nuclear-news

Japanese seismologist predicted nuclear earthquake disaster

Disregard for the science extended to a government panel started in 2001 to revise seismic engineering standards for Japan’s nuclear plants, said Ishibashi. He quit the panel after five years of debate that he called rigged and unscientific…..

an article on Hamaoka published in the October 1997 issue of Japan’s Science Journal that reads like a post-mortem of the Fukushima disaster: A major quake could knock out external power to the plant’s reactors and unleash a tsunami that could overrun its 6-meter
defenses, swamping backup diesel generators and leading to loss of cooling and meltdowns.

Vindicated Seismologist Says Japan Still Underestimates Threat to Reactors, Bloomberg, By Jason Clenfield – Nov 21, 2011, Dismissed as a “nobody” by Japan’s nuclear industry, seismologist Katsuhiko Ishibashi spent two decades watching his predictions of disaster come true: First in the 1995 Kobe earthquake and then at Fukushima. He says the
government still doesn’t get it….
Haruki Madarame, now head of Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission, from dismissing Ishibashi as an amateur when he warned of a “nuclear earthquake disaster,” a phrase the Kobe University professor coined in 1997. Ishibashi says Japan still underestimates the risk of operating reactors in a country that has about 10 percent of the world’s quakes. Continue reading →

November 23, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Radiation checks being done in Tokyo schools

Tokyo schools checked for radiation, ABC News, By North Asia correspondent,  November 14, 2011 Fears of nuclear fallout from the Fukushima disaster are increasing in
Japan, where local councils in Tokyo have begun checking schools and parks for radioactive contamination.

Tokyo’s metropolitan government has also announced spot checks of fresh and processed foods. In the playground of the Meguro Honcho Nursery School, young children
play in the dirt as officials test it for radiation from Fukushima. “There is no solution here,” said principal Michiko Ikeda, who has been hovering over a Geiger counter writing down readings. “We cannot say this is absolutely safe. Parents are worried about radiation, our staff too. “By taking these radiation measurements, we want to show that we care
for the children.”
Hiroshi Sato, from the local Meguro council, is also at the school to help test for radiation.
“Recently it became clear that radiation came further south than we thought, all the way to Tokyo,” he said. “So we are now checking dozens of schools in the Meguro area.”
In Tokyo, protesters marched past the offices of Fukushima’s owners TEPCO to demand protection for their children…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-14/tokyo-schools-checked-for-radiation/3664228/?site=newcastle

November 15, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Scene inside wrecked nuclear reactor in Japan

Scene of devastation inside Japan reactor SMH, 12 Nov 11Media allowed into Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant for the first time on Saturday saw a striking scene of devastation: twisted and overturned trucks, crumbling reactor buildings and piles of rubble virtually untouched since the wave struck more than eight months ago.

November 13, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety | 1 Comment