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Across Japan thousands protest against nuclear power

Antinuclear protests held across Japan on anniversary of disaster, Mainichi Daily News,   http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120312p2g00m0dm069000c.html 12 March 12, TOKYO (Kyodo) — Antinuclear protesters took to the streets in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami which triggered the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Near the head office of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled Fukushima complex, demonstrators called for the country to abandon nuclear power generation and restore Fukushima Prefecture, where more than 100,000 residents were forced to relocate.

Some 16,000 people attended an antinuclear gathering in the city of Koriyama in Fukushima and rallied in the city, calling for scrapping all nuclear reactors in Japan. The country has 54 commercial nuclear reactors, which provided a third of Japan’s electric power prior to the Fukushima plant disaster.

In Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, about 1,100 people gathered to call for scrapping Chubu Electric Power Co.’s nuclear reactors at its Hamaoka power plant. Those reactors were halted last May after then prime minister Naoto Kan asked the utility to suspend their operation due to concern about a powerful quake in that area of Shizuoka Prefecture.

About 1,200 people including members of antinuclear citizens’ groups marched in the city of Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, which hosts the prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju and Kansai Electric Power Co.’s nuclear reactors.

They voiced objection to restarting two of the reactors at Kansai Electric’s Oi power plant in the prefecture after the country’s nuclear safety agency approved results of safety tests conducted on the reactors idled for a regular checkup and left a final decision on whether to restart them to the government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

“What we need to do, after witnessing how tragic Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident is, is to build a society which does not rely on nuclear plants,” said Fujio Yamamoto, who leads a group which organized the protest.

Similar protests were also held in other prefectures which host nuclear power plants or related facilities, including Saga and Aomori.

In the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, atomic bomb survivors took part in antinuclear protests and urged the country to stop relying on nuclear power.

March 12, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Safecast helps Japanese people to learn about radiation

Even if nuclear science and the impact of a nuclear meltdown on human health were simple to understand (and they are not), there is still the rather uneasy fact of dealing with a daily foe: invisible, odourless radiation.

 Working with Safecast , which crowdsources radiation readings gathered by volunteers, and combines it with data from other outfits to give a clearer picture of what’s going on, Saito wanted people to be able to determine what was safe for them based on fact, not paranoia or nuclear industry propaganda.

Japan’s radiation: Ignorance isn’t bliss Feeling that officials aren’t doing enough, everyone, farmer to housewife, is learning about radiation contamination. Aljazeera, D. Parvaz  10 Mar 2012  Iitate Village, Japan – Second-generation farmer Muneo Kano has not been able to tend to his cattle or grow crops since the Daiichi nuclear power plant contaminated land, air and sea after being damaged by last year’s earthquake and tsunami.

He had his 11 cows scanned for radiation and sold them to another farm outside the radiation area. Kano’s own seven-hectare farm is 45km from the nuclear site, and the soil has been deemed too contaminated for farming.
And Kano has had to learn all about radiation and soil fast – he now tracks and maps radiation dips and spikes on an iPad, and has a series of maps he consults to check what authorities say about farms in the area.

Soil samples tested in Iitate still contain ten times the acceptable levels of the radioactive isotope Caesium-137 for agricultural soil, and the government has yet to remove the top layers of contaminated soil and wash the streets…. Continue reading →

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

The mental health effects of the nuclear accident at Fukushima

they live in fear of the invisible threat in their midst. ….  there is agreement that the Fukushima case is unprecedented.

conflicting information has left them confused and fearful about the future.

“We’re being treated like lab rats. The authorities should have told us as soon as they knew the reactors had melted down and helped us leave immediately

Fukushima residents plagued by health fears of nuclear threat in their midst A year after the power plant’s triple meltdown, conflicting official information leaves families confused and fearful for their future, Justin McCurry in Fukushima guardian.co.uk,   9 March 2012  The noise levels soar inside Fukushima city’s youth centre gymnasium as dozens of nursery school children are let loose on bouncy castles and pits filled with plastic balls.

The handful of teachers and volunteers on duty are in forgiving mood: for the past year, the Fukushima nuclear accident has robbed these children of the simple freedom to run around.

