by Yagasaki Katsuma / The Asia-Pacific Journal / May 15, 2016 Yagasaki Katsuma, emeritus professor of Ryukyu University, has been constantly sounding the alarm about the problem of internal exposure related to nuclear weapons testing and nuclear electricity generation. Since the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP), he has drawn on his expertise to conduct field research, and to support those who evacuated to Okinawa. We asked … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag Archives: Editorials
via Science20.com / September 28, 2015 / The worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown never should have happened, according to a new study. In Philosophical Transactions A of the Royal Society, researchers Costas Synolakis of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Utku Kâno’lu of the Middle East Technical University in Turkey distilled thousands of pages of government and industry reports and hundreds of news stories, focusing on … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Truth Out / August 11, 2015 / Japan has restarted its first nuclear reactor to generate power since 2013. And that’s really bad news. Remember what happened in 2011? Why Japan closed all of its reactors abruptly and why we’re still tracing the spread of radioactive material across our Pacific Coast and into the atmosphere? First there was an earthquake that did significant damage to that island country – … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Hiroshi Hoshi / Asahi Shimbun / March 30, 2015 / FUTABA, Fukushima Prefecture — A daily calendar pad on a living room wall in a private home in this northeastern community still showed the fateful date: “March 11, 2011.” All of Futaba’s 7,000 or so residents left the town after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which struck on that date, triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom japan-focus.org / December 26, 2011 / By Nishioka Nobuyuki I: Fukushima and Okinawa At midnight on April 22, 2011, the Japanese government designated the zone within a 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima nuclear power plant a controlled area under the Basic Law for Disaster Countermeasures. As a result, all entry into the zone was prohibited without special government permission. Some 78,000 people were separated from their homes, without knowing … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Andrew DeWit / Asia-Pacific Journal / April 7, 2014 / 60% of Japan’s 48 viable nuclear reactors, are not as yet being considered for application to the Nuclear Regulation Agency (NRA) for restart. All of Japan’s 48 viable nuclear reactors are at present offline, and have been since September of 2013. The Abe cabinet is keen to restart as many of these as possible. But regulatory rules, public opinion … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Jeff Kingston / Japan Times / April 5, 2014 / Kyle Cleveland, my colleague at Temple University Japan, recently published a report in the online Asia-Pacific Journal, “Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty” that has drawn widespread media attention. Based on numerous interviews with government officials, military officers and nuclear energy experts, along with documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests to U.S. … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Yumiko Sato / Huffington Post / March 5, 2014 / As the third year anniversary of The Great Tohoku Earthquake approaches on March 11, what does Fukushima mean to us, Japanese? The answer depends on who you ask: For many, it is a constant reminder of the nuclear power plant accident, the reason to protest against the danger of nuclear power, a place where their donations and prayers are … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / via theweek.com / March 5, 2014 / Energy is arguably the single most important strategic issue of our time. It literally powers everything we do. The world economy see-saws to the gyrations of oil prices. Most of our geopolitical squabbles are about energy in one way or another. And, of course, above all hovers the “threatening Armageddon of global climate change”. [emphasis added] But when it … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia spectrum.ieeee.org / February 28, 2014 / A radiation-proof superhero could make sense of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in an afternoon. Our champion would pick through the rubble to reactor 1, slosh through the pooled water inside the building, lift the massive steel dome of the protective containment vessel, and peek into the pressure vessel that holds the nuclear fuel. A dive to the bottom would reveal the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / February 3, 2014 / I have to say these must be the same people who participated in the fluffy “beyond nuclear” demonstrations (more like entertainment festivals) in Tokyo starting in the early summer of 2011, as the Fukushima I NPP nuclear accident was very, very far from being “stabilized” and reports of high levels of radiation contamination in sewer sludge and ashes from garbage incineration were beginning … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Jin Satoko / CNIC Yugo Ono is a cousin of Yoko Ono. This is not widely known, and before I learned about this, I had not known much about him. After the March 11, 2011 earthquake, I organized a gathering with friends to discuss the potential danger of the Tomari Nuclear Power Station in Hokkaido. We invited Dr. Ono as a speaker for the gathering. I remember that I … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Lucas W. Hixson / via Enformabale.com / February 3, 2014 / It is well known that sometimes, we humans experience unintended consequences for conscious decisions we have made. Some of these unintended consequences are so frequently encountered that they are named. The Streisand Effect describes a situation where an attempt to suppress, censor, or remove information brings more attention to it. It is named after Barbra Streisand, who unsuccessfully … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Jacob Devaney / via Huffington Post / January 31, 2014 / Panic is rarely ever a good idea because it closes down the brain with fear, can cripple creative responses, and generally causes people to not think straight. Denial is worse. Like it or not, nuclear power is everywhere. Some consider it worse than Satan, others think it’s the only logical solution to address our dependence on fossil fuels … Continue reading →
