Tokyo residents increasingly worried- radiation hotspots found,Local gov’ts call for calm +much more

[stockholmer]

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110621p2a00m0na017000c.html

More than three months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, Tokyo region residents are becoming increasingly worried over radiation exposure as a number of radioactive “hotspots” have been discovered in and around the capital.

Local governments are calling for calm, as annual doses of radiation at the hotspots — sites where radiation levels are significantly higher than their surroundings — would not exceed 20 millisieverts as they do in parts of Fukushima Prefecture. Residents are nevertheless calling on their local governments to take some kind of action. <...>

“Everyone is worried about their children,” <33-year-old housewife and mother of two Yuki Osaku> says. <...>

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http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/radiation-in-japan-greenpeace-detected.html


Report: City of 290,000 people 60 kilometers from Fukushima meltdown is in danger — Extremely high radiation detected, along with Cobalt-60


Very rough, partial translation of the Shukan Gendai (June 24 Issue) http://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/9034 article follows:

Our urgent, special report reveals

More than 10 times the radiation limit. Even cobalt-60 was detected. Children should be evacuated immediately, but the government says nothing, pretending not to know anything　<...>

did his own measurement before the surface soil removal started at Watari Junior High. The soil around the warehouse near the parking lot measured 360 microsieverts/hour.

This time, the survey team measured the soil after the surface soil removal. It was till 45 microsieverts/hour, about 12 times the limit. <...>

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-20/japan-needs-nuclear-as-main-energy-kansai-electric-s-mori-says.html

Madness :

Japan Needs Nuclear as Main Energy: Mori (chairman of Kansai Electric Power Co., the nation’s second-biggest power producer)


Japan needs nuclear power as its main energy source and the country shouldn’t follow European examples in banning new reactors, said Shosuke Mori, chairman of Kansai Electric Power Co., the nation’s second-biggest power producer.

“It’s the only way to secure a stable supply of environmentally clean electricity at a relatively low cost,” Mori, who also heads the Kansai Economic Federation, the biggest business lobby in western Japan, said last week in an interview in Osaka. “Nuclear power should keep its current status.”

snip

Mori said the Kansai region, consisting of Osaka and its surrounding prefectures including Kyoto and Hyogo, used to account for almost a quarter of Japan’s electricity consumption when he joined Kansai Electric in 1963. That ratio is now about 17 percent, after the central government shifted its investment to the Tokyo area, he said.

“We in the west need to strike while the iron is hot if we want to attract people and companies here,” Mori said. “In a few years, people in Tokyo may start to forget what they went through.”


related

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20110621p2g00m0bu047000c.html

Kansai Electric chairman calls for restarting nuclear reactors

OSAKA (Kyodo) -- Kansai Electric Power Co. Chairman Shosuke Mori, who also chairs a regional business lobby for Osaka and its vicinity, has called for restarting nuclear reactors, currently out of service for regular checkups, to avoid summer electricity shortages.

"It is most important to restart nuclear reactors," Mori said in a recent interview with Kyodo News after his company requested early last week a 15 percent cut in electricity consumption this summer for businesses and households in its service area due to some nuclear reactors' prolonged suspension.

He indicated that the central government should seek an early resumption of suspended reactors by explaining their safety to local governments hosting these reactors.

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http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110621p2g00m0bu034000c.html

Key water treatment system halts at Fukushima plant

FUKUSHIMA (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday that a pump of a newly installed radioactive water treatment system at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant halted automatically during its trial run early that morning, freezing the operation of the entire apparatus.

The utility said it believes that the pump, which is a component developed by France's Areva SA to inject chemicals into the key system to decontaminate radioactive materials, had stopped as it was overburdened by excessive liquid flow.

snip

Aiming to resume full-scale operation in the near term, TEPCO had conducted a trial run of the system early Tuesday.

The contaminated water accumulating at reactor facilities, including coolant liquid leaking from damaged reactors, has been diverted elsewhere at the plant to prevent it from overflowing from the facilities, but those storage locations are nearing full capacity.

