10/13/2011 Strong earthquake [Magnitude 5.9] hits off the coast of Oregon, no damage

Source: Lincoln Tribune
Date: October 13, 2011 – 1:38 am 

COOS BAY, OREGON (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck off the coast of Oregon on early Wednesday evening, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties and no tsunami warning was issued.

The 5.9-magnitude earthquake at 8.13 p.m. local time (0413 GMT Thursday) was centered about 144 miles (233 kilometers) west of Coos Bay, a city located in Coos County on the Pacific coast. It struck about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The USGS said it did not expect to see damage or casualties due to the earthquake's distance from the coast, and there were no immediate reports of tremors being felt anywhere along the coast.

Wednesday's earthquake was one of the strongest earthquakes to hit off the coast of Oregon in recent years, but no tsunami warning was issued by the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC).
(Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)

Editor's Note: This earthquake was downgraded by the USGS to a Magnitude 5.3.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

10/12/2011 The major news this week is the Strontium-90 found in Yokohama, which is even further from Fukushima I than Tokyo

There are many corroborating sources regarding deadly radionuclides or high levels of radiation being found far from the 20 km exclusion zone around Fukushima I. Bloggers, CNN, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and Kyodo News (amongst others) have confirmed that Strontium-90 has indeed been found in Yokohama, which is South of Tokyo and even further away than the major city from the melted down Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The apartment rooftop where the Stontium-90 was found is 155 miles (250 km) away from Fukushima I. This indicates that dangerous radioactive contamination is more far reaching than originally thought.  Note that the testing was done by a private testing lab, not the government.

Here is a series of articles from this week concerning this topic:

Date	Source	Headline
10/12/2011	CNN	Radioactive sediment found miles from Japan nuclear crisis zone
10/13/2011	Fukushima Diary	News: This is where strontium is
10/12/2011	Fukushima Diary	News: NHK manipulates again
10/11/2011	EX-SKF Blog	Test Result on Strontium-90 Detection in Yokohama
10/12/2011	Enformable	Japanese Government has “always known” about concentrated radiation hot spots discovered In Tokyo, Yokohama
10/12/2011	ABC	Radioactive material found 250km from Fukushima
10/12/2011	Kyodo News	Radioactive strontium found in Yokohama, 250 km from Fukushima plant
10/13/2011	Kyodo News	High levels of radiation detected in Tokyo
10/13/2011	The Japan Times	Yokohama finds high strontium-90 levels

Keep up to date with nuclear developments with the RadiationNews™ Google gadget

10/10/2011 Nuclear decontamination to begin in Japan

Source: NHK World
Date: 10/10/2011
by: Catherine Kobayashi and Keiko Kitagawa

Part 1: Decontamination plan compiled http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_24.html

The Japanese Environment Ministry has come up with a revised plan to clear away radioactive substances from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

It announced details on Monday at a meeting of a panel of experts.

Ministry officials say decontamination will be carried out in areas where radiation levels are higher than 1 millisievert per year.

The ministry revised an earlier plan to only decontaminate places with more than 5 millisieverts per year. Municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture that have areas with less than 5 millisieverts argued they should be included in the cleanup.

The government will be responsible for the decontamination of no-entry zones and government-designated evacuation zones. Local governments will clean up the rest of the affected areas.

Areas with radiation levels higher than 20 millisieverts per year will be reduced stage by stage as soon as possible.

In areas with less than 20 millisieverts per year, radiation levels recorded at the end of August will be cut up to 60 per cent in the next 2 years.

Environment Ministry officials say the government will help prefectures that have a massive amount of radioactive waste.

The ministry's decontamination plan will be further discussed within the government before being adopted by the Cabinet as the basic national plan.

Monday, October 10, 2011 22:04 +0900 (JST)

Part 2: IAEA team continues observing decontamination http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_26.html

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency have observed the Japanese government's experimental decontamination of a farm in Iitate Village. The land is in Fukushima Prefecture, inside the government-designated evacuation zone.

The 12 experts on the IAEA team arrived in Fukushima on Sunday to give advice about effective methods to clear away radioactive substances.

