Jiji: Highly radioactive groundwater now flowing under Unit 1 — Levels skyrocket since last test, now 1,000s of times higher — 8 locations hit record in recent days at Fukushima Daiichi

FROM: ENENEWS

Jan. 24, 2014: Tainted Water May Also Have Leaked from No. 1 Reactor at Fukushima N-Plant — Highly radioactive water accumulated in the basement of the turbine building of the No. 1 reactor [...] may have contaminated groundwater, experts said Friday. [...] TEPCO has explained that the groundwater may have been contaminated by highly radioactive water in underground cable tunnels of the No. 2 and 3 reactors [...] however, 5,600 becquerels of radioactive tritium per liter was detected in groundwater taken on Sunday from an observation well near the turbine building of the No. 1 reactor. No radioactive tritium was detected in water collected in mid-November. [...

8 groundwater locations hit new highs for tritium  since January 6 (Bq/liter):

• 0-2: 4,700 <1/12>
• 0-3-2: 73,000 <1/16>
• 0-4: 46,000 <1/12>
• 1-8: 12,000 <1/6>
• 1-17: 31,000 <1/16>
• 2-2: 660 <1/8>
• 2-7: 1,100 <1/17>
• 3-5: 170 <1/8>

View the latest sampling results here (pdf)

(FULL ARTICLE AND SITE SCHEMATIC---LINK)

Promising the muon: Scientists to map Fukushima nuclear hotspots with cosmic radiation

FROM: RT

Japanese scientists say they have successfully completed a pilot program that allows them to use cosmic rays to determine the location of nuclear fuel inside the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

“The technology enables you to find where nuclear fuel is anywhere in the world," Fumihiko Takasaki, a researcher at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation (KEK), told AFP news agency.

The experiment - using a technique known as muon scattering radiography - had been running at a disused nuclear plant in Ibaraki between from February 2012 until last month.

Tiny, high-energy particles called muons are beamed down from space and pass through most materials, including human bones, concrete, and water. They form a consistent stream, with about 1000 moving through one square foot of air on Earth every minute.

While some substances only slightly alter their path, a few block them altogether – particularly the uranium and plutonium used as nuclear fuel. The deflections as a result of these encounters are specific, consistent, and well known to scientists.

By measuring them, they can see an outline of substances impeding the muons, and create a three-dimensional map.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

2011 Fukushima Fall Out: Aerial Deposition On To Sea Ice Scenario And Wildlife Health Implications To Ice-Associated Seals

FROM: ALASKA MARINE SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM

Bering Sea - Mammals

2011 Fukushima Fall Out: Aerial Deposition On To Sea Ice Scenario And Wildlife
Health Implications To Ice-Associated Seals

Dr.Doug Dasher, ddasher@alaska.edu
John Kelley, jjkelley@alaska.edu
Gay Sheffield, ggsheffield@alaska.edu
Raphaela Stimmelmayr, raphaela.stimmelmayr@north-slope.org

