Toxic strontium in Fukushima groundwater

This video from Japan says about itself:

Relationship between Yakuza gangs and TEPCO has become closer by the accident

Uploaded on Oct 22, 2011

Syunsuke Yamaoka, representive of Access Journal, entered the site of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant illegally with a helping hand of the workers there and found Yakuza gangs arranged jobs there, especially jobs inside the buildings which would make the workers’ life get at stake and that the relationship between Yakuza gangs and TEPCO had got closer than before the accident.

And he wrote a book ‘Fukushima Daiichi Genpatu Sennyuki(Book of Infiltration into Fukushima Daiichi Nuke Plant)’ about that, with interviews with three workers working there.

The website of Access Journal (in Japanese): here.

TEPCO may let gangs arrange those like multiple-debtors for a job in Fukushima: here.

Day laborers were deceived into removing highly-radiated rubble in Fukushima, I heard: here.

From Reuters:

Japan finds highly toxic strontium in Fukushima groundwater

June 19

High levels of a toxic substance called strontium-90 have been found in groundwater at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the utility that operates the facility said on Wednesday.

Strontium-90 is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors as well as nuclear weapons, according to the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The discovery of rising levels of such radioactive material is likely to complicate efforts by the utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T), to get approval to release what it describes as water contaminated with low levels of radiation into the Pacific Ocean.

High levels of tritium, a less harmful substance, had also been found, Toshihiko Fukuda, a general manager at Tepco, told a news conference.

Testing of groundwater outside the turbine building of reactor No. 2 had shown the level of strontium-90 had increased by more than 100 times between December 2012 and May this year, Fukuda said.

He said it was likely that radioactive material entered the environment after water poured over the melted fuel in unit No. 2 and leaked out via the turbine building, which is located between the reactor and the ocean.

See also here. And here. See also here.

From Jiji Press in Japan:

LDP’s Takaichi under fire over gaffe on nuclear accident

June 19

Sanae Takaichi, policy chief of Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, has come under fire from both the ruling and opposition camps over remarks she made about the March 2011 severe nuclear accident.

In a speech in Kobe, western Japan, on Monday, Takaichi said that nobody has died as a result of the nuclear accident, adding that Japan has no choice but to continue using nuclear energy for power generation while ensuring maximum safety.

Japan’s government is buying up 250,000 tons of rice grown and harvested in Fukushima in 2013, 16 percent of which will be sold and redistributed as “just rice”: here.

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• High levels of toxic strontium found in Fukushima groundwater (japandailypress.com)
• Fukushima nuclear plant: Toxic isotope found in groundwater (arunbabyveranakunnel.wordpress.com)