Fukushima Reactor Disaster: Japan to Restart Nuclear Plants, Post #7824

[It'sJustMe]

Japan didn't need another disaster! Lots of photos at the link! Fair use:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120507a1.html

Tornado wreaks havoc in Ibaraki, Tochigi
Kyodo

MITO — A teenage boy died, around 40 people were injured and up to 500 houses were damaged Sunday after apparent tornadoes hit Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures, north of Tokyo, prompting Ibaraki Gov. Masaru Hashimoto to ask the Self-Defense Forces to be deployed for disaster relief.

Thunderstorms also caused lightning damage and temporarily disrupted bullet train services on the Tohoku, Yamagata and Akita shinkansen lines, according to local police, firefighters and East Japan Railway Co.

The apparent twister in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, which occurred at around 1 p.m., shattered windows and blew away the roofs of 150 to 200 homes leaving two people seriously wounded, one of whom, 14-year-old Keisuke Suzuki, died after being taken to hospital. The city is located around 50 km northeast of Tokyo.

In the city of Moka and the towns of Mashiko and Motegi in Tochigi, around 300 houses were damaged and nine people were injured. In Fukushima Prefecture, about 20 plastic greenhouses were blown away and four houses were damaged by a gust.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said local observatories had warned the Tokai, Kanto and Tohoku regions of central, eastern and northeastern Japan to brace for possible tornadoes intermittently from Sunday morning as atmospheric conditions were unstable.

According to the Mito observatory in Ibaraki, a thunderstorm advisory was issued early Sunday for the whole prefecture. Hailstones fell in Mito, the prefectural capital, at around 1:20 p.m.

Following the gusts, which the Mito observatory attributed to either a tornado or downburst, and the thunderstorms, around 20,000 households in Tochigi, Ibaraki and Saitama prefectures suffered power outages, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

In Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, Junko Sekine, 40, and her 11-year-old daughter Sayaka fell unconscious after being struck by lightning around 2:20 p.m., but the mother later recovered consciousness, police said.

In Uozu, Toyama Prefecture, Yoshihito Yaguramaki, a 64-year-old farmer, was found collapsed in a field around 11:15 a.m. and pronounced dead an hour later. Police suspect he was hit by lightning.

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/n...dm041000c.html

'Hot spots' detected at more than 20 schools in Koriyama

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) -- More than 20 schools in Koriyama city in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, have "hot spots" with high radiation levels on their premises, a civil group said Sunday.

The finding was based on municipal education board documents it obtained through an information disclosure request, it said.

The education board instructed elementary and junior high schools as well as nursery schools in January to check air radiation levels in side ditches, hedges and drains on their premises. Schoolyards and classrooms were excluded as the levels there have been regularly examined.

Reports submitted by each school in April showed at least 14 elementary and seven junior high as well as five nursery schools have hot spots where the cumulative annual radiation dose could reach 20 millisieverts, or more than 3.8 microsieverts per hour.

At the start of the new academic year in April, the education board lifted a restriction that had limited students to playing in schoolyards for less than three hours per day in the wake of the nuclear disaster last year.

Tokiko Noguchi, head of the civil group, told a press conference Sunday, "There are many spots in schools where radiation levels still remain high," calling on the education board to restore the restriction.

May 07, 2012(Mainichi Japan)

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/n...dm061000c.html

Japan shows mixed reaction to lack of nuclear energy

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- People showed mixed reactions to the suspension of Japan's last commercial nuclear reactor Saturday with some in business circles and host municipalities calling for early reactivation of nuclear energy and others backing the halt of atomic energy due to safety concerns.

Hiromasa Yonekura, head of the Japan Business Federation, called for the reactivation of nuclear reactors, expressing concern about effects of the suspension of nuclear energy on economic activities.

Yonekura, who heads the country's largest business lobby, also said utilities have boosted the capacity of their thermal power plants but "that can little help stabilize power supply" which is essential for businesses.

Hokkaido Electric Power Co. suspended the No. 3 reactor of its Tomari plant for regular checkups as the last running unit among the 50 reactors in Japan in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the March 2011 devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Makoto Yagi, chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, said in a statement, "We will try to regain trust from society especially from the areas hosting nuclear plants and continue making utmost efforts so that we can restart nuclear plants as soon as possible."

Tomari Mayor Hiroomi Makino also called for reactivation of the Tomari plant. "We're worried about the safety of nuclear reactors following the Fukushima accident but we want an early reactivation" of the Tomari plant, Makino said, citing economic benefits his village can gain by hosting it.

"I feel sorry. That's all," said a 73-year-old retired senior official of Hokkaido Electric Power Co. "If we lose nuclear plants, efforts by people who were involved in construction of them and technicians...what was that all about?"
In Sapporo, about 60 kilometers from Tomari, about 450 demonstrators marched through the streets welcoming the absence of nuclear energy in Japan.
Toshihiro Yauchi, 39, said during the rally, "I don't want any reactivation of nuclear reactors."

Miyoshi Aida, a 58-year-old worker at the Fukushima Daiichi plant who lives in a temporary housing unit in Fukushima Prefecture, said, "I believe it's realistic we don't operate any nuclear plants." Aida is from Okuma, which is in a no-go zone near the crippled Fukushima plant.

Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu criticized the government's response after the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, saying the government "is vacillating between (the need of ensuring) safety and (the need of ensuring) stable power supply and unable to gain public understanding."

The prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, hosts the Hamaoka nuclear plant on the Pacific coast which has been suspended at the request of the government due to concerns about a powerful earthquake predicted for the area.

May 06, 2012(Mainichi Japan)

[It'sJustMe]

This probably doesn't deserve being posted in this serious thread...however.....I hope no one is offended. I find it fascinating to read this in the Japanese newspaper, which at this time is one the headline stories. They had a tornado is Japan yesterday, as I posted above, and of course the ongoing Fukushima and widespread clean-up issues. Things that make me go hmmm....BTW......the figure amounts to about $71,000. Fair use:

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120508n1.html

Gaga kiss cup nets ¥6 million for quake relief

Bloomberg

Singer Lady Gaga raised ¥6 million as part of a U.S.-sponsored effort to support Japan's recovery from last year's earthquake and tsunami by auctioning off a teacup with her autograph and a lipstick trace.


The blue, white and gold cup hasn't been washed since the pop star drank Diet Coke from it at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador John Roos last June in Tokyo.

The auction, on Yahoo Japan Corp., ended at midnight Sunday and proceeds go to the Tomodachi Arts Fellowship Program, which sponsors young Japanese to study in the U.S.

Lady Gaga came to Tokyo 10 weeks after the March 11 quake and tsunami, which left almost 20,000 people dead or missing and spawned the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. She wrote "We Pray for Japan" on the Narumi-brand cup, and pledged to sell it to support relief efforts. The singer of "Born this Way" returns to Japan to give three concerts, on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, at Saitama Super Arena.

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120508a5.html

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Nagoya mayor protests government moves to restart Oi reactors

Kyodo

The mayor of Nagoya lashed out at the government Monday for pushing to get two offline reactors restarted at the Oi nuclear plant 120 km west in Fukui Prefecture, saying a major accident at the complex could contaminate the Kiso River, which provides water to people of his city.

Mayor Takashi Kawamura told reporters, "I lodged a serious protest" over the push to restart the Oi reactors, during a meeting with vice industry minister Yasuhiro Nakane in Tokyo, arguing that there has yet to be completed a thorough verification on what caused the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

Kawamura handed Nakane a petition calling on the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which is under the industry ministry, to compile a nuclear hazard map as quickly as possible to deal with any accident that could occur at the Oi plant.

Leaders of several municipalities near the Oi plant, including the Shiga and Kyoto governors, have expressed misgivings about restarting the reactors.

[It'sJustMe]

Tepco press release on the water issue. Fair use:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...2959_1870.html


Press Release (May 02,2012)
Situation of storing and treatment of accumulated water including highly concentrated radioactive materials at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (45th Release)

On June 9, 2011, we received an instruction document*, "Installment of treatment facility and storing facility of water including highly concentrated radioactive materials at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Instruction)" from Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
(Previously announced on June 9, 2011)

Since then, per the instruction, we have been treating the water accumulated in the Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility that contains highly concentrated radioactive materials. We announce today we submitted a report to NISA regarding the latest updates of storage and treatment of the accumulated water.

