Slow progress on decontamination of Fukushima, most of the budget still unused
Ministry fails to use 77% of Fukushima decontamination budget; TEPCO refuses to pay Asahi Shimbun, 18 Oct 13, By TAKUYA KITAZAWA/ Staff Writer The Environment Ministry has failed to use 76.6 percent, or 247.2 billion yen, of its budget to decontaminate radioactive areas around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the Board of Audit said.
Progress has been slow because opposition from local residents is making it difficult for the ministry to secure places to temporarily store the contaminated soil and debris collected in the work.
The ministry faces another problem: Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the stricken Fukushima plant, refuses to cover all the costs of the decontamination work as required under law.
The Board of Audit investigated the ministry’s budget of about 322.8 billion yen ($3.2 billion) for decontamination work for the period until March 2013, the end of fiscal 2012.
The results were released on Oct. 16………http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201310170058
Concerns over radioactivity in Fukushima rice
Rice grown nearby Fukushima plant cleared for sale — Farmer: “I would not dare eat it… We feel guilty about growing it and selling it” (VIDEO)http://enenews.com/rice-grown-near-fukushima-plant-cleared-for-sale-farmer-i-would-not-dare-eat-it-myself-we-farmers-know-better-we-feel-guilt-about-growing-it-and-selling-it-video
Fukushima farmers negotiate with Japanese Government
The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition),, Oct. 10, 2013: Rice Grown Near Fukushima Cleared for Sale […] Rice grown in some areas within a 30 km radius of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant will be cleared for sale this year, but concerns remain. Some samples have tested positive for radiation well above the permitted level. So far only test farming of rice in the region was allowed. Fukushima Prefecture on Wednesday said 44 out of 52 sacks of 30-kg rice harvested in Minamisoma, 20 to 30 km from the power plant, likely exceeded the permissible levels of radioactive materials when tested with a conveyer-belt detector. The prefecture carried out thorough test of the 44 sacks, and detected 120 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, way over the permissible level of 100 becquerels. “It is possible to sell rice that does not exceed the level,” said a prefecture official. […]
Fukushima Farmers Negotiate with Japanese Government,Published August 31, 2013 – Farmer from Sukagawa, 60 km west of Fukushima Daiichi (at 1:45 in): Do you understand the meaning of ‘de’ in the word decontamination? We are just tilling deeply and spreading the radiation thinly. We are not removing the contamination. No wonder that the radiation level has not gone down. We measured the radioactivity in the air. It has not gone down at all. We have not removed the contaminated soil. Of course not! The environment has not changed at all 2 years after the explosions. […] In Fukushima, all farm produce must be checked for the cesium level prior to shipping. The current government limit is 100 becquerels. The farmers know how many becquerels of cesium their produce contains. We can ship them if the reading is lower than 100. But I would not dare eat them myself. The consumers assume there is no radiation in the food they buy. […] We farmers know better. We feel guilty about growing it and selling it. We won’t eat it ourselves, but we sell it.
Radioactive cesium found at Tokyo’s Olympic venues
Report: Olympic athletes and tourists warned they will be in danger from Tokyo’s elevated radiation levels — Cesium found at almost every venue tested http://enenews.com/report-olympic-athletes-and-tourists-warned-they-will-be-in-danger-from-tokyos-elevated-radiation-levels-cesium-found-at-almost-every-venue-tested
Title: Elevated radiation claimed at Tokyo 2020 Olympic venues
Source: South China Morning Post
Author: Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Date: Oct. 12, 2013
A citizens’ group in Tokyo has found elevated levels of radioactivity at sporting facilities that will be used in the 2020 Olympic Games and is warning that competitors and the hundreds of thousands of people expected to flock to the city for the event will be putting themselves in danger.
The Citizens’ Group for Measuring Radioactive Environment at Facilities for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics claims wind-borne radiation from the four crippled reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant has contaminated a number of future venues.
Measurements were taken at 39 sporting venues that have been earmarked to stage events in seven years’ time […]
“We found caesium-137 at almost every place we carried out tests, and there was no caesium here before the accident at Fukushima,” Mitsuo Tanaka, a member of the group, told the South China Morning Post. […]
Higher radiation levels in sea near Fukushima
Radiation levels in harbour off Fukushima hit two-year high Australia Network News 10 Oct 2013 Radiation levels in harbour seawater beside one of the damaged Fukushima reactors spiked this week to the highest level in two years.
The operator of the crippled Japanese nuclear plant, TEPCO, says Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 readings on Wednesday jumped 13 times the previous day’s reading.
The readings were taken in the harbour right next to the Fukushima plant, hundreds of meters from the port entrance that connects to the Pacific Ocean.
