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Report: 100,000 Tepco employees being sent to Fukushima in 2013

http://enenews.com/100000-tepco-employees-expected-to-go-to-fukushima-in-2013-all-of-companys-workers-to-be-sent

Published: October 27th, 2012 at 5:30 pm ET 
By 

Oct. 27 ,2012 report in Nikkei with summary translation by Fukushima Diary:

In the mid-term administration plan, Tepco decided to send all of their employees to Fukushima for decontamination from 2013.

They are sent to Fukushima for 2~3 times a year, about 100,000 people in total will go to Fukushima annually.

This is not volunteer, this is obligation.

 

More detail on the comments on the enenews article concerning manpower resources available

October 28, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

TEPCO tries to find somewhere for Radioactive water -Toshiba Water Treatment Technology- Pie in the sky?

“Next month, Okamura’s group plans to flip the switch on new purifying equipment using Toshiba Corp. technology that is supposedly able to decontaminate the water by removing strontium and other nuclides, potentially below detectable levels, he said.

TEPCO claims the treated water from this new system is clean enough to be potentially released into the ocean”

 

By Mari Yamaguchi

NATIONAL OCT. 28, 2012

Japan Today

[…]

“…….To deal with the excess tainted water, the utility has channeled it to more than 300 huge storage tanks placed around the plant. The utility has plans to install storage tanks for up to 700,000 tons—or about three more years’ worth—f contaminated water. If that maxes out, it could build additional space for roughly two more years’ worth of storage, said Mayumi Yoshida, a company spokeswoman.
  
But those forecasts hinge on plans to detect and plug holes in the damaged reactors to minimize leaks over the next two years. The utility also plans to take steps to keep ground water from seeping into the reactor basements.
  
Both are tasks that TEPCO is still not sure how to accomplish: Those areas remain so highly radioactive that it is unclear how humans or even robots could work there.

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October 28, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Vietnam int’l nuclear expo 2012 -Activists detained-Human Rights Watch

“In 2012, the Da Lat University offers the scholarship of one million dong a month and seats at dorms when enrolling students for the nuclear power major. However, the school could enroll 17 students only, while it planned to enroll 50.”

 

“As you receive this letter, seventeen Vietnamese social activists, including bloggers and citizen journalists have been in jail for up to a year. Most have not even been brought to trial. These seventeen individuals have been arbitrarily detained because of their work as citizen journalists, environmental advocates, anti-corruption crusaders and human rights defenders.”

 

Saturday, 27 October 2012

Mr Vuong Huu Tan, Head of the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety VARANS

The press briefing held on October 24 in Vietnam was introduced as the meeting to introduce the 2012 nuclear power exhibition to be inaugurated the next day.

However, the questions raised by the reporters at the press briefing did not relate to the exhibition. The biggest matter of interest of the participants was the safety of the nuke power plants to be built in Vietnam.

After the Fukushima accident in March 2011, some big countries in the world, including Germany and Switzerland, are considering shut a part or the whole nuclear power plans. This has once again, triggered the big worries about the safety of the nuke plants in Vietnam.

However, Vuong Huu Tan, Head of the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety VARANS, has affirmed that the nuclear power plants still have been on the development over the last 18 months, after the Fukushima catastrophe, simply because no alternative energy source has been found.

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October 28, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Greenpeace: US tried to cover-up effects of BP’s Gulf oil spill _Real cost for BP 50 billion Dollars?

After the decomposed carcass was discovered, U.S. officials gave strict instructions to the crew aboard the vessels that no information or photographs were to be released. NOAA did later issue a press release about the dead whale, though it was soon edited in such a way that it appeared to minimize the oil’s effect on whales.

 

“We believe a full throated debate over the settlement amount needs to happen before any deal is done,” said John Kostyack, a vice president at the National Wildlife Federation, who estimates BP’s potential liability at more than $50 billion.

 

Oct 26, 2012

Yulia Monakhova

Greenpeace obtained documents relating to the 2010 BP oil spill indicating that Obama administration officials tried to restrict information about whales and other wildlife affected by the disaster. The newly released pictures and emails show that, two years ago, the U.S. government tried to cover up the number of whales which came into close contact with BP’s leaking oil well after the Gulf of Mexico spill.

США Мексиканский залив нефть экологическая катастрофа загрязнение

The environmental organization obtained the pictures and emails in late September through a Freedom of information request. The pictures were taken in the summer of 2010 and show the carcass of a sperm whale whose skin had been burnt black. According to The Guardian, the dead whale was sighted at sea, south of the Deepwater Horizon oilrig.

It is thought the photos were taken by crewmembers of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) research vessel,Pisces, who found the dead whale on June 15, 2010. It was floating 77 miles from the Deepwater Horizon. The young sperm whale’s skin had been burned and partially eaten by sharks. On the same day, NOAA observers aboard another vessel spotted five whales covered in oil. After the decomposed carcass was discovered, U.S. officials gave strict instructionsto the crew aboard the vessels that no information or photographs were to be released. NOAA did later issue a press release about the dead whale, though it was soon edited in such a way that it appeared to minimize the oil’s effect on whales.

There were believed to be about 1,200 sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico at the time of the spill, making it one of the biggest populations in the world. Environmental organizations and the U.S. government still need to determine the exact impact of the oil spill on wildlife in the area, particularly on endangered species, such as sea turtles and sperm whales. The outcome may have enormous financial implications for BP.

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October 28, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | 4 Comments