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2011 – May 2012 Be A Better Year
[Translate] Instead of doing an overview of all that we have seen transpire in 2011, two articles that seem to sum up how we got to such a terrible place. Also, some images that have stuck in the collective memory of our members and readers from the last year. Jake Adelstein at The Atlantic explains the root of the complete corruption at TEPCO and the Yakuza ties, how it contributed to the conditions that both allowed the disaster to happen and how it hinders the recovery. SimplyInfo member Peter Melzer takes an insightful look into how we comprehend risk and the impact it has on the human enterprise. This also explains much of the failures during the disaster. (Ed. note: I would like thank all the members and contributors at SimplyInfo and our live blogs. … Read entire article »
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Nuclear Renaissance Stagnates, Companies Rush For Approvals
[Translate] After Fukushima the nuclear industry lobby groups were quick to declare the “nuclear renaissance” would continue with no slowdown. The latter portion of 2011 has seen a rather strange actions out of the NRC. The Near Term Task Force won approval for a sweeping set of safety overhauls. Then the design approval for the AP 1000 reactor was rammed through the NRC with some agency technical experts declaring the design is not safe. This added to the bizarro world spats that played out in Congressional hearings recently. Members of the NRC committee have been busy playing back stabbing politics rather than assuring the public that safety would be a priority. Former NRC commissioner Peter A Bradford explained some of the politics and games that goes on at the NRC. Huffington Post … Read entire article »
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350,000 bq/kg Rice Straw And More Over Limit Rice – UPDATE: 220 bq of cesium in average food consumption
[Translate] Rice straw from the spring was tested and found to have as high as 350,000 bq/kg, much of what was tested was over 100,000 bq/kg. All was found in Tochigi prefecture. This extremely high finding shows how the cesium beef outbreak of the summer happened. It shows how one seemingly minor mistake can have incredible consequences for the food supply and for farmers. There is still no plan for disposing of all of this rice straw. (h/t to Fukushima-Diary who originally broke the story) Rice in Date City was found to be contaminated with cesium, some as high as 550 bq/kg. The rice has not been sold and is awaiting a disposal plan. UPDATE: Just saw this over at Fukushima-Diary.com, Tokyo University did a test to see how much radiation was in an … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Daiichi Flooded Out Generators 20 Years Before Tsunami Hit
[Translate] 20 years before the March 11th disaster, TEPCO had an emergency generator at unit 1 taken out by flooding. This was due to leaking pipes in the turbine building that flooded the basement area where the generator resides. Workers tried to point out the ongoing risk displayed by the pipe leak and that the generators were at risk for other types of flooding like a tsunami. Workers concerns were ignored by higher ups. While this sounds like a minor side note, it could have larger implications in TEPCO’s ongoing fight to shirk liability for the accident. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and … Read entire article »
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People Find Their Voices To Fight Nuclear Power
[Translate] Japan has exponentially gathered into organized efforts to push back against the nuclear village. The Governor of Fukushima has agreed with the local government declaration that all 10 nuclear reactors in Fukushima prefecture will be dismantled. Major referendum efforts are under way in Osaka and Tokyo to ban nuclear power plants from their regions. Local governments around the Hamaoka nuclear plant have passed measures demanding the plant be permanently shut down. If you were to roll back to a year before the Fukushima Daiichi accident, such a scenario would be absolutely unimaginable. Nuclear power was heavily entrenched in politics and most people were willing to deal with the status quo. Now local residents are suing the operator of the Genkai nuclear power plant complex demanding it be shut down. People in the US … Read entire article »
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Alaska To Test Sick Seals For Radiation
[Translate] Public health officials have been trying to determine the cause of a deadly outbreak in ringed seals that now includes the local walrus population. NOAA declared an unusual mortality event and researchers have been scrambling to find the cause. Researchers have now ruled out a virus, their initial suspect. They have moved on to testing for radiation exposure. Local officials said the radiation levels in the water near the coast of Alaska were fairly low but seals could have encountered a concentration in the currents elsewhere in their migration patterns. Their migration map shows them well into Russian waters. Radiation was found off the Kamchatka Peninsula one month after the start of the Fukushima disaster. This is within the migration pattern of the Alaska ringed seal. The Kamchatka Peninsula faces the Bearing Sea, part … Read entire article »
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Radioactive Fish From The Grocery Store
[Translate] Someone in Japan checked their fish with a geiger counter. Note that the fish is wrapped in plastic as is their detector. Since fish contains a considerable amount of water in the tissue it will partially block some of the radiation as will the plastic. With the plastic covers the radiation being picked up is just the gamma radiation only. If this fish was tested with a typical germanium detector used to test food it would likely have a much higher radiation level. What can be detected with the hand held detector it is still 3x the background radiation in this person’s home. This is a good reminder what the simple task of preparing a meal has turned into for those living in Japan. This article would not be possible without … Read entire article »
