Grave new warning about Fukushima’s radioactive water leaks
Japan to issue gravest Fukushima nuclear warning in two years Toronto Sun, KENTARO HAMADA AND JAMES TOPHAM, REUTERS, AUGUST 21, 2013 03 TOKYO – Japan will dramatically raise its warning about the severity of a toxic water leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant, its nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, its most serious action since the plant was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The deepening crisis at the Fukushima plant will be upgraded from a level 1 “anomaly” to a level three “serious incident” on an international scale for radiological releases, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said.
That will mark the first time Japan has issued a warning on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) since three reactor meltdowns after the massive quake in March 2011.
Water still leaking from the plant is so contaminated that a person standing close to it for an hour would receive five times the annual recommended limit for nuclear workers in a year…… The leak, which has not been plugged, is so contaminated that a person standing 50 cm (1.6 feet) away would, within an hour, receive a radiation dose five times the average annual global limit for nuclear workers.
After 10 hours, a worker in that proximity to the leak would develop radiation sickness with symptoms including nausea and a drop in white blood cells.
Each one-step INES increase represents a tenfold increase in severity, according to a factsheet on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency. http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/21/japan-to-issue-gravest-fukushima-nuclear-warning-in-two-years
Truth the first casualty in uncontrolled catastrophe at Fukushima
Radiation spreading
As detailed by two Whiteout Press articles, one in 2012 and one in 2013, the effects of the Fukushima meltdown are still being felt across the US. …..Americans getting sick
Quietly left out of most news headlines is the fact that 70,000 US military personnel and their families have been invited to join a class action lawsuit against the Fukushima utility company (TEPCO) that owned the power plants and reactors that broke-down after an earthquake struck Japan. The suit seeks $2 billion in damages, most especially for the thousands of US first responders who were stationed in Japan and South Korea at the time. On top of that, hundreds of Alaska Airlines flight attendants have file a complaint citing rampant and mysterious skin lesions and numerous cases of their hair falling out. There have been 280 documented cases of sickened attendants already.
Two of the more eye-opening revelations being disclosed lately include the accusation by environmental activists that independent measurements smuggled out of Fukushima have shown radiation levels ten-times higher than the numbers being released by the US and Japanese governments. Authorities are also hesitant to remind Americans that 100 million tons of radioactive debris continues to wash up on America’s shores. Most heartbreaking were the findings published in March 2013 by the Open Journal of Pediatrics. Test results showed a spike in hypothyroidism in newborns across the western United States……….
For complete details, read the Whiteout Press articles, ‘Fukushima Radiation Poisoning infecting US’ and ‘US Babies suffering Radiation Poisoning from Fukushima’. http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q32013/japanese-gamble-armageddon-in-last-ditch-fukushima-effort/
BBC Radio shuts up Fukushima Diary author
“The expert” kept on talking. Said, “Fukushima is much much smaller than Chernobyl. You can’t compare.” then I heard the ending music. I was given 0 question to answer.
[Column] The reason why I published only one article today -Invited by BBC and given 0 sec to talk on the radio show http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/column-the-reason-why-i-
published-only-one-article-today-invited-by-bbc-and-given-0-second-to-talk-on-the-radio-show/ Iori Mochizuki August 21st, 2013 In the quiet morning of 8/21/2013, I was communicating with my readers on Twitter.
Suddenly a lady talked to me if I can be on BBC at 19:30 in JST. After nearly 2 years blank, BBC and some other international media are coming back to cover Fukushima. Since this morning, BBC has been featuring the latest leakage of 300m3 water.
I talked to her on the phone and we arranged the schedule. She was supposed to call me in 2 hours from that time.
She was nice and professional. She asked me what I think about the leakage. I answered this is only the beginning.When she asked me if I trust what government says, I laughed and said obviously no. She asked me why.
I was “Because the government has been saying no meltdown, no meltout was going on. There is no short term health effect etc. Then last year, the chief cabinet secretary of Japan said they didn’t announce Fukushima was having meltdown because he thought everyone was already aware of it.”.
She said, “Sure.”.
It was the radio show “World Have Your Say [URL]“.
We had 30 mins. Japanese commentators found each other on Twitter and we waited for them to call me.
I was supposed to talk on the phone.
