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Topic Started: April 11 2011, 02:28 PM (7,672 Views)
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A Year Later, Effects of Japan’s Disaster Are Still Unfolding.



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Teruko Sto, 73, prayed at the site where her son's body was found in Kesencho, Japan, following last year's earthquake and tsunami. Shoichi Sto, 47, died while helping evacuate elderly residents of the village.


NIHONMATSU, Japan — Nobody knows whether Hiroshi Yokoyama’s elderly parents tried to outrun the tsunami waves that engulfed their home in Namie on the Fukushima coast a year ago.
But Mr. Yokoyama does know that he would have searched for them high and low, if not for a second disaster that unfolded at the nuclear power plant just a few miles away, forcing him to abandon his search.

As grieving families across the nation gathered Sunday to mark the one-year anniversary of Japan’s 3/11 disasters — an earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the northeastern coast, killed almost 20,000 people and caused a huge nuclear radiation leak — some communities are still coming to terms with the calamity’s scale, complexity and lasting effects, and painful new revelations have shed light on how some of the victims died.

Last week, the police in the Futaba-gun region of Fukushima, which includes the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and the town of Namie, confirmed that a handful of tsunami survivors trapped in the rubble probably starved to death as rescuers fled the scene for fear of radiation.

A month passed before rescuers started to venture back into the 12-mile-radius exclusion zone set up around the nuclear plant; the bodies of Mr. Yokoyama’s parents were not discovered until the summer.

“If only there was no nuclear power station, lives could have been saved,” Mr. Yokoyama said. He thinks, and hopes, that his parents were quickly overpowered by the waves, and avoided the drawn-out deaths that some around them may have suffered.

A year later, Mr. Yokoyama, his wife, and two young children are still unable to return to their home on the shore. They observed the anniversary in Nihonmatsu, a city about 35 miles away, a group of Namie townspeople now live.

“If only there was no nuclear power station, we could all go home,” Mr. Yokoyama said.

Across the country on Sunday, there were hundreds of memorial services like the one in Nihonmatsu. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in a nationally televised address, pledged to work for a faster recovery.

“We shall not let our memory of the disasters fade, pay attention to disaster prevention and continue our effort to make this land an even safer place to live,” he said.

Japan’s reconstruction has accomplished much in the past year. Virtually 100 percent of the tsunami zone’s roads have been fixed, and landscapes once strewn with debris now are lined with tidy plots and a growing number of restored buildings. Severed supply chains have been re-established, and many of the region’s devastated fishing ports are back in service.

But the still-evolving story of the towns like Namie is a painful reminder that the three-pronged onslaught of earth, sea and radiation that hammered the country a year ago was no ordinary disaster.

The tsunami waves that crashed into Namie not long after the 9.0 offshore earthquake at 2:46 p.m. that day swept entire houses out to sea, witnesses said.

By nightfall, rescuers reached some of the worst damage in the town’s Ukedo District. In the pitch blackness — the town’s power supply had been knocked out — they heard taps and voices, possibly survivors under the mangled debris.

But as darkness enveloped them, the rescuers decided to suspend their search until dawn.

“We told them we would be back,” Kimihisa Takano, a neighborhood firefighter. “But we never did.”

Mr. Takano instead found himself helping evacuate the town, after reports of a radiation leak from the nearby nuclear plant. But the town owned only a handful of microbuses and other vehicles to get residents out. As news spread of the unfolding nuclear crisis, commercial bus companies refused to travel to Namie, slowing the evacuation.

With no guidance from Tokyo Electric Power Company, the nuclear plant’s owner, or the central government, town officials led evacuees north, believing winds were blowing the radiation south. They would later learn they had fled right into the path of the radiation plume, despite the existence of government simulations that could have pointed them to safety instead.
All the while, residents pushed for rescuers to return to Namie to resume their search for missing loved ones. “They were telling us, ‘What are the police for?’ ” said Takashi Sato, a police officer for the Futaba-gun region and a native of Namie, who fielded some of those calls. “But there was no way we could have carried out full-blown searches with radiation so high and the plant so volatile.”
When Mr. Sato and his colleagues finally entered the 12-mile exclusion zone for a search mission in April, there were no survivors. Four bodies were discovered at a still-intact hospital in Okuma, next to Namie; an elderly man was found dead on the undamaged second floor of his house, according to Mr. Sato.

They are all presumed to have died of causes other than the tsunami, probably starvation, Mr. Sato said.

There are signs that victims in other towns and cities around the Daiichi plant, 160 miles north of Tokyo, suffered a similar fate. Ryuzaburo Shineha, a doctor based in Minamisoma who helped examine bodies pulled from the tsunami wreckage there, deemed that five out of 34 bodies he handled had died from debilitation.

“Their bodies were unnaturally thin, suggesting that they likely had nothing to eat or drink for a long time,” he said. “We concluded that they survived for some time after the tsunami, but became debilitated.

“Radiation doesn’t kill you straight away, but these people were literally dying. The authorities should have gone in to rescue them.”

In all, 1,605 people have been confirmed dead in Fukushima, and 214 remain missing and are presumed dead.

Even as the area’s evacuees awaited news of their relatives, towns and cities there splintered. The 20,000 former residents of Namie are now scattered across 620 towns and cities in Japan, according to town officials. Five other jurisdictions around the Fukusima Daiichi plant remain evacuated.

The government has acknowledged that some areas near the plant may be uninhabitable for decades.

More recently, some residents have been allowed on several visits to their tsunami-ravaged homes. When Kazuhiro Shiba, 48, returned to his home in Namie in June, he found a ship blocking his front door.

Mr. Shiba has no illusions about ever moving back. “We’re just lucky to be alive,” he said.

At the Namie memorial service in Nihonmatsu, bereaved families lined up to lay white chrysanthemums at an elaborate altar. Two Buddhist priests chanted funeral rites.

“Our search for survivors was delayed by a full month,” said Eiko Yoshida, a Namie native and a member of Fukushima’s prefectural assembly. “When I think of the suffering endured by the victims and their families, I am overcome by a heartbreaking grief.

“We experienced three disasters all at once. Never has this happened in the world.”
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Evacuating From Fukushima After Earthquake and Tsunami: Two Mothers' Stories.



Imagine having to leave your home, your friends, even your husband out of fear of something you cannot see, smell or touch. That's the story of so many mothers who evacuated Fukushima after a tsunami tore into their city's nuclear power plant.

Two of them described their journey to ABC News last week in New York.

Time will tell if they are the lucky ones.

Evacuating From Fukushima

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Japan. Thirty minutes later a massive tsunami flattened the Northern Tohoku region, killing nearly 20,000 men, women and children who couldn't run from the path of the oncoming wave. A tsunami alert had gone out, but no one expected the waves to be so huge.

Minutes after the first quake, myriad aftershocks riddled the entire country as fires sprang up in the oil containment centers of Chiba. The Sendai Airport went underwater, and people struggled to find their loved ones. The situation gravely worsened as news of an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant sent fear across the globe that still reverberates today.