<Attachment>
- Situation of storage and treatment of accumulated water including highly concentrated radioactive materials at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (45th Release)(PDF 61.4KB)

*Installment of treatment facility and storage facility of water including highly concentrated radioactive materials at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Instruction) (NISA No. 6, June 8, 2011)

We have provided a Japanese press release version of the instruction document received from NISA. However, at this time we have reserved the right to not provide an English version due to potential misunderstandings that may arise from an inaccurate rendering of the original Japanese text.
We may provide the English translation that NISA releases in our press releases. However, in principle we would advise you to visit the NISA website for timely and accurate information.

[It'sJustMe]

This might just be bad timing, but right now with no nuclear power being generated, it seems like any power source that has problems would be a pretty big deal. They don't know what caused this "accident". May be nothing, but I am posting it here anyhow. Fair use:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...3177_1870.html

Press Releases


Press Release (May 07,2012)

Regarding a shutdown of a thermal power station of another power company

TEPCO has received a report from Soma Kyodo Power Company that its Sinchi Thermal Power Station (Location: Shinchi-town, Fukushima prefecture, Rated Capacity: 1,000 MW, TEPCO receives 470 MW of it) was shutdown at 6:03 am, May 6 due to steam leakage from its boiler.

The company reported us that currently the cause of the accident is under investigation and they will restore the power plant based on the result of the investigation.

Today's our power supply capacity is 39,100 MW and we assume we can secure reserve margin of 15 %.

[Hansa44]

http://www.bellona.org/articles/arti...hima_spentfuel


Concerns mount over the growing threat from Fukushima’s spent fuel – will the experts’ warning call be heard?

Part of: Nuclear meltdown in Japan



Experts say Fukushima’s onsite cooling ponds contain 85 times the amount of long-lived radionuclides that was dispersed into the atmosphere when reactor No. 4 exploded at Ukraine’s Chernobyl in 1986.



1986 reactor explosion at Chernobyl. Russia would be well served to join their call for action – will it? Vladimir Slivyak, 06/05-2012

- Translated by Maria Kaminskaya

Stabilizing the vast stockpile of spent nuclear fuel that remains at the site is an issue of critical urgency, says a joint petition that nuclear experts, politicians, and environmentalists from 72 Japanese ecological groups addressed on May 1 to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, requesting that the UN lend its weight in organizing and coordinating an immediate international response to address the risk.

This, furthermore, is a risk that neither globally renowned experts nor the media have let pass unnoticed, the petitioners point out. Apparently, however, they feel Japan’s own efforts in tackling the crisis – which is still very much in progress at Fukushima, where spent fuel is concerned – are an inadequate match to the seriousness of the problem and, thus, they clamor for international assistance.

Indeed, the Japanese public has entertained less trust in the government since the disaster at Fukushima revealed just how cozy a relationship the country’s nuclear industry had enjoyed with its supervisory authorities prior to the catastrophe and how firm a handle it managed to hold on any information about the accident as it was unfolding.

The cooling pond of Reactor Unit 4 warrants special and urgent attention, the petition says. Should another earthquake or some other adverse event cause the pond to drain, exposing the spent nuclear rods in storage, an ensuing fire may lead to new radioactive discharges – a menace of staggering proportions, given the amounts of radioactive substances still concentrated in the pond.

More than a year on, works are still under way to clean up and secure the plant after a powerful earthquake shook Fukushima in March 2011 and a devastating tsunami wave that came in its wake knocked out its cooling systems. In a matter of days, the natural calamity evolved into a nuclear catastrophe Japan is still grappling to overcome, with hydrogen explosions, multiple core meltdowns, massive releases of radiation, and forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents.

Late last year, officials in Japan announced technicians had been able to achieve cold shutdown for all three reactors that had been in distress. But the onsite storage ponds are yet to be safeguarded – meaning, the crisis is still far from being over at Fukushima.

The onsite storage pools, which hold the plant’s spent fuel from all six reactors, posed an equally great – in fact, even greater – threat even as the catastrophe raged on and engineers struggled to provide cooling water to the melting reactors. The storage pool over Reactor Unit 4, which suffered two fires in the first week since the onset of the disaster, had experts worldwide especially worried. With the cooling systems no longer running to pump water into the pools and decay heat from the spent fuel heating up what water remained there, water levels were fast receding, laying bare the fuel rods. Reports at the time said the exact levels of water remained unknown due to spiking levels of radiation that barred precise measurements. Further exposure and contact with air spelled the risk of more water boiling out – and a threat of repeated hydrogen explosions of the kind that had already destroyed the reactor buildings, not to mention damage to the fuel rods’ claddings and unprecedented releases of radiation as a result.

This, experts warn, is a scenario that – unless measures are taken immediately to safeguard the spent nuclear fuel at Fukushima – may not just strike again, but dwarf the disaster that erupted at the site last year.

One of the authoritative voices behind the petition, Robert Alvarez, who is a leading American nuclear safety expert and a former senior policy adviser to the US Energy Department’s secretary, believes the nuclear waste in the cooling pond at Unit 4 contains ten times the amount of radioactive cesium that was blown into the atmosphere when Reactor 4 exploded at Ukraine’s Chernobyl in 1986 – making an accident involving this spent fuel pool potentially nearly ten times as devastating as the Chernobyl disaster.

Altogether, “nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies at the Fukushima Daiichi plant sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl,” the petition says.

This threat has already compelled politicians to join nuclear experts in their call for action. According to the petitioners, US Senator Roy Wyden, after his visit to Fukushima on April 6, 2012, issued a press release on April 16, pointing out the catastrophic risk posed by Unit 4 and urging the US government to step in with intervention measures. “Senator Wyden also sent a letter to Ichiro Fujisaki, Japan’s Ambassador to the United States, requesting Japan to accept international assistance to tackle the crisis,” the petition says.

Faced with yet another impending doom, the Japanese government seems to be doing exactly what it was at the height of the disaster in 2011 – namely, denying the problem and downplaying the risks. Or else why would the Japanese public and experts and politicians alike fear that summoning international intervention was the only recourse left to avert the brewing disaster?

“We Japanese civil organizations express our deepest concern that our government does not inform its citizens about the extent of risk of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool,” the petitioners write. “Given the fact that collapse of this pool could potentially lead to catastrophic consequences with worldwide implications, what the Japanese government should be doing as a responsible member of the international community is to avoid any further disaster by mobilizing all the wisdom and the means available in order to stabilize this spent nuclear fuel.”

It is evident, the petition continues, that the spent fuel at Unit 4 “is no longer a Japanese issue but an international issue with potentially serious consequences. Therefore, it is imperative for the Japanese government and the international community to work together on this crisis before it becomes too late.”

The petitioners appeal “to the United Nations to help Japan and the planet” with an urgent request to organize a Nuclear Security Summit and establish an independent assessment team on Fukushima’s Unit 4 that would pool together international expertise in order to bring the spent nuclear fuel crisis under control.

No information has yet come in of any reaction to this request.

Meanwhile, there is an aspect to these developments that drives it a little closer to home. One implication that bears direct significance for Russia is the geography, plain and simple. If the problem that experts deem too serious to leave to Japan’s handling without international help does escalate into a major catastrophe, this would mean new risks and new headaches for that country’s immediate neighbors – among which Russia is one. And while the UN considers this appeal, Russia, too, would do well to heed the warning voices and join the request for international action.

At issue is not only the risk of radioactive fallout that could affect Russia’s Far East – just the mere threat of contamination last year plunged the residents of Russia’s Far Eastern regions into a panic, with many rushing to local pharmacies to stock on iodine – but more radioactively contaminated export goods finding their way across the border. It was only roughly a month ago that Russian customs officials in the Far East reported of yet another (in Russian) batch of Japanese-made cars that had failed to pass radiation safety control upon delivery to a Russian port. And latest tests have revealed radioactive contamination still present in goods and produce in nine prefectures in Japan.

Alas, the Russian government’s reaction when the catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi struck last year was much in the same vein as how Japan’s nuclear officials chose to treat it: Denial, withholding, and understatement. As the disaster at Fukushima kept deteriorating, the Russian nuclear industry, which has never had occasion to complain about a lack of unquestioning support from the Kremlin, responded with upbeat no-need-to-worry commentary multiplied across national TV channels and publications.

This is the old “nuclear power is safe” rhetoric it has dedicated too much energy and too many resources disseminating and one it still needs to stay true to – lest it is forced to concede that nuclear energy comes with demons even a nation as technologically advanced as Japan may fail to bring to heel. Just as Japan before Fukushima, Russia has the nuclear industry and government leadership joined at the hip, with the result that it may sooner try to disregard a threat than join a call to address it.

But this is an arrangement that not only prevents acknowledgment of a problem that too much effort has been expended denying, but builds a wall of stubborn isolation exactly when so much depends on openness and willingness to offer or accept help. Tragically, Japan is learning the truth of it the hard way.

Vladimir Slivyak, frequent contributor to Bellona, is co-chairman of Ecodefense! and author of the recently published "From Hiroshima to Fukushima," an account of the nuclear industry’s most recent history, combining a detailed chronicle of the 2011 disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan and an in-depth analysis of the industry’s problems in Russia.

[It'sJustMe]

I cannot imagine how many buildings they would need to store this soil in! Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120513_04.html

Residents briefed on contaminated soil storage

The government has asked people from near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to accept the setting up of an intermediate storage facility to keep contaminated soil removed from the area around the plant.

Environment Minister Goshi Hosono met, on Saturday, more than 200 residents of Okuma Town that hosts the damaged nuclear plant. Since the nuclear disaster, all of the towns residents, numbering over 10-thousand, have been evacuated.

The venue of the meeting was in Koriyama City, 50 kilometers away from their hometown. Hosono stressed that the storage facilities are necessary to contain the vast amount of radioactive contaminated soil from the area.

While some questions were raised on the necessity of the storage facilities in their town and feared the increase of radiation levels, many residents changed the subject to the issue of compensation. Some people demanded that compensation be made equally to all residents, regardless of levels of contamination in their area of town.

Hosono said that he acknowledges that compensation is a grave concern for the people and that the government will seek the economic stability of the evacuees before it tries to seek their understanding for the storage facility.

The government is also asking 2 other towns near the Fukushima Daiichi plant to accept the intermediate storage facilities.

Sunday, May 13, 2012 08:59 +0900 (JST)

[It'sJustMe]

Many pages back I posted the photo and story about the one surviving pine tree left after the tsunami. which was dying due to the salt water saturation in the roots. These saplings will be a blessing for these people as they watch them grow, reminding them how nature repairs itself, if given the chance. Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120513_09.html

Pine saplings planted in tsunami-hit area

Pine saplings have been planted in the city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, as part of an effort to restore the once-beautiful coast line.

The tsunami in March of last year swept away all but one of the 70,000 pine trees in the area.

The local conservation group obtained seeds from pine cones which had been gathered before the tsunami. The group asked the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute to grow saplings from the seeds.

On Saturday, 300 saplings each about 15 centimeters tall were planted at a farm located on higher ground in the city by group members and volunteers.

The conservation group plans to replant the pine saplings along the coast after a tsunami barrier is reconstructed.

One volunteer said she wants to come back to see a restored pine forest some day.
Sunday, May 13, 2012 10:52 +0900 (JST)

[It'sJustMe]

There has apparently been little clean-up in some of the hardest hit areas. Fair use:

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/n...na010000c.html

Fukushima residents struggle with quake rubble, lack of volunteers

MINAMISOMA, Fukushima -- Evacuees who are now allowed to return home in the Fukushima Prefecture city of Minamisoma are finding themselves with a shortage of volunteers to help them clear rubble. Many other cities in the Tohoku region that were hard hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami have had over a year to deal with such problems.

With the exception of some parts of the city, the no-go designation on Minamisoma, a city greatly affected by the quake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, was lifted over a year after the disasters on April 16, allowing residents to enter the city freely.

Kazui Nagayama, 79, commutes everyday from his temporary housing facility to his home in the city's Odaka district, which was engulfed by tsunami in March 2011. "My house is far from being cleaned up," he says. "It's exhausting, both emotionally and physically. I want people to understand that not all disaster areas are the same; those that have been affected by the nuclear crisis are different."

From Tokyo's Katsushika Ward, Misae Komatsu, 42, visited Minamisoma with her father and husband during the Golden Week holiday to volunteer for rubble removal. They helped carry furniture caked in mud out of homes and scraped mud out of gutters. "I was shocked to see that over a year after the quake and tsunami, everything was still the way it was," Komatsu said of the untouched rubble.

"I think there are people out there who don't know that there's still a need for volunteers who can help with rubble removal," suggested Toshio Watanabe, a 52-year-old volunteer from Chiba.

Currently, the Nakamachi Volunteer Center commissioned by Minamisoma's Council of Social Welfare is the only organization accepting volunteers to remove rubble in the area. The center says there were about 700 volunteers during the April 28 to May 6 "Golden Week" holiday, with one day seeing over 100 volunteers. Since May 7, however, the numbers have dropped to about a dozen per day.

Meanwhile, there is still a great demand among residents for assistance from volunteers. As of May 8, residents of Minamisoma's Odaka district have lodged with the center 14 requests for help that would require the manpower of some 420 people.

In an effort to alleviate the labor shortage, Minamisoma's Council of Social Welfare decided that volunteers would be accepted through the city's life recovery volunteer center beginning May 18.

According to the Fukushima Disaster Volunteer Center, 149,310 volunteers participated in activities in the prefecture from March 12, 2011 -- the day after the quake -- through the month of April 2012. May 2011 saw the greatest number of volunteers, at 34,385 people. The figures plummeted after September, however, with only 1,161 volunteers taking part in activities this past April.

A Fukushima Disaster Volunteer Center official points to a shift in the type of volunteer activities across the prefecture, saying: "Immediately after the disasters, there was a high demand for rubble removal, but now a lot of volunteer work is focused on supporting the everyday lives of people who are now living in temporary housing facilities."

May12, 2012

[Sysman]

300 saplings each about 15 centimeters tall were planted

Be the first kid on your block to get a brand new glow-in-the-dark Pine Cone!



.

[It'sJustMe]

Only 8% have even gotten permission to relocate! It's past one year now! Fair use:

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/n...na005000c.html

Only 8 percent of districts in disaster areas have received gov't permission to relocate

About 210 districts in 26 municipalities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are planning to move inland or to higher ground to protect against future tsunamis, but only 8 percent of them have received government consent to do so, a Mainichi survey has found.

In addition to difficulties in acquiring land and winning understanding from residents, a lack of local government workers and delays in government restoration grants are believed to have contributed to the low approval rate.
With 14 months now having passed since the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the three prefectures, calls are increasing in disaster areas for more government support.

Data collected by the Mainichi found that about 70 districts in eight cities, towns and villages in Iwate Prefecture -- roughly 4,200 households -- were planning group relocation projects to protect themselves from another natural disaster.
In Miyagi Prefecture, some 110 districts in 12 municipalities, or about 13,000 households, were eyeing group relocations, as were about 30 districts in six municipalities in Fukushima (about 1,700 households).
Combining the figures from the three prefectures, about 18,900 households are covered by the plans.

To develop building lots, municipalities must consult the central government and obtain consent from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The ministry says that as of May 11, 2012, consent had been given to a total of 17 districts in the Miyagi Prefecture cities of Iwanuma and Ishinomaki, the Iwate Prefecture village of Noda, and the Fukushima Prefecture city of Soma, covering just 1,395 households. The figures indicate that 8.1 percent of the districts -- accounting for 7.6 percent of the households -- have received consent.
An official of the Sendai Municipal Government, which is planning to move 1,700 households, commented, "We didn't know the government's restoration budget and the framework of the system, so we couldn't settle on the scale of the project and its cost, which led to delays in the explanation to residents."

The city drew up a restoration project in November last year after last fiscal year's third supplementary budget -- which included restoration grants covering group relocation projects -- came into effect. As of May 7, 30 percent of people were reportedly still undecided over how they should rebuild their homes.
The Miyagi Prefecture city of Ishinomaki planned to relocate about 6,900 households in 63 districts, and obtained consent from 321 households in 13 districts. A city official commented, "When we struggle to achieve a consensus of opinion, we can't settle on how many homes there will be in the new location, and can't obtain the central government's consent. We're also worried about lacking workers when operations move into full swing."

The central government has asked other local bodies for cooperating in sending workers to disaster areas, and they have complied, but one official commented, "It's not enough. We want more support."

Some local bodies have yet to determine the number of districts and households to move, and it is likely that the total number of those relocating will increase in the future.

May 12, 2012(Mainichi Japan)

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/n...na015000c.html

Fishermen in disaster-stricken areas say life now far tougher than last year

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi -- Following the April 1 introduction of new safety standards that limit allowable radioactive cesium in food to less than 100 becquerels per kilogram, fishermen in many disaster-stricken areas are saying life is worse now than it was last year.

"The tsunami last March was horrible, but life now is two, three times more difficult," uttered 59-year-old Kenichi Suda, a fisherman from Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, as he stood amid piles of rubble still remaining along the coast of the city over a year after the March 11, 2011, disasters. "If only there were no radiation problem," he said.

If the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had never taken place, Suda, who is based some 100 kilometers from the damaged plant, would have been busy right now fishing for sand lance, whose peak season is in spring.

However, despite the fact that radiation screenings on the fish conducted this January showed doses below 100 becquerels per kilogram, Suda and other local fishermen belonging to a Miyagi prefectural fishery cooperative reached the decision to refrain from fishing this spring due to fears of radioactive contamination.

Suda, whose house was completely destroyed in last year's tsunami, managed to restart his fishing business despite the enormous damage to local ports and fishing grounds following the disasters. This, he says, has made the pain from the latest voluntary ban on fishing even worse.

"I wonder how long this (voluntary ban) will continue," he said. "We may eventually have to stop fishing for other kinds of fish as well ..."
To make ends meet, Suda is currently working part-time dividing wakame seaweed leaves, and doing other temporary jobs.

"I want to continue fishing here," he says. "The only thing we can do right now is keep working without thinking too much."

In step with the government's new food safety standards that lowered the maximum allowable dose of radiation per kilogram of food from 500 becquerels to 100 becquerels, the Miyagi Prefectural Government in March increased the number of marine food samples subject to testing from last year's 20 per week to 100 per week.

As a result, radioactive doses far exceeding the new limit were detected in four kinds of local fish, including sea bass, with the highest detected radiation dose of 360 becquerels per kilogram, and flounder, which had a maximum detected radiation dose of 400 becquerels per kilogram. The results led the Miyagi Prefectural Government and prefectural fishery cooperatives to institute a self-imposed ban on the fishing of all four kinds of fish this season at specified fishing grounds.

Meanwhile, local fish markets within Miyagi Prefecture have taken various steps to prevent fish contaminated with radiation levels higher than permitted from spreading through the market, including increasing available dosimeters and expanding radiation screenings on local marine products.

A fish market official says that despite efforts to assure product safety, however, many consumers, particularly in western Japan, are still shying away from fish from Miyagi Prefecture.

"The only thing we can do is to inform our customers that we are addressing the matter conscientiously through various ways, including radiation screenings," says Kunio Suno, the president of Ishinomaki Fish Market.

May 12, 2012(Mainichi Japan)

[Magdalen]

Thank you for the updates, It'sJustMe. They are greatly appreciated.

magdalen

[DustMusher]

Bumping this thread to compare photos in post 1 to current posts. Scary!!!!

DM

[It'sJustMe]

There was talk fairly early on, of there being connections within the media and Tepco, and that was speculated to be one of the reasons that the news was so hard to come by, in the early days and weeks of Fukushima. This makes that speculation appear to be well founded! Note that this article was an editorial done by competing media (newspaper) of NHK TV. Fair use:

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/p...na014000c.html

Editorial: NHK exec's assignment to TEPCO board is ill-advised

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, announced its new lineup of board members on May 14. Among the seven external directors of the 11-member board is Fumio Sudo, chairman of public broadcaster NHK's Board of Governors.

Is it acceptable for the head of a media organization to sit on the board of TEPCO, a prime target of media coverage?

The Board of Governors is NHK's highest decision-making body, according to the Broadcast Law. Its 12 members are appointed to three-year terms by the prime minister after approval from both houses of the Diet. The corporate executives and academic experts that comprise the board hold regular meetings twice a month.

The board has the right to vote on the broadcaster's budget and give evaluations on the performance of its officers -- including the chairman. The results of such assessments are then reflected in the officers' salaries and other benefits. Following a slew of scandals at NHK beginning in 2004, the board was entrusted with more authority in 2008. Sudo joined the body in spring of 2011. Just last fall, the board approved a three-year management plan that included the reduction of the broadcaster's monthly subscription fee starting fiscal 2012.

Naturally, NHK will continue its coverage of TEPCO. A mountain of challenges still lies ahead for the utility, including bringing the ongoing nuclear crisis under control, making compensation payments, dealing with the question of reactivating its nuclear power plants, securing a stable power supply, and handling rising power costs and energy-saving measures. One could say that after TEPCO is nationalized, it will deserve of even more scrutiny from the public than before.

But with the assignment of Sudo to TEPCO's board, will NHK be able to stay true to the media's most important oath, that of neutrality and independence from the subjects it covers? Will reporters not feel the pressure to hold back? Will viewers not doubt the fairness of NHK's coverage? One could go on and on about misgivings surrounding the arrangement. As it is, the public has long been suspicious of ties between NHK and the political world.

The Broadcast Law stipulates that members of NHK's Board of Governors cannot interfere with the editorial content of individual programs. After he was named to TEPCO's board, Sudo assured the Mainichi Shimbun and other media outlets that NHK's approach to its coverage of TEPCO will remain unchanged.

"I accepted the appointment (to TEPCO's board) after the (incoming TEPCO) chairman (Kazuhiko Shimokobe) came to me and said that we were in the midst of a national crisis that had to be dealt with," Sudo said. "Both TEPCO and NHK are being operated according to the law."

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tatsuo Kawabata and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano have both agreed that Sudo's appointment to TEPCO's board is "not a problem."

However, freedom of speech and freedom of the press comprise the backbone of our democratic society, and should be handled with sensitivity and care -- all the more so considering NHK's tremendous influence, and the fact that it is a public broadcaster operating on subscription fees collected from the public.

Indeed, questions about Sudo's post to TEPCO's board have been raised from within NHK. The Japan Broadcasting Labor Union has issued a statement objecting to the appointment, and a civic group has submitted a petition to NHK demanding that Sudo choose between NHK and TEPCO.

"Don't stand under a plum tree, lest you be suspected of trying to steal plums," goes a saying originating in a Chinese classical text. In other words, one should avoid putting oneself in misleading positions that invite suspicion. According to such advice, shouldn't Sudo rethink the posts he plans to fill simultaneously?

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120519a3.html

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Seawall repairs go slow

Kyodo

Work to rebuild seawalls damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami was fully under way in just 20 percent of affected areas by the end of March, the government reported to its reconstruction promotion council Friday.

In the first assessment of its reconstruction projects, the government has found that work fell short of targets in two of 18 infrastructure-related categories, including failure to finish transferring tsunami-generated debris to temporary storage lots in 14 coastal municipalities.

Under a schedule compiled in November, work to rebuild seawalls was supposed to be up and running in 131 areas, or roughly 30 percent of the 416 areas affected by the tsunami, by the end of the fiscal year that ended in March. But work began in only 76 areas.

Seawall reconstruction has run into difficulties in many areas, with local residents split over a choice between scenery and safety when deciding how high the walls should be rebuilt.

As for debris generated by tsunami, work to move it to temporary storage areas was to have been completed in 23 coastal municipalities by the end of March but has been completed in only nine.

The delay is being tied to the time needed to gain owners' OK for tearing down damaged houses, given that more homes than originally anticipated have been earmarked for demolition.

Original targets were either largely or completely met in the rebuilding of farmland, farm facilities, fishing ports, fishing grounds, roads, airports and railways, according to the government.

[It'sJustMe]

They tried burning debris near Tokyo early on, but had to shut down the facility due to area hot spots popping up around the area close to the disposal site. It will be interesting to see if this is also a problem here, or whether it will be successful here. Fair use:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120519a4.html

Iwate disaster debris on its way to Shizuoka

Kyodo

MORIOKA, Iwate Pref. — Work began Friday to transport 10 tons of debris caused by last year's earthquake and tsunami from Yamada, a coastal town in Iwate Prefecture, to Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Shimada, which plans to incinerate 5,000 tons of debris a year from Yamada and Otsuchi in Iwate, is so far the only place aside from Tokyo and municipalities in the disaster-hit Tohoku region to be engaged in the disposal of debris from the disaster.

To quell radiation fears among local residents, the Shimada Municipal Government confirmed the safety of the operation in February by incinerating debris and measuring radiation contamination level in the ash.

Also Friday, city officials measured airborne radiation levels around debris containers, which were lower than the safety yardstick set by Shizuoka Prefecture.

The debris is scheduled to arrive at a disposal facility on Wednesday.

Many municipalities are facing opposition from their residents over the acceptance of debris from the disaster.

