I watched the longer versions, and still couldn't figure out what it was that I was seeing. It looks like yellowish substance is being scraped by the camera or the tube.
Longer versions are at TEPCO's page: http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2012/201203-e/120327-01e.html
For more on this 2nd probe, see my post here (for March 26 operation) and here (for March 27 operation).
UPDATE: These are the 20-liter plastic containers that transported the contaminated water from Fuku-I to Fuku-II. They are wrapped in plastic. That's spill-proof, isn't it? TEPCO claims the lid in one of the containers was loose. From METI's press release on 3/27/2012:
=======================================
TEPCO transported 140 liters of the water after being treated by the cesium absorption towers (SARRY, Kurion) from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant to Fukushima II (Daini) Nuclear Power Plant for nuclide analysis, but somehow the water spilled and contaminated the buildings in Fukushima II.
Duh. Why TEPCO needed to transport a large quantity of contaminated water just for analysis, no one knows. The water contained maximum 700 becquerels/cubic centimeter of radioactive materials, so the 140 liters of this water could contain 700 x 1000 x 140 = 98 million becquerels of radioactive materials.
First, the overview of the incident from Jiji Tsushin (3/27/2012):
"140 liters" information comes from the ad hoc NISA press conference on March 27 at 9:15PM (that's unusual these days).分析用汚染水漏れる＝運搬先の福島第２原発で－東電
Contaminated water from Fukushima I for analysis spilled at Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant, says TEPCO
東京電力は２７日、福島第１原発から分析のため福島第２原発に運び込んだストロンチウムなどを含む汚染水が容器から漏れ、机や通路などを汚染したと発表した。経済産業省原子力安全・保安院は、汚染水の取扱規定に違反している可能性が高いとして、運搬状況を報告するよう指示した。
TEPCO announced on March 27 that the contaminated water spilled from the container and contaminated desks and corridors at Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant. The water contained radioactive strontium and other nuclides, and was brought from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant to Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant for analysis. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has instructed TEPCO to report the details, as the company is likely to have been in violation of the regulation that specifies how the contaminated water should be handled.
東電と保安院によると、汚染が見つかったのは第２原発３、４号機サービス建屋の机と通路など７カ所。水が付着した場所からは最高で１平方センチ当たり約７００ベクレルの放射性物質が検出された。作業員の被ばくはないという。
According to TEPCO and the NISA, contamination was found at 7 locations in the service building for Reactors 3 and 4 at Fukushima II Nuke Plant, on the desks and corridors. Maximum 700 becquerels per cubic centimeter of radioactive materials have been found from the locations of the spill. There is no worker exposed to the contamination.
東電の発表では、汚染は２０６Bq/cm2 [sic] という話だったが、保安院の発表では、最高７００Ｂｑ／ｃｍ３と聞いているとのこと。ただ、運んでいた量が全部で１４０Ｌ。なんでこんなに多量の汚染水を運んでいたのかは、今のところ不明。保安院によれば今回の漏洩量は少ないが場合によっては汚染された水のすべてが漏洩した可能性があり、その場合に想定される放射性物質の量などからすると、国際原子力事象評価尺度（ＩＮＥＳ）の対象になり、暫定でＩＮＥＳレベル１と判断しているとのこと。
TEPCO announced the contamination as 206 Bq/cubic centimeter, but NISA says max 700 Bq/cubic centimeter. Total amount of the water was 140 liters. It's not known why such a large quantity of contaminated water was being transported. According to NISA, the amount of leak this time was small, but depending on the situation the entire amount could have leaked. If that was the case, INES (International Nuclear Event Scale) should be applied to the incident because of the amount of radioactive materials that would have been released; consequently, NISA considers the incident as INES Level 1, on a provisional basis.
もうひとつ疑問。東電は夕方６時からの会見で、この経緯をごく簡単に説明。汚染は１か所だけと発表していた。けれども保安院の発表では、汚染は全部で７か所と。事態の発生は午後０時４２分とのことなので、それから５時間後の会見で詳細が発表されなかったのは、対応が遅すぎ。
Another question. TEPCO touched on this spill very lightly at the 6PM press conference, and said there was only one contamination. But NISA says there were 7 locations that were contaminated. The spill happened at 12:42PM, and TEPCO didn't have the details at the press conference, 5 hours after. Too slow.
Kino also reports this was the second time TEPCO transported a large quantity of contaminated water from Fukushima I to Fukushima II.
(Additional information)
Kino also says that the contaminated water is routinely sampled by the affiliate companies (probably Toshiba, Hitachi, and other top-tier contractors) for testing at their facilities.
Not that surprising, but here's how Yomiuri Shinbun (3/28/2012) puts it:
東京電力は２７日、福島第一原子力発電所２号機の格納容器内の線量を事故後、初めて直接測定し、最高で毎時７３シーベルトだったと発表した。
TEPCO announced on March 27 that they directly measured the radiation levels inside the Containment Vessel at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant for the first time since the accident had started, and the maximum level was 73 sieverts/hour.
事故後に測定した最高線量で、人が被曝(ひばく)すれば１分弱で嘔吐(おうと)などの症状が発生し、約８分で死に至る。東電は「容器内での人の作業は不可能で、内部の状況を把握するためには、高い放射線に耐える機器開発が必要になる」としている。
It is the highest level measured after the accident. If one is exposed to radiation at this level, the radiation sickness including vomiting starts in less than one minute, resulting in death in about 8 minutes. TEPCO says "It is impossible for human workers to work inside the CV. In order to fully understand the condition inside, it will be necessary to develop equipments that withstand high levels of radiation."
調査は２６日に内視鏡を挿入した配管に、線量計を入れて測定した。壁面から５０～１００センチの場所で計８か所測り、線量は毎時３１～７３シーベルトだった。定期検査中の格納容器内の線量に比べ、１０万倍以上高い。格納容器内に溶け落ちた核燃料や、格納容器内に拡散した放射性物質による放射線の影響と見られる。
The radiation survey was done by inserting the dosimeter through the same pipe that had been used for the endoscope on March 26. 8 locations were measured, at 50 to 100 centimeters off the inner wall of the Containment Vessel. The radiation levels were 31 to 73 sieverts/hour. The levels are more than 100,000 times as high as the levels during a regular maintenance. It is probably due to the melted core that has dropped to the CV and radiation from the radioactive materials that have dispersed inside the CV.
