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Japan will no longer be a developed country in less than 40 years: Most Powerful Japane... - 0 views

  • Now it is at least semi-official: Japan’s economy is on the skids. A report just released by a think tank of the Nippon Keidanren, the country’s most powerful business organization, says that by 2050, Japan will no longer be a developed country, predicting years of negative growth from 2030 onward.  “Unless something is done, we are afraid that Japan will fall out of the league of advanced nations and again become a tiny country in the Far East,” says the report in Japanese by the 21st Century Public Policy Institute (21st CPPI), the research institute of Keidanren. [...]
Jan Wyllie

Fracking floors energy giants - Business Analysis & Features - Business - The Independent - 0 views

  • A fortnight after writing $2.84bn (£1.84bn) off the value of its Fayetteville shale gas business in Arkansas, BHP is poised to reveal on Wednesday that the charge helped push down its profits by a massive 40 per cent – to $14.2bn – in the year to June 30.
  • The FTSE 100 mining giant was forced into the writedown after a decade-long stampede into the brave new world of US shale gas produced so much of the stuff that its price tumbled to 10-year lows, taking the value of its producers with them.
  • "The problem is exacerbated because the minerals leasing system in the US obliges lessees to drill fairly quickly or relinquish their drilling rights," he added.
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  • US gas price fell from $3.88 per thousand cubic feet when the deal was struck to as little as $1.91 in April, before recovering slightly to now hover around $2.75. Today's mildly-improved US gas price is well below its peak of $14 per thousand cubic feet in 2005
  • hile protests in the US have largely failed to curb the shale gas industry's development, the plummeting gas price is now doing the job for them. The number of shale gas rigs operating in the US has tumbled by 44 per cent in the past year to stand at about 300 now, according to industry estimates.
  • Hydrocarbon producers such as Chesapeake and BHP are furiously switching their fracking resources from gas to oil, which is unlikely to suffer the same depression in its price as gas as the US has the infrastructure in place to export much of the additional oil it produces from shale. As a result, the number of shale oil rigs has leapt by 35 per cent to about 860 in the past year.
  • as an expected flurry of LNG export terminals begin to come onstream in about three years, fracking companies will have a valuable further outlet for their gas – the relatively lucrative European and Asian markets.
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Third-party panel to demand resignation by TEPCO management [28Sep11] - 0 views

  • A third-party panel tasked by the government with overseeing Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s cost-cutting efforts has decided to call for a resignation by the utility's management, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. In its final report to be possibly compiled later this month, the panel is set to clearly state that it would be desirable for the management to "fulfill its business responsibility through measures including resigning, declining retirement pay and returning stock holdings" as a prerequisite for the firm to receive government financial support in compensation to victims of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
  • A cost-cutting plan unveiled by the utility in May includes pay cuts for the management, eliminating the full remuneration for the president and cutting 60 percent of pay for managing directors. But the panel has apparently judged that a stricter measure will be needed, calling on the management to fulfill a level of responsibility from a moral perspective as the firm would be receiving a large amount of public funds.
  • TEPCO, which is expected to draft a special business plan possibly at the end of next month with the Nuclear Damage Compensation Facilitation Corp., is supposed to reflect the panel's final report into the plan. In the report, the panel will suggest that TEPCO have a serious discussion with the compensation facilitation body over specific ways to take business responsibility, the sources said.
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  • The panel will also request that TEPCO fundamentally improve its business practice, including its high cost structure, to meet its compensation payments for the nuclear accident, according to the sources. TEPCO is considering corporate pension cuts for current and former employees and implementing its first-ever voluntary retirement program to save 100 billion yen a year.
  • It is also considering cutting expenses through suppression of repair and maintenance costs and also by selling idle assets.
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Japanese Government to Give 500 Billion Yen to Fukushima Prefecture Alone [02Oct11] - 0 views

  • Yomiuri Shinbun (10/2/2011) reports:
  • Minister of Recovery and Reconstruction Hirano met with Governor Yuhei Sato on October 2 at the Fukushima prefectural government and told the governor that the national government will allocate 500 billion yen (US$6.5 billion) to the recovery effort in Fukushima Prefecture in the 3rd supplementary budget of the national government for the 2011 fiscal year. Of 500 billion yen, 350 billion yen will go to the special fund that the Fukushima prefectural government will set up in order to revive the local economy.
  • However, Minister Hirano said "This (amount of the special fund) is just a start. We will continue our effort", meaning the national government may add to the fund as necessary.
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  • The fund can be used regardless of fiscal years. Fukushima Prefecture had strongly demanded the financial support from the national government for its "special fund for dealing with the nuclear accident and for the recovery". The national government and the Fukushima prefectural government will use this fund to build medical centers and R&D centers for medical equipments that are of international standard.
  • The remaining 150 billion yen will be used by the national government to financially help small businesses and agricultural, forestry and fishery businesses, to build R&D centers for renewable energy, and to deal with the "baseless rumor" damages [suffered by businesses in Fukushima Prefecture].Financial help will be in the form of loans to businesses.Fukushima Medical University, where Dr. Shunichi "It's so safe that children can play outside in nuclear fallout" Yamashita resides, wants 100 billion yen (link is in Japanese) to build a world-class hospital to treat cancer.
  • And Iitate-mura, where the Ministry of Education belatedly admitted to the existence of plutonium (and others to come), wants over 300 billion yen just for the village for the "decontamination" work.The fiscal 2011 budget of the Fukushima prefectural government is about 903billion yen. Adding the supplementary budgets, the total tally for this fiscal year so far is about 1.43 trillion yen. This injection of 500 billion yen from the national government, which is likely to be open-ended, represents more than one-third of the entire budget for Fukushima.
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Protests thwart India's nuclear plans [07Oct11] - 0 views

