According to the experts getting a CT scan is more dangerous than Japan’s plan to released filtered waste water into the nearby ocean:
Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, second left, arrives to inspect the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Futaba, northeastern Japan, on July 5, 2023. (Hiro Komae, Pool)
The contaminated water that had been stored will be treated to remove most of the radioactive materials except for tritium (more on that below).
The wastewater will be diluted to 1,500 becquerels – a unit of radioactivity – of tritium per liter of clean water. For comparison, Japan’s regulatory limit allows a maximum of 60,000 becquerels per liter, while the World Health Organization allows 10,000. That means the concentration of tritium will be “far below” international regulatory standards, according to the Japanese government.
The water will then be released through an underwater tunnel about 3,280 feet (one kilometer) from the coast of Japan, away from areas where fishing routinely takes place. The process is expected to take 30 years or longer.
What is tritium?
Tritium is a form of hydrogen with two extra neutrons and it emits low levels of radiation. Like hydrogen, it combines easily with oxygen to form water, or in this case “tritiated water,” which is difficult to distinguish from ordinary water.
We’re actually exposed to small amounts of tritium every day, because it exists in tap water, in the rain and in the air.
In fact, tritium is already being discharged into rivers and oceans from other nuclear facilities around the world at higher concentrations than the treated water that is set to be released from Fukushima, said Tony Irwin, nuclear energy expert and honorary associate professor at the Australian National University. Facilities in China, South Korea, Taiwan, France, the United States and elsewhere release treated water that contains tritium, within regulatory standards.
“We go and have a CT scan or something like that, and you get multiple times the radiation doses without any harm,” Irwin said. “Low levels are no problem. Very high levels are a problem. But the sort of levels we’re talking about with this discharge are negligible.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but are all the people protesting this waste water release going to start protesting against other nations like China that release far more waste water into the environment? Better yet are they going to start protesting hospitals for giving out CT scans with even more radiation?
Some U.S. classrooms could probably use this Korean teacher:
A teacher who was accused on charges of child abuse after scolding students has been ruled not guilty, according to news reports on Sunday, quoting the court’s ruling.
A homeroom teacher in his 40s, who works at an elementary school in Ulsan, was accused of child abuse for scolding some students.
The teacher scolded a student who talked during class by making him stand in front of the class and asked other students what the student had done wrong.
Additionally, when the student asked if he could leave school five minutes earlier than the end of the regular class, saying he would be late for a private class, the teacher made him clean the classroom alone as a punishment.
The teacher also scolded another student who got into a fight with other classmates, saying, “I want to hit you guys with a bat when you do not listen to me. Do (your parents) just let you misbehave like this?”
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
Moon Chung-in the academic behind many of former President Moon Jae-in’s North Korea appeasement policies steps down from the think tank he has been leading due to embezzlement charges:
![Moon Chung-in, the chairman of Sejong Institute, speaks during the East Asia Wisemen's Roundtable held in central Seoul on October 2021. [NEWS1]](https://i0.wp.com/koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2023/02/28/4a54d4f7-fcd1-4ddc-b56f-a1578dc63e96.jpg?resize=558%2C372&ssl=1)
Moon Chung-in, chairman of the national policy think tank Sejong Institute under the Foreign Ministry, said he will step down from his position, after the recent audit by the ministry to inspect the institute on the case of alleged embezzlement of some 1 billion won ($757,000) every year.
Joong Ang Ilbo
Moon served as the special advisor for unification, diplomacy and national security affairs for President Moon Jae-in.
Moon expressed his intent to no longer serve his role at the institute on Monday, according to the Sejong Institute on Tuesday. It will soon open a board meeting to vote on Moon’s resignation. A source from the think tank said his resignation may be linked to the recent budget audit.
You can read more at the link, but critics are saying that Moon Chung-in is being targeted with the audit so the Yoon administration can have him replaced. Both things can be true, may he was targeted and maybe he was aware of the embezzlement going on.
Korea has to be one of the few places to where the son being a bully costs the father his job:
A prosecutor-turned-lawyer appointed to head the National Office of Investigation offered to resign Saturday, just a day ahead of assuming his post, amid a bullying controversy involving his son at school.
Chung Sun-sin, appointed as the new chief the previous day, found himself in hot water after it was belatedly revealed that his son had verbally abused one of his peers for eight months in high school and was ordered to transfer schools.
“Many have been concerned due to my son’s problem, and I came to the conclusion that I cannot take on such a grave responsibility as the chief of the National Office of Investigation with this flaw,” he said in a release.
“I ask for forgiveness from the victim and his parents once again for what my son did,” he added.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the Japanese Self Defense Force is having its own “Me-Too” moment:
A former Japanese soldier who came forward with her sexual misconduct case said Monday that harassment was as rampant in her army unit as if “part of daily communication.”
Rina Gonoi filed the case last year with the Defense Ministry, but it was dropped. She demanded it to be reinvestigated earlier this year, saying she had suffered multiple assaults by a number of male colleagues, causing her to give up her military career.
In response, Japan’s army in September acknowledged part of the misconduct and apologized, and last week fired five servicemen and punished four others. The Defense Ministry also announced interim results of a rare organization-wide investigation that found over 100 similar complaints and other forms of misconduct totalling more than 1,400.
