EX-SKF

California's San Onofre's Leak Was 30 Gallons/Hr

2012-02-01T13:06:00.001-08:00

Oh and the low level of radioactive gas may also have leaked.

30 gallons of water per hour = 113 liters of water per hour.

From Emformable (2/1/2012), citing the NRC event notification:

MANUAL TRIP DUE TO A PRIMARY TO SECONDARY LEAK GREATER THAN 30 GAL/HR
“At 1505 PST, Unit 3 entered Abnormal Operation Instruction S023-13-14 ‘Reactor Coolant Leak’ for a steam generator leak exceeding 5 gallons per day.

“At 1549 PST, the leak rate was determined to be 82 gallons per day. At 1610 PST, a leak rate greater than 75 gallons per day with an increasing rate of leakage exceeding 30 gallons per hour was established and entry into S023-13-28 ‘Rapid Power Reduction’ was performed.

“At 1630 PST, commenced rapid power reduction per S023-13-28 ‘Rapid Power Reduction’. At 1731 PST, with reactor power at 35% the Unit was manually tripped. At 1738 PST, Unit 3 entered Emergency Operation Instruction S023-12-4 ‘Steam Generator Tube Rupture’.

“At 1800 PST the affected steam generator was isolated.”

All control rods fully inserted on the trip. Decay heat is being removed thru the main steam bypass valves into the main condenser. Main feedwater is maintaining steam generator level. No relief valves lifted during the manual trip. The plant is in normal shutdown electrical lineup.

Unit 2 is presently in a refueling outage and was not affected by this event.

The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector. The licensee has issued a press release.

Food in Japan: Radioactive Cesium from Mandarin Oranges, Milk Industry to Test Milk, and Octopus Found with Body Parts

2012-02-01T12:50:00.000-08:00

As days go by, food in Japan doesn't look very appetizing, to say the least.

1. Radioactive mandarin orange from Kanagawa Prefecture

Radioactive cesium was found from the edible part of mandarin oranges (which in the US are called "satsuma" for some reason) and the skin. Security Tokyo is a private testing laboratory that uses the high-precision germanium semiconductor detector, not one of those fly-by-night testing "laboratories" cropping up in Japan (like the one who claimed to have "measured" high radioactive "iodine" in the snow in Hachioji. Totally false. Did I write about it? I don't remember...)

But here's the data from Security Tokyo:

Item: mandarin orange from Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, purchased in a supermarket in Yokohama City
Date tested: January 31, 2012
Edible part:
Iodine-131: ND
Cesium-134: 2.7 becquerels/kg
Cesium-137: 3.3 becquerels/kg
Total cesium: 6 becquerels/kg
Outer skin:
Iodine-131: ND
Cesium-134: 8.2 becquerels/kg
Cesium-137: 9.8 becauerels/kg
Total cesium: 18 becquerels/kg

I'm asking Security Tokyo for the permission to show their graph showing the peaks for the radioactive materials detected. In the meantime, you can view it at the link.

Some Japanese people do use skin of the orange for other purposes than eating. Let's see, if each mandarin orange weighs 50 gram, it would take 20 oranges to reach 6 becquerels of radioactive cesium. If you eat 4 oranges at a time, it takes 5 servings to get 6 becquerels. In the big scheme of things in Japan these days, that may not much for many people, but there may be people who do not want to eat and do not want to have their toddlers eat this mandarin orange particularly when they still have a choice of buying from western Japan.

(Oh wait... If the skin is also radioactive, does that mean you would get radioactive cesium by peeling it by hand?)

Before the Fukushima accident, the amount of radioactive cesium in mandarin orange was ND (measuring Hokkaido's orange, information from Japan Chemical Analysis Center).

2. Milk Industry agrees to test milk to win trust from the customers. (Too late.)

The milk industry, which has adamantly refused to test milk that is sold in the marketplace and insisted that the raw milk tests done by the prefectures in Tohoku and Kanto are more than sufficient, now says it will test the milk it sells in the market to assure safety and trust. After more than 10 months, with actual detections of radioactive cesium in milk sold in the market.

From the announcement by the Japan Dairy Industry Association (emphasis is mine):

After the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident and the resultant contamination of the environment with radioactive materials, there has been a heightened interest among consumers in the food safety.

There will be a new set of safety standards for radioactive materials to be enacted in April to provide tighter control over the food safety.

Our stance has always been that our milk and milk products are made from the safe raw milk that undergoes monitoring tests [i.e. sample test] by the municipalities and therefore there is no need to test the final products. Judging from the levels of radioactive materials detected in the final products, we believe our products will conform to the new standard with no problem.
However, there has been a strong demand to test milk for school lunch and release the test results from the citizens, and the Ministry of Health and Labor has subsequently requested us to make the test results public.
Even though our thinking about testing hasn't changed, we've decided that it is appropriate to test milk at this juncture to make sure it tests below the new standard and to win the trust from our customers and make them feel at ease.

Therefore, on the following schedule, we will conduct the test and publish the results.

Oh how nice of them.

They will let you know at the end of February. People who have been pushing for testing the milk has nothing to say other than "Why bother at this point?"

3. Octopus with hair, nail, wristwatch

Lastly, a little macabre "hearsay" if you will, from someone who lives in Fukushima tweeting. From scanning her tweets I don't see any good reason for her to fabricate stories:

タコの加工業者さんタコを解体しているとタコの中から髪の毛や爪がでてくるそうです...(消化されないから)板前さんもタコの中から腕時計が出てきたそうです。雑食のタコは何でも食べるから...ウニも雑食らしいが今年のウニは大きいって

I was told by someone in the business of processing octopuses. As he dismembers the octopuses he finds human hair and nails (because they don't get digested). A restaurant chef told me he found a wristwatch in an octopus. Octopuses are omnivores. I hear that "uni" (sea urchin) is also omnivores, and that they are big this year.

Other people have quickly chimed in, telling her that's quite normal; every fisherman knows that's how it goes after a big tsunami, they say.

LA Times: Small leak at San Onofre nuclear power plant investigated

2012-02-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

So there was a leak at San Onofre, not just a possibility of a leak.

LA Times (2/1/2012):

L.A. NOW
Southern California -- this just in

Small leak at San Onofre nuclear power plant investigated
February 1, 2012 | 7:15 am

Southern California Edison officials continued their investigation Wednesday of a small water leak in one of two units at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

The unit was shut down at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday after a sensor detected a leak in a steam generator tube; an assessment of the leak will determine its cause.

The shutdown was ordered out of precaution, Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said.

He said the incident was so minor "it wouldn't even qualify as the least severe" infraction under Nuclear Regulatory Commission guidelines.

The leak posed no risk to workers and did not require an evacuation, Alexander said.

The unit has a generating capacity of 1,100 megawatts power and is able to meet the needs of 700,000 Southern California homes.

The shutdown is not expected to affect customer's power supply.

8.5 Tonnes of Water Leaked from Reactor Well/Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 According to TEPCO

2012-02-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

In the evening press conference on February 1, 2012 (with Matsumoto), TEPCO announced the result of their calculation: 8.5 tonnes of water from the Reactor Well/Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 may have leaked (Jiji News, Japanese, 2/1/2012). Other than the information of the TEPCO's calculated number and the diameter of the pipe (9 millimeters), the details seem the same as I reported in my previous post.

Just keep in mind that that's their calculation for about 29 hours from 3:50PM January 30 to 10:43PM January 31.

TEPCO also released the photographs of the jet pump test line that leaked; one pipe is totally dislocated from the joint.

External Power Restored at Byron Nuclear Plant

2012-02-01T00:14:00.000-08:00

From Rockford Register Star (1/31/2012 10:03PM):

BYRON — Operators at Byron Generating Station terminated the Unusual Event at 8 p.m. today, after the return of power to Unit 2.

“Our diesel generators performed as expected in providing continuous electricity to the unit during the Unusual Event. Plant teams will now focus on a safe and measured approach to returning Unit 2 to the electrical grid,” said Byron Station Site Vice President Tim Tulon.

Station personnel are in communication with local, state and federal officials, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the facility’s status.

The Unusual Event, which was declared Monday, is the lowest of the four emergency classifications as established by the NRC.

Byron’s Unit 1 continues to safely supply electricity to customers.

Exelon Nuclear officials say an equipment failure in a switchyard near the plant triggered the automatic shutdown of Unit 2.

(Full article at the link)

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 4 Was Leaking Water from Reactor Well/Spent Fuel Pool, and That Was Indicated by Water Level of Skimmer Surge Tank

2012-01-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

TEPCO announced during the February 1 morning press conference that the valve of a pipe line connected to the reactor was found broken and at least 6 liters of water from the reactor had spilled.

The Reactor Well/Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 4 is filled with water even if it does not have any fuel (since it was in maintenance when the accident happened), and the water goes back and forth freely between the Reactor Well and the Spent Fuel Pool as the gate separating them has been loose since the January 1 earthquake.

It is the water co-mingled with water from the Spent Fuel Pool that was leaking, as evidenced by the relatively high radioactivity of the water.

Information gleaned out of the three bumbling TEPCO people (without Matsumoto) who didn't seem to know much at all (except one), to the irritation of the reporters who attended:

At 10:30PM on January 31, a worker found the water leaking from the jet pump test line valve in the southwest corner on the 1st floor of Reactor 4 during the "patrol" (which is probably a lie, as you'll see later).
There are 20 jet pumps inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel.
The nature of damage of the valve is not known. It is probably not from freezing. It may have been broken when the explosion happened (last March).
The jet pump test line connects to the jet pumps inside the RPV.
The water stopped when they shut off the main line coming from the RPV, at 10:43PM.
It is hard to tell whether the test line valve broke recently or not, as the floor is littered with debris.
The leaked water is estimated to be about 6 liters as far as they could find on the floor full of debris.
The water is from the Reactor Well. The reactor has no fuel inside as it was on maintenance when the accident happened, but it is filled with water.
Radioactivity of the leaking water is 35.5 becquerels/cubic centimeter (but TEPCO couldn't say whether it was all-gamma radiation or something else). Therefore, it is the water from the Reactor Well which is connected to the Spent Fuel Pool.
The Reactor Well and the Spent Fuel Pool are separated by the gate, but the gate got loose after the earthquake on January 1 and the water from the Spent Fuel Pool comes in to the Reactor Well.
Actually, TEPCO knew something was amiss on January 30 when they noticed the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank dropping rapidly at 3:50PM. The cooling system for the Spent Fuel Pool was re-started at 3:13PM that day, and they thought the Skimmer Surge Tank's level had something to do with the cooling system and decided to observe for one day and look for possible causes.
The water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank was dropping at 60 to 90 millimeters per hour.
Then on January 31, a worker found the broken valve at the jet pump test line. (See, it was not a routine "patrol"; they were looking for possible causes of the drop in the Skimmer Surge Tank level and found the leak.)
When the leak was stopped, the drop in the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank stopped.
As the only person who was able to talk about anything technical explained, water goes back and forth freely between the Reactor Well and the Spent Fuel Pool, and if the water level of the Reactor Well goes down that means the water level of the Spent Fuel Pool goes down, and that is reflected in the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank.
The Skimmer Surge Tank water level hardly changes in the cold weather like this.
The leak is probably confined within the reactor building, and the leaked water was probably led to the basement water.

Well well. When the water level drop in the Skimmer Surge Tank in Reactor 4 was first reported after the January 1, 2012 earthquake, the explanation was, as I clearly recall, that the water in the Spent Fuel Pool went into the Reactor Well when the gate got loose, and therefore not enough water went to the Skimmer Surge Tank. They also said the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank would go down naturally due to evaporation.

Now they finally admit that the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank is the direct indication of the water level of the Spent Fuel Pool.

6 liters of the contaminated water from the Spent Fuel Pool/Reactor Well doesn't make sense if the Skimmer Surge Tank water level was dropping 60-90 millimeters per hour for 29 hours. Several reporters pressed for a clear answer, but TEPCO said they would get back to them after calculation.

===========================

P.S. I just read a post by Ms. Emiko Numauchi as "Numayu" writing that there was nuclear fuel inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 4 and it had a meltdown, as she heard from a worker she trusts, and the English translation of the post by someone else.

If the fuel melted through the RPV and now on the floor of the Containment Vessel as she claims, I have no idea how the RPV/Reactor Well is able to retain water, as it clearly does, looking at the photographs. Of course she or anyone can claim they are fake photographs.

As for me, I want to find the facts as much as possible without resorting to calling everything fake. Even from TEPCO, the reporters on February 1 press conference were able to draw out more information than what TEPCO initially presented in the beginning of the press conference.

Well of course TEPCO can be lying 100%, but it simply would not make sense for TEPCO to hide a meltdown on Reactor 4 if it happened. There are already 3 meltdowns, and part of the melted fuel has eaten into the concrete floors of the Containment Vessels. What's the point of hiding another meltdown, after 10 months?

California's San Onofre Nuke Plant Shut Down Unit 3, Due to Potential Leak in Steam Generator Tube

2012-01-31T21:06:00.000-08:00

San Onofre's reactors are pressurized water reactors. Unit 3's reactor was made by Combustion Engineering, which was purchased in 2000 by Westinghouse (now Toshiba).

From Market Watch (1/31/2012):

Southern California Edison, operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, said in a press release Tuesday it has begun a precautionary shutdown of Unit 3 because sensors detected a possible leak in one of the unit's steam generator tubes.

The company said "the potential leak poses no imminent danger to the public or plant workers. There has been no release to the atmosphere." SCE said personnel will evaluate the cause of the leak and the steps needed to repair it and resume operations.

SCE also said it has ample reserve power to meet customer needs. The station's Unit 2 is currently offline for a planned maintenance outage, the company added in the statement.

SCE is a division of Edison International.

Cesium-137 Dispersion Simulation in the Pacific Ocean, 3/21/2011 - 1/27/2012

2012-01-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

The radioactivity dispersion simulation JCOPE (Japan Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment) by JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), showing cesium-137 dispersion in the Pacific Ocean from March 21, 2011 to January 27, 2012.

March 21, 2011 was when the high levels of radioactive materials from the seawater near the plant were first detected.

Screenshots from their JCOPE page with the simulation animation (1/30/2012). Click for bigger view:

NISA's Young Career Bureaucrat Admits Fukushima I Nuke Accident Is NOT Over

2012-01-31T18:26:00.000-08:00

Oops.

Independent journalist Ryusaku Tanaka reports on the meeting between a citizens' group and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The citizens' group made a formal appointment with the agency for the meeting, but on the day of the meeting they were shoved into a dark corridor to wait for someone to show up, and the "meeting" was done in the lobby, standing, between the group and a lone 30-year-old NISA bureaucrat.

From Tanaka's blog (1/31/2012):

保安院・若手官僚うっかり　「現場は収束に向けて動いている」

A young bureaucrat at NISA inadvertently says, "Workers at the [Fukushima I Nuke] plant are working toward winding down the accident"

市民団体が「全ての原発の停止と廃炉」などを求めて経産省原子力安全・保安院に請願に行ったところ、若手官僚から仰天発言が飛び出した。原発事故は収束していない、と口を滑らせたのである。

When a citizens' group went to petition the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry demanding "halting and decommissioning all nuclear power plants", a young bureaucrat had an amazing slip of the tongue. He said the nuclear accident was not over.

　「すべての原発いますぐなくそう！全国会議」を中心とする一行12人は31日、経産省別館の原子力安全・保安院を訪れた。同会議事務局長の織田陽介さんが保安院広報課に苦労してアポを取っての訪問である。

On January 31, a group of 12 people from "Let's stop all nuclear power plant! national conference" visited the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in the annex building of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Yosuke Oda, secretary of the conference, had managed to make an appointment with the PR department of the NISA.

　約束通り同日午後2時、保安院の受付で面会の手続きを取ろうとしたところ、広報課に内線電話を入れた受付嬢は「担当者が変わったそうです」。オイオイ、5日前にアポ取ってんだぞ。傍らでやりとりを聞いていた筆者は保安院の非常識さに吹き出しそうになった。

They arrived at 2PM, as per the appointment, and went to the reception at NISA for necessary procedure before the meeting. After calling the PR department, the receptionist told them, "There has been a change of person in charge". Oh boy, they had set up the meeting 5 days prior... I almost burst into laughter at the lack of common sense at NISA as I was observing the exchange.

　『このまま門前払いされてなるか』。一行は受付嬢を通して広報課に猛然と抗議した。10分ほど押し問答が続いたところで警備担当の職員がおもむろにやってきた。

"We're not going to be turned away like this." The group protested vehemently to the PR department through the receptionist. After 10 minutes of exchange, a security guard came.

　「あちらでお待ち頂けますか」。警備担当者は受付裏のソファーが並ぶスペースに一行を押し込んだ。電燈が一器も点いておらず真っ暗だ（写真）。別の警備担当職員に聞くと節電の一環らしい。

"Could you wait over there?" The security guard put them in the space at the back of the reception area. There was no light, and it was dark (see photo). When we asked another security guard, it was part of energy saving effort.

　暗がりの中で20分間ほど待つと、先ほどの警備担当職員と共に広報課の役人が現れた。「原子力安全広報課・下鶴俊輔係長」だ。30歳になるかならないかのうら若き青年である。十中八九キャリアだ。

We waited in the dark for about 20 minutes. A bureaucrat from the PR department showed up with the security guard. It was Shunsuke Shimozuru (or Shimotsuru), section manager at NISA PR department. He was a youthful-looking young man, hardly 30 years of age. A career bureaucrat, in all likelihood.

　下鶴青年、もとい、下鶴係長は一行を同じフロアーのロビーに案内した。立ったまま請願を受け付けようというのである。

Young Shimozuru, correction, Manager Shimozuru took us to a lobby on the same floor. He was going to receive the petition standing.

「どうして会議室じゃないの？」
「請願はロビーで受けるようにしている」

"Why not in a conference room?"
"It is our policy to receive a petition in the lobby."

「（昨年）10月27日に『福島の女たち』が申し入れた時には会議室を取ってくれたわよ」、「請願権の制限になるよ」……一行は畳み掛けた。

"When "Group of Fukushima women" went to petition on October 27 last year, they were shown to a conference room." "Are you limiting our right to petition?" People pressed him for an answer.

　下鶴係長は追い詰められた格好になった。「庁舎の警備上の都合もあり…」

Manager Shimozuru was cornered. "Well, it is also a matter of security..."

「我々は別に危ないことしないよ。会議室に入れたからといって警備上何が問題なの？」

"We are not doing anything dangerous. What's the security problem of letting us in a conference room?"

　いよいよ困った下鶴係長は、つい本音をもらしてしまった。「（原発事故の）収束宣言は出しましたが、現場は収束に向かって動いてますんで…」。

Not knowing what else to say, Manager Shimozuru blurted out the truth despite himself. "The declaration was made that the nuclear plant accident was over, but the workers at the plant are working toward ending the accident..."
　
「（事故を起こした）原発から白い煙が出てて、どうして収束と言えるんですか？」。福島の人々がよく口にする言葉だ。

"How can you say that the accident is over when you see a white smoke coming out of the broken plant?" That's what people in Fukushima often say.

　原子力安全・保安院の若手官僚が、うっかりとはいえ原発事故が事実上収束していないことを認めたのである。「やはり、そうだったのか」と思わざるを得ない。野田首相に「当の保安院が収束していないって言ってますよ～」と言ってやりたい。

A young bureaucrat of NISA inadvertently admitted that the nuclear plant accident, for all intent and purposes, was not over. "Just as I expected", as I thought to myself. I wish I could tell Prime Minster Noda, "NISA itself is saying the accident is not over. Do you know that?"

Mr. Shimozuru is a man in the center, with his back on the camera.

It must be a rude learning experience for ordinary citizens of Japan. All their lives, they thought the bureaucrats and politicians who graduated from top schools in the nation were working for them. When they made an appointment to see them, they were shoved into a dark corner, and met with a young man no more than 30 years of age, in the lobby, standing.

Just for your information in case you are not familiar, not all bureaucrats are "career" bureaucrats in Japan. Career bureaucrats are those elites in the national government who have passed the rigorous examination and in exchange are guaranteed fast-track promotions within the ministries. They dominate the top hierarchy of the ministries. They are usually the graduates from elite universities in Japan. As part of on-the-job training of some sort, many are dispatched to municipalities throughout Japan during their career to become vice mayors of the cities before they come back to the ministries. Some go to international agencies and come back.

Some of them decide to run for office after vice mayoral experience, and become politicians but with ties to the ministries. The pro-nuke governor of Hokkaido is one example; she was a career bureaucrat at the Ministry of Economy before she became the governor. There are many others. Then, on retirement, they "descend from heaven" to the NGOs, NPOs, research institutes, big corporations, with fat checks with little work.

Byron Nuke Plant: Faulty Insulator Is to Blame

2012-01-31T14:44:00.000-08:00

Excelon, the plant operator, hopes to replace the insulator by Tuesday evening.

From Chicago Tribune quoting AP (1/31/2012)

Exelon: Failed insulator caused outage at Byron nuclear plant

Exelon Energy officials say they've traced a power failure at a nuclear reactor in northern Illinois to an electrical insulator in a switchyard.

The insulator failed and fell off Monday morning, causing one of the reactors at the Byron Generating Station to shut down automatically, company spokesman Paul Dempsey says.

The bad insulator will be sent to a lab for analysis and officials hope to replace it by Tuesday evening. It's unclear how soon before the reactor could return to service.

Steam containing low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is being vented to reduce pressure within the reactor. But federal and plant officials say the levels are safe for workers and the public. The plant is 95 miles northwest of Chicago.

The switchyard is similar to a large substation that delivers power to the plant from the electrical grid and from the plant to the electrical grid.

Diesel generators were supplying the reactor with electricity, though it hasn't been generating power during the investigation into what happened. One question is why smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, though no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said.

She said Exelon was testing equipment and inspecting various systems to determine exactly what went wrong, and no repairs would be made until the root cause was found.

"If you do a Band-Aid fix and have the same situation, it's not in anybody's interest to have a repeat," Mitlyng said, adding that the NRC is monitoring the activities.

Oh really? No kidding. I thought what nuclear power operators do is Band-Aid fixes. Just look at TEPCO.

The article continues with the mention of tritium. They don't know how much tritium has been released into the environment, but they know it's small because the radiation levels haven't changed around the plant. Uh huh.

The commission declared the incident an "unusual event," the lowest of four levels of emergency. Commission officials also said the release of tritium was expected.

Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium was released. They know the amounts were small because monitors around the plant didn't show increased levels of radiation, she said.

Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side.

Full article at the link.

Japanese Government Hasn't Kept Any Minutes of Disaster Response Meetings Since 1995 Kobe Earthquake

2012-01-30T23:51:00.000-08:00

It was only 4 days ago that Japan's PM Noda said "it is regrettable" that there were no minutes kept for the government response team's meetings ever since March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuke accident.

Then it turned out that Miyagi Prefecture and Iwate Prefecture didn't quite keep record of their disaster response meetings either.

