SimplyInfo » Entries tagged with "decontamination"
To The Surprise Of Absolutely No One, Yakuza Involved In Decontamination Work
[Translate] Asahi Shimbun reports on the prolific problems of the Yakuza in the layers of contractors used to conduct decontamination work after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Workers only see a portion of their pay as gang members siphon off the rest. Even legitimate contractors have been blamed for the massive waste in the system where each layer of subcontractors takes a cut of the pay. Journalist Tomohiko Suzuki has a very simple solution to both problems. Direct hire workers to do the decontamination work. Read all the details over at Asahi Shimbun http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201305060062 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 with limited permission. … Read entire article »
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Japan Environment Minister Cuts Short Press Conference On Decontamination Fiasco
[Translate] Video on the Asahi Shimbun website shows the minister, Nobuaki Ishihara making a brief statement and rushing away from the podium as the press tries to ask questions. The environment ministry has said they will look into the widespread problem of failed decontamination exposed by Asahi Shimbun but nothing concrete has been done yet. Asahi Shimbun tipped off the ministry back in December before they ran their series of articles exposing the problem. The ministry did nothing with the evidence given to them by Asahi Shimbun and cited “manners” for not doing anything about the problem. 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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Decontamination Official Rejected Technology As “Foreigners Might Scare The Locals”
[Translate] The New York Times discusses more on the decontamination problems in Japan. They point out how many local and foreign companies presented useful decontamination technologies that could be used in Fukushima. Government officials decided to use none of them and instead handed over decontamination work to large construction companies to do the work in an ineffective “low tech” manner. Instead of using the best available technology to try to actually decontaminate the area, they did glorified lawn work contracted with big construction companies. “Even if a method works overseas, the soil in Japan is different, for example,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director at the environment ministry, who is in charge of the Fukushima cleanup. “And if we have foreigners roaming around Fukushima, they might scare the old grandmas and granddads there.” Ex-SKF … Read entire article »
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Corrupt Decontamination Part 2
[Translate] Asahi Shimbun has published a second article on the illegal decontamination practices going on in Fukushima. The follow up focuses on the government response to what has been a large volume of complaints about these illegal and shoddy decontamination processes. A local office for the Environment Ministry was established in Fukushima. This office received a “continuous stream” of complaint calls about decontamination work not being done properly. The Fukushima office did not relay information about the complaints to the Tokyo office. The local office also did not keep records of the complaints. The office claims they contacted the contractor after a complaint was made reminding them of the decontamination rules. No follow up or system to deal with repeat or high volume offenders was made. Asahi Shimbun received this explanation: “In response … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Decontamination Misconduct Puts Entire Program In Question
[Translate] Asahi Shimbun has revealed a widespread series of problems with the decontamination program in Fukushima. The Environment Ministry hired groups of construction contractors to do the work and set out rules to be followed such as collecting contaminated water and proper disposal of debris. What was found was widespread failure to follow the rules and purposeful misconduct that may lead to even worse contamination of the region. Companies hired to do the work were found dumping soil and plant debris into rivers and ditches rather than isolating and packing up the materials for proper disposal. This practice just moves the contamination to another place. By putting it in rivers or water ways it increases the amount of contamination running into rivers. These construction crews also failed to collect contaminated water, instead … Read entire article »
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TEPCO’s New Decontamination System Delayed By Tank Failures
[Translate] TEPCO has announced a delay in the start up of the new decontamination system at Fukushima Daiichi. The system was supposed to go online this fall but remains delayed as TEPCO tries to find acceptable storage containers for the sludge created by the new system. TEPCO did drop tests recently to see how these new containers would hold up to various ways they might be dropped as they are moved about the plant. The drop tests were quite the series of failures. The tanks were procured from Energy Solutions of Barnwell, SC (US), a company located near the Savannah River nuclear site. The High Integrity Container tested by TEPCO doesn’t mention the exact material composition. A press release from Energy Solutions announcing their partnership with Toshiba to provide these casks … Read entire article »
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Change And Stagnation Over Nuclear Issues In Japan.
