Best of the Blog - The Japan Disaster March 2011
& The Ongoing Nuclear Risk
Latest
Best of the Blog - The Japan Disaster March 2011
& The Ongoing Nuclear Risk Archive
Fukushima’s operators at loss but don’t show it
The Voice of Russia, 30th May 2011
[...] In an interview to the Voice of Russia, an expert in nuclear and radiation security Maxim Shingarkin commented on the situation in Fukushima:
“In fact, this statement came with a big delay. The operating company deliberately concealed this information. The explanation is simple – the company is afraid that any checking by competent experts would reveal its inability to save the situation. Only recently, foreign experts founded a consultative body for the clean-up of the accident’s consequences. Moreover, the company is concealing the information about the amount of pollution of the environment.”
However, “Tokyo Electric Power” still pretends that it knows quite well how to clean-up after the accident
Comment: I have been amazed at how restrained the Russians have been about this crisis, as their southern border is very close to northern Japan.....
Yoichi Shimatsu
Japan Update 5.30.11
Rense.com, 30th May 2011 Yoichi Shimatsu is the editor of the Japan Times, his first question by Jeff Rense is about the opinion of senior political figure Ichiro Ozawa who suggested that Tokyo might become off limits. The response was to specify the extent of radiation, 1/3rd of the Japanese people will be effected, a major economic catastrophe and human health problem...
We 'came close' to losing Northern Japan
CNN News, 1st June 2011
CNN Host: No one ever suspected that we had three simultaneous core meltdowns, 100 percent core damage and that sea water of all things stopped a tragedy from taking place. The media if anything, we now realize downplayed the real impact of the accident.
Comment: Michio Kaku having another rant on CNN... I must say he looked very dapper.... this is a great summary of the current state of this crisis...
EU stress tests nuclear plants (Video)
CNN News, 1st June 2011
"The European Union begins a series of stress tests on nuclear facilities in reaction to Japan's Fukushima crisis."
N-plant worker regrets 17-yr career / Forced to leave Fukushima home, devotes self to caring for other evacuees
Daily yomiuri. Online, 31st May 2011 AWAMATAMACHI, Fukushima--Kenichi Togawa, 37, was standing nearby as an executive vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Co.
knelt down at an evacuation shelter and bowed deeply, his forehead touching the floor. Residents of the shelter shouted angrily at the executive. "How long will you force us to live this kind of life?" one called out.
Comment: There is some interesting background information here and proof that nuclear workers knew immediately that
explosions were very likely. Anyway, I realise that all this public penance is part of the Japanese culture, but grovelling does not solve the problem as we hear about the latest explosion at Fukushima. Even though the official explanation is that it was a gas cylinder, we know that TEPCO are bad liars and it's
probably related to power planet no.5 losing it's cooling system for 15 hours. No doubt, we will hear the truth in a few months time, to be consistent with the way that TEPCO have conducted this mega disaster.
Japan pensioners volunteer to tackle nuclear crisis
BBC News, 31st May 2011
"A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station. The Skilled Veterans Corps, as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of 60."
Fukushima Risks Chernobyl ‘Dead Zone’
Bloomberg News, 30th May 2011
Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan’s crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, where a “dead zone” remains
25 years after the reactor in the former Soviet Union exploded.
Soil samples in areas outside the 20-kilometer (12 miles) exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant measured more than 1.48 million becquerels a
square meter, the standard used for evacuating residents after the Chernobyl accident, Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Waste Management
Organization of Japan, said in a research report published May 24 and given to the government.
Comment: The article is should be entitled: The Tepco Dream: We can Magic Away Radiation, Even After a
Meltdown.... My response is: dream on.... Btw, for a bit of realism: Tokyo is finished, I have been saying the same for many weeks...
Pump failure nearly brings No. 5 to a
boil Tepco installs backup unit 15 hours later for halted reactor
Japan Times, 30th May 2011
"The seawater pump in the cooling system for the Fukushima power plant's No. 5 reactor broke down Saturday evening, prompting repair crews
to install a backup pump 15 hours later on Sunday afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said."
High radioactivity found in Japan nuclear workers
Yahoo News, 30th May 2011
"TOKYO (AFP) – Two workers from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been contaminated by high levels of radioactive iodine, the operator said Monday, prompting fears over their long-term health. The workers, reportedly men in their 30s and 40s, may have already been exposed to radiation levels higher than the recently boosted official annual limit, Japanese media suggested."
Comment: I don't know why they are bothering to report this, it's obvious there is no way to protect the Fukushima workers in such a highly radioactive environment, they will all die of radiation poisoning.
Experiment to decontaminate farmland begins in Fukushima
Japan Today, 29th May 2011
"An experiment to remove radioactive materials from farmland by growing plants and using a mineral began Saturday in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture. The farm ministry and the prefectural government have secured 3 hectares of rice paddies, vegetable fields and grassland for the program in which they plant sunflowers and amaranths in the fields to see their capabilities for absorbing radioactive cesium in the soil, they said."
Fukushima Could Have Avoided Nuclear Meltdown, Lost Chance By Inaction
Daily Tech, 19th May 2011 II. Chance to Advert Meltdown May Have Been Lost Due to Inaction
On the morning after the quake TEPCO finally decided to vent steam from the reactors in an effort to reduce them from heating. One thing the Japanese government is upset about is that TEPCO didn't vent them sooner. It was instructed to vent them on March 11, but failed to act until the next morning. Nuclear Safety Commission Chairman Haruki Madarame told Japan's Parliament, "We can certainly say that if the venting took place a little earlier, we could have prevented the situation from worsening."
I had missed this interesting piece of news
Q: If you had been in charge, would you have disclosed all the information about the meltdown in the initial stage?
A: Yes. I would have. There is no use in holding back information. We have to decide what to do, based on the premise of the information we have. This problem may be contained in Fukushima for now, but the contamination may spread outside of Fukushima. Anxiety and frustration are growing. People cannot live in the contaminated areas. These areas are becoming uninhabitable. Japan has lost its territory by that much. If we do nothing, even Tokyo could become off limits. There is a huge amount of uranium fuels in the plants, much more than in Chernobyl. This is a terrible situation. The government doesn't tell the truth and people live in a happy-go-lucky... [Wall Street Journal link]
Comment: The link to the Wall Street Journal only gives the introduction to this interview and the rest of the interview is for subscribers only. Here is a copy. The statement provided here is proof Japanese politicians are seriously thinking that Tokyo will have to be abandoned.... No doubt this will send a shudder down the spines of all those sociopaths in charge (at least those with a small ability to feel emotions), who that think their financial security is immune and people should carry on and ignore the obvious energetic upheaval taking place on this planet.
Update:
I read the whole transcript. Senior political figure Ichiro Ozawa can actually think straight...
Q: Reconstruction will require a lot of money and resources, and the Diet is currently debating the need for a second supplementary budget. What is the urgency and how large should this second reconstruction budget be? Where would funding come from?
A: That’s another typical Japanese way of thought. No matter how much money it takes it must be done. With all that happening you can’t live in Japan. Some day we may not be able to live in Japan. There is the possibility that the power plant can reach the state of criticality again. If it explodes, it’s a huge matter. Radiation is being leaked in order to keep the reactors from exploding. So, in this sense, it’s even worse than letting the power plant explode. Radiation is going to be flowing out for a long period of time. This is not a matter of money, but of life and death for the Japanese.
Wow... this is very honest.... Maybe, we have a Japanese politician that actually cares about the lives of the Japanese people... Sometimes, it's a relief to find people who can actually think about long term consequences and not short term exploitation...
AP Exclusive: Fukushima tsunami plan a single page
AP, 27th May 2011
"TOKYO (AP) — Japanese nuclear regulators trusted that the reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi were safe from the worst waves an earthquake could muster based on a single-page memo from the plant operator nearly a decade ago.
In the Dec. 19, 2001 document — one double-sized page obtained by The Associated Press under Japan's public records law — Tokyo Electric Power Co. rules out the possibility of a tsunami large enough to knock the plant offline and gives scant details to justify this conclusion, which proved to be wildly optimistic."
Finally, someone has dug out the proof...
Geiger counters selling out in Japan
ABC News, 27th May 2011
[...] It's the place you can get your hands on any electronic gadget or gizmo. And in Tokyo's Akihabara district this week the must-have device is a Geiger counter used to detect radiation.
"Before no-one even looked at Geiger counters or knew the name of them," says electronics store manager Makoto Ogasawara. "But ever since the massive earthquake struck people have become very interested in them. So we are selling a hundred times more Geiger counters than before," he says.
The reason for this surge in sales is simple - good old-fashion scepticism, even cynicism directed at Japanese authorities and the operators of the Fukushima plant. Comment: All very sad... Looking back, there were only a few nuclear experts that were brave enough to tell the truth from the very beginning. However, the actions of the US military and diplomats telling their nationals to get out of harms way was very public knowledge and highly indicative of the seriousness of this crisis. The initial rumours, presumably coming from diplomatic channels and the latest news concerning the need to move the capital away from Tokyo, are all relevant to the situation. As I have been stating since I understood the severity of this crisis, a very large part of Japan will become uninhabitable. Since the Japanese authorities refused to get to grips with the situation immediately and ask for international help, this is now inevitable. The real question is: have they sacrificed the whole country to save face?
Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 1 RPV, Reactor 3 Cooling Pipe Broke In the Earthquake, TEPCO Now Says
ex-skf.blogspot.com, 25th May 2011
"After two months TEPCO is dribbling the information out which only proves the critics and fringe scholars and the "sensational" media abroad were right from the beginning. First was the news of core meltdowns in all three reactors, and after two months no one cared. Next, the news yesterday that the Containment Vessels, not just the RPV, have holes, and no one cared."
NASA: Songda becomes a super typhoon
PhysOrg.com, 26th May 2011
"The good news is that the predicted course track is moving east and away from the Fukushima reactors, and the storm is expected to weaken before it gets there. Hopefully. Building 4 will remain standing. The bad news is that even at tropical storm levels, Songpa will suck up the accumulated radioactive debris from two months of leakages, and spread it over a wide area of the Pacific." Credit: www.whatreallyhappened.com
Angry Parents in Japan Confront Government Over Radiation Levels
New York Times, 25th May 2011
FUKUSHIMA CITY, Japan — The accusations flew on Wednesday at the local school board meeting, packed with parents worried and angry about radiation levels in this city at the heart of Japan’s nuclear crisis.
“Do you really care about our children’s health?” one parent shouted. “Why have you acted so late?” said another. Among other concerns: isn’t radiation still raining down on Fukushima? Shouldn’t the entire school building be decontaminated? The entire city? Can we trust you?
“We are doing all we can,” pleaded Tomio Watanabe, a senior official of Fukushima’s education board. A huge outcry is erupting in Fukushima over what parents say is a blatant government failure to protect their children from dangerous levels of radiation. [...]
“It breaks my heart that they did nothing for the children,” said Sadako Monma, herself a mother of two, who has run the Soramame center for 15 years. “Our answer was to stop waiting for someone to help us.” Comment: The war has started.... What else can these sane parents do? The psychopaths in charge allowed this to happend, aided and abetted by a sleeping populace but the Japanese people are finally waking up.....
Containment Vessels of Reactors 1, 2, 3 Were Possibly Damaged Within 24 Hours of March 11 Earthquake
ex-skf.blogspot.com, 24th May 2011
Someone at Yomiuri Shinbun who was made to read the TEPCO's report to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), the government overseer, found this bit of information in the main report (225 pages, in Japanese; English translation is on-going at TEPCO): Containment Vessels were damaged within 24 hours of the quake.
It is not in the summary slides (10 slides, in Japanese), which I did read. In the TEPCO's press conferences since May 15, Matsumoto never admitted to the Containment Vessel damage but he didn't deny it either. He specifically said in a press conference I watched that he "cannot deny the possibility of the Containment Vessel having been damaged." (I will link my post reporting that if I ever retrieve it; Google deleted it in their "maintenance".)
Comment: It's now official, but the news of 10cm 'holes' in the containment vessels is just part of this ongoing corporate comedy...
The Implications of the Fukushima Accident on the World's Operating Reactors
YouTube/FaireWinds, 23rd May 2011
"Arnie Gundersen explains how containment vents were added to the GE Mark 1 BWR as a "band aid" 20 years after the plants built in order to prevent an explosion of the notoriously weak Mark 1 containment system. Obviously the containment vent band aid fix did not work since all three units have lost containment integrity and are leaking radioactivity. Gundersen also discusses seismic design flaws, inadequate evacuation planning, and the taxpayer supported nuclear industry liability fund.
The more you find out, the clearer it becomes that the nuclear industry is run by cowboys....
Fukushima's Secret Radionuclides
Counter Currents, 16th May 2011
“The … claim from authorities is that 2 fission products have been emitted into the biosphere by the Fukushima event. This is most odd, given that the fission product inventory (from nuclear reactions) consists of over 250 radio-nuclides. There is more than Cesium-137 & Iodine-131 being emitted.”
Mutant Rabbit Missing Ears Born in Namie City, Fukushima Japan
Japan News Today, 23rd May 2011
In Fukushima prefecture Namie City a rabbit missing its ears was recently born. According to the video poster the rabbits are being fed outdoor grass possibly contaminated by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Namie City is outside of the 30 kilometer exclusion zone.
Youtube commenters are recommending calling it “Daiichi”.
Comment: This rabbit is going global.... The Japanese really do have a very wry sense of humour calling the mutant rabbit "Daiichi"....
Rabbit Without Ears, Allegedly Born After Fukushima Accident
ex-skf.blogspot.com, 27th May 2011
"The person who uploaded the video says it is one of their rabbit, and it was born after they fed their rabbits with their favorite fresh green grass after the Reactor 3 blew up. He/she says "We were working in our backyard when the Reactor 3 blew up, which we didn't know at that time. Our faces and throats felt burned, and we thought we're going to die. So we fed the rabbits with their favorite grass." And "It's just too late, telling us after 2 months how contaminated the soil is around here. We've drunk from the well water, have eaten the wild mountain vegetables."
Some analysis about the earless rabbit... but sad to hear the experience of local victims of this tragedy.
Things Are Slowly Changing in Japan Over the Fukushima Crisis
ex-skf.blogspot.com, 22nd May 2011
[...] In the meantime, angry and concerned parents and citizens are swarming the Ministry of Education and demand that the government withdraw the 20 millisievert/year radiation (external only) limit for children. The Minister is hiding.
They are holding a meeting outside the Ministry. Each time some punk of a bureaucrat utters something, he is being shouted down by angry protesters, demanding the Ministry retract 20 millisievert/year.
"Why can't you understand? What can't you understand?" they are shouting at the bureaucrat.
Comment: Well, it looks like I was right.... the Japanese government's sociopathic stance on new high radiation levels for children crossed the line and I think this means more than just civil unrest.... The mentality of the slave populace putting up with high levels of radiation to suit the needs of the elite will not go down without a fight.... Maybe, these materialists think that everybody will be happy if they sell toys of radiactive bunnies with no ears and that somehow this is going to change the facts....
Bunny rabbit born with no ears after the nuclear accident at Fukushima, Tohoku
YouTube, 21st May 2011
My interpretation of the google translation of the YouTube user yuunosato's upload comments : There is a need to watch out for our health, due to the actions of the government immediately after the accident at Fukushima, 30 km outside the town of Namie, because no information is available at all, thought to be erased in a cover-up. As a result of eating from the grass immediately outside, a bunny rabbit is born with no rabbit ears. This mutation is the first time ever. The life cycle of a rabbit is short compared to man, maybe this bunny rabbit is a glimpse at the birth of children in the future.
Comment: Well, it has taken about 10 weeks for the appearance of the first mutated animal... Due to the extremely high levels of contamination this is going to be absolutely awful and I can't see this doing anything else but forcing the government's hand in large scale evacuations and that means evacuating Tokyo, the world's largest city. Use google translate to pick up more information like people were complaining about dandelions being malformed, so the rabbit is going to send some people completely off the rails. Here is another:
My interpretation of the google translation of the YouTube user albireo0106 comments : I checked the gestation period for a rabbit is about a month. There would have been exposure in the womb as Namie Shimazu town had fairly continuous exposure, it is a heavily-polluted area from the northwest side of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. There must be concern about radiation damage of the fetus relating to children.
Koide is practically agreeing with Christopher Busby that there's not much anyone can do to stop the release of radioactive materials and further contamination of air, soil and water, other than somehow "entomb" the reactors (a.k.a. Chernobyl solution).
Koide reiterates his view that the corium (he says "melted fuel" and "melted core" in the interview for lay people, but it is melted fuel, and anything else that melted with the fuel inside the RPV) may have already escaped the Containment Vessel in the Reactor 1. Comment: Nobody has a clue what to do.... absolutely marvelous, there only seems to be people in charge who specialise in lying and what good are they in resolving this major world crisis... Btw, the physics blogs have been talking about Corium for many weeks.
The ‘myth of safety’ in Japan’s nuclear plants
National Post, 21st May 2011
[...] As emergency workers still struggle to control four of the plant’s six nuclear reactors, the Japanese are only now learning just how serious the crisis has been. [...] The uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the Fukushima disaster have caused an unprecedented public backlash in Japan, generating protests, tirades on Twitter and YouTube, death threats and displays of defiance. [...]
Public confidence was shaken further when it emerged engineers at Fukushima were so unprepared for the disaster, they had to scavenge flashlights from nearby homes and used car batteries to try to reactivate damaged reactor gauges."
Comment: Some shocking revelations, false economy and a high level of crapiness to save money... similar to BP with their secondhand blowout preventer reconditioned in China to save money that of course failed to do the job...
Respect for Authority Gives Way to Anger
IPS News, 20th May 2011
TOKYO, May 20, 2011 (IPS) - More than a hundred young nursing mothers living in Fukushima and nearby areas have signed up to get themselves checked for radiation contamination, but they would rather do it on their own, with no help from the Japanese government.
A laboratory the women have selected will conduct the radiation checks, said nurse Saeko Uno, who recently joined the group Mothers Monitoring Breast Milk Radiation Contamination. "This is because we do not trust the government to release the correct figures," she added.
Uno lived 50 kilometres from the Fukushima nuclear plant and harboured her own doubts about it. But she laments that local residents were lulled into a false sense of safety. "This is something I will never forget or forgive," she told IPS.
Comment: Just a few more people who have woken up to realise that those in power generally don't care much about the people they are suppose to be serving.
Head of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuke plant operator resigns
RIA Novosti News, 20th May 2011
"The head of the company operating Japan's troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is stepping down and is taking responsibility for the handling of Japan's nuclear crisis, the msnbc.com news portal said on Friday, quoting Japanese media reports."
Q&A With a Former Fukushima Dai-1 Plant Manager
Spectrun IEEENews, 27th May 2011
"Futami: The scale of the Fukushima Dai-1 accident was far beyond my imagination. When I was superintendent, I could not have imagined that all electricity including battery power for units 1 through 4 would be completely lost at the same time, and would not be restored for more than 9 days."