[USDA]

Evacuees who are now allowed to return home in the Fukushima Prefecture city of Minamisoma are finding themselves with a shortage of volunteers to help them clear rubble. And the foolishness of moving contaminated soil...

These people are screening for gnats and swallowing camels..the entire area is so contaminated that cooler heads will never allow them back to live there in the next thousand years...and storing radio soil...forget it.

This is just a silly exercise in futility. Fuka is spitting out high radioactive particles all across the land and in nobel gases, high into the jet stream, 24 hours a day...and radiation is accumulative...there is no way they can ever really go back...they are pretending the whole nightmare is behind them and now everything is hunky-dory.

77,000 square miles near and far from Chernobyl is too radioactive, 26 years later, to live on...and these folks within 20 miles of Fukushima, which is a worse disaster than the Russian one...and over a year later is not getting anywhere near resolved...and they will go home, and with some volunteer help, straighten things up and everything will be as before...

It is truly sad... I can see why the shortage of volunteers.

It seems that the Japanese, as a whole, have lost their ability to read the hand writing on the wall. They need to leave now...

[Beth]

They can't leave 'now,' USDA, because 'now' was already too late a year ago. Everyone in Japan is either dead or slowly dying - which is true of all of us - but now millions will die decades sooner than they might have and the quality of their lives will rapidly deteriorate. Ten years from now, if the world is still continuing day-to-day 'as usual,' it will be a hell hole.

There are many more reasons for that than nuclear power gone awry, but right how it's a biggie.

Anyway, here's a map of nuclear power plants worldwide.

[It'sJustMe]

They could sure use a little good news. Maybe this material will help them to store all these tons of contaminated debris and water! Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120521_01.html

New building material to absorb cesium developed

A Japanese research group says they have succeeded in developing a building material that could filter most radioactive cesium from contaminated water.

A research group at Kinki University's Faculty of Engineering in Hiroshima Prefecture applied a method using plaster found in traditional Japanese architecture.

The traditional material called "Shikkui" usually mixes lime with sand, but the group used zeolite powder instead of sand.

The newly developed material is permeable.
Researchers say that during tests that filtered cesium dissolved in water, the material absorbed over 99-percent of the cesium.

The group says the material could be used to safely store debris and soil contaminated by radiation by preventing radioactive substances from seeping out.

Researcher Atsushi Taga says the result was unexpected. He says he hopes the material will be used to store contaminated debris from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
May 20, 2012 - Updated 21:05 UTC (06:05 JST)

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20120521ve.html

Monday, May 21, 2012

For better or worse, Japan might remain nuclear-free forever

On May 5, Japan's last operating nuclear reactor was shut down, turning it into a nuclear energy-free country. The government is working desperately to restart two reactors in the town of Oi in Fukui Prefecture, but the outcome is difficult to predict.

In fact, some think Japan's nuclear-free status might not only survive the summer of 2012, but become a fact of life forever.

Until a few weeks ago such a scenario seemed unthinkable. The list of arguments for keeping atomic energy is long.

1) Nuclear dependency: Kansai, which is especially dependent on nuclear energy, is facing a shortage of up to 15 percent this summer even with energy-saving measures. Japan overall got 30 percent of its electricity from nuclear power before Fukushima.

2) Industrial resistance: Japan's business sector, especially the influential Keidanren, is lobbying hard for a quick return to nuclear energy. Manufacturers need secure and affordable energy. Many industries simply cannot afford temporary interruptions and might be forced to move overseas. Most businesses are showing signs of energy-conservation fatigue. Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga has already hinted that the auto industry won't be amenable to another shift in business hours to weekends to save energy as it did in 2011.

3) Energy prices: Abandoning nuclear power will force utilities to import more fossil fuel. The total fuel costs of the nine big utilities will rise from ¥3.6 trillion to ¥6.3 trillion, which will translate into a jump in electricity prices of up to 30 percent or higher. LNG sellers in Qatar and Algeria are already starting to exploit Japan's desperate situation by demanding much more than they charge their European peers.

4) Carbon dioxide increase: A major shift to fossil fuels will mean a major increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Japan would spectacularly fail in its public commitments to pare greenhouse gas emissions.

5) Overseas resistance: Despite the shock waves created by the Fukushima disaster, no foreign government has asked Japan to abandon nuclear energy. Last month, the World Economic Forum even warned Japan about making a rapid break with nuclear as it "would jeopardize Japan's energy security."

Yes, the list of arguments is long. But so is the list of hurdles, with the most important being the reactivation of the first reactor. This is where all of Japan's troubles start and may never end. The government will need local support from the region hosting it.

Back in 2011, the government thought this region might be Kyushu, which traditionally had a positive stance on nuclear energy. But then came the scandal in July 2011 in which Kyushu Electric Power Co. workers were urged to pose as citizens lobbying to restart a local nuclear plant. The utility's credibility took a big hit and hasn't recovered since.

Likewise, the chances are low that Niigata will be this region. High hopes had been put on the massive Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant. It was the world's largest when it opened in 1997, and the people of Niigata used to take pride in it. But a long series of blunders by Tokyo Electric Power Co. have left the public betrayed, and Niigata Gov. Hirohiko Izumida is unwilling to play ball.

The national government has more to be blamed for than the utilities. It has spectacularly failed in two areas: It hasn't come up with a grand vision for energy policy and hasn't won back the trust of the people.

As of today, there is no independent nuclear watchdog deemed free of political interference. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is trusted only by 12 percent of the public, according to poll NISA itself conducted in March.

Hence it comes as no surprise the restart of the Oi reactors is opposed not only by the people of Fukui, but also by the governors of neighboring Shiga and Kyoto prefectures.

Add to this the opposition of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who recently called for making the consent of every local government within 100 km of a nuclear facility a requirement for activation. According to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, only six of the 34 governors and municipal heads are willing to consider restarts in their areas. And even then they demand clear safety standards.

The government needs to move quickly and decisively. It needs a neutral oversight body that can be trusted even by nuclear naysayers. Another group of faceless bureaucrats is no longer sufficient. It must include well-known individuals who can lend credibility to the new entity and its decisions.

Japan might take a page from the German government's playbook. Right after the Fukushima accident, the German government established the Ethics Commission, which discussed and subsequently made recommendations on the future of the nation's nuclear policy. It was made up of famous and highly respected individuals including businesspeople, academics and even a cardinal. While the German Ethics Commission paved the way for the country's exit from nuclear power, a similar approach might help Japan actually achieve the opposite — a restart, however temporary, of the nuclear power business.

At this very moment, the chances that a nuclear reactor in Japan will be reactivated appear to be fifty-fifty. It will all depend on the ability of the government to come up with a clear energy policy, change its disastrous information and communication policies, and address the issue sincerely with the public's interest in mind. Even last week's decision by the Oi Municipal Assembly to back the restarting of Kansai Electric's reactors is no guarantee this will happen.

Just imagine another trust-obliterating scandal or nuclear accident taking place after the next quake. The public reaction will be clear and turn May 5 into the day Japan followed Italy by shutting down its last nuclear reactor — forever.

[It'sJustMe]

Here's a video on the spread of Nuclear contamination. We have read most of this on this thread already, but I came across this video on CNN this morning, so thought I would post it for anyone who has not read about how the contamination has spread far and wide in Japan. It also illustrates how the people of Japan have become leery of their government. Fair use:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#...tion-fears.cnn

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120524x2.html

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Radiation didn't cause Fukushima No. 1 deaths: U.N

Radiation exposure was not responsible for the deaths of six workers helping to contain the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, a U.N. committee said in a preliminary assessment Wednesday.

Based on information available so far, their deaths are attributable to cardiovascular disease or other reasons, according to the report compiled by the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.

One of the six died of acute leukemia, but radiation exposure was ruled out as a cause because the time between possible exposure and death was so short, the committee said.

The committee is undertaking a study to assess the radiation doses and associated effects on health and the environment after the crisis started at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant, which was stricken by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami last year.

UNSCEAR Chairman Wolfgang Weiss said in a statement that the agency is aiming to evaluate irradiation levels for about 2 million people living in Fukushima Prefecture at the time the nuclear crisis started March 11.

He said the committee, which plans to report to the U.N. General Assembly next year, also has information about measurements made on the thyroids of over 1,000 children in the region.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said the maximum whole-body radiation dose individuals received from the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant is estimated at 50 millisieverts over the first four months.

WHO disclosed dose estimates on Wednesday in the first international effort to assess global radiation doses from the accident caused by the disasters. The estimates took into account all major exposure pathways.

