By Sean Bonner 7 August 2011 The Safecasting drives officially started after my last trip to Japan, so I’ve been watching from afar as Pieter and an ever growing volunteer team of total heros have set out time and time again to try and map the radiation levels in the areas surrounding the Fukushima plant, […]
Soil contamination levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 26 May 2011. Department of Energy / Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology / The New York Times Doubting Assurances, Japanese Find Radioactivity on Their Own Technorati Tags: Fukushima,Japan,Asia,pollution,infrastructure failure,agriculture
By Noriyoshi Otsuki and Satoru Murata5 August 2011 FUKUSHIMA–Deep in the mountains, a 4-ton dump truck unloads burlap bags that land with a thud in a hole shaped like a swimming pool 25 meters long and more than 2 meters deep. Another dump truck soon arrives, also filled with burlap bags. The two male workers […]
By Rie Ishiguro, Yoko Kubota; Editing by Edwina Gibbs3 August 2011 9:48pm EDT TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan sacked three senior bureaucrats in charge of nuclear power policy on Thursday, holding them to account for a series of scandals which have broken out in recent weeks over the government’s cozy relationship with the power industry. Japanese […]
August 3 (Yomiuri Shimbun) – Record-high radiation levels of more than 10 sieverts (10,000 millisieverts) per hour have been detected on a pipe at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. TEPCO said Monday no workers trying to bring the plant under control have been working near the […]
By Kyung Lah (CNN)2 Aug 2011 TOKYO (CNN) – The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has detected the highest radiation levels at the facility since initial earthquake and tsunami five months ago, a company spokesman said Tuesday. The ultra-high levels of radiation were measured Monday afternoon on the grounds of the facility, […]
August 1 (Bloomberg) – Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site. Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at […]
By KEN BELSON31 July 2011 IWAKI, Japan — Kiyoko Okoshi had a simple goal when she spent about $625 for a dosimeter: she missed her daughter and grandsons and wanted them to come home. Local officials kept telling her that their remote village was safe, even though it was less than 20 miles from the […]
July 29 (NHK) – Nearly 50,000 tons of sludge at water treatment facilities has been found to contain radioactive cesium as the result of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Over 1,500 tons is so contaminated that it cannot be buried for disposal. Water treatment facilities in eastern and northeastern Japan have […]
By MASAMI ITO, Staff writer28 July 2011 The government ordered a complete ban Thursday on all shipments of beef cattle from Miyagi Prefecture after detecting radioactive cesium above the government limit in some local cattle. The government is also considering placing a similar ban on beef cattle from Iwate Prefecture, where five cattle from Ichinoseki […]