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Fukushima scrub-down aims to make villages safe, although woods may remain no-go zones

All in vain. The next wind, the next rain, coming from those woods will carry accumulated radionuclides from there to re-contaminate those “decontaminated villages.

In the past years, some villages have been decontaminated already up to  times, each time always contamination in due time to return to the pre-decontamination levels. 

 

IITATE, FUKUSHIMA PREF. – Sweating inside their plastic protection suits, thousands of men toil in Japan’s muggy early summer in a vast effort to scrub radiation from the villages around Fukushima.

The mission is to decontaminate hundreds of square kilometers that were polluted when reactors went into meltdown after huge tsunami struck the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in March 2011.

No stone is left unturned: Diggers scrape away the top layer of earth in fields, school courtyards and around the buildings of villages, while houses, buildings, roads and parking lots are scrubbed clean.

At least 20,000 people are involved in the cleanup, according to the Environment Ministry. The workers wear the special gloves, masks and boots required for workers in the nuclear industry.

There are currently around 2.5 million black bags filled with contaminated soil, plants and leaves piled up at the sites or in one of the nearly 800 temporary outdoor storage facilities set up across the disaster zone.

The effort comes as the central government prepares to declare sections of the evacuation zone habitable again.

That will mean evacuees can return to the homes they abandoned more than four years ago. It will also mean, say campaigners, that some people will have no choice but to go back because it will trigger the end of some compensation payments.

Government-run decontamination efforts are underway in 11 cities where Tokyo says that at present, anyone living there would be exposed to radiation levels of more than 20 millisieverts (mSv) a year.

The globally accepted norm for radiation absorption is 1 mSv per year, although the International Atomic Energy Agency and others say anything up to 20 mSv per year poses no immediate danger to human health.

The town of Naraha, which lies just 20 km from the plant, is expected to be declared safe in September.

The government intends to lift many evacuation orders by March 2017, if decontamination progresses as it hopes.

Still, the area immediately surrounding the plant remains uninhabitable, and storage sites meant to last 30 years are being built in the villages closest to the complex.

For now, only residential areas are being cleaned in the short-term, and the worst-hit parts of the countryside are being omitted, as recommended by the IAEA.

But that strategy has troubled environmentalists, who fear that could lead to re-contamination as woodlands will act as radiation reservoirs, with pollutants washed out by rain.

In a report on decontamination in Iitate, a heavily forested area northwest of the plant, the environmental group Greenpeace says these selective efforts will effectively confine returnees to a relatively small area of their old hometowns.

“The Japanese government plans, if implemented, will create an open-air prison of confinement to ‘cleaned’ houses and roads … and the vast untouched radioactive forests continue to pose a significant risk of recontamination of these ‘decontaminated’ areas to even higher levels,” declares the report, published Tuesday.

Some 39 other municipalities that were not evacuated after the meltdowns, and which have radiation levels deemed safe for humans, are also being decontaminated by local authorities.

Source: Japan Times

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/22/national/science-health/fukushima-scrub-aims-make-villages-safe-although-woods-may-remain-no-go-zones/#.VbA9l_mFSM9

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Japan | , , | 3 Comments

Japanese Government – aided by the IAEA – puts nuclear victims at risk with forced resettlement scheme

The worst nuclear disaster in a generation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant – which began in March 2011 – is still very much an ongoing crisis that will not be solved for the foreseeable future. Most of the massive radioactive releases were carried out to the Pacific Ocean by the prevailing winds at that time of year. But, on the nights of March 15th and 16th, the winds turned carrying an enormous amount of radiation inland. Land, especially to the northwest of the crippled reactor site, was heavily contaminated.

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Greenpeace investigations into areas where the Japanese government is intensively decontaminating with the intention of lifting evacuation orders by March 2017 have made a shocking discovery: in Iitate – one of the priority targets of the Abe Government’s plan – radiation dose levels are comparable to those in the 30km exclusion zone around Chernobyl. Even more surprising, this was true even around homes that had already been supposedly “decontaminated.”

