Thursday, July 28, 2011

Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama of Tokyo University Tells the Politicians: "What Are You Doing?" (Part 1)

(Part 2, Part 3; there are also the video in 2 parts with English subtitle, French text translation, and the video in 2 parts with German subtitle. Go to this post for the links.)

Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama is the head of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo. On July 27, he appeared as a witness to give testimony to the Committee on Welfare and Labor in Japan's Lower House in the Diet.

Remember Professor Kosako, also from the University of Tokyo, who resigned in protest as special advisor to the prime minister over the 20 millisievert/year radiation limit for school children? There are more gutsy researchers at Todai (Tokyo University) - the supreme school for the "establishment" - than I thought. Professor Kodama literally shouted at the politicians in the committee, "What the hell are you doing?"

He was of course referring to the pathetic response by the national government in dealing with the nuclear crisis, particularly when it comes to protecting children.

Even if you don't understand the language, take a look and listen. He sounds sincere, and his voice is literally shaking with anger.



(The original video that was embedded in this post was removed at Youtube. Too many views for TPTB, maybe. It was approaching 300K views. This one is missing the first few minutes, and starts when he talks about 5 microsieverts/hour in Tokai-mura.)

Aside from his anger, he also gave some very interesting and disturbing information, which I try to summarize below:

He starts out with the radiation fallout in Tokyo:

"We detected 5 microsieverts/hour radiation in Tokai-mura in Ibaraki Prefecture about 9AM on March 15, and notified the Ministry of Education and Science as the "Article 10 notification" [as specified in the Nuclear Disaster Countermeasures Law]. Later, the radiation exceeding 0.5 microsievert/hour was detected in Tokyo. Then on March 22 it rained in Tokyo, and with the rain came 0.2 microsievert/hour radiation, and this I believe is the reason for the elevated radiation level to this day.

"Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said at that time, "There is no immediate effect on health". I actually thought this was going to be a big, big problem."

It was indeed in the news that 5 microsieverts/hour radiation was detected at Tokai-mura in Ibaraki Prefecture on March 15 morning, but hardly anyone, other than nuclear experts like him, connected that news with the elevated radiation level in Tokyo. The residents of Tokyo didn't even know about it. What happened in the morning of March 15? Well, Reactor 4 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant had a "big noise" which blew out the roof at 6AM, and Reactor 2 had an explosion in the Suppression Pool at 6:14AM. Or it could be from the Reactor 3 explosion in the previous day, at 11:01AM on March 14.

The professor goes on to explain his concern at that time:

"Why was I concerned? Because the current radiation injury prevention method is based on dealing with a small amount of radioactive materials that emit very high radiation. In this case, the total amount of radioactive materials is not much of an issue. What matters is how high the radiation is.

"However, in the case of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, 5 microsieverts within 100-kilometer radius [he is referring to Tokai-mura], 0.5 microsievert within 200-kilometer radius [referring to Tokyo area], and the radiation extended far beyond, even to teas in Ashigara and Shizuoka, as everybody now knows."

So, instead of a small amount of highly radioactive materials in a confined area, what we have is a huge amount of radioactive materials spread wide.

He continues:

"When we research the radiation injury/sickness, we look at the total amount of radioactive materials. But there is no definite report from TEPCO or the Japanese government as to exactly how much radioactive materials have been released from Fukushima.

"So, using our knowledge base at the Radioisotope Center, we calculated. Based on the thermal output, it is 29.6 times the amount released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In uranium equivalent, it is 20 Hiroshima bombs.

"What is more frightening is that whereas the radiation from a nuclear bomb will decrease to one-thousandth in one year, the radiation from a nuclear power plant will only decrease to one-tenth.

"In other words, we should recognize from the start that just like Chernobyl, Fukushima I Nuke Plant has released radioactive materials equivalent in the amount to tens of nuclear bombs, and the resulting contamination is far worse than the contamination by a nuclear bomb."

So what's the implication of the huge amount of radioactive materials released and dispersed wide? It's much harder to predict the behavior of the particles, as they behave in a non-linear manner:

"When a vast amount of radioactive materials is released, they are in particles. Dispersion of particles is non-linear, and it's one of the most difficult calculations in the fluid dynamics. The nuclear fuel is like sands buried in synthetic resin, but once the fuel melts down, a large amount of super-fine particles is released.

"What happens then? The problem like the contaminated rice hay happens. The pattern of contamination does not follow concentric circles. It depends on the weather. It also depends on where the particles landed - on the material that absorbs water, for example."

His Radioisotope Center has been helping Minami Soma City, and he describes the situation in the city in details concerning the radioactive rice hay:

"We at the Radioisotope Center have been helping Minami Soma City in the decontamination effort. We've done seven decontaminations so far. When we went to Minami Soma for the first time, there was only one geiger counter. On March 19 when the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries supposedly issued the notice [on the cattle feed], food, water, and gasoline were about to be depleted in the city. The mayor of Minami Soma made a plea for help on the Internet, which was widely viewed.

