Fukushima alert: radiations killing our children, govt hides truth – former mayor

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Students walk near a geiger counter, measuring a radiation level of 0.12 microsievert per hour, at Omika Elementary School, located about 21 km (13 miles) from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture.

 

 

Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba, a town near the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant, is warning his country that radiation contamination is affecting Japan’s greatest treasure – its children.

Asked about government plans to relocate the people of Fatuba to the city of Iwaki, inside the Fukushima prefecture, Idogawa criticized the move as a “violation of human rights.”

Compared with Chernobyl, radiation levels around Fukushima “are four times higher,” he told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze, adding that “it’s too early for people to come back to Fukushima prefecture.”

“It is by no means safe, no matter what the government says.”

Idogawa alleges that the government has started programs to return people to their towns despite the danger of radiation.

“Fukushima Prefecture has launched the Come Home campaign. In many cases, evacuees are forced to return. [the former mayor produced a map of Fukushima Prefecture that showed that air contamination decreased a little, but soil contamination remains the same.]” 

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According to Idogawa there are about two million people residing in the prefecture who are reporting“all sorts of medical issues,” but the government insists these conditions are unrelated to the Fukushima accident. Idogawa wants their denial in writing.

“I demanded that the authorities substantiate their claim in writing but they ignored my request.”

Once again, Idogawa alludes to the nuclear tragedy that hit Ukraine on April 26, 1986, pleading that the Japanese people “never forget Chernobyl.” Yet few people seem to be heeding the former government official’s warning.

“They believe what the government says, while in reality radiation is still there. This is killing children. They die of heart conditions, asthma, leukemia, thyroiditis… Lots of kids are extremely exhausted after school; others are simply unable to attend PE classes. But the authorities still hide the truth from us, and I don’t know why. Don’t they have children of their own? It hurts so much to know they can’t protect our children.

“They say Fukushima Prefecture is safe, and that’s why nobody’s working to evacuate children, move them elsewhere. We’re not even allowed to discuss this.”

The former mayor found it ironic that when discussing the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for 2020, Prime Minister Abe frequently mentions the Japanese word, “omotenashi,” which literally means that you should “treat people with an open heart.”

In Idogawa’s opinion, the same treatment does not apply equally to the people most intimately connected with Fukushima: the workers involved in the cleanup operations.

“Their equipment was getting worse; preparation was getting worse. So people had to think about their safety first. That’s why those who understood the real danger of radiation began to quit. Now we have unprofessional people working there.

 

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They don’t really understand what they’re doing. That’s the kind of people who use the wrong pump, who make mistakes like that.

“I’m really ashamed for my country, but I have to speak the truth for the sake of keeping our planet clean in the future.

Idogawa then made some parallels with one of the most tragic events in the history of Japan: the use of atomic bombs on the industrial cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States at the end of World War II.

“The authorities lied to everyone (about the effects of the atomic bombings)…They hid the truth. That’s the situation we are living in. It’s not just Fukushima. Japan has some dark history. This is a sort of a sacrifice to the past.”

When pressed on the details of a United Nations report that says there have been no radiation-related deaths or acute diseases observed among the workers and general public, Idogawa dismisses it as“completely false,” before providing some of his own experiences at the height of the crisis.

“When I was mayor, I knew many people who died from heart attacks, and then there were many people in Fukushima who died suddenly, even among young people. It’s a real shame that the authorities hide the truth from the whole world, from the UN. We need to admit that actually many people are dying. We are not allowed to say that but TEPCO employees also are dying. But they keep mum about it.”

When asked to provide solid figures on the actual number of people who died under such circumstances, Idogawa refrained, saying “it’s not just one or two people. We’re talking about ten to twenty people who died this way.”

Asked about other options that Japan has for providing energy sources to its 126 million people, he responded that despite having many rivers, the government neglects to promote hydro energy.

Why? Because it’s not “profitable for big companies!”

Idogawa goes on to provide a blueprint for fulfilling Japan’s energy needs that sounds surprisingly simple.

“We can provide electricity for a large number of people even with limited investment, without taxes. Just use gravity, and we may have so much energy that there’ll be no need for nuclear plants anymore.”

Premonitions of disaster

Even before the massive failure at the Fukushima nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011, the day northeastern Japan was hit by an earthquake-triggered tsunami that caused the meltdown of three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors, Idogawa knew the facility was dangerous.

“I asked them about potential accidents at a nuclear power plant, pretending I didn’t know anything about it, and it turned out they were unable to answer many of my questions,” he said. “Frankly, that’s when it first crossed my mind that their management didn’t have a contingency plan. It was then that I realized the facility could be dangerous.”

The former mayor, who happened to be in a nearby town on the day the tsunami struck, recalled driving back to Futaba upon news of the earthquake. Only later did he discover how close he came to losing his life in the approaching tsunami. 
“I managed to get there before the bigger tsunami came. It was only later that I realized that I escaped the water… I got lucky. The tsunami came after I drove off that road and up the mountains.”

 

Members of the media and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) employees wearing protective suits and masks walk toward the No. 1 reactor building at the tsunami-crippled TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture March 10, 2014.
Members of the media and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) employees wearing protective suits and masks walk toward the No. 1 reactor building at the tsunami-crippled TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture March 10, 2014.

 

Questions regarding the nuclear power plant dominated his thoughts on the 30-minute drive home. “I just kept thinking, ‘If it’s that strong, what will happen to the power plant? What if the reactor is damaged? What if the water leaks? What will the city do? What am I to do as mayor?’”

Once in his office, Idogawa looked out the window and was confronted by what he described as “a terrifying sight.” 
“Usually you couldn’t see the sea from there, but that time I could see it just 300-500m away,” he said.

It was at that point that the mayor realized that the nuclear power plant had probably suffered some sort of damage. After spending the night watching news reports on television, the only source of information since even mobile phones were not working, Idogawa announced an emergency evacuation early the next morning. Not all of the residents, however, heard the emergency broadcast.

“Later, I learned that not all Futaba residents heard my announcement. I feel guilty about that…I found out that the Fukushima prefecture hadn’t given me all the information in a timely fashion. And now the government isn’t taking any steps to ensure people’s safety from radiation, and isn’t monitoring the implementation of evacuation procedures.”

Beyond nuclear energy

Katsutaka Idogawa believes a transformation to a cleaner, safer form of energy source for Japan would require a willingness to change the country’s laws.

“There are many laws in Japan, perhaps too many. There are laws about rivers and the ways they’re used. We could change laws regarding agricultural water use and start using rivers to produce electricity. Changing just this law alone will allow us to produce a lot of energy.”

All of this could be accomplished “without contaminating our planet.”

However, such bold proposals do not “appeal to big companies, because you don’t need big investments, you don’t need to build big power plants. It’s not that profitable for investors, for capitalists.”

But for the former mayor of a devastated Japanese town, lost to nuclear radiation, Idogawa senses a sea change forming in public opinion.

The Japanese people are beginning to “realize that we need to avert nuclear disasters, so 60-70 percent of the population is in favor of using natural energy.”

“It took us a long time, but one day we’ll follow the example of Europe, of Germany.”

Sources:Rt

 

 

 

 

Scandal Fukushima: TEPCO receives a masterful help while the victims wait for few

une catastrophe est en cours actuellement: les médias restent muets!

 

Here officially that the Japanese government has decided to help TEPCO and the Japanese people :

Committees disaster recovery Liberal Democratic Party in power ( PLD) and its coalition partner , New Komeito , presented a recovery plan in Fukushima Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on November 11, 2013, which suggests that the government change his plans for Fukushima evacuees to return home .

The plan, which aims to accelerate the recovery work around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant , was presented by Tadamori Oshima, former vice president of the LDP and New Komeito Secretary General Yoshihisa Inoue, who both head the task in their respective parties ‘ forces and on restoring Fukushima.

The plan proposes a system of financial support for residents near the Fukushima plant to relocate , and also government spending to manage the temporary storage of radioactive waste. The move represents a departure from the policy of the government to have an operations manager on site or Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO ) to take responsibility for all costs, including those to pay compensation to victims decontaminate the affected areas and dismantling the Fukushima reactors (if possible). so we’re looking to blame the disaster, it is more important than the victims.

Eleven municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture are now divided into three zones based on the level of radioactive contamination : the areas where the annual dose exceeds 50 millisieverts whose return is difficult areas of life restrictions are in place (one level annual radiation exceeds 20 millisieverts , but no more than 50 millisieverts ) , and areas that are preparing to lift evacuation orders ( annual radiation levels up to 20 millisieverts ) .

Abe et Tepco

The plan suggests that evacuees receive government support from the first area , including the towns of Futaba and Namie , reinforced with compensation so they can relocate. He stated that the prospect of returning to their hometowns is unrealistic , even in the long term , and some residents began to seek a new life in different places .

 

Meanwhile, the working groups have suggested that the government prioritize decontamination work in areas where radiation levels are relatively low, and accelerate the reconstruction of medical institutions , and commercial complexes so that the residents of these areas will be able to return sooner.

However, the decontamination work in some areas has been largely unsuccessful . Even in areas that are preparing to lift evacuation orders , the average radiation dose can top the annual permissible level of 1 millisievert per year except that which exists in nature.

Plans to achieve a maximum dose of 1 millisievert per year is considered a ” long term goal ” , since the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP ) states that radiation doses from 1 to 20 millisieverts per year is a ” range. “

In addition , the task forces suggested that the government pays for the construction of an interim storage facility for waste contaminated with radiation (estimated to cost about 1 billion yen ), and the municipal and national governments perform decontamination , even after the cleaning plane in progress is completed .

