Update: Fukushima Diary Entry

January 14, 2013 at 1:13 pm (Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Japanese Attorney: Information is being concealed — “5 people died of acute leukemia last year” in Sōma, 45km north of Fukushima Daiichi

January 14, 2013

ENVIRONS_FUKUSHIMA3

January 11, 2013 tweet quoting lawyer Toshio Yanagihara with translation by Fukushima Diary:

[...] The recent situation in Soma city*..a child had acute leukemia, a man in 30s died, 5 people died of acute leukemia last year. This kind of information is concealed

*As of 2011, the city has an estimated population of 36,891 [...] Sōma is about 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant -Wikipedia

Title: Japanese testify on radiation hazards at Human Rights Council in Geneva
Source: World Network For Saving Children From Radiation
Date: Nov 16, 2012

[...] In his turn lawyer Toshio Yanagihara spoke about the “Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial.” Through this class action suit on behalf of 14 children, the plaintiffs hope to force the authorities to recognize the legal right of hundreds of thousands of children to be evacuated from the contaminated areas. The fact that children are obliged to eat contaminated food and breathe radioactive air is a violation of the rights of the child. The press is gagged or gives false information provided by the government, which is a violation of the right to freedom of expression and information. [...]

See also: “Complete Information Control”: Japan newspapers receive much frightening info that’s covered up — Some evacuees died from acute symptoms yet not reported — Journalists scared

Published: January 13th, 2013 at 10:04 am ET
By ENENews

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Nuclear: Faults Under Higashidori Plant Likely Active

December 13, 2012 at 9:58 pm (Health and wellness)
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NRA chairman says faults under Higashidori likely active–Rokkasho may also be investigated

 

December 13, 2012

Kunihiko Shimazaki, acting chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said Thursday that the movements underground faults underneath Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s Higashidori nuclear plant are likely to have been associated with an active fault

He made the remark at a press conference after conducting an on-site survey of the plant in the northeastern prefecture of Aomori with other experts. The experts confirmed four crush zones including those running near the No. 1 reactor building.

At a hearing held before the Great East Japan Earthquake last March by the now-defunct Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, experts pointed out that these crush zones might be active faults.

On Friday, the experts from the newly-formed NRA will continue the survey to learn when those zones moved and find out whether there is any possibility of the zones moving again.  Next Thursday, the experts will hold an evaluation meeting to discuss their findings.

Tohoku Electric, which supplies power to the Tohoku region including Aomori, has stated flatly, “there is no active fault nearby,” and explained that fault slips under the plant site are caused by changes in groundwater levels, and that the strata inflates after sucking in water.

But Shimazaki said he cannot give the nod to the explanation.

Survey team member Yota Kumaki, a professor at Senshu University, said that the claim by Tohoku Electric raises many questions.  If the faults are judged to be active, however, there must be a main active fault nearby, the only question is where is it located?  Many experts believe it could be located on the peripheral fault on the continental shelf, running along the seabed about 7 kilometers east of the Higashidori plant.  Tohoku Electric has said the fault, which runs north and south for more than 80 kilometers, is not active.

The highlights of the field survey are expected to be two faults, the “F-9” and “F-3” faults which run parallel in a north-south direction.  The crush zones running below the power plant are considered by some experts as being at risk of moving in tandem with a main active fault.

“F-3″ that extends to approximately 200 meters of the reactor building have been identified in a survey of Tohoku Electric Power as well, “F-9″ and had been Tsuranui the site.

Yasuo Awata, chief scientist for the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology doubted the utilities explanation for the displacement, saying that the “description of the Tohoku Electric Power does not make sense.”

Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.’s Rokkasho reprocessing plant and the Electric Power Development Co.’s Oma nuclear power plant, currently under construction, are near the peripheral fault. It is likely experts will discuss the quake-resistance of these two plants.

Source: JiJi Press

Source: NHK

Source: The Daily Yomiuri

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May 29, 2012 at 1:49 am (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Japan, Nuclear Energy, and the TPP

May 29, 2012

A little over a year since the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced the shutdown of the last of the country’s 50 usable nuclear reactors. However, as the Mainichi Daily News reports, Japan will also be spending billions of dollars importing extra oil and gas to meet its energy demand, which will produce a projected 180-210 million additional tons of emissions this year.

