Gloom of Fukushima’s ghost areas
Fukushima ghost towns struggle to recover amid high radiation levels Post-tsunami reconstruction and radiation cleanup could take 10 years, but officials say something has been permanently lost Simon Tisdall in Namie The Guardian, Thursday 2 January 2014 Nearly three years after a major earthquake, tsunami and nuclear radiation leak devastated coastal and inland areas of Japan’sFukushima prefecture, 175 miles north-east of Tokyo, Namie has become a silent town of ghosts and absent lives.
Namie’s 21,000 residents remain evacuated because of continuing high radiation levels, the product of the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, six miles to the south. Homes, shops and streets are deserted except for the occasional police patrol or checkpoint…..
Namie is nobody’s town now. Nobody lives here, and nobody visits for long. Even the looters have stopped bothering, and no one knows exactly when the inhabitants may be allowed to return permanently – or whether they will want to.
The 2011 catastrophe faded from world headlines long ago, but in Namie, Tomioka, Okuma, Futaba and other blighted towns in the 20-mile evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant, it is a disaster that never ends……..
For Fukushima’s displaced population, the effects of the disaster continue to be deeply felt. The evacuation area was subdivided earlier this year into three zones of higher or lower radiation risk. In the worst affected zone, return will not be allowed before 2017 at the earliest.
In other areas, families and businesses face difficult decisions about whether or not to go back. At present, no one is even allowed to stay overnight. Locals say that whatever happens, many younger people will not return.
There is little or no trust in official pronouncements, given the failure of the Fukushima Daiichi operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), to take adequate measures to protect the plant against the tsunami and the company’s unimpressive post-disaster record.
There are suspicions that the government knows some towns may never be safe to live in again, but refuses to admit it in order to protect Japan’s unpopular nuclear power industry. There is also a sense that Fukushima’s victims have been forgotten……Nobody has died directly as a result of the nuclear disaster, but a close eye is being kept on the incidence of thyroid cancer in children, following the experience of Chernobyl…….
Tetsurou Eguchi, the deputy mayor of Minamisoma City, said the radiation-related cleanup was likely to take another five to six years and could cost as much as ¥350bn (£2bn), much of which would come from the national government. Post-tsunami reconstruction would take up to 10 years. But something intangible had been permanently lost, he said. “When it comes to the economy, and individual and social life, it is very difficult to recover this, compared with how it used to be.”
The most challenging problem, he said, was decontamination. “Basically [the radioactive fallout] is not in the air any more. It’s in the soil.” The area was dependent economically on small businesses, agriculture, fishing and tourism, including the famous annual Soma Nomaoi samurai festival, he said. All had been seriously affected…….
“I don’t think Fukushima is fully supported by the whole country. And that’s what the citizens here think.” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/01/fukushima-ghost-towns-high-radiation-levels-tsunami
Kerala, India can meet energy demand with 95% renewable sources
Renewable Energy Prospects Bright: Report By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM1st January 2014 Kerala can meet over 95 per cent of its energy demand using renewable energy sources by the year 2050, according to a report released the other day.
The Energy Report – Kerala, prepared by WWF-India and the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE) Pune, is a state-specific report that provides a vision for a 100-per cent renewable and sustainable energy supply in another three decades.
After modelling energy demand scenarios for various sectors for the projected time period, the report analyses the potential of various renewable energy sources in the state.
One significant contributor to the future renewable energy mix – and for the moment unpopular, at least in the current political scene – is solar power.
The estimation of solar power potential in Kerala, as per the report, is around 44,456 MW.
Out of this, 31,145 MW alone can be got from rooftops of households and commercial establishments.
“This is after factoring in exclusion factors such as shaded areas of roofs and tiled roofs,” World Institute of Sustainable Energy director general G M Pillai said while presenting the report.
“Existing buildings in Kerala can also revamp their roofs to accommodate solar panels.”
Similarly, the report has come out with figures for wind (off-shore and onshore), small hydro, bio-energy and wave power potential…….http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/Renewable-Energy-Prospects-Bright-Report/2014/01/01/article1976387.ece
Fukshima reactor 4 steaming, and the fears of America’s West Coast
Fukushima Radiation Fallout Yakuza to Save the World? Guardianly. com by Michael Smith on December 31, 2013 “………..Several scenarios have been put forward as to why Reactor 3 is suddenly, and intermittently, producing steam. The first scenario is that a meltdown is already taking place. The reactor still has 89 tons of spent fuel inside it which could be drying out and melting down.
