Japan needs all the help it can get with clean-up

The failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last year struck a body blow to Japan’s image as a bastion of world-beating technological prowess. Not only did the atomic power station prove disastrously vulnerable to last year’s tsunami, Japan also frequently found itself forced to rely on foreign equipment to contain the crisis.

To pour water into the top of a shattered reactor building, workers turned to a 62m truck-mounted concrete pump made by Chinese construction machinery manufacturer Sany Group. The first robots to venture into the highly radioactive reactor halls were made by iRobot Corp of the US.

And for the vital job of decontaminating the more than 100,000 tonnes of highly contaminated water that accumulated in Fukushima Daiichi’s basements and tunnels, Japan turned to Areva, the French nuclear group, and Kurion, the US nuclear waste disposal company.

International companies remain keen to help in the vast long-term task of cleaning up the now-stabilised plant and eventually closing it down. There should be plenty of work available: a government panel has estimated that during the next 10 years the cost of decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi could reach about Y1.15tn.

In a sign of overseas eagerness, UK officials in October organised a symposium in Tokyo where 30 British nuclear industry companies could tout their skills to Japanese policymakers.

Yet it would be a mistake to imagine that Japan will be content to lean too heavily on foreigners as it grapples with the aftermath of the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

In a speech to business bigwigs and foreign diplomats this week, Goshi Hosono, minister for nuclear accidents, made clear he expected Japanese businesses to take the lead now that Fukushima Daiichi’s crippled reactors have been brought to “cold shutdown”.

“We have been getting all kinds of support from various countries, but at the same time I want to place importance on ‘made in Japan’,” Mr Hosono said.

The minister, who was the prime minister’s point man during the worst days of the nuclear crisis and is now also environment minister, highlighted the overlooked roles that Japanese companies had already been playing to help plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Radio-controlled caterpillar dump trucks and mechanical shovels provided by Komatsu, for example, were able to do the unsung work of clearing contaminated tsunami debris surrounding the plant building, drastically reducing radiation levels.

But he made clear that “made in Japan” should play a more central part as the nation starts along the long road to the final decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi – a goal likely to take three or four decades to reach.

Work at the plant is already taking on a more domestic hue. The purification system centred on equipment from Areva and Kurion, for example, is now merely a back-up for a new water decontamination set-up put together by Toshiba that its backers claim is more reliable and efficient.

Such localisation will come as little surprise to those tracking Japan’s nuclear industry. Proud Japanese nuclear suppliers such as Toshiba and Hitachi’s joint venture with General Electric were never likely to end up taking a back seat. Not least, demonstrating leadership at home will be vital to maintaining confidence in the more modern reactors that they hope to continue to sell around the world.

Philippe Gillet, director of Areva’s Fukushima project, says he does not expect more requests on the scale of the water purification system. “I think we will probably succeed in some niches, but I don’t anticipate huge sales,” he says.

“The expectation is that Japanese companies will be central to the process,” agrees Sue Kinoshita, director of trade and investment at the British Embassy in Tokyo. “We tell [UK] companies, ‘you are going to need to establish partnerships with the locals’.”

To his credit Mr Hosono stresses that his advocacy on “made in Japan” absolutely does not mean any de facto closure of the market – and that foreign technology remains welcome.

But the minister must be careful that his message does not morph into the kind of undeclared protectionism for which Japan is notorious among its western trading partners when it comes to sectors such as medical equipment or train parts.

Efforts to duplicate expertise already available elsewhere would be highly wasteful – not least because future nuclear accidents should be infrequent – so Japanese companies should focus on areas where they can offer real innovation.

Quite simply, the Fukushima Daiichi clean-up is too big and too important to complicate with national sentiment. Japan should remain ready to use all the help it can get.

Mure Dickie is the FT’s Tokyo bureau chief

mure.dickie@ft.com

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