As decontamination of homes in the Fukushima disaster evacuation area begins, the government is considering sending in the “army” to help with decontamination, but other parts of the government want to see data on potential contamination, which is apparently not available, first. There is a plan to build a facility to bury Fukushma waste. The government is looking for a site. So far there have been no volunteers.<\/p>\n
There was a complete botch-up regarding Radioactive Rice, in which a brilliant hypothesis of how rice would be not too contaminated was killed by the ugly fact of highly contaminated rice. Also, school children are, apparently, being given contaminated milk to drink. This was discovered by tests applied to milk over the objections of the milk industry. Similarly, baby formula seems to be contaminated as well.<\/p>\n
The Cold Shutdown vs. the Meltdown<\/H3><\/p>\n
TEPCO claims that the planned cold shutdown is on schedule for the end of this month. At present, all of the water in all of the reactor machinery seems to be below boiling point. In fact, it turns out that the temperature inside the primary reactor vessels is even lower than expected. It is possible that this is because most of the fuel has leaked out of the vessels to an unknown location. That’s good, right?<\/p>\n
TEPCO has produced a study that shows that the containment vessels for the reactors contained the melted nuclear fuel from the plant. This is based on a computer simulation produced a few days ago.<\/p>\n
In contrast, the architect of Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 3 suggests that nuclear fuel beneath the plant may be as deep as 12 meters below the foundation level, continuing to melt its way through the earth. If he’s right, that could mean future hydrogen explosions accompanied by massive radiation releases. TEPCO is also concerned about future hydrogen explosions.<\/p>\n
Other experts claim that the material from the cores is mixed into the top 70 cm. of material above a steel containment barrier. Yet another suggests that the material is two meters deep into the concrete below the vessel. All of these suggestions are worst than the previously defined “worst case scenario” used by the plant’s engineers and designers.<\/p>\n
As efforts leading to the cold shutdown continue, strange things keep happening in the plant with temperature and radiation readings, and there are uncertainties about the instrumentation being used in the plant.<\/p>\n
Contaminated Water and Ground Water Problems<\/h3>\n
One of the major problems at the damaged reactor facilities is still contaminated water in the buildings. TEPCO is unable to remove water from the buildings, though the reasons are somewhat unclear as to why. One of the problems is that groundwater is flowing into the foundations. This is a concern, since the foundations are supposed to be a seal to keep contamination inside the plant in the event of a spill or meltdown. Presumably contaminated water is flowing out if it is also flowing in. It is of some concern that TEPCO can’t identify the source of the groundwater. Modern facilities that will contain dangerous materials are built after accurate groundwater maps and models are developed. This suggests that a review of existing nuclear power plant area groundwater maps is in order.<\/p>\n
The good news is that maybe the radioactive stuff under the plants will not actually drill its way through the center of the earth, but rather, it may just flow out into the sea via a nearby river. Extremely high radiation readings have been identified at the mouth of the Abukumagawa River.<\/p>\n
Plant Workers<\/h3>\n
The ex-skf blog expresses concerns over worker’s safety in the vicinity of the plant’s breached containment vessels. Masao Yoshida, the manager at Fukushima at the time of the disaster, has stepped down from his position due to an unspecified illness.<\/p>\n
Told you so<\/h3>\n
More evidence that TEPCO was aware of the threat of a tsunami, but ignored or repressed it, has been brought to light.<\/p>\n
Far away but still of interest<\/h3>\n
Highway 40 in Memphis saw a Uranium Truck crash. No big deal. This time. A coolant leak was reprted at Brunswick Plant in the Carolinas. A recent report suggests that all of the nuclear reactors in France need to be upgraded. Given the geography of much of Western Europe, a Chernobyl or Fukushima type disaster is sometimes called the “10 trillion dollar scenario.” Not only would a major contamination plume cause major direct effects, but at the moment, a huge percentage of Western Europe’s power comes from nuclear.<\/p>\n
In Otter Matters<\/h3>\n
There is still a problem with pets, in the Fukushima area. Volunteers are barely able to handle current needs for care of animals left homeless due to the disaster. Concerns over radioactive contamination? There’s an ap for that! You an now get a Geiger counter attachment for your smart phone.<\/p>\n
And now …<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ana’s Feed<\/h2>\n\nGov’t aims for ‘cold shutdown’ of Fukushima reactors, but bemoans lack of data -Mainichi News, Nov. 14 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are trying to achieve a stable condition called a “cold shutdown” of crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant by the end of this year, but they have yet to come to grips with exactly what is happening inside the reactors crippled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111114p2a00m0na004000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Japanese Physicist Publishes Fukushima Radiation Records -Technology Review, Nov. 14 <\/h4>\n\n- \nToday, an insight into the conditions in the region surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant soon after the magnitude 9 earthquake and resultant tsunami which caused the reactors to explode.\n<\/li>\n
- \nFukushima Medical University sits some 60 kilometres northwest of the power station. In the run up to the accident, a physicist at the university, Tsuneo Konayashi, had been measuring the background levels of gamma radiation, the numbers of secondary particles from cosmic ray impacts and the amount of radon in the atmosphere.\n<\/li>\n
- \nSo when the accident struck, Konayashi and his colleagues were in a good position to measure exactly how things changed.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/blog\/arxiv\/27335\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"i-742d19e7a9e98aa35b1a83a6bc6d9682-Update4-1_Fukushima_Radiation_Records-thumb-500x302-71121.png\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/472\/files\/2012\/04\/i-742d19e7a9e98aa35b1a83a6bc6d9682-Update4-1_Fukushima_Radiation_Records-thumb-500x302-71121.png?w=604\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\nContaminated water still headache for Tepco -Japan Times, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThough it continues to process contaminated water currently flooding the basements of the reactor and turbine buildings for recycling to cool the reactors, the utility has yet to come up with a way to drain all the water from the buildings. With the trouble unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, the threat of further soil, groundwater and sea contamination near the power plant continues.\n<\/li>\n
- \nTepco originally planned to process 200,000 tons of contaminated water and remove it all by the end of this year, but some 200 to 500 tons of groundwater flows into the buildings every day, rendering this option impossible.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe massive inflow of groundwater indicates the basement walls may be cracked, and thus there is a risk that the contamination can spread to the outside environment. Tepco does not know exactly where the groundwater is coming in from.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111115f2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Steps May Cost 19 Billion Yen Per Reactor -Bloomberg, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nAdditional safety measures required at Japan’s nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster may cost 19.4 billion yen ($252 million) per reactor, the government said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nEmergency measures such as maintaining cooling at a 1,200- megawatt nuclear station are estimated to cost about 11.8 billion yen, a committee under the National Policy Unit said in a report today. Other costs include steps to secure emergency power generators and improve external sources of electricity and 1.3 billion yen to prevent explosions and equip workers with radiation-protection gear in a severe nuclear accident.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/news.businessweek.com\/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LUOVUT07SXKX01-5QP1VSJAM1CAG2877DDVS9EV6H<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Response rate for Fukushima’s thyroid check-ups on kids reaches 77 percent -Mainichi News, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe response rate for the first wave of thyroid check-ups for children under the age of 18 here was some 77 percent, a number that far surpasses that of most regular check-ups, officials said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe initial examinations for possible thyroid abnormalities, launched between Oct. 9 and Nov. 13 in several areas of those places most affected by the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant disaster, including the two towns of Namie and Iitate, attracted a 77 percent response rate. Among those, 25 percent were people who had evacuated out of Fukushima Prefecture and traveled back to the prefecture specifically for the check-ups.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111115p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Smartphone geiger counter developed -Yomiuri, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nA manufacturer in Otamamura, Fukushima Prefecture, has developed a geiger counter that allows users to display radiation readings on a smartphone.\n<\/li>\n
