Category Archives: Fukushima

Fukushima

Pale Green Horse & Corporate & Government Incompetence: New Japanese apartment building is radioactive, residents contaminated with Cesium!

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

In Fukushima Prefecture, a newly built apartment building has proven to be highly radioactive.  In fact, local Nihonmatsu City officials say the building emits more radiation on the inside, than on the outside!

Construction of the three story building was finished in July, 2011, almost four months after the beginning of the on going nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.  People are already living in the apartments!

Officials found that the inside of the building, on the first floor, is emitting 1.24 microsieverts per hour of cesium.  It looks as if the foundation of the building is the source of radiation, because radiation levels decrease as you go to the upper levels.

Turns out the construction company got its foundation material from inside the 20km no go evacuation zone around the nuclear plant!  But why did Nihonmatsu City officials wait until the end of December to inspect the building for radiation, after people had moved in? Apparently no one thought about it, until children living in the building turned out to have more cesium contamination than other children in the city! Can you say incompetence?

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Only 330 cats & dogs rescued from radiation zone in Japan, hundreds more still roaming lose!

The Japanese government announced that 330 cats and dogs have been rescued from the no entry zone around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, just in the month of December.

The Environment Ministry, and government of Fukushima Prefecture, have conducted rescue operations for dogs and cats.  However, citizens groups have been doing their own rescuing since 11 March 2011.

Several pet rescue blogs talk about the difficulty of dealing with government bureaucracy, in trying to get into the no entry zone.  Some citizen pet rescuers broke the law by going into the highly contaminated area without government permission.

Pet shelters in Japan need financial support to help care for those pets that’ve been rescued. Many pets lost their human companions to the tsunamis. Most pet rescues took place in the tsunami hit areas, but relatively little has been done in the radiation danger zone.

For those who can help, you can check out globalanimal.org. They have contact info of several of the private rescue groups in Japan, and interesting animal rescue stories.

FOOD CRISIS: HALF MILLION LIVESTOCK STARVING TO DEATH IN JAPAN!

Fukushima

Global Food Crisis: 80% of damaged Japanese farmland unusable in 2012!

The Japanese government announced that it hopes to restore farmland damaged by salt contamination, caused by the March tsunamis.  However, only 20% will be restored in 2012, leaving 80% unusable.

Most of that farmland is in Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures.  Those prefectures make up one of the largest agricultural areas of Japan.  About 20,500 hectares (50,656 acres) were destroyed by the sea salt.

The Agriculture Ministry says it will take at least three years to restore the farmland, and that does not count the land in highly radioactive areas around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

It’s interesting that the earthquake, tsunamis and ongoing nuclear disaster hit one of Japan’s biggest areas for agriculture and fishing.

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence & What Economic Recovery? Think your taxes are bad here in the U.S.? Try 45% income tax and 10% sales tax, welcome to Japan!

The Japanese government is about to raise taxes on its already struggling population.  This after Japanese unemployment hit record high levels.

The national government is pushing for an increase in income tax, from the current 40% to 45%!  They want to push their low national sales tax from the current 5% to 10% by October 2015 (still low by European standards).

The reason is to raise money to help pay for reconstruction of areas hit by the quake/tsunami, and to help with deal with the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.  I suspect that in the long run these tax hikes will only reduce consumer spending, helping to drive even more Japanese businesses away from Japan (that’s the reason for their record high unemployment).

The national government (the Diet) will vote on the tax reform plans after March 2012.

Fukushima

Global Food Crisis and Government & Corporate Incompetence: Fish catch down 70% off the coast of Fukushima, U.S. FDA misleads!

Fish catches, off the coast lines of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures, is down 70%.  That’s from the beginning of April 2011 to the beginning of October 2011, compared to the same time last year.

Those three prefectures are the main fishing grounds for the local Japanese fishing industry.

The reasons are a combination of tsunami damage to ports (especially Miyagi, which was literally wiped out), and radiation contamination caused by Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  Most fishermen had voluntarily stopped fishing over radiation concerns, but some continued to fish, only to find out a lot of their catch was contaminated after it arrived at fish markets.

Contrary to the reassuring statements on the U.S. FDA website, there is no standardized Japanese government testing of fish (or any food product) for radiation contamination. Most contamination was (and still is being) found by private citizens groups, or local governments who acted on their own volition.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima to be turned into giant nuclear waste dump!

Struggling to figure out what to do with the ever increasing nuclear waste, caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster reactors, the Japanese government has decided to dump it in Fukushima.