"In that kind of situation, no one would look at a piece of paper from the Ministry, no one would know. Farmers didn't know that rice hay was in danger. Still, they bought the feed from abroad, paying hundreds of thousands of yen, and started to feed the cows with the same groundwater that they drank.

"So, what should we do now? We have to guarantee that the thorough radiation measurement is done in the contaminated area. As I said before, there was only one geiger counter in Minami Soma City when we went there in May. In fact, there were 20 personal survey meters provided by the US military. But no one at the city's Board of Education could understand the English manual until we went there and told them how to use them. That's how it is there.

"As to the food inspection, there are more advanced survey meters than germanium counters, such as semiconductor detectors. Why doesn't the Japanese government spend money in supporting [the development of these advanced detectors?]?

"After 3 months, the government has done no such thing, and I am shaking with anger."


(... to be continued in Part 2.)

36 comments:

akaider said...

its great Kodama brings these points out, the background radiation risk is far outweighed by the risk of internal radiation from ingestion or inhalation of particles. and 20 hiroshimas - no wonder TEPCO & the JP govt have been tryin to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Japan wake up!!!

Anonymous said...

Good to see someone getting angry.

Up until last week I had thought that the major release was at the same time as the explosion(s). However, on Prof Hayakawa's blog he says that the major releases actually occurred after the explosions.

I think it was on this link, please check for yourself:

http://kipuka.blog70.fc2.com/blog-entry-409.html

I think Dr. Saji also mentioned in his mail updates an unspecified/uncommented major release several days into the accident.

"(2) Nevertheless, the reported 1F1 events and the environmental monitoring records are now relatively well correlated. However, it appears that there was a subsequent large release event from 1F1 after the hydrogen explosion. I have been suspecting this through my assessment of the land contamination maps released from DOE/NNEA ( http://energy.gov/news/10194.htm ). "

Anonymous said...

Thank you for bringing this to us Ultra Man Seven! We could use some good news. Revolution!

Anonymous said...

Thank you ever so much for doing the job! I was wondering how to send you the video when I found your post.

Anonymous said...

We need minds like this running the country, not the buffoons and nuclear power's whores we have now.

Thankyou for posting. Faith in Japan slowly being restored.

And thankyou Todai for leading the way.

Anonymous said...

Thank god finally someone in Japan isn't towing the government line of sick lies and propaganda, this guy is a hero... telling the facts as they are...a kind of Japanese Gunderson, but rightfully angry.... Japan is headed for oblivion unfortunately...

Anonymous said...

it would be good to put the translation as subtitles on the main video....then it could be sent out all over the place and be a viral video for the English speaking world

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kodama is quite worthy of respect.


".. semiconductor detectors. Why doesn't the Japanese government spend money in supporting [the development of these advanced detectors?]?

"After 3 months, the government has done no such thing, and I am shaking with anger." "

Tokyo Brown Tabby said...

I'm pasting English captions onto the original YouTube video now. Please wait for a while.

Kevin said...

Thank you so very much for posting this
Thank you to Tokyo brown tabby for pasting the subtitles
And above all thanks to professor Kodama. His voice and informed indignation must be heard

kikochoon said...

great job !
thank you !!!

Anonymous said...

there are no governement in Japan. Peoples have been elected, but they do not govern, they talk and fight each other.
I am so happy that some Japanese stand up more and more. I wish their words will continue to gain grounds against the side of the government and their nazi preachers. People against the devil.

Edofin said...

I do not speak Japanese, I was going to watch the Video and take what I could from it.

I Must Say - I am impressed with Googles Transcribe Audio. After turning it on, I was able to select Googles Translate Audio. Selected English. And IT WORKS!

Major Coodles to Google. Really Impressed!

As to the topic of the video: Heart Breaking.

Anonymous said...

We have no options:
survival means accountability to a concept known as the:
precautionary principle
The human race needs to learn that its own technology is a threat to its own existence. Oversight is a requirement for our continued survival and criminal sanctions must be brought to violations of this principle.
Or our destiny will be extinction. The Earth will forget the impudent species that though it was above consequences.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Tabby needs help.. Tabby managed to download the video, put the captions, but when it comes to upload the captioned video only the first 5 minutes of it gets uploaded. I'm not familiar with video captioning at all. Anyone know how Tabby could upload the entire vid with caption?

Anonymous said...

What is happening in Japan will happen in all of the British Empire controlled countries. Queen Elizabeth, Rothschild and Rockefeller don't care how many die as long as you keep using their worthless paper money which keeps them sitting on their golden thrones deluding themselves into believing they're gods.

The best the Japanese can do for themselves is to leave Japan immediately! Don't hesitate, get out of there -- the entire country is a death trap.

Anonymous said...

philanthropic group... please help us ,,, take out us here...it is very easy to say move out of the country but how ??? where we go.. d financial situation... language barrier.. ohhhhh.. just waiting for the revolution and ill join immediately. anyway were all dead..

Anonymous said...

sadly the comment - the entire country is a death trap - is apt. cancers for many,low reproduction rates for decades. time to stop the madness of nuclear.

Anonymous said...

What happened to Sony Panasonic Matsushita Olympus Hitachi Toshiba etc. Can't they mass produce radiation detectors at low cost and distribute them to the whole population paid for by the government. With that people can recognize and avoid hot spots to some extent. Sony and Panasonic could sure make transistor radios like hot cakes in the 1950s.

Anonymous said...

Have Tabby or you leave an email. I'll post it for you.

Anonymous said...

This blog could be in jeopardy. Please read on.

Friday, July 15, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (METI) – Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, opened a call for bids (tender) regarding the “Nuclear Power Safety Regulation Publicity Project”, for contractors to monitor blogs and tweets posted about nuclear power and radiation.

“Nuclear Power Safety Regulation Publicity Project” stipulates that, “The Contractor is required to monitor blogs on nuclear power and radiation issues as well as Twitter accounts (monitoring tweets is essential) around the clock, and conduct research and analysis on incorrect and inappropriate information that would lead to false rumors, and to report such internet accounts to the Agency. The “Contractor” is required to keep the Agency well informed on the internet accounts and keywords used in the blogs and Twitter accounts that are posting incorrect and inappropriate information. The Contractor is required to maintain sufficient number of personnel for around-the-clock monitoring. The Contractor is required to submit reports on internet accounts via CDR.” The document, however, does not state that blogs or Twitter accounts, which run afoul of METI’s guidelines, are to be banned or frozen.”

http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/new-japan-law-cleanses-bad-nuclear-news/article13589.html

Ian Goddard said...

Thanks once again for bridging the language gap!

Btw, the updated JNN feed is

here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gELpXbIbtPc

Anonymous said...

Panasonic Olympus Hitachi Toshiba etc etc etc?!?! Are you consumers who purchase Japanese electronics or other products made in Japan aware that those products are radioactive too? Japanese cars can't pass a Geiger counter test. Avoid ALL Japanese products -- read labels!!! Japan is a dead country. Their only hope is to leave as soon as possible. At least Russia evacuated Chernobyl. The Japanese British Crown controlled government is letting the Japanese die so they can continue to profit from the sale of Japanese goods! Not to mention that Japan is the 'tri' in Rockefeller's and Brzezinski's Trilateral Commission. Please Japan -- WAKE UP. Leave while you still can!!!

Tokyo Brown Tabby said...

@anon at July 29, 2011 6:38 PM
Thank you, but I managed to put the English subtitles on the videos (I had to split it into two) and uploaded them to YouTube site.
I can see the subtitles on my own account's page, but somehow those subtitles do not appear on the screen of the public viewing pages. I don't know why. I don't know what to do other than to wait.

Anonymous said...

FUCK JAPAN

Babu said...

We need more people to openly speak out and bring the truth to public. Very limited coverage to these facts and day by day truth of many radiation issues are coming out...

Anonymous said...

The Japanese government has become infiltrated by Koreans born in Japan. Kan is one of them as he supports the pro-Pyongyang groups. He and the preceding prime ministers have donated money to these groups. He wants to destroy Japan. That is why he is acting the way that he is. Wake up citizens of Japan!!!!

Anonymous said...

These governments were set up after WWII with the Rockefellers getting the crown jewels. Ronald Reagen, GE, Hollywood, Holy Rood, red shields, rock and roll. The head of GE is Jeffrey "I Melt" who aptly represents the company's lethal products. I think they are keeping the meltdown open is to maximize the total radiation damage to Japan, because anyone knows the only way to stop a meltdown is to cover it with sand to become corium glass UO. And the damnedest thing about it is yall could have covered that thang over with sand in the first week and prolly never contaminated so much of Honshu.

Anonymous said...

Looks like comments are even censored here. Sheesh!

Anonymous said...

U-tube has removed kodama`s speech as a `violation of U-Tube`s Terms of Service`
Does anyone know what these violations are ??
Rolf

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

I embedded a new one. Missing the first few minutes though. I'll keep looking.

Anonymous said...

here is a very good translation, hope everybody can see it:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/%E7%A6%8F%E5%B3%B6%E3%81%AE%E3%81%93%E3%81%A9%E3%82%82%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%82%92%E5%AE%88%E3%82%8D%E3%81%86/a-testimony-by-prof-tatsuhiko-kodama-transcript-in-english-version-10/264082103606328

Anonymous said...

@anon at 3:29PM, This blog has a very good translation, too, in three parts, if you follow the link at the top of the post.

Anonymous said...

please email me one at fabfx@bloomberg.net before some idiots remove everything from youtube thanks in advance


"arevamirpal::laprimavera said...
I embedded a new one. Missing the first few minutes though. I'll keep looking."

Unknown said...

I am glad to know these things.Its truly pleasant to be part of this blog.PPI Compensation Calculator.

Unknown said...

Thank you so very much for posting this.I really like reading on this subject Could you tell me more on that... I love to explore.PPI Claims Calculator.

Post a Comment