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: jgov
via rte.ie / September 5, 2015 / The Japanese government has lifted the evacuation order for the first town near the crippled Fukushima reactors, more than four years after ordering mass relocations near the tsunami-wrecked nuclear plant. Among communities where the entire population was forced to evacuate after the nuclear crisis started in March 2011, Naraha is the first town to allow all of its residents to return home permanently. It … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Kunihiko Yoshizawa and Toru Asami / via The-Japan-News.com / August 22, 2015 / On July 31, the Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution announced its decision that former Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata (pictured), 75, and two other former company executives “should be indicted” in connection with the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant disaster. In this case the “will of the people” has … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia DW / July 21st, 2015 / In a bid seen by critics as aiming to speed up reconstruction, the Japanese government is preparing to declare sections of the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant a safe place to live. The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to revoke many evacuation orders by March 2017, if decontamination progresses as hoped, meaning that up to 55,000 … 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 readingvia Zero Hedge / June 9th, 2015 / In a stunning report by The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Director General Yukiya Amano fingers Japanese over-confidence and complacency among the main reasons why the country was unprepared to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster of 2011. As Sputnik News reports, Amano exclaimed “there was a widespread belief in Japan that Japanese nuclear power plants are very safe and there would never be … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia news.yahoo.com / June 1, 2015 / Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power said on Tuesday it has delayed the restart of its Sendai nuclear plant in southwestern Japan, the first to be brought back into service under new rules introduced after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The delay to mid-August from the previous target of late July follows a warning by Japan’s nuclear regulator in April that the utility’s schedule for a … 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 Natural Society / May 28, 2015 / It is being reported that tainted food from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gumma, and Chiba is making its way into local supermarkets in Taiwan due to the irresponsibility of mislabeling. What’s more, these food products were banned in Taiwan since March of 2011. The first question is: Why are food products from the concerned Japanese prefectures surrounding Fukushima mislabelled? The second question is: Why is … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia reuters.com / May 29, 2015 / Japan’s ruling coalition will recommend lifting evacuation orders for most people forced from their homes by the Fukushima nuclear disaster within two years in a bid to speed up reconstruction, a draft proposal shows. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s party and its governing partner will also press local governments in the disaster zone to shoulder more of the reconstruction spending now being borne by … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Reuters / May 20, 2015 / Japan’s nuclear regulator signed off on the basic safety of a reactor at a third nuclear plant on Wednesday, as the country inches toward rebooting its atomic industry more than four years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The decision will be a boost for operator Shikoku Electric Power Co, which relied on its sole Ikata nuclear power station (pictured) in southwestern Japan for … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com /April 24, 2015 / A 40-year-old Japanese man has taken responsibility for launching a drone with radioactive material that landed on the roof of the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He said he took the course of action to protest the government’s nuclear policy The man turned himself in at a police station in Fukui Prefecture – nicknamed Japan’s ‘nuclear corridor’ because it contains 14 reactors lined … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia the-japan-news.com / April 11, 2105 / The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are studying three different plans to remove melted nuclear fuel from reactors at the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, it has been learned. The Yomiuri Shimbun obtained a draft outline of an operation road map as well as a strategic plan on technical methods concerning the removal of melted fuel rods in reactors Nos. 1 … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / March 31, 2015 / The nuclear operator of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has announced that it plans to disclose all data on radiation levels recorded at the site in response to criticism of lack of transparency following the catastrophe. Tokyo Electric Power Co. TEPCO will start disclosing all data sets “as soon as they become available” for release, President Naomi Hirose (pictured right) told a press … Continue reading →
Continue readingMarch 24, 2015 / by Mari Yamaguchi / AP / Japanese government auditors say the operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has wasted more than a third of the 190 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in taxpayer money allocated for cleaning up the plant after it was destroyed by a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. A Board of Audit report describes various expensive machines and untested measures that ended in … 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 readingvia Press TV / March 10, 2014 / A fresh report in Japan shows the number of deaths by radiation from the country’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in 2011 increased by 18 percent last year. The report published on Tuesday by the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun said figures from authorities in Fukushima Prefecture showed a total of 1,232 deaths in 2014 were linked to the nuclear disaster. The highest … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia japantimes.co.jp / February 21, 2015 / The Fukushima prefectural government may in the coming week approve the delivery of radioactive soil and other waste at interim storage facilities that are under construction, sources said Saturday. Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori may declare the acceptance during a meeting with Environment Minister Yoshio Mochizuki, who plans to visit the prefecture around Wednesday, according to the sources. The prefectural government has begun discussing … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / Decemeber 10, 2014 / As Sunday’s snap election nears, many of the people working toward the decommissioning of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant say they want voters to know about their harsh working conditions, insufficient pay and worries of radiation exposure. Currently some 6,000 people a day are engaged in the decommissioning work at the plant — a process expected to take 30 to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / November 3, 2014 / The main components of the government’s nuclear fuel recycling project have all been sidelined. But the program was already in a state of collapse even before the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster led to a shift in Japan’s energy policy. After the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the Democratic Party of Japan-led government considered reviewing the recycling program. However, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia channelnewsasia.com / September 1, 2014 / The governor of disaster-struck Fukushima agreed on Monday (Sep 1) to accept the “temporary” storage of nuclear waste from the Japanese accident, paving the way for an end to a years-long standoff. Yuhei Sato has been cajoled and lavished with the promises of subsidies if he accepts a central government plan to build a depot on land near the battered Fukushima Daiichi plant. … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / August 26, 2014 / The Japanese government picked three overseas companies Tuesday to participate in a subsidized project to determine the best available technology for separating radioactive tritium from the toxic water building up at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co. is currently test-running a system it says is capable of removing 62 types of radioactive substances from the contaminated water, but … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia abs-cbnnews.com / August 23, 2014 / The government plans to make public testimony regarding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster given by plant chief Masao Yoshida, government and other sources said Friday, possibly shedding light on whether Yoshida ordered staff to remain at their posts. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga will announce as soon as Monday the decision to release the testimony by mid-September or later, the sources said. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / August 9th, 2014 / The central government has offered to double the amount of grants to be paid if local municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture accept the construction of temporary storage facilities for radioactive debris produced by the 2011 nuclear accident. In talks Aug. 8 with Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato and the mayors of Okuma and Futaba towns in the prefectural city of Koriyama, Environment Minister Nobuteru … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NHK World / August 8, 2014 / The Japanese government plans to provide a subsidy of about three billion dollars over 30 years for regional development in Fukushima Prefecture. The grant is to be offered when local communities agree to build temporary storage facilities for highly radioactive waste. Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara (pictured) and Reconstruction Minister Takumi Nemoto will explain on Friday the grant for the local governments to … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia thediplomat.com / August 1st, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has taken yet another hit this week, as a judicial panel has decided to request the indictment of three of its executives over the handling of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. While a previous indictment was dismissed, new charges are being pursued, mainly at the request of residents in affected areas in Fukushima. Additionally, there are … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Mainichi.jp / August 1, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday it turned to the black on a group pretax basis in the April-June quarter for the first time in the four years since the 2011 nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant. For the three-month period, TEPCO, which is effectively under state control, reported a consolidated pretax profit of 52.51 billion yen, compared with a loss … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / July 30, 2014 / The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has offered to pay the Fukushima Prefectural Government ¥230 billion over the next 30 years if the prefecture hosts temporary storage facilities for soil tainted by radiation from the March 2011 nuclear disaster, NHK reported Wednesday. But Fukushima Prefecture is unhappy with the plan because the administration is at the same time planning to terminate … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Jeff Kingston / Japan Times / June 28, 2014 /Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s (pictured) nuclear renaissance involves downplaying risks, restarting reactors, building new ones, and exporting reactor technology and equipment. A number of hurdles remain before he can rev up the reactors, but the summer of 2014 will probably be Japan’s last nuclear-free one for decades to come. On April 11, 2014, Abe’s Cabinet approved a new national energy … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia GlobalJournalist.org / In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami devastated the eastern coast of Japan. Thousands of people were killed, and scores more were displaced as a result of the natural disaster. The earthquake and resulting tsunami caused the meltdown of a nuclear power station located in Fukushima Prefecture. Radioactive material leaked into the Pacific Ocean, and the area surrounding the plant became irradiated. This led to the development … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia SBS.com.au / June 26, 2014 / Furious shareholders of the company that runs Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power station have joined campaigners to demand the permanent closure of the utility’s atomic plants as it held its annual meeting. Dozens of demonstrators with loud speakers and banners said on Thursday Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which wants to restart some of the reactors at the world’s largest nuclear plant, amongst … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia The Japan Times / June 23, 2014 / Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara on Monday apologized again for making a remark suggesting that the issue of where to store contaminated soil from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 power plant was a matter of handing out money. This time Ishihara made the apology to Toshitsuna Watanabe, the mayor of the town of Okuma, one of the candidate sites in Fukushima Prefecture … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia EX-SKF / June 8, 2014 / Confusion and misunderstanding ensue, following the reporting on the Ministry of the Environment’s plan (yet to be officially announced) to raise the radiation target level after decontamination in Fukushima from the current 0.23 microsievert/hour to 0.4-0.6 microsievert/hour. The Ministry of the Environment (supposedly) says the additional exposure from the radiation under the new target level will be still under 1 millisievert per year. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / May 24, 2014 / Successive Cabinets have refused to release details of firsthand accounts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, despite an understanding by a government investigation committee that the information from 772 interviewees could be made public. The media and other third parties have been denied access to the testimonies about Japan’s worst-ever nuclear accident. The government is still showing reluctance even after The Asahi Shimbun … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Atsushi Komori / via Asahi Shimbun / May 25, 2014 / More than 90 percent of respondents during a public comment period on the Abe administration’s basic energy policy were opposed to nuclear power generation, according to an Asahi Shimbun estimate released on May 25. The Asahi Shimbun made the determination by tallying how many of 2,109 of about 19,000 comments sent to the government from December to January … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Enformable.com / May 5, 2014 /Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Francois Hollande met during a summit meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday and agreed that the two countries will work to promote the research and development of fast breeder reactors. According to Japanese sources with knowledge of the agreement, Japan will provide technical assistance on France’s fast breeder reactor development projects. France has … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia business-standard.com / April 30, 2014 / The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said today it booked a USD 4.3 billion annual net profit owing to an electricity rate hike and a massive government bailout following the 2011 disaster. Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) was teetering on the brink as cleanup and compensation costs stoked huge losses and threatened to collapse the sprawling utility until Tokyo stepped with a … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom The Corbett Report: The Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Agency is currently considering applications from 8 different utilities companies to restart 17 of the nation’s 54 nuclear reactors, which have been taken offline in the wake of the Fukushima crisis. Today we talk to Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan about the anti-nuclear movement in Japan and their efforts to stop the reactor restarts from happening.