- \nSanwa Corp. was to release the product this coming weekend at 9,800 yen per unit amid growing demand for such measuring devices following the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \nHe and his 11 employees have worked on the product since June, as part of an Internet project in which participants shared knowledge to develop measuring devices.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005302.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
1.3 SIEVERT\/HR Inside Reactor 3 Bldg -EX-SKF, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nwhere the carbon-based workers would have to go in to install the gas management system, which would filter the gas coming out of the Containment Vessel to capture radioactive materials and release it outside.\n<\/li>\n
- \nOne minute of work at that location would get a carbon-based worker over 21 millisieverts radiation. One second 360 microsieverts.\n<\/li>\n
- \nAs I said before, a futile window-dressing, as the CV have been breached somewhere already. It is absolutely crazy, bordering criminal, to send workers there for a cosmetic, token work.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/ex-skf.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-13-sieverthr.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
A Long, Long Road to Recycling Nuclear Fuel -NYT, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe question of what to do with spent nuclear fuel from civilian power reactors has stirred renewed interest in reprocessing that is, chopping up the fuel, retrieving materials that can power a reactor and possibly recovering the most troublesome waste products so they can be broken up in the reactor into easier-to-handle elements.\n<\/li>\n
- \nBut the Energy Department, which is supposed to is evaluate different ways that the used fuel could be recycled, has a long way to go, according to the Government Accountability Office. In a report released on Wednesday, the auditors noted that the Department of Energy had listed a huge number of potential ways to do the job and classified the methods according to the degree of promise that each held. Still, the departments evaluation does not indicate the state of technical progress for the many technologies that would be needed, the report said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nNo currently available or reasonably foreseeable reactor and fuel cycle technology developments including advances in reprocess and recycle technologies have the potential to fundamentally alter the waste management challenge this nation confronts over at least the next several decades, if not longer, the report said.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/green.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/16\/a-long-long-road-to-recycling-nuclear-fuel\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Truck Hauling Uranium Crashes on I-40 -WREG, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.wreg.com\/videogallery\/66118549\/News\/Truck-Hauling-Uranium-Crashes-on-I-40<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
NRC investigates reactor coolant system leak at Brunswick plant -News 14 Carolina, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nEnergy officials and environmentalists are reacting to reports of a reactor coolant system leak at Progress Energy’s Nuclear Plant in Brunswick County.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
-According to Progress Energy, early Wednesday morning the plant reported an unusual plant event to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Environmentalist Tom Clements with Friends of the Earth, tracks nuclear issues primarily in South Carolina and Georgia.\n<\/p>\n
\n- \n“The reason that is significant is because this type of reactor, a boiling water reactor, it goes directly through the core of the reactor, where the radioactive material is contained,” said Clements.\n<\/li>\n
- \nClements said he wants to know the source of the leak, if the water leaking is radioactive, and if this poses any threat to workers, the public, or the environment.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“The leakage rates according to the NRC website were up to ten gallons a minute or approaching 10 gallons a minute and when they shut the reactor down, they had gotten down to three gallons a minute but it’s a significant leak,” said Clements.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/triangle.news14.com\/content\/local_news\/649671\/nrc-investigates-reactor-coolant-system-leak-at-brunswick-plant<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Decontamination of houses under way -Yomiuri, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Date municipal government has become the first municipality to begin decontamination of houses within specific sites recommended for evacuation by the central government because of high radiation levels.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe local government decided to decontaminate the houses on its own out of consideration for residents who wish to return to lives free of radiation fears as soon as possible. It is unclear, however, how effective the operations will be, as so far it has proven difficult to get radiation down to target levels.\n<\/li>\n
- \nA total of 54 households in the Shimo-Oguni district of Ryozenmachi in Date were designated as sites recommended for evacuation at the end of June. The district, located in a mountainous area about 300 meters above sea level, is about 55 kilometers northwest of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005326.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Gov’t mulls sending GSDF troops for advance Fukushima cleanup -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe government on Wednesday started working out details for sending Ground Self-Defense Force troops next month to decontaminate some municipal buildings near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that will serve as command centers for a full decontamination operation starting in January, government sources said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nBut some officials have raised concerns as the government has yet to obtain data on the amount of radiation in case the troops conducting the cleanup work get exposed to radiation. The government therefore plans to finalize details with the defense and environment ministries, the sources said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe government envisions sending about 300 troops to the buildings in three locations, according to the sources.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2g00m0dm009000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Most radioactive cesium piled up within 2 centimeters of soil surface -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Cabinet Office’s Team in Charge of the Lives of Disaster Victims announced on Nov. 16 the detailed results of its survey on cesium dosage and accumulations in the soil, forests, buildings, rivers and other environments. Based on the results, the Cabinet Office has concluded that “most of the cesium can be removed if the top two centimeters of the soil is scraped away from its surface.”<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Cesium fallout widespread -Japan Times, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nRadioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have reached as far as Hokkaido, Shikoku and the Chugoku region in the west, according to a recent simulation by an international research team.\n<\/li>\n
- \nLarge areas of eastern and northeastern Japan were likely contaminated by the plant, with concentrations of cesium-137 exceeding 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil in some places, says the study, which was posted Monday on the website of the National Academy of Sciences.\n<\/li>\n
- \nResearchers for the U.S.-based organization said the study, which was based on partial data readings, is the first to estimate potential cesium contamination across the country. But they also played down the incident’s impact on the three distant regions.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111117x2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Early Report Suggests Low Radiation Exposure in Fukushima -TIME, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nIn the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan on March 11, concerns have focused on the lasting health impact of the radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled in the disasters.\n<\/li>\n
- \nNow a preliminary report published in PLoS ONE finds that the dangers may not be as grave as we first feared. Over on TIME’s Ecocentric blog, our colleague Bryan Walsh reports:\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe PLoS study, led by Ikuo Kashiwakura, found only 10 people among those surveyed with high levels of radiation exposure and even those levels were not elevated enough to require decontamination. (The study covered March 15 to June 20.) Almost everyone else surveyed had low to nonexistent levels of radiation contamination, while the Hirosaki [University] staff members on site had undetectable radiation levels.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/healthland.time.com\/2011\/11\/17\/early-report-suggests-low-radiation-exposure-in-fukushima\/#ixzz1fFCOpJzt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Volunteers struggle to look after pets orphaned by Fukushima nuclear crisis -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Fukushima Prefectural Government set up the two animal shelters in the city of Fukushima and the town of Miharu. The Fukushima facility housed 165 cats and dogs as of Nov. 16, while the one in Miharu, which opened in October, had 118. They are being operated by an aid headquarters formed by parties including the prefectural government and the Fukushima Veterinary Medical Association.\n<\/li>\n
