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Fukushima nuclear plant is far from safe

 Still critical: radiation levels at Fukushima can kill in minutes Latest readings from tsunami-stricken nuclear plant overturn claims that reactors have been made safe The Independent, DAVID MCNEILL   TOKYO  THURSDAY 29 MARCH 2012      A lethal level of radiation has been detected inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, throwing fresh doubts over the operator’s claims that the disabled complex is under control. Continue reading →

March 29, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

In Japan, radiation being tactfully left out of school textbooks

without the appropriate study materials, how well … Japan’s school children will understand how their lives have been and will continue to be impacted by the nuclear disaster is unknown.

Japanese textbooks whitewashing nuclear disaster Asian Correspondent By Anna Watanabe Mar 29, 2012 There are many of things Japan has done in the past that it tries to erase from public memory by downplaying their events in school textbooks: the Nanking Massacre, medical testing on POWs during WWII, comfort women and territorial disputes.

But all these are atrocities that have happened outside of Japan, to other nationalities and they occurred generations ago. As inexcusable as it is to claim their non-existence, the logic is somehow more understandable.

But now Japan is trying to rewrite its own, modern-history. Continue reading →

March 29, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 1 Comment

Alarming news about the state of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors today

Very high radiation, little water in Japan reactor, Sydney Morning Herald, MARI YAMAGUCHI, March 28, 2012 One of Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and much less water to cool it than officials had estimated, according to an internal examination that renews doubts about the plant’s stability.

A tool equipped with a tiny video camera, a thermometer, a dosimeter and a water gauge was used to assess damage inside the No. 2 reactor’s containment chamber for the second time since the tsunami swept into the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant a year ago.

The data collected Tuesday showed the damage from the disaster is so severe, the plant operator will have to develop special equipment and technology to tolerate the harsh environment and decommission the plant, a process expected to last decades. The other two reactors that had meltdowns could be in even worse shape. The No. 2 reactor is the
only one officials have been able to closely examine so far.

Tuesday’s examination with an industrial endoscope detected radiation levels up to 10 times the fatal dose inside the chamber. Plant officials previously said more than half of the melted fuel has breached the core and dropped to the floor of the primary containment vessel, some of it splashing against the wall or the floor.

Particles from melted fuel have probably sent radiation levels up to a dangerously high 70 sieverts per hour inside the container, said Junichi Matsumoto, spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. The figure far exceeds the highest level previously detected, 10 sieverts per hour, which was detected around an exhaust duct shared by No. 1 and 2 units last year.

“It’s extremely high,” he said, adding that an endoscope would last only 14 hours in those conditions. “We have to develop equipment that can tolerate high radiation” when locating and removing melted fuel during the decommissioning.

The probe also found that the containment vessel _ a beaker-shaped container enclosing the core _ had cooling water up to only 60 centimeters (2 feet) from the bottom, far below the 10 meters (yards) estimated when the government declared the plant stable in December.
The plant is continuing to pump water into the reactor……
The exact conditions of the other two reactors, where hydrogen explosions damaged their buildings, are still unknown. Simulations have indicated that more fuel inside No. 1 has breached the core than the other two, but radiation at No. 3 remains the highest.

The high radiation levels inside the No. 2 reactor’s chamber mean it’s inaccessible to the workers, but parts of the reactor building are accessible for a few minutes at a time _ with the workers wearing full protection…. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/very-high-radiation-little-water-in-japan-reactor-20120328-1vxxz.html

March 28, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Japan buckles down to energy conservation -its last nuclear reactor to shut down in May

Japan shuts down its next-to-last nuclear reactor, Seattle Times,  By ERIC TALMADGE, 26 Mar 12 Another Japanese nuclear reactor was taken off line for maintenance on Monday, leaving the country with only one of its 54 reactors operational following last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami..with concerns over nuclear safety high following the
Fukushima crisis, none of the reactors that have been shut down for checks, and none that were already off line at the time of the disaster, have been allowed to restart.

The last reactor, on the northern island of Hokkaido, will be shut down in May. The timing for when any reactors will be restarted remains unclear…. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has promised to reduce Japan’s reliance on nuclear power over time and plans to lay out a new energy policy by the summer.

In the meantime, Japan has temporarily turned to oil and coal generation plants to make up for the shortfall, and businesses have been required to reduce electricity use to help with conservation efforts.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017843195_apasjapannuclear.html

March 27, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Japan’s secretive nuclear culture will prevent investigation of Fukushima radiation cover-up

“It sounds, it looks…like a major cover up,”

However, Escobar says, it is unlikely Japanese authorities will ever investigate the case – “everyone will bow and nothing will be solved.” And the reason is in what Escobar calls the “cultural element”. “Japan is really ritualistic and secretive society.”

