War and the New Nuclear Danger: #Fukushima and Beyond

Global Research News Hour Episode 31: via Global Research.ca / June 24, 2013 / One of the most severe industrial accidents in history occurred two and a half years ago when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan was crippled in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami that struck the island country. Critically, electric generators which circulate coolant through the facility failed leaving the core vulnerable to a melt … Continue reading

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Tritium level rising in #Fukushima plant port

via NHK World / June 25, 2013 / Officials from Tokyo Electric Power Company say the level of radioactive tritium has been rising in sea water near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. They say they can’t rule out the possibility that contaminated groundwater seeped into the sea. TEPCO officials said on Monday that samples collected on Friday contained 1,100 becquerels of tritium per liter. That is 10 times the … Continue reading

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Japanese health and welfare sector lacking post-disaster plans

via NHK World / June 24, 2013 / A government white paper says many hospitals and welfare facilities need help with contingency planning. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami taught Japanese service providers the importance of preparing contingency plans that would allow them to continue operating following a disaster. This year’s anti-disaster white paper features the results of a survey by the Cabinet Office. More than 21-hundred providers of lifeline services … Continue reading

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(Another) Leak found at Fukushima Daiichi desalting device

via NHK World / June 21, 2013 / TEPCO says radiation-contaminated water was found to have leaked from a desalinating device at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The plant operator adds that the leak stopped when it halted the device, and that the water has not flowed outside the complex. TEPCO said a worker detected the leak at the device that removes salt from water used for reactor … Continue reading

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Ohi reactors likely to remain online beyond July

via NHK World / June 20, 2013 / Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority will allow the country’s only 2 running reactors to stay online after new nuclear safety guidelines take effect in July. The guidelines for the first time oblige utilities to beef up measures against serious accidents like the one that occurred in Fukushima 2 years ago. The authority submitted a draft report on its safety assessment of the No. … Continue reading

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‘Eat and Support’ #Fukushima Rice, Without Knowing and Without Choice

via EX-SKF / June 19, 2013 / From rice to be grown and harvested in 2013, the national government is buying up 250,000 tonnes for the government’s rice reserve; of that, 40,000 tonnes, or 16%, may come from Fukushima Prefecture. The Fukushima prefectural government is encouraging farmers to participate in the government bidding if they fear “baseless rumors” driving down the price for their rice in the open market. Once … Continue reading

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Japan finds highly toxic strontium in #Fukushima groundwater

via TheStar.com / June 19, 2013 / High levels of toxic strontium-90 have been found in groundwater at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the utility that operates the facility said on Wednesday Strontium-90 is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors as well as nuclear weapons, according to the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It was not immediately clear how … Continue reading

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TEPCO puts radioactive water decontamination process on hold, yet another leak detected

via News on Japan /June 17, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the disaster stricken Fukushima nuclear power facility, put on hold the ongoing test run of its water decontamination system on Sunday, June 16 because of a suspected leak in the holding tanks of the highly radioactive waste water. A number of widely publicized leaks to the facility’s underground storage tanks – erstwhile primary storage for … Continue reading

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Government secretly backtracks on Fukushima decontamination goal

via The Asahi Shimbun / June 16, 2013 / With the government facing difficulty in finding disposal sites, municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture are being unofficially notified that the goal for completion of radioactive decontamination work in March 2014 may not be met, sources said.   The government also informed municipalities that it will not allow decontamination work to be redone in areas where radiation levels have not declined even after … Continue reading

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Japan PM promotes nuclear exports at central Europe summit

via ChannelNewsAsia.com / June 17, 2013 / Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a push on Sunday for his country’s nuclear technologies at a summit in Warsaw with leaders of four ex-Communist European Union countries, as part of his bid to boost the Asian powerhouse’s exports. Abe recently unveiled plans to treble Japan’s infrastructure exports to 30 trillion yen ($300 billion, 225 billion euros) a year, a target that could not … Continue reading

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TEPCO again corrects radiation level of groundwater at nuclear plant

via The Mainichi / June 13, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday again corrected the radiation level of groundwater samples taken from the premises of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, saying it was a tenth of the level announced earlier this month. It is the second time that the utility has corrected the data regarding groundwater, part of which TEPCO is seeking to dump in the Pacific … Continue reading

