TEPCO demands families of employees return compensation for evacuation

FROM: MAINICHI

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima nuclear plant, is demanding that the families of employees return compensation paid to them for being forced to evacuate from their neighborhoods due to the nuclear disaster, sources close to the case said.

In one case, a household is under pressure to return more than 30 million yen in damages from the company, raising concerns about future livelihoods.

Critics pointed out that TEPCO's demands are unfair. "The families of employees aren't responsible for the nuclear disaster. As such, the firm's demands for the return of the compensation are inappropriate," one of them says.

(FULL ARTICLE--LINK)

TEPCO worker frustrated over company's treatment of employees

From: Mainichi

An employee of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), who was asked by the utility to return evacuation compensation payments he received for the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster, lamented the company's frosty attitude toward workers like him who had devoted themselves to bringing the crippled plant under control.

The employee was among those who worked on the front lines immediately after the onset of the nuclear disaster in March 2011, under the leadership of then plant manager Masao Yoshida. Amid high levels of radiation, the employee and his colleagues trembled with fear as they worked to contain the unprecedented nuclear plant disaster.

Faced with TEPCO's unsympathetic treatment of them, however, young employees are leaving the company in despair. Declining morale among workers is casting a shadow on ongoing efforts to decommission the plant's reactors.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Wieckowski Urges State To Post Information On Fukushima Disaster’s Risk To California Beaches

From site of Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski

Wieckowski Urges State To Post Information On Fukushima Disaster’s Risk To California Beaches

SACRAMENTO - Saying that Californians are concerned and seeking information about potential health risks caused by contaminated water coming to the state from the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) is urging the state’s Department of Public Health to post updated information on the issue to its homepage.

“With newspaper reports, on-line videos and a number of stories about the possible radiation dangers to our beaches, residents are concerned and seeking information from a source they can trust,” Wieckowski said.  “I think a lot of people’s questions can be answered if the department would conduct a study or post the results of other studies and monitoring that are already completed to its homepage.  The difficulty of finding accurate, current information about the science and the level of risk involved has exacerbated confusion and worry among some in the public.”

Wieckowski said the federal government has suggested Fukushima’s problems pose no risks to California’s coastal and estuarine lands.  However, online speculation about contaminated water traveling to California, and higher than normal radioactivity levels on a California beach have increased the public’s concerns.

“Tourism, fishing, agriculture and outdoor recreation are among our most important assets,” Wieckowski said.  “Millions of Californians live in communities that are directly impacted by contamination in the ocean.  That’s why I think it’s important for the state Department of Public Health to put what information it has in layman’s terms onto its homepage so the public can see it and understand what, if any, risks or concerns are out there.”

Wieckowski represents the 25th Assembly District, which includes San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Fremont and Newark.

5 interesting facts about the post-Fukushima nuclear world

FROM: AL JAZEERA

As soon as World War II came to a close, the world fantasized of harnessing the inferno of nuclear power for peaceful, useful means. The first reactors sprung up in the 1950s, and the quest for commercial nuclear technology took on the frenzied urgency of a Soviet arms race. The 1973 oil crisis further buoyed the idea of nuclear power as the homegrown energy of the future.

But since its inception, commercial nuclear power has also provoked a kind of blood-curdling dread, and countries embraced the vision of a nuclear future to very different degrees. The 2011 catastrophe in Fukushima confirmed, once again, the nightmarish potential of nuclear power, and refigured the debate about nuclear across the globe. Is nuclear power a critical part of our energy future? Or a Cold War-flirtation bound for the history books? Here are some facts you may not know about the post-Fukushima nuclear world:

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Japan travel may not always be safe due to nuclear radiation

From: Global travel Industry News

Tourism and travel to parts of Japan may not be safe. The nuclear radiation at the boundaries of the stricken Fukushima power plant has now reached 8 times government safety guidelines, TEPCO has said. The firm has been struggling to contain radioactive leaks at Fukushima since the onset over the crisis in 2011.

The levels of nuclear radiation around Fukushima’s No. 1 plant have risen to 8 millisieverts per year, surpassing the government standard of 1 milliseviert per year, reports news site Asahi Shimbun citing Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Dangerous Phase Fukushima's radioactive fuel rods to move to safe storage

Japan’s Fukushima – Is It Still A Threat?

From: WebProNews

March 11, 2011 is the date the biggest nuclear power disaster in history began. The Fukushima Dalichi Power Plant fell into major meltdown mode after a record 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami engulfed entire neighborhoods and villages including the nuclear plant. It is estimated that 300,000 people were evacuated from the area, and have not been allowed to return.

The plant was damaged in the event, power was knocked out and radiation poured out of the damaged reactors into the immediate area, and into the ocean. The plant is still dealing with radioactive water leaks, and is still in the throes of major radiation cleanup.

The world is just beginning to understand the severity of this calamity and the after effects that it poses to not only Japan, but to human life and marine life all along the pacific coast and in the pacific ocean.

The people involved in the clean-up and in evacuation areas that could not escape quickly enough have been poisoned. Radiation poisoning is devastating to humans and animals.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Tepco urged to halt rising radiation levels at No. 1 plant border

FROM: The Japan Times

Nuclear regulators on Friday called on Tokyo Electric Power Co. to take action to address rising radiation levels at the border of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant’s premises, which have jumped to levels eight times higher than the regulatory limit.

According to plant operator Tepco, an evaluation of radiation exposure caused by toxic water, rubble and debris, and other waste kept at the plant was below the limit of 1 millisievert per year as of March, but surged to 7.8 millisieverts as of August.

The rise is attributed to radiation emitted from tanks storing contaminated water generated in the process of cooling the damaged reactors.

In April, Tepco found some of its underground storage pools leaking water and had to transfer the contaminated water to tanks located near the site boundary.

The water stored in the tanks mainly contains strontium-90 and other beta ray-emitting radioactive materials. Beta rays can be easily blocked by a thin sheet of metal, but X-rays, with greater ability to penetrate materials, are generated when beta rays hit the interior walls of the tanks, contributing to the rise in the radiation level at the border.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

REPRINT:EPA to raise limits for radiation exposure while Canada turns off fallout detectors

FROM: Natural News (April 5,2011)

(NaturalNews) The mass radioactive contamination of our planet is now under way thanks to the astonishing actions taking place at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan. As of last night, TEPCO announced it is releasing 10,000 tons of radioactive water directly into the Pacific Ocean. That 2.4 million gallons of planetary poison being dumped directly into the ocean.

This water is being released because they have run out of places to keep it on land. It's too deadly to transport anywhere else, and all the storage pools around Fukushima are already overflowing. So they're dumping it into the ocean, then calling it "safe" because they claim the ocean will "disperse" all the radiation and make it harmless.

But because there's more radioactive water being produced every day at Fukushima, this process of releasing radioactive water into the ocean could theoretically continue for years, easily making Fukushima the worst nuclear disaster in the history of our world. (NOTE: INDEED THIS DUMPING OF WATER INTO THE OCEAN IS CONTINUING EVERY DAY---300 TONS OF IT!)

Quick, fudge the numbers before anybody notices!

Fukushima, you see, is doing to the Pacific Ocean what BP and the Deepwater Horizon did to the Gulf of Mexico last summer. Except that in the case of Fukushima, that radiation doesn't just disappear with the help of millions of gallons of toxic chemicals. Nope, that radiation sticks around for decades.

So what to do? If you're the United States Environment Protection Agency, there's only one option:Declare radiation to be safe!

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Fish with very high levels of cesium found near Fukushima

From: The Asahi Shimbun

A fish contaminated with extremely high levels of radiation was found in waters near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, a government-affiliated research institute said.

The Fisheries Research Agency said Jan. 10 the black sea bream had 12,400 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, 124 times the safety standards for foodstuffs.

The fish was caught at the mouth of the Niidagawa river in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on Nov. 17. The site is 37 kilometers south of the stricken power plant.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Obama Approves Raising Permissible Levels of Nuclear Radiation in Drinking Water. Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket

From: Global Research (April 14,2013)

Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket Following Radiological Incidents

by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

The White House has given final approval for dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs. The final version, slated for Federal Register publication as soon as today, is a win for the nuclear industry which seeks what its proponents call a “new normal” for radiation exposure among the U.S population, according Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the radiation guides (called Protective Action Guides or PAGs) allow cleanup many times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted. These guides govern evacuations, shelter-in-place orders, food restrictions and other actions following a wide range of “radiological emergencies.” The Obama administration blocked a version of these PAGs from going into effect during its first days in office. The version given approval late last Friday is substantially similar to those proposed under Bush but duck some of the most controversial aspects:

In soil, the PAGs allow long-term public exposure to radiation in amounts as high as 2,000 millirems. This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period;

• In water, the PAGs punt on an exact new standard and EPA “continues to seek input on this.” But the thrust of the PAGs is to give on-site authorities much greater “flexibility” in setting aside established limits; and
• Resolves an internal fight inside EPA between nuclear versus public health specialists in favor of the former. The PAGs are the product of Gina McCarthy, the assistant administrator for air and radiation whose nomination to serve as EPA Administrator is taken up this week by the Senate.
• Despite the years-long internal fight, this is the first public official display of these guides. This takes place as Japan grapples with these same issues in the two years following its Fukushima nuclear disaster.

“This is a public health policy only Dr. Strangelove could embrace. If this typifies the environmental leadership we can expect from Ms. McCarthy, then EPA is in for a long, dirty slog,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that the EPA package lacks a cogent rationale, is largely impenetrable and hinges on a series of euphemistic “weasel words.”

“No compelling justification is offered for increasing the cancer deaths of Americans innocently exposed to corporate miscalculations several hundred-fold.”

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Radiation levels at Fukushima rise to eight times gov't standard

FROM: THE VOICE OF RUSSIA

Nuclear radiation levels at Fukushima's No.1 plant have risen to eight times the government standard of 1 milliesievert per year, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has announced, indicating X-rays coming from radioactive water storage tanks as the predominant reason for the sharp increase in radiation at the plant.

According to officials, traces of radioactive strontium and other substances in the stored water react with the materials, the tank is composed of, producing X-rays.

On Friday, the Nuclear Regulation Authority held a meeting at which measures to curb the rising levels of radiation to the south of the plant were discussed.

 Radioactive water leaks at Fukushima have been a major concern to the international community, as well as the Japanese population since the outbreak of the crisis in March 2011.

When leaks from the Fukushima plant's underwater tanks were detected, TEPCO started storing contaminated waters in tanks.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_11/Radiation-levels-at-Fukushima-rise-to-eight-times-govt-standard-8445/

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_11/Radiation-levels-at-Fukushima-rise-to-eight-times-govt-standard-8445/

Inside Info: Alaska Air’s Been Fuked! Cancellations Due To Fukushima Radiation Rather Than The Flu?

From: Before It's News

Before It’s News has recently received the following tip from a confidential source who asked that we get this information out to the public. In light of recent cancellations of airline flights out of Alaska, Oregon and Washington state, was there another reason behind those cancellations besides what we have already been told? While the official word is that ‘the flu’ has struck Alaska Airlines crews, causing the cancellations of 24 flights, we have been informed that the real reason that crew members have called in sick has been due to fears of high levels of radiation in the air, as confirmed by this recent story that hot particles are now in the lungs of Americans, especially in Seattle, via an Interview with nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds. That same story shared with us that helicopters conducted secret flights to do surveys of the amount of radiation in the air and adds credence to more secretive military flights that were conducted just days ago and shared below.

On December 23rd, flights out of Seattle Washington and Portland Oregon returned to their airports as shared in the first video below from Mary Greeley. That very same day, there was also very strange military aircraft activity in the exact same area as shared in the 2nd video below from Mary. Were these military flights actually ‘radiation detection’ flights and did the Alaska Air crews get the word of high levels of radiation from confidential military sources? What would happen to the airline industry if Americans were to find out that flight crews of planes are calling in sick on days they find out that radiation levels in the upper atmosphere were extremely high? This would not be the first time that Alaska Air crews have been struck with illnesses due to Fukushima radiation as shared in the 3rd and 4th videos below when hundreds of Alaska Air flight attendants were struck with mysterious illnesses causing them to lose their hair and sustain unusual rashes, each of those symptoms being signs of radiation poisoning. Who could blame these same flight attendents for calling out sick when finding out that dangerously high levels of radiation were in the air again? 

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

US gov't, British crown responsible for the Fukushima disaster?

NOTE: I THROW THIS ARTICLE ON SIMPLY BECAUSE IT CAME FROM A MAINSTREAM NEWS SOURCE AND IT WAS SO VERY CURIOUS.

FROM: THE VOICE OF RUSSIA

Fukushima disaster has raised major environmental concerns and ever since the disaster took place, something seemed wrong about how it occurred and then has been dealt with. Lauren Monet, an independent scientist and a radiation expert from Berkeley, California, has shed some light on the plausible nature of the tragedy.

Ms Monet told the truthseeker.co.uk resource that since mid-September until present radiation levels in the San Francisco bay area "have been increasing and fluctuating higher than they have ever been before and then settling down again."
Ms Monet stated the fluctuations fell on the time when the America’s Cup race between New Zealand and Oracles boat yacht owned by Larry Allison, the CEO of America’s Cup, was to take place.

 "We could tell by the weather changes every 24 hours during each day and night that cold dense air from Japan was piped in to San Francisco bay area to be able to manipulate the weather the next day, so that Larry Allison’s yacht and team could retain the Cup and not lose it to New Zealand. That is when the radiation levels started to go up," Ms Monet explained.

Ms Monet pointed out that in Berkeley, prior to March 11, 2011, the day of Fukushima tsunami and earthquake disaster, which turned into over 300 Chernobyls by April 2011, the radiation levels in the bay area were between 0.07 to about 0.13 Becquerel, while before the Christmas of 2013 it was as high as 1.5.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_10/US-govt-British-crown-responsible-for-the-Fukushima-disaster-0909/

Fukushima a possible reason for starfish ‘melting’ along US West Coast

FROM: THE VOICE OF RUSSIA

Sunflower starfish is found literally melting in the waters of Washington state’s Puget Sound and along Canada’s west coast.

Seattle Aquarium biologists Jeff Christiansen said, “We’ve got some sea stars that look like they’re melting on the bottom.”

Seattle Aquarium biologists collected both sick and healthy fish last weekend to have it examined. Several labs, including that at Cornell University are going to look into what caused the melting of Seattle specimens, while samples taken off Canada coast are already being analyzed.

The cause for the disaster hasn’t yet been discovered, as is still unknown whether its nature is environmental or disaster related, while the number of melting starfish is increasing with each passing day.

According to Christiansen, “At this time, we don’t have a good idea of what’s causing it, so we’re going to look for everything.” Veterinarian Lesanna Lahner says that the starfish condition is rapidly deteriorating, with more than half displaying the same disturbing symptoms.

“It’s concerning to hear in a short time period we’re seeing 60% of this species diseased in this area,” she said.

Another stranger and disturbing fact is that the threatening symptoms have only been detected in the US and Canada coastal area. Though the reason has not been found yet, many suggest they should be looked for in Japan, or more precisely, in the Fukushima disaster, which is still leaking 300 tons of highly radioactive water into the ocean daily.

There’s massive evidence of Fukushima’s effect on the West Coast despite the silence from most western media, according to investigative journalist Michael Snyder. For example, earlier this month, Canadian authorities found massively high radiation levels in sea bass, with one fish showing 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.

 Added to that, plankton tested from Hawaii to the West Coast also contained high levels of cesium – 137, while California scientists detected same isotopes in 15 out of 15 Bluefin Tuna tested.

Surprisingly enough, even with the Canadian study showing the presence of cesium – 137 in 100 percent of carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish sold in Canada, Japan food is still being imported. (EMPHASIS ADDED)

Voice of Russia, storyleak.com
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_10_30/Fukushima-a-possible-reason-for-starfish-melting-along-US-West-Coast-3984/

Radiation rises from Fukushima water tanks

NOTE: THIS IS A BIGGER CONCERN THAN THIS ARTICLE STATES. IF THE X-RAYS GET TOO HIGH THE PLANT WOULD NEED TO BE EVACUATED OR EVERYONE WOULD NEED TO WEAR LEAD SHIELDING. 

FROM: NHK

Nuclear regulators will discuss measures to prevent the increase of radiation levels around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The level of radiation at the plant's border rose to more than 8 milisieverts in annualized figures in December, from less than 1 milisievert in March in the same year.

The regulators say that's due to the increasing number of storage tanks for radioactive water at the plant. There are now about 1,000 tanks at the site.

They explained that the water basically emits beta-rays, which are too weak to penetrate the steel tanks. But they say, when beta-rays hit metals, stronger X-rays come out of the tanks, affecting the environment

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Jamaica reveals information about contamination on used cars from Japan

FROM: ENFORMEABLE NEWS

NOTE: AND SINCE WE AREN'T REALLY CHECKING HERE IN THE U.S.....

In November 2012, a minibus imported from Japan by a used-car dealer in Jamaica was scanned and found to have radiation levels which required it to be moved to a quarantined area.

In December of 2013, a shipping container containing used car parts destined for Guyana was also found to have elevated levels of radiation.  It too was transferred to a quarantined area for protection.

Both shipments will be returned to Japan shortly.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Coast To Coast Am - January 6 2014 - Nuclear Issues & Fukushima

Extremely Rare Conjoined Whale Calves Discovered, What’s Happening In The Ocean?

FROM: COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION

The conjoined calves were found Sunday by fisherman in the Laguna Ojo de Liebre, or Scammon’s Lagoon in Baja California, 533 miles from the San Diego border. A database search at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles turned up no results for previously recorded instances of Siamese gray whale twins. (...)
(...)
Naturally, Fukushima radiation theories have already begun to flood the internet. It is curious timing, considering Fukushima radiation has already plagued the migration trails that the whales follow and has reached the North American coastlines. With the unexplainable  incidences occurring lately (Starfish Melting, Massive Die-Off Of Ocean Wildlife, Dead Sea Lions, Pink Salmon Turn Yellow ) one is only left to wonder if there is any correlation between these events and the Fukushima radiation crisis.

Start Thinking Fukushima

FROM: THE DAILY NEWS---SANTA BARABRA

Since the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami of March 11, 2011 struck Japan, the destroyed nuclear power plant at Fukushima Daiichi has been a cause for worldwide concern. Being only the second nuclear incident to rank a seven on the international nuclear events scale, matched only by the now-infamous Chernobyl meltdown, the lasting effects of this tragedy are not easily quantified.

As a result, fears continue to mount over meltdowns, radiation clouds, contaminated food and water sources and the entire future of nuclear energy. With videos of Geiger counters reading extremely dangerous levels at California beaches, stories of fish containing radioactive materials and the tragic fate of the USS Ronald Reagan’s crew — a crew now plagued by leukemia and radiation poisoning as a result of its proximity to the 2011 disaster — it is impossible to avoid seeing and feeling the effects of this tragedy, even here in sunny Santa Barbara.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Fukushima failure: Decontamination system stops functioning

Technology will save us...no, really it will.

FROM: RT

The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) has stopped using its systems to decontaminate radioactive water at the facility, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.

The Advanced Liquid Processing System, or ALPS, has been utilized to liquidate radioactive substances from contaminated water stored at the plant.

The crane to get rid of the container from the ALPS ceased working on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, TEPCO stopped operating all 3 ALPS systems at the facility. The company officials say the system may take a long time to restart.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Removal of nuclear fuel at Fukushima plant resumes after holiday break

AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT FINDS IT STRANGE THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF SUCH A HUGE CRISIS THAT HAS AFFECTED THE ENTIRE PLANET TEPCO WENT ON VACATION AND STOPPED CLEANING UP!

Agency plans to re-create ‘meltdown’

FROM: The Japan News

The Yomiuri ShimbunThe Japan Atomic Energy Agency will conduct an experiment next fiscal year to re-create on a small scale the meltdown that occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant following the Great East Japan Earthquake, it was learned on Wednesday.

The experiment will gather data necessary to study what exactly happened to three of the reactors at the plant and is expected to uncover missing pieces in the puzzle over how and when the fuel rods overheated and melted down at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

Only limited available data have been used to compute how and when a meltdown occurred, leaving many holes in investigations into the nuclear accident.

“We’d like to find out what phenomena occurred in the accident and use the data to work out responses in the event of another nuclear power plant accident,” an agency official said.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Higher-than-normal radiation levels at California beaches not related to Fukushima - scientists

From: The Voice of Russia

Authorities in California have sent teams to measure radiation along the San Mateo County coast in response to a video posted on YouTube by an unidentified author, yet found nothing life-threatening. In a seven-minute video, a man holding a Geiger counter radiation detector is walking through Pacifica State Beach near San Francisco. The counter indicates fluctuating radiation levels – at times of up to 150 counts-per-minute or five times higher than normal.

The author of the video says on his blog that he has been taking radiation measurements in the area for over two years. In late December, he spotted a sudden increase in radiation which he claims to be the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear breakdown in Japan.

 More than half a million people have viewed the video, titled “Fukushima hits San Francisco!”, since it was uploaded to YouTube on Christmas Eve.

Local health officials conducted an independent survey and confirmed “higher-than-typical” radiation readings but denied that there was any “immediate public health concern”.

Nevertheless, they forwarded the matter to the US Environmental Protection Agency. So far, it’s not clear if any further inquiry will follow.

The controversial video has fueled fears that radioactive waste generated by the Fukushima disaster might affect the US coast.

But scientists are skeptical that there is any Fukushima-related radiation hitting California beaches in any detectible levels.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_08/Higher-than-normal-radiation-levels-at-California-beaches-not-related-to-Fukushima-scientists-0727/

Problems Continue in Fukushima

From: New American Media

TOKYO — Commemorating 1,000 days after the Great East Japan Earthquake, various events and gatherings to maintain awareness of the Fukushima disaster were held throughout Japan in December.

One of those events, “Let Us Hear Today’s Fukushima,” was held in front of Yurakucho station, sponsored by Tokyo-to Gyosei Shoshikai (Tokyo Metropolitan Administrative Solicitors’ Association), which supports various legal actions for the Fukushima residents.

Five panelists who are working in Fukushima educated the audience about current conditions there. Hiroyasu Shioya, a professor at Fukushima University, stated that decontamination work (josen) is continuing but is being conducted manually by people who are performing tasks such as shoveling off the surface soil and wiping the ground with a cloth. That is time-consuming and labor-intensive work.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Fukushima Reactor 3 - TEPCO responds

NOTE: This is "comforting" but given the fragile nature of the entire plant I am not fully convinced number 3 reactor is in a stable state. What is not generally known is that eventually the materials surrounding a nuclear pile (this core is now a corium which is essentially a pile of melted core with other elements melted in) become radioactive and begin a decay process. As they decay they become very brittle. The building materials are generally shielded from this radiation but is now taking a full load of high level radiation which is slowly making it brittle.  A steel structure with a spent fuel pool on the fifth floor is not where you want to have structural steel going brittle. Each of the four reactors have a spent fuel pool up in the air loaded with spent, but still very radioactively hot, fuel in them. Each have the potential to cause a new nuclear disaster for the next three to four decades.
---

From: The Ecologist

Tepco has confirmed that steam is rising from Fukushima's melted-down Reactor 3, but insists there is 'no abnormality'.

The steam emanating from the top of Unit 3 Reactor Building indicates "no abnormality", according to plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).

However "steam continues to be confirmed at the top of unit 3 reactor building intermittently since summer when debris removal was conducted on the top floor". The likely cause of the steam is "accumulated rainwater" and "no safety concerns indicated".

Steam has been visible since 18th July 2013, and has mostly been observed "on days with comparatively low temperature and high humidity and, upon almost all occasions, when rain had fallen before."

The steam has been observed around the edge of the shield plug of the Primary Containment Vessel (PCV), which is the upper structure of the reactor.

"No significant changes were found in either the main parameters related to the plant ... nor the monitoring post readings, which indicates no abnormality of the cooling of the reactor, nor dangers to human health, the company explained."

There has also been been "no significant change in the radiation dose and nuclide analysis results (dust sampling data) compared to those from before the steam was observed."

Radiation levels remain high on the the Reactor Building 3 and decontamination of the area will continue.

But despite the re-assuring message from TEPCO the situation remains critical. Another moderately severe earthquake could fracture the already badly damaged building's fuel storage pond and this would trigger an immediate need for emergency cooling of the spent fuel rods.

The current situation of Fukushima Daiichi may be seen via Live Camera at
www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/f1-np/camera/index-e.html

Latest radiation dose monitoring results are posted at
www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/index-e.html and
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/surveymap/index-e.html

Is Fukushima at risk for another nuclear disaster?

From: Al Jazeera

At the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, is struggling to contain the ongoing nuclear disaster. Since the catastrophe almost three years ago, there has been disagreement about whether the plant is safe.

The official line from the Japanese government is that the situation is under control.

“The government is moving to the forefront and we will completely resolve the matter,” said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September, just before Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Summer Olympics.

But others, such as then–Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose, have said the situation is “not necessarily under control.”

“The government must acknowledge this as a national problem so that we can head toward a real solution,” said Inose, in response to Abe’s comments.

“America Tonight” traveled to Fukushima to find out whether the world still needs to be worried.

'An ongoing crisis'

Journalist David McNeill has been covering Japan since 2000.

America Tonight

“I think this is an ongoing crisis,” said David McNeill, a journalist who has lived in Japan since 2000 and has been covering the Fukushima disaster from the beginning. “What you’ve had is a series of ad hoc strategies designed to deal with the crisis that’s right in front of you.”

The events at Fukushima unfolded in a cascade of disasters, each one more frightening than the last: the massive earthquake and tsunami, the nuclear meltdowns, the explosions, the desperate attempts to keep fuel rods from overheating and, finally, the leaks of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

Now, nearly three years later, the most pressing worry is the spent nuclear fuel rods, which are still precariously stored in a pool above the damaged and unstable Reactor 4. McNeill said there are thousands of nuclear fuel rods in Reactor 4, which must be extracted one by one. Last month TEPCO began the delicate, and dangerous, yearlong task of transferring those fuel rods — more than 1,300 in all, amounting to some 400 tons of uranium — to a safer location. Some experts have pointed out the serious risks of this process, McNeill said.

“For example, if there was another earthquake, another major earthquake, it could trigger another radioactive disaster,” he said.

But the real headache comes from the hundreds of tons of melted radioactive fuel in Reactors 1, 2 and 3. McNeill said that TEPCO only has “the vaguest idea” of where the molten fuel sits, and a constant flow of water is necessary to keep the molten uranium from heating up. TEPCO has built thousands of tanks to store the daily flood of contaminated water, but it is running out of space.

“The tanks have mushroomed all over the power plant,” McNeill said. “Because if they don’t keep it cool, it heats up, radiation escapes and then we’re back to square one.”

If there was ... another major earthquake, it could trigger another radioactive disaster.

David McNeill

Journalist

If the melted radioactive fuel weren’t enough, there’s also the issue of the groundwater. After years of denial, TEPCO admitted in the fall that contaminated groundwater is flowing into the Pacific at the volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool every week. It’s this deluge of radioactive water that worries many Americans.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Coast getting little radiation from Fukushima disaster

From: SFGate

Scientists reported Wednesday that low levels of radiation from Japan's Fukushima disaster first detected off the California coast two years ago have been declining ever since and remain well below any levels considered unsafe for humans.

The scientists, from UC Santa Cruz and Stony Brook University in New York, were responding to public concerns raised this week by an Internet video claiming that dangerously high radiation levels had been detected in the sands of Pacifica State Beach.

The video has gone viral and shows an unidentified man carrying a commercial Geiger counter that displays radiation counts purportedly rising to "alert" levels as he walks along the beach often frequented by surfers.

An Internet "news" site is claiming that news of the radioactivity is being suppressed by unnamed government sources.

(...)

"There is no public health risk at California beaches due to radioactivity related to events at Fukushima," the California Department of Public Health said Tuesday.

"Recent tests by the San Mateo County Public Health Department show that elevated levels of radiation at Half Moon Bay are due to naturally occurring materials and not radioactivity associated with the Fukushima incident," it said.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

NOTES: This is a good article and has some valid points. We do live in a radioactive world and some of that comes from natural elements (radon gas from decaying uranium, etc.) but the difficulty in all of this arises from the fact that TEPCO has been dishonest, the Japanese government has been dishonest and the U.S. Government agencies have been more than lax in their testing. Essentially they just turned off the sensors and left all of us to wonder what is really going on so this is prime real estate for stories that become larger than the truth.  

Truth.  The truth is not the large story that is found at places on the web but at the same time it is not this story. The truth is Fukushima is spewing radiation into the ocean and into the air every day. This higher than background radiation I firmly believe is likely from radioactive natural elements in the cliffs. I must take issue with the statement that there is not public health risk. There is a risk, even if it is not from Fukushima. All radiation brings with it risk. Even if it is a small risk and Fukushima is not the only source of man made radioactive pollution. Our immune systems are designed to manage the low levels of natural radiation. The human body repairs itself constantly. Man has tipped that balance however with the introduction of man-made radiation which sometimes pushes our immune system beyond it's ability to repair and we end up sick or have cancerous growths. 

The real story is that we must put an end to not only nuclear but also coal and other power plants that generate pollutants that weaken us and cause illness. Even if that means limiting our access to power. We can do better as a people, as a world and as a society. But we must work together to do so.