Fukushima: Continuing Global Catastrophe and Coverup by Media, Nuclear Industry and Politicians 2

All this just to boil water!!

There is a major irony to the whole nuclear mess, especially in Fukushima:

David Suzuki points out that nuclear technology is an overly complicated way to boil water -
"Fukushima is a seismically active area, which means that MAGMA is not far beneath the surface of the earth there, and that they could boil water just as well by drilling down to that magma and pouring water into the hole."

Einstein also noted that irony, years ago.

 Einstein:
"E=MC2 is the energy that blows up nuclear bombs. Nuclear power is a hell of a way to boil water."

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Meanwhile, a Canadian scientist, Dr. Helen Coldicott speaks > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMXvpWoHzeE&feature=share

Here is what she says about Reactor #4, where spent fuel rods are stored:

Dr. Helen Caldicott -
"Every year they remove about thirty tons of the most radioactive rods that you can possibly imagine.(8) Each one is twelve feet long and half an inch thick. It gives out so much radiation, that if you stand next to it for a couple of minutes, you'll die. Not drop dead. Remember Litvinenko, the Russian, who got poisoned by polonium?(9) You'll die like that, with your hair falling out, and bleeding with massive infection, like AIDS patients die."

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Noah again -

We have been exposed to small but steady amounts of radiation for many weeks now. It adds up. And it seems to be getting worse...

Global Research article:

In a string of increasingly alarming reports, every one of the troubled reactors at the site faced major new setbacks this week as the Tokyo Electric Power Co and the Japanese government struggled to maintain the appearance that the situation was under control.

1] For one thing, radiation levels in the building housing Reactor number 1 had reached 700 millisieverts per hour on Monday [and another article claims that Reactor #3 is emitting 900 ms per hour - Noah].

2] A new leak was found at reactor number 3 this week, and an unknown amount of radioactive material was confirmed to have leaked into the ocean. This leak was reportedly sealed by Wednesday.

3] On Tuesday the Japanese government confirmed that the number 4 reactor building was leaning and that emergency work had been done to shore up the building to prevent it from collapsing. Reactor 4 contains fuel rods from 3 to 4 reactors, leading to worries that a building collapse would lead to spent fuel rods being scattered around the Fukushima site, making the entire area unworkable.

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So, ya, everything looks fine there, just as the Japanese government says! Whew. .. I thought we were in trouble.

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* speaking of trouble, a very large Black Bear just came through the yard. We have never had to keep garbage "safe" in the spring before. {sorry, a little off topic}

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Nice of you to say so, remind. Thx.

There are reports of steam, and smoke, rising from Unit 4 on May 21 2011.

 Radiation levels in some coastal areas of Japan and in seawater off the Japanese coast are measured to be thousands of times above normal levels.

 The thing about monitoring radiation in Canada is that in case there is a sudden surge of radiation in Japan we would know if any of it reaches us here.

  Health Canada stopped monitoring a month ago. All those new stations are shut now. That coincides with the EPA's decision to stop monitoring the west coast of the USA.

{a[and now my computer is slowed down and I have to stop here]

[url=http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/20-1]Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat Demands Immediate Global Action[/url]

Quote:

Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral.

Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise...or nothing at all.

Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.

Containing this disaster may be beyond the abilities of Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government.

There is no reason to incur further unnecessary risk. With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge.

I hope scientists don't fiddle while Rome burns, to coin an old phrase.

Why would all those nuclear power plants be built on active earthquake faults? Especially, as Einstein and Suzuki and I like to point out, when they are used to boil water and that job could be done by simply drilling down into the magma and pouring water down there to make steam.

And not only near, but RIGHT OVER TOP of some of the places in Japan MOST LIKELY to have seismic activity!!

 Here are two examples other than Fukishima:

* Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant on the Shimokita Peninsula - - located on land under which the Pacific Plate, and the "currently mobile" North American Plate, meet.

* The Hamaoka Nuclear Plant located at Shizuoka City, on Suruga Bay - over the point at which the Philippine Sea Plate, the huge Pacific Plate, the North American Plate, and the Eurasian Plate all meet.

Those examples from the 2nd article on this page>

http://www.truthout.org/nuclear-disaster-could-destroy-japan/1306258451

An interesting parallel is that Japan's economy is built totally on credit, something that could also MELT DOWN at any time. Perhaps the Japanese like to live on the edge, willing to fall into the abyss?

Otherwise, it is sheer stupidity, and I really don't think the Japanese are "stupider than me".

  Would they do it again? Lets see what Japan's plans for producing electricity are for the future... will they "go green" with Geothermal, wind, and solar power, all of which Japan is ideally suited for?

Deep drilling geothermal is an untested technology. Its large scale deployment may be problematic. We honestly don't know. This isn't in favor of nuclear, but geothermal steam plants have been shut down before and water depletion is a huge issue.

I dug!

 Yes, there are various isotopes in the ocean contamination from Fukushima, including Cesium [also spelled Caesium, but not Cecium - the way I had been spelling it but nobody said anything...]. It's half life is long [30 yrs] so particles of Cesium will be roaming the oceans with at least 10% of it's energy even after 90 years [my calcs].

  I see it like this - charged cesium particles will move around in the oceans harmlessly unless it runs into something and discharges it's lethal energy, possibly causing cancer when it does. By 2013 we will be more likely to get "stung" by radiation when swimming at Long Beach on Vanc. Island [but it is cold water there so your risk is limited due to short length of time in the water, and due to shrinkage].[at least it could be a factor for well endowed men - mine isn't very long but it sure is skinny].

   I didn't find out about the USA "measuring contamination in seafood", but yes, at least there are scientists studying the ocean contamination from Fukushima.

   They estimate it will take about two years for Fukushima radiation to come to North America's Pacific shores. The radiation will be "heavily diluted", as they like to point out. I like to continuously point out that with some of these isotopes it is like getting shot at with a handgun from a mile away - they probably won't hit you but it only takes one hit to do some damage, possibly start a cancer.

About ocean radiation monitoring, I Googled up some egs. -

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=119577

Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has been awarded a rapid-response grant from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences to establish baseline concentrations of several radionuclides in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

He and colleagues will establish a baseline radionuclide data set for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, using an east-to-west network of sampling stations where the ability to retrieve ocean water samples already exists.

Henrieta Dulaiova, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, has also been awarded a rapid-response grant from NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences to study the fallout.

She is monitoring ocean waters to establish baseline concentrations of radionuclides, and to determine the spreading of released radionuclides.

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They, Ken and Henrietta, are going to learn about ocean currents at the same time, since radiation is such excellent stuff to map the currents. Maybe Fukushima is a conspiracy of oceanographers, they did all this to study ocean currents.... those knowledge hungry b*astards!!

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Well, there is a silver lining in this cloud of nuclear isotopes:

   "Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told G8 leaders on Thursday that Japan will lessen its reliance on nuclear power and will instead increase its share of green energy to 20 percent of total power supply by 2020."

me} The campaign of lies to show that renewable energy will be of limited use to energy supplies could take a big hit when Japan overshoots it's 20% goal years earlier than predicted, as I predict it will. Mind you, 2020 will be a bit too late to embrace renewable energy, it should have started in ernest in 1990. Imagine where we would be now if that had happened.

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Meanwhile, the nuclear emissions continue. Greenpeace believes that the contamination is much worse than TEPCO claims. If that means "more radiation has leaked than is being reported", they don't say. They should clarify.

Greenpeace also points out that "dispersion and dilution" are inaccurate terms to describe the contamination of the planet, because, in fact, those nuclear particles are ACCUMULATING in fish and people.

We are getting NONE of this on the MSM, just pictures of the huge pile of scrap from the Tsunami and the plight of the displaced. Are those as important as "the radiation continues to pour out of Fukushima; it is expected that contaminated ocean water will reach US shores by 2013." {which we do not hear about.

Hey didja know that radiation can even mess up a Spruce Tree's ability to reproduce? This is a mistake with eternal consequences folks, genetic changes are forever. Fish in the farthest reaches of the oceans will have mutations related to Fukushima 1000s of years from now [given the world exists bla bla bla].

 The oceans are taking the brunt of it. Again. Poor oceans, AGW, now this... I have a Door's song lyric running in my head right now:

 What have they done to the earth?
 What have they done to our fair sister?
 Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
 Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
 And tied her with fences and dragged her down

A French science team reports:

A French science team reckons that about 50 radioisotopes have been released, with iodine-131 and caesium-137 being the most abundant

They estimate that in the first 30 days after the accident on 11 March, trees, birds and forest-dwelling mammals were exposed to daily doses up to 100 times greater - and fish and marine algae to doses several thousand times greater - than are generally considered safe.

Concentrations of caesium-137 reached 47,000 becquerel per litre in seawater, and 72,900 becquerels per kilogram in soils. The soil samples used for the analysis came from a contaminated forest area 25-45 kilometres northwest of Fukushima. The seawater samples were taken from a region close to the reactor site. Both were measured in late March.

Scientific type paper reporting their work here> http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es201637c

There was finally  coverage on Japan on last evenings CBC National.

Pretty hard to fathom the denial, and revictimization  that is occuring there.

Oh crap, CHINA SYNDROME!!! [by another name, in the early stages] -

News:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/fukushima-nuclear-plant-melt...

Noah:

"Melt Through" refers to TEPCO's proposal that, after the core melted and burned through the pressure vessel[s], the melting has stopped on the floor of the final containment layer, the "outer steel containment vessels".

I would imagine that is just a guess - how could they know for sure when they cannot go take a look? Even robot cameras cannot get through the tangle of debris and down into the pit of hell there.

IF there was lots of water on that "final floor" they could be correct to say the melting stopped there... but there would be MASSIVE amounts of steam spewing from each reactor building [because it is not a contained system anymore]. We are not seeing that steam.

If no water be there on the final containment floor, a'melting it will go, melting through the steel, into the earth, getting into groundwater and soils. This is the China Syndrome....

One scenario I am imagining:
As the super hot nuclear fuel melts into the earth and hits the groundwater there would surely be huge steam explosions underground, there could be local geological disturbances. Radioactive contamination would spread far and wide, into the oceans and who knows how much of Japanese land would be contaminated.

Could the mantle be breached as the fuel burns down into the earth? and something like a volcanoe could form and bring much of that massive amount of radiation back up to the surface to be spread all over the planet? It would be like a huge "dirty bomb". All life on earth will forever more have the mark of Fukushima... and no life may ever thrive again. OR, would the magma simply destroy all the nuclear fuel?

We have no idea what will actually happen in a China Syndrome.

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And the "smartest people in the room" thought we should have 1000s of these reactors spread around the world? I am starting to believe in the possibility of "an apocalypse that happens in a short period of time".

Fukushima is still leaking, and nobody seems to care.

We should care. This will surely be a landmark event in world history, at least because the world will forevermore wear the mark of the nuclear power plant beast - radioactive fallout. This is probably the biggest release of nuclear radiation that has ever or will ever occur.

The nuclear radiation spewing forth from Fukushima will affect life on earth for an eternity due to genetic mutations that will occur in many most or all living things.

And at most? I hate to guess.

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USA Hitman is also reporting on the spike in newborn deaths.

-------------------Was it done on purpose?

If it falls within the range of lunatic fringe, forgive me, I am just the messenger:

Hitman says the earthquake was just a 6.7, and that the Tsunami was caused by a nuclear detonation at the "Japan Trench" in the Pacific ocean. Then, I believe they are claiming that the Fukushima plant itself was nuked. This is why there was Plutonium fallout [nuclear power plants do not normally produce plutonium isotopes].

Why? Why would anyone do this to Japan?? - as punishment for Japan's offer to enrich uranium for Iran [of course].

You might be shaking your head if you read this stuff > http://usahitman.com/japanistoxic/

Ya, I apologise, it doesn't check out at all - the Japan Trench is VERY seismically active...Sorry.

Onto better things - a Canadian website I had not seen before reports on Fukushima radioactive emissions, and that Canada has lifted all restrictions on food imported from Japan:

http://canadianawareness.org/2011/06/canada-lifts-restrictions-on-japane...

Reporter finds radiation levels at 1000 times higher than safe limit near Fukushima, just outside the "no-entry zone".

Radiation has been detected in sea water near Fukushima that is 240 times higher than safe levels.

Is it ok to say that this scares the absolute fuck out of me?

Noah_Scape wrote:

In the USA, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities* that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant. {*San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise}

This seems too speculative to give much credence to, until we see actual evidence of a similar spike in infant mortality in Japan, at least.

Noops, I know what you are saying and it is pretty damn sickening, on many levels.

People are more worried about their own financial security than they are whether the world and humanity are destroyed by radiation.

I know that this seems counter intuitive, given that they will die as well, but people's stupidity and personal greed cannot be under estimated.

Well...actually it is not stupidity per se, but the ability to ostrich, in order to keep their illusionary lifestyle going. It  is much like painting rocks in order to spruce things up a bit.

Erika Shaker touches on the greed and stupidity of society, in her article on the front page, but she places the blame squarely on those voting for Harper, and I say the left, including myself, is culpable of furthering  this horrendous myopia and ostriching.

Noah you should look for spikes in countries closer to the radiation fall out that will not be censored, and even Hawaii and Alaska.

Why the heck doesn't the CBC do a followup news story on this?

They cover the damn thing daily for weeks and weeks, front page story, and then absolutely nothing.

They either do wall-to-wall coverage for something like this or years later 'special news item' coverage, like the Mulroney-Schreiber scandal.

Is there no middle ground?

Surely the CBC has the means and resources to do a follow-up on this?
They have the know-how and expertise to get information that us lay people would struggle to get our hands on.

Perhaps they're afraid of what they might find, or were advised not to touch it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/world/asia/18japan.html?hp

"The plant, a $12 billion project, has a history of safety lapses. It was shuttered for 14 years after a devastating fire in 1995, one of Japan’s most serious nuclear accidents before this year’s crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Prefecture and city officials found that the operator had tampered with video images of the fire to hide the scale of the disaster. A top manager at the plant recently committed suicide, on the day that Japan’s atomic energy agency announced that efforts to recover the device would cost almost $21.9 million. And, like several other reactors, Monju lies on an active fault. "

It is difficult to accept any "Gee whiz, we didn't expect the Nuclear Industry to lie to us about Fukushima" excuses from Japanese politicians.

They had been seen it before.