The power company does it to them as the media does it to us:
Japan plant workers sending lesser of two evils into the sea
But the pumping effort is not expected to halt, or even alter, the gushing leak from a large crack in a 6-foot-deep pit next to the seawater intake pipes near the No. 2 reactor. The leak, discovered Saturday, has been spewing an estimated 7 tons of highly radioactive water an hour directly into the ocean; attempts to trace and plug it have so far failed.
That can't be good for anything in the water.
Marine biologists expressed concern. “We’re seeing the levels of radioactive materials in the water increase, which means this problem is going to continue to get worse and worse,’’ said Kenya Mizuguchi, Tokyo University professor emeritus of maritime science and technology.
Hope you like the new style, readers:
Japan sets radiation safety standards for fish
TOKYO — Japan’s government announced Tuesday its first radiation safety standards for fish, hours after the operator of a crippled nuclear power plant said that seawater collected near the facility contained radiation several million times the legal limit....
“Clearly the fish are consuming highly radioactive food,” Paul G. Falkowski, professor of marine, earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University, said. But Falkowski emphasized that even those levels were not likely to present health hazards in Japan or farther away, since fishing is restricted in Japan and these levels of radiation are not likely to travel far.
It's so sad to see an academic lie.
Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, said that according to some radiation safety guidelines people could eat 35 pounds of fish per year containing the level of cesium 137 detected in the Japanese fish.
“So you’re not going to die from eating it right away, but we’re getting to levels where I would think twice about eating it,” Fisher said, noting that the Japanese consume far more seafood than Americans....
The samples also showed levels of cesium 137 to be 1.1 million times the legal limit, according to the Japanese public broadcaster NHK. Cesium remains in the environment for centuries, losing half its strength every 30 years.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the March 11 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami rose to 12,341 on Tuesday, the country’s National Police Agency said....
The crisis at the power station, now in its fourth week, has shaken public confidence in Tokyo Electric Power, known as TEPCO. Its share prices plunged to an all-time low Tuesday over concern by investors about the financial burden of the work being carried out at Daiichi....
Related: Confidence plunges among Japanese businesses
Japan plant plugs leak into sea
Yeah, sure. So where is that even more radioactive stuff headed now?
Nitrogen injected into unit of disabled Japan nuclear plant
"Aftershock stirs fears in Japan; 2 dead, dozens more injured in 7.1 temblor" April 08, 2011|By Hiroko Tabuchi and Andrew Pollack, New York Times
TOKYO — The strongest aftershock to hit since the day of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan rocked a wide section of the country’s northeast last night, prompting a tsunami alert, raising fears of further damage to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and knocking out external power at three other nuclear facilities.
Yesterday’s aftershock was the strongest since March 11, according to the Geological Survey. The police say about 12,600 people have died as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
--more--"
Japan quake aftershock raises anxiety
Power remained out yesterday across much of northern Japan, including areas far inland, and homes were without gas and water. Gasoline was again scarce.
Convenience stores sold out of basics such as water and snack foods, and supermarkets were rationing purchases.
In Ichinoseki, 240 miles northeast of Tokyo, lines of 30 or more people formed outside the Marue supermarket when it opened at 9 a.m. With power out, each customer was escorted through the aisles by an employee with a flashlight and a pad who jotted down the price of each item.
“I’m so tired. I just want to buy some chocolate,’’ said Yuka Sato, 27, who waited in line with her neighbors.
Most local businesses were closed. Restaurant owner Suzuki Koya, 47, bought a small gas stove and made a free meal for locals in a big, boiling pot.
“I saw the meat at the supermarket, and I thought, ‘We should do a hot pot,’ ’’ he said. “It’s good to keep warm in times like these.’’
One of the best items I've read.
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At a plant in Onagawa, some radioactive water splashed out of the pools but did not leave a containment building, Tohoku Electric said. Such splashing is not unusual.
Uh-huh.
Those killed by Thursday’s quake were a 79-year-old man who died of shock, a woman in her 60s who lost power to her oxygen tank, and an 85-year-old man whose cause of death was not specified.
Many bodies from last month’s tsunami have still not been found, and many were probably swept out to sea and never will be. But as radiation from Fukushima Daiichi has dropped, police have fanned out to look for those who may have died inland.
Sigh. So has my faith in my f***ing newspaper.
Yesterday, hundreds of police used their hands or small shovels, recovering four bodies in an hour from one small area in the city of Minami Soma. They had found only five bodies the previous day.
Related:
Temporary nuclear laborers paid little for taking big risk
In Chernobyl, a hint of what the future may hold for Japan
The AmeriKan media keeps telling us it isn't another Chernobyl.
Japan’s crisis put at level of Chernobyl’s
How come they are always weeks late (if at all)?
Also see:
Crucial lessons in reactor crisis cited
Like stop looking for nonexistent nukes in Muslim countries?
Minister defends Japan’s crisis response
Sigh.
S. Korean schools shut on radiation fears
