全国の水道の放射能濃度

Local spinach on sale at a farmers cooperative in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima prefecture, where many still shun regional produce, March 7, 2012.

submitted by Samuel Bendett

voanews.com - by Steve Herman - March 9, 2012

Scientists from the former Soviet Union have arrived in Japan's Fukushima prefecture to advise locals on farmland decontamination.

One of Japan's most valued agricultural regions, the area was irradiated when three nuclear power plant reactors melted down in the wake of last year's earthquake and tsunami on the country's northeastern coast.

According to Japanese officials, 81,000 hectares of farmland are contaminated at a level above 5,000 becquerels per kilogram, the limit at which rice, by government decrees, cannot be planted.

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submitted by Luis Kun

by Steven Cherry - spectrum.ieee.org - March 6, 2012

On the somber first anniversary, Japan still has a lot of work ahead.

This is part of IEEE Spectrum's ongoing coverage of Japan's earthquake and nuclear emergency. For more details on how Fukushima Dai-1's nuclear reactors work and what has gone wrong so far, see our explainer and our timeline.

Steven Cherry: Hi, this is Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrum’s “Techwise Conversations.”

submitted by Robert G. Ross

Center for Biosecurity of UPMC

“Outside the Fence” of a Nuclear Power Plant Accident

Offsite Planning to Reduce the Public’s Exposure to Radiation

MARCH 7, 2012—Baltimore, MD—In a report released today, researchers at the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC assess offsite policies and plans that can be put in place to reduce the exposure of the public to radiation in the event of a nuclear power plant accident.

Even amidst the devastation following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year that killed more than 20,000 people, it was the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that led the country’s Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, to fear for “the very existence of the Japanese nation.”

While such low-probability, high-consequence releases have been rare in the history of existing nuclear power plants, the growing number of plants worldwide increases the likelihood that such releases will occur in the future. Accidents far smaller in scale than the one in Fukushima could have major societal consequences.

submitted by Samuel Bendett

In this Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 photo, Yoshiko Ota displays bottled water she bought at a local shop for daily use at her house in Fukushima, Japan, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Ota keeps her windows shut. She never hangs her laundry outdoors. Fearful of birth defects, she warns her daughters: Never have children. This is life with radiation, nearly one year after a tsunami-hit nuclear power plant began spewing it into Ota's neighborhood, 40 miles (60 kilometers) away. She's so worried that she has broken out in hives. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

By YURI KAGEYAMA - The Associated Press - ajc.com - March 9, 2012

FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Yoshiko Ota keeps her windows shut. She never hangs her laundry outdoors. Fearful of birth defects, she warns her daughters: Never have children.

This is life with radiation, nearly one year after a tsunami-hit nuclear power plant began spewing it into Ota's neighborhood, 40 miles (60 kilometers) away. She's so worried that she has broken out in hives.

Tokai No2 Power Station

by Lucas W. Hixson - enformable.com - February 29, 2012

At 7:30 am local time March 1st, a magnitude 5 earthquake hit 68 miles from TOKYO, Japan.  After the earthquake, alarms sounded from the nuclear fuel processing plants and Tokai 2 nuclear power plant in Tokai-mura, Ibaraki Prefecture.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety announced that so far, the damage has not been confirmed in any of the facilities.  The alarm in the reprocessing facility was located within the building housing nuclear waste.

The alarms at the plant were reported to have stemmed from sensors in the reactor pool that measure the movement of water from earthquakes.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

First, there is great value in a systems approach as a heuristic for understanding interlocked social-ecological-technological processes, and in analysis across multiple scales. Yet we need to move beyond both systems as portrayed in resilience thinking, and the focus on actors in work on vulnerability, to analyse networks and relationships, as well as to attend to the diverse framings, narratives, imaginations and discourses that different actors bring to bear.

For More:

http://resilienturbanism.tumblr.com/post/7573475902/reframing-resilience

There are many definitions of resilience from simple deterministic views of resilience anchored in Newtonian mechanics to far more dynamic views of resilience from a systems perspective, including insights from quantum mechanics and the sciences of complexity.  One baseline perspective of resilience sees it in terms of the viability of socio-ecological systems as the foundation for sustainability.  For those that are ready to look beyond resilience as the ability to return to the "normal state" before a disaster, take a look at:

http://www.resalliance.org/

submitted by Linton Wells

By J. Stephen Morrison

Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)

Reactors Monitor - (Click on image)

by Mitsuru Obe and Tom Fowler - The Wall Street Journal November 30, 2011

Fuel Breached Vessel Floor, Operator Says, In Its Gravest Fukushima Status Report

TOKYO—Japan's tsunami-stricken nuclear-power complex came closer to a catastrophic meltdown than previously indicated by its operator—who on Wednesday described how one reactor's molten nuclear core likely burned through its primary containment chamber and then ate as far as three-quarters of the way through the concrete in a secondary vessel.

The assessment—offered by Japan's government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex—marked Japan's most sobering reckoning to date of the nuclear disaster sparked by the country's March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The IAEA has received new information regarding the detection of xenon-133 and xenon-135 gases on 1 November inside the Primary Containment Vessel (PCV) of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2.

Based on further analysis, Japanese authorities have concluded that the xenon concentrations are not due to a criticality event but rather from the spontaneous fission of curium-242 and 244. (Spontaneous fission is a form of radioactive decay that does not involve chain reactions and is characteristic of very heavy isotopes. Spontaneous fission occurs in low levels in all nuclear reactors.)

This conclusion is based on three key factors outlined and discussed in the report:

Graphic by The Asahi Shimbun

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By KAZUAKI NAGATA and MIZUHO AOKI - The Japan Times - November 3, 2011

Tepco claims level in gas too small to affect shutdown effort