nuclear-news

Abe’s Japan Is Blind to Scary Nuclear Reality 安部首相率いる日本―危険な原発の現実を無視している

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-12/abe-s-japan-is-blind-to-scary-nuclear-reality.html

Mitsuhei Murata, Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal: Statement on Fukushima 

hugabill

Published on 25 May 2012

(Resource) 朝日新聞デジタル　http://t.asahi.com/bib6

政府が福島県田村市の除染作業完了後に開いた住民説明会で、空気中の放射線量を毎時０・２３マイクロシーベルト（年１ミリシーベルト）以下にする目標を 達成できなくても、一人ひとりが線量計を身につけ、実際に浴びる「個人線量」が年１ミリを超えないように自己管理しながら自宅で暮らす提案をしていたこと が分かった…

Image source ;  h/t https://www.facebook.com/pages/Evacuate-Fukushima

(Translation by Mia)

http://fukushimaappeal.blogspot.co.uk/

Government officials held a meeting in Tamura-city in Fukushima prefecture to explain to residents that they need to look after themselves from now on.

Originally they were aiming to reduce the level of contamination down to 0.23uSv/h (=added ionizing radiation 1mSv/y). However, they have now abandoned this aim and are now not going to repeat any more decontamination.

The officials have suggested to residents that it’s ok to live there even if the level of radiation doesn’t go down below 0.23uSv/h as long as they monitor their exposure level by wearing a dosimeter and manage to live carefully inside their house so as not to be exposed to more than 0.23uSv/h.

(Editor’s note)
Since 28th of May this year, the radioactively contaminated area in Fukushima prefecture had been dividing into 2 zones;

1. “Hard to return Area” (20mSv/y-50mSv/y)
2. “Evacuation order lifting preparation area ” (up to 20mSv/y)

Tamura cityt is one of the Evacuation order lifting preparation areas.  
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(Reference)
Japan decontamination is a failure – “”No Repeat of Decontamination”
arclight2011part2

The myth of ‘decontamination’ (part 4 of 5)

The ‘decontamination’ effort in Fukushima continues despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, among which are:

1.  After a specific property (or school) is ‘decontaminated’, it is nearly impossible to prevent it from becoming re-contaminated with radiation from neighboring properties that have yet to be ‘decontaminated’ when it rains or when the wind blows.

2.  Short of actually cutting down all the forests and shaving the topsoil (both large sources of radiation) off the surface of the mountains in the entire contaminated area, true ‘decontamination’ will be impossible.

3.  Many companies in charge of ‘decontamination’ are simply small, local construction companies that have no experience or expertise in ‘decontamination’ and offer employees nearly no specialized training and even less personal protection.

4.  During ‘decontamination’, which often takes place around schools and homes where children live, the actual act of cutting down trees and removing contaminated dirt in and of itself causes radiation to become airborne once again and causes danger to people, and especially to children, breathing in the contaminated dust.

5.  ‘Decontamination’ is viewed by many citizens of Fukushima as a way for the government to make residents “feel safe”, therefore terminating the discussion of evacuation and, more importantly, the associated cost to the government of providing financial compensation to those affected.

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Maggie Gundersen, founder of Fairewinds Energy Education: “We’re also working with different medical professionals who are talking about how many thyroid cancers have started showing up.
After an accident of the magnitude of Fukushima Daiichi, the thyroid readings that they’re getting now at two years should have been something around 5 years.”

So that must mean that much more radiation came out than anyone suspected […] or at least reported.

http://enenews.com/fairewinds-thyroid-data-means-radiation-fukushima-reactors-anyone-reported-medical-professionals-talking-about-many-cancers-started-showing-audio

MORE Leaks into Groundwater at Fukushima admitted.

Fukushima is Key to Success for Olympics 2020

Cabinet ministers discuss Fukushima leak
Talk, discuss, DO Nothing!

Abe asks ministers to draw up new growth measures
a planned consumption tax hike next April.

Decontamination to continue after March deadline
the government should have foreseen the difficulties in securing space for temporary storage of contaminated soil.
the timetable as to when decontamination work would end is a key factor for evacuees in planning how to rebuild their lives.
if progress is slow, the government should not only take steps to speed up the process, but also present measures to support evacuees who are waiting to go back home.

Families of tsunami victims visit tombs

Fishermen ask govt. help to lift S.Korea’s ban
Japanese fishermen want the government to urge South Korea to lift its ban on imports of marine products from 8 prefectures.
South Korea said last week that it would implement the ban from Monday. It said the decision was due to leaks of radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.
The 8 prefectures include Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori.
Hiroshi Kishi, the head of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations, made the request on Tuesday to Fisheries Agency chief Kazuyoshi Honkawa.
Kishi asked Honkawa to urge South Korea to lift the ban as soon as possible. He called on the government to quickly provide information about the safety of marine products to people inside and outside Japan.
Honkawa replied that the agency is coordinating when to send its officials to South Korea to talk with their counterparts there. He said the agency is committed to solving the problem.
Japan asked South Korea on Monday to reconsider the ban. The two governments are now preparing to hold working-level talks this weekend.

Decontamination posing challenges
It says difficulty obtaining residents’ approval and a lack of storage facilities for contaminated soil are key factors in the delay.
But for residences, work is finished on only about 20 percent of the nearly 380,000 units listed for decontamination.
The Environment Ministry says the clean-up will probably take several more years.

Voluntary evacuees from Fukushima returning home
But some of the mothers who returned have moved out of the prefecture again, citing fears about radiation. They also said they felt guilty and isolated from local residents after a period of voluntary evacuation.

Record warm waters around Japan
Sea water temperatures around Japan have risen to record highs, affecting the country’s fishing industry.
The Meteorological Agency says the average water temperature in August was 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than usual off the western coast of Kyushu in the East China Sea. It was 1.2 degrees warmer off the Shikoku and Tokai regions in the Pacific.
These figures were the highest since the agency began observation using the current method in 1985.
Water temperatures were more than 2 degrees Celsius warmer than usual off the country’s north and west in the Sea of Japan. Higher temperatures were also reported in the ocean around the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa.
Weather officials say a high-pressure system that lingered around the Japanese archipelago this summer brought a heat wave and warmed seawater.
Catches of saury and squid are falling in northern Japan due to warm water.
Oyster farm workers in the western prefecture of Hiroshima have decided to delay the start of the harvest season by 10 days. It was originally scheduled for October 1st.
The workers say they were afraid the oysters may not be fully grown by that time due to higher seawater temperatures.
Hiroshima is the country’s largest oyster producer with a 60 percent share of the market.

215,000 hit by disaster still live away from home
People who used to live near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant still do not know when they will be able to return.
The central government’s efforts to lower radioactive contamination levels in the evacuation areas are far behind schedule.

BOJ says market’s trust in fiscal reform vital
officials were examining various economic data to decide whether to raise the consumption tax from 5 percent to 8 percent next April as planned.

Fukushima debris disposal behind schedule
estimates that debris from the March 2011 disaster amounts to 26 million tons in the hardest hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
As of the end of July, 62 percent of the waste in Iwate Prefecture and 77 percent of the waste in Miyagi Prefecture had been disposed of.
But in Fukushima Prefecture, only 42 percent of the disposal is complete, even in areas other than the evacuation zones. Of the 11 evacuation zones, intermediate storage facilities have been secured for only 4.

song by Jonathan Mann More than the sum of your parts #1699
http://youtu.be/OWokXK-GnQo