Foreign firms largely excluded in Fukushima clean-up
By Mari Saito
NATIONAL DEC. 17, 2012 – 04:00PM JST
Japan Today
TOKYO —
Nearly two years after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan is failing to keep a pledge to tap global expertise to decommission its crippled reactors, executives at nuclear contractors from the United States and Europe say.
The result, they warn, is that a process expected to take more than 30 years and cost at least $15 billion could take longer and cost more as contracts are channelled through domestic heavyweights such as nuclear reactor makers Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd, andgeneral contractors such as Taisei Corp.
A review of bidding records by Reuters shows companies from outside Japan have failed to win any of the 21 contracts awarded this year to develop technologies crucial for the unprecedented job of scrapping the four damaged reactors at Fukushima.
“There appears to be a desire to treat this as a science project and reinvent the wheel,” Jeffrey Merrifield, senior vice president of U.S. nuclear engineering firm Shaw Group Inc’s power division told Reuters.
Contracts awarded since January represent only the initial work at Fukushima. But a half-dozen executives at companies with nuclear industry experience raised questions about the Japanese government’s and Tokyo Electric Power Co’s oversight of the process.
Some executives worry that being shut out now risks their ability to tap a growth market, since Japan could scrap dozens of reactors over the coming decades. Most asked not be named for fear of jeopardizing their ability to win future work in Japan.
Takuya Hattori, president of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, a group representing the nuclear industry in Japan, said the government has not been responsive to complaints about the bidding process. “They are shutting that criticism out incredibly deftly,” said Hattori, a 36-year veteran of TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant.
Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima -A message to the world !
Video update on Fukushima Part 1
Published on Dec 7, 2012
Yastel Yamada is a retired technition from the Fukushima Diiatchi Power Plant in Japan that was hit by an earthquake and tsunami 11 March 2011. He established the Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima, an organization of 700 retired scientists and engineers who volunteered to do the clean up work and risk illness and death to protect younger people from the exposure.
In this talk Mr. Yamada presents details of the situation at the plant and his overall principles and plans for dealing with the 40 year clean up required.
Video update on Fukushima Part 2
Published on Dec 16, 2012
Yastel Yamada is a retired technition from the Fukushima Diiatchi Power Plant in Japan that was hit by an earthquake and tsunami 11 March 2011. He established the Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima, an organization of 700 retired scientists and engineers who volunteered to do the clean up work and risk illness and death to protect younger people from the exposure.
In this talk Mr. Yamada presents details of the situation at the plant and his overall principles and plans for dealing with the 40 year clean up required.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhmFImLqBV0
SVCF Bulletin No. 29 issued on December 1, 2012
When we started SVCF in the first half of last year, we thought that we would be able to start our work at Fukushima #1 Nuclear Power Plant almost immediately. However, the reality, which we’ve gradually come to understand since last year’s negotiations, is that the multilayered subcontracting system, which is characteristic of the Japanese society, has been a huge barrier for us.
The multilayered subcontracting system has been problematic in the IT industry for the last 10 years, and there doesn’t appear to be an easy solution for this issue. This issue is also something that will need to be resolved as it relates to the Fukushima nuclear power plant. As they prepare to start removing fuel debris from the site, it will become increasingly difficult to work within the current system.
Mozilla rallies for opposition against secret Internet treaty – And how to fight it
““A lot of concerns I’ve heard from people have been that, in fact, countries that want to be able to block the Internet and give people within their country a ‘secure’ view of what’s out there would use a treaty at the ITU as a mechanism to do that, and force other countries to fall into line with the blockages that they wanted to put in place,” Berners-Lee said.”
“Leaked documents from the WCIT meeting suggest that shot-callers from across the globe have floated the idea of adopting a new standard for the Internet that will implement deep packet inspection, or DPI, essentially allowing all traffic sent across the Web to be reviewed by a governing body.”
Published: 11 December, 2012, 23:23
Add another name to the list of critics concerned with attempts to rewrite the International Telecommunication Union to give governments control of the Internet: Silicon Valley’s Mozilla now officially opposes the ITU.
Mozilla, the makers of the highly successful Firefox Web browser for Macs, PCs and smart phones, have come out to condemn a top-secret meeting in Dubai this week that could lead to changes with how the world is wired to the Internet.
The details of the closed-door discussions being held between members of the United Nation’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) this week in the United Arab Emirates remains a secret, and that’s exactly why Mozilla is speaking up. In a plea posted on Mozilla.org, the developers write, “The issue isn’t whether our governments, the UN or even the ITU should play a role in shaping the Web. The problem is that they are trying to do it behind closed doors, in secret, without us.”
