tagged w/ Ban Nukes
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http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Federal-Inspectors-Investigate-Problems-at-San-Onofre-143431286.html
NBC Los Angeles...
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Federal Inspectors Investigate Problems at San Onofre
Failed stress tests prompt inspection team to investigation the nuclear power plant, which leaked radiation in January
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By Dave Douglass and Antonio Castelan
| Monday, Mar 19, 2012 | Updated 9:08 PM PDT
A federal inspection team is beginning its examination of steam generator tubes at the San Onofre nuclear power plant. One of those tubes leaked in January, prompting a reactor shutdown, and more tubes failed during a series of tests last week. Antonio Castelan reports.
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KNBC-TV
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A federal inspection team is beginning its examination of steam generator tubes at the San Onofre nuclear power plant. One of those tubes leaked in January, prompting a reactor shutdown, and more tubes failed during a series of tests last week. Antonio Castelan reports.
An inspection team from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission began investigating faulty steam generator tubes at the San Onofre nuclear power plant Monday.
A series of failed tests last week involving steam generator tubes that are a key part of the plant's two reactors prompted the regulatory commission to send in a team of experts to find out why the vital energy source was failing.
The team plans to spend at least five days at the SoCal plant operated by Southern California Edison.
The trouble began in late January, when a tube in one of the reactors leaked.
That reactor was shut down, but not before a small amount of radioactive gas may have escaped into the atmosphere. Edison said neither plant employees nor the public was at risk.
Still, initial tests found that hundreds of steam generator tubes were showing signs of premature wear.
"We're seeing an unusual amount of wear in relatively new steam generators and, yes, that's unusual," said Victor Dricks with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The problems at San Onofre have residents in nearby San Clemente worried.
"This is a huge amount of risk for us to be living so close to," said resident Patty Davis. "It's a big concern."
The federal inspectors will be looking at the design and construction of the plant's steam generators, as well as their transport from Japan where they were manufactured.
Each reactor contains thousands of steam generator tubes. San Onofre's second reactor is also shut down right now for routine maintenance.
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Click on link to view video:
http://media.nbclosangeles.com/images/654*368/9121595_N7PPKGSANONOFREINSPE_722x406_2212490620.jpg
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AINT-PAUL-TROIS-CHÂTEAUX...
Début d'incendie à la centrale EDF du Tricastin
Samedi 2 juillet vers 14 h 50, un incendie s'est déclaré sur la centrale EDF du Tricastin, à Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (Drôme). Des riverains, inquiets, ont indiqué qu'une colonne de fumée noire s'élevait dans le ciel.
Il s'agit de l'explosion du transformateur de la tranche 1 de la centrale, qui est à l'arrêt.L'installation est située hors zone nucléaire. Aucun blessé n'est à déplorer et il n'y a pas eu d'atteinte à l'environnement.
Comme toujours lorsqu'il s'agit d'un incident affectant le site nucléaire, un nombre important de pompiers et de gendarmes a convergé sur les lieux. Le feu a été circonscrit à 15 h 55.
Plus d'informations dans les éditions Drôme & Ardèche du Dauphiné Libéré et dans Vaucluse Matin, le dimanche 3 juillet.
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From Dr Helen Caldicott...
Explosion/fire in transformer building at France's Tricastin site worries locals. Occurring outside the nuclear zone, no-one was injured. No releases to environment recorded. Tricastin was the site of 1 of France's large nuclear spills leading to ban on drinking & recreational use of water. Resonating so strongly in the French mind that area vintners petitioned to have Tricastin removed from wine appellations.AINT-PAUL-TROIS-CHÂTEAUX...
Début d'incendie à la... more
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Friday, July 1, 2011
Radiation in Japan: Professor Kosako: "Come the harvest season in the fall, there will be a chaos"
Professor Toshiso Kosako of Tokyo University, who resigned in protest against the Kan Administration's policy to allow 20 millisieverts/year external radiation exposure for children which he called unacceptable and unconscionable, gave an interview for the first time since his resignation to Wall Street Journal (or so it looks).
