Group items tagged

Governor Heita Kawakatsu of Shizuoka Prefecture joined a gathering of green tea lovers in New York on July 14 and appealed the safety of the teas grown in Shizuoka Prefecture, the largest tea producer in Japan.

The US is the largest market for Japan's tea export with 46% share. The governor said he wanted to dispel the anxiety due to the Fukushima nuke accident and appeal the safety directly to consumers in New York, where the Japanese food is popular.

Governor Kawakatsu explained that Shizuoka Prefecture was far away from Fukushima Prefecture where the accident happened, and that the survey of the dried teas in the prefecture's tea growing regions showed that the levels of radioactive cesium were below the safety limit. He said, "Shizuoka's tea is not only safe but good for your health." At the gathering, there were demonstrations on how to enjoy green tea in different ways.

The Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident may be becoming a distant and inconvenient memory for many, including the governor of Hokkaido Harumi Takahashi, a former elite bureaucrat in what is now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.The Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident may be becoming a distant and inconvenient memory for many, including the governor of Hokkaido Harumi Takahashi, a former elite bureaucrat in what is now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. She has just approved the formal re-start of Tomari Nuclear Power Plant Reactor 3, despite the protest literally from all over the country. It will be the first re-start of any reactor that has been in maintenance or shut-down after the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, and Tomari Reactor 3 will simply switch from the long (since March) post-maintenance test-run to full commercial run without undergoing the so-called "stress test"

The Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident may be becoming a distant and inconvenient memory for many, including the governor of Hokkaido Harumi Takahashi, a former elite bureaucrat in what is now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.The Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident may be becoming a distant and inconvenient memory for many, including the governor of Hokkaido Harumi Takahashi, a former elite bureaucrat in what is now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. She has just approved the formal re-start of Tomari Nuclear Power Plant Reactor 3, despite the protest literally from all over the country. It will be the first re-start of any reactor that has been in maintenance or shut-down after the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, and Tomari Reactor 3 will simply switch from the long (since March) post-maintenance test-run to full commercial run without undergoing the so-called "stress test"

The inherently arrogant nature of the electric power industry in Japan came to light recently when Kyushu Electric Power Co. tried to influence a public hearing on whether to allow the company to resume operation of its Genkai nuclear power stations in Saga Prefecture. Kyushu Electric urged its employees and subcontractors to submit a large number of emails in support of resumption.

Observers view this as a typical example of the power industry boasting of its ability to manipulate public opinion. The incident also revealed how naive the industry is, as the utility failed to take any precaution to prevent its tactics from becoming publicly known. One critic drew an analogy between the actions of Kyushu Electric and the plot in "Emperor's New Clothes," Hans Christian Andersen's famous short story.

One factor behind such arrogance is the fact that each of the 10 companies of the power utility industry occupies a prominent position in the commerce of its respective region, where it enjoys a monopoly of supplying electric power.

Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato on Nov. 30 said he will ask Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the central government to decommission all nuclear reactors in the prefecture. The request will be included in the prefectural government’s plan on recovering from the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake to be worked out by the end of this year. The prefectural government does not have the power to decommission nuclear reactors on its own, but the governor’s stance could make it impossible to operate all 10 reactors in the prefecture. Although not required by law, the governor’s approval is generally seen as needed to restart nuclear reactors. Sato is the first governor to seek a decommissioning of all reactors in a prefecture since the crisis started at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March.

“The accidents have had (adverse) influences on all aspects, such as nature, society and education, failing to offset the financial benefits brought by the operation of nuclear power plants in our prefecture,” Sato said. End Extract http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201112010025

Now that the radioactive disaster debris from Iwate Prefecture is a fait accompli and ready to be crushed and burned and buried, Shintaro Ishihara, irascible 79-year-old governor of Tokyo who almost single-handedly decided to do this mind-boggling project to "assist the recovery" of Iwate, mentioned the complaints that his government has received over the issue in the press conference on November 4 afternoon.According to Fuji TV news clip on November 4, the governor said,

If the Fuji TV news link disappears (quite likely, since it is hosted at Yahoo Japan), there's a youtube clip, here. The comment section is filled with comments from Japanese people who praise the governor's decision and strong words. (Well they have their job to do, I guess.)

Not to the extent that may cause "chaos" as Professor Kosako predicted, but the prefectural authorities have tested the early harvest and radioactive cesium has been found in Ibaraki and Chiba. The first to find radioactive rice was Ibaraki Prefecture, but the governor vows to fight the "baseless rumor" to promote rice from his prefecture. From Sankei Shinbun (8/19/2011):

As the brown rice grown in Hokota City in Ibaraki Prefecture was found with radioactive cesium, Governor of Ibaraki Masaru Hashimoto answered the reporters on August 19 and said "There is no problem with safety. After the formal testing is complete by the end of August, we will persuade the consumers that there's nothing to worry about consuming Ibaraki rice", and that he will do his best to counter the "baseless rumor".

Governor Hashimoto emphasized safety by saying "It is not the level to worry, even if you eat [the rice] for one whole year". At the same time, he said "Since radioactive cesium has been detected in vegetables, I wouldn't have been surprised to see it detected in rice".

Seiji Maehara, who lost his bid to become the party leader and the prime minister of Japan, has nonetheless landed on a very powerful party position as the chairman of the DPJ's policy bureau.He went to Fukushima, and after visiting with the evacuees from Iitate-mura, he disclosed his party's plan to use the "eco-point" system for residential housing to promote timber from the disaster-affected area.

What is the "eco-point" for houses? Well, if you build or renovate your house with energy saving features and alternative energy features (eg. solar panels) the government will give you "eco-points". Then you can use the points at participating stores and buy whatever you want to buy with the points.Maehara is saying the government may entice builders to use the lumber from the disaster-affected area with "eco-points", even if the potentially radioactive lumber has nothing to do with energy saving.

Iitate-mura's major industry is forestry. Iitate-mura's mountains and forests have been contaminated with whatever fell on them - radioactive cesium, plutonium, strontium. No one has tested them (if someone did, he's not saying anything), but the contamination should be an order of magnitude bigger than the radioactive firewood from Rikuzen Takata City in Iwate Prefecture.

Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara is ready for more "disaster" radioactive debris from Tohoku. After having started on Iwate's debris and scolded the residents to shut up and put up, he is eager to sign the deal with Miyagi Prefecture and bring in Onagawa's debris to Tokyo to crush, burn, and dump in the landfill in Tokyo Bay.

Vermont Yankee could close by March 2012 * Entergy fighting for reactor survival NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Vermont health regulators said on Tuesday they found a fish containing radioactive material in the Connecticut River near Entergy's (ETR.N) Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant which could be another setback for Entergy to keep it running. The state said it needs to do more testing to determine the source of the Strontium-90, which can cause bone cancer and leukemia.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin wants the 620 megawatts reactor shut in March 2012 when its original operating license was to expire. "Today's troubling news from the Vermont Department of Health is another example of Entergy Louisiana putting their shareholders' profits above the welfare of Vermonters," Shumlin said in a statement. "I am asking my Health Department to keep a close eye on test results moving forward to determine the extent of any contamination that has reached the environment."

New Orleans-based Entergy, the second biggest nuclear power operator in the United States, however wants to keep the reactor running for another 20 years under a new license. Entergy filed a complaint in federal court to block the state from shutting the reactor next year. Officials at Entergy were not immediately available for comment. "One finding of (Strontium-90) just above the lower limit of detection in one fish sample is notable because it is the first time Strontium-90 has been detected in the edible portion of any of our fish samples," the Vermont Department of Health said on its website. The Health Department said it did not know how the Strontium-90, which is both naturally occurring in the environment and a byproduct of nuclear power production and nuclear weapons testing, got into the fish.

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.

The UN Atomic Agency’s 35 nation board adopted an action plan on Tuesday to strengthen global nuclear safety following Japan’s Fukushima accident six months ago. The board of governors approved by consensus the eight-page document put forward by Director General Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), setting out a series of voluntary steps meant to enhance standards worldwide.

A governors’ debate on the issue underlined divisions between states seeking stronger international commitments and others wanting safety to remain an issue strictly for national authorities. “There were a number of critical voices,” one diplomat said about the closed-door discussions, referring to countries that had made clear they wanted firmer action at the international level.

One group of nations — including Germany, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Denmark — voiced disappointment about the final version of the IAEA’s safety action plan for not going far enough. The U.S., India, China and Pakistan — all big nuclear countries — were among countries resisting any moves towards mandatory outside inspections of their atomic energy facilities.

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.

On Oct 28 it was 232 days since the world’s worst industrial disaster started March 11, 2011 at the six nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan. Six reactors are involved, four reactors and/or reactor buildings exploded and the two remaining are questionable; they could explode at anytime. Worse, there are four more giant billion watt reactors 6 miles, or 10 kilometers South at Fukushima Daiani. These were damaged in the 3/11 earthquake but were idled and are currently decaying. The four troubled reactors are in the Exclusion Zone declared by the Japanese government. Starting Oct 27 the women of Fukushima organized a demonstration in the capitol city of Tokyo at the controlling government ministry for the nuclear industry, The Ministry of Economy.  Their demands are but two: Evacuate children in Fukushima to a safer place Do not restart nuclear power plants that are currently shut off

The Legislature for Fukushima promptly passed a resolution calling for the immediate closure of all ten (10) reactors in Fukushima. The decision on their future is up to the Governor of Fukushima. The Governor of Fukushima now says they were betrayed by Tepco and the national government of Japan. Watch this column for updates. We’ll see what happens. The traditional Japanese concepts of honor and responsibility would require Hari-Kari or traditional Seppuku, a form of ritual suicide to restore honor in death.

Occupy Fukushima   This is a new Facebook page. It is in addition to many pages on Facebook now about Fukushima. Although you won’t see much at all about this possibly extinction-level event on in CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, WAPO and other corporate advertising outlets, Google: Fukushima. It returns 53,400,000 Google “hits”. Actually, very, very good for a disaster that is kept from the American people. There are also 800 Million Facebook members.   Occupy Japanese Consulate in NY!   Show support for the Japanese Women’s Sit-in at TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) headquarters in Toyko. The NY effort is organized by GreenPeace. The initiator is: One World No Nukes/Todos Somos Japan

Did anyone say in the comment section that it was a duty of adults to protect children? I guess not in Koriyama City, which is located in high-radiation "Nakadori" (middle third) of Fukushima Prefecture and where 500,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found in the rice hay.The city will start using this year's rice harvested in the city in the school lunches, starting next Tuesday. Since the new rice harvested in Fukushima is all cleared for shipping as the sampling test has proven it is "safe", it is just a matter of time till it's fed to the most vulnerable and without voice - children. Just as the Fukushima government, headed by THAT governor, has been pushing ever since declaring "safety" on October 12.Fukushima Chuo TV news (11/4/2011) via Nippon TV:

Koriyama City has decided to use the new rice harvested in the city for school lunches starting next week. Today, the city explained the radiation detection system to the parents.

Koriyama City will require JA Koriyama, who will ship the rice, to conduct voluntary testing of radioactive materials, and will start using the city's newly harvested rice in school lunches starting Tuesday November 8.