The total effective dose received by residents in two locations of relatively high exposure in the prefecture is within a band of 10 to 50 millisieverts, assuming they lived there for four months after the crisis started, the report said.

The two locations are parts of Namie and Iitate outside the no-go zone but within 20 km of the plant.

The effective annual doses are estimated at 1 to 10 millisieverts for other parts of Fukushima and 0.1 to 10 millisieverts for neighboring prefectures, including Miyagi.

Those estimates compare with 0.1 to 1 millisievert for the rest of Japan and less than 0.01 millisievert elsewhere on the globe.

A widely accepted annual limit for public exposure is 1 millisievert under normal conditions.

If annual doses exceed 100 millisieverts, the risk of developing cancer is believed to increase.

The WHO report also said estimated thyroid doses for 1-year-olds were highest in Namie, at 100 to 200 millisieverts, followed by 10 to 100 millisieverts in Iitate, Katsurao, Minamisoma and other Fukushima municipalities.

Elsewhere in Japan, thyroid doses are estimated between 1 and 10 millisieverts, the organization said, noting that doses in the rest of the world are less than 0.01 millisievert.

Among evacuees from areas affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, thyroid doses averaged 490 millisieverts, according to a 2008 U.N. report.

The WHO compiled the latest report based on information publicly available up to mid-September last year. As conservative assumptions were used, some overestimation may have occurred, it said.

In reaction, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura played down the WHO estimate.

It is "based on the assumption that no countermeasures, such as evacuations and restriction on eating contaminated food, were taken," the government's top spokesman told a news conference Thursday.

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120527_14.html

Edano regrets govt's response to nuclear accident

Japan's industry minister has admitted that the government failed to provide sufficient information to the public after last year's accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Yukio Edano was the government's spokesperson at the time.

Edano told a Diet-appointed panel on Sunday that he regrets the government was unable to collect information and anticipate events.

He said he regrets the fact that there was a huge gap between him and the people in the affected areas concerning the effects of radiation.

Edano said no one had expected that people would have to be evacuated for a long time, and he deeply regrets the hardship that this caused.

He also said he is deeply ashamed that his instruction to government and TEPCO officials to submit all relevant information was not thoroughly followed.

Edano said he advised former Prime Minister Naoto Kan not to visit the Fukushima plant soon after the accident, but agreed that Kan could do so if he was aware of the potential political risks.

Edano said he only found about the SPEEDI system for predicting the spread of radiation 15 or 16 days after the disaster. He said the fact that the system was not used was a major cause of the public's loss of trust in the government.

On the US government's request to have members based full-time at the Prime Minister's residence, Edano said the United States was frustrated by the lack of information.

He said the Prime Minister's residence is where Japan makes decisions as a sovereign state, and it is unthinkable to have members of foreign governments involved in the process. Edano said he sought the US government's understanding for Japan's stance on this issue.

The panel is scheduled to hear from Kan on Monday.

May 27, 2012 - Updated 13:58 UTC (22:58 JST)

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/

Monday, May 28, 2012

Tepco may try to remove unused fuel assemblies from feared No. 4 pool

Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. might try to remove two unused fuel assemblies sitting in the spent-fuel pool above the Fukushima No. 1 plant's No. 4 reactor in July, officials said Sunday.

The attempt would be a test run for securing the dangerous pool, which has become a priority because the building that housed the reactor and the pool — which sits on the fifth floor — was ripped apart by a hydrogen explosion in the early days of the nuclear crisis last year and could collapse in a strong earthquake. That might dump hundreds of fuel rods on the ground, where they would burn up and release even more radiation than in last year's crisis.

Since the unused fuel is not generating heat from fission, it is less dangerous to handle than the spent fuel. The utility, known as Tepco, is hoping to determine how damaged the unused assemblies are and to devise ways to store them.

When the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011, tipping the flawed plant into crisis, the fuel in the core of unit 4 was already in the spent-fuel pool because the reactor was being refurbished and was inactive. The pool contains 1,535 fuel assemblies, including 204 unused ones.

Tepco plans to start removing the fuel in the pool by the end of 2013 as part of work to decommission reactors 1 through 4, which were crippled by meltdowns and explosions in the disaster.

While concerns remain that the pool is in a vulnerable state, Tepco said in its latest inspection that it has confirmeed the pool is not tilting and can safely hold the fuel.

[Deena in GA]

Thank you so much for keeping this thread updated, ItsJustMe!

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311dis...AJ201205270025

Rubble hinders decommissioning work at Fukushima No. 4 reactor

Mountains of rubble stand in the way of decommissioning the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, part of an unprecedented challenge facing Japan to decommission four crippled reactors.

The No. 4 reactor building was opened to a handful of media organizations on May 26 for the first time since the nuclear crisis was triggered following last year's March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

A reporter from the Tokyo Shimbun described the scene on the fourth floor as looking like that of a "battlefield after being bombed." The wall facing the sea had been blown off in a hydrogen explosion on March 15 last year.

"Pipes were severely bent," the reporter said. "Steel frames were also twisted and rusted. It was hard for me to believe such a thick wall was blown off over a wide area."

A tour of the No. 4 building by media outlets was given to coincide with an inspection by Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of handling the nuclear disaster.

What is most under threat in the No. 4 building, experts in and out of Japan say, is the spent fuel pool, which holds 1,535 fuel assemblies, an equivalent of those in three reactors.

Many point out the risks of the collapse of the pool if another huge temblor with the power of last year's quake strikes the plant.

To dismiss concerns about potential risks to the No. 4 building, TEPCO released a report on May 25 stating that the structure had an outward bulge of 3.3 centimeters in a portion of its west wall due to the hydrogen explosion, but did not pose a threat to its structural integrity.

Hosono said after the tour that the government accepted Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s assurance of the safety of the building.

“The government has concluded that even if an earthquake measuring ‘upper 6’ (on the Japanese scale of 7) hits, the No. 4 building will be able to withstand the impact,” Hosono said. “The wall buckling out is situated away from the pool, but the government has ordered TEPCO to double-check the safety of the building as we take the situation seriously.”

TEPCO reinforced the structure of the pool by adding steel support and concrete beneath the pool in July.

The utility also said that it would take two or three weeks for spent fuel rods to start being exposed in the event of the pool's cooling system being knocked out.

On the fifth floor of the No. 4 reactor building, the top floor, the Tokyo Shimbun reporter could see the upper part of the spent fuel rod pool, which was covered with a floating white tarp.

"I could catch a glimpse into the water surface of the pool, but the water looked too stagnant to see the fuel rods seven meters beneath," he said.

The reporter said he was not entirely reassured by the utility’s promise that the structure will be sturdy enough to remain unscathed in another big quake despite no major, visible damage to the wall near the pool.

"TEPCO said that the pool can withstand a temblor equivalent to the quake last year, but I was not convinced of that," the reporter said.

The decommissioning work is said to be farthest along in the No. 4 building, compared with the buildings housing the No. 1 through No. 3 reactors, where three meltdowns occurred.

The No. 4 reactor was offline when the quake and tsunami struck. TEPCO plans to start moving the fuel rods from the No. 4 reactor spent fuel pool to a nearby common pool in December 2013 and complete the work in about two years.

To proceed to that stage, debris left on the upper floors of the building after the hydrogen explosion must be cleared.

But TEPCO said only 60 percent of the work has been completed since the process began last autumn. An excavator has been brought in on the fifth floor of the No. 4 reactor building to remove debris.

The decommissioning of the four reactors is expected to take at least 30 years, according to the mid- to long-term road map released in December by the government and TEPCO.

It will take 20 to 25 years to finish retrieving all the melted fuel left in the three reactors.

TEPCO is now preparing for decontamination work at the No. 1 through No. 3 reactor buildings to pave the way for workers to begin the retrieval of melted fuel rods.

The utility plans to remove debris and damaged walls at the No. 4 reactor building by autumn this year, a required step before it begins removing spent fuel rods in the pool.

It envisages covering the No. 4 building with a canopy by next summer to reduce the release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere.

A crane and other equipment needed to move the fuel rods will be installed in autumn 2013 so that technicians can start the retrieval process.

But there are many uncertainties that could easily derail TEPCO’s timetable, experts say.

The plan could be delayed because clearing the structure could take more time than expected because concrete blocks and pieces of steel frame are scattered all around in and out of the No. 4 reactor pool.

TEPCO also needs to secure a facility to store fuel rods from the pool, as a common nearby pool has space for only 465 fuel rods remaining.

