Five geologists officially tasked with reviewing the site of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture reported Monday the fault beneath the plant showed geologically recent movement. By Japanese law nuclear plants cannot be built on active faults usually defined, among other factors, as having moved within the last 130,000 years. A fault under Reactor 2 moved in tandem with another nearby fault the panel concluded. The operating license for Reactor 1 at Tsuruga [photo] was extended ten years in 2009 and is one of 13 reactors on Wakasa Bay, the world's largest concentration of nuclear reactors. In recent years, improved seismlogy found the area riddled with geologic faults. Owner Japan Atomic Power Company has made efforts to reinforce the plant against an earthquake in the last four years; the plant opened in 1970. Even seismic retrofitting the plant is unlikely to protect it from a magnitude 9 earthquake like the one that devastated Fukushima. The company said through a spokesperson who attended the meeting at which the study results were released Atomic Power would conduct more seismic studies.All of Japan's reactors except two are offline as a result of the unprecedented disaster. The two restarted reactors at the Oi plant may also be sitting on an active geologic fault. That situation is also being reviewed by the reconstituted Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority. If the body formally decides Tsuruga is sited above an active fault, the reactors will have to be decommissioned since it is unlikely the regulatory agency will allow a restart. Prior to Fukushima, there was a significant institutional bias against preventing nuclear plant construction based on seismic activity. Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. As one Japanese nuclear engineer put it, if construction were contingent on geologic stability "nothing would get built". So risks were taken and on March 11th of last year, Japan threw craps.
Sentiment against nuclear power is running high in Japan. Hundreds of thousand were made homeless by the Fukushima meltdowns {"Fukushima"}. Tracts of valuable agricultural land cannot be farmed. The ocean around the destroyed Fukushima plant is radioactively contaminated making consumption of seafood unsafe. The disaster caused by far the largest accidental discharge of radioactivity ever seen. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute estimates that 10¹⁵ becquerels of radioactive cesium leaked into the ocean and an equivalent amount into the atmosphere. The Hiroshima bomb is estimated to have produced 8²⁴. Eighteen months after the accident the ocean around the plant still emits around 1,000 becquerels of cesium137, a relatively high reading compared to normal background. What concerns scientists is the levels remain relatively stable indicating a source of new contamination. The plant itself is leaking 10¹² becquerels per month according to one estimate, but also radioactivity from contaminated land is washed by rain and into the sea by rivers. A third source may be the bottom of the ocean itself were radioactive material is trapped in sediment. Bottom dwelling fish are above the 100 becquerels per kilogram limit set by the government for safe consumption, but contamination varies considerably by species. Octopuses seem to have escaped while greenlings have been found with levels as high as 25kBq/kg. The implications of the persistent radiation levels are serious for the fishing industry. It lost an estimated $1.3 to $2.6billion in 2011 as a result of the nuclear accident. When can contaminated fisheries reopen is a question that cannot be answered soon.