Tepco’s tricks for not revealing the true state of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors
There’s another cause that Tepco has not mentioned – It’s the direct leakage from the reactor turbine buildings.
This means the coolant water is directly leaking to the ground and the sea. This is way more serious
we need to suspect the direct leakage of the coolant water from reactor1 and 4. Especially about reactor1, the water that actually touched the fuel may be flowing to the sea. When Tepco officially admits it, everything would be already too late.
Tepco may be hiding the possible direct leakage of coolant water – Press should demand disclosure http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/column-tepco-may-be-hiding-the-possible-direct-leakage-of-coolant-water-press-should-demand-disclosure/ by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013
It’s because the reports are based on Tepco and the government’s release. I’ve been following them long enough to know their trick.
They have us focus on the least serious matters to blind us from what really matters.
I’m telling this because since July, they’ve been focusing on the groundwater (contamination and the increasing volume) issue just on the seaside of reactor2.
I pretty much know this is the minimum problem, am trying to smell where is the real matter.
We need to separate the journalists and the media companies.
Actually (some Japanese) journalists are ferociously biting Tepco, but their reports are manipulated by the editors.
In order to stop the journalists from reaching the bigger matter, also Tepco uses another trick. Continue reading
Fukushima people in a massive non-consensual experiment on radiation exposure
TV: “The Japanese are part of a massive non-consensual experiment on radiation exposure” — “Everywhere now is radioactive, we can’t escape it,” say Fukushima locals at beach (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/tv-japanese-are-part-of-a-massive-non-consensual-experiment-on-radiation-exposure-everywhere-now-is-radioactive-we-cant-escape-it-say-fukushima-locals-at-beach-video
Title: Concern over Fukushima leaks persists
Source: Al Jazeera
Date: August 25, 2013
Concern over Fukushima leaks persists
Anita McNaught, Reporter: At the local beach, despite news that highly radioactive water’s leaching into the sea, locals are cooling off. They told us they were philosophical — Everywhere now is radioactive, they can’t escape it.
The stricken Daiichi nuclear plant is 35 kilometers up the coast that way.
This beach only opened to the public in July. Back then authorities said that radiation in the seawater had fallen to acceptably low levels.
But when Yoshiro Watanabe took sand samples for analysis, he found levels there were far higher.
No one here knows what a safe background level is anymore — The Japanese are part of a massive non-consensual experiment on radiation exposure. Watch the broadcast here
China calls Fukushima radiation a serious international environmental issue
Official Chinese Press: Fukushima contamination is “serious international environmental issue” — Crisis concerns the core interests of people who share the planet http://enenews.com/commentary-fukushima-contamination-is-international-environmental-issue-govt-must-address-global-anxiety-crisis-concerns-the-core-interests-of-people-who-share-planet
Source: Xinhua (China’s official press agency)
Authors: Liu Tian, Zhang Cheng
Date: Aug 23, 2013
[…] it is the time for the Japanese government to shoulder more responsibilities to address the global concerns. […]
Studies showed that radioactive substances have spread into high sea from the crippled nuclear plant, proving that the tragedy has no longer a national problem, but a serious international environmental issue that needs stronger efforts to deal with. […]
A priority for the Japanese government to relieve the global anxiety is to make the accident relevant information more transparent to the international community so as to precisely assess the graveness of the entire accident and its aftermath.
It is hoped that the Japanese government would not keep the information for its own political interests as the issue concerns not only the core interests of the Japanese people, but also people who share the planet. […]
Lawmakers urge PM Abe to stay in Japan, declare State of Emergency
Lawmaker: Declare ‘State of Emergency’ right away and intervene at Fukushima — Japan Professor: Issue S.O.S. now, it’s really an emergency… Gov’t is utterly lost, international help is needed http://enenews.com/lawmaker-japan-should-declare-state-of-emergency-right-now-and-intervene-at-fukushima-kyoto-professor-govt-should-issue-s-o-s-its-really-an-emergency-they-are-utterly-lost-internati New York Times,s, August 23, 2013: Opposition lawmakers here have demanded that [Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe stay home and declare a state of emergency. “The nuclear crisis is real and ongoing, yet the government continues to look the other way,” said Yoshiko Kira of the opposition Japan Communist Party, which made significant gains in parliamentary elections last month. “The government should declare a state of emergency right now, and intervene to stop the outflow of contaminated water,” Ms. Kira said at an anti-nuclear rally outside Mr. Abe’s office in Tokyo. Mr. Abe remains popular, and it is uncertain how large a liability the crisis at the Fukushima plant will become for him. But it has become increasingly clear that the latest problems may be too large for the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, to handle. Radio Free Europe, Aug 24, 2013: Komei Hosokawa, professor of environmental sociology at Kyoto Seika University in Japan, says that international assistance will be needed to deal with the mounting issues. “TEPCO hasn’t been working very [well] to handle the situation, and the Japanese government is sort of utterly lost,” he says. “The government at the moment is very reluctant to issue an SOS, but I think we should. It’s really an emergency going on.” See also: Asahi: Japan officially in “state of nuclear emergency” still — Clearly shows Fukushima disaster on going — Crisis far from over… gov’t far too late, commitment far too weak
Russia repeats offer to help Japan in the international crisis of Fukushima radiation
The idea of pumping water for cooling was never going to be anything but a “machine for generating radioactive water,”
Russia Offers Fukushima Cleanup Help as Tepco Reaches Out By Yuriy Humber & Jacob Adelman – Aug 25, 2013 Russia repeated an offer first made two years ago to help Japan clean up its accident-ravaged Fukushima nuclear station, welcoming Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s decision to seek outside help.