Instead, anxious parents and teachers have confined them to their homes and classrooms, while scientists debate the possible effects of prolonged exposure to low-level radiation on their health. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | Japan, psychology - mental health | 1 Comment

Evacuation plans last year, as Fukushima crisis occurred

Mr McLean revealed that Australia and other nations began compiling elaborate evacuation plans amid growing concern and uncertainly as the Fukushima plant began to explode.

The former ambassador confirmed Australia had evacuation plans in place but voiced the uncomfortable truth that, in reality, greater Tokyo (population 35 million) would have been almost impossible to evacuate.

Ex-ambassador frustrated by post-tsunami silence BY: RICK WALLACE, TOKYO CORRESPONDENT   The Australian March 10, 2012 AUSTRALIA’S former ambassador to Japan has told of his frustrations with the Japanese government for keeping its close partners in the dark about the extent of the damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant at the height of the crisis almost one year ago. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Cover-up of nuclear collusion between USA and Japan at Fukushima

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has yet to disclose the truth behind his more disturbing decisions: first, the absence of stenographers and voice recordings at his emergency Cabinet meetings;

The high-level cover-up and lab analysis of cesium-isotope ratios indicate the Japanese nuclear establishment was illegally involved in the reprocessing of weapons-grade uranium at Fukushima No. 1 and probably two other civilian nuclear plants in northern Japan.

The collaboration between Washington and Tokyo in a covert nuclear-weapons program was a violation of international law

The World is Powerless Against Fukushima Fallout, Hyphen Submitted by New America Media, March 8, 2012 by Yoichi Shimatsu “……..Public at Risk From Official Silence At the molecular level inside a biological cell, gamma-ray bombardment rewrites the genetic code contained in the chromosomes, scrambling the elegant poetry of life into gibberish.

Since leukemia, cancers and birth defects can be falsely attributed to other disorders, the governments of North America, Europe and Asia along with international agencies can be counted on to remain silent or mount campaigns of misdiagnosis to protect their nuclear power and weapons programs, along with their food and travel industries. Bureaucrats, at heart and out of self-interest, are cowards. Continue reading →

March 9, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Fukushima’s psychological trauma, as well as radiation cancer risk

Radiation is still leaking from the now-closed Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, though at a slower pace than it did in the weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. It’s not immediately fatal but could show up as cancer or other illnesses years later.
The uncertainty breeds fear.

The [cancer] risk is cumulative. The radioactivity in one’s body builds up through various activities, including eating contaminated food every day or staying in a hot spot for an extended period.

Uncertain risks torment Japanese in nuclear zone, THE HINDU, 8 March 12,  Yoshiko Ota keeps her windows shut. She never hangs her laundry outdoors. Fearful of birth defects, she warns her daughters — never have children.

This is life with radiation, nearly one year after a tsunami-hit nuclear power plant began spewing it into Ota’s neighbourhood, 60 km away. She’s so worried that she has broken out in hives.

“The government spokesman keeps saying there are no immediate health effects,” the 48-year-old nursery school worker says. “He’s not talking about 10 years or 20 years later. He must think the people of Fukushima are fools. It’s not really OK to live here,” she says. “But we live here.” Continue reading →

March 8, 2012 Posted by | Japan, psychology - mental health | Leave a comment

Plenty of future work for Japan’s nuclear professionals – in shutting down the world’s nuclear reactors

concerns over where Japan’s nuclear professionals will end up. We believe, however, that this concern needs to be reframed. There are more than 430 nuclear reactors in the world, and one by one they will all reach the end of their service lives. Regardless of the future paths of nuclear policies around the world, there will be plenty of reactors that need to be shut down.

