Monday, April 4, 2011

Koreans Are Pissed at Radioactive Water Dumping by TEPCO

Yomiuri's Seoul Correspondent reports (in Japanese; 11:19AM JST 4/5/2011):

(Seoul: Takashi Nakagawa) Regarding the release of radiation contaminated water into the ocean from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, the South Korean government conveyed its worries to Japan's Foreign Ministry through its Embassy in Japan at night of April 4 [when TEPCO started dumping], that "this may cause problems in international law."

The South Korean government is not pleased that there was no prior, formal notice from the Japanese government concerning the release of the contaminated water.

【ソウル=仲川高志】韓国政府は4日夜、福島第一原発で汚染水が海に放出された問題で、在日韓国大使館を通じ、日本外務省に「国際法的問題を引き起こす可能性がある」との懸念を伝えた。

 韓国政府は、日本政府から汚染水の放出について、事前に正式な通告がなかったことを問題視している。

The response to that from the Japanese government? Here's what the government's mouthpiece Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said in the morning presser on April 5 (from Asahi):

Question: This (dumping contaminated water) may be in violation of the international treaty to prevent pollution of the ocean. Have you explained [the situation] to the countries that would be affected?

Edano: The government has notified according to the treaty. However, the affected countries are on the Pacific Ocean, so the government has reported to an international organization [he doesn't say which international organization] instead of each individual countries.

――国際法の海洋汚染防止条約に違反するのではないかと思うが、周辺国には説明をしているのか。

 「条約に基づいての通報はしている。ただこの場合、周辺国というのが太平洋側なので、直接に個別の国というよりも国際機関の方に報告している」

Hmmmm. South Korea is on the Japan Sea side, and it is already been affected by the radioactive materials falling on their country.

(I'd better take a closer look at the French paper on radiation effect on marine environment. It has a simulation on how the radioactive water may travel. It's in French, though, and that's my problem...)

8 comments:

threeggg said...

Hey FX-SKF I tried to find your email as I am wondering if this video regarding Japan Fukushima reactors #5 & #6 are true.
It says that they are unstable now too. ?
Can you give any insight into this as this TEPCO representitive is crying about the information he is reading regarding the release of water @ 5 & 6 reactor and then it says they are in danger of losing their cooling ability and are damaged as well ?
Thanks and excellent Blogs !! Link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W7uGvW8xvY&feature=player_embedded

threeggg said...

and then there is this ?????? wtf is going on man ?
another plant in trouble >
http://theintelhub.com/2011/04/04/what-is-going-on-in-the-ibaraki-prefecture-radiation-levels-soaring/

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

About the radiation spiking up in Ibaragi, I think daily high dose of iodine-131 in the air sweeping through Ibaragi is the culprit. I don't post this gif file on English blog, but I do so in the Japanese blog to warn my Japanese readers where the iodine plume may be coming. But take a look. Ibaragi and Chiba are constantly in the 3 to 30 micro-sievert range.

http://www.zamg.ac.at/pict/aktuell/20110404_fuku_I-131.gif

Let me take a look at the youtube video...

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

About Reactors 5 and 6, the reactors themselves (What's in the containment vessels) are OK, but they are saying there are cracks in the reactor buildings and turbine buildings and the water has seeped in to these buildings. If it gets flooded like other reactors, that would mean electricals would be gone, that in turn means .. the cooling of the reactor pressure vessels and the spent fuel pools would be lost.

I've gotta write a post on that, thanks for alerting me. I have to find the original NHK vid in Japanese. They just have terrible translators after another, who can't speak well, who don't know what they are babbling.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Water is being released from the sub-drain pits (there are many around the reactors 5 and 6). I still have to find out how the spill-over from the sub-drain pits can enter the reactor buildings. But I've reached my limit for today, I gotta get some wink!

Stoneleigh said...

I speak French and have a background in nuclear safety. I'll try to find the time to translate the French paper for you. It might take a while as I'm on a lecture tour right now. My site is The Automatic Earth and we cover energy and finance issues, including Fukushima.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@Stoneleigh, that would be so great! Will check out your site.

Anonymous said...

Hey while you're waiting for the French translation you might want to take a look at this report on the radiation survey done by the US based group called the Government Accountability Project. They are a non-profit org. that helps whistleblowers around the world get their stories public exposure. (You guys might need them in the future so you might want to contact them and make them aware of your blog and maybe offer them translation services if they need them).

This report cover the aftermath of the Russian Mayak disaster they give some pretty good information on the degree and types of radioactive contamination they found and the paths it took through the flora and fauna. Maybe some of your Japanese readers would be interested in how well a handful of knowledgeable people can detect and categorize a radiation hazard if they really want to.

http://www.whistleblower.org/storage/documents/NongovernmentalMonitoring.pdf

Sometimes the GAP website gets overloaded so you may have to try to download the pdf more than once to get an uncorrupted file that can actually open. I hope this can help in some way.

Thanks for all your efforts if I come across anything else I think you might find interesting I'll pass it on to you.

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