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Japan official fudging of radiation readings

False hope: radiation monitoring in the Fukushima area (includes video)  Greenpeace by Greg McNevin – October 23, 2012 Last week, three Greenpeace radiation-monitoring teams took to the streets of Fukushima City and the heavily contaminated region of Iitate to again record and assess contamination threats.

Like many trips before, we noticed decreased expose rates in a few areas, but many hotspots remain throughout heavily populated Fukushima City. What is more concerning, however, is the official government radiation monitoring stations that have appeared throughout the city.

Earlier this month The Association for Citizens and Scientists Concerned About Internal Radiation Exposures raised concerns that the Japanese government was manipulating radiation readings with these official monitoring stations. Continue reading →

October 24, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Japan Engineer: Tepco won’t spend money needed at Fukushima Daiichi — Asahi: Tepco still giving large ‘donations’ to areas with nuclear facilities (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/japan-engineer-tepco-wont-spend-money-needed-fukushima-daiichi-asahi-tepco-giving-large-donations-areas-nuclear-facilities Continue reading →

October 24, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

UK govt – secret nuclear deals over “champagne and croissants.”?

EDF Denies U.K. Nuclear Deal to Be Sealed in ‘Smoke-Filled Room’, Bloomberg News By Sally Bakewell   October 23, 2012    Electricite de France SA rejected criticism that its one-to-one talks with the U.K. over the deal it’ll get to build nuclear plants in the country means officials setting rates in a “smoke-filled room” without open scrutiny….. Continue reading →

October 24, 2012 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

In order to keep people happy, nuclear power plants were kept UNSAFE!

Nuclear Perceptions Fight Reality OpEd News,   By William Boardman, 22 Oct 12,  FUKUSHIMA FREAKOUT OBSCURES REAL ACCIDENT THAT GOES ON AND ON   ”….Perception of Safety Wins Out Over RealityAs has been widely reported, Tepco has known since 2002 that the Fukushima site was unsafe.  “I actually think they knew in the eighties,” Gunderson commented.   One reason TEPCO didn’t do anything was money, and another was public relations. They didn’t want to create the perception that the site was unsafe, so therefore they kept the site unsafe,” Gunderson said. He explained that they have since acknowledged their behavior and he read from a TEPCO public statement:

“There was a worry that, if the company were to implement a severe accident response plan, it would spur anxiety throughout the country and in the community where the plant was sited, and it would lend momentum to the anti-nuclear movement.”

Similar thinking in the U.S. was revealed by the release of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) study that showed that 34 U.S. nuclear power plants at risk of flooding from dam failures upstream.  Written about six months ago, but classified “not for public disclosure,” the studywas recently made public by a whistleblower.

“So here’s the NRC, America’s nuclear watchdog, doing exactly what Tokyo Electric did, preventing the public from becoming aware of a safety problem, because they don’t want to frighten the public,” Gunderson said….. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nuclear-Perceptions-Fight-by-William-Boardman-121022-931.html

 

October 23, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | 1 Comment

Emails against nuclear plants – deleted by NRC

March 16th, 2011 – NRC Deleted Over 100 E-mails From Members of the Public Demanding Immediate Closure of US Nuclear Plants

October 23, 2012 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s sham review of San Onofre nuclear plant

Activists Say Feds Conducting Sham Nuke Review
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nrc-damaged-calif-nuke-plant-face-long-review-17427917#.UHXEcS7A9dM    By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press LOS ANGELES October 9, 2012  Environmentalists accused federal regulators Tuesday of conducting a bogus review of a proposal to restart the damaged San Onofre nuclear power plant on the California coast.

Just days after Southern California Edison asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to repair and start the Unit 2 reactor, then run it at reduced power, the agency is facing pressure from groups critical of the nuclear power industry to initiate a
review that could take months or even years to complete.

The NRC is “denying the public any meaningful voice” in the review to restart the plant, which has been shuttered since January, Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Committee to Bridge the Gap said in a joint statement. Continue reading →

October 10, 2012 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

South Korea – civil liberties disappearing, in the interests of nuclear industry

South Korea can’t deny the risks of nuclear power forever http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/nuclear-south-korea-risks/blog/42486/
 by Jan Beranek – October 8, 2012 I am at a detention centre at South Korea’s airport, quickly writing these few words as best I can on a mobile phone. Together with my colleague, Dr. Rianne Teule, I have been denied entry to South Korea.

We have done nothing wrong. That is, unless you agree with the government in Seoul that exposing the risks of nuclear power and calling for better protection of people from radiation is wrong. Continue reading →

October 9, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, South Korea | Leave a comment

East Kazakhstan’s horror nuclear legacy from Soviet times till now

Josef Stalin’s nuclear legacy remains in East Kazakhstan Scotsman.com, 9 October 2012   Stalin used the area as a nuclear test site and the local population have been paying a terrible price ever since. The plight of these people in East Kazakhstan has touched the heart of Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson, who has campaigned to bring their situation to wider 
recognition for 13 years. Now, in an exclusive article for 
The Scotsman, he argues Stalin’s actions could have devastating consequences in the future, too Continue reading →

October 9, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, health, history, psychology - mental health, Reference, social effects | Leave a comment

Japan’s new nuclear regulation agency- a nuclear promotion agency?

