Radiation standards for children made stricter in Japan
Japan to Tighten Radiation Exposure Standard for Minors NTI Global Security Newswire, Nov. 11, 2011 Japan on Friday backed plans to cut by August 2013 the maximum, yearly quantity of radiation minors are allowed to receive in regions impacted by contaminants from the Fukushima Daiichi atomic facility, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Nov. 9). Continue reading
Scene inside wrecked nuclear reactor in Japan
Scene of devastation inside Japan reactor SMH, 12 Nov 11Media allowed into Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant for the first time on Saturday saw a striking scene of devastation: twisted and overturned trucks, crumbling reactor buildings and piles of rubble virtually untouched since the wave struck more than eight months ago.
Representatives of the Japanese and international media, including The Associated Press, were allowed into the plant with the government’s chief official in charge of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. The tour was intended to demonstrate how much the situation at the plant has stabilised since the March 11 tsunami, though reporters had to wear full-body protective gear and submit to radiation scans afterward.
Mangled trucks, flipped over by the wave, remain along the roads inside the complex. Piles of rubble stand where the walls of the plant’s reactor structures crumbled, and large pools of water still cover parts of the sprawling campus…….
the government has predicted that it will take another 30 years at least to safely remove the nuclear fuel and decommission the plant. It could also be decades before tens of thousands of residents forced to flee the 20km exclusion zone around the plant will be able to return. Some experts say even that estimate is optimistic…. –http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/scene-of-devastation-inside-japan-reactor-20111112-1ncx4.html
Fukushima nuclear disaster: how it was for the workers when it happened
Report Details Initial Chaos at Stricken Nuclear Plant, NYT By MATTHEW L. WALD November 11, 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 was stuck in darkness, and everyone on site feared that the reactor core was damaged. It was the day after a devastating earthquake and a towering tsunami had hit the plant, and the workers knew that they were the only hope for halting an unfolding nuclear disaster. Continue reading
Tokyo now testing radiation in fresh and processed food
Tokyo city starts radiation tests on food in shops Google News, (AFP) – 8 Nov 11 TOKYO — Tokyo city government on Tuesday began radiation tests on samples of food bought in shops to reassure residents amid a contamination scare after a major nuclear accident in northeast Japan.
It is rare that authorities check on products at the point of sale and the the inspection includes processed food as well as fresh produce. The metropolitan government is measuring radiation on vegetables and other fresh food to complement pre-shipment tests at places of
production. Continue reading
Fukushima elections: 90% of candidates want nuclear power scrapped
90% of Fukushima candidates want N-reactors scrapped The Yomiuri Shimbun, 9 Nov 11 Nearly 90 percent of candidates planning to run in the upcoming Fukushima prefectural assembly election think all the reactors at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant should be decommissioned, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.
All 87 potential candidates responded to the survey, whose findings suggest radiation decontamination and other nuclear issues will be key points in this campaign–a change from previous prefectural assembly elections.
An official announcement of the election will be made Thursday, and Fukushima Prefecture residents will go to the polls Nov. 20. The election has been postponed due to the March 11 disaster and ensuing nuclear crisis.
According to the survey, 76 candidate, or 87.3 percent, said the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s nuclear plant should be decommissioned. The Nos. 1 to 4 reactors have already been designated for decommissioning.Regarding the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant, the future of which has not been decided, 72 people, or 82.7 percent, said the plant should be decommissioned…..http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111108005264.htm
Inadequacy of Japan’s radiation cleanup plan
Accident risk makes nuclear costs even more expensive
Japan study factors accident risk into nuclear power cost estimates Nov 8 (Reuters) – The cost of generating nuclear power in Japan would rise by up to 1.6 yen per kilowatt hour if the risk of a serious nuclear accident like the one in Fukushima is factored in, a government panel of experts estimated, providing a key element for the government to decide on its post-Fukushima energy policy.
Lawmakers and officials are working to come up with a new energy policy after the Fukushima radiation crisis made it difficult, if not impossible, to build more reactors in the world’s third-biggest generator of nuclear power…..
now that the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant forced its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co , to pay compensation for residents who have been evacuated and extra costs to decommission the crippled reactors, a new estimate on the cost of nuclear power was needed to include these factors…..
The cost for the risk of an accident could rise further if compensation payments to help evacuees and cover other damages increases from the current estimate, based on actual payments related to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, of 5 trillion yen ($64 billion) for a model reactor, the panel said…. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/nuclear-japan-estimate-idUSL4E7M81Q620111108
8 months after Fukushima nuclear disaster, dangerous radiation level
Tepco Finds Dangerous Level of Radiation at Fukushima Station, , Bloomberg, By Chris Cooper, Nov. 6 — Tokyo Electric Power Co. found a dangerous level of radiation at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, eight months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that caused the worst atomic crisis in 25 years.
Workers at the company usually called Tepco detected 620 millisieverts of radiation an hour on the first floor of Reactor 3 on Nov. 3, the highest level found in that unit, it said.
The level of radiation is more than the 500-millisievert short-term dose recommended as the maximum for emergency workers in live-saving situations, according to the World Nuclear Association. The company and government officials are trying to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986 after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused a loss of cooling and the meltdowns of three reactors.
