Why not? The Boston Globe has.
"Japanese utility lays out plan to stabilize reactors; Proposal aims for shutdown in 9 months" April 18, 2011|By Ken Belson and Steven Lee Myers, New York Times
TOKYO — The Tokyo Electric Power Co. laid out an ambitious plan yesterday to bring the reactors at its hobbled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into a stable state known as cold shutdown within the next nine months and to try to reduce the levels of radioactive materials being released....
That is something most people are not thinking about; however, I do every day. I look or go outside and think radiation is out there -- and it is.
On paper, the program represents a turning point....
As an old sports guy knows, "games" ain't played on paper -- and neither the truth be told by an AmeriKan new$paper.
By making its announcement yesterday, the company was trying to show that conditions had apparently calmed down in recent days and that it is now able to turn some of its attention to planning for the future.
How do you like the public relation$ agenda being being shoved in your face, dear world citizen?
Hey, AmeriKa'$ media ju$t doing what it i$ told, if you get my meaning.
The government said that evacuees who were forced to leave their homes near the Daiichi plant will be able to return in six to nine months, after the land is decontaminated.
Says who? Lying authorities and mouthpiece medias?
That seemed to suggest that no places would be put off limits, as they were after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. But Japanese officials did not provide specifics about how contaminated the land is within several miles of the plant.
But the news means that the tens of thousands of people evacuated from the area and living in shelters will not soon be able to return to their homes, or to towns that were destroyed by the tsunami. It also means that the badly shaken government will have to continue to provide for the displaced people even as it struggles to rebuild from the quake and stabilize the economy....
You know, the important $tuff.
The plant is consistently spewing radioactive materials into the air. And although much of the water that is used evaporates, tons of runoff have also been created....
And JUST WHERE DID the RUNOFF GO?
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And ONCE AGAIN, after the "good news" of propaganda promotion:
"Setback in Japan: Plant is still too hot for workers; Radiation may delay latest shutdown plan" by Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times / April 19, 2011
TOKYO — Robots deployed inside two reactors at the Japanese nuclear plant overrun by last month’s devastating tsunami have detected radiation levels too high for workers to enter, posing immediate challenges for a new plan to bring the ravaged complex under control by year’s end.
Related: iRobot devices explore stricken reactor in Japan
Workers have not been able to enter four of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant since the days immediately after the earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11....
The Japanese government continues to face severe challenges, both technical and political, in the aftermath of a multifaceted disaster that has left 13,800 people dead and 14,000 missing.
At least 137,000 people remain in evacuation centers, some driven from their homes by radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Japan’s Finance Ministry has said the cost of damage from the earthquake and tsunami alone could reach $300 billion, making it the world’s most costly natural disaster....
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Where did that water go?
"Water pumped from Japan plant; Company warns process could take three weeks" April 20, 2011|By Keith Bradsher and Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times
Hidehiko Nishiyama, the deputy director general of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said that the heavily contaminated water that has accumulated in basements and trenches at the site is 2 million times as radioactive as the less contaminated water that workers pumped into the ocean from April 4 to April 10. Workers pumped 10,393 tons of the less contaminated water into the ocean in order to make room in storage areas for the far more highly radioactive water from inside the reactor buildings.
Pumping contaminated water into the ocean has provoked considerable dismay from Japanese fishermen and from nearby countries, particularly South Korea and China. Nishiyama said yesterday that Japan had no plans and no need to pump any more contaminated water into the ocean.
They expect us to believe that? Where else could it go?
I'm so glad I'm not a seafood eater -- although it doesn't really matter since the radiation is still spewing and circulating the planet.
Plans are being made for the installation of water-purification equipment and heat exchangers, so the same water can be pumped repeatedly through the reactors.
Oh. And that will take how long?
Anne Lauvergeon, the chief executive of Areva, France’s nuclear-power equipment provider, said at a news conference in Tokyo last evening that it would probably take until the end of May to set up a water treatment station at the plant. Once running, she said, the facility should be able to handle 50 metric tons of water an hour and should almost entirely remove radiation from the water — 99.9 percent to 99.99 percent.
The technology, called “co-precipitation,’’ uses chemical agents to break down radioactive elements in water. The treatment station itself will be provided by Veolia Water, a British water and waste management service. Areva and Tokyo Electric have not yet discussed the cost of the services, Lauvergeon said.
At lea$t $omeone will be making a profit of thi$.
The challenge, Lauvergeon said, was the pressing need to remove as much of the radioactive contaminants as possible while also processing as much water as possible. “We are in a fight against time, hour by hour, week by week, day by day,’’ she said. “The solution must be swift, and sustained.’’
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Related: Japan seals off area around plant
Japan earmarks $48.5b to rebuild
Japan tries to find the missing
They had been mostly forgotten until now.
"Legacy of Chernobyl is neglected, activists say" April 26, 2011|By Natalya Vasilyeva, Associated Press
The blast on April 26, 1986, spewed a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in the most heavily hit areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia.
The explosion released about 400 times more radiation than the US atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima. Hundreds of thousands were sickened and once-pristine forests and farmland remain contaminated....
Chernobyl has come into renewed focus since an earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear disaster in Japan last month.
In Germany, thousands of people demonstrated yesterday near several nuclear power plants, demanding a speedy end to the use of atomic energy....
And yet here it is stuck in the middle of this article.
For many, the experiences of the people of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine present vivid examples of long-term government mishandling of a nuclear catastrophe.
And yet today's governments are doing the EXACT SAME THING as the Soviets: LYING and DENYING!
The government of Belarus says natural disintegration of radioactive materials such as strontium and cesium has allowed the replanting of nearly 40,000 acres of formerly contaminated fields.
Environmentalist say the fields remain unsafe and the products grown there pose a direct threat to human health.
But let's get all bunged up about global warming.
At least there would be longer growing seasons for food in this time of famine and contamination.
“Authorities are covering up the facts. Contaminated products go straight to the dinner tables of Belarusians,’’ said Irina Sukhiy, head of the environmental group Ekodom....
Seems to be a CHARACTERISTIC of GOVERNMENT no matter WHERE YOU LIVE!
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Also see: Chernobyl pledges fall short of goal
Marking 25 years since Chernobyl, Russia defends nuclear energy
Appears to be a characteristic of the mouthpiece media, too.
A bit too close to home:
"Nuclear plant sues Vt. to stay open; Federal court case may echo across US" April 19, 2011|By Beth Daley, Globe Staff
Owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant filed a federal lawsuit yesterday to prevent state lawmakers from shutting the plant down when its 40-year license expires next year.
The Entergy Corp. lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Burlington, Vt., is expected to force a legal showdown over whether state governments can claim a role in the oversight of nuclear power plants, which are regulated by the federal government. What the courts ultimately decide is likely to have significance for some of the nation’s 103 other operating reactors, especially those in states that have similar concerns about their safety.
If the Supreme Court were to reject Entergy’s suit, other states could be empowered to pass legislation, as Vermont did in 2006, granting lawmakers the authority to approve or deny a plant’s license extension, according to legal scholars. Vermont is the only state in the country that has such veto power, and last year the Senate voted overwhelmingly to shutter the plant in Vernon near the Massachusetts line.
“Despite the fact that Vermont Yankee is important to the reliability of the New England electric transmission grid, emits virtually no greenhouse gases, and provides more than $100 million in annual economic benefits to the state of Vermont, it has been made clear that state officials are singularly focused on shutting down the plant,’’ said Richard Smith, president of Entergy Wholesale Commodities. “That has left us with no other choice but to seek relief in the court system.’’
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Related:
Globe Editorial Vermont Yankee plant’s owner must honor its own promises
Also see: No Need to Worry About Nuclear Radiation
So sayeth the AmeriKan power structure and its mouthpiece media.