As for TEPCO , the working groups have asked the company to be divided into separate companies to manage the decommissioning of the nuclear power plant Fukushima No. 1 .

Abe urged to help TEPCO to restart Fukushima from public funds

TOKYO ( Kyodo ) – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Monday to speed up the recovery of Fukushima from one of the worst nuclear crises in the world, as it has received a proposal from the ruling parties to ask the government to make a major change of policy on the use of public funds to this end .

Given the proposal, the government should spend the taxpayers’ money to fund a portion of the cleanup of radiation-contaminated outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex hit areas, therefore finance Tokyo Electric Power Co. to recover its bad management and it avoid bankruptcy.

To carry out the task unprecedented scrapping reactors suffered meltdowns , the proposal also addresses the need for the giant TEPCO have ” a clear organizational structure ” as a new business internally to charge of dismantling . So TEPCO will be able to erase the evidence of its shortcomings , while paying the tax payers .

After receiving the document lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition ally the New Komeito party , Abe said : “The government will work with the parties in power in the dismantling of the plant and management water radioactive . “

He also said that the government should “criteria” for those affected by the crisis to help them decide how to put their lives in order.

Recovery of communities affected by the nuclear accident area was low compared to those affected by the terrible earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 areas, but affected by the nuclear crisis that followed.

After massive radiation leaks , more than 140,000 people in the prefecture of Fukushima still living as evacuees and a research institute estimates that the cost of decontamination of areas in the prefecture could reach more than 5 billion yen.

 

300 tonnes métriques  d'eau  radioactive par jour.
300 tons of radiactive  water link each day.

 

 

The ruling parties have said in the proposal that the government should consider playing a role in the decontamination needs to restore infrastructure that could emerge after the current consolidation plans are implemented .

The government should also get funds to build temporary storage facilities to keep the radioactive soil and other waste products in decontamination efforts , they said.

Regarding designated as ” difficult to return to ” for at least six years after the accident because of high radiation level areas, the government should clarify how long it will take before people can return and improve support evacuees who want to leave their homes and start a new life , said the proposal.

The importance of achieving the decommissioning of the Fukushima plant and manage the accumulation of a huge amount of radioactive water was also noted in the proposal as a “fundamental principle ” to achieve the recovery of Fukushima.

But the document says TEPCO alone can not handle difficult tasks. The government should strengthen its control of the issue by reorganizing some of its panels load, while TEPCO should have a clear organizational structure to support the operation of Fukushima, he said.

While calls are among some politicians that the troubled company should be allowed to go bankrupt , an LDP lawmaker said that the document states that the company is already effectively under the control of the state should “take the sudden and hard work. ” So it keeps alive a corrupt , lax and deceptive business … to the public purse !

All this while a continuous radioactive water ( 300 metric tons per day ) volume escape into the Pacific Ocean.

Last year, TEPCO received a capital injection of 1 trillion yen from a rescue fund backed by the State to strengthen its financial position. The Facilitation Fund liability for nuclear damage has also provided more than 3 billion yen in compensation purposes , that TEPCO had urgent need to eventually repay the state.

La nature parle et elle soufre.
The nature talk ..and suffer.

 

 

MEANWHILE IN REALITY … on the waterfront

Japanese experts at the nuclear power plant was destroyed by a tsunami in 2011. None mentioned the problems of contamination of water discharged into the ocean.

An ” emergency ” . Still, Fukushima is in a ” state of emergency ” , according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe . Of highly radioactive water pours off into the ocean from Japan ‘s rugged Central . The Japanese government estimated that each day , approximately 300 tons of contaminated water flowing into the Pacific. And assured that ” instead of trusting Tepco [ the plant operator ] , the government would take action .”

But there, not a word. ” I spoke to told me very little of the sea, but the considerable work done to treat the land ,” said Hervé Mariton on Europe 1 . ” There is a program , apparently carried out with efficiency should allow a number of evacuees being occupied by their inhabitants regions,” he added , noting that “the challenge of the sea was quite obscured . “

The Greenpeace organization provides , for its part, that ” Japanese experts mastered anything, they tinker .” A view shared by not really elected , who believes ” that the situation does not justify pessimism today.”

 There is no one who trusts the government Abe frame the truth to his advantage and diverts public funds to rescue incompetent .

 

 

Fukushima warning: major update … Humanity in imminent danger of death

Fukushima dangerFUKUSHIMA UPDATE
The most dangerous moment of humanity : Fukushima Fuel Pool of Unit 4 . “It is a matter of human survival . ”
“The international community must now take care of everything in Fukushima :
We are now within two months of what may be the most dangerous moment of humanity since the Cuban missile crisis .
There is no excuse for not acting . All the resources we can muster species should focus on the fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4 .
The owner of the Fukushima plant , Tokyo Electric ( Tepco ) , said that in as little as 60 days, it can begin to try to remove more than 1,300 spent fuel rods in a pool ( pool ) seriously damaged and perched 100 feet in the air . The pool is based on a severely damaged building and could easily be tilted down to the sea … in the next earthquake, if it is not its own gravity . “

Some 400 tons of fuel in the tank could spit over 15,000 times more radiation than what was released at Hiroshima in 1945.

The only thing certain about this crisis is that TEPCO has not scientific knowledge , technical or financial resources to cope. No more than the Japanese government. The situation requires a coordinated top scientists and engineers that our human species is capable of providing global effort.

Why so serious ?

We already know that thousands of tons of highly contaminated water is discharged through the Fukushima site , providing a continuous flow of toxic long-term isotope in the Pacific. Tuna irradiated easily traceable to Fukushima fallout has been caught off the coast of California. We can expect much worse .

TEPCO continues to pour more water on the near three melted reactor cores site, it must somehow keep the heat under contrôle.Les fumes steam indicate that fission can always go somewhere underground . But no one knows exactly where these nuclei are in reality.

Much of the irradiated water is now sitting in about a thousand huge but fragile that were quickly assembled and tanks scattered around the site . Many are already fleeing . Everything could break down in the next earthquake , releasing thousands of tons of permanent poisons in the Pacific.

Water flowing through the site also undermines the residual structures of Fukushima , including supporting the fuel pool in Unit 4 .

More than 6,000 fuel assemblies now sit in a communal pool just 50 meters from the unit four . Some contain plutonium. The pool is not in containment above . It is vulnerable to the loss of coolant, the collapse of a nearby building , another earthquake , tsunami and another plus.

In total , more than 11,000 fuel assemblies are scattered around the Fukushima site . According to the expert and longtime former Department of Energy official Robert Alvarez, there is 85 times more deadly cesium reserves in place as it was released at Chernobyl.

Radioactive Hotspots continue to be found around Japan . There are indications of increased damage the thyroid local children rate .

The bottom line immediately : the fuel rods must somehow be removed safely out of the four Unit ( fuel pool ) as soon as possible.

Just before the earthquake of 11 March 2011 and the tsunami that smashed the Fukushima site , the core unit four was removed for routine maintenance and refueling . As a twenty reactors in the United States and as many others around the world, General Electric designed pool in which the nucleus is now , is 100 feet in the air .

Spent fuel must somehow be kept under water. It is clad in zirconium alloy which can ignite spontaneously when exposed to air. Long used in flash bulbs for cameras , burns and flames zirconium with a hot flame are extremely bright and powerful .

Each discovery rod emits enough radiation to kill someone standing nearby in a few minutes . A fire could force all staff to leave the site and make impassable electronic machines.

According to Arnie Gundersen , a nuclear engineer with forty years of experience in an industry which has manufactured fuel rods , those of the heart of the unit 4 are bent , damaged and weakened to the point of collapse. Cameras showed alarming amounts of debris in the fuel pool , which itself is damaged.

Engineers and scientists note that barriers to overcome in order to drain the pool of Unit 4 of its fuel are unique and daunting , said Gundersen . But it must be done with 100% perfection.

If the attempt fails , the rods can be exposed to air and catch fire , releasing horrible amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. The pool could come crashing to the ground , could come into fission and explode dumping bars taken together in a pile. The radioactive cloud that would result would be enough to threaten the health and safety of all mankind .

The first fallout from Chernobyl in 1986 had reached California within ten days. Those of Fukushima in 2011 arrived in less than a week. A new fuel fire in Unit 4 pour out a steady stream of deadly radioactive poisons for centuries.

The former ambassador Mitsuhei Murata says : . . ” The impact of large-scale Fukushima destroy the global environment and our entire civilization This is not rocket science , or connect to the pugilistic debate on nuclear power plants This is a question survival of humanity. ”

Neither Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government can go alone. There is no excuse for refusing to deploy anything less than a coordinated team of top scientists and engineers in the world.

We have two months or less to act.

For now, we are starting a petition to the United Nations and President Obama to mobilize the international scientific and engineering community to support the work in Fukushima and moving the fuel rods to safety.

You can sign the petition at: http://www.nukefree.org/crisis-fukushima-4-petition-un-us-global-response

If you have a better idea, please , please forward . But we must do something and do it now .

The clock is ticking. The threat of a global nuclear catastrophe is painfully close to midnight.

( Sources: Harvey Wasserman … she is the editor of the Columbus Free Press and Free Press , which publishes the free newspaper Nuke ) .

For now, we are starting a petition to the United Nations and President Obama to mobilize the international scientific and engineering community to support the work in Fukushima and moving the fuel rods safely.