Continue readingby David Suzuki / via Straight.com / January 28, 2014 / An Internet search turns up an astounding number of pages about radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown that followed an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. But it’s difficult to find credible information. One reason is that government monitoring of radiation and its effects on fish stocks appears to be limited. According to the Woods Hole … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Daily Kos / January 27, 2014 / There have been a number of diaries over the last few months about the contamination of the Pacific Ocean by huge and ever increasing releases from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster site. I have written about the ramped-up PR effort to minimize the possible impact of those releases as the waterborne plumes begin to reach the western coasts of North America. As part … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Ralph Nader / Counterpunch / January 24, 2014 / Last month, the ruling Japanese coalition parties quickly rammed through Parliament a state secrets law. We Americans better take notice. Under its provisions the government alone decides what are state secrets and any civil servants who divulge any “secrets” can be jailed for up to 10 years. Journalists caught in the web of this vaguely defined law can be jailed … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Deep Sea News / January 23, 2014 / Why do some people hold fast to apocalyptic ideas, like Fukushima radiation, even when the best available evidence suggests that the world is not about to end? Confirmation bias is the term psychologists use to describe the behavior of testing an idea by searching for evidence that supports it. This tendency to confirm pre-existing beliefs creates and maintains false perceptions of … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Alaska Dispatch / January 22, 2014 / Since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I’ve been trying to find Zen with the the ongoing Fukushima nuclear mess. Between colossal tax cuts for oil companies, a budget forecast that induces acid reflux, and Medicaid un-expansion, I barely had the brainspace to worry whether my dad’s smoked sockeye was going to give me colon cancer or turn me into a … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / January 21, 2014 / The government plans to step up its efforts to select the final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power generation, after having failed to find any willing host community for more than a decade. But the long-stalled process will have little prospect of moving forward unless doubts and questions surrounding nuclear power — including those highlighted by the 2011 Fukushima … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia JeffreyJaxen.com / January 11, 2014 / < All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them” -Galileo Galilei In this documentary titled “The Battle of Chernobyl” there exists as striking truth that jumps out at 1h16m55s. What follows below is the transcript of that material: Narrator: A deputy of The Supreme Soviet discovered the systematic cover up of the true consequences of … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Arnie Gundersen / Fairewinds.org / January 6, 2014 / Every day Fairewinds Energy Education receives many questions. The big question in the New Year is: “Should I take a ‘radiation pill’ to combat the radiation being given off by the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi?” First, let’s start by defining what a radiation protection pill is and what it does. A radiation protection pill is usually called potassium iodide … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ex-SKF / December 29, 2013 / (UPDATE 12/31/2013) For those who want the summary of the steam incident since July this year and the Reactor 3 operating floor condition since the March 2011 accident, I have a new post. ==================== An acquaintance who casually follows the Fukushima I NPP accident sent me a link, quite worried. I opened the link, and I started laughing, then I despaired – realizing … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / December 3, 2013 / Incumbents have suffered one defeat after another in city mayoral elections in Fukushima Prefecture — where more than 140,000 residents remain evacuees some two years and nine months after the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The losing streak that happened this year in the cities of Koriyama, Iwaki, Fukushima and Nihonmatsu reflects local voters’ frustration over the lagging … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Washington’s Blog / December 1, 2013 / “[The Odds of] Longer Term Chronic Effects, Cancer Or Genetic Effects … Cannot Be Said To Be Zero” It is very difficult to obtain accurate information on the dangers from Fukushima radiation to residents of the West Coast of North America and Hawaii. On the one hand, there is fear-mongering and “we’re all going to die” type hysteria. On the one hand, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Washington’s Blog / November 27, 2013 / 2 weeks after the Fukushima accident, we reported that the government responded to the