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Topic Started: April 11 2011, 02:28 PM (7,668 Views)
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Worried inventor hanged himself

9:15am Saturday 11th June 2011.

AN INVENTOR who was concerned about the danger of nuclear energy took his own life on the day explosions started at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant.

Henry John Brooks, known as Harry, was so worried about nuclear power that he tried to create an alternative source of energy, Bolton Coroners’ Court heard.

Mr Brooks, aged 60, gave up work five years ago due to ill health and sold his house in Lena Street, Halliwell.

He used the proceeds to set up his business Broat Ltd, rent a unit at Bolton Enterprise Centre, in Washington Street, Deane, and get to work inventing a perpetual motion energy generator.

His sister, Miriam Smethurst, told the inquest: “From a long time ago, when nuclear power was first introduced, he didn’t like the power stations.

He was so against it.

“That was why he was trying to save the world with the invention. He thought the nuclear problem would lead to the end of the world.”

But the inquest heard his money eventually ran out as he used it to pay his living expenses, fund his invention and register a patent.

He was in rent arrears, had credit card bills and an overdraft, and was “too proud” to ask his family for financial help.

Mr Brooks, of Duxbury Street, Halliwell, went to his unit at 8.30am on Saturday, May 12. He was found hanged at the unit by a security guard later that day. He had left three “scribbled” notes to family and friends.

One of the notes referred to the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan and fears about the nuclear plant.

Mr Brooks also left draft plans for his invention.

The inquest heard Mr Brooks had a history of depression and had attempted suicide in the past.

Deputy coroner, Alan Walsh, said: “It is likely that in despair and without being able to realise his invention, he went to his unit and took actions that caused his death.

“It coincided with events in the world, particularly the events in Japan, that would have increased his concern and frustration that he wasn’t going to be able to pursue and complete his invention that, in his own mind, may have saved the world.”

He concluded that Mr Brooks had taken his own life.
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TEPCO forced to review reactor 4 cooling plan

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been forced to reconsider its plan to cool the spent fuel storage pool of the No.4 reactor.

Water injection from a special vehicle has not been intense enough to cool the water in the pool, allowing the temperature to remain at more than 80 degrees Celsius.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, aims to install a circulatory cooling system that will pump water out of the pool and return it there as coolant. The utility originally hoped to put the system in place next month.

On Friday, workers entered the 4th floor of the No.4 reactor building where the pool is located for the first time since the nuclear disaster took place.

They found a large hole in a wall created by the March 15th explosion. They also discovered that a nearby pipe necessary for the cooling system had been mangled.

TEPCO says the repair team found it hard to work near the pool as equipment had been destroyed and debris was scattered on the floor.

Fixing the damaged pipe is expected to be extremely difficult. In addition, it remains unclear if there is another pipe that can be used for the cooling system.

Sunday, June 12, 2011
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Fukushima Radioactive Water Treatment Halted

Updated: Sunday, 12 Jun 2011, 9:46 AM EDT
Published : Sunday, 12 Jun 2011, 9:46 AM EDT

(NewsCore) - TOKYO -- The start of a crucial operation to treat highly-radioactive water at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was delayed again due to a series of equipment problems, the plant's operator said Sunday, in the latest setback in attempts to bring the three-month crisis under control.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) planned to begin a trial run of its new water treatment facility, supplied by France's Areva, on Friday, with an expected full start June 15 -- a plan that was already pushed back from the beginning of June.

But the embattled utility said Sunday that the discovery of leaks in the system Friday and a malfunctioning valve that controls the flow of water forced it to delay the tests.

"The valve may not open and close properly," TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said at a news conference. "We need to check the control system."

The company did not know when it would be able to begin testing the equipment, another spokesman said, adding that the full start date would now be delayed until sometime after June 17.

Large quantities of water have been used to cool the heavily-damaged reactor cores at the plant, but the lack of a way to deal safely with the thousands of tons of toxic water that have collected in the basements and trenches of the reactor buildings is one of the major obstacles to bringing the plant under control.

Highly-radioactive water has spilled at least twice from the plant since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that sparked the crisis.
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High concentration of radioactive strontium found at Fukushima plant

TOKYO, June 12, Kyodo

Radioactive strontium up to 240 times the legal concentration limit has been detected in seawater samples collected near an intake at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday.

The utility known as TEPCO said the substance was also found in groundwater near the plant's Nos. 1 and 2 reactors. The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it is the first time that the substance has been found in groundwater.

The agency said it is necessary to carefully monitor the possible effects of the strontium on fishery products near the plant.
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TEPCO forced to review reactor 4 cooling plan

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been forced to reconsider its plan to cool the spent fuel storage pool of the No.4 reactor.

Water injection from a special vehicle has not been intense enough to cool the water in the pool, allowing the temperature to remain at more than 80 degrees Celsius.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, aims to install a circulatory cooling system that will pump water out of the pool and return it there as coolant. The utility originally hoped to put the system in place next month.

On Friday, workers entered the 4th floor of the No.4 reactor building where the pool is located for the first time since the nuclear disaster took place.

They found a large hole in a wall created by the March 15th explosion. They also discovered that a nearby pipe necessary for the cooling system had been mangled.

TEPCO says the repair team found it hard to work near the pool as equipment had been destroyed and debris was scattered on the floor.

Fixing the damaged pipe is expected to be extremely difficult. In addition, it remains unclear if there is another pipe that can be used for the cooling system.

Sunday, June 12, 2011
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Off-site centers unprepared

An NHK survey has found that most of the emergency response centers built near nuclear power plants are not properly equipped to take measures against nuclear contamination.

More than 15 billion yen, or 190 million dollars, was spent to build these so-called "off-site centers" in the wake of a criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant in Tokai Village in Ibaraki Prefecture.

They are meant to be places where central and local government officials as well as police can gather and respond to nuclear accidents.

The off-site center that was built about 5 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant was rendered nearly dysfunctional due to a rise in radiation levels after a power outage.

The office was moved to another location within 4 days.

NHK contacted 14 off-site centers around the country, excluding those in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures, and asked them about their levels of preparedness.

More than 90 percent said they did not have filtering equipment in place to prevent radioactive substances from entering the buildings, as required by law.

More than 70 percent said they did not have air-lock type double doors.

Off-site centers are situated between 2 and 13 kilometers from their plants.

The survey also found that, depending on the scale of a presumed accident, some may be affected by nuclear substances and not function properly.

Although all the off-site centers have substitute facilities, 3 of these are in the same locations as the main ones, and 2 had no communications equipment installed.

The government's nuclear safety agency says it is regrettable that the off-site center in Fukushima did not function properly.

It says it plans to conduct a review of how the off-site centers should be set up, based on the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident.

Sunday, June 12, 2011
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Measures to prevent heatstroke to be added

The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it will implement measures to prevent workers from being hit by heatstroke.

About 2,500 people work at the plant. Many of them wear protective suits and full-face masks to lower exposure to high radiation.

But the work is getting tougher physically and mentally as summer approaches. So far, 12 workers have been diagnosed as suffering from heatstroke.

Tokyo Electric Power Company will set up 7 more rest areas in addition to the 8 existing ones.

Workers can take off the protective gear, drink water, and lie down there.

In addition, the company will supply 2,500 vests containing cooling gel which will be worn underneath the gear.

1,300 face masks which provide extra air during inhalation will be secured.

The health ministry had given instructions to the utility to improve working conditions.

Sunday, June 12, 2011
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45 New Photos Of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Show the Damage From The Great Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake And Subsequent Tsunami That Damaged The Nuclear Power Plant
Thanks to the diligent work of photographer Daisuke TSUDA

Link to photos ................ https://picasaweb.google.com/lukehixson/FukushimaDaiichiOnsitePictures .


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Hot Particles From Japan to Seattle Virtually Undetectable when Inhaled or Swallowed .

Link to video ............... http://youtu.be/oBEipg81uLw
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6 more nuke plant workers exposed to radiation above limit: TEPCO

TOKYO, June 13, Kyodo

Six more workers involved in efforts to contain the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are feared to have been exposed to radiation above the limit, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.

The announcement follows a finding that two Tokyo Electric employees suffered radiation doses more than twice the maximum limit of 250 millisieverts, which has been set exclusively for workers dealing with the situation at the crippled complex.

The eight are among some 3,700 workers who were involved in emergency work at the plant in March, and Tokyo Electric, or TEPCO, reported to the government its provisional assessments of the external and internal radiation exposure of about 2,400 of them, the government's nuclear safety agency said.
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Dangerous radioactive strontium has been detected in seawater near the Fukushima-1 plant, at 240 times over the safe limit. Some 100,000 tons of contaminated water stored in the plant threatens to put out its drainage system in days.

­Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, has declared that strontinum-90 was detected near the water intakes outside reactors 2 and 3. The levels there were shown to be 170 and 240 times higher than the limit, correspondingly. The same strontium was found in groundwater near the reactors' buildings.

Strontinum-90 was also detected in samples taken from inside an inlet near the facility. The level of strontium contamination there was 53 times higher than the safety standard. The inlet has been used exclusively by the plant.

All the water samples were taken back in mid-May. According to TEPCO, it takes up to three weeks to run full tests.

With a comparatively long half-life of 29 years, radioactive strontium can accumulate in the bones if inhaled, and poses a risk of cancer.

The rainy season is approaching and concerns have surged that the contaminated water in the Fukushima plant that has been accumulating may overflow. The drainage system is expected to overpass its capacity by June 20.

Still, TEPCO had to postpone the test-run of a new system to process highly radioactive water. The operator wants to conduct a test-run on Tuesday or later, which is more than four days behind schedule, Japanese news agency NHK reports. The test had to be delayed as water seepage from a pipe joint was discovered along with the failure of a pump to siphon water.

This delays the working launch of the system until June 17-18.

Over 100,000 tons of highly radioactive water is now stored in the plant. Some 500 tons of water add up every day due to the cooling systems of several reactors that leak. The water has also been coming due to the rains pouring in Fukushima-1 area. If the water overflows it may go straight into the Pacific Ocean.
­Fukushima city may be included in evacuation zone

­Reporting from Fukushima city, which is 80km away from the Fukushima-1 nuclear plant, RT’s Sean Thomas says radiation levels are very high in the city as the contaminated particles are carried there by wind and rain.

At some places the readings are 1,000 times over the dose safe for health. Moreover, readings may differ dramatically at objects standing just a meter away from each other: a house giving 30 times over the dose, while a building next to it surging to 500 times over the safety limit.

Grass is one of the concerns of the local residents as it attracts and absorbs radiation.

The maximum acceptable dose for the public from any manmade facility is 1,000 microsieverts per year as set by the IAEA. The lowest annual dose that can cause cancer is 12 microsieverts per hour.

Scientists are working to try to clean up the radiation.

Authorities are looking into whether Fukushima city should be included in the evacuation area or whether people in at least some hotspots in the city should be evacuated.

James Corbett, editor of the Corbett Report, says the effects of the people’s exposure to radiation, including the increase in cancer rates, are yet to show up.

“As we know from the BEIR VII report put up by the National Academy of Sciences back in 2005, there is no such thing as a safe level of radiation exposure, that any level of radiation exposure increases the risk of cancer,” Corbett says. “And however negligible that risk may be with any particular person on any particular day and any particular spot, when it’s averaged out over the large population like is living in the Fukushima region that unfortunately means there will be over time increasing cancer rates there.”

“It really is just a question of how many and at this point we obviously can’t say because now we don’t even know the extent of the scope of the radiation danger, but as that report reveals, it’s obviously much higher than it has been previously supposed,” he added.
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So apart from that then, It's all OK ?
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June 13 2011, 09:58 PM
So apart from that then, It's all OK ?
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A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true.
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Radioactive material in sludge at 16 prefectures
NHK has learned that 16 prefectures in Japan have detected radioactive material in sludge since the crisis began at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March.

NHK has found through interviews that at least 22 of Japan's 47 prefectures have been testing sludge for radioactive material. 16 of them, ranging from Hokkaido to Osaka, have actually detected radioactive substances.

The level of radioactive cesium was highest in Fukushima city, at 447,000 becquerels per kilogram. This was followed by Tokyo at 55,000 becquerels and Maebashi, north of Tokyo, at 42,800 becquerels.

Rain-soaked soil containing radioactive substances has turned into contaminated sludge and is being stored at waste treatment plants.

Maebashi has designated area around its waste treatment plant a radiation danger zone, after radiation levels at 2 storage sites for incinerated sludge exceeded the government set-safety level.

Japan has had no safety guidelines for contaminated sludge, which is a new problem.

Last month, the government decided on an emergency measure to incinerate and store sludge that's been found to contain 100,000 becquerels or more of radioactive materials.

But the measure applies only within Fukushima Prefecture, prompting other prefectures and municipalities to demand that the government quickly set guidelines on how to handle contaminated sludge.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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TEPCO begins testing cesium absorption device

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun testing a device to process highly radioactive water, after a 4-day delay.

Early on Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power Company began using the US-made equipment, which can absorb cesium, on low-level radioactive water.

Leaking pumps and a mistakenly closed valve delayed the start of the operation since last Friday.

Workers checked for signs of leakage during the 4-hour test-run on Tuesday morning.

The equipment is part of a planned water treatment facility that will also include an oil separator, a decontaminator and a desalination device.

More than 105,000 tons of highly radioactive water is building up within the nuclear plant, and TEPCO says it may run out of space to store it in about 2 weeks.

The utility is hoping to shorten the test-runs by one day and begin operating the treatment facility from Friday.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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Plant worker forgets face mask filter

A worker at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant apparently worked outdoors without putting a filter in his full-face mask to prevent the inhalation of radioactive particles.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will examine the worker for possible internal radiation exposure and look into whether inadequate safety management can be blamed for the incident.

The utility disclosed that the worker, a man in his 60s, worked outside the No.2 reactor building for 2 hours on Monday morning. He realized only afterward that he had forgotten to put on a filter in his face mask.

TEPCO says the worker was exposed to 0.5 millisieverts of external radiation.

Monday's disclosure comes after 2 workers at the plant were found to have been exposed to twice the government-imposed emergency radiation limit last Friday.

Monday, June 13, 2011
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More TEPCO workers exceed radiation limit

Tokyo Electric Power Company has reported that 6 more workers at its damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may have received radiation doses above the allowable emergency limit of 250 millisieverts.

TEPCO said on Monday that provisional readings suggest 6 male employees, in their 20s to 50s, received exposure of up to 497 millisieverts.

One of the men was working in the control center, another was in the radiation management division, and the other 4 were performing maintenance work.

They are among 3,726 workers who have worked at the crippled Fukushima plant since the March 11th disaster.

Of that number, 2,367 have undergone medical checkups. The remaining 1,359 have yet to be examined for exposure to radiation.

TEPCO announced last month that 2 employees had received 600 millisieverts, more than twice the emergency limit.

TEPCO instructed its employees to wear protective masks on March 12th when the radiation level in the control center was rising.

But when a blackout caused a radiation meter to stop functioning, some workers are believed to have taken off their masks to eat.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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Radioactive material in sludge at 16 prefectures

NHK has learned that 16 prefectures in Japan have detected radioactive material in sludge since the crisis began at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March.

NHK has found through interviews that at least 22 of Japan's 47 prefectures have been testing sludge for radioactive material. 16 of them, ranging from Hokkaido to Osaka, have actually detected radioactive substances.

The level of radioactive cesium was highest in Fukushima city, at 447,000 becquerels per kilogram. This was followed by Tokyo at 55,000 becquerels and Maebashi, north of Tokyo, at 42,800 becquerels.

Rain-soaked soil containing radioactive substances has turned into contaminated sludge and is being stored at waste treatment plants.

Maebashi has designated area around its waste treatment plant a radiation danger zone, after radiation levels at 2 storage sites for incinerated sludge exceeded the government set-safety level.

Japan has had no safety guidelines for contaminated sludge, which is a new problem.

Last month, the government decided on an emergency measure to incinerate and store sludge that's been found to contain 100,000 becquerels or more of radioactive materials.

But the measure applies only within Fukushima Prefecture, prompting other prefectures and municipalities to demand that the government quickly set guidelines on how to handle contaminated sludge.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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Additional 23 workers exposed to high radiation

The health ministry says that another 23 workers at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may have been exposed internally to over 100 millisieverts of radiation.

The ministry on Tuesday told plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company to immediately release the workers from duty.

The ministry said keeping the employees at the plant may push their exposure over the temporary-set limit of 250 millisieverts. The government relaxed the limit for plant workers from 100 millisieverts after the nuclear accident in March as an emergency measure.

The ministry also instructed TEPCO to have the 23 workers undergo medical exams.

TEPCO previously announced that 2 employees were exposed to over 600 millisieverts. On Monday, the firm said that 6 more workers were thought to have been exposed to up to about 500 millisieverts.

TEPCO is screening about 3,700 workers at the plant for exposure. The tests for about 600 have not been completed.

The ministry is urging the firm to finish the tests by June 20th and submit the results.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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Work-related mental illnesses hit record high

Japan's labor ministry says a record-high 308 people were recognized as suffering mental illnesses due to work-related stress in the business year through March.

The number was up 39 from the previous record, set in 2008. All 308 people qualified for workers' compensation.

The ministry says 65 of them either committed or attempted suicide.

It also says a record-high 1,181 workers, up 45 from the previous year, applied for compensation due to depression or other mental illnesses due to stress from factors such as power harassment and excessive quotas.

Of the cases, 13 percent were attributed to changes in work assignments, 12 percent to harassment or bullying, 10 percent to traumatic experiences such as accidents and disasters, and 8 percent to long hours.

The ministry says 285 others were entitled to compensation during the year after being recognized as having suffered brain hemorrhages, heart attacks or other conditions due to overwork.

The number is down 8 from the previous year, but includes 113 who died from overwork.

A lawyer who handles labor issues says that amid the prolonged economic downturn, companies are trying to get more from fewer employees, increasing their workloads and mental strain.

The lawyer calls on companies to carefully manage work schedules, saying he's heard about forced overwork to rebuild businesses after the March 11th disaster.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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Over 2 million Japanese on welfare

The number of people on welfare in Japan has surpassed 2 million for the first time in 59 years.

According to the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry, 2 million 22,333 people received welfare benefits in March.

The figure is close to the record high of 2.04 million set in 1951, when Japan was reeling from postwar turmoil.

In March and April, 757 people applied for welfare benefits, mostly after losing jobs or property due to the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan. The figure does not include applicants from parts of Miyagi Prefecture where data were unavailable.

As a result of the new applications, 549 households were newly entitled to welfare benefits. More than half of the households are in Fukushima, where the nuclear power plant accident occurred.

Many people in disaster-hit areas are receiving unemployment benefits after losing their jobs. Expiration of their benefits and lack of improvement in the employment situation could lead to a sharp rise in the number of welfare applicants.

The ministry says that to stop the rise, it will call on companies to employ people from the areas. The ministry adds that it will strengthen its reemployment assistance for people who've lost jobs.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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Farmer's suicide note shows Japan's disaster impact
By Kyung Lah, CNN
June 14, 2011 -- Updated 0934 GMT (1734 HKT)

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Japan's tsunami and earthquake recovery efforts have been hampered by a nuclear crisis

Tokyo (CNN) -- A farmer's farewell, etched in white chalk, is echoing menacingly through Japan's agricultural sector.

"Wish there was no nuclear power plant. My endurance has come to an end," the note says.

The farmer, in his 50s, then killed himself on the land he struggled to maintain since Japan's tsunami and nuclear crisis began.

The dairy farmer's suicide message was left on the wall of one of the man's barns, members of a local farming bureau said. The man also apologized to his family and friends in the note.

Hiroyuki Ebihara, a member of a local chapter of Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, said he knew the farmer personally and tried to check in with him after the March 11 disaster.

On June 11, Ebihara says, members of his group found the farmer's body.

"The situation here is depressing for everyone," says Ebihara. "We are all in the same situation. Our future with daily farming is unclear, especially since we don't know what the compensation will be. We want TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) or the government to come out with a clear plan for compensation."

The man had fled Japan with his family to the Philippines after the earthquake and tsunami. He returned to the farm after 10 days to care for his cows. The farmer's family remained in the Philippines until this week when they returned for the man's funeral.

He leaves behind a wife and two children, Ebihara says.

The agricultural sector of Soma -- the farmer's region -- has been deeply impacted by the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Japan's government stopped milk shipments from the region in the wake of the nuclear meltdown at the plant. The government lifted the milk ban on April 21, but consumers have been reluctant to purchase dairy products produced near the plant.

A 64-year-old vegetable farmer from Sukagawa City in Fukushima Prefecture also committed suicide in the wake of agricultural bans in the ongoing nuclear crisis. The vegetable farmer hanged himself on March 24, one day after the government issued a ban on Fukushima prefectural vegetables.
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Local officials saying no to restarting nuclear reactors.

By the time summer temperatures peak in August across Japan, only 14 of the nation's 54 nuclear reactors will be churning out electricity to cope with the demand, due to the effects of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Since the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant in Fukushima Prefecture started on March 11, nuclear power plants across the country have faced difficulty in resuming operations of some of their reactors that have been closed for regular inspections.

Moreover, the governments of prefectures or municipalities where those plants are located are strengthening their positions that they cannot allow the operations to resume unless the central government provides new safety standards that can prevent crises like the current one at the Fukushima plant.

As of June 11, operations at 35 nuclear reactors had been suspended due to the effects of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake or regular inspections, which have to be conducted once every 13 months in principle. The 35 include the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

In addition to the 35, five more reactors are scheduled to enter into regular inspections by August and will be shut down.

Operations of 11 of the 35 nuclear reactors were originally scheduled to be resumed by August. The 11 do not include those affected by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami. As a result, a total of 25 reactors were expected to be operating in August, but in the current safety climate, that number has been reduced to 14.

A major reason is that electric power companies that operate about 15 nuclear power stations have safety agreements with the governments of prefectures or municipalities. When they want to resume operations of reactors that have been closed, they are required to obtain approval from those local governments.

Nuclear power generation accounted for 29 percent of the total power generation of all electric power companies in Japan in fiscal 2009.

Electric power companies plan to cover the expected shortage of electricity from the suspension of nuclear reactors by raising the operating rates of thermal power plants. However, it will be difficult to do so for some electric power companies that have relied too much on nuclear power generation.

The Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO), which has 11 nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture, is one of these. As six of their reactors will be unusable in August, the utility is asking companies and families to cut their power consumption by 15 percent.

In its pre-earthquake plan, KEPCO had assumed that four of the six reactors would resume operations by August, with the total output capacity of the four reactors at about 3.17 million kilowatts.

Meanwhile, Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa has yet to change his position that the safety measures taken by the government after the accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are inadequate.

The government submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on June 7 a report on the crisis at the Fukushima plant. In response, Nishikawa opined, "The report does not sufficiently contain safety standards our prefecture has sought."

By saying so, he inferred that the report was done for the benefit of IAEA, and not for the governments of prefectures or municipalities where nuclear power plants are located.

Meanwhile, Shikoku Electric Power Co. (Yonden) and Kyushu Electric Power Co. (Kyuden) are arguing that unless they can resume the operations of nuclear reactors that are currently halted for regular inspections by August, they could face power shortages.

Kyuden is operating Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture. However, it still cannot resume operations of the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, whose operations were suspended for regular inspections.

On June 9, Saga Governor Yasushi Furukawa took a cautious approach on the timing of the resumption of operations, saying, "I have no timetable (on the issue)."

"Though we are also discussing about the necessity (of electricity), we want to put top priority on the confirmation of safety," he said.

Local businesses are calling for resumption of operations of the two reactors to secure a stable supply of electricity.

In late March, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry instructed electric power companies to take emergency measures to prepare for possible tsunami, which included the deployment of vehicles that can supply electricity.

In May, the ministry allowed electric power companies to resume operations of nuclear reactors that have been halted due to regular inspections.

However, few heads of local governments are willing to accept the resumption of operations, despite these safety measures. Many are demanding that the central government review safety standards on nuclear power plants.

However, it is difficult to enact safety measures that can meet the scale of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which were much larger than those assumed under the current safety standards. Therefore, it is difficult to predict when the operations will be resumed.

In May, the government ordered Chubu Electric Power Co. (Chuden) to suspend operations of nuclear reactors at its Hamaoka power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture on the grounds that there is a high possibility that a major earthquake could strike the area.

In response to the move, some of the other local governments are demanding that the government explain why nuclear reactors other than those at Hamaoka can be operated.

In Aomori Prefecture, the operation of one reactor remains halted and the construction of two other reactors is suspended. Aomori Governor Shingo Mimura has no intention of accepting the resumption of operations or the new construction unless an examination committee set up by the prefectural government supports the resumptions.

Mimura, who was re-elected to a third term in the June 5 gubernatorial election, met Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda on June 8. In their talks, Kaieda said, "There are no safety problems for the continuation or resumption of operations (of nuclear reactors)." But Mimura did not change his position.

As the chairman of the organization consisting of prefectures where nuclear power plants are located, Mimura asked the government to take sufficient safety measures for those plants.

As for the government's position of requiring Chuden to suspend operations of reactors at its Hamaoka plant while allowing other utilities to continue operating their nuclear reactors, Mimura said, "It is difficult to see what aspects the government looked at in approving the operation of those reactors."

Nuclear power plants are dealing with various problems, such as the safety of aging plants, the decommissioning of some, quake-resistance capabilities, storage of spent nuclear fuel, and radioactive waste.

As for those problems, more and more local governments are asking the central government and utilities to present concrete safety measures and explain them to local residents.

(This article was written by Susumu Yoshida and Daisuke Nakai.)
2011/06/14
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Elderly 'suicide corps' may get nod for Fukushima mission June 14, 2011.


When former engineer Yasuteru Yamada put out the call for elderly volunteers to help tame the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, he got responses from about 300 people, whose average age is in their late 60s. The oldest applicant is 82.

Now Yamada's corps of elderly volunteers, dubbed a "suicide corps," is expected to get governmental approval for its quest to stabilize the crippled nuclear power plant.

In a meeting on June 6, industry minister Banri Kaieda told Yamada: "We want to make preparations so that you can work on the site before your enthusiasm burns out."

An aide to Kaieda also said the minister told Yamada that he wants to support his efforts.

Yamada, 72, who worked for Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., has solicited volunteers aged 60 or older, saying their age means the long-term adverse effects from radioactivity will be minimal.

Yamada feels that the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, are running short of hands because government officials had not previously taken his offer seriously.

At a news conference, Goshi Hosono, special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the nuclear crisis, said, "The basic rule is to establish a work process that does not require such a 'suicide corps.' "

He also said it will be difficult unless they have experience in working in nuclear power plants.

Government and TEPCO officials, however, requested a meeting with Yamada in May. Yamada met with Hosono and Kazuhiko Yama(censor)a, general manager of TEPCO's Nuclear Asset Management Department, on May 26.

Hosono and Yama(censor)a said they want to accept the volunteers at the plant and asked Yamada to present a list of qualifications and licenses held by the applicants.

Currently, about 2,000 to 2,500 employees of TEPCO and other companies are working at the plant.

But the same workers cannot continue to work for many hours because the government only allows a maximum accumulated exposure of 250 millisieverts.

Some workers have dropped out due to the severe working conditions, and it is not easy to find replacements with a strong sense of mission.

Still, it remains unclear whether elderly volunteers will be able to demonstrate their mettle.

On June 5, two workers in their 40s, wearing protective clothing and full face masks, were taken to the hospital after complaining of symptoms of dehydration at the plant.

Nine others previously suffered heatstrokes.

Still, those setbacks have apparently not fazed Yamada, who came up with the idea of a Skilled Veterans Corps after watching explosions at the plant on TV.

In e-mails and letters sent to about 2,500 people in the same age group in early April, Yamada said: "The retirees who have accumulated the capability, while suffering the least damage from radioactive exposure, can summon strength not to leave a negative legacy for future generations."

The message was sent to many people and was introduced on blogs. Yamada's home was flooded with phone calls for some time.

Yamada, who was a leader of the 1960 student movements at the University of Tokyo, was reluctant to organize the volunteers into a formal group.

But he is planning to apply for the official status of a nonprofit organization because it would help when signing a contract with the government and other parties.

By HIDEHARU TAMURA / Asahi Shimbun Weekly AERA
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Japan's TEPCO suspends cleanup at Fukushima plant

Jun 18 (Reuters) - An operation to clean up radioactive water at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant was suspended on Saturday, hours after it got underway, when radiation levels began rising dramatically, the plant's operator said.

Tokyo Electric Power Company had undertaken the operation at the plant, disabled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, to avert spillage into the sea of large, growing pools of radioactive water.

A statement issued by the company, known as TEPCO, said the suspension, five hours after the operation began, was prompted by a sharp rise in radiation in a part of the system intended to absorb caesium.

"At the moment, we haven't specified the reason," a TEPCO spokesman told a news conference. "So we can't say when we can resume the operation. But I'd say it's not something that would take weeks."

The official said teams working at the plant believed the radiation rise could be linked to sludge flowing into the machinery intended to absorb ceasium. Another cause could be pipes surrounding it.

But a resumption, he said, was critical to deal with the highly radioactive watter -- officials say 110,000 tonnes, the equivalent of 40 Olympic swimming pools -- is stored there.

"Unless we can resume the operation within a week, we will have problems in disposing of the contaminated water," the official said.

"But if this is caused by the reasons we are thinking, we can resume the opeartion within a week."

The official said TEPCO foresaw no delay in its overall plan to bring the Fukushima Daiichi plant fully under control by the end of the year. The plan calls for a shutdown of its three unstable reactors by January 2012.

The cleanup operation had got underway on Friday after being delayed by a series of glitches at the plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

Officials had said earlier this week that large and growing pools of radiactive water at the plant were in danger of spilling into the sea within a week unless action was taken quickly.

The company has said the decontamination process could produce large amounts of radiation sludge, causing a further problem for its long-term storage.

Tepco has pumped massive amounts of water to cool three reactors at the plant that went into meltdown after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disabled cooling systems.

But managing the radioactive water has become a major headache as the plant runs out of places to keep it. (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano, Tokyo bureau +81 3 6441 1827; Editing by Ron Popeski)
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Radioactive materials: detection of cesium at the airport in Paris from green tea produced in Shizuoka

PARIS - French authorities Fukuhara N. 17th, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, sent by the Japanese green tea produced in Shizuoka (162 km) from the European Union (EU) is detected more than twice higher than the radioactive cesium standards was. All that is to dispose of. Fukushima since the first nuclear accident, is found exceeding the standards of Japanese imports in the first Buddha.

Communication reported AFP. Was detected in excess of 1038 Bq of 500 becquerels per kilogram EU standards. The French authorities, for all future imports of the relevant production plants in Shizuoka Prefecture, decided to conduct an inspection.
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Antiradiation measures strengthened / TEPCO sets new timetable; clinic planned

T

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Friday released a revised version of its timetable to bring the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant under control, in response to reports that workers dealing with the crisis at the plant were overexposed to radiation.

The original timetable in April was revised once before--on May 17.

Taking into consideration that several workers at the nuclear power plant may have been exposed to levels of radiation exceeding emergency dosage limits, TEPCO added "radiation control and medicine" to the timetable.

This section pledges the utility will establish a new clinic with state-of-the-art medical equipment within the grounds of the power plant and increase the number of doctors.

The clinic will help prevent workers from being overexposed to radiation and deal with heatstroke and exhaustion during summer, according to TEPCO.

Under the revised timetable, TEPCO will strictly control the number of working hours, ensure automatic records are kept of the measurements of dosimeters workers wear, and increase the number of whole-body counters by 10 by October with the government's financial support.

Whole-body counters check for internal radiation dosages.

Radiation experts have said the current five whole-body counters, located outside the plant, including two at the Fukushima No. 2 plant, are insufficient.

At present, one medical doctor is on duty in the plant around the clock, but the doctor only carries out simple health checks and health counseling. TEPCO will station more doctors specialized in radiation control and emergency medical care at the plant when it establishes the clinic.

The utility also will increase tanks to store contaminated water from reactor and turbine buildings as well as disposal facilities. The revised timetable also stipulates appropriate storage of high-level radioactive waste that will removed along with the contaminated water.

Other revisions to the timetable include: employing a circular water decontamination system to cool reactor cores; achieving stable cooling of temporary storage pools for spent nuclear fuel rods; and injecting nitrogen into containment vessels of the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors. All these plans are to be carried out within a month.

Similar work has already started at the No. 1 reactor.
(Jun. 18, 2011)
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Japan Strains to Fix a Reactor Damaged Before Quake

Posted Image
Local men fished near the Monju reactor in Tsuruga, a long-troubled project that has been shut down since August.
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: June 17, 2011

TSURUGA, Japan — Three hundred miles southwest of Fukushima, at a nuclear reactor perched on the slopes of this rustic peninsula, engineers are engaged in another precarious struggle.
The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor — a long-troubled national project — has been in a precarious state of shutdown since a 3.3-ton device crashed into the reactor’s inner vessel, cutting off access to the plutonium and uranium fuel rods at its core.

Engineers have tried repeatedly since the accident last August to recover the device, which appears to have gotten stuck. They will make another attempt as early as next week.

But critics warn that the recovery process is fraught with dangers because the plant uses large quantities of liquid sodium, a highly flammable substance, to cool the nuclear fuel.

The Monju reactor, which forms the cornerstone of a national project by resource-poor Japan to reuse and eventually produce nuclear fuel, shows the tensions between the scale of Japan’s nuclear ambitions and the risks.

The plant, a $12 billion project, has a history of safety lapses. It was shuttered for 14 years after a devastating fire in 1995, one of Japan’s most serious nuclear accidents before this year’s crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Prefecture and city officials found that the operator had tampered with video images of the fire to hide the scale of the disaster. A top manager at the plant recently committed suicide, on the day that Japan’s atomic energy agency announced that efforts to recover the device would cost almost $21.9 million. And, like several other reactors, Monju lies on an active fault.

Even if the device can be removed, restarting the reactor will be risky, given its safety record and its use of highly toxic plutonium as fuel, said Hideyuki Ban, co-director of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, a watchdog group, and a member of an advisory government committee on Japan’s long-term nuclear energy policy. The plant is 60 miles from Kyoto, a city of 1.5 million people, and the fast-breeder design of the reactor makes it more prone to Chernobyl-type runaway reactions in the case of a severe accident, critics say.

“Let’s say they make this fix, which is very complicated,” Mr. Ban said. “The rest of the reactor remains highly dangerous. And an accident at Monju would have catastrophic consequences beyond what we are seeing at Fukushima.”

Japan badly needs sources of energy. By closing the loop on its nuclear fuel cycle, Japan aims to reuse, recycle and produce fresh fuel for its 54 reactors.

“Monju is a vital national asset,” said Noritomo Narita, a spokesman here in Tsuruga for the reactor’s operator, the government-backed Japan Atomic Energy Agency. “In a country so poor in resources, such as Japan, the efficient use of nuclear fuel is our national policy, and our mission.”

Critics have been fighting the project since its inception in the 1970s. “It’s Japan’s most dangerous reactor,” said Miwako Ogiso, secretary general of the Council of the People of Fukui Prefecture Against Nuclear Power. “It’s Japan’s most nonsensical reactor.”

After promises of safety upgrades, as well as lavish subsidies and public works, the government has wooed local officials into allowing a restart of the reactor. In Fukui, the government had ready allies: with 14 nuclear reactors, it is Japan’s most nuclear-friendly prefecture. (Fukushima, in second place, has 10 reactors.)

Monju was reopened in May 2010, and just three months later, the 3.3-ton fuel relay device fell into the pressure vessel when a loose clutch gave way. In the two decades since the reactor started tests in 1991, the atomic energy agency has managed to generate electricity at the reactor only for one full hour.

In Monju, Japan is pursuing a technology that most countries have long abandoned. Decades ago, a handful of countries, including the United States, started exploring similar programs. But severe technical difficulties, as well as fears about the weapons-grade plutonium that the cycle eventually produces, have led most countries to scrap their programs.

But Japan has remained staunchly committed to the Monju project. The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has shielded it from the deep cuts in spending that it has required of other national projects since it came to power in September 2009.

Under a government plan, Japan would use technology developed at Monju to commercialize fast-breeder reactors by 2050.

Mr. Kan has recently hinted at an overhaul of Japan’s nuclear policy, though he has not commented specifically on the fate of the Monju reactor.
The commitment to Monju is rooted in the way Japan has sold its nuclear program to local communities, experts say. In persuading towns and villages to provide land for nuclear power stations, Japan has promised that the spent nuclear fuel — which remains highly radioactive for years — will not be stored permanently on site, but used as fresh fuel for the nuclear fuel cycle.
Giving up on any part of the fuel cycle would mean the government would have to find communities willing to become the final resting ground for the spent fuel.

“Of course, no community would accept that, and suddenly Japan’s entire nuclear program would become unviable,” said Keiji Kobayashi, a retired fast-breeder reactor expert formerly at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.

But the technology comes with risks. Instead of water, which is used in commercial nuclear reactors, the prototype reactor uses 1,600 tons of liquid sodium, a hazardous material that reacts fiercely with water and air, to cool its fuel. The presence of an estimated 1.4 tons of highly toxic plutonium fuel at the reactor makes it more dangerous than light-water reactors, which use mainly uranium fuel, critics charge.

Meanwhile, other parts of Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle are also unraveling. The full opening of a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho, in Aomori Prefecture, has been delayed countless times, with more than $20 billion invested in the project.

Still, work continues to restart the Monju plant. In October, engineers used a crane to try to lift up the device, adding about 220 pounds of force a time. After 24 attempts, they gave up, fearful of the strains on the entire reactor.

Since mid-May, workers have been prepping for a different strategy, clearing the reactor’s lid of various instruments. As early as next week, workers will try to remove the device by dismantling a part of the vessel’s lid with it.

Workers face other dangers in fixing the plant. The reactor contains argon gas, which helps keep the sodium from burning but is a dangerous asphyxiant in confined spaces. And should the device fall farther into the reactor vessel, the damage could be substantial.

The atomic energy agency hopes the extraction will be complete by the end of the month. The agency says it will conduct extensive safety checks, and bolster its earthquake and tsunami defenses, before the reactor is eventually restarted.

“The device will definitely come out this time,” said Toshikazu Takeda, director at the University of Fukui Research Institute of Nuclear Engineering, and head of a government panel that approved the latest repair plans. He said that engineers had recreated removal procedures at a lab and perfected their handling of the crane that will lift the device from the reactor vessel.

Once removed, the device will be checked thoroughly for missing parts or damage, he said. The liquid sodium coolant, heated to almost 400 degrees Fahrenheit, makes it impossible to check fully for any damage the device may have caused to the reactor vessel, however.

Still, Mr. Takeda said he hoped to see Monju complete safety checks and prepare for a restart within a year.

“Japan needs the nuclear fuel cycle,” he said, because supplies of fuels will not last forever. “Uranium will last less than a hundred years. Plutonium will last over a thousand.”
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Tsunami-Hit Nuke Plant To Open Reactor Door

5:23pm UK, Sunday June 19, 2011
The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is preparing to open the door of a reactor building, which will lead to radiation being leaked.
Posted Image
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant's cooling systems

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has insisted the level of radiation will be too small to threaten human health.

It is hoped that after the door to the Unit 2 reactor is opened, workers will be able to install a cooling system and equipment to prevent an explosion.

Meanwhile, the plant is scrambling to restart a massive clean-up as radioactive water continues to swell at the site.

The operation was suspended on Saturday after just five hours because part of the system that absorbs radiation had reached its processing capacity far earlier than expected.

The plant needs to remove 110,000 tonnes of highly radioactive water - enough to fill 40 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Posted Image
The tsunami's waves swamped the nuclear plant

There are fears the contaminated water could overflow within two weeks if action is not taken. At one location, water is 14cm from spilling.

Tepco has released a report, based on interviews of workers and plant data, that reveals the chaos of the desperate battle to protect the plant from meltdown.

The March 11 earthquakend tsunami destroyed the plant's power and crucial cooling systems, causing three reactor cores to melt and causing several explosions.

The report says the plant was so unprepared for the disaster that workers had to bring protective gear and an emergency manual from distant locations.

It also shows that workers struggled with unfamiliar equipment and fear of radiation exposure.

Tepco has been criticised for dragging its feet on venting and seawater cooling - the two crucial steps that experts say could have mitigated the damage.
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un 19, 10:53 AM EDT

New report shows early chaos at Japan nuke plant

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) -- A new report says Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant was so unprepared for the disaster that workers had to bring protective gear and an emergency manual from distant buildings and borrow equipment from a contractor.

The report, released Saturday by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., is based on interviews of workers and plant data. It portrays chaos amid the desperate and ultimately unsuccessful battle to protect the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant from meltdown, and shows that workers struggled with unfamiliar equipment and fear of radiation exposure.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant's power and crucial cooling systems, causing three reactor cores to melt and causing several explosions.

TEPCO has been criticized for dragging its feet on venting and sea water cooling - the two crucial steps that experts say could have mitigated the damage. Company officials have said the tsunami created obstacles that were impossible to anticipate. An investigation by an independent panel is pending.

The report revealed insufficient preparations at the plant that TEPCO hadn't previously acknowledged. It said plant workers had a disaster drill just a week before the tsunami and "everyone was familiar with emergency exits," but it apparently did not help them cope with the crisis.

When the Unit 1 reactor lost cooling functions two hours after the quake, workers tried to pump in fresh water through a fire pump, but it was broken.

A fire engine at the plant couldn't reach the unit because the tsunami left a huge tank blocking the driveway. Workers destroyed a power-operated gate to bring in the engine that arrived at the unit hours later. It was early morning when they finally started pumping water into the reactor - but the core had already melted by then.

They eventually ran out of fresh water and had to switch to sea water, which meant scrapping the reactor.

Other workers were tasked with releasing pressure from Unit 1's containment vessel to avoid an explosion. But first they had to get the manual, which was not in the control room but in a separate office building at the plant. Aftershocks struck as they retrieved it.

To activate an air-operated part of the vent, workers had to borrow a compressor from a contractor. And the workers who had to get close to the unit for the venting had to get protective gear from the offsite crisis management center, 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from the plant.

It took an hour just to put on air tanks, coveralls and face masks before the first two workers headed for the reactor building. The operation was a relay of three two-member teams to minimize exposures.

Rising radiation also disrupted the work, the report said. The second team had to abort their mission as radioactivity almost exceeded the limit at midway. Workers had to switch to a remote control, which was less effective than having humans do the work directly.

After repeated failures, workers managed to vent the containment vessel. But an hour later, the Unit 1 building exploded, damaging similar preparations at two other units, forcing workers to start all over and causing further delays.

Eight of the workers who fought the initial crisis were found to have been exposed to high levels of radiation and were removed from plant work.

The report also said workers borrowed batteries and cables from a subcontractor on the compound to set up a backup system to gauge water levels and other key readings.

Government reports released this month said the damage and leakage at the plant were worse than previously thought, with some of the nuclear fuel in three reactors likely having melted through the main cores and inner containment vessels. They said the radiation that leaked into the air amounted to about one-sixth of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 - double previous estimates.

TEPCO and the government have said they aim to bring the reactors to "a stable and cold shutdown" by January. But some experts say the plan is too optimistic because high radiation, contaminated water, debris and other obstacles have already caused delays.

On Sunday, TEPCO opened a door at Unit 2 to allow workers to install a cooling system and equipment to prevent an explosion. Workers have entered the reactor building before, but only for brief monitoring visits.

TEPCO said radiation released by the ventilation would be too small to threaten human health, and reported no abnormality. Workers have taken similar steps at Unit 1, which is moving ahead of the other reactors.

Meanwhile, more radioactive water is pooling at the plant. Workers scrambled to restart a key cleanup system, which was shut down Saturday hours after beginning full operations because a component reached its radioactivity limit faster than expected.

More than 100,000 tons of contaminated water at the plant could overflow within two weeks if action is not taken.

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Children sickness linked to Fukushima radiation

June 19, 2011 10:36 am ET


hildren more susceptible to radiation than adults

In the ultimate nuclear nightmare scenario now unfolding, Japanese local newspapers have attributed sickness in children to Fukushima's nuclear meltdowns, the radioactive levels now elevated throughout eastern Japan. Children over 32 miles from ground zero are suffering fatigue, diarrhea, and nosebleeds, the three most common of eight radiation sickness signs, the three in the earliest stage.

Tokyo Shinburn newspaper reported that many Japanese children have "inexplicable" symptoms. Each symptom described are among the first experienced with radiation sickness.

"Japan is dangerously contaminated by radioactivity over a far larger area than previously reported by TEPCO and the central government according to new reports from multiple sources," the Daily Kos reported.

"The prefectural government of Iwate released new data that shows radioactive contamination of grass exceeds safety standards at a distance of 90 to 125 miles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants."

Science Magazine cites data from the prefectural government of Iwate that reveals radioactive cesium has traveled over 100 miles away from Fukushima and pastoral grasses contaminated beyond safety standards.

Children become radiated when they drink milk and eat dairy products from cows feeding on radioactive grass, even at low levels according to the world's foremost anti-nuclear campaigner, Dr. Helen Caldicott, and other independent scientists. Radioactive materials concentrate in milk.

Nationally acclaimed neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. recently stated that with Fukushima radiation hitting Americans, there will be a risk of increased cancer.

"When we look at Chernobyl, most of West Germany was heavily contaminated. Norway, Sweden. Hungary was terribly contaminated. The radiation was taken up into the plants. The food was radioactive. They took the milk and turned it into cheese. The cheese was radioactive.
That’s the big danger, the crops in this country being contaminated, the milk in particular, with Strontium 90. That radiation is incorporated into the bones and stays a lifetime."

As Gulf of Mexico residents experienced a media blackout and lack of government health support after BP's 2010 catastrophic oil event, necessitating reliance on independent scientists and only a few doctors to test, in the Fukushima media blackout, Japanese independent scientists have been so concerned about children being radiated, they began their own testing. Bloggers have also united to map incidences similar to the service of Louisiana Bucket Brigade.

In, "Citizens Find Radiation Far From Fukushima," Science Magazine published the shocking findings.

"Frustrated by a dearth of information on what happened to all of the radiological isotopes released from the ravaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, civic groups and individuals have been monitoring radiation on their own. Collectively, they have produced a worrisome picture of contamination throughout eastern Japan, with some hot spots surprisingly far from the crippled reactors." (Dennis Normile, Science Magazine)

The report cited by Daily Kos furthers:

Parents in Tokyo's Koto Ward enlisted the help of Tomoya Yamauchi, a radiation physicist at Kobe University, to measure radiation in their neighborhood. Local government officials later joined the act, ordering radiation checks of schoolyards and other public places and posting the results on their Web sites. An anonymous volunteer recently plotted the available 6300 data points on a map. And Yukio Hayakawa, a volcanologist at Gunma University, turned that plot into a radiation contour map.

It shows one wide belt of radiation reaching 225 kilometers south from the stricken reactors to Tokyo and another extending to the southwest. Within those belts are localized hot spots, including an oval that encloses northeast Tokyo and Kashiwa and neighboring cities in Chiba Prefecture.

Radiation in this zone is 0.4 microsieverts per hour, or about 3.5 millisieverts per year. That is a fraction of the radiation found throughout much of Fukushima Prefecture, which surrounds the nuclear power plant. But it is still 10 times background levels and even above the 1-millisievert-per-year limit for ordinary citizens set by Japanese law... t is known that children are more susceptible to radiation than adults, and few parents want to take chances with a child's health."

The Japanese “citizens’ map” of radiation levels, maintained by a group of Japanese bloggers, shows radiation levels highest near Fukushima and northwest of it, elevated radiation southwest of the reactors, and a large pocket of contamination further south, in Tokyo's outskirts.

Public discussions needed in Japan and United States

In the tradition of barefoot doctors and community participatory research, community members lacking information and medical attention, gathering to share what information and resources they do have and discuss defending each other with survival means, rather than investing resources in corporate led "public meetings," can be effective.

Kyo Kageura, an information scientist at University of Tokyo, recently stated that public discussion of the radiation issue, “based on a scrupulous presentation of the data” is needed. When officials fail to provide urgently needed information, however, the community participatory approach has proven in many crisis areas to be the only thing that saved lives.

Such gatherings always happen due to one active community member taking the lead. Japanese independent scientists and bloggers are filling a gap.

Due to the media blackout on the Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe, "it took several months for the world to learn that there were three core meltdowns at Fukushima," stated Dave Worthington of Small Planet on Friday. "It will take years for the entire truth to be revealed."

Pointing to far more radiation released than information released, Arnold Gundersen, a 39-year veteran of the nuclear industry told AlJazeera on Thursday, "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind."

The same radioactive particles found in Japan are also being recorded in the Seattle, Washington area according to Gundersen.

"With Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and now with Fukushima, you can pinpoint the exact day and time they started," he said. "But they never end."

A forty-year old Japanese father, not allowing his 4-month old baby daughter to go outside anymore, told Tokyo Shinburn, "I'm so worried. I don't know how to defend ourselves."




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Another TEPCO worker exceeds radiation limit

Preliminary research shows another worker at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have been exposed to radiation above the limit.

Tokyo Electric Power Company reported the results of radiation checks on more than 1,100 workers at the plant to the health and labor ministry on Monday.

The ministry said one of the workers -- part of the maintenance staff at the plant -- is suspected of having been exposed to 335 millisieverts.

The figure exceeds the limit of 250 millisieverts set by the government for emergency situations.

The checks came after TEPCO found 3 additional workers had been exposed to radiation beyond the legal limit. Five more workers are suspected of having received doses of radiation above the limit.

The ministry has told the utility to conduct checks and report the results on 125 other workers, who were engaged in operations at the plant in March but have not undergone radiation screening.

Monday, June 20, 2011 19:55 +0900 (JST)

TEPCO struggling to restart water treatment system

The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is eager to restart a key water treatment system within a few days. The operation, suspended since Saturday, is designed to decontaminate highly radioactive wastewater.

It was brought to a halt after the radiation levels of a device meant to absorb radioactive material reached its limit. The suspension happened only 5 hours after the system went into full-operation on Friday night.

Tokyo Electric Power Company carried out tests using 3 types of absorption devices on Sunday and detected higher-than-expected radiation levels around the devices.

TEPCO engineers suspect that the density of radioactive substances in the contaminated water was greater than had been predicted.

They have also learned that the radiation level of the original filtering device remained high even after contaminated water was removed, which means the device had already absorbed much radioactive material.

The utility firm continues to test the system on Monday. It is trying different combinations of filtering devices to identify which is best.

TEPCO is also studying ways to reduce the amount of contaminated water that has to be filtered, as well as determining how frequently it should change the filtering devices.

Monday, June 20, 2011 21:09 +0900 (JST)

2nd entrance opened at No.2 reactor

Two doors at a disabled reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been opened as a part of efforts to bring down humidity inside the building.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says the humidity near the entrance dropped to 58.7 percent on Monday morning when the first door was opened. The ventilation began only after the operator had filtered radioactive substances from the air inside the building.

The second door was opened in the afternoon.

The humidity in the reactor building had been near 100 percent before the doors were opened because of steam believed to be from the containment vessel and a spent-fuel storage pool.

The utility now hopes workers will be able to enter the building to begin calibrating a water level gauge for the reactor and carrying out other tasks.

TEPCO says no significant change in radiation levels has been observed outside the plant.

The No.2 reactor is believed to have released more radioactive substances than the other damaged reactors.

Monday, June 20, 2011 19:00 +0900 (JST)

Test of decontamination system continues

The operator of the damaged Fukushima power plant is struggling to fix the problem that caused the suspension of a system to decontaminate highly radioactive wastewater.

The system is designed to filter radioactive material, oil and salt from the contaminated water and to reuse the treated water to cool the reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, halted the filtering system only 5 hours after it went into full operation on Friday. Readings around one of the system's devices indicated higher-than-expected radiation levels.

TEPCO engineers suspect that the density of radioactive substances in the contaminated water was greater than had been predicted.

They initially thought that the device had absorbed large volumes of oil and sludge containing radioactive material. But in a test conducted on Sunday, high radiation levels were registered for equipment set to the lowest of 3 absorption levels.

In another test on Monday, TEPCO adjusted the flow of the contaminated water through the equipment.

The radioactive wastewater is hampering work to bring the plant under control. The amount is increasing by 500 tons a day as fresh water is continuously being injected to cool the reactors. Storage facilities are filling up and a delay in restarting the filtering system could cause the water to overflow in about a week.

Monday, June 20, 2011 14:17 +0900 (JST)

TEPCO injects water to No.4 reactor storage pool

Tokyo Electric Power Company has been trying to reduce a high level of radiation discovered in the Number 4 reactor of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The utility started to inject water into a pool on the top floor which was used for storing large equipment contaminated by radiation on Sunday.

The Number 4 reactor was shut down for a routine inspection when it was hit by the earthquake and the tsunami on March 11th.

Large hardware in the reactor was removed and was submerged in the pool to block the release of radiation.

Tokyo Electric Company discovered that the water level of the pool had dropped to about 1/3 of its capacity as of June 11th.

The machinery is thought to have been exposed and releasing high amounts of radiation.

The operator fears it could hamper restoration work in the Number 4 reactor.

TEPCO says the radiation level on the top floor is so high that workers cannot enter, but if the equipment is submerged again, the radiation level will decline enabling operations to restart.

Monday, June 20, 2011 05:53 +0900 (JST)

Iwaki City begins asking about evacuation

Residents in 2 areas in Fukushima Prefecture are being asked if they want to temporarily leave their homes to avoid high levels of radiation.

The 2 areas, in Iwaki City, are about 30 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. They are outside the evacuation zone. However, radiation of more than 3 microsieverts per hour has been recorded in the districts.

Three microsieverts per hour is about 5 times the level of radiation in controlled areas that are designated as off-limits for civilians.

The residents are being asked to submit their answers by June 24th.

An elderly man who lives in one of the districts says he feels sorry for his grandchildren who stand to suffer the most from radioactive contamination.

Monday, June 20, 2011 22:02 +0900 (JST)

Heavy rain continues in western Japan

Heavy rain continues to fall along the Pacific Coast of western Japan.

The Meteorological Agency says a low-pressure system and an active rain front near Kyushu have brought heavy downpours to some areas.

In the one-hour period to 11 AM on Monday, 39 millimeters of rain was recorded in Ibusuki in Kagoshima Prefecture on the main island of Kyushu.

The rain front is expected to remain active near western Japan and the heavy rain is likely to continue until Tuesday morning.

Some parts of Kyushu have had more than 1,200 millimeters of rainfall during the past 10 days -- more than double the average precipitation for June.
The ground is saturated in many areas.

Landslides have been reported at more than 20 locations in Nagasaki Prefecture, Kyushu.

Weather officials are urging caution for mudslides, flooding, lightning and strong winds.

Monday, June 20, 2011 12:08 +0900 (JST)
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Fukushima Day 101- Youtube Censorship begins after 1.6 BILLION becquerels of radiation is released -ma-d- -ma-d- -ma-d- -ma-d- -ma-d-

Link to video ....... http://youtu.be/JUPFrjHbcBQ
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UK government's Fukushima crisis plan based on bigger leak than Chernobyl

As Japan's nuclear emergency unfolded, scientists devised a worst case scenario involving issuing iodine pills to Britons ....Ian Sample, science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 June 2011 20.38 BST

The British government made contingency plans at the height of the Fukushima nuclear crisis which anticipated a "reasonable worst case scenario" of the plant releasing more radiation than Chernobyl, new documents released to the Guardian show.

The grim assessment was used to underpin plans by the British embassy in Tokyo to issue protective iodine pills to expats and visitors. It also prompted detailed plans by Cobra, the government's emergency committee, to scramble specialist teams to screen passengers returning from Japan at UK airports for radioactive contamination.

The UK government's response to the unfolding crisis is revealed in documents prepared for Sir John Beddington, the chief scientist and chair of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), and released to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. The 30 documents include advice from the National Nuclear Laboratory on damage to the plant, public safety assessments from the Health Protection Agency (HPA), computer models of the radioactive plume from Defra's Radioactive Incident Monitoring Network (Rimnet), and the worst case scenario that might unfold at the plant.

A substantial number of documents were withheld on grounds that they contained "information which, if disclosed, would adversely affect international relations," the government's civil contingencies team said.

The earthquake and tsunami, which hit Japan in March, knocked out critical cooling systems at the Fukushima plant, prompting immediate fears that nuclear fuel in the reactors could melt through their pressure vessels and drop onto the concrete floor beneath, causing a "corium explosion" and a major release of radiation. There were similar concerns over hundreds of spent fuel rods packed into storage pools above the reactors.

To avert nuclear meltdown, Japanese emergency teams worked frantically to rig up mobile power supplies and pump water into the reactors, while the storage ponds were doused with water from helicopters, military fire trucks and an enormous remote-controlled concrete pump.

The documents reveal how the British government scrambled to build up a clear picture of the crisis and the danger it posed in the days and weeks after the earthquake struck.

In the first week, advisers wrestled with conflicting information on the amount of spent fuel at the Fukushima site, but settled on a figure of 4,500 fuel rods in six ponds, or enough to power eight reactor cores. A separate fuel pond, known as the common pool, was "full to the gunnels," one unnamed adviser wrote.

A fear raised in one document was that spent fuel rods might overheat, melt and slump to the bottom of their storage pools where enough could gather to "go critical", that is, restart nuclear reactions. The likely result of that, the paper states, would be releases of fresh radioactive material, "which could continue for some time".

In further statements, government advisers admitted insufficient expertise to work out how high an explosion might blast radioactive material, but warned that an explosion at one reactor or fuel pond could trigger a domino effect as other reactors and the spent fuel ponds became too dangerous to deal with. The "reasonable worst case scenario" envisaged ruptures at all three reactors in operation before the earthquake, and radiation leaks from six spent fuel ponds at the Fukushima site.

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate estimated this would release 10% of the radioactive caesium-137 and iodine-131 in the cores and one third of the caesium-137 in the spent fuel ponds. Under that scenario, wind currents carried the plume directly towards Tokyo at a speed of five metres per second. Had the event happened, it could have released the equivalent of 9.92 million terabecquerels of radiation from iodine-131 into the open air, nearly double the 5.2 million terabecquerels released by the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine in 1986.

Even in this worst case scenario though, the accident was expected to cause less harm than Chernobyl, where the reactor's burning graphite core threw radioactive material high into the atmosphere, and local populations were not evacuated quickly or barred from consuming contaminated milk and other products.

The documents show how seriously the riskBritons in the Japanese capital Tokyo and Sendai, a major city 70 miles from the stricken plant, was taken. A week into the crisis, the British embassy distributed iodine pills as a contingency measure.

Meanwhile, the HPA prepared advice to be published in case a major leak occurred. It explained what time the radioactive plume would reach either Tokyo or Sendai, depending on the wind direction and stated: "When the Japanese authorities instruct you to shelter you should take the first dose, or if the UK government gives you additional information."

On 25 March, two weeks after the tsunami struck, the government's emergency Cobra committee asked the HPA to draw up detailed plans to monitor air passengers for radioactive contamination as they arrived from Japan. The agency proposed monitoring all passengers if a major leak arose that could cause "some health concern", and limited monitoring to reassure the public at the government's request.

HPA documents show it had a team ready to monitor passengers landing at Heathrow within 24 to 36 hours of Cobra's request. The agency expected to start passenger screening if a major radiation leak from the plant led to predicted doses of more than six milliseverts in people beyond the 80km exclusion zone. But the agency warned it would struggle to monitor all passengers arriving from Japan at more than two airports, even if it borrowed detectors from the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire.

In April, the Fukushima incident was upgraded to a level seven, the maximum, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. According to Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission, the accident led to a release of radiation equivalent to 630,000 terabecquerels of iodine-131. That month, a joint paper to Sage from the Office of Nuclear Regulation, the Met Office, the HPA and Rimnet stated: "The mechanism that could lead to a serious release remains unchanged, ie molten fuel coming into contact with the concrete base of a pond or reactor causing an explosion."

Other papers prepared for Sage outline the possible long term impact of the accident, which could see restrictions on food supplies in place for years and some regions around the plant ruled permanently out of bounds.

Workers at the site are still facing high radiation levels and contaminated waste water to keep three reactors and several ponds of spent fuel under control.
Report lists safety flaws

Protection added to Japan's nuclear plants after a 2002 review of tsunami risks fatally underestimated the hazards that emerged in the Fukushima disaster, the first independent assessment of the has found.

A report published on Monday by the International Atomic Energy Agency also found that:

• Regulators had failed to review or approve the improved defences.

• Accident plans could not cope with multiple plant failures.

• Sites have no seismically robust buildings to shelter emergency teams.

• Instruments essential to monitoring reactors were not sufficiently "hardened" against accidents

• The risks of hydrogen explosions was underestimated.

• There were "dedicated and devoted" workers available but in the crisis "complicated structures and organisations" resulted "in delays in urgent decision making".

Launching a four-day ministerial summit on nuclear safety in Vienna, the IAEA's head, Yukiya Amano, urged a worldwide review of measures to prevent future disasters.

But he added: "Even the best safety standards are useless unless they are actually implemented." The critical report is

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More people in Fukushima fearing contamination

Concerns over radioactive contamination are growing among people living next to the new evacuation advisory zones near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The people live just outside an area in Date and Minami Soma cities that the government last week designated for voluntary evacuation.

On Monday evening, Minami Soma city officials visited the homes of 5 families in Jisabara district, next to the zones.

The officials checked the radiation levels around the houses at the request of the concerned residents.

The highest level recorded was 2.45 microsieverts per hour at 1 meter above the ground in the houses' backyards.

The mother of an 8-year-old girl said she has been worried since the nuclear accident in March. She said she thinks it is a bit late for city officials to address their concerns.

Minami Soma City says it will consult with the central government about the findings.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 10:49 +0900 (JST)
Rainy season begins in Tohoku

The annual rainy season has begun in the disaster-hit Tohoku region in northeastern Japan, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station is located.

The Meteorological Agency on Tuesday announced the start of the rainy season in the southern and northern parts of the region, where heavy downpours were seen during the day.

The start of the season is 9 days later than usual in southern Tohoku and 7 days later in northern Tohoku.

Weather officials are advising caution against mudslides, floods, lightning and strong winds in some areas affected by earthquakes since March, as tremors may have loosened the ground.

The agency also says a rain front near the southern coast of Japan's main island Honshu and a cold air mass brought torrential rains to southern Kyushu in western Japan and the Kanto region in central Japan on Tuesday.

The officials say a damp air mass will bring thunderstorms and gusts to western Japan and the Tokai and Hokuriku areas in central Japan on Wednesday.

The agency issued a tornado warning on Tuesday evening for Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Tochigi, Ibaraki, Chiba and Saitama.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 20:23 +0900 (JST)
Surveyors re-measuring Japan's post-quake position

Surveyors have begun re-measuring Japan's geodetic data, which were disrupted by the earthquake on March 11th.

The massive quake shifted the ground in northeastern to central Japan. As a result, nearly half of some 100,000 control points across the country for longitude, latitude and elevation slipped by up to 5 meters.

Control points by law serve as basis for setting property boundaries. Precision data is therefore crucial for land measurements, particularly in rebuilding the disaster zone.

On Tuesday, surveyors from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan used a global positioning system-based device to take measurements at the origin of Japan's longitude and latitude in Tokyo's Minato Ward.

Surveyors believe the origin itself has moved about 20 centimeters eastward.

They plan to reset other control points across Japan so that precise land measurements can be made by October this year.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 18:58 +0900 (JST)
Selling food products from tsunami-hit companies

A department store in Tokyo is featuring food products made by companies hit by the March 11th disaster amid its seasonal sales push.

Products from 3 companies in quake-hit Miyagi Prefecture are among the provisions the store began promoting on Tuesday.

Canned mackerel --- an Ishinomaki City specialty produced by a local marine products firm --- is selling particularly well. The mackerel being sold is in undamaged cans recovered from the rubble after the quake and tsunami.

One shopper said he thinks selling products from quake-hit firms is a great idea because people can enjoy the food while also helping the companies to get back on their feet.

A department store spokesperson said Ishinomaki mackerel has a good reputation with customers, so the store decided to sell the recovered cans after it was determined they were safe.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 18:29 +0900 (JST)
Filtering system tested for full operation

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has resumed testing of a filtering system for decontaminating highly radioactive wastewater at the facility.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company resumed the test shortly after noon on Tuesday. The test began before dawn, but was halted around 7:20 AM after a pump to send water into French-made decontamination equipment stopped automatically. The firm adjusted the amount of pumped water before the resumption.

The firm had begun running the system last Friday night, but stopped it after only 5 hours due to a sharp rise in radiation levels around US-made equipment for absorbing radioactive substances.

The firm plans to continue testing the system for 2 or 3 days before resuming full-scale filtering operations.

The plant's temporary storage facility for radioactive wastewater is expected to overflow in about a week.

Tokyo Electric has therefore begun reducing water input at 3 reactors, and is carefully monitoring them for possible resulting temperature rises.

The firm is also considering transferring highly radioactive wastewater to a makeshift tank for filtered wastewater.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 18:58 +0900 (JST)
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Moms Turn Activists in Japanese Crisis

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Mothers from Fukushima prefecture met with an education ministry official in Tokyo this month.
KASHIWA, Japan—Yuki Osaku worried about the welfare of her 1-year-old and 3-year-old boys after a series of explosions rocked Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-plant complex in mid-March. But her parents and husband told her she was overreacting—their suburb of Tokyo is 124 miles away from the stricken plant.
"I felt like I was alone and no one felt the same way that I did. The Japanese media kept saying that everything was OK," says Ms. Osaku, 33 years old.

"I finally put out a message on Mixi and got so many responses," she added, referring to a Japanese social-networking site.

Fueled by online networking, mothers like Ms. Osaku are now putting increased pressure on Japanese officials at the national and local level to better protect their children. On Thursday, one small group gathered in Tokyo to protest—the latest in a handful of similar demonstrations by mothers—attracting considerable media attention.

Also on Thursday, the government, in an acknowledgment of one complaint that radiation around wastewater-processing facilities is too high, said levels there should be brought down to meet official guidelines. Government officials in recent weeks have disclosed elevated levels in hot spots a considerable distance from the plant. Elevated radiation was discovered recently in Kanagawa prefecture, about 186 miles south of the plant, in the form of contaminated tea leaves.

Still, some experts worry that groups like Ms. Osaku's could cause the Japanese public to overreact. "There is no conclusive evidence about the effects of long-term exposure to low-level radiation on human health," says Genichiro Wakabayashi, lecturer at Kinki University's atomic-energy research institute. "It would be more harmful for children if they had to wear masks and long-sleeved shirts and to stay indoors in the middle of summer."
Airborne radiation levels are within their average prequake range in most of Japan and at elevated but unalarming levels in some communities in Fukushima prefecture and the areas immediately surrounding it. The big exception is the city of Fukushima, 37 miles from the stricken plant, which on Wednesday had airborne radiation levels of about 1.5 microsieverts per hour, 30 to 40 times the usual average.

For the general public, the government sets a limit of one millisievert a year for exposure to nuclear plants or other man-made sources of radiation. The average person world-wide receives radiation totaling 2.4 millisieverts per year, or 2,400 microsieverts, from all sources— from natural sources to radon, but not from exposure from X-rays and airplane flights, according to Japanese officials.
Posted Image
A Tokyo girl holding a petition asking the education ministry to protect children from radioactive contamination in May.

Akiko Matsuoka, a mother of two girls, lives in Kashiwa, which has higher-than-normal airborne radiation levels of around 0.3 to 0.4 microsieverts per hour, according to city officials, one of the highest in the Tokyo metropolitan region. "I was very concerned about the situation and I didn't have anyone to talk to," she said. "I found people online. They wanted to create an online petition; I volunteered to do it."

Ms. Matsuoka, who works in the computer industry, says she aims to leave the country this summer with her family, to work in Australia.

Local officials and researchers say it is unclear whether the elevated radiation is due to the initial radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi, to secondary radiation from a downstream sludge facility, or both.

Ms. Osaku hasn't let her sons, Takuma and Yuuma, play outside since mid-March because of radiation levels. She bought a $600 personal dosimeter last month. Her boys have stopped drinking milk and the family buys imported food. She said her friends do the same, causing friction between them and other mothers who think they are overreacting—and making them and their children social outcasts in a society that values conformity.

"They think I am a monster parent," says Ikue Sakai, 27, who has two sons ages three and six, and also bought a dosimeter. "I keep getting asked by other parents, 'Why don't you just move? What do you want?' "

"This is what it's like in Japan," says Ms. Osaku. "If one person does something different, everyone else looks at us like we're strange."

The American Academy of Pediatrics' general policy statement on radiation disasters and children states that kids do have a greater risk of harm after radiation exposure compared with adults. One factor is that they inhale a greater volume of air per minute than adults, so are likely receive more exposure to radioactive gas. Also, because nuclear fallout settles to the ground, children may be exposed to a greater concentration of radioactive particles in their air space. They appear to experience more health problems, such as radiation-induced cancer, when exposed to the same dose of radioactivity as adults, according to a report by the AAP's committee on environmental health.

Ms. Osaku and her friends circulated an online petition, which garnered 10,000 signatures, demanding the local government take more action. They met with the Kashiwa City deputy mayor on June 2, and have asked that radiation levels in school be measured daily. But they say there has been little progress. "They just listened to us and made no commitment," says Ms. Osaku.

The Kashiwa City government measured radiation levels at all schools and pre-schools in their district over three days, from June 6 and 8 and found the elevated readings.

"We don't have radiation experts here, and we have convened a panel of experts now," says Tsutomu Komiyama, the spokesman for Kashiwa City government. "The important thing is to stay calm and to make sure we have the proper information. I have a small child. too. I understand how they feel."

In Koto ward in eastern Tokyo, Ayako Ishikawa, a 33-year-old mother of three formed a citizens group, Protect Children in Koto, with other mothers. A survey the group conducted last month showed that radiation levels exceeded 0.2 microsieverts per hour near a sludge-treatment facility, one of two such facilities in the city of Tokyo.

Radiation levels around the city's other sludge-treatment facilities, located across the Tokyo Bay in Ota, also were found to be elevated. These facilities gather and incinerate solid waste from wastewater-treatment plants all over the city. Ms. Ishikawa suspects that radioactive fallout was washed away into the sewage, collected in the sludge treatment facilities, and then released back into the atmosphere. Koto ward officials don't believe radiation is being released from the plant.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Minamisanriku must pay rent on temporary facility
Kyodo

SENDAI — The town of Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, hit hard by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has been stunned to learn it has to pay rent on prefabricated buildings that were used by an Israeli emergency medical team and now serve as a clinic, officials said Tuesday.

The tsunami-ravaged town, already struggling to ensure it can pay for reconstruction work, has earmarked ¥2.1 million in its supplementary budget for this fiscal year to cover rental payments to the company that built the temporary structures, they said.

The burden on the town could be mostly offset by the central government if the disaster relief law is applied, but "we never imagined that we would be charged," a town official said in a bewildered tone.

The six prefabricated buildings were assembled near an evacuation center.

They still house medical devices such as X-ray equipment left by the Israeli medical team and are now serving as a temporary clinic managed by staff from a public hospital, the officials said.

Around 50 doctors and nurses sent from Israel worked at the buildings between March 29 and April 10.

According to the Minamisanriku Municipal Government, Isamu Sato, mayor of Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, who maintains close ties with Israel, coordinated activities for the medical team, and the city placed an order with a construction company to put up the temporary buildings in Minamisanriku.

Sato, along with the Israeli ambassador to Japan and Jin Sato, mayor of Minamisanriku, agreed in early April that the town would continue to use the buildings, but its officials said they were unaware that they would have to pay about ¥2.1 million to rent the buildings for three years.

"I did not receive any explanation about the rental cost from the city of Kurihara. I was stunned when an estimate arrived," Sato said.
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Wednesday June 22 2011, 20:43:48 UTC 21 minutes ago off the east coast of Honshu, Japan 5.1 10.6
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6.7 Mag near the east coast of Honshu, Japan Depth 20km

really hope this didnt do too much damage. poor people again
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NHK Japan TV have Tsunami warning and advised coastal residents to evacuate , they say the risk seems to be low at the moment
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