According to <http://blog.canpan.info/foejapan/daily/201105/03/> (in Japanese), on 2nd May, Green Action, Fukuro-no-Kai,Mihama-no-Kai, FoE Japan had a negotiation with officials from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology, and the Nublear Safety Commission of Japan. And the petition signed by you was submitted to them on that occasion: signed by 1,074 organizations and by 53,193 individuals from 61 countries.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology has not yet changed the 20 mSV/year limit but NSC of Japan said that none of their experts had approved the limit. A quarrel among themselves.

Anyway the Japanese government seems to have began to realize the seriousness of the problem: if they continue to impose the 20 mSV/year limit, they will lose the backing of public opinion which is already very weak in our country and may be criticized by foreign countries as your contribution to the petition makes it evident. They don't try any more to discourage the removal of contaminated soil from school grounds. Hopefully the situation will become better.

Ah and I'd like to ask those of you who are interested in this problem to read this one too.
<http://mscr2011.jugem.jp/?eid=4>


--

This is not directly related but a good news is that the government asked Chubu Electric Power Company to stop all reactors in the Hamaoka Nuclear Plant in Shizuoka prefecture. This plant is situated just upon the seismic centre of the Tokai earthquake which is said to be very likely to occur within 30 years.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13306358>
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/asia/07japan.html?_r=1&ref=asia>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamaoka_Nuclear_Power_Plant>

And the second reactor in the Tsuruga Nuclear Plant in Fukui prefecture will be stopped tomorrow. Its fuel rods are suspected to be damaged. An accident but not serious. In these days, it is practically impossible to restart a reactor once stopped. So hopefully it will never be restarted.

Generally speaking, a Japanese law requires a reactor to be stopped every two years for inspection. Then, perhaps all the reactors in Japan will stop sooner or later.

Surely the halt of all the nuclear plants will be harmful for the Japanese industries, causing us to be poorer. That's OK, for me at least. We have already seen how many people are made unhappy, hopeless by the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant.

Right now, I'm a bit worrying about the temperature of the third reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant which is getting higher and higher.
<http://atmc.jp/plant/temperature/>


My sincere and deep gratitude to you again,


Kino