the fuel in the reactor core is still extremely hot. Failure to maintain a continual supply of coolant could result in a core meltdown, leading to the release of highly radioactive material into the environment. There would then be a double disaster: a nuclear disaster on top of an earthquake disaster.
Radioactivity released to the environment
Water containing radioactive material was released from unit 6 into the sea. TEPCO originally said the quantity of radioactivity involved was 60,000 becquerels, but it later increased its estimate to 90,000 becquerels. One would not expect this amount to have any impact on the environment or on human health, but TEPCO took far too long to report the release. The following account is based on a report published on the asahi.com web site on July 21.
At around 12:50 pm, a pool of water was found inside the reactor building, but outside the controlled area. Within about an hour and a half, workers had analyzed samples and found that they contained radioactive material. However, because it was outside the controlled area they doubted their results. They collected new samples and repeated the analysis twice. It wasn't until about

20:30 pm that TEPCO finally reported the release to the authorities. It seems that TEPCO employees are still under the spell of the safety myth. They are still more inclined to believe the theory rather than the evidence before their eyes.

TEPCO also took a long time to work out how the leak occurred. Apparently the spent fuel pool overflowed and the liquid leaked out to the uncontrolled area through electric power cable tubing. Spent fuel pools frequently overflow during earthquakes, so the fact that radioactive material was released to the sea shows that TEPCO failed to adequately address this problem.

On July 17, TEPCO announced that iodine, chromium (Cr-51) and cobalt (Co-60) had been released to the atmosphere from the main exhaust stack of unit 7. At the time, TEPCO indicated that the release had stopped, but it subsequently corrected this, saying that the iodine (I-131, I-133) release continued until July 18. TEPCO said that due to a failure to manually shut down the turbine grand steam exhaust fan after the reactor shut down, iodine and particulates that had accumulated in the condenser were sucked out and released through the exhaust stack. That is plausible, given that in boiling water reactors (unlike pressurized water reactors) the same water that cools the reactor is converted into steam to drive the turbines and then condensed in the condenser. It is, therefore, to be expected that some radioactive material will find its way from the reactor to the condenser. Nevertheless, release of these radionuclides automatically raises suspicions of damaged fuel assemblies. However, TEPCO stated that, given the low level of iodine in reactor water samples and off-gas monitor readings, there is no indication that fuel assemblies were damaged. TEPCO estimated that the total amount of radioactivity released from the main exhaust stack of unit 7 was 4 x 108 becquerels (radiation dose of 2 x 10-7 milli-sieverts from iodine and 7 x 10-10 milli-sieverts from particulate matter).

The earthquake knocked over several hundred drum cans in the storage building for low-level solid waste. Of these, around 40 were found without their lids on. About 16 liters of liquid leaked, but TEPCO says that no radioactivity was found and none was released into the environment.

