Results of Geiger Counter Use in Tokyo

I finally got my Geiger counter! It arrived in the mail three days ago. I've been running around all over Tokyo with it, wherever I go, looking for hidden, deadly, mutating radiation. 

Ai-yai-yai-yai.... So far, no luck.

I've been all over Setagaya-ku, Shibuya, Harajuku and Chiyoda-ku... (sung to the melody of Frank Sinatra's "Down South of the Border (Down Mexico Way))" Hamamatsu-cho and down Shinagawa way! 

No sign of deadly radiation.

The readings have all been between 0.07 mSV/hr to 0.13 mSV/hr. A flight on a commercial jet airplane from Tokyo to New York will expose you to about 190 mSV (about 18.0 mSV/hr) so you can see that the current levels are not be worried about. Unless, of course, you are the worrying sort.

0.10... No problemo

You can read more techy stuff about radiation measurements here. If you check the link at the top of the page of this blog, you can see what the daily levels of radiation are in Tokyo as read by a private scientific institution.

The level of radiation in Tokyo today, even after this March 11 disaster, is still lower than Rome, Italy or Hong Kong. This reports, from the height of the disaster no less, came from Bloomberg:

Hong Kong, Cornwall Radiation Beats Tokyo Even After Japan Nuclear Crisis

Typical amounts of radiation in Hong Kong exceed those in Tokyo even as workers struggle to contain a crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, indicating concerns about spreading contamination may be overblown.

The radiation level in central Tokyo reached a high of 0.109 microsieverts per hour in Shinjuku Ward yesterday, data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health show. That compares with 0.14 microsieverts in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Observatory said on its website. A person is exposed to 50 microsieverts from a typical x-ray.

Many countries have naturally occurring radiation levels that exceed Tokyo’s, said Bob Bury, former clinical lead for the U.K.’s Royal College of Radiologists. A 30-fold surge in such contamination in Tokyo prompted thousands of expatriates to leave Japan after the March 11 tsunami knocked out power at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, triggering the crisis. Radiation in Tokyo is barely above levels in London and New York even now, analysts said.

“The situation in Japan looks set to follow the pattern of Chernobyl, where fear of radiation did far more damage than the radiation itself,” Bury said in an e-mail referring to the 1986 accident in the former Soviet Union, the world’s worst nuclear disaster. “Whatever the radiation in Tokyo at the moment, you can be fairly sure it is lower than natural background levels in many parts of the world.”

Here you can see daily radiation levels in Hong Kong that are on par or higher than Tokyo.

I laughed when I read the above because many corporations and foreigners in Japan pulled up their stakes and moved to China after the disaster because of fears of radiation. Just goes to show how poorly people use critical reading skills (or lack thereof) along with analytical thinking abilities (or lack thereof).

It has been well known for decades that many Chinese cities and townships have extremely high background radiation levels compared with most of the world and even the Chinese government has recognized the problem for decades. And still many foreigners left Japan to go to China because of radiation fears? Excellent risk management and risk assessment abilities of the western management of those companies.

I'm sure they will do well in China!

But this post is not about China, it is about radiation in Tokyo. 

Many people say that we cannot believe what the government says about radiation. Even though I link to private scientific institutions, some naysayers still don't believe that. OK. I bought a Geiger counter. I've checked for myself. I've even hoped to find some bizarre glowing green globules of irradiated gook. I've looked everywhere.

Nope can't find them. At least not here in Tokyo.

There are even some pundits and scientists who go on the mass media and say idiotic things like, "There are no safe levels of radiation! Period!"

Well, believe what you want. If what these scientists and other fools say is true, then we all  better stay indoors and hide under our blankets for the rest of our lives. Why? Don't look now, but there's a giant ball of fire in the sky that shoots massive amounts of evil radiation at us EVERY SINGLE DAY...

Trust that if you were so daft as to stand directly out in the blistering sun everyday, with no protection, it most assuredly would be damaging to your health. 

As far as I'm concerned, I've got my Geiger counter and I can't find anything at all to worry about in Tokyo... On the other hand, when I show it to people at work, the cute girls all want to see it and play with it when I show them the device. So it is good for something.

I feel like I wasted a bunch of money on an expensive device as I cannot find any deadly radiation.... I'm married so it's too late, but I can see a good use for a Geiger counter in Tokyo... 

Having a Geiger counter in Tokyo, from my research, shows no radiation levels in Tokyo to be concerned about, but results show that having one sure seems like a great way to pick up on girls!

What a Difference a Few Decades Make - More on Japan's Coming Collapse - The Energy Crisis

In yesterday's article Japan's Collapse Will Be Absolute and it Cannot be Stopped - Here's Some BIG Reasons Why I wrote that Japan is now entering the so-called Perfect Storm that is going to ruin this country and there's no way out. 

Our debt situation is past fixable state. The March 11 disaster of Tohoku has put the entire country in a situation whereby we are set to turn off all our nuclear power plants in the summer of 2012 (good timing while oil prices have passed $100 a barrel and the saber rattling gets louder near Iran)... The Japanese public, in their usual confused state, as well as the decrepit Japanese political class are even entertaining the idea of shutting the power plants off permanently. This entire mess has lead to a situation whereby Japanese electrical power companies have stated that they want to raise the power costs to manufacturers. Zerohedge writes in: A New Beginning in Japan: Glimmers of False Hope:

TEPCO, the bailed out owner of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, is trying to shove rate increases of 17% down the throats of its commercial customers—while rationing power at the same time. 

Continuing in another quote from yesterday's article: Japan Inc. is losing money left and right as it it without a massive increase in costs. Please refer to Times of India Sony, Panasonic forecast deeper losses:

Japan's biggest makers of phones, televisions and chips say they'll lose about $17 billion this year, about three-quarters of what Samsung Electronics Co will spend on research to lengthen the lead over its competitors.

Sony Corp more than doubled its annual loss forecast for the year ending March 31 as it announced a new chief executive officer, while Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp predicted the worst losses in their histories. Their combined losses compare with the $22 billion that Samsung, Asia's largest consumer- electronics company, said it will invest in capital expenditures.

These two Japanese giants are going to lose in one year nearly what one Korean competitor will spend merely on R&D? Folks, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going to happen to these entities when they are hit with a 17% increase in operating costs. At least three big things will happen. One, the manufacturers will pass on increased costs to you, the consumer, which will ultimately decrease sales for them and increase the cost of living for you. Two, this increase in cost of living will decrease sales and hurt production and profitability further (thereby actually depressing tax revenues for the government in spite of raising taxes). And three, they will move factories overseas where it is cheaper to operate.


This energy problem and the problems Japan faces lay plainly at the feet of the government... Namely government interference with all areas of the economy and public life... An interference that expands daily. If the government didn't get their hands in ruining the economy, Japan could have shaken out all this bad debt we had in the late 80s at the end of the so-called bubble and started building a solid economy... But we didn't. The Japanese government bailed out the banking industry and gave rise to the word, "Zombie Banks." We still have them.


A the economic problems grow inexorably larger as the population ages and the energy problems peak.


Diego.a a regular reader to this blog sends in some very interesting observations on this situation. They basically boil down to, "How in the world could it be that Japan has fallen so far, so fast in just these thirty years?" Of course, I'd have to answer, "...Just look at government interference. The more the government gets involved, the more messed up things get."

Diego.a writes:

Remember the 1980s/1990s when people were Americans were scared of Japanese companies buying up the world? 

Losing the War with Japan:

(The description on the video of "Losing the War With Japan" reads as follows:

PBS documentary, which first aired in 1991, titled Losing the War with Japan. It examines Japan's economic challenged to the US, which reached its peak in the late 1980s to early 1990s. A key argument in the documentary centers on the manner in which Japan achieved its economic rise, which was through state-led industrial development based on "predatory capitalism" and America's need to respond in kind. )

Diego.a continues: 


Now, thanks to the state, you have blackouts in 21st Century Japan.

Things are so bad, China may end up with the first practical thorium reactor . That is nuts! 


(More on LFTR/thorium power plants.)

Fukushima immune? China bets on 'safer nuclear fuel':

Oh what a difference a few decades make. Seriously, when you consider Diego.a's words, it is appalling that the Japan of the 21st Century has been so ineptly mismanaged that blackouts are going to become a part and parcel of life in this country.


That people still ask, "Why doesn't the government do something?" Just makes me scratch my head. Hasn't the government already done enough to make things worse? We certainly don't want them doing anymore.


If big government were the answer to our problems then the Soviet Union would have been a very successful country. But it wasn't.


We are now witnessing the results of two lost decades, going on three, of government interference in the Japanese economy. It's pretty easy to see how well they've done.

Hysterical & Hysterically Funny Maps of Nuclear Radiation and Danger Zones in Japan

I just read some reports saying that Tokyo was so radioactively contaminated that it needed to be evacuated - all 30 million plus of us who live here. That alarmed me so I got out my handy dandy Geiger counter and measured the background radiation here in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. It was basically the same it always has been. And completely within safe levels. (To see the current levels look that the top of this blog for link.)


If you want to read this outlandish reporting, you can. It is here. But I will quote this report at length:

(San Francisco) Widely known Physicist Dr Paolo Scampa, the publisher of the EU AIPRI Blog and an eminent chemical physicist, announced today his latest calculations of deadly radioactivity in Tokyo itself.  Both the nuclear regulatory and media responses have been missing in action.

.....

The Tokyo suburbs are about 100 miles or 160 km South of the six destroyed, deteriorating and badly leaking nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Station for Nuclear Reactors.

Dr Scampa stated:

“An absorbed dose of 2,94 microSievert/hour at 1 meter of soil means an average deposit of 9,065E5 Bq/m2 of Cs137 -0,661 MeV-. This amount for 1 meter is in fact situated between a maximum deposit of  5,439E6 Bq/m2 for low energy gamma rays from radioactive elements such as U238 (0,0495 MeV) and a minimum deposit of  2,176E5 Bq/m2 of very energetic gamma rays from radioactive elements such as Co60 (2,55 MeV). This dose corresponds to 25 times the maximum permissible “artificial” hour dose (0,114 microSievert/h-1) and 5 times the maximum permissible total – natural and artificial – hour dose (0,571 microSievert/h-1). [1]” Dr. Scampa. [End Quote]

This is a tragedy of huge proportions. There are 30 Plus Million People in Greater Tokyo. It is brought home personally to each person who sees the work of Fukushima Diary by Mochizuki.

There are thousands of US troops stationed with their families in Japan. American politicians must remove all US Troops and dependents from Japan immediately.

You might notice that Dr. Scampa's statement is about dangerous levels of radiation. This I don't argue; those dosages are dangerous. My only question is where in Dr. Scampa's statement does he say something like, "Tokyo is experiencing currently dangerous levels of radiation"? He doesn't. This is typical of the wild unsubstantiated claims being made in some circles. 


May I ask that the facts be given and then relevant information also be given? I don't see how a dissertation on dangerous radiation levels - something I can learn in a book - can be directly related to facts on the ground here in Tokyo by what I have read in this article. This reminds me of the claims about a year ago that the "Top 1/3 of Japan is uninhabitable for decades." 


This sort of panicky reporting is still going on... Fear mongering and completely baseless.


But how do the Japanese see it the nuclear problem? Here is a bunch of excellent, funny and cynical maps that have been making the rounds on the Internet here in Japan amongst the Japanese.


This is from the Testosterone Pit: Nuclear Contamination as Seen by Japanese Humor

After an endless stream of horrid reports on the tragedy of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, and the hotspots that are cropping up in odd places, and food scares, and even contaminated grasshoppers, we’re ready for something ... lighter. This has been circulating in the Japanese internet community for months, has garnered countless comments, and a lot of nodding, agreement, and knowing smiles. Though it’s not based on science or statistics, and certainly not on any polls, it represents, in the eyes of many Japanese, a larger tongue-in-cheek truth.

Note: the areas seen as contaminated are marked in red.

Thanks to Zerohedge and Testosterone Pit

Empathy Survey - How Do You Feel When You See a Child Suffering?

I just bought a book by one of my favorite political columnists, Ted Rall. In the foreword, he talks about compassion and empathy. 


He wrote about a time he saw a homeless man and thought, "Thank god, if it weren't for a few lucky breaks, that could have been me." I've thought the same thing before many times too.


How about you?


I agree with what Ted writes in the book and will have a review of "The Year of Loving Dangerously" soon... But, until then, this...


I wonder about people today and think there are far too many people who feint compassion and concern, but it's all an act. Take, for example, the disaster of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 in Japan. So many people I know were actually sincere and got off their asses and did something...


But I also thought there were way too many people who only helped and contributed because it made them look good doing so. There's nothing so wrong with that, I suppose, as long as people are honest with themselves and open about intentions.


There's a word for this and it's Crocodile Tears.


I also think that there is far too little compassion and empathy amongst people today as a general rule.


Take, for example, the poor people who have suffered in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures. Terrible situation indeed... But the mass media seem to have gone on and people are losing interest.


Is it human nature to do so? Or are we all just robots with heart strings being pulled by the mass media?


I wonder why people will get together to make (at least the appearance of) an effort to help people who are on TV and suffering far away, yet, in their own neighborhoods, they scorn and look down upon the unfortunate in their own neighborhoods?


