Earthquake not a factor in Fukushima accident
The tsunami of 11 March was the ‘direct cause’ of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, concluded an official investigation report. It dismissed the idea that earthquake damage was a major factor in the accident. A safe emergency shutdown was achieved within seconds of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, said the Fukushima Nuclear [...]
US envoy: Tokyo didn’t take charge when crisis hit – Yahoo! News
“There was nobody in charge. Nobody in the Japanese political system was willing to say, ‘I’m going to take responsibility and make decisions,’” said Maher, who coordinated U.S. offers to help Tokyo deal with the crisis. “Nothing was taking place at Fukushima Dai-ichi in terms of the government solving the problem” until about a week [...]
Japan city declares nuclear Decontamination Month – Yahoo! News
“We decided that we could not sit by and wait until Tokyo figured out what to do,” said town official Yoshiaki Yokota. “It’s an enormous task, but we have to start somewhere via Japan city declares nuclear Decontamination Month – Yahoo! News. More evidence that the tsunami/earthquake/nuclear disaster is forcing people to act without waiting [...]
Former US Diplomat Criticizes Japan Nuclear Response | Asia | English
Interesting article by VOA’s Steve Herman, tho perhaps not for the reasons Maher hopes. A former high-level U.S. diplomat, who was posted in Japan for many years, is speaking out about Tokyo’s initial response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis.He is also revealing the level of concern that was expressed behind closed doors in Washington at [...]
Japan to sack top officials over nuclear disaster – Yahoo! News
Will this do any real good? Or is it just whitewash, to try and recover lost public trust? Will it work to do even that, I wonder? TOKYO Reuters – Japan will replace three senior bureaucrats in charge of nuclear power policy, the minister overseeing energy policy said on Thursday, five months after the world’s [...]
Doubting Assurances, Japanese Find Radioactivity on Their Own – NYTimes.com
OMG! Japanese people are starting to take things into their own hands! It’s TEOTWAWKI (the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it)!!! “… as the government fumbles its reaction…” As I’ve written before, here and here, it’s not fumbling. So starting in April, Mrs. Okoshi began using her dosimeter to check nearby forest roads and rice paddies. What she found was startling. [...]
#Fukushima Teacher Pressured to Resign Over His Effort to Protect Children from “Invisible Snake” (Radiation) | EX-SKF
We humans are so susceptible to words. First read this headline (and the article, if you want). Sounds like a clear-cut case, doesn’t it? Teacher tries to warn his students about radiation risks. School authorities don’t like it because it “creates fear/panic” (the big no-no). Teacher “quits”, or was he pushed? Fukushima Teacher Muzzled on [...]
#Radioactive Compost Has Been Sold in 23 Prefectures | EX-SKF
So you thought caesium in beef was the worst there is to worry about? Silly you! It’s attracting far less attention, but the radioactive leaf compost is getting to be like the radioactive beef.First, it was 20,000 bags sold in Akita. Then, an unknown number of bags sold in Tottori link in Japanese. Now it [...]
Too little, too late? Radiation survey meets skepticism / Fukushima Pref. residents asked to recall diet, activities from 4 months ago : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE The Daily Yomiuri
FUKUSHIMA–Worries about health problems stemming from radiation leaked from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have not eased among residents in Fukushima Prefecture.Although the Fukushima prefectural government has decided to carry out health checks on all of the about 2 million residents in the prefecture, some experts have questioned whether exact radiation exposure can [...]
Meltdown: What Really Happened at Fukushima? – Global – The Atlantic Wire
Meltdown: What Really Happened at Fukushima? – Global – The Atlantic Wire. An interesting article that doesn’t answer it’s own question but provides some new (to me anyway) info, although it tends towards TEPCO-bashing, but then that sells and anyway they probably deserve it, although I still think the people on-site are heroes. I recommend [...]