Editorial: Time to say goodbye to nuclear power, Mainichi Daily News, 7 March 12,   The illusion of nuclear power safety has been torn out by the root. The Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed the great waves of March 11 last year made sure of that.. Continue reading →

March 8, 2012 Posted by | employment, Japan | Leave a comment

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation

The committee, known as UNSCEAR, will publish a report in May 2013 that aims to give an analysis of radiation dosages among citizens and forecast health risks in the coming decades

Children Wait for UN Radiation Study After Fukushima Crisis, Bloomberg   By Yuriy Humber and Tsuyoshi Inajima  March 05, 2012 As five-year-olds charge through the corridors of a kindergarten in northeast Japan at lunchtime, teacher Junko Kamada says she is still unsure if their food is safe a year after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima plant, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the Sakuragi Hanazono kindergarten in Tagajo city, parents of the 198 children have been seeking assurances that the school lunches are free of radiation…..
wait at least another 14 months for a unified view on food contamination when the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation issues the first global and independent assessment of the Fukushima nuclear accident. Continue reading →

March 7, 2012 Posted by | health, Japan, Reference | Leave a comment

Japan’s Tsuruga nuclear plant over an active earthquake fault

Fault under Tsuruga nuclear plant could trigger M7.4 quake: research TOKYO Mainichi Daily News, 6 March 12, (Kyodo) — An active fault running under the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors at Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture is at least 35 kilometers long and could trigger an earthquake with a magnitude of around 7.4, much higher than previously anticipated, a team of government-affiliated researchers said Monday. Continue reading →

March 7, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Fukushima to get off shore wind farm

Mixed Greens: Offshore wind for Fukushima REnew economy, By   7 March 2012 Almost one year after an earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima and sent three out of six of its nuclear reactors into meltdown, the Japanese government has announced plans to install two Mitsubishi Heavy 7MW turbines, and a 2MW turbine made by Fuji Heavy, at a floating wind farm off the coast of the  devastated prefecture. Recharge News reports that the estimated ¥12.5 billion project is part of a government plan to kick-start the country’s offshore wind sector and rejuvenate the Fukushima region. Tokyo has flagged plans to install 1GW of offshore wind power in the Fukushima region, and Japan’s Wind Power Association estimates potential for 519GW of floating offshore wind capacity in Japan. “The Tokyo area has good potential for offshore. It’s easy to get grid connections. The Fukushima nuclear power plants will never operate again so there’s a vacant grid line there,” says Yoshinori Ueda, assistant general manager at MHI.

The floating wind farm will be located between 20-40km offshore, where ocean depths range from 100-150 metres, the average wind speed is more than 7-metres per second and wave heights are 10-15 metres. It will be built by a consortium including Japanese trading house Marubeni, MHI, Mitsubishi Corp, IHI Marine United, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, Nippon Steel, Hitachi, Furukawa Electric and Shimizu; with consultation from the University of Tokyo and Mizuho Information & Research Institute. The first phase of the project, due to be completed by March 2013, will see the installation one of Fuji Heavy’s Subaru80 2MW turbines with a four-column, semi-submarine type floater and a 66kV floating offshore substation. In the second phase, from 2013-15, Mitsubishi Heavy will install two of its new 7MW turbines, with a three-column, semi-submarine type floater.

Mitsubishi Heavy’s 7MW turbine, known as the ‘SeaAngel’ and developed with about ¥5 billion in backing from the Japanese government, uses a hydraulic transmission system to eliminate the need for a gearbox. The first prototype is set to be installed onshore in the UK next year, ahead of the Fukushima offshore project…. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/mixed-greens-offshore-wind-for-fukushima-64769

March 7, 2012 Posted by | Japan, renewable | Leave a comment

$100 dollars a day: workers face radiation risks at Fukushima nuclear plant

it’s really important to reduce the amount of radiation that each individual gets and to do that, we need to bring in more people.” Bringing in more workers is going to be hard. Already, 167 workers have exceeded their lifetime radiation exposure limit of 100 milliseverts. 

Safety fears at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant 03/05/2012 By majiroxnews TOKYO  — Low pay and overwork could trigger a shortage of workers at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The Tokyo Occupational Safety and Health Center warned this week of thesedangers – with workers at the crippled site earning as little as 100 dollars a day.

After the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, conditions of the workers seem to be plummeting. Continue reading →

March 6, 2012 Posted by | health, Japan | Leave a comment

Japan’s radioactive cleanup, a mammoth and uncertain task that will take decades

The waste would remain in the longer-term storage for 30 years, until half the radioactive cesium breaks down. Then it would still have to be treated and compacted   using technology that hasn’t been fully developed yet   before being buried deep underground in enclosed
containers. ….

