Saturday 31 December 2011

ICRP underestimated the low dose symptom risk by 85% | Fukushima Diary

ICRP underestimated the low dose symptom risk by 85% | Fukushima Diary

NHK is starting to change its attitude to the truth. It’s finally starting to broadcast what is actually true.
On 12/28/2011 ,NHK reported ICRP’s manipulation in late 80s.

In this TV show ,NHK reported that ICRP manipulated the actual data for the political reason.
After Chernobyl ,the cancer rate in Sweden has gone beyond the estimation of ICRP.
In USA ,radioactive tritium from a nuclear plant increased cancer rate. ICRP standard has been known as a false “science”.

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Yakuza’s Debtors Forced to Work at Fukushima Daiichi? – RocketNews24

Yakuza’s Debtors Forced to Work at Fukushima Daiichi? – RocketNews24

According to a book recently published by Tomohiko Suzuki, a freelance journalist who went undercover as a laborer at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant for two months this year, people who were unable to repay loans from yakuza gangs were forced to work at the site as a means of repaying their debts. Tokyo Electric issued a refutal, calling the claim that organized crime would be allowed to influence the recruitment process “groundless”.

Sunday 25 December 2011

Genkai No. 4 reactor shut down; only 6 reactors now operating in Japan ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

Genkai No. 4 reactor shut down; only 6 reactors now operating in Japan ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

SAGA —

Kyushu Electric Power Co said Monday that it has shut down the No. 4 reactor at its Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture for routine inspection. The shutdown now leaves Japan with only six of its 54 nuclear power plants in service.

Kyushu Electric said the reactor, which was shut down on Sunday night, provided around 40% of the electricity in Kyushu. Homes and businesses in the area have been asked to reduce their power consumption by 5% between from now until Feb 3.

According to TBS, the inspection was originally scheduled for mid-December, but was postponed. A planned maintenance on the 559-MW Genkai No. 1 reactor also started on Dec 1, meaning all of Kyushu’s six reactors at two nuclear plants have been closed for the first time in 31 years with no definite schedule for restarts.

Friday 23 December 2011

Failure guru to reveal what went wrong at Fukushima | The Japan Times Online

Failure guru to reveal what went wrong at Fukushima | The Japan Times Online

Friday, Dec. 23, 2011

Failure guru to reveal what went wrong at Fukushima

Bloomberg

Yotaro Hatamura, an engineering professor who studies industrial accidents caused by design flaws and human error, will issue a report next week after a six-month investigation into the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

News photo
Yotaro Hatamura

His 10-member team has compiled a "massive" report on what happened at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant when it was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the response by Tokyo Electric Power Co., according to a statement from Hatamura's office.

Hatamura, 70, has said the probe will focus on what went wrong and not who is responsible.

The committee is unlikely to have had the time to get the information needed for a full investigation, especially from officials higher ranked than Tepco's onsite staff, said Shinichi Kamata, a professor of organization and strategy at the National Defense Academy of Japan, who sits on the Japan Airlines Co. safety advisory group with Hatamura.

"Even if somebody acknowledges his mistake, there is only so much he'd talk about," Kamata said earlier this week. "We don't know how much will come out of Tepco headquarters or the prime minister's office."

Newspapers have said the report includes failures such as misinterpreted data and malfunctioning cellphones that may have worsened the crisis.

Hatamura was appointed by the government in May to lead an "impartial and multifaceted" investigation into the accident.

Some managers at the nuclear plant weren't aware that the emergency water-supply system for cooling reactor No. 1 would stop working if it lost power, the Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday, citing unidentified people on Hatamura's committee.

The panel is investigating if the assumption that the emergency system was working slowed the response, the Asahi said.

The high-pressure coolant injection system at the No. 3 reactor was stopped by a worker without authority from the plant manager because he wanted to prevent the battery from running out, the Mainichi Shimbun reported. Both reactors suffered meltdowns in the disaster.

Tepco failed to improve the communications system at the plant even after the same kind of cellphones used at the utility's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear station in Niigata Prefecture didn't function when a quake hit the plant in 2007, the Nikkei financial newspaper reported, citing the committee.