Chiaki Tomitsuka lived in Fukushima Prefecture, 36 miles from the nuclear plant. She had heard about the horrors of Chernobyl, and even though the amount of radioactive material released in Fukushima was much lower than that nuclear disaster, Tomitsuka feared for the health of her 10-year-old son. She and her husband quickly tried to come up with a plan to evacuate, but it wasn't so easy.
"Several days after the accident, many of my friends started evacuating the area," said Tomitsuka. "But our family could not leave, because the trains had been halted due to the continuing quakes, and we didn't have enough gasoline for our car."

Gasoline become a rare commodity. People lined up at dawn for hours to wait for fuel to be delivered to gas stations, only to find that gas had run out, leaving many to try their luck again the following day.
For Tomitsuka, it was not until March 23, 11 days after the explosion at the nuclear plant, that she and her son, Yuri, could get enough gas in their car to evacuate to Kanagawa Prefecture, where her parents lived. Tomitsuka has since moved with her son into a temporary public housing facility in Yokohama, separated from her husband who stayed behind in Fukushima to work.

"It's sad that I can't see my father often," her son, Yuri, admitted. "But I believe it was a good decision to evacuate, because I don't want to be ill in the future. I want to live a long time and relieve my parents of anxiety."

Her housing is guaranteed only till next year, and Tomitsuka does not want to think about what will happen when her term is up.

"I can't think about that right now," she confided. "I can barely deal with the current realities. If I began thinking about that, I would slip into a deeper depression."

Tomitsuka's only regret is that she was not able to say her goodbyes to her friends, neighbors and teachers at her son's school before evacuating. Despite mixed emotions of fear and guilt, she knows she made the right decision to leave. She is aware that not everyone had the means to do so.

The Evacuation Zone: Is It Wide Enough?

Fukushima, once an area rich with lush cherry blossom trees and beautiful landscapes, has become synonymous with the dangers of radiation. The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant released 168 times the amount of radiation that was released by the atomic blast on Hiroshima in 1945, and was categorized as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Events Scale, the highest level possible.
The Japanese government created a 12-mile "exclusion zone," and 80,000 people were told to evacuate. Cities within that radius have become ghost towns frozen in time: Traffic lights flash above empty streets, signaling to no one; a basket of clothes at the laundromat remain half folded. There are no signs of life.

Those who evacuated might not be able to return home for decades. Families living right outside the evacuation zone fear the government's insistence that their area is safe is not altogether sincere. They know radiation levels have dropped, but say they just don't know what's safe anymore.

Without government funding or compensation from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, which operates the Fukushima plant, the families say they cannot leave.

Young families worry their children are being exposed to high levels of radiation, but loans and mortgages on their homes have tied them down. They cannot sell their homes, nor can they uproot themselves to a new place without the promise of a job.

Those who were forced to evacuate receive monthly monetary compensation from Tepco. But for volunary evacuees living just outside the exclusion zone, there is little restitution. Tepco will pay a one-time fee of 400,000 yen (about $4,000) for children and expectant mothers, and 80,000 yen (about $800) for other adults.
A Year Later

Last Wednesday, Chiaki Tomitsuka and her son, Yuri, Yoshiko Fukagawa and her son, Kaisei - evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture in Japan - spoke about their health concerns at a forum sponsored by Human Rights Now (a nongovernmental organization based in Tokyo), that was held in conjunction with the 56th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Fukagawa lived in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture when the nuclear reactor exploded. Like Tomitsuka, she voluntarily evacuated with her two young children, ages 4 and 7, and in June 2011, with support from other mothers, she founded a grassroots organization called Evacuated Mothers With Children From Fukushima. It provides a safe haven where young mothers can express their fears about the possible dangers still facing their children, and organizes rallies and sit-ins call attention to the hazards of radiation and to protest against nuclear power plants.

Asked whether there were any mementos that would remind her of home before the nuclear disaster, Fukagawa replied, "After experiencing such a powerful quake and seeing everything being washed away, any shred of material desire I had has been washed away as well. I am just thankful to have the possession called life."

Tomitsuka and Fukagawa, along with their children, are speaking out as a reminder that the fallout from Fukushima is still affecting many lives.

"Even though it has been a year since the Fukushima Nuclear Plant explosion," says Tomitsuka. "It is not over. Please do not forget us."


More info link and videos ....... http://abcnews.go.com/International/evacuating-fukushima-earthquake-tsunami/story?id=15890249#.T1zhoHmBXTp
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Japan Tsunami Anniversary: Interactive Photos Before And After .



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A view of the center of town on March 11, 2012 in Rikuzentakata, Japan. Today marks the one year anniversary of the Japan tsunami and earthquake that occurred at 2:46pm local time, on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)


On the first anniversary of the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11, 2011, the debris and destruction continue to litter the lands and minds of Japanese people.

The interactive graphics below let you visualize the power Mother Nature exerted last year, turning man-made behemoths into mangled bricolage in just minutes. You'll be able to see how the Sendai port, a soccer field in Minamisanriku and Onahama in Iwaka looked pre- and post-disaster. If you look closely at the soccer field, you can see how the familiar, painted circles and rectangles transformed into a giant "SOS." These images fit in line with the costliest natural disaster on record


See and read more here ....... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/11/japan-tsunami-anniversary_n_1337534.html#s747440
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Japan remembers victims of tragedy.


Tens of thousands of people rallied near Japan's crippled Fukushima plant today to press authorities to ditch nuclear power on the first anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a meltdown.

Around 16,000 people massed at a stadium in Koriyama, 37 miles from the plant, to call for an end to nuclear energy in Japan and demand compensation from privateer Tokyo Electric Power, which continues to operate the disabled facility, for the victims.

A smaller protest was mounted outside the disgraced firm's headquarters in Tokyo, where about 50 demonstrators shouted: "Stop all reactors right now."

People across the country prayed and stood in silence to remember the massive earthquake and tsunami that killed over 19,000 people.

The tsunami knocked out the vital cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, causing meltdowns at three reactors and spewing radiation into the air. Around 100,000 residents who were forced to flee the area around the plant remain in temporary housing or with relatives and a 12-mile area around the plant is still off limits.

And 325,000 people made homeless or evacuated because of the earthquake and tsunami are still in temporary housing. While much of the debris along the tsunami-ravaged coast has been gathered into massive piles, very little rebuilding has begun.

In the devastated north-eastern coastal town of Rikuzentakata, a siren sounded at 2.46pm today - the exact time the 9.0 magnitude quake struck on March 11 2011.

At the same time in the seaside town of Onagawa, people facing the sea pressed their hands together in silent prayer.

The earthquake was the strongest recorded in Japan's history, and set off a tsunami that swelled to more than 65 feet in some spots along the north-eastern coast, destroying tens of thousands of homes and wreaking widespread destruction.

The crippled Fukushima plant remains in a fragile state, and makeshift equipment - some mended with tape - is keeping crucial systems running.