They visited a rice paddy on Monday where the experimental decontamination is being carried out.

Government officials explained radiation levels were reduced by 75 percent per kilogram of soil after workers removed 4 centimeters of top soil. They also said the dose of radiation in unpolished rice was about 0.1 percent of that of soil.

IAEA experts say these radiation levels are low and pose no problem.

They also inspected a site that uses 400 degree Celsius heat to process plants containing radioactive substances.

Government officials said they contained radioactive cesium within the plants when they converted them into charcoal. They said this method could help reduce the weight of plants.

An IAEA member said it would be necessary to work out a plan to effectively burn massive amounts of plants.

The IAEA experts are meeting Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato on Tuesday, their last day in the prefecture.

Monday, October 10, 2011 22:18 +0900 (JST)

10/10/2011 Fukushima/earthquake evacuees move from shelters to temporary housing

Source: NHK World
Date: 10/10/2011
by: Catherine Kobayashi

Part 1: Seven months since the disaster: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/11_09.html

It's been seven months since the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

In the hardest hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, 2,231 people are still living in 205 shelters, but more and more people are moving into temporary housings.

Police say the death toll as of October 7th stood at 15,761.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 07:20 +0900 (JST)

Part 2: All shelters closing in hard-hit Ishinomaki: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_22.html

Officials in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture are closing the last remaining shelters for survivors of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. Residents and volunteers have renewed their vow to rebuild their community.

About 50 of them gathered on Monday at one of the last remaining evacuation centers. All shelters will be closed on Tuesday because city authorities have finished building temporary housing units.

The survivors presented letters of gratitude and flowers to the volunteers who helped run the shelter. Some of them performed a traditional lion dance.

They also shared memories of the 7 months they spent at the evacuation center.

One man in his 60s said he will be sad to be separated from other survivors because they supported each other. He said he will hold onto the memory of the shelter and move forward. He also vowed to make a fresh start and return to where he used to live.

Ishinomaki is one of the areas in Japan's northeast that was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunami. About 50,000 people were staying at the city's 250 evacuation centers at one point.

Monday, October 10, 2011 22:04 +0900 (JST)

Part 3: Onagawa residents move into temporary housing: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/11_05.html

Residents in the disaster-hit Onagawa Town in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, began moving into new temporary housing on Monday.

About 220 Onagawa residents are still living in shelters.

Architect Shigeru Ban designed 2- and 3-storey temporary houses made from shipping containers. The town built 189 new residences on a baseball field.

Onagawa is surrounded by mountains and has limited space for construction. Teiji Kobayashi from the Onagawa office in charge of the town's reconstruction said it was difficult to secure land. He also said that the multi-storey housing would attract attention and cheer up those who live there.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 03:37 +0900 (JST)

4/29/2011 True Stories by An Ex-TEPCO Nuclear Designer "TEPCO Is A Terrible Company"

Source: tokybrowntabby
Date: Video dated 4/29/2011 uploaded 10/6/2011

Please click on "cc" to show English subtitles. Mr. Toshio Kimura is a former nuclear designer at TEPCO. He used to work at Fukushima-1 Nuclear Power Plant. When the earthquake/tsunami hit, he was living 15km west of the plant, operating his own business of solar power generation, surfing on his free time. After the explosion of Unit 1 reactor, he and his family evacuated to Kochi Prefecture, where they live now.

Mr. Kimura has given talks at various anti-nuclear rallies around the country. This video is one of his talks at the rally held in Kochi Prefecture on April 29, 2011.

*********************************************************
The rest of his talk goes like this:
*********************************************************
As to the situation of the plant, 70% of the fuel in Unit 1 have melted. I haven't looked at the most recent data, but the reactor pressure is increasing, the radiation dose inside the containment vessel is increasing, and iodine-131 is not decreasing. It has started to decrease a bit recently, though. All this means is there definitely has been re-criticality until recently. Because, as you know, the half life of iodine-131 is only 8 days. And yet, after more than a month from the accident, we still see an increase in the level of iodine-131. That itself proves there has been re-criticality, because otherwise iodine shouldn't have been produced. A neutron hits the atom of uranium-235, the atom splits, and iodine-131 is produced. That's how the nuclear fission occurs. And through the mechanism that can be explained by Einstein's theory of relativity, heat is produced. The heat boils water to create steam, and the steam spins the turbin. The turbines are connected in series and drive the electrical generator to produce electricity. This is the mechanism of electricity generation.

Iodine-131 is not produced unless neutrons cause nuclear fission. That's why I'm saying there has been re-criticality. Nuclear Safety Commission won't admit it. TEPCO won't admit it. The government won't admit it. But really there has been re-criticality until very recently. This is the fact. Any professional with the knowledge of physics of nuclear reactor can tell. This re-criticality issue is one of the things they are hiding from you.

Another lie is that 0.24 microsievert/h is safe. This is wrong.

These are the things I wanted to tell you today. Here in Kochi, you don't have to worry too much because Kochi is quite far from Fukushima. But please look at the radiation dispersion forecast by the German Weather Service. If you notice the north-east wind is blowing throughout Japan, don't ever let children get wet in the rain. And women who want to have children in the future. Don't let them go outside on such days. We, middle-aged men are okay, including me.

It's because cesium-137 is dangerous. Its half life is 30 years. It's dangerous because it tends to accumulate in muscles. Men have relatively more muscle. Even if cesium-137 gets absorbed inside their bodies, it spreads thinly throughout their muscles. On the other hand, women don't have much muscle, and the absorbed cesium tends to concentrate in the organs like mammary gland and uterus. It may increase the incidence of breast cancer. But this is something you can prevent if you have the knowledge. If you have to go outside on such days, please wet the gauze inside the mask first and put on the mask before you go out.

Also, you have to be careful with iodine, too, while it is still released. Iodine accumulates in seaweed and it is easily absorbed from your hair. So, one way to prevent iodine absorption is to put on a hat so that your hair won't get wet from the rain.

You haven't heard about such things, have you? Nobody tells you that. The government doesn't tell, either. But I wanted to let you know. That's why I came here today.

I don't want to talk too long, but one last thing.

I hear some wise old men protected a very beautiful fountain located within the radius of 30km from Chernobyl plant. How they protected it is mysterious. I studied nuclear energy intensively and I studied physics to some extent. But still I believe in an invisible power. Those wise old men didn't evacuate after the accident. How did they protect the fountain? By prayer. I'm not sure how many of you believe in the power of prayer. But if you can believe in it, even if just a little, then please pray in the morning that the Fukushima-1 nuke plant may rest in peace. And remember, we've benefited from radioactivity because it produces electricity. So, please pray that the radiation will be neutralized and vanished by our sense of gratitude and our love. I hope we'll pull together and pass that prayer over to the next generation.

That's all I had to say. Thank you.

*********************************************************
Translation and captioning by tokyobrowntabby.

10/6/2011 Fukushima nuclear plant worker dies

Source: The Telegraph
Date: 1:23PM BST 06 Oct 2011

A worker at Japan's disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant has died, its operator said, adding that the death was not necessarily related to radioactive leaks.

The Fukushima nuclear site after the tsunami Photo: EPA

1:23PM BST 06 Oct 2011

The male worker, in his 50s, was taken to hospital for treatment on Wednesday after feeling ill during a regular morning assembly at the plant, some 140 miles north of Tokyo, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).
...
Read full article here

Editor's Note: This is the third reported Fukushima worker death.  TEPCO historically is a proven liar, so if they said this guy did not die from radiation, take it with a grain of salt.

Second Fukushima worker death: August 30, 2011 Fukushima worker dies of acute leukemia
First Fukushima worker death: May 14, 2011 10:32 PM Worker dies at damaged Fukushima nuclear plant
 

10/6/2011 IAEA sends decontamination experts to Japan

Source: NHK World 
Date: Friday, October 07, 2011 11:22 +0900 (JST)

The International Atomic Energy Agency has sent a team of experts to Japan to give advice on cleaning up the radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

On Thursday, the 12-member IAEA team left Vienna, where the head office of the world's nuclear watchdog is based.

The IAEA sent the mission at the request of Japan's nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono, who attended the IAEA general conference in Vienna in September.

The radiation experts have experience in remediating areas contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident in 1986.

The team's leader, Juan Carlos Lentijo, said before their departure that they would like to help Japan find the best way to decontaminate the affected areas.

Lentijo, the head of radiation protection at Spain's nuclear regulatory authority, said the team's important mission is to come up with proposals to share with Japan.

The members will discuss decontamination steps with Japanese officials and advise Fukushima residents.
They will leave Japan on October 15th.

10/6/2011 Gov't panel mulls interim goals on radiation dose

Source: NHK World 
Date: Thursday, October 06, 2011 15:39 +0900 (JST)
by: Yuko Fukushima


A government panel is calling for Japan's one-millisievert annual radiation limit to be eased for the interim, saying it will be difficult to restrict exposure in some areas near the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The environment is contaminated by radioactive substances in areas hit by fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing concern that residents may be exposed to radiation for long periods.

The panel on radiation believes it will be difficult to keep their dose below the one-millisievert limit set by the government for normal times and proposed on Thursday to set an interim exposure target.

It says the target should be set between one and 20 millisieverts in line with recommendations by the International Commission for Radiological Protection.

The panel says the target should be lowered in steps as decontamination progresses.

It adds that targets could differ by region and that residents should have a voice in setting the targets.

The panel will wrap up its proposal at its next meeting, but its plan to ease the radiation exposure limit is expected to arouse controversy.

Editor's Note: Although it is true that the ICRP (International Commission for Radiological Protection) does give discretion for setting the maximum yearly safe limit, it seems like common sense that instead of arbitrarily raising the safe dosage to match current conditions, it would be better to move people further away from hot spots so that they can meet the lowest yearly radiation dose limit possible. 

What they are actually doing is sending people back in to previously evacuated areas, rather than expanding the exclusion zone and evacuating more people from known hotspot areas. Excerpts from ICRP Publication 103 concerning the guidelines for yearly radiation exposure thresholds can be found here. Page 165 and 166 of the Full text PDF file which contains the excerpted pages from Publication 103 is where the 1 millisieverts/year and 20 millisieverts/year thresholds appear. Another useful reference is ICRP Publication 111 which gives guidelines for protection of people living in long-term contaminated areas. From skimming through this document 1 millisievert/year is a key exposure level. If I understand correctly, if you are getting over 1 millisievert/year you are under normal circumstances considered to be working in a "planned exposure" situation (e.g. you work with radiological materials in healthcare or as a nuclear plant worker etc.). 

Note that 20 millisieverts per year is the maximum allowable dosage for nuclear workers worldwide in most places (averaged over 5 years) as per World Nuclear Association. So basically what the Japanese government is proposing is to potentially up the maximum allowable dosage for an average Japanese citizen to the same level as for nuclear workers!

10/6/2011 Rice market turned upside down by radiation fears

Source: The Japan Times: Yen for Living
Date: October 6th, 2011
by: Philip Brasor & Masako Tsubuku

Japan’s rice harvest season started at the end of August, and is presently centered on the Tohoku region; or, at least it would be centered there if so much of the crop hadn’t been neutralized by the Mar. 11 tsunami and then what was left wasn’t contaminated by fallout from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactor. Japanese people prize rice grown in the northeastern part of the country more than rice grown anywhere else, and they prefer new rice (shinmai), the newer the better. This is a cultural thing, since in some countries — India and Italy, for instance — older rice is considered something of a delicacy.
...
Read full article here

10/6/2011 Japan Test Reactor Was Shaken Beyond Design Limit in March Quake

Source: Bloomberg
Date: October 06, 2011, 1:06 AM EDT
by: Tsuyoshi Inajima

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- A research reactor operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency was shaken beyond its design limits during the earthquake that struck in March and another of the agency’s nuclear facilities was likely damaged in the disaster.

The Japan Research Reactor No. 3 in Tokai village, 115 kilometers (71 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was shaken as much as 5.7 times more than its design allowed, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said in a statement.

Parts of the roof of the experimental Japan Materials Testing Reactor building in the agency’s research center in Oarari, 60 kilometers from Tokyo, was damaged, possibly by the quake, the ministry said. No radiation leaks were found at either site, according to the ministry.

The magnitude-9 quake and subsequent tsunami on March 11 knocked out power and cooling at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, causing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Neither of the Japan Atomic reactors were running when the quake hit, said Kunimi Yoshida, an official involved in nuclear power regulation at the science ministry.

Tokai village was the site of an accident in 1999 at a nuclear plant operated by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.’s unit JCO Co. Two workers were killed by radiation after pouring uranium from a bucket into a processing tank, leading to a chain reaction.

--Editors: Aaron Sheldrick, Baldave Singh
To contact the reporters on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash in Singapore at aprakash1@bloomberg.net

10/5/2011 Yakuza possibly involved in TEPCO sub-contracting of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear workers

Both ENENEWS and EX-SKF Blog had recent articles pertaining to the "pointy guy" or "camera guy" (Takeuchi) who has famously stood in front of the TEPCO webcam at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in radiation protective gear and pointed his finger directly at the camera.


So why was he pointing?  "I would like to request that TEPCO and the government improve in a tangible way how they contract work to subcontractors and how they monitor the employment situation.", says pointy guy as quoted from EX-SKF Blog.  Also according to EX-SKF Blog "pointy guy" believes the Yakuza are gathering sub-contractors for TEPCO for the dangerous Fukushima Daiichi nuclear work:

[...]
As has been much reported, some workers have been forced to work here by the outlaw element [i.e. "yakuza" or the Japanese mafia]. Such workers are disguised as being employed by legitimate contractors but have to accept an unfair or severe employment conditions. Sometimes even the legitimate contractors who post recruitment information at employment Offices don't know who their workers' true contractors are. The excessive multi-layered subcontracting leads to various problems such as lower wages, no insurance, and no contract document, as has been reported.
[...]

The "pointy guy" or "camera guy" (Takeuchi) apparently showed up at a recent TEPCO press conference and said the following according to ENENEWS:

[...] I was working for a sub-contract company at Fukushima in August. [...]
Media is banned to go into the plant site. Is it because media might see and report Yakuza people are working there ?
I actually saw people with Yakuza tatoo [sic] in the backroom. Is it not to let the media report the truth in the plant ?

Matsumoto, spokesman of TEPCO stumbled in his response as per ENENEWS:

Well, um, ah regarding of the Fukushima nuclear plant, eh [...]
The reason why we don’t disclose the actual situation inside is [...]
One of them is, um, because it’s in the caution zone and [...] From our point of view, now, um, [...] we are trying our best, so, ah [...] um, well, there is also the problem of exposure of the reporters. [...]
In that meaning, for now, discussing with the government and um.. [...] we can not disclose the actual situation inside of the plant.

Apparently this is not a new phenomenon in Japan.  There is an old 1995 documentary titled Nuclear Ginza which details how the Yakuza have recruited homeless and poor people from off the streets for high risk nuclear worker jobs in the past.

Nuclear Ginza: Japan's secret at-risk labor force Part 1/2


Nuclear Ginza: Japan's secret at-risk labor force Part 2/2

10/4/2011 Japan to work with IAEA decontamination experts

Source: NHK World
Date: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 05:34 +0900 (JST)
by: Catherine Kobayashi


The Japanese government says it is ready to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency in removing radioactive materials around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The government's chief spokesman, Osamu Fujimura, made the remark on Tuesday ahead of a visit by a team of IAEA experts who will arrive in Japan on Friday.

Fujimura said Japan will cooperate with and learn from international experts in decontamination. He said he hopes their visit will help the process to move faster and more efficiently.

The government says it also hopes to establish the best way to clean up radioactive substances so it can be shared by other nations.

The 12-member team is to make the 9-day visit at the request of Japan's nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono.

The team will travel to Fukushima Prefecture to watch the decontamination process and give advice before compiling a report.