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Lynas rare earths processing plant has problems of safety, conflicts of interest

“Section 11 of the law allows the minister to direct regulators toward certain policies and so there’s massive conflict of interest,” said Dr Peter Karamoskos, an Australian nuclear radiologist.

Problems at Lynas factory can cause radioactive leaks, say experts The Malaysian Insider, 24 Nov 13, Prevailing problems in waste management, storage, disposal facility and waste cleaning at the Lynas factory can lead to radioactive leakages if the Australian firm fails to address the issues, said experts t at a seminar in Kuala Lumpur today.

The mining company’s refinery near Kuantan, Pahang, has several problems, which experts said in the event of an accident or carelessness, could harm to residents near the factory. Continue reading

November 25, 2013 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Malaysia, safety | Leave a comment

Japan’s mafia gangs exploiting homeless people in Fukushima nuclear cleanup

TV: Mentally disabled are working at Fukushima Daiichi, says journalist — Many men forced to go to plant — Homeless treated like ‘disposable people’ (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/tv-journalist-says-theres-mentally-disabled-workers-at-fukushima-many-men-forced-to-work-at-plant-homeless-treated-like-disposable-people-video

Atomic Mafia? Yakuza cleans up Fukushima, neglects basic worker

RT News, , Nov. 20, 2013: Homeless men employed cleaning up the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, including those brought in by Japan’s yakuza gangsters, were not aware of the health risks they were taking and say their bosses treated them like “disposable people.” […] While some workers voluntarily agreed to take jobs on the nuclear clean-up project, many others simply didn’t have a choice […] many of the workers were brought into the nuclear plant by Japan’s organized crime syndicates, the yakuza. […] Although a special task force to keep organized crime out of the nuclear clean-up project has been set up, investigators say they need first-hand reports from those forced to work by the yakuza […]
Anonymous former Fukushima worker:  We were given no insurance for health risks, no radiation meters even. We were treated like nothing, like disposable people — promised things, and then kicked us out when we received a large radiation dose.

Tomohiko Suzuki, journalist who worked at Fukushima plant: The government called Tepco to take urgent action, Tepco relayed it to subcontractors — and they, eventually, as they had a shortage of available workers, called the Yakuza for help. […] They were given very general information about radiation and most were not even given radiation meters. They could have exposed themselves to large doses without even knowing it. Even the so-called Fukushima 50 […] at least three of them were enrolled by the yakuza.

Aleksey Yaroshevsky, RT: : There are 25% more openings for jobs at Fukushima plant than applicants, according to government data. Gaps filled, says Suzuki, by the homeless, the desperately unemployed and even those with mental disabilities.   Watch the broadcast here

November 24, 2013 Posted by | employment, Fukushima 2013, Japan, Resources -audiovicual | 1 Comment

TEPCO’s plan to restart 4 nuclear reactors by 2015

New! Worker has minor injury at Fukushima Nuclear site due to snow build up - Tepco reportTEPCO eyes restarting 4 reactors by 2015 November 23, 2013 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN  by Mari Fujisaki and Takashi Ebuchi.) Tokyo Electric Power Co. hopes to have four nuclear reactors in Niigata Prefecture back online by 2015, including two planned for next summer, despite the crisis at its hobbled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The company intends to reactivate the No. 1 and No. 5 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant during the first half of 2015 after restarting the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors as early as July 2014, sources said. Both plans will be included in the utility’s rehabilitation program when it is revised toward the end of this year.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has seven reactors. TEPCO estimates that for each reactor restart its annual profit will increase by about 100 billion yen ($1 billion)……

it remains unclear whether TEPCO can restart the reactors under its proposed time frame. NRA screenings could drag on if regulators demand detailed investigations to confirm that no active faults run immediately under the reactors.

Consent of local communities is also essential, but Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida remains cautious. He has criticized plans to restart the two reactors next summer as a pipe dream.

Meanwhile, TEPCO will speed up streamlining its operations while expanding investments, the sources said……http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201311230052

November 24, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | 1 Comment

So far so good – first batch of nuclear fuel rods moved from Fukushima reactor 4

First batch of fuel from Fukushima reactor 4 pool now in different storage site, Japan Times, KYODO NOV 22, 2013 Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday that it has finished transferring the first batch of fuel rod assemblies from the Fukushima No. 1 plants reactor 4 spent fuel pool to another building with more stable storage conditions.