VIDEO  Mystery of lost Fukushima radiation emails ‘a major cover-up’ http://www.rt.com/news/japan-fukushima-email-deleted-285/ 23 March, 2012 The Fukushima Prefecture government apparently deleted emails with reports on data vital to safely evacuate people from that area, according to fresh appeared revelations. But as Pepe Escobar told RT, it is unlikely Japan will investigate. Continue reading →

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

Disappearance of Fukushima radiation data in March 2011

Fukushima Pref. deleted 5 days of radiation dispersion data just after meltdowns Mainichi Daily News, 23 March 12 The Fukushima Prefectural Government revealed on March 21 that it deleted five days of early radiation dispersion data almost entirely unread in the wake of the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The data from the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI) — intended to predict the spread of radioactive contamination, information vital for issuing evacuation advisories — was emailed to the prefectural government by the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

According to the prefecture’s disaster countermeasure office, just after the March 2011 quake and tsunami, its dedicated SPEEDI terminal was unable to receive data due to effects of the disasters. Therefore, prefectural officials asked the Nuclear Safety Technology Center, which operates SPEEDI, to send data via email on March 12, 2011 — one
day into the nuclear crisis. The Nuclear Safety Technology Center thensent the data hourly starting at 11:54 p.m. that day.

The Fukushima Prefectural Government, however, deleted all the data it received from March 12 to about 9 a.m. March 16….. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120322p2a00m0na012000c.html

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

Appeal of electric car damaged by connection with nuclear power

Is nuclear power damaging electric car image? The Green Car Website, 23 Mar 12, As Japan’s government prepares to restart dozens of nuclear power plants, idled since the Fukushima disaster last year, there is concern that electric cars could become tainted by their association with nuclear generation. Continue reading →

March 24, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, technology | Leave a comment

Osaka’s mayor wants electricity utility to go nuclear free

Utility Faces Call to Halt Nuclear Power Use In Japan, WSJ, By TOKO SEKIGUCHI, 20 March 12, “…….Now, the brazen mayor of Japan’s western metropolis of Osaka is trying to get the country’s second largest utility to go nuclear-free—a challenge to the national government’s attempts to restart reactors that make up a third of Japan’s electricity-generation capacity amid public concerns over the safety of nuclear energy.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is considering a proposal to use the city’s standing as Kansai Electric Co.’s largest customer and stockholder to call on the regional power provider to abandon its use of nuclear power at a shareholders’ meeting in June….. Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Fukushima cancer toll – years later, especially for nuclear clean-up workers

One group particularly at risk of health harm is the large and growing number of workers required to help control, shut down and clean up the damaged nuclear plants.

 On average, the contracted day labourers receive two- to three-times the radiation dose of a regular worker but are not included in utility statistics. And there is no compulsory, centralised system for tracking cumulative radiation exposure or health outcomes of these workers.

Fukushima radiation toll will continue for generations Despite claims that Japan’s Fukushima meltdown caused no deaths, in fact the true health costs of Fukushima’s radiation leaks won’t be known for decades. Independent Australia 18 March 12,  Professor Tilman Ruff reports. A year can be a long time in politics. But for the radioactive particles released from Fukushima’s damaged nuclear reactor, a year is just a moment in their life of hundreds or thousands of years.

So, what is the radiological situation at Fukushima one year after the disaster?  the extensively damaged plants are still unstable and highly radioactive. This has restricted access and clean-up efforts, which will need to go on for many decades.

Though Japanese authorities declared they’d achieved a “cold shutdown” in December, an arbitrary definition was used: coolant water temperature was less than boiling, pressure inside the reactors was not raised, and the release of radioactive materials from the first layer of containment was below a specified level. But it didn’t mean the nuclear reaction inside the reactors had been stably shut down…. Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | health, Japan | Leave a comment

Japanese kids learn about radiation

“Still, there are many children who think nuclear energy is necessary but that’s probably because their parents or relatives have had nuclear-related jobs,”

Third of Fukushima kids got first radiation lessons from disaster: poll Japan Times, 19 March, Kyodo FUKUSHIMA — About a third of the 225 youngsters who were evacuated from around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant last March but still reside in the prefecture say the disaster made them aware of radiation dangers for the first time, a new survey says. Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | Japan, social effects | Leave a comment

Radioactive isotopes in ocean plankton, from Fukushiam

 follow-up studies will be necessary because the radioactive cesium is likely to have accumulated in fish that eat plankton, the team said

In the latest survey, the team also found cesium-134 — which has a two-year half-life — in plankton at the same levels as cesium-137, whose half-life is three decades.

Cesium found in plankton almost 375 miles from Fukushima nuclear plant, Boston Herald, By The Yomiuri Shimbun http://news.bostonherald.com/news/international/asia_pacific/view/20120318cesium found_in_plankton_almost_375_miles_from_fukushima_nuclear_plant/srvc=home&position=recent,March 18, 2012 – TOKYO — Radioactive cesium believed to have been released during the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Japan following last year’s major earthquake has been found in plankton about 600 kilometers (nearly 375 miles) east of the facility, according to a Japan-U.S. joint research team. Continue reading →

March 19, 2012 Posted by | Japan, oceans | Leave a comment

3 categories of compensation payments for Japan’s nuclear evacuees

Japanese government panel urges compensation for nuclear evacuees (includes video) http://news.bostonherald.com/news/international/asia_pacific/view/20120318japanese_government_panel_urges_compensation_for_nuclear_evacuees/srvc=home&position=recent By The Yomiuri Shimbun , March 18, 2012   TOKYO – Residents who will be unable to return to areas around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant for at least five years should be paid 6 million yen (US$71,813) each as compensation for their mental suffering, a Japanese government panel has decided. Continue reading →

March 19, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Japan’s former P.M. insisted on workers staying to prevent Fukushima total meltdown

“If the workers abandoned the plant, all the reactors and fuel rods in the fuel pools would have melted down, causing many times more fall-out than Chernobyl. “I called the TEPCO president and told him a withdrawal was unthinkable “

Ex-PM reveals meltdowns almost crippled Japan  Mark Willacy, ABC South West Radio  March 15, 2012   A year on from the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan’s prime minister at the time has told the ABC that the disaster came close to crippling the nation, with the evacuation of tens of millions from Tokyo a real possibility.
In an exclusive interview on ABC’s 7.30, Naoto Kan said the loss of the world’s biggest metropolis would have been like losing a war, leaving Japan without a political and economic capital. He has also confirmed that he confronted the operator TEPCO and rejected its request for its workers to abandon the crippled plant. Continue reading →

March 15, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Luckily, Japan’s latest earthquake and tsunami were smaller

Magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Japanese coast, tsunami wave hits coast THE AUSTRALIAN, BY: BY SHINGO ITO IN TOKYO From: AFP March 14, 2012 A small tsunami wave has hit Japan’s northeastern coastline, officials say, after a strong earthquake rocked the region a year on from the country’s worst post-war natural disaster. Continue reading →

March 15, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Japanese do not trust the government about Fukushima radiation

 83% of Fukushima residents and 73% countrywide felt ‘greatly’ or ‘somewhat’ worried about radioactive contamination. More importantly, 70% of people in the three disaster hit prefectures , and 71% people countrywide , felt that government was “hiding” information. 

This background of mistrust and deception, coming on top of enormous suffering, haunts the island nation, and especially the 350,000 people, who are living in camps unable to go back home to Fukushima.

Debris, radiation fear, mistrust still piling up  Times of India, , TNN | Mar 12, It is one year since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake generated a tsunami that ripped apart the north-eastern sea-coast of Japan leaving over 20,000 people dead and the Fukushima nuclear power plant damaged. The triple disaster is estimated to have caused losses worth $235 billion according to World Bank.

Pictures circulated worldwide by visiting journalists show spectacular scenes of the massive clean up operation launched by the government of Japan. But the reality is numbingly grim. Goshi Honoso , Japan’s environment minister speaking at a routine press conference on February 21, urged local governments to help in cleaning up the debris left behind in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, the three areas which bore the brunt of the tsunami, reports Kyodo news agency.

Then, he revealed jaw dropping numbers: an estimated 22.53 million tonnes of debris was created by the tsunami . Of this, only 1.18 million tonnes, that is, about 5% has been disposed of.The rest of it is simply bulldozed and piled into giant heaps, some as high as 20 meters high. ….

Repeated polls over the past year show that there is a growing sense of mistrust towards the government’s handling of the nuclear disaster and it is casting a shadow over clean up efforts. People think that the debris may be contaminated.  Continue reading →

March 12, 2012 Posted by | Japan, psychology - mental health, social effects | Leave a comment

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