New nuclear regulation agency lined with nuclear promoters  http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=4147 September 25, 2012

A new nuclear regulation agency began its service on September 20 with nuclear-promoting former bureaucrats at executive posts, despite the public demand for the separation of nuclear “regulator” and “promoter”, casting doubt on its supposed role as a watchdog.

The nuclear regulation agency will serve a clerical function for the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). It will be essential for the people to strictly watch the agency along with the NRA led by Tanaka Shun’ichi, former dweller of the “nuclear power village”.

The agency’s top officials are Ikeda Katsuhiko (former superintendent general at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department), Morimoto Hideka (former senior official of the Environment Ministry), Yasui Masaya (former atomic policy chief of the Resources and Energy Agency), Kuroki Yoshihide (former official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department), Nayuki Tetsuo (former official of the Nuclear Safety Bureau of the Science and Technology Agency), Sakurada Michio (former director of the nuclear fuel cycle industry division of the Resources and Energy Agency), and Yamamoto Tetsuya (former official of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency – NISA).

Yasui is a person who once ordered the cover-up of estimated costs for disposal of nuclear spent fuel in order “to prevent public scrutiny.”

Sakurada in 2004 promised he “will proceed with the nuclear fuel cycle program.” Also, when he was a director of NISA’s electric power safety division, he gave the green light to construction work on the first reactor at the Oma Nuclear Power Plant in Aomori.l
Regarding No. 1 and 2 nuclear reactors at the Genkai plant, Yamamoto in 2011 stated that “resumption of their operations will encounter no safety problems.” At a town meeting, he also said “A big earthquake like the one which occurred in Fukushima will unlikely hit the Genkai plant and thus it is not imminent for the plant to be damaged by large tsunamis.”

Kuroki, though he apologized later for his unfounded assertion, stated that “it makes no sense in Japan to include nuclear opponents” as nuclear regulators.
Akahata described the nuclear regulation agency as a nuclear promotion agency.

October 8, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 1 Comment

Japanese government secrecy tightening, over Fukushima health effects

Officials from Fukushima Prefecture have admitted that they conducted secret meetings with 19 health experts and government officials, discussing the impact of radiation on human health, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. The meetings were held before official meetings, and participants were instructed not to tell anyone that they had
participated. Meeting materials were collected after the meeting so that they could not be removed from the room, and no minutes were kept.

Fukushima  Nuclear Crisis Update for October 2nd to October 4th, 2012 Greenpeace International,  by Christine McCann – October 5, 2012 “…..As duties are transferred from the now defunct Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) to the newly-created Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), the Nuclear Energy Library, which gave the public access to over 40,000 documents relating to nuclear power, will close.

The Library was created in 1997 to create transparency after a leak and subsequent cover-up at the Monju fast-breeder. It was heavily visited in the period following the Fukushima nuclear disaster; many documents there are not available online. Experts are criticizing the decision. Continue reading →

October 6, 2012 Posted by | health, Japan, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Japanese government ‘cooking the books’ on Fukushima health effects

Mainichi: Gov’t “choreographed” event on Fukushima health effects http://enenews.com/mainichi-govt-choreographed-event-fukushima-health-effects/comment-page-1#comment-293237  October 5th, 2012    Title: Fukushima Prefecture prepared proceedings for nuke radiation meeting Source: Mainichi Date: Oct 5, 2012 The Fukushima Prefectural Government drew up proceedings for a health research panel prior to a formal July 2011 meeting on nuclear radiation, deciding in advance what members should say, the Mainichi has learned.

The drafted proceedings included concluding remarks about the results of the research on the health of Fukushima Prefecture residents […]

When contacted by the Mainichi Shimbun about the choreographed proceedings, a prefectural government official in charge said the Fukushima government “may have produced” a chart of proceedings but declined to make further comment. […]

[The chart] ended with the prearranged conclusion that internal exposure to cesium 134 and cesium 137 was less than 1 millisievert in total and extremely low […]

A prefectural government official said the chart may have been prepared for the panel chairman, Shunichi Yamashita, vice president of Fukushima Medical University. […]

See also: Gov’t held secret meetings about human health impacts from Fukushima crisis

More on Yamashita: Head of Fukushima health study: 100 mSv/yr OK for pregnant moms — “Effects of radiation do not come to people that are happy… They come to people that are weak-spirited”

October 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Death of democracy in India: anti nuclear heroes – “Enemies of the State”

A non-governmental fact finding team that visited area found that police personnel had seriously injured many protestors, inflicted physical and verbal sexual abuse on several women, and at least two children had been stripped and tortured

 serious criminal charges have been slapped against more than 150,000, mostly unnamed villagers…. at least 10,000 people are charged with sedition and waging war against the state..

