Monday, January 7, 2013

Fukushima Updates

Here are the topic summaries for today's commentary and Fukushima updates. Please click the link for the full reports.
 
Commentary – Japan’s Contamination Limits Way Too Low 
Japan's new, too-low standards for radiation in food has hit an embarassing snag. Mushrooms from Aomori Prefecture have been banned because of Cesium levels slightly above the new limit, but the Cesium did not come from the Fukushima accident. Unless the standards are raised to a more-reasonable level, these disconcerting situations will happen.
 
Other Fukushima updates - A new poll of mayors near nuclear stations in Japan shows a slight majority in favor of nuke restarts if and when the Nuclear Regulatory Authority confirms their safety... The suspected illegal dumping of decontamination wastes continues in the headlines; however it might be caused by Japanese municipalities dragging their feet on the creation of temporary storage sites combined with defining barely-detectible levels of radiation worthy of handling as low level waste... Two Japanese energy companies plan on building a prototype power plant with coal as its fuel because of Japan’s current moratorium on nukes... Physics professor Wade Allison of Oxford University maintains that our species has evolved in a constant environment of low level natural background radiation and have adapted to it so well that low doses are harmless to us.
 

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