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DESCRIPTION:4/11 SF Rally At SF Japanese Consulate-\nSpeak Out On \nSunday March 11, 
 2021 3:00 PM \nDefend The People Of Fukushima\nNo More Fukushimas, No 
 Olympics In Japan In the Middle Of Pandemic \n\nSan Francisco Japanese 
 Consulate \n275 Battery St/California St.\nSan Francisco \nSponsored by No 
 Nukes Action \n\nDespite a world pandemic including in Japan, the Suga 
 Japanese government is going ahead with the Olympics which will also be 
 held in radioactive contaminated Fukushima.\nThe Japanese government is 
 also proposing to dump over a million tons of radioactive water into the 
 Pacifica because the melted nuclear rods in the broken reactors continue to 
 leak and must be cooled by water.\nNuclear clean-up workers including 
 workers from overseas and other workers continue to get contaminated with 
 no proper health and safety education and tens of thousands of bags of 
 radioactive waste continue to remain scattered throughout the prefecture 
 with no place to go.  The government is also seeking to spread the 
 contaminated waste throughout Japan in road construction and other 
 projects.\nThe criminal negligence of having the Olympics under these 
 circumstances with a full blown pandemic and a three leaking nuclear 
 reactors is a sign of insanity and a danger to not only  \nJapan but the 
 world. \nNo Nukes Action asks you to join us to demand the cancellation of 
 the Olympics, the halt to re-opening Japan’s  nuclear plants and defense 
 of the Fukushima people. We oppose as well the militarization of Asia 
 including the development of the new Haneko base in Okinawa. The residents 
 continued to be terrorized by US military jets and helicopters. The US is 
 even training with these aircraft in the center of Tokyo despite the great 
 dangers.\n\nPhysical distancing and masks for all participants at action 
 \nSpeak-out In Defense of the Residents of Fukushima/ Stop The Japan 
 Olympics In The Middle Of Covid Pandemic \nDon’t Dump The Radioactive 
 Water In The Pacific Ocean and Stop The Nukes\n\nSunday April 11, 2021 3PM 
 \nSan Francisco Japanese Consulate \n275 Battery St/California \nSan 
 Francisco \nNo Nukes Action \nhttp://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/ \n\nNRA 
 to delay TEPCO’s reactor restart plan over ‘shoddy’ 
 repairs\nhttp://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14276457\n\nTHE ASAHI 
 SHIMBUN\nMarch 17, 2021 at 18:19 JST\n\n Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s 
 Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture (Kazuyoshi 
 Sako)\nThe Nuclear Regulation Authority effectively halted Tokyo Electric 
 Power Co.’s plan to restart a reactor at its nuclear plant in Niigata 
 Prefecture after finding “shoddy” repairs to the porous security 
 situation at the site.\n“We are keeping TEPCO’s move toward the restart 
 on hold in our continuing series of inspections until the company is 
 allowed to start commercial operation of the reactor,” Toyoshi Fuketa, 
 chairman of the NRA, said on March 17.\nIn a preliminary assessment, the 
 NRA on March 16 rated TEPCO’s preparedness for protecting nuclear 
 material at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant at the bottom of a 
 four-level scale. Such preparations must be in place to protect against 
 terrorist attacks, sabotage and other potential crises.\nThe utility is 
 seeking to restart the No. 7 reactor at the plant in June while it 
 continues struggling to decommission its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear 
 plant.\nThe restart of the reactor with an output capacity of 1.3 gigawatts 
 would allow TEPCO to save huge costs spent on fossil fuel for its thermal 
 power plants.\nThe utility was expected to seek approval of procedures to 
 load nuclear fuel in the reactor before it was reactivated.\nBut with the 
 dismal security assessment at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the 
 nuclear watchdog said it will delay that procedure, even if the utility 
 applies for it.\nFuketa said an additional inspection of the site will take 
 “at least more than a year even if it proceeds at an extremely fast 
