ESSAY

The history and current situation of Chinese and Japanese nuclear technology

Nuclear technology is the newly developed technology. It can be applied in multiple directions such as nuclear energetic, nuclear medicine and nuclear weapon.  Both China and Japan have highly developed nuclear technology and it is used to build nuclear power plant and was used to develop nuclear weapons. After the Fukushima disaster, the world start reconsidering the current situation and future invest on nuclear technology. As neighborhood countries, China and Japan government and people have some similar and some different attitudes towards nuclear technology and its appliances.

Comparing to Japan, China starts the research on nuclear technology several decades later. The first nuclear power reactor in China, the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, was issued on 1991, while the first nuclear power plant in Japan, the Tokai Nuclear Power Plant was built in the early 1960s and started generating power from 1966 until 1998, when it was decommissioned. Another nuclear power plant built on the same site as Tokai Nuclear Power Plant was still in use. During 1970s and 1980s, Japan’s nuclear industry was developing fast and was not influenced heavily by the Three Mile Island accident or Chernobyl disaster as several other countries were. Several new plants were built during that period. However, as time goes on, there are some nuclear accident happened in Japan itself which changed the public opinion regarding nuclear technology. Chinese nuclear technology is still under development and most of its nuclear plans are in the future. Currently, there are 50 nuclear reactors in Japan which provide about 30 percent of the country’s electricity. In mainland China, there are only 14 nuclear power reactors operating which only provide about 2.3 percent of the electricity of the entire country. Most of them are in or near the coastal line. From the map of Japan and China’s nuclear power plant distribution, Japan’s power plants are built in the whole country and most of them are currently active while China has more power plants under construction or planning. There are several organizations on nuclear technology in both Japan and China. Japan has a lot of nuclear power companies and organizations which include a non-profit organization, an academic organization and organizations founded by government and nuclear power industry. However, most or nuclear technology organizations in China are founded and supported by the government and there exist no non-profit or academic organizations that could help inspect and supervise nuclear power companies. China was aware of that situation and realized the challenge.

After the Fukushima disaster, Chinese government temporary stopped approving any new plan for building nuclear power plant and started a safety check for all in operation and under construction nuclear power plants. It also rewrites the current regulations and guidelines for nuclear safety according to the defective part of Fukushima nuclear power plant. Any existed nuclear power plant that does not fit the new roles will be suspended. However, the public has a different attitude than Chinese government who did not show a heavily influence by Fukushima disaster. People in China are worried about the effects of Fukushima nuclear power plant to China. There are some accidents happened such as the rush for salt and wearing face masks. In Japan, the public tend to be scared by the nuclear disaster since it happened in Japan and government was acting ineffectively. However, the government of Japan decided to continue its use of nuclear energy. According to the Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan said, the energy policy of Japan will remain the same after the Fukushima disaster. He responded to the public guessing about Japan shutting down more nuclear power plant that there will be no more plants suspended except the Hamaoka plant which located on a major fault line (Fackler, 2011). The Hamaoka plant shutting down is still in considering and if closed, it will reopen after a tsunami-resistant wall being built. Currently, the residents in Tokyo are facing electricity shortage due to the close of Fukushima power plant. If Hamaoka power plant was closed, Chubu district of Japan may suffer from summer electricity shortage.

Later on, let's focus on the field of nuclear weapon. China, as you know, made its nuclear weapon in an early age. In 1964, 19 years after World War II, Chinese people got the success of nuclear test, which made China the fifth member of the World Nuclear Club. At October 27^th, 1976, the Great Proletarian Culture Revolution started and the whole country falls into a terrible disaster. However, the research about nuclear weapon did not encounter any resistance. At June 17^th, 1967, Chinese first hydrogen bomb exploded successfully. One month later, a special army founded in Beijing. The government of China desired to own an army that had the ability of attacking any countries on the earth. As a result, China set up this funny troop called "The Second Artillery Academy" which means they will use the strategic missile or even the nuclear weapon to hit the weakest point of an enemy. In 1976, after the end of Great Proletarian Culture Revolution, a terrible disaster to Chinese people and economy, it showed a rapidly increasing on the nuclear weapon research. Various technologies were used into the field of nuclear, such as nuclear submarine and small-size nuclear warhead. Moreover, in the foreseeable future, China will have its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. In 1996, Chinese government signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with other 60 countries and stopped to make nuclear test from then on. As for Japan, although it had a long history of developing nuclear power plant, it is not allowed to develop its own nuclear weapon because it was defeated in the World War II. It is possible but unknown that the UN will repeal this ban, which may happen in 2050, or 2010.Who TaMa knows. There exist public opinions saying that Japan has enough storage for building nuclear weapons.