Interview with Akira Tokuhiro, Nuclear Engineer: Fukushima and the Mass Media
Huffington Post, 17th May 2011
"Only the mass media can put the kind of pressure on TEPCO and the Japanese government to bring about major change. This will cost at least 10 billion dollars if not 20-30 billion to clean up. It will take at least 10 years if not 20 and roughly 10,000 people working on the cleanup. The nuclear business is global. This needs an international effort to clean up Fukushima."
-- Nuclear Engineer Akira Tokuhiro
Comment:It's good to see a nuclear engineer speaking out and telling those who are interested the truth, but the major problem is economics, fear, greed and stupidity. People would rather risk the whole world be contaminated than think what is best for the planet and human life.... I suppose the idea is those with the power will survive and everybody else will need to fight to survive and that is how they want it. Unfortunately for them, we are at a time of evolutionary change and our world faces a technological collapse brought down from the heavens, so all the tools that give these people power may be removed or rendered useless, it's that simple. This is a small planet, there is no where to run to and nowhere to hide, so it really makes you wonder when authorities will start to make some realistic decisions. The discussion that hints of the karma of the US building these reactors, the Japanese using dirty MOX fuel and now the US being a major recipient of the contamination is also interesting...
Japan offers WHO apology for nuclear crisis
Japan Times, 18th May 2011
"Geneva — An annual meeting of the World Health Organization heard an apology Tuesday from Japan for the radioactive contamination in air and seawater caused by the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant."
Seriously? These WHO officials did not know the basic facts of what went down at Fukushima?
“Situation at Fukushima out of control” (Video)
Russia Today, 17th May 2011 The situation at the Fukushima plant is currently out of control, says Professor Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risks, who gave RT his insight into the recent developments in Japan.
“Of course, it’s time for the Japanese government to take control. But having said that, it’s very hard to know how you could take control of the situation. The situation is essentially out of control,”
Busby stressed.
“I believe personally that it’s a global problem – and not the Japanese government’s problem only,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that his government was determined to "take responsibility" for Japan's crippled nuclear plant "right to the end" as the operator of the plant said a revised roadmap to resolve the crisis would stick with the existing timeline.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Vice President Sakae Muto said the operator would maintain the revised plan but will add new tasks, such as boosting preparedness for tsunamis and improving conditions for workers.
Comment: An informative interview... Busby confirms that there were nuclear explosions at Fukushima and no doubt the news is coming from Russian nuclear scientists... The synopsis is that no one has any ideas about what should be done to deal with this crisis, but it's a major problem for the world... This is the reality check: children have played with matches and now the whole place is on fire, but nobody has any idea about we should do now...
One of the readers of my Japanese blog that has the Japanese translation of the video got curious and did some research using the data from the government agency (the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan), and came to a conclusion that the area where the plant sits may indeed have moved quite a bit, not just vertically but also horizontally.
His conclusion:
Vertical: - 50 centimeters (it sank 50 centimeters)
Horizontal: 220 to 250 centimeters to the east.
Comment: Well, this is about right when we consider that towns only just north of Fukushima are below water at high tide (knee deep) and there are calculations that some areas in Ishinomaki (north of Fukushima and only just north of Sendai) sank 4 feet (1.2 meters) lower.
Nearly 3,000 taken to hospitals by ambulances from quake shelters
Japan Today, 17th May 2011
"Nearly 3,000 evacuees living in shelters in three of the northeastern Japan prefectures worst affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have been taken to hospital by ambulance, according to a Kyodo News survey released Tuesday."
Tepco Says Fuel in 2 [additional] Reactors May Have Melted
Bloomberg News, 16th May 2011
"Tokyo Electric Power Co. said fuel in other reactors at its damaged nuclear plant may have melted, after confirming rods in the No. 1 unit had fallen from their assembly, potentially delaying plans to resolve the crisis."
More exceedingly late confessions -- and that means 1, 2 and 3, but wait, that's not all...
In the rubble of Japan's northeast coast, Fudai stands as tall as ever after. No homes were swept away. In fact, they barely got wet.
The 3,000 residents owe their lives to the late Kotaku Wamura, who lived through an earlier tsunami and made it a priority of his four-decade tenure as mayor to defend his people from the next one.
Comment: And the moral of the tale? Most people quickly forget major catastrophic events and carry on as if they won't happen again. Today our world is facing major evolutionary change and most are not interested. There are abundant messages left by our ancestors that we can expect regular cyclical events that occur over thousands of years that in the past have been accompanied by major catstrophic events. The ancient and not so ancient text warn of fire or flood, this time it is celestial fire and the heavens have already opened but most people are still too uneducated to understand the signs of the times or what should be done to prepare, I even wonder whether it's too late. In this regard, I think I have most respect for the Russians, they clearly have been preparing and not just facilities for the rich elite.
Rapid meltdown in No.1 reactor
NHK World, 15th May 2011 Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, says most of the fuel rods in the No.1 reactor had dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel within 16 hours of the earthquake on March 11th.
The utility revealed its study on the subject on Sunday.
TEPCO said it analyzed the data and calculated a timeline for the developments in the No. 1 reactor on the assumption that the reactor lost its cooling system as soon as it was hit by the tsunami. [...] Almost of all the fuel rods melted and dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel by 6:50 am on March 12th.
TEPCO said the temperature dropped after water was poured into the reactor starting at 5:50 am on the same day. The firm says the melted rods created small holes on the bottom of the vessel, but that no major problems are developing there. It believes that the amount of radioactive substances that could spread from the reactor will be limited.
Comment: Major News! Two months late, TEPCO have finally admitted the truth to the world that it took less than 24 hours for a complete meltdown in reactor 1.... And guess what? The evacuation zone has been expanded again... sounds like everything is just dandy...
Evacuation begins in Fukushima
NHK World, 15th May 2011
"Evacuation of some people who live outside the 20 kilometer radius from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun.
Families with babies and children up to kindergarten age and pregnant women are the first of the 7,700 residents of two towns to evacuate. [..] The Japanese government expanded the evacuation zone around the plant to areas where cumulative radiation levels are 20 millisieverts or higher per year."
Comment: So if you live in an area with a level of radiation that is less than 20 millisieverts per year or 20x the acceptable level suggested for the rest of the world, and if you are Japanese and live near Fukushima and any other clapped out nuclear reactor, in the vicinity, you are expected to just put up with and maybe allow yourself to be killed by the extra radiation...
Highly Radioactive Substances Detected in Tokyo
Arirang News, 15th May 2011
"Moving on to the latest developments in Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis highly radioactive substances were detected in parts of Tokyo.
Japan's Asahi Shimbun reports about 3,200 and nearly 2-thousand becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram were found in the soil of Tokyo districts of Koto and Chiyoda, respectively, from testing conducted between April 10th and the 20th."
Professor Kunihiko Takeda: "Teachers, Wake Up and Protect Children from Radiation!"
ex-skf.blogspot, 14th May 2011
Professor Kunihiko Takeda of Chubu University is a nuclear scientist known these days as one of the "nuclear sceptics" in Japan (he has been a "global warming sceptic", too), though he was a proponent of nuclear energy until mid 2000s when the government loosened the safety standards.
He has been highly critical of the government response to the Fukushima crises - Fukushima I Nuke Plant and radioactive contamination of air, water, soil, and ocean.
He's particularly angry, as any decent human being would, about the Japanese government's strange, bureaucratic willingness and insistence on exposing small children to the high level of radiation (20 millisieverts/year).
Comment: It looks like war over the children... The rest of the latest news from Japan is absolutely terrible....
Strong earthquake [6.2] jolts Japan
Press TV, 14th May 2011
"The epicenter of the tremor was at 37.38 degrees north latitude and 141.41 degrees east longitude -- about 93 kilometers (57 miles) southeast of Fukushima -- and its depth was 37.60 kilometers. "
More on the Worker's Death: It Took 2 Hours to Get to the Hospital ex-skf.blogspot, 14th May 2011
"The man may have suffered a heart attack, but it sure looks he was practically killed by TEPCO and the Fukushima prefectural government. [...] Even with 56 km/hour though, if the ambulance had come to the plant and took the worker to the hospital directly to Iwaki City, it would have arrived at the hospital in less than an hour, instead of 2 hours, and with a medical treatment provided in the ambulance. The Self Defense Force also has this thing called "helicopter", but I guess that is reserved for VIPs like Prime Minister Kan and Nuclear Safety Commission chief Madarame, and we have to be worried for the safety of the SDF helicopter pilot."
Radiation ‘Bias’ Threatens Fukushima Manufacturers Recovery
San Francisco Chronicle, 13th May 2011
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- More than two months after Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima nuclear plant started leaking radiation, manufacturers in northern Japan are still trying to dispel rumors their industrial products are tainted.
“We lost a deal worth several hundred million yen” because a customer was concerned about radiation, Yoshimasa Sekiguchi, an executive at Tohoku Bolt Manufacturing Co., a parts maker based in Iwaki about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the crippled power plant, said in an interview. “For us, it’s a significant amount of money.”
Comment: It's almost like these people think 'spin' will change the facts. Japan has been Fuk-u-shima-ed, think Hiroshima, think Chernobyl think Fukunobyl, there can be no possible 'recovery' short of a miracle and I don't think it will happen but I could be wrong... These Japanese manufacturers want folk to continue on as if nothing has happened, and hoping that people are still interested in their great goods that are only tainted with a little bit of radiation...
From a wider perspective, it seems that all these recent mega disasters are starting to focus the attention of those with some functioning mental capacity and some are seeing the light and realise that more mega disasters will be part of our future. So, as I have been saying loudly and clearly, we are at a time of massive evolutionary change where the planet is being continually bombarded by huge amounts of energy to facilitate change, hence, even the White House are prepared to admit the obvious. This quote is noteworthy:
"There is nothing we can do to stop the movement of the Earth’s plates or the associated earthquakes, and the recent earthquake in Japan is a reminder that low-probability, high-impact events can strike anytime. This situation demands that nations, communities, and individual families take steps to develop resilience to hazards generally—a process that requires the collective action of government at all levels as well as nonprofit organizations, the private sector, and individuals."
I would suggest that due to the recent spate of mega disasters, the concept of 'low-probability, high-impact events' is becoming meaningless and we should face the facts that we will be seeing more 'high-probability, high impact events' simply because the Earth has reached a new energy level where shifts have to be made to relieve the energetic pressure accumulated over the last 20+ years of Space Weather delivering vast amounts of energy, at the same time that the energetic bombardment is still ongoing.
TEPCO Installing Giant Tents over Radiation-Leaking Reactors
Gizmodo, 13th May 2011
With radiation still seeping from Fukushima, TEPCO is taking an odd step: installing enormous polyester tents around the cores. Each steel-framed tent will be "will be 55 meters high, 47 meters long and 42 meters wide," Dow Jones reports.
We're not sure if this is silly, desperate or effective. While it will probably aid in the containment of particulate matter and radioactive steam, were there to be another reactor explosion, a polyester tent would probably wind up floating somewhere in the Pacific.
Comment: I think this is ridiculous... the first typhoon that hits Fukushima and the tents will be gone... Actually, I think this was reported before and translated as 'curtains' and not 'tents'.... The whole thing is just absolutely unbelievable...
Kaku: 'This is a ticking time bomb'
In the Arena, 13th May 2011
"Famed physicist Michio Kaku says the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan was worse than originally thought."
Kaku tells it how it is... he even makes the comparison again of Homer Simpson running these nuclear power plants....
Fukushima - One Step Forward and Four Steps Back as Each Unit Challenged by New Problems
YouTube/Fairewinds, 13th May 2011
"Gundersen says Fukushima's gaseous and liquid releases continue unabated. With a meltdown at Unit 1, Unit 4 leaning and facing possible collapse, several units contaminating ground water, and area school children outside the exclusion zone receiving adult occupational radiation doses, the situation continues to worsen. TEPCO needs a cohesive plan and international support to protect against world-wide contamination."
If you are already depressed about all this, I would not advise you to bother with this long status report.
Recriticality at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Japanese Researcher Says Nuclear Chain Reaction May Have Reignited Long After Tsunami Disabled the Plant
ex-skf.blogspot.com, 10th May 2011
"Tetsuo Matsui is a professor at University of Tokyo's Institute of Physics. On May 2, he submitted his paper titled "Deciphering the measured ratios of Iodine-131 to Cesium-137 at the Fukushima reactors" to arXiv.org, in which he says "The data of the water samples from the unit-4 cooling pool and from the sub-drain near the unit-2 reactor show anomaly which may indicate, if they are correct, that some of these fission products were produced by chain nuclear reactions reignited after the earthquake." (quote taken from his paper)
Well what happened is they calibrated the gauges and they can't find any water in the reactor at Unit 1. Now simple physics tells us that if the reactor has no water in it, and the reactor has X amount of decay heat the rods will all melt down. The positive thing is because the unit has run dry, there have been no leaks.
Comment: More dark comedy....
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Photos 15
Cryptome, 12th May 2011
"The following 12 photos are excerpted and enlarged from 70 posted to Flickr on May 10, 2011 by "xtcbz." Date of the photos unknown."
Norwegian Institute for Air Research is Still Running Fukushima Radiation Monitoring Under the Name "Zardoz"
Red Ice Creations, 12th May 2011
"What is Zardoz? (Wi-Zard-of-Oz)"
Comment: Dutchsinse does a great job here, a sci-fi horror/real life YouTube update... I have never heard of this Zardoz 1974 science-fiction film about a post-apocalyptic Earth, see this hilarious bad movies review, where the spiritually elite live insides 'bubbles'. Well, I would suggest the 'bubble' is your own personal energy field but most people just don't get it, even those who pontificate as spiritual leaders.... I would like to add, please don't worry about the rich elite being able to survive and poor ordinary folk will have to suffer. Universal Consciousness knows who you are by your energy field signature, that has always been the key measurement and death is not the end of the story...
“Steam is coming out from the spent fuel pool of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors, and I’m assuming that due to shadows created by lighting, the steam appeared black. Therefore, we assessed that it’s not smoke from something burning or that sort of thing,” TEPCO’s General Manager, Junichi Matsumoto reassured reporters at the press conference.
Comment: What? At times, this nuclear mega disaster has been more like some kind of bizarre comedy.... but I don't think it's funny... But wait, this bizarre comedy is ongoing and will be for years....
UN chief warns of big gaps in world nuclear safety
Associated Press, 10th May 2011
GENEVA — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant suggested that there were large gaps in international systems to deal with safety breaches. Ban also announced a high-level international meeting on the issue in New York on September 22 during the UN General Assembly session.
"Men and women around the world are asking: are we really doing well and all that we can to safeguard the world's people in the case of nuclear accidents?" Ban said at a UN conference on reducing disaster risk in Geneva.
"Recent events suggest that there are large gaps in how societies and the international system think and act about breaches to nuclear safety," he added during a discussion on preparations for nuclear incidents.
Comment: It's a bit late now, the horse has bolted....
Nuclear collapse looms? Fukushima No. 4 reactor 'leaning'
YouTube/Russia today, 10th May 2011
"A small group of evacuees have briefly been allowed inside the exclusion zone around Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. For the first time, the government gave permission for short visits so people could gather belongings and check on their properties. Meanwhile, a recent map of contamination released by Japan shows high levels of radiation well outside the evacuation zone. Dr Robert Jacobs can help shed more light on this. He's a Research Associate Professor of Nuclear History and Culture at the Hiroshima Peace Institute."
Quake shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide
San Fransciso Chronicle, 9th May 2011
ISHINOMAKI, Japan (AP) --
When water begins to trickle down the streets of her coastal neighborhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry home.
Twice a day, the flow steadily increases until it is knee-deep, carrying fish and debris by her front door and trapping people in their homes. Those still on the streets slosh through the sea water in rubber boots or on bicycle.
Comment: This is permanent, so I wonder what the authorities are going to do. What's more this region is slightly North of Fukushima, see location map of Miyagi prefecture & and Fukushima_prefecture. So, will this create problems for those nuclear reactors sited on the coastline?
Daphne Wysham is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and founder and host of Earthbeat, now airing on 61 public radio stations in the US and Canada. Kuniko Tanioka (谷岡 éƒå) is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Osaka Prefecture, she graduated from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada and received a Ph.D in design
Comment: Wow... I am impressed with this interview....
'World's most dangerous' nuclear power plant is closed down
The Independent, 7th May 2011
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has stunned Japan's power industry by asking for the closure of the country's most controversial atomic plant, eight weeks after a huge earthquake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Mr Kan said the authorities in Japan have long accepted the high probability of a major jolt underneath the Hamaoka complex, about 200km south-west of Tokyo. "This is a decision made for the safety of the Japanese people when I consider the special conditions of the Hamaoka plant," he told reporters.
Comment: Good News....
Paper warning of Fukushima nuke plant risks draws attention on Net
The Mainichi Daily News, 7th May 2011
"TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A short paper penned 16 years ago by an anti-nuclear scientist is drawing attention on the Internet for having warned about the dangers posed by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and other old atomic plants."
U.S.-Japan joint survey reveals high radiation beyond evacuation zone
Asahi.com, 8th May 2011
"The first map of ground surface contamination within 80 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shows radiation levels higher in some municipalities than those in the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant.
Japan lawmaker: Move parliament to Fukushima
Associated Press, 6th May 2011
WASHINGTON — A Japanese lawmaker said Friday that his country should move its parliament to Fukushima to provide an economic boost and show confidence in a region struck by a nuclear crisis after a massive earthquake.
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, who was the government's number two from 2006 to 2007, acknowledged that some people may find his idea far-fetched, but said that Japan should consider it as part of a broader decentralization from Tokyo.
"I am proposing to move the Japanese Diet to Fukushima, sending the message to the world that we are not running away from this meltdown issue," said Shiozaki, a member of the conservative opposition Liberal Democratic Party.
"Why not choose Fukushima to invigorate this area and economy and also cheer them up," he said at the Stimson Center, a think-tank.
Comment: LOL! Now that is funny.... I am a learning a lot about the Japanese...
ex-skf.blogspot.com
EX_SKF Blog, May 2011 There is some good info here from a Japanese person keeping up with the latest developments
Fewer workers willing to brave radiation risk at crippled Fukushima plant
Asahi News, 6th May 2011
As critical repairs continue at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, its operator is finding it difficult to find people willing to work at the plant.
The tally of workers at the plant as of May 3 was 1,312 people. Many of them are employed by subcontractors hired by operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Many current employees are anxious about the dangers of high radiation and what they say are the plant's poor labor conditions.
According to a company that supplies workers to the Fukushima plant, it has become increasingly difficult to send the necessary number of people.
Many workers who went to the plant immediately after the March 11 accident now refuse to return, citing bad labor conditions.
Comment: There has been a lot of talk of the brave Fukushima 50, but I wonder how many of them are now really sick or even dead and whether this is influencing the decision of others who refuse to sacrifice themselves for the good of the rest of humanity. Hopefully, this episode will be the start of the end of the insane practice of igniting the fires of hell, that can't be easily put out, just to boil water.
Email from Japanese gov’t officials says high density radiation will be released May 8 if situation continues
Energy News, 6th May 2011
Email: "Minutes of meeting between TEPCO and the government on the 1st May. “If the current situation continues, high density radiation will be released on the 8th May.” “Mr Hosono said: It is very important to go to the next step regarding the installation of the heat exchanger machine. For the concerned parties, be careful of the sharing of information with high sensitivity so that the same mistakes aren’t made again like the release of the radiated water previously."
This email is now causing some speculation as to what they expect to happen....
Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History
Vimeo/Fairewinds, 6th May 2011
"A report from the Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission Ex-Secretariat, Dr. Saji, credits the current status of the accident to "luck". Gundersen discusses what could have happened if the wind had been blowing in-land."
Important stuff... No good news...10:14 starts talking about groundwater contamination...
Edano urges Tohoku Electric to ensure safety at Onagawa nuke plant
Kyodo News, 5th May 2011
Bulletin: "Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano on Thursday urged Tohoku Electric Power Co. to ensure safety measures at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture so that it would be acceptable to people living near the facility, officials of the utility said."
Comment:What exactly does this strange press release actually mean? The situation in Japan is incredible but when we consider that this is an island in one of the world's most active seismic regions due to being located on the junction of 4 tectonic plate boundaries, with 54 nuclear rectors, mostly situated on earthquake faults at a time of massive evolutionary change, when the planet is humming – literally – with high energies, then nobody should be surprised at how bad things are after an historic earthquake and tsunami. Even those with blinkers who are only interested in profits who thought they could ignore all the signs of the rising tide of energy, like King Canutes who could just raise their hands and the Space Weather would just go away and have no impact, must now have got to the stage where at least some reality has penetrated. Click the image icon for a larger image for the location of the Onagawa nuclear plant.
Where is all that Fukushima radiation going, and why does it matter? [17:23]
Vimeo/FaireWinds, 2nd May 2011
"Fairewinds' founder Maggie Gundersen interviews environmental scientist and professional engineer Marco Kaltofen about his ongoing analysis of radioactive fallout from Fukushima."
This is an aside... So, cigarettes provide radioactive particles too... I have always had a problem with healers who smoke, but now I understand why because at some level, this has always been an issue with me....
Full Core Meltdown In Japan Will Send Radiation Over United States (Video)
Track Cell Phones, 13th March 2011 Comment: So the Editor of the Japan Times was told on the day of the tsunami that there was a meltdown taking place... this confirms all the others sources that made official announcements and others that state they knew immediately...
Fukushima parents dish the dirt in protest over radiation levels Furious Fukushima parents dump school playground earth that may have radiation levels well above the old safety level The Guardian, 2nd May 2011
Furious parents in Fukushima have delivered a bag of radioactive playground earth to education officials in protest at moves to weaken nuclear safety standards in schools.
Children can now be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously permissible. The new regulations have prompted outcry. A senior adviser resigned and the prime minister, Naoto Kan, was criticised by politicians from his own party.
Ministers have defended the increase in the acceptable safety level from 1 to 20 millisieverts per year as a necessary measure to guarantee the education of hundreds of thousands of children in Fukushima prefecture, location of the nuclear plant that suffered a partial meltdown and several explosions after the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March. [...]
A group claiming to represent 250 parents in Fukushima visited the upper house of parliament and presented government officials with a bag of radioactive dirt from the playground of one of the affected schools. A geiger counter clicked over it with a reading of 38 millisieverts microsieverts.Confirmed wrong by Japanese checker see source below.
"How dare they tell us it is safe for our children," said Sachiko Satou of the Protect Fukushima Children from Radiation Association. "This is disgusting. They can't play outside with such risks. If the government won't remove the radioactive dirt then we'll do it ourselves and dump it outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric."
Comment: Finally, it looks like a few Japanese people are developing a backbone... someone can dump a bag for me.... Remember these parliamentarians now want to abandon Tokyo, the world's largest city with 35 million people... really, the answer my friends is blowing in the wind... so its 38 microsieverts per hour then, well that is still quite high, you would not get that amount during normal flying but flying during the worst solar storms is a different matter, see below...
UpdateCumulative Radiation Level in Namie-machi in Fukushima Exceeds 20 Milli-Sieverts in 40 Days 24.14 milli-sieverts, to be exact, in 40 days. But no one bats an eye over the number any more. Japan is busy doing the "Golden Week holidays". EX-SKF, 2nd May 2011
May 3, 2011 3:41 PM
arevamirpal::laprimavera said...
@S. in Osaka, I've found the video of the event. It was 38 microsieverts. 9 minutes 50 seconds into the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TS9yrUtwRQ&feature=player_embedded
That's still extremely, ridiculously high number.
I'll contact Guardian.
Watch the video, that's what I call a parents meeting!
Kan Admits Failure to Address Nuclear Problems as Another Plant Leaks
Environment News Service, 2nd May 2011
TOYKO, Japan, May 2, 2011 (ENS) - Radioactive substances may be leaking from fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, noting a rise in the level of radioactive substances in the reactor's coolant water.
Japan Atomic Power Co., the utility firm that operates the Tsuruga nuclear plant on the Sea of Japan coast, acknowledged "technical difficulties" at the Unit 2 reactor and confirmed a possible leak of radioactive iodine from the reactor's nuclear fuel rods into the coolant system.
Comment: Japan does seem to be having a lot of "technical difficulties" with their nuclear reactors but with all the earthquakes it makes you wonder what is really going on....
URGENT: Radiation leaks from fuel rods suspected at Tsuruga plant: local gov't
Kyodo News, 2nd May 2011
URGENT: Radiation leaks from fuel rods suspected at Tsuruga plant: local gov't
FUKUI, Japan, May 2, Kyodo: Leaks of radioactive materials from fuel rods have been suspected at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in density of the toxic substances in coolant water.
This is just a bulletin and a paywall is operating... If this is true, things are getting seriously out of hand...
“URGENT: Radiation leaks from fuel rods suspected” at Japan’s Tsuruga nuclear plant — Radioactive Xenon up 75,000%
Energy News, 2nd May 2011
Leaks of radioactive materials from fuel rods have been suspected at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in density of the toxic substances in coolant water. [...] According to Japan Atomic, 4.2 becquerels of iodine-133 and 3,900 becquerels of xenon gas were detected per cubic centimeter Monday, up from 2.1 and 5.2 becquerels, respectively, during previous measurements conducted last Tuesday.
There is lots more related news on this website with their sources
Fukushima parents dish the dirt in protest over radiation levels Furious Fukushima parents dump school playground earth that may have radiation levels well above the old safety level The Guardian, 2nd May 2011
Furious parents in Fukushima have delivered a bag of radioactive playground earth to education officials in protest at moves to weaken nuclear safety standards in schools.
Children can now be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously permissible. The new regulations have prompted outcry. A senior adviser resigned and the prime minister, Naoto Kan, was criticised by politicians from his own party.
Ministers have defended the increase in the acceptable safety level from 1 to 20 millisieverts per year as a necessary measure to guarantee the education of hundreds of thousands of children in Fukushima prefecture, location of the nuclear plant that suffered a partial meltdown and several explosions after the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March. [...]
A group claiming to represent 250 parents in Fukushima visited the upper house of parliament and presented government officials with a bag of radioactive dirt from the playground of one of the affected schools. A geiger counter clicked over it with a reading of 38 millisieverts.
"How dare they tell us it is safe for our children," said Sachiko Satou of the Protect Fukushima Children from Radiation Association. "This is disgusting. They can't play outside with such risks. If the government won't remove the radioactive dirt then we'll do it ourselves and dump it outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric."
Comment: Finally, it looks like a few Japanese people are developing a backbone... someone can dump a bag for me.... Remember these parliamentarians now want to abandon Tokyo, the world's largest city with 35 million people... really, the answer my friends is blowing in the wind... If that is 39 milliseieverts per hour then that is ridiculous, you would not get that amount even flying during the worst solar storm in decades see below...
Where is all that Fukushima radiation going, and why does it matter? [17:23]
Vimeo/FaireWinds, 2nd May 2011
"Fairewinds' founder Maggie Gundersen interviews environmental scientist and professional engineer Marco Kaltofen about his ongoing analysis of radioactive fallout from Fukushima."
This is an aside... So, cigarettes provide radioactive particles too... I have always had a problem with healers who smoke, but now I understand why because at some level, this has always been an issue with me....
Kan Admits Failure to Address Nuclear Problems as Another Plant Leaks
Environment News Service, 2nd May 2011
TOYKO, Japan, May 2, 2011 (ENS) - Radioactive substances may be leaking from fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, noting a rise in the level of radioactive substances in the reactor's coolant water.
Japan Atomic Power Co., the utility firm that operates the Tsuruga nuclear plant on the Sea of Japan coast, acknowledged "technical difficulties" at the Unit 2 reactor and confirmed a possible leak of radioactive iodine from the reactor's nuclear fuel rods into the coolant system.
Comment: Japan does seem to be having a lot of "technical difficulties" with their nuclear reactors but with all the earthquakes it makes you wonder what is really going on....
URGENT: Radiation leaks from fuel rods suspected at Tsuruga plant: local gov't
Kyodo News, 2nd May 2011
URGENT: Radiation leaks from fuel rods suspected at Tsuruga plant: local gov't
FUKUI, Japan, May 2, Kyodo: Leaks of radioactive materials from fuel rods have been suspected at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in density of the toxic substances in coolant water.
This is just a bulletin and a paywall is operating... If this is true, things are getting seriously out of hand...
“URGENT: Radiation leaks from fuel rods suspected” at Japan’s Tsuruga nuclear plant — Radioactive Xenon up 75,000%
Energy News, 2nd May 2011
Leaks of radioactive materials from fuel rods have been suspected at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in density of the toxic substances in coolant water. [...] According to Japan Atomic, 4.2 becquerels of iodine-133 and 3,900 becquerels of xenon gas were detected per cubic centimeter Monday, up from 2.1 and 5.2 becquerels, respectively, during previous measurements conducted last Tuesday.
There is lots more related news on this website with their sources
Parents fight back over raised radiation limits
The Independent, 2nd May 2011
Thousands of parents living near Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant have condemned a government decision to lift radiation limits for schools in the area by 20 times, saying the move is based on incomplete science and could put children in danger.
The decision, which has also prompted the resignation of a government adviser, has been condemned as political expediency. Toshiso Kosako, the adviser who resigned on Friday, denounced the Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, for his "whack-a-mole" policies on the crisis. A tearful Mr Kosako said: "The government has belittled laws and taken decisions only for the present moment."
Comment: Finally, the Japanese people are fighting back... the sociopaths/psychopaths in charge will have to watch out!
U.S. medical group blasts Tokyo radiation policy on Fukushima children
Kyodo News, 2nd May 2011
Physicians for Social Responsibility, a U.S. nonprofit organization of medical experts, has condemned as ''unconscionable'' the Japanese government's safety standards on radiation levels at elementary and middle schools in nuclear disaster-stricken Fukushima Prefecture.
The PSR statement directly challenges the Japanese government stance that it is safe for schoolchildren to use playgrounds on school premises in the prefecture as long as the dose they are exposed to does not exceed 20 millisieverts over a year.
TEPCO official [Vice President]: Fukushima is man-made disaster
NHK World News, 1st May 2011
A vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Company says he believes the nuclear crisis at Fukushima nuclear power plant is a man-made disaster. TEPCO vice president Norio Tsuzumi visited Iitate village in Fukushima Prefecture on Saturday and apologized to about 1,000 villagers who gathered to hear him speak.
(He also talks about potentially extremely high concentration of radioactive materials ("like we've never seen before") in the water inside the Pressure Vessel, as the result of core meltdown and continuous water injection.
(For more on his very frank assessment of the reactor core and the situation at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, PLEASE DO GO TO my latest post.)
--------------------------------
Michio Ishikawa, the former head of the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute and the current "most senior" advisor to the Institute, appeared on an Asahi TV program on April 29 and shared his candid assessment of Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident.
He is known as one of the most ardent proponents of nuclear power generation. The Japan Nuclear Technology Institute was set up in 2005 by Ishikawa in order to represent the interest of the nuclear industry in Japan and promote nuclear energy.
People who watched this Asahi TV program were surprised to hear him contradict the official government "narrative" (I hate that word, but in this case it is exactly what it is, a "narrative" as opposed to reality) about the plant accident, even as he continues to insist nuclear power plants are safe and 100 milli-sieverts cumulative radiation is perfectly safe not just for the plant workers but for everyone.
Comment: Read the commentary.... the comment about a smirk on this person's face is disturbing because it implies we are dealing with someone who is not a 'normal' human... the talk of revenge for Hiroshima sounds horribly like some karmic blowback too This is from a Japanese source who has translated this TV interview. Quite shocking really... OK, this has been obvious for weeks and weeks but it's still hard to take that an authority is admitting to 3 meltdowns like it's nothing, c'est la vie... Now there are more reports of officials wanting to set up a new capital but Tokyo and suburbs has 35 million people, we are talking about the world's largest city. Basically we are now waiting for the DNA mutated babies to be born... Horrible...
Yellow sand spreading over Japan
NHK World, 2nd May 2011
Japan's Meteorological Agency says seasonal yellow sand is being observed from western to eastern Japan on Monday.
Fine sand from China's desert regions is being carried by westerly winds, and reached Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo on Monday. Visibility was reduced to about 5 kilometers at one point in the cities of Fukuoka and Tottori in western Japan.
Yellow sand mixed with yellow cake?
Discovery Channel Nuclear Nightmare Japan in Crisis Part 1 Of 3
YouTube, 29th April 2011
A comprehensive timeline of the unthinkable natural disaster that triggered a nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi. Paula Zahn takes us inside the dramatic story in Japan, and explores out what it will mean for nuclear power in the United States.
Comment: At times, this documentary is very emotional and it includes interesting interviews with Americans who were in Japan at the time of the crisis. There was a group who just managed to escape the tsunami and an individual who was at the Fukushima nuclear plant and was part of the group of the 750 Fukushima workers ordered to evacuate the facility due to the tsunami warning. This documentary helps to provide some background that seems to have got lost in the general media coverage,
Part II & Part III
'Fukushima - gross miscarriage of radiation science' YouTube/Russia Today, 26th April 2011
"With Chernobyl's 25th anniversary reminding the world of the terrifying consequences of nuclear safety negligence, many eyes have turned to the continuing crisis in Japan. RT talks to Arnold Gundersen, Energy Adviser at Fairewinds Associates, from Vermont in the US."
Arnie comments on the new level of radiation exposure for young children: A child’s risk of cancer from radiation is 10-100 times higher than an adult who has the same exposure. This is why the government adviser Prof. Toshiso Kosako resigned with tears in his eyes. Another low point for humanity.
Weather chief draws flak over plea not to release radiation forecasts
Kyodo News, 29th April 2011
Bulletin: "The chief of the Meteorological Society of Japan has drawn flak from within the academic society over a request for member specialists to refrain from releasing forecasts on the spread of radioactive substances from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant."
This disaster is really showing us the difference between the sociopaths and real humans...
Japanese Nuclear Adviser Quits
Wall Street Journal, 29th April 2011
TOKYO—A special advisor to the Japanese government on radiation safety resigned Friday, saying that he was dissatisfied with the handling of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Toshiso Kosako, a professor at the prestigious University of Tokyo, said at a news conference that the prime minister's office and agencies within the government "have ignored the laws and have only dealt with the problem at the moment." Holding back tears, he said this approach would only prolong the crisis.
Following the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Daiichi nuclear power plant has become the site of the second-worst nuclear power plant crisis in history. Three of its six reactors still pose a potential threat as officials and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. work to bring the situation under control.
Earthquake in Japan
Mr. Kosako was appointed on March 16. In announcing the appointment, chief government spokesman Yukio Edano described him as someone who "possesses outstanding insight and expertise in the field of radiation safety."
Mr. Kosako was one of six special advisers to the administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan. According to Mr. Edano's announcement, Mr. Kosako was to provide "information and advice to the prime minister on the ongoing incidents as the nuclear power stations."
But he said that in the weeks since his appointment, it was difficult to know who was actually in charge of dealing with the situation.
Diet member Akihisa Nagashima, a senior politician within the ruling Democratic Party said in a statement that the administration had urged Mr. Kosako to stay on and that his departure represented a "heavy blow" to the government. A spokesman for the prime minister's office had no immediate comment.
Officials and foreign experts say that the situation at the plant has now passed its most critical stages, with a much lower threat of a large release of radiation that could cause widespread health problems.
Comment: A special adviser trying not to cry is a bad sign.... He says government agencies have ignored the laws.... wow.... I have copied all this article just in case this story goes behind a paywall. Update The photo at the New York Times shows Professor Kosako really bawling...
Blast may have helped cool rods
Daily Yomiuri Online, 29th April 2011
A hydrogen gas explosion at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 15 may have helped prevent spent fuel rods from melting down by causing a flow of water into the pool the rods are stored in, according to research by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
It seems that shocks from the explosion damaged a water gate and caused water to flow into the pool from a neighboring part of the facility, TEPCO said.
The explosion, which the company assumes was caused by hydrogen gas, was so strong that the outer walls of the reactor building collapsed.
At the time of the explosion, the spent fuel rods had been overheating. If that had continued, the company said, the rods might have melted, spewing a far larger quantity of radioactive materials into the air than actually happened.
Comment: This reminds me of the saying or adage: every cloud has a silver lining... We are on completely unknown territory and world nuclear experts have admitted that they have no idea what is going to happen, but I presume that with this announcement, it means they are looking for answers for why there has not been another major explosion.... I think this might be actually good knews, but lets not get too excited just yet...
OPINION: Children of Fukushima need our protection
Kyodo News, 26th April 2011
I was dismayed to learn that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology earlier this week increased the allowable dose of ionizing radiation for children in Fukushima Prefecture.
The dose they set, 3.8 microsieverts per hour, equates to more than 33 millisieverts (mSv) over a year. This is to apply to children in kindergartens, nursery, primary and junior high schools. Let me try to put this in perspective.
Widely accepted science tells us that the health risk from radiation is proportional to the dose -- the bigger the dose the greater the risk, and there is no level without risk.
The International Commission on Radiological Protection [ICRP] recommends that all radiation exposure be kept as low as achievable, and for the public, on top of background radiation and any medical procedures, should not exceed 1 mSv per year.
Comment: 33 millisieverts (mSv) per year for children is an unbelievable amount....
Tepco female worker exposed to high radiation
Strait Times, 27th April 2011
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the woman, who had worked in support functions, had received 17.55 millisieverts of radiation, compared to the limit for women of five millisieverts over three months.
TOKYO - A WOMAN working at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant received radiation at over three times the legal limit for females over a three-month period, the plant's operator said on Wednesday.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the woman, who had worked in support functions, had received 17.55 millisieverts of radiation, compared to the limit for women of five millisieverts over three months. [...]
The woman who was exposed was mostly working indoors but may have been exposed, for example, when helping workers dispose off contaminated clothing. -- AFP
Comment: So here we are being told that small children are being forced to endure more than adult nuclear workers as the new equivalent limit has just been raised to 8.25 millisieverts over three months ????? This is really disturbing....
Greenpeace condemns move to raise radiation exposure levels for Japanese children
Relief Web, 22nd April 2011
Tokyo, Japan, 22 April, 2011 – Greenpeace today called on the Japanese government to drop plans to raise the official limits of radiation exposure for children in Fukushima Prefecture, 20 milliSievert per year (1) – the same level as nuclear power plant workers, and twenty times the internationally recognised annual allowable dose for adults.
The international environmental organisation has also asked the governments of nations including Germany, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Canada, Greece, India, France and Italy (2), to raise the issue with Japan.
“It is utterly outrageous to raise the exposure levels for children to twenty times the maximum limit for adults. The Japanese government cannot simply increase safety limits for the sake political convenience or to give the impression of normality”, said Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan Executive Director.
“One of the lessons learned from Chernobyl was that children are far more vulnerable to the effects of radiation, and the
Fukushima nuclear crisis will expose them to much higher risks of developing radiation related diseases due to contamination (3)”.
Comment: Well, this new max. exposure level is different to what has already been reported but still bad... There are no words to decribe this atrocity, we are not talking about the aftermath of war and the difficulties of breathing in depleted uranium in a war zone, but I can't see much difference...
Fukushima city removing radioactive topsoil in schools
Kyofo News, 27th April 2011
Bulletin: "A city in Fukushima Prefecture started Wednesday to remove topsoil from playgrounds in its elementary and nursery schools, following radiation leaks from a crisis-hit nuclear power plant nearby."
Comment: I suppose the authorities have told people that the radiation is leak is over because there is no other sensible explanation for this action when it is clear radiation is still pouring out of the Fukushima nuclear plant and the others they are not talking about...
Fukushima Residents Seek Answers Amid Mixed Signals From Media, TEPCO and Government. Report from the Radiation Exclusion Zone
Japan Focus, 19th April 2011
Last paragraph: "The government charges that the damage caused by earthquakes and by the nuclear accident are being magnified by irresponsible rumors, and the government must take action for the sake of the public good. The project team has begun to send “letters of request” to such organizations as telephone companies, internet providers, cable television stations, and others, demanding that they “take adequate measures based on the guidelines in response to illegal information. ”The measures include erasing any information from internet sites that the authorities deem harmful to public order and morality."
The internet and information crack down... so, it seems people need to take the massive doses of 'diabolical' radiation and shut the hell up!!!!
Channel 4 Documentary: Japan's Tsunami: How It Happened Part 1/5
YouTube, March 2011
"Japan's Tsunami: How It Happened , investigates the science behind the earthquake and tsunami that has devastated Japan. It takes viewers on a journey with Professor of Geological Sciences Roger Bilham -- in Japan only days after the earthquake struck. The programme follows Roger as he sets off on a mission to view the devastation from the air. In the magnitude 9 earthquake Japan shifted a full 12 feet towards the US."
Quite a decent documentary
TEPCO filling containment vessels; experts raise doubts
Asahi.com, 26th April 2011
Tokyo Electric Power Co. started the unprecedented and potentially risky measure of allowing water to flood the containment vessels of three troubled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, company sources said.
It is the world's first attempt to saturate the entire containment vessel with water with the aim of cooling the pressure vessels inside the containment vessels and ultimately the reactor cores themselves.
So far, TEPCO has been injecting water into the pressure vessels at the No. 1 through No. 3 reactors. Under the new plan, TEPCO will allow the water to overflow from the pressure vessels through valves and ruptured pipes until the water fills the outer containment vessels. [...]
But TEPCO has been unable to verify the water levels at the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, and suspect that water is leaking from the damaged containment vessels.
Industry specialists have raised doubts about the effects and safety of TEPCO's new operation.
Since the concrete-made building of the No. 1 reactor may have been weakened by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as well as aftershocks, it might not be able to bear the weight of the water, which will reach up to 7,400 tons. TEPCO said it is re-calculating the structural strength of the building.
Comment: Sounds like another disaster waiting to happen...
Japan: TEPCO floods containment vessels of 3 reactors at Fukushima No. 1
Boing Boing, 25th April 2011 In Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers have begun "the unprecedented and potentially risky measure" of flooding the containment vessels of three troubled Fukushima nuclear reactors with water. The Asahi Shimbun reports that this is the first known attempt ever in the world to saturate an entire containment vessel with water in order to cool the pressure vessels inside, and in turn, cool the reactor cores within. Comment: This sounds like a desperate measure and maybe another more massive explosion is expected. It might explain the really strange message of the new extended evacuation area and people being asked to evacuate now before they are forced to move...
Busby: 'Can't seal Fukushima like Chernobyl - it all goes into sea'
YouTube/Russia Today, 25th April 2011
"As world marks the Chernobyl anniversary, many say that the world has failed to learn the lessons on nuclear safety that the tragedy provided. RT talks to Professor Christopher Busby, Scientific secretary of the European Committee on radiation risks, for a little more insight on 21st century's most serious nuclear crisis at Fukushima."
The first question is: there are rumours there was a nuclear explosion at Fukushima...
Survive the Japan Nukes- Cheaply! GOD GAVE US ZEOLITE
YouTube, 31st March 2011 It seems that Zeolite can be used to purify drinking water, this video is from someone who had a business in promoting it's many marvelous attributes.
Chernobyl recovery officer criticises Japan's efforts at Fukushima Soviet efforts to contain the Chernobyl nuclear disaster a quarter of a century ago were far better than Japan's "slow-motion" response to the disaster at Fukushima, a leading member of the 1986 recovery effort said. The Telegraph, 25th April 2011
In a rare interview on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl on Monday, Col-Gen Nikolai Antoshkin said he was shocked at how poorly Japan had coped with its own nuclear disaster.
"Right at the start when there was not yet a big leak of radiation they (the Japanese) wasted time. And then they acted in slow-motion," he said.
Comment: Yes, due to their actions containing the accident at Chernobyl 25 years ago, the Russians are now looking really good in comparison, but despite the horrors of the earthquake and tsunami, Japan is supposed to be a high tech society, but you would not have thought so by the way they are acting. They had NO PLANS for a MEGA disaster and are now acting on the fly.... The world is watching and those who can only understand basics are not impressed... there MUST be other factors here, because it's hard to believe it's just incompetence...
Japan Fukushima nuclear power plant Site
YouTube, 30th March 2011 I don't know whether this official, but someone drove around the Fukushima nuclear plant and took video!!!!!!
'Chernobyl disaster resolved far more faster than ongoing Fukushima crisis'
YouTube/Russia Today, 26th April 2011
"With Chernobyl's 25th anniversary reminding the world of the terrifying consequences of nuclear safety negligence, many eyes have turned to the continuing crisis in Japan. We talk to Dr. Robert Jacobs, an associate professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, for his opinion on whether Japan might be making the same fateful mistakes that led to Chernobyl."
Corbett: Govt grip on Fukushima info repeats Chernobyl mistakes
YouTube/Russia Today, 26th April 2011
"As world marks Chernobyl's anniversary, there are questions over whether the world has learned the lessons on nuclear safety that the tragedy provided. Journalist James Corbett who's in Osaka in Japan, says the handling of the crisis at Fukushima power plant is repeating the 25-year-old mistakes."
Fairewinds Calls for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Delay Licensing Until Fukushima Lessons Are Evaluated
Vimeo/Fairewinds, 25th April 2011
"Gundersen implores Congress and NRC to think outside the box. Pause licensing of new nukes and 20-year-life extensions until the lessons learned from Fukushima are applied. Fairewinds Associates recommends that regulators look at the feasibility of emergency evacuation plans, containment leakage, and aging management plans for 40-year-old Fukushima model reactors."
NSC 23, the Cabinet Office, the amount of radioactive material were released into the atmosphere from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station TEPCO, even at five days this month settled emissions, Terra 154 becquerels per day (One terabyte is 1 trillion) announced that it had reached. [...]
Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 154 Terabecquerels Per Day, Every Day of radioactive iodine and cesium still spewing out of the plant, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission now admits.
[...] From Yomiuri Shinbun (9:15PM JST 4/23/2011):
The Nuclear Safety Commission under the Prime Minister’s Office disclosed on April 23 that the amount of radioactive materials being released from the TEPCO Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was 154 terabecquerels per day (1 tera is 1 trillion) as late as April 5 when the amount being released was considered stabilized.
On April 5, the estimated amount of radioactive materials released from Fukushima I Nuke Plant was 0.69 terabecquerels/hour for iodine-131 and 0.14 terabecquerels/hour for cesium-137. When the numbers were recalculated according to the INES method (converting cesium amount into iodine equivalent), the amount released turned out to be 6.4 terabecquerels/hour (which was 154 terabecquerels per day. Previously, the Nuclear Safety Commission had simply added the numbers for iodine-131 and cesium-137, and announced it was less than 1 terrabecquerel per hour [CORRECTED FROM 1 PER DAY].
Comment: The daily radioactive release from Fukushima is at least 15,000% higher than previously announced... I don't know why they are even bothering to confess that they can't even do basic mathematics, because the numbers are meaningless to most people anyway, but anyone with any intelligence realises this is far more serious than Chernobyl, which the Russian authorities dealt with prompto, whilst the Japanese authorities see intent on making a big joke of this with their newspaper stuffing, bath salts, cat litter, curtain strategies etc...
You won't hear this on any mainstream news!!! (Nuclear Fallout)
YouTube, 19th April 2011
"Nuclear Facts A very clued in professional who will not be bought or intimidated into silence: Dr Helen Caldicott, true to style, tells it as it is. As she sees it, you wont usually hear the truth so listen up.. Nuclear fallout from Japan and Canada, You won't hear this on the news!"
Comment: Dr Helen Caldicott says we are dealing with diabolical energy.... I do think her viewpoint is extreme because she says things like 'don't eat anything from Europe' because of the fallout from Chernobyl 25 years ago... so as a long term anti-nuclear campaigner, it seems that she is now going into a meltdown over Fukushima.... I will say her description of the situation that the world faces is clear, but I do believe in divine intervention if people can be bothered to complain. She ends up with saying:
"...we are arrogant, we have a lot of hubris and I think the reptilian mid-brain of some men's brains is pathological. We are now in a situation where we have harnessed the energy of the sun, it is totally out of control, there is simply nothing we can do about it...."
Obviously, she is very upset, but I do think more and more people are seeing the 'psychopathic' mindset of world controllers, as it is becoming more apparent that these people have a death wish for the whole of humanity.
Sunflowers to clean up radioactive soil
Daily Yomiuri Online, 23rd April 2011
Japanese researchers who study space agriculture believe growing sunflowers will remove radioactive cesium from contaminated soil around the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, and are planning a project to plant as many of the yellow flowers as possible this year.
They have invited people to sow sunflower seeds near the Fukushima Prefecture power station, hoping the sunflower will become a symbol of recovery in the areas affected by the nuclear crisis.
After the sunflowers are harvested, they will be decomposed with bacteria, according to a plan by a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency group led by Prof. Masamichi Yamashita.
After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, sunflowers and rape blossoms were used to decontaminate soil in Ukraine. Radioactive cesium is similar to kalium, a commonly used fertilizer. If kalium is not present, sunflowers will absorb cesium instead.
If the harvested sunflowers are disposed of by burning them, radioactive cesium could be dispersed through smoke, which is why the researchers are considering using hyperthermophilic aerobic bacteria--used to produce compost--to decompose the plants. The decomposing process will reduce the sunflowers to about 1 percent of their previous volume, which will slash the amount of radioactive waste that needs to be dealt with.
Comment: A Mother Earth solution.... I knew about bacteria that can eat radioactive waste, but I wonder what else has been discovered about dealing with radiation contamination that is not generally known....
Warnings of nuclear disaster not heeded, claims former governor
The Independent, 23rd April 2011
"Despite his new audience, he says Japan's big newspapers and TV companies continue to ignore him. "Those who say that nuclear power is dangerous, like myself, are treated as state enemies. This is a truly terrifying logic, is it not? Whoever it may be, be it a Diet [council] member or governor, no one has been able to fight such logic so far." He calls the national policy "nuclear absolutism." Sato says there was a dry run for the March 11 disaster last year after power stopped to pumps sending water to reactor 2 on June 17, 2010.
Tepco was repeatedly asked what would happen if the back-up diesel generators also failed but the company waived this concern away, he says. Last month's crisis was triggered when the magnitude 9 quake knocked out the plant's electricity and a 15-meter tsunami poured over the building housing the back-up generators which were only built to withstand a 5.7 meter wave."
Hi-res photographic proof reactor core exploded at unit 3
Lucas whitefield Hixson, 23rd April 2011
"The following is a letter I just sent to the Union of Concerned Scientists detailing evidence that the Fukushima unit 3 Reactor was the source of the massive hydrogen explosion a few weeks ago.... and the further implications of this easily verifiable fact."
Decentralizing Tokyo may save the nation
Japan Times, 24th April 2011
A recent issue of the somewhat disreputable Shukan Jitsuwa looked into a "rumor" that said the capital may be moved to the Kansai region due to the continuing threat of radiation in the eastern part of Japan. The exodus will be spearheaded by the private sector it said, mainly foreign companies but also firms that were born in Kansai but which had over time moved their headquarters to Tokyo. Jitsuwa said that Osaka governor Toru Hashimoto is excited about the possibility, hinting at a rivalry between him and Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, who has never taken the idea of relocation seriously.
Comment: I imagine geiger counter readings are frightening a lot of people, so the efforts of the Japanese government pleading with foreign countries to censor the internet and trying to stop environmentalists going into the evacuation zone to take reading is largely a waste of time.
Small amounts of radioactive iodine found in breast milk
Kyodo News, 20th April 2011
A citizen's group concerned about the impact on mothers and babies of the radioactive leaks from a crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture said Wednesday that small amounts of radioactive iodine have been found in the breast milk of four women living east or northeast of Tokyo.
Of the samples provided by the four women, the breast milk of the mother of an 8-month-old baby in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, contained the highest level of 36.3 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram, but no radioactive cesium was found, the group said.
Comment: This is terrible news and really sad.... I wonder what would have to happen for Japanese people to get really angry, because being concerned is not enough.
FAQ: Japanese Nuclear Emergency: Radiation Monitoring U.S. EPA, April 2011
"EPA's drinking water MCL for the radionuclide iodine-131 is 3 picocuries per liter. It is important to note that this drinking
water MCL was calculated based on long-term chronic exposures over the course of a lifetime 70 years. [...] FDA's DIL for iodine-131 in milk is 4,770 picocuries per liter. FDA's DIL for total cesium in milk is 33,000 picocuries per liter."
"For some reason, the USA agencies still employ the picoCurie (pCi) as a measure of
activity. 1 pCi is 0.037Bq. We will work in Bq."
Example 1
The measured activity of I-131 in drinking water is 500mBq/l. The effective dose is
5.5 x 10-8 or 0.055 microSieverts. The cancer risk to an adult who drinks 1 litre is
then 0.5 x 1.1 x 10-7 x 0.1 = 5.5 x 10-9. That is 5.5 cancers in 1 billion people in 50
years who have all consumed 1 litre. Drinking 1 litre for a month would obviously
increase this risk by 30-fold.
Example 2
The measured activity of I-131 in milk in California is 120Bq/l. The cancer risk to a
person who drinks 1 litre is 120 x 1.1 x 10-7 x 0.1 = 1.32 x 10-6. We would expect 1.32
extra cancers in 1 million individuals in 50 years.
These calculations show that there is a very low level of risk from adult exposures to
the quantities of these radionuclides being reported in Europe and the USA.
Children, infants and the foetus.
There is plenty of evidence that risks to the foetus, infants and children are greater.
But this is not due to Iodine or Caesium exposures. The dose coefficient is perhaps as
much as 5 times greater for children. Infant leukemia increased after Chernobyl at
levels where the ICRP foetal doses from Caesium-137 were about 50microSieverts
and the ECRR coefficients for Cs-137 would not have predicted these increases
(Busby 2009). At levels of 100Bq/l of Caesium-137 1 litre would commit a ICRP
dose of 100 x 1.3 x 10-8 = 1.3 microSieverts and drinking 30 litres would provide a
dose of 39 microSieverts ICRP. Therefore the effects on infant leukemia are believed
to be due to other radionuclides and particulates present with the Caesium-137."
The forecast is no longer accessible, but was reported to be located here.
h/t Dutchsinse and Patrioticspace Comment: It looks like Dutchsinse & Patrioticspace have found some proof of Arnie Gundersen's belief that we saw nuclear explosions at Fukushima. What's more, with the forecasts we have been seeing, NILU scientists have been too frightened to tell the truth and have downplayed the seriousness of the situation in their computer simulations available to the public showing radiation dispersion... It would be interesting if Arnie decides to comment...
Rense & Yoichi Shimatsu - Fukushima Worse, Virtually Hopeless
YouTube/JRense, 18th April 2011
Yoichi Shimatsu former editor of the weekly Japan Times discusses the dire situation of Fukushima, and concludes by calling for the dismemberment of our globalist elite planners.
"... we cannot allow these globalist people to be running the world anymore, I mean look at what they are doing, they are on a death wish, they are in denial, they have no right to govern this planet any longer." Yoichi Shimatsu
There is video and graphics to accompany this interview of Yoichi Shimatsu by Jeff Rense. There is discussion of the ecological disaster and the implications for fishing and the food chain. WARNING: Jeff Rense is very depressed about all this...
AlJazeera TV: Japan rethinks its economic centre
YouTube/AlJazeera English, 18 Apr 2011
This video basically tells us that business leaders are desperate to take their business away from Tokyo, as they say, action speaks louder than words as the politicians and bureaucrats are looking to move too.
Morgan Stanley fund fails to repay debt on Tokyo property
Yahoo News, 15th April 2011
"TOKYO (Reuters) – A Morgan Stanley property fund failed to make $3.3 billion in debt payments by a deadline on Friday, handing over the keys to a central Tokyo office building to Blackstone (BX.N) and other investors, the largest repayment failure of its kind in Japan."
Under the cirumstances, I think this is very understandable, but it's a lot of money...
Radiation Near Japan Reactors Too High for Workers
New York Times, 18th April 2011
TOKYO (AP) — A pair of thin robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside Japan's crippled nuclear reactor came back Monday with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.
Workers have not been able to enter the reactor buildings at the stricken plant since the first days after the cooling systems were wrecked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 27,000 people dead or missing. Hydrogen explosions in both buildings in the first few days destroyed their roofs and scattered radioactive debris.
The robots reported radioactivity readings of up to 49 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 1 and up to 57 inside Unit 3, levels too high for workers to realistically enter.
"It's a harsh environment for humans to work inside," said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Comment: Here we go, the New York Times have now confirmed my suspicions.... My goodness, Arnie Gundersen talked about the lack of personnel over a month ago... He said that the management gave up when they evacuated the essential personnel and I have never believed the fantay story of the Fukushima 50 either... He says Plutonium is named after the god of Hell and all the reactors have plutonium in them... See the Democracy Now videos, as linked below:
Scary frontier footage of Fukushima ruins, images of robots inside reactor
Russia Today, 18th April 2011
"Two robots sent into the reactor buildings at the Fukushima nuclear plant have found massive amounts of radiation, barring any workers from entering. The plant's operator also announced a new 9 month plan to stabilize the situation, proposing to cover the reactors with a Chernobyl-like sarcophagus. The situation at the nuclear complex remains critical, with radiation leaks and difficult access hampering progress.
Comment: For weeks now I have not believed the official statements that efforts were being made to deal with the situation in Fukushima and I think the truth is that it's imposssible whilst the radiation levels are so high. Yes, I have seen images and video footage of water spraying etc, but I really don't think they are coming from Fukushima. Take a good look at this video, these reactors are completely bombed out.
Japan's Disaster and the Manufaturing Meltdown H What the Earthquake and Tsuanami Revealed About Globalization
Council for Foreign Affairs, 17th April 2011
Summary: As U.S. auto assembly lines grind to a halt for want of components that usually come from now-disabled factories in northeastern Japan, business strategists may be forced to rethink the way globalized companies do business.
The supply-chain problems that followed the Japanese disaster were not inevitable. Companies can avoid them by building supply chains with redundancy and resilience. Redundancy means manufacturing key components in separate locations and transporting them along different paths so that a single problem at a supplier, port, or warehouse does not cripple production. Resilience means backing away from just-in-time production strategies and maintaining larger inventories so that delayed shipments do not shut down an entire factory.
Comment: The summary is EXACTLY what is stated on the homepage of this website and what I have been saying for at least four years on this blog... The current business models don't take into account that Earth is under reconstruction due to evolutionary change.... So, this article implies that some have finally woken up to this reality... That's good because we have to start thinking about food supply and the current foolishness of 'cheap' food coming from vast distances that can easily be interupted by variety of Earth changing events.
Local town receives 17 years worth of radiation
Lucas Whitefield Hixson, 16th April 2011
Namie, a small rural community of 22,000 people, lies within the 30 kilometer region of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Recent radiation readings show an accumulated radiation reading(so far) of 17000 microseiverts. 1000 microsieverts is equivalent to one years worth of radiation. So the citizens within the zone have received 17 years worth of radiation...so far, and in one month's time.
One of the ridiculous comparisons officials have made is the hackneyed example of a chest X-ray which is equivalent to 100 microsieverts. At issue is the length of time one stands in front of the machine, and the accumulation that occurs with radiation. The exposure time is extremely brief for an X-ray. The second point is that we don’t live around a constant barrage of radiation from an X-ray machine. If we never again heard the stupid comparison to chest X-rays, it will be too soon.
Comment: It really makes you wonder whether a decision has been made to just let people die and carry on with business as usual... We get some explanations of 'normal' radiation exposures here, but it's interesting that in different parts of the world, 1 years dosage is explained as 1-3 millisieverts per YEAR. 1,000 (micro) µsieverts = 1 millisievert.
Japan - Potential cloud spread - Iodine-131
Weathr Online, 16th April 2011 Japan is now getting high dosages of radiatoncontaminaiton. Click tabs for USA/Northern Hemisphere simulations.
Blown up photo set of Fukushima reactor 3 building with commentary
House of Foust, April 2011
"disclaimer: I am not an engineer. I noticed comments on some forums stating I was. I am working with a crowd sourced
group that includes engineers, various people who work in the industry and a variety of people with related technical backgrounds. So there are some big brains helping educate me. My role has been image forensics, I have an extensive background in graphics with some basic education in engineering and architecture (so I have some understanding of the concepts).
Statements or comments on images are sometimes mine and sometimes a synopsis of what various people I have spoken with have discovered or speculated."
This website looks like it could be a goldmine of information for technically minded people...
Smoke rises from control panel at TEPCO nuclear plant in Niiga
kyodo News, 17th April 2011
Smoke rose briefly from a control panel at a nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast Saturday, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
No one was injured in the 7:45 p.m. incident that occurred during the checking of water purification equipment at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear complex, the company said, adding it has yet to determine the cause.
The utility is currently battling to bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant under control.
Fuel rod fragments at bottom of vessels No meltdown risk if cooling efforts continue Japan Times, 15th April 2011
Melted fuel rod fragments have sunk to the bottoms of three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant and could theoretically burn through the pressure vessels if emergency water-pumping operations are seriously disrupted, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan said Friday.
If too many of the melted fuel fragments puddle at the bottom, they can generate enough concentrated heat to bore a hole in the pressure vessel, which would result in a massive radioactive release to the environment..
"It will take at least two or three months ... until the situation of fuel rods is stabilized" said Takashi Sawada, vice chairman of the nuclear body.
Comment: It's just strange how slow the 'official' news is when you consider the fact that this is the worse nuclear disaster in history due to the number of reactors (Michio Kaku has now declared that at 7, but actually I don't even know which 7 this is, because we are only being given snippets of information about other nuclear reactors that could be in major trouble too). Then we have the fact that we have thousands of tons of nuclear spent fuel rods held in storage for 40 years that are in danger of catching fire and being distributed all over the planet for general consumption. I don't know whether this article is trying to appeal to the completely ignorant that three reactors are in meltdown but it's OK folks! Those who understand the technicalities are now waiting for the nuclear material to continue melting down into the ground and eventually finding ground water when it may all go boom! The story of TEPCO or now being called INEPTCO, putting a few bags of the mineral zeolite into the ocean near Fukushima water to soak up a little bit of radiation all seems rather insufficient in the face of the enormity of the crisis and so I leaning towards the US military option of bombing Fukushima into the ocean, it sounds quite sensible to me, because they could then salvage the radiactive material in a more controlled manner. Please remember, there are over 100 million people in danger of being dosed with high levels of radiation as soon as the winds start blowing onshore and remember there are a lot of countries like North and South Korea, and China who are going to get lethal doses too. There is already reports of a high increase in people having nosebleeds, so I really don't know why there has not been much larger scale evacuations...
Video Released Analyzing Spent Fuel Rod Pool of Unit 4 at Fukushima Nuclear Plant Japan News, 15th April 2011
Do they really expect us to believe that this is the real no. 4 reactor at Fukushima after the explosions and damage that have been broadcast all over the world? It's called smoke and mirrors.... See Daily Mail images of 'bombed out' 3 & 4 reactors at Fukushima and some more recent photos that have surfaced from Japan. Here is an image that I have saved from the Daily Mail on the 16th March where the article has now disappeared... here
Mineral [Zeolite] used to absorb radioactive materials
NHK World, 15th April 2011
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun placing a mineral in the sea to absorb radioactive materials contaminating the seawater around the plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Friday dropped sandbags containing the mineral zeolite into the sea near the plant's water intakes. Zeolite is widely used to absorb contaminating materials.
TEPCO hopes the zeolite will absorb radioactive materials, including cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years.
The utility company plans to drop in 10 sandbags each containing 100 kilograms of zeolite. It will raise the bags at regular intervals to check the radiation levels on their surfaces.
Comment: Apparently, the mineral Zeolite has many useful applications including being used in cat litter...
10 bags doesn't sound like a lot either... Somehow applying this solution does not seem to reflect the severity of the situation, it all seems quite unbelievable...
Fukushima operator to start compensation payouts with $600 million
Russia today, 15th April 2011 TEPCO also shared its intention to drop bags with Zeolite, a mineral that absorbs radiation, into the ocean near the water scoops of Fukushima-1 reactors 2 and 3. The operation, which is aimed at reducing the level of contamination in the seawater, will start as soon as the weather permits.
Onagawa nuke plant jolted beyond specs April aftershock had upward acceleration far above design
Japan Times, 15th April 2011
The No. 1 reactor of the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture on April 7 sustained a jolt greater than what it was designed to withstand during a strong aftershock from the powerful March 11 earthquake, according to nuclear safety officials.
The finding raises further doubts about the viability of the assumed quake resistance at the Tohoku Electric Power Co. complex, even though it was shut down safely after the deadly quake last month.
Comment: I am still shaking my head (please excuse the pun) as people try to pretend that the disaster in Japan was unforeseen and can be defined as a Black Swan event, when the levels of seismic and volcanic activity are rising dramatically worldwide. We had the terrible 9.1 earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia in December 2004, where 250,000 people died and world controllers should have paid more attention then. Japan has 55 nuclear reactors, built in one of the most seismically active regions in the world where earthquakes rattle the ground every day. This is what geologist Leuren Moret found when she went to investigate the geology of the rocks around a Japanese nuclear power plant.
Last summer, I visited Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, at the request of citizens concerned about the danger of a major earthquake. I spoke about my findings at press conferences afterward.
Because Hamaoka sits directly over the subduction zone near the junction of two plates, and is overdue for a major earthquake, it is considered to be the most dangerous nuclear power plant in Japan.
Together with local citizens, I spent the day walking around the facility, collecting rocks, studying the soft sediments it sits on and tracing the nearly vertical faults through the area -- evidence of violent tectonic movements.
"The structures of the nuclear plant are directly rooted in the rock bed and can tolerate a quake of magnitude 8.5 on the Richter scale," the utility claimed on its Web site.
From my research and the investigation I conducted of the rocks in the area, I found that that the sedimentary beds underlying the plant were badly faulted. Some tiny faults I located were less than 1 cm apart.
When I held up samples of the rocks the plant was sitting on, they crumbled like sugar in my fingers. "But the power company told us these were really solid rocks!" the reporters said. I asked, "Do you think these are really solid?' and they started laughing.
So take a good look at the photo of the crack at Onagawa because it does not look like solid bedrock to me but rather more decidely sedimentary, this is why continuous shaking at 7.0+ is such a major problem.
Quake resistance at nuclear plants in doubt
NHK World, 15th April 2011
"The government's nuclear safety agency is set to review safety measures at nuclear power plants across Japan.
This follows the discovery that one of the aftershocks following the March 11th earthquake was stronger than the level thought of as safe for measures in place at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan.[...]
That aftershock last Thursday was 5.6 percent stronger than the level Onagawa's No. 1 Reactor is designed to handle.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has asked power companies twice so far to review earthquake safety measures at their nuclear power plants. Once was following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake that devastated Kobe, and once was after the 2007 Niigata Chuetsu coastal quake, which also caused huge amounts of damage.
The Onagawa plant passed the government's safety inspections those times.
The plant was built to withstand extremely rare, but possible, quakes with a magnitude up to 7.1, like the one that occurred in 2003 beneath the seabed off Miyagi Prefecture.
Last week's aftershock was the same 7.1 magnitude, but the registered tremors were beyond the assumed strength.
I am suspicious that we are not getting the full story about what happened at the Onagawa nuclear plant after the recent 7.4 quake that was downgraded to 7.1...
Japan Quake Map
Japan Quake Map, April 2011 On 14th April, around 15:07 Japanese time, we hit the 1000 earthquakes in the Japanese region since March 11th when the massive 9.0 2011 Tohoku Earthquake struck.
Japan Mulls to Move Capital over Disaster Worries
Sofia News Agency, 14th April 2011
As powerful earthquakes continue to jolt Japan and radiation levels near Tokyo are rising, the Asian country's authorities are considering moving the capital to another city.
The most probable location for a new capital are Osaka and Nagoya, according to ITAR-TASS. Both cities are located near international airports.
The main conditions the new capital has to provide are a population over 50 000 and a sufficient capacity to accommodate the parliament, the government, the Emperor's residency and the foreign diplomatic missions.
Comment: Not surprising... the 'higher ups' want to desert Tokyo! The Sofia news agency is Bulgarian and it seems that information is leaking from government and diplomatic channels. So what are the 35 million residents in the vicinity of Tokyo going to think?
Busby: 400,000 to develop cancer in 200 km radius of Fukushima
YouTube/Russia Today, 13th April 2011
Engineers at Japan's Fukushima plant continue work on emptying highly radioactive water from one of the nuclear reactors. The latest tests show that radiation levels in the sea near the damaged facility have spiked.
On Tuesday, Japan raised the level of nuclear alert at the plant to the maximum of seven, putting it on a par with the Chernobyl disaster. Recovery efforts came under threat as series of powerful aftershocks hit the area near the power station. It came a month after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the country, leaving over 13 thousand people dead. Monitoring stations around the world have been picking up small amounts of radioactive particles spreading from Fukushima.
Comment: Bold Busby says there is significant contamination in Tokyo and that is not surprising... he says the 400,000 will come from the 7.8 million people within the 200km radius of Fukushima, so obviously, the number of total cancers will be far higher...
UPDATE - IS THE TOKAI REACTOR OR TOKAI/JCO NUCLEAR FUEL PROCESSING PLANT IN TROUBLE?
Whatreallyhappened.com, 14th April 2011
"The real time radiation monitoring by prefecture showed radiation levels in the city of Ibaraki going from 639 to 2040 over a period of 12 hours March 20th! "
Mike Rivero might be onto something here... major issue is that the Tokai reactor planet is much closer to Tokyo!
Tokai Nuclear Plant Update: High Levels of Radiation Detected
Lucas Whitefield Hixson, 8th April 2011
Tokai Dai-Ni was shut down automatically on Friday 11th March 2011. But operators Japan Atomic Power Company later submitted a report to local government advising that one of the two pumps used to cool water in the suppression pool had stopped working, and that two of three diesel generators used to power the cooling system during power failures were out of order. Restoring Tokai Dai-Ni to operation could mitigate Tokyo’s rolling black-outs, but at time of writing output is still flat-lining. This is a document which details the level and presence of radioactive isotopes in drinking water. Until today, the radiation levels were dropping and then quadrupled. Iitate Village yesterday was told to evacuate pregnant women and young children due to an increase in radiation. The village is North west and about 40km from Daiichi.
Hmmm....
Radiation surges above 4's fuel pool
Japan Times, 14th April 2011
Radiation has risen to high levels above the spent-fuel pool at reactor No. 4 and its temperature is rising, the nuclear safety agency said Wednesday, indicating the fuel rods have been further damaged and are emitting radioactive substances.
The radiation level 6 meters above the spent-fuel storage pool at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was measured at 84 millisieverts per hour Tuesday. Normally, it's 0.1 microsievert.
The temperature of the pool was 90 degrees, compared with 84 before it caught fire on March 15 in a suspected hydrogen explosion, the agency said.
"It's quite an amount," figured Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Comment: OK, millisievert (1 mSv = 10-3 Sv) and microsievert (1 µSv = 10-6 Sv) we are being told the radiation levels at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant above the fuel rods is 840,000 times higher than normal....
"Radiation is continuing to leak out of the reactors, the situation is not stable at all," says Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University Of New York and the City College of New York, in an interview on Democracy Now! April 13.
"The slightest disturbance could set off a full scale melt down at three nuclear power stations—far beyond what we saw at Chernobyl." Comment:Kaku says some of his family have already evacuated from Tokyo.... this is another great interview. Again, Kaku used the 'stable' analogy of the situation of the Fukushima reactors as being like someone hanging off a cliff by their fingernails that are starting to break off...
Professor Chris Busby: Fukushima Meltdown Could Trigger Atomic Explosion! - Alex Jones Tv 1/3
YouTube, 12th April 2011 Citing data collected by two Russian scientists, Professor Chris Busby told Alex Jones and his audience the explosions at Fukushima were nuclear. The Russian scientists, Sergey A. Pakhomov and Yuri V. Dubasov of the VG Khlopin Radium Institute in Saint Petersburg, examined data related to the explosion at Chernobyl. Part 2/3 & Part 3/3 Comment:This is an amazing interview! Busby tells us that he has received confidential information that the United States want to bomb the Fukushima reactors into the ocean to remedy the situation! Part II (5:00) and Busby thinks this might be the best idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But come on! Japan is not exactly in a stable location and it could all go horribly wrong!!!!!!!!!!! See the story below:
If that catches fire it could devastate a large area
Still a danger, they don’t have power to the fuel pool cooling systems
Unit 4 is the worst because it has the freshest fuel, the most physically hot
In addition unit 4 has a crack in the side, so even if they had water it would run out the crack
That is the toughest problem on site right now
Fukushima related Measurements by the
CTBT
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), 13th April 2011
- Update 13 April: radioactivity also measured in the southern hemisphere -
Since the double disaster of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that affected hundreds of thousands of people and seriously damaged the Fukushima Daichi power plant in Japan on 11 March 2011, minute traces of radioactive emissions from Fukushima have spread across the entire northern hemisphere. A monitoring network designed to detect signs of nuclear explosions picked up these traces from the stricken power plant. [...]
For the first four weeks, the radioactive materials remained confined to the northern hemisphere, with the equator initially acting as a dividing line between the northern and southern air masses. As of 13 April, radioactivity had spread to the southern hemisphere of the Asia-Pacific region and had been detected at stations located for example in Australia, Fiji, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. [...]
By comparison, the levels detected at stations outside Japan up until April 13 have been far below levels that could cause harm to humans and the environment. The levels are comparable to natural background radiation such as cosmic radiation and radiation from the environment on Earth and lower than from manmade sources such as medical applications or nuclear power plants (under normal operations) or isotope production facilities. This demonstrates how extremely sensitive the CTBTO's monitoring stations are.
Comment: So now the experts are telling us that the whole planet has been polluted.... Of course, there
is no mention of the plutonium that blew sky high into the atmosphere and the plutonium that has been dumped into the Pacific Ocean...
Scientists warn of years of aftershocks in Japan, and risks on other faults
The Seattle Times, 12th April 2011
Japan won't stop shaking. One month after the horrific March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the island was rattled anew by aftershocks: A magnitude-6.6 [?] quake on Monday was followed by a 6.3[?] quake on Tuesday. [...]
Now scientists are warning that the March 11 event not only will lead to years of aftershocks but also might have increased the risk of a major quake on an adjacent fault. A new calculation by American and Japanese scientists concluded that the March 11 event heightened the strain on a number of faults bracketing the ruptured segment of the Japan Trench.
"There's quite a bit of real estate on which stress has increased by our calculations," said Ross Stein, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geophysicist. "The possibility of getting large, late aftershocks to the north and south of the main shock is real."
Comment: The USGS are downplaying the size of these earthquakes, but the Japanese know how to measure earthquakes since they happen all the time. See online data here.
Potential dispersion of the radioactive cloud over The Northern Hemisphere
Weather Online, April 2011
"Potential dispersion of the radioactive cloud over The Northern Hemisphere
This animation displays a potential dispersion of the radioactive cloud (Caesium 137 Isotope) after a nuclear accident in reactor Fukushima I. The continuous release rate is very uncertain, thus the calculations have to be interpreted qualitatively. Dispersion in the near surface level (Level 1), in appr. 2500 m height (Level 12) and in appr. 5000 m height (Level 16)."
According to this, Europe has been getting some good sized dosages in the last few days and might explain why the French complained about the levels of radiation not being 'neglible' any more.
