Excessive radioactive cesium found in Fukushima fish: Greenpeace

[robdogbucky]

Excessive radioactive cesium found in Fukushima fish: Greenpeace

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Fish caught at a port about 55 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant contained radioactive cesium at levels exceeding an allowable limit, the environmental group Greenpeace said Tuesday.

The samples taken at Onahama port in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, in late July, included a species of rockfish that measured 1,053 becquerels per kilogram. The reading, the highest among the samples, is well in excess of the government-set limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram, according to a study conducted by the environmental group.

The other samples, which were all rock trout, measured between 625 and 749 becquerels per kilogram, again exceeding the provisional limit.

The second such study of marine products was conducted over three days from July 22 in Iwaki and the town of Shinchi with cooperation of fishermen and those related to the fisheries industry in Fukushima. A total of 21 samples taken in the study were analyzed at a research institute in France, according to the group...

(Mainichi Japan) August 9, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110809p2g00m0dm108000c.html



Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011


Unit 3 MOX likely melted through

Kyodo

MOX fuel that was believed to have been kept cool at the bottom of one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant after its core melted is believed to have breached the vessel after melting again, a study said Monday.

The study by Fumiya Tanabe, an expert in nuclear safety, said most of reactor 3's mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel may have dribbled into the containment vessel underneath, and if so, the current method being used to cool the reactor will have to be rethought. This could force Tokyo Electric Power Co. to revise its schedule for containing the five-month-old disaster.

Tepco earlier said that the cores of reactors 1 to 3 are assumed to have suffered meltdowns, although the melted fuel was believed to have been kept at cool enough to solidify at the bottom of each pressure vessel after water was injected.

After analyzing data made public by Tepco, Tanabe argues it became difficult to inject coolant water into the pressure vessel after the pressure rose early March 21. He says the fuel at the bottom overheated and melted again over a four-day period.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110809a3.html





Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011

Stop claiming food is safe, ministry told

Kyodo

Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto has committed an about-face on policy by telling his ministry to refrain from vouching for the safety of Japanese food.

The ministry stance changed after radiation-tainted beef was found to have been sold to consumers nationwide, sources said.

The contaminated meat is coming from cattle that were fed rice straw contaminated with cesium isotopes ejected by the disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

To handle surging concerns abroad about the food supply, the Foreign Ministry told embassies and other diplomatic offices overseas to brief local authorities, importers and media organizations on measures the government is taking to prevent contaminated food from making it into public distribution channels...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110809a1.html






Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011

Compensation, fuel costs slam utility hard

Tepco posts loss of ¥571 billion


By MINORU MATSUTANI

Staff writer


Tokyo Electric Power Co. posted a group net loss Tuesday of ¥571.7 billion for the three months from April due to costs to stabilize the radiation-releasing Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and increases in fuel expenses for thermal power generation.

The loss dwarfed the ¥5.4 billion shortfall in the same period last year.

Tepco's earnings outlook remains unclear amid the ongoing crisis. The full impact on human health has yet to be determined, along with the breadth of food contamination.

"It's very difficult to come up with the final amount (of compensation) with the damage of harmful rumors and other things unknown," Tepco President Toshio Nishizawa said...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110809x2.html




Parents facing tough decision to move children out of Fukushima amid radiation fears

Parents of children in Fukushima Prefecture, where the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant continues, are using the school summer holidays as a chance to move their children to other schools amid radiation fears.

A survey by the Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education found that more than 1,000 students at public elementary and junior high schools in Fukushima Prefecture were due to transfer to schools outside the prefecture during the summer vacation. In some cases this has resulted in families being split up.

One 36-year-old woman living in the Oyama district of Fukushima, where relatively high levels of radiation have been detected, moved with her 9-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter to Kyoto Prefecture in late July, after the first term ended at the elementary school her son was attending. She heard that she would be able to live in housing for government workers rent free for a year, and receive support to buy household appliances and other necessary items. Though she didn't have any connection with the area, she decided to make it her new home. Her husband, who is a high school teacher, has remained in Fukushima.