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Alaska Official Lies About Fukushima Fallout
[Translate] An Alaska Public Health Official recently made the claim that Alaska did not receive any detectable fallout from Fukushima. “He said radiation sensors in the state confirm Alaska didn’t receive a detectable dose of radiation” Pierce, the official quoted makes his claims off the Anchorage station that is not included in EPA air filter data but goes in to claim that this applied to Fairbanks, Juneau, Dutch Harbor and Nome. We know this to not be true. There were detectable levels of isotopes clearly from the Fukushima disaster over Alaska. Dutch Harbor saw a spike of a wide variety of radioactive isotopes from March 19-22. Juneau saw a spike of the same spectrum of isotopes on March 22nd & 23rd. Nome saw a similar spike on March 24th. The isotopes included were iodine 131, iodine … Read entire article »
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Defamatory Pro-Nuclear Opinion Letter Seeks To Divide
[Translate] A person writing under the name “Andreas Kolb” had an opinion letter published by the Japan Times over the holiday weekend. This is the second letter Kolb has had published by Japan Times. The first was a rather bizarre claim that lowering the elevation of Fukushima Daiichi had nothing to do with the damage inflicted on the plant by the tsunami. Kolb claimed the elevation of the plant was mere “speculation” and “irrelevant”. While this itself is strange, his more recent letter goes outside the bounds of decency claiming some even stranger claims of xenophobia, hate and racism. The new letter tries to smear actor Taro Yamamoto for his anti-nuclear efforts by claiming that Germany is not fit to be an example of de-nuclear efforts by citing an unfounded screed of … Read entire article »
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First Camera Inspection Inside Reactor Containment In Two Weeks
[Translate] TEPCO is estimating they will begin the process in about two weeks to bore a small hole and insert an endocope type camera into the containment vessel of unit 2. The work will be on the North-West side. The work would likely be done inside the reactor building ground level hallways so it would not be visible on either live cameras watching the plant. This would be the most direct route to inject the camera into the containment vessel walls. The camera is 10 meters long with an 8 millimeter device on the end. The camera was ordered from Swedish company ISEC. The attempt at unit 2 due to it being in the best condition is the test run for possible attempts to do the same at units 1 and 3. … Read entire article »
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Cesium Detected In Well Water Around Fukushima
[Translate] Cesium is now being detected in well water, meaning it has found ways into the ground water. Earlier reports also showed a growing problem of radioactive isotopes in river water and river fish in the region. Water was tested from private wells and found cesium in the following areas: 4 locations in Minamisoma with up to 14.7 bq per liter of cesium. 2 locations in Kitahara ward, Minamisoma Haramachi District with 11.4 to 14.7 bq per liter of cesium The report was not clear if the 2 locations in Kitahara were included in the 4 locations or were in addition. The report does not mention if other isotopes were tested for at the time the cesium was found. The original report is in Japanese at Mainichi This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo … Read entire article »
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Unusual Factors In Fukushima
[Translate] Sometimes the simple and the strange emerge from bigger things. The official accident investigation committee mentions one of the factors in the chaos at Fukushima Daiichi after the quake and tsunami was dying communication batteries. Wireless handsets used to communicate around the plant and with the on-site emergency office died in the first day of the accident. Without any back up power at the plant they had no way to recharge the batteries in the phones. No one had thought to create a back up power system for communications and there was no stockpile of extra batteries. This simple oversight likely had major implications at the plant as communication was hindered. Government research has found some very simple factors caused rice from Fukushima to be contaminated or not contaminated with cesium. … Read entire article »
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Ending The Year, Disaster Far From Over For Evacuees
[Translate] If you ask anyone in Japan their thoughts on 2011 they will tell you something akin to it having been a very tough year. The government in Tokyo and TEPCO have declared the disaster over. Western media has been more than happy to repeat this claim with gusto. For those in the Tohoku region of Japan the disaster is far from over. Many still remain in temporary housing. Everyone seems to be in some manner of limbo. Waiting for compensation from TEPCO, waiting to hear if their property will be habitable any time soon or trying to pick up the pieces and move on with life. A wife decided she really needed her husband and a farmer planted seaweed in Iwate not knowing what the next day holds. The government has … Read entire article »
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Women, Unexpected Leaders Of The Push Against Japan Government & Nuclear Village