The county of Futaba, in Fukushima Prefecture, is being asked to allow eight of its cities to become nuclear waste dumps.  The official reasoning is that area is already contaminated (currently it suffers the equivalent of 100 millisieverts of radiation per year).

Of course this would mean that those people still living in the area would have to leave, and the national government will pay for occupying the land.

Many people in the area are upset, and disillusioned with their national government, because immediately after the March nuclear accidents, they were told, by national government officials, that the situation wasn’t that bad and they would all be returning to their homes soon.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japanese trees now highly radioactive, a new twist on pollen allergies!

Japan’s Forestry Agency tested male cedar tree flowers, in Fukushima Prefecture, and discovered extreme levels of contamination: More than 250,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium!

The forestry Ministry took samples from 87 locations between November and December.  The highest level, 253,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, were discovered at Omaru in the town of Namie, 11.3 kilometers (7 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Now realize that pollen is blown through the air, meaning highly radioactive pollen is blowing throughout Japan!

Japan’s Environment Ministry says as much as 2,207 grains per cubic meter, of radioactive pollen, is being blown around. However, the Forestry Ministry is trying to downplay the spread of radiation through pollen, by saying if people breath it for 4 months they would be exposed to 0.553 microsieverts of radiation.  Officials claim this is equivalent to ten times the normal background radiation found in Tokyo.  Mmm, they’re not concerned with that?

 

Fukushima, Idaho

Government Incompetence: 14,000 U.S. deaths directly linked to Fukushima nuclear disaster! Idaho hit with highest reported radiation. Infants suffered most.

“Based on our continuing research, the actual death count here may be as high as 18,000, with influenza and pneumonia, which were up five fold in the period in question as a cause of death. Deaths are seen across all ages, but we continue to find that infants are hardest hit because their tissues are rapidly multiplying, they have undeveloped immune systems, and the doses of radioisotopes are proportionally greater than for adults.”-Janette Sherman, MD  toxicologist

According to the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services, an estimated 14,000 deaths in the United States can be connected to the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan!

The peer reviewed report also points out that within 17 weeks following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster 16,500 people in the U.S. died.

The report says one week after the explosions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a toxic cloud was detected over the west coast of the United States. I had posted several times how most EPA RadNet sites were not working.

The EPA did report radiation detected in water, milk and other agricultural products, but it was downplayed and the U.S. neo-conservative controlled mainstream media went along with it!  What was reported by the EPA showed that Idaho had the highest Iodine 131 readings; 390 picocuries per liter of water (2 picocuries of I-131 per liter of water is considered normal)!

Interestingly this was claimed to be in Boise, Idaho, which is on the western side of the state. The only RadNet site in Idaho is in Idaho Falls, on the eastern side of the state.

The report says there were at least 14,000 unexplained deaths in the United States within the first 14 weeks of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster (that’s 1,000 per week, and the nuclear disaster is ongoing).  They also noted a sudden 1.8% jump in infant deaths compared to the same time the previous year.  They claim there is enough evidence for scientists to suspect radiation contamination, and they’re asking for more studies to be done.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima Governor challenges claims of Cold Shut Down

On 16 December 2011 the Japanese government declared the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant in “Cold Shut Down”.  On 18 December, the governor of Fukushima challenged that claim.

Governor of Fukushima Prefecture, Sato Yuhei, met three national government Cabinet members.  He asked them how they could make such a declaration when no one at the national level talked to anyone living around the nuclear plant, or even made an inspection tour.

The Minister for Nuclear Crisis Compensation, Edano Yukio, said the contamination zones will be redefined, and the national government will considering local governments’ requests.

The three Cabinet members also said that areas with radiation levels of 20 millisieverts per year or higher, will require former residents to continue living elsewhere, and, those people from areas with readings of over 50 millisieverts per year should expect not to be able to return for a long long time.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: 230 tons of radioactive water found under Fukushima Daiichi!

On 18 December 2011, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, found 230 tons of highly radioactive water in a tunnel under a building used to store contaminated water.  This comes after the Japanese government declared the damaged nuclear reactors in “cold shut down”.

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say the water is giving off 3 millisieverts per hour of radiation. Of course, and as usual, TEPCo officials don’t have clue how it got there, and are investigating.

This latest discovery reminds everyone to question TEPCo’s inspection and management capabilities.  Even the Governor of Fukushima Prefecture is challenging the national government’s declaring the plant in cold shut down.