- \nAfter the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, many residents had to leave their pets at home when they evacuated. It is believed that about 10,000 pet cats and roughly the same number of pet dogs were in the restricted zone when the crisis broke out after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Roughly 30 percent of these animals died in the quake and tsunami, and about 20 percent were taken into the care of volunteer groups. About 700 of the remaining pets were caught by officials or retrieved when residents briefly returned home, and the ones whose owners could not be determined or whose owners could not keep them anymore are being looked after at the two prefectural facilities.\n<\/li>\n
- \nOne 36-year-old construction worker from the town of Okuma, near the nuclear plant, comes to see his pet dog at the facility about once every two weeks.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na012000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
France Needs to Upgrade All Nuclear Reactors -Scientific American, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nFrance needs to upgrade the protection of vital functions in all its nuclear reactors to avoid a disaster in the event of a natural calamity, the head of its nuclear safety agency said, adding there was no need to close any plants.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIRSN, experts on radiation protection and nuclear safety, delivered a 500-page report to nuclear watchdog ASN Thursday, which will in turn hand over its conclusions, based on the report, to the government at the end of 2011.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“There is a need to add a layer to protect safety mechanisms in reactors that are vital for the protection of the reactor such as cooling functions and electric powering,” Jacques Repussard, head of the IRSN, told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article.cfm?id=france-needs-to-upgrade-all&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_ENGYSUS_20111118<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Uranium Mining The Virginia Battleground Environmental Concerns vs. Corporate Interests -DC Bureau, Nov. 18 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Virginia General Assembly is expected to vote next year on whether to lift a 30-year moratorium on uranium mining in the state.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe issue has prompted an expensive lobbying campaign by the company that wants to mine a huge deposit known as Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County and an intense fight by environmentalists who want to stop it. The battle has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the county, in south central Virginia, an area known as Southside.\n<\/li>\n
- \nTwo Virginians, each offered money to allow uranium mining on their land, personify the debate that is raging through the state. One accepted. The other declined.\n<\/li>\n
- \nConnie Crider, a housewife, lives with her husband in Pittsylvania County, close to 119 million pounds of uranium ore, the largest deposit in the country and one of the largest in the world. Its worth has been estimated at $10 billion.\n<\/li>\n
- \nCrider dismisses arguments from environmentalists that the tons and tons of toxic radioactive waste produced by mining could contaminate their water, air and land. I just dont think they know, she says. They wont listen. They have just set their minds that this is a bad thing and they wont listen.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.dcbureau.org\/201111186500\/natural-resources-news-service\/uranium-mining-%E2%80%93-the-virginia-battleground-%E2%80%93-environmental-concerns-vs-corporate-interests.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Storing radioactive waste -Japan Times, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe central government on Oct. 29 announced a plan to construct within three years an intermediate storage facility to bury contaminated soil and other waste in Fukushima Prefecture.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe concrete facility will cover 3 to 5 square kilometers and have a capacity of 15 million to 28 million cubic meters. The central government will have to negotiate with local governments in Fukushima Prefecture to decide on a site for the facility in 2012 and start building it in the summer of 2014. The facility will start accepting contaminated soil and other waste around January 2015.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/ed20111119a1.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Cold shutdown appears on schedule -Japan Times, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe melted nuclear fuel of reactors 1, 2 and 3 of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is being slowly cooled and a cold shutdown is likely to be achieved by the end of the year as planned, disaster minister Goshi Hosono said Thursday.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe government will declare that the facility has achieved cold shutdown once it confirms the complex can maintain stability over the next several years even if it is hit by an earthquake or suffers malfunctions, he said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIn the road map for the resolution of the crisis, which is updated every month, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said not only that the temperature at the bottom of the pressure vessels of all three reactors is below 100, but that the temperature inside the primary containment vessels of the reactors, where part of the melted fuel may be accumulating, was between 39 and 70 as of Wednesday.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“There have been various discussions on whether the fuel remains inside the pressure vessels, or has dropped to the (outer) primary container . . . and our explanation is that we think we are able to slowly cool the fuel including that inside the primary containers and the pressure vessels,” Hosono said at a news conference that Tepco officials also attended.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111119a6.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
N-fuel conditions unclear -Yomiuri, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. have revised the timetable for the seventh time in the eight months since the crisis began. Data suggests the reactors and radioactive material are under control, and the power plant will achieve a cold shutdown once required conditions are confirmed.\n<\/li>\n
- \nHowever, the status of the molten nuclear fuel is unclear. It is not known how the fuel, believed to have partially melted through pressure vessels of the reactors and into containment vessels, has dispersed and how much lies in water.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIt is questionable to assess the situation as nearly a cold shutdown. Usually, to achieve a cold shutdown, all fuel rods should be cooled under water, and nuclear fuel, pressure and containment vessels should be intact and in good condition.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe situation at the nuclear plant does not meet this definition. Is it appropriate for the government and TEPCO to call the current status nearly a cold shutdown?<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111118006066.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Article 9 group calls for end to nuclear power -Japan Times, Nov. 20 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe founders of an antirevisionist group stressed the need Saturday to remove nuclear power from the nation’s energy policy in light of Article 9 of the Constitution and the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“Our Constitution represents our determination to never again experience the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel laureate in literature, referring to the two cities obliterated by atomic bombs in the final days of World War II. “But we have seen the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.”\n<\/li>\n
- \nOe, one of the nine founders of the Article 9 Association, made the remarks at the group’s national rally in Tokyo, which drew about 700 like-minded people.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111120a4.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Packbot Finds 1.6 Sievert\/Hr Spot -EX-SKF, Nov. 20 <\/h4>\n\n\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nGov’t panel bitterly criticizes budget for Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor project -Mainichi News, Nov. 21 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nA Japanese government panel charged with cutting wasteful public expenses bitterly lashed out on Nov. 20 at massive spending for an ambitious program to develop nuclear fuel recycling technology based on the troubled Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor, a move that could affect the country’s nuclear policy already undermined by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“Is it good to pour money into something 40 years into the future, something which has produced no results in the last 40 years?” said Yuichiro Tamaki, a House of Representatives lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Tamaki was one of the members of the government panel that conducted its first screening session on government policies under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Nov. 20. Other panel members also harshly criticized Monju-related spending.<\/p>\n
Gov’t aims for ‘cold shutdown’ of Fukushima reactors, but bemoans lack of data -Mainichi News, Nov. 14 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are trying to achieve a stable condition called a “cold shutdown” of crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant by the end of this year, but they have yet to come to grips with exactly what is happening inside the reactors crippled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111114p2a00m0na004000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Japanese Physicist Publishes Fukushima Radiation Records -Technology Review, Nov. 14 <\/h4>\n\n- \nToday, an insight into the conditions in the region surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant soon after the magnitude 9 earthquake and resultant tsunami which caused the reactors to explode.\n<\/li>\n
- \nFukushima Medical University sits some 60 kilometres northwest of the power station. In the run up to the accident, a physicist at the university, Tsuneo Konayashi, had been measuring the background levels of gamma radiation, the numbers of secondary particles from cosmic ray impacts and the amount of radon in the atmosphere.\n<\/li>\n
- \nSo when the accident struck, Konayashi and his colleagues were in a good position to measure exactly how things changed.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/blog\/arxiv\/27335\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\nContaminated water still headache for Tepco -Japan Times, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThough it continues to process contaminated water currently flooding the basements of the reactor and turbine buildings for recycling to cool the reactors, the utility has yet to come up with a way to drain all the water from the buildings. With the trouble unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, the threat of further soil, groundwater and sea contamination near the power plant continues.\n<\/li>\n
- \nTepco originally planned to process 200,000 tons of contaminated water and remove it all by the end of this year, but some 200 to 500 tons of groundwater flows into the buildings every day, rendering this option impossible.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe massive inflow of groundwater indicates the basement walls may be cracked, and thus there is a risk that the contamination can spread to the outside environment. Tepco does not know exactly where the groundwater is coming in from.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111115f2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Steps May Cost 19 Billion Yen Per Reactor -Bloomberg, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nAdditional safety measures required at Japan’s nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster may cost 19.4 billion yen ($252 million) per reactor, the government said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nEmergency measures such as maintaining cooling at a 1,200- megawatt nuclear station are estimated to cost about 11.8 billion yen, a committee under the National Policy Unit said in a report today. Other costs include steps to secure emergency power generators and improve external sources of electricity and 1.3 billion yen to prevent explosions and equip workers with radiation-protection gear in a severe nuclear accident.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/news.businessweek.com\/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LUOVUT07SXKX01-5QP1VSJAM1CAG2877DDVS9EV6H<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Response rate for Fukushima’s thyroid check-ups on kids reaches 77 percent -Mainichi News, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe response rate for the first wave of thyroid check-ups for children under the age of 18 here was some 77 percent, a number that far surpasses that of most regular check-ups, officials said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe initial examinations for possible thyroid abnormalities, launched between Oct. 9 and Nov. 13 in several areas of those places most affected by the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant disaster, including the two towns of Namie and Iitate, attracted a 77 percent response rate. Among those, 25 percent were people who had evacuated out of Fukushima Prefecture and traveled back to the prefecture specifically for the check-ups.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111115p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Smartphone geiger counter developed -Yomiuri, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nA manufacturer in Otamamura, Fukushima Prefecture, has developed a geiger counter that allows users to display radiation readings on a smartphone.\n<\/li>\n
- \nSanwa Corp. was to release the product this coming weekend at 9,800 yen per unit amid growing demand for such measuring devices following the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \nHe and his 11 employees have worked on the product since June, as part of an Internet project in which participants shared knowledge to develop measuring devices.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005302.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
1.3 SIEVERT\/HR Inside Reactor 3 Bldg -EX-SKF, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nwhere the carbon-based workers would have to go in to install the gas management system, which would filter the gas coming out of the Containment Vessel to capture radioactive materials and release it outside.\n<\/li>\n
- \nOne minute of work at that location would get a carbon-based worker over 21 millisieverts radiation. One second 360 microsieverts.\n<\/li>\n
- \nAs I said before, a futile window-dressing, as the CV have been breached somewhere already. It is absolutely crazy, bordering criminal, to send workers there for a cosmetic, token work.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/ex-skf.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-13-sieverthr.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
A Long, Long Road to Recycling Nuclear Fuel -NYT, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe question of what to do with spent nuclear fuel from civilian power reactors has stirred renewed interest in reprocessing that is, chopping up the fuel, retrieving materials that can power a reactor and possibly recovering the most troublesome waste products so they can be broken up in the reactor into easier-to-handle elements.\n<\/li>\n
- \nBut the Energy Department, which is supposed to is evaluate different ways that the used fuel could be recycled, has a long way to go, according to the Government Accountability Office. In a report released on Wednesday, the auditors noted that the Department of Energy had listed a huge number of potential ways to do the job and classified the methods according to the degree of promise that each held. Still, the departments evaluation does not indicate the state of technical progress for the many technologies that would be needed, the report said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nNo currently available or reasonably foreseeable reactor and fuel cycle technology developments including advances in reprocess and recycle technologies have the potential to fundamentally alter the waste management challenge this nation confronts over at least the next several decades, if not longer, the report said.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/green.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/16\/a-long-long-road-to-recycling-nuclear-fuel\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Truck Hauling Uranium Crashes on I-40 -WREG, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.wreg.com\/videogallery\/66118549\/News\/Truck-Hauling-Uranium-Crashes-on-I-40<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
NRC investigates reactor coolant system leak at Brunswick plant -News 14 Carolina, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nEnergy officials and environmentalists are reacting to reports of a reactor coolant system leak at Progress Energy’s Nuclear Plant in Brunswick County.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
-According to Progress Energy, early Wednesday morning the plant reported an unusual plant event to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Environmentalist Tom Clements with Friends of the Earth, tracks nuclear issues primarily in South Carolina and Georgia.\n<\/p>\n
\n- \n“The reason that is significant is because this type of reactor, a boiling water reactor, it goes directly through the core of the reactor, where the radioactive material is contained,” said Clements.\n<\/li>\n
- \nClements said he wants to know the source of the leak, if the water leaking is radioactive, and if this poses any threat to workers, the public, or the environment.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“The leakage rates according to the NRC website were up to ten gallons a minute or approaching 10 gallons a minute and when they shut the reactor down, they had gotten down to three gallons a minute but it’s a significant leak,” said Clements.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/triangle.news14.com\/content\/local_news\/649671\/nrc-investigates-reactor-coolant-system-leak-at-brunswick-plant<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Decontamination of houses under way -Yomiuri, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Date municipal government has become the first municipality to begin decontamination of houses within specific sites recommended for evacuation by the central government because of high radiation levels.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe local government decided to decontaminate the houses on its own out of consideration for residents who wish to return to lives free of radiation fears as soon as possible. It is unclear, however, how effective the operations will be, as so far it has proven difficult to get radiation down to target levels.\n<\/li>\n
