Friday, January 31, 2014

SAVE THE CHILDREN OF NORTH EAST JAPAN


I found a troubling article at The Mainichi about 'problem behaviors' in preschool children, including dizziness, nausea, headaches.

The behaviors were identified by a survey using the internationally recognized Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The survey was conducted in Miyako, Rikuzentakata and Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture; Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture; and Fukushima, Iwaki, Minamisoma and Tomioka in Fukushima Prefecture:

1 in 4 disaster-hit children needs mental care for problem behavior: study http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140127p2a00m0na013000c.html

[Excerpt]…The survey covered 178 children and their parents and guardians who had been enrolled in classes for 3- to 5-year-old children at nursery schools in the three prefectures on March 11, 2011, when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck the region, and who agreed to be surveyed. They underwent questionnaires and interviews between September 2012 and June 2013....

...As a result, 25.9 percent of children in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures were diagnosed as being in need of medical care because of reasons including the loss of their friends to the disaster, partial collapse of their homes, witnessing the oncoming tsunami, and separation from their parents. In Mie Prefecture, only 8.5 percent of children -- or one-third the figure in disaster-hit prefectures -- were diagnosed as being in such need of medical care.

Specifically, children in disaster-hit regions suffered from dizziness, nausea, headaches, swearing and reticence, among other symptoms. If left as they were, they are likely to suffer from learning and development disorders, affecting their access to higher education and employment, according to experts....[end]


Majia here: swearing and reticence might be a function of psycho-social stress factors, but dizziness, nausea and headaches?

Is the world going to simply sit by and let the children of North East Japan be poisoned through inhalation and ingestion of fallout?

Fallout is in the air in northern Japan. It is heavy in the soil. It is in the fresh surface water and aquifers. It is in the ocean and her life. It is everywhere and it is growing vaster and denser every day as the radionuclides in damaged fuel are freed to circulate widely.

The children can still be saved by evacuating them from all areas measuring in excess of 1 millisievert a year. They've already had their lifetime dose.

Instead, they are being forced by lack of economic support to live in areas with annual levels of 20 millisieverts, which will be measured by badges acknowledged to be an inefficient measure of background radiation and a completely useless measure for gauging internal exposure.

Efforts have been made to evacuate children from highly contaminated areas. Parents in Japan and anti-nuclear activists joined forces last year, forming ‘The Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial Team,’ to back a lawsuit suiting for government sponsored evacuation of children from the city of Koriyama. On April 24, 2013 the Sendai High Court handed down its ruling that the city of Koriyama had no legal responsibility to evacuate children at compulsory elementary schools and junior-high schools despite court-acknowledged radiation levels in the city exceeding levels deemed safe prior to the disaster. The court denied government responsibility for evacuations, shifting responsibility to parents.[i]

The Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial Team contested the judge’s decision, arguing that it shifted all responsibility for risk to the victims of the disaster.[ii] Responsibility for radiation safety is placed primarily on Japanese citizens despite legislation aimed at delegating responsibility for de-contamination. It appears from the ruling of the Sendai high court that cities have no legal responsibility for ensuring removing residents at risk from contamination, although they are responsible for clean-up outside of the Special Decontamination Area.

I made a public plea for evacuation over a year ago here.
 
There is no time to waste now. We MUST demand a global response.



[i]            AP (2013, April 25), Japan court rejects demand to evacuate Fukushima children. The Asahi Shmbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201304250125



Thursday, January 30, 2014

Fukushima Daiichi is Steaming Pink Today


I was too busy today to watch the cams much but at 5:15 p.m. US west coast time I saw what looked like an earthquake on the TEPCO cam, followed by a pink haze surrounding the plant, which was then followed by the cam going down. TEPCO cam remained down even when I tried a new browser.

I had to leave and just got back to my computer 2 hours later. The site still looks very strange, pink, and pixilated. The TEPCO cam looks like it is failing, but the TBS cam has the same quality of shimmering waves of pixilation as visible on the TEPCO cam. Something at the site itself may be producing the effect. I'm sure we can image what that might be.

I wonder whether fuel removal has gone poorly today.

For some reason I am unable to paste screen shots. I've never experienced this technical glitch before.

I've tried two browsers - IE and Google. My Mozilla browser is not responding.

I saved the screen shots I took at 8:00 p.m. here
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fca05wcfno1ur54/January%2030%202014%20Strange%20Colors%20and%20Camera%20Effects.pdf

Heads Up!





Sunday, January 26, 2014

Significant Atmospheric Emissions Fukushima Daiichi Site?


Periodically I issue alerts when I see significant atmospheric emissions on the TBS and/or TEPCO cams. Today I am issuing a 'watch' because I cannot determine whether webcam imagery is being distorted by atmospheric conditions.

This morning there appeared to be significant emissions at Daiich as viewed from the TBS cam, but these emissions were not highly visible on the TEPCO cam.

My first look at the TBS cam today:

The TEPCO cam was relatively sharp focused and did appear in any way clouded by emissions or precipitation:


On the TBS cam, plant became visible over next hour but emissions appeared thick and energetic for approximately 2 more hours. The never ceasing, upward stream of pixilated light that flows from the buildings was particularly energetic. This flow cannot be well represented with static screenshots..



Still no heavy emissions visible on TEPCO cam - although it is possible to see emissions coming from the common spent fuel pool:
 
Emissions subsequently worsened on the TBS cam, although still not visible on TEPCO cam
 



There are different interpretations for the disconnect in imagery. The most obvious explanation for the divergence is atmospheric conditions, which could be clouding the TBS view since the cam is miles away from the site.

Humidity is high today in Fukushima so that could be the explanation.https://www.google.com/#q=fukushima+weather

However, I'm a bit skeptical of this explanation because the TEPCO cam appears very clear and doesn't have the haziness (and spiderwebs) that accompanying rain and mist at the site.

Downwinders should take heed and monitor radiation readings carefully in their areas.