I found the program relatively fair in the beginning except for the “coughing” on the background. (Is it normal to catch someone’s coughing on the radio show of BBC ?) and they started leaning to the “safer” side as it went toward the end. Continue reading
Chris Busby explains impact of radioactive water on Fukushima coast
| Nevertheless, the sea-to-land effect is real. And anyone living within 1km of the coast to at least 200km north or south of Fukushima should get out. They should evacuate inland. It is not eating the fish and shellfish that gets you – it’s breathing.
|
Fukushima’s highly radioactive puddles
Fukushima Now Surrounded By Extremely Radioactive Puddles http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/08/fukushimas-now-surrounded-by-extremely-radioactive-puddles/ ADAM CLARK ESTES 21 AUG 13 A water tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan apparently sprung a leak recently. The latest reports from the northern prefecture say that puddles have collected all around the plant, and the implication is clear. Fukushima has a whole new radioactive water problem.
The amount of radiation detected in the puddles is not insignificant. TEPCO measured the level at 100 millisieverts per hour, which the AFP describes as “extremely high radiation levels.” To put that into persecptive 100 millisieverts per year is enough to greatly increase the risk of cancer. While they clean up the mess, TEPCO denies that the water is leaking to the ocean. The specifics, however, are particularly unnerving since a Japanese official drank water from a puddle at Fukushima to prove that it was safe. That’s clearly no longer the case.
The extremely radioactive puddle problem does not appear to be linked to Fukushima’s radioactive groundwater situation. Radioactive water is leaking out of the facility at a troubling rate, enough for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the situation as an “urgent problem.” Officials are considering building a giant wall of ice to contain the contaminated groundwater, but as Monday’s leak makes clear, that won’t do anything against new leaks. It’s unclear what will. [AFP]
Fukushima nuclear plant springs yet another radioactive leak
New Leak Reported At Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/20/213804646/new-leak-reported-at-japan-s-fukushima-nuclear-plant by GEOFF BRUMFIEL Operatorsare reporting a fresh leak of contaminated water from the grounds of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s coast.In 2011, a tsunami sparked meltdowns at the plant, and authorities have had to pump in water ever since to keep the melted nuclear fuel cool. After passing through the reactors, the contaminated water is decontaminated and put into storage until it can be recirculated through the reactor cores.
But it keeps leaking out. In April, it seeped from a reservoir. And a few weeks ago, the Japanese government warned that the plant itself was leaking around 80,000 gallons of contaminated ground water every day into the Pacific Ocean.
This time, the Tokyo Electric Power Company says an additional 80,000 gallons of contaminated water have spewed from a metal holding tank.
NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, reports says it’s the largest such leak at Fukushima since 2011. It adds that “Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has assessed the problem as a level 1 incident, the 2nd-lowest on an 8-point international scale.” The Fukushima accident as a whole has already been reported to international authorities as a level 7, or “major accident.”
The industry publication World Nuclear News says the leak was first spotted Monday morning local time, and that workers are removing earth around the tanks in an effort to prevent the contaminated water from pouring into the Pacific Ocean. The utility is also pumping the remaining water from the leaking tank into other tanks nearby.
To try and stop the worst of the Fukushima leaks, TEPCO is looking into building an underground wall of frozen earth around the plant.
“Decommissioning” -a pretty word for the nightmare that is Fukushima nuclear clean-up
the inevitable discourse manipulation – something that we have seen in the media ever since this disaster occurred. “Decommission the plant” suggests some calm and ordered scientific process akin to shutting down and defueling an old reactor which has reached the end of its design life. It sparks images of a wise nuclear engineer in a lab coat consulting a document, discussing some issue with a worker in brilliant white overalls with a Tepco logo, wearing a white hard-hat. The reality is that this is a nightmare disaster area where no one has the slightest idea what to do and which has always been out of control. All that they can do is continue to pump in the seawater to hope that the various lumps of molten fuel will not increase their rate of fissioning. And pray.
Pump and pray: Tepco might have to pour water on Fukushima wreckage forever Science Alert, CHRISTOPHER BUSBY 19 AUGUST 2013 Fukushima is a nightmare disaster area, and no one has the slightest idea what to do. The game is to prevent the crippled nuclear plant from turning into an “open-air super reactor spectacular” which would result in a hazardous, melted catastrophe…..
it is quite clear that the reactors are no longer containing the molten fuel – some proportion of which is now in the ground underneath them. Both this material and the remaining material in what was the containment are very hot and are fissioning. Tepco is quite aware – and so is everyone else in the know – that the only hope of preventing what could become an open-air super reactor spectacular is to cool the fuel, the lumps of fuel distributed throughout the system, mainly in the holed pressure vessels, and also in the spent fuel tanks and in the ground under the reactors.
