The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Ministry maintains ‘off site centers’ near nuclear plants.  The centers are government run emergency response units based ‘off site’ of the privately run nuclear plants.

The public news station, NHK, got hold of a NISA report that admitted that almost all of their off site centers were dysfunctional at the beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

NISA operates 22 nuclear emergency response centers throughout Japan.  On 11 March 2011, seven hours after the 9.0 quake, only three of those centers were staffed.  The off site response unit for Fukushima Daiichi had been shut down by the earthquake.  NISA claims all power generating capabilities, communications and other critical functions had been lost, making the off site response unit ineffective.

But, surprisingly, after it became clear there was a problem at the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, NISA decided to move the emergency response unit away from the stricken plant.  Hello, what’s the purpose of the ‘off site centers’ emergency response units then?  NISA officials said they were afraid their off site center building was not radiation proof!  More proof of lack of planning and foresight by government officials.

According to NHK(Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation), there has not been any official soil sampling since the nuclear disasters following the 11 March 2011 quake/tsunami.  Tokyo Electric Power Company has done periodic samples, but only within the area of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear compound.

The Japanese Science Ministry is now taking actual soil samples outside the nuclear facility.  What I mean by ‘actual’ is that up ’till now they’ve been conducting soil samples from the air!  NHK didn’t explain how you do soil sampling from the air, but it’s clear the government has realized they need to actually get down on the ground to properly test the soil.

The Science Ministry will join with universities and private laboratories around Japan, to do the soil sampling.  Samples will be taken every 4 square km (2.4 miles) in areas within 80 km (49.7 miles) of the nuclear plant and every 100 square km (62 miles) in areas further away.

University students, concerned with the fact that there is no official government soil testing around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, took some samples of their own.

They found plutonium-239 and 240, making up a total of 0.078 becquerels per kilogram.  The samples were taken on 21 April 2011.  Immediately after they took the samples the Japanese government declared the area an evacuation zone.

Researchers in Japan have discovered that snow on mountains near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are contaminated with cesium.

Meteorology students from Fukushima University took 31 samples of snow.  14 samples showed high levels of cesium.  The average level of contamination exceeds the safe limit of 200 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium.  One sample, taken at 1,300 meters (4,265 feet) has 3000 becquerels of cesium.

Fukushima University Vice-President Watanabe Akira says the research shows that large amounts of cesium is spewing into the air.

Reports saying Tokyo Electric Power Company now saying it is likely the damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi will not be stabilized by the end of the year, as first hoped.

Problems range from TEPCo’s own faulty assessments, to the Typhoon season now hitting Japan.

This means highly radioactive isotopes will continue to be emitted into the air, and pour into the Pacific Ocean.

The heavy rains from a tropical storm that hit Japan, are flooding the damaged reactor buildings with more water.

That is creating the potential for even more contaminated water getting into the Pacific Ocean.  Radioactive water continues to pour from the reactors, TEPCo has failed to stop it..

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is reminding Tokyo Electric Power Company that it must stop the flood of contamination that is still pouring into the ocean.

According to NHK, TEPCo is still trying to figure out how to stop leaks of contaminated water.  The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency gave TEPCo until 01 June 2011 to figure out a way to plug the leaks.