Experts: 30 years till Japan can close nuke plant
By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press
Sunday, October 30, 2011
(10-30) 20:38 PDT TOKYO, Japan (AP) --
A Japanese government panel says it will take at least 30 years to safely close the tsunami-hobbled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, even though the facility is leaking far less radiation than before and is considered relatively stable.
The plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, was severely damaged by Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami. It suffered power outages, meltdowns and explosions that released radioactive material and forced tens of thousands of people to flee the area.
While officials say the plant, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, is now relatively stable, an expert panel named by Japan's Atomic Energy Commission said it would likely take 30 years or more to safely decommission it. The panel made the estimate in the draft of a report to be completed by the end of the year. The draft was posted on the commission's website over the weekend.
Plant workers are still struggling to contain radiation leaking from the plant, although the amount is far less than before...
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/30/international/i201248D92.DTL#ixzz1cKlrRtXeMonday, Oct. 31, 2011
Fukushima shiitake cesium spikes
Kyodo
FUKUSHIMA — Radioactive cesium exceeding the designated limit has been detected in shiitake grown in greenhouses at a farm in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, the prefectural government said.
The prefecture said Saturday it has asked the city of Soma and dealers to stop shipment of the mushrooms, and a local agricultural cooperative has begun recalling them after they were found to contain 850 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, exceeding the 500-becquerel limit set by the state.
The farm in question has grown the mushrooms on beds made of a mixture of wood chips and nutrients, and the wood chips used in them are suspected to have been contaminated with the radioactive substance, according to the local government. The mushroom beds were sold by the Soma agricultural cooperative.
The farm has shipped 1,070 100-gram packages of shiitake since Oct. 24, and they are believed to have been sold at nine supermarkets in the prefecture from Tuesday. No other shiitake produced by the farm have entered the market, it said.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111031a2.htmlStudy: Japan nuke radiation higher than estimated
October 29, 2011
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a radioactive substance into the atmosphere as Japanese authorities estimated, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl, a preliminary report says.
The estimate of much higher levels of radioactive cesium-137 comes from a worldwide network of sensors. Study author Andreas Stohl of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research says the Japanese government estimate came only from data in Japan, and that would have missed emissions blown out to sea.
The study did not consider health implications of the radiation. Cesium-137 is dangerous because it can last for decades in the environment, releasing cancer-causing radiation.
The long-term effects of the nuclear accident are unclear because of the difficulty of measuring radiation amounts people received...
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/analysis/AJ2011102916091Unknowns about radioactive materials warrant vigilance amid delayed gov't action
What does it mean that, in addition to the radioactive iodine and cesium that the government has heretofore focused on, extremely dangerous plutonium has been found in soil over 40 kilometers away from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and the likewise toxic strontium has been found in Yokohama, some 250 kilometers from the power station?
Radiochemical expert Michiaki Furukawa, who is a professor emeritus at Nagoya University and serves on the board of the non-profit organization Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), says that some reports about plutonium have been misleading.
"When the disaster first happened, there were media reports saying 'plutonium won't make it far because it's a large and heavy element,' but no one who's done serious research in environmental radioactivity would say such a thing," he said.
According to soil surveys conducted in June and July by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in 100 locations within 80 kilometers of the power plant, plutonium-238 believed to originate in the stricken plant was found at a total of six sites in the village of Iitate and the towns of Futaba and Namie, all in Fukushima Prefecture. In Iitate, 45 kilometers from the plant, 0.82 becquerels of the radioactive element were found per square meter, while the figures in Namie and Futaba were 4 becquerels and 0.57 becquerels, respectively. In the Fukushima prefectural city of Minamisoma, 15 becquerels of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 combined were detected.
"At the very least, plutonium-238 had to have come from the explosions (at the plant). The plutonium that had heated up inside the reactors turned into fine particles when it came in contact with water, and was dispersed with the water vapor released in the explosions. Since the plutonium takes the form of particles -- unlike the gaseous radioactive iodine -- it probably didn't fly 100 kilometers," Furukawa says. "As for health risks, we probably don't have to worry much about them at those levels..."
(Mainichi Japan) October 30, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111030p2a00m0na003000c.htmlMonju chief says fast breeder reactor project to shift focus
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which runs the trouble-hit Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, will shift the project's focus on research from the current goal of generating power with a fast breeder reactor, its president has indicated.
In a recent interview with Kyodo News, JAEA President Atsuyuki Suzuki said the plan to build a demonstration fast breeder reactor and subsequently a commercial one after Monju "will find it hard to be understood by the public."
"It would benefit not only Japan but the world that it (Monju) will be used as a reactor for trying various new technologies," Suzuki said, reacting to growing calls in Japan for decommissioning Monju, which is already shut down due to a series of troubles.
The Monju reactor and related research have been regarded as key to realizing the country's nuclear fuel cycle, in which spent nuclear fuel from Japanese power plants would be reprocessed for reuse as plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel. A fast-breeder reactor is aimed at producing more fuel than consumed by using MOX, with practical use planned for around 2050...
(Mainichi Japan) October 31, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111031p2g00m0dm004000c.htmlDisaster zone expecting fewer trainee doctors
Hospitals in quake-struck northeastern Japan are seeing a drop in the number of medical school graduates wanting to undergo training at their facilities...
...The number of doctors applying to hospitals in Miyagi has plunged by 15 percent. Hospitals in Fukushima, where a nuclear accident has yet to be contained, have only received 61 applicants for 146 openings.
The drop comes despite the health ministry's appeal on its website for trainee doctors to make visiting tours to hospitals in the northeast.
The ministry says it may add more information online, such as profiles of the hospitals that are still seeking trainees.
Monday, October 31, 2011 11:25 +0900 (JST)
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/31_17.html 
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