tagged w/ Radioactivity
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ENE News...
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Published: December 26th, 2011 at 10:02 PM EDT
By Enenews Admin
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Mainichi: Radiation detected in drinking water from underground source — Over 15 miles from Fukushima meltdowns
Water underground is contaminated, Fukushima Diary, Dec. 26, 2011:
Ministry of the Environment measured cesium from well water at 4 locations in Minamisoma [25 km north of Fukushima plant]. It was about 1.3~14.7 Bq/kg, it was for drinking. The samples were taken in October and November. [...]
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Babelfish Translation result for http://mainichi.jp/select/weathernews/news/20111227k0000m040028000c.html
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Headline: Fukushima 1st nuclear plant: From well water 4 places of cesium detection south Soma
Source: Mainichi.jp
Date: Dec. 26, 2011
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It announced that the environmental ministry on the 26th, inspected the density of the well underwater radioactive cesium of drinking which in emergency evacuation preparation area (in 9 ends of the month cancellation) inside Fukushima prefecture which is set after the Tokyo Electric Power Fukushima 1st nuclear accident is, detected the small quantity at 4 places of south Soma city. Being maximum, water 1 liter (kilometer) to hit and but with 14.7 Becquerel, below provisional regulation value (1 kilo- hit, 200 Becquerel) of the public welfare Ministry of Labor, the new reference level (same 10 Becquerel) which aims April toward of next year enforcement was exceeded at 3 places.
To investigate at 1317 places of the same city and Hirono Cho and Naraha Cho 10, in November, as for the other self-governing community and the like of the same area in the midst of continuation. At 1 places of the same Ku Kitahara as 2 places of south Soma Ichihara Cho Ku Kita Nagano, per 1 liters 11.4~14.7 Becquerel, 1.3 Becquerel were detected with the same Ku 萱 beach. As for detection lower limit value with 5 Becquerel, as for the other well it was non- detection. According to the environmental ministry you say that there is a possibility the earth near the cesium is attached blending. The well with private possession, has informed about the result, almost there is no possibility many people drinking.
.ENE News...
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Published: December 26th, 2011 at 10:02 PM EDT
By Enenews Admin... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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Report: Japan, utility at fault for response to nuclear disaster
December 26, 2011 | 11:33 pm
Report: Japan, utility at fault for response to nuclear disaster
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REPORTING FROM SEOUL -- Japan’s response to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was flawed by poor communication and delays in releasing data on dangerous radiation leaks at the facility, which was struck by an earthquake-triggered tsunami on March 11, a government-appointed investigative panel has found.
The report attaches blame to both Japan’s central government as well as the utility that operates the plant -- the Tokyo Electric Power Co. -- depicting a scene of harried officials incapable of making decisions to stem radiation leaks as the situation at the coastal plant worsened in the days and weeks following the disaster.
The 507-page interim report, the product of interviews with hundreds of utility workers and government officials, said poor planning also worsened the disaster response, noting that authorities had grossly underestimated tsunami risks that followed the 9.0-magnitude earthquake.
The 40-foot-high tsunami that struck the plant was twice as tall as the highest wave predicted by officials. The erroneous assumption that the plant’s cooling system continued to function after the tsunami struck worsened the disaster, the report claimed.
The report, whose final version is due to be completed next year, also found that plant workers had no clear instructions on how to respond to such a disaster, causing miscommunications, especially when the disaster destroyed backup generators. Ultimately, the series of failures led to the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.
Workers failed to immediately seek alternative sources of water to cool the overheating reactors because they assumed the system was working, even though numerous warning signs told them otherwise.
"This accident has taught us an important lesson on how we must be ready for a disaster," concluded the panel, headed by University of Tokyo professor emeritus Yotaro Hatamura.
The government also received its share of criticism after dangerous radioactivity leaked into the atmosphere, causing the evacuation of 80,000 nearby residents, most of whom have still not returned to their homes.
Fearing a national panic, Tokyo government ministries failed to relay critical information to the public, instead using language that attempted to lessen the severity of the evolving crisis, which included meltdowns at three of the plant’s reactors.
Following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his advisors had stationed themselves on the fifth floor of the prime minister's office, where they made key decisions in consultation with top ministers and Tepco officials. But the officials did not share information with other crucial ministries or even with the crisis-management headquarters set up in the basement of the office several floors below, the report said.
The panel also faulted government officials for delaying warnings on the spread of radiation in the region around the plant, unnecessarily exposing communities to exposure when they could have been immediately evacuated.
The panel recommended that the government and the utilities that run nuclear plants employ experts knowledgeable in assessing tsunami risks.
"The nuclear disaster is far from over," the report concluded.
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Photo: The Unit 4 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station as seen November 12.
Credit: David Guttenfelder / AP Photo
.Los Angeles Times...
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Report: Japan, utility at fault for response to nuclear... more
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The Asahi Shimbun...
