Diet set to give green light for nuclear exports - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Diet set to give green light for nuclear exports - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Despite the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis, lawmakers are expected to ratify accords in the current Diet session giving the green light to exports of Japan’s nuclear technology.

With major manufacturers desperate to find new markets abroad after the March 11 accident put a brake on building in Japan, both major parties have agreed to put bilateral civil nuclear agreements with Jordan, Vietnam, South Korea and Russia to the vote as early as December. Diet discussions started Nov. 30.

The Japanese government signed the agreements, which are necessary to allowing the export of nuclear technology, by January 2011, but Diet ratification was delayed by the events in Fukushima.

With the stricken Fukushima reactors still not under control and the continued use of nuclear energy the subject of fierce debate in Japan, many strongly oppose going ahead with nuclear power exports. There has been particular criticism of the government’s rush to pass the accords, instead of waiting for next summer, when it is scheduled to complete a new energy strategy.

German police clear huge sit-in at nuclear protest ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

German police clear huge sit-in at nuclear protest ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

German police clear huge sit-in at nuclear protest

WORLD NOV. 28, 2011 - 02:26AM JST ( 1 )

BERLIN —

German police cleared a sit-in of thousands of protesters attempting to block a shipment of nuclear waste and temporarily detained 1,300 people Sunday, officials said.

Hundreds of officers started evicting protesters from the rail lines near Dannenberg in the north of the country in the morning, police spokesman Stefan Kuehm-Stoltz said.

Those who refused to leave were detained on site for several hours, but all were eventually released by late afternoon. Only those who refused to divulge their identity to police were brought before judges.

Police put the number of protesters at 3,500 while protest organizers said 5,000 people had occupied the tracks that will be used to transport a nuclear waste shipment reprocessed in France and now on its way to a storage site near the northern town of Gorleben.

Activists say the waste containers, and the temporary storage facility near Gorleben, are not safe.

Police also clashed with two groups of protesters that hurled stones and fireworks at officers, with police chasing them through the woods surrounding the rail tracks in the area.

Sixteen officers were injured, bringing the total since Friday to 51, police said.

Several officers were injured and at least 10 people detained, Kuehm-Stoltz said.

Activists said some 150 people were injured as police dispersed some protests with tear gas and batons over the weekend, German news agency dapd reported.

The train carrying the shipment of 11 containers of nuclear waste reprocessed at France’s La Hague facility entered western Germany on Friday after delays in France, where activists damaged railway tracks in an attempt to halt the cargo.

The shipment paused overnight south of Hamburg and is now expected to reach its destination with considerable delay on Monday. About 20,000 German police officers are on hand to secure the cargo.

A group of four activists used a pyramid-shaped concrete structure to attach themselves to the tracks near Dannenberg, requiring a diligent dismantling operation that took the entire day and was still under way Sunday night, Kuehm-Stoltz said.

Around 800 people gathered around the activists on the tracks, and a sit-in of several hundred protesters also popped up near the Gorleben facility. Police estimated 800 people took part there, while activists said about 1,000 had gathered.

“I think the sit-in is the most nonviolent form of blockades, and yes, I think it is going to be a success, definitely,” protester Nico Nordlohne, 32, said at the site.

Nuclear energy has been unpopular in Germany since fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine drifted over the country. The annual shipment from France has been a traditional focal point for protesters.

This is the first shipment, however, since Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to speed up shutting down all of Germany’s nuclear plants, with the last one scheduled to go offline by 2022, following safety questions raised after the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan.

But Germany—as most other nations using atomic power—has not yet decided where nuclear waste, which remains radioactive for thousands of years, should be stored permanently.

Monju reactor may be axed: Hosono | The Japan Times Online

Monju reactor may be axed: Hosono | The Japan Times Online

SURUGA, Fukui Pref. — The government will consider scrapping the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor during its operational review of the troubled nuclear facility, Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of the nuclear disaster, said Saturday.

"There are various opinions and (the government) should consider all of them, including the possibility of decommissioning the facility," Hosono told reporters after visiting the complex in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.

Ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers and private-sector experts demanded a thorough operational and budgetary review of the Monju project during the government's energy policy screening session last week.

