A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Noto region at 4:10pm on Monday, causing many ground fissures, some measuring 50m long and 30cm deep, in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, according to reports in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) and the Asahi Shimbun.
The Japanese Self-Defense Forces dispatched 1,000 personnel to help in the disaster relief, with 8,500 on standby, and the Japanese Fire and Disaster Management Agency sent 1,700 firefighters.
Tokyo Electric Power Co said the radioactive wastewater of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant’s No. 2, 3, 6 and 7 reactors leaked, but that there was no damage or leakage outside the premises, the Japan News reported.
Activated in 1985, the
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has seven reactors, and its total capacity is 8.2 gigawatts, making it the largest nuclear-generating station in the world, however, it was shut down after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.
The overflow of radioactive wastewater means that the used fuel rods were still placed in spent fuel pools without proper management, such as intermediate storage and final disposal, which is similar to the situation of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District (萬里), New Taipei City.
The used fuel rods have still not been removed from the reactors. We should be aware of the risks and consider the solution if a major earthquake strikes Taiwan.
Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has proposed postponing the decommissioning of the
Guosheng and Ma-anshan (馬鞍山) plants, but ignored the management of high-level nuclear waste.
From the leak of radioactive wastewater caused by a major earthquake in Japan, we must think about the risk of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant; otherwise, politicians’ common slogan “no safety, no nuclear” is nothing but idle talk.
Chen Yi-nan is an arbitrator.
Translated by Chien Yan-ru
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