"We cannot allow the safety myth to persist atop active faults"

May 20, 2013

Yoroku: Rituals and myths have no chance against active faults

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20130520p2a00m0na006000c.html

Even for those in the present day who know what it is, liquefaction is a terrifying phenomenon: the eruption of massive volumes of sand and gravel through cracks that emerge as the earth shakes violently. The people from the Jomon and Yayoi periods -- from about 10,000 B.C. to 300 A.D. -- must have been panic-stricken when confronted by it.

At an archaeological site in Fukui Prefecture dating back to the Yayoi period, large rocks have been found erected at a location pointing to previous liquefaction. Seismic archaeologist Akira Sangawa suspects that the rocks were brought over from a nearby river, and used in a ceremony to quiet the trembling earth. The large rocks, in other words, were meant to intimidate the smaller ones that burst through cracks in the earth.

At another site, clay pots were found overturned on sand and gravel that had emerged as a result of liquefaction. Clay pots were also found overturned on fissures in the ground at a site dating further back to the Jomon period. These were desperate acts of prayer for a still earth.

The prevention of nuclear disasters is something we cannot entrust to rituals and ceremonies. An investigative team from the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) compiled a report determining that a fault running below the No. 2 reactor of the Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture is active. Plant operator Japan Atomic Power Co. objected to the report, but it appears likely that the reactor will be decommissioned.

The government prohibits the construction of important nuclear power plant structures atop active faults. Furthermore, starting seven years ago, when fault activity cannot be ruled out, it is labeled an "active fault to be considered." In the latest case, an independent expert panel with no ties to past authorities stuck to the safety over all principle.

Japan Atomic Power Co. continues to seek a re-investigation, and there have been reports of local communities that are dependent on the plant for their livelihood finding themselves at a loss. Economic and social strains resulting from decommissioning the reactor are undoubtedly large. However, we cannot allow the safety myth to persist atop active faults. ("Yoroku," a front-page column in the Mainichi Shimbun)