Kosako says:
There will be chaos and scandal when the rice is harvested in the fall, as it will contain radioactive materials;
Japan is looking like a developing country in East Asia without democracy;
The government uses the high ceiling for radiation in schools so that it doesn't need to spend money to ameliorate the situation;
The government hasn't done enough to investigate ocean contamination.
So far, I am unable to find the equivalent Japanese article in the Japanese version of WSJ. Interesting by itself, but not surprising as the paper has put out dramatically different versions of the same news in Japanese and in English.
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From WSJ (Yuka Hayashi, 7/1/2011):
TOKYO—A former nuclear adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan blasted the government's continuing handling of the crisis, and predicted further revelations of radiation threats to the public in the coming months.
In his first media interview since resigning his post in protest in April, Toshiso Kosako, one of the country's leading experts on radiation safety, said Mr. Kan's government has been slow to test for possible dangers in the sea and to fish and has understated certain radiation dangers to minimize what it will have to spend to clean up contamination.
And while there have been scattered reports already of food contamination—of tea leaves and spinach, for example—Mr. Kosako said there will be broader, more disturbing discoveries later this year, especially as rice, Japan's staple, is harvested.
"Come the harvest season in the fall, there will be a chaos," Mr. Kosako said. "Among the rice harvested, there will certainly be some radiation contamination—though I don't know at what levels—setting off a scandal. If people stop buying rice from Tohoku, …we'll have a tricky problem."
Mr. Kosako also said that the way the government has handled the Fukushima Daiichi situation since the March 11 tsunami crippled the reactors has exposed basic flaws in Japanese policymaking. "The government's decision-making mechanism is opaque," he said. "It's never clear what reasons are driving what decisions. This doesn't look like a democratic society. Japan is increasingly looking like a developing nation in East Asia."
Specifically, Mr. Kosako said the government set a relatively high ceiling for acceptable radiation in schoolyards, so that only 17 schools exceeded that limit. If the government had set the lower ceiling he had advocated, thousands of schools would have required a full cleanup. With Mr. Kan's ruling party struggling to gain parliamentary approval for a special budget, the costlier option didn't get traction.
"When taking these steps, the only concern for the current government is prolonging its own life," Mr. Kosako said.
Mr. Kan's office referred questions about Mr. Kosako's remarks to a cabinet office official, who declined to be identified. The official said the government is making "utmost efforts" to improve radiation monitoring in the sea and working closely with fishermen and others.
"Particularly close attention is paid to the safety of rice as Japan's staple food," the official said, adding that the government would suspend the shipment of crops if radiation exceeding a set standard is detected.
As for schools, the official said the government was working to lower the ceiling for acceptable radiation, and "is also considering additional steps. "
Mr. Kosako, a 61-year-old Tokyo University professor who has served on a number government and industrial panels, stepped down from Mr. Kan's nuclear-advisory panel on April 30, fueling concerns about the government's handling of the accident. Saying that many of his recommendations were ignored, the scientist described the government's ceiling on schoolyard radiation levels as "unacceptable." The image of him wiping tears at a press conference as he said he wouldn't subject his own children to such an environment was widely broadcast.
Having spent the past two months focusing on teaching radiation-safety courses at his university, Mr. Kosako said he is now ready to begin speaking his mind again, starting with foreign audiences. Over the coming weeks, he will be giving speeches in the U.S. and in Taiwan.
He said he is especially concerned with contamination of the ocean by the large amounts radioactive material from the damaged reactors dumped into surrounding waters. The government has released only sketchy information about what's drained into the sea as a result of efforts to cool the smoldering Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Mr. Kosako has urged more seawater monitoring, more projections of the spread of polluted water and steps to deal with the contamination of different types of seafood, from seaweed to shellfish to fish.
"I've been telling them to hurry up and do it, but they haven't," he said.