On March 11, 2011 off Japan’s west coast, an earthquake-generated tsunami struck the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant resulting in a major nuclear accident that
included a large release of airborne radionuclides into the environment. Within five days
of the accident atmospheric air masses carrying Fukushima radiation were transiting into
the northern Bering and Chukchi seas. During summer 2011 it became evident to coastal
communities and wildlife management agencies that there was a novel disease outbreak
occurring in several species of Arctic ice-associated seals. Gross symptoms associated
with the disease included lethargy, no new hair growth, and skin lesions, with the
majority of the outbreak reports occurring between the Nome and Barrow region. NOAA
and USFWS declared an Alaska Northern Pinnipeds Usual Mortality Event (UME) in late
winter of 2011. The ongoing Alaska 2011 Northern Pinnipeds UME investigation
continues to explore a mix of potential etiologies (infectious, endocrine, toxins, nutritious
etc.), including radioactivity. Currently, the underlying etiology remains undetermined.
We present results on gamma analysis (cesium 134 and 137) of muscle tissue from
control and diseased seals, and discuss wildlife health implications from different
possible routes of exposure to Fukushima fallout to ice seals. Since the Fukushima fallout
period occurred during the annual sea ice cover period from Nome to Barrow, a sea ice
based fallout scenario in addition to a marine food web based one is of particular
relevance for the Fukushima accident. Under a proposed sea ice fallout deposition
scenario, radionuclides would have been settled onto sea ice. Sea ice and snow would
have acted as a temporary refuge for deposited radionuclides; thus radionuclides would
have only become available for migration during the melting season and would not have
entered the regional food web in any appreciable manner until breakup (pulsed release).
The cumulative on-ice exposure for ice seals would have occurred through external,
inhalation, and non-equilibrium dietary pathways during the ice-based seasonal spring
haulout period for molting/pupping/breeding activities. Additionally, ice seals would
have been under dietary/metabolic constraints and experiencing hormonal changes
associated with reproduction and molting.

LINK TO ORIGINAL REPORT  (Page 222)

IAEA releases Fukushima nuclear power plant remediation report

LINK TO PENN ENERGY / IAEA REPORT

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delivered a final report that reviewed remediation efforts at theFukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

The report describes the findings of the previous mission trip in October 2013, and highlights progress while offering advice on some points that need further improvement.

The mission team noted that there was progress of remediation of farmland and forest areas near the nuclear plant, progress toward the government’s creation of interim storage facilities with the cooperation of municipalities and local communities. The team also encouraged authorities to sustain current public communication efforts and enhance them whenever necessary.

The team did say that efforts to reduce residual radiation doses to less than 1 mSv per year is a long-term goal and will not be achieved in a short time, such as through decontamination work alone.

To read the full report, click here.

The Fukushima Secrecy Syndrome – From Japan to America

By: Ralph Nader as reported on World News Daily Information Clearing House

By Ralph Nader
January 24, 2014 "Information Clearing House - Last month, the ruling Japanese coalition parties quickly rammed through Parliament a state secrets law. We Americans better take notice.

Under its provisions the government alone decides what are state secrets and any civil servants who divulge any “secrets” can be jailed for up to 10 years. Journalists caught in the web of this vaguely defined law can be jailed for up to 5 years.

Government officials have been upset at the constant disclosures of their laxity by regulatory officials before and after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster in 2011, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

Week after week, reports appear in the press revealing the seriousness of the contaminated water flow, the inaccessible radioactive material deep inside these reactors and the need to stop these leaking sites from further poisoning the land, food and ocean. Officials now estimate that it could take up to 40 years to clean up and decommission the reactors.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Is Nuclear Experimentation Fascism?

FROM: OP-ED NEWS

Definition of Fascism: "Any program for setting up a centralized autocratic national regime with severely nationalistic policies, exercising regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance, rigid censorship and forcible suppression of opposition." ~ New Collegiate Dictionary based on Webster's New International Dictionary second edition, copyright 1956.

I love that definition. It just goes to show you that something we think we know well can still be described in a way that makes us perceive it in totally different ways.

But what of programs and systems we do not know well? What of systems we are made not to know well?

The United States was formerly one of the few anti-institutional, anti-oligarchical nations in the world, but we have succumbed to the oligarchical corporaculture that has been pushed for the last couple of hundred years, whether fused by labels like the divine rite of kings or by corporate personhood. The United States used to push for individual rights, but now we yield to violent fascism just like the rest of the intolerant world. Hell, we were once so anti-fascist and anti-oligarchy that it used to be illegal to do business in more than one American state, now the police and political system seems to only serve and protect business interests. But at what cost?

(...)

