Slashdot Mirror

Everything you wanted to know about hanko: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne...

when the state can arbitrarily designate something as a 'state secret', it's all at risk. if you speak to nuclear engineers who have real opinions on the state of affairs there (most importantly, do not have any vested interests, economic or otherwise), you will understand why it's logical that they would create a gag order. Though the 'Fukushima Gag Order Bill', though given the intelligence of Abe and his cronies, might have been a first draft name proposal, they no doubt found it easier to wrap it into the larger and better sounding 'state secrets' bill. but by no means do i believe it to be the sole ugly thing baked in there.. carte blanches are great like that

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/co...

ignorance (willfult or otherwise) always seems to find it's way into ad hominem attacks, doesn't it? well.. in case you aren't either a shill/troll or too far overdosed on the koolaid.. it's not like they're even really pretending. i mean, at least they used to try to cover it up.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/co...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/op...

ignorance (willfult or otherwise) always seems to find it's way into ad hominem attacks, doesn't it? well.. in case you aren't either a shill/troll or too far overdosed on the koolaid.. it's not like they're even really pretending. i mean, at least they used to try to cover it up.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/co...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/op...

According to another post [slashdot.org] this plutonium could not be used to make a bomb, and the explanation makes sense to me. So even if they change the constitution they won't be making any bombs, at least not with this plutonium.

This story rang some bells with me, and yes, it does appear to be the same case already reported on Slashdot (the figure given in the linked article there was also 640kg).

That time, however, the slant was on the Chinese being concerned that the Japanese may have been "stockpiling" this missing plutonium for weapons.

Which begs the question as to why, if it couldn't be used to make an atomic bomb?

This is a training program, not a production process. They have a few people doing forging by hand, but not to make production parts. See the original article in the Japan Times. Toyota's process of continuous improvement of production requires that people working on assembly lines understand the process well enough to suggest improvements. They recognize that they've dumbed down the workforce too much.

Ford Motor funded the building of the Detroit TechShop for similar reasons. They need more people who have a good sense of how stuff is made. Who in the US gets a degree in production engineering any more?

How will the UN enforce this? This is nothing more than a symbolic gesture as I don't think sanctions are likely to hurt Japan all that much.

Since Japan is using UN resolutions/verdicts against China in its geo-political battles, they do not want to be seen as flouting UN verdicts themselves.

Also, whale meat is actually not that popular in Japan, so much so that the whalers have to dump their stocks: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/op.... The reason Japan has persisted in whaling despite all the protests is a mixture of lobbying, nationalist sentiments, and fears that banning whaling will open the door to more restrictions of fishing rights.

I'm sure some Japanese politicians will thank the gods of their choice for this verdict.

Nuclear cannot be varied, so it cannot meet demand by itself either. We were already building hydropower capacity to store the excess from the so-called "baseload" nuclear.

As nuclear subsides, that storage capacity will be used increasingly for wind and solar instead.

The real differences here are:

1) Solar and wind variations substantially match peak usage patterns. This is the main reason we're having this discussion at all, because these new generators are cutting into the most profitable parts of the day for established generators.

2) Nuclear is highly centralized and requires police-state protections to function in the face of an emergency. The downside of the Fukushima incident is that the Japanese government has enacted strict state secrecy to punish the kind of disobedience and truth-telling that probably saved much of Japan from a worse turn of events.

Note that even in the US, you can be arrested for taking pictures of a nuclear power plant from a public space (these days, more likely by a SWAT officer or other paramilitary goon).

TL;DR - An expansion of nuclear energy is likely to spread militarism.

3) Funding... How do you get backers for new nuclear power plants when massive cost overruns are the rule rather than the exception? As with the need for secrecy and militarism, nuclear has a problem with corruption in its finances, too.

I almost forgot this report:

Nuclear plant security to be designated as state secret

Information on the way Japan’s nuclear power plants are guarded by police and security officers will be designated as a state secret by a government-sponsored confidentiality bill, said Masako Mori, minister in charge of the legislation.

“If we make public the security plans of police, such information could reach terrorists,” Mori said Friday in a meeting of a Lower House special committee on national security that kicked off full deliberations on the bill.

The legislation designates such information as a state secret under the category of terrorism prevention.

The state secrets crackdown in Japan was enacted to prevent further embarrassing information about the Fukushima reactors from getting to the public. Which means there is no accountability mechanism left for nuclear power in Japan.

Do not be surprised if the US government tries to head in the same direction for the same reason.

Fuel from corn, and the subsidy for it, was a giveaway to Archer Daniels Midland. The subsidy expired a few years ago, but the requirement that corn be converted to fuel ethanol drove the price of corn up.

Ethanol from corn is probably a net energy lose. Ethanol refineries don't burn their own product for their own process heat. (Oil refineries do.)

