Tokyo, Japan — On August 27, for about two hours from 18:30, Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs, held a meeting and a dinner at Iikura House with H.E. Mr. Djibril Yipènè Bassole, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation of Burkina Faso, who is visiting Japan as a guest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two ministers exchanged views on bilateral relations, cooperation in international arena, and other issues. The overview of the meeting is as follows.

Minister Gemba stated in the opening that he would like to use the opportunity of Minister Bassolé’s visit to Japan to further strengthen bilateral relations. In response, Minister Bassolé paid his respect to Japan’s effort to keep implementing its international commitment even after the Great East Japan Earthquake which had hit Japan last year, expressed his gratitude to Japan’s assistance for Burkina Faso, and stated his appreciation for TICAD process led by Japan.

In reply, Minister Gemba expressed his gratitude to the Senior Officials Preparatory Meeting for TICAD V which will be held in Burkina Faso in November at Minister Bassolé’s suggestion, and showed its expectation for President Compaoré’s participation for TICAD V which will be held next June in Japan. Furthermore, both ministers exchanged their opinions on Japan’s economic cooperation with Burkina Faso, and potentiality of facilitating private investment from Japan to Burkina Faso.

Also, Minister Bassolé, who has been working for mediation for the stability of situation in Mali, explained the situation in Mali. Minister Bassolé further shared the manners to resolve the border conflicts and the vision for regional integration in West Africa where Burkina Faso is located. In response, Minister Gemba expressed his recognition for Burkina Faso’s effort for the stabilization of the situation in Mali, and expressed Japan’s intention to support Africa’s own efforts for peace and stability and for regional integration.

In this respect, Minister Bassolé, who had served as Joint African Union – United Nations Chief Mediator for Darfur, expressed his appreciation for Japan’s support for Darfur. With respect to situation in Sudan and South Sudan, Minister Gemba explained that Japan has provided assistance for both Sudan and South Sudan in a balanced manner, and appealed to ministers of Sudan and South Sudan for the importance of peaceful coexistence of both countries.

Furthermore, two ministers exchanged their views on issues in international arena, including the early realization of the United Nations Security Council reform and the Resolution on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Image Courtesy of   U.S.-Japan Council

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Exelon Nuclear has added seven mobile, high-volume diesel-driven pumps at its nuclear energy facilities, among thousands of equipment purchases, upgrades, and validations completed at Exelon’s 10 plants in the year following the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Exelon technical experts have verified readiness of more than 1,700 other pieces of equipment; inspected more than 1,900 flood barriers and seals; and invested more than 43,000 worker hours checking and testing equipment and procedures that might be needed in an emergency.

“We have a responsibility to communicate what we are doing as a company to learn from the lessons following the tragedy in Japan and we take that responsibility seriously. Our top priority is to assure the continued safe and reliable production of electricity at our nuclear facilities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey,” said Mike Pacilio, president and chief nuclear officer of Exelon Nuclear.

“Since last March, we have taken the learnings from Fukushima, critically assessed our operations and taken immediate actions,” he said. “We have additional safety measures planned for Exelon and the entire U.S. nuclear industry in the months ahead with additional guidance being issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is critical that we always be a learning organization dedicated to the safety of our facilities.”

The completed actions represent just a portion of the inspections, upgrades, and other work undertaken by Exelon Nuclear following the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster. The company operates the largest fleet of commercial nuclear facilities in the U.S., with 17 reactors at 10 sites.

Within a week of the March 11, 2011, events, teams of engineers and technical experts from Exelon Nuclear and others in the industry traveled to Japan to provide expertise and to begin understanding as many lessons as possible from the experience. The primary lesson: expect the unexpected, and prepare for the unimaginable.

Learnings from Fukushima have translated into extensive reviews of equipment, structures, and procedures; purchases of additional backup emergency equipment; updates of emergency procedures; and additions to emergency training. At Exelon, the overriding goal is to reaffirm that its nuclear facilities and the professionals who operate and maintain them are prepared to deal with even the most severe unpredictable events.

Among other tasks completed over the past 12 months, Exelon Nuclear engineers and experts have:

• Revised more than 1,300 safety procedures and guidelines, and created new ones, based on Fukushima lessons.
• Verified the capability of all sites to withstand the most severe floods for their areas, and are in the process of re-evaluating base assumptions about maximum historical flooding.
• Broadened operator training to incorporate lessons from Fukushima.
• Inspected and validated the seismic supports and restraints for thousands of pieces of equipment and pipes.

Beyond the actions listed, in February of 2012, Exelon and the other U.S. nuclear operating companies unanimously agreed to purchase or order additional safety equipment for their plants by March 31. This includes emergency and portable equipment such as diesel driven pumps, electric generators, hoses, fittings, communications gear, and other equipment.

Well before the events at Fukushima, Exelon Nuclear facilities had multiple physical barriers and layers of backup safety systems to ensure safe operations even in extreme events, including floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Equipment purchases and work over the past year has strengthened those barriers and systems, and enhancements will continue for years.

