Unemployed Japanese risk their health in seeking cleanup work at Fukushima
If this was happening in America we’d have every political group complaining about workers rights, living wages, working conditions, and manipulation of the poor into taking these jobs at personal risk to their own lives instead of focusing on the selfless act of one person helping another
Unemployed Japanese Workers Flock to Radiation-Contaminated Fukushima Gizmodo 8 June 11Kelly Hodgkins — Japanese workers are so desperate for work that many are traveling to devastated areas of the country to find employment in the risky field of radiation cleanup. Continue reading
Japan’s green tea now radioactive?
Japan’s green tea contaminated with radiation, Herald Sun June 10, 2011 JAPANESE green tea, esteemed around the world for its purity and health-enhancing properties, has become contaminated with radiation, as fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant continues to blight Japan’s agricultural heartlands, authorities revealed today.Authorities admitted for the first time that green tea from Japan’s biggest tea-growing area, the Shizuoka prefecture, contains radiation higher than the officially-permitted level.
The contamination has opened a furious argument among local and national officials about how to measure the radiation, and what constitutes a safe level of contamination.
Dried leaves from the year’s first harvest in the Honyama area of Shizuoka were found to contain radioactive cesium at a level of 679 becquerels per kilogram, above the permitted maximum of 500 becquerels. But the discovery was made by chance, and the authorities admit that earlier consignments, which were not examined and have gone to the market, may have also been contaminated…….The high reading was discovered not by the tea grower or the local government, but by a mail order tea company in Tokyo that carried out its own measurements….http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/japans-green-tea-contaminated-with-radiation/story-e6frf7ko-1226072822881
Growing anxiety of Tokyo residents about nuclear radiation
Radiation leaking from Fukushima power plant should be monitored more closely Mainichi Daily News 10 June Residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area are becoming increasingly concerned about levels of radiation spreading to their neighborhoods from the tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. There are some areas called “hot spots,” where high levels of radiation have been detected even though they are far away from the crippled nuclear plant. When radioactive substances leak from a nuclear facility as a result of an accident and spread through the sky, they fall on some limited areas depending on geographical features, wind direction and rain, resulting in high concentration of radiation in these areas…… Continue reading
Video of Fukushima nuclear whistleblower
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/09/3240251.htm Nuke worker speaks out about tsunami taboo VIDEO ABC News By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy A former worker at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan says the operator ignored warnings about a large tsunami hitting the facility.Jun 9, 2011 Continue reading
Fukushima radiation twice as bad as previously estimated
Radiation Understated After Quake, Japan Says New York Times, By HIROKO TABUCHI June 6, 2011 TOKYO — Japan said Monday that radioactive emissions from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the early days of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster might have been more than twice as large as a previous estimate, suggesting the accident was more grave than the government had publicly acknowledged.It is unclear whether a more accurate reading of emissions levels would have promoted a swifter or wider evacuation from around the plant. Still, the lag in reporting the true extent of the emissions added to what some critics have called a litany of confusing and contradictory data and analysis from the Japanese authorities, putting officials on the defensive about whether they delayed, or even blocked, the release of information to the public.
Last month the government acknowledged that three of the plant’s reactors had probably suffered fuel meltdowns, after having denied that possibility.
On Monday, Japan’s nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said that the reactor pressure vessel at one of the plant’s reactors appeared to have been compromised as early as five hours after the quake.
The agency also said it now estimated that the radioactive release from the plant totaled 770,000 terabecquerels in the first week after March 11. The agency had previously estimated 370,000 terabecquerels released in the first month…….http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/world/asia/07japan.html
No end in sight to Fukushima radiation crisis
A lot of radioactive water has already made it into the ocean, contaminating seawater and wildlife and probably destroying the fishing industry of northeastern Japan for decades……..This situation is nowhere near being “under control”, and there’s really no end in sight.
Fukushima radioactivity highest in three months, Red Green and Blue, Jeremy Bloom, 6 Jun 11 It’s been three months since the crisis began at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor complex, and they’re no closer to cleaning up the radioactive mess. In fact, things may be getting worse. Continue reading
Nuclear chain reactions may be ongoing at Fukushima
re Nuclear Chain Reactions Still Occurring at Fukushima?
But you might not know that nuclear reactions may still be ongoing. Specifically, it is well-known by nuclear scientists that the ratio of iodine 131 to cesium 137 tells a lot about when nuclear reactions have stopped…
Today, Tetsuo Matsui at the University of Tokyo, says the limited data from Fukushima indicates that nuclear chain reactions must have reignited at Fuksuhima up to 12 days after the accident.
