French nuclear safety agency calls for wider Japan evacuation

From the Times of India:  "Seventy thousand people living beyond the 20-kilometre no-go zone around Fukushima should be evacuated because of radioactivity deposited by the crippled nuclear plant, a watchdog said. Updating its assessment of the March 11 disaster, France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) highlighted an area northwest of the plant that lies beyond the 20-km (12 mile) zone whose inhabitants have already been evacuated. Radioactivity levels in this area range from several hundred becquerels per square metre to thousands or even several million bequerels per square metre, the IRSN report, issued late Monday, said.

Tepco has no more room to store radioactive water from Fukushima Daiichi cooling operations

NHK public broadcasting has reported that Tokyo Electric Power Company's (Tepco) desperate efforts to cool melting down reactor cores at Fukushima Daiichi Units 1, 2, and 3, as well as to cool overheating high-level radioactive waste storage pools at the multi-unit complex, have generated so much radioactively contaminated cooling water, that storage capacity for its retention is drawing to a close. Tepco admitted the leakage of radioactively contaminated water into groundwater and the ocean -- to the tune of tens of thousands of tons -- in both March and April.

We're all nuclear workers now?

NHK public broadcasting has reported that certain businesses in the evacuated village of Iitate, downwind of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant catastrophe, are being allowed by the Japanese federal government to continue operations, provided they monitor the radiation exposure suffered by their workers. Whether these non-nuclear workers are to be treated as members of the public, or as nuclear power plant workers, in terms of how much radioactivity per year they are allowed to be exposed to (100 mRem/yr for members of the public, 5,000 mRem/yr for nuclear workers under normal circumstances, 25,000 mRem/year for nuclear workers in the face of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe) is not reported. Controversially, the Japanese federal Ministry of Education has deemed 2,000 mRem/yr an "acceptable" radiation dose to school children in Fukushima Prefecture's outdoor school yards. 2,000 mRem/yr is the "allowable" dose the German federal government permits for adult nuclear power plant workers. The 2,000 mRem/yr dose to school children in Fukushima does not account for internal radioactive contamination the children are likely also being exposed to.

Japan to reconsider reprocessing in wake of Fukushima nuclear catastrophe?

The Mainichi Daily News has quoted the head of the Japanese Communist Party as saying that Prime Minister Kan told him that as part of reviewing energy policy "from scratch," the long established policy of reprocessing high-level radioactive waste would also be reevaluated.

Green Action Japan's Fukushima updates

Green Action Japan, based in Kyodo and led by Aileen Mioko Smith, has provided updates on and leadership in response to the unprecedented Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe since the day it began. Visit Green Action Japan's "Fukushima Update" website for the latest breaking news, and what you can do to help.