dunrenard

News coverage of Fukushima disaster minimized health risks to general population

Date: March 11, 2015

Source: American University

Summary: A new analysis finds that U.S. news media coverage of the Fukushima disaster largely minimized health risks to the general population. Researchers analyzed more than 2,000 news articles from four major U.S. outlets.

Four years after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the disaster no longer dominates U.S. news headlines, though the disabled plant continues to pour three tons of radioactive water into the ocean each day. Homes, schools and businesses in the Japanese prefecture are uninhabitable, and will likely be so forever. Yet the U.S. media has dropped the story while public risks remain.

A new analysis by American University sociology professor Celine Marie Pascale finds that U.S. news media coverage of the disaster largely minimized health risks to the general population. Pascale analyzed more than 2,000 news articles from four major U.S. outlets following the disaster’s occurrence March 11, 2011 through the second anniversary on March 11, 2013. Only 6 percent of the coverage — 129 articles — focused on health risks to the public in Japan or elsewhere. Human risks were framed, instead, in terms of workers in the disabled nuclear plant.

Disproportionate access

“It’s shocking to see how few articles discussed risk to the general population, and when they did, they typically characterized risk as low,” said Pascale, who studies the social construction of risk and meanings of risk in the 21st century. “We see articles in prestigious news outlets claiming that radioactivity from cosmic rays and rocks is more dangerous than the radiation emanating from the collapsing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.”

Pascale studied news articles, editorials, and letters from two newspapers, The Washington Post and The New York Times, and two nationally prominent online news sites, Politico and The Huffington Post. These four media outlets are not only among the most prominent in the United States, they are also among the most cited by television news and talk shows, by other newspapers and blogs and are often taken up in social media, Pascale said. In this sense, she added, understanding how risk is constructed in media gives insight into how national concerns and conversations get framed.

Pascale’s analysis identified three primary ways in which the news outlets minimized the risk posed by radioactive contamination to the general population. Articles made comparisons to mundane, low-level forms of radiation;defined the risks as unknowable, given the lack of long-term studies; and largely excluded concerns expressed by experts and residents who challenged the dominant narrative.

The research shows that corporations and government agencies had disproportionate access to framing the event in the media, Pascale says. Even years after the disaster, government and corporate spokespersons constituted the majority of voices published. News accounts about local impact — for example, parents organizing to protect their children from radiation in school lunches — were also scarce.

Globalization of risk

Pascale says her findings show the need for the public to be critical consumers of news; expert knowledge can be used to create misinformation and uncertainty — especially in the information vacuums that arise during disasters.

“The mainstream media — in print and online — did little to report on health risks to the general population or to challenge the narratives of public officials and their experts,” Pascale said. “Discourses of the risks surrounding disasters are political struggles to control the presence and meaning of events and their consequences. How knowledge about disasters is reported can have more to do with relations of power than it does with the material consequences to people’s lives.”

While it is clear that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown was a consequence of an earthquake and tsunami, like all disasters, it was also the result of political, economic and social choices that created or exacerbated broad-scale risks. In the 21st century, there’s an increasing “globalization of risk,” Pascale argues. Major disasters have potentially large-scale and long-term consequences for people, environments, and economies.

“People’s understanding of disasters will continue to be constructed by media. How media members frame the presence of risk and the nature of disaster matters,” she said.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150311124202.htm

June 22, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan, USA | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Japanese imports lead to charges

Two business executives on Tuesday were charged with illegally importing and falsely labeling food from areas of Japan affected by its 2011 nuclear disaster.

Each a manager of a local food importer, they are accused of importing snacks and soy sauce to Taiwan from the affected areas.

Authorities said one has done so since last year, while the other began the imports this year.

Neither reported their imports to the Food and Drug Administration or Keelung Customs officials, as legally required, authorities added.

Prosecutors said the defendants knew that they were not allowed to import food products from Japan’s Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures, and intentionally hid the origin of their products from downstream firms.

Food products from those prefectures have been banned in Taiwan since the areas are suspected of radiation contamination as a result of a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

In March this year, authorities found that products from the five restricted areas had made their way into Taiwan under false labels.

The two managers, surnamed Teng (鄧) and Cho (卓), were charged with falsifying documents and making profits by false pretenses respectively, prosecutors said.

As for potential Japanese accomplices, prosecutors said that they have asked Japan to assist the investigation, but have not yet received a reply.

Prosecutors called on Japan to assist with the investigation to jointly protect customers’ food safety.

Source: Taipei Times

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/06/18/2003620995

June 18, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Taiwan | Fukushima continuing, radiation | Leave a comment

Fukushima town decides to preserve pro-nuclear signs as negative legacys

IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture–The government of what became a ghost town in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster has decided to preserve signboards featuring slogans boasting a bright future from nuclear energy.
The decision, announced by Futaba Mayor Shiro Izawa at the town assembly operating in Iwaki on June 17, followed a campaign to keep the two pro-nuclear signboards in Futaba as a negative legacy of nuclear energy.
One sign over the main street of the town reads, “Genshiryoku–Akarui Mirai no Energy” (Nuclear power is the energy of a bright future).
The town government received a petition with 6,502 signatures calling for preservation of the signboards. The petition was led by Yuji Onuma, who came up with the slogan in 1988, when he was a sixth-grader at Futaba Kita elementary school.
His homework project received an award, and the slogan became a fixture on the signboard that welcomes visitors to the center of the town.
Futaba was completely evacuated after the disaster started at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011. The plant straddles Futaba and Okuma.
Evacuees are still unable to return to their homes.
The Futaba government initially planned to remove the signboards but decided they were worth saving as a testament to the pre-disaster myth of nuclear safety.
The town is considering exhibiting the signs to the public.
Source : Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201506180068

June 18, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima continuing, Fukushima Daiichi | Leave a comment

Mass Deaths of California Seabirds: Fukushima Radiation Casualties?

