ScribbleLive

More on the breakwater/bulwark topic:
www.nei.org
See the section --> UPDATE AS OF 4 P.M. EDT, FRIDAY, APRIL 29 > Plant Status > the fourth bullet point ...
TEPCO said this week that it will build a wall of sandbags along the shoreline at the Fukushima Daiichi site as a temporary measure against another possible tsunami. The company also moved emergency power generators to higher ground to prevent the reactors' cooling systems from failing in case a major tsunami hits the plant again. The utility will sandbag the shoreline at the plant to a height of several meters. Priority will be put on the area near the waste processing facility, where highly radioactive water is being moved from around the reactor buildings. TEPCO is also planning to build a breakwater on the shoreline, as the sandbags cannot remain the long-term solution for a possible tsunami.

Apology if we already have this
www.asahi.com

Kan: TEPCO must pay compensation

Prime Minister Naoto Kan rejected suggestions that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 power plant, might be able to avoid paying compensation for the nuclear disaster because of a legal immunity.

Speaking at a session of the Lower House Budget Committee April 29, Kan said: "It is wrong to think TEPCO is exempt from liability for the damage and that the government alone is liable."

The law governing compensation for nuclear accidents contains a provision exempting plant operators from liability for damages of accidents caused by "an extremely large-scale act of god."

"Applying the provision automatically to the current case would mean granting TEPCO immunity from responsibility," Kan said.

He added: "The company is principally responsible for the damage."

The law on compensation for nuclear accidents imposes unlimited liability on the operators of nuclear power plants for accidents at their facilities, but the controversial small print exempts utilities from liability for damage caused by "an extremely large-scale act of god or social convulsion."

TEPCO, parts of the banking industry and some business organizations have suggested that the Great East Japan Earthquake may meet the criteria for the exemption.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda said the provision only applies to accidents caused by "a super force majeure, a situation totally beyond imagination, or something not anticipated by mankind."

He said the March 11 earthquake and tsunami did not fit that description.

TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, who attended the Budget Committee session as an unsworn witness, pledged to act swiftly on the compensation issue. He said his company will have to pay compensation to many people and promised to "deal with the matter in a fair and swift manner, while receiving support from the government."

TEPCO is expected to pay compensation in line with guidelines announced April 28 by a review committee of the science ministry.

But Kan said the government should also be held accountable for the nuclear disaster: "The government has been promoting nuclear power generation as a national policy and cannot escape from the responsibility."

Kan said a key role for the government would be to prevent delays in payments.

"The government intends to assume responsibility for making sure the payments (of compensation) are made appropriately, including from a political and administrative point of view," he said.

The Kan administration is considering establishing a new public-private agency to ensure smooth payment of damages estimated to total several trillion yen.

The administration plans to announce details of the scheme in May, after the Golden Week holidays.

In a break with normal protocol, the Budget Committee met on a national holiday (April 29) in an effort to speed up the enactment of a supplementary budget to fund post-quake reconstruction. It was the first time a Lower House Budget Committee had been convened on a national holiday since February 1995, when the committee discussed measures to deal with the aftermath of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

Would be very good to track down prospective scribbler-type guys like this ... Contacts, contacts ...

www.asahi.com
Nuclear plant workers severing loyalties to TEPCO

Weeks after fleeing from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Minoru Yoshida received a call from his employer offering to extend his contract.

Yoshida declined.

The nuclear power plant that he had helped to build four decades ago was in crisis. And in the 30 days since the disaster started, Yoshida's long-time affection for the plant crumbled away, replaced by anger directed at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator... ... ...

EXCELLENT articles you two are posting here..thank you...
The tamp down rumors.i guess means clamp down and that is a broad blanket such as censoring......hope not.

Have to step out for a few hours... Thanks. Bye for now.

Re last night Hindenberg discussion.

www.youtube.com

Shoot, keep forgetting I have to shift enter.

From that piece:

"Currently, according to the radiation monitoring conducted at elementary
and middle schools within Fukushima Prefecture, more than 75% of these
schools have contamination levels comparable to “Radiation Controlled
Areas” (0.6 μSv/h or more). Further, roughly 20% of the schools fall
within “Individual Exposure Controlled Areas” (2.3 μSv/h or more) and
are in an extremely dangerous situation."

In other words, it's not just a theoretical concern! I don't know if these levels are at only operating schools? If they include schools inside the 20 or 30 km evacuation zones, that would be one thing. But if these are levels in operating schools or schools they expect to operate, this is VERY serious.
lucian.uchicago.edu

That's what I'd figure too. I am seeing this petition circling for a while, almost as soon as the GoJ announced they were going to relax (i.e., drastically raise) the permissible limit for kids.

I find it interesting that you cannot employ kids in radiation fields suitable for them to go to school in.

www.thepaltrysapien.com

he city of Koriyama said this week that it will remove topsoil at 15 elementary schools where radiation levels had been detected in excess of 3.8 microsieverts per hour, according to local newspaper reports. It will also remove soil at 13 nursery schools where levels were more than 3.0 microsieverts per hour, the reports said.

I don't get this at all. I saw radiation maps on NHK with 20 milliSievert red line drawn around it, thought where it extended beyond 30 km radius were (essentially) the "prepared evac zones" or whatever. So that would preclude places where the schools are getting 3.8 microSv/hr because that seems to be well over 20 mSv/yr.

It is scary. I had assumed this was really just a theoretical issue, that the government set it so high to cover their butts. But it's a real and very serious issue. In Koriyama they are obviously allowing people to live in areas that are really heavily contaminated. Is there any way there are accounting for internal doses picked up? Or is it strictly just external dose they are measuring here anyway????

Dean, I know. That's why I'm surprised to see Koriyama coming in with such high dose rates. It sounds like most of the schools and nursery schools in the city have levels beyond what the government sets.

Why on earth are they sending children to school there, what a crime