As of July 21, TEPCO had identified a total of 63 problems. Fifteen of these were related to radioactivity. The spent fuel pools of all 7 units overflowed, although only unit 6 involved a release of radioactivity to the environment, and ducts in the exhaust stack of all reactors were displaced. There was also some radioactivity found in a massive pool of water from damaged pipes in the fire extinguishing system of unit 1 (40 cm deep (1,670 m3), fifth floor basement, auxiliary building).Besides these, the following are just a few of the problems that did not involve radioactivity. The water level of the spent fuel pools of units 1, 2 and 3 dropped, then recovered mysteriously. Work platforms in the spent fuel pools of units 4 and 7 fell onto the spent fuel storage racks. There were oil leaks from several transformers. Some pumps are out of order. Blow-out panels in turbine and reactor buildings came off. Regular power supply to the administration building was lost and the emergency power supply had to be activated.
However, beyond these readily identifiable problems, the question of how much the buildings, pipes and equipment were weakened by the earthquake remains unanswered. Detailed checks are required, but since the impact of the earthquake would not have been uniform, it will not be possible to provide complete assurance that the plant is capable of withstanding the next earthquake.
Under Japan's old earthquake resistance guidelines, the design basis for nuclear power plants (NPP) assumed a "maximum design earthquake" (S1) and an "extreme design earthquake" (S2), where S2 was greater than S1 (see NIT 112, 103). The "extreme design earthquake" was thought to be impossible in reality, but it was taken into account just to be on the safe side. However, theearthquake that hit on July 16 exceeded the S2 design basis earthquake. Indeed, based on the information released by TEPCO, for unit 1 the peak ground acceleration at the plant was 2.5 times greater than assumed for the S2. The peak ground acceleration in the east-west direction was recorded at 680 gal, compared to the design basis of 273 gal. (Only peak ground acceleration data is available, because the earthquake exceeded the monitoring system's recording capacity.)
It is believed that this earthquake was caused by movement of an approximately 30 km long and 25 km deep fault. This fault was not taken into account during surveys carried out for the design of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. Instead, the S2 design basis earthquake that was chosen was a magnitude 6.9 quake at an active fault 20 kilometers away. This was the fault which caused an earthquake in the same region in 2004. On that occasion, reactor number 5 shut down automatically, but peak ground acceleration did not exceed predictions.
From analysis of the distribution of the after shocks from the 16 July 2007 quake, it is now believed that there is an active fault extending directly under the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP. Since Japan's earthquake resistance guidelines do not permit NPPs to be built directly above active faults, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa would not have been chosen to host a NPP had this been known at the time. However, it now appears that this should have been recognized. After the recent earthquake, Professors Takashi Nakata (Hiroshima Institute of Technology) and Yasuhiro Suzuki (Nagoya University) analyzed the data in TEPCO's license application and concluded that it indicated a fault five times longer than one identified by TEPCO (Asahi Shimbun, 20 July 2007). Between 1979 and 1985, using sonic testing, TEPCO found 4 small faults off the coast of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, but it concluded that they were either not active or not important. However, Nakata and Suzuki said that the data indicated that three of these small faults were connected and were in fact one long 36-kilometer fault and that the fault was probably active.
Professor Nakata is the geomorphologist who last year proved that there is a previously unidentified active fault near the Shimane nuclear power plant (NIT 114). Earthquake studies for Japan's nuclear power plants have largely ignored the work of geomorphologists. They are taken more seriously now under new earthquake resistance guidelines approved in September 2006, but their role is still vague. It seems that the nuclear industry does not like them, because they are too good at finding active faults.
Clearly Japan's earthquake safety standards are inadequate. This fact can no longer be disputed. Given that the size and location of this earthquake was not predicted by TEPCO's survey, nor in the government's screening process, it is essential that an independent geological survey be carried out of the surrounding area, both on land and at sea. However, it would appear from the evidence that has already come to light that Kashiwasaki-Kariwa is not a safe site for a nuclear power plant and that the plant should be shut down permanently.
In just two years, three earthquakes (off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture on 16 August 2005, off the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on 25 March 2007, and now this one) have exceeded the S2 design basis earthquake assumed at the time the plants were built. Since the earthquake resistance guidelines were revised, Japan's nuclear power companies have been carrying out geological surveys and safety checks on the basis of the new guidelines. However, the July 16 earthquake demonstrates the inadequacy of these measures. For example, detailed surveys are only required for a 5 km radius around the plant and power companies have until 2012 to complete safety checks. By rights, all nuclear power plants should be shut down until these surveys and safety checks have been completed. The Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency (NISA) should review its policy of allowing reactors to continue to operate while these surveys and checks arecarried out. However, at a press conference on July 18, NISA's spokesperson, Akira Fukushima, repeatedly dodged questions directed at this problem. As usual, the government's priority is to keep nuclear power plants operating, regardless of safety concerns.
This was not the biggest earthquake that could possibly hit Japan. This one was just a warning. There were enough failures this time to enable us to imagine what might happen if a bigger earthquake struck. In particular, we saw how the confusion caused by the earthquake led to errors and lapses of judgment. We saw equipment failures which in themselves might be manageable, but which, when compounded with the many other failures that earthquakes inevitably cause, could have been catastrophic.
Unfortunately, there is no indication that the government will prioritize safety over the narrow economic interests of the power companies. The following quote starkly illustrates the obstacles to change:
The official said that during the discussions on new standards in 2006, it was clear that above a level of about 6.7, "there would be a lot of backfitting required" to keep reactors operating. Were Japan in the aftermath of this week's quake to make a quake of 7.0 the design basis event, he said, for some plants the amount of upgrading needed could be economically prohibitive. (Nucleonics Week, Volume 48, Number 29, July 19, 2007)
Clearly it is important to change the priorities of the central government. Mr. Amari Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry ordered that the reactors remain shut down until safety has been confirmed. One wonders what criteria he might use to determine when they are safe again, but it is hard to imagine that his criteria would be based on good sense and sound science. Possibly the best hope lies at the local level. The mayor of Kashiwazaki City invoked his right under fire safety provisions to order that the reactors remain shut down. The issue will then come down to the mood of the local population. The earthquake shook the people of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in more ways than one. What will it take to convince them that it is safe to operate the reactors again?
-- By Hideyuki Ban (CNIC Co-Director) and Philip White (NIT Editor) CNIC - Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
Akebonobashi Co-op 2F-B, 8-5 Sumiyoshi-cho,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0065, Japan http://cnic.jp/english

TEL.03-3357-3800 FAX.03-3357-3801

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