(UPDATED) Rasmussen Reports: "36% Think Radiation From Japanese Nuclear Disaster Hurt the U.S."

Jiji Tsushin (3/13/2013) headline reporting on the survey was even more dire: ３６％が「米国に重大な被害」 - 36% think "grave damage in the US".

36%? Grave damage?

Here's Rasmussen page on the survey on the 2nd anniversary of the nuclear accident in Japan (3/11/2013):

36% Think Radiation From Japanese Nuclear Disaster Hurt the U.S.

Monday, March 11, 2013

It’s been two years since an earthquake and tsunami triggered an explosion at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, and more than a third of Americans think radiation from that accident is likely to have done significant harm to the United States. Still, most Americans believe nuclear power plants at home are safe.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 36% of American Adults believe it is at least somewhat likely that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant did significant harm to the United States. However, that includes just nine percent (9%) who think that scenario is Very Likely. Fifty percent (50%) of adults say it’s not likely the radiation did any harm, including 17% who say it’s Not At All Likely. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on March 9-10, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

The wording of the survey question:

1* It’s been two years since the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. How likely is it that radiation from that plant did significant harm in the United States?

2* How safe are nuclear power plants in the United States – very safe, somewhat safe, not very safe, not at all safe?

3* Should more nuclear power plants be built in the United States?

Coverage of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident by the major media outside Japan, including the US, pretty much ended by the end of March 2011. I was writing many posts each day starting March 11, 2011, and distinctly remember the foreign coverage dropped off significantly around March 23, 2011. There was nothing more to explode, nothing exciting to see or hear. By the time April rolled around, there was hardly any coverage. That was my unscientific impression, anyway.

If I were to answer the first question, I would answer "not sure". NOA did publish the data on contamination from the rain after the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, but the EPA in California didn't bother even measuring radioactive particles in the atmosphere. EPA in northern California relied on "volunteers" to collect air filters at the measuring stations, as it fit their "lifestyle", and the air filters were sent by mail to a laboratory in Alabama. I haven't seen any systematic, official measurement of agricultural produce except in the very early days (EPA stopped emergency monitoring on May 2011).

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Dead Pigs in a Shanghai River: 5,916 and Counting (and Drinking Water Is Safe)

So says the Chinese officials. Pig farmers in the neighboring province have been dumping the dead pigs, supposedly died of cold weather.

The AP article below also mentions the "illicit trade of pork products harvested from diseased pigs", which the authorities are cracking down on.

From AP (3/12/2013):

China Pulls out 5,916 Pigs From Shanghai River

The number of dead pigs found floating in a river flowing into Shanghai has reached nearly 6,000.

The Shanghai municipal government said in an online announcement that 5,916 swine carcasses had been retrieved from Huangpu River by 3 p.m. Tuesday, but added that municipal water remains safe.

The surge in the dumping of dead pigs — believed to be from pig farms in the upstream Jiaxing area in the neighboring Zhejiang province — has followed police campaigns to curb the illicit trade of pork products harvested from diseased pigs.

Shanghai authorities said the city has taken proper measures to safely dispose of the pig carcasses and that the city's water plants are stepping up efforts to disinfect public water and testing for six common swine viruses.

The Shanghai government reported no major swine epidemic, widespread pig deaths or dumping of pigs within the city boundaries of Shanghai.

The state-run China News news agency said Monday that Zhejiang province had reported no swine epidemic but that a provincial agriculture official blamed cold weather for the deaths of the pigs.

The official, who was identified only by his family name Gu, told China News that the practice of dumping dead pigs into rivers lingers among some pig farmers in the city of Jiaxing. "We are still introducing the practice of collecting dead pigs," Gu was quoted as saying.

Shanghai authorities have been pulling out the swollen and rotting pigs, some with their internal organs visible, since Friday — and revolting images of the carcasses in news reports and online blogs have raised public ire against local officials.

Beijing-based writer Li Mingsheng expressed shock when he learned of the latest number of dead pigs in Shanghai.

"This is not only an environmental issue but also a public moral problem," Li wrote. "What's been polluted is not only Shanghai's river water but also the spirit of our country people."

Dumping something undesirable down the river seems to be a universal behavior, both physically and figuratively. So is selling something tainted with undesirable substances (disease virus, chemicals, radioactive cesium).

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Bank of Japan Governor Candidate Kuroda May Want to Buy Interest Rate Swaps and Other Derivatives as Part of QE

Boldly go where even the Ben Bernank hasn't gone before. The Fed chairman bought CDS (credit-default swaps) and interest rate swaps of Bear Stearns in the emergency rescue of the company in 2008, but not as part of ongoing quantitative easing.

A couple of laps behind in the QE track, Mr. Kuroda and Bank of Japan will overcompensate. Mr. Kuroda, by mentioning the financial derivatives at all, is signaling his intention to use them, I believe.

Multibillionaire investor Warren Buffett once called the derivatives "weapons of mass financial destruction". But then, Buffett was later seen writing put options on his railroad company shares which went into money. Oops.

Big bang for the money is irresistible even to the wealthy investors, I suppose. For Mr. Kuroda, it's not even his money anyway. What's there to lose?

From Nikkei Quick News (3/11/2013; part):

黒田氏、金利スワップの活用「十分検討したい」

Mr. Kuroda "will fully consider" the use of interest rate swaps

日銀総裁候補の黒田東彦アジア開発銀行総裁は11日午前、参院議院運営委員会の所信聴取で金利スワップの活用で金利低下を促す政策について「具体的にスワップやその他デリバティブ（金融派生商品）市場に出て行くのがよいのかよくないのか、いろいろな議論のあるところ」と述べた。そのうえで「十分検討させていただきたい」と付け加えた。

Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank and candidate for the Bank of Japan governor, said in the hearing in the Upper House Steering Committee in the morning of March 11 regarding the policy to induce lower interest rate using interest rate swaps, "There is much discussion about whether it is good to use swaps and other financial derivatives or not." He then added, "I would like you to let me fully consider the matter."

Interest rate swaps swap the cash flow of different interest rates - usually one is fixed and the other is floating-rate.

Several US municipalities have lost badly on the interest rate swap deals with Wall Street banks. The most famous case is Jefferson County, Alabama, which went bankrupt over the costly sewer plant project gone bad, partly thanks to the interest rate swaps that ended up costing the county much more when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the entire financial system almost collapsed in the fall of 2008.

Unlike Jefferson County, Bank of Japan, which is 55% owned by the national government, will not go bankrupt, as Mr. Kuroda would simply print money to replenish whatever he loses to the bankers.

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Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan Still Selling His Version of #Fukushima Nuclear Accident After Two Years

He continues to insist that such a huge earthquake and tsunami had never been anticipated. He continues to take full credit for preventing TEPCO from "withdrawing"　（撤退）, which was in fact "taking shelter" (退避）.

Mr. Kan says he was invited to speak at a symposium by Dr. Helen Caldicott on March 11, 2013 in New York City commemorating the Fukushima nuclear accident, but he couldn't come in person, thus the video.