As Tokyo Electric pumps thousands of metric tons of water through the wrecked Fukushima station to cool its melted cores, the tainted run-off was found to be leaking into groundwater and the ocean. The approach to cooling and decommissioning the station will need to change and include technologies developed outside of Japan if the cleanup is to succeed, said Vladimir Asmolov, first deputy director general of Rosenergoatom, the state-owned Russian nuclear utility.
“In our globalized nuclear industry we don’t have national accidents, they are all international,” Asmolov said. Since Japan’s new government took over in December, talks on cooperating between the two countries on the Fukushima cleanup have turned “positive” and Russia is ready to offer its assistance, he said by phone from Moscow last week. Continue reading
AUDIO: Mark Willacy reports on the gloom of Fukushima fishermen
there’s a sense of hopelessness and pessimism that they’ll ever be able to go out and catch fish again.
Fishing ban reinstated as Fukushima nuclear leaks affect marine life http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3833333.htm Mark Willacy reported this story on Monday, August 26, 2013 TONY EASTLEY: With the Fukushima nuclear plant leaking hundreds of tonnes of radioactive water into the Pacific every day, fishing has once again been banned off the coast.
While scientists say it’s too early to tell how the contamination will affect marine life, test catches have shown that some fish – especially bottom-feeding species, have been affected.
The ABC’s North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy has managed to get a berth on a boat which is catching fish for testing off the coast.
I spoke to him via satellite phone a short time ago. …….. Continue reading
What do we tell the younger generation about what happened to our ocean?
TV: We’re talking about generations being affected by Fukushima, and also their future healthcare… How are those in charge getting away with this, time after time by just saying sorry? — What do we tell the younger generation about what happened to our ocean? (VIDEOS) http://enenews.com/tv-were-talking-about-generations-of-people-being-affected-by-fukushima-and-also-their-healthcare-into-the-future-how-are-those-in-charge-getting-away-with-this-time-after-time-
Asia Today, , Aug 23, 2013 – James Chau, Anchor (At 2:30 in): How is this one company been able to get away with this time after time, and just coming up with a sorry? Because we’re talking about generations involved here — and also their healthcare into the future.
Watch the Asia Today broadcast here
CNTV, Aug. 23, 2013 – Tomioka Residents (At 1:00 in): “What can we tell the younger generation about what happened to our ocean?” “It is not acceptable to say the water has accumulated and unfortunately some of them slipped into the sea.” Residents fear the situation may be uncontrollable. “It is no longer a matter for the Tokyo Electric. It is becoming an international matter and I want the government to take 
the initiative to prevent these occurrences.”
Fukushima: 2 water tanks to be drained
TEPCO to drain two tanks at Fukushima nuclear plant Phys Org 25 Aug 13, Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Saturday it would empty two more coolant tanks that hold radioactive water over fears of fresh leaks at the crippled nuclear plant. Earlier this week, TEPCO said around 300 tonnes of radioactive liquid was believed to have escaped from one of the hundreds of tanks used to cool the broken reactors.
The episode was dubbed the most serious since the plant went into meltdown in 2011 after being hit by a quake and tsunami.
TEPCO said Saturday that the affected tank was one of three to have been relocated from their original zone because of ground subsidence in the area.
TEPCO has not yet pinpointed the source of the leak in the first tank but there are fears the relocation may have been connected with the incident.
Accordingly, the firm has decided to pump out water from the other two starting on Sunday, a company official said.