All Exelon Nuclear facilities are protected from flooding by watertight doors, elevation of equipment above flood levels and specially engineered flood barriers. All sites can automatically and safely shut down and keep the fuel cooled even without electricity from the grid, using massive backup power generators that have second, third and fourth layers of backups. Reactors and other critical components are protected by concrete walls up to five-feet thick. All facilities undergo frequent emergency training and exercises involving government emergency response agencies at all levels.

Exelon Nuclear’s emergency operating procedures are constantly tested, challenged, and simulated to ensure that they will work properly when needed. Such drills are overseen by the NRC with NRC inspectors stationed at all U.S. nuclear facilities on a full–time basis.

Over the last twelve months, the U.S. nuclear industry has pooled resources to ensure the lessons fromJapan are systematically gathered, analyzed, and implemented. The process identified short and long-term actions that further increase the margin of safety at U.S. nuclear facilities.

“Exelon Nuclear is dedicated to full transparency,” said Pacilio. “We know that the more the public knows about the safety of the U.S. nuclear industry, the more confident they feel about nuclear power as a source of safe, abundant, and clean energy.”

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/m-i-k-e/

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The nation’s premier professional society for the nuclear community, the American Nuclear Society (ANS), is finalizing plans to unveil its “Special Report on Fukushima” in conjunction with the one year anniversary of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, ANS Special Committee Co-Chair and former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Dale Klein, Ph.D., announced on March 2.

The report will be unveiled at a special press conference in Washington, DC on March 8 which will be broadcast live via a webcast at http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=85244.

In discussing the upcoming release of the report Klein said, “To prepare this report we gathered from our membership some of the world’s leading figures in the nuclear science and technology community. The report will look at all aspects of the events at the Fukushima plant after the earthquake and tsunami, and will include recommendations for the nuclear community, for citizens, and for policymakers as a result of the lessons we learned.”

The press conference will be held Thursday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. EST at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Topics include Risk-Informed Regulation, Hazards from Extreme Natural Phenomena, Multiple-Unit Site Considerations, Hardware Design Modifications, Severe Accident Management Guidelines, Command and Control During a Reactor Accident, Emergency Planning, Health Physics, and Societal Risk Comparison.

For more information about the press conference call Jackie Clark at (301) 987-7113.  To participate in the webinar visit: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=85244.

Committee Co-Chair Michael Corradini, Ph.D., Wisconsin Distinguished Professor Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin, concluded, “This report will also serve as an historical document for reference by those who wish to know what really happened, from a scientific and technically informed perspective, and we thank all of our Committee members for their dedication, time and service creating this report to help us understand these events and better plan for our future.”

For more information about the American Nuclear Society, please visit www.ans.org.

Established in 1954, ANS is a professional not-for-profit organization of engineers and scientists devoted to the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology.  Its 11,600 members come from diverse technical backgrounds covering the full range of engineering disciplines as well as the physical and biological sciences.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/kordian/

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“Tears of the Earth,” a memorial concert and photo exhibit for the Great East Japan Disaster will be presented on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 1 p.m., at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on the first anniversary of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The commemorative event and fundraiser will support the ongoing work of the Japan Recovery Project of the Public Health Institute (PHI) in Oakland. It will be a gathering for people to share their feelings and grieve about the disaster.

Both western classical and Japanese music and performers will be featured. Artists will include Alexander Barantschik, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; Shoko Hikage, playing the koto; Brenda Wong Aoki, storytelling artist; and a photography exhibit of the earthquake area by Satoshi Ueda.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami that followed took more than 15,000 lives, and 3,200 people are still missing. More than 320,000 survivors evacuated from the disaster and continue to live in temporary housing. In addition, people who live close to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants as well as people who live throughout Japan are anxious about the long-term effects of exposure to radiation through the air they breathe, the water they drink and the food they eat.

In the past year, a slogan, “Gambare Nippon” (Fight for Recovery of Japan), was repeatedly uttered in the Japanese news media. Some progress has been made in recovery, such as cleaning up debris, building temporary housing for evacuees and recovering basic infrastructure of communities. However, a large number of evacuees and those who lost relatives and friends still experience lingering effects of depression and trauma.

The Japan Recovery Project at PHI aims to address post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues for the people affected by the disaster – including evacuees from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant area – in collaboration with government and nonprofit agencies. See www.jrpphi.org for more information.

The March 11 event will include remarks by Hiroshi Inomata, the Counsel General of Japan of San Francisco, Mary A. Pittman, DrPH, president and CEO of PHI, and Tooru Nemoto, Ph.D., Director, Japan Recovery Project. The event will be introduced by well-known Japanese news anchor Junko Kubo.

