Where will the Japanese radioactive waste end up?

The Japanese government has unveiled plans to review the way it selects final disposal sites for radioactive waste.

It earlier decided that contaminated mud and incinerator ash from the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima would be disposed of in the prefectures where it was generated.

The Environment Ministry plans to bury the radioactive materials in final disposal sites to be built in 5 prefectures.

The Ministry earlier selected state-owned forests in Yaita, in Tochigi Prefecture, and Takahagi, in Ibaraki Prefecture, as possible sites.

But construction has yet to proceed there due to opposition from the host cities and surrounding areas.
Senior Vice Minister Shinji Inoue on Monday announced that the ministry would meet with local governments during the decision-making process. He said the previous government had failed to fully explain to local municipalities why they had been chosen as candidate sites.

He also disclosed a ministry plan to seek recommendations from a new panel of experts, and added that drilling surveys will be carried out to narrow down the choices for the final disposal sites.

Japan will restart idling reactors

In a reversal of the stated policy of his predecessors, new, rightwing Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe (pictured), who is bad news for renewable energy plans, has said that he will order the restart of nuclear plants that pass new and tougher safety guidelines, which are expected to be adopted by a new independent watchdog agency, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, as early as July. He did not specify when any of the reactors might resume operation, and news reports have suggested that it might take months or even years to make the expensive upgrades needed to meet the new safety standards.

In January, the new nuclear agency released a list of its proposed safety regulations, which include higher walls to protect against tsunamis, additional backup power sources for the cooling systems and construction of specially hardened earthquake-proof command centers. The rules surprised many for their toughness, though skeptics worry that industry supporters in the government will manage to get around the regulations.

According to a report by the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, none of Japan’s 16 undamaged commercial nuclear plants would pass the new standards. The agency has said the new guidelines will be finalized and put in place by July 18.

WHO predictably downplays Fukushima health impacts; Japanese government even more so

The conflicted World Health Organization (WHO) - which cannot pronounce on things nuclear without ceding to the nuclear-promoting International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - predictably downplayed the likely health impacts resulting from the Fukusima nuclear disaster. The Japanese government went even further, suggesting the WHO over-stated the likely impacts. Fundamentally, the WHO found, after a two-year study, that "the risk for certain types of cancers had increased slightly among children exposed to the highest doses of radioactivity, but that there would most likely be no observable increase in cancer rates in the wider Japanese population." However, the agency was at least forced to admit that "their assessment was based on limited scientific knowledge; much of the scientific data on health effects from radiation is based on acute exposures like those that followed the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and not chronic, low-level exposure." Almost all the health effects from Fukushima will result from prolonged exposure to so-called "low levels" of radiation. Read more.

(To understand the limitations imposed on the WHO by the IAEA, read here.)

"70 Years of Radioactive Risks in America and Japan"

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps' power point presentation entitled "70 Years of Radioactive Risks in America and Japan," for presentation at Helen Caldicott's March 11-12, 2013 symposium at the New York Academy of Medicine, “The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident.”

Cancer risk 70% higher for females in Fukushima area, says WHO

People in the area worst affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident two years ago have a higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.

Girls exposed as infants in the worst hit areas have a higher risk of developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime.

In the most contaminated area, the WHO estimated that there was a 70% higher risk – up from a baseline risk of 0.77% to 1.29% – of females exposed as infants developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime. The thyroid is the most exposed organ as radioactive iodine concentrates there and children are deemed especially vulnerable.

The report estimated that in the most contaminated area there was a 7% higher risk of leukaemia in males exposed as infants, and a 6% higher risk of breast cancer in females exposed as infants. The Guardian