babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.
Fukushima: Continuing Global Catastrophe and Coverup 3
January 16, 2012 - 6:09pm
continues from here
http://rabble.ca/babble/international-news-and-politics/fukushima-contin...
Fukushima Radiation Spreads Worldwide
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/fukushima-radiation-spreads-world...
"California, Finland, Canada hit by radiation..And thyroid cancers are - mysteriously - on the rise..."
video & transcript
http://fairewinds.com/updates
TEPCO Cut Backup Power at Fukushima
http://bloom.bg/xkd52H
"Tokyo Electric Power Co. disconnected an emergency power source at its Fukushima nuclear plant four months before the earthquake and tsunami in March last year wrecked the station, the Sankei newspaper said.
The backup would have provided power for transmitting temperature and radiation data from monitors near the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant's reactors and helped assess the severity of the situation, once the main supply was knocked out, the Sankei said.."
Fukushima Diary
http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/12/mutated-vegetables/
"Ms Miwae, 79, grew this on her farm. It's 40 cm long. The bottom is split into 5 parts. She says she has been growing plants for decades but has never seen a Japanese radish like this..."
'The public shouldn't let a short-term incident undermine all the good work that has been done in the nuclear field. We have had 30 years of faultless activity..' Bruce Power
Japanese, Canadian and American Officials Have 'Betrayed' their Citizens By Hiding Radiation - Akin To Murder
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/japanese-canadian-and-american-of...
"...Indeed, the core problem is that all of the world's nuclear agencies are wholly captured by the nuclear industry - as are virtually all of the supposedly independent health agencies. So the failure of the American, Canadian or other garments to test for and share results is making it difficult to hold an open scientific debate about what is happening..."
Japanese Government Kept Worst-Case Scenario Secret Post-Fukushima
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/22-4
"The content was so shocking that we decided to treat it as if it didn't exist', a senior government official said."
Fukushima Cover-Up Unravels: 'The Government Can No Longr Pull the Wool Over the Public's Eyes'
Too Much Radiation to Cover Up
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/fukushima-cover-up-unravels-the-g...
"As I've pointed out since day one, the Japanese government and TEPCO have covered up the extent of the radiation released by Fukushima and its health effects on the Japanese and others - with a growing segment of the public and even many experts coming to believe that officials have understated or even covered up the true extent of the public health risk in order to limit both the economic damage and the size of potential settlements.."
Update 3 - Japan's Stricken Nuclear Operator Set for $13 Billion Bail-Out
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/tepco-idUSL4E8CQ0SO20120126
"Japan is set to launch a $13 billion bail-out of the owner of its stricken Fukushima power plant after the utility dropped resistance to a public fund injection, sources said on Thursday, as the country debates the future of nuclear power. TEPCO's share price soared on the bail-out news, jumping as much as 8 percent in heavy trading.
One source said the financial institutions were likely to agree to keep TEPCO afloat and protect their already big exposures.."
business is business after all when all said and done..
Fukushima: A Nuclear War Without a War - by Prof Michel Chossudovsky
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28870
"The unspoken crisis of worldwide nuclear radiation.."
Online Reader
Frozen Fukushima Leaking Water
http://rt.com/news/fukushima-frozen-pipes-leak-301/
"Up to 8.5 tons of radioactive water have leaked from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. TEPCO, the plant's operator, failed to winterize the reactor's cooling system, leading to fractures in its pipes due to frozen water inside.."
Fukushima Plant Temperature Rises
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-07/tepco-injects-boric-acid-into-f...
"Tokyo Electric Power Co injected boric acid into a reactor at its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to prevent an accidental chain reaction known as re-criticality after temperatures rose in the past week. 'It was too early to say the plant was safe in December. They declared cold shutdown even though nobody is sure about the location of melted fuel,' said Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in Western Japan.
'A similiar incident will probably occur again. Tepco is in a dilemma,' Ito said. As Tepco maintains water injection at a high rate, more radioactive water will be accumulated in the basements of plant buildings, he said. About 95,000 cubic meters, which is enough to fill 38 Olympic sized swimming pools, of highly radioactive water may still be in the basements..."
We May Yet Lose Tokyo...Not To Mention Alaska...And Now Georgia Too
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/10-2
"...With bitter debate raging in Japan, the US and elsewhere over the killing power of Fukushima's emissions, the certification of a new US reactor design may someday be remembered as a bizarre epitaph for the 20th century's most expensive failed technology..."
Canadian Government is 'Muzzling Its Scientists'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16861468
"Speakers at a major science meeting being held in Canada said communication of vital research on health and evironment issues is being suppressed...journalists were denied access to scientists working for the government agency Health Canada last year, when there was concern about radiation levels reaching the country's western coast from Japan following the explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Ultimately, journalists obtained the information they sought from European sources..."
Japan's Nuclear Evacuees Denied Canadian Refuge - by Tom Godrey
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/02/18/japans-nuclear-evacuees-denied-canad...
"A Japanese woman who claimed exposure to radiation from damaged nuclear reactors has been denied refugee status in Canada almost one year after that nation was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami that left more than 100,000 people homeless. 'The claimant feared risks of exposure to radiation,' an IRB member said in a ruling. 'She was not convinced by the Japanese government's assurances of safety from radiation. The woman can still appeal her case to the Federal Court of Canada and that decision can still be appealed..."
Fukushima - 350 Times Maximum Annual Radiation Dose Permissable? - by Bob Nichols
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/08/350-times-maximum-annual-radiati...
"Is a unsuspecting pubic being sacrificed?"
sure looks like it!
Face to Face With the Fukushima Disaster (Part 3)
http://vimeo.com/36985943
talk with engineer Werner Simbeck about the latest goings-on in Fukushima
Face to Face With the Fukushima Disaster (Part 2)
http://vimeo.com/34182864
Face to Face with the Fukushima Disaster (Part 1)
http://vimeo.com/29768980
Corbett Report: Paul Gunter on America's Fukushimas (Podcast)
http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-469-paul-gunter-on-americas-fukus...
"Paul Gunter is the director of the Reactor Oversight Project at BeyondNuclear.org As a long time anti-nuclear activist, Gunter and Beyond Nuclear has been ringing the alarm bells around the GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactors in the US - reactors with the exact same flawed design as teh Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan - for decades. Now in the 'Freezing Our Fukushimas' campaign, Gunter and others are seeking to permanently suspend operations at all Mark I plants across the US.
ATOMKRAFT? NEIN DANKE
Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/world/asia/japan-considered-tokyo-evac...
"In the darkest moments of last year's nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo, even as they tried to play down the risks in public, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed on Monday..."
Watching tonight's The nature of things - Journey to the disaster zone: Japan 3-11.
Wow.
The first half of the program was about the event - video from Tokyo, interviews with seeismologists, images of the tsunami, interviews from survivors. Then Fukishima. Then reflection, optimism, alternatives. Community-drive, small-scale alternative energy - geothermal, mobile water turbines, magic (magnesium injection cycle). Community radiation testing because communities trust neither the nuclear industry nor the government.
There has been a dramatic shift in perception regarding the safety and necessity of nuclear - will it translate to policy?
Suzuki concludes: If Japan can show there is a different way, that would be huge. The Japanese anthrpologist he is speaking with agrees: Yes, that would be wonderful.
I saw that show last week when it was first aired. I was, as usual, disappointed with Suzuki. Very thin on science and facts. I learned essentially nothing.
By contrast, PBS's Frontline this week had an excellent program on Fukushima. It was riveting and terrifying, and at the same time very informative. PBS knows how to do science programming in a way that Suzuki never dreamed of.
PBS Frontline Documentary on Fukushima: 'Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown'
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/japans-nuclear-meltdown/
That may be, M. Spector and NDPP (I assume you agree as you post the link), and I'll probably watch the PBS doc when I have some time, feel up to it. Maybe I shouldn't have posted here, because it wasn't focused on Fukushima entirely. What I liked about the Nature of Things program is that it was terrifying enough to prompt reflection and presents a way for people to act. Because that's what we've got to do, right? It's not enough to just be terrified.
Maybe I'll have more to say after I've watched the PBS doc.
Thanks for the link, NDPP. I would have posted it myself, but I assumed it wouldn't work for Canadian IP addresses. I see I was wrong.
Thanks for alerting us to it MS.
Not to belittle the actions of many of the workers and others at the reactor site but those firefighters who ran the first hoses up to the overheating fuel rod pool saved the day for Japan and possibly a big chunk of the planet...
That is so true. That's one of the "terrifying" things about that program.
..txs for the heads up!
New Greenpeace report on the "Lessons from Fukushima"
... and an article about the report.
A Meltdown in Communications: Nuclear Disaster and Corporate Accountability
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/05-9
"A new report reviewed by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation questions the safety of nuclear power, especially in the hands of private companies. In the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns, several European nations pledged to phase out nuclear power, but the US [and Canada] is still pursuing an expansion.."