Highest radioactivity level detected at nuke plant since March

[NNN0LHI]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/01_39.html

updated at 12:34 UTC, Aug. 02

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected 10,000 millisieverts of radioactivity per hour at the plant. The level is the highest detected there since the nuclear accident in March.

Workers of Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Monday measured the extremely high level of radioactivity near pipes at the bottom of a duct between the No.1 and neighboring No.2 reactor buildings.

According to the science ministry's brochure, if a human received 10,000 millisieverts, they would likely die within a week or two.

[ensho]

1. things get worse by the day in Japan

the people are having not a trial by fire but a trial by radiation

a fire can burn out, radiation never dies

[robdogbucky]

2. Govt bans shipments of Tochigi beef cattle

Govt bans shipments of Tochigi beef cattle

Japan's government has ordered Tochigi Prefecture to suspend its shipments of beef cattle due to fears of radioactive contamination.

The government ordered the ban on Tuesday after beef from 4 head of cattle shipped from 2 municipalities in the prefecture was found to contain unsafe amounts of radioactive cesium.

Cesium contamination was also detected in rice straw used to feed beef cattle in the prefecture.

Tochigi is the fourth prefecture ordered to suspend beef cattle shipments, following Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate...

Tuesday, August 02, 2011 18:07 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/02_24.html




Nuclear agency's meddling revealed again

Another case of questionable conduct by Japan's nuclear regulator has come to light. A former official of the nuclear safety agency has admitted asking a regional utility to mobilize its people for a government symposium on nuclear power 5 years ago.

One of the agency's former section chiefs told NHK that he made the request to an executive of Shikoku Electric Power Company ahead of the symposium in Ehime Prefecture.

The former section chief said he pushed the utility to take part actively in the event by posing questions and expressing opinions. He said he wanted its participation because opponents of nuclear power had prevented constructive debate at a similar symposium the previous year.

The former section chief denied that his aim was to manipulate public opinion. Still, Shikoku Electric mobilized retired employees and people from its affiliates, providing some of them with samples of the desired questions and opinions...

Tuesday, August 02, 2011 09:39 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/02_08.html

[robdogbucky]

3. 2 TEPCO workers died in tsunami after following orders to check nuclear plant damage

2 TEPCO workers died in tsunami after following orders to check nuclear plant damage

Two Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) workers whose bodies were found at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power plant some three weeks after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami were struck by the tsunami while inspecting an underground facility under orders, the Mainichi has learned.

The deceased pair, Kazuhiko Kokubo, 24, and Yoshiki Terashima, 21, were ordered by their shift supervisor to check for leaks in the basement of the plant's No. 4 reactor turbine building when they were hit by the tsunami. At the time a major tsunami warning was in place. It is the first time that details on the background to their deaths have emerged.

In an accident report released in June, TEPCO said that the safety of workers had been confirmed after the quake, and that workers were aware of the earthquake and tsunami, but the latest finding suggests that not all workers knew about the impending tsunami.

At the time of the earthquake, the No. 4 reactor was under inspection, and the fuel rods had been removed. TEPCO officials and other sources said that the two workers were in the central control room at the time, inspecting the power operations of the No. 4 reactor and the opening and closing of valves. After the earthquake struck, an alarm went off, indicating that the water level in the cooling tank of the No. 4 reactor turbine building had dropped. The shift manager accordingly ordered the workers to go and check for leaks. Electricity to the building had been cut, so the pair headed to the underground location of the tank pipes with flashlights...

(Mainichi Japan) August 2, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110802p2a00m0na015000c.html

[robdogbucky]

4. Radioactive leaf soil sold nationwide after gov't prevention measures fail

Radioactive leaf soil sold nationwide after gov't prevention measures fail

Bags of leaf soil contaminated with highly radioactive cesium have been shipped and sold throughout the country for more than a month after the central government failed to detect the contamination and take preventative measures fast enough.

Leaf soil produced in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, has been found to contain highly radioactive cesium. Some of the leaf soil contained fallen leaves from a resort area in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, about 100 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Bags of leaf soil were shipped and sold mainly at do-it-yourself stores across the country after the government did not set the allowable limit of cesium in leaf soil or did not give instructions to soil producers promptly.

The radioactive contamination was brought to light after someone posted video footage on YouTube on June 24. The video, which shows a radiation counter beeping when put on a bag of leaf soil at a do-it-yourself store, has so far amassed about 100,000 views. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced the allowable limit for cesium on Aug. 2 -- eight days after it released information on the radioactive contamination in leaf soil.

On July 25, about a month after the video was posted on YouTube, the Akita Prefectural Government announced that it had detected 11,000 becquerells of cesium in leaf soil per 1 kilogram at a do-it-yourself store in Akita. On July 27, the Tottori Prefectural Government said it had detected 14,800 becquerells of cesium in leaf soil per 1 kilogram at a do-it-yourself store in Tottori. They were produced by different leaf-soil makers but both of them are based in Kanuma. There are about 60 producers of soil for gardening and fertilizer in Kanuma, which is known for its high-quality "Kanuma soil." The leaf-soil producers talked about the video on YouTube from the beginning. One of the producers said, "We were in great fear because fallen leaves collected after the quake disaster were about to be shipped to shops. But we went ahead and shipped them because there were no instructions from the government..."

(Mainichi Japan) August 2, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110802p2a00m0na027000c.html

[robdogbucky]

5. Fukushima residents join antinuke campaign

Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011

Fukushima residents join antinuke campaign

Kyodo


FUKUSHIMA — Fukushima residents joined the chorus calling for the elimination of nuclear power as one of Japan's leading antinuclear groups kicked off its nationwide summer campaign Sunday in the city of Fukushima, located around 50 km from the radiation-spewing Fukushima No. 1 plant.

It was the first time for the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs to start its annual campaign in the prefectural capital since its founding in 1965, ahead of the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as it sought to press its case for the scrapping of nuclear power this year.

Koichi Kawano, a Nagasaki atomic-bomb survivor who heads the organizing group, told more than 800 participants at the opening event in a hotel: "We have opposed nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants under the slogan 'Human beings and atomic power cannot coexist.' But we have to admit our responsibility for causing the accident. We failed to make enough efforts to prevent it."

Koshiro Ishimaru from the town of Tomioka, which hosts some of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 reactors, said: "There is nothing more irrational or unreasonable than nuclear power plants. They also create unfairness among the generations..."


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110802a6.html

[robdogbucky]

6. UCS’s Take on NRC’s Post-Fukushima Recommendations

UCS’s Take on NRC’s Post-Fukushima Recommendations

August 1, 2011• 0 Comments

| by Lisbeth Gronlund | nuclear power safety | nrc | japan nuclear |

Today we released our critique of key recommendations by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) near-term task force in response to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident earlier this year.

Three of the five NRC commissioners have now voted to not put its own task force recommendations on the fast track, arguing that the NRC needs more information to proceed.

However, if the NRC balks at implementing new safeguards in a reasonable time frame on the grounds that it doesn’t have enough information about what happened in Japan, then the agency also doesn’t have enough information to relicense operating reactors or license new ones. If the NRC commissioners need more time to sort out the lessons of Fukushima, there should be a moratorium on relicensing old reactors and licensing new ones until they do.

On July 13, we released our own set of recommendations to the NRC, taking a much broader approach.

http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/8368033274/ucss-take-on-nrcs-post-fukushima-recommendations