Ishihara: "It's Plain Stupid to Abandon Nuclear Plants!" (and Nuclear Technology, Probably)

Donation from electric power companies to his new party must be swelling by the minute.

According to Jiji Tsushin (10/24/2012), Mr. Ishihara, who was still the governor of Tokyo at that time, made the remark in a press conference at J-Village in Naraha-machi, Fukushima, after he toured Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on October 24, 2012 in suits (without Tyvek) accompanied by the governors of Ibaraki and Gunma Prefectures.

東京都の石原慎太郎知事、茨城県の橋本昌知事、群馬県の大沢正明知事は２４日、福島県の東京電力福島第１原発を視察した。石原氏は視察後、原発事故対応の拠点となっている楢葉町の「Ｊヴィレッジ」で、記者団に「大きな反省点はあるが、その事故をもって人間が開発した現代的な新しい技術体系を放り出すのは愚かだ」と述べ、原発の必要性を強調した。

Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara, Governor of Ibaraki Masaru Hashimoto, and Governor of Gunma Masaaki Oosawa visited Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on October 24. After the visit, Mr. Ishihara emphasized the necessity of nuclear power plants to the press at J-Village in Naraha-machi, saying "There are points which we should seriously reflect upon, but to throw away the modern, new technology system created by the mankind just because of the accident is stupid."

Jiji says Ishihara was referring to nuclear power plants, but I'm not so sure. He may have meant nuclear power plants, but given his ultra-hawkish stance on security issues he may have also meant nuclear technologies in general, including nuclear weapon making.

Here's Ishihara, flanked by the governors of Ibaraki and Gunma, telling TEPCO managers and workers at Fukushima I Nuke Plant "You're doing the great job that only Japanese can do, with meticulous attention to detail", (according to the same Jiji article).

From TEPCO's Photos and Videos page on October 24, 2012:

Ishihara looks good for his age.

After witnessing the devastation from the two atomic bombs dropped, there were many people in power in Japan who wanted to have such powerful weapons themselves. Maybe it had a similar impression on then-13-year-old Ishihara.

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Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara to Quit, Form a New Party and Re-Enter National Politics

Just when he has made a complete mess with the relationship with China over the Senkaku Islands, and when a questionable accounting of Tokyo's failed Olympic bid for 2016 starts to surface, he calls it quits.

From Asahi Shinbun tweet (10/25/2012):

石原都知事は都庁で緊急記者会見を開き、辞職を表明しました。「今日をもって都知事を辞職する。国会に復帰しようと思っている。新党を立ち上げて仲間とやっていく」と話しました。会見は今も続いています。

Governor of Tokyo Ishihara held an emergency press conference and announced that he would resign as the governor. "I resign as the governor as of today. I intend to return to the National Diet. I will form a new party with the like-minded people", he said. The press conference is still ongoing.

Ishihara is probably quite popular with people whose source of information is the traditional media (TV, newspapers, magazines).

The boy-wonder mayor of Osaka City, who is badly trailing in the polls but continues to be a media darling (good or bad), was in talks with 80-year-old Ishihara at one time about possible cooperation.

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Hitachi Workers Operated Modified Giant Balloon to Peek at Reactor 1 Operating Floor at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

Total 25 workers from Hitachi, 4 workers from TEPCO got the maximum 3.81 millisievert exposure for an hour and 40 minutes work on Wednesday October 24, 2012. TEPCO says they didn't use drones because the balloon was successful.

Successful. The drones might have saved the workers from 3.81 millisievert radiation exposure.

The balloon measured radiation levels on the way up the shaft. The level was highest on the 2nd floor, at 150.5 millisieverts/hour. The operating floor (5th floor) was also high, at 53.6 millisieverts/hour at 1 meter off the floor.

From TEPCO's Photos and Videos page (Japanese), October 24, 2012:

Balloon:

Balloon moving up the shaft:

Looking toward north:

Spent Fuel Pool - a white reflection in the lower left corner is the surface of the water, according to TEPCO:

More photos at the link.

Radiation levels, from TEPCO's handout:

Jiji Tsushin wondered in its article why the radiation level was so high on the 2nd floor. They seem to have forgotten that that's where more than 1 sievert/hour radiation was measured back in May last year. The survey meter went overscale.

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Reuters on Benghazi Consulate Attack: White House Knew, Within 2 Hours

that "an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack" via the emails from the State Department's Operations Center.

That's in addition to the near-real-time footage taken by the Predator drone over the Benghazi Consulate as the attack was happening on September 11, 2012.

From Reuters (10/24/2012):

White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack: emails

By Mark Hosenball

(Reuters) - Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.

The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.

The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Benghazi assault, which President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials ultimately acknowledged was a "terrorist" attack carried out by militants with suspected links to al Qaeda affiliates or sympathizers.

Administration spokesmen, including White House spokesman Jay Carney, citing an unclassified assessment prepared by the CIA, maintained for days that the attacks likely were a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film.

While officials did mention the possible involvement of "extremists," they did not lay blame on any specific militant groups or possible links to al Qaeda or its affiliates until intelligence officials publicly alleged that on September 28.

There were indications that extremists with possible al Qaeda connections were involved, but also evidence that the attacks could have erupted spontaneously, they said, adding that government experts wanted to be cautious about pointing fingers prematurely.

U.S. intelligence officials have emphasized since shortly after the attack that early intelligence reporting about the attack was mixed.

Spokesmen for the White House and State Department had no immediate response to requests for comments on the emails.

MISSIVES FROM LIBYA

The records obtained by Reuters consist of three emails dispatched by the State Department's Operations Center to multiple government offices, including addresses at the White House, Pentagon, intelligence community and FBI, on the afternoon of September 11.

The first email, timed at 4:05 p.m. Washington time - or 10:05 p.m. Benghazi time, 20-30 minutes after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission allegedly began - carried the subject line "U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack" and the notation "SBU", meaning "Sensitive But Unclassified."

