News From The Meltdowns: Decontamination Charade
Channel: onthewaytoextinction
Date: 2013-04-09

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

NUCLEAR EVACUEES GIVEN TABLET COMPUTERS

 A town near the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has introduced a system to provide information via tablet computers to all the evacuees who are living outside the town.

Naraha Town is designated as an area where public access is allowed only in the daytime. All of its 7,600 residents are n
ow living in Tokyo and 32 prefectures, outside the town.

Under the new system, the local government will give tablet devices to all of the evacuees so they can see notices, as well as radiation levels and live footage from the area, from the town via the Internet.

On Wednesday, a ceremony to mark the start of the service was held at a temporary town office in neighboring Iwaki City.

Mayor Yukiei Matsumoto said the town can now communicate better via computer.

He said the tablet computers allow interactive communication and that he will use the service to send out and collect a questionnaire to plan the residents' return.

Three other municipalities around the Fukushima plant have introduced tablet computers to contact evacuees.

Apr. 3, 2013 - Updated 11:03 UTC

GOVT. TO HOLD DRILL ASSUMING NANKAI TROUGH QUAKE

The Japanese government says it will base the country's annual nationwide disaster drill this year on the scenario of a mega-quake in the Nankai Trough off the Pacific coast.

The Nankai Trough is a subduction zone that stretches for 900 kilometers off central to western Japan. The zone has seen repeated large-scale earthquakes throughout history.

The decision to assume a mega-quake in the Nankai Trough for a September first drill came at a meeting of the government council on disaster preparedness on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the meeting the government decided to assume an earthquake and tsunami of maximum scale based on lessons from the March 2011 disaster in east Japan.

He said the key is to help the public to understand the risks calmly and correctly.

The disaster drill will involve an emergency meeting of all Cabinet ministers in Tokyo, and setting up of task forces in Osaka and Kagawa prefectures, near the quake epicenter, to coordinate evacuation, rescue and relief efforts.

A recent government projection says a huge earthquake in the Nankai Trough would affect up to 34.4 million people in 39 prefectures. It would cause a shortage of 32 million meals within 3 days of the quake, and render highways, railways and airports useless for several days.

Mar. 26, 2013 - Updated 06:58 UTC (15:58 JST)

GOVT. PANEL TO URGE COAL POWER PLANT DEREGULATION

A Japanese government panel on regulatory reform is set to make proposals to facilitate construction of coal-fired power plants.

The panel is calling for deregulation in building new or additional thermal plants in an effort to ensure the cheap and stable supply of electricity following the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Panel members have decided to seek a review of the government's environmental assessment procedure for coal power plant construction.

They say the current procedure puts excessive burden on operators to try to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, blocking newcomers from entering the business.

The panel will ask the government to clarify the "state-of-the-art technology" it demands the operator adopt by presenting commercially available types of technology.

It will also call for a shorter period of government environmental assessment.

The panel will hold a final discussion on Monday. It will then ask the Environment Ministry and economy and industry ministry for an early decision on the issue.

Mar. 30, 2013 - Updated 03:57 UTC (12:57 JST)

FAIR USE NOTICE: Any copyrighted (©) material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, which constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.