- \nA total of 54 households in the Shimo-Oguni district of Ryozenmachi in Date were designated as sites recommended for evacuation at the end of June. The district, located in a mountainous area about 300 meters above sea level, is about 55 kilometers northwest of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005326.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Gov’t mulls sending GSDF troops for advance Fukushima cleanup -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe government on Wednesday started working out details for sending Ground Self-Defense Force troops next month to decontaminate some municipal buildings near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that will serve as command centers for a full decontamination operation starting in January, government sources said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nBut some officials have raised concerns as the government has yet to obtain data on the amount of radiation in case the troops conducting the cleanup work get exposed to radiation. The government therefore plans to finalize details with the defense and environment ministries, the sources said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe government envisions sending about 300 troops to the buildings in three locations, according to the sources.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2g00m0dm009000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Most radioactive cesium piled up within 2 centimeters of soil surface -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Cabinet Office’s Team in Charge of the Lives of Disaster Victims announced on Nov. 16 the detailed results of its survey on cesium dosage and accumulations in the soil, forests, buildings, rivers and other environments. Based on the results, the Cabinet Office has concluded that “most of the cesium can be removed if the top two centimeters of the soil is scraped away from its surface.”<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Cesium fallout widespread -Japan Times, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nRadioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have reached as far as Hokkaido, Shikoku and the Chugoku region in the west, according to a recent simulation by an international research team.\n<\/li>\n
- \nLarge areas of eastern and northeastern Japan were likely contaminated by the plant, with concentrations of cesium-137 exceeding 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil in some places, says the study, which was posted Monday on the website of the National Academy of Sciences.\n<\/li>\n
- \nResearchers for the U.S.-based organization said the study, which was based on partial data readings, is the first to estimate potential cesium contamination across the country. But they also played down the incident’s impact on the three distant regions.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111117x2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Early Report Suggests Low Radiation Exposure in Fukushima -TIME, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nIn the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan on March 11, concerns have focused on the lasting health impact of the radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled in the disasters.\n<\/li>\n
- \nNow a preliminary report published in PLoS ONE finds that the dangers may not be as grave as we first feared. Over on TIME’s Ecocentric blog, our colleague Bryan Walsh reports:\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe PLoS study, led by Ikuo Kashiwakura, found only 10 people among those surveyed with high levels of radiation exposure and even those levels were not elevated enough to require decontamination. (The study covered March 15 to June 20.) Almost everyone else surveyed had low to nonexistent levels of radiation contamination, while the Hirosaki [University] staff members on site had undetectable radiation levels.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/healthland.time.com\/2011\/11\/17\/early-report-suggests-low-radiation-exposure-in-fukushima\/#ixzz1fFCOpJzt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Volunteers struggle to look after pets orphaned by Fukushima nuclear crisis -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Fukushima Prefectural Government set up the two animal shelters in the city of Fukushima and the town of Miharu. The Fukushima facility housed 165 cats and dogs as of Nov. 16, while the one in Miharu, which opened in October, had 118. They are being operated by an aid headquarters formed by parties including the prefectural government and the Fukushima Veterinary Medical Association.\n<\/li>\n
- \nAfter the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, many residents had to leave their pets at home when they evacuated. It is believed that about 10,000 pet cats and roughly the same number of pet dogs were in the restricted zone when the crisis broke out after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Roughly 30 percent of these animals died in the quake and tsunami, and about 20 percent were taken into the care of volunteer groups. About 700 of the remaining pets were caught by officials or retrieved when residents briefly returned home, and the ones whose owners could not be determined or whose owners could not keep them anymore are being looked after at the two prefectural facilities.\n<\/li>\n
- \nOne 36-year-old construction worker from the town of Okuma, near the nuclear plant, comes to see his pet dog at the facility about once every two weeks.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na012000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
France Needs to Upgrade All Nuclear Reactors -Scientific American, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nFrance needs to upgrade the protection of vital functions in all its nuclear reactors to avoid a disaster in the event of a natural calamity, the head of its nuclear safety agency said, adding there was no need to close any plants.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIRSN, experts on radiation protection and nuclear safety, delivered a 500-page report to nuclear watchdog ASN Thursday, which will in turn hand over its conclusions, based on the report, to the government at the end of 2011.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“There is a need to add a layer to protect safety mechanisms in reactors that are vital for the protection of the reactor such as cooling functions and electric powering,” Jacques Repussard, head of the IRSN, told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article.cfm?id=france-needs-to-upgrade-all&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_ENGYSUS_20111118<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Uranium Mining The Virginia Battleground Environmental Concerns vs. Corporate Interests -DC Bureau, Nov. 18 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe Virginia General Assembly is expected to vote next year on whether to lift a 30-year moratorium on uranium mining in the state.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe issue has prompted an expensive lobbying campaign by the company that wants to mine a huge deposit known as Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County and an intense fight by environmentalists who want to stop it. The battle has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the county, in south central Virginia, an area known as Southside.\n<\/li>\n
- \nTwo Virginians, each offered money to allow uranium mining on their land, personify the debate that is raging through the state. One accepted. The other declined.\n<\/li>\n
- \nConnie Crider, a housewife, lives with her husband in Pittsylvania County, close to 119 million pounds of uranium ore, the largest deposit in the country and one of the largest in the world. Its worth has been estimated at $10 billion.\n<\/li>\n
- \nCrider dismisses arguments from environmentalists that the tons and tons of toxic radioactive waste produced by mining could contaminate their water, air and land. I just dont think they know, she says. They wont listen. They have just set their minds that this is a bad thing and they wont listen.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.dcbureau.org\/201111186500\/natural-resources-news-service\/uranium-mining-%E2%80%93-the-virginia-battleground-%E2%80%93-environmental-concerns-vs-corporate-interests.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Storing radioactive waste -Japan Times, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe central government on Oct. 29 announced a plan to construct within three years an intermediate storage facility to bury contaminated soil and other waste in Fukushima Prefecture.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe concrete facility will cover 3 to 5 square kilometers and have a capacity of 15 million to 28 million cubic meters. The central government will have to negotiate with local governments in Fukushima Prefecture to decide on a site for the facility in 2012 and start building it in the summer of 2014. The facility will start accepting contaminated soil and other waste around January 2015.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/ed20111119a1.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Cold shutdown appears on schedule -Japan Times, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe melted nuclear fuel of reactors 1, 2 and 3 of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is being slowly cooled and a cold shutdown is likely to be achieved by the end of the year as planned, disaster minister Goshi Hosono said Thursday.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe government will declare that the facility has achieved cold shutdown once it confirms the complex can maintain stability over the next several years even if it is hit by an earthquake or suffers malfunctions, he said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIn the road map for the resolution of the crisis, which is updated every month, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said not only that the temperature at the bottom of the pressure vessels of all three reactors is below 100, but that the temperature inside the primary containment vessels of the reactors, where part of the melted fuel may be accumulating, was between 39 and 70 as of Wednesday.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“There have been various discussions on whether the fuel remains inside the pressure vessels, or has dropped to the (outer) primary container . . . and our explanation is that we think we are able to slowly cool the fuel including that inside the primary containers and the pressure vessels,” Hosono said at a news conference that Tepco officials also attended.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111119a6.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
