Japan Update June 4, 2011

IAEA whitewashes worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl  World Socialist Web Site.  Excerpts:

On June 1, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a preliminary report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The report is a whitewash, exonerating the Tokyo Electrical Power Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government of blame. Its bland language is an attempt to suppress discussion and protect the nuclear industry from scrutiny.

The report comes as two more workers at the plant were found to have exceeded maximum doses of radiation. Two male workers, one in his 30s and the other in his 40s, have been exposed to more than the 250 millisieverts level legally allowed for nuclear workers in Japan. The government raised the limit from its previous level of 100 millisieverts after the disaster. Exposure to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation is thought to increase the lifetime risk of developing cancers.

The two men involved in the most recent incident both worked in the control rooms of reactor 3 and reactor 4. They had not been working in the flooded tunnels. Their exposure to radiation points to high levels of contamination throughout the facility. They were subject to internal exposure as a result of breathing or ingesting contaminated material. The site is covered in radioactive dust. Many workers have been sleeping on site and taking their meals in potentially contaminated areas; few of them have protective clothing. It is doubtful that many of the contract workers on site have been warned of the risks.

Workers enter Japan reactor for first time since blast

Japanese workers have entered the No.1 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for the first time since a hydrogen explosion ripped off its roof a day after a devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

High radiation levels inside the building have prevented staff from entering to start installing a new cooling system to finally bring the plant under control, a process plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has said may take all year.
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Two TEPCO staff and 10 contractors with protective suits, masks and air tanks worked for 1-1/2 hours, moving in and out in small groups to connect duct pipes to ventilators that will filter out 95 per cent of the radioactive material in the air, a company spokesman said.
And:
Under Japanese law, nuclear plant workers cannot be exposed to more than 100 millisieverts over five years, but to cope with the Fukushima crisis, the Health Ministry raised the legal limit on March 15 to 250 millisieverts in an emergency.

Japan nuclear plant gets radioactive water tanks

Ombudsman slams secrecy over Fukushima contamination  Via Rense.  Excerpts:

Following complaints from citizens, the European Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the EU's permitted levels of food contamination following the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and their communication to the wider public. Similar complaints are also being heard in France.
"Based on complaints submitted to me, it appears that a number of Union citizens perceive a lack of precise and reliable information as regards the changes made to the maximum permitted levels in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident," wrote EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros in a letter addressed to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on 19 May.
And:
Last week (25 May), a French NGO specialised in measuring radioactivity, CRIIRAD, asked the French government to investigate what it described as "serious failures" in measuring the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident in France and communicating the results to the public.

According to the NGO, the radioactive cloud from the stricken reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant reached France two days earlier than officially announced. In addition, the levels of radioactive iodine-131 were 20 times higher on 22 March than announced on 24 March, according to the NGO's findings.

Japan: green tea exports banned due to high radiation levels  Via Rense.

The Japanese government has banned shipments of green tea leaves in four regions after high levels of radioactive caesium were found.

A swathe of Japan's tea making regions including parts of Tochigi, Chiba and Kanagawa prefecture as well as the whole of Ibaraki were included within the ban, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Green tea plantations were first highlighted as suffering from potential radiation contamination last month following the results of sample tests in Kanagawa prefecture.

The authorities discovered around 570 becquerels of caesium per kilogram in leaves grown in the city of Minamiashigara – compared to the legal limit of 500 – and started a recall of tea products.

Japan Update June 3, 2011

Japan's office casual going Super Cool  Japan hasn't the electricity to cool office buildings.  It's summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, and it's going to get hotter.  So business drones can now wear polo shirts!  Hotness, right?

Do you think by mid July they'll all be down to boxers and A shirts?

French research institute finds high radioactivity  NHK via Rense.  Excerpts:

A French independent radioactivity watchdog has found radiation in Fukushima Prefecture 60 times higher than the annual reference level for ordinary people recommended by an international commission.

The measurements and calculations found an annualized amount of 60 millisieverts at a farm in Iitate Village in the prefecture.

The level is 60 times higher than the annual limit for ordinary people, except for radiation workers, of 1 millisievert, recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.



The researchers also found high radiation levels in Fukushima City. At some places in the city, the levels of radioactivity were 7 to 9 millisieverts a year.
 
TEPCO Live Fukushima Cam - With 30 Sec Delay!  According to Rense..
 
Wastewater rises, fears mount  NHK via Rense.
 
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is struggling to remove pools of highly radioactive wastewater as fears of an overflow get more intense.
 
Tokyo Electric Power Company says wastewater levels rose around 6 centimeters inside the No.2 reactor turbine building, and in its utility tunnel, during the 24-hour period through Thursday morning.
 
