Latest Update from Japan- (Disaster Related)

[AsahinaKimi]

News from around Japan ~Disaster related..


Bill compiled to decontaminate radiation from Fukushima nuclear accident
Municipal officials in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, spray pressurized water onto a street to wash away any radioactive material on Aug. 5. (The Asahi Shimbun)

The central government will decontaminate soil, vegetation and buildings exposed to radiation spread by the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The contents of a special measures bill to deal with environmental pollution from radioactive materials have been agreed to by the ruling Democratic Party of Japan as well as the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. The parties plan to submit the bill to the Diet next week so that it gains passage before the Diet session winds up Aug. 31.

Under the proposed legislation, the central government will also remove contaminated rubble.

MORE...
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201108160289.html

Mountains of debris stand in the way of quake reconstruction

Debris is transported to a waste collection site in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture. Much of it is saturated with salt from seawater. (Photo: Toru Nakata)

The tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake left 22 million tons of debris and rubble scattered across three prefectures in the Tohoku region. No real steps toward restoration can be taken until it is removed. Last month, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's administration at long last introduced a bill to the Diet to place the national government in direct control of the cleanup. Will concentrated efforts to remove the debris now finally get underway?

At the end of June, disaster experts, representatives from the Environment Ministry and officials from affected municipal governments gathered at a conference in Sendai for a meeting on how to dispose of the debris. The gathering, organized by Japan Society of Material Cycles and Wast Management, a scientific group studying the debris problem, attracted 150 people, well above expected numbers, forcing organizers to change the venue to a larger room.

more...
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201108160301.html

Residents frustrated by 'hot spot' designation

Morio Onami, a resident in the Ryozenmachi district of Date, Fukushima Prefecture, points to his son's house, less than two meters away from his. Onami's son's family was recommended to evacuate, but Onami was not.

Yasushi Totoki and Shinji Hijikata / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
A growing number of residents have expressed discontent over the differing standards applied by the government to designate sites found to be high in radioactive substances as areas recommended for evacuation in the ongoing nuclear crisis.

In addition to the 30-kilometer zone set by the central government for evacuation following the outbreak of the crisis, the government in June decided to designate hot spots and recommended evacuation for people living near them.

more...
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110816005740.htm


Death compensation claims rising / Disaster-hit prefectural governments facing 1,500 work-related payouts
The Yomiuri Shimbun

More than 1,500 claims for work-related death compensation have been filed by people who lost relatives in the March 11 disaster in the prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate, according to the Miyagi prefectural government labor department.

The figure includes 1,005 claims filed in Miyagi Prefecture as of Tuesday. The number of claims in Iwate and Fukushima prefectures are 399 and 131, respectively, giving a total for the three prefectures of 1,535, according to the labor department.

The figure compares to 68 claims following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and 10 claims following the 2004 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake. Insurance was paid for 67 of the claims following the Hanshin quake; payments were made for all 10 claims following the Chuetsu quake.

The number of claims issued for bereaved families nationwide in fiscal 2010 totaled 3,934, according to the labor department. The number of claims paid following the March disaster is expected to reach an all-time high.

more...
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110817007258.htm

40% of tsunami survivors didn't evacuate quickly
The Yomiuri Shimbun

More than 40 percent of survivors of the tsunami caused by the March 11 earthquake did not evacuate immediately after the quake as they searched for family members or went home, a central governmental report on the disaster has revealed.

The survey was jointly conducted by the Cabinet Office, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry's Fire and Disaster Management Agency and the Meteorological Agency last month at temporary housing facilities and evacuation facilities in coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, which were severely hit in the disaster.

more..
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110817006318.htm

Probe finds TEPCO failed to predict hydrogen explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant

The damaged No. 1 reactor building, center left, at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is pictured on March 12. (Mainichi)

The operator of the tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant failed to predict the hydrogen explosion that occurred on March 12 following the disaster, sources involved in the investigation into the crisis said.

"Nobody was able to predict the explosion," an employee at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) was quoted as telling members of the government's fact-finding panel on the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

"We made a serious mistake as we failed to grasp important information on the power station," plant manager Masao Yoshida was quoted as telling the panel.

The investigation has also revealed that TEPCO did not prepare an instruction manual on procedures for venting to protect reactors' containment vessels when external power sources are lost.

more...
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110817p2a00m0na016000c.html

Workers rush to decontaminate schools in Fukushima Pref. city before start of term

Workers spray and scrub the floors of Kashiwa Elementary School in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Aug. 16. (Mainichi)

MINAMISOMA, Fukushima -- Workers are rushing to finish decontaminating a elementary school here just north of the nuclear crisis exclusion zone in time for the beginning of the new term on Aug. 25.

"The schedule is pretty harsh, but we'd like to finish on time somehow," one worker at Kashiwa Elementary School told the Mainichi. Similar operations have been going on at municipal schools, kindergartens and nursery schools since Aug. 1, while the children are on summer break.

more..
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110817p2a00m0na013000c.html


Residents in disaster-hit area have to travel long distance to vote in local elections

Workers put up boards for election posters in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 17. (Mainichi)

OTSUCHI, Iwate -- Many residents in this tsunami-hit town taking shelter at temporary housing far away from downtown will be forced to travel a long distance to polling stations near their destroyed homes to cast their ballots in the upcoming local elections.

This is because the Public Offices Election Law stipulates that voters must cast their ballots at polling stations in areas near their registered addresses.

"There's a polling station near my temporary housing, but..." lamented one of the voters living at temporary housing unit in an inland area.

more...
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110817p2a00m0na011000c.html

Science teachers stumped over instruction on radiation as nuclear crisis continues
The subject of radiation is set to make an appearance in junior high school science textbooks in the coming school year for the first time in 30 years, which has teachers concerned about their ability to teach students about the topic.

As the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant drags on, members of the public remain divided on their views toward the handling of radioactive contamination as well as the question of what to do about Japan's relationship with nuclear power. Many science teachers have never had to teach students about radiation before, prompting concerns over whether they will be able to accurately answer students' questions.

more..
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110817p2a00m0na009000c.html

Japan disaster plant cold shutdown could face delay
TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Wednesday that it may fail in its bid to achieve "cold shutdown" at its tsunami-hit nuclear plant in Fukushima by January, as the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years rumbles on.

Efforts to decontaminate highly radioactive water at the facility have been delayed by repeated breakdowns of cesium absorption instruments, which have caused water leakage and malfunctioning of pumps, threatening to delay the process of stabilizing the stricken plant.

"It's possible that decontamination may not be completed as planned by the year-end, although we have not yet decided to change the target. That could affect the cold shutdown process," a company spokesman told Reuters.

His comments follow a similar statement on Tuesday, reported in the Nikkei business daily, from Junichi Matsumoto, a Tepco spokesperson on nuclear issues.

more
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110817/wl_nm/us_japan_nuclear

U.S. logged a tiny radiation spike in March
AP

Washington — A spike in radioactive sulfur from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was detected in California in late March, but researchers say it posed no threat to health.

While the amount was higher than normal background levels, it remained small, said Mark Thiemens of the University of California, San Diego.

"The levels we recorded aren't a concern for human health. In fact, it took sensitive instruments, measuring radioactive decay for hours after lengthy collection of the particles, to precisely measure the amount of radiation," said Thiemens, lead author of a report on the findings published in Tuesday's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Extremely low amounts of radioactive iodine later showed up in milk sampled in California, Colorado, Connecticut and Massachusetts over the following weeks.

more...
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110817a7.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "Bill compiled to decontaminate radiation..."

I'm having a hard time understanding that.

:freak:

[Yo_Mama]

3. Why?

The various local needs for disaster recovery are complex and varied. They have collected information from localities and tried to construct a bill to help with financing, regulation and management. Here are some of the issues:
1) In areas directly hit by the tsunami (which may be 10 or 15 kilometers inland) there are heaps of rubble that have to be collected and disposed of properly. Some of the rubble is pretty innocuous, but many areas reek to high heaven of rotting fish, and when you scrape up the remains you can't dump that so a whole lot of bacteria seeps into drinking water. Also, the tsunami broke up everything from oil dumps to ships, so some of the rubble is quite contaminated.
2) Farmland close to the coast in tsunami areas is contaminated with everything from salt to oil to radioactivity.
3) Radioactive areas from Fukushima Daiichi fallout: Even in areas with relatively lower exposures, the longer-lived isotopes like cesium accumulate in low-lying areas like ditches and wetlands. There are extensive areas that need remediation, and disposing of the soil is going to be difficult.
4) Water treatment plants: the cesium contamination, even if at low levels in general, has resulted in radioactive sludge accumulations at many water treatment plants. They need to dispose of this carefully, so that the cesium doesn't leach out into ground water.
5) Japan still has to deal with massive rebuilding campaigns in areas in which a lot of structures were lost. Then there is infrastructure.

These are often needs too great for a local authority to address without aid, and in the case of toxic waste disposal, the federal government has to issue regulations or provide safe disposal methods.

[izquierdista]

2. "Nobody was able to predict"

Somebody DID make those predictions; the problem was that Nobody paid any attention to them.