About 1,000 cellphones stopped working at the Fukushima plant, except those in a quake-proof building used as an emergency headquarters after the record magnitude-9 earthquake knocked out power, according to the report.

Thursday 22 December 2011

Health ministry seeking stricter food-cesium rules | The Japan Times Online

Health ministry seeking stricter food-cesium rules | The Japan Times Online

Staff writer

The health ministry is proposing much stricter regulations on radioactive cesium in food that would lower the current limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram to 100.

Changes would also be made to the cesium limits for milk and water. For example, limit for milk would be lowered from 200 becquerels per kilogram to 50, while the limit for water would drop from 200 becquerels to just 10, finally bringing Japan's standards in line with those used by the World Health Organization.

The proposal will be submitted to the ministry's Pharmaceutical Affairs and Food Sanitation Council on Thursday, and then to the science ministry's Radiation Council.

Once approved, the new limits will take effect in April. Specific limits for other items, including rice and beef, would be phased in over 6 to 9 months.

The new regulations are intended to limit the total internal exposure from food to less than 1 millisievert per year for those on a normal diet.

However, it is unclear just how many food makers are monitoring their products for radiation.

The current, provisional limit, which was only set after the March 11 nuclear crisis emerged at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, is 5 millisieverts per year.

To further protect small children, who are more vulnerable to radiation exposure, the government will require that baby food contain no more than 50 becquerels per kilogram.

The health ministry estimates that a person exposed to the upper limit for radioactive cesium would get a dose around 0.7 millisievert over a year.

In October, the Food Safety Commission, a government panel made up of independent experts, concluded that an annual dose of 100 millisieverts or more would pose health risks. The health ministry's discussions on lowering the provisional limits were based on this report.

Hideaki Karaki, a food safety expert at Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, said the strictness of the proposal is intended to ensure a margin of safety.

"People shouldn't worry too much even if (the contamination level in) some food exceeds the new limits" to some extent, he said.

Karaki said one-time exposure to food above the government ceiling won't pose a health risk.

"If a child drinks 1 kg of water that contains 10 becquerels of radioactive cesium, the total exposure would be 0.00024 millisievert. If an adult drinks the same amount, total radiation exposure would be 0.00016 millisievert. Considering that, the new regulation limit is very strictly set," Karaki said.

A cumulative dose of 100 millisieverts increases the chances of dying of cancer by 0.5 percent, according to the International Commission on Radiological Protection, an organization of scientists that makes recommendations on radiation regulations.

Fukushima fuel removal deadline set at 10 years | The Japan Times Online

Fukushima fuel removal deadline set at 10 years | The Japan Times Online

Staff writer

Tepco aims to start removing spent fuel rods from the Fukushima plant's wrecked reactors within two years, and extracting the melted fuel in the containment vessels within 10 years, according to a medium- to long-term road map for decommissioning the facility released Wednesday.

Four of the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant will be scrapped over the next 30 to 40 years, the plan drafted by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. says.

But the plan's feasibility remains in serious doubt as the sky-high radiation levels in the reactor units will prevent workers from getting anywhere near them.

Instead, Tepco will have to devise or commission remote-controlled machines able to identify and plug cracks in the containment vessels, and use machines to remove the melted fuel inside — a task that requires technologies the world has never seen.

Nevertheless, Tepco Vice President Zengo Aizawa tried to sound upbeat at a Wednesday evening news conference, telling reporters the utility will research and harness technologies from around the world to successfully decommission the crippled reactors.

"We think the plan is achievable," he said.

Wednesday 21 December 2011

PressTV - '1000s die in US due to Japan N-crisis'

PressTV - '1000s die in US due to Japan N-crisis'
A scientific study has found that an estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the US are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant.


According to an article published in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services, the estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the US during the 14 weeks following the Fukushima disaster in March are comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986.

Over that period, the number of deaths, compared with the same period in 2010, was up 4.46 percent, the article said.

According to the article, most of the deaths were infants, under the age of one. Studies show that despite infant deaths decreasing by more than 8% this year in the weeks leading up to the Fukushima disaster - the fatalities increased by nearly 2% in the weeks following the nuclear crisis in Japan.

Around a week after the disastrous meltdown at Fukushima, scientists detected a plume of toxic fallout that had arrived over American shores.

Subsequent measurements by the US Environmental Protection Agency found levels of radiation in air, water, and milk hundreds of times above normal across the US, but the risk was downplayed by mainstream media.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Novel device removes heavy metals from water

Novel device removes heavy metals from water

Novel Device Removes Heavy Metals from Water
ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2011) — Engineers at Brown University have developed a system that cleanly and efficiently removes trace heavy metals from water. In experiments, the researchers showed the system reduced cadmium, copper, and nickel concentrations, returning contaminated water to near or below federally acceptable standards. The technique is scalable and has viable commercial applications, especially in the environmental remediation and metal recovery fields.

Results appear in the Chemical Engineering Journal.
An unfortunate consequence of many industrial and manufacturing practices, from textile factories to metalworking operations, is the release of heavy metals in waterways. Those metals can remain for decades, even centuries, in low but still dangerous concentrations.
Ridding water of trace metals "is really hard to do," said Joseph Calo, professor emeritus of engineering who maintains an active laboratory at Brown. He noted the cost, inefficiency, and time needed for such efforts. "It's like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.

Monday 19 December 2011

Nuke plants face stricter regulations | The Japan Times Online

Nuke plants face stricter regulations | The Japan Times Online

Monday, Dec. 19, 2011

Nuke plants face stricter regulations
Kyodo
Nine months after the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, Japan is ready to tighten laws and regulations on atomic power plants so their operators will be obliged to comply with the latest safety requirements, government sources said Sunday.



Power plants may even be assigned maximum usage periods.

The government came up with the plan after reflecting on concerns raised about older reactors and the abject failure of Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant, to upgrade the aging facility's safety measures in line with new scientific findings on tsunami risk, they said.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration plans to submit the related bills to the Diet when it opens next month.

Sunday 18 December 2011

Trainee doctors are avoiding working in Fukushima | Fukushima Diary

Trainee doctors are avoiding working in Fukushima | Fukushima Diary

To avoid the meaningless irradiation, trainee doctors are avoiding applying for hospitals in Fukushima.

One of the Fukushima hospitals, Ohara general hospital, there used to be 6 openings for trainee doctors but just one person applied this year. They re-started recruiting since November.

Even students at Fukushima medical university, which is the only university with a medical department in Fukushima, are trying to leave Fukushima.

The student(22) from Tokyo says, considering the risk of radiation, I don’t want to remain in Fukushima.

Another student(20) from Minami soma says, because of the fukushima accident, if the number of children decreases, I’ll be in less demand.

He has been wanting to train in pediatrics.

Saturday 17 December 2011

Few believe assertion that Fukushima crisis is over

December 17, 2011
In a rush to fulfill a pledge to the international community to bring the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant under control, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may have jumped the gun in his announcement on Dec. 16 declaring the crisis is over.
Noda's declaration has been met with skepticism both in Fukushima Prefecture and abroad, with even some members of his own ruling Democratic Party of Japan criticizing it as "fiction."
Noda's promise at an international conference, shortly after becoming prime minister in September, to bring the Fukushima nuclear accident under control before the end of the year was meant to respond to sustained mistrust of the Japanese government's handling of the situation.
Government orders to stop shipment of produce due to radiation contamination led to negative publicity abroad about Japanese food products.
A total of 44 nations and regions have restricted the imports of Japanese agricultural products and in the extreme case of Kuwait, all food products from every prefecture in Japan has been banned for import.
The negative publicity has also led to a sharp drop in the number of foreign tourists to Japan. In November, there were about 552,000 visitors, a decrease of 13.1 percent compared with November 2010.
Despite doubts even among DPJ lawmakers about whether the situation at the Fukushima plant could be described as being under control, a member of Noda's Cabinet said, "Unless the accident is brought under control, Japan will continue to lose the trust of the world."

Thursday 15 December 2011

Hatoyama says Fukushima plant should be nationalized - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Hatoyama says Fukushima plant should be nationalized - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

December 15, 2011

The crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant should be placed in government hands to ensure a proper account of the disaster is given, says former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Hatoyama made the call in a statement co-authored with fellow Lower House member Tomoyuki Taira and published in the British scientific journal Nature on Dec. 15.

Hatoyama and Taira argued that only by taking control of the stricken plant can the government determine the causes of the accident set off by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11.

They reached this conclusion because Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, has been unwilling to disclose information.

In August, a special Diet committee called on TEPCO to submit its emergency operation manual, but TEPCO censored most of the document, citing intellectual property rights and other reasons. It took months before the manual was disclosed in its entirety.

The authors pointed out that the current setup makes it difficult to obtain information on the nuclear accident. Nationalization of the stricken plant would allow the government to disclose basically all the data, they argued.

The journal printed the censored manual and Japan's Hinomaru national flag on its cover.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Confirmed: Fukushima disaster contaminated ocean with 50 million times normal radiation, leaks still ongoing

Confirmed: Fukushima disaster contaminated ocean with 50 million times normal radiation, leaks still ongoing

50 million times higher radiation levels

What has hit the mainstream media, however, is a report entitledImpacts of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants on Marine Radioactivity, authored by Ken Buesseler, Michio Aoyama, and Masao Fukasawa (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021...).

This report, published inEnvironmental Science & Technology, reveals that levels of radioactive cesiumreached 50 million times normal levelsin the ocean water off the coast of the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility. Even more concerning, the abstract of this paper concludes, "...the concentrations through the end of July remain higher than expected implying continued releases from the reactors or other contaminated sources, such as groundwater or coastal sediments."

This, of course, contradicts mainstream media reports which for the most part stated that the radiation was "contained" and was not leaking directly into the environment. Only the alternative press has covered the real story on Fukushima, which has now become the worst radiological accident in the history of human civilization.

This same study ultimately concludes that this level of radiation contamination of the ocean is essentially harmless, stating, "...dose calculations suggest minimal impact on marine biota or humans due to direct exposure in surrounding ocean waters, though considerations for biological uptake and consumption of seafood are discussed and further study is warranted." That's a conclusion to be viewed with skepticism and caution, of course, as it says on one hand that "it's no problem" and yet on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't eat the seafood because we really don't know what quantity and concentration of radioactive elements may be ingested and concentrated by seafood sources.


Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/034395_Fukushima_cesium_radiation.html#ixzz1gPmmF7pG

Monday 12 December 2011

Scientists Assess Radioactivity in the Ocean from Japan Nuclear Power Facility


New study analyzes radioactivity from facility in first months after accident
Map showing 30 km area around Fukushima reactor site affected by released radioactivity.
A new study analyzes levels of radioactivity released to the ocean in the Japan accident.
Credit and Larger Version
December 9, 2011
With current news of additional radioactive leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power plants, the impact on the ocean of releases of radioactivity from the plants remains unclear.
But a new study by U.S. and Japanese researchers analyzes the levels of radioactivity discharged in the first four months after the accident.
It draws some basic conclusions about the history of contaminant releases to the ocean.
The study was conducted by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution chemist Ken Buesseler and two colleagues based in Japan, Michio Aoyama of the Meteorological Research Institute and Masao Fukasawa of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
They report that discharges from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plants peaked one month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that precipitated the nuclear accident, and continued through at least July.
Their study finds that the levels of radioactivity, while high, are not a direct threat to humans or marine life, but cautions that the effect of accumulated radionuclides in marine sediments is poorly known.
The release of radioactivity from Fukushima--both as atmospheric fallout and direct discharges to the ocean--represents the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history.

Full radiation cleanup won't begin until at least late March | The Japan Times Online

Full radiation cleanup won't begin until at least late March | The Japan Times Online

The Environment Ministry said Sunday that full-fledged efforts to decontaminate areas highly polluted by radioactive matter from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster cannot begin until late March or later.

The government needs time to obtain the consent of individual landowners and to secure temporary storage sites for contaminated soil removed from irradiated areas, ministry officials told a panel of experts commissioned to discuss the issue.

At the meeting, the ministry also presented the panel with its draft guidelines for how to go about the cleanup work in areas contaminated with radioactive material emitting one to 20 millisieverts of radiation per year, excluding naturally occurring radioactivity.

Saturday 10 December 2011

Radioactive water leaks at Japan's Kyushu nuclear plant - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Radioactive water leaks at Japan's Kyushu nuclear plant - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Water containing radioactive materials leaked inside a nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan, but was contained and did not escape into the environment, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Saturday.

About 1.8 tonnes of water leaked from a pump at Kyushu Electric Power Co's Genkai No.3 reactor on Friday, Tetsuya Saito, an official at the agency said.

The reactor has been closed since December last year for maintenance.

"The cause of the leakage is still unknown. Kyushu Electric is investigating now," Saito said.

The issue about nuclear power safety is sensitive in Japan as the country is trying to stabilise Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged after the March 11 massive earthquake and tsunami.

On Friday, Kyushu Electric issued a statement saying it had detected a rise in temperature at the base of one of the pumps which had triggered an alarm. But the statement did not refer to any leakage, although the company separately informed the nuclear agency about it, Saito said.

Friday 9 December 2011

“Everything is out of control” | Fukushima Diary

“Everything is out of control” | Fukushima Diary

Actual Fukushima worker “Mr.Happy” confesses what is in his mind, more honestly than ever.

Happy20790 ハッピー
ただいまっ(^O^)今日もコツコツ作業したでし。今日は早く帰ったからいっぱいつぶやくでし。今日から1号機のガス管理システムが試運転に入りました。2号機と1号機はメーカーが違うのでスペックが違うから1号機は時間かかったんだけど、やっと完成しました。

Today the gas (mainly hydrogen gas) control system at reactor 1 has finally got into the test drive mode. The makers are different from reactor 2, so it took us time to build it for reactor 1.

続き1:次は3号機の予定なんだけど、まずはタービン建屋のクレーンを使えるようにしなきゃです。年内は無理かなぁ…。今週は現場に移動する6号線に牛の群れが多いでし(*_*)本格的な冬に向けて牛も移動してるのかなぁ…。一昨日は2Fからの帰宅時に牛に正面衝突して車が全焼したしね。

The next step is to build another gas controlling system for reactor 3, but we need to fix the crane first. Maybe we can’t get it down by the end of this year..
This week we’ve seen so many wild cows (Cows at farms were released after 311 and they live in the wild now.) on route 6, where is for the Fukushima plants. I guess cows are moving to somewhere warm toward winter .. The day before yesterday, a car from Fukushima Daini crashed into a cow and had the car burnt completely.

続き2:夜だと黒い牛は見えずらいみたい。昨日も今日も群れが移動してたしなぁ…。だんだん南に来てるような気がするんだ。牛が20Km圏外に出ようとしたら検問所の機動隊はどうするんだろ?

It’s hard to see black cows at night. I saw group of cows moving today and yesterday. feel like they are moving to south gradually. I wonder what the police does if they reach to the boarder of 20 km area.

続き3:今週は大きなプロジェクト作業が始まって発表あるかなぁって思ってたけど…、あれっ?て思ってある人に聞いてみたらちょっとてこずってるから計画練り直ししてるんだって。21日位に始まるみたいだからもうちょっと待っててだって。

Today they were supposed to announce a “big project”, but they didn’t. I asked someone “why”, he said there were some troubles to solve so it’s taking time. They are re-making the plan again.
They say it’s going to start at 12/21/2011.

続き4:自衛隊も除染拠点作りに昨日から入ってきましたよ。楢葉、富岡、浪江が対象地でオイラ達は南側の楢葉と富岡側しかわかんないけど、結構自衛隊の車が走ってるよ。オイラ自衛隊の車みると事故当時の雰囲気を思い出しちゃうんだよなぁ…。

Self defense force entered Fukushima plants area since yesterday. They came to decontaminate. They are planning to make bases at Naraha, Tomioka, and Namie. I saw numbers of their cars. Self defense force cars remind me of when 311 happened.