Now it turns out that the Japanese government hasn't kept any minutes of disaster response meetings since the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Yomiuri Shinbun (1/31/2012) reports:

政府が１９９５年の阪神大震災以降の大規模災害の際に設置した緊急対策本部や非常災害対策本部の会議で、いずれも議事概要や議事録が作成されていないことが３１日、分かった。

It was discovered on January 31 that there was no meeting summary or minutes for any of the meetings of emergency response groups or emergency disaster response groups which were set up since the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

　複数の政府関係者が明らかにした。

Multiple government sources told Yomiuri.

　東日本大震災関連の政府の会議で議事録が作成されていなかったことが明らかになったことから、内閣府が調査対象を過去の災害時の本部に拡大し、阪神大震災や北海道・有珠山、東京・三宅島の噴火、新潟県中越地震、台風などに関する非常災害対策本部会議など８会議の作成状況を調べた。

Since it was revealed that there was no minutes of the government meetings relating to the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster, the Cabinet Office expanded the investigation into the past disaster response headquarters to see if there were minutes created for the 8 separate disaster response headquarters set up after disasters including the Kobe earthquake (1995), Mt. Usu eruption in Hokkaido (2000), Miyakejima Island eruption in Tokyo (2000), Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata (2004), and major typhoons.

　その結果、阪神大震災時に設置した兵庫県南部地震緊急対策本部会議で、議事概要の一部が官房長官記者会見の要旨として残っているのを除き、すべての会議で議事録も議事概要も残っていなかった。議事次第や配布資料は多くの会議で一部が残っていた。

It turned out that except for the earthquake emergency response headquarters set up at the time of the Kobe earthquake that had part of the summary of proceedings kept as part of the outline of the then-Chief Cabinet Secretary's press conference, there was no minutes nor summary of proceedings. The Cabinet Office found some meeting announcements and handouts.

Oh boy. Isn't it amazing how they pretend to be a democratic nation?

I'm sure there will be many apologists who will say "If we know it will be recorded in the minutes, we won't be able to speak freely".

Update on Byron Nuclear Plant: Diesel Generators Used for Vent, Excelon Says Tritium Is Natural

2012-01-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

From Rockford Register Star (1/30/2012 8:43PM):

ROCKFORD — A loss of power coming into the Byron nuclear plant caused one of two reactors to automatically shut down about 10:15 a.m. today.

Backup diesel generators were activated after the power outage and were being used for safety equipment that vents heat from the reactor, according to a spokeswoman from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Lisle.

“Right now, we believe the plant is in a stable condition,” said the NRC’s Viktoria Mitlyng. “There is no danger to the workers or the public.”

Exelon, which operates the Byron plant, declared an “unusual event” — the lowest of four emergency classifications established by the NRC — after the outage.

Mitlyng said two NRC resident inspectors are monitoring the plant.

...

Byron station spokesman Paul Dempsey said crews are still trying to determine how power coming to the generator was interrupted. The steam release, which he said made a whooshing sound, was expected to continue into the evening.

The steam contains tritium, a hydrogen isotope with low levels of radioactivity. Exelon, in a news release, said tritium occurs naturally and is found in virtually all surface water, although it is found in greater concentrations near nuclear reactors.

It was the first automatic shutdown of the plant since 2007 when a dime-sized hole in a water cooling pipe led to the shutdown of both reactors.

(Full article at the link)

They all say the same thing. It is safe, radioactive materials are natural. Soon they'll be talking about bananas and transcontinental flights and X-rays.

From wiki on tritium from fission:

Tritium is an uncommon product of the nuclear fission of uranium-235, plutonium-239, and uranium-233, with a production of about one per each 10,000 fissions.^[7]^[8] This means that the release or recovery of tritium needs to be considered in the operation of nuclear reactors, especially in the reprocessing of nuclear fuels and in the storage of spent nuclear fuel. The production of tritium was not a goal, but is rather just a side-effect.

NHK Mistranslates IAEA Remarks and Says "NISA's Stress Test Evaluation Conforms to International Standard"

2012-01-30T22:28:00.000-08:00

NHK reports on the findings of the IAEA during the visit this time to evaluate whether the "stress test" carried out by electric power companies and overseen by Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was appropriate, particularly in the case of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant.

This is what the IAEA mission chief said, as you can see and hear in the accompanying video to the news:

We found that the NISA's approach is generally consistent with the IAEA's safety standards, and the international practice.

NHK translated the remark as:

ストレステストの評価方法はIAEAおよび国際基準に適合している

which would translate back into English as:

The way [NISA] evaluate the result of the stress test conforms to the IAEA and international standards.

As if there are international standards for stress test evaluation. (Or are there?)

Japanese Twitterers who understand English immediately tweeted the incorrect translation by NHK. NHK has quickly added a paragraph to supposedly "clarify" but it is still wrong. It now translates the remark by the IAEA mission chief Lyons as:

原子力安全・保安院の審査の過程は、ＩＡＥＡのルールに適合していて、ヨーロッパなどでの国際的な活動にも即している

which is:

NISA's evaluation process conforms to the IAEA rules, and in line with the international activities in Europe and other places.

Ummm. Nowhere the IAEA chief said anything about Europe. What activities? And he said "standards" not rules.

(Now I'm suddenly flooded with the memory of just atrocious translation that NHK did in the early days of the nuclear crisis in March last year. All these simultaneous translators that NHK World paid a fortune who didn't have a clue what they were translating. Ugghhh.)

I copied and pasted the NHK News for the record. Nothing much in it other than NHK's mistranslation. It basically says the IAEA rubber-stamped what the Japanese government did, again, with a friendly advice to make it as if the IAEA actually did something. What's the advice you ask? "You'd better learn how to explain to the local residents better."

Now the illusion must be totally expelled from the minds of Japanese people who cling to the idea that an "international" organization is somehow "neutral" and therefore will scold their government into the right direction.

NHK News (1/31/2012 12:07PM):

ＩＡＥＡ評価方法は国際基準適合

原子力発電所の運転再開の判断の前提となる「ストレステスト」について検証してきたＩＡＥＡ＝国際原子力機関の調査団は、国の原子力安全・保安院に報告書を提出し、「評価の方法は国際的な基準に適合している」とした一方で、原発の地元自治体などにさらに説明をすべきだといった改善点を指摘しました。

ＩＡＥＡの調査団のジェームズ・ライオンズ団長は、東京の原子力安全・保安院を訪れ、深野弘行院長に報告書を手渡しました。調査団の１０人は、今月２２日に来日し、電力会社が行った「ストレステスト」に対し、保安院が国の規制機関として適切に評価をしているかを検証するため、保安院の聞き取りや、福井県にある関西電力の大飯原発で視察をしてきました。報告書では、保安院が原発の現地調査をしたり、評価の過程を公開したりしている点を挙げて、「評価の方法は、国際的な基準に適合している」と結論づけました。その一方で、原発の地元自治体などにさらに説明をすべきだといった１１の改善点を指摘しました。保安院は、大飯原発の３号機と４号機について、「テストの方法は妥当だ」と評価していて、ＩＡＥＡの報告書を踏まえ、来月、最終評価を取りまとめることにしていますが、原発の運転再開は地元に慎重な意見が少なくなく、具体的な見通しは立っていません。

(The audiovisual news that accompanies the article ends there.)

記者会見をしたＩＡＥＡの調査団のジェームズ・ライオンズ団長は、「原子力安全・保安院の審査の過程は、ＩＡＥＡのルールに適合していて、ヨーロッパなどでの国際的な活動にも即している」と述べたうえで、「保安院の電力会社などへの指示は、もっと具体的にするべきだ」と指摘しました。

And then, strangely, NHK has another paragraph of the pugnacious mayor of Osaka who looks like a kindergarten bully and acts like one commenting on the NISA's stress test and the IAEA mission.

What does he have to do with anything? The only thing I can think of is that somehow this Osaka mayor, who was the governor of Osaka, full of ambition for the national politics, managed to butt himself in on the news to give an impression that he was some politician for everyone in Japan to pay attention and listen to.

大阪市の橋下市長は、原発の施設の安全性については専門家しか判断できないとする一方で、「今、何が問題かと言えば、施設だけではなく、政府や電力会社の『組織』が問題となっている。ストレステストをやるのなら、施設だけではなく、組織が本当に機能しているのかどうかをテストすべきだ。ＳＰＥＥＤＩのデータをすぐに出すという決断をできないのが今の政府だ。施設が安全でも、それを扱う側の政府や電力会社の組織が、非常時に機能するのかどうかについて、ストレステストをやらないと全然納得できない」と述べ、政府や電力会社の組織としての在り方を検証すべきだという考えを示しました。

Byron Nuclear Plant Reactor Is Shut Down After Loss of Offsite Power

2012-01-30T16:44:00.000-08:00

Byron Nuclear Generating Station uses Westinghouse (owned by Japan's Toshiba)'s pressurized water reactors.

From Chicagobusiness.com citing AP (1/30/2012):

Exelon shuts Byron nuclear plant unit after power loss

(AP) — A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant shut down Monday after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators.

Unit 2 at Byron Generating Station shut down around 10:18 a.m., after losing power from an off-site source, Exelon officials said. Diesel generators began supplying power to the plant equipment and operators began releasing steam from the non-nuclear side of the plant to help cool the reactor, officials said.

Even though the turbine is not turning to produce electricity, "you still need to cool the equipment." said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng. Releasing steam helps "take away some of that energy still being produced by nuclear reaction but that doesn't have anywhere to go now."

The steam contains low levels of radioactive tritium, but the levels are safe for workers and the public, federal and plant officials said.

Unit 1 was operating normally while engineers investigate why Unit 2 lost power, which comes into the plant from the outside power grid, Mitlyng said. Smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, she said, but no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded.

Exelon spokesman Paul Dempsey said there is "no reason we can pinpoint right now" for the power loss.

Mitlyng said Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors were in the control room at Byron and in constant contact with the agency's incident response center in Lisle, Ill.

Byron Generating Station is in Ogle County, about 95 miles northwest of Chicago.

In March 2008, federal officials said they were investigating a problem with electrical transformers at the plant after outside power to a unit was interrupted.

In an unrelated issue last April, the commission said it was conducting special inspections of backup water pumps at the Byron and Braidwood generating stations after the agency's inspectors raised concerns about whether the pumps would be able to cool the reactors if the normal system wasn't working. The plants' operator, Exelon Corp., initially said the pumps would work but later concluded they wouldn't.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Quince No.2 and Quince No.3 Are Ready to Be Deployed

2012-01-30T15:29:00.000-08:00

They look like the original Quince, who has been left abandoned somewhere in the upper high-radiation floors of Reactor 2 since October last year.

The Yomiuri article below acknowledges the work that the original Quince did in the title.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1/30/2012):

原子炉建屋撮影し未回収のロボ、後継２台投入へ

Two successor robots to the one that was lost after taking the video of the reactor buildings

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故で、原子炉建屋内の撮影に使われた国産の災害救助支援ロボット「Ｑｕｉｎｃｅ（クインス）」の後継機２台を、開発した千葉工業大学の研究チームが３０日、公開した。

Two successor robots to the one that was used for taking the video of the interior of the reactor buildings at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, Quince, were revealed by the development team at Chiba Institute of Technology on January 30.

　２月中旬にも現場に投入される。

They will be used at the plant starting mid February.

　１台には空気中のちりに含まれる放射性物質を測定する装置、もう１台には立体的な地図を作れるレーザースキャナーを搭載した。初代の１号機が、通信ケーブルが切れて建屋内で立ち往生した経験から、緊急時にはもう１台のロボットを中継し、無線でも操作できるようにした。

One is fitted with the device to measure radioactive materials in the dust particles in the atmosphere, and the other is fitted with a laser scanner to create 3D maps. From the experience of the original Quince who was stranded in the reactor building when the communication cable was disconnected (or severed), each robot can be controlled by wireless communication in an emergency via the other robot.

　現在も原子炉建屋内で身動きが取れないままの１号機は、電子機器への放射線の影響を調べるため、回収せずに残しておく計画だという。

The original Quince (Quince No.1) will be left inside the reactor building [Reactor 2] to study the effect of radiation on electronics.

Poor Quince. For the sake of electronics research...

Quince No.2, from Chiba Institute of Technology page:

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Video of Ocean Bottom Near Water Intakes for Reactors 5 and 6

2012-01-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

Not much to see here, but for the record. A clean looking ocean bottom with algae and small fish.

The video was taken by TEPCO on January 27, and released on January 30, 2012. The survey was probably in preparation for the work to pour the cement-clay mix on the ocean floor (for more, see my previous post).

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO to Pour Cement-Clay Mix on the Ocean Floor Just Off Water Intake Canals, Will Survey Radioactivity in Fish Nearby

2012-01-30T11:39:00.000-08:00

From Asahi Shinbun (1/30/2012):

東京電力は２月から、福島第一原発１～６号機の取水口付近の海底に、粘土を混ぜたセメントを流し込む。汚染された地下水が敷地から海に流れ出るのを防ぐ遮水壁を作る工事の際に、海底にたまった高濃度の放射性セシウムが舞い上がるのを防ぐのが目的だ。

Starting February, TEPCO will pour cement mixed with clay on the ocean floor near the water intake canals for Reactors 1 thorugh 6 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. It is to prevent radioactive cesium that exists in high concentration on the ocean floor when the company builds watertight bulkheads to prevent contaminated groundwater from the plant from leaking into the ocean.

　２号機の取水口付近からは、これまでに国の基準が定める年間放出量の２万倍にあたる推定４７００テラベクレル（テラは１兆倍）が流れ出した。周辺の海を昨年１１月に調べたところ、海底の土１キロからセシウムが最大１６０万ベクレル検出された。

4700 terabecquerels of radioactive cesium leaked near the water intake canal for Reactor 2, which was 20,000 times the national standard for allowed oceanic discharge per year. The survey of the ocean around the plant last November found maximum 1.6 million becquerels/kg [wet] of radioactive cesium from the ocean soil.

　東電によると、セメントは約７ヘクタールにわたって厚さ６０センチほど流し込む。粘土と混ぜるため、固まることはないという。遮水壁の工事では鋼材を海底に打ち込むことから、海底のセシウムが舞い上がって拡散するのを心配する声が地元漁協などから寄せられていたという。

According to TEPCO, the cement mix will be poured over 7-hectare area, to the thickness of about 60 centimeters. TEPCO says the mix won't solidify because the cement will be mixed with clay. In building the bulkheads, steel beams will be driven into the ocean floor. The local fishermen's cooperatives have expressed concern over the dispersion of radioactive cesium deposited on the ocean floor due to the construction work.

I don't quite understand the part about the cement-clay mix not solidifying.

On a separate but related news, TEPCO has announced that it will work with the local fishermen's associations to study the effect of radioactive materials on fish by having the fishermen fish near the plant and measure radioactivity in fish.

More than 10 months have passed since the accident. (Where has the national government been?)

Also from Asahi Shinbun (1/28/2012):

東京電力は２７日、福島第一原発から半径２０キロ圏内の警戒区域の海域で、２～４月に魚介類のモニタリング調査を行うことを明らかにした。放射性物質による汚染の有無などを調べる。

On January 27, TEPCO revealed that it would conduct the monitoring survey of marine life within the 20 kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant from February till April. The survey is to study the contamination of marine life by radioactive materials.

　この日、東電の担当者が福島県漁業協同組合連合会の組合長会議に出席し、協力を要請。野崎哲会長は会議後、「我々としても区域内の魚の様子を知りたいので協力する」と話した。

TEPCO attended the meeting of the Fukushima Prefecture Fishermen's Cooperative Association and asked for their cooperation. The president of the association said after the meeting, "We want to know the condition of the fish in the area, so we will cooperate."

　これまで国や県などが海水と海底の泥の放射線量を定期的に測っている地点の中から、線量が高い所と低い所数カ所ずつを選び、月４回調査。結果を公表するという。

They will pick several locations that have been found with high radiation and with low radiation in the regular surveys of seawater and the ocean soil by the national and prefectural governments. The survey will be done 4 times a month, and the results will be published.

Unlike farmers in Fukushima who went ahead and decided to grow their crops as normal after the worst nuclear accident had happened near them, no matter how little information they may have had regarding the accident and resultant contamination, fishermen in Fukushima have decided not to fish, no matter how little information they may have had.

Fukushima farmers will continue to grow crops this year on their highly contaminated soil, hoping for good luck of either radioactive cesium, strontium not getting absorbed into their crops or their crops not being subject to testing while relying on the guilty feeling of the majority of consumers who believe in "Support Fukushima by eating" and on distributors who can cleverly disguise Fukushima produce as something else. As far as I know, Fukushima fishermen will continue to abstain from fishing in their ocean.

Earthquake Map of Japan in the 1st Month of 2012

2012-01-29T19:24:00.000-08:00

(You can't even see Japan in the first map.)

From the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention website, "Hypocenter map".

Last 30 days:

Last 7 days:
Last 24 hours:

A lot of Magnitude 4 quakes, and a good number of Magnitude 5 quakes. M5 is moving to the central Japan, right near Mt. Fuji. Numerous small, shallow quakes in western Japan.

Israel Requests Japan to Stop Buying Iranian Oil

2012-01-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

From Nikkei Shinbun quoting Kyodo News (1/30/2012):

【エルサレム＝共同】イスラエルを訪問した山根隆治外務副大臣は29日、エルサレムでリーベルマン外相らと会談した。イスラエル側はイランからの原油輸入停止を要請。山根氏は日本のイラン産原油輸入量は過去５年間で約40％減っており、今後も削減に努めると説明、理解を求めた。

(Jerusalem, Kyodo News) Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ryuji Yamane who is visiting Israel met on January 29 with Israel's Foreign Minister Lieberman in Jerusalem. Israel requested Japan to stop importing crude oil from Iran. Yamane explained that the amount of crude oil Japan imports from Iran has decreased by 40% in 5 years and that Japan will continue its effort to reduce the amount, and asked for Israel's understanding.

　山根氏がエルサレムで記者団に明らかにした。イスラエルは、核開発を進めるイランを最大の脅威と位置付けている。...

Yamane disclosed the Israel's request to the press in Jerusalem. Israel considers Iran as its greatest threat, as Iran develops its nuclear program.

What Japan reduces will simply go to China, India, and Russia. Canada's oil and gas will probably also go to China. Japan will be left dry, and cold, as a mini ice age hits...

Isn't it ironic that Japan is part of the economic embargo against Iran by the US and the EU, while it suffered the same by FDR in the run-up to the World War II?

No wonder the population of Japan is set to decrease by whopping 30% by 2060.

Same Old Excuse from Goshi Hosono for Hiding the "Worst-Case Scenario": "We Were Afraid of a Panic in Tokyo"

2012-01-29T17:45:00.000-08:00

Goshi Hosono, current Minister of the Environment and Minister in charge of the nuclear accident, was a special assistant to then-Prime Minister Kan when the March 11 triple whammy of earthquake/tsunami/nuke accident hit Japan last year.

He's already famously said that the small group of top officials in the Kan administration knew it was a core meltdown at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant right after the accident, but they "just didn't feel like announcing it".

Now, about the "worst-case scenario" from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency that the administration officials received on March 25 and which the administration declared it "didn't exist" after reading it, Hosono has this to say:

From Kyodo News (1/29/2012):

最悪シナリオ閲覧「数人」に限定「混乱恐れて」と細野氏

The worst-case scenario perusal restricted to only "a handful", as "we were afraid of a panic", says Mr. Hosono

　細野原発事故担当相は２９日までに、共同通信のインタビューに応じ、最近まで公開しなかった福島第１原発事故の「最悪シナリオ」に関し、情報漏えいによる混乱を恐れて当時の菅首相はじめ閲覧を「数人」に限った経緯を明らかにした。「当時公開していたら、東京から人がいなくなった可能性があった。そうなれば事故対応は危うかった」と言明。事故対応を優先した結果、一部しか情報共有を図らなかったと説明した。

Minister in charge of the nuclear accident Hosono allowed an interview with Kyodo News by January 29, and explained that how the "worst-case scenario", whose existence was hidden until recently, was shown only to a handful of officials including then-Prime Minister Kan for the fear of a panic if the information were to leak. He said, "If the scenario had been made public, people might have fled Tokyo. Then it would have been difficult to respond to the accident". He explained that the information was shared among only a small group of people because the response to the accident was the first priority.

Ummm. Mr. Hosono, the nuclear power plant is in Fukushima Prefecture, not Tokyo. Ordinary residents of Tokyo did not, and do not, have any role in coming up with measures to deal with the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident. You did, and so did the administration that you were part of.

It's one thing not to have disclosed the information, but it is totally another to have simply sat on it and done nothing to prepare for the worst case or to properly instruct citizens, in particular residents of Tokyo Metropolitan areas, to take precaution.

Instead, the administration that Goshi Hosono was part of launched the safety campaign for the citizens and attacked people who were telling the truth (in retrospect) about the situation in Fukushima I Nuke Plant. The administration sent radiation "experts" from Nagasaki University to Iitate-mura who told the villagers it was totally safe to play outside, eat vegetables and drink water from the well. It laughed off the IAEA survey of radiation contamination in the village, saying it had its own standard to decide the danger levels, only to order the evacuation of the entire village 11 days later on April 11, 2011.

Goshi Hosono is doubling down on his already tarnished reputation by pressing the disaster debris contaminated with radioactive materials to municipalities all over Japan, totally oblivious to the fact that there is this thing called the Internet, and the citizens now know much more about the contaminated disaster debris than the government officials who can only talk in terms of "emotion" - let's help out people of Tohoku! - while some people in Tohoku itself are wondering why the debris has to be shipped outside, instead of building the plants inside the prefectures to process the debris.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 17 Minor Leaks In Pipes and Valves Found in 2 Days, Freezing Temperature Blamed

2012-01-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

All are minor, says TEPCO, ranging from tens of liters to several tonnes, and the water leaked is either pure water, filtered water (river water), or the treated water. None found the way to the ocean, or so TEPCO says.

3 leaks were discovered on January 28, followed by 14 additional leaks on January 29, according to TEPCO. The lowest temperature at the plant on January 29 was -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

TEPCO's Matsumoto says the company will hurry up the insulation work, and hopes to finish it by spring.

Ummm, the frost will be over by spring, won't it?

Looking at TEPCO's press release, the leaks are mostly at the flanges. Some of the leaks from the reverse osmosis system have been found with high beta radiation.

Locations of the 14 leaks discovered on January 29, 2012:

Details of the leaks discovered on January 29, 2012:

The worker who tweets from Fukushima I Nuke Plant was talking about the leak on Twitter last night, and he said that the suggestion of insulation and heaters when the hoses were installed last summer was turned down, because of budget concern.

TEPCO's modus operandi since March 11, 2011 in English: "lock the stable door after the horse has bolted".

In Japanese: 泥棒を捕らえて縄をなう (Catch the thief and then start making the rope to bind him.)

Some photos from TEPCO on the leaky flanges covered with plastic (to prevent further leaking), with blue tarps lying around:

UC Davis Researcher: Sea Water Can Corrode Nuclear Fuel, Forming Uranium Compounds That Could Travel Long Distance

2012-01-29T02:05:00.000-08:00

From UC Davis News and Information (1/26/2012; emphasis is mine):

Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 -- and that was probably the best action to take at the time, says Professor Alexandra Navrotsky of the University of California, Davis.

But Navrotsky and others have since discovered a new way in which seawater can corrode nuclear fuel, forming uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles. The research team published its work Jan. 23 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This is a phenomenon that has not been considered before,” said Alexandra Navrotsky, distinguished professor of ceramic, earth and environmental materials chemistry. “We don’t know how much this will increase the rate of corrosion, but it is something that will have to be considered in future.”

Japan used seawater to avoid a much more serious accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, and Navrotsky said, to her knowledge, there is no evidence of long-distance uranium contamination from the plant.

Uranium in nuclear fuel rods is in a chemical form that is “pretty insoluble” in water, Navrotsky said, unless the uranium is oxidized to uranium-VI — a process that can be facilitated when radiation converts water into peroxide, a powerful oxidizing agent.

Peter Burns, professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a co-author of the new paper, had previously made spherical uranium peroxide clusters, rather like carbon “buckyballs,” that can dissolve or exist as solids.

In the new paper, the researchers show that in the presence of alkali metal ions such as sodium — for example, in seawater — these clusters are stable enough to persist in solution or as small particles even when the oxidizing agent is removed.

In other words, these clusters could form on the surface of a fuel rod exposed to seawater and then be transported away, surviving in the environment for months or years before reverting to more common forms of uranium, without peroxide, and settling to the bottom of the ocean. There is no data yet on how fast these uranium peroxide clusters will break down in the environment, Navrotsky said.

Navrotsky and Burns worked with the following co-authors: postdoctoral researcher Christopher Armstrong and project scientist Tatiana Shvareva, UC Davis; May Nyman, Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, N.M.; and Ginger Sigmon, University of Notre Dame. The U.S. Department of Energy supported the project.

Professor Navrotsky says as far as she knows there is no evidence of long-distance uranium contamination from Fukushima I Nuke Plant. I don't think the Japanese government is specifically looking for uranium anywhere outside the plant. They are not even looking for strontium. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

The abstract of the paper at PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America):

Uranyl peroxide enhanced nuclear fuel corrosion in seawater

Christopher R. Armstrong, May Nyman, Tatiana Shvareva, Ginger E. Sigmon, Peter C. Burns, and Alexandra Navrotsky

Abstract

The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident brought together compromised irradiated fuel and large amounts of seawater in a high radiation field. Based on newly acquired thermochemical data for a series of uranyl peroxide compounds containing charge-balancing alkali cations, here we show that nanoscale cage clusters containing as many as 60 uranyl ions, bonded through peroxide and hydroxide bridges, are likely to form in solution or as precipitates under such conditions. These species will enhance the corrosion of the damaged fuel and, being thermodynamically stable and kinetically persistent in the absence of peroxide, they can potentially transport uranium over long distances.

(H/T anon reader, gr81)

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Stores Radioactive Fly Ashes in Plastic Bags Under Blue Tarp and Sand Bags in a Landfill in Tokyo Bay

2012-01-29T00:28:00.000-08:00

Fly ashes from the municipal garbage incineration plant in Edogawa-ku, eastern-most Special Ward of Tokyo, contained radioactive cesium exceeding the standard set by the national government for "safe" and normal burial in a regular landfill (8,000 becquerels/kg). So the Tokyo Metropolitan government said it would put them in a secure, temporary storage until the national government firmly decides what to do with such ashes.

The photographs below show how the Tokyo Metropolitan government securely stores those ashes on the metropolitan landfill in Tokyo Bay.

Photo 1 shows the flexible container bags full of radioactive fly ashes on a platform of bentonite clay. I don't see any rubber liner below or above the clay.

Then, the dirt is piled on top of the bags, which is then covered with plastic tarps. They put sand bags on top to hold down the tarps, as you see in Photo 2.

Clearly the governor of Tokyo is not thinking about typhoons with heavy rain and wind, or tsunami, or liquefaction from an earthquake. This is a landfill in Tokyo Bay. Sand bags may empty, and blue tarps degrade, but there's no worrying the 82-year-old governor.

On checking the Disaster Prevention Information page of the Tokyo Municipal government, I find that there is NO MENTION of tsunami in the Tokyo proper; all they talk about is a danger of tsunami on the outlying islands in the event of the much expected Tokai earthquake. There is no hazard map for liquefaction either. Again, this is a landfill in Tokyo Bay.

From the document issued by the Clean Association of Tokyo 23 (union of municipal waste management in Tokyo's 23 Special Wards) on January 25, 2012:

Photo 1:
Photo 2:

(H/T @tautautau1976; if you read Japanese, he and @tsunamiwaste on Twitter are great sources of information about disaster debris issues in Japan.)

Now They Tell Us: Detection of High-Level Cesium-134 in Nagasaki City in April 2011

2012-01-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

Toshihiro Takatsuji, associate professor at Nagasaki University announced the result of his measurement of radioactive cesium in the air at an international symposium, and said a high level of cesium-134 (11,300 becquerels/kg) was detected from the dust collected in the filter paper in early April last year in Nagasaki City, 1,000 kilometers away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

It took him 9 months to reveal what he had known in April last year. Not bad, I guess, considering there are many others who still hold back information that they obtained in March and April last year while they eagerly wait for the acceptance of their papers at international peer-review journals. Some information could have made a big difference in how people responded to the nuclear crisis if it had been revealed in a timely manner.

But maybe not in this case, as I cannot compare this number with any other number. How about the measurement of air filter papers in Fukushima or Tokyo during the same time period? How about the measurement in Nagasaki prior to the nuclear accident? What are we comparing this Nagasaki number to?

Chugoku Shinbun (1/26/2012):

福島第１原発から約千キロ離れた長崎市の大気観測所の吸引調査で、事故１カ月後に高い数値の放射性物質が確認されていたことが分かった。広島市南区の広島大広仁会館で２５日にあった同大原爆放射線医科学研究所（原医研）の国際シンポジウムで長崎大の高辻俊宏准教授が報告した。

It has been revealed that the suction survey at an atmospheric observatory in Nagasaki City, about 1000 kilomters from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, showed a high level of radioactive materials one month after the nuclear accident. Toshihiro Takatsuji, associate professor at Nagasaki University reported at an international symposium by Hiroshima University Research Institute of Radiation Biology and Medicine (RIRBM) held on January 25 at Hiroshima University in Hiroshima City.

　高辻准教授は事故後、１週間ごとに装置で吸引した空気や吸引口のろ紙の付着物のセシウムの量を調査。２０１１年３月２３日から７月２７日までの結果を報告した。

Professor Takatsuji measured the amount of radioactive cesium in the air captured by the air suction apparatus and on the filter paper at the suction entrance every week after the nuclear accident. He reported the results from March 23 to July 27, 2011.

　４月６日からの週が特に高く、ろ紙に付着したちりなどのセシウム１３４の濃度は福島県飯舘村の土壌に相当する１キロ当たり１万１３００ベクレルだった。

The week beginning on April 6 registered the highest level of radioactive cesium. The density of cesium-134 on the dust caught by the filter paper was 11,300 becquerels/kg, equivalent to the level seen in the soil in Iitate-mura in Fukushima Prefecture.

　高辻准教授は米海洋大気局のデータから、４月６日は日本列島の南側を半円を描くように風が東北から九州に達していたと指摘。福島からの放射性物質と推測した。

Professor Takatsuji pointed out that on April 6, 2011, the wind reached from Tohoku to Kyushu (where Nagasaki is located) in an arc sweeping the Pacific side of Japan, according to the data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He deemed the radioactive cesium to be of Fukushima origin.

　高辻准教授は「大気中の数値は低くても、空調機のフィルターなどには放射性物質が集積し高くなる可能性がある」と指摘した。　シンポジウムは２６日もある。

The professor said, "Even if the amount in the atmosphere is low, it is possible that radioactive materials accumulate in the air filters." The symposium will continue on January 26.

11,300 becquerels/kg of cesium-134. No information about cesium-137, if it was detected at all in the air or on the filter paper.

I dispute the reference to Iitate-mura, though. From what I have read, the density of radioactive cesium in Iitate-mura's soil is much higher (50,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium).

As an aside, Professor Takatsuji has been featured in a popular weekly Shukan Gendai magazine (as transcribed in this blog) in which, with Shinzo Kimura he assures the readers that the effect of radiation won't manifest in genes in the next generation, so the fear of expecting mothers in Fukushima is overblown.

But even the two admit that by continuing to live in the areas with elevated radiation levels the gene mutation which normally happens after 10 generations or more may happen within a few generation.

Kevin Maher: "US government was privately terrified over the unfolding crisis" over Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident

2012-01-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Kevin Maher was the director of the State Department's Office of Japan Affairs in Japan when he was abruptly dismissed over his alleged remarks about "lazy Okinawans" one day before the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster. He continued to work at the US embassy after the disaster, and wrote a book titled "The Japan That Can't Decide".

In his interview with AFP, he says:

The "US government was privately terrified over the unfolding crisis" at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

After the operation to drop water on the reactors from a SDF helicopter, "the US government called in the Japanese ambassador and said, look, you have to take this stuff seriously. We don't know what's going to happen".

From AFP (1/26/2012; emphasis is mine):

US ex-diplomat pulls no punches on Japan

By Shaun Tandon (AFP)

WASHINGTON — US diplomats typically are unfailingly polite and reverential towards their countries of expertise and, upon retirement, go away quietly into research or business. Not so with Kevin Maher.

Since he was unceremoniously removed from his position last year, the veteran US diplomat on Japan has gone on the offensive with biting criticism on issues from Tokyo's political paralysis to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

To his own surprise, he has found an eager audience. A book he wrote in Japanese, "The Japan That Can't Decide," has sold more than 100,000 copies and for weeks topped the country's best-seller list for non-fiction paperbacks.

Maher's main thesis is that Japan -- which has had six new prime ministers since 2006 -- has been crippled by a failure of its politicians to accept responsibility and, hence, to make hard decisions.

Maher pointed to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was devastated by the March 11 tsunami, and dismissed the government's declaration last month that it had stabilized the leaking reactors.

"It's not stable," Maher said recently at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "Tokyo is safe, but Fukushima Daiichi is in really bad shape."

The State Department sacked Maher as its Japan desk chief just a day before the historic 9.0-magnitude earthquake but he stayed on for another month to coordinate the US disaster response.

Maher said that the US government was privately terrified over the unfolding crisis. He accused Japan's then prime minister, Naoto Kan, of evading responsibility and trying to pass the problem over to the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co.

"I remember sitting on a task force many a time thinking, 'Who the hell is in control in Japan?' The government's not doing anything. Kan made one trip and flew up and got in the way and came back," Maher said.

Maher said that he watched in horror as he saw television footage of a sole helicopter dropping water on the stricken plant.

"Is that the best Japan can do?" Maher said. "Frankly what happened is the US government called in the Japanese ambassador and said, look, you have to take this stuff seriously. We don't know what's going to happen."

Maher said that the United States was even looking at whether it would have to evacuate some 100,000 Americans, although it soon became clear that Tokyo was not in harm's way.

Maher's earlier strident critiques led to his downfall. While in office, he spoke to students about Okinawa -- home to half of the 47,000 US troops in Japan -- and accused local leaders of playing on mainland Japanese guilt to "extort" concessions. Japanese media accounts of his remarks stirred outrage.

Maher, 57, who has worked on Japan for three decades and has a Japanese wife, called the controversy "water under the bridge" and said he was making a good living as a consultant.

Nonetheless, he criticized the two officials he said were behind his dismissal -- then deputy secretary of state Jim Steinberg and Ambassador to Japan John Roos.

"They just wanted to get this out of the press and decided that the best thing was not to address whether these press reports were actually true or not but just to remove me from my position," Maher said.

Despite his criticism, Maher -- like current US officials -- sees bright spots in Japan's latest prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, who is pushing forward controversial plans to raise taxes and join talks on a US-backed trade pact.

Maher said he has received little backlash over his book. He believed he won over potentially hostile readers with a message that Japan worked well in the past and needed to return to its traditions.

"We used to have an image back in the '80s, if a Japanese corporation had a problem, you were worried that the chairman would go to commit seppuku," he said, referring to ritual suicide.

"He would take responsibility even if it was not a mistake that he made. But now it's reversed in Japan," he said.

Maher said he was surprised when he visited Okinawa to promote his book.

"There were four demonstrators. When I was consul general in Okinawa, I could always get 40."

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

Maher's alleged criticism of Okinawans is actually shared by many in Japan, probably even by Okinawans themselves. But in the "tatemae" (facade) society you are obliged to just look at the superficial meaning of things, live and die by it.

Dropping a bucket of water at a time from a sole SDF helicopter was a brilliant idea concocted by the Kan administration to, of all things, impress the US. From Maher's account, it sure did impress the US, even if it was not the way Kan had hoped.

In the early days of the nuclear crisis, the Kan administration steadfastly declined (while superficially "considering") the offers for help in dealing with the nuclear accident from foreign governments, particularly from the US and Russia. Other than the "face" issue I still don't know the reason. That Japan is somehow different and superior, I guess. It is different, for sure. I remember the politicians talking about "sovereignty" as the reason for "sending the offer for help to the appropriate government committee to discuss whether it is feasible to accept the offer and if so how" - i.e. declining help.

His praise of Yoshihiko Noda is not surprising coming from a US official, as the prime minister is doing everything in his power to please what the US is allegedly demanding. Too bad there's this thing called the Internet and the Japanese are seeing him for what he is - a stooge. His administration most certainly welcomes Twitter's decision to censor tweets that are deemed "illegal" by any government.

#Fukushima Governor May Do "Free Healthcare For Fukushima Children" Using the Fund Set Aside for Decon and Health Surveys

2012-01-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

After rejection by the national government of the scheme that Fukushima Prefecture has been pushing - free medical care for children under 18 who live in Fukushima Prefecture, the governor of Fukushima says he may do that on his own, using the fund given to Fukushima for decontamination and health survey of the residents.

That begs an obvious question, as asked by Professor Hayakawa, among others:

"If Fukushima Prefecture is so dangerous that they have to provide free medical care, shouldn't the children in Fukushima evacuate from Fukushima, instead of remaining there?"

From NHK News (1/28/2012):

福島県の佐藤知事は、２８日、平野復興担当大臣と会談し、福島県が要望していた１８歳以下の医療費の無料化について実施が困難だと伝えられたのに対し、「県も自治体も期待していたため、極めて残念だ」と不快感を示したうえで「それでも子どもを生み育てやすい福島県をつくらないといけないので県として前向きに検討したい」と述べ、県が独自に１８歳以下の医療費の無料化を実施したい考えを示しました。佐藤知事は、会談のあとで取材に応じ、無料化のための財源には、これまでに除染や健康調査のための費用として国が７８０億円を拠出した「福島県民健康管理基金」を利用したいという考えを示しました。

Governor Sato of Fukushima Prefecture met on January 28 with Minister in charge of recovery Hirano. On being informed that the request from Fukushima Prefecture to make medical care for children under 18 free would be very difficult to accept, Governor Sato expressed his dissatisfaction by saying "That is highly regrettable because both the prefectural government and municipalities in Fukushima were looking forward to the scheme". He further commented that the Fukushima prefectural government would work toward launching the scheme on its own to make Fukushima a place where people raise their children at ease. Governor Sato talked to the press after the meeting, and indicated that the likely source of the free medical care scheme would be the "fund for the health management of Fukushima residents" which has 78 billion yen [US$1 billion] that the national government contributed for decontamination and the health surveys in Fukushima.

The cost of the free medical care for children in Fukushima was estimated to be 10 billion yen when the idea was first floated by the governor.

NY Chefs Learn about Japanese Cuisine, and CM by the Japanese Government Promoting Food in East Japan

2012-01-27T23:26:00.000-08:00

This gotta be the scheme hatched by the Japanese government, to have a sympathetic French chef conduct a workshop in New York.

The Japanese people, like many Asians and for that matter Europeans (and New Yorkers themselves), seem to think everything revolves around New York when it comes to anything American.

Of all things, the workshop was about how to prepare raw fish for sushi...

Anyway, here's NHK World (1/27/2012):

NY chefs learn about Japanese cuisine

Chefs at high-end restaurants in New York have taken part in a workshop to learn about traditional Japanese cuisine.

New York-based French chef Daniel Boulud organized the workshop. He led a group of chefs last July to cook meals for survivors in the tsunami-ravaged city of Kamaishi.

About 40 chefs took part in Thursday's workshop.
A sushi chef explained traditional ways to prepare raw fish.

Boulud said Japan is striving to restore trust in food safety, and he believes that Japanese ingredients are safe.

New York City has more than 1,400 Japanese restaurants. Some of these businesses were affected by the safety concerns about Japanese food after the disaster.

Friday, January 27, 2012 15:41 +0900 (JST)

NHK World has a video of the news at the link. Watching the video, it was indeed the scheme hatched by the Japanese government.

Here's another video promoting produce from disaster-affected East Japan (Kanto, Tohoku), targeting the Japanese using a popular group TOKIO. Translated and captioned by Tokyo Brown Tabby who did it probably in rage (as Tabby tries to pick safe food):

(From TBT's Youtube description; emphasis is mine)

This TV commercial clip (15 seconds) and its longer full version are sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and have been on-air intermittently since early June, 2011. (A month after that, the problem of contaminated beef started to emerge).

The full 30-second version can be viewed here: http://syokuryo.jp/news-commercial/2011/06/tvcm-1.html

According to the official webpage for this CM campaign, the food that appear in the full 30-second version is as follows: rice ball using rice from Miyagi, asparagus from Fukushima, cucumber from Fukushima with "miso" from Miyagi, tomato from Ibaraki, apple from Aomori, watermelon from Gunma, milk from Iwate, peach from Yamanashi, BBQ using beef from Yamagata and onion from Chiba, and raw skipjack "sashimi" from Chiba.

These 5 men are a popular idol group called TOKIO.

The list of food items used reads like a horror story for those who closely follow the radioactivity measurement results by the prefectural governments.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Full of Untrained, Migrant Workers, TEPCO Says Subcontractors Are Supposed to Train Them

2012-01-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

Tokyo Shinbun is a regional newspaper covering Kanto region of Japan. It has been reporting on the Fukushima accident and resultant radiation contamination in a more honest and comprehensive manner than any national newspaper. (Their only shortcoming is that their links don't seem to last for more than a week.)

Their best coverage on the subject, though, is not available digitally but only in the printed version of the newspaper. But no worry, as there is always someone who transcribes the article and post it on the net for anyone to see.

In the 2nd half of the January 27 article, Tokyo Shinbun details what kind of workers are currently working at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant: migrant workers young (in their 20's) and not so young (in their 60's), untrained, $100 a day. Some of them cannot even read and write.

From Tokyo Shinbun (1/27/2012):

(The first half of the article is asbout Mr. Osumi, the first worker to die in May last year after the plant "recovery" work started. About him and his Thai wife, please read my post from July 11, 2011.)

■低賃金

Low wages

大角さんの死因と被曝の関係は不明だが、事故収束現場の労働者にとって最も懸念されるのは被曝だ。その線量限度は昨年十二月十六日、通常時の「一年で五〇ミリシーベルト」「五年で一〇〇ミリシーベルト」に戻された。野田首相の「事故収束」宣言を受けての措置だ。

The relationship between the cause of Mr. Osumi's death and radiation exposure is unknown. However, it is still the radiation exposure that is most worrisome for the workers who work at Fukushima I Nuke Plant to wind down the accident. The radiation exposure limit was lowered back to the normal "maximum 50 millisieverts per year" and "100 millisieverts in 5 years" on December 16 last year. It was done on the declaration of "the end of the accident" by Prime Minister Noda that day.

限度量は事故直後、特例として二五〇ミリシーベルトへと一気に引き上げられた。厚生労働省は当時、国際基準での重大事故時の被曝限度が五〇〇ミリシーベルトであることなどを根拠に挙げたが、狙いは延べ作業時間や作業員数の増加による事故処理の迅速化だった。

The radiation exposure limit was raised to 250 millisieverts per year right after the accident, as a special measure. The Ministry of Health and Labor argued that the number was based on the international standard for a severe accident which was 500 millisieverts. But the real purpose was to increase the number of hours that can be put in by the workers and to increase the number of workers to promptly wind down the accident.

それが「事故収束」をアピールしたい首相の思惑もあって、通常時の基準に戻された。

However, as the prime minister wanted to appeal "the end of the accident", the limit was lowered back to the normal limit.

東電によれば、労働者の被曝線量は事故直後には二五〇ミリシーベルトを越えるケースもあったが、四月以降は一〇〇ミリシーベルト以内で推移しているという。

According to TEPCO, the radiation exposure levels of workers exceeded [annualized?] 250 millisieverts in some cases right after the accident, but since April it has been within 100 millisieverts.

ただ、現場の声は安全管理への不安で溢れている。下請け労働者の一人はこう語った。

However, the workers voice concerns over the safety management. One of the subcontract workers told the newspaper:

「今、現場の七割は全国からの出稼ぎ労働者らで、大半が原発作業の初心者。賃金は日給で八千円から一万三千円ほど。年齢層は就職難の二十代と他の現場を『卒業』した六十代が多い」

"Right now, 70% of workers at the plant are migrant contract workers from all over Japan. Most of them have never worked at nuke plants before. The pay is 8000 yen to 13,000 yen [US$104 to $170] per day. Most of them are either in their 20s who are finding it difficult to land on any job, or in their 60s who have "graduated" from the previous jobs."

安全管理については「原発で働く前に受けなくてはならない『管理区域入域前教育』は儀式のようなもの。テキストに書いてある想定と非常事態の現場が一致しない。字の読めない受講者もいたが、最後のペーパーテストは誰かが代わりに書き込んでいた」と話す。

As to the safety management, he said, "Before you start working at a nuclear power plant, you have to go through the "training before entering radiation control area". But in reality the training is ceremonial. The assumptions in the textbook do not match the real job site in an emergency situation. There were some who could not read, but someone else filled in the test for them at the end of the training."

■休む場所で　毎時１２マイクロシーベルト

12 microsieverts/hour in the rest area

「その後、現場に出るが、放射線量が高いところで線量を測りつつ、作業員に警告、指示する放射線管理員の数が足りない。収束の現場だから作業員が多すぎる。そのせいもあり、危険な場所でもマスクを脱いだり、一服している作業員もいる。内部被曝が心配だ」

"Then the workers start working at the site. But there are not enough radiation control personnel who measure radiation levels in the high-radiation locations, and warn and instruct the workers. There are too many workers because the nature of the work is to wind down the accident. There are workers who take off their masks or who smoke even in the dangerous [high radiation] locations. I'm worried for their internal radiation exposures."

弁当を食べたり、喫煙する場所でも、毎時十二マイクロシーベルトの放射線量がるという。「作業員同士では線量の話はしない。しても仕方がないからね」

In the rest area where the workers eat lunch and smoke, the radiation level is 12 microsieverts/hour. "Among workers, we don't talk about radiation levels. There's no point."

この作業員は「今は全国から作業員をかき集めているが、夏には足りなくなると業者の親方たちは皆、言っている」と漏らした。地元の建設業者もそのことを認める。

The worker divulged to us, "For now, they've managed to get workers from all over Japan. But there won't be enough workers by summer, all bosses at the employment agencies say so." Local construction companies also admit [to the scarcity of workers by summer.]

「長年、福島原発に携わってきた地元業者は現在、第一原発には行かない。危ないし、原発以外にも仮設住宅建設などの仕事があるからだ。全国の原発を渡り歩く職人たちも福島第一は避けている。賃金が特別良いわけでもないのに、わざわざ高い線量を限界まで浴びて、他で作業する機会を失いたくないからだ。素人中心で作業をしているが、早晩、人材供給も途切れてくるだろう」

"Local contractors who have been involved in the work at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant do not work there any more. It's dangerous, and there are jobs other than at the nuke plant, such as construction of temporary housing. The professional migrant workers who hop from one nuclear plant to another all over Japan avoid Fukushima I Nuke Plant. The pay is not particularly good, so what is the point of getting high radiation to the max allowed and losing the opportunity to work in other nuclear plants? So, it's mostly amateurs who work at the plant right now. Sooner or later, the supply of workers will dry up."

東電の広報担当者は下請け作業員の労働環境や賃金水準について「元請け企業が適切な指導をしていると思う」と説明する。作業員の確保については「現時点で作業員の数に支障は出ていない。今後も作業状況に応じ必要な人員を確保していく」と強調する。

As to the working conditions and wage levels of the subcontract workers, TEPCO's PR person explains, "We believe the subcontracting companies are providing appropriate guidance." As to securing the workers, he emphasizes that "there is no problem at this point in sourcing enough workers. We will secure necessary workers depending on how the work progresses."

しかし、原発労働者の健康問題に取り組む飯田勝泰・東京労働安全衛生センター事務局長は「労働者たちは危険な環境で働かされている。賃金水準はダウンし不払いも起きている。人員確保が難しい状況になりつつある」と指摘する。

However, Katsuyasu Iida, Director General of Tokyo Occupational Safety and Health Center who have been dealing with the health problems of nuclear workers, points out, "Workers are made to work in a dangerous environment. The wage levels are going down, and there are cases of non-payment. It is getting harder to secure the workers."

さらに東電だけでは安全管理は徹底されないとし、国に対してもこう求めた。「下請け労働者を含めた管理体制を作る必要がある。労働環境、労働条件を徹底的に守っていかなければ、いつ終わるかわからない事故収束作業に対応できない」

He also says the safety management cannot be fully enforced by TEPCO alone, and demands the national government to step in. "They need to come up with the management system that include the subcontract workers. Unless they secure the [safe] work environment and work conditions, they cannot deal with the restoration work that may continue for a long while."

※ デスクメモ　福島第一原発での作業員は命懸けだ。それを一日八千円の報酬でこなしている労働者たちがいる。東電に籍のある「お抱え議員」は年収一千万円以上。原子力ムラの天下り役員たちも未だに健在だ。脱原発とは単なるエネルギー問題ではない。こうした「不条理」を放置するのか否かという問いでもある。

Memo from the desk [at Tokyo Shinbun]: Workers at Fukushima I Nuke Plant are risking their lives. Some are doing it for 8000 yen per day. A councilman who also happens to work for TEPCO earns more than 10 million yen [US$130,000] per year. Executives who "descended from heaven" to cushy jobs in the "nuclear energy village" are alive and well. To move away from nuclear power generation is not just about energy issues. It is to question whether we will continue to ignore such "absurdity".

Well said. Everybody in the nuclear industry in Japan knew that the industry depended (still does) on migrant workers who were (still are) hired on the cheap thorough layer after layer of subcontracting companies. Thanks to the Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident, now the general public know that. But there are plenty of those who are still comfortable with the nuclear power generated by the nuclear power plants maintained at the expense of such workers and see nothing wrong with it.

Two Ways to Sell Contaminated Fukushima Rice: Sell Direct, and Discount for Wholesalers

2012-01-27T11:23:00.000-08:00

No matter what the governments (national, prefectural) or the agricultural co-op (JA) in Fukushima say about the "safe" rice from Fukushima through vigorous testing, there are just too many ways that Fukushima rice that are contaminated with radioactive cesium can slip through and reach the consumers, without the consumers knowing that they are contaminated to a degree that they may not be comfortable eating it.

One way to sell directly to consumers, like in this case in Fukushima: "Mochi" rice (sticky rice used to make "mochi") containing 1110 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium had been sold at a farm stand in Date City, Fukushima.

From Jiji Tsushin (1/27/2012):

福島県は２７日、同県伊達市の農家が生産したもち米から国の暫定規制値（１キロ当たり５００ベクレル）を超える放射性セシウムが検出されたと発表した。濃度は１１１０ベクレル。県によると、この農家のもち米のうち５７．５キロが昨年１１月上旬までに市内の直売所で販売された。直売所は回収を呼び掛けている。

The Fukushima prefectural government announced on January 27 that radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg) was detected from "mochi" rice produced by a farmer in Date City in Fukushima Prefecture. The density was 1110 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. According to the prefectural government, 57.5 kilograms of this rice had already been sold by the first half of November 2011 at a direct sales depot in the city. The direct sales depot is calling for the return of the rice.

Return? Most likely the rice has been already eaten as "mochi".

I totally fail to sympathize with the farmer who sold the rice at the direct sales depot. By 2011 fall, it should have been obvious, even to people in Date City, that their houses, farmlands were heavily contaminated. The city was measuring the radiation levels in the city and finding "hot spots" everywhere.

Another way is being practiced by the Fukushima JA: Reduce the wholesale price so that the distributors can get a fat margin, thus incentive for the wholesalers to push Fukushima rice. I'm sure they will be glad to oblige, because they mix and match with other rice from other parts of Japan anyway.

Also from Jiji Tsushin (1/27/2012):

ＪＡ全農福島（福島市）は２０１１年県産米の一部銘柄について、卸業者への売り渡し価格（相対取引価格）を引き下げる方向で調整を始めた。複数の業者筋が２７日明らかにした。早ければ３０日にも実施の方向。東京電力福島第１原発事故を受けた風評被害で販売が低迷する中、価格引き下げによる消費喚起が狙いとみられる。

The Fukushima Branch of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association (JA) has been coordinating with the wholesalers to lower the wholesale price of some brands of rice produced in Fukushima in 2011. A multiple wholesalers disclosed the news [to reporters] on January 27. The new price will be effective as soon as January 30. As the sales has slumped due to the baseless rumors after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, the Fukushima JA may be aiming at stimulating the sales by lowering the wholesale price.

　県中央部に当たる中通りコシヒカリ（６０キロ当たり）、海沿い中心の浜通りコシヒカリ（同）はいずれも１５００円引き下げ、それぞれ１万３８００円、１万３７００円に、同県産ひとめぼれ（同）は５００円下げ、１万３５００円とする案が有力。会津産コシヒカリは据え置く方向。

The wholesale price of "Koshihikari" from Nakadori (central Fukushima) and from Hamadori (coastal Fukushima) will be lowered by 1500 yen to be 13,800 yen and 13,700 yen per 60-kilogram bag respectively. "Hitomebore" brand produced in Fukushima will be lowered by 500 yen to 13,500 yen per 60-kilogram bag. The price for "Koshihikari" produced in Aizu region (western Fukushima) will not change.

I do not think it is likely that the wholesalers will pass on the savings to the retailers, if the past is any indication.

There are just too many channels through which the rice will leave Fukushima, as the Fukushima JA handles only 23% of rice produced in Fukushima anyway.

By the way, the Fukushima JA has decided on the rice growing policy in Fukushima for 2012 crop. The only areas that they say they will disallow the planting of rice are the areas that produced rice that exceeded 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. Everywhere else, even in those areas that were unlucky to be found with rice that had radioactive cesium between 100 and 500 becquerels/kg, the JA will allow the rice growing after "thorough decontamination" of the soil.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

We know what "decontamination" they are talking about, don't we? The rice farmers in Fukushima who grew rice last year (almost all of them) tilled their contaminated land before planting last year, mixing up the radioactive cesium, strontium and whatever other nuclides that landed with the then-clean soil underneath. Most likely they did the autumn tilling before the snowfall last year already. Most locations weren't even tested for radioactive materials in soil.

How do you decontaminate such land? It certainly won't be accomplished by thinly scraping the soil surface. Remove the top 30 centimeters? No that won't be enough, because rain may have driven radioactive materials further down. Top 1 meter then? The productive part of the soil will be gone.

"Decontamination" Defined by Ministry of the Environment Is Nothing But a General, Thorough Cleaning by Hand

2012-01-26T17:09:00.000-08:00

according to Sankei Shinbun, who has been unabashedly pro-nuclear energy and in favor of dispersing radioactive materials throughout Japan via the disaster debris to share in the "pain".

The paper has an article about the meeting between the Ministry of the Education officials and the heads of the municipalities within the 20-kilometer radius "no entry zone" where the heads of the municipalities received the information from the Ministry about their lot - whether they can return after the decontamination work by the national government or not.

But that isn't the interesting part of the article.

At the end of the article, there is a separate section that the newspaper writes about what "decontamination" is, according to the Ministry of the Education:

除染　「がんこな汚れを落とす掃除のようなもの」（環境省幹部）で、基本は人手に頼ってスコップやタワシなどで行われる。環境省が昨年末に公表したガイドラインによると、落ち葉など容易に除去できるものは手作業で取り除く。屋根であれば高圧洗浄機で洗い流し、玄関などコンクリート部分であればタワシやブラシでこする。放射性物質が染み込んだ草地や土壌は、スコップやショベルカーなどで表面をはぎ取る。放射能を浴びないように防護服を着るなど作業時の服装に注意しなければならない。

Decontamination: "It is like a cleaning job of stubborn dirt or stains" (Ministry of the Environment senior officials). Basically, it relies on manpower, using hand tools like shovels and scrubbing-brushes. According to the guideline published at the end of last year by the Ministry of the Environment, what can be easily removed, such as dead leaves, is to be removed by hand. The roofs are to be washed down by high-pressure washers, and the concrete surface such as the entrance of a house is to be scrubbed by scrubbing-brushes and deck brushes. As for the grassland and the soil where radioactive materials have penetrated, the surface is to be removed using shovels or diggers. Workers must pay attention not to get exposed to radioactivity by wearing the protective gear.

It looks as long as you follow these procedures the Ministry will call it "decontamination" and the job is done by the book. The subcontractors get paid by the general contractors, who get paid by the Ministry.

If you believed what Goshi Hosono, Minister of the Environment, said about decontaminating Fukushima - "Japan is not the Soviet Union, we have advanced technology to deal with radiation contamination, and we can do what others may have failed", sorry. There is nothing high-tech about any of these methods, and they don't even work.

From what's been tweeted by a villager in Iitate-mura, Fukushima Prefecture, the thorough "decontamination" job by hand by the Self Defense Force using screw drivers scraping dirt and dead leaves achieved nothing. It's back to square one:

除染その後１：自衛隊の方が苦労して除染して下さった役場の石畳のその後、直後（１２／２０）の線量は１．５７μＳＶ／ｈ、１２月２９日は２．８７μＳＶ／ｈ、今日（１／１０）は３．２６μＳＶ／ｈ。だから無駄だと言ったのです。石畳の隙間には落ち葉が挟まっていました。

After decontamination (part 1): About the stone pavement in front of the village office that the Self Defense Force kindly took trouble to decontaminate for us. Right after the decontamination work on December 20, the radiation level was 1.57 microsievert/hour. On December 29 it was 2.87 microsieverts/hour. On January 10, it was 3.26 microsieverts/hour. I told you so, it's no use. The gaps between the stones are filled with dead leaves [again].

He is not angry that the radiation didn't go down. He is angry that the government needlessly exposed these young SDF soldiers who are from the bases inside Fukushima to high levels of radiation.

So far, two workers doing exactly what the Ministry of the Environment defines as "decontamination" have died in Date City and Hirono-machi in Fukushima Prefecture. The deaths have nothing to do with radiation, the government tells us, without giving any further details about the cause of their deaths.

If the government ever measured the density of radioactive materials in the soil and dead leaves that it made these workers and the SDF soldiers remove by hand in places like Iitate-mura and Date City, it hasn't bothered telling us.

By the way, Sankei Shinbun categorizes articles related to the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident and the radiation contamination problems with the label "Radiation Leak". At least Yomiuri and Asahi use "Nuke Plant Accident" as their label.

Tokyo University Seismologists: 70% Chance Within 4 Years That M7 Earthquake Hits Tokyo Region

2012-01-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

70% chance within 4 years, 98% within 30 years. It's all about statistics.

The Insurance Journal carried an AP story about the study done by the researchers at Tokyo University on a potential M7 earthquake in Kanto region within 4 years.

After forking out the record payout after the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami, the insurance industry worldwide may be very interested in knowing more about such a study coming from a premier university well-aligned with the national government in Japan.

People in the Tokyo region (metropolitan areas and Kanto) don't seem to care. It's like "What's new?"

From The Insurance Journal citing AP (1/25/2012):

Study: Major Earthquake Could Hit Tokyo Within Years

By Mari Yamaguchi (AP)

A new study is warning that the Tokyo region has a 70 percent chance of being hit directly by a powerful magnitude-7 earthquake within four years.

The study by University of Tokyo seismologists bases the estimate on an increase in earthquake activity in the Tokyo region since last year’s March 11 disaster, when a magnitude-9 quake and subsequent tsunami about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northeast of the capital left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing.

The group at the university’s earthquake research institute said the number of moderate quakes in the capital region measuring magnitude 3 or bigger surged to 343 in the six-month period after the March quake, up from 47 in the previous six months.

Based on a theory that the probability of bigger earthquakes rises in proportion to an increase in smaller quakes, the team calculated a 98 percent likelihood of a magnitude 6.7 to 7.2 earthquake striking Tokyo over the next 30 years.

Stated differently, “When we ask when a probability of such a quake reaches 70 percent, then we get a 70 percent chance over the next four years,” said Shinichi Sakai, a seismologist on the team.

A separate government study estimates that the chance of a magnitude-7 quake striking Tokyo is 70 percent over the next 30 years.

Sakai said the two studies use different methods to calculate earthquake likelihood. While the university study factored in the recent increase in moderate seismic activity, the government estimate only looked the pattern of magnitude 6.7-7.2 quakes over the past 150 years. Since no quake that big has occurred in the Tokyo area since March, there is no change in the government estimate, Sakai said.

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. Tokyo’s last major quake was the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake that killed 140,000 people.

(Video) What Happened to Chernobyl Children 7 Years after the Accident (from a Japanese TV program in 1993)

2012-01-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

When it was someone else's problem (Chernobyl), Japan was telling the truth about the effect of radiation, particularly on children.

Tokyo Brown Tabby's translation and captioning of a TV program from 1993:

Ironically, the female newscaster has morphed into one of the strongest proponents (even today) of nuclear power generation. The journalist on the right has remained a journalist; he was seen investigating and reporting from the high-radiation areas in Fukushima, right after Reactor 1 blew up at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

Tabby's description of the Youtube video:

This video is from a Japanese evening news program broadcasted on Nihon TV, seven years after the Chernobyl accident (around 1993).

I hope the families in Fukushima who still hesitate to voluntarily evacuate their children will watch this and change their minds.

The original video is at: http://youtu.be/tWWICnIQE9k

German version is at 007bratsche's channel: http://youtu.be/_9F9M1Sq7KI
French version is at kna60's channel: http://youtu.be/oWvQT6ei8C0

Japan's PM Noda: It Is "Regrettable" That There Is No Minutes of Meetings of Government Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters

2012-01-26T00:48:00.000-08:00

None of the meetings of the Nuclear Disaster Response Headquarters has the minutes.

No record whatsoever of how decisions were made by a handful of politicians surrounding then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan (people like Yukio Edano, Banri Kaieda, and Goshi Hosono) and high-level bureaucrats at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Ministry of Education and Science, government experts in the Nuclear Safety Commission or the Atomic Energy Commission, and last but not least, TEPCO. We won't know who else was there, because they say they did not keep any record.

The excuse by the NISA was that they were too busy dealing with the crisis.

Well, they sure didn't act like they were dealing with crisis at that time. They were telling us everything was under control, and the Fukushima accident was only a Level 4 accident on INES event scale.

(My ranting is longer than the article.)

From Jiji Tsushin (1/26/2012):

野田佳彦首相は２６日午後の衆院本会議で、政府の原子力災害対策本部の議事録が作成されていなかった問題について「東京電力福島第１原発事故発生後の緊急事態において、昨年３月１１日から２３回にわたる議事内容が文書で随時記録されていなかったことは事実であり、誠に遺憾だ」と述べた。自民党の細田博之元幹事長への答弁。

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda commented during the Lower House session in the afternoon of January 26 on the minutes of the meetings of the Nuclear Disaster Response Headquarters that was set up by the cabinet. He answered the question from a LDP politician and said "In the emergency situation after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, it is a fact that there is no minutes of the 23 meetings since March 11 last year, and it is regrettable."

Decisions that they made in the meetings include (in no chronological order and on top of my head, may not be accurate but we'll never know because there is no minutes):

Setting evacuation zones in concentric circles, as if Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was an atomic bomb.
(Kan) going to Fukushima I Nuke Plant less than a day after the nuclear accident because Kan thought of himself as "nuclear expert".
Ignoring the nuclear emergency protocol which specifically said "Use SPEEDI".
Introducing the "rolling blackout" to scare people into not abandoning nuclear power plants despite the horrendous accident.
Raising the annual radiation exposure limit for the Fuku-I workers to 250 millisieverts from 50 millisieverts max per year.
Raising the radiation exposure limit for school children in schools in Fukushima to 20 millisieverts per year.
Creating the provisional safety standards for food and water.
Ordering sample tests for food items out of Fukushima, which resulted in 99.9% of vegetables being sold without any testing.
Sending nuclear experts to Fukushima to tell people everything was OK.
Sending government-affiliated nuclear experts to TV stations to downplay the accident (remember the "Plutonium Brothers"?).
Devising a campaign attacking journalists who wrote something "bad" about Fukushima or Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident.
Devising a campaign to promote the idea that tasty food was safe food; performance by politicians and by celebrities eating freshly picked Fukushima vegetables.
Dumping the contaminated water from the plant into the Pacific Ocean without telling the countries that might be affected.

The list is endless.

1143 Children (Over 30%) of 3765 Tested for Thyroid Abnormalities in Fukushima Had Lumps or Cysts (Updated)

2012-01-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

(UPDATE: The document issued by the Fukushima Prefecture's expert committee is here (PDF, in Japanese).

Total number of children tested: 3765
No. of children found with lumps 5.1 millimeter or larger: 26
No. of children found with lumps less than 5.1 millimeter: 56
No. of children found with cysts 20.1 millimeter or larger: 0
No. of children found with cyst less than 20.1 millimeter: 1086
No. of children with no lumps, cysts: 2622

There are children who have both lump and cyst.

============================================

Waaaiiit a minute...

I was looking for more information on the post I wrote about the lumps on the thyroid 5.1 millimeters or bigger in diameter found in 0.7% or 26 children out of 3765 children tested in Fukushima Prefecture. I was specifically looking for information on the number of children who had any lump at all.

I've just found it in an unlikely place: Fukushima Minpo, local Fukushima newspaper. I thought they would obfuscate, but they have the details. The article looks like it is a part of a longer article; it is possible it is abbreviated from the article in the print version of the newspaper.

It turns out,

Total number of children tested: 3765
No. of children found with lumps 5.1 millimeters and larger: 26 (0.7% of total)
No. of children found with lumps smaller than 5.1 millimeters: 1117 (29.7% of total)

1143 children, or 30.4% of children tested, were found with lumps of varying sizes.

From Fukushima Minpo (1/25/2012):

検討委員会では、浪江、飯舘両町村、川俣町山木屋地区の１８歳以下を対象にした甲状腺検査の結果が報告された。３７６５人のうち、「直ちに二次検査を要する」と判断された県民はいなかった。

At the expert commission, the result of the thyroid test was reported. The test was done on the children below the age of 18 in Namie-machi, Iitate-mura, and Yamakiya District of Kawamata-machi [all planned evacuation zone]. Of 3765 children, there was no one who was deemed necessary to immediately go through further testing.

　直径５・１ミリ以上のしこりなどが確認され、二次検査の対象となったのは２６人（０・７％）だったが、検討委座長の山下俊一福島医大副学長は「原発事故に伴う悪性の変化はみられない」と説明している。二次検査が不要の３７３９人（９９・３％）のうち、１１１７人（２９・７％）は５・０ミリ以下のしこりなどが確認されたが、県は「良性」と判断している。

26 children (0.7%) have been found with lumps with 5.1 millimeters or larger in diameter, and will go through further testing [at some time]. However, Shunichi Yamashita, the head of the commission and the vice president of Fukushima Medical University explains, "There is no malignant change due to the nuclear plant accident". Of 3739 children who will not need further testing (99.3% of children tested), 1117 children (29.7%) have been found with lumps 5.0 millimeters or less in diameter. But the prefectural government has decided they are "benign".

　甲状腺検査は県民健康管理調査の一環で、浪江、飯舘両町村、川俣町山木屋地区で先行して行われた。他の地域では順次、実施している。

The thyroid testing is part of the Fukushima residents health management survey, and was carried out in Namie, Iitate-mura, and Yamakiya District of Kawamata-machi first. For the other areas, it has been on-going.

It decidedly does not look totally OK to me, and the explanation by the Fukushima officials sounds suspect.

OT: "Egoist" by Falco

2012-01-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

(Speaking of an egoist...) One of my favorite songs.

Die ganze Welt dreht sich um mich,
denn ich bin nur ein Egoist.

Der Mensch, der mir an naechsten ist
bin ich, ich bin ein Egoist.

and of course this one:

Drah di ned um, oh oh oh - schau, schau,
der Kommissar geht um! oh oh oh

WSJ Runs a Hagiography of Naoto Kan, Former PM of Japan Who Presided (Unfortunately) Over the Fukushima Nuke Accident

2012-01-25T14:46:00.001-08:00

A political "rags to riches" story, says Wall Street Journal writer Toko Sekiguchi.

The article is totally uncritical, glossing over everything that happened under Kan's watch since March 11, 2011, and is written in a simple English to match the simplistic content that doesn't read like a Wall Street Journal at all.

What's the occasion anyway for this hagiography? Kan is attending the Davos meeting, annual confab of the world's rich and powerful in Davos, Switzerland, and is saying "No More Nuke Plants". Oh isn't that great.

"I'm pouring most of my time and energy into promoting renewable energy, and I'm having a great time"

From Wall Street Journal (1/25/2012):

Japan's Former Premier Takes Antinuclear Campaign to Davos

By TOKO SEKIGUCHI

TOKYO—Former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan returns to the world stage this week, part of a campaign to reinvent himself as a global antinuclear activist nearly a year after he oversaw his government's widely criticized handling of the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

"I would like to tell the world that we should aim for a society that can function without nuclear energy," he said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, previewing his speech scheduled for Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mr. Kan was last in the spotlight in August, when he tendered his resignation as prime minister barely a year after taking office, and just over five months after the March 11 tsunami triggered the Fukushima meltdowns. He was forced out by the parliamentary opposition and by critics inside his own ruling party, who blasted his handling of the accident and, more generally, his strong-willed, improvisational style of governing.

Japan runs through prime ministers so quickly—Mr. Kan is one of six men to have held the title in the past five years—that former ones rarely wield influence domestically or internationally. But Mr. Kan is betting he can break the mold, by reverting to his prelegislative career as a civic activist. Before entering Parliament in 1980, he worked as an advocate for affordable housing for Tokyo's long-suffering salarymen.

"People tell me that I've gone back to my roots," he said in the interview, his first with a non-Japanese news organization since leaving office. "I'm pouring most of my time and energy into promoting renewable energy, and I'm having a great time," he added.

Mr. Kan has been traveling the world. On a recent trip to Spain and Germany, his alternative-energy inspection tour included visiting solar-energy control centers. As he talked of energy-efficient building codes and described a visit to a Japanese biomass community project, flipping through PowerPoint printouts, the 65-year-old Mr. Kan flashed a youthful smile—an expression he rarely showed during his tumultuous administration.

While his successor, Yoshihiko Noda, is pushing to restart closed reactors in Japan and to promote Japanese nuclear-reactor exports to countries such as Vietnam and Turkey, Mr. Kan is now pursuing an alternative-energy agenda, hoping to use his connections to make headway. "I think we should aim to create a world in which people do not need to depend on nuclear energy, and it would be ideal if Japan can become a model country for the world," he said.

In some ways, it is a likely end to what had been an unlikely career. In a political rags-to-riches tale, Mr. Kan won his first national election on his fourth grass-roots campaign bid as a member of the smallest opposition party at the time. But the issues raised then by a leftist activist-turned-politician of a miniparty went unheeded as Japan made the transition from its breakneck postwar growth to the bubble economy, protected by an iron triangle of big business, the nation's bureaucracy and the Liberal Democratic Party, which had ruled continuously since 1955.

"We used to talk about defeating the LDP, to eliminate the bureaucrat-led, special-interest politics," said Jiro Yamaguchi, a Hokkaido University political- science professor and longtime friend of Mr. Kan. "It sounded like a dream back then. No way did I think that he'd be premier one day."

Early in his career, Mr. Kan developed an interest in renewable energies, and he still proudly shows a fading picture of himself as a young, long-haired legislator visiting a Colorado wind farm. He discussed wind power during a parliamentary session in 1982, drawing a rebuke from the then-minister of science and technology, who, according to the legislative transcript, chided him: "Don't use it as a reason to reject nuclear power; don't get too excited or carried away."

Mr. Kan recalled that exchange with bemusement, saying nuclear power wasn't even part of that discussion. He said the official's reflexive response demonstrated the ruling government's obsession with the technology. At the time, Japan was still recovering from the oil crises of the 1970s, and nuclear power was emerging as the alternative to foreign oil.

As Mr. Kan rose to power, he came to embrace the national consensus that Japan should ramp up its use of nuclear energy.

Mr. Kan said that as a young politician, he believed atomic power was only a transitional energy source. But " as our party grew in size, many of us began to see nuclear power as a safe power that should be more aggressively utilized," he said.

By the time his Democratic Party of Japan wrested control from the LDP in a historic 2009 victory, the new government had adopted the LDP's pronuclear policy, promising to build 14 new nuclear reactors by 2030. Nuclear power was repackaged as clean energy, becoming the centerpiece of the DPJ's plan to cut carbon emissions by 25%, in relation to Japan's 1990 output levels, by 2020.

March 11 changed that. Mr. Kan had to make gut-wrenching decisions, including rejecting a request from Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to pull workers back from the increasingly dangerous reactors. "It was the first time since World War II that a Japanese leader was asking people to risk their lives," he said.

In his mind, he said, he simulated an worst-case evacuation scenario that included the 35 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area. "Not only would we lose up to half of our land, but spread radiation to the rest of the world," he said. "Our existence as a sovereign nation was at stake."

"Just when he reached the peak, an accident that questioned his very core erupted," said veteran lawmaker Satsuki Eda, a Kan ally for three decades.

Four months after the accident, Mr. Kan used the bully pulpit of the premiership to declare that he was revising Japan's energy policy, aiming eventually to rid the country of all its nuclear-power plants. He called the technology's risks impossible to contain. The announcement surprised his own cabinet ministers, who were notified of the decision only hours beforehand, and shocked a political system in which consensus-building skill is prized.

Even onetime close allies within the ruling party questioned Mr. Kan's competence in handling the accident and his response—blaming his impetuous style for aggravating the costly chaos. "Mr. Kan is a skillful politician when on the offensive, forcefully breaking through and overcoming barriers—but crisis management and day-to-day communication with the public is not an offensive skill," said Yukio Edano, Mr. Kan's chief spokesman during the height of the crisis, told reporters last month.

Mr. Kan remains unapologetic: "A large part of people's criticism against me was that I acted spontaneously or just off the top of my head. But for me, that's a positive thing. If you're not inspired, you can't act."

Now, unfettered by the burdens of office, he has more freedom to act. "He's finally back to his normal self," said Mr. Eda.

Write to Toko Sekiguchi at toko.sekiguchi@dowjones.com

Thyroid Abnomalities in 0.7% of Fukushima Children, According to Prefectural Government

2012-01-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

(UPDATE: See my latest post. Total 1143 children out of 3765 tested had lumps on the thyroid.)

============================

(Let's repeat the refrain: "It has nothing to do with radiation".)

From Jiji Tsushin (1/25/2012):

１８歳以下０．７％、５ミリ超のしこり＝放射線の影響「考えにくい」－福島県

0.7% of children under the age of 18 have developed lumps [on the thyroid] more than 5 millimeters in diamater: "Hard to believe" there is any effect of radiation, says Fukushima prefectural government

　福島県は２５日、東京電力福島第１原発事故の発生時に１８歳以下だった県内の子ども全員を対象とした甲状腺検査の先行調査の結果を初めて公表した。超音波検査を受けた３７６５人のうち、０．７％に当たる２６人から５．１ミリ以上のしこりが見つかった。

On January 25, the Fukushima prefectural government announced for the first time the result of the early test of thyroid gland on the children who were in Fukushima Prefecture and were under the age of 18 at the time of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. Of 3765 children who were tested with ultrasound, 26 children or 0.7% of the children tested were found with lumps that measure more than 5.1 millimeters in diameter.

　検査を担当した福島県立医科大は「良性のしこりで、以前から存在していた可能性が高く、放射線の影響は考えにくい」としているが、念のために超音波や採血などの追加検査を行う。

Fukushima Medical University, who conducted the test, says, "They are benign lumps. It is highly likely that these lump had existed before, and it is hard to believe there is any effect of radiation". However, just in case, the university will conduct additional ultrasound testing and blood testing.

　先行調査の対象は事故当時に浪江町と飯舘村、川俣町山木屋地区に住んでいた子ども。２６人の大半は６歳以上で、がんの疑いがあるケースはなかったという。

The early test was done on children who lived in Namie-machi, Iitate-mura, and Yamakiya District of Kawamata-machi at the time of the accident. Most of the 26 children are over the age of 6, and according to the Fukushima prefectural government there was no case of suspected cancer.

Fukushima Medical University, as you recall, has Dr. Shunichi Yamashita as the vice president. He and his associates are responsible for telling the residents in Iitate-mura and other high radiation cities and towns in Fukushima that it was safe to be outside, to eat vegetables, to drink water, when the radioactive fallout was falling heavily in Fukushima in March and April.

Of course these lumps are benign. They have to be.

City Assemblyman in Tokyo to School Children: Don't Be an Egoist, Eat Your School Lunch to Share the Pain of Tohoku

2012-01-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

An assemblyman in Itabashi-ku, one of the 23 Special Wards in Tokyo, writes in his official blog that egoism fostered by the post-World War II education system is the root cause of this unscientific, rumor-based hysteria of the parents who want their children not to eat school lunch and instead want them to bring their own lunch boxes and water for fear of internal radiation exposure from contaminated food items used in school lunch.

45-year-old Assemblyman Yoshiyuki Motoyama's main message: "Those of us, who have been spared of the damage from the disaster, must share the pain of Tohoku people."

Japan toward the end of the World War II had a national slogan: All citizens of Japan to die rather than allow surrender - 一億玉砕. Some people seem to want to re-start that campaign.

From the blog post by Yoshiyuki Motoyama, assemblyman from Itabashi-ku, Tokyo on 1/23/2012:

日曜日の「産経抄」にこんな記事がありました。学校給食についてです。

On Sunday column in Sankei Shinbun, there was an article. About school lunch.

戦後スタートした学校給食・・・

School lunch started after the World War II...

当時、貧乏で弁当を持って来られない子どももいたが・・・

Back then, there were children from poor families who couldn't bring bento (lunch box), but...

給食が始まり、みんな一緒に食べられるようになり、そのことでお互いの絆や連帯感が築かれたと書かれていました。

School lunch started, and everyone get to eat together, and that built bonds and sense of solidarity, the article said.

学校給食の教育的意味が、ここにあります。

That's the educational meaning of school lunch, right there.

それが、ここにきて一部の利己主義者によって揺らいでいます。

That is right now being shaken by a handful of egoists.

原発事故以後の放射線問題を絡め・・・

They mix the problem of radiation contamination after the nuclear accident...

食材に含有する放射線に問題があるから、学校給食制度から離脱する自由を認めろ！と言うものです。（弁当や水等持参）

and demand that they be given the freedom to drop out of the school lunch system because there are problems with the radiation in food items. ([They want their children to] bring bento and water to schools.)

正しい科学的根拠を持たずに行政にぶつかって来ます。

They fight the local government without any scientific proof.

これこそが、風評被害拡大の代表事例だと言ってもいいでしょう。

Indeed, this is the epitome of baseless rumor.

我々、被害を免れた国民は、東北の被災者の皆さんの痛みを分かち合うことが大事だと思います。

For us, the citizens of this country who escaped the damage, it is important to share the pain of people in the Tohoku disaster areas.

自分のまわりから不都合を排除すれば、良いのだろうか？

Removing inconvenience around them, is that all they care about?

いつから日本人の中にこう言った利己主義が、芽生えたのだろうか？

When did such egoism take root in the Japanese people?

教育ですね！

I get it, it's education!

He is calling the concerned parents of children in nursery schools, kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools who do not want their children to ingest radioactive materials in food items used in school lunch by bringing lunch boxes and bottled water, and the children themselves, egoists.

This is about half of the post, which reads like a composition by an eighth grader at best. I tried my best, but I probably didn't do a good job of translating it at that level. My blood pressure rose too high to translate the rest of the dribble. Yes, clearly the post-war education system has been a big problem in Japan, as evidenced by this assemblyman.

OT: Gold Going Vertical After the US Fed FOMC Meeting

2012-01-25T10:35:00.000-08:00

that announced the ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) at least until the late 2014, with indication that the US central bank may further "accommodate" (QE3) the still-sluggish "recovery" of the US "economy". Probably just in time for the re-election campaign to be mounted in earnest by the incumbent.

Zero Hedge has a comparison of December and January FOMC statements, here.

As Japan could easily tell to Ben "Bernank" Bernanke, once ZIRP, always ZIRP. Or at least 2 decades and counting.

#Fukushima Farmers Angry at New Safety Standard for Radioacte Materials in Food As "Too Strict"

2012-01-25T00:30:00.000-08:00

"With the new, stricter safety standard, we cannot farm", they say.

A small portion of Japan's consumers would say "YES!!!", while the majority would feel bad that they are not doing enough to support the poor farmers in Fukushima Prefecture. "They are victims of TEPCO and the government!" they say. "It's not their fault that radioactive materials have fallen (and continue to fall) on their farmland."

It's not their fault, but it's their choice to farm on a contaminated land and possibly produce contaminated food, just like last year, and sell it to people outside Fukushima, just like last year while they say they cannot let their small children and grandchildren eat it.

From Fukushima Minpo, not the entire article (1/25/2012):

　「厳しくされたら農家をやめるしかない」。食品中の放射性セシウムの新基準値について、厚生労働省と内閣府食品安全委員会による説明会が２４日、福島市で開かれ、出席した県内の農家らから怒りの声が相次いだ。東京以外で初めて開催されたが、国の方針に納得しない生産者の姿が目立った。一方、消費者は基準の一層の厳格化を求めている。県は放射性物質検査態勢の確立に不安を抱える。

"If the standard gets stricter, I have no choice but quit farming." There was a meeting in Fukushima City on January 24 where the Ministry of Health and Labor and the Food Safety Commission under the Cabinet Office explained the new safety standard for radioactive cesium in food. The farmers who attended the meeting spoke out angrily. It was the first meting outside Tokyo, but there were more producers who did not agree with the policy of the national government [on food safety]. On the other hand, consumers want even stricter standards while the Fukushima prefectural government is unsure how to establish a system to detect radioactive materials in food.

　「毎日食べるわけではない、あんぽ柿やブルーベリーなどの嗜好（しこう）品まで１００ベクレルとすべきではない」。説明会で二本松市の農家男性は、国が農家の窮状を反映せず基準値を厳しくしたことに憤り、見直しを求めた。「一律の厳格化により農家は生産できなくなり、特産品が消えてしまう」と訴えた。

"Half-dried persimmons and blueberries, people don't eat them everyday. The safety limit for those shouldn't be 100 becquerels/kg." A farmer from Nihonmatsu City angrily demanded the revision of the new safety standard, accusing the national government for having tightened the standard without considering the hardship suffered by the farmers in Fukushima. The farmer said, "By uniform tightening of the standard, farmers cannot grow crops, and local specialties will disappear."

　説明会には農家や行政関係者ら約１６０人が出席した。販売先から農産物の安全性について質問され続けているＪＡの男性職員は、厳格化と合わせて県内農産物の安全、安心を宣言するよう求めた。しかし、国の担当者からの明確な回答はなく、「質問に全く答えていない。厳格化だけで、消費者に食べてもらえると考えているのか」と憤った。

About 160 farmers and government administrators attended the meeting. One JA official, who has been asked about the safety of agricultural products [in Fukushima] from the retailers, demanded that [the national government] issue a declaration of safety and security of the Fukushima produce, and the declaration be accompanied with the stricter standard. But there was no clear answer from the officials from the national government. The JA official angrily continued, "You are not answering my question. Do you think the consumers would eat [our produce] just by tightening the standard?"

　県内農家には厳格化されることへの不安や動揺が広がっている。郡山市の農業男性は昨年、約２０ヘクタールの水田で作ったコメに放射性物質は検出されなかった。しかし、今年産が昨年と同じ結果になるとは限らない。「消費者に安心してもらうために厳格化は必要。ただ、わずかに検出されただけで周囲の農家ごと風評被害にさらされては安心してコメ作りができない」と嘆いた。

The farmers in Fukushima are fearful and disturbed by the introduction of the stricter safety standard. A farmer in Koriyama City said there was no radioactive material detected from the rice he grew last year on his 20 hectares of rice paddies. However, there is no guarantee that this year's crop will fare the same. "It is necessary to tighten the standard so that the consumers feel safe. But I wouldn't be able to grow rice at ease if I were to suffer from "baseless rumors" if a minute amount of radioactive materials was found", he lamented.

There is a wide, wide gap between these farmers and JA officials and the consumers who do care about radioactivity in food. The gap is so wide that I don't think they understand each other any more.

To these farmers, radioactive materials found in their crop are nothing but "baseless rumors". To the JA official, I would ask "Do you think consumers eat your food because the national government made a declaration?"

So, they will continue to farm, looking more like the tense and angry Mr. Sugeno , and not like Mr. Tanno, relaxed and happy growing food he loves after leaving contaminated Fukushima. See my January 7 post about these two farmers.

Consumers still have a choice of not eating blueberries and half-dried persimmons (they were found with rather high levels of radioactive cesium last year) from Fukushima, for now. There are people in Japan who are proposing a system whereby all food items will carry labels like "not fit for consumption for people under 20". They want the older people to eat radioactive food so that the farmers in Fukushima can continue to farm.

Now I think about it, it's not that much different from what the ICRP says. It is grotesque to me nonetheless.

Rah Rah Land Called Fukushima: "Let's All Feel Safe and Secure in Fukushima" Forums Being Held

2012-01-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

All-out PR campaign by the national government and the Fukushima prefectural government for the people in Fukushima who remain is on.

As part of the campaign, the Fukushima prefectural government is holding "forums" for the residents in locations inside Fukushima so that the residents can feel safe and secure, without worry, living in radioactive Fukushima.

From the prefectural government's announcement on 1/18/2012 on the "Let's feel safe and secure forums in promotion of decontamination efforts":

除染対策を推進していくためには、県民の皆様の放射線に対する不安を解消し、除染実施に向けた住民理解の促進が不可欠です。県民の皆様が抱いている放射線の影響や除染に関する不安や疑問を解消することを目的に下記の日程で開催します。

In order to proceed with decontamination, it is imperative to alleviate the fear of radiation among the residents of Fukushima Prefecture and to promote understanding toward carrying out decontamination. In order to answer the residents' fear and questions regarding the effect of radiation and decontamination, the forums will be held on the following schedule...

Brainwashing, anyone? Much like the safety campaign featuring Dr. Shunichi "I tricked you" Yamashita in late March, as the heavy radioactive fallout from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was descending on Fukushima.

Here's the pamphlet of the "Safe and Secure Forum (安全・安心フォーラム）" to be held in Koriyama City, located in the high-radiation middle third of Fukushima Prefecture, on January 29, 2012. The event is hosted by the Fukushima prefectural government, Koriyama City, and the Atomic Energy Society of Japan. It is free, anyone can come:

Radiation experts will be there to answer all the questions, and a familiar (I'm guessing) voice on Fukushima Radio will serve as a moderator. Silhouettes of families with small children, and a family dog, and the obligatory "Ganbaro Fukushima" (Fight Fukushima) logo in the upper right-hand corner.

Go ahead and fight. Bamboo spears against B29 high-altitude bombers, but it will sure make you feel like you're doing something. A classic case of "escalation of commitment".

Through countless subsidies to Fukushima Prefecture from the national government after the March 11 nuclear accident, the taxpayers of Japan are also party to this lunacy.

The pamphlet says "We will answer your questions". But on the backside of the pamphlet there are examples of questions the residents are supposed to ask in the Q&A session, with the ready answers:

Q: Will decontamination really lower the radiation levels of the living space?
A: If it is effectively done, yes. It is important to survey the levels of contamination first and come up with the efficient decontamination methods.

Q: If the contaminated soil after decontamination is buried, is there a danger of it contaminating the groundwater and soil around it?
A: It is generally known [and accepted] that once cesium is attached to the soil, it will remain attached to the soil surface and won't dissolve easily. Therefore, it is not very likely that the contaminated soil will contaminate the groundwater or the soil surrounding it.

Q: Are there health risks from radiation exposure other than cancer?
A: Health risks such as heart attacks and cataracts have been discussed at the ICRP. However, such health risks only appear in the case of high radiation exposure exceeding 500 millisieverts. We believe there is no need to consider them in the low-level radiation exposure.

Oh really. No cancer, no heart attack, no cataract that the residents in Fukushima may suffer in the future is radiation-related, and that's the declaration here.

"Nuclear Regulatory Agency" Will Be the Name of a New Agency That Will Oversee the Nuclear Industry in Japan

2012-01-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

Why the name? Because it sounds just like the US counterpart, Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (As if it's a good thing.)

The original idea for naming the new agency was to use the word "Safety" instead of "Regulatory". But the word "safety" has become such a dirty word in Japan over the last year (much like "hope" and "change" in the US over the past 3 years) the Noda administration, which seems to care very much (many say "only") about how it appears in the eyes of the international "community" (whoever that is), has decided not to use the word "safety" for the name of a new agency that will be created under the Ministry of the Environment (of all places).

From Asahi Shinbun digital version (1/24/2012):

野田政権は２４日、原子力規制を担当する新たな官庁の名前を「原子力規制庁」とする方針を固め、民主党に伝えた。環境省の外局として、４月中の設置をめざす。

The Noda administration informed the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ, ruling party) on January 24 of its decision to name the new agency in charge of nuclear regulation "Nuclear Regulatory Agency". The agency will be set up as an affiliated agency to the Ministry of the Environment sometime in April.

　政権は当初、「原子力安全庁」とする方針だったが、党の原発事故収束対策プロジェクトチームから昨年１２月、「原子力規制庁」とするよう要望を受けていた。原子力規制庁は、経済産業省から原子力安全・保安院を分離し、内閣府の原子力安全委員会や文部科学省の放射線量モニタリング部門を統合する計画だ。

The administration was going to name the agency as "Nuclear Safety Agency". However, the DPJ's project team on ending the nuclear accident requested last December to name it "Nuclear Regulatory Agency". The Nuclear Regulatory Agency will be created by separating out the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and combining the Nuclear Safety Commission under the Cabinet Office and the radiation monitoring division under the Ministry of Education and Science.

Radioactive Ashes: IAEA Says Japanese Government's Approach to Bury 8,000 Bq/Kg Ashes in Conventional Landfills In Line With International Practices

2012-01-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

As residents in municipalities are speaking up against receiving disaster debris contaminated with radioactive materials, the municipalities are quite happy ignoring the residents, citing the Ministry of the Environment's assurance that everything is under control and safe.

One of the authorities that the Ministry relies on in practically ordering the wide-area (all over Japan) processing of the disaster debris (see this document if you read Japanese) is the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA.

In this document (page 3) that haughtily "advises" the municipalities not to refuse the Ministry's "request" to accept, burn, bury and recycle the radioactive disaster debris, the Ministry of the Environment says the following:

IAEA（国際原子力機関）のミッションにおいても、放射能濃度が8,000Bq/㎏以下の焼却灰を追加的な措置なく管理型最終処分場で埋立てをすることについて、確立した国際的な方法論と完全に整合性がとれていると評価されており

A mission from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has found the policy of burying the ashes with radioactivity of 8,000 becquerels/kg or less in the controlled final landfill sites without further treatment perfectly in line with the established international methodology...

Has IAEA actually said that? So I looked up the IAEA's final report titled "Remediation of Large Contaminated Areas Off-site the Fukushima Daiichi NNP". The report was published on November 15, 2011, on the IAEA mission in Japan from October 7 to 15, 2011:

Guidelines have been issued for the management of incinerator ash and sewage sludge depending on their activity level. For example, incinerator ash having activity levels of 8000 Bq/kg or less is to be disposed of at conventional controlled type landfills without any further conditioning. The Team finds this approach to be fully aligned with established international practices.

So I am asking the readers with knowledge and expertise in the matter: Is it part of the established international practices to bury the radioactive ashes with 8,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium in regular landfills near you without any precaution to shield the radioactivity? If so, where are the sites that practice this form of radioactive waste disposal?

My wild guess is that the IAEA report was written by the Japanese government, just like the previous one on the cause of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident (tsumani did it) which were identical to the Japanese government's position and to the presentation done in Washington DC in May 26, 2011 by Naoto Sekimura, one of the prominent Tokyo University professors in nuclear science, whose constant appearance on NHK in the early days of the accident served the purpose of assuring the (ignorant) public that everything was under control, there was no immediate danger outside the area right near the plant.

There's hardly any mention of the severe contamination that will likely result on the incinerators and furnaces where the radioactive debris will be burned, either in the Ministry of the Environment's document or the IAEA document.

A Rich Haul of Skipjacks in Katsuura Port in Chiba Prefecture, First of the Year

2012-01-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

The first haul of skipjacks for the year at Katsuura Port in Chiba Prefecture was five times as big as the normal haul.

The other day, fishermen in Kesennuma Port in Miyagi started shipping oysters because they grew too big too fast.

Asahi Shinbun Local Chiba version (1/24/2012):

勝浦市の勝浦漁港に２３日、今年初のカツオ約５８トンが水揚げされ、全国有数のカツオの水揚げ高を誇る漁港は大漁に活気づいた。

The first catch of skipjacks for the year, 58 tonnes, was hauled at Katsuura Fishing Port in Katsuura City in Chiba Prefecture on January 23. The port, which boasts of one of the largest hauls of skipjacks in Japan, was enlivened with such a big haul.

　三重県のカツオ漁船２隻がほぼ同時に入港。硫黄島周辺で一本釣りしたものなど、合わせて約５８トンが次々と荷さばき場に運びこまれた。通常は一日の水揚げは１０トン前後が多く、２隻同時の入港も珍しい。大きさもまずまずで、キロ当たり４００～５００円で取引された。２月以降に水揚げが本格化する。

Two skipjack fishing boats from Mie Prefecture arrived at the port. 58 tonnes of skipjacks including those caught by single hook fishing near Io-jima were brought to the sorting area. Normally, about 10 tonnes of skipjacks are hauled per day. It is also rare to have two boats arriving on the same day. The skipjacks are of decent sizes, and was sold at 400 to 500 yen per kilogram. Hauling of skipjacks will begin in earnest in February.

The haul includes those caught off Io-jima, but also includes those caught elsewhere, as indicated in the article without mentioning exactly where.

Radioactivity of skipjacks caught 940 kilometers off the coast Aomori Prefecture in November and hauled to a port in Chiba was slightly above 15 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, according to the information by Chiba Prefecture.

Wall Street Journal: "IAEA Says Japan Alone Should Decide on Reactors"

2012-01-23T12:50:00.001-08:00

The head of the delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) currently visiting Japan has said Japan alone should decide whether to restart the reactors in Japan after the "stress test". The IAEA is to examine the ways the "stress test" has been carried out, and to visit two nuclear power plants whose "stress tests" have been "successfully" concluded.

My guess: A ringing endorsement of the way the "stress test" have been done by the Japanese government, with a few pieces of kindly advice on how to further improve.

There are still Japanese citizens who think IAEA will somehow rein in the Japanese government's drive to re-start the nuclear power plants despite stiff citizen-level oppositions. Sorry. And wake up.

Wall Street Journal has a rather disjointed article on the IAEA mission in Japan this time, with the first one-third of the article dedicated to analyzing the trend on tweets in Japan regarding the danger of a big earthquake in the Kanto region and the last one-third dedicated to disaster preparedness of municipalities within 30-kilometers of any nuclear power plants.

(Never mind that radioactive materials from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident have significantly contaminated areas that are more than 200 kilometers away, and the government is still thinking in concentric circles...)

From Wall Street Journal English (1/23/2012):

IAEA Says Japan Alone Should Decide on Reactors

By MITSURU OBE

TOKYO—The International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday began a mission to help identify gaps in Japan's safety-check procedure for nuclear plants, to boost reactor resilience to natural disasters, as Tokyo began drawing up emergency plans with local governments.

Underscoring the risks facing Japan, a new research institute investigation has determined there is a 70% chance of a magnitude-7 earthquake striking the Tokyo metropolitan area within the next four years, and 98% over 30 years. The March 2011 earthquake was a magnitude-9.

The latest prediction surprised residents, and grabbed headlines in the local media. The government's forecast, using a different methodology, has been that there is a 70% chance of a magnitude-7 quake hitting Tokyo over the next 30 years.

The term "within four years" began trending on Twitter early in the day, with users saying that while the threat of the big one hovered in the back of their minds, the new calculation has made them more aware of the need to make emergency preparations.

The IAEA mission was dispatched in response to Japan's request to evaluate the methodology of its stress-test safety checks now being implemented on idled reactors. By offering to put itself under international scrutiny, Japan hopes to regain public trust in its safety procedures and bring about an eventual restart of nuclear reactors.

So far, Japan's efforts to regain public support for restarting the reactors has made little headway, with 49 out of the nation's 54 reactors currently offline. By May, those last five will be required to close for maintenance.

The head of the IAEA mission, James Lyons, said a decision on whether to restart Japan's idled nuclear reactors is solely up to the Japanese government.

"We will not be focusing on whether or not it is acceptable to restart any given plant. That is fully the responsibility of the Japanese government," said Lyons, director of the IAEA's nuclear-installation safety division and a former official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, at a news conference.

Mr. Lyons said the mission will focus on a number of areas in examining the government's stress tests, including severe accident procedures, extreme external events and loss of off-site power supply.

During their nine-day stay through Jan. 31, the IAEA's team of 10 experts will visit two reactors that have recently been certified as safe by Japanese regulators to evaluate whether the checks address all potential risks.

On Monday, the Japanese government asked local authorities within a 30-km radius of nuclear plants to draw up emergency-response plans to possible nuclear disasters.

Such plans have been required only for local governments within an 8-10 kilometer (5-6 mile) radius, but the government has decided that emergency plans should be made for much wider areas in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which was triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The government also is requesting that plans for major natural disasters be far more specific, detailing the methods of evacuation, distribution of iodine pills for radiation exposure, securing of communication channels and deployment of radiation-monitoring posts.

"The March nuclear disaster has exposed serious flaws in communication between the central and local governments," said Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of nuclear disasters, referring to the failure to alert local communities on the spread of radiation plumes from the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the early days of the 2011 crisis.

Meanwhile, Prof. Naoshi Hirata, of Tokyo University's Earthquake Research Institute, said the March earthquake apparently has increased the chances of major quakes striking the Tokyo metropolitan area over the next four years.

There is a correlation between the number of small quakes and that of large quakes, according to Prof. Hirata. A recent jump in the number of small jolts around Tokyo indicates the chance of a large quake has also increased, he said.

"The balance has changed since March 11," added Shinichi Sakai, a research associate at the institute. He said that pinpointing the exact location of any pending temblor is impossible, but that researchers will attempt to narrow down field of possibilities and revise scenarios of what might occur in the new time frame.
—Yoree Koh contributed to this article.

Ministry of the Environment Seems to Have Outsourced Telephone Answering on Disaster Debris

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Citizens in Japan have been calling the Ministry of the Environment directly, asking questions about the Ministry's dubious policy of spreading disaster (and radioactive) debris from Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures throughout Japan to be burned and buried and recycled. To their puzzlement, people who answer the calls from the citizens at the Ministry don't seem to know much about anything.

It turns out that the first line of defense for the Ministry (so to speak) is manned by employees (or part-timers) of the private businesses contracted by the Ministry to answer calls on disaster debris processing. Going nowhere and not getting any meaningful answers, many people give up on this defense line and hang up. Those who persevere may have to go through another layer or two until they get to the Ministry's employees.

Clearly, some of the people answering the phones sound like they never managed to graduate from elementary schools. The following is a reconstituted dialogue between a citizen and a woman who answered the phone at the Ministry (based on these tweets from the same person, here and here):

The woman who answered the phone at the Ministry:
The Ministry is asking [the municipalities] to accept debris whose radioactivity is between 240 to 480 becquerels, so that the radioactivity will be no more than 8000 becquerels after the debris is burned.

Citizen:
Becquerel per kilogram is the unit of measurement, correct? So what happens if there are several tonnes of debris?

The woman at the Ministry:
That doesn't mean the number of becquerels will increase. I tell you there will be no change, no matter how many tonnes of debris there are.

480 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium in the disaster debris means 480,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium in one tonne.

500,000 tonnes of such radioactive debris will contain 240 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium.

(I guess a graduate of an elementary school wouldn't be able to handle numbers larger than thousands.)

When the citizens finally reach the low-level proper employees of the Ministry and ask, "Who do you outsource the telephone answering service to?"

The Ministry's answer is (of course) "We can't tell you that."

I do see one good thing out of this recent development though. The Ministry finally admits openly that the disaster debris from Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures is contaminated with radioactive materials. The Ministry's narrative, for that matter the government's narrative, has been that it is just disaster debris from the March 11 earthquake/tsunami, as if the nuclear accident never happened and no radioactive fallout fell on the debris.

Nevertheless, more prefectures and municipalities have chosen to continue to focus on the old narrative, and expressed their intention to accept, burn, bury, and or recycle the disaster debris. They are mostly prefectures that have mostly escaped contamination from the Fukushima fallout, including Akita Prefecture (that produces one of the premier rice), Gifu Prefecture (that says it is worried about fast breeder Monju accident), and Osaka Prefecture/Osaka City (whose mayor who looks like a boy wonder has national ambitions).

Governor of Kanagawa Kuroiwa, a former TV personality, is doing his utmost best to bring the debris to his prefecture. His main argument is "Because Tokyo is doing it."

If you read Japanese, there is a comprehensible coverage of the disaster/radioactive debris issues including technical information and information from waste management industry people, on this togetter thread (collection of tweets) that is continuously being updated and organized.

These days, ordinary citizens know much more than the government officials and subcontractors. But so far, the government apparently has nothing to fear from the citizens, and does whatever it wants to do.

India's First Fast Breeder Reactor to Go Critical in Early 2013, Near Chennai

2012-01-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

Some poetic justice, I can't help thinking. But this may be exactly what the Japanese government and the corporate elites (particularly in the nuclear industry) want anyway, to be near a successful (if) fast breeder reactor for a change.

India's first prototype fast breeder reactor will go critical in early 2013, with commercial power generation to commence in March 2015 in the township of Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, about 70 kilometers south of Chennai where the Japanese government-industry joint venture is to set up a "Japan town" where expat Japanese can live in luxury with own hospitals and shopping centers, golf course in a resort setting.

The fast breeder uses liquid sodium as coolant, just like "Monju" in Japan. I am pretty sure that Indians, just like the Japanese before them, think they are different, and won't make stupid mistakes like Americans (TMI), Russians (Chernobyl), and Japanese (Fukushima). Not to mention the costly "Monju" fast breeder project that has had nothing but failures.

Just watch out for those cyclones and tsunamis from future mega earthquakes from Indonesia...

From Zeenews.com (1/21/2012):

Chennai: India's first 500-MW prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR), being set up at Kalpakkam near here, is likely to go critical early next year and commercial generation of electricity is expected in March 2015.

India`s first PFBR to go critical early 2013
"Construction activities will come to close this year-end. Loading of the part fuel is expected to happen during the first quarter of next year and the reactor would go critical," said S.C. Chetal, director at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) that designed the PFBR.

Chetal is also a director at Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (BHAVINI), a public sector company under the Directorate of Atomic Energy (DAE), that has been given the responsibility to build fast reactor power plants in the country.

When the PFBR is commissioned, power can be produced at a lesser cost than electricity generated from conventional sources.

A breeder reactor is one that breeds more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes. The reaction produces energy that is used in the form of electricity. The Indian fast reactors will be fuelled by a blend of plutonium and uranium oxide.

India`s first PFBR to go critical early 2013
While the reactor will break up (fission) plutonium for power production, it will also breed more plutonium than it consumes. The original plutonium comes from natural uranium.

The surplus plutonium from each fast reactor can be used to set up more such reactors and grow the nuclear capacity in tune with India's energy needs.

Fast reactors form a key in the India's three-stage nuclear power programme, which comprises pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) at the first stage, fast breeder reactors (FBRs) at second and thorium-based systems at the third stage. In 1985, India became the sixth country in the world to have such a technology.

The government has said in parliament that the PFBR is expected to begin commercial production in March 2015. Nuclear scientists though are of the view that commercial generation can happen even before that date.

According to Prabhat Kumar, project director, BHAVINI, the PFBR construction work will be over by September this year and testing of various systems would end by December 2012 or January 2013.

"There is no inordinate time lag between PFBR attaining criticality and it starting commercial production given the fact that it is a newly-designed reactor. With small core/fuel lot of tests on reactor physics would be done. Then by gradually increasing the generation engineering tests would be carried out," a nuclear scientist told IANS, preferring anonymity.

"A year of testing will be sufficient after reactor attained criticality," he remarked.

Asked about the delay in commercial production, Chetal said: "The PFBR is first of its kind in the country and we want to be sure about the functioning of each and every system."

According to him, with the loading of part fuel, the reactor systems will be checked by increasing the power generation in a gradual manner.

He does not agree that the delay in commercial production of PFBR would have an impact on the next two fast reactors that is planned at Kalpakkam.

"The design modifications made in the proposed two reactors will not make them as first of its kind. They will be commercial reactors. Since PFBR is new we want to be sure with its systems," Chetal added.

The government has allotted Rs.250 crore for pre-project activities for two more 500 MW units.

It has sanctioned construction of two more 500 MW fast reactors whose location is yet to be finalised.

IANS

March 12, 2011 NHK News at Noon: "Reactor 1 Fuel Rods Are Exposed..." - "Oops, We're Not Supposed to Say That..."

2012-01-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

After the announcer read the news about the fuel rods in Reactor 1 getting exposed and the situation becoming very dangerous, someone in the background said "Hey we're not supposed to use that information..."

The audio of that segment is uploaded on Youtube, here. I have no proof that the recording is authentic, though it does sound authentic and there are people tweeting that they do recall hearing the news.

From the transcript of the news, NHK March 12, 2011 noon:

そして原子力発電所に関する情報です。

Now the information on [Fukushima I] nuclear power plant.

原子力安全保安院などによりますと、福島第一原子力発電所１号機では、原子炉を冷やす水の高さが下がり、午前11時20分現在で、核燃料棒を束ねた燃料集合体が、水面の上最大で90センチほど露出する危険な状態になったということです。このため、消火用に貯めていた水など、およそ2万7000リットルを仮設のポンプを使うなどして、原子炉の中に流し込み、水の高さを上げるための作業を行っているということです。この情報繰り返します。

According to the government agencies including the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the level of water to cool the reactor has gone down in Reactor 1 of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. As of 11:20AM today, the maximum 90 centimeters of the nuclear fuel bundles are exposed above water and the situation is getting dangerous. The work is currently ongoing to pour 27,000 liters of water stored for fire extinguishing into the reactor using a temporary pump, in order to raise the water level back up. Let me repeat the news ...

（しばらく無音…。）
(Then, there is silence.)

「ちょっとね、今の情報使っちゃいけないんだって」

[in the background] "Wait, we're not supposed to use that information, I've been told."

改めて原発に関する情報です。

Again, information about the nuclear power plant.

福島県にある福島第一原子力発電所の１号機では、原子炉が入った格納容器の圧力が高まっているため、東京電力が、容器内の空気を外部に放出する作業を始めましたが、格納容器のすぐ近くにある弁を開く現場の放射線が強いことから、作業をいったん中断し、今後の対応を検討しています。

The pressure inside the Containment Vessel is getting high at Reactor 1 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima Prefecture. TEPCO has started the work to release the gas inside the Containment Vessel. However, the valve that needs to be opened is located right near the Containment Vessel and the radiation level is very high. So TEPCO has halted the work temporarily to figure out how to proceed.

At least someone at NHK wrote the first news up, and managed to get that out on air.

The reactor building blew up on that day 3 and a half hours later, at 3:36PM.

7 Tonnes of Stones from Fukushima Sold in Tokyo Last Year

2012-01-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

No surprise here, as anything grown or harvested in Fukushima have been freely shipped and sold as long as it is not caught with radiation exceeding the very lax provisional safety limits. And for the construction materials that have been stored outdoors in Fukushima after the March 11 nuke accident, there is no safety standard, provisional or not.

Elite bureaucrats at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (in this case of construction materials) didn't connect the dots either out of ignorance or out of kindness to assist the producers at the expense of consumers. The producers and distributors didn't connect the dots either out of ignorance or due to suspension of their own judgment. "If the regulating ministry does not say anything, why should we bother raising the issue? Just sell."

Plausible deniability of responsibility. Still, too many Japanese look to the government officials and experts for "guidance" despite all that has happened since March 11, 2012.

From Tokyo Shinbun (1/21/2012):

福島の切り石　加工し出荷　県内業者、都内へ７トン　県調査で判明

7 tonnes of hewn stones from Fukushima, processed and shipped to Tokyo by a Fukushima producer, according to the Fukushima prefectural government investigation

福島県二本松市のマンション室内で、屋外より高い放射線量が測定された問題で、県は二十日、福島第一原発事故後に福島県で産出された切り石を、栃木県内の業者が取り扱っていたと発表した。県によると、塀などの外構え用で、コンクリートを作るのに使う石ではないという。

After the discovery of high radiation at an apartment in Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima where the radiation indoors was higher than outdoors, the Fukushima prefectural government announced on January 20 that the stones hewn after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant Accident had been sold to a dealer in Tochigi Prefecture. According to the Fukushima prefectural government, these stones are for the exterior uses like fences, and not for the use in concrete.

　県工業振興課によると、この業者は福島県白河市の業者から切り石九トンを購入。うち七トンを加工して東京都内へ出荷、残り二トンは保管している。出荷品の放射線量測定はしていないという。

According to the Fukushima prefectural government, the dealer [in Tochigi] purchased 9 tonnes of hewn stones from a producer in Shirakawa City [another high radiation city in the center 1/3 of Fukushima] in Fukushima Prefecture, processed 7 tonnes and sold them to buyers in Tokyo. The remaining 2 tonnes are kept at the dealer. No radiation survey was conducted on the stones that had shipped.

　県が十六日から十九日にかけ、砂利や砕石などを採取する県内の全七十六業者を調査して分かった。

This was revealed in the course of the survey done by the prefecture from January 16 to 19 of 76 producers of gravels and stones within Fukushima.

　原発事故後、出荷品の放射線量を測定しているのは十九業者、未実施が五十五業者で、二業者は未出荷。保管方法は、屋外に野積みが六十四業者、野積みと屋内の両方が八業者、残る四業者は保管なしだった。

After the nuclear accident, 19 producers have been measuring the radiation of the products that they ship. 55 producers haven't done any such test. 2 producers haven't shipped any. 64 producers store their products outdoors, 8 producers store outdoors and indoors, and the remaining 4 producers do not store [???].

　県は、業者らに信頼確保のため、砕石などの放射線量測定を徹底するよう文書で通知した。

The Fukushima prefectural government has sent a written notice to the producers to do the radiation testing on the stones in order to secure the trust.

Now there's some peculiar notice that I saw through Twitter links the other day. A new condominium in Ota-ku, Tokyo recently canceled the sale of the units, without giving any reason whatsoever. Nothing to do with the stones used in the exterior, doesn't it? (I'm trying to find a link again through mountains of tweets...)

By the way, they've now found at least 60 single-family and multi-family residences (link in Japanese) built in Fukushima Prefecture last year using the supposedly radioactive crushed stone from the stone pit in Namie-machi. The Fukushima prefectural government is loudly blaming the national government for not having come up with a safety standard for crushed stones in Fukushima, and the producers and distributors are blaming both the prefecture and the national government for leaving them without any guidance.

Everyone plays "victim".

Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2: Temp Near the Bottom of Reactor Pressure Vessel Went -197.1 Degrees Celsius

2012-01-21T21:40:00.000-08:00

Just for the record, the thermometer at the CRD Housing Upper Part of the Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 2 is completely kaput (or DS, down scale), and the last measurement on January 19 was -197.1 degrees Celsius, or -322.78 degrees Fahrenheit.

An extreme cold shutdown at that particular location, for sure.

If you haven't seen the video of inside the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel that houses this extremely cold RPV, the digest version is here, and the full version is here.

From TEPCO's latest plant parameters (1/21/2012):

Job Advertisement Poster from Ministry of the Environment: "Without Decontamination, There Will Be No Recovery of Fukushima"

2012-01-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

I took it to mean "Therefore there would be no recovery of Fukushima" but that's clearly not what the Ministry of the Environment (many on the net are calling "Ministry of the Destruction of the Environment) has in mind, in the job advertisement poster as photographed by Shuji Akagi, a Japanese twitterer:

Lush green in the shape of Fukushima Prefecture.

"Without Decontamination, There Will Be No Recovery of Fukushima", in the literary style that evokes days before the World War II.

The Ministry is looking to hire people for its effort to decontaminate the contaminated areas, particularly that in Fukushima Prefecture and to promote wide-area processing of contaminated debris .

Application deadline is Friday, February 3, 2012.

Bumper Crop of Big Oysters in Miyagi Prefecture, Oysters Grew Extremely Fast

2012-01-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

From Asahi Shinbun Miyagi local version (1/20/2012):

気仙沼市唐桑町東舞根で１９日、震災後の昨年６月に仕込んだ養殖カキ１６０キロが出荷された。今秋に出荷予定だったが生育が早く、前倒しした。出荷は今月いっぱい続くという。

On January 19, 160 kilograms of cultured oysters were shipped, as the first batch, from Higashi Mone District of Karakuwa-cho in Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture. The oysters had been seeded in June last year. The shipment was scheduled for this fall, but the oysters grew so rapidly that fishermen decided to harvest and ship right away. The shipment will continue throughout the month.

　畠山哲さん（４０）ら４人が共同で出荷した。海中に垂らしたロープについたカキを引き揚げ、付着物を落としたカキをかごに移し、ロープを再度海中に垂らす作業をした。かごが震災で不足しているため、一部のカキをむいて出荷した。

4 fishermen including Tetsu Hatayama (age 40) harvested and shipped the oysters. They pulled the ropes that were in the ocean to take the oysters attached to the ropes, cleaned the oysters and put them in the baskets, and put the ropes back in the ocean. Since they are missing the baskets because of the earthquake/tsunami, they removed some oysters from the shells to ship.

　畠山さんによると「津波の後はカキの生育が早い」との言い伝えがある。養殖イカダが震災で減り、密植が解消されたことなどが要因と見られている。畠山さんは「放っておくとイカダが沈むので、作業を前倒しした。出荷も震災による特殊事情です」と話した。

According to Hatayama, there's an old saying that oysters grow fast after a tsunami. They may have grown rapidly since a number of rafts used for oyster culture [ropes are dangled from the rafters] were lost in the earthquake/tsunami and the dense planting was alleviated [as the tsunami wiped out the rafts]. Hatayama says, "We decided to harvest sooner, otherwise the rafts would have sunk from the weight of the oysters. This is a special case, shipping this early, thanks to the earthquake/tsunami."

Oysters eat phytoplankton in the ocean.

NHK did the documentary in November last year investigating the marine contamination from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, and found high levels of bioconcentration in abalones of both radioactive cesium and radioactive silver (Ag-110m), the latter particularly in the liver. Oysters are almost all internal organs as they don't need and use muscles once they attach themselves to rocks or ropes.

There is absolutely no concern for radiation in the Asahi article.

Kan Administration Declared the Fukushima Accident Worst-Case Scenario Report "Didn't Exist" After Reading It

2012-01-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

The news of the worst-case scenario report submitted to the Kan administration by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission in March last year has already been reported, as I wrote on my January 2 post, but a little bit more information is coming from Kyodo News now.

It turns out that the Kan administration not only sat on the report detailing the worst-case scenario of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, but it declared the report wouldn't exist from then on, and didn't even officially recognize its existence as part of the government documents until December last year when the news of the report finally leaked. On the New Year's Eve.

So the core administration officials did the "three monkeys" - see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil - on the worst nuclear accident in the country, if not in the world while telling the citizens and the world everything was under control, that it was safe to play outside, that there was no meltdown at Fukushima, and attacking people who said otherwise as "fear-monger".

Kyodo News has a slightly different description of this incident in Japanese than in English. In the English version, the news agency simply says the administration kept the worst case scenario under wraps for months. But the Kyodo Japanese News reveals more.

From Kyodo News Japanese (1/21/2012):

東京電力福島第１原発事故で作業員全員が退避せざるを得なくなった場合、放射性物質の断続的な大量放出が約１年続くとする「最悪シナリオ」を記した文書が昨年３月下旬、当時の菅直人首相ら一握りの政権幹部に首相執務室で示された後、「なかったこと」として封印され、昨年末まで公文書として扱われていなかったことが２１日分かった。複数の政府関係者が明らかにした。

The document that detailed the "worst-case scenario" in which radioactive materials would be released intermittently in large quantities for about a year if all the workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant were to be evacuated was shown to a handful of officials in the Kan administration, including Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in the Prime Minister's Office in late March. But the report, after being shown to the administration officials, was sealed as "the report did not exist", and was not even treated as part of the official government documents until the end of last year. It was revealed by the multiple government sources on January 21.

　民間の立場で事故を調べている福島原発事故独立検証委員会（委員長・北沢宏一前科学技術振興機構理事長）も、菅氏や当時の首相補佐官だった細野豪志原発事故担当相らの聞き取りを進め経緯を究明。

The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (Commissioner Koichi Kitazawa, former chief of Japan Science and Technology Agency) , a private-sector panel looking into the nuclear disaster plans to probe how the government was handling the crisis, by interviewing then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Goshi Hosono, who was the adviser to Kan and was in charge of handling the nuclear accident at that time.

For reference, here's what's available from Kyodo News English for non-subscribers:

The government kept a worst case scenario for the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant under wraps for months after the document was shown to a small group of policymakers in late March, government sources said Saturday.

A private-sector panel looking into the nuclear disaster plans to probe whether the government tried to manipulate information in handling the crisis, by interviewing then Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Goshi Hosono, environment minister who was then adviser to Kan, among other figures. Hosono was in charge of handling the nuclear crisis.

The document, created by Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo at Kan's request, said that in a worst case scenario, radioactive materials would intermittently be released in massive quantities for roughly a year if all workers had to be evacuated from the plant, some 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

Radioactive materials have intermittently released for nearly a year, both into the atmosphere and into rivers and the Pacific Ocean.

As you see in the photo below, the report was neatly presented, with colored charts and graphs. Let's see if anyone in the media or the government cares to upload this report.

Full Video of Inside the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel

2012-01-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

For those of you who need to see the full version, not just the digest. TEPCO for some unknown reason uploaded 4 separate videos that are available for download for about a week. The total video length is about 40 minutes, with the last video being the longest (22 minutes). File sizes are big, and I will add to this post as I upload them on Youtube.

The scenes remind me of the movie "Alien".

Again, 40 unnamed workers in 10 teams prepped the site on January 17, receiving 3 millisieverts radiation exposure, and 34 unnamed workers operated the Olympus endoscope right outside the Containment Vessel, receiving 3 millisieverts radiation. Though Reactor 2's radiation levels are tame compared to those in Reactor 1 and Reactor 3, the air radiation level at the job site was over 20 millisieverts, according to TEPCO.

By the way, TEPCO released the photographs of the endoscope that was used, as if it was the hero of the operation.

Part 1 (Oh wait, it is supposed to be 8-plus minute video... What happened? Well enjoy while I try to figure that out.)

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Japanese Government to Municipalities Against Accepting Radioactive Waste: "Shut Up"

2012-01-20T20:07:00.000-08:00

That, in my crude paraphrasing, is what the Japanese national government is telling those municipalities in Japan that are siding with the residents who are against receiving radioactive waste - whether it is radioactive fly ashes from incineration plants or radioactive sewage sludge - to be burned, buried, or recycle in their towns, as long as the radioactivity is 8,000 becquerels/kg and less.

Or more formally according to NHK,

the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to restrict the acceptance of waste without any scientific evidence and legal basis and not to instruct the private waste processing companies not to accept the waste.

The national government has declared it is safe, and IAEA agrees with them, says NHK.

Does IAEA really say it is safe to bury 8,000 becquerels/kg radioactive cesium in a regular dump? Somehow, I have my doubts.

"Request" is a strong word, bureaucratically speaking, but short of outright order which may yet to come.

NHK News (1/21/2012):

基準以下の廃棄物処分を要請

The national government requests the processing of radioactive waste if within the safety limit

首都圏などで出るごみの焼却灰や汚泥のうち、放射性セシウムの濃度が国が定めた基準を下回っているにもかかわらず、ほかの自治体にある施設に処分を頼んでも、断られるケースが相次いでいることを受けて、環境省は、全国の自治体に受け入れを拒否しないよう要請しました。

As municipalities continue to refuse to accept and process the ashes from garbage incineration or sewage sludge in the Tokyo metropolitan region and other locations, the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to refuse.

ごみの焼却灰や汚泥については、環境省が、放射性セシウムの濃度が１キログラム当たり８０００ベクレル以下であれば、通常の埋め立て処分をしても差し支えないとする基準を示しています。ところが、首都圏や東北地方では基準値以下のものであっても処分を依頼していたほかの自治体にある施設から、周辺住民などの反対で受け入れを断られるケースが相次いでいます。

As to the garbage ashes and sewage sludge, the Ministry of the Environment has already set the standard of 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium; if the radioactivity is 8,000 becquerels/kg and less, it is OK to bury the ashes and sewage sludge in a regular landfill. However, there are many cases in which processing of ashes and sludge from the Tokyo metropolitan region and in Tohoku region has been refused by the municipalities under contract, due to the opposition from the residents in the receiving municipalities.

こうした状況を受けて、環境省は、８０００ベクレル以下の焼却灰や汚泥を埋め立てても周辺住民などの安全に問題がないことは国内の専門家だけではなく、ＩＡＥＡ＝国際原子力機関も認めているとして、科学的な根拠や法的な根拠なしにむやみに受け入れを制限したり、処分業者に対して受け入れの中止を指導したりしないよう全国の自治体に要請しました。

To remedy the situation, the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to restrict the acceptance of waste without any scientific evidence and legal basis and not to instruct the private waste processing companies not to accept the waste. According to the Ministry, not only the experts in Japan but also the IAEA agree that when the ashes and sewage sludge with 8,000 becquerels/kg and less radioactive cesium are buried in a landfill, safety of the residents living near the landfill is not a problem.

環境省は「基準値以下のものであれば安全であることを理解してもらいたい。適切な処理ができるよう自治体との調整や住民への説明は今後も続けていきたい」としています。

The Ministry of the Environment says, "We want them to understand that if it is within the safety standard, it is safe. We will continue to coordinate with the municipalities and explain to the residents so that the appropriate processing [of the radioactive waste] can be done."

Next, I fully expect the Ministry of the Environment to say the same thing about disaster debris in Miyagi and Iwate, which the Tokyo government has been merrily burning in the municipal incinerators and dumping the ashes into the final processing location which is a landfill in the middle of Tokyo Bay. (Liquefaction, anyone?)

In some municipalities, landfills are located near the water sources, and the landfills have been known for leaking toxic substances into the water by faulty or broken filtering systems.

Residents of east Japan including Kanto region are against receiving it because they do not want added radioactive materials on top of what they already have. Residents of west Japan do not want it because most of west Japan has been spared of serious contamination like that of east Japan, and do not want to contaminate their soil, air and water.

More ordinary people on the net are getting more knowledgeable than the government officials and politicians. They may have no problem coming up with the scientific evidence and legal basis to refuse the radioactive waste.

By the way, the ashes from burning the regular household garbage in Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture has been burned in the melting furnace into slags in Saitama Prefecture, which are then turned into sands to be used in the public works in Saitama. The prefecture didn't know about it until citizens told the officials, as the prefectural government is not involved in the transaction between the private business in Saitama and a municipality in other prefecture.

An increasing number of Japanese seem, finally, to think if they allow the government to get its way, nowhere in their country can remain clean (excluding the background of course from the nuclear fallout from the atmospheric testing). They'd better hurry and educate their non-net-based friends and family members.

NISA Hid Fast Breeder "Monju" Trouble for Over a Month

2012-01-20T11:44:00.000-08:00

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's excuse is that the operator, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, did make an announcement of the trouble "locally" - probably meaning the municipality where the fast breeder is located.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1/20/2012):

もんじゅで原因不明トラブル、存廃論議に拍車も

Trouble at Monju, cause unknown. May further spur the debate whether to continue the project

経済産業省原子力安全・保安院は２０日、日本原子力研究開発機構の高速増殖原型炉「もんじゅ」（福井県敦賀市）で、制御棒の駆動機構に不具合が生じたとして、同機構に原因究明と再発防止を指示した。

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry instructed the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to investigate the cause of malfunction at the driving mechanisms for the control rods at the JAEA's fastbreeder "Monju" (in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture), and to come up with measures to prevent it from happening again.

　保安院によると、不具合が生じたのは昨年１２月１２日。駆動機構１９基のうち、１基が動作確認試験で稼働せず、２日後の再試験で動いた。さらに別の１基も動かず、機構は、原因を究明できないとして工場で分解点検する方針。

According to NISA, the malfunction happened on December 12. Of the 19 driving mechanisms for the control rods, one mechanism didn't work at all when they conducted the test to verify the mechanisms were working. When tested again 2 days later, the mechanism worked. However, there is another mechanism that didn't work [and didn't work in the 2nd test]. JAEA says they will disassemble the mechanism in order to identify the cause.

　公表が遅れた点について保安院は「制御棒がすべて挿入されていた上、機構側が地元で公表していた」と釈明した。もんじゅは現在、原子炉に制御棒が挿入された状態で、安全性に問題はない。しかし、東京電力福島第一原発事故を受けて政府がもんじゅの存廃を含めた原子力政策全般の見直しを進めており、不具合は議論に拍車をかけそうだ。

As to why the disclosure was so late, NISA explained that the control rods were all in, and JAEA did announce locally. The control rods are all inserted, and the Monju reactor is safe at this time. However, the government has been reviewing its nuclear policies in the aftermath of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, including whether to continue the Monju project. The trouble this time may spur the debate.

Not just the malfunction trouble, but the fact that the regulatory agency NISA felt it was OK to wait for more than one month to announce the problem should raise alarm.

NISA's press release on January 20 states that JAEA must report back to the Agency by February 29.

(At Least) 1,100 Tonnes of Highly Contaminated Water Found in Trenches at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

2012-01-19T21:53:00.001-08:00

No, this is not April 2011 when they found water whose surface radiation exceeded 1000 millisieverts/hour. (We weren't told how high it was, as their survey meter went overscale.)

TEPCO, ever since they found water leaking into the ocean from the evaporative condensation apparatus (desalination process) in December, has been checking the trenches that they know exist in the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant compound, and just about everywhere they look they are finding contaminated water of varying radioactivity in indeterminable amount.

The discovery on January 19 was rather "hot", as TEPCO's announcement shows:

Discharge valve pit of circulating water pump of Unit 2 pump room

Amount of "puddle": 500 cubic meters (500 tonnes)
Surface dose rate: 45 microsieverts/hour
Cesium-134: 7.1 x 10^3 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 7,100,000 Bq/liter
Cesium-137: 9.1 x 10^3 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 9,100,000 Bq/liter

Discharge valve pit of circulating water pump of Unit 3 pump room

Amount of "puddle": 600 cubic meters (600 tonnes)
Surface dose rate: 21 microsieverts/hour
Cesium-134: 3.8 x 10^2 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 380,000 Bq/liter
Cesium-137: 4.8 x 10^2 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 480,000 Bq/liter

They found two other trenches with contaminated water, with lower radioactivity. The locations of the above two pits are shown on this map. The only place where they didn't find any "puddle" was the Unit 2 Common Piping Duct:

Here's the summary table of discoveries of trenches with "puddles" of radioactive water:

I find it interesting that the surface dose rates do not necessarily correspond to the amount of radioactive cesium in the water. I believe they are measuring gamma rays, not beta. I wonder if TEPCO bothers testing other nuclides.

TEPCO assures us that the company doesn't think there are leaks to the ocean, because all the trenches that lead to the ocean have been plugged. They are very incurious as to where the water came (or is coming) from.

It may be good to recall what carried the water highly contaminated with strontium to the ocean in December was a regular side drain, not the concrete trenches and ducts.

Video of Inside Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2 Containment Vessel

2012-01-19T18:47:00.001-08:00

It's raining inside the Containment Vessel, with water droplets and radiation.

TEPCO has just released the digest version, 1 minute and 14 seconds. In the evening press conference on January 19, TEPCO's Matsumoto said the video footage that they took was about 30 minutes long, but most of it is either totally dark, or white-out as a water droplet was on the camera lens. (Or so he said.)

It took 34 workers (6 TEPCO, 28 affiliate companies) 1 hour and 10 minutes for the video.

(UPDATED) 2,500 US Walmart Stores Selling "Japanese" Cuisine Pushed by Japanese Food Giant Ajinomoto

2012-01-19T12:44:00.000-08:00

(Update 1/20/2012: According to the customer service of Ajinomoto USA, the "Simmering Samurai" line of frozen food currently uses ingredients from China, Japan, the US and other countries, depending on the seasonality and availability.)

==============================

since September 2011. There is no critical thinking behind the CNN article below; if there were, the writer would have asked questions like "Where are the ingredients coming from?"

It looks Ajinomoto, of MSG fame, makes "Simmering Samurai" frozen food in its Oregon manufacturing facility, according to the article, but it's not clear from the article. So I went to Ajinomoto's site, and it is still not clear. All they say about ingredients (for pot stickers, not for "Simmering Samurai" line of frozen food) is:

Before accepting any ingredients, they are thoroughly checked for freshness & quality. If they pass Ajinomoto's strict quality standards, they are received.

Looking at the package, "Simmering Samurai" looks more Chinese than Japanese.

(What a stupid naming.)

From CNN (9/12/2011):

Walmart bringing 'real' Japanese food to the United States
Millions rejoice on discovering it's not going to be sushi rolls again

Spend any time in Japan and you’ll soon realize that the local cuisine is the Best In The World (there, we said it). But return home and the old “What next?” question arises all too soon.

Luckily, if you’re in the good ole U.S. of A, Japanese catering giant Ajinomoto is riding to the rescue and pushing its Japanese culinary expertise to the masses through a new deal with Walmart.

Country-wide deal

Later this month, Tokyo-based Ajinomoto will start selling its existing “Simmering Samurai” range at 2,500 Walmart outlets across the United States, giving it what it hopes will be a fast track to the American stomach.
The frozen lineup will include Chicken Fried Rice, Orange Chicken and Beef Broccoli, each selling for about $9, and enough to feed three or four.
Changing tastes

Ajinomoto says it’s looking to growing U.S. demand for ethnic foods to help it sell more Japanese lines. Previously, it had concentrated on mostly niche products with typically expensive price tags.

Now, however, the firm is able to team up with a big-box retailer like Walmart as it has a manufacturing base in Oregon that helps keeps costs down.
Bonus fact: Ajinomoto also holds naming rights to the 50,000-seat Ajinomoto Stadium soccer arena in Chofu, Tokyo, which is home to two pro soccer teams.
Update: Yes, we know full well the dishes aren't particularly Japanese -- one would assume Ajinomoto has done trials to see what works well in the United Stated and planned accordingly. Food has a long history of "adapting" to fit the target market, after all.

(H/T anon reader)

Reactor 2 Containment Vessel Endoscopy Photos

2012-01-19T00:50:00.000-08:00

(UPDATE 1/19/2012: For the video digest, go to my latest post on the subject, here.)
==============================

Just released during the press conference, which you can view at this link.

At 9:13AM on January 19, the temperature inside as measured by the endoscope was 44.7 degrees Celsius.

6 TEPCO employees and 28 affiliate workers, with maximum 3.07 millisieverts radiation exposure.

The video will be uploaded tomorrow.

In the photos, white dots are gamma rays.

From TEPCO's handout for the press, January 19, 2011:

Inside the pipe (before the Containment Vessel):

Inside surface of the Containment Vessel. Paint looks peeling:

At the grating (OP. 9500): no water was seen. OP 9500 is the level of the floor. OP 5480 is the bottom of the CV. TEPCO was expecting to see water at OP 9500.

Looking up inside the CV:

Reactor 2 Containment Vessel Endoscopy Update: They Coudn't See the Water

2012-01-19T00:06:00.001-08:00

(UPDATE: Photos inside the CV just released. See my new post.)

=============================

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's press conference is ongoing. TEPCO will have its evening press conference in less than an hour (at 6:00PM JST).

From NISA's press conference, on Reactor 2 Containment Vessel endoscopy carried out on January 19:

TEPCO couldn't see the surface of the water which was supposed to remain in the Containment Vessel.

The water level was probably much lower than expected (5.3 meters from the bottom of the CV).

It was highly humid inside the CV, and water was dripping.

No comment to one reporter's question of whether there is a damage on the CV as the water level was lower than expected.

Blurry image with water drops and high radiation inside.

Inside the CV, temperature was 40 degrees Celsius.

#Radioactive Firewood Resulted in 43,780 Bq/Kg Radioactive Ashes in Nihonmatsu City

2012-01-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

So, clearly there was a good reason why IAEA went to measure the radiation levels in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture when they came in March 2011 right after the March 11 nuclear accident.

From Jiji Tsushin (1/19/2012):

環境省は１９日、福島県二本松市内の民家で使用されたまきストーブの灰から、１キロ当たり４万３７８０ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出されたと発表した。

The Ministry of the Environment announced on January 19 that 43,780 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from the ashes in a wood stove used in a personal residence in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture.

Ashes are used as soil amendment.

The safety standards for firewood and charcoal were not even in place until November last year. According to the Forestry Agency, the safety limit for firewood is 40 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, and 280 becquerels/kg for charcoal so that the resultant ashes would not contain more than 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

The Agency's Q&A says:

From the incineration tests, when 1 kg of firewood is burned it results in 5 grams of ashes, and 1 kg of charcoal in 30 grams of ashes, with 90% of radioactive cesium remaining in the ashes.

That means radioactive cesium density in 1 kg of ashes is 182 times as much as that of 1 kg of firewood, and 28 times as much as that of 1 kg of charcoal.

2% of radioactive cesium in firewood/charcoal, when used in cooking, was transferred to the food.

Oh wait a minute. 10% of radioactive cesium that is in the wood/charcoal is released in the air when burned?

Reading further, the Agency openly encourage the bundling of radioactive firewood/charcoal that exceed the safety limit with those without any cesium detected:

It is OK to bundle firewood or charcoal that exceed the safety standard with firewood or charcoal that does not exceed the safety standard, and sell the bundle as long as it is not shipped across the prefectural border. [What's the point of that?]

To dispose the ashes of unknown radioactive cesium density, do not use as soil amendment in gardens and farmlands. Dispose them appropriately as waste products.

How?

The Agency does not say. I don't think ANY seller of firewood or charcoal is measuring the radioactivity, and I don't think any user of wood stove who gets the wood from the mountains in their backyard is measuring it either.

They say that's how the soil contamination after the Chernobyl accident remained high - cut the woods that were doused with radioactive materials, burn them in stoves for heat and cooking, use the ashes as soil amendment to grow food.

That's happening in Japan now, thanks partly to bureaucrats in the government ministries but also to the general public who still don't connect the March 11 Fuku I accident with radioactive materials all around them.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2 CV Endoscopy Is Done

2012-01-18T21:19:00.000-08:00

(UPDATE: Photos inside the CV just released. See my post.)

=========================

At TEPCO's morning press conference on January 19, 2012, TEPCO's Matsumoto said that the endoscope was successfully inserted through the hole created on January 17 on the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel and the survey of the interior was done.

The work started at 9AM, and was done at 10:10AM. More details of the survey will be disclosed at the evening press conference at 6:00PM.

TEPCO thinks it is a partial meltdown in Reactor 2, and there is water up to 5 meter from the bottom of the Containment Vessel.

If you understand Japanese, you can view TEPCO's press conference live at TEPCO's site, here.

The morning press conference starts at 11:00AM JST, and the evening press conference starts at 6:00PM JST. (Even if you understand Japanese, you may find it incomprehensible.)

There's no information from TEPCO about the radiation level at the location that the workers had to work, other than the company expects the radiation exposure level for the workers would be 3 millisieverts.

10 groups of workers (if the Jan 19 crew is the same size as the Jan 17 crew), 1 hour 10 minutes job, and 3 millisieverts expected exposure would indicate one group would spend 7 minutes at the site to get 3 millisieverts radiation, and the radiation level at the site would be about 25.71 millisieverts/hour.

Not bad, compared to other reactors that has locations whose radiation is one to two digits higher.

Slow and Rude Awakening of Japanese Citizens Over the Nuclear Crisis

2012-01-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

They are nowhere near the majority ( who eat any food and go anywhere without a single worry about radiation contamination), probably not even 10% of the population. But thanks to the net and particularly the social media like Twitter, the Japanese people now have a direct tool to observe how the officialdom works, firsthand.

The most recent case in point happened yesterday, over the so-called "public hearing" held by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The public hearing was about the approval of the result of the so-called stress test of one of the nuclear power plants operated by Kansai Electric Power Company (Ooi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture, in the so-called "Nuclear Ginza").

NISA and the Ministry clearly thought it was conducting a routine "public hearing" where the experts would rubber-stamp the conclusion already reached by the Agency which is staffed with employees from companies in the nuclear industry on temporary assignments and where the public, if any were there, were supposed to sit there quietly to observe the proceedings. Yesterday, NISA was to ascertain the safety of the Ooi Nuke Plant, paving the way for the re-start, and was expecting a smooth sailing. It did ascertain, but it was decidedly not a smooth sailing.

The citizens who went to the public hearing didn't want to just sit and listen, and sensing trouble the NISA quickly moved to close off the meeting, telling the citizens to watch the proceedings on a monitor in a separate room. When the citizens said no, and didn't obey NISA's order to stay in the separate room and entered the conference room, the Agency called in the police.

Then the order apparently quickly went to the media to report the incident as it was happening and paint the protesters as lawless and rude. Here's one typical report by Nippon Television News (1/18/2012); just about every sentence is incorrect:

１８日夕方、経産省の原子力安全・保安院の協議に反原発派の団体が乱入し、警察が出動する騒ぎとなっている。

An anti-nuclear group has forced its way into a meeting held at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under METI, and the police has been called in.

　保安院は１８日、大飯原発（福井・おおい町）３・４号機の運転再開の判断の前提となるストレステストの妥当性について話し合い、全国で初めて「妥当」とする判断を示す予定だった。しかし、反原発を掲げる市民団体らが別室に設けられた傍聴席から会議室になだれ込んで協議を妨害したことから、経産省は警察の出動を要請したという。

The NISA was expected on January 18 to discuss the appropriateness of the stress test that would be used to determine whether to re-start the Reactors 3 and 4 at Ooi Nuclear Power Plant (Ooi, Fukui Prefecture) and to declare it would be "appropriate" to re-start the plant. However, the citizens' groups who were against nuclear power plants barged in to the conference room from the separate room set aside for the public [to monitor the proceedings] and disrupted the proceedings, so the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry called the police.

　警視庁によると、市民団体らは建物内で座り込みを続けている。

According to the police, the citizens' groups are doing the sit-in inside the building.

The reality was:

It was not an organized "group" of anti-nuke protesters but a bunch of citizens, including people from Fukushima Prefecture who were exercising their right as citizens to participate in a "public hearing";
They lined up and obtained the tickets to participate in the hearing;
The meeting was open to public, but the NISA decided to move the public to a separate location to avoid interruption;
They didn't barge in violently as portrayed by the MSM, didn't interrupt the proceedings, but they were asking questions as concerned citizens.

And how do we know that? Because an independent media (IWJ) was net-casting the whole thing live, and people were tweeting, watching the netcast live.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano, whose refrain as the chief cabinet secretary was "There is no immediate effect from radiation" (he now says he only meant for a couple of days or weeks at most), called the citizen's behavior "unacceptable" and said that "some of the commissioners are being forced to remain in the room". How dare the lowly citizens interrupt the government scientific proceedings beyond their comprehension?

Two commissioners left the meeting in protest when the NISA did hold the meeting 4 hours later in a separate room shutting out the citizens entirely.

As Sankei Shinbun (1/18/2011) reports:

関西電力大飯原発のストレステスト（耐性検査）に関する経済産業省原子力安全・保安院の専門家会議の委員のうち、井野博満東京大名誉教授ら２人は１８日、保安院が傍聴を認めずに会議を開催したことに抗議し、会議を欠席した。

Two commissioners on the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's expert panel to assess the stress test conducted on Ooi Nuclear Power Plant operated by Kansai Electric Power Company left the meeting in protest. Hiromitsu Ino, professor emeritus at Tokyo University and another commissioner protested against the NISA's decision to hold the meeting without the public attending.

　井野氏は「保安院は（傍聴を認めないのは）前回の会合で不規則発言があったためというが、議事が数分遅れた程度。そんなことを理由に傍聴者を排除するのはおかしい」と強調。

Ino emphatically said, "The reason for NISA not to allow the public to attend the meeting was supposedly some irregular remarks [from the public] in the previous meeting. But that only delayed the proceedings by a few minutes. It is absurd to exclude the public for such a flimsy reason."

　元原子力プラント設計技術者の後藤政志委員も「国会でもヤジは飛ぶ。そんなことも許容できないなら保安院はさらに信頼を失うだろう。傍聴者を締め出し、密室でやるような議論には参加できない」と述べた。

Commissioner Masashi Goto, a former nuclear power plant engineer, said "You get heckled in the Diet. If NISA cannot tolerate such a minor thing, the agency will further lose credibility. I cannot participate in a meeting behind closed doors where the public is shut out."

　井野氏は、保安院が大飯原発のテスト評価を妥当としたことに対し「総合的安全評価というが、ほんの一部の評価をしただけだ」と批判した。

Ino also criticized the decision by NISA that the stress test for Ooi Nuke Plant was appropriate. "They say it was a comprehensible safety evaluation, when in reality only a small portion was evaluated."

Professor Ino is the one who said the other day that a Containment Vessel at Fukushima II (Daini) Nuclear Power Plant was broken from the March 11 earthquake.

Some on Twitter are still incredulous that the police was on the government's side, not on the citizens' side. Other long-held beliefs in a trust-based society that have been shattered, at least for a portion of the population, since March 11, 2011 include:

The government of all levels, from national to municipal to an unofficial unit of "self-governing" neighborhood association, exist to protect citizens;
The government officials don't lie, for the most part;
Producers and distributors are honest, caring about the safety and quality of the products that they produce and sell;
Food in Japan is safe, and the government will make sure it remains that way;
The police is there to protect citizens;
Public hearing means the public get to voice their opinions;
They can trust the experts because they are from prominent academic institutions in the country;
They can trust the politicians because they are from prominent academic institutions in the country;
They can trust school teachers because they are from prominent academic institutions in the country;
If it is reported in the mass media, it must be true;
Nuclear power plants are safe.
and on and on and on...

The list is endless and still growing. Too bad it took one of the worst nuclear accidents in history for the citizens to realize they've been had.

#Radioactive Construction Sites: 1,000 Sites May Have Used "Contaminated" Crushed Stones in Fukushima

2012-01-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

From Kyodo News (1/18/2012):

汚染石の使用現場は千カ所か　経産省、流通の特定難航

1,000 sites may have used the contaminated crushed stones. The Ministry of Economy having trouble identifying the buyers

福島県浪江町の砕石場で放射性物質に汚染されたとみられる石がマンションなどに使われた問題で、この砕石場の石やコンクリートが県内千カ所近くの工事現場で使われていた可能性のあることが１８日、経済産業省への取材で分かった。

Concerning the crushed stones from the stone pit in Namie-machi in Fukushima suspected to have been contaminated by radioactive materials and which were used in the construction of the apartment [in Nihonmatsu City] and other buildings, it was revealed on January 18 in the interview with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry officials that 1,000 construction sites in Fukushima Prefecture may have used the crushed stones or the concrete with the crush stones from this stone pit.

　経産省が流通ルートを調べているが、少量販売の場合、建設会社の間で伝票などの記録を残さずに取引していたケースもあるといい、流通範囲の特定は難航している。

The Ministry is investigating the sales channels, but having trouble identifying the buyers. If the sales were in small lots, there may not be any receipt left for the transactions between the construction companies.

　また、浪江町の砕石場から出荷された石が、同県二本松市内にある民家の庭先の敷き砂利として使われたことが新たに判明、ゴルフ場に出荷されたことも分かった。

It has been newly discovered that the crushed stones have been used as gravels in the front yard of a personal residence in Nihonmatsu City, and that they have been shipped to a golf course.

As I wrote in yesterday's post, it may not be just the crushed stones from this particular stone pit but all construction materials that were stored outside that may have turned radioactive from the fallout.

"Beyond expectation" for the elite at the Ministry, and the not-so-elite at the prefectural government, and the construction companies in Fukushima. Or so they say.

I suspect it was another "help the producers at the expense of the consumers" scheme during the period right after the March 11 nuclear accident and before the designation of the "planned evacuation zone" between the 20 and 30 kilometer radius. The national government and the Fukushima prefectural government was doing their best to encourage cattle farmers in the soon-to-be designated planned evacuation zone including Namie-machi and Iitate-mura to sell their cows and pigs to farmers outside Fukushima Prefecture. Many were sold and were processed at the meat processing centers in big cities throughout Japan, which were later found with radioactive cesium.

It may be that the government turned the blind eye, while the producers rushed to sell their inventory. And they all say, "Who could have known?"

Any and everybody but them, perhaps?

TEPCO's Endoscopic Probe of Reactor 2 CV: Mockup Was Done on Novmeber 30, 2011

2012-01-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

The picture was released on January 18, 2012. They did the mockup using Reactor 5, and the photo is that of inside the Reactor 5 Containment Vessel.

From TEPCO's handout for the press (1/18/2012), Japanese only for now. The photo on the right side is what you would expect to see in Reactor 2's Containment Vessel. Not.

"Colonoscopy" of Reactor 2's CV using the endoscope from Olympus will be on January 19 in Japan. I don't know the time, and TEPCO is not saying.

OT: Google Homepage "Blackout" in Protest of SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-17T23:34:00.000-08:00

Google's pages "End Piracy, Not Lilberty", "More about SOPA and PIPA"

(Well, Google, is this what you get in return for donating heavily to Candidate Obama in 2008 election...? The image is from a Zero Hedge post here.)

(Duh...) Ministry of Economy to Investigate Other Bldg Materials for Radiation

2012-01-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

It has finally occurred to the elite bureaucrats at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry that maybe, just maybe, all the building materials that were stored outdoors since the March 11 Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident may have been contaminated with radioactive fallout from the broken reactors, and not just the crushed stone from the stone pit in Namie-machi, Fukushima Prefecture.

Good, now you're thinking. The problem is that their approach is just the same as their counterparts in the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health: pick areas of what they (say they) think may have more contamination than others, and go ask the companies, and test if possible.

The similar method used radioactive beef, radioactive rice hay, radioactive rice has served the country well, having practically destroyed the credibility of the government of any form .

If beef, rice hay, leaf compost are any indication, the contaminated building materials may have spread far and wide already, outside Fukushima Prefecture. And what about the building materials stored outside in places like Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Gunma Prefectures? Or southern Miyagi where the high level of radioactive cesium was detected from the rice hay, and where radioactive cesium in raw milk has seen a spike recently?

For now, those are none of the concerns for the Ministry for now.

From Fukushima Minpo (1/18/2012):

二本松市のマンションで放射性物質に汚染された疑いがある砕石を原料にした生コンが使われた問題で、県と経済産業省は１７日、東京電力福島第一原発事故当時、屋外に置かれていた砂利や製材などの建設・建築資材の調査に入る方針を固めた。計画的避難区域と特定避難勧奨地点周辺の土木、建築関連業者を対象に出荷先などを調べる。一方、砕石の流通経路調査で経産省は、浜通りと県北地方を中心とした１６社を対象にすることを決め、販売先の特定を急ぐ。

Regarding the concrete used for the apartment in Nihonmatsu with the crushed stone suspected of having been contaminated with radioactive materials, the Fukushima prefectural government and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry decided on January 17 to investigate the building and construction materials such as gravel and sawing lumber that were stored outside when the Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident happened. They will target the civil engineering and construction companies in and around the planned evacuation zone and the special evacuation recommendation spots (aka hot spots) to find out where the construction materials have been sold. As for the crushed stones, the Ministry has decided to investigate 16 companies in Hamadori (coastal 1/3 of Fukushima Prefecture) and the northern Fukushima, and will try to identify the buyers.

　県と経産省は砕石と同様、屋外に置かれていた砂利や砂、製材についても放射性物質が付着した可能性があるとして調査に乗り出す。

The prefectural government and the Ministry of Economy will conduct investigation on building materials like gravel, sand, and sawing lumber that were kept outside, just like the crushed stones that may have been contaminated with radioactive materials.

　浜通り北部や県北地方などの計画的避難区域、特定避難勧奨地点の周辺を中心とした建設業者や製材、建築業者らに原発事故当時、屋根のない屋外の敷地に置いていたかどうか聞き取る。該当する資材があれば出荷先を特定し、放射線量を測定する考えだ。

They will interview the construction companies, lumber yards, etc around the planned evacuation zone and special evacuation recommendation spots in northern Hamadori (coastal Fukushima) and the northern part of Fukushima Prefecture [where Fukushima City is located]. If they find the materials that were stored outside without the roof, they will identify the buyers and measure radiation levels.

　ただ、調査対象が膨大な数に上ることから、調査には時間がかかるとみられる。データを管理していない業者もあるとみられ、正確な流通経路の把握は難しいのではとの指摘もある。

However, due to the sheer number of subjects, the investigation may take a long time. There may be companies that didn't keep records, and some point out that it may be difficult to accurately track the distribution channels.

　一方、砕石の流通経路調査は、比較的放射線量の高い地域にある業者１６社を対象に実施する。出荷先を調べ、線量を測った上で、周辺環境への影響を判断する。

As to the distribution channels for the crushed stone, they will target 16 companies in the areas with relatively high radiation. They will identify the buyers, measure the radiation levels in order to assess the effect on the environment.

　県幹部は「砕石で発生した問題を水平展開し、他の建築資材についても早急に調査する必要がある」としている。

The senior officials in the prefectural government say, "We need to apply the problem of the crushed stone to the other building materials and investigate as soon as possible."

Idiocracy.

Whoever says that the Japanese people are smart should know they are smart at test-taking skills so that they can go to good schools to become a good worker in peacetime, not the real-life problem-solving skills in a crisis.

CBS News: Decontamination Work in Minami Soma

2012-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

This "decontamination" is just plain lunacy.

CBS News with Scott Pelley, January 16, 2012:

(Birds of a Feather...) Endoscope TEPCO Will Use for Reactor 2 CV Is Made by Olympuss

2012-01-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

It was announced on January 17 that boring a hole in the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was successful.

According to NHK News, it took 10 teams of workers, 4 in each team, who had been trained on Reactor 5 as a "mock-up". They received maximum 3 millisieverts radiation for their effort. No information of how long the work lasted.

Some people in Japan watching the NHK News reporting the event wondered, "Whose endoscope is it?" It turns out, most likely, that it is made by Olympus, of "cooking the books" fame.

First, NHK News (1/17/2012). The video clip of the news is at the link for now. (NHK News links are one of the shortest-lived among the Japanese media, on par with Yahoo Japan News.)

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の廃炉作業に向けて、まだ分かっていない格納容器の内部の状況を内視鏡を使って初めて調べるため、１７日、２号機で内視鏡を入れる穴を開ける作業が行われました。

On January 17, workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant bored a hole for the endoscope that would be inserted inside the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 to survey the condition inside the Containment Vessel for the first time since the accident.

福島第一原発では、メルトダウンが起きた１号機から３号機の溶けた核燃料の状態や、格納容器の内部の詳しい状況が分かっておらず、今後の廃炉に向けた作業や、安定した冷却を続けるうえで、大きな課題となっています。

At Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, the condition of melted fuels in Reactors 1, 2 and 3 and the condition inside the Containment Vessels are not yet known. The information is vital to the future decommissioning work and to the stable cooling of the reactors.

このため東京電力は、まず２号機の格納容器について、高い放射線量に耐えられる工業用の内視鏡を入れて、内部の状況や温度を詳しく調べることになりました。１７日は、１９日に予定している調査に向けて、原子炉建屋１階の北西側に作業員が入り、格納容器に配管などを差し込む予備用の貫通部に内視鏡を入れる穴を開ける作業を行いました。

TEPCO has decided to use an industrial-grade endoscope that can operate under the high radiation and survey the condition inside the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 and measure the temperature. On January 17, as a preparation for the survey on January 19, workers entered the northwest corner of the 1st floor of the reactor building and bored a hole at a location on the Containment Vessel where pipes would be inserted [as necessary?].

作業は４人１組で、１０組、合わせて４０人の態勢で行い、東京電力によりますと、短時間に作業を終えるため、２号機と同じタイプの５号機などで訓練を繰り返してきたということで、１７日の作業での被ばく線量は最大で３ミリシーベルトだったということです。東京電力では、１７日の作業が順調に進んだことから、予定どおり１９日、格納容器に内視鏡を入れるということで、格納容器の内部が観察できれば、２号機が初めてとなります。

The work was done by 40 workers in 10 teams, with each team consisting of 4 workers. According to TEPCO, they had been training on Reactor 5 as a mock-up exercise in order to complete the work in a short period of time. Reactor 5 is the same type as Reactor 2. The radiation exposure for the workers for the January 17 work was maximum 3 millisieverts. Now that the work has been successfully completed, TEPCO will proceed as scheduled, inserting the endoscope on January 19. If successful, Reactor 2's Containment Vessel interior will be viewed for the first time [since the accident].

(The following images are taken from this blog site.)

Here's the screen shot from the NHK News:

Here's at the Olympus site:

Japan's NISA Was Asking for NRC Legal Info and Advice in April 2011 Regarding TMI

2012-01-17T11:24:00.000-08:00

An interesting titbit from Enformable, going through the NRC document.

From: Bloom, Steven
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 8:04 AM
To: bannai-toshihirowmeti.go.jp
Cc: Foggie, Kirk; Emche, Danielle
Subject: NISA Request

Dear Bannai-san,

Below is the response I have gotten from our legal staff regarding your request on legal issues related to TMI:
Strictly speaking, as far as we know, the NRC did not take any action by rule which would deem legal and justified any responsive action taken by the TMI licensee at the time of and immediately following the 1979 accident.

However, the NRC did adopt new regulations in 10 CFR 50.54(x) and (y) to ensure that licensees would be able to take timely and necessary action even though such action would be in violation of the plant’s technical specifications, license conditions or other regulatory requirements. The final rule for these provisions is 48 FR 13966 (April 1, 1983). A copy of the SOC for the final rule is attached. Our legal view is that this regulation may be applied only when the licensee action is needed to avoid imminent radiological harm the general public, i.e., in quickly emerging situations where fast action is needed to avoid radiological harm to the general public. The staff’s practice has been more lenient, however, despite OGC’s interpretation.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you,
Steve

Steven Bloom, International Relations Specialist
International Cooperation and Assistance Branch (ICA)
301-415-2431
O-4F4
M/S 0-4E21

The original emails (scanned) is at the Enformable site.

Another Decon Worker Dies in Hirono-Machi, Fukushima in a Government Decon Project

2012-01-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

No effect of radiation at all, says the government agency in charge of "decontaminating" the former "planned evacuation zone" in which Hirono-machi is located, between 20 and 30 kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

The 59-year-old worker from Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture started to work in the decon project in December, and his cumulative radiation exposure until January 16, 2012 was 102 microsieverts.

Decontamination work in Hirono-machi officially started in mid December. The annual radiation exposure limit for decontamination workers is 50 millisieverts under the new law on decontamination effective as of January 1, 2012.

Ms. Emiko Numauchi of Minami Soma City, Fukushima, aka "Numayu", has commented in her blog that she sees and hears about people living in the temporary housing after the earthquake/tsunami/nuke accident in cities and towns in Fukushima being recruited for the decontamination work, as there aren't many jobs available for the displaced people. I suspect this 59-year-old worker from Iwaki City may be one of those people.

From Sankei Shinbun (1/17/2012):

　日本原子力研究開発機構などは１７日、東京電力福島第１原発事故を受け福島県広野町で実施している国の除染モデル実証事業で、同県いわき市の男性作業員（５９）が除染作業中に倒れ、搬送先の病院で死亡したと発表した。死因は調査中。

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced on January 17 that a 59-year-old worker from Iwaki City, Fukushima collapsed during the decontamination model work being carried out in Hirono-machi and died at the hospital. The cause of death is under examination.

　原子力機構によると、男性は同日午前９時から広野町下北迫地区で６人の作業員と土の表面を削り取る作業をしていた。同１１時５０分過ぎ、男性がいびきをかいて倒れているのを別の作業員が発見した。

According to the JAEA, the worker was scraping the surface soil with 6 other workers in Shimokitaba District of Hirono-machi since 9AM on January 17. He was found collapsed, snoring heavily, by the co-worker at 11:50AM.

　男性は昨年１２月から同町での除染活動に参加。今月１６日までの積算線量は１０２マイクロシーベルトで、本人から持病の申告はなかったという。

The worker had been doing the decontamination work in Hirono-machi since December last year. His cumulative radiation exposure till January 16, 2012 was 102 microsieverts, and there was no declaration from the worker of any existing illness, says JAEA.

From Jiji Tsushin (1/17/2011):

日本原子力研究開発機構福島技術本部などは１７日、福島県広野町周辺で実施している除染モデル事業で働いていた男性（５９）が同日の作業中に死亡したと発表した。放射線被ばくが影響した可能性は極めて低いという。同機構の除染事業での死亡は２人目。

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency Fukushima Headquarters announced on January 17 that a worker, age 59, died during work that day. According to the Agency, the possibility is extremely low that the radiation exposure played a role in any way. It is the 2nd death in the decontamination work operated by the Agency.

A worker died in the decon work in Date City in December last year. The death had "nothing to do with radiation", because he died in a car during the lunch break. This second worker may have collapsed during the decon work, but he died at the hospital. Therefore, the death has "nothing to do with radiation".

That's the "Newspeak" a la the Japanese government and TEPCO. You would have to die on the spot. But then, as TEPCO did for the worker at Fukushima I Nuke Plant who clearly died at the plant on January 12, you would still get transported to the hospital, only to be pronounced dead on arrival; technically you still die at the hospital, not at Fuku I, so radiation has nothing to do with it...

Just In: Voltage Dropped in Wide Area in Fukushima, Some Systems at Fukushima I and II Nuke Plants Stopped

2012-01-17T01:04:00.000-08:00

(UPDATE: The systems are getting back online.)

====================================

It happened around 4:10PM on January 17, 2012.

The systems that are working at Fukushima I:

Cooling systems for Reactors 1, 2 and 3
SARRY (cesium absorption system by Toshiba)
Monitoring posts

What's not working at Fukushima I:

Spent fuel pool cooling systems for Reactors 2, 3, 6
Gas management system for Reactor 2
Kurion
Nitrogen injection system (since restarted)

Press conference is ongoing (it started at 6PM on January 17), but TEPCO's Matsumoto is showing a video of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant's emergency response training. (WTF?)

Now Q&A:

TEPCO's switching station in Minami Iwaki had a problem that caused the voltage to drop momentarily. They turned the switch off for a few milliseconds to clear the system.

TEPCO doesn't know what caused the problem at the switching station.

The systems are getting back online. Kurion is still stopped. None of the systems needs to be continuously operated.

(There is absolutely no urgency in either question or answer, so I think everything is dandy now. I'm signing off.)

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2 RPV Bottom is Now Very Cold at - 6.3 Degrees Celsius

2012-01-16T23:55:00.000-08:00

It looks the thermometer at the "CRD Housing Upper Part" is finally broken. Can you think of other reasons why it would register minus 6.3 degrees Celsius? (I mean other than "malfunction".)

From TEPCO's latest plant parameter on January 17, 2012:

By the way, TEPCO is supposed to drill a hole in the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 on January 17 in preparation for inserting an endoscope on January 19, unless the schedule has changed. I'm sure TEPCO got a good piece of advice from the experts from the US DOE and NRC who visited the plant on January 16 with Ambassador Roos.

(H/T Yosaku)

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Trenches Are Full of Contaminated Water, TEPCO Is Finding Out 10 Months After the Accident

2012-01-16T23:20:00.001-08:00

Remember the "puddle" of highly contaminated water in a trench discovered in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant right after Prime Minister Noda declared a "cold shutdown state" to the derision of the world in December?

Without the press reporting on it further, TEPCO has been checking the trenches at the plant, and finding that the contaminated water is "puddled" just about every trench that they look.

Here's the latest update on trench water from TEPCO (1/16/2012). Note the unit of measurement. It is "becquerels per cubic centimeter". Also note that TEPCO is not saying how many tonnes of water there may be. They are "under evaluation".