"Radioactive" Crushed Stones Used over 400 Job Sites in at Least 4 Cities in Fukushima

I put the word radioactive in parenthesis in the title because I'm not fully convinced that the crushed stones from the stone pit in the planned evacuation zone in Namie-machi are the only cause of the elevated radiation in the apartment in Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima.

Nevertheless, the latest news on the "radioactive" crushed stones is:

• The stones were sold and widely used in construction of apartments, houses, and roads in at least 4 municipalities including Fukushima City in Fukushima Prefecture;

• The Nihonmatsu city government knew about the high radiation exposure of the residents in the apartment back in December but didn't tell the residents.

• The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry knew about it on December 28, 2011 when the city emailed the Ministry asking for guidance, but didn't do anything until January 10, 2012 because it was New Year's Day holiday and then a long weekend on January 7, 8 and 9.

• The residents in the apartment weren't informed at all, until the news finally broke in the media.

Oh and one typically Japanese bit of information: the concrete company in Nihonmatsu City who delivered the concrete with these crushed stones in it for the apartment foundation has since closed business, and they already destroyed all the documents detailing how much concrete was sold to which job site. Probably only to emerge as a new company under a new name, as often happens in Japan.

Many residents of the apartment are evacuees from Minami Soma City and Namie-machi, having escaped the radiation from the Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident, only to receive added extra by settling in Nihonmatsu City in this apartment.

First from Sankei Shinbun archived at a message board, as Sankei's news links may not last long (1/17/2012):

福島県二本松市内のマンション１階の室内から、屋外より高い放射線量が測定された問題で、同じ材料のコンクリートが一般住宅などでも使われていることが１６日、生コンクリート業者の話で分かった。この材料を使った用水路からも、比較的高い放射線量が測定された。また、経済産業省が最初の報告を昨年末に受けていたことも明らかになった。

Concerning the detection of radiation inside an apartment in Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture that was higher than outside, the same concrete mix was also used in the construction of single-family houses, according to the concrete company. Relatively high level of radiation has also been detected at an irrigation channel. It has also been revealed that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had received the first report at the end of last year.

　砕石会社「双葉砕石工業」によると、昨年３月の原発事故後から同４月２２日にかけて、石約５２８０トンを県内の１９社に出荷した。問題のマンション基礎部分のコンクリートと同じコンクリートを使った二本松市内の農業用水路で、毎時１・６２～１・９７マイクロシーベルトが測定された。

According to the stone pit operator Futaba Saiseki Kogyo, the company shipped about 5,280 tonnes of stones from March 11 to April 22 last year to 19 companies in Fukushima Prefecture. The radiation levels of 1.62 to 1.97 microsievert/hour have been detected at the concrete foundation of the apartment and at an irrigation channel in Nihonmatsu City.

　生コン業者によると、福島県二本松市周辺の戸建て住宅で、土台に同じ石を使った生コンを使用。別の生コン業者もマンション以外に県内の一般住宅で使用したという。市内の小学校に隣接する道路でもこの砕石が使われていた。

According to the concrete company, the same concrete mix was used for foundations of single family houses around Nihonmatsu City. The other concrete company also delivered the concrete mix to build single family houses in Fukushima Prefecture. The crushed stones were also used [as substrate] for the road next to an elementary school in Nihonmatsu City.

　また、経産省によると、このマンションをめぐっては昨年１２月２８日、二本松市から、市の調査でマンション１階の住民の被曝（ひばく）線量が高いとメールで相談があった。しかし２階部分は放射線量が高くなく、同省はコンクリートが原因であると結論は出さなかった。

According to the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry received an email from Nihonmatsu City regarding the high radiation exposure level of a resident who lived on the first floor of the apartment [a girl wearing the glass badge]. Since the radiation levels were not high on the 2nd floor, the Ministry didn't think it was the concrete that was the problem.

[Wait a minute... If the 1st floor had high radiation and the 2nd floor didn't, wouldn't it be logical to conclude the radiation could be coming from the floor and below?]

　年明け５日ごろに、同市などの調査で砕石が原因の可能性が高まり、６日ごろに再び同市から経産省に報告があった。このため同省は、連休明けの１０日から詳しい調査に乗り出したという。

Around January 5, 2012, the city's investigation identified the crushed stones as a possible culprit, and the city contacted the Ministry again on January 6. The Ministry started its investigation on January 10, after the long weekend.

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　高い放射線量が検出された新築マンションでは、１階住民を中心に移転先を探す動きが出始めた。住民の中には、一部が警戒区域などにかかる浪江町や南相馬市から避難している家族もいる。「もうこりごりだ」「寝耳に水」。動揺と憤りが交錯した。

In the newly built apartment where the high levels of radiation have been detected, the residents on the 1st floor have started to look for a new place to live. Some of the residents in the apartment are families from Namie-machi and Minami Soma City; part of Namie and Minami Soma is inside the no-entry zone. "We've just had enough." "Complete surprise." They are confused and angry.

　管理会社によると、マンションには、全１２世帯が居住。２階に住む、主婦の山崎ひろ子さん（６３）は中学３年と小学５年の孫娘２人らと浪江町から避難してきた。孫には、外出時にマスクをさせてきた。

According to the rental management company, there are 12 families living in the apartment. Hiroko Yamazaki, 63-year-old housewife, evacuated from Namie-machi with two granddaughters, 9th grader and 5th grader. She has made them wear masks when they go outside.

　山崎さんは「（線量が）高いと分かった時点ですぐに教えてほしかった。（孫娘らの）健康に影響がないか不安だ」と動揺を隠せない。

Yamazaki cannot hide her agitation, and says, "I wish they told us when they found out the radiation level was high. I'm worried for the health of my granddaughters."

　また、同じ浪江町から家族で避難してきた住民の男性会社員（３３）も「せっかく避難してきたのに、また放射能に苦しむなんてこりごりだ」とやりきれない表情を見せた。

A 33-year-old office worker who has evacuated also from Namie-machi with his family says, "For all that trouble to evacuate, we still have to suffer radiation. We've had enough."

　管理会社によると、高い線量が計測された土台に近い１階に住む幼い子供を持つ家族が移転を決意。同社と二本松市で連携しながら移転先を見つけ、近日中に引っ越すという。

The management company says one family on the 1st floor with small children has decided to move out. The company will cooperate with Nihonmatsu City to find the substitute housing, and the family hopes to move in a few days.

　また、他家族にも希望者がいるが、移転先確保は難航しそうだ。二本松は原発事故で大量の避難者が流入してきた地域で、賃貸住宅の空きがない状態が続いているという。

There are others who want to move out, but it may be hard to find the substitute housing. Nihonmatsu City has a large number of evacuees fleeing the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, and there is hardly any vacancy in rental housing.

Fukushima Minpo (1/17/2012) reports that the stone pit operator Futaba Saiseki Kogyo sold to 2 concrete companies, one in Nihonmatsu who's gone out of business, and one in Motomiya City. They sold concrete mix to 300 companies at over 400 job sites. The stone pit operator also sold to 17 construction companies. The concrete was sold at least in Nimonmatsu City, Motomiya City, Fukushima City, and Ootama-mura.

And counting.

Hiroki Otani, associate professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University who became famous (or infamous, depending on how you view radiation exposure) last year for declaring "it's safe" on TV for just about every single discovery of radiation contamination, says "1 microsievert/hour radiation will not immediately affect health, so no need to worry. But they'd better not live on a yearly basis", meaning there may be health effect if they continue to live there for more than one year. That's good to know that he now qualifies his remark after 11 months.

Well, unfortunately, these people moved from Minami Soma or Namie with the plume from the broken nuclear power plant, first in a northwest direction via Iitate-mura (of all places) and then south. And they stayed in Nihonmatsu City where the IAEA back in March 2011 was measuring 4.2 microsieverts/hour radiation (link in Japanese).

It's just too bad that Professor Hayakawa's map didn't reach any of these people when it may have mattered.

