Full cleanup of Fukushima area to begin in March or later
Japan to Begin Radiation Cleanup from Late March or Later Arirang, DEC 12, 2011, Reporter : emilyfwang@arirang.co.kr Over in Japan where authorities are still struggling to contain the nuclear fallout from March’s earthquake and tsunami the government says a full radiation cleanup of areas contaminated by radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster can only begin in March next year, at the earliest. Continue reading
Individual landowners responsible for radioactive material on their lands – says TEPCO
“Radioactive materials that scattered and fell from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant belong to individual landowners there, not Tepco,” the company said.
Adding Insult to Injury TEPCO: Fukushima Radiation Isn’t Our Problem Counter Punch, by JOHN LaFORGE, 8 Dec 11, In the amoral milieu of the corporate bottom line, you can’t blame Tokyo Electric Power Co. for trying.
Tepco owns the 6-reactor Fukushima complex that was wrecked by Japan’s March 11 earthquake and smashed by the resulting tsunami. It faces more than $350 billion in compensation and clean-up costs, as well as likely prosecution for withholding crucial information that may have prevented some radiation exposures and for operating the giant station after being warned about the inadequacy of its protections against disasters. Continue reading
Radioactive strontium one million times over limit into ocean from Fukushima
“The source of the beta radiation in the water is likely to include strontium 90, which if 
absorbed in the body through eating tainted seaweed or fish, accumulates in bone and can cause cancer,”
Fukushima floods into Pacific Ocean, Strontium becomes One Million Times over Limit, The Canadian, 07 DECEMBER 2011 The woes of Fukushima are far from over as the plant’s owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), announced recently that a purification mechanism has leaked at least 45 tons of highly radioactive water, some of which ended up flowing directly into the ocean. TEPCO officials are reportedly in the process of investigating the situation to determine the extent of the damage caused. Continue reading
Japan’s growing problem of radioactive water – to be dumped into ocean?
TEPCO mulls nuclear-contaminated water Sky News, December 8, 2011 Japan’s embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co says it is considering dumping more nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima power plant into the sea. If TEPCO goes ahead with the plan it would be the second time it has deliberately released radiation-tainted water into the ocean since reactors began melting down at Fukushima in the wake of the March 11 tsunami.
‘We have stored processed water in tanks, which are expected to become full by March next year,’ said a TEPCO spokesman on Thursday. He said no final details – such as when, how much, or how dirty the water would be – have been established, but stressed the water would be filtered to reduce levels of radioactivity before it was dumped.
Thousands of tonnes of water have been pumped into reactors at Fukushima in an effort to cool the molten nuclear fuel and bring the plant to a safe shutdown.
‘We are studying a variety of measures to cope with it,’ he said, including the possibility of building more storage tanks. ’The company has consulted with the Japan Fisheries (JF) Cooperatives about the possibility of a water release.’ A group of fishermen immediately lodged a protest with TEPCO and the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry on Thursday, demanding the plan be shelved.
‘Many local fishermen still cannot go out to sea due to regulations or voluntary decisions and the now-poor safety reputation of the area has scared off consumers,’ JF official Shinji Ogawa told AFP. ’We cannot possibly let TEPCO do this again.’ Within weeks of the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, TEPCO dumped more than 10,000 tons of low-level radioactive water into the Pacific.
Ogawa said the water release plan was outrageous, especially after the power company had to apologise this week for accidentally leaking highly radioactive waste water into the Pacific….. TEPCO said Monday that it believed 150 litres of waste water including highly harmful strontium, a substance linked to bone cancers, has found its way into the open ocean. … http://www.skynews.com.au/finance/article.aspx?id=694474&vId=
Essential to evacuate children and pregnant women from Japan’s radioactive areas
“At very least pregnant women and children must be evacuated from risky areas until sufficient decontamination is completed…….
“The situation is rapidly spinning out of control, and the Japanese government seems to have abandoned its responsibility to protect its population as it has left local authorities, who lack the necessary knowledge and equipment, to clean up this mess.”
