TÜV Rheinland Japan
After Fukushima we had a lot of enquiries about radiation safety,” says Michael Jungnitsch, president and CEO of testing, inspection and certification company TÜV Rheinland Japan.
Fortunately, his company could draw on 50 years of experience in radiation testing and protection from radiation, as well as in dealing with radioactive waste and the decommissioning of nuclear plants.
Unlike companies that scrabbled to buy Geiger counters after the quake, TÜV Rheinland already had its own equipment and could quickly source more from Germany. It helped many companies radiation- test products for export from Japan and moved quickly to provide on-site radiation checks or training for companies wishing to perform their own.
Next year, Germany’s TÜV Rheinland will celebrate its 140th anniversary. The company was founded after a series of horrific steam boiler accidents created a need for safety checks and certifications. Other early business included administering driving tests, vehicle inspections and elevator checks.
TÜV Rheinland’s links with Japan date back to the 1970s when Germany bought steel and pressure vessels here to build power stations. At the time, TÜV Rheinland staff visited Japan to help supervise production. Later in the 1980s, Japan was exporting large numbers of cars to Europe and TÜV Rheinland was involved in safety testing. In 1983, TÜV Rheinland Japan was set up.
Not surprisingly, Jungnitsch is critical of Japan’s nuclear safety testing system. He points out that Japan has no properly independent organisation checking the safety of nuclear power stations. Tepco, for instance, in effect checks its own facilities. In Japan, he says, around 300 engineers work on safety for all the nation’s nuclear power stations; whereas in Germany the figure is 50 for each power station.
That’s why companies like TÜV Rheinland have much to offer Japan, Jungnitsch stresses. “We are an independent third party: independent from the manufacturer and independent from the operator.”
The company’s special expertise was put to effective use in the first few days after 3/11 – including assessing radiation levels in Tokyo. An immediate concern of the company – as for many others – was whether it needed to evacuate its Yokohama office. TÜV Rheinland used its own equipment to measure radiation levels, sharing data with employees, as well as with the German community.
“On 14 March our experts computer-simulated the absolute worst-case scenario,” Jungnitsch recalls. “But Tokyo still wouldn’t have reached the level where there was a need to take iodine tablets.”
Handmade prototype
Of course, TÜV Rheinland’s business involves far more than measuring radiation. It certifies both products imported into Japan and products exported abroad. Although they test everything from teddy bears to office equipment to medical devices, the bulk of their work deals with items that are “relatively dangerous if not well maintained,” Jungnitsch says – including automobiles.
They conduct crash tests for both Japanese and foreign car manufacturers. One test in particular sticks in Jungnitsch’s mind – for a Lambourghini. “My heart bled,” he remembers, “it was a handmade prototype.”
TÜV Rheinland certifies more medical devices for the Japanese market (including those made by Japanese companies) than anyone else. And it is also number one for testing electrical devices, having issued more than 11,000 certificates last year alone.
The company certifies both to its own and to others’ standards. As Jungnitsch explains, the degree of harmonisation between standards depends on the kind of product. Standards for electrical equipment, for example, are well harmonised globally. On the other hand, standards for anything to do with medical care tend to be set locally.
Likewise, the company can test using the customer’s own facilities, or it can use its own. TÜV Rheinland’s HQ in Japan and two laboratories are in Yokohama, while it also has facilities and offices in Osaka and Fukuoka.
The photovoltaic power sector is a key part of the company’s business; TÜV Rheinland tests no less that 80% of all photovoltaic modules produced and certified in the world. The panels are checked for safety, quality and efficiency. “[The latter] is very important because it determines the return on investment for these products,” says Jungnitsch. Durability is equally crucial since panels need to last 25 years or more.
Another growing business is the testing of high-performance batteries, such as those for electric cars. “The challenge is to fit more power in smaller spaces, but this increases the risk when something goes wrong,” says Jungnitsch. “Usually the problems occur during fast-charging; if there are any faults in the batteries it can be extremely dangerous.”
New jobs, long-term problem
Since 3/11 TÜV Rheinland has created 10 new radiation-testing jobs for engineers in Japan. It has also set up a laboratory to test for radioactive substances in food and water using gamma spectroscopy. It isn’t common – to say the least – for so large a market to appear so suddenly. “There was zero demand for testing of this kind before,” Jungnitsch says.
The company provides measurement and management of radiation at all stages of manufacturing processes. It is also a partner in the nuclear power plant stress tests already happening in Europe, and hopefully soon in Japan.
Of course, Europe has had its own experience of nuclear calamity. “We are still doing testing connected with Chernobyl,” says Jungnitsch.
“There will be a need for a long-term system of measurement. I think this demand will last a very long time … the half-life of caesium is 30 years.”