Japan cleans up radiation zone, unsure of success, The News, March 06, 2012   FUKUSHIMA, Japan: Workers in rubber boots chip at the frozen ground, scraping until they’ve removed the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of radioactive soil from the yard of a single home. Total amount of waste gathered: roughly 60 tons.

One down, tens of thousands to go. Continue reading →

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, wastes | Leave a comment

Where to put over 100,000 tons of radioactive waste materials?

6,800 tons of radiation-tainted rice straw left lying in 8 prefectures, Mainichi Daily News, 5 Mar 12, http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120303p2a00m0na010000c.html  Some 6,800 metric tons of rice straw contaminated with radioactive substances leaked from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant remains in eight prefectures with no immediate prospect of disposal, the Mainichi has learned.

Moreover, sludge generated from radiation-contaminated waste water as well as ash tainted with radioactive materials amounts to some 97,000 tons in 12 prefectures — 3.6 times the figure as of July last year, according to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry. Continue reading →

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, wastes | Leave a comment

$67 billion lawsuit against executives of nuclear company Tepco

Shareholders to sue Tepco execs for $US67b, SMH, March 6, 2012,   Shareholders of Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan, are suing the utility’s executives for a record 5.5 trillion yen ($US67.4 billion) in compensation, lawyers said….

. In the biggest claim of its kind in Japan, 42 shareholders filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court on Monday accusing 27 current and former Tepco directors of ignoring multiple warnings of a possible tsunami and of failing to prepare for a severe accident, lawyers for the shareholders said in a statement.
They want the executives to pay damages to Tepco, which would then use the money to compensate those affected by the disaster.

There is deep public anger over Tepco’s handling of the crisis and the perceived arrogance of top management, including underplaying the seriousness of the disaster in its early stages and delays in compensating those forced to leave their homes. Government officials
have walked a tightrope between that taxpayer anger and keeping afloat a firm that provides electricity to 45 million people in Japan.
Japan’s trade minister last month approved nearly $US9 billion in additional support for Tepco to help compensate victims of the crisis, but said the government would not go ahead with a plan to inject more money into the utility unless it had more say in its management.

“By seeking to hold individuals responsible, we want to correct the collective and systemic irresponsibility in the nuclear industry,” Hiroyuki Kawai, one of the lawyers, told a news conference.
Kawai said the record compensation was based on calculations by a government-appointed experts’ panel of what Tepco might have to pay to victims and businesses. The company has forecast an annual net loss of 695 billion yen……. http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/shareholders-to-sue-tepco-execs-for-us67b-20120306-1ueup.html#ixzz1oN2tudjN

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

Solar industry’s bright prospects in Japan

 New Tariff, Nuclear Halt May Fuel Japan Solar Demand By MARI IWATA, March 5, 2012, TOKYO—Japan may become a bright spot for the solar industry due to regulatory changes and its nuclear power crisis, which equipment makers from home and abroad hope will help offset a profit outlook clouded by oversupply, falling prices and shrinking demand elsewhere.

A new feed-in tariff designed to boost industrial use of renewable energy will come into force this summer, with the government likely to recommend Tuesday rates that utilities should pay for renewable energy-sourced electricity and periods during which they should buy it.

Around the same time, the last of the country’s fleet of 54 reactors will be shut pending government decisions on Japan’s nuclear future.

The new feed-in tariff and the vacuum left by idled nuclear capacity are contributing factors to a European Photovoltaic Industry Association forecast of a 50% rise in Japanese solar panel demand in 2012, to 1.5 gigawatts.

Several foreign solar panel and component makers have already set up shop in Japan, putting them head-to-head with big local producers such as Sharp Corp. and Kyocera Corp., who have benefited from local consumers’ faith in locally made products.Kyocera said Monday that it and partner Softbank have been selected by Kyoto City to build and operate two 2.1-megawatt utility-scale solar power plants that together will be able to supply enough power for 1,000 households. They will be the largest such installations in the prefecture, and are due to be operational by July, when the new feed-in tariff takes effect.

SB Energy, a renewable energy unit of Softbank Corp., said separately Monday that it will build two solar farms, one in Gumma and the other in Kyoto…. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204276304577262781511394776.html

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, renewable | Leave a comment

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