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI, JAPAN 2011

The troubled Fukishima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has experienced a number of "incidents' since its construction in 1971, culminating in total reactor failure when the plant was hit by a tsunami triggered by the Tōhoku earthquake. At the time of the disaster, the plant began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials making it the largest nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the second in history (with Chernobyl) to measure at Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. More than two years after the incident it was revealed that the plant is still leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, and despite the technical assistance of GE (the corporation that designed the failing reactor) the situation appears to keep deteriorating as time goes on.

(...)

WHO IS NEXT?

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Fukushima fears fuel push for pills

Medication: Rising demand for potassium iodide sparks concerns about incorrect use

NOTE: AS YOU READ THIS ARTICLE PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT POTASSIUM IODIDE PILLS PROTECT YOU FROM Iodine 131 ONLY. IODINE 131 HAS A HALF LIFE OF EIGHT DAYS AND COMES INTO EXISTENCE DURING FISSION. IT IS NOT GENERALLY PRESENT IN SPENT FUEL POOLS. IT TAKES TEN HALF LIFES FOR A RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCE TO BECOME BENIGN. IN THE CASE OF IODINE 131 THAT IS LESS THAN THREE MONTHS. IT HAS BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE THE FUKUSHIMA MELTDOWNS. THE IODINE IS LONG GONE FROM THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THIS DISASTER.. THESE IODIDE PILLS ARE A HARSH EMERGENCY MEASURE WITH SOME NASTY SIDE EFFECTS. OTHER FORMS OF IODINE SUCH AS NASCENT OR LUGOLS CAN BE TAKEN SAFELY, WHEN USED CORRECTLY, AND WILL KEEP A PROPER BALANCE OF NATURAL IODINE IN YOUR SYSTEM. KEEP THE PILLS ON HAND, I SUPPOSE, IN THE EVENT OF ANOTHER NUCLEAR ACCIDENT BUT IF ONE KEEPS THE NATURAL IODINE UP IN THEIR SYSTEM THIS MEASURE WILL NOT EVEN BE NECESSARY.  DO THE RESEARCH ON NATURAL FORMS OF IODINE REPLENISHMENT. THESE PILLS ARE NOT THE WAY TO GO. CESIUM AND STRONTIUM 90 ARE THE REAL NEMESIS AND THERE ARE NO MAGIC PILLS FOR THESE ELEMENTS.  

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

Pam Magee, a pharmacist at the Medicine Shoppe on the Sunshine Coast, has seen customers come in frightened - and then storm out angry and flustered.

The customers, afraid of radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan, have read on the Internet that they are at risk and should protect themselves with large doses of potassium iodide.

B.C. saw a rush of people looking to load up on potassium iodide in 2011, after the initial Japanese earthquake, tsunami and meltdown.

And again in recent months, pharmacies have reported seeing a second surge of interest in the product, available as pills or drops.

These customers, pharmacists said, are all citing recent stories and rumours they've heard about Fukushima, mostly online, and many of dubious scientific legitimacy.

But federal and provincial health experts are advising against the use of potassium iodide for this purpose, saying it is not only unnecessary, but potentially harmful.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Cosmic rays peer into reactor cores

From: Japan Times

Researchers said Thursday they have developed a system that uses cosmic rays to get images of melted nuclear fuel inside reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant.

In an experiment conducted between February 2012 and last month, the team succeeded in using the rays to produce images of nuclear fuel at an offline nuclear plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Nuclear fuel melted down at three reactors at the Tepco plant as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Inaccessible inside the reactors, the melted nuclear fuel’s exact condition remains unknown.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Congenital Hypothyroidism and Fukushima Fallout in the US

FROM: THE PERMACULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

A new study finds congenital hypothyroidism in the US rising 28% in the two and a half months after the arrival of the Fukushima fallout of radioactive iodine (I-131) [1]. Researchers and authors Joe Mangano and Janette Sherman from the Radiation and Public Health Project [2] have done a thorough job based on data from the US government.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Why the Obama Administration Will Not Admit that Fukushima Radiation is Poisoning Americans Why isn’t GE being held accountable?

