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Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Major grocery store chain admits to selling cesium contaminated beef

Grocery chain operator Ito-Yokado says it sold over 2,600 kilograms (5,732 pounds) of beef contaminated with cesium.  The beef was sold at 94 outlets in Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, as well as on the northern island of Hokkaido, between April and July.

Ito-Yokado is not the only store that has admitted to selling the contaminated beef.  Two other grocery/department store operators, Seiyu and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, have admitted to selling the meat.

Consumers are being asked to bring the meat back, but many analysts think that too much time has gone by and that most of the beef has been eaten.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Cesium contaminated beef served to children at elementary schools

Japan’s Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki is demanding action after it was discovered that three elementary schools served children beef contaminated with cesium.  The schools are located in Chiba, east of Tokyo.

Takaki has ordered local schools to check the source of the food they serve.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Professor demands that Japanese government check for cesium even hundreds of miles from Fukushima Daiichi!

22 July 2011, the Japanese government is only conducting radiation checks in the Fukushima area, but one professor says they need to check the whole of Japan.  Especially after it’s become clear that cows and cattle feed are contaminated with extremely high levels of cesium.

Niigata University Professor Nonaka Masanori, says radiation levels were never checked in farmland, especially those areas that produce rice straw for cattle feed.

Nonaka says the cesium is spread by snow and rain, which is being absorbed into the soil and taken up by plants.  The government needs to check for contamination no matter how far away from Fukushima Daiichi.

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Electric power to damaged Fukushima Daiichi has been cut!

22 July 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company says external power, needed to support efforts to control the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, has been cut.

There was a sudden surge of electricity which tripped a breaker controlling power to reactors 3 and 4.  They are now using back up generators, and they are trying to find out why external electric power failed.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Nearly 200 TEPCo workers missing, TEPCo made no effort to explain their whereabouts

For months now, Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has been demanding that Tokyo Electric Power Company improve working conditions for their employees, including contractors.  Officials have also been demanding to know why TEPCo is taking so long to get all the employees tested for radiation exposure (at least 1,500 are still awaiting tests).  Now it turns out that 198 newly hired employees are missing!

The Japanese government has given TEPCo until 29 July 2011 to get all workers tested for radiation.  The government is also demanding an explanation for the disappearance of 198 workers who were hired AFTER the 11 March disasters.

Earlier in the week TEPCo admitted that it could not find 132 employees, but after the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency investigated it turns out that 198 are missing.

Government officials are concerned that TEPCo’s lack of accounting for its employees is just par for the course; from day one of the nuclear disaster TEPCo officials have proven they have a lackadaisical attitude towards managing all aspects of running a nuclear plant.  (or maybe they’re what are called ‘ghost workers’, they never existed, they were created on paper to ripoff taxpayers)

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Cesium contaminated cows hits 1400, Mother Earth helps spread the radiation!

Japanese officials now say at least 1,400 contaminated cows made it to consumer markets.  More and more rice hay is being found contaminated.

Rain and wind are helping to spread radiation, from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, all over Japan.

The Japanese government is considering a beef buy back program, to help the stricken cattle industry.  No one in government ever considered the effects of radiation on cows, and now the Japanese cattle industry is crashing.

It’s now clear that no one in government was concerned about the effects that rain and wind would have, on spreading radiation across Japan.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: High Levels of Radiation all over Japan!

On 20 July 2011, Japan’s Science Ministry released a radiation map of Japan.  It showed that radiation levels 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, are just as high as areas just 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the damaged plant.

This means Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is putting out enough radiation to cover the northern half of the main island Honshu.  It explains the extensive contamination to cattle feed and cows, among other things.

The radiation map is based on airborne radiation samples taken from 22-23 June 2011.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: 1200 Cesium contaminated cows made it to market, Professor blames government, contaminated hay all over Japan!

21 July 2011, Japan’s Health Ministry has discovered that at least 1,200 cesium contaminated cows actually made it to the consumer market.  The national government has ordered a stop to all cattle shipments, and says efforts to protect the people from contaminated food must now focus on cows.

On 20 July 2011, test results showed that rice straw in ten prefectures, used for cattle feed, was found to be contaminated with cesium.  This proves the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is spreading radiation all over Japan.

A Japanese university professor is blaming the Japanese government for the contaminated beef, because cattle farmers were never told how to protect their cows, and their feed, from radiation contamination.

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: The number of Cesium contaminated cows, that made it to market, hits 578, Cesium more widspread than first thought!

Add Niigata and Miyagi Prefectures to the growing list of cattle, and hay farms, hit with high levels of cesium.  Local officials now believe at least 578 contaminated cows made it to the consumer markets.

In Fukushima Prefecture, officials now say the level of cesium found on cattle feed is 520 times the national limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram of cesium. At least seven Fukushima farms are known to have contaminated cows.

Now cattle on farms in Niigata Prefecture have been found to be internally contaminated as well.  The feed for the cows came from Miyagi Prefecture.

The high amounts of cesium contamination proves that the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is worse than officially stated, and continuing.

The amazing thing is that cattle farmers have not been ordered to stop shipping their cows to market, at this point it is just a request to voluntarily stop shipping their cows.  Fukushima officials expect the number of contaminated cows, reaching consumer markets, to go up.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Kansai Electric shuts down nuclear reactor after water cooling system fails, only 18 reactors now working in Japan!

While attention has been focused on the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, there is another nuclear plant in trouble. The Ohi plant in Fukui Prefecture.

Kansai Electric Power Company runs the Ohi plant, and Reactor 1 has been on emergency cooling, and now it has failed.

KEPCo says they were able to shut down the reactor.  They are trying to find out why the emergency cooling system failed.  The local prefectural government says that even if KEPCo finds out the cause, they will not allow them to re-start the reactor.

Japan has 54 reactors, now they are down to only 18 operating reactors.  Japan is heavily dependent upon nuclear generated electricity.