Enormous risks and challenges lie ahead at the plant, including locating and removing melted nuclear fuel from the inside of the reactors and disposing spent fuel rods. Completely decommissioning the plant could take 40 years.
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Fukushima Scar : 1 year since Japan's worst quake/tsunami tragedy .

Japan marks one year since a devastating earthquake and tsunami killed over nineteen thousand people, devastating an entire nation. A minute's silence has been observed at the exact moment the quake hit last March. The tsunami turned whole neighborhoods into debris leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. It also triggered the worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century after the cooling systems at the Fukushima plant were knocked out. For more on the risks of contamination the plant poses today RT talks to Dr. Robert Jacobs, who's professor of nuclear history and culture at Hiroshima Peace Institute.

Video link ........ http://youtu.be/r7FCYT-7x5s
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One Year Summary of Losses in the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami of March 11th 2011.


Japan – 366 days after the Quake… 19000 lives lost, 1.2 million buildings damaged, $574 billion

It is now one year since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Eastern Japan. Earthquake-report.com brings you the latest figures, pictures and statistics from this event that we have been covering for the last 366 days.

Link to info ..... http://earthquake-report.com/2012/03/10/japan-366-days-after-the-quake-19000-lives-lost-1-2-million-buildings-damaged-574-billion/
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Japan’s battered coast, then and now.


The tsunami waves that struck Japan’s east coast on March 11, 2011, killed nearly 19,000 and displaced more than 340,000. Authorities say a full recovery will take at least a decade. These 13 images show the devastation in the days after the disaster and the same spots nearly a year later.


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Japan Self Defense Forces soldiers remove a body in Kesennuma city, Miyagi Prefecture,
on March 19, 2011. Nearly one year later, life slowly returns to normal.

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See more pictures here .............. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/world/japans-coast-then-and-now/
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Fukushima One Year Later : The Poisoning of Planet Earth.



Planetary Genocide": Fukushima One Year Later : The Poisoning of Planet Earth

by Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri Wednesday, 14 March 2012, 12:43 pm.



The most difficult thing of all is to see is what is right in front of your eyes.” Goethe.

As we approach the tragic one-year anniversary of Fukushima’s multiple nuclear reactors’ accident on March 11, that initially affected the entire Japanese population, we now know that this nightmare has engulfed all of us. Let us also not forget that this is the third nuclear attack on the Japanese (the first two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Given what has not been done to ensure public safety, we cannot think of it any other way. From the very first day, there were lies and a massive cover-up of the extent of the destruction and the inherent radioactive dangers –not just from Japanese officials and TEPCO corporate reports, but also from the US. The Mark 1 reactors, built by General Electric, have design flaws. There are many of these same-designed reactors in the US.

A year later, much of the corruption, deceit, and careless practices have been documented extensively here at Global Research –while mainstream news continues Orwellian doublespeak. Last month, in a rare but very belated mainstream account, CBS News reported that after the tsunami and nuclear accident: “The normal lines of [government] authority completely collapsed in Japan.” See: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57386266/report-govt-collapsed-during-japan-nuke-crisis

Early on, even essential radioactive monitoring was shut down. In May 2011, the prestigious Norsk Institute’s online site was blocked from the US. They had been monitoring on a daily basis the worldwide radioactive contamination to which we were all –and continue to be– exposed. Conveniently, any early radiation monitoring in the US was inconsistent, with numerous sites supposedly not working for one or another reason. Then the so-called “acceptable” radiation levels in food were raised in the US and EU. http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/eu-follows-epa-raises-acceptable.html

As Dr. Helen Caldicott and Dr. Chris Busby have repeatedly reported: “There is no safe level of radionuclide exposure, whether from food, water, or other sources. Period.” See: http://www.helencaldicott.com/2011/05/unsafe-at-any-dose/

So, what is not monitored, or where the radiation rates are manipulated, then no one –government officials and corporations– can ever be held accountable, nor can increased death rates, diabetes, stillbirths, birth defects ever be attributed to this catastrophic planetary event.

When have we ever been told the truth about our life-long systemic radiation poisoning? For decades, we have been uninformed experimental laboratory rats since before the Manhattan Project. There never were any ethical or precautionary considerations. Greed and secret agendas trumped everything else.

With various half-lives –some eons-long– of numerous radioactive components, the human race and every other living creature on our planet is on its way to extinction, due to the known sterilization effects of radiation. Here is a short list of the half-life of five of the radioactive isotopes that are and will continue to poison all of our children, and us, ad infinitum, in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink and in which we bathe:

• Cesium 137: 30 years
• Plutonium 239: 24,000 years
• Strontium 90: 29 years [mimics calcium in the body]
• Uranium 235: 700-million years
• Iodine 131: 8 days [absorbed into the thyroid and gives heavy radiation dose. Also goes into the soil, passed onto us through cow’s milk.]

In a report released just a few week’s ago, the milk tested in the San Francisco area still had radioactive levels of Cesium 134 and Cesium 137. According to even a compromised EPA, these are now at “150 percent of their maximum contaminant level.” Here’s the chart: http://enenews.com/highest-level-radioactive-cesium-san-francisco-area-milk-august-2011-150-epas-maximum-contaminant-limit-chart

In addition, Fukushima’s Unit 3 reactor also used MOX [mixed oxide], a plutonium-uranium fuel mixture that is deadly. A single milligram of MOX is 2-million times more deadly than enriched uranium.

Current radiation levels reported on Feb. 25 in Tokyo, 100 miles from Fukushima and an international hub, are “25 times the Fukushima mandatory evacuation zone.” The eminent physicist Dr. Paolo Scampa has reported in detail his latest calculations on deadly radiation exposure here (see page 2): http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/25/evacuate-tokyo-and-all-us-forces-from-japan

For 30-million Japanese this is an epic tragedy.

Any reasonable safety precautions or realistic evacuations never took place at Fukushima or elsewhere. In addition, a collection of 40-years worth of 600,000 spent fuel rods posed an immediate HazMat threat that never went away. The water poured over them evaporated into radioactive steam to go directly into our planet’s atmosphere and the tons of sea water sprayed on the entire nuclear conflagration were criminally dumped into the Pacific Ocean. Again, because it was not monitored, we will never know how many millions of tons of radioactive water were dumped into the Pacific Ocean. The entire web of ocean life then was irreversibly contaminated with radioactive nuclear waste and detritus, as the ocean currents carried this nightmare to the west coast shores of North America (California, Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver). As with other major planetary bodies of water, the Pacific Ocean has become an enormous radioactive garbage dump of incalculable proportions that are beyond any remediation currently known to science. This majestic body of water has become one of our planet’s toilets.(1)

What about the entire web of ocean life? From the great and magnificent whales to the variety of microscopic life, this entire vast ecosystem has been poisoned. Yet, we will never know the immense extent of death and destruction that Fukushima caused to it. Even knowing that the ocean food chain is contaminated with radioactivity, this was not reported by mainstream media. So, the fishing industry is catching and selling various fish and crustaceans that are radioactive. How many tons of these have gone up through the entire food chain, and then sold to uninformed consumers who eat these HazMat foods? Profits always trump our safety and well-being. This is the massive global poisoning of our only home –Mother Earth. We are fortunate, however, that the alternative internet media has reported on these dangers.

While hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions?) will develop various radiation-related illnesses (cancers and diabetes, as well as radiation-induced miscarriages, stillbirths and birth deformities) over the next decades, the coffers of the medical profession, pharmaceutical companies, and nuclear industry will be bursting with profits. The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl continues its deathly impact –and that was only one reactor.(2) Fukushima had six reactors.

Medical reports are already showing a significant rise in deaths due to Fukushima’s radioactive fallout. Noted toxicologist and internist Dr. Janet Sherman recently said:” Based on our continuing research, the actual death count here [in the US] may be as high as 18,000…but we continue to find that infants are hardest hit because their tissues are rapidly multiplying, they have undeveloped immune systems, and the doses of radioisotopes are proportionally greater than for adults.” See: http://www.radiation.org/press/pressrelease111219FukushimaReactorFallout.html

This massive and frightening crisis is the result of no precaution, no prevention, and no care or concern for human or any other kind of life on our planet. None of this is mainstream news. E.O. Wilson (“The Future of Life” and “Biodiversity”) and Bill McKibben (“The End of Nature”) were writing about these issues decades ago. The dangers of the nuclear age continue to mount with off-the-scale disastrous results to all of us.

How much longer can we be deceived about the extreme dangers of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons? Everything that encompasses nuclear energy is unsafe. It is hazardous in the extreme. Further, nuclear waste has been accumulating for six decades. There is NO LONG-TERM SAFE WAY TO STORE ANY NUCLEAR WASTE. For example, countless drums of nuclear waste have been dumped into the ocean, and have been found to be leaking radioactive poisons.

Everything on our planet has been contaminated with life-long and long-term radiation. I continue to write: “Invisible does not mean safe.” With many nuclear facilities in the US old and having numerous problems, the core issue of it as a hazardous endeavor remains. Two nuclear plants with serious troubles are Vermont Yankee, and just last month San Onofre (built right on a fault line). They are just the tips of the proverbial radioactive iceberg.

So, as long as profits trump safety, and as long as the entire nuclear industry has ties to the military, we will never be safe. Valid citizens’ and medical concerns continue to be ignored. We are all expendable.

This is not a one-issue health and/or environmental crisis. We MUST think of the bigger picture, across many disciplines. We are in the midst of a long-planned and multi-pronged assault on our health and our planet’s. The destruction of real and long-term good health has been replaced by multiple and chronic diseases (often caused by enormous toxic pollution that envelops all of us). Our entire biology has been battered for a century. The blood-brain barrier has been breached. Nano-technology and invisible stealth-created micro-organisms –both unregulated– are our modern-day plagues. Many were created in some bio-hazard lab. To add to this is the poisoning of our water, air and food supply. In 1998, the print-edition of London’s “The Ecologist” (perhaps the earliest environmental magazine, first published in the 1970s), devoted their entire issue to “The Monsanto Files. Can we survive genetic engineering?”(3) For many years, F. William Engdahl (“Seed of Destruction”) and Dr. Mae Wan-Ho both have written about the abundant and well-documented dangers of genetic engineering and the GM poisoned foods.

Add to that:, we have an illegal but on-going geo-engineered aerosol 24/7/365 stealth assault overhead that has completely changed our air and poisoned our health. In numerous lectures and research papers, Clifford Carnicom has documented that our air has been transformed to a plasma state; and with it is the associated tragedy of Morgellons syndrome that was created from some synthetic self-replicating nano-organism. There is no “off switch” for this; but the media ridicules sufferers. Time magazine recently published an article noting that these very real and documented symptoms were “delusional.” Into this synergistic nightmare are also 100,000 chemicals –90 percent of which are untested– that surround our every move.

Last, but by no means the least, of these hazards is the hidden dangers of the EMF/RF spectrum [Electromagnetic Frequency/Radiation Frequency]. The proliferation of this deadly technology encompasses: cell phones and Wi-Fi and their towers that poison our landscapes. With more than 5-billion cell phones sold, consumers were never told how dangerous they were. Outdated data and reports do not include the now constant barrage of these higher frequencies that wreck our health. There is also newly reported research demonstrating that this also includes impairment of cognitive function and brain damage.(4)

The latest release of this hazardous technology is the so-called “Smart” Meters that are being installed all over North America and Europe without any mandate and without any preliminary research that the utility [electric, gas, and water] companies did on the numerous biological threats they are already causing people who have had a meter installed.(5)

With 8,000 complaints, California leads the US in the most vocal concerns about these meters. Several cities, including Santa Cruz, CA, have banned them with year-long moratoria. There was never any mandate to force these meters on anyone; the utility companies did not warn customers of the extreme risks of constantly pulsing EMF, nor did they warn customers about breakage to our DNA or brain damage. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (founded in 1965) has called for a moratorium on these dangerous meters.(6) It is conceivable that the unfolding EMF crisis will be far worse than the asbestos and tobacco hazards combined. Scientist Prof. Olle Johansson of Sweden’s prestigious Karolinska Institute, has been warning about these invisible biological dangers for decades. See: .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS7YIZ1x0r8 ...and ... http://youtu.be/lJZumEgSblQ

Corporations have personhood and have the same legal standing as any real humans. They have the financial means to block any real justice for the environmental and health damage their products continue to cause. They are rarely held accountable. Add to that the destruction of 30-years of environmental laws meant to protect us, this is another part of the disaster recipe in which we live out our days. The nuclear industry has never told us the truth about the permanent level of radiation dangers to which we are all exposed. The plunder of our planet and the destruction of vast ecosystems have been documented for decades. These poisons, mostly invisible, envelop our every move, contaminate our DNA, and wreck our health and ability to reproduce safely. The past 10 years this destruction has been accelerated at a phenomenal rate, while mainstream media continues to report lies.

Nevertheless, more and more millions of people are waking up and connecting many of the dots of these epidemics of serious illnesses, loss of millions of jobs, theft of millions of homes, stealing of trillions of dollars of wealth to pay off banksters, CEOs and insiders, while the middle class around the globe is in extremis. Evidence continues to mount of what insider trading and printing of fiat money has done to destroy people’s lives and economies around the globe. We cannot minimize or discount a situation that is totally out of control; and we cannot think of each of these HazMats as separate problems. They are all inter-related and they are destroying out health. Connecting the dots of this multi-pronged assault on all of us as well as our entire biosphere is ESSENTIAL. It is not sustainable. It is up to all of us to become well-informed and educated about what is happening, join together, and to paraphrase Dr. Rosalie Bertell “refuse to co-operate in our own destruction.” We still have that choice.