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Asahi poll: 57% of Japanese say no to nuclear power
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December 13, 2011
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Fifty-seven percent of voters are opposed to nuclear power generation, while 30 percent are in favor, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey.
The 57-percent figure compares with 48 percent recorded in a survey in October. The latest nationwide poll was conducted Dec. 10-11.
Since April, one month after the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, The Asahi Shimbun has incorporated questions on the use of nuclear power in its monthly poll.
In the December survey, male respondents opposed to nuclear power outnumbered those in favor for the first time.
The non-support rate for nuclear power has continued to exceed the support rate since an Asahi poll covering several countries in late May.
The non-support rate among females, which has consistently been higher than the support rate since mid-May, hit the 60-percent mark for the first time in the latest poll at 65 percent.
For males, the support rate came to 47 percent in the October survey, and the non-support rate was 38 percent.
The figures, however, came out in reverse in the latest poll, with the non-support rate at 49 percent and the support rate at 43 percent.
Concern about radioactive substances remains strong.
When asked to rate their concern, in terms of the effects on their own health and that of family members, four choices were offered. The answers "Greatly" and "fairly" accounted for a combined 67 percent.
A majority of those who answered "Not very concerned" supported nuclear energy in the September survey. However, the majority of those who chose that answer in the December poll was opposed to its use as a source of power generation.
Seventy-seven percent of the respondents favor the phasing-out of nuclear power in the future.
But when asked about the Noda administration's policy on natural energy promotion, 70 percent responded that they either "Cannot expect much" or "Cannot expect (anything) at all," a substantial spike from the 44 percent recorded in September.
.The Asahi Shimbun...
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Asahi poll: 57% of Japanese say no to nuclear power... more
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The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the shattered plant.The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more... more
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The 'apocalyptic' media frenzy post Fukushima which displaced the real disaster story and horrific loss of life wrought by the earthquake & tsunami, sickened Japanese born Mari Shibata. Along with WORLDbytes volunteers she investigates the fear factor. Why did a nuclear incident affecting only a small area fuel global meltdown stories? In an interview with the Director of the Science Media Centre we learn of news values shaped by a concern to terrify people, journalists removed from stories for being too measured and scientists accused of lying. Granted unique access to Oldbury, the oldest nuclear power station in the world we learn how seriously safety is taken and due to fears of terrorism post 9/11 its tragic shut down to visitors. Through talking to relatives in Japan we learn of the progress being made to clear up the real mess made by a natural disaster, a story neglected by the Western media.The 'apocalyptic' media frenzy post Fukushima which displaced the real... more
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Radioactive meat circulating on Japanese market
By Nicholas Ito, CNN
July 12, 2011 10:59 a.m. EDT
Photo: Japanese buy meat at a newly reopened department store in the city of Sendai on March 23, two weeks after the earthquake.
CNN...
Tokyo (CNN) -- A Japanese health official downplayed the dangers Tuesday after cesium contaminated meat from six Fukushima cows was delivered to Japanese markets and probably ingested.
Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of consumer affairs and food-safety, said he hoped to head off any overreactions.
"If we were to eat the meat everyday, then it would probably be dangerous," Hosono said at a news conference Tuesday. "But if it is consumed only in small portions, I don't think it would have any long-lasting effects on the human body."
The meat, delivered late last month, has made its way to consumers and most likely has been ingested, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Monday evening. This was preceded by another recent discovery of radiation in the meat of 11 cows delivered to Tokyo from the same farm.
The discovery was made when Tokyo's office of health and welfare investigated six deliveries made at the end of June from a Fukushima farm. So far, radiation has been confirmed from three out of the six cows. In one case, radiation reached 3400 Becquerels, which is about seven times the limit set by the government.
When the Fukushima Prefectural Government, on Monday, investigated the farm from which the meat was delivered, cesium was found in cattle feed such as hay, with radiation levels as much as 57 times higher than the ceiling set by the Japanese government.
Up until now, cattle in Fukushima were only subject to a screening test, to inspect for radioactive particles adhering to the skin, and farmers were ordered to self-report how it the cattle feed was being stocked.
Yutaka Kashimura, Fukushima Prefecture's officer in charge of the livestock division, told CNN that the farmer may have given the cows hay that had been exposed to soil containing high levels of radiation. The farm is situated at about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.
The Fukushima Prefectural government announced that it will check on all the farms in the prefecture to determine if the stored cattle feed is being protected from radiation. More than 500 farms will be inspected before the end of the week and nearly 2,800 by the end of the month.
On Saturday, the health and welfare office at Tokyo Metropolitan government found that meat from 11 cows from a Fukushima farm, which was about to be delivered, contained high levels of radiation. As a precaution, the office was ordered to trace meat from six cows from the same farm and realized that the meat is now circulating not only in Tokyo, but all over Japan.
