7 Tonnes of Stones from Fukushima Sold in Tokyo Last Year

No surprise here, as anything grown or harvested in Fukushima have been freely shipped and sold as long as it is not caught with radiation exceeding the very lax provisional safety limits. And for the construction materials that have been stored outdoors in Fukushima after the March 11 nuke accident, there is no safety standard, provisional or not.

Elite bureaucrats at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (in this case of construction materials) didn't connect the dots either out of ignorance or out of kindness to assist the producers at the expense of consumers. The producers and distributors didn't connect the dots either out of ignorance or due to suspension of their own judgment. "If the regulating ministry does not say anything, why should we bother raising the issue? Just sell."

Plausible deniability of responsibility. Still, too many Japanese look to the government officials and experts for "guidance" despite all that has happened since March 11, 2012.

From Tokyo Shinbun (1/21/2012):

福島の切り石　加工し出荷　県内業者、都内へ７トン　県調査で判明

7 tonnes of hewn stones from Fukushima, processed and shipped to Tokyo by a Fukushima producer, according to the Fukushima prefectural government investigation

福島県二本松市のマンション室内で、屋外より高い放射線量が測定された問題で、県は二十日、福島第一原発事故後に福島県で産出された切り石を、栃木県内の業者が取り扱っていたと発表した。県によると、塀などの外構え用で、コンクリートを作るのに使う石ではないという。

After the discovery of high radiation at an apartment in Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima where the radiation indoors was higher than outdoors, the Fukushima prefectural government announced on January 20 that the stones hewn after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant Accident had been sold to a dealer in Tochigi Prefecture. According to the Fukushima prefectural government, these stones are for the exterior uses like fences, and not for the use in concrete.

　県工業振興課によると、この業者は福島県白河市の業者から切り石九トンを購入。うち七トンを加工して東京都内へ出荷、残り二トンは保管している。出荷品の放射線量測定はしていないという。

According to the Fukushima prefectural government, the dealer [in Tochigi] purchased 9 tonnes of hewn stones from a producer in Shirakawa City [another high radiation city in the center 1/3 of Fukushima] in Fukushima Prefecture, processed 7 tonnes and sold them to buyers in Tokyo. The remaining 2 tonnes are kept at the dealer. No radiation survey was conducted on the stones that had shipped.

　県が十六日から十九日にかけ、砂利や砕石などを採取する県内の全七十六業者を調査して分かった。

This was revealed in the course of the survey done by the prefecture from January 16 to 19 of 76 producers of gravels and stones within Fukushima.

　原発事故後、出荷品の放射線量を測定しているのは十九業者、未実施が五十五業者で、二業者は未出荷。保管方法は、屋外に野積みが六十四業者、野積みと屋内の両方が八業者、残る四業者は保管なしだった。

After the nuclear accident, 19 producers have been measuring the radiation of the products that they ship. 55 producers haven't done any such test. 2 producers haven't shipped any. 64 producers store their products outdoors, 8 producers store outdoors and indoors, and the remaining 4 producers do not store [???].

　県は、業者らに信頼確保のため、砕石などの放射線量測定を徹底するよう文書で通知した。

The Fukushima prefectural government has sent a written notice to the producers to do the radiation testing on the stones in order to secure the trust.

Now there's some peculiar notice that I saw through Twitter links the other day. A new condominium in Ota-ku, Tokyo recently canceled the sale of the units, without giving any reason whatsoever. Nothing to do with the stones used in the exterior, doesn't it? (I'm trying to find a link again through mountains of tweets...)

By the way, they've now found at least 60 single-family and multi-family residences (link in Japanese) built in Fukushima Prefecture last year using the supposedly radioactive crushed stone from the stone pit in Namie-machi. The Fukushima prefectural government is loudly blaming the national government for not having come up with a safety standard for crushed stones in Fukushima, and the producers and distributors are blaming both the prefecture and the national government for leaving them without any guidance.

Everyone plays "victim".

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Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2: Temp Near the Bottom of Reactor Pressure Vessel Went -197.1 Degrees Celsius

Just for the record, the thermometer at the CRD Housing Upper Part of the Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 2 is completely kaput (or DS, down scale), and the last measurement on January 19 was -197.1 degrees Celsius, or -322.78 degrees Fahrenheit.

An extreme cold shutdown at that particular location, for sure.

If you haven't seen the video of inside the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel that houses this extremely cold RPV, the digest version is here, and the full version is here.

From TEPCO's latest plant parameters (1/21/2012):

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Job Advertisement Poster from Ministry of the Environment: "Without Decontamination, There Will Be No Recovery of Fukushima"

I took it to mean "Therefore there would be no recovery of Fukushima" but that's clearly not what the Ministry of the Environment (many on the net are calling "Ministry of the Destruction of the Environment) has in mind, in the job advertisement poster as photographed by Shuji Akagi, a Japanese twitterer:

Lush green in the shape of Fukushima Prefecture.

"Without Decontamination, There Will Be No Recovery of Fukushima", in the literary style that evokes days before the World War II.

The Ministry is looking to hire people for its effort to decontaminate the contaminated areas, particularly that in Fukushima Prefecture and to promote wide-area processing of contaminated debris .

Application deadline is Friday, February 3, 2012.

