Thursday, November 3, 2011

Radioactive Disaster Debris Arrives in Tokyo from Iwate Prefecture

to be crushed and burned and buried in the landfill in Tokyo Bay.

Lovely.

I've told you already that the one and only contractor who can burn according to the Tokyo Metropolitan government specs (which was clearly designed so that there would be nobody else) is a TEPCO's subsidiary.

NHK reports that the first container from Miyako City in Iwate Prefecture arrived by rail in JR Tokyo container terminal in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo at 7AM on November 3. It was promptly transported to one of the contractors selected by the Metropolitan government, and the debris was sorted, and crushed into smaller pieces. Flammable debris will go to the TEPCO's subsidiary (Tokyo Rinkai Recycle Power) located on the landfill and be burned after November 6, and non-flammable debris will be simply buried in the same landfill.

According to NHK, they did measure radiation at the contractor's site, by putting a bit of the debris in a lead box and measuring the radiation. If you say to yourself "WTF.." you are not alone.

(Photo was taken by Hirofumi Yanagase, Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblyman.)

Now, I found three interesting pieces of information on Twitter, though not independently verifiable.

First, Hirofumi Yanagase, Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblyman from Ota-ku, who was on the scene when the container arrived and accompanied the container to the contractor's site, tweeted:

At the terminal station, there was no measurement of radiation by the Tokyo Metropolitan government.

But then, there was apparently a citizen who went there and measured radiation around the container, and tweeted:

Debris from disaster area arrived. Radiation around the truck and the container is already exceeding 35 microsievert/hour. The location is JR Tokyo freight terminal.

Furthermore, someone else tweeted that the Tokyo Metropolitan government prohibited the reporters from measuring the radiation level using their own geiger counters. (UPDATE: That someone was from OurPlanet TV covering the event. H/T savechild.net)

This acceptance of disaster (radioactive) debris from Iwate Prefecture, soon to be followed by that from Miyagi Prefecture, was done with hardly any consultation with the Metropolitan Assembly or the Tokyo residents. It was the decision by the governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara and his bureaucrats.

As more and more municipalities are saying "No" to accepting the disaster debris pushed by the Ministry of the Environment, Tokyo, and perhaps Osaka, may be the only municipalities willingly burn and bury the radioactive debris.

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

https://twitter.com/#!/sayakaiurani

According to the tweeter account you posted, the measurement was 0.35 microsievert per hour? Still high, but not the same as 35.

Anonymous said...

"According to NHK, they did measure radiation at the contractor's site, by putting a bit of the debris in a lead box and measuring the radiation."

Which is the correct method to discard background radiation and measure the actual radiation levels of, well, anything.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 12:39AM, she mentions two numbers in two different tweets.

kintaman said...

So Tokyo, a metropolis with tens of millions of people, is just going to sit there and let them BURN the radioactive material right there in Tokyo bay? This location is a mere 40 minute drive from where I used to live. I am so very glad I left when I did in March.

This is insanity on top of insanity. PEOPLE of Tokyo, DO SOMETHING! Stop this madness. The burning will only further spread the contamination.

Anonymous said...

@anon 12:41 am

Yes, this is the right methods to measure the radiation of a piece of interest.

The big question here is, how was the sample taken?

Did they pick a single piece? This would be a non-representative sample.

Did they pile everything up in a heap, split the heap into 4 parts, take one part, pile it up again into a heap, split it into 4 parts and so on until you reach a measurable size? Definitely NO (it would take too long)

So, the sample is non representative and the media was not allowed to measure with their own survey meters? You can imagine how representative the measured value is.

By the way, I would not really be surprised if the first shipment of material was already preselected in a way, to have minimum radiation. The contaminated stuff will be sent a bit later, when the media will not watch anymore.

Anonymous said...

I don't see the debris from Miyako being a problem. That area seems to be clean compared to Tokyo or specially Kashiwa in Chiba.

Anonymous said...

PEOPLE of Tokyo - rise up and take control you friggin sheep !!!!

You are about to lose your country, your heritage, and take the rest of the world with you.

Wake up you lame beasts with no balls - YOU MUST RISE UP AND TAKE OVER - the friggin tepcos and jap gov are murdering the world with their stupid incompetence.


W A K E U P ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Anonymous said...

Anon at 1:05AM is correct. Since they are using hand-held geiger counters, there is no reason to only take one sample as the measurement does not take too long. The restrictions on others using their geiger counters makes me think of a Thomas Jefferson quote:

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."

Anonymous said...

stop this criminal act of burning nuclear waste.

ownasaur said...

I just can't believe that the Japanese people will take this bending over. Your bureaucrats and TEPCO are poisoning your homes, your family and your land and yet you do nothing to stop them.

I fear this is the end of Tokyo and who knows maybe later down the road when they burn more and more of that lovely radioactive waste it will be the end of Japan as a whole.

There is still a chance to save a part of your country before it's too late. Stop this madness of burning radioactive debris, it will only make things worse by spreading even more radiation. Why not just pile up all the radioactive debris near the Fukushima plant? Why spread radiation all over? Are these politicians crazy? I know Ishihara has several loose screws and needs to be replaced (shot) but what about the rest? Are they that stupid?

As a previous poster said: PEOPLE OF JAPAN IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AND TAKE BACK YOUR COUNTRY! I'm begging you for humanity's sake! This needs to stop NOW!

Anonymous said...

I know this is gonna piss people off but fuck it I will say it, ...the people of Tokyo deserve this shit, Why? Because they are complicit in their silence, keep your head down, say nothing , fit in with the status quo..thats the name of the game with the Japs... .. Their mentality is so fucking backward...

As Martin Luther King said "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.". ... I rest my case.

Anonymous said...

We are all to blame. Around 500 nuke reactors around the globe and did any of you protest? Didn't think so. If you did then I commend you. Now everyone has to accept the consequences. Big business makes crap and you buy it. Crap everyday products, crap food and crap technology(your monthly electricity bill will be lower because of nuke power, yay!) .

YOU give them YOUR dollar in exchange for crap. Look around you--shelves full of crap everywhere in stores. So, we don't deserve the consequences? Sure we do. We buy the elite's crap so they can live a life of luxury and power you never even dreamed of...stupid shits that we are; too lazy to research anything; too dumb to even understand. Now we're complaining with blog comments! Yeah, we deserve this shit alright.

Iaato said...

Cities concentrate energy, water, and other resources. Won’t urban centers concentrate isotopes, too, over time, as resources get brought into cities, used, and then disposed of (including incineration)? It seems as though this experiment will answer any questions about whether urban centers use more resources or not, as radioisotopes are the perfect tracer, and Tokyo residents insist on being guinea pigs? Cities concentrate resources over time, and IMO mega-cities will do so in a mega-way as 37 million Japanese in the largest urban center in the world eat, drink, purchase, throw away, create sewage, and incinerate in a concentrated fashion.

ownasaur said...

@ anon Nov 3, 7:36

"the people of Tokyo deserve this"

Have you been drinking Ishihara's kool aid? What a terrible thing to say. You have to understand the media in Japan is hardly covering this as the very serious matter it is.

They have people from both J-gov and Tepco saying "yeah we had a 'hydrogen' release on 3 reactors, but everything is under control, nothing to worry about. Eat Fukushima food products, radiation is good for you, Plutonium-kun kawaii".

I'd say about 2-3 weeks after the nuclear incident at Fukushima, many news outlets here in the US stopped broadcasting news about it. There are reports of an increase in radiation in the west coast, especially in cow's milk and yet the mass media is not covering any of it and so most people are oblivious as to what really is going on. Everyone knows what the Kardashians are up to though, which is really sad.

Anonymous said...

when did life forms from planet Kardashia arrive?

Anonymous said...

Tokyo is Japan's 'heart and brains'.

Go figure!

Anonymous said...

"I'd say about 2-3 weeks after the nuclear incident at Fukushima, many news outlets here in the US stopped broadcasting news about it."

How about going back in time a little. Why the hell people allowed(okayed)multiple nuke reactors to be built on the most seismically active coast in the world is beyond stupid already. Then when TEPCO was caught numerous times fudging safety reports nobody cared a shit. Show me evidence that residents in close proximity to the plant didn't just say, "Okay management guys, you apologized and promised to do better, so carry on."

It's the peoples' responsibility as much as TEPCO and J gov. Everyone is guilty! There was and is so much information available about the dangers of nuclear reactors should an accident occur. People just don't want to bother, not before the accident and not now. MSM blockage of the truth does not help but it has nothing to do with people, and not just in Japan, okaying all types of crap. Cognitive dissonance at its best. Also, if it saves you a dollar on your energy bill, it must be good!

the voice in your head said...

There is an illuminating saying in the east "The Bigger the Front, the Bigger the Back"

Anonymous said...

Radioactive materials detected in Tokyo Bay

Waste water discharged into Tokyo Bay from a cement plant has been found to contain radioactive cesium at much higher levels than the government-set limit for disposal.

The plant in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, uses ash from incinerators in the prefecture to produce cement.

The Chiba government says the plant operator checked waste water discharged from the plant into Tokyo Bay once in September and once in October.

It found radioactive cesium at levels of 1,103 becquerels per kilogram, and 1,054 becquerels per kilogram respectively.

The levels are 14 to 15 times higher than the limit set by the country's Nuclear Safety Commission.

The water had been used to clean filters which remove toxic materials from ashes.

The operator stopped discharging the waste water on Wednesday. The prefectural government has launched a survey of the seawater of Tokyo Bay near the plant.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011 22:08 +0900 (JST)

Ivan said...

"The water had been used to clean filters which remove toxic materials from ashes."

It's so dumb beyond belief. What's point of cleaning contaminated filters with water which will be discharged into bay??

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

That's how you clean the bag filters, I've been told. Blast them with water, splashing the water all over the place.

Ivan said...

It's making all people, that were liars and crooks also, involved in planning Chernobyl cleanup to look like geniuses in comparison.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand it. Why on earth don't they simply dump as much of the debris as possible close to the failed nuclear plants and then block it off -- completely contain it so no one can go near there until the end of time? Why are they so intent on contaminating all of Japan and the Pacific Ocean and West Coast of North America?? They are spreading cancer far and wide. This is criminal.

Anonymous said...

Seems dumb wins out over criminal in Japan.

Anonymous said...

anon at 10:56,

The reactors were built in accordance with a specific GE design. The same design is used in the US, particularly on the east coast, which supposedly is earthquake-proof (yes, we've seen that recently in DC).

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/13/6256121-general-electric-designed-reactors-in-fukushima-have-23-sisters-in-us

Who is to blame? The modernist, 20th century ideal that one-model-fits-all, the Cold War and its insatiable military-industrial complex, the connivance of the Japanese elites who needed to assert to themselves that they were still powerful even after WWII, the admiration of those same Japanese elites for the powerful US who defeated them, the misinformed public in the 1st world, giddy with "technological development", the greed of the energy companies and their buddies in the government...

Take your pick. As an anti-capitalist, I wish I could say it is merely the greed. In reality, the problem is even bigger and it has to do with 19th and 20th century hubris and uniformity which run like red threads throughout our societies, capitalist and post-socialist...

Most people on the planet are juvenile and they believe in "apres moi le deluge" (aka someone else is going to fix the mess) and these are the fruits.

Anonymous said...

Ah well, my friends...

Glow Now,
Pray Later!

Best of luck,

Yer Pal,

"Sparky" Curie

Anonymous said...

Burning radioactive debris affects the entire planet.

Anonymous said...

Read this, then tell me that they don't deserve to wallow in their own radioactive shit , http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20111101ad.html

.

Anonymous said...

I can not believe that they are spreading this stuff all over the place.

Anonymous said...

@3:32 PM, I doubt Japanese children are making those decisions. Do they deserve to get sick?

Don't even get me started on what Americans and Canadians deserve for what they did to native peoples here (including nuclear testing, uranium mining) -- and hold your tongue before you curse me out, I am a first generation European refugee who can't wait to leave the Turtle Island. Next year, I hope.

K said...

The government officials who allow this kind of stuff don't care about future Japanese people. Hell, they don't care about most Japanese people now. They think they will be better off by delaying as much of the economic damage from Fukushima Daiichi as they can. It is rather like what has been done with economic policy since the bubble burst more than 20 years ago.

Anonymous said...

on March 11th Japan had the sympathy of the world and people were rallying to their help, now they have shown what a bunch of cunts they are by exposing their own children to radiation ( Yokohama radioactive school lunches? ) I could go on , the Japanese are a disgrace! , complicit by not protesting and going along with it all quietly like sheep, buying into the government lies blah blah..

Anonymous said...

@10:54, I would basically agree with you if you said "Japanese elites and those who listen to them" instead of "the Japanese" tout court.

Also, some of us have "c*nts" and fight back, fancy that! (of course, in that case, one gets labelled as "hysterical") So your language needs some work, regardless of your sentiments, some of which I share.

Anonymous said...

Fuck the language, basically the gloves are off, this is a disgrace and there is no time for pleasantries and " Tatamae" crap ,

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 12PM, I second that. Particularly when the governor of Tokyo tell anyone who protest to just "Shut up". (See my latest post.)

Anonymous said...

This is not about tatemae. As a woman, I find it despicable to hear the word "cunt" used for a "coward", when in this case a lot of women are trying to save their children and most cowards are clearly affluent males.

Anonymous said...

Please leave PC behind. Saying "affluent males are cowards" is OK because you are woman?

Anonymous said...

Citizens of Science are silent
Citizens of Science can smile
Citizens of Science are silent
They know what is good for them

Anonymous said...

I normally don't like to read posts with vulgar words but these are not normal times and I understand the infuriating nature of what is transpiring in Japan.

joewein said...

The background radiation level I saw mentioned on one picture of workers checking it was 0.028 uSv/h. The debris from Miyako, Iwate itself was supposed to be below 0.01 uSv/h.

Miyako is 260 km from Fukushima 1, which means it's actually *further* away from the wrecked plants than is Tokyo, where some of the debris is to be incinerated. Thus it's unlikely to contain more radiation than anything you'd find locally, especially in eastern Tokyo and northern Chiba, which were unlucky after the meltdowns.

Personally, I would be more concerned about the potential for dioxin pollution from burning any debris containing chlorine from sea salt from the tsunami.

There will be other debris that's more highly contaminated from fallout than this shipment from from Miyako, Iwate so we still need to be vigilant.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

" I don't understand it. Why on earth don't they simply dump as much of the debris as possible close to the failed nuclear plants and then block it off -- completely contain it so no one can go near there until the end of time? Why are they so intent on contaminating all of Japan and the Pacific Ocean and West Coast of North America?? They are spreading cancer far and wide. This is criminal.
November 3, 2011 1:26 PM

.

Do you 'understand' depopulation, its stated goals? One of its advocats is The Club of r0me. Check out.

Do you 'understand' Himmler - his membership in knights of Konstantinus? Check out.

Anonymous said...

Stop burning Nuclear waste. you're gonna modify the genetic code!! The last time that happened, multi-celled, walled life arise in africa, what will happen now when the same thing happens in modern times? An eventual explosion of species? Yes. As the mutations change and rebalance nature we will see the emergence of new classes of animals and micro-organisms.

My son said it best: "Dad it's the four horseman, fukushima plants 1-4 it's the four horseman!."

Their effects are spreading, while noone is doing anything about their evil spreading to all corners of the globe just by the winds.

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