What on earth would motivate the Japanese Government to do such a thing to the tens of thousands of nuclear victims and decontamination workers?

To answer that question, it is first important to understand a bit of background on Iitate: the region – referred to as Iitate Village – is actually a 200 km2 area of heavily forested hills, mountains, and lakes, interspersed with farm fields, and homes. It lies 28 – 47 km to the northwest of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in the direct path of the heaviest on-land radioactive fallout.

Although the Abe Government has stated on its website that it is “decontaminating” Iitate – even going so far as to say on the Ministry of Environment website that 100% of the forest has already decontaminated – you have to dig through several different pages to discover that they are only referring to about a ¼ of the land area of Iitate.

In other words, of the 200 km2 of Iitate Village only 56 km2 are targeted for decontamination. Of that tiny fraction, the percentage comprised of the 10-20m into the forests along the roads and around people’s houses has been supposedly completed.

Except even that small amount of the forest isn’t finished. Decontamination efforts in these small bits of forests were still ongoing in July 2015.

And what strikes you when you see it is not just the swarms of people raking away at the woodland floor and trimming blades of grasses by hand in these first 10-20m of forest along the roads, but the enormity of the vast mountains upon mountains of dense, lush forest stretching out behind them as far as the eye can see.

You feel sorry for them. You also admire their intensive effort, meticulous work, and commitment. They are working in sweltering heat, in full radiation suits, boots, gloves and masks; not even their eyes are visible. And they are doing intense physical labor for almost no impact. Many of these workers are the residents of other impacted areas, like Minamisoma, who lost their jobs in farming, forestry, fishing or services due to the nuclear disaster. So they are working in the only growing industry in the region: radioactive decontamination.

It’s surreal. And it’s heartbreaking.

On 27 March, 2011, Greenpeace radiation investigations in Iitate had revealed extremely high levels of contamination, which led our organisation to urgently recommend to the Japanese government the immediate evacuation of the more than 6000 residents. Until that point, the residents of Iitate had been told that evacuation was not required. Evacuation did not begin until 22 April. And still, eight weeks after the start of the accident, in early June, over 1200 people remained in Iitate. As a result, the people of Iitate were the most exposed to radiation of all citizens of Fukushima prefecture.

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Iitate has since become an iconic area within the story of Fukushima: a constant reminder to the Japanese public and the international community that a major nuclear disaster is not confined to a small “emergency planning” zone around the reactor site. The impacts are far reaching, destroy entire regions and communities, rip people from the fabric of their lives, and cannot be repaired.

Over four years after the triple reactor core meltdowns and exploded containment buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the majority of the Japanese public has remained opposed to any nuclear restart. The country has been completely nuclear-free for nearly two years, thanks in large part to significant public opposition, in spite of the massive pressure from nuclear utilities and the Abe government on local city governments.

However, these utilities are massively powerful and the Abe government is wholly in bed with them.

In an effort to reduce public opposition, Abe has been pushing the pro-nuclear agenda to normalize the Fukushima nuclear disaster. If the public can be convinced that mere years after the worst nuclear disaster in a generation, citizens can go home and return to life the way it was before the disaster – with no additional health risks – then that is a powerful argument against those opposed to nuclear restarts.

The effort to minimize the impact of the disaster on the nuclear industry has been aided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an agency charged with the promotion of nuclear energy in its charter. The IAEA has sought to downplay the radiological risks to the population since the early days in 2011. In fact, it produced two documents that can be said to have laid the primary foundation for Abe’s current policy of forced resettlement.

The reality is this myth making requires that the people of Fukushima prefecture – especially the people of Iitate – be the sacrificial lambs for the nuclear industry. This is not only wholly unjust, but is a violation of their human rights.