“All of the fuel assemblies have been placed in the storage rack (inside the common pool), meaning the first fuel transfer work effectively ended,” Tepco official Noriyuki Imaizumi told a press conference.

Common Pool Fukushima Daiichi Unloading Unit 4 Fuel Unloading

After reviewing the work flow that started Monday, the utility will move on to retrieve the next batch of fuel assemblies from the spent fuel pool of the damaged reactor 4 building.

The pool contains over 1,000 fuel assemblies and the process is expected to continue through the end of next year. To get used to the operation, workers commenced with the removal of unused fuel assemblies, but they will also have to take out spent fuel, which is more difficult to handle because it is highly radioactive and emits heat as radioactive elements in the fuel decay.

The process starts with the transfer of fuel assemblies inside the water-filled spent fuel pool one by one into a transport container also placed inside the pool.

Once the container is filled with 22 fuel assemblies, workers lower it by crane from the fifth floor of the building where the pool is located so that it can be taken to the common pool about 100 meters away…… http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/22/national/first-batch-of-fuel-from-fukushima-reactor-4-pool-now-in-different-storage-site/#.UpJtYdJwo7o

November 24, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013, Japan, technology | 1 Comment

Radioactive soil storage needing 15-sq.-km track around Fukushima No. 1 plant

flag-japanFukushima land grab eyed  State wants to purchase 15-sq.-km track around No. 1 plant for waste storage sites JAPAN TIMES, KYODO NOV 23, 2013 The state plans to buy 15 sq. km of land around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to build facilities to store radioactive soil and other waste generated by decontamination operations, government sources said….. (registered readers only) http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/23/national/fukushima-land-grab-eyed/#.UpJz29Jwo7p

November 24, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013, Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

Melted nuclear cores eating their way through concrete foundations at Fukushima

exclamation-water-tanks-FukushimaAP: Melted Fukushima fuel is 12 inches from entering ground after eating through concrete, says simulation — Study: Molten core suspected of eroding through concrete foundation — Gov’t Expert: We just can’t be sure until actually seeing inside http://enenews.com/study-fukushima-molten-fuel-suspected-of-melting-containment-shell-then-eroding-through-concrete-foundation-ap-fukushima-melted-fuel-12-inches-from-entering-ground-after-eating-through-concrete

Associated Press,, Nov. 19, 2013: […] the real challenge: removing melted or partially melted fuel from the three reactors that had meltdowns, and figuring out how to treat and store it so it won’t heat up and start a nuclear reaction again. “This is an unprecedented task that nobody in the world has achieved. We still face challenges that must be overcome,” said Hajimu Yamana, a Kyoto University nuclear engineer who heads a government-affiliated agency that is overseeing technological research and development for the cleanup. […] Computer simulations show the melted fuel in Unit 1, whose core damage was the most extensive, has breached the bottom of the primary containment vessel and even partially eaten into its concrete foundation, coming within about 30 centimeters (one foot) of leaking into the ground. “We just can’t be sure until we actually see the inside of the reactors,” Yamana said.

Atomic Energy‘ Volume 114 Issue 3, July 2013 (Emphasis Added): [If there’s no safety system to cool Fukushima melted fuel from Units 1-3], the accident developed rapidly: the second safety barrier (fuel element cladding) failed 2 hours after the initial event, the third one (reactor vessel) at 13 hours, and the fourth one 7 days after the easing of the dry box of the containment shell melted and through erosion of the concrete foundation occurred. These data were transmitted to the operational headquarters of Rosatom and the crisis center at the IBRAE RAN in order to estimate the possibility that the population of our country in the regions bordering with Japan would be exposed to radiation.  […] According to the computed picture. in all power units of the Fukushima-I NPP flooding with water stopped the downward flow of melt, but because energy continued to be released in the melt it was necessary to feed water into the reactors continually.It is known that the operation of the active safety systems, with whose help the core could be cooled reliably in a closed cycle, could not be restored for another several weeks.

See also: ABC Correspondent: Nobody knows where Fukushima’s melted cores are now, expert says — Tepco admitted fuel “is actually eating through the concrete… hopefully it’s not eating through any further” (AUDIO)

November 21, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment

It’s probably too late, but Fukushima nuclear plant should have a concrete cover

diagram-Chernobyl-sarcophagFukushima Reactor Designer: I doubt plant can be decommissioned, perhaps enclose it in cement — Nuclear Professor: Solution is to pour concrete all over, but now it’s too late (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/fukushima-reactor-designer-i-doubt-plant-can-be-decommissioned-perhaps-enclose-it-in-cement-nuclear-professor-solution-is-to-pour-concrete-all-over-but-now-its-too-late-video

Associated Press,, Nov. 19, 2013: “I doubt if Fukushima Dai-ichi’s full decommissioning is possible. Its contamination is so widespread,” said Masashi Goto, a nuclear engineer who designed the Unit 3 reactor and now teaches at Meiji University in Tokyo. “We should not rush the process, because it means more exposure to workers. Instead, we should wait and perhaps even keep it in a cement enclosure.” […] “If you just put concrete over this, groundwater still will be flowing and things like that, and you have an uncontrolled situation,” [Tepco adviser Lake] Barrett said. “I just don’t see that as a plausible option.”
Arirang’s ‘Prime Talk’,, August 30, 2013 (at 2:30 in): I think they have to be really opening up their minds. If it comes to nuclear disaster, it’s an international one. It never was a national one because nuclear disasters truly going over and beyond and above the borders. Think about the atmosphere, hydrosphere, oceans. But they realized this a little too late. Probably they were the last one on the planet to realize this is situation. […] The solution again [is] concrete. Just think about Chernobyl, they just poured concrete all over.  Sarcophagus, that’s the solution.  And they should have done it a couple years ago, they actually lost the opportunity, because by now the soils are all too much contaminated.

Watch the broadcast here

November 21, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment

Ice wall around Fukushima – a 10,000 year science fiction story?

TV: Work at Fukushima plant to go on for 10,000 years? Nuclear Expert: “It’s longer than human history” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/tv-work-at-fukushima-plant-could-go-on-for-next-10000-years-nuclear-expert-its-longer-than-human-history-video

Arirang’s ‘Prime Talk’,, August 30, 2013 (at 1:45 in):

Dr. Suh Kune-yull, Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University: [Freezing the soil around Fukushima reactors] sounds more like a sci-fi story, science fiction. We call this permafrost — frosting the soil — for 50 years and as long as 10,000 years. It’s longer than human history, it’s just unrealistic.
Watch the broadcast here


Arirang’s ‘Prime Talk’, ’, August 30, 2013 (at 1:30 in):

Dr. Suh Kune-yull, Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University: I call this permafrost which [is] really freezing the soil but to me sounds more like a science fiction because they have to be doing this for work at least 50 years and as long as 10,000 years. So I think they were probably going to give this up one of these months. […]

Watch the broadcast here


See also: Japan Professor: 1,000 years from now contaminated water from Fukushima may still be entering Pacific Ocean — It’s necessary to keep monitoring during that time

More: UC Berkeley Nuclear Professor: May be impossible to get Fukushima melted fuel — Work at site to go on for ‘thousands of years’ if not removed (AUDIO)

November 20, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013, Reference, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Delay in Japan’s nuclear safety checks, no date for restarting reactors

safety-symbol-Smflag-japanJapan Won’t Set Dates for Restarting 50 Idled Nuclear Reactors, Bloomberg By Jacob Adelman & Masumi Suga – Nov 18, 2013 Japan’s nuclear regulator said it has no fixed schedule to complete safety checks at idled  atomic plants, possibly delaying reactor restarts and the supply of cheaper energy the government wants to drive economic growth.

Speculation on when some of Japan’s 50 reactors would restart increased this year as the Nuclear Regulation Authority introduced stricter safety tests in July in response to the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima. NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at the time the inspections would take about six months, suggesting some atomic plants may restart in January.

The NRA now says Tanaka was speaking generally and not citing a set schedule. “We are not sure when inspections will complete because the period of inspections depends largely on operators’ response,” NRA spokesman Tadashi Yamada said in an e-mailed response on Nov. 14. “We do not have a time frame.”

Any delays will be a setback for the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which wants to restart some of the reactors to help drive Japan out of decades of economic stagnation. Delays also may foster growing public disapproval of nuclear power and dissent within his own party on the issue……..

Inspectors Wanted

The NRA has an advertisement for job openings for more inspectors on its website. The agency hasn’t decided how many inspectors it will hire, according to spokesman Yamada. The electricity utilities submitted restart applications for 10 reactors when the NRA began accepting inspection requests on July 8. Applications for another four units have since been filed…….