Remember: What we don’t look for, we can’t find. If those in charge decide NOT to monitor or report the dangers, then no one is ever held accountable –that includes those in charge. We all suffer the consequences.
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Fukushima Fallout.

Cancer Fears and Depression Plague Japanese Refugees.



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Thousands of people have been living since the disaster in provisional housing, like the complex here in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture. Radiation is invisible, but the fear of it is real.


ver since the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant, many Japanese people have been living with the fear of cancer. Experts find it difficult to estimate how many people will actually fall ill, but they're more concerned about the psychological consequences of the catastrophe.
The borders of the restricted zone cut through the village of Katsurao. Many of the town's inhabitants had to leave their houses after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Neighbors only one street away were allowed to stay, but didn't want to. They were just too anxious about the invisible dangers of radiation and cancer.

Now the people of Katsurao live in provisional housing about an hour's drive away from their former homes. Tomoko Matsumoto knows their fears. The 36-year-old nurse works with a four-person team to care for the villagers. "Younger people are especially of concern," says Matsumoto. "And every mother! They worry that their kids will get thyroid cancer or leukemia."

Whether their fears are justified is still up for scientific debate. Even if the former residents of Katsurao get cancer in 10, 20 or 30 years, it will be nearly impossible to prove the causes. In addition to the Fukushima disaster a lot of other factors can come into play: genetic changes, smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy eating habits or viral infections.

The risk that a Japanese person will get cancer over the course of his or her lifetime already averages about 40 percent. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 610,000 new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2010, up from more than 500,000 new cancer cases in 2000. The WHO estimates that in 2022 there will be 670,000 new cancer cases diagnosed.

Just how many cancer cases will the increased radiation trigger? Like most radiation experts, US radiologist Fred Mettler expects that Fukushima won't raise general cancer rates in Japan. If it did, the increase would be too small to measure, Mettler, a member of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), recently told the news agency AP.

Avoiding Local Produce and Tap Water

Meanwhile, Japanese authorities have begun the first long-term studies to analyze possible effects of the disaster. In total about 2 million residents from the Fukushima area will be observed over the next 30 years. Those affected by the catastrophe will receive detailed questionnaires along with full-body scans and thyroid exams. The cost of the study will be exorbitant, and the analysis of the mass data immense.

At beginning of February, 60 international radiation experts discussed initial results of the study in Vienna. The impact of radiation exposure affecting the population during the crisis and in the coming decades, will be at a low radiation category level, according to the head of UNSCEAR, Wolfgang Weiss, who is also from the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection.

While the radiation risks can be tough to quantify, for those affected by Fukushima, the fear is very real and seeps into their daily lives. Many people avoid eating local produce and don't drink tap water anymore. Edwin Lyman of the anti-nuclear Union of Concerned Scientists sees it like this: even if cancers do not turn up in population studies, that does not mean they are not there and that they do not play a role.

What still remains unclear, according to UNSCEAR head Weiss, is what happened in the weeks after the accident with the radioactive iodine 131. How was it spread in the environment? What impact could it possibly have on the thyroids of those affected?

What is known is what happened after the catastrophe at Chernobyl. There is a clear connection between the reactor accident in 1986 and the increase in thyroid cancer diagnoses. Thyroid cancer can be traced primarily back to the consumption of milk and leafy vegetables contaminated by iodine-131. Radiation expert Weiss suspects that a similar causal link won't be found in Fukushima. A mass screening of the thyroids of Japanese children after the accident showed very low levels of radiation, said Weiss. Besides, he notes, thyroid cancer appears more commonly in adults over the age of 40.

In total, about 360,000 children who were under the age of 18 when the catastrophe occurred need to be examined. They should be newly tested every two years until they turn 20 and then every five years after that.

In villages such as Katsurao people were most concerned about the children from the beginning. Nurse Tomoko Matsumoto explains that every child under the age of 15 was equipped with a dosimeter to measure total radiation exposure. So far, the devices haven't registered any alarming numbers, says Matsumoto. "I ask myself, whether some mothers' reactions are perhaps not overly-sensitive," she says.

Lessons from Chernobyl

Radiation experts such as Weiss and Mettler support their claims with studies from the Chernobyl catastrophe. In April 2011, UNSCEAR presented the results of the current edition of the report on Chernobyl. The report is based on an examination of more than 500,000 disaster relief workers on plant grounds during and after the accident. Their results were compared with checks on thyroid levels of about 100 million residents. A direct connection between the Chernobyl catastrophe and thyroid cancer rates of children and youth turned up in more than 6,000 cases. But there was no definitive proof that Chernobyl caused other types of cancers.

To counter critics such as International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and Greenpeace, who doubt the UNSCEAR data, the broadest examination possible of the nuclear catastrophe in Japan must be carried out. Four UNSCEAR groups should be established:

One that looks at the effects of Tepco workers who were there during the meltdown, and for whom the impact of radiation is markedly higher than the general population.
One that analyzes radioactive contamination in the general public.
One that compiles information on leaking radioactivity and its spread into the environment.
A fourth group that monitors the quality of all collected data.

"The assessment of the data will be the most important and critical instrument," Weiss says. After the Japanese government's disastrous information policies at the beginning of the catastrophe, the UN wants to encourage transparency and independence. In May, UNSCEAR will publish its first report, and another big summary report is scheduled for May 2013.

The experts agree on one main point: The psychological consequences of the nuclear catastrophe are a greater risk to the population than radiation. There was a similar conclusion after the Chernobyl disaster, when many of those evacuated suffered from stress and depression. They ate fewer healthy foods, and smoked and drank more, all of which can increase the risk of cancer.

Nurse Matsumoto agrees. The biggest problem for the Katsurao refugees right now is not radiation, but too little physical activity. Most of the townspeople are farmers who worked hard before the catastrophe. Now they sit in their emergency accommodations, and eat fatty pre-packaged foods instead of homegrown vegetables, which could put them at risk for increased cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

"Some are already suffering from depression," Matsumoto says, adding that the refugees have the dual burden of having lost their jobs, and their homes. "And they don't know how things are going to turn out."
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An Earthquake, a Tsunami and Fukushima: Japan's Triple Catastrophe ... Interactive Timeline


A look back at what happened in the past year or so..

Link.............. http://www.spiegel.de/flash/0,,28270,00.html
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Japan -One Year After Catastrophe.




Link ....................... http://www.spiegel.de/flash/0,,28219,00.html
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Dramatic New Video of Japan Tsunami

We've seen a lot of footage of the tragic Japan tsunami, but this clip is the most horrifying yet. Entitled "South Sanriku -- Tsunami seen from Shizugawa High School," it's shot from high ground, but toward the end of the video you can see panicked residents running for their lives.
Almost as dramatic as the video is its audio track, where even if you don't speak Japanese, you can tell the people are expressing concern at the beginning, but by the end, their voices have reached a high level of panic and horror as they watch their homes washing away.



Video Link .................. http://youtu.be/8vZR0Rq1Rfw
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Japan's Nuclear Crisis Plan Still Lags


Wall Street Journal 2012-03-19: By CHESTER DAWSON TSURUGA, Japan—As a critical decision looms about whether to restart Japan's nuclear power plants, a sobering obstacle is becoming clearer: emergency plans for millions of people living near reactors nationwide are far below international standards. As a result, many communities would be ill-prepared for any future Fukushima-style accident, even if they are well within a Fukushima-size evacuation radius. In the next few weeks, Japan's prime minister is expected to formally ask government officials in Fukui prefecture here to accept a local utility's restart request, setting up a... more » http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204778604577240714059121148.html


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The plant in the town of Oi is shaping up as a test case for whether Japan can restart its reactors soon—and for whether nearby communities are prepared with improved disaster plans.



Video Link .... http://online.wsj.com/video/is-japan-ready-to-reopen-nuclear-plants/F74DAA7E-E595-43DD-A3BC-20801E73058E.html
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FEAR OF RADIATION CREEPING SOUTH - TOKYO MIGHT BE IN DANGER

link http://enenews.com/kyodo-fear-of-radiation-creeping-south-tokyo-area-may-be-in-danger-from-radiation-japan-professor
...its the weather, like it or not..
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ESCOBAR ON FUKUSHIMA E-MAIL LEAK

link: http://fukushimaupdate.com/escobar-on-fukushima-email-leak-deleting-data-a-cover-up/
...its the weather, like it or not..
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US GOVERNMENT: WIDESPREAD CONTAMINATION THROUGHOUT NORTHERN JAPAN, INCLUDING TOKYO

link: http://enenews.com/govt-widespread-contamination-northern-japan-including-tokyo-entire-region-be-required-be-posted-radiological-area
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Swept by last year tsunami vessel crossed North Pacific.



Posted Image
Photo of the drifting vessel taken by patrol plane.


Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Japanese fishing vessel that was washed out to sea in the March 2011 Japanese tsunami has been located adrift off the coast of B.C., according to the federal Transport Ministry. The 50-metre vessel was spotted by the crew of an aircraft on routine patrol about 275 kilometers off Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. With current speed of drift, vessel wouldn’t reach coast for about 50 days.
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RADIATION DOSE TRIPLES AT TOKIO MONITORING POST EARLY SUNDAY - DOUBLES AT ANOTHER

link: http://enenews.com/radiation-dose-triples-at-tokyo-monitoring-post-early-sunday-doubles-at-another
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FUKUSHIMA PREF. DELETED FIVE DAYS OF RADIATION DISPERSION DATA JUST AFTER MELTDOWNS

link: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120322p2a00m0na012000c.html
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TOKYO SOIL SAMPLES WOULD BE CONSIDERED AS NUCLEAR WASTE IN US

video: http://fairewinds.com/content/tokyo-soil-samples-would-be-considered-nuclear-waste-us
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Japan's new nuclear regulatory agency delayed

The Associated Press
Published: Monday, Apr. 2, 2012

TOKYO -- Japan has failed to create a revamped nuclear regulatory agency by the promised date - April 1 - amid political infighting, raising questions about its commitment to bolstering oversight after last year's nuclear crisis.

Authorities have been accused of lax supervision of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors after a massive earthquake and tsunami led to a meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Cabinet has endorsed a bill to create a more powerful and independent regulatory body that would unify various nuclear safety and regulatory agencies.

But progress has been slowed by disagreements over how much independence it should have and by other disputes.

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Tokyo Electric Power Company says more radioactive wastewater has leaked from its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The water contained high levels of strontium.

[...] the company says some of the wastewater may have flowed into a ditch leading to the ocean.

TEPCO has apologized for the incident and says it will determine the cause and extent of the leakage. [...]
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Japan Nuclear Plant May Be Worse Off Than Thought.




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A handout image supplied Thursday by Tokyo Electric Power Company shows conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.


TOKYO — The damage to one of three stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant could be worse than previously thought, a recent internal investigation has shown, raising new concerns over the plant’s stability and complicating the post-disaster cleanup.
The government has said that the plant’s three badly damaged reactors have been in a relatively stable state, called a cold shutdown, for months, and officials say that continues. But new tests suggest that the plant — which was ravaged last March when a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the area — might not be as stable as the government or the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, had hoped.

The key to keeping the reactors stable is keeping their fuel rods cool with water.

The company announced this week that an examination of one reactor, No. 2, showed that the water level in an outer containment vessel was far lower than estimated, which could indicate that the already badly damaged uranium fuel might not be completely submerged and, therefore, is in danger of heating up.

Cooling water in that vessel, called the drywell, was just two feet deep, rather than the 33-foot level estimated by Tepco officials when the government declared the plant stable in December. That is probably not a problem for the fuel that the company says has leaked into the drywell from an inner containment vessel because Tepco says that melted fuel is unlikely to be higher than two feet.

But Tepco officials said the low water in the drywell left open the possibility that the water level in the leaking inner containment vessel, where most of the fuel is thought to be, was also low. Experts say that could leave the fuel there exposed and lead to more damage. The fuel would likely then leach more radioactive materials into the water that is flowing through the reactor to cool it.

That scenario would be particularly problematic since the company has long feared that some of the tons of water it is using to cool the reactors is escaping into the ground or into the ocean at the seaside plant.

Throughout the nuclear crisis, both Tepco and the government were accused of playing down the dangers posed by the meltdowns at the plant. Subsequent disclosures that the event was indeed far more severe than they let on have badly damaged their credibility.

Fukushima Daiichi’s vital cooling systems were knocked out in the early stages of the crisis last year. The cooling systems there now were put in place months after the accident. Although they are designed to be closed loops, circulating water in and out of the reactors, the reactors themselves were damaged when operators lost control of the plant and are likely leaking.

The internal investigation also found current radiation levels of 72.0 sieverts inside the drywell, enough to kill a person in a matter of minutes, as well as for electronic equipment to malfunction. The high readings could be a reflection of the low water level, since the water acts as a shield against radiation.

The high levels of radiation would complicate work to locate and remove the damaged fuel and decommission the plant’s six reactors — a process that is expected to take decades.

Cleanup will probably require flooding the inner reactor vessel and lowering tools into it to scoop up parts of the radioactive rubble. That strategy worked well at Three Mile Island after the 1979 accident there. But at Fukushima, the reactor vessels are known to have cracked, because they were overpressurized. Filling them with water would be difficult, unless the surrounding drywell can also be filled.

The fact that the drywell at No. 2 has so little water could mean that technicians will need to develop a new technique. “With levels of radiation extremely high, we would need to develop equipment that can tolerate high radiation,” Junichi Matsumoto, an executive at Tepco, said Tuesday.

To gauge water levels inside the drywell at reactor No. 2, workers in hazmat suits inserted an endoscope equipped with a tiny video camera, a thermometer, a dosimeter for measuring radiation and a water gauge.

It is unclear if they will be able to perform the same test at the other badly damaged reactors — No. 1 and No. 3 — because nearby radiation levels are higher there.