Ethanol for cellulose, if it ever works commercially, has real promise. There's so much excess cellulose in the world produced as farming waste, from corn cobs to straw to wood chips. The first big ethanol from cellulose plants are coming on line in 2014. But they need subsidies to survive.

It is interesting to see who is coming around to that point of view. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/09/24/national/ex-top-u-s-nuclear-regulator-counsels-end-to-atomic-power/

[...] they (the Japanese) could change [the constitution] if they wanted to. But they don't, because it's far easier to let the U.S. spend big $$$ on a military along with R&D then it is for them.

Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, certainly wants to change it, so I don't think it's as far off as you suggest.

Agreed... The Fukishima plant site was significantly higher in elevation before construction started. Tepco removed 25 meters of the original buff", thus saving some energy costs(pumping cooling water), while incurring the risk of a tsunami.

Natural resources is the name of the game. And its not just China eyeing the riches.

One of the more geographically remote locations was Africa, where Japan and China, and to a growing extent South Korea and India, are in fierce competition to win contracts for energy and mineral rights on the continent.

Africa’s allure is easy to understand. Libya ranks ninth in world oil reserves, Nigeria 10th and Angola 16th. For natural gas reserves, Nigeria ranks eighth, Algeria ninth and Egypt 15th.

In addition, Africa holds 95.5 percent of the world’s platinum reserves, 58.3 percent of all diamonds, 49.2 percent of all cobalt, 45.8 percent of the chromium supply and 27.1 percent of the world’s manganese.

Lets be honest here. Human greed didnt cause the earthquake which sent the tsunami at those reactors.

But It was human greed when they made the decision to lower Fukishima plant site/bluff height by 25 meters in order to reduce the pumping energy losses for cooling.

a good idea. This would send a positive message to arrogant governments everywhere.

I doubt that China, Russia, North Korea, et. al., will get the message. For some reason nobody seems to be stealing and disclosing their secrets.

Japan accuses China of encroaching in its waters after three ships closed-in on disputed islands
Philippines rebukes China for ‘militarization’ in South China Sea
Bien Dong Encroachments of China
China’s land grab in India

Stoking tensions with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines over islands in the South and East China seas has not prevented an increasingly assertive China from opening yet another front by staging a military incursion across the disputed, forbidding Himalayan frontier.

On the night of April 15, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) platoon stealthily intruded near the China-India-Pakistan tri-junction, established a camp 19 kilometers inside Indian-controlled territory, and presented India’s government with the potential loss of a strategically vital, 750-square-km, high-altitude plateau.

A stunned India, already reeling under a crippling domestic political crisis, has groped for an effective response to China’s land grab — the largest and most strategic real estate China has seized since it began pursuing a more muscular policy toward its neighbors. Whether China intends to stay put by building permanent structures for its troops on the plateau’s icy heights, or plans to withdraw after having extracted humiliating military concessions from India, remains an open — and in some ways a moot — question.

The fact is that, with its “peaceful rise” giving way to an increasingly sharp-elbowed approach to its neighbors, China has broadened its “core interests” — which brook no compromise — and territorial claims, while showing a growing readiness to take risks to achieve its goals.

Perhaps they aren't wrecking the world's economy, but the Chinese Environmental Ministry is doing its best to damage the worldwide environment. Most noticeably in their region, where smog blankets Chinese cities and sometimes other countries' cities, too.

What about the children?"

I guess you don't read the Japan Times.

This story is not true.
12 people have a cancer by radiation.

If you look at enough people anywhere, you'll find cancer cases, but not necessarily from radiation:

Thyroid cancer found in 12 minors in Fukushima

FUKUSHIMA – An ongoing study on the impact of radiation on Fukushima residents from the crippled atomic power plant has found 12 minors with confirmed thyroid cancer diagnoses, up from three in a report in February, with 15 other suspected cases, up from seven, researchers announced Wednesday.

The figures were taken from about 174,000 people aged 18 or younger whose initial thyroid screening results have been confirmed.

Researchers at Fukushima Medical University, which has been taking the leading role in the study, have said they do not believe the most recent cases are related to the nuclear crisis.

According to the Japan Times, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency runs the site. Well done for not allowing them to get away with the same old practices.

1. Quote Martin Luther King as saying disidents should be proud to go to jail.

Not everyone is heralded like Mandella with a large base of supporters and international attention. Most are swallowed up by the penal system never to be heard from again. Only their family remembers. Look what happened to John Kiriakou who blew the whistle on illegal torture. He's gone away for 30 months. http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/01/28/convicted-cia-whistleblower-john-kiriakou-confronts-government-talking-points-on-nbcs-today-show/


Whistleblower John Kiriakou said "I am proud that I stood up to our government. I am not a criminal. I am a whistleblower. Torture is illegal and it’s officially abandoned in our country and I’m proud to have had a role in that." Sounds a bit like Patrick Henry's "Liberty or Death". A hero right? And yet...