FROM: GLOBAL RESEARCH

We all know that the radiation from the stricken Fukushima plant has spread around the globe and is poisoning people worldwide. We all know that the West Coast of the United States is being polluted with radioactive debris and that the oceans, the beaches that border them, and even the air is becoming more polluted by radioactivity as time goes on.

You have to ask yourself why the government won’t admit this. It’s not like a disaster half a world away is their fault, is it?

Or is it? Could the United States government have done something to prevent the situation getting to this point?

Nothing in this article is a state secret, everything is in the public domain, but the information is so disseminated that it appears disconnected.

• the US government knows only too well that the West Coast is polluted with radiation and that the situation is getting worse by the day.
• the US government and General Electric knew that Fukushima was a disaster waiting to happen, and they did nothing to prevent it.
• they also know that the many nuclear reactors in the United States are also prone to catastrophic meltdown, and they are doing nothing about it.
• research by doctors and scientists is being suppressed, and research by private citizens is being written off purely because they have no scientific background.

 All the warnings were ignored

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Japan to freeze the ground at Fukushima to prevent contaminated water leakage

FROM: THE VOICE OF RUSSIA

In order to stop contaminated groundwater from leaking at the Fukushima nuclear power station, the Japanese are planning to use artificial permafrost there. They’re going to drill 30-metre-deep pipes with liquid nitrogen. The construction of the huge underground fridge will start soon and is scheduled to end next year.

The situation with the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors still remains very serious. Three years have passed since the time when an earthquake and tsunami caused a disaster at the power plant, but a great deal of experts still describes the situation as a crisis which might transform into a catastrophe if continuous leaks of radioactive water are not stopped.

At the moment, the radiation level at the power station and in its neighborhood breaks all the records. In fact it’s so high that can kill a person over a period of a few hours. (Emphasis Added)

The amount of radioactive substances in water samples collected on January 17 from a well, situated on the territory of the second unit of the Fukushima power plant, exceeded 24 million Bq per liter with the standard of 150 million Bq per liter. In order to put an end to the leaks at the wrecked power station, Japanese want to freeze earth around all four damaged reactor buildings.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_22/Permafrost-for-Fukushima-5869/

Japan’s nuclear waste problem

From: Japan Times

The government plans to step up its efforts to select the final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power generation, after having failed to find any willing host community for more than a decade. But the long-stalled process will have little prospect of moving forward unless doubts and questions surrounding nuclear power — including those highlighted by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster — are answered.

In 2000, the government decided that high-level radioactive waste, produced after spent fuel from nuclear power plants is reprocessed, should be vitrified and buried deeper than 300 meters underground. Two years later, it started soliciting municipalities around the country that would volunteer to host a disposal site, offering hefty subsidies in exchange for preliminary research. One town in Kochi Prefecture came forward in 2007, only to withdraw the offer after its mayor resigned in the face of local opposition.

In December, the Abe administration decided that the government, rather than waiting for offers from municipalities, will identify scientifically suitable areas where stored high-level radioactive wastes are deemed safe from the effects of seismic and volcanic activities or underground water, and then approach municipalities in the areas for research as possible candidates for storage sites.

Japan’s nuclear power generation has often been likened to a “condominium without a toilet” due to the lack of a final disposal site for radioactive waste that piles up as more fuel is used for power generation at nuclear plants.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Leak of contaminated water at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 may have international safety impact

After an investigation found that the water contained levels of radioactive materials equal to highly contaminated water which is accumulating in the basement of the reactor building, Tokyo Electric announced that water leaking inside of the Unit 3 reactor building is likely coming from the containment vessel where it was used to cool the melted nuclear fuel, rather than rain water.

The operators used the robot to sample water flowing into the basement of the reactor building.  The investigation revealed some 24 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive materials, which includes strontium, 700,000 becquerels per liter of Cesium 134, and 1.7 million becquerels per liter of Cesium 137.

Tokyo Electric also found that the temperature of the water, 20 degrees Celsius, is consistent with the same as water found at the bottom of the reactor.

The water is coming from a room which houses a main steam isolation valve, which is causing concern among experts around the world.  The latest details have raised questions as to whether the main steam isolation valve or any of its ancillary systems may have failed during the disaster.

There are two main steam isolation valves in each of the four pipes which carry steam from the reactor vessel to the turbine.  In case of accident or power loss, the MSIV’s are supposed to fail in a closed configuration.

After the reactor shut down on March 11th, 2011, the main steam isolation valves should have closed with the turbine tripped.  Even if workers had manually re-opened the MSIV’s when emergency diesel generators restored power to plant equipment before the tsunami hit the plant, the pressure inside of the condenser should have automatically re-closed the MSIVs shortly thereafter.

The fact that water is leaking from a room which houses the main steam isolation valve may indicate that the valve did not close, or was damaged during the course of the disaster.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

Disaster at Fukushima Plant Still Wreaking Havoc

FROM: LE PROVOCATUR

(...)
TEPCO has also said that the water that contains Strontium-90 is leaking at a rate of 75 gallons per minute. The reactor building that held the reactors is measuring at a 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts per hour, which means the workers are unable to enter the work site.

As of November 8, another reactor, number 4, was being worked on in order to remove highly radioactive rods from the damaged tank. However, the tank of water that the rods are suspended in are above the core and the workers are worried that the tank might collapse due to the damage from the earthquake and tsunami.

Danger is high in the plant, for if one of the rods breaks while they are trying to move them, large amounts of radioactive gas could be released in the air. It was estimated that it would take the workers about a year to fully dismantle the reactor.

The workers are also faced with the daunting task of removing the 1,331 used radiated fuel assemblies that are packed rather tightly together, and another 202 unused assemblies which are all being stored in reactor number 4’s cooling pool. The assemblies that they are trying to remove contain plutonium, one of the most toxic substances known.

“They must be handled one by one, very carefully,” said Shunichi Tanaka, Chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority. A team of workers has to put the fuel assemblies in a chamber, which blocks the radiation, and then the assemblies have to be lifted from the cooling area and brought to a cooling pool which is in an undamaged building about 100 meters away. TEPCO estimated that this would take about two years to accomplish, but soon realized the urgency and cut the time down.

According to NBC News, Fukushima’s contaminated waters are likely to reach the United States West Coast soil by early 2014 and will be at its peak in 2016.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

US sailors sue over radiation illnesses they blame on Fukushima

From: PRI

It was one of 25 US naval vessels that arrived bringing clean water and other humanitarian aid. But now at least 71 of the Reagan's sailors and Marines are suffering from what they say are the effects of radiation poisoning.

They are suing the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which they say hid the truth about just how deadly the radioactive plumes were in the air and water. One of those sailors is Lt. j.g. Steve Simmons, who says he learned of the danger when it was already too late.

“They had actually come across the intercom system of the ship letting everybody know that we had a little problem — that we had actually sucked up contaminants into the water system,” Simmons recalls. “I had already had a couple glasses of water, and I had filled up my water bottle a couple of times, and that water goes everywhere throughout that ship. It’s what they use for cooking, it’s what they have at every water fountain throughout the ship.”

Simmons even made a wisecrack about it at the time, saying if he ingested any nuclear contamination it was too late already, what’s done was done.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

David Suzuki Regrets Dire Fukushima Warning

FROM: HUFF POST BRITISH COLUMBIA

David Suzuki has admitted that his dire warning about the potential disaster another Fukushima earthquake might precipitate was an "off-the-cuff" response and something the B.C. environmentalist now regrets.

"I regret having said it, although my sense of potential widespread disaster remains and the need for an urgent international response to dealing with the spent rods at Fukushima also remains," Suzuki wrote in an email to The Province newspaper.

In a YouTube video, Suzuki predicted that, should a second earthquake befall the nuclear facility, it would mean "bye bye Japan" and an evacuation of the entire west coast of North America — a scenario disputed by scientists.

The environmentalist's suggestion that the probability of an earthquake serious enough to cause that degree of devastation "in the next three years is over 95 per cent" has sent the video viral since its November 2013 upload.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

(Note: But since no one is really telling the whole truth about Fukushima we kind of took it for granted that you were telling it like it is David. My only worry is that people will now go back to their life and keep the pressure off Japan and TEPCO to be transparent and honest. At least it got peoples attention.)

Fukushima: Were the fuel is---a visual

From: Embassy of Switzerland in Japan
Science & Technology Office Tokyo

The graphic below is from a report created by the Swiss Embassy in relation to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. It is taken from the paper located at Radioactive Contaminated Water Leaks (Update) December 2013 and is well worth reading in it's entirety. As a point of explanation the red blob near the bottom of the graphic is the corium; the melted fuel and reactor parts blob that has melted through the bottom of the reactor. This has happened in three reactors and as can be seen by the graphic water is flowing across this highly radioactive material and directly into the ocean. Fukushima was built on a previous riverbed and therefore water easily flows through ancient underground channels. The technology does not yet exist; and likely will not be easy to create if possible; to remove this corium from the earth. Given that test wells drilled into the ground show extremely high radiation at about 75 feet one is left to conjecture that the corium has reached that level. All of the plans to "fix" this problem revolve around stopping the water flow across the corium. At the same time if all of the water flow is stopped the corium will heat to dangerous levels and would begin spewing higher levels of radiation into the underground environment. There is an attempt to minimize the ongoing ecological ramifications of this by speaking of rates, flows and dilutions but the simple fact remains mankind has created a huge problem that will be around for many generations to come. Much has been said recently about media soft pedaling all of this; and there may be some fear mongering out there from some alternative media; but this graphic shows that this is not a problem that can truly be fixed in a few decades. This damage, in human lifespan terms, is nearly forever. Certainly it will be having an effect on this planet for thousands of years. There must be a better way and we will not find it as long as "profit" is our motive.

Goodman: Fukushima, an ongoing warning to the world

FROM: THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN

"I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world,” wrote the journalist Wilfred Burchett from Hiroshima. His story, headlined, “The Atomic Plague” appeared in the London Daily Express on Sept. 5, 1945. Burchett violated the U.S. military blockade of Hiroshima, and was the first Western journalist to visit that devastated city. He wrote: “Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller had passed over it and squashed it out of existence.”

Jump ahead 66 years, to March 11, 2011, and 600 miles north, to Fukushima and the Great East Japan Earthquake, which caused the tsunami. As we now know, the initial onslaught that left 19,000 people dead or missing was just the beginning. What began as a natural disaster quickly cascaded into a man-made one, as system after system failed at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Three of the six reactors suffered meltdowns, releasing deadly radiation into the atmosphere and the ocean.

Three years later, Japan is still reeling from the impact of the disaster. More than 340,000 people became nuclear refugees, forced to abandon their homes and their livelihoods. Filmmaker Atsushi Funahashi directed the documentary “Nuclear Nation: The Fukushima Refugees Story.” In it, he follows refugees from the town of Futaba, where the Fukushima Daiichi plant is based, in the first year after the disaster. The government relocated them to an abandoned school near Tokyo, where they live in cramped, shared common areas, many families to a room, and are provided three box lunches per day. I asked Funahashi what prospects these 1,400 people had. “There’s none, pretty much. The only thing the government is saying is that [for] at least six years from the accident, you cannot go back to your own town,” he told me.

The refugees were given permits to return home to collect personal items, but only for two hours. Like Wilfred Burchett, Funahashi had to violate the government’s ban on travel to a nuclear-devastated area in order to catch the poignant moments of one family’s return on film. He explained how the family gave him one of their four permits to take the trip: “I tried to negotiate with the government, and they didn’t give me any permission to go inside there. And no other independent journalist or documentary filmmakers got permission to go inside. But I got along very well with this family from Futaba,” he explained, and sneaked back on their short trip.

The government’s refusal to grant Funahashi access is indicative of another significant problem that has emerged since the earthquake: secrecy. Japan’s conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, enacted a controversial state secrecy law early last December. Here in Tokyo, Sophia University Professor Koichi Nakano says of the new law, “Of course, it concerns primarily security issues and anti-terrorist measures. But ... it became increasingly clear that the interpretation of what actually constitutes state secret could be very arbitrary and rather freely defined by government leaders. For example, anti-nuclear citizen movements can come under surveillance without their knowledge, and arrests can be made.”

Since the nuclear disaster, a forceful grass-roots movement has grown to permanently decommission all of Japan’s nuclear power plants. The prime minister at the time of the earthquake, Naoto Kan, explained how his position on nuclear power shifted:

“My position before March 11th, 2011, was that as long as we make sure that it’s safely operated, nuclear power plants can be operated and should be operated. However, after experiencing the disaster of March 11th, I changed my thinking 180 degrees, completely ... there is no other accident or disaster that would affect 50 million people — maybe a war, but there is no other accident can cause such a tragedy,” he said.

Prime Minister Abe, leading the most conservative Japanese administration since World War II, wants to restart his country’s nuclear power plants, despite overwhelming public opposition. Public protests outside Abe’s official residence in Tokyo continue.

“It gives you an empty feeling in the stomach to see such man-made devastation,” Wilfred Burchett wrote, sitting in the rubble of Hiroshima in 1945. The two U.S. atomic-bomb attacks on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have deeply impacted Japan to this day. Likewise, the triple-edged disaster of the earthquake, tsunami and ongoing nuclear disaster will last for generations. The dangerous trajectory from nuclear weapons to nuclear power is now being challenged by a popular demand for peace and sustainability. It is a lesson for rest of the world as well.

— Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

AMY GOODMAN is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,000 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a New York Times best-seller.

Fukushima kids’ teeth to be checked for strontium-90

FROM: THE JAPAN TIMES

The Fukushima Prefecture Dental Association will spearhead efforts to determine whether children’s teeth contain the radioactive isotope strontium-90 amid worries they were exposed to fallout from the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in March 2011.

The research, part of an Environment Ministry project to examine the health impact of the Fukushima disaster, would be the first large-scale examination to be conducted of children’s teeth. Dental associations nationwide, including in Hokkaido and Kyushu, will cooperate with their Fukushima counterpart in the study.

Similar to calcium, strontium-90 tends to be absorbed by the bones and teeth once it enters the body. It is widely believed to cause bone cancer and leukemia, and cannot be detected by whole body radiation counters.

The teeth of children aged 5 to 15 will be checked if extracted during regular dental visits with their consent or that of their families, and the results will be shown to them.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)

When will the truth be told about Fukushima?

From: The Australian Independent Media Network

Is the Japanese Government being honest about Fukushima? In this guest post by Rowan Douglas, Rowan thinks the answer is clear: No.

I’ve just finished watching a short film supplied by Tepco (a major Japanese electric utility company) on the removal of fuel rods from the stricken Fukushima Nuclear power plant.

The workers at Fukushima would have to be some of the bravest people on the planet, and there can be no doubt that they deserve far more recognition than they are receiving at the moment. These dedicated professionals are getting stuck into a job that few would even be prepared to contemplate, placing their lives at risk in order to fix just one of a plethora of problems requiring resolution. This newly-released film from Tepco highlighted to me just how much attention is being given to this reactor and its particular problems.

But maybe it’s what they are not focusing on that’s the real issue.

(FULL ARTICLE---LINK)