Japanese government's atomic reactor restart criteria "hasty and sloppy"

The Mainichi has editorialized that Prime Minister Noda's "hastily and sloppily" formulated restart rules, supposedly ensuring the safety of controversial atomic reactor restarts, as at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Province on the Japanese main island's western coastline, are much too shallow. Worked out over a scant three days, the new rules appear to accomodate the nuclear utilities, in order to justify rushed restarts, despite lessons that should have been learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe.

In another editorial, The Mainichi has lamented the fact that Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, as well as its Nuclear Safety Commission, currently have no budgets, and an agency proposed to replace them in the aftermath of their incompetent handling of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe languishes in limbo, as the political opposition blocks Prime Minister Noda's initiative. The Mainichi also chastises critics who downplay the danger of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4's high-level radioactive waste storage pool collapsing.

90 year old survivor of Nagasaki atomic bombing reflects on Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe

A Mainichi reporter interviews a Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor about his own personal story, as well as his reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi first annual commemoration:

"I met Jinei Shimabukuro on March 11, exactly one year after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. At 2:46 p.m., the moment the earthquake hit, Shimabukuro stood, faced north, and said a silent prayer.

Afterwards, video of the ruined Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant flowed across the TV screen.

"That's the result of always putting economic prosperity first," Shimabukuro says. "We don't need to be rich," he adds, his tone growing stronger as the TV program detailed the plights of people forced from their homes by the nuclear disaster. "The most important thing is to live in safety and peace. Japan ought to have learned that from the war."

Later, with dusk creeping over the sugarcane field, Shimabukuro stands in front of the memorial to the war dead. There, before the stark epitaph, he asks that the world start on the road to nuclear abolition -- especially now in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, when everyone has been reminded of the terrifying power of the atom."

Radioactive cesium confirmed in ocean and life forms 375 miles offshore from Fukushima-Daiichi

A study published in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, entitled "Fukushima-derived radioanuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan," reports in its abstract:

"A major finding is detection of Fukushima-derived 134Cs [Cesium-134] and 137Cs [Cesium-137] throughout waters 30–600 km [18.5-375 mi] offshore, with the highest activities associated with near-shore eddies and the Kuroshio Current acting as a southern boundary for transport. Fukushima-derived Cs [Cesium] isotopes were also detected in zooplankton and mesopelagic fish [those living in the ocean at a depth of between 600 ft (180 m) and 3,000 ft (900 m)], and unique to this study we also find 110mAg [radioactive Silver-110m] in zooplankton… Importantly, our data are consistent with higher estimates of the magnitude of Fukushima fallout and direct releases… We address risks to public health and marine biota by showing that though Cs isotopes are elevated 10–1,000× over prior levels in waters off Japan, radiation risks due to these radionuclides are below those generally considered harmful to marine animals and human consumers, and even below those from naturally occurring radionuclides."

The reassurances in the last sentence above remain silent about the dynamics of bio-concentration, which means radioactive contaminants concentrate as they move up the food chain. Indeed, dilution is NOT the solution to radioactive pollution -- and neither is delusion!

Former Japanese prime minister expresses regret for promoting nuclear power

Japan Times Online reports that former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, has expressed regrets for changing his party's position from opposed to in favor of nuclear power, and feels strongly that he must now oppose nuclear power to atone for his past mistake.

"Face of Fukushima" Edano says nukes in Japan must go

Reuters reports that Japanese trade and energy minister, Yukio Edano, who was seen constantly on Japanese newscasts during the Fukushima nuclear crisis, thinks nuclear power should be phased out in Japan. Edano said:"The government's policy is now to reduce reliance on nuclear power as low as possible," Edano said. "I'd like to see the reliance on nuclear cut to zero. I'd like to have a society work without nuclear as early as possible.