Greenpeace: Relocation of Pregnant Women and Children Exposed to Radiation Vital, December 8, 2011 Tokyo- (PanOrient News) Greenpeace renewed its demand to the Japanese government to urgently relocate pregnant women and children living in contaminated areas of Fukushima City due to the discovery of radioactive hot spots and accused the official decontamination program as being “both uncoordinated and thoroughly inadequate.” Continue reading
Japan’s nuclear clique, the “nuclear village” fighting to stop renewable energy
the Diet managers were proposing 3 people, a majority, from the nuclear village who are disinclined to support renewables
Japanese renewable-energy supporters present credible evidence that Shindo and his compatriots’ backgrounds show them to be major figures in the clique that devised the policies that led to Japan’s current very low level of renewables and over-reliance on nuclear and other unsustainable power sources. Their suggested appointment to the FIT price-setting council is an indication of how strong the nuclear village remains in Nagatacho and Kasumigaseki, the political and bureaucratic centres of the central government even after support for nuclear power plummeted in public opinion polls.
Japan’s Nuclear Village Wages War on Renewable Energy and the Feed-in Tariff
Japan Focus Dec. 08, 2011, Andrew DeWit The effects of the Fukushima shock continue to spread. Throughout the eventful summer, one of those consequences was the turn away from nuclear power with a dramatic emphasis on renewable power and the feed-in tariff (FIT) to deploy it fast. The FIT policy was championed by former Prime Minister Kan Naoto as well as the CEO of Softbank, Son Masayoshi. They and others in the political, business, non-profit, and academic communities strongly endorsed a legislative bill to expand Japan’s handicapped FIT to geothermal, wind, biomass and small hydro.
The bill was passed on August of 26 with explicit constraints on the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry’s (METI) capacity to hamstring renewables in favour of nuclear power and on behalf of the nuclear village. Notably, the bill took price setting out of METI’s hands. But now METI and its allies in the nuclear village are trying to get that clout back in their hands.
The price-setting mechanism is of signal importance because the role of the FIT is to provide incentives for the adoption of renewable energy. Continue reading
Nuclear radiation treated lightly in new Japanese schoolbooks
“They highlighted coexistence with radiation. They treated radiation risks lightly.” On the subcontractor, he said, “I don’t think it reasonable for an organization that promotes nuclear power generation to be entrusted with the project. Soul-searching on the nuclear accident is lacking.”
TEPCO boss part of utility group in shady deal on publication of radiation books Mainichi Daily News, 8 Dec 11The education ministry commissioned a group managed by top executives of utility firms to produce supplementary books on radiation for elementary, junior and senior high school students even after the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, it has been learned.
The Japan Atomic Energy Relations Organization (JAERO) won a contract from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to produce supplementary books on radiation for school children before the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear complex on March 11. But the ministry did not change its decision to ask JAERO to produce the educational materials even after the nuclear disaster.
Toshio Nishizawa, president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), and other top executives of utility firms are JAERO’s board members. Critics say the selection of the group as a subcontractor for the contract is not appropriate in light of the situation gripped by the ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima……. Continue reading
Secrecy over poor conditions and pay for Fukushima cleanup workers
While the radiation at Fukushima continues to leak out, the same can’t be said about information regarding working conditions at the plant.
Fukushima secrecy over workers and conditions ABC Radio A.M. Mark Willacy reported this story on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 TONY EASTLEY: Still in Japan and the ABC has obtained documents revealing the lengths being taken to keep work at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant secret and to stop workers there from actually talking to the media. Continue reading
Long range threat of Fukushima radiation accumulating on ocean floor
the releases have not ended, so that is of concern. If the contaminants end up in the marine sediments/muds, then they will remain there for decades to come,
Fukushima ocean radiation could pose sleeper threat, Smart Planet, By David Worthington | December 7, 2011 Scientists have determined that the unprecedented release of radioactivity into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima nuclear disaster poses no direct exposure threat to people, but caution that the accumulated fallout lying in sediment is a potential danger for decades to come.
The findings were published in a report, Impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants on Marine Radioactivity, on Wednesday. Levels of cesium and iodine peaked in April, a month after the core meltdowns when seawater used to cool the reactors and spent fuel rods was pumped out of the facility into the nearby ocean.
Levels of radioactive cesium peaked at 50 million times normal levels, becoming the largest accidental release of radiation into the ocean in history, Continue reading
Japan’s problem of radioactivity in food – cesium 137 found in baby milk powder
Cesium in Baby Milk Powder Shows Nuclear Risk for Japan Food December 07, 2011 By Kanoko Matsuyama and Yuriy Humber Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — Radioactive cesium was found in milk powder in Japan made by a Meiji Holdings Co. unit, raising concern that nuclear radiation is contaminating baby food.