It’s being called “unprecedented” and “grisly” by National Geographic. Massive waves of dead seabirds are littering the coastline of the Western US and British Columbia (BC). In January 2015, National Geographic reported that thousands of blue-footed diving seabirds (Cassin’s auklets) were washing up on the beaches from San Francisco, Washington State and all the way to central BC (1).

Many of the dead birds are juveniles and are described as being “scraggly”. The die-off is said to be the largest ever recorded. So what is happening to these birds?

Cassin’s auklets (auks) are chunky small seabirds and are found in the North Pacific. They like to nest in small burrows by digging holes in the soil or find a safe place in natural crevices. When in flight they look to many people “like a flying tennis ball” (2).

National Geographic reports that in October 2014, the young birds began to wash up on the shores of California’s Farallon Islands to Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) off central British Columbia.

50,000 to 100,000 Dead Birds

The birds found dead along the shoreline are emaciated and this has led scientists to believe that the birds have starved to death. According to the Audubon, the food source these birds depend on is found at “the bottom of the food chain” – zooplankton, tiny marine creatures like krill.

Bill Sydeman, a senior scientist with the Farallon Institute (nonprofit marine ecology) has studied Cassin’s auklets for 30 years. He told the Audubon, “If ocean conditions change, auklets might be an early warning sign.” (3)

But what is the warning? Is it radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant that’s killing off the birds’ food source? (4)

Researchers are concerned that the die-off could spread to other birds. Fish may also become victims if the problem is a lack of food sources.

In March 2015, Crosscut reported that the sea lion pups along the California coastline are dying. The pups were found to be emaciated. It’s believed that the “energy-rich copepods” have diminished, which are vital to the marine food chain (5).

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) reported in June 2015 that from January 2015 to May 2015, “California sea lion strandings were over 10 times the average stranding level for the same 5 month period, during 2004 – 2012.”

Birds Appear to Have Starved to Death

Are the deaths of seabirds and those of sea lion pups related? Is there something going on in the marine food chain?

National Geographic spoke with University of Washington seabird ecologist Julia Parrish who oversees the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST). COASST is a 20-year program that tracks shoreline birds. When asked how many auklets had died Parrish responded, “We may be talking about 50,000 to 100,000 deaths. So far,” Parrish said.

To put the enormity of this die-off into context, out of the five largest bird die-offs recorded, the largest one recorded 11,000 birds dead.

National Geographic reported that the US Geological Survey as well as other agencies had conducted autopsies on the birds. So far, there’s been no cause of death. There hasn’t been any evidence of disease, trauma or oil coating the feathers (from an oil spill). The cause of death for now is being ruled as “starvation”.

If the birds starved to death, then what happened to their food source? Were the zooplankton killed off by disease, predators or as some have speculated, radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant?

Deep Sea News states that in Japan the bottom fish would be “prone to contamination because the fallout collects on the seafloor where they live.” As for the West Coast fish, it seems unlikely that they would suffer such a fate, based on the amount of radiation detected so far along the US west coast (6).

However, wide-ranging fish, such as tuna could be affected by Fukushima radioactive water. If the tuna were exposed while swimming in Japanese waters, they could arrive along the US West Coast contaminated.

Bluefin Tuna

In August 2013, Washington’s Blog reported that “More than a year ago, 15 out of 15 Bluefin tuna tested in California waters were contaminated with radioactive cesium from Fukushima.”

Bluefin tuna are known as “wide-ranging fish”. This means that blue fins “can swim back and forth between Japan and North America in a year.” Sockeye salmon also travel this wide range (7).

Oceanus Magazine states that the level of radiation in marine life isn’t a simple explanation – It’s complicated. The length of exposure to radiation, size of marine life, the radioisotopes involved, oxygen in water, salinity of water, the temperature of the water and other factors all play a part (8).

According to Oceanus, fish are able to excrete cesium and get rid of it daily. Unless the fish is continuously exposed to cesium, the tissue expels it fairly quickly by excreting it.

Beachapedia states that even two or three years after the accident radioactive water was still being released into the ocean and possibly still is. This type of continuous discharge of radiation into the water generates a continuous feed, creating radioactive water (9).

Back in Japan, The Smithsonian reported in an article titled, “Birds Are in a Tailspin Four Years After Fukushima”, that the bird population around the Fukushima-Daiichi plant is still on the decline. While the radioactivity “has dropped throughout the region” the bird population continues to show a “sharp decline” that escalates every year (10).

While this is ground zero, there are still many unknowns about the amount of radiation that leaked into the ocean and how it’s affected marine life long-range and long-term. Reassurances from scientists monitoring the radiation levels in the ocean haven’t satisfied many west coasters.

When such a massive die-off is seen, it’s only natural that people question if this isn’t the effects of Fukushima radiation.

Fukushima or the Blob?

There is a worldwide mass-mortality being seen in marine life. During the past 18 months, the west coast from Alaska to California witnessed the washing up of tens of millions of sea stars. The deaths were not linked to a virus and scientists suspect that the killer could be “uncharacteristically warm waters”.

Some scientists believe the “massive blob of warm water that heated the North Pacific in 2014” was responsible for the California drought. 2014 was recorded as being hottest year for California. The blob was not only hotter, but also stayed warm longer than any recorded.

