[ RadSafe ] Japanese Local Governments Unsure of Future Nuclear Plans

RRGWNYEnviro at aol.com RRGWNYEnviro at aol.com
Mon Apr 25 09:57:51 CDT 2011


 
Japanese Local Governments Unsure of Future Nuclear Plans
By Helena  Zhu
Epoch Times Staff : Apr 24, 2011 Last Updated: Apr 24, 2011 
World  > Asia Pacific 


Japan's local governments are a lot less sure they want their communities  
to live near nuclear power plants than before the Fukushima crisis. In a 
recent  poll by Kyodo News, out of 46 local governments, 19 said they are 
undecided  about whether to condemn or embrace existing or planned nuclear plants 
in or  near their jurisdictions.

A Kyodo News poll published Saturday shows that  the governments want 
further public and government input, before taking a  decided stance on the 
plants.

Thirty-seven percent of local governments  said they would allow nuclear 
plants to continue to operate, as long as certain  conditions are met.

Only one government said Japan’s nuclear plants  should be decommissioned, 
according to The Mainichi Daily News.

The poll  came out one day before Sunday’s nationwide local elections took 
place, putting  the spotlight on Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s ruling 
Democratic Party of Japan  (DPJ) and the country’s 55 nuclear power plants.

DPJ fared poorly in  elections two weeks ago, mainly over Kan’s handling of 
the nuclear crisis. Calls  for Kan to step down, after the crisis is 
stabilized, have increased, including  calls from DPJ members.

On Sunday, DPJ members ran for 10 mayoral and  ward chief positions in the 
elections. The outcome of these elections will  affect Kan’s standing within 
his own party, according to the report.


4 Trillion Yen Extra Budget
Kan’s Cabinet on Friday adopted a  preliminary extra budget of 4.02 
trillion yen (US$49 billion) for fiscal year  2011.

The government is struggling to come up with the funds needed for  the 
initial phase of reconstruction and cleanup from the natural disasters,  
including stabilizing the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Kan is  expected to draft a second supplementary budget to fund the 
reconstruction,  which began this month. Government officials said that the budget 
could amount  to more than 10 trillion yen (US$122 billion), which would 
compel the government  to issue new debt to pay for it, Kyodo News reported.

To handle the  aftermath of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which was deemed 
the worst crisis in  Japan since World War II, Japan’s first extra budget is 
already bigger than the  three special budgets effectuated after the 1995 
Kobe earthquake, which totaled  3.23 trillion yen.

Worker Radiation Exposure (dose)
Workers cleaning up the damaged  Fukushima plant are being exposed to 
increasingly higher levels of radiation  with 30 workers having been exposed to 
100 millisieverts of radiation, the  Mainichi reported.


Related Articles
Police Begin First Search Near  Japan's Nuclear Plant 
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plants operator,  released a nuclear 
contamination map Saturday that shows significant radiation  in 150 places around 
the plant’s four reactors, Kyodo reported.


30 Japanese Workers at Fukushima Exposed to High Radiation
Perle, Sandy _sperle  at mirion.com _ 
(mailto:radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu?Subject=Re:%20[%20RadSafe%20]%2030%20Japanese%20Workers%20at%20Fukushima%20Exp
osed%20to%20High
%20Radiation&In-Reply-To=<C9DA038B.9EE0%sperle at mirion.com>) 
Sun Apr 24 18:45:57 CDT 2011 
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____________________________________

Once again, no specific dose provided so what the workers have been

exposed to is anyone's guess. And what is the definition of safe? Is this

a dose that meets the regulatory limits in Japan? Is it a dose within the

250 mSv the workers are allowed for saving life? Are these whole body

exposures or extremity exposures, where there are higher limits? There is

nothing learned from this one sentence in the article. It is meaningless.



Regards,



Sandy



-----------------------------------

Sander C. Perle

President

Mirion Technologies

Dosimetry Services Division

2652 McGaw Avenue

Irvine, CA 92614



+1 (949) 296-2306 (Office)

+1 (949) 296-1130 (Fax)



Mirion Technologies: _http://www.mirion.com/_ (http://www.mirion.com/) 











On 4/24/11 2:13 PM, "_RRGWNYEnviro_ 
(http://health.phys.iit.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/radsafe) > wrote:



>
>
>30 Japanese Workers at Fukushima Exposed to High  Radiation
>_World_ (_http://www.novinite.com/category.php?category_id=30)_ 
(http://www.novinite.com/category.php?category_id=30)) 
|April 23, 2011, Saturday
>
>
>
>Thirty workers at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan  have been
>exposed to levels of radiation higher than the ones determined  as safe.
>The news was reported Saturday by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
>citing
>the NPP operator TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co).
>TEPCO further announced plans to build underground walls surrounding  the
>damaged reactors in order to stop contaminated water from spreading in
>the
>environment.
>Workers will have to dig 15 meters down in the ground to reach dirt which
>is  not permeable and build the walls from this point up.
>The Fukushima NPP sustained severe damage from the March 11  9-point
>magnitude on the Richter scale earthquake and following tsunami.  TEPCO
>poured
>tons of sea and fresh water on the reactors in a cooling  effort which
>led to
>leaks of contaminated water in the soil and the Pacific.

 
Very truly yours,

M.Sato

RRG: Ryokan Route Gento (Grand Mali Park)

WNY: West Noga (area) Yokohama

Environment Monitoring



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