As he resigned, Mr. Kosako submitted to government officials a thick booklet that contained all the recommendations he had offered during his six-week tenure. A copy of the booklet was obtained by The Wall Street Journal from an independent source.
From the time of his appointment on March 16, Mr. Kosako and some of his colleagues were offering recommendations touching on a broad range of topics. It was weeks before the public learned of some of them, such as a March 17 call for using the government's SPEEDI radiation-monitoring system to project residents' exposure levels using the "worst-case scenario based on a practical setting."
On March 18, they urged the government's Nuclear Safety Commission to re-examine the adequacy of the government's initial evacuation zones, based on such simulations by SPEEDI.
The SPEEDI data weren't released to the public until March 23, and the evacuation zones weren't adjusted until April 11. Critics say the delay in the adjustment may have subjected thousands of Fukushima residents to high levels of radiation exposure.
Professor Kosako had been considered a pro-nuke "government scientist" until his resignation. Maybe he is still pro-nuke, but it was during his press conference at the end of April when he announced resignation that many people were made aware of this thing called WSPEEDI, which can predict radioactive fallout dispersions globally, not just Japan. Only after that revelation by the professor, the government decided to quietly sneak in the WSPEEDI simulation results sometime in mid May on the Ministry of Education website. They showed a very extensive contamination in Tohoku and Kanto.Friday, July 1, 2011
Radiation in Japan: Professor Kosako: "Come the harvest... 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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Los Angeles Times...
Japan says it was unprepared for post-quake nuclear disaster
In its report, Japan says, it needs to revise its nuclear safety preparedness and response in light of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crisis. It also says the damage and radiation leak were worse than previously thought.
associated press
June 8, 2011
tokyo —
— Japan acknowledged Tuesday that it was unprepared for a severe nuclear accident like the tsunami-generated Fukushima disaster and said damage to the reactors and radiation leakage were worse than it previously thought.
In a report being submitted to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, the government also acknowledged reactor design inadequacies and a need for greater independence for the country's nuclear regulators.
The report says the nuclear fuel in three reactors probably melted through the inner containment vessels, not just the core, after the March 11 earthquake, and the tsunami knocked out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's power and cooling systems. Fuel in the Unit 1 reactor started melting hours earlier than previously estimated.
The 750-page report, compiled by Japan's nuclear emergency task force, factors in a preliminary evaluation by a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency and was to be submitted to the IAEA as requested.
"In light of the lessons learned from the accident, Japan has recognized that a fundamental revision of its nuclear safety preparedness and response is inevitable," the report says. It also recommends a national debate on nuclear power.
The report says the "inadequate" basic reactor design — the Mark-1 model developed by General Electric — included the venting system for the containment vessels and the location of spent fuel cooling pools high in the buildings, which resulted in leaks of radioactive water that hampered repair work.
GE declined to comment on the specific conclusions of the report.
Hundreds of plant workers are scrambling to bring the crippled reactors to a "cold shutdown" by early next year and end the crisis. The accident has forced more than 80,000 residents to evacuate from neighborhoods around the plant.Los Angeles Times...
Japan says it was unprepared for post-quake nuclear disaster... more
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Rain raises fear of more contamination at Fukushima
By the CNN International Wire Staff
June 4, 2011 -- Updated 0140 GMT (0940 HKT)
An aerial view of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Officials are installing water decontamination equipment at the plant
It is to be set up by June 15, but could be delayed
Heavy rains between now and then could cause spill of radioactive water
(CNN) -- Radioactive water that has accumulated inside the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could spill to the outside if heavy rains come before new decontamination equipment can be installed, the semi-official Kyodo news agency reported.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to start activating the decontamination equipment on June 15, but there is a possibility it will be delayed, company officials said.
Substantial rainfall that has fallen on the complex has brought the total amount of contaminated water that may be leaking from reactors No. 1 and No. 3 to 105,100 tons, TEPCO said, according to Kyodo.Rain raises fear of more contamination at Fukushima
By the CNN International Wire... more
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The New York Times...
May 30, 2011
In Japan, a Culture That Promotes Nuclear Dependency
By MARTIN FACKLER and NORIMITSU ONISHI
PART ONE...
KASHIMA, Japan — When the Shimane nuclear plant was first proposed here more than 40 years ago, this rural port town put up such fierce resistance that the plant’s would-be operator, Chugoku Electric, almost scrapped the project. Angry fishermen vowed to defend areas where they had fished and harvested seaweed for generations.
Two decades later, when Chugoku Electric was considering whether to expand the plant with a third reactor, Kashima once again swung into action: this time, to rally in favor. Prodded by the local fishing cooperative, the town assembly voted 15 to 2 to make a public appeal for construction of the $4 billion reactor.
Kashima’s reversal is a common story in Japan, and one that helps explain what is, so far, this nation’s unwavering pursuit of nuclear power: a lack of widespread grass-roots opposition in the communities around its 54 nuclear reactors. This has held true even after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami generated a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi station that has raised serious questions about whether this quake-prone nation has adequately ensured the safety of its plants. So far, it has spurred only muted public questioning in towns like this.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has, at least temporarily, shelved plans to expand Japan’s use of nuclear power — plans promoted by the country’s powerful nuclear establishment. Communities appear willing to fight fiercely for nuclear power, despite concerns about safety that many residents refrain from voicing publicly.
To understand Kashima’s about-face, one need look no further than the Fukada Sports Park, which serves the 7,500 mostly older residents here with a baseball diamond, lighted tennis courts, a soccer field and a $35 million gymnasium with indoor pool and Olympic-size volleyball arena. The gym is just one of several big public works projects paid for with the hundreds of millions of dollars this community is receiving for accepting the No. 3 reactor, which is still under construction.
As Kashima’s story suggests, Tokyo has been able to essentially buy the support, or at least the silent acquiescence, of communities by showering them with generous subsidies, payouts and jobs. In 2009 alone, Tokyo gave $1.15 billion for public works projects to communities that have electric plants, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Experts say the majority of that money goes to communities near nuclear plants.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg, experts say, as the communities also receive a host of subsidies, property and income tax revenues, compensation to individuals and even “anonymous” donations to local treasuries that are widely believed to come from plant operators.
Unquestionably, the aid has enriched rural communities that were rapidly losing jobs and people to the cities. With no substantial reserves of oil or coal, Japan relies on nuclear power for the energy needed to drive its economic machine. But critics contend that the largess has also made communities dependent on central government spending — and thus unwilling to rock the boat by pushing for robust safety measures.
In a process that critics have likened to drug addiction, the flow of easy money and higher-paying jobs quickly replaces the communities’ original economic basis, usually farming or fishing.
Nor did planners offer alternatives to public works projects like nuclear plants. Keeping the spending spigots open became the only way to maintain newly elevated living standards.
Experts and some residents say this dependency helps explain why, despite the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the accidents at the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear plants, Japan never faced the levels of popular opposition to nuclear power seen in the United States and Europe — and is less likely than the United States to stop building new plants. Towns become enmeshed in the same circle — which includes politicians, bureaucrats, judges and nuclear industry executives — that has relentlessly promoted the expansion of nuclear power over safety concerns.
“This structure of dependency makes it impossible for communities to speak out against the plants or nuclear power,” said Shuji Shimizu, a professor of public finance at Fukushima University.
CONTINUED...
PHOTO:
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
The Chugoku Electric nuclear power plant in Kashima. A third reactor is currently under construction.The New York Times...
May 30, 2011
In Japan, a Culture That Promotes Nuclear... more
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Tehran Times...
30 May 2011
25,000 attend anti-nuclear demo in Berlin
Tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating in 21 cities in Germany against the government's energy policy, calling for an end to nuclear power.
Around 25,000 anti-nuclear activists protested in the German capital of Berlin on Saturday. Similar rallies were also held in Dresden, Munich, Hamburg, Gottingen and other cities, where the protesters called for a swift exit from nuclear power, a Press TV correspondent reported.
“We want to clear an indefinite decision that as many nuclear reactors as possible will close and that for others at least we get a precise date for the shutdown,” Thorben Becker of Friends of The Earth told Press TV.
Nuclear power accounts for about a quarter of Germany's energy supply.
In October 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government extended the life-span of nuclear reactors after a previous coalition had agreed to phase-out nuclear energy by 2022.
In response to the nuclear disaster in Japan triggered by a powerful quake and tsunami in March, Merkel reversed her energy policy, ordering the shutdown of the seven oldest reactors in Germany for three months.
A study by the German environment ministry has suggested that a phase-out by 2017 would be possible without causing blackouts.
While protesters gathered at the headquarters of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), labor representatives of Germany's nuclear power plant operators warned of massive job losses in the sector and the International Energy Agency estimated a significant rise in CO2-emmission because of the three-month moratorium.
Experts say it is crucial that Merkel and her CDU present a plan and a date for the nuclear phase-out as soon as possible, as the protests have sent a clear signal to the government that the majority of Germans oppose nuclear energy.
(Source: Press TV)Tehran Times...
30 May 2011
25,000 attend anti-nuclear demo in Berlin
Tens... more
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WNN...
Last Updated : 27 May 2011
G8 fixed on nuclear safety
Only ten minutes were allocated for leaders of the G8 countries to discuss nuclear energy at the summit in Deauville, France. Host President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said, "Many among the G8 think that there is no alternative to nuclear power, even if we are convinced of the need to develop alternative energy, renewable energy."WNN...
Last Updated : 27 May 2011
G8 fixed on nuclear safety
Only ten... more
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The New York Times...
May 27, 2011
Japan Tries to Ease Fury of Parents Near Plant
By HIROKO TABUCHI
TOKYO — Responding to fury among parents in Fukushima, Japan’s education minister said Friday that the country would set a lower radiation exposure limit for schoolchildren in areas around a stricken nuclear plant and pay for schools to remove contaminated topsoil from fields and playgrounds.
In recent days, worried parents have spoken out over what they say is a blatant government failure to protect their children from dangerous levels of radiation at local schools. The issue has quickly become a focal point for anger over Japan’s handling of the accident at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was ravaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
There had been particular anger over new government guidelines that allowed schoolchildren to be exposed to radiation doses that were more than 20 times the previously permissible levels. That dose is equal to the international standard for adult nuclear power plant workers.
The education minister, Yoshiaki Takaki, said Friday that the government would, for the time being, revert to the original limit of 1 millisievert a year. Mr. Takaki said the government would pay for local schools with radiation levels above that limit to remove contaminated topsoil from their grounds.
While removing contaminated soil at schools is expected to decrease children’s exposure, it will not fully protect them because the materials are spread throughout towns and cities. The government continues to struggle with broader decisions in addressing that issue, including what level of long-term exposure it believes is acceptable for residents. Those decisions could force leaders to make the difficult choice of condemning substantial amounts of land near the plant or ordering much larger and more expensive cleanups.
The reversal came as angry parents confronted education board officials Wednesday in Fukushima, demanding quicker action to decontaminate schools. Also this week, a group of parents from Fukushima protested outside the Japanese Education Ministry in Tokyo.
Some towns and cities in Fukushima Prefecture have already sent in bulldozers to remove contaminated soil from school grounds.
In April, an adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan resigned over the radiation guidelines, saying he would not let his children be exposed to those levels.
Seiichi Nakate, a social worker who rallied local parents to start the Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation, said he was relieved that the government was finally taking action. But he remained worried about exposure outside school grounds.
“There needs to be a wider cleanup effort, as well as assistance to families who decide to leave the area,” Mr. Nakate said. “The government must go beyond stopgap measures designed to placate the parents.”The New York Times...
May 27, 2011
Japan Tries to Ease Fury of Parents Near... more
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