Japan’s nuclear technology is more advanced than China’s. However, Japan cannot develop any nuclear weapon due to the surrender contract for WWII. In another aspect, the scarcity of resources in Japan made it has to rely on nuclear power other than fuel power as China did. Even after the Fukushima nuclear disaster happened, Japan has no other choice but continue using nuclear power, while electricity produced by nuclear power station only takes a small percentage in China and not as important as in Japan.

 Reference List

Facker, M, May 8, 2011, Japan Reaffirms Nuclear Energy Use, retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/world/asia/09japan.html

http://bbs.news.163.com/bbs/mil/87234983.html 

Weekly Blog 4

The Fukushima disaster at No.1 nuclear power plant raised a new problem to the current working nuclear power plants, which is about how to deal with the used nuclear fuel. By a survey of Asahi Shimbun, among Japan’s nuclear power plants, 70 percent of the total storage capacity of spent nuclear fuel has already been occupied. Among these nuclear power plants, the highest occupied rate is 93 percent in Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant and the second one is Tokai No.2 nuclear power plant in Ibaraki Prefecture by Japan Atomic Power Company which has an 86 percent usage rate. Once it is fully filled, the nuclear power plant would be useless and cannot operate because the newly wasted used nuclear fuel is not able to be stored. On the top two power plants with highest percentage of storage, they store some of the newly produced waste in the containers and put it into other buildings. These used fuels need to be stored in pools because of the heat and radiation they have. The storage pool in another power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture doubled its nuclear fuel assemblies. Japan is currently aims to build a reprocessing facility for the spent nuclear fuel. However, the plant has to stop because of several technical problems and it is not resumed yet. There is also another intermediate storage which is under planning by TEPCO and Japan Atomic Power in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture that can accept 5000 tons of used nuclear fuel. However, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the construction has to stop.

Reference:

Spent fuel causing headaches for nuclear power plants

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106280424.html

After the accident, Tokyo Electric Power plans to rerun the program to reuse water to decrease the temperature of the reactors of Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant. However, the system ran on 27^th June after 90 minutes of operation because some water had leaked due to unsecured joint point of pipe. TEPCO said the system was checked on June 12^th and the water recirculation system was properly installed at that time. The system could allow sixteen tons of water per hour to be pumped to cool the No.1 to No.3 reactors. The water went through reactors will become radioactive since it was exposed to nuclear power. The water reuse system combines 3 tones of outside water with 13 tones of purified radioactive water per hour. This reduced the need of outside water and helped deal with the radioactive water stored in the power plant. The water purifying system was made by Kurion Inc. of the United States. It is supposed to absorb the radioactive content by minerals. There are also facilities made by French nuclear engineering company that lower the radioactive concentration by chemical agents. Although these equipments can treat contaminated water, polluted salt water was not be able to be treated by the desalination equipment unless the radiation level was less thant 1/10000. Because the equipment is complex, it is fragile and might fail easily. The engineers who worked on the machine did not expect it to be completely no problem either.

Reference:

TEPCO ready to give crucial water cleaning another go

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106280425.html

Photo Essay: Japanese Bathroom

  A general View

  Multi-Function toilet

  More functions

  Wash and dry your hands in the sink

 Typical Japanese bathroom. Sit down and clean yourself before and after taking the bath.

 Remote control of a toilet

 Typical floor plan. toilet is separated from the bathtub and sink area.

Four Points

The Cove is a documentary film which was produced in 2009 and won 2010 Academy Award. The movie is against Japanese killing dolphins. They dive into the village that is famous for dolphin hunting and set cameras to record. The dolphins who are migrating were attracted into a cove hidden and were killed by knives carried by small boats, which is cruel.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is located in Friday Harbor, Washington in the United States. It is a non-profit, marine conservation organization. The group protects sea animals by taking direct actions. It is founded in 1977 by an early member of Greenpeace. Due to their extreme actions, some governments or organizations referred them as terrorists.

IWC stands for International Whaling Commission, which is set by the terms of International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. It was founded in Washington, D.C. on 12.2.1946. From the late 1970s, governments opposed commercial whaling started control the IWC group.

Tokyo 2 are activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki who are Greenpeace anti-whaling members. They were arrested for stealing whale meat in 2008.

10 points about the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1.       Most people died from burns. According to the health department of Hiroshima prefecture, on the day of the explosion, 60 percent of people died was because of flash or flame burn and 30 percent of people died from falling debris. After the bomb, only 15-20 percent died from radiation sickness.

2.       The way American chose target. It should be larger than 5 km and was a large urban area. Attacking Tokyo has a greater fame than other target but least strategic value. Hiroshima was attracted that day is partly because it is sunny and the weather is clear in Hiroshima that day.

3.       Genbaku dome. The genbaku dome left right now is only 150 m from where the bomb was. It is probably because the bomb detonated in the air and the blast was going more downward than sideways. Since the Genbaku dome is very close to the center, it survived.

4.       The closest survivor was only 170 meter from the center. He is in a basement of a reinforced concrete building. Another close survivor is Akiko Takakura. She was 300 meter away from the center and was in a solidly built Bank.