[Translate] The new nuclear agency in Japan, the NRA has announced changes to nuclear disaster response. They plan to move emergency response centers to now be 30km from the nuclear plant they oversee. The response center for Fukushima Daiichi was 5km from the plant. This caused problems not just due to the proximity but because power generation systems failed to work causing the building to flood with radiation. The air handling system did not work due to the lack of functional power generators. They also intend to expand evacuation zones around nuclear plants from 10km to 30km. The plan calls for distributing iodine to people within 50km of the nuclear plant. It does not state clearly if the iodine would be given to residents ahead of time or if it would need to … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Decontamination May Be Paid For By People Of Japan
[Translate] The current plan as expressed by minister Edano. Decontamination will be billed to TEPCO, TEPCO asks for money from the national government. The national government will then determine how to come up with this money likely through tax increases. This seems to be already the situation with most costs. TEPCO is largely out of money and borrowing from the national government. The national government obtains their funds through taxes. In the event of a nuclear disaster in the US, the Price-Anderson Act covers the first 12.6 billion dollars, the rest is the responsibility of the US government, aka: the US taxpayer. 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 … Read entire article »
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Officials Now Considering Evacuation Over Decontamination
[Translate] Policy in Japan has made a rather abrupt turn to the admission that permanent evacuation for many in Fukushima may be necessary and the smarter use of funds. NHK cited a major turn around by the national government on the evacuation and decontamination policy. “Though it is assumed that some of the evacuated people want to go home even if it takes time,Japanese government is inclined to the idea that spending money on supporting evacuating people is more efficient. It costs significant sum of money to decontaminate and the reliable technology is not established. It would be more efficient to spend the money on evacuating people.” Reuters reports: “Tokyo Electric Power Co said it will fully compensate residents in areas contaminated by radiation from its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant if they are unable to return home after … 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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Experimental Zeolite Rice Paddy Project In Date City
[Translate] An experimental project to determine if spraying zeolite and potassium onto the rice fields will aid in the prevention of cesium absorption. The zeolite is intended to absorb the cesium and the potassium to provide the plants with a safe source of mineral to uptake. The idea being if the potassium is there the plants may take that in rather than the cesium. Government funds will assist the program and both local government officials and farmers will cooperate in the project. 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 with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or … Read entire article »
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Criticism Of Fukushima Disaster Response Grows Worldwide
[Translate] Greenpeace expert Ike Teuling did an on the ground investigation at Fukushima City, 60km from the nuclear plant. His investigation found radioactive hot spots up to 100 times the background radiation levels. The area in general is still highly contaminated. Greenpeace has called for the evacuation of all children and pregnant women from Fukushima City, something that should have happened 9 months ago. Soon after the disaster the discussion on our live blog was one of puzzlement why Fukushima City was not being evacuated. Radiation levels there soon after the disaster were concerningly high. The local government response has been far from useful. They told residents to do their own decontamination and to bury radioactive dirt and materials in their yards. Those with the means to do so have already evacuated. … Read entire article »
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Decontamination Follies
[Translate] JAEA invited the media to watch their decontamination efforts at Okuma, 4km from Fukushima Daiichi. The crew pictured is “decontaminating” the roof of an office in Okuma using a power sprayer and a floor scrubber. The top of the building had a 16 mSv radiation level 1cm above the surface. After 10 minutes of power spraying and scrubbing they lowered the radiation level to 10 mSv. Longer scrubbing times didn’t radically improve the result, at 20 minutes they only reduced the level to 8.92 mSv. At least for this test in Okuma they made the effort to gather the water runoff with the intent of trying to decontaminate the water. Most decontamination efforts just move the radioactive substances to another area or into the water system that feeds into rivers and … Read entire article »
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Government Admits Some Will Never Return Home, Considers Buying Land
[Translate] The Japanese government is considering buying the land in areas where the contamination is the worst. The more important comment is the admission that many will never be able to return home. In addition it was made public that decontamination efforts in Fukushima are largely not working. What may be effective in areas of much lower or spotty contamination is not working to effectively decontaminate homes in Fukushima. Initially people evacuated were told they would only be gone a few days. Many left their pets at home and likely many other things important to their lives. They were told repeatedly by the government that they would return home “very soon”. Then there was the admission by Prime Minister Kan on his way out that some may be unable to return home for … Read entire article »
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Decontamination Strategy In Doubt
[Translate] Many experts have expressed doubt about the decontamination strategy in Japan. This involves power spraying roofs and similar structures, removing gutter silt and the top layer of soil. The problem is that these activities frequently result in minimal reduction of radiation, usually around 10-20%. Japan Times also pointed out a slight of hand in the government strategy. They placed a goal of reduction that just happens to match the half life of cesium 134, one of the major contaminants being found. Since human intervention barely lowers the contamination level and the government strategy is to just let it decay is decontamination even possible? In cases of hot spots found in various places like Setagaya the solution was to completely remove the source of radiation and all the surrounding soil to lower the radiation level. … Read entire article »
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Fukushima, Some Give In, Others Fight Back
[Translate] You don’t always see such a contrast in the same week. Fukushima City convinced 110 volunteers to help the decontaminate areas of the city. These volunteers were not trained people with some sort of knowledge of decontamination or handling nuclear waste. They were average people including women of child bearing age. The Yomiuri Shimbun article says the people were given gloves, masks and a survey meter. What they are clearly doing is handling nuclear waste in their street clothes with paper masks that they would then get into their cars to go home wearing and into their home to launder. This is work that should be handled by trained workers. If there is a shortage of workers they could train and hire some of the 70% unemployed now living in … Read entire article »
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$13,000 To Wash Your Roof, Decontamination Scams Abound In Fukushima
[Translate] Anyone with a power washer and a lack of morals seems to be setting up shop around Fukushima prefecture to decontaminate homes. The logic of what has become the standard home decontamination process has been questioned by many as being ineffective. The process generally involves power washing the roof and possibly removing any contaminated soil from the property. Most of these decontamination processes if they remove any cesium etc from the roof simply relocate it to the yard, road or other area in the community. One professor questioned the ability to dislodge cesium from a roof after 7 months. Companies have been popping up around the region offering to decontaminate homes then giving the home owner a bill as high as $13,000. The regional government has received many complaints from residents. … Read entire article »
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The Enormity Of Decontaminating Japan And Decommissioning Fukushima
[Translate] The mindboggling magnitude of the clean up efforts are starting to be realized. Just soil contamination alone for the 4 prefectures around the power plant is expected to fill more than 23 Tokyo Domes. This doesn’t include soil decontamination in other prefectures. Gunma was found to have levels exceeding the exclusion zone at Chernobyl up to 200km away from the power plant. Areas such as Gunma, Chiba and Tokyo where soil decontamination of areas such as playgrounds has been going on are all not included in this soil estimate. Some additional details were shared with us from some industry experts. These are their very conservative ROUGH ORDER OF MAGNITUDE estimates of the clean up at Fukushima Daiichi. Cleanup: 10-20 years Cost: $100 Billion dollars Manpower: 10,000 N workers Decontamination: 100,000 square miles Waste: 100,000 gallons 1- Japan doesn’t have robust … Read entire article »
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Scottish Nuclear Plant Sea Contamination Impossible To Completely Decontaminate
[Translate] The Dounreay nuclear plant on the coast of northern Scotland leaked radiation into the sea and coastline for twenty years. Fuel fragments were disbursed up to 2 km from the plant over those years. “The most radioactive of the particles are regarded by experts as potentially lethal if ingested. Similar in size to grains of sand, they contain caesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, but they can also incorporate traces of plutonium-239, which has a half-life of over 24,000 years – meaning that is the time period for half of the material to break down”. The Scottish EPA has been working for years to try to bring the area back to pristine condition but has now announced that it would be impossible to do. This revelation that decontamination can’t fully … Read entire article »
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Anger In Fukushima
[Translate] Residents nearest the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi power plant expressed their anger and frustration with the situation in their home towns. Some are angry decontamination won’t be attempted so close to the plant. Others that they cooperated with the locating and operating of the reactors in their home town but are not being treated with indifference. The plan to create a nuclear waste disposal site in the prefecture has also upset many. 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 with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or promoting our work, please do so with respect to the … Read entire article »
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