Meiji the past week found traces of cesium-137 and cesium- 134 in batches of “Meiji Step” made in March, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday. The probe was triggered by a customer complaint last month. ….
The finding highlights the radiation threat to food in Japan nine months after the Fukushima nuclear plant was wrecked by an earthquake and tsunami. ….
In a nuclear accident, radioactive isotopes including iodine-131 and cesium-137, which are normally contained inside the fuel rods, may be released into the atmosphere as gases or particulates if the rods are damaged. These can be inhaled or ingested through contaminated food or water. Children are especially susceptible to radiation poisoning from iodine, which can accumulate in the thyroid gland, according to the World Health Organization.
Cesium-137 that enters the body is distributed throughout the soft tissues, especially in muscle….
Radiation is more dangerous for infants because their cells are dividing more rapidly and radiation-damaged RNA may be carried in more generations of cells, according to Lincoln. The risk for children depends on the quantity of radioactive cesium they consume or are exposed to,…
Japan’s Mihama nuclear reactor to shut down following leak
Kansai Electric to manually shut Mihama nuclear unit Mihama 500 MW unit one of only nine reactors still running in Japan TOKYO, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Kansai Electric Power Co will manually halt its Mihama No. 2 nuclear reactor as a safety precaution after it
discovered unusual levels of coolant leaking from a valve inside the containment vessel, Continue reading
Okinawa island, with no nuclear plants, becoming a refuge for Japanese families
Okinawa prefecture is the largest region in Japan without nuclear plants. Okinawa island, the largest in the group, has beautiful beaches, a slow-food subculture and thriving music and arts scenes. It attracts thousands of sea-changers every year, but only recently has this included worried parents who would never have considered a move to Okinawa before the Fukushima disaster……
Escape to Okinawa, SMH, Jane Barraclough, December 6, 2011 As radiation hot spots emerge in Tokyo and nuclear contamination plagues the country, some Japanese are fleeing to the Okinawa island chain to avoid the fallout from Fukushima. But is it too late?
Mari Takenouchi …and her one-year-old son fled to the Okinawa islands – Japan’s southernmost prefecture, 2000 kilometres south of the unfolding crisis.
……….lack of alarm after the explosions kept Takenouchi and Joe in Tokyo half a day too long to dodge the fallout, which gradually dispersed in a cruel lottery of wind, rain and snow that contaminated homes, farms, wilderness, and eventually a schoolyard in Takenouchi’s neighbourhood. Continue reading
New radioactive leak belies TEPCO’s claims of Fukushima cleanup success
More Radioactive Water Leaks From Japanese Nuclear Plant, By HIROKO TABUCHI, NYT December 4, 2011 TOKYO — At least 45 tons of highly radioactive water has leaked from a purification facility at the Fukushima Daiichi buclear power station, and some of it may have reached the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator said on Sunday…..
the plant continues to pose a major environmental threat. Before the latest leak, the Fukushima accident had been responsible for the largest single release of radioactivity into the ocean, threatening wildlife and fisheries in the region, experts have said.
The new radioactive water leak called into question the progress that the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, appeared to have made in bringing its reactors under control…. Continue reading
Japan’s second rate contract workers cop the brunt of nuclear radiation
contractors last year accounted for 96% of the harmful radiation absorbed by workers at the nation’s nuclear power plants. Temporary workers at the Fukushima plant in 2010 also faced radiation levels 16 times higher than did employees of the plant’s owner-operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., because contractors are called in for the most dangerous work,
Japan’s ‘nuclear gypsies’ face radioactive peril at power plants Unskilled contractors make up most of the workforce and face higher doses of radiation than utility employees at Fukushima and other nuclear power plants in Japan. By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times December 4, 2011
Japan’s provinces lose international students, with radiation fears
Trainees steer clear of Tohoku / Radiation fears apparently behind sharp drop in foreign interns, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 5 Dec 11 The number of foreign trainees in the disaster-affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima has nearly halved since the March 11 disaster, with many apparently afraid to return to the Tohoku region due to radiation fears. Continue reading
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
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