Scenario two deals with the corium reaching groundwater and the melted down molten fuel has reached the soil underneath the reactor and is reacting with moisture in the soil and it is releasing more radioactive fallout. The third scenario, which is the most “desirable” of the three is that the damaged fuel rods and pellets have come in contact with rainwater.
While some websites have printed directions for those inhabitants of the West Coast who may or may not be affected by radioactive fallout in two to three days, the Yakuza continue to prey on Japan’s homeless population to provide slave labor to clean up the ongoing mess.
If the latest steam escaping from Reactor 3 is the result of further meltdowns, West Coast populations have been told to buy gas masks, duct tape and plastic sheeting. There are also instructions on what to do with the sheeting and tape, such as putting it over the inside of doors and windows, as well as what rating of mask to purchase.
Not everyone who has heard of the nuclear fallout time period prediction will rush out to purchase supplies from their nearest D.I.Y store. However, the idea of Yakuza slave labor being responsible for saving the world from Fukushima radioactive fallout migration is, in itself, frightening. It also makes the idea of safeguarding houses a precautionary measure of necessity instead of a hysterical knee jerk reaction. Meanwhile the clock keeps ticking as TEPCO wait to see what is causing the steam to rise from the destroyed reactor.http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/fukushima-radiation-fallout-yakuza-to-save-the-world/
UN official shocked at exploitation of homeless men working at wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant
UN Official ‘Astounded’: Homeless are taken to work in Fukushima, ready to die — Pastor: “At end of month, they’re left with no pay” — Police: They end up in debt to employers after food and housing fees deducted (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/un-official-astounded-homeless-are-taken-to-work-in-fukushima-theyre-ready-to-go-die-pastor-at-end-of-month-theyre-left-with-no-pay-police-they-end-up-in-debt-to-employer
Reuters, Dec. 29, 2013: SPECIAL REPORT- Japan’s homeless recruited for murky Fukushima clean-up […] Some say better homeless than going into debt by working […] Gangsters run Fukushima labour brokers […] Sendai, the biggest city in the disaster zone, has emerged as a hiring hub for homeless men. Many work […] cleaning up radioactive hotspots […] Seiji Sasa, 67 [recruits] homeless men at the Sendai train station to work in the nuclear cleanup. […] homeless men ended up in debt after fees for food and housing were deducted, police say. […] a shelter funded by the city […] sent other homeless men to work for him […] 55-year-old homeless […] worker’s paystub, reviewed by Reuters, showed charges for food, accommodation and laundry were docked from his monthly pay equivalent to about $1,500, leaving him with $10 […] The problem of workers running themselves into debt is widespread.
Kenichi Sayama, general manager at subcontractor Fujisai: “If you don’t get involved (with gangs), you’re not going to get enough workers […] The construction industry is 90 percent run by gangs.”
Yasuhiro Aoki,, Baptist pastor and homeless advocate: “Many homeless people are just put into dormitories, and the fees for lodging and food are automatically docked from their wages […] Then at the end of the month, they’re left with no pay at all.”
Shizuya Nishiyama, , 57 years old: He now sleeps on a cardboard box in Sendai Station […] [For decontamination work, an employer] offered him $90 a day […] he was made to pay as much as $50 a day for food and lodging. He also was not paid on the days he was unable to work [but] would still be charged for room and board. He decided he was better off living on the street than going into debt. “We’re an easy target for recruiters […] if we haven’t eaten, they offer to find us a job.”
Mr. Anand Grover, Esq., United Nations Special Rapporteur, , published Oct. 24, 2013: (at 15:30 in) “These workers told me, ‘Do you know we are actually living in a shanty town?’ I can show you the photographs — literally on the pavement, in the non-used pavement between the railway station there were plastic huts where people were living, in Japan, in Tokyo — not Bombay. It actually astounded me that these things were happening. Then they told me that people come take them, give them ‘X’ amount of money […] They’re ready to go into the fire and die. Other people are not ready to do it.”