No health problems linked to the incident been reported, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government told CNN.Radioactive meat circulating on Japanese market
By Nicholas Ito, CNN
July 12, 2011... more
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Floodwaters creep near nuke plants
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/23/nebraska.flooding/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
Officials monitoring rising floodwaters at Nebraska nuclear plants
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 23, 2011 2:06 p.m. EDT
The Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska is under an "unusual event declaration" because of floodwaters nearby.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Critical gear at two Nebraska power plants has been protected from flooding, the NRC says
Some of the grounds at the Fort Calhoun plant, shut down since April, are under water
Utility sets up "rumor control" page to battle false reports of flood damage
Photo: The Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska is under an "unusual event declaration" because of floodwaters nearby.
(CNN) -- U.S. nuclear regulators say two Nebraska nuclear power plants have protected critical equipment from the rising waters of the Missouri River even though flooding has reached the grounds of one of them.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is confident those safeguards will prevent a disaster at either plant even though the Missouri is expected to remain flooded for several weeks, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said Thursday.
The Fort Calhoun plant, about 20 miles north of Omaha, was shut down for refueling in April. Parts of the grounds are already under two feet of water as the swollen Missouri overflows its banks. But the Omaha Public Power District, which owns the plant, has built flood walls around the reactor, transformers and the plant's electrical switchyard, the NRC said.
"They've surrounded all the vital equipment with berms," Dricks said.
Dricks said the NRC has sent additional inspectors to Fort Calhoun, which declared an "unusual event" -- the lowest level of alert -- on June 6 due to rising water. Six inspectors are now monitoring conditions there around the clock, Dricks said.
The Cooper Nuclear Station, about 80 miles south of Omaha, remains operating at full power. The plant issued an unusual event declaration on Sunday as water levels rose, but the current level is two feet below the plant's elevation, Dricks said.
The NRC will dispatch additional inspectors to the plant "if conditions warrant," Dricks said.
Heavy rainfall in Montana and North Dakota, combined with melting snow from the Rocky Mountains, have sent the Missouri urging downstream this summer. The river washed over and punched through levees in nearby northwestern Missouri over the weekend, spurring authorities to urge about 250 nearby residents to leave their homes.
The 6 to 12 inches of rainfall in the upper Missouri basin in the past few weeks is nearly a normal year's worth, and runoff from the mountain snowpack is 140% of normal, according to weather forecasters.
And CNN affiliate KETV reported Wednesday that, as a precautionary move, the Cooper facility is keeping dozens of staff members onsite around the clock. The station reported that about 60 people are sleeping on cots at the plant and that the staffers are being rotated out every two days.
It was catastrophic flooding from Japan's March 11 tsunami that knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, resulting in three reactors melting down and producing the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. This year's Midwestern flooding has also led to a spate of rumors about the Fort Calhoun plant that Omaha Public Power and the NRC have been trying to knock down.
The utility has set up a "flood rumor control" page to reassure the public that there has been no release of radioactivity from the plant. An electrical fire June 7 did knock out cooling to its spent fuel storage pool for about 90 minutes, but the coolant water did not reach a boiling point before backup pumps went into service, it said.
"People are getting scared by a lot of the misinformation," Dricks said. "It's primarily coming from Internet bloggers rather than the mainstream media. None of them have bothered to check with us."
CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.Floodwaters creep near nuke plants... more
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Once again, our American media is MIA on vital news, while we all are subjected to endless Bieberisms. Sadly, we must turn to Al Jazeera English for news that TEPCO (Tokyo Electric) has publicly reported.
A quick quote from the full piece, here: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html
Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.
Even though the plant is now shut down, fission products such as uranium continue to generate heat, and therefore require cooling.
"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor," Gundersen added. "TEPCO announced they had a melt through. A melt down is when the fuel collapses to the bottom of the reactor, and a melt through means it has melted through some layers. That blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water."
Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting.
"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometers being found 60 to 70 kilometers away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."
Read the full story here: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.htmlOnce again, our American media is MIA on vital news, while we all are subjected to... more
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WBEZ...
Nuclear energy in Japan in post-Fukushima era
by Worldview May. 25, 2011
Click on Link to Listen to This Story
(Getty Images/Athit Perawongmetha)
http://www.wbez.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_image_medium/segment/photo/2011-May/2011-05-25/112053597.jpg
Photo: A dog wanders the abandoned streets of Futaba, a town within the exclusion zone near the Fukushima power plant.
This week, the Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that three reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered meltdowns shortly after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March.
From the somber legacy of World War II to this latest crisis, nuclear energy in Japan has a complicated history. Now, as bad news continues to emerge out of the Fukushima catastrophe, Japan is forced to do some soul searching about nuclear power, which supplies thirty percent of the nation’s energy.
Norma Field is a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Chicago. Field recently had a conference on nuclear energy in Japan. She dropped by with a longtime critic of Japan’s nuclear energy policies, filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka. Kamanaka was screening her latest documentary, Ashes to Honey: Toward a Sustainable Future, when the earthquake and tsunami struck in Tokyo.WBEZ...