nuclear accident by trying to raise acceptable radiation levels and pretending that radiation is good for us. We noted earlier this month: Japan will likely pass a new anti-whistleblowing law in an attempt to silence criticism of Tepco and the government: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Jay T. Cullen / TimesColonist.com / November 21, 2013 / Since the Fukushima Daiichi disaster on March 11, 2011, there are many reports of the potential impact of radioactivity from Fukushima causing harm to sea life and people on the West Coast of North America. But radioactivity from Japan poses no danger and little risk to us on the West Coast. A commonly used unit to measure radioactivity is … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Business Insider In March 2011, one of the most devastating earthquakes on record hit Japan, setting off a chain reaction that included a tsunami and a disastrous nuclear power plant meltdown. The Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant disaster was the largest Nuclear incident since Chernobyl and caused radiation leakage that has lasted to this day. The plant is still not stable. Hundreds of thousands of residents living within 12 miles … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / Re: “Fukushima and the right to responsible government” by Colin P.A. Jones (The Foreign Element, Sept. 17): It would be useful if the government of Japan would avail themselves of the assistance and technology that could be provided by foreign corporations with experience in the decommissioning of nuclear plants. The United States successfully cleaned and decommissioned nuclear facilities at Hanford, Washington, Rocky Flats, Colorado, and Portsmouth, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / Sep 21, 2013 / In the wee hours of Sept. 20, a strong earthquake measuring a 5-plus on the Japanese seismic scale struck Fukushima Prefecture. Its epicenter was in the Hamadori area in the eastern part of the prefecture, where the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located. Even though it caused no damage to the some 1,000 storage tanks within the plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Asahi Shimbun / Sep 21, 2013 / In the wee hours of Sept. 20, a strong earthquake measuring a 5-plus on the Japanese seismic scale struck Fukushima Prefecture. Its epicenter was in the Hamadori area in the eastern part of the prefecture, where the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located. Even though it caused no damage to the some 1,000 storage tanks within the plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Huffington Post / Sep 20, 2013 / Charles B. Perrow is an emeritus professor of sociology at Yale University and visiting professor at Stanford University. Recent disclosures of tons of radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima reactors spilling into the ocean are just the latest evidence of the continuing incompetence of the Japanese utility, TEPCO. The announcement that the Japanese government will step in is also not reassuring since … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Washington’s Blog / September 14, 2013 / The fact that the Fukushima reactors have been leaking huge amounts of radioactive water ever since the 2011 earthquake is certainly newsworthy. As are the facts that: Tepco doesn’t know how to stop the leaks Scientists have no idea where the cores of the nuclear reactors are Radiation could hit Korea, China and the West Coast of North America fairly hard But … Continue reading →
Continue readingDr Helen Caldicott is one of the most articulate and passionate advocates of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises. via RT.com / Sep 13, 2013 / Bio-accumulation of radioactive elements around Fukushima will devastate many future Japanese generations, while the Pacific Ocean is also being contaminated by leaking radioactive water. Yet there is still no good solution from the Japanese government. As I watched the tsunami power … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia 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 →
Continue readingby Andrew DeWit / JapanFocus.org / August 16, 2013 / Japan’s ruined and radioactive reactor plant at Fukushima Daiichi has been an abiding source of concern among knowledgeable observers. There are a host of good reasons for this reemergence. As this Mainichi survey observes, it is now clear that several hundred tons of radiation-contaminated water is entering the ocean per day. Over the past week, it suddenly returned as an … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Dennis Riches / nf2045.blogspost.com / July 30, 2013 “If I had been downright honest with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart that I did but half fancy being committed this way to so long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man who was to be the absolute dictator of it, so soon as the ship sailed out upon the open sea. But … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / by Prof. Christopher Busby / August 9, 2013 / Fukushima is a nightmare disaster area, and no one has the slightest idea what to do. The game is to prevent the crippled nuclear plant from turning into an “open-air super reactor spectacular” which would result in a hazardous, melted catastrophe. On April 25, 2011 – one month after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant and the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia OpEdNews.com / June 15, 2013 / Situation Normal, All Fukushima’d Up The first thing to know about the danger from the radioactive mass remaining on site in the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima is that nobody knows how much radioactive material there is, nobody knows how much uranium and plutonium it contains, and nobody knows how to make it safe — so no one knows how great … Continue reading →
Continue reading