  • An increase in anti-nuclear sentiment after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in March has stalled India’s ambitious plan for nuclear expansion, officials said. Under the plan pushed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reactors imported from the United States, France and Russia were to increase the country’s nuclear-power capacity from the present 4,780 megawatts to 60,000 megawatts by 2035 and to provide one-quarter of the country’s energy by 2050. End Extract http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5464357/protests-thwart-india-s-nuclear-plans
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Huhne will use Fukushima report to revive nuclear programme [09Oct11] - 0 views

  • The government is expected this week to try to use a post-Fukushima green light from Britain’s chief nuclear safety inspector to inject momentum into its stuttering nuclear power and anti-climate-change programmes. The move will run into a hail of criticism from environmentalists who believe the latest inquiry into the nuclear industry has been rushed through and fear that ministers are backing off from their commitments to green issues. On Tuesday, Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, is scheduled to release the final report by Mike Weightman, chief inspector for nuclear installations, into what lessons should be learned from the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan. The report is understood to contain only small amendments to an earlier, interim, report which made only minor recommendations. End extract http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/09/chris-huhne-fukushima-report-nuclear-programme?newsfeed=true
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High Level of Plutonium Rumored to Have Been Detected in Rice Paddies 50 Kilomters from... - 0 views

  • keep in mind the warning of Professor Toshiso Kosako, that there will be "a chaos" in the fall harvest season.From the report that appeared on Japan Business Press on May 14 (the report was from their free subscription part of the site, written by Satoshi Kawashima, the former editor of Nikkei Business and the founder of Japan Business Press):
  • According to the private survey by a food company, an extremely high level of radiation, order of magnitude higher than what the government has been reporting, has been detected in the soil in the rice paddy more than 50 kilometers away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.
  • The food company says it is withholding the information for now because it may cause panic, but it says the survey has also found a high level of plutonium in the same rice paddy soil.There has been no follow-up to this report. Back in May, almost all tweets on the subject in Japan were from people who outright dismissed the report as "baseless rumor" and criticized Japan Business Press for fear-mongering. "There's no way plutonium can travel outside the Fukushima plant!" was one typical tweet. (Never mind it did.) "They are manufacturing the story" was another.
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What do you do with the waste? - Kirk Sorensen's answers [13Oct11] - 0 views

