FSC shows intake benchmark of 100 millisieverts
A government food safety panel has recommended that safeguard measures be implemented to limit cumulative radiation exposure during a person's lifetime to no more than 100 millisieverts.
The working group at the Food Safety Commission, which was set up at the request of the health ministry, released its report on Tuesday.
The report says more than 100 millisieverts of exposure and radioactive intake during a lifetime could increase the risk of developing cancer and other conditions.
The amount does not include radiation a person receives naturally...
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 19:15 +0900 (JST)
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/26_23.htmlPower companies' generation figures called into question amid push for reactor restarts
As Japan strives to conserve power following the closure of nuclear reactors in the wake of the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, suggestions have arisen that power companies are underestimating their generating capacity.
Recently one opposition lawmaker questioned whether power companies, which want to restart their nuclear reactors, have been giving low estimates of the nation's power supply. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, meanwhile, has shown increasing distrust toward the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and ordered a review of the nation's power supplies.
According to METI, the generating capacity of thermal power generation and hydroelectric power generation in fiscal 2009 was 192 million kilowatts. In comparison, peak demand during the high-use summer period ranged between 170 million and 180 million kilowatts. In light of these figures, Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima has declared that electricity needs can be covered without nuclear power.
Thermal power generation, however, requires regular inspections, and with hydroelectric power, a drop in water supply in the summer means the facilities can't be used to their full potential, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan...
(Mainichi Japan) July 26, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110726p2a00m0na004000c.htmlFukushima to provide lifetime thyroid tests in wake of nuclear crisis
The Fukushima Prefectural Government decided on July 24 to provide lifetime thyroid gland tests for some 360,000 prefectural residents aged 18 and under to help detect thyroid cancer triggered by radiation from the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
The free tests will be launched in October. Eligible residents will be tested once every two years until the age of 20, and once every five years thereafter. The prefectural government's move is said to be unprecedented.
After the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986, residents around the plant who consumed milk and other products contaminated with radioactive materials were exposed to radiation internally, and four to five years after the accident, an increase in infant thyroid cancer cases was confirmed. Thyroid cancer can for the most part be treated if it is detected at an early stage, and the Fukushima Prefectural Government decided that continuous testing was necessary.
The tests are available to people born between April 2, 1992, and April 1 this year who were residents of Fukushima Prefecture at the onset of the nuclear crisis, or who evacuated out of the prefecture in the wake of the crisis. For the time being residents will be tested at Fukushima Medical University, and later group testing will be carried out at public halls, schools and other locations with assistance from private medical institutions. The prefectural government hopes to have the first round of testing completed for all eligible residents by March 2014…
(Mainichi Japan) July 25, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110725p2a00m0na007000c.htmlTuesday, July 26, 2011
Tepco to get the bill for all costs
Meat sector to buy tainted beef, burn it
By MIZUHO AOKI
Staff writer
Meat industry bodies will buy up all radioactive domestic beef that has been shipped to the market in a bid to dispel mounting consumer fears as well as provide financial relief to suffering livestock farmers, agriculture minister Michihiko Kano said Tuesday.
The government will have meat industry organizations buy all beef contaminated with radioactive cesium that exceeds the government limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram, and they will in turn seek to recoup their costs from Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The organizations will also pay the storage fees for beef that doesn't exceed the radiation limit but has been banned from shipment, the agriculture ministry said.
Meat organizations will also give financial support to livestock farmers in Fukushima Prefecture by paying ¥50,000 for each head of beef cattle they raise, the ministry said. It is also considering aiding farmers in other prefectures who fed cesium-tainted hay to their cattle...
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110726x1.htmlU.S. used Hiroshima to bolster support for nuclear power
BY RYUICHI KANARI STAFF WRITER
2011/07/26
The private notes of the head of a U.S. cultural center in Hiroshima revealed that Washington targeted the city's residents with pro-
nuclear propaganda in the mid-1950s after deciding a swing in their opinions was vital to promoting the use of civil nuclear power in Japan and across the world.
The organizers of a U.S.-backed exhibition that toured 11 major Japanese cities from November 1955 to September 1957 initially considered opening the first exhibition in Hiroshima.
According to the private papers of Abol Fazl Fotouhi, former president of the American Cultural Center in Hiroshima, the idea of choosing the city was proposed at a meeting of officials of the U.S. Information Service in December 1954.
The proposal was dropped because officials were worried that it would link nuclear energy too closely with nuclear bombs. Tokyo was chosen to open the tour and three other cities were visited before the exhibition opened at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which commemorates the 1945 bombing, on May 27, 1956…
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201107250344.htmlNuclear plants urged to brace for biggest tsunami
A senior member of a Japanese government council on disaster preparedness says nuclear plants must prepare for the biggest possible tsunami, no matter how small the likelihood of such an event.
Kansai University Professor Yoshiaki Kawata, who heads the council's survey team, briefed the Nuclear Safety Commission on the council's new tsunami measures on Tuesday.
Kawata said a nuclear plant that Chugoku Electric Power Company plans to build by the Seto Inland Sea could be at risk. He cited new findings that a past massive earthquake in the Pacific off central to southwestern Japan sent tsunami waves into the sea.
Kawata also cited old documents that say a tsunami hit Wakasa Bay in Fukui Prefecture after an earthquake about 400 years ago. Thirteen nuclear reactors are located by the bay in the Sea of Japan…
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 17:03 +0900 (JST)
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/26_24.html