That all this is fissioning away merrily (though at a low level) is clear from the occasional reports of short half life nuclides like the radioXenons. The game is to prevent it all turning into the open air super reactor located somewhere under the ground. To do this, they have to pump vast amounts of water into the reactors, the fuel pond and generally all over the area where they think the stuff is or might be. This means seawater since luckily they are near the sea. But they are also unluckily near the sea – since you cannot pump the sea onto the land without it wanting to flow back into the sea.
Now a good proportion of the radioactive elements, the radionuclides, are soluble in water. Continue reading
Japan buying lots of solar panels
REC Supplies 15,000+ Panels To Japanese Solar Farms, by Energy Matters. 20 Aug 13, REC is continuing to make its presence felt in Japan, with 2 new solar farms using REC Peak Energy Series solar panels.
The 2.5 MW Toyobo Mie (Kusu) C-Energy plant; located in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, started operation last month and is expected to generate 2.5 million kWh of electricity annually.
The second REC-based installation is a ground-mounted 1.3 MW array situated at the Research Institute in Ohtsu City, Shiga Prefecture. Construction of that facility began last month and will be completed in December.
Japan is becoming a lucrative market for REC, with 29 percent of REC’s solar panel shipments heading to the nation in the second quarter of 2013….. http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3897
After 2 years, Fukushima groundwater cesium levels now 8 times higher!
Cesium levels in Fukushima water 8 times higher than after disaster Asahi Shimbun By SHUNSUKE KIMURA/ Staff Writer 16 Aug 13 Tokyo Electric Power Co. has reported finding radioactive cesium levels in underground water at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that is eight times greater than what it recorded right after the accident.
TEPCO, which operates the facility, said Aug. 15 that it detected 11,600 becquerels of radioactive cesium per liter of contaminated water in a tunnel near the No. 1 reactor building on the side facing the ocean.
That compares with 1,490 becquerels per liter it recorded at the site shortly after the accident in March 2011.
TEPCO said it believes the readings have soared due to rainwater containing cesium flowing into the tunnel. But the amount detected is roughly one-100,000th of that found in radioactive water in a tunnel near the No. 2 reactor building……http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201308160041
Tokyo nuclear company withdraws libel suit against freelance writer
NUCLEAR INDUSTRY BUSINESSMAN WITHDRAWS LIBEL SUIT AGAINST FREELANCER http://en.rsf.org/japan-nuclear-industry-businessman-16-08-2013,45056.html REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS WELCOMES THE DECISION BY SHIRO SHIRAKAWA, THE HEAD OF THE NUCLEAR security systems company New Tech, to withdraw a libel suit against freelance journalist Minoru Tanaka. A Tokyo court has accepted the withdrawal, announced on 12 August.
“This libel suit was an attempt by an influential member of Japan’s nuclear industrial complex, known as the ‘nuclear village,’ to harass and intimidate Tanaka into silence and self-censorship,” Reporters Without Borders said.
“We are pleased that it did not work but we continue to be concerned for other journalists who try to cover the sensitive issue of Japan’s nuclear industry. There are still too many cases of reporters being pressured or censored when they try to provide information about the Fukushima disaster and its aftermath.
“The damages award Tanaka was facing if found guilty of libelling Shirakawa was clearly out of all proportion. We urge the courts to reject such ‘gag suits’ or ‘SLAPPs’ if they continue to be filed, and to propose proportionate alternatives such as the publication of a response.”
Shirakawa sued Tanaka, 52, over a December 2011 article for the weekly Shukan Kinyobiheadlined “The last big fixer, Shiro Shirakawa, gets his share of the TEPCO nuclear cake” – TEPCO being the owner of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant that suffered meltdowns after a tsunami in March 2011.
Using information in the public domain, the article accused Shirakawa of making a lot of money by acting as an intermediary between TEPCO, construction companies, politicians such as the leading parliamentarian Kamei Shizuka, and even clandestine organizations.
Ever since the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster, freelance journalists who cover the nuclear industry have had their access to information restricted and have, for example, been prevented from covering anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Reporters Without Borders issued several press releases condemning the judicial harassment of Tanaka, who was sued for 67 million yen (600,000 euros) in damages.
