Ancient warnings against Atomic Age risks

In the Japanese federal government's report to the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe dated June 7th, it is mentioned that:

"These areas [in northeast Japan] are rias type coastlines that have, historically, suffered significantly from giant tsunamis in the 15m range [almost 50 feet] such as the Meiji Sanriku Tsunami (1896) and the Showa Sanriku Tsunami (1933), the lesson of preparation against a 15m-class tsunami has been instructed...In the Aneyoshi area, Miyako City in Iwate Prefecture, there is a stone monument with the warning not to build houses in the area lower than that point as shown in Fig. III-1-17 (...[right] picture) ["Fig. III-1-17 Photos of a stone monument and tsunami invading area below the stone monument."] at the entrance (height 60 m) [nearly 200 feet] of the village, showing lessons learned from runups of the two historical tsunamis mentioned above. By observing this lesson, the area was able to avoid casualties this time even though the tsunami ran up (the actual runup height was 38.9 m) [nearly 130 feet] near the village as shown in the figure ([left] picture)."

Any attempt to claim that the 15 meter tsunami which struck Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could not have been predicted because it was just too unthinkably large is directly contradicted by known Japanese history dating back 80 years, 115 years, even over 1,000 years. 

Japanese public skeptical of government efforts to reassure on nuclear safety post-Fukushima

Agence France Presse reports that an attempt to assure local residents that nuclear power is safe did not go over too well in Saga Prefecture on Japan's southern island today. The P.R. blitz by the nuclear power industry, in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe, has been met by skepticism and concern, NHK World reports. The area the Japanese government chose to roll out its first attempt at restoring public trust post-Fukushima, Saga Prefecture, is home to an active anti-nuclear movement. It has long campaigned to prevent the loading of plutonium fuel into Unit 3 at the Genkai nuclear power plant. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, as part of a speaking tour across Japan, was privileged to be in Saga City last August 9th, Nagasaki Day -- and Saga City is near this city destroyed by an American plutonium bomb in 1945. He took part in a protest involving scores of people, who rallied with banners, then marched to the court house to deliver hundreds of thousands of petition signatures as a lawsuit was filed against the local nuclear utility, seeking to block it from loading experimental plutonium fuel into it reactor. The 'safety myth,' well-financed for decades by the Japanese nuclear power establishment in industry and government, has been shattered by the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe. NHK World also reported that 50 people protested the government meeting, challenging its constrained format and obvious intent to pave the way for the restart of the nearby Genkai nuclear power plant even as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe drags on.

METI official critical of Japanese federal govt. failures at Fukushima pressured to resign

The Mainichi Daily News reports that a long-time official in the Japanese federal Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), which both regulates and promotes nuclear power, has been pressured to resign his post after criticizing the federal government's failures in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. Shigeaki Koga, who has served in the ministry for 31 years, is resisting his sudden termination. Previously, he criticized the "revolving door" between high level positions in METI and the Japanese nuclear power industry -- a dynamic which media reports shortly after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe began hinted may have contributed to the false sense of safety that led to the disaster.

A fly on the wall as Tokyo University's fledgling nuclear engineering class of 1962 reunion grapples with Fukushima catastrophe

The Mainichi Daily News has published a fascinating article, interviewing several nuclear engineers who graduated from the University of Tokyo's fledging Atomic Age Class of 1962. After spending lifetimes devoted to control of the atom, they now question if that is even possible. One had survived Hiroshima at age 4, and vowed to show Americans what Japan was made of, after being exposed to "Atoms for Peace" propaganda as a child. Another vowed to wrest energy from mere rock (uranium) after having survived bitter cold winters in energy-starved post war Japan. Yet another began his career as a health protection specialist, but after having seen what radiation did to lab rats, asked himself "can humankind tame something as dangerous as this?" He eventually became anti-nuclear power, and suffered serious harassment in academia as a consequence. "I just don't think that nuclear power and humankind can coexist," he concluded.

Japan Health Ministry: "Whereabouts of 30 nuclear power plant subcontractors unknown" due to Tepco's "sloppy" record keeping

The Mainichi Daily News of Japan has reported that Tokyo Electric Power Company has lost track of around 30 workers who helped battle the nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi in the first few weeks after the earthquake and tsunami unleashed catastrophic radiation releases from melting reactor cores and boiled-dry radioactive waste storage pools. Tepco says that none of the missing 30 workers got more than 25 rem of external exposure, according to their dosimeters (which is still significant -- prior to the emergency, Japanese nuclear workers were only allowed to get at most 5 rem per year; German nuclear workers are only allowed to get 2 rem per year). But Tepco does not know about these workers' internal exposures -- more hazardous than their external exposures. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has criticized Tepco for "sloppy administration."