Increases were also seen inside the No.3 and 4 reactor turbine buildings.
 
The water level in the utility tunnel is now just 28 centimeters from the surface outside the No.2 reactor, and 24 centimeters from the surface outside the No.3 reactor.
 
Magnitude 6.3 - OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN  Found it through Godlike Productions.
 
Fukushima Water Has More Radiation Than Released Into Air
 
The water level in basements and trenches at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant rose and may contain more radiation than is known to have been released into the atmosphere in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
 
The amount of contaminated water rose to about 105 million liters (28 million gallons) from 100 million liters on May 18, and may start overflowing after June 20, the company known as Tepco said in a statement today. Radiation in the water is estimated at 720,000 terabecquerels, general manager Junichi Matsumoto said at a media briefing in Tokyo.
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"The risk of overflow is as serious as the meltdown of reactor fuel rods that's already happened," Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan, said in a phone interview. "Tepco should've acknowledged this risk weeks ago and could've taken any urgent measures."
 
What is this?  Genocidal malfeasance?  Extinction-Level-Negligence?  All the while, this Event continues to teeter on the verge of Global Disaster, as the rest of us continue to watch, and continue to wait.

Japan Update June 2, 2011

Japan PM offers to quit after nuclear crisis under control
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan offered to resign once he had dealt with the worst of the country's nuclear crisis and tsunami disaster, cutting a deal with party rebels to avert defeat in a parliamentary no-confidence vote on Thursday.

Kan's offer to step down, probably in the autumn (Yeah, right.), was made just hours before the vote was due to take place and gives him time to prepare an extra budget to pay for the rebuilding cost of the March 11 disaster.

Kyodo news agency said the no-confidence motion was now certain to be voted down.

But even if he stays in office a few more months, a weakened Kan will struggle to forge deals with a feisty opposition in a divided parliament and may not be able to make much progress on tax and social security reforms needed to contain the country's bulging public debt.

"From both Japanese and foreign investors' point of view, now is not the time for political turmoil," said Yasuo Yamamoto, a senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.

"Japan has various issues it needs to address swiftly -- not only reconstruction, but also tax and social security reform, TPP (Transpacific Partnership trade initiative) and an energy policy which requires political initiative."

#Radiation in Japan: 2 Drugs to Help Expel Plutonium from Body to Be Approved in July  From Ex-SKF via Rense.

It seems like an oblique way for the Japanese government to admit plutonium (and other transuranium elements such as americium and curium) has been released from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and dispersed in wide enough areas to warrant a very quick approval of drugs that expel them from the body.

Nikkei falls sharply on Japan political turmoil

File Under:  Angela Merkel is not an Idiot.  Merkel says Japan crisis influenced nuclear exit decision

"We 'came close' to losing Northern Japan."  Video from CNN via Rense.

Fukushima Radiated Water May Overflow Trenches  Hey!  More Unintended Consequences!  Stated again:  TEPCO is in real danger of never getting out in front of this catastrophe.  And if they don't, we all lose.

Radioactive water accumulating in Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant may start overflowing from service trenches in five days, potentially increasing the contamination from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.


Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been manually pumping water into overheating reactors after cooling systems broke down and much of that has overflowed into basements and trenches. The water is rising at a rate that means it will overflow as early as June 6, Bloomberg calculations from the company’s data show.

“There is still the risk of radioactive water leaking into the sea,” Hikaru Kuroda, an official at the utility known as Tepco, said yesterday in Tokyo. The company is seeking additional storage space to move the water from trenches to reduce the risk, he said.

Eighty days in and still no world outcry about assisting or replacing TEPCO.  Crickets on the World's Stage as Fukushima continues to silently poison our World..

You Gotta Love That HILARIOUS Drug War!

Except when it wreaks havoc on an innocent bird watcher.  Except then, of course..

Prosecutorial Immunity now trumps Prosecutorial Misconduct.  This should freak you out.

Hundreds of Palestinians cross reopened Gaza-Egypt border

Huge development.

Egypt has opened its border with Gaza, letting Palestinians leave the blockaded territory, in a move seen as indicating a more supportive policy since February's revolution.
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The crossing will open for eight hours a day, six days a week. In the four years since Hamas took control of Gaza, 18 months after winning elections, and Israel imposed a stringent blockade, the Rafah border has opened intermittently and only students, businessmen and people needing medical treatment have been allowed through.
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All other border crossings are with Israel, which has tightly controlled the movement of people and goods. Despite easing the blockade almost a year ago, Israel continues to proscribe certain goods, such as construction materials, from entering Gaza and blocks nearly all exports. Rafah will not be open to commercial traffic.


Israel's government has expressed concern that the reopening of the border will lead to the shipment of weapons and militants into Gaza and is also alarmed at the prospect of closer ties between the new Egyptian government and Gaza. Former president Hosni Mubarak, who was forced out in February's revolution, was seen as an ally of Israel. The new government last month brokered a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, including an agreement to open the border.

"People are happy Rafah is open, they say it's the first step towards breaking the siege of Gaza," said local journalist Hazem Balousha. "They see it as a result of the Egyptian revolution and reconciliation."

This should be interesting.  Rafah is open, and Palestinians have an opening.  What happens now?  Looks like it's everyone's next move..

Japan Update June 1, 2011

OIL Now Leaking From Reactors 5 and 6

Oil was leaking into the sea from heavy oil tanks for reactors 5 and 6 at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday, adding the spill may have been ongoing since the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Tepco said workers at the site saw an oil slick floating on the sea at 8 a.m. Tuesday near the intakes of units 5 and 6.The oil slick is believed to be 200 to 300 meters long.
The total amount of oil that has leaked is still unknown, and the utility plans to set up a boom to prevent the slick from spreading.  But hasn't yet.

Update on the Japanese Nuclear Crisis: Not a Pretty Picture  Great compilation from Washington's Blog.  Read it there.

Fukushima: Three million of millions of potential lethal doses.   Via Rense.  Excerpts:

Furthermore there are three times as much fuel and four more times as many fission products in Fukushima than in Chernobyl. Considering now the cores (577 tons) together with the “dead” fuel (2.800 tons), the total amount is eight times more fission and activation products than all fission atmospheric tests and 39 times more than Chernobyl.  (Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant: Detailed inventory]
As for the potential lethal doses by inhalation (multiply each element’s Becquerel’s by the dose factor and divide by 5), calculated with the lowest OFFICIAL dose factors provided by the IAEA, they correspond to the apocalyptic figure of three millions of millions lethal doses, of which 80 % is already equitably spread out all over the northern hemisphere.

Japan 'underestimated' tsunami risk

UN atomic watchdog IAEA says the country underestimated the hazard posed by tsunamis to nuclear plants.  Because the IAEA has spoken, we know this to be true.  Not because of the two plus month's worth of evidence.

Via Rense.  Japan: Land of the rising silence.

Japan Updates: May 30, 2011

Post-disaster energy lines

The nuclear disaster at Japan’s earthquake and tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has again underscored both the need for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its limited authority and resources.

It will cost billions of dollars to stabilise the plants, close them down, decommission their reactors and mitigate the radioactive contamination. Equally important, the Japanese crisis has exposed flaws in global safety and emergency response networks, underscoring the need for urgent remedial effort.
The coming decades will likely present new safety challenges with many of the world’s aging nuclear reactors, which were built in the 1970s and 1980s, and the expected growth in the global use of nuclear power, still expected to occur despite the Japanese catastrophe. According to the IAEA, 443 nuclear reactors are operating in 29 countries. The agency reports that already 64 new reactors are under construction, mostly in China.

Tropical Storm Songda Hits Japan Region Still Reeling From Earthquake and Tsunami

Heavy rains and strong winds battered the northeast coast of Japan Monday as Tropical Storm Songda touched down on a region still reeling from a massive earthquake and tsunami, triggering mudslides and widespread flooding that forced the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor to suspend outdoor work.
The storm was downgraded from a typhoon Sunday afternoon but has still brought significant rain and winds. In the city of Ishinomaki in the Miyagi prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said winds clocked in at more than 70 miles per hour.

Japan pensioners volunteer to tackle nuclear crisis  Follow up..

A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station.

The Skilled Veterans Corps, as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of 60.
They say they should be facing the dangers of radiation, not the young.

Another example of humans behaving in a decent and realistic manner in the face of this immediate life or death situation/ unavoidable doom.

Moody's Puts Japan Bond Rating On Review For Possible Downgrade 

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday placed the Japanese government bond ratings on review for a possible downgrade on concerns about weak policy response to the faltering economic outlook.

Japan Risks Chernobyl-Like ‘Dead Zone’ as Fukushima Soil Radiation Soars  Well, yeah.  And Fukushima will far surpass Chernobyl in size and scope.  When will journalists start acknowledging this?

Japan Updates: May 29, 2011

Typhoon Songda Nearing Tokyo Weakens to ’Extratropical Cyclone’  Bloomberg, via Rense.  Excerpts:

Typhoon Songda, the storm last week forecast to pass over Japan’s stricken nuclear plant, weakened to an "extra tropical cyclone" after its forecast trajectory earlier moved south of Fukushima prefecture.