Dire health consequences predicted from Fukushima nuclear disaster
Experts: Fukushima disaster victims to include up to 600,000 deaths, over 100,000 still-births, and over 100,000 children with genetic deformations http://enenews.com/experts-fukushima-victims-to-include-up-to-300000-deaths-over-100000-still-births-and-over-100000-children-with-genetic-deformations
| Anna Sablina, cancer researcher and assistant professor at University of Leuven, Dec. 26, 2013: […] in case of such high radioactive dose and exposure it obviously can increase a probability of cancer development especially thyroid cancer and leukemia. […] We can always compare what people already know about the Chernobyl accident because it is a quite similar situation [to Fukushima] […] the only problem in the Chernobyl area is a really increased rate of thyroid cancer especially for kids. More than 5,000 kids there diagnosed the thyroid cancer after Chernobyl, so I would say it probably could be the same case as in Japan. And for the rest it is a bit difficult to say […] I think most of the time the only people who were directly involved in cleaning up and fixing the accident could have a really increased rate of cancer but for the rest it will be really difficult to say […] |
Health consequences of chronic internal contaminations by radionuclides (pdf) IRSN (Radio-protection agency of France), 2005: The IRSN then recommends then to initiate in-depth researches in order to improve the knowledge in the area of health consequences of chronic internal contaminations […] not only focusing to cancers but also to the other types of effects and to all tissues. The main criticism to the current system is that it is mainly […] relating to the probability for a cancer or severe hereditary effects to occur [and] does not incorporate other pathologies and, in fact, researches conducted during the past years in radiotoxicology basically focused to the occurrence of cancers while neglecting other effects. It is now important to fill the gaps in this area and to describe all biological and health effects that may occur after a chronic contamination by radionuclides.
The unpalatable facts on the Fukushima radiation situation
Putting Fukushima In Perspective, http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article43766.html The Market Oracle, Dec 29, 2013 There was no background radioactive cesium before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents started.
Wikipedia provides some details on the distribution of cesium-137 due to human activities:………………And Fukushima radiation has arrived on the West Coast years earlier than predicted.)
The Canadian government has confirmed in October that Fukushima radiation will exceed “levels higher than maximum fallout” from the nuclear tests.
The party line from the Japanese, Canadian and American governments are that these are safe levels of radiation. Given that those countries have tried to ban investigative journalismand have tried to cover up the scope of the Fukushima disaster, people may want toinvestigate for ourselves.
For example, Gundersen notes that the U.S. government flew helicopters with special radiation testing equipment 90 days after the Fukushima meltdown happened. The government said it was just doing a routine “background radiation” check, but that it was really measuring the amount of “hot particles” in the Seattle area (starting at 27:00). Hot particles are inhaled and become very dangerous “internal emitters”. The government then covered up the results on the basis of “national security”.
As the Washington Department of Health noted at the time:
A helicopter flying over some urban areas of King and Pierce counties will gather radiological readings July 11-28, 2011. [Seattle is in King County.] The U.S. Department of Energy’s Remote Sensing Laboratory Aerial Measurement System will collect baseline levels of radioactive materials.
**Some of the data may be withheld for national security purposes.
Similarly, the Department of Homeland Security and National Nuclear Security Administration sent low-flying helicopters over the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012 to test for radiation. But they have not released the results.
Indeed, residents of Seattle breathed in 5 hot particles each day in April of 2011 … a full 50% of what Tokyo residents were breathing at the time:
After all, the reactors at Fukushima literally exploded … and ejected cladding from the reactors and fuel particles. And see this.
Gundersen says that geiger counters don’t measure hot particles. Unless the government or nuclear scientists measure and share their data, we are in the dark as to what’s really going on.
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India: political opposition to nuclear energy program
AAP to support nuclear plant stir, says Bhushanhttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/aap-to-support-nuclear-plant-stir-says-bhushan/1213139/ PTI : Tirunelveli, Mon Dec 30 2013 AAP leader Prashant Bhushan Sunday said the party always supported the cause of people’s movement against nuclear energy at Kudankulam and would always be with the people. Addressing members of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy at Idinthakarai near the Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Bhushan assured his party’s support to the ongoing agitation against KNPP. “We always opposed nuclear energy and also the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project. We supported the cause of PMANE in difficult times,” he said.
“The national political scenario was looking for a substitute to BJP and Congress. Both these national parties are tainted. So the people of our country installed AAP in power at Delhi,” he said.