The massive warm water spanned the Gulf of Alaska and eventually began to travel the coastline to California. The blob altered the environment that marine life depends on. It was especially unfavorable to the zooplankton. Cassin’s auklet aren’t the only birds that rely on these small fish for a food source. Other birds and fish feed on them, too.

According to National Geographic, scientists researching the Oregon coastal waters discovered “some of the tiny crustaceans at the bottom of the marine food chain were replaced by smaller species that provide less nutrition for larger animals.”

Scientists are asking why the auklets are the only species being affected if the reason is due to a food chain change.

According to National Geographic, Bill Sydeman, a senior scientist at California’s Farallon Institute predicts that this die-off “might spread to the salmon and forage fish that eat those same plankton species and then perhaps to the murres or other birds that, in turn, eat those fish.”

Whatever the cause of the Cassin’s auklets mass die-offs, it seems to be part of a larger marine life crisis being seen around the world. Scientists are still searching for answers in this latest die-off.

References & Image Credits:
(1) National Geographic
(2) Wikipedia: Cassin’s Auklet
(3) Audubon
(4) TSW: Is Fukushima Nuclear Fallout Far Worse Than Officials Admit?
(5) Crosscut
(6) Deep Sea News
(7) Washington’s Blog
(8) Oceanus
(9) Beachapedia
(10) Smithsonian Mag

Source: Top Secret Writers

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2015/06/mass-deaths-of-california-seabirds-fukushima-radiation-casualties/

June 18, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | USA | Fukushima Radiation | Leave a comment

Goverment proposes lifting evacuation order for town of Naraha by mid-August

FUKUSHIMA – The government on Wednesday proposed lifting by around mid-August the evacuation order for one of the towns in Fukushima Prefecture that has stood empty since the nuclear crisis began in 2011.
Most of the town of Naraha sits within 20 km of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, but radiation cleanup efforts have been under way in a bid to return around 7,500 residents to their homes.
Naraha is one of 10 remaining municipalities still subject to evacuation orders. The government estimated as of last October that about 79,000 people were unable to return to their homes.
The proposal for Nahara came after the government decided recently to lift all evacuation orders by March 2017 except for areas radiation levels are expected to remain high.
The government told the Naraha Municipal Assembly on Wednesday that it hopes to lift the evacuation order by the mid-August Bon holidays. Yosuke Takagi, senior vice industry minister who is dealing with nuclear disaster issues added that the government does not intend to “force” residents to return home.
“Whether to return is up to each person. . . . Even if we lift the order, we want to continue working substantially on measures to rebuild Nahara,” he said.
A local assembly member said the plan to lift the order by Bon was “abrupt,” while another member pointed out that the town has not recovered to a point where people can return without worrying about food safety or their homes.
As part of preparations, residents have already been allowed to enter the town and stay there for short periods, officials said.
Source : Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/17/national/goverment-proposes-lifting-evacuation-order-town-naraha-mid-august/#.VYMI_UbJrIV

June 18, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Evacuees, Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Fukushima radioactive waste storage operator’s intranet infected by virus

The internal computer network of the state-run Japan Environmental Storage & Safety Corp., which manages temporary storage sites for decontaminated waste from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, has been infected by a computer virus, the Environment Ministry said Wednesday.
The operator also known as JESCO, an Environment Ministry affiliate, is investigating whether any information has been leaked, ministry officials said.
JESCO will run interim facilities to be set up on land in Fukushima Prefecture to store radioactive soil and other waste. Facility buildings have yet to be built amid slow progress in negotiations with landowners.
JESCO’s computers do not store information on the landowners, which is kept at the Environment Ministry, the officials said.
JESCO shut down the network’s external communications Tuesday night after a firm monitoring the network detected unintended data transmission, they said.
The Environment Ministry temporarily halted transportation of waste scheduled for earlier Wednesday, but the operation resumed later, the officials said.
The Japan Pension Service and the Tokyo chamber of commerce recently announced their respective computer networks had been hacked, causing data leaks of confidential information.
Source : Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/17/national/fukushima-radioactive-waste-storage-operators-intranet-infected-by-virus/#.VYMqK0bJrIV

June 18, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

Fukushima to end housing aid for voluntary evacuees

FUKUSHIMA – The Fukushima Prefectural Government said Monday it will stop providing free housing at the end of March 2017 to nuclear evacuees whose homes are in official evacuation zones.

Housing assistance to the voluntary evacuees, currently set to expire in March 2016, will be terminated after a one-year extension.

The program was instituted after the 2011 catastrophe at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant forced thousands to flee.

The prefectural government is considering offering financial assistance for home moves, as well as rent subsidies for low-income households, after the end of the free housing program.

Gov. Masao Uchibori said that emergency assistance under the disaster relief law is getting harder to justify after progress in the restoration of infrastructure, contamination work and the construction of public housing.

The prefectural government estimates there are about 25,000 voluntary evacuees, 20,000 of whom are residing outside Fukushima.

The free housing program for voluntary evacuees was originally a two-year measure, but it has been extended annually for a further 12 months.

Housing assistance for those who have evacuated from designated zones will also remain in place through fiscal 2016. The prefecture will consider on an individual basis whether to continue help when evacuation orders are lifted.

For people who lost their houses in the tsunami, Fukushima will discuss an extension for each household after fiscal 2016, depending on the progress of public housing construction.