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They have already been exposed to more radiation than any other population in the region. To deliberately force them back to areas where dose rates reach up to 20 millisieverts per year puts them at significant, unacceptable, and unnecessary risk.
After all, this is not the confusion that ensues after a nuclear disaster. This is a thought-out plan of forcing people back into their heavily contaminated former homes, no matter what the cost – both in wasteful, ineffective decontamination of these areas and in human health risks.
Compounding the gross injustice of the Abe Government’s forced resettlement policy, by focusing on creating a myth of a return to normalcy – and therefore investing vast amounts in expensive and futile decontamination – it is therefore utterly neglecting the contaminated areas that were never evacuated. Rather than addressing this urgent need to reduce the radiation risks to these populations, whom are currently living in contaminated areas, the government is more interested in deceiving the public in Japan and globally by creating illusions in places like Iitate.
What is clear is that the damage done to the people of Fukushima prefecture, and especially Iitate, is irreversible and irreparable. Their entire communities and way of life were destroyed by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, with no prospect for a safe return in the foreseeable future.
At minimum, we as Greenpeace, demand: 1) no lifting of the evacuation order in Iitate; 2) Exemptions and Government support for those determined to return after having full and accurate information regarding the risks; and, 3) full compensation for their loss of livelihood, property, community, mental distress, and health risks incurred, so that they may fully support themselves to move forward to pursue whatever life they so choose.
To keep the victims of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in limbo, many crammed into tiny temporary housing cubicles, for nearly five years is inhumane. To force these citizens back into such heavily contaminated areas via the economic leverage the Government holds over them is a gross iniquity. And for the International Atomic Energy Agency to assist the Japanese Government in the propaganda war being waged on Fukushima victims not only undermines whatever credibility it may have, but amounts to it being an accomplice in a crime against the people of Japan.
Kendra Ulrich is Senior Global Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace Japan.
Source: Greenpeace
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/Fukushima-nuclear-victims-forced-resettlement-Iitate/blog/53584/

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Japan | , , , , | Leave a comment

MOHW mulling change in ban on some food imports from Japan

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Taipei, July 22 (CNA) The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) is still in discussions with several agencies on whether to lift a ban on food imports from regions in Japan affected by a nuclear meltdown in 2011, a Cabinet spokesman said Wednesday.

Responding to a report Tuesday that Taiwan will partially lift a ban on food imports from the restricted areas, spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said that no timetable has been set for resolving the matter and that the decision will be up to the MOHW.

The Food and Drug Administration under the MOHW said the ministry is still communicating with organizations in Taiwan and Japan and indicated that no decision has been made yet.

According to the United Daily News, Taiwan is expected to lift a ban on food imports from Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures while the ban on food items from Fukushima prefecture will remain in place.

Taiwan imposed a ban on food originating from the five Japanese prefectures after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan’s northeastern coast on March 11, 2011, and triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The ban was issued to protect Taiwanese consumers amid fears that foods from these areas were contaminated by radioactive substances released during the nuclear meltdown.

After products originating from the five prefectures were found in March on store shelves in Taiwan with labels disguising their origins, Taiwan decided in mid-May to tighten requirements for Japanese food imports.

Japanese food exporters were asked to provide documents showing the origin of its products and obtain radiation inspection certificates for specific items.

Japan reacted angrily to the new measures. It insisted that the food items it was exporting to Taiwan were safe and threatened to take the case to the World Trade Organization.

Japanese parliamentarian Nobuo Kishi, a younger brother of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was one of several Japanese political heavyweights who visited Taiwan and called on the country to lift the food import ban as soon as possible.

The United Daily News reported, without citing any sources, that after lengthy discussions between Taiwan and Japan, the two sides have reached a consensus in which Taipei will lift a ban on food from all of the prefectures except for Fukushima, whose name remains sensitive to Taiwanese consumers.