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US Ambassador to Japan John Roos Visited Fukushima I Nuke Plant with NRC, DOE Experts

The visit was part of the ambassador's visit to Fukushima Prefecture on January 16. It was his first visit to Fukushima Prefecture ever.

The visit to the nuclear power plant was not open to the press, and details are unknown.

From Kyodo News (1/16/2012):

ルース米大使、福島を初視察　「住民の危機去ってない」

Us Ambassador to Japan Roos visited Fukushima for the first time, says "Danger to the residents are not over"

ルース駐日米大使は１６日、福島県を初めて訪れ、事故発生から１０カ月たった東京電力福島第１原発（双葉町、大熊町）を視察した。いわき市の仮設住宅では１時間以上、大熊町の避難住民６人から暮らしぶりなどを聞き「ここで暮らす人たちに危機はまだ去っていない。米国政府は日本政府と連携し、可能な限りの支援をする」と報道陣に述べた。

US Ambassador to Japan John Roos visited Fukushima Prefecture for the first time on January 16 and visited Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant (located in Futaba-machi and Okuma-machi) ten months after the start of the accident. At temporary housing in Iwaki City, he spent more than one hour talking to 6 residents from Okuma-machi. He later told the press, "The danger to the people who live here is not over. The US government, in collaboration with the Japanese government, will do all it can to support them."

　福島第１原発の視察は非公開。米国のエネルギー省（ＤＯＥ）や原子力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ）の専門家らとともに、復旧の進み具合を見て回ったという。

The ambassador's visit to Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was closed to the public. The ambassador is said to have surveyed the progress for restoration work with experts from the US Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

　視察後、津波で４０９世帯が浸水したいわき市の久之浜地区を訪れ、堤防に上がって花を手向け黙とう。

After the visit to the plant, he visited Hisanohama District of Iwaki City where 409 homes were flooded by the tsunami. He dedicated flowers and stood in silence for a few moments on the coastal embankment.

Well, spending more than 1 hours with the evacuees is much more than what the Japanese politicians have done.

The news of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant has almost totally dried up ever since PM Noda's silly declaration of "cold shutdown state". What I suspect though is that the silly declaration was a signal to the Japanese media to stop reporting on the plant regularly (which they did) and the real work at the plant could start, away from the media's eyes. (Not that they were seeing much to begin with.)

In that regard, the fact that the experts from the US DOE and the NRC accompanying the ambassador is very interesting. After all, they may know more about the plant than the Japanese, having received SPEEDI information since March 14, 2011 (Japanese people were told at that time SPEEDI was not working) and other technical information from the Japanese government and TEPCO which haven't been disclosed to the Japanese public.

TEPCO is supposed to start the effort to probe inside the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 with an endoscope on January 17, first by drilling into the CV. They will insert the endoscope on January 19.

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Hilarity of the Day: Japan's PM Noda "Japan Must Heed Lessons of Europe"

According to Bloomberg News, that's what Noda said on January 14 after reshuffling his increasingly unpopular cabinet.

Mr. Noda, it is Europe and the rest of the world trying their best to avoid being like Japan, after having heeded the lessons of Japan, the one and only country in the whole world whose deficit to GDP ratio well exceeds 200%.

Noda's lessons learned from Europe? Raise taxes.

From Bloomberg (1/15/2012):

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said containing Japan’s public debt load, the world’s largest, is critical after Standard & Poor’s downgraded credit ratings on France, Austria and seven other European nations.

Europe’s fiscal situation “isn’t a house burning on the other side of the river,” Noda said on TV Tokyo Holdings Corp.’s program on Jan. 14. “We must have a great sense of crisis.”

Noda reshuffled his cabinet last week, aiming to win support for doubling Japan’s 5 percent national sales tax by 2015 to trim the soaring debt. S&P said in November Noda’s administration hadn’t made progress in tackling the public debt burden, an indication the credit-rating company may be preparing to lower the nation’s sovereign grade.

Japan’s government, which has enjoyed borrowing costs that are around 1 percent, wouldn’t be able to manage its finances if bond yields surged to 3 percent, Noda said last week. The country risks seeing a spike in government bond yields unless it controls a debt load set to approach 230 percent of gross domestic product in 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Nov. 28.

(The article continues.)

If the bond yields increase 200 basis points to 3%, Japan's debt servicing would consume all of the government tax revenue, according to Kyle Bass.

Bloomberg's article has IMF suggestion to Noda, which he may be very happy to oblige - raising sales tax to 15%. That should totally finish off the struggling Japanese, because it won't be accompanied by the reduction in income tax:

The International Monetary Fund has said a gradual increase of Japan’s sales tax to 15 percent “could provide roughly half of the fiscal adjustment needed to put the public-debt ratio on a downward path.”

PM Noda and his gang are very eager to do the bidding of the international community at the expense of the citizens of Japan. That much has been known to many in Japan since he took office last September.

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Temperature Remains High at Reactor 2 Pressure Vessel at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

It went as high as 142 degrees Celsius on January 14 before it came down to 138 degrees Celsius on January 15 at "CRD Housing Upper Part" of the Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

Looking at the numbers, erratic movement started on January 12 when the temperature at the location jumped from 48.4 degrees Celsius at 5PM to 102.3 degrees Celsius at 11PM. TEPCO says it's just malfunctioning, but the temperature had been stable up to that point.

From TEPCO's latest (1/16/2012) plant parameters, "temperature of Reactor 2":

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#Radioactive Apartment Update: Was Radiation from Crushed Stone Used in Foundation?

(Update: The stone pit operator, Futaba Saiseki Kogyo, sold the crushed stones to the concrete company in Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima which has since closed down. There is no record kept at the concrete company of where the concrete was sold and how much. The stone pit operator sold about 1000 tonnes to the concrete company, and the remaining 4000 tonnes or so to 20 construction companies inside Fukushima Prefecture.

The stone pit operator executive says he didn't know much about radiation, and that he would have stopped selling if the government had told him to. Information in Japanese, here and here.)

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For now, the media has decided to focus on the aggregate in the concrete used in the foundation of the apartment in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima. The crushed stones from a stone pit in Namie-machi in the planned evacuation zone just outside the no-entry zone were freely shipped and sold until April 22, and several hundred job sites in Fukushima Prefecture may have used the stones.

Asahi reports slightly different numbers for radiation than reported in Fukushima TV news.

Nihonmatsu City may have known about the high radiation at the apartment since December last year, when the city had the result of the cumulative radiation exposure for children wearing glass badges.

Well, the city couldn't cast any shadow over the prime minister's declaration of "cold shutdown state" of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, could it?

From Asahi Shinbun (1/16/2012):

福島県二本松市の新築マンションの工事に、東京電力福島第一原発事故で出た放射性物質に汚染されたコンクリートが使われていたことがわかった。マンション１階の床からは屋外より高い放射線量が測定された。同市と国が１５日発表した。

The concrete contaminated with radioactive materials from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident was used in the construction of an apartment in Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture. The radiation from the floor of the 1st floor of the apartment was higher than that of outside. The city and the national government announced on January 15, 2012.

　コンクリの材料に、計画的避難区域内の砕石場の石が使われたのが原因とみられる。同じ材料が数百カ所の工事に使われたとみられ、国は石やコンクリの流通経路を調査している。

The high radiation is thought to be coming from the stones used in the concrete mix; the stones came from a stone pit inside the planned evacuation zone. The same stones have been used in several hundred job sites, and the national government is investigating the distribution routes of the stones and the concrete.

　発表によると、汚染されたコンクリが使われたのは、昨年７月に完成した二本松市若宮地区の鉄筋コンクリート３階建て賃貸マンションの土台部分。１階の室内の高さ１メートルの線量が毎時１．１６～１．２４マイクロシーベルトで、屋外の同０．７～１．０マイクロシーベルトより高かった。２、３階の室内は同０．１０～０．３８マイクロシーベルトという。

According to the announcement, the contaminated concrete was used in the foundation of the 3-story apartment made of ferro-concrete in Wakamiya District of Nihonmatsu City. The apartment was finished construction in July last year. At 1 meter off the floor in a room on the 1st floor, the radiation level is 1.16 to 1.24 microsievert/hour. The radiation level outside is 0.7 to 1.0 microsievert/hour. On the 2nd and 3rd floors, the radiation level inside rooms is 0.1 to 0.38 microsievert/hour.

　コンクリの材料になった石は、計画的避難区域に入っている浪江町南津島の砕石場から搬出。コンクリ会社を通じ昨年４月１１日、マンションの基礎工事に５７．５立方メートルのコンクリが使われた。

The crushed stones used in the concrete were transported from a stone pit in Minami Tsushima in Namie-machi, inside the planned evacuation zone. 57.5 cubic meters of concrete was used in the foundation of the apartment building on April 11 last year.

　砕石場では原発事故前に採取した石を砕き、事故後も屋外に置いて避難区域に指定される同月２２日まで出荷を続けたという。経済産業省などによると、この砕石会社は県内の１９社に計５２００トンを出荷。このうち、マンションにコンクリを納入した二本松市の会社からは県内の百数十社に販売され、数百カ所の工事に使われたとみられるという。

At the stone pit, they crushed the stones that had been picked before the nuclear accident, and the crushed stones were kept outdoors and continued to be sold until the area was designated as evacuation zone on April 22. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the stone pit operator sold 5200 tonnes of stones to 19 companies in Fukushima Prefecture. The concrete company in Nihonmatsu City who delivered concrete to the apartment site has sold concrete to over 100 companies in Fukushima Prefecture, and the concrete was used at several hundred job sites.

　二本松市は昨年９～１１月、子どもなどの積算線量を計測。マンションに住む女子中学生の３カ月間の線量が１．６２ミリシーベルトと比較的高かったため、市が調べた。マンションには１２世帯が入居している。

Nihonmatsu City measured the cumulative external radiation exposure of children from September through November last year. A female junior high school student who lives in the apartment was found with 1.62 millisievert cumulative radiation for the 3 months, and the city conducted the investigation. There are 12 families living in the apartment.

　マンション１階の室内に２４時間滞在する仮定で計算すると、年間の線量は１０ミリシーベルト前後になる。

If you stay inside a room on the 1st floor of the apartment for 24 hours, the cumulative radiation in one year would be about 10 millisieverts.

NHK runs a similar story, quoting the Ministry of Economy saying it must be the crushed stones from that particular stone pit in Namie-machi. That's the official story.

It's a bit hard to believe hard crushed stones has that much radiation on the surface considering the surface-to-volume ratio. On the other hand, small particles like ashes may. But the official story is set, and the net citizens on blogs and Twitter are left wondering "What about cement? What about additives in concrete? What about steel mesh or rebar?"

It is also convenient to blame everything on one stone pit operator than to have to check every bag of cement from the cement companies.

Another thing that strikes me as odd is the amount of crushed stones sold from this stone pit operator in such a short period of time between the March 11 accident and April 22. I suspect the situation may be similar to the cattle farmers in the planned evacuation zone who managed to sell their cows which were later found with high levels of radioactive cesium, before any rigorous testing started.

Hmmm. This is starting to feel like the radioactive beef and radioactive rice debacles from last year where first denying the problem and then insisting the problem was an exception, and doing perfunctory sample testing totally backfired on the government. We'll see if this story goes quiet very quickly.

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Canadian Government Hid Data of Radioactive Iodine in Rainwater in March 2011

From Montreal Gazette (1/14/2012):

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Canadian health officials assured a nervous public that virtually no radioactive fallout had drifted to Canada.

But last March, a Health Canada monitoring station in Calgary detected an average of 8.18 becquerels per litre of radioactive iodine (an isotope released by the nuclear accident) in rainwater, the data shows.

The level easily exceeded the Canadian guideline of six becquerels of iodine per litre for drinking water, acknowledged Eric Pellerin, chief of Health Canada's radiation-surveillance division.

"It's above the recommended level (for drinking water)," he said in an interview. "At any time you sample it, it should not exceed the guideline."

Canadian authorities didn't disclose the high radiation reading at the time.

In contrast, the state of Virginia issued a don't-drink-rainwater advisory in late March after iodine levels in rain in a nearby city spiked to 3.4 becquerels per litre on a single day. That was less than half of the level seen in Calgary during the entire month of March.

Radioactive iodine also appeared in smaller amounts in March in Vancouver (which saw an average of 0.69 becquerels per litre in rainwater, up from zero before Fukushima), Winnipeg (which got 0.64 becquerels per litre) and Ottawa (which had 1.67 becquerels per litre), the data shows.

These other levels didn't exceed the Canadian limit for drinking water. But the level in Ottawa did surpass the more stringent ceiling for drinking water used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The data still isn't posted on Health Canada's web page devoted to the impacts of Fukushima.

Pellerin said he doesn't know why Health Canada didn't make the data public. "I can't answer that. The communication aspect could be improved."

The rainwater data also raises questions about how Ottawa monitors radiation after a nuclear crisis:

Some of Health Canada's numbers are much lower than those reported by other radiation researchers. Simon Fraser University nuclear chemist Krzysztof Starosta found iodine levels in rainwater in Burnaby, B.C., spiked to 13 becquerels per litre in March - many times higher than the levels Health Canada detected in nearby Vancouver.

Rain was tested only at the end of each month, after a network of monitoring stations sent samples to Ottawa. This meant the radiation spikes last March were only discovered in early April, after rainwater samples were sent to Ottawa for testing - too late to alert the public, including those who collect rain for drinking and gardening.

In contrast, the EPA tested the rain for radiation every day and immediately reported the data on its website.

The paper's praise of the US EPA is ill-placed. The EPA's RADNET, at least in California, depends on volunteers collecting air filters twice a week and mail them to Montgomery, Alabama to have them tested because it fits their lifestyle. Some of monitors in southern California were broken at the time of the Fukushima accident.

From my post on March 27, 2011 quoting the AP article:

"It sounds sort of loosey goosey, but we already operate our network on a very rigid schedule so we just sort of fit it into our lifestyle," said Eric Stevenson, a director of technical services who oversees operation of the monitor from his office at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District near San Francisco's domed city hall. "We've been operating this thing for years and no one has really said boo about it. Something like this comes along and all of us realize `Hey, gee, that's a relatively smart program.'"

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#Radioactive Apartment in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima, Measuring 1.2 Microsievert/Hr Inside

It looks the glass badge worn by a student who lives in the apartment helped identify the "hot" concrete.

A kind of perverse way to find out about radiation contamination...

From Fukushima TV News (1/15/2012):

二本松市のマンションのコンクリートから比較的高い放射線が確認され環境省ではコンクリートに放射性物質が混入したまま工事が行われたと見て調べています。

Relatively high levels of radiation have been detected from the concrete in an apartment building in Nihonmatsu City [in Fukushima Prefecture]. The Ministry of the Environment suspects that radioactive materials were in the concrete, and is investigating.

問題が発覚したのは二本松市で去年９月に建設されたマンションです。環境省などによりますと先月２７日、マンションに住む生徒が身につけていた積算線量計が３ヶ月で１・５ミリシーベルトと高い値を示したことから二本松市が周辺の調査を行いました。

The apartment was built in September last year in Nihonmatsu City. According to the Ministry of the Environment, the glass badge worn by a student who lives in the apartment registered 3-month cumulative radiation exposure of 1.5 millisievert on December 27, prompting the city to survey the surrounding area.

その結果マンションの基礎部分のコンクリートから毎時１・４マイクロシーベルト前後、室内からも１・２マイクロシーベルト前後が確認されたと言うことです。環境省ではコンクリート内に放射性物質が混入したまま工事が行われたと見て施工業者から事情を聞くなど確認を進めています。

The survey found 1.4 microsievert/hour from the concrete foundation of the apartment, and 1.2 microsievert/hour inside the apartment. The Ministry of the Environment thinks the apartment was built using concrete with radioactive materials, and is asking the building contractor for details.

I wonder if it is just concrete.

If you recall, 446,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from the sewage sludge in Fukushima City on May 8, 2011. The sludge had been sold to cement companies until the detection at Koriyama City on April 30, when 26,400 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from their sewage sludge. In the case of Koriyama City, over 900 tonnes of this radioactive sludge had been sold to one cement company (Sumitomo Osaka Cement) alone.

If the surface radiation level of the concrete is 1.4 microsievert/hour, I believe the concrete has at least 100,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium in it, if the radiation measurements of sludge and rooftop sediment are any indication.

(UPDATE: I tweeted this news and the information about the radioactive sludge from last year as above in Japanese, and judging by the number of retweets, many Japanese weren't even aware of the highly radioactive sewage sludge was being sold until April 30. Retweets exceeded 100 in probably less than 15 minutes. The news was in the major newspapers then, but I remember people were still sleepwalking, in a way, back then.)

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2: 116 Degrees Celsius at the RPV Bottom

Some "cold shutdown". But you see, the thermometer that "determines" the state of cold shutdown is not this particular one that exceeded 100 degrees Celsius. So everything is fine and dandy at Fuku I. (Forget the leaks here and there, and trenches full of contaminated water.)

From Kyodo News (1/13/2011):

東京電力は１３日、福島第１原発２号機の原子炉圧力容器底部近くにある温度計の一つで、数値が上昇し１００度を超えたと発表した。付近の温度計は４０～５０度で安定しているため、計器不良とみている。

TEPCO announced on January 13 that one of the thermometers near the bottom of the Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant registered the temperature exceeding 100 degrees Celsius. The nearby thermometers show a steady temperature between 40 to 50 degrees Celsius, so TEPCO considers it as malfunctioning.

　東電によると、数値が上がったのは、制御棒を動かすための装置が入った管に取り付けられた温度計。１２日午後５時に４８・４度だった温度が、同日午後１１時に１０２・３度と急上昇、１３日午前５時には１１６・４度を示した。

According to TEPCO, the thermometer that showed the high temperature is the one attached to the pipe that contains the equipment to operate control rods. It was 48.4 degrees Celsius at 5PM on January 12. It rose sharply at 11PM to 102.3 degrees Celsius, and at 5AM on January 13 it registered 116.4 degrees Celsius.

　冷温停止状態の基準となる圧力容器底部を計測する温度計は４８度台で安定。東電は、溶けた燃料が動いたり、再臨界が起きたりした可能性は低いとしている。

The thermometer that measures the temperature at the bottom of the RPV shows stable 48 degrees Celsius. That measurement is used as determining the cold shutdown state. TEPCO thinks it is unlikely that the melted fuel has shifted or the recriticality is happening.

So far I cannot find TEPCO's press release on this.

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Japan's Government-Industrial Complex to Create Small "Japan" in Southern India

The news was there on Yomiuri Shinbun on January 5, 2012, but little noticed until someone picked it up and spread on Twitter overnight.

The Japanese government in close collaboration with the big businesses in Japan is to build a city in southern India that will house 50,000 people, with "Japanese-quality" infrastructure including seaside resort, industrial park, hospital, shopping mall, and golf course (of course).

Many on Twitter are speculating that this is part of the plan by the Japan's political and business elites to abandon ship (Japan), and part of the reason for the Noda administration's insistence on the tax hike despite the incipient recession.

While there is a great need for money within Japan to actually rebuild tsunami-devastated areas (not the bogus "decon" projects), the Noda administration has been busy distributing money in Asia. The Bank of Japan has opened multi-billion dollar currency swap lines with India ($15 billion) and South Korea ($70 billion).

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1/5/2012):

日本政府は、官民一体のインフラ（社会基盤）輸出として、インド南部のチェンナイ近郊で、大規模な都市開発を行う方針だ。

The Japanese government, as part of the "infrastructure" export in close cooperation with the private industry, will develop a large-scale township in the suburb of Chennai in southern India.

　中小企業向けの工業団地と、日本人好みのショッピングセンターや病院なども併設した５万人が生活できる街をまるごと「輸出」する。

The plan is to "export" the entire town with an industrial park for mid/small size businesses, shopping centers that are tailored to Japanese taste and hospitals. The town is to accommodate 50,000 people.

　政府の新成長戦略に基づくインフラ輸出で、都市開発事業が具体化するのは初めて。

This will be first case of urban development as part of the infrastructure export, which is the new growth strategy of the Japanese government.

　枝野経済産業相が１０日、チェンナイを訪問し、州政府に支援要請する。

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Edano will visit Chennai on January 10, and ask for the support from the Chennai government.

　みずほコーポレート銀行とプラント大手の日揮が現地開発会社に計４０億円を出資する計画だ。工業団地は２・３平方キロ・メートルで今夏から販売を始め、２０１３年に進出工場の稼働を予定している。

Mizuho Corporate Bank and JGC Corporation will invest 4 billion yen [US$52 million] in the development corporation in Chennai. The industrial park will be 2.3 square kilometer, and the sale will start this summer. The plants that will be housed in the park will start operation in 2013.

　併設される居住地区は２平方キロ・メートルで、インド洋を望む高級マンション群が中心の「リゾート都市」を１３年以降、順次開発する。日系のショッピングセンターやゴルフ場、日本人医師が常駐する病院なども整備する計画だ。日本人駐在員が家族で暮らせる高品質な街づくりを目指す。

The accompanying residential area will be 2 square kilometers. The "resort city" with the expensive condominiums facing the Indian Ocean will be developed starting 2013. Japanese shopping center, golf course, and hospitals with permanently-stationed Japanese doctors will also be built. The plan is to create a high-quality city where Japanese expatriates can live with their families.

The Yomiuri Shinbun makes it sound like it is yet to start. But the talk has been ongoing at least since last summer. Here's the announcement on August 6, 2011 of an Indian tour for people interested in building a community in India where Japanese people live and work in certain large enough numbers.

But the description of this "Japan town" in India - industrial park, resort city with pricey condominiums by the sea, golf course - sounds very familiar to me. Hmmm this is like Singapore.

Well, it turns out that the developer for the whole project is a Singaporean real estate developer Ascendas with large portfolios in China, India, Malaysia, Vietman, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. The countries that this company have businesses with happen to coincide with the countries that the Japanese ministers have frequented since last year.

The Times of India reports on January 11, 2012 the Tamil Nadu government has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Japanese investor group and Ascendas to build a "Japan Town" in Chennai, India:

1,500-acre Japanese township to come up soon on OMR

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Japanese consortium and real estate developer Ascendas to build a 1,500-acre integrated township with residential and industrial facilities for Japanese investors. It will come up 50km south of Chennai along Old Mahabalipuram Road.

Chief minister J Jayalalithaa signed the MoU on Tuesday with the Ascendas Development Trust ( AIDT), which has built an IT park in Taramani, and a consortium comprising corporate finance provider Mizuho Corporate Bank and JGC Corporation, a programme management contractor and investment partner.

Ascendas Group president Chong Siak Ching said, "We are happy to have the support of the government of Tamil Nadu and to work with Japan's leading companies Mizuho and JGC." The government has promised collaboration with local government agencies for the project's implementation. The township is expected to have lifestyle amenities for up to 40,000 people," Ascendas officials said. "The infrastructure will be eco-friendly."

I don't know what "eco-friendly" means but I assume it is about low carbon emission. After all, having spewed radioactive materials all over the northern hemisphere the Japanese government and many Japanese are worried about CO2 and anthropogenic "global warming".

I'm not sure how Indians would feel about 50,000 Japanese living in a totally separate community with high-rise condos and golf course, speaking only Japanese.

As to engaging a Singaporean real estate developer, there is a persistent rumor that ex-Chief Cabinet Minister and current Minister of Economy Yukio Edano evacuated his family to Singapore soon after the accident.

Dr. Haruki Madarame of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission really spoke the truth when he said "It's all about money". It is all about money, whether "it" is a nuclear power plant, a nuclear waste facility, or a Japanese-only city in southern India.

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Shinzo Kimura: Minami Soma's Ms. Numauchi Suffers from Autoimmune Disease Caused by Stress

"Women are particularly sensitive to stress", he says, and they can't control themselves. In this particular case, it must be the fear of radiation that had stressed her so much before summer, and it manifested itself in fall when her teeth started to fall off.

In other words, he's saying she had stressed herself out from the fear of radiation, and became ill with stress-induced autoimmune disease.

What Shinzo Kimura, 44-year-old radiation specialist at Dokkyo University (radiation hygiene) and former researcher at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Labor), says about Ms. Emiko Numauchi's health problems doesn't quite add up.

On the one hand, he insists they are the symptoms of an unspecified autoimmune disease caused by the stress from the nuclear power plant accident, and she's more sensitive to stress because she is a woman. On the other hand, he says that there is no known mechanism whereby stress causes an autoimmune disease or any disease.

He pays a lip service to a possibility of her problems being caused by radiation, but quickly he assures it's feminine stress that caused an autoimmune disease that in turn caused her teeth, nails, and hair to fall off and her skin to be covered rapidly with blisters.

Kimura became a hero to many Japanese who wanted to know how bad the contamination from the nuclear accident was, when he was prominently featured in the NHK documentary series of "Mapping the radiation". A champion of people who quit his job at a government research institute to measure the radiation all over Fukushima Prefecture. Asahi Shinbun's "Trap of Prometheus" also created a series around him ("Resignation of a Researcher").

But what he said in an interview with Yasumi Iwakami the other day discussing Ms. Numauchi's condition and the way he said it have made me cautious that he may not be what people have made him to be.

What he said is the following. I used the transcript at this site. You can view how he said it in the video linked at the bottom, after 63 minutes 30 seconds into the video.

岩上氏：
沼内さんの場合は放射線によるものか、それともストレスによるものか、あるいは、その他の何かによるものなのか、どう思われますか。

Iwakami: What is Ms. Numauchi suffering from? Is it from radiation, stress, or something else? What do you think?

木村：
まず考えられるのが、ストレスによる自己免疫系疾患が大きいのかなと考えられますね。
歯が抜ける、爪がはがれる、髪が抜け落ちるというのは、自己免疫疾患の炎症反応の一種であろうと。
で、紅斑も、それに付随するもので、皮膚の炎症が起きるから紅斑が広がっていくというように考えます。

Kimura: Most likely, it is autoimmune disease from stress. Teeth falling off, nails peeling off, hair falling off, these must be a type of inflammatory reaction due to an autoimmune disease. Red spots on the skin is also from the autoimmune disease. As the skin inflammation happens, the red spots spread.

その自己免疫系疾患の原因として考えられるのが、ストレスであろうと。
そのストレスというのが放射線に対する恐怖というのが、時間をおいて、すぐに出てこないわけですよね。

It must be stress that causes the autoimmune disease. Stress, or fear of radiation, does not manifest itself immediately. It takes time.

人間の体というのは、タイムラグをおいて、発症するまでの時間が極度のストレスを受けた後に出てくるわけです。

In a human body, there's a time lag between the onset of an illness and the time of extreme stress.

で、夏までの非常に強いストレスが、秋から季節変動によって出てきたというのは、季節変動によって出てくる可能性が十分あるというように考えますが、ストレスというのも原発事故に由来するわけですから、放射能でなくても原発事故の被害者であるわけです。

So, the extreme stress by summer manifested in an illness in fall. It is very likely that the seasonal change triggered it. But stress was caused by the nuclear plant accident after all, so she is a victim of the nuclear plant accident even if it is not radiation sickness.

それは確かであろうと思います。

That much I am certain.

ただ個体差があります。
個体差によっては感受性が非常に強かったり、そういう場合には、このようなことが起きるかも知れない。
で、それが内部被曝による影響が強かったかもしれないし。

But there are individual differences. Some people are more sensitive [to radiation? stress?], and in that case this kind of thing [what's happening to Ms. Numauchi] may happen. It may be because of internal radiation exposure.

レントゲンとか、健康診断を受けたことがないような人ではないと思いますので、外部被曝は、ある程度まで被曝したことはあるとは思うのですが、それに何ら影響がなかったとしたら、何らかの内部被曝の影響があるのかもしれない。

I am sure she has done health checkups with X-rays, so she must have been exposed to some radiation. But if such radiation didn't have any effect in the past, then there may be some kind of internal radiation exposure.

南相馬でも、僕は3月28日に浪江町から相馬のほうに行くときに、国道6号線が使えないので、県道15号線だったかを通っていったんですが、そこでも分断されていたので、裏道を通ったときに、150マイクロシーベルトの場所があったわけですよ。

In Minami Soma, when I passed on March 28 from Namie-machi to Soma I used the prefectural route 15, instead of the national route 5. Even that was cut off, so I took the back route. There was a spot with 150 microsieverts/hour.

そういう地域に住んでいたとしたら、（沼内さんのような症状が出るということは）ありえるとは思います。
住んでいる場所によって、いちがいには言えないので分らないんですが。

If people live in such area, it may be possible (to develop symptoms like Ms. Numauchi). I don't know, because I can't make a sweeping statement. It depends on where you live.

ストレスが影響するというメカニズムまでは分らないと思うんですよ。

I don't think we will know the mechanism of how stress affects [health].

ただ、私や岩上さんは、非常にストレスに強いほうだと思うんですよ。
強い人間からは分らないんですよ。

But you, Mr. Iwakami, and I are resistant to high stress. We cannot tell from a stress-resistant person.

ウサギだって、飼い主がいなくなれば淋しさで死んでしまうという話があるくらいですから、同じことが人間にあってもおかしくないわけじゃないですか。
それだけ、ストレスというのは大きいわけですよ。

I hear rabbits die of loneliness when abandoned by the owners. The same can happen to humans, can't it? Stress play that big of a role.

特にストレスに対しては女性のほうが感受性が強いんですよね。
これは良い意味でも悪い意味でも感受性が強い。

In particular, women are more sensitive to stress. For good or bad, they are more sensitive.

その感受性のせいで、自己抑制がしにくいというのも女性の特徴なんです。
そういう特徴も含めた上で、ストレスというのは妥当なんではないかというふうに考えます。

It's also a female characteristic that, because of that sensitivity, they cannot control themselves. Taking that also into consideration, I think it is appropriate to identify stress as the cause [of her problems].

岩上：
自己免疫疾患が起きると、歯とか爪とか、そういうものを（自分のものでありながら）異物として捉える、という、それについては。

Iwakami: So, if you have an autoimmune disease, teeth, nails are attacked as foreign objects?

木村：
免疫低下によって、感染症が拡大すると、やはり免疫が賦活化します。
賦活化すると、それが手当たり次第に攻撃を始めるわけです。

Kimura: When the immune depression causes the spread of infection, the immune system is activated. Once activated, it starts to attack indiscriminately.

今まで自分の体として認識していたものが、認識しなくなって、これを外敵と認識してしまう可能性が高いわけですよね。

It starts to recognize the part of the body as foreign enemy [pathogen].

そういう自己免疫系疾患というのは、たとえばリウマチであったり、IgA（アイ・ジー・エイ）腎症、http://www.nanbyou.or.jp/entry/41※イムノ・グロブリンAという抗体があるんですが、扁桃体で作られるもので、それが大量にできると今度は腎臓を攻撃するんです。

Such autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis and IgA nephropathy. The antibody called IgA (immunoglobulin A) is produced in the corpus amygdaloideum, but once too many antibodies are produced they start to attack the kidney.

そのように自己免疫系疾患が出てきたり、さまざまな病気が出てくるんですよ。

So there are autoimmune diseases and all kinds of other diseases.

ですから、ストレスによって今度は腎臓病にもなってしまうという、さまざまな病気があってもおかしくないわけですよ。

Stress can cause renal diseases. It can cause all kinds of diseases.

炎症反応が出てきている、ということなので、自己免疫系疾患の可能性が高いな、と踏んだわけです。

Because of the inflammatory reaction, I think it is highly probable that it is an autoimmune disease that she's suffering from.

Ms. Numauchi has a deep, low voice and jovial, cheerful demeanor, and by looking at her and listening to her the last thing you would think is this is one stressed-out, super-sensitive woman. She looks like the man of the house, in fact, without seeing her husband.

Instead of insisting she suffers from stress-induced autoimmune disease, Mr. Kimura should have done what he became famous for: take samples of soil, vegetation in and around her house and measure the radiation, and check her with the special equipment that was featured in the NHK documentary that can measure internal radiation easily.

But he didn't, and Iwakami didn't ask him to do so.

Minami Soma City has just been found with 11 microsieverts/hour locations in the areas where the residents are returning.

Ms. Numauchi is not at all saying her problems are the result of radiation exposure. She says she just wants to know why they've been happening to her, her friend, and her husband. With a nationally known radiation specialist and a popular independent journalist telling her it's just stress because she is a woman, she must have been disappointed.

I guess her husband, who suffers numb feet and severe fatigue, must also be suffering from a feminine stress.

Here's the vid (probably against Iwakami's intention to restrict the video to his subscribers only and pay-per-view) uploaded by BakaTEPCO10 (meaning "stupid TEPCO 10"). Kimura appear safter 63 minutes 30 seconds into the video:

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Woodland in Minami Soma City, Fukushima Has 11 Microsieverts/Hr Radiation

The area - Haramachi District and Odaka District of Minami Soma City - used to be part of the "evacuation-ready zone" until September 30, 2011, where the residents should be prepared to evacuate at the moment's notice and where pregnant women and children were not supposed to be living there (but they did). The evacuation-ready designation has been abolished, and the government is eager to have the residents (who evacuated) go back.

But the Ministry of Education's air radiation survey revealed that the woodland surrounding the area measured 11 microsieverts/hour radiation. Will the government still return the residents?

11 microsieverts/hour radiation would be close to 100 millisieverts cumulative radiation in one year.

From Jiji Tsushin (1/13/2012):

文部科学省と環境省などは１３日、東京電力福島第１原発事故を受けて、昨年９月末まで設定されていた緊急時避難準備区域にある福島県南相馬市の里山などの空間放射線量が、最大で毎時１１マイクロシーベルトだったと発表した。

The government ministries including the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of the Environment announced on January 13 that the air radiation levels in the undeveloped woodland which was inside the "evacuation-ready zone" until September 30 last year in Minami Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture was maximum 11 microsieverts/hour.

　同市原町区と小高区の生活圏にある里山など４カ所を無人ヘリコプターで測定。地表から高さ５０センチの最大値は毎時１１マイクロシーベルト、同１メートルでは最大で毎時１０．９マイクロシーベルトだった。

The survey was done using unmanned helicopters in 4 locations in the woodland surrounding Haramachi District and Kodaka District of Minami Soma City. The maximum radiation level at 50 centimeters off the ground was 11 microsieverts/hour, and the maximum radiation level at 1 meter off the ground was 10.9 microsieverts/hour.

The Ministry of Education's announcement on January 13, 2012 says that four helicopters were used for the survey, and they measured the radiation levels in Haramachi District and Kodaka District:

• 3.8 microsieverts/hour and above radiation was measured in the entire area covered by Helicopter No.2, and almost all area covered by Helicopter No.4 at 1 meter off the ground;

• 2 microsieverts/hour in the area covered by Helicopter No.1; and

• 3 microsieverts/hour in the area covered by Helicopter No. 3

Note that this is only gamma radiation. As I posted in December, if you include alpha and beta radiation on the ground, the radiation levels in Haramachi District can be as high as 40 microsieverts/hour. And people have continued to live there since March 11, 2011, despite the evacuation-ready zone designation.

No matter. That city re-opened elementary schools in Haramachi District just a few days ago, and if anything happens to the children or the adults I am sure it will be declared as nothing but stress-induced autoimmune disease.

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Fukushima Promotes Safe Fukushima Milk for School Lunches

For your weekend entertainment, here's the promotional pamphlet by the Fukushima prefectural government telling the consumers it is so safe to drink Fukushima milk in school lunches. It uses the word "safe" so many times that many suspect they have something to hide, while others are simply scared of the cow in the pamphlet.

From Fukushima Prefecture's website:

On the second page, it brags that no radioactive materials have been detected in milk in Fukushima since April 25, 2011. In fine print, it says the detection limit is 5 becquerels/kg, but just above that line it also says "ND means the level is so low that the equipment cannot even measure". The equipment in Fukushima Prefecture may not be able to measure, but in other prefectures they have no problem measuring radioactive cesium in milk to one decimal point.

Remember in Fukushima that some school teachers excoriate students who are reluctant to drink milk in school lunches in front of the class, telling them they are "unpatriotic". I've heard similar anecdotal stories about wearing masks to school. Some teachers berate students wearing masks and order them to take the masks off. I'm sure it is just a baseless rumor. They wouldn't do such a thing, teachers, would they?

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"Baseless Rumor" from an LDP Upper House Politician: Explosion in Fukushima I on January 9?

Satsuki Katayama is an LDP member of the Upper House of the Japanese Diet and a former career bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance.

In her official blog on January 13, 2012, Katayama relates the following rumor:

さきほど、南相馬の元市議会議員から市長に連絡がはいり、1月9日にまた、福島第一で（おそらく4号炉だと思うが）なんらかの爆発が起きており、それを政府が隠している、という話であった。真偽のほどはわからないが、水素爆発ではあっても、核爆発ではないであろう。

Just then, there was a communication from the ex-council member of Minami Soma City to the mayor [of Soma City] that there was some kind of explosion at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on January 9 (probably at Reactor 4 building) and the government is hiding it. I don't know whether it's true or not, but if it is, it is probably a hydrogen explosion, not a nuclear explosion.

Katayama says she was speaking with Hidekiyo Tachiya, mayor of Soma City (north of Minami Soma City) when the mayor related the "rumor" to her. I have no idea why she's allowed to talk loose like this in her official blog.　

So far, it doesn't seem to have gathered much attention in Japan, and many on Twitter ridicule her. But some people are connecting this "rumor" to the massive deployment of the Self Defense Force helicopters on January 9.

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Cesium Level in Raw Milk in Southern Miyagi Is Rising

From Miyagi Prefecture's website, the result of measurement of radioactive cesium in raw milk collected at "Sennan Cooler Station" in Shiroishi City in southern Miyagi from March 25 till December 20, 2011:


November 22, 2011: 2 becquerels/kg
November 29, 2011: 4 becquerels/kg
December 6, 2011: 21 becquerels/kg
December 13, 2011: 14 becquerels/kg
December 20, 2011: 22 becquerels/kg

The raw milk from the area is mixed with other raw milk from other areas and regions and sold.

Why is it going up now? No idea. The safety standard for cattle feed is 300 becquerels/kg.

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The Economist: "A dangerous lack of urgency in drawing lessons from Japan’s nuclear disaster"

Here's The Economist's take on the Japanese declaration of "the cold shutdown state" and the end of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The title of the article pretty much says it all.

The paper well summarizes the elementary incompetency of both TEPCO and the Japanese government, and says the government's interim report hasn't got much attention that it deserves, except among techies at Physics Forum. It also correctly points out these reports are nothing but confidence-building exercises in Japan.

The paper's conclusion:

"Until somebody in power seizes on the report as a call to action, its findings, especially those that reveal sheer ineptitude, suggest that the public has every reason to remain as scared as hell."

Indeed.

The Economist (1/7/2012):

THERE is a breathtaking serenity to the valley that winds from the town of Namie, on the coast of Fukushima prefecture, into the hills above. A narrow road runs by a river that passes through steep ravines, studded with maples. Lovely it may be, but it is the last place where you would want to see an exodus of 8,000 people fleeing meltdowns at a nearby nuclear-power plant.

Along that switchback road the day after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th 2011, it took Namie’s residents more than three hours to drive 30km (19 miles) to what they thought was the relative safety of Tsushima, a secluded hamlet. What they did not know was that they were heading into an invisible fog of radioactive matter that has made this one of the worst radiation hotspots in Japan—far worse than the town they abandoned, just ten minutes’ drive from the gates of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. It was not until a New York Times report in August that many of the evacuees realised they had been exposed to such a danger, thanks to government neglect.

Negligence forms the backdrop for the first government-commissioned report into the Fukushima nuclear disaster, released in late December. Although only an interim assessment (the complete report is due in the summer), it is already 500 pages long and the product of hundreds of interviews. A casual reader might be put off by the technical detail and the dearth of personal narrative. Yet by Japanese standards it is gripping. It spares neither the government nor Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the nuclear plant. It reveals at times an almost cartoon-like level of incompetence. Whether it is enough to reassure an insecure public that lessons will be learnt is another matter.

Since the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979, it has become axiomatic to assume that complex systems fail in complex ways. That was broadly true of Fukushima, though often the failures appear absurdly elementary. In the most quake-prone archipelago on earth, TEPCO and its regulators had no accident-management plan in the event of earthquakes and tsunamis—assuming, apparently, that the plant was proofed against them and that any hypothetical accidents would be generated only from within. TEPCO had, in the event of nuclear disaster, an off-site emergency headquarters just 5km from the plant that was not radiation-proof, and so was effectively useless. On site, the workers in its number one reactor appear not to have been familiar with an emergency-cooling system called an isolation condenser, which they wrongly thought was still working after the tsunami. Their supervisors made the same mistake, so a vital six hours were lost before other methods for cooling the overheating atomic fuel rods were deployed. Partly as a result, this was the first reactor to explode on March 12th.

The government was almost as clueless. Naoto Kan, then prime minister, had a crisis headquarters on the fifth floor of the Kantei, his office building. But emergency staff from various ministries were relegated to the basement, and there was often miscommunication, not least because mobile phones did not work underground. Crucial data estimating the dispersion of radioactive matter were not given to the prime minister’s office, so that evacuees like those from Namie were not given any advice on where to go. That is why they drove straight into the radioactive cloud. The report faults the government for providing information that was often bogus, ambiguous or slow. Perhaps the biggest failure was that nobody in a position of responsibility—neither TEPCO nor its regulators—had sought to look beyond the end of their noses in disaster planning. No one seems ever to have tried to “think the unthinkable”.

In America official reports such as those on the September 11th attacks or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have become acclaimed books. This one is hardly a page-turner. A privately funded foundation, headed by Yoichi Funabashi, a former editor of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, is doing a separate investigation, based partly on the testimony of TEPCO whistle-blowers. (One, according to Mr Funabashi, says the earthquake damaged the reactors before the tsunami, a claim that officials have always rejected.) It at least promises to have literary merit. Mr Funabashi, a prominent author, draws parallels between the roots of the disaster and Japan’s failures in the second world war. They include the use of heroic front-line troops with out-of-touch superiors; rotating decision-makers too often; narrow “stovepipe” thinking; and the failure to imagine that everything could go wrong at once.

Complex systems, jerry-rigged

For now, the risk is that the interim report does not get the attention it deserves. So far it seems to have aroused more interest on a techie website called Physics Forums, beloved of nuclear engineers, than in the Japanese press. The government, led by Yoshihiko Noda, has not yet used it as a rallying call for reform. One of its recommendations, an independent new regulatory body, will soon be set up. Others, such as new safety standards and broader evacuation plans, would take months to implement.

Such reports are, after all, confidence-building exercises. They are meant to reassure the public that, by exposing failures, they will help to prevent them from being repeated. In the case of Fukushima Dai-ichi there is still plenty to be nervous about. Although the government declared on December 16th that the plant had reached a state of “cold shutdown”, much of the cooling system is jerry-rigged and probably still not earthquake-proof. On January 1st a quake temporarily caused water levels to plunge in a pool containing highly radioactive spent-fuel rods.

Meanwhile, across Japan, 48 out of 54 nuclear reactors remain out of service, almost all because of safety fears. Until somebody in power seizes on the report as a call to action, its findings, especially those that reveal sheer ineptitude, suggest that the public has every reason to remain as scared as hell.

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Autopsy Planned (or Done) for the Worker Who Died at Fukushima I Nuke Plant?

(UPDATE from Ryuichi Kino: The police took the body right after the ambulance arrived at the hospital. So the worker had been dead. He's asking how TEPCO (who had the personnel at the hospital) considered the whole situation.)

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Additional information about the worker who died of a heart attack on January 9, 2012 while working at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant pouring concrete for the radioactive sludge storage facility.

According to the partial transcript of the TEPCO press conference on January 12, 2012 (independent journalist Ryuichi Kino asking TEPCO's Matsumoto):

• The worker was "treated" on-site for 2 hours by the TEPCO doctor, which Kino said was rather unusual in the case of cardiopulmonary arrest.

• When the worker arrived at the hospital in an ambulance, the hospital did no treatment and simply called the police, according to Kino, and TEPCO's Matsumoto didn't deny it. [So the worker was dead already.]

Then the hilarity ensued as the following:

Kino: "The hospital called the police to conduct an autopsy. Did TEPCO know about it or was involved in the decision?"

Matsumoto: "TEPCO had a personnel waiting at the hospital, but no we weren't involved in the decision to do the autopsy."

Kino: "TEPCO personnel was at the hospital? So you knew that the police would conduct autopsy?"

Matsumoto: "Well, not directly but from a subcontractor (construction company Shimizu) who was informed by the police that night."

Kino: "So you did know the worker was dead on January 9 but kept telling us he was receiving treatment, for two days?"

Matsumoto: "We had to be considerate to the family of the deceased. Besides, I didn't say he was receiving treatment. I said there was no new information from the hospital."

Kino: "You said in the press conference on January 9 that he was receiving treatment."

Matsumoto: "We heard about his death at 7:40PM on January 9. So at the time of the press conference at 6:00PM, our assumption was that he was still receiving treatment."

Pants on fire, but Matsumoto is totally comfortable lying through his teeth.

I am asking Kino for confirmation about the autopsy.

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10 Elementary Schools in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo Are Sending Kids to "Winter School" to Ski in Fukushima Prefecture

Information obtained from the Togetter log from concerned residents and local representatives in Edogawa-ku, situated in the eastern Tokyo where the radiation levels are much higher than the rest of Tokyo.

It's clearly not enough for the Edogawa municipal government and the Board of Education there to have exposed children since March last year to elevated radiation levels and have done next to nothing to mitigate the situation:

(From a local representative) I've been asking the Board of Education again and again to reconsider the "winter school" in Fukushima Prefecture for the elementary school children in Edogawa, but all they say is "If we cancel, that will fan the baseless rumors", "It's up to the school principals to decide".

However, the schools say, "It was the Edogawa-ku government who decided and booked the facilities in fall last year. We didn't have any say."

A principal of one of the schools says, "It is the decision by the Tokyo Metropolitan government and the Edogawa municipal government that it is safe, so I will abide by their decision."

He also says, "The Edogawa government instructed us not do anything [regarding the winter school] until after the end of August last year. In fall, there was no alternative left because everywhere else [outside Fukushima] had been booked already."

Food that will be served in the "winter school" in Fukushima: Fukushima produce that's sold in the market there. Milk is from Fukushima. The grocer there says "They are safe because they are sold in the market."

From the looks of it, the principals at these schools do have a decision-making power, but they do not exercise it for the fear of getting into trouble with the Board of Education. The Board of Education sits pretty because technically it is the decision by the individual school, even though it, along with the Edogawa government, strongly "suggests" what to do.

The air radiation levels in the area where the pupils will be sent vary from 0.06 microsievert/hr to 0.33 microsievert/hr, according to one of the tweets.

Net net, no one will be ever responsible.

Well, for Edogawa-ku, absolutely nothing happened on March 11, 2011 and ever since.

There you go. As long as you have captive consumers like elementary school pupils, you have no problem selling contaminated food (school lunches) and operating tourist outfits in the contaminated areas (summer schools, winter schools). You don't even need to launch a pricey promotional campaign.

Even the Imperial Japanese government toward the end of the World War II tried to save the future soldiers and factory workers and evacuated elementary school children from the heavily bombarded cities. But now, they are sending these small "soldiers" in the potential harm's way to conquer radiation, all to help Fukushima Prefecture's "recovery" and "reconstruction".

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Disaster Debris from Onagawa, Miyagi: 133 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium

which, if incinerated all by itself, would become ashes with maximum 4389 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, using the calculation by the Ministry of the (Destruction of) the Environment (multiply by 33).

The image below is from the information handed out to the residents who live near the incineration plants in Ota-ku and Shinagawa-ku in Tokyo, where the disaster debris from Onagawa-cho, Miyagi Prefecture was taken and burned in December. The entity in charge of burning the disaster radioactive debris from Miyagi in the 23 Special Wards ("ku") in Tokyo is the Clean Association Tokyo 23, who created the handout.

As you see, in the test conducted at Ishinomaki Clean Center, Onagawa-cho's regular waste is already radioactive, resulting in fly ashes with 2,200 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. Then, they measured the radioactivity by mixing the disaster debris to the regular waste, with 20% of the mix from the disaster debris, and burning. That resulted in fly ashes with 2,300 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

This official information doesn't say whether the radioactivity of the disaster debris is the average or from one sample, or whether it was wood, plastic, or something else. It doesn't even say whether it was the debris with 133 becquerels/kg that was mixed and burned.

Now, many people who are all for bringing disaster debris from Miyagi and Iwate to Tokyo argue that since Tokyo is contaminated so much already, it doesn't make any difference, that Miyagi's disaster debris is less radioactive than Tokyo's regular garbage.

Is it?

Here's the latest test result (December 2011) of fly ashes at the municipal incinerators under the management of the Clean Association:

There are only three incineration plants whose radioactive cesium in fly ashes exceeds that of Onagawa-cho (circled in red), with two of them exceeding the level of Onagawa debris.

If we listen to those who believe it is logical to bring low-contamination debris/garbage to high-contamination areas and process, then most of the regular garbage should be shipped to Miyagi and be burned and buried there.

The mayor of Rikuzen Takata City in Iwate Prefecture thought it would be much better to process disaster debris in the city and wanted to build a new plant dedicated to disaster debris. He consulted the Prefectural government who turned down his request by saying the application procedure alone would take at least 2 years.

Disaster debris is as good as money. There are enough municipalities throughout Japan in a dire financial condition and willing to accept debris in exchange for subsidies. As Haruki Madarame of the Nuclear Safety Commission said 7 years ago, "It's all about money, isn't it?" He was talking about nuclear waste then.

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Child Leukemia Doubles Near French Nuclear Power Plants, French Researchers Say

From Reuters (1/11/2012):

Jan 11 (Reuters) - The incidence of leukaemia is twice as high in children living close to French nuclear power plants as in those living elsewhere in the country, a study by French health and nuclear safety experts has found.

But the study, to be published soon in the International Journal of Cancer, fell short of establishing a causal link between the higher incidence of leukaemia, a type of blood cancer, and living near nuclear power plants.

France has used nuclear power for three decades and is the most nuclear-reliant country in the world, with 75 percent of its electricity produced by 58 reactors.

The study, conducted by the French health research body INSERM, found that between 2002 and 2007, 14 children under the age of 15 living in a 5-kilometre radius of France's 19 nuclear power plants had been diagnosed with leukaemia.

This is double the rate of the rest of the country, where a total of 2,753 cases were diagnosed in the same period.

"This is a result which has been checked thoroughly and which is statistically significant," said Dominique Laurier, head of the epidemiology research laboratory at France's nuclear safety research body (IRSN).

INSERM has carried out similar research with the IRSN since 1990, but has never before found a higher incidence of leukaemia in children living near nuclear power plants.

"But we are working on numbers which are very small and results have to be analysed with a lot of care," said Laurier, one of the authors of the study.

Laurier said the findings indicated no difference in risk between sites located by the sea or by rivers, nor according to the power capacity of the plant.

The IRSN said it recommended a more thorough study of the causes of the leukaemia cases found near nuclear power stations and hoped to set up international research collaboration.

"It's a rare disease and working on a bigger scale would allow more stable results," said Laurier.

A 35-year British study published last year found no evidence that young children living near nuclear power plants had an increased risk of developing leukaemia.

The research, conducted by scientists on the Committee of the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), found only 20 cases of childhood leukaemia within 5 km (3.1 miles) of nuclear power stations between 1969 and 2004.

The scientists said the rate was virtually the same as in areas where there were no nuclear plants.

Studies have been conducted around the world into possible links between the risk of childhood blood cancers and living near nuclear plants.

A study on Germany, published in 2007, did find a significantly increased risk, but the COMARE team said these findings were probably influenced by an unexplained leukaemia cluster near a nuclear plant in Krummel, north Germany, that lasted from 1990 to 2005.

Excluding Krummel, evidence for an increased leukaemia risk among young children living close to German nuclear power plants was "extremely weak", it said.

(Reporting By Muriel Boselli, Editing by Alexandria Sage and Tim Pearce)

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4170 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium in Crickets in Iitate-mura, Fukushima

A researcher (vice president) at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology collected 500 crickets (1 kilogram) in Iitate-mura in Fukushima Prefecture, and found 4,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. He also tested locusts in different locations in Fukushima, and found radioactive cesium in them.

Bio-concentration at work. No information whether he tested other nuclides like radioactive silver (Ag-110m). Professor Bin Mori of Tokyo University found radioactive silver highly concentrated (1000 times the amount in the environment) in Nephila clavata he caught in Iitate-mura.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1/12/2012):

東京電力福島第一原発事故で、原発から４０キロ離れた計画的避難区域内に生息するコオロギから１キロ・グラム（約５００匹）あたり４０００ベクレル以上の放射性セシウムが検出されたことが、東京農工大の普後一(ふごはじめ)副学長（昆虫生理学）の調査でわかった。

A survey conducted by Hajime Fugo, vice president of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (specialty: insect physiology) found over 4,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium in crickets (500 of them that weigh about 1 kilogram) from within the planned evacuation zone 40 kilometers away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

　別の場所のイナゴからも最大２００ベクレルを検出した。

In another location, 200 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found from locusts.

　調査は、昨年１０月、原発から約４０キロほど離れた計画的避難区域の福島県飯舘村北部でコオロギ５００匹、６０～８０キロ離れた本宮市役所付近や須賀川市北部、桑折町役場付近、猪苗代町の猪苗代湖付近の水田でイナゴ計２０００匹を採集した。

The survey was done in October last year. 500 crickets were collected in the northern part of Iitate-mura in Fukushima Prefecture, which is in the planned evacuation zone 40 kilometers from the plant. 2,000 locusts were collected in locations 60 to 80 kilometers from the plant, including Motomiya City (around City Hall), northern part of Sukagawa City, Koori-machi (near Town Hall) and near Inawashiro Lake in Inawashiro-machi.

　飯舘村のコオロギからは１キロ・グラムあたり平均４１７０ベクレルを検出。須賀川市のイナゴは同１９６ベクレル、桑折町と本宮市は、それぞれ同８２ベクレルと７５ベクレルだった。

Average 4,170 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from crickets in Iitate-mura, 196 becquerels/kg from locusts in Sukagawa City, 82 becquerels/kg and 75 becquerels/kg from locusts in Koori-machi and Motomiya City respectively.

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