続き5:16日に第2ステップ完了宣言するみたいだね。現場側は単なる通過点だけで毎日の作業に何の変化もないんだ。だけど何故第2ステップ完了宣言を騒ぐのか…?それは国が第2ステップを何とか年内に完了させ避難準備区域の住民を帰宅させたいのと、警戒区域の縮小をしたいからなんだ。

Government seems to plan to declare “Step2 is accomplished” on 12/16/2011 but actually nothing changes at the plants.
Government wants to declare the complete of step 2 during this year to pull back the residents to the planned evacuation zone and minimize the alerting area.

続き6:だけど前に避難準備区域の解除した楢葉や広野の人達は未だに大半は戻って来てないし、学校も再開してないのが現状。いくら国が安全宣言しても住民は簡単に戻って来ないよ。安全宣言した福島の米だって…。早く安心させたい気持ちはわかるけど、簡単に安全宣言なんてしちゃダメなんだ。

However, Naraha and Hirono, where the government lifted the evacuating area, haven’t had more then half of the population come back. Schools are still closed too. Government can’t pull people back to the zone even if they declare the safety.

Thursday 8 December 2011

Fisheries demand TEPCO drop water-release plan - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Fisheries demand TEPCO drop water-release plan - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Fisheries cooperatives on Dec. 8 demanded Tokyo Electric Power Co. rescind its plan to release radioactive water from its crippled nuclear plant into the sea, saying the move would further damage their industry.

Ikuhiro Hattori, chairman of the national federation of fisheries cooperatives, and other officials issued their demand at a meeting with TEPCO President Toshio Nishizawa at the company's headquarters in Tokyo.

"We do not approve of the discharge into the sea," Hattori said in the meeting.

He handed Nishizawa a statement that said such a measure "is certain to trigger fresh rumors that are harmful (to those already affected by the disaster) and will certainly invite additional international criticism."

Nishizawa replied: "We will take the protest sincerely. We are going to take the necessary steps."

TEPCO plans to discharge water that has accumulated in the turbine buildings of the No. 1 through No. 4 reactors and other facilities at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The company said it is running out of options because the nuclear complex has limited space for additional tanks that can store the water. The existing storage tanks at the plant now hold about 100,000 tons but are expected to be full in March.

The water is being used to cool the damaged reactors in a recycling system that purifies the radioactive water and pumps it back into the reactors.

But an estimated 400 tons of groundwater a day continues to flow into the plant. The company has considered recycling such water and stemming the inflow, as well as buying additional water-treatment equipment, but it has not come up with a solid plan.

TEPCO is expected to include the discharge in its midterm plan to be submitted to the industry ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in the near future.

The company said it has not decided on the timing and amount of water to be discharged, nor has it set a limit on the radiation levels of the treated water to be released.

But the company said the radiation levels will be lower than national safety limits and as low as in water discharged into the sea during regular operations.

TEPCO is considering treating the water with equipment that absorbs cesium and other radioactive materials and desalinates it. The contaminated water includes seawater that swamped the Fukushima plant when it was hit by a gigantic tsunami following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.

The fisheries federation's protest on Dec. 8 came after TEPCO earlier this month notified entities that will likely be affected by the water discharge.

The federation also lodged a strong protest in April after TEPCO released about 10,000 tons of low-level contaminated water into the sea to secure storage space for highly contaminated water. The measure also drew criticism from governments overseas.

The radiation levels of the discharged water in April were around 100 times the national safety standards.

(This article was written by Naoya Kon and Tomoyoshi Otsu.)

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Yoko Ono brings smiles to Fukushima schoolchildren - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Yoko Ono brings smiles to Fukushima schoolchildren - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

FUKUSHIMA--Schoolchildren in this northern city got a special visit and words of encouragement on Dec. 6 from Yoko Ono.

The 78-year-old artist, musician and peace activist greeted 30 kids at Sahara Elementary School who were forced to evacuate from Minami-Soma because of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

"The world is supporting you," the widow of John Lennon told the children.

Ono hugged each of them, and presented to them a badge that said in various languages, "Let's imagine peace."

Using a calligraphy brush, she also wrote "Sekai Kinen" (The world prays), meaning that the world is supporting Fukushima.

