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DESCRIPTION:4/11 Rally-Speak Out On Japan Kyushu Earthquake And Dangers Of Another 
 Fukushima Ignored By Abe Government\nWednesday May 11, 2016 3:00 PM\n275 
 Battery St./California St.\nSan Francisco\n\nOn Wednesday May 11th at 3:00 
 PM , people will speak out at the San Francisco Japanese consulate to 
 demand the closure of all nuclear plants in Japan including the Sendai 
 nuclear plant and another nuclear plant in Kyushu. The recent 7.3 
 earthquake in Kyushu was very close to the Sendia plant which has been 
 restarted by the Abe government and the corporate controlled Nuclear 
 Regulatory Agency. The same corporate controlled agency has said that "the 
 Sendai reactors can withstand seismic damage and don’t pose a risk to the 
 surrounding area." The government using secrecy laws is also now clamping 
 down on the press in Japan not to let the public know about the serious 
 dangers to the communities and public about another Fukushima. The Abe 
 appointed head of the national Japanese channel warned the reporters that 
 they  "shouldn't stir up needless alarm". This attack on journalist to 
 shutdown information has even been criticized by the UN last month when 
 U.N. Special Rapporteur David Kaye said "The independence of the press is 
 facing serious threats -- a weak system of legal protection, persistent 
 government exploitation of a media lacking in professional 
 solidarity,"\nThe government and nuclear industry has refused to allow the 
 media to go to the Sendai nuclear plant to check on what is happening 
 there. There is now a national campaign and international campaign to 
 demand that the nuclear plants be shutdown in Kyushu. This cover-up is also 
 going on at Fukushima where the government is demanding that the refugees 
 return or have their housing subsidies eliminated.\nThe Japanese government 
 which runs TEPCO is continuing to release radioactive water including 
 Tritium into the Pacific ocean and telling the children of Fukushima there 
 is nothing to worry about while keeping information about the growing 
 thyroid cancer surgeries in people in Fukushima and Japan.\nPeople in the 
 United States must not remain silent. They need to speak out for the people 
 of Fukushima and the world that the nuclear plants in Japan as well as the 
 US need to be closed including Diablo Canyon which is also on an earthquake 
 fault.\nOur lives and the lives of all people depend on it.\n\nSpeak Out 
 and Rally initiated by\nNo Nukes Action 
 Committee\nhttp://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/\nFor more information\n(510) 
 495-5952\n\nGrowing Anger In Japan And Around The World Over Reckless Abe 
 Continuing To Keep Nuke Plants Operating In Kyushu\nDespite assurances, 
 quakes prompt calls to switch off Japan’s nuclear 
 reactors\nhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/18/national/despite-assurances-quakes-prompt-calls-switch-off-japans-nuclear-reactors/#.VxThPKs8y-Q\nBY 
 ERIC JOHNSTON\nSTAFF WRITER\n	• APR 18, 2016\nOSAKA – Despite official 
 assurances of no abnormalities at nuclear power plants in Kyushu and nearby 
 areas after a series of earthquakes rocked the region, calls in and outside 
 of Japan are growing to shut down the nations’ only two operating 
 reactors at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.\n\nSince Thursday, 
 the Meteorological Agency has recorded nearly 530 quakes at level 1 or 
 above on the Japanese intensity scale in Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures. 
 This includes more than 80 registering a 4 or higher on the scale. The 
 agency has warned that seismic activity in the region may continue over the 
 next week, possibly prompting more deadly landslides.\n\ninRead invented by 
 Teads\nBut despite the frequency of the quakes, the Sendai plant, just over 
 the border from Kumamoto in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, has 
 continued to generate electricity since the initial magnitude-6.5 quake 
 rocked Kumamoto on Thursday, followed by a magnitude-7.3 temblor early 
 Saturday.\n\nThe Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday morning it had 
 confirmed there were no abnormalities at the Sendai plant or at the 
 nation’s other nuclear facilities.\n\nIt said the seismic intensity 
 measured by the earthquakes was well below the level at which reactors 
 should be switched off.\n\n\nIn addition, the NRA said, no problems were 
 reported with the spent fuel pools at the Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture, 
 the Ikata plant in Ehime Prefecture and the Shimane plant in Shimane 
 Prefecture.\n\nBut with continued quakes and aftershocks, fears are growing 
 about what the constant shaking could mean in terms of cumulative damage 
 that could result in a nuclear crisis.\n\nAn online Japanese- and 
 English-language petition by a former Kumamoto resident to shut down the 
 Sendai plant had drawn over 42,000 signatures worldwide as of Monday 
 morning, while anti-nuclear activists in Fukui Prefecture have also 
 criticized Kyushu Electric Power Co. and the NRA for continuing to operate 
 the plant.\n\nIn Saga Prefecture on Sunday, about 100 mayors and town heads 
 belonging to the Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan added their voices, 
 calling for the central government and the NRA to re-evaluate the way 
 earthquake safety standards for nuclear power plants are 
 calculated.\n\nThey also want the government to grant localities within 30 
 km of a nuclear power plant the legal authority to approve or reject 
 reactor restarts.\n\nThe decision to keep the Sendai reactors running is 
 also drawing criticism overseas.\n\n“Given the general situation on 
 Kyushu — including the ongoing seismic and volcanic activity, the large 
 number of evacuees, and the damage to the transportation infrastructure — 
 I believe it would be prudent for the reactors to be shut down until 
 conditions have stabilized,” Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the 
 Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists and an expert on nuclear 
 materials and atomic power safety policy, said in an email to The Japan 
 Times.\n\nIn Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku Electric hopes to restart the 
 Ikata No. 3 reactor by this summer. But the revelation that the plant lies 
 near the same fault line running through Kumamoto, the Japan Median 
 Tectonic Line, the possibility of a disaster caused by a quake has locals 
 concerned, especially about damage to infrastructure damage that would make 
 it difficult to evacuate residents by either land or sea.\n\nIn light of 
 the continued quakes and concerns by locals, political leaders in the area 
 who OK’d the restart are likely to face intense pressure to rethink their 
 stance.\n\n\nJapan weighs release of tritium from Fukushima plant into 
 sea\nhttp://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201604120059.html\nTHE ASSOCIATED 
 PRESS\nApril 12, 2016 at 17:40 JST\n\nTo dump or not to dump a 
 little-discussed substance is the question brewing in Japan as it grapples 
 with the aftermath of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima five years ago. 
 The substance is tritium.\n\nThe radioactive material is nearly impossible 
 to remove from the huge quantities of water used to cool melted-down 
 reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which was wrecked by 
 the massive tsunami in northeastern Japan in March 2011.\n\nThe water is 
 still accumulating since 300 tons are needed every day to keep the reactors 
 chilled. Some is leaking into the ocean.\n\nHuge tanks lined up around the 
 plant, at last count 1,000 of them, each hold hundreds of tons of water 
 that have been cleansed of radioactive cesium and strontium but not of 
 tritium.\n\nRidding water of tritium has been carried out in laboratories. 
 But it's an effort that would be extremely costly at the scale required for 
 the Fukushima plant, which sits on the Pacific coast. Many scientists argue 
 it isn't worth it and say the risks of dumping the tritium-laced water into 
 the sea are minimal.\n\nTheir calls to simply release the water into the 
 Pacific Ocean are alarming many in Japan and elsewhere.\n\nRosa Yang, a 
 nuclear expert at the Electric Power Research Institute, based in Palo 
 Alto, California, who advises Japan on decommissioning reactors, believes 
 the public angst is uncalled for. She says a Japanese government official 
 should simply get up in public and drink water from one of the tanks to 
 convince people it's safe.\n\nBut the line between safe and unsafe 
 radiation is murky, and children are more susceptible to radiation-linked 
 illness. Tritium goes directly into soft tissues and organs of the human 
 body, potentially increasing the risks of cancer and other 
 sicknesses.\n\n"Any exposure to tritium radiation could pose some health 
 risk. This risk increases with prolonged exposure, and health risks include 
 increased occurrence of cancer," said Robert Daguillard, a spokesman for 
 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\n\nThe agency is trying to 
 minimize the tritium from U.S. nuclear facilities that escapes into 
 drinking water.\n\nRight after the March 2011 disaster, many in Japan 
 panicked, some even moving overseas although they lived hundreds of 
 kilometers away from the Fukushima no-go zone. By now, concern has settled 
 to the extent that some worry the lessons from the disaster are being 
 forgotten.\n\nTritium may be the least of Japan's worries. Much hazardous 
 work remains to keep the plant stabilized, and new technology is needed for 
 decommissioning the plant's reactors and containing massive radioactive 
 contamination.\n\nThe ranks of Japan's anti-nuclear activists have been 
 growing since the March 2011 accident, and many oppose releasing water with 
 tritium into the sea. They argue that even if tritium's radiation is weaker 
 than strontium or cesium, it should be removed, and that good methods 
 should be devised to do that.\n\nJapan's fisheries organization has 
 repeatedly expressed concerns over the issue. News of a release of the 
 water could devastate local fisheries just as communities in northeastern 
 Japan struggle to recover from the 2011 disasters.\n\nAn isotope of 
 hydrogen, or radioactive hydrogen, tritium exists in water form, and so 
 like water can evaporate, although it is not known how much tritium escaped 
 into the atmosphere from Fukushima as gas from explosions.\n\nThe amount of 
 tritium in the contaminated water stored at Fukushima No. 1 is estimated at 
 3.4 peta becquerels, or 34 with a mind-boggling 14 zeros after it.\n\nBut 
 theoretically collected in one place, it would amount to just 57 
 milliliters, or about the amount of liquid in a couple of espresso cups--a 
 minuscule quantity in the overall masses of water.\n\nTo illustrate that 
 point, Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, 
 showed reporters a small bottle half-filled with blue water that was the 
 equivalent of 57 milliliters.\n\nPublic distrust is running so high after 
 the Fukushima accident that Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, the utility 
 that operates the Fukushima plant and oversees its decommissioning, has 
 mostly kept quiet about the tritium, pending a political decision on 
 releasing the water.\n\nPrivately, they say it will have to be released, 
 but they can't say that outright.\n\nWhat will be released from Fukushima 
 will be well below the global standard allowed for tritium in the water, 
 say Tanaka and others favoring its release, which is likely to come 
 gradually later this year, not all at once.\n\nProponents of releasing the 
 tritium water argue that tritium already is in the natural environment, 
 coming from the sun and from water containing tritium that is routinely 
 released at nuclear plants around the world.\n\n"Tritium is so weak in its 
 radioactivity it won't penetrate plastic wrapping," said Tanaka.\n\nJapan's 
 Worst Quake Since 2011 Seen Delaying Nuclear 
 Starts\nhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-26/japan-s-worst-quake-since-fukushima-seen-delaying-nuclear-starts\nStephen 
 Stapczynski \nsstapczynski \nApril 25, 2016 — 5:23 PM PDTUpdated on April 
 25, 2016 — 9:16 PM PDT\n\nJapan’s biggest earthquake in five years may 
 slow a government plan to restart the country’s atomic fleet that was 
 shuttered amid safety concerns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami 
 that caused the triple meltdown at Fukushima.\nA series of earthquakes, 
 including a magnitude-7.3 tremor that struck about 119 kilometers (74 
 miles) from the Sendai nuclear facility on the southern island of Kyushu 
 this month, destroyed hundreds of homes, snapped bridges and left at least 
 49 people dead. It has also revived an effort to halt the plants’ 
 operations.\nThe events may delay Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s goal of 
 returning the country’s nuclear power plants to operation. About 60 
 percent of Japanese citizens oppose restarting reactors, according to a 
 Nikkei newspaper poll from February, and the earthquake is intensifying 
 pressure on the country’s nuclear regulator to vet safety 
 rules.\n“Nuclear is under a magnifying glass now, so even the smallest 
 problem can create big delays,” Michael Jones, a Singapore-based gas and 
 power analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said in an e-mail. “Fukushima has 
 changed everything, and earthquakes and volcanoes are only making things 
 worse.”\nTransport Disruptions\nTrains and highways were damaged in the 
 Kyushu earthquake and if there is a nuclear accident from another 
 earthquake or volcanic eruption, evacuations may be difficult, 
 Datsugenpatsu Bengodan, a group of lawyers working to wean Japan off 
 nuclear power said in an April 19 statement. The group said Kyushu Electric 
 Power Co.’s Sendai No. 1 and 2 reactors, which were the first to 
 restartunder post-Fukushima safety rules last year, should be shut.\nAn 
 e-mail to Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority outside of normal business 
 hours wasn’t immediately answered.\nEvacuation Procedures\n“Given this 
 is the largest earthquake in over a century in Kyushu that has caused 
 significant damage to infrastructure, it could slow down the pace of 
 restarts,” said Tom O’Sullivan, founder of Mathyos, a Tokyo-based 
 energy consultant. “It may now be even more imperative that emergency 
 evacuation procedures are thoroughly tested.”\nA nuclear accident at 
 Sendai would require the evacuation of about 5,000 people in the 
 surrounding 5 kilometers and more than 200,000 would need to seek immediate 
 shelter within a 5- to 30-kilometer radius, according to a local government 
 simulation from 2014.\nThe NRA, Japan’s nuclear regulator, said on April 
 18 that it sees no need to shut the two Sendai reactors. A high court on 
 April 6 upheld a ruling that the Sendai reactors can withstand seismic 
 damage and don’t pose a risk to the surrounding area.\nA local court 
 issued an injunction in March preventing the operation of Kansai Electric 
 Power Co.’s Takahama No. 3 and 4 reactors, questioning whether evacuation 
 plans and tsunami prevention measures -- which had been endorsed by the 
 government -- were robust enough.\nThe earthquake near Japan’s only 
 operating reactors “may boost the nation’s anti-nuclear sentiment,” 
 Joseph Jacobelli, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in an April 22 
 note. “Technical and political obstacles mean even those units approved 
 for restart are returning at a snail’s pace.”\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/05/07/18786150.php
SUMMARY:Rally-Speak Out On Japan Kyushu Earthquake And Dangers Of Another Fukushima Ignored
LOCATION:Japanese Consulate\n275 Battery St. near California St.\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/05/07/18786150.php
DTSTART:20160511T220000Z
DTEND:20160511T230000Z
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