Post by Hobbyfarmer on Jul 20, 2011 10:06:16 GMT -5
Commentary: Nuclear plan on track, but radiation fears continueStories
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. had a pretty good day on Wednesday, at least as good at it gets for the ailing utility lately.
Tepco said it’s on track to achieve a cold shutdown of its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s three damaged nuclear reactors by mid-January. In other words — no fresh bad news is good news.
Click to Play Fukushima beef shipments bannedJapanese government bans Fukushima beef cattle shipments after cattle feed in the area are found to have radiation levels 500 times the legal requirement. Video courtesy of Reuters.
But also Tuesday, Japan got another reminder that radiation spewed by the Fukushima Daiichi plant is turning up in the food supply here: The Japanese government ordered the halt of all beef-cattle shipments from Fukushima prefecture, after more than 500 cattle ate straw containing dangerous levels of radioactive cesium. Some apparently ended up on supermarket shelves in at least 40 of the nation’s 47 prefectures.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Tuesday that farmers will be compensated for the economic and psychological damage from the latest developments, and that the government will pay for losses resulting from falling beef prices, according to Kyodo News.
The government is also on the hook to help Tepco pay billions of dollars in compensation costs to radiation-affected individuals and businesses. Japanese lawmakers are now hashing out the details of a plan approved by the Cabinet in June. Read more on Tepco compensation plan.
If it weren’t for the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that critically damaged its reactors, Tepco would have been basking in a much different glow this week.
On Sunday, the Japanese national women’s soccer team won its first-ever World Cup. Karina Maruyama, who scored the winning goal in extra-time in the quarter-final with Germany, played five seasons for the now-defunct Tepco Mareeze. Read about Japan’s World Cup win.
But the nuclear crisis halted the team’s activities and clouded its future. Last month, the utility’s new president, Toshio Nishizawa, said a sports team was no longer something Tepco could afford.
Tepco’s ¥13 billion J-Village sports complex, where the Mareeze as well as Japan’s national teams trained, is located about 20 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant. It was once a key base for the sport, but it’s now a base for nuclear workers.
Japanese media, like media everywhere, love a good triumph-over-adversity story. Sports articles here have played up the Tepco connections of Maruyama and those of Aya Sameshima, another former Mareeze player who joined a professional team in Boston after the quake.
Out of the limelight, plenty of ordinary people here face adversity, too — particularly those living near Tepco’s damaged reactors.
Also Tuesday, the Japanese government said it would embark on a comprehensive 30-year program to monitor the effects of radiation on the health of 2 million residents of Fukushima prefecture.
Still, the glory of world-class athletes fades quickly, leaving Japan to face long-term concerns about Tepco’s viability as a company, as well as cows and the people who eat them.