Nuclear energy in Japan in post-Fukushima era
by Worldview May. 25,... more
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Fuel rods in the core of the No. 1 reactor are fully exposed, with the water level 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said.
Japan is trying to contain the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl after a quake and tsunami two months ago knocked out power and cooling systems at the Fukushima station. While authorities have previously suspected a partial meltdown at unit 1, high radiation levels had prevented workers from entering the building to check the damage until last week.
“What this means is this is probably going to be a much more difficult cleanup than they originally planned for,” said Paul Padley, a particle physicist at Rice University in Houston. The government and Tepco “have consistently appeared to be underestimating the severity of the situation.”Fuel rods in the core of the No. 1 reactor are fully exposed, with the water level 1... more
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Kuniko Tanioko: Japan must tell world how it dealt with the nuclear runoff into the ocean
Daphne Wysham is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and founder and host of Earthbeat, now airing on 61 public radio stations in the US and Canada.
Kuniko Tanioka is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Osaka Prefecture, she graduated from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada and received a Ph.D in design. She was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 2007.Kuniko Tanioko: Japan must tell world how it dealt with the nuclear runoff into the... more
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Reuters...
Tokyo Electric may face $25 billion in liabilities: report
By Taiga Uranaka
TOKYO | Wed May 4, 2011 5:06am EDT
(Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power may be asked to shoulder half of an estimated $49 billion in total compensation for damages stemming from its crippled nuclear power plant with other power firms to bear the rest, a Japanese newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Officials from the government, Tokyo Electric, and creditor banks have been scrambling to craft a scheme that would allow the utility to cope with the bill of compensating those displaced by the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi plant, while continuing to operate as a private firm.
The draft government plan reported by the Asahi newspaper could mark a significant development in those efforts because it puts a ballpark figure on the total cost at 4 trillion yen ($49.2 billion) and suggests a cap on Tokyo Electric's burden.
Uncertainty over the likely cost of compensation as well as the prospect of unlimited liability for Tokyo Electric, commonly known as Tepco, has unnerved investors since the crisis, triggered a widening of corporate bond spreads.
The plan calls for Tepco to pay 2 trillion yen in compensation over 10 years. Of the 200 billion yen in annual payments, half would come from a roughly 16 percent increase in electricity prices, the newspaper reported.
"The 2 trillion yen figure would be positive in the sense that it helps erase some uncertainties hanging over Japan's utilities sector," said Ariel Hsiao, manager of HSBC Global Power & Resources Equity Fund in Taipei, which sold its entire holding of Tepco shares after the March 11 disaster.
The other half of the 400 billion yen annual bill would come from Kansai Electric Power and seven other nuclear plant operators, which will put money into the fund in proportion to their electricity output, the Asahi said.
To shore up Tepco's finances and prevent debilitating credit ratings cuts, the fund will buy 1.6 trillion yen worth of preferred shares in the utility, whose market value has shrunk by three-fourths since the crisis to about $8 billion.
A Tepco spokesman said the information in the Asahi report was not based on any disclosure from the company.
CAP ISSUE
Tepco has started making provisional compensation payments to residents and local governments after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami tore through the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing it to leak radiation and prompting an evacuation of surrounding areas.
The question of whether to put a ceiling on Tepco's burden has been one of the most contentious issues in discussions on the compensation scheme, delaying its official announcement from an initial target of the last week of April.
While Tepco and its creditor banks have pushed for an upper limit, arguing it was essential to prevent a drop in its credit rating to junk status, many politicians have sought to take a hard line on the utility, characterizing it as the primary bearer of responsibility for the nuclear disaster.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Monday that there would be no ceiling set on Tepco's liabilities and that it should not qualify for an exemption from compensation under Japanese law.
The mention of specific liabilities figures in the draft government plan may be aimed at allowing Tepco to make the cost calculations it needs to close its books for the past business year ended in March, the Asahi said.
Tepco is now expected to report a net loss of about 800 billion yen for the past year and will aim to return to profit in four years and resume issuing bonds from the financial year starting in April 2015, the newspaper said.
The draft estimates the cost of scrapping the six reactors at Fukushima Daiichi plant at 1.5 trillion yen and the additional fuel costs to run thermal power generators at about 1 trillion a year, the paper said.
The plan also calls for annual cost cuts of 150 billion yen by the next financial year and a total of 300 billion yen to be generated by the sale of real estate, stocks and other assets, the Asahi said.
($1 = 81.225 Japanese Yen)
(Additional reporting by Hugh Lawson in TOKYO and Faith Hung in TAIPEI; Editing by Nathan Layne and Matt Driskill)Reuters...
Tokyo Electric may face $25 billion in liabilities: report
By Taiga... more
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TELL OBAMA NUCLEAR AND GAS FRACKING IS NOT CLEAN ENERGY !!!
This letter from the Whitehouse, in response to my letter about clean and sustainable energy, reveals that even in the Japanese disaster cloud of radioactivity, now distributed worldwide, Obama considers nuclear energy to be clean!
Combined with the "massive Fracking Blowout spill in PA.", posted herein, how can anyone justify that fracking gas and nuclear energy can ever be clean? Nuclear accidents and incidents pollute FOREVER! Even now, sealed recontainment plans are being devised to resecure the Chernobyl reactor. Does anyone remember how many years ago that occurred?
Please remind Obama that nuclear, fracted gas and coal are not clean energies. And, you might indicate that if an effort equalling half of that made to prepare for war were put forth, we could be energy independent in a couple of years. It only took a couple of years to develop the atom bomb, it can't possibly take longer to perfect solar and wind power if government would commit to it.
THE WHITEHOUSE
April 22, 2011
Dear Friend:
Thank you for writing. I appreciate hearing from you, and I share the vision of millions of Americans who want to secure our Nation's energy future. We must seize this important opportunity to create new jobs and industries, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and protect the public health and our environment. My Administration's energy plan relies on harnessing the resources we have available, embracing a diverse energy portfolio, and becoming a global leader in developing new sources of clean energy.
I understand the impact gas prices have on families and businesses across our country, and that is why I am committed to developing our capacity for domestic energy production. My Administration is working to expand responsible oil and gas development in the United States, ensuring this is done safely and responsibly. This includes a focus on natural gas, while also building production capacity for biofuels.
In addition to increased domestic energy production, my plan calls for a reduction in demand of foreign oil. Since transportation is responsible for 70 percent of our petroleum consumption, one of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to make transportation more efficient. That is why my Administration established groundbreaking national fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, which will reduce consumption by 1.8 billion barrels of oil and save consumers thousands of dollars. We are also making investments in electric vehicles and the advanced batteries that power them to ensure high-quality, fuel-efficient cars and trucks are built right here in America.
To secure our Nation's energy future, we also need to increase production of clean energy. I have set a goal that by 2035, 80 percent of our electricity will come from clean energy, including renewable sources like wind and solar power, nuclear energy, efficient natural gas, and clean coal. This goal is not about picking one energy source over another, but rather leveraging a broad range of sources and providing industry the flexibility to decide how best to increase their clean energy share. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also included over $90 billion in clean energy investments.
A 21st-century energy policy is an investment in our economy, national security, health, and environment. I encourage you to read more about my Administration's blueprint for a secure energy future here: www.WhiteHouse.gov/issues/blueprint-secure-energy-future. For more information on government grants, please visit e-center.doe.gov.
Thank you, again, for writing.
Sincerely,
Barack ObamaTELL OBAMA NUCLEAR AND GAS FRACKING IS NOT CLEAN ENERGY !!!
This letter from the... more
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It was the world's worst nuclear disaster, but 25 years on, the battle to contain it continues. Building a new sarcophagus over the Chernobyl site is the most pressing issue, as a meeting of donor countries is held in Ukraine.It was the world's worst nuclear disaster, but 25 years on, the battle to contain... more
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CNN...
Pet rescuers brave Fukushima danger zone
From Kyung Lah and Whitney Hurst, CNN
April 13, 2011 6:05 p.m. EDT
Photo: A dog wanders Tuesday about 4 miles from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Many owners left pets behind when evacuations were ordered
"We tried to save him, but we couldn't get in," one says
Japan has no plans to retrieve animals from contaminated areas
Tokyo (CNN) -- The image was horrific: A whimpering beagle, ribs showing through its fur, tethered to a post inside the no-go zone around the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
The scene was captured by freelance journalists who drove through towns within a few kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and who left food for the animal. But animal rescue activists who have braved the exclusion zone around the plant say there many others like it.
"I understand the nuclear danger and everything, but they're just being left to starve to death, basically," said Isabella Gallaon-Aoki of Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support.
Gallaon-Aoki and others like her have been slipping into the 20-km radius around Fukushima Daiichi to retrieve pets and feed livestock left behind when their owners were forced to evacuate. Pet owners have sent her group their addresses, accompanied by pleas to rescue their animals, left behind when they fled for what was supposed to be a short time.
A month later, the volunteers are putting their long-term health on the line, putting on protective gear and entering the 20-km radius around the plant that was declared off-limits in the early days of the crisis. Hiroko Ito's 5-year-old Shiba, Non, is among those rescued by Gallaon-Aoki's group. Ito said she left food for the dog, but didn't expect to be gone a month.
"We tried to save him, but we couldn't get in," Ito said.
Radiation levels recorded by photographers Shuji Ogawa and Naomi Toyoda were not high enough to cause immediate illness, but would pose potential health risks with prolonged exposure. Gallaon-Aoki said she knows the risks, "but I feel personally that the risk that there is is worth taking for what I can achieve by doing so."