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Bumper Crop of Big Oysters in Miyagi Prefecture, Oysters Grew Extremely Fast

From Asahi Shinbun Miyagi local version (1/20/2012):

気仙沼市唐桑町東舞根で１９日、震災後の昨年６月に仕込んだ養殖カキ１６０キロが出荷された。今秋に出荷予定だったが生育が早く、前倒しした。出荷は今月いっぱい続くという。

On January 19, 160 kilograms of cultured oysters were shipped, as the first batch, from Higashi Mone District of Karakuwa-cho in Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture. The oysters had been seeded in June last year. The shipment was scheduled for this fall, but the oysters grew so rapidly that fishermen decided to harvest and ship right away. The shipment will continue throughout the month.

　畠山哲さん（４０）ら４人が共同で出荷した。海中に垂らしたロープについたカキを引き揚げ、付着物を落としたカキをかごに移し、ロープを再度海中に垂らす作業をした。かごが震災で不足しているため、一部のカキをむいて出荷した。

4 fishermen including Tetsu Hatayama (age 40) harvested and shipped the oysters. They pulled the ropes that were in the ocean to take the oysters attached to the ropes, cleaned the oysters and put them in the baskets, and put the ropes back in the ocean. Since they are missing the baskets because of the earthquake/tsunami, they removed some oysters from the shells to ship.

　畠山さんによると「津波の後はカキの生育が早い」との言い伝えがある。養殖イカダが震災で減り、密植が解消されたことなどが要因と見られている。畠山さんは「放っておくとイカダが沈むので、作業を前倒しした。出荷も震災による特殊事情です」と話した。

According to Hatayama, there's an old saying that oysters grow fast after a tsunami. They may have grown rapidly since a number of rafts used for oyster culture [ropes are dangled from the rafters] were lost in the earthquake/tsunami and the dense planting was alleviated [as the tsunami wiped out the rafts]. Hatayama says, "We decided to harvest sooner, otherwise the rafts would have sunk from the weight of the oysters. This is a special case, shipping this early, thanks to the earthquake/tsunami."

Oysters eat phytoplankton in the ocean.

NHK did the documentary in November last year investigating the marine contamination from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, and found high levels of bioconcentration in abalones of both radioactive cesium and radioactive silver (Ag-110m), the latter particularly in the liver. Oysters are almost all internal organs as they don't need and use muscles once they attach themselves to rocks or ropes.

There is absolutely no concern for radiation in the Asahi article.

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Kan Administration Declared the Fukushima Accident Worst-Case Scenario Report "Didn't Exist" After Reading It

The news of the worst-case scenario report submitted to the Kan administration by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission in March last year has already been reported, as I wrote on my January 2 post, but a little bit more information is coming from Kyodo News now.

It turns out that the Kan administration not only sat on the report detailing the worst-case scenario of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, but it declared the report wouldn't exist from then on, and didn't even officially recognize its existence as part of the government documents until December last year when the news of the report finally leaked. On the New Year's Eve.

So the core administration officials did the "three monkeys" - see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil - on the worst nuclear accident in the country, if not in the world while telling the citizens and the world everything was under control, that it was safe to play outside, that there was no meltdown at Fukushima, and attacking people who said otherwise as "fear-monger".

Kyodo News has a slightly different description of this incident in Japanese than in English. In the English version, the news agency simply says the administration kept the worst case scenario under wraps for months. But the Kyodo Japanese News reveals more.

From Kyodo News Japanese (1/21/2012):

東京電力福島第１原発事故で作業員全員が退避せざるを得なくなった場合、放射性物質の断続的な大量放出が約１年続くとする「最悪シナリオ」を記した文書が昨年３月下旬、当時の菅直人首相ら一握りの政権幹部に首相執務室で示された後、「なかったこと」として封印され、昨年末まで公文書として扱われていなかったことが２１日分かった。複数の政府関係者が明らかにした。

The document that detailed the "worst-case scenario" in which radioactive materials would be released intermittently in large quantities for about a year if all the workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant were to be evacuated was shown to a handful of officials in the Kan administration, including Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in the Prime Minister's Office in late March. But the report, after being shown to the administration officials, was sealed as "the report did not exist", and was not even treated as part of the official government documents until the end of last year. It was revealed by the multiple government sources on January 21.

　民間の立場で事故を調べている福島原発事故独立検証委員会（委員長・北沢宏一前科学技術振興機構理事長）も、菅氏や当時の首相補佐官だった細野豪志原発事故担当相らの聞き取りを進め経緯を究明。

The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (Commissioner Koichi Kitazawa, former chief of Japan Science and Technology Agency) , a private-sector panel looking into the nuclear disaster plans to probe how the government was handling the crisis, by interviewing then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Goshi Hosono, who was the adviser to Kan and was in charge of handling the nuclear accident at that time.

For reference, here's what's available from Kyodo News English for non-subscribers:

The government kept a worst case scenario for the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant under wraps for months after the document was shown to a small group of policymakers in late March, government sources said Saturday.

A private-sector panel looking into the nuclear disaster plans to probe whether the government tried to manipulate information in handling the crisis, by interviewing then Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Goshi Hosono, environment minister who was then adviser to Kan, among other figures. Hosono was in charge of handling the nuclear crisis.

The document, created by Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo at Kan's request, said that in a worst case scenario, radioactive materials would intermittently be released in massive quantities for roughly a year if all workers had to be evacuated from the plant, some 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

Radioactive materials have intermittently released for nearly a year, both into the atmosphere and into rivers and the Pacific Ocean.

As you see in the photo below, the report was neatly presented, with colored charts and graphs. Let's see if anyone in the media or the government cares to upload this report.

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Full Video of Inside the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel

For those of you who need to see the full version, not just the digest. TEPCO for some unknown reason uploaded 4 separate videos that are available for download for about a week. The total video length is about 40 minutes, with the last video being the longest (22 minutes). File sizes are big, and I will add to this post as I upload them on Youtube.

The scenes remind me of the movie "Alien".

Again, 40 unnamed workers in 10 teams prepped the site on January 17, receiving 3 millisieverts radiation exposure, and 34 unnamed workers operated the Olympus endoscope right outside the Containment Vessel, receiving 3 millisieverts radiation. Though Reactor 2's radiation levels are tame compared to those in Reactor 1 and Reactor 3, the air radiation level at the job site was over 20 millisieverts, according to TEPCO.

By the way, TEPCO released the photographs of the endoscope that was used, as if it was the hero of the operation.

Part 1 (Oh wait, it is supposed to be 8-plus minute video... What happened? Well enjoy while I try to figure that out.)

Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

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Japanese Government to Municipalities Against Accepting Radioactive Waste: "Shut Up"

That, in my crude paraphrasing, is what the Japanese national government is telling those municipalities in Japan that are siding with the residents who are against receiving radioactive waste - whether it is radioactive fly ashes from incineration plants or radioactive sewage sludge - to be burned, buried, or recycle in their towns, as long as the radioactivity is 8,000 becquerels/kg and less.

Or more formally according to NHK,

the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to restrict the acceptance of waste without any scientific evidence and legal basis and not to instruct the private waste processing companies not to accept the waste.

The national government has declared it is safe, and IAEA agrees with them, says NHK.

Does IAEA really say it is safe to bury 8,000 becquerels/kg radioactive cesium in a regular dump? Somehow, I have my doubts.

"Request" is a strong word, bureaucratically speaking, but short of outright order which may yet to come.

NHK News (1/21/2012):

基準以下の廃棄物 処分を要請

The national government requests the processing of radioactive waste if within the safety limit

首都圏などで出るごみの焼却灰や汚泥のうち、放射性セシウムの濃度が国が定めた基準を下回っているにもかかわらず、ほかの自治体にある施設に処分を頼んでも、断られるケースが相次いでいることを受けて、環境省は、全国の自治体に受け入れを拒否しないよう要請しました。

As municipalities continue to refuse to accept and process the ashes from garbage incineration or sewage sludge in the Tokyo metropolitan region and other locations, the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to refuse.

ごみの焼却灰や汚泥については、環境省が、放射性セシウムの濃度が１キログラム当たり８０００ベクレル以下であれば、通常の埋め立て処分をしても差し支えないとする基準を示しています。ところが、首都圏や東北地方では基準値以下のものであっても処分を依頼していたほかの自治体にある施設から、周辺住民などの反対で受け入れを断られるケースが相次いでいます。

As to the garbage ashes and sewage sludge, the Ministry of the Environment has already set the standard of 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium; if the radioactivity is 8,000 becquerels/kg and less, it is OK to bury the ashes and sewage sludge in a regular landfill. However, there are many cases in which processing of ashes and sludge from the Tokyo metropolitan region and in Tohoku region has been refused by the municipalities under contract, due to the opposition from the residents in the receiving municipalities.

こうした状況を受けて、環境省は、８０００ベクレル以下の焼却灰や汚泥を埋め立てても周辺住民などの安全に問題がないことは国内の専門家だけではなく、ＩＡＥＡ＝国際原子力機関も認めているとして、科学的な根拠や法的な根拠なしにむやみに受け入れを制限したり、処分業者に対して受け入れの中止を指導したりしないよう全国の自治体に要請しました。

To remedy the situation, the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to restrict the acceptance of waste without any scientific evidence and legal basis and not to instruct the private waste processing companies not to accept the waste. According to the Ministry, not only the experts in Japan but also the IAEA agree that when the ashes and sewage sludge with 8,000 becquerels/kg and less radioactive cesium are buried in a landfill, safety of the residents living near the landfill is not a problem.

環境省は「基準値以下のものであれば安全であることを理解してもらいたい。適切な処理ができるよう自治体との調整や住民への説明は今後も続けていきたい」としています。

The Ministry of the Environment says, "We want them to understand that if it is within the safety standard, it is safe. We will continue to coordinate with the municipalities and explain to the residents so that the appropriate processing [of the radioactive waste] can be done."

Next, I fully expect the Ministry of the Environment to say the same thing about disaster debris in Miyagi and Iwate, which the Tokyo government has been merrily burning in the municipal incinerators and dumping the ashes into the final processing location which is a landfill in the middle of Tokyo Bay. (Liquefaction, anyone?)

In some municipalities, landfills are located near the water sources, and the landfills have been known for leaking toxic substances into the water by faulty or broken filtering systems.

Residents of east Japan including Kanto region are against receiving it because they do not want added radioactive materials on top of what they already have. Residents of west Japan do not want it because most of west Japan has been spared of serious contamination like that of east Japan, and do not want to contaminate their soil, air and water.

More ordinary people on the net are getting more knowledgeable than the government officials and politicians. They may have no problem coming up with the scientific evidence and legal basis to refuse the radioactive waste.

By the way, the ashes from burning the regular household garbage in Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture has been burned in the melting furnace into slags in Saitama Prefecture, which are then turned into sands to be used in the public works in Saitama. The prefecture didn't know about it until citizens told the officials, as the prefectural government is not involved in the transaction between the private business in Saitama and a municipality in other prefecture.

An increasing number of Japanese seem, finally, to think if they allow the government to get its way, nowhere in their country can remain clean (excluding the background of course from the nuclear fallout from the atmospheric testing). They'd better hurry and educate their non-net-based friends and family members.

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NISA Hid Fast Breeder "Monju" Trouble for Over a Month

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's excuse is that the operator, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, did make an announcement of the trouble "locally" - probably meaning the municipality where the fast breeder is located.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1/20/2012):

もんじゅで原因不明トラブル、存廃論議に拍車も

Trouble at Monju, cause unknown. May further spur the debate whether to continue the project

経済産業省原子力安全・保安院は２０日、日本原子力研究開発機構の高速増殖原型炉「もんじゅ」（福井県敦賀市）で、制御棒の駆動機構に不具合が生じたとして、同機構に原因究明と再発防止を指示した。

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry instructed the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to investigate the cause of malfunction at the driving mechanisms for the control rods at the JAEA's fastbreeder "Monju" (in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture), and to come up with measures to prevent it from happening again.

　保安院によると、不具合が生じたのは昨年１２月１２日。駆動機構１９基のうち、１基が動作確認試験で稼働せず、２日後の再試験で動いた。さらに別の１基も動かず、機構は、原因を究明できないとして工場で分解点検する方針。

According to NISA, the malfunction happened on December 12. Of the 19 driving mechanisms for the control rods, one mechanism didn't work at all when they conducted the test to verify the mechanisms were working. When tested again 2 days later, the mechanism worked. However, there is another mechanism that didn't work [and didn't work in the 2nd test]. JAEA says they will disassemble the mechanism in order to identify the cause.

　公表が遅れた点について保安院は「制御棒がすべて挿入されていた上、機構側が地元で公表していた」と釈明した。もんじゅは現在、原子炉に制御棒が挿入された状態で、安全性に問題はない。しかし、東京電力福島第一原発事故を受けて政府がもんじゅの存廃を含めた原子力政策全般の見直しを進めており、不具合は議論に拍車をかけそうだ。

As to why the disclosure was so late, NISA explained that the control rods were all in, and JAEA did announce locally. The control rods are all inserted, and the Monju reactor is safe at this time. However, the government has been reviewing its nuclear policies in the aftermath of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, including whether to continue the Monju project. The trouble this time may spur the debate.

Not just the malfunction trouble, but the fact that the regulatory agency NISA felt it was OK to wait for more than one month to announce the problem should raise alarm.

NISA's press release on January 20 states that JAEA must report back to the Agency by February 29.

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(At Least) 1,100 Tonnes of Highly Contaminated Water Found in Trenches at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

No, this is not April 2011 when they found water whose surface radiation exceeded 1000 millisieverts/hour. (We weren't told how high it was, as their survey meter went overscale.)

TEPCO, ever since they found water leaking into the ocean from the evaporative condensation apparatus (desalination process) in December, has been checking the trenches that they know exist in the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant compound, and just about everywhere they look they are finding contaminated water of varying radioactivity in indeterminable amount.

The discovery on January 19 was rather "hot", as TEPCO's announcement shows:

Discharge valve pit of circulating water pump of Unit 2 pump room

• Amount of "puddle": 500 cubic meters (500 tonnes)

• Surface dose rate: 45 microsieverts/hour

• Cesium-134: 7.1 x 10^3 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 7,100,000 Bq/liter

• Cesium-137: 9.1 x 10^3 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 9,100,000 Bq/liter

Discharge valve pit of circulating water pump of Unit 3 pump room

• Amount of "puddle": 600 cubic meters (600 tonnes)

• Surface dose rate: 21 microsieverts/hour

• Cesium-134: 3.8 x 10^2 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 380,000 Bq/liter

• Cesium-137: 4.8 x 10^2 Bq/cubic centimeter, or 480,000 Bq/liter

They found two other trenches with contaminated water, with lower radioactivity. The locations of the above two pits are shown on this map. The only place where they didn't find any "puddle" was the Unit 2 Common Piping Duct:

Here's the summary table of discoveries of trenches with "puddles" of radioactive water:

I find it interesting that the surface dose rates do not necessarily correspond to the amount of radioactive cesium in the water. I believe they are measuring gamma rays, not beta. I wonder if TEPCO bothers testing other nuclides.

TEPCO assures us that the company doesn't think there are leaks to the ocean, because all the trenches that lead to the ocean have been plugged. They are very incurious as to where the water came (or is coming) from.

It may be good to recall what carried the water highly contaminated with strontium to the ocean in December was a regular side drain, not the concrete trenches and ducts.

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Video of Inside Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2 Containment Vessel

It's raining inside the Containment Vessel, with water droplets and radiation.

TEPCO has just released the digest version, 1 minute and 14 seconds. In the evening press conference on January 19, TEPCO's Matsumoto said the video footage that they took was about 30 minutes long, but most of it is either totally dark, or white-out as a water droplet was on the camera lens. (Or so he said.)

It took 34 workers (6 TEPCO, 28 affiliate companies) 1 hour and 10 minutes for the video.

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(UPDATED) 2,500 US Walmart Stores Selling "Japanese" Cuisine Pushed by Japanese Food Giant Ajinomoto

(Update 1/20/2012: According to the customer service of Ajinomoto USA, the "Simmering Samurai" line of frozen food currently uses ingredients from China, Japan, the US and other countries, depending on the seasonality and availability.)

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

since September 2011. There is no critical thinking behind the CNN article below; if there were, the writer would have asked questions like "Where are the ingredients coming from?"

It looks Ajinomoto, of MSG fame, makes "Simmering Samurai" frozen food in its Oregon manufacturing facility, according to the article, but it's not clear from the article. So I went to Ajinomoto's site, and it is still not clear. All they say about ingredients (for pot stickers, not for "Simmering Samurai" line of frozen food) is:

Before accepting any ingredients, they are thoroughly checked for freshness & quality. If they pass Ajinomoto's strict quality standards, they are received.

Looking at the package, "Simmering Samurai" looks more Chinese than Japanese.

(What a stupid naming.)

From CNN (9/12/2011):

Walmart bringing 'real' Japanese food to the United States
Millions rejoice on discovering it's not going to be sushi rolls again

Spend any time in Japan and you’ll soon realize that the local cuisine is the Best In The World (there, we said it). But return home and the old “What next?” question arises all too soon.

Luckily, if you’re in the good ole U.S. of A, Japanese catering giant Ajinomoto is riding to the rescue and pushing its Japanese culinary expertise to the masses through a new deal with Walmart.

Country-wide deal

Later this month, Tokyo-based Ajinomoto will start selling its existing “Simmering Samurai” range at 2,500 Walmart outlets across the United States, giving it what it hopes will be a fast track to the American stomach.

The frozen lineup will include Chicken Fried Rice, Orange Chicken and Beef Broccoli, each selling for about $9, and enough to feed three or four.

Changing tastes

Ajinomoto says it’s looking to growing U.S. demand for ethnic foods to help it sell more Japanese lines. Previously, it had concentrated on mostly niche products with typically expensive price tags.

Now, however, the firm is able to team up with a big-box retailer like Walmart as it has a manufacturing base in Oregon that helps keeps costs down.

Bonus fact: Ajinomoto also holds naming rights to the 50,000-seat Ajinomoto Stadium soccer arena in Chofu, Tokyo, which is home to two pro soccer teams.

Update: Yes, we know full well the dishes aren't particularly Japanese -- one would assume Ajinomoto has done trials to see what works well in the United Stated and planned accordingly. Food has a long history of "adapting" to fit the target market, after all.

(H/T anon reader)

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Reactor 2 Containment Vessel Endoscopy Photos

(UPDATE 1/19/2012: For the video digest, go to my latest post on the subject, here.)
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Just released during the press conference, which you can view at this link.

At 9:13AM on January 19, the temperature inside as measured by the endoscope was 44.7 degrees Celsius.

6 TEPCO employees and 28 affiliate workers, with maximum 3.07 millisieverts radiation exposure.

The video will be uploaded tomorrow.

In the photos, white dots are gamma rays.

From TEPCO's handout for the press, January 19, 2011:

Inside the pipe (before the Containment Vessel):




Inside surface of the Containment Vessel. Paint looks peeling:

At the grating (OP. 9500): no water was seen. OP 9500 is the level of the floor. OP 5480 is the bottom of the CV. TEPCO was expecting to see water at OP 9500.


Looking up inside the CV:

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Reactor 2 Containment Vessel Endoscopy Update: They Coudn't See the Water

(UPDATE: Photos inside the CV just released. See my new post.)

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The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's press conference is ongoing. TEPCO will have its evening press conference in less than an hour (at 6:00PM JST).

From NISA's press conference, on Reactor 2 Containment Vessel endoscopy carried out on January 19:

TEPCO couldn't see the surface of the water which was supposed to remain in the Containment Vessel.

The water level was probably much lower than expected (5.3 meters from the bottom of the CV).

It was highly humid inside the CV, and water was dripping.

No comment to one reporter's question of whether there is a damage on the CV as the water level was lower than expected.

Blurry image with water drops and high radiation inside.

Inside the CV, temperature was 40 degrees Celsius.

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#Radioactive Firewood Resulted in 43,780 Bq/Kg Radioactive Ashes in Nihonmatsu City

So, clearly there was a good reason why IAEA went to measure the radiation levels in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture when they came in March 2011 right after the March 11 nuclear accident.

From Jiji Tsushin (1/19/2012):

環境省は１９日、福島県二本松市内の民家で使用されたまきストーブの灰から、１キロ当たり４万３７８０ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出されたと発表した。

The Ministry of the Environment announced on January 19 that 43,780 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from the ashes in a wood stove used in a personal residence in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture.

Ashes are used as soil amendment.

The safety standards for firewood and charcoal were not even in place until November last year. According to the Forestry Agency, the safety limit for firewood is 40 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, and 280 becquerels/kg for charcoal so that the resultant ashes would not contain more than 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

The Agency's Q&A says:

From the incineration tests, when 1 kg of firewood is burned it results in 5 grams of ashes, and 1 kg of charcoal in 30 grams of ashes, with 90% of radioactive cesium remaining in the ashes.

That means radioactive cesium density in 1 kg of ashes is 182 times as much as that of 1 kg of firewood, and 28 times as much as that of 1 kg of charcoal.

2% of radioactive cesium in firewood/charcoal, when used in cooking, was transferred to the food.

Oh wait a minute. 10% of radioactive cesium that is in the wood/charcoal is released in the air when burned?

Reading further, the Agency openly encourage the bundling of radioactive firewood/charcoal that exceed the safety limit with those without any cesium detected:

It is OK to bundle firewood or charcoal that exceed the safety standard with firewood or charcoal that does not exceed the safety standard, and sell the bundle as long as it is not shipped across the prefectural border. [What's the point of that?]

To dispose the ashes of unknown radioactive cesium density, do not use as soil amendment in gardens and farmlands. Dispose them appropriately as waste products.

How?

The Agency does not say. I don't think ANY seller of firewood or charcoal is measuring the radioactivity, and I don't think any user of wood stove who gets the wood from the mountains in their backyard is measuring it either.

They say that's how the soil contamination after the Chernobyl accident remained high - cut the woods that were doused with radioactive materials, burn them in stoves for heat and cooking, use the ashes as soil amendment to grow food.

That's happening in Japan now, thanks partly to bureaucrats in the government ministries but also to the general public who still don't connect the March 11 Fuku I accident with radioactive materials all around them.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 2 CV Endoscopy Is Done

(UPDATE: Photos inside the CV just released. See my post.)

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At TEPCO's morning press conference on January 19, 2012, TEPCO's Matsumoto said that the endoscope was successfully inserted through the hole created on January 17 on the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel and the survey of the interior was done.

The work started at 9AM, and was done at 10:10AM. More details of the survey will be disclosed at the evening press conference at 6:00PM.

TEPCO thinks it is a partial meltdown in Reactor 2, and there is water up to 5 meter from the bottom of the Containment Vessel.

If you understand Japanese, you can view TEPCO's press conference live at TEPCO's site, here.

The morning press conference starts at 11:00AM JST, and the evening press conference starts at 6:00PM JST. (Even if you understand Japanese, you may find it incomprehensible.)

There's no information from TEPCO about the radiation level at the location that the workers had to work, other than the company expects the radiation exposure level for the workers would be 3 millisieverts.

10 groups of workers (if the Jan 19 crew is the same size as the Jan 17 crew), 1 hour 10 minutes job, and 3 millisieverts expected exposure would indicate one group would spend 7 minutes at the site to get 3 millisieverts radiation, and the radiation level at the site would be about 25.71 millisieverts/hour.

Not bad, compared to other reactors that has locations whose radiation is one to two digits higher.

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Slow and Rude Awakening of Japanese Citizens Over the Nuclear Crisis

They are nowhere near the majority ( who eat any food and go anywhere without a single worry about radiation contamination), probably not even 10% of the population. But thanks to the net and particularly the social media like Twitter, the Japanese people now have a direct tool to observe how the officialdom works, firsthand.

The most recent case in point happened yesterday, over the so-called "public hearing" held by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The public hearing was about the approval of the result of the so-called stress test of one of the nuclear power plants operated by Kansai Electric Power Company (Ooi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture, in the so-called "Nuclear Ginza").

NISA and the Ministry clearly thought it was conducting a routine "public hearing" where the experts would rubber-stamp the conclusion already reached by the Agency which is staffed with employees from companies in the nuclear industry on temporary assignments and where the public, if any were there, were supposed to sit there quietly to observe the proceedings. Yesterday, NISA was to ascertain the safety of the Ooi Nuke Plant, paving the way for the re-start, and was expecting a smooth sailing. It did ascertain, but it was decidedly not a smooth sailing.

The citizens who went to the public hearing didn't want to just sit and listen, and sensing trouble the NISA quickly moved to close off the meeting, telling the citizens to watch the proceedings on a monitor in a separate room. When the citizens said no, and didn't obey NISA's order to stay in the separate room and entered the conference room, the Agency called in the police.

Then the order apparently quickly went to the media to report the incident as it was happening and paint the protesters as lawless and rude. Here's one typical report by Nippon Television News (1/18/2012); just about every sentence is incorrect:

１８日夕方、経産省の原子力安全・保安院の協議に反原発派の団体が乱入し、警察が出動する騒ぎとなっている。

An anti-nuclear group has forced its way into a meeting held at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under METI, and the police has been called in.

　保安院は１８日、大飯原発（福井・おおい町）３・４号機の運転再開の判断の前提となるストレステストの妥当性について話し合い、全国で初めて「妥当」とする判断を示す予定だった。しかし、反原発を掲げる市民団体らが別室に設けられた傍聴席から会議室になだれ込んで協議を妨害したことから、経産省は警察の出動を要請したという。

The NISA was expected on January 18 to discuss the appropriateness of the stress test that would be used to determine whether to re-start the Reactors 3 and 4 at Ooi Nuclear Power Plant (Ooi, Fukui Prefecture) and to declare it would be "appropriate" to re-start the plant. However, the citizens' groups who were against nuclear power plants barged in to the conference room from the separate room set aside for the public [to monitor the proceedings] and disrupted the proceedings, so the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry called the police.

　警視庁によると、市民団体らは建物内で座り込みを続けている。

According to the police, the citizens' groups are doing the sit-in inside the building.

The reality was:

• It was not an organized "group" of anti-nuke protesters but a bunch of citizens, including people from Fukushima Prefecture who were exercising their right as citizens to participate in a "public hearing";

• They lined up and obtained the tickets to participate in the hearing;

• The meeting was open to public, but the NISA decided to move the public to a separate location to avoid interruption;

• They didn't barge in violently as portrayed by the MSM, didn't interrupt the proceedings, but they were asking questions as concerned citizens.

And how do we know that? Because an independent media (IWJ) was net-casting the whole thing live, and people were tweeting, watching the netcast live.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano, whose refrain as the chief cabinet secretary was "There is no immediate effect from radiation" (he now says he only meant for a couple of days or weeks at most), called the citizen's behavior "unacceptable" and said that "some of the commissioners are being forced to remain in the room". How dare the lowly citizens interrupt the government scientific proceedings beyond their comprehension?

Two commissioners left the meeting in protest when the NISA did hold the meeting 4 hours later in a separate room shutting out the citizens entirely.

As Sankei Shinbun (1/18/2011) reports:

関西電力大飯原発のストレステスト（耐性検査）に関する経済産業省原子力安全・保安院の専門家会議の委員のうち、井野博満東京大名誉教授ら２人は１８日、保安院が傍聴を認めずに会議を開催したことに抗議し、会議を欠席した。

Two commissioners on the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's expert panel to assess the stress test conducted on Ooi Nuclear Power Plant operated by Kansai Electric Power Company left the meeting in protest. Hiromitsu Ino, professor emeritus at Tokyo University and another commissioner protested against the NISA's decision to hold the meeting without the public attending.

　井野氏は「保安院は（傍聴を認めないのは）前回の会合で不規則発言があったためというが、議事が数分遅れた程度。そんなことを理由に傍聴者を排除するのはおかしい」と強調。

Ino emphatically said, "The reason for NISA not to allow the public to attend the meeting was supposedly some irregular remarks [from the public] in the previous meeting. But that only delayed the proceedings by a few minutes. It is absurd to exclude the public for such a flimsy reason."

　元原子力プラント設計技術者の後藤政志委員も「国会でもヤジは飛ぶ。そんなことも許容できないなら保安院はさらに信頼を失うだろう。傍聴者を締め出し、密室でやるような議論には参加できない」と述べた。

Commissioner Masashi Goto, a former nuclear power plant engineer, said "You get heckled in the Diet. If NISA cannot tolerate such a minor thing, the agency will further lose credibility. I cannot participate in a meeting behind closed doors where the public is shut out."

　井野氏は、保安院が大飯原発のテスト評価を妥当としたことに対し「総合的安全評価というが、ほんの一部の評価をしただけだ」と批判した。

Ino also criticized the decision by NISA that the stress test for Ooi Nuke Plant was appropriate. "They say it was a comprehensible safety evaluation, when in reality only a small portion was evaluated."

Professor Ino is the one who said the other day that a Containment Vessel at Fukushima II (Daini) Nuclear Power Plant was broken from the March 11 earthquake.

Some on Twitter are still incredulous that the police was on the government's side, not on the citizens' side. Other long-held beliefs in a trust-based society that have been shattered, at least for a portion of the population, since March 11, 2011 include:

• The government of all levels, from national to municipal to an unofficial unit of "self-governing" neighborhood association, exist to protect citizens;

• The government officials don't lie, for the most part;

• Producers and distributors are honest, caring about the safety and quality of the products that they produce and sell;

• Food in Japan is safe, and the government will make sure it remains that way;
  

• The police is there to protect citizens;

• Public hearing means the public get to voice their opinions;

• They can trust the experts because they are from prominent academic institutions in the country;

• They can trust the politicians because they are from prominent academic institutions in the country;

• They can trust school teachers because they are from prominent academic institutions in the country;
  

• If it is reported in the mass media, it must be true;

• Nuclear power plants are safe.

• and on and on and on...
  

The list is endless and still growing. Too bad it took one of the worst nuclear accidents in history for the citizens to realize they've been had.

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#Radioactive Construction Sites: 1,000 Sites May Have Used "Contaminated" Crushed Stones in Fukushima

From Kyodo News (1/18/2012):

汚染石の使用現場は千カ所か　経産省、流通の特定難航

1,000 sites may have used the contaminated crushed stones. The Ministry of Economy having trouble identifying the buyers

福島県浪江町の砕石場で放射性物質に汚染されたとみられる石がマンションなどに使われた問題で、この砕石場の石やコンクリートが県内千カ所近くの工事現場で使われていた可能性のあることが１８日、経済産業省への取材で分かった。

Concerning the crushed stones from the stone pit in Namie-machi in Fukushima suspected to have been contaminated by radioactive materials and which were used in the construction of the apartment [in Nihonmatsu City] and other buildings, it was revealed on January 18 in the interview with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry officials that 1,000 construction sites in Fukushima Prefecture may have used the crushed stones or the concrete with the crush stones from this stone pit.

　経産省が流通ルートを調べているが、少量販売の場合、建設会社の間で伝票などの記録を残さずに取引していたケースもあるといい、流通範囲の特定は難航している。

The Ministry is investigating the sales channels, but having trouble identifying the buyers. If the sales were in small lots, there may not be any receipt left for the transactions between the construction companies.

　また、浪江町の砕石場から出荷された石が、同県二本松市内にある民家の庭先の敷き砂利として使われたことが新たに判明、ゴルフ場に出荷されたことも分かった。

It has been newly discovered that the crushed stones have been used as gravels in the front yard of a personal residence in Nihonmatsu City, and that they have been shipped to a golf course.

As I wrote in yesterday's post, it may not be just the crushed stones from this particular stone pit but all construction materials that were stored outside that may have turned radioactive from the fallout.

"Beyond expectation" for the elite at the Ministry, and the not-so-elite at the prefectural government, and the construction companies in Fukushima. Or so they say.

I suspect it was another "help the producers at the expense of the consumers" scheme during the period right after the March 11 nuclear accident and before the designation of the "planned evacuation zone" between the 20 and 30 kilometer radius. The national government and the Fukushima prefectural government was doing their best to encourage cattle farmers in the soon-to-be designated planned evacuation zone including Namie-machi and Iitate-mura to sell their cows and pigs to farmers outside Fukushima Prefecture. Many were sold and were processed at the meat processing centers in big cities throughout Japan, which were later found with radioactive cesium.

It may be that the government turned the blind eye, while the producers rushed to sell their inventory. And they all say, "Who could have known?"

Any and everybody but them, perhaps?

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TEPCO's Endoscopic Probe of Reactor 2 CV: Mockup Was Done on Novmeber 30, 2011

The picture was released on January 18, 2012. They did the mockup using Reactor 5, and the photo is that of inside the Reactor 5 Containment Vessel.

From TEPCO's handout for the press (1/18/2012), Japanese only for now. The photo on the right side is what you would expect to see in Reactor 2's Containment Vessel. Not.

"Colonoscopy" of Reactor 2's CV using the endoscope from Olympus will be on January 19 in Japan. I don't know the time, and TEPCO is not saying.

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OT: Google Homepage "Blackout" in Protest of SOPA and PIPA

Google's pages "End Piracy, Not Lilberty", "More about SOPA and PIPA"

(Well, Google, is this what you get in return for donating heavily to Candidate Obama in 2008 election...? The image is from a Zero Hedge post here.)

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(Duh...) Ministry of Economy to Investigate Other Bldg Materials for Radiation

It has finally occurred to the elite bureaucrats at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry that maybe, just maybe, all the building materials that were stored outdoors since the March 11 Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident may have been contaminated with radioactive fallout from the broken reactors, and not just the crushed stone from the stone pit in Namie-machi, Fukushima Prefecture.

Good, now you're thinking. The problem is that their approach is just the same as their counterparts in the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health: pick areas of what they (say they) think may have more contamination than others, and go ask the companies, and test if possible.

The similar method used radioactive beef, radioactive rice hay, radioactive rice has served the country well, having practically destroyed the credibility of the government of any form .

If beef, rice hay, leaf compost are any indication, the contaminated building materials may have spread far and wide already, outside Fukushima Prefecture. And what about the building materials stored outside in places like Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Gunma Prefectures? Or southern Miyagi where the high level of radioactive cesium was detected from the rice hay, and where radioactive cesium in raw milk has seen a spike recently?

For now, those are none of the concerns for the Ministry for now.

From Fukushima Minpo (1/18/2012):

二本松市のマンションで放射性物質に汚染された疑いがある砕石を原料にした生コンが使われた問題で、県と経済産業省は１７日、東京電力福島第一原発事故当時、屋外に置かれていた砂利や製材などの建設・建築資材の調査に入る方針を固めた。計画的避難区域と特定避難勧奨地点周辺の土木、建築関連業者を対象に出荷先などを調べる。一方、砕石の流通経路調査で経産省は、浜通りと県北地方を中心とした１６社を対象にすることを決め、販売先の特定を急ぐ。

Regarding the concrete used for the apartment in Nihonmatsu with the crushed stone suspected of having been contaminated with radioactive materials, the Fukushima prefectural government and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry decided on January 17 to investigate the building and construction materials such as gravel and sawing lumber that were stored outside when the Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident happened. They will target the civil engineering and construction companies in and around the planned evacuation zone and the special evacuation recommendation spots (aka hot spots) to find out where the construction materials have been sold. As for the crushed stones, the Ministry has decided to investigate 16 companies in Hamadori (coastal 1/3 of Fukushima Prefecture) and the northern Fukushima, and will try to identify the buyers.

　県と経産省は砕石と同様、屋外に置かれていた砂利や砂、製材についても放射性物質が付着した可能性があるとして調査に乗り出す。

The prefectural government and the Ministry of Economy will conduct investigation on building materials like gravel, sand, and sawing lumber that were kept outside, just like the crushed stones that may have been contaminated with radioactive materials.

　浜通り北部や県北地方などの計画的避難区域、特定避難勧奨地点の周辺を中心とした建設業者や製材、建築業者らに原発事故当時、屋根のない屋外の敷地に置いていたかどうか聞き取る。該当する資材があれば出荷先を特定し、放射線量を測定する考えだ。

They will interview the construction companies, lumber yards, etc around the planned evacuation zone and special evacuation recommendation spots in northern Hamadori (coastal Fukushima) and the northern part of Fukushima Prefecture [where Fukushima City is located]. If they find the materials that were stored outside without the roof, they will identify the buyers and measure radiation levels.

　ただ、調査対象が膨大な数に上ることから、調査には時間がかかるとみられる。データを管理していない業者もあるとみられ、正確な流通経路の把握は難しいのではとの指摘もある。

However, due to the sheer number of subjects, the investigation may take a long time. There may be companies that didn't keep records, and some point out that it may be difficult to accurately track the distribution channels.

　一方、砕石の流通経路調査は、比較的放射線量の高い地域にある業者１６社を対象に実施する。出荷先を調べ、線量を測った上で、周辺環境への影響を判断する。

As to the distribution channels for the crushed stone, they will target 16 companies in the areas with relatively high radiation. They will identify the buyers, measure the radiation levels in order to assess the effect on the environment.

　県幹部は「砕石で発生した問題を水平展開し、他の建築資材についても早急に調査する必要がある」としている。

The senior officials in the prefectural government say, "We need to apply the problem of the crushed stone to the other building materials and investigate as soon as possible."

Idiocracy.

Whoever says that the Japanese people are smart should know they are smart at test-taking skills so that they can go to good schools to become a good worker in peacetime, not the real-life problem-solving skills in a crisis.

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