Women in Japan to stage sit-in; call for global solidarity

Women in Fukushima will be sitting in at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry from October 27th to 29^th to demand the evacuation of Fukushima children and no resumption of nuclear power plant operation (43 of the 54 reactors are currently shuttered for scheduled maintenance.) They are asking women from all over Japan to join the sit-in on October 30^th. The women point out that seven months of government refusal to evacuate Fukushima children is a crime against humanity, and it can no longer be tolerated. The women of Fukushima are calling on women around the world to act in solidarity with similar actions at the same time – whether in front of Japanese embassies or consulates or elsewhere. Shortly before the sit-in a new network – Women for a Nuclear-Free Future – will be launched in Sapporo and Osaka, Japan on October 24^th and in Tokyo on November 23^rd.

Radiation in sea at Fukushima triple earlier estimates

From NHK: "A group of Japanese researchers say that a total of 15,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances is estimated to have been released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea. Researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Kyoto University and other institutes made the calculation of radioactivity released from late March through April. The combined amount of iodine-131 and cesium-137 is more than triple the figure of 4,720 terabecquerels earlier estimated by Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant operator. The utility only calculated the radioactivity from substances released from the plant into the sea in April and May. The researchers say the estimated amount of radioactivity includes a large amount that was first released into the air but entered the sea after coming down in the rain. They say they need to determine the total amount of radioactivity released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant in order to accurately assess the impact of the disaster on the sea."

Japanese nuclear establishment pushes ahead on reactor sales to Vietnam and Turkey, despite Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe

The Mainichi Daily News has reported that on August 5th, the Japanese federal cabinet under then Prime Minister Naoto Kan decided to continue with proposed Japanese atomic reactor sales to Vietnam and Turkey, despite the ongoing nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Financing by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is essential to such exports. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, while on a speaking tour of Japan a year ago, met with JBIC officials, as well as others from the federal Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), urging them to not risk Japanese taxpayer dollars on such risky new reactor proposals as at the South Texas Project in the U.S. Kevin delivered a letter signed by 75 U.S. environmental groups to the Japanese officials; environmental allies from Green Action, Friends of the Earth, Citizens Nuclear Information Center, and other Japanese NGOs also attended the meeting, and made sure copies of the U.S. coalition letter were delivered to relevant federal ministers, including Prime Minister Kan (who just resigned), as well as Finance Minister Noda and METI head Kaieda -- the newly elected Prime Minister and his defeated challenger, respectively.

Radiation fears in Tokyo playground sandboxes

The Mainichi Daily News has reported that the absence of federal safety standards for radioactive contamination limits in playground sandboxes has led local municipal officials to set their own safety levels. Playing in some radioactively contaminated sandboxes has been banned, while the sand in other sandboxes has been replaced (although where the radioactive sand went to is not reported). 

Fukushima Daiichi worker dies of acute leukemia; radioactive cesium contamination found over wide area

In an article entitled "Radioactive Cesium Found in Wide Areas Around Japan Fukushima Plant," Fox Business reports that a 40 year old Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) worker has died of acute leukemia after having worked at Fukushima Daiichi for 7 days and being exposed to 0.5 millisieverts (50 millirem) of radioactivity, according to the company. Tepco denies any relationship between the worker's death and his radioactive exposures at Fukushima Daiichi.

The article also reports wide ranging radioactive cesium contamination. Of 2,200 locations checked within a 100 kilometer (62 mile) radius of the melted, shattered atomic reactors, 33 tested positive for Cesium-137 contamination "in excess of 1.48 million becquerels per square meter, the level set by the Soviet Union for forced resettlement after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Another 132 locations had combined amount of cesium 137/134 over 555,000 becquerels per square meter, the level at which the Soviet authorities called for voluntary evacuation and imposed a ban on farming."

A becquerel is defined as one radioactive disintegration per second. Cesium-137 has a half-life of around 30 years, meaning it has a long-lasting hazardous persistence of 300 to 600 years. Cesium-134 has a half-life of just two years, but this means during its 20 to 40 year persistence, it is intensely radioactive. The human body mistakes radioactive cesium for potassium. It lodges in muscle tissue.

The Mainichi Daily News and Kyodo News Service report some more detail on the worker's death, such as claims by Tepco that the worker's radiation exposure at Fukushima Daiichi is only one-tenth what is usually associated with a workplace related death, and that acute leukemia's latency period is at least a year long. However, Tepco admitted it did not know the worker's history prior to his arrival at Fukushima Daiichi in August. 

The Mainichi Daily News also reported more detail on the radioactive cesium contamination map published by the federal Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) alluded to above, including the names of the towns with radioactivity levels in excess of Soviet habitation bans downwind of Chernobyl. The unlucky Japanese towns are: Okuma (which hosts part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and is contaminated at a level ten times worse than the Soviet habitation ban), Minamisoma, Tomioka, Futaba, Namie, and Iitate. In addition, the federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) has documented 13 Fukushima Prefecture municipalities -- including Iitate, Soma and Minamisoma -- where radioactivity measurements exceed 5,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil, "which is the limit over which rice planting is forbidden."