Hundreds rally against Taiwan nuclear referendum

Taipei (AFP)
May 26, 2013

Hundreds of Taiwanese protested in the capital Taipei on Sunday over government plans to hold what they call an unfair referendum on the fate of a nearly-completed nuclear power plant.

Chanting slogans like "Stop dangerous nuclear power", the protesters stood together in front of parliament to spell out the word "STOP" and held up black and yellow signs.

The demonstration came a few days before the ruling Kuomintang party plans to push through a bill to host a nationwide referendum that will decide whether the the island's fourth nuclear plant should be completed.

A "No" vote would only be accepted if turnout reaches 50 percent of the island's 18 million people, rather than a poll based on a simple majority.

"Such a design is unfair," Liu Hui-min, a spokeswoman for the protest, told AFP.

"Since so many people have voiced against the risky power plant, the government should scrap the project instead," referring to several public surveys which indicated around 70 percent of respondents opposed the plant.

Concerns about the island's nuclear power plants have been mounting since the March 2011 Fukushima crisis in Japan.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In September 1999 a 7.6-magnitude quake killed around 2,400 people the deadliest natural disaster in the island's recent history.

The controversial plant, in the coastal Kungliao district near Taipei, is about 90 percent completed and due to come online in 2015, according to its operator the state-owned Taiwan Power Company (Taipower).

Construction began in 1999 but the plant has been the subject of intense political wrangling ever since.

In February Premier Jiang Yi-huah said for the first time that the government may support holding a referendum on its future amid growing public concern.

Taipower says the island will face power shortages without a new nuclear plant.

The three existing nuclear plants supply about 20 percent of Taiwan's electricity. But the first and second atomic plants and several other power stations are due to be shut down in the near future.

Source: Nuclear Power Daily.
Link: http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Hundreds_rally_against_Taiwan_nuclear_referendum_999.html.

Patience running out among Japan's disaster refugees

Ishinomaki, Japan (AFP)
March 10, 2014

The Takeyamas have tried to move on and forget the enormous waves that swept away relatives, their home and the lives they once had.

But the couple, both in their seventies, still spend countless nights staring at the ceiling of their tiny makeshift house, built after Japan's quake-tsunami disaster three years ago, thinking about better times.

Before a towering wall of water turned the northeast coast into a wasteland of shattered communities, Iwako Takeyama and her husband Toichi lived in a sturdy home in Ogatsu town, with a daughter and other family nearby.

"People say it's good to live close to a daughter and her family so they can bring you a cup of soup without getting it cold," said 73-year-old Iwako.

"But the tsunami flushed away both of our houses, ours and hers."

Like thousands of other survivors, the elderly couple lost relatives -- one sister, two brothers and a nephew -- after a huge undersea earthquake shook Japan at 2:46 pm on Friday, March 11, 2011.

Its 9.0 magnitude force unleashed a towering tsunami that traveled at the speed of a jet plane to the coast.

Within minutes, communities were turned to matchwood, and whole families had drowned.

Officially, more than 15,800 people are known to have died in the disaster. Another 2,636 are listed as missing.

The body of Toichi's sister was recovered about 30 kilometers (19 miles) offshore.

"We spent days looking for the bodies after the tsunami," Iwako said as her eyes filled with tears.

"We are finally feeling OK now."

- Hard lives, fading hope -

But while the nightmare fades for many in other parts of Japan, tens of thousands of refugees are still struggling to cope as the country gets set to mark the third anniversary of the disaster on Tuesday.

The government has pledged billions of dollars in reconstruction funds but the Takeyamas and many others are still struggling to make do in cramped temporary housing.

The stress of living in a 30-square-meter (320-square-feet) space has taken a heavy toll on their mental and physical health, they said. Toichi has been hospitalized twice since the disaster.

"You can tell exactly what your neighbor is doing next door, taking a bath or using the toilet," Toichi said. "We cannot even have a quarrel in private."

They hope to move to newly built community housing, but that could still be several years away.

Japan has so far built only 3.5 percent of the new housing promised to refugees in heavily affected Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.

The local government of Fukushima prefecture, where a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant is located, does not even have a number for how many new houses it needs to house evacuees forced to flee the worst atomic crisis in a generation.

As a result of the tsunami and Fukushima crisis, among almost 270,000 evacuees as of last month, 100,000 are in temporary housing. It remains unclear how many more years it will take to build all the needed post-disaster housing.

- Struggling to make ends meet -

In the town of Onagawa, many refugees have tried to keep busy by making Japanese-style sandals with donated T-shirts, selling them for 1,500 yen ($15) to make ends meet -- and trying to forget their grim reality.

"I wonder if I will be still alive when we move out of this temporary house," said Kazuko Kimura, 86. "I want to die in a new house with no worries about the future."

Sawako Kishi, 76, spends many sleepless nights haunted by the uncertainty.

The devout Buddhist has an altar in the small bedroom of her family's tiny makeshift home, with their belongings and futon taking up most of the living space. They hold out hope for a permanent home, but progress has been slow in the rugged mountain town.

"They first have to cut into the mountainside and build a new road tunnel. Building our house will come after that," she said.

Among the myriad challenges, many lots on higher ground are the property of hundreds of small landowners who are loathe to give up their real estate.

"This is the biggest challenge and we should look at changing the law" to make it easier to build public housing on those plots, said Kosuke Motani, chief economist at Japan Research Institute.

With the focus on rebuilding, the government has barely scratched the surface in dealing with refugees' mental health, said Tsuyoshi Akiyama, a neuropsychiatry doctor and clinical professor at Tokyo University.

"Whatever choices disaster victims make, they face some sort of mental stress in one way or another," he said.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Patience_running_out_among_Japans_disaster_refugees_999.html.

Fukushima: three years on and still a long road ahead

Fukushima Daiichi, Japan (AFP)
March 10, 2014

In complete darkness, a group of men tried everything they could to save the Fukushima nuclear plant from catastrophe. Their struggle was in vain.

Three years later, the control room at the site of the worst atomic crisis in a generation -- which forced a hard look at Japan's energy policy -- sits as a grim time capsule.

Helmets, masks, several pairs of gloves and overalls remain as reporters are taken on a tour of the inner sanctum, a first since the accident.

Notes are scribbled awkwardly on walls in rooms with levers, dials, and buttons, reminders of March 11, 2011, when a towering wall of water plunged the site into darkness and sent reactors into meltdown.

What was happening inside the reactor core was unknown to the workers who fought hour after hour before they were forced to abandon part of the doomed site.

Not far away in the destroyed reactors, radioactivity is so strong that it remains a no-go area.

"The guys that were working here are not at the plant anymore -- they got too much radiation," said Kenichiro Matsui, an official at Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).

Workers now at the site have yet to even start dismantling the crippled reactors, a process not expected to begin for another six years, part of a decommissioning process expected to stretch over decades.

Several thousand employees are locked in a daily -- and dangerous -- scramble under harsh conditions to keep the site as safe as possible, making a myriad of repairs and building tanks for the vast amounts of contaminated water.

The company poured thousands of tonnes of water onto runaway reactors to keep them cool, and continues to douse them, but has to store and clean that water in a growing number of temporary tanks at the site.

TEPCO has warned it is running out of storage space and many experts believe the water will eventually have to be dumped into the sea after being scoured of its most harmful contaminants.

Local fishermen, neighboring countries and environmental groups all oppose the idea.

Last year, the embattled firm said around 300 tonnes of radioactive liquid were believed to have escaped, a serious incident that underscored the litany of ongoing problems at Fukushima.

- 'Four steps forward, two steps back' -

"The management of this water problem is still not satisfactory," said Dale Klein, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Authority and a member of the committee overseeing the plant's decommissioning.

He added that the "four steps forward, two steps back" progress has hurt confidence in the utility's crisis management, already under fire since the accident that forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, possibly forever.

The crisis forced the shutdown of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors, which remain offline as anti-atomic sentiment ripples through communities big and small in the country of 128 million.

Tens of thousands of citizens turned out for an anti-nuclear rally in Tokyo on Sunday to voice their anger at the nuclear industry and the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has called for resumption of reactors to power the world's third-largest economy.

Abe repeated his view Monday that any reactors which can be deemed safe would be turned back on, burying a move by the previous government to make Japan a zero-nuclear country by 2040.

But critics say that TEPCO's clumsy management of the crisis and wider concerns about the accident -- including long-term health fears -- should keep nuclear offline for good.

"Prime Minister Abe and the nuclear industry are hoping the Japanese people and the world will forget the victims and the terrible lessons of Fukushima, hoping that they will allow the restart of old, risky reactors," said Junichi Sato, executive director of Greenpeace Japan.

"What we should instead forget is an energy system that is dependent on old, dirty, and dangerous technologies like nuclear and fossil fuels."

The government has backed a push into solar power and wind farms, among other renewable energy sources, but they still make up a tiny portion of Japan's energy needs.

The loss of nuclear power, which once supplied more than a quarter of Japan's power, has also created huge trade imbalances owing to surging imports of fossil-fuel alternatives to plug the energy gap, made all the more expensive as the yen weakened sharply since Abe swept to office in 2012.

Another issue is that the move to fossil fuels has stoked worries that Japan would not meet its commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, while making it more dependent on other nations for its energy security.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Fukushima_three_years_on_and_still_a_long_road_ahead_999.html.

Japan marks 3rd anniversary of quake-tsunami disaster

Namie, Japan (AFP)
March 11, 2014

Japan on Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the quake-tsunami disaster which swept away 18,000 victims, destroyed coastal communities, and sparked a nuclear emergency that forced a re-think on atomic power.

Remembrance ceremonies will be held in towns and cities around the disaster zone and in the capital Tokyo, where Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are to lead tributes to those who lost their lives in Japan's worst peace-time disaster.

Many local governments will switch on a tsunami alarm siren at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT), marking the exact moment a 9.0-magnitude undersea quake hit.

Its raw force unleashed a towering tsunami that traveled at the speed of a jet plane to the coast. Within minutes, communities were turned to matchwood, and whole families drowned.

Waves also crashed into the Fukushima nuclear plant, sparking reactor meltdowns and explosions, and setting off the worst atomic crisis in a generation.

The crippled plant remains volatile and experts say the complicated decommissioning process will take decades, as fears persist over the long-term health effects of leaked radiation. The accident forced tens of thousands to flee from areas around the shattered site.

Although no one died as a direct result of Fukushima, about 1,650 area residents died from complications related to stress and other problems following the accident.

A total of 15,884 people are confirmed to have died in the tsunami with another 2,633 still listed as missing. Searchers still find human remains.

Despite the government pledging billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, progress in disaster-hit regions has been slow, and thousands of disaster refugees struggle to cope.

Among almost 270,000 evacuees from the tsunami and Fukushima, about 100,000 are in temporary housing while others found shelter in new cities or with relatives.

Japan has so far built only 3.5 percent of the new homes promised to disaster refugees in heavily affected Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.

That has sowed doubt among many people, with some 77 percent of Japanese saying the pace of reconstruction has fallen short, according to a poll conducted by Kyodo News and other media organisations this month.

-- 'Halfway done' -

On Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who swept to power in late 2012, said Tokyo was only "halfway" done.

"I'm determined to accelerate the recovery and not let this disaster fade from memory," he told parliament.

"Japan's revival won't come without the restoration of devastated areas."

Fierce anti-nuclear sentiment may have subsided, but it still poses a challenge to Abe's bid to breathe life into Japan's long-tepid economy.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of citizens staged an anti-nuclear rally in Tokyo ahead of the anniversary, voicing anger at the premier's plan to switch on shuttered nuclear reactors, which once supplied more than a quarter of the resource-poor nation's power.

Business wants to return to nuclear, but the public remains wary.

"Prime Minister Abe and the nuclear industry are hoping the Japanese people and the world will forget the victims and the terrible lessons of Fukushima, hoping that they will allow the restart of old, risky reactors," said Junichi Sato, executive director of Greenpeace Japan.

"What we should instead forget is an energy system that is dependent on old, dirty, and dangerous technologies like nuclear and fossil fuels."

Abe repeated his view Monday that reactors deemed safe would be turned back on. All of Japan's reactors were switched off after the accident, forcing the country to turn to pricey fossil-fuel alternatives to plug the energy gap.

The premier, who said he regularly eats rice grown in the Fukushima region, added in a press briefing Monday that "having experienced the accident, it's only natural for people to be concerned about the safety of nuclear plants".

Despite Tokyo's push to boost alternative energy, power sourced from wind farms and solar energy remains a fraction of Japan's needs.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Japan_marks_3rd_anniversary_of_quake-tsunami_disaster_999.html.

Japan marks 3rd anniversary of tsunami disasters

March 11, 2014

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is marking the third anniversary of a devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing, turned coastal communities into wasteland and triggered a nuclear crisis.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Emperor Akihito will speak at a memorial service Tuesday to mourn for the victims, marking the moment the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck. Japan has struggled to rebuild tsunami-hit communities and to clean up radiation from the meltdowns of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Reconstruction plans are finally taking shape, but shortages of skilled workers and materials are delaying the work. Abe has vowed to boost the rebuilding.

The triple disasters of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear known as 3.11 killed 15,884 people and left 2,636 unaccounted for on its northern coast, as of the end of last month. The country has earmarked 25 trillion yen ($250 billion) for reconstruction through March 2016. Nearly 270,000 people are unable to go home, many of them from Fukushima, due to radioactive contamination.

In northern Japan, some tsunami survivors held their own memorial events for their loved ones earlier Tuesday. In the town of Minamisanriku, local residents gathered in front of what used to be the town's disaster prevention center, where dozens of town employees died in the tsunami. The residents prayed in front of a small table filled with flowers, a Buddha statue and incense.

A vast stretch of the town's coastal area remains deserted, except for a few structures that survived. A total of 619 people died and 217 went missing in the town of 17,666.

Japan halts imports of U.S. wheat after USDA's shock finding of genetic pollution from GMOs

Friday, May 31, 2013
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

(NaturalNews) It has already begun: Japan has just cancelled a large contract to purchase U.S. wheat. "We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today," Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading, told Reuters.

As many readers well know, I predicted precisely this scenario just yesterday in a Natural News article warning about the consequences of genetic pollution. There, I wrote, "All wheat produced in the United States will now be heavily scrutinized -- and possibly even rejected -- by other nations that traditionally import U.S. wheat. This obviously has enormous economic implications for U.S. farmers and agriculture."

Now we're already seeing the result: the ditching of U.S. wheat by world nations that want nothing to do with GMOs.

Monsanto is a ticking time bomb for U.S. agriculture

This proves, without any question, that Monsanto's genetic experiments which "escaped" into commercial wheat fields are now going to devastate U.S. wheat farmers. Expect the floor to drop out on wheat prices, and watch for a huge backlash against the USDA by U.S. farmers who stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on this.

As the USDA has now admitted, Monsanto's GMO experiments from 1998 - 2005 were held in open wheat fields. The genetically engineered wheat escaped and found its way into commercial wheat fields in Oregon (and possibly 15 other states), causing self-replicating genetic pollution that now taints the entire U.S. wheat industry.

"Asian consumers are keenly sensitive to gene-altered food, with few countries allowing imports of such cereals for human consumption," writes Reuters. It continues:

Asia imports more than 40 million tonnes of wheat annually, almost a third of the global trade of 140-150 million tonnes. The bulk of the region's supplies come from the United States, the world's biggest exporter, and Australia, the No. 2 supplier.

Another incredible Monsanto achievement: the genetic contamination of the U.S. wheat supply

Nice job, Monsanto. You've managed to spew your genetic pollution across the fields of innocent U.S. farmers who are now going to lose huge sums of money due to the reject of U.S. wheat by all the other world nations that refuse to feed their populations GMO.

And a big thumbs up to the USDA, too, for screwing U.S. farmers by green-lighting open-field GMO experiments that we all warned were going to result in runaway genetic pollution. The USDA, of course, is the official cheerleading squad for Monsanto's criminal "science" that we all know is a total fraud. How do these scientists now suggest this self-replicating genetic pollution be put back into the black box from which it emerged?

It can't be done, of course. So now the entire future of the U.S. wheat supply is at risk thanks to Monsanto and the USDA. Nice one, folks. Score another victory for the scumbag destroyers in Washington D.C. and the greed-driven executives at our favorite corporation, Monsanto.

And remember: Genetically modified wheat is only the beginning. Monsanto has no doubt unleashed genetic pollution across many other crops as well. We're now living in an age where Monsanto is essentially ejaculating its patented seed across all the farms of America, then claiming to "own" the contaminated crops. What a wonderful image of corporate responsibility and service to humankind. I can't wait to see what other U.S. crops will be rejected by world nations due to Monsanto's genetic pollution.

Source: NaturalNews.
Linik: http://www.naturalnews.com/040572_Japan_GE_wheat_genetic_pollution.html.

NATO, Japan sign partnership agreement

April 15, 2013

TOKYO, April 15 (UPI) -- There's a clear advantage to working with Asian leaders like the Japanese government, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen signed an agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that outlines stronger bilateral ties.

"While NATO has no ambition to take on a permanent role in Asia, we see very clearly the advantage of working with like-minded partners like Japan," Rasmussen said in a statement Monday.

The declaration is the first agreement between NATO and Japan. Japan, however, has worked alongside NATO forces in operations in Afghanistan.

"We are natural partners and together we can make a difference," Ramussen said.

Rasmussen's visit comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea tested a nuclear device in February and has since escalated its war rhetoric.

The U.S. Defense Department is changing its focus to the Asia-Pacific as military engagement with Iraq has ended and the Afghan war draws to a close. The U.S. military has said about 60 percent of its naval assets would be assigned to the region by 2020.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/04/15/NATO-Japan-sign-partnership-agreement/UPI-40201366037608/.