Hosono partly blamed the troubles of the Monju reactor on its age. The project started in the 1960s and the fast-breeder reactor was eventually built in the 1980s. The long-running Monju project is now at a "crossroads," he said.

The Monju fast-breeder reactor had been expected to play a key role in establishing Japan's nuclear fuel cycle, in which spent fuel from domestic nuclear power plants would be reprocessed and reused as plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel.

The reactor first achieved criticality in 1994. But the Monju project has been plagued by a series of problems, including a leak of sodium coolant that started a fire in 1995.

Although the reactor resumed operations in May last year, it experienced further problems three months later and was suspended again.

The science ministry has requested ¥21.5 billion for the Monju project for the 2012 fiscal year, roughly the same amount as for the current fiscal year.

But during the Government Revitalization Unit's latest "shiwake" budget review session, which examines budgetary requests for key policy measures and projects, examiners called for a drastic review of the Monju facility. The state has plowed more than ¥1 trillion of taxpayers' money into the project over the past 30 years.

Stress tests to start for nuke storage, reprocessing sites | The Japan Times Online

Stress tests to start for nuke storage, reprocessing sites | The Japan Times Online

Stress tests to start for nuke storage, reprocessing sites

Kyodo

The government will subject nuclear fuel reprocessing and storage facilities to its safety checks introduced in connection with the Fukushima crisis, in addition to reactors now undergoing stress tests, trade minister Yukio Edano said Friday.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, under the wing of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, will instruct the operators of nuclear fuel cycle facilities to report their safety evaluation results for the facilities by the end of April.

NISA required electric utilities to conduct the safety checks on their nuclear reactors in July.

The agency said 14 nuclear fuel cycle facilities will be subject to the tests. The facilities include Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.'s plant for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, as well as a facility for intermediate storage of spent nuclear fuel under construction in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture.

Experiments for the Rokkasho plant's completion have been suspended since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima Prefecture. NISA doesn't plan to link authorizing the plant's operation to the results of the new safety tests.

The facilities' operators will evaluate the extent to which key installations can withstand extreme natural events. Their reports will be checked by the new nuclear safety agency to be launched in April.

The Prometheus Trap / Men in Protective Clothing-6: Policeman forbidden from telling the truth - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

The Prometheus Trap / Men in Protective Clothing-6: Policeman forbidden from telling the truth - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

The Prometheus Trap / Men in Protective Clothing-6: Policeman forbidden from telling the truth

• Previous ArticleThe Prometheus Trap/ Men in Protective Clothing-5: 'I couldn't tell you then'

November 25, 2011

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By MOTOYUKI MAEDA / Staff Writer

This is the sixth installment of an eight-part series looking at the fate and experiences of Mizue Kanno in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, and 25 people who evacuated to her home, following the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Each installment is interconnected.

* * *

On March 14, Kazuyo Sekiba, 52, fled to her relative's home in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. She had lived in the Minami-Tsushima district of Namie, near Mizue Kanno's home.

Since no instructions for evacuation were given, she returned home on April 2, for the time being. After a few days, a Self-Defense Forces (SDF) jeep stopped in front of her house and an SDF serviceman got out. He said he had come to check on her safety.

Around that time, it had been reported that the radiation levels in Namie were high. Concerned about the reports, she asked nervously, "How high are the readings around here?"

The SDF man smiled and told her the area was fine.

"We're wearing a dosimeter, so we know how much radiation we're exposed to each day."

Sekiba felt relieved after hearing that. She stopped hiding in her house and went out into the neighborhood.

On April 17 when she stood on a bridge near her home, a man walked toward her. It was Naomi Toyoda, 55, a freelance journalist. Sekiba asked him to measure the radiation levels at her home, and he began taking measurements around her yard.

When he measured the area under the rain gutter in her entranceway, he stood up and exclaimed, "Wow. This is too bad."

Sensing his hesitance, Sekiba asked Toyoda to tell her the truth.

He told her, "In two hours, you would absorb 1 millisievert."

According to Toyoda, at that time the radiation level exceeded 500 microsieverts per hour. In just two hours a person would exceed the annual permissible exposure of 1 millisievert.

Upon hearing a specific number for the first time, Sekiba at last realized just how serious it was. She hurriedly prepared to leave and fled her home, seen off by Toyoda.

