*** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and links

Greenpeace criticises Japan radiation screening

The environmental pressure group said it tested 60 seafood samples bought at stores in eastern Japan operated by five major supermarket chains and found 34 of them with radioactive caesium-134 and caesium-137.

The survey discovered readings of up to 88 becquerel per kilogram with the radiation believed to be from the ongoing nuclear accident.

"While the samples are well below the 500 becquerel per kilogram limit set by the authorities, the contaminated seafood still represents a health risk, especially to pregnant women and children, and it is being distributed over a wide area," said Wakao Hanaoka, Greenpeace Japan oceans campaigner.

The Japanese standard compares with a 150 becquerel per kilogram limit in Ukraine after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the group said.

[link to www.google.com]



- It is very plain to me that the japanese are going to hide this from their citizens with impunity. Who is going to stop them? The internet is censored and they do not intend to ever truthfully inform the people of what is in their environment. They hope to sweep this under the rug until the world forgets.

This is a humanitarian disaster. Thousands upon thousands if not hundreds of thousands will have serious health consequences which could and should have been avoided.

Where are the saviors of japan?
bug

Nuke committee drafts disaster-response revisions
Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission has drafted a plan for expanding areas that should be fully prepared against nuclear accidents to within 30 kilometers of nuclear power plants, from the current 10 kilometers.

A working group at the commission drew up the draft plan, following the March accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant when the government had ordered residents living within 30 kilometers of the plant to evacuate or to stay indoors.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]

US standard is 10 km...

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China, Taiwan nuke accident agreement
China and Taiwan have signed a security agreement to inform each other in the event of a nuclear accident.

Representatives for the cross-strait talks, Chen Yunlin of China, and Chiang Pin-kung of Taiwan, met on Thursday in Tianjin in the wake of nuclear disaster in Japan.

They agreed to quickly notify each other of any radioactive materials that might spread in the region as well as the cause of any accident which is level 2 or above.

Currently, 20 nuclear power plants are operating in China and Taiwan. 27 in China and 2 in Taiwan are under construction. [link to www3.nhk.or.jp]

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Fukushima assembly OKs reactor decommission

The assembly of Fukushima prefecture has adopted a petition calling for the scrapping of all 10 nuclear reactors in the prefecture. The prefecture hosts two Tokyo Electric Power Company-run nuclear stations, one of them severely damaged by the March disaster.

The petition adopted by a majority vote on Thursday was submitted by a civic group in June, following the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]

Bye-bye Daiichi... bye-bye Daini... bye-bye Tepco...

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Good riddance. They will still be paying for this disaster, I hope.

I'm afraid both parties will have to pay even though the people of Fukushima already have payed a very high price. Fukushima Prefecture probably will have to pay for breach of contracts and Tepco for decomissioning, cleaning up and damages. Lawsuits will go on for years. Tepco need to stay there at least for another 30 to 50 years anyway. Scrapping 10 reactors and restoring the Daini area will take some time. In the end it's the Japanese government (taxpayers) that will have to pay moneyvise. Parts of the Japanese population will pay a much higher price...

To be honest I don't think it will happen. Daiichi will be scrapped, cleaned up and become a 10 km dead zone. Tepco will probably get a new license to continue to operate Daini if they build a 30-40 foot seawall, relocates the diesel generators, makes some changes in the incoming power lines and adds another switchyard or two... and don't overstock the pools... spent fuel should be moved to another building, cooled down and then stored in casks as soon as it's possible.

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The decommissioning will take a long time. Much is yet to learn concerning the long-term health effects to the Japanese.

I have learned through nuclear law journal perusals that any country doing business with Japan in the nuclear industry or its suppliers can be held liable in the event of a catastrophe. I wonder how this will be determined and which body will enforce these laws.

Japanese Find Another Radioactive 'Hot Spot' Near Tokyo .

Japanese residents with Geiger counters found another highly radioactive "hot spot" in a city 18 miles northeast of Tokyo, though officials say they suspect the source of the contamination was something other than the nuclear accident in Fukushima.

Officials in the city of Kashiwa said the spot, about one square yard, in an empty lot owned by the city, registered levels as high as 57.5 microsieverts per hour—meaning a person who stood at the spot for a year would get a dose of radiation 25 times higher than what the government sets for evacuation. The highest levels previously detected in Kashiwa were roughly one or two microsieverts per hour, the officials said.