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EU Presents Post-Fukushima Nuclear Safety Rules

via Yahoo News-AP / June 13, 2013 / The European Commission proposed tougher nuclear safety rules Thursday, amid international debate about the future of nuclear energy and how to secure aging plants. Stress tests on European nuclear plants prompted by the 2011 disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant showed that almost all of them needed safety improvements. A report on those tests called for more consistency across the 27-nation EU … Continue reading

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No clear goals in most decontamination contracts

via NHK World / June 13, 2013 / Work to remove radioactive substances from the land and surfaces of buildings has been underway across Fukushima Prefecture more than 2 years following the nuclear accident. But NHK has learned that there are no decontamination numerical targets in most of the contracts cleaning companies signed with the central government and Fukushima municipalities. NHK obtained the information on the contracts signed through April … Continue reading

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Damaged reactor building at #Fukushima plant fully covered

via Asahi Shimbun / June 12, 2013 / A canopy has been completed over a heavily damaged reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in preparation for removing the spent nuclear fuel inside. Tokyo Electric Power Co. allowed reporters to tour part of the facility, which experienced reactor meltdowns after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, on June 11. The upper part of the No. 4 reactor … Continue reading

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Fukushima Accident Raised Levels of Radioactive Strontium by Up to 100x

via ScienceDaily.com / June 11, 2103 / Researchers from the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and the Department of Physics of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have studied the spread of radioactive strontium in the coastal waters of eastern Japan during the three months following the Fukushima nuclear accident, which happened in March 2011. The samples analysed show the impact of the direct release of radioactive materials … Continue reading

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Kyushu Electric spends 10 billion yen a year to maintain idle nuclear reactors

via The Mainichi / June 11, 2013 / Kyushu Electric Power Co. is continuing to spend around 10 billion yen a year to maintain the idle No. 1 and 2 reactors at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Genkai, Saga Prefecture, it has been learned, even as a potential 40-year operation limit for the No. 1 reactor looms. Multiple company executives said that they are “not thinking at all” of … Continue reading

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Removal of melted fuel from stricken #Fukushima reactors may be advanced a bit

via Japan Times / June 10, 2013 / The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday they may be able to start removing the melted fuel inside the crippled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 complex around 18 months earlier than initially planned, although this action would still be years away. The process would reportedly begin with the removal of fuel assemblies from the outside-reactor spent-fuel pools of … Continue reading

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Nuke regulators inspect damaged #Fukushima reactor building to analyze disaster

via The Mainichi / June 06, 2013 / The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has inspected the badly-damaged reactor building of the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant for the first time as part of its efforts to analyze the possible causes of the nuclear disaster. The NRA released photographs (below) of the interior of the fourth floor of the No. 1 reactor building on June … Continue reading

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Leak Found in Steel Tank for Water at #Fukushima

via Russia Today / June 06, 2013 / The operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said Wednesday that it had found a leak in one of the hundreds of steel tanks used to store radioactive water at the plant, raising renewed questions about the company’s ability to handle the plant’s cleanup. The discovery comes a day after the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, admitted that it … Continue reading

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Fukushima survey lists 12 confirmed, 15 suspected thyroid cancer cases

via Kyodo News / June 05, 2013 / An ongoing study on the impact of radiation on Fukushima residents from the crippled atomic power plant has found 12 minors with confirmed thyroid cancer diagnoses, up from three in a report in February, with 15 others suspected to have cancer, up from seven, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The figures were taken from about 174,000 people aged 18 or … Continue reading

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Video: Women of Fukushima (trailer)

Six Japanese women offer brutally honest views on the state of the clean-up, the cover-ups and untruths since the nuclear accident in Fukushima, and how it has affected their lives, homes and families. via Women-of-Fukushima.com / June 03, 2013 / Over a year since three reactors went into meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, a broad, disparate anti-nuclear movement is growing in Japan. Nowhere is that more apparent, … Continue reading

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Frightened to return: A Fukushima father’s story

via Independent.co.uk / June 2, 2013 / Like most fathers, Yoji Fujimoto frets about the health of his young children. In addition to normal parental concerns about the food they eat, the air they breathe and the environment they will inherit, however, he must add one more: the radioactive fallout from a nuclear disaster. Three days after meltdown began at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on 11 March 2011, Mr … Continue reading