Radiation from water leaking from the facility is mostly confined to the harbour around the plant, officials have said……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-10/an-radiation-levels-in-harbour-off-fukushima-hit-two-year-high/5015082
High radiation levels remain in parts of Fukushima’s evacuated areas
Greenpeace critical of Japan radiation Sky News, 10 Oct 13 Japan’s efforts to scour areas around Fukushima have been insufficient, pressure group Greenpeace said Thursday, as the government considers letting some residents return to homes near the crippled nuclear plant.
The environmental group said tests it had carried out inside the original 20-kilometre no-go zone around the plant showed that high levels of radiation remain.
Local and national officials are mulling lifting the exclusion order in parts of Tamura city, allowing people to return to homes they abandoned more than two and a half years ago. They cite lowered pollution levels in the wake of large cleaning operations.
A recent Greenpeace survey found that decontamination programmes have been effective for houses and many parts of major routes in the city.
But some lesser-used public roads, large areas of farmland and mountain areas still have high contamination levels, said Jan Vande Putte, Greenpeace radiation protection adviser.
He said the cleaned houses and roads were like ‘islands’ and ‘corridors’ in an otherwise polluted region.
It would be ‘unrealistic’ to ask residents to stay off contaminated roads and farmland, he said.
‘They can be exposed to high levels of radiation’ if they returned home, he said.
Decontamination ‘is a sticky problem. It is very difficult’, he told a press briefing……. http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=913978
Trade winds and Pacific currents bring Fukushima radiation to North America
Fukushima Radiation Hitting Canada and United States More than Japan http://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/fukushima-radiation-hitting-canada-and-united-states-more-than-japan-209/ Oct 8, 2013
ForbiddenKnowledgeTV
Alexandra Bruce
October 5, 2013
Besides the billions of gallons of radioactive water spilling from the abandoned Fukushima Nuclear Energy Plant every day, there is also a steady plume of radio nuclides including Cesium, Cobalt, Uranium and Plutonium, which are steadily being carried across the Pacific via trade winds, with the lion’s share landing (usually, along with the rain) in communities within the US and Canada – and in places beyond, throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Ironically, more fallout is presently occurring in North America than in Japan, the scene of the disaster, due to the trade winds, off the Japanese coast.
It has been calculated that in 1 day, there are 666,733.717599549 bequerels of radiation emitted in every cubic foot of the Pacific, per mile.
There are about 63,800,000 miles in the Pacific Ocean. The average depth is about 2.28 miles. There are 145,464,000 cubic miles in the Pacific Ocean. Cesium-137 has a double decay process 94.6% of the time; first beta rays, then gamma rays.
So each cubic foot of the entire Pacific Ocean will have 218.174056838937 Beta radiation events per day and each cubic foot of the entire Pacific Ocean will have 206.392657769635 Gamma radiation events per day.
34 is the average background radiation of the N. American continent.
The Pacific Ocean will have a “radiation fog” in every cubic foot of water that is 12.47 times HIGHER than the average background radiation count of North American continent.
Sea life will be affected in some manner; perhaps all fish will get cancer. The impact on humanity is a shortage in sea food and no swimming allowed until radiation levels abate to a “safe level”… in about how long???
Possible Olympics site in Tokyo has high radiation levels
“Saying there is no problem without even measuring for radiation is the same response as the Democratic Party of Japan government immediately after the Fukushima nuclear accident”
“As host nation for the Olympics, it is imperative that radiation levels at the venues be released to the world”
Asahi: High radiation levels found at possible Olympic sites — Japan Professor: Radioactive materials have spread throughout greater Tokyo; Region remains in “emergency situation”? http://enenews.com/asahi-high-radiation-levels-found-at-possible-olympic-sites-japan-professor-radioactive-materials-have-spread-throughout-greater-tokyo-region-remains-in-emergency-situation
Title: High radiation levels found at possible Olympic sites; Tokyo dismisses data
Source: Asahi Shimbun (Weekly Aera)
Author: Shoji Nomura
Date: October 8, 2013
A citizens group said it measured high radiation levels at candidate venues for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the metropolitan government disputes the data and the International Olympic Committee has shown little interest. […]
The group said some of the potential venues for the Summer Games had radiation levels exceeding the Tokyo metropolitan government’s standards for decontamination […] Continue reading
Japan’s secrecy over health consequences of Fukushima radiation
International Scientists: Japan experts must be allowed to report health consequences of Fukushima — “The official data is all denial” — Pressured to downplay true impact of disaster http://enenews.com/international-scientists-japan-experts-must-be-allowed-to-report-health-consequences-of-fukushima-the-official-data-is-all-denial-pressured-to-downplay-true-impact-of-disaster October 6th, 2013
Georgia Straight (Canada), Oct. 2, 2013: “The official data is all denial,” [Eiichiro Ochiai, a retired chemistry professor in Vancouver who taught at University of British Columbia and the University of Tokyo] said. “The nuclear industry tries to suppress the truth.”
