Tag Archives: police

Fukushima

Rice planting banned in Japan, Cesium to blame

Thanks to the nuclear crisis, rice planting has been banned in Japan.

The problem is that the areas directly affected by the 11 March 2011 quake, actually sunk. Add to that the tsunami destroyed the sea walls. Now high tides have been flooding the land with ocean water contaminated with cesium-137 (as I warned in an earlier posting). There is also airborne cesium being detected, falling onto the ground.

The Japanese government will now test farm soils for cesium contamination. Any farm found to have cesium will be banned from planting. Cesium contamination is why Chernobyl city is still uninhabitable almost 30 years after that nuclear accident in Soviet Ukraine.

Rice planting normally begins by May. Rice is important to Japan: 8.5 million tons of rice were produced in 2010, and almost all of it stayed in Japan. The current situation will now make Japan dependent on foreign sources of rice.

Cesium is still found in soil in Germany, Austria and France 25 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Chernobyl is 1,160 kilometers (720 miles) from Germany.

Fukushima, U.S.

Don’t trust EPA RadNet radiation monitoring, No set standard in Radiation Exposure Limits

“The monitoring system isn’t functioning fully.”-Daniel Hirsch, University of California Santa Cruz

Hirsch said that EPA is too slow in releasing data about the radiation from the nuclear accident in Japan.  Some RadNet monitoring systems have been offline for months.

The Associated Press, quoting the Environmental Protection Agency’s own website, said as many as 20 of the RadNet sites were down. Also, 38% were under “review”.  When a RadNet site is under review, it means that the officials are doubting the readings.

Daniel Hirsch pointed out that radiation exposure standards from one government agency to another are different, which adds to the problem of letting people know if they are at risk or not. It also explains why some “experts” disagree with other “experts” about the dangers from Japan. There is no set standard for radiation exposure!

This explains a lot of the confusion in Japan during the first two weeks of the nuclear disaster. I remember watching press conferences where it seemed  officials from one agency contradicted officials from another agency. You’d think when it comes to nuclear power there would be a set universal standard regarding radiation exposure!


Fukushima

Search for missing finally begins within Radiation Danger Zone

About 300 Japanese police have begun searching for missing people, inside the 20km (12.4 miles) evacuation zone. The police are wearing protective suits.

The police are from Tokyo and Fukushima cities. They are using heavy equipment.

At least 3,900 people from Fukushima Prefecture are still missing.

Fukushima

Big 7 Aftershock, ‘nother nuke plant down, cooling may become an issue

Just before midnight, Japan time, north east Honshu got hit with the biggest “aftershock” yet, between 7.1 and 7.4.

At first there were tsunami warnings, but they were canceled when it was realized it was not the type of quake that would cause tsunami. But this latest quake puts another nuclear plant in trouble.

Onagawa nuke plant, in Miyagi Prefecture, was already struggling to keep itself cool using outside power. According to NHK this latest quake cut three of the two power lines running to the plant. There are some confusing reports as to how the plant is keeping its reactors cool; NHK says Onagawa is using power from one external electrical line. Reuters says Onagawa is running off back up generators.

The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is rushing to confirm the status of the plant.

Fukushima, Technology

What does “Half Life” for Iodine-131 mean?

The following is from Kyodo News.

Radioactive iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days, meaning that its effect will be reduced to half in eight days, one-fourth in 16 days and one-sixteenth in 32 days.

Half life for cesium-137 is 30 years.

Fukushima

Nuke Analyst says just ’cause readings are within safe limits doesn’t mean it’s “OK”

NHK interviewed a nuclear analyst, who pointed out that just because contamination readings are within safe limits does not mean that it’s ‘OK’.

He said officials are mistaken for telling people that it does not pose a threat to health. What it means is that you must begin “…limiting your exposure…” to radiation contamination, because it builds up in your body, it doesn’t go away.

It is referred to as cumulative exposure to radiation.

Fukushima

Japanese government says current evacuation plans are faulty, apologies

Japanese central government officials are now saying that they goofed on the evacuation zone currently in place.

Officials say the current evacuation zone is based on a short term, low level, nuclear emergency. They did not expect the current situation to have lasted so long.

Japanese officials say they will revise evacuation plans to take into account long term exposure to high levels of radiation.

Many local governments have given up relying on central government data, and have started their own evacuation plans.

”I feel very sorry that a local government had to decide on its own. As soon as possible, the government and…nuclear experts working together must present clear guidelines on from where to where is safe.”-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano

Fukushima

Reuters misleads, TEPCO lies about severity of reactor core explosion

In a 06 April 2011 Reuters article they compare an explosion of a reactor core, to the explosion of the reactor buildings three weeks ago:  “The possibility of another hydrogen explosion like those that ripped through reactors 1 and 3 early in the crisis, spreading high levels of radiation into the air, was ‘extremely low’, he said.”

This statement is completely misleading. It makes it sound like an explosion of the reactor core wont be any worse the the earlier explosions of the reactor buildings. Reuters does cite Tokyo Electric Power Company officials as the source of this misleading info.

If TEPCo is saying a reactor core explosion isn’t that bad then they are flat lying. If a reactor core explodes it will release a constant stream of deadly radiation, much worse than what is happening now!

It is possible that the TEPCo official was simply saying he thought the chance of an explosion was low (just an explosion), not that the chance of another explosion with resulting spewing of radiation was low. But that’s how the Reuters article reads. However TEPCo now has a proven track record of lying to the public.

In any case, don’t let anybody fool you, a reactor core explosion is THE worst case scenario, for a reason!

 

Fukushima

Radiation in Ocean will spread across Pacific in 3 Months

French nuclear analysts have used radiation numbers, publicly release by Japanese officials, to determine how bad the contamination is in the Pacific Ocean.

The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety determined that with the current level of contamination (that is the contamination that has already happened) fish and seaweed will need constant monitoring. Also, they said the high levels of radioactive contamination, recently spilled by reactor 2, will spread through out the Pacific Ocean in three months.

They pointed out that some radiation will float with the ocean currents, while other isotopes will sink to the ocean floor.  The ocean does not affect isotope half life, so cesium-137 still has a half life of 30 years in water.  Cesium-137 is in the ocean.

This does not assume any further contamination, so expect it to get worse.

 

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Toyota hoping for increased parts supply for Japanese plants

Toyota thinks they might have enough parts built up to open more of its Japanese factories.

Toyota hopes to open more plants, in Japan, by late April. However, they point out that they will not be able to run at full production, and, if parts supplies continue to be a problem then all bets are off.