"We enjoyed the time (with Ono) because we were encouraged by a person who is engaged in activities throughout the world," said 12-year-old sixth-grader Haruka Sakuma, "and were also able to do activities with her."

Fukushima plant springs new water leak | The Japan Times Online

Fukushima plant springs new water leak | The Japan Times Online

Staff writer

Some 45 tons of highly radioactive water leaked Sunday from desalination equipment used to decontaminate the radioactive water in Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and it is unclear if any made it to the sea, a Tepco official said Monday.

The water is believed to have high concentrations of strontium, which can cause bone cancer if ingested. The decontamination system Tepco is using to stablize the crippled reactors mainly removes cesium, but does little to mitigate strontium.

It is not known if some of the leaked water reached the sea, the water table or flowed off the plant's premises. Tepco used sandbags Sunday to contain the water, 300 liters of which escaped from a concrete machine building through a crack, Tepco spokesman Hiroki Kawamata said. The machine building, which houses the decontamination equipment, is on the landward side of the reactors.

"Even if all 300 liters reached the sea, the radiation would be diluted, and the amount that escaped is tiny compared with what has already leaked into the sea (on earlier occasions)," said Genichiro Wakabayashi, a radiology professor at Kinki University, playing down the potential danger of the leak. "The leak (even if to the sea or to the groundwater) would not be enough to increase radiation levels in marine or agricultural products in the Tohoku region," he said.

Beta ray radiation of 110 millisieverts per hour was detected in the air over in a gutter outside the building where the water pooled, along with gamma ray radiation of 1.8 millisieverts per hour, Tepco said. Beta rays do not travel far and are easily stopped by thin material, including clothing. Gamma rays, however, are much more powerful. Strontium mainly emits beta rays, while cesium emits gamma rays.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Nuclear cleanup effort under way in Okuma | The Japan Times Online

Nuclear cleanup effort under way in Okuma | The Japan Times Online

FUKUSHIMA — A government cleaning project designed to decontaminate radioactive areas around the crisis-hit Fukushima plant was shown to the media Sunday during a demonstration at the center of the hot zone in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.

News photo
Hot or not?: A worker in full face mask and protective suit checks radiation levels at a bus stop bench near the Okuma town office in Fukushima Prefecture on Sunday. KYODO

Using high-pressure water sprayers, a joint venture led by major contractor Obayashi Corp. has been working for a week to clean up the area based on a detailed plan drawn up by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

The project is being carried out to confirm the effectiveness, safety and economic efficiency of the decontamination plan and will focus on cleaning up areas within 20 km of the plant and other areas residents fled from.

The agency began monitoring radiation levels in Okuma on Nov. 18. The town is one of two hosting the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, which suffered core meltdowns in multiple reactors after the March earthquake and tsunami knocked out its cooling systems. The reactors have since released massive amounts of radioactive matter into the air, land and sea.

Sunday's shift began at the Okuma town office, about 4 km southwest of the plant. The radiation level 1 cm above the top of the three-floor building, which was about 16 microsieverts per hour before treatment, dropped to about 10 microsieverts per hour following a 10-minute wash down.

Longer washings resulted in diminishing returns, with readings of 9.28 microserverts after 15 minutes and 8.92 microsieverts after 20 minutes. Changes were also minimal after switching to hot water.

The water used to wash down the building was pooled in a large water tank for examination to see whether it can be reused following treatment at a purification facility.

Saturday 3 December 2011

Cesium-tainted ash being returned to Tokyo area

KOSAKA, Akita Prefecture--Rejected by residents, incinerated waste containing radioactive cesium is being returned to the Tokyo metropolitan area where it originated.
The first batch of 18 tons, bound for Kazo, Saitama Prefecture, was loaded onto trucks on Dec. 3. A train carrying the ash will leave JR Odate Station on Dec. 4.
A total of 245 tons of waste incinerated ash, mostly in 25 railway containers, has been temporarily stored since mid-July at facilities in Kosaka and Odate in Akita Prefecture.
The cesium is believed to derive from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant damaged by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Residents have been opposed to burying ash even though cesium concentration levels are below government standards.