Don't expect the media to save you. NBC's Savannah Guthrie began her interview of him: "Some people say you betrayed your former colleagues in order to raise your media profile in order to sell books and get a consulting business going." Are *you* going to be holding a candlelight vigil for a cad of a man who betrayed his country to sell books?

Don't expect the judge to save you: The US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema said on Friday that Kiriakou had damaged the CIA. She called the sentence, the result of a plea arrangement with prosecutors, "way too light". Before issuing the sentence, the judge asked Kiriakou if he had anything to say. When he declined, she said: ''Perhaps you have already spoken too much.''
This book tells how once you're jailed the public think you deserve it and quickly forget about you. http://books.google.com/books?id=Tu5RB6YHf10C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=51Ya4U8XFt&dq=lynch+in+the+name+of+justice (Go to page 43 of this Google Books preview).


2. Swartz broke the law and should do the time.

These posts are usually accompanied by an anal exploration of the relevant statute by watched too many courtroom dramas and thinks they are real life, but was there ever an Episode of Law & Order when McCoy said "Let's fuck this college kid over! I want a promotion! "

People who post these overlook the whole point that these are unfair laws. Volokh showed how unfair they are when he wrote a TOS that could be used to send anyone to jail named "Ralph".
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/eo20120803gw.html
http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Ex-Cop-Reveals-Arrested/dp/1556526377
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1227896387.shtml

There is much rubberiness in what exactly a "criminal" act. There are generally two types of breaches of law; civil (a private matter between two parties) and criminal ("an act so horrendous it is a crime against society"). Criminal acts used to be covered by Common Law overseen by judges who kept the whole thing 'just'. But governments took this over and now 'criminal' is whatever the government decides to write in statute as being criminal. Statutes always trump Common Law, which really ties the judges' hands. Enter lobbyists. They lobby to have anything that violates their client's business model declared criminal by statute.

Were Aaron's actions an act so horrendous what he did was a 'crime against society'? I think not. Just because some dorkenmeiner government official wrote it into a criminal statute so they could lock up people doing it doesn't mean it genuinely was 'an act against society'. The 'Terms of Service' violation under the Computer Fraud act is laughable. I would love to know how the hell that go in there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act

Governments workers have incredible power over the citizenry, and they have rewritten laws to make them so ridiculously broad so they can get anyone for anything. You would be amazed what you can be imprisoned for. Here's an example where a guy was imprisoned for not properly supervising one of his employees. No one was hurt, but federal employees went after him. We're not talking about the FBI here, but federal agency employees love to flash their badges and throw their weight around. It's good to be the king. The poor sap probably can't believe that he ended up doing hard time. So those readers beating their chest about Aaron that he 'did the crime - do the time' really should know what they are signing up for: http://books.google.com/books?id=Tu5RB6YHf10C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=51Ya4U8XFt&dq=lynch+in+the+name+of+justice (Go to page 43 of this Google Books preview). http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/eo20120803gw.html

Nancy Black may be a better poster girl: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/eo20120803gw.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/nancy-black-marine-protection_n_1189118.html

Dale Carson points out there are many, many cases of this going on all the time, but it's been under the public radar. Most of these people get eaten up by the system and no one cares except their family who by then are bankrupted by the lawyers if they could afford them. Public Defenders don't have time for these so-called petty cases. No one else cares so journalists don't even consider it newsworthy. You won't even read about it. Aaron is an exception.

> The decision whether to charge a defendant, and with what -- is almost entirely discretionary. ... > Hope you enjoyed that freewheeling culture while it lasted, kids — now Everything is a Crime."

Once to be charged with a crime there needed to be a criminal intent. No longer. There are so many ridiculous laws on the books now that you can't be a citizen without breaking some laws, and zealous prosecutors can pluck those laws out of obscurity to target anyone the don't like, or even just choose some unlucky sap they pick on to boost their career.

