Fukushima today: A first-person account from the field and the conference table
It has been more than four years since the east coast of Japan was hit with a trifecta: an earthquake of Magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, followed by a massive tsunami triggered by the quake’s tremors, and then the meltdown of three nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating complex. Design mistakes, a poor safety culture, and human error exacerbated the situation. And it all happened within the span of an hour, searing the name “Fukushima” into the collective memory of all. Like Hiroshima a few hundred kilometers to the south, the name Fukushima became synonymous with the horrors that can befall a nation from uncontrolled atomic chain reactions.
I had traveled to Japan to attend a meeting of the Japan Scientists’ Association in Yokohama, near Tokyo, which was expected to announce a major change in its pro-nuclear energy position.
While there, several other conference attendees and I received permission to go on a guided tour to the restricted areas surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi plant to see for ourselves, first-hand, the things that we had all been discussing in conference rooms and lecture halls for the past three days. One of the conference organizers—Yoshimi Miyake, a professor at Akita University—accompanied us on our trip to Fukushima. (To be precise, Fukushima is a prefecture with the namesake city its capital. The plant itself is called Fukushima Daiichi.) Another participant, Lucas Wirl from Germany, volunteered to act as our photographer.
What follows are my personal impressions from the tour that occurred immediately after the meeting, and a few of the relevant highlights from the meeting itself—which called for the elimination of nuclear power from Japan as soon as possible. A total of seven of us traveled about 50 miles, starting from a point some 40 miles south of the power plant, then heading along a series of coastal highways until the road took us to within just a little over a mile and a half from the plant, within the town limits of Futaba—which was about as close as anyone could get to the site without special protective gear. We then continued northeast to the village of Namie, one of the nearest villages to the plant, and a place where the government was aggressively pushing for former inhabitants to return to live year-round.
Along the way, we passed through many towns and little villages that had been hit hard. As for the plant itself, the radiation levels are so high that it is difficult to even operate robots. And in places like Namie—whose closest boundary lay less than five miles away from the plant—the radiation levels posed significant risks, because they are so much higher than normal natural background radiation. Also accompanying us were Itoh Tatsuya of the Iwaki City chamber of commerce and Baba Isao, an assemblyman from the town of Namie—both locales hurt substantially by the multiple disasters.
Getting there. We traveled by Shinkansen—bullet train—from Tokyo to Iwaki City in Fukushima prefecture, where we stayed overnight before beginning our journey the next day. As we left our hotel after breakfast, one of our guides—Tatsuya—readied his Geiger counter. Before leaving, he took a measurement of the background radiation level and announced that it was higher than normal today, even though Iwaki is more than 40 miles from the ill-fated power plant. It sounded like he was a weather forecaster talking about humidity levels. He did not give a figure as to how much higher the background radiation was.
As we started heading north, we saw homes destroyed by the tsunami. Iwaki lost 200 people, Tatsuya said. As we began to reach the outskirts of Iwaki City, the radiation level rose consistently, if in very small amounts. Here at about 20 miles from the plant it was about 0.1 microSieverts per hour—objectively not really high at all, but above where we started, and marginally higher than the normal natural background radiation. The Geiger counter’s needle flickered, occasionally registering higher levels, especially when we passed through some tunnels.
As I looked out the window, I thought of what one of the conference presenters, Mitsugu Yoneda of Chuo University in Tokyo, had said: There were 120,000 evacuees across the Fukushima prefecture, and it was unlikely that they would be able to return to their homes in 2016 in the so-called “difficult-to-return” zones, where the cumulative annual exposure is expected to be 20 milliSieverts or more. In recognition of this fact, the government had come up with a new category called “release preparation zones,” where the cumulative annual exposure is estimated to be well above “normal” but less than 20 milliSieverts. The government’s plan to promote an early return to these areas was called a politically motivated whitewash by Yoneda, because anything close to 20 milliSieverts is far higher than the normally accepted safe annual limit. (One milliSievert is about equal to about 100 millirems—the units most commonly used in the United States. Thus, 20 milliSieverts would be 2,000 millirems.)
Different countries have different standards, but in the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires that its licensees limit annual radiation exposure to individual members of the public to 1 milliSievert (100 millirems) above the average annual background radiation. Because the natural background radiation usually averages in the range of about 3.1 milliSieverts (310 millirems), that figure plus the allowed exposure from the nuclear power plants makes for a total of about 4.1 milliSieverts (410 millirems) annually—a far cry from the 20 milliSieverts (2,000 millirems) that could be encountered by a member of the public in any putative “release preparation zone” near Fukushima Daiichi.
To give a sense of scale, the average person gets 0.16 milliSieverts (about 4 millirems) from a single chest X-ray, and about 0.96 milliSieverts (24 millirems) in cosmic radiation annually if that person is living at sea level. Cumulative dosages of 500 milliSieverts (50,000 millirems) or above are considered “high,” and cause acute radiation sickness, many different forms of cancer, and death. But because radiation affects different people in different ways—depending upon one’s age, general health, and genetic predisposition—it is not possible to indicate precisely what dose is needed to be fatal to a given individual. All that researchers can do is give statistical averages, such as “50 percent of a population would die within 30 days of receiving a dose of between 350,000 to 500,000 millirems (3,500 to 5,000 milliSieverts).”
Some of the other background information that Yoneda provided was similarly dismal. For one thing, the building containing the failed reactors has radiation levels as high as 4,000 to 5,000 milliSieverts per hour (400,000 to 500,000 millirems per hour), making even the operation of robots difficult. In fact, two power company robots had to be abandoned while inside the depths of the plant. And some spots, such as inside the primary containment vessel, went as high as 9.7 Sieverts per hour (970,000 millirems per hour). In addition, it has not been possible to precisely locate the melted core. (Another conference speaker, Jun Tateno, who was a former research scientist with the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute, accused the government of suppressing voices from the scientific community that were critical of the safety of power plants. He said that we have reached a situation in which we do not even know how much plutonium is in the core.) In the meantime, huge amounts of water must be pumped in to keep the reactors cool; this liquid then mixes with ground water, contaminating it as a result.
The picture is not much better when it comes to the land. In an effort to decontaminate residential areas, radioactive soil is being dug up from approximately 1,000 sites. The government wants to consolidate this contaminated material in semi-permanent storage sites in the “difficult-to-return zones” in Futaba and Okuma towns. Local residents, meanwhile, fear that these could turn into permanent repositories of radioactive material.
I was jolted out of my reverie by the comments of Tatsuya, who pointed out a large apartment building that looked empty. He said that in days past there would have been many children’s clothes hanging from the balconies. The only people who are living there now are some of the laborers who are working to decontaminate the town.
Tatsuya noted that the Geiger counter was reading about 1 microSievert per hour as he moved the counter around the parking lot. That was bad enough; it translated to 8.76 milliSieverts per year.
He then bent down to take a reading from a grassy spot. The counter needle pinned to the right. “Off the scale!” he exclaimed. It was higher than 5 microSieverts per hour, which is more than 50 times higher than normal natural background radiation per hour in Tokyo. It translated into a cumulative annual dose of 43 milliSieverts—many times above the 6.2 milliSieverts (620 millirems) average annual exposure for members of the general public, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (In addition to the natural background radiation level of about 3.1 milliSieverts [310 millirems], the average person is also likely to fly in an airplane, watch television, or undergo medical procedures, and all these manmade sources together add another 3.1 milliSieverts [310 millirems] per year to one’s exposure, making for a total radiation dose of 6.2 milliSieverts, or 620 millirems. This figure could colloquially be considered the “normal” amount of radiation exposure for a member of the general public, as a very rough rule of thumb.)
We left soon thereafter. We were told that most workers did not wear dosimeters to record their cumulative radiation dose. There was good money to be made in decontamination work. They did not want to know.
