Fukushima Physicists Forum

03/15/2016

In an interview with The Telegraph to mark the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, Naoto Kan described the panic and disarray at the highest levels of the Japanese government as it fought to control multiple meltdowns at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station......
He admitted “regret” at his decision not to publish results from a computer system called Speedi, System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information, which accurately forecast the spread of radioactivity around the plant and could have saved thousands of local residents from exposure.
“As a result, some areas were exposed to high levels of radiation,” he said.

Five years on from the tsunami, the former Japanese prime minister says the country came within a “paper-thin margin” of a nuclear disaster

03/15/2016

The criminal charges were the first to result from the disaster, five years after a 13.1 meter tsunami swamped the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering meltdowns at three of the plant’s six reactors. Tepco knew it was possible the plant could be hit by a tsunami bigger than it was designed to withstand, but made cost saving a higher priority than long-term safety, the prosecuting lawyers said in the indictment.

The executives are expected to plead not guilty. They have repeatedly said the possibility of such a massive tsunami was unrealistic. Legal experts say they are likely to be acquitted, with the onus on the prosecution to prove that failure to protect the power plant from a tsunami was an act of criminal oversight.

In the first criminal charges stemming from the Fukushima nuclear disaster five years ago, three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. were indicted Monday.

10/20/2015

"Japan's government has acknowledged that a worker involved in clean-up work at the Fukushima nuclear plant may have developed cancer as a result. The man, in his 40s, is suffering from leukaemia. The man worked at the damaged plant for more than a year, and was exposed to a total of 19.8 millisieverts of radiation during that period. That is nearly four times the annual dose allowed for nuclear workers in Japan but is less than half the amount US nuclear workers can be exposed to in a single year. The man will receive compensation to cover medical costs and lost income, government officials said."

Japan acknowledges that a worker involved in clean-up work at Fukushima may have developed cancer as a result.

09/19/2015

This came out oat the end of August. It consists of a Report by the IAEA Director General and five technical volumes. It is the result of an extensive international collaborative effort involving five working groups with about 180 experts from 42 Member States with and without nuclear power programmes and several international bodies. It provides a description of the accident and its causes, evolution and consequences, based on the evaluation of data and information from a large number of sources available at the time of writing.

The Fukushima Daiichi Accident

04/12/2015

Listen to this!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05q6323

A poetic meditation on the element uniting Nagasaki, Argyll and a mutant bounty hunter.

02/07/2013

"Tanaka, a former reactor design engineer, was responsible for on-site inspections for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission. He and other commission members planned to visit the plant on March 5-6 last year after receiving reports that subcontracted workers had seen water on the fourth floor of the No. 1 reactor building following the earthquake. Two tanks and piping were holding water for the isolation condensers. But Tanaka gave up on that plan after TEPCO said the reactor building was pitch-black and dangerous to enter. In reality, a cover over the building transmitted 10-16 percent of sunlight. It was also equipped with powerful mercury lamps."

Tokyo Electric Power Co. misled a Diet investigation panel and cited “dreadfully high” radiation levels to effectively block an inspection for possible quake damage at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

04/11/2011

Nuclear expert Malcolm Grimston analyses what happened at the Fukushima nuclear plant after the tsunami, and describes what needs to be done next.

04/06/2011

Do you have questions about the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan? Join us at 4pm London time on Wednesday 6 April for a live Q&A with Jim Smith, an environmental physicist from the University of Portsmouth and Nature's Geoff Brumfiel. Enter your email below to sign up for a reminder.

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04/06/2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/apr/05/fukushima-nuclear-stop-radiation-ideas

We're looking for your views on the best ways to make the plant safe again

04/06/2011

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/05_38.html

04/06/2011

Any thoughts on confusing press release from TEPCO?
The causes of mistakes as follows:
•Even though the main peak of I-134 and Co-56 were not detected, we determined those nuclide were detected in the sub peak.
•using Ge semi-conductor type nuclide, since Te -129m and Te-129 were not registered as parent-daughter nuclide information (library), we could not conduct calculation considering the creation from parent.