New plan for Fukushima nuclear reactors – a concrete tomb?
Bloomberg: Tepco now in talks to cover Fukushima reactors with concrete for next 75 years — Officials reviewing plan in U.S.http://enenews.com/just-in-tepco-now-in-talks-to-cover-fukushima-reactors-with-concrete-for-next-75-years-officials-reviewing-plan-with-u-s-experts
(at left – Chernobyl’s concrete tomb building in progress)
Title: Nagasaki Bomb Maker Offers Lessons for Japan’s Fukushima Cleanup
Source: Bloomberg
Author: Shigeru Sato & Yuji Okada
Date: Aug. 15, 2013
[… Tepco] has sent engineers on visits to the Hanford site in Washington state this year to learn from decades of work treating millions of gallons of radioactive waste. Hanford also has a method to seal off reactors known as concrete cocooning that could reduce the 11 trillion yen ($112 billion) estimated cost for cleaning up Fukushima. […]
At Hanford, the energy department finished a $65 million cocooning project in June last year, the DOE said in a statement. That involved demolishing the last one of the nine reactor buildings down to the four-foot- (1.2 meter) thick concrete shield around the reactor core.
More concrete was added to the shield, along with a new concrete roof to put the reactor into so-called safe storage for 75 years. This allows radiation levels to decay to safer levels in the core and gives the operator time to determine the final disposal method, according to the statement.
There are three ways to decommission nuclear reactors, said Ishikawa. One is immediate dismantling. Another, used at the wrecked Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, entombed the whole building in concrete. The third is cocooning used at Hanford. Entombing and cocooning cost less than immediate dismantling as it reduces the expense for handling and moving highly radiated material, Ishikawa said.
Tepco is talking with the DOE on whether cocooning could work for the crippled reactors in Fukushima. Sealing them off in concrete for 75 years would allow more focus on cleaning up surrounding areas so that residents could return, said Ishikawa. […]
Published on ENENews ten hours earlier: Nuclear Experts: One century before Japan tries to deal with Fukushima’s melted cores? — “More likely what’s left of reactors will be left in situ for 100 years or more” (VIDEO)
Japan’s costly nuclear radiation cleanup may not work
The mushrooms that used to provide a livelihood for foragers are now steeped in dangerous levels of caesium
Nothing on the same scale had ever been attempted before. After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, highly contaminated houses were entombed in concrete and the surrounding area was abandoned.
By contrast, Japan’s government is attempting to bring background radiation levels [down]
“Decontamination in the true sense of the word is not being carried out,” ”I think the government recognises that Fukushima cannot be returned to how it was.”
INSIGHT – JAPAN’S NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP: COSTLY, COMPLEX AND AT RISK OF FAILING YAHOO 7 NEWS, 15 AUG 13 BY SOPHIE KNIGHT KAWAUCHI, Japan (Reuters) – The most ambitious radiation clean-up ever attempted has proved costly, complex and time-consuming since the Japanese government began it more than two years in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. It may also fail.
Doubts are mounting that the effort to decontaminate hotspots in an area the size of Connecticut will succeed in its ultimate aim – luring more than 100,000 nuclear evacuees back home.
If thousands of former residents cannot or will not return, parts of the farming and fishing region could remain an abandoned wilderness for decades. Continue reading
US West Coast seafoods should be tested for radiation
Calls for US seafood testing after revelations of Fukushima radiation leaks http://japandailypress.com/calls-for-us-seafood-testing-after-revelations-of-fukushima-radiation-leaks-1633993/ AUGUST 16, 2013 by IDA TORRES NUCLEAR EXPERTS IN THE UNITED STATES ARE CALLING FOR TESTING OF SEAFOOD CAUGHT IN THE WEST COAST WATERS AS NEWS CAME OUT THAT THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI PLANT HAS BEEN LEAKING CONTAMINATED WATER INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN FOR SOME TIME NOW. THE PLANT OPERATOR TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER ADMITTED LAST WEEK THAT EVERYDAY, 300 TONS OF WATER CONTAINING RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS HAVE BEEN SEEPING INTO THE OCEAN.
Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said that because the Pacific Oceanis such a large body of water, the contaminated water would have already been diluted by the time it reached the West Coast. But he acknowledges that no one knows up until now how contaminated the ocean has become and so a sampling of the US West Coast waters would be helpful, as well as a random sampling of seafood caught from that area.