The dosimeter was capable of measuring up to 1,000 sieverts/hour radiation. 19 TEPCO workers and 16 Toshiba workers spent one hour, receiving maximum 1.69 millisievert per person for the work.
As you can see from the TEPCO's handout below, all the measurements were above the grating, and the radiation levels 100-centimeter off the wall were higher than those at 50 centimeters.
From TEPCO's handout for the Press in English, 3/27/2012:
According to Yomiuri Shinbun (3/26/2012), 120 tonnes of the concentrated, contaminated water after the reverse osmosis treatment had leaked from 5:30AM to 8:30PM when a worker noticed the leak and stopped the treatment. 80 liters of this water which contained 140,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter of all beta nuclides including radioactive strontium may have leaked into the ocean, as evidenced by the elevated radioactivity in the sea water at the southern exhaust water drain.
No word on tritium in the Yomiuri article.
TEPCO says the leaked water flowed into the side trench and may have flowed into the ocean.
Side trench? All I can discern is a natural drain of some sort where the gravels trail off and grass and dirt start.
From TEPCO's Photos for Press, 3/26/2012 (click for bigger pictures):
"Side drain":
Pipe that leaked:
Plastic wrap and duct tape are what's holding the system. (Worked for Apollo 13.)
There are a few more pictures at the link.
Enformable (2/28/2012) has a link to the official transcript of NRC's meeting (audio file) on March 12, 2011. In the transcript, I found a mention of GE engineers who were at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant when the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011.
From the official transcript of teleconferences at NRC on March 12, 2011 (pages 162 and 163):
MR. McDERMOTT: There is one other nugget of information, people might know people.
There were 40 individuals from GE that were actually asked, at this facility, taking part in the refueling of the three units. We understand that out of the 40 people, four were contaminated, but the State Department and GE are working to pull them back to Tokyo and to get them whatever assistance they need to get back to the States.
So the person interviewed by PBS the other day was a GE engineer.
There is no mention of how "four were contaminated" or when. This particular conference call seems to have been in the afternoon of March 12, 2011 in Eastern US Time, so it was after the explosion of Reactor 1.
The fuel had been already in the Reactor Pressure Vessels in Reactors 5 and 6 when the earthquake hit. Reactor 4 was still undergoing the core shroud replacement, and all the fuel bundles were in the Spent Fuel Pool.
I am very curious to know how and when they got contaminated, but the information was not in this particular transcript.
A tweet of a person in Japan, an exemplary citizen who should be praised by the national government and by people like Hiroaki Koide:
年配者のみや子供を産まない家庭の人は、東北の野菜や食品を積極的に食べましょうよ。私は先日、病気の検査で9ミリシーベルトの放射線を浴びてきました。そんなものです。できる方は東北の復興に協力しましょう。
Let's eat vegetables and food from Tokyo, if you are old or if you don't plan to have children! I was exposed to 9 millisievert radiation the other day in a medical test. No big deal. Those who can, let's all support the recovery of Tohoku.
Gresham's law. After one year, there are people who still refuse to learn about the difference between the targeted, and supervised and brief high-dose radiation exposure during the medical procedures for diagnosis or treatment and chronic, overall, and uncontrolled low-dose internal and external radiation exposure.
Even the farmers in Fukushima refuse to eat what they grow.
Enenews (3/25/2012) has a post featuring the recent video by A. Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates telling the viewers how he collected soil samples in Tokyo on his recent trip there and found them to be "radioactive wastes" by the US standard.
There is a screen capture from the video at Enenews, showing the result of the soil analysis.
For the Sample NO.1 (Shibuya-ku), the table shows:
cesium-134: 137 pCi/g or 5.069 Bq/g, (or 5069 Bq/kg)
cesium-137: 167 pCi/g or 6.179 Bq/g, (or 6179 Bq/kg)
(cesium total: 11,248 Bq/kg)
cobalt-60: 40 pCi/g or 1.48 Bq/g, (or 1480 Bq/kg)
1 picocurie (pCi) is 0.037 becquerel (Bq).
Now these numbers are way out of line from anything I've seen in the radioactivity measurements of the soil done in Tokyo metropolitan areas for radioactive cesium (no info about cobalt-60, as the nuclide has never been measured by the authorities), unless you measure the rooftop sediments or the dirt near the gutters or the side of the road. So I watched the video.
Mr. Gundersen says when he saw some dirt he just took it, but looking at where he collected the samples they are all locations that tend to accumulate and concentrate radioactive materials - at the root of a big tree, dirt in between the pavements, moss or dirt on the side of the road, etc. In the video he is seen scooping the dirt with a plastic spoon, so I assume it was either loose soil on the very top surface, probably no more than 1 or 2 centimeters or sediments or moss in the crack or on the surface of the pavements.
That makes sense, as these locations tend to concentrate radioactive materials, as we know know after one year.
So, what are the measurements done in Tokyo metropolitan areas in a more standardized way?
Journalist Kouta Kinoshita and his group of volunteers have done an extensive, systematic soil tests in Tokyo metropolitan areas. Let's see what their test results say. They didn't test cobalt-60, so I can only compare cesium-134 and cesium-137.
From Kinoshita's group's test results of the soil samples taken in Tokyo metropolitan areas, three of the locations that might be similar to Gundersen's; their samples were taken from the surface to 5 centimeters deep (standard practice), and none was taken from the rooftops or in between the pavements:
Shibuya-ku:
cesium-134: 136 Bq/kgChiyoda-ku:
cesium-137: 182 Bq/kg
cesium-134: 323 Bq/kgZushi (near Kamakura, Kanagawa):
cesium-137: 416 Bq/kg
cesium-134: 0
cesium-137: 0
The detection limit is 1 Bq/kg. Pre-Fukushima Shinjuku-ku in Tokyo had 1.5 Bq/kg of cesium-137 in soil (in 2009).
Mr. Gundersen says in his video,
How would you like it if you went to pick your flowers and were kneeling in radioactive waste? That is what is happening in Tokyo now.
That's a rather threatening imagery, although I don't think you go pick your flowers in between the pavements or in the roadside sediments.
The clearance level of radioactive waste in Japan is 1 Bq/gram, or 1000 Bq/kg. Below that level, radioactive waste is not considered radioactive, and can be disposed of as industrial waste.
You may ask "Why is the Ministry of the Environment saying it's OK to bury anything with 8000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium?" The answer is easy: the clearance level only applies to rad waste inside a nuclear facility (nuclear plant, medical or industrial facility that uses radioactive materials). Once radioactive materials escape into the environment, there was no law or regulation that stipulates how they should be treated. So the Japanese government hastily crafted and passed a law allowing the burying of anything with 8000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium and below.
TEPCO did the second endoscopic examination of Reactor 2 Containment Vessel on March 26, 2012, and finally found water. It was 3 meters below where TEPCO had expected to find (which was at the grating), and only 60 centimeters deep from the bottom of the CV.
Mainichi Shinbun (3/26/2012) puts out this cartoon which well reflects what TEPCO said in the evening press conference on March 26:
Part of the corium is still inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel, and part of it is at the bottom of the Containment Vessel;
60 centimeters of water is sufficiently covering the corium at the CV bottom, and the corium is cooled;
The temperature of the water that's supposedly removing the heat is (incredibly) 48.5 to 50 degrees Celsius:
The Suppression Chamber is probably damaged and leaking the water being injected into the reactor (9 tonnes/hour).
This is strange, as TEPCO themselves admitted last year that part of the corium of Reactor 2 was on the concrete pedestal, outside the Containment Vessel. That would mean the Containment Vessel (drywell) itself had been breached, not just the Suppression Chamber.
You may ask "Why trust anything TEPCO says?" Well, TEPCO is still the only source of any information about the plant, no matter how flawed or inadequate.
TEPCO has some photographs of the water and inside the water. Water is clear, TEPCO says, but there is yellowish debris in the water.
TEPCO also measured the radiation levels inside the CV, according to the plan, but there is no information on the radiation levels.
It took about 3 hours for the work, 18 TEPCO employees and 16 Toshiba employees, with maximum radiation exposure of 5.29 millisieverts.
From TEPCO's Photos for Press:
Inside of Primary Containment Vessel of Unit 2 (above the water surface):
Inside of Primary Containment Vessel of Unit 2 (under the water surface):
Inside of Primary Containment Vessel of Unit 2 (pipe of power cable and grating):
Survey of Inside of Primary Containment Vessel of Unit 2 (working condition):
From TEPCO's Summary of Findings (3/26/2012):
US nuclear plant operators may not have enough money to decommission their aging reactors. If the reactors have to be shut down, it may be 20 to 60 years until they have enough money in the funds set up to pay for decommissioning.
The industry claims they are victims of the 2008 financial turmoil and market collapse.
From New York Times by Matthew L. Wald (3/20/2012; emphasis is mine):
WASHINGTON — The operators of 20 of the nation’s aging nuclear reactors, including some whose licenses expire soon, have not saved nearly enough money for prompt and proper dismantling. If it turns out that they must close, the owners intend to let them sit like industrial relics for 20 to 60 years or even longer while interest accrues in the reactors’ retirement accounts.
Decommissioning a reactor is a painstaking and expensive process that involves taking down huge structures and transporting the radioactive materials to the few sites around the country that can bury them. The cost is projected at $400 million to $1 billion per reactor, which in some cases is more than what it cost to build the plants in the 1960s and ’70s.
Mothballing the plants makes hundreds of acres of prime industrial land unavailable for decades and leaves open the possibility that radioactive contamination in the structures could spread. While the radioactivity levels decline over time, many communities worry about safe oversight.
Bills that once seemed far into the future may be coming due. The license for Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., at 40 the nation’s oldest reactor, expires on Wednesday, for example. And while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted its owner, Entergy, a new 20-year permit, the State of Vermont is trying to close the plant.
In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has vowed to force the two operating reactors at another Entergy plant, Indian Point, 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, to shut down when their licenses expire in 2013 and 2015 by denying them state environmental permits.
Entergy is at least $90 million short of the projected $560 million cost of dismantling Vermont Yankee; the company is at least $500 million short of the $1.5 billion estimated cost of dismantling Indian Point 2 and 3.
The shortfall raises the possibility that Vermont could tend one sleeping reactor for decades while New York oversees three; Unit 1 , another reactor at Indian Point, shut down in 1974 and has yet to be dismantled.
Even the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairman is uneasy about the prospect of a 60-year wait.
“These facilities should be cleaned up, and their footprints reduced as much as possible so that these areas can be returned to other productive uses within the community,” the chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, said recently.
Gil C. Quiniones, the president and chief executive of the New York Power Authority, a state utility that sold Indian Point 3 to Entergy in 2000, called Entergy’s failure to plan for or finance the decommissioning of Indian Point in real time “stunningly irresponsible.”
“Delaying action for 60 years — when Entergy might no longer even exist — is offensive to the communities of Westchester County and the people of New York,” he said. James Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, said that financing would not be a problem because the company still expects to obtain new 20-year licenses for Units 2 and 3, which would allow time for savings to grow, and to prevail on the state permit issue.
Assuming that the plants remain open for two more decades, the company has promised Westchester County that it will decommission Indian Point in a “reasonable” period of time after the reactors close, probably in the 2030s.
Of the 20 reactors that lack the money for swift deconstruction, the owners hope that license renewals from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will make the problem go away. For the plants that are fighting with their host states, Indian Point and Vermont Yankee, the federal courts may have the final say on whether and how long they keep operating. (A large demonstration in favor of closing the plant is planned for Wednesday at Vermont Yankee.)
The remaining 84 active reactors have enough savings on hand to satisfy the commission’s minimum financing requirements for eventual dismantling, some of them because they won license extensions.
The nuclear industry had been counting on steady returns on the funds and did not anticipate the 2008 market crash. Altogether the nation’s 104 power reactors have about $40 billion on hand. “A lot of decommissioning funds did take a hit at the nadir of the economic crisis,” said Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the regulatory commission.
One plant, Palisades in western Michigan, had $597.6 million saved up at the end of 2006, but the account was down to $218.8 million two years later and was only $279.2 million by the end of 2010, the most recent figures show.
Bruce Biewald, an economist who specializes in electricity economics at Synapse Energy, a Boston consulting firm, said the mothball strategy carries risks that could outweigh benefits. Proponents say “it’s like magic — compound interest on the one hand and radioactive decay on the other,” he said. (Because radioactivity levels decline over time, deconstruction workers would ultimately be exposed to less contamination.) But future investment returns could prove bleak, Mr. Biewald warns, and anticipated deconstruction costs could easily rise.
Responding to a petition from Sherwood Martinelli, an antinuclear activist who lives near Indian Point, Dr. Jaczko, the regulatory commission chairman, sought a shorter period between closing and dismantling.
But in October, Dr. Jaczko was outvoted 4 to 1 by his fellow commissioners. And the commission’s staff said that even 60 years was not a hard-and-fast outer time limit for suspending a reactor’s operations.
In the industry, this status is known as Safstor and it usually involves putting the spent nuclear fuel into storage casks on site, draining many of the plant’s fluids, making security arrangements and maintaining the reactor so it looks like a decent neighbor.
Environmental experts say the plants can be dangerous when they are not running. In a letter, the three members of Vermont’s Congressional delegation pointed out that 55,000 gallons of contaminated water spilled out of a mothballed plant in Illinois after a pipe froze. An attentive night watchman was credited with catching the spill in time to contain it.
Indian Point 1 has leaked a variety of radioactive materials into the soil on the banks of the Hudson in the 38 years since it closed, a point acknowledged by Entergy, which responded by emptying a spent fuel pool that was the source of the problem. The environmental group Riverkeeper argues that this is a harbinger of further trouble if Units 2 and 3 enter Safstor.
Compounding the worries about radioactive materials, the nation still lacks a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel after decades of jockeying by politicians who sought to bar it from their backyards. So the fuel at the sleeping reactors will remain on site.
Twelve reactors across the country have been retired in the last three decades, all on short notice, because of a design or safety flaw that the economics did not justify fixing. The low price of natural gas, a competing fuel, makes the economic lifetime of existing reactors uncertain.
Some have been decommissioned in a few years, like Connecticut Yankee, whose owners, a group of New England utilities, footed the cost. Decommissioning started two years after its 1996 shutdown and was completed in 2005 at a cost of $871 million.
In Haddam, Conn., officials are still advertising for a new industrial tenant for its former site on the east bank of the Connecticut River.
Asked if tearing it down had been the right call, Paul J. DeStefano, the town’s first selectman and top official, said, “I’m a little hesitant, from a layman’s standpoint, of having something sitting around for 60 years. It just doesn’t sound right.”
Another leak at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and no one cares. Not even TEPCO cares, as the leak was first found at 8:30AM on March 26, but there will be no press conference (now it's once a day) until 6PM.
本日（３月26日）午前８時30分頃、福島第一原子力発電所の淡水化装置（逆浸透膜式）の濃縮水貯槽があるタンクエリアにおいて、淡水化装置から濃縮水を濃縮水貯槽に送る配管（耐圧ホース）より水が漏えいしていることを、協力企業作業員が発見しました
Today (March 26) at 8:30AM, an affiliate company worker discovered a leak from the pipe (pressure hose) that transports concentrated water from the reverse osmosis apparatus to the storage tank.
水の漏えいを停止するために、淡水化装置（逆浸透膜式）を停止したことで、午前９時頃、配管（耐圧ホース）からの水の漏えいはほぼ停止しております。漏れた水の一部は付近の排水溝に流れ込んでおり、現在、発電所敷地外への放出の有無について確認を行っております
To stop the leak, we stopped the operation of the reverse osmosis apparatus. The leak from the pipe has stopped almost completely. Part of the leaked water has gone into the nearby drain. We are investigating whether the water leaked outside the plant.
Kino's comments:
淡水化装置は、サリーやキュリオンといったセシウムの吸着塔から出てきた汚染水から塩分を取り除き、原子炉に戻せるようにする部分。メールを見ると、逆浸透膜で処理した濃縮塩水が漏れてるので、セシウム以外の放射性物質、とくに全ベータが濃い部分ではないかと。
The reverse osmosis apparatus is to desalinate the water from the cesium absorption towers like SARRY and Kurion so that the water could be injected back into the reactors. According to TEPCO's email, the concentrated salt water after the reverse osmosis is leaking. Probably high concentration of radioactive materials except for cesium, particularly all beta radioactivity.
漏れに気がついた時間は朝の８時半。以前なら、午前１１時の会見で少しは状況が説明されていたけども、今は夕方しか会見がないので、各紙、テレビ等は広報に個別確認。う〜ん、ほんとは公式に説明したほうがいいんだけど。。。
The leak was discovered at 8:30 in the morning. When there was a TEPCO press conference at 11AM a new development like this was explained in the press conference. Now there is only one press conference in the evening, so the newspapers and TV will separately ask TEPCO's PR department. I think it would be better for TEPCO to make an official announcement...
Well, let's see from TEPCO's own information what kind of radioactive materials exist in what concentration in the water after being treated in the reverse osmosis apparatus.
From TEPCO's handout for the press on February 29, 2012, the water after being treated by the reverse osmosis (desalination) had:
H-3 (tritium): 2,900 becquerels/cubic centimeter (or 2,900,000 becquerels/liter)
All beta: 36 becquerels/cubic centimeter (or 36,000 becquerels/liter)
4 TEPCO researchers attending the Spring Conference of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) made their presentation on the first day of the Conference on March 19.
From Fukushima Minpo (3/25/2012; part):
ただ、東電が新たに示した事実もあった。事故発生から５日目の昨年３月１５日に原発周辺の放射線量が急上昇したことへの見解だった。東電は「２号機の原子炉格納容器の上部にあるシール（封印箇所）が熱で損傷し、放射性物質が漏れ出した可能性が高い」との見方を示した。
However, there was a new piece of information from TEPCO, which was TEPCO's opinion [hypothesis] about the rapid rise of radiation levels around Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on March 15, 2011, 5 days after the start of the nuclear accident. TEPCO said, "It is highly likely that the seal[s?] on the upper part of the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel was damaged by the heat, and radioactive materials leaked from there."
ただ、発表終了後、報道陣の質問に対して、東電の担当者は「どう漏れたか、はっきりしたことはまだ分かっていない」と最終的な結論は出ていないことを説明した。
But after the presentation, one of the researchers answered the questions from the press and said "The detailed mechanism of the leak is still not known", and that there was no final conclusion reached yet.
事故発生から１年が経過したが、東電や政府は原子炉の格納容器や圧力容器の内部を正確に把握できていない。東電の発表には「推定される」「思われる」などの語句がたびたび使われた。事故の原因や進展経過を十分に解明するには、依然として判断材料が乏しいことをうかがわせた。
It has been one year since the start of the accident, but TEPCO and the national government still haven't figured out what's been going on inside the Containment Vessels and Pressure Vessels of the reactors. TEPCO often used the words "to be presumed" or "to be considered" in the presentation. It seems there is still not enough information to fully understand the cause of the accident and how it progressed.
Did you know that there were 38 Americans at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant when the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011? I didn't.
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) interviewed Carl Pillitteri, a nuclear technician who was at the plant that day. He was in the Reactor 1 turbine building when the earthquake struck, and said he thought he would perish. Strange sound coming out of nowhere, he couldn't figure out whether it was from the earth, or the buildings. One year after, he is still very much traumatized.
Move over, Shizuoka tea. Move over, Saitama tea. Here comes Fukushima tea with 24,700 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.
The tea leaves were picked in Fukushima City in May last year, and they were not commercial tea. A city resident grew in his/her garden and picked for his/her own use.
I hope the tea weren't consumed or given as gifts. At 24,700 becquerels/kg, you cannot even dump it in the garbage, let alone incinerate.
From Mainichi Shinbun local Fukushima version (3/23/2012):
東日本大震災：福島、茶葉から２万４７００ベクレル 市民が測定所に持参 ／福島
Fukushima: 24,700 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium from tea leaves, brought by a resident to the testing laboratory
福島市の放射能測定所に市民が持ち込んだ茶葉から、暫定規制値（１キロ当たり５００ベクレル）を上回る同２万４７００ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出された。２２日の市災害対策本部会議で報告された。
24,700 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from the tea leaves brought by a city resident to the testing laboratory operated by Fukushima City. The news was reported at the meeting of the disaster response headquarters of Fukushima City on March 22.
市によると、茶葉は市民が自宅の庭先で栽培したものを測定所で測ったところ、高い値が検出されたため、ゲルマニウム半導体検出器で再検査した。昨年５月に摘み取り、保管していたという。
According to the city, the resident grew the tea in his/her garden. When he/she brought the tea leaves to the testing laboratory, the high levels of radioactive cesium were detected. So the tea leaves were tested again using the germanium semiconductor detector. The tea leaves were picked in May last year, and kept at the resident's house.
市は、測定器を増設し、月内に計２８カ所に測定所を設ける。
The city plans to increase the number of detectors and will set up 28 testing laboratories in the city by the end of this month.
市環境課は「家庭菜園などで採れた農産物は種類により規制値を超えるものもあり、可能な限り測定所で測ってほしい」としている。
The environment section of the Fukushima city government cautions the residents, "Produce from the home gardens, depending on the types, may exceed the safety limit [for radioactive cesium]. We would like you to bring them to the testing laboratory by all means."
Goshi Hosono's Ministry of the Environment has set up a special website to promote and sell the wide-area disposal of the disaster debris in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures.
In it, there is a page about radiation levels of the debris. The Ministry, which is sounding more and more like a religious ministry preaching safety of disaster debris, says the radiation coming off of the debris once it's burned and buried deep should be no more than 0.01 millisievert per year. On the right side, there is a table showing the radioactivity of the debris in becquerels, without specifying what types of debris. However, below the table, there's a link to the PDF document with far more details, which I reproduced below.
The debris from Tagajo City, Miyagi Prefecture that was used in Hosono's propaganda demonstration on the street corner of Kawasaki City the other day was wood chips, which has the least amount of radioactive cesium. If they had picked fabrics, it would have contained 540 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, and if they had picked small debris less than 5 millimeters in diameter, it would have been 390 becquerels/kg. (See Page 4 below.) Not that the radioactivity would have been picked up by a survey meter that they were using.
From the Ministry of the Environment, radioactivity of disaster debris in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures (debris with more than 200 becquerels/kg is marked in red):
That video of politicians demonstrating the "safety" of disaster debris in Kawasaki is really infuriating. Goshi Hosono says "People may be thinking disaster debris from Fukushima is coming to them, hahahahaha" (I'm paraphrasing.) No they don't. They know better than him, much better.
Besides, Fukushima disaster debris may be coming out of Fukushima after all. Iwaki City will burn the disaster debris starting April, and Iwaki City had a long standing contract to ship the ashes to Saitama Prefecture where the ashes were burned again in the melting furnace into slag to be recycled as road substrates. The contract was carried out until late last year. That contract may be renewed, and disaster debris from Fukushima, in the form of ashes, may be shipped outside Fukushima.
It's also worthwhile to recall that the so-called safety standard of disposal of 8,000 becquerels/kg (for debris, ashes, sludge to be buried without any treatment to the final disposal sites) was originally meant for Fukushima Prefecture alone. Before anyone noticed it, it became the de facto national standard.
With the no-entry zone and the planned evacuation zone around Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant to be renamed, it may not be very long before the debris from Fukushima Prefecture starts to spread (if not already - there have been "baseless rumors").
Minami Soma City, where the recovery and reconstruction road race and marathon is taking place on Sunday March 25 in the area that has higher radiation levels than radiation control areas in a nuclear power plant, will soon be able to welcome the residents back to the no-entry zone and planned evacuation zone.
Radiation? What radiation?
From Kyodo News (3/23/2012):
国が南相馬大半立ち入り可能案 警戒区域解除４月にも
Most of Minami Soma will be habitable again, says the national government. No-entry zone to be abolished in April
東京電力福島第１原発事故の避難区域再編で、政府は２３日、福島県南相馬市に対し、市の南部から西部にかかる警戒区域と計画的避難区域を、新たな３区域に再編し、大部分を立ち入り可能な「避難指示解除準備区域」に、一部を「帰還困難区域」と「居住制限区域」にする案を提示した。
In an effort to reorganize evacuation zones set up after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, the national government submitted its plan to Minami Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture on March 23 that will reorganize the no-entry zone and the planned evacuation zone in the southern and western part of the city into 3 new zones, with most of the area designated as "zone in preparation for having the evacuation order lifted" which would allow residents to return. The rest of the area will be designated as "zone where residents cannot return for a long time" and "zone with restricted entry".
この日、市役所で開かれた国と市の協議で、国の原子力災害現地対策本部の担当者が示した。
The official in charge from the national nuclear disaster local response headquarters disclosed the plan in meeting in the City Hall between the national government and the city.
３区域の詳細な線引きは、政府から３月末にも示される予定だが、市は遅くとも４月中に警戒区域解除するよう政府に求めた。この日の協議は非公開。
The details of the 3 zones will be given by the national government by the end of March. The city requested that the no-entry zone be abolished by the end of April at the latest. The meeting was closed to the public.
The Japanese government, in its never-ending irksome PR effort to appeal normalcy and vigorous recovery of Japan to the whole world, is going to return the residents to the no-entry zone (20-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant) and the planned evacuation zone (mostly between 20 and 30 kilometer radius, including the very high radiation areas like Namie-machi and Iitate-mura) by simply renaming the zones.
The government is going to divide the former no-entry zone and the planned evacuation zone into 3 new zones solely by the annual cumulative radiation exposure levels. As far as I know, it's only the external radiation levels that they are concerned with. (I have no idea if there are official translations for these names):
避難指示解除準備区域 (zone in preparation for having the evacuation order lifted): annual cumulative external radiation exposure of 20 millisieverts and below
居住制限区域 (zone with restricted entry): between 20 to 50 millisieverts
帰還困難区域 (zone where residents cannot return for a long time): 50 millisieverts and above
Again for your reference, pre-Fukushima average annual radiation exposure in Japan was 1.4 millisievert, including both external and internal radiation exposure (food, radon inhalation). This is the average, and eastern Japan had lower radiation exposure than western Japan.
In case of Minami Soma City, only a couple of homes in Kodaka District will be designated as the zone where they cannot return for a long time. But everywhere else will be good for the residents to return.
Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai, who became world-famous for his Youtube plea for help in March last year insists that the lifting of the no-entry zone designation does not mean there will be no more compensation for the residents.
Good luck with that, Mr. Sakurai.
Iitate-mura village chief Norio Sugano also eagerly awaits the re-organization of his village, which is entirely within the planned evacuation zone but has managed to keep a commercial business open (Kikuchi Seisakusho that has several factories in Iitate-mura).
Sakurai and Sugano have fared relatively well over the past year, having become world-famous as symbols of the nuclear accident, and having been able to retain political power over the residents.
On the other hand, Tamotsu Baba, mayor of Namie-machi is dead set against the re-organization, saying there is no plan in place for rebuilding infrastructure.
Sankei Shinbun reports (3/24/2012):
がれき非公表処分の可能性 山田知事示唆 京都
Kyoto Governor Yamada indicates disaster debris may be disposed without the public informed
山田啓二知事は２３日の記者会見で、東日本大震災で発生した災害廃棄物（震災がれき）の広域処理について「（がれきを受け入れる）地元が非公表での処理を望むなら、意向を踏まえなければならない」と述べた。平成１６年に府内で鳥インフルエンザの感染が発生した際の焼却処分と同様、施設などを明らかにせずにがれき処理を行う可能性を示唆したものだ。
Governor Keiji Yamada commented during the press conference on March 23 on the wide-area disposal of disaster debris from the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and said "If the local authority (accepting the debris) want to proceed without telling the residents, we should oblige", indicating he might proceed with the debris disposal like the Kyoto government had done in 2004 during the bird flu infection when the disposal by incineration was carried out without identifying which facility would do the incineration.
また、がれき受け入れの協力方針を示している舞鶴市については「安全性を実証する実験を行いたい」と述べ、近く同市に出向き、住民に安全性を説明する意向を明らかにした。
About Maizuru City, which has already pledged cooperation in debris disposal, the governor said "We want to carry out the test to prove safety", and said he would visit the city and explain the safety to the city's residents.
When politicians like him say "地元" (=locals), they mean the local government and heads of the neighborhood associations. It doesn't mean residents.
Maizuru City is located on the coast on the Japan Sea. A beautiful, ancient town with the first evidence of human settlement 10,000 years ago. The current mayor Ryozo Tatami is a medical doctor.
Governor of Kyoto Keiji Yamada is a Tokyo University graduate (law) and a former career bureaucrat (today's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications).
Not that Sankei Shinbun cares. It decidedly do not care, as it has been calling the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident as "radiation leak", and its editors and columnists routinely excoriate anyone who disagree with the national government policies of spreading contaminated vegetables and contaminated debris.
As the title says, it is purely anecdotal, nothing systematically gathered and statistically analyzed. It's from the readers of my Japanese blog and twitter followers in Japan who wrote to me after reading the Asahi AJW article (I translated it into Japanese) that back in 2005 IAEA had proposed the 300-kilometer radius for contaminated food regulation but the Japanese government objected.
(By the way, the Asahi article appeared in Japan on March 15, 2012 in Japanese, I was told by a reader, but only in the printed version of the paper. So unless you're an Asahi subscriber you would never know about it.)
About the vegetable lineups in supermarkets in the Kansai region (western half of Japan) about the same time last year:
赤ちゃんがいるので、関西に越したのですが、昨年はスーパーには北関東産野菜がずらり。今年の同シーズンの現在、九州四国野菜がずらり。昨年の品揃えはなんだったのでしょう。
We relocated to Kansai last year because of our small baby. Vegetables grown in northern Kanto [Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma] were on prominent display at a local supermarket last year. The same season this year, all I see is vegetables grown in Kyushu and Shikoku. What was that lineup last year?
関西在住ですが、昨年は今までスーパーで見たことのない関東産ばかりが並んでいました。地場産は滅多に見つからないほどでした。
I live in Kansai. Last year, it was all vegetables grown in Kanto, which I had never seen before. I could hardly find locally grown vegetables.
うちはチビだけ大阪の実家に避難させました。理解力のある母なので食材に気をつけてくれてましたが｢なんで危ない向こうのが出回る!｣と怒っていました。
I sent my small child to my parents' house in Osaka. My mother understood the radiation danger and she paid close attention to food. She was very angry, saying "Why are they selling these vegetables from the dangerous [contaminated] areas?"
大阪在住ですが、いままで福島の農産物なんて見たことなかったのに、去年の今頃は、伊達市のきゅうりをはじめ、線量の高い地域からの野菜ばかりでした。
I live in Osaka. Same time last year, the vegetables I saw at the supermarket were all from the high-radiation areas, like cucumbers from Date City, Fukushima. I had never seen any vegetable from Fukushima before.
About the same time last year (late March) and onward, there were people in Kansai (Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, etc.) reporting that the vegetables at their local supermarkets were all of Kanto origin that they had never even seen before. They were roundly ridiculed, and were accused of fear-mongering, making up stories, or worse, discriminating against Fukushima people. They were called "racists" in a country which is pretty much homogeneous.
One year later, the vegetable lineups seem to have gone back to pre-Fukushima normal, i.e. vegetables from western Japan sold in western Japan.
Remember all that beef contaminated with radioactive cesium last year? Here's one of the earliest posts on the topic from last year. The Japanese government started encouraging and facilitating the sale or transfer of cattle out of Fukushima before the planned evacuation zone was set in late April, and beef of Fukushima origin was sold in great quantities in locations which had never seen such a surge in sale of Fukushima beef.
Remember also the radioactive crushed stones from a stone pit in Namie-machi, right outside the no-entry zone (20-kilometer radius) and inside the planned evacuation zone? The stone pit operator was able to sell (literally) tons of stones far and wide (some were sold and used in Tokyo) before the planned evacuation zone was set in late April.
The Japanese government has successfully disseminated contaminated vegetables, beef, crushed stones, and a host of everything else (firewood, used cars, leaf compost, sawdust for shiitake growing, etc.) out of Fukushima and the contaminated areas in northern Kanto. Its success is partly attributable to people who attacked people like these mothers (and fathers) as "fear-mongering", "irrational", "nuclear-crazy" "racists".
Right now, a different set of people are called "racists", because they oppose accepting the disaster debris from Miyagi and Iwate and burn it in their towns. the Japanese government looks set to score yet another success. Letting the citizens squabble with each other with "racist" name-calling, while the government promising endless money to those in the local governments and waste disposal industry.
People like Ms. Cyndi Lauper and Mr. Paul Blustein provide a good old "external" (international) pressure (or "gaiatsu" in Japanese) for the government to tell the citizens, "See, international celebrities and scholars are saying what we've been telling you."
Hong Kong will resume importing the meat and eggs from Fukushima Prefecture and 4 other prefectures in Kanto most affected by the nuclear fallout.
Why? Because there will be an official government piece of paper accompanying the meat, attesting the safety from radiation contamination. Bureaucrats will be bureaucrats, whether it's Japan or Hong Kong. Formality is all that matters.
From Yomiuri Shinbun (3/23/2012):
東京電力福島第一原子力発電所事故の影響で香港への輸出が規制されている福島県など５県産の食肉と卵の輸出が再開される見通しとなった。
Export of meat and eggs to Hong Kong from 5 prefectures including Fukushima will resume shortly. The export was halted after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.
鹿野農相が２３日の閣議後記者会見で明らかにした。輸出に必要な検査証明書の書式が決まったためで、今後１週間程度の手続きを経て再開される。
Minister of Agriculture Kano disclosed the news during the press conference after the cabinet meeting on March 23. The format of the inspection certificate has been agreed upon, and the export will resume in about one week.
日本の農林水産物の香港向け輸出額は１１１１億円（２０１１年）と全体の約４分の１を占め、国・地域別で最も多い。香港への輸出再開は、同様の理由で輸入を規制している中国の判断にも影響を与えそうだ。
Hong Kong is the largest market for Japanese agricultural and marine products. In 2011, the amount was 111.1 billion yen, one-quarter of the total export. Resumption of export to Hong Kong may affect the decision by China, who has halted import from Japan for the same reason.
香港は、福島、群馬、栃木、茨城、千葉の５県産の卵と食肉の輸入を再開する条件として、日本政府に放射性物質の検査証明書を作成するよう要求していたが、これまで、証明書に記入する内容などが決まらず、輸出が再開できなかった。
Hong Kong had demanded that the Japanese government issue inspection certificates as a condition to resume import of eggs and meat from Fukushima, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Chiba. Up till now, the officials couldn't agree on what to put on the certificates, which prevented the restart of the trade.
Hong Kong, Taiwan, China are big importers of Japanese produce, which (used to) fetch premium for the look, taste, and safety.
As Chugoku Shinbun reports (3/24/2012) on the meeting between the Shimane Prefecture officials and the Ministry of the Environment, as long as money from the national government is coming to them the local governments will stop worrying.
Why is the Shimane prefectural government pressuring the municipalities in Shimane to accept disaster debris? The prefectural government doesn't want to miss out on the gravy train, but it has to beg the municipalities probably because the prefectural government does not have the incineration plant of its own.
I just wish I had visited this ancient place (I always wanted to visit).
Chugoku Shinbun (3/24/2012):
島根県は23日、東日本大震災で発生したがれきの処理をめぐり、環境省の担当者を招いた市町村向けの説明会を松江市で開いた。中国地方５県では初。がれきの焼却灰１キロ当たりの放射性セシウム量が８千ベクレル以下であれば埋め立てが可能とする安全基準に加え、国が処理費用を全額負担する方針を強調した。
Shimane Prefecture held a meeting designed for the municipalities in Shimane regarding the disposal of disaster debris from the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, by inviting the official from the Ministry of the Environment. Shimane was the first prefecture to hold such a meeting in the 5 prefectures in Chugoku Region. In the meeting, the safety standard of 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium in the ashes from burning the debris as well as the national government's policy to pay for the entire cost of disposal were emphasized to the participants.
環境省リサイクル対策部の関谷毅史広域処理推進チーム長が、19市町村と３広域事務組合の計35人に説明。搬出対象の宮城、岩手両県の処理希望量がそれぞれ３４４万トン、57万トンに上るとし「処理能力が足りない」と受け入れの検討を要請した。
Tsuyoshi Sekiya, head of the wide-area disposal promotion team at the Ministry of the Environment recycling division explained to 35 officials from 19 municipalities and 3 wide-area waste management unions. The disaster debris from Miyagi and Iwate to be disposed outside the prefectures was 3.44 million tonnes from Miyagi and 570,000 tonnes from Iwate, Sekiya said, and requested that they consider accepting the debris because "there is not enough capacity" in the disaster-affected areas.
一方、市町村の担当者は、がれきの放射性物質検査への財政措置など、野田佳彦首相が３月上旬に示した追加支援策の具体化時期を質問。関谷チーム長は「極力急ぐ」と述べるにとどまった。
Officials from the municipalities asked about the details of measures that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda indicated in early March to support wide-area disposal of the debris, including financial support from the national government for radiation measurement of the disaster debris. Sekiya could only say, "As soon as possible".
県内では松江市議会が26日、受け入れを市に要請する決議案を議決する見通し。説明会に出席した市環境保全課の兒玉渉治課長は「住民の安全確保を大前提に協議する」と話した。
In Shimane Prefecture, the City Assembly in Matsue City [capital city] is expected to pass the resolution requesting the city to accept the debris. Shoji Kodama, manager of Matsue City's environmental protection section who attended the meeting said, "Securing the safety of the residents comes first, and we will discuss."
4 million tonnes of disaster debris from the two prefectures, less than 20% of the total debris.
How will Mr. Kodama of Shimane City secure the safety of the residents? Probably by doing what Hosono and his clowns did the other day on the street corner in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa. Wave a survey meter over the debris and scream "See? Did you see that? It's safe!"
One good thing about the article by Chugoku Shinbun is that the reporter named names. That seldom happens in the national newspapers, particularly online versions of their papers. It's always "an unnamed official" or "the government source".
If you thought the women's "ekiden" road race that took place in Fukushima City last year was bad, you haven't seen this thing.
Minami Soma City, where one of the "black dusts" found on the road surfaces throughout the city has 3.43 million becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium (and who knows what else), will hold a marathon and "ekiden" road race in the city to show to the world the recovery and reconstruction of Minami Soma City. Unlike the women's road race in Fukushima City where the youngest girls who could enter the race were 13-year olds, the Minami Soma marathon event will have elementary school kids running the 2-kilometer course.
The entity who has organized this event, an NPO called Furusato Fukko [homeland recovery] Kizuna [ties that bind domestic animals] Council, will let elementary school children and junior high school students participate for free. How generous. Everybody else will pay 3,000 yen (US$36) to kick up dusts that may have several million becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.
Keep smiling.
From Fukushima Minyu (2/27/2012); clearly the newspaper is one of the sponsors:
南相馬で25日「駅伝・マラソン大会」 走りで勇気届けよう
"Ekiden" and marathon event in Minami Soma on March 25. Run and show your courage [this must be the slogan of the event.]
南相馬ふるさと復興駅伝・マラソン大会は３月２５日、南相馬市鹿島区の鹿島カントリー倶楽部を発着点に行われる。同１０日まで、参加者を募集している。
The Minami Soma Furusato [homeland] Recovery Ekiden and Marathon will be held on March 25, with the starting and ending point at the Kashima Country Club in Kashima District of Minami Soma City. People can sign up up till March 10.
ＮＰＯ法人ふるさと復興・絆協議会、大会実行委員会（佐藤信義実行委員長）の主催。震災と原発事故の影響を大きく受けた同市だが、地域の人たちが力強く走る姿を発信、避難したり仮設住宅で過ごす人たちに元気と勇気を届けようと行われる。県地域づくり総合支援事業の補助対象事業。
The event is sponsored by an NPO, Furusato Fukko [homeland recovery] Kizuna Council and the event executive committee (chairman Nobuyoshi Sato). Minami Soma City has been deeply affected by the earthquake/tsunami and the nuclear accident. The event will feature the local residents run with vigor to cheer and encourage the residents who have evacuated or live in the temporary housing. The event is subsidized by the Fukushima prefectural government as a community-building and -supporting event.
同倶楽部のクラブハウスが発着点。マラソンは小学生２キロ、中学生３キロ、高校・一般が５キロと１０キロ。駅伝は４人１チームで１．５キロずつ走りタスキをつなぐ。
The marathon and ekiden road race will start and end at the club house of the Country Club. Elementary school children will run a 2-kilometer marathon, junior high school students 3-kilometer, high school students and general public 5-kilometer or 10-kilometer. An ekiden road race team will consist of 4 people, with each running 1.5 kilometer.
問い合わせは、ふるさと復興駅伝・マラソン大会事務局（電話０３・５３７９・３７００）へ。
For more, contact Furusato Fukko Ekiden/Marathon event office at 03-5379-3700.
Now that's very interesting. That telephone number is a Tokyo number, not Minami Soma. The NPO's announcement shows it is located in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. The chairman of the Council is Nobuyoshi Sato. No idea who this man is, but he has successfully obtained the government money (who will then take money from the taxpayers) to plan an event where elementary school children are encouraged to run in a city with on-going "decontamination" effort right outside the 20-kilometer no-entry zone in Fukushima.
What a country.
From the event page of this NPO:
サブタイトルに“Fukushima-51”を掲げ、相双地区の鹿島カントリー倶楽部から勇気の夢をのせた次の1000年に向け元気と勇気を発信します。 Fukushima50（“フクシマ・フィフテイー“と世界が称賛）＋1の “１”は勇気ある子供、地域、日本の未来を表現し、地域の人々の復興にむけて 走る姿を全世界に向けて発信することで、これまで手を差し伸べてくれた世界中の人々への御礼と共に、力強く誇りある日本の姿と重なって、地域復興への勇気 と自信としたいと考えて実施します。
The event subtitle is "Fukushima-51". It will send vigor and courage for the next millennium with courageous dream from Kashima Country Club. Fukushima-50 (whom the world praised) plus 1. "1" signifies the future of courageous children, region, and Japan, and by broadcasting the event to the entire world showing the local people running toward the recovery, we will thank people from all over the world who have helped us. It will evoke the image of powerful and proud Japan, and will inspire courage and confidence in the recovery of the region. So we will hold this event.
Oh boy. It smells like a good-intentioned dunce in his late 20s or early 30s who truly believes what he's saying which is nothing but fluff with soundbites (to get the subsidy, I think), rendering the sentences near impossible to translate into English. Probably I did a poor job because the original Japanese is very much illogical, while the English translation is somewhat readable. (Road to hell is paved with ....)
By the way, the parents of these children (under the age of 18) must sign the waiver for them that will indemnify the organizer from any injury and sickness on the day of the event and afterwards. If you see school kids running in this event, there are parents in that city who will have signed the waiver. So much for "We have to protect children" refrain you hear all over Japan.
The waiver document also says the air radiation levels at the Kajima Country Club are 0.6 to 0.7 microsievert/hour.
HCR+OPCOM, a Minami-Soma-based NGO who protested the Fukushima City's women's road race, was doing a hunger strike in front of the Kajima Country Club protesting against the event that would endanger children for no good reason other than to show that people in Minami Soma are brave.
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