But if one does the math, what the workers and their supervisors were ignoring—or were being told to ignore—could be significant. If a person spent one week working at this part of a supposedly safe parking area for 8 hours per day, then he or she would have been exposed to 40 microSieverts per day. And if that person was there for a 5-day workweek, then over the course of a single week that person would have been exposed to 200 microSieverts. In a year, that person could receive 10 milliSieverts, a significant dose. Of course, scientists are rightly cautious of such “anecdotal” evidence; our Geiger counter readings could have been off, or the machine calibrated incorrectly, or some other source of error introduced—though I doubt it because it had earlier read the background correctly. But the result of such quick and dirty, back-of-the-envelope calculations for what is supposedly a low-risk parking area, well away from the restricted hot zones, do give one pause—especially as the ongoing lack of dosimeters means that no one really knows a given individual’s cumulative dose. The amount of exposure to a thing that you cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or feel sneaks up on you. Even when you think you are safe, you are not.
If nothing else, the fact that a simple, random spot-check registered so highly is an eye-opener, and counter to what has been officially portrayed. An April 16, 2015 story in the Asahi Shimbun—one of the major, reputable, national newspapers in Japan, of a stature comparable to the New York Times—quoted a government agency as saying: “Cleanup crews around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant were exposed to an average dose of 0.5 millisievert of radiation per year, well below the government safety standard, a report shows.”
An important item seemed to lie further down in the article, which noted: “However, the health ministry said the number of workers surveyed is different from the total number of cleanup personnel reported by the Environment Ministry, which could mean the association failed to record radiation doses of all individuals working around the Fukushima plant.”
No wonder there has been public distrust and charges of a lack of clarity about the radiation clean-up operation, as can be seen in the title of a 2013 Guardian newspaper article: “Life as a Fukushima clean-up worker—radiation, exhaustion, public criticism.” Even when the approximately 7,000 workers involved in the clean-up do wear dosimeters, that is no guarantee of accuracy; there have been reports of a Tokyo Electric Power Company executive who tried to force clean-up workers to manipulate dosimeter readings to artificially low levels by covering their devices with lead shields.
The voice of science. Because of such activities, it is hard to pin down basic data. Accordingly, the conference had been a key opportunity for researchers from different countries and different fields—including physicists, of course, but also economists and climate scientists, among others—to get together and compare notes.
Nearly 80 scientists, engineers, and academics from all over Japan attended. Many of the Japanese attendees were renowned academics in nuclear physics and engineering. Several had held high-level positions in the nuclear research establishment. Among international participants were delegates from the United States, Germany, and South Korea, among other places.
While there were no representatives from China at the meeting, Jusen Asuka, an environmental policy professor from Tohoku University, gave his analysis of the impact of Fukushima on the Chinese nuclear program. He said that the accident in Fukushima created a figurative, as well as literal, shock wave throughout China: People started stocking up on iodized salt, and stores ran out of the substance within 30 minutes of opening. The Chinese government suspended all license applications for new reactors, temporarily halted all nuclear plant construction, and established a nuclear safety law. China also began investing heavily in non-hydro renewables.
The meeting’s goals. The importance of the meeting could hardly be underestimated, given that Japan is at a critical juncture in its debate about what path to follow in its energy future. On the one hand, a conservative government led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and backed by powerful forces in business and the nuclear industry, was pushing hard to bring back the nuclear plants—and even build new ones. Simply put, the Abe administration’s objective is to make the Fukushima Daiichi tragedy a thing of the past; therefore, it promotes the idea that things are getting back to normal. After all, Abe won an election victory in December 2014, with one plank being that the nuclear plants would be restarted. Abe is counting on the fact that with 54 nuclear reactors in a small country, many people’s livelihoods depended on the reactors’ continued operation.
It is hard to tell if the government’s promotional campaign is succeeding. The Abe government is continuing to push for the revival of nuclear power in Japan, as exemplified by the recent restart of the Sendai plant.
By doing so, it clearly sought to lay down a marker—and also perhaps to gauge public opinion before proceeding to restart other plants.
On the other hand, public opinion has been growing stronger in opposition—although the opinion polls have not been overwhelming. One of the significant aspects of the conference was the vigorous participation of women scientists like Miyake, who spoke out strongly against nuclear power and also challenged the male domination in the scientific community. Young mothers were participating in increasing numbers in anti-nuclear protests in Japan and also in Korea, we were told by Hye-Jeong Kim, a leader of the anti-nuclear movement in South Korea, who is also a member of the country’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, an equivalent of the NRC in the United States.
With these developments in mind, a scientific community that can speak with one voice and make a credible case against the government-industry publicity campaign is crucial. The Japanese Scientists’ Association envisioned its role as accurately communicating to people around the world the dangers of nuclear power and the seriousness of the damage suffered by the Japanese people. And the group hoped to use science to counter the forces that promote nuclear power in Japan, and demand that Japan give top priority to renewables.
A welcoming banner. Heading north towards Tomioka, we found large tracts of land piled high with green trash bags. From a distance, the piles looked like vegetation; it was only as we got closer that we saw that they were full of the radioactive dirt that had been excavated from the topsoil as part of the government’s efforts to decontaminate the soil. It appeared to be a hopeless task.
In reaching Tomioka—badly hit by the tsunami—we found a nearly destroyed town invoking an image of the Apocalypse. All we saw were homes, businesses, and shops as they stood or fell after the tsunami hit and then the radiation struck. There was no sign of life other than decontamination workers going about their grim task.
Continuing our journey toward Namie—one of the worst-hit towns, whose boundaries lie about six miles northeast of Fukushima Daiichi at the closest point—we passed through the small villages of Okuma and then Futaba. We continued onward, and edged as close as 1.5 miles from the plant at one spot, but no closer. All roads to the plant from here on were barricaded. Ironically, one banner welcoming visitors to the town read: “Nuclear Power is Our Future.”
Can Japan make the switch to renewables? A key goal of the conference was the public announcement that the Japan Scientists’ Association formally opposed nuclear power in Japan, and that its opposition was based upon scientific analysis of the accident in Fukushima and its impact. This about-face was a major step; it meant that some of the same Japanese scientists who had been the most forceful and outspoken proponents of nuclear energy now opposed it. To bolster the impact of this statement, the association had to show both the economic and technical feasibility of alternative sources of energy. Consequently, much of the meeting focused on the lessons learned from the experiences of other countries, and the keynote speaker of the conference, professor Juergen Scheffran of Hamburg University, Germany, gave the European perspective on the implications of the transition from fossil and nuclear to renewable energy. The focus was especially on Germany, which is in the middle of its own planned transition to a non-nuclear future.
With that in mind, Reiner Braun, co-president of the International Peace Bureau in Geneva, Switzerland, spoke about the status of the German exit from nuclear power and entrance into renewables. Known as Energiewende in German (literally “energy turn”), it would entail shutting down all nuclear plants by 2022, with seven plants shut down immediately. The renewable energy sector would be expanded at the same time that there was a step-by-step reduction in fossil fuel use; modern natural gas plants are to be used as a transition technology. Structural changes would also be made to the distribution network to account for the decentralized nature of the new energy supply.
Braun, a veteran of the protest movements against nuclear weapons and nuclear power, said it was important to understand why a politically conservative government had made this U-turn. A vast majority of the German people had rejected nuclear energy and there were decades of organized resistance, starting with massive protests against the stationing of NATO’s tactical weapons on German soil. While progress was promising so far, Braun reminded his audience that Energiewende was the “largest technological challenge” faced by the country since the post-WW II reconstruction efforts. The political challenges, meanwhile, were comparable to those encountered after the reunification of the two Germanys after the end of the Cold War.
But there was no doubt it had to be done, or that Japan could learn from observing the German experience. The feeling from the meeting was best summed up by the conference chair, Tsuyoshi Kawasaki, an expert on climate science and an emeritus professor at Tohoku University. Kawasaki ended his brief remarks with the words: “The Japanese Scientists’ Association believes that human beings and nuclear power cannot coexist.”
I was reminded of these words many times as we toured the forbidden land of once-lively towns of Fukushima prefecture.
It might have been worse. Finally we arrived at Namie, our destination, and as close as we could get to the actual plant itself. Another of our guides, Baba Isao, an Assemblyman from the town, had secured special permission for us to enter. We first went to the town hall for a quick lunch; the building had undergone a decontamination operation and there were a few town employees at work. A radiation level monitor with a large digital readout was in front of the building.
Namie had a population of 21,000 before it was evacuated. About 14,000 were relocated within Fukushima prefecture (his family being one) and 6,000 outside. Two hundred people were known to have perished in the tsunami. Isao told us that his wife had gone back to their house a few weeks ago and found the radiation level to be 34 microSieverts per hour, which is nearly 7 times higher than the “hotspot” we had encountered in J-Village. It would be considered an absolute no-go. Newspaper reports have cited other such hotspots in Namie.