5.       Only 3 days after the Hiroshima nuclear attack, Nagasaki was attacked again. An air alert was sounded in 7:50 that day while cleared on 8:30. Then at 11:00, the bomb was dropped.

6.       The nuclear bombs themselves cost about $2 billion dollars each.

7.       Within the first several months of the bombing, about 150,000-250,000 people were killed which is about half of the people died on the first day.

8.       The U.S. has planed for several more atomic attacks on Japan in September and October.

9.       Even after the atomic bomb was dropped, the war council still kept its conditions for surrender.

10.   There are people that have experienced both bombs and survived.

Weekly Blog 3

 The nuclear disaster in Fukuyama results the eager of getting energy from other resources. Solar power energy is expected to become more popular and provides more electricity. The Sharp Company is designed to put money on solar power stations as it will become larger after the accident. The Sharp Company is working with Italy’s largest power company and trying to build solar power stations in different countries around the world. Its officials said that they believe that renewable energy has a great future and should rise globally especially after the Fukushima accident. However, the high initial cost of solar energy power station will be a problem and the price for solar power is pretty high, which is about 35-39 Japanese yen per kilowatt-hour and is 5 times the price of nuclear power.  There are also other problems such as finding a place to build a solar power station in Japan because it requires large area to build. A good news is that the price of constructing a solar power station is dropping. For example, the solar panels dropped 30 percent of the price this year.

Reference:

AKI SATO STAFF WRITER, Sharp to build solar power stations in Japan

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106240190.html

The disappointments of people in Japan toward Tokyo Electric Power Company are increasing. The company failed to protect the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant and the government is act stupid during and after the accident. There are around 90,000 residents in Fukuyama area have been evacuated due to the power plant. Among them, one third moved out of the Fukuyama prefecture completely. An interview survey questioned 407 residents of the Fukuyama people about the nuclear disaster. 70 percent of the interviewers said that they were opposed the use of nuclear energy while only 26 percent saying that they preferred nuclear energy. Compared to the interview in June, in which 37 percent residents preferred nuclear energy and 42 percent opposed it. However, most of the interviewers said that they will or want to return to the places they live if possible. Among the small percentage of people who do not want to go back, having young children is one of the most significant reasons. People are disappointed with TEPCO and experts because they kept saying that Japan’s nuclear power plant are very safe and there will be no accident ever. They feel betrayed after the nuclear accident. About the future of nuclear technology in Japan, only 30 percent of interviewers said that nuclear power plants should be increased of maintained at current levels. The other people were saying that nuclear power plants should either be decreased or eliminated.  The Japanese central government is also blamed for not doing anything helpful and giving confused evacuation instructions during and after the nuclear disaster. The interviewers said that the instructions they got from government were vague and incomplete or even conflict with itself which was hard to read and understand. As a result, almost 80 percent of interviewers said that the central government was either acting totally inappropriate or partial inappropriate. Another result of the vague instructions was that evacuees have to move between different evacuation centers. Most of them moved to three or more locations.

Reference:

Survey shows disappointment, anger among Fukushima evacuees

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106240204.html

Goodman

Nihonjinron literature is said “premordialist” by the continuities between modern Japanese social values and traditional Japanese culture. It involves different areas such as Japanese geography, topography and agriculture. Nippon Steel published a book in 1984 in both English and Japanese says that Japanese tend to avoid the possible frictions and would notice others’ comments and is very careful and serious to social relationship under culture heading about Japanese Character.

Wa is a Japanese word that literally translated as “harmony”. The people in Japan will keep the wa atmosphere of the society. Who do not obey the rule and maintain the wa sense are considered immature and comdemned. Under the wa theory, Japanese believe that team is more important than individuals. The Nippon Steel volume associates the group spirit in Japan with its wet rice culture because people have to work in some system to survive. The group work also causes Japan’s isolation from the rest of the world and its “homogeneity”.

The frame and attribute are distinct by Nakane. Frame, which is ba in Japanese means the group of a person. Nakane’s statement is that the individual’s personality comes from their belongingness of the group they are in. She provides an example that Japanese tend to care about where others belong to, like school, company or university.  Japanese feel their company as “my company” which extent their feeling of the company to a place they belonging to. Thus for a person, being inside and outside the company makes a lot of difference.

The well known concept of Nakane is tateshakai. It is saying that all Japanese relationship can be understood by the parent-child roles. The workers play child part and the leader is the parent part and take all the responsibilities for any member in the whole group. For example, headers in many Japanese corporations would take responsibility for their workers even they are not direct managed by the headers. The low level workers only need to do whatever their manager told them.

The concept amae is used to holds all of Nakane’s theories. The term amae is hard to translate into English because it could be a positive term in Japanese while the translation in English is negative. Amae is a positive term in Japanese because it means people realized that they rely on others and they need teamwork to achieve the goal.