Chapter 289: An Ordinary Scientist (3)

“The award schedule cannot be changed. It can’t be awarded in Norway first, nor can it be awarded in Sweden first. If we tell the Nobel Committee in the Norwegian Parliament to come to Sweden, they won’t listen. The right to award the Nobel Peace Prize is something that the Norwegian government is very proud of,” Forsbeg said.

“Then what if we go to Norway?” asked Doctor Oskar of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

“That doesn’t make sense either,” objected Professor Markus. “We have to award three prizes. Should we travel all the way to Norway and present them there?”

“This isn’t something your national pride should be hurt by. We’re giving a good prize to an outstanding person on a great day; the location doesn’t really matter,” Oskar said. “Doctor Markus, the people who give the Peace Prize are often very politically active and often give it to movements, so they might be more sensitive about moving the awarding to another country. But aren’t we scientists? Science has no borders, right?”

“Still, we can’t. Even if we don’t care, the people will. We’ll be criticized.”

“Then what if we go to Korea?” Princess Desideria asked after listening for a while.

Everyone was thinking it, but they couldn’t say it out loud.

“To Korea?” Oskar asked.

“We can go, and we can tell the Norwegian government to go to Korea as well. Doctor Ryu, the recipient, is in Korea, so we have a reason to, right?”

“Then, the problem is with the other recipient,” Markus said.

“Yes, your Royal Highness. The Nobel Prize in Literature isn’t going to be awarded this year because of the MeToo scandal, so the problem is the Nobel Prize in Economics, and the recipient is not Korea,” Oskar said.

“It was a Japanese professor, right? Nobuhiro?”

“Yes. He published a paper in 1997 predicting the 2008 financial crisis in the United States. That crisis made him an instant star in the field.”

“Economics is not a science. There was no prize for economics in Alfred Nobel’s will in the first place. Those central banks made up one and attached it to the Nobel Prize’s prestige,” Forsberg said.

“Economics is a social

science

. Don’t be too harsh,” Markus said. “Anyways, as Her Royal Highness mentioned, Japan is pretty close to Korea, so we can just tell him to come to Korea, too.”

“Right?”

Desideria smiled.

Forsberg scoffed, understanding the true motives of Desideria.

“Your Royal Highness wants to go to Korea,” he said.

“I am curious what it’s like there now, having become the number one company in the world in just a couple years,” Desideria admitted honestly.

“But still, it might be a bit disrespectful to Professor Nobuhiro if we asked him to travel to the country where the other recipient is, rather than the country where the award ceremony is held,” Oskar pointed out.,

“Then let’s ask for Professor Nobuhiro’s opinion first, after the winners are announced. Is he busy these days? What’s he working on?”

“Right now...” Markus said, hesitating. “He’s doing research on nuclear power plants.”

“Nuclear power plants?”

Desideria’s eyes narrowed.

“An economist working on nuclear power plants?”

“Well, he’s probably not studying the nuclear reactor reactions or fusion power or anything like that. He’s probably researching the cost-effectiveness of Japan’s power industry and nuclear power plant maintenance. I don’t know much about it, but recently, various issues related to the Fukushima nuclear plant have resurfaced in Japan, and it’s causing a lot of controversy,” Oskar said.

“Really?”

“Yes. And Professor Nobuhiro is advocating for the full replacement of nuclear power plants with A-GenBio’s solar cells. He’s actively moving as the key speaker among anti-nuclear policy supporters.”

“I see. If he’s that busy, it might actually be better this way. Going to Korea would be more convenient than traveling to Norway or Sweden, right? The only problem is that the relationship between Korea and Japan isn’t that great,” Desideria said.

“They don’t have a good relationship?” Forsbeg asked as if he was hearing this for the first time.

“But Doctor Ryu and Professor Kakeguni seem to get along well,” Oskar said, also quite confused.

They were too much of a scientist to be interested in things like the history of a small country in Northeast Asia on the other side of the world.

“There’s a lot of modern-day issues, and recently there’s been a trade dispute when Japan removed Korea from its list of White Countries. There was a boycotting movement, too. It seems like they’re not on good terms.”

“I see. Then, he might refuse to go to Korea. Should I contact Professor Nobuhiro and ask him in advance?” Oskar asked.

“No. The recipients are announced a week before the awards as a rule. We cannot spoil it for Professor Nobuhiro. Let’s wait and see how things go, and only talk to Norway about going to Korea.”

*

The aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was still tormenting Japan.

Fukushima Prefecture had the important advantage of being located at the southern end of the Tohoku region, making it the closest to Tokyo. Because of this geography, it has long been a junction of the ōshū Kaidō, Yonezawa Kaido, and the Ushū Kaidō, developing as a transportation hub. It was also an important industrial area, and the city had invested heavily in nuclear power generation.

1. In residential areas and gardens, it was predicted that large amounts of radioactive material would be washed away by rainwater, so debris and rain gutters and drains were removed.

2. For roads and streets, it was predicted that radioactive material would be washed off the paved surfaces, so the surface soil at the edges of the road was removed. However, in highly contaminated parking lots and roads, the surface was scraped off.

