Everyday I get up in the morning hoping that people in Japan will wake up to the dire situation they are in and start doing something. Anything. Everyday I am disappointed. When they do something, it is almost always "WTF....?" Yesterday was no exception.
Here's a collection of small news in Japan from yesterday that made me recite the haiku by the master Matsuo Basho - "When I say something, as soon as the word leaves my lips, it's blowing in the cold autumnal wind" - there's no use in saying.
City in Fukushima Prefecture to send persimmons to the Imperial Household:
Aizu Wakamatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture is preparing its annual gift to the imperial family: persimmons harvested this year. They city has been giving the gift ever since 1928, when a granddaughter of the last lord of the Aizu (who sided with the Tokugawa Shogun regime in the civil war that toppled the Shogunate and ushered in the Meiji era) married a younger brother of Emperor Showa (the father of the current emperor). (Yomiuri Shinbun 11/17/2011)
Persimmon is one of the fruits that have been constantly found with elevated levels of radioactive cesium. The particular persimmons in Aizu are free of radioactive materials, according to the testing by Fukushima Prefecture. (Yes that's very trustworthy.)
I suppose it's their way of getting back, in a way. The Mayor of the city, when he visited a city in Kyushu, couldn't help commenting on the bitterly-fought civil war of almost 150 years ago in which his city under Lord Katamori Matsudaira lost to the forces that included the lord of that city in Kyushu.
The emperor is still hospitalized. All the imperial duties are delegated to the crown prince, who performs them without his wife accompanying him as she should. (In her case, it is nothing to do with radiation. She's been absent from almost all official duties for years because of her sensitive psychological problems.)
Government to send Self Defense Force soldiers to "decontaminate" within 20-kilometer radius:
The Kan administration sent SDF soldiers to Fukushima I Nuclear Power plant right after Reactor 1 blew up. They were taking up positions for the watering operation on March 14, when Reactor 3 blew up. Some warm feelings between the government and the SDF.
Now, the Noda administration will be sending the soldiers within 20-kilometer radius of the plant, to Namie-machi, Naraha-machi (where Fuku-II is located) and Tomioka-machi, to "decontaminate". The administration wants to accelerate the pace of decontamination in the no-entry zone so that people can return, and has decided to send in the Self Defense Force to the more contaminated area inside the no-entry zone starting early December. The SDF soldiers are expected to finish their "decontamination" work of the town halls in the above-mentioned towns by the end of December. (Mainichi Shinbun 11/17/2011, via Asyura so that the original article does not disappear)
It's not even the decontamination of people's houses or farmland. The SDF soldiers will be made to decon the municipal buildings that even the town's politicians are not very keen to return to.
There are some criticisms voiced to this government's move, but they are not about sending young soldiers in the high-radiation areas for useless work. They are about the government taking away the work of the private contractors. Three joint ventures headed by three major general contractors have been selected to carry out the "decontamination" in the no-entry zone and the planned evacuation zone, and they are not very happy about the SDF doing the work they are supposed to be doing and be paid for. (Also from the same Mainichi Shinbun article linked above.)
Who are these general contractors heading these JVs? Kajima, Taisei, Obayashi (Asahi Shinbun 11/15/2011). In other words, the same ones that have profited from building nuclear power plants and other big government infra projects, and some of the same ones who are getting disaster debris burning jobs in Miyagi Prefecture in a blatant case of collusion "dango".
People within 3 kilometer radius return temporarily to retrieve their stuff by car:
Fukushima Minyu (11/17/2011) tells us that the residents in the 3-kilometer radius from the plant in Okuma-machi started to return temporarily to retrieve their belongings. They are allowed to use their cars.
I am sure the cars will be decontaminated at the check point or at J-Village. The problem is that since the background radiation is high, the cars may test perfectly fine there.
Fukushima Prefecture to hold another Ekiden road race featuring underage boys and girls, on November 20:
Fukushima is doing the Ekiden road race again, in the high radiation Naka-dori, from Shirakawa City to Fukushima City, 96.5 kilometers. Participants are Fukushima resident athletes in cities, towns and villages in Fukushima Prefecture. Again, half the members are underage boys and girls, as young as 13, again. (The official cite of the event at Fukushima Minpo: http://www.minpo.jp/pub/ekiden2011/)
Why do they do this? Because 1) they did it last year about the same time; 2) to show to the rest of Japan what a wonderful place Fukushima is, how people are coping wonderfully, how it is safe to hold an event like this. To do the Number 2, what better way than to use 13, 14 year olds?
2 boxes full of contaminated soil sent to the Ministry of the Environment, and a worker at the Ministry dumps the soil in an empty lot:
Someone in Fukushima City send two boxes filled with contaminated soil to the Ministry of the Environment. A General Affairs section manager expressed his feeling that it could be buried in his backyard, so the worker under him took his meaning and took the boxes home, dumped the content in an empty lot in the neighboring city.
Goshi Hosono, Minister of the Environment and Minister in charge of the nuclear accident, said "I understand the person's feeling, but we will do our best to decontaminate so please refrain from sending the contaminated soil to us." (Sankei Shinbun 11/17/2011)
As usual, he lies. Fukushima City's decontamination is to be done by the city, who is busy rounding up volunteers. The city is not designated as any type of evacuation zone, and it is 60 kilometers away. So it's outside the government responsibility to decontaminate.
As the country slowly descends into lunacy, winter comes, and cold, north wind will blow from Fukushima's direction to Kanto and Tokyo.
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OT: Breaking news from France:
France’s 58 nuclear reactors need safety upgrade to resist natural disasters, says watchdog
Nuclear power plants in France, the most nuclear dependent country in the world, are vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of a major natural disaster such as that which hit the Japanese plant at Fukushima in March. That is the conclusion of a stress-test study of the country's 58-strong reactor fleet carried out by the French radioprotection and nuclear safety institute, the IRSN, presented Thursday by the national nuclear safety agency, the ASN, which warned that "massive investment" is required for the recommended safety upgrades.
(taken from here: http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/171111/france-s-58-nuclear-reactors-need-safety-upgrade-resist-natural-disasters-says )
See also IRSN website here: http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_presse/Actualites/Pages/20111117_Rapport-IRSN-ECS-Evaluations-Complementaires-Surete.aspx
There you can find a link to the 500-page IRSN report (in French, use translate.google.com if you don't read French)
I find this very interesting, as the Fukushima accident apparently awakens even the very pro-nuclear French. Obviously they want to avoid at all cost to happen a Fukushima-alike mishap in their country.
The French political scene slowly turns nuclear-critical, and the Socialist Party is thinking about a slow exit strategy from their 80% dependence on nuclear energy.
The stress test study revealed that, for example, the aging Fessenheim nuclear plant which lies in an earthquake region would probably not survive a 6.7 magnitude earthquake because then the tubing would break open and eventually produce a LOCA.
I really hope that our chancellor Merkel (which is often dubbed "federal trouser suit" here) will have the guts to speak with the French about this, as the Fessenheim plant is at the Rhine, directly vis-a-vis to southwestern german wine region and the wind almost always is directing towards Germany, like the wind at Fukushima usually is directed to the sea.
WTF!!!
WTF x2
Things just keep spiraling downward. It seems there is no hero in the political class or major known public figure that will stand up to make a change for the better. They are all spineless people who will not save their nation.
William, the work you have been doing in Japan is truly admirable and heroic. If only there were Japanese leaders who had the same heart as you. Have you been receiving any threats, either online or in real life, for the investigative work and videos you are doing?
Please take care of yourself and especially what you are eating/drinking. If you can, please leave Japan.
WTF in multiples.
"WTF....?" Yesterday was no exception.
Owner of ex-skf blog... I feel very sorry for you. How must it feel to now see the true face of Japan during this disaster after investing so many years of your life trying to master that most difficult language, and having been so very patient trying understand the vague and frustrating Japanese character. I pity you.
arevamirpal,
this makes me really melancholic.
It must be a very sad feeling to see what happens in your ancestor's country.
I also don't understand it. A whole country putting the head in the sand, trying to pretend a normality that has gone forever and to belie themself.
"As the country slowly descends into lunacy, winter comes, and cold, north wind will blow from Fukushima's direction to Kanto and Tokyo."
I have a nightmarish feeling when thinking about the cooling of the spent fuel pools failing and not restorable due to freezing.
WTF-club convention?
WTF indeed, I had a student walk out on me because I disagreed with him on radiation, he was buying the government line and Wade Alison ... i tried to show him the light but to no avail... fuck em thats what i think now.....hats off to EXSKF for his patience in the face of such fucking ignorance.
If the sheeple in Japan could have their crisis of nuclear stupidity without affecting the rest of us maybe I would not be so bitter and angry. But what the insane Japanese have chosen to do is go down with the ship and take the rest of us with them and I object to it. Nobody has the right to build these charnel houses and abandon them to massive releases as soon as the radiation starts to escape. Not only do the Japanese not get it that they cannot cold shutdown with water, they do not understand it is too late to decontaminate once the horses have left the barn.
Truly I do now understand my strange reaction to the Japanese while passing through their nation in spring 2010, when they struck me as mindless drones dependent on a cartoon reality that had 'doomed' written on the price tag. Maybe it was the dark book I was reading, 'Collapse', about how societies destroy themselves. It was a strange premonition I did not forget. This is what happens when you bake the brains out of yes men and women with decades of too much electron voltage.
Is there really nobody there with the heart and cojones to speak up and say, hey, how come exactly is it Japan could not just bury this mess very deep and be done with all the releases? Who there will put their life on the line to speak truth to nuclear power about entombment and get this thing buried ASAP? It's been eight months and still there is not one Japanese who wants to entomb this mess? WTF indeed.
The rest of us in the world being forced to absorb the radioactive plume out of this debacle should be very angry the Japanese mouseketeers are such wimps and losers they didn't even lift a finger to bury this thing right at the start. What a disappointment Japan is to the world. Its slave drones are adorable until covered with nuclear road rash, so smart and advanced but it turns out they led the race to the bottom and are sucking in everyone else after them.
Let everyone living in Europe and heavily populated areas of the world recognize that they are witnessing only the first of many probable six sigma meltdowns and abandonments of responsibility and that the master plan of those who promoted nuclear fission, the Einsteins, Oppenheimers, Obamas, Immelts, Strausses and Tellers was mass human sacrifice and their creed was Deuteronomy. You can forget 'decontamination' along with 'cold shutdown' and 'carbon free' and 'nothing to worry about' and 'fear of radiation is worse than radiation itself'. Once you nuke the whole environment plus your genome the game's over for Mickey and Minnie. Dec. eleventh will be the start of the congenital birth defect season when the one eyed Japanese babies will be screaming for radioactive titty. It will cost Japan so much to lose their future and all hope, and yet, to think, even today they do nothing to bury this heap under a big mountain of sand where, yes, they could achieve cold shutdown without any more pissing on it with their idiotic fire hoses.
4WTF sunk: ƃuıʇɐoןɟ sʇɔɐɟ
The posters on this blog are all batshit crazy.
There is only one batshit crazy troll here and he has been knocked down time and time again, but keeps coming back like some kind of retarded masochist, despite having sustained major head trauma and knocked out teeth, to further profess his mancrush on Arto Lauri and preach sermons to the unsaved heathen.
When are people going to wake up and realize that the ONLY thing you can do is get the hell out of Japan. Period! There is nothing that can be done. There is no Bounty quicker picker upper that's going to clean up radiation. Nothing Nada! Get it through to your soon to be radioactive skulls. P.S your government will never tell you this so don't wait around for that.
I emailed my brother, now a professor at Oregon State U., and the eldest of the clan about the drifting radiation over my whole familys' region. Though I drank too much in my youth, I may outlive them all because he won't acknowledge my existence and follow good advice.
I may tell him not to take the whole family to vacation in Tokyo just for spite. Let fools have their chosen fate.
Where's a leader like Hirohito (a biological engineer and scientist of radiation) when ya need him?
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