Source: Japan Times

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/15/national/fukushima-to-end-housing-aid-for-voluntary-evacuees/#.VX7xtUZZNBQ

June 15, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Evacuees, Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Japan, S.Korea to discuss food import ban

Government officials from Japan and South Korea are to meet in Geneva later this month to discuss Seoul’s ban on fishery imports from northeastern Japan.

South Korea has prohibited all imports of fishery products from 8 Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima, since September 2013. The ban came after a massive amount of contaminated wastewater leaked at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The 2 sides agreed on Monday that the talks based on a World Trade Organization agreement will be held on June 24th.

Both sides appear ready to continue discussions the following day should it become necessary.

But whether the import ban will be lifted swiftly remains to be seen.

South Korea maintains it should be lifted in stages. Japan argues that the ban has no scientific basis and should be removed across the board.
Source : NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150615_22.html

June 15, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan, South Korea | Fukushima Radiation | Leave a comment

7,000 Tochigi residents seek compensation over Fukushima nuclear disaster

Some 7,000 people living in Tochigi Prefecture sought compensation Monday worth ¥1.85 billion through an out-of-court settlement with Tepco over the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
In the first collective appeal by residents who have not been compensated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., 7,128 people from Tochigi, located some 100 km from the Destroyed plant, argue that they should be eligible for compensation even though they were not living in ‪#‎Fukushima‬ at the time of the 2011 nuclear disaster.
The residents, who were living at the time in Otawara, Nasushiobara, and Nasu are also demanding an apology and the establishment of a fund to pay for decontamination work and health checks, their lawyers said. The combined population of the two cities and town stands at around 218,000.
The appeal was filed Monday with the Nuclear Compensation Dispute Resolution Center under an alternative dispute resolution system that enables quicker settlements with the participation of a third party that has expertise.
Lead lawyer Koji Otani said it is “irrational” to treat his clients differently from the Fukushima residents who decided to evacuate on a voluntary basis and received compensation, as the same amount of radiation was detected in Tochigi.
“We want Tepco to take seriously the fact that over 7,000 people raised their voices,” Otani told a news conference at the Tochigi Prefectural Government office.
The residents are demanding sums ranging from ¥120,000 to ¥720,000 per person — equivalent to the amount awarded for voluntary evacuees in Fukushima — as compensation for mental suffering and extra living expenses caused by the nuclear disaster, according to the lawyers.
More than 30% of those seeking compensation were under 18 at the time of the Fukushima meltdowns, or were born afterward, they said.
“I let my (elementary school) child play in the garden without knowing radiation levels immediately after the accident,” said Mako Tezuka, 45, one of the residents who filed the appeal.
“Four years later, I still haven’t received any explanation or apology from Tepco and I’m only left with worries about the future and health of my child,” she said.

Source: Japan Times

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/15/national/crime-legal/7000-tochigi-residents-seek-compensation-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/#.VX7UQUZZNBQ

June 15, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Safety first in decommissioning work / Speed no longer top priority at N-plant

With the government’s approval of a revised road map for the decommissioning of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are shifting to a policy focused on “reducing risks” rather than “speedy operations.”

On Friday, the government decided on a revised road map for decommissioning the nuclear reactors that reflects the current circumstances surrounding the nuclear plant four years after the outbreak of the crisis, following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 that forced the government to take urgent measures.

The schedule includes some practical content such as delays to the start of removing spent nuclear fuel rods that are stored in fuel pools at the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors.

Risk assessment

“We’ll continue facing this unprecedented challenge and proceed with decommissioning work by giving utmost consideration to safety,” TEPCO President Naomi Hirose said Friday during a meeting of concerned Cabinet ministers at which the revised schedule was endorsed.

Eschewing an emphasis on speed, the government has shifted to a policy that stresses the reduction of risks that could negatively impact people and the environment.

The shift stems from a review of the government’s previous commitment to follow a schedule that put excessive pressure on workers at the site, leading to increased cases of problems and accidents that eventually resulted in delayed operations.

There were initially about 3,000 plant workers after the outbreak of the crisis. Now, there are around 7,000 involved in such projects as the construction of additional tanks to store radioactive contaminated water and installing subterranean ice walls around reactor buildings to block groundwater from flowing in.

Work-related accidents are on the rise. In January, operations were suspended for two weeks following fatal accidents at both the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants.

Based on the policy shift, the road map has sorted operations into several categories ordered by priority depending on their risk assessments. For example, contaminated water disposal is deemed a high priority because of leakage risks, meaning measures should be taken immediately.

In terms of the most difficult task — removing melted fuel debris — the road map stipulates that a cautious stance be taken out of concern that “the risk of failure would actually increase if [operations] are hastily conducted.”

“It’s important to classify the risks since decommissioning work involves a range of procedures,” said Hiroaki Yoshii, a professor emeritus at Tokyo Keizai University.

Identifying effective methods

Preparation work such as debris removal is expected to be a lengthy process, prompting the road map to indicate that spent fuel extraction from the pools at the three reactors will be delayed by from four to 40 months.

But the extent to which the delays would affect the overall timetable of completing decommissioning work, projected to take 30 to 40 years, remains unclear. The outline of the overall timeline remained unchanged.

The extraction of melted fuel from the containment vessels is expected to start in 2021. The operation faces an unprecedented challenge involving the use of a robot arm, however, meaning deciding on the best extraction method for each reactor will take about two years.

One option is a “submersion method” in which the vessel is submerged in water to extract fuel debris. Other ways include a dry approach that doesn’t involve water.

The submersion method has the advantage of using water as a radiation shield, but potential leak points need to be repaired. Containment vessels would also need to be tested for their ability to withstand earthquakes when filled with water.

