Gundersen: Fukushima plume went down on ground, unlike Chernobyl — Due to ‘building wake effect’ — Radiation exposure going to be higher for people nearby (AUDIO)
Former softball team manager keeps memories of quake disaster survivors alive
“We don’t want anything. We just want you to not forget us,” he said. The words brought tears to Utsugi’s eyes. For Utsugi, who had participated in a competition in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the disaster-stricken region was also a place of memories.
Says Utsugi, “People tend to forget things. They may forget the disaster victims they helped and their feelings toward the disaster-stricken areas before they have finished recovering.” To stop that, Utsugi holds over 100 talks a year, telling people about her meeting with the man.
Tepco plans to discharge contaminated water to the sea.
In order to justify themselves to discharge retained water, they are building the new water purifying facility called ALPS, which is to remove 62 sorts of radionuclide.
On 2/21/2013, NRA admitted Tepco to make a trial run of ALPS.
It doesn’t remove radioactive water Tritium, and actual Fukushima worker concerns about the potential problems in its starting time.
(cf, Fukushima worker doubts the reliability of the new water purifying facility ALPS [URL])
However, none of the preventive measures are suggested.
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Top Japan Official: Not appropriate to say Fukushima nuclear disaster is contained
“The future of my kids has been lost because of that nuclear power plant . . . I am not doing this for myself. All of my energy, I will give for the sake of my two kids,” Kanno said.
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More than what’s convenient for adults, we should think about what’s best for the children.
Please do away with all nuclear power as soon as possible.
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NRA suggested the proposal to discontinue thyroid test for Fukushima children
Nuclear evacuee dies alone at temporary housing unit in Fukushima
NIHONMATSU, Fukushima — A man in his 50s who was living alone in a temporary housing unit here due to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster was found to have died from illness.
The man — a former nuclear plant worker who was evacuated from the Fukushima Prefecture town of Namie — was found dead at his temporary housing unit in the prefectural city of Nihonmatsu, it was learned on Feb. 19. A person from the neighborhood association found his body apparently shortly after he died on Feb. 16.
A panel of the Nuclear Regulation Authority says 2 faults under the Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, may be active.
The finding could keep the plant in northern Japan offline if the operator, Tohoku Electric Power Company, is required to review its anti-quake measures.
If you understand Japanese, here’s part of a news program that talks about the recent increase in the number of earthquakes in Hakone, shown below, about in the middle of the map. The little blue area just south of it is a lake that was created when the Hakone volcano erupted 3,000 years ago.
(h/t FukushimaDiary)
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If you’d like to follow other volcanos and earthquakes around the world, here’s a site that keeps up with them as they happen:
Attorney to Tepco: Please help us, we have troops who are dying, need medical care after 3/11 — Bone marrow transplant at NIH — Another bleeding incessantly (AUDIO)
Audio: It’s the reality that Northern Japan is contaminated and radioactive material is constantly being spread elsewhere — “A really creepy, macabre feeling”
Fairewinds board member Chiho Kaneko from Iwate Prefecture discussing her recent trip to northeastern Japan: It’s the reality that Northern Japan, not just in Fukushima, Northern Japan is contaminated. That’s the reality, and people are transporting the contaminants whenever they travel elsewhere. They’re bringing with them. […]
So what’s happening is there’s a gradual and constant dispersing and spreading of radioactive materials, inadvertently. Nobody wants to do it, but we are doing it. That’s a really creepy, macabre feeling I had when I was in Japan.
In the same program…
Fairewinds Podcast: I met people already who had ill health — Concern about being foresaken and sacrificed after Fukushima disaster (AUDIO)
An official in a city in Niigata Prefecture laughs at his colleague who gets caught in the heavy snow by saying “He can’t walk properly, because of radiation.” (His city is one of the few municipalities that are burning disaster debris.)
A 5th grader in Osaka jumps in front of an incoming train and kills himself because he doesn’t want his elementary school to merge with another school. “Please stop the merger, in exchange for this little life”, he writes in his last note.
The anti-nuclear group that organized the protests in front of the Prime Minister’s Official Residence every Friday last year (well, they are still doing it, though the attendance has dwindled) attends at a symposium ondefending Japan against China and Korea.
Same people who freaked out about thyroid cancer before are freaking out again about thyroid cancer, while hardly any of them protest against the circulation of contaminated food.
A 55-year-old elementary school teacher kicks an 11-year-old 5th grade boy in the lower abdomen, and the boy suffers injuries that take two weeks to heal. The police decides not to press charges, because the teacher says he is sorry.
Ms. Yoshiko Sakurai, who said “It’s the national government’s responsibility to say that up to 20 millisieverts/year is safe for adults, and 10 millisieverts/year is safe for children”, is one of peopleselected to the Central Council for Education under the Ministry of Education and Science.
All in about half a day of news collection that I did today.
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Report: Now over 44% of Fukushima children have thyroid abnormalities in latest tests
Russia TV: Meteor “could be a little teaser of what’s coming” — 20,000 personnel still on high alert — “This is essentially a giant nuclear facility… 7 plants here produce fuel” (VIDEO)
Naoshi Sato, 77, lives in Rikuzen Takata City, Iwate Prefecture. His neighbors call him “boss.” His entire community was affected by a once-in-a-millennium tsunami on March 11, 2011 that destroyed his home. His son, a member of the volunteer fire corps, was also swept away. But he refuses to leave his ruined house despite repeated calls from the town administration to evacuate. Rebuild my home! This is his dream.
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17 Feb 2013
News Navigator: What is the future of active fault inspections at nuclear plants?
A former senior official of the Nuclear Regulation Authority held at least 30 meetings with power company executives in violation of the new watchdog’s internal rules, it was learned Saturday.
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Gov’t needs to determine early whether to resume reactors
“The economy will eventually stall in terms of energy cost” as long as most nuclear reactors remain idled, Hiroyuki Hosoda, executive acting secretary general of the LDP, said in his speech in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. “It is needed to determine their resumption by securing their safety.”
He also said, “Power companies will face capital deficits in around three years if their reactors remain idled, and the basis of their existence will be affected.”
Umm, they won’t if they do something called INVESTING IN RENEWABLES. Or hadn’t he heard? 1) Creates jobs. 2) Builds infrastructure. 3) Reduces CO2. 4) Safe in times of plate tectonic movement. 5) Creates jobs (oh, did I already mention that?)
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And, the latest from FD1?
Fukushima I Nuke Plant Worker’s Perspective on the Debris Dropping Accident at Reactor 3 SFP: Normal Project Management System Doesn’t Work on an Abnormal Situation
Report: Many U.S. servicemembers’ kids in Japan developed medical issues after 3/11 — “My son went on a vomiting fit of about 3 months… 15-20 times a day” (VIDEO)
U.S. Serviceman after Fukushima: “Radiation that high becomes its own source of power… It will actually feed, it will grow” — 60,000cpm helicopter part, “The nuclear guys just kind of went nuts” (VIDEO)
Japan fell from 22nd place to 53rd in the rankings of press freedom last year, according to the nonprofit organization Reporters Without Borders. Japan’s plummet was attributed to a single factor — the lack of access to information related to the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
In reporting on the serious disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, many reporters have met with restricted access, lack of transparency and even lawsuits.
Tsunami advisory issued for Japan’s Pacific coast, Okinawa
TOKYO (Kyodo) — The Japan Meteorological Agency issued on Wednesday a tsunami advisory for parts of Japan’s Pacific coast and Okinawa in the country’s south, following a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that hit the Solomon Islands.
The agency predicted tsunamis of up to 50 centimeters after the quake that shook the island nation Wednesday generated a tsunami.
Warning the public to stay away from the coast on the Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago, the agency said tsunamis are forecast to reach the Ogasawara island chain around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Tsunami could also reach Amami Island in Kagoshima Prefecture in the early hours of Thursday.
A tsunami warning was initially issued for the wider South Pacific region by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, but that was later cancelled.
[… Barbara Judge], a 66-year-old lawyer and businesswoman with dual British and American citizenship, has been called in by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the company behind the Fukushima, to help relaunch Japan’s nuclear power program […]
Judge visited Fukushima Saturday to talk to workers in her new role as deputy chairman of TEPCO’s Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee.
“It was fantastic,” she said. “It was absolutely hope and enthusiasm, not despair.” […]
She added: “I was amazed at how much work had been done to clear up the site and the high aspiration to make the site the safest in the world.” […]
uhohjapan2 