Group items tagged

Someone in Japan uploaded the notice from the Ministry to the people in charge of waste disposal in the municipalities, dated October 7, 2011. It is a questionnaire that the Ministry wants the municipalities to fill and send back to the Ministry via email, asking about the current status in the municipalities on their effort to accept disaster debris. The Ministry wants to know how much debris they can take in, what types of debris, what type of disposal available. The similar survey was done several months ago, but since then the local oppositions have grown. So the Ministry wants to persuade the wavering municipalities.The notice is not what the Ministry would put up on their website as "press release" because it is not a press release. Rather, it is a document only seen by local officials.

The notice is an outrage for anyone who oppose moving the radioactive debris to their cities and towns, particularly those in the western Japan where the radioactive fallout from Fukushima I Nuke Plant has been close to zero. (Internal radiation exposure is another matter, which is happening in the western Japan also.)Why?First:

When we announce the result of the survey, the names of the individual municipalities will not be disclosed.Unlike the earlier survey where all the names of the municipalities were disclosed and which led to the citizens' oppositions in those municipalities, the Ministry is assuring them their names won't be disclosed this time.Second, in the multiple choices on the current effort level at the municipalities, there is no choice to say "No" to the debris. There are three choices, and they are:

when the Ministry of the Environment decides on the base plan after it runs the plan with the so-called experts that the ministry relies on (i.e. rubber-stamp).when the Ministry of the Environment decides on the base plan after it runs the plan with the so-called experts that the ministry relies on (i.e. rubber-stamp). Great leap forward in recovery and reconstruction. From Yomiuri Shinbun

From Yomiuri Shinbun

On August 10, the Ministry of the Environment made public the base plan for the ashes from burning the debris and sludge that contain radioactive materials from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The plan would technically allow all the ashes to be buried.

according to Sankei Shinbun, who has been unabashedly pro-nuclear energy and in favor of dispersing radioactive materials throughout Japan via the disaster debris to share in the "pain".The paper has an article about the meeting between the Ministry of the Education officials and the heads of the municipalities within the 20-kilometer radius "no entry zone" where the heads of the municipalities received the information from the Ministry about their lot - whether they can return after the decontamination work by the national government or not.

But that isn't the interesting part of the article.At the end of the article, there is a separate section that the newspaper writes about what "decontamination" is, according to the Ministry of the Education:

Decontamination: "It is like a cleaning job of stubborn dirt or stains" (Ministry of the Environment senior officials). Basically, it relies on manpower, using hand tools like shovels and scrubbing-brushes. According to the guideline published at the end of last year by the Ministry of the Environment, what can be easily removed, such as dead leaves, is to be removed by hand. The roofs are to be washed down by high-pressure washers, and the concrete surface such as the entrance of a house is to be scrubbed by scrubbing-brushes and deck brushes. As for the grassland and the soil where radioactive materials have penetrated, the surface is to be removed using shovels or diggers. Workers must pay attention not to get exposed to radioactivity by wearing the protective gear.

Now all radioactive debris and garbage can and will be burned and buried. The news headlines at various media outlets say "ashes that contain up to 100,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium", but if you read the news carefully, as long as there are "countermeasures" to prevent the leakage of radioactive cesium into the surrounding environment, the Ministry is prepared to allow the ashes with any amount of radioactive materials to be buried in regular waste final disposal facilities.

From NHK News (8/28/2011):

Regarding the ashes after burning the disaster debris and regular household garbage contaminated with radioactive materials, the Ministry of the Environment has decided on a policy that will allow the burial of ashes that exceed 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, as long as there are countermeasures in place to prevent the leakage into the ground water.

Minister of the Environment and Minister of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Goshi Hosono called representatives from 43 Prefectures to the Ministry of the Environment and requested again that they accept disaster debris from Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures.From Fuji News Network (FNN) via Yahoo Japan (10/5/2011; don't expect this link to last for more than a few days):

Processing the disaster debris from the March 11 earthquake/tsunami has been a big problem. The Ministry of the Environment held a conference attended by the municipalities from all over Japan, and requested that they accept the disaster debris.

Minister of the Environment Hosono said, "The obstacle to recovery and reconstruction is the processing of the disaster debris. I'd like to ask you to cooperate with us".

Since 311, Japanese government pretended to check radiation level of various areas in Japan, but because they measure radiation at 14 m or 85 m high from the ground, nobody got to believe the data. They therefore ordered 600 dosimeters from a Geiger counter maker named Alpha Tsushin. Those dosimeters were supposed to be put at schools in Fukushima etc.. However, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology stated they cancelled the contract on 11/18/2011 because “their dosimeter is not accurate and they can’t make 600 of the dosimeters by the deadline.”