[link to online.wsj.com]

- another one?

Tons Of Radioactive Waste Are Piling Up In Japan As Number Of Reported Hotspots Grow

Read more: [link to www.businessinsider.com]

(snip)
Discovered almost entirely by Japanese citizen's groups more than 20 radioactive hot spots have been discovered up to 160 miles away from the Fukushima plant.

Because Japan's official agencies are refusing to test, citizens are buying up handheld Geiger counters in record numbers — shocked by what they're finding.

Strontium, cesium, and plutonium at levels 20 times greater than government limits are being found at schools, ballparks, and apartment buildings.
Locals are concerned, yet even the national press seems more likely to echo government statements than report citizens findings with stories of contamination appearing almost exclusively in the international press.

The New York Times spoke with Kiyoshi Toda, a medical doctor who specializes in teaching radiation science at Nagasaki University who says: “Radioactive substances are entering people’s bodies from the air, from the food. It’s everywhere. But the government doesn’t even try to inform the public how much radiation they’re exposed to.”

(snip)

- this is going to get ugly....

travel advisory?

[link to www.chicagotribune.com]

Fears that fallout from the Fukushima nuclear plant has contaminated areas outside of the original exclusion zone around the damaged reactors have grown after elevated levels of radiation were found in Tokyo. Researchers found the heightened radiation along a street in Setagaya ward, though it has yet to be linked to Fukushima. Scientists also found higher levels south of Tokyo, stoking fears that nuclear fallout has spread. Tourists should pay attention to updates.

FPL shuts down Hutchinson Island reactor after problem with water pump

[link to www.palmbeachpost.com]

World's oldest working civil nuke reactor to shut
[link to www.boston.com]

I say fugly for sure. I can hardly wait to see what the real facts are. Too bad it will take years for them to finally admit what the real facts are/were.

Fukushima cedar pollen to be tested
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

Journalists strived to get truth about nuclear fallout to public (Part 2)


We still regret not having been able to predict that radioactive contamination would spread to the extent that it has. We keep asking ourselves if there was any way we could've sounded a more precise alarm when large volumes of radioactive materials were released on March 14 and March 15, as we continue working toward protecting the public from unnecessary exposure. (By Taku Nishikawa, Science and Environment News Department)

[link to mdn.mainichi.jp]

Environmentalists worried over safety of nuclear plant after leakage

“The plant had already been closed on October 5 for three weeks for maintenance but after the leakage it will remain shut for an indefinite period,” Ejaz Ahmed, spokesman for Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, said.

He said the leakage had developed during maintenance work at midnight on Tuesday and the fault was removed at 7am on Wednesday. He said the leakage was not a serious matter because it often happened in nuclear power plants all over the world.

[link to www.omantribune.com]



- That pretty much says it all.

I'm torn on this issue. Yes, the data was censored. But it is the job of a journalist to dig in and find the facts.

NRC panel approves Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design


"I don't see what the rush is to certify (the AP1000) without thinking about whether certain design elements can be improved," said Edwin Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Cambridge, Mass.-based group that has opposed nuclear power development since the catastrophe in Japan.

Lyman and environmentalist groups also have questioned the structural integrity of the containment building to shield the AP1000 reactor vessel. It would have 3-foot-thick, concrete walls reinforced with 13/4-inch-thick steel to protect it from natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tornadoes, and from the impact of a jetliner.

An NRC staff report in August said that the AP1000 design would be able to withstand such events.




Read more: NRC panel approves Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review [link to www.pittsburghlive.com]

They still aren't addressing the aspect of spent fuel. That shit has to be stored for way, way too long.

Are there any real journalists left?

I'd say no. Most of them just want "what sells". By the way, have you seen the latest on Lindsay Lohan? FFS?! We have 2 million pages of info on Lindsay Lohan. They even report what she wears to a court appearance. But, I want to know the real data about how many radionuclides might be heading my way...no pages available on that one.

Last Edited by Southern OR on 10/22/2011 01:57 AM

Post-Fukushima, 'they' can no longer be trusted — if ever they could

Hirose points out that from day one of the disaster the situation in Fukushima had reached the highest level of nuclear accidents, namely level 7 — and from the outset, the government was keenly aware of this fact. But it chose to conceal the truth from the people.