Source: Focus Taiwan

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201507220008.aspx

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Japan, Taiwan | | Leave a comment

2015/07/21 Press Release: Greenpeace investigation exposes failure of Fukushima decontamination program

Abe’s forced return policy condemns residents to radiation risk

Radioactive contamination in the forests and land of Iitate district in Fukushima prefecture is so widespread and at such a high level that it will be impossible for people to safely return to their homes, a Greenpeace Japan investigation revealed today. The findings follow the Abe Government’s announcement on 12th June 2015 to lift evacuation orders by March 2017 and terminate compensation by 2018, which effectively forces victims back into heavily contaminated areas.(1)

“Prime Minister Abe would like the people of Japan to believe that they are decontaminating vast areas of Fukushima to levels safe enough for people to live in. The reality is that this is a policy doomed to failure. The forests of Iitate are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It’s impossible to decontaminate,” said Jan Vande Putte, radiation specialist with Greenpeace Belgium.

“The Japanese government has condemned the people of Iitate to live in an environment that poses an unacceptable risk to their health. Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion. Let’s be clear: this is a political decision by the Abe Government, not one based on science, data, or public health,” he said.

Greenpeace conducted a radiation survey and sampling program in Iitate, including in its forests. One principle finding from the investigation is that the vast majority of Iitate will never be decontaminated, with most radioactivity deposited in the vast forested hills and mountains in the district. The enormous scale of the forests was revealed by UAV footage from the investigation. And even in the limited areas that have been decontaminated around people’s homes and land, and along roads, levels of radiation are still at unacceptable levels. The results show that current decontamination programs are failing to significantly reduce radiation levels, which remain high and unsafe for people to live.

Even after decontamination, radiation dose rates were measured higher than 2uSv/h on decontaminated fields, the equivalent of an annual dose higher than 10mSv/year or ten times the maximum allowed dose to the general public. In the untouched and heavily contaminated forests, radiation dose rates are typically in the range of 1-3uSv/h—high levels that will remain for many years to come. The only forest decontamination underway in Iitate is along public roads, where thousands of workers are removing contaminated soil and plants along a 10-20 meter strip. The Japanese government plans to lift restrictions in all of Area 2(2), including Iitate, where people could receive radiation doses of up to 20mSV each year and in subsequent years.

International radiation protection standards recommend public exposure should be 1mSv/year or less in non-post accident situations. The radiation limit that excluded people from living in the 30km zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant exclusion zone was set at 5mSV/year, five years after the nuclear accident. Over 100.000 people were evacuated from within the zone and will never return.

Supporting the Japanese government in its policy of forced return to a radioactive environment is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has promoted the early return of Fukushima citizens to evacuated areas. Not only is the IAEA’s radiation risk assessments based on flawed science, where they are deliberately understating the risks from radioactivity, they also have misrepresented the scale and effectiveness of the limited decontamination program including in Iitate.(3)

“Even after nearly thirty years, the 30km area around Chernobyl remains an exclusion zone. It’s a shocking indictment of both the IAEA and the Abe government, which reveals how desperate they are to create the illusion that returning to ‘normal’ is possible after a severe nuclear accident. Their position is indefensible and plans for a de facto forced return must be stopped,” said Mamoru Sekiguchi, energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan.

The district of Iitate, which covers more than 200 square kilometers, located between 28-47km northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, was one of the most contaminated areas following the March 2011 catastrophe. Since 2014, tens of thousands of workers have been attempting to reduce radiation levels in some parts of Fukushima prefecture, including in Iitate, with little impact.

In early June 3.400 citizens of Iitate (more than half the population) called on the mayor of their community to reject the government’s plans. At the same time, they are currently within the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, where they hope to secure reasonable compensation for the losses they have suffered.

“The gap between the amount of high and low compensation payments is widening drastically, and the Iitate village people will have to keep living a sad life in bitterness, separated from each other and away from their home. The Iitate people’s fate is another of numerous cases in the past where Japan abandoned its people, as with the Ashio mining pollution and Minamata disease. We can not allow this to happen again,” said Yasushi Tadano, the lawyer defending the people of Iitate.