The No. 1 through No. 3 reactors are being cooled by makeshift cooling systems, resulting in the leakage of a large amount of highly contaminated water at the plant.

High levels of radiation in the drainage are preventing the utility from preparing for the start of decommissioning work.

TEPCO will also have to proceed with decommissioning amid concerns for possible powerful aftershocks and tsunami.

It said that the reactors will be cooled with emergency cooling pumps even if the existing cooling systems are knocked out in such an event.

If a tsunami strikes the plant when the decommissioning work is under way, the makeshift cooling systems could be destroyed and contaminated water could leak into the sea.

TEPCO said the plant will be shielded from tsunami up to 8 meters high, as it erected a temporary breakwater up to 14 meters from the sea surface on a stretch of about 380 meters along the sea as a safeguard.

But the ability of the breakwater to withstand a tsunami 13 meters high, just like the one last year, is being questioned since it was built using buckets of stones piled atop each other.

The utility needs to put up a full-fledged breakwater in the future, but has yet to draw up a specific plan for one.

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311dis...AJ201205250053

TEPCO's post-mortem shows No. 2 reactor main source of radiation

May 25, 2012

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has come up with a new mind-boggling figure to explain the amount of radiation that spewed in the three weeks following the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year.

It is 900 quadrillion becquerels: That's 17 zeros (a quadrillion is one thousand trillion).

The latest figure, announced May 24, reflects findings by TEPCO a little more than a year after the crisis triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

It is also about 1.2 times the estimate of 770 quadrillion becquerels made last June by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and represents about 17 percent of the volume released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The radiation was primarily released by the stricken No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. This would explain the high levels of contamination found in an area to the northwest of the Fukushima No. 1 plant on March 15, 2011, four days after the Great East Japan Earthquake that triggered the disaster.

TEPCO also said a large volume of radioactive materials was released in the direction of the Pacific Ocean the following day. Although it is unable to pinpoint the source, it said the No. 3 reactor was the most likely culprit.

The volume of radioactive materials released between March 12 and March 31, 2011, was calculated on the basis of figures for airborne radiation levels detected in the vicinity of the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

A breakdown by source of the contamination showed that 130 quadrillion becquerels were released from the No. 1 reactor, 360 quadrillion becquerels from the No. 2 reactor and 320 quadrillion becquerels from the No. 3 reactor. While no radioactive materials are believed to have been emitted from the No. 4 reactor, TEPCO was uncertain of the source for 110 quadrillion becquerels.

Around 9 a.m. on March 15, 2011, a monitoring post by the main gate of the plant recorded the highest radiation level of 11,930 microsieverts per hour.

TEPCO officials said the high radiation level detected must have come from the No. 2 reactor because the pressure within the containment vessel, where a meltdown had occurred, fell sharply.

That would imply that around 40 percent of the radioactive materials from the No. 2 reactor was released March 15.

TEPCO officials suspect the radioactive materials leaked from cracks in the containment vessel.

Because venting at the No. 2 reactor did not pass through water as in the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors, radioactive materials from the No. 2 reactor spewed directly into the atmosphere from the cracks in the containment vessel.

A wind was blowing from the southeast at the time, sending radioactive materials in a northwesterly direction from the plant.

Radioactive materials contaminated the soil as rain fell on the evening of March 15.

TEPCO officials also believe a large volume of radioactive materials was released from the No. 3 reactor on March 16. They said pressure within the containment vessel also fell at that time, but so far no one knows precisely what happened within the No. 3 reactor.

This could be important because an estimated 180 quadrillion becquerels in terms of radioactive iodine spewed out between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on March 16, making it the largest amount released.

The wind was blowing out to sea and there was no rain, so the radioactive materials likely did not contaminate the soil.

TEPCO officials also analyzed the release of radioactive materials into the ocean between March 26 and Sept. 30 of last year. The estimated amount was 11 quadrillion becquerels of iodine and 7.1 quadrillion becquerels of cesium. No data exists for the period between March 11 and March 25 because TEPCO did not begin collecting data for radiation levels in the ocean until March 26.

The estimates made by TEPCO also indicate that venting to lower pressure within the containment vessels played a key role in determining the level of radioactive materials released.

While venting was carried out at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors before hydrogen explosions at the two reactor buildings on March 12 and March 14, respectively, venting was not done at the No. 2 reactor, which discharged the largest volume of radioactive materials.

Although the emergency core cooling mechanism was in operation the longest at the No. 2 reactor, among the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors where meltdowns occurred, officials as of noon March 14 could not confirm that cooling water continued to be pumped into the No. 2 reactor.

From the evening of March 14, pressure within the No. 2 reactor containment vessel rose sharply. Due to concerns about an explosion and massive leaks of radioactive materials, TEPCO began to consider whether to evacuate its workers.

An explosion at the No. 4 reactor building around 6 a.m. on March 15 made it much more difficult to determine what was happening inside the No. 2 reactor.

At about 8:30 a.m. on March 15, white smoke was detected from the upper wall of the No. 2 reactor building. Pressure within the containment vessel also dropped sharply.

However, venting of the gases through the water of the suppression chamber did not work. The valve itself was not working properly, partly due to insufficient air pressure to open the valve. While an attempt was made to directly vent gases from the containment vessel into the atmosphere, officials were unable to determine if the effort was successful.

TEPCO officials have no explanation for the failure of the venting.

[It'sJustMe]

I remember reading something about salmon migrating in the winter months to Japan, so I have been watching for any signs that our PNW salmon being possibly contaminated, as we eat a lot of Pacific raised salmon here. This tuna is the first I have read of, but I have to wonder how many other species might have cesium, or worse, in them, as time goes on? Will they tell us, if it proves to be? This was found because scientists were studying the fish, not because our government is testing. Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120529_12.html

Cesium detected in tuna off US west coast

A US research team says trace amounts of radioactive cesium were detected in bluefin tuna caught off the Californian coast last August. The contamination reportedly stems from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

A team including a Stanford University researcher released the findings in a US science journal on Monday.

The study shows that 15 bluefin tuna caught off San Diego, California contained 4 becquerels of cesium 134 per kilogram and 6.3 becquerels of cesium 137 per kilogram. The team says these levels pose no harm for human consumption.

Bluefin tuna caught in the same waters in 2008 reportedly carried no cesium 134 and only negligible levels of cesium 137.

The findings suggest that the tuna were most likely contaminated near Japan during last year's nuclear disaster, before migrating to the US west coast.

May 29, 2012 - Updated 01:35 UTC (10:35 JST)

[It'sJustMe]

Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120529_03.html

Fukushima fallout spread globally in 40 days

Japanese scientists say radioactive substances from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have been dispersed all around the globe in about 40 days.

A research team led by Akira Watanabe, a Fukushima University professor and meteorologist, measured the daily concentration of airborne radioactive substances in Fukushima City since May last year, about 2 months after the nuclear disaster occurred.

The research results show that the concentration of radioactive materials in the air during the first month of the survey was on average 0.0048 becquerels per cubic meter.

About 10 months later, in March this year, the figure decreased by around 85-percent.

The researchers say the overall density is declining, but continues to rise and fall alternately in a 40-day cycle.

They say radioactive materials from the Fukushima plant fell to the ground in various parts of the world, carried by atmospheric air flows, and then gradually decreased.

The findings will be presented on Tuesday at a meeting of the Meteorological Society of Japan in Ibaraki Prefecture.

May 28, 2012 - Updated 17:34 UTC (02:34 JST)

[It'sJustMe]

I expect a whole lot of this is going on, in all areas of food produced in Japan. Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120528_23.html

Fmr manager caught for mislabeling Fukushima beef

Japanese police have arrested a man on suspicion of putting false labels on beef products from Fukushima Prefecture. The prefecture hosts the damaged nuclear plant.

Hiroshi Kutsukake is accused of selling mislabeled beef at a supermarket meat shop in Osaka, western Japan, in February.

Police say the former shop manager has admitted to the charges, saying he did it because the supermarket asked him to specify where the meat came from and he thought customers wouldn't buy Fukushima beef.

Previously, the shop's beef products had been identified simply as either domestic or imported.

Last month, the agriculture ministry ordered the shop's operator to label beef products correctly after the shop was found to have falsified the origin of 1.4 tons of beef.

May 28, 2012 - Updated 07:41 UTC (16:41 JST)

[It'sJustMe]

So sad!