A dry method would not require the leaks to be stopped, but measures would be needed to control emissions from radioactive substances and shield workers from radiation.

The government and TEPCO plan to deploy robots to investigate the position and state of melted fuel in the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors after summer.

“If we can learn about the conditions of the fuel, we can develop an efficient retrieval method. Operations in the next few years will be important,” said Hajimu Yamana, vice president of the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation.

Tainted water still flowing in

Radioactive contaminated water generated from groundwater flowing into the plant continues to stand at 300 tons a day. The flow needs to be blocked before melted fuel can be extracted.

The road map also outlines a new goal of reducing groundwater flow to less than 100 tons a day by fiscal 2016 as part of efforts to complete contaminated water disposal.

To achieve the target, contaminated groundwater pumped up from areas enclosed by ice walls and wells called “subdrain pits” must be purified and directed to the ocean — but the effectiveness of the unprecedented scale of the ice walls remain unknown.

The government and TEPCO have also failed to obtain consent over the subdrain pit plan from local governments and residents after rainwater contaminated with radioactive material was found to have escaped into the ocean through a trench at the power plant in February.

Source: Yomiuri

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002218963

June 15, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | decommissioning, Fukushima Daiichi | Leave a comment

What’s Really Going on at Fukushima?

Fukushima’s still radiating, self-perpetuating, immeasurable, and limitless, like a horrible incorrigible Doctor Who monster encounter in deep space.

Fukushima will likely go down in history as the biggest cover-up of the 21st Century. Governments and corporations are not leveling with citizens about the risks and dangers; similarly, truth itself, as an ethical standard, is at risk of going to shambles as the glue that holds together the trust and belief in society’s institutions. Ultimately, this is an example of how societies fail.

Tens of thousands of Fukushima residents remain in temporary housing more than four years after the horrific disaster of March 2011. Some areas on the outskirts of Fukushima have officially reopened to former residents, but many of those former residents are reluctant to return home because of widespread distrust of government claims that it is okay and safe.

Part of this reluctance has to do with radiation’s symptoms. It is insidious because it cannot be detected by human senses. People are not biologically equipped to feel its power, or see, or hear, touch or smell it (Caldicott). Not only that, it slowly accumulates over time in a dastardly fashion that serves to hide its effects until it is too late.

Chernobyl’s Destruction Mirrors Fukushima’s Future

As an example of how media fails to deal with disaster blowback, here are some Chernobyl facts that have not received enough widespread news coverage: Over one million (1,000,000) people have already died from Chernobyl’s fallout.

Additionally, the Rechitsa Orphanage in Belarus has been caring for a very large population of deathly sick and deformed children. Children are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to radiation than adults.

Zhuravichi Children’s Home is another institution, among many, for the Chernobyl-stricken: “The home is hidden deep in the countryside and, even today, the majority of people in Belarus are not aware of the existence of such institutions.”¹

One million (1,000,000) is a lot of dead people. But, how many more will die? Approximately seven million (7,000,000) people in the Chernobyl vicinity were hit with one of the most potent exposures to radiation in the history of the Atomic Age.

The exclusion zone around Chernobyl is known as “Death Valley.” It has been increased from 30 to 70 square kilometres. No humans will ever be able to live in the zone again. It is a permanent “dead zone.”

Additionally, over 25,000 died and 70,000 disabled because of exposure to extremely dangerous levels of radiation in order to help contain Chernobyl. Twenty percent of those deaths were suicides, as the slow agonizing “death march of radiation exposure” was too much to endure.

Fukushima- The Real Story

In late 2014, Helen Caldicott, M.D. gave a speech about Fukushima at Seattle Town Hall on September 28, 2014. Pirate Television recorded her speech. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qX-YU4nq-g)

Dr. Helen Caldicott is co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and she is author/editor of Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe, The New Press, September 2014. For over four decades Dr. Caldicott has been the embodiment of the anti-nuclear banner, and as such, many people around the world classify her as a “national treasure”. She’s truthful and honest and knowledgeable.

Fukushima is literally a time bomb in quiescence. Another powerful quake and all hell could break loose. Also, it is not even close to being under control. Rather, it is totally out of control. According to Dr. Caldicott, “It’s still possible that Tokyo may have to be evacuated, depending upon how things go.” Imagine that!

According to Japan Times as of March 11, 2015:

There have been quite a few accidents and problems at the Fukushima plant in the past year, and we need to face the reality that they are causing anxiety and anger among people in Fukushima, as explained by Shunichi Tanaka at the Nuclear Regulation Authority. Furthermore, Mr. Tanaka said, there are numerous risks that could cause various accidents and problems.

Even more ominously, Seiichi Mizuno, a former member of Japan’s House of Councillors (Upper House of Parliament, 1995-2001) in March 2015 said:

The biggest problem is the melt-through of reactor cores… We have groundwater contamination… The idea that the contaminated water is somehow blocked in the harbor is especially absurd. It is leaking directly into the ocean. There’s evidence of more than 40 known hotspot areas where extremely contaminated water is flowing directly into the ocean… We face huge problems with no prospect of solution.²

At Fukushima, each reactor required one million gallons of water per minute for cooling, but when the tsunami hit, the backup diesel generators were drowned. Units 1, 2, and 3 had meltdowns within days. There were four hydrogen explosions. Thereafter, the melting cores burrowed into the container vessels, maybe into the earth.

According to Dr. Caldicott, “One hundred tons of terribly hot radioactive lava has already gone into the earth or somewhere within the container vessels, which are all cracked and broken.” Nobody really knows for sure where the hot radioactive lava resides. The scary unanswered question: Is it the China Syndrome?

Following the meltdown, the Japanese government did not inform people of the ambient levels of radiation that blew back onto the island. Unfortunately and mistakenly, people fled away from the reactors to the highest radiation levels on the island at the time.

As the disaster happened, enormous levels of radiation hit Tokyo. The highest radiation detected in the Tokyo Metro area was in Saitama with cesium radiation levels detected at 919,000 becquerel (Bq) per square meter, a level almost twice as high as Chernobyl’s “permanent dead zone evacuation limit of 500,000 Bq.”³. For that reason, Dr. Caldicott strongly advises against travel to Japan and recommends avoiding Japanese food.

Even so, post the Fukushima disaster, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed an agreement with Japan that the U.S. would continue importing Japanese foodstuff. Therefore, Dr. Caldicott suggests people not vote for Hillary Clinton. One reckless dangerous precedent is enough for her.

According to Arnie Gundersen, an energy advisor with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, as reported in The Canadian on August 15, 2011:

The US government has come up with a decision at the highest levels of the State Department, as well as other departments who made a decision to downplay Fukushima. In April, the month after the powerful tsunami and earthquake crippled Japan including its nuclear power plant, Hillary Clinton signed a pact with Japan that she agreed there is no problem with Japanese food supply and we will continue to buy them. So, we are not sampling food coming in from Japan.

However, in stark contrast to the United States, in Europe Angela Merkel, PhD physics, University of Leipzig and current chancellor of Germany is shutting down all nuclear reactors because of Fukushima.

Maybe an advanced degree in physics makes the difference in how a leader approaches the nuclear power issue. It certainly looks that way when comparing/contrasting the two pantsuit-wearing leaders, Chancellor Merkel and former secretary of state Clinton.

After the Fukushima blow up, ambient levels of radiation in Washington State went up 40,000 times above normal, but according to Dr. Caldicott, the U.S. media does not cover the “ongoing Fukushima mess.” So, who would really know?

Dr. Caldicott ended her September 28. 2014 speech by saying:

In Fukushima, it is not over. Everyday, four hundred tons of highly radioactive water pours into the Pacific and heads towards the U.S. Because the radiation accumulates in fish, we get that too. The U.S. government is not testing the water, not testing the fish, and not testing the ambient air. Also, people in Japan are eating radiation every day.

Furthermore, according to Dr. Caldicott:

Rainwater washes over the nuclear cores into the Pacific. There is no way they can get to those cores, men die, robots get fried. Fukushima will never be solved. Meanwhile, people are still living in highly radioactive areas.

Fukushima will never be solved because “men die” and “robots get fried.” By the sounds of it, Fukushima is a perpetual radiation meltdown scenario that literally sets on the edge of a bottomless doomsday pit, in waiting to be nudged over.

UN All-Clear Report

A UN (UNSCEAR) report on April 2, 2014 on health impacts of the Fukushima accident concluded that any radiation-induced effects would be too small to identify. People were well protected and received “low or very low” radiation doses. UNSCEAR gave an all-clear report.

Rebuttal of the UNSCEAR report by the German affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War dated July 18, 2014 takes a defiant stance in opposition to the UN report, to wit:

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is far from over. Despite the declaration of ‘cold shutdown’ by the Japanese government in December 2011, the crippled reactors have not yet achieved a stable status and even UNSCEAR admits that emissions of radioisotopes are continuing unabated. 188 TEPCO is struggling with an enormous amount of contaminated water, which continues to leak into the surrounding soil and sea. Large quantities of contaminated cooling water are accumulating at the site. Failures in the makeshift cooling systems are occurring repeatedly. The discharge of radioactive waste will most likely continue for a long time.

Both the damaged nuclear reactors and the spent fuel ponds contain vast amounts of radioactivity and are highly vulnerable to further earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and human error. Catastrophic releases of radioactivity could occur at any time and eliminating this risk will take many decades… It is impossible at this point in time to come up with an exact prognosis of the effects that the Fukushima nuclear disaster will have on the population in Japan… the UNSCEAR report represents a systematic underestimation and conjures up an illusion of scientific certainty that obscures the true impact of the nuclear catastrophe on health and the environment.

Read the full text of the rejoinder to the UN report here. (https://japansafety.wordpress.com/tag/saitama/)

Fukushima’s Radiation and the Future

Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press (AP), June 12, 2015:

Four years after an earthquake and tsunami destroyed Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, the road ahead remains riddled with unknowns… Experts have yet to pinpoint the exact location of the melted fuel inside the three reactors and study it, and still need to develop robots capable of working safely in such highly radioactive conditions. And then there’s the question of what to do with the waste… serious doubts about whether the cleanup can be completed within 40 years.

According to Prof. Hiroaki Koide (retired), Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, April 25, 2015:

Although the Chernobyl accident was a terrible accident, it only involved one reactor. With Fukushima, we have the minimum [of] 3 reactors that are emitting dangerous radiation. The work involved to deal with this accident will take tens of years, hundreds of years. It could be that some of the fuel could actually have gone through the floor of the containment vessel as well… What I’ve just described is very, very logical for anyone who understands nuclear engineering or nuclear energy. (Which dreadfully spells-out: THE CHINA SYNDROME.)

According to the Smithsonian, April 30, 2015:

Birds Are in a Tailspin Four Years After Fukushima: Bird species are in sharp decline, and it is getting worse over time… Where it’s much, much hotter, it’s dead silent. You’ll see one or two birds if you’re lucky.