“The Web lets us speak out, share and connect around the things that matter. It creates new opportunities, holds governments to account, breaks through barriers and makes cats famous. This isn’t a coincidence. It’s because the Web belongs to all of us,” insists Mozilla. “We all get a say in how it’s built.”
Now in order to raise awareness of what the WCIT can do by rewriting the ITU, Mozilla has released an “Engagement Kit” in order to get people around the globe talking about what could happen to the Web without their input ever being considered.
“Mozilla has made it our mission to keep the power of the web in people’s hands,” the developers say.
Mozilla now joins a list of major Internet names opposed to the ITU talks, which in recent days has added both Vint Cerf and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, two computer scientists widely regarded as instrumental figures as far as getting the world online goes.
Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, spoke openly against the ITU just recently while attending the WCIT, warning that rewriting the international treaty to put Internet regulation in the hands of government is not just unnecessary, but would cause a “disruptive threat to the stability” of the Internet as we know it.
Japan: political win for the nuclear Mafia
Far Right Dinosaur Party Wins Japan Elections http://rense.com/general95/farright.html By Richard Wilcox 12-16-12 Looking over the results on the TV here in Japan, the far right CIA created and sustained “Liberal Democratic Party” (LDP) which ruled Japan since WWII is back in power, BIG TIME. They won almost all the seats. The only other parties to win numerous seats are almost or just as far right and as pathologically fueled by power.
All of these parties are captured by the Nuclear Mafia and fiercely devoted to the continuation of nuclear power, if not the development of nuclear weapons to boot. Don’t ask me why the Japanese vote for these nuts and if you ask folks, “why?” they like a certain candidate, they are at a loss to give a reason and smile with embarrassment.
I guess the LDP pay off certain voting sectors with construction projects and kickbacks since they have a pile of stolen money hiddenaway.
Of course, the system is rigged so that only big money candidates can get enough votes. Also, culturally, Japanese tend to support the utmost superficial and glib politicians in a battle of form over substance. Same as USA! Japanese have forgotten about the nuclear disaster thanks to media manipulation so there has been no referendum on nuclear policy.
There are intelligent and sincere political parties and candidates in Japan but they get no-head way, because they are too principled and lack the funds, and the system is set up to block their progress (sounds like USA again, aka Ron Paul). Only the most cheeky and shameless people ascend to power.
Any of the mildly progressive or anti-nuclear power parties took a few pitiful token seats, which are probably in the restroom of theParliament building– the toilet seats.
Look for some of Japan’s nuclear power plants to start up next year, fast and furious, devil take the hindmost. To paraphrase the punk rock band the Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Earthquakes.
Nuclear energy’s friend Liberal Democratic Party wins in Japan elections
The anti-nuclear Tomorrow Party – formed just three weeks ago _captured just nine seats, according to NHK. Party head Yukiko Kada said she was very disappointed to see LDP, the original promoter of Japan’s nuclear energy policy making a big comeback.
Japan Elections 2012: LDP Wins Majority In Parliamentary Elections HUFFINGTON POST, By MALCOLM FOSTER 12/16/12 TOKYO — Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in a landslide election victory Sunday after three years in opposition, according to unofficial results,….
The victory means that the hawkish former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead the nation
after a one-year stint in 2006-2007. He would be Japan’s seventh prime minister in six-and-a-half years.
In the first election since the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, atomic energy ended up not being a major election issue even though polls show about 80 percent of Japanese want to phase out nuclear power…….
LDP, the most pro-nuclear power party, had 118 seats before the election. A new, staunchly anti-nuclear power party won just nine seats, according to NHK.
In the end, economic concerns won out, said Kazuhisa Kawakami, a political science professor at Meiji Gakuin University.
“We need to prioritize the economy, especially since we are an island nation,” he said. “We’re not like Germany. We can’t just get energy from other countries in a pinch.”….. Continue reading
Health effects of Fukushima radiation were minimised by World Health Organisation
Last month, the German branch of the international physicians’ group sent a letter to WHO Director General Margaret Chan, calling for a substantial expansion of medical research on the health effects of the Fukushima disaster. The branch also sought the early establishment of a comprehensive registry of residents in Fukushima who are estimated to have been exposed to radiation of more than 1 millisievert following the triple meltdowns.
WHO downplayed health effects of nuclear crisis on Fukushima residents : German physician
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121216a4.html?utm source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+japantimes+%28The+Japan+Times%3A+All+Stories%29 Jiji BERLIN — A German doctor and member of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning physicians’ group has criticized a World Health Organization report on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe for underestimating its impact on human health.