  • What do you do with the waste? – Kirk Sorensen’s answers by Rod Adams on October 13, 2011 in Fuel Recycling , Nuclear Batteries , Nuclear Waste , Plutonium , Thorium Share3   Gordon McDowell, the film maker who produced Thorium Remix , has released some additional mixes of material gathered for that production effort. One in particular is aimed at those people whose main concern about using nuclear energy is the often repeated question “What do you do with the waste.” Many people who ask that question think that it is a trump card that should end all conversation and let them win the hand. I used to play bridge and enjoyed it when I could “no trump” a smug contestant who thought he had a winner. Kirk’s discussion below is one example of how that can be done in the nuclear energy field . My friends who like the Integral Fast Reactor have another answer . I am pretty certain there are dozens of other good answers to the question – the primary obstacle to implementing them comes from the nefarious forces that LIKE raising (artificial) barriers to the use of nuclear energy. On another note, I want to point to a story published in the evening of October 12, 2011 on the Wall Street Journal web site titled WSJ: Fluor Buys Stake In Reactor Maker NuScale Energy . I am happy to see that NuScale has found a suitable, deep pockets investor with a lot of nuclear plant engineering and construction experience. One more short note. Jay Hancock, a writer for the Baltimore Sun, has taken note of some of the work published on Atomic Insights regarding Exelon’s decision to destroy the Zion Nuclear power station rather than allowing it to compete against existing power plants to increase the supply and decrease the price of electricity. On October 8, 2011, Hancock published a column titled State should pull plug on Constellation-Exelon deal that explored whether or not it would be beneficial for Marylanders to allow a company like Exelon to own a dominant number of electrical power generation facilities in the state. One of the pieces of evidence that has convinced Hancock to oppose the proposed merger is the way that Exelon has acted with regard to the Zion nuclear station. He recognizes that the company has adequately demonstrated a history of using market power to drive up prices and profits at the expense of customer interests. Additional reading related to Exelon bear hug attempt: EDF Asks Maryland Regulators To Block Exelon-Constellation Merger
  • What do you do with the waste? – Kirk Sorensen’s answers by Rod Adams on October 13, 2011 in Fuel Recycling, Nuclear Batteries, Nuclear Waste, Plutonium, Thorium Share3  Gordon McDowell, the film maker who produced Thorium Remix , has released some additional mixes of material gathered for that production effort. One in particular is aimed at those people whose main concern about using nuclear energy is the often repeated question “What do you do with the waste.” Many people who ask that question think that it is a trump card that should end all conversation and let them win the hand. I used to play bridge and enjoyed it when I could “no trump” a smug contestant who thought he had a winner. Kirk’s discussion below is one example of how that can be done in the nuclear energy field . My friends who like the Integral Fast Reactor have another answer. I am pretty certain there are dozens of other good answers to the question – the primary obstacle to implementing them comes from the nefarious forces that LIKE raising (artificial) barriers to the use of nuclear energy. On another note, I want to point to a story published in the evening of October 12, 2011 on the Wall Street Journal web site titled WSJ: Fluor Buys Stake In Reactor Maker NuScale Energy. I am happy to see that NuScale has found a suitable, deep pockets investor with a lot of nuclear plant engineering and construction experience. One more short note. Jay Hancock, a writer for the Baltimore Sun, has taken note of some of the work published on Atomic Insights regarding Exelon’s decision to destroy the Zion Nuclear power station rather than allowing it to compete against existing power plants to increase the supply and decrease the price of electricity. On October 8, 2011, Hancock published a column titled State should pull plug on Constellation-Exelon deal that explored whether or not it would be beneficial for Marylanders to allow a company like Exelon to own a dominant number of electrical power generation facilities in the state.
  • Gordon McDowell, the film maker who produced Thorium Remix, has released some additional mixes of material gathered for that production effort. One in particular is aimed at those people whose main concern about using nuclear energy is the often repeated question “What do you do with the waste.” Many people who ask that question think that it is a trump card that should end all conversation and let them win the hand. I used to play bridge and enjoyed it when I could “no trump” a smug contestant who thought he had a winner. Kirk’s discussion below is one example of how that can be done in the nuclear energy field
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TEPCO to sell off 400 billion yen in assets this year [22Oct11] - 0 views

  • Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Oct. 21 decided to sell off 400 billion yen ($5.2 billion) in assets this fiscal year. While the utility plans to sell off some 700 billion yen in assets within three years, it plans to sell more than half that amount before this fiscal year ends in March. The measure is intended to demonstrate TEPCO's earnestness in restructuring efforts at a time when it is seeking government funding to help compensate sufferers of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant accident. The planned asset sales will be included in TEPCO's "emergency special business plan" that will be drawn up jointly with the government's Nuclear Damage Compensation Facilitation Corp. toward the end of October. The Compensation Facilitation Corp. on Oct. 21 held a meeting of its steering committee and approved TEPCO's policy on the sale of assets.
  • The plan assumes that about 700 billion yen will be needed for compensation payments in the current fiscal year. Also put forth will be restructuring measures in an effort to win industry minister Yukio Edano's approval for government funding. TEPCO will tap into the government funds, which will be provided by way of the Compensation Facilitation Corp., to compensate sufferers and will pay back the money out of its annual profits. Stocks will account for most of the asset sales. TEPCO possessed a total of 350 billion yen's worth of stocks as of the end of March. TEPCO plans to sell off 300 billion yen of these holdings by the end of the current fiscal year, except for those indispensable to electric power business operations. The utility will also sell 10 billion yen in real estate, including an office building close to its head office in Tokyo. Further, it will also sell parts of its affiliated companies.
  • The government's third-party investigation committee on TEPCO's management and finances had called on TEPCO, in a report released Oct. 3, to sell 700 billion yen in assets within three years. The emergency special business plan will also include cooperation from financial institutions. Key cooperation measures include maintaining 2 trillion yen in outstanding loans, which the utility borrowed before the March 11 disaster, until the end of this fiscal year and allowing the loans to be used not only for business operations but also for compensation payments. These measures are intended to prevent the company from falling short of cash before it receives government funding, as it has already started compensation payments. Toshio Nishizawa, TEPCO's president, on Oct. 21 told a news conference that the utility had paid a total of 151.6 billion yen in compensation, including both temporary and final payments.
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  • An insurance system based on the Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage allows 120 billion yen of that amount to be covered by the government. TEPCO soon plans to ask the government for the payment. Although TEPCO can receive government funding for compensation payments, it has to procure its own financial resources to cover the cost of fuel for thermal power generation, which is expected to increase because of suspended nuclear reactors. This may also hurt the utility's financial state. It has, therefore, been proposed that the Compensation Facilitation Corp. could fund TEPCO to help increase its capital. Nishizawa, however, is cool to that idea. "We will revamp our management through streamlining as a private enterprise," he said. "We will make every effort to get along without receiving (the injection of public funds)."
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Japan's Government-Industrial Complex to Create Small "Japan" in Southern India [14Jan12] - 0 views

