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Radiation to be measured in monkeys in Fukushima forests

The group plans to target monkeys in southern Minami-Soma in the prefecture, an area that was inside the no-entry zone around the crippled nuclear plant until mid-April. Relatively high radiation levels have been recorded in the area.

“It’s difficult to accurately gauge how much radioactive cesium has
contaminated mountain forests because the substance is easily moved by
rainwater and by other natural conditions,”

Wild monkeys to help gauge Fukushima radiation http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120511004760.htm The Yomiuri Shimbun, 11 May 12, FUKUSHIMA–Wild Japanese monkeys wearing special collars fitted with dosimeters and Global Positioning System devices will be used to measure radiation levels in the mountain forests of Fukushima Prefecture in an experiment due to start this month.

A group of researchers at Fukushima University plans to start the experiment to determine the dispersal of radiation due to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and support decontamination work. Continue reading →

May 13, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Lawsuit against TEPCO, over suicide in Fukushima

Japan grapples with post-tsunami suicides Daily Mail, By Arata Yamamoto, NBC News , 12 May 12 TOKYO, Japan – More than 60 people have committed suicides related to last year’s 9.0 quake and tsunami, which triggered meltdowns at a nuclear plant in Fukushima, the Japanese government says.

The data comes as a family prepares to file the first lawsuit against the Tokyo Electric Power Co. over the suicide of Hamako Watanabe, a 58-year-old woman who set herself on fire in wake of the disaster.

In 2011, 55 people committed suicide, with another six cases reported since the beginning of 2012. Suicides linked to the Fukushima nuclear accident are included in the numbers, but attribution to the nuclear crisis has been omitted due to privacy concerns. The data was collected using local police reports since last June…..

Watanabe’s family will seek $910,000 in damages in the death of Hamako Watanabe from TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, according to The Japan Times  and The Mainichi . They plan to file the lawsuit – which would be the first over a suicide linked to the nuclear crisis – on May 18 in Fukushima District Court….

Hamako Watanabe had been a poultry worker until her workplace was shuttered after the tsunami, and she began to show signs of insomnia and had a poor appetite. A group of lawyers representing victims of the nuclear crisis said her depression and suicide were due to the nuclear disaster, The Mainichi reported.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142849/Haunting-shots-Chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-revealed-true-scale-catastrophe–cost-photographers-lives.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

May 13, 2012 Posted by | Japan, psychology - mental health | Leave a comment

Route for nuclear facility pylons, cables, planned for Cumbria

Cumbria nuclear pylon route plan unveiled  BBC News 11 May 12,  Plans showing possible routes of pylons and cabling for a nuclear facility in Cumbria have been revealed.

A new nuclear power station is planned to be built beside Sellafield by 2023.

The project will include a route of pylons or a series of underground cables running from Sellafield to Heysham, or through the Lake District National Park.

Details of the six options are available online for ten weeks to allow the public to provide feedback…..    Feedback on the website  will run until 19 July.    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-18027798

May 13, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Chernobyl photographers paid with their lives

Never-seen-before shots of Chernobyl nuclear disaster that cost two of the four photographers their lives http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142849/Haunting-shots-Chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-revealed-true-scale-catastrophe–cost-photographers-lives.html?ito=feeds-newsxml  By DAILY MAIL REPORTER, 11 May 2012 These are the haunting images that captured the true scale of the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The black and white shots, taken in the weeks following the 1986 Ukraine tragedy, revealed the truth behind the tragedy Soviet
authorities were trying to hush up.

But despite helping the outside world to understand what happened that fateful April 26 day, the pictures have had a devastating human cost.
Of the four photographers chronicling the tragedy, Anatoly Rasskazov and Valery Zufarov have died from radiation-related diseases and Igor Kostin is constantly ill from the exposure. Continue reading →

May 13, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Global famine would result from just one nuclear attack

A nuclear clash could starve the world, By Jayantha Dhanapala and Ira Helfand,  May 11, 2012 —  (CNN) — Recent ballistic missile tests by India, Pakistan and North Korea — which has ominously threatened to “reduce to ashes” the South Korean military “in minutes” — are once again focusing the world’s attention on the dangers of nuclear war.

This concern was dramatically underscored in a new report released at the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in Chicago. Titled “Nuclear Famine: A Billion People at Risk” (PDF),   the study shows that even a limited nuclear war, involving less than half of 1% of the world’s nuclear arsenals, would cause climate disruption that could set off a global famine. Continue reading →

May 13, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | Leave a comment

‘Thrill-seeking’ nuclear reactor operator hijacks car

Authorities: Nuclear engineer sought ‘thrill’ in DuPage hijacking Daily Herald,  5/11/2012   A man who operates reactors at a nuclear power plant was “thrill seeking” when he put on a mask and hijacked a woman’s car at gunpoint, DuPage County authorities said Friday. Continue reading →

May 13, 2012 Posted by | incidents | 1 Comment

Anarchist’s attack on nuclear executive in Italy

The letter takes aim at Adinolfi, calling him a “sorcerer of the atomic industry” and criticising him for claiming in an interview that none of the deaths during the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011 were due to nuclear incidents.

“Adinolfi knows well that it is only a matter of time before a European Fukushima kills on our continent,” the letter stated.

Italian anarchists kneecap nuclear executive and threaten more shootings Group named after Greek anarchist warns it will strike seven more times at nuclear firm’s parent company, Finmeccanica, Tom Kington in Rome guardian.co.uk,   11 May 2012  An anarchist group claimed responsibility on Friday for kneecapping an Italian nuclear engineering executive and warned it would strike another seven times at the firm’s parent company, Finmeccanica. Continue reading →

May 13, 2012 Posted by | safety | Leave a comment

Vogtle Nuclear Reactor’s cost overrun $2 billion

Rushing nuclear power reactors is not prudent and stockholders and/or the vendors, not ratepayers, should bear the burden of such costs.

Groups: Nearly $1 Billion Vogtle Nuclear Reactor Cost Overrun Echoes Earlier Warning About “Boondoggle” Project By Southern Alliance for Clean Energy The Sacramento Bee, , May. 11, 2012   WASHINGTON,   — We Told You So:  Major Cost Overruns  Latest Sign of Vogtle Woes, Including Construction Errors and Raft of Amendments to Federal License   – Even though the Vogtle reactor project got its federal license just three months ago, the controversial nuclear reactors are already in trouble. The latest problem: A cost overrun of nearly $1 billion in 2011 dollars, according to groups that warned in February that the Vogtle expansion effort is a boondoggle that could hurt ratepayers and (depending on the status of a pending Solyndra-style federal loan guarantee) U.S. taxpayers. Continue reading →

May 13, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment