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Gabi reports:
Rain forecast for the whole day, as typhoon Nr. 2 comes closers.
Detailed Typhoon new are up tomorrow in this BLOG.
Most people in Japan do not think it is a good idea to change government in the middle of this crisis. But the opposition is now pushing this way, see below.
This is the same "opposition" who brought the problems of TEPCO to Japan in the first place!
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Bulletins from NHK Online
source : www3.nhk.or.jp
Saturday, May 28, 2011 08:58
Kan outlines plan for more renewable energy
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke after the end of the G8 summit in France. He said Japan will step up its use of renewable energy by drawing on the private sector.
Kan told the other G8 leaders that Japan will increase the proportion of power generation from renewable resources to one fifth by the early 2020s. He said the plan is viable despite Japan's tight fiscal situation. He said the government should use technologies and funds from the private sector to achieve its goals.
Kan also said the other G8 leaders had all expressed their sympathy over the earthquake and tsunami. He said their encouragement had brought home the fact that Japan has friends around the world.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 08:58
TEPCO: Tainted water disposal may cost $650mln
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it will cost at least 53 billion yen, or 650 million dollars, to decontaminate highly radioactive water that leaked from reactors.
The contaminated water is hampering efforts to stabilize the stricken reactors at the plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company estimates about 84,700 tons of cooling water have leaked into basements and other areas of the 4 reactor buildings.
TEPCO is using US and French technologies to build a treatment facility to eliminate radioactive materials. After the facility starts operating in June, the decontaminated water will be stored in a tank and then used to cool reactors.
TEPCO says the estimated cost for the water treatment is expected to rise, as it does not include the cost of disposal of lower level radioactive water.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 11:03
Seafood exports to China to resume
Japan's seafood exports to China are set to resume soon on condition that products are proved to contain safe levels of radioactive substances.
The Fisheries Agency said on Friday that Japan and China agreed on ways to certify product safety and that China notified Japan it would be restarting procedures for quarantine and customs clearance for Japanese marine products.
The agreement says radioactive iodine contained in seafood exported to China should be less than 100 becquerels per kilogram and radioactive cesium less than 800 becquerels per kilogram.
China has not yet lifted all restrictions on food exports from Fukushima and 11 other prefectures.
Japan's fishery exports to China were worth about 360 million dollars in 2010.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 13:45
Rain likely to induce more radioactive leaks
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it is closely monitoring contaminated water levels in the facility as heavy rain is forecast next week.
Tokyo Electric Power Company is continuing to inject water to cool reactors. As a result, the level of highly radioactive water around reactor buildings is rising.
The company is concerned that contaminated water in the basement of reactor buildings and nearby tunnels may overflow and seep into the ground and the sea.
Rain is forecast on Sunday and Monday because of an approaching typhoon.
As of Saturday morning, the water height is 57.6 centimeters below ground level around the Number 2 reactor and 43.1 centimeters below ground level for the Number 3 reactor.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 22:21
Japan-EU summit ends
... The leaders also agreed to tackle unfounded rumors about food safety caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 22:21
Kan hopeful for party unity
Prime Minister Naoto Kan says he believes his party will be united in voting against a non-confidence motion the opposition camp is expected to submit.
Kan said he believes his party will unite against such moves, as his administration needs to deal with the aftermath of the March 11th disaster and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
He said most of the Japanese people feel the same way, and he does not expect the motion will succeed.
Kan said he plans to discuss the matter with former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and other former heads of the party after he returns to Japan.
Kan also said he feels responsible for the false report on the suspension of seawater injection at the Fukushima plant, and that he supports the plant manager's decision to continue the operation.
He said the manager at the site can legitimately use his own discretion to take action to avoid danger, and that there is no need to punish him.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 22:21
Japanese gov't launches disaster prevention panel
A Japanese government panel has begun examining the damage caused by the massive March 11th earthquake and tsunami in order to outline a new disaster prevention plan.
At its first meeting on Saturday, the 17 member-panel, including representatives from local municipalities, compared areas flooded by the tsunami with those that were projected to be inundated before the disaster actually hit northeastern Japan.
The participants discussed the effectiveness of breakwaters and coastal levees in the affected areas.
They plan to study how to assess the extent of damage when the government compiles measures to respond to a major earthquake and how to improve the barriers against future tsunami.
The panel will issue a final report by the autumn.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 22:21
Radioactive materials found off Miyagi and Ibaraki
Japan's science ministry has detected extraordinarily high levels of radioactive cesium in seafloor samples collected off Miyagi and Ibaraki Prefectures.
Experts say monitoring should be stepped up over a larger area to determine how fish and shell fish are being affected.
The ministry collected samples from 12 locations along a 300-kilometer stretch off Fukushima prefecture's Pacific coast between May 9th and 14th. It hoped to get an idea about the spread of nuclear contamination caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Radioactive substances were found in all locations, including those off Miyagi and Ibaraki Prefectures, which had not been previously investigated.
Radioactive cesium 137, measuring 110 becquerels per kilogram or about 100 times the normal level, was found in samples collected from the seabed 30 kilometers off Sendai City and 45 meters beneath the surface.
Samples collected from the seabed 10 kilometers off Mito City and 49 meters beneath the surface measured 50 becquerels or about 50 times the normal level.
Professor Takashi Ishimaru 石丸隆 of the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology says plankton most probably absorbed the radioactive substances carried by the current near the sea surface, and then sank to the seabed.
He said monitoring must be stepped up over a larger area, as radioactive materials in the seabed do not dissolve quickly, and can accumulate in the bodies of larger fish that eat shrimp and crabs that live on the seafloor.
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Voices from around
. Daily Radiation Levels .
. . . . .
Japan Times :
Fukushima school limit: 1 millisievert
The education ministry says it has set a new nonbinding target to reduce radiation exposure of Fukushima Prefecture students while they are at school to 1 millisievert or less a year.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110528a1.html
G-8 urges atomic safety standards
Leaders from the Group of Eight major powers agree on the need to better define international standards for nuclear safety and further cooperate in assisting emerging Arab democracy during their two-day meeting in the French seaside resort of Deauville.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110528a2.html
Tepco disclosure said lacking from get-go
Tokyo Electric Power Co. did not fully disclose radiation monitoring data after its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government revealed Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, after being informed by Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told reporters that he instructed Tepco to sort out the data, make it public and make doubly sure no more information-withholding occurs.
Coming a day after he blasted Tepco's flip-flop over the injection of seawater into the plant's reactor 1, Edano said the government "cannot respond to this matter on the premise" that no more undisclosed information will emerge.
"There is a distinct possibility that there is still more," he said, urging Tepco to accurately and swiftly report the truth to the government.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110528a3.html
Tainted water ills 'massive'
As a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency was visiting the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Friday, academics warned that Tokyo Electric Power Co. has failed to disclose the scale of radiation leaks and faces a "massive problem" with contaminated water.
"Contaminated water is increasing and this is a massive problem," said Tetsuo Iguchi...
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110528n1.html
Prefectures to demand \10 billion from Tepco
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110528a5.html
LDP, New Komeito to seek no-confidence motion against Cabinet
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110528a6.html
CARE official helps Tohoku after a career of hot spots
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20110528a1.html
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