20 September 2013 (15:18 UTC-07 Tango)/15 Dhu ‘l-Qa’da 1434/29 Shahrivar 1392/16 Xin-You (8th month) 4711
“Prime Minister Abe announced in Buenos Aries that the situation at Fukushima Daiichi was under control, but that’s not necessarily the case…”-Inose Naoki, Governor of Tokyo Metro
A Japanese official has countered the Prime Minister’s claim that the nuke disaster is under control (this is the second time that’s happened). Neo-imperialist Abe Shinzo made that statement to convince Olympic games officials to select Tokyo for future Olympic event. The new Governor of Tokyo Metro, Inose Naoki, has stated that the nuke disaster is not under control! This seems hypocritical because the same politician was supporting the Prime Minister, and blasting negative news coverage of Fukushima Daiichi, right up ’till Tokyo was selected for the 2020 Olympic games. Now it seems Inose is doing a one-80.
An NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) report says radioactive waste in Japan has increased to the point that exposure can kill a human in 20 seconds! The toxicity of the waste will remain deadly for thousands of years. What’s surprising is that nuclear plant dense Japan has no way to safely store the waste!
The Japanese Ministry of Industry is proposing an elaborate underground storage system, that allows the deadly waste to be retrieved, if needed. However, the Science Council of Japan countered, pointing out that Japan has many earthquakes and volcanic activity, making it risky to store nuke waste underground. On 19 September 2013, a 5.9 quake hit the Fukushima Prefecture.
Currently all of Japan’s nuke plants are shut down, because of earthquake fears, damage or required maintenance.
Tokyo Electric Power Company is now stating that there is at least 455-thousand metric tons of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi site. That water is in storage tanks, flooded in the reactor buildings and in the underground tunnels. But wait, there’s more! That amount increases by 400 metric tons every day!
Recently groundwater that was supposed to be clear of radiation, because it was upstream of the reactors, tested positive for radiation contamination. This is probably due to the fact that the waste water storage tanks are located upstream and uphill from the reactors, and they are leaking into the ground thus contaminating the groundwater before it reaches the reactors.
It was just announced that the cause for the leaking storage tanks are lose bolts. Of note is that the new tanks are already showing corrosion, due to radiation.
It was revealed that U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned the Japanese government of massive groundwater contamination, two years ago! TEPCo officials blew off the warning, saying investors would not be willing to spend the massive amounts of money to stop such contamination!!!
The Health Ministry of Japan has revealed that health problems for nuclear industry workers has jumped since the March 2011 melt downs. For the first time the Health Ministry has evaluated the physical exams of 67-hundred workers. They noted a 3.23% increase in workers with elevated white blood cell counts, compared to exams done prior to the 2011 disaster. Health officials point out that they need to do a more comprehensive study, because the nuclear industry in Japan has a high rate of employee turnover.
The reason for the high turnover can be explained by a June 2011, Reuters report. Most of the nuclear industry workers in Japan are considered “throwaway” workers. The report showed that nuclear disaster in Japan was a given, because many employees are not trained, and because they are treated badly.
Most contracted nuke industry workers in Japan are people with the least amount of education or training: “This is an unfortunate thing to say, but the nuclear industry has long relied on people at the lowest level of Japanese society.”-Fujii Kazunori, retired nuclear project manager
Fujii also said most contracted workers are exposed to radiation limits beyond official safe limits, and if you are a foreign employee it’s even worse: “We brought in workers from Southeast Asia and Saudi Arabia….They took a heavier dose of radiation than Japanese workers could have.”
And that included exposing workers from the United States to high levels of radiation.