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Bad straw devastates herd / Third-generation farmer loses faith in government, future The Yomiuri Shimbun KITAKATA, Fukushima--A farmer in Kitakata, Fukushima Prefecture, let his shoulders sag in disappointment when he heard that about 100 cows in his barn had eaten rice straw contaminated with radioactive cesium. The 38-year-old farmer and his parents have more than 100 cows. "I think I have no choice but to give up farming," he said Sunday during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun. "I wish the government had given us clear instructions." In the middle of April--about one month after the crisis at the Fukushima...

37 prefectures get meat from cows fed tainted straw The Yomiuri Shimbun The meat of beef cattle fed rice straw tainted with high levels of radioactive cesium in Fukushima Prefecture was distributed in 37 prefectures, and the cows' meat was sold to consumers in 35 of the prefectures, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey. The tainted meat was newly found to have been distributed in Toyama, Nara and Yamaguchi prefectures, in addition to the distribution in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures that had been confirmed earlier. The 35 prefectures where meat from the cows was sold to consumers include...

Gov't may expand cattle shipment suspension zone beyond Fukushima Pref. TOKYO, July 18 (Kyodo) - The government may consider halting beef cattle shipments from areas beyond Fukushima Prefecture, where it plans to soon impose a suspension, senior vice health minister Kohei Otsuka said Sunday. ''We are currently considering Fukushima Prefecture, but we may have to consider the need for a further response by checking the distribution of contaminated straw,'' Otsuka said on a TV program. The government's nuclear disaster task force is set to suspend shipments of beef cattle from Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant...

411 more cows in Fukushima found to have been fed cesium-tainted straw+ Jul 18 05:53 AM US/Eastern straw+ (AP) - FUKUSHIMA, Japan, July 18 (Kyodo)—Seven more farms in Fukushima Prefecture fed their beef cattle rice straw contaminated with radioactive cesium, bringing a total of about 411 more cows suspected of having been exposed to the isotope into the nation's beef distribution chain, the Fukushima prefectural government said Monday. Of the cows shipped from the farms, 199 went to Tokyo, 192 to Hyogo Prefecture, nine to Gunma Prefecture, eight within Fukushima Prefecture, two to Tochigi Prefecture and one to Saitama Prefecture....

Cesium-Tainted Beef Woes Hit Meat Retailers, Restaurants Tokyo, July 16 (Jiji Press)--Cesium-tainted beef that has been shipped from Fukushima Prefecture to many places outside the prefecture has put many meat retailers and restaurants into a plight. "Our beef sales have halved," a 70-year-old man running a meat retailer in Tokyo's Suginami Ward said. "There is nothing I can do about this." "Some shoppers even refuse to buy beef from places near Fukushima," he said. In Japan, beef containing radioactive cesium exceeding the legal limit was found to have been shipped to many locations throughout Japan. Some of the meat reached...

Radioactive cesium detected in Fukushima shiitake Radioactive cesium exceeding the government standard has been detected in shiitake mushrooms grown indoors in 2 cities in Fukushima Prefecture, about 60 kilometers from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This is the first detection of radioactive cesium exceeding the standard in produce grown in greenhouses in the prefecture since the nuclear accident. The Fukushima prefectural government says 1,770 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium was detected in mushrooms grown in Date City. The level is more than 3 times the provisional government limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram. 560 becquerels of radioactive cesium...

Another 84 cows in Fukushima found to have been fed contaminated straw TOKYO, July 16, Kyodo Authorities in Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is located, said Saturday they have discovered that another 84 cows shipped from five beef cattle farms in the prefecture were fed with straw contaminated with high levels of radioactive cesium. The 84 cows were shipped to slaughterhouses in five prefectures -- Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata, Saitama and Tokyo -- and the Fukushima prefectural government has asked related municipalities to check where the meat was distributed.

A ton of mushrooms containing ten times the safe level of a radioactive metal has been seized and destroyed by health chiefs. The Bulgarian consignment of dried wild mushrooms is thought to have been irradiated by caesium 137 from the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine 25 years ago. It was found by a UK Border Agency team looking for illegal immigrants and impounded before it reached the shops. Levels of radiation are measured in becquerels. The EU sets a maximum limit for caesium 137 in food of 600 becquerels per kilogram – double the level in Japan. But the amount of...

Radioactive ash found in Tokyo sewage plant: reports AFP Sat, May 14, 2011 TOKYO, JAPAN - A highly radioactive substance was detected in ash from an incinerator at a sewage works in Tokyo in late March following the nation's worst nuclear accident in Fukushima, newspapers reported Saturday. The ash, containing an unidentified substance with a radioactive density of 170,000 Becquerel per kilogramme, was collected from a plant in Koto Ward, eastern Tokyo, the Nikkei and Sankei dailies said, quoting metropolitan government sources. The ash in sewage plants is formed by the incineration of inorganic constituents in waste materials. Much of...

WASHINGTON — In most administrations, "leaks" of classified information precipitate presidential ire. Nearly all such unauthorized disclosures are the consequence of disgruntled government employees deciding that a "leak" is the best way to stop some activity they have decided should not continue. To justify their unlawful actions, they call themselves "secret whistle-blowers." The so-called "mainstream media" love them. Most American presidents do not. That's what makes the current commander in chief's reactions to a whole series of "leaks" so unusual. President Barack Obama doesn't seem to be concerned at all. President Ronald Reagan was infuriated by the publication and broadcast...

SNIPPET: "South African police say they have arrested four men in the capital, Pretoria, for attempting to sell what they describe as an industrial nuclear device to undercover officers. The men - all South Africans - were arrested Friday at a Pretoria gas station, where they attempted to sell the device for about $6 million. Police say Interpol was also involved in the operation."

Timekeeping can be as simple as counting "one Mississippi, two Mississippi . . ." prior to blitzing in backyard football, or tracking the back-and-forth swings of a pendulum in a grandfather clock. In both cases, the trick is counting the intervals of something that occurs repeatedly with as little variation as possible. A pendulum swing, say, or a 'Mississippi' just about equates to a second, the unit of timekeeping that as we know comprises minutes and hours. But even the best mechanical pendulums and quartz crystal-based clocks develop discrepancies. Far better for timekeeping is the natural and exact "vibration" in...

Pittsburgh was treated to an impressive show the week of the recent G20 conference. A nice assortment of military choppers of various types and missions, along with odder aircraft difficult both to identify and explain. Both police and the National Guard were out in force, with downtown nearly sealed off. None of this hardware was used against the "3,000 - 4,000" (more like a few hundred) anarchist demonstrators when they turned their righteous wrath on a dozen Starbucks and a Whole Foods store. No serious confrontation was expected and none occurred. Because all of it - the Guard troops, the...

Authorities seized a small amount of radioactive material and nerve gas from a taxi in the Georgian capital and detained the driver, officials said Monday. Tedo Mokeliya was detained May 31 after police in this former Soviet republic discovered two containers with 3 curies of cesium-137 and 12 microcuries of strontium in his taxi, said Givi Mgebrishvili, chief of the Interior Ministry's main criminal investigation department. Cesium and strontium, which have medical and industrial applications, are considered likely ingredients for a so-called "dirty bomb," in which conventional explosives are combined with radioactive material. Mgebrishvili said at a news conference that...

Hospital cesium is 'terror chemical' says expert By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent Last Updated: 1:42am BST 03/08/2007 A radioactive chemical widely used in medical and industrial equipment should be banned because of its potential use in a terrorist attack, scientists say. Prof Peter D Zimmerman and colleagues at King's College London said hundreds could be poisoned or burnt if enough cesium-137 fell into the wrong hands. They argued that the substance, used in radiotherapy machinery and on factory production lines, was one of the most likely candidates for use in an "I-cubed" attack - involving victims' chemical ingestion, inhalation or...

Need some help from some Nukie types. (How) Could a person, in US, wirhout any clearences, have obtained radioactive Cesium? How dangerous? What instrument would detect presence of same. How long does a doseameter take to respond, or would film badge be better? Background: I'm an old retired newsie. Have an inkling that some physics teacher with a little (?)knowledge may have obtained some cesium for a project and now her class room is a little "hot" I have a little radiation experience from covering Chernobyl stories. See bio. Stay tuned - thanks.

An Ottawa researcher says it's about time the world had a better clock, and he is spending most of his waking hours creating it. He's working with the National Research Council of Canada to build the world's most accurate clock -- a cesium fountain clock, which would be 100 times more accurate. "We have to be very, very careful in building it, because it has to be perfect," he says. He says the clock would better meet the demands of scientists around the world who need such precision for their work. Marmet works for the National Research Council's Institute for...

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian security officers have arrested two Middle Eastern men whom they said possessed a substance that has been touted by sellers as an ingredient in nuclear weapons and dismissed by others as a hoax. Security agents in the southern city of Odessa seized 24 pounds of a substance they said was radioactive and identified as "red mercury," a State Security Service spokesman said Monday on condition of anonymity. He said they arrested two men from a Middle Eastern country, "Foreign citizens were looking for an opportunity to purchase a quantity of radioactive material in Ukraine and to...

In Crimea components of " a dirty bomb " In the Crimean village Ishun the warehouse of chemical substances which can be used for creation so-called " a dirty bomb " is found. The broadcasting company of NTV informs on it. As it became known, in a court yard of one of apartment houses sat law enforcement bodies of Ukraine it was revealed six containers with a dangerous radioactive isotope caesium. All tenants of village evacuated, as the local radiating background exceeds norm in 380 times. As one of heads of local service of the Ministry of Emergency Measures...

<p>Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has become deeply involved in international drug trafficking, using the money to buy arms and, possibly, radioactive material for use in a so-called "dirty" nuclear bomb, senior U.S. officials say.</p> <p>The seizure earlier this month of boats carrying heroin and hashish, and operated by al Qaeda-linked persons, has brought to light an al Qaeda drug operation that has grown tremendously since the September 11 attacks, the sources say.</p>