Three and a Half Years After the #Fukushima Nuclear Accident, Nature Slowly Taking Over Deserted Futaba-Machi

Futaba-machi is located just outside Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Almost entire town is designated as "areas difficult for the residents to return" ("within 5 years", according to the national government's euphemism - oh wait, solid plan?) because of the high levels of radioactive contamination from the nuclear accident. Part of Futaba-machi was exposed to radiation levels as high as 1,590 microsieverts/hour on March 12, 2011, before the hydrogen explosion of Reactor 1.

Even though over 3,000 workers continue to work on any given day at the plant right outside the town, Futaba-machi is deserted, and the mother nature is slowly taking over.

Photographs of Futaba-machi taken in front of the arch at the town entrance that says "Nuclear Energy Is the Energy for the Bright Future":

April 25, 2011, from Asahi Shinbun. The street still looked neat and clean, as if nothing had happened.

July 2012, from the blog of Mineyuki Fukuda, LDP politician from Kanagawa:

About the same time period as the photo above, this photo was taken with a man holding the sign "Destruction" over the word "Bright" in "Bright Future" on the arch. It was his slogan he created when he was in the 6th grade:

July 2013, from Google Street View:

A differen part of Futaba-machi in July 2012, from Collabo Corp OB blog. The words on the arch says "Nuclear Energy Creates Rich Society and Rich Town":

The same arch, in 2014, from the 8/20/2014 tweet by @akauntok:

Railroad, from Google Street View (as of July 2013):

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201 Accidents at #Fukushima I NPP? "No Way," Says Worker at the Plant, "It's More Like 1,000"

"Happy", who's been tweeting from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant since March 2011, tweeted on the news that Nuclear Regulation Authority told the Lower House Budget Committee that there have been 201 accidents at the plant since March 2011 earthquake.

He says "1,000" is more like it. OK that makes more sense. Almost one a day.

"Happy"'s tweet:

この数は発表されたものだけで、全企業のヒヤリハット含めると1000件は越えてるはずでし。

首相は「なぜ?」って理解してないみたいだけど、それは首相が1Ｆ収束に対し真剣に目と耳を傾けてないからでし。

This number [201] is only the ones that have been publicly disclosed. If you include "hiyari hatto" [a Japanese word that means "an incident that almost became a more serious accident") by all companies at the plant, the number would be over 1,000.

Prime Minister asks "Why?" He doesn't seem to understand. But that's because Prime Minister is not paying serious attention to the restoration [ongoing work] of Fukushima I NPP.

From what I've read since 2011, "Happy" seldom voices a direct criticism of politicians. This tweet is one of the rare cases.

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"Hiyari" - making one's blood turn cold
"Hatto" - startled

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Tokyo Gubernatorial Candidate and Former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa: "Polar Bears, Seals Dying Because of #Fukushima..."

He also says there was an explosion at the end of December in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that proves there was a meltdown, citing Russian news.

I wonder whether anyone is advising Mr. Hosokawa on the Fukushima I NPP nuclear accident at all (or Mr. Hosokawa's news source is just 2ch when it comes to the nuclear accident).

Mr. Hosokawa on a net-based TV on January 22, 2014 (about 18 minutes into the video):

「数日前に私は見たんですけども、ロシアの国防軍が出した極秘資料というものが出てきてね。 それを見たんですが、福島でこないだ暮れに、１２月３１日だったかな、爆発があったという小さな記事が出ましたね。 その数日前から実は水蒸気が上がっていて『何かおかしい』という話があったのを私も確かに覚えているんですけども。 あれは完全にメルトダウンを起こしているということを、いろいろ分析をしていて。 （ロシアが。）それでアメリカはヨウ素を１５０００袋だっかな、既に２月の始めに配るという手筈を始めたということとかですね、それから、いま北極海とかいろんなところでシロクマ、アザラシ、その他の生物の大量死が続出していると、これはまさにその福島の影響であるということとか。いろんなものが出てきているわけです。これはまあ凄い話だと思いましたね。」

"I saw it a couple of days ago, but there was this confidential document issued by Russian National Defense Force. I saw it in there that in Fukushima [I NPP], on December 31 I believe, there was an explosion. I certainly remember, too, that "something was wrong" as the steam had been rising for several days prior. So the （Russian) analysis was that it suffered a complete meltdown. And so the United States arranged for 15,000 bags of potassium iodide to be distributed in early February. Also, polar bears, seals and other animals are dying in large numbers in the Arctic Ocean and other places and it is precisely due to the Fukushima accident. Many pieces of information like these. I thought they were terrible stories.

"Terrible stories" (凄い話) could also be translated as "terrific/fantastic stories". It was fantastic to watch the interviewers simply take what Hosokawa said as if they were incontrovertible "facts".

But in the reality-based world, steam has been seen rising on and off from Reactor 3 at least since July last year; it had probably been there ever since the March 14, 2011 hydrogen explosion that destroyed the operating floor and severely damaged the floors below but became visible only after enough debris had been removed. (See my post on 12/29/2013.)

As to the "explosion" on December 31, 2013, even the ex-ambassador to Switzerland who has been raising numerous alarms about the Fukushima accident, real or imagined, confirms it was just an earthquake (actually two earthquakes, he says) in Ibaraki Prefecture that day.

The "confidential Russian document" that the Ambassador links also has a mention of "radioactive snow" in several states in the US. That is so 2011/2012 winter in Japan, when people freaked out measuring naturally occurring short-life radionuclides in the snow (and rain, for that matter) - bithmus-214 and lead-214 - by using personal survey meters to get only the radiation levels or misreading the peaks of bithmus-214 for cesium-134/137 and lead-214 for iodine-131.

And "meltdown"? Mr. Hosokawa must know that meltdown (core melt) already happened in March 2011 in Reactor 1, Reactor 2 and Reactor 3.

I have no idea where Mr. Hosokawa came up with "15,000 bags" of potassium iodide pills, but it must be the "news" that the US Department of Health and Human Services solicited a bid for 1.4 million potassium iodide pills in December 2013. But the order is most likely part of the on-going program of stocking potassium iodide in preparation for nuclear emergencies. (This is an archive page of HSS announcing 1.7 million doses of liquid potassium iodide in 2005.)

As to the polar bears and seals and a host of other living things (including fish, starfish, etc.), they had been dying of mysterious diseases way before the Fukushima I NPP accident. In 2012, CNN reported that the cause of death of seal pups on the east coast of the US was "a new strain of avian flu" that jumped species. The most recent "scare" story was this one quoting the abstract of a paper presented by University of Alaska researchers, in which the researchers say they tested to see if cesium-134 and cesium-137 were present in the tissue samples. For some unknown reason, in Japan this morphed into "cesium-134 was detected, and therefore the seals were dying of Fukushima radiation!"

If Mr. Hosokawa's anti-nuclear stance is based on the fantastic stories (凄い話) like these, no wonder LDP and the Abe administration are comfortable letting the anti-nuclear ("beyond nuclear") issue be emphasized by the Hosokawa camp in the Tokyo gubernatorial race.

Quote a contrast to Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, who talks numbers and detailed facts about nuclear power and why he is against it now. Alas, he's not running for the governorship.

No matter. The Japanese media, from the NHK (increasingly government mouthpiece) on down, completely ignores the Hosokawa-Koizumi team anyway. The election is on Sunday, February 9, 2014.

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Naoto Kan, TEPCO Top Management Won't Be Prosecuted Over #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Accident and Its Aftermath

Not surprising at all, particularly when then-Prime Minister Noda said back in March 2012 that no one in particular was at fault, we were all at fault.

When everyone is said to be responsible, no one is responsible.

All Japanese papers "leaked" this story on August 8, 2013. Some leak. A very detailed one at that, too.

Here's one from Asahi Shinbun (8/8/2013; part):

原発事故、全員が不起訴へ　東電前会長や菅元首相ら

All people concerned, including former chairman of TEPCO and former Prime Minister Kan, won't be prosecuted

　東京電力福島第一原発の事故をめぐり、検察当局が、業務上過失致死傷などの疑いで告訴・告発された東電幹部や政府関係者ら全員を、不起訴処分にする方向で調整していることが８日、わかった。今月中にも処分を出す見通しだ。

It was revealed on August 8 that the Public Prosecutors Office is coordinating [among themselves] so as not to prosecute any one of those who have been charged for professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries over the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. They include TEPCO's top management and government officials. The prosecutors are expected to announce this non-institution of prosecution by the end of August.

原発周辺の被災者ら計約１万５千人は、入院患者が事故直後の避難途中に死亡し、住民が被曝（ひばく）して傷害を負ったなどとして、震災以降、断続的に告訴・告発した。対象は菅元首相のほか、東電の勝俣恒久前会長、清水正孝元社長、原子力安全委員会の班目春樹元委員長、枝野幸男元官房長官と海江田万里元経済産業相ら数十人で、検察当局は昨年８月に受理。東京、福島両地検に応援検事を集め、事情を聴いてきた。

Total 15,000 people, mostly people near the plant and affected by the nuclear accident, have been filing charges intermittently since the accident in March 2011 that they suffered injuries, such as hospital patients having died during the evacuation right after the accident, and residents exposed to radiation. The charges were against former Prime Minister Kan, TEPCO's former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, former president Masataka Shimizu, Nuclear Safety Commission's chairman Haruki Madarame, former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda, and dozens of others. The charges were received by the prosecutors in August last year. The Public Prosecutors Office has asked for help from prosecutors in the Tokyo District Prosecutors Office and Fukushima District Prosecutors Office, and has been questioning.

...その結果、今回の規模の大地震や津波は、発生以前に専門家の間で予測されていたとは言えず、原子炉格納容器の圧力を下げるベント（排気）の遅れが原発建屋の水素爆発を招いたとする告訴内容も、放射線量が高く、停電したことが作業遅延の原因と判断。菅元首相や東電幹部らの刑事責任を立証するのは、困難と結論づけるとみられる。

...As the result, [the Public Prosecutors Office] has come to the conclusion that an earthquake and tsunami on such a large scale cannot be said to have been predicted by experts before it actually took place. As to the cause of hydrogen explosions in the reactor buildings, they have dismissed the charges that the delay in vent to lower the pressure inside the Containment Vessels led to the hydrogen explosions; instead, the prosecutors decided that the delay was caused by high radiation levels and power outage. The Public Prosecution Office is expected to conclude that it will be difficult to establish criminal liability of former Prime Minister Kan and TEPCO management.

Never mind that an earthquake and tsunami of that magnitude have actually been predicted by experts. Never mind that the government under Naoto Kan hid the data of radiation levels "so as not to panic the populace", when it was them who panicked. It was those bureaucrats at NISA who had the more accurate simulation of radiation dispersion and were about to set the more precise evacuation areas, but completely dropped that effort as soon as they learned that Kan, Edano, and Kaieda came up with those childish concentric circles.

Never mind that it was the government who did nothing to stop farmers in Fukushima from tilling the contaminated land and plant crops right after the March 11, 2011 accident.

A UN committee member spoke of Japanese judicial system as "medieval" where the prosecution almost always wins, near 100%. The Japanese prosecution hardly ever even thinks of indicting the national government officials and powerful corporate elites, and there is no grand jury system in Japan.

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