Wednesday, December 7, 2011

#Radioactive Debris: New Osaka Governor to Citizens - "Don't Interrupt!"

47-year-old Ichiro Matsui is the newly elected governor of Osaka Prefecture who is all for accepting the disaster (and radioactive) debris from Tohoku. He convened the first meeting of experts to decide on the guidelines for accepting the debris, but the meeting was "rudely", according to him, interrupted by the citizens who don't want any radioactive debris to be burned and buried in Osaka. The meeting was canceled after one hour.

The governor was so incensed at this inappropriate behavior by the citizens who were supposed to just observe the meeting that he decided to keep the citizens in a separate room next time and make them watch the live feed of the meeting so that they don't interrupt the meeting with their silly questions about radiation.

The ex-governor of Osaka, 42-year-old Toru Hashimoto, is also very eager to accept debris. Now that he has become the new mayor of Osaka City, he and Matsui (they are of the same party called Osaka Restoration Association) want to push hard for the radioactive debris brought to Osaka. Pesky citizens be damned.

Will Osaka people put up with this? (Well, enough people voted for this guy, so maybe they will.)

(Here's the picture of the powerful duo. Governor Matsui is on the left, ex-Governor Hashimoto is on the right. He looks so youthful that I've started to think he hasn't graduated from the middle school yet.)

From Sankei Shinbun Western Japan edition (12/7/2011):

東日本大震災で発生した災害廃棄物の受け入れをめぐり、7日に開かれた大阪府内で処理する際の指針を検討する府の専門家会議が、放射性物質の影響を懸念して反対する傍聴者からの発言が相次いだため紛糾し、開始から約1時間で中止を余儀なくされた。同日、受け入れを前向きに検討する意向を示した松井一郎知事は「科学的知見を検討する会議の進行を妨げるのはいかがなものか」と不快感を示し、次回から別室でのモニター傍聴に切り替える方針を示した。

Regarding the acceptance of disaster debris from the March 11 earthquake/tsunami, the Osaka prefectural government held a meeting on December 7 of experts to decide on the guidelines of debris disposal within the prefecture. But the meeting was disrupted from the citizens who were observing the meeting and spoke up against the acceptance due to the concern for the effect of radioactive materials, and it had to be abandoned after about one hour. Governor Ichiro Matsui, who has already expressed willingness to accept the debris, was very displeased, and said "I don't think it was appropriate for [these people] to interrupt the meeting that discussed scientific knowledge. He plans to have the citizens observe the meeting in a different room via the [live] monitor.

 府によると、会議では受け入れに反対する傍聴者の市民らから「本当に健康被害が出ないのか」などと本来認められていない発言が相次いだ。座長の山本孝夫・大阪大大学院教授らは議事の進行が困難と判断し、打ち切りを決めたという。

According to the prefectural government, citizens who were against accepting the debris spoke up one after another, asking to know whether there would really be no damage to health. Remarks from the observers are not allowed. Professor Takao Yamamoto of Osaka University, who was the chairman of the meeting, and others decided that the meeting couldn't proceed in an orderly way, and canceled the meeting.

 府でのがれきの受け入れは、前知事の橋下徹・次期大阪市長が5月府議会で表明。松井知事も「安全性が確認されれば、困っている被災者のためにも受け入れるべきだ」としている。

Acceptance of disaster debris in Osaka was first expressed in May in the prefectural assemby by the then-governor and soon-to-be mayor of Osaka City Toru Hashimoto. Governor Matsui also says, "If the safety is confirmed, we should accept the debris to help the victims of the disaster."

 同会議で議論されている処理指針の骨子では、放射性セシウムの濃度が1キロ当たり200ベクレルのがれきの山を被災地で選別し、破砕した上でコンテナに密閉し、船で大阪まで輸送。陸揚げ後、放射性物質が外部へ飛散しない設備を整えた民間業者の施設でさらに選別・破砕し、市町村や民間の焼却施設へ運搬、焼却灰の埋め立てに際してはセシウム濃度が国の基準の4分の1以下であることを確認する案が示されている。

According to the guidelines for processing the debris that are to be discussed in the meeting, the debris with the density of radioactive cesium of 200 becquerels/kg will be first sorted and crushed in the disaster areas, then it will be put in sealed containers and brought to Osaka by ship. After landing in Osaka, the debris will be further sorted and crushed by private companies that has the facilities to prevent the escape of radioactive materials. Then it will be transported to municipal and private waste processing plants and burned. Before burying the ashes, the density of radioactive cesium is to be measured and it should be less than one-quarter of the national safety limit.

 府は、年内に処理指針を策定し、被災県や焼却施設を持つ府内の市町村と、受け入れに向けた調整を始める予定だった。しかし、府にこれまで寄せられた意見1万件超のほとんどは反対意見で、7日の会議中止と合わせ、年内の指針策定は難しい情勢だという。

The Osaka government had planned to decide on the guidelines before the end of this year, and to start negotiation with the disaster-hit prefectures and with the municipalities in Osaka that have incineration plants. However, almost all of 10,000 messages received at the government are against accepting the debris. Coupled with the cancellation of the meeting on December 7, it looks difficult to decide on the guidelines before the end of this year.

Just like Tokyo. Osaka will burn the radioactive debris in the municipal incineration plants all over Osaka. These criminal people are duly elected. Viva democracy.

Debris with 200 becquerels/kg of cesium will burn to produce ashes that may have 6600 becquerels/kg of cesium (33 times concentration). I don't know what national standard they are talking about, but assuming it is 8000 becquerels/kg that is decreed "safe" for burying in the landfill by the Ministry of [Destruction of] the Environment, Osaka's ashes will be too radioactive to bury with abandon. Well I suppose they can simply mix and match and burn to lower the radioactivity.

15 comments:

kintaman said...

People of Osaka will not stand for this. It is simply a matter of time before someone snaps and takes action against these traitorous fiends. People can only be fooled with so many times, even in Japan.

Anonymous said...

What are the alternatives? Osaka's ashes will be too radioactive to bury with abandon. Well I suppose they can simply mix and match and burn to lower the radioactivity.

Anonymous said...

Makes all kinds of sense... "help" the victims in a way that makes more victims. Bravo!

Anymore it's gotten to the point that I can't continue to care for what happens in Japan. Being disappointed like this time and time again isn't beneficial to any observer's health.

Mauibrad said...

Spreading the cancer causing affects of the Fukushima radiation across the whole country. Pitty the Japanese, their policy makers are committing genocide on the whole population. This is really quite shocking to see this level of self destruction of a whole Nation in a modern day and age that is supposed to be enlightened and educated. Shocking. Shocking. Did not think this was possible from a 'developed' nation such as Japan.

Anonymous said...

Man has striven for 25,000 years to become a clothed, intellectual superior life form. But actions by the Japanese nuclear mafia bureaucrats shows how little changed they are from being a naked ape. The emperor has no clothes in Japan as the nuclear mafia cabal cheers this sad train wreck over the cliff into annihilation of the entire nation and maybe takes the world population with it to the grave. Sayonara Japan. Sayonara human race.

Anonymous said...

NO PITY for their corporatist fascists !
(Or yours or mine)
Even as I rage against the spineless sheeple of Japan, I weep for their children.
(And all children)

FutureIsNow said...

Mauibrad said "Did not think this was possible from a 'developed' nation such as Japan."
The people are not to blame, only theur representant in the government, which are so tied to the nuclear industry that they just say what is good for them, and not what is ood for people.
As a citizen of the most nuclear powered country on earth, it's absolutely the same in France, and it took 2 disasters for a part of the french population to begin to think by themself..
me included... :(
When a corporation control the press, the elected government, the parlement, when they have so much money they can bribe anyone, it's a real problem.
We need to help japan citizen voices, to no be silenced par their government.
We have to never stop to read, spread, collect and analyse informations.
Fot the japan citizen, of course, but it's also for the whole world, as we are quite all in the same nuclear Ship...

Anonymous said...

I was born and raised in Osaka, always loved the carefree people-centric Osaka spirit that is independent from Tokyo's formality and bureaucracy. The new mayor Hashimoto has been portrayed as a breath of fresh air in old politics, but this news just proves he is just another dirty politician who talks about people's voice in speeches but only values his political power and favors, and he appears to have no brain to even consider legitimate people's conerns or rational input of scientific communities. When they do bring in scientific voice, they highlight only the portion that is convenient to them and put down the rest. (That's how Nazi pushed Aryan superiority theory)

Until now I was hoping to have a short visit to Osaka this or next year, a very quick trip to see my folks, my frail aging mother before she loses her faculty. But this news really puts a damper. As sad I feel, I may no longer consider visiting my home country again, I cannot expose my kids, husband, myself to the invisible and yet surely high radioactive exposure.

The new initiative to burn radioactive debris makes the whole Japan too dangerous even for a short visit, not mentioning the world-wide spread of radioactive Fukushima fallout (I heard Japan wants to have a leadership role in Kyoto Protocol... are you kidding!!)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous - I think you are very strong for deciding not to bring your children to Japan. I admire you.

I too would like to visit Osaka and Kyoto sometime next year. (My in laws live near Kyoto and I would like to take my children to see their grandparents.) But how can I rationally take my children to visit Japan, when they are burning radioactive debris? Clearly, we know that this will spread nuclear contamination all over Japan, the Pacific Ocean, the West Coast of the USA, Canada, and Mexico and throughout the planet.

It is beyond belief that they are burning nuclear waste. I cannot comprehend why they simply do not bury this waste in lined containers near the failed power plants.

And I hoped that this situation would improve. I am very very concerned about everyone living in Japan and all of us. The poisons just keep spreading.

jimbojames said...

Future is now is wrong.

The people are entirely too blame.

Anonymous said...

http://survivaljapan.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/radioactive-waste-in-osaka/

namastemommy said...

Everyone, I write from Wakayama City, one hour from Osaka. I am an American expatriate living in Japan for 25 years, married to a Japanese man with 2 daughters. Last month, the spreading of radioactive rubble reached an impasse largely due to public outcry around Japan (except Tokyo, where the governor paid no attention to the people). We petitioned our Wakayama City Hall, Prefectural Government and House of Parliament Representatives with much success (Wakayama has refused rubble) using this petition written in 5 languages: www.stopdammit.org/ Please sign this online petition and share with any and all Japanese people you know living in the Kansai area. I am so sad to have to leave Japan for the safety of my girls, but if burning starts in Osaka..we must leave before the school year is finished next spring. Please do what you can to teach the world the stories of Fukushima and to put an end to nuclear power. Thank you, Cathy Iwane

Anonymous said...

I posted about not going back to Osaka. I'm beginning to think we need to start boycotting Japanese products and tourism all together, for safety reasons. I've been patiently following the news, hoping the Japanese government would come to senses and do the right thing for its citizens, but they have totally failed, they seem they don't care.

We have to hit where it hurts them most... economic sanctions. We cannot expect Obama administration do anything much (they're in bed together in some degree), so we must begin citizen boycott of Japanese goods and tourism. Sorry, Japan, I love the country so much and this is my tough love.

We should start sending concerned voices to US media, newspaper columns, etc., to raise awareness...

Anonymous said...

http://survivaljapan.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/protest-against-radioactive-waste-in-osaka

Darth3/11 said...

There goes the entire tourism industry if this goes through. Who is paying off these political fools and what can be done to stop them?

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