UFO sightings and alien interest in both earthquakes and nuclear plants have been documented for years. This publication has reported extensively on the intense, if not unprecedented , UFO activity in Japan before, during and after both the earthquake and the tsunami. So it comes as no surprise that a number of UFO sightings as well as film evidence of alien activity around the damaged Fukushima Nuclear Plant have come to light.
The footage below is remarkable, even in relation to some of the other astonishing footage that has come out of the region recently. The clip comes from a news report by German media group NDR.
At 55 seconds into the clip a giant UFO can be seen hovering above the nuclear plant. Obviously this was a slip up on behalf of NDR and the Asian news outlet the group received the footage from.
Comment: Wow... 'something' is cleaning up in broad daylight! Please refer to the Spoof Times article and comment that I made last week about the fact that UFOs/UAPs are more visible in environments where there is higher levels of radiation! I really don't think this is a 'Space Brother' and it's much more likely to be a UAP or plasma entity on a mission to clean up. Simply, my reasoning is based on seeing so many similar manifestations that defy the belief that we are witnessing a spacecraft. Well, we have been told categorically that this planet is on course for Paradise and nothing is going to stop a better future for mankind.... So, I think this is quite exciting!
Japan raises nuclear crisis to highest level - the same as Chernobyl The Japanese government has raised the severity of the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant to 7, the highest level on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The Telegraph, 12th April 2011
Previously, the damage to reactors at the plant, 137 miles north of Tokyo, has been rated at level 5 on the scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979. The government elevated the disaster by two notches, a rating that has previously only been applied to the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
The government's decision is based on a preliminary calculation by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.
The safety agency, a government body, estimates the amount of radiation released to be 370,000 terabecquerels. One terabecquerel is a trillion becquerels, the standard measure of radiation.
Comment: They need to create some new higher levels at the top of the scale because the 'honest' nuclear experts believe this is far worse than Chernobyl. We also need an update on the amount of radiation that has already been released in comparison to Chernobyl too. Anyway, This article is only getting a mention because the 1st photo in the gallery shows the tsunami flood of water at Fukushima that I have not seen before.
CTBT Radiation detected from Fukushima 14March - 11th April
CTBT, April 2011
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or
civilian purposes. Hence radiation is monitored in the environment from the Earth's surface.
Please note the radiation scale in Becquerels is logarithmic...
Radioactive Japanese cars detained in Russia’s Far East (Video)
RT, 11th April 2011
Customs officials in Vladivostok seized a radioactive cargo of 20 cars from Japan. Their level of radiation is two times higher than normal. Intensive beta-radiation was discovered during a checking of the “Asian Ice” ship.
The cars are currently being kept in quarantine and will most likely be sent back to Japan. This is the first large shipment of radioactive second-hand cars from Japan. Earlier, heightened levels of radiation were found on several private vehicles.
Comment: The Russians are being harsh.... only twice.... I would be interested to know what the Russians consider to be 'normal' on a day where there are high levels of cosmic radiation due to space weather...
Japan: Liquefaction damage widespread
Daily Yomiuri Online, 10th April 2011
Soil liquefaction on reclaimed land around Tokyo Bay because of the March 11 earthquake caused damage in at least 11 Tokyo wards and cities in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, according to tallies by local authorities.
About 1,100 homes and other buildings in these areas were destroyed or damaged, and many public facilities such as roads and parks have been rendered useless due to soil liquefaction, according to damage assessment reports obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun. [...]
...Japan had dealt with significant liquefaction after the Kobe earthquake of 1995, but “nothing of this vast size.”
As much as 85 percent of the town — an area of almost 1,000 acres — had been submerged in mud, Matsuzaki said. He estimated it would take several years and cost $890?million to repair the infrastructure and reinforce it — an amount far exceeding the town’s $743?million annual operating budget.
Susumu Yasuda, a civil engineer from Tokyo Denki University, said that Urayasu is highly susceptible to liquefaction because the town, built after World War II, sits on reclaimed land made from a mix of volcanic ash, garbage and sand dredged from Tokyo Bay.
The liquefaction-hit areas are about 400 kilometers from the focal zone of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Yet the length and force of the magnitude-9.0 temblor was so strong it set off soil liquefaction on the largest scale ever recorded in this country, experts said. Comment: It seems that one month later, the problem of liquefaction in large regions of Japan has not gone away and I think this is ominous, especially in the areas built on reclaimed land. There is a selection of YouTube videos below, but the Sand Liquefaction Video is really quite impressive ansd helps us understand why there is possibility that Japan may actually sink or become a series of islands.
Near Tokyo Disneyland, liquefaction turns town into a grim funhouse (Photos)
Washington Post, 6th April 2011
"URAYASU, JAPAN — Nearly four weeks after Japan’s great earthquake, most of the 100,000 residents of this low-lying seaside town still have no plumbing. They relieve themselves in plastic bags — mixing in chemicals to harden the waste and hide the smell — and throw the bags into the garbage. Fortunately, trash collection, unlike sewage, water and gas services, has not been disrupted."
Japan Earthquake Liquefaction Video Awesome [0:23]
YouTube, 27th March 2011
"Japan earthquake causes liquefaction - water from water table being forced out of the ground! This is not from a broken pipe folks! This is a phenomenon called liquefaction, and happens when the water table is mixed with the shaking material, and in this case forced up through cracks in the ground. This is the first quake where we have enough video to understand more about how liquefaction works. Check out my other videos for videos that will blow your mind. I am a seismic analyst, so I look at earthquakes every day."
this is a good example
Sand Liquefaction Video [0:26]
YouTube, 28 Mar 2008 This is a good video made by a researcher at Civil Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
Japan may raise nuke accident severity level to highest 7 from 5
Kyodo News, 12th April 2011
The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan released a preliminary calculation Monday saying that the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been releasing up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour at some point after a massive quake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11.
The disclosure prompted the government to consider raising the accident's severity level to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5, government sources said. The level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale has only been applied to the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.
The current provisional evaluation of 5 is at the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979.
Comment: I wonder if those at the top have finished selling their stocks in Japan? Well, the Japanese have been fighting calling this a Level 7 nuclear disaster, even though international disaster agencies called this a 7 from day 1, but maybe this admission is related to the latest earthquake that was located in the Fukushima region too, see Water injection to troubled reactors temporarily stops in Mon. quake. The New York Times has also given us another relvelation:
"The backup power and pumping systems that have been brought to the plant since March 11, including emergency diesel generators, fire trucks on standby and other generator trucks — all require workers to operate them manually, according to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. That makes them useless when workers must evacuate away from the reactors.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan’s nuclear watchdog, acknowledged the lack of an automatic backup power supply, but did not offer any solutions."
Strong Aftershock as Japan Urges More Evacuations
New York Times, 11th April 2011
Not even automatic backups, unflippin' believable.... Talk about antiquated... The game of constantly changing the units of measurement, so we don't know how bad things are is also really annoying too.... Terabecquerel (TBq) is (10,000 trillion becquerels/hour) or 1012 Bq). Just in case we get another ridiculous announcement, PBq is (petabecquerel, 1015 Bq). At the moment, the southern hemisphere is still considered habitable, but that might change too... Well, I have seen one serious rant today where the language was so bad that I decided against providing a link but I understood that I was listening to someone with some intelligence who understands the seriousness of humans polluting the food chain and what this will mean for the future of mankind... What I can't understand is why the predators in charge think they will be immune... As I have written before: "Nature shows us that it's not a competitive environment that is promoted, but one where organisms can cooperate. The evolutionary process is one where organisms are selected by their positive contribution to the environment. Organisms that push the environment to the extreme are eliminated." However, according to metaphysical sources that I have now come to consider as reliable, there is only 'divine' intervention when the outcry is serious enough to warrant action...
Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen demonstrates How Fukushima's Fuel Rods Melted and Shattered
Fairewinds Energy, 10th April 2011
"Fairewinds' Chief Nuclear Engineer, Arnie Gundersen, conducts a field demonstration simulating the impact of Fukushima's intense heat upon Zircaloy [zirconium alloy] fuel rods. Gundersen's demonstration shows that intense heat weakens and embrittles Zircaloy changing it from a sturdy metal to a brittle oxide that is easily shattered. Images from the post accident Three Mile Island nuclear core show embrittled and broken Zircaloy fuel rods in the nuclear reactor."
This is a nice practical lesson on why weeks ago nuclear experts told us weeks ago, that there were "three raging meltdowns"...
Fukushima 'much bigger than Chernobyl', says Russian nuclear activist
News.com.au, 2nd April 2011
JAPAN'S unfolding nuclear disaster is "much bigger than Chernobyl" and could rewrite the international scale used to measure the severity of atomic accidents, a Russian expert says.
"Chernobyl was a dirty bomb explosion. The next dirty bomb is Fukushima and it will cost much more" in economic and human terms, Natalia Mironova said. [...]
"Chernobyl was level seven and it had only one reactor and lasted only two weeks. We have now three weeks (at Fukushima) and we have four reactors which we know are in very dangerous situations," she said.
Comment: It's been obvious from the time thousands of spent fuel rods were blown sky high, live on Japanese TV.... It's over 4 weeks now and no end in sight, and there is a possibility that there are more reactors in trouble (reactors 5 & 6 have holes in the roof and are being flooded by the waters used to cool reactors from 1 -4), plus the other nuclear reactors that have been in trouble elsewhere that we know about and maybe others where the news is being hidden from the world...
French say: Radiation risks from Fukushima 'no longer negligible'
EurActiv.com, 11th April 2011 The risks associated with iodine-131 contamination in Europe are no longer "negligible," according to CRIIRAD, a French research body on radioactivity. The NGO is advising pregnant women and infants against "risky behaviour," such as consuming fresh milk or vegetables with large leaves.
only going to happen when enough people are sick of being mistreated... At the moment, the levels of tolerance are too high...
In response to thousands of inquiries from citizens concerned about fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Europe, CRIIRAD has compiled an information package on the risks of radioactive iodine-131 contamination in Europe.
The document, published on 7 April, advises against consuming rainwater and says vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant or breastfeeding women should avoid consuming vegetables with large leaves, fresh milk and creamy cheese.
only going to happen when enough people are sick of being mistreated... At the moment, the levels of tolerance are too high...
The risks related to prolonged contamination among vulnerable groups of the population can no longer be considered "negligible" and it is now necessary to avoid "risky behaviour," CRIIRAD claimed. [...]
only going to happen when enough people are sick of being mistreated... At the moment, the levels of tolerance are too high...
However, the institute underlines that there is absolutely no need to lock oneself indoors or take iodine tablets.
CRIIRAD says its information note is not limited to the situation in France and is applicable to other European countries, as the level of air contamination is currently the same in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, for instance.
Comment: It is now starting to look like that the Japanese authorities are still aiming at a salvage operation because too much money wrapped up in nuclear fuel will be lost if they try and entomb all the reactors, so the alternative is to take plenty of time heavily irradiating local Japanese people who can't flee the country and dosing the rest of the world with no longer 'neglible' amounts of radiation. Apparently, there does not seem to be any international laws from stopping this from happening. Well, I am now coming to believe that there needs to be some kind of divine intervention, but that is only going to happen when enough people are sick of being mistreated... At the moment, the levels of tolerance are too high...
17,500 gather for Tokyo rallies against nuclear plants
Kyodo News, 10th April 2011 About 17,500 people gathered Sunday for two rallies held in Tokyo against nuclear power plants amid the prolonged crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station some 220 kilometers to the northeast.
Around the JR Koenji Station in Suginami Ward, some 15,000 people took part in a demonstration march organized by local shop owners and reported online as a call for joining the event had spread on Twitter, organizers said.
''I learned of the event on Twitter. Now is the time to stop nuclear plants,'' said Takashi Kamiyama, who took part with his 2- and 6-year-old children among participants. ''I want to do what I can do for these kids.''
Comment: I suppose Japanese people are now protesting because they have been frightened enough out of the usual subservient 'sheeple' mode... Well, something has to be done, the changes on the planet are accelerating and we have many hundreds of nuclear reactors that rely on a constant power supply which cannot be guaranteed during massive earth changes. Anyway, Genpatsu (see original image used for icon here) is slang for a nuclear power plant and apparently, there is quite a story behind this slang term being used by the young. See, Genpatsu-kun (Nuclear-Reactor-kun) and the Japanese spirit. Warning! This article discusses rude bodily functions.... LOL!
Japan warns of massive earthquake and volcanic explosion after the April 7 earthquake Japan's Meteorological Agency on Friday warned the country's 20 volcanoes has become alive due to the massive March 11 earthquake, and a study said earthquake over 9.0-magnitude might hit Japan.
International Business Times, 9th April 2011
The Agency said volcanic explosion occurred after earthquake several times in history and people should maintain vigilance against this tendency.
The number of earthquake above 6.0 M reached 77 on March. And 74 out of them occurred in quake-hit region, were aftershock. The number is 50 times over the same period last year.
The largest aftershock on April 7 hit Japan has killed 4 people, injured at least 166, and caused a power outage over 2.61 million households, according to Japan's police officials. The Meteorological Agency warned aftershocks above 6.0 M like the April 7 earthquake probably would hit Japan again.
Comment: Geoscientists are now warning of another massive earthquake, whilst fairly large earthquakes 7.0+ are now hitting and may even be precursors... thus causing more drama at various nuclear reactors.
M 7.0 quake hits northeastern Japan
NHK World, 11th April 2011
"A strong earthquake struck north-eastern Japan at 5:16 PM, local time, on Monday. The Meteorological Agency at one time issued tsunami warnings for the coastal areas of Ibaraki Prefecture.
The agency said the earthquake's magnitude was 7.0, and that its focus was in Fukushima Prefecture at a depth of 10 kilometers.
Intensities of 6 minus on the Japanese scale of 0 to 7 were registered in some areas of Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, including Furudono Town, Nakajima Village and Hokota City. An intensity of 5 plus was registered in many areas in the southern Tohoku and northern Kanto regions.
The Meteorological Agency lifted the tsunami warnings about fifty minutes later. A tsunami advisory for the coastal areas of neighboring prefectures was also lifted."
Japan Quake Map
Japan Quake Map, April 2011 We are approaching 1000 Earthquakes since 3/11/2011... at the last count, there have been 19 earthquakes for the 11th April, but there are a few more hours of the day to go in Japan...
Fukushima gov. slams TEPCO, govt for 'betrayal'
Dail Yomiuri Online, 10th April 2011
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato has expressed anger at the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying both "betrayed" the people of Fukushima Prefecture with repeated assurances about the safety of nuclear power plants.
"We feel we were betrayed [by the central government and TEPCO]," Sato said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the outbreak of a series of accidents at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant.
"The central government and TEPCO repeatedly told us, 'Nuclear power plants are safe because they've got multiple protection systems,' and, 'Earthquake-proof measures have been taken,'" Sato said.
"TEPCO used the term 'beyond our expectations' [to describe the natural disaster], but they can't establish effective policies for nuclear energy safety unless they take into account things that are beyond their expectations," Sato said.
Sato pointed out that more than 100,000 evacuees remain in a state of high anxiety, worrying about radiation exposure every day. "I want to cry out: 'Do the government and TEPCO understand our feelings?'"
Asked about a plan to build a seventh and eighth reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Sato flatly rejected the idea, saying even to suggest it was "unforgivable."
Comment: Folk are waking up, there is real pain, reality is biting really hard, it's time for more prayer... Yet, TEPCO managment are still in cloud cuckoo land with their proposal of more nuclear reactors...
Status of nuclear facilities after Thursday's strong aftershock
Kyodo News, 8th April 2011
The following is the known status of nuclear power facilities as of Friday night following the aftershock that rattled Miyagi Prefecture and elsewhere late Thursday night, the strongest since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11. [...]
Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture
Suspension of operation continuing, part of external power source lost, cooling system for nuclear fuel pool temporarily suspended, water leakage found.
Comment: these are the ones that have been reported to have lost their electricity supply.
Russia Today: Nuclear Déjà vu - Onagawa
YouTube/Russia Today, 8th April 2011
In Japan, radioactive water is reported to have leaked from fuel pools at the Onagawa nuclear power plant following a violent aftershock measuring seven point one. The plant is less than a hundred kilometres from the stricken Fukushima plant, which is still to be made safe following last month's devastating double hit of earthquake and tsunami. To discuss how events might develop RT talks to Philip White from the Citizen's Nuclear Information Center, who's in Tokyo.
Comment: The headline says it all, but there have been isolated reports that there were problems at other nuclear plants and Onagawa has been mentioned several times.
Inside report from Fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone
YouTube, 8th April 2011
"A Japanese journalist, Tetsuo Jimbo, ventured through the evacuation zone last Sunday, and filed the following video report. He says that, inside the evacuation zone, homes,building, roads and bridges, which were torn down by Tsunami, are left completely untouched, and the herd of cattle and pet dogs, left behind by the owners, wonders around the town while the radiation level remains far beyond legal limits."
China concerned at Japan's prolonged nuclear crisis
Reuters News, 8th April 2011
(Reuters) - China said on Friday it was concerned at Japan pumping radioactive water into the sea from its crippled nuclear power plant, reflecting growing international unease at the month-long crisis triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
Yes, the situation is completely insane, but this is planet Earth where insanity is considered 'normal'.
South Korea schools shut over radioactive rain
Herald Sun, 9th April 2011
"DOZENS of South Korean schools have cancelled classes as officials scrambled to quell fears that rain contained radioactive material from Japan's stricken nuclear plant. More than 130 primary schools and kindergartens in Gyeonggi province surrounding the capital Seoul cancelled or cut classes today after rain began falling on orders from the provincial education office. An office spokesman called it part of "preemptive measures for the safety of students".
Things are bad in South Korea and they have been more than a little bit inconvenienced.
South Korea Japan Earthquake Nuclear Crisis Pictures & Photos
Sulekha.com, 7th April 2011
"A South Korean environmentalist with umbrellas march in a rally demanding South Korean government to stop expanding nuclear power plants in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Fears over possible radiation contamination are growing in South Korea, the country closest to Japan, after Japanese nuclear power plants were damaged by earthquakes last month."
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake shocked disaster-hit northeastern Japan late Thursday night.
The Meteorological Agency had issued a tsunami warning and advisories along the Pacific coast of Miyagi and other prefectures, but the agency lifted all the alerts early Friday.
Nonetheless, it urges people not to approach coastal areas in these regions for the time being.
Comment: This is the biggest quake since March 11th and the Japanese are extremely nervous.
NHK World: Two 7.4 Japan Earthquakes April 7 2011 with a strange blue flash Tsunami warning (Video) NHK World, 7th April 2011
Comment:Incredible! I amd not sure if the pulsing bright blue light is a quakelight but some think it's a transformer but I don't think this from many previous videos of other major earthquakes, see what happened in the Chilean earthquake, February 2010 and another that is not earthquake related, at 0:33 YouTube: Transformer explosion, but I could be wrong. A few people are predicting another major quake within days and with the nuclear disaster and also many people quoting Edgar Cayce and his famous prediction; "A greater portion of Japan must go into the ocean". The way things look, I really think things could escalate. Scientists have already declared that Japan is sinking (see below), but according to a reliable metaphysical source, Japan is going to eventually sink, but that could mean it would take hundreds of years.