Tepco will today start taking radiation out of water used to cool spent fuel rods, spokesman Hiroki Kawamata said today by phone…..http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-06/tepco-finds-dangerous-level-of-radiation-at-fukushima-station.html
TEPCO nuclear company makes $8 billion loss, gets $11.5 billion in public funds
Japan Approves Billions in Aid to TEPCO, Voice of America, 5 Nov 11 Government agreed Friday to a deal giving $11.5 billion in public funds to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to cover costs in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled its Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The government said the funds would help TEPCO with cleanup and dismantling of the plant and compensation payments to residents of the area. The money comes from a fund made up of all Japanese nuclear plant operators and the government. In return, the utility must reduce its operating costs by more than $32 billion over the next 10 years and lay off more than 7,000 workers.
Engineers at Fukushima are still trying to bring the reactors to a stable cold shutdown by the end of this year. News of the bailout came on the same day TEPCO forecast a nearly $8 billion loss for the current fiscal year, ending in March. http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/11/04/japan-approves-billions-in-aid-to-tepco-2/
Japanese mothers demand radiation protection, and closure of nuclear power
The women are calling for two things. First, they want to protect children living in highly contaminated areas by giving them the officially sanctioned ‘right to evacuate.’ This would include government compensation and support that would enable children and their families to relocate on a voluntary basis.
Secondly, they want to close down all nuclear power plants in Japan. “Fukushima women feel very strongly that there is no safe nuclear power,” “This is the lesson to be learned from Fukushima.”
The women have asked for a response from the state by Nov. 11—exactly eight months after the deadly quake.
Fukushima Women Demand Better Protection for Children Exposed to Radiation, TIME.com , November 3, 2011 Lucy Birmingham. About 100 women from Fukushima, Japan, have started a week-long sit-in at a government office in Tokyo to demand greater protection for children affected by radiation. “Many children and their families are trapped in Fukushima because they can’t afford to move,” explains Ayako Oga, 38, a housewife living in the prefecture and one of the sit-in organizers. “The government has set the accepted radiation exposure rate too high.” Japan’s standard rate for exposure to radiation is 1 millisievert per year. For Fukushima residents alone the accepted exposure rate is up to 20 millisieverts per year. The International Commission on Radiological Protection considers this rate the top level and says it should not be exceeded over the long term.
National and prefectural governments have determined that until the 20 millisieverts level they are not obligated to offer financial support to residents, certain businesses or schools wanting to relocate outside the irradiated areas. At the heart of the debate is the question of who has a ‘right to evacuate.’ “At Chernobyl, the right to evacuate, which means government support, was given from 1 to 5 millisieverts. In Japan it’s 20,” Continue reading
What it’s really like to be a cleanup worker at Fukushima
Those on the lower rungs, say labour advocates, are particularly
vulnerable. They often have no corporate health, pension or redundancy
benefits. ….
the hardest work was done by the low-level labourers. They had so much rubble to clear, he says, that they often keeled over in the heat under the weight of their protective gear.
Taken out in ambulances, they would usually be back the following day.
Cleaning up Japan’s nuclear mess, The twilight zone, Its owner fears not just radiation leaking out of the Fukushima plant, but also bad news, The Economist Nov 5th 2011 | IWAKI | IT IS another world beyond the roadblocks stopping unauthorised traffic from entering the 20km (12.5-mile) exclusion zone around the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. ….
The air of secrecy is compounded when you try to approach workers involved in the nightmarish task of stabilising the nuclear plant. Many are not salaried Tepco staff but low-paid contract workers lodging in Iwaki, just south of the exclusion zone. Continue reading
The $64 billion question – 3 reasons why Japan should nationalise TEPCO
Japan’s nuclear conundrum, The $64 billion question, Once the Fukushima nuclear plant is stable, the government should temporarily nationalise its operator The Economist Nov 5th 2011
The government should act fast to nationalise Tepco and hold it temporarily in public ownership as it clears out the old management and oversees the clean-up. Then it should reprivatise a thoroughly reformed utility. Three reasons argue for Tepco to be nationalised. Continue reading
Japanese fears on radioactive debris
Radiation fears behind debris refusals / Remaining refuse may cause secondary damage, hinder reconstruction efforts, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 4 Nov 11 The start Wednesday of shipments of debris from the Great East Japan Earthquake to Tokyo, the first destination for such refuse outside the Tohoku region, was a long-awaited first step toward wider disposal of the wreckage.
However, an Environment Ministry survey released Wednesday showed that only 54 local governments and garbage-disposal unions, less than 10 percent the figure in a previous survey, were considering accepting debris from disaster-hit areas. Continue reading
New bursts of fission at the crippled Fukushima power plant
The three reactors — together with spent fuel rods stored at a fourth damaged reactor — have been leaking radioactive material since the initial disaster, and new episodes of fission would only increase their dangers.
Fears of Fission Rise at Stricken Nuclear Plant in Japan, NYT, By HIROKO TABUCHI November 2, 2011 TOKYO — Nuclear workers at the crippled Fukushima power plant raced to inject boric acid into the plant’s No. 2 reactor early Wednesday after telltale radioactive elements were detected there, and the plant’s owner admitted for the first time that fuel deep inside three stricken plants was probably continuing to experience bursts of fission. Continue reading
One nuclear reactor restarts in Japan
First nuclear power plant restarted in Japan since tsunami, Herald Sun November 02, 2011 A NUCLEAR reactor in southern Japan was to begin producing electricity again today, its operator company said, in the first restart of a stalled atomic power plant since the Fukushima disaster. Continue reading
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