Yomiuri: "Relatively" High External Radiation Exposure for Children, Pregnant Women in Koriyama City, Fukushima

For the month of November 2011, one pre-schooler in Koriyama City in the high-radiation "Nakadori" region in Fukushima Prefecture was found with 0.66 millisievert of external radiation exposure. The maximum number for the pregnant women was 0.36 millisievert.

On an annualized basis, 7.92 millisieverts from external radiation alone for the particular child, and 4.32 millisieverts for the pregnant woman. The average for the children was 0.11 millisievert, which would be 1.32 millisievert in one year. The average for the pregnant women was 0.10 millisievert, which would be 1.20 millisievert in one year.

Just a friendly reminder: Before the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, the natural "external" radiation exposure average in Japan was 0.59 millisievert per year.

Another reminder: Koriyama City started fitting the children and pregnant women with glass badges starting November 2011. There is no way of knowing what the radiation exposure may have been in the earlier months.

Yomiuri Shinbun (1/6/2012):

福島県郡山市は６日、市内の未就学児と妊婦の昨年１１月の１か月間の個人積算線量の測定値で、未就学児１人から０・６６ミリ・シーベルト、年間換算では７・９２ミリ・シーベルトと比較的高い線量が測定されたと発表した。

Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture announced the result of cumulative radiation exposure in the month of November 2011 for the pre-school children and pregnant women in the city. One child was found with 0.66 millisievert of radiation exposure, which would be 7.92 millisieverts for the annual cumulative exposure, a relatively high figure.

　市では「今のところ健康に影響を与える数値ではないが、今後も調査を継続して対応していきたい」としている。

The city says "It is not the level that immediately affect health, but we want to continue to monitor."

　平均値は未就学児が０・１１ミリ・シーベルト、妊婦が０・１０ミリ・シーベルトで、妊婦の最高値は０・３６ミリ・シーベルトだった。

The average figure for the pre-schoolers was 0.11 millisievert, and for the pregnant women 0.10 millisievert. The maximum number for the pregnant women was 0.36 millisievert.


　市は昨年１０月末から、保育園や幼稚園、希望者を対象に約１万６４００個の線量計を配布。同１１月の積算の放射線量を測定してもらい、妊婦８９６人と未就学児１万５２３９人から回収した。

The city distributed 16,400 glass badges to children in the city's nursery schools and kindergartens and to people who wanted to be fitted with the badges. The cumulative radiation exposure for the month of November was recorded, and the city collected the badges back from 896 pregnant women and 15,239 pre-schoolers.

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#Fukushima to Test Every Single Bag of Rice This Year (Meaning They Will Definitely Grow Rice in 2012)

If they do it, they should have done in 2011. Damage done.

Who is going to eat Fukushima rice? Probably the same people eating it now, at schools, hospitals, at family restaurants, convenience stores. Oh and the increasingly unpopular prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, who demanded that the Japanese citizens eat Fukushima rice like he did every day.

For people who say "The Fukushima JA didn't ship rice that was found with any amount of radioactive cesium", it's true. The problem is that the Fukushima JA handles only 23% rice grown in Fukushima. (The link is in Japanese.) The rest goes directly from rice farmers to the distributors or to the end customers.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1/6/2011):

福島県は、２０１２年産の県産米について、ＪＡなどの協力を得て放射性物質に関する全袋検査を実施する方針を固めた。

The Fukushima prefectural government has decided to test all bags of rice for radioactive materials for the 2012 rice to be grown and harvested in Fukushima Prefecture with the help from the JA [agricultural producer co-op] and other organizations.

　ＪＡなどが精度の高い測定機器を導入する場合に、費用を補助する。１１年産米の一部で、玄米の段階で国の暫定規制値（１キロ・グラム当たり５００ベクレル）を超える放射性セシウムが検出されたことを受けた措置。

The prefectural government will subsidize the cost when the JA introduces high-precision instruments [to measure radioactive materials]. This is in response to the detection of radioactive cesium in rice exceeding the national provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg) in part of the 2011 rice grown in Fukushima.

　県は、消費者の信頼を確保するため今秋の収穫分は、全袋を検査する必要があると判断。生産、流通関係者には機器導入を促す。

The prefectural government figured that all bags of rice would need to be tested this fall in order to secure the trust of the consumers. It will encourage the producers and distributors to purchase the instruments.

　１２年の県産米の検査にあたっては、県が１１年の収穫期にも行った抽出検査に加えて、ＪＡなどが出荷する段階でも全袋を調べる。ただ、今秋に県内で収穫される量は、約３６万トン、約１２００万袋にのぼる見通しで、現在の検査能力（１日あたり約１２００袋）では対応できないため、県は、ベルトコンベヤーに検体を載せて測定するタイプの機器を導入し、検査時間の短縮を図る。機器の性能にもよるが、全袋検査には百数十台が必要と見込まれる。

In testing the 2012 rice, the prefectural government will conduct sampling tests as it did in the 2011 harvest season. In addition, the JA and others will check all the bags of rice at the time of shipment. However, the estimated harvest this fall in Fukushima Prefecture is about 360,000 tonnes in 12 million bags, far exceeding the current capacity of testing (1,200 bags per day). The prefectural government will introduce the instrument that uses conveyer belt to shorten the inspection time. Depending on the performance of the instrument, over 100 such instruments will be needed to test every single bag of rice.

360,000 tonnes of rice. That's slightly more than what was produced in 2011 (353,600 tonnes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries). So they are all eager to grow as much as they did last year, knowing full well this time that they are growing on highly contaminated soil (except for most but not all of Aizu region).

Before the accident, Fukushima produced about 450,000 tonnes of rice each year as the 4th largest producer of rice behind Hokkaido, Niigata, and Akita. Last year, it dropped in ranking, but it was still the 7th largest producer.

Fuji Electric has a belt-conveyer radiation detection system that it sells for 4.3 million yen, but detection limits are rather high for a speedy 12-second testing (meat 140 becquerels/kg, rice 90 becquerels/kg, leafy vegetables 250 becquerels/kg). The system clearly needs upgrade as the new and improved safety limit for cesium for food will be 100 becquerels/kg starting on the April Fool's Day. (No joke.)

It has been rumored that Shimadzu, the largest analytical instrument company in Japan, is close to introducing the similar product with higher precision and probably costing a whole lot more.

But they will only measure radioactive cesium (134, 137) and nothing else. The government is absolutely silent on radioactive strontium (which has a much higher transfer coefficient than radioactive cesium) or other nuclides that fell on the farm soil in Tohoku and Kanto regions.

Everything done in Fukushima for the sake of "recovery and reconstruction" is paid by the national government, but the national government is broke and it bills TEPCO. TEPCO runs out of money and asks the national government for money to pay for the bills that the national government gives them. The national government gives TEPCO the money, and collect the money by raising taxes for all citizens.

And the citizens get to eat safe Fukushima rice as a reward for supposedly helping Fukushima people.

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Japan to Stop Using SPEEDI to Decide Whether to Instruct Residents to Take Potassium Iodide Pills

Instead, the decision will be made using the air radiation levels and the water levels inside the nuclear reactors.

In other words, when (if) they do distribute the pills to citizens who may be affected by a nuclear accident, it may be too late. If the last year is any indication, such data will be released several weeks to several months after a nuclear accident happens.

As to the water levels inside the reactors, it's a joke. TEPCO and NISA insisted there was water inside the Reactor Pressure Vessels until mid May.

But no matter, that's what the Nuclear Safety Commission under Dr. Haruki "Detarame" Madarame has decided and is duly reported by NHK.

NHK conveniently omits the now-known fact that the SPEEDI simulation data was there from the beginning. The politicians and the bureaucrats, in their petty turf war, couldn't make any use of it. They even had three sets of simulation from three different entities - the Ministry of Education, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and TEPCO, from the beginning of the accident. Everyone decided to drop the ball all at once.

How did they manage to do that? Asahi Shinbun's "Trap of Prometeus" has an excellent coverage on that (part 1 here, part 2 here).

From NHK News (1/4/2012):

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故で、放射性物質の広がりを予測するシステムが機能せず、甲状腺の被ばくを避けるヨウ素剤の取り扱いに混乱が生じたことから、国の原子力安全委員会は、ヨウ素剤の服用を指示するかどうかの判断に予測システムは使わないことを決め、空気中の放射線量など別の指標を導入することになりました。

In the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, the system to forecast the dispersion of radioactive materials didn't function, causing the confusion as to what to do with the potassium iodide pills to avoid radiation exposure in the thyroid. So the Nuclear Safety Commission has decided not to use the system any more to instruct residents to take the pills; instead, the air radiation levels and other indicators will be used.