  • The news was there on Yomiuri Shinbun on January 5, 2012, but little noticed until someone picked it up and spread on Twitter overnight.The Japanese government in close collaboration with the big businesses in Japan is to build a city in southern India that will house 50,000 people, with "Japanese-quality" infrastructure including seaside resort, industrial park, hospital, shopping mall, and golf course (of course).
  • Many on Twitter are speculating that this is part of the plan by the Japan's political and business elites to abandon ship (Japan), and part of the reason for the Noda administration's insistence on the tax hike despite the incipient recession.While there is a great need for money within Japan to actually rebuild tsunami-devastated areas (not the bogus "decon" projects), the Noda administration has been busy distributing money in Asia. The Bank of Japan has opened multi-billion dollar currency swap lines with India ($15 billion) and South Korea ($70 billion).
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Smoking Gun - Jan Lundberg antinuclear activist & heir to petroleum wealth [18Jul11] - 0 views

  • A ‘smoking gun’ article is one that reveals a direct connection between a fossil fuel or alternative energy system promoter and a strongly antinuclear attitude. One of my guiding theories about energy is that a great deal of the discussion about safety, cost, and waste disposal is really a cover for a normal business activity of competing for market share.
  • This weekend, I came across a site called Culture Change that provides some strong support for my theory about the real source of strength for the antinuclear industry. According to the information at the bottom of the home page, Culture Change was founded by Sustainable Energy Institute (formerly Fossil Fuels Policy Action), a nonprofit organization.Jan Lundberg, who has led the organization and its predecessor organizations since 1988, grew up in a wealthy family with a father who was a popular and respected petroleum industry analyst.
  • Lundberg tells an interesting story about his initial fundraising activities for his new non-profit group.Setting out to become a clearinghouse for energy data and policy, we had a tendency to go along with the buzzword “natural gas as a bridge fuel” — especially when my previous clients serving the petroleum industry until 1988 included natural gas utilities. They were and are represented by the American Gas Association, where I knew a few friendly executives. Upon starting a nonprofit group for the environment with an energy focus, I met with the AGA right away. I was anticipating one of their generous grants they were giving large environmental groups who were trumpeting the “natural gas is a bridge fuel” mantra.
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  • Before entering into the non-profit world, he entered into the family business of oil industry analysis and claims to have achieved a fair amount of financial success. As Lundberg tells the tale, he stopped “punching the corporate time clock” in 1988 to found Fossil Fuels Policy Action.I had just learned about peak oil. Upon my press conference announcing the formation of Fossil Fuels Policy Action, USA Today’s headline was “Lundberg Lines up with Nature.” My picture with the story looked like I was a corporate fascist, not an acid-tripping hippie. The USA Today story led to an invitation to review Beyond Oil: The Threat to Food and Fuel in the Coming Decades, for the quarterly Population and Environment journal. In learning for the first time about peak oil (although I had questioned long-term growth in petroleum supplies), I was awakened to the bigger picture as never before. Natural gas was no answer. And I already knew that the supply crisis to come — I had helped predict the 1970s oil shocks — was to be a liquid fuels crisis.
  • As Oil Guru, Dan [Lundberg, my father] earned a regular Nightly Business Report commentary spot on the Public Broadcasting System television network in the early and mid-1980s. I helped edit or proof-read just about every one of those commentaries, and we delighted in the occasional opportunity to attack gasohol and ethanol for causing “agricultural strip mining” (as we did in the Lundberg Letter).
  • I slept on it and decided that I would not participate in this corrupt conspiracy. Instead, I had fun writing one of Fossil Fuels Policy Action’s first newsletters about this “bridge” argument and the background story that the gas industry was really competing with fuel oil for heating. I brought up the AGA’s funding for enviros and said I was rejecting it. I was crazy, I admit, for I was starting a new career with almost no savings and no guarantees. So I was not surprised when my main contact at AGA called me up and snarled, “Jan, are you on acid?!
  • Here is a quote from his July 10, 2011 post titled Nuclear Roulette: new book puts a nail in coffin of nukesCulture Change went beyond studying the problem soon after its founding in 1988: action and advocacy must get to the root of the crises to assure a livable future. Also, information overload and a diet of bad news kills much activism. So it’s hard to find reading material to strongly recommend. But the new book Nuclear Roulette: The Case Against the “Nuclear Renaissance” is must-have if one is fighting nukes today.
  • He goes to say the following:The uneconomic nature of nuclear power, and the lack of energy gain compared to cheap oil, are two huge reasons for society to quit flirting with more nuclear power, never mind the catastrophic record and certainty of more to come. Somehow the evidence and true track record of dozens of accidents and perhaps 300,000 to nearly 1,000,000 deaths from just Chernobyl, are brushed aside by corporate media and most governments. So, imaginative means of helping to end nuclear proliferation are crucial, the most careful and reasonable-sounding ones being included in summary form in Nuclear Roulette.
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"Dilute and Sell" - #Radioactive Tea Blended with Non-Radioactive Tea [03Oct11] - 0 views