Fukushima News 10/1/13: Thousands in Japan Suffering Massive And Recurring Nosebleeds In Recent Days
Letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon from 17 international scientists and experts urging international action on Fukushima crisis, Sept. 13, 2013: […] it is clear that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor site is progressively deteriorating, not stabilizing. […] It is clear now that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is far from over, and that there can be no credible estimate of total environmental or human health impacts because the radiological release has not ceased and the outcomes from exposing large populations to low doses over long time frames is unclear. A final estimation of the radiological release from the Fukushima Daiichi site, of necessity lies in the future; perhaps the distant future. […] Japanese physicians and scientists in Japan must be allowed and supported to treat and report Fukushima related health consequences. Nuclear calamities to date result in institutional pressure to under report and even distort patient health data and other evidence […] Such institutional pressure is now contributing to a downplaying of the true impact of the Fukushima accident.
Cancer causing radiation in fish must be increasing
Report raises fresh concerns about radiation levels in Japanese fish Canada AM: Cancer-causing radiation in fish Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility discusses the danger, and whether the information will prompt changes. CTVNews.ca Staff
Monday, October 7, 2013
Two and a half years after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan, concerns are again being raised about radiation levels in fish caught in the Pacific Ocean.
A report by the Vancouver weekly newspaper, The Georgia Straight, suggests at least 800 people worldwide could develop cancer from eating fish caught in Japan’s waters – and about half of those cases will be fatal.
About 500 of the cancers will occur in Japan, while 75 will be due to Japanese fish exports to other countries, including Canada, the newspaper estimates. It also quotes several nuclear experts who say that estimate is likely conservative and the real toll could be closer to 80,000 cancers.
Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, notes that the estimate is based only on the fish that has been eaten up to now.
“People are going to continue to consume these fish and the toll could rise higher,” he told CTV’s Canada AM Monday from Montreal……..
Some fish samples tested to date have had very high levels of radiation: one sea bass sample collected in July, for example, had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.While Canadians are exposed to radiation every day from the sun and the environment, Edwards notes that radioactive cesium doesn’t exist in nature at all and it’s not known if there is any safe level.
“The background level is zero. So this is all comes from the Fukushima disaster,” he said of the fish.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency tested fish exports from Japan for several months, but dropped the testing in June 2011, just three months after the disaster.
Edwards says he does not understand why the CFIA is not taking the issue more seriously.”Canadian authorities are really doing us all a disservice by not following and monitoring this much more closely. They’re treating it as though it’s a kind of ho-hum situation, but in fact, it was a major event worldwide,” he said.
“And it should be studied very more carefully because that’s the only way we’re going to learn what the effects of this may be for the future.” http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/report-raises-fresh-concerns-about-radiation-levels-in-japanese-fish-1.1486514#ixzz2hAEyiUbR
The slow poisoning of our oceans
We could act radioactive pollution to this” deadly trio”
The oceans are heating, acidifying and choking New Scientist, 04 October 2013 by Fred Pearce We know the oceans are warming. We know they are acidifying. And now, to cap it all, it turns out they are suffocating, too. A new health check on the state of the oceans warns that they will have lost as much as 7 per cent of their oxygen by the end of the century.
The cascade of chemical and biological changes now under way could see coral reefs irreversibly destroyed in 50 to 100 years, with marine ecosystems increasingly taken over by jellyfish and toxic algal blooms.The review is a repeat of a study two years ago by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), a coalition of scientists. It concludes that things have become worse since the first study.
“The health of the oceans is spiralling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought, exposing organisms to intolerable and unpredictable evolutionary pressure,” says Alex Rogers at the University of Oxford, the scientific director of IPSO.
Deadly trio
Rogers describes a “deadly trio” of linked global threats. The first is global warming: surface sea water has been warming almost as fast as the atmosphere. The second is acidification – a result of the water absorbing ever more CO2 from the atmosphere. The third is deoxygenation…….http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24351-the-oceans-are-heating-acidifying-and-choking.html#.UlByOdJwonE
Fukushima radiation-related deaths from fish in Pacific
Physician on Cancer Estimates: Epidemic of Fukushima radiation-related deaths from fish in Pacific may have started — “Vast implications for human health” — “I eat so much salmon… I’m vulnerable” http://enenews.com/physician-on-cancer-calculations-epidemic-of-fukushima-radiation-related-deaths-from-fish-in-pacific-may-have-started-vast-implications-for-human-health-i-eat-so-much-salmon-im-vulne
Title: Fish data belie Japan’s claims on Fukushima
Source: Georgia Straight (Canada)
Author: Alex Roslin
Date: Oct. 2, 2013
[…] About 800 people worldwide will get cancer from radiation due to Fukushima in fish eaten to date [through mid-July 2013], according to Georgia Straight calculations. The Straight results relied on a widely used cancer-risk formula developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as radiation levels in 33,000 fish tested by the Japanese Fisheries Agency. […]
Two nuclear experts who saw the Straight’s figures said the real cancer toll could be 100 times higher—or 80,000 cancers. […]
Erica Frank, a Vancouver MD, was taken aback when told the Straight’s results. “How can a person do anything but gasp?” she said in a phone interview. “That’s horrible. This is the beginning of a potential epidemic of radiation-related deaths from fish in the Pacific. It has vast implications for human health.”
