Day 504 Gov’t and power Cos liberated from the “Safety myth”? I doubt it.
Hydrangea Fridays: Voices from the Heart
Jacinta Hin was born in the Netherlands, and has been living in Japan since 1989. She works in the field of human resources and personal coaching.
I have not participated in a demonstration for over 30 years, nor in any other form of active social engagement. Over the past decades, the closest I have come to any form of protest was the occasional opinion shared over the dinner table or a glass of wine with friends, mostly for entertainment or for the purpose of honing my debating skills.
And even when the initial post 3/11 anti-nuclear demonstrations in Japan started to gain ground, I joined once or twice only, when nothing else was on my schedule and an enthusiastic friend would take the lead in getting a group together.
But then the Tokyo Friday protests against the restart of the Oi Nuclear Plant started and something changed for me.
I now have it on my weekly agenda and everything else makes place for the time and place. Fed up with my own half-hearted engagement, one Friday evening I just went by myself, which, for the rather shy person that I am, not really at ease in groups and crowds, took a little courage.
Article continues at:
http://www.dianuke.org/hydrangea-fridays-voices-from-the-heart/
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From ENENEWS at:
http://enenews.com/red-cross-team-told-headquarters-provide-medical-care-exposed-radiation-after-311
Red Cross Team said “We were told by headquarters not to provide medical care for those exposed to radiation” after 3/11 -Hospital Worker
Title: What Really Happened in Fukushima A Report From a Medical Care Provider
Source: FukushimaVoice
Date: Jul 27, 2012
What Really Happened in Fukushima A Report From a Medical Care Provider
Part 2
Thursday, December 22, 2011Please let me explain about what happened immediately after the earthquake.
On March 11, 2011, we began to have more and more evacuees from Futaba-machi.
[…]
We accepted both inpatients and outpatients without any manual or instruction for medical care for radiation exposure. However, Fukushima University Medical School Hospital only accepted the seriously injured (essentially refusing to accept evacuees) and the Red Cross medical team said “we were told by the headquarters not to provide medical care for those exposed to radiation.”
They stayed for three days, but the Red Cross medical team went to another prefecture without seeing any patients.
More and more evacuees were coming in. There was a talk of making this hospital a screening center in order to provide adequate screening examinations, but it was stopped by Fukushima University Medical School. By the way, what was called screening examination was contamination examination of body surface by gamma survey meters.
[…]
Incidentally there is something important I would like to add. There was a “thyroid examination” of children from Iitate-mura and Kawamata-machi at the end of March, 2011, but it was just like this screening examination. Of course there was nothing abnormal found. The children had taken a shower and changed their clothes beforehand.
[…]
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Obsession with a safety myth
The government-commissioned panel charged with investigating the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant submitted its final report to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday. The report made clear that obsessed with the myth of nuclear safety, both Tepco and the regulators lacked capabilities, organizational setups and mental preparedness to cope with a massive accident.
“Because the government and the power utilities, including Tepco, were biased by the safety myth, thinking they would never ever face such a serious accident, they were unable to realize that such a crisis could occur in reality. This appears to be the fundamental problem,” said the Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co.
A big question is whether the government and the power industry have really liberated themselves from the myth and have a humble attitude needed in handling nuclear technology. The decision by the government and Kansai Electric Power Co. to restart the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at Kepco’s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture appears to point to the contrary.
Article continues at:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ed20120726a1.html#.UBLUlt3OeKU.facebook
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Q: Would you want your children to grow up in a country with 54 nuclear reactors and seismic activity over 100 days that looks like this?
Seismic activity, 19 April 2012 – 28 July 2012
From:
http://bousai.tenki.jp/bousai/earthquake/seismicity_map/?area_type=japan_detail&recent_type=100days
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From ENENEWS at:
Japanese Writer, Professor: “Extreme increase of mortality caused by cardiac disease” in Fukushima — Death rate “might give the creeps to some people”
July 27, 2012 post from Ryuichi Akiba translated by Dissensus Japan:
[…]
It’s a report of the investigation on population shift and causes of death of the year before and January and February of this year.
[…]
It can provide valuable figure how much the extremely large amount of fallout released from Fukushima Daiichi damaged public health and life.
The “cause specific death rate” deserves careful attention.
[…]
The figure might give the creeps to some people.
[…]
In fact, the data shows that the number of death increased by 12.5% and the number of death caused by cardiac disease increased by 14.6% after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
[…]
What does the extreme increase of mortality caused by cardiac disease mean?
Dr.Yury Bandazhevsky of Belarus examined the people exposed to radiation and the people who had died of Chernobyl and clinically identified the association between Cesium radiation and cardiac disease.
[…]
We can’t either determine or deny the morbidity and mortality increased only because of radiation released from Fukushima Daiichi.
We need to pay attention to the next months’ vital statistics to figure this out.
[…]
What is needed most is clinical or epidemiologic study; statistic or report by independent doctors and researchers. We need many Bandazhevskys to save the children of Japan and all over the world.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry yesterday released its monthly vital statistics of February 2012:http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/geppo/m2012/02.html
- The number of death was up 12.5 percent (=12695 people) compared to the same month of the year before
- The number of death caused by Malignant Neoplasm was up 7.7% (=2066 people) from the same month of the year before
- The number caused by cardiac disease was up 14.6% (=2585 people)
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Bloomberg News
Heat Sends U.S. Nuclear Power Production to 9-Year Low
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Report: Radiology technician said test anomalies began to show in Kanto during summer of 2011
Source: FukushimaVoice
Date: Jul 27, 2012
What Really Happened in Fukushima A Report From a Medical Care ProviderPart 1
Wednesday, December 21, 2011I am a medical care provider. At my workplace we began taking care of patients from the evacuation zone from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the evening of March 11, 2011.[…]I have also learned the following from a radiology technician in mid-March, 2011. Test anomalies began to show in Kanto summer of 2011 also. But in mid-March, X-rays for a particular patient began to show white spots. They didn’t show up if the patient was undressed. They didn’t show up in X-rays of other patients who were examined at the hospital. This particular patient was actually not even an evacuee but a resident who lived 45 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.The technician initially thought they were dust specks, but they were clearly bright spots. It was determined that clothes hung up to dry outside must have radioactive materials attached to them. This “finding” was reported as such to the hospital president as well as the prefectural office. At the time we had no idea what was going on at Fukushima Daiichi, and it was reported as a proof that “the radioactive materials have reached as far as here,” but it was never publicized.[…]
More:
Fukushima Medical Care Provider: Hospital president says people will be healthier after radiation exposure from triple meltdowns — “There is no argument allowed”
Title: What Really Happened in Fukushima A Report From a Medical Care Provider
Source: FukushimaVoice
Date: Jul 27, 2012
What Really Happened in Fukushima A Report From a Medical Care Provider
Part 1
Wednesday, December 21, 2011I am a medical care provider. At my workplace we began taking care of patients from the evacuation zone from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the evening of March 11, 2011.
The president of the hospital where I am employed says people live longer when irradiated and Fukushima people now will be healthier because of radiation hormesis. There is no argument allowed. Since this statement comes from a physician, many people believe this in Fukushima.
Those who were contemplating on evacuating from Fukushima are now in a mental state that is not even conducive to thinking about it any longer. This was becoming obvious beginning in April or May, 2011, and it might have been a coping mechanism for mass psychology and dangers. However, it is entirely different now. I feel they are no longer capable of avoiding dangers.
This is what I heard from a clinical laboratory technician at work. Thyroid ultrasound examinations for children, which have already been done in my town and which will be held in other cities from now on, are being performed by Fukushima University Medical School Hospital laboratory technicians who have only done blood tests before. In other words, they are being done by people who have never used ultrasound equipment before.
Technicians are being dispatched from Fukushima University Medical School. For instance, there is a whole body counter car stationed in Kawamata-machi, Date district, where a part of the town is a deliberate evacuation area. There are physicians and clinical laboratory technicians stationed there, and they are all young.
Currently there is “that” Yamashita stationed at Fukushima University Medical School. After being dismissed as the radiation advisor for Fukushima prefecture, he became a vice president for Fukushima University Medical School.
The reason not a single Fukushima physician even mentions medical care for radiation exposure is because of the power of Fukushima University Medical School. Physicians in Fukushima who are not self-sufficient are not allowed to provide medical care for radiation exposure, and those who are self-sufficient left Fukushima.
[…]
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Nuclear agency deems aging No. 1 reactor at Genkai plant safe until 2033
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has deemed that the idled No. 1 reactor of the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Saga Prefecture, whose pressure vessel is feared to have deteriorated more than expected, will remain safe until 2033 — 58 years after the start of its operations, agency officials have announced.
NISA’s view is inconsistent with the government’s general policy of decommissioning nuclear reactors 40 years after the start of their operations for safety reasons. The assessment is expected to influence a review of the government’s policy by a new nuclear power regulatory body that the government will launch in September.
Article continues at:
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120728p2a00m0na012000c.html
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Fukushima disaster worker says subcontractors siphoned money from wages
A man hired to help bring the disaster at the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant under control has accused subcontractors of forcing him to work under illegal conditions and skimming off part of his wages.
The 45-year-old Nagasaki Prefecture resident has filed a claim with the Tokyo Labor Bureau accusing Nichieidouryoku Co. of dispatching him to a subcontractor through at least one other subcontractor and forcing him to work under a bogus contract.
The man has also filed a petition with the Nagasaki Labor Bureau against four lower-level subcontractors, complaining that they skimmed off part of his wages.
Article continues at:
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120728p2a00m0na017000c.html
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Political parties perplexed over anti-nuclear protests
Political parties are growing increasingly perplexed over highly publicized weekend protests in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo against the restarting of nuclear reactors, remaining at a loss over how to communicate with the demonstrators, who are self-motivated.
The anti-nuclear protests have attracted tens of thousands of people every Friday evening. They are characterized by the fact that most protesters are individuals acting of their own free will, rather than protesters acting at the will of organizations.
Article continues at:
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120728p2a00m0na019000c.html
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Antinuclear group begins annual meetings in Fukushima
FUKUSHIMA, Japan, July 28, Kyodo
A major Japanese antinuclear group on Saturday kicked of its series of annual conventions for the second straight year in Fukushima, the capital of Fukushima prefecture where the nuclear plant disaster occurred last year.
Some 1,050 people, including those affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident as well as survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, took part in the first of the events through Aug. 9 on the theme of breaking with nuclear power generation. Participants marched through the city calling for a nuclear-free society, according to the organizer Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs, known as Gensuikin.
At the outset of the one-day meeting, the participants offered a silent prayer for the victims of the bombings and of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan and triggered the meltdown of three reactors at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
Read the entire article at:
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/07/172234.html
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Ministry tries to justify withholding SPEEDI fallout forecast data from public
The science ministry claimed Friday it was appropriate to withhold radiation fallout forecast data from the public immediately after the meltdown disaster started at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in March 2011 because the data were “based on assumptions.”
Article continues at:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120728b7.html
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Radioactive Japan: “Peach Project Junior – Let’s Get Cheer From Children!” and Save Fukushima!
That this sort of events still goes on 16 months after the start of the worst nuclear accident in the country is surprising. Or not surprising. I don’t know any more. Do you?
It is a leaflet for an event called “Let’s Get Cheer (or Energy, Vitality, ‘Genki” in Japanese) from Children!”. The event is sponsored by an NPO called “Fukushima Stakeholders Coordinating Council” (I don’t know if there’s an official English name, so it is my translation of the name) set up in May this year. This is the same entity that will be holding a seminar in August on how to“decontaminate” your “soul” (heart, thinking).
It is supported by the Fukushima prefectural government (decontamination countermeasures department), the Board of Education in Date City, and JA Date Mirai (ag producers co-op), and co-sponsored by the Liberal Democratic Party-Kizuna Faction of the Ibaraki City Assembly in Osaka Prefecture.
They are looking for twenty 5th and 6th graders from Ibaraki City to go on a two-day trip (August 16, 17) to Date City in Fukushima Prefecture at a cost of 4,000 yen each. 4,000 yen will cover the lodging and insurance. Transportation costs will be paid by the organizers.
What they are going to do in Fukushima?
August 16:
Soon after arriving at Fukushima after spending 5 hours on the train, go visit Decontamination Information Plaza in Fukushima City set up by the Ministry of the Environment. Then, move to Date City, and enjoy all the peaches they can eat. They stay in Date City overnight.August 17:
Socialize with school children in Fukushima, take a group photograph at the Decon Information Plaza, and go home to Osaka.
The place they will spend the night in Date City is a public hostel located in Tsukidate-machi, where 1,050 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from the rice harvested last year. Date City is famous for its peaches, but they were found with high levels of radioactive cesium last year. Fruit tree “decontamination” of stripping the tree barks must have worked this year.
Article continues at:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/07/radioactive-japan-peach-project-junior.html
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