#Tritium levels spike 15-fold in three days

via RT.com / Sep 12, 2013 / In just three days, readings of tritium in groundwater near the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant have soared more than 15 times, the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant admitted. Results of recently tested water taken from the well some 20 meters south from a number of storage tanks have showed that levels of tritium have now reached 64,000 becquerels per liter. Back … Continue reading

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Japan ponders Fukushima options, but TEPCO too big to fail

via Reuters / Sep 10, 2013 / Fukushima nuclear plant operator Tepco Electric’s response to the world’s worst atomic disaster in a quarter century has been called ad hoc and more concerned with cost than safety, but 30 months later, the utility is still in charge. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in the centerpiece of Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics, said he would be personally responsible for a … Continue reading

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Abe’s assurance to IOC on nuclear plant called into question

via Japan Times / Sep 10, 2013 / One question that emerged among the public immediately after Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Olympics was whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an incorrect statement, or told an outright lie, about the contaminated water issue at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. During the Tokyo bid delegation’s final presentation before the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires on Saturday, … Continue reading

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215,000 hit by disaster still live away from home

via NHK World / Sep 11, 2013 / More than 215,000 people are still living away from home in 3 Japanese prefectures 2-and-a-half years after the March 11 disaster. On this day 30 months ago, a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan. The National Police Agency says 15,883 people are confirmed to have died in the disaster and 2,654 remain unaccounted for. The Reconstruction Agency says 2,688 people fell … Continue reading

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#Fukushima Water Problem Will Be A Decade Says TEPCO Consultant

via Fukuleaks.org / Sep 9, 2013 / TEPCO consultant Dale Klein told Der Spiegel that the ongoing water crisis at Fukushima Daiichi will be an ongoing problem for another decade. The plant will be out of tanks in November on top of the dire need to replace all of the bolt together tanks at the plant since they were discovered to be leaking already. Generating even more water for at … Continue reading

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Fukushima’s financial fallout

via Al Jazeera / Sep 8, 2013 / In March 2011, a tsunami hit Japan, killing almost 19,000 people and crippling the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The shutting down of the plant removed thousands of megawatts from the country’s power grid – but that was just the beginning of the problems caused by Fukushima’s meltdown. Continuing fears about food safety are destroying the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen who have … Continue reading

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Fukushima: From Bad to Worse

by James Corbett / theinternationalforecaster.com / September 4, 2013 Bad news emerged from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan’s northeast this week as TEPCO—-the Tokyo Electric Power Company that owns and operates the plant—-admitted discovering four areas of high radiation near the storage tanks where radioactive water is being held. Although two of the hotspots had already been known, the latest results found that the radiation readings … Continue reading

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#Fukushima leak rate hits record high

via Press TV / Sep 4, 2013 / Recent radiation readings at Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant depict that the level of radioactive water leak from the site has reached its highest level ever, officials say. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) announced the radiation level of the water leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was as high as 2,200 millisieverts (mSv) (20 percent) on Wednesday, while it was … Continue reading

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J-gov to spend $473 million to contain Fukushima leaks

via RT.com / September 3, 2013 Japan is to spend $473 million to contain leaks of radioactive water from the disaster-struck Fukushima nuclear plant, as the government struggles to tackle the nuclear crisis. The government is to spend “tens of billions” of yen to deal with the water crisis after the beleaguered operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), stated it discovered another radiation center, Trade and Economy … Continue reading

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Fukushima water release unavoidable: Japan nuke watchdog

via Press TV / Sep 2, 2013 / Japan’s nuclear watchdog says contaminated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant will have to be released into the ocean eventually. Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Chairman Shunichi Tanaka made the statement during a governmental session held in response to growing concerns about the plant operator’s ability to deal with a worsening water crisis. He also said the water would be discharged once … Continue reading

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The Consequences of Inaction at #Fukushima Daiichi

via JapanFocus.org /  Sep 1, 2013 / by Andrew DeWit and Christopher Hobson / Japan’s searing summer of 2013 saw the lid slide further off Fukushima Daiichi and its Pandora’s box of radioactive and political crises. The company in charge, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), already Japan’s most distrusted firm,2 was irredeemably exposed as dangerously incompetent. A slew of reports concerning leaks of high-level radiation led to increasingly concerned appeals, … Continue reading

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New radioactive hotspots suggest more leaks at #Fukushima

via RT.com / Sep. 1, 2013 / Several new hotspots reading potentially lethal doses of radiation have been detected near the tanks storing the radioactive water, forcing the operator to admit there might be even more leaks at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The high radiation readings were detected during the daily inspection on Saturday near three water tanks and one pipe stretched between the tanks and the plant, … Continue reading

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Japan Regulator urges monitoring of crippled #Fukushima plant

via Press TV / Aug 29, 2013 / Japan’s nuclear regulator says the impact of the radiation-contaminated water leaks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is not known and it needs to be monitored more closely. The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said on Thursday that Fukushima plant leaks cannot be stopped instantly, warning that the level of monitoring is not enough. “We cannot fully stop contaminated water leaks … Continue reading