The storm was moving at a speed of 55 kilometers per hour (34 miles per hour) at 3:50 p.m. local time, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website. The eye of the storm was about 80 kilometers south-southwest of Murotomisaki, part of Japan’s Shikoku island west of Tokyo, and moving northeast at 65 kilometers an hour at 2:40 p.m., the agency said.

Songda, which strengthened to a super typhoon after battering the Philippines, weakened to a Category 3 storm from Category 5 as it passed Taiwan on May 28. The typhoon’s path also shifted south compared with the earlier projections, lowering the risk of heavy rain or winds affecting the nuclear plant.

Not that this is a bad development at all, but that typhoon really lost its momentum quickly.  Really quickly.  Huh.

Cooling systems restored for fuel pools  NHK World via Rense.  Excerpts:

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has now successfully restored cooling systems to the spent fuel pools of reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4.

On Saturday, TEPCO injected about 5 tons of water to the spent fuel pool of reactor 1 on a test basis. It was the last system to be restored.
The power company is also working to install new water-circulating systems that will more efficiently cool all the fuel pools. The new systems for reactors 1 through 4 are scheduled for completion by July.

Two bits of Good News today! 

Deluge could spread Fukushima radiation

There are fears a tropical storm off the coast of Japan could wash radioactive material from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the air and sea.

Now downgraded to a tropical storm, former Typhoon Songda is still expected to bring strong winds and torrential rain to Tokyo later this morning, with the Fukushima area also forecast to experience a deluge.
..
TEPCO and the Japanese government both fear contamination could be washed out of the uncovered reactor buildings.

Well, One and a half pieces of good news..  And then there's this close call..

Pump failure nearly brings No. 5 to a boil  via Rense.

The seawater pump in the cooling system for the Fukushima power plant's No. 5 reactor broke down Saturday evening, prompting repair crews to install a backup pump 15 hours later on Sunday afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Tepco discovered the pump had stopped at 9 p.m. Saturday but didn't announce it to the public until Sunday morning.
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The pump had been taking in seawater for the RHRS's heat exchanger, which uses it to cool down fresh water being used to regulate the temperature of the reactor and its spent fuel pool.



The cause of the pump's failure was not immediately known but was likely caused by seawater fouling some of its parts, Tepco spokesman Junichi Matsumoto told a news conference Sunday morning.

Japan detects high radiation levels off coast: report  Reiteration from yesterday..

Japan has revealed radiation up to several hundred times normal levels has been detected on the seabed off the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, a report said Saturday.

The science ministry announced late Friday highly radioactive materials were detected in a 300-kilometre (190-mile) north-south stretch from Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture to Choshi in Chiba Prefecture, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The ministry warned that the contamination could affect the safety of seafood, the report said, without giving figures for the radiation levels detected.
The science ministry said it detected iodine and caesium on the seabed at 12 locations 15 to 50 kilometres from the coastline between May 9 and 14.

High radioactivity found in two Japanese workers

TWO workers from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been contaminated by high levels of radioactive iodine, the operator said.



The workers, reportedly men in their 30s and 40s, may have already been exposed to radiation levels higher than the recently boosted official annual limit, Japanese media suggested.
..
The two men were working at a variety of locations at Fukushima Daiichi, including the central control room, in March and April, including on March 11 and during the following days.

And some long term good news..  Germany to close all nuclear reactors..  By 2022.  Fairly quick, by nuclear safety procedure standards..

Get It Together And GET READY Already!

Crippled nuke plant not prepared for heavy rain, wind  The Mainichi Daily News via Rense.  Excerpts:

The crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds forecast due to a powerful typhoon moving Saturday toward disaster-affected areas of northeastern Japan, according to the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Heavy rain has been forecast for the areas from Sunday to Monday due to the season's second typhoon, Songda, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Tokyo Electric, or TEPCO, has for the last month been spreading anti-scattering agents around the troubled Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings to prevent radioactively contaminated dust from being carried into the air and sea by rain and wind.

But some of the reactor buildings have been left uncovered after they were damaged by hydrogen explosions following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. TEPCO plans to launch the work to put covers on the destroyed buildings in mid-June.(Which will help NOW..).
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Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told a press conference Friday that the current measures "cannot be said to be appropriate."

File Under:  How the Nuclear-cane (or Nuke-phoon) was born..  Again:  I know these things take time, but they'd go a lot faster if there were more than a thousand people working on it.  One thousand people working on an inevitable global disaster.  It's a God-damned shame is what it is..