Re: 40% of Europe is still radioactive, what's coming next?

[Taka]

June 2011 Arnie Gundersen gave an interview to Al Jazeera and said
this: "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history
of mankind".

"Gundersen points out that far more radiation has been released than
has been reported.

"They recalculated the amount of radiation released, but the news is
really not talking about this," he said. "The new calculations show
that within the first week of the accident, they released 2.3 times as
much radiation as they thought they released in the first 80 days."

"Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo
are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive
air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

"The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant
irritant," he explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time
they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure
them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture
have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper
West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit
pretty heavy in April."

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/academic-journal-fukushima-becoming-a-turning-point-in-world-history-its-long-term-impact-and-meaning-are-impossible-to-repress

Fukushima: It's much worse than you think

Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse
than governments are revealing to the public.

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of
mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice
president, told Al Jazeera.

Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that
crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's
(TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen
explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those
living within a 20km radius of the plant.

Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power
engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70
nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant
likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.

"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores
exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear
reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate
need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."

TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel
cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation
being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well
as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea
water that has to be disposed of.

"The problem is how to keep it cool," says Gundersen. "They are
pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with
the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to
contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"

Even though the plant is now shut down, fission products such as
uranium continue to generate heat, and therefore require cooling.

"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor,"
Gundersen added. "TEPCO announced they had a melt through. A melt down
is when the fuel collapses to the bottom of the reactor, and a melt
through means it has melted through some layers. That blob is
incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water
picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you
are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive
water."

Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of
radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are
disconcerting.

"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores
each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl,"
said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot
spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of
radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be
declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres
being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean
all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years
after Chernobyl."

Radiation monitors for children

Japan's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters finally admitted
earlier this month that reactors 1, 2, and 3 at the Fukushima plant
experienced full meltdowns.

TEPCO announced that the accident probably released more radioactive
material into the environment than Chernobyl, making it the worst
nuclear accident on record.

Meanwhile, a nuclear waste advisor to the Japanese government reported
that about 966 square kilometres near the power station - an area
roughly 17 times the size of Manhattan - is now likely uninhabitable.

In the US, 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.

The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San
Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and
the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately
following the disaster.

"There is and should be concern about younger people being exposed,
and the Japanese government will be giving out radiation monitors to
children," Dr MV Ramana, a physicist with the Programme on Science and
Global Security at Princeton University who specialises in issues of
nuclear safety, told Al Jazeera.

Dr Ramana explained that he believes the primary radiation threat
continues to be mostly for residents living within 50km of the plant,
but added: "There are going to be areas outside of the Japanese
government's 20km mandatory evacuation zone where radiation is higher.
So that could mean evacuation zones in those areas as well."

Gundersen points out that far more radiation has been released than
has been reported.

"They recalculated the amount of radiation released, but the news is
really not talking about this," he said. "The new calculations show
that within the first week of the accident, they released 2.3 times as
much radiation as they thought they released in the first 80 days."

According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are
continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium
isotopes. These are referred to as "hot particles".

"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo,"
he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90
days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being
deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up
in car engine air filters."

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo
are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive
air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant
irritant," he explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time
they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure
them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture
have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper
West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit
pretty heavy in April."

Blame the US?

In reaction to the Fukushima catastrophe, Germany is phasing out all
of its nuclear reactors over the next decade. In a referendum vote
this Monday, 95 per cent of Italians voted in favour of blocking a
nuclear power revival in their country. A recent newspaper poll in
Japan shows nearly three-quarters of respondents favour a phase-out of
nuclear power in Japan.

Why have alarms not been sounded about radiation exposure in the US?

Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation has been among Barack Obama's
biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in
Illinois where Obama was senator. Exelon has donated more than
$269,000 to his political campaigns, thus far. Obama also appointed
Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's
Nuclear Future.

Dr Shoji Sawada is a theoretical particle physicist and Professor
Emeritus at Nagoya University in Japan.
He is concerned about the types of nuclear plants in his country, and
the fact that most of them are of US design.

"Most of the reactors in Japan were designed by US companies who did
not care for the effects of earthquakes," Dr Sawada told Al Jazeera.
"I think this problem applies to all nuclear power stations across
Japan."

Using nuclear power to produce electricity in Japan is a product of
the nuclear policy of the US, something Dr Sawada feels is also a
large component of the problem.

"Most of the Japanese scientists at that time, the mid-1950s,
considered that the technology of nuclear energy was under development
or not established enough, and that it was too early to be put to
practical use," he explained. "The Japan Scientists Council
recommended the Japanese government not use this technology yet, but
the government accepted to use enriched uranium to fuel nuclear power
stations, and was thus subjected to US government policy."

As a 13-year-old, Dr Sawada experienced the US nuclear attack against
Japan from his home, situated just 1400 metres from the hypocentre of
the Hiroshima bomb.

"I think the Fukushima accident has caused the Japanese people to
abandon the myth that nuclear power stations are safe," he said. "Now
the opinions of the Japanese people have rapidly changed. Well beyond
half the population believes Japan should move towards natural
electricity."

A problem of infinite proportions

Dr Ramana expects the plant reactors and fuel cores to be cooled
enough for a shutdown within two years.
"But it is going to take a very long time before the fuel can be
removed from the reactor," he added. "Dealing with the cracking and
compromised structure and dealing with radiation in the area will take
several years, there's no question about that."

Dr Sawada is not as clear about how long a cold shutdown could take,
and said the problem will be "the effects from caesium-137 that
remains in the soil and the polluted water around the power station
and underground. It will take a year, or more time, to deal with
this".

Gundersen pointed out that the units are still leaking radiation.

"They are still emitting radioactive gases and an enormous amount of
radioactive liquid," he said. "It will be at least a year before it
stops boiling, and until it stops boiling, it's going to be cranking
out radioactive steam and liquids."

Gundersen worries about more earthquake aftershocks, as well as how to
cool two of the units.

"Unit four is the most dangerous, it could topple," he said. "After
the earthquake in Sumatra there was an 8.6 [aftershock] about 90 days
later, so we are not out of the woods yet. And you're at a point
where, if that happens, there is no science for this, no one has ever
imagined having hot nuclear fuel lying outside the fuel pool. They've
not figured out how to cool units three and four."

Gundersen's assessment of solving this crisis is grim.

"Units one through three have nuclear waste on the floor, the melted
core, that has plutonium in it, and that has to be removed from the
environment for hundreds of thousands of years," he said. "Somehow,
robotically, they will have to go in there and manage to put it in a
container and store it for infinity, and that technology doesn't
exist. Nobody knows how to pick up the molten core from the floor,
there is no solution available now for picking that up from the
floor."

Dr Sawada says that the creation of nuclear fission generates
radioactive materials for which there is simply no knowledge informing
us how to dispose of the radioactive waste safely.

"Until we know how to safely dispose of the radioactive materials
generated by nuclear plants, we should postpone these activities so as
not to cause further harm to future generations," he explained. "To do
otherwise is simply an immoral act, and that is my belief, both as a
scientist and as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing."

Gundersen believes it will take experts at least ten years to design
and implement the plan.

"So ten to 15 years from now maybe we can say the reactors have been
dismantled, and in the meantime you wind up contaminating the water,"
Gundersen said. "We are already seeing Strontium [at] 250 times the
allowable limits in the water table at Fukushima. Contaminated water
tables are incredibly difficult to clean. So I think we will have a
contaminated aquifer in the area of the Fukushima site for a long,
long time to come."

Unfortunately, the history of nuclear disasters appears to back
Gundersen's assessment.

"With Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and now with Fukushima, you can
pinpoint the exact day and time they started," he said, "But they
never end."

SOURCE: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html

[Taka]

Smog from China spurs new gov't guidelines on going outside

The Environment Ministry has announced that it will recommend the
public do not venture outside unless necessary on days on which fine
particulate air pollution is high.

Particulate air pollution is believed to be coming from China to
Japan. The smog has been dubbed PM2.5 in Japan. These particles, which
are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in size, tend to penetrate into the
lungs and the circulatory system. A study published in the Journal of
the American Medical Association indicates that PM2.5 leads to high
plaque deposits in arteries, causing vascular inflammation and a
hardening of the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks and other
cardiovascular problems.

Fuji TV reported Tuesday that the Environment Ministry says it is
considering recommending people do not go outside unless necessary
when the airborne density exceeds 35 micrograms per cubic liter. It
will also recommend avoiding the use of ventilation while at home.
Separate recommendations are to be drawn up for those with a history
of heart and lung problems.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that fine particulate
air pollution causes mortality from cardiopulmonary disease, mortality
from cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lung, and mortality from
acute respiratory infections in children under 5 years of age.
Researchers suggest that even short-term exposure at elevated
concentrations could significantly contribute to heart disease.

The ministry claims that there is insufficient data to determine the
potential health problems that may be caused by an increase in fine
particulate air pollution. However, it has announced plans to call on
130 local governments to set up monitoring stations to aid future
research.

Meanwhile, the ministry said its website has been overloaded as
worried users log on to try to find out what is coming their way.
“Access to our air-pollution monitoring system has been almost
impossible since last week, and the telephone here has been constantly
ringing because worried people keep asking us about the impact on
health,” said an environment ministry official.

Pictures of Beijing and other Chinese cities shrouded in thick,
choking smog played out across television screens in Japan last week.
News programs have broadcast maps showing a swirl of pollution
gathering strength across China and then spreading out over the ocean
toward Japan.

Pinks, reds and oranges that denote the highest concentrations form a
finger of smog heading toward Kyushu.

Toshihiko Takemura, an associate professor of Kyushu University who
runs an air pollution monitoring site, said “the impact of air
pollution originating from China on Japan was scientifically
discovered more than a decade ago. Especially in Kyushu, the level of
air pollution has been detectable in everyday lives since a few years
ago.”

Takemura said that people with respiratory diseases, as well as small
children, should take extra care to avoid the problems.

SOURCE: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/smog-from-china-spurs-new-govt-guidelines-on-going-outside

------------------

Fortunately, the Chinese NPPs are too young to go boom and affect the
downwinders ... Funny though that no one is talking about the
Fukushima hot particles stuck in people's lungs, it's a taboo and all
cancers will be blamed on the Chinese PM2.5 scrape goat.

Taka

[John H. Gohde]

On Feb 22, 4:08 am, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Smog from China spurs new gov't guidelines on going outside

Is Fukushima part of a cosmic cleansing process?

Just remember, Taka, to eat plenty of fatty Fukushima pork!

[Taka]

Bluefin Tuna Caught Near California Still Radioactive Years After
Fukushima

[...] researchers have found trace levels of radiation still lingering
in [bluefin tuna] flesh almost two years after the catastrophe at the
nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. And the 50 tuna they studied were
all caught off the coast of California, 6,000 miles east of Japan,
where they were born.

The tuna that registered the highest levels of radioactivity were
those that migrated to California in 2011, soon after the accident,
but those that migrated in 2012 also demonstrated above-normal levels
of radiation. Monte Burke at Forbes writes that the results of the
study suggest “there is still a high level of radiation in the waters
near the Fukushima plant most likely because, as marine chemist, Ken
Buessler, asserts, the plant is still leaking radiation into the ocean
nearly two years later.”

[...] it’s alarming that radioactivity is still popping up. [...]

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/huffpost-alarming-that-radioactivity-is-still-showing-up-in-bluefin-tuna-near-california-contamination-most-likely-still-leaking-from-fukushima

[Taka]

READ: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/02/foodstuffs-from-tohoku-are-just.html

[Taka]

DNA damage and health effects

DNA is deemed the most important target of radiation leading to
effects on health. Ionizing radiation causes several types of DNA
damage directly or indirectly. While the repair machinery in the cell
processes the damage, some areas could remain unrepaired or be
misrepaired.

When unrepaired/misrepaired damage unduly accumulates in a cell, or
when the damage results in a lethal mutation, the cell deteriorates
and dies. This can manifest as impaired organ function and a
destruction of tissue structure. This kind of effect is called an
adverse tissue reaction or deterministic effect. If the fraction of
deteriorated/dead cells in the tissue remains small, no symptoms will
become clinically evident since the defects are compensated for by the
large majority of normal cells. Hence, adverse tissue reactions appear
at doses above a certain threshold, and follow the dose response
illustrated in Fig. 4A. The threshold value differs among tissues. The
most sensitive organ is the testis with a threshold dose of 100 mGy
for temporary infertility. An embryo is also sensitive, and
malformation could be induced at doses above 100 mGy during the period
of major organogenesis.(8) In the Fukushima accident, no one seems to
have been exposed to doses above any threshold for tissue reactions,
and this type of effect is not an issue.

Misrepaired DNA damage is not always lethal to cells. The resultant
mutation is often compatible with cell viability. Although most viable
mutated cells are thought to have little or no influence on health,
some could contribute to malignant transformation. Germ cells could
also carry critical mutations that result in heritable diseases in
later generations. Given that cancers and heritable effects arise from
a single mutated cell, their incidence is thought to increase with
dose with no threshold as shown in Fig. 4B. The cancerous and
heritable effects of radiation are collectively called stochastic
effects.

While the nature of radiation-induced DNA damage as well as imperfect
repair forms a strong basis for the linear non-threshold (LNT) dose
response for cancer induction, things may change when higher order
protective functions are taken into account. Misrepaired, mutated
cells could be eliminated by apoptosis, cell competition, and
immunological surveillance. If such protective functions work more
efficiently at lower doses, the dose-response would be non-linear, and
there might be a threshold. Furthermore, some phenomena mainly found
in cultured cells could possibly complicate the situation, including
adaptive responses in cells pre-exposed to a low dose of radiation,
bystander effects in cells that are not directly irradiated, and
genomic instability that manifests in the progeny of irradiated cells
many generations after exposure. Currently it is unclear to what
extent these three phenomena are active in vivo, and how they are
inter-related

Delayed effects of low level acute irradiation and chronic
environmental radioactive contamination on DNA lymphocytes of people
living in Dolon, a settlement located in the vicinity of the
Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (Kazakhstan).
[link to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

[snip]

These results suggest that people exposed 50 years ago to relatively
small doses of external irradiation and/or still living in an
environment contaminated by small amounts of long life radionuclides,
still present DNA damage which is in agreement with other
cytogenetical studies performed at the same site, on the same
population.

MORE: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16797057

[Taka]

Nuclear Expert Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education: One of
the things I’ve discovered when I look at the drawings, the accident
movies, you see the plume going down on the ground, which didn’t
happen at Chernobyl. Chernobyl burned upward […]

At Fukushima the plume goes down, it’s something called ‘Building Wake
Effect’. So I think that the exposures in close, in the 20 and 30 and
40 km range are actually going to be higher than we saw at Chernobyl
and because of the fact all of the stacks and everything that was
designed to get that radioactivity up in the air were destroyed
because they had no electricity to run the fans. [...] you’ll have to
listen to my speech*.

The Unit 3 low lying MOX plume on March 16-17, 2011 that meandered
slowly across the Tokyo Metroplex is of enormous interest to
independent researchers, but well-shunned by Japanese nucleocrats.

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/gundersen-fukushima-plume-down-ground-chernobyl-due-building-wake-effect-radiation-exposure-going-be-higher-people-nearby-audio

[Taka]

Radioactive Fish Found In California: Contamination From Fukushima
Disaster Still Lingers

[...] A report released earlier this month by researchers at Stanford
University’s Hopkins Marine Station found that bluefin tuna caught
just off the California coast tested positive for radiation stemming
from the incident. [...]

Daniel Madigan, one of the study’s authors, explained that this study
shouldn’t give people pause about eating tuna caught in the Pacific.
“We’re exposed to radiation in almost all of the food we eat,” he
explained.

“Cesium itself isn’t safe, but the size dose that someone would get
from eating this tuna would be,” Madigan added [...]

Interestingly, this radioactive contamination may ultimately prove to
be a boon to the species.

[...] as Forbes notes, the perception that bluefin tuna are
contaminated with radiation may lead more restaurants shying away from
serving the fish, which would likely go a long way tamping down on the
overfishing [...]

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/huffpost-radioactive-fish-found-in-california-is-it-a-good-thing

------------------------

Thanks nuclear industry for protecting the wildlife from the human
predators!

Taka

[Taka]

Brace for impact and NPP meltdowns this summer (at least according to
Paul LaViolette):

http://starburstfound.org/superwaveblog/

[Taka]

JournalRadiat Res. 1996 Mar;145(3):361-81.

Toxicity of inhaled plutonium dioxide in beagle dogs.

Muggenburg BA, Guilmette RA, Mewhinney JA, Gillett NA, Mauderly JL,
Griffith WC, Diel JH, Scott BR, Hahn FF, Boecker BB.
Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute, Alburquerque, New Mexico
87185, USA.

This study was conducted to determine the biological effects of
inhaled 238PuO2 over the life spans of 144 beagle dogs. The dogs
inhaled one of two sizes of monodisperse aerosols of 238PuO2 to
achieve graded levels of initial lung burden (ILB). The aerosols also
contained 169Yb to provide a gamma-ray-emitting label for the 238Pu
inhaled by each dog. Excreta were collected periodically over each
dog's life span to estimate plutonium excretion; at death, the tissues
were analyzed radiochemically for plutonium activity. The tissue
content and the amount of plutonium excreted were used to estimate the
ILB. These data for each dog were used in a dosimetry model to
estimate tissue doses. The lung, skeleton and liver received the
highest alpha-particle doses, ranging from 0.16-68 Gy for the lung,
0.08-8.7 Gy for the skeleton and 0.18-19 for the liver. At death all
dogs were necropsied, and all organs and lesions were sampled and
examined by histopathology. Findings of non-neoplastic changes
included neutropenia and lymphopenia that developed in a dose-related
fashion soon after inhalation exposure. These effects persisted for up
to 5 years in some animals, but no other health effects could be
related to the blood changes observed. Radiation pneumonitis was
observed among the dogs with the highest ILBs. Deaths from radiation
pneumonitis occurred from 1.5 to 5.4 years after exposure. Tumors of
the lung, skeleton and liver occurred beginning at about 3 years after
exposure. Bone tumors found in 93 dogs were the most common cause of
death. Lung tumors found in 46 dogs were the second most common cause
of death. Liver tumors, which were found in 20 dogs but were the cause
of death in only two dogs, occurred later than the tumors in bone and
lung. Tumors in these three organs often occurred in the same animal
and were competing causes of death. These findings in dogs suggest
that similar dose-related biological effects could be expected in
humans accidentally exposed to 238PuO2.
PMID: 8927705

[None Given]

I recall a scattering fragments of an uranium alpha source go down on my pants
and mostly to the floor. Pity the janitor if he vacuumed the room.

Over looking the Columbia river in a lab, then not now.............Trig

[None Given]

Hocus pocus. Someone has been reading "Ringworld" or
whatever the title was. Science fiction from 30 years
ago or so.

[Taka]

Japan's "Long War" to shut down Fukushima

Just months after Quince was deployed to inspect Japan's tsunami-
devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the $6 million robot got
trapped in its dark and winding pathways.

Seventeen months later, the high-tech soldier is still missing in
action - a symbol of a daunting decommissioning project that will take
decades, require huge injections of human and financial capital and
rely on yet-to-be developed technologies.

"It's like going to war with bamboo sticks," said Takuya Hattori,
president of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum and a 36-year veteran
of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, known as Tepco.

The war began after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck
northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a huge tsunami. Walls of
water 13 metres (43 feet) high smashed into the Fukushima plant north
of Tokyo, knocking out its main power supply, destroying backup
generators and disabling the cooling system. Three reactors melted
down as a series of hydrogen explosions rocked the plant.

In the ensuing weeks, hundreds of Japanese workers and soldiers
battled to contain the crisis. Their arsenal of weapons was often
improvised, low-tech and underpowered. Helicopters dumped buckets of
water over the plant to cool it. Electricians laid a cable to connect
the plant to a power source miles away in what may have been the
world's longest extension cord.

The world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl a quarter century
earlier called into question Japan's vaunted reputation for
bureaucratic competence and leading edge technology.

The reactors were declared to be in a stable state called cold-shut
down in December 2011. But now Japan faces an unprecedented clean-up
that experts say could cost at least $100 billion for decommissioning
the reactors and another $400 billion for compensating victims and
decontaminating areas outside the plant.

Tepco said in November the costs of compensation to residents and
decontamination of their neighborhoods might double to 10 trillion yen
($107 billion) from a previous estimate. That did not include a
forecast for decommissioning.

Two years after the disaster, cleanup of communities around the plant
is haphazard. Much of the work has been handed to Japanese
construction companies with little relevant experience. Townships
around the plant say the cleanup is behind schedule, while
contaminated dirt, leaves and rubble removed by cleaning crews pile up
all over Fukushima with no government decision in sight over its final
storage space.

The Japan Center for Economic Research, a Tokyo-based think tank, has
estimated that decontamination costs alone in the Fukushima
residential area could balloon to as much as $600 billion.

Shutting down the 40-year-old Fukushima plant itself poses unique
challenges. A Tepco-government roadmap envisages starting to extract
spent fuel from the most badly damaged of the station's seven storage
pools, which contain 11,417 new and used fuel assemblies, only later
this year. Melted fuel debris is to be removed from the reactors from
2021 and the entire project wrapped up within 30 to 40 years.

Officials say the project is mostly on schedule and Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe's government wants to speed up the timetable. Experts,
however, say it may already be too ambitious.

"It's a pipe dream," Michio Ishikawa said of the four-decade target
shortly before he retired last year as chief adviser at the Japan
Nuclear Technology Institute, adding it could take decades more.

Reuters reporters visited the plant three times since February 2012
and interviewed dozens of experts, officials, engineers, workers and
industry executives to compile the first comprehensive report on the
decommissioning project.

Many of those interviewed expressed serious concerns about a lack of
vital technology, a potential labour shortage and the vast amount of
funds Japan's heavily indebted government will need to spend.

FOG OF WAR

At the leafy campus of Chiba Institute of Technology's Future Robotics
Technology Center east of Tokyo - nerve center for Fukushima robotics
projects - students and engineers are working flat out to create
machines to go where none has gone before.

Some nap on make-shift beds surrounded by robot parts at the Center's
airy loft-like building while others slurp noodles as they stare at
computer screens or fiddle with smartphones.

A slim 20-something research scientist uses a simple joystick to make
an advanced version of the lost Quince robot climb stairs, turn around
in a narrow landing, and descend.

Quince was first deployed in June 2011 and was carrying out a survey
of one of the reactors when the operators lost contact with the
machine later that October. Attempts to retrieve the robot have
failed, though developers conjecture one day they will find Quince and
it could give them valuable information about the effects of prolonged
radiation on electronics.

The new version, called "Sakura" or Cherry Blossom, can navigate
narrower spaces and, unlike its predecessor, plug into a battery
charging station on its own.

Technology, however, must still be developed to accomplish even the
most basic first step - the ability to find and repair leaks in the
reactors and fill them with water to shield human workers from high
radiation emitted by the debris.

"It's like the fog of war," said John Raymont, president of U.S.-based
Kurion Inc, which supplied a water treatment system briefly used to
filter contaminated water at the plant. "They are only now getting to
know what the problem looks like."

So far, Tepco has only managed to insert remote controlled cameras,
similar to endoscopes, into outer vessels of the reactors. The effort
has obtained little useful data on the fuel debris, a vital first step
before technology to remove it can be developed.

One potential device being considered is a fish-like swimming robot
that would glide inside the doughnut-shaped suppression chambers
filled with water to create detailed maps.

A key reason for the belated effort to develop such technology was
Japan's reluctance to acknowledge the possibility of atomic disasters.
Doing so would have contradicted a decades-old myth of nuclear safety.
Robots developed after a 1999 nuclear accident at Tokaimura near Tokyo
ended up in science museums after research was abandoned.

"The government didn't spend more money after that to develop robots.
That's because people were obviously going to ask, 'Wait, is there
going to be a situation so dangerous that humans can't enter the
plant?'," said Eiji Koyanagi, vice director of the Future Robotics
Technology Center.

The first robots into the plant were U.S.-made Packbots, which were
deployed just after the disaster to enter areas heavy with radiation.

Tepco's most immediate challenge is to remove spent fuel from pools at
the plant, starting with reactor No.4, where more than 1,500 rods rest
inside a pool that was exposed to the atmosphere after an explosion
blew off the top of the unit's building.

Debris from the top of the reactor building, where radiation levels
are too high for humans, has had to be removed painstakingly using
cranes and other lifting equipment to get to the spent fuel pool.

That project has a special sense of urgency given concerns another big
quake could further damage the building, although Tepco says the
structure was reinforced to withstand shaking as intense as in the
March 2011 quake.

Another fraught task is to treat and store the contaminated water that
results from cooling the reactors to keep them in a stable state at
below 100 degrees Celsius. The contaminated water is flooding reactor
building basements and threatening to seep into the ocean and
groundwater.

WOUNDED WARRIORS

Fukushima Daiichi plant sits like a carbuncle on Japan's northeast
coast 240 km (150 miles) from Tokyo. Its damaged reactors still seep
radiation, although at a rate of 10 million Becquerel per hour for
cesium versus about 800 trillion right after the disaster.

Becquerel per hour measures the amount of radiation emitted or the
rate of radioactive decay. As atomic isotopes decay, they spin off
energized particles that can penetrate human organs and damage human
cells, potentially causing cancer. To minimise the dangers to human
health from radiation, the government is enforcing a 20-kilometre no-
go zone around the plant.

Every day the roughly 3,000 workers who will enter the plant assemble
at a base camp - a former sports complex called J-Village - on the
edge of the exclusion zone.

There, they don full-body protective suits, rubber gloves and plastic
shoe guards. Once at the plant, they put on face masks to keep from
inhaling radioactive particles.

Front-line workers, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity,
complain about working in the stifling protective gear, the relatively
low pay, loneliness - and stress.

About 70 percent of a sample of workers surveyed by Tepco late last
year made more than 837 yen ($9) per hour, while a day labourer in
that part of Japan can earn as much as 1,500 yen per hour.

Wages are lower than those offered locally for other jobs requiring
similar skills, including decontaminating and rebuilding areas further
from the plant, said Junji Annen, a professor at Chuo University who
last year chaired a panel on Tepco's finances.

"The money is getting worse and worse, and who would want to come and
work under these conditions?" a heavy machinery operator in his 40s
said as he unwound in the Ai Yakitori bar in Hirono, a town about 40
km from the plant, where dormitories have sprouted up for workers.

"I get stomach aches. I am constantly stressed. When I'm back in my
room, all I can do is worry about the next day," added the worker,
employed by a small subcontractor. "They should give us a medal."

Mental health experts compare the stress to that suffered by soldiers
at a battle front. Moreover, public outrage at Tepco has spilled over
into attitudes toward workers.

"Tepco workers are at risk of following in the steps of Vietnam
veterans, many of whom were rejected by society on their return,
became homeless, committed suicide or got addicted to alcohol and
drugs," said Jun Shigemura, a lecturer in the psychiatry department of
the National Defense Medical College who conducted a survey of 1,500
Tepco nuclear workers.

The decommissioning plan says authorities can supply enough workers
through the decades ahead, but signs of potential shortages are
evident, partly because workers are "burning out" by reaching their
radiation limits.

As of the end of December 2012, 146 Tepco workers and 21 contract
workers had exceeded the maximum permissible exposure of 100
millisieverts in five years, Tepco data showed.

Eight workers have died at the plant, including two on the day of the
tsunami. None of the deaths were caused by radiation.

GROPING IN THE DARK

The industry faces a shortage of nuclear engineers as well as blue-
collar workers in the decommissioning work for both Fukushima Daiichi
and other ageing reactors.

Abe's conservative Liberal Democratic Party-led government has
scrapped its predecessor's plan to exit atomic energy by the 2030s but
has yet to map out an alternative energy programme. Public safety
concerns persist - a recent poll showed 70 percent want to abandon
atomic power sooner or later - clouding the industry outlook.

For example, at the University of Tokyo, applications for advanced
nuclear engineering degrees fell about 30 percent for the year from
April from the previous year and Tokyo City University saw a similar
decline in applicants for its undergraduate nuclear engineering
programme in the academic year starting in April 2012 from 2010.

"Who will clear up the mess after the accident? It will be young
people like us," said Yuta Shindo, a 25-year-old master's student at
Tokyo City's nuclear engineering department. "We are the ones who will
be working on this decades from now."

Cleaning up the mess will mean total demolition of the four damaged
reactor facilities and disposal of the nuclear waste in a yet-to-be
determined site, an end-game likely to face opposition from potential
host communities.

Japan has rejected the "sarcophagus" option used at Chernobyl, where
the damaged reactor was encased in a massive concrete envelope. This
is partly because of the difficulty of monitoring an entombed facility
to ensure safety, said Kentaro Funaki, director of the industry
ministry's office in charge of decommissioning.

Estimates for total costs are mostly guesswork. "Only God knows," said
Chuo University's Annen.

Whatever the final bill, Japanese consumers are likely to end up
paying much of it, either through taxes, higher electricity rates or
both, even as Japan's government struggles with massive public debt
and the costs of an ageing population.

That may be unpopular but also inevitable.

"This kind of job has never been done," said Keiro Kitagami, a former
lawmaker who headed a government task force overseeing R&D for the
project. "The technology, the wherewithal, has never been developed.
Basically, we are groping in the dark."

SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-japan-fukushima-idUSBRE92417Y20130305

[Taka]

This year, on the second anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
disaster, the author would like to pose the following questions, and
invite the reader to do the same.
The Fukushima Disaster is old news…right?

Nuclear power plants are not dirty bombs…right?

Fukushima is no Chernobyl…right?

Radiation from Fukushima Daiichi didn’t affect any other nations…
right?

To date, all attempts to model or accurately measure the core damage
and radiation releases from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant in the wake of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami have
proved incomplete, unreliable, and admittedly unable to accurately
replicate the sequence of events, largely due to the lack of
information available.[1] Two years after the onset of the nuclear
disaster, all efforts put forward by the nuclear industry around the
world have proved inadequate to stem the tide of public opinion and
active opposition to nuclear power.

Still, much has been said about the radioactive releases from
Fukushima Daiichi, but one thing remains certain; anyone who attempts
to make definitive statements as to minimize the size or scale of the
release can do no better than to offer some rudimentary stab at the
issue, as the data released to date is woefully insufficient. What
little recorded data has been published and peer reviewed has yielded
some startling results, which may infer some insight into why so many
pro-nuclear voices have been so quick and adamant in their downplaying
of the disaster.

Fukushima Daiichi is still in the ‘Early Stages’ of the disaster

In December of 2011, the Japanese government declared the end to the
immediate crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, stating that the reactors had
reached a state of “cold shutdown”. This was an abominable attempt
to persuade the world that the Fukushima disaster was mitigated,
controlled, and in the past.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published Protective
Action Guidelines (PAGs), which detail the planned response to any
nuclear disaster in the United States. According to PAGs, every
disaster is broken into three phases, the early stage, the
intermediate stage, and the late stages.

Prior to moving from the early stage to any subsequent stages, a
incomplete and limited checklist of required items must be cleared.
To move from the early stage to the intermediate stage, one merely
needs to do two things, first control the source release, and lastly
secure the source.

At Fukushima Daiichi, workers have been unable to locate any of the
three melted cores, and as of March 2013, there are still over 10
million becquerels per hour[2], or 240 million becquerels per day, of
radioactive cesium being released from the reactors.

Now, TEPCO attempts to minimize these numbers by pointing out that the
cesium release from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactors was about
800 trillion becquerels per hour right after the disaster, but the
fact remains, that a 10 million becquerel release would be a nuclear
disaster in itself at any nuclear facility not named Fukushima Daiichi
or operated by TEPCO.

Considering the fact that workers have failed to locate three out of
three melted cores, and have also failed to control source releases,
according to EPA PAGs, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is still
in the ‘Early Stage’.

Radiation releases from commercial reactors greater than nuclear
weapons

It has been common for pro-nuclear advocates to downplay concerns
about the torrid history between the nuclear industry and military
factions, the safety of nuclear power plants, or the unexpected
hydrogen explosions at Fukushima Daiichi, often with the defense that
commercial facilities are not capable of generating an explosion
comparable with a nuclear bomb.

Shortly after the explosion at the Unit 2 reactor early in the
morning, IAEA Director General Yukio Amano told reporters from The
Associated Press, “There is no longer [a] chain reaction of nuclear
material. Reactor vessels and primary containment vessels … stay
intact. The release of radioactivity is limited.”[3] But onsite,
radiation levels were so high, that they even lead NRC officials on
the other side of the ocean to quickly identify that nuclear fuel was
in the environment outside of the buildings.[4]

The Fukushima nuclear disaster emphatically proved that they do not
have to, and still have potential for far worse releases and fallout
than the one dropped in Hiroshima. In August 2011, main stream news
reports ran articles relating the Cesium 137 release from Fukushima
Daiichi to the Hiroshima style nuclear bomb. The comparison only
included the levels of cesium-137 released into the atmosphere during
the first four days of the nuclear disaster, limiting the amount of
radiation the crippled reactors emitted to 15,000 terabecquerels.

Subsequent analysis would increase the estimated release from
Fukushima exponentially, but the press never revisited the
comparison. More recent studies have estimated that some 27.1 PBq of
Cs-137 was released at Fukushima Daiichi into the ocean just during
the first four months of the disaster. Additionally, studies have
placed the aerial release between 36.6 PBq and 66 PBq for the first
week of the disaster. Conservatively adding the 27.1 PBq aqueous
release with the 36.6 PBq aerial release yields a 63.7 PBq combined Cs
137 release.

The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima released 89 terabecquerels of
Cesium 137 for comparison.[5] Here is the stunner; there are 1,000
terabecquerels in every petabecquerel. This means every petabecquerel
of cesium-137 that escaped from the Fukushima Daiichi reactors was
more than the amount released in 100 Hiroshima bombs. This means that
even severely limiting the data to only the estimated amounts of
Cesium-137 during the first week of aerial release and first four
months of aqueous release, the total equaled the same amount which
would be released by over 6,350 Hiroshima nuclear bombs.

Comparing Fukushima source to Chernobyl

It has also been popular for pro-nuclear lobbyists to promote the idea
that the release at Fukushima Daiichi was not equal to or greater than
Chernobyl, and even more, that the potential source release was never
on a scale comparable to the 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster.

At Chernobyl, the radiation source was confined to the inventory of
one reactor, and by using data provided by a 2000 UNSCEAR report to
establish the core source at Chernobyl, we can compare it to the
Fukushima Daiichi source term as provided in the Stohl report released
in 2012.

Chernobyl Cesium 137 Inventory and Release

Cesium 137
Total Inventory 290 PBq 2.9 x 1017
30% of Inventory Released 85 PBq 8.5 x 1016

Fukushima Daiichi Cesium 137 Inventory

Cesium 137 Inventory in Reactor Cores
Unit 1 240 PBq 2.4 x 1017 82.7 % of Chernobyl
Unit 2 259 PBq 2.59 x 1017 89.3% of Chernobyl
Unit 3 259 PBq 2.59 x 1017 89.3% of Chernobyl
Total Cesium Inventory in Units 1 – 3 758 PBq 7.58 x 1017 > 260% of
Chernobyl

Cesium 137 Inventory in Spent Fuel Pools
Unit 1 221 PBq 2.21 x 1017 76.2% of Chernobyl
Unit 2 449 PBq 4.49 x 1017 > 150% of Chernobyl
Unit 3 396 PBq 3.96 x 1017 > 135% of Chernobyl
Unit 4 1,110 PBq 1.11 x 1018 > 380% of Chernobyl
Total 2,176 PBq 2.17 x 1018 > 750% of Chernobyl

Combined Cesium 137 Inventory
Unit 1 461 PBq 4.61 x 1017 > 1,000% greater than Chernobyl
Unit 2 708 PBq 7.08 x 1017 > 240% greater than . Chernobyl
Unit 3 655 PBq 6.55 x 1017 > 225% greater than Chernobyl
Unit 4 1,110 PBq 1.11 x 1018 > 380% greater than Chernobyl
Reactors and SFPs 2,934 PBq 2.93 x 1018 > 1,000% greater than
Chernobyl

This data shows the Cesium 137 inventory in the reactors of Units 1
through 3 were each over 80% of the total inventory at Chernobyl.
Additionally, the cesium inventory in the reactors at Fukushima
Daiichi was only one-quarter of the total amount contained on-site.

Each of the spent fuel pools in Units 2 through 4, were at least 150%
the size of Chernobyl. Unit 4 contained not only a full spent fuel
pool, but additionally held a full core offload, making its total
inventory nearly 4 times that of Chernobyl alone.

Adding up all of the Cesium 137 inventory in the spent fuel pools
combined, the total (2,934 PBq) was the equivalent of over ten
Chernobyls (290 PBq), even without the reactor inventories added in to
the sum.

Releases from on-going nuclear disasters have far reaching effects

Since the first early hours of the disaster, TEPCO has been misleading
and downright lying to workers on-site and locals around the nuclear
power plant, misleading officials in Tokyo and attempting to
manipulate investigations, and destroying the faith citizens around
the globe in their own governments and nuclear power plant
operators. Officials knew they had to do something, there were over
100,000 Americans known to be in Japan, and 1,300 of them lived in the
areas most affected by the earthquake and tsunami and were now in the
reach of the nuclear disaster.[6]

Anyone who made any public statements about the situation at Fukushima
Daiichi which did not help the public to feel calm and reassured were
deflected with the “we’ll review for scientific validity” defense.[7]
Even worse than downplaying the concerns about nuclear safety, the
government and the industry proactively worked hand in hand to
convince and assure the public that the radioactive releases from
Fukushima Daiichi were never above negligible levels at international
recording stations, let alone a threat to other nations around the
world.

On Thursday, March 17th, 2011, President Barack Obama made his first
public statement on the nuclear disaster, sternly advising Americans
not to worry. ”I want to be very clear,” he said at the White House.
“We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast,
Hawaii, Alaska or U.S. territories in the Pacific.”[8]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, “We do not expect to see
radiation at harmful levels reaching the U.S. from damaged Japanese
nuclear power plants”, and the Environmental Protection Agency and
other federal bodies parroted this statement for months in nearly
every press release related to the on-going crisis and radiation
releases from the plant. Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission would later add that Americans should not be concerned
about the spread of radiation to the West Coast of the United States
and Hawaii, because even if a nuclear meltdown were to occur,
releasing significant amounts of radiation, it would take at least six
to 10 days to reach the West Coast.

“These releases from the plant, because they’re not elevated, because
they’re not getting up high in the atmosphere, they won’t travel very
far,” said Kathryn Higley, director of the department of nuclear
engineering at Oregon State University. “There are so many factors in
our favor. Rain will knock it down. There are 5,000 miles of ocean
between us and Japan. It will be diluted, it will mix with sea spray,
long before it gets remotely close to us.” Higley admitted that she
had spent copious amounts of time in the early days responding to the
public outcry and urging calm. She told ABC news, “We have monitoring
capability here in the U.S. that is extraordinarily sensitive. We can
detect radiation that is like a hundred-thousandth of what you get
from a regular X-ray, and we don’t expect to see even that. For the
stuff to travel, it has to be picked up by the wind,” she said,
“higher-level winds that have global distribution. And that’s just not
happening. This is a little like a campfire — the smoke is all near
the ground.”

Edward Morse, a nuclear engineer at the University of California,
Berkeley, said in an e-mail to ABC News. “The levels will not be
threatening to life and health but they will be observable.”

“If any radiation were to make it here, it would be merely background
levels,” said Jere Jenkins, the director of Radiation Laboratories at
Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. “Nothing for people on the
West Coast or people in the United States to be concerned about.”

There were some rare flashes of concern, but they were greatly washed
out by the repetitive rhetoric and downplay. Realistically, if
leaders really did have a grasp on the situation and the potential
outcomes, once the President of the United States tells the nation
that there is no harm, there should have been no need for the constant
barrage of “me too” statements.

“This is very, very radioactive material,” cautioned Kenneth Bergeron,
a physicist who worked at Sandia National Laboratories. “If there is
core on the floor and containment penetration, there will be
significant public health consequences.”

“We are all-out urging the Japanese to get more people back in there
to do emergency operation there, that the next 24 to 48 hours are
critical,” an American official told ABC News. If cesium and other
radioactive elements with long half-lives get into the air, “that
could be deadly for decades,” the official said.[9]

Jeff Masters, a former meteorologist at the National Weather Service
who now works at Wunderground.com said, “Any radiation at current
levels of emission that might reach these places may not even be
detectable, much less be a threat to human health.”[10]

Ok, but enough of what people were saying, what were the facts? On
Tuesday, March 15th, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that
radiation dose rates of up to 400 millisievert (mSv) per hour had been
reported at the Fukushima plant site immediately following one of the
explosions. In comparison, a typical chest X-ray exposes an individual
to about 0.02 mSv.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano would reveal that levels had risen
to over 1,000 millisieverts, before the dose level began falling again
to 600-800 millisieverts per hour, which is still considered unsafe
for workers. ”So the workers cannot carry out even minimal work at
the plant now,” Edano said. “Because of the radiation risk, we are on
standby.”

“Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows
and make your homes airtight. Don’t turn on ventilators. Please hang
your laundry indoors,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said to the
residents in the danger zone. “These are figures that potentially
affect health. There is no mistake about that.” But according to NRC
documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, sheltering
in place doesn’t really add that much protection for the public.

Seven US Navy ships were quickly dispatched to the affected eastern
coast of Japan to conduct relief operations, but were moved farther
downwind from the plant on Sunday, March 13th, after naval personnel
on the USS George Washington, a U.S. aircraft carrier assisting in the
recovery efforts, detected low levels of radiation, prompting military
personnel to take precautions that included limiting outdoor activity.

According to 7th Fleet Commander and Spokesman Jeff Davis, the
radiation was first detected by air particulate detectors aboard three
helicopters located 60 miles away from the shoreline, while returning
to the carrier from a relief mission to the quake and tsunami ravaged
city of Sendai. After the helicopters landed on the carrier,
radioactive contamination was found on the exterior surface of three
aircrafts.

Detectors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan also rang out while it was
located 100 miles north east of the crippled plant, and the ships’
crew was exposed to “a very low level of radiation” from a plume
emitted by the plant according to reports. After following
decontamination protocols, 17 crewmembers aboard and the three
helicopters were tested and found to have been exposed to low levels
of radiation, and some were found to have clothes and skin
contaminated. All of the contaminated clothing was discarded, showers
were ordered all around with adequate amounts of soap and water.[11]

What officials didn’t publicize, was that the USS Ronald Reagan had
detected 0.6 millirem of radiation just in direct gamma radiation
cloudshine from the plume passing overhead, that air samples also
taken were 30 times normal background of air out at sea, and all this
was over 100 nautical miles from the plant. This was much more
significant than experts had thought, but still consistent with known
containment venting operations at the Fukushima Daiichi plant (a
critical point we will come back to later). To be honest, experts had
not even expected that level at 25 miles away, let alone 100, at those
levels it would take less than 10 hours to reach levels which would
require the establishment of protective action guidelines.[12]

Officials also didn’t mention that crewmembers were found contaminated
up to 2,500 disintegrations per minute in some parts of their
clothing. They definitely didn’t talk about the fact that at an Air
Force Base south of Tokyo, health physics teams had measured 1.5 mSv
(150 millirem) per hour thyroid doses in the air.[13] Remember, a
typical chest X-ray exposes an individual to about 0.02 mSv (20
millirem).

What caused the hydrogen explosions?

Officials and experts were completely unprepared for the size and
devastating veracity of the hydrogen explosions; which ripped apart
the Fukushima Daiichi reactor buildings, could be felt over 25 miles
away, and left such vivid imprints on the minds of all who viewed the
media footage.

For days after the explosions, officials at emergency command centers
around the world stood nearly hypnotized watching and re-watching the
explosions at the plant, even though by then a gray plume of smoke
could be seen rising from Unit 3 on the command center’s television
long after the explosions had occurred. Everyone had been helpless
while watching the Unit 3 building ripped apart, there was nothing
which could be done even though it was the primary focus of concern,
even though Secretary Yukio Edano had said the government knew an
explosion there was possible after the Unit 1 building was destroyed
on Saturday, March 12th.

There have been a lot of quiet whispers in solemn halls of late, of
reports and studies which suggest that the amounts of hydrogen just
from fuel cladding failure in the reactors would be enough to generate
the size of the explosions that were actually witnessed. Some
questions have been raised which ask if the majority of the hydrogen
was produced from concrete ablation as nuclear fuel escaped the
reactor pressure vessel and began attacking the steel and concrete
containment structures which house the reactor vessels.

On March 15th, 2011, Dr. Peter Hosemann, a nuclear energy expert and
professor at the University of California at Berkeley did not think
so, telling the press, “Having too much of the fuel rods exposed for
too long of a time can lead to the core melt. Again, if a core melt
happens, the reactor pressure vessel and the containment are designed
to contain it.”

Some of the brightest minds at national laboratories in the United
States have been studying the ex-vessel core melt at the Fukushima
Daiichi reactors. They haven’t been able to draw a conclusive thread
yet, but some research is suggesting that concrete ablation may have
played into the Unit 1 reactor building explosion. This may prove to
ring true, as it corroborates with radiation measured by the USS
Ronald Reagan, which detected radiation levels that corresponded with
venting operations on-site, and NRC officials are not the only ones
who have admitted that fuel elements have been scattered on-site and
up to half a mile away from the explosions, they just haven’t been
able to track it back to one specific source over another.

How Japan nuked the world

In conducting the research for this article, the author again returned
to the 2012 Stohl study published in the Atmospheric, Chemistry, and
Physics Journal, focusing on the Xenon-133 and Cesium-137 released
from Fukushima Daiichi.[14]

At the end of the Abstract, the authors note that, “Altogether, we
estimate that 6.4 PBq of 137Cs, or 18% of the total fallout until
April 20th, were deposited over Japanese land areas, while most of the
rest fell over the North Pacific Ocean. Only 0.7 PBq, or 1.9 % of the
total fallout were deposited on land areas other than Japan.”

The casual reader may easily gloss over this, the author did when it
was first published, likely too distracted by the fresh details of the
noble gas release, which was the largest in history on record, easily
exceeding Chernobyl. But, 0.7 PBq, is also 700 TBq, which is
equivalent to 700,000,000,000,000 becqerels of Cesium 137, which was
deposited on land areas other than Japan. Not just that which passed
over, (multiple times as the Fukushima plume was found to traverse the
globe every 40 days), but that which was deposited on land areas other
than Japan.

At a limited yield of only 89 TBq per detonation, the amount of Cesium
137 which is proposed to have deposited on lands other than Japan,
after passing over large expanses of sea and land, is greater than
that which would be produced by detonating more than seven and a half
Hiroshima-style nuclear bombs in the skies directly overhead.

All of this Cesium, the equivalent to that generated by seven and a
half nuclear bombs is thought to have deposited on foreign lands, even
more, at least the equivalent of that generated by more than four
hundred nuclear bombs, is known to have passed over and deposited
elsewhere or still traverse the upper limits of the atmosphere, and
North America is one of the first recipients of whatever the
prevailing winds drag across the Pacific Ocean, yet none of the EPA
guidelines were exceeded.

Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Are you not reassured?

SOURCE: http://enformable.com/2013/03/two-years-have-passed-since-japan-nuked-the-rest-of-the-world/

[None Given]

So the USA has another batch of downwinders. Bill later.
I suppose the failed candidate for VP will propose cutting the Vet's care.

I131/I124..............................Trig

[Taka]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys

2 Years Ago Today: New York Times reports U.S. would be harmed only by
‘full meltdown’ at Fukushima — Months later it’s revealed ‘full
meltdowns’ occurred

New York Times, William J. Broad, March 13, 2011: Blogs were churning
with alarm. But officials insisted that unless the quake-damaged
nuclear plants deteriorated into full meltdown, any radiation that
reached the United States would be too weak to do any harm.

A few months later…

CNN, June 7, 2011: Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an
earthquake and tsunami in March, the country’s Nuclear Emergency
Response Headquarters said Monday.

Wikipedia: As the water boiled away in the reactors and the water
levels in the fuel rod pools dropped, the reactor fuel rods began to
overheat severely, and to melt down. In the hours and days that
followed, Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced full meltdown.

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/2-years-ago-today-nytimes-reports-u-s-would-be-harmed-by-full-meltdown-at-fukushima-months-later-its-revelaed-there-were-three-full-meltdowns

[Taka]

Biogeosciences Discuss., 10, 4127-4156, 2013
doi:10.5194/bgd-10-4127-2013

Does the Fukushima NPP disaster affect the caesium activity of North
Atlantic Ocean fish?

G. Kanisch and M.-O. Aust
Thünen Institute of Fisheries Ecology, Marckmannstraße 129b, 20539
Hamburg, Germany

Fillet samples of marine fish collected from the East/West Greenland
current (GC) and from the Baltic Sea (BS), have been investigated by
gamma-ray spectrometry within the regular German monitoring program.
In samples of the second half of 2011 134Cs traces have been detected,
suggested to originate from the Fukushima fallout being deposited in
March/April 2011 over the northern North Atlantic and accumulated by
fish. The radionuclide 134Cs (half-live 2 yr) was indeed detected with
quite small activities at about 0.0036 Bq kg−1 w.w. Existing box-
models describing the transport of Cs within seawater boxes of the NE
Atlantic allowed estimating that 134Cs contributions from other
sources, i.e. from the Chernobyl fallout and from discharges by the
two major European nuclear reprocessing plants, both were negligible
around Greenland, while for the Chernobyl fallout a small 134Cs
background contribution to BS fish was estimated. Model results
confirmed the level of 134Cs measured in BS fish and showed its
maximum to have occurred in winter 2011/2012 followed by a continuous
decrease. It was also determined that 134Cs activity, but not that of
134Cs, showed a significant negative correlation with sampling depth
(150–400 m) of GC fish; this strengthens our Fukushima fallout
assumption. As a result, the Fukushima fallout in these sea areas only
marginally enhanced (GC: 4%; BS: 0.1%) pre-Fukushima levels of
individual dose rates received by human fish consumers; the addition
was around 0.001 μSv following the consumption of 10 kg fish per year,
which is not expected to cause concern according to present guidelines
for radiation protection.

SOURCE: http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/10/4127/2013/bgd-10-4127-2013.html

http://enenews.com/study-up-to-47-quadrillion-becquerels-of-cesium-137-flowed-into-pacific-nearly-50-times-tepcos-original-estimate

[Taka]

NOAA's HYSPLIT Model on Fukushima Radioactive Aerosol Dispersion

as published by NOAA on March 1, 2012.

In the model below, the highest radioactivity (in red) starts to
appear in Fukushima after about 0 UTC on March 14, 2011, and it
continues until around March 21, 2011. Japan is nine hours ahead of
UTC. On March 14, 2011, TEPCO was attempting the vent of Reactor 2 and
Reactor 3. The explosion of Reactor 3 building happened at 11:01 AM
that day.

From NOAA's Science on a Sphere page:

The Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT)
model was developed by NOAA to follow the transport and dispersion of
pollutants in the atmosphere. In HYSPLIT, the computation is composed
of four components: transport by the mean wind, turbulent dispersion,
scavenging and decay. A large number of pollutant particles, which by
convention are called "particles" but are just computational
"points" (particles or gases), are released at the source location and
passively follow the wind.

The 2011 Tohuku East Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami caused a
variety of failures at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant which
resulted in radioactive emissions to the atmosphere. The earthquake
occurred on March 11th at 14:26 Japan Standard Time (JST), the tsunami
about one hour later at 15:41, and by 16:36 a nuclear emergency was
reported. By the early morning hours of March 12th, radioactive
emissions were occurring from the plant.

In this dataset, the simulation from NOAA's HYSPLIT model shows a
continuous release of tracer particles from 12-31 March at a rate of
100 per hour representing the Cesium-137 emitted from Fukushima
Daiichi. Each change in particle color represents a decrease in
radioactivity by a factor of 10. Radioactivity decreases due to
removal by rainfall and gravitational settling. Decay is not a factor
for Cesium in this short duration simulation compared to its 30 year
long-half life. The air concentration would be computed from the
particle density so it is only partially related to the color scale.
The released particles are followed through the end of April using
meteorological data from the 1-degree resolution NOAA global
analyses.

Notable Features

Particles with the highest radioactivity were released around March
15th

Radioactivity is measured in units of Becquerel defined as the
disintegration of one atom per second

Particles in counter-clockwise circulations are caught in low-pressure
systems resulting in greater depletion of the radioactivity by
rainfall

Particles caught in clockwise circulations are embedded in fair
weather high pressure systems and their radioactivity will persist for
longer periods

In general, radioactivity reaching the United States showed air
concentrations over 1000 times smaller than areas near Japan

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/03/noaas-hysplit-model-on-fukushima.html

[Taka]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt62U__PkQA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFhdbW9JXxs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQd32orLz1A

[Taka]

NHK News translated by EXSKF, March 15, 2013: The density of
radioactive cesium in the seawater inside the harbor at Fukushima I
Nuclear Power Plant has stopped going down for some time. [...] The
research group at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology
did its own calculation in order to figure out why the density of
cesium-137 in the seawater inside the Fukushima I Nuke Plant harbor
has remained at about 100 becquerels/liter since spring of 2012 [...]
According to the calculation, 44% of seawater inside the harbor is
replaced by the current and the tides in one day. In order for the
cesium-137 density to be what is published, 8 to 93 billion becquerels
per day must be flowing into the harbor. [...]

NHK WORLD, March 15, 2013: [Experts] are calling for a thorough
investigation. [...] According to their calculation, about 16.1
trillion becquerels of cesium 137 may have leaked into the sea in the
year since June 2011. [...] Professor Jota Kanda, one of the team
members, said that based on the data, it is unlikely the contaminants
resulted from rainwater draining through the soil. He said groundwater
may be the source. He said another possibility is damaged pipes in the
compound. TEPCO officials [...] say they don’t think that radioactive
substances are leaking into the sea from the plant compound. [...]

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/japan-researchers-93-billion-becquerels-day-be-leaking-pacific-fukushima-plant-cesium-levels-havent-dropped-last-year

[Taka]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpA0TOgB9-o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Jfx2kEi_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vua6uuJO_c

[Taka]

Radioactive man and his animals:

http://www.vice.com/read/radioactive-man-japan

[Taka]

Should We Be More Worried About Nuclear Sushi?

If you’re like me, you prefer your sushi slathered with just enough
spicy wasabi to inflict a painfully pleasurable jolt of heat. But even
if you’re not a fan of the bright green, searingly hot sushi-bar
condiment, I’m guessing you’d still probably opt for it over a far
less appetizing source of heat: radiation. Specifically, radioactive
metals that were deposited into the sea near the coastal city of
Fukushima, Japan, after the nuclear accident that took place there two
years ago this week.

In two separate instances in 2011 and 2012, quantities of ionizing
radiation were found in samples of bluefin tuna that had migrated from
waters near the site of the Fukushima disaster, where the large fish
spawn, to the southern California coastline, where they were
eventually caught. In the first of these instances, Daniel Madigan, a
marine biology graduate student at Stanford, bought 15 tuna steaks
from dockside fishermen in San Diego and sent them off to a lab for
testing. Madigan knew the migration patterns of the bluefin; at the
time, which was less than six months after the accident, he was acting
on little more than a hunch.

When the lab results came back, however, he was shocked to learn that
every one of the 15 steaks had tested positive for the presence of two
radioactive metals that had leached into the ocean after the meltdown:
cesium-134 and its far more dangerous cousin, cesium-137. As a more
methodologically formal follow-up, last year Madigan tested 50 more
slabs of SoCal-caught tuna to see if he could still pick up any cesium
signals. He did. (A report based on the study was published last month
in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology,
which is published by the American Chemical Society.)

Stories you’ll read about Madigan and his unsettling findings all have
one thing in common: buried somewhere, usually about halfway down the
page, is a paragaph telling you not to get too freaked out about the
idea of hot tuna, given several facts. According to Madigan's own
report, the cesium levels he found in the tuna gave off less
radioactivity than other, naturally occurring isotopes that could be
found in the fish. The broader implication is that we’re all being
exposed to varying levels of naturally occurring radiation (often
referred to as “background radiation”) as we go about our daily lives.
This “Don’t panic!” narrative is then typically reinforced with a
comforting-sounding comparison between the amount of radiation you’re
likely to ingest by eating Fukushima-irradiated tuna and the amount
you’re likely to ingest by, say, eating a banana (which is rich in
potassium, a radioactive isotope).

But maybe it’s actually worth unpacking that comparison just a bit.

For starters, the potassium in bananas -- levels of which our bodies,
via homeostasis, calibrate and keep at a relative constant -- can't be
compared in good faith to a truly nasty radionuclide like cesium-137,
which is commonly found in the immediate aftermath of nuclear-reactor
accidents and nuclear-weapons tests. (To get severe radiation
poisoning from bananas, you’d have to eat about 20 million of them. In
1987, a small cake of cesium-137 that had been pried out of a
discarded piece of medical equipment ended up killing four people who
came in contact with it, and sickened hundreds more.)

But even more significantly, these comparisons rarely, if ever, cite
in any depth the theory that has become a cornerstone of the modern
science surrounding low-dose radiation exposure and its role in the
eventual development of cancer. In a nutshell, this theory, which was
developed in the late 1950s and is known today as the linear no-
threshold model (LNT), holds that there is no agreed-upon “safety
threshold” for ionizing radiation, and that in terms of cancer risk,
there’s no real difference between one big dose of radiation and a
bunch of little doses. As the National Academy of Sciences concluded
in its 2006 review committee report: “A comprehensive review of the
biology data led the committee to conclude that the risk [from
radiation exposure] would continue in a linear fashion at lower doses
without a threshold and that the smallest dose has the potential to
cause a small increase in risk to humans.”

The LNT model isn’t without its doubters and skeptics. But as of right
now, those skeptics don’t include organizations such as the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, and others considered to be among the more trusted sources
of scientific opinion. Taken together, these official affirmations of
the LNT should be thought of as representing the scientific consensus
-- at least until such time as the voices of dissent begin to
outnumber the voices of agreement. But that day seems unlikely.

So if the LNT is good enough to be accepted by the likes of the EPA,
and low-dose radiation is showing up in bluefin tuna that’s presumably
making it to market, then why aren’t federal agencies like the Food
and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration suddenly making lots of announcements about suspect
sashimi? Two months after the Fukushima disaster -- which, it’s worth
remembering, represented the largest accidental release of
radioactivity into the ocean in human history -- these two agencies,
in a joint announcement, declared that the presence of “longer-lived
radionuclides such as Cs-137” had not been detected by the FDA “in any
fish imported from Japan,” and also that “longer-lived radionuclides
found by Japanese tests have been at levels below the FDA threshold”
considered to be unsafe -- and, even then, not found in any tuna.
Madigan’s research would seem to belie that assertion.

The answer may be, quite simply, that when it comes to things nuclear,
an official policy of non-alarmism tends to trump one that would give
consumers as much information as they’d like -- and deserve -- to
have. In a special 2012 issue of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
dedicated to the single topic of low-dose radiation, Gordon Thompson,
executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies,
wrote about this phenomenon:

Within the policy realm, experts should not support the LNT hypothesis
and then distance themselves from its logical implications. They
should, therefore, recognize the existence of real, but masked, health
effects at low radiation doses, albeit with some quantitative
uncertainty. […] Public fear does not provide a reason to hide the
logical implications of the LNT hypothesis. An attempt by experts to
hide these implications is likely to be counterproductive. The truth
would probably be revealed eventually, leading to diminished public
faith in the relevant experts and in science in general. Ultimately,
public fear could be exacerbated. Also, when experts consider public
fear, they should account for contemporary views on individual agency.
In past years, well-meaning doctors would often withhold a diagnosis
of cancer to avoid alarming a patient. Now, such behavior is generally
regarded as patronizing and obsolete.

In a 2012 ABC News report that ran in the wake of Madigan’s first
bluefin study, Dr. Michael Harbut, director of the Environmental
Cancer Program at Wayne State University’s Karmanos Cancer Institute,
expressed his concern over the same unwillingness of authorities to be
open with the public. “We don’t see people dying left and right all
over the West Coast from radiation poisoning,” Harbut acknowledged.
“But to say this is nothing to worry about is equally irresponsible,
because you have radioactive material ingested by fish, which is in
turn being eaten by people.”

He then added, “I think that the appropriate government agencies have
to appoint appropriately trained people to give the public an honest
assessment. Not something tailor-made for ignorance, like ‘This will
definitely kill you,’ or ‘This poses absolutely no risk to human
health.’ We’ve gone too far in poisoning the world to settle for
simple ‘yesses’ and ‘nos’ like that.”

Understandably, government authorities and scientists don’t want to
unduly alarm citizens and consumers. But their nonchalance regarding
the impacts of low-dose radiation runs counter to the official
scientific consensus. At best it engenders ignorance; at worst it
instills a false sense of security. Both outcomes preclude people from
fully participating in their own health decisions. By glossing over
the accepted science in favor of doling out more smiling assurances,
the reaction these authorities are presumably trying to avoid -- alarm
-- is the one they’ll end up achieving.

SOURCE: http://www.onearth.org/blog/nuclear-sushi

[John H. Gohde]

I prefer no sushi at all.

[Taka]

Radioactive wild boars found in Italy

Turin - Samples taken from 27 wild boars captured in northern Italy
during the hunting season revealed the animals to be radioactive.
Traces of the radioactive isotope cesium-137 exceeded the legal limit
by 10 times.
The Italian Health Ministry carried out routine tests on wild boars in
the Piedmont mountain area and discovered radioactive contamination in
27 boars. According to Sina the Enea Radiation Protection Institute
stated "the cesium-137 is an artificial radionuclide produced by
nuclear fission, and is released from nuclear sites."
To Vima reported Italian Health Minister Renato Balntoutsi said teams
of experts will try to solve the "mystery of cesium" by testing
samples of water and soil in the area. Rabbits, hares and deer will
also be tested for the presence of cesium.
Experts from the regional institution for environmental monitoring
ARPA consider the most likely cause of the radioactive contamination
is from Chernobyl.

SOURCE: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/345364

------------------------

Next watch the gamekeepers! Taka

[John H. Gohde]

On Feb 25, 9:26 pm, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Radioactive Fish Found In California: Contamination From Fukushima
> Disaster Still Lingers

While Taka glows in the dark, too bad that his posts do NOT. :(

YOU have my condolences.

[Taka]

Title: The ambient gamma dose-rate and the inventory of fission
products estimations with the soil samples collected at Canadian
embassy in Tokyo during Fukushima nuclear accident

Source: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Author: Weihua Zhang, Judah Friese, Kurt Ungar
Date: April 2013, Volume 296, Issue 1, pp 69-73

In this study, soil samples were collected at Canadian embassy in
Tokyo (about 300 km from Fukushima) on 23 March and 23 May of 2011 for
purposes of estimating concentrations of radionuclides in fallout, the
total fallout inventory, the depth distribution of radionuclide of
interest and the elevated ambient gamma dose-rate at this limited
location. Some fission products and actinides were analyzed using
gamma-ray spectrometry, alpha spectrometry and liquid scintillation
counting. The elevated activity concentration levels of 131I, 132I,
134Cs, 137Cs, 136Cs, 132Te, 129mTe, 129Te, 140Ba and 140La were
measured by the gamma-ray spectrometer in the first sample collected
on 23 March. Two months after the accident, the 134Cs and 137Cs became
only detectable nuclides. A mass relaxation depth of 3.0 g/cm2 was
determined by the activities on the depth distribution of 137Cs in a
soil core. The total fallout inventory was thus calculated as 225 kBq/
m2 on March sampling date and 25 kBq/m2 on May sampling date. [...]

Also from Tokyo: “Cesium detected was 230,000 becquerels per square
meter, 6 times as high as the limit set for the radiation control zone
to restrict one from taking an item out of the control zone.”

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/study-fukushima-fallout-at-tokyo-embassy-was-225000-bqm%c2%b2-exceeds-limit-set-for-radiation-control-zones

[None Given]

On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 3:13:27 AM UTC-8, John H. Gohde wrote:
> On Dec 17, 8:03 pm, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > http://enenews.com/shock-officials-make-mandatory-fukushima-rice-scho...
>
> >
>
> > "…What do you call large groups of psychopaths killing their own
>
> > children, by the thousands?.."
>
> >
>
> > Democracy?
>
> >
>
> > A Regime of Lunatics….
>
>
>
>
>
> Much like a looney Science Pscho talking to himself on these ngs, No?

If the US of A was glowing in the dark, I'd be talking to myself
and I have my own condolences. But fear not John you're get traces
of the disaster at the nuclear park. What a lovely siting option,
5X a the mess with multiple melt downs.

when is the next big one near the coast?...............Trig

[Taka]

The radioactive legacy of the search for plutopia

Cold war dreams of producing nuclear bombs fuelled shocking radiation
experiments by US and Soviet governments, reveals Kate Brown's
Plutopia

MAKING plutonium for nuclear bombs takes balls, but not in the way you
might think. In 1965, scientists at the Hanford nuclear weapons
complex in Washington state wanted to investigate the impact of
radiation on fertility - and they weren't hidebound by ethics.

In a specially fortified room in the basement of Washington State
Penitentiary in Walla Walla, volunteer prisoners were asked to lie
face down on a trapezoid-shaped bed. They put their legs into
stirrups, and let their testicles drop into a plastic box of water
where they were zapped by X-rays.

The experiments, which lasted for a decade and involved 131 prisoners,
came up with some unsurprising results. Even at the lowest dose - 0.1
gray - sperm was damaged, and at twice that dose the prisoners became
sterile. They were paid $5 a month for their trouble, plus $25 per
biopsy and $100 for a compulsory vasectomy at the end so they didn't
father children with mutations.

The testicle tests are just one of many disturbing details Kate Brown
has unearthed from the official archives in her fascinating nuclear
history. She also tells how tunnels created by muskrats undermined one
of Hanford's storage ponds, causing 60 million litres of radioactive
effluent to pour into the Columbia river.

And there is the scary tale of how Hanford scientists conducted one of
their riskiest experiments, later dubbed the "green run". For 7 hours,
they processed highly radioactive "green" fuel that had not been
allowed to decay for as long as usual - and showered 407,000
gigabecquerels of radioactive iodine over nearby cities. The green run
is said to have been an attempt to mimic what the US thought the
Soviet Union was doing to boost plutonium production at its Mayak
nuclear weapons plant at Ozersk, in the Urals.

It is the looking-glass links between Hanford and Mayak, and the
communities that host them, that form the central theme of Brown's
book. They were two secretive citadels, dedicated to producing as much
plutonium as possible to fuel the cold war arsenals of the world's two
opposing superpowers. They both conferred wealth and privilege on
their elite staff, copying each other to create what Brown styles as a
"plutopia".

But the two vast, creaking, nuclear complexes also deliberately
discharged huge amounts of radioactivity into the environment, cut
corners and caused countless accidents and leaks. Brown estimates that
during their existence they each released at least 7.4 billion
gigabecquerels, four times the amount released by the accident at the
Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine in 1986.

The rivers that drain the two sites, the Columbia and the Techa, have
both been called the most radioactive in the world, and many thousands
of people who live downstream and downwind say the contamination has
made them sick. These are, says Brown, "slow motion disasters" created
and covered up by state machines.

Brown argues that the US and the Soviet Union both subverted science
to maintain the plutopia. The most shocking example was the US Atomic
Energy Commission's takeover of seminal Japanese research into the
health impacts of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This was necessary, according to a senior AEC official in 1955, to
ensure that "misleading and unsound reports" were "kept to a minimum".

Brown's account is unique, partisan and occasionally personal in that
she includes some of her thoughts about interviews she conducted: for
example, she recounts how she ended up becoming friends with one
interviewee. But because she is open and thorough about her sources,
those are strengths to be celebrated, not weaknesses to be deplored.
It also means her book is engaging, honest and, in the end, entirely
credible.

SOURCE: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2013/03/plutopia.html

[Taka]

The former Fuji TV announcer Yamakawa, “Home grown rice and vegetables
caused me health problems in Chiba”

A former Fuji TV announcer Yamakawa commented on Twitter that he was
growing rice and vegetables in his house in Ichihara city Chiba, and
it caused him health problems. He states it was an experimental
attempt by sacrificing his own health.

I’m sorry to worry you for being sick a little while ago. Some people
pointed out it was because I was consuming the agricultural products
that I planted by myself. I think that is true. After 311, I thought
Boso area (Chiba) would definitely be contaminated too, but I kept on
growing rice. As expected, radioactive material was detected from the
products.

No wonder the harvested rice was contaminated, so I couldn’t have my
family eat it. However, I didn’t want to waste rice so I had it
myself. I had the rice harvested last year too. I have been eating it
for one year and a half. In a sense, it was an experiment on my own
body. When I fell down, I thought it started in the end. I put a
period to farming here.

Since 311, I’ve been observing my health condition. I’ve felt
something wrong with the respiratory organs, the digestive organs and
the circulatory organs, continuously and intermittently. I’m sure it
was due to the home grown rice and vegetables at least partially. It
was for my personal consumption, but it is a matter of life or death
for professional farmers. Radioactive contamination is really cruel.

SOURCE:
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/03/the-former-fuji-tv-announcer-yamakawa-home-grown-rice-and-vegetables-caused-me-health-problems

[Taka]

Physicians report increased cancers around nuclear site — Birth
defects, still births, spontaneous abortions on rise

[...] the ‘Interim Report on Tarapur’ has found indicators which show
radiation-related problem among employees of Tarapur Atomic Power
Station (TAPS) and villages close to it. [...]

Cancer, goitre, infertility, mental retardation common [...]

Goitre cases have also been found in the surrounding villages, local
physicians corroborated in the report. [...]

Cases of mental retardation, including Down’s Syndrome, autoimmune
arthritis, particularly rheumatoid arthritis, were found in villagers
along with high instances of cataract and myopia at a young age. [...]

Dr V Pugazhenthi from Tamil Nadu, renowned for studies on the health
impact of radiation around the Kalpakkam nuclear site

“I found 100 cases of cancer in 2010 among TAPS employees. Local
physicians said that incidents of cancer have been on the rise in the
area in the last few years, particularly hepatoma, ovarian cancer,
bone cancer, breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But there has
been no intervention for the victims.”
“A casual walk through the villages helped me identify 15-20 Goitre
cases. TAPS doctors had carried a survey on thyroid problems by the
medical superintendent denied it.”
“Spontaneous abortions, still births, hormonal imbalances in women in
the form of excessive bleeding, decreased birth weight and birth
defects on the rise.”

RK Gupta, who worked for Bhabha Atomic Research Centre for over 30
years in the fuel reprocessing division in the plutonium plant

“Exposures are a regular affair. Workers have died of skin diseases
and cancer. Despite this, international rules for workers are not
fully implemented. There is a silence about this as people compromise
because of their economic condition. Even contaminated tools that are
stolen and scarp metal slow poison people. Just like people get
poisoned from fish exposed to radiation very far from the site.”

MORE:
http://enenews.com/scientist-local-physicians-say-cancers-on-rise-near-nuclear-site-birth-defects-still-births-spontaneous-abortions-increasing

[Taka]

Females age 18 and over wanted for work at destroyed Fukushima nuclear
plant -- "A job even women can do... it will last a very long time"

A job opening at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant: women
accepted! [...]

You can make money! We will let you make money! It's a job even women
can do.

This job will last a very long time. [...]

Job location is Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP (1F) with low dose radiation
(10-20 μSv)/day.

Job description is clean-up activity. [...]
Age limit: under consideration, but will most likely be between age 18
and 62.

MORE:
http://enenews.com/report-women-ages-18-and-up-wanted-for-work-at-destroyed-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant-a-job-even-women-can-do-it-will-last-a-very-long-time

[Taka]

On Mar 25, 3:21 pm, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Females age 18 and over wanted for work at destroyed Fukushima nuclear
> plant -- "A job even women can do... it will last a very long time"
>
> A job opening at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant: women
> accepted! [...]
>
> You can make money! We will let you make money! It's a job even women
> can do.
>
> This job will last a very long time. [...]
>
> Job location is Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP (1F) with low dose radiation

> (10-20 ìSv)/day.

>
> Job description is clean-up activity. [...]
> Age limit: under consideration, but will most likely be between age 18
> and 62.
>

> MORE:http://enenews.com/report-women-ages-18-and-up-wanted-for-work-at-des...

Good for cancer patients. Instead of paying money for radiation and
chemo therapies get paid for being irradiated!

[Taka]

The True Story of the Government Programs That Tried to Build an
Atomic Heart

And the craziest part of the atomic artificial heart program wasn't
the atomic part.

In 1967, the National Heart Institute and the Atomic Energy Agency
began a ten-year effort to develop an artificial heart powered by
plutonium-238. The atomic hearts would have pumped human blood with
the energy provided by the radioactive decay of that isotope. The
effort failed thanks to technical challenges, intra-governmental
infighting, and the souring of the public mood about both medical
devices and atomic energy, but it remains a fascinating episode at the
confluence of two grand American dreams.

This is the story told by Shelley McKellar, who teaches the history of
medicine at at the University of Western Ontario in the most recent
issue of the quarterly journal Technology and Culture.

The Federally funded programs continued for a decade, sometimes at
cross-purposes, and they foreshadowed the rhetoric that came to
surround later attempts at creating other types of artificial hearts
in the 1980s. There are lessons to be learned, McKellar implies, about
how people receive a particular technology changes along with the
social and regulatory environment. Ideas that make sense one decade
can seem totally ridiculous ten years later.

But, you might be asking yourself, "What in the hell was anyone even
thinking trying to stick a radioisotope generator into a human being's
chest cavity?"

Fair question.

If you take the goal for an artificial heart to be the true
replacement of the human heart in perpetuity, then power becomes a
primary concern, trumping all other engineering constraints. When
contractors like Westinghouse Electric and McDonnell-Douglas offered
bids for the government work, they made sure to note the atomic
solution as the only possibility.

"Each proposal declared the radioisotope-powered engine as the only
possible energy solution for a completely implantable device."
McKellar explained. "The ideal implantable device meant no external
lines or connections from the patient to outside power sources and a
ten-year reliability span. By comparison, conventional batteries
required recharging multiple times each day from an external source
and would need to be explanted from patients every two years."
And, if you're a promoter of the value of radioisotopes in all
things, then you might go looking for places where power is a primary
concern. As one William Mott, who became the project coordinator the
Atomic Energy Commission's atomic heart program put it, "We were
always on the alert for new problems to match with our solutions."

Looking back, it's fascinating how confident the scientists of the
time were that the engineering challenges of embedding a radioactivity-
powered device into a body could be overcome. The NHI and AEC battled
over the proper way of conducting the research: the NHI created a non-
atomic intermediary device that they implanted into animals, while the
AEC promoted an all-at-once design strategy. But both agencies saw the
problems as fundamentally soluble.

With the benefit of 50 years of hindsight, we know that, so far at
least, there is no "ideal implantable device." Total artificial hearts
(as distinguished from heart assist devices) are, at best, a stopgap
measure. They're used to as a last-ditch bridge measure while patients
await transplants of other human hearts. We've learned a lot of other
things about cardiology in the last 50 years, but one thing remains:
nothing we can make comes close to working as well as your heart
except another human heart.

That is to say: The craziest part of the atomic artificial heart
program wasn't the atomic part.

MORE: http://enenews.com/us-govt-made-nuclear-powered-hearts-using-plutonium-implanted-into-humans

[Taka]

Cancer Rates Skyrocket In Iraq, Thanks To American Depleted Uranium
Who are the real terrorists?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNi_1pbSqGY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzzLspNw1M

[None Given]

The Techa is a creek not a river. The Columbia river is a massive world
class river.

[Taka]

From JNES presentation (3/27/2013), unit is petabecquerel (1x10^15)
and 1 petabecquerel is 1,000 terabecquerels:

From March 11 to March 17, 2011,

I-131: 250 to 350 petabecquerels (or 250,000 to 350,000
terabecquerels)
Cs-134: 8.3 to 15 petabecquerels (or 8,300 to 15,000 terabecquerels)
Cs-137: 7.3 to 13 petabecquerels (or 7,300 to 13,000 terabecquerels)

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/03/jnes-calculation-of-amount-of.html

US Sailors Speak Out and Sue Over Contamination During Fukushima Duty

"Enis stepped out on top of the giant carrier and into a howling wind
that wrapped the radiation-contaminated rag around him like a shroud.
The fog-clouded wind was so contaminated that when Enis came back
inside he set off alarms and was rushed to decontamination."

"Unfortunately for the 5,500-plus crew of the USS Reagan, the carrier
was sent into the plumes of cesium-137, iodine-131, xenon, krypton and
other dangerous isotopes spewing from the smashed reactors and waste
pools. The Navy told crew members that their external radiation doses
were too low to warrant concern. After returning home, they were all
obliged to sign waivers swearing that they were not sick and freeing
the Navy of liability for radiation damages that may appear later."

"“As navigators, we were aware sooner than others that the ship was in
a plume of radiation,” Enis said. “And we were told not to tell the
rest of the crew about our exposures.”"

And, we have the same modus operandi for the Aircraft-Personnel
Carrier called Earth.

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/gundersen-liquid-releases-nuclear-material-will-continue-years-years-fukushima-daiichi-already-10-times-chernobyl-video

SEE ALSO:
http://enenews.com/graphic-shows-direct-discharge-fukushima-daiichi-curent-source-pacific-underground-water-flow-indicated-photo
http://enenews.com/nrc-fukushima-containment-leaking-300-day-assumed-only-1-video

Tepco’s known about this for 2 years, but has not talked about it.

That flare right here is exactly where the containment should be, and
that flare is at 128°C which means it’s not steam. Steam can’t exist
over 100°C. […] At atmospheric pressure when you boil steam you’re
only going to get to 100°C. That flare is at 128°C which means that
it’s not steam.

It means it’s hot radioactive gases being released directly from the
containment. It also means that inside the containment, it was not
below the boiling of water, it was above the boiling point of water.
There was no liquid water inside that containment.

This is on March 20, nine days after the accident. The containment is
venting hot radioactive gases directly to the environment.

This is proof positive […] they’ve known for a long time that huge
amounts of cesium were being released directly to the air because they
weren’t being trapped in the water in the suppression pool.

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/gundersen-image-shows-radioactive-thermal-flare-coming-fukushima-reactor-3-exactly-containment-be-video

Title: Airborne gamma-ray emitters from Fukushima detected in New York
State – Springer

Source: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Authors: Michael E. Kitto, Traci A. Menia, Douglas K. Haines, Shaun
E. Beach, Clayton J. Bradt, Eileen M. Fielman, Umme-Farzana Syed,
Thomas M. Semkow, Abdul Bari, A. J. Khan
Date: April 2013

An air-sampling network that operates continuously as part of New York
State’s environmental surveillance program collected radionuclides
emitted as a result of the Fukushima nuclear accident. Samples were
collected, typically for 7 days each, by drawing ~600 m3 of air
through a particulate-collecting filter followed in series by a
canister containing activated charcoal. Additional air sampling was
implemented at ~3-day intervals at two locations. Gamma-ray
spectroscopy was used to confirm the detection of 131I, 137Cs, 134Cs,
and 7Be in the particulate phase at all sites, with maximum
concentrations near 1,260, 160, 160, and 5,200 μBq/m3, respectively.
Gas-phase 131I, collected on activated charcoal, exhibited a maximum
concentration of 3,400 μBq/m3 at the sites. Assessment of radionuclide
levels in the air samples suggests that there were minimal health
impacts from the airborne radionuclides as the activities contributed
an insignificant amount to the annual human dose.

MORE: http://enenews.com/study-air-new-york-after-fukushima-disaster-hit-3400-bqm-iodine-131-gas-map

[Taka]

Two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster is Japan facing a
cancer time bomb?

TWO years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster local children are
showing signs of cancer, prompting cries of a cover-up.

IN the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear power station life appears to
have returned to normal. A farmer tends his cows and goes about his
daily routine as dogs play round his feet. Signs of spring are
everywhere and birds sing. But take a closer look and it's all a sham.

The rice fields are overgrown with weeds as tall as a man. The rest of
this village, near the scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster
since Chernobyl, is deserted. Washing still hanging on lines hints at
the panic which engulfed this region of Japan.

The farmer is among a handful of people who defied an order by the
authorities to evacuate. Beef from this area was once prized for its
taste and quality but his cows, which graze within sight of the
chimneys of the plant, should have been slaughtered and are now
worthless.

Two years after an earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown in the
reactors at Fukushima, releasing clouds of radiation, the world has
moved on.

Officially the mass evacuation was a success and the prompt action of
a heroic band of workers at the crippled plant averted a nuclear
catastrophe. No one has so far died as a result of radiation from
Fukushima, insist the authorities. However there are growing concerns
that the full scale of the disaster has yet to be seen. There are
claims of complacency and a cover-up. It's not the Japanese way to
stage protests but there has been a series of anti-nuclear rallies in
Tokyo, 160 miles south.

Most worrying are the results of tests carried out on more than
130,000 children who lived around Fukushima. More than 40 per cent
have the early signs of thyroid cancer, while other forms of the
disease may not become apparent for a decade.

While it's true that people living very close by were evacuated within
the first few days, damage may already have been done to their health.
Many more, living up to 25 miles away, were not moved away until six
weeks after the radiation escaped.

It's also feared that the food chain has been contaminated.
Radioactive material has been detected in a range of produce,
including spinach, tea leaves, milk and beef, up to 200 miles distant.
Fish caught near the plant this month were more than 5,000 times over
safe radiation limits, according to Japan's state broadcaster NHK.

Then there's the daily risk of more radiation escaping from the
smouldering plant, which is still not fully stable. It's being cooled
with vast amounts of water but workers are running out of tanks in
which to store the contaminated liquid once it has done its job.

Last week there was a scare when a rat got into a switchboard and
caused a 29-hour power cut, which disabled the cooling systems.

It showed just how fragile the efforts to avert a further radiation
leak are, and the new sea wall that has been built against future
tidal waves hardly inspires confi-dence. Japan, it seems, could have a
ticking time bomb on its hands.

tENS of thousands of people who fled Fukushima are claimed to be under
pressure to return to the area from next month. While the 12-mile zone
closest to the plant will remain off limits to all but the brave or
foolhardy, people who lived in outer areas have been told it's safe to
go home. It's claimed they have been instructed that they will not be
eligible for any compensation if they stay away.

Part of the problem is that no one seems able to agree on how serious
the risks are. Every expert has some sort of agenda which is only
adding to the confusion.

According to one scientist the radiation released was about 10 per
cent of the Chernobyl disaster, which may have caused up to a million
premature cancer deaths.

Another expert claims the true figure is nearer to 40 per cent. The
official position on radiation risks is based on the fact that very
few Fukushima residents received doses over 100 milli-sieverts per
year - the level above which some studies show is the threshold for an
increased risk of cancer. But other studies show that cancer can occur
in much lower doses.

over 100 milli-sieverts per year - the level above which some studies
show is the threshold for an increased risk of cancer. But other
studies show that cancer can occur in much lower doses.

Dr Rianne Teule, a radiation expert with Greenpeace, says: "The
potential effects of radiation from Fukushima have beenshamelessly
down played. It could be many years before we discover the real impact
and some of the risks are being ignored."

Dr Rianne Teule, a radiation expert with Greenpeace, says: "The
potential effects of radiation from Fukushima have beenshamelessly
down played. It could be many years before we discover the real impact
and some of the risks are being ignored."

According to the organisation, radiation "hotspots" have been found in
school playgrounds outside the evacuation zones. "We are most
concerned about vulnerable people, including children and pregnant
women," says Dr Teule. "The likelihood is that thousands of people are
at risk of cancer from the Fukushima disaster."

According to the organisation, radiation "hotspots" have been found in
school playgrounds outside the evacuation zones. "We are most
concerned about vulnerable people, including children and pregnant
women," says Dr Teule. "The likelihood is that thousands of people are
at risk of cancer from the Fukushima disaster."

A report by the World Health Organisation " A report by the World
Health Organisasays that for most people hit by the radiation the
likelihood of cancer is small. Among children the risk of developing
some cancers, including thyroid, leukaemia and breast, is higher than
normal. Away from the immediate area, the threat is tiny.

Richard Wakeford, of the University of Manchester and one of the
authors of the report, says that smoking is more damaging than having
been in Fukushima. Yet on an agreed international scale of one to 10
for nuclear accidents, Fukushima is rated seven. Previously Chernobyl
was the only seven on record, signifying widespread contamination with
serious health and environmental effects.

The cost of Fukushima is not only confined to the threat to physical
health. It's been reported that the suicide rate has risen among the
displaced and the number of failed marriages is much higher than
normal. There are false rumours spreading about birth defects among
Fukushima babies and some women have found themselves scorned as
possible wives.

FARMERS face ruin. The region is among the country's top producers of
tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and pears. Some restaurants and shops have
bought machines which measure radiation levels in food to try to
reassure customers. Many don't trust the government to carry out basic
safety checks which is hardly surprising because on the evening of the
disaster an official spokesman told reporters: "There is no radiation
leak, nor will there be a leak."

Others accept the authorities are doing what they can, including
washing topsoil to try to make safe contaminated farmland. Doctors
handed out iodine tablets to residents to limit absorption of
radiation. Along with a ban on fresh produce from the area, this may
have saved countless lives.

The wider issue is whether nuclear power plants should have been built
in Japan, which is close to a geological fault line and prone to
earthquakes and tsunamis. In the Sixties and Seventies rural
communities were promised new roads and jobs in return for accepting a
plant near them.

Fukushima has been described as a disaster triggered by nature but
created by man and Japan can only wait to discover the consequences.

HOW THE DISASTER UNFOLDED
THE huge earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 2011
left 20,000 people dead.

A 40ft-high wall of sea water flooded the Fukushima nuclear plant,
cutting the power supply to water pumps cooling the nuclear reactors.

There was no back-up plan because Tepco, which ran the plant, had not
foreseen total loss of power.

Disaster could have been avoided but the government delayed letting
more salt water flood in. This would have cooled the reactors but also
damaged them. The nuclear rods began to melt in three reactors and
there was a series of explosions followed by a release of radiation.

The worst of the contamination was blown north-west of Fukushima. Over
the next two months a total of 160,000 people were evacuated. Many
more chose to flee and prime minister Naoto Kan has since admitted he
feared he would have to order the evacuation of Tokyo.

A group of workers at the plant volunteered to stay on and averted a
far more serious disaster.

The men, known as the Fukushima 50, have been credited with saving
Japan. Working in shifts, they lived on biscuits and slept when they
could in a radiation-proofed bunker.

Nuclear power used to supply one third of the nation's electricity.
All 50 of Japan's nuclear plants were shut after the meltdown at
Fukushima but two have reopened to help the struggling economy.

SOURCE: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/387357/Two-years-after-the-Fukushima-nuclear-disaster-is-Japan-facing-a-cancer-time-bomb

--------------------------------

Don't forget the Japs are now also asking for a more monstrous
earthquake to destroy their islands by drilling into the ring of fire
sea floor:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/02/16/business/offshore-drilling-begins-for-methane-hydrate/

[Taka]

Why Are There Radioactive Wild Boars Roaming Northern Italy?

VERCELLI - This northern Italian city is more than 2,000 kilometers
away from Chernobyl, so it’s almost impossible to imagine how the very
same radioactive particles ended up here -- or in the innards of 27
wild boars.

Caesium-137 is a radioactive isotope, formed by nuclear fission on
nuclear sites. The particle was infamously released into the
environment during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

The Milan daily Corriere della Sera reports that 27 samples of wild
boar tongues and diaphragms from the 2012-2013 hunting season had been
analyzed, which led to the discovery of the elevated levels of the
caesium-137 -- levels that are consistent with a nuclear accident.

A mobile screening laboratory has been set up to test boars in the
region, reports sas La Stampa. Meanwhile, the land and water will be
checked by the ecologic branch of the Carabinieri police force, and
health protection units are checking all products from the region:
foraged goods, wild fruit, mushrooms, milk and cheese.

The most probable hypothesis is that the particles have been around
since the Chernobyl disaster, but toxic waste from nuclear sites in
the zone should not be ruled out.

“It can’t be anything but the fallout from Chernobyl,” said Gian Piero
Godio, nuclear expert from the Environmental Association, Legambiente.
“Other explanations just don’t make sense: the Valsesia plant doesn’t
have any radioactive sources.”

SOURCE:
http://www.worldcrunch.com/food-travel/why-are-there-radioactive-wild-boars-roaming-northern-italy-/radioactive-boars-piemonte-hunting-chernobyl/

[Taka]

North Korea: US fears comical Kim may be all-too-deadly serious

North Korea's blood-curdling threats may seem farcical. But, as
Harriet Alexander and Raf Sanchez write, the world is keeping a wary
eye on Kim Jong-un.

Some of the images from Kim Jong-un's secretive regime could have been
from a Hollywood spoof. In one photograph, the podgy dictator dressed
in his buttoned-up suit studied a map, ostentatiously labelled "US
Mainland Strike Plan".

Another showed a fleet of hovercrafts rehearsing for a marine landing
– pictures which, it was later revealed, had been photoshopped to
exaggerate the military strength of North Korea.

Yet when Kim Jong-un's government declared early on Saturday that the
"time has come to stage a do-or-die final battle", and declared
relations with South Korea to be "at the state of war", the warnings
were not being taken lightly in the world's major capitals.

"We've seen reports of a new and unconstructive statement from North
Korea. We take these threats seriously and remain in close contact
with our South Korean allies," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for
the White House National Security Council.

China appealed for calm, sensing the ratcheting up of tensions, while
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, put it succinctly. "We
can simply see the situation getting out of control," he said.

It is tempting to dismiss the sabre-rattling from Pyongyang, the North
Korean capital, as yet more of the same.

South Korea – the nemesis of the North, which describes the country as
a puppet of the US – elected a new president last month, providing the
North with an irresistible opportunity to flex its muscles, as it has
done each time a new government has come to office.

"Since 1992, the North has welcomed these five new leaders by
disturbing the peace," wrote Victor Cha and David Kang in Foreign
Policymagazine.

Others note that, despite anguish at the "state of war" declaration,
the two sides have formally remained at war since 1953.

But the peninsula is one of the most heavily-armed military
flashpoints in the world, and the North has frequently shown its
willingness to push confrontations to the brink.

An estimated 1.2 million people died in the 1950-53 Korean War, but
since the armistice that ended it was not a formal peace treaty, the
Korean peninsula has technically remained a war zone to this day.

In that time, South Korea has blossomed from a poor, agrarian nation
of peasants into the world's 15th largest economy while North Korea is
struggling to find a way out of a Cold War chasm that has left it with
a per-capita income on par with sub-Saharan Africa.

Furthermore, military experts are sceptical that North Korea is
actually capable of launching the attacks they threaten with such
venom.

The regime's most successful missile test to date was in 2006, when
the Taepodong-2 crashed into the sea after travelling only 250 miles.
The United States is more than 3,500 miles away. Narushige Michishita,
from Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, isn't
convinced North Korea is capable of attacking Guam, Hawaii or the US
mainland. But its medium-range Rodong missiles, with a range of about
800 miles, are "operational and credible" and could reach US bases in
Japan, he says.

"We know they want intercontinental ballistic missiles, but don't know
whether they have them," said James Hardy, Asia Pacific editor for IHS
Jane's Defence Weekly.

"They have managed to reverse-engineer Soviet scud missiles, and
certainly could attack South Korea and Japan with those. But scuds are
very inaccurate and it is old technology. Everything military in the
North is veiled in secrecy, so it's impossible to be know exactly what
is happening."

Partly because of the uncertainty, there remains a very real concern.
Three years ago North Korea launched a surprise attack on the South,
sinking the Cheonan warship near the disputed border and killing 46
sailors. Eight months later the North fired dozens of shells at one of
its border islands, killing two marines in the worst land attack since
the end of the Korean War. Even more worrying are the nuclear tests -
the most recent of which, on Feb 12, was double the size of previous
tests and led to a new round of UN sanctions.

Barry Pavel, a former senior director for defence policy at the White
House's National Security Council, said: "This is a dangerous
situation. It's a classic dynamic of deterrence and escalation and I'm
sure it's exactly what the Obama administration did not want."

Kim Jong-un, the 30-year-old "Supreme Leader", is still an unknown
quantity, having been in power for just over a year following the
death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011. The country of 24
million people is in itself shrouded in mystery, closed to the world
and with an estimated 200,000 held in prison camps. Defectors
occasionally escape to the outside world, but their accounts are
impossible to confirm and thought to be frequently unreliable.

Another key question is who is actually running the country: is it
Kim, or are the country's powerful generals actually pulling the
strings?

With the world's fourth largest standing armed forces - some 1.19
million people in active service - North Korea's generals wield
immense power. Since taking over, Kim Jong-un has made efforts to
model himself on his warmongering grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who
founded the professional army and sent agents to try to assassinate
the president of South Korea.

In his photos he adopts the stances and positioning of his
grandfather, while his haircut is also unmistakably similar to that of
his hardline ancestor.

Given that we know so little, it is the very secrecy that leads to so
much concern in the rest of the world. China is the only country which
has any real contact with the rulers of the pariah state – leaving
Washington and Seoul to read between the lines and interpret the
signs.

Yesterday North Korea threatened to shut down the Kaesong industrial
complex – factories just inside its border with the South, with
workers from both sides, which is the last major symbol of inter-
Korean cooperation.

"If the puppet group seeks to tarnish the image of the DPRK (North
Korea) even a bit... we will shut down the zone without mercy," said a
spokesman for the North's office.

Brian Myers, a North Korea analyst at Dongseo University in South
Korea, told The New York Times: "The North says 'If the US or South
Korea dare infringe on our territory we will reduce their territory to
ashes,' and Seoul responds by saying it will retaliate by bombing Kim
Il-sung statues. And so it goes."

The declaration of war published hours earlier used startlingly
bellicose language, raging against "the US brigandish ambition for
aggression" and vowing that "it will not be limited to a local war,
but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war".

It continued: "They should clearly know that in the era of Marshal Kim
Jong-un, the greatest-ever commander, all things are different from
what they used to be in the past."

Analysts believe that the North could launch 500,000 rounds of
ammunition on the South within the first hour of an attack. Seoul is
less than 200 miles from Pyongyang.

Yet around the Itaweon military base in Seoul – the headquarters for
the 28,500 American soldiers stationed in South Korea, and therefore
"Ground Zero" for any attack – the atmosphere this weekend was
apparently calm. "There's nothing much going on here," one American
officer said, as he ate lunch in a shopping mall. "We're not even on
alert."

Yet on Thursday the US flew two nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers on
an unusual training mission alongside South Korean forces, during
which they simulated dropping munitions on an island near the border.
In a pointed reminder to Pyongyang of the genuine reach of America's
military, the aircraft flew for 37 straight hours on a round-trip
flight from Missouri.

Earlier this month, the US announced it was bolstering its stock of
missile interceptors along the Pacific coast with an extra 14 missiles
to be deployed in Alaska - the nearest US state to North Korea - in
response to the growing threat after Chuck Hagel, the US defence
secretary, said the North had shown "advances in its capabilities". Mr
Hagel said the US was determined to stay "ahead of the threat".

Some questioned the wisdom of the US flying its stealth bombers to the
South. James Hardy, the Jane's expert, said: "The problem is that the
US may appear equally belligerent. And the question remains: why is it
doing that? Have the Americans lost patience with North Korea? Or are
they, as I think, making a statement to South Korea to show they are
backing them, and that Seoul should not overreact?"

The most extreme scenario if open conflict erupted would be the actual
launching of an attack on the US. That is also the most unlikely -
even if North Korea really has the reach. "I don't see that happening,
simply because of the response," said Adam Cathcart, an Asia expert at
Queen's University Belfast.

Other possibilities include the targeting of South Korea, or further
missile or nuclear tests. There also remains the possibility that
North Korea is in fact ramping up the tensions purely to force the
South and the US back to the negotiating table – a strategy which
looks unlikely to succeed.

Even if the North Koreans lack the technology for a missile strike
against the US, they could decide to lash out in the form of a
cyberattack or even a terrorist action carried out by their special
forces," said Mr Pavel, Director of the Brent Scowcroft Centre on
International Security.

"It's times like this when you need to have a little imagination and
be prepared for things that seem implausible just because they haven't
happened before."

SOURCE: http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/world/16639-north-korea-us-fears-comical-kim-may-be-all-too-deadly-serious.html

---------------------------------------

Japan was upwind from Fukushima but now it's downwind from the
potential nuclear "playground" of NK & US ... Given that the comical
dictator doesn't succeed in targeting Tokyo with some of his nuclear
or even worst chemical and biological warheads. Moreover he might
have some submarines delivering the payloads straight into the US, at
least these suckers succeeded with their submarines to abduct Japanese
from the coastlines in the past...

Get ready:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kOU0uusKPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZSTBv4EWnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGraGWtktrk

Taka

[John H. Gohde]

On Mar 31, 11:29 am, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> North Korea: US fears comical Kim may be all-too-deadly serious
>
> North Korea's blood-curdling threats may seem farcical. But, as
> Harriet Alexander and Raf Sanchez write, the world is keeping a wary
> eye on Kim Jong-un.
>
> Some of the images from Kim Jong-un's secretive regime could have been
> from a Hollywood spoof. In one photograph, the podgy dictator dressed
> in his buttoned-up suit studied a map, ostentatiously labelled "US
> Mainland Strike Plan".
>
> Another showed a fleet of hovercrafts rehearsing for a marine landing
> – pictures which, it was later revealed, had been photoshopped to
> exaggerate the military strength of North Korea.

Another nuclear catastrophe coming to Japan?

I, hereby, give Japan permission to do itself in, Taka; yet again.
When at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

[Taka]

(Now They Tell Us) Only 10% of Water Was Reaching #Fukushima I Nuke
Plant Reactor 1 Between March 20 and 22, 2011, As Newly Disclosed
TEPCO's Teleconference Video Reveals

It took TEPCO and the national government who owns and regulates TEPCO
more than 2 years to come clean.

It was just a few weeks ago that we finally learned that less than
half the water being injected into Reactor 3 was reaching the reactor
before the reactor building blew up on March 14, 2011, because the
pump to the condenser was dead when the power went out. Water was
filling up the condenser.

Huge spikes in radiation levels in wide areas in Tohoku and Kanto
between March 20 and 23, 2011 (as seen in the chart from Asahi
Shinbun, 8/8/2011) have been a mystery. TEPCO has so far said it
doesn't know what was causing these spikes. Fumiya Tanabe, former
researcher at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and the current
head of the Research Institute on Safety of Technology Systems, has
proposed that Reactor 3 had a second meltdown, so to speak, when the
water being injected into the Reactor Pressure Vessel dropped
significantly starting March 20, 2011, and that the melted core
dropped from the RPV to the Containment Vessel, releasing a large
amount of radioactive materials from the Containment Vessel breach
somewhere.

That may be, and now we are told that only 10% of the water being
injected from the fire hydrant was reaching Reactor 1's Pressure
Vessel, and the Pressure Vessel was near empty. Where did the
remaining 90% of water go? No one knows.

This release of radioactive materials that happened between March 20
to 23, 2011 is what contaminated the wide areas in Tohoku and Kanto,
because the release was met with the rain.

One of the local papers in Fukushima picked up the scene from the
teleconference videos that TEPCO recently made available which covers
the period from March 16 to April 11, 2011. I don't think anyone else
did. Another set of videos covers the period from March 11 to 15,
2011.

From Kahoku Shinpo (3/31/2013; emphasis is mine):

90% of water injected into Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1 may have
leaked, the plant management knew by water pressure

TEPCO's teleconference video during the Fukushima I Nuclear Power
Plant accident has revealed that there is a possibility that after the
power was lost, about 90% of the coolant (water) injected into Reactor
1's Pressure Vessel leaked before it reached the reactor. The plant
personnel seem to have known about the leak from the discharge
pressure of a fire hydrant. As not enough water was entering the
reactor, the reactor core was further damaged during the period from
March 20 to 22, 2011, resulting in the release of radioactive
materials.

Since March 12, 2011, TEPCO had been injecting water into the reactor
via the line of the fire extinguishing system (see the diagram).

According to the teleconference video, Masao Yoshida, then-plant
manager, reported at about 1:30PM on March 22, 2011 to the TEPCO
headquarters [in Tokyo], "We checked the water injection line to
Reactor 1, and at a fire hydrant on the line, the discharge pressure
is only 0.1 megapascal." He continued, "We are injecting the water at
1 megapascal, and it is 0.1 megapascal on the way to Reactor 1. The
water must be leaking."

TEPCO published the amount of water injected into the reactors by
calculating the amount based on the water supply pressure from the
fire engine [in this case, 1 megapascal]. However, Yoshida's remark
means almost all of water from the fire engine leaked before it
reached the reactor.

Based on the temperature and pressure data of the reactor, Professor
Shigenao Maruyama of Tohoku University Institute of Fluid Science (his
specialty in thermal engineering) says, "There was hardly any water
entering Reactor 1 from March 20 to March 22, and Reactor 3 from March
21 to 23. The reactors were being heated without water in them. What
water that went in evaporated right away." He points out that a large
amount of radioactive materials and steam were leaking from the breach
in the Containment Vessels.

According to the calculation by the National Institute of
Environmental Studies, radioactive materials released on March 20 were
carried by the wind and reached northern Miyagi and southern Iwate,
where they met the rain that fell on the ground. TEPCO describes the
amount of radioactive materials released after March 20, 2011 and the
cause of the release as "unexplained".

In the afternoon of March 20, 2011, the temperature around the Reactor
1 Pressure Vessel was found to be high near 400 degrees Celsius. The
plant personnel determined that water was not reaching the reactor,
and start examining the water injection line. In the morning of March
22, there was a report at the plant that "the core damage of Reactor 1
has been increasing in the past few days. It is highly possible that
water is not reaching the reactor and the reactor is dry".

Takafumi Anegawa, TEPCO's manager in charge of nuclear facility
management, says, "We are aware that there is an uncertainty in the
amount of water injected. We would like to determine the condition of
the reactor at that time and

It's TEPCO's responsibility to disclose all videos, keys to
understanding how radioactive materials dispersed

A doubt has surfaced that water injection into Reactor 1's Pressure
Vessel was not working. It may have been one of the causes for the
wide-area dispersion of radioactive materials, and we need to examine
very closely.

According to the data made public by TEPCO right after the accident,
the amount of water injected dropped dramatically in Reactor 1 and
Reactor 3, starting March 20, 2011. In September 2011, TEPCO
recalculated the amount of water based on the data from the flowmeter
of the fire engine that pumped the water, and announced a large amount
of water had been injected.

The remark in the teleconference video by Masao Yoshida, then-plant
manager, regarding the water pressure indicates the original amount
was closer to the reality. There are also dialogs that indicate TEPCO
had known about the damage to the Containment Vessels from early on.
The teleconference video is a useful data to analyze the accident in
detail.

TEPCO have disclosed only part of the video, citing protection of
privacy of its employees. However, isn't it the responsibility of a
company who caused this accident to make it widely available so that
many people can examine, and to ask for such examination from all
angles?

TEPCO lacks in taking initiative in researching and disclosing. "We
reflect on the accident, and make a fresh start as an organization
with the world-class safety culture", says President Naomi Hirose. I
don't believe there will be a fresh start for the company unless it
fundamentally changes its character.

(Commentary: Tomohiko Suenaga, News Department)

Well, remember the "Water Entombment" idea that was tried in April
2011? The idea was to fill the Containment Vessel of Reactor 1 with
water to cool the RPV inside the Containment Vessel. If they knew
early on that the Containment Vessel was broken, what was this farce
of "water entombment"?

TEPCO finally came clean on the breach of the Containment Vessels
(Reactor 1 and Reactor 2) on May 24, 2011.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/04/now-they-tell-us-only-10-of-water-was.html

[Taka]

http://enenews.com/u-s-nuclear-plant-suffers-significant-industrial-accident-8-injured-1-dead-no-immediate-threat-to-the-public

wait for NK agents to start sabotaging the US nuke plants ...

They already got the satellite overhead:

http://www.n2yo.com/?s=39026

KWANGMYONGSONG 3 is a North Korean Earth observation satellite, which
according to the DPRK is designed for weather forecast purposes, and
whose launch is widely portrayed in the West to be a veiled ballistic
missile test.

[Taka]

I had lived in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture [85km south of
Fukushima Daiichi] at the time of the accident. [...]

After the explosion of the second time, strangeness happened to my
body.

At the time I was attacked by diarrhea and vomiting and nosebleeds.

I was told friend, you’ve been exposed to radioactivity.

And I was measured on the radioactivity instrument on my body.

And then a high number of radiation dose was measured. [...]

TAPWATER in Japan, .43 uSv in just plain tapwater!!! Watch the video.
Scary. TAPWATER means everyone is getting contaminiated. Cesium 137 is
at .35 as I understand from the video. Check it out. For the
gentleman, his count with the device just against his skin, was .63
uSv! He is walking nuclear waste. How will he survive in the future?
This stuff accumulates! PM1704 is the type of geiger counter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uKlLxO7rH8

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/video-strangeness-happened-to-my-body-after-fukushima-explosion-radioactive-man-still-300-over-background-levels-nosebleeds-vomiting-diarrhea

------------------------------------

No problem with Kimmi exploding some more nukes over the island, if
you can duck and cover to avoid the shockwave ... Far worst would be
his biological or chemical warfare. Take the fatty kid playing with
fire down ASAP! Where is the US Commando, Arnold?

Taka

[John H. Gohde]

On Apr 4, 12:47 pm, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I had lived in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture [85km south of
> Fukushima Daiichi] at the time of the accident. [...]
>
> After the explosion of the second time, strangeness happened to my
> body.
>
> At the time I was attacked by diarrhea and vomiting and nosebleeds.
>
> I was told friend, you’ve been exposed to radioactivity.
>
> And I was measured on the radioactivity instrument on my body.
>
> And then a high number of radiation dose was measured. [...]
>
> TAPWATER in Japan, .43 uSv in just plain tapwater!!! Watch the video.
> Scary. TAPWATER means everyone is getting contaminiated. Cesium 137 is
> at .35 as I understand from the video. Check it out. For the
> gentleman, his count with the device just against his skin, was .63
> uSv! He is walking nuclear waste. How will he survive in the future?
> This stuff accumulates! PM1704 is the type of geiger counter.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uKlLxO7rH8
>

> SOURCE:http://enenews.com/video-strangeness-happened-to-my-body-after-fukush...

>
> ------------------------------------
>
> No problem with Kimmi exploding some more nukes over the island, if
> you can duck and cover to avoid the shockwave ...  Far worst would be
> his biological or chemical warfare.  Take the fatty kid playing with
> fire down ASAP!  Where is the US Commando, Arnold?

What is wrong with Japan?

[Taka]

Fukushima fallout sickens U.S. babies

Children born in Pacific coastal states in 2011 may be at greatest
risk.

It's already well known how devastating the March 2011 Fukushima
nuclear reactor meltdown was for Japan -- dramatic spikes in radiation-
related illnesses, an increase in likely cancer deaths over the next
several years, and pollution which may never truly be cleaned up.

A new study suggests what many worldwide have feared -- that the
devastation from the traveling radiation has in fact sickened infants
in other countries, including babies born shortly after the incident
in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California.

Does this make you feel sick to your stomach? Join the discussion on
Facebook.

The study, conducted by scientists with the Radiation and Public
Health Project, found that babies born shortly after the incident were
28 percent more likely to suffer from congenital hypothyroidism than
were children born in those states during the same period one year
earlier. In the rest of the U.S., which received less radioactive
fallout, the risks actually decreased slightly compared with the year
before.

The explosions produced the radioisotope iodine-131, which floated
east over the Pacific Ocean and landed through precipitation on West
Coast states as well as other Pacific countries. The levels of that
isotope were measured in levels hundreds of times greater than
supposedly safe levels. Radioactive iodine accumulates in human
thyroid glands, and, in babies and fetuses, the radiation can stunt
the growth and development of both the body and the brain. That
condition is congenital hypothyroidism (which, luckily, is treatable
when and if detected early).

Fukushima fallout appeared to affect all areas of the U.S., and was
especially large in some, mostly in the western part of the nation,
the study said. Even worse, other conditions affecting babies born in
that time frame may have been caused or worsened by Fukushima, the
researchers said.

"[State and federal] health departments will soon have [data]
available for other 2010 and 2011 indicators of fetal/infant health,
including fetal deaths, premature births, low weight births, neonatal
deaths, infant deaths, and birth defects.”

Scary? You bet. But information is power. If you have a baby born in
March or April 2011 and you live on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. (or
other Pacific countries), ask your pediatrician to test your child for
congenital hypothyroidism -- and anything else he or she believes
could have been caused by radiation.

http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=28599

Elevated airborne beta levels in Pacific/West Coast US States and
trends in hypothyroidism among newborns after the Fukushima nuclear
meltdown

Joseph J. Mangano, Janette D. Sherman

Various reports indicate that the incidence of congenital
hypothyroidism is increasing in developed nations, and that improved
detection and more inclusive criteria for the disease do not explain
this trend entirely. One risk factor documented in numerous studies is
exposure to radioactive iodine found in nuclear weapons test fallout
and nuclear reactor emissions. Large amounts of fallout disseminated
worldwide from the meltdowns in four reactors at the Fukushima-Dai-
ichi plant in Japan beginning March 11, 2011 included radioiodine
isotopes. Just days after the meltdowns, I-131 concentrations in US
precipitation was measured up to 211 times above normal. Highest
levels of I-131 and airborne gross beta were documented in the five US
States on the Pacific Ocean. The number of congenital hypothyroid
cases in these five states from March 17-December 31, 2011 was 16%
greater than for the same period in 2010, compared to a 3% decline in
36 other US States (p < 0.03). The greatest divergence in these two
groups (+28%) occurred in the period March 17-June 30 (p < 0.04).
Further analysis, in the US and in other nations, is needed to better
understand any association between iodine exposure from Fukushima-Dai-
ichi and congenital hypothyroidism risk.
DOI: 10.4236/ojped.2013.31001

[Taka]

http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/04/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-at-least-120.html

http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/04/weekend-movie-area-journey-through.html

[John H. Gohde]

Who lives in a Pacific coastal states? Certainly NOT moi. :)

YES, Pacific coastal states should sue Japan into oblivion.

[Taka]

On Apr 7, 8:49 pm, "John H. Gohde" <john.h.go...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Who lives in a Pacific coastal states?  Certainly NOT moi.  :)
>
> YES, Pacific coastal states should sue Japan into oblivion.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/04/2013482942256998.html

Let's Rock and Roll! All fallout ultimately comes to the US ...

[Taka]

Russia's president says a conflict between the two Koreas could make
the infamous nuclear accident "seem like a fairy tale".

Vladimir Putin said a war in Korea could be more devastating than the
Chernobyl disaster - as Pyongyang was warned against another nuclear
test.

The Russian President said he was "worried about the escalation on the
Korean peninsula, because we are neighbours".

And Mr Putin, who also praised a US decision to postpone a planned
missile test as part of efforts to reduce tensions, said he feared a
situation worse than that in Chernobyl after a nuclear accident that
was later linked to thousands of deaths.

"If, God forbid, something happens, Chernobyl which we all know a lot
about, may seem like a child's fairy tale," he said.

"Is there such a threat or not? I think there is ... I would urge
everyone to calm down ... and start to resolve the problems that have
piled up for many years there at the negotiating table."

His intervention came after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-
moon urged the North not to carry out a new nuclear test - saying it
would be a "provocative" act.

South Korea raised fears that a fourth test was due amid reports of
increased activity at the main atomic test site Punggye-ri, but later
backtracked.

Its Defence Ministry said: "We found there had been no unusual
movements that indicated it wanted to carry out a nuclear test."

Mr Ban said: "The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea cannot
go on like this, confronting and challenging the authority of the (UN)
Security Council and the international community.

"I am urging them to refrain from taking any further provocative
measures."

China's Foreign Ministry also said it wanted peace on the Korean
peninsula, not war, adding a proper solution to the crisis was the
responsibility of all parties.

The Pentagon has already strengthened its missile defences in response
to the repeated threats made by Pyongyang in recent weeks.

However, the New York Times has reported that a more thorough plan -
setting out a limited but forceful response to any future provocation
- has been drawn up by the US and South Korea.

It said US officials had outlined a "counter-provocation" plan that
would see a "response in kind" that would hit the source of any North
Korean attack with similar weapons.

Meanwhile, North Korea said it was withdrawing all workers and
suspending operations at its joint industrial zone with South Korea,
the only surviving symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

South Korea has appealed for North Korea to allow access to the
Kaesong joint industrial park, six miles inside its borders.

The North has banned South Korean managers and personnel from crossing
the border to enter the complex since last Wednesday.

So far 13 of the 123 South Korean firms operating there have been
forced to halt production due to fuel and raw material shortages.

SOURCE: http://news.sky.com/story/1075136/north-korea-putin-in-chernobyl-warning

North Korea could become the most radioactive place on earth...They
will finally be #1

Chemical Weapons will cause more death than Nukes. NK likely has
enough of those to saturate South Korea. Dumb Artillery shells are
cheap and plentiful.

---------------------------

Perhaps, Fukushima was just an exercise or warning. The real hell
gets loose once the Yanks start bombing the NK's running nuclear
reactors or the fatty pig manages to infiltrate the main land and gets
hands on the cooling systems in the US reactors.

Taka

[John H. Gohde]

Kim Jong-un aspires to be a Dick-Head just like Taka.

[Taka]

Defect could affect all radioactive water storage tanks at Fukushima
plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. suspects two leaks of radioactive water at
the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant were caused by shoddy workmanship to
install devices to detect such spillage.

The latest problem at the stricken plant suggests that the defect
could cause leaks at the five other underground water storage tanks
because they all have the same structure. [...]

“We are giving priority to the No. 2 tank, whose conditions are
worse,” a TEPCO official said. “We are not leaving the No. 3 tank
unattended.” [...]

[...] contamination could affect the entire area if leaked water mixes
with groundwater. [...]

TEPCO planned to pump up groundwater and release it into the sea
before it enters the reactor buildings. That plan would be meaningless
if the groundwater is already contaminated.

MORE:
http://enenews.com/asahi-all-radioactive-water-storage-tanks-at-fukushima-daiichi-leaking-we-are-giving-priority-to-the-no-2-tank-whose-conditions-are-worse

[Taka]

http://fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/fukushima-on-hit-list-for-north-korea.html

Fukushima or better the Nuclear Ginza with Monju may be a sitting duck
for Kim ... He doesn't need to have much nuclear material, there is
plenty of it on the Jap archipelago just "waiting" to be hit.
Remember hell gets loose when the water pumps stop ....

[Taka]

Tepco Faces Decision to Dump Radioactive Water in Pacific Ocean

[Tepco]’s discovery of leaks in water storage pits at the wrecked
Fukushima atomic station raises the risk the utility will be forced to
dump radioactive water in the Pacific Ocean.

Leaks were found in three of seven pits in the past week, reducing the
options for moving contaminated water from basements of reactor
buildings. [...]

Not Ruled Out

Officials at the utility known as Tepco, including President Naomi
Hirose, have said the company will not “easily” release radiated water
into the ocean, indicating it’s not ruling out the possibility if it
runs out of storage.

“It’s obvious Tepco cannot keep storing water forever as it increases
by 400 tons a day,” said Hideyuki Ban, co-director of the antinuclear
group Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center. That’s why the company
won’t rule out discharge into the sea, Ban said in a telephone
interview. [...]

MORE:
http://enenews.com/bloomberg-tepco-to-dump-radioactive-water-from-fukushima-reactors-into-pacific-its-obvious-they-cant-keep-storing-it-forever

-----------------------------

and they haven't even seen the face of the coriums yet ... 2 years
gone. The Russians are at least not leaking and got the picture of
the Elephant foot ASAP. Japs bullshitting the World, the politicians
cannot money-print out of this radioactive misery ....

[Taka]

Fukushima leaking like a sieve into the Pacific. Where is the old
Japanese craftmanship? It ends like this when they use homeless
people and wageslaves delivered by Yakuza to keep the coriums at
bay ...

http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/04/latest-on-fukushima-i-nuke-plant-waste.html

[Taka]

How much radiation will contaminate Japan this time?

http://superofficialnews.com/u-s-stealth-bombers-dropping-leaflets-over-north-korea-warning-of-attack/

[Taka]

‘Consumed in nuclear flames’: N. Korea threatens strike on Tokyo

Pyongyang warned that Tokyo would be its primary target if war broke
out on the Korean Peninsula, if Japan maintains its “hostile posture.”
It also threatened a nuclear strike against the island nation if it
intercepts any North Korean test missiles.

In the comments, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on
Friday, Pyongyang lambasted Tokyo’s standing orders to shoot down any
North Korean missile heading towards Japan, Seoul-based Yonhap news
agency reports. The agency warned that any “provocative” intervention
on the part of Japan would see Tokyo “consumed in nuclear flames.”

"Japan is always in the cross-hairs of our revolutionary army and if
Japan makes a slightest move, the spark of war will touch Japan
first," KCNA warned.

Speaking in Seoul alongside his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-Se
on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the rhetoric
emanating from Pyongyang was “unacceptable.”

Kerry, who arrived in South Korea to kick off a four-day diplomatic
tour in East Asia amidst rising tensions in the region, further
insisted the international community "are all united on the fact that
North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power."

"I am here to make it clear today, on behalf of President Obama and
the citizens of the United States and our bilateral security
agreement, that the United States, will, if needed, defend our allies
and defend ourselves."

Kerry continued that any North Korean nuclear missile test would be "a
huge mistake."

"If (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un decides to launch a missile,
whether it's across the Sea of Japan or any other direction, he will
be choosing willfully to ignore the entire international community."

"It will be a huge mistake for him to do that because it will further
isolate his country," Kerry continued.

His comments mirrored statements made by President Barack Obama, who
met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the Oval Office on
Thursday.

"We both agree that now is the time for North Korea to end the
belligerent approach they have taken and to try to lower
temperatures," Obama told reporters.

"It's important for North Korea, like every other country in the
world, to observe basic rules and norms," he continued.

Mounting Tensions
Kerry's visit coincides with the disclosure of a US Defense
Intelligence Agency report which says North Korea has the
technological know-how to arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear
warhead.

The analysis, disclosed at a congressional hearing in Washington on
Thursday, was rebuffed by Pentagon spokesman George Little.

Little argued "it would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean
regime has fully tested, developed or demonstrated the kinds of
nuclear capabilities referenced" in the DIA report.

The Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also concluded
that the report was not in line with America’s other intelligence
agencies.

"Moreover, North Korea has not yet demonstrated the full range of
capabilities necessary for a nuclear armed missile," Clapper
continued.

On Wednesday, the South Korean military was put on high alert
following intelligence reports from Seoul, Tokyo and Washington that a
North Korean mid-range missile test could occur at any time.

Pyongyang is expected to launch its untested Musudan missile from its
east coast. With a range of 1,800 to 2,180 miles, the missile could
hit the Japanese mainland, as well as the Japanese island of Okinawa
and the US territory of Guam.

On Friday, Japan announced it would permanently deploy Patriot missile
interceptor batteries on Okinawa, where the United States currently
has a total military deployment of some 50,000 personnel.

Japan had initially planned to station the missile batteries in March
2015, but now hopes to place them on the island later this month.
Several other Patriot Advance Capability-3 missile interceptor were
deployed throughout Japan during the past week to defend key military
units and Tokyo.

The US for its part announced last week that it will soon deploy the
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) to Guam in response
to North Korean threats.

The ongoing crisis on the Korean Peninsula was sparked in February,
when North Korea conducted its third nuclear test. The launch was
condemned by the United Nations and much of the international
community, prompting the UN to approve a new round of sanctions in
early March.

Pyongyang reacted to the sanctions by threatening to launch a nuclear
strike against the US.

In late March, Pyongyang declared it had entered a state of war with
its southern neighbor following an earlier decision to withdrawal from
the 60-year armistice that ended the Korean War.

North Korea had previously threatened to pull out of the 1953
armistice if the South did not halt a joint annual military exercise
with the US.

SOURCE: http://rt.com/news/north-korea-tokyo-strike-748/

[Taka]

It will really suck if Japan, of all places, gets hit again with the
worlds 3rd Nuclear attack. How screwed up would that be?

They say things happen in threes.

[John H. Gohde]

Perhaps, if Japan got off its Ass!

[Taka]

Japan is done, after you occupied it and spoiled with the GE nuclear
sh*t! Incapable of anything. Get the US commando to blow the fat head
off ASAP or you will be done too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUP8T7Qar88

[Taka]

Inhuman Radiation Experiments

[...] Victims included civilians, prison inmates, federal workers,
hospital patients, pregnant women, infants, developmentally disabled
children and military personnel — most of them powerless, poor, sick,
elderly or terminally ill. Eileen Welsome’s 1999 exposé The Plutonium
Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War details
“the unspeakable scientific trials that reduced thousands of men,
women, and even children to nameless specimens.” [...]

In one Vanderbilt U. study, 829 pregnant women were unknowingly fed
radioactive iron. In another, 188 children were given radioactive iron-
laced lemonade. From 1963 to 1971, 67 inmates in Oregon and 64
prisoners in Washington had their testicles targeted with X-rays to
see what doses made them sterile.

At the Fernald State School, mentally retarded boys were fed
radioactive iron and calcium but consent forms sent to parents didn’t
mention radiation. Elsewhere psychiatric patients and infants were
injected with radioactive iodine.

In a rare public condemnation, Clinton Administration Energy Sec.
Hazel O’Leary confessed being aghast at the conduct of the scientists.
She told Newsweek in 1994: “I said, ‘Who were these people and why did
this happen?’ The only thing I could think of was Nazi Germany.” None
of the victims were provided follow-on medical care. [...]

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/u-s-s-unspeakable-experiments-hundreds-of-pregnant-women-fed-nuclear-material-infants-drink-radioactive-lemonade-only-thing-i-could-think-of-was-nazi-germany-official

[None Given]

What's coming Next, I project the next big quake will be near Tokyo and it will take out Hamaoka nuclear park right after they have fired them up again.
After that a big one the coast of California will quake and that will crack the reactor in the devil's canyon.

[Taka]

On Apr 14, 4:19 pm, None Given <trigonometry1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What's coming Next, I project the next big quake will be near Tokyo and it will take out Hamaoka nuclear park right after they have fired them up again.
> After that a big one the coast of California will quake and that will crack the reactor in the devil's canyon.

Or Kim will cut Monju cooling pipes letting plutonium bathed in liquid
sodium explode all over Japan ... He can do it easily with his
minisubmarine technology given even jelly fish could endanger the Jap
plants down the nuclear Ginza. Remember even if they are "not
running" all MOX fuel is loaded and must be cooled all the time
otherwise we go boom again. What a f*cked technology ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monju_Nuclear_Power_Plant

[Taka]

They've already polluted outer space, too.

1. The Mars Rover has a 10-pound Plutonium battery, so they've already
polluted Mars.

2. NASA is working on nuclear reactors to be used on Mars and the
Moon.

3. Russia is working on a rocket using Plutonium fuel to go to the
Moon.

4. Nuclear powered military satellites orbit the Earth.

5. The Voyager missions 1 and 2 relied on nuclear fuel.

6. Mars Viking landers 1 and 2 relied on nuclear fuel.

7. Pioneer 10 and 11 relied on nuclear fuel.

8. Ulysses launched in 1990 was nuclear powered.

7. A satellite for the navy called Transit 4A, launched on June 29,
1961, used nuclear fuel.

8. The Russian satellite Cosmos 1402 was launched on Aug. 20, 1982 and
contained 100 pounds of enriched uranium. Most of the satellite
splashed into the Indian Ocean on Jan. 23, 1983.

But get this..

Radioactive strontium found in rain in "Fayetteville, Arkansas,
between February and June 1983" is "believed to have come from the
burn-up of Cosmos 1402."

9. In 1979, another Russian spy satellite called Cosmos 954 spewed
uranium 235 over northern Canada.

10. All together, the Russians deployed 31 RORSTATS with radioactive
fuel, and the U.S. has launched dozens of nuclear powered spacecraft.

http://www.businessinsider.com/flashback-how-a-tumbling-nuclear-russian-satellite-held-the-world-in-fear-for-a-month-2013-1

http://www.calpoly.edu/~dhafemei/SciAm_June_1991_NuclearPowerSpace.pdf

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/study-150000-sq-kilometers-of-pacific-with-fukushima-nuclear-material-remarkable-amount-of-released-ocean

[John H. Gohde]

> http://www.businessinsider.com/flashback-how-a-tumbling-nuclear-russi...
>
> http://www.calpoly.edu/~dhafemei/SciAm_June_1991_NuclearPowerSpace.pdf
>
> SOURCE:http://enenews.com/study-150000-sq-kilometers-of-pacific-with-fukushi...



It has finally dawn on moi exactly what Taka is.

Taka is a closet masochist, with Dick-Brain driven desires to self-
mutilate himself.

Don't worry Taka, your secret desires are safe with moi. Just keep
it to Japan, please.

[Taka]

On Apr 10, 4:19 pm, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/fukushim...

>
> Fukushima or better the Nuclear Ginza with Monju may be a sitting duck
> for Kim ...  He doesn't need to have much nuclear material, there is
> plenty of it on the Jap archipelago just "waiting" to be hit.
> Remember hell gets loose when the water pumps stop ....

Court Turns Down Suit Seeking Suspension Of Oi Nuclear Plant Reactors

OSAKA (Kyodo)--The Osaka District Court on Tuesday turned down a suit
seeking to suspend the operation of two reactors at the Oi power plant
run by Kansai Electric Power Co. in Fukui Prefecture on the Sea of
Japan coast.

-----------------------

Oi is quite hot at this time, hot target for Kim's attack
submarines .....

[Taka]

La Salle Nuclear Plant Nearly Took Out Chicago!

Chicago almost became a glowing radioactive sister city to Fukushima.

Yesterday we broke the story of the La Salle Nuclear plant having to
perform a Fukushima style direct-to-atmosphere venting of the primary
nuclear containment due to a lightening strike. As we indicated at the
time, the amount of radioactivity released is unknown because the
radiation monitors were not on a backup power supply.

Today in a follow on NRC event report, we find out that failures in
the emergency cooling system resulted in the last ditch cooling
attempt of directly venting the radioactive drywell to the atmosphere.
The severity of those failures are underreported in the NRC event
report, because it reads no different than if it the failures had been
discovered during testing instead of being found out in the midst of a
real life emergency resulting in the last ditch cooling effort of
venting.

We explain the situation in more detail in the video, but gist of the
analysis is as follows.

Lightning took out power to both reactors.
Backup generators kicked on, but powering everything would overload
them
The systems which measure how much radiation is being vented from the
plant did not have power.
The reactors lost cooling capability.
Automatic emergency cooling kicked in.
The automated emergency cooling on Unit 2 was failing.
As a last ditch effort, Unit 2 primary containment was vented to the
atmosphere.
The venting cooled and dropped the pressure in Unit 2 enough to
compensate for the failing cooling.
The camel was down to its last failing straw and only fractured its
back; had it broken, Chicago would be aglow.
Radioactive contamination did occur.

MORE: http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.jp/2013/04/alert-la-salle-nuclear-plant-nearly.html

[John H. Gohde]

Taka is a Stupid, Lying, Sexist Pig!

Taka thinks that he is brilliant, because he has a science degree.
Actually, Taka is just a culturally insensitive, Penis-Brain moron
from Japan who incorrectly thinks that he can actually communicate in
English without profoundly offending people.

Taka is a Sexist Pig - Original Penis-Brain Post!

http://tinyurl.com/clsxpj6

Taka is a Sexist Pig - Graphic of his original Penis-Brain Post!

http://wp.me/aaWTw-6x


Boy is Taka ever a Stupid, Lying, Sexist Pig!

[John H. Gohde]

Taka is a Really Stupid, Lying, Sexist Pig!

[Taka]

North Korea Issues Threat at Ceremony for Military

On an anniversary known for military showmanship, North Korean
generals on Thursday declared that their forces were ready to launch
intercontinental ballistic missiles and kamikazelike nuclear attacks
at the United States if threatened.

“Stalwart pilots, once given a sortie order, will load nuclear bombs,
instead of fuel for return, and storm enemy strongholds to blow them
up,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted its Air
and Anti-Air Force commander, Ri Pyong-chol, as saying during a
ceremony in observance of the anniversary of the founding of the North
Korean People’s Army.

Another general, Kim Rak-gyom, the Strategic Rocket Force commander,
reiterated the claim that the North is “one click away from pushing
the launch button.”

“If the U.S. imperialists and their followers dare make a pre-emptive
attack, they will be made to keenly realize what a real nuclear war
and real retaliatory blows are like,” he said.

Threats to launch nuclear strikes and warnings of “nuclear holocaust”
have become common since the country’s latest nuclear test, its third,
in February. Although North Korea is believed to have a small nuclear
weapons arsenal, most analysts doubt it could follow through on
threats to deliver them to the United States by missile.

One American intelligence agency recently said it had “moderate
confidence” that the North had mastered the technology of building a
weapon that could fit on a missile warhead, but the Obama
administration said that was not the consensus among the United
States’ 15 other intelligence agencies. Most analysts believe that Kim
Jong-un, the North’s leader, is using the nuclear bluster to
consolidate the support of his people and bolster his leverage in
dealing with Washington and its allies.

The threatening statements come after days of relative quiet that
followed weeks of warnings of dire consequences if the United States
and South Korea provoked the North. Mr. Kim’s government was already
angered by United Nations sanctions punishing it for the nuclear test
in February and by particularly robust joint exercises by the American
and South Korea militaries.

The timing of the latest threats appeared to be tied to the military
anniversary. North Korea’s military, the backbone of Mr. Kim’s
dynastic rule, has traditionally used the date to swear its loyalty to
the Kim family and vent its anti-American vitriol.

During the military ceremony on Thursday, Mr. Kim saluted columns of
soldiers marching past, and airplanes made demonstration flights, the
North Korean news agency said.

Earlier Thursday, South Korea said it was giving the North until
Friday to respond to its proposal for dialogue about the two
countries’ joint industrial park or face a “grave measure” by the
South. The statement by the Unification Ministry stopped short of
saying whether South Korea was contemplating withdrawing 176 South
Korean managers still remaining in the factory park in North Korea or
even terminating the joint economic project, which has survived years
of political tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.

The future of the project, the Kaesong Industrial Complex, located in
the North Korean border town of the same name, has been in doubt ever
since North Korea pulled out its 53,000 workers in early April. It
also blocked supplies and South Korean managers who were south of the
border from entering the economic zone.

The number of South Korean managers at Kaesong dwindled from the
usual 900 to 176 as of Wednesday as supplies were running out. On
Thursday, the South Korean government said that those who were still
in Kaesong, hoping for the reopening of the complex, would not be able
to remain much longer.

A spokesman for the government said that when it had tried Wednesday
to send a letter to the North asking permission to send emergency food
and medical supplies to the South Koreans in Kaesong, the North had
not even accepted the document.

SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/world/asia/south-korea-warns-north-of-grave-measure-in-factory-dispute.html

[Taka]

VIDEO Iraq and USA soldiers – victims of the depleted uranium horror

while our many soldiers’ DU-related health problems is terrible enough
on its own, we’ve also left Iraq covered in radioactive munitions
fragments that, by the very virtue of having exploded, are essentially
impossible to clean up. That is a huge, if overlooked, legacy of the
United States’ wars in Iraq: Not only does Iraq have to deal with the
physical toll of a decade-plus of war, it’s also been left with a
huge, and ongoing, health crisis.

The United States has left its mark on Iraq in myriad ways in its two
wars in the Persian Gulf, but one of the least-discussed is the
effects of the US military’s use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions.
DU is a munitions designer’s dream: projectiles using DU alloys are
armor-piercing and incendiary, which means it’s ideal for obliterating
and burning tanks and other armored vehicles. But its use has left the
Gulf’s battlefields blanketed with radioactive material.

DU is byproduct of the production of the enriched uranium used in
nuclear reactors, and as such has relatively low levels of radiation.
But Gulf War soldiers were regularly exposed to it, not least when DU
used in munitions converted into an aerosol form after explosions.
That means that Gulf War soldiers may have been exposed without
realizing it, and has long been blamed for contributing to Gulf War
Syndrome, although more recently chemical weapons have also been
blamed.

According to one report to the Hague Peace Conference in 1999, a few
hundred tons of DU was used in the war, which still lingers in Iraq
and surrounding nations. DU was also used in the Iraq War, especially
during the siege of Fallujah. Gulf War Syndrome is also appearing in
our most recent veterans, although its link to DU isn’t clear. What is
clear is that many Iraqis have had long-term exposure to environmental
DU. In 2004, Iraq had the world’s highest mortality rate from leukemia
(PDF), and Basra and Fallujah have had high rates of birth defects and
cancer, which some researchers believe is linked to the use of DU

Our colleagues at VICE recently discussed the legacy of both Iraq wars
on Iraq’s environment, and spoke with Congressman Jim McDermott of the
Seventh District of Washington State. McDermott is one of the few
voices in Congress who’s consistently asked about and discussed the
military’s use of DU.

Again, DU alloys do have attractive qualities for designing munitions,
which is why it found its way into everything from tank rounds to the
rounds used by the A-10 tank-hunting jet. But as McDermott, a former
physician, notes, the health problems that sprouted up after the
military began using DU are immense.

And while our many soldiers’ DU-related health problems is terrible
enough on its own, we’ve also left Iraq covered in radioactive
munitions fragments that, by the very virtue of having exploded, are
essentially impossible to clean up. That is a huge, if overlooked,
legacy of the United States’ wars in Iraq: Not only does Iraq have to
deal with the physical toll of a decade-plus of war, it’s also been
left with a huge, and ongoing, health crisis.

SOURCE: http://nuclear-news.net/2013/04/25/video-iraq-and-usa-soldiers-victims-of-the-depleted-uranium-horror/

[John H. Gohde]

Taka is a Sexist Pig!

[Taka]

Radioactive Japan: Boy-Wonder Mayor of Osaka City Wants Spent Fuel
Storage in Osaka City, "It's Only Fair"

For the increasingly tired- and petulant-looking boy-wonder mayor aka
Toru Hashimoto, inflicting pain and anguish on Osaka City residents by
burning disaster debris with heavy metals, asbestos, and radioactive
materials in the city he governs is not enough. Now he wants spent
fuel from reactors in Fukui Prefecture's "Nuclear Ginza" to be stored
inside the city, and all he needs is the assurance from the national
government that it is safe to do so.

From Osaka's MBS News (4/27/2013):

Mayor Hashimoto will "consider storing" spent nuclear fuel [in Osaka
City]

In response to Fukui Governor Nishikawa's remark that the areas that
consume electricity should store spent nuclear fuel, Mayor Hashimoto
of Osaka City said he would consider storing it if the safety is
ensured.

Fukui Prefecture is where Ooi Nuclear Power Plant is located, which is
the only one in operation in Japan at this time. Governor Nishikawa
has said about spent nuclear fuel, "Big cities have been consuming
electricity [produced by the nuclear power plants in Fukui
Prefecture]. How about storing the spent fuel temporarily in these
cities?" He has suggested thermal power plants as candidate locations
for spent fuel storage.

Mayor Hashimoto of Osaka City says he would accept spent fuel if the
safety is assured.

"I think it is only fair that the areas that consume electricity
should store spent nuclear fuel. I wonder what the national safety
standard is, but as long as the framework is there, and if that's the
direction, I will explain to the city residents."

Mayor Hashimoto's remark is considered to be about the responsibility
of municipalities that consume electricity, but his abrupt remark is
likely to cause a stir.

Just as burning the disaster debris in the middle of large cities
(often in the middle of residential areas, as is the case in Tokyo)
doesn't make any sense, storing spent fuel "temporarily" in large
cities just because these cities consume more electricity doesn't make
any sense. But this is post-Fukushima Japan where sense has totally
lost its place.

Japan does not have the final disposal site for the spent nuclear
fuel. You know what happens to all these "temporary" storages - they
will become effectively permanent.

As for the boy-wonder's so-called explanation, if it is the same as he
"explained" about the disaster debris burning to worried and incensed
residents, it will be nothing but declaration that he will accept
spent fuel in Osaka City.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/04/radioactive-japan-boy-wonder-mayor-of.html

[Taka]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vvla33hBWek

Two years after the triple calamities of earthquake, tsunami and
nuclear disaster ravaged Japan's northeastern Pacific coast, forests
that cover 70 percent of the Fukushima Prefecture have been found to
contain high concentrations of radioactive cesium.

With traces revealed not only in the fallen leaves and soil, but in
the trees themselves, the findings suggest that radiation has
permanently found its way into the ecosystem. The government is
already spending billions of dollars decontaminating various towns in
Fukushima, but the forests continue to emit radioactivity, putting the
residents at risk.

Scientists suggest cutting down the trees as soon as possible because
the cesium will gradually be transferred to the earth itself. Many
residents are now suing TEPCO, the nuclear plant's operator, for the
impact the disaster has had on surrounding communities.

Radioactive pollen … radioactivity: the gift that keeps on giving …

Thank you GE, thank you Tepco …

All Tohoku, contaminated …

[Taka]

An Appeal from a Fukushima Woman: A Young Girl Died of Leukemia.
Please Investigate What Is Happening in Fukushima

From a weekly protest gathering outside the Prime Minister’s official
residence.
On April 12, 2013.

Good evening, everyone.
I used to live 1.2 km from Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP.
I evacuated with only the clothes on my back.
Currently I am staying in Minato Ward.

On the 6th day of last month, I went to Namie-machi, which was the
next town over.
Can you people imagine how it really was?
Prime Minister Abe also went there to take a look the other day.

In my friend’s house, there were thirteen dead rats, 30-cm long.
Their feces were almost 1 cm in diameter. These huge feces were
everywhere.
They had chewed on everything including the pillar.

Why didn’t Prime Minister Abe see such a place?
He should see the inside of houses, if he is going to take a look.

Before cancelling the evacuation order, please rebuild water and power
system, roads, supermarekt, dentists and hospitals.

Even if we can return, nobody will return.
The situation is beyod imagination.
Also, the press should research the issue about Fukushima.

Not too long ago, a young woman died of leukemia.
I heard that younger people began to wear masks immediately.
Why didn’t the government urge them to wear masks earlier?

In addition, many people, young and old have died of heart attacks.

Therefore, the press should hurry and do good researches within
Fukushima Prefecture before reporting.

I myself is opposed to nuclear power plants. We have suffered so
much.
Everyone, please do not allow the restart.
Please.

VIDEO: http://fukushimavoice-eng.blogspot.jp/2013/04/an-appeal-from-fukushima-woman-young.html

[Do Not Answer]

another link to the collection:
www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/world/asia/radioactive-water-imperils-fukushima-plant.html?ref=science

[Taka]

Black Smoke Detected From Nuclear Reactor ‘Monju’ During Test
Operations

It as been reported that engineers at Japan’s fast breeder reactor
plant Monju made a mistake during testing of the plant’s emergency
power generator, which subsequently resulted in the release of black
smoke and the ringing of the plant’s fire alarm. [...]

JAERI [Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute] reported this latest
incident to the country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, claiming that
the conduct of the staff at the plant is clearly in breach of security
regulations. It also made the following statement:

“In order to prevent a recurrence of the same problems, it is
necessary to pay meticulous attention to the way in which personnel at
the plant carry out their work.”

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/nhk-black-smoke-at-japan-nuclear-plant-fire-alarm-sounds-after-test

------------------

Not the monster Monju again! Last time they dropped crane into the
liquid sodium soaked plutonium rods core. They still have cretins
running the facility, they will blow it all over Japan even before Kim
manages to get his attack submarine nearby.... Remember how Chernobyl
started - it was also "a mistake during testing" and the engineers
were more intelligent and eager to sacrifice their lives over there.

Taka

[Taka]

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Fukushima Is Still Leaking Radioactive Materials Into The Atmosphere

Back when I was writing articles about Fukushima and warning everyone
of the real implications of this event, I was accused - by some - of
spreading fear. Others asked me how long will I continue to write
about it. After all, it was just a nuclear disaster and it was
interesting only for so long.

Well, I've stopped writing ... and the reactor kept leaking. I'm
dedicating the latest news from Fukushima to them.

I. Massive, uncontained leak at Fukushima is pouring over 710 billion
becquerels of radioactive materials into atmosphere

The tsunami-caused nuclear accident at the Fukushima power station in
Japan is the disaster that never ends, as new reports indicate that a
wealth of new radioactive materials have been spewed into the
atmosphere.

According to Singapore-based news outlet AsiaOne, the Tokyo Electric
Power Co., which owns the multi-nuclear reactor power station at
Fukushima, announced April 6 that some 120 tons of water that had been
contaminated with radioactive substances had leaked from an
underground storage facility at the No. 1 atomic power plant site.

Running out of storage room?

TEPCO officials announced the leak late in the day April 5, a Friday,
"but said measures to address the problem had not been taken for two
days because the cause had not been identified," AsiaOne reported. The
company "assumed the water was still leaking."

According to company officials TEPCO estimates that the leaked water
contains about 710 billion becquerels of radioactive substances,
making it the largest leak of radioactive materials ever at the plant.
Discovery of the leak led the company to transfer about 13,000 tons of
polluted, radioactive water in the questionable storage area to a
neighboring underground storage unit.

That storage unit, TEPCO said, is 60 meters long, 53 meters wide and
six meters deep. It is pool-like in structure and has a three-layer
waterproof sheet with a concrete cover.

According to the company, water that has leaked from damaged nuclear
reactors is run through filters and additional devices in order to
remove radioactive elements. The water is then stored in facilities
for low-level contaminated water.

TEPCO began using the storage facility Feb. 1. As of April 5, 13,000
tons of radioactive water was being stored there - very close to the
14,000-ton limit.

More leaking contamination

AsiaOne reported that water samples taken by TEPCO from soil
surrounding the damaged facility a few days later showed 35 becquerels
per cubic centimeter of radioactive substances, which is abnormal.
"Safe" levels of becquerels is 300 per kilogram of water, according to
New Scientist.

However, TEPCO officials did not publicly announce their findings
right away after not finding any other unusual changes in water
quality data, such as chloride concentration.

On April 5, the report said, two days after the problem was first
noticed, water with 6,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter of
radioactive substances was located between the first and second layers
of the waterproof sheet, which alerted TEPCO engineers and plant
officials that a leak had occurred.

Per AsiaOne:

As the sheet's layers were joined when the facility was constructed,
TEPCO assumed that the sheet may have been damaged, or that a mistake
had been made during construction. An average of about 400 tons a day
of groundwater seeped into buildings housing nuclear reactors and
turbines, increasing the quantity of polluted water.

The latest problem will create a storage shortage; TEPCO officials
said storage of polluted water at the facility will be reduced from
53,000 tons to 40,000 - a significant reduction. That will make it
necessary for the power company to go over procedures for handling
polluted water, which will include increasing the number of storage
units.

The disaster that keeps on giving

TEPCO said earlier this month it expected the water transfer would
take about five days to complete.

"As the height of the water storage facility is relatively low, we
think it's unlikely that the polluted water mixed into underground
water and reached the sea 800 meters away," said Masayuki Ono, the
acting chief of TEPCO's nuclear facilities department, at a press
conference April 6.

The plant was damaged by a huge earthquake-caused tsunami March 11,
2011. At the time of the incident, three of the plant's atomic
reactors were shut down: No. 4 had been de-fueled and Nos. 5 and 6
were in cold shut-down for maintenance.

The remaining three automatically shut down at the time of the
accident and emergency generators came on to keep coolant systems
operating. -- Source;

II. Fukushima's Catastrophic Aftermath Continues

In her book titled No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive
Earth, nuclear power/environmental health expert Rosalie Bertell (1929
- 2012) said:

Should the public discover the true health cost(s) of nuclear
pollution, a cry would rise from all parts of the world and people
would refuse to cooperate passively with their own death.

In her article titled "Radioactivity: No Immediate Danger," she
coined a new word. "Omnicide" describes the ultimate human rejection
of life. It's "difficult to comprehend," but it's happening, she said.

She called industrial radioactive pollution "cumulatively greater
than Chernobyl. We are now in a no-win situation with radioactive
materials, where (it's) acceptable to have cancer deaths, deformed
children and miscarriages."

Industry propaganda falsely claims nuclear power is clean and green.
The nuclear fuel cycle discharges significant amounts of greenhouse
gases.

It's also responsible for hundreds of thousands of curies of deadly
radioactive gases and elements in the environment annually.

"Claiming nuclear production of energy is 'clean,' " said Bertell,
"is like dieting but stuffing yourself with food between meals."

Separately, she said:

There is no such thing as a radiation exposure that will not do
damage. There is a hundred per cent possibility that there will be
damage to cells. The next question is: which damage do you care about?

All toxic hazards are serious, she explained. Nuclear radiation is
worst of all. It threatens all human life. "Our present path is headed
toward species death - whether fast with nuclear war or technological
disaster, or slow, by poison."

Global suicide is certain. Continued nuclear proliferation and
Fukushima accelerated it.

March 11 marked its second anniversary. It's perhaps the worst ever
environmental disaster. Reliable experts call large parts of Japan
unsafe. They're too hazardous to live in.

According to Professor Hiroaki Koide, Tokyo's as contaminated as
Fukushima. Thousands of city residents protested. They oppose nuclear
power. They want safe energy sources replacing it.

Radiation contamination is widespread. East Asia, North America,
Europe and other areas are affected.

Hazardous air, water and land readings across many areas globally are
many multiples too high. Future epidemic cancer levels are certain. It
occurs when body cells divide and spread uncontrollably. If untreated,
it metastasizes and kills.

Michel Chossudovsky calls Fukushima "a nuclear war without a war."
It's an "unspoken crisis of worldwide nuclear contamination."

Tens of thousands of children have confirmed thyroid abnormalities.
They reflect the tip of the iceberg. Children are especially
vulnerable. No radiation dose is safe.

Karl Grossman wants planet earth made a "nuclear free zone." We
barely made it through the last century without a "major nuclear
weapons exchange," he said.

Nuclear energy in all forms is unsafe. Safe, clean, renewable solar,
wind, geothermal, and other energy sources are readily available.

Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900 - 1986) was the father of America's
nuclear navy. In January 1982, he told a congressional committee that
until a few billion years ago, "it was impossible to have any life on
earth."

"There was so much radiation on earth you couldn't have any life,
fish or anything." Gradually the amount subsided. "Now, we are
creating something which nature tried to destroy to make life
possible."

"Every time you produce radiation, (a) horrible force" is unleashed.
"In some cases (it's) for billions of years, and I think the human
race is going to wreck itself."

"I am talking about humanity. The most important thing we could do is
start having an international meeting where we first outlaw nuclear
weapons to start off with. Then we outlaw nuclear reactors, too."

"The lesson for history is when a war starts, every nation will
ultimately use whatever weapons are available. That is the lesson
learned time and again." "

"Therefore, we must expect, if another war, a serious war breaks out,
we will use nuclear energy in some form. We will probably destroy
ourselves." Widespread contamination acts in slow motion.

Disturbing reports explain. In early April, around 120 tons of
contaminated water leaked from Fukushima's No. 1's underground storage
tank. It contained an estimated 710 billion becquerels of
radioactivity.

Water around the affected tank is highly radioactive. It's about 800
meters from the Pacific. Government and Tokyo Electric (Tepco) claimed
it won't likely reach it. Numerous previous reports suggest otherwise.

Tepco general manager Masayuki Ono said "(w)e cannot deny the fact
that our faith in the underwater tanks is being lost."

In November 2012, Nature.com headlined "Ocean still suffering from
Fukushima fallout," saying:

Radioactivity is persisting in the ocean waters close to Japan's
ruined nuclear power plant at Fukushima Daiichi.

New data show high contamination levels. "The Fukushima disaster
caused by far the largest discharge of radioactivity into the ocean
ever seen."

Radiation levels aren't dropping. "The implications are serious for
the fishing industry."

On December 26, CleanEnergy.org headlined "Japan Continues Struggle
with Aftermath from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster," saying:

….an estimated 160,000 (Japanese) citizens still have not returned
home. Reports of illness in humans and livestock continue to
underscore the far reaching and difficult to predict impacts that a
nuclear accident can cause.

In July 2012, 36% of Japanese children screened had abnormal thyroid
growths. Months later an illness called the "Fukushima syndrome" was
killing cattle throughout Fukushima Prefecture.

Mutations were found in butterflies and other insects. Their shorter
life cycles allow genetic disruptions to show up sooner than in humans
or other mammals.

On April 11, Bloomberg.com headlined "Tepco Faces Decision to Dump
Radioactive Water in Pacific," saying:

"Leaks were found in three of seven pits in the past week…." Options
for moving contaminated water are limited.

"With Japan’s rainy season approaching, contaminated water levels are
likely to increase…"

"Yesterday, Tepco reported another leak of radiated water, this time
from a pipe."

"Pacific bluefin tuna caught off San Diego in August 2011 was found
to contain radioactive cesium 10 times higher than fish seized in
previous years…." Perhaps its much higher now.

On April 15, Science Daily headlined "The Fukushima Dai-Ichi Power
Plant Accident: Two Years On, the Fallout Continues," saying:

"….(S)cientists are still trying to quantify the extent of the
damage." Most important is "determining just how much hazardous
material escaped into the atmosphere…."

Japan Atomic Energy Agency researchers now say previously estimated
"137C and 131l" release rates were too low.

On March 11, 2013, nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen said "(t)here's
definitely a large crack, perhaps five inches in diameter, in
Fukushima reactor 2."

Containment is sorely lacking. Pacific Ocean leakage continues.

On April 24, Natural News headlined "Massive, uncontained leak at
Fukushima is pouring over 710 billion becquerels of radioactive
materials into atmosphere," saying:

It's the largest ever plant leakage. Fukushima's disaster never ends.
It "keeps on giving."

"(N)ew reports indicate that a wealth of new radioactive materials
have been spewed into the atmosphere."

It's spreading globally. Nuclear radiation is forever. It doesn't
dissipate or disappear. No safe level exists. Every dose is an
overdose. Bertell was right. "Omnicide" threatens everyone.

MORE: http://humansarefree.com/search/label/Fukushima

[John H. Gohde]

On May 2, 2:08 am, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Tuesday, April 30, 2013
>
> Fukushima Is Still Leaking Radioactive Materials Into The Atmosphere

The TOPIC of Fukushima is NOW offically closed and OFF-LIMITS

[Taka]

On May 2, 10:45 am, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Black Smoke Detected From Nuclear Reactor ‘Monju’ During Test
> Operations
>
> It as been reported that engineers at Japan’s fast breeder reactor
> plant Monju made a mistake during testing of the plant’s emergency
> power generator, which subsequently resulted in the release of black
> smoke and the ringing of the plant’s fire alarm. [...]
>
> JAERI [Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute] reported this latest
> incident to the country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, claiming that
> the conduct of the staff at the plant is clearly in breach of security
> regulations. It also made the following statement:
>
> “In order to prevent a recurrence of the same problems, it is
> necessary to pay meticulous attention to the way in which personnel at
> the plant carry out their work.”
>

> SOURCE:http://enenews.com/nhk-black-smoke-at-japan-nuclear-plant-fire-alarm-...

>
> ------------------
>
> Not the monster Monju again!  Last time they dropped crane into the
> liquid sodium soaked plutonium rods core.  They still have cretins
> running the facility, they will blow it all over Japan even before Kim
> manages to get his attack submarine nearby....  Remember how Chernobyl
> started - it was also "a mistake during testing" and the engineers
> were more intelligent and eager to sacrifice their lives over there.
>
> Taka

There isn't a single fast breeder reactor in the world that works. The
sodium-cooled experiment at Santa Susanna resulted in a failure 240
times worse than Three Mile Island. How many failed nuclear
experiments will equal a never ending uninhabitable earth? The
consequences of criminal behavior that causes the death of humans
should result in jail sentences. We can't entrust our lives and our
monetary treasure to nuclear reactors. The workers, the nuclear
engineers, and the corporate management can't handle nuclear fission
or nuclear fusion. Technological failures should be stopped
immediately and forever. This includes every nuclear reactor in the
world.

GET THIS LEAK BEFORE IT'S TAKEN DOWN:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_Monju_nuclear_reactor_leak

[Taka]

A very fragile situation: Leaks from Japan's wrecked nuke plant raise
fears

Like the persistent tapping of a desperate SOS message, the updates
keep coming. Day after day, the operators of the wrecked Fukushima Dai-
ichi nuclear power plant have been detailing their struggles to
contain leaks of radioactive water.

The leaks, power outages and other glitches have raised fears that the
plant — devastated by a tsunami in March 2011 — could even start to
break apart during a cleanup process expected to take years.

The situation has also attracted the attention of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, which sent a team of experts to review the
decommissioning effort last month. They warned Japan may need longer
than the projected 40 years to clean up the site. A full report is
expected to be released later this month.

The discovery of a greenling fish near a water intake for the power
station in February that contained some 7,400 times the recommended
safe limit of radioactive cesium only served to heighten concern.

There was also some reassuring news in February, when a report by the
World Health Organization said Fukushima had caused “no discernible
increase in health risks” outside Japan and “no observable increases
in cancer above natural variation” in most of the country.

But for the most affected areas, the report said the lifetime risks of
various cancers were expected to increase. For example, baby boys were
predicted to have up to a 7 percent greater chance of getting leukemia
in their lifetime and for baby girls the lifetime risk of breast
cancer could be up to 6 percent higher than normal.

Independent nuclear expert John Large — who has given evidence on the
Fukushima disaster to the U.K. parliament and written reports about it
for Greenpeace — said there would be hundreds of tons of “intensely
radioactive” material in the plant.

He said normally robots could be sent in to remove the fuel relatively
easily, but this was difficult because of the damage caused by the
tsunami.

Large said the plant was close to the water table, so it was difficult
to stop water getting in and out.

“Until you can stop that transfer, you will not contain the
radioactivity. That will go on for years and years until they contain
it,” he said. "The structures of containment start breaking down.
Engineered structures don’t last long when they are put in adverse
conditions."

Larged added: "It may have some marked effect on the health of future
generations in Japan. What it will create is a Fukushima generation —
like in Nagasaki and Hiroshima - where girls particularly will have
difficulty marrying because of the stigma of being brought up in a
radiation area."

Leaks into the sea would not only affect the marine environment, Large
said, as tiny radioactive particles would be washed up on the beach,
dried in the sun and then blown over the surrounding countryside by
the wind.

Japanese activists are also worried by the ongoing leaks from the
plant.

The Associated Press reported that "runoff ... and a steady inflow of
groundwater seeping into the basement of their damaged buildings
produce about 400 tons of contaminated water daily at the plant."
According to the plant's operator, 280,000 tons of contaminated water
has been stored in tanks there.

Hisayo Takada, energy campaigner with Greenpeace Japan, complained no
real progress had been made.

“It’s still a very fragile situation and measures implemented by the
government and [power company] TEPCO are only temporary solutions,”
she said. "The issue with the contaminated water is very serious and
we're very concerned. And we're very angry because it’s been two years
and they've been saying that everything's safe."

Greenpeace has been testing food sold in supermarkets, and to date has
not found “radiation levels higher than government guidelines,” Takada
said.

But she said the “land and sea will never return to the way it was
before the accident.”

One man who knows this all too well is cattle farmer Masami Yoshizawa.
He lives in the Namie area, which was once inside a 12-mile, mandatory
evacuation zone but is now among the places where people have been
allowed to return.

He tends his herd of 350 cows as “a living symbol of protest.”

“As long as they're alive, I will keep them to show to the world --
these cows that have been exposed to radiation, cows that are no
longer marketable, and that I’m being told to have slaughtered,” said
Yoshizawa, 59.

“For us farmers, it’s impossible for us to return to work in Namie.
Our community will disappear. It’s going to become like Chernobyl …
Only the elderly who say they don't care about the radiation will
return. Children will never return,” he said.

The nuclear industry in the U.S. argues its safety standards are
higher than at Fukushima.

Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said it
was “incredibly unlikely” that a similar accident could happen in the
U.S.

Significant safety improvements were made in the U.S. after Fukushima,
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the last major nuclear incident in
America at Three Mile Island in 1979, he said.

“Our layers of defense extend beyond what the Japanese had in place,”
he said. “We’re now well into our fifth or sixth layer of back-up
defenses to ensure there would not be – regardless of the cause – a
serious accident that would jeopardize public safety.”

A survey for the institute in February found that 68 percent of
Americans supported nuclear energy.

“[Support] did drop for about six to eight months after the Fukushima
accident … it hasn’t quite reached the pre-Fukushima historic highs,
but we have rebounded to a considerable extent,” Kerekes said.

Part of this support comes from those who see nuclear energy as key in
the fight against climate change.

Kerekes pointed to a report by climatologist James Hansen — until
recently head of NASA’s Goddard Institute — that said nuclear power
had stopped the release of massive amounts of greenhouse gases and
saved 1.8 million deaths related to air pollution.

“Every technology has pros and cons. We feel when you look at the
benefits of nuclear energy, it’s very effective, round-the-clock
electric supply,” Kerekes said.

“As we look to help try to drive our economy and provide jobs that
people need, there’s a strong role for nuclear energy going forward.
We believe that’s widely recognized on a bipartisan basis.”

It remains to be seen whether this support will be eroded by the drip,
drip of leaks from Fukushima.

SOURCE:
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/17813244-a-very-fragile-situation-leaks-from-japans-wrecked-nuke-plant-raise-fears

--------------------

and the Tepco stocks keep rising backed by the criminal Govt. printing
money from thin air like never before ... T

[Taka]

> SOURCE:http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/17813244-a-very-fragile...

>
> --------------------
>
> and the Tepco stocks keep rising backed by the criminal Govt. printing
> money from thin air like never before ...  T

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-02/how-japan’s-“stealth-constitution”-destroys-civil-rights-and-sets-stage-dictatorship

[Taka]

Yakuza links put nation at added nuclear risk

On April 15, two alleged terrorists in Boston killed three people,
injured more than 170 others and terrified a nation — for about $100
it cost them to modify pressure cookers into bombs. We should be glad
they didn’t come to Japan, where they may have been able to explode a
ready-made nuclear dirty bomb, kill untold thousands, render huge
swaths of the country uninhabitable — and get paid by Tokyo Electric
Power Co. (Tepco) in the process.

I wish I were kidding. Japan has more than 50 gigantic nuclear
“pressure cookers” ripe for exploitation by terrorists. And they
wouldn’t even have to lay siege to the facilities. Instead, they could
just walk into a nuclear plant and leave with enough weapons-grade
plutonium for a small atomic device — which later could be detonated
wherever they chose. How?

In Japan, getting access to a nuclear power plant is very simple: fill
out a job application.

It is now more than two years since the start of the nuclear crisis
following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, and there
are still no mandatory background checks for workers at its nuclear
facilities.

After the three reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear
complex in March 2011, it became clear that Tepco, the plant’s
operator, was allowing members of Japan’s organized crime groups, the
yakuza, to staff the well-paid cleanup — just as they had been allowed
into plants long before then.

Indeed, members and associates of the Sumiyoshi-kai (Kanto) and Kudo-
kai (Kyushu) mobs have been arrested for their roles supplying labor
to Tepco and its Kansai cousin, Kepco. So the dirty secret that yakuza-
linked workers and companies have long sustained Japan’s nuclear
industry — along with yakuza members themselves, ex-convicts, wanted
criminals, and drug addicts working there — is now public knowledge.

Although many yakuza groups claim to have a protective role in
society, most of their members are sociopathic felons who would commit
theft, assault or murder to make a little money. And if you consider
the black-market value of a little plutonium, you may feel a tad
uneasy knowing such people have long had access to it — and can still
get their hands on nuclear materials.

Don’t worry, though: Last month the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA)
said a panel will be set up to discuss atomic energy security issues,
and it will consider introducing a system to investigate the
backgrounds of workers to avoid acts of terrorism at nuclear plants.

Specifically, it seems the panel will examine ways to check whether
nuclear facility employees are drug addicts or have a criminal record,
among other issues, in order to screen out anyone who could
potentially get involved in terrorism.

The panel will comprise NRA Commissioner Kenzo Oshima and outside
experts. However, one expert who will not be on the panel is Haruki
Madarame, former chief of the now-dissolved Nuclear Safety Commission.
He is currently being investigated by prosecutors for alleged criminal
negligence.

But hey, let’s not dwell on the past. The good news is that the NRA is
thinking about making nuclear plants safer in the future. They may
even reach the same conclusions that the Nuclear Security Expert
Commission of the Atomic Energy Commission announced … in September
2011. Of course, why take action when you can spend more time debating
about taking action?

The AEC makes recommendations for nuclear energy policy. However, that
2011 report, titled “Basic Nuclear Security Assurance,” doesn’t give a
positive view of Japan’s countermeasures.

There, the words “internal threats” appear five times in 14 pages of
attached materials. And, in a section headed “Lessons of Fukushima,”
it notes: “It is clear there were defects in the management of those
leaving and entering the site from the start of the accident. …
Licensed (nuclear facility) operators need to first strictly enforce
measures to keep suspicious persons from sneaking into the facilities
and strengthen countermeasures against threats from within.”

The report, without irony, also notes that criminal acts such as the
theft of nuclear materials to build a dirty bomb, or the destruction
of facilities, “should be detected, prevented, and stopped so as to
cause as little negative impact as possible to life, physical health,
property, society and the environment.”

It also recommends that law enforcement, regulators and the power
plant operators share information to make sure that thieves, saboteurs
or criminals do not have access to the plants or related facilities.
But it stops short of mandating background checks.

The United States has long had a screening system in place, but Japan
has delayed taking similar measures due to privacy concerns and
“respect for human rights.” Meanwhile, Tepco is still unable to locate
scores of workers who entered the disaster zone.

Maybe, though, we shouldn’t worry so about criminals gaining access to
nuclear plants. After all, the National Diet of Japan’s Fukushima
Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission report in 2012
established Tepco’s responsibility for the triple meltdown. Then
months later Tepco admitted it consciously ignored the threat of a
tsunami-related disaster.

So perhaps the lesson to be learned is that the greatest threat of
“nuclear terrorism” Japan faces is from criminally negligent power
companies and a government that fails to punish them.

Come to think of it, maybe we shouldn’t worry at all about criminals
gaining access to the nuclear power plants. As the Tokyo Prosecutor
Office’s investigation into the top executives of Tepco for
professional negligence resulting in injury and death grinds on, it
seems more and more likely that criminals have been running the plants
for a very long time — they just don’t all have tattoos.

When it comes to the nuclear security in Japan, the U.S. comics “swamp
critter” Pogo Possum would tell you: “We have met the enemy, and he is
us.” Let’s hope no other enemies decide to join the party — because if
they do, Japan’s nuclear negligence may become the world’s problem as
well.

SOURCE: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/05/national/yakuza-links-put-nation-at-added-nuclear-risk/

[Taka]

Never forget:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3Ofs6R9cg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Zp71b8ITk&list=PLEB62353576416782

This is gona repeat somewhere somehow ...

----------------------------

Tokyo Shinbun: Worker Who Tweeted from #Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and
His Two Years of Being Jerked Around by TEPCO and Government

The worker who tweeted for two years from Fukushima I Nuclear Power
Plant is no longer there, but he was recently interviewed by Tokyo
Shinbun. He shared his first-hand knowledge of how it was like to work
at a nuclear plant that went spectacularly bust, under the conflicting
and useless direction from both TEPCO Headquarters in Tokyo and the
national government under then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

People on Japanese Twitter, blogs, and message boards have been
accusing the worker whose Twitter name is "Happy" as TEPCO agent of
disinformation. I've been following him and reading his tweets, but I
don't get that feeling. As far as I know, he is a worker at either one
of the first-tier subcontractors or one of the major local
subcontractors of a first-tier subcontractor.

In the interview with Tokyo Shinbun, "Happy" describes what was
effectively "TEPCO that couldn't say no".

"Prime Minister says 'Work 24 hours a day', so do something!"

Instead of shielding the workers at the plant from the ignorant
politicians and bureaucrats so that they could do the job, TEPCO
headquarters was nothing more than a messenger boy.

Then the national government under the Democratic Party of Japan
interfered with the work for their convenience, and it was not just
Naoto Kan. "Happy" says the probe of Reactor 2's Containment Vessel
was originally scheduled in December 2011, but since then-Prime
Minister Noda needed to declare "cold shutdown state" (to the snicker
and ridicule around the world except at IAEA and NRC) and he didn't
want to have a potentially dangerous work during that month, the DPJ
government told TEPCO to delay the work until after the New Year.

From Tokyo Shinbun, as archived at Asyura (5/5/2013; as article links
don't last long at Tokyo Shinbun):

Worker Who Tweeted from Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and His Two Years of
Being Jerked Around by TEPCO and Government

He worked at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant since the beginning of
the nuclear accident and tweeted the situation. His tweets as "Happy"
are followed by more than 70,000 people. His home is near the plant,
and has worked at the plant for many years. We interviewed him
recently, and he told us what he thought during the past two years of
his effort to control the situation.

It's like a war zone.

When the hydrogen explosion happened in the Reactor 3 building on
March 14, 2011, "Happy" was working nearby. The ground shook with
deafening explosion, and debris rained on him.

"I may die here."

It was like a war zone. Smoke rose from the reactor building, and
there were people who were coated with black soot, and whose
protection gear was bloody. People were shouting. It didn't seem real.

"Happy" started to tweet on March 20, six days after that hydrogen
explosion.

There were two reasons. First, communication was garbled and confused
[in the early days of the accident] and there were media reports that
fanned fear. Second, he wanted to tell his acquaintance who lived in
Minamisoma City in Fukushima with small child[ren] that "there is no
need to worry too much", by calmly describing what was happening at
the plant.

His tweets are unique. He calls himself "oira", writes "deshi" instead
of "desu" [in closing a sentence]. In the beginning, many of his
readers were mothers with children, who replied to him saying "You
helped me", "You saved me".

Life is on the back burner

Many of "Happy"'s tweets include frank doubts he felt as he worked at
the plant, toward the government and TEPCO.

He was irritated each time the national government and TEPCO showed
optimistic prospect without basis, or made presentations without full
explanation. He says he felt not telling the facts was fanning the
fear.

He was also annoyed at the instructions without coordinating the work
processes, which caused confusion in the early days of the accident.
[At one time] electrical work and pipe work were scheduled on the same
location at the same time, and one of the work couldn't be done.

The result of the confusion is still visible in many places at
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant even after two years. Hoses to
transfer contaminated water, power cable and control cables for
equipments are installed in a messy way in the same location, for
example. Even if it was an emergency, there is a possibility of
malfunctioning and short circuit.

"Prime Minister says 'Work 24 hours a day', so do something!" was one
of the instructions to the plant. So they set up 24-hour shifts, but
work efficiency suffered.

He was bothered by the time schedule of work published every month
without considering the situation at the plant. At one time, he was
told to hurry up the work because the national government had already
publicly announced it, and he was called to the site in the middle of
the night even though no preparation had been made.

He almost fainted a number of times during the summer with full
protective gear. He was told to "rest", but the time schedule for work
remained the same. He felt that life and safety of the workers were
put on the back burner.

Cost comes first

In September 2011, a piece of information reached "Happy" that the
national government and TEPCO [HQ] were going to create a new word by
combining "cold shutdown" and "state" and declare within the year that
Fukushima I Nuke Plant achieved "cold shutdown state".

But they didn't know the condition of the melted fuel. Reactor cooling
could stop, not just because of the pump failures but also because of
clogged or broken pipes. Thermometers attached to the reactors had
started to behave erratically. How could anyone say the temperature
inside the reactors is below 100 degrees Celsius? "Happy" thought,
"Cold shutdown cannot be happening."

Then in November, he heard that they were going to declare, in
addition, "end of the accident" [restoration of the plant to the
normal state].

"That cannot be", he thought, but the work to drill a hole in the
Reactor 2 Containment Vessel, which had been scheduled in December,
was delayed until after the New Year. Other dangerous works that could
mar the declaration started to get postponed.

The work at the plant had been at the mercy of the politicians before.
"There is an election coming, so don't do dangerous work until after
the election." "Minister in charge will go on an overseas trip the day
after tomorrow, so finish the work within today."

After the declaration of end of the accident, there were more work
contracts whose priority was to cut costs, and employment condition
for the workers deteriorated with the cut in hazard bonus and pay.
Many of the pieces of equipment that were installed at Fukushima I
Nuke Plant after the accident were temporary, without ample
consideration for maintenance. When he [his company] suggested to
TEPCO that they should be replaced with durable [permanent] ones, the
suggestion was often turned down by TEPCO, who said "There is no
budget".

"Happy" doubts if TEPCO could rebuild itself and end the accident at
the same time. With cost cutting as a priority, experienced workers
won't come to work at the plant because their employment is not
stable, and the decommissioning work won't make progress, he fears.

"No matter how much taxpayers' money the national government pours in,
it simply becomes TEPCO's debt. Since TEPCO remains as a private
company, it naturally puts cost-cutting as priority. As such,
decommissioning won't make much progress. It is the nuclear accident
that has shaken the entire world, and the government and TEPCO should
create a new organization that focus only on ending the accident and
move aggressively."

The nuclear accident that has shaken the world seems to have been
forgotten by most people in the world, particularly those in emerging
nations like Vietnam and Turkey, who want Japanese-made nuclear
reactors and plants in their respective country, probably because of
Fukushima. They think Japan has learned a lot from the accident (which
in their mind is probably long over) and the knowledge and the
expertise from the accident will be highly beneficial for their
countries' push for nuclear energy.

And so it goes, until next time.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/05/tokyo-shinbun-worker-who-tweeted-from.html

[John H. Gohde]

[Taka]

On May 6, 2:25 am, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Never forget:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3Ofs6R9cg
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Zp71b8ITk&list=PLEB62353576416782
>
> This is gona repeat somewhere somehow ...

Hiroshima, Nagasaki and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCVeZ2Gi52k

More than 2 years have passed and they haven't seen or even remotely
located the coriums!

http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/
http://enenews.com/

[John H. Gohde]

Sorry, but Taka is a SLOW learner. Taka is a Sexist Pig!

[Taka]

Mystery bacteria 'cobwebs' found in SRS cooling tank

Spring cleaning is always a good way to get rid of those hard-to-reach
cobwebs that appear around the house. However, when they appear in
cooling tanks for spent nuclear fuel and have never been seen there
before, special attention is warranted.

Sometime in Fiscal Year 2011, “cobwebs” of bacteria were first
discovered in the L Area basin at the Savannah River Site. Since then,
a process of getting to the 70-feet-deep life form, collecting it and
then examining it has been undertaken.

The formations of bacteria are colloquially described as “cobwebs” as
they form strands similar to the household dust collections.

In an April 23 presentation to the SRS's Citizen Advisory Board's
Nuclear Materials subcommittee, Maxcine Maxted with Department of
Energy noted advances that had been made in approaching, recovering
and analyzing the bacterial growth located on the tops of the fuel
bundles underwater.

“The cobweb material was collected by pumping it through bag filters
on a cart located on zero level in the basin,” explained Amy Caver of
DOE Public Affairs.

Maxted said that the bacteria would be killed before being studied. In
previous, somewhat similar cases, such bacteria has been killed with
hydrogen peroxide.

“Without the external nutrients, the bacteria cannot sustain
themselves. Infrared from the measured levels of microbial diversity
measured these requirements are currently being met. Sampling for
organic carbon in multiple basin locations was unable to determine a
definitive source of external carbon for the bacteria,” Caver said.

Not knowing the “food” source for these bacteria adds to the mystery.

For a corrosion precaution and to improve fuel bundle identification,
the cobwebs will be removed from the fuel bundles by underwater
vacuuming.

But, however the strands formed, they are posing no danger to the
storage facilities.

“The cobweb material density has not noticeably increased since the
original mapping in December 2011,” Caver said. “In the locations
where the cobweb material was removed during sampling in January 2012,
there has been little to no cobweb material reformation. Cobweb
material has not spread to other sections of the basin. There has been
no noticeable corrosion of the aluminum materials in the areas with
the cobweb material.”

SOURCE: http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20130504/AIK0101/130509791/mystery-bacteria-found-at-srs

------------------------------------

Chernnobyl fungus feeds on nuclear radiation

You know Chernobyl, right? The place of the biggest nuclear accident
in the world? The place is so radioactive nobody lives in the vicinity
anymore, and nearby plants are suffering major amounts of radiation.
However, not everybody is sad about this event; a type of fungi
(mushrooms) possess an ability beyond imagination: they can take the
lethal radiation and use it as a source of energy to feed and grow.
Researchers have called them radiotrophic fungus.

For some 500 million years, fungi have been inhabiting this planet,
feeding on whatever they could finding, filling every biological niche
they could find. But who could have actually guessed that they could
feed on nuclear radiation? Researchers from the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (AEC) had a hunch, and they investigated it to
test. They first got the idea after reading that samples brought from
Chernobyl were filled with some black fungi growing on it.

“I found that very interesting and began discussing with colleagues
whether these fungi might be using the radiation emissions as an
energy source,” explained Casadevall.
Casadevall and his co-researchers then set about performing a variety
of tests using several different fungi; two types of mushrooms were
used, one that had naturally contains melanin, and one that was
injected with the substance. They were then exposed to radiation
levels 500 times bigger than the normal ones. The result? Both of them
grew much faster than normally, when exposed to radiation.

“Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical
energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research
suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum – ionizing radiation – to benefit the fungi
containing it,” said co-researcher Ekaterina Dadachova.
They took the research one step further, and found some extremely
interesting answers, which raise more questions. The melanin in these
radiotrophic fungi is chemically identical to the melanin in our own
bodies, and this led them to believe that it could be actually
providing energy for skin cells. Perhaps even more interesting, this
find has a special importance for space missions.

“Since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer space, astronauts
might be able to rely on fungi as an inexhaustible food source on long
missions or for colonizing other planets,” noted Dadachova.

SOURCE: http://www.zmescience.com/ecology/chernobyl-fungus-radiotrophic-08122011/

[John H. Gohde]

On May 7, 8:28 am, Taka <taka0...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mystery bacteria 'cobwebs' found in SRS cooling tank
>
> Spring cleaning is always a good way to get rid of those hard-to-reach
> cobwebs that appear around the house. However, when they appear in
> cooling tanks for spent nuclear fuel and have never been seen there
> before, special attention is warranted.

I spy Tara. :)

[Taka]

Sci Rep. 2013 Apr 29;3:1742. doi: 10.1038/srep01742.

Overview of active cesium contamination of freshwater fish in
Fukushima and Eastern Japan.

Mizuno T, Kubo H.
SourceThe Center for Risk Research, Shiga University.

This paper focuses on an overview of radioactive cesium 137 (quasi-
Cs137 included Cs134) contamination of freshwater fish in Fukushima
and eastern Japan based on the data published by the Fisheries Agency
of the Japanese Government in 2011. In the area north and west of the
Fukushima Nuclear plant, freshwater fish have been highly
contaminated. For example, the mean of active cesium (quasi-Cs137)
contamination of Ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis) is 2,657 Bq/kg at Mano
River, 20-40 km north-west from the plant. Bioaccumulation is observed
in the Agano river basin in Aizu sub-region, 70-150 km west from the
plant. The active cesium (quasi-Cs137) contamination of carnivorous
Salmondae is around 2 times higher than herbivorous Ayu. The extent of
active cesium (quasi-Cs137) contamination of Ayu is observed in the
entire eastern Japan. The some level of the contamination is
recognized even in Shizuoka prefecture, 400 km south-west from the
plant.
PMID:23625055

http://enenews.com/study-vast-area-of-60-million-people-contaminated-from-fukushima-disaster-photo

[Taka]

TEPCO to dump groundwater to ease crisis at Fukushima nuclear plant

After a series of blunders, miscalculations and unresolved problems,
Tokyo Electric Power Co. adopted a new strategy to avoid a total
collapse of its system for handling radioactive water at its crippled
nuclear plant.

TEPCO is running out of storage space for water used in the nonstop
process of cooling the melted and spent fuel at the Fukushima No. 1
nuclear plant. Exacerbating the storage problem is the groundwater
that keeps flowing into the plant’s buildings.

The company has dug 12 wells to the west of the reactor buildings,
where it plans to pump up groundwater before it can enter the
facilities and become contaminated.

“We would like to release that water into the ocean if we can gain the
understanding of the relevant officials,” Toshihiko Fukuda, who heads
TEPCO's Nuclear Quality and Safety Management Department, said at a
May 7 news conference.

TEPCO officials will explain the plan at a meeting scheduled for May
13 of representatives of fisheries cooperatives in Fukushima
Prefecture. If approval is obtained, the utility plans to start
dumping the pumped-up water into the ocean the following day.

“We would like to cooperate in settling the situation by giving our
approval once safety has been confirmed,” Tetsu Nozaki, chairman of
the federation of prefectural fisheries cooperatives, said.

It would be the second time for water at the plant site to be released
into the ocean.

Fisheries cooperatives in Fukushima Prefecture were forced to refrain
from sending out their boats after highly radioactive water was dumped
into the ocean in the immediate aftermath of the March 2011 nuclear
accident.

Dealing with the radioactive water has long been an uphill battle for
TEPCO in its overall plan to decommission the crippled reactors, a
process expected to take decades to complete.

The situation deteriorated on April 5, when radioactive water was
found leaking from underground storage tanks at the plant.

Water used to cool the fuel in the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors that were
damaged during the accident has accumulated in the basements of the
reactor buildings. Under TEPCO’s recycling system at the plant, this
water has been pumped out, treated, and used again to cool the fuel.

However, about 400 tons of groundwater flow into the reactor buildings
on a daily basis and mixes with the radioactive water.

According to calculations, 300 tons of groundwater would still flow
into the reactor buildings every day even after TEPCO starts pumping
up the water through the wells.

A general contractor on April 26 proposed building a wall to block the
inflow of the groundwater. However, a similar proposal was dropped
immediately after the nuclear accident over fears the water-shielding
wall would cause contaminated water in the buildings to flow into
groundwater at lower levels.

Currently, surface tanks at the Fukushima No. 1 plant hold about
280,000 tons of radioactive water. An additional 100,000 tons are
believed to be flooding the basements of the No. 1 to No. 4 reactor
buildings as well as the turbine buildings.

After the leaks were discovered in the underground storage tanks,
TEPCO transferred about 8,000 tons of radioactive water from the
faulty tanks to surface tanks by May 6. The remaining 16,000 tons or
so will remain in the underground tanks until new surface tanks are
completed in late May, according to TEPCO’s plan.

An estimated 120 tons of radioactive water leaked into the ground from
the faulty underground tanks. Officials of TEPCO and the Japan Atomic
Energy Agency say the contaminated water could mix with groundwater
and reach the ocean in 10 years at the earliest.

TEPCO officials have yet to determine the cause of the leaks. One
factor may have been the fact that they did not follow Environment
Ministry guidelines for industrial waste.

The underground storage tanks were protected by a double layer of
polyethylene waterproof sheets and a 6.4-millimeter-thick sheet of
bentonite, a clay-like substance.

The ministry’s standards for controlled disposal sites for industrial
waste call for at least 50 centimeters of bentonite to surround the
waterproof sheets.

TEPCO officials apparently felt that a double layer of polyethylene
waterproof sheets would be sufficient.

“It would be theoretically possible to prevent leaks for several
decades to about a century if a layer of packed bentonite measuring at
least 50 centimeters had been laid out outside of the sheets,” said
Hideo Komine, a civil engineering professor at Ibaraki University.
“The company should consider rebuilding the underground tanks.”

Handling radioactive water was often an afterthought for TEPCO
officials. Soon after the accident, the main priority was cooling the
reactors, so water was pumped in from every available source,
including the ocean and nearby dams.

When the utility was criticized for dumping highly radioactive water
into the ocean from the basements of the reactor buildings, officials
decided a new approach was needed.

They stored the water at nearby buildings and started building surface
tanks.

In June 2011, the utility began recycling some of the radioactive
water to cool the reactors, after installing about 4 kilometers of
piping.

TEPCO officials apparently never considered 400 tons of groundwater
would flow into the reactor buildings on a daily basis.

SOURCE: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201305080062

[Taka]

Long Shadow of Chernobyl (3): Dried Mushrooms from Italy Still Found
With 170 Bq/kg of Cesium-137

One of the scientific researchers that I follow who goes by the name
of "Tomynyo" on Twitter has been measuring all sorts of things after
the Fukushima nuclear accident - soil accumulated on top of his
apartment complex in Yokohama City with high levels of radioactive
cesium to bamboo shoots and mushrooms served in the kindergarten
lunch.

His latest tweets is not about the domestic mushrooms but about
mushrooms from Italy:

We measured 6 samples of [dried] Italian porcini mushrooms, and all
samples were found with cesium-137. Maximum was 170.3±18.0Bq/kg, and
minimum was 31.6±6.2Bq/kg. Dried mushroom you buy at a supermarket are
almost all grown in Kyushu, so we think these Italian mushrooms are
more contaminated than the dried Japanese mushrooms you can buy at a
supermarket.

If porcini mushrooms get rehydrated, the density of radioactive cesium
would be one-fourths, we are told. We should recognize that we may
have been eating food with certain levels of contamination even before
March 11, 2011.

Just like the wood pellets from trees in Shikoku, Japan tested by one
of my Twitter followers, cesium-137 is most likely from the
atmospheric testing and the Chernobyl accident.

I happened on this video, supposed to be the raw footage of Chernobyl
soon after the accident. I got scared watching workers with scant
protection dumping loads of what looks like concrete debris:

Other "Long Shadow of Chernobyl" posts:

Long Shadow of Chernobyl: 224 Bq/kg of Cesium-137 in the Ashes from
Burning Wood Pellets Made from Trees in Shikoku

Long Shadow of Chernobyl (2): German and Belarusian Researchers Say
64% of 229 Belarusian Children with High-Risk Thyroid Cancer in
Complete Remission, 30% in Near-Complete Remission

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/05/long-shadow-of-chernobyl-3-dried.html

[Taka]

Hospital Official in Fukushima: “Extremely scary data” — Stroke rate
spiking in people ages 35 to 64 — 3.4 times higher than before (VIDEO)

He’s collaborating to collect the data about the crisis rate of
cerebral apoplexy with Tokyo University.

The provisional data says the crisis rate of cerebral apoplexy among
35 ~ 64 years old people in Minamisoma area is 3.4 times much as
before. [...]

He said this is an extremely scary data.
See also: Not Just Cancer: "How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart
Disease And Stroke"

Increased stroke rates for everyone, thanks to nuclear. Accelerated
aging, compromised immune system, diabetes, leukemia . . all from
radiation. It's what it does.

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/hospital-official-in-fukushima-extremely-scary-data-stroke-rate-spiking-in-people-ages-35-to-64-3-4-times-higher-than-before-video

[Taka]

Osaka City Mayor Toru Hashimoto Urges US Military Commander in Okinawa
to Use More Japanese "Fuzoku" (Adult Entertainment) Establishments

In the context, "adult entertainment" is "sex for a price".

Boy-wonder, who was selected as one of the "Young Global Leaders" at
Davos World Economic Forum, a confab of the rich and the powerful in
the world, was visiting Okinawa.

Commander of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Colonel James
Flynn, froze, according to Sankei Shinbun article.

Sankei Shinbun (5/13/2013; part):

"Use more adult entertainment establishments", says Hashimoto, Okinawa
Commander froze

Toru Hashimoto, mayor of Osaka City and co-president of Japan
Restoration Party disclosed on May 13 evening that when he visited the
US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma (Ginowan City, Okinawa) and met
with the commander, he urged "more use of Japanese adult
entertainment" by the US military. According to Hashimoto, he told the
commander, "Unless you make good use of the adult entertainment
industry, you can't control sexual energy of tough Marines." The
commander ignored his suggestion, saying "it is prohibited in the US
military".

Mr. Hashimoto visited the Futenma Air Station on May 1. On that
occasion, he told the commander of the Station that "there are places
in Japan that [the Marines] can legally release their sexual energy",
and urged that the commander order the Marines to make use of adult
entertainment establishments. According to Mr. Hashimoto, the
commander froze, and cut off the talk by saying "The US military bans
the use [of such establishments]. Let's not talk about this any more."

Boy-wonder's comment is no surprise, as he's been saying "comfort
women" are absolutely necessary.

It is absolutely no surprise for the country of Japan either. After
all, the country readied what was to become "Recreation and Amusement
Association" in three days after the Emperor declared the end of World
War II on August 15, 1945 - almost the very first thing that the
defeated government did. Heroic girls and women to serve as
"breakwater", and preserve the virginity of the rest of Japanese girls
and women.

What a country... A country of fascists politicians and a population
of ignorant sheep who know nothing of their tainted past... and this
hashimoto guy ..what a mysogynistic wanker..

Toru Hashimoto is a pimp. JP media reported that he and his mistress
enjoy the costume play in which the mistress dresses as a flight
attendant to have sex with the Osaka mayor. The mistress revealed to
the media, and Hashimoto acknowledged it and apologized to his family
in the public.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2013/05/osaka-city-mayor-toru-hashimoto-urges.html

http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-mayor-wartime-sex-slaves-were-necessary-042050746.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22519384

---------------------

Now those people like Toru Hashimoto control the NPPs in Japan! No
wonder they are dropping cranes into the plutonium liquid sodium pools
at Monju while wanking to AKB48 ....

[Taka]

‘Absurd’: Intentionally dumping Fukushima nuclear material into ocean
from land “is not considered dumping” — Allowed under international
law?

The Fukushima disaster is without precedent and will have
unprecedented impacts on future policies governing the ocean, both
Japanese and international.

[...] the Fukushima accident has revealed some key shortcomings in
international law, said Kentaro Nishimoto, who teaches law of the sea
at Tohoku University. To illustrate, he used an incident that has
brought sharp criticism from Japan’s neighbors: the intentional
release of radioactive water into the sea.

[...] Nishimoto said, the relevant international laws proved to be
nonbinding. In particular, he noted, the London Convention on marine
pollution, although it expressly prohibits ocean dumping of
radioactive material, limits these restrictions to vessels at sea.
Release of materials from land is not considered dumping.

“When I tell this to people outside the field of international law,
the reaction I get is, ‘This is absurd,’ ” Nishimoto acknowledged.
[...]

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/absurd-intentionally-dumping-fukushima-nuclear-material-ocean-land-considered-dumping-allowed-international-law

[Taka]

Radioactive black fungus in Japan, blowing to the US.

The Australian Enenews contributor vital1 has analyzed a sample of
black fungus (black substance) that was originated in Minamisoma,
Japan.

I was sent this resin encapsulated sample of black fungus like
material. It has reportedly come from somewhere in the Minamisoma area
Japan. A contact in Japan sent this sample to a friend. This is my
test chart of it. For those of you who have not looked at a
scintillator test chart like this before. The position of the peaks in
a the chart indicate what isotopes are present… This black fungus
started growing on the concrete, and rock surfaces in Japan after the
Fukushima Nuclear disaster. It appears to be bio-accumulating Cesium.

Correcting for the weight of the sample, it appears to be highly
radioactive, perhaps over 500,000 Bq/kg of cesium. The sample contains
cesium-134 and cesium-137 isotopes, and also the sample peak at 795
keV for cesium-134 has shifted to the right. This is likely due to the
presence of cobalt-58, which has a peak at 810.8 keV. Cobalt-58 was
previously detected in the black substance in Japan.

Cobalt-58 is generated by neutron irradiation of nickel. The metal
nickel is used extensively in nuclear power plants, in tubing and
alloys. It is likely that large amounts of nickel are present in the
molten coriums. The neutrons necessary for transmutation of nickel to
Co-58 would have come from either re-criticalities in the coriums, or
the presence of neutron emitters like plutonium, curium and
californium.

It was shown in a previous post here that an astounding amount of
fungi were transported across the Pacific from Japan to the US in
spring 2011. It is springtime again, and this is the season for fungus
transport.

It is likely that fungi are growing on the spent fuel pools and
underground coriums. Tepco announced that they are adding hydrazine to
the pools in order to control the growth of microorganisms. But these
fungi are highly radioresistant, and probably can tolerate toxic
chemicals also. They are almost certainly mutated by radiation.

Vital1 has also detected high amounts of radon isotopes in an
Australian rain swab. Background radiation in Australia and New
Zealand has increased by 20%-40% since Fukushima. Radon is a
radioactive daughter product of uranium. Very small uranium particles
on the surface emit a much larger amount of daugher isotopes by
weight, than large deposits of uranium miles underground.

If Australia is being showered with uranium dust from Fukushima, it
must be much worse in Japan and the USA. Uranium would have been
released in the initial melt-throughs, but continuing releases of
uranium would be coming from the underground coriums turning into
powder, and being released into the atnosphere and sea… or
alternatively by fungus spores growing on these coriums. If this is
true, there must be significant amounts of plutonium present in the
fungi also.

MORE: http://optimalprediction.com/wp/radioactive-black-fungus-in-japan-blowing-to-the-us/

[Taka]

Cleanup From Fukushima Daiichi: Technological Disaster Or Crisis In
Governance?

Crisis In Fukushima

More than 19,000 Japanese drowned, their bodies scattered on Japan’s
eastern shores when a tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011. Kevin
Wang wanted to help, and his Anaheim, Califonia-based company,
PowerPlus, had the cleaning know-how to handle almost anything. Wang
has spent decades developing equipment to clean up almost every sort
of nasty gunk in existence, from massive oil spills, to radiological
contamination, to dead bodies in quantity.

Immediately after the tsunami, Wang visited the Japanese consul
general in Los Angeles to offer his company’s assistance in dealing
the huge threat to public health posed by this mass casualty event.
The response by Japan’s consul-general made Wang’s jaw drop.
“Absolutely not,” the consul replied, continuing on with rejection
language so brusque, Wang had no doubt his offer was taken as an
insult.

Far from being an isolated incident, the encounter that Wang had now
seems to be a harbinger of the systemic denial that has crippled the
Japanese government’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
First-hand witnesses have described a deeply flawed reaction to the
nuclear meltdown that has been marked by an underestimation of the
extent of the contamination, insufficient radiological testing, and a
glacially-slow response making clean-up harder as time passes. Most
damning of all has been a stubborn unwillingess to use desperately
needed clean-up assistance by ignoring technical competence in favor
of political influence.

Undeterred by the consul’s rebuff, Wang was galvanized to action in
the days after the tsunami when the safety systems at Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant subsequently began to fail and massive
amounts of radiation started spewing into the air and sea. Wang
assembled a crew of indepent decontamination experts and shipped
custom radiological decontamination gear to Japan. Wang and his team
arrived in Japan to do decontamination demonstrations in June of 2011.

In an effort to begin the intense cleanup work, Wang and his crews
demostrated their cleanup capabilities to a variety of audiences
during that trip and three more trips to Japan, the second in October
2011, the third in February 2012, and the last in January 2013. His
team was observed by television crews, city, prefecture, and national
government officials, bureacrats from Japan’s Ministries of Defense
and Environment, dozens of businesses, as well as representatives of
the Tokyo Power Company (TEPCO), the owners of the ill-fated Fukushima
plant.

Wang’s crew had notable success decontaminating a car towed out of the
highly radioactive “exclusion zone” surrounding the Fukushima plant,
reducing the radiation contaminating the car by 99 percent. Given the
difficulty in cleaning more porous materials, Wang’s team also
inevitably turned in some less-stellar results, which included
suffering cold-weather equiment failure more than once. Overall,
these trips clearly demonstrated that Wang and his crews could
consistently clean biological materials in their natural condition,
substantially reducing contamination on substances that many others
considered uncleanable, including dirt, grass, and water, even
reducing the radiation on living cherry trees up to 70%. Even on the
days plagued by equipment failure, the team still managed to reduce
the radiation levels in frozen earth by 20-40%.

Sam Engelhard, an industrial hygenist and certified radiation
protection technologist with years of radiological decontamination
work under his belt, was one of the independent consultants who
accompanied Wang on all four trips to Japan. Wayne Schofield, a
radiation health physicist with decades of on-the-job decontamination
experience, including both Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, was
present for only the February 2012 trip to Japan..

Shortly after arrival on their first trip to Japan, the group headed
for Shirikawa, a city 45 miles west and a few miles south of the
Daiichi nuclear plant. Industrial hygienist Engelhard was shocked as
soon as he unpacked his radiation sensor gear and turned it on. Here
they were almost 50 miles from the accident site and in the opposite
direction of the prevailing winds, and the crew’s radiation alarms
immediately started going off.

“The radiation levels we were seeing were 1,000 times background,
higher in spots,” Engelhard said. “If we had been working on a site
this contaminated in the US, we would have been fully suited up in
radiation protection suits, gloves, and respirators. Yet people were
walking around and going about their business, with no idea of how
contaminated everything around them was.”

One of the first demonstrations conducted by Wang’s team was at a
Japanese school still in routine use. The contamination was
widespread and included troubling accumulations of radiation in
biological materials. While the asphalt driveway was contaminated,
the grass next to it was four times as radioactive as the asphalt.
The worst were the patches of fungus on the bleachers at the school’s
baseball field, which had sucked-up radionuclides to such a degree
that they were emitting radiation at 70-times the contaminated
asphalt.

Engelhard described the chilling phenomena of the fungus-turned-
radiation-sponge as, “a remarkable example of biological
amplification.”

Wang said it more bluntly, “A boy sitting on that patch to watch a
baseball game could do real damage to his gonads.”

More disturbingly, during the June 2011 trip, the American decon crew
was stunned at how little the government disaster-response “experts”
they encountered understood about radiation. After observing the
radiation officials’ attempts to use their radiation meters,
industrial hygienist Engelhard said, “They didn’t seem to understand
what their radiation sensor equipment did, or how to work it.”

After pointing out to three Japanese disaster-response officials from
various governmental entities that a nearby concrete bench was “hot,”
Wang’s team was amazed to see the officials perched on the bench.

On subsequent trips to Japan, Engelhard found that the expertise of
the Japanese radiation techs he met was much higher.

“I can only presume that during our first trip, Japan’s ‘first string’
radiological experts were actually in the hottest zones around the
Fukushima plant itself, and we were seeing third-string officials,” he
said. “Still, it was pretty disconcerting to consider how little the
first bunch seemed to understand.”

In Fukushima City, more than 40 miles northwest of the nuclear plant,
Engelhard made another disquieting discovery at a lighted sign where
the real-time radiation dose rate was allegedly being posted for local
residents. However, when Engelhard stood next to the sign and turned
on his own detection gear, he found the actual radiation dosage was up
to 50% higher than what the sign was reporting.

“I don’t know if they had a sensor calibration problem or the number
was being deliberately under-reported. But the information being fed
to the citizens of Fukushima City by that sign was wrong,” Engelhard
said.

During the first trip, when Wang asked an official from Fukushima
prefecture what testing methodology to use when recording post-
decontamination sensor readings, he was rebuked.

“Don’t be an idiot. Don’t average your results, report only the
lowest number you get,” the prefecture official informed him. That
technique is a shady practice that had Wang followed it, would have
resulted in under-reporting real radiation levels.

The false readings in Fukushima City and the faulty reporting
methodology incidents were not the only times Engelhard and Wang saw
evidence that radiation readings were being under-reported.

During the January 2013 demo trip, Wang and Engelhard compared the
readings the American crew was obtaining to those from the Japanese
government techs’ instruments. The Japanese instruments were
consistently under-reporting radiation levels by 30-50%. Wang’s US
crew verified their instruments were reading accurately by testing
them with an on-the-spot “check source,” a source that produces a
precisely-known amount of radiation in order to properly calibrate
equipment.

The next day, the Japanese techs returned with instruments correctly
calibrated, and explained that their problem the previous day was due
to “a bad cable.”

Engelhard was skeptical. “In my experience,” he said, “when you get a
bad cable, you either get a zero reading, an infinite reading, or a
greatly inconsistent reading because you have to jiggle the cable.
What you don’t get are low readings off by fixed percentages. A ‘bad
cable’ doesn’t wash.”

According to Engelhard, another problem was that cleanup efforts
seemed to be entirely focused on looking for cesium 134 and 137.

“Cesium is definitely the most abundant of the contaminants, and as a
‘gamma emitter,’ cesium is also the easiest to find with standard
detection gear. But cesium was not the only problematic isotope
released, and so the easy-to-find gamma emitters are not the only
contaminants to worry about”, Engelhard emphasized.

Engelhard was not alone in expressing his concern. Team member and
veteran radiation health physicist Wayne Schofield said, “In the most
contaminated areas, I’d expect to find high levels of cesium, but also
strontium-90, plutonium, cobalt, and other contaminants that can be
dangerous. Strontium-90 has a thirty-year half-life and it is a ‘beta-
emitter.’ Beta radiation is very difficult to find with hand-held
instruments, and easily shielded from detection by a minimal amount of
dirt or leaves. “

Generally speaking, both ’alpha’ and ’beta‘ emitters are of little
concern, if they remain outside the body, but they can become deadly
when ingested.

Engelhard explained, “Your body recognizes strontium as calcium and
puts it into your bones, right next to the bone marrow that is the
heart of the human immune system. That’s bad news.”

Health physicist Wayne Schofield agreed that focusing solely on cesium
to the exclusion of other contaminants is a mistake. “If you aren’t
doing comprehensive surveys when looking for hotspots, that’s sloppy
science.”

Guidelines for allowable levels of radiological contamination in food
released by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare in March
2012 specifically mention strontium-90 as a “regulated radionuclide,”
but ambiguous language in the footnotes of the guidelines calls into
question whether Japan is actually looking for strontium-90,
plutonium, and other contaminants, or simply relying on estimated
levels.

“Effective dose from radionuclides other than cesium are added to
these estimates in reality, because these values are estimated only
from radioactive cesium.” [i]

Engelhard opined, “It sounds like they’ve come up with a ‘fudge
factor,’ to estimate of how much of these other contaminants may be
present. In a nuclear industrial setting, estimating beta radiation
based on a known quantity of gamma radiation is a valid technique,
because the chemistry of what is going on inside a reactor is very
well known. However, once you have an accident, you don’t know how
the contaminants released are interacting in the environment. The
only way you are going to find alpha or beta emitters in the
environment is to test for them, but that kind of testing is much more
material and labor intensive.”

Virgene Mulligan, the Vice President of radiological lab services at
ARS International, confirmed the difficulty and expense of finding
strontium-90, explaining, “Specifically identifying strontium-90 in a
sample takes 14-20 days, because a chemical reaction has to take place
and the resin used in the test is expensive. That doesn’t mean they
shouldn’t be testing for it at all.”

Further complicating testing efforts is that water is an effective
radiation shield for alpha, beta, and gamma emitters: water, or food
with high water content, can be highly contaminated but nevertheless
give off a false low-contamination reading unless measured with
specialized and highly sensitive laboratory detection gear.

Bad as the Fukushima radiation release initially was, health physicist
Wayne Schofield passed along estimates that, at first hearing, sound
highly encouraging, “At a guess, radiation levels across all the
contaminated areas in Japan have dropped considerably, probably by
about 80%, since the Fukushima accident. Over time, rain and wind
naturally reduce radiation levels by washing or blowing contamination
away.”

The single “hottest” spot the American team found in Japan, located
almost a full year after the disaster, was a metal grating below a
rain gutter downspout. It emitted a combined beta and gamma
radiation rate five times the threshold rate used in US nuclear power
plants to determine when to start limiting radiation worker exposure
times.

The “hot” grating rather pointedly illustrates that contaminants
washed off a surface by rain are not gone, but rather linger in the
biosphere. In Germany as recently as 2010, more than 1,000 wild boars
were found to be contaminated past government health limits with
radionuclides that came from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster; even though
the closest point in Germany to the failed Chernobyl plant is 650
miles away.

Engelhard further explained “the 80 percent that has been washed or
blown away is that portion of the contamination that was loose and
would have been relatively easy to clean up, if someone had gotten to
it in time. The 20 percent now left behind is not the same.
Radiological contaminants start to bond to the material they have
settled on over time. Some of the contaminants that could have once
been cleaned away easily are now chemically or molecularly bonded, and
bonded contaminants are harder to remove.”

As with Wang’s run-in with the Japanese consul in Los Angeles,
Engelhard was baffled by the Japanese officials he talked to. “When
we got to Japan the first time, they were really glum. They were much
more upbeat on later visits, but both the initial glumness and the
later improved attitudes were strange.”

“Initially the Fukushima meltdown was seen as a shameful blow to
national pride, and the improved attitudes a year later seemed a
general sense that things were better with the embarrassment of
Fukushima mostly behind them”, he added.

“Shameful situations are something you avoid and minimize, that’s the
exact wrong response to a radiological crisis like Fukushima. A
crisis of this magnitude needs to be dealt with by an “all hands on
deck” mentality, accepting help wherever you can find it, to minimize
long-term health consequences,” Engelhard emphasized.

Wang believes the Fukushima radiological contamination far more
widespread that most Japanese understand. “One thing I heard so often
during my trips to Japan that it became a mantra, was that ‘Fukushima
is a Japanese problem and we have to fix it ourselves.’ So far, I
haven’t seen any evidence that the government is taking the right
steps to fix things. Instead, the wounded pride of government
officials, and a lack of understanding at the urgency of the problem,
prevented Japan from taking the steps they needed to.”

*
*
*

On all four trips, Wang’s team was greeted with enthusiasm and relief
by many in Japan’s business community. Several Japanese companies
offered to partner with the California firm to import the technology
and equipment, and Wang never doubted his Japanese business partners
tried their utmost to break through the governmental logjam.

Despite the enthusiasm from the audiences who saw the demonstrations,
closing in on two years after the Fukushima disaster, no PowerPlus
equipment has been sold, and no decontamination contracts have been
forthcoming. Far from unique, this cold reception by the Japanese
government was identical to experience of dozens of both Japanese and
US firms with decontamination expertise to offer. Health physicist
Wayne Schofield is not surprised at PowerPlus’ lack of headway, noting
that another company he consults for, a leader in the radiation
remediation field in the US, has spent even more money on clean-up
demonstrations than Wang’s company, and had just as poor a reception.
According to Schofield, the US radiation remediation industry
grapevine has it that the bizarre freeze-out by the Japanese
government has happened to nearly every company in the field. The
reasons given by Japanese officials for not making use of foreign
expertise approaches the bizzare, including a statement by Hidehiko
Nishiyama, deputy director of the enviorment ministry, that foreign
techinques won’t work because “the soil in Japan is different…and if
we have foreigners roaming around Fukushima, they might scare the old
grandmas and granddads.”

Japanese cleanup firms firms have fared little better than their
foreign counterparts. Instead, cleanup contracts have gone to Japan’s
major construction firms, companies with political clout, but grossly
lacking in decontamination capability. Disgusted at the shoddy cleanup
work being done by the construction firms, Masafumi Shiga, president
of a refurbishing company in Fukushima, told the New York Times
simply, “What’s happening on the ground is a disgrace.”

Disasters, both man-made and natural, are as inevitable as the tides.
History may well judge that it was not the Fukushima disaster, but the
bungled response to it, that ultimately proves to be the most lasting
source of shame to Japanese officialdom. Plagued by delayed action,
haphazard radiological testing, and the freeze-out of nearly every
company with substantive decontamination expertise to offer, both
inside and outside of Japan, it now appears that somewhere along the
way, Japan’s government put national pride and a ‘we don’t want any
help’ attitude ahead of the lives of Japan’s citizens.

SOURCE: http://fairewinds.org/demystifying/cleanup-from-fukushima-daiichi-technological-disaster-or-crisis-in-governance

[John H. Gohde]

> Taka is a Really Stupid, Lying, Sexist Pig!

Worth repeating ...