N-fuel conditions unclear -Yomiuri, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. have revised the timetable for the seventh time in the eight months since the crisis began. Data suggests the reactors and radioactive material are under control, and the power plant will achieve a cold shutdown once required conditions are confirmed.\n<\/li>\n
- \nHowever, the status of the molten nuclear fuel is unclear. It is not known how the fuel, believed to have partially melted through pressure vessels of the reactors and into containment vessels, has dispersed and how much lies in water.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIt is questionable to assess the situation as nearly a cold shutdown. Usually, to achieve a cold shutdown, all fuel rods should be cooled under water, and nuclear fuel, pressure and containment vessels should be intact and in good condition.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe situation at the nuclear plant does not meet this definition. Is it appropriate for the government and TEPCO to call the current status nearly a cold shutdown?<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111118006066.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Article 9 group calls for end to nuclear power -Japan Times, Nov. 20 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nThe founders of an antirevisionist group stressed the need Saturday to remove nuclear power from the nation’s energy policy in light of Article 9 of the Constitution and the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“Our Constitution represents our determination to never again experience the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel laureate in literature, referring to the two cities obliterated by atomic bombs in the final days of World War II. “But we have seen the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.”\n<\/li>\n
- \nOe, one of the nine founders of the Article 9 Association, made the remarks at the group’s national rally in Tokyo, which drew about 700 like-minded people.<\/p>\n
\n- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111120a4.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Packbot Finds 1.6 Sievert\/Hr Spot -EX-SKF, Nov. 20 <\/h4>\n\n\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nGov’t panel bitterly criticizes budget for Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor project -Mainichi News, Nov. 21 <\/h4>\n\n\n- \nA Japanese government panel charged with cutting wasteful public expenses bitterly lashed out on Nov. 20 at massive spending for an ambitious program to develop nuclear fuel recycling technology based on the troubled Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor, a move that could affect the country’s nuclear policy already undermined by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“Is it good to pour money into something 40 years into the future, something which has produced no results in the last 40 years?” said Yuichiro Tamaki, a House of Representatives lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Tamaki was one of the members of the government panel that conducted its first screening session on government policies under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Nov. 20. Other panel members also harshly criticized Monju-related spending.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nThe government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are trying to achieve a stable condition called a “cold shutdown” of crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant by the end of this year, but they have yet to come to grips with exactly what is happening inside the reactors crippled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111114p2a00m0na004000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Japanese Physicist Publishes Fukushima Radiation Records -Technology Review, Nov. 14 <\/h4>\n
- \n
- \nToday, an insight into the conditions in the region surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant soon after the magnitude 9 earthquake and resultant tsunami which caused the reactors to explode.\n<\/li>\n
- \nFukushima Medical University sits some 60 kilometres northwest of the power station. In the run up to the accident, a physicist at the university, Tsuneo Konayashi, had been measuring the background levels of gamma radiation, the numbers of secondary particles from cosmic ray impacts and the amount of radon in the atmosphere.\n<\/li>\n
- \nSo when the accident struck, Konayashi and his colleagues were in a good position to measure exactly how things changed.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/blog\/arxiv\/27335\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Contaminated water still headache for Tepco -Japan Times, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThough it continues to process contaminated water currently flooding the basements of the reactor and turbine buildings for recycling to cool the reactors, the utility has yet to come up with a way to drain all the water from the buildings. With the trouble unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, the threat of further soil, groundwater and sea contamination near the power plant continues.\n<\/li>\n
- \nTepco originally planned to process 200,000 tons of contaminated water and remove it all by the end of this year, but some 200 to 500 tons of groundwater flows into the buildings every day, rendering this option impossible.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe massive inflow of groundwater indicates the basement walls may be cracked, and thus there is a risk that the contamination can spread to the outside environment. Tepco does not know exactly where the groundwater is coming in from.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111115f2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Steps May Cost 19 Billion Yen Per Reactor -Bloomberg, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nAdditional safety measures required at Japan’s nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster may cost 19.4 billion yen ($252 million) per reactor, the government said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nEmergency measures such as maintaining cooling at a 1,200- megawatt nuclear station are estimated to cost about 11.8 billion yen, a committee under the National Policy Unit said in a report today. Other costs include steps to secure emergency power generators and improve external sources of electricity and 1.3 billion yen to prevent explosions and equip workers with radiation-protection gear in a severe nuclear accident.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/news.businessweek.com\/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LUOVUT07SXKX01-5QP1VSJAM1CAG2877DDVS9EV6H<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Response rate for Fukushima’s thyroid check-ups on kids reaches 77 percent -Mainichi News, Nov. 15 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe response rate for the first wave of thyroid check-ups for children under the age of 18 here was some 77 percent, a number that far surpasses that of most regular check-ups, officials said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe initial examinations for possible thyroid abnormalities, launched between Oct. 9 and Nov. 13 in several areas of those places most affected by the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant disaster, including the two towns of Namie and Iitate, attracted a 77 percent response rate. Among those, 25 percent were people who had evacuated out of Fukushima Prefecture and traveled back to the prefecture specifically for the check-ups.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111115p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Smartphone geiger counter developed -Yomiuri, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nA manufacturer in Otamamura, Fukushima Prefecture, has developed a geiger counter that allows users to display radiation readings on a smartphone.\n<\/li>\n
- \nSanwa Corp. was to release the product this coming weekend at 9,800 yen per unit amid growing demand for such measuring devices following the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \nHe and his 11 employees have worked on the product since June, as part of an Internet project in which participants shared knowledge to develop measuring devices.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005302.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
1.3 SIEVERT\/HR Inside Reactor 3 Bldg -EX-SKF, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nwhere the carbon-based workers would have to go in to install the gas management system, which would filter the gas coming out of the Containment Vessel to capture radioactive materials and release it outside.\n<\/li>\n
- \nOne minute of work at that location would get a carbon-based worker over 21 millisieverts radiation. One second 360 microsieverts.\n<\/li>\n
- \nAs I said before, a futile window-dressing, as the CV have been breached somewhere already. It is absolutely crazy, bordering criminal, to send workers there for a cosmetic, token work.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/ex-skf.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-13-sieverthr.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
A Long, Long Road to Recycling Nuclear Fuel -NYT, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe question of what to do with spent nuclear fuel from civilian power reactors has stirred renewed interest in reprocessing that is, chopping up the fuel, retrieving materials that can power a reactor and possibly recovering the most troublesome waste products so they can be broken up in the reactor into easier-to-handle elements.\n<\/li>\n