The inspections are taking place against a backdrop of repeated accidents and radioactive water leaks at Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima plant, further eroding support in the country for nuclear power.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-18/japan-won-t-set-dates-for-restarting-50-idled-nuclear-reactors.html

November 20, 2013 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Scandal-ridden South Korea wants a piece of the UK nuclear action!

Buy-S-Korea-nukesScandal-hit Korean group makes UK nuclear bid, Ft.com, 19 Nov 13 By Guy ChazanA Korean nuclear company that has been rocked by a domestic safety scandal is close to becoming a major investor in the UK – a development that could hit public confidence in the country’s much-vaunted nuclear renaissance. Korea Electric Power, or Kepco, is in talks to join the NuGen consortium, which has an option to build a reactor near Sellafield in Cumbria……

 Some UK industry figures have expressed concern.

“Why would you want anyone with that kind of safety record?” said one person with knowledge of the NuGen negotiations. He said it risked “damaging the public perception of nuclear in the UK”.

But such concerns are likely to grow as more and more overseas state-owned groups enter the British marketplace. “If major pieces of UK energy infrastructure – not just nuclear – are owned by investors from afar, it’s going to give rise to a level of public disquiet that we haven’t seen so far,” said Nick Pidgeon, head of the Understanding Risk Research Group at Cardiff University.

The NuGen development highlights how reliant the UK is on foreign investors for its nuclear renaissance. Continue reading

November 20, 2013 Posted by | marketing, South Korea | Leave a comment

Nuclear fuel removal underway at Fukushima, amidst grave safety concerns

NHK: Fuel removal at Unit 4 underway — BBC: Concern casks not watertight, rods would contact air — WSJ: Exposure to air can cause sustained nuclear reaction — AFP: Tokyo evacuations if uncontrolled nuclear conflagration? AP: Rods contain plutonium, experts concerned quake to hit during process http://enenews.com/nhk-fuel-removal-at-unit-4-has-begun-bbc-concern-casks-not-watertight-allowing-rods-to-contact-air-wsj-exposure-to-air-could-result-in-sustained-nuclear-reaction-afp-tokyo-evacuations-if


NHK,, Nov. 18, 2013: The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun removing nuclear fuel from a storage pool at a damaged reactor building. Workers placed a special fuel transport container in the storage pool […] At around 3PM on Monday, the workers started to hoist the unused fuel units into the steel container […] debris in the pool of the Number 4 reactor building could obstruct the work. […] The removal work requires extreme caution, as any damage to the units could release high-level radiation.

WSJ, Nov. 18, 2013: “We plan to begin the removal process from around 3 pm today, and work until around 7 pm,” said Tepco spokesman Tsuyoshi Numajiri. […] The units are kept in a pool of cool water to prevent exposure to air, which can cause the radioactive material to heat up and could trigger a sustained nuclear reaction.

BBC,, Nov. 18, 2013: [It’s a critical issue] whether the casks remain watertight so the rods have no contact with air.

AFP,, Nov. 18, 2013: Each rod contains uranium and a small amount of plutonium. If they are exposed to the air […] they would start to heat up, a process that, left unchecked, could lead to a self-sustaining nuclear reaction – known as “criticality”. […] Sceptics say with so many unknowables in an operation that has never been attempted under these conditions, there is potential for a catastrophe. Government modelling in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima disaster […] suggested that an uncontrolled nuclear conflagration at Fukushima could start a chain reaction in other nearby nuclear plants. That worst-case scenario said a huge evacuation area could encompass a large part of greater Tokyo […]

AP,, Nov.18, 2013: […] [Experts] raised concern about a major earthquake hitting during the removal work. Japanese nuclear engineers were on Monday preparing to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods at Fukushima […] Experts have warned that slip-ups could quickly cause the situation to deteriorate. […]
Kyodo News, , Nov. 18, 2013: Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has said the work requires “great prudence” because the pools are strewn with small pieces of rubble […] “The fuel has to be handled very carefully. There is a need to make sure that a fuel assembly is not pulled out (from the fuel rack) by force when it gets stuck because of the rubble,” he said.

Watch NHK’s broadcast here

November 20, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

On the brink of nuclear catastrophe at Fukuhsima

IMPENDING FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR DISASTER WILL BE ‘WORSE THAN CHERNOBYL’ – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Scriptonite Daily, 13 Nov 13 “…….,the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant in North East Japan has suffered core meltdowns, leaked thousands of tonnes of radioactive water into the ground water of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, and a series of other calamities.  The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) responsible for the plant has appeared incompetent, secretive and unfit to manage the most complex clean-up operation in the history of nuclear power.  TEPCO are about to engage in the removal of highly radioactive, unstable fuel rods.  If they make a mistake, we would witness the worst radiological disaster in history. The advice of Nuclear expert Arnie Gunderson in the case of such a mistake? Evacuate the Northern Hemisphere.

The boiling water nuclear reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant were not designed or planned by TEPCO.  The world’s third largest corporation, American firm GE, designed the four main reactors, which stand at the Pacific Ocean side of the site.  A legal case in the 70’s revealed thatGE knew these reactor designs were flawed and the reactors prone to explode due to insufficiently robust ‘pressure containment systems’ – meaning that in the case of a build-up of gas or other pressure, the containment system was not strong enough to hold in the radioactive contents.  GE continued to sell them across the world anyway.  Not only this, but in the case of Fukushima, they designed the cooling pumps and reactors far too close to the Ocean, given the likelihood of seismic events, making the probability and impact of unsustainable pressure build-ups all the higher………

The biggest crisis at Fukushima though are the impacts of three meltdowns in reactors 1-3, and the fate of the fuel pools.  After prolonged exposure the fuel rods melt, forming a boiling pool of radioactive fuel at the bottom of the vessel containing the reactor.  Reactors 1, 3 and 4 are believed to be at this stage.  However, it is clear that reactor 2 suffered a breach of containment at its core. In fact, TEPCO still have no idea where the cores of the four reactors are.  In the worst case scenario, the cores will continue to melt through all material below them until they reach the groundwater, where heat and steam will build until an explosion occurs, releasing the entire nuclear payload of the four stations into the atmosphere.

Without a steady coolant supply, the reactor cores boiled off the water around them, exposing the fuel rods – leaving them damaged and unstable.  In the case of reactor 4, this was of an increased seriousness as the fuel pools were exposed to the elements, 18m in the air on a buckled and tilting structure.  Inside this fuel pool is 400 tonnes of highly radioactive spent fuel.  The radioactive fuel rods are inserted into assemblies of 60-70 rods each.  TEPCO need to remove more than 1,500assemblies from the pool before it collapses.  The company have issued placatory statements on the matter, telling the Guardian:

“Removing spent fuel is done at any ordinary nuclear power plant, and the equipment and methods we’ll be using here are not that different.”

This statement is disingenuous in the extreme.  Nuclear and fuel rod expert Arnie Gunderson uses an excellent metaphor to explain the issues.

“Now nuclear fuel is like cigarettes in a pack of cigarettes. If the pack is new, you can pull a cigarette out pretty easily. But if the pack is distorted and you pull too hard, you’ll snap the cigarette. Same thing can happen inside this fuel pool.”

Removing the rods from the pool is a delicate task normally assisted by computers according toToshio Kimura, a former TEPCO technician, who worked at Fukushima Daiichi for 11 years.

“Previously it was a computer-controlled process that memorized the exact locations of the rods down to the millimeter and now they don’t have that. It has to be done manually so there is a high risk that they will drop and break one of the fuel rods,” Kimura said.

These spent fuel rods contain Plutonium, the most toxic material on earth – trace amounts of which can kill a human being.

Krypton 85 is also likely to be released into the air – this radiation is absorbed by the lungs, is fat soluble and damages sperm and eggs resulting in genetic diseases and deformities.

According to independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Anthony Froggatt, writing in the recentWorld Nuclear Industry Status Report:

“”Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date,”, releasing three times the radioactive material of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, or 14,000 Hiroshimas.”

This piece of work starts this month.

If TEPCO, who have so far proven vastly incompetent, somehow manage to pull off this unprecedented activity without creating a nuclear holocaust, they still have to perform the same effort with reactors 1 and 2, which will be much more complex due to even greater damage to the buildings.https://www.scriptonitedaily.com/2013/11/13/impending-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-will-be-worse-than-chernobyl-what-you-need-to-know/

 

November 20, 2013 Posted by | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment

Japan’s new legislation could make it a crime to reveal truth about Fukushima conditions

censorshipCensorship and Dispossession in Japan http://majiasblog.blogspot.jp/2013/11/censorship-and-dispossession-in-japan.html   Developments in Japan are concerning:  First, according to The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) is trying to accelerate returning people to flag-japanFukushima prefecture by measuring citizen exposure levels using individual dosimeters instead of official air sampling. The Asahi notes dosimeters have much lower readings than official air sampling and that the NRA’s draft policy has no discussion of health impacts.