From the prime minister's office to town halls, Japanese authorities told CNN they have no provisions for dealing with animals when their owners are ordered to clear out -- orders that have been expanded to other towns around the crippled power plant, which has been emitting radioactive particles since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that knocked out its coolant systems.
Gallaon-Aoki called that "unforgivable."
"I understand they have a huge problem as far as people are concerned. They are dealing with a lot," she said. "But, I mean, there are people and groups who would be willing to help, and surely they could kind of set some sort of well-coordinated effort."
The fate of the tethered beagle Ogawa and Toyoda captured on video was not known early Thursday.CNN...
Pet rescuers brave Fukushima danger zone
From Kyung Lah and Whitney... more
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PART ONE..........
Nuclear threat level raised
Crisis rates in most severe category
Japan nuclear agency raises threat level
By Matt Smith, CNN
April 11, 2011 11:11 p.m. EDT
Click on picture to play Video
Anatomy of a ghost town
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: The agency raises the level from 5 to 7
7 is the highest possible level and is on par with Chernobyl
Japan's government has called for further evacuations
Cities covered by Monday's orders should evacuate in about a month, Edano says
Tokyo (CNN) -- Japanese authorities Tuesday "provisionally" declared the country's nuclear accident a level-7 event on the international scale for nuclear disasters -- the highest level -- putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced the new level Tuesday morning. It had previously been at 5.
Regulators have determined the amount of radioactive iodine released by the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was at least 15 times the volume needed to reach the top of the International Nuclear Event Scale, the agency said. That figure is still about 10 percent of the amount released at Chernobyl, they said.
The amount of radioactive Cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, is about one-seventh the amount released at Chernobyl, according to the agency.
Japan's nuclear concerns explained
Hidehiko Nishiyama, the safety agency's chief spokesman, explained the final level won't be set until the disaster is over and a more detailed investigation has been conducted.
Tetsunari Iida, a former nuclear engineer-turned-industry critic, told CNN the declaration has no immediate practical impact on the crisis. It is a sign, however, that Japanese regulators have rethought their earlier assessments of the disaster, said Iida, who now runs an alternative energy think-tank in Tokyo.
According to the scale, a level 5 equates to the likelihood of a release of radioactive material, several deaths from radiation and severe damage to a reactor core.
The 1979 incident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island was a 5. The partial meltdown of a reactor core there was deemed the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.
The Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union rated a 7 on the scale, which equates to a "major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures."
Japan's government called for evacuations Monday from several towns beyond the danger zone already declared around Fukushima Daiichi, warning that residents could receive high doses of radiation over the coming months.
Japan to evacuate more towns
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the municipalities are likely to see long-term radiation levels that exceed international safety standards, and he warned that the month-old crisis at Fukushima Daiichi is not yet over.
"Things are relatively more stable, and things are stabilizing," he said. "However, we need to be ready for the possibility that things may turn for the worse."
And about an hour after he spoke, a fresh earthquake rattled the country, forcing workers to evacuate the plant and knocking out power to the three damaged reactors for about 40 minutes, the plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, reported. The magnitude 6.6 tremor came a month to the day after the magnitude 9 quake and tsunami that knocked out the plant's cooling systems, and followed a magnitude 7.1 aftershock Thursday night.
Neither the 6.6 quake nor any of the smaller ones that rippled across the region in its wake inflicted any more damage to the plant, Tokyo Electric officials told reporters.
At least six killed in latest Japan quake
Tuesday morning, a fire broke out in a battery storage building in a water discharge area of reactors 1-4 at Fukushima Daiichi, Tokyo Electric said. The fire was out a few hours later and the company said it caused no radiation emissions and no effect on cooling systems.
Japan's government said it did not know how many people would be displaced by the new evacuation orders. Evacuation orders have so far covered about 85,000 people inside the 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) zone, while another 62,000 within 30 kilometers have been told to stay inside, Fukushima prefecture officials told CNN.
The decision announced Monday does not create a wider radius around the plant, said Masanori Shinano, an official with Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission.
Instead, "if there are areas in the northwestern parts where there is a risk of exceeding 20 millisieverts as a cumulative dose over a one-year period, the area will be designated an evacuation area even if it is beyond the 30-kilometer area," Shinano told reporters Monday night.
That dose is a tiny fraction of what would cause immediate radiation sickness, but it's more than seven times the amount a typical resident of a western industrialized country receives from background sources in a year. Long-term exposures to those levels of radiation could increase the risk of cancer -- and the presence of cesium isotopes that have half-lives of up to 30 years means that radioactivity could linger for some time.
CONTINUED.......PART ONE..........
Nuclear threat level raised
Crisis rates in most severe... more
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Immense thanks to "misti," who brought to my attention this article, which I'd like to now copy and paste right here, so you all can see it...