Matsui says the evidence comes from measurements of the ratio of cesium-137 and iodine-131 at several points around the facility and in the seawater nearby. He has calculated what the starting ratio must have been by assuming the reactors had been operating for between 7 and 12 months……
The data from the drain near reactor 2 and from the cooling pond at reactor 4, where spent fuel rods are stored, indicate that the reactions must have been burning much later….http://www.zerohedge.com/article/are-nuclear-chain-reactions-still-occurring-fukushima
Rise in radioactive water at Fukushima threatens the sea
Radioactive water about to overflow at Fukushima –Nature News Blog June 02, 2011 Radioactive water being used to cool the shattered Fukushima nuclear reactors is rising worryingly quickly, according to an analysis of the latest data from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant’s operator.
Bloomberg reports that the water could overflow from basements and service trenches as soon as Monday 6 June, pouring isotopes into the sea.
“Solving the problem of contaminated water is critical,” Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University, told Bloomberg…….Nature News Blog: Radioactive water about to overflow at Fukushima
Tepco controls information release on Fukushima radiation: is this right?
It is easy to see why controlling radiation readings and reports of leakage of radioactive water in to the sea is to TEPCO’s advantage
Report From Tokyo: How Long Should TEPCO Call the Shots? THE HUFFINGTON POST, David Wagner: 4 June 11 Since the tragic March 11th earthquake in Japan, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has been allowed to manage information flow related to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima. And ever since that date, there have been multiple examples of inaccurate information being released to the public.
So one has to wonder how long TEPCO should call the shots. There is something inherently wrong with allowing the hen to rule the hen house. Yet that is what is happening…….. Continue reading
Latest on Fukushima, and USA nuclear waste worries
Additional concerns in the U.S. this week include the safety of spent fuel pools and reactor venting systems. A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies charges that we are at greater risk than Japan of an accident occurring in fuel pools due to overcrowding beyond design capacity. It has also surfaced that engineers warned the NRC of design flaws in venting systems 5 years ago, with little action taken.
Japan Nuclear Disaster Update 2 June Clean Energy.org. France’s Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety recommends that an additional 70,000 people be evacuated from areas outside the already established 20 km zone, which includes 10,000 children. These figures are based on radiation data collected by U.S. and Japanese radiation monitors. Continue reading
Japanese parents sceptical over lack of action on radiation levels in schools
School radiation cleanup slammed, The Japan Times Online, 3 June 11 Parents flunk ministry over soil-removal policy shift Kyodo Despite the education ministry’s recent move to set a new nonbinding target to reduce the radiation children in Fukushima Prefecture are exposed to at schools, experts, local educators and parents don’t feel reassured. Continue reading
Radiation worries keep opera stars out of Japan tour
Met Opera Stars Drop Out of Japan Tour On Radiation Fears — WSJ* May 31, 2011, “…….“She (Ms. Netrebko) explained that she lived in Russia during Chernobyl and that many of her friends and relatives had contracted cancer and that she felt this was leaning very heavily on her,” said Mr. Gelb about the soprano’s reasoning at a news conference in Japan on Tuesday, referencing the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. “When she actually thought about coming here, when it came down to the wire of getting on a plane she just couldn’t face making that decision.”
Met Opera Stars Drop Out of Japan Tour On Raditation Fears – Speakeasy – WSJ
Images of Fukushima – fatigue of nuclear workers
PhotoBlog – Doctor describes fatigue of workers at Fukushima nuclear plan, PhotoBlog, David R Arnott 3 June 11, Newly released photographs taken by a doctor who has examined workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant show the difficult living conditions they have endured while battling to bring the situation under control.
ased June 2 by industrial medical doctor Takeshi Tanigawa, who examined the workers. The Japan Times reported that Ehime University professor Takeshi Tanigawa had visited the workers twice since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered a series of meltdowns at the plant. He warned that there was an increased risk of accidents because the workers had suffered from chronic sleep deprivation and fatigue, the paper said.
Tanigawa also warned that workers were at risk of developing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) due to what they had been through in the early days of the disaster, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. See more images of the disaster in our slideshow and more pictures related to Fukushima on PhotoBlog. PhotoBlog – Doctor describes fatigue of workers at Fukushima nuclear plant
Works suspended at Fukushima because of stormy weather
Storm suspends work at Japan Fukushima nuclear plant BBC News 30 May 2011 The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear plant has suspended some of its outdoor work due to a tropical storm, just days after it admitted it was not prepared for harsh weather.
Heavy rain and strong winds are hitting north-east Japan, which was devastated in the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Continue reading
Cores of 3 Fukushima reactors are leaking radioactive water
that’s just the start of the bad news because the reactors themselves appear to be leaking as well. TEPCO initially hoped that the leaks were largely coming from pipes that could be repaired, but they now concede that both the reactors’ pressure vessels and primary containment vessels, which are designed to contain an accident, are probably leaking water.
Fukushima nuclear plant is leaking like a sieve –Nature News Blog: May 26, 2011 As more details leak out about the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, it’s become clear that something else is leaking—radioactive water from the cores of three damaged reactors. Continue reading
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