IAEA Update: New earthquake in Japan (7 April, 17:30 UTC) Facebook/International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 07 April 2011 at 10:34
"The IAEA confirms that an earthquake occurred in Japan at 14:32 UTC 7 April. The IAEA International Seismic Safety Centre has rated it as a 7.1 magnitude, revised from an initial 7.4 magnitude. The epicenter of the earthquake was 20 km from the Onagawa nuclear power plant and approximately 120 km from the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants."
Three nuclear power plants with electrical power trouble Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant -- two out of the three lines supplying off-site power to the site were lost following the 7 April earthquake. Off-site power continues to be supplied through the third line.
Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant -- Off-site power has been lost. Emergency power supply to the site is operating.
Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant --NISA confirms that Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and uranium enrichment facility lost off-site power. Emergency power supply to the site is operating.
Comment: This is crazy....
Nuclear Scientist Arnie Gundersen: Status Report on Fukushima Daiichi
Fairewinds Energy, 6th April 2011 "Arnie Gundersen discusses inconstancies between what the NRC, TEPCo, and the Nuclear Industry are saying privately and publicly. Documents from the french nuclear firm, Areva, and the NRC reveal what the industry knows about the Fukushima disaster."
Comment: The most shocking thing that he says is that the fuel pool for Reactor 4 was cracked by the earthquake and was NOT damaged due to the disappearance of electricty and hence the explosion was the inability to cool the reactor. This explains why some agencies reported this as a nuclear disaster from day 1. The RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service registered a Nuclear Event on 11th March 2011 and stated: "Cause of event: Malfunctioning at the cooling system (Susp. Level of INES 7- Chernobyl like - accident)". How clear is that?
Tsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from ancestors
Mercury News, 6th April 2011
MIYAKO, Japan—Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan's destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.
"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."
It was advice the dozen or so households of Aneyoshi heeded, and their homes emerged unscathed from a disaster that flattened low-lying communities elsewhere and killed thousands along Japan's northeastern shore.
Hundreds of such markers dot the coastline, some more than 600 years old. Collectively they form a crude warning system for Japan, whose long coasts along major fault lines have made it a repeated target of earthquakes and tsunamis over the centuries.
The markers don't all indicate where it's safe to build. Some simply stand—or stood, until they were washed away by the tsunami—as daily reminders of the risk. "If an earthquake comes, beware of tsunamis," reads one. In the bustle of modern life, many forgot.
Comment: This article and sentiment is very poignant. We are at a time where many are pointing to ancient warnings and are desperately trying to remind us what has happened to humanity in our distant past. Due to Space Weather, the planet has been soaking up massive amounts of energy for over 20 years and it seems that we are on the cusp of massive change as the energy is utilised to generate massive evolutionary change, yet it's only now as a mega disaster strikes, that some are starting to wake up to the reality that the citizens of Earth are entering a new era.
Top scientists in the United States and Japan have discovered a “wide array” of “complex problems” warning that the japan nuclear disaster could continue on indefinitely and things could get much, much worse any minute.
Perhaps the worse news is confirmation that radioactive fragments and particles, including the deadly Plutonium “MOX” fuel, has been shot high into the atmosphere during the hydrogen explosions which means the Plutonium, which would have otherwise caused only localized damaged, will now be carried around the globe.
Comment: This is a synopsis of the details provided in the New York Times. Well, the Russians are looking like real heroes now for the way they dealt with the disaster at Chernobyl. Here, the Japanese and world nuclear authorities are looking absolutely pathetic. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have realised that there was major trouble when we saw three massive explosions live on Japanese TV. As I have read elsewhere, the problems here are non negotiable, there is no one to bribe to make the problems go away...
U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
New York Times, 5th April 2011
United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Town near nuclear plant rejects Japanese utility's 'token' offer
CNN News, 6th April 2011
"The company called the initial offer "payment for their troubles," and would not detail how much money is being offered to each community. But Kousei Negishi, who is the manager of general affairs for Namie, said that it was 20 million yen -- about $12 for each of Namie's roughly 20,000 residents."
I would call that insult to injury...
Japan: Fukushima operator built nuclear plants to withstand only up to 7.9 qua Boing Boing, 12th March 2011
Documents from Tokyo Electric, the operator of the Japanese nuclear plants in crisis after Friday's devastating quake and tsunami, reveal that the company tested the Fukushima plant to withstand a quake up to magnitude 7.9. That threshold is well below the force of Friday's quake, recently upgraded to 9.0.
Tepco's last safety test of nuclear power plant Number 1--one that is currently in danger of meltdown--was done at a seismic magnitude the company considered the highest possible, but in fact turned out to be lower than Friday's quake. The information comes from the company's "Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 Updated Safety Measures" documents written in Japanese in 2010 and 2009. The documents were reviewed by Dow Jones. The company said in the documents that 7.9 was the highest magnitude for which they tested the safety for their No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima.
Thousands of evacuees from areas around Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant were scanned for radiation exposure, though the Japanese government insists radiation levels are low. Video courtesy of Reuters
Simultaneous seismic activity along the three tectonic plates in the sea east of the plants--the epicenter of Friday's quake--wouldn't surpass 7.9, according to the company's presentation.
Fukushima: seawater sample shows iodine-131 concentration at 7.5 million times maximum allowable level under law. Removal of 60,000 tons of radioactive water eyed at Fukushima plant
Kyodo News, 5th April 2011
A total of 60,000 tons of radioactive water is believed to be flooding the basement of reactor buildings and underground trenches connected to them at the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, the industry minister said Tuesday, adding its operator will later remove the liquid obstructing recovery work.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the Fukushima Daiichi power station, began dumping low-level radioactive water Monday as an emergency step to secure room for the storage of more highly contaminated water. The utility known as TEPCO aims to dispose of a total of 11,500 tons of low-level tainted water by this weekend.
By noon Tuesday, an estimated 3,430 tons of such low radioactive water had been discharged into the Pacific Ocean from the plant on the coast, TEPCO said. [...]
In a new finding, TEPCO said Tuesday a seawater sample taken Saturday near the No. 2 reactor's water intake showed the iodine-131 concentration at 7.5 million times the maximum allowable level under law.
To halt the radioactive water flow, the operator will inject ''water glass'' or sodium silicate into graveled areas beneath the pit's bottom, where radioactive water is believed to be seeping through, according to the agency.
The utility has tried to block the radioactive water leakage with concrete and water-absorbing polymeric materials, but its efforts have so far been unsuccessful.
Comment: This is completely out of control. Inventors and those who have been researching electromagnetics need to step up to the plate now! I have heard one call out, but I don't know how serious it is.
South Korea raises radioactive alarm
The Australian, 6th April 2011
"South Korea reportedly lodged a protest yesterday over the dumping of millions of litres of radioactive water.
Meanwhile, tests showed radioactive iodine and cesium had been found in fish caught in the Pacific Ocean south of the plant since northeastern Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11."
'Catastrophic water dump means Fukushima really out of control'
YouTube/Russia Today, 4th April 2011
"Japan is dumping more than ten thousand tonnes of radioactive water from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific. Officials say this is a necessary step to free up storage space for more highly contaminated water. The government says it will not harm human health or the environment. But an independent nuclear energy consultant Shaun Burnie feels the move is likely to have serious consequences."
'No way out of waste water dumping to keep core cool at Fukushima'
YouTube/Russia Today, 5th April 2011
"Japanese officials say 60,000 tons of radioactive water have accumulated in the basement of the stricken Fukushima plant. Workers must keep feeding water into the reactors to stop them overheating, which is leading to a build-up of radioactive fluid. Japan has asked Russia to send a waste disposal facility to the crippled nuclear station. Almost 12,000 tons of low-tainted water are being released into the ocean to free storage space for more highly contaminated waste. Authorities say this poses no threat to human health or the environment. For more about the situation, RT talks to nuclear industry expert Arnold Gundersen."
The Greenpeace story
Greenpeace UK
Some perspective: "1983: Four Greenpeace divers were contaminated by an oily radioactive slick, whilst attempting to block a discharge pipe at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. The pipe was releasing more than 10 million litres of radioactive water into the sea every day." Yes, as bad as things are, humanity has had 2000 nuclear bombs detonated underground, in the atmosphere and in the radiation belts, authorities have been spewing radioactive water into the oceans and nuclear waste has been hidden underground where it expected to start leaking at some time in the future. So, if we experience millions of people killed at once and some nasty mutations then maybe humans will force change.
TEPCO executives under investigation for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury. UPDATE
Japan Subculture, 4th April 2011
"The Japanese police continue their investigation into TEPCO, the managing entity of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury. TEPCO announced on April 3rd that the bodies of two Fukushima workers had been found at Fukushima Reactor #1. The bodies were found on March 30th. The announcement came a few days later. The odds are increasing that the final charges will be professional negligence resulting in death. It is not “official” and still in the early stages
Japan seeks Russian help to end nuclear crisis
Reuters News, 4th April 2011
TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters) - Japan has asked nuclear superpower Russia to send a special radiation treatment ship used to decommission nuclear submarines to help in its fight to contain the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl, Japanese media said late on Monday. [...]
In their desperation to stop radioactive leaks, TEPCO engineers have used anything at hand. They have mixed sawdust and newspapers with polymers and cement in an unsuccessful attempt to seal a crack in a concrete pit at reactor No.2.
On Monday, they resorted to powdered bath salts to produce a milky colour in water to help trace the source of the leak.
TEPCO said it was also planning to drape a curtain into the sea off the nuclear plant to try to prevent radioactive silt drifting out into the ocean.
The silt-blocking fence will take several days to prepare, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).
The exact source of the radiation leaks remains unknown.
Comment: Unflippin' believable....sawdust, newspapers and bath salts? What the *%#&?
Nuclear Scientist Arnie Gundersen: Status Report on Fukushima Daiichi
Fairewinds Energy, 3rd April 2011
"Recent press reports have discussed the possibility that Fukushima Unit 1 may be having a nuclear chain reaction. New data released by TEPCO indicates that even though Fukushima Unit 1 was shut down during the March 11 earthquake, it appears to have "gone critical" again without human intervention. The detection by TEPCO of short-lived radioactive isotopes substantiates the existence of this inadvertent criticality."
Experiencing extremely high web traffic
Japanese Govt did not reveal high level radiation estimate
NHK World, 5th April 2011
"The estimates were made on March 16th following explosions at the plant by an institute commissioned by the government using a computer system called SPEEDI. The system made its projections on the assumption that radioactive substances had been released for 24 hours from midnight on March 14th, based on the available data. But the government was reluctant to reveal the SPEEDI projections, and did not release them until March 23rd."
Fukushima Daiichi Reactors 5-6 Stability Under Threat 04.04.11
YouTube/NHK World, 4th April 2011 The presenter here is virtually in tears and is struggling to make his announcement because Reactors 5 & 6 are being flooded by the seawater was being poured to cool numbers reactors 1-4, so they are now at risk of losing their cooling systems too! Fundamentally, Japanese nuclear officials could not see any need for disaster planning and so it seems all the impromptu efforts are failing misersably.
From Far Labs, a Vivid Picture Emerges of Japan Crisis
New York Times, 2nd April 2011 Thanks to the unfamiliar but sophisticated art of atomic forensics, experts around the world have been able to document the situation vividly. Over decades, they have become very good at illuminating the hidden workings of nuclear power plants from afar, turning scraps of information into detailed analyses.[...]
The bits of information that drive these analyses range from the simple to the complex. They can include everything from the length of time a reactor core lacked cooling water to the subtleties of the gases and radioactive particles being emitted from the plant. Engineers feed the data points into computer simulations that churn out detailed portraits of the imperceptible, including many specifics on the melting of the hot fuel cores.
Governments and companies now possess dozens of these independently developed computer programs, known in industry jargon as “safety codes.” Many of these institutions — including ones in Japan — are relying on forensic modeling to analyze the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi to plan for a range of activities, from evacuations to forecasting the likely outcome. [...]
Now, as a result of the crisis in Japan, the atomic simulations suggest that the number of serious accidents has suddenly doubled, with three of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi complex in some stage of meltdown. Even so, the public authorities have sought to avoid grim technical details that might trigger alarm or even panic. [...]
On March 21, Stanford University presented an invitation-only panel discussion on the Japanese crisis that featured Alan Hansen, an executive vice president of Areva NC, a unit of the company focused on the nuclear fuel cycle.
“Clearly,” he told the audience, “we’re witnessing one of the greatest disasters in modern time.” Comment: Well, it looks like the New York Times are now telling folk this is as bad as it gets, but quite frankly, I think things could get far worse. How do we know that we have to arrived at a cosmic bowling alley where gravitational waves are going to be zapping the planet on a regular basis? Personally, I expect more of the same because humans have failed to comprehend the signs of the times and what should be done to protect lives.
Radiation levels around Japan.
Graphing Earthquake, Radiation and Water data in Japan, 31st March 2011 Good graphics. The Radiation levels around the Fukushima nuclear plants is insane...
Radiation watch West Tokyo Japan (Akiruno City) There are adverts! Info: CPM = counts/clicks per minute. Normal background is approx. 10-20 CPM
Convert radiation in units of CPM to radiation in units of mR. Geiger counters commonly use a conversion ratio of 1,000 CPM = 1 mR. This conversion ratio is not exact due to the definition of the rem. Hence, normal is about 2Mr or 2000 CPM. Recent screenshot 2nd April here. Update 6th April 2011. Radiation levels have increased slightly here.
Fukushima - Nuclear Titanic? Seawater radiation hits new high in Japan
YouTube/Russia Today, 31st March 2011
"RT discusses Fukushima situation with John Large, an independent nuclear consultant."
As we already know, the Japanese had NO plans on how to deal with a major disaster and the New York Times has reported that after the emergency had started, when nuclear engineers tried coming up with a plan on how to deal with the situation, it just turned into a slanging match. Here, there is discussion of the Japanese ignoring the risk of a massive earthquake and a tsunami but there is no mention of the obvious,
tsunami is a Japanese word...
Robots fail a nation when needed the most
The Sydney Morning Herald, 2nd April 2011
In Japan, where the Fukushima nuclear crisis is three weeks old, the question is: Where are the robots?
The answer is disquieting, say Japan's top roboticists. Instead of building robots that go where humans never could, Japan, renowned for its robotics expertise, invested in machines that do things that humans can already do - such as talk, dance, play the violin and preside over weddings.
''The government believed this accident wouldn't happen,'' said Hirose Shigeo, a robotics researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
''Most robot experts are concentrating on humanoid [robots] and home use.''
Comment: This report is not exactly true but I will concede that great efforts have been placed in creating wonderfully engineered robots that can copy humans, see Dancing Sony Robots, singing robts and even worse, the creepy "fembots".... However it seems the Japanese did decide to create robots that could be used in an emergency and so there are a few reports about the Monirobo robots being used at Fukushima, but whether they are working in the extreme radioactive environment is another matter.
Monirobo robots used to monitor radiation in Fukushima
Rob Aid, 20th March 2011
"After the Tokaimura nuclear accident in 1999 in which two workers died, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Technology Centre in association with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) developed a disaster monitoring robot named Monirobo (“Monitoring Robot”). It is designed to operate at radiation levels too high for humans and it is used to monitor the hazardous environments for leaks and alarming readings."
Citizens of Earth: March 31st, 12 NOON (your timezone). "The Water of Fukushima Nuclear Plant, we are sorry to make you suffer. Please forgive us. We thank you, and we love you." This is? all it takes. Please say it aloud or in your mind 3 times as you put your hands together in a prayer position. Please offer your sincere prayer." -- Dr. Masaru Emoto
Comment: Interesting, someone in the metaphysical community has stepped up to the plate. This would be a good time for a miracle. The following video report by Arnie Gunderson, explains why the water is so radioactive.
Nuclear Scientist Arnie Gundersen: Status Report on Fukushima Daiichi
Fairewinds Energy, 31st March 2011 Arnie Gundersen is a former nuclear industry executive who is now an expert witness in nuclear safety issues
and was called on to be an expert witness in the investigation of the Three Mile Island accident.
There are 2 updates on the 31st and the 2nd provides us with evidence that the situation is even worse than Arnie Gundersen could imagine.
Video of smashed interior at Fukushima nuclear plant
Telegraph, 1st April 2011
"Operator of Japan's leaking nuclear plant releases footage of the ruined interior of reactor No. 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex."
This is the video that Arnie Gundersen is refering to and it does look desperate inside this reactor.
Gov't orders utilities to prepare for tsunami with more backups
Kyodo News, 30th March 2011
The industry ministry ordered utility companies Wednesday to act within a month to prepare for a possible loss of power at their nuclear reactors when hit by unexpectedly large tsunami waves, as concerns are growing over the safety of nuclear power plants following the March 11 quake that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi complex.
They are instructed to secure vehicle-mounted power sources, deploy fire trucks that would supply water to the reactors, work out a procedure on how to deal with an emergency situation by using such vehicles, and carry out drills.
The measures are part of efforts to prevent a recurrence of the ongoing nuclear crisis at the plant in northeastern Japan, where the power grid and most of the emergency diesel generators were knocked out by the magnitude-9.0 quake and ensuing tsunami, resulting in the loss of the reactors' key cooling functions.
Comment: Now, it looks like the seriousness of the disaster unfolding at Fukushima has finally got the Japanese authorities to wake up and provide decent backup facilities for nuclear reactors. Instead of the usually whining about additional costs, reality has finally hit home. Now, what about all national power grids utilising 'surge protectors' due to the threat of a massive flare from the sun that has already been calculated would knock out hundreds of transformers and therefore possibly effect many nuclear reactors. We know there is a problem because an article about this very same issue surfaced exactly one week before the disaster in Japan and so it's a known problem within the industry but due to penny pinching, the seriousness of the need for adequate backup power supply has been ignored.
Earth movements from Japan earthquake confirmed via satellites
The Watchers, 31st March 2011
Studying data acquired on 19 February and 21 March, scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have detected a
ground shift of about 2.5 m eastwards and a downward motion of Honshu Island’s east coast.
Scientists from Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia have used the same Envisat data to show a large
portion of the surface displacement, with a maximum shift of 2.5 m. These first results, covering an 800 km-long strip over
Sendai and Tokyo, show movement far away from the epicentre (denoted by the red star in the top image) in the Pacific
Ocean.
Comment: OK, I think this website is actually providing proper geophysical information from reliable
sources, with analysis grounded in fact and not fiction.
"Record land mass movement has been observed in Miyagi. Quake-hit Oshika Peninsula moved 5.3 meters and
dropped 1.2 meters according to Geospatial Information Authority. Goverment showed both records data on Saturday.
Geospatial Information Authority based in Tsukuba issued a report that says that peninsula on the Pacific coast moved in
East-SouthEast direction toward the quake epicenter.
Earthquake also triggered land mass movements in many areas ranging from northeastern region of Tohoku to the Kanto
region including Tokyo. In Iwate prefecture, a point in Yamada (north of Miyagi) moved 25cm to the east, while a point in
Chiba’s Choshi, south of Miyagi, moved 17 cm to the east. [...]
We will keep you inform about situation in Japan with new data. Preliminary indicators are showing that Japan is
sinking. We hope that we are wrong!
Silent Island: Grim
scenes as RT films Ishinomaki trashed by Japan tsunami
YouTube/Russia Today, 31st March 2011
"RT presents exclusive footage from quake-tsunami devastated Ishinomaki region. The earthquake and tsunami wiped out
entire communities in Japan. People who lost their homes are living in overcrowded shelters while the clean-up operation
goes on. But even after that's finished, many will still have nowhere to go."
Nuclear Scientist Arnie Gundersen: Status Report
on Fukushima Daiichi
Fairewinds Energy, 29th March 2011 Comment: Gundersen discusses the plutonium found on site, explains what the breaches mean, he queries how
come there is radioactive material getting into the ocean, the core damage is compared to his personal knowledge of what
happened with the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and explains how the meltdown is occuring. His final conclusion is
there are going to be large quantities of radiation leaking and he can't see how it is going to be stopped.
Part I -
"Fukushima - Undoubtedly the biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl" - A.Gopalakrishnan
YouTube, 24th March 2011
"Newsclick interviews Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board in India on March
24, 2011. He speaks about the primary reasons for the continuing disaster in the Fukushima reactors following a major
earthquake and tsunami in Japan. "
Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan says there was no containment with Chernobyl so it appears that the Fukushima disaster is
considered to be different for this reason alone but this has only given them some lead time but the outcome is becoming
similar. On the 24th, Dr. Gopalakrishnan did not think that meltdowns were in progress but I wonder if he has changed his
mind with all the recent bad news.
Greenpeace: From our radiation sampling team in Japan
Greenpeace.org, 29th March 2011
Jacob Namminga, one of our radiation safety advisors, spoke to Brian Fitzgerald at our international office, about the
radiation monitoring that began on Saturday March 26, in a rural area of Japan to the north west of the Fukushima nuclear
plant.
The trip's aim was to asses the true extent of radiation risks to the local population, which has reported radiation levels of
up to ten micro sieverts per hour in Iitate village, 20km beyond the official evacuation zone - levels high enough to require
evacuation. As told to Brian, here are Jacob's reflections on the trip.
Comment: Well, it's not too difficult to see the ranks of environmentalists are going to swell and this
incident will not be forgotten in the short term. This is a disaster of epic proportions and those people trying to play this
down have no idea of the seriousness of what is taking place. The following is a collection of Greenpeace related news
plus radiation coverage maps.
Japanese authorities expand
evacuation zone, cite no health risks
Russia Today, 26th March 2011 Jan Haverkamp, an atomic power expert for Greenpeace, believes that the government's advice to those living close to
the evacuation zone to voluntarily leave their homes has come too late.
“Several organizations in Japan, including Greenpeace, already called on Sunday on the authorities to give this advice,” he
told RT. “The authorities also gave this advice earlier [but] the advice is now stronger, because the chance that larger
amounts of radiation could come out are still there, and people have been in their houses already for two weeks.”
Haverkamp notes that it is, perhaps, time to start slowly comparing the Fukushima disaster with what happened in
Chernobyl.
“There are already calls for registering this as a [level] 7 event,” he said.
CTBT Radiation
detected from Fukushima 12-25th March Animation
CTBT, 25th March 2011
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or
civilian purposes. Hence radiation is monitored in the environment from the Earth's surface.
Sarkozy to visit Japan on
Thurs. to show support, solidarity
Kyodo News, 29th March 2011
"French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit Japan on Thursday to show the international community's support for and
solidarity with the country following the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami as this year's chair of the Group of Eight
and Group of 20 major nations, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto said the French president is scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister Naoto Kan
during his stay in Tokyo. Sarkozy will be the first foreign leader to come to Japan since the disaster occurred."
I think he should be kicking ass and not showing any 'solidarity' at all...
Vanishing act by
Japanese executive during nuclear crisis raises questions
Washington Post, 28th March 2011
[...] "Amid rumors that Shimizu had fled the country, checked into a hospital or committed suicide, company officials said
Monday that their boss had suffered an unspecified “small illness” because of overwork after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake
sent a tsunami crashing onto his company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
[...] Shimizu’s vanishing act “is not so much extremely strange as inexcusable,” said Takeo Nishioka, the chairman of the
upper house of Japan’s Diet, or parliament. Speaking to reporters, Nishioka described as “mysterious” Shimizu’s refusal
to join the head of the nuclear safety agency at a briefing on the crisis for parliament. “I cannot understand this,” Nishioka
fumed."
Michio Kaku - TEPCO Leave Homer
Simpson in Charge of Fukushima?
YouTube/ABC News, 28th March 2011 Wry humour at a time of grave
events... Kaku wants TEPCO removed, a new team of top scientists in charge and the military on stand-by. At least it's a
plan...
Latest Helicopter Footage Of Fukushima, Zoom-In On Ruined Reactors: Pool Of Radioactive
Water Found OUTSIDE Fukushima Plant The Daily Bail, 28th March 20111
"Workers trying to prevent a total meltdown at a Japanese nuclear power plant suffered another setback Monday when
they found a pool of highly radioactive water leaking from the crippled facility.
"The trench is located outside the building and the water contains radioactive materials," Hiro Hasegawa, a spokesman for
the Tokyo Electric Power Co., told The Daily Telegraph of London. "There is normally no water found in this area."
I've been wondering about this trench of water...
N. Korea on high alert for radiation from Japan: scholar
Yonhap News Agency, 29th March 2011
"MUNSAN, South Korea, March 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is on high alert for any possible radioactive damage from an
unfolding nuclear crisis in neighboring Japan, a senior North Korean scholar said Tuesday during talks with South Korea
on a possible volcano eruption in the communist state."
Traces of radioactive iodine,
cesium detected in S. Korea
Kyodo News, 29th March 2011
"Trace amounts of radioactive iodine and cesium believed to have come from Japan's quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant have been detected in South Korea, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry said Tuesday."
Time and again, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), an arm of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry, was unable to offer convincing explanations of the crisis that had enveloped the nuclear power plant. It prefaced
every other statement with "according to TEPCO." Comment: No doubt that Michio Kaku has been getting his info from Japanese insiders to be confident
to tell us there are "three raging meltdowns", but here we have some severe chastisement of Japanese nuclear 'safety'
authorities. Quite frankly, it's impossible to think that anyone with any intelligence and who understands what is going on
will have any patience left for these buffoons. Quite rightly people are saying that the when the Russians messed up, they
dealt with the issue as best as they could and hundreds of Russians sacrificed their lives. Here it seems the Japanese
authorities would rather see the pollution of the whole planet and the slow death of millions of Japanese. Hence, it's easy to
see why some think Japan falling into the sea to save the world looks like an attractive option.
Workers evacuated as radiation soars at Japan reactor
Sydney Morning Herald, 27th March 2011
Extremely high levels of radiation were detected in water leaking from reactor two of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant,
forcing the evacuation of workers, its operator said Sunday.
A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power said the level of radiation
found in the leaked water was 10 million times higher than it should be for water inside the reactor, indicating damage to the
fuel rods.
"We detected 1,000 millisieverts per hour of radiation in a puddle of water at the reactor number two. This figure is 10
million times higher than water usually kept in a reactor," the spokesman said.
"We are examining the cause of this, but no work is being done there because of the high level of radiation.
"High levels of caesium and other substances are being detected, which usually should not be found in reactor water.
There is a high possibility that fuel rods are being damaged."
Comment: It's just getting worse but the Japanese seem to be paralysed and are not taking the right
action soon enough. Hence, I suspect thr real problem is world controllers are more bothered about 'managing' the
financial meltdown and fallout before concerning themselves with saving lives.
Japan
Nuclear crisis: Nuke plant radiation 10 million times high YouTube/NewsXLive, 27th March 2011 Good info Well, it seems the Indian media are not hiding the facts about the Fukushima disaster and we details of protests in
Japan which the MSM have carefully hidden plus a succinct summary of the impact of large dosages of radiation on
humans. Yes, I know the Japanese are saying the original 10 million times is wrong and it's ONLY 100,000 times but anyone with enough brain cells
functioning knows that many parts of the media have been downplaying the seriousness of the situation from day 1. We
also have an excellent example of an engineer being reported direct, so it would mean that a reporter got the metrics wrong
by a factor of 100 or the engineer could not read his instrumentation properly. Hence, you can take your pick about what
you think happened but I think it's unlikely that an engineer would not know how to read his instruments properly unless he
was mentally incapacitated and in this circumstance, it's sad to say that is a possibility...
Paul Watson - Christopher Busby:
Fukushima Contamination Levels Twice as High as chernobyl! Part 1/2 [15:12]
YouTube/Info Wars, 26th March 2011
Comment: Christopher Busby, is a British scientist and activist known for his work on the health effects of ionizing
radiation. Questions are answered about the comparisons between Chernobyl and Fukushima. The advert breaks are
annoying. There is discussion of newspaper pundit and so-called environmentalist George Monbiot, who is now
supporting nuclear technology after the Fukushima disaster. In this interview, Busby called him an ignorant person and
"criminally irresponsible" for stating that dangers of radioactive fallout are wildly exaggerated. Busby is not too worried
about being accused of slander, as he regularly goes to court to provide evidence on the dangers of radiation and he
always wins.
Nuclear Crisis in Japan
Nuclear Information and Resource Service, 25th March 2011
UPDATE, 11:00 am, Friday, March 25, 2011. Greenpeace Germany has released a statement that, according to an analysis of radiation releases
by consultant Dr. Helmut Hirsch, Fukushima is now a Level 7 accident on the international scale (currently it is
officially ranked as a Level 5, comparable to the Three Mile Island accident of 1979; Level 7 would make it comparable to
Chernobyl).
Comment: It seems that those nuclear experts who have been the most open and direct about what is
going on, have been correct all along. On the 18th, Japanese Michio Kaku stated "A Meltdown is
Forever" , on the 25th (abcnews) he said the Japanese safety agency had become international laughing
stock, there are three raging
meltdowns and whilst giving the run down on the seriousness of the situation, he sounded cross to me...
There is no comparison between internal and external contamination and this is where the general public need to be
educated on just how dangerous some of these manmade nuclear fuels actually are. From a metaphysical point of view, it
is certainly worth reflecting on the evilness of creating these highly toxic elements that we cannot safely dispose of and
why they have been given the names they were, like plutonium that reflects it's nature of death and destruction.
Germany set to abandon nuclear power for good
PhysOrg.com, 23rd March 2011
The world's fourth-largest economy stands alone among leading industrialized nations in its decision to stop using nuclear
energy because of its inherent risks. It is betting billions on expanding the use of renewable energy to meet power demands
instead.
The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but is now being accelerated in the wake of Japan's
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster, which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a "catastrophe of apocalyptic
dimensions."
Berlin's decision to take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months for new safety checks has provided a glimpse into
how Germany might wean itself from getting nearly a quarter of its power from atomic energy to none.
Comment: Well, since this epic disaster started, I have learnt that nuclear energy is the most dangerous
way imaginable that man could devise to boil water...
Nuclear Scientist Arnie
Gunderson: Status Report on Fukushima Daiichi
YouTube/Fairewinds Energy, 23rd March 2011
Here is Arnie Gunderson, a nuclear scientist with Fairewinds Energy, explaining how bad things are....This is the guy who coined the phrase "Chernobyl on steroids" and here he
provides some insight into why this is the case.
Russia checking high-radiation ship in Far East: official
Space Mart, 24th March 2011
Russia on Thursday was checking a cargo ship that arrived in its Far East with radiation levels three times the norm after
passing close to Japan's quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.
The quarantining of the Panama-flagged vessel on the Pacific coast of the Khabarovsk region came as Russia banned the
import of food from four Japanese regions amid continued concern about the situation in its neighbour.
Comment: So the Russians are forced to place ships and humans in quarantine now... Hmmmm... but
we even have some suspicious looking yellow residue on cars near Tokyo... According to authorities quoted in the Japan
Times, it's only pollen, see Pollen caused 'yellow rain': agency. Well, let's remember, it was only about a week
ago it was snowy with blizzard conditions in Sendai, 300km from Tokyo, as it was reported to be hampering rescue
efforts.
"Yellowcake is used in the preparation of uranium fuel for nuclear reactors, for which it is smelted into purified
UO2 for use in fuel rods for pressurized heavy-water reactors and other systems that use natural unenriched uranium."
link
It seems that history is repeating. So we find:
"Thinking back to 20 years ago, it’s the splashing in yellow rainwater that Antonina Sergieff vividly recalls. [...]
Today, on the 20th anniversary of the incident, the Russian languages and literatures student can look back to the
explosion and accept a childhood surrounded by radioactive contamination.
“We all jumped in the puddles with the yellow stuff. ... You don’t see (it in) the air, it doesn’t materialize. But
when you see the yellow dust, you see radiation,” Sergieff said. [...]
It was not long after that residents in her hometown knew it wasn’t simply “pollen” – which is what government
officials assured them, she said.
Soon, people started losing their hair, pictures of deformed animals sprouted up in independent newspapers, and
incidences of cancer in Belarus skyrocketed, Sergieff said."
Remembering Chernobyl Daily Bruin, 25th April 2006
The sociopathic nature of these blatant lies just boggles the mind...
Fukushima radioactive fallout nears Chernobyl levels
New Scientist, 24th March 2011 Japan's damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching
those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of
radiation detectors – designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests – to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily
levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi
is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl.
The difference between this accident and Chernobyl, they say, is that at Chernobyl a huge fire released large amounts of
many radioactive materials, including fuel particles, in smoke. At Fukushima Daiichi, only the volatile elements, such as
iodine and caesium, are bubbling off the damaged fuel. But these substances could nevertheless pose a significant health
risk outside the plant. [...]
In the 10 days it burned, Chernobyl put out 1.76 × 1018 becquerels of iodine-131, which amounts to only 50
per cent more per day than has been calculated for Fukushima Daiichi. It is not yet clear how long emissions from the
Japanese plant will continue.
Similarly, says Wotawa, caesium-137 emissions are on the same order of magnitude as at Chernobyl. Comment: It's been obvious since the first explosions that this was ultra serious, the smoke and mirrors
of water drops and electricity being turned back on, is just the Japanese way of trying to save face. It's interesting that so
many authorities are providing information, but I am still waiting for reports of people glowing in the dark...
Radiation 10,000 times normal
level found in water that hit workers
Kyodo News, 25th March 2011
"Water which three workers were exposed to at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant contained radioactive
materials 10,000 times the normal level, plant operator
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday. The finding underlines the possibility that part of the fuel in the No. 3 reactor of the
plant or the spent fuel stored in the pool in the reactor building may be damaged.
The three, who are from a company cooperating with TEPCO, were involved in work to restore power to the No. 3
reactor, which has lost cooling function. They were working in the basement of the reactor's turbine building when they
were irradiated. Two of the three have been hospitalized due to possible burns caused by beta rays which can cause major
skin damage. They were not wearing boots at the time and therefore
their feet were soaked in the water."
Comment: This is really tragic, but it reminds me of some old Keystone Cops comedy... Can you
imagine what experts around the world are thinking? However, it does seem that some workers in the Japanese nuclear
power industry are not adequately trained to work in hazardous conditions with radioactive materials and they are certainly
not prepared to deal with disaster situations. See below:
"Even more shocking was the revelation that unqualified workers had been mixing liquified uranium in buckets."
Tokaimura: One year
on BBC News, 30 September, 2000
This reminds me of the children's nursery rhyme "there's a hole in my bucket...." it's especially poignant as it is being
slowly revealed that there could be some serious holes being made at the bottom of these reactors...
Fears of full
meltdown as more smoke rising from Fukushima reactors
RT News, 24th March 2011
Three workers have been exposed to harmful radioactive elements while working at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in
Japan. Two of them have been hospitalised. There have been reports of a rise in temperature and new plumes of smoke
rising from the facility's most troubled reactor. Engineers are attempting to restore the cooling system of the facility,
damaged by the devastating earthquake.
What They're Covering Up at
Fukushima
Counterpunch, 22nd March 2011
Hirose Takashi has written a whole shelf full of books, mostly on the nuclear power industry and the military-industrial
complex. Probably his best known book is Nuclear Power Plants for Tokyo in which he took the logic of the nuke
promoters to its logical conclusion: if you are so sure that they're safe, why not build them in the center of the city, instead
of hundreds of miles away where you lose half the electricity in the wires?
He did the TV interview that is partly translated below somewhat against his present impulses. I talked to him on the
telephone today (March 22 , 2011) and he told me that while it made sense to oppose nuclear power back then, now that
the disaster has begun he would just as soon remain silent, but the lies they are telling on the radio and TV are so gross that
he cannot remain silent.
I have translated only about the first third of the interview (you can see the whole thing in Japanese on you-tube), the part
that pertains particularly to what is happening at the Fukushima plants. In the latter part he talked about how dangerous
radiation is in general, and also about the continuing danger of earthquakes. [...]
Hirose: In principle, it can’t. Because even when a reactor is in good shape, it requires constant control to keep the
temperature down to where it is barely safe. Now it’s a complete mess inside, and when I think of the 50 remaining
operators, it brings tears to my eyes. I assume they have been exposed to very large amounts of radiation, and that they
have accepted that they face death by staying there. And how long can they last? I mean, physically. That’s what the
situation has come to now. When I see these accounts on television, I want to tell them, “If that’s what you say, then go
there and do it yourself!” Really, they talk this nonsense, trying to
reassure everyone, trying to avoid panic. What we need now is a proper panic. Because the situation has
come to the point where the danger is real.
Comment: This is a MUST READ. We are provided with the opinion of an engineer and quite frankly,
these are the only kind of people who are going to provide us with hard facts. The point about needing panic is because
people being comatose is not the action required to deal with the situation.
IAEA: Radioactive materials found in seawater near Japan nuke plant
GMA News, 23rd March 2011
Radioactive materials have been detected in seawater near a quake-crippled nuclear power plant in Japan, the International
Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday.
The IAEA cited reports from Japanese authorities that the Tokyo Electric Power Company detected the radioactive
materials in seawater near a discharge canal.
"Samples taken included levels of iodine-131, cesium-134, and cesium-137," it said in an update Wednesday (Manila time).
It said the samples were found at one location near the Southern discharge canal at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant.
Comment: OK, the Digitalglobe satellite images are probably worth considering here, see what looks
like red hot coals strewn about and even in the water.
Neutron beam observed 13
times at crippled Fukushima nuke plant
Kyodo News, 23rd March 2011 Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the
premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami
disaster.
TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear plant, said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 kilometers southwest of the plant's
No. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour and