Sisyphean Task
Sisyphean Task
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2012/12/24/japan-ghos...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/546759/Sisyphus
Japan Ghost Town
Added On December 24, 2012
It's an endless task cleaning the nuclear fallout from Japan's Fukushima plant, as CNN's Alex Zolbert reports.
Some question if this cleanup is really worth it.
Critics, including some academics in Japan, experts on radiation and nuclear energy, call efforts like these meaningless. Using high pressure hoses simply spreads the radiation.
Heroic Efforts
Will salmon run upstream amid these conditions?
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201301030006
OFUNATO, Iwate Prefecture, Asahi Shimbun By KAZUMASA SUGIMURA/ Staff Writer
A volunteer effort was started in April 2011 immediately following the Great East Japan Earthquake by 38-year-old group leader Hiroshi Sato. Sato was visiting a distant relative, Koichi Watari, 59, at another fishing port to deliver supplies. “The sea and rivers are crammed with debris," Watari, a fisherman, told him. "Do you think salmon will make their runs upstream amid these conditions?”
Sato, a diving instructor, was conducting Salmon Swim, a tour to observe salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Watari’s question made Sato think that he, as a diver, should help restore the undersea environment that existed before the earthquake. So, one month after the quake and tsunami, two divers and several fishermen started struggling with cleaning up the massive amounts of debris, oil and sludge. Soon, many divers, not only from within Japan but also from overseas including Thailand and the Maldives, offered their cooperation.
To date, volunteer members have dived in 40 ports and bays, including the Okirai Namiita bathing beach and the Ryori fishing port. The number of divers who have participated in the cleanup effort totals some 2,500.
TEPCO ¥¥¥ tra$he$ $tream$, Lake$ & Port$
“illegally dumped radioactively contaminated soil, vegetation and water into rivers”
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/01/202502.html
TOKYO, Jan. 4, Kyodo15:31 4 January
Japanese contractors are suspected of having or other places close to the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Environment Ministry said Friday.
Some contractors responsible for decontamination work in areas affected by the March 2011 disaster are suspected of having illegally dumped tainted soil and other substances in the city of Tamura, the town of Naraha and the village of Iitate, which are all located in Fukushima Prefecture, according to the ministry.
$50B Govt bailout to Trash Streams, Lakes & Pacific
TEPCO ¥¥¥ tra$he$ $tream$, Lake$ & Port$
“illegally dumped radioactively contaminated soil, vegetation and water into rivers”
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/01/202502.html
TOKYO, Jan. 4, Kyodo15:31 4 January
Japanese contractors are suspected of having illegally dumped radioactively contaminated soil, vegetation and water into rivers or other places close to the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Environment Ministry said Friday.
Contractors responsible for decontamination work in areas affected by the March 2011 disaster are suspected of having illegally dumped tainted soil and other substances in the city of Tamura, the town of Naraha and the village of Iitate, which are all located in Fukushima Prefecture, according to the ministry.
CROOKED CLEANUP
CROOKED CLEANUP (3): Reporters document shoddy practices
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201301040076
January 04, 2013 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
To discover the extent of shoddy decontamination practices, Asahi Shimbun reporters spent 130 hours observing, photographing and interviewing workers at various locations in Fukushima Prefecture from Dec. 11 to 18. On Dec. 18, two workers for a subcontractor to the joint venture tasked with decontaminating Iitate were found using a pressurized sprayer to clean the parking lot in front of a post office. Some of the water used in the cleaning splashed onto the sidewalk and some flowed into a gutter that eventually reaches a river.
An employee for Taisei Corp., which was part of the joint venture, was at the site serving as a supervisor. A worker who was asked why the water was not being collected only said, "I don't know because I am not in charge." An official with the subcontractor who was later asked about the incident said, "There is a strong possibility that water used in the cleaning flowed into the gutter."
Photos were also taken of workers using pressurized sprayers in Kawauchi on Dec. 17. Although water from the sprayers was observed seeping into the soil, an official with Obayashi Corp., which is part of the joint venture handling work in that village, said, "The water and soil were collected in an appropriate manner in accordance with work procedures."
Under Environment Ministry rules, all water used in decontamination must be collected. However, a man in his 40s who was in charge of the site at Naraha said: "The radiation level does not drop just by wiping. Almost all work involves cleaning with water and letting the water drain off."
(This article was compiled from reports by Tamiyuki Kihara and Kenji Oda.) THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Futility
Sisyphus, an eternal exercise in futility
Sisyphus, in Greek mythology, the cunning king of Corinth who was punished in Hades by having repeatedly to roll a huge stone up a hill only to have it roll down again as soon as he had brought it to the summit.
This fate is related in Homer’s Odyssey, Book XI.
TEPCO DUMPS a LOAD into Pacific
TEPCO to DUMP a LOAD into the Northwest Pacific … again
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/01/tepco-plans-to-discharge-contaminated...
Tepco plans to discharge contaminated water into the environment, “Getting permission of related departments”
Posted by Mochizuki on January 6th, 2013
In the first press conference of Tepco on 1/4/2013, Tepco implied they are to discharge contaminated water to the environment.
Source:
http://translate.google.com/#
http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2013/01/20130105t65003.htm
Return is possible only below 1 [mSv]
Evacuees told they'll need to stay away for a generation
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201301050053
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN January 05, 2013
In one of the first estimates of when Fukushima evacuees may return to their homes, the mayor of one nearby town is telling former residents that it could be 30 years away. Katsutaka Idogawa, mayor of Futaba, a town close to the crisis-struck Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, unveiled the provisional estimate during an address to his staff on Jan. 4. Idogawa said he would call on the central government, the government of Fukushima Prefecture, and on the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., to carry out thorough decontamination work in Futaba.
Idogawa referred to an ongoing bid to re-assess the risk from contamination and perhaps adjust the mandatory exclusion zone. But estimates by the central government say 75 percent of Futaba's 7,000 or so residents at the time of the March 2011 nuclear disaster were living in areas where annual radiation doses now exceed 50 millisieverts. Such areas are expected to be labeled "no-return zones," meaning evacuees cannot return for at least five years.
"Return will be possible only below 1 millisievert," Idogawa said.