SimplyInfo.org’s 2019 report on the Fukushima Disaster is now available. Our comprehensive report covers the technical, health, ecological and social reach of the long running disaster.
Simply Info 7th March 2019 read more »
Eight years after the Fukushima nuclear reactors exploded on Japan’s Northern coast, spewing radioactive particles into the air, across the land, and into the Pacific Ocean, the country continues to struggle with decontamination and relocation efforts. Determining the health impacts resulting from the nuclear disaster has been particularly fraught. For Date City, about 60 km from the ruined Fukushima reactors, and still blanketed by radioactive contamination from the ongoing catastrophe, the struggle for protection of health continues amid accusations of scientific misconduct and betrayal. After the nuclear catastrophe began, Date City residents received glass badges that measure radioactivity. About four and a half years of measurements collected from these glass badges were used by Ryugo Hayano, Professor emeritus from the University of Tokyo and Makoto Miyazaki from Fukushima Medical University (FMU) to initially publish two studies in the Journal of Radiological Protection (JRP). Radiation policy makers in Japan often reference the second of these two studies, indicating they trust the data and conclusions it offers. However, earlier this year, Shin-ichi Kurokawa (Professor Emeritus of The High Energy Accelerator Research Organization) and Akemi Shima (resident of Date City) contended that this research and the studies using it, are compromised by serious ethical violations and scientific misconduct.
Beyond Nuclear 7th March 2019 read more »
Voluntary evacuees from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident will face tougher housing situations from April as only one local government in Japan will continue a free housing program, according to a Kyodo News tally. Ehime Prefecture in western Japan will become the sole prefectural government providing free housing to those evacuees, keeping the program through the end of March 2020, after three prefectures are set to end the scheme by late March. Separately, rent subsidy schemes for those who voluntarily fled from areas outside no-go zones designated by the central government, which were still provided by seven prefectures in fiscal 2018, will all be terminated at the end of March, the tally showed. The end of housing support could add to the financial woes of the evacuees.
Japan Today 8th March 2019 read more »
Eight years after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a fresh obstacle threatens to undermine the massive clean-up: 1 million tons of contaminated water must be stored, possibly for years, at the power plant. Last year, Tokyo Electric Power Co said a system meant to purify contaminated water had failed to remove dangerous radioactive contaminants. That means most of that water – stored in 1,000 tanks around the plant – will need to be reprocessed before it is released into the ocean, the most likely scenario for disposal. Reprocessing could take nearly two years and divert personnel and energy from dismantling the tsunami-wrecked reactors, a project that will take up to 40 years.
Reuters 8th March 2019 read more »
Eight years have passed since a tsunami smashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, sparking a meltdown and the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl. Eight years on, the disaster zone remains a huge building site with the immediate danger cleared but an immensely difficult clean-up job still looming. – What is the state of the clean-up? – The clean-up operation is progressing at a painstakingly slow pace. Robotic arms have recently been employed to successfully pick up pebble-sized pieces of radioactive fuel at the bottom of reactor two, one of three that melted down after the 2011 quake and tsunami. This is the first step to prepare the extremely delicate task of extracting the fuel that will not begin in earnest until 2021 at the earliest, the government and the TEPCO operator have said.
Daily Mail 8th March 2019 read more »