3. In agricultural fields, the topsoil was removed and covered with fresh soil.

4. In the most heavily contaminated areas near the nuclear power plant, near surface disposal was used: the ground was dug about ten meters deep, concrete structures were built to bury solid waste, and then the area was covered with mortar.

5. For equipment, chemical substances such as oxalic acid and phosphoric acid were used to decontaminate every corner.

Once this was done, the Japanese government began moving people back to Fukushima and restarting the nuclear power plants one by one.

Nuclear power plants were once a key source of electricity, providing thirty percent of the country’s power. It wasn’t easy to let go of such critical facilities so easily.

“The problem is that the mortar is broken...”

Hishijima clicked his tongue as he read the report. It showed that the cracks in the mortar surface were leaking radiation.

But there was a bigger problem. The mortar was either solid waste or waste from the plant itself. However, there was still no way to treat the contaminated water from the decontamination process.

At the time of the accident, Japan discharged much of the Fukushima wastewater into the ocean, which was heavily criticized by the international community. Even within the country, it was heavily criticized.

As such, they changed their approach slightly. They built huge storage tanks near the plant to hold the contaminated water. But at some point, the volume of the contaminated water became unimaginable. By early 2019, it had exceeded 1.12 million tons. And because of the cost of treating this contaminated water, the entire cost of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was snowballing.

[Projected to be about 81 trillion yen by 2050.]

The report estimated a painful price: eight hundred ten trillion yen. It was a problem that would take almost a year of Japan’s budget to solve.

But this was the secret: fifty-one trillion yen was the cost of treating the polluted water; that was what it would cost to neutralize all the polluted water directly instead of releasing it into the ocean. If they diluted it and released it into the ocean, it would cost eleven trillion yen. If they released the water without any treatment, it could reduce the cost by as much as four trillion yen.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry has already decided to release all of this contaminated water into the ocean and atmosphere.

“They always create the mess and leave it to us to clean it up.”

Hishijima sighed.

It was like a design major drawing up a clever, magical mechanism and then telling the engineer to figure out how it worked. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology was responsible for predicting, solving, and taking responsibility for the environmental problems that would result from releasing this contaminated water.

Hishijima resumed reading the file that was sent to him in the morning.

[Research on Effective Decontamination Methods for Fukushima Radioactive Contamination]

“Sir!”

Suzuki from the Nuclear Energy Division knocked roughly on the director’s door.

“A company called Cellijenner from Korea wants to do research on radiation decontamination.”

“Cellijenner?”

Hishijima scratched his head.

“Isn’t that the same pharmaceutical company that made Cellicure?”

“Yes, and they’re also the company that made the microdust reduction device.”

“... If they’re coming all the way out here to study radiation removal, that means they have an item that’s somewhat effective. That’s why they’re coming here to test if it works in the field, right?”

“I think so.”

“Okay. Tell them to come.”

*

“It’s been a while, Doctor Ryu.”

Professor Kakeguni smiled brightly and hugged Young-Joon.

“How have you been?” Young-Joon asked.

“I’ve been well, thanks for asking.”

“Then, this must be...?”

Young-Joon glanced at the old professor, who looked like he was in his sixties, standing next to Kakeguni.

“I’m Nobuhiro. Nice to meet you.”

Nobuhiro extended his hand to Young-Joon and shook his hand.

“Your Korean is very good!”

“That’s all he memorized on the plane. Now, you’ll have to speak English,” Kakeguni said, chuckling.

“I see. Let’s go inside.”

Young-Joon led them into his office.

“I’m sure you already know why I’m here,” Nobuhiro said.

“Yes, I heard you want to buy some solar cells?”

“Yes. I want to build a small power plant in Japan using solar cells and use it to attack the Japanese government’s policy to reactivate the nuclear power plants.”

“Is the Japanese government starting to reactivate nuclear power plants?” Young-Joon asked.

“It’s a very, very,

very

stupid idea,” Nobuhiro said.

“Japan is the country that has suffered the most from the nuclear disaster. Restarting the nuclear power plants will not only damage our international image, but if we release contaminated water in the process, we can’t predict what might happen. Furthermore, with the development of solar cells, there is no longer any need for nuclear power plants. Restarting them now in this situation? That would be the worst possible move.”

“Hm...”

With his arms crossed, Young-Joon listened to Nobuhiro.

“Why did the Japanese government make that choice?” he asked.

“Because of crony capitalism,” Nobuhiro said without a doubt.

“Crony capitalism?”

“The Fukushima incident was a man-made disaster that was preventable through technology. But we got greedy and wanted to keep the reactors alive just a little longer, and that’s what ended up happening,” Nobuhiro said. “Do you know what punishment the people responsible received as a result?”

“If you’re saying that, it must have been a slap on the wrist. Maybe two or three years?” Young-Joon said.

“Hahaha,” Nobuhiro laughed. “How I wish they had gotten that much. They were all found innocent. The company cut their wages by thirty percent, and that was it.”

“...”

“The reason Prime Minister Atabe is restarting the reactors is because Japan’s nuclear power industry has always been deeply intertwined with politics , and this connection became even stronger during nationalization.”