A few days later, when she returned home to get her cat, a patrol car of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department drove up.

She said to the policeman, apparently in his 30s, "This area had a high level of radiation, didn't it?"

"Yes, it was high. But I was forbidden to tell people by the government," he answered.

Sekiba was shocked. What about what the SDF man in the jeep had told her?

"If I had been his own family, could he have said the same thing? Wouldn't he immediately tell us to get away? Is it just someone else's problem?"

In July, it was revealed that evidence had been hidden in the high-speed train accident in China. The Japanese media sharply criticized the Chinese government's responses.

Sekiba said she is angry.

"The situation in Japan is almost the same as in China."

* * *

Following are URLs for previous installments:

Introduction (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011111516734)

First installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011111516540)

Second installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011111616820)

Third installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011112117045a)

Fourth installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011112317049a)

Fifth installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011112417236)

By MOTOYUKI MAEDA / Staff Writer

'Lethal' radiation doses can be treated with drugs - health - 23 November 2011 - New Scientist

'Lethal' radiation doses can be treated with drugs - health - 23 November 2011 - New Scientist

• 9:00 23 November 2011 by Jessica Hamzelou

Mice can survive lethal effects of high radiation doses that are usually fatal when given a double-drug therapy – even when they get the drugs 24 hours after exposure.

Because these drugs are known to be safe in people, it could be worth stockpiling them in preparation for a nuclear accident or terrorist attack, say the researchers behind the new study.

High doses of radiation harm the body, partly by damaging rapidly dividing cells, such as those in the intestine. The damage leaves the intestine leaky, allowing harmful bacteria to escape into the bloodstream – consequently antibiotics may be used to treat individuals exposed to radiation.

Eva Guinan and Ofer Levy at Harvard Medical School and their colleagues have identified another approach to treatment involving a protein known as bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI), which plays a role in the immune response to the harmful bacteria from the intestine.

Guinan and Levy's team studied 48 people who were receiving radiation doses in preparation for a bone marrow transplant. Following radiation exposure, levels of BPI fell to an average of 71 times below normal levels. In 37 of the transplant patients the protein was undetectable. The team say this is probably due to damage to the bone marrow, which leaves it unable to produce enough of the white blood cells that normally encourage BPI production.

Survival boost

The team then used the information in the treatment of mice given a typically lethal dose of radiation. A day after exposure, some mice were given the oral antibiotic fluoroquinolone while some mice were given a combination of fluoroquinolone and injections of BPI. A third group had no treatment at all.

Most of the untreated mice died within 30 days. As expected, the antibiotic boosted the survival rate: around 40 per cent of the mice given the antibiotic were still alive after 30 days – but survival rates jumped to almost 80 per cent in the mice given the combination therapy.

The two drugs are already known to be safe in healthy and sick humans. A radiation treatment based on the two is likely to be practical because both drugs can be stored for long periods of time and the mouse study suggests they would be effective even if administered 24 hours after exposure, says Levy. "Maybe there needs to be a stockpile of BPI in case, God forbid, there was another Fukushima," he says.

Don Jones at the University of Leicester, UK, finds the study "very exciting". "The therapy looks to be very effective at mitigating the effects of total body irradiation," he says.

Journal reference: Science Translational Medicine, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003126

Magnitude-5.9 quake hits near Fukushima nuclear site ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

Magnitude-5.9 quake hits near Fukushima nuclear site ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

TOKYO —

A strong earthquake struck Thursday morning near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant hit by a powerful tsunami earlier this year. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-5.9 quake struck shortly before 4:30 a.m. local time. It hit 101 kilometers east of the nuclear power plant. The quake struck at a depth of 37 kilometers.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not immediately issue a tsunami alert.

Similar quakes have struck in the region since a March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami wiped out part of Japan’s northeastern coast and left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing.

The region lies on the “Ring of Fire”—an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim. About 90 percent of the world’s quakes occur in the region.

Nuke crisis sends hundreds of Tokyoites fleeing to Okinawa - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Nuke crisis sends hundreds of Tokyoites fleeing to Okinawa - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

November 22, 2011

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By KAZUYO NAKAMURA / Staff Writer

NAHA, Okinawa Prefecture--Following the Fukushima nuclear crisis and fearing the spread of radiation, a number of Kanto residents fled to this southernmost prefecture and continue to live here despite the lack of personal connections.

"The Okinawans are really warm-hearted. I wouldn't want to live in Tokyo again," said Jin Tanimura, 38, clad in "kariyushi" wear, a locally promoted attire that looks like a Hawaiian shirt.

Following the nuclear crisis, more people have moved out of Tokyo and surrounding areas to Okinawa and other parts of western Japan than have moved in. Some well-known figures, including the writer Hitomi Kanehara, have openly said they evacuated out of the region to safety.

No data is available on the number of evacuees from the Tokyo metropolitan area to Okinawa, but local sources suggested there were hundreds.

The evacuees chose Okinawa because "it is far removed from Fukushima, it hosts no nuclear plant, and because Japanese is spoken there," the sources said.

That sense of fear drove Tanimura, his wife, child, younger brother and sister-in-law to evacuate to Kyushu after the crisis began to unfurl at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 11.

Radioactive cesium blankets 8% of Japan's land area - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Radioactive cesium blankets 8% of Japan's land area - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Some 8 percent of Japan's land area, or more than 30,000 square kilometers, has been contaminated with radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Spanning 13 prefectures, the affected area has accumulated more than 10,000 becquerels of cesium 134 and 137 per square meter, according to the science ministry.

The ministry has released the latest version of its cesium contamination map, covering 18 prefectures.

Radioactive plumes from the Fukushima No. 1 plant reached no farther than the border between Gunma and Nagano prefectures in the west and southern Iwate Prefecture in the north.

Ministry officials said the plumes flowed mainly via four routes between March 14 and 22 after the plant was damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The first plume headed westward from late March 14 to early March 15, when huge amounts of radioactive materials were released following a meltdown at the No. 2 reactor.

It moved clockwise over a wide area in the Kanto region. Radioactive materials fell with rain and snow, particularly in the northern parts of Tochigi and Gunma prefectures.

A branch of the plume moved southward from Gunma Prefecture, passing through western Saitama Prefecture, eastern Nagano Prefecture and western Tokyo.

Taiwan plane brings tourists back to Fukushima | The Japan Times Online

Taiwan plane brings tourists back to Fukushima | The Japan Times Online

Taiwan plane brings tourists back to Fukushima

Kyodo

FUKUSHIMA — A TransAsia Airways chartered flight with 180 tourists onboard landed at Fukushima airport Saturday morning, the first international flight to arrive since March 11, giving the region's badly-hit tourism industry a much needed lift.

The tourists are participating in a four-day tour organized by several travel agencies in Taiwan, and will visit sites mainly around the prefecture's scenic Aizu region.

The airport's regular services to Seoul and Shanghai remain suspended because of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

To reverse the plunging number of foreign visitors to Fukushima, the prefecture has been running promotional campaigns in Taiwan, as well as in China and South Korea.

The chartered plane will carry Japanese tourists to Taiwan on its return flight.

Operations at the airport, about 50 km inland from the prefecture's coast, were not affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Taiwan's airlines have started operating chartered flights to Fukushima Prefecture in recent years.

Bhutan king encourages students 'to grow a dragon' - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Bhutan king encourages students 'to grow a dragon' - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--The king and queen of Bhutan met Nov. 18 with survivors of the tsunami that devastated this coastal city in northeastern Japan in March.

The royal couple are visiting as state guests of Japan.

At Sakuragaoka Elementary School, they were welcomed by 157 fifth- and sixth-graders.

"Many people still live with inconveniences after their houses were washed away," 11-year-old Kasumi Goto told the royal couple. "But (your visit) gave us encouragement and hope."

The students sang the school song and danced the Yosakoi dance, as King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 31, and Queen Jetsun Pema, 21, watched attentively, smiling.

Wangchuck told the students he came to bring encouragement and love. He told them that everyone has a "dragon," or personality, which becomes bigger and stronger as one grows older and accumulates experience.

Jetsun Pema promised that she will return to the school during her next visit to Japan.

The couple offered a prayer to the victims of tsunami at the city's Haragama district, which was inundated by tsunami triggered by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Most radioactive cesium piled up within 2 centimeters of soil surface - The Mainichi Daily News

Most radioactive cesium piled up within 2 centimeters of soil surface - The Mainichi Daily News

Most of the radioactive cesium emitted by the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant has piled up within two centimeters of the soil surface, the government has announced.