However, according to the explanation of Alpha Tsushin, it was because the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology wanted false dosimeter. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology was afraid to show higher radiation levels than the monitoring posts set on 14 m or 85 m high from the ground, so they ordered Alpha Tsushin to make geiger counters to indicate lower radiation level than actual. Alpha Tsushin uses parts from America, which are manufactured using international standards, but the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology tried to force the engineers to use the “Japanese standard”. As a result, Alpha Tsushin was cancelled, luckily for them.

The company is planning to have a press conference to tell the truth.

Radioactive substances from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have now been confirmed in all prefectures, including Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture, about 1,700 kilometers from the plant, according to the science ministry. The ministry said it concluded the radioactive substances came from the stricken nuclear plant because, in all cases, they contained cesium-134, which has short half-life of two years. Before the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, radioactive substance were barely detectable in most areas.

the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's survey results released on Nov. 25 showed that fallout from the Fukushima plant has spread across Japan. The survey covered the cumulative densities of radioactive substances in dust that fell into receptacles during the four months from March through June. Figures were not available for Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, where the measurement equipment was rendered inoperable by the March 11 disaster. One measurement station was used for each of the other 45 prefectures. The highest combined cumulative density of radioactive cesium-134 and cesium-137 was found in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture, at 40,801 becquerels per square meter. That was followed by 22,570 becquerels per square meter in Yamagata, the capital of Yamagata Prefecture, and 17,354 becquerels per square meter in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.

The current air radiation level in Ibaraki Prefecture is about 0.14 microsievert per hour, equivalent to an annual dose of about 1 millisievert, the safety limit for exposure under normal time international standards. Large amounts of radioactive dust fell in Tokyo, but a separate survey has detected relatively low accumulations of cesium in the soil. "Tokyo has smaller soil surfaces than other prefectures, but road and concrete surfaces are less prone to fixate cesium deposits, which were probably diffused by the wind and rain," a ministry official explained.

Nothing coming out of Japan makes sense any more, so this news is simply adding to that growing list. The national government will lift the ban on sales and shipment of meat cows raised in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures because the government is satisfied that the radioactive rice hay is now separated from other feed - either under the tarp or buried - so that it will not be fed to the cows. If I remember right, the worry was not the rice hay but the meat itself, which tested high in radioactive cesium all over Japan as the cows from these two prefectures (and several more in Tohoku) had been sold far and wide because of the suddenly "affordable" price. They were particularly favored by certain cost-conscious municipalities (most notably Yokohama City) that fed the suspected meat to the kindergarteners and school children in school lunches, ignoring protests from the parents. Humans eat beef not rice hay, as far as I know. But now the ban will be lifted because of ... rice hay storage procedure?

From Mainichi Shinbun (8/18/2011):

The Japanese government started to prepare for the total lifting of the shipping ban on meat cows raised in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures on August 18. The government will instruct the governors of the two prefectures as early as August 19. As radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional national safety limit (500 becquerels/kg) was found in the meat, the government banned the shipping of the cows in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and Tochigi Prefectures between July 19 and August 2. Fukushima and Miyagi would be the first to have the ban lifted.

These cattle were allowed to be sold, as long as they were scrubbed clean of radioactive materials on their skin, thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the same ministry that is pushing to have the Japanese cuisine recognized as UNESCO's "world intangible cultural heritage".According to Asahi Shinbun (link below), the Tokyo Metropolitan government tested the remaining 10 meat cows from Minami-Soma City that were processed on July 8. The highest number was 3200 becquerels/kg of cesium, and even the lowest number was 1530 becquerels/kg, more than 3 times the government's provisional safety limit for cesium in foods.The one that was tested on July 8 had 2300 becquerels/kg radioactive cesium.

Following the instruction from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Metropolitan Shibaura Slaughterhouse doesn't conduct radiation testing at all, whether the cattle come from the 20-30 kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuke Plant or from other areas. However, there have been 5 instances where the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare instructed them to test for radiation, and in those instances the radioactive materials detected were less than the provisional limit.Yomiuri Shinbun (7/9/2011) says something more disturbing:

According to the investigation by Fukushima Prefecture, 2924 meat cows have been shipped from the same area since the end of April.

The Ministry of Education and Science (and the media reporting the news) is spinning it as "good news" that radioactive materials detected in river water and well water in Fukushima Prefecture are "far less than the provisional safety limit".If you compare the measured level to the provisional safety limit for water which is high as 200 becquerels/liter for radioactive cesium for adults, well yes, it is far less.If you compare the level to the one before the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, it is a different story altogether. The highest strontium-90 level in the Ministry's survey is 5.14 times the highest level measured in 2009, and the highest cesium-137 level is 6,500 times the highest level measured in 2009.The Ministry's announcement (10/20/2011) is here (in Japanese, PDF).

From Asahi Shinbun (10/20/2011):

The Ministry of Education and Science announced the result of the survey of water contamination in rivers and wells in Fukushima Prefecture, except in the 20-kilometer radius from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Nuclides such as cesium and strontium were tested, but according to the Ministry there was no detection of radioactive materials exceeding the standard for drinking water.

External radiation is not counted in this number, as opposed to their draft plan in July which did include external radiation, and it is in addition to the natural radiation exposure (by which is meant pre-Fukushima natural).The experts on the Commission didn't rule on the radiation limit for children, leaving the decision to the Ministry of Health and Labor as if the top-school career bureaucrats in the Ministry would know better.Yomiuri and other MSMs are spinning it as "tightening" the existing provisional safety limits on food.From Yomiuri Shinbun (10/27/2011):

The Food Safety Commission under the Cabinet Office has been deliberating on the health effect of internal radiation exposure from the radioactive materials in food. On October 27, it submitted its recommendation to set the upper limit on lifetime cumulative radiation from food at 100 millisieverts.

On receiving the recommendation, the Ministry of Health and Labor will start setting the detailed guidelines for each food items. They are expected to be stricter than the provisional safety limits set right after the Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident. The Radiation Commission under the Ministry of Education will review the guidelines to be set by the Ministry of Health and Labor, and the new safety limits will be formally decided.

The Czech Industry Ministry wants to turn the Czech Republic into a nuclear power, this is the sole possible explanation of the new draft energy concept that counts with raising atom-based energy generation five to seven times by 2060, Julie Hrstkova writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN) today.

HN writes elsewhere that it has gained the first draft energy strategy of the Industry and Trade Ministry that the ministry keeps secret for the time being.Hrstkova writes that to attain the above goal would require the construction of new nuclear power plants with the output of ten to 15 blocs of the current plant in Temelin, south Bohemia.Nuclear energy should substitute for coal whose deposits are being gradually exhausted and reduce dependence on gas imports, Hrstkova writes.

She writes that the toying with renewable energy sources will be ended at the moment their share in overall power generation reaches the EU-approved 13.5 percent after which their share could be tacitly lowered. Solar panels would disappear from the Czech landscape after the flow of state subsidies is stopped in 2030.

Water underground is contaminated, Fukushima Diary, Dec. 26, 2011: Ministry of the Environment measured cesium from well water at 4 locations in Minamisoma [25 km north of Fukushima plant]. It was about 1.3~14.7 Bq/kg, it was for drinking. The samples were taken in October and November. [...]

Babelfish Translation result for http://mainichi.jp/select/weathernews/news/20111227k0000m040028000c.html Headline: Fukushima 1st nuclear plant: From well water 4 places of cesium detection south Soma Source: Mainichi.jp Date: Dec. 26, 2011

t announced that the environmental ministry on the 26th, inspected the density of the well underwater radioactive cesium of drinking which in emergency evacuation preparation area (in 9 ends of the month cancellation) inside Fukushima prefecture

Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto has committed an about-face on policy by telling his ministry to refrain from vouching for the safety of Japanese food. The ministry stance changed after radiation-tainted beef was found to have been sold to consumers nationwide, sources said. The contaminated meat is coming from cattle that were fed rice straw contaminated with cesium isotopes ejected by the disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

To handle surging concerns abroad about the food supply, the Foreign Ministry told embassies and other diplomatic offices overseas to brief local authorities, importers and media organizations on measures the government is taking to prevent contaminated food from making it into public distribution channels. The ministry has also asked its diplomatic offices to repeat its stance of disclosing safety information in a timely manner.

On July 8, Matsumoto said that he wanted to dispel food safety concerns by explaining what the government is doing to prevent tainted food from making it into the food supply. But several countries have since asked about the beef scare after several cattle suspected of being fed tainted straw were found to have been slaughtered and their beef shipped to market months ago to stores and restaurants.

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"

An independent panel advising Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirmed Friday that the ministry's nuclear watchdog was involved in attempts by utilities to manipulate public opinion in favor of nuclear power, a conclusion likely to reinforce public mistrust in the nuclear industry and to raise further hurdles for the restart of idled reactors. The ministry also announced later in the day that it has suspended former Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama for one month after finding he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a female staffer during working hours at the height of the nuclear crisis. The panel's conclusion is likely to renew calls for reforming governance at power companies, which have a reputation for being secretive about their nuclear-power operations and for covering up mishaps at their plants.

"The revelations may further undermine public confidence in nuclear policy after the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant," said Takashi Oizumi, chairman of the panel and former public prosecutor, at a news conference. The panel looked into 41 government-sponsored events over five years. No attempts of manipulation were found at symposiums involving Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant. According to the panel report, the ministry's officials—mostly from its NISA offices—asked the operators of five nuclear-power plants to encourage employees, between 2005 and 2009, to attend government-sponsored briefings and symposiums and to express opinions in favor of nuclear energy.

Such gatherings are meant to provide an opportunity for the government to explain nuclear-power policy and for the public to express opinions. Local mayors and governors often used such events to gauge public opinion and make decisions on whether they would proceed in line with the government's nuclear policy. The government already announced over the summer plans to overhaul the regulation of nuclear power and to step up safety checks at nuclear plants. But there has been little sign that public confidence in nuclear-power is returning. Only 11 of the nation's 54 commercial reactors remain in operation.

High levels of cesium isotopes are cropping up in dust at 42 incineration plants in seven prefectures, including Chiba and Iwate, an Environment Ministry survey of the Kanto and Tohoku regions shows.

According to the report, released late Saturday, the highest cesium levels in the dust ranged from 95,300 becquerels in Fukushima Prefecture and 70,800 becquerels in Chiba Prefecture to 30,000 becquerels in Iwate Prefecture.

But even the lower levels in the dust exceeded 8,000 becquerels per kilogram in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Tokyo. The 16-prefecture survey covered 469 incinerator operators in Tohoku and Kanto from late June, and was reported to a panel of experts at the ministry that is discussing how to safely bury incinerator ash and dust with cesium levels above 8,000 becquerels per kilogram.

High levels of cesium isotopes are cropping up in dust at 42 incineration plants in seven prefectures, including Chiba and Iwate, an Environment Ministry survey of the Kanto and Tohoku regions shows.

According to the report, released late Saturday, the highest cesium levels in the dust ranged from 95,300 becquerels in Fukushima Prefecture and 70,800 becquerels in Chiba Prefecture to 30,000 becquerels in Iwate Prefecture. But even the lower levels in the dust exceeded 8,000 becquerels per kilogram in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Tokyo.

The 16-prefecture survey covered 469 incinerator operators in Tohoku and Kanto from late June, and was reported to a panel of experts at the ministry that is discussing how to safely bury incinerator ash and dust with cesium levels above 8,000 becquerels per kilogram. Local governments have been instructed to temporarily store their ash and dust at disposal sites until the panel reaches a conclusion.

Curium: As compared to a competing thermoelectric generator isotope such as 238Pu [Plutonium-238], 244Cm [Curium-244] emits a 500 time greater fluence of neutrons, and its higher gamma emission requires a shield that is 20 times thicker — about 2 inches of lead for a 1 kW source, as compared to 0.1 in for 238Pu

First out of the first nuclear power plant site in the town trace curium Hukushima Ookuma, Kyodo, June 13, 2011

Google Translation

Dust and ashes containing cesium beyond the legal limit of 8,000 becquerels per kilogram has been found at six industrial waste incinerators in Iwate, Fukushima and Chiba prefectures, the Environment Ministry said Thursday.

Samples from 110 industrial waste disposal facilities in 16 prefectures from east to northeast Japan have revealed cesium readings ranging from 10,800 to 144,200 becquerels at four incinerators in Fukushima Prefecture, 23,000 becquerels at a facility in Iwate Prefecture and 11,500 becquerels at an incinerator in Chiba Prefecture, the ministry said. Similar tests in late August found that ashes from nonindustrial incinerators contained more than 8,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in Tokyo and six other prefectures. A worker exposed to 8,000 becquerels of cesium a day for some amount of time would still come in below the annual radiation limit of 1 millisievert. At the end of August, the ministry issued a guideline advising local authorities to solidify incinerated dust and ashes containing between 8,000 to 100,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram with cement, wrap it in watertight sheeting and bury it in landfills. The ministry earlier decided to allow waste containing up to 8,000 becquerels per kilogram to be buried in waste disposal sites, provided that no residences are built at the sites in the future.