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520 tonnes of high level radioactive water into sea off Fukushima

Japan’s nuclear leak into ocean at catastrophic levels

RT.com news 21 April, 2011 The Tokyo Electric Power Company says radioactive substances that leaked into the sea at the damaged Fukushima plant over six days in April exceed the annual allowable limit by 20,000 times.

The plant operator said it calculated the total amount of leaked water assuming that the leak began on April 1st. Some 520 tonnes of the high-level radioactive water have likely reached the sea during the period, reports Japan’s Broadcasting Corporation NHK.

The announcement comes as the government brought into effect the entry ban for the 20-kilometer evacuation area around the paralyzed nuclear complex. Police found more than 60 families still living within the contaminated area. …. http://rt.com/news/fukushima-plant-radioactive-leakage/

April 22, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

15 metre wall planned to protect Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear plant

Tepco to Build Wall for Nuclear Plant After Fukushima Disaster Bloomberg, By Tsuyoshi Inajima – Apr 21, 2011   Electric Power Co. will build a seawall to protect its biggest atomic power station from a tsunami like the one that knocked out its Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Japan’s biggest power company, known as Tepco, plans to construct a wall to a height of 15 meters (50 feet) above sea level off the coast of its Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant northwest of Tokyo, spokeswoman Ai Tanaka said by phone. Three of seven reactors remain shut at the station after an earthquake in 2007 caused radiation leaks.

Tepco has been battling to contain radiation spewing from the Fukushima plant after a magnitude-9 quake on March 11 unleashed a tsunami that flooded the station, knocking out cooling systems. The company won’t get approval to start the remaining reactors at Kashiwazaki until it resolves the crisis at Fukushima, a local government official said on April 6.

Japan’s government last week raised the severity rating of the Fukushima crisis to the highest on an international scale, the same level as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The station, which has withstood hundreds of aftershocks, may release more contamination than Chernobyl before the crisis is contained, Tepco officials said. …..http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-22/tepco-to-build-wall-for-nuclear-plant-after-fukushima-disaster.html

April 22, 2011 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Problematic evacuation of Japanese from nuclear zone

Japanese Revisit Nuclear Zone While They Can, New York Times, By ANDREW POLLACK April 21, 2011 “……In Futaba, a town next to the plant, several signs stretching across the empty streets extolled the virtues of atomic energy. “Nuclear power is energy for a brighter future,” read one. Another said, “The correct understanding of nuclear power leads to a better life.”

And at the gate of the Fukushima Daiichi plant itself, workers in white suits and masks turned away an unauthorized car while photographing its license plate. On a board behind the workers someone had written, “Don’t give up.” …… Continue reading →

April 22, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Doubts on viability of Latest Fukushima cleanup plan

the presence of highly radioactive water at Unit 2 posed a particular challenge. There and at other units, workers have been cooling nuclear fuel at the reactor’s core and in storage pools by pumping in hundreds of tons of water a day, producing dangerous amounts of runoff.

  Radiation Poses Barrier To Repair Work at Plant NYTimes.com By HIROKO TABUCHI April 18, 2011TOKYO — Robots deployed inside two reactors at the Japanese nuclear plant overrun by last month’s devastating tsunami have detected radiation levels too high for workers to enter, posing immediate challenges for a new plan to bring the ravaged complex under control by year’s end…. Continue reading →

April 19, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Radiation in seafoods

“[People] should not venture into the ocean [where the radioactive materials are being released]; they should not eat any fish or seaweed from the ocean.

“The living species likely to be most affected are shellfish because they are stationary whereas fish that swim may pass through the area and out again. The shellfish such as mussels, oysters and clams certainly accumulate high levels of radioactivity….

Japanese earthquake | what Japan’s new nuclear crisis rating means, Sydney Morning Herald, Glenda Kwek April 12, 2011 As Japan raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to match Chernobyl’s seven, an Australian scientist explained what that meant. Continue reading →

April 19, 2011 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Eight ghost towns in Fukushima Prefecture

Futaba Mayor Katsutaka Idogawa, meanwhile, said it will be “years” before the residents of his town can return. …….