Notes to Editor:

1 – The Prime Minister in Action: Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters, Friday, June 12, 2015 http://japan.kantei.go.jp/97_abe/actions/201506/12article1.html

2 – Areas in which the residents are not permitted to live (according to the Japanese government designation)

3 – “The IAEA Fukushima Daiichi Accident Summary Report: A preliminary analysis”, Jan Vande Putte, Kendra Ulrich, Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace Japan, May 28 2015, see http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/IAEA%20analysis%20by%20GP%2020150528.pdf. The IAEA assessment of health consequences and risks from the Fukushima Daiichi accident are based on the conclusions of the 2013 UNSCEAR report, which has been condemned by a former World Health Organisation radiation expert – Keith Baverstock –  http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201412010036, accessed January 30th 2015.

Greenpeace documentation briefing link:

Video available at http://photo.greenpeace.org/Archive/27MZIFJ6SZGAZ.html

Photos available at http://photo.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJ6SXEBN

Data sheet at http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/20150721_Iitate_datasheet_ENG.pdf  and http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/20150721_Iitate_soil_datasheet_BL.pdf

Source: Greenpeace Japan

http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/ja/news/press/2015/pr20150721/20150721-Press-Release-Greenpeace-investigation-exposes-failure-of-Fukushima-decontamination-program-/

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Japan | , , , | Leave a comment

Tokyo under fire for plans to speed return of Fukushima evacuees

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As Japan aims to lift evacuation orders for many people forced from their homes by the Fukushima disaster, environmentalists say many areas still show highly-elevated levels of contamination and are unfit for habitation.

In a bid seen by critics as aiming to speed up reconstruction, the Japanese government is preparing to declare sections of the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant a safe place to live. The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to revoke many evacuation orders by March 2017, if decontamination progresses as hoped, meaning that up to 55,000 evacuees could return to the homes they abandoned more than four years ago.

Moreover, Tokyo recently announced that the 7,000 residents of Nahara, a town in one of the seven Fukushima municipalities completely evacuated following the nuclear crisis, will be able to return home permanently from September 5. How many residents of the settlement, which lies just 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the plant, will return, however, remains unclear as many still have mixed feelings, according to a recent poll.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, causing massive devastation and ultimately sending three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into meltdown. It was the worst atomic accident in a generation. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee amid fears of rising radiation, with more than 72,500 people – who used to live within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant – still living in temporary housing units.

Massive clean-up operation

In the meantime, government-run decontamination efforts are underway in 11 cities, with at least 20,000 people involved in the clean-up, according to the environment ministry. In the mammoth task, workers try to remove tons of contaminated surface soil, plants and leaves, placing them in bags or in one of the nearly 800 temporary outdoor storage facilities that have been set up across the disaster zone.

The operation also includes parts of the district of Iitate, which covers more than 200 square kilometers, and was one of the most contaminated areas following the March 2011 disaster. Since 2014, tens of thousands of workers have been attempting to reduce radiation levels in some parts of Fukushima prefecture, including in Iitate.

Mounting concerns

But while organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say such efforts have contributed to reducing radiation levels, many problems remain, especially when one considers the disposal of contaminated water in the plant and the fact that anyone living in the surrounding areas would be exposed to radiation levels of more than 20 millisieverts (mSv) a year.

The globally-accepted limit for radiation absorption is 1mSv per year, although the IAEA says anything up to 20mSv per year poses no immediate danger to human health. However, various studies have shown health impacts from exposure to lower levels. Moreover, critics argue that only residential areas are being cleaned in the short-term, and the worst-hit parts of the countryside are being omitted or are impossible to be decontaminated, like dense forests and mountains.

This development has raised concerns among environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace, who fear that radioactive contamination in Iitate district is so widespread and at such a high level that it will be “impossible for people to safely return to their homes.”

‘A vast stock of radioactivity’

“Prime Minister Abe would like the people of Japan to believe that they are decontaminating vast areas of Fukushima to levels safe enough for people to live in. The reality is that this is a policy doomed to failure. The forests of Iitate are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It is impossible to decontaminate,” said Jan Vande Putte, a radiation specialist with Greenpeace Belgium.

Based on its own investigation, Greenpeace claims that even after decontamination, radiation dose rates were measured higher than 2 micro Sv/h on decontaminated fields, the equivalent of an annual dose higher than 10mSv/year or ten times the maximum allowed dose to the general public.