 

Whatever economic benefits Japan has gained from nuclear energy have now been washed away with the Fukushima debris into the Pacific Ocean. With a looming trade deficit and its currency trading at its weakest against the dollar, economic recovery will “be hit hard against the background of increasing energy imports,” says Masaaki Kanno in a recent New York Times article. Japan, the world’s third-largest economy after China and the United States, has also encountered opposition from the Big Three U.S. automakers as well as by lawmakers confronting longstanding barriers to Japan’s auto and insurance markets.

When Obama met with Noda in April, the White House released a fact sheet on the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Initiative, which launched three new programs in the area of “clean energy” that employs both public/private development and deployment of clean energy technologies. In his remarks at their joint press conference, Obama thanked Prime Minister Noda for updating him on his “reform efforts liberalizing trade and playing a leading role in Asia Pacific’s economy,” and for Japan’s continued interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In addition Obama added, “that their shared vision also calls for the strengthening of energy cooperation, and discussed expanding liquid natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States to Japan.” (Read more)

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Fukushima Radiation Moving Steadily Across Pacific

April 4, 2012 at 12:26 am (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Published on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Common Dreams

Concentrated levels found as scientists sample the Pacific for signs of Fukushima

- Common Dreams staff

Teams of scientists have already found debris and levels of radiation far off the coast of Japan, one year after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. Reports are now suggesting that nuclear radiation has traveled at a steady pace. That contaminated debris and marine life could reach the US coast as soon as one year from now, depending on ocean currents.

A sample of copepods taken during a June 2011 cruise aboard the R/V Ka’imikai-O-Kanaloa off the northeast coast of Japan. (Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Radiation from Fukushima’s nuclear disaster is appearing in concentrated levels in sea creatures and ocean water up to 186 miles off of the coast of Japan. The levels of radiation are ‘hundreds to thousands of times higher than would be expected naturally’ according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Researchers are questioning how the radioactive accumulation on the seafloor will effect the marine ecosystem in the future.

“What this means for the marine environment of the Northwest Pacific over the long term is something that we need to keep our eyes on,” said the WHOI. (Read Full Article)

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Danger Zone: Aging Nuclear Reactors

March 11, 2012 at 1:48 am (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Danger Zone: Aging nuclear reactors
March 9, 2012

Despite the Fukushima catastrophe in Japan last March, nuclear power is experiencing a rebirth in the United States. Billions of dollars in federal funding has been allocated to develop nuclear capacity; applications are under consideration to build more than a dozen new reactors; and last month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced approval for the construction of the first new nuclear reactors in more than three decades.

But what about the nation’s existing fleet of aging reactors? Licensed to operate for 40 years, many of these plants are steadily, if quietly, getting extensions from the NRC. Seventy-one of the nation’s 104 plants already have won approval for 20-year extensions. The Center for Investigative Reporting, in collaboration with Al Jazeera English’s “People & Power,” takes a closer look into surprising problems in the NRC’s oversight of aging nuclear plants.

This video originally aired on the Al Jazeera English program “People and Power.”

Article/Video  Link:  http://cironline.org/reports/danger-zone-aging-nuclear-reactors

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Dr. Helen Caldicott on Fukushima and the Perils of Nuclear Power – YouTube

October 31, 2011 at 1:51 am (Uncategorized)
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Dr. Helen Caldicott on Fukushima and the Perils of Nuclear Power – YouTube.