(Mainichi Japan) June 21, 2011

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/21flood.html

NRC in 2010: Major flood could cause core damage at Ft. Calhoun nuke plant– Cited for second most serious category of violation

<...> Last year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited the Fort Calhoun plant for not being adequately prepared for floods and rated the safety violation in the “yellow” category, the second most serious. The agency ordered changes because it said that under the plan in place at the time, .

After initially contesting the findings, the plant’s operators, Omaha Public Power District, said that the problems had been resolved. Gary Gates <...>

he utility has brought in extra workers for round-the-clock coverage <...>


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http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html#en46965

‘Event’ at Cooper nuke plant: Uncontrolled release of oil into Missouri River after levees are over topped


Event Number: 46970, Current Event Notification Report for June 20, 2011, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, June 20, 2011:

Facility: COOPER
Region: 4 State: NE
Event Date: 06/19/2011
Event Time: 19:40

RELEASE OF OIL TO THE MISSOURI RIVER

Notification is being made to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality regarding the release of oil to the Missouri River from the Cooper Live Fire Training Facility. Currently, levees separating the Training Facility and the Missouri River are being over topped due to flooding of the Missouri River. This condition has resulted in flooding of the burn pits in the fire training facility, with the subsequent release of the residue which includes unburned fuel oil. Any release of this water containing oil to the Missouri River is uncontrolled at this time. Then is no radiological contamination in this area.


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http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/8262363/fallout

Japan’s recovery from Fukushima to be measured in centuries, judging by Chernobyl (VIDEO)

Fallout!, 60 Minutes Australia, June 17, 2011:

When Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake and tsunami back in March, we told ourselves the worst was behind us. <...>

But all these weeks later, the crisis is far from over.

The crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is still leaking and, judging from the experience at Chernobyl, Japan’s recovery won’t be measured in years, but centuries.


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http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110621p2a00m0na004000c.html

City near Tokyo sets maximum radiation dose for children — Averages out to .31 microsieverts per hour


KAWAGUCHI, Saitama — The city government here has set the maximum radiation dose for children at 1.64 millisieverts per year, making it the first local government in Japan to implement its own radiation exposure standard.

The tentative figure announced on June 20 is based on the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)’s 1 millisievert recommended maximum exposure to man-made radiation sources, plus Japan’s average background radiation dose of 0.34 millisieverts and the average 0.3 millisieverts of annual exposure to cosmic radiation.

According to the Kawaguchi city government, the new annual exposure limit breaks down to a maximum hourly dose of 0.31 microsieverts, assuming a child spent eight hours a day outside. <...>
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http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_10.html

More people in Fukushima fearing contamination (Video)

Concerns over radioactive contamination are growing among people living next to the new evacuation advisory zones near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The people live just outside an area in Date and Minami Soma cities that the government last week designated for voluntary evacuation.

On Monday evening, Minami Soma city officials visited the homes of 5 families in Jisabara district, next to the zones. The officials checked the radiation levels around the houses at the request of the concerned residents.

The highest level recorded was 2.45 microsieverts per hour at 1 meter above the ground in the houses' backyards. The mother of an 8-year-old girl said she has been worried since the nuclear accident in March. She said she thinks it is a bit late for city officials to address their concerns.


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Notice the last 2 stories, one shows the government standard of safety set at .31 microsieverts per/hour, yet the next admits that radiation of up to 2.45 microsieverts per/hour has been recorded, or 8 TIMES that.

[Wilms]

1. I really appreciate your efforts to keep us informed. n/t

:patriot:

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. "environmentally clean electricity" he says.

(said Shosuke Mori, chairman of Kansai Electric Power Co., the nation’s second-biggest power producer. )

I am speechless.

[snagglepuss]

3. Thanks for posting. I too appreciate your efforts. nt

[Rex]

4. It is time to call it a loss, bury it somehow under tons of concrete

and start searching for where it is getting into the water table and try to stop it from happening. Frankly, if they are dumping huge amounts of contaminated water back into the ocean that is another big concern. My heart goes out the every last person living on that island chain. Moving south is impractical for the masses.