5,000 children at grave risk of cancer from Fukushima radiation
Impact of Fukushima radiation disaster: 5,000 kids could be diagnosed with cancer – scientist http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_12_26/Impact-of-Fukushima-radiation-disaster-5-000-kids-could-be-diagnosed-with-cancer-scientist-1163/ Slowly, the world is waking up to the realities of Japan’s nuclear catastrophe: this disaster is real. USS Reagan and Fukushima cancer levels are miles above comparative levels. Anna Sablina, cancer researcher, Assistant Professor of the University of Leuven and group leader of Flanders Institute of Biotechnology, discussed the impact of Fukushima disaster in an interview with the VoR. Continue reading
Japan to join in UK’s economically insane nuclear power project
Toshiba to buy majority stake in UK nuclear consortium,Dan Milmo, The Guardian UK 27 Dec 13, Japanese company keen to kickstart ambitious reactor building programme that stalled after 2011 disaster at Fukushima Japanese group Toshiba has confirmed that it is in the final stages of securing a majority stake in a British nuclear power consortium, bringing a further boost to the UK’s ambitious nuclear programme.
Toshiba’s chief executive, Hisao Tanaka, said an agreement to take a controlling shareholding in the NuGen consortium could be in place as early as January. NuGen is a joint venture between Spanish power company Iberdrola and French utility firm GDF Suez that is developing a plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, where the owners plan to build 3.6 gigawatts of nuclear capacity on a disused reactor site…….
Toshiba is keen to kickstart an ambitious reactor building programme that stalled after countries around the world – led by Germany – froze nuclear expansion plans and tightened regulations in the wake of Japan’s 2011 disaster at Fukushima.
Its domestic rival, Hitachi, has bought the Horizon project which intends to build two nuclear power stations, in Anglesey and Gloucestershire.
Britain is one of the few countries pressing ahead with nuclear plans in spite of the safety fears raised by Fukushima. The government’s determination to make nuclear a central part of its energy strategy was confirmed two months ago when ministers approved a deal with France’s EDF Energy to build the £16bn Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Somerset. Analysts at Liberum Capital said state guarantees on electricity prices offered to EDF in order to secure the deal could prove to be “economically insane”. The European Union has also weighed into the nuclear subsidy debate by launching an investigation into whether the Hinkley deal broke state aid rules……..
Tanaka said a majority stake was necessary to make progress on the project, where delays have frustrated the UK government, sources say, as it pushes through its own ambitious nuclear programme to replace new reactors. A controlling stake would allow Westinghouse, 87%-owned by Toshiba, to supply three of its AP1000 reactors for the site……http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/26/toshiba-stake-uk-nuclear-consortium
Tepco’s plan to clean up Fukushima, -technology not invented yet, restart of idled reactors
The plan, which includes a cost-cutting round of early retirements, assumes the giant utility will be allowed to restart some of its idled nuclear reactors.
The government believes it may take 40 years completely to dismantle the plant and could require the use of technology that has not yet been invented.
Fukushima operator readies new restructuring plan http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/fukushima-operator-readies-restructuring-plan-000222900.html 27 Dec 13, Tokyo Electric Power Wednesday submitted a fresh restructuring plan to a Japanese government-backed fund that envisages the creation of a special unit to dismantle the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
TEPCO president Naomi Hirose pledged thorough implementation of the plan, once approved by the government as expected next month. Continue reading
A family’s health wrecked by Fukushima nuclear radiation
Fukushima Mother: ‘Strange smell’ at start of nuclear disaster — Health of entire family has deteriorated — More people who stayed have died, more kids have leukemia and cancer — All our thyroid exams turned out totally different when tested in Tokyo (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/fukushima-mother-strange-smell-at-start-of-nuclear-disaster-health-of-entire-family-has-deteriorated-more-people-who-stayed-have-died-more-kids-have-leukemia-and-cancer-all-our-thy
Mother speaking at Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial Team press conference on Dec. 4, 2013, transcribed by Kiiko and translated by Fukushima Voice, Published Dec. 22, 2013:
