Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Latest News 08/07/2011

Post-disaster nuclear safety efforts continue in Japan. On Monday, June 20, Japan's Finance Ministry revealed that the nation's exports dropped 10.3% in May, representing the third consecutive monthly fall since the massive quake and tsunami on March 11. The decrease was more than economists had forecast, raising concerns over Japan's struggle to recover from the twin disasters. The nation also continues facing difficulties in stabilizing Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A five-day ministerial meeting, which had been organized in response to the nuclear crisis, also opened on Monday at the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, Austria, with a record number of more than 900 participants in attendance. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano proposed agency monitoring and thorough security risk checks in all nations with nuclear power plants, to prevent a potential repeat of the current crisis, which was unanimously agreed to by all participants.

Meanwhile, at the Fukushima Daiichi facility, the testing of a water decontamination system, which is crucial for removing 110,000 tons of highly radioactive water from the site before it overflows, was halted for a second time due to a malfunction early on Tuesday. TEPCO also fully opened the doors to the reactor No. 2 building in order to decrease the humidity inside and enable workers to enter. However, this also allowed radiation to leak out of the site, although TEPCO says the amount would not have an adverse impact on human health or the environment.

According to Aljazeera news agency, a nuclear waste advisor to the Japanese government reported that around the nuclear facility, about 966 square kilometers -- an area equivalent to about 17 times the size of Manhattan, New York, USA -- is now likely uninhabitable due to radiation. Moreover, in the US, a June 2011 report by physician Dr. Janette Sherman and epidemiologist Dr. Joseph Mangano suggests that a 35% increase in infant mortality in northwestern US cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown may have resulted from fallout from the Japanese nuclear plant.

Our sincere thanks, international officials, experts and media members for your work to safeguard the public from radiation harms. Let us do our utmost to eliminate such dangers through our adoption of more eco-conscious ways.