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The next time you step onto an airplane, consider the following: In any given year, the pilot of your aircraft probably absorbs as much radiation as a worker in a nuclear power plant. And you are about to follow him wherever he goes. The FAA classifies pilots as "occupational radiation workers." Flying high above Earth with little atmosphere to protect them, they can absorb significant doses of cosmic rays and solar radiation. During a typical polar flight from Chicago to Beijing, for instance, a pilot is exposed to the equivalent of two chest x-rays. Multiplied over the course of...

Special Report: Help wanted in Fukushima: Low pay, high risks and gangsters By Antoni Slodkowski and Mari Saito IWAKI | Fri Oct 25, 2013 1:45pm EDT Oct 25 (Reuters) - Tetsuya Hayashi went to Fukushima to take a job at ground zero of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. He lasted less than two weeks. Hayashi, 41, says he was recruited for a job monitoring the radiation exposure of workers leaving the plant in the summer of 2012. Instead, when he turned up for work, he was handed off through a web of contractors and assigned, to his surprise, to...

Fukushima situation calls for international emergency work – expert Sharp radiation growth was registered in ground water samples throughout just one day, October 18th, in the area of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Tritium concentrations, for example, exceeded the admissible values 6,500 times. This is the gravest situation since the 2011 Fukushima accident. The area of the nuclear meltdown remains open and is being cooled by flowing water, says an expert in nuclear physics and nuclear power generation, Igor Ostretsov. "Radioactive water keeps coming and should be stored somewhere, Igor Ostretsov says. They have deployed a great number of...

Radioactivity level spikes 6,500 times at Fukushima well Published time: October 18, 2013 02:08 Edited time: October 19, 2013 04:05 Radioactivity levels in a well near a storage tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have risen immensely on Thursday, the plant’s operator has reported. Officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said on Friday they detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances - including strontium - at the site, a level 6,500 times higher than readings taken on Wednesday, NHK World reported. The storage tank leaked over 300 tons of contaminated water in...

TOKYO — Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan are about to embark on one of the most critical aspects of the clean-up: removing the fuel rods from one of the worst-hit reactors. Critics say the plant’s owners, TEPCO, should not be trusted to carry out the operation and warn the consequences of any accident would be unprecedented. Over 1500 fuel rods sit in a damaged storage pool 30 meters above the ground inside the shell of the reactor 4 building at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Safely removing them is the next big challenge for the plant’s...

IAEA experts are trying on the ground to sort out work to do away with the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. But the situation grows increasingly tense despite all efforts by the government. Hundreds of tons of radioactive water leaked out of the reservoirs and reached the subterranean waters just days ago. It may have likewise leaked into the ocean, says an expert in nuclear physics and nuclear power generation, Igor Ostretsov, Doctor of Engineering. “I am absolutely certain that the radioactive water leaks into the ocean have never stopped, because the plant molten corium is continuously...

Cracks found in vent pipe at Fukushima plant The people in charge of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say they've found cracks in a steel framework that supports an unused ventilation pipe. They relied on the pipe for a period of time to release dangerous vapors created by the 2011 accident. Officials at Tokyo Electric Power Company say workers on Wednesday discovered the cracks and cuts at 8 places in the buttress about 66 meters above the ground.

Japan condemns Fukushima cartoon Japan has formally protested over a French newspaper cartoon depicting sumo wrestlers with extra limbs fighting in front of the country's crippled nuclear power plant and linking it to Tokyo's successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics. Published: Thu, September 12, 2013 Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the cartoon insulted those affected by the March 2011 disaster and misrepresented conditions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. A Foreign Ministry official said Japan has submitted an official complaint to the weekly paper Le Canard Enchaine's chief editor Louis Marie Horeau through its embassy in Paris....

Crime up among No. 1 plant staff JIJI FUKUI, JIJI – The number of decontamination workers in Fukushima Prefecture suspected of committing crimes has been rising, bringing the total to 101 as of the end of August, the National Police Agency said. The rise is likely due to an increase in the number of workers brought into the prefecture to meet growing demand for decontamination work, an NPA official said Thursday.

Don't let Fukushima nuke disaster devolve into another Battle of Guadalcanal Things are going badly. There's radioactive water leaking, and it can't be controlled. The minister of economy, trade and industry has said that the central government will now "man the front lines" in the war to tame the Fukushima nuclear crisis, but if the workers on-site do not consent to join battle, if they cannot muster the courage to keep up the fight, then we cannot expect real progress. At least, that's the impression I got after talking with one of those workers, an employee of Fukushima No. 1...

CBS/AP/ September 7, 2013, 9:45 AM Tokyo wins bid to host 2020 Olympics BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Olympics on Saturday, capitalizing on its reputation as a "safe pair of hands" and defying concerns about the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Tokyo defeated Istanbul 60-36 in the final round of secret voting Saturday by the International Olympic Committee. Madrid was eliminated earlier after an initial tie with Istanbul. Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, billed itself as the safe and reliable choice at a time of global political and economic uncertainty

Tokyo, September 5, 2013 Updated: September 5, 2013 11:49 IST Fukushima woes force Japan to defend Olympic bid Japan’s failed attempts to contain the country’s worst nuclear disaster are raising concerns that the crisis could scupper Tokyo’s chances of hosting the 2020 Olympic Games. The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has intensified just as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) prepares to decide at its meeting in Argentina this weekend which city will host the world’s most prestigious sporting event. Akira Amari, state minister in charge of economic recovery, said on TV Asahi on Tuesday night that the...

PITTSBURGH —A Pennsylvania congressman traveled to Pittsburgh International Airport in a driverless car designed by Carnegie Mellon University. Rep. Bill Shuster, a Republican from Altoona, made the 33-mile trip at about 11 a.m. Wednesday. Shuster is the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he was accompanied by Barry Schoch, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. A Carnegie Mellon engineer was in the driver's seat as a safety precaution, but the Cadillac SXR was driven along local roads and highways by a computer system which uses inputs from radars, lidars and infrared cameras.

1 September 2013 Last updated at 09:09 GMT Fukushima radiation levels '18 times higher' than thought Radiation levels around Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant are 18 times higher than previously thought, Japanese authorities have warned. Last week the plant's operator reported radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank into the ground. It now says readings taken near the leaking tank on Saturday showed radiation was high enough to prove lethal within four hours of exposure. The plant was crippled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) had originally said the radiation emitted by the leaking...

How Japan's ice barrier will seal off Fukushima's nuclear ruins Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News 4 hours ago Video: The Japanese government said that it will spend nearly a half a billion dollars to build a giant wall of ice underground to try to stop the flow of radioactive water from leaking into the ocean. NBC’s Brian Williams reports. Japan’s government gave the go-ahead on Tuesday to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to create a underground barrier of frozen earth around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. It's a seemingly crazy idea that's based on solid engineering — but...

(Reuters) - Japan vowed quick, decisive action, including the use of public funds, to tackle the worsening problem of contaminated water pouring from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, as the authorities step in to help the facility's embattled operator. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government "will step forward and implement all necessary policies" to deal with the flood of radioactive water from the plant, a legacy of the world's worst atomic disaster in a quarter century. The government will present a "comprehensive package of measures" on the water problem as soon as Tuesday, a senior official said. Tokyo's measures...

At the time of last week’s discovered leak the plant operator said the radioactivity of the puddles was around 100 millisieverts per hour. Jiji news agency said the highest reading of 1,800 millisieverts per hour was found at one of the tanks, adding that exposure to that level for four hours would be fatal to humans. The other readings measured between 70 and 230 millisieverts, the agency added. A TEPCO official said the operator could not rule out the possibility of new leaks of radioactive water at the four sites, the agency reported, adding that the operator had not noticed...

We've extensively documented that radioactivity from Fukushima is spreading to North America. More than a year ago, 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna tested in California waters were contaminated with radioactive cesium from Fukushima. Bluefin tuna are a wide-ranging fish, which can swim back and forth between Japan and North America in a year:

Nuclear crisis won't affect Games bid, says Tokyo gov; Abe to attend IOC vote Sports Aug. 24, 2013 - 02:33PM JST ( 38 ) TOKYO — Radiation levels in Tokyo are no different from those of other major world cities and the worsening crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant should have no impact on the city’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo’s governor said on Friday. Japan’s nuclear crisis this week escalated to its worst level since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant more than two years ago, with a tank holding highly contaminated water leaking 300...

Insight: In Fukushima end-game, radiated water has nowhere to go Photo 7:59am EDT By Mari Saito and Antoni Slodkowski TOKYO (Reuters) - In the weeks after the Fukushima nuclear plant was destroyed by a triple meltdown in March 2011, the plant's owner turned to three of Japan's largest construction companies for a quick fix to store radiated water that was pooling in the disaster zone. The result was a rush order for steel tanks supplied by Taisei Corp, Shimizu Corp and Hazama Ando that were relatively cheap and could be put together quickly, according to the utility and three people...