Frank is a professor of population and public health in UBC’s faculty of medicine […] She said that after Fukushima, she decided to stop eating fish from Asia. She is especially concerned about impacts on B.C. migratory salmon. “I eat so much salmon. I love salmon; I am vulnerable.” […]
Fukushima’s small level of radiation in fish can still cause cancers
the radiation detected can still cause cancer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cancer-risk formula, a leading international standard for forecasting cancer risks from radiation.
Cancer risk linked to radiation levels in fish species after Fukushima http://www.straight.com/life/497651/cancer-risk-linked-radiation-levels-fish-species-after-fukushima
In July this year, a sea bass caught in Japan had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium—10 times Japan’s ceiling of 100 becquerels per kilo in food. It was the second-highest amount found in a sea bass since the disaster occurred. Continue reading
Pennsylvania water has dangerous levels of radiation due to fracking
Dangerous levels of radiation from fracking found in PA 
water http://www.salon.com/2013/10/02/dangerous_levels_of_radiation_from_fracking_found_in_pa_water/singleton/ Researchers found 200 times the normal amount of radium downstream of a treatment plant BY LINDSAY ABRAMS The wastewater released into a Pennsylvania river from a plant that processes fracking wastewater tested positive positive for dangerous contaminants — including radium levels elevated 200 times above normal — Duke University researchers found.
“The radioactivity levels we found in sediments near the outflow are above management regulations in the U.S. and would only be accepted at a licensed radioactive disposal facility,” Robert B. Jackson, one of the researchers, said in a statement.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, compared water and sediment samples from downstream of the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility, located on western Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale formation, to samples from above the plant. In addition to the extreme levels of radium, it also found two to ten times the amoung of chlorides and bromides in the downstream samples. As Smithsonian Magazine notes, Pennsylvania hosts 74 facilities that treat the radioactive water driven to the surface by fracking. Ostensibly, they’re supposed to remove radium and other contaminants from the water before releasing it into rivers and streams. No national standards, however, exist to regulate the plants, many of which, according to the EPA, “are not properly equipped to treat this type of wastewater.” They’re also not required to test to radiation — so until the Duke researchers stepped in, it’s likely no one was aware of just how poorly this plant was performing.
“Each day, oil and gas producers generate 2 billion gallons of wastewater,” Jackson told Climate Central. “They produce more wastewater than hydrocarbons. That’s the broader implication of this study. We have to do something with this wastewater.”
Film: Uranium in situ mining, radiation in water, cancer
The mining companies know that if the leaching solution breaks into an aquifer, the water is contaminated and cannot be corrected. They cannot and will not guarantee it but will only promise to use the best available technology and make the best possible effort to correct the problem. Then as always, they will walk away with the ore and the profits and leave local residents and federal taxpayers to deal with the aftermath.
Hot Water: The Uranium Industry’s Dirty Little Story The only thing green about nuclear power are the people who think it’s safe. Lizabeth Rogers Activist Post 2 Oct 13,
HOT WATER Documentary Trailer
How many do you know today?
I began this odyssey, innocently enough in July 2009 when I led a filmmaking crew to South Dakota to investigate what we had heard was an abandoned uranium mine which had contaminated local groundwater and made local ranchers, their children and even their livestock sick. Continue reading
A win for nature, as jellyfish shut down nuclear power plant
Jellyfish Invasion Forces EON to Shut Down Swedish Nuclear Plant Bloomberg, By Julia Mengewein – Sep 30, 2013 EON SE shut down Sweden’s biggest nuclear power plant after a swarm of jellyfish made its way into a cooling water inlet at the reactor on the Baltic coast.
The 1,400 megawatt Oskarshamn-3 unit, located about 340 kilometers (211 miles) south ofStockholm, accounts for 5 percent of Sweden’s power supply, Anders Oesterberg, a spokesman for EON, said by e-mail today.
“This situation is caused by a huge amount of jellyfish, just one is definitely not enough to cause problems,” Oesterberg said from Oskarshamn, Sweden. “The last time this happened was in August 2005, when we had to shut down Oskarshamn-1 because of a jellyfish invasion.”…. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-30/jellyfish-invasion-forces-eon-to-shut-down-swedish-nuclear-plant.html
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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