The Cabinet Office's Team in Charge of the Lives of Disaster Victims announced on Nov. 16 the detailed results of its survey on cesium dosage and accumulations in the soil, forests, buildings, rivers and other environments. Based on the results, the Cabinet Office has concluded that "most of the cesium can be removed if the top two centimeters of the soil is scraped away from its surface."

Some land in Japan too radioactive to farm: study

Some land in Japan too radioactive to farm: study

Farmland in parts of Japan is no longer safe because of high levels of radiation in the soil, scientists have warned, as the country struggles to recover from the Fukushima atomic disaster.

A team of international researchers said food production would likely be "severely impaired" by the elevated levels of caesium found in soil samplesacross eastern Fukushima in the wake of meltdowns at the tsunami-hit plant.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, suggests farming in neighbouring areas may also suffer because of radiation, although levels discovered there were within legal limits.

"Fukushima prefecture as a whole is highly contaminated," especially to the northwest of the nuclear power plant, the researchers said.

The study looked at caesium-137, which has a half life of 30 years and therefore affects the environment for decades.

The legal limit for concentrations in soil where rice is grown of the sum of caesium-134 and caesium-137, which are always produced together, is 5,000 becquerels per kilogram (2.2 pounds) in Japan.

Seoul to conduct radiation checks on all roads - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Seoul to conduct radiation checks on all roads - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

SEOUL--Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon ordered radiation checks on all roads after radioactive cesium-137 was detected in several spots of the capital.

Park also outlined a plan to implement epidemiologic examinations on the impact of radiation on residents’ health in areas where high levels of cesium were found.

“I am seriously concerned about this as a mother of a child living in this area,” a resident said at a Nov. 7 briefing session

held by the city government. “I want the government to provide health checks over a long term.”

Similar requests were voiced from residents at the gathering.

Since Nov. 2, around 3 microsieverts per hour of cesium-137 has been detected on road surfaces in residential and shopping areas of Seoul's northeast ward of Nowon-gu. The ward government is removing asphalt believed to be the source of the contamination.

All contaminated roads were found to have been paved around 2000. The city government said it will check for radiation on all roads built in Seoul around that year. The checks will also extend to materials at all suppliers of asphalt used in the city’s public works projects.

Low levels of radioactive particles in Europe: IAEA | Reuters

Low levels of radioactive particles in Europe: IAEA | Reuters

Very low levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected in Europe but the particles are not believed to pose a public health risk, the U.N. nuclear agency said Friday, saying it was seeking to find the source.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based U.N. watchdog, said it did not believe the radioactive particles were from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant after its emergency in March.

“It is not much fun being part of a medical experiment” says worker — Fukushima a center of radiation ‘safety’ research? « ENENEWS.COM

“It is not much fun being part of a medical experiment” says worker — Fukushima a center of radiation ‘safety’ research? « ENENEWS.COM

“The crisis will yield unprecedentedly detailed information on the effect of radiation exposure in coming decades. There are plans to make Fukushima a centre of radiation safety research. The prefectural government proposes to monitor the health of the population of more than 2m, producing data for future study.”

Tepco told to revise Fukushima road map | The Japan Times Online

Tepco told to revise Fukushima road map | The Japan Times Online

The government on Wednesday ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. to create by the end of the year a new schedule for scrapping the crippled nuclear reactors at the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 power complex, as the plant nears a cold shutdown.

It also ordered the utility to start removing the plant's spent nuclear fuel within two years — a year earlier than the initial plan — so that workers can focus on tackling the more difficult task of extracting melted fuel from the reactors as early as possible, nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono said.

Tokyo starts radiation checks on city's food

TOKYO —

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Tuesday began a large-scale investigation into the extent of radioactive material in the city’s food stores.

The city began monitoring the radioactivity of edible goods on sale in shops of various sizes throughout the capital and will continue the checks until the end of March 2012, TBS reported. Officials say the data will be available online at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health website from Wednesday.

