Sunday May 27, 2012

TEPCO must get fishermen's OK before dumping radioactive water into sea: Edano

National ( 58 )

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Radioactive water inside a water treatment facility at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan AFP

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Radioactive water inside a water treatment facility at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan Radioactive water inside a water treatment facility at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan

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58 Comments

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  • 13

    some14some

    sea belongs to japanese fishermen only?

  • 2

    Yubaru

    This is a no brainer answer for the fishermen. Wait this is Japan, DOH!

  • 1

    Gurukun

    ....and what fisherman would say, "Yeah, yeah, go ahead and dump some more water into the ocean, no biggie."

  • 3

    Ivan Coughanoffalot

    This is nothing that a couple of million in a brown envelope can't fix. Looks like we taxpayers will be giving the fishermen a nice bonus this New Year...

  • 3

    Okinawamike

    Sure dump the highly radioactive waste water including harmful strontium in to the worlds ocean. It will help us see the fishes better.

    Think there will be one comment on this that will not be sarcastic?

  • 9

    kurisupisu

    I don't give my permission;anyone else?

  • 2

    soldave

    The fisherman's union is strong in Japan, it seems. Am guessing they'll use it to fill their coffers a little more as the end of the financial year approaches.

  • -4

    MaboDofuIsSpicy

    I say just dump it. Why ask? This is Japan.

  • 2

    NetNinja

    The answer is "NO"

  • -4

    Sasoriza

    Edano's the man!!

  • 0

    gaijintraveller

    But there are no local fishermen any more: everyone has been evacuated from the area.

  • 2

    smithinjapan

    “It should not be allowed socially, if not legally, that they forcibly go ahead with the discharge of water without gaining an agreement from fishermen concerned,”

    This is all fine and dandy, Mr. Edano, but how about the consumers who eat fish from those areas, or just people who shop at the areas where the fish is sold? Do they have no voice? TEPCO can EASILY get around this with some big fat envelopes for the heads of the fisheries. It should just flat out be illegal, Edano, and YOU, the government, have the power to decide that instead of once again fobbing it off onto others because you don't wish to do it yourselves.

  • 4

    m5c32

    What do fishermen have to do with radioactive pollution and control thereof? Does the government have no say on radioactive material disposal? As if the seas were only their domain. That's crazy. Not that I would expect them to greenlight this. But still, it's an odd comment and delegation of responsibility.

  • 5

    delrennich

    the madness continues....

  • 1

    Dennis Bauer

    Tepco, oh? we may allready have released some in the sea

  • 0

    Darren Brannan

    'harmful rumours' from professors even here in Japan who are vastly more qualified than Edano and Hosono what effect these isotopes have had and what dangers they may present.

  • 0

    pamelot

    Shift the blame...

  • 6

    Elbuda Mexicano

    Just insane!! Ask fishermen?? Great idea! What about all this radiation going into the Pacific Ocean and beyond??

  • 2

    Reckless

    Irresponsible for the government to make its decision based on a special interest group. They should lead and follow the law. First, what is the environmental impact, and second is there any other way to dispose of the water.

  • 2

    luilui

    won't dumping in the sea in effect mean that we will be eating radioactive seafood? umm hasn't one of the plants already leaked water into the sea anyway? fail!

  • -3

    Jotter Verhaeghe

    Well it's too late now, the sea is already contaminated...

  • 4

    BurakuminDes

    As Smith reckons, there is a strong possibility TEPCO will do the old Japanese business "brown paper bag trick" to "encourage" the fishermen to agree to this proposal. Let'l all hope the government just knocks the idea on the head - you are not getting off this easily, TEPCO grubs!

    The company said, however, human health should not be affected even after eating sea food caught in the area for every day for one year.

    Sure - everyone in Japan believes what comes out of these TEPCO jerks mouths!

  • 2

    SushiSake3

    I often read this, that politician XYZ-san has to get the 'agreement of the public.'

    Anyone know what this means exactly?

    Obviously it DOESN'T mean actually asking the public because - hey - that would that would be democratic.

    My guess is it means 'gaining majority support from concerned politicians.'

    Which in this democratic nation, of course, means 'wheel out the brown envelopes.'

  • 2

    Utrack

    Since when have Fishermen been required to have education in the handling and disposal of Nuclear Waste? Was it a Certificate or a Degree. How long was the training? Did Edano participate in the training?

    Why ask a fisherman about Nuclear Waste Disposal? You ask a fisherman about FISH.

  • 2

    cactusJack

    Wonder how much cash is gonna take to persuade these fishermen.

  • -1

    SushiSake3

    Utrack, I disagree. The fishermen are (supposedly) being asked about something that will have a direct impact on their livelihoods.

    Nothing strange or unusual about that.

    Just don't but the orange roughy....

  • 1

    Farmboy

    CactusJack is right, I think. I ran it through my Bullpucky-English translation program. It says, "Pay off the fisherman."

  • 0

    Elvensilvan

    Eight to nine months too late in my honest opinion.

    How many tons of these low-radiation water have been admittedly released? 10,000? How many more have been undocumented? And how many unfiltered, high-radiation water have passed through leaks?

    Even a teeny-weeny high-radiation water leak into the ocean or the earth may cause problems long after the "cold shutdown" scheduled at the end of this month.

  • 0

    Ted Barrera

    In other words, "Go ahead.just blame the fishermen if you get caught."

  • 3

    YuriOtani

    TEPCO needs to bring in an old obsolete supertanker or two and use them to hold the water until it can be disposed. Dumping it in the ocean is insane!

  • 1

    Utrack

    SushiSake3 when has TEPCO ever asked the fishermen or anyone in the fishing industry if it was okay to dump low or high level radioactive water into the ocean. TEPCO did not concern themselves with the fishermen's livelihoods before and if they really cared they would be asking professionals of nuclear waste cleanup and disposal what would be the best thing to do.

  • 0

    SushiSake3

    Utrack, I believe the nuclear waste experts' proposal to 'use radiated water to spring clean TEPCO offices' was soundly rejected by the TEPCO board...

  • 1

    TakahiroDomingo

    i am a fish eater, and i say NO. TEPCO has it all asswards, how can they be so ridiculously stupid and short-sighted. it's not the fishermen's choice. just think one step ahead: what will the fishermen do with the fish? sell it, and it will show up in markets and restaurants, and our urine will be fluorescing in the dark.

    sorry TEPCO, but i have no solution for this problem. but please, don't come up with unacceptable proposals.

  • 2

    gogogo

    NO ONE wants this, why only the fishermans? How about the rest of the world?

  • 1

    soldave

    As has been said in a few of the comments, is this just the government wanting to remove themselves of any responsibility should any future problems occur. If this happens the government can say to the union, "Well it was your fault... you let them dump more radioactive material into the sea... nothing to do with us now".

  • 1

    borscht

    The company said, however, human health should not be affected even after eating sea food caught in the area for every day for one year.

    Once again TEPCO fails to understand PR. Image is as important as facts. If the image of fish caught by Tohoku fishermen is one of radiated fish, people will avoid buying it (if clearly marked as such).

    I'm surprised they even asked, though. I thought they'd just dump it and when caught say, "It has no immediate health risks" and "Sumimasen, won't get caught again."

  • 4

    tokyokawasaki

    So in traditional J-Biz style, the leaders of the fishing industry can expect to start receiving brown paper bags stuffed with cash to help them make a decision....

    Also, why only fishermen? There should be a national referendum on this...

  • 3

    zichi

    It's already the world's biggest "ocean nuclear disaster" which has released radiation into the sea at 50 million more times than the normal rad level.

    But was hasn't been reported by TEPCO or the medium is that on Nov.23, following an earthquake, the southern facing or sea facing wall of No 4 reactor collapsed threatening the collapse of the entire building which could also bring down the spent storage pool which is the most full of hot fuel rods.

    TEPCO denied there was any damage caused by the earthquake and also there wasn't an explosion in reactor No 2. NISA does not accept those findings because the suppression chamber was destroyed or very badly damaged. No 2 reactor released more radiation than the others. 130 petabequerels of iodine and 20 petabequerels of cesium.

  • 1

    Livemaui

    Oh Great, more radioactive water coming our way! Along with the tsunami debris and radioactive waste, the pacific ocean has seen better days! People here in Hawaii are going to see the impact of this disaster for decades!

  • 1

    nisegaijin

    it's too frigging late. i am not touching any products from the pacific ocean anymore

  • 2

    Scrote

    If the tanks will be full by March why not buy some more tanks?

    I wonder if the TEPCO president would mind if I went and dumped some stuff on his garden, after all the flat is getting quite full and I need to free up some space.

  • -1

    smithinjapan

    soldave: "As has been said in a few of the comments, is this just the government wanting to remove themselves of any responsibility should any future problems occur."

    Not only that, but by doing what they are doing they are avoiding any offense towards TEPCO, which will result in continued cozy ties and bid-rigging, builing permits for unsafe areas in exchange for envelopes, etc. If the government decided 'no' on their own TEPCO might be reluctant to deal with them so easily.

  • 1

    moomoochoo

    If they are going to keep fishing, they need to implement some kind of labelling system AND radioactive testing,

    .....and after all that I still won't eat it.

  • 1

    soldave

    smithinjapan - oh exactly. There's no way the japanese government would risk their relationships with TEPCO, Japan Tobacco, or any other Japanese industry. If they did the brown paper bags of money might dry up and shady dealings could become public.

  • 3

    Riffraff

    The fisherman's union is strong in Japan and owns all the oceans, if you don’t believe me just asks a member, ….or try to get them to follow navigation rules or practice good seamanship . I was really poor at math in school and can only count reliably up to the number of external appendages I have, but it seems to me the amount of water that is, or has been, pumped into the reactors should far exceed the onsite storage capacity. Where is the excess water going? Is anyone doing calculations to determine if there is leakage within the plant itself? Zichi any input?

  • 2

    SquidBert

    As a once in every couple of years type of fisherman;

    I say NO

    Wonder if TEPCO will listen?

  • 3

    yosun

    TEPCO should ask Japanese who eat fishes. And don't worry about other countries' people, no one else eats Japan fishes now.

  • 0

    Yubaru

    TEPCO needs to dump the water over the heads of the folks responsible for this mess.

    Wait! That would mean Japan would have no government or heads of TEPCO anymore. Just a thought!

  • 1

    Disillusioned

    We all know this will come to one question: How much will TEPCO pay the fishermen?

  • 2

    MasterBape

    Time for the international community to have a word about this. The ocean isn't Tepcos, neither is it the fishermans. Unbelievable comments from Edano. If China was doing this then we wouldn't hear the last of it on NHK.

  • 0

    basit36

    Synthasize the water

  • 0

    basit36

    Seperate the radio active from it and create something new

  • 1

    bajhista65

    There's a lot of breaking news today about Fukushima. For starters, a paper published in a science journal reveals that Fukushima leaked enormous quantities of radioactive material into the Pacific ocean, leading to radiation readings that were 50 million times normal levels.

    In addition, it has also now been admitted by TEPCO that Fukushima leaked "26 billion becquerels of radioactive materials" including strontium, an extremely dangerous radioactive element with a half life of roughly 30 years (so it persists in the marine food chain).

    Read more in my full report: http://www.naturalnews.com/034395Fukushimacesium_radiation.html

    In addition, we received word today that the southern wall of Fukushima reactor unit #4 has collapsed, leading to speculation that the structural integrity of the containment building may be failing, with the possibility of an imminent collapse of the rest of the building. This has not yet been confirmed by multiple sources, but photos have emerged. Here's our original precautionary alert on this issue, just to be on the safe side: http://www.naturalnews.com/034387Fukushimanuclearreactorcollapse.html

  • -2

    nigelboy

    "To put this in perspective, the Pacific Ocean holds about 300 trillion swimming pools full of water, and they are going to release about** five swimming pools full**," said Timothy Jorgensen, chair of the radiation safety committee at Georgetown University Medical Center. "So hopefully the churning of the ocean and the currents will quickly disperse this so that it gets to very dilute concentrations relatively quickly."

    This was released when TEPCO released the water just a few months back.

  • 0

    gaijinTechie

    Japan has signed a treaty to prevent pollution of oceans. Oh wait, lord of the oceans, the Kingdom of Tepco has not! Riiiight...

    The fishermen need my permission for a complete transaction of their fish to me. Let's hope the brown envelope contains enough for the future far, far away.

  • 1

    SquidBert

    I guess the links provided by Bajhista65 are supposed to be:

    http://www.naturalnews.com/034395_Fukushima_cesium_radiation.html

    and http://www.naturalnews.com/034387_Fukushima_nuclear_reactor_collapse.html

  • 0

    Utrack

    Bajhista 65 and Squidbert thanks for the links, the situation at Daiichi is mind boggling. and asking fishermen what they should do with the radioactive waste water is even more mind boggling.

  • -1

    Rick Kisa

    You get it wrong again! The fishermen rarely eat this fish. the people who should be asked are the people who use this fish throughout the value chain, from fishermen to ultimate consumers

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