BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org
PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:Indybay-18808357
SEQUENCE:18949669
CREATED:20180409T140000Z
DESCRIPTION:4/11 SF Japan Consulate Protest-Defend The Families of Fukushima and Stop 
 Restarting Japanese NUKE Plant\n\nWednesday April 11, 2018 3:00 PM\nSan 
 Francisco Japanese Consulate\n275 Battery St./California St.\nSan 
 Francisco\n\nJoin the speak out and rally to defend the residents of 
 Fukushima who are still demanding that they not be coerced to return to the 
 contaminated Fukushima area. The Abe government continues to tell the 
 Japanese people and the world that they have “decontaminated” the 
 nuclear meltdowns despite the fact that the radioactive melted material 
 remains in the broken down plants.  There continue to be increases of 
 thyroid cancer not just in Fukushima but in areas outside Fukushima. 
 Additionally tens of thousands of contract workers have been sent to the 
 contaminated plants without out proper training and protection and are not 
 being protected by the government which now runs TEPCO. The government is 
 using subcontractors and even the Yakuza to recruit workers and migrant 
 workers.\nThe government is also seeking to remilitarize including nuclear 
 weapons and the Trump administration is supporting this remilitarization 
 with massive sales of weapons to Japan. Additionally a “secrecy law” 
 and “conspiracy law” was passed to silence journalists and the 
 investigators from exposing the nuclear contamination and also the 
 propaganda by the government that the dangers of Fukuhima are over.\nThe No 
 Nukes Action Committee has been rallying to support the Japanese people 
 every month and also supporting the closure of all nuclear plants in 
 California and around the world.\n\nSpeak Out Against Restarting Japanese 
 Nuclear Plants\nSupport the Fukushima Families and Children Who Do Not Want 
 To Return To Fukushima\nStop Militarization In Japan and The Threat Of War 
 In Asia\n\nJoin The Wednesday April 11 Rally at 3:00 PM\n\n\nSpeak Out and 
 Rally initiated by\nNo Nukes Action 
 Committee\nhttp://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/\n\n\nSouthwestern Japan 
 nuclear reactor back online after 7-yr 
 hiatus\n\nhttps://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180323/p2g/00m/0dm/052000c\nMarch 
 23, 2018 (Mainichi Japan)\n\nThe reactivated No. 3 reactor of the Genkai 
 Nuclear Power Plant, left, is seen in Genkai, Saga Prefecture, in this 
 photo taken from a Mainichi Shimbun helicopter on March 23, 2018. 
 (Mainichi)\nSAGA, Japan (Kyodo) -- A nuclear reactor at the Genkai power 
 plant in southwestern Japan resumed operation Friday for the first time in 
 over seven years, amid lingering concerns among residents about evacuating 
 from islets near the plant in the event of a serious accident.\n\nKyushu 
 Electric Power Co.'s No. 3 unit at the plant in Saga Prefecture was halted 
 for a regular inspection in December 2010, three months before a massive 
 earthquake and tsunami triggered a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear 
 plant.\n\nThe reactor cleared safety screening by the Nuclear Regulation 
 Authority in January 2017 under stricter, post-Fukushima crisis regulations 
 and was later approved for reactivation by the Genkai municipal government 
 and Saga prefectural government. It became the seventh reactor in Japan to 
 restart under the stricter regulations.\n\nThe government of Prime Minister 
 Shinzo Abe, which views nuclear power as an "important base-load power 
 source," is promoting the restart of nuclear reactors considered safe by 
 the regulator.\n\nLocal residents, particularly those living on 17 islands 
 within 30 kilometers of the Genkai plant, are concerned about how to 
 evacuate in the event of an accident as there are no bridges connecting the 
 islets with the main island of Kyushu.\n\nTrade and Industry Minister 
 Hiroshige Seko welcomed the resumption saying, "(The restart) holds 
 significance from the point of promoting so-called pluthermal power 
 generation and recycling nuclear fuel."\n\nThe Genkai plant's No. 3 reactor 
 generates power using mixed oxide, or MOX fuel, which is created from 
 plutonium and uranium extracted from spent fuel.\n\nEarly Friday, a group 
 of about 100 citizens gathered in front of the Genkai plant, protesting 
 against the resumption and calling for the shutdowns of all nuclear plants 
 in Japan.\n\nChuji Nakayama, a 70-year-old man who lives on Iki Island in 
 Nagasaki Prefecture within about a 30-kilometer radius of the plant, 
 expressed anger, saying, "How can islanders escape if an accident 
 occurs?"\n\nKenichi Arakawa, the deputy chief of an anti-nuclear group who 
 lives in Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, said, "An accident could deprive 
 nearby residents of everything in their lives. We should not operate a 
 nuclear plant that threatens our lives."\n\nMeanwhile, a 70-year-old man 
 from the town of Genkai said, "The town will finally become vibrant again 
 because the nuclear plant helped set up roads and create jobs while 
 bringing in more people."\n\nKyushu Electric plans to start commercial 
 operation of the No. 3 Genkai unit in late April. It is the third reactor 
 reactivated by the utility, following the Nos. 1 and 2 units at the Sendai 
 complex in Kagoshima Prefecture, which came back online in 2015.\n\nThe 
 operator also plans to restart the No. 4 unit at the Genkai plant in May, 
 after that unit passed an NRA safety assessment in January 
 2017.\n\nFukushima must do more to reduce radioactive 
 water\n\nhttp://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180308/p2g/00m/0dm/002000c\nMarch 
 8, 2018 (Mainichi Japan)\n\nIn this Nov. 12, 2014, file photo, workers 
 wearing protective gear stand outside the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power 
 Plant's reactor in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture. (AP Photo/Shizuo 
 Kambayashi, Pool)\nTOKYO (AP) -- A government-commissioned group of experts 
 concluded Wednesday that a costly underground ice wall is only partially 
 effective in reducing the ever-growing amount of contaminated water at 
 Japan's destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant, and said other measures are 
 needed as well.\n\nThe plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., says the 
 ice wall has helped reduce the radioactive water by half. The plant also 
 pumps out several times as much groundwater before it reaches the reactors 
 via a conventional drainage system using dozens of wells dug around the 
 area.\n\nThe groundwater mixes with radioactive water leaking from the 
 damaged reactors. Contaminated water also results from rainwater that comes 
 in contact with tainted soil and structures at the plant, which suffered 
 meltdowns of three reactors after a March 2011 earthquake and 
 tsunami.\n\nThe panel agreed that the ice wall helps, but said it doesn't 
 completely solve the problem. Panel members suggested that additional 
 measures be taken to minimize the inflow of rainwater and groundwater, such 
 as repairing roofs and other damaged parts of buildings. Results from the 
 recent dry season were positive, but they noted that heavy rainfalls caused 
 spikes in the amount of contaminated water.\n\n"We recognize that the ice 
 wall has had an effect, but more work is needed to mitigate rainfall ahead 
 of the typhoon season," said panel chairman Yuzo Onishi, a Kansai 
 University civil engineering professor.\n\nThe 1.5-kilometer (1-mile) 
 coolant-filled underground structure was installed around the wrecked 
 reactor buildings to create a frozen soil barrier and keep groundwater from 
 flowing into the heavily radioactive area. The ice wall has been activated 
 in phases since 2016. Frozen barriers around the reactor buildings are now 
 deemed complete.\n\nOn Wednesday, TEPCO said the amount of contaminated 
 water that collects inside the reactor buildings was reduced to 95 tons per 
 day with the ice wall, compared to nearly 200 tons without one. That is 
 part of the 500 tons of contaminated water created every day at the plant, 
 with the other 300 tons pumped out via wells, treated and stored in 
 tanks.\n\nIn addition to the 35 billion yen ($320 million) construction 
 cost funded by taxpayers' money, the ice wall needs more than 1 billion yen 
 ($9.5 million) annually in operating and maintenance costs. Critics have 
 been skeptical about the ice wall and suggested greater use of wells -- a 
 standard groundwater drainage method -- as a cheaper and more proven 
 option.\n\nThe head of TEPCO's decommissioning company, Naohiro Masuda, 
 said the ice wall deserves more recognition because it has stabilized 
 groundwater movement and helped eliminate emergencies, while reducing the 
 total amount of water pumped up, which also saves costs for water treatment 
 and storage tanks.\n\n"We can work more stably thanks to the ice wall. 
 Intuitively, it is very effective," Masuda said at the meeting, adding that 
 the wall contributed more than its cost.\n\nThe plant has been struggling 
 with the ever-growing amounts of water -- only slightly contaminated after 
 treatment -- now totaling 1 million tons and stored in 1,000 tanks, taking 
 up significant space at the complex, where a decades-long decommissioning 
 effort continues. Officials aim to minimize the contaminated water in the 
 reactor before starting to remove melted fuel in 2021.\n\n\nOnly 35% of 
 Fukushima Daiichi workers tested for long-term effects of 
 radiation\n\n\nhttps://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180306_21/\n \n 
 \nOnly 35% of Fukushima Daiichi workers tested\n March 6, 2018\n \n \nNHK 
 has learned that only 35 percent of workers who responded to the March 2011 
 nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi plant have been checked for long-term 
 effects of radiation.\n\nA Japanese government-affiliated research 
 organization began conducting the radiation-exposure screenings 4 years 
 ago. Some 20,000 workers who entered the plant within 9 months of the 
 accident are to undergo life-long monitoring that includes blood tests and 
 thyroid exams.\n\nDuring the nuclear crisis, many plant workers were 
 exposed to radiation beyond the government limit of 100 millisieverts. The 
 government then temporarily raised the limit to 250 millisieverts so that 
 work could continue.\n\nThe Radiation Effects Research Foundation aims to 
 conduct regular screenings on at least 80 percent of those workers. But it 
 says that as of January this year, it has only been able to check about 
 7,000 people.\n\nOf the workers who remain untested, 35 percent have 
 ignored calls to take a screening, 17 percent have refused to comply, and 
 8.5 percent cannot be reached.\n\nSeveral non-participants have told NHK 
 they cannot take days off from work, or that there are too few clinics 
 where they can be tested.\n\nSome were skeptical about the screenings, 
 saying they doubt a checkup would help keep them healthy.\n\nTomotaka 
 Sobue, a professor at Osaka University, was a member of a government panel 
 that assessed the screening program.\n\nHe says the government has a 
 responsibility to confirm whether people who took part in emergency work 
 are facing any health risks.\n\nHe says efforts must be made to inform 
 workers about the program, and to make it easier for them to take the 
 tests.\n\n\nSeventh court orders TEPCO to pay evacuees from 
 Fukushima\nhttp://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201803230033.html\nTHE ASAHI 
 SHIMBUN\nMarch 23, 2018 at 14:45 JST\n\nThe Asahi Shimbun\nA seventh court 
 ruling has ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. to pay compensation to evacuees 
 whose daily lives were turned upside down after the 2011 disaster at the 
 Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.\n\nThe Iwaki branch of the Fukushima 
 District Court on March 22 ordered the utility to pay a total of 610 
 million yen ($5.8 million) in compensation to 213 plaintiffs. The court 
 said the company failed to take measures that could have prevented or 
 reduced the damage to the nuclear plant from the tsunami that devastated 
 coastal areas of the Tohoku region.\n\nLike some previous rulings against 
 TEPCO, the Iwaki branch awarded a compensation amount that went beyond the 
 central government’s guidelines. The ruling included payments for the 
 “loss of one’s hometown,” which covers the destruction of community 
 life, concerns about radiation exposure as well as loss of psychological 
 support.\n\nThe court ordered an additional 700,000 yen to 1.5 million yen 
 per plaintiff depending on the evacuation order level that was issued for 
 their neighborhoods.\n\nThe central government was not named as a defendant 
 in the latest lawsuit, but the trend so far could influence other 
 litigation before various district courts around Japan. About 30 lawsuits 
 have been filed by Fukushima evacuees.\n\nIn five of the seven lawsuits in 
 which the central government has been named as a defendant, four rulings 
 have ordered Tokyo to pay compensation as well.\n\nIn those four rulings, 
 the district courts pointed to a 2002 study that mentioned the possibility 
 of a tsunami-spawning earthquake striking in a wide area ranging from off 
 the Sanriku coast in the Tohoku region to off the coast of the Boso 
 Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture.\n\nBased on that study, TEPCO calculated 
 that a tsunami as high as 15.7 meters could possibly hit the Fukushima No. 
 1 nuclear plant.\n\nThe four rulings concluded the central government was 
 responsible for compensation because of its failure to instruct TEPCO to 
 take measures that could have limited the tsunami damage to the 
 plant.\n\nThe rulings have varied in their judgments on when it was 
 possible to assume a tsunami would strike off the coast where the nuclear 
 plant is located. The periods have ranged from “sometime within 2002” 
 to “2006 at the latest.”\n\nThe rulings have also varied on when the 
 central government should have issued instructions or orders to TEPCO, from 
 “about the end of 2002” to “March 2008 at the latest.”\n\n\n\nJapan 
 Government Owned TEPCO, state told to pay 3/11 evacuees who left on their 
 own\nhttp://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201803150056.html\nBy RYUTARO ABE/ 
 Staff Writer\nMarch 15, 2018 at 18:45 JST\n\n\nThe legal team for evacuees 
 of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster hold signs stating partial victory 
 at the Kyoto District Court on March 15. (Yoshiko Sato)\nKYOTO--The 
 district court here ordered the government and the operator of the 
 Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on March 15 to pay a combined 110 million yen 
 ($1 million) to 110 evacuees who fled voluntarily after the 2011 nuclear 
 disaster.\n\nPresiding Judge Nobuyoshi Asami at the Kyoto District Court 
 ruled that the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. were 
 liable on grounds that they failed to take adequate measures to protect the 
 plant from the tsunami that inundated the facility after the Great East 
 Japan Earthquake.\n\nThe court noted the government’s “long-term 
 assessment” for possible earthquakes unleashing tsunami compiled in 2002. 
 The report pointed to the possibility of a powerful earthquake and tsunami 
 striking the plant.\n\nAll of the 174 plaintiffs from 57 families had 
 evacuated to Kyoto Prefecture without an evacuation order except for one 
 individual from Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture.\n\nTomioka was within the 
 20-kilometer radius from the plant ordered to evacuate after the crisis 
 unfolded on March 11, 2011, triggered by the magnitude-9.0 quake and 
 tsunami.\n\nApart from Fukushima, the plaintiffs were from Miyagi, Ibaraki, 
 Tochigi and Chiba prefectures.\n\nThe plaintiffs plan to appeal the court 
 decision, as 64 were not awarded compensation.\n\nThe plaintiffs sought 
 846.6 million yen collectively in damages from the government and the 
 utility.\n\nThe district court ruling marked the fifth in a series of 
 similar lawsuits brought across the nation.\n\nIn all five cases, the 
 respective courts acknowledged TEPCO’s responsibility to pay damages to 
 the plaintiffs.\n\nThe Kyoto District Court’s decision was the third to 
 acknowledge the government’s responsibility.\n\nThe key issues in the 
 Kyoto case were if the towering tsunami that swamped the plant was 
 foreseen, if the government had authority to force TEPCO to take 
 countermeasures against such an event, and if the amount of compensation 
 paid by TEPCO to voluntary evacuees based on the government’s guidelines 
 was appropriate.\n\nMost of the plaintiffs sought 5.5 million yen each in 
 damages.\n\nIn the ruling, the district court determined that TEPCO should 
 pay additional compensation on top of the amount set in the government 
 guidelines to 109 plaintiffs who fled voluntarily despite not being subject 
 to evacuation orders.\n\nThe criteria for extra payment are distance from 
 the plant, radiation levels around homes, and family members who require 
 medical attention due to the exposure to radiation.\n\nAmong the plaintiffs 
 who were awarded additional compensation were those from Chiba Prefecture, 
 just east of Tokyo and roughly 240 km from Fukushima Prefecture.\n\nThe 
 court stated that the extra payment should be based on damage they suffered 
 over two years after they began evacuating.\n\nIn the lawsuits filed at 
 three other districts, some of the plaintiffs who evacuated voluntarily 
 were awarded additional compensation, ranging from 10,000 yen to 730,000 
 yen per person.\n\nRadiation levels in Fukushima zones still above 
 government target despite cleanup: Greenpeace 
 Japan\nhttps://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/03/01/national/radiation-levels-fukushima-zones-higher-2017-2016-still-government-target-despite-cleanup-greenpeace-japan/\nKYODO\nMAR 
 1, 2018\nARTICLE HISTORY\nPRINTSHARE\nIn the wake of the 2011 nuclear 
 crisis, radiation levels at homes and areas nearby in a Fukushima village 
 remain around three times higher than the government target despite cleanup 
 work having been performed, an environmental group has said.\nIn some areas 
 of the village of Iitate and the town of Namie, levels of radioactivity 
 detected at some points among tens of thousands checked in surveys last 
 September and October were higher than they had been the previous year, 
 Greenpeace Japan said in a report released Thursday.\nMost of the six 
 houses surveyed in Iitate, located around 40 kilometers northwest of the 
 crippled Fukushima No. 1 complex, logged radiation levels higher than the 
 government-set target of 0.23 microsieverts per hour, ranging from 0.2 to 
 0.8 microsieverts per hour.\nSome areas in the village had seen radiation 
 levels rise from 2016, Greenpeace said. “There is a possibility (the 
 environment) was contaminated again as radioactive materials that had 
 accumulated in nearby forests may have moved around,” it said.\nOne 
 house, located near a municipal office with slightly wooded areas nearby, 
 marked lower radiation levels compared with the 2016 survey, but levels at 
 another five houses — which are near forests that have yet to be cleaned 
 up — have remained almost the same.\nThe points surveyed covered areas in 
 Iitate and Namie where evacuation orders have been lifted as well as some 
 parts of Namie that remain designated as “difficult to return” zones 
 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which was triggered by the 
 massive March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.\nThe survey also showed that the 
 effects of cleanup work conducted in 2011 and 2012 in the Tsushima district 
 of Namie, located 40 km northwest of the Fukushima plant, had been limited, 
 with one house there logging radiation levels of 5.8 microsieverts per hour 
 at the highest readings and 1.3 microsieverts per hour on average.\nThe 
 district is among areas designated as special reconstruction zones by the 
 government. The state plans to carry out cleanup work and promote 
 infrastructure development intensively at its expense to make such areas 
 livable again.\n\nJapanese banks gave loans to nuke weapon 
 manufacturers\nhttp://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201803080083.html\nBy 
 DAISUKE SHIMIZU/ Staff writer\nMarch 8, 2018 at 17:20 JST\n\nAkira 
 Kawasaki, a member of the ICAN International Steering Group, explains about 
 the practices of Japanese financial institutions that invest in and lend 
 money to nuclear weapons manufacturers at a news conference in Tokyo’s 
 Shinjuku Ward on March 7. (Daisuke Shimizu)\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/04/09/18808357.php
SUMMARY:SF Japan Consulate Protest-Defend The Families of Fukushima & Stop Restarting Japan Nukes
LOCATION:San Francisco Japanese Consulate\n275 Battery St./California\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/04/09/18808357.php
DTSTART:20180411T220000Z
DTEND:20180411T230000Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR