Black Rain Over Japan

Last night, I listened to the soothing sound of rain on the roofs in my futon – but I couldn’t get off my mind the thought that winds have been blowing from north-east of Japan all day and would be until Saturday and the night rain was ladden with radioactivity from Fukushima to a certain extent: black rain indeed.

Black rain was the expression used to describe the radioactive fallout after American nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, before they forced Japan to accept nuclear power. It was later on used as a title for a silly and inaccurate gangster American movie by Ridley Scott. Black refers to the harmful particles in rain drops and is doubly chilling by night time.

Anyway, I slept well but I would like to warn everyone not to stand in the rain until the week-end and especially keep your children dry. Watch out for leaky rubber boots where feet soak for hours, have them wash their hands when coming back home as usual, etc. especially if you are in Aichi (Nagoya) and Kansai (Osaka, Kyoto) areas. Of course, the whole Kanto region (Tokyo, Chiba, Yokohama) is directly under, but nobody should live there anymore.

Contrarily to my post on Shikoku, Fukushima winds avoid it this time, as well as Wakayama according to the Meteocentrale simulation. However, it is only a simulation and daily updates change significantly (usually the last of the 3 days forecast is wrong), so the real situation might change on an hourly basis. Even if this was not the case, there would still be a gap between the simulation and reality. A slight difference means that Shikoku could be swept instead of Osaka since it is after all a small territory. The wind direction has been consistently reported and the higher probability is that the whole Honshu region from Fukushima down to Kansai will get a share of it.

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All 3 Nuclear Reactors In Shikoku Suspended

Nuclear power plant reactors in both Shikoku and Kyushu islands are currently off-line. Hopefully the public opinion will hamper their restart after their inspection is done, although this is not a certainty as the government is already self-defeating its new law and allowed a loop-hole for extending nuclear power plant operations well past their designed lifespan.

The nuclear village is bracing until the public dissent fades to resume business as usual, with the extra gift to be allowed to participate in weapon development together with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (the Japanese equivalent of NASA now has operational rockets ready for ICBM usage). Besides, Japan just enacted a law which allows joint weapon development with other countries, i.e. US, so it is only a matter of time until the screw-driver nuclear nation is up-and-ready for war with China.

In other news, Japan is still pushing for nuclear technology export in countries such as Vietnam and India, so we should not be too wishful and naive about the plans to restart domestic nuclear plants, especially with less access to alternative electricity producing-resources such as Iranian oil.

Until nuclear power plants are fully decommissioned (and the question of hazardous waste and materials remains even then), they represent a hazard in case of earthquake, tsunami and the usual lack of professional ethic that leads to all sorts of nuclear incidents in Japan.

Update: Radiation Fall-Out Warning On Western Japan and Shikoku On Thursday Lifted

Sept. 29 Update : New forecast shows that the “monitored region” (Cf. Japan Livability Map September 2011 in SurvivalJapan) was lifted today. No fall-out on Western Japan nor Shikoku today.

Radiation Fall-Out Warning On Western Japan and Shikoku On Wednesday Afternoon

Meteocentrale website forecast shows that radiation fall-out will reach Japan western region on Wednesday afternoon (on Honshu island : cities of Osaka, Kyoto, etc. down to Hiroshima and Yamaguchi – as well as Shikoku island) as can be seen on the screenshot below. This is the first time since the creation of SurvivalJapan that we report air-borne radiation in western Honshu and Shikoku. Since this blog is fairly new, it can be assumed that radiation fall-out over this area happened in the past and it is consistent with citizen groups radiation monitoring, which detect levels low yet superior to normal background natural radiation (Cf. CRMS Civil Radioactivity Monitoring Stations in Kansai Area Today in SurvivalJapan).