Stop The 2020 Olympics In Japan, End Nuclear Power & Nuclear Weapons

STOP The 2020 Olympics In Japan, End Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons

Defend the Children and Families of Fukushima

Join No Nukes Action On Saturday March 11, 2020 3:00 PM
San Francisco Japanese Consulate
275 Battery St/near California
San Francisco

Join the No Nukes Action NNA on Saturday, March 11, 2020 to demand the cancellation of the Olympics in Japan and Fukushima. The Abe government lied to the International Olympic Committee and the people of the world that Fukushima had been
“decontaminated”.

Now the government is threatening to release 1.5 million tons of radioactive water with tritium and other dangerous material in the Pacific ocean. This environmental crime and threat to all humanity
must be opposed.

We cannot be silent as the Abe government with the collusion of the IOC continues to greenwash the Olympics in Japan.
The Government is also demanding that families return to Fukushima and has actually built public schools near the Fukushima plant to show that it is safe.

These children are used as guinea pigs as the government
continues to try to remove the melted nuclear rods from the broken down plants.

The Abe government is also moving to militarize and remove Article 9 from the constitution which disallows offensive war and the use of Japanese military forces outside Japan. Despite this law, the government is sending military naval vessels to the Middle East to join with the US and other imperial powers in threatening the people of the Middle East.

It is also supporting the denialism of the ‘comfort women’ who were sexual slaves of the Japanese Imperial Army during the 2nd World War. It has attacked and. fired teachers who are opposed to the remilitarization of Japan.

Join us in demanding the cancellation of the Olympics in Japan, The halt of the restarting of all nuclear plants in Japan and against any release of radioactive water in the Pacific Ocean.

If your organization would like to endorse and speak at the rally please contact our committee
No Nukes Action Committee
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/
(415)533-5642

Tokyo 2020 The Radioactive Olympics With Dr. Alex Rosen Of IPPNW
https://youtu.be/t9rThrZWQ38

The Japanese government with the support of the International Olympic Committee is organizing the Olympics in Japan in 2020, Dr. Alex Rosen who is with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) talks about the continuing health dangers of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns and why the Olympics should not be held in Fukushima.
This interview was done on 11/241 in Berlin, Germany. For more information go to:
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
https://www.ippnw.de/startseite.html
http://www.radioactive-olympics.org
http://www.openpetition.eu/petition/online/keep-the-olympic-games-out-of-radioactive-regions
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org

Japan Wants to Dump Nuclear Plant’s Tainted Water. Fishermen Fear the Worst.
The water from the Fukushima disaster is more radioactive than the authorities have previously publicized, raising doubts about government assurances that it will be made safe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-water.html

Tatsuo Niitsuma and his wife, Yoko, in Iwaki, Japan, this month.

By Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue
Dec. 23, 2019
Updated 10:47 a.m. ET

IWAKI, Japan — The overpowering earthquake and tsunami that ripped through northern Japan in March 2011 took so much from Tatsuo Niitsuma, a commercial fisherman in this coastal city in Fukushima Prefecture.
The tsunami pulverized his fishing boat. It demolished his home. Most devastating of all, it took the life of his daughter.
Now, nearly nine years after the disaster, Mr. Niitsuma, 77, is at risk of losing his entire livelihood, too, as the government considers releasing tainted water from a nuclear power plant destroyed by the tsunami’s waves.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet and the Tokyo Electric Power Company — the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, where a triple meltdown led to the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl — must decide what to do with more than one million tons of contaminated water stored in about 1,000 giant tanks on the plant site.

ON MONDAY, JAPAN’S MINISTRY OF ECONOMY, TRADE AND INDUSTRY PROPOSED GRADUALLY RELEASING THE WATER INTO THE OCEAN OR ALLOWING IT TO EVAPORATE, SAYING A CONTROLLED DISCHARGE INTO THE SEA WOULD “STABLY DILUTE AND DISPERSE” IT. THE MINISTRY RULED OUT ALTERNATIVES LIKE CONTINUING TO STORE IT IN TANKS OR INJECTING IT DEEP INTO THE GROUND. MR. ABE’S CABINET WILL MAKE THE FINAL DECISION.

The water becomes contaminated as it is pumped through the reactors to cool melted fuel that is still too hot and radioactive to remove. For years, the power company, known as Tepco, said that treatment of the water — which involves sending it through a powerful filtration system to remove most radioactive material — was making it safe to release.
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But it is actually more radioactive than the authorities have previously publicized. Officials say that it will be treated again, and that it will then be safe for release.
Regardless of government assurances, if the water is discharged into the sea, it will most likely destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of fishermen like Mr. Niitsuma. Consumers are already worried about the safety of Fukushima seafood, and dumping the water would compound the fears.

It would “kill the industry and take away the life of the boats,” he said. “The fish won’t sell.”
With Fukushima preparing to host baseball games during the Summer Olympics next year, and the plant running out of land on which to build storage tanks, the debate has taken on a sense of urgency.

ImageThe Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant.
The Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant.Credit...Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
Until last year, Tepco indicated that with the vast majority of the water, all but one type of radioactive material — tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that experts say poses a relatively low risk to human health — had been removed to levels deemed safe for discharge under Japanese government standards.
But last summer, the power company acknowledged that only about a fifth of the stored water had been effectively treated.
Last month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry briefed reporters and diplomats about the water stored in Fukushima. More than three-quarters of it, the ministry said, still contains radioactive material other than tritium — and at higher levels than the government considers safe for human health.
The authorities say that in the early years of processing the deluge of water flowing through the reactors, Tepco did not change filters in the decontamination system frequently enough. The company said it would re-treat the water to filter out the bulk of the nuclear particles, making it safe to release into the ocean.

Fish being prepared for screening for radioactivity at a lab inside a fish market in Iwaki.
Fish being prepared for screening for radioactivity at a lab inside a fish market in Iwaki.Credit...Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
Some experts and local residents say it is difficult to trust such assurances.
“The government and Tepco were hiding the fact that the water was still contaminated,” said Kazuyoshi Satoh, a member of the city assembly in Iwaki.

“Because next year is the Tokyo Olympics, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to present the image that everything is ‘under control,’” said Mr. Satoh, referring to a speech by the Japanese leader to the International Olympic Committee when Tokyo was bidding to host the 2020 Games.
The power company acknowledged that it had not made it easy for the public to get information. The water treatment data “has not been presented in a manner that is easy to understand,” said Ryounosuke Takanori, a Tepco spokesman.
“As long as the water was stored in the tanks, we thought it didn’t matter whether the water” exceeded safety standards for discharge, said Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager in the Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination and decommissioning office.
Mr. Niitsuma, for whom fishing is not just a livelihood but also a balm against grief over the loss of his daughter, said he thought both Tepco and the government needed to come clean.
“I want them to see the reality squarely and disclose information fully,” said Mr. Niitsuma, who goes out alone on his two-ton boat at dawn three times a week.
His wife, Yoko, waits on the pier. On a recent morning, she helped drag the nets out of the boat and dump squirming octopus, flounder and a few red gurnard into buckets that the couple loaded onto a small flatbed truck to drive to a warehouse where wholesalers bid on the fish.

“Nuclear policy is central government policy,” said Yukiei Matsumoto, the mayor of Nahara.

Mrs. Niitsuma said she didn’t believe the government was looking out for Fukushima’s fishing families. “They are talking about discharging the water,” she said. “That itself means they are not thinking about us.”
The question of whether the water could be decontaminated to safe levels is a matter of degree, scientists say.
If the water is processed so that the only radioactive materials that remain are low levels of tritium, said Kazuya Idemitsu, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University, releasing it into the ocean would be “the best solution in terms of cost and safety.”
Mr. Idemitsu added that functioning nuclear plants around the world release diluted water containing tritium into the ocean.
Some scientists said they would need proof before believing that the Fukushima water was treated to safe levels.
“I want to see the numbers after they’ve removed these additional radionuclides,” said Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist in marine chemistry and geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “Then, and only then, can I make a judgment on the quality of the rationale for releasing it or the consequences of releasing it.”

Government officials argue that the water is not so much a scientific problem as a perceptual one.
“If the water is discharged into the ocean, the price of seafood products may drop, or consumers won’t want to buy them at all,” said Shuji Okuda, director for decommissioning and contaminated water management at the economy and trade ministry. “So even though there is no scientific evidence that the water is dangerous, we are worried about the effects.”
More than 20 countries still have import restrictions on Japanese seafood and other agricultural products that were imposed after the 2011 disaster. Earlier this year, the European Union lifted its ban on some products.
In Fukushima, the fishing industry brings only about 15 percent of its pre-disaster catch levels to market. Every haul is sampled and screened in labs run by Fukushima’s prefectural government and the fisheries cooperative.
According to the co-op, the central government currently prohibits the sale of only one species, a rare type of skate.
Tadaaki Sawada, the co-op’s division chief, said that if the water was discharged, buyers would be unlikely to believe government safety assurances.

“Most people can live without fully understanding the details of radioactivity,” Mr. Sawada said. “They can just say ‘because I don’t understand fully, I won’t buy Fukushima fish.’”

In the prefecture, where thousands of residents never returned after evacuating, those who have come back harbor lingering doubts.
“In the corner of my mind, I wonder if it is safe or not,” Keiko Nagayama, 65, said as she browsed at a seafood freezer in Naraha, a hamlet in the original 12-mile exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant.
A government evacuation order was lifted in 2015. Although flounder and Pacific saury from Iwaki were on sale, Ms. Nagayama chose flounder from Hokkaido, in far northern Japan.
Yukiei Matsumoto, Naraha’s mayor, declined to offer an opinion on the idea of water disposal from the nuclear plant.
“Nuclear policy is central government policy,” Mr. Matsumoto said. “The contaminated water is their business.”
Naraha is one of several Fukushima towns where the central government has spent heavily to draw people back to their communities.
Just 3,877 people — a little over half of the original population — have returned. Tokyo has devoted large sums to subsidize a new school, a strip mall and a new arena that cost 4 billion yen, or about $37 million.

On a recent afternoon, a smattering of people worked out in the gym, while just one man used the 25-meter swimming pool in the arena complex.
Yukari Nakamura, 33, a local artist, had been hired to paint murals on the walls and windows. Her husband, Yuuki, and two young children were the only family in a spacious playroom.
Ms. Nakamura said a Fukushima label on fish gave her pause. “My heart aches to reject the seafood, and I feel such pain not being able to recommend it,” she said, tearing up. “I don’t want to hurt the fishermen who caught it, but it is so complicated.”
Motoko Rich is Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times. She has covered a broad range of beats at the Times, including real estate (during a boom), the economy (during a bust), books and education. @motokorich • Facebook

Japan gov't proposes Fukushima nuke plant water release to sea or air-The Madness Continues

The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., have been unable to get rid of the more than 1 million tons of radioactive water that has been treated and stored

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20191223/p2g/00m/0na/052000c

December 23, 2019 (Mainichi Japan)

In this Nov. 12, 2014, file photo, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) official wearing radioactive protective gear stands in front of Advanced Liquid Processing Systems during a press tour at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's economy and industry ministry has proposed gradually releasing or allowing to evaporate massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

【Related】Environment Ministry presents contaminated waste disposal plan for Fukushima
The proposal made Monday to a body of experts is the first time the ministry has narrowed down the options available to just releasing the water. It is meant to tackle a huge headache for the plant's operator as storage space runs out, despite fears of a backlash from the public.

Nearly nine years after the 2011 triple meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi, the radioactive water is still accumulating as the water is needed to keep the cores cooled and minimize leaks from the damaged reactors.

For years, a government panel has been discussing ways to handle the crisis and to reassure fishermen and residents who fear potential health impacts from releasing the radioactive water as well as harm to the region's image.

In Monday's draft proposal, the ministry suggests a controlled release of the water into the Pacific, allowing the water to evaporate, or a combination of the two methods.

The ministry said a controlled release into the sea was the best option because it would "stably dilute and disperse" the water from the plant using a method endorsed by the United Nations' Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. It also would facilitate monitoring of radiation levels in the environment.

Releasing the entire amount of water over one year would only increase radiation levels to thousands of times less than the impact humans usually get from the natural environment.

In the proposal, the ministry noted that evaporation has been a tested and proven method following the 1979 core meltdown at Three Mile Island, where it took two years to get rid of 87,000 tons of tritium water.

The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., have been unable to get rid of the more than 1 million tons of radioactive water that has been treated and stored due to opposition from local fishermen and residents fearing further damage to Fukushima's reputation and recovery. The utility has managed to cut down the volume of water by pumping up groundwater from upstream and installing a costly underground "ice wall" around the reactor buildings to keep the water from running into the area.

TEPCO says it has space to store only up to 1.37 million tons and only until the summer of 2022, raising speculation that the water may be released after the Tokyo Olympics next summer. TEPCO and experts say the tanks get in the way of decommissioning work and that they need to free up the space to build storage for debris removed and other radioactive materials. The tanks also could spill out their contents in a major earthquake, tsunami or flood.

Experts, including those at the International Atomic Energy Agency who have inspected the Fukushima plant, say the controlled release of the water into the ocean is the only realistic option, though it will take decades.

A government panel earlier compiled a report that listed five options, including releasing the water into the sea and evaporation. The three others included underground burial and an injection into offshore deep geological layers.

The panel has also discussed possibly storing the radioactive water in large industrial tanks outside the plant, but the ministry proposal ruled that out, citing risks of leakage in case of corrosion, tsunamis or other disasters and accidents, as well as the technical challenge of transporting the water elsewhere.

Japan to either dump contaminated water into ocean or release it as steam
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/922022.html
Posted on : Dec.24,2019 18:10 KST Modified on : Dec.24,2019 18:10 KST
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Studies show treated water is still highly radioactive
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Storage tanks for contaminated water from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Image was taken in 2017. (photo pool)
The Japanese government is narrowing down its plans for the disposal of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to two possible approaches: an ocean dump or steam release.
An expert subcommittee established in the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to discuss measures for disposal of contaminated water announced three possible plans for disposing of the Fukushima water: releasing it into the ocean, evaporating it and releasing it into the atmosphere, or using both approaches simultaneously. While no final conclusion has been reached, the announcement indicates that it is moving toward a release of contaminated water into the ocean.
In particular, the expert subcommittee ruled out the possibility of an underground disposal, which had previously been under consideration. The subcommittee has been considering contaminated water disposal methods since 2016, with its secretariat responsible for compiling a draft report announced on Dec. 23. Regarding the schedule and duration of the contaminated water’s release, the report only said that the Japanese government would “take responsibility for deciding the matter.” In view of the amount of water to be disposed of, however, it predicted that the process would take at least 10 years.
Even with Japan, many are voicing concerns about the government leaning toward an ocean dump of the contaminated water.
“It’s too soon for an ocean dump. It will have an impact on our successors in the fishing industry,” the chairperson of a fishing industry cooperative in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, was quoted as saying by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
Once the expert subcommittee produces a final opinion on the contaminated water disposal schedule, the Japanese government plans to use it as a basis for determining its basic policy approach and proceed into hearing opinions from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) shareholders and members of the public.
Around 170 tons of radioactively contaminated water is being produced each day at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant due to the infiltration of underground water since a 2011 disaster that caused the leakage of radioactivity. Around 1.7 million tons of it is currently being stored in water tanks. The Japanese government has been strongly considering dumping the water into the ocean, explaining that the amount of space available for storage will run out by late 2022.
The Japanese government is referring to the contaminated water as “processed water,” as it has been purified with a multi-nuclide removal equipment (ALPS) system to reduce 62 types of radioactive substances (not including tritium) to below threshold levels.
But controversy has raged since a September 2018 study of 890,000 tons of Fukushima water that had undergone ALPS purification (a total of 950,000 tons) showed that 750,000 tons of it, or more than 80%, still contained radioactive substances above the threshold levels for release.
By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent
Please direct comments or questions to [english [at] hani.co.kr]
Caption: Storage tanks for contaminated water from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Image was taken in 2017. (photo pool)