November 5, 2015

Nov 5, 2015 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • The head of Fukushima InFORM has received death threats. Fukushima InFORM provides independent data concerning the radiological risks of the Pacific Ocean off Canada due to the Fukushima accident. Their head is Dr. Jay Cullen of University of Victoria. Cullen has been the focal point of hate mail since 2012 when he began sharing the network data. He says, “The goal and motivation … was that people were asking me, family and friends and the public at large, what the impact of the disaster was on B.C. on the North Pacific and on Canada. I started looking for quality monitoring information so I could answer those questions as honestly and accurately as I could.” But, many have not liked that InFORM has found nothing that could spawn die-offs of biota or health impacts of any kind. Cullen says the hate mail and death threats were “somewhat of a surprise.” Some have called him a “shill for the nuclear industry” and a “sham scientist”. Some objectors believe there is an international conspiracy within the scientific community to hide the effects of Fukushima in order to make money. For example, one blog post said the world is at war with the scientific community, calling it the “most powerful of the elites in this world.”  Others believe that researchers saying Fukushima radiation isn’t a threat deserve to be executed! Cullen feels that these are frightened people who are not educationally equipped to differentiate science from pseudo-science, and they become angry when their beliefs are challenged. He says, “I feel their motivations are genuine and their desire to understand is laudable, but I think [the reaction of hate and fear] highlights the need for scientists to engage more directly with the public, to explain what we do, how we do it.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/canadian-researcher-targeted-by-hate-campaign-over-fukushima-findings/article27060613/ — http://www.cbc.ca/player/AudioMobile/As%20It%20Happens/ID/2678240545/ (The Cullen interview begins at ~9 minutes)
  • A non-profit group helping with rural cleanup gets death threats. On October 10th, the NPO held a decontamination event which was attended by 1,400 people, including 200 teens, along a 50 kilometer stretch of National Route 6 trough Naraha, Tomioka, Namie, and Minamisoma. No work was done in Okuma or Futaba. The students collected litter with tongs, mainly on abandoned school properties. Since then, the NPO has received about 30 defamatory and/or threatening messages a day, by fax, phone, and internet. The October 10 event has been routinely described as “murder-like” and “nothing less than madness” for including teen volunteers. Other messages include the following; “Are you a traitor?”, “This is child abuse in the name of a good deed”, and the death threat “We will kill you”. It should be noted that antinuclear activists tried to stop the event on October 10th. Iwaki City sociologist Hiroshi Kainuma said, “Since the nuclear accident (of 2011), incidents have increased of people seeking to hinder the freedom of activities that would aid the victims…With flimsy scientific grounds, their acts force socially vulnerable people into circumstances where they cannot offer counterarguments.” http://www.jaif.or.jp/en/fukushima-cleanup-by-school-youth-met-with-threatening-calls-and-emails/
  • The F. Daiichi seaside impermeable wall is slowing contaminated seepage to the sea. The seawater adjacent to the wall, inside the barricaded inner port (quay), shows a steady decrease in radioactive contaminants. At the end of August, Cesium levels inside the quay were all less than 10 Becquerels per liter, gross Beta activity nearly 10 Bq/l, and little or no Strontium. Even Tritium was dropping significantly. All levels were several times less than Japan’s regulatory limits for release. Outside the quay, the radioactivity levels for all isotopic groups have remained constant, probably because there is very little mixing with the open sea through the one opening in the break-wall. There is nothing detectible in the ocean beyond the break-wall. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_151105_01-e.pdf
  • A small residential area is planned for Okuma Town. Most of the F. Daiichi host community is indefinitely restricted by government mandate, but a significant fraction has radiation levels low enough to repopulate. One prime 40 hectare location is currently open fields. So, Mayor Toshitsuna Watanabe envisions building housing for 3,000 people. About 1,000 evacuees say they would return, with most of them elderly. The remaining 2,000 would be F. Daiichi workers. In addition to residences, there would be new offices and research centers for the F. Daiichi decommissioning. One high-ranking town official said, “Those who return here will likely be elderly individuals living on their own. For such people who have the desire to live here, we wanted to give them hope.” http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20151105p2a00m0na021000c.html
  • Japan’s largest newspaper urges Tokyo to be more pro-active in dealing with fear of radiation. The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that unwarranted fears are the main reason that the majority of the Naraha evacuees have not gone home. When Nuclear Regulation Authority Chair Shunichi Tanaka met with evacuees, he has said that they need to do their own research on radiation risks and decide for themselves, essentially avoiding any commitment. Many evacuees say they will not repopulate until radiation levels are less than one millisievert per year. The 1 mSv goal has been stressed by unofficial sources and most of the popular Press. But, the repopulation standard of 20 mSv/yr is safe because it is 5 times lower than the scientifically-acknowledged harm threshold of 100 mSv. When pressured, Tanaka did say he believes “about 5 mSv” should be the evacuee target for returning home. The Yomiuri says evacuees need to be correctly informed, and Tokyo should do the job “To prevent damage caused by irresponsible talk about radiation.” http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002539931
  • A South Australian nuke blogger was angered by his visit to F. Daiichi. Decarbonise SA is a blog written by Ben Heard. In the second of a two part series on his visit to Fukushima Daiichi, “Not humbled, angered: The response to Fukushima is an ongoing mistake”, Heard says he did not find what he expected. What he found made him angry. On the way to F. Daiichi visit, Heard was driven through the evacuation zone south of the damaged facility. He wore a dosimeter. His recorded exposure was “…health-wise, a complete non-event.” As a result, Heard is convinced that the prolonged evacuations are the result of the situation being blown way out of proportion, doing much more harm than good. Once at the site, he found it “tidy and well-organised”, rather than the disordered mess everyone has been lead to believe. Heard found that isolated parts of the F. Daiichi station had high radiation levels, but most locations were either very low and/or near natural background. When the visit ended, Heard’s dosimeter had recorded an exposure one-seventh of that he would get when flying back to Australia. In hindsight, he believes the over-reaction to radiation and the resulting response is the real catastrophe from the nuke accident. http://decarbonisesa.com/