Wild Mushrooms Blamed For Cesium Spread In Fukushima

Radioactive cesium released after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's triple meltdown in 2011 is continuing to contaminate the environment through wild mushrooms, scientists say.

It turns out that the fungi absorb cesium and then release it through their spores after concentrating it.

But the amount of cesium in the environment is miniscule and poses no threat to human health, say the researchers, who are primarily with the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency, Ibaraki University and Kanazawa University.

The new findings indicate that cesium is released into the environment again by mushroom spores in mountains and forests in zones designated as difficult to return to because of high contamination levels after the nuclear accident triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Radiation levels in the air are measured at monitoring posts and disclosed to the public. Those measurements are taken at a designated height to measure radiation from the ground and in the atmosphere.

In a separate effort, a team of scientists from the Meteorological Research Institute and other bodies measured the radioactivity concentration of cesium-137 by collecting airborne particles 1 meter above ground in Fukushima Prefecture.

The team’s survey showed that cesium levels in a mountainous area in the northwestern part of the town of Namie rise five times in summer compared with winter. The region is part of the difficult-to-return zone.

The increased cesium level during summer is equivalent to less than one ten-thousandth of the radiation dose of 2.1 millisieverts, which the average individual is naturally exposed to each year.

The latest findings were in marked contrast to studies covering the prefectural capital of Fukushima and elsewhere that showed cesium levels were higher in winter than summer.

Initially, the researchers considered the possibility of cesium on the ground's surface being kicked up by clouds of dust. But they found no clear association between the cesium level and dust.

Teruya Maki, an associate professor of microorganism ecology at Kanazawa University, analyzed genes of airborne particles gathered in forests and mountains in the northwestern part of Namie from August to September 2015.

The results showed that many of the particles were derived from mushrooms.

Between June and October last year, more than 10 kinds of wild mushrooms were gathered on 10 occasions in the region’s forests and mountains. The radioactivity concentration levels in the spores measured up to 143 becquerels per gram.

When multiplying the cesium concentration per spore by the number of collected spores per cubic meter, the result roughly matched the measured cesium concentration for the area.

“Spores in which cesium was concentrated were likely released into the atmosphere, raising the airborne concentration,” said Kazuyuki Kita, an air environment science professor at Ibaraki University, who was involved in the analysis of cesium levels.

The amount of cesium contained in a spore of sampled mushrooms was extremely small.

“Even if people inhale the air in areas where mushroom spores containing cesium are spreading, that could never affect human health,” said Kazuhiko Ninomiya, a researcher of radiochemistry at Osaka University, who is a member of the research team.

The researchers are also trying to ascertain the extent to which the mushroom spores spread. They are planning more studies to figure out if the distances involved could be several kilometers.

Last summer, airborne cesium concentration levels for mountains and forests in Namie that have yet to be decontaminated were almost the same as those for an area 1 kilometer away that has been decontaminated on a trial basis.

That indicates cesium is likely spreading in the air, according to the scientists.

Asahi

Emperor Akihito 'to abdicate on New Year’s Day 2019

Crown Prince Naruhito and Emperor Akihito

 Japan’s emperor will abdicate and allow his eldest son to ascend the chrysanthemum throne on New Year’s Day 2019, media reports said, as the government prepares legal changes for the country’s first abdication for two centuries.

Emperor Akihito, who turned 83 last month, hinted in August that he wanted to retire after expressing concern that his age could hinder his ability to carry out ceremonial duties.

In a rare televised address, Akihito said he wanted an orderly imperial succession – cautious wording that many interpreted as a desire to abdicate.

“I am concerned it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole body and soul as I have done so far,” he said.

Abdication is not possible under current Japanese law, but last month a panel of experts said it would support special legislation to allow Akihito to step down without conditions.

Amid strong public sympathy for the emperor’s predicament, the government is drawing up measures that would see Crown Prince Naruhito to ascend the throne on 1 January 2019, Japanese newspapers said.

