ScribbleLive

Hey, Katz is in the AlJazeera video! :-)
Katz is not the red cross official! :-)

i will check the spikes against the quakes again. mabe there is a connection.

Voluntary evacuees demand TEPCO pay damages

Fukushima Prefecture residents who voluntarily evacuated after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have demanded the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company pay 15 million dollars in compensation.

People from 411 households, who live outside the mandatory evacuation zone but have chosen to evacuate, visited TEPCO on Friday to present a document detailing the damages.

A government panel last Friday released interim guidelines saying that those who voluntarily evacuated from areas outside the government-designated zones are not eligible for compensation.

A Tokyo Electric official said the company will deal with the matter in line with the government panel's discussions.

A civic group says many residents are being exposed to one microsievert of radiation per hour even in their homes, but they cannot afford to evacuate. It says they are demanding TEPCO pay for their evacuation.

40-year-old Noritsugu Fujimoto of Fukushima sent his wife to western Japan out of concern that exposure to radiation could affect a future pregnancy. He said he wants TEPCO to understand their situation.

Saturday, August 13, 2011 02:29 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp

Natto makers to seek damages from TEPCO

A group of manufacturers of natto, or fermented soybeans, in Mito city, Ibaraki Prefecture, says it will seek damages from the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, arguing that the nuclear accident has hurt their sales.

Mito City, located about 130 kilometers south of the nuclear plant, is known for its natto. Some local manufacturers package their products in rice straw.

The group of natto makers says tourist numbers and sales of the fermented soybeans have fallen since the nuclear accident. They say that since radioactive substances were detected in rice straw at levels higher than the government standard, some of the group members saw their sales drop to around half the average for the season.

The group plans to seek more than 1.3 million dollars in damages from Tokyo Electric Power Company next month.

The amount is the equivalent to the lost sales for the group's 5 members between April and August.

Saturday, August 13, 2011 02:29 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp

Kyoto cancels using tsunami-hit wood for bonfire

Organizers of the Daimonji bonfire festival in Kyoto City have canceled a plan to use firewood made from trees felled by the March 11th tsunami, after radioactive substances were found in the wood. It is the second time the plan has been canceled, after organizers retracted an earlier decision not to use the wood.

The city said on Friday that radioactive cesium had been detected in some of the firewood from Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture.

The organizers initially canceled the plan last weekend after heeding concerns that the firewood may contain radiation from the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture.

But tests of the wood found it clear of radioactive materials, and the decision to cancel the plan drew public criticism for disregarding the feelings of disaster survivors.

The first batch of firewood was instead burned in an event in the tsunami-hit area. The Kyoto organizers then retracted the decision, and Rikuzentakata sent 500 pieces of firewood for the bonfire scheduled for Tuesday.

Saturday, August 13, 2011 02:29 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp

@Edano I should have added accurate and honest to that statement. :-)

@Edano angry armed nuclear kangaroos. Were all doomed. :-)

... alligators ?

Atomic Alligators on the Loose!
This is a story so bizarre it has to be true.

Between 1961 and 1964 an animal laboratory near the F Reactor was used to test the effects of radiation on animals.

Today, no one can say why DOE decided in the 1960s to start testing alligators at Hanford.

Speculation centers on the fact that Hanford already had lots of experience in testing animals, dating back to the late 1940s when soldiers and technicians secretly snuck up to local sheep and cows with radiation counters to check for effects from airborne radioactive emissions.

Hanford’s first four alligators came from Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp in August 1961. More dribbled in from a Louisiana alligator farm until Hanford had 33 by March 1962. And more came later until at least 55 were on the site. Most were 2 to 3 years old and 2 to 3 feet long.

The alligators stayed in a small manmade pond heated by sun lamps outside the lab near F Reactor. There, technicians took care of them, feeding them trout.

“We had a lot of fun playing with them,” one technician said. “When we fed them fish, their mouths would open and then snap the fish in two. They were amazing animals to move so slow and have such fast jaws.”

The fun had to come to an end at some point. A mass-escape definitely took place – maybe two.
A chain-link fence surrounded the gator pond. The critters burrowed either beneath it or through gaps where the fence sections met.

“You could see the tracks in the sand go out to the river,” said one researcher.

Some gators were caught quickly. Some took months to find.

A few months after it escaped, an angler caught a 33-inch alligator on the Franklin County shore about nine miles downstream of F Reactor near Ringold. He put it on display at a local sports shop, but General Electric officials confiscated it when the fisherman was not around. (G.E. managed Hanford from 1946-1965, bringing some really interesting things to life.)

One control group alligator and one irradiated alligator were never found.
www.hanfordchallenge.org