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TEPCO sidelined by Japanese government as #Fukushima leaks continue

via SMH.com.au / Aug 27, 2013 / The Japanese government has lost patience with the efforts of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to get the crippled reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant under control. Toshimitsu Motegi, the minister of trade and industry, visited the plant on Monday to determine progress on decommissioning three reactors damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in March, 2011. Tepco admitted last week that hundreds … Continue reading

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Fishing ban reinstated off #Fukushima coast

via International Business Times / Aug. 23, 2013 / A ban on fishing along the coast of Fukushima prefecture was greeted with frustration and anger by locals on Friday (August 22), in the aftermath of the latest contaminated water leak from the crippled nuclear reactor. In the port of Onahama, just 61 kilometers (37 miles) south of Fukushima Daiichi, fishermen who were forced to stop fishing were furious at the … Continue reading

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TEPCO: Deteriorated seams, contortion cause tank leak

via CNTV.cn / Aug. 25, 2013 / The operator of Japan’s wrecked nuclear plant has attributed this week’s massive leak of contaminated water to deteriorated seams and a possible contortion of a storage tank. Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco rushed to reassemble the tanks after the triple meltdown in March 2011. The quick fix was designed to last till 2016 until it worked out a more permanent solution, but has … Continue reading

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#TEPCO pleads for international help as crisis deepens

via Russia Today / Aug. 22, 2013 / TEPCO, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, admits it needs overseas help to contain the radioactive fallout, after 18 months of trying to control it internally. It comes after the latest leak at the facility was deemed a “serious incident.” “Many other countries outside of Japan have experienced decommissioning reactors, so we hope we can consult them more and utilize their … Continue reading

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West Coast of North America to Be Hit Hard by #Fukushima Radiation

via  Washington’s blog / Aug. 20, 2013 / Radiation levels will concentrate in pockets in Baja California and other West Coast locations. While many people assume that the ocean will dilute the Fukushima radiation, a previously-secret 1955 U.S. government report concluded that the ocean may not adequately dilute radiation from nuclear accidents, and there could be “pockets” and “streams” of highly-concentrated radiation. The University of Hawaii’s International Pacific Research Center … Continue reading

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18 Fukushima children diagnosed with thyroid cancer / 44 malignant cases reported

via Fukushima-Diary.com / Aug. 20, 2013 / On 8/20/2013, the investigative committee of Fukushima prefecture announced 18 Fukushima children were diagnosed with thyroid cancer (papillary cancer) by 7/31/2013. It was 12 on 5/27/2013. 6 more children were diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2 months. They all had surgery already. Also, 26 children are diagnosed with potential malignant thyroid problems. It was 16 on 5/27/2013. 10 more children were diagnosed with … Continue reading

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‘Serious radiation incident’: Japan to radically raise the severity level of Fukushima leak

via RT.com / Aug. 21, 2013 / Japan will drastically raise the gravity of the latest Fukushima leak to Level Three, which is considered a “serious radiation incident” on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) for radiological releases. “Judging from the amount and the density of the radiation in the contaminated water that leaked…a Level Three assessment is appropriate,” read the document used during Wednesday’s weekly meeting of Nuclear Regulation … Continue reading

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Tritium levels in #Fukushima bay highest since measurements began – reports

via RT.com / Aug. 19, 2013 / Readings of tritium in seawater taken from the bay near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has shown 4700 becquerels per liter, a TEPCO report stated, according to Nikkei newspaper. It marks the highest tritium level in the measurement history. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has detected the highest radiation level in seawater collected in the harbor of the crippled nuclear plant in the … Continue reading

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Fukushima residents to sue state for lack of aid

via NHK World / Aug. 20, 2013 / Residents of Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled nuclear power plant, will sue the central government for negligence in providing assistance one year after the enactment of a relevant law. The law enacted in June last year mandates medical, housing and other support to current and former residents of areas where radioactive levels are higher than usual but were not designated as … Continue reading

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Japan looks to Nagasaki atom bomb maker for lessons on #Fukushima cleanup

via RT.com / Aug. 17, 2013 / TEPCO has sought the expertise of the same US company that produced plutonium for the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki in World War II. Hanford Engineer Works produced the 20 pounds of plutonium used for the atomic bomb “Fat Man” which was unleashed on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The company has had decades of experience treating millions of … Continue reading

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Toxic puddles found near water tanks at #Fukushima

via Japan Times / Aug. 20, 2013 / Puddles of water with extremely high radiation levels have been found near water storage tanks on the premises of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, nuclear regulators and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday. The radiation level, measured around 50 cm above the toxic water, stood at about 100 millisieverts per hour, Tepco said, while acknowledging that the … Continue reading

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Can an Ice Wall Stop Radioactive Water Leaks from #Fukushima?

via National Geographic / Aug. 19, 2013 / As contaminated groundwater continues to flow from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant into the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese government has come up with a last-ditch solution that sounds like something out of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones: An underground wall of ice that would stop the radioactive leakage. Multiple efforts by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company to halt the … Continue reading

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TEPCO reveals new radioactive water leaks

via NHK World / Aug. 19, 2013 / Officials with Tokyo Electric Power Company say they will study storage tanks to find out why radioactive water is leaking at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The officials said on Monday about 120 liters of highly-radioactive water had leaked from a tank near the number 4 reactor. They detected 100 millisieverts per hour of radiation on the surface of puddles … Continue reading

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