The government of Japan has already banned beef shipments from Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures. Now Iwate Prefecture is being considered for such a ban after cows there have been found contaminated with cesium.
At least 12 prefectures are voluntarily checking their own cows. The national government is says it will cover the cost of the testing. It is now believed that at least 3,000 contaminated cows made it to consumer markets.
It is becoming very clear that the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been, and still is, spreading massive amounts of cesium across Japan.
Last week the national government of Japan ordered all cattle shipments from Fukushima Prefecture halted, now they have done the same with cattle from Miyagi Prefecture.
It turns out that the majority of cesium contaminated beef came from Miyagi Prefecture. The cows were fed hay contaminated with thousands of becquerels of cesium. The national safe limit is 500.
In another sign that radiation is spreading across Japan, officials say the contaminated cows did not come from specific areas within the prefectures, but from all over.
The city of Pocatello is back to the drawing board after voting against buying $6.2 million worth of water rights. The deal would have been made with Portneuf Marsh Valley Canal Company. City officials backed out after credible threats of lawsuits from water users “downstream”.
Water is a big issue for Pocatello. Its main source of water is the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, and it’s running dry. The Portneuf River flows through Pocatello, but it does not recharge the aquifer, and the city does not take any water from it.
To add to the problem, the city of Pocatello is not the only one using the Aquifer, the city of Chubbuck also gets its water from the same source.
For a long time it was thought that surface water runoff made its way to the ground water (Aquifer), but now its known that most surface water runoff just ends up in rivers heading out to the oceans (although some recharging comes from Mink Creek, and snow).
Geoscientists believe the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer was created 17,000 years ago when a natural dam broke, releasing a huge sea into the area (Bonneville Flood). Part of that sea was trapped in what is now known as Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer.
Another issue is that while many aquifers are held in small rock formations, even pebbles and sand, the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is trapped by huge boulders, which were part of the natural dam holding back the ancient sea. You can see huge boulders around the area now. Every time a housing development goes in they end up spending a lot of time digging out the boulders in order to put in basements. It has also resulted in lucrative local rock mining businesses.
The water in the Aquifer is almost finite, it does not easily recharge as was once thought.
However, while most rain ends up in rivers, any water from slow melting snow, or used on farms or residential properties can get into the Aquifer. The problem is that large boulders do not filter the incoming surface water, like sand or pebble aquifers. This means the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is very vulnerable to contamination.
To add to that, the soil is only about 2 to 8 feet thick, before you hit rock. I can attest to that since I’ve done a lot of landscaping here, and I grow vegetables and fruits. I can dig the depth of a shovel blade and hit rocks 4 inches in diameter or bigger. The thin soil means if you dump used motor oil on the ground, or use chemicals on your garden, it’s almost instantly heading for the Aquifer.
There is a three part (boring, basically a college lecture from 2010) video explanation of the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer issue, presented by Glenn Thackray of Idaho State University:
Thackray explains that the cities, residents, farmers and businesses take out more water from the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, per year, than what flows into the Aquifer. This has been going on for a long time, and is why we’re running out of water. Add to that the fact that we’ve had some very dry winters, with less than normal snowfall (a big source of recharge, because it melts into the ground, unlike rain that runs off). The water level has been dropping since the 1990s.
Pocatello city officials say they are taking this issue seriously, and are being proactive about finding a solution.
On 22 July 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant lost external electrical power to reactors 3 and 4. This affected cooling operations, but they were able to get back up generators working.
Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that the power loss was due to an incorrectly wired circuit breaker. They say the circuit breaker was set up to handle only one third the amount of electricity that was actually needed to run the reactor’s cooling systems.
This comes after TEPCo officials held a conference claiming that Yakuza (organized crime; aka gokudō, aka bōryokudan or aka ninkyō dantai) could be infiltrating the ranks of employees at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. TEPCo also says they think Yakuza are taking over rebuilding efforts in the quake and tsunami damaged parts of Japan. TEPCo offered no proof. They implied that Yakuza were causing the delays in controlling the damaged nuke plant, and other problems. Again, Tokyo Electric offered no proof of their claim, and it sounds more like they’re trying to use Yakuza as scape goats for their own incompetence.
Grocery chain operator Ito-Yokado says it sold over 2,600 kilograms (5,732 pounds) of beef contaminated with cesium. The beef was sold at 94 outlets in Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, as well as on the northern island of Hokkaido, between April and July.
Ito-Yokado is not the only store that has admitted to selling the contaminated beef. Two other grocery/department store operators, Seiyu and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, have admitted to selling the meat.
Consumers are being asked to bring the meat back, but many analysts think that too much time has gone by and that most of the beef has been eaten.
Japan’s Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki is demanding action after it was discovered that three elementary schools served children beef contaminated with cesium. The schools are located in Chiba, east of Tokyo.
Takaki has ordered local schools to check the source of the food they serve.
22 July 2011, the Japanese government is only conducting radiation checks in the Fukushima area, but one professor says they need to check the whole of Japan. Especially after it’s become clear that cows and cattle feed are contaminated with extremely high levels of cesium.
Niigata University Professor Nonaka Masanori, says radiation levels were never checked in farmland, especially those areas that produce rice straw for cattle feed.
Nonaka says the cesium is spread by snow and rain, which is being absorbed into the soil and taken up by plants. The government needs to check for contamination no matter how far away from Fukushima Daiichi.
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)
Japanese officials now say at least 1,400 contaminated cows made it to consumer markets. More and more rice hay is being found contaminated.
Rain and wind are helping to spread radiation, from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, all over Japan.
The Japanese government is considering a beef buy back program, to help the stricken cattle industry. No one in government ever considered the effects of radiation on cows, and now the Japanese cattle industry is crashing.
It’s now clear that no one in government was concerned about the effects that rain and wind would have, on spreading radiation across Japan.
On 20 July 2011, Japan’s Science Ministry released a radiation map of Japan. It showed that radiation levels 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, are just as high as areas just 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the damaged plant.
This means Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is putting out enough radiation to cover the northern half of the main island Honshu. It explains the extensive contamination to cattle feed and cows, among other things.
The radiation map is based on airborne radiation samples taken from 22-23 June 2011.