[…] I still remember how it was very hard for me and my children to breathe due to strange smell […] Every day the government and specialists said […] “There is no immediate health effect.” […] we ate local vegetables and drank tap water. […] I began to have dry coughs of unknown etiology. When I went to a hospital, I was told “An increasing number of people had the same symptom.” […] My son [and] many others around us, at all ages, also complained of bone pain in the soles of their feet. […] Health of all the family members quickly deteriorated during the period awaiting evacuation. […] My dry cough got so bad to the point of nearly choking in the middle of the night […] arm bone pain was so bad that I could barely open and close doors. […] My grade school age son continued to have nausea and headache […] they found blood in his urine […] he often had diarrhea. I also began to have continuing nausea, headache and diarrhea. […] my son’s blood pressure had gone down to 82/50. […] [We] went to a hospital in Tokyo for thyroid examination. […] all of us had results which were totally different from the results in Fukushima [son diagnosed with thyroid adenomatous goiter and lymphadenopathy with over 10 lymph nodes involved]. When I took him to a hospital in Yamanashi, he was diagnosed with “autonomic nervous system disorder.” […] More people who remained in Fukushima are suffering from the same symptoms as mine. More people have died. There are more children who got leukemia, who began to have bloody noses and who have thyroid cancer. […]
Watch the press conference here
India’s nuclear power program could be called off, may be unaffordable
Cost of nuclear power proving high, DAE in a fix http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cost-of-nuclear-power-proving-high-DAE-in-a-fix/articleshow/27920490.cms PTI | Dec 25, 2013, NEW DELHI: As the cost of electricity generation by nuclear power plants, to be set up with the help of French and American companies, is turning out to be on the higher side, the department of atomic energy is in a fix over how to bring down the cost.
On one hand, it is involved in hard negotiations with the companies and on the other hand, sources said, if the cost per unit turns out to be too expensive, then it may not even pursue the project with collaborators
Currently, the DAE is in negotiations with French company Areva to build six EPR reactors of 1650 MW each at Jaitapur. Sources pointed out that initial estimates state the cost of the project to be around Rs 27-30 crore per megawatt and the cost per unit to be around Rs 9 per unit in 2021. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai last month, RK Sinha, DAE secretary, had said a competitive per unit tariff of Rs 6.50 has been estimated in the year of completion of Jaitapur project in 2020-21.
In the case of Mithi Virdhi project where American company Westinghouse Electric is providing AP-1000 reactors, the cost per megawatt is coming to around Rs 40 crores while the cost per unit is around Rs 12.
Although this project is yet to reach the advanced negotiations stage, the DAE has already signed an early works agreement with Westinghouse Electric. The DAE is skeptical about the proposal due to its high cost. It states that the cost per unit from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) unit 1 and 2 is around Rs 3.50 to Rs 4 per unit.
“If we take inflation into consideration, even then the cost is very high. We are also answerable to people. Plus, there is a lot of opposition to nuclear projects where we have foreign collaborators. If nothing works out, then we will, perhaps, have to back out because of the high electricity generation cost from the project,” a senior DAE official said.
Thorium nuclear reactors for military use, too, funded by USA and Chinese tax-payers
SPECIAL REPORT-The U.S. government lab behind China’s nuclear power push Dec 20, 2013 Dec 20 (Reuters) – Scientists in Shanghai are attempting a breakthrough in nuclear energy: reactors powered by thorium, an alternative to uranium.
The project is run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government body with close military ties that coordinates the country’s science-and-technology strategy. The academy has designated thorium as a priority for China’s top laboratories. The program has a budget of $350 million. And it’s being spearheaded by the influential son of a former Chinese president.
But even as China bulks up its military muscle through means ranging from espionage to heavy spending, it is pursuing this aspect of its technology game plan with the blessing – and the help – of the United States. Read more »
Nuclear power industry manipulates Japanese politicians
Nuclear power backers picking up steam on reactor restarts THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, by Senior Staff Writer Atsushi Komori and Kaname Kakuta. 23 Dec 13 Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster triggered feverish calls among citizens and even politicians to abandon the nation’s reliance on nuclear power.
But almost three years later, pro-nuclear officials, business leaders and utilities wielding awesome economic and political clout are regaining strength and maneuvering to tighten the noose around local government leaders who have been demanding that Japan do away with nuclear power. Continue reading
Nice timing India! – Christmas test of nuclear capable missile
India test-fires nuclear-capable Agni-III missile By PTI | 23 Dec, 2013, BALASORE:India today successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile with a strike range of more than 3,000 km as part of a user trial by the Army from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast…http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-test-fires-nuclear-capable-agni-iii-missile/articleshow/27799307.cms.
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