There's a good book by ex-FBI cop & criminal lawyer Dale Carson who explains these people have run out of big time criminals to prosecute, and so now the justify their existence by filling jails with poor saps who meet this criteria, or they would be laying off cops, judges and prisoners for lack of business: http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Ex-Cop-Reveals-Arrested/dp/1556526377

Here's a real life case where US officials made life hell for a California marine biologist for no other reason than they have big swinging dicks and they could: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/eo20120803gw.html

This has been going on for a long time. Aaron is the first person to draw it to the wider public attention: "Legions of government lawyers inundate targets with discovery demands, producing financial burdens that compel the innocent to surrender in order to survive. Silverglate, a civil liberties lawyer in Boston, chillingly demonstrates how the mad proliferation of federal criminal laws — which often are too vague to give fair notice of what behavior is proscribed or prescribed — means that "our normal daily activities expose us to potential prosecution at the whim of a government official." Such laws, which enable government zealots to accuse almost anyone of committing three felonies in a day, do not just enable government misconduct, they incite prosecutors to intimidate decent people who never had culpable intentions. And to inflict punishments without crimes. The more Americans learn about their government's abuse of criminal law for capricious bullying, the more likely they are to recoil in a libertarian direction and put Leviathan on a short leash."

Very true. Once you are charged or sued no matter how bogus your life is ruined. Courts can make mistakes and if the federal prosecutor gets a sympathetic judge you can find yourself in jail with no one to listen. She threatened this guy with 35 years jail. How would that make any college kid feel? Even if he won, that is years off his life, the stigma of being charged, jailed and a crushing debt.

Here are some very nasty stories of federal employees like Oritz who made people's lives a misery "because they could": SAN FRANCISCO — A year after this bizarre charge — that she lied about the interaction with the humpback that produced no charges — more than a dozen federal agents, led by one from NOAA, raided her home. They removed her scientific photos, business files and computers. Call this a fishing expedition. This pursuit of Black seems to have become a matter of institutional momentum, an agent-driven case. Six years ago, NOAA agents, who evidently consider the First Amendment a dispensable nuisance, told Black's scientific colleagues not to talk to her and to inform them if they were contacted by her or her lawyers. Since then she has not spoken with one of her best friends.To finance her defense she has cashed out her life's savings, which otherwise might have purchased a bigger boat. The government probably has spent millions. It delivered an administrative subpoena to her accountant, although no charge against her has anything to do with finances. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/eo20120803gw.html .

Having come to think of our Japanese brothers as a modern, civilized, and economic 1st World power, I find this quite disturbing.

There is no bill of rights in Japan.

Moreover, the Japanese constitution explicitly limits the rights of non-citizens, so watch out. When everything is hunky-dory Japanese are indeed more western than their immediate neighbors, but when things go south (someone loses a job, or a limb, or a spouse, or their retirement fund) things turn very Asian very fast.

Cesium has a biological half life of one to four months. Removing yourself from the source of exposure, or diversifying your source of food to include produce from out of the affected area can almost completely eliminate internal contamination.

Certainly bio-accumulation is going to be a concern, especially after what we saw in Chernobyl. But unlike the Soviet disaster, most people in Japan don't acquire their food stuffs solely from local farms, and the contamination outside of Fukushima prefecture is almost nothing.

I live in one of the most contaminated areas outside of Fukushima, and the majority of food samples are testing free of cesium. Here are the testing results for August 2012; nothing detected. Here are the testing results for August of last year; only blueberries show cesium contamination at 44.6 bq/kg. Landlocked, fresh-water fish in my area have shown the most contamination, and as a result, they have been prohibited from consumption. Also, my family can avoid produce from Fukushima and Ibaraki prefecture as we live in a first-world nation with access to lots of alternatives.

The people living to the N/NW of Fukushima Daiichi (like in Iitatemura) got screwed the most because of government incompetence and lying. Most of those areas with the highest levels of contamination, including the more dangerous alpha emitters, are now in the exclusion zone, which means that farming is prohibited there. As for actual urine tests, the most cesium tested in a child was 17.5 becquerels per liter with the average being 2.2: Urine Tests These are levels are similar to when nuclear testing was being performed in the 60s.

This was a disaster of epic proportions, but we dodged a huge bullet. Most of the massive amount of radiation was blown out to sea, and even in areas like mine where contamination is high, it's now on par with cities like Hong Kong. In fact, the hospital by my house did a glass badge test for children in the area to test for yearly exposure levels, and not one child tested over an additional 1mSv/year.

Because here the US Navy is helping a convicted rapist escape justice: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120814zg.html

Kinda reminds me of Fukushima. Those guys didn't bother to figure out what would happen if they were wrong either.

Quantum physics is a bogus comparison. Considering all the accidents we have had during handling and storage of nuclear waste in the past it seems reasonable to at least think about how we might deal with them in the future.

Fukushima is a bogus comparison: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20110714a2.html

A better comparison to Fukushima would be the Challenger disaster, where the engineers knew better, and the management, having been informed of the engineers information, proceeded to make stupid decisions anyway.

There have been a lot of stupid decisions regarding materials which, if properly handled, would not have posed a risk to anyone. This incident comes to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

The absolute worst case for nuclear waste is that someone with no adverse history and a high security clearance throws away a 30 year career to steal 4 barrels of the stuff, relocates to Battle Creek, Michigan, and starts poisoning Kelloggs cereals with the stuff. Of course, they could just skip the security clearance and the nuclear materials and buy out all the Lucky Strikes at a local tobacco store and soak them to extract the nicotine and poison the Corn Flakes with nicotine instead.

Won't someone, please, think of the children!

See:

http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/chapter9.html ...specifically the sections on "Regulatory Ratcheting" and "Regulatory Turbulence".

The problem was not the design by GE-Hitachi (foreigners are not allowed to own businesses in Japan), it was installation without appropriate siting. One of the reactors original designers, Yukiteru Naka, wanted to resite the diesel generators and batteries, but TEPCO would have none of it, See this Japan Times article from a little over a year ago:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20110714a2.html

The article also pretty clearly indicates that Toshiba, who manufactured the plants, also had misgivings, since all BWR's in the US were sited on rivers, rather than on the ocean.

Apparently you have not heard of China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Equador and Bolivia.

China embraced capitalism.
Viet Nam is mixing Capitalism with Marxism.
Cuba is embracing capitalism.
Venezuela is failing at constructing a Communist economy.
Brazil has prospered by not governing from hard left principals.

That leaves you with Ecuador(a mix of capitalism and communism) and North Korea(a completely failed state). That doesn't seem to match up with your paranoid narrative, though, does it?

And you have not heard of the latest developments in Marxism, created by Antonio Gramsci, Herbert Marcuse and Theodor Adorno.

The latest deveopments? From a series of authors who have been dead for decades? Care to elucidate what makes these particular dead men so dangerous to your worldview?

Cultural Marxism is alive and kicking in the West. Just go to an average university and see what books the philosophy/geography students read.

That's funny. I had enough philosophy for a minor, and I never once had a philosophy professor mention Marxism more than in passing. And geography? Care to list out the horrible things students are learning?

Check out what "moderate socialism" did to the economy of Europe.

Oh, you mean the debt based economic problems? How is that different from the US? How is it the fault of socialism?

The Bible says "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" What happened in the Middle Ages was a perversion of Christianity. AND IT HAPPENED 400 YEARS AGO.

WTF are you talking about? I never said anything about the Dark Ages.

Saying that "bin Laden is religious" is as relevant as saying "bin Laden has a long beard".

If you think that bin Laden's actions were due to something other than his religion, then you are so wildly misinformed that I'm not sure where to start.

The probability of a Christian commiting terrorism is the same as a long-bearded man commiting terrorism. Being "similar" to bin Laden in one aspect does mean one is a terrorist.

Holding an irrational belief as your core philosophy is always dangerous.

Pat Robertson is more a politician then a pastor; and he is a televangelist.

No True Scotsman fallacy.

You don't find this kind of rhetoric in Catholic churches.

You are wrong. Moreover, the Catholic church is quite comfortable in claiming that homosexual marriage will result in the destruction of the fabric of society.

The crimes primarily happened 30 YEARS AGO, during the ecclesial chaos that followed the revolution of 1968.

The crimes were horrific. The cover up by the entire Vatican heirarchy was arguably worse. And that cover up and and denial persists to this day. The Catholic church still wants to brush this under the rug.

On average, a Catholic priest less likely to comit such a crime then a publich school teacher, and a Catholic bishop is less likely to cover it up than a public school principal. But you conveniently focus on priests.

And those priests and bishops claim to speak with t

While restarting any nuclear reactors is currently quite unpopular in Japan nationally, the decision to restart this particular plant's two reactors was actually made with local input and approval. Local councils aren't normally required to approve such matters, but due to the current controversy, Japan's government de-facto made restart contingent on approval from the local government. After several months of safety studies and deliberation, the municipal council voted 11-1 in favor of restarting the reactors in mid-May, which gave the national government some cover to go ahead with it.

I would not trust this conclusion. Simple dilution does not mean absence of risk. Despite this being a comment on Slashdot, I read to the end where I'm struck by this conclusion:

"Although the seas in the immediate vicinity of Fukushima probably experienced a very high dose of radioactivity during the months immediately after the disaster, as long as none of the isotopes accumulate in any organisms, the effects are unlikely to be long-lasting."

I strongly suggest looking up scholar.google.com and checking the isotopes: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/03/21/134567288/radiation-by-the-numbers-isotopes-to-watch

Off-handed dismissal of bioaccumulation risks is rather shocking. There are also differences between exposure to radiation and having a radioactive particle lodged within your body for prolonged, embedded exposure.

Would the NOAA lie to us about radiation or oil or anything? You already have your answer just simply by their track record on the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Just the very numbers of the official estimates and how they only changed from ridiculously minimal to realistic shows there are dishonest interests involved.

http://www.reefrelieffounders.com/drilling/2012/01/24/ee-scientist-is-accused-of-lowballing-size-of-gulf-spill/
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/

While some are pointing to the obligatory http://xkcd.com/radiation/ and I respect Randall, the lowballed numbers we are receiving from media with vested interests don't rank this disaster accurately. Even hardened robots can't last more than a few hours at the Fukushima 1 plant where the radiation is 73 sevierts, and that warrants careful examination of what we're told the risks are to broader areas. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120329a1.html

Whatever the truth is about Fukushima, it isn't coming from the NOAA.

...and most government officers rarely are good public servants.

Many cities had seawalls. There were several places that survived the tsunami. The seawalls coupled with the tsunami alerts bought thousands, maybe millions enough time to evacuate, but, since people had to run uphill, this meant that the elderly were unable to evacuate. This is the reason that caused that a very high percentage of elderly people -even for japanese standards- died in the tsunami. They make the bulk of casualties. Is easier to harden a small place than to try to protect thousands of kilometers of coast. Still, there is a nice story about the small city of Fudai in Iitate Prefecture that survived the tsunami:.
How one village defied the tsunami

Long story short, a very long and expensive project to protect the small city, "waste of taxes" in the view of critics, but that saved the whole town in the end. People went to pay their respects to the grave of the city's mayor that pushed for the seawall, Mr. Kotaku Wamura. We can say that good politicians coupled with good engineers and a society able and willing to pay taxes saves lives.

In its battle against a sluggish economy

Right... be sure to carefully avoid mentioning stupid huge budget deficits when discussing Japan and its science funding problems. They've only been running giant deficits since the '90s, accumulating debt equal to 200% GDP, a ratio worse than any of the European deadbeat PIIGS and twice as bad as the US. Why? Let's see what the Japanese themselves concluded 10 years ago:

lowered individual income tax ... two special tax cuts in FY 1998 ... permanent cuts in individual and corporate taxes ... frequent economic stimulus packages ... payments to the social security ... disposing of failed financial institutions

Sound familiar?

Japan has become so unproductive it now has a trade deficit. The first since 1981. Why? Just like us they're busy outsourcing their industrial base to China.

Deficit spending, 'stimulus', monetary easing and all that other gunk doesn't work. Endless tax breaks don't work. Pretending deficits don't hurt doesn't work. Evacuating the productive elements of your economy to third world hell-holes to avoid your own regulatory regime doesn't work. Stop electing the statists that govern this way.

If you like well funded government science you need to figure out how to reconcile yourself with the need for actual prosperity based on actual productivity, despite your banana training. Otherwise, live with the decline. Quietly.

Also, for those of you that believe Japan's debts are inconsequential because most of it is held by its own citizens; who do you think is going to take the inevitable "hair-cut?" How much less hesitation will their statists have disappearing that savings when the time eventually comes due to the lack of diplomatic consequences? Retirements, endowments ... poof. Gone to money heaven.

However, in 2004, the consumer imaging division was sold to a company founded via management buyout. AgfaPhoto GmbH, as the new company was called, filed for bankruptcy after just one year

FujiFilm - switched to digital faster than Kodak (FinePix consumer cameras), diversified in other areas and is still getting 3% of their sale from film (most probable medical imaging).

Foresight. Article from 2004: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20040523x2.html

It's not as if this particular reactor was on anybody's list of "this is safe."

I thought it was obvious. I'm pro nuke for whoever is willing to be responsible and own up to the risks involved. Take the US, for example. Three Mile Island is the worst accident they've had, and it killed a shocking 0 people.

I think, when things go wrong, people should be held accountable for their mistakes (see: wall street meltdown. Didn't happen there, either). Here I think the issue is with Tokyo Electric, and some people should be canned, some fined personally, and the company as a whole held responsible. People in charge of regulating and overseeing nuclear power in Japan should also be held accountable, as the potential for disaster was not exactly news.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20040523x2.html

Japan's Supreme court also ruled in favor of the creator of Winny.

This problem space includes biology and chemistry, not just physics. Chemistry is magnitudes more complicated than physics and biology is magnitudes more complicated than chemistry. Perhaps the "black box" method and over simplification approach works well enough for the physics portion of the problem, but it is pretty ridiculous to do the same with the biology portion. The body is not just a sack of water but a very complicated system that cannot be modeled by simple Newtonian equations. That is why we have known more about how celestial bodies function than our own bodies for centuries. Would you use Newton's physician (hell, would you limit yourself to medicine from even 15 years ago!?). However, it is an interesting theme of the meltdownplayers trying to summarize everything into a simple physics equation.

Again, you are hitting the political talking points (coal vs nuclear) and probabilities of meltdowns. This is offtopic. What is the probability of a Fukushima meltdown at this point? 100%. Are we discussing which is cleaner, coal or nuclear? No. We are discussing whether it is worth it for individuals to measure radiation around Tokyo.

Again, your Colorado example is totally meaningless because you are using physics inputs with biological outputs. If life were that simple, there would never be any meltdowns, and we would not be having this discussion. Furthermore, where in Colorado are kids playing on a hot spot radiating at 57 microSV per hour?

Yes, I did confuse you with another poster. Probably because the line of reasoning and talking points were very similar (with the exception of calling me too presumptuous and rude to continue on with, of course). Hitting the talking points even when they do not relate to the discussion is what I consider "shill speak." Here I am, trying to discuss one thing: is it worth measuring fallout in Tokyo. What do I get thrown into the mix? Pro-nuke talking points of "its the cleanest", "it is better than coal", "meldowns rarely happen" etc . . . You see, the shill does not seek the truth but seeks to protect their political position supporting nuclear power. They don't care whether measuring fallout in Tokyo is really worth it our not. All they care is that trying to measure fallout in Tokyo does not support their political position. They are concerned with making their stance impenetrable, and unconcerned about the collateral damage their strategies might have.

Lack of proof, in itself, is not proof. This is an unprecedented event. The great experiment is in progress, and we will see the results slowly come out over the decades and generations. However, was the 57 microSV/hr hot spot not enough to convince you people should be measuring more? If not, at what level would you be convinced?

"I'm just advocating for the idea that we should base our advice and opinions on data, and data shows that low levels of radiation are essentially harmless." Fine, me too. How do you know the level of radiation are low unless you measure? Is 57 microSV/hr low? Why are you against obtaining more data?

Just in case this is a language barrier issue, please find an English version of the article I posted earlier.

From the article: "'The possibility is high that cesium carried in rain water condensed and accumulated in the soil,' said Takao Nakaya, heads of the science and education ministry's radiation regulation office."

This is significant radioactive contamination for children to ever come into contact with. Kashiwa is very, very close to Tokyo. Do you still disagree that hot spots like this should be searched out? If so, why. Please provide your sources.

They are in downtown Berlin:
http://www.eisbaeren.de/content/index.php
They are even being made in the UK:
http://www.polarbears.co.uk/
Japan is the number 1 importer of polar bears:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091002f4.html

On June 11, a dairy farmer in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, chalked a note on the wall of his cattle shed. "If only there wasn't a nuclear power plant," the message read, in reference to the damaged Fukushima No. 1 plant just 45 km away, which had effectively ended his livelihood.

The man already had culled his livestock after raw milk shipments from the area where he lived had been stopped. Now, he chose to end his own life, too. "I have lost the energy to carry on working," he added in what would be his final words.

In March, a cabbage farmer in Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture, hanged himself after radioactive substances detected in the soil resulted in restrictions being placed on local produce

The current number of displaced people is around 90000. Not all of these are because of radiation. There are many older people in shelters, and the living conditions are harsh. This is taking a physical and mental toll. Some vulnerable people have already died, and the suicide rate is up. Those evacuated because of radiation are among the most effected because of increased health worries and uncertainty about the future. I was unable to find any online figures, but it is clear the survivors have a lower life expectancy.

The situation for people working at the plant is also uncertain. According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_effects_from_Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster

TEPCO has been criticized in providing safety equipment for its workers. After NISA warned TEPCO that workers were sharing dosimeters, since most of the devices were lost in the disaster, the utility sent more to the plant. Japanese media has reported that that workers indicate that standard decontamination procedures are not being observed. Others reports suggest that contract workers are given more dangerous work than TEPCO employees. TEPCO is also seeking workers willing to risk high radiation levels for short periods of time in exchange for high pay. Confidential documents acquired by the Japanese Asahi newspaper suggest that TEPCO hid high levels of radioactive contamination from employees in the days following the accident. In particular, the Asahi reported that radiation levels of 300 mSv/h were detected at least twice on 13 March, but that "the workers who were trying to bring the situation under control at the plant were not informed of the levels."

In the Japanese press these people are being referred to as "disposable employees".

So I guess these people don't count. Not the ones who are already dead, or the ones who will be dying sooner or later. Or maybe you don't think these people are humans, and their lives don't count?

Yep. The engineering isn't all that hot. Engineering decisions to leave the generators vulnerable to flooding. Engineering decisions to continue running a reactor well past design life. Engineering decisions to ignore new geologic data suggesting that both earthquake risks and tsunami risks were higher than originally thought. Engineering decisions to not upgrade the hydrogen containment / escape devices.

Between Fukashima and Monju, the Japanese nuclear industry seems to have some long term, pervasive, structural problems.

Why did only Fukushima 1 fail?

http://k.lenz.name/LB/?p=1159
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110406a4.html

*sigh*

It appears you are wrong.

http://k.lenz.name/LB/?p=1159
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110406a4.html

Read my other post for what I think the real reason is.

It is most worrisome that there are reports of radiation level near Tokyo is increasing.

"A group of Tokyo parents filed a request Tuesday asking the metropolitan government to change the way it determines radiation levels in the capital after their own study found relatively high levels of contamination around Koto Ward."
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110608a6.html

5.77 microsieverts per hour of radiation measured near Tokyo at ground level
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9a0Q1v93SA

Among other things engineers certainly did not enter the containment vessel and see the condition of the nuclear rods.

The Japan Times seems to have been a little more careful to get things correct.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110513a1.html

The NEA page about Chernobyl I linked to said:

The early estimate for fuel material released to the environment was 3 ± 1.5% (IA86). This estimate was later revised to 3.5 ± 0.5% (Be91). This corresponds to the emission of 6 t of fragmented fuel.

I suppose it is possible that all the fuel was sent into the atmosphere for a moment and then 96.5% fell back down and was later covered with concrete.

After the Chernobyl accident we were assured by the nuclear industry and regulators/promoters that BWRs such as the ones at Fukushima would never release radioactivity into the environment on the scale of the Chernobyl accident because of the containment vessel. TEPCO said the Fukushima release might surpass the release at Chernobyl. I believe the post-Chernobyl reassurances were given earnestly but it is clear now they were completely wrong.

I agree with you that a major difference between Chernobyl and Fukushima is that at Chernobyl the release was almost entirely airborne while at Fukushima it is likely that a lot of the radioactivity released is leaching into the water they are pouring on to keep the reactors cool (to prevent further meltdowns and possible catastrophic hydrogen explosions). I was actually warning people about this difference over a week ago, well before the direct leak into the ocean was detected.

Today it was reported that:

... the water level of radiation-contaminated water in the tunnel-like trench at Unit 2 dropped by 4.3 cm Wednesday morning after Tepco started pumping lethally radioactive water from its flooded turbine room ...

If this is true then it is extremely troubling. It means not only that the tunnel and turbine building are connected hydrologically, it is quite possible that there has been a constant flow of highly radioactive water (HRW) from the reactor building to the turbine building to the tunnel and then into the ground. Draining the turbine building stopped the flow into the tunnel and the rate the tunnel is emptying is the rate the HRW has been constantly leaking into the ground from that tunnel.

My point is that the upward dispersal at Chernobyl made it relatively easy to assess the total amount of radioactivity released while at Fukushima, it is hard to get a reasonable upper bound on the release because they simply don't know how much HRW is leaking directly (or indirectly) into the ground nor do they know its concentration. At the very least, I imagine one would have to carefully study the hydrology of the land under the reactors and drill a bunch of core samples. It's a tough problem.

BTW the Japan Times article I linked to gave the most detailed information (I have found) about what is happening in the reactor buildings to date.

Another concern is all the radioactivity getting into the ocean. Once again, it is difficult to get a good estimate of the total amount. It was reported that fish were caught 35 km from Fukushima that had levels of radioactive Cesium 25 times above the legal limit. For humans, (and other animals), Cesium is the nasty one, especially Cesium-137. While radioactive isotopes from Chernobyl did make it into the ocean, it was never at this level. In fact, the Chernobyl release allowed us to measure the time delay between the peak of Chernobyl radioactivity in the ocean and the peak in the fish populations. For fish high on the food chain the delay was six months. So even if Fukushima instantly stopped leaking, we would still have to wait another five or six months before the radioactivity in important fish populations peaked.

IOW, I agree that Fukushima is a whole different ballgame compared to Chernobyl but I think it is way too early to know wh

The reality is, the current rating is based on radiation at the source NOT its comparability in scope to Chernobyl.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency disagrees with you. Their spokesman, Hidehiko Nishiyama, repeatedly compares Fukushima with Chernobyl:

"It's considerably different from Chernobyl," said Nishiyama. "The mount of radioactive materials released at Fukushima is about a tenth of that in the Chernobyl accident."

That part clearly proves the agency does not disagree with GP's statement. They acknowledge that it's serious but not nearly the same thing as Chernobyl. Your own quotes you provided from the article state that. The only thing you left out was that GP was right: the leakage that is compared is measured at the source. Fukushima did not have a fuel rod catch fire, explode, and spray plutonium and tons of other radioactive shit freakin' everywhere. Pieces of the frickin' fuel rod were just laying out in the open for pete's sake. It melted concrete into radioactive lava, and the nuclear fire created large clouds of fallout smoke that fell for tens of miles in doses FAR ABOVE anything Fukushima measures. That's why it's not comparable in scope and never will be.