[Translate] Women, initially out of fear for the safety of children took up the cause against nuclear power and the horrible handling of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. This has grown as the public’s frustration with the government response grew. These same women are now leading the push for major societal and government change. A group of women had camped out in front of METI’s headquarters in Tokyo and they are now back again vowing to stay for 10 months and 10 days, traditionally considered in Japan the full term that covers a pregnancy. These activists have not just been marching, they have been meeting with government officials making their demands such as a transparent investigation heard. Some of the statements by these groups are clear they have no intention of giving up or … Read entire article »
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Decontamination Costs Exceed Estimates
[Translate] The cost of decontaminating impacted areas is far exceeding estimates. The initial estimate to decontaminate a small home is 700,000 yen. The average actual cost is 1.3 million yen. One local official claims the over runs is due to larger properties in agricultural areas. Compounding the cost problems is the fact that decontamination is largely not working. Levels are not being lowered enough to consider the effort effective in lowering radiation enough to make homes safe. As work continues to not give desired results and costs spiral out of control, what will be next? This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and was reproduced here … Read entire article »
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Unit 3 Cooling Was Turned Off The Day Before Explosion
[Translate] The cooling system at unit 3 was turned off the day before the massive explosion. The plant director was not informed for an hour of the action. Suspension of cooling caused the reactor to be without water for 6.5 hours. The RCIC cooling system was running low on battery power. Without checking the reactor pressure, workers shut off the RCIC system and attempted to start a fire pump system to feed water into the reactor. This fire pump system is low pressure and can only operate at 7 atmospheres or less of pressure. Pressure at the time of the attempt was about 40 atmospheres. The fire pump system was unable to inject water due to the high pressure and the batteries required to operate the containment venting system were not working. … Read entire article »
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TEPCO To Socialize Losses, More Questions Arise About Decommissioning Plans
[Translate] Further plans are being discussed to raise electric rates and inject public funds into TEPCO. The amount of costs already shouldered by the government and the people is astronomical when you look at not just the government costs of evacuating people and other actions needed to address the disaster but what individuals have spent. The citizens groups that have developed to test food, additional costs to retailers and personal expenditures to move or find safe food is considerable. Finding out the real total costs of this disaster would help determine the true cost of nuclear power. There have been 3 major accidents at commercial reactors since the late 1970′s so it does play a role in the true costs to consumers. The Japanese government has released the long term roadmap for Fukushima … Read entire article »
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More Disaster Changes And New Radiation Studies
[Translate] The government has announced they will lift the 20km evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi next April. Any area with 20 mSv will be considered safe enough for people to return. Areas over 50 mSv will be considered long term no-go zones. The governor of Fukushima also expressed doubts about the national government’s “cold shutdown” claim and urged them to consider the opinions of local residents when establishing the rezoning. Also changing next April will be food standards. “General food” will be lowered to 100 bq/kg, milk and baby foods will be 50 bq/kg and drinking water will be 10 bq/kg. Marumori in Miyagi prefecture will begin their own local radiation screening of anyone under the age of 18. The testing will include thyroid, urine and blood tests. The Ministry of Health is considering … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Monday Mashup, Nobody Trusts The Government Edition
[Translate] There is a growing major distrust of the Japanese government. What is less obvious is that it has developed along age related lines that mirror where internet use stops and starts. Those who get their news from the internet or a variety of sources hold a drastically different view of the government and the accident. The ongoing whitewashing of the disaster and understating of the magnitude has been very obvious to anyone who gets their news from more than mainstream media in Japan. Prime Minister Noda and TEPCO have declared “cold shutdown” but nobody believes it. Members of Noda’s own political party have called it fiction. A member of Noda’s cabinet cited an attempt to reassure other countries as the reason for the declaration. Experts from Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute … Read entire article »
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Reporter Works At Fukushima, Exposes Real Situation At The Plant
[Translate] Tomohiko Suzuki arranged with a contractor to work at Fukushima Daiichi for close to a month. What Suzuki discovered flies in the face TEPCO and government reports and confirms many of the accounts we have gotten from workers at the plant. Progress is largely an illusion and more effort is put into appearances than actual safety. His discussions with nuclear technology experts also pointed out that many people living beyond the 20km evacuation zone should not be due to high doses. He specifically points at Iwaki and Fukushima and cites the lack of evacuation had more to do with the large population of the two cities and the government reluctance to deal with evacuating larger cities. Suzuki also talked of workers being given impossible tasks that could only be completed if they … Read entire article »
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