Nuclear watchdog inspectors who toured Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant following the discovery of a huge radioactive leak declared Friday that water storage at the site was “sloppy”……. http://phys.org/news/2013-08-tepco-tanks-fukushima-nuclear.html#jCp
Fukushima catastrophe might well measure 21 on International Nuclear Event Scale
TV: Isn’t Fukushima Daiichi at least a 21 on International Nuclear Event Scale, equal to 3 Level 7′s? “Global catastrophe… Disaster of unimaginable proportions” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/tv-isnt-fukushima-daiichi-at-least-a-21-on-international-nuclear-event-scale-global-catastrophe-disaster-of-unimaginable-proportions-video
Title: Interview with Kevin Kamps Source: The Thom Hartmann Program Date: Aug 21, 2013
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear7 is the highest rung on this [INES] ladder which is global catastrophe, in my words.
Only Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi have reached the seventh rung on this scale.
Fukushima is 1,000x’s worse than we thought!
But as a colleague John Laforge with Nuke Watch in Wisconsin put it back at the time 2 ½ years ago, while there where 3 meltdowns and 4 explosions at Fukushima Daiich, isn’t that at least a 3 times 7, or a 21 on the scale? […] The ocean’s just getting hammered at Fukushima Daiichi.
Thom Hartmann, Host: A disaster of unimaginable proportions […] Watch the broadcast here
Fukushima nuclear plant built on site of a diverted river
Wall St. Journal: They don’t know where Fukushima’s melted fuel cores are, or in what state — Expert: “It’s important to think of worst-case scenario”… Even greater levels of contamination may be on the way — Plant “built on a river” http://enenews.com/wsj-they-dont-know-where-fukushimas-melted-fuel-cores-are-or-in-what-state-expert-its-important-to-think-of-worst-case-scenario-might-be-even-more-heavily-contaminated-water-coming-th
Title: Japan Races to Contain Worst Fukushima Spill Since Meltdown
Source: Wall St Journal
Author: Phred Dvorak
Date: Aug 22, 2013
[…] Tepco said it doesn’t think that water has flowed into the sea but can’t say for sure. Some of the flooded reactor basements are similarly too hot to approach, and it is still not clear where the melted fuel cores are, or in what state.
“In the future there might be even more heavily contaminated water coming through,” said Atsunao Marui, head of the groundwater research group at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and a member of a blue-ribbon panel set up in May to figure out ways of managing the radioactive water. “It’s important to think of the worst-case scenario.”
Mr. Marui and others say the biggest reason for the scramble now is that Tepco—and the government bodies that oversee it—weren’t planning far enough ahead and waited too long to respond to problems they should have seen coming long ago.
Fukushima Daiichi was built some 40 years ago on the site of a river that was diverted in order to situate the plant, Mr. Marui says. It should have been clear that lots of groundwater would be rushing through the site, he says, and that any walls or barriers built on the seaward side would soon be overwhelmed—something that, indeed, has happened in recent weeks. […]
Radioactive water leaking from Fukushima’s tanks, basements, cracks
BBC: Fukushima “much worse than we’ve been led to believe, much worse” says nuclear expert — Contaminated water is leaking out all over site http://enenews.com/bbc-fukushima-much-worse-than-we-have-been-led-to-believe-much-worse-says-nuclear-expert-its-leaking-out-from-cracks-all-over-the-place
Title: BBC News – Fukushima leak is ‘much worse than we were led to believe’
Source: BBC News
Author: Matt McGrath Environment correspondent
Date: Aug 22, 2013
A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.
He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. […] “The quantities of water they are dealing with are absolutely gigantic,” said Mycle Schneider, who has consulted widely for a variety of organisations and countries [France, Germany] on nuclear issues.
“What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else – not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that. […]
“It is much worse than we have been led to believe, much worse,” said Mr Schneider, who is lead author for the World Nuclear Industry status reports. […] Full BBC report here
Prime Minister Abe’s plan to restart Japan’s nuclear reactors is now under threat
Calls for Japan nuclear switch-off threaten ‘Abenomics’ Ft.com By Ben McLannahan in Tokyo , 23 Aug 13, Yumi Murakami began her weekly vigils not long after the tsunami-induced meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant almost two and a half years ago. The 64-year-old housewife was at her usual spot outside the ministry of economy, trade and industry in Tokyo on Friday evening, bedecked in “No Nuke” badges, about to join a protest march to the prime minister’s house.
This week’s demonstration was vital, she said, following the disclosure from Fukushima’s operator that it had discovered a 300-tonne leak from one of the hundreds of jerry-built tanks holding contaminated water used to keep melted fuel cool.
