Exactly 2 years ago: a German documentary on Fukushima (with English subtitles): the Fukushima Lie
youtube.com/watch?v=pGsYdDpUSzg
Somebody provided a transcript:
japansafety.wordpress.com/2013/ … -zdf-zoom/
No news to us, unfortunately…
(For those who might be interested, here the same with Japanese subtitles)
youtube.com/watch?v=8MZKxWLruZQ=
3 years go, on March 11, a tsunami hit the coast of north-eastern Japan. The anniversary day is near, and everywhere in Japan people are ramping up efforts for various anniversary activities (memorial concerts, etc.).
A month ago the people in Tokyo (actually only about a third of the eligible voters) elected a new governor.
With masive support on part of the government and additional help by way of censorship on part of the NHK (our national broadcasting company), the candiate favoured by the government won.
The nuclear industry has the support of the government (or, to be more exact, the nuclear industry exercises a certain amount of control over the government), and democracy and the citizens of Japan are the losers in this uneven contest.
This is another one of the lingering post nculear acident effects…
I read that they finally admitted to contaminated water draining into the ocean via underground water, and there is pretty much no way to stop it.
The saga continues (who would have expected otherwise?):
Lack of transparency and accountability, deception, cheating, exploitation:
japantoday.com/category/nati … hazard-pay
(Humans doing their usual stuff because they think they can get away with it. No, I can’t share the pride of those who believe our country is better than other countries.)
Just before the new secrecy law in Japan goes into effect: good news from everybody’s favourite nuclear power plant
== begin report ==
Tritium up tenfold in Fukushima groundwater after Typhoon Phanfone
JIJI
Oct 12, 2014
japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/1 … suspected/
The radioactive water woes at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant got worse over the weekend after the tritium concentration in a groundwater sample surged more than tenfold this month.
A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday that heavy rain caused by Typhoon Phanfone probably affected the groundwater after the storm whipped through Japan last week.
Some 150,000 becquerels of tritium per liter were measured in a groundwater sample taken Thursday from a well east of the No. 2 reactor. The figure is a record for the well and over 10 times the level measured the previous week.
In addition, materials that emit beta rays, such as strontium-90, which causes bone cancer, also shattered records with a reading of 1.2 million becquerels, the utility said of the sample.
The well is close to the plant’s port in the Pacific.
The water crisis could get worse as the nation braces for Typhoon Vongfong this week. Although downgraded from supertyphoon status, the storm was still packing winds of up to 180 kph and on course to hit Kyushu by Monday.
The Meteorological Agency said it could reach Tokyo on Tuesday before gradually losing strength as it races north toward Tohoku.
The storm dumped heavy rain on Okinawa, and at least 35 people have been reported injured in both Okinawa and Kyushu, where authorities told 150,000 people to evacuate as the typhoon toppled trees, flooded streets and cut power to more than 60,000 homes.
Tepco also revealed that, at a separate well also east of the No. 2 reactor, a groundwater sample was giving off a record 2.1 million becquerels of a beta ray-emitting substance, nearly double the level from a week earlier.
The cesium activity in the sample was 70 percent higher at 68,000 becquerels.
Tepco has been periodically measuring the concentration of radioactive materials in groundwater at 34 points east of the reactors 1 through 4.
Readings hit record highs at three points after the heavy rain caused by the typhoon, but the utility said it does not know why.
== end report ==
Comment: Prepare to hear more of this refrain that we have been hearing for years: “does not know why” 
Just found an older report on the same topic:
“Workers Sue TEPCO over Hazard Pay”
(Sep. 24, 2014)
www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/ … 40924.html
Workers Sue TEPCO over Hazard Pay
Some workers at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant are taking legal action. They’re suing the Tokyo Electric Power Company and 16 other businesses. They say they were promised about 600 thousand dollars in overtime and hazard pay. But, say they’ve never seen it on their pay checks. NHK WORLD’s Yoshihito Kametani reports on this edition of Nuclear Watch.
The 4 plaintiffs were hired to remove debris from the site and check tanks containing contaminated water. Two of them are still working there.
According to the lawsuit, the men were employed by TEPCO subcontractors. They allege their employers failed to pay a special allowance for hazardous work.
This 55-year-old plaintiff still works at Fukushima Daiichi. He normally logs in 22 days a month there. TEPCO pays an extra 200 dollars per day as a special allowance for hazardous work. This should amount to about 4,400 dollars for 22 days – on top of the normal wage. But he takes home only about 2,200 dollars a month.
The plaintiff blames this gap on multiple layers of sub-contractors. Here’s what the system looks like in his case. [IMAGE not included] The company he works for is a fourth-tier subcontractor. The compensation originally paid by TEPCO is gradually reduced as each company takes its cut along the way.
The plaintiff argues that the workers’ fair share of regular and hazard pay disappears in the process.
He’s demanding unpaid hazard pay and overtime for a period of 2 years and 8 months.
Tsuguo Hirota is the plaintiffs’ lawyer. He warns that the current system could endanger the entire decommissioning process.
“Having many layers of subcontractors means more people are taking a cut. The workers at the bottom don’t get their fair share. TEPCO should be held accountable for turning a blind eye. It needs to improve labor conditions. Otherwise this situation will make it impossible to secure enough workers to deal with the nuclear accident.”
Tsuguo Hirota / Plaintiffs’ lawyer
TEPCO officials say they will examine the claims and respond accordingly. But they say they’re not thinking about hiring workers directly at this point.
The amount of work required to decommission Fukushima Daiichi continues to grow – and so does the demand for workers.
The number of people working at the facility has nearly doubled in one year, reaching almost 6-thousand per day in July.
The government and TEPCO say decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi may take as long as 4 decades. This lawsuit may force them to reconsider the way workers there are paid to ensure the supply of qualified laborers doesn’t evaporate.
Fortunately, there are many factors that nicely solve the Fukushima problem - here are a few:
time: continuous danger is not perceived as being as dangerous as suddenly appearing danger, so most people have already successfully tuned out the problems at Fukushima
law: starting next month the Japanese government will have a handy new tool to suppress information it does not want the public to have:
the new state secrecy protection law comes into effect on December 10
lack of alternatives: You want to buy fish that is not contaminated? At times there is none to be had, so you shrug your shoulders and buy the contaminated fish that’s on the market
ocean: As we all know , the ocean’s capacity to dilute and eliminate radioactive material is as unlimited as it’s capacity to sink CO2 (= prevent global warming) or its capacity to absorb chemical pollution, so whatever amounts of radioactive water, for whatever long time, runs into the ocean will simply disappear
There are even more factors that help make the Fukushima problem go away, but i think you get the drift.
:roflmao: :ohreally: 
Just a confirmation of what all the specialists had already believed early on:
Nearly all fuel in Fukushima No 1 reactor melted 4 years ago
japantoday.com/category/nati … says-tepco
A little reminder that the problems can get really ugly:
The skeleton of what will soon be one of the world’s biggest nuclear plants is slowly taking shape along China’s southeastern coast — right on the doorstep of Hong Kong’s bustling metropolis. Three other facilities nearby are up and running or under construction.
Like Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant they lie within a few hundred miles of the type of fault known to unleash the largest tsunami-spawning earthquakes.
Called subduction zones, these happen when one tectonic plate is lodged beneath another. And because the so-called Manila Trench hasn’t been the source of a huge quake in at least 440 years, some experts say tremendous stresses are building, increasing the chances of a major rupture.
Should that happen, the four plants in southern China, and a fifth perched on Taiwan’s southern tip, could be in the path of a towering wave like the one that struck Fukushima.
“We have to assume they’ll be hit,” said David Yuen, a University of Minnesota professor who has modeled seismic probabilities for the fault. “Maybe not in the next 10 years, but in 50 or 100 years.”
Asia, the world’s most seismically charged region, is undergoing a nuclear renaissance as it struggles to harness enough power for its huge populations and booming economies.
But China, Taiwan, India and several other countries frantically building coastal facilities have made little use of new science to determine whether these areas are safe**. At least 32 plants in operation or under construction in Asia are at risk of one day being hit by a tsunami, nuclear experts and geologists warn._…
A computerized simulation by Yuen’s students shows a magnitude-9.0 quake along the Manila Trench sending waves racing along the South China Sea, before slamming Taiwan’s southern shore 15 minutes later. The tsunami reaches China’s southeast coast in around two hours. It also strikes Hong Kong, which sits just 30 miles from the nearest nuclear plant — close enough to see increased radiation levels if a plant were to be damaged by a Fukushima-like event.
Scientists paint a worst-case scenario in which waves 15 to 24 feet high (5 to 8 meters) could strike the plants in China and Taiwan.
I have 15 minutes to sell my house then.
Maybe better I have people lined up on an everyday basis.
I see the last major earthquake from the Philippine Trench was the dual 7M quakes on Dec 26, 2006 which occurred just off the coast from Hengchun
It’s not a particularly active fault, but when it shifts, it doesn’t muck around
I distinctly remember those quakes coz a friend gave birth to twins that night
The trench has a maximum depth of 5400 metres - compared to an average 1500 m depth for the China sea and supposedly has the potential to cause a 9.3M
Looks like Kaohsiung and Pingdong would be most at risk
Interestingly, one of the Taiwan aboriginal creation stories describes a massive tsunami event, but there doesn’t seem to be anything major in recorded history
The article you posted says there are ways to ascertain the historical occurrence by analysing the soil deposits - i wonder if anything like that has been done for Taiwan?
If you look at the Kending area it does look different, obviously partly due to consisting of a lot of coral zones that have been uplifted and also being buffeted by typhoons regularly.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one is able to find ‘erratics’’ or evidence of tsunamis on the hillsides there.
It would be an interesting PHD project.
As Taiwan has swung against nuclear they are saying Taiwan will Peak at 50% coal power in 2025 and hopefully down to 30% coal power in 2030 when natural gas plants come online.
Damned if you and damned if you don’t.
I think I agree with taking Kending plant offline though!