Sunday is the one-year anniversary of Japan's earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima disaster. As the crippled nuclear plant continues to struggle with rebuilding and containing the radiation, several workers at the plant traveled to New York this week to speak at Manhattanville College. "I came to convey the reality," one of Fukushima's relief workers, Kazuhiko Amano, told the panel. Even with years of rigorous emergency drills, the community around Fukushima was unprepared. In contrast, Indian Point lacks basic firefighting equipment, and the evacuation plan would take nine-and-a-half hours to evacuate the 450,000 people within a 10-mile radius.
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Results tagged “fukushima”
Nuclear Fallout Map Arrives At The Anniversary Of Fukushima Disaster
Virginia Nuclear Plant Shut Down After Earthquake, Indian Point Hums Along
A nuclear power plant located 27 miles from the epicenter of today's earthquake in Mineral, Virginia has been shut down. Reuters reports that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission pulled the plug after the 5.8 magnitude earthquake, but another nuclear plant in Surry, Virginia, 103 miles from Mineral, remains operational. Indian Point, the nuclear power plant located 35 miles from New York City, "is operating normally" following today's earthquake, Entergy spokesman Jim Steets tells us.
Video: Cyclists Will Save Us From Indian Point Nuclear Catastrophe!
As in all things, it falls to the cyclists to save NYC from perdition. Today a group of bike-riding activists dressed in colorful jump suits with pinwheels on their heads rode their bikes from the Lower East Side to Grand Central Station, as part of a demonstration against the Indian Point nuclear plant. Located approximately 25 miles from NYC, the controversial facility has been under increased scrutiny ever since an earthquake in Japan has caused a little "situation" at a nuclear power plant there. Today Times Up! and other activists staged a theatrical protest to urge Governor Cuomo to shut the plant down. Here's video:
Free Anti-Radiation Pills For Those Near Indian Point
Since the devastating earthquake in Japan led to a Chernobyl-level nuclear crisis around the Fukushima reactor there, we've been concerned with the safety of our own nearby nuclear and at-risk plant, Indian Point. We weren't that reassured when we looked at the plant's evacuation plans and the fact that Putnum county is now distributing potassium iodide to nearby residents does nothing to make us feel better.
Fukushima Plate Will Tell You How Radioactive Your Food Is
With all the hooplah over Osama bin Laden we almost forgot there was a Chernobyl-level nuclear crisis going on in Japan. Well, that's still happening, and on top of the inevitable deaths and endless heartbreak, some New Yorkers are really worried about their sushi (ugh). Then again, plenty of Japanese people are worried about their food too, so artist Nils Ferber's conceptual Fukushima Plate, which features a "built-in radioactive meter to visualize your food's level of contamination," could be pretty useful.
25th Anniversary Of Chernobyl Disaster Remembered
Twenty-five years ago today, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, sending material into the air. As the LA TImes reports, "Over 20 days, radioactive smoke and other products emanated from the plant, spreading out over parts of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and extending, in lower concentrations, around the world." Today, people reflected—and protested—on this anniversary.
Japan Nuclear Crisis Now On Same Level As Chernobyl
The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan has raised the crisis level at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to level 7, which has only been applied to the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl. Previously, Fukushima's ongoing crisis had been designated level 5—on par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. "This is an admission by the Japanese government that the amount of radiation released into the environment has reached a new order of magnitude," Tetsuo Iguchi, a quantum engineering professor at Nagoya University told the Times.
Now Japan's Rice Could Be Radioactive
Both the Japanese and Japanese food fans around the world have been devastated by the culinary impacts of the deadly earthquake and subsequent Daiichi nuclear plant fallout, with Japan's water, spinach, milk and fish all possibly contaminated with radioactive materials. And now, we can add rice to that list: the Japanese government has banned rice cultivation in contaminated soil. Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano said, "We had to come up with a policy quickly because we are in planting season."
Le Bernardin Tests For Radiation As Sushi Lovers Panic
Since the tragedy in Japan left the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant teetering on the edge of a meltdown, alarms have been raised about radioactive materials spilling in the water. And some NYers are particularly worried about their favorite delicacy: sushi. It's a serious enough concern to Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin that he has bought a radiation detector: “I just want to make sure whatever we use is safe...Nobody knows how the currents will carry the contaminated water," he told the Times.
Intractable, Alarming Problems At Japanese Nuclear Plant
The NY Times has obtained an alarming confidential assessment of the Japan nuclear crisis that was put out by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission toward the end of March. For those of you who've been tuning this stuff out as part of some futile attempt at psychological self-preservation, the catastrophe is still unfolding. Over the weekend it was discovered that highly radioactive water is spilling into the ocean, and this latest news is not specifically too good. In fact, it's pretty disturbing.
Radioactive Water Draining Into Pacific Through Crack In Concrete
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are rushing to fill a crack with fresh cement to keep highly-radioactive water from leaking into the Pacific ocean. The Tokyo Electric Power Company told reporters that water from the concrete-lined basin was seen leaking into the ocean. CNN reports the leaking water had a measured radiation level of "1,000 millisieverts per hour, which is more than 330 times the dose an average resident of an industrialized country naturally receives in a year." Recently, the water measured 330 meters off the plant showed levels of iodine-131 measuring 4,385 times above average and cesium-137 at 527 times above average, and officials believe the leak in the basin is the cause of the contamination.
Japanese Nuclear Plant Workers Say Radiation Death Is Inevitable
The Fukushima 50, the Japanese technicians who chose to stay behind in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to try to avert a meltdown after the deadly tsunami hit Japan last month, have reportedly resigned themselves to the fact that many or most of them will likely die in the upcoming weeks and months from radiation poisoning. “My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation. He told me they have accepted they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long-term,” the mother of a 32-year-old worker told FoxNews.
Government Says Don't Worry About Radiation Detected In NY
Trace amounts of radioactive iodine from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have now been detected in the air and rainwater in New York State. But don't start hoarding; the state Department of Health insists that there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about, because the radiation levels are extremely low. Yesterday State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah called for calm, issuing this statement from an undisclosed location in Albany (where he presumably has access to an unlimited supply of lead-lined underwear):
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