“In the untouched and heavily contaminated forests, radiation dose rates are typically in the range of 1-3uSv/h – high levels that will remain for many years to come, said Greenpeace, adding that the only forest decontamination underway in Iitate is along public roads, where thousands of workers are removing contaminated soil and plants along a 10-20 meter strip.

Mamoru Sekiguchi, the group’s energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan, put the situation into a broader perspective, arguing that even after nearly thirty years, the 30-kilometer area around he crippled Chernobyl plant in Ukraine remains an exclusion zone.

“It’s a shocking indictment of both the IAEA and the Abe government, which reveals how desperate they are to create the illusion that returning to ‘normal’ is possible after a severe nuclear accident. Their position is indefensible and plans for a de facto forced return must be stopped,” Sekiguchi said.

‘Helplessly inefficient’

Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based independent international energy and nuclear policy consultant, told DW that if the remaining dose levels were indeed between 1 and 3mSv per hour on average this would exceed the 1mSv limit applied in most of the countries. “As there is no threshold, meaning there is no safe level of exposure, the health risk to people would be significantly increased.”

The nuclear expert also slammed much of Japan’s decontamination activities, referring to them as “helplessly inefficient.” To explain his view, he said that while high pressure water would be applied to cleaning surfaces like parking lots, for instance, the used water wouldn’t be recovered, thus pushing contamination from one spot to the next.

In addition, Schneider pointed out that contamination levels were not static. “The mountains and forests that cannot even be vaguely decontaminated, will serve as a permanent source of new contamination, each rainfall washing out radiation and bringing it down from the mountains to the flat lands.”

No compensation?

Campaigners also claim the government’s plans mean that some people will have no choice but to go back to their abandoned homes given that they will trigger the ending of some compensation payments. “Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion,” said Vande Putte.

A similar view is shared by Schneider: “The decontamination program and the government plan to ‘allow’ for the return of inhabitants do have a very simple goal: reduce the amount of compensation being paid out to victims,” said the expert.

Tokyo Electric has paid some $40 billion (36.78 billion euros) in compensation to residents and expects to pay billions more to decontaminate the area and decommission the wrecked power station, a project that could take an estimated three decades, according to Reuters news agency.

Under the existing compensation scheme, the utility pays each evacuee about $1,000 (921 euros) a month for emotional distress. The assistance is to be cut off a year after the government lifts an evacuation order, said Reuters, citing a Japanese government draft.

Source: DW Akademie

http://www.dw.com/en/tokyo-under-fire-for-plans-to-speed-return-of-fukushima-evacuees/a-18597707

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Japan | , , , | Leave a comment

