Japan // Current TV

Article: COLUMN: Birthrates did not doom Japan

the following column, written by Froma Harrop. It is an excellent take on the... more

frankpatton
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EARTHQUAKE HITS JAPAN MARCH 14, 2012, JAPAN ISSUES TSUNAMI WARNING AFTER 6.8 QUAKE

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked northeastern Japan on Wednesday. No damage was... more

sassy_len9
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3 months ago
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6 comments

New Japan impro-noise - Afrirampo red red strong + 12 Pikachu Orchestra

Their music itself is “natural,” but more in the sense of a volcano than a... more

worrg
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3 months ago
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After the tsunami, Japan may exit atomic age

A year ago, Japan depended on its 54 reactors for 30 percent of its electricity; only... more

coolplanet
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3 months ago
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29 comments

Washing Ashore: An Unexpected Connection to Japan’s Tsunami

A very personal and heartwarming story on Stew Blogger Chris DaEmperor Andoe 's... more

StewSteve
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3 months ago
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One year after the Quake/Tsunami/Fukushima meltdown...March 11, 2011...

....And children have to count the microsieverts of radiation before they can go out... more

JanforGore
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3 months ago
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25 comments

Japanese Geisha Dance as Snow Falls

Maiko (geisha apprentice) dance while snowflakes fall at a shrine in Kyoto accompanied... more

SamuraiDave
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3 months ago
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We Are All Radioactive

Japan's Nuclear Disaster Seen Through the Eyes of Local Surfers Mar 9 2012,... more

FreeSpiritMuse
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3 months ago
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Sizing Up Health Impacts a Year After Fukushima

Health impacts from the radioactive materials released in the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns will probably be too small to be easily measured, according to experts assembled by the Health Physics Society for a panel discussion on Thursday. And the area cordoned off by the Japanese government as uninhabitable is probably far too large, the experts said.

The panel discussion, at the National Press Club in Washington, is one in a series of events timed to the first anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident at the nuclear plant in March 2011. While the quake and tsunami killed an estimated 20,000 people, radiation has not killed anyone so far, and members of the Health Physics Society, drawn from academia, medicine and the nuclear industry, suggested that the doses were too small to have much effect.

“There’s no opportunity for conducting epidemiological studies that have any chance of success,’’ said one of the panelists, John Boice Jr., a cancer epidemiologist and professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. (Dr. Boice is in line to become president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress.)

“The doses are just too low,’’ he said. “If you were to do a proposal, it would not pass a scientific review.’’

Another panelist, Kathryn A. Higley, a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Oregon State University in Newport, Ore., who holds a doctorate in radiological health sciences, concurred. “From a radiological perspective we expect the impact to be really pretty minor,’’ she said.

Not that the additional radiation exposure won’t induce a few extra cases of cancer, the experts said, but these will be indistinguishable from the background rate of cancer, which will eventually strike about 41 out of every 100 people.

The overall theme of the discussion was that radiation is widely feared but poorly understood, and is a smaller problem than the vast destruction and loss of life caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

Dr. Robert Peter Gale, who has worked as a consultant to the Japanese government on the accident and who helped treat radiation victims at Chernobyl, said that the risk of radiation exposure was a big concern for temporary workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant..

But many of them poorly understand the risks, he said. “Usually, when they discuss these issues, what does it mean to get 15 millisieverts, it’s in an izakaya, a Japanese bar, he said. Fifteen millisieverts is as much radiation as most Americans get in three to five years from natural background radiation and about three-quarters of the amount that most American reactor operators set as an annual limit for their personnel.

But the panelists acknowledged some uncertainty about the doses; among other problems, the tsunami and power failure knocked out some radiation-monitoring equipment.

Dr. Gale said that some of the areas that have been evacuated probably suffered so little contamination that they could be reoccupied, but that it was easier to set the lines simply by drawing a radius around the plant. And even if some people’s homes could be occupied, he said, people might not want to go back.

“There are a large number of people who want to go home, but they can’t go home because there are no schools,’’ he said. “You need schools, you need hospitals, you need 7-Eleven’s.”Health impacts from the radioactive materials released in the Fukushima Daiichi... more

coolplanet
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3 months ago
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Fukushima - Did we almost lose Tokyo?

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. In a little over a week - we'll... more

Vierotchka
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3 months ago
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1 comment

New speech-jamming gun hints at dystopian Big Brother future

Why Japan, why...?!? *** Japanese researchers have created a hand-held gun... more

maasanova
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3 months ago
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5 comments

North Koreans Agree to Freeze Nuclear Work; U.S. to Give Food Aid

The New York Times... . February 29, 2012 North Koreans Agree to Freeze... more

EthicalVegan
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3 months ago
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2 comments

New Report: During Last Year's Nuclear Accident, Japan Considered Evacuating Tokyo

The New York Times... . . February 27, 2012 Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo... more

EthicalVegan
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3 months ago
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7 comments

February 8, 1942 - Singapore And The Switch To War Time.

What it sounded like 70 years ago today.

Gordonskene
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4 months ago
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I, Otaku

from Japanator I Otaku ; Identifying as a J-culture enthusiast by Colette Bennett... more

remanns
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4 months ago
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14 comments

Fukushima Pets Fighting to Stay Alive and Braving Freezing Conditions Rescued in Fukushima's Exclusion Zone

Fukushima pets saved - Due to severe weather conditions, efforts are underway to... more

sassy_len9
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4 months ago
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Follow Fukushima Radiation

The latest geiger readings show more widespread radiation than last week. Living near... more

Progresshiv
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4 months ago
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20 comments

Shipping Jobs Overseas

Each log is worth someone's job. It's time to stop sending our forests... more

Progresshiv
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4 months ago
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3 comments

Solar Power from the Moon

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tucker20120121 A Japanese company is pitching... more

googygood
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4 months ago
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4 comments

SUMO - Day 13 of January 2012 Sumo Tournament Photos

Caught the last hour of Day 13 of the January 2012 sumo tournament. Some intense... more

SamuraiDave
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4 months ago
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