From: Herald Sun News

NEWS

Three years on from Japan's nuclear emergency, the fallout continues to spread

• JAMIE SEIDEL
• NEWS LIMITED NETWORK
• DECEMBER 09, 2013 4:15PM

SHARE

expand

• Share on facebook

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

NEW! Discover news with your friends. Give it a try.
To get going, simply connect with your favourite social network:

Facebook

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI REMOVE SECOND BATCH OF SPENT FUEL RODS0:40

• Play video

TEPCO begins removing the second batch of spent fuel rods from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

AUTOPLAY

• ON
• OFF

A TEPCO worker checking radiation around the contamination water tank at TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture. AFP / TEPCO Source: AFP

<>

• Fukushima Daiichi remove second batch of...
• A TEPCO worker checking radiation around...

WELCOME to Fukushima, where the radiation's so bad it can be fatal within 20 minutes. The tsunami may have happened some 33 months ago, but the fallout just keeps getting worse.

Japanese media is reporting that the intensity of radiation levels in the nuclear powerplant devastated by the earthquake - and subsequent tidal waves - of March 2011 is now at its highest levels ever.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the Fukushima Daiichi plant following the disaster which sent three of its six reactors critical.

The clean-up operation is expected to take decades but in the meantime:

Big clean-up ... Inside the crippled No. 4 reactor. Source: AFP

* Radiation contamination of the harbour alongside the plant is steadily rising;

* Another earthquake could cause a disaster 10 times worse than that experienced in Chernobyl;

* Somewhere to store thousands of tons of radioactive water needs to be found; and

* Traces of radioactive caesium has been found in tuna migrating across the Pacific

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Radiation Dose Graph

JFK'S SPEECH TO THE PRESS CORPS

“For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”

JFK from his “President and the Press” speech to the U.S. press core on April 27th, 1961

In Japan, Disaster and a Radio Show Put Refugees On the Agenda

From: Global Voices

...After the earthquake, Katsuya joined a team setting up a temporary radio station in a disaster-stricken area to provide emergency information. After the government shifting the radiation exposure limit [ja] for children from 1 to 20 millisieverts, some people in Japan came to consider they were being put at risk by their own leaders, and Katsuya became actively involved with people who evacuated from Fukushima.

“When I communicated with evacuees from area with high radiation levels,” Katsuya says, “I started to see a kind of similarity between Fukushima evacuees and refugees: both have to do with structural violence. People had to evacuate from their homes in Fukushima because there was a nuclear accident. The act of locating a nuclear power plant is like a domestic colonization, which marginalized communities have to accept.”...

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Furnace Creek Death Valley RADIATION RAINS - 31.5 x background 11-23-13

NOTE: THIS WAS RAIN FROM WINTER STORM "BOREAS" WHICH FELL OVER THE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND 2013.

A Radioactive Nightmare

From: Ventura County Reporter

(Originally published 06/07/2012 this article remains relevant and even more so as we learn that the situation at Fukushima Daichi is much worse than was reported previously.  The leaks at Fukushima have begun to reach the Pacific in even larger quantities and it was recently reported that some of the Corium was essentially blasted out of reactors 1 or 2 and into the vent stack. Standing near this above ground deposit for twenty minutes would be lethal. Below is just the beginning. I encourage you to follow the link and read the entire article. Very eye opening.)

Millions of Southern Californians and tourists seek the region’s famous beaches to cool off in the sea breeze and frolic in the surf. Those iconic breezes, however, may be delivering something hotter than the white sands along the Pacific.

Buckyballs.

According to a recent U.C. Davis study, uranium-filled nanospheres are created from the millions of tons of fresh and salt water used to try to cool down the three molten cores of the stricken reactors. The tiny and tough buckyballs are shaped like British Association Football soccer balls.

Water hitting the incredibly hot and radioactive, primarily uranium-oxide fuel turns it into peroxide. In this goo buckyballs are formed, loaded with uranium and able to move quickly through water without disintegrating.

High radiation readings in Santa Monica and Los Angeles air during a 42-day period from late December to late January strongly suggest that radiation is increasing in the region including along the coast in Ventura County.

The radiation, detected by this reporter and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, separate from each other and using different procedures, does not appear to be natural in origin. The EPA’s radiation station is high atop an undisclosed building in Los Angeles while this reporter’s detection location is near the West L.A. boundary.