As Hirose and many other commentators have pointed out, Tepco executives and government planners knew perfectly well that tsunamis far exceeding 20 meters in height struck that very region in 1896 and again, 37 years later, in 1933.

The 14-meter-high tsunami that inundated many of the Fukushima No. 1 plant's facilities was, in fact, well within the parameters of what could objectively be termed "expected" — and was simply not "beyond all previous imagination," as Shimizu claimed.

In fact, the willful absence of care by both industry and government comprises nothing less than a blatant act of savagery against the people of Japan.

[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

- Hirose has exposed tepco.

What are officials hiding about Fukushima?

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has exposed
troubling weaknesses with radiation monitoring here in Canada.by Alex Roslin, The Georgia Straight, October 20, 2011 [link to straight.com]

After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, Soviet officials were vilified for hiding the impacts from the public.But when Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident took place last March, public officials in Japan and Canada alike jumped straight into Chernobyl-style damage-control mode, dismissing any worries about impacts.

Now evidence has emerged that the radiation in Canada was worse than Canadian officials ever let on.A Health Canada monitoring station in Calgary detected radioactive material in rainwater that exceeded Canadian guidelines during the month of March, according to Health Canada data obtained by the Georgia Straight.

[link to www.pej.org]

- The Canadians are screwed. Their government is even more repressive of alternate reporting. Big Brother is alive and well in Canada.

Powerful concerns

These problems have lingered for years, long before Fukushima. What will it take to resolve them?

Seabrook is plagued by its own particular problems. This summer, for example, serious structural problems involving degrading concrete at the plant came to light. Concrete in several critical safety-related buildings has deteriorated because of "aggressive" groundwater infiltration over the last 10 to 15 years. Compression test results indicate there has been a 21 percent decrease in concrete strength. What that means for plant safety is unclear, but neither federal regulators nor the plant owner have said anything to reassure the public.

What's more, Seabrook is one of 27 reactors located in areas of the country with the potential for earthquakes stronger than the plant was designed to withstand.

These are all issues of critical importance to the people who live near Seabrook and other troubled reactors in the region, including Vermont Yankee and the Pilgrim plant south of Boston. Yet federal regulators who are responsible for nuclear power safety have long tolerated or ignored serious shortcomings at these and many of the nation's reactors. Fukushima should have been a wake-up call. Instead, the industry and regulators are hitting the snooze button.

[link to www.seacoastonline.com]

Kashiwa hot spot linked to Fukushima

Science ministry reverses government claims after on-site survey finds high amouts of cesium


But the ministry has confirmed that rain water is leaching out of the ditch and into the soil at the spot, ministry officials said at a new conference Sunday.

Up to 276,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram of soil was detected 30 cm below the surface of the hot spot Friday after an abnormal level of airborne radiation was found earlier in the week, the municipality said.

"If fallout from the Fukushima plant naturally falls onto the ground, it'd be unthinkable that the radiation level would be higher deep in the soil than on the surface," said Masako Sawai, researcher at Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, a Tokyo-based antinuclear activist group, before the science ministry's press conference Sunday.

The Kashiwa government and the science ministry also conducted a second on-site survey Sunday to study the cesium.

[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]



- Tokyo is contaminated. The truth is coming out, slowly.

True objectivity concerning the media is impossible to find, and critics might point to the author's long-term Japan residency as an inherent bias.

Yet Johnston makes an important contribution to a debate that continues to rage, even in apparent bastions of media freedom such as Britain. In contrast, Japanese faith in their media has remained steadfast, with a recent poll showing 80 percent continue to trust newspaper reports.
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]


- this explains, in part, the complacency of the Japanese. They believe what they read and hear from their media.

Real radiation threat is to young

The findings on cancer patients give even less comfort to anyone who wants to have children. Thomas would be unqualified to work in her field if she didn't know that fetuses, babies and children are extremely sensitive to radiation. I don't know what motivates her to not mention this in the numerous occasions she has spoken in the media. It is a crucial point in the question of whether Fukushima will be a viable place to live, or whether people should be leaving the area now.

[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

Nuclear Safety has been on top of the Indian Agenda after the Fukushima radiation leak and fire in a French nuclear waste dump. There was a need for assurance concerning how reliable the patented technology France presses to use in installing the plants.

[link to www.indiandefence.com]


- fire in french nuclear dump? How quaint.