- \nBut the Energy Department, which is supposed to is evaluate different ways that the used fuel could be recycled, has a long way to go, according to the Government Accountability Office. In a report released on Wednesday, the auditors noted that the Department of Energy had listed a huge number of potential ways to do the job and classified the methods according to the degree of promise that each held. Still, the departments evaluation does not indicate the state of technical progress for the many technologies that would be needed, the report said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nNo currently available or reasonably foreseeable reactor and fuel cycle technology developments including advances in reprocess and recycle technologies have the potential to fundamentally alter the waste management challenge this nation confronts over at least the next several decades, if not longer, the report said.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/green.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/16\/a-long-long-road-to-recycling-nuclear-fuel\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Truck Hauling Uranium Crashes on I-40 -WREG, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.wreg.com\/videogallery\/66118549\/News\/Truck-Hauling-Uranium-Crashes-on-I-40<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
NRC investigates reactor coolant system leak at Brunswick plant -News 14 Carolina, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nEnergy officials and environmentalists are reacting to reports of a reactor coolant system leak at Progress Energy’s Nuclear Plant in Brunswick County.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
-According to Progress Energy, early Wednesday morning the plant reported an unusual plant event to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Environmentalist Tom Clements with Friends of the Earth, tracks nuclear issues primarily in South Carolina and Georgia.\n<\/p>\n
- \n
- \n“The reason that is significant is because this type of reactor, a boiling water reactor, it goes directly through the core of the reactor, where the radioactive material is contained,” said Clements.\n<\/li>\n
- \nClements said he wants to know the source of the leak, if the water leaking is radioactive, and if this poses any threat to workers, the public, or the environment.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“The leakage rates according to the NRC website were up to ten gallons a minute or approaching 10 gallons a minute and when they shut the reactor down, they had gotten down to three gallons a minute but it’s a significant leak,” said Clements.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/triangle.news14.com\/content\/local_news\/649671\/nrc-investigates-reactor-coolant-system-leak-at-brunswick-plant<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Decontamination of houses under way -Yomiuri, Nov. 16 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe Date municipal government has become the first municipality to begin decontamination of houses within specific sites recommended for evacuation by the central government because of high radiation levels.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe local government decided to decontaminate the houses on its own out of consideration for residents who wish to return to lives free of radiation fears as soon as possible. It is unclear, however, how effective the operations will be, as so far it has proven difficult to get radiation down to target levels.\n<\/li>\n
- \nA total of 54 households in the Shimo-Oguni district of Ryozenmachi in Date were designated as sites recommended for evacuation at the end of June. The district, located in a mountainous area about 300 meters above sea level, is about 55 kilometers northwest of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005326.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Gov’t mulls sending GSDF troops for advance Fukushima cleanup -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe government on Wednesday started working out details for sending Ground Self-Defense Force troops next month to decontaminate some municipal buildings near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that will serve as command centers for a full decontamination operation starting in January, government sources said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nBut some officials have raised concerns as the government has yet to obtain data on the amount of radiation in case the troops conducting the cleanup work get exposed to radiation. The government therefore plans to finalize details with the defense and environment ministries, the sources said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe government envisions sending about 300 troops to the buildings in three locations, according to the sources.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2g00m0dm009000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Most radioactive cesium piled up within 2 centimeters of soil surface -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe Cabinet Office’s Team in Charge of the Lives of Disaster Victims announced on Nov. 16 the detailed results of its survey on cesium dosage and accumulations in the soil, forests, buildings, rivers and other environments. Based on the results, the Cabinet Office has concluded that “most of the cesium can be removed if the top two centimeters of the soil is scraped away from its surface.”<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Cesium fallout widespread -Japan Times, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nRadioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have reached as far as Hokkaido, Shikoku and the Chugoku region in the west, according to a recent simulation by an international research team.\n<\/li>\n
- \nLarge areas of eastern and northeastern Japan were likely contaminated by the plant, with concentrations of cesium-137 exceeding 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil in some places, says the study, which was posted Monday on the website of the National Academy of Sciences.\n<\/li>\n
- \nResearchers for the U.S.-based organization said the study, which was based on partial data readings, is the first to estimate potential cesium contamination across the country. But they also played down the incident’s impact on the three distant regions.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111117x2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Early Report Suggests Low Radiation Exposure in Fukushima -TIME, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nIn the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan on March 11, concerns have focused on the lasting health impact of the radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled in the disasters.\n<\/li>\n
- \nNow a preliminary report published in PLoS ONE finds that the dangers may not be as grave as we first feared. Over on TIME’s Ecocentric blog, our colleague Bryan Walsh reports:\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe PLoS study, led by Ikuo Kashiwakura, found only 10 people among those surveyed with high levels of radiation exposure and even those levels were not elevated enough to require decontamination. (The study covered March 15 to June 20.) Almost everyone else surveyed had low to nonexistent levels of radiation contamination, while the Hirosaki [University] staff members on site had undetectable radiation levels.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/healthland.time.com\/2011\/11\/17\/early-report-suggests-low-radiation-exposure-in-fukushima\/#ixzz1fFCOpJzt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Volunteers struggle to look after pets orphaned by Fukushima nuclear crisis -Mainichi News, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe Fukushima Prefectural Government set up the two animal shelters in the city of Fukushima and the town of Miharu. The Fukushima facility housed 165 cats and dogs as of Nov. 16, while the one in Miharu, which opened in October, had 118. They are being operated by an aid headquarters formed by parties including the prefectural government and the Fukushima Veterinary Medical Association.\n<\/li>\n
- \nAfter the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, many residents had to leave their pets at home when they evacuated. It is believed that about 10,000 pet cats and roughly the same number of pet dogs were in the restricted zone when the crisis broke out after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Roughly 30 percent of these animals died in the quake and tsunami, and about 20 percent were taken into the care of volunteer groups. About 700 of the remaining pets were caught by officials or retrieved when residents briefly returned home, and the ones whose owners could not be determined or whose owners could not keep them anymore are being looked after at the two prefectural facilities.\n<\/li>\n
- \nOne 36-year-old construction worker from the town of Okuma, near the nuclear plant, comes to see his pet dog at the facility about once every two weeks.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na012000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
France Needs to Upgrade All Nuclear Reactors -Scientific American, Nov. 17 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nFrance needs to upgrade the protection of vital functions in all its nuclear reactors to avoid a disaster in the event of a natural calamity, the head of its nuclear safety agency said, adding there was no need to close any plants.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIRSN, experts on radiation protection and nuclear safety, delivered a 500-page report to nuclear watchdog ASN Thursday, which will in turn hand over its conclusions, based on the report, to the government at the end of 2011.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“There is a need to add a layer to protect safety mechanisms in reactors that are vital for the protection of the reactor such as cooling functions and electric powering,” Jacques Repussard, head of the IRSN, told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article.cfm?id=france-needs-to-upgrade-all&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_ENGYSUS_20111118<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Uranium Mining The Virginia Battleground Environmental Concerns vs. Corporate Interests -DC Bureau, Nov. 18 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe Virginia General Assembly is expected to vote next year on whether to lift a 30-year moratorium on uranium mining in the state.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe issue has prompted an expensive lobbying campaign by the company that wants to mine a huge deposit known as Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County and an intense fight by environmentalists who want to stop it. The battle has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the county, in south central Virginia, an area known as Southside.\n<\/li>\n
- \nTwo Virginians, each offered money to allow uranium mining on their land, personify the debate that is raging through the state. One accepted. The other declined.\n<\/li>\n
- \nConnie Crider, a housewife, lives with her husband in Pittsylvania County, close to 119 million pounds of uranium ore, the largest deposit in the country and one of the largest in the world. Its worth has been estimated at $10 billion.\n<\/li>\n
- \nCrider dismisses arguments from environmentalists that the tons and tons of toxic radioactive waste produced by mining could contaminate their water, air and land. I just dont think they know, she says. They wont listen. They have just set their minds that this is a bad thing and they wont listen.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.dcbureau.org\/201111186500\/natural-resources-news-service\/uranium-mining-%E2%80%93-the-virginia-battleground-%E2%80%93-environmental-concerns-vs-corporate-interests.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Storing radioactive waste -Japan Times, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe central government on Oct. 29 announced a plan to construct within three years an intermediate storage facility to bury contaminated soil and other waste in Fukushima Prefecture.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe concrete facility will cover 3 to 5 square kilometers and have a capacity of 15 million to 28 million cubic meters. The central government will have to negotiate with local governments in Fukushima Prefecture to decide on a site for the facility in 2012 and start building it in the summer of 2014. The facility will start accepting contaminated soil and other waste around January 2015.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/ed20111119a1.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Cold shutdown appears on schedule -Japan Times, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe melted nuclear fuel of reactors 1, 2 and 3 of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is being slowly cooled and a cold shutdown is likely to be achieved by the end of the year as planned, disaster minister Goshi Hosono said Thursday.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe government will declare that the facility has achieved cold shutdown once it confirms the complex can maintain stability over the next several years even if it is hit by an earthquake or suffers malfunctions, he said.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIn the road map for the resolution of the crisis, which is updated every month, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said not only that the temperature at the bottom of the pressure vessels of all three reactors is below 100, but that the temperature inside the primary containment vessels of the reactors, where part of the melted fuel may be accumulating, was between 39 and 70 as of Wednesday.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“There have been various discussions on whether the fuel remains inside the pressure vessels, or has dropped to the (outer) primary container . . . and our explanation is that we think we are able to slowly cool the fuel including that inside the primary containers and the pressure vessels,” Hosono said at a news conference that Tepco officials also attended.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111119a6.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
N-fuel conditions unclear -Yomiuri, Nov. 19 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. have revised the timetable for the seventh time in the eight months since the crisis began. Data suggests the reactors and radioactive material are under control, and the power plant will achieve a cold shutdown once required conditions are confirmed.\n<\/li>\n
- \nHowever, the status of the molten nuclear fuel is unclear. It is not known how the fuel, believed to have partially melted through pressure vessels of the reactors and into containment vessels, has dispersed and how much lies in water.\n<\/li>\n
- \nIt is questionable to assess the situation as nearly a cold shutdown. Usually, to achieve a cold shutdown, all fuel rods should be cooled under water, and nuclear fuel, pressure and containment vessels should be intact and in good condition.\n<\/li>\n
- \nThe situation at the nuclear plant does not meet this definition. Is it appropriate for the government and TEPCO to call the current status nearly a cold shutdown?<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111118006066.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Article 9 group calls for end to nuclear power -Japan Times, Nov. 20 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nThe founders of an antirevisionist group stressed the need Saturday to remove nuclear power from the nation’s energy policy in light of Article 9 of the Constitution and the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“Our Constitution represents our determination to never again experience the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel laureate in literature, referring to the two cities obliterated by atomic bombs in the final days of World War II. “But we have seen the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.”\n<\/li>\n
- \nOe, one of the nine founders of the Article 9 Association, made the remarks at the group’s national rally in Tokyo, which drew about 700 like-minded people.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111120a4.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Packbot Finds 1.6 Sievert\/Hr Spot -EX-SKF, Nov. 20 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nA Japanese government panel charged with cutting wasteful public expenses bitterly lashed out on Nov. 20 at massive spending for an ambitious program to develop nuclear fuel recycling technology based on the troubled Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor, a move that could affect the country’s nuclear policy already undermined by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.\n<\/li>\n
- \n“Is it good to pour money into something 40 years into the future, something which has produced no results in the last 40 years?” said Yuichiro Tamaki, a House of Representatives lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Tamaki was one of the members of the government panel that conducted its first screening session on government policies under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Nov. 20. Other panel members also harshly criticized Monju-related spending.<\/p>\n
\nGov’t panel bitterly criticizes budget for Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor project -Mainichi News, Nov. 21 <\/h4>\n
\n- \n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111120a4.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111118006066.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111119a6.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/ed20111119a1.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.dcbureau.org\/201111186500\/natural-resources-news-service\/uranium-mining-%E2%80%93-the-virginia-battleground-%E2%80%93-environmental-concerns-vs-corporate-interests.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article.cfm?id=france-needs-to-upgrade-all&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_ENGYSUS_20111118<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na012000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/healthland.time.com\/2011\/11\/17\/early-report-suggests-low-radiation-exposure-in-fukushima\/#ixzz1fFCOpJzt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111117x2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nThe Cabinet Office’s Team in Charge of the Lives of Disaster Victims announced on Nov. 16 the detailed results of its survey on cesium dosage and accumulations in the soil, forests, buildings, rivers and other environments. Based on the results, the Cabinet Office has concluded that “most of the cesium can be removed if the top two centimeters of the soil is scraped away from its surface.”<\/p>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111117p2g00m0dm009000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005326.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/triangle.news14.com\/content\/local_news\/649671\/nrc-investigates-reactor-coolant-system-leak-at-brunswick-plant<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nEnergy officials and environmentalists are reacting to reports of a reactor coolant system leak at Progress Energy’s Nuclear Plant in Brunswick County.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.wreg.com\/videogallery\/66118549\/News\/Truck-Hauling-Uranium-Crashes-on-I-40<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/green.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/16\/a-long-long-road-to-recycling-nuclear-fuel\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/ex-skf.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-13-sieverthr.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.yomiuri.co.jp\/dy\/national\/T111115005302.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111115p2a00m0na016000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/news.businessweek.com\/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LUOVUT07SXKX01-5QP1VSJAM1CAG2877DDVS9EV6H<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/nn20111115f2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/blog\/arxiv\/27335\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \nhttp:\/\/mdn.mainichi.jp\/mdnnews\/news\/20111114p2a00m0na004000c.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n