June 4, Saturday

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atomic fallout
fall out
out



Daigo Fukuryumaru (the Fifth Lucky Dragon)
第五福竜丸事件
. CLICK on the photo for my information.

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Gabi reports:

. . . . . at 1:00
Earthquake M 5.6, off the coast of Fukushima

. . . . . at 2:00
Earthquake M 5.1, Eastern Tottori
This was close by. I woke up at night from the ratteling of the glass doors of the bookshelves. Before we could decide to run out for safety, it has stopped. About an hour later was another shock in Tottori, but not felt here.
Well, another sleepless night for us.

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Kan denies he made resignation promise
.
Edano: Kan to resign 'in not-too-distant future'
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Kan implies step-down in not-too-distant future
. The Political Situation .

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Many believe that in the end Japan will come out a stronger country once the disaster is overcome.

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Bulletins from NHK Online
source : www3.nhk.or.jp

Saturday, June 04, 2011 09:05
Gov't failed to release some radiation projections
The Japanese science ministry has admitted failing to release some of its projections of how radioactive substances would spread if they leaked from the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant.
The science ministry used a computer system called SPEEDI to calculate how radiation would spread depending on the weather and terrain.
It said on Friday that it had failed to release 37 projections for the Fukushima Daini plant. It made the projections once an hour from 6PM on March 11 to 9AM on March 13.
The ministry said it had overlooked the existence of the data because it stopped making projections for the Fukushima Daini plant on March 13.
It was found on Thursday that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency had failed to release 5 SPEEDI calculations for the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear plants.
The government said in May that it would release all projections made with the SPEEDI system.


Saturday, June 04, 2011 09:05
Berlin Philharmonic performs for quake survivors
Members of the Berlin Philharmonic have held a charity concert in Japan in support of survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Thirteen members of the German orchestra performed in Tokyo on Friday. They included the world's top violinists and 11 Stradivariuses.
Violinist Sebastian Heesch spoke to the audience after the performance. He said he would be pleased if survivors had been consoled by the music.
Survivors living in Tokyo were invited to the concert. One evacuee from Fukushima Prefecture said she was moved to tears by the performance and expressed gratitude for the support she has received. Proceeds from the concert will benefit children who lost their parents in the disaster.
Berliner Philharmoniker


Saturday, June 04, 2011 13:23
Steam, high radiation detected at No.1 reactor
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says steam was observed coming out of the floor of the No.1 reactor building, and extremely high radiation was detected in the vicinity.
Tokyo Electric Power Company inspected the inside of the No.1 reactor building on Friday with a remote-controlled robot.
TEPCO said it found that steam was rising from a crevice in the floor, and that extremely high radiation of 3,000 to 4,000 millisieverts per hour was measured around the area. The radiation is believed to be the highest detected in the air at the plant.
TEPCO says the steam is likely coming from water at a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius that has accumulated in the basement of the reactor building.
The company sees no major impact from the radiation so far on ongoing work, as it has been detected only within a limited section of the building.
The No.1 reactor is believed to have suffered a meltdown after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
It is believed to have created holes in the pressure vessel and damaged the containment vessel, causing highly contaminated water to leak out and accumulate in the basement.
Under the utility's plan to bring the plant under control, a circulatory cooling system is to be installed to decontaminate radioactive water and use it as coolant.


Saturday, June 04, 2011 15:27
Gov't didn't release radiation data after accident
The Japanese government has expressed regret for not disclosing some important results of the radiation monitoring conducted near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant soon after the accident.
The central and Fukushima prefectural governments collected the data to determine evacuation measures as well as food and water restrictions for residents.
A reading on March 12th, one day after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the plant, shows that radioactive tellurium was detected 7 kilometers away. Tellurium is produced during the melting of nuclear fuel.
Three hours before the data was collected, the government expanded the radius of the evacuation area around the plant from 3 kilometers to 10 kilometers.
But the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported at a news conference several hours later that the nuclear fuel was intact.
The government also failed to disclose the high radiation levels in weeds 30 to 50 kilometers from the plant. On March 15th, 123 million becquerels of radioactive iodine-131 per kilogram were detected 38 kilometers northeast of the plant.
The nuclear safety agency says it deeply regrets not releasing the data.
Professor Yasuyuki Muramatsu 村松康行 of Gakushuin University says radioactive iodine has a high effect on children. He says that if the data had been released earlier, more measures could have been taken to protect them from exposure.


Saturday, June 04, 2011 16:00
Kitazawa proposes international relief base
Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa 北沢俊美 has proposed an international conference in which defense authorities discuss cooperation in an emergency.
Kitazawa made the proposal at the international conference on Asian security in Singapore on Saturday.
He explained the rescue effort by the Self-Defense Forces in the wake of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident. Kitazawa also expressed gratitude to the international community for its support.
In proposing the international conference, Kitazawa said he wants to share with defense authorities of each country the lessons Japan's SDF learned from the experience.
He said this includes what the Japanese people expected the SDF to do at the initial stage, as well as what it was able or not able to do.
Kitazawa added that Japan will dispatch to the International Atomic Energy Agency an SDF medical doctor who took part in the response to the Fukushima accident.
He said he wants the doctor to share with the international community the knowledge of how Japan handled the accident with support from other countries.


Saturday, June 04, 2011 21:57
TEPCO to install additional storage tanks
Tokyo Electric Power Company will install more tanks to store the radioactive wastewater that is accumulating at its troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Water levels are rising in the basements of the turbine buildings of reactors 3 and 4. The total amount of accumulated wastewater at the plant is now estimated at more than 105,000 tons.
TEPCO plans to start filtering highly radioactive water on June 15th. It will treat 1,200 tons of water per day and transfer the filtered water to temporary tanks.
The utility will start bringing in 370 steel tanks, each with a capacity of 100 or 120 tons, from a plant in Kanuma City, north of Tokyo, and elsewhere.
TEPCO has already installed temporary water tanks capable of storing 13,000 tons.
The additional tanks will bring the total storage capacity at the plant to more than 40,000 tons.
TEPCO says work to install the filters is proceeding smoothly. But it must quickly address the issue of securing sufficient water storage, as it is feared that the current rainy season will worsen the situation.


Saturday, June 04, 2011 22:07
A glimpse of home
A group of evacuees from the no-entry zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has returned from brief visits home.
Ninety-seven people from 55 households in Okuma Town (大熊町 Ookuma machi) gathered at a gymnasium outside the 20-kilometer zone on Saturday morning. They put on protective clothing before boarding buses to enter the zone.
In a district in which about 90 of the residents lived, some of the roads had subsided and roof tiles were scattered around, apparently due to the March earthquake.
In some places, laundry had been left outside and unfinished meals were still on tables, indicating that the residents had evacuated quickly.
A couple said they had brought a list of belongings to retrieve. They said their first trip back since the disaster made them want to get back home as soon as possible.
After a stay of about two hours, the residents returned to the gymnasium for radiation screening. The government says none of them complained of health problems or needed to be decontaminated.
The brief trips home, originally scheduled for last Sunday, had been postponed due to weather conditions.

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Voices from around


. Daily Radiation Levels . 　

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Japan Times :

Cabinet support rate up, tops 30%
The support rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan stands at 33.4 percent, a Kyodo News survey shos, up from 28.1 percent in the previous poll taken in May.

Kan delayed-exit hint restarts feud
The timing of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's resignation causes a political storm after he hints that it may be months before he actually steps down.
Kan offers exit, beats no-confidence vote
Kan buys time but cedes advantage to opposition


Tepco pair's exposure topped 250 millisievert limit
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110604a4.html


Ozawa allies opt to keep key jobs
Four of the five Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers who hold government posts Friday withdrew the resignations they submitted as part of a revolt against Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110604a7.html


Miyagi governor has big recovery plans, tells Diet to hunker down
Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai 村井嘉浩
Out of the three prefectures hit hardest by the March 11 disaster, Miyagi's toll is by far the worst at more than 9,100 deaths confirmed.
During the news conference at the Japan National Press Club, the governor announced a 10-year plan to rebuild and modernize Miyagi's coastline.
"It will take three years just to remove the rubble," he said.
The following four years will be used to lay out and rebuild municipal areas, or "planting the seeds," according to Murai. That span will be followed by three years of development.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110604a8.html


Animal shelter in Niigata helps Tohoku pets, owners
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20110604a1.html

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