The immediate concern though is for the people in Fukushima, particularly the fishermen, residents and cleanup crews, who are possibly directly affected by the leaks. There is fear that the spike in levels of strontium 90 which bio-concentrates in the bones of fish and algae. He said the accumulation effect of the radioactive strontium 90 could be extremely dangerous for a pregnant woman who has eaten or drank contaminated materials because the baby will be born with a weak immune system. Joseph Mangano, executive director of the nonprofit Radiation and Public Health Project, said that “a cocktail of more than 100 radioactive chemicals” from Fukushima can bring certain dangers when ingested through food or just breathing contaminated air. Health risks include birth defects and thyroid cancer.
Japan’s ghost towns , and the plight of the nuclear refugees
INSIGHT – JAPAN’S NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP: COSTLY, COMPLEX AND AT RISK OF FAILING YAHOO 7 NEWS, 15 AUG 13 BY SOPHIE KNIGHT “……Many have given up hope of ever returning to live in the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear plant. A survey in June showed that a third of the former residents of Iitate, a lush village famed for its fresh produce before the disaster, never want to move back. Half of those said they would prefer to be compensated enough to move elsewhere in Japan to farm.
Nuclear evacuees currently receive a living allowance from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), which is cut off when the government decides they are able to move home again.
“I feel like some people don’t want to go back because they’re happy living off the compensation money from Tepco and they don’t want that to end,” said Hiroaki Inoue, an official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry spending a year working at the Kawauchi village office to monitor the spending of the reconstruction budget.
But some evacuees say it is unfair to cut off financial support when their previous homes and villages remain unliveable.
“There’s no jobs, no shops open, nothing. It’s become an incredibly difficult place to live and yet they’re saying ‘You can go home now’,” said a single mother evacuated from near Kawauchi, who declined to be named for fear of retribution from the authorities.
“It’s so unfair to say that. It’s not that simple.”
In Tomioka, a coastal ghost town north of the Fukushima plant, ambient radiation remains at 10 times the government’s target. Wild boar wander the streets.
“This could be fixed,” said Yokota on a recent visit. “They could get these levels right down. But the thing is, people didn’t come back quickly enough. That’s fatal.”
(Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Alex Richardson) http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/18506729/insight-japans-nuclear-clean-up-costly-complex-and-at-risk-of-failing/
US navy man attributes his sickness to Fukushima radiation
Paper: Navy sailor’s health melted down after exposure to Fukushima fallout — Now a shaking, withering patient unable to walk by himself — Lives of younger service members “at stake as well” — Doctors won’t give a diagnosis (PHOTOS) http://enenews.com/paper-navy-sailors-health-melted-down-after-exposure-to-fukushima-fallout-now-a-shaking-withering-patient-unable-to-walk-by-himself-lives-of-younger-service-members-at-stake-as-well-d
Title: Without medical diagnosis, Utah sailor lives in limbo
Source: Deseret News (Utah)
Author: Jed Boal,
Published: Aug. 14 2013 [...] Over the last 21 months, [Lt. j.g. Steve Simmons, who served on board the USS Ronald Reagan with the U.S. Navy during Fukushima crisis] said his health has melted down, too, and he’s not alone. […]
He believes he’s suffering from radioactive contamination […]
Since November of 2011 Lt. j.g. Steve Simmons has been sick. He believes he’s suffering from radioactive contamination, but doctors won’t give him a diagnosis. (Simmons Family via Deseret News)
After November 2011, Simmons said he went from being a fitness buff always up for a challenging hike to a shaking and withering patient who cannot walk on his own. He’s lost 25 pounds, down to 128 pounds, and lost 25 percent to 30 percent of his muscle mass.
“The muscle weakness has progressed to the point where he needs 24-hour care,” his wife said.
[…] doctors won’t provide a diagnosis, he said. […]
Simmons is not part of the lawsuit [150 former sailors and Marines suing Tepco].
He’s especially concerned about the younger sailors and Marines. “Their lives are at stake as well,” he said. […]
View photos of Lt. j.g. Simmons here
UPDATE: TV: Many U.S. sailors are suffering serious symptoms of radiation sickness after being contaminated during Fukushima nuclear disaster — USS Ronald Reagan was as close as a mile away
1 This Month
Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
-
Archives
- November 2026 (103)
- October 2026 (302)
- September 2026 (339)
- August 2026 (330)
- July 2026 (355)
- June 2026 (287)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (267)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