Latest Report on Radiation Levels in Fukushima 7/21/15

https://youtu.be/fljfgbGcsVc?list=PLXoGEAuG5VBfiCg4ont5UdpeyyjF5CWE2

Vande Putte, Sekiguchi & Tadano: “Latest report on Radiation levels in Fukushima” Jan Vande Putte: Greenpeace Belgium Energy Campaigner, Radiation Protection Advisor
Mamoru Sekiguchi: Greenpeace Japan Energy Campaigner
Yasushi Tadano: Lawyer for Fukushima evacuees
~~~
Japan “decontaminates” areas slowly to allow 54,800 people to return home to previously evacuated area. Itate – most exposed area 230 square KM with 6,000 people. Miyakoji uSv/hr at one meter above ground. At around 8:00 – what about the Ground Water?
Lifting evacuation orders for 54,000 people. Scanning roads vs offroads. Impossible to decontaminate forrest, sodium iodide test, 11,500+ points tested ~ 96% higher than government standards.
30% of points above 1mS/hr contamination.
Choice of returning home or not,
Dam water used for agriculture. Ganbe dam sediment sampling of silt from July 2015.
Forest will Never be decontaminated. The rainwater flows down the side of the hills and collects below – near houses, etc. So you have Contamination – then they “decontaminate” just to be recontaminated.
Underestimating risk of living indoor vs. outdoor exposure.
The forests are considered “decontaminated”when they simply “decontaminate” 20 meters to the side of the forest. Nothing can be done in the forests themselves.
Wsate piling up.
3 million bags of contaminated soil (etc) have already piled up. They expect 20-30 million cubic meters of waste to accumulate “temporarily” – and the bags are ripping open. No permanent storage place selected yet. “temporary storage” defined as THIRTY YEARS.
Low level exposure discussions. Extremes not practical. ICRP vs. ECRR risk model (internal vs. external contamination). Lifetime exposure adds up.
Absolutely unacceptable levels of exposure.
Cesium-137 with a 30 year HALF LIFE is primarily in top 5 cm of soil.
Insects helping with decomposition decreasing.
Wild fires in chernobyl reliberating radioactive elements –
recreating imminent risks.
Plant mutations, cicada bugs sounds declined – depopulation.
Burning radioactive waste at a new plant – using a “filter”. Incinerators.
Plant mutations questions.
Compensation for displaced people to cease if they move back to their contaminated (decontaminated) homes. 100,000 yen/month “compensation” – not enough to restart in a new location – leading more people to require welfare.
Citizens told to smile, be happy and don’t complain while they attempt to restart Sendai Nuclear Power plant (TEPCO) in an earthquake zone and very close to an active Volcano that just blew.
All the contamination – but what about the compounded social disaster that follows?
Government abandons people. “Normalization” strategy – ignore it and everything will be fine. Smile and shut up.
Disrupting people’s lives – Sendai NPP restart.

https://youtu.be/-3uFC4S3h2c Vande Putte, Sekiguchi & Tadano: “Latest report on Radiation levels in Fukushima”

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Japan | , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia eases ban on seafood imports from Japan

Everybody suddenly forgets that fish swim? Long distances….


Russia’s farm ministry said it has partially lifted a ban on seafood imports from Japan imposed in the wake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear crisis.vA total of 23 fish processing companies in Aomori Prefecture will now be allowed to ship their products to Russia, but the trade embargo will remain for companies in seven other prefectures, the ministry said Tuesday.
Russia made the decision based on preliminary results of a study carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency in February. The fact that Aomori Prefecture is relatively far from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant played a role in the decision.
According to the Japanese Fisheries Agency, the seven prefectures still subject to Russia’s trade restriction measures are Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Chiba and Niigata prefectures.
Prior to the nuclear crisis, about 520 fish processing companies in Japan were allowed to export their products to Russia. Since April 2011, more than 200 companies in eight prefectures, including Aomori, have been banned from exporting products. 

Source : Japan Times

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/21/world/russia-eases-ban-seafood-imports-japan/#.Va6tI_mFSM9

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Japan, Russia | | Leave a comment

The week that was in nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

nuclear-news site theme for July is The use of words to trivialise the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe   Nuclear lobby anxious about its image – trying to “engender optimism” about the industry.

Nuclear agreement finally reached between Iran and world powers A win for non-proliferation – the Iran nuclear deal. It has become international law. USA’s reputation at stake, if Congress votes against Iran nuclear deal.

 JAPAN: Japanese nuclear scandals. Toshiba faked financial reports. Earthquake faults found under Shika nuclear facility. Despite pressing need, Japan continues to grope for nuclear waste site

Fukushima: 

UK‘s plan for Hinkley C nuclear power station runs into more and more trouble

CANADA: The Cree Nation backs the report advising against uranium mining in Northern Quebec     Legal action planned against Canada’s plan for radioactive trash dump near Lake Huron.

USA. 21 years after shutdown, USA’s  Breeder Nuclear Reactor-II (EBR-II) is entombed

Jamaica passes Bill to regulate ionising radiation, prohibit building of nuclear reactor.

Secretive South Africa hides costs of nuclear build programme

CLIMATE CHANGE:

Global investment is going to renewables: much less is going to nuclear power

July 23, 2015 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment