Stop Restarting of Japanese Nuke Plants & Olympics In Fukushima

5/11/19 SF Speak Out At Japan Consulate To Stop Restarting of Japanese NUKE Plants, Defense of Fukushima Children and Families And Against Abe Gov Cover-up & Olympics In Fukushima and Japan
Stop PM Abe’s Big LIE and Fraud On The People Of The World That Fukushima is SAFE!

Saturday May 11, 2019 3:00 PM
San Francisco Japanese Consulate
275 Battery St near California St.
San Francisco

Join No Nukes Action NNA on it’s 80th action at the San Francisco Japanese Consulate to protest the continued Japanese Abe government to force Japanese children and their families back to Fukushima. The government claims that Fukushima has been “decontaminated” but the three reactors still have melted nuclear rods which they have not been able to remove. In addition that is over 1 million tons of contaminated radioactive tritium water in thousands of tanks surrounding the broken nuclear plants in Fukushima. The government is pushing to release the water in the Pacific Ocean despite the opposition of fisherman associations and the public.
There are also thousands of bags in Fukushima filled with radioactive waste with no place to go and these bags are spread throughout the region making it a major health danger.

In a major propaganda scheme to lie to the world, the Abe government has lied to the Olympic committee that not only is Japan safe but Fukushima should host the baseball games and special Olympics. It is spending tens of millions of dollars preparing the Azuma sports stadium to push a big lie that everything is OK.

They continue to claim despite evidence to the contrary that the Fukushima problem had been solved and that it was “decontaminated” and ready for the Olympics. This is was an overt brazen lie and falsification of the real situation and show the real political charter of the Abe government. The government also plans to bring in immigrant workers as contract laborers and use them for the clean-up without proper training and safety.
At the same time, there is an increase in the amount of cesium in the waters around Fukushima nearly eight years after the explosion of the nuclear plants and contamination of Fukushima, Japan, and the world. The Abe government is also pushing for militarization and removal of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution that prevents military interventions outside Japan. They are also pushing for a new US military base in Okinawa despite the opposition of the mass of Okinawan people and the governor. This base would also have US nuclear ships and weapons which is presently against the US-Japan Security Agreement. The US has already violated this agreement many times and used Okinawa as a base for illegal wars around the world.
The majority of Japanese people are opposed to restarting Japan’s nuclear plants including the previous 3 prime ministers who are worried that Japan would be destroyed with another disaster like Fukushima. Again this shows that the Abe government has contempt for the people it supposedly represents. Join the rally and speak out.

Defend the people of Fukushima, Japan and the world.
Stop The Restart of ALL Japan NUKE Plants
Defend the Children and People of Fukushima
No Olympic Baseball Games at Fukushima and Olympics in Japan
No Militarization and War In Asia

For more event information:
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com

Also on May 26th in Berkeley, California

The Olympics In Fukushima, Corruption, Lies & A Danger To The World
Special Screening Of “Another Nightmare In Fukushima And The 2020 Olympics In Japan”
By the Labor Video Project
& Presentation by Olympics expert and professor George Wright

Sunday, May 26 at 1:30 PM
Berkeley Main Library
2090 Kittredge St, Berkeley, CA 94704
Free Screening and Presentation by No Nukes Action NNA

For more event information:
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com

Abe's Fukushima 'under control' pledge to secure Olympics was a lie: former PM
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-nuclear-idUSKCN11D0UF


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s promise that the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” in his successful pitch three years ago for Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic Games “was a lie”, former premier Junichiro Koizumi said on Wednesday.

Junichiro Koizumi (R), former Japanese prime minister and a supporter of former Japanese premier Morihiro Hosokawa (L), a candidate of Tokyo gubernatorial election, speaks to voters atop a van while campaigning for the February 9 vote in front of Tokyo Metropolitan governmental building in Tokyo January 23, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
Koizumi, one of Japan’s most popular premiers during his 2001-2006 term, became an outspoken critic of nuclear energy after a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (Tepco) Fukushima Daiichi plant, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Abe gave the assurances about safety at the Fukushima plant in his September 2013 speech to the International Olympic Committee to allay concerns about awarding the Games to Tokyo. The comment met with considerable criticism at the time.

“Mr. Abe’s ‘under control’ remark, that was a lie,” Koizumi, now 74 and his unruly mane of hair turned white, told a news conference where he repeated his opposition to nuclear power.


“It is not under control,” Koizumi added, citing as an example Tepco’s widely questioned efforts to build the world’s biggest “ice wall” to keep groundwater from flowing into the basements of the damaged reactors and getting contaminated.

“They keep saying they can do it, but they can’t,” Koizumi said. Experts say handling the nearly million tonnes of radioactive water stored in tanks on the Fukushima site is one of the biggest challenges.

Koizumi also said he was “ashamed” that he had believed experts who assured him that nuclear power was cheap, clean and safe and that resource-poor Japan had to rely on nuclear energy.

After the Fukushima crisis, Koizumi said, “I studied the process, reality and history of the introduction of nuclear power and became ashamed of myself for believing such lies.”

All Japan’s nuclear plants - which had supplied about 30 percent of its electricity - were closed after the Fukushima disaster and utilities have struggled to get running again in the face of a skeptical public. Only three are operating now.

Abe’s government has set a target for nuclear power to supply a fifth of energy generation by 2030.

The meltdowns in three Fukushima reactors spewed radiation over a wide area of the countryside, contaminating water, food and air. More than 160,000 people were evacuated from nearby towns.


4 nuclear fuel rods removed from crippled Fukushima nuclear plant for 1st time


April 16, 2019 (Mainichi Japan)
Japanese version


https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190416/p2a/00m/0na/003000
In this photo provided by TEPCO, a special crane removes nuclear fuel in a pool for spent fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on April 15, 2019.
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on April 15 successfully removed four nuclear fuel rods each weighing about 250 kilograms from a pool for spent fuel at the nuclear plant's No. 3 reactor.

【Related】TEPCO begins fuel removal at Fukushima plant No. 3 unit pool
【Related】Unclear debris map casts shadow over decommissioning of Fukushima plant
【Related】Treated water at Fukushima nuclear plant still radioactive
It was the first time for Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) to remove fuel rods from a damaged reactor following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which triggered meltdowns at the plant's No. 1 to 3 reactors.

Originally, the government planned for the work at the plant in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Fukushima to begin at the end of 2014, but trouble with equipment caused significant delays, pushing the work back by 4 years and 4 months.

Since the meltdowns, TEPCO has continued to cool 566 fuel rods -- 514 used and 52 unused -- on the upper level of the building housing the No. 3 reactor. The building was damaged by a hydrogen explosion during the nuclear disaster, and removal of the fuel rods has remained an urgent task.

Workers started the removal work at the No. 3 reactor shortly before 9 a.m. on April 15. The level of radiation around the pool for spent fuel remains high, approaching as much as 1 millisievert per hour, so the task was carried out remotely. Four rectangular rods, each 4 meters in length and weighing about 250 kilograms, were lifted up using a special crane, and carried through the water to a steel container about 10 meters away in a process that took about one hour.

At one point, a handle attached to the top of one of the fuel rods got caught on the crane's claws, causing the operation to be suspended for about 20 minutes. But after around nine hours, the four fuel rods had been contained. The crane then lifted the container onto a truck outside the reactor building. This removed fuel will be temporarily placed in a pool on the grounds of the nuclear plant.

The process will be repeated, and officials hope to remove all fuel rods from the pool by fiscal 2020.

Since August last year, delays have occurred in the work at the No. 3 reactor as checks of the performance of equipment uncovered cable insulation and crane problems.

When the meltdowns first occurred, there was no technology in Japan to remotely remove the fuel rods, so officials decided to use equipment brought in from overseas, but repeated problems ensued. Akira Ono, head of the decommissioning project at the plant, said he is not thinking of using the same equipment at the plant's other crippled reactors. Work to remove fuel from the buildings of the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors is slated to begin as early as fiscal 2023.

(Japanese original by Toshiyuki Suzuki, Science & Environment News Department)


International Campaign

“Tokyo 2020 - The Radioactive Olympics”

https://globalethics.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ippnw-2018-07-11-tokyo-2020-the-radioactive-olympics-en.pdf


In 2020, Japan is inviting athletes from around the world to take part in the Tokyo Olympic Games. We are hoping for the games to be fair and peaceful. At the same time, we are worried about plans to host baseball and softball competitions in Fukushima City, just 50 km away from the ruins of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. It was here, in 2011, that multiple nuclear meltdowns took place, spreading radioactivity across Japan and the Pacific Ocean - a catastrophe comparable only to the nuclear meltdown of Chernobyl.

The ecological and social consequences of this catastrophe can be seen everywhere in the country: whole families uprooted from their ancestral homes, deserted evacuation zones, hundreds of thousands of bags of irradiated soil dumped all over the country, contaminated forests, rivers and lakes. Normality has not returned to Japan.

The reactors continue to be a radiation hazard as further catastrophes could occur at any time. Every day adds more radioactive contamination to the ocean, air and soil. Enormous amounts of radioactive waste are stored on the premises of the power plant in the open air. Should there be another earthquake, these would pose a grave danger to the population and the environment. The nuclear catastrophe continues today.

On the occasion of the Olympic Games 2020, we are planning an international campaign. Our concern is that athletes and visitors to the games could be harmed by the radioactive contamination in the region, especially those people more vulnerable to radiation, children and pregnant women.

According to official Japanese government estimates, the Olympic Games will cost more than the equivalent of 12 billion Euros. At the same time, the Japanese government is threatening to cut support to all evacuees who are unwilling to return to the region.

International regulations limit the permitted dose for the general public of additional radiation following a nuclear accident to 1 mSv per year. In areas where evacuation orders were recently lifted, the returning population will be exposed to levels up to 20 mSv per year. Even places that have undergone extensive decontamination efforts could be recontaminated at any time by unfavourable weather conditions, as mountains and forests serve as a continuous depot for radioactive particles.

Our campaign will focus on educating the public about the dangers of the nuclear industry. We will explain what health threats the Japanese population was and is exposed to today. Even during normal operations, nuclear power plants pose a threat to public health – especially to infants and unborn children.

There is still no safe permanent depository site for the toxic inheritance of the nuclear industry anywhere on earth, that is a fact.


TEPCO plans to use new foreign workers at Fukushima plant
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201904180027.html
By MIKI AOKI/ Staff Writer
April 18, 2019 at 14:20 JST


Rows of storage tanks hold radiation-contaminated water on the grounds of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to use the new visa program to deploy foreign workers to its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, sparking concerns that language barriers could cause safety hazards and accidents.

The specified skills visa program started in April to alleviate labor shortages in 14 different industrial sectors. TEPCO says it has long lacked enough workers for decommissioning work at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

At a March 28 meeting, the utility explained its plan to hire foreign workers to dozens of construction and other companies that have been contracted for decommissioning work.

TEPCO officials asked the companies to be aware that workers sent to radiation monitoring zones must wear dosimeters and receive special education about the dangers they will face.

The new work visa program requires the foreign workers to have a minimum level of Japanese language ability needed for daily life.

But TEPCO officials reminded the company representatives that Japanese language skills would be even more important at the Fukushima plant because of the need to accurately understand radiation levels and follow instructions by superiors and colleagues regarding work safety.

TEPCO officials said they would ask the contracting companies to check on the Japanese language skills of prospective foreign workers.

But at least one construction company has already decided not to hire any foreign workers.

"The work rules at the No. 1 plant are very complicated,” said a construction company employee who has worked at the Fukushima plant. “I am also worried about whether thorough education can be conducted on radiation matters. It would be frightening if an accident occurred due to a failure of communication.”

According to TEPCO officials, an average of about 4,000 people work at the nuclear plant each day, mostly in zones where radiation levels must be constantly monitored.

To stay within the legal limits on exposure levels, workers often have to be replaced, leading to difficulties for TEPCO in gathering the needed number of workers.

Between April 2018 and February this year, 11,109 people worked at the Fukushima plant. Of that number, 763 were found to have levels of radiation exposure between 10 and 20 millisieverts, while 888 had levels between 5 and 10 millisieverts.

The legal limit for radiation exposure for workers at nuclear plants is 50 millisieverts a year, and 100 millisieverts over a five-year period.

The Justice Ministry has disciplined companies that used technical intern trainees for decontamination work without adequately informing them of the dangers. The ministry has also clearly stated that such trainees are prohibited from doing decommissioning work at the Fukushima plant.

However, Justice Ministry officials told TEPCO that foreigners with the new visa status could work alongside Japanese staff at the nuclear plant.

Although their numbers are small, foreign workers and engineers have been accepted at the Fukushima plant. As of February, 29 foreigners had been registered as workers engaged in jobs that expose them to radiation.

A construction company official said such foreign workers were hired after their Japanese language ability was confirmed.

But concerns remain on whether the new foreign workers will be able to properly understand how much radiation exposure they have experienced.

“Even Japanese workers are not sure about how to apply for workers’ compensation due to radiation exposure,” said Minoru Ikeda, 66, who has published a book about his experiences in decommissioning work at the Fukushima plant until 2015. “The problem would only be exacerbated for foreign workers.”

Kazumi Takagi, a sociology professor at Gifu University, has conducted interviews with nuclear plant workers.

Noting the need for special protective gear to work at the Fukushima site, Takagi said: “Unless workers can instantly understand the language when minor mistakes or sudden problems occur, it could lead to a major accident. That, in turn, could cause major delays in the work.”


ANTI-KOREAN RACISM ON THE RISE IN JAPAN, FILMMAKER SAYS

HTTPS://WWW.UPI.COM/TOP_NEWS/WORLD-NEWS/2019/04/17/ANTI-KOREAN-RACISM-ON-THE-RISE-IN-JAPAN-FILMMAKER-SAYS/5661555477281/

APRIL 17, 2019 / 7:37 AM
ByElizabeth Shim
(1)

Anti-Korean hate speech followed the release of a documentary about comfort women in Japan, according to the filmmakers. The movie is being screened in the United States this week at select educational institutions. File Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA

NEW YORK, April 17 (UPI) -- Hate speech targeting ethnic Koreans is escalating in Japan as the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pushed back on issuing a formal apology to comfort women, a Korean-Japanese documentary producer said.

Maeui Park, a third-generation "Zainichi" Korean filmmaker, and her mother, Soonam Park, have chronicled the lives of Korean women raped at comfort stations in wartime Japan. Maeui Park told UPI on Tuesday the government is getting away with denying responsibility for the recruitment of teenage Korean girls into the military.

"The government is saying the comfort women were never sex slaves," she said. "Even the press, television networks and newspapers, all say the same thing. They're shifting the blame to Korea."

Park's assessment of the political climate in Japan is a sign of steadily deteriorating ties. In 1993, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono acknowledged the coercion of Korean women into military or state-run brothels. A change of policy, and a diminished sense of accountability in 2019, could be a sign Tokyo is doubling down on revisionist history.

"Right now in Japanese society they're glorifying the wartime past instead of admitting faults," Park said, adding the general public is becoming less aware of Japanese wrongdoing during World War II.

Japan's approach to Korean issues receives support from long-held prejudices against Koreans, or Japanese racism that promotes the idea Koreans are "racially inferior," Park said.

Park is in the United States for the screening of her mother's documentary, Silence, a vivid film about comfort women activism in Japan that includes footage taken across three decades. On Tuesday the film was shown at the Borough of Manhattan Community College's Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

The film includes scores of interviews with comfort women who have since died. It is a collection of searing firsthand testimonies about the brutal conditions of daily sexual assault and physical beatings the women endured as teenagers.

The documentary has been attacked in Japan, Soonam Park says in the final scenes of the film, where she says Japanese right-wing activists have called for the "killing of Koreans" who "smell like garlic," a Japanese reference to Korean food.

Plight of Zainichi Koreans
Park, who was born to Korean migrants to Japan in 1935, attended a pro-North Korean school in Japan. Maeui Park said her mother attended the school because there were no South Korean schools at the time.

RELATED South Korean man arrested for killing five people fleeing a building he set on fire

Soonam Park's family history reflects the conflicting loyalties of the Korean population in postwar Japan, following the division of Korea into North and South. Maeui Park says her mother's younger sister chose to be repatriated to North Korea in the '60s, when the Japanese government was encouraging ethnic Koreans to leave the country.

"About 100,000 [Zainichi] people went, and [my aunt] went by herself," Park said, adding there has been "no news" from her relative.

Soonam Park, who opted for South Korean citizenship in order to travel to the South for her filmmaking, cannot visit the North, Maeui Park added.

As filmmakers, the Parks have instead adopted a family of outspoken comfort women -- activists who broke a decades-long silence to come forward about their painful experiences.

Lee Ok-seon, a former comfort woman who has said she was abducted to a rape station in Manchuria when she was 16, is one of the activists in the film with a close relationship to Soonam Park.

Lee, who survived "horrific" rapes daily before returning to Korea to raise five stepchildren, is shown in the film zipping around in her motorized wheelchair in the rural village she calls home.

Lee says in the film her greatest regret is her inability to bear children owing to the damage to her uterus after countless sexual assaults.

The former comfort woman may have been one of the luckier survivors, however; other women in the film say they witnessed dying girls "gushing blood at the mouth" after illnesses were left untreated.

Past and present Japanese government officials have, at times, dismissed the women as paid prostitutes. The women deny this in the film.

"They were just little girls," they said. "What would they know about prostitution?"