Experts also worry about a fourth reactor that was not operating at the time of the tsunami, but nevertheless poses a risk because of the large number of spent nuclear fuel rods stored in a pool there.

The spent fuel rods pose a particular threat, experts say, because they lie outside the unit’s containment vessels. Experts have become especially worried in recent weeks, as earthquakes continue to hit the area, that the damaged reactor building could collapse, draining the pool and possibly leading to another large leak of radioactive materials.

Tepco has been working to fortify the crumpled outer shell of the building of that reactor, No. 4.

“The plant is still in a precarious state,” said Kazuhiko Kudo, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University in southwestern Japan. “Unfortunately, all we can do is to keep pumping water inside the reactors,” he said, “and hope we don’t have another big earthquake.”
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March 25 2012, 01:43 AM
Swept by last year tsunami vessel crossed North Pacific.



Posted Image
Photo of the drifting vessel taken by patrol plane.


Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Japanese fishing vessel that was washed out to sea in the March 2011 Japanese tsunami has been located adrift off the coast of B.C., according to the federal Transport Ministry. The 50-metre vessel was spotted by the crew of an aircraft on routine patrol about 275 kilometers off Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. With current speed of drift, vessel wouldn’t reach coast for about 50 days.
Coast Guard: We have to sink Japanese tsunami ghost ship.




Posted Image
This unoccupied Japanese shrimping vessel is adrift off the coast of Alaska. The US Coast Guard said they will have to sink it out of safety concerns. AP photo.



KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard plans to use explosives to sink a derelict Japanese ship dislodged by last year's massive tsunami.

The shrimping vessel, which has no lights or communications systems, was floating about 195 miles south of Sitka in the Gulf of Alaska on Thursday morning, traveling about 1 mile per hour.

The ship holds more than 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel and authorities are concerned it could interfere with the course of other vessels as it drifts through shipping lanes.

A Coast Guard cutter was headed out to the ship on Thursday with plans to use high explosive rounds to sink the vessel.

If left to drift, the ship would ground somewhere, said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Charley Hengen.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency studied the problem and decided it is safer to sink the ship and let the fuel evaporate in the open water.

The Coast Guard is warning other ships to avoid the area.

The vessel, named Ryou-Un Maru, is believed to be 150 to 200 feet long. It has been adrift from Hokkaido, Japan, since it was launched by the tsunami caused by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck Japan last year. About 5 million tons of debris were swept into the ocean by the tsunami.

The Japan earthquake triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl accident in 1986, but Alaska state health and environmental officials have said there's little need to be worried that debris landing on Alaska shores will be contaminated by radiation.

They have been working with federal counterparts to gauge the danger of debris including material affected by a damaged nuclear power plant, to see if Alaska residents, seafood or wild game could be affected.

In January, a half dozen large buoys suspected to be from Japanese oyster farms appeared at the top of Alaska's panhandle and may be among the first debris from the tsunami.


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BTW, Get Ready for a 34 Meter Tsunami.


Posted Image


Sometimes it is better to leave the TV off. This is how I have felt since Saturday, the day that Japan’s Cabinet Office chose to announce new predictions for earthquakes and tsunamis for which Japanese citizens “should make preparations.” From the shocking scale of death and devastation which the predictions intimate, however, the only “preparations” that would be practical, or even possible, would be life insurance and tombstones.

At a televised news conference, the long-haired academics on the government’s Central Disaster Management Council duly presented data and graphics (above, from the Yomiuri Shimbun) predicting a tsunami of 10 meters or higher could strike 11 prefectures, including Tokyo, and an earthquake with an intensity of 7—the highest level on the Japanese seismic scale—in the event of a “simultaneous triple quake” along the Nankai Trough. The “triple quake” refers to quakes in three sections of the trough, Tokai, Tonankai, and Nankai. The entire trough stretches from Suruga Bay along areas off Shikoku and Kyushu.

The research teams simulations, revised during the past year, show that a triple, simultaneous quakes along the Nankai Trough could produce a tsunami as high as 34.4 meters in Kuroshiro, Kochi Prefecture, and tsunamis of at least 10 meters in 90 municipalities in the 11 prefectures. These heights are twice or three times higher than previously forecast, the team said. About 69,000 square kilometers in 687 municipalities in 24 prefectures would be affected by a level 6 or stronger quake. This area is three times larger than previously forecast.

Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a chorus of raucous voices has criticized the government for failure to warn citizens of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear risks. Casual observers of Japan may conclude that its government is lax or negligent in studying and preparing for natural disasters or is reluctant to convey disquieting information and predictions to the public.

In fact, the opposite is true. When it comes to public health and safety—including the threat of natural disasters—Japan’s government is, if anything, excessive in its efforts to inform, warn, and protect. The weekend marked the start of another example of this: full implementation of new, exceedingly stringent standards for radioactive element (cesium) contamination of food. For rice, grains, meat and fish, the new limit is 100 becquerel/kilogram, one-fifth of the previous temporary limit that was already high by global standards; for water it is 10 becquerel/kilograms against 200 under the previous standard.

The question—to be asked in the current case—is whether sometimes the bureaucratic impulse avoid any risk of future criticism by presenting the “worst case scenario” is really helpful.

Following the 3.11 disasters last year, government researchers doubled down on previous disaster scenario simulations. Some of the enhancement took account of the observation that tectonic plate movement had been geographically broader in the 3.11 case than previously experienced or assumed. Also, though, a subjective judgment was to increase the “black swan” element in the forecast, so as to include not just “once in several hundred year” events, but also “once in 1000 year” events. Yomiuri Shimbun writes that in areas between the Tokai and Tonankai troughs, and along Nankai Trough, magnitude-8 earthquakes occur every 100 10 150 years. Scientists assume simultaneous quakes occur every 300 to 500 years.

For people living in Japan this is disquieting stuff, to put it mildly, but the government is not finished. This report was primarily to describe the geographic scope of devastation, not the content. We must wait until June for the estimates of death and destruction.

Of course the ultimate question is: What can (or should) be done? Thirty meter walls do not seem to be the answer. The Central Disaster Management Council will offer an outline for counter-measures sometime next year. Whatever the government decides, it will not assuage the disquiet that any Japanese resident must now feel.
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April 5 2012, 11:22 PM
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March 25 2012, 01:43 AM
Swept by last year tsunami vessel crossed North Pacific.



Posted Image
Photo of the drifting vessel taken by patrol plane.


Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Japanese fishing vessel that was washed out to sea in the March 2011 Japanese tsunami has been located adrift off the coast of B.C., according to the federal Transport Ministry. The 50-metre vessel was spotted by the crew of an aircraft on routine patrol about 275 kilometers off Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. With current speed of drift, vessel wouldn’t reach coast for about 50 days.
Coast Guard: We have to sink Japanese tsunami ghost ship.




Posted Image
This unoccupied Japanese shrimping vessel is adrift off the coast of Alaska. The US Coast Guard said they will have to sink it out of safety concerns. AP photo.



KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard plans to use explosives to sink a derelict Japanese ship dislodged by last year's massive tsunami.

The shrimping vessel, which has no lights or communications systems, was floating about 195 miles south of Sitka in the Gulf of Alaska on Thursday morning, traveling about 1 mile per hour.

The ship holds more than 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel and authorities are concerned it could interfere with the course of other vessels as it drifts through shipping lanes.

A Coast Guard cutter was headed out to the ship on Thursday with plans to use high explosive rounds to sink the vessel.

If left to drift, the ship would ground somewhere, said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Charley Hengen.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency studied the problem and decided it is safer to sink the ship and let the fuel evaporate in the open water.

The Coast Guard is warning other ships to avoid the area.

The vessel, named Ryou-Un Maru, is believed to be 150 to 200 feet long. It has been adrift from Hokkaido, Japan, since it was launched by the tsunami caused by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck Japan last year. About 5 million tons of debris were swept into the ocean by the tsunami.

The Japan earthquake triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl accident in 1986, but Alaska state health and environmental officials have said there's little need to be worried that debris landing on Alaska shores will be contaminated by radiation.

They have been working with federal counterparts to gauge the danger of debris including material affected by a damaged nuclear power plant, to see if Alaska residents, seafood or wild game could be affected.

In January, a half dozen large buoys suspected to be from Japanese oyster farms appeared at the top of Alaska's panhandle and may be among the first debris from the tsunami.


Update.



Coast Guard fires on Japanese ghost ship

By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press – 4 minutes ago

OVER THE GULF OF ALASKA (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says it has unleashed cannon fire at a Japanese vessel set adrift by last year's tsunami, stopping the ship's long, lonely voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

Spokesman Paul Webb says a Coast Guard cutter fired Thursday on the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska and more than 150 miles from land.

The Japanese ship was destined for scrapping when the Japan earthquake struck so there is no cargo on board.

The Coast Guard decided to sink it, rather than risk the chance of it running aground or endangering other vessels.Coast Guard fires on Japanese ghost ship

By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press

OVER THE GULF OF ALASKA (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says it has unleashed cannon fire at a Japanese vessel set adrift by last year's tsunami, stopping the ship's long, lonely voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

Spokesman Paul Webb says a Coast Guard cutter fired Thursday on the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska and more than 150 miles from land.

The Japanese ship was destined for scrapping when the Japan earthquake struck so there is no cargo on board.

The Coast Guard decided to sink it, rather than risk the chance of it running aground or endangering other vessels.
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Japan government fears non-nuclear summer will hamper restartsJapan government fears non-nuclear summer will hamper restarts.



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Japan's government is rushing to try to restart two nuclear reactors, idled after the Fukushima crisis, by next month out of what experts say is a fear that surviving a total shutdown would make it hard to convince the public that atomic energy is vital.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three cabinet ministers are to meet for a third time on Friday to discuss the possible restarts of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi plant in Fukui, western Japan - a region dubbed the "nuclear arcade" for the string of atomic plants that dot its coast.

Trade minister Yukio Edano, who holds the energy portfolio, could travel to Fukui as early as Sunday to seek local approval for the restarts, Japanese media said.

If approved, the restarts would be the first since a huge earthquake and tsunami triggered the radiation crisis at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima plant a year ago, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

Concern about a power crunch when electricity demand peaks in the summer has been set against public fears about safety since Fukushima, the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

Nuclear power, long advertised as safe and cheap, provided almost 30 percent of Japan's electricity before the crisis but now all but one of Japan's 54 reactors are off-line, mainly for maintenance. The last reactor will shut down on May 5.

"They want to avoid setting a precedent of the country operating without nuclear power because it will create a huge barrier in terms of restarts," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University's Tokyo campus.

"People will question why we need it," he said.

The government is crafting a new energy mix formula, with options for atomic power ranging from zero to 35 percent of electricity by 2030 against an earlier target of more than half.

Whether the reactor restarts can go ahead before the last reactor shuts down, however, remains in doubt.

Edano has said he wants to gain understanding from communities near the reactors, including those such as Shiga and Kyoto prefectures which are not hosts to atomic plants but are close enough to be at risk of radiation from a big accident.

On Thursday, however, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura underscored there was no legal requirement for local communities to sign off on the restarts.

"However, we will go to the localities to explain new (safety) standards," he told reporters.

SAFETY STANDARDS, POWER WORRIES

On Thursday, Noda and the three ministers met and reviewed safety principles drafted by the trade ministry based on the lessons learned from the Fukushima disaster, Edano said.

On Friday they will discuss whether the Ohi reactors meet those principles, he said, and also plan to ask Kansai Electric to give a detailed report on its longer terms safety steps.

The two Ohi reactors have already passed initial computer-simulated stress tests, but the head of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission, Haruki Madarame, has said that was not enough.

Local governments, including Fukui Prefectural Governor Issei Nishikawa, have called for provisional safety guidelines as one of the requirements for restarts.

Nishikawa, however, has said he wants to see the results of a government-sponsored probe of the Fukushima crisis. The report is not due out until summer.

Hasty moves to restart idle reactors could prompt a backlash against an already unpopular government and ruling party ahead of an election that could come later this year.

Toru Hashimoto, the popular mayor of the western city of Osaka and head of a new party keen to break into national politics, has adopted an anti-nuclear stance.

"If they do this (rush the restarts), it just gives him a higher wave to ride into what may be an election this summer," said Andrew DeWit, a professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo who studies energy policy. No vote for parliament's lower house is mandated until 2013 but speculation is rife that Noda may call a snap election over tax reform.

Last summer, the government imposed power restrictions on some large corporate users, ordering them to cut usage by 15 percent. To deal with the shortage, manufacturers operated plants at night and on the weekends. Companies used in-house generators and cut down on use of air conditioners and lights.

Japan's biggest business lobby, Keidanren, has complained about the cost of such measures, as well as expressed worries that higher future electricity costs could force companies to move overseas, further "hollowing out" the economy.
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Debris reaches North America.




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The tsunami tossed buildings together in Miyagi prefecture, northeastern Japan. Photo by Kyodo



A Japanese government estimate shows some of the debris that washed out to sea following the earthquake and tsunami last year is approaching the west coast of North America.

About 1.5-million tons of flotsam consisting of houses, boats and other debris are believed to be drifting on ocean currents.

The government asked experts from Kyoto University and other institutions to estimate how the debris would spread, calculating the effects of sea currents and winds patterns.

The simulation shows portions of half-submerged objects such as fishing boats and buoys might have already approached the west coast of North America around February, because they move faster in the wind.
The estimate also suggests that fragments of houses, which account for 90-percent of the debris, are expected to reach North America around this coming October.

More than 40-thousand tons of rubble is forecast to arrive within 10-kilometers of shorelines around February of next year.

Japan's government will consult with affected countries on measures to clean up the rubble once it reaches their shorelines.



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