The institute says it intends to randomly purchase and test around 20-30 items, such as vegetables, fruit, fish, eggs, tofu and dairy products, each week from stores throughout the capital. The center says it will prioritize foodstuffs grown and processed in Japan, products eaten regularly by the average family, and food that is often given to children, TBS reported.

Authorities said that any items found to contain more than 50 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram will be subjected to more thorough testing, while products with a cesium level of more than the government-set safety limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram will be withdrawn from sale. 

An official at the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health told TBS that the measure is being carried out to reassure the people of Tokyo that their food is safe.

Fukushima engineer reveals workers “often keeled over” while clearing radioactive rubble — Removed by ambulance, “usually” they returned « ENENEWS.COM

Fukushima engineer reveals workers “often keeled over” while clearing radioactive rubble — Removed by ambulance, “usually” they returned « ENENEWS.COM

Setting the scene for itsrevealing report on the plight of workers at Fukushima Daiichi, the Economist details conditions outside the stricken plant. “Patrol cars stop passing vehicles,” notes the reporter, “The police are particularly vigilant in preventing unauthorised people getting near the stricken plant.”

Meet the Workers

“The air of secrecy is compounded when you try to approach workers involved in the nightmarish task of stabilising the nuclear plant. Many are not salaried Tepco staff but low-paid contract workers lodging in Iwaki, just south of the exclusion zone.”

“It is easy to spot them, in their nylon tracksuits — They seem to have been recruited from the poorest corners of society”:

• One man calls home from a telephone box because he cannot afford a mobile phone
• Another has a single front tooth
• Both are reluctant to talk to journalists, because a condition of their employment is silence.
• But they do share their concerns about safety
• One earns ¥15,000 ($190) a day clearing radioactive rubble at the plant
• He said he got a half-an-hour of safety training
• He said almost everything he learned about radiation risks came from TV

Conditions On-site

Hiroyuki Watanabe, an Iwaki official reports there are “many safety breaches.” “Workers wading through contaminated water complain that their boots have holes in them — Some are not instructed in when to change the filters on their safety masks,” according to Watanabe.

“Even such basic tools as wrenches are in short supply, he claims. Tepco is shielded by a lack of media scrutiny. The councillor shows a Tepco gagging order that one local boss had to sign. Article four bans all discussion of the work with outsiders. All requests for media interviews must be rejected.”

The Engineer

“One engineer who has played a front-line role in helping cool the meltdown of Fukushima’s three reactors spoke unwittingly to The Economist.”

The engineer revealed to the Econominst the in May, “The hardest work was done by the low-level labourers. They had so much rubble to clear, he says, that they often keeled over in the heat under the weight of their protective gear. Taken out in ambulances, they would usually be back the following day.”

h/t Anonymous tip

Cities at war over need for Hamaoka nuke plant - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Cities at war over need for Hamaoka nuke plant - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Six months after former Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu Electric Power Co. to shut down its Hamaoka nuclear power plant due to risks of a powerful quake and tsunami, the utility is still poised to restart it after reinforcing safeguards.

But local governments in the vicinity of the plant, in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, are not on the same wavelength over Chubu Electric's plan to go back online.

The mayor of Omaezaki has not opposed the restart, as 40 percent of his city's revenues come from property taxes on the nuclear plant and subsidies related to the facility.

Irradiated Foods Exposed to Gamma Radiation

Irradiated Foods Exposed to Gamma Radiation

Irradiated herbs, seasonings and spices are exposed to HALF A BILLION chest X-ray's worth of gamma radiation. This information is clearly publicized by the USDA and FDA.

The FDA presently supports the use of Cobalt-60 culled from nuclear reactors on all domestically produced conventional food.

The level of gamma-radiation used starts at 1 KiloGray -- equivalent to 16,700,000 chest x-rays -- and goes all the way up to 30KiloGray (500,000,000 chest x-rays or 10,000 times a human lethal dose).

According to Green Med Info:

“Despite the irresponsible promotion of this process as safe, food irradiation destroys much of the vitamin content of food, produces a number of toxic byproducts: formaldehyde, benzene, and formic acid, as well as unique radiolytic products, e.g. 2-alklycyclobutanoes, that have been demonstrated to be cytotoxic (damages cells), genotoxic (damages DNA), and carcinogenic (causes cancer) in test tube and animal studies.”