Here's the link to the English transcript, for those of you who'd rather read.

My Experiences as Prime Minister during the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster from Cinema Forum Fukushima on Vimeo.

Mr. Kan remains a hero for many people for saving Japan and the world from a nuclear accident which could have been far worse, and a champion for renewable energy proponents. There are also many who hold him to be criminally liable for what happened.

"Countdown, Meltdown", the book by Mr. Yoichi Funabashi, president of the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation that did the first large-scale investigation of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, depicts how Mr. Kan and his cabinet ministers reacted to the accident in the early days. Mr. Kan and Mr. Goshi Hosono, then Mr. Kan's personal adviser, according to Mr. Funabashi, were in mortal fear that Japan would be taken over and occupied by a foreign power (the United States, most likely) if they accepted the foreign help in dealing with the unfolding nuclear disaster.

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NHK: 55% of Water Injected into Reactor 3 Pressure Vessel at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant May Have Gone to Condenser Instead

NHK did a documentary special of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant for the second anniversary of the nuclear accident. It sent reporters to the plant, and also did its own analysis and simulation experiments with the help of experts.

NHK says it obtained the blueprints of Reactor 3, and carefully studied them with the experts. Now why wouldn't anyone have done it sooner?

The news below must be a segment from the documentary. NHK raises the possibility that Reactor 3's meltdown occurred because not enough water was reaching the Reactor Pressure Vessel, and more than half the water being injected by the fire engines went to the condenser instead.

The pump that circulates the water from the condenser had a line coming in from the main water line to the Reactor Pressure Vessel. In normal condition, the powerful pump (2,500 tonnes/hour) prevents any water coming in from the line as its blades spin at a very high speed. However, the pump stopped on March 11, 2011 when the power was totally lost. So the water injected into the main water line to the RPV reached the condenser pump and went to fill the condenser, instead of going to the RPV.

NHK also says if the loss was only 25% of water instead of 55%, the meltdown may not have happened.

TEPCO did mention in a press conference in the very early days of the nuclear accident that for some reason the condensers in Reactor 2 and Reactor 3 seemed to be full of water. In those days, reporters probably didn't even know what a condenser in a nuclear power plant was, and TEPCO's managers (they were engineers in the beginning of the accident) couldn't explain things well to the general public.

Screen captures from NHK News (3/10/2013):

Experts examine the blueprints for Reactor 3, and they notice the water line from the fire engine to the reactor is connected to a line that could divert the water to the condenser:



Fire engine pumping water into the water line that reaches the Reactor:

 

But this line has a small feeder line to the Condenser Unit:



The pump is installed there to regulate the flow of water:





The water from this feeder line does not flow to the Condenser Unit in the normal condition (i.e. the pump is powered by electricity):



But when the power was lost, the pump stopped, and the blades stopped spinning, and there was nothing to stop the water being injected by the fire engine from going into the Condenser Unit.



TEPCO did mention the Condenser Units of Reactor 2 and Reactor 3 to be full of water, in a press conference in 2011 right after the start of the accident:



So NHK and the experts NHK consulted do a simulation, using a small-scale model, and conclude that about 55% of water injected may have leaked into the Condenser Unit.



They further conclude that if the leak was up to 25% of the water injected, the meltdown may have been prevented:



Then, NHK turns to fire engines installed at nuclear power plants after the Fukushima accident, and says "Nobody knows whether a sufficient amount of water from a fire engine can reach the reactor in an emergency."



One of the experts comments, "It is a mistake to feel safe, or secure, just because you have fire engines on site."

I remember experts commenting that the pressure from heating fuel inside the Pressure Vessel prevented enough water from reaching the Pressure Vessel. I wonder if they knew about the line to the condenser pump, or if it occurred to them that the water intended for the Pressure Vessel got diverted to the condenser because of the loss of power to the pump.

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Original Japanese NHK News, which has additional information that does not appear in the news video:

３号機に注水の半分以上漏出か

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故で、１号機に続いてメルトダウンした３号機について、当時、消防車から緊急に原子炉に向けて注入した水の半分以上が、別の装置に漏れ出し、冷却に必要な量の水が原子炉に入っていなかった可能性の高いことが、ＮＨＫが専門家と共に行った解析や実験で分かりました。

消防車は、事故のあと、安全対策の要として全国の原発に配備されていますが、原子炉に確実に水が入るのか、事故から２年になる今も十分な検証が進んでいない実態が浮かび上がりました。

おととし３月の福島第一原発の事故では、１号機から３号機まで次々にメルトダウンし、建屋が水素爆発するなどして、大量の放射性物質が外部に放出されました。

事故から２年、なぜメルトダウンを防げなかったのか、十分な解明が進まないなか、ＮＨＫは、当時緊急に行われた消防車からの原子炉への注水に注目し、なすすべなく最初に水素爆発した１号機のあとに危機を迎えた３号機で検証しました。

消防車による注水を巡っては、一部が原子炉以外のどこかに漏れているのではないかという指摘が専門家からあり、ＮＨＫは、独自に入手した３号機の配管の図面などを基に、専門家と共に詳しく分析しました。

その結果、消防車から原子炉までの配管ラインの途中に水の抜け道があり、ここを通って、原子炉とは別の装置に水が漏れ出る可能性のあることを見つけました。

この抜け道の先には、発電に使われた蒸気を再び水に戻す「復水器」と呼ばれる装置があり、通常はその途中にあるポンプが動いていて水がせき止められるため、復水器に水が流れ込むことはありません。

ところが、専門家の協力を得て実験すると、ポンプが止まった場合、素通りして水が先に流れることが分かり、すべての電源を失った福島の事故の際には復水器側に水が漏れ出る可能性が高いことが分かりました。

当時、３号機の復水器は通常ではあり得ない満水状態だったことが、事故直後に東京電力が行った記者会見で明らかにされていて、今回の実験結果を裏付けています。

さらに、消防注水した際の当時の３号機の水の流れを実験で再現し、その結果を基に専門家が解析すると、原子炉に入らずに漏れた量はおよそ５５％に上り、この量ではメルトダウンを防げなかったという結果になりました。

一方、漏れた量が２５％までなら、メルトダウンは防げるという結果になっています。

消防車は、事故のあと、安全対策の要として全国の原発に配備されましたが、原子炉に確実に水が入るのか、事故から２年になる今も十分な検証が進んでいない実態が浮かび上がりました。

法政大学の宮野廣客員教授は、「消防車を配備すれば終わりではなく、本当に核燃料を冷やすのに十分な量の水が入るのかを確かめなければ、意味がない。事故の検証は不十分だ」と指摘しています。

「放射性物質漏らさない」構造が落とし穴に

原子炉に向けて注水した水がポンプから復水器に漏れ出した背景には、放射性物質を外に漏らしてはいけないという、原発特有の“落とし穴”がありました。

水が漏れる原因となった、「復水器」につながるポンプは、１時間に２５００トン近くの水を送り出す能力があり、猛スピードで回転するため、通常、軸の部分に少量の水を送り込んで熱の発生を抑える工夫が凝らされています。

一般のポンプであれば、水は送り込んだあと、そのまま外に排出しますが、原発で使うポンプの場合、放射性物質を含む水を外に漏らしてはいけないため、水でふたをする「封水」と呼ばれる特殊な構造をしています。

「封水」は、ポンプの羽根が回転する際に発生する水の圧力によって、ポンプに流れ込む水をせき止めます。

ところが、福島の事故では、すべての電源が失われてポンプが止まってしまったため、ポンプを素通りして、復水器に水が流れました。

緊急時に原子炉に注水する際、本来、水の漏れがあってはいけません。

ポンプの構造に詳しい東京海洋大学の刑部真弘教授は、「原発のように汚染水を絶対に漏らしてはならない状況では非常によくできた仕組みだが、電源が失われた今回は、大きな盲点になった。似たようなケースはほかにもある可能性があり、どこに弱点が存在するのか、徹底的に検証すべきだ」と指摘しています。

原子力規制委はまだ検証できず

消防車を使った原子炉への注水の検証が十分進んでいないことについて、国の原子力規制委員会で、原発の新安全基準作りを担当している更田委員に聞きました。

更田委員は「当然、漏れることは考えられるし、消防車やポンプ車で期待した量がすべて原子炉にいくわけではないと考えてもらっていい。安全基準や注水の手順で足りないところを見つけることは、事業者と個別の原子炉を対象に図面を基に議論しようとしているが、今の時点ではほとんどやっていない」と述べ、現状では規制委員会としても検証ができていないことを認めました。

そのうえで、今後の対応について更田委員は、「弱点探しや、実際に事故が起きたときにどうしようかという議論は、基準とは別の話だ。消防車による代替注水で十分な能力なのか、十分な手順なのか、万一事故が起きたときに実際に対応する人たちと私たちが向かい合って議論することになると思う」と述べ、消防車による注水のように、事故が起きたときの対応については、安全基準とは別に、事業者と直接議論をして対応策を検討する考えを示しました。

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Boeing 787 Lithium-Ion Battery Fire: Miswiring Found on ANA Plane

Japan's Transport Safety Board announced on February 20 that the All Nippon Airway's Boeing 787 had a miswiring. The main battery and the auxiliary battery were connected but they shouldn't have been connected. Boeing's initial blueprint for 787 had these batteries connected. The blueprint was later revised so that the batteries were separate, but that revision wasn't reflected in the ANA plane.

When I first read the AP article (2/20/2013) reporting on the finding, I thought these batteries were supposed to be connected, but somehow connected "improperly"; if only they were connected "properly" there would have been no problem:

TOKYO (AP) — A probe into the overheating of a lithium ion battery in an All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 that made an emergency landing found it was improperly wired, Japan's Transport Ministry said Wednesday.

The Transport Safety Board said in a report that the battery for the aircraft's auxiliary power unit was incorrectly connected to the main battery that overheated, although a protective valve would have prevented power from the auxiliary unit from causing damage.

Flickering of the plane's tail and wing lights after it landed and the fact the main battery was switched off led the investigators to conclude there was an abnormal current traveling from the auxiliary power unit due to miswiring.

The agency said more analysis was needed to determine what caused the main battery to overheat and emit the smoke that prompted the Jan. 16 emergency landing of the ANA domestic flight and the worldwide grounding of Boeing 787 jets. They said they are consulting Boeing about the issue.

The Federal Aviation Administration and aviation authorities in other countries grounded 787 fleets because of the ANA incident, which followed a battery fire earlier in January in a 787 parked in Boston.

The 787, dubbed the Dreamliner by Boeing, is the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium ion batteries, which are lighter in weight, charge faster and contain more energy than conventional batteries similar in size. However, the batteries also are more prone to overheating and catching fire.

Then I found Asahi Shinbun article (2/20/2013) that corrected my misunderstanding:

ボーイング７８７型機のトラブルで、運輸安全委員会は２０日、高松空港に緊急着陸した全日空機から配線上の設計ミスが見つかったと発表した。バッテリーの炭化との関連は否定したが、ほかに全日空機２機で同様のミスがある可能性があるという。

The Transport Safety Board announced on February 20 that a design error in wiring was found in the ANA that made an emergency landing in Takamatsu Airport. The Board denied the error was related to the charred battery, but ANA's other two planes may have similar wiring errors.

７８７型機は機体前方にメーンバッテリー、機体後方に補助動力装置（ＡＰＵ）用バッテリーが積まれており、全日空機ではメーンバッテリーが炭化していた。

In a Boeing 787 plane, the main battery is located in the front of the plane and the battery for the auxiliary power unit (APU) is in the back of the plane. In the ANA plane, the main battery was carbonized.

運輸安全委によると、二つのバッテリーは通常、回路が別になるよう設計されている。

According to the Transport Safety Board, these two batteries are normally designed to be on separate circuits.

だが全日空機を調べたところ、二つのバッテリーの間が接続されており、ボーイング社の設計図上でもつながっていた。

However, when the Board investigated the ANA plane, these two batteries were connected, and they were connected in Boeing's blueprint.

二つのバッテリーがつながっていると意図しない電流が回路上を流れる恐れがあるという。

[According to the Transport Safety Board,] unintended current may run on the circuit if these two batteries are connected.

...ボーイング社は、トラブルのあった機体を含む全日空機３機を初期に製造しており、その後、二つのバッテリーの回路が別になるよう設計図を改訂していた。改訂が全日空機に反映されていなかった理由は調査中だという。

Three ANA planes including the one with the battery problem were some of the first 787 planes built by Boeing. Boeing revised the blueprint later to separate circuits for the two batteries. The Transport Safety Board is investigating why the revision was not reflected in the ANA plane.

Would the US FAA want to hear from ANA more on this? In addition to the blueprint revision not reflected, ANA changed the lithium-ion battery 10 times last year without reporting the incidents to the FAA.

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#Radioactive Japan on 2nd Anniversary of #Fukushima Nuclear Accident: "Beyond-Nuclear" Demonstrations (Same Old, Same Old)

Nothing has really changed after the nuclear accident on March 11, 2011.

2 to 3 months after the March 11, 2011 disaster, just when the extent of radiation contamination became known - sewer sludge, ashes from garbage incineration exceeding 8,000 becquerels/kg - some people and organizations started the events of "beyond-nuclear" demonstrations, with celebrities and activists on stage telling the audience how they oppose nuclear energy.

It was not really about Fukushima or the residents of Fukushima, not really about radiation contamination and what to do with it; it was this beautiful concept of life without nuclear power. Then-LDP Secretary General and current Minister of the Environment and son of Shintaro Ishihara called "beyond-nuclear" movement a "mass hysteria" in June 2011.