For those ends and my own research, I've made a survey at the right of this blog. It is asking the question:


"When you see a homeless person, what do you think?"


I hope you will help me by taking 5 seconds to answer the question (as many answers as you wish)... I will post the results on 10/31/11. 


Note: I changed the name of this post from "When you see a homeless person, what do you think?" to "How Do You Feel When You See a Child Suffering?" Because I know that if I write "Homeless" that is a distasteful subject and many will not bother to read the post.

Radioactive Golfing!? Some People Love to Golf!

Here's a story that caught my eye. It's about how golf courses near the Fukushima nuclear power plant are struggling to stay in operation.

All of the 27-hole courses are within the emergency zone.... And they are struggling to stay in business!? What!? You'd have thought that they'd have gone out of business 6 months ago. 


Some people really love to golf!


Daily Yomiuri reports:


Golf Courses Trapped in Rough by Radiation


FUKUSHIMA--Some golf courses in Fukushima Prefecture are suffering from radioactive contamination stemming from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, while others have lost customers due to radiation fears.


Gee. Ya think so? Nah! Can't be.


Since the accident at the nuclear plant, 12 out of a total 63 golf courses in the prefecture have been forced to suspend operations. The number of players at golf courses currently in operation has been low, frustrating people in the golf business in the prefecture.


Go figure.


Kashima Country Club in Minami-Soma, located northwest of the nuclear power plant, has been closed since March 12, the day after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Almost all of the 27 hole-golf course falls within the emergency evacuation preparation zone.


Hmm? They are within the emergency evacuation zone? That means they are chock full of goodies like Spider-Man at Three Mile Island. Now why in the world wouldn't people be just be "dying" to get on the courses and do a brisk 18 holes every morning? 


Radiation-measuring instruments dotted around the golf course constantly issue alarms indicating radiation levels of 0.3 microsieverts per hour or above; in some areas, levels have reached over 3 microsieverts per hour.


Three microsieverts and hour? Does that count toward my handicap? Wow! Empty golf courses? If there were ever a time to pick up the sport, now is the time... And, that's not all, folks! Free tanning on these golf courses with the new "Fuku-you Golf Tanning" plan!


Yoshikatsu Fukuodori, manager of the golf course, said, "[It's a pity], as our golf course suffered no damage from the earthquake and tsunami."


What does he mean by that? Does he wish the courses were ruined by tsunami as well as nuclear radiation?


As a result of some club members requesting to practice their swing at the course, the club reopened 18 holes on June 4. However, because many of the club's members have evacuated to outside the prefecture, only about 20 people per day use the course. The 3,500 yen fee members pay to use the course just covers the minimum maintenance costs involved, such as gasoline for golf carts and chemical herbicides.


Aha! I love golf! Nature! The sun! Birds! Bees! Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, Agent Orange and nucleotides!


Fukuodori had no choice but to dismiss all 45 of his employees as a result of the downturn. Of those, four are supporting him as volunteers. Fukuodori remained pessimistic, however, dropping his shoulders and saying, "Even if we decontaminate the golf course, it's not guaranteed that players will return."


"Even if we decontaminate the course, it's not guaranteed that players will return"!? So, what Einstein is saying here is that the course is contaminated and he wonders why players don't come there to golf?


Did you folks ever see that movie Caddy Shack?.... Case rests your honor.

Japanese Gov't to Rent Land Near Fukushima? Nuts!

There's some things going on about the Fukushima disaster that I just cannot understand. These problems all involve the government handling of the situation. I've written much about my dissatisfaction with that. 

The problem with the entire situation stems from government incompetence and the desire to be all things to all people in this crisis.


Yesterday, it came to fore that areas near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plants will be declared uninhabitable for many ears to come. Does that come as a surprise to anyone? I wouldn't think so.


Now, it seems that the Japanese government is going to reimburse land and property owners near the Fukushima plant by paying them rent for all the coming years that they won't be able to live in their homes. I am completely against this notion and think this is just another government boondoogle that makes the rest of us pay for something that we had nothing to do with.


The New York Times reports:

TOKYO — Broad areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded safe levels, several major media outlets said Monday.

The formal announcement, expected from the government in coming days, would be the first official recognition that the March accident could force the long-term depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that scientists and some officials have been warning about for months. Lawmakers said over the weekend — and major newspapers reported Monday — that Prime Minister Naoto Kan was planning to visit Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is, as early as Saturday to break the news directly to residents. The affected communities are all within 12 miles of the plant, an area that was evacuated immediately after the accident.

Why is this a surprise? Didn't everyone expect this long ago? When the government announced a few weeks ago that they were planning to allow residents to return this year, didn't everyone think they were talking like the fools that they are?

The government is expected to tell many of these residents that they will not be permitted to return to their homes for an indefinite period. It will also begin drawing up plans for compensating them by, among other things, renting their now uninhabitable land. While it is unclear if the government would specify how long these living restrictions would remain in place, news reports indicated it could be decades. That has been the case for areas around the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine after its 1986 accident.

Like I said, under what twisted rules will the government determine the land value of these areas? Their current value must be zero, right? What is the difference between this and the US government buying all those billions of dollar of so-called "toxic-assets" from the failing uS banking system? There isn't any. It is just throwing public money down the toilet.

Since the Fukushima accident, evacuations have been a sensitive topic for the government, which has been criticized for being slow to admit the extent of the disaster and trying to limit the size of the areas affected, despite possible risks to public health. Until now, Tokyo had been saying it would lift the current evacuation orders for most areas around the plant early next year, when workers are expected to stabilize Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged nuclear reactors.

Ha! No one who has been paying any attention even thinks anything the government says is anything but a sick joke. Once again, they show their total incompetence and lack of common sense and delusion. Kan and his cronies keep hoping that things will get better but as a friend once told me, "Hope isn't a very good business plan." How in the world it is that Kan is still prime minister is astounding.

The government was apparently forced to alter its plans after the survey by the Ministry of Science and Education, released over the weekend, which showed even higher than expected radiation levels within the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant. The most heavily contaminated spot was in the town of Okuma about two miles southwest of the plant, where someone living for a year would be exposed to 508.1 millisieverts of radiation — far above the level of 20 millesieverts per year that the government considers safe.

The survey found radiation above the safe level at three dozen spots up to 12 miles from the plant. That has called into question how many residents will actually be able to return to their homes even after the plant is stabilized.

The only good note that can be deemed from all of this is that, with everyone being so nervous and doing some serious checking and investigation, that no one has found any wide contamination in Tokyo is a good thing. Let's hope it stays that way and people remain vigilant.


Frankly speaking, in a nutshell, here's what I think:


1) The TEPCO nuclear power plant is a privately owned business. When they made profits, they kept them. When they lose money (as in the recent accident) I don't understand why the public has to bail them out. They make a profit, they pocket the money. They lose money and the public has to pay through increased taxation? Does that seem fair to you? It doesn't to me.


2) Once again, the government is easy to spread around public tax monies paid for by you and me.... After all, it's not their money.


3) This sounds really cold, but the people who lived around those nuclear power plants profited in their businesses and livelihoods for decades due to the business and economic benefits those nuclear power plants provided as a main source of jobs and revenue for the people living in the area. Why are they different than TEPCO? They profited for many years off of businesses and jobs created by the TEPCO plant. Now that there has been a terrible accident, why do the rest of us have to pay them rent for their houses that they can no longer live in?


4) Who will decide the amount of rent to be paid? Surely we will be paying way over current market value on those properties as their current value - since the disaster - must be close to zero.


5) Why are we, the public, being asked to pay for these properties? What is the purpose of private so-called "fire and marine" insurance? (Insurance for covering accidents and disasters befalling private property?) If the owners of property had no insurance, then that is their stupidity and loss. Why should the rest of us pay for that?  When, say, a property on a mountainside is burned down in a fire, are the rest of us expected to pay for that property owner's loss? No.


The disaster of March 11 is a tragedy for those who lost homes, family and livelihoods. These sorts of occurrences are why there is insurance. There is no good reason that the government has volunteered for the rest of us to pay for these people's losses. They profited from the good times, they must suffer for the bad. 


Paying these people, like paying TEPCO, is not fair. It is the same as the US government using tax monies to bail out the big banks when they were in trouble.


The rest of us didn't experience personal or financial gain from the good times, we should not be expected to pay for the bad.


I am against this sort of expenditure of public monies whether it is to be spent to help a private business like TEPCO or a private landowner like those who lived near the Fukushima reactors. People must have known the risk. They should have moved if they didn't like the chances. The rest of us should not be expected to pay for their poor judgement or bad luck.


That is what insurance is for.


As with all tragic events, I wish for good luck for those people and survivors of these disasters... But I can't see how you or I should be forced to pay for it.

Radiation Levels in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday July 28, 2011 at 8:38 am

It's Thursday July 28, 2011 at 8:37 in the morning.  A slight rain has hit the Kanto area. Here is a map from Yahoo Japan:

I wanted to use this rainy day chance to measure the background radiation levels here in Tokyo. As you can see from the video, I measured the air and near a drainage spot in the road.

Radiation Levels in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday July 28, 2011 at 8:38 am

The levels were well within safe ranges between 0.11 ~ 0.12 microsiverts per hour. The levels are usually between 0.09 ~ 0.12.

For more up to the minute readings on the air and water with comparisons and simple, easy to understand instructions on how to read and understand them, see

here. If that link doesn't work, use this: http://bit.ly/eESfcx

Workers at Fukushima Complain of Bad Conditions.. So What?

The damaged nuclear reactor problem at Fukushima is becoming more and more stabilized. It's been more than a week since humans entered damaged reactor #. Of course, for the people living near the plant and the workers there, things are still terrible. For the rest of us, as is always prudent and wise, we must be ever diligent about what we buy and feed our children.

Complaining about harsh work conditions? Join the club.

Nevertheless, Fukushima hasn't become the disaster that some had claimed it would become.


The fact is that, in this country, as in life everywhere, the good must be taken with the bad. We have benefitted from nuclear power, we must bear the costs of that. Especially the people who lived near the plant who made livelihoods off nuclear power.


Whereas before, some elements of the mass media were screaming about nuclear holocaust, armageddon and nuclear winter, the hyperbole has slowly been dying away.


Once again, the scorecard must be examined, as I wrote in Radiation, Fukushima Facts and Blogger Frustration:

At Chernobyl, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness soon after the accident, of whom 31 died within the first three months.

Here's a fun fact for you about Fukushima: Total number of people reported to have acute radiation sickness from Fukushima; 0 (zero). Total deaths from Fukushima nuclear accident in first four + months; 0 (zero).    


Now, since millions haven't died, the news changes focus on the workers at Fukushima.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reports:

N-plant workers still labor under severe conditions

Severe summer heat causing heatstroke and poor accommodations have plagued workers at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, even though the government has announced that Step 1 of settling the crisis was nearly complete.

Improving worker conditions at the plant was one of the targets of Step 1. However, some employees are still not happy with their conditions.

Hoo hum. I bet that you could survey all employees in any field and find that most of them are not happy with their conditions.

On Tuesday, Goshi Hosono, the state minister responsible for dealing with the nuclear crisis, and Tokyo Electric Power Co., announced the near completion of Step 1.

Working conditions at the plant have improved to some extent. Worker exposure to radiation has been steadily reduced and efforts have been made to make workers more comfortable.

Currently, about 1,500 people work at the plant every day. A gymnasium at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant, about 10 kilometers from the No. 1 plant, is now equipped with showers and bunk beds for 240 people. Temporary dormitories are also under construction in the area, but problems remain.

I guess the danger from radiation can't be so bad for us living so far away. If it is so dangerous, then how is it that 1,500 people could be working at the plant everyday?

At the special earthquake-resistant building at the No. 1 plant, housing the crisis headquarters, workers are still forced to sleep on blankets on the floor. "I can't sleep well here," a TEPCO employee said.

The summer heat has been hard on workers wearing heavy protective gear including full-face masks, as temperatures around the No. 1 plant have exceeded 30 C almost every day.

This is Japan. It's summer. It's hot. We don't really need a weather report. We also do not need to be reminded that, since this is Japan, people sleep on the floor. Funny that. I sleep on the floor every night too.

According to TEPCO, 32 workers had been diagnosed as suffering from heatstroke as of Monday. On Tuesday, a worker in his 20s suffering heatstroke symptoms was sent to the hospital. Another TEPCO worker said, "It's too hot. My cool vest [containing refrigerant] doesn't work well."

Even though air-conditioned rest stations were set up at 11 locations in the plant, workers' faces are flushed from the heat when they remove their masks, according to TEPCO sources.

As radiation-tainted debris has steadily been removed, radiation levels at the plant have decreased.

Well, the radiation levels at the plant have decreased? That's good news. Thirty two workers have heatstroke related problems in the summer in Japan because they are working in protective suits in 30 degree celsius (86 fahrenheit) temperatures and this is the news?!

You're kidding, right?

I have one piece of advice for the TEPCO workers at Fukushima; You accepted a job at a certain renumeration. No one forced you into taking that job. You decided to take it by yourselves. 

I hate to sound so cold, but, if you don't like it, then quit... Or ask for a pay raise. You guys took this job on your own volition. What did you expect?