Long Shadow of Chernobyl (4): Organic Blueberry Spread Imported from Italy Found with 164 Bq/Kg of Cesium-137

Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Asahi did its own checking on imported blueberry spread being sold in Tokyo and alerted the health authorities, who were reluctant to do anything at first.

Main points from from Shukan Asahi (10/23/2013) article:

• "Fior di frutta organic fruits spread" blueberry imported from Italy

• Place of origin: Bulgaria

• 164Bq/kg of cesium-137 by test commissioned by Shukan Asahi

• 140Bq/kg of cesium-137 by test by the municipal (Tokyo) health authorities

• Shibuya-ku ordered the importer MIE PROJECT on October 18 to recall 5,184 bottles of blueberry spread with the best before date of October 17, 2015.

• Ministry of Health and Welfare initially refused to do anything based on "private" (as opposed to "official" - i.e. by the government) test results.

• The public health centers involved didn't want to move either on just "an article that appeared in a magazine".

• Less than 10 percent of all imported food is tested; it is possible that people are eating contaminated food without knowing.

For articles on "Long Shadow of Chernobyl", go here.

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Bulgaria to Hold Referendum on Nuclear Plant in January

But it's not what you think in the post-Fukushima world, not like the recent Lithuanian referendum. Bulgarian socialists are angry that the deal with Russia's Rosatom to build a nuke plant fell apart.

Bulgaria has one nuclear power plant (Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant) with two operating reactors. The plant covers about 40% of the country's energy demand, according to wiki.

I wonder if Hitachi or Toshiba is actively selling in Bulgaria.

From Bloomberg News (10/31/2012):

Bulgaria Will Hold Referendum on Nuclear Plant Jan. 27

Bulgaria will hold a referendum on whether to build a new nuclear plant on Jan. 27, President Rosen Plevneliev said in e-mailed statement today.

Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s Cabinet canceled on March 28 a 10 billion-euro ($12.25 billion) project to build a 2,000- megawatt nuclear power plant at Belene with Rosatom Corp., Russia’s state nuclear company, after failing to agree on its cost and find Western investors.

The move caused criticism from the opposition socialist party, which said the government deprived the country from an electricity source. Rosatom filed a 1 billion-euro claim on Sept. 11 with the International Court of Arbitration in Paris to cover construction work and production costs on the canceled project.

The socialist party collected about 770,000 signatures under a proposal to hold a referendum on whether to continue with the construction of the Belene plant, which was submitted to Parliament in July. The assembly voted on Oct. 24 to hold a referendum on a new nuclear plant, formulating the question without the mention of Belene.

The government also plans to build new reactor at the existing nuclear plant Kozloduy, in northern Bulgaria.

“The referendum will not address neither the problem with Belene, nor all the development and financing issues related to the new reactor in Kozloduy, because of the way it is formulated, asking a general question,” Ilian Vassilev, managing partner at Innovative Energy Solutions Ltd. in Sofia, said in an e-mail Oct. 24.

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