Dr. Helen Caldicott on Fukushima and the Perils of Nuclear Power

October 30, 2011

via YouTube:

Uploaded by on Oct 28, 2011

Earth Focus: Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott discusses with Earth Focus correspondent Miles Benson what the Fukushima disaster really means for the health and future of the people of Japan. Dr. Caldicott also explains the links between nuclear power and public health in the United States and Europe. Dr. Caldicott received her medical degree from the University of Adelaide Medical School. In 1977, she joined the staff of Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston and taught pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School from 1977 to 1978. She served as President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating others on the dangers of nuclear energy from 1978-1983. She also worked to establish similar groups focused on education about the risks of nuclear energy, nuclear weapons and nuclear war. One such group, International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. She is the author of seven books including: Nuclear Madness (1979); Missile Envy (1984); If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1992 and 2009); The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush’s Military Industrial Complex (2001 and 2004) and Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else (2006). The Smithsonian Institution named Dr. Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th century.

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Tons of Earthquake-Tsunami Debris Headed For US Coastline

October 27, 2011 at 6:28 pm (Food and drink, Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Examiner.com
Up to 20 million tons of Japan earthquake debris headed towards US coastlineUp to 20 million tons of Japan
Earthquake Debris Headed Towards US Coastline

KITV/ABC
Up to twenty million tons of Japan tsunami debris headed for Hawaii By Erin De Santiago, International Travel Examiner

After the catastrophic March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, millions of tons of debris were washed out to sea. Despite what many people think, not everything will disintegrate and fall to the ocean floor.

On October 24, the UK Daily Mail confirmed what many knew was inevitable – tsunami debris has been spotted and is making its way towards Hawaii.

A Russian training ship headed from Honolulu to Vladivostok spotted the debris last month after passing the Midway Islands. There were televisions, fridges, pieces of furniture, and even a 20-foot fishing boat from Fukushima amongst the items floating in the Pacific.

See photos of Japan earthquake debris making its way towards to the US coastline
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Scientists believe there is 5 – 20 million tons of debris, which could reach the U.S. West Coast within three years. It is moving faster than expected and may hit the Midway Islands by winter and Hawaii in less than two years.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii have been tracking the debris for almost six months and had prepared untested computer models of ocean currents to project the trajectory of the debris. The confirmation of its current location by the Russian training ship gives researchers support that their model works.

While the researchers don’t want to alarm people, they note it’s important to know this is coming as the debris can affect small ships and threaten coastlines.

Japan’s massive 9.0 earthquake and tsunami left 20,000 dead or missing and damaged cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear plant created the worst atomic disaster in the world since Chernobyl in 1986. The country is still struggling as the country attempts to rebuild damaged areas and tourists are slow to make their way back to Japan.

Erin De Santiago, International Travel Examiner
October 26, 2011 – Like this? Subscribe to get instant updates.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Up to twenty million tons of Japan tsunami debris headed for Hawaii – National International Travel | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/international-travel-in-national/up-to-twenty-million-tons-of-japan-tsunami-debris-headed-for-hawaii#ixzz1c1ozO0Rn

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Japan’s Nuclear Accident Spreading to Some Parts of the United States

October 24, 2011 at 8:14 pm (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Japan’s Nuclear Accident Spreading to Some Parts of the United States – MarketWatch.

PRESS RELEASE
Oct. 17, 2011, 7:00 a.m. EDT
Japan’s Nuclear Accident Spreading to Some Parts of the United States
Universal Detection Technology Comments on Traces of Japanese Radiation Found in US Rain and Food

LOS ANGELES, CA, Oct 17, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Universal Detection Technology ( http://www.udetection.com ) UNDT 0.00% , a developer of early-warning monitoring technologies that protect against biological, chemical, and radiological threats, commented today on a recent study funded by the US Departments of Energy and Homeland Security that linked elevated radiation in US rain water and food to the nuclear accident in Japan. The study found that following the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, elevated levels of radiation were detected in US rain water as well as vegetables and milk. “The first sample that showed elevated radioactivity was collected on March 18 and levels peaked on March 24 before returning to normal,” said the study led by Professor Eric Norman in the department of nuclear engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. The study also noted that “similar gamma ray counting measurements were performed on samples of weeds collected in Oakland and on vegetables and milk sold commercially in the San Francisco Bay area.”

On October 19-21, 2011, UNDT will be presenting at the RISCON Safety and Trade Expo in Tokyo, which will feature over 283 exhibitors specializing in the security and safety fields and is sponsored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the National Police Agency and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. UNDT plans to display the full array of its Radiation Detection Devices. These include dosimeter systems used for measurement of cumulative radiation exposures and advanced survey meters and surface monitors used in detection on contamination on surfaces and in particular food and water.