原子力事故の際、甲状腺の被ばくを避けるヨウ素剤を服用するかどうかは、放射性物質の広がりを予測する「ＳＰＥＥＤＩ」というコンピューターシステムのデータを基に国などが判断し、住民に指示することになっています。

In a nuclear accident, in order to decide whether to take potassium iodide pills to prevent thyroid irradiation, the national government is to use the data from the simulation system to forecast the dispersion of radioactive materials, called SPEEDI, and to instruct the residents.

しかし、福島第一原発の事故ではシステムが機能せず、国や福島県が判断を示さなかったことから、市町村によってはヨウ素剤の取り扱いに混乱が生じました。このため原子力安全委員会の作業部会は、今後も迅速な対応につながるか疑わしいとして、ヨウ素剤の服用を指示するかどうかの判断に予測システムは使わないことを決めました。

However, in the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, this system did not function and the national government and the Fukushima prefectural government did not make a decision [on whether to instruct residents to take the pills], causing confusion in the municipalities affected on what to do with the potassium iodide pills. The working group at the Nuclear Safety Commission has determined that it is doubtful that SPEEDI data will be used for a quick response in the future and therefore the SPEEDI system won't be used in determining the need for the administration of the pills.

代わりに、空気中の放射線量や原子炉の水位などのデータの利用を検討しています。さらに、服用の基準についても国際的な動きに合わせて見直し、１歳児の甲状腺の被ばく線量で今の半分の５０ミリシーベルトに引き下げるということです。作業部会では今後、指標についての具体的な数値を検討し、ことし３月までに提言にまとめることにしています。

Instead, the Commission is considering using the data such as the air radiation levels and the water level in the reactor. Further, the levels to instruct the residents to take the pill will be revised based on the prevailing international standards. For 1 year-old, it will be an equivalent dose of 50 millisieverts at the thyroid, which is half of the current level. The working group will further consider the numbers and will make a suggestion to the government by March.

WHO's standard for 1-year old is 10 millisieverts.

(I sent a tweet to NHK Kabun (culture and science), telling them the article is false about SPEEDI. I was surprised when NHK Kabun marked my tweet as "favorite".)

Speaking of potassium iodide, there are tweets from the residents in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture that they just received an envelope from the city that contained potassium iodide pills. They are wondering why, and wondering if Reactor 4 is as safe as TEPCO has said after the water level decrease in the Skimmer Surge Tank.

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Guest Post: "I Cannot Talk About Radiation With Anyone"

(UPDATE: I have her original Japanese writing in my Japanese blog, here. Share it with your Japanese friends.)

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A reality in Japan from one of my Japanese blog readers.

From what I hear and read, she is not alone at all, and she doesn't even live in Fukushima. More she tries to do to protect people she cares - family, friends - people think she's crazy.

She may not be eloquent or sophisticated as Ms. Numauchi, but she is just as sincere in her fear and courage (though she says she's not courageous).

From the reader "Nectarina", from her original Japanese writing sent to me:

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I am a housewife living in Aichi Prefecture with my husband. I was born in Shikoku. My life completely changed in 2011. Before the nuclear plant accident, I enjoyed my hobby (crafts) and taking a walk on the beach. But after March 11, I don't feel like doing any of that, because I am afraid. How long can I remain healthy? Will something happen again tomorrow?

What's been sad about the nuclear accident, radiation:

My husband, whom I shared the same values and whom I trusted, has changed. When I try to talk to him about the nuclear plant accident, the color leaves his face and he becomes angry. When we had a big fight, I asked him why. He said "I don't want to know. If I knew I wouldn't be able to work". My husband puts a lot of energy in his work, so I suppose he wouldn't be able to cope. So, even when I learn about some horrible news I cannot tell my husband. I deal with it by crying when I'm alone.

My husband resents it when I try to store safe food items like old rice. He thinks anything that's being sold in the marketplace is safe, and thinks I'm crazy. Because I don't want to argue with him, I use my savings to buy food when there is not enough money for [safe] food.　

My husband approves of the wide-area disposal of contaminated debris. His reason is that the disaster-affected areas alone cannot dispose all of the debris. It doesn't occur to him that the debris may be contaminated with radiation. I believe he's wrong, and I cry the tears of misery.
　
He doesn't care about food or drinks, and doesn't appreciate my effort to make sure of the safety of the food I buy.
　
My mother back in Shikoku doesn't understand at all when I tell her about the danger of radiation-contaminated food. She says I'm too nervous and it's too tiresome. She believes TV more than me, her daughter, and thinks I've gone crazy.

I have a friend in Fukushima. I told him a number of times to leave Fukushima, but was dismissed. He is still young, single and healthy, and able to move anywhere, but he says he doesn't want to leave his home and his family. We have become distant as the result, as I don't know what to say to him any more, who is like a total stranger now.
　
And My sister. She's been married for 5 years, and she became pregnant before the nuclear plant accident. During her pregnancy I wanted to tell her to be careful with food and to wear a mask. But my sister didn't care at all about the nuke accident, and I feared that by telling the truth she might be shocked and that might affect her baby. So I couldn't say a word. I felt I was a coward not telling the truth. But I bought a teddy bear as a present for the new baby. I prayed every day to the teddy bear to protect the baby.
　
But 7th month into the pregnancy, the baby suddenly stopped moving. The baby was dead, and had to be aborted. It was a late child-bearing, so I know it's not necessarily because of the radiation. But I think it's wrong if you cannot bear a child safely.
　
Afterwords, my sister told me that she had recovered and was now back to work. I thought the future was more important than the past, and plucked up my courage and told her to be careful with food she ate. My sister hasn't contacted me since. Just like my mother, she must have thought I was crazy. Or she was shocked. I failed to make her understand, but I'm not regretting that I told her.　
　
What's been good:
　
No family member nor friend understood me, I was alone. With horrible news, I was crying by myself every day in the early days of the accident. But in a blog that I often visited for my hobby, there was one person who was writing articles on the nuclear plant accident. I left comments to the articles and emailed that person, and soon we hit it off together. With that person and that person's friend, three of us started an anti-nuke plant blog. My first friends after the plant accident.

On their recommendation, I started using Twitter, where I met several more kindred spirits. On further recommendation I started using "mixi" (a social site), where I found more friends. Now, I'm active in anti-nuke plant movements. To have met with the like-minded people via the Internet is the happiest thing for me.
　
What is scary:

All my life, I have believed that Japan is a safe, and good country. I am very shocked that it was nothing but an illusion. [The government] is hiding and lying about the situation of the nuclear plant accident, in collusion with TEPCO and the media. There are many people who could have avoided radiation exposure if the government had warned the danger right away. Children and pregnant women still live in the high-radiation contamination areas in Fukushima Prefecture.
　
The government wants to spread the radioactive debris from the disaster-affected areas all over Japan. Most municipal officials don't have knowledge of radioactivity. The government is trying to coerce people into accepting the debris with words like "share the pain".
　
Food is distributed throughout the country with hardly any testing for radiation. With the high numbers set for the safety limits, the [contaminated] food is used in school lunches. When I try to pick food by the place of origin, it is often disguised. I'm scared to go shopping, for I don't even know what's safe to eat.
　
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I am not courageous, I don't have an ability to take action, and I'm not smart. But for the sake of my sister and her unborn baby, I want to "return a blow" to the government and TEPCO. No matter how small a blow it may be.
　
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To people outside Japan:

Radiation from Japan has contaminated the ocean and the countries around the world. The Japanese who know this are very much shocked. We have done the tremendous damage that cannot be undone. I am truly, very sorry.

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I ask my readers please to support Japanese people like her and Ms. Numauchi in your hearts.

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Emiko Numauchi of Minami Soma, aka "Numayu", Speaks Up, May Testify in the Japan's Diet About Her Health Problems

(UPDATE: In her later post, she says she's receiving taunts and threats again in great numbers, with one of them purportedly from a man living in the same city telling her to leave because she is a disgrace to Minami Soma City. This is so World War II era.)

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In her post on 1/5/2012, "Numayu" says her name is Emiko Numauchi, and that she has decided to do an interview with the independent journalist Yasumi Iwakami showing her face to the camera. And it looks she may be giving testimony in the Diet.

She has decided to speak out publicly, no matter what may be coming her way from the government or the detractors.

For her health conditions after the March 11 nuclear accident, see my post on January 2.

The photo is from her Facebook page, when she was still healthy, in the summer of 2011.

From her blog entry on 1/5/2011:

Just now, I spoke with the "true journalist", named Iwakami, on the phone. I realized how "stupid" I had been.

No more "polite" form of speech. I will write in the "regular" speech. Use a search engine [she recommends Yahoo!] for "Emiko Numauchi 沼内 恵美子", and that is me.

It's been six years when I published a novel about "the truth in the battle of Okinawa".

I was overwhelmed by Iwakami's enthusiasm. It seems there are already many cases of mysterious illnesses in Fukushima Prefecture. I am a "living witness", and only a herald to what is to come.

Already, a cat with only one eye has been born.

No matter what the Japanese government may do, no matter what kind of slander it may throw against me, it is important to keep spreading the information. That's what I've learned from the journalist Iwakami.

As the human "life" and "dignity" gets hidden, I hear that malformed babies are born already. The situation in Fukushima Prefecture is getting more dire, with control of speech [or media blackout] as a matter of fact. Without the phone call from Iwakami, I would have simply stopped blogging even though I remain angry.

I made an appointment [with Iwakami] for an interview, with my face shown on camera. I will not speak in an elaborate or circumspect way any more. It will be to the benefit of all Japanese citizens if he shows me as I am.

All the members of the Diet should be replaced. Not the snap election but "replacing the members" is indispensable.

We don't need a cabinet and members of the Diet that are rotten and stink.

In the Diet, I want to tell them how it really is, as a witness. I want to show them the "true soul" of the Japanese people.

Emiko Numauchi

Ms. Numauchi has two books published, searching in Amazon.co.jp.

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#Radiation in Japan: It's All How You Define Radiation, and Koriyama Defines it "Out"

It is just a matter of how you define the problem, and Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture, in the high-radiation "Nakadori" region, has decided to "define out" the problem by drawing the radiation contour map of the city with a new set of color schemes so that people will feel "safe and secure" looking at such "low" radiation levels.

After all, the nuclear accident is "over", remember?

The map used to have 1.49 microsievert/hour as maximum, in red color. Now, in the new version of the map that accompanies the Koriyama City's official decon plan, 45 microsieverts/hour is the maximum in red color. 1.5 microsievert/hour area is now in a calming, safe-looking extremely light blue.

Would the residents of Koriyama fall for this trick? Probably yes.

The map from the "Koriyama City Renewal Decontamination Plan version 1" issued in December 2011 (page 5):

And here's the map in August, showing maximum 1.49 microsievert/hour area in red:

(H/T @chicksmbox)

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Video of Birds That Don't Fly, in June 2011 Somewhere in Fukushima

A video posted by a resident somewhere in Fukushima Prefecture in June last year shows two birds in his/her front garden unable or unwilling to fly even when approached by a human.

The video was uploaded by MAYODORA in June 2011; it was posted at GeorgeBowWow's blog on December 23, 2011 (his blog is in Japanese only). GeorgeBowWow thinks the birds may be affected by radiation. The bird (bulbul) in the beginning of the video dropped from the persimmon tree, MAYODORA writes in the Youtube description of the video. MAYODORA says he/she measured radiation on the bird with his/her survey meterand it was rather high.

No information as to what happened to those birds afterwards.

Clearly the comment section of the video on Youtube was trashed, and commenting has been disabled.

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OT: GOP Iowa Caucus Is 3-Way Dead Heat

(UPDATE: It looks MSMs and TPTB did their job. Iowa is a virtual tie between Santorum (Santorum?) and Romney. Paul 3rd. Let's see if they still say Iowa doesn't matter.)

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among Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, 23% each with 22% reporting. (CNN)

Much like NHK reporting in the middle of the DPJ leader election in Japan saying the supporters of one candidate would throw their 2nd-round votes to the candidate who eventually won, when there was no such plan, and possibly affecting the people who were undecided, Politico may have done the similar thing in Iowa, saying the last poll before the election showed Rick Santorum in 2nd, way ahead of Ron Paul when in fact it was the other way round.

From Economic Policy Journal (1/3/2012):

HOT: "Error" on Poll Results Put Santorum Ahead of Ron Paul

Run Ron Paul reports:

With just days remaining until the all-important Republican Iowa caucuses, a left-leaning political newspaper based near the nation’s capital made a critical error in reporting the results of the final Des Moines Register opinion poll before voters gather Tuesday.

On Saturday evening Politico incorrectly reported that the poll showed former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum “climbing to second [place] at 21 percent and Ron Paul in third, with 18 percent.” In fact, Paul took second place with 22 percent of the vote. Santorum was third with 15 percent.

The faulty report was issued via email as a “Politico Breaking News” alert. Politico sent a second email shortly afterward with the correct poll results, stipulating that “[t]his breaking news alert corrects a previous breaking news alert...Phone messages left for four top Politico editors were not returned. A fifth, reached by phone, would not speak on the record but promised a return call from someone who would. No such call was received.

They will continue to do anything to thwart the one and only "unelectable" candidate.

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They Will Grow Rice Again This Year in Fukushima

I could almost hear the words: "This time, it will be different!"

Up to, say summer last year, the farmers could have been excused for the lack of information given to them (for those who relied on the government information to be handed to them). But now nearly 10 months after the accident and the radioactive contamination in Fukushima Prefecture cannot be hidden any more (except to most of the residents who have remained, apparently) and some rice farmers are suing TEPCO for the damage, if they grow rice again in Fukushima this year hoping theirs will be cesium-free but knowing full well that they may not be, what do you call it?

Then again, doing what the government tells you to do has been the mode of operation in Japan for such a long time, and the farmers may not see any need to change it now.

First, Yomiuri Shinbun (1/4/2012):

福島県の一部で収穫されたコメ（玄米）から国の暫定規制値（１キロ・グラムあたり５００ベクレル）を超える放射性セシウムが検出された問題で、県は２０１２年のコメの作付けの際に、カリウム肥料を多く与えるよう農家に、技術指導を行うことを決めた。

Regarding the rice harvested in part of Fukushima that was found with radioactive cesium exceeding the national provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg), the Fukushima prefectural government has decided to instruct farmers to give more potassium fertilizer when they plant rice for 2012.

　カリウム肥料にはイネがセシウムを吸収しにくくする働きがあるという。

According to the prefectural government, potassium fertilizer works to limit the uptake of radioactive cesium by the rice plant.

　同県では福島、伊達、二本松各市の計９地区３１戸（昨年１２月３０日現在）で作られたコメから規制値超の放射性セシウムが検出されている。県と農林水産省が水田などを調べたところ、コメの放射性セシウム濃度が高いほど、土壌のカリウム濃度が低い傾向があることがわかった。

In Fukushima Prefecture, the rice grown in 31 farms in 9 districts in Fukushima City, Date City and Nihonmatsu City have been found with radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional limit. The prefecture and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries surveyed the rice paddies and found that the higher the level of radioactive cesium in rice, the lower the potassium level in the soil.

　財団法人・環境科学技術研究所（青森県六ヶ所村）の大桃洋一郎相談役（環境放射生態学）によると、カリウムは窒素、リンとともに植物の３大栄養素で、化学的性質が似ているセシウムより吸収されやすい。カリウムが欠乏した土壌では、セシウムを吸収しやすくなる。

According to Yoichiro Omomo (environmental radiation biology), advisor to the Institute for Environmental Sciences (in Rokkasho-mura, Aomori Prefecture), potassium is one of the three major nutrients of the plants with the other two being nitrogen and phosphorus, and is more easily absorbed by the plants than cesium which is chemically similar. In the soil that is deficient of potassium, it is easy for the plants to absorb cesium.

Omomo is the former chairman of the Institute, and continues to serve as advisor.

Never mind that the problem is not the lack of potassium but the overabundance of radioactive cesium (and strontium most likely). Yomiuri is quiet on the density of radioactive cesium and other nuclides in the soil where radioactive rice was grown and harvested.

So the Fukushima prefectural government and the Fukushima rice farmers are eager to grow rice again this year, hoping that excess potassium will block cesium. If it doesn't, oh well just do what they did last year - sell it to the government to get money.

Asahi Shinbun also reports that the Ministry of Agriculture is very much willing to let the Fukushima rice farmers continue to grow rice. Read between the lines.

From Asahi Shinbun (12/27/2011):

農林水産省は２７日、東京電力福島第一原発の事故に伴う来年のコメの作付け制限の方針を公表した。今年産のコメの検査で１キロあたり５００ベクレルを超える放射性セシウムが検出された地域で作付けを禁止。５００ベクレル以下でも、１００ベクレルを超えるコメが出た地域では同じように禁止することを検討する。

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries published the policy on regulating the cultivation of rice next year [2012] following the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The Ministry will ban the cultivation of rice in the areas where radioactive cesium exceeding 500 becquerels/kg was found in the rice harvested this year [2011]. The Ministry is also considering banning the cultivation in the areas where radioactive cesium exceeding 100 becquerels/kg was found in the rice.

　来年４月から実施される食品の放射能量の新基準で、コメの基準値が現在の暫定値である１キロあたり５００ベクレルから１００ベクレルに下がることにあわせた措置。

It is because the new radiation standard for food starting April 2012 will be 100 becquerels/kg [of radioactive cesium] for rice, while the current provisional limit is 500 becquerels/kg.

　今年は、これまでに福島市大波地区など旧市町村単位で８地区で、５００ベクレルを超えたとして出荷停止となった。これらの地区は来年の作付けが禁止される。

So far, 8 districts including Onami District in Fukushima City had rice that exceeded 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium and the shipment of the rice was halted. The farmers in these districts will be banned from planting rice in 2012.

　さらに、新基準値と同じ１００ベクレルを超すコメが出た地域については、県が進めている２９市町村約２万５千戸の農家を対象にした緊急調査の結果などを踏まえて決める方針だ。同じ地域内でも高い値と低い値のコメが混在しており、１地点で１００ベクレルを超えてもその地域全体を一律に禁止にできるかは慎重な判断が求められる。具体的な禁止地域が決まるのは来年３月になる見込み。

In addition, as to the areas where radioactive cesium in rice exceeded 100 becquerels/kg, the Ministry will decide after reviewing the result of the emergency survey that was conducted by the Fukushima prefectural government on 25000 farms in 29 municipalities. Rice with high cesium and rice with low cesium coexist in the same district, and a careful consideration is needed to decide whether to ban the cultivation in the entire district when a test in one location exceeds 100 becquerels/kg. The decision is to be made in March 2012.

　今年は水田に降り注いだ放射性物質がどれだけイネに移るかを検討し、土１キロあたり５千ベクレルの田がある地域を作付け禁止の対象とした。土壌調査の結果をもとに第一原発から半径２０キロ圏内の警戒区域と周辺の計画的避難区域、緊急時避難準備区域が禁止となった。

This year, the government considered the transfer rate of radioactive materials that fell on the rice paddies, and decided to ban the rice cultivation in the districts with rice paddies whose soil tested 5000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. Based on the soil tests, the rice cultivation was banned in the areas inside the 20-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and the surrounding "planned evacuation zone" and "evacuation-ready zone".

The transfer coefficient that the national government picked is 0.1, which had no scientific basis. From the past data, scientists were saying the coefficient was more like 0.01 or less. The government picked the number ten times that, to be on the safe side. That was a political decision, not scientific. Then, the Asahi article says that the soil tests, which were sporadic at best, found that the areas inside 20-kilometer radius were unsuitable, and "planned evacuation zone" like Iitate-mura, but nowhere else.

As to banning the cultivation in the areas that had rice with 100 becquerels/kg and above, it is pointless because there are so many farms that they didn't test in the main survey they did in September and October, whose result was announced with great fanfare. At that time, 2 farms per old municipality were tested, one bag each. The areas that were supposed to be "clean" may not be, simply because they were not even tested.

Nowhere in the Asahi article does it say that the Ministry or the prefecture will conduct the soil sample tests throughout the prefecture. That would cost too much for them.

The Fukushima prefectural government is negotiating with the Ministry, saying the Ministry should buy up all the rice from the district if the rice from one farm exceeds 100 becquerels/kg.

In order to plant rice in spring, farmers turn over the soil in fall. It's already been done, further mixing the radioactive materials in the rice paddies. They will do so again in spring.

I tweeted the Yomiuri article above to my Japanese readers. Someone commented, "Oh you must be careful when you talk about Fukushima and people in Fukushima, because their feeling is hurt." How about the health of consumers who have been eating untested Fukushima rice?

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Report from Fukushima (2) Minami Soma: A Woman Speaks Out on Her Health Problems in Post-Accident Fukushima

(UPDATE 1/4/2011: Her name is Emiko Numauchi, and she says she will do on-camera interview with Yasumi Iwakami (independent journalist). It looks like she may testify in the Diet, also. See my latest post.)

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Teeth and toenails falling off and clumps of hair coming off, she reports in her blog. She doesn't seem to care any more if people dismiss her as fabricating the story, and just tells as a matter of fact what's been happening to her and her husband, probably both in their early 40s. They live in Minami Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture, within 25 kilometers from the wrecked plant. The district she and husband live have somehow escaped the designation of any "evacuation zone", even though she says the radiation is just as high or higher. She was a high school teacher until 2 years ago, and now she teaches children at her home.

My Japanese blog readers sent me the link to her blog some time ago. I read the posts, researched the response to her blog from people I trust on the net. I have little reason to doubt this is a fake, she sounds sincere, though it is my personal judgment and I could be wrong.

There are many who have attacked her as rumor- and fear-mongering, to which she responds "Look at the reality. Study physics and think for yourselves. No point in getting emotional and wasting time."

She isn't claiming her conditions is due to the radiation exposure since the accident. She just describes her conditions and asks for rational explanations for the conditions, which haven't been forthcoming, as you can see in the very first post linked and translated below.

Well, all spring and summer last year, nosebleed, diarhhea and bruises were "baseless rumors". Meltdown was a baseless rumor, radiation contamination was a baseless rumor.

The following passages are from her blog, "Numayu no blog":

From the entry on 1/2/2012:

Went to see the dentist on duty for the holidays, as I just couldn't stand the pain of my "dens caninus" tooth which was all exposed to the nerve.

However, no matter how I explained to the dentist, he kept insisting that it would never go bad like this in such a short period of time (3 months).

When I told him that my dental treatment had been completed before March 11, he didn't believe it. He just said "It's not possible".

He said this could only happen if one didn't brush one's teeth for 2 to 3 years.

I simply lost interest in trying to explain. My husband was there, and he tried to tell him, but he shut up when the doctor said "I only accept objective data."

Until this summer, my teeth were healthy. My teeth were sturdy. Until this summer.

From the entry on 12/31/2011, on her friend's hair:

A very good friend of mine since high school just dropped by to say hello. We occasionally talked over the phone about my head (balding and hair falling off) and her condition. She's 42 years old.

She came wearing a wig. When she took it out, I had no words to say.

She evacuated [after the accident] to the inland area near the Fukushima-Miyagi border. But when the reactors were exploding and when the vent was being done, she was right near by [in Minami Soma].

With her permission, I'm sharing these sad photos.

She and I both started to lose hair in large quantities starting October. This is the head of a healthy, 42-year-old woman. She is quite active, and she works.

Can you believe it? In 3 months she has lost so much hair. Now you understand why I wanted to cut my hair short to 3 centimeters long. Right now, I have more hair than her, but if I had kept it long I would have lost much more hair.

When I saw her in October, she had her own hair in a bun.

What is it that's happening?

From the entry on 12/27/2011:

I went to see my doctor. The severe pain in the jaw is back, and it hurts like mad. My entire face below the nose hurts.

The doctor gave me two kinds of pain killer this time. Now I'm better.

He also drew blood for testing. We can't even begin to guess what it is, until we have the data.

My doctor is appalled at what has happened to me in the last month - my teeth, thinning hair, bleeding that doesn't stop, severe pain in the jaw, fingernails dropping off. He said, "It's just unbelievable".

Anyway, we will wait for the result of the blood test.

I said to him, "I have a wig, so it will be OK". Then he replied, "Yes, and you can have full dentures!"

Both my doctor and I are positive. So is my dentist. I'll never give up hope and live positively. I am living and learning, and remain positive.

From the entry on 12/20/2011, responding to one of the trolls on her blog:

Just now, there was a comment from someone claiming to be a doctor in Minami Soma City, who said "There is no one with the condition like that". There was no link to that person's blog.

If he/she is really a doctor, he/she would neither confirm or deny.

Do you want to see the photo?

Treatment of the cavities was done by March 11. There was nothing wrong with my gum and my teeth. Just a normal set of teeth. But now it's like this.

Two front teeth are both artificial "ceramic". So are the white teeth in the back. But for the other tooth... Treatment just cannot keep up. My dentist managed to keep the roots to plant a post [for implants, probably].

And do you still say "there is no negative effect on heath"? People in the Japanese government, please give me a "logical" answer.

The photo is rather shocking. You can view it in her post here.

From the entry on 12/17/2011, about her hair and toenails:

It was really bad yesterday. I felt dizzy standing or sitting. Well it's the same today too.

Last night, I tried loosening up my hair with my fingers after shampooing. The hair came out in clumps. I was shocked.

I cut my hair short about 2 weeks ago, for I wanted to stop the hair loss. I wear a wig (long hair) when I go out. There is not much forelock either. I can clearly see the hairline. In 9 months I lost so much hair.

Something felt wrong on my feet after the bath, so I took a look at the nails. In almost all toenails part of the nails was missing. When I tried to cut the nails using a nail clipper, I couldn't believe my eyes. Toenails on the second toes of both feet were coming off. When I touched them, they did come off.

Went to the dentist today. The receptionist looked dead tired. She was such an energetic person. She was barely able to speak. Children are not cheerful. They are not as playful as before.

The Japanese government announced "a cold shutdown 'state'". There is no such word. It's "a cold shutdown" or not. It is just a sly sophistry from liberal arts graduates.

Ouch. She clearly teaches science or math.

Her blog contains more information than just health issues. In fact, health issues are minor compared to the other topics like radiation contamination in Fukushima, what happened in Minami Soma in the early days of the accident, what is happening in Fukushima right now among evacuees, etc. She writes in a very intelligent and feminine way.

She also worries about her husband who tires very easily these days; the soles of his feet remain numb. She says he was outside within 3.5 kilometers from the plant when the accident happened (that's where he worked) and he has been made to go to the company's office inside 3.5 kilometers multiple times to retrieve some documents since the accident. He is now working in Koriyama City, where the air radiation level is three times that of Minami Soma, she says.

I think I will pick out several more of her posts later.

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Reality Inside #Fukushima I Nuke Plant (2): 10% of Workers Are Yakuza-Sourced

And all pretend to see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing.

This is the second part of the talk given by Tomohiko Suzuki, journalist who managed to work inside Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant as a temporary worker, at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on December 15, 2011. For the first part and a bit more about Mr. Suzuki, go to my previous post here.

From BLOGOS Part 1 and BLOGOS Part 2:

About "Fukushima 50":

Fukushima50と言って世界的に有名になった作業員、職員達がいます。水素爆発後も残って収束作業に当たった彼らの勇気は賞賛されるべきだが、とあるメーカーの研究者に現段階でも福島第一原発で働くことは「死んでくれ」と同じことと言われました。それくらい危機的状況は変わっていない。

There are workers and employees [of TEPCO] who became famous world-wide as "Fukushima 50". They are to be praised for having continued working at the plant after the hydrogen explosions trying to contain the accident. But I was told by a researcher at a certain manufacturing company that to work at Fukushima I Nuke Plant at this stage [summer of 2011?] is the same as "to be prepared to die". The crisis situation hasn't changed.

事故直後、東電は各社に死んでもいい人間を集めてくれと指示しました。その時、原発内に入るのに放射能管理手帳は必要なかった。健康診断などもなかった。実際、そういうパニック状態だったことは間違いないが。

Right after the accident, TEPCO ordered [the first-tier affiliate] companies to gather workers who wouldn't be missed if they died [or who were willing to die]. At that time, no "radioactivity control pocketbook" was needed to enter the plant. There was no health check. In fact, it was a panic situation.

TEPCO's effort to cover their behind:

ところが東電は、当時の名簿、健康診断結果を出せと、先月あたり下請けに言ってきた。もう辞めた人もいるし、あの状況下で誰が入ったかも正確にわからないし、3月4月に働くための健康診断を今出しても意味がない。

But TEPCO has been demanding the subcontractors since last month [November 2011] that they submit the name lists of workers [in March and April] together with the results of health checkups. Some workers have already quit, and there is no accurate data on who went to the plant in the [chaotic] situation. There is no point in submitting the result of the health checkups done in order to work in March and April 2011.

結果どうなるかというと、下請け企業は、「そんなことは出来ない」と東電に言えず、作業員に偽造の健康診断書、もしくはそれに近いものを「自主的に」出させる。それがマスコミにバレれば「私たちは指示はしていない」と言って、クビを切る。こういうことが原発のほぼ全てのエリアにおいて、日常的に行われている。

So what happens? The subcontractors cannot say to TEPCO that it is impossible to comply with the request. Instead, they will ask workers to "voluntarily" submit the fake health checkup result or close to it. When that's discovered by the media, the subcontractors will say "We didn't order them to fake it" and fire the workers. In almost all aspects of a nuclear power plant operation, that sort of things happens daily.

Yakuza Outsourcing:

そういう中に、暴力団、ヤクザが労働者として入り込んでいる。ヤクザは事故以前から、原発の共同体の中に入っている。東電に聞けば知らないと言うだろう。問題になれば下請けのせいにして、トカゲの尻尾切りで終わらせる。

In that environment, the yakuza comes in as nuke plant workers. Even before the accident, the yakuza is part of the nuclear plant community. If you ask TEPCO they will say they don't know anything about it. When it becomes a problem, TEPCO will blame subcontractors, and cut them off like a lizard's casting off of its tail to escape.

実際に確認した暴力団員はたった一人ですが、直接現場で働くというより、労働者を派遣するほうに入っていますので、労働者も暴力団の口利きで入ったと自覚していない人も沢山います。

I know only one confirmed yakuza at the [Fukushima] plant. But the yakuza is on the side of procuring workers rather than actually working at the plant. There are many workers who didn't know they got there with the yakuza acting as go-between.

これを証拠というのはあまりにも乱暴ですが、とある組織の所有車が、原発事故後、どんどんいい車になっていくので、あそこもそうだなという噂が立っております。派遣の1割くらいが暴力団関連企業です。登記簿を見れば役員に組員の名前があるのですぐ分かります。

This cannot be presented as evidence, but the cars owned by a certain [yakuza] organization have been upgraded to better and better cars, and it's been rumored that the organization [has been involved in procuring workers for Fukushima I Nuke Plant]. About 10 percent of the workers are from the companies with ties to the yakuza. If you look up the company register you would know right away, because it would list the names of the members [of a particular yakuza organization] as corporate officers.

Plausible deniability. If you don't know it, or don't officially acknowledge it, you are not responsible. It is in the Japanese DNA. It permeates the political, the corporate, and the social lives in Japan. It works wonderfully in peacetime, when everyone sort of looks the other way when some inconvenience happens and pretends he/she doesn't see. When a disaster stares them in their faces, many still cannot see it, thanks to the training it has gotten throughout the history.

Hopefully that is slowly changing, as the Internet and social media (particularly Twitter in Japan) have helped crack the heads of enough people who are starting to wake up.

But "hope" has been a dirty word for the past few years.

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Yomiuri: The Government Knew It Would Be 170-Km Radius Forced Evacuation if Fukushima Had Another Explosion

Old news that Yomiuri Shinbun snuck in on December 31, 2011 says it would have been a forced evacuation in the areas within the 170-kilometer radius from the plant if another hydrogen explosion had taken place at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

It was in the report submitted by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission under the Cabinet Office on March 25, 2011. And what did the PM and his ministers do? They sat on it, lest the information might cause panic.

The explosion didn't happen. Is it OK therefore? No. A tiny group of politicians and government experts gambled the lives of people living in the entire Tohoku and Kanto areas in exchange for appearing as if they were in control and the situation was under control. They weren't, and it wasn't'.

But at that time, there was a full-on media campaign to discredit any and everyone in any country who dare reported things were not going well in Japan on the Fukushima accident. The Japanese government particularly attacked the foreign press, alleging the foreigners were spreading "baseless rumors" on the accident.

(Ah, those bad old days, when the first trolls started to appear on my little blog telling me I was lying about the accident and radiation contamination.)

From Yomiuri Shinbun (12/31/2011):

内閣府原子力委員会が今年３月の東京電力福島第一原子力発電所事故の発生直後に、「福島第一原子力発電所の不測事態シナリオの素描」と題した報告書をまとめ、同事故発生から２週間後の３月２５日に当時の菅首相に提出していたことが分かった。

It has been revealed that the Japan Atomic Energy Commission under the Cabinet Office compiled a report titled "A rough sketch (outline) of an unforseen accident scenario at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant" right after the accident started in March 2011, and submitted the report on March 25, two weeks after the start of the accident, to the then-prime minister Kan.

　報告書によると、同原発で新たな水素爆発などが起こり最悪の事態に発展した場合には、〈１〉同原発から半径１７０キロ・メートル圏内で強制移住〈２〉同２５０キロ・メートル圏内で避難―――の必要があると指摘。１７０キロ・メートル圏内には南東北や新潟県の一部、北関東の一部が、２５０キロ・メートル圏内には東京都や埼玉県の大半、横浜市の一部がそれぞれ含まれる。

According to the report, if another explosion, such as hydrogen explosion, happened, the worst-case scenario would require: (1) forcibly moving the residents within the 170-kilometer radius areas; (2) evacuation within the 250-kilometer radius. The 170-kilometer radius would include southern Tohoku, part of Niigata Prefecture and part of northern Kanto. The 250-kilometer radius would include most of Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, and part of Yokohama City.

　政府は、同報告書を踏まえ、最も核燃料の溶融が懸念された４号機について耐震補強工事を施すなどし、こうした事態は回避された。政府関係者は、「最悪の事態が起きても避難する時間的余裕はあり、パニックを防ぐため報告書は公表しなかった」としている。

Based on the report, the government ordered the anti-seismic reinforcement work in Reactor 4, where a meltdown of the nuclear fuel was most feared, and the worst-case scenario was averted. The government source says, "Even if the worst-case scenario had come to pass, we would have ample time to evacuate people. So, in order to avoid panic among citizens we didn't make the report public."

Looking at the Atomic Energy Commission's website, the report hasn't been disclosed to the public. Probably never will be.

Just like in the full-on global banking and financial crisis that finally hit in 2008 fall, no one with good connection with TPTB has gone to jail over the accident, and probably never will.

The Hayakawa map (version 5) below gives you an idea of the areas that would have had to be evacuated. The faint, outer-most ring is 250 kilometer, and the area includes almost all of Tokyo and Saitama, 3/4 of Chiba, tiny part of Nagano, almost all of Niigata, all of Yamagata and Miyagi, half of Iwate and Akita.

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Iran Produced Its Furst Nuclear Fuel Rod

Iran "is getting desperate and will take some drastic step", according to Bloomberg News.

From Bloomberg News (1/2/2012):

Gold and silver gained after reports that Iran produced its first nuclear fuel rod, spurring investors to buy the precious metal as a haven.

Gold for immediate delivery advanced 0.2 percent to $1,566.27 an ounce as of 2:50 p.m. in New York. Silver was 0.1 percent higher at $27.8625 an ounce. Gold rose 10 percent last year, the 11th straight annual gain, and silver dropped 9.9 percent.

A domestically made rod was inserted into the core of Tehran’s atomic research reactor after performance tests, the Iranian Students News Agency reported today, citing the country’s atomic energy agency. The Tehran reactor produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment, according to Mehr news agency. Nuclear fuel rods contain pellets of enriched uranium that provide fuel for nuclear power plants.

“Iran’s nuclear plans have raised fears that it is getting desperate and will take some drastic step,” Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, a director at Commtrendz Risk Management Services Pvt., said by telephone from Mumbai. “More sanctions are expected from the U.S. and other nations. This will have a positive impact on gold prices as ideally people would try to buy gold.”

The U.S. and allies are increasing pressure on Iran to halt what they say may be a covert nuclear weapons program. Sanctions signed into law by President Barack Obama on Dec. 31 aim to deter dealings with the Iranian central bank, and the European Union is considering a ban on imports of oil from Iran, the world’s third-largest oil exporter. Iran denies seeking to develop atomic weapons.
Reserves Climb

Gold reserves increased in November in Belarus, Turkey, Tajikistan, Macedonia, Mauritius and Morocco, and declined in Mexico, according to data on the International Monetary Fund’s website. Turkey’s holdings increased to 5.758 million ounces from 4.429 million in October, and Mexico’s declined to 3.413 million ounces from 3.417 million, the data showed. Morocco’s holdings were 710,000 ounces in November compared with 708,800 in October, according to the data.

I wonder what has happened to the Stuxnet infection in Iran's nuke facilities.

By the way, Iran's first commercial nuclear power plant, Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant on the Persian Gulf, uses the VVER reactor, a Russian (Soviet)-designed pressurized water reactor. Dr. Jassem al-Awadi, a geologist at the University of Kuwait, says the plant sits at the junction of three tectonic plates.

One thing from history is very clear. People never learn from history, even the most recent one.

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#Fukushima Reactor 4 Skimmer Surge Tank Latest: Earthquake Caused the Water to Go from SFP to Reactor Well Instead, Says TEPCO

TEPCO admits the January 1, 2012 earthquake caused it, and no it wasn't a leak but the water from the Spent Fuel Pool went the other way to the Reactor Well, instead of going to the Skimmer Surge Tank.

(For the last announcement from TEPCO, see my post here.)

I started reading the Mainichi Shinbun article, but it was very short on details, and knowing TEPCO couldn't have held a press conference on January 2 I went to look for TEPCO's own words somewhere. It was in the handout for the press on January 2, 2012.

The handout is in Japanese only for now, so the following is my translation. It was clearly written over time as new information came in. (I will put up the English reference handout when TEPCO issues one.)

１月１日午後５時30 分頃、４号機使用済燃料プールのスキマサージタンク＊１の水位が午後２時から午後５時までの３時間で約240mm 低下していることを確認（これまでの運転実績では３時間で約50mm 程度の低下）。その後、現場確認を行った結果、４号機原子炉建屋外廻りおよび同号機使用済燃料プール代替冷却システムの一次系配管接続部や設置エリア等に、漏えいは確認されなかった。

At 5:30PM on January 1, it was observed that the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank of the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 dropped by 240 millimeters during the 3 hours from 2PM to 5PM (while the normal decline is 50 millimeters in 3 hours). Later we surveyed the facilities, but found no leak outside the reactor building, at the pipe joints of the SFP cooling system or at the location where the cooling system was installed.

なお、１月１日午後５時現在の４号機使用済燃料プール水の温度は23℃（１月２日午前５時現在22℃）であり、現在も使用済燃料プール代替冷却システムは運転しているため、同プールの冷却に問題はない。また、使用済燃料プールの水位も維持されており問題はないものの、スキマサージタンクの水位低下は継続しているため、１月１日午後10 時27 分から同日午後11 時13 分にかけてスキマサージタンクの水張りを実施。現在のスキマサージタンク水位低下は１時間あたり約90mm で継続中であり、スキマサージタンクの水位確認を３時間に１回から１時間に１回に強化する等の監視強化を継続。なお、現時点では建屋外への漏えいは確認されておらず、建屋内の滞留水の水位にも顕著な変化は確認されていない。

As of 5PM on January 1, the temperature of the water in the Reactor 4 SFP was 23 degrees Celsius (as of 5AM on January 2 it was 22 degrees Celsius). The SFP cooling system is in operation and there is no problem in cooling the pool. While the water level in the SFP remained the same, the water level in the Skimmer Surge Tank continued to drop. From 10:27PM to 11:13PM on January 1, we filled the water in the Skimmer Surge Tank. Currently the water level is declining at about 90 millimeters per hour. We are monitoring the water level every hour instead of every 3 hours. As of now there is no leak outside the building, and there is no noticeable change in the water level of the contaminated water inside the [reactor] building.

その後の調査により、スキマサージタンクの水位低下に相当する減少量と原子炉ウェル＊２の水位上昇に相当する増加量がほぼ同等であること、および原子炉ウェル水位が使用済燃料プール水位より低いことを確認。これらのことから、１月１日午後２時30 分頃に発生した地震の影響で原子炉ウェルと使用済燃料プール間のゲートの隙間の状態が変化し、使用済燃料プールから原子炉ウェル側への水の流入量が増加したことにより、使用済燃料プールからスキマサージタンクへのオーバーフロー量が低下し、スキマサージタンクの水位低下が通常よりも多くなったことが原因であると推定。

Later inspection revealed that the amount of water decreased in the Skimmer Surge Tank was about the same as the amount of water increased in the Reactor Well, and that the water level in the Reactor Well was lower than that in the SFP. Therefore, our hypothesis is that: the earthquake on January 1 at 2:30PM tweaked the space in the gate between the Reactor Well and the SFP; water flowed from the SFP to the Reactor Well, and the overflow water to the Skimmer Surge Tank decreased, causing the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank to decrease more than normal.

原子炉ウェルと使用済燃料プールの水位差を低減させるため、１月２日午前11 時50 分から午前11 時59 分にかけて原子炉ウェルへの水張りを実施したところ、午後４時現在、スキマサージタンクの水位低下は確認されていない。今後も引き続きスキマサージタンク水位の監視を実施予定。

In order to decrease the difference in the water levels between the Reactor Well and the Spent Fuel Pool, water was poured into the Reactor Well from 11:50AM to 11:59AM on January 2. As of 4PM, there is no decrease in the water level in the Skimmer Surge Tank observed. We will continue to monitor the water level in the Skimmer Surge Tank.

＊１ 使用済燃料プールからオーバーフローした水を受けるため設置されているタンク。使用済燃料プールの水は、通常、燃料集合体の冷却および水の不純物を取り除くため、スキマサージタンクへオーバーフローさせ、熱交換器およびフィルタを通した後、再び使用済燃料プールへ戻している。

Skimmer surge tank is a tank set up to collect the overflow from the Spent Fuel Pool. In order to cool the spent fuel bundles and to remove impurities from the water, the water in the Spent Fuel Pool is overflowed into the skimmer surge tank, and goes through the heat exchanger and the filter before it goes back into the Spent Fuel Pool.

＊２ 原子炉ウェルは、原子炉圧力容器および原子炉格納容器の蓋を収納している空間で、定期検査中はこの空間を満水状態にし、燃料交換などを行う。

The Reactor Well is a space to store the Reactor Pressure Vessel and the Containment Vessel Lid. During the regular maintenance [which Reactor 4 was undergoing at the time of the accident], this space is filled with water to conduct work such as exchanging the nuclear fuel.

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0.5 Microsievert/Hr Radiation on Tohoku Shinkansen (Bullet Train) Trip To Fukushima

Inside the train car, the radiation starts to go up once the train enters Fukushima Prefecture from Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture. The survey meter is at 0.1 microsievert/hour when the video starts, and goes up to about 0.5 microsievert/hour in about 5 minutes right before the train goes in the tunnel.

The person who posted this video on Youtube writes the highest was 0.9 microsievert/hour which is not shown in the video.

Remember JR East's "Must Go Now Or Never" campaign to bring young tourists to Fukushima? Did they say anything about radiation on board Shinkansen?

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#Radioactive Disaster Debris Talk in Osaka: Officials Didn't Know Anything About Radiation

A bullet-point summary at Kouta Kinoshita's blog on the meeting between the Osaka prefectural government official and three citizens about Osaka's guideline in preparation for accepting and burning the debris from Miyagi and Iwate.

The citizens are against it, fearing the secondary radiation contamination from burning and burying the debris in Osaka which has largely escaped the contamination from the nuke plant accident.

１２月２８日、大阪府　資源循環課　小西裕絵主査（検討会議の事務局）市民３名との会談での発言

Meeting on December 28 between Hiroe Konishi of the resource recycling division of the Osaka prefectural government (serving as the secretariat of the committee to discuss debris acceptance) and 3 citizens

（１）指針は安全基準ではない
（２）作業者や市民が被ばくする可能性を否定しない
（３）内部被ばくのことは検討会議でもほとんど検討されていない
（４）指針には法的拘束力はない　
（５）組織が決定したら、市民の側に立つのでなく、組織の決定に従う→10万人にひとりを無作為に抽出して殺すということを組織が決定したら、あなたはその決定に従うのかという質問に対しては、無言。
（６）２２日の市民との会談で、直属上司の磯田課長が「内部ひばくのことは知らなかった」「専門家の意見を聞く」と発言したことについては、とぼける。
（７）ECRR 2010年勧告、2005年のNAS BEIR-VIIの報告書、2009年 NYASの論文集のことは、まったく「知らなかった」（従って、低線量内部被ばくがどんな障害を引き起こすかについては、知識はほとんどななかった）。

(1) The guideline is not the safety standard.

(2) [Konishi] didn't deny the possibility that the workers and Osaka residents would be exposed to radiation.

(3) In the committee discussing the debris acceptance, there's hardly any discussion of internal radiation exposure.

(4) The guideline isn't legally binding.

(5) [Konishi said] Once it's decided by the organization [like the Osaka government] she would follow the decision by the organization, instead of siding with the citizens. To the question [from a citizen] whether she would follow the order if the organization decides to pick out one person for every 100,000 people at random and kill him/her, she was silent.

(6) When asked about her direct supervisor Isoda who had said during the meeting with the citizens on December 22 that he didn't know about internal radiation and that he would consult experts, [Konishi] pretended she didn't know about it.

(7) She didn't know anything at all about 2010 ECRR recommendation, 2005 NAS BEIR-VII report, or 2009 NYAS papers (in other words, hardly any knowledge as to the damage that may be caused by low-dose internal radiation).

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The Atlantic Wire: The Yakuza and the Nuclear Mafia

The article is written by Jake Adelstein, who has written about the yakuza (Japanese 'mafia') extensively in the past. I believe he was also the one who reported on one of the earliest and the most substantial disaster relief effort which was carried out by the yakuzas, who sent truckload after truckload of goods to the disaster-affected areas in Tohoku right after the earthquake/tsunami on March 11, 2011.

I have the second half of Tomohiko Suzuki's press conference report to post, but while you wait for that, here's Jake Adelstein's article.

From The Atlantic Wire (12/30/2011), emphasis is mine:

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the monolithic corporation that controls all electric power in Greater Tokyo, and runs the Fukushima Daichii nuclear plant that experienced a triple meltdown following the March 11 earthquake, is on the brink of nationalization according to Japanese government sources. The official reason is that the firm may not be able to handle the massive compensation payments it owes to victims of the meltdown without going bankrupt. Unofficially, the firm has such long-standing ties to anti-social forces, including the yakuza—that some members of the Diet, Japan’s national legislature, feel the firm is beyond salvation and needs to be taken over and cleaned up. A Japanese Senator with the Liberal Democratic Party stated on background, "TEPCO's involvement with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security issue. It is one reason that increasingly in the Diet we are talking de facto nationalization of the company. Nuclear energy shouldn't be in the hands of the yakuza. They're gamblers and an intelligent person doesn't want them to have atomic dice to play with."

In June we reported that yakuza were working at the Fukushima nuclear power plant as cleanup crews and manual labor, but the post-meltdown yakuza ties were only the tip of the iceberg. This month, a new book was published, Yakuza and The Nuclear Industry: Diary of An Undercover Reporter Working at the Fukushima Plant (ヤクザと原発-福島第一潜入記-鈴木-智彦) in which a former yakuza fan magazine editor Tomohiko Suzuki reports on the nuclear business-industrial-political and media complex in Japan known as the “nuclear mafia” and Japan’s actual mafia: the yakuza. The book is already generating controversy and renewed examination of Japan’s “dark empire” and its ties to the underworld. It presents more solid pieces of evidence that Japan’s nuclear industry is a black hole of criminal malfeasance, incompetence, and corruption.

It is not that the industry ties to anti-social forces were previously unknown. Engineers who worked for the firm noted the practice dated of employing yakuza members at nuclear plants dates back to the 1990s. Police sources also recognize that yakuza having been supplying labor to the area for decades. In the Japanese underworld, the nuclear industry is the last refuge for those who have nowhere to go. One yakuza explains it as folk wisdom, “Otoko wa Genpatsu, Onna was Seifuzoku･男は原発、女は性風俗”--, in other words, “When a man is has to survive doing something, it’s the nuclear industry; for a woman, it’s the sex industry.”

The Fukushima plant is located in the turf of the Sumiyoshi-kai, which is the second largest yakuza group in Japan with roughly 12,000 members; it has a well-known office in Tokyo’s Ginza District and operates under the banner Hama Enterprise. One mid-level executive in the organization even defends the role of his members in the Fukushima disaster. “The accident isn’t our fault,” he said. “It’s TEPCO’s fault. We’ve always been a necessary evil in the work process. In fact, if some of our men hadn’t stayed to fight the meltdown, the situation would have been much worse. TEPCO employees and the Nuclear Industry Safety Agency inspectors mostly fled; we stood our ground.”

However, while the symbiotic relationship between TEPCO and the yakuza has existed for decades, the relationship is officially “unacceptable.” The controversy became so great after the accident that TEPCO pledged on July 19 to try to keep yakuza members from participating in the reconstruction of the power plant and related projects. They have been working with the Japanese National Police Agency (JNPA) to accomplish this but sources inside that agency are dubious as to whether there have been any real results. TEPCO officials met with the National Police Agency and 23 subcontractors in July and created a conference group on organized crimes issues according to government sources and they have met several times since. TEPCO explained at the time, “we want to people to widely know our exclusionary stance towards organized crime.”

According to TEPCO and police sources, since the reconstruction project has picked up speed, the number of workers has dramatically increased to several thousand. The JNPA has directed TEPCO from as early as June, to keep the yakuza out—although many of the subcontractors of the subcontractors are known yakuza front companies. Over 140 workers have been found to have used fake names when getting jobs doing reconstruction work and are presently unaccounted for. In reporting for Yakuza and the Nuclear Industry Tomohiko Suzuki was able to get into the reactor as a cleanup worker under false pretenses partly by using organized crime connections. According to Suzuki, three of the fabled “Fukushima Fifty” who stayed behind during the most dangerous days of high-level radiation leaks were local yakuza bosses and soldiers. He does not specify which groups they belonged to.

......

When asked what were the major differences between the yakuza and TEPCO the same Senator paused for a minute. “The primary difference between TEPCO and the yakuza is they have different corporate logos.” He explained, “They both are essentially criminal organizations that place profits above the safety and welfare of the residents where they operate; they both exploit their workers. On the other hand, the yakuza may care more about what happens where they operate because many of them live there. For Tokyo Electric Power Company, Fukushima is just the equivalent of a parking lot.”

(The full article at the link.)

"[T]he yakuza may care more about what happens" - well, I'm not so sure. Maybe in an idealized version often depicted in the films and books, and in the minds of the yakuza themselves as their self-portrait. But what do I know. The writer probably know more about the Japanese underground than me.

I do think the Senator he quotes in the article is too harsh on TEPCO. Many in Japan know that the Police is in a close symbiotic relationship with them, and many thinks the politicians are worse than the yakuza when it comes to treating people. They are also well-known for ties with the yakuza themselves. For a LDP politician to criticize TEPCO's yakuza ties is preposterous, and to say nuclear power is safer in the hands of politicians like himself than in the hands of TEPCO and the yakuza is a sheer nonsense. Instead of TEPCO, the national government would indirectly hire the yakuza and that somehow would be OK by him.

I think Tomohiko Suzuki mentioned the faction of the yakuza that dominates supplying the workers, but it was not Sumiyoshi-kai. (I'll have to finish the post.)

Regarding the yakuza's involvement in procuring (often "kidnapping" would be a better word) workers for the Fukushima I Nuke Plant "recovery", NHK made an excellent documentary back in October (I think) that was aired at midnight. For every worker he sent to Fukushima, a pudgy yakuza guy with a fat gold chain was getting 1 million yen from a subcontractor 6th or 7th degrees removed from the original subcontractor to TEPCO. He said "life is good".

As Adelstein points out as does Suzuki, it's always been like this in the nuclear power industry in Japan. I wonder how it is in the other countries. How are the nuclear power plants maintained? By whom? Who recruits them?

(H/T John Noah)

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#Fukushima Reactor 4 Skimmer Surge Tank Water Level Update

（UPDATE: Again, it is NOT about the water level of the Spent Fuel Pool. There are blogs and tweets that either deliberately or by ignorance blur the distinction between the SFP and the skimmer surge tank and create an impression that the SFP is leaking. As of now, that is simply not true, with what little information available.)

(UPDATE 2: By the way, TEPCO doesn't have a press conference until January 4. So much for "emergency" email notification.)

(Update 3: TEPCO says the earthquake sent the water from SFP to Reactor Well instead to the Skimmer Surge Tank. See my latest post.)

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

TEPCO's emergency email notification, as posted on Twitter by one of the freelance journalists:

東京電力からのご連絡
Notice from TEPCO
────────────────────────────────────
報道関係各位
To the Press

・本メールは、事前に「深夜・早朝における連絡先」の登録のお申し込みをいただいた方にお知らせしています。
This mail is sent to those who have registered for "Notification in late night and early morning".

・本日（１月１日）午後５時30分頃、免震重要棟でプラントデータの確認を行っていた当社社員が４号機使用済燃料プールのスキマサージタンク（※）の水位が比較的早い速度で低下していることを確認しました。

Today (January 1) 5:30PM, our employee monitoring the plant data found the water level of the skimmer surge tank was falling at a relatively rapid pace.

・スキマサージタンクの水位については、自然蒸発などにより低下しますが、これまでの運転実績において、３時間で50ｍｍ程度（１時間あたり約17ｍｍ）の低下であったものが、本日午後２時～午後５時までの３時間で約240ｍｍ程度（１時間あたり約80ｍｍ程度）の低下が確認されました。

The water level of the skimmer surge tank goes down due to natural evaporation. In the past normal operation, the rate was 50 millimeters in 3 hours (or 17 millimeters per 1 hour). However, in 3 hours from 2 to 5PM today it dropped about 240 millimeters (or 80 millimeters per hour).

・現在、漏えいを想定した現場確認を行っているところでありますが、４号機の使用済燃料プール循環冷却システムが設置されている廃棄物処理建屋１階ならびに原子炉建屋外廻りにおいて漏えいは確認されておりません。原子炉建屋内の配管の接続部の健全性確認など、現場調査を引き続き行い、原因調査を行ってまいります。

We are conducting the survey of the area with the expectation that there is a leak somewhere. So far, there is no leak on the 1st floor of the Waste Product Process Building where the cooling system for the Reactor 4 SFP is installed, and no leak outside the reactor building. We will investigate the pipe joints inside the reactor building for any leaks, and identify the cause.

・本日午後５時現在の使用済燃料プール水の温度は23℃であり、現在も同プールの冷却を継続しており、使用済燃料プール自体の水位に変動はありません。今後、準備が整い次第、スキマサージタンクの水張りを実施し、水位を監視してまいります。

As of 5PM today, the temperature of the SFP is 23 degrees Celsius. Cooling of the SFP continues, and there is no change in the water level of the SFP. As soon as ready, we will fill the skimmer surge tank with water and monitor the water level.

・本メールには返信できませんのでご了承ください。
Do not reply to this mail.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　以　上


（※）使用済燃料プールからオーバーフローした水を受けるため設置されているタンク。使用済燃料プールの水は、通常、燃料集合体の冷却および水の不純物を取り除くため、スキマサージタンクへオーバーフローさせ、熱交換器およびフィルタを通した後、再び使用済燃料プールへ戻している。

Skimmer surge tank is a tank set up to collect the overflow from the Spent Fuel Pool. In order to cool the spent fuel bundles and to remove impurities from the water, the water in the Spent Fuel Pool is overflowed into the skimmer surge tank, and goes through the heat exchanger and the filter before it goes back into the Spent Fuel Pool.

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(UPDATED) #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 4's Skimmer Surge Tank Water Level Going Down At 5 Times the Normal Pace

UPDATE: translation of TEPCO's email to the members of the press who have signed up to receive notification of emergencies is posted in this post. It's not for so-called "mass media", it is for any journalist who has signed up for the notification from TEPCO." In fact, I got the link from an independent news media.

Again, it is NOT the water level of the SFP but of the skimmer surge tank, as some people are clearly confused that SFP's water level is dropping.

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

From ANA (Asahi TV) News (1/1/2012):

【原発】福島第一4号機プール隣接施設で水漏れか

Water leaking in the facility adjacent to the Spent Fuel Pool in Reactor 4 in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant?

福島第一原発4号機の使用済み燃料プールに隣接するタンクで、水位が通常の5倍近い速さで低下しているのが確認されました。東京電力は、原因の特定を急いでいます。

It has been confirmed that the water level is getting lower in the tank adjacent to the 4 Spent Fuel Pool in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant at a pace 5 times faster than normal. TEPCO is trying to identify the cause as soon as possible.

　 1日午後5時30分ごろ、4号機の使用済み燃料プールに隣接する「スキマサージタンク」の水位が比較的速く低下しているのが見つかりました。普段でも蒸発などで低下しますが、その5倍の速さでした。これまでに、プールの循環冷却システムや原子炉建屋の周辺で水漏れは見つかっていません。プール自体の冷却は続いていて、温度や水位に変化はないということです。東京電力では、配管の接合部などの調査を行い、タンクの水位低下の原因の特定を急いでいます。

At 5:30PM on January 1, the water level of the "skimmer surge tank" next to the Spent Fuel Pool in Reactor 4 was found to be going down at a relatively rapid pace. The water level goes down due to evaporation, but the speed was 5 times faster than the rate of evaporation. No leak has been discovered in the SFP's cooling system or around the reactor building. The cooling of the SFP continues, and there is no change in the temperature and the water level [in the SFP]. TEPCO is conducting the inspection of the pipe joints, trying to identify the cause of the dropping water level in the skimmer surge tank.

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Plutonium From Fukushima Detected in Lithuania

Not to show that the amounts were significant (they weren't) but to note that plutonium out of the Fukushima reactors did indeed travel far and wide, contrary to many nuclear experts (particularly the kind that live in Japan) have said.

What's more, the authors of the paper seem to think that plutonium came from the spent fuel.

Interesting. Does anyone have access to the full paper?

From PubMed.gov (US National Library of Medicine), emphasis is mine:

J Environ Radioact. 2011 Dec 27. [Epub ahead of print]
Radionuclides from the Fukushima accident in the air over Lithuania: measurement and modelling approaches.
Lujanienė G, Byčenkienė S, Povinec PP, Gera M.
Source

Environmental Research Department, SRI Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanoriu 231, 02300 Vilnius, Lithuania.

Abstract

Analyses of (131)I, (137)Cs and (134)Cs in airborne aerosols were carried out in daily samples in Vilnius, Lithuania after the Fukushima accident during the period of March-April, 2011. The activity concentrations of (131)I and (137)Cs ranged from 12 μBq/m(3) and 1.4 μBq/m(3) to 3700 μBq/m(3) and 1040 μBq/m(3), respectively. The activity concentration of (239,240)Pu in one aerosol sample collected from 23 March to 15 April, 2011 was found to be 44.5 nBq/m(3). The two maxima found in radionuclide concentrations were related to complicated long-range air mass transport from Japan across the Pacific, the North America and the Atlantic Ocean to Central Europe as indicated by modelling. HYSPLIT backward trajectories and meteorological data were applied for interpretation of activity variations of measured radionuclides observed at the site of investigation. (7)Be and (212)Pb activity concentrations and their ratios were used as tracers of vertical transport of air masses. Fukushima data were compared with the data obtained during the Chernobyl accident and in the post Chernobyl period. The activity concentrations of (131)I and (137)Cs were found to be by 4 orders of magnitude lower as compared to the Chernobyl accident. The activity ratio of (134)Cs/(137)Cs was around 1 with small variations only. The activity ratio of (238)Pu/(239,240)Pu in the aerosol sample was 1.2, indicating a presence of the spent fuel of different origin than that of the Chernobyl accident.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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