The area where the family lived in Fukushima is about 60 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex, which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and they never thought that radiation would be a threat. But after witnessing the hydrogen explosion at the plant they became uneasy and attended a meeting organized by a citizens group at the end of April. They learned that the elementary school their son was attending had recorded higher radiation levels than other areas. The radiation survey was conducted by the prefecture, but they had been given no opportunities to find out the results before then. They recalled that their baby daughter had put fallen leaves in her mouth and were left in shock...

(Mainichi Japan) August 9, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110809p2a00m0na008000c.html



Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011

Yahoo map shows real-time radiation levels

Kyodo

Yahoo Japan Corp. is showing real-time radiation levels at 11 locations on a special online map based on data gathered by academics and volunteers monitoring the Fukushima power plant crisis.

A Yahoo Japan official said the beta service, launched Friday, uses data measured by a team at Keio University and Safecast.org and offers location-based readings beyond those taken by the government.

The readings are updated every five minutes and reflect levels at 11 points mainly in northeast and east Japan.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110809a2.html






Kono renews call for end to nuclear power, eyes another run for LDP president

Taro Kono, an outspoken opponent of nuclear power in the business-oriented Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said Aug. 9 that Japan should shift to renewable energy by 2050 by reducing energy consumption and filling any power shortage with natural gas.

"I think it's time for the LDP to leave power companies, join with the general public and seriously present an alternative to the (current) energy policy," Kono, an LDP member of the powerful House of Representatives, said during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo.

"Our strategy should be to reduce energy consumption first, then cover (any shortfall) with renewable (energy) as much as possible. And if there is still a gap, let's use natural gas," he said of his energy program, aimed at eliminating dependence on nuclear energy.

An advocate of a nuclear-free energy policy even before the onset of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, Kono, 48, challenged his own party to drop its pro-nuclear policy -- a change which he said could force the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to change its current energy policy. But he said he is not optimistic about such a change happening anytime soon...

(Mainichi Japan) August 9, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110809p2a00m0na015000c.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. k/r

[robdogbucky]

2. Did Japan Ignore Own Radiation Forecast? (VIDEO)

The Japanese government is reeling from new allegations that it suppressed information during the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

It is alleged that the government ignored warnings and allowed evacuees to walk into a nuclear contamination zone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/japan-ignore-own-radiation-forecast_n_922263.html

[robdogbucky]

3. After Fukushima, Japan's 'authority myth' is crumbling

Ordinary people in Japan are starting to wonder whether to trust what politicians and the media tell them

...The beef irradiation scare occurred even after politicians and media commentators had explicitly reassured the Japanese public that the government was monitoring food safety. There has been much discussion since March of the ways that Fukushima exposed the "safety myth" of the Japanese nuclear power industry. But the wider "authority myth" is now crumbling, with ordinary people not knowing whether to trust the word of anyone in authority.

This trust deficit has been exacerbated by revelations not only from Fukushima, but also in recent weeks from Japan's westernmost nuclear plant in Genkai, Saga prefecture.


Like many other plants, Genkai has had two reactors in temporary shutdown while regular inspections are undertaken (only 19 of Japan's 54 reactors are currently in operation). As local residents debated whether to support the restarting of Genkai's reactors, news emerged that Kyushu Electric Power Company had instructed its employees to try and influence feedback to a televised Q&A session on the Genkai problem in late June, so as to create the impression of widespread public support for the "restart" campaign. Last week, the Saga prefectural governor admitted meeting Kyushu Electric officials several days before the broadcast and mentioning his own concern for "pro-restart" voices to be heard.


The Genkai story line is depressingly familiar, involving covert attempts to manipulate public opinion and the perceived collusion of senior politicians and nuclear officials. The institutional behaviours that enabled the nuclear power industry to gain such political influence in the decades preceding Fukushima appear not to have changed, once more undermining trust in politicians and nuclear bureaucrats...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/fukushima-japan-authority-myth