A panel of experts has been discussing the issue since late last year, with its official recommendations expected later this year. The government could submit a special law to parliament on abdication as early as this spring, the reports said.

Akihito said in August that 2018 would mark his 30th year on the throne, which was interpreted as his favoured moment to step down and allow the 56-year-old Naruhito to become the country’s 126th emperor.

The chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said on Tuesday he was not aware that discussions on a possible abdication had reached such an advanced stage. “The experts are prioritising lightening the emperor’s burden in their discussions and things are still at a stage where no direction has emerged,” he told a news conference.

Akihito had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 and a heart bypass operation in 2012, and was in hospital with pneumonia in 2011.

He ascended the throne after the death in 1989 of his father, Hirohito, in whose name Japan fought the second world war Throughout his reign, Akihito and Empress Michiko, 82, have used their public roles to promote reconciliation between Japan and its former enemies.

They are planning to visit Vietnam and Thailand this spring in what would be their first overseas trip since January last year, when they travelled to the Philippines to remember soldiers and civilians who died during the war.

The last time a monarch abdicated in Japan was when Kōkaku gave up the throne in 1817.

Japan’s main opposition Democratic party opposes one-off legislation to facilitate Akihito’s abdication, arguing that the imperial household law should be revised to make living successions possible for all future monarchs.

In response, the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said last week that “politicians must demonstrate the decency not to turn the issue into political fodder”.

From The Guardian

Why Does Japan Accept So Few Refugees?

Nagoya Court To Hear KEPCO's Takahama Case

Takahama Nuclear Plant Operated By KEPCO

The Nagoya District Court has agreed to hear its first case against restart of the Takahama Nuclear Power Plant operated by Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO). 

Plaintiffs seeking to halt the restart of two KEPCO reactors now more than 40 years old filed a lawsuit in the Nagoya District Court on Saturday to challenge the government-appointed Nuclear Regulation Authority’s restart review process, warning that running the units for another two decades would be dangerous. 

Kepco’s Takahama No. 1 and 2 reactors in Fukui Prefecture began operation in 1974 and 1975, respectively, and the original plan was to decommission them after 40 years.

However, the government has authorized a one-time, maximum two-decade extension if the old reactors pass new safety tests.

The NRA essentially cleared the two Takahama reactors in February, but will conduct other specialized checks to determine their condition before deciding whether or not to officially grant approval for an extension.

“In a serious accident at the Takahama reactors, there is a danger of radiation damage from the effects of a westerly wind,” said lawyer Sakae Kitamura, who is representing the plaintiffs, at Saturday’s news conference in Nagoya.

Kepco is racing against time to finish the safety review and secure approval before the July 7 regulatory deadline. If Kepco misses the deadline, the utility will be forced to permanently shut both reactors.

The major issues the plaintiffs are contesting include concerns about the condition of the reactors’ pressure vessels, and questions about whether the seismic risks for the old reactors have been fully considered.

Jiji Press

Fukushima Town Resents Evacuees

Like many of her neighbors, Satomi Inokoshi worries that her gritty hometown is being spoiled by the newcomers and the money that have rolled into Iwaki since the Fukushima nuclear disaster almost three and a half years ago.

“Iwaki is changing - and not for the good,” said Inokoshi, 55, who echoes a sentiment widely heard in this town of almost 300,000 where the economic boom that followed the nuclear accident has brought its own disruption.

Property prices in Iwaki, about 60 km south of the wrecked nuclear plant, have jumped as evacuees forced from homes in more heavily contaminated areas snatch up apartments and land. Hundreds of workers, who have arrived to work in the nuclear clean-up, crowd downtown hotels.

But long-time residents have also come to resent evacuees and the government compensation that has made the newcomers relatively rich in a blue-collar town built on coal mining and access to a nearby port. Locals have stopped coming to the entertainment district where Inokoshi runs a bar, she says, scared off by the nuclear workers and their rowdy reputation.

“The situation around Iwaki is unsettled and unruly,” said Ryosuke Takaki, a professor of sociology at Iwaki Meisei University, who has studied the town’s developing divide. “There are many people who have evacuated to Iwaki, and there are all kinds of incidents caused by friction.”

Residents across Fukushima Prefecture hailed the first wave of workers who arrived to contain the nuclear disaster in 2011 as heroes. Cities like Iwaki also welcomed evacuees from towns closer to the meltdowns and explosions. At the time, Japan’s stoicism and sense of community were praised around the world for helping those who survived an earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 and triggered explosions at the nuclear plant.

But that solidarity and sense of shared purpose has frayed, according to dozens of interviews. Many Iwaki residents say they have grown weary of hosting evacuees in temporary housing.

And the newcomers themselves are frightened, says Hideo Hasegawa, who heads a non-profit group looking after evacuees at the largest temporary housing complex in Iwaki.

“When they move in to an apartment, they don’t talk to neighbors and hide,” said Hasegawa, who works from a small office located between rows of grey, prefabricated shacks housing the evacuees. “You hear this hate talk everywhere you go: restaurants, shops, bars. It’s relentless.”

The 2011 nuclear crisis forced more than 160,000 people in Fukushima prefecture to evacuate and leave their homes. Half of them are still not allowed to return to the most badly contaminated townships within 20 kms of the destroyed plant known as the exclusion zone.

Since April, the government has allowed some residents to return to parts of the evacuation zone. But the area remains sparsely populated and riddled with hot spots where radiation is as much as four times the government’s target for public safety. Work crews in white decontamination suits have poured radiation-tainted topsoil and debris into black-plastic bags piled at improvised storage sites on roadsides and public parks awaiting a shift to a more permanent nuclear waste dump.

By contrast, Iwaki has prospered. On a recent Saturday, parking lots near downtown were packed - along with restaurants near Taira, the city’s downtown. Chuo-dai Kashima, a newly developed area in Iwaki where many of the temporary housing units have been built, saw an almost 12 percent rise in land prices in the past year, according to government data. That was among the highest increases across Japan and behind only Ishinomaki, Miyagi, a coastal city that was destroyed by the 2011 tsunami and has only just begun to rebuild.

At the heart of the tensions is an unresolved debate about how much people across Fukushima should be compensated for the suffering, dislocation and uncertainty that followed the nuclear accident.

Some Iwaki residents grumble they are being forced to shoulder the burden of hosting evacuees who receive far more compensation from the government and do not have to pay rent on their government-provided prefab temporary homes.

In January 2013, vandals threw paint and broke windows on cars parked in evacuee housing at multiple locations. Less than a month earlier, someone had painted graffiti reading, “Evacuees Go Home” at the entrance to a city office.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima plant, has paid almost 4 trillion yen in compensation as a result of the nuclear accident. Payments vary depending on the amount of radiation recorded in a particular area, a system that evacuees have complained appears arbitrary. A family of four in one part of an evacuated town might receive 10 million yen, while a similar family in a less contaminated part of the same evacuated town would get just over half of that amount, according to data from Japan’s trade ministry.

The radioactive plume that erupted after a partial meltdown at the Fukushima plant travelled northwest, missing Iwaki. Most of Iwaki’s residents evacuated for a while, but most then returned. Their compensation was also limited: the majority received about 120,000 yen each.

Many established residents in Iwaki complain government payouts to the newcomers have been frittered away on luxury cars and villas, locally dubbed “disaster relief mansions.”

“The food the evacuees eat and the clothes they wear are different,” said Hiroshi Watahiki, 56, a chiropractor in Iwaki. “They can afford it from their compensation funds. They have time and money to go gambling since they’re not working.”

A poll in January by Takaki showed residents had conflicting feelings about the evacuees. More than half of those surveyed expressed sympathy for them, but 67% also said they “feel envious of their compensation.”

The tensions are unlikely to be resolved any time soon.

The government is planning to build 3,700 permanent apartments to replace the temporary units for evacuees, most of them in Iwaki. The first 1,600 apartments, however, are nine months behind schedule and will not be ready until 2017, officials say.