The multi-faceted cultural program will include a performance of the Cesar Franck Violin Sonata by Barantschik and Akimi Fukuhara, piano. Also featured will be a performance of the Vivaldi Concerto for Four Violins by violinists Yasuko Hattori, Yukiko Kurakata, Beni Shinohara, and Anni Asuka Yano accompanied by Timothy Bach. The performers include members of the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera Orchestra as well as the faculty and alumni of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Traditional works from Japan for koto will be performed as well as duets for koto and violin. In addition, Brenda Wong Aoki will present a piece for story teller and Japanese instruments that were inspired by the March 11, 2011, events. The memorial will open with a solemn prayer chant by Buddhist monks accompanied by bass player Shinji Eshima of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and bassoonist Steven Dibner of the San Francisco Symphony.

Photographer Satoshi Ueda is a resident of Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate who has devoted himself to chronicling the disaster, its aftermath, and its ongoing story on film. He has exhibited this work in Europe and Russia and will be exhibiting for the first time in the U.S. Some of his images will be projected in the theater accompanied by the solo violin music of J.S. Bach.

Violinist Yukiko Kurakata, on behalf of the performers says of the event, “This will be an occasion for all, audience members and performers, to come together as one through music to remember last year’s event and send our compassionate support for the recovery of Japan.”

Tickets are available through City Box Office at 415-392-4400 or www.cityboxoffice.com. Prices are $30 for adults and $15 for students in advance and $35 for adults and $20 for students at the door.

For more information please visit www.jrpphi.org or contact Dr. Tooru Nemoto, Project Director, tnemoto@phi.org; Mariko Iwamoto, 510-302-3373; miwamoto@phi.org

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/kordian/

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Devastating earthquakes and weather related catastrophes have made 2011 the most expensive year for natural disasters in terms of global economic losses, according to Munich Re, one of the world’s most renowned reinsurance companies.

In 2011, countries such as New Zealand, Japan, the US, and Australia have encountered several earthquakes, tropical storms, tornadoes, and wildfires, which have resulted in the death of many and the loss of billions of dollars. According to Ernst Rauch, the head of Munich Re’s corporate climate center, the estimated losses from natural disasters are valued at almost $380 billion.

Moreover, the Associated Press also reported that Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March led to the insured loss of some $40 billion, while New Zealand’s 6.3 magnitude earthquake caused $13 billion worth of damage.

For many years experts have predicted that climate change would lead to several disastrous weather events. Indeed, 2011 did live up to their predictions. In a press release, Torsten Jeworrek of Munich Re said,

“We were not surprised by any of the events when seen as single events, since they were within the range of what our risk models led us to expect. The accumulation of so many severe events of this type in such a short period is unusual, but is also considered in our scenario calculations.”

Approximately 70 percent of economic losses were in Asia, with a death toll of more than 15,840. Japan’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake led to an economic loss of $210 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster to date, according to news sources.

Currently, there is a great deal of controversy over whether global warming had something to do with 2011’s natural disasters. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes that there might be link between the two, Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Project told The Daily Caller: “Global warming alarmists will exploit any natural disaster to promote their anti-fossil fuel agenda.” He also added that it is a part of the “global warming spin machine.”

The International Daily news reported that 90 percent of the known natural disasters were weather-related. However, most of the economic losses came from geophysical events, rather than weather related catastrophes. Munich Re said, the natural catastrophes of 2011, resulted in the death of 27,000 people, excluding those from drought in Africa and global civil war and political instability.

According to Miguel Lianos of msnbc.com, Bob Hartwig, the head of the Insurance Information Institute, told reporters that, “2011 is one for the record books, we are rewriting the financial and economic history of disasters on a global scale.”

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Sapporo Breweries announced on January 5 that it is webcasting a special commercial-message featuring narrations scripted by writer Haruki Murakami and footage produced by movie director Hirokazu Koreeda in a special advertising campaign to encourage the people of Japan to move forward despite difficulties caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The web commercial is based on a series of four TV commercials aired during the Hakone Ekiden (long-distance college relay road race) on January 2-3, 2012, a nationally popular New Year event broadcast live across Japan. The race is a round trip between Tokyo and the resort town of Hakone.

Author Murakami, who found the intention of the campaign personally agreeable, wrote narrations for the TV commercials (*) featuring acts of running. A runner himself, Murakami agreed for the first time to take on writing commercial narrations. He intends to donate all of his writing fees to disaster-stricken areas through the Japanese Red Cross Society. Moreover, director Koreeda, who also agreed to the intention of the advertisement, planned and directed the commercials. The narrations were voiced by actress Yukie Nakama.

Koreeda also combined the four commercials into a 3-minute, 32-second special movie, made available on the company’s website from January 5, 2012. Visitors to the site can read Murakami’s narrations in their entirety. The webcast will be available until the end of January.

The company wishes that the special corporate ad would serve as encouragement for the future of the Japanese people, or as “tasuki” — a sash of cloth worn by ekiden runners — carrying the desire to revitalize Japan and to be passed on from the company to the people of Japan.

(*) Murakami personally wrote the narrations for the TV commercials based on his book “What I Talk about When Talking about Running: A Memoir” (available as a paperback book in the Bunshun Bunko series).

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