Catharsis Ours: Nuclear watch - will Fukushima return of residents suffer same fate as that at Chernobyl ? Additional nuclear news and a moderate quake near Chiba....

http://enenews.com/mainichi-decontamination-failed-and-abandoned-after-chernobyl-residents-allowed-back-forced-to-leave-again-due-to-radiation-now-no-return-for-centuries-says-zone-official

Title: With clean-up around Chernobyl abandoned, what can Japan learn from 1986 disaster?
Source: Mainichi
Date: Apr 25, 2012

[...] large-scale decontamination work [around Chernobyl] has been abandoned as largely ineffective, and disaster refugees are no closer to going home. [...]

[...] in the 14 years between the disaster and the year 2000 [...] authorities apparently judged that there had been “little improvement” in soil conditions, and they decided to halt soil decontamination. [...]

More than 110,000 people once lived in the Zone, all of whom were evacuated right after the accident. The Soviet authorities apparently attempted to decontaminate the town of Prypiat — where Chernobyl plant workers and their families had lived — soon after, but with no success. [...]

Mr. Zolotoverkh, 58, who is in charge of managing the Zone, says there is no chance that decontamination will be resumed, adding, “No one will be allowed to return, not after decades, not after centuries.” [...]

In June 1986, the Soviet government decided to allow residents back to parts of the forced migration areas that were relatively uncontaminated on a trial basis. Decontamination work was done, and the project drew up indices that would show whether the efforts could be applied to the clean-up of other areas. However, the authorities recognized that dangerous radioactive materials remained, and revoked permission for residents to return two years later. [...]

and....

http://enenews.com/just-in-japan-nuclear-plant-may-be-permanently-shut-down-because-of-quake-risk-fault-line-found-500-feet-from-reactor-on-tuesday-video

Title: Active faults may force Tsuruga atomic plant to be ‘disqualified’
Source: Kyodo
Date: Apr 25, 2012

The Tsuruga nuclear plant of Japan Atomic Power Co. in Fukui Prefecture could be “disqualified” as a fault running under it and soft earth layers may have moved together in the distant past, nuclear power regulatory agency officials said Tuesday.

It is unusual for government officials to point out the possibility that a nuclear power plant is faced with such a fundamental problem. The state does not allow a reactor building or other key nuclear facilities on an active fault or a fault that could move along with it.

If the risk that it could move along with an active fault is confirmed, the two-reactor Tsuruga plant could be decommissioned. [...]

Errors?

Researchers on active faults have long pointed out the danger the fractured zones and the Urazoko Fault could pose but Japan Atomic Power said when it applied for building two more reactors in 2004 that Urazoko is not an active fault.

Urazoko was confirmed an active after Takashi Nakata, professor emeritus at Hiroshima University, and others pointed out in 2008 errors in Japan Atomic Power’s research.

and.....

http://enenews.com/intense-m55-hits-chiba-tokyo-followed-m4-aftershocks-same-location-maps

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/04/m55-earthquake-off-coast-of-chiba.html