In announcing the punishments last Thursday, army chief Yoshihide Yoshida repeated his apology to Gonoi and said he felt a strong sense of responsibility over her sorrow and pain. He also said he took the problem seriously and was determined to eradicate such misconduct.
“At a unit I belonged to, sexual harassment was so rampant it was carried out as if a part of communication and there was a loss of sensitivity,” Gonoi told reporters Monday. She said the punishments in her case were “appropriate,” but added that other soldiers who looked the other way should have been also held accountable.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
This article correlates with other reports I have read on social media that people at the top of the narrow alleyway adjacent to the Hamilton Hotel started pushing people down. This alleyway slopes uphill this caused a domino effect of people falling downhill on top of those below them:
Witnesses and survivors on Sunday said an overnight stampede that killed at least 151 people occurred after a massive group of people celebrating Halloween surged into a narrow downhill alley and were instantly pushed down by others.
The deadliest stampede in South Korea’s history happened Saturday night in the alley near Hamilton Hotel in the famous nightlife district of Itaewon after tens of thousands of people visited the area for Halloween.
A total of 151 people, including 19 foreigners, have been killed and 82 others injured, fire authorities said, adding the death toll could rise further.
“People kept pushing down into a downhill club alley, resulting in other people screaming and falling down like dominos,” an unidentified witness wrote on Twitter. “I thought I would be crushed to death too as people kept pushing without realizing there were people falling down at the start of the stampede.”
A woman her 20s said the accident occurred after a massive crowd of people were pushed back and forth for some time, which then led her friend to be pinned down under the crowd.
Another female survivor in her 20s, surnamed Park, said the stampede erupted as people flocked into the small street in a short period of time.
“A short person like me could not even breathe,” Park said. “(I) could survive as I was located on the sideline of the alley. It looks like people in the middle suffered the most.”
Other survivors, meanwhile, blamed the owners of bars and clubs nearby, who allegedly blocked people from escaping from the overcrowded alley.
“It looks like the casualties were more severe as people attempted to escape to nearby stores but were kicked out back to the street because business hours were over,” said the survivor who asked not to be named.
Yonhap
That is pretty horrible that business owners would not allow people to exit the alleyway through their businesses thus further contributing to this disaster. It will be interesting to see if they face any charges of liability.
President Yoon is now at a 32% approval rating which for him is actually an improvement over the 30% he was recently at:
Since mid-August, the presidential office has been undertaking a sweeping reorganization of Yoon’s aides including making changes in the office’s organization chart to optimize aides’ roles.
Korea Times
Including the first and second secretaries for political affairs, a number of ranking officials were included in the drastic shakeup.
The reshuffle seemed to have finished as Kim Dae-ki, the presidential chief of staff, presided over an all-staff meeting at the presidential office on Tuesday, explaining the reason for the replacements as well as asking for the staff’s renewed commitment to work.
This reorganization is anticipated to have contributed to the recent slight recovery in Yoon’s support rate. A survey by Realmeter showed that Yoon’s job approval rating inched up to 32.6 percent in the first week of September, up 0.3 percentage points from a week earlier. An official at the polling agency attributed it to Yoon’s improved efforts to come up with measures to prevent severe damage from Typhoon Hinnamnor.
You can read more at the link.
I am surprised this NCO was even able to get on his motorcycle much less drive it with a .323 blood alcohol level:
A United States Forces Korea (USFK) service member is under investigation by local police for allegedly causing an accident while driving a motorcycle under the influence of alcohol, according to the law enforcement authorities, Tuesday.
Korea Times
Pyeongtaek Police Station in Gyeonggi Province said a 37-year-old male sergeant, whose identity has been withheld, is accused of driving under the influence at the time of the accident. He crashed his motorcycle into a Kia Sorento at a three-way intersection near Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek at around 7:40 p.m., Sunday.
The sergeant left the scene of the collision, leaving his motorcycle behind. The Sorento driver reportedly suffered minor injuries.
After police arrived on the scene, they tracked the owner of the motorcycle through the license plate number and found that the vehicle belonged to a person on Osan Air Base.
The sergeant turned himself in at around midnight, shortly after local police launched a joint investigation with U.S. military police. His blood alcohol level at the time he turned himself in was 0.323 percent, well above 0.08 percent, which would qualify for the revocation of a driver’s license.
You can read more at the link.
Here is one of these only in Korea stories. There are not many countries that would have pop stars completing mandatory military service like Korea does:
K-pop idol Kang Young-hyun, best known as Young K to fans of his group Day6, is a winner in the Eighth Army’s Best Warriors competition in South Korea.
There’s a lot to sort out there, so let’s take things a step at a time and decode that sentence.
Forty-nine U.S. and Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army, or KATUSA, soldiers participated in a six-day competition that included events like an eight-mile march, small arms qualification, land navigation, water survival, obstacle courses, knot-tying and overall military knowledge.
The Eighth crowned winners in categories like best soldier, best noncommissioned officer, best officer and best warrant officer.
Military.com
You can read more at the link, but Kang won the KATUSA category of the Best Warrior competition. The next level of competition is at U.S. Army Pacific in Hawaii. According to the article it is unclear if Yang will compete in this competition. Regardless it is great to see Yang not trying to dodge service like some other celebrities have been able to do. It is also awesome to see him taking his service seriously and pushing himself like he did to win this competition.