“We can’t keep ruining people’s lives”, said Ms Murakami. Switching Japan’s reactors back on would be “hell”.
Shinzo Abe, beginning a five-day trip to the Middle East, was not there in person to see Friday’s protest. But the prime minister is acutely aware of the tensions between economic need and civil unease that elections have done little to resolve.
Mr Abe’s Liberal Democrats – the only party not calling for the elimination of nuclear power – comfortably won last month’s contest for control of the upper house of parliament. But turnout was low, as it was in December for the lower-house election that put the LDP in charge.
Opinion polls show significant shares of Japanese opposed to restarting the 50 reactors shut down in the wake of the Fukushima crisis, all but two of which remain idled. A survey this month by state broadcaster NHK found only 24 per cent of Japanese were in favour of restarting nuclear plants.
For Mr Abe, however, restoring nuclear power is a vital part of the grand project to pull Japan out of the deflation that has dogged it for much of the past 20 years……. Continue reading
Severity of Fukushima’s radiation problem has been covered up by Japanese government
Media now exposing Fukushima cover-up: “So many terrible things are not being reported” — Official radiation figures cannot be trusted — Regulator suspects Tepco giving false data — Problems much worse than officials claim http://enenews.com/media-now-exposing-fukushima-cover-up-so-many-terrible-things-are-not-being-reported-official-radiation-figures-cannot-be-trusted-regulator-suspects-tepco-giving-govt-false-data-proble
BBC News, Aug 22, 2013: The “worsening situation” at Fukushima has prompted a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland to call for the withdrawal of Tokyo’s Olympic bid. In a letter to the UN secretary general, Mitsuhei Murata says the official radiation figures published by Tepco cannot be trusted. He says he is extremely worried about the lack of a sense of crisis in Japan and abroad.
Time, Aug 22, 2013: “It’s time we faced the danger, ” said Takashi Hirose, a writer shocked by the under-reported radiation levels he found on recent trip into the evacuation zone. “So many terrible things are not being reported in the news.”
BBC News, Aug 22, 2013: Fukushima leak is ‘much worse than we were led to believe’ […] A nuclear expert [Mycle Schneider] has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated. […] He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. […] some nuclear experts are concerned that the problem is a good deal worse than either Tepco or the Japanese government are willing to admit.
Irish Timess,, Aug 21, 2013: Cover-up [….] Many experts believe Japan’s government continues to underestimate the cost and complexity of the decommissioning, and that Tepco has been systematically covering up problems.
Bloomberg, Aug 21, 2013: At least one commissioner at the regulator questioned the accuracy of data being released by operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) and whether the incident had been fully reported. […] “This INES evaluation is based on the 300-ton leak, but I really wonder if we can trust data provided by Tepco,” Toyoshi Fuketa, a commissioner at the NRA, said at a meeting in Tokyo today. “I really wonder if we should judge based on Tepco’s data.”
Massive underground reservoir of radioactive water moves closer to Fukushima coast
The turbine buildings at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant are about 150 meters (500 feet) from the ocean. According to a Japan Atomic Energy Agency document, the contaminated underground water is spreading toward the sea at a rate of about 4 meters (13 feet) a month.
At that rate, “the water from that area is just about to reach the coast,” if it hasn’t already,
radioactive cesium levels in most fish caught off the Fukushima coast hadn’t declined in the year following the March 2011 disaster, suggesting that the contaminated water from the reactor-turbine areas is already leaking into the sea.
But TEPCO hasn’t provided the details he and other scientists need to further assess the situation.
Radioactive Groundwater at Fukushima Nears Pacific abc news, TOKYO August 23, 2013 (AP) By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press Deep beneath Fukushima’s crippled nuclear power station, a massive underground reservoir of contaminated water that began spilling from the plant’s reactors after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has been creeping slowly toward the Pacific.
Now, 2 1/2 years later, experts fear it is about to reach the ocean and greatly worsen what is fast becoming a new crisis at Fukushima: the inability to contain vast quantities of radioactive water.
The looming crisis is potentially far greater than the discovery earlier this week of a leak from a tank that stores contaminated water used to cool the reactor cores. That 300-ton (80,000-gallon) leak is the fifth and most serious from a tank since the March 2011 disaster, when three of the plant’s reactors melted down after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant’s power and cooling functions.
But experts believe the underground seepage from the reactor and turbine building area is much bigger and possibly more radioactive, confronting the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., with an invisible, chronic problem and few viable solutions. Continue reading
Over ¥1 trillion cost for International Linear Collider,planned for Japan
1 This Month
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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