Eerie Hush Descends on Japan’s Nuclear Zone – WSJ.com, 19 April 11, “……..Over the road that runs through the town center, a white-and-blue sign proclaims: “Understanding Nuclear Power Correctly Will Lead to an Abundant Life.”But life, by and large, is what is absent in this town, just a few miles away from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Futaba, once home to 7,000 residents, is one of eight towns forced to evacuate the day after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the nuclear plant. In the following days, tens of thousands of residents living within 12 miles of the damaged reactors fled. Last Monday, the Japanese government expanded the mandatory evacuation zone to encompass more towns. Continue reading →

April 18, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Radiation forces Japan to use robots in Fukushima nuclear plant

Japanese Using Robots To Peer Into Crippled Nuclear Plant Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2011 April 18, 2011 Reports said robots were being used to investigate Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, one day after plant operators announced a new nine-month stabilization plan for the facility Continue reading →

April 18, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Tokyo – thousands march against nuclear energy

Japan: Thousands march against nuclear power | Green Left Weekly, April 17, 2011, By Alexander Brown About 15,000 people attended the “No Nukes” protest in the central Tokyo district of Koenji on April 10.The rally called for assistance to those affected by the March earthquake and tsunami disaster, and for an end to nuclear power. Organisers said more than 1.23 million yen (A$14,000) had been raised for those affected by the disaster.About 2500 people joined a separate rally in another part of the city calling for the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka to be switched off. The Hamaoka plant is on a fault line considered likely to be affected by future quakes.The Koenji rally, officially titled the “Great Anti-Nuclear Rock Festival Demo in Kōenji”, was called by Matsumoto Hajime of the Shiroto no ran (Amateur’s Riot) network.The network, based in Koenji, has been trying to build alternative spaces and communities in the area.
Japan: Thousands march against nuclear power | Green Left Weekly

April 18, 2011 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Grim health outlook for Fukushima nuclear cleanup workers

Children born to liquidator families were seriously affected with birth defects and thyroid diseases, including cancer, and loss of intellect. As for other children, based upon the work of multiple researchers, it is estimated that in the heavily contaminated areas of Belarus, only 20 percent of children are considered healthy,

Is the Fukushima nuclear plant breakdown worse than Chernobyl? | San Francisco Bay View, by Janette D. Sherman, M.D., 16 April 11“………Key to understanding effects is the difference between external and internal radiation. While external radiation, as from x-rays, neutron, gamma and cosmic rays, can harm and kill, internal radiation – alpha and beta particles – when absorbed by ingestion and inhalation release damaging energy in direct contact with tissue and cells. Continue reading →

April 16, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, employment, health, Japan | Leave a comment

Nuclear payout not adequate for Fukushima refugees

Nuclear plant evacuees call for bigger payouts, The Independent 16 April 2011 * The operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant said yesterday it would pay an initial £7,400 for each household that was forced to evacuate because of leaking radiation – a handout some displaced families said was too little.Tens of thousands of residents unable to return to their homes near the nuclear plant are bereft of their livelihoods and possessions, unsure when, if ever, they will be able to return home.

Some have travelled hundreds of miles to the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to press the company president Masataka Shimizu for higher compensation. At the government’s request, the company will start paying out roughly ¥50bn (£370m) in compensation from 28 April to those forced to evacuate; families will get ¥1m and single adults ¥750,000, the government said.

Roughly 48,000 households will be eligible for the payments. But many families are disappointed. “I’m not satisfied,” said Kazuko Suzuki, a 49-year-old single mother of two teenagers from the town of Futuba, next to the plant. She has lived at a shelter at a high school north of Tokyo for the past month. “We’ve had to spend money on so many extra things and we don’t know how long this could go on,” she said….Nuclear plant evacuees call for bigger payouts – Asia, World – The Independent

April 16, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

The Faustian bargain of nuclear power

Fukushima Daiichi Is a ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ HUFFINGTON POST, 04/14/11 “…..DR. MICHIO KAKU: Well, there’s something called a Faustian bargain. Faust was this mythical figure who sold his soul to the devil for unlimited power. Now, the Japanese government has thrown the dice with a Faustian bargain. Japan has very little fossil fuel reserves, no hydroelectric power to speak of, and so they went nuclear. However, in the United States, we’re now poised, at this key juncture in history, where the government has to decide whether to go to the next generation of reactors. These are the so-called gas-cooled pebble bed reactors, which are safer than the current design, but they still melt down. The proponents of this new renaissance say that you can go out to dinner and basically have a leisurely conversation even as your reactor melts down. But it still melts. That’s the bottom line.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, what do you think should happen? Do you think nuclear power plants should be built in this country?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: I think there should be a national debate, a national debate about a potential moratorium. The American people have not been given the full truth, because, for example, right north of New York City, roughly 30 miles north of where we are right now, we have the Indian Point nuclear power plant, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has now admitted that of all the reactors prone to earthquakes, the one right next to New York City is number one on that list. And the government itself, back in 1980, estimated that property damage would be on the order of about $200 billion in case of an accident, in 1980 dollars, at the Indian Point nuclear power station…..Democracy Now!: Fukushima Daiichi Is a ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

April 15, 2011 Posted by | Japan, Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Risk of radiation in milk, rainwater, says French radiation agency

Global Radiation Levels ‘No Longer Negligible’ In Milk, Water, Produce Care 2, by: Beth Buczynski 15 April 11,  A French research authority on radioactivity is now warning expectant European mothers and young children to avoid drinking milk or rainwater, while EPA data released on Sunday shows that at least three different milk samples — all from different parts of the US — have tested positive for radioactive Iodine-131 at levels that exceed the current maximum thresholds for safety.

The radiation risk from Fukushima is “no longer negligible,” says CRIIRAD, the French agency. Two weeks ago, the FDA began blocking imports of some Japanese milk and produce.

CRIIRAD told Europeans that eating these items qualifies as “risky behavior.”….
it may still be some time until we learn the true extent of the contamination.
Global Radiation Levels ‘No Longer Negligible’ In Milk, Water, Produce

April 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Save Japanese nuclear workers by collecting their stem cells

the solution is not perfect, the team admits. High exposure to radiation would also attack cells in the gut, skin or lung — problems a stem cell transplant could not fixYet, with containment and clean-up efforts at the damaged plant expected to drag on for months or even years, Tanimoto and Taniguchi say taking steps to protect the workers’ from future harm is paramount.

Banking stem cells could save Japan nuclear workers By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO   Apr 14, 2011  (Reuters) – Health officials should collect blood from workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in case they are accidentally exposed to high levels of radiation and need a stem cell transplant, Japanese researchers said on Thursday. Continue reading →

April 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, health, Japan | Leave a comment

Fukushima Prefecture children must stay indoors

Schools keep kids indoors The Yomiuri Shimbun 15 April 11,  Outdoor activities in Fukushima Pref. stopped over radiation  Worried about radiation, schools in Fukushima Prefecture have stopped holding physical education classes in their school yards regardless of schools’ distance from the crippled nuclear power plant in the prefecture……the central government’s failure to provide any guidelines on students’ outdoor activities has left schools wondering what to do.

During soil inspection in school yards, inspectors took five-centimeter-deep samples to check the levels of radioactive iodine and cesium.

The school yard of Yamakiya Primary School in Kawamatamachi recorded the highest level: 59,059 becquerels per kilogram of soil for both isotopes. The school began holding its physical education class indoors after the new academic year started on April 6 and such events as excursions and hiking will be suspended…..Schools keep kids indoors / Outdoor activities in Fukushima Pref. stopped over radiation : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

April 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Huge and unprecedented problems in Fukushima nuclear cleanup

The scale and complexity of the challenge is unprecedented. No nuclear reactor has ever been fully decommissioned in Japan, let alone the four certain to be dismantled at Fukushima

Nuclear Cleanup Plans Hinge on Unknowns, NYTimes.com, By HIROKO TABUCHI  April 14, 2011 “…..he widely divergent outlooks underscore the basic uncertainties clouding any forecast for Fukushima: when cooling stems will be restored and radiation emission halted; how soon workers can access some parts of the plant; and how bad the damage to the reactors, their fuel, and nearby stored fuel turns out to be. Continue reading →

April 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

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