In a research paper, Alex Rosen said the WHO report, published in May this year on estimated radiation doses received by residents near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, was compiled mainly by officials related to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which promotes the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Rosen, a member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, called for an independent assessment based on solid scientific methodology that would examine the health impacts from radioactive fallout released after the Fukushima No. 1 complex suffered three core meltdowns in March 2011. Continue reading
Nuclear weapons may they rust in peace
Deterrence is infinitely more obsolete on the basis that using nuclear weapons makes a military victory virtually impossible; they lead only to omnicide.
Something new and vital is germinating from our long winter of death-induced fear….
non-governmental organizations around the world are working for common values: Non-violent political structures, environmental sanity, gender equality, and universal human rights.
Someday soon this collective affirmation that we are one human family will thoroughly dissolve the perceived need for nuclear weapons. May they rust in peace.
Are We Dead? Nuclear Policy and the Zombie Apocalypse http://www.huntingtonnews.net/51649, December 15, 2012 BY WINSLOW MYERS “….. Why? Computer models suggest that the detonation of a remarkably small number of nuclear weapons from today’s arsenals—doesn’t matter whose—would raise enough toxic soot and ash into the atmosphere to shut down world agriculture for a decade. In effect, such a detonation would be a death sentence for us all. All.
No less a pitiless realist than Henry Kissinger has stated that he tried to make foreign policy with these weapons and found it impossible. Henry Kissinger now works for abolition.
Even a “limited” nuclear war risks planetary annihilation. A one-sided nuclear attack risks a similar fate. If India and Pakistan get into a nuclear war and use their combined 210 nuclear bombs, we are all dead. If Israel uses a few too many of its weapons, we are dead.
Deterrence is already obsolete, in the sense that it will do nothing to stop a determined extremist from smuggling a nuclear weapon to ground zero of a target. Deterrence is infinitely more obsolete on the basis that using nuclear weapons makes a military victory virtually impossible; they lead only to omnicide.
So, why is the United States planning to waste up to $352 billion (!) in the next decade to renew its nuclear weapons program? Continue reading
Research shows radiation exposure causing thyroid cancer
Fingerprint of radiation exposure discovered in thyroid cancer http://www.healthcanal.com/cancers/17423-Fingerprint-radiation-exposure-discovered-thyroid-cancer.html 25/05/2011 Neuherberg,-Scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum München have discovered a genetic change in thyroid cancer that points to a previous exposure of the thyroid to ionising radiation. The gene marker, a so-called „radiation fingerprint“ was identified in papilliary thyroid cancer cases from Chernobyl victims, but was absent from the thyroid cancers in patients with no history of radiation exposure. The results are published in the current issue of PNAS. Continue reading
Japan imprisons professor who opposes radiation management
Radioactive contamination has not been properly dealt with at all, and the contamination is being spread through the circulation of food and other goods. In the midst of this situation, the government lies about “insufficient electricity” to try to continue using nuclear power plants. This is nothing but insanity.
Every day I look at my students and wonder what sort of world they will live in when these 20-year-olds turn forty like me
Unjust Arrest of a Professor Opposing Debris Incineration in Osaka http://fukushimavoice-eng.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/unjust-arrest-of-professor-opposing.html Below this background information is a letter from Masaki Shimoji, a university associate professor who has been unfairly detained since his sudden arrest on December 9, 2012. The arrest occurred 
because he walked through the Japan Railways Osaka station on October 17, 2012.
Professor Shimoji and others are opposing the “areawide management of the disaster debris” measure, which intended to spread, incinerate and bury harmful substances in the disaster debris all over Japan that should not be incinerated, such as radioactive material and asbestos. Osaka-city is trying to begin regular incineration and burial beginning in February 2013.
The following is the timeline for the arrest: Continue reading
USA bombing of nuclear waste dumps – an experiment on Hawaiian population
” In effect, the NRC is licensing Hawaii nuclear waste dumps and allowing those dumps to be bombed, spreading the nuclear dump debris wherever the wind takes it
Of course, this isn’t an act of stupidity, but rather cunning. How else to test the response of a healthy population to scattered toxic debris? The people of Iraq aren’t good subjects cause they get hit directly, and soldiers are always in the proximity of DU. But to test the effects of a limited attack by an enemy, say, the U.S. Air Force, what better subjects than the people of Hawaii, which is far enough away from the “mainland” to avoid contaminating the integrity of the test?
We Had to Bomb the Nuclear Waste Dump in order to Save It Dissident Voice, by The Phantom / December 15th, 2012 “….. It seems the All-knowing U.S. Military has been using depleted uranium weapons to take out…depleted uranium…
According to the Malu’aina, the “Center for Non-violent Education and Action” in Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i (http://malu-aina.org/), the U.S. has been expoding DU rounds and other ordnance near populated areas in Hawaii.
“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be issuing a license for the mongoose to guard the hen house in Hawaii. The Army will be issued an NRC license to possess Depleted uranium (DU) in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks and the Pohakuloa Training Area
(PTA),” wrote Jim Albertini on malu-aina.org. Continue reading
Kyoto – a poor thing for global climate action, but it’s all we’ve got
the Kyoto protocol covers only 15 per cent of the world’s emissions. Basically we’re back to the European Union and Australia operating with binding targets. Take in Ukraine, Switzerland and Norway and it’s a grand tally of 35 countries out of nearly 200. The
US is still not on board. And fellow non-signatories India and China, with 37 per cent of humanity, are industrialising their way back to the dominance they held in the world economy two centuries ago……
The road to a living planet still passes through Kyoto
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-road-to-a-living-planet-still-passes-through-kyoto-20121216-2bhgo.html December 17, 2012 THE world won’t come to an end this Friday, despite the Mayans’ prognostications. Not only that, it will be reborn 11 days
later. Yes, on January 1, the second phase of the Kyoto protocol comes into force.
Kyoto is still the world’s only climate change treaty but, while only seven years old, it already looks a bit old hat…. Russia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand declined to agree to a second
commitment period under the protocol. Yes, even Japan doesn’t love Kyoto. Continue reading
South Carolina’s radiation pollution increasing, but no action taken
Rising radiation at SC nuclear dump prompts cleanup talk but no action The State, 16 Dec 12, By SAMMY FRETWELL – sfretwell@thestate.com COLUMBIA, SC — Radioactive pollution is getting worse on parts of South Carolina’s nuclear-waste dump near Barnwell, but state regulators say cleaning up the contaminated groundwater isn’t in their plan.
Tritium continues to exceed federal safe drinking-water standards in and around the 41-year-old burial ground that has come to symbolize South Carolina’s historic willingness to accept the nation’s garbage. In some spots tritium levels are higher today than they were fiveyears ago…….
Read more here:
http://www.thestate.com/2012/12/16/2557919/rising-radiation-at-sc-nuclear.html#.UM9tJuR9JLs#storylink=cpy
Brazil’s wind farms bring cheapest electricity prices
Wind farms set record low generation prices, SMH, December 16, 2012 Four energy developers agreed to sell power from 10 proposed wind farms in Brazil at the cheapest rates ever.
Enerfin Sociedad de Energia SA, Renova Energia SA, EGP- Serra Azul and Bioenergy Geradora de Energia Ltda. won contracts to sell electricity to distributors for an average price of 87.94 reais ($41) a megawatt-hour, Brazil’s national energy agency Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica said in an e-mail yesterday. (Australian wholesale prices are about $50 per megawatt-hour, including the $23 carbon tax per tonne.)
“This is definitely the cheapest wind energy in the world,” Maria Gabriela da Rocha Oliveira, a Sao Paulo-based analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in a telephone interview. It’s 12 per cent lower than the August 2011 auction that yielded an average price of 99.58 reais a megawatt-hour. That was the lowest price in the world for wind power then and the least expensive power in Brazil, beating natural gas and hydroelectricity….. http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/wind-farms-set-record-low-generation-prices-20121216-2bh4z.html#ixzz2FLfka1Ga
Energy reform in Spain shuts down Garona nuclear plant
Spain oldest nuclear plant shuts down Business Recorder, 16 December 2012 by Muhammad Iqba MADRID: Spain’s oldest nuclear plant Garona is shutting down on Sunday ahead of new taxes included in a government energy reform that would render the plant unviable.
Spain is introducing higher taxes on electricity generation as a measure to address an over 24 billion euro ($31 billion) energy tariff deficit after years of selling power below
costs…….http://www.brecorder.com/world/europe/96048-spain-oldest-nuclear-plant-shuts-down.html
Unexplained shutdown at Susquehanna nuclear facility
Unexpected shutdown reported at PPL nuclear plant
http://citizensvoice.com/unexpected-shutdown-reported-at-ppl-nuclear-plant-1.1417356 December 16, 2012 Mark Moran / The Citizens’ Voice PPL officials did not fully address the problems that led to a shutdown at the nuclear power plant in Salem Township, a federal regulatory commission announced Friday.
SALEM TWP. (AP) — An energy company says it’s trying to figure out why a central Pennsylvania nuclear power plant reactor shut down unexpectedly. PPL Corp. says Unit 2 at the Susquehanna nuclear facility near Salem Township shut down early Sunday morning. The company says the reactor is safe and stable.
In a statement, Allentown-based PPL says the shutdown occurred during routine testing of a valve on the unit’s main turbine system. The company says the plant’s other reactor is operating normally. The Susquehanna plant is owned jointly by PPL and Allegheny Electric
Cooperative Inc.
1 This Month.
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REGISTER AT Massachusetts Peace Action Education
New book – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1923372157?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
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