The text said the State Department's regional security office had reported that the diplomatic mission in Benghazi was "under attack. Embassy in Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well."

The message continued: "Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four ... personnel are in the compound safe haven. The 17th of February militia is providing security support."

A second email, headed "Update 1: U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi" and timed 4:54 p.m. Washington time, said that the Embassy in Tripoli had reported that "the firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi had stopped and the compound had been cleared." It said a "response team" was at the site attempting to locate missing personnel.

A third email, also marked SBU and sent at 6:07 p.m. Washington time, carried the subject line: "Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack."

The message reported: "Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli."

While some information identifying recipients of this message was redacted from copies of the messages obtained by Reuters, a government source said that one of the addresses to which the message was sent was the White House Situation Room, the president's secure command post.

Other addressees included intelligence and military units as well as one used by the FBI command center, the source said.

(Full article at the link)

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"The Man Who Saved the World" in Cuban Missile Crisis 50 Years Ago

Salute to Soviet Submarine Commander Vasili Arkhipov.

If he hadn't said "no" to the launch of Hiroshima-size nuclear torpedoes against the US fleet above, the world would have been a vastly different place by now (if the world had survived, that is).

From The Sun (9/24/2012; emphasis is mine) writing about the documentary of this episode during the Cuban Missile crisis which has been unknown to most:

The man who saved the world
New documentary reveals untold story of the Soviet submariner who stopped World War III

By EMILY FAIRBAIRN

FOR thirteen days in October 1962, the world held its breath as the USSR and the USA stood on the brink of nuclear war.

But a new documentary to be shown on Tuesday reveals that it was the actions of one man alone which saved the planet from utter destruction.

Vasili Arkhipov, a Soviet submariner, died humiliated and outcast, despite single-handedly averting World War Three.

Now, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Channel 5 documentary ‘The Man Who Saved The World: Revealed’ will tell his fascinating story.

It begins in the midst of the 1960s Cold War paranoia, when relations between Washington and Moscow had all but collapsed.

In America, ordinary people were stockpiling rations and building bomb shelters in their gardens, while in schools children were learning how to shelter under their desks.

Then there was a revolution in Cuba, and the tension escalated. Now the USSR had a communist ally sitting right on America’s doorstep. Missiles stationed in Cuba had the ability to annihilate Washington and New York in ten minutes.

The only thing stopping sworn enemies the USA and USSR firing on each other was the policy of mutually assured destruction.

One torpedo fired by either side would get a mirror response from the other — triggering a shower of destruction that could wipe out human life.

Thomas Blanton, the Director of the National Security Archive in the US, explains: “Everybody had a nuke in their pocket. One spark could set it off.”

It was in this atmosphere of suspicion and fear that four submarines secretly set sail from Russia. Only a handful of the submariners on board knew that their ships carried nuclear weapons, each with the strength of the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.

The journey to Cuba was fraught with danger. Helicopters, aeroplanes and battleships were scouring the ocean for Russian subs.

The American hunt for the Soviet submarines became a game of cat and mouse — and it wasn’t long before the mouse was spotted.

Arkhipov’s sub, B59, was forced to make an emergency dive. As the submariners tried to stay hidden from their American hunters, conditions in the sub deteriorated.

For a week they stayed under water, in sweltering 60 degree heat, rationed to just one glass of water a day.

Above them, the US navy were “hunting by exhaustion” — trying to force the Soviet sub to come to the surface to recharge its batteries. They had no idea that on board the submarines were weapons capable of destroying the entire American fleet.

Gary Slaughter, a signalman on board the USS Cony battleship, said: “We knew they were probably having trouble breathing. It was hot as hell in there, they were miserable, they were cramped together and they had been under great stress for a long time.

“Basically what we were trying to do was apply passive torture. Frankly I don’t think we felt any sympathy for them at all. They were the enemy.”

The Americans decided to ratchet up the pressure, and dropped warning grenades into the sea. Inside the sub, the Soviet submariners thought they were under attack.

Valentin Savitsky, the captain of B59, was convinced the nuclear war had already started. He demanded that the submariners launch their torpedo — and save some of Russia’s pride.

In any normal circumstances, Savitsky’s orders would have been followed — and World War 3 would have been unleashed.

But Savitsky hadn’t counted on Arkhipov. As commander of the fleet, Arkhipov had the last veto. And although his men were against him, he insisted that they must not fire — and instead surrender to the Americans.

It was a humiliating move — but one that saved the world. The Soviet submariners were forced to return to their native Russia, where they were given the opposite of a hero’s welcome.

Historian Thomas Blanton explains: “What heroism, what duty, they fulfilled to go halfway across the world and come back, and survive. But in fact, one of the Russian admirals told the submariners; ‘It would have been better if you’d gone down with your ship.' Extraordinary.”

It took years before the story of what really happened on the B59 sub was discovered — and by then, Arkipov was dead.

But to his widow Olga, he was always a hero.

She said: “The man who prevented a nuclear war was a Russian submariner. His name was Vasili Arkhipov. I was proud and I am proud of my husband, always.”

PBS aired the documentary in the US on October 23, 2012. PBS's introduction to the documentary says there were three, instead of two, decision-makers on board B59 submarine:

Four Soviet submarines were sent on a mission known only to a handful of Communist party officials. Their destination was a mystery to be revealed once they were at sea. Under their orders, each submarine was to travel 7,000 miles from a top secret naval base in the Arctic Circle across the Atlantic to be permanently stationed in Mariel, Cuba where they would serve as the vanguard of a Soviet force a mere 90 miles from mainland America.

The commander of each submarine had permission to act without direct orders from Moscow if they believed they were under threat. Each of the four subs was carrying what the Soviets called a ‘special weapon’, a single nuclear torpedo, comparable in strength to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The torpedo could only be fired if the submarine captain and political officer were in agreement. Each had one half of a key which, when joined, unlocked the firing mechanism.

Ryurik Ketov, who is interviewed in The Man Who Saved the World, commanded one of the four subs. “I had a written order that I could release it,” says Ketov. “And if there was an order to fire the torpedo I would do it without a second thought. For the first time in life a commander of a submarine had a nuclear weapon and had the authority to fire the missile at his command.”

However, aboard the B-59, three men—not two—needed to be in agreement. As commander of the entire submarine fleet, Arkhipov had the power to veto firing the missile and was one of the only men who knew about the mission in advance.

Courage of one person to say "no" saved the world. A lesson for us all.

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Greenpeace Slams Japanese "Decontamination" Measures in Fukushima, Finds 3 Microsieverts/Hr Radiation in Schools and Parks in Fukushima City

3 microsieverts/hour radiation is 100 times as much as pre-nuclear-accident level in Fukushima.

From News24, citing AFP (10/23/2012; emphasis is mine):

Greenpeace slams Japan anti-radiation action

Tokyo - Government radiation monitoring in areas near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is unreliable, Greenpeace charged on Tuesday, with heavily populated areas exposed to 13 times the legal limit.

The environmental group said authorities were wasting time cleaning up evacuated areas and should prioritise decontamination efforts in places where people live, work and play.

Greenpeace found that in some parks and school facilities in Fukushima city, home to 285 000 people, radiation levels were above 3 microsieverts (mSv) per hour. Japan's recommended radiation limit is 0.23mSv per hour.

"We also found that official monitoring posts placed by the government systematically underestimate the radiation levels," said Rianne Teule, Greenpeace's radiation expert, adding that some machines are shielded from radiation by surrounding metal and concrete structures.

Decontamination efforts

"Decontamination efforts are seriously delayed and many hot spots that were repeatedly identified by Greenpeace are still there," Teule said.

"It is especially disturbing to see that there are many hot spots around playground equipment, exposing children who are most vulnerable to radiation risks," she said.

In tests carried out over four days last week, Greenpeace also found that radiation levels in Iitate village, where the government is hoping to soon return evacuated residents, are still many times over the limit, with decontamination efforts patchy.

Greenpeace's Japan nuclear campaigner Kazue Suzuki said attempts to clean up were "misguided".

"One home or office may be cleaned up, but it is very unlikely that the whole area will be freed of radiation risks within the next few years," given the mountainous and heavily forested nature of the region, she said.

"The government continues to downplay radiation risks and give false hope [of returning home] to victims of this nuclear disaster," said Suzuki.

A huge tsunami, sparked by a massive undersea quake, swamped the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March in 2011.

Reactors went into meltdown, spewing radiation over a large swathe of Japan's agriculture-heavy northeast, in the planet's worst atomic disaster for a generation.

The natural disaster left around 19 000 people dead or missing.

However, no one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the nuclear catastrophe, but thousands of people have been displaced and many livelihoods wrecked.

Scientists caution it could be decades before the plant is fully decommissioned and the areas around it are safe to live in again.

Professor Hayakawa has also reported that the radiation measurement done at the monitoring posts in Fukushima differs, sometimes significantly, from the measurement done nearby.

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EU set to relax regulations on food imports from Japan starting Nov. 1

From Japan Times, citing Jiji Tsushin News (10/24/2012):

BRUSSELS — The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said it will relax regulations on imports of Japanese food starting Nov. 1.

The regulations were introduced in the wake of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

During an interview in July, Maria Damanaki, EU commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, expressed the commission's willingness to loosen the restrictions, saying the danger of Japanese seafood "is around zero."

The commission plans to reduce the frequency of sampling tests of Japanese food to 5 percent of import volume for all items from at least 5 to 10 percent.

The EU has required Tokyo and 11 other prefectures across the nation to conduct tests on food before exports are shipped. It plans to limit the regulation to certain items about which safety concerns remain, including tea leaves and some kinds of mushrooms, for the 12 prefectures with the exception of Fukushima.

Yomiuri Shinbun (10/22/2012) has a bit more details as to what food items and which prefectures:

• Agricultural products imported to the EU from Japan which no longer require certificates: all food items and animal feeds except for 8 items including tea leaves and mushrooms

• 
  

• Prefectures to which the EU's new rule applies: Tokyo, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Iwate, Miyagi, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa

I guess the EU does not know or chooses not to know that vegetables, meat, fish produced or caught in locations in Iwate, Miyagi, Gunma, Ibaraki, Chiba are being found with radioactive cesium exceeding the 100 Bq/kg safety limit of Japan or very close to it, and it is not last year but this year. However, since the EU import so little food supply from Japan anyway (9,000 tonnes from all Japan in 2010, says the EU), I suppose it is acceptable to the technocrats at the EU.

So, what are the 8 food items that the EU still requires the certificates? Let's check the Delegation of the European Union to Japan site. It has this news, dated October 22, 2012:

Food safety: Commission reviews measures on imports from Japan

EU News 501/2012

22 October 2012
Brussels

Experts meeting in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) endorsed a Commission proposal to revise rules on import conditions of food and feed originating from Japan following the Fukushima nuclear accident. Existing restrictions for food and feed imports coming from the prefecture Fukushima are maintained whereas control measures have been eased for several other prefectures. For the prefecture Fukushima, the existing measures applying to all food and feed, with the exception of alcoholic beverages, are maintained until 31 March 2014. Based on over 40,000 samples of products harvested in the second growing season after the nuclear accident, the restrictive measures in place have been eased for 11 prefectures (Yamanashi, Shizuoka, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Miyagi, Saitama, Tokyo, Iwate, Chiba and Kanagawa). An interim review is foreseen before 31 March 2013 for crops where samples of products for the second growing season (March-November) were not available in time for this review. For the control at import, a reduction of the frequency of controls to 5% will apply. Based on the monitoring results from the 2013 growing season, it is foreseen to undertake a review of these measures shortly before 31 March 2014. The measures will be published at the end of this month following the adoption of the proposal by the Commission and are foreseen to enter into force on 1 November 2012.

Well, we're no wiser. There is no mention of 8 food items, and I have little enthusiasm in delving into the EU press releases from last year. Maybe that's the wishful thinking of Yomiuri.

I did check the EU's statement from March 24, 2011, and I had to laugh at this passage near the end of the statement:

According to the latest information, the Japanese authorities have taken the necessary measures to ensure that food (and drinking water) testing above their established acceptable levels of radio-activity is neither sold to the Japanese public nor exported.

Well it was sold to the Japanese public. Yokohama City was busy last year feeding school children with radioactive beef because the business-minded mayor of Yokohama couldn't pass up a bargain of buying premier domestic beef at a discount. As for exports, the French authorities caught green tea from Shizuoka that had over 1,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. This year, green tea from Tochigi was found with 24 becquerels/kg of cesium, AFTER it was brewed, indicating the dried tea may have had 100 times that.

Trivial details, for the political class.

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OT: Apple Unvails iPad Mini, Stock Goes South (For Now)

For $329, you can now buy a small tablet from Apple. For price-conscious consumers, there are Google Nexus or Amazon Kindle for $199. Or Samsung Galaxy.

AAPL intraday price movement, from Yahoo Finance:

After the unveiling of iPad mini, Amazon shot up, and Google wasn't perturbed.

AMZN intraday:

GOOG intraday:

Apple is set to announce its quarterly earnings on Thursday after market.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1 Operating Floor Survey: TEPCO Will Use Small Drones As Backup This Time

TEPCO may be finally getting smarter. Or this could be the continuation of bath salts and diaper polymers - unique use of commonly available off-the-shelf products.

Anyway, TEPCO is redoing the survey of the operating floor of the Reactor 1 building at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. When they tried it the first time in early August, the giant balloon they used got caught by an obstacle and couldn't go up to the operating floor.

This time, they will still use a modified version of the balloon, but they will also have a backup plan which looks better to me than the balloon. TEPCO will have remote-controlled flying objects as backups, and one of them is the one that can be operated with android phone, iPhone or iPad.

Welcome to the 21st century, TEPCO.

Unlike the "Plan A" with the modified giant balloon which will still require workers to be right inside the Reactor 1 building to feed the string attached to the balloon, the "Plan B" with the flying objects can be operated remotely, though the TEPCO's diagram shows workers inside the reactor building with no shield.

From TEPCO's monthly progress report (in Japanese only, 10/22/2012) on the work at the plant toward decommissioning, pages 74 and 76:

Plan A with modified balloon:

Plan B with flying objects:

AR Drone 2.0 is a quadrotor flying thing fitted with HD camera:

I still personally like the idea of Professor Kumar of University of Pennsylvania to use a swarm of small flying objects that self organize. I guess it's still too radical for TEPCO to think of emergent intelligence when individually dumb or low-intelligence objects work together.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 4 Is "Sinking and Tilting", Again, According to Experts

This talk seems to occur periodically, but this time almost totally outside Japan.

Several US websites have the scary articles, which read more or less "Confirmed: Reactor 4 is sinking unevenly, entire building to tilt".

You can follow the link below (just one example) to learn all about it:

• From an article at Prison Planet,

• To Washington's Blog, then

• To Enenews who quotes Mr. Arnie Gunderson, who quotes Former Japanese diplomat Mr. Mitsuhei Murata, who quotes Mr. Mitsuyo Matsuda, a former secretary of Prime Minister Naoto Kan who quotes an anonymous "high ranking official in the nuclear security agency".

Mr. Mitsuyo Matsuda was a secretary of Mr. Kan before he became the prime minister and before the Democratic Party of Japan became the ruling party. If the source of information for these sites above is ultimately Mr. Matsuda, they may have some credibility issues, from what I've seen. He seems to be famous for his fantastic stories. (About Mr. Matsuda, see this togetter's comment section, if you read Japanese.)

I remember Mr. Matsuda from an interview done by independent journalist Yasumi Iwakami; I was rather taken aback with his assertions about Fukushima I Nuke Plant without anything to back them up. I was also surprised at Mr. Iwakami, for not questioning his assertions.

Mr. Matsuda claims in this interview in June this year (by 8bitnews, set up by former NHK news caster Jun Hori) that Reactor 4 had a core melt (never mind that there was no fuel in the reactor pressure vessel at that time) that resulted in an "elephant's foot" like Chernobyl. He says "it's immediately apparent" if you look at the photo of Reactor 4.

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Japan's Exports Drop 10% YOY in September, Most Since March 2011, As Imports Spike to Avoid Tax Increase on Oil

Japanese economy may have two consecutive quarters of contraction, which is the definition of "recession".

DPJ's Seiji Maehara, whose ministerial portfolio includes economy, finance, nuclear policy, and national strategy (virtually eliminating the need for the cabinet), pushes Bank of Japan for more monetary stimulus. He is silent on 20-plus years of fiscal stimulus by the Japanese government that has gone nowhere.

The most decline came from exports to the EU, dropping 21.1 percent, followed by exports to China that dropped 14.1%, according to Bloomberg. (I guess they don't round the numbers in 2 digits.)

Imports increased more than anticipated, because "“Everyone rushed to pass customs,” before a tax increase on oil imports that began Oct. 1."

Tax increase on oil imports, when the economy is struggling??? What are they thinking?　Oh I see, they are worried about "global warming". Of course. So the tax on 1 kiloliter of crude oil went up more than 10% starting October 1, according to the information from the National Tax Agency.

From Bloomberg News (10/21/2012):

Japan Exports Tumble 10% as Maehara Presses BOJ to Ease: Economy

Japan’s exports fell the most since the aftermath of last year’s earthquake as a global slowdown, the yen’s strength and a dispute with China increase the odds of a contraction in the world’s third-largest economy.

Shipments slid 10.3 percent in September from a year earlier, leaving a trade deficit of 558.6 billion yen ($7 billion), the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts was for a 9.9 percent export decline. Imports rose 4.1 percent.

Economy Minister Seiji Maehara pressed the Bank of Japan for more action yesterday, saying the nation is “falling behind” in monetary stimulus and is at risk of another credit- rating downgrade. The BOJ today cut its view of eight out of nine regional economies while Taiwanese unemployment rose to a one-year high, underscoring weakness across Asia after China’s third-quarter growth was the slowest since 2009.

“There’s a high chance that Japan’s economy will have two consecutive quarters of contraction through December,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu Corp. in Tokyo. “The slump in advanced nations is spreading to emerging economies.”

...The decline in shipments, exacerbated by a spat with China over islands in the East China Sea, was the biggest since May last year, when the country was rebuilding supply chains wrecked in the March earthquake and tsunami.

Shipments to China, the nation’s largest export market, slid 14.1 percent from a year earlier. Exports to the European Union fell 21.1 percent, while those to the U.S. rose 0.9 percent. Auto shipments to all markets dropped 14.6 percent.

...The trade deficit was the first in the month of September since 1979 and compared with economists’ median estimate for a 547.9 billion yen shortfall. The rise in imports was higher than a 2.9 percent gain estimated by economists as the country bought more oil and liquefied natural gas.

“The reason behind the increase is very simple,” said Shohei Setoh, a Tokyo-based manager for a crude oil trading group at JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. “Everyone rushed to pass customs,” before a tax increase on oil imports that began Oct. 1.

(Full article at the link)

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See No Evil, Hear No Evil (When It Comes to Radiation Contamination)

A reader forwarded me an excellent essay about a small town in western Pennsylvania contaminated with uranium.

What struck me the most was the last paragraph, in which the author relates the reaction of people to his facebook page:

Men, women, and children were poisoned by that uranium fuel plant and that glass plant. Yet, for the most part, they ignore this, content to contemplate instead their “warm and fuzzy” memories, as one person put it on my hometown facebook page.

The town seems to be dying because of radiation contamination from decades of uranium fuel processing, but people would rather dwell on warm and fuzzy feelings.

That's very similar to what may be happening in Fukushima. Or for that matter, in Japan. What a wonderful place it was. What a wonderful place it will be. Forget the present. (Fukushima I Nuke Plant's official mascot was an ostrich, after all.)

From "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate" blog:

Poisoning People in Apollo: All in a Day’s Work

May 18, 2012
Michael D. Yates

Apollo is a small town in western Pennsylvania, part of the old coal and steel belt that surrounds Pittsburgh. The shallow Kiskiminitas River, a tributary of the Allegheny, flows through the borough. Although it is close to my hometown, I never knew much about it, except that my artist uncle once made a glass carving for the town to commemorate the Apollo astronauts the community had embraced.

I remember passing through Apollo and noticing a large industrial complex at the edge of town. Years later, I learned that this plant was owned by the Babcock & Wilcox Corporation, and it produced uranium fuel. Babcock & Wilcox, a global conglomerate, has been involved in nuclear-related industrial production ever since the Manhattan Project, designing, fabricating, and supplying components for nuclear power plants, ships, submarines, and weapons.

The facility in Apollo and another one in nearby Parks Township, initially built by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) in 1957 and later bought by the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) and then by Babcock & Wilcox, closed in 1986. Left behind were contaminated land and water and sick and dead residents. Victims and their families sued the companies in the mid-1990s for damages suffered, and ARCO and Babcock & Wilcox were forced to pay $80 million to compensate victims for cancers and loss of property value. Sadly, by the time the lawsuits were settled, in 2008 and 2009, 40 percent of the claimants had died.

Meanwhile, Babcock & Wilcox declared bankruptcy in 2000 to avoid liability in thousands of lawsuits by employees subjected to asbestos, a substance that businesses have known since the 1930s causes cancer. As a condition of exiting bankruptcy, it set up a trust fund to pay asbestos claimants; the amount of money put aside was far less than the company would very likely have had to pay if it had faced those lawsuits.

Recently, nearly one hundred new lawsuits against ARCO and Babcock & Wilcox were filed by scores of people claiming that they got cancer as a result of exposure to radiation. A report to the federal court by an expert witness stated that the two companies “knew about worst-in-the-nation releases of radioactive materials that spanned decades, but opted not to do enough to protect neighbors from cancer-causing dust.” NUMEC showed an almost wanton disregard for safety. “In the first few years, the company lost so much uranium—enough to build several nuclear bombs—that the FBI investigated whether someone was actually stealing the material and selling it to a foreign country!” At the Parks Township facility, which produced plutonium and enriched uranium, NUMEC buried radioactive waste in an open unfenced field close to where children played. It is implausible that Babcock Wilcox, with its many nuclear projects over a long period of time, did not know about the problems with the entities it was buying. Yet, it did nothing to protect its workers or the community. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

A top official in 1974 viewed memos on the facility [which Babcock Wilcox bought in 1971] and wrote that if they were accurate, ‘we are guilty of gross irresponsibility in continuing to operate our uranium facilities.’ He threatened to shut them down, but the company didn’t stop making highly enriched uranium there until 1978, and it ended all production in 1984.

The actions of these corporations helped to destroy a town and its people, and it appears they knew what they were doing. They not only located a nuclear plant in a town, but then failed to shut it down when they knew that workers and residents were being poisoned. “ ‘A lot of people have lost not only their entire savings but their homes,’ due to the health effects and loss of property value caused by the plants, said Patricia Ameno, of Leechburg, who sued the companies in a previous round of litigation . . . . ‘Their families have been torn apart by illnesses and deaths.’” Ms. Ameno, whose body has been wracked by cancer and brain tumors, added, “I saw the town I grew up in … disintegrating, just like the bricks on that plant.” One of the persons who posted a comment on the Post-Gazette article noted that a 1999 piece in the same newspaper showed that one-sixth of Apollo’s population had some type of cancer!

I posted the Post-Gazette story on a facebook page dedicated to men and women who grew up in my hometown in the 1950s and 1960s. Most know about the Apollo plant. And they all lived in a town dominated by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, which poisoned its own employees with asbestos and silica dust and whose now abandoned property is so full of harmful chemicals that it cannot even donate it to the town. Outside town, near the company-owned fields on which I used to play baseball, “waste lagoons” built by the company and fed by pipes that went under the river have been leaking “arsenic, chromium, lead, manganese, copper, zinc, mercury and other toxic compounds into the river.” Despite this, only two persons commented on what I posted. If a post concerns some ancient bit of trivia or the local hoagie shop, members of the group fall all over themselves to make some meaningless remark. But something so important is met with silence.

Sadly, a family member is a manager at Babcock Wilcox. I have always wondered how he could do this. The division of the company in which he works is knee-deep in the bowels of the military-industrial system. It “manages complex, high-consequence nuclear and national security operations, including nuclear production facilities and the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.” In others words, it is part of the U.S. war machine, making money by helping the government kill people, just like it killed people more directly in Apollo.

Thousands of people grew up in and near Apollo. They have learned what harm the corporations who employed them and their relatives and friends have done and continue to do. Men, women, and children were poisoned by that uranium fuel plant and that glass plant. Yet, for the most part, they ignore this, content to contemplate instead their “warm and fuzzy” memories, as one person put it on my hometown facebook page. And many hundreds of thousands of men and women work as managers for horrendous corporate criminals like Babcock Wilcox without ever questioning their actions. Perhaps this tells us something about what those who raise their voices in protest are up against. Including the plaintiffs challenging Babcock Wilcox. I wish them success.

The author has a follow-up piece on October 20, 2012, describing how Babcock & Wilcox is attacking people who dare sue the company.

(H/T John Noah)

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Bent Water Rod in Spent Fuel at TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuke Plant, No One Knows Why or How

Engineers, care to comment?

During the regular maintenance, TEPCO found a bent water rod in one of the spent fuel assemblies in the Reactor 5 Spent Fuel Pool at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. In another assembly, the company found a bit of cotton-like fiber caught in the spacer.

From TEPCO's press release (Japanese) on October 17, 2012:

------------------------

Fuel rod configuration, from "Nuclide Composition and Neutron Multiplication Factor
of BWR Spent Fuel Assembly", Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (November 1999):

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#Radioactive Japan: Government Changes Rules, and 102.8Bq/kg of Cesium in Rice Becomes 100Bq/kg, Rice Safe and Good to Sell

Rice harvested this year in a district in Iwaki City in southern Fukushima was found with 102.8 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

Not a problem.

Because under the little-noted guideline from the Ministry of Health and Welfare on March 15 this year before the provisional safety standard of 500 becquerels/kg of cesium expired, you are supposed to round down or up the 3rd digit and use only the first 2 digits. (Jiji article below says the notice was issued on July 5, but the original notice was on March 15.)

So, 102.8 becomes 100. Exactly the safety limit, and that's fine with the Fukushima prefectural government. They say it is "sufficiently safe", meaning the rice will be sold.

From Jiji Tsushin (10/18/2012):

コメ検査で基準値上限＝「十分に安全」と県－福島

Rice tested at the upper safety limit, "Sufficiently safe", says Fukushima government

　福島県は１８日、２０１２年産米のモニタリング検査で、同県いわき市で生産されたコメから放射性セシウムの基準値の限度いっぱいの１キロ当たり１００ベクレルが検出されたと発表した。基準値は超えておらず、県は「十分に安全」（水田畑作課）としている。

Fukushima prefectural government announced the result of monitoring tests of rice harvested in 2012, which showed 100 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium had been detected from rice grown in Iwaki City in Fukushima. Since it didn't exceed the safety limit, the prefectural government says it is "sufficiently safe".

　県によると、いわき市の旧川部村で１６日に採取した玄米で、セシウム１３４が３９．６ベクレル、セシウム１３７が６３．２ベクレル検出された。合計すれば１０２．８ベクレルで基準値を上回るが、厚生労働省は「（合計値の）３桁目を四捨五入し、有効数字２桁とする」と７月５日付で通知しており、これに従うと１００ベクレルちょうどになる。

According to the prefectural government, unmilled rice from former Kawabe-mura in Iwaki City harvested on October 16 was found with 39.6 becquerels/kg of cesium-134, and 63.2 becquerels/kg of cesium-137. Total would be 102.8 becquerels/kg, exceeding the safety limit. However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare had sent a notice dated July 5, 2012 which stated, "Round off the third digit to the nearest whole number and use the first two digits as significant figure." According to the notice, [Iwaki's number] is exactly 100 becquerels.

　県は安全性確保のため、一定数のサンプルを採取して行うモニタリング検査に加え、全ての県産米（約１２００万袋）を対象に全袋検査を実施中。これまでに、いずれの検査でも基準値を超えるセシウムは見つかっていない。

The prefectural government has been conducting the test to detect radioactive materials (cesium) on all rice (about 12 million bags [of 30 kilograms of rice]) grown in Fukushima, in addition to the monitoring test with a certain number of samples [per location]. So far, no rice has been found with radioactive cesium exceeding the safety standard in either test.

Uh... it has just been found, hasn't it? 102.8 becquerels/kg?

Japanese wiki on rounding numbers says you should be conservative in rounding the numbers when it comes to safety. In this case, if the safety standard is 100 becquerels/kg and the rice exceeded that standard by whatever small margin, it should have been treated as "exceeding the standard", instead of rounding down and declaring it is "sufficiently safe". If anything, it should be rounded up to 110 and ban the sales to be very conservative and safe.

As one of my Japanese Twitter followers suggested, that wiki entry needs a revision: "You should disregard safety when it involves the government policy, and round down the numbers to fit the safety standard to avoid baseless rumors."

By the way, Fukushima Prefecture tested one more sample from the same village in the monitoring test. That sample was found with 71.8 becquerels/kg, which the Fukushima prefectural government dutifully rounded up and printed "72 becquerels/kg".

Last year, there were 3 samples tested from this particular village in Iwaki City. They were all ND.

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Will Lithuania's Referendum Stop the Construction of a New Nuclear Power Plant?

Hitachi's spokesman says the referendum result was "regrettable", according to Daily Yomiuri Online (English).

This referendum is "consultative", meaning it doesn't have the enforcing power. The government will have one month to decide on the resolution. (Wikipedia: Referendums in Lithuania)

Only a minor bump in the road for Hitachi, most likely.

From Daily Yomiuri Online in English (10/17/2012; emphasis is mine), which has more information than the article that appeared in Japanese Yomiuri (10/15/2012):

Hitachi's nuclear plan hits bump / Lithuania referendum on construction project could hurt export strategy

A Lithuanian referendum result has cast a shadow over Hitachi Ltd.'s strategy to increase sales from its nuclear business--and could affect other Japanese companies in the nuclear industry.

Hitachi has signed a provisional contract with the Lithuanian government to construct a nuclear plant in the Baltic nation. But in a nonbinding referendum held Sunday, 62 percent of Lithuanian voters rejected the project, a result that could make the Lithuanian government review it.

A Hitachi spokesman said the result of the referendum was "regrettable."

"We'll closely watch how the Lithuanian government responds to the result," the spokesman added.

Hitachi signed a provisional contract with the Lithuanian government in July 2011 to construct the latest model of a boiling water reactor in Visaginas, eastern Lithuania. The project will cost 400 billion yen to 500 billion yen, and the Lithuanian government plans to use the reactor to supply electricity to all three Baltic countries, including Estonia and Latvia, from the early 2020s.

The Lithuania deal was the first inked by a Japanese company to build a nuclear reactor overseas since the crisis began at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011. The contract showed the safety of Japan's nuclear technology was recognized internationally, to a certain degree.

Hitachi plans to increase sales of its nuclear businesses from 160 billion yen in March to 360 billion yen in March 2021. However, observers said the company will have to revise its strategy if Lithuania does a U-turn on its nuclear policy.

Other Japanese nuclear power plant companies are concerned the result in Lithuania might affect sentiment in more nations considering building nuclear reactors.

Toshiba Corp. is competing for an order to build a nuclear plant in Turkey with South Korea, Canada and other countries. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. is trying to export a nuclear power reactor to Jordan.

As these companies have no prospect of building a new nuclear plant in Japan since the government reviewed the nuclear energy policy after the Fukushima crisis, they must try to expand their businesses overseas.

However, some experts said the real issue of Lithuania's referendum was the massive spending that would be required for the construction at a time of financial difficulties, not the government's nuclear policy itself.

Many developing countries, including Lithuania, need to increase their power supply to sustain economic growth.

"Those countries have high expectations for nuclear plants that can stably supply a huge amount of electricity," an official of a Japanese nuclear company said.

I think I know what's coming next: a massive amount of interest-free loan from the Japanese government to Lithuania so that it can afford to have a state-of-the-art nuclear power plant.

Newsweek/Bloomberg article says the Lithuanian referendum result may prompt Estonia to commission a second oil shale-fired power unit.

Estonia's oil shale deposits account for 90% of Estonia's power source, and 17% of total deposits in the European Union, according to wiki.

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IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano: ‘We Continue to See Activities’ at Iranian Parchin Site"

Mr. Amano, a career bureaucrat at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, became the Director General of IAEA after the organization and its then-Director General Mohamed ElBaradei had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

His appointment didn't go smoothly, but in the end his and his government's pledge to the US that he would be instrumental in reining in Iran's nuclear ambition in the interest of the US seems to have finally cinched the election in 2009. (WikiLeaks, as reported by Asahi Shinbun on December 3, 2010.)

From Antiwar.com (10/17/2012; emphasis is mine):

IAEA Chief: ‘We Continue to See Activities’ at Iranian Parchin Site
The IAEA also noted an increase in Iranian enrichment capacity, but the latest report confirmed Iran's uranium was used for peaceful medical research

by John Glaser, October 17, 2012

UN nuclear watchdog chief Yukio Amano said on Wednesday there continues to be some “activity” around Iran’s Parchin military site, although he refused to say what kind of activity or to make any direct allegations that Tehran is hiding anything illicit in its nuclear program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its chief, Amano, continue to push Iran to allow inspections at Parchin, following accusations that Iran was trying to clean up evidence of weaponization of its nuclear program. The activity IAEA officials are seeing it from satellite imagery.

But Parchin is a military site that is not a declared nuclear site, and therefore not under IAEA jurisdiction. IAEA inspectors continue to constantly inspect all of Iran’s declared nuclear enrichment sites and to this day have never found any evidence that nuclear material from these sites has been diverted elsewhere for possible military use.

Many Western observers suspicious of Iran’s nuclear program, which they continue to insist is for purely peaceful uses only, use the unspecific Parchin accusations, along with Iran’s increasing uranium enrichment capacity at its Fordow plant, as indirect evidence that Iran is working towards nuclear weapons.
But the IAEA’s latest report, and Israeli intelligence, conclude that Iran has diverted much of its enriched uranium to peaceful scientific research and medical isotopes, as it promised.

Despite the IAEA’s estimate that enrichment capacity has increased, senior Israeli defense officials told Haaretz that “Iran has moved the wall back by eight months at least.”

And regarding inspections at Parchin, international observers should not be surprised that Iran hasn’t followed every demand and dictate of the inspectors and the Western-led negotiators.

The so-called diplomacy with Iran has been “predicated on intimidation, illegal threats of military action, unilateral ‘crippling’ sanctions, sabotage, and extrajudicial killings of Iran’s brightest minds,” writes Reza Nasri at PBS Frontline’s Tehran Bureau. These postures have spoiled the chance to resolve this issue promptly and respectfully.

After the failed talks in 2009 and 2010, wherein Obama ended up rejecting the very deal he demanded the Iranians accept, as Harvard professor Stephen Walt has written, the Iranian leadership “has good grounds for viewing Obama as inherently untrustworthy.” Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar has concurred, arguing that Iran has “ample reason” to believe, “ultimately the main Western interest is in regime change.”

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#Radioactive Japan: US High School Students Did Visit Fukushima, on "Strengthen Kizuna" Project

A Japanese independent journalist posted this photo on his tweet. It is an air dose measurement of 0.54 microsievert/hour in front of a junior high school in a village in Fukushima Prefecture, and the village name is Tenei-mura (pronunciation: ten'ei).

Remember that before the Fukushima nuclear accident, the average air dose rate in Fukushima Prefecture was one order of magnitude lower.

Now, why did this particular tweet catch my attention? Well that village was one of the locations where the high school students from the US were sent, as part of the "Kizuna" project by the Japanese and the US government to show support and solidarity with the "victims" of the disaster and to spread the correct information about recovery and decontamination effort by the Japanese government by having young people from the US visit Fukushima.

Remember those high school students, who followed the footsteps of the students from Middle Tennessee State University?

The original meaning of 'Kizuna' is "a tie that binds a domestic animal so that it can't escape".

From Fukushima-net.com (no date, but assumed to be in July 2012; part):

米国の高校生が被災地を訪問　天栄などで「キズナ強化プロジェクト」

US high school students visit disaster-affected areas, part of "Project to strengthen 'Kizuna'" in Ten'ei

東日本大震災の復興支援のため、アメリカの高校生たちが10日から天栄村などを訪れ、地元の人たちと交流を深めている。

High school students from the US have been visiting places [in Fukushima] including Ten'ei-mura starting July 10, interacting with the locals to support the recovery from the March 11, 2011 disaster.

外務省の委託事業で、日本国際協力センターが実施する「キズナ強化プロジェクト」の一環。アメリカの高校生が被災した宮城、岩手、福島、茨城の４県を訪れ、復興状況などを視察している。

It is part of the "Project to strengthen Kizuna", which is commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and carried out by the Japan International Cooperation Center. Under the project, high school students from the US are visiting the disaster-affected Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures and observing the progress of the recovery efforts.

本県は天栄村ふるさと子ども夢学校推進協議会が受け入れ先となり、１０日から１３日までの日程で実施。

In our Prefecture [Fukushima], a council of Ten'ei-mura is organizing the event from July 10 to 13.

アメリカの4つの高校で日本語を学んでいる学生と教師約１１０人が来日している。

110 students and their teachers from 4 US high schools are in [Fukushima]. The students are learning Japanese at their high schools.

...　12日は長沼高、岩瀬農業高を訪れ、日本の高校生との交流を図るほか、天栄村の職員から村内の畑の除染活動について説明を受ける予定。

On July 12, they are scheduled to visit the local high schools to interact with the Japanese high school students [there], and to be briefed by the village officials on the progress of decontaminating the farm lands in the village.

今回のプロジェクトは、アメリカの学生に被災地の復興状況を見てもらい、除染への取り組みを海外に発信してもらおうという狙い。

The aim of this project is to have the US students see the recovery of the disaster-affected area, and have them spread information on the decontamination effort.

The site has a photograph of students wearing "Kizuna" T-shirts and eating "mochi".

Ten'ei-mura is located along the corridor in the middle of Fukushima where the radioactive cloud passed through, between Sukagawa and Shirakawa. Professor Hayakawa's Radiation Contour Map (ver.7) has Ten'ei-mura inside 0.5 microsievert/hour, with a significant chunk of it inside 1 microsievert/hour.

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AP: White House Considering Retaliatory Strike in Libya

Wag the dog.

From Boston Globe, citing AP (10/16/2012):

White House faces dilemma in Libya attack response
Strike forces, drones on alert in North Africa

WASHINGTON — The White House has put special operations strike forces on standby and moved drones into the skies above Africa, ready to strike militant targets from Libya to Mali — if investigators can find the Al Qaeda-linked group responsible for the death of the US ambassador and three other Americans in Libya.

But officials say the administration is weighing whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on Al Qaeda is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group’s profile in the region, alienate governments the United States needs to fight it in the future, and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking responsibility for security at a US consulate in Libya where an assault by extremists on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks killed the four Americans.

Pushing back against Republican criticism of the Obama administration for its handling of the situation, Clinton said Monday in Lima, Peru, that security at all of America’s diplomatic missions abroad is her job, not that of the White House. She made the comments in several television interviews.

‘‘I take responsibility,’’ she told CNN. ‘‘I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world (at) 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn’t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They’re the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.’’

(Full article at the link)

I still remember how the government and the media put the spin on the news of the attack. It was blamed on the anti-Islam movie, or that's how they wanted us to sort of believe.

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OT: US Presidential Debate No.2 in Word Clouds

via Zero Hedge (10/16/2012):

Obama: Governor Romney just got going sure want people jobs

Romney: People get going jobs four years president

Anheuser-Busch provided free beer crafted in small batches to the reporters.

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OT: French TV Depicts Japanese Goalie with 4 Arms, Calling it "Fukushima Effect"

The French soccer (football) team lost to the Japanese team 0 to 1.

From Kyodo News English:

French TV host riles Japan with "Fukushima" comment
Photo captured from a Belgian website that posted an image run by France 2 shows a composite picture of Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima with four arms. A host of the national television station France 2 reportedly angered the Japanese Embassy by showing the picture during a variety show on Oct. 13, 2012, citing the "Fukushima effect" when praising Kawashima for his performance in Japan's defeat of France in a soccer friendly held on Oct. 12.

Well, having 4 arms is nothing. Buddhism deities have just as many, and more. In fact, the Japanese phrase "八面六臂" (eight faces, six arms) is used to depict someone with extraordinary talent and energy, worth several people. Like Mr. Kawashima.

This "Sahasrabhuja-arya-avalokites'vara" statue is a Japanese national treasure. It is from the 8th century, and has 1,000 arms to save people in distress:

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