Another example of the lack of preparedness of the Japanese government; promised increases in radiation monitoring have not materialized, because the government can’t handle it logistically.

02 August 2011, the Japanese government announced that in order to increase radiation monitoring they will now rely on non governmental groups, many of which have already been conducting their own radiation monitoring.

Many of Japan’s citizens have complained about the lack of response from the national government.  Official government reports concerning radiation levels have been contradicted, and even proven wrong, by local governments, as well as the NGOs.

Many of the national government reports relied on data from Tokyo Electric Power Company, and it’s obvious TEPCo is totally unreliable.

Agencies of the Japanese government are now going to work with the NGOs, and local governments, to set up a large network of 250 radiation monitoring sites, which will include schools and libraries.  They will check air, ground, water, plants and food for radiation contamination.  The government hopes to have a web site set up by mid August, so that everyone in Japan can see the results.

The Japanese government established radiation contamination guidelines for determining whether fertilizers, and livestock feed, contaminated with radiation are safe to use, or not.

The new safe limit for contaminated fertilizer is 400 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.  Farmers are asked to use humus and compost that contains less than that.

The new standard for fertilizer comes after it’s become clear that many crops around Honshu are contaminated, internally, with radiation.  Many of those crops are fed to cows, which in turn become internally contaminated.

Also, the government established, for the first time, safe limits on cattle and fish feed.  300 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in cattle feed is the max, and 100 becquerels for fish feed.

Government officials say they will start explaining, by next week, how farmers can check for such levels.

For months now, Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has been demanding that Tokyo Electric Power Company improve working conditions for their employees, including contractors.  Officials have also been demanding to know why TEPCo is taking so long to get all the employees tested for radiation exposure (at least 1,500 are still awaiting tests).  Now it turns out that 198 newly hired employees are missing!

The Japanese government has given TEPCo until 29 July 2011 to get all workers tested for radiation.  The government is also demanding an explanation for the disappearance of 198 workers who were hired AFTER the 11 March disasters.

Earlier in the week TEPCo admitted that it could not find 132 employees, but after the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency investigated it turns out that 198 are missing.

Government officials are concerned that TEPCo’s lack of accounting for its employees is just par for the course; from day one of the nuclear disaster TEPCo officials have proven they have a lackadaisical attitude towards managing all aspects of running a nuclear plant.  (or maybe they’re what are called ‘ghost workers’, they never existed, they were created on paper to ripoff taxpayers)

10 July 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company has stopped its water decontamination operation, again.  This time it’s due to chemicals leaking from the system.  The chemicals are used to absorb radiation from the water.

According to NHK, TEPCo is blaming the new leaks on “non-durable” materials used to build the decontamination unit.  Basically they used parts that could not withstand the pressure, radiation and chemicals in the system.

Many reports from Japan have been confusing, because they’ve referred to problems in the ‘cooling’ system, when they mean decontamination system.  This could be because the two systems are interconnected.