- The first transfer of rural radioactive waste from a Fukushima school has begun. Yashirogawa Elementary in the town of Tanagura is located about 150 kilometers from F. Daiichi. A total of 1,500 cubic meters of soil and other detectibly radioactive items have been temporarily stored on the school property. The material is being transported to the temporary storage sites that straddle Okuma and Futaba towns, adjacent to F. Daiichi station. Another 1,500 m3 will be transported from four other schools in Koriyama City and Asakawa Town by the end of the summer. The volume of wastes at the Yashirogawa School was collected between January and June of this year. About 43,000 cu. meters of material from 43 municipalities will be shipped to the storage site by April of 2016. The work has been completed in six towns, including Okuma and Futaba. It is estimated that 316,400 cu. meters of waste is currently stored at 1,173 locations in the prefecture. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/19/national/science-health/transfer-of-radiation-tainted-soil-from-fukushima-prefecture-school-starts/#.VauU1JAw8dU
- A Fukushima contractor is arrested for burying detectibly radioactive tree debris. Minamisoma police arrested him for allegedly disposing about 3.4 tons of branches and twigs in a woody area. The possibility came to light in February after the Environment Ministry was alerted by a competitor contractor. The police report the alleged perpetrator has denied the claim, saying he did no such thing and that he never told his employees to do it. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
- As of Monday, 7,000 tons of radioactive water remained in underground locations at F. Daiichi. The liquids are in several tunnels, ducts, and pits for units #2 and #3. The highest contamination levels measured were 990 Becquerels per liter of Cesium-134 and 3,200 Bq/l of Cesium-137. These levels are many times lower than what is found in the turbine basements and the waters recently removed from the main equipment tunnels for the two units. Removal of all waters is expected by the end of the month. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2015072100628
- Russia partially lifts its Fukushima-related seafood ban, and it is also being considered by Taiwan. Twenty-three fish processing companies in Aomori Prefecture can now ship their products to Russia. However, the trade embargo still remains for seven other prefectures – Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Chiba and Niigata. Russia says the decision was based on IAEA recommendations and the fact that Aomori Prefecture is quite far from F. Daiichi. Before the nuke accident, 520 Japanese companies exported to Russia, but the nuke crisis witnessed 200 companies banned. Meanwhile, Taiwan might lift food import bans on four Prefectures, other than Fukushima. A diplomatic source said, “We agreed in principle to relax restrictions on food produce from four Japanese prefectures except Fukushima. The fact is that all the food products from the banned prefectures pass the safety examinations and they are consumed by the Japanese public.” The affected prefectures are Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi and Chiba. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/22/national/russia-eases-ban-seafood-imports-japan/#.Va_hp5Aw8dU
- More on the NRA’s assumption that the Shika fault is seismic. On July 17th, the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s seismic panel published a draft report on a geologic seam running under Shika unit #1. The report stated, “Although no clear basis has been found to affirm that the faults were active after the Late Pleistocene (some 120,000 to 130,000 years ago), the possibility of their displacement and deformation cannot be denied.” Station owner Horuiku Electric. Co. says evidence shows that the fault has not moved within the last 130,000 years, and called the NRA finding “hardly rational”. The company says it is examining the entire report and will submit a written opinion. http://www.jaif.or.jp/en/nra-panel-activeness-of-faults-under-shika-cannot-be-ruled-out-again/
- Another 3,000 Fukushima residents seek compensation money. All claimants live in the Watari District of Fukushima City, some 20km outside the Tokyo-mandated exclusion zone. None have previously qualified for evacuation stipends, voluntary evacuee payments, or mental anguish compensations. Tokyo’s guidelines allow residents in government-ordered evacuation zones and “specific spots recommended for evacuation” (where radiation levels are relatively high) to get 100,000 yen (~$800) each a month for emotional duress. The Watari residents say they were exposed to about 2 microsieverts per hour for the first six months of the accident, which was the highest in Fukushima City. They feel they are entitled to the same mental stress payments as mandated evacuees, and each should get double payments for the first six months after the accident when the radiation levels were at their peak. One claimant said, “The Watari district was not designated as a specific evacuation recommendation spot because the national and prefectural governments wanted to avoid a situation where residents in the center of the city evacuate. We should be entitled to compensation on par with that for residents in specific evacuation recommendation spots.” http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150721p2a00m0na014000c.html
- Greenpeace published a report on Tuesday saying that only a fourth of Iitate Village is decontaminated, including roads, homes, and buffer strips around inhabited areas, thus, “Levels of radiation in both decontaminated and non-decontaminated areas… make a return of the former inhabitants of Iitate not possible from a public health… perspective.” The rationale is that the surrounding forests are a giant reservoir of contamination that will eventually leach out and re-contaminate much of the decontaminated area. Greenpeace says this will effectively confine returnees to a relatively small area of their old hometowns. The report states, “The Japanese government plans, if implemented, will create an open-air prison of confinement to ‘cleaned’ houses and roads … and the vast untouched radioactive forests continue to pose a significant risk of recontamination of these ‘decontaminated’ areas to even higher levels.” Greenpeace adds that detectible radiation exposures above 1 millisievert per year will force people to relocate at some point in the future. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/22/national/science-health/fukushima-scrub-aims-make-villages-safe-although-woods-may-remain-no-go-zones/#.VbDU4ZAw8dU
- Greenpeace also says much of soon-to-be-repopulated Naraha Town might be unfit for habitation. They say that decontamination is incomplete and hap-hazard in Iitate, thus there’s no reason to think it is any better in Naraha. On the other hand, government data shows contamination levels in Naraha are much lower than Iitate, and a town survey shows that most residents want to go home. A statement made by Mayor Naraha Yukiei Matsumoto says the end of the evacuation order is “based on citizens’ real voices and plans to accelerate reconstruction,” and that a “prolonged evacuee life is not desirable.” http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/nuclear-refugees-face-dilemma-over-returning-home?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2015-07-22_PM
- A German multi-media outlet bashes Tokyo for re-opening Naraha. Deutsche Welle (DW) reports, “…environmentalists say many areas still show highly-elevated levels of contamination and are unfit for habitation.” It also alleges that it is merely a “…bid seen by critics as aiming to speed up reconstruction.” DW evokes the above Greenpeace report, and includes the statement that it will be “impossible for people to safely return to their homes.” Greenpeace activist Jan Vande Putte said, “Prime Minister Abe would like the people of Japan to believe that they are decontaminating vast areas of Fukushima to levels safe enough for people to live in. The reality is that this is a policy doomed to failure. The forests of Iitate are a vast stock of radioactivity that will remain both a direct hazard and source of potential recontamination for hundreds of years. It is impossible to decontaminate.” Greenpeace Japan’s Mamoru Sekiguchi adds, “It’s a shocking indictment of both the IAEA and the Abe government, which reveals how desperate they are to create the illusion that returning to ‘normal’ is possible after a severe nuclear accident.” Adding more fuel to the scare-mongering, French antinuclear activist Mycle Schneider says, “As there is no threshold, meaning there is no safe level of exposure, the health risk to people would be significantly increased.” He also called Japan’s decontamination efforts “helplessly inefficient”. DW also states that repopulation is a money-saving move because compensation payments will eventually stop. DW again cites Vande Putte, “Stripping nuclear victims of their already inadequate compensation, which may force them to have to return to unsafe, highly radioactive areas for financial reasons, amounts to economic coercion.” Schneider voices a parallel criticism, calling repopulation “a very simple goal; reduce the amount of compensation being paid out to victims.” (Aside – how ~$9,000 per month in total pay-outs for every man, woman, and child is “inadequate compensation” is beyond this reporter’s comprehension. The DW report only the $1,000 per month doled out for emotional distress, but the total stipends being paid are nine times greater. – end aside) http://www.dw.com/en/tokyo-under-fire-for-plans-to-speed-return-of-fukushima-evacuees/a-18597707
This site requires a lot of work. We hope you find our efforts valuable and rewarding. Please consider offering your support. There is no minimum amount. Feel free to donate as you see fit, without restriction. Thank you...