Isao said that some people wanted to return, but he had advised them against it, although we found a convenience store to be open. Meanwhile, the government was making Namie’s clean-up a priority, undertaking infrastructure improvement and house-to-house decontamination. The town was considering a proposal that would allow people to return in 2017, but Isao was doubtful.
In addition to the presence of radiation, there was another reason not to return: There were no longer any jobs in these communities, where the nuclear power plant was the raison d’etre for the town. In fact, before the accident, in a bid to boost the economy, the town had been negotiating with the Tohoku Electric Power Company to set up another nuclear plant in Namie.
We found a perfect ghost town where life ceased to exist, as if a light switch had been turned off. Abandoned homes were now inhabited by cats. In the downtown area there were closed stores, including a barbershop and a bakery. All looked as if the employees were on a break. There were tens of bikes left at the train station; a few buses were parked in their designated spots as if waiting for commuters to disembark from a train.
We drove through more silent streets before arriving at an elementary school, which had been in the tsunami’s path. The school building was destroyed, but the children miraculously survived by running to a hill nearby. Inside the building, there were children’s lockers with small boxes for crayons. A memorial stupa—a mound-like, Buddhist shrine—stood on the roadside, with flowers and candles.
From the elementary school, we could just barely see what appeared to be the top of the turbine buildings of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Red and white construction cranes hovered over them. Namie escaped more damage thanks to the prevailing winds, which dispersed much of the fallout toward the ocean. And what if that second nuclear plant had already been up and running when disaster struck?
Ironically, Namie had been lucky. Things could have been much worse.
Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
http://thebulletin.org/fukushima-today-first-person-account-field-and-conference-table8683
Japan’s Nuclear Gypsies: The Homeless, Jobless and Fukushima
They are called the “precariat,” Japan’s proletariat, living precariously on the knife-edge of the work world, without full employment or job security. They are derided as “glow in the dark boys,” “jumpers,” and “nuclear gypsies.” They have even been dubbed “burakumin,” a hostile term for Japan’s untouchables, members of the lowest rung on the ladder in Japanese society.
Homeless and unemployed or marginally employed day laborers, unskilled and virtually untrained, they are the nuclear decontamination workers recruited by Japanese gangsters, yakuza, to make Fukushima in northern Japan livable again after the 3/11 triune disaster – the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami which precipitated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant meltdown.
These workers have been recruited for one of the most dangerous and undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the $35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong. Reuters and the L.A. Times have both remarked that it is an unprecedented effort.
Reuters made a direct comparison between Fukushima and the Chernobyl “incident.” Unlike Ukraine and the 1986 nuclear “accident” at Chernobyl, where authorities declared a 1,000 square-mile no-habitation zone, resettled 350,000 people and decided to let radiation take care of itself, Japan is attempting to make the Fukushima region livable again.
The army of itinerant decontamination workers has been hired at well below the minimum wage to clean up the radioactive debris and build tanks to store the contaminated water generated to keep the reactor cores cool. They work in noisome unregulated environs, without adequate supervision, training or monitoring or the protection of health insurance.
Most of the workers are subcontractors, drifters, unskilled and poorly paid. In an article for Al Jazeera’s America Tonight, David McNeill, blogger about nuclear gypsies, commented: “They move from job to job. They’re unqualified, of course, in most cases.”
Jeff Kingston, Dept. of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan, noted in October 2014 that the numbers of these nuclear gypsies or members of the “precariat” -have been seen to have risen from 15 percent of the Japanese workforce in the late 1980s to 38 percent to date and the numbers are expected to continue to rise.
Jobless, or Just Homeless?
The laborers deputed to carry out this huge ambitious project, Japan’s nuclear gypsies, include both the homeless and those who can be said to be just one notch above homelessness – jobless people. These two classes are often nearly identical. It is perhaps more useful to identify the workers on the decontamination project as the working poor in dire economic straits.
Are these laborers truly homeless? What of a recent survey saying that homelessness has reached an all-time low? Al Jazeera noted in October 2014 that although a 2014 government survey had found that Tokyo’s homeless population had dropped drastically, critics dispute this finding, calling the survey another effort to ignore a population that is contending with growing economic disparity, and exploited for cheap labor.
Charles E. McJilton, CEO of the Food Bank Second Harvest Japan, disputes the numbers of the homeless in Japan. He believes that although actual numbers of the homeless in Tokyo may be down, these numbers fail to take into account the larger issue country-wide of poverty and economic insecurity. Al Jazeera reported him as saying, “It has always been a misunderstanding in the media that poverty in Japan is represented by the homeless.”
Tom Gill of Meiji Gakuin University suggests that the larger problem is the rapidly growing number of people in dire straits.
Many Japanese living on the edge apply for assistance under Japan’s livelihood protection law - seikatsu hogo - which guarantees a basic standard of living. Gill has said that the problem is the sharply increasing number of applications for the generous welfare benefit, and its worsening impact on the national debt, the largest in the developed world.
Well over 500,000 people in Japan have been reported to have lost their jobs since the “Lehman shokku,” the day in September 2008 when Lehman Bros. collapsed and triggered a worldwide financial crisis.
Half the people who lost their jobs were on temporary or part-time contracts that offered them no insurance. Thousands lived in company housing and when they lost their livelihoods, they lost their homes. Today they camp out under blue tarpaulins, sleeping in parks, under bridges, and in railway stations or in 24-hour Internet cafes.
The Christian Science Monitor noted that as of Sept. 2009, twenty million people, one-sixth of Japan’s population, lived below the poverty line. Seventy-seven percent of unemployed Japanese have no unemployment insurance, according to a report earlier in 2009 by the International Labor Organization as cited by the Monitor.
The Monitor also quoted Charles McJilton who once lived as a homeless person in Tokyo for 18 months. “When you fall out of the [workers’] safety net in Japan, you wouldn’t believe what is [no longer readily] available.” He is referring primarily to access to housing, but also to new jobs, food and medicine.
Even the jobless who do find new jobs cannot easily find a new home. The government made 13,000 housing units available to homeless people, and as of September 2009, had filled 7,666 of them. But that is not a lasting solution, argues McJilton. He says that the housing project may have cleared a lot of people off the streets but that “the government is more interested in keeping the peace than in solving the homeless problem.”
As these workers lose their jobs, with few chances of finding another one, younger men are ending up on the streets. The Monitor noted that of the 5,400 people who slept in Internet cafes in 2007, 41 percent were under 30. When they leave the shelters, they are supposed to start looking for work. Only half of them actually do so, however. The other half go back to the streets – often because they see no hope of finding a job.
One nuclear gypsy cited by Reuters in December 2013 summed up a near hopeless situation. “We’re an easy target for recruiters,” Shizuya Nishiyama, 57, says. He briefly worked at Fukushima clearing rubble. He now sleeps in a cardboard box in Sendai Station. “We’re easy to spot. They say to us, are you looking for work? Are you hungry? And if we haven’t eaten, they offer to find us a job.”
These men are sitting ducks, targets for wage slavery at the Fukushima nuclear decontamination project.
TEPCO, Yakuza and Subcontractors
Another nuclear gypsy was even more direct, eloquent and despairing. In its January 2014 report for Al Jazeera’s America Tonight, the laborer Tanaka was quoted as saying: “TEPCO is God. The main contractors are kings, and we are slaves.”
The January 2014 Al Jazeera report further reported that hiring for the cleanup operations is an effort in which the Japanese mafia, the yakuza, is deeply involved. Workers and onlookers who were interviewed said that it is the yakuza’s employment practices which further poison the system.
“The Yakuza have, historically, been deeply embedded in the structure of the construction industry,” explains Takeshi Katsura, a laborer who also helps workers exploited by the Japanese mafia. “It’s the structure that’s evil,” he said.
The subcontracting system and high demand for labor in Fukushima have been a boon for organized crime. “To quickly gather 4,000 to 5,000 decontamination workers in Fukushima, you need to do it the traditional way,” said Katsura. “Using the Yakuza.”
The decontamination industry is particularly appealing to the yakuza, because of the extra government-funded $100-a-day in danger pay per worker. But don’t assume that this pay actually gets to the workers!
Takeshi Katsura said: “Because workers are hired through subcontractors, wages are skimmed all along the way, and workers at the bottom actually doing the work sees their pay go down.” “For people in Japan who live like me and work various places, it’s hard to find work that pays $100 a day,” nuclear gypsy Tanaka said. “I get housing, and was able to save more than usual.”
But the promise does not deliver. “The government says it will pay $100 a day, but I initially got $20,” said Sato, another worker lured to Fukushima by the promise of extra cash. “The contractors and subcontractors took the remaining $80.”
In December 2013 a Reuters Special Report noted that only a third of the money allocated for wages made it to the workers. The rest was skimmed by middlemen, police reports say. After deductions for food and lodging, that left workers with an hourly rate of about $6, just below the minimum wage equal to about $6.50 per hour in Fukushima. Some of the homeless men ended up in debt after fees for food and housing were deducted, police say.
The report noted that the problem of paid workers running into debt is widespread. “Many homeless people are just put into dormitories, and the fees for lodging and food are automatically docked from their wages,” said a Baptist pastor and advocate for the homeless. “Then at the end of the month, they’re left with no pay at all.”
The base pay for decontamination work may in theory be higher than for other kinds of work. But the risks are also higher.
In a January 2014 Al Jazeera Special Report, nuclear gypsy Tanaka says he was shocked to find radioactive hot spots in the area he worked, marked with tape but never decontaminated. Training and protective gear were also scarce. “The training didn’t teach us the dangers of handling radiation, so there were some people who worked with their bare hands,” he said. “They would contaminate not only themselves, but would spread particles to others.
Tanaka was fired after his company’s contract wasn’t renewed. Like many nuclear workers approaching their radiation limit of 50 millisieverts a year, it is unlikely that Tanaka will ever be hired at Fukushima again. He’s since lost his apartment, and is crippled by fatigue.
When Sato, another nuclear gypsy, complained about the terms of his employment, he was told his contract had changed, and that he now owed money for food and lodging. Sato was lucky. Others who complain and quit like him have faced violent retribution.
“I’ve had workers tell me that they’ve been beat up and been told, ‘I’ll kill you,’” said Katsura. “Threatened with, ‘You know what will happen to you.’”
Radiation Exposure: Unclear Rulings, Erratic Enforcement
Mainichi Japan’s report in March 2015 on the decontamination project noted that about 28,000 people per day were hired to do decontamination work in 2014, according to the Ministry of the Environment and the Fukushima Prefectural Government. This year the figure has reached about 20,000. But their status regarding radiation exposure remains unclear.
It is also far from clear who is to take responsibility for management of radiation doses, one observer has reported.
In January 2012, an act came into force which gave decontamination workers the same radiation exposure limits as nuclear power plant workers (a maximum of 50 millisieverts per year and 100 millisieverts over five years). This act specified that employers must have their workers undergo special health checks, and they must record and preserve their radiation readings.
However, at the time the regulation came into effect, there was no centralized system for managing individual workers’ total radiation exposure.
Furthermore, sloppy implementation, a lack of oversight, and the very existence of a floating population of itinerants, nuclear gypsies, have made this regulation difficult or impossible to enforce.
In a Mainichi Japan article on March 12, 2015 one 45-year-old man who has visited seven decontamination sites since October 2012 comments, “In decontamination by cities, towns and villages, there are areas called “microspots” where radiation levels are high even in areas being decontaminated by municipal governments.
Another observer, a 58-year-old man who applied to take part in managing decontamination work has offered the following summary on the vast project: “Decontamination has produced a temporary economic bubble, and all sorts of businesses have got in on it.” But it is not all good. “I get looked at as if I’m doing something dirty, and I think I’ve had enough of it,” he said.
Injuries and Deaths on the Job: TEPCO’s Response
To the argument frequently posed that nobody has officially died at Fukushima, a January 2015 report of rising numbers of onsite accidents and deaths, many of which have been attributed to poor onsite oversight or management, may offer a response.
Data released by TEPCO and reported in Mainichi Japan in March 2015 showed that the number of accidents and cases of heat stroke involving Fukushima workers had doubled to 64 in 2014
The pattern is very Japanese. Incident, charges, apology or faux explanation, inaction, another incident. More apologies. No change in hiring, pay, working conditions.
A cosmetic change – opening a workers’ canteen.
ENENEWS reported on January 20, 2015 on injuries and fatalities. The number of incidents doubled this year. “It’s not just the number of accidents that has been on the rise. It’s the serious cases, including deaths and serious injuries that have risen…” said Katsuyoshi Ito, a local labor inspector overlooking the Fukushima power plant.
ENENEWS reported that the number of injured workers has soared at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant [and] far exceeded the 2013 figure by November 2014, [TEPCO] officials said… Thirty-nine workers were injured at the plant between April and November 2014, while one became ill.
Last Sept. 22, a worker from a partner compan suffered a broken back after being hit by a falling iron pipe. During work to build a tank on Nov. 7, three workers were injured by falling steel weighing 390 kg. One was left temporarily unconscious, while another broke both ankles. Labor inspectors recently warned [TEPCO] about the rise in accidents and ordered it to take measures to deal with the problem.
Akira Ono, the head manager of the Fukushima Daiichi plant said: “We are deeply sorry for the death of the worker and express our deepest condolences to the family. We promise to implement measures to ensure that such a tragedy does not occur again.”
Fukushima Diary reported on a new fatality. On August 3, 2015 TEPCO reported that another Fukushima worker had died 2 days before. Although TEPCO states the cause of death is not identified, a former Fukushima worker posted on Twitter that the worker died of heatstroke.
It is speculated that TEPCO withheld the announcement of the death so as not to cause a scandal before removing debris from the fuel handling machine from 3 (Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 3).
TEPCO’S Response to Labor Complaints: On June 24, 2015, a few months after the dispute with the labor inspectors and a full four years after the three part disaster 3/11, Reuters reported that TEPCO has opened a rest area and canteen for cleanup workers, which will serve up to 3,000 meals a day and provide rest space for around 1,200 workers.
According to Reuters, TEPCO has been widely criticized for its treatment of workers and handling of the cleanup, which is expected to take decades. TEPCO has repeatedly promised to improve conditions for workers. Almost 7,000 workers, provided by around 800 mostly small contractors, are involved in decontaminating and decommissioning the plant.
Decontamination Project: Future Plans
Depending on whom you talk to, decontamination has either been very successful or a complete failure. The business is estimated to take at least another 40 years, so there will be no lack of job opportunities. Areas said to be decontaminated still register very high levels of radiation.
However, the project has not met with local approval. Most Fukushima folk displaced by the nuclear accident have said they do not believe the government’s assurances of safety and they are unwilling to return home.
In a July 21 2014 press release, a Greenpeace Japan investigation revealed that “Radioactive contamination in the forests and land of Imitate district in Fukushima prefecture is so widespread and at such a high level that it will be impossible for people to safely return to their homes.”
The press release noted that these findings follow the Abe Government’s announcement on 12th June 2015 to lift evacuation orders by March 2017 and terminate compensation by 2018, which effectively forces victims back into heavily contaminated areas.
Jan Vande Putte, radiation specialist with Greenpeace Belgium: “The Japanese government has condemned the people of Litate village to live in an environment that poses an unacceptable risk to their health. Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion. Let’s be clear: this is a political decision by the Abe Government, not one based on science, data, or public health,” he said.
Decontamination: Greenpeace’s Summary
It is possible that the people of Fukushima took note of Greenpeace’s July 21 2015 report. In July 2015, the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared to be taking a big step toward the goal of repatriating Fukushima evacuees by adopting a plan that would permit two-thirds of evacuees to return by March 2017, the sixth anniversary of the disaster.
But while some evacuees have cheered this chance to return, many more have rejected it. In fact, polls show a majority do not even want to go back.
In a telling move in a country where litigation is relatively rare, more than 10,000 have joined some 20 class-action lawsuits to demand more compensation so they can afford to choose for themselves whether to return.
The Abe government’s new timetable, adopted on June 12, calls for accelerating the pace of this cleanup with a “concentrated decontamination effort” over the next two years.
In Litate, the narrow valleys are filled with workers scraping off the top two inches of soil, which is then put into black bags that are stacked into man-made hills. Across the entire evacuation zone, workers have already filled 2.9 million bags, which will be stored for at least the next 30 years at toxic waste sites that the government is building inside the zone.
But even with the massive cleanup, only about one-fifth of the 6,200 displaced residents of Litate are willing to return, according to a recent head count by village officials.
To summarize the future of Japan’s nuclear decontamination program, perhaps the best commentary also comes from Greenpeace.
“Decontamination efforts are, many times, missing the government’s targets. Massive amounts of highly radioactive water flow into the ocean from the reactor site every day. The location of molten reactor cores in Units 1-3 remains unknown – which is a problem that requires massive amounts of cooling water every day to minimize the risk of another major radiation release.”
“Those who created the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe know that their nuclear power plants have no place in a modern Japan. And they are fighting as hard as they can to stop clean energy progress and shore up their dirty-energy-based profits.”
“But, for the people of Japan, a majority of whom oppose any nuclear restart, there are massive opportunities on the horizon for a truly safe and clean future. And we, at Greenpeace, will stand with them – against the onslaught of the nuclear village – to ensure that the clean, renewable energy future becomes a reality.”
Source: International Policy Digest
23,900 Bq/Kg of Cs-134/137 still measured from fish in Fukushima plant port
Still extremely high level of Cesium-134/137 is detected from fish of Fukushima plant port from Tepco’s report released on 8/18/2015.
Cs-134/137 density was 23,900 Bq/Kg, which is 239 times much as the food safety limit.
The sample was the muscle part of Sebastes cheni collected on 7/28/2015.
Sr-90 density and other nuclides’ analysis data are not reported.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2015/images/fish01_150818-e.pdf
Source: Fukushima Daiichi
23,900 Bq/Kg of Cs-134/137 still measured from fish in Fukushima plant port
Unspoken Death Toll of Fukushima: Nuclear Disaster Killing Japanese Slowly
The Japanese government is still in denial and refuses to recognize the disastrous consequences of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, London-based independent consultant on radioactivity Dr. Ian Fairlie states, adding that while thousands of victims have already died, thousands more will soon pass away.
Embarrassingly, “[t]he Japanese Government, its advisors, and most radiation scientists in Japan (with some honorable exceptions) minimize the risks of radiation. The official widely-observed policy is that small amounts of radiation are harmless: scientifically speaking this is untenable,” Dr. Fairlie pointed out.
The Japanese government even goes so far as to increase the public limit for radiation in Japan from 1 mSv to 20 mSv per year, while its scientists are making efforts to convince the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) to accept this enormous increase.
“This is not only unscientific, it is also unconscionable,” Dr. Fairlie stressed, adding that “there is never a safe dose, except zero dose.”
However, while the Japanese government is turning a blind eye to radiogenic late effects, the evidence “is solid”: the RERF Foundation which is based in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is observing the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and still registering nuclear radiation’s long-term effects.
“From the UNSCEAR estimate of 48,000 person Sv [the collective dose to the Japanese population from Fukushima], it can be reliably estimated (using a fatal cancer risk factor of 10% per Sv) that about 5,000 fatal cancers will occur in Japan in the future from Fukushima’s fallout,” he noted.
“It is impossible not to be moved by the scale of Fukushima’s toll in terms of deaths, suicides, mental ill-health and human suffering,” the expert said.
http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150820/1025992771.html#ixzz3jSVAPg9L
Japan asks for WTO panel to rule on S.Korea’s Fukushima-related food import restrictions
Aug 20 Japan on Thursday asked the World Trade Organization to set up a panel to rule on South Korea’s import bans and testing requirements for Japanese food after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, since the restrictions show no signs of being eased.
Japan launched a trade complaint at the WTO in May, saying the South Korean measures violated a WTO agreement and that Seoul had failed to justify the measures as required.
“We held two days of bilateral discussions on this on June 24 and 25, but there was no expression from the Korean side of when the restrictions might be lifted,” Japan’s Agriculture Ministry said on its website.
“Since more than 60 days have passed since the complaint was lodged, and there is no sign of when the restrictions might be repealed, we have asked today, in accordance with WTO rules, for the establishment of a panel.”
South Korea in May expressed regret at Japan’s move and said then that the ban on some Japanese seafood was necessary and reflected safety concerns.
Japan countered by saying levels were safe and that a number of other nations, including the United States and Australia, had lifted or eased Fukushima-related restrictions.
The average annual value of South Korean imports of Japanese fish and seafood was $96 million in 2012-2014, less than half the average of $213 million in 2006-2010, according to data from the International Trade Centre in Geneva.
Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/20/japan-southkorea-wto-idUSL3
WHOI Study Shows Fukushima Contaminated Sediment Moving Offshore
Researchers deployed time-series sediment traps 115 kilometers (approximately 70 miles) southeast of the nuclear power plant at depths of 500 meters (1,640 feet) and 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). The two traps began collecting samples on July 19, 2011—130 days after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami—and were recovered and reset annually.
WOODS HOLE – Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have been studying the effects the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011 has had in the Pacific Ocean.
WHOI has recently released the results of a three-year study of sediment samples collected offshore in the American Chemical Society’s journal, Environmental Science and Technology.
The purpose of the study is to understand what happens to the Fukushima contaminants after they are buried on the seafloor off of coastal Japan.
The team, led by senior scientist and marine chemist Ken Buesseler, found that a small fraction of contaminated sea floor sediments off Fukushima are moved offshore by typhoons that resuspend radioactive particles in the water, which then travel laterally with Southeasterly currents into the Pacific Ocean.
Researchers used funnel-shaped traps to collect the data at depths of 500 meters and 1,000 meters starting 130 days after the disaster.
The research found radiocesium from the plant along with sediment with a high fraction of clay material in the samples. The clay material is characteristic of shelf and slope sediments and suggest a near shore source.
Buesseler says that more than 99 percent of the contaminated material from the plant moved with the water offshore and that less than 1 percent ended up on the sea floor as buried sediment.
Source: CapeCod.com
WHOI Study Shows Fukushima Contaminated Sediment Moving Offshore
North American Animal Decline Since Fukushima
The biological effects of Fukushima contamination are likely to extend far beyond Japan. The use of seawater to cool the reactors produced spherical, uranium peroxide clusters called buckyballs, which are noted for their durability and transportability.
Radioactive Sulfur-35 (35S) was detected in Southern California from 20-28 March 2011. The researchers concluded that neutron leakage transformed salt water chlorine (35Cl) into radioactive 35S through a process of multistage decay.
During roughly that same time period, separate researchers from California State Long Beach sampling kelp offshore found Iodine-131, which has an approximate eight day half-life. The researchers concluded that the iodine-131 was likely deposited by precipitation contaminated with Fukushima fallout.
Contamination transported by wind and precipitation is supplemented by dispersion of radionuclides by ocean currents. Research conducted by Stan-Sion, Enachescu, and Pietre identified arrival of the ocean-borne plume of radionuclides from the initial days of the Fukushima disaster in La Jolla, California, evidenced by a 2.5 factor increase in Iodine-129 and Iodine-127 activity peaking June 18 2013 (date collection ended July 2013).
More plumes of contaminated water are no doubt forthcoming given (1) ongoing dumping of water contaminated with tritium and (2) relentless leakage of water contaminated by the entire range of fission isotopes, with Strontium-90 emerging as particularly salient given spiking levels in Fukushima’s port during the spring of 2015.
Although there is no way of proving causation, a vast number of adverse mortality events occurring in sea life up and down the North American Pacific Coast raises questions about whether Fukushima and tsunami contamination may have interfered with the food cycle or increased susceptibility to disease.
In 2011 and unusual mortality events were reported for Alaskan walruses, seals, and polar bears, all of which were found to be “suffering from hair loss, skin sores, and unusually lethargic behavior.” No cause was ever identified. Unusual mortality events for California sea lions were reported by the NOAA in 2013, escalating to catastrophic losses in 2015.
Dolphin populations in California also experienced significant mortality events in 2013 and were found to have significantly impaired immune systems. Sardines in the Pacific Northwest experienced also experienced a significant reduction in numbers in 2013, with the November population estimate of 378,000 tons constituting a steep drop from the 1.5 million tons estimated in 2000. 378,000 tons represented the lowest reported in over ten years. The King Salmon population in Alaska declined 73 percent from 2011 to 2012 (Jim Carlton, Wall Street Journal (August 4, 2012) p. A3).
In 2014, starfish were afflicted with a devastating and inexplicable wasting disease up and down the coast of North America.
An unusual mortality event was reported for Alaskan whales in 2015. North American Pacific coast sea birds have also been impacted. Adverse mortality events have afflicted murres and shearwater. Autopsies indicated the shearwaters had a high parasite count and were starving. Auklets living along entire north American pacific coast have also experienced a steep population declines that were described as “just massive, massive, unprecedented” by Julia Parish, a seabird ecologist at the University of Washington who oversees the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team.
Land animals in Alaska and California also experienced significant and inexplicable population declines.
Western Arctic caribou experienced a decline of 27 percent between 2011 and 2013. Monarch butterfly populations that migrate to a specific area in Mexico experienced a record low in 2013, with their numbers contained by 2.9 acres in 2013, compared to 12 acres between 2003 and 2012. In 2013 California race horses were afflicted with a mysterious affliction that caused them to drop dead suddenly. Bees in California also experienced a significant population decline in 2013: “A mysterious malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nation’s fruits and vegetables.” The moose population, already in decline prior to Fukushima, fell still further between 2010 and 2014 with one population in Minnesota cut in half between 2010 and 2014.
These data points suggest a trend of accelerating population declines in sea and land life that became very apparent in 2013.
NOAA officials and scientists queried by the media have not provided definitive answers, often describing the events as perplexing and befuddling. In 2015, large numbers of dying sea lions on California beaches heightened media inquiry.
The most commonly forwarded explanation for their condition was an unprecedented toxic algae bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia, often described as red tide, which produces a neurotoxin named domoic acid. Unusually warm water was figured as responsible for this algae bloom off the coast of California, but no research has been released about potential radionuclide contamination of the bloom, nor were radionuclide results of sampled deceased animals made publicly available, although another species of red tide aglae has been shown to bioaccumulate radionuclides.
Climate change is being forwarded as the generalized and encompassing cause for all animal mortality events, but this explanation ignores the potential contribution of other factors, especially radiation bioaccumulation effects in the wake of the Fukushima crisis.
Moreover, tritium and noble gasses produced by Fukushima (among other radionuclides), particularly Krypton-85, may have played a role in altering climatic and ocean conditions.
Atmospheric levels of Krypton-85 have increased tremendously throughout the atomic age, raising scientific concerns about atmospheric effects. A 1997 study found significant increases in Krypton-85 in the atmosphere from nuclear explosions and reprocessing, noting that in the mid-1940s there existed less than 5 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per liter of krypton, but by the end of that decade levels had risen to 100 dpm per liter. Samples from the 1990s measured “tens of thousands” of disintegrations per minute per liter. Krypton-85 increases air ionization and electrical conductivity.
A study on Krypton-85 published by the IAEA notes: “There are unforeseeable effects for weather and climate if the krypton-85 content of the earth atmosphere continues to rise. There may be a krypton-specific greenhouse effect and a collapse of the natural atmospheric-electrical field.” Concerns about Krypton-85 levels caused the EPA to announce new regulatory efforts in 2014.
Fukushima reactors 1 through 3 were estimated to have lost their full inventory of Krypton-85, resulting in a release of 44.1 PetaBecquerels, whereas Chernobyl produced 33 PetaBecquerels.
This estimate for Fukushima does not include emissions from the fuel in reactor 4’s spent fuel pool, although that pool was known to have lost water for at least five days. Remember that research from Stohl et al. on Fukushima’s noble gas releases concluded that unit 4 must have also contributed to releases.
The estimate of 44.1 PetaBecquerels of Krypton-85 also does not include ongoing noble gas emissions reported by TEPCO in 2012 and 2015.
Increased ionization of the atmosphere by Krypton-85 may have impacted atmospheric conditions, contributing to the “record drought” in the western US reported in the summer of 2012. Moreover, ionization from the decay of Krypton-85 and other radionuclides could also be contributing to ocean acidification. Many radionuclides, such as tritium and cesium, are water soluble and noble gasses saturate the sea surface, although colder temperatures increase uptake. Radioactive decay can cause oxidation, which promotes acidification. Some algae are better adapted to acidification, including red algae ones that produce domoic acid. Acidification of the world’s oceans was an escalating problem before the Fukushima disaster. The impacts of the unprecedented release of radionuclides, including Krypton-85, Tritium, and Cesium, from Fukushima may be contributing to an array of factors that together present “tipping points” for already stressed ocean life.
As noted in previous chapters, marine defaunation is escalating, reaching critical proportions in some species. Mass animal mortality events can be triggered by complex inputs whose synergies produce “tipping points.” A mass mortality event is defined as a:
rapidly occurring catastrophic demographic events that punctuate background mortality levels. Individual MMEs are staggering in their observed magnitude: removing more than 90% of a population, resulting in the death of more than a billion individuals, or producing 700 million tons of dead biomass in a single event. (1)
Although well documented, science lacks understanding of the major features and characterizations of MMEs, including causes and trends. Scientists studying MMEs have found they are increasing in number and seem connected to a rise in disease emergence, biotoxicity, and events resulting from multiple interacting stressors. MMEs with the largest magnitude resulted from multiple stressors, starvation and disease. Tipping points occur through the convergence of multiple stressors.
SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF BIOACCUMULATION OF RADIONUCLIDES IN PACIFIC OCEAN LIFE NEEDED NOW!
SOURCE
[i] Samuel Fey, Adam Siepielski, Sébastien Nusslé, Kristina Cervantes-Yoshida, Jason Hwan, Eric Huber, Maxfield Fey, Alessandro Catenazzi, and Stephanie Carlson “Recent shifts in the occurrence, cause, and magnitude of animal mass mortality events,” PNAS (2014 early edition), www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1414894112., 1.
Source: Majia’s Blog
http://majiasblog.blogspot.fr/2015/08/north-american-animal-decline-since.html
Is the Pacific Ocean Japan’s private dumpyard?
An article coming from the Yomiuri Shimbun, a pro-government media, its director and Prime Minister Abe are very best friends.
Read between the lines, funny enough the title says it all: the most important part of the Tepco Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning plan is to be able to dump as much contaminated water as possible into the Pacific Ocean.
Mind you Tepco has been already doing that all along since the beginning, but in a sneaky manner. With the now obtained approval of the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations, Tepco will be able to do it in the open and in a grand manner.
Mind you, what Tepco calls decontaminated water, is contaminated water which has been only partially decontaminated, as the two decontamination systems Alps and Kurion can only filter, remove, 62 radionuclides out of the 1270 radionuclides present in that contaminated water.
This confirms what we already knew of Tepco’s intentions, somehow Tepco and the Japanese Government since day one have been considering our Pacific Ocean to be their contaminated water private dumpyard.
Why other countries of the Pacific region are not protesting against this constant radioactive water duumping which has been ongoing now for more than 4 years?
Release of treated water into sea a step toward Fukushima decommissioning
A solid step has been taken toward the decommissioning of the reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations has approved TEPCO’s plan to release water into the ocean after it has been decontaminated.
Under the plan, TEPCO will pump up water from wells, called subdrains, around reactor buildings at the plant. This water will then be treated and discharged into the sea. There are expectations that this will reduce the volume of contaminated water generated when groundwater accumulates inside buildings wrecked by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
As preconditions for accepting the subdrain plan, the prefectural fisheries federation listed five demands, including improving public channels of information regarding the plan’s stringent water management and safety. These conditions were set out of the federation’s concern about groundless rumors surrounding the plan. TEPCO must sincerely handle these demands and ensure the water release plan is translated into action soon.
Regarding water quality management, TEPCO plans to set a stringent goal of cleaning the water to a level that exceeds international standards for drinking water. It is conducting water purification tests using a special-purpose treatment system. We hope the utility will release this data and carefully explain the system to clear up any anxiety felt by the public.
Initially, the volume of groundwater seeping into the buildings at the nuclear plant reached about 400 tons a day.
Since May 2014, TEPCO has been pumping up groundwater from other wells on the hill near the plant and releasing it into the sea before it flows into the buildings and becomes contaminated. This process has reduced the daily volume of water entering the buildings to about 300 tons a day.
TEPCO believes realization of the plan to pump water from the subdrains and discharging it into the sea after treatment could halve the volume of water entering the wrecked buildings to about 150 tons per day.
Undoubtedly, this will significantly reduce the labor required for managing contaminated water at the plant.
A boost for ‘ice wall’
The fisheries federation stated that the reduced risk of ocean contamination was one reason for its decision to give the green light to the plan.
An impermeable wall has been built along the port in front of the wrecked plant to prevent contaminated water from reaching the sea. The wall contains an opening about 10 meters wide, so it is not completely closed off. The federation viewed the flow of contaminated water through this opening into the port as a problem.
This opening was left because completely blocking off the groundwater would have the effect of a dam, and the water level behind it would rise. There were fears this would increase the volume of water entering the buildings.
By pumping up groundwater through the subdrains, the impermeable wall can be sealed off and any rise in the water level can be prevented. This should help to dispel groundless rumors.
There are also expectations that pumping up groundwater and reducing the water level will enable greater progress in TEPCO’s construction of an “ice wall,” in which soil around the reactor buildings will be frozen to stop groundwater from entering the buildings.
However, even after treated water is discharged into the sea, contaminated water will continue to accumulate. A veritable forest of about 950 large tanks, which combined hold about 690,000 tons of water, already stands within the plant’s premises. Sooner or later, it will become difficult to secure space to install any more tanks.
Purification of the water stored in these tanks is progressing steadily. At some point, discharging this water into the sea also will need to be considered.
Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
Why are Radioactive Emissions Increasing at Fukushima Daiichi?
Fukushima Daiichi continues to contaminate the atmosphere with radionuclides. TEPCO acknowledged in July of 2012 that units 1 through 4 at the plant were emitting approximately 10,000,000 Bq per hour.[i]
It appears as if emission levels have increased since 2012. According to documents interpreted by Fukushima Diary, TEPCO asserted May 25, 2015 that ongoing emissions were estimated at a rate of 2,336,000,000 Bq per hour of noble gas and 960,000 Bq per hour of of Cs-134/137.[ii]
Fukushima Diary pointed out that Reactor 3 emissions increased over 2014. Reactor 4’s emissions were reported as 95,000 Bq/hour of Cesium134/137 despite TEPCO’s reported success in removing rods from unit 4.Why?
Why are atmospheric emissions rising and what does it mean for climate change? Please see discussion here: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/strangely-missing-radionuclides-effects.html
[i] T. Sugimoto (24 July 2012) ‘After 500 Days, Fukushima No. 1 Plant Still Not Out of The Woods’, The Asahi Shimbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201207240087, date accessed 24 July 2012.
[ii] Lori Mochizuki, “Still 960,000Bq Cs-134/137 and 2,336,000,000Bq noble gas discharged from reactors to the air every single hour,” Fukushima Diary (June 6, 2015), http://fukushima-diary.com/2015/06/still-960000bq-of-cs-134137-and-2336000000bq-of-noble-gas-discharged-from-reactors-to-the-air-every-single-hour/
TEPCO documents: http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2015/images/additional_amount_150525-j.pdf http://www.tepco.co.jp/life/custom/faq/images/d150430_08-j.pdf.
Source: Majia’s Blog
http://majiasblog.blogspot.fr/2015/08/why-are-radioactive-emissions.html
Trillions of becquerels of radioactive material still flowing into sea” at Fukushima
Officials: “Trillions of becquerels of radioactive material still flowing into sea” at Fukushima — Map shows nuclear waste coming up from bottom of ocean far offshore — Japan TV Journalist: “Contaminated seawater will circulate around globe… disaster like a huge cloth expanding everyday”
Interview with NHK journalist Morley Robertson, by the Center for Remembering 3.11, published Jun 30, 2012 (emphasis added): I begin with the radiation leakage. Radiation leakage exerts a long term effect on the environment. It contaminates our food chain, the groundwater and the ocean. And the contaminated seawater will circulate around the globe. We never know how much this will impact on the environment… We’ll never able to study such issues with empirical certainty… [Due to nuclear testing] we have already accumulated “hidden losses” of radiation damage… how much is the [Fukushima] cesium in relation to that?… I believe we should enjoy delicious food rather than worrying about the food. I enjoyed the town’s delicacy… I didn’t mind about how the beef was produced or where it came from. As long as it is tasty, it is no problem for me. With regard to radiation, I have become more optimistic. My hypothesis is that it’s no use worrying about radiation. For people in Fukushima, they have a lot to worry about their future, like damaged reputation… One reason why we have relied on nuclear plants is because we didn’t know about the facts… We need to face the facts… Rad-waste from the nuclear cycle is said to be unsolvable even after 2.5 million years.
Part II of Robertson’s Interview, published Jun 30, 2012: In 1974, then PM Tanaka declared, “Let ‘s go nuclear!”… we were issued credit cards to buy electric goods to consume the extra electricity… It is OK to say that everything was just a lie… and 3/11 happened. So we must study everything. It is no longer about what to do with Onagawa nuclear power plant, Miyagi or Tohoku. This is about what to do with Japan. This has been revealed by our vulnerability to the accident… So when we talk about “disaster“, it’s like a huge wrapping cloth expanding everyday.
- NHK: Morley is a journalist… working in the fields of television, radio, and lecture meetings… he studied at the University of Tokyo and Harvard University.
- Robertson’s Wikipedia entry (translated from Japanese by Microsoft): In 1968, because of father’s job moved to… Hiroshima [to work] on Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission [and] undertook study of atomic bomb patients.
TEPCO, updated Mar 10, 2015: Fukushima Daiichi Contaminated Water Issue FAQ — Q1 Please explain the impact of the leaked radioactive materials on the sea. [Answer:] TEPCO announced that underground water including radioactive materials had leaked into the port… It has been implied that trillions of becquerels of radioactive materials are still flowing into the sea; however, the concentration of radioactive materials in the sea is at a level that meets the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, except for some areas…
TEPCO, Apr 28, 2015: Comprehensive risk review was implemented, considering all the possible risks that might have an impact outside the Fukushima Daiichi NPS site… The paths through which water could leak outside the site: …
- Sources of risk — Trenches… Pits… Tanks… Accumulated water inside reactor buildings… Contamination inside the port
- Leakage routes — Ground surface… Drainage channels… Underground (groundwater）
- Destination of the contaminated material… The Sea: Unit 1-4 water intake channel… Inside the port… Outside the port
Lifting of Japanese food ban to require more time: minister
Taiwan is working toward lifting a ban on food imports from Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, but the timeline will depend on further evaluations by health authorities, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said yesterday.
“I believe we are moving in that direction,” Lin said in response to questions on whether Taiwan is working toward lifting the ban on Japanese products from areas affected by the nuclear disaster.
Since Taiwan tightened regulations on imported Japanese food on May 15, “to date there have been no safety concerns associated with food products imported from Japan,” Lin said.
Lin said the Ministry of Health and Welfare is conducting further assessments and the government is also looking at how other countries have been dealing with the situation.
“Basically, the vast majority of countries are moving toward lifting restrictions, but we still hope that the Ministry of Health and Welfare can give a clear explanation of [the results of] its assessments at an appropriate time,” Lin said.
Even if the ban is lifted, Lin added, the new regulations implemented in May are to continue.
The new measures require Japanese food product importers to present certificates that show the place of origin of their products and radiation inspection results for certain types of products, such as tea, baby food and aquaculture products.
The new regulations were imposed after it was found in March that products from five restricted areas in Japan had made their way into Taiwan through the use of false labels.
Taiwan currently bans food imports from the Japanese prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba, which were affected by a meltdown in March 2011 after Japan was struck by a disastrous earthquake and tsunami.
Source: Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/08/11/2003625096
Taiwan FDA cracks down on import from Fukushima
Taiwan has announced that those companies that falsified origin labels to bypass importation regulations on Japanese foods will be banned from future importation. They could also face $100,000 USD fines for their law violations.
It was also mentioned by the same source that Hong Kong is currently one of the largest importers of Japanese food products.
Source: Food Navigator Asia
http://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Policy/Taiwan-FDA-cracks-down-on-imports-from-Fukushima
Scientist: Whale deaths off Alaska island remains mystery
« Other test results also are pending, however. A muscle-tissue sample is being tested for the possibility of radionuclides from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Scientists also have looked at other possibilities, including sonar and seismic exploration. »
In this June 8, 2015 photo, provided by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Gulf Apex Predator Prey project, a fin whale lies dead on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Researchers may never solve the recent deaths of 18 endangered whales whose carcasses were found floating near Alaska’s Kodiak Island, a scientist working on the case said Monday, July 27. (Bree Witteveen/University of Alaska Fairbanks via AP)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Researchers may never solve the recent deaths of 18 endangered whales whose carcasses were found floating near Alaska’s Kodiak Island, a scientist working on the case said Monday.
Samples taken from one of the 10 fin whales were at least a week old, which could throw off test results, said Kate Wynne, a marine mammal specialist for the University of Alaska Sea Grant Program. The carcasses of eight humpback whales also were found.
The carcasses of the marine mammals were discovered between Memorial Day weekend and early July. Most of the animals were too decomposed for sampling.
Both species of whales feed close together, and scientists speculate the animals might have eaten something toxic in waters that were significantly warmer than average at the time. One test came back negative for one toxin that would be present in harmful algal blooms, and another test is still pending, Wynne said.
“That’s my leading hypothesis,” Wynne said of an environmental toxin as a cause. “The carcasses unfortunately are getting older and less sample-able. So we never will find out what killed those whales, in my mind.”
Other test results also are pending, however. A muscle-tissue sample is being tested for the possibility of radionuclides from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Scientists also have looked at other possibilities, including sonar and seismic exploration.
The deaths are an unusual occurrence, Wynne said. She said she’s never heard of anything similar occurring among large baleen whales in the U.S.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also is looking into the deaths of a slightly larger number of whales over a larger area. NOAA is requesting the deaths to be designated nationally as an unusual mortality event, which would free of federal funding for further studying the deaths, NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said.
Along with the dead whales, dead birds including murres and shearwaters were reported earlier in the investigation. Tests showed the shearwaters had a high parasite count and were starving, Wynne said. The murres were not sampled, but Wynne said those deaths could be part of a die-off that occurs periodically.
Source: Tucson.com, Arizona Daily Star
“What means living in Fukushima”
Poem : “What means living in Fukushima”
Sometimes it annoys me when I hear:
“Do not eat Fukushima Fukushima”.
Sometimes it disgusts me when I hear:
“How do you want people in Tokyo to eat Fukushima products when Fukushima people do not eat them themselves there? “
I trembled with rage when I heard:
“You are like a murderer if you keep children in Fukushima.”
Who would keep his children here with the intention of murdering them?
We have no way to leave this place without the evacuation right together with compensation.
The brown rice of Mr. Nakamura which measures 3 becquerels
Radiation was not detected after removal of its husk.
I ate it.
Radioactivity in a public garden after its decontamination is 0,05μSv / h.
I have let my kid play there.
But not at the river banks because the radioactivity is still high there.
After playing outside, wash hands and gargle.
Do not lick. You’ll be irradiated.
But instead
In summer, I’ll take you to the island of Sado * for you to play outside as much as you like.
We repeat endlessly.
“To measure radiation, to understand, to think and to decide.”
This is living in Fukushima.
The radiation measured results have dropped.
But when compared with the radiation measured levels before the accident or with those in western Japan, they are still high. There is a limit to their reduction.
This is why we live taking health holidays,
taking care and paying attention.
Now, they say,
That “there is no problem up to 20 mSv / year.”
That “we stop housing assistance in 2017”
That “we help those returning **”.
Those who caused the accident do not fulfill their responsibility,
and they decide to stop helping, abandoning us.
With risk or without risk, it is not to the state or to TEPCO to dictate.
It’s up to me to judge and to decide myself.
Notes
* Sado is an island that is located in the West side of Japan, in the Sea of Japan
** There will be only help for evacuees who accept to return to their former places of residence before the evacuation, as part of the return policy.
__
Posted on July 18, 2015 on Facebook by Hisao Seki,
living in the city of Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture
Via Nos Voisins Lointains 3.11_Les paroles des sinistrés nucléaires
Translated Japanese to French By Kurumi Sugita
& French to English by Hervé Courtois
●詩の投稿「福島で暮らす、ということは」
１７日、１８日と東京に行ってきました。１７日はまず、「告訴団」が検察審議会に対して原発事故の責任を明確にするよう起訴するための「激励行動」に 行ったものです。２００人ほどの人が全国から集まりました。その後は参議院で院内集会。引き続き「子ども被災者支援法」を改定するという復興庁の説 明会に向けて赤坂でアピールと浜田副大臣を交えての説明会、そして国会前の行動に行ってきました。支援法を改定するとは、要するに支援法の中身をきちんと 実施しないまま、４年が過ぎて線量が下がったからこれに見合った支援の形を取っていくための法整備ですが、２０１７年には自主避難者の借り上げの家賃補助 を廃止、除染も終了、２０１８年にはADRを含むすべての賠償を停止するというものです。東京で一回、福島でやってあとはパブコメを集めて意見を聞いて終 了というものです。これは、戦争法を強行採決した安倍政権の方針と同じ路線のもので、「福島を見殺しにして戦争にひた走るアベ政治」と言えるものです。国 会前ではアベ政治に抗議する多くの人たちが集まっていました。１８日は澤地久江さんが呼びかけた一斉行動で１時に「アベ政治を許さない」を全国で展開しま した。私もこれからは車に「アベ政治を許さない」を貼って宣伝しようとっています。
「 福島で暮らすってことは 」
２０１５年７月１８日
ときどき イラッとする
福島産 食べちゃいけないって 言葉に
ときどき ムカッとする
福島のひとが 福島産 食べないで
どうして 東京のひとが 食べますかって 言葉に
ふるえるほど 腹が立った
「福島に 子どもを置くことは ヒトゴロシと一緒だ」 の言葉
だれが わが子 殺したくて ここに 置く
避難の権利 補償なかったら 出るに 出られねえべ
ナカムラさんの玄米 ３ベクレル
精米すれば 不検出 だから おれは食べた
除染した 公園の線量０，０５ だから遊ばせた
土手はダメ まだ高いから 終わったら 手 洗って うがいして
なめたらダメ ヒバクすっから そのかわり
夏は佐渡で 思いっきり 外遊び させっからない
「はかる わかる 考え 決める」の くりかえし
福島で暮らすって そういうことなんだよ
線量も 下がったけんど 西日本とかの
もともとと 比べたら やっぱし 高いのさ 限界あるのさ
だから 保養 行ったり 手当てしたり 気い使って 暮らしてんのさ
それをな 「２０ミリシーベルトで問題ありません」とか
「２０１７年で住宅支援打ち切り」 「帰還者には支援」とか
事故起こしたもんが 責任も 取らねえで
きめる 打ち切る 放り出す
安全か どうかは 国や東電が決めるんでは ねえ
おれが 自分で 判断することなんだぞい
20 μSv/h still detected in Fukushima city
FULL VIDEO (courtesy of 福島日報ダイジェスト)
It went over scale of the ordinary dosimeter tested by Ministry of the Environment.
A citizen’s group on the look out for hotspots finds over 20 uSv/h spikes in a park, frequented by children and joggers, in Watari, Fukushima shi, by the Abukuma riverbed. 5 years into the crisis, hotspots can be found aplenty.
Putting aside the many hotspots as seen in the following video, the average measurement across the park remains 0.5 uSv/h. That does not deter the nearby High School to send off students for a little run … in areas close to 1 uSv/h.
As the brave residents recorded a nearby hotspot of more than 20 uSv/h, a mother could be seen in the same vicinity, playing in the grass with her small child.
Sources:
５年目のホットスポット 福島市で２０マイクロ超え
Fukushima Diary
http://fukushima-diary.com/2015/07/video-20-%CE%BCsvh-still-detected-in-fukushima-city/
1 This Month
of the week – Shut Down Drone Warfare!
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
Petition to revoke the licensing of the Near Surface Nuclear Disposal Facility (NSDF) at Chalk River. https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7247
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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