Both stations registered over 5.3 times normal, though the methods of sampling and detection differed. The videotaped Santa Monica sampling and testing allowed for the detection of alpha and beta radiation while the sensitive EPA instrument detected beta only, according to the government website.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

The Fukushima Coverup: “Biggest Industrial Catastrophe in the History of Mankind”

From: Global Research

“We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”

-Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project which created the first atomic devices. [1]

The Global Research News Hour. Conversations with Yoichi Shimatsu and Hatrick Penry

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Impending Japan-China war has the makings of a Clancy classic

The article shown below deals strictly with the current tensions right now between China and Japan but even so this has a direct effect on Fukushima. China seems to be flexing it's muscle and an all out war is a definite possibility. Should this occur the United States would, by treaty, be drawn into the fray as well. There are other tensions in the region with North Korea as well. This is how large wars begin.

The cleanup at Fukushima is expected to take at least forty years to complete and cost billions. War has a way of interrupting efforts like this and one must really ask the question; what will happen to the clean up effort should that occur? Additionally Japan has tons and tons of spent fuel lying around at fifty plus reactors. This in a space the size of California. What happens if a fight encroaches on Japanese soil? During World War II munitions factories and dumps were prime targets. What happens if Japan's nuclear sites are targeted? I am not even sure I want to think about that. We in the U.S. have a vested interest in seeing a peaceful conclusion to this problem but I am not sure given our current financial woes we have a lot of influence. 

From: Japan Times

On Nov. 23, China announced the creation of a newly expanded air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, overlapping a large expanse of territory also claimed by Japan. The move has produced a visceral reaction in the Japanese vernacular media, particularly the weekly tabloids. Five out of nine weekly magazines that went on sale last Monday and Tuesday contained scenarios that raised the possibility of a shooting war.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Emperor’s apparent liberal leanings jar with Japan’s right wing

From: Japan Times

In the media debate about the state secrets bill, much has been said about the public’s right to know. Participants in a democratic society must be informed to make decisions in their interest, and critics of the bill, which ostensibly protects matters of national security, believe it will be used to keep people in the dark about anything the government doesn’t want revealed or discussed openly.

But even before there is a law limiting the dispersal of official information, Japanese citizens operate with a built-in filter that controls what an individual believes he or she has a right to say. According to documentary filmmaker Tatsuya Mori, this self-censorship function is a holdover from the prewar regime’s effort to monitor the hearts and minds of the populace, and its main tool in that effort was emperor worship.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Passage of contentious secrets law ends extra Diet session

From: Japan Times

The extraordinary Diet session effectively closed Saturday morning after the House of Councilors enacted the state secrecy law despite raucous protests from the opposition camp.

In his policy speech in October, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had said it would be a “growth strategy Diet” session, but critics said it was actually a “state secrecy Diet session”...

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Ministry panel eyes three Fukushima towns for storage of tainted soil

From: the Japan Times

An Environment Ministry panel said Saturday it is possible to build interim facilities in three towns in Fukushima Prefecture to store soil contaminated by the nuclear catastrophe.

On-site surveys show that the towns of Okuma, Naraha and Futaba have ground solid enough to build such facilities, the panel said.

The panel’s conclusion is “a major step forward,” Senior Vice Environment Minister Shinji Inoue told reporters.

However, officials of the three towns remain cautious about hosting the facilities.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

----------

Note: For those who feel nuclear is "clean energy" please send me your address as I am creating a data-bank of possible locations to store thousands of tons of high level waste sitting around at the hundreds of nuclear sites around the world. Most sites are running out of room and after Yucca was cancelled... It will also be a convenient place to store dirt scraped up around any future nuclear meltdowns or other accidents. After all when a plant melts down the isotopes spread over a huge area then across the entire world so there is a lot of topsoil that is rendered unusable for a few thousand years. The world desperately needs places to put this stuff and generously offering your city, town or neighborhood will not go without notice from the world community.  Please check with your neighbors before submitting your address as they may have health concerns that differ from yours. 

Second request....the world desperately needs signs that can be placed on this nuclear waste that will last several thousands of years to keep people away. All ideas for a material that will last the duration are welcome. 

Highest radiation levels measured outside reactor

From:NHK World

Anyone exposed to this level of radiation would die within twenty minutes.

Short Video

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131207_01.html?play

Japanese parliament enacts secrets law critics fear will muzzle media

From: South China Morning Post

Enactment comes despite opposition from critics who fear measure will muzzle the media

...Thousands of protesters, bundled in coats against the chill, gathered across from the parliament building, chanting "Shame on you, Shinzo Abe".