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/07/how-to-remove-radioactive-iodine-131-from-drinking-water/
Jeff McMahon
The Ingenuity of the Commons
How To Remove Radioactive Iodine-131 From Drinking Water
Apr. 7 2011 - 9:03 am
IPhoto: mage of a water drop - Photo by spettacolopuro via flickr
The Environmental Protection Agency recommends reverse osmosis water treatment to remove radioactive isotopes that emit beta-particle radiation. But iodine-131, a beta emitter, is typically present in water as a dissolved gas, and reverse osmosis is known to be ineffective at capturing gases.
A combination of technologies, however, may remove most or all of the iodine-131 that finds its way into tap water, all available in consumer products for home water treatment.
First, the standard disclaimers: Every government agency involved in radiation monitoring—the EPA, FDA, USDA, NRC, CDC, etc.—has stressed that the radiation now reaching the United States has been found at levels thousands of times lower than standards of health concern. When it found iodine-131 in drinking water samples from Boise, Idaho and Richland, Washington this weekend, the EPA declared:
An infant would have to drink almost 7,000 liters of this water to receive a radiation dose equivalent to a day’s worth of the natural background radiation exposure we experience continuously from natural sources of radioactivity in our environment.”
But not everyone accepts the government’s reassurances. Notably, Physicians for Social Responsibility has insisted there is no safe level of exposure to radionuclides, regardless of the fact that we encounter them naturally:
There is no safe level of radionuclide exposure, whether from food, water or other sources. Period,” said Jeff Patterson, DO, immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Exposure to radionuclides, such as iodine-131 and cesium-137, increases the incidence of cancer. For this reason, every effort must be taken to minimize the radionuclide content in food and water.”
via Physicians for Social Responsibility, psr.org
No matter where you stand on that debate, you might be someone who simply prefers not to ingest anything that escaped from a damaged nuclear reactor. If so, here’s what we know:
Reverse Osmosis
The EPA recommends reverse osmosis water treatment for most kinds of radioactive particles. Iodine-131 emits a small amount of gamma radiation but much larger amounts of beta radiation, and so is considered a beta emitter:
Reverse osmosis has been identified by EPA as a “best available technology” (BAT) and Small System Compliance Technology (SSCT) for uranium, radium, gross alpha, and beta particles and photon emitters. It can remove up to 99 percent of these radionuclides, as well as many other contaminants (e.g., arsenic, nitrate, and microbial contaminants). Reverse osmosis units can be automated and compact making them appropriate for small systems.
via EPA, Radionuclides in Drinking Water
However, EPA designed its recommendations for the contaminants typically found in municipal water systems, so it doesn’t specify Iodine-131 by name. The same document goes on to say, “Reverse osmosis does not remove gaseous contaminants such as carbon dioxide and radon.”
Iodine-131 escapes from damaged nuclear plants as a gas, and this is why it disperses so quickly through the atmosphere. It is captured as a gas in atmospheric water, falls to the earth in rain and enters the water supply.
This is what happened in Boise, Idaho, where iodine-131 was found in rainwater samples last week and then in drinking water samples a few days later.
Reverse osmosis works by forcing water through material with very tiny pores—as tiny as .0001 microns—so that almost nothing except water emerges on the other side. Almost nothing.
“Dissolved gases and materials that readily turn into gases also can easily pass through most reverse osmosis membranes,” according to the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. For this reason, “many reverse osmosis units have an activated carbon unit to remove or reduce the concentration of most organic compounds.”
Activated Carbon
That raises the next question: does activated carbon remove iodine-131? There is some evidence that it does. Scientists have used activated carbon to remove iodine-131 from the liquid fuel for nuclear solution reactors. And Carbon air filtration is used by employees of Perkin Elmer, a leading environmental monitoring and health safety firm, when they work with iodine-131 in closed quarters. At least one university has adopted Perkin Elmer’s procedures.
Activated carbon works by absorbing contaminants, and fixing them, as water passes through it. It has a disadvantage, however: it eventually reaches a load capacity and ceases to absorb new contaminants.
Ion Exchange
The EPA also recommends ion exchange for removing radioactive compounds from drinking water. The process used in water softeners, ion exchange removes contaminants when water passes through resins that contain sodium ions. The sodium ions readily exchange with contaminants.
Ion exchange is particularly recommended for removing Cesium-137, which has been found in rain samples in the U.S., but not yet in drinking water here. Some resins have been specifically designed for capturing Cesium-137, and ion exchange was used to clean up legacy nuclear waste from an old reactor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
Triple Threat
The best solution may be the one used routinely to treat water at the Savannah River Site. The process combines activated carbon, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange. If one doesn’t get the iodine-131, two others have a chance to capture the radiation through other means.
And that may be the best solution for the average drinker of tap water as well.
Vegetable Contamination
Once you have access to cleaned water, be sure to use it to wash your vegetables. The FDA has not yet begun monitoring U.S. produce for radiation because, the agency says, there is not yet a radiation threat here. The Chinese have been monitoring vegetables, and they’ve urged their citizens to wash their spinach:
The Ministry of Health also issued a statement Wednesday evening saying trace levels of radioactive isotope iodine-131 had been found in spinach planted in the open fields within the three regions.
It is has been proven that washing the spinach with water can effectively remove radioactive materials, the Health Ministry said.
It is believed that recent rains in these regions helped drop the radioactive iodine from the air to the ground, and the radioactive materials fell onto the surface of the spinach, the ministry said.”
via XinhuaImmense thanks to "misti," who brought to my attention this article, which... more
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President Obama Sits Down For One-On-One With Action 7 News.
Congress is looking for ways to cut the federal budget and House Republicans have showed interest in slashing nuclear weapons spending. The move could affect the 20,000 employees at New Mexico’s two research labs.
Obama said Japan’s hardships are a reminder that the work at these facilities should not be scaled back.
“One of the things that 'it' reminds us of is that the safety and the constant monitoring and oversight that we're providing to our nuclear facilities here in the United States has to be maintained,” Obama said.
The president said the money is there.
“We have a budget for it. I've already instructed our Nuclear Regulatory Agency to make sure that we take lessons learned from what's happened in Japan and that we are constantly upgrading how we approach our nuclear safety in our country,” Obama said.
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So while Obama wants to increase funding for new nuclear warhead development to record levels, the republicans want the increases to be slightly scaled back!?
I don't think Obama is drawing the right conclusions from the disaster in Japan. An additional plutonium factory to increase our "safety" is ridiculous.
Interesting when asked by her co-anchor how she was able to get the exclusive interview with Obama, KOAT's Royale Da responded, in part:
"KOAT reaches a very specific Southwest audience , and it appears.... that that is an audience the president has an interest in speaking directly to."
So in other words KOAT (and others) act as propaganda outlets for the nuclear weapons labs and associated corporate interests?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TECgnIce-aM/TYdmbaXoSmI/AAAAAAAADvQ/3gWrMAoTgCg/s1600/image006.jpgPresident Obama Sits Down For One-On-One With Action 7 News.
Congress is looking... more
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TOKYO — Workers made incremental progress at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Thursday, but disturbingly high radiation readings there as well as miles away continued to reinforce fears that Japan’s crisis was far from over.
Workers prepared more tanks on Thursday to transfer radioactive water from the turbine buildings at Reactor Nos. 1, 2 and 3 to keep it from flowing into the ocean. But readings taken in the sea near the plant showed that levels of the radioactive isotope iodine 131 have continued to rise, testing at 4,385 times the statutory limit on Thursday, nearly four times higher than on Sunday, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. That rise increases the likelihood that contaminants from the plant are continuously leaking into the sea, he said.
Iodine 131 was also detected at levels 10,000 times the safety limit in groundwater near Reactor No. 1. However, the government asked for retesting after the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which is known as Tepco, cast doubt on its own data not long after divulging the initial figures.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/04/01/world/asia/01japan/01japan-articleLarge.jpgTOKYO — Workers made incremental progress at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi... more
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Most of the news about Japan to be rather cryptic so I decided on my own research from the data provided. to start with the Fukushima Daiichi plant may contain over 600,000 spent fuel rods. that have been spent over the past 20 years Chernobyl had around 12-15000 from about 3 years in operation, that difference is enormous and very deadly depending on its exposure to life and the environment,
Fuel rods must be kept submerged in water. Without water bathing, the radioactivity in the used rods become so hot they begin to catch fire. "These fires can burn so hot the radioactive rod contents are carried into the atmosphere as vaporized material or as very small particles. Reactor no 3 burns MOX fuel that contains a mix of plutonium and uranium. Plutonium generates more heat than uranium, which means these rods have the greatest risk of burning. That’s bad news, because plutonium scattered into the atmosphere is even more dangerous that the combustion products of rods without plutonium." As some Nuke engineers put it It would be like Chernobyl on steroids!
" Although Tokyo Electric said it also continued to deal with cooling system failures and high pressures at half a dozen of its 10 reactors in the two Fukushima complexes, fears mounted about the threat posed by the pools of water where years of spent fuel rods are stored. At the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi unit 1, where an explosion Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor, the spent fuel pool, in accordance with General Electric’s design, is placed above the reactor. Tokyo Electric said it was trying to figure out how to maintain water levels in the pools, indicating that the normal safety systems there had failed, too. Failure to keep adequate water levels in a pool would lead to a catastrophic fire, said nuclear experts, some of whom think that unit 1’s pool may now be outside. “That would be like Chernobyl on steroids,” said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates and a member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is identical to the Fukushima Daiichi unit 1. People familiar with the plant said there are seven spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi, many of them densely packed. Gundersen said the unit 1 pool could have as much as 20 years of spent fuel rods, which are still radioactive."Most of the news about Japan to be rather cryptic so I decided on my own research from... more
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