tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7388372827914524197.post6307906804987690528..comments2023-05-27T00:08:34.330+09:00Comments on Japan - after the BIG earthquake: April 26, Tuesday . ChernobylGabi Grevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7388372827914524197.post-37462814069327839872011-04-27T07:10:11.570+09:002011-04-27T07:10:11.570+09:00Kremlin head wants new nuclear rules post-Chernoby...Kremlin head wants new nuclear rules post-Chernobyl<br /><br />CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, called on Tuesday for new world rules to be drawn up on safety at nuclear plants.<br /><br />Medvedev, standing alongside Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident, said the disaster had taught states that they must tell the whole truth to their people.<br /><br />The Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was then a part, held back news of the full scale of the Chernobyl accident for several days.<br /><br />"The duty of a state is to tell the truth to its people. It must be acknowledged that the (Soviet) state did not always behave correctly," Medvedev said.<br /><br />His words took on added poignancy amid Japan's efforts to control the crisis at its Fukushima nuclear plant, which was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami last month.<br /><br />Medvedev, echoing words by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said events in Japan and Chernobyl made it vital to draw up new standards for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.<br /><br />STUDIES "UNCOORDINATED"<br />Studies of the effects on health have been "numerous but uncoordinated and not comprehensive," the International Agency for Research on Cancer said in a statement in Lyon, France, calling for a long-term international research plan.<br />...<br /><br />http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110426/wl_nm/us_ukraine_chernobyl<br />.anonymos yahoohttp://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110426/wl_nm/us_ukraine_chernobylnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7388372827914524197.post-61370889540351285782011-04-27T06:34:00.869+09:002011-04-27T06:34:00.869+09:00Japan's irradiated waters: How worried should ...Japan's irradiated waters: How worried should we be?<br /><br />By Ken Buesseler, Special to CNN<br /><br />Editor's note: Ken Buesseler is a marine radiochemist and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.<br /><br />(CNN) -- Twenty-five years ago, I was a Ph.D. student here in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, studying the fate of fallout in the North Atlantic from nuclear weapons testing, when an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant released large quantities of radioactive materials into the surrounding environment. My colleagues and I immediately joined other scientists tracking these radioactive contaminants, which in my case focused on the Black Sea, the closest ocean to the accident site.<br />...<br />Data released by Japanese scientists show cesium-137 concentrations in the waters immediately adjacent to the reactors at levels more than 1 million times higher than previously existed and 10 to 100 times higher in the waters off Japan than values measured in the Black Sea after Chernobyl. For the oceans, this is the largest accidental release of radiation we have ever seen.<br />...<br />We know the ocean has the ability to mix and dilute even these alarmingly high concentrations of contaminants. Indeed, just 15 miles offshore the levels of some contaminants, including cesium-137, with its relatively long 30-year half-life, are already 100 to 1,000 times lower than waters near the reactors, and thus pose little direct hazard for human exposure. We also know that over the short-term, isotopes such as iodine-131, which has an eight-day half-life and has been found in milk and spinach, will decay to insignificant levels.<br />...<br />The groundwater around Fukushima and sediments in the seafloor nearby will likely remain contaminated for decades to come, yet no radionuclide data exist from these sources. <br /><br />http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/26/buesseler.fukushima.radiation/index.html?section=cnn_latestanonymoushttp://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/26/buesseler.fukushima.radiation/index.html?section=cnn_latestnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7388372827914524197.post-8823774726409049542011-04-26T16:29:33.068+09:002011-04-26T16:29:33.068+09:00Farmers protest against Japanese nuke plant owner ...<b>Farmers protest against Japanese nuke plant owner </b><br />TOKYO – <br />More than 200 farmers brought two cows to Tokyo where they shouted and punched the air Tuesday in a protest to demand compensation for products contaminated by radiation spewing from Japan's crippled nuclear plant.<br /><br />The farmers from northeastern Japan wore green bandanas and held signs saying "Nuclear disaster is human disaster" and "Stop nuclear energy" outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant damaged in the March 11 tsunami.<br />...<br />"I could not sit still in Fukushima. I want TEPCO to understand our frustration, anxiety and worries over our future," said 72-year-old Katsuo Okazaki, who grows peaches and apples. "My patience has run out. The nuclear crisis is totally destroying our farming business," he said.<br /><br />The utility says it will take six to nine months to bring the plant into cold shutdown, a crucial step for allowing the roughly 80,000 people evacuated from a 12-mile (20-kilometer) area around the plant to return home.<br /><br />TEPCO will start depositing initial compensation payments of 1 million yen ($12,000) per household on Tuesday into bank accounts of people forced to evacuate due to leaking radiation, Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said.<br /><br />Okazaki isn't eligible because his farm is 60 kilometers from the plant, but he still wants compensation from the utility because he fears consumers will shun produce from his region over the long term. He says vegetable growers already have lost a great deal of money because of the nuclear accident.<br /><br />"I am constantly worried about this, and feel like my strength is being sapped away," he said.<br /><br />"TEPCO, give us back our cows and pigs and chickens," one farmer shouted.<br /><br />http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110426/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquakeanonymoushttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110426/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquakenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7388372827914524197.post-43095930142891775362011-04-26T13:45:08.723+09:002011-04-26T13:45:08.723+09:00Hi Gabi,
I just want you to know that you and Japa...Hi Gabi,<br />I just want you to know that you and Japan remain in my heart, my thoughts and my prayers.<br />DDAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com