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 Ria Novosti / April 18, 2014 / Radiation levels in the areas surrounding the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant have dropped, but still exceed the long-term target of the Japanese government, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Friday. The report, quoted by the Asahi Shumbun daily newspaper, says that Fukushima evacuees will receive radiation doses from 0.7 to 3 millisieverts per … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Shinichi Sekine and Miki Aoki / Asahi Shimbun / April 16, 2014 / The Japanese government withheld findings on estimated radiation exposure for Fukushima returnees for six months, even though levels exceeded the long-term target of 1 millisievert a year at more than half of surveyed locations. Individual radiation doses were estimated to be beyond 1 millisievert per year, or 0.23 microsievert an hour, at 24 of all the … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom NHK World / April 8, 2014 / The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company will begin pumping up groundwater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday. The water is expected to be released into the sea next month. This will mark the start of one of several key measures to reduce the increasing volume of radiation-contaminated water at the facility. According to the plan, clean groundwater that … Continue reading →
Continue readingKyle Cleveland Temple University Japan Abstract The nuclear disaster in Fukushima which followed in the wake of the 3/11 Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami has been one of the most significant public health crises in modern history, with profound implications for how nuclear energy is perceived. This paper analyzes the nature of risk assessment in the nuclear crisis, examining how the Japanese government and its constituent institutions in the nuclear industry, foreign governments … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Patrick J. Kiger / National Geographic / April 2, 2014 / For the first time since Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power disaster three years ago, residents of a small portion of the surrounding restricted area are being allowed to return home, even though radiation levels remain elevated At midnight on March 31, the Japanese government officially lifted an evacuation order for a portion of the Miyakoji district of Tamura, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Zero Hedge / March 31, 2014 / As reported last night, Japan’s economy may once again be relapsing into a slowing phase, perversely well in advance of the dreaded sales-tax hike which many expect will catalyze Japan’s collapse into another recession as happened the last time Japan had a tax hike, but that doesn’t mean its population should be prevented from enjoying the heavily energized local atmosphere buzzing with … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Mainichi.jp / March 25, 2014 / A Cabinet Office team has delayed the release of radiation measurements from three Fukushima Prefecture municipalities, and plans to release them later with lower, recalculated results, the Mainichi learned on March 24. The three municipalities are currently covered by evacuation orders imposed after the March 2011 Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant meltdowns — evacuation orders the government plans to lift in the near … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy David McNeil / NY Times / In the chaotic, fearful weeks after the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, in March 2011, researchers struggled to measure the radioactive fallout unleashed on the public. Michio Aoyama’s initial findings were more startling than most. As a senior scientist at the Japanese government’s Meteorological Research Institute, he said levels of radioactive cesium 137 in the surface water of the Pacific Ocean could be 10,000 … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Graham Land / Asian Correspondent / March 11, 2014 / Three years on and the extent of the environmental, human and economic repercussions of the Fukushima incident continue to reveal themselves. Fukushima “fallout” is both literal in terms of radioactive materials, and figurative on a global scale. The politics and opinions around the nuclear issue are far from settled. In Japan anti-nuclear sentiment runs high, with protesters recently marking … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Mari Yamaguchi / via JapanToday / February 26, 2014 / Japan unveiled its first draft energy policy since the Fukushima meltdowns three years ago, saying nuclear power remains an important source of electricity for the country. The draft presented Tuesday to the cabinet for approval expected in March, said Japan’s nuclear energy dependency will be reduced as much as possible, but that reactors meeting new safety standards set after … Continue reading →
Continue readingJapan Times / March 1, 2014 / Hundreds rallied Saturday in Tokyo to protest a decision by prosecutors to drop charges over the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns, meaning no one has been indicted, let alone punished, nearly three years after a calamity ruled “man-made.” Official records do not list anyone as having died as a direct result of radioactive fallout after tsunami unleashed by the 9.0-magnitude quake of March 11, 2011, … Continue reading →
Continue reading