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Last no-go zone designation in Fukushima lifted

via JapanTimes.co.jp / via May 29, 2013 / The government lifted the last no-go zone designation in Fukushima Prefecture on Tuesday, more than 26 months after three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant suffered core meltdowns, but certain areas remain uninhabitable. In the town of Futaba, the last no-go zone has been reorganized into areas where the return of residents is deemed “difficult” and those where preparations can … Continue reading

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Ground freeze urged to curb seepage into Fukushima No. 1 radioactive basements

via JapanTimes.co.jp / May 30, 2013 / To reduce the flow of groundwater into the crippled reactor buildings at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant, the government told Tepco on Thursday to freeze the soil around them. Walls of frozen soil can be created by inserting pipes into the soil and injecting them with coolant. Tokyo-based major general contractor Kajima Corp. came up with the idea. A … Continue reading

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At Least 4 Nuclear Plants Will Apply for Restart in July

via EX-SKF / May 27, 2013 / If they are approved, there will be 8 additional reactors, including one with MOX fuel, will be online in Japan, in addition to two reactors at Ooi Nuclear Power Plant. These plants are: Takahama Nuclear Power Plant (pictured): Reactor 3 (MOX), Reactor 4, operated by Kansai Electric Power Company; Ikata Nuclear Power Plant: Reactor 3, operated by Shikoku Electric Power Company; Sendai Nuclear … Continue reading

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At Least 4 Nuclear Plants Will Apply for Restart in July

via EX-SKF / May 27, 2013 / If they are approved, there will be 8 additional reactors, including one with MOX fuel, will be online in Japan, in addition to two reactors at Ooi Nuclear Power Plant. These plants are: Takahama Nuclear Power Plant (pictured): Reactor 3 (MOX), Reactor 4, operated by Kansai Electric Power Company; Ikata Nuclear Power Plant: Reactor 3, operated by Shikoku Electric Power Company; Sendai Nuclear … Continue reading

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Fukushima subcontractor fires employees for whistle-blowing

via JapanDailyPress.com / May 27, 2013 / A subcontractor hired by the Fukushima Prefectural government to do nuclear disaster cleanup has been ordered by the Labor Standards Inspection Office to properly implement labor practices after it was reported that they fired three male employees without prior notice. The men claim that they were fired because they reported the company’s corner-cutting. The labor standards office said that the city of Fukushima … Continue reading

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Expand health survey beyond Fukushima: U.N

via The Japan Times / May 27, 2013 / Japan’s health survey on the effects of the March 2011 nuclear crisis should be expanded to include areas outside Fukushima Prefecture, a U.N. expert said. The health management survey should be provided to residents in all affected areas by radiation exposure higher than 1 millisievert per year, Anand Grover, the U.N. special rapporteur on health, said in a report. The report … Continue reading

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#Radioactive Materials Leak at Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC)

via EX-SKF / May 24, 2013 / Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), who operates J-PARC, didn’t bother to notify the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (secretariat of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority, mostly made of people from NISA) for 2 days, because they did not think there was any leak of radioactive materials. According to Asahi, the researchers suffer internal radiation of exposure of 1.7 millisievert, and the contamination of the facility is … Continue reading

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U.N. mulls excluding nuclear accidents from disaster prevention plan

via Kyodo News / May 21, 2013 / The United Nations is considering excluding measures to prevent a nuclear accident caused by earthquake and tsunami from a new framework on disaster risk reduction expected to be adopted at the next world conference in 2015, U.N. sources said Tuesday. A Japanese government official involved in drafting the new framework, which will be discussed at the U.N.-sponsored World Conference on Disaster Reduction … Continue reading

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Fukushima plant struggles to keep staff

via Tokyo AP / May 23, 2013 / Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant’s operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that melted down in March … Continue reading

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Nuclear regulators acknowledge fault below Tsuruga reactor is active

via NewsOnJapan.com / May 23, 2013 / The Nuclear Regulation Authority accepted on Wednesday an assessment that a reactor at the Tsuruga plant in western Japan is sitting above an active fault, making it increasingly difficult for the facility to resume operation. It is the first time Japan’s regulatory authorities have acknowledged an existing reactor is located above a fault feared to move in the future, according to an NRA … Continue reading

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Farmers plant rice near crippled Fukushima site

via The Star / May 22, 2013 / Farmers have resumed planting rice for market only 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, a local official said Wednesday. It was the first time since the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster that farmers have gone inside the former 20-kilometre “no-go” zone around the doomed plant to sow rice intended for sale. The zone has been redefined to … Continue reading

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