Petition to save the Fukushima children

I discovered this at Japan Nuclear Crisis Blog. (See post 26^th April)

Urgent Petition Against 20 millisieverts per year (mSv/y) Radiation Exposure onto Children in Fukushima

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Preliminary deadline: Tue. April 26, 2011 at 23:00 in Japanese time (UTC/GMT +9 hours)
Final deadline: Sat. April 30, 2011 at 23:00 in Japanese time (UTC/GMT +9 hours)

We urgently demand the withdrawal of the Japanese Government's inhumane decision to force 20 millisieverts per year (mSv/y) radiation exposure onto children.

On April 19th, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) notified the Board of Education and related institutions in Fukushima Prefecture the level of 20 millisieverts per year (mSv/y) as a Radiation Safety Standard for schools in Fukushima Prefecture. This is the standard to be used for school grounds and buildings. The Government has indicated that 20mSv/y is equivalent to 3.8microSv per hour measured outdoors.

3.8 micro Sv/h is roughly 6 times [the 0.6microSv/h] of "Radiation Controlled Areas" (0.6 microSv/h or more). The Labour Standards Act prohibits those under the age of 18 from working under these conditions. Forcing children to be exposed to such radiation doses is an exceedingly inhumane decision. Therefore, we condemn this in the strongest terms.

20 mSv/y is comparable to the [legally] recognized dose for inducing leukemia in nuclear power plant workers. It is also comparable to the maximum dose allowed for nuclear power plant workers in Germany.

In addition, this 20mSv standard [for Japanese children] does not take into account the fact children have higher sensitivity to radiation than adults, nor does it take into account any internal radiation exposure.

Currently, according to the radiation monitoring conducted at elementary and middle schools within Fukushima Prefecture, more than 75% of these schools have contamination levels comparable to "Radiation Controlled Areas" (0.6 micro Sv/h or more). Further, roughly 20% of the schools fall within "IndividualExposure Controlled Areas" (2.3 microSv/h or more) and are in an extremely dangerous situation.

The level set by the Japanese Government at this time amounts to coercion of this dangerous situation upon children, and, can interfere with voluntary measures by schools to minimize exposure.

MEXT states that 20mSv/y is based on the recommendation Pub.109 by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) as well as on the reference levels in the band of 1 to 20 mSv/y as "Post Emergency Situation" Standards from the ICRP statement released on March 21st. The latter means MEXT has adopted the maximum level.

As of March 21st, there has been no substantive information disclosure by the Japanese Government on the decision-making process for establishing these standards. Moreover, no explanation has been given concerning why the Government has neither taken the sensitivity of children into consideration nor internal radiation exposure into account. The contents of the consultation held between MEXT and the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) are not disclosed, and the situation remains extremely opaque.

We demand the Japanese government of the following:

Retraction of the "20mSv/y" standard for children.

Disclosure of the names of experts, who deemed "20mSv/y" for children to be safe.
 

Note: At the governmental negotiation held on April 21st, it became evident that the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) concluded the 20mSv/y standard for children as "Permissible" without undertaking any formal consultation. Moreover, on April 22nd, the Commission reported to the office of Mizuho FUKUSHIMA, member of the Japanese Diet, House of Councillors that no minutes (records) exist of the 5 Nuclear Safety Commission members' deliberation leading to the 20mSv/year standard.

References:
Expert comments cited from the articles on the establishment of the 20mSv/y standard ("Fukushima-Katastrophe - Japan legt hohe Strahlengrenzwerte fur Kinder fest" or "Japan's MEXT sets High Exposure Limits for Children"), Der Spiegel, April 21st, 2011.(See comparison to German workers.)
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,758410,00.html

Edmund Lengfelder (Otto Hug Radiation Institute), "The cancer risk will visibly rise in the future. By setting these standards, the government will steer
clear of any liability legally, however not morally."

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This petition is being organized by: Green Action, Greenpeace Japan, Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Citizens Against Fukushima Aging Nuclear Power Plants (Fukuro-no-Kai), Osaka Citizens Against the Mihama, Oi, and Takahama Nuclear Power Plants (Mihama-no-Kai), Friends of the Earth Japan

For further inquiries, please contact:

Green Action
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8203 Japan
Tel: +81-75-701-7223
info@greenaction-japan.org

Friends of the Earth Japan
3-30-8-1F Ikebukuro Toshima-ku Tokyo 171-0014, Japan
TEL: +81-3-6907-7217
finance@foejapan.org

[English translation of Japanese original: FoE Japan / Green Action]

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Fukushima Daiichi - it's worse than you think

Closing Ranks:  The NRC, the Nuclear Industry, and TEPCo. Are Limiting the Flow of Information from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

From Fairwinds Associates

The 50 at Fukushima Daiichi

Some days ago I read that TEPCO was withdrawing all its personnel from its stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, all except for 50 who were to remain to fight the overheating reactors. The word ‘heroes’ immediately came into my mind along with memories of those heroic doomed Russian helicopter pilots who dumped load after load of concrete on radioactive Chernobyl. 

A few days ago the word ‘heroes’ was not being used in the media because it looked like the danger was small and that the problem would be contained. Not anymore.

[7:06 a.m. ET Wednesday, 8:06 p.m.  in Tokyo] The number of nuclear workers at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was slashed Tuesday from 800 to 50, but had grown to 180 by Wednesday afternoon, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said.

"Their situation is not great," said David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University. "It's pretty clear that they will be getting very high doses of radiation. There's certainly the potential for lethal doses of radiation. They know it, and I think you have to call these people heroes." (from ‘This just in’ WSJ Blog)

Strangely, as I was writing this, an article at the WSJ site about the 180 heroes suddenly disappeared. I suppose it was pulled because it painted too heroic and desperate a picture of events out of control, or at least not going to plan. In it there were quotes from nuclear experts about the specialized knowledge of these 50 who, precisely because of their knowledge, knew exactly what risks they were taking and therefore were true heroes. They were doing what they considered to be their job and more importantly their duty to protect their endangered nation. I remember one commentator saying they were in ‘uncharted territory’ and likened events to an adventure movie where the workers were ‘ad libing’ as they went along. For example, using fire trucks to pump seawater into the reactors to cool them ‘was not in the manual’.

There is no lack of examples of courage and duty in Japanese history. Indeed such heroic courage and devotion to duty are a large part of the samurai code that is deeply ingrained even today in the Japanese psyche. Akira Kurosawa gave us the quintessential legend of the 7 samurai; history gives us the 47 Ronin. Today’s events give us those who will become known forever as the 50 at Fukushima Daiichi.

The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.  Japanese Proverb