India Clamps Down on Villagers’ Anti-Nuclear Protests, Earth Island Journal, BY NITYANANDJAYARAMAN – OCTOBER 4, 2012 In their eagerness to power the country’s growing economy, ndian authorities are treating opponents of nuclear energy as enemies of the state
If the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has her way, democracy would be dispensed with in the southern Indian state. On two separate occasions this year, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa let loose battalions of armed police on thousands of fisherfolk and farmers to crush their months-long non-violent protest against the unfinished nuclear power plants in Koodankulam and Idinthakrai, two coastal villages in the state.
In March, when she sent out security personnel to quell the protests, police squads blocked roads leading to villages and stopped essential supplies like milk and drinking water from reaching the area. (Read our earlier report on the conflict here.) Continue reading →

October 5, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | 2 Comments

India: opponents of nuclear power treated as ‘pathological’

The way the Indian government has dealt with the opponents of the Koodankulam nuclear reactors being built in Tamil Nadu violates all three red lines.

The Department of Atomic Energy and its subsidiary Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. see the opposition as a pathology to be cured by psychiatrists from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences.

Don’t impose K’kulam reactorshttp://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=252289, 3 Oct 12, Praful Bidwai Even zealous supporters of nuclear power should logically concede three things to their opponents. First, after Fukushima, it’s natural for people everywhere to be deeply sceptical of the claimed safety of nuclear power, and for governments to phase out atomic programmes, as is happening in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and now Japan.

Second, nuclear power, like all projects, should only be promoted with the consent of local people, and with scrupulous regard for civil liberties. And third, safety must be paramount in reactor construction and operation, with strict compliance with rules laid down by an
independent safety authority. Continue reading →

October 4, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

Hillary Clinton pressured Japan leaders to keep nuclear power

Nikkei: Sec. Clinton personally pressured Japan leader to keep nuclear power as “President Obama wishes it” http://enenews.com/nikkei-clinton-personally-pressured-japan-leader-to-keep-nuclear-power-as-president-obama-wishes-it
October 2nd, 2012 
 September 25, 2012 Nikkei report translated by EXSKF:
It has been revealed that the United States government was strongly urging [the Japanese government] to reconsider its policy of “zero nukes in 2030s” which was part of the energy and environmental strategy of the Noda administration, as “President Obama wishes it”.

[…]

According to the multiple government sources, as the Noda administration was moving in August toward explicitly putting down “zero nuke” in the official document, the US strongly requested that Japan reconsider the “zero nuke” policy, saying the request was “the result of discussion at the highest level of the government”, indicating it was the Obama administration’s consensus, from the president on down.

On September 8, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with the US Secretary of State Clinton during the APEC meeting in Vladivostok in Russia. Here again, representing the US president, Secretary Clinton expressed concern. While avoiding the overt criticism of the Noda administration’s policy, she further pressured Japan by stressing that it was President Obama and the US Congress who were concerned.

[…]

(According to Former Deputy Energy Secretary Martin,) the US government thinks that “The US energy strategy would be more likely to suffer a direct damage” because of the Japan’s policy change toward zero nuclear energy.

[…]

See also: US Nuclear Expert: I’ve been told by people in the State Dept. that U.S. gov’t said to downplay health effects of radiation after Fukushima — I think we’ve really gone out of our way not to measure (AUDIO)

October 4, 2012 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Indian government’s nuclear attack on democracy

Nuking democracy at Kudankulam Financial Chronicle, By Praful Bidwai    Oct 03 2012 Is nuclear power going to be promoted in India only at gunpoint, and in brazen violation not just of people’s fundamental rights, but also of the norms and rules to be set by an independent safety regulator?
Go­ing by what the government, department of atomic energy, Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL), and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) are doing at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, the answer is an emphatic yes.
To start with, the AERB is not an independent agency. As shown by the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s recent report, it’s slavishly subservient to the government and DAE-NPCIL. Nor has it evolved transparent safety norms. Its integrity is in grave doubt. It does not disclose information that’s vitally important to public safety. Critical documents on safety codes/ ­guidelines have disappeared from
its website, for example,…

… the state and central police have unleashed repression against Kudankulam’s grassroots protesters. Although there hasn’t been a single violent incident, the police have lodged first information reports against several thousand people, charging many with sedition and waging war against the State, on this scale, probably for the first time since independence. On September 10, they attacked pe­aceful unobtrusive protesters with batons and
tear-gas. They literally drove many agitators into the sea, molested women, looted ho­mes and killed a fisherman.

A fact-finding team led by Justice BG Kolse-Patil describes this as a “reign of terror”, with
“totally unjustified” physical abuse, vindictive detention of 56 people including juveniles, and sexual harassment. Such police behaviour “has no place in a country that calls itself democratic”.
This comes on top of systematic demonisation of the protesters as “foreign-inspired”, repeated harassment of their sympathisers, and deportation of three Japanese activists, who wanted to express solidarity with them. Such repression is becoming routine in India and undermining democracy. Th­at’s the additional price nuclear po­wer will extract from us.
http://wrd.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/nuking-democracy-kudankulam-443

October 4, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

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