  • A tea producer blended the tea with radioactive cesium with the tea without radioactive cesium so that he could sell off his radioactive tea. An operator of a sewer sludge plant knowingly sold radioactive sludge to a manufacturer of garden soil because there was no national government standard when he sold it. Their reason: "It's safer that way, as radioactive cesium will be diluted".Many Japanese consumers seem dismayed to find out that there are people among them who would do such a thing, but there are people like that, unfortunately. And as the article cites one government agency, it is clearly none of the government's business to do anything about it anytime soon.From Tokyo Shinbun paper version (not online; 10/3/2011), extremely quick translation subject to revision later if necessary:
  • Dilute cesium and sell - blend tea, garden soil - so that the cesium level is below the limitAfter the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident spread radioactive materials, the provisional safety limit was set for variety of foods and goods. If an item tests less than the provisional limit it is considered "guaranteed safe". As the result, there are businesses that mix [radioactive goods] with those made in places far away from Fukushima Prefecture to dilute radioactive materials and sell them. Currently it is not against the law to do so, but the consumers who doubt the safety of the products and the producers who fear further "baseless rumor" damages are voicing concern.Mixing
  • According to our research, we have been able to confirm instances of goods being sold after diluting the radioactive cesium content - garden soil and green teas.In case of garden soil, sludge from water purification plants and sewage treatment plants had been used as an ingredient of the garden soil before the provisional safety limit for sludge was set. Sludge contains vital ingredients like phosphorus and potassium, and it is mixed with the soil at 10 to 20% ratio to make the garden soil.The safety standard for radioactive materials in sludge was established on June 16, but some water purification plants in Kanagawa Prefecture had sold the total of 4,538 tonnes of sludge to the garden soil manufacturers from April up till June 16.
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  • As for green tea, the tea producer was mixing the tea that passed the provisional safety limit but which still contained radioactive cesium with the tea made in Kyushu, far away from Fukushima I Nuke Plant. The blend was the radioactive tea 20%, the Kyushu tea 80%.Most water purification plants had voluntarily stopped shipping the radioactive sludge until the provisional safety limit was decided. However, the company who runs this particular water purification plant that continued to ship says, "The detection level was low. If the sludge was made into the garden soil it would be diluted further". The company blames the manufacturers who bought the radioactive sludge, saying "The ultimate responsibility rests with those who make [the sludge] into final products and sell them". The company is currently selling the radioactive sludge to the businesses that supply dirt for construction projects, as the national government has sent out an instruction that "the use of radioactive sludge in the garden soil had better be suspended".According to the green tea producer, there weren't enough of the tea leaves that passed the safety limit [but still contained radioactive cesium] to make it worthwhile to sell, so the company decided to mix it to make a "blend tea". The person in charge of the "blend tea" says "We made it clear in the package that it was a "blend tea", so there should be no problem. We just wanted to make the tea safer for the consumers".
  • SuspicionThese practices are not illegal, and when the contaminated products are mixed with non-contaminated products there should be less ill-effect on humans. However, if this "dilute and sell" model takes hold, it will only add to doubt and confusion for the consumers. Damage from "baseless rumors" may spread to milk and rice. It has been a standard practice to mix milk from different locations. The same goes for rice.The national consumer association federation chief proposes the detailed labeling of the place of manufacture on a prefectural level so that the consumers can choose safely.
  • However, there is no law requiring the place of manufacture for the garden soil, and there is no voluntary guideline by the industry either. The national standard for food labeling only requires the label "Made in Japan" in the case of "blended" produce like rice and tea and processed foods; there is no requirement to show the name of prefecture where the product is made. The Consumer Affairs Agency of Japan [which is supposed to regulate the industries with the welfare of consumers in mind] is not going to do anything at this point, saying "Places of manufacture for the blended goods may change, so it is not practical to require detailed labels".
  • On the other hand, the head of the Worldwide Agricultural Policy Information Center is critical. He says "The role of the national government is to stop the spread of radioactive materials. To allow goods with radioactive materials to be diluted and and sold widely would be considered as approval by the national government to spread the contamination [all over Japan]". JA agricultural co-op Fukushima is also distrustful of the government policy [or lack thereof], saying "There will be no "baseless rumors" if the produce that is found with radioactive materials is not sold".However, for now, we can only count on the voluntary effort by the industries. A new national policy would be necessary, just like when there was a problem of labeling "made in Japan" and "imported" goods.
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Japan is open for business [02Sept11] - 0 views

  • Travel’s Nancy Trejos sat down recently with Shigeki Takizaki, the minister for public affairs for the Embassy of Japan, to find out what tourists need to know about returning to Japan. Excerpts:
  • Please update us on recovery efforts and how they are affecting tourism.
  • How has the disaster affected tourism? Visitors have been declining dramatically. It is very serious now, and the Japanese government is committed to a kind of campaign in which we’re insisting that Japan is open for business and travel. In autumn, the season in Japan is the best. Most of Japan is quite safe, and even surrounding areas, except for 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) around nuclear facilities, are now safe. We’d like as many foreigners as possible to go to Tohoku (the region where Fukushima is located). It has a lot of nice scenery and hot springs and people are very kind.
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  • We have to correct the misunderstanding that Americans and other people have about Japan. Most parts of Japan have not been damaged by the earthquake at all. Japan’s a small country compared to the U.S., but it’s not that small. And the Japanese people have been working very hard after the earthquake to revive their lives. Most highways, railroads and airports have been reconstructed, so you don’t have difficulty traveling in Japan. Even in damaged areas you can travel, with a few exceptions.
  • Are there any specific precautions that travelers should take if they visit Japan? The Japanese government asks people not to enter a 20 kilometer (12.4 mile) zone [around nuclear facilities]. The American government issues a different warning. The U.S. government asks citizens not to enter a 50-mile zone.
  • How should travelers reconcile those two differing warnings? Most areas that are attractive to Americans are quite far away [from these zones]. If any person is very concerned with the situation, they can check with the Japanese government. Every government has a responsibility to its citizens. The U.S. stance is understandable. The Japanese government warning is based on scientific figures and research, while the U.S. government warning is based on their data and research.
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Fukushima victims: homeless,desperate and angry[18Oct11] - 0 views

  • They are furious at the red tape they have to wade through just to receive basic help and in despair they still cannot get on with their lives seven months after the huge quake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.Shouts fill a room at a temporary housing complex where seven officials, kneeling in their dark suits, face 70 or so tenants who were forced to abandon their homes near the Fukushima nuclear plant after some of its reactors went into meltdown after the March 11 quake struck.
  • e don't know who we can trust!" one man yelled in the cramped room where the officials were trying to explain the hugely complex procedures to claim compensation."Can we actually go back home? And if not, can you guarantee our livelihoods?"About 80,000 people were forced to leave their homes by the nuclear crisis.While the owner of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co, has made temporary payments to some victims, it was only last month that it finally began accepting applications for compensation.
  • But the procedure is so complicated that it seems to just make things worse.After claimants have read a 160-page instruction manual, they then have to fill in a 60-page form and attach receipts for lodging, transportation and medical costs."It's too difficult. I'm going to see how it goes. I don't want to rush and mess up," said Toshiyuki Owada, 65, an evacuee from Namie town, about 20 km (12 miles) away from the plant.Owada is one of many who still has not applied for compensation even though they have lost jobs or businesses and are running out of cash.COMPLEX AND UNFAIRThe complexity of the task is one deterrent.
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  • There is another -- the perception that Tepco is not playing fair.Confidence in the authorities is low. The government is seen as having bungled its early response to the crisis and being secretive about what was really happening.Tepco is accused of failing to take sufficient safety measures at the Fukushima plant even though it knew the risks and then deliberately underplaying the extent of the accident.
  • It is also seen as insensitive.One clause in the original instruction booklet telling victims they would have to agree to waive their right to challenge the compensation amount in order to receive payment provoked a public uproar
  • Chastised by the government, the company promised to drop the clause, issued a simplified 4-page instruction booklet and assigned 1,000 employees to Fukushima prefecture to help victims with the process."There may be times when the content is difficult to understand or in some cases our employee in charge may not grasp it fully, but we would like to explain and respond as carefully as possible," said Tepco spokesman Naoyuki Matsumoto.A government panel overseeing the compensation scheme estimates claims are likely to reach 3.6 trillion yen ($46.5 billion) in the financial year to next March.FEW CLAIMANTSBut so far just 7,100 individuals have applied to Tepco for compensation out of the 80,000 it send forms to.
  • And of the 10,000 businesses in the Fukushima area, a mere 300 have submitted claims.The company expects a total of 300,000 claims from businesses given that the impact of the radiation crisis has been so widespread.Victims can sue but that is rare.Junichi Matsumoto, a Tepco official, said the utility faces about 10 lawsuits so far. He declined to disclose details but said some were seeking more than the firm deemed appropriate.
  • uichi Kaido, an attorney and the secretary-general of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, said lawsuits are considered a last resort in conservative rural northeast Japan."In the end, many lawsuits could take place," he said.
  • But the majority is thinking of first speaking with Tokyo Electric or seeking mediation."
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Kyushu Electric waters down finding on nuclear business scandal [15Oct11] - 0 views

  • FUKUOKA (Kyodo) — Kyushu Electric Power Co. angered industry minister Yukio Edano on Friday as it watered down a third-party finding that the Saga governor was behind a scandal of misrepresentation of public opinion on its nuclear power business in the region, in a final report on the problem. Kyushu Electric submitted the report to the government the same day making no clear reference to whether the governor bears any responsibility for the problem, prompting Edano to brand it “out of the question” and say his ministry may urge the company to refile it.
  • An investigative panel headed by lawyer Nobuo Gohara said last month senior officials of Kyushu Electric tried to manipulate a state-sponsored TV program in June to make local communities appear supportive of restarting reactors at its Genkai power plant in Saga Prefecture.
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Edano Tells TEPCO To Cut "At Least" Y2.5 Trillion In Costs - Kyodo | Fox Business [24Oc... - 0 views

  • TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Japanese Industry minister Yukio Edano on Monday instructed Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) to commit to cutting "at least" Y2.5 trillion in costs over 10 years before receiving funds to help it pay compensation over the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Kyodo News reported. The target was included in a third-party panel report submitted to the government on Oct. 3, which would be reflected in Tokyo Electric's special business plan to be compiled as a precondition to receive financial aid from a state-backed body set up to help it meet its massive compensation obligations.
  • Tokyo Electric President Toshio Nishizawa told reporters after his talks with Edano, "We will take the minister's words sincerely and steadily implement (what we are told to do)."
  • In relation to damages payments, the utility known as TEPCO requested to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry Y120 billion in government compensation, the maximum amount set by a contract between the government and TEPCO for an accident at one nuclear power plant.
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  • The request came as the utility's compensation payments to people and companies affected by the crisis, triggered by the devastating March 11 earthquake and disaster, have exceeded Y150 billion.
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Wind power growing in California [31Jan12] - 0 views

  • Wind energy now supplies about 5% of California’s total electricity needs, or enough to power more than 400,000 households.That’s the word from the California Wind Energy Assn., which said that California put up more new turbines than any state last year, with 921.3 megawatts installed. Most of that activity occurred in the Tehachapi area of Kern County, with some big projects in Solano, Contra Costa and Riverside counties as well.
  • The total amount of wind energy installations in 2011 created a banner year for wind generation in California and is helping to drive California closer to reaching its goal of 33% renewable energy,” said Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Assn.  Wind capacity in the Golden State has doubled since 2002. With a total of nearly 4,000 megawatts installed, California now ranks third nationwide, behind Texas and Iowa.
  • To keep the wind at their backs, industry proponents are stumping in Congress for an extension of federal production tax credits to keep the turbines coming. Those credits expire at the end of this year. The industry’s pitch: Wind is clean and abundant, reduces U.S. dependence on foreign oil and creates American jobs.But it remains to be seen how enthusiastic lawmakers are about extending the breaks. Pressure is growing in Congress to cut the deficit and trim subsidies. The controversy over Solyndra didn’t help either. The Fremont, Calif., solar panel maker filed for bankruptcy protection last year after receiving more than a half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees. That has soured some pols on renewables.
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BP to end cleanup operations in Gulf oil spill [09Nov11] - 0 views

  • Focus will turn to restoring areas damaged in the oil spill, which the coast guard says represents an important milestone
  • BP will officially be off the hook for any deposits of oil that wash up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico – unless they can be traced directly to the Macondo well, it has emerged.Under a plan approved by the Coast Guard on 2 November, the oil company will end active cleanup operations and focus on restoring the areas damaged by last year's oil disaster.The plan, which was obtained by the Associated Press, sets out a protocol for determining which areas of the Gulf still need to be cleaned, and when BP's responsibility for that would end.
  • The plan "provides the mechanisms for ceasing active cleanup operations", AP said.It went on to suggest the biggest effort would be reserved for the most popular, heavily visited beaches. More oil would be tolerated on remote beaches. BP will be responsible for cleaning up thick oil in marshes – unless officials decide it is best to let nature do its work.The agency quoted coast guard officials saying the plan represented an important milestone in restoring the Gulf. BP has set aside about $1bn for restoration.The Obama administration has been indicating for some time that the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, which began on 20 April 2010 with an explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers, was moving into a second phase.Earlier on Tuesday, the US government rolled out a new five-year plan for selling offshore drilling leases.The proposal was a radically scaled back version of the president's earlier plans for offshore drilling – put forward just a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon blowout – that would have opened up the Arctic and Atlantic coasts for drilling.
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  • Oil companies will still be able to apply for leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in two unexplored areas off the northern coast of Alaska.But the government has placed the Atlantic and Pacific coasts off-limits."It will have an emphasis in the Gulf of Mexico," the interior secretary, Ken Salazar, told a meeting. "We see robust oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico."A number of commentators described the plan as an attempt to please two implacable enemies: the oil industry and the environmental movement.But the proposals drew heavy criticism from both sides. Oil companies said the plan did not go far enough while environmental groups were angry that Obama was opening up pristine Arctic waters to drilling.
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Cyber-security of continent's power grid 'chaotic,' report warns [16Nov11] - 0 views

  • The cyber-security of the North American power grid is "in a state of near chaos," according to a report by a respected U.S. energy consultancy monitoring the industry's transition to wireless digital technologies.The white paper by Pike Research reveals that a $60 smart phone application can bypass security measures and allow direct communications between the phone and some control systems (ICS) that regulate breakers, relays, feeders and the flow of electricity.The news comes on the heels of a warning from the cyber-security arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the hacker collective known as Anonymous appears intent on exploiting the ICS vulnerabilities within the energy industry.
  • In an unclassified October bulletin obtained by the website Public Intelligence, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center believes the group has, "a limited ability to conduct attacks against ICS. However . . . Anonymous could be able to develop capabilities to trespass on control system networks very quickly."In July, Anonymous threatened to target companies involved with Alberta's oilsands.
  • North America's power supply has never been disrupted by hackers, though there have been numerous uneventful penetrations of the system, including at Ontario utilities.A chill went through the critical infrastructure industry last summer when a malicious computer worm called Stuxnet attacked Iran's uranium enrichment plants.
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  • Many ICS have lifespans of 30 years and mitigation and compensation measures to help them mesh with the newer technologies are creating additional weak links and vulnerabilities.
  • Another worrisome change involves tens of millions of wireless "smart meters" being installed in homes and businesses for faster, more efficient two-way communications with local utilities via the Internet. Utilities, in turn, are networked with the big transmission operators and bulk power generators. More than 300,000 smart meters are installed in Ottawa homes and small businesses.The concern is that they potentially expose the system to hackers and other cyber attacks.
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US Radiation Monitoring May Have Been Handed Off To Nuclear Industry [04Nov11] Lobbyist... - 0 views

  • Lucas W Hixson may have uncovered a major abuse of the public trust by the NRC. In late March 2011 the NRC issued a directive that allowed the nuclear industry lobbyist group NEI to supply radiation monitoring data to the NRC who would then forward it to the EPA. March 24th the NRC discussed handing over radiation monitoring to nuclear industry lobbyists, April 14th RadNet was shut down and went back to routine monitoring schedules. This meant no ongoing food,water and air filter testing. Only the radiation level monitors were left operating. The EPA claimed that levels were going down as the reason for shutting down the expanded monitoring, but places like Idaho did not have the decreases seen at other sites.
  • The NRC directive put commercial nuclear power plant owners in charge of voluntarily providing the public with radiation monitoring data but it would be run through their nuclear industry lobbyists before it would then be provided to the NRC. Raw data was not provided directly to the NRC. Considering the massive US nuclear industry offensive to flood the media with propaganda downplaying the Fukushima nuclear disaster, they are hardly a reliable source to tell the public what the radiation levels are.
  • RadNet itself had many problems, stations didn’t work, some were not calibrated before the disaster. Even more disturbing is that the EPA does not even handle their own radiation monitoring network. The important function falls to a former Bush administration appointee running a business out of a rundown storefront in New Mexico. Under a $238,000 no bid contract Environmental Dimensions supposedly manages, maintains and operates RadNet, the only tool the public has to see if we are being subjected to nuclear fallout. The blogger that broke this story states that Environmental Dimensions has tripled their revenue in recent years. The company cites a different address as their mailing address. This shows up as a tiny house in Albuquerque. EDI was also part of a 12 million dollar contract in 2010 along with a couple of other contractors. The contract provides environmental & remediation services to the US Corps of Engineers. EDI claims to have been in business since 1990 but owner, Ms. Bradshaw worked for the DoD in 2006.
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  • What little system the public has for radiation notification through the EPA has been shuffled off to a no bid contract with spurious origins and the system experienced widespread problems when it was needed most. That system was mostly turned off just over a month after the disaster. The NRC, the agency tasked with protecting the public from nuclear disasters decided to hand everything over to the nuclear industry’s lobbyists.
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