I didn't think much of the moniker, "beyond-nuclear" or datsu genpatsu 脱原発, from the beginning.

About a year later, starting in March 2012, a group started the protest in front of the prime minister's office to oppose the restart of nuclear power plants. It's a "single issue" movement, the organizers said. The Friday protests were extensively covered by independent journalist Yasumi Iwakami. The movement fizzled after the organizers met with then-Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, and disdainful remarks from the organizers for the protest participants drew criticisms.

Meanwhile, food contaminated with radioactive cesium continued to be sold throughout Japan, so-called "hot spots" in Kanto and Tohoku regions remained mostly untouched, people continue to live in the contaminated middle-third of Fukushima Prefecture for one reason or another (job, children don't want to leave, etc.), and people are returning to the more contaminated ocean-third of Fukushima as the government promises them extra compensation money if they return. There has been a curious lack of coverage even by the independent journalists of contaminated food and wide-area disposal of disaster debris.

Two years later on March 10, 2013, people are still doing the same "beyond-nuclear" protest.

Here's from Hibiya Park in Tokyo, as tweeted by @noiehoie:

It's certainly a lot of people. It is as if I were back in September 2011.

I did like those local protests against particular politicians, though. The one against Yukio Edano in Saitama stood out.

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Today's Tokyo, Sky Tree, from this tweet. A windy, hazy day:

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(OT) NYSE Considers Algo-Only Trading in Case of Emergency

I just can't wait.

From Reuters reporting on Wall Street Journal article (3/9/2013):

(Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange is readying plans to be able to operate without human traders in case another disaster, such as Superstorm Sandy, forces the shutdown of its historic trading floor in downtown Manhattan, The Wall Street Journal reported.

NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) is preparing to submit details of the plan to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the report, which cited people involved in the preparations. If activated, the plan would represent the first time the 221-year-old exchange would rely entirely on computer systems, without the oversight of floor-based traders, the paper said.

A NYSE spokesman declined to comment on the report.

The disaster plan would shift trading entirely to Arca, NYSE's all-electronic sister market. It would replace NYSE's current backup plan that calls for the exchange to remain open in a limited capacity while sending orders to Arca to be filled.

Exchanges including Direct Edge Holdings LLC and BATS Global Markets Inc BATS.Z in the past year have moved to develop backup sites in Chicago, the paper said. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc (NDAQ.O) maintains a disaster recovery site in Ashburn, Virginia, and can run its U.S. markets from its European base in Stockholm.

Superstorm Sandy forced the first weather-related multi-day shutdown of the U.S. stock market in more than 120 years when it struck the East Coast in October.

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"3.11.: Surviving Japan" Movie by Christopher Noland in Select Cities in the US from March 11, 2013

If I remember right, Chris Noland was right there in Japan when the March 11, 2011 triple disaster struck.

From the press release that Mr. Noland emailed me:

Seattle − February 12, 2013 – The lingering effects of the March 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disasters are captured on film by Christopher Noland, a young American living and working in Tokyo during the catastrophic events. The only film of its kind takes an in-depth, critical look into how the Japanese government, and the Tokyo Electric Power Company© (TEPCO), managed the nuclear crisis and tsunami relief efforts, plus explore the future of nuclear power.

The documentary will be shown in limited release−to coincide with the second anniversary of the March 2011 disaster−in 11 cities across the U.S. during the weeks of March 11th and 18th respectively, including: New York, Los Angeles, Laguna Niguel, Calif., San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Honolulu, and Portland. For theater information, please visit http://www.tugg.com/titles/311-surviving-japan (or http://www.311SurvivingJapan.Com)

“I spent six months volunteering in northeast Japan after the Fukushima disaster, and subsequently interviewed individuals from all walks of life, including TEPCO employees,” stated Christopher Noland, Director, “3.11: Surviving Japan.” While documenting the cleanup efforts, I quickly uncovered the Japanese government’s inadequate responses, and how officials misled the Japanese people regarding life-threatening radiation levels, emergency food and water supplies. “

“The film offers unique insights into a post-disaster present-day situation where millions of people are left to fend for themselves, and are blatantly told that a nuclear fall-out environment is safe.”. -Christopher Noland, Director, “3.11: Surviving Japan”.

For those of you in the States who wants to go, the tickets are available online only. Visit the site 3.11.: Surviving Japan for details.

Preview of the movie:

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#Fukushima Prefecture Promo Video: "Get Drunk on Fukushima - Fukushima Is Here, Unchanged, To This Day - Future for Fukushima"

All paid for by the country's taxpayers.

(Unchanged?? To this day??)

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#Radioactive Japan: Thyroid Control Screening Reveals Much Higher Percentages of Cysts and Nodules in Children Far Away from Fukushima

The control screening tests for thyroid abnormalities in children is being carried out by the Ministry of the Environment in Hirosaki City in Aomori Prefecture (distance from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant about 420 kilometers), Kofu City in Yamanashi Prefecture (about 380 kilometers), and Nagasaki City in Nagasaki Prefecture (about 1,480 kilometers).

The preliminary results have been announced by the Ministry of the Environment, and they more or less match the unofficial small-scale screening test results announced by doctors in Kobe City back in November 2012: Children in these far-away areas have higher incidents of nodules and cysts than children in Fukushima Prefecture.

Aomori and Nagasaki hardly had fallout from the accident. Yamanashi had some fallout, but the numbers don't even compare to the prefectures in Kanto, or even to neighboring Shizuoka.

Fallout from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident in these prefectures in March 2011 (Monthly fallout data from the Ministry of Education):

• Aomori: I-131 1 MBq/km2, Cs-134 0.12 MBq/km2, Cs-137 0.097 MBq/km2

• Yamanashi: I-131 480 MBq/km2, Cs-134 170 MBq/km2, Cs-137 170 MBq/km2

• Nagasaki: I-131 9.8 MBq/km2, Cs-134 0.32 MBq/km2, Cs-137 0.35 MBq/km2

Here are the numbers for the thyroid screening, as reported by Fukushima TV on March 8, 2013:

Number of subjects: 4,300 total
Age of subjects: 3 to 18 years
Tests scheduled to run from November 2012 to the end of March 2013
Locations: Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture; Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture; Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture
Results:

Percentage of children found with nodules and/or cysts

• Fukushima Prefecture: 41.2%

• Nagasaki, Aomori, Yamanashi: 56.6%

Percentage of children in B-category that requires further testing　[with nodules larger than 5mm, cysts larger than 20mm]

• Fukushima Prefecture: 0.6%

• Nagasaki, Aomori, Yamanashi: 1%

For more on thyroid abnormalities in children, see this togetter if you read Japanese. It seems these thyroid "abnormalities" are quite normally occurring anywhere in Japan.

That's not what many people in Japan and abroad want to hear. The conclusion for people in Japan who believe any bad news and rumors and disbelieves any non-bad news and rumors when it comes to radiation is either that the rest of Japan is so heavily contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear accident that children outside Fukushima have even higher incidents of thyroid abnormalities, or that the government is lying.

The former doesn't make any scientific sense if they want to attribute these abnormalities singularly to the Fukushima nuclear accident (which they do), and the latter doesn't advance any understanding or discussion. But it doesn't seem to matter anyway. Radiation contamination has become almost like a religion, and since the national and local governments and government scientists did such a poor job of informing citizens of the nuclear accident and radiation contamination in the early days of the accident, people heavily discount anything they say or do.

Knowledge hasn't advanced much, with the 2nd anniversary of the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident fast approaching.

For that matter, recovery hasn't happened much either, other than the fake dead tree in Rikuzen Takata (which now has fake branches and leaves).

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Greenpeace to GE: "Your Business = My Risk"

Jiji Tsushin reports that Greenpeace activists covered the GE building in Brussels with posters that say "Your Business, My Risk", referring to GE's nuclear business.

From Jiji Tsushin (3/7/2013):

東京電力福島第１原発の原子炉製造に携わった米複合企業ゼネラル・エレクトリック（ＧＥ）に抗議しようと、環境保護団体グリーンピースの活動家らが７日、ブリュッセルにあるＧＥの建物に「あなたのビジネスはわれわれのリスクだ」と書いたポスターを張り付けた。

On March 7, in protest against General Electric, the US conglomerate who was involved in the manufacture of the reactors at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, Greenpeace activists put up posters on the GE building in Brussels that said "Your business is our risk".

グリーンピースは同日の声明で「ＧＥは福島原発に主要な設備を提供したが、事故の賠償責任を免れている。日本の多くの人々は妥当な補償を得ていない」と訴え、原発に依存する欧州諸国でも、こうした事態が起きる可能性はあると強調した。

Greenpeace released a statement on the same day that said "GE provided the main facilities for the Fukushima plant, but so far has been exempt from the responsibility for the damages. Many people in Japan haven't received proper compensations." The statement also emphasized that it was possible that an accident like Fukushima could occur in European countries that rely on nuclear power.

There was a rumor for a very brief time right after the nuclear accident that then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan was considering suing GE for product liability. That rumor died very quickly.

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(OT) 13-Hr Filibuster Over, Rand Paul Happy with AG's Answer

After ending the filibuster 13 hours later, Attorney General Eric Holder sends a letter that says,

Dear Senator Paul:

It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: "Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?" The answer to that question is no.

Sincerely,

Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Weekly Standard says everyone but Senator Paul himself have received the letter.

According to CNN, Paul says:

"I'm quite happy with the answer," the senator from Kentucky said on CNN. "I'm disappointed it took a month and a half and a root canal to get it, but we did get the answer."

Well I'm not. Because it is still the President who happens to be sitting at the White House who will decide what "combat" is. By the ever "wider" definition being adopted by this particular administration of what "terrorism" may mean, "combat" could mean a protest against the president's policy, or intention to protest.

"If we let him/her, he/she might commit a terrorist act, so we preemptively eliminate him/her", or something along that line. And people will go "Oh.. OK... I guess you're right."

Some media outlets like MSNBC reported on the filibuster with a disdain, but failed to mention Senator Paul is asking about the US drone attack INSIDE the United States. As if it is totally OK to use it outside the US.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, people were killed by the US military drones in their weddings and funerals. Are weddings and funerals "combat"?

Well Rand Paul is not his father, that's for sure.

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(OT) Rand Paul Begins Talking, Filibuster to Stop John Brennan from Becoming CIA Director

(UPDATE) There seem to be at least three other Republican Senators doing the filibuster with Paul (Kentucky) - Jerry Moran (Kansas), Ted Cruz (Texas), and Mike Lee (Utah). They are doing the Questions and Answers routine among themselves, which is very intelligent and informative back-and-forth. This is very interesting.

Now they're talking about Alamo and the Constitution.

New face: Democratic Senator from Oregon Ron Wyden joined. He says he is in favor of Brennan, but he is dead set against the executive branch's unchecked power in target killings.

Marco Rubio (Florida) joins.

Saxby Chambliss (Georgia) joins.

Well-orchestrated filibuster, it looks like.

Patrick Toomey (Pennsylvania) joins.

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

C-SPAN is carrying it live. I wonder how long he can speak. I think he should also read books by Bastiat, von Mises, Rothbard, Hayek to his fellow Senators. That should last a day or two. He can read his father's books, too.

According to the media, filibuster talk in the Senate doesn't happen very often, and it seems to have gotten more attention from the media than the letter Senator Paul received from Obama's Justice Department chief Eric Holder that it is legal to strike Americans with unmanned drones inside the United States, without trial, as long as the president thinks it necessary under "extraordinary circumstance".

From Washington Post (3/6/2013):

Rand Paul begins talking filibuster against John Brennan

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) began speaking just before noon Wednesday on the Senate floor in opposition to the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA, saying that he planned to speak “for the next few hours” in a rare talking filibuster.

Paul, who strongly opposes the Brennan nomination and the Obama administration’s use of unmanned aerial drones, becomes the first senator to make use of the procedural tactic in more than two years and the first to do so since the Senate approved a bipartisan rules reform package in January.

“I will speak until I can no longer speak,” Paul said. “I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.”

Paul began his filibuster at 11:47 a.m. Eastern time. Around the one-hour mark, he acknowledged “I can’t talk forever” and said his throat was getting dry.

At the start if the 1 p.m. hour, Paul was the only senator on the floor. Just 30 people watched from the Senate gallery above while a few security guards, stenographers and Senate pages held their appointed spots on the floor. In the rafters, a man responsible for operating the Senate television cameras was seen reading a newspaper.

Paul’s comments from the Senate floor come as he’s raised objections in recent weeks. Paul first threatened to filibuster the Brennan nomination in late February, when he sent a letter to administration officials asking whether the U.S. government would ever use a drone strike to kill an American on U.S. soil.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. responded to Paul’s inquiry Monday, saying the administration has “no intention” of carrying out drone strikes on suspected terrorists in the United States, but could use them in response to “an extraordinary circumstance” such as a major terrorist attack.

Paul called Holder’s refusal to rule out drone strikes within the United States “more than frightening.”

(Full article at the link)

Well, no one else seems to think so.

"What's to worry, if you are not doing anything wrong?" people may say.

Well, who's to decide what's "wrong"?

No doubt the Obama White House is closely monitoring what and how the media reports on Paul's filibuster.

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LDP's Finance Minister (and Former Prime Minister) Taro Aso on Nuke Plant Policy: "The Government Made Them Do It"

Electric power companies in Japan, that is.

Mr. Taro Aso, who is also the vice prime minister in the Abe administration, is very well known for his loose tongue since his days as the prime minister (September 2008 to September 2009). His "hurry up and die" remark in January this year is nothing new, as he said practically the same thing when he was the prime minister.

He's not very good at prevaricating, like other Japanese politicians. Maybe his Roman Catholic faith keeps him honest, in a way.

According to Jiji Tsushin article below, Aso apparently openly admitted that it was the national government who forced the electric power companies to go into the nuclear power business, as the national policy.

Well, everyone knows that, but you're not supposed to say it. But Aso did, and it was newsworthy enough for Jiji.

From Jiji Tsushin (3/5/2013):

原発「国がやらせた」＝麻生財務相が異例発言－諮問会議

Unusual remark by Finance Minister Aso in the the meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy: "The national government made them do" the nuclear power plants

内閣府が５日公表した２月２８日の経済財政諮問会議の議事要旨で、麻生太郎副総理兼財務相がエネルギー政策に関連して「間違いなく電力会社に対して、国として原発政策をやらせた」と述べていたことが明らかになった。原発推進に対する政府の責任を真っ向から認める閣僚発言は異例だ。

According to the minutes summary of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting on February 28, which was disclosed on March 5 by the Cabinet Office, Mr. Taro Aso, vice prime minister and finance minister, referring to the [government's] energy policy, said "The national government definitely did make the electric power companies do the nuclear power plants." It is very rare for a minister to openly admit to the national government's responsibility in promoting nuclear power.

麻生財務相はまた、東京電力福島第１原発事故後の原発運転停止を踏まえ、「こうなったらいきなり『あなたたち（電力会社）の責任』みたいな顔をすると、『大丈夫だと言ったのは国ではないか』ということになる」と電力会社の本音も代弁。

Mr. Aso also touched on the shutdown of nuclear power plants after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and said, "If we just turn around after the accident and pretend "it's all your (electric power companies') fault", they would be unhappy and say "It was you [the national government] who said it was safe"", speaking for the electric power companies.

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Obama's Nominee for Secretary of Energy Is an MIT Professor Who Said It Would Be a Mistake to Abandon Nuclear Power Because of #Fukushima Accident

It sort of rhymes with the Jiji's interview with Dr. Antonino Zichichi, the 83-year-old Italian particle nuclear physicist who extolled the virtue of safe and cheap nuclear power, dismissing the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident as caused "human errors" committed by lowly non-specialist workers.

President Obama's pick for the next Secretary of Energy is an MIT theoretical nuclear physicist who wrote in 2011 that it was a grave mistake for governments in the world to abandon nuclear power just because the Fukushima accident happened.

Why? Because nuclear energy is carbon-free energy! (Uggghhh...)

And because Chinese, Indians, Russians, and South Koreans haven't stopped pursuing nuclear energy even after the Fukushima accident. So why should you?

To address safety of nuclear power plants, he advocates the Small Modular Reactors (SMR), for which Babcock & Wilcox backed by Microsoft's Bill Gates won the federal government funding for half the cost of its 5-year project to design and commercialize small, modular reactors.

And nuke waste? From what I've skimmed through he doesn't propose anything new. He simply says it has to be addressed.

From his featured essay in Foreign Affairs magazine in 2011 (November/December 2011 issue):

Why We Still Need Nuclear Power
Making Clean Energy Safe and Affordable

By Ernest Moniz

In the years following the major accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, nuclear power fell out of favor, and some countries applied the brakes to their nuclear programs. In the last decade, however, it began experiencing something of a renaissance. Concerns about climate change and air pollution, as well as growing demand for electricity, led many governments to reconsider their aversion to nuclear power, which emits little carbon dioxide and had built up an impressive safety and reliability record. Some countries reversed their phaseouts of nuclear power, some extended the lifetimes of existing reactors, and many developed plans for new ones. Today, roughly 60 nuclear plants are under construction worldwide, which will add about 60,000 megawatts of generating capacity -- equivalent to a sixth of the world's current nuclear power capacity.

But the movement lost momentum in March, when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the massive tsunami it triggered devastated Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. Three reactors were severely damaged, suffering at least partial fuel meltdowns and releasing radiation at a level only a few times less than Chernobyl. The event caused widespread public doubts about the safety of nuclear power to resurface. Germany announced an accelerated shutdown of its nuclear reactors, with broad public support, and Japan made a similar declaration, perhaps with less conviction. Their decisions were made easier thanks to the fact that electricity demand has flagged during the worldwide economic slowdown and the fact that global regulation to limit climate change seems less imminent now than it did a decade ago. In the United States, an already slow approach to new nuclear plants slowed even further in the face of an unanticipated abundance of natural gas.

It would be a mistake, however, to let Fukushima cause governments to abandon nuclear power and its benefits. Electricity generation emits more carbon dioxide in the United States than does transportation or industry, and nuclear power is the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the country. Nuclear power generation is also relatively cheap, costing less than two cents per kilowatt-hour for operations, maintenance, and fuel. Even after the Fukushima disaster, China, which accounts for about 40 percent of current nuclear power plant construction, and India, Russia, and South Korea, which together account for another 40 percent, show no signs of backing away from their pushes for nuclear power.

....

(Full article at the link)

At least partial meltdowns? I think at the time of the publication it had been already fully admitted by TEPCO and the Japanese government that they were total meltdowns and partial melt-throughs (out of Reactor Pressure Vessels).

Ihe concluding part of the essay, Dr. Moniz says "the public needs to be convinced that nuclear power is safe". Have we seen this before? Yes, in the past 50 years or so in Japan, and particularly in the past 2. This is a political essay urging politicians to do "now or never" to save the planet from global warming, and telling them he is there to help:

The concluding part of the same essay above (emphasis is mine):

NOW OR NEVER

As greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere, finding ways to generate power cleanly, affordably, and reliably is becoming an even more pressing imperative. Nuclear power is not a silver bullet, but it is a partial solution that has proved workable on a large scale. Countries will need to pursue a combination of strategies to cut emissions, including reining in energy demand, replacing coal power plants with cleaner natural gas plants, and investing in new technologies such as renewable energy and carbon capture and sequestration. The government's role should be to help provide the private sector with a well-understood set of options, including nuclear power -- not to prescribe a desired market share for any specific technology.

The United States must take a number of decisions to maintain and advance the option of nuclear energy. The NRC's initial reaction to the safety lessons of Fukushima must be translated into action; the public needs to be convinced that nuclear power is safe. Washington should stick to its plan of offering limited assistance for building several new nuclear reactors in this decade, sharing the lessons learned across the industry. It should step up its support for new technology, such as SMRs and advanced computer-modeling tools. And when it comes to waste management, the government needs to overhaul the current system and get serious about long-term storage. Local concerns about nuclear waste facilities are not going to magically disappear; they need to be addressed with a more adaptive, collaborative, and transparent waste program.

These are not easy steps, and none of them will happen overnight. But each is needed to reduce uncertainty for the public, the energy companies, and investors. A more productive approach to developing nuclear power -- and confronting the mounting risks of climate change -- is long overdue. Further delay will only raise the stakes.

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Dow Jones Industrial Hit All Time High

Congrats, so-called "One Percent" in the US and the world. All the gains since the so-called "Lehman Crash" which may or may not have been engineered by the JPM and Hank Paulson (see Zero Hedge, here and here) have gone to you exclusively.

The rest of us got double the unemployment, nearly double the food stamps between October 2007 and March 2013. The household disposable income has declined, gas price is 36% higher.

Zero Hedge has the nice bullet points comparing the highs, then and now:

"Mission Accomplished" - With CNBC now lost for countdown-able targets (though 20,000 is so close), we leave it to none other than Jim Cramer to sum up where we stand (oh and the following list of remarkable then-and-now macro, micro, and market variables):  "we all know it's going to end badly, but in the meantime we can make some money" - ZH translation: "just make sure to sell ahead of everyone else."

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5

• Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73

• GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%

• Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million

• Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million

• Size of Fed's Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion

• US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%

• US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion

• Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion

• US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion

• Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%

• Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6

• S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+

• VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%

• 10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%

• EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050

• Gold: Then $748; Now $1583

• NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares

Ah good old October 2007. That was when Google was approaching the then-all-time high. I had a November call option of Google at $750. November came, and it was Nasdaq's multi-year high. Just when Google was about to breach $750, the stock and Nasdaq went haywire, for no apparent cause, taking the other indices with it. The stock market tried to recover in December, but when the Pakistani presidential candidate (Benazir Bhutto) died during her campaign the stock indices started the march downward again. They went down almost every day for the month of January 2008.

(Google went from $747.24 to $412.11 in slightly over four months.)

Investor's Business Daily's IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has plunged to a 15-month low of 42.2. The federal economic policies confidence gauge fell 11% to 35.5, also a 15-month low.

Buoyed and encouraged by the rising stock market that correctly reflects the real market, no doubt, the federal government is giving away aids to Egypt and Pakistan, and hiring new employees.

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#Radioactive Japan: Google Japan Is Recording "Street View" in Namie-machi, One of the Most Contaminated Fukushima Towns

Mayor Baba of Namie-machi asked Google to film his town, so that the town's residents can see their neighborhoods and people in Japan and the world remember the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The entire town of Namie-machi (population 21,000) has been evacuated. Part of town is inside the 20-kilometer radius no entry zone, and the rest is inside the planned evacuation zone. Unlike Iitate-mura which is designated as planned evacuation zone but thanks to the enterprising mayor (I don't necessarily mean in a good way) has kept several factories operational ever since the accident despite the high radiation levels, I don't believe there is any business still operating in Namie-machi. (For early days after the March 11, 2011 disaster, read "Trap of Prometeus" series by Asahi Shinbun - see the right column of the blog for the link to my translation.)

The town looks just like as it was abandoned in the days after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

From Google Japan's blog, posted by Keiichi Kawai, group product manager (3/4/2013):

Google では、本日より、福島県双葉郡浪江町内のストリートビューの撮影を開始しました。

Today, Google will start capturing the Street View inside Namie-machi in Futaba-gun [district or county], Fukushima Prefecture.

浪江町は、現在、その半分が福島第一原子力発電所から20 キロ圏内にあたる「警戒区域」と、残り半分が「計画的避難区域」に指定されています。この度、浪江町のご依頼をいただき、Google マップのストリートビューで両区域内を撮影します。撮影は数週間程度を予定しており、数カ月後の公開を目指します。

Currently, half of Namie-machi is in the "no entry zone" inside the 20 kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and the other half is designated as "planned evacuation zone". This time, we received the request from Namie-machi, and we will capture both zones inside Namie-machi for Google Map Street View. It will take several weeks to capture, and we are aiming at making it public in several months.

Google Street View car in Namie-machi (Click to enlarge):

More views in the video (by Google), with Mayor Baba's message:

I wonder if Google is going to measure radiation levels as they drive through Namie and capture images. I hope they do. Without that information, as one can't see radiation, Namie-machi's devastation is indistinguishable from other towns in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate that were destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami. Mayor Baba wants people to remember the nuclear accident and what it has done to his town and townsfolk.

On March 12, 2011 morning, several hours before TEPCO did the vent on Reactor 1, the Fukushima prefectural government was sending personnel to measure radiation levels in Futaba-gun. I think it is total BS that the governor of Fukushima insisted he and his government weren't informed of any trouble at the　nuclear plants (Fukushima I and II). They were measuring from 8AM that day in the areas surrounding both plants.

They came to Namie-machi also. At 8:39AM in Nishihara in Takase Section of Namie-machi, it was 0.04 microsievert/hour. At 8:50AM, in the same place, the radiation jumped 200-fold, to 8 microsieverts/hour. (Details are in my Japanese blog, 7/12/2012.)

Unlike Okuma-machi and Futaba-machi, Namie-machi was not told immediately to evacuate. Namie was not on the TEPCO's list to fax nuclear emergency information (the list only contained the municipalities where the plants were located - Okuma, Futaba, and Tomioka). People took time, without knowing the radiation that was already spreading. Some were taking shelters in a location they thought was safe, but it turned out that they were living in a place with 330 microsieverts/hour radiation (Akougi District in Namie-machi, according to Ministry of Education). They didn't know it, until the NHK TV crew with Shinzo Kimura came and told them about the high radiation level (Kimura measured 80 microsieverts/hour just outside the house) on March 28, 2011.

Just outside the house, Kimura measured the soil. Radioactive cesium (134+137) was 4 million becquerels/kg, iodine-131 was 23.2 million becquerels/kg.

Mayor Baba remains bitter, and we can't blame him.

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Italian Physicist Antonino Zichichi: "Nuclear Technology Is the Safest Technology That Exists, Anti-Nuclear Movement Is Meaningless"

and the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident happened because of human errors.

(Uh... A M.9.0 earthquake and over 30 feet tsunami hitting the nuclear power plant right on the coast, didn't they have something to do with the accident?)

Italian nuclear physicist Antonino Zichichi was interviewed by Jiji Tsushin in February at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

From Jiji Tsushin in the series on the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 disaster (3/3/2013):

脱原発は「無意味」＝安全対策、人為ミス排除を－伊核物理学者【震災２年】

Two years since the disaster: Italian nuclear physicist says anti-nuclear movement is "meaningless", focus on safety measures and eliminate human errors.

イタリアの素粒子、核物理学の第一人者でボローニャ大名誉教授のアントニノ・ジキキ博士（８３）が時事通信のインタビューに応じた。原子力技術は「人類の最も安全な発明」とした上で、脱原発は「全く無意味」と明言。東京電力福島第１原発事故は人為的ミスで起きたとの認識を示し、知識を持った専門家による安全対策が不可欠だと述べた。

Dr. Antonino Zichichi (age 83), one of the most prominent particle and nuclear physicists in Italy and professor emeritus at University of Bologna, spoke with Jiji Tsushin. Dr. Zichichi said the nuclear technology was "the safest human invention", and declared anti-nuclear movement was "totally meaningless". According to his understanding, the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident was caused by human errors, and safety measures developed by knowledgeable experts would be indispensable.

ジキキ博士は原子力エネルギーについて、「（従来技術では）１ユーロでサンドイッチ１個買えるとすると、（原発では）１００万個買える」と述べ、再生可能エネルギーの優位性がまだ確立されていない中、効率的なエネルギー源としての原子力の利用価値の大きさを訴えた。

On nuclear energy, Dr. Zichichi said, "Suppose we could buy one sandwich with one euro, using the conventional technology. (Using nuclear energy,) we could buy one million sandwiches [with one euro]", emphasizing the utility value of nuclear energy as an efficient source of energy while renewable energy hasn't been established as superior energy.

さらに、「世界人口約７０億人全てが今のような生活ができるのは原子力の貢献によるものだ」と主張。原子力に頼らず現在の生活水準を維持することは「不可能」とし、福島原発事故後にドイツやスイスなど欧州で広がった脱原発の動きに批判的な見解を示した。

He asserted that "it is because of contribution of nuclear energy that the world population of 7 billion can live the way they live now". He said it would be "impossible" to maintain the current standard of living without relying on nuclear energy, and was critical of the movement away from nuclear energy in Germany and Switzerland and other parts of Europe after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.

原発の安全対策に関しては、米スリーマイル島原発などでの事故は知識を持たない作業員の対処ミスが原因とし、「（安全性は）際限なく向上させることは可能だが、人的（ミスが起きる）要素を認識すべきだ」と強調。原子力技術は「高い専門知識を持った科学者が管理する必要がある」と語った。

As to the safety measures for nuclear power plants, nuclear accidents such as the US Three Mile Island accident were caused by mistakes of workers who did not possess knowledge, he said. He emphasized that it would be possible to enhance safety infinitely but that we should recognize where human error could occur. Nuclear technology, he said, "needs to be managed by scientists with high levels of special knowledge".

I wonder if Jiji's reporter dared (or bothered) to ask him about nuclear waste management and disaster cleanup cost. I suppose not. His strange calculation of 1 euro one sandwich doesn't make any sense to me. And to have him say that the nuclear accidents are caused by lowly workers not scientists.

If anything, lowly workers are the ones who intimately know how a plant works and has technical knowledge and expertise, and that was the case in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. A renowned nuclear scientist who happened to be the chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission at the time of the accident panicked, and admitted nearly one year later that he couldn't sleep and didn't even remember what was going on in the first week of the nuclear accident.

I don't believe there is any technology that is immune to human errors, but to a nuclear physicist like him, errors are for mere mortals. If only people like him were in charge, there would be no accident.

Mere mortal Italians showed infinite wisdom, in the eyes of many in the world, when they rejected the restart of nuclear projects in Italy in the national referendum in June 2011.

They also showed wisdom as they booted out the unelected Goldman Sachs technocrat from their government.

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Mayor of Osaka City in 2010 (Then Governor): "Learn How to Gamble from Early Age, Let's All Become Gamblers!"

The boy-wonder mayor of Osaka City is getting really loose these days, after his party's sizeable win in the December Lower House election and a lot of national media attention has been given to him and his party since the election.

The boy-wonder wants to build and run a casino in Osaka, and he has been preaching the virtue of gambling to the willing audience of national politicians for years now.

Here's from Asahi Shinbun in 2010, when the boy-wonder was still the governor of Osaka Prefecture (10/28/2010):

大阪府の橋下徹知事は２８日、カジノの合法化をめざす国会議員らを招いた「ギャンブリング＊ゲーミング学会」の大会に出席し、「ギャンブルを遠ざける故、坊ちゃんの国になった。小さい頃からギャンブルをしっかり積み重ね、全国民を勝負師にするためにも、カジノ法案を通してください」と議員らにカジノ合法化を求めた。

On October 28, 2010, Governor of Osaka Toru Hashimoto attended the conference of the "Gambling & Gaming Society" which invited the Diet politicians who want to legalize casinos in Japan. Governor Hashimoto urged the politicians to legalize casinos by saying "By removing gambling from our daily lives, we have become a nation of the well-groomed and naive. We have to make an assiduous effort to master gambling from early age so that every Japanese citizen becomes a gambler. Please pass this Casino Bill."

同学会は東京都内のホテルで開かれ、カジノ合法化をめざす超党派の「国際観光産業振興議員連盟（カジノ議連）」の国会議員らが出席。議連会長の古賀一成衆院議員（民主）がこの場で、来年の通常国会にカジノ法案を提出したいと述べた。

The conference of the Society was held at a hotel in Tokyo, attended by a non-partisan group of politicians in the National Diet called "Parliamentary Group for the Promotion of International Tourism Industry (Casino Group)". Kazunari Koga (DPJ), chairman of the group, said at the conference that he would like to submit the Casino Bill in the next year's ordinary session of the Diet.

橋下知事はカジノを含む統合型リゾート施設の府内への誘致をめざしており、この日も「増税よりカジノ。収益の一部は教育、福祉、医療に回す。隣の兵庫県知事が反対しても無視。わいざつなものは全部大阪が引き受ける」と語った。

Governor Hashimoto wants to attract a resort facility that includes casinos in Osaka Prefecture. He said, "Casino, not tax increase. I will use part of the proceeds for education, welfare and medical care. I'll ignore if the governor of Hyogo Prefecture is against it. Everything that's vulgar, Osaka will take it."

Early 2011 was not a good time for submitting the Casino Bill, with the Magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami hitting Tohoku and eastern Japan in the middle of the ordinary session of the Diet. The boy-wonder himself submitted the bill on January 26, 2013.　Even though he himself is not a Diet member, he is the co-chair of his Japan Restoration Party.

Politicians and consultants are salivating at the prospect of the Bill actually passing. Here's Mr. Takahiro Suzuki, a Tokyo University physics graduate and former BCG consultant, excited about legalizing gambling in Japan so that Japan can become like Macao:

大切なことは経済を発展させることが目的で、カジノはそのための手段であるということである。...国家プロジェクトにしなければ、カジノを日本で合法化する意味はないだろう.

What's important is to expand the economy, and casinos are the means. ... Unless it is a national project, there is no point in legalizing casinos in Japan.

"National projects" in Japan used to be huge dams, nuclear power plants, infrastructure building for 1964 Tokyo Olympics, super-computers, mercantilistic policy supports for export industries.

Now these politicians wants to make gambling a national project.

Osaka has never been a refined place like Kyoto. It was a dynamic place of commerce for risk-taking, entrepreneurial merchants and industrialists who bet their own money and fortune. Now the boy-wonder wants to lead the nation by having a government-run gambling den in Osaka.

Even in the Edo era with loose morals, gambling was prohibited. Some Osaka residents now firmly believe the boy-wonder wants to destroy Osaka.

Here's one of the gambling stocks, Oizumi, from Nikkei Shinbun. The huge white candle in late January is when the Casino Bill was submitted by the boy-wonder. 50% jump in share price in less than one month. Not bad.

　

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