The detected levels of radioactive isotopes caesium iodine and tellurium in the US were small and posed no risk to the public. Nonetheless, such findings reveal the urgency for the public to be prepared to deal with possible natural or manmade disasters. On August 27, 2011, the Japanese government warned that areas surrounding Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant could remain uninhabitable for decades due to high radiation, as it struggles to clean up after the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. If a disaster of such magnitude spreads globally, the consequences can be dire and difficult to predict. (Read Full Article)

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Conspiracy to Dump Nuclear Waste in World’s Oceans!

October 21, 2011 at 7:25 pm (Food and drink, Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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naturalnews.com
Originally published October 4 2011
US tried to conspire with Japan to dump nuclear waste into world’s oceans, reveal documents
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) When nuclear energy production technology first began to emerge in the US in the 1950s, neither scientists nor the US government considered what would be done with nuclear reactors once it was time for them to be put out of commission. And recently-released documents reveal that, in an effort to hastily deal with this problem after the fact, the US government actually tried to conspire with Japan to gain secret approval for dumping decommissioned nuclear reactors into the world’s oceans.

In 1972, the United Nations (UN) had proposed the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, also known as the London Convention, to deal with the growing, global pollution problem. The agreement’s provisions sought to specifically regulate the environmental pollution that signing nations could and could not dump into the oceans, which of course included nuclear production materials.

But since a finalized version of the agreement had not yet been fully established, the US government took advantage of the situation by seeking to insert an exemption cause permitting the dumping of decommissioned nuclear reactors into the ocean. And since Japan had also been involved in developing its own nuclear energy program, the US thought it could gain additional support for the exemption clause from its Asian ally.

But Japan allegedly did not comply, according to Kumao Kaneko, 74, who was a member of the Foreign Ministry team involved in the negotiations at the time. So the US decided to go it alone in proposing its exemption clause, which was meant to be a last-resort option — and it was eventually successful in achieving its goal.

Though the US made no mention of any long-term plans to utilize the ocean as its nuclear dumping ground during the proposal, it now appears as though the country had every intention of using the ocean as a nuclear disposal facility. And since the London Convention clause still exists to this day, all other signing countries are free to dump their nuclear waste in the ocean as well.

Russia, a signing member of the London Convention, openly admitted back in 1993, for instance, that it dumps nuclear reactors and fuel into the ocean because it allegedly has no other safe way to dispose of such materials (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w…).

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, claims the US stopped dumping nuclear reactors into the ocean a long time ago. And US officials claim that decommissioned nuclear reactors are today buried in the ground rather than dumped into the ocean.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201…

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Fukushima Surprise: Radioactive Rice “Far Exceeding” Safe Levels Found in Japan

September 26, 2011 at 9:19 am (Food and drink, Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Fukushima Surprise: Radioactive Rice “Far Exceeding” Safe Levels Found in Japan.

Fukushima Surprise: Radioactive Rice “Far Exceeding” Safe Levels Found in Japan

By Joe Romm on Sep 25, 2011 at 7:35 am

A rice field 25 miles north of crippled Fukushima Daiichi nukes via Reuters

TOKYO  – Japan found the first case of rice with radioactive materials far exceeding a government-set level for a preliminary test of pre-harvested crop, requiring thorough inspection of the rice to be harvested from the region, the farm ministry said late on Friday.

The ministry said radioactive caesium of 500 becquerels per kg was found in a sample of the pre-harvested rice in Nihonmatsu city, in Fukushima Prefecture, 56 km (35 miles) west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, triggering the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.  The ministry said the Fukushima Prefecture will expand the inspection spots nearly ten-fold to around 300 areas.

Pretty big news from Japan, via Reuters.  Needless to say, rice is central to both the Japanese culture and diet.

And it’s one more threat to a world food supply on the edge (see “Global Food Prices Stuck Near Record High Levels“).   (READ FULL ARTICLE)

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