"This was really rushed through too fast and you have to wonder why the hurry now," one man told public broadcaster NHK. "I think we'll really regret this later."

In the days before passage, the government scrambled to address complaints that there was no independent review process to ensure the law was not abused by bureaucrats seeking to hide mistakes or misdeeds, including suggesting an oversight body whose members would require parliamentary approval.

But the proposed mechanisms are not mandated by the law, and critics said they failed to remove concerns that the oversight will not be truly independent.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

EDITORIAL: Lawmakers--and public--must continue fight against state secrets law

From; The Asahi Shimbun

The Upper House passed legislation on Dec. 6 to protect confidential information concerning national security. Serious thought must be given to the grave implications from the viewpoints of the political system and the Constitution.

Under the new state secrets protection law, the chiefs of ministries and agencies have the power to determine what specific information should be designated as a state secret and whether such confidential information should be disclosed for Diet deliberations or trials.

The law will effectively create a pocket of secrecy within the sphere of administrative activities insulated from scrutiny by the public, the Diet or the judiciary. It will empower the government to determine at its discretion the scope and content of information that should be enveloped by the heavy veil of official secrecy.

In other words, the government has obtained a convenient and powerful tool to limit information disclosure. The scope of state secrets will inevitably expand year after year.

This situation poses a serious threat to the fundamental constitutional principles of popular sovereignty and separation of the three branches of government.

The legislation could eviscerate the most important principles of modern democracy and bring outdated politics back to the nation.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Japan's new state-secrets law gives leakers up to 10 years in prison

From: TheVerge

Japan has enacted a new state-secrets law that strengthens punishments for journalists and government officials who leak or seek top secrets, reports Reuters. The legislation has been met with protests and criticism by the public, with many fearing that the law will be used to silence media outlets or allow government officials to cover up their actions. Reuters reports that under the law, public employees and others with access to state secrets could be jailed up to 10 years for leaking them, while journalists and other private sector employees could be jailed up to five years for seeking out state secrets through "grossly inappropriate" means.

INFORMATION CAN BE MARKED AS SECRET FOR 60 YEARS OR LONGER

But many are concerned that private employees could be punished simply for seeking information that they weren't aware was a state secret in the first place. Reuters reports that leaders of all ministries will have authority to create state secrets that are held for up to 60 years — sometimes longer.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

China, South Korea fear secrets law could lead to Japanese military state

From:the Asahi Shimbun

South Korea and China raised concerns that the Dec. 6 enactment of the state secrets protection law is putting Japan on the path of becoming a nation ready to go to war.

“Japan has entered a course to change into ‘an ordinary nation,’” said the South Korean Dong-A Ilbo newspaper in a Dec. 7 article. “That means it is seeking to create a nation that can go to war by moving away from its postwar structure that banned war or the possession of a military.”

The state-run China Central Television broadcast a report on Dec. 7 that said, “The high-handed method used is meant to push forward to becoming a military state.”

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Yesterday, 12/6/13, the world became considerably darker

Yesterday the Japanese Government cemented into law the "State Secrets Act". (See previous posts for information about this act.) It is not completely clear what the specific intent of this bill is but the flow of information regarding Fukushima will at best be impeded and, at worst, will completely dry up. Tokyo wants the 2020 Olympics and it has become clearly evident they will manufacture falsehoods ("Fukushima is under control") or simply cover up the truth of this clear and present danger to keep them.

About the same time this act was finally passed the world lost a great man, Nelson Mandela. It si far beyond me, or the scope of this blog, to mention his accomplishments but I would like to quote him.

"A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference. It must have the economic strength to stand up to the blandishments of government officials. It must have sufficient independence from vested interests to be bold and inquiring without fear or favor. It must enjoy the protection of the constitution, so that it can protect our rights as citizens.

Japan, I fear, is no longer a democracy and the world must take notice. 

California town passes Fukushima resolution: “Urgent international rescue” needed at site — “Poses health and safety concerns to America’s West Coast” — “Much greater contamination is likely”

From: ENE News

[…] Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors, crippled by the tsunami in Japan in March of 2011, continue to pose a grave risk to people and the environment around the world, including the United States.

[…] much greater contamination is likely, given that the reactor cores are highly unstable and that the structures and storage tanks are deteriorating and that massive amounts of contaminated cooling and groundwater are being released into the Pacific daily [...]

[…] this disaster presents one of the gravest threats and greatest technological challenges facing the international community, and as such demands an international response utilizing the world’s most accomplished experts as well as international funding on a level commensurate with humankind’s most ambitious efforts, in the interest of every nation […]

[…] mishaps at the site are ongoing and pose a growing threat not only to the Japanese, but to all Pacific nations, including the western coast of the United States […]

[…] the situation at Fukushima, Japan is now clearly an international problem and poses health and safety concerns to America’s West Coast;

[…] the Town of Fairfax urges that:

The United Nations General Assembly and Security Council appoint on an emergency basis, within thirty days, an International Independent Commission of Experts (IICE) charged with formulating a plan to reduce, to every extent possible, releases of Fukushima Dai-ichi radiation into the atmosphere and the ocean […]

The Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, United States Agricultural Department and the Federal Trade Commission and other responsible agencies begin periodic collection and reporting of radioactivity levels in edible ocean species, plants and products and that the results of such surveys be published on a public website for consumer information and education without delay […]

The foregoing Resolution was duly passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the Town Council of the Town of Fairfax […]

(FULL ARTICLE HERE---LINK)

COMPLETE TEXT OF RESOLUTION---LINK

TEPCO investigates radiation levels of exhaust stack at Fukushima Daiichi

From: Enformable Nuclear News

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant used a camera attached to a long pole with a dosimeter to explore highly radioactive areas near the combined exhaust stack for Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactors.  Part of the decommissioning process requires the reinforcement and dismantling of portions of the exhaust stack, but the contaminated areas make it impossible for workers to access some of the required areas.

The investigation found radiation doses of 95 millisieverts per hour 5 feet from the SGTS piping at the base of the exhaust stack.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Record outdoor radiation level detected at Fukushima plant

From: Asahi Shimbun

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Dec. 6 it detected the highest estimated radiation level for an outdoor location at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The reading of 25 sieverts per hour was taken on steel piping near an exhaust stack for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, TEPCO said.

The utility earlier said high radiation levels of at least 10 sieverts per hour were found on the piping.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Canada Busted Covering Up Spikes In Fukushima Radiation

From: Global Research

Falsely Stated That There Were No Unusual Radiation Levels

The governments of Japan, America and Canada have covered up the severity of the Fukushima crisis ever since it started in March 2011.

They’ve cut way back on radiation monitoring after the Fukushima meltdown, underplayed the amount of radiation pumped out by Fukushima, and raised acceptable radiation levels … rather than fixing anything.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

TEPCO chairman plans to quit in June

From: the Japan News

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Kazuhiko Shimokobe plans to step down from the post after a general shareholders meeting in June next year, it has been learned.

Shimokobe believes TEPCO can pave the way for its business reconstruction after the outbreak of the crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011 with the planned adoption of a revised special business program by the end of this year, sources said.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

PETITION---Ambassador Kennedy Please Fight Japan's Fukushima State Secrets Act

As the catastrophe at Fukushima worsens, Japan's State Secrets Act threatens to cut the flow of vital information. We ask Ambassador Kennedy to oppose this act so the world might know what is happening at Fukushima and how to respond. That's why I signed a petition to Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, which says: "

 Ambassador Kennedy: We ask for your strongest possible official opposition to Japan's new State Secrets Act, and for your every effort to guarantee free global media access to the Fukushima nuclear site. We also ask that you help secure maximum possible participation and control at Fukushima by the world's scientific, engineering and financial communities. We question Tokyo Electric's ability to deal with this unprecedented crisis. On November 7, 150,000 signatures were delivered to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon asking for a global takeover at Fukushima by the world's top experts, with all necessary funding. For our children and theirs, we ask your strongest possible support in this effort. " Will you sign the petition too?

Click here to add your name:

  SIGN THE PETITION

SIGN THIS PETITION -- Stop Japan's Fukushima State Secrets Act!

Fukushima threatens the Earth's biosphere. Our survival may hinge on the global media being guaranteed unlimited site access so humankind can be immediately informed of, and respond to, all vital developments there.

That's why I signed a petition to Government of Japan & PM Shinzo Abe, which says:

"We ask Japan's government & Prime Minister Abe to renounce the State Secrets Act cutting the flow of information from Fukushima. The global media must be guaranteed free access, so the world community can immediately see, and respond to, all vital developments there.

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-japans-fukushima?source=s.em.cp&r_by=1852155

Thanks!

Fierce Typhoons Spread Japan's Nuclear Contamination

From: Earthweek

Fierce Typhoons Spread Japan's Nuclear Contamination

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

From: Reuters

Insight - Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor

(Reuters) - Storage tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant like one that spilled almost 80,000 gallons of radioactive water this year were built in part by workers illegally hired in one of the poorest corners of Japan, say labor regulators and some of those involved in the work.

"Even if we didn't agree with how things were being done, we had to keep quiet and work fast," said Yoshitatsu Uechi, 48, a mechanic and former bus driver, who was one of a crew of 17 workers recruited in Okinawa and sent to Fukushima in June 2012 - among the thousands of workers from across Japan who have put together the emergency water tanks and stabilized the plant after three reactor meltdowns that were triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

From: Japan Real Time / Wall Street Journal

Japan’s Government Railroads Controversial Secrets Bill

No amount of heckling, arm flailing, or banging on a committee chairman’s desk could stop the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe railroading a controversial state intelligence bill through a parliamentary debate Thursday.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

From: Mathaba Fukushima cancer spike and nuclear industry denial There has been a spike of thyroid cancer cases in the Fukushima, like there was in Chernobyl after its nuclear disaster. And like Chernobyl, writes Capt. Graham Bates, the nuclear industry is trying to deny the events are related. ON 11 MARCH 2011, the world witnessed another Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) disaster, this time involving the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. An earthquake, followed by a tsunami, created the worst nuclear disaster on Earth. The mainstream media has been relatively quiescent about the continuing Fukushima disaster. This is about to change. Massive amounts of toxic radionuclides and water continue leaking from the reactors and the Spent Fuel Storage Pools (SFSP) into the Pacific Ocean. Scientific studies prove that radiation-induced insect mutations, high radiation levels in fish and alarmingly, rates of human cancers are increasing. In the aftermath of the Fukushima NPP explosions, the extent of the massive damage is almost beyond belief. (FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

From: South China Morning Post

Japan may set up decommissioning agency for Fukushima plant

Japan’s ruling party could set up a British-style agency to shut down the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, taking control of a project now managed by the station’s embattled operator, a senior party policymaker said on Thursday.

A huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered three meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, and exposed a lack of preparation by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, also know as Tepco.

The company has floundered for much of the last two-and-a-half years in dealing with several problems at the site, including a series of leaks of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

From: Tasnim News Agency

Japan Brainstorms New Measures to Stop Radioactive Leak at Fukushima

Officials said the plant could completely run out of storage space for contaminated water within two years.

The new measures include ideas picked from 780 proposals from around the world that were requested by the Industry Ministry as Japan seeks international guidance to tackle the nuclear crisis. The measures were presented in a draft report from the contaminated water panel on Tuesday.

After the earthquake that triggered a tsunami in March 2011 and hit Fukushima, the cores of the three nuclear reactors melted and burnt through the concrete basement of the reactor housing.

The water being used to cool the debris has been leaking into the soil and contaminating the ground water on the premises of the nuclear facility. This water eventually started seeping into the Pacific.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Situation In Fukushima Remains "Very Complex," IAEA

From: NTD Television

Situation In Fukushima Remains "Very Complex," IAEA

Situation in Fukushima remains "very complex and challenging" IAEA says.

The International Atomic Energy Power called on Wednesday (December 4) Japan's efforts to decommission the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant very complex with challenging issues remaining for the long term stability of the plant follow another review of the sites.

"The team also considers that the situation remains very complex at the site and that there are still very challenging issues that must be resolved to ensure the plant's long-term stability," said International Atomic Energy Agency Juan Carlos Lentijo at a news conference after the IAEA's 19 member team visited Fukushima Daiichi earlier last week.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

From: Euronews

1,000 days after Fukushima: residents of crisis zone frustrated by slow clean-up

The communities around Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant are still waiting for their lives to return to some kind of normality – 1,000 days after the world’s worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

By the end of October, only 28.5 percent of houses, 33.2 percent of roads and 12.3 percent of forests had been cleaned, according to the Fukushima Department of Environment.

The Japanese government has extended the time-frame the clean-up of the exclusion zone around the plant, initially due to be completed by next March, until 2017.

Officials have cited several difficulties as reasons for pushing back the timetable, including finding space to store contaminated waste.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

From: Enforceable Nuclear News

Regulators urge TEPCO to dump tritiated water into the Pacific Ocean

On Tuesday, Shinichi Tanaka, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority in Japan warned the press that low-level contaminated water stored at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant represented one of the biggest obstacles for the decommissioning process.  Tanaka advised that this obstacle could be avoided by releasing contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

TEPCO has been storing the tritium water, but is quickly running out of storage space for it all.  “You cannot keep storing the water forever,” Tanaka said, “We have to make a choice comparing all risks involved.”

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

A note about Tritium--Tritium is a radioisotope of Hydrogen with a half-life of roughly 12.3 years (it will remain toxic to lessening degrees for approximately 123 years). Because Tritium is a hydrogen isotope it combines well with water and when combined with water it permeates skin relatively easily. For this reason soaking in water contaminated with Tritium can be detrimental to health. Sea life that travel through the Tritium will uptake it rather quickly and it can be then passed on through eating contaminated fish. If there is an upside it is that the biological half-life is about 7-10 days so it does not stick around in the body long but does damage to the cells while it is maintained in the body and can cause cancer. Tritium is very rare and most of the existing Tritium is a result of fission in a nuclear reactor.  I have not found any source that states how many pounds of Tritium is expected to be dumped at Fukushima but prior to this expected dump there was only about 165 pounds of the stuff existing in the world.  Tritium easily permeates rubber, plastic and even some steel which makes one wonder how much Tritium has already leaked from the sub-standard tanks at Fukushima)

From: The Voice of Russia

Forgotten victims of man-made catastrophe

Cats, dogs and ostriches dying around Fukushima, waiting for owners.  You become responsible forever for what you've tamed. This rule seems so true if you look into the story of thousands of animals left behind near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. While wild animals can flee when danger threatens, tame ones become loyal to their surroundings or depend heavily on human care. Many Fukushima animals have died while the surviving ones are still - 18 months later - patiently waiting for their owners to return, says photographer, Yasusuke Ota.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_04/photo-Forgotten-victims-of-manmade-catastrophe-cats-dogs-and-ostriches-dying-around-Fukushima-still-waiting-for-owners-8687/

Two and a half years after Fukushima

From: the International

Two and a half years after Fukushima

The Fukushima Daiichai nuclear disaster, occurring more than two and a half years ago, exposed Japan to the pitfalls of nuclear energy and defined international headlines for weeks. Yet, the site continues to leak radiation into international waters, contaminating marine food webs and threatening human health on a global scale.

For Japan, the experience has not only brought about environmental devastation, but also a two-sided response from its citizenry, as both volunteers as well as forced laborers work to clean the danger zones of the abandoned power plant.

New data challenge initial reports

A plume of radioactive debris continues to circulate around the Pacific Rim, and new reports confirm that fallout from the meltdown has infected coastal fish in California and increased the state’s rate of hypothyroidism in newborns.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Government research shows Fukushima radiation spike over southwestern British Columbia in 2011

From: Straight.com--Vancouver's Online Source

Government research shows Fukushima radiation spike over southwestern British Columbia in 2011

A STUDY BY several researchers, including Health Canada monitoring specialist Ian Hoffman, reveals a sharp spike in radiation over southwest B.C. on March 20, 2011.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Fukushima NHK Documentary: "The Truth Behind the Chain of Meltdowns"

Fukushima's Deadly Legacy

Fukushima's Deadly Legacy

On March 11, 2011, the world's greatest ever environmental disaster struck Fukushima. Weeks later, nuclear meltdown was confirmed.

Radioactive discharges can't be stopped. They continue out-of-control. They're uncontainable. Fukushima is an unprecedented catastrophe. It's reason enough to abolish nuclear power.

Helen Caldicott is clear and unequivocal. Enough nuclear explosions "would create nuclear winter, with the US covered with a cloud so thick that it would block out the sun for years, and that would be the end." Other nuclear experts agree.

In 1953, future physiology and medicine Nobel laureate George Wald told this student at the time and others "there's no such thing as safe nuclear power." He later said:

"If you were to read in the newspapers tomorrow that astronomers had a shocking piece of information for us. They had just found another star is going to collide with the sun and that would be curtains."

"We'd have eight months more to go and, finished - why - heavens above! You would put on your best clothes and go dancing in the streets - that's cosmic, that's fate. You could go out with dignity."
Dying from nuclear power, he added, "is so trivial. It's so ghastly ignoble as to be, I think, intolerable, altogether unacceptable."

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)