Developmental abnormalities of birds include cataracts, tumors, and asymmetries. Birds are spotted with strange white patches on their feathers.

Maya Moore, a former NHK news anchor, authored a book about the disaster: The Rose Garden of Fukushima (Tankobon, 2014), about the roses of Mr. Katsuhide Okada. Today, the garden has perished:

It’s just poisoned wasteland. The last time Mr. Okada actually went back there, he found baby crows that could not fly, that were blind. Mutations have begun with animals, with birds.

The Rose Garden of Fukushima features a collection of photos of an actual garden that existed in Fukushima, Japan. Boasting over 7500 bushes of roses and 50-thousand visitors a year, the Garden was rendered null and void in an instant due to the triple disaster — earthquake, tsunami, and meltdown.

The forward to Maya’s book was written by John Roos, former US Ambassador to Japan 2009-13:

The incredible tale of Katz Okada and his Fukushima rose garden was told here by Maya Moore… gives you a small window into what the people of Tohoku faced.

Roos’ “small window” could very well serve as a metaphor for a huge black hole smack dab in the heart of civilization. Similarly, Fukushima is a veritable destruction machine that consumes everything in its path, and beyond, and its path is likely to grow. For certain, it is not going away.

Thus, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is deeply involved in an asymmetric battle against enormously powerful unleashed out-of-control forces of E=mc2.

Clearly, TEPCO has its back to the wall. Furthermore, it’s doubtful TEPCO will “break the back of the beast.” In fact, it may be an impossible task.

Maybe, just maybe, Greater Tokyo’s 38 million residents will eventually be evacuated. Who knows for sure?

Only Godzilla knows!

Source: Dissident Voice

What’s Really Going on at Fukushima?

June 15, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima continuing, Fukushima Daiichi | Leave a comment

Reconstruction in Japan’s tsunami-hit region remains slow

Crane is seen working at the debris of buildings devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami at Ofunato city, Iwate Pretecture, Japan, March 2, 2012.

TOKYO, June 14 (Xinhua) — Reconstruction of the regions in northeastern Japan, which were struck four years ago by a devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami, remains slow.

Reconstruction work in the hardest-hit regions of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures has been inexplicably slow. In Iwate prefecture, 1,049 publicly funded homes for refugees had been built as of January, only 18 percent of some 6,000 units planned to be constructed by late 2018.

The situation in the rest two prefectures were also pessimistic. Only 17.4 percent of a total of 15,484 units planned to be built by March 2018 had been completed in Miyagi by January and 5 percent of merely 5,000 had been built in Fukushima as of January due to delayed decontamination work in the prefecture.

In March 2011, a magnitude-9.0 struck off northeastern Japan, triggering a massive tsunami with waves as high as 20 meters washing away entire towns and villages, with the Tohoku region being one of the worst hit.

Black bags containing buildup of contaminated wastes are seen in the town of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, March 7, 2015. The scenes from the towns and villages still abandoned four years after an earthquake triggered tsunami breached the defenses of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, would make for the perfect backdrop for a post-apocalyptic Hollywood zombie movie, but the trouble would be that the levels of radiation in the area would be too dangerous for the cast and crew. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)

The massive tsunami knocked out key cooling functions at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear facility, causing three reactors to melt down within what has recently been revealed as shoddily constructed reactor buildings. The plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power has, indefensibly, failed to bring the ongoing nuclear crisis under control.

With the amount of radioactive materials released into the environment being twice as much as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the calamity at the Daiichi plant has become the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history.

A total of some 470,000 people had to be evacuated after the earthquake and tsunami struck, with around 120,000 still living in temporary housing and makeshift shelters due to the nuclear crisis, many of which look like internment, or asylum seekers’ camps, with families of up to four or five people forced to share a single room in a wood hut and having no idea when they can return home or be rehoused into permanent residences.

The refugees in the camps struggle to live meaningful and healthy lives, with instances of obesity and other health problems plaguing the younger evacuees, who have nowhere to play, including mental issues such as chronic depression and post traumatic stress.

According to official figures, 3,244 of those living in temporary shelters have died from diseases, old age, suicide, and other causes, since being evacuated four years ago.

Abandoned fields and houses are seen in the town of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, March 7, 2015. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)

Fishery, a main industry in the three prefectures, has not fully recovered yet and seafood production remained sluggish.

About 53 percent of facilities in Iwate Prefecture were operating at 80 percent or above of their pre-disaster levels, while in Miyagi and Fukushima, the number is even lower, at 50 percent and 25 percent, respectively, according to a survey by Japan’s Fisheries Agency between November and January.

The Japan Times noted that the percentage of facilities at or above the 80-percent production threshold hasn’t changed much since last year’s survey, which recorded 57 percent in Iwate, 49 percent in Miyagi and 24 percent in Fukushima.

So far, decontamination work in and around the leaking nuclear plant has been blamed to be “rudimentary”, “unscientific”, and “painfully slow”, as contaminated waste in black refuse bags are seen piled up alongside deserted streets and rice fields, both in and outside the “no go” zone. Industrial equipment for the decontamination work lied idle and a handful of part-timers and day laborers were sprinkling new soil by hand and with hose.

It would take 35 years to finally disable the reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to Japnese experts and media.

Source: Xinhua

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-06/14/c_134325431.htm

June 15, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

INSIGHT: Success of revised decommissioning plan for Fukushima far from a done deal

Safety over speed reflects the thinking behind the revised road map for decommissioning the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Officials of the central government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. had wanted in the past to move quickly in decommissioning the reactors in part because that would also speed up the rebuilding process in Fukushima Prefecture.

However, because of the unprecedented scale and nature of the decommissioning project resulting from the triple meltdown triggered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, the rush to move on resulted in only more problems that had to be addressed.

The revised road map that got the official go-ahead June 12 delays the removal of nuclear fuel from the three reactors by as much as three years. The new schedule was needed because of the numerous problems that arose in the preliminary stages of work to prepare for the most difficult work of removing nuclear fuel assemblies from the spent fuel storage pools. An even more dangerous process that comes with its own larger set of unknown factors is removing the melted fuel in the reactor cores of the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors.

One of the biggest problems has been removing debris at the plant site caused by the explosions at the reactors, along with decontaminating work areas with high levels of radiation, stopping leaks of radiation-contaminated water and dealing with radioactive materials that are still gushing.

The hurried pace of past work may have been a factor behind a spike in work-related accidents at the plant site.

New targets have been established for dealing with the continuing problem of contaminated water.

One goal is to reduce the flow of groundwater into the reactor buildings by the end of fiscal 2016 to less than 100 tons a day from the current daily level of about 300 tons.

However, achieving that goal will require successful operation of two separate projects. One is the construction of an underground frozen wall of soil to divert groundwater, while the other involves processing pumped up groundwater before releasing it into the ocean.

Even if the contaminated water problem is dealt with, there are other issues that have to be addressed before removal of the nuclear fuel from the reactors can begin.

The overall goal of completing the decommissioning within a period of 30 to 40 years has not changed. The road map also maintains the objective of starting the removal of melted fuel at one of the three reactors in 2021. To achieve that goal, the method for removing that fuel will have to be finalized in early fiscal 2018.

However, a major problem is the uncertainty about just where that melted fuel is located within the reactor containment vessel.

Remote-controlled robots will be used within the vessels to assess conditions there.

Hajimu Yamana, deputy head of the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp. who is in charge of providing technological advice, said, “By using investigative robots to gather information, we will have a pretty good idea of the state of the melted fuel within two years. We should have all the information we would need by then in deciding how to remove the fuel.”

But some experts still seem to think the authorities are rushing things.

Shigeaki Tsunoyama, former president of the University of Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture who serves as an adviser to the Fukushima prefectural government on nuclear issues, cast doubt on whether fuel removal could begin within three years of deciding the removal method.

He cited the problem of developing specialized equipment, training the workers to use it and screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority as being time-consuming issues that would have a bearing on the outcome

Source ; Asahi Shimbun

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201506130054

June 13, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | decommissioning, Fukushima Daiichi | Leave a comment

Fukushima Fallout: Not In My Backyard

A rural community in eastern Japan opposes a government project to build a storage facility for radioactive waste generated by the Fukushima disaster.

Source: Nippon TV News 24

http://www.ntv.co.jp/englishnews/fukushima-update/fukushima_update_73fukushima_fallout_not_in_my_backyard/

June 13, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

Fukushima decommissioning schedule revised to delay spent fuel removal

With the decommissioning of Fukushima No. 1 proving harder than expected, planners have pushed back plans to remove spent nuclear fuel from the cooling pools perched above the damaged reactors by a few years.

The decision was made Friday by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the tsunami-hit complex.

The spent fuel rod assemblies must be removed from the pools above reactor Nos. 1, 2 and 3 before any attempt can be made to extract the fuel that melted inside the reactors themselves.

But the delay will not impact the overall cleanup timeline for the plant, which spans 30 to 40 years, the government and Tepco said.

The first revision to the decommissioning road map in two years was made after it was decided that too much priority had been placed on speed. This would have heaped excessive pressure on workers tasked with operating in a highly radioactive environment. The road map was first crafted in December 2011.

According to the revised road map, the removal of fuel assemblies from the No. 3 cooling pool will be delayed until fiscal 2017, as it is already behind schedule. The work was expected to be finished in the first half of fiscal 2015, which ends next March.

Work to extract fuel assemblies from the pools on units 1 and 2 is now expected to begin in fiscal 2020, instead of fiscal 2017.

The subsequent extraction of the melted fuel — the most challenging part of the process — is expected to start in 2021, but the government and Tepco have not yet figured out how to do it. They are aiming to settle on a single approach in fiscal 2018.

The revised road map also aims to reduce the amount of groundwater seeping into the structurally damaged plant to less than 100 tons per day in fiscal 2016, instead of 300 tons. The influx of groundwater has become its own crisis by mingling with the highly radioactive water generated in the daily process of cooling the leaking reactors. And all of it must be stored on site until it can be cleaned.

The most important progress made at the plant so far has been the removal of all the fuel assemblies that had been stored in the cooling pool above the No. 4 reactor, which suffered a hydrogen explosion but avoided meltdown.

The revision also said the government and Tepco will begin discussions in the first half of 2016 on how to dispose of water tainted with tritium. The filters currently available can remove all radioactive isotopes from large volumes of water with the exception of tritium, a common byproduct at nuclear plants.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Regulation Authority have suggested such water be dumped into the ocean rather than be kept in tanks, to reduce the risk of accidents, but Tepco remains undecided on this given strong local opposition to the proposal, especially by fishermen.

Source: Japan Times

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/12/national/fukushima-decommissioning-schedule-revised-delay-spent-fuel-removal/?utm_source=Daily+News+Updates&utm_campaign=da619f12da-Friday_email_updates13_06_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5a6080d40-da619f12da-332750181#.VXw2I0ZZNBT

June 13, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | decommissioning, Fukushima Daiichi | 1 Comment

« Previous Entries Next Entries »