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120528_30.html

Evacuee found dead, suicide suspected

A nuclear evacuee from Fukushima Prefecture has been found dead in his hometown in the no-entry zone, one day after he went missing during a visit to the area with his wife. Police suspect he committed suicide.

The 62-old-year man was found on Monday afternoon hanging in a storehouse he owns in Namie Town, near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

He went missing after visiting his house and shop on Sunday morning. Local police officers and firefighters had been searching him.

The man was forced to close his shop after the nuclear accident at the plant in March last year. Police say he had been telling his family and people close to him that there was no point in living without prospects for reopening his business. He had also been expressing a desire to return home and stay there.

The Cabinet Office says 13 residents of Fukushima have killed themselves in the past 10 months through March for reasons related to last year's earthquake and tsunami and the ensuing nuclear accident.

[Tom McDowell]

I remember reading something about salmon migrating in the winter months to Japan, so I have been watching for any signs that our PNW salmon being possibly contaminated, as we eat a lot of Pacific raised salmon here. This tuna is the first I have read of, but I have to wonder how many other species might have cesium, or worse, in them, as time goes on? Will they tell us, if it proves to be? This was found because scientists were studying the fish, not because our government is testing. Fair use:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120529_12.html

Cesium detected in tuna off US west coast

A US research team says trace amounts of radioactive cesium were detected in bluefin tuna caught off the Californian coast last August. The contamination reportedly stems from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

A team including a Stanford University researcher released the findings in a US science journal on Monday.

The study shows that 15 bluefin tuna caught off San Diego, California contained 4 becquerels of cesium 134 per kilogram and 6.3 becquerels of cesium 137 per kilogram. The team says these levels pose no harm for human consumption.

Bluefin tuna caught in the same waters in 2008 reportedly carried no cesium 134 and only negligible levels of cesium 137.

The findings suggest that the tuna were most likely contaminated near Japan during last year's nuclear disaster, before migrating to the US west coast.

May 29, 2012 - Updated 01:35 UTC (10:35 JST)

A Reminder from Post 4814, dated 04-20-2011 - of this thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showt...27#post4057327

===

FDA Refuses to Test Fish for Radioactivity

... Government Pretends Radioactive Fish Is Safe

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/...-fish-for.html

===

Some snips:


===

The FDA says it won't monitor radiation in fish on the West Coast of the U.S. As the Anchorage Daily News notes:

North Pacific fish are so unlikely to be contaminated by radioactive material from the crippled nuclear plant in Japan that there's no reason to test them, state and federal officials said this week.

***

DeLancey, the FDA spokeswoman, said "We have not been doing any testing. We've been working with NOAA to keep an eye on U.S. waters, to see if there is any cause for alarm, and we do have the capability to begin testing if that does occur."

Asked to explain what kind of monitoring was taking place in the ocean, DeLancey said, "You would have to talk directly to NOAA ... I don't really want to speak for another agency."

But NOAA fisheries spokeswoman Kate Naughton declined to answer questions and referred a reporter back to DeLancey and the EPA.

DeLancey said that so far, there's no reason for concern about Fukushima. The radioactive materials in the water near Fukushima quickly become diluted in the massive volume of the Pacific, she said. Additionally, radioactive fallout that lands on the surface tends to stay there, giving the most unstable ones isotopes like iodine time to decay before reaching fish, she said.

Of course, radioactive isotopes like cesium 137 are very long-lived, and so won't necessarily decay before they reach fish.

And - in typical Orwellian agency-speak - the FDA is trying to reassure people that eating contaminated fish poses no health risk. As the Wall Street Journal notes:

U.S. public-health officials sought Tuesday to reassure consumers about the safety of food in the U.S., including seafood, amid news that fish contaminated with unusually high levels of radioactive materials had been caught in waters 50 miles from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.

No contaminated fish have turned up in the U.S., or in U.S. waters, according to experts from the Food and Drug Administration [which isn't testing], Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They expressed confidence that even a single fish sufficiently contaminated to pose a risk to human health would be detected by the U.S. monitoring system. [But would the government announce such detection?]

They also dismissed concerns that eating fish contaminated at the levels seen so far in Japan would pose such a risk. [Alexander Higgins points out that Japanese fish exceed federal radiation limits by 2400%]

Thomas Frieden, head of the CDC in Atlanta, said he expected continued detection of low levels of radioactive elements in the water, air and food in the U.S. in coming days, but that readings at those levels "do not indicate any level of public health concern."

Is this yet another example of the government responding to the nuclear accident by trying to raise acceptable radiation levels and pretending that radiation is good for us?

Indeed, the ocean currents head from Japan to the West Coast of the U.S.

snip

Of course, fish don't necessarily stay still, either. For example, the Telegraph notes that scientists tagged a bluefin tuna and found that it crossed between Japan and the West Coast three times in 600 days:



That might be extreme, but the point is that fish exposed to radiation somewhere out in the ocean might end up in U.S. waters.

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen doesn't think there will be a risk within the next year. But as the plume spreads across the Pacific, and as small fish get eaten by bigger fish (i.e. bioaccumulation), it would be prudent to measure radiation in fish caught off the West Coast of the U.S. (and Hawaii), and Gundersen suggests we contact our representatives and demand measurement:

===

One of the predators of the Sand Lance is Salmon.

===

Friday, April 15, 2011

Fish near Fukushima have cesium

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0110415a7.html

Radioactive cesium 25 times above the legal limit for consumption was detected Wednesday in young sand lance caught off Fukushima Prefecture, the health ministry said.

One of the sampled fish tested for cesium had 12,500 becquerels per kg.

It was caught about 500 meters off Iwaki and 35 km from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, it said. The limit for cesium is 500 becquerels under the Food Sanitation Law.

===

.

So Nine Months after detecting the presence of Radioactivity in the Blue Fin Tuna - someone decides to tell us.

Salmon are next. So are mentions of Strontium.

===

.

[Hfcomms]

The levels in the Tuna fish that were caught were so tiny that the fish could be safely consumed even with the strict levels that the US has put on such foodstuffs. Yet, because most people don't have their own equipment to monitor such things (or even have a clue what the numbers they are seeing mean) it's better to avoid such foodstuffs on the off chance that you may consume a piece of fish that could be harmful in the long term.

[Hansa44]

The levels in the Tuna fish that were caught were so tiny that the fish could be safely consumed even with the strict levels that the US has put on such foodstuffs. Yet, because most people don't have their own equipment to monitor such things (or even have a clue what the numbers they are seeing mean) it's better to avoid such foodstuffs on the off chance that you may consume a piece of fish that could be harmful in the long term.

So since most people can't monitor this stuff in their fish and since Tom just posted that long article that we won't be monitoring fish either in this country, we should then believe everything the gov. tells us and eat this stuff to our hearts content. And we ALL know, the gov. NEVER lies.

[Hfcomms]

So since most people can't monitor this stuff in their fish and since Tom just posted that long article that we won't be monitoring fish either in this country, we should then believe everything the gov. tells us and eat this stuff to our hearts content. And we ALL know, the gov. NEVER lies.

Did you not read what I said? I only posted two sentences so it should be too difficult to figure out what I wrote. I said;


'Yet, because most people don't have their own equipment to monitor such things (or even have a clue what the numbers they are seeing mean) it's better to avoid such foodstuffs on the off chance that you may consume a piece of fish that could be harmful in the long term.'

That wasn't too vague to make my point was it?

[Hansa44]

Did you not read what I said? I only posted two sentences so it should be too difficult to figure out what I wrote. I said;


'Yet, because most people don't have their own equipment to monitor such things (or even have a clue what the numbers they are seeing mean) it's better to avoid such foodstuffs on the off chance that you may consume a piece of fish that could be harmful in the long term.'

That wasn't too vague to make my point was it?

I agree with what you said completely. Read read your highlighted sentence. I dare you NOT to change it.

And I did read your total post. I thought you were making a sarcastic comment. I misconstrued your intent. There's a lot of that going around lately.

[Hfcomms]

Well, to clarify my remarks I've been saying from almost day 1 that about the only threat I could see to the US mainland is from seafood and veggies, ect grown in that area of the world. Fish that travel great distances such as the Tuna would also be better to avoid. I haven't see any measured amounts yet that would prohibit my eating of the fish if I was hungry enough although I did see some levels that were measured in some fish back in Feb that it wouldn't be a good idea to consume too much of it. Even if most fish are safe to eat there is a chance that some fish are going to slip through the inspection process (if they even are being inspected) so prudence would dictate it would be better to avoid it. With my luck I'd get a fish that was vacationing right off shore of Fuku.