The proposed exposure level for returning evacuees is 20 millisieverts based on dosimeter readings alone (no inclusion of estimates of exposure from contaminated food, water, and bio-accumulation).

Second, anti-nuclear groups in Japan have been subject to denial of service attacks since September. I had heard rumors this was occurring. I’m grateful The Asahi Shimbun reported it.
I am reminded that Japan is trying to pass new whistle-blower laws that criminally prosecute any whistle-blower who reveals corporate or government secrets (seehttp://rt.com/news/japan-state-secrets-law-712/)

The new whistleblower law and the concerted attacks against anti-nuclear groups together indicate pretty clearly that elements of the Japanese state/industry are reacting fascistically to deteriorating conditions at Daiichi.

Don’t forget the recent 7.2 earthquake and typhoon convergence on October 25http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/alert-large-earthquake-in-north-east.html

That fascistic mindset is what is driving efforts to push evacuees back into very contaminated areas. Daiichi hasn’t been stable since March 9 2011 and cold shutdown is a myth spun by TEPCO and the global nuclear mafia. In truth, the Daiichi site is getting hotter, rather than cooling, and the NRA is trying to push people back, while new legislation could make it a crime to reveal real plant conditions, and anti-nuclear groups are being censored through denial of service attacks.

You should be worried because your nation could be next.

November 18, 2013 Posted by | civil liberties, Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 3 Comments

Japan’s Designated Secrets Bill’ threatens journalists

6ceed-japan-government-officially-censors-truth-about-fukushima-nuclear-radiation-disasterForeign Correspondents’ Club calls for abolition of ‘secrets protection’ bill  November 12, 2013 http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=6621

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on November 11 issued a statement under the name of President Lucy Birmingham demanding that the Diet “reject the ‘Designated Secrets Bill’ in total”.

flag-japanThe statement expresses deep concern that provisions of the bill along with ruling bloc lawmakers’ remarks in regard to the bill indicate the potential of prosecution and imprisonment of journalists.

The statement points out that to uncover secrets about hidden activities of government and politicians and informing the public of such secrets is the very essence of investigative journalism. It stresses, “Such journalism is not a crime, but rather a crucial part of the checks-and-balances that go hand-in-hand with democracy.”

Nevertheless, the bill hints that the freedom of the press is “no longer a constitutional right, but merely something for which government officials must show ‘sufficient consideration’,” the statement states.

Criticizing the bill banning news gathering with the use of “inappropriate methods”, the statement states, “Such vague language could be, in effect, a license for government officials to prosecute journalists almost as they please.”

The statement urges the government to abolish the bill, or “to redraft it so substantially that it ceases to pose a threat to both journalism and to the democratic future of the Japanese nation.” On the same day, eight well-known TV journalists at a press conference at the Nippon Press Center building said that the government should abandon the new legislation for secrets protection.

One of the eight journalists, Torigoe Shuntaro said, “I will do everything possible to get the bill scrapped.”

November 18, 2013 Posted by | civil liberties, Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 1 Comment

USA nuclear missile arsenal far outweighs China’s

Admiral: China Nuclear Missile Submarine Threat is Not Credible Says U.S. nuclear-armed missile submarines remain a powerful deterrent  Washington Free Beacon, BY:    November 16, 2013  SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — China’s recent threat to use submarine-launched nuclear missiles to attack U.S. cities lacks credibility, the Navy’s top admiral said on Saturday.

“For a submarine-launched ballistic missile to be effective it has to be accurate, and you have to be stealthy, and survivable and I’ll leave it at that,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, said when asked about publication in China’s state-run press last month of plans for killing between 5 million and 12 million Americans in a nuclear strikes.

Greenert said U.S. nuclear-armed missile submarines remain a powerful deterrent despite an aging U.S. nuclear arsenal and the urgent need to upgrade those forces in the face of sharp defense spending cuts……http://freebeacon.com/admiral-china-nuclear-missile-submarine-threat-is-not-credible/

November 18, 2013 Posted by | China, weapons and war | Leave a comment