via theecologist.org / September 28, 2015 / Radiation can be carried long distances by marine currents, concentrated in sediments, and carried in sea spray 16km or more inland, writes Tim Deere-Jones. So Fukushima poses a hazard to coastal populations and any who eat produce from their farms. So what are the Japanese Government and IAEA doing? Ignoring the problem, and failing to gather data. Review of the official Japanese marine … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag Archives: environmental effects
by Ian Fairlie CounterPunch.org August 20, 2015 Official data from Fukushima show that nearly 2,000 people died from the effects of evacuations necessary to avoid high radiation exposures from the disaster. The uprooting to unfamiliar areas, cutting of family ties, loss of social support networks, disruption, exhaustion, poor physical conditions and disorientation can and do result in many people, in particular older people, dying. Increased suicide has occurred among younger … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Robert Hunziker / ukprogressive.co.uk / July 8, 2015 / Because of Japan’s unconscionable open-ended new secrecy law, it is very likely journalism in the nation has turned tail, scared of its own shadow. Nevertheless, glimmers of what has happened, of what is happening, do surface when brave people come forward. On May 22nd 2015 Hiromichi Ugaya, a photojournalist who is well-informed, insightful, and engaging, was interviewed about what he … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Kunio Kobinata / the-japan-news.com / June 29, 2015 / In the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, much remains unknown about the long-term health effects of the radioactive substances released. Seeking answers, Tohoku University Prof. Manabu Fukumoto has been examining the blood and other factors of slaughtered cattle and wild animals caught by hunters mainly within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant. Over … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Toshikazu Fujiwara / CNIC.jp / June 2, 2015 / The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident released radioactive substances across a wide area of the environment. Currently, not only decontamination operations but also people’s everyday lives generate wastes that include high concentrations of radioactive substances. The Japanese government terms radioactive wastes from 8,000 to 100,000 becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg) designated wastes. They are today stored temporarily at various locations, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia channelnewsasia.com / March 11, 2014 / Muneo Kanno left his village to avoid radiation contamination after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan four years ago. But that has not stopped the evacuee from making daily trips back home. The 64-year-old farmer is on a mission to reclaim the village he called home for most of his life and he has started a number of projects to achieve this … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.org / March 3, 2015 / The transfer of radioactive soil and waste generated from clean-up work following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a provisional storage site has been approved by the governor of Fukushima prefecture and the mayors of Futaba and Okuma. In August 2014, the then governor of Fukushima Prefecture Yuhei Sato approved a central government plan to construct an interim storage … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Masakazu Honda / Asahi Shimbun / December 2, 2014 /A British scientist who studied the health effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster panned a United Nations report that virtually dismissed the possibility of higher cancer rates caused by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. Keith Baverstock (pictured), 73, made the comments during a visit to Tokyo at the invitation of a citizens group related to the Fukushima disaster. In response … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Nassrine Azimi / Asia-Pacific Journal / October 29, 2014 / The first paragraph in the first volume of A History of Japan, by the scholarly British diplomat Sir George Sansom, is a detailed description of the islands’ geology. Writing in 1958 of the country he so loved, with its “mighty volcanic convulsions”, Sir George depicts the physical drama of peaks soaring two miles above and plunging five miles below … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Victoria Craw & Nick Whigham / news.com.au / October 21, 2014 ONCE pristine rice paddies overgrown into forests. Wild animals roaming the streets of eerie towns with an uncertain future. That’s the scene described by Australian teacher Jessica Hellamy who recently had the chance to see inside the 20km exclusion zone created after the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai’ichi powerplant in 2011. “Time had stopped. In the main … Continue reading →
Continue readingChiyo Nohara1, Wataru Taira1, Atsuki Hiyama1, Akira Tanahara2, Toshihiro Takatsuji3 and Joji M Otaki1* * Corresponding author: Joji M Otaki otaki@sci.u-ryukyu.ac.jp Author Affiliations 1 BCPH Unit of Molecular Physiology, Department of Chemistry, Biology and Marine Science, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan 2 Instrumental Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan 3 Graduate School of Fisheries Science and Environmental Studies, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan For all … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / August 15, 2014 / Fukushima’s nuclear disaster has caused genetic damage, a decline in the population and other changes to non-human organisms from plants to butterflies to birds in the area, US and Japanese scientists say. In a series of articles published in the latest of US science magazine Journal of Heredity, researches revealed the widespread impact of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on biological organisms … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / July 15, 2014 / Fourteen different rice paddies outside of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant evacuation zone were contaminated with radioactive material in August 2013, Japan’s agriculture ministry has found. Despite the findings – which blamed the removal of a large piece of debris from the Fukushima No. 3 reactor building for the contamination – Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is moving ahead with plans to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Enformable.com / July 14, 2014 / Officials from the agriculture ministry told reporters on Monday that efforts to clean up debris at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have been the source of cesium that contaminated rice crops about twelve and a half miles away in the city of Minami Soma. The officials suggested that the radioactive materials were transported by winds during debris removal work conducted in … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy AKIRA HATANO / Asashi Shimbun / May 17, 2014 / Plans to start construction in June of frozen underground soil walls at the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant are now askew after concerns were raised by the nation’s nuclear watchdog body. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has yet to submit documents demonstrating the safety and efficacy of the project, which is unprecedented … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / April 21, 2014 / Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba, a town near the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant, is warning his country that radiation contamination is affecting Japan’s greatest treasure – its children. Asked about government plans to relocate the people of Futaba to the city of Iwaki, inside the Fukushima prefecture, Idogawa criticized the move as a “violation of human rights.” Compared with Chernobyl, radiation levels … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Daily Kos / February 26, 2014 / The Asahi Shimbun reported Tuesday that the mud in 468 reservoirs outside of the Fukushima evacuation zone contain levels of cesium high enough to be designated waste that must be removed. The mud in the Myotoishi reservoir, 55 kilometers west of the stricken Fukushima plant, had a cesium level of 370,000 becquerels per kilogram, a level the newspaper described as “mind boggling”. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia natureworldnews.com / February 25, 2014 / Three news items released Tuesday regarding the public health effects of radiation in the atmosphere as a result of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident do little to lessen confusion surrounding the issue, but all point to intense radiation monitoring efforts happening on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. A meeting of the American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Science section revealed Tuesday that low … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Diane Barnes / NTI.org / February 14, 2014 / The U.N. nuclear watchdog urged Japan to weigh dumping radioactive water from its Fukushima plant to help control the fluid’s “enormous” quantity. Japan should consider “all options” to manage radiation-tainted fluid from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, “including the possible resumption of controlled discharges to the sea,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report prepared at Japan’s request … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Our Radioactive Ocean / January 28, 2014 /The first results from seawater samples come from La Jolla and Point Reyes, Calif., and Grayland and Squium, Wash. Four samples from these three locations show no detectable Fukushima cesium. We know this because Fukushima released equal amounts of two isotopes of cesium: the shorter-lived cesium-134 isotope (half-life of 2 years) and the longer-lived cesium-137 (half-life of 30 years). Cesium-137 was found … 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 readingvia ENEnews.com / January 25, 2014 / Alaska Marine Science Symposium (pdf), Jan. 20-24, 2014 (emphasis added): 2011 Fukushima Fall Out: Aerial Deposition On To Sea Ice Scenario And Wildlife Health Implications To Ice-Associated Seals (Dr. Doug Dasher, John Kelley, Gay Sheffield, Raphaela Stimmelmayr) — On March 11, 2011 off Japan’s west coast, an earthquake-generated tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant resulting in a major nuclear accident that … 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 tos.org / EARLY ONLINE RELEASE | Posted January 5, 2014 2014, Oceanography 27(1), http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2014.02 Fukushima and Ocean Radioactivity Author | Abstract | Full Article | Citation | References Author Ken O. Buesseler | Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA Top Abstract The triple disaster of the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent radiation releases from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant were … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia CBS / January 13, 2014 / Researchers from California State University Long Beach are set to monitor the state’s kelp forests for radioactive contamination resulting from the meltdown of Fukushima’s nuclear power plant in Japan. Radioactive iodine traces from the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and meltdown had been detected a month later in kelp forests along the Orange County shoreline. The ongoing study, which has been dubbed Kelp … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Inhabitat.com / January 7, 2014 / Construction has just begun on a futuristic farming project in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. A combination farm and solar park, the Renewable Energy Village will contain 120 photovoltaic panels that will generate about 30 kilowatts of power to be sold to a local utility company. Crops will be grown beneath those panels in what’s being called a “solar sharing” layout. Of course, the biggest … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Safecast.org / January 11, 2014 / Let’s make it clear: the release of radioactive contamination from the Fukushima NPP to the environment — the air, the land, and the ocean — is a massive disaster. There’s no other way to describe it. Radiation in the air spread far and wide, and was even detectable, though barely, on other continents, while radiation in the ocean is spreading more slowly but … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ABC Australia / January 4, 2014 / A Japanese “cowboy” and self-proclaimed leader of the Fukushima nuclear resistance movement is refusing to leave his beloved cattle and the land of his forefathers despite government orders. Masami Yoshizawa (pictured) is also resisting government attempts to have his herd slaughtered, saying the beasts should be studied to better understand the health effects of long-term radiation exposure. Mr Yoshizawa’s property is just … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Global Research / January 5, 2013 / Does anyone in authority anywhere tell the truth about Fukushima? If there is any government or non-government authority in the world that is addressing the disaster at Fukushima openly, directly, honestly, and effectively, it’s not apparent to the outside observer what entity that might be. There is instead an apparent global conspiracy of authorities of all sorts to deny to the public … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Chris Mah / via Deep Sea News / December 30, 2013 / This post is authored by Chris Mah, a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History researcher. Chris is one of the world’s leading experts on starfish and echinoderms in general. He created and writes for Echinoblog, a one stop reading place for everything echinoderm. You can find him at Twitter @echinoblog. I broke the story about a … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / December 15, 2013 / Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara (pictured below) and reconstruction minister Takumi Nemoto on Dec. 14 asked the Fukushima governor and mayors of three towns in the prefecture to accept facilities to temporarily store soil and other materials contaminated with radioactive substances. The government hopes to buy a total of 19 square kilometers of land in Futaba, Okuma and Naraha for the construction of … Continue reading →
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