Japan pledges to tighten nuclear safety measures

I'm surprised no-one noticed this:

No radiation was released to the outside environment in Tokaimura

All it takes is to inhale ONE particle of radioactive nano gold or whatever.

If it lodges in the lungs, it will more than likely result in lung cancer about ten years down the road.

Because there is no immediate 'harm', the nuclear industry is in the clear, and cannot be held responsible.

Internal radiation damage is much different than external exposure.

What did Minister Shimomura pledge to whom? Can anyone tell from the article?

Disclosure delayed....AGAIN?

What's so worrying about this is that since the exposure was so low, they clearly felt it wasn't necessary to report it or follow proper safety procedures (I mean, switching on a bloody fan?!). It's this kind of attitude that leads to disaster and Japan is still very much not with the program.

How about a pledge to secure non-lethal power generation?

name a Japanese institution with transparency.. aside from the board of Audit, which is constitutionally above political control, well if one considers the SDF with the 9th article, it means nothing in reality, nonetheless.

the world has already forgotten about fukushima. if one believes in democracy. If the government governs, on behalf of the people, representative of their, thoughts and ideals.. nuclear power would have little headwind when it comes to government policy on promoting nuclear energy, alas.. aside from Germany, (even with its phase out, it gets nuclear generated power from the French grid), most nuclear powered countries are either phasing out dramatically, or, revitalizing (korea), or enlarging (US) its nuclear industries.

I hear these nuke companies + nuke village mafias + corrupt gvt officials fund nuke research institutions/agencies...Therefore, it is a whole nuke ecosystem we are dealing with here which is characterised by arrogance, incompetence, guess work, abnormal profits, lies, technical know-nothing, lack of transparency, etc etc. You are forgiven for yawning when you hear such statements as "Japan pledges to tighten nuclear safety measures"

and by pledge, they mean to continue to build them on fault lines..

Out of 55 people tested, 22 had no excess exposure and 33 received radiation dosages of up to 1.7 millisieverts. That is about the average annual background dose for someone living in Japan. Nuclear workers generally are limited to 100 millisieverts of exposure over five years.

This paragraph does not makes sense. The workers have been exposed to evaporated radioactive gold. That means they are subject to internal exposure through inhalation. This is what the article confirms when it talks about testing people. You cannot determine the external exposure by testing people. The values given in the two following sentences are related to external exposure. They are probably added here to downplay the incident. But the effects of internal and external exposure are significantly different with internal exposure being much more severe. How much depends on the type of radiation (type of isotope they used) and the biological half-life of gold.

Sorry Japan, but I no longer believe you when ot comes to safety about nuclear power.

All this sounds so familiar I have lost faith in People's ability to manage the risk. I'm sure if I used the road in such a way the government would not let me drive LEGALY.

interesting article admin lucky that the IAEA (currently being chucked out of a non nuclear future europe) is moving to Japan. They have many statistics and soothing words "no noticeable effect" etc

This link explains why there is "no noticeable effect" in this case also

ICRP, WHO and UNSCEAR and their effect on the Fukushima children

“….**the Ordinance on Prevention of Ionizing Radiation Hazards in Japan, which requires that areas where radiation dose shall not exceed 50mSv/year and 100mSv/5years** ….”

http://nuclear-news.net/2013/05/28/icrp-who-and-unscear-and-their-effect-on-the-fukushima-children/ sourced from a delayed report to the UN (Delayed for some reason)

the workers in the article could have a 100 mSv dose and live in a lead box for 5 years! Though the lead might be "harmful" What a choice!

And it is double on topic admin (i hope) as the source report mentions the nuclear workers at Daichi too! (though VERY briefly)

Wow, that is shocking...

Its ok !!! to have Nuclear accidents. It is just another way of reducing population hopefully only those in the nuclear industry and no one else, then you wont need to worry about experiments at all, as they then will value life a big bit more.

I don't believe them.

Level 1 is the second on the scale, the first being 0. (There is also the 'Out of scale' events, but by definition that would not be part of the scale).

Hands up if you've heard this all many times before...

isnt this what they said after the..

March 1981 INES level 2 Tsuruga incident?

June, 1999 — INES Level 2 Shika incident?

September 30, 1999 — INES Level 4 Tokaimura incident?

.. the government must think the IAEA looks out for sheep.. wait it does, nvm..

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority rated the accident as "Level 1," or third from the lowest level on a 9-level international scale.

If "Level 1" is third from the lowest level on a 9 level international scale, what are the other "three" called ?

Anyway, time to close down everything "nuclear". This is not a child's game and earthquake prone Japan is ill suited to nuclear power. When will they ever learn ?

Whoa ! hey ! Another panel ! Wow job security there for sure ! A lot of useless suggestion they'll throw forth ..useless because they'll still delay and try to hide whatever happens

How about just shutting them all down, then you also dont have to pledge anything (you wouldnt do anyway) anymore.

The government has revamped its regulatory regime and is drafting stricter safety standards

Yes, they did! And then, they changed them to guidelines! How many times are we gonna hear this before something actually changes?

Japan pledges to tighten nuclear safety measures ... Again? Such pledges seem to be a neverending process ...