 pace.”\nOperators of nuclear power plants use surveillance cameras and 
 security gates to prevent potential intrusions.\nBut TEPCO reported to the 
 NRA that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant had been unable to detect 
 unauthorized access at 15 points because of equipment glitches since March 
 2020. The unsecure situation continued for more than 30 days at 10 
 points.\nSince January this year, TEPCO had repeatedly reported to the NRA 
 that it had taken alternative measures to remedy the situation.\nHowever, 
 the NRA discovered that these measures were inadequate when it conducted an 
 unannounced inspection of the plant late at night on a holiday in 
 February.\nThe equipment in question has been fixed and no intrusions were 
 confirmed, according to TEPCO.\nThe NRA did not reveal further details of 
 the company’s problems, saying certain information must be withheld for 
 security reasons.\nBut Fuketa was clearly infuriated by the utility’s 
 handling.\n“The alternative steps are shoddy as anyone can see,” he 
 said at an emergency news conference on March 16. “We need to determine 
 whether TEPCO settled on the measures due to a ‘lack of knowledge’ or 
 it believed that it could just gloss over the problem with ‘that level of 
 response.’”\nIndustry minister Hiroshi Kajiyama acknowledged that TEPCO 
 is nowhere near restarting the Kashiwakazi-Kariwa plant, calling the 
 company’s situation “extremely concerning.”\nKashiwazaki Mayor 
 Masahiro Sakurai expressed “shock” over TEPCO’s actions at a news 
 conference hastily called on the night of March 16. Kashiwazaki co-hosts 
 the nuclear complex, together with the neighboring Kariwa village.\nSakurai 
 said the schedule for the plant’s restart was “reset” and voiced 
 strong skepticism toward the utility.\n“I am afraid that the recent 
 problem illustrates the company’s inability to alter its systemic 
 awareness,” he said.\nSakurai, who was re-elected mayor in November, is a 
 proponent of the reactor restart and has echoed the views of local business 
 leaders.\nIn January, reports emerged that an employee entered a central 
 control room at the nuclear plant using the ID of another employee in 
 September.\nThe incident was rated as level 2 on the four-level scale by 
 the NRA.\n(This article was compiled from reports by Yu Kotsubo, Norihiko 
 Kuwabara, Yasuo Tomatsu, Akifumi Nagahashi and Ayumi Sugiyama.)\n\nSoil 
 from Fukushima radiation decontamination work to be reused in new 
 farmland\n\nhttps://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210313/p2a/00m/0na/023000c\n\nMarch 
 15, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)\nJapanese version\n\n\nLand scheduled to be 
 developed into farmland by reusing soil from radiation decontamination work 
 is seen in the Nagadoro district of the village of Iitate, Fukushima 
 Prefecture, on March 3, 2021. (Mainichi/Nami Takata)\nIITATE, Fukushima -- 
 A farmland development project testing the reusability of soil generated 
 from radiation decontamination work after the meltdowns at Fukushima 
 Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has been carried out by the environment 
 ministry in a restricted "difficult-to-return" zone in this northeast Japan 
 village.\n\nWhile the area suffered damage from the nuclear disaster 
 following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, 
 residents' feelings on the ongoing tests are conflicted. Although there are 
 plans to send crops yielded on farmland to market in the future, few among 
 the Japanese public know about the scheme to reuse decontaminated 
 soil.\n\nAbout 30 kilometers from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) 
 Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is the Nagadoro 
 district of the village of Iitate, in Fukushima Prefecture. The district is 
 a "difficult-to-return" zone, which residents have been evacuated from 
 since the onset of high radiation doses in the area from the 2011 Fukushima 
 nuclear disaster.\n\nThere, a white building stands; a recycling plant for 
 removing twigs, rocks, and other foreign objects from decontaminated soil. 
 It's set to start operations in late March. The 34 hectares of land 
 scheduled for reclamation stretch around the facility and to soil on the 
 other side of the road it's on. The land it stands was formerly a rice 
 paddy, and will be made into farmland by filling it with soil removed in 
 decontamination processes. Reclamation work begins in April, and there is 
 estimated to be at least 430,000 metric tons of decontaminated soil set for 
 reuse.\n\nSince 2018, The Ministry of the Environment has been doing tests 
 toward farmland development in the Nagadoro district, the only area in 
 Japan where they take place. In their investigations, vegetables and 
 flowers are grown in mounds of soil made of decontaminated dirt with a 
 radioactive cesium concentration of 5,000 becquerels per kilogram or less 
 -- the standard limit said by the environment ministry to have no 
 repercussions for agricultural workers -- and covered in a 50 
 centimeter-layer of separate dirt.\n\nCesium concentration levels for corn, 
 turnips and cherry tomatoes harvested in 2020 were between 0.1 and 2.3 
 becquerels per kilogram, below the 100 becquerels per kilogram maximum 
 standard for shippable produce as specified by the Ministry of Health, 
 Labor and Welfare.\n\nSince 2020, the environment ministry has also tried 
 cultivating crops in soil without the extra dirt layer. Although the 
 produce gets disposed of for now, the ministry plans to give them to the 
 village once the farmland is completed, and have the goods shipped to 
 market after commercial farming resumes. When exactly farming will resume 
 remains undecided.\n\nToday, the Nagadoro district is still uninhabitable 
 due to radiation. Why then did it accept the reclamation project using 
 decontaminated soil? Yoshitomo Shigihara, 70, former head of Nagadoro 
 district, emphasized it was a tough decision, saying, "It wasn't like the 
 district gave its wholehearted support for the plan."\n\nEvacuation orders 
 were lifted from Iitate, excluding the Nagadoro area, in spring 2017. 
 Concern has spread among locals regarding the left-behind district. The 
 national government has set up Specified Reconstruction and Revitalization 
 Bases in difficult-to-return zones, and is carrying out intensive 
 decontamination work to make the area habitable again. It aims to lift 
 evacuation orders from the district in spring 2023, but then-village head 
 Norio Kanno, 74, explained that "only a 'mini reconstruction base' of 
 around 2 to 3 hectares can be made."\n\nAccording to Kanno, a national 
 government employee who was in the village around 2017 first proposed the 
 reuse of decontaminated soil. A majority of residents were in favor of the 
 plan in hopes the decontamination area may be expanded if the project were 
 accepted. The village and the environment ministry agreed to the tests in 
 November 2017. As a result, the Nagadoro district reconstruction base was 
 expanded to 1.9 square kilometers of the district's total 10.8 square km 
 area.\n\nBefore the 2011 disasters, the Nagadoro area was a mountain 
 community of about 280 people. Making a living from farming alone was hard, 
 and many farmers had multiple occupations. Shigihara, who owned cattle, 
 said, "We were told the land would be left barren and untreated by 
 decontamination work. If this mean it'll be restored, I have no choice (but 
 to accept the tests)."\n\nAlthough Kanno said, "If the district didn't 
 accept the soil reuse project, the reconstruction base would have been left 
 as it was," the Ministry of the Environment responded to a Mainichi Shimbun 
 inquiry by saying the district's approval of the farmland project and the 
 decontamination range expansion were "unrelated." The nature of these 
 causal relations remains unknown.\n\n(Japanese original by Nami Takata, 
 Yokohama Bureau)\n\n\nOnly 9% of people across Japan want Tokyo Games held 
 as scheduled: Mainichi 
 poll\n\nhttps://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210315/p2a/00m/0na/012000c\nMarch 
 15, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)\nJapanese version\n\n\nThe Olympic rings are seen 
 in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. (Mainichi/Masahiro Ogawa)\nTOKYO -- Only 9% of 
 people across Japan polled by the Mainichi Shimbun and the Social Survey 
 Research Center on March 13 said the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics should 
 be held as scheduled, while 32% said they should be canceled.\n\nIn 
 response to a question about the Tokyo Games, planned to be held this 
 summer, 32% of respondents -- the biggest group -- answered they "should be 
 canceled," and 17% said the games "should be postponed again." Those in 
 favor of going ahead with the games as scheduled remained low at 9%, while 
 21% said "they should be held without letting in spectators from overseas," 
 and 15% said "they should be held without letting in any fans, including 
 those living in Japan." Six percent of respondents answered they "don't 
 know."\n\nThe Japanese government has remained intent on holding the Tokyo 
 Olympics, and is arranging to forego accepting spectators from abroad, 
 considering the spread of the coronavirus. The government has not settled 
 on a conclusion over whether restrictions should be placed on domestic 
 fans, which would result in a spectator-less games. Although the figures 
 cannot be simply compared as survey methods differ, a June 2020 poll found 
 59% of respondents saying, "I think the games cannot be held," far 
 surpassing the 21% who indicated their belief that they will be able to be 
 carried out.\n\nWhen asked about changes in the state of household finances 
 after one year has passed since the spread of the coronavirus, 32% said 
 their monetary situation has "gotten worse," 65% said it "has not changed," 
 and 3% responded that it has "gotten better." Broken down by occupation, 
 50% of "self-employed" or "freelance workers" and nearly 40% of "nonregular 
 workers" answered that their financial status worsened. As for "regular 
 workers" and "stay-at-home spouses," 30% claimed a negative impact on 
 household finances, while nearly 30% of "unemployed individuals" responded 
 likewise.\n\nMeanwhile, to a question asking whether they intended to 
 continue being mindful of incorporating anti-coronavirus measures in their 
 daily lives, 78% answered that they "plan to continue" doing so. Eighteen 
 percent expressed their intention to "gradually take a relaxed approach," 
 and 2% said they have "already been relaxing measures." One percent of 
 respondents also said, "I'm not mindful of taking anti-coronavirus 
 measures." While many people continuously value preventative measures 
 against infection, there also seem to be a certain number of individuals 
 who have grown tired of taking self-restraint measures for long periods. 
 \n\nOver five years have passed since the implementation of the women's 
 career advancement promotion law, which requires major companies, the 
 national government, and local municipalities to set numerical targets for 
 hiring women in managerial positions. To a question asking respondents if 
 they think there has been progress in women's participation in Japanese 
 society, 37% answered "there has been no advancement," while 47% said, 
 "there has been an improvement, but it's insufficient." Only 16% said 
 "there has been sufficient progress." When viewed by gender, those who 
 indicated "no progress" accounted for 33% of male respondents and 43% of 
 their female counterparts. Twenty percent of men answered there has been 
 "sufficient progress," while only 9% of women gave such a response, showing 
 a wide gap between the opinions of women and men.\n\nRegarding the 
 implementation of a system allowing married couples to choose between 
 having the same last names or separate ones, 51% were in favor of having 
 the choice, while 23% were against it and 26% said they're "not 
 sure."\n\n(Japanese original by Nanae Ito, Political News 
 Department)\n\n\nFukushima at Ten: Aftershocks, Lies, and Failed 
 Decontamination\nhttps://www.counterpunch.org/2021/03/12/fukushima-at-ten-aftershocks-lies-and-failed-decontamination/\n\nMARCH 
 12, 2021\nBY JOHN LAFORGEFacebookTwitterRedditEmail\n\nPhotograph Source: 
 Abasaa – Public Domain\nIt’s now 10 years since the catastrophic triple 
 meltdowns of reactors at Fukushima in Japan. As Joseph Mangano of the 
 Radiation and Public Health project put it three years ago, “Enormous 
 amounts of radioactive chemicals, including cesium, strontium, plutonium, 
 and iodine were emitted into the air, and releases of the same toxins into 
 the Pacific have never stopped, as workers struggle to contain over 100 
 cancer-causing chemicals.”\nThere is news of the shortage of Fukushima 
 health studies, big earthquakes (aftershocks) and typhoons rattling nerves, 
 reactors and waste systems, novel radioactive particles dispersed, and 
 corporate and government dishonesty about decontamination.\nVery few health 
 studies\n“So far only one single disease entity has been systematically 
 examined in humans in Fukushima: thyroid cancer,” says Dr. Alex Rosen, 
 the German chair of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear 
 War. Other diseases, such as leukemia or malformations, which are 
 associated with increased radiation exposure, have not been investigated, 
 Rosen told the German medical journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt March 2. (Five 
 studies have focused not on disease, but on birth abnormalities in the 
 areas most affected: three on infant mortality rates, one on underweight 
 newborns, and one on declining birth rates 9 months after March 
 2011.*)\nThe one disease study of the population was a screening for 
 thyroid cancer in 380,000 local children under the age 18. In January 2018, 
 the journal Thyroid reported 187 cases after five years. A typical 
 population of 380,000 children would produce 12 cases in five years, 
 reported Joseph Mangano, director of the Radiation and Pubic Health 
 Project. The increase among children is “exactly what would be expected 
 if Fukushima were a factor, as radiation is most damaging to the fetus, 
 infant and child,” Mangano said.\nNew Earthquakes Rattle Wreckage and 
 Nerves\nAnother large earthquake, magnitude 7.3, struck Feb. 13, again off 
 the coast of the Fukushima reactor complex, and the reported 30 seconds of 
 terror was followed by14 aftershocks up to magnitude 5.\nThe quake was 
 severe enough that its Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) operators and 
 federal regulators suspect it caused additional damage to reactors 1 and 3 
 where cooling water levels fell sharply, the Associated Press reported. The 
 Feb. 13 quake was felt in Tokyo 150 miles away. Japan’s meteorological 
 agency said it was believed to be an aftershock of the record 2011 
 quake.\nAt a Feb. 15 meeting, government regulators said the quake had 
 probably worsened existing earthquake damage in reactors 1 and 3 or broken 
 open new cracks causing the cooling water level drop, the AP 
 said.\n“Because (the 2011 quake) was an enormous one with a magnitude of 
 9.0, it’s not surprising to have an aftershock of this scale 10 years 
 later,” said Kenji Satake, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s 
 Earthquake Research Institute.\nThere have been six major aftershocks in 
 the Fukushima area since March 2011: April 7, 2011 (magnitude 7.1); April 
 11, 2011 (6.6); July 10, 2011 (7.0); Oct. 26, 2013 (7.1); Nov. 26, 2016 
 (6.9); and Feb. 13, 2021 (7.3). All six of these earthquakes were named 
 Fukushima in one language or another.\nEarthquake shocks are not the only 
 recurring nightmare to haunt the survivors of the record quake that killed 
 19, 630. Typhoon Hagibis slammed into Tamura City in October 2019, and 
 swept away an unknown number of bags of radioactive debris that had been 
 stacked near a river.\nSince March 2011, over 22 million cubic meters of 
 contaminated soil, brush and other matter from areas hard hit by fallout 
 has been collected in large black plastic bags and piled in temporary 
 storage mounds in thousands of places. (“Fukushima residents fight state 
 plan to build roads with radiation-tainted soil,” Koydo, Japan Times, 
 Apr. 29, 2018) Yet the volume is the tip of the iceberg: According to R. 
 Ramachandran, in The Hindu, January 31, 2020, no decontamination activities 
 are planned for the majority of forested areas which cover about 75 per 
 cent of the main contaminated area of 9,000 square km.”\nCover-ups and 
 disinformation\nReporting Feb. 14 about the latest quake, the AP noted that 
 Tepco “has repeatedly been criticized for cover-ups and delayed 
 disclosures of problems.” On June 22, 2016, Tepco’s President Naomi 
 Hirose publicly admitted that the company’s lengthy refusal to speak of 
 the “meltdowns” it knew of at its three reactors was tantamount to a 
 cover-up and apologized for it.\nThe Washington Post reported March 6, 2021 
 that, “For years, Tepco claimed that the treated water stored at the 
 plant contained only tritium, but data deep on its website showed that the 
 treatment process had failed.” The tanks now hold almost 1.25 million 
 tons of highly contaminated waste water. “In 2018, [Tepco] was forced to 
 acknowledge that 70 percent of the water is still contaminated with 
 dangerous radioactive elements — including strontium-90, a bone-seeking 
 radionuclide that can cause cancer — and will have to be treated again 
 before release,” the Post reported.\nHarvey Wasserman reported for The 
 Free Press on a July 2007 earthquake that shook Japan and forced dangerous 
 emergency shutdowns at four reactors at Kashiwazaki. “For three 
 consecutive days [Tepco] was forced to issue public apologies for erroneous 
 statements about the severity of the damage done to the reactors, the size 
 and lethality of radioactive spills into the air and water, the on-going 
 danger to the public, and much more. Once again, the only thing reactor 
 owners can be trusted to do is to lie.”\nRadioactive Particles Newly 
 identified\nWork just published in the journal Science of the Total 
 Environmentdocuments new, highly radioactive particles that were released 
 from the destroyed Fukushima reactors. The study was led by Dr. Satoshi 
 Utsunomiya and Kazuya Morooka of Kyushu University. “Two of these 
 particles have the highest cesium radioactivity ever measured for particles 
 from Fukushima,” the research found. The study analyzed particles that 
 were taken from surface soils collected 3.9 kilometers from the reactor 
 site.\nSpeaking with Science Daily Feb. 17, Dr. Utsunomiya said, “Owing 
 to their large size, the health effects of the new particles are likely 
 limited to external radiation hazards during static contact with skin.” 
 The particles were reportedly spewed by the hydrogen explosions that rocked 
 the reactor buildings and fell within a narrow zone that stretches ~8 
 kilometers north-northwest of meltdowns.\nBut Dr. Utsunomiya also said the 
 long-lived radioactivity of cesium in “the newly found highly radioactive 
 particles has not yet decayed significantly. As such, they will remain in 
 the environment for many decades to come, and this type of particle could 
 occasionally still be found in radiation hot spots.”\nSmaller radioactive 
 particles of uranium, thorium, radium, cesium, strontium, polonium, 
 tellurium and americium were found afloat throughout Northern Japan, 
 according to a report by Arnie Gundersen and Marco Kaltofen published July 
 27, 2017 in Science of the Total Environment. The radioactively hot 
 particles were found in dusts and soils from Northern Japan. About 180 
 particulate matter samples were taken from automobile or home air filters, 
 outdoor surface dust, and vacuum cleaner bags. Some142 of the samples 
 (about 80 percent) contained cesium-134 and cesium-137 which emit intense 
 beta radiation and is very dangerous if ingested or inhaled. “A majority 
 of these samples were collected from locations in decontaminated zones 
 cleared for habitation by the National Government of Japan,” the authors 
 revealed.\nGreenpeace Reports Cleanup Failures and Deception\nGreenpeace 
 Japan released two major reports March 4 that also contradict the 
 country’s positive decontamination and human rights claims after 
 2011.\n“Successive governments during the last 10 years … have 
 attempted to perpetrate a myth about the nuclear disaster. They have sought 
 to deceive the Japanese people by misrepresenting the effectiveness of the 
 decontamination program and ignoring radiological risks,” said Shaun 
 Burnie, Senior Nuclear Specialist at Greenpeace East Asia and co-author of 
 the first report.\nKey findings of the radiation report Fukushima 2011-2020 
 are:\n• Most of the 840 square kilometer Special Decontamination Area 
 (SDA), where the government is responsible for decontamination, remains 
 contaminated with radioactive cesium. … an overall average of only 15% 
 has been decontaminated. • No long-term decontamination target level will 
 be achieved in many areas. Citizens will be subjected for decades to 
 radiation exposures in excess of the … recommended maximum. • In the 
 areas where evacuation orders were lifted in 2017, specifically Namie and 
 Iitate, radiation levels remain above safe limits, potentially exposing the 
 population to increased cancer risk.\nKey findings of The Fukushima Daiichi 
 Nuclear Power Station decommissioning report are:\n• The current 
 decommissioning plan in the timeframe of 30-40 years is impossible to 
 achieve and is illusory. • Radioactive waste created at the site should 
 not be moved. Fukushima Daiichi is already and should remain a nuclear 
 waste storage site for the long term. \n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/04/05/18841408.php
SUMMARY:SF Rally At Japan Consulate: Stop The Nukes & Japan Olympics
LOCATION:San Francisco Japanese Consulate \n275 Battery St/California \nSan 
 Francisco 
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/04/05/18841408.php
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