- Salmon fishing resumes in Naraha Town. Historically, the Kidogawa River has been a major source of marketed salmon for Fukushima Prefecture and outlying markets. The business was suspended when Tokyo ordered the town evacuated in 2011. Now that the evacuation order has been lifted, fishermen decided to catch some salmon and see what the radioactive content might be. The test fishing showed no radioactive substances in the fish, so full-fledged salmon harvesting has restarted. Members of the local fishing cooperative assembled at 11:30am on Sunday and began driving salmon from upstream and into their downstream nets. The cooperative believes that at least some of the adult salmon are former fry released into the river before the nuke accident, returning home to spawn. A celebratory gathering on Sunday also marked completion of a processing plant destroyed by the tsunami on 3/11/11. Mayor Yukiei Matsumoto was pleased to see the business return to Naraha because it is a key local resource and should invigorate repopulation. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201510190032 — http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151019_10.html
- A Fukushima speed skating rink will reopen. The rink is located in the Yamakiya district of Kawamata, which was the only part of the town Tokyo ordered evacuated in 2011. The government plans to lift the Yamakiya order as early as next spring. The Kawamata Skating Club announced it will reopen the rink in January. Using an $80,000 subsidy, the club will make a 150 meter course on the same rice paddy it used prior to the evacuation. The clubhouse will be stocked with 50 pairs of new skates. The facility will be open from mid-January until early February, free of charge. The club says Olympic champion Hiroyasu Shimizu – the 500m gold medal winner in 1998 – will be invited to give lessons in late January. http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=579
- Okuma Town will build apartments for the elderly. The complex is planned to be opened within two years. It will be located in the Ogawara District, south of F. Daiichi, where decontamination is effective. At this point, radiation levels are one-tenth of that needed for repopulation. Residents are allowed to enter the district during the day and work has begun to restore infrastructure needed to allow unrestricted habitation. The district’s evacuation order is expected to be removed by March, 2017. The town government polls show that about 100 elderly residents to take advantage of the opportunity. Also, Tepco says they will be building dormitories on the same property for F. Daiichi workers, which should be completed in late 2016 or early 2017. On a related note, PM Shinzo Abe visited Okuma Town today and told Mayor Toshitsuna Watanabe that Tokyo will ensure the reconstruction of Okuma will continue. He also visited Naraha later in the day to try and spur increased repopulation, which to this point has been disappointing. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201510190039 — http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20151019p2g00m0dm074000c.html
- More about no radioactive Cesium found in Fukushima Children. About 2,000 of the more than 2,700 children tested live in Fukushima Prefecture. The other 700 do not; with 200 being evacuee offspring and 500 are lifetime residents of Prefectures other than Fukushima. There were no radiologically-discernible differences between children of families who shun Fukushima-produced foods (4% of the cohort) and those who eat Fukushima foods (96%). Research team leader Masaharu Tsubokura said, “This is ample evidence to prove that the risk is low [even if one ate Fukushima food]… We will continue to conduct the checkups to help dispel safety concerns.” http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=576 The actual report posted in the Proceedings of the Japan Academy can be found here… https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab/91/8/91_PJA9108B-06/_pdf (Comment – Since there has been no Cesium found in the children, why do the researchers persist in the “low risk” rhetoric? IMHO, it’s because there is a numerically significant minority – literally millions – of consumers in Japan who believe that unless there is detectability down to absolute zero, it proves nothing. To them, there is contamination below the detectible limit to worry about. It seems the Fukushima research team is catering to these radiophobic worry-warts.)
- A Fukushima City farmer ignores consumer radiation fears and is making a profit. Hidenori Abe owns a fruit farm near the city. When he harvested his peaches and apples in August of 2011, he found they passed the government’s strict radiation limits. He took his harvest to the Agricultural Cooperative, but found they only sold for half the pre-accident value. Undeterred, Abe took 300 kilograms of his produce to a consumer’s sales event in Tokyo and sold the entire lot in one day. Buyers were impressed with the fruit’s quality and began ordering more a few days later. Abe says, “There is no point in worrying about harmful rumors. It is the customer that decides whether to buy or not.” By personally marketing his fruit through sales events and the internet, he made more money in 2014 than the year before the nuke accident. Last month, he was selling at a Fukushima City sales event and was approached by a Singapore buyer. Impressed by Abe’s product, the buyer has set up a business meeting with Abe in Singapore, scheduled for December. As for widespread reports of radiation rumors harming Fukushima Farmers in the marketplace, Abe shows that it can be overcome, saying, “It’s enough to get the product to those who will buy it.” http://mainichi.jp/english/english/features/news/20151018p2a00m0na003000c.html
- New camera images of Spent Fuel Pool #3 at F. Daiichi. A Friday Tepco Press handout shows the condition of the used fuel bundles in SFP #3. Considerable debris can be seen on the tops of most bundles, but the key bundles that were impacted by the fallen fuel handling crane are not rubble covered. It shows that the grappling handles on the top of two bundles are misshapen, but there is no indication of any damage to the fuel assemblies below. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_151016_01-e.pdf
- Sendai #2 achieved criticality last Thursday at ~11pm; right on schedule. Kyushu Electric Co. plans to begin electrical generation on Wednesday if the turbine generators respond as expected. The unit has been idled for more than 4 years. Commercial operation is planned for mid-November. It should be mentioned that NHK World’s report on the announcement states that other nuke operators want to restart their units now that the Sendai plants are operating. This is a misleading statement. All companies with nukes have wanted restarts ever since the creation of the Nuclear Regulation Authority more than three years ago. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151016_80.html
- Ehime Prefecture’s governor meets with the Industry Minister. On October 15th, Governor Tokihiro Nakamura of Ehime Prefecture met with Industry Minister Motoo Hayashi concerning the restart of Ikata unit #3. Following the Ehime Assembly’s approval of restart on October 9th, Nakamura said he would not decide on the restart until the meeting with the minister was held. He briefed Hayashi on the additional measures at Ikata-3 for earthquakes, power-source measures and emergency reporting systems. After the meeting, the governor said, “the citizens of the prefecture have a range of opinions, with some agreeing with the conditions and others not.” He stressed that the final decision process must be fully explained to the public to gain their understanding. Nakamura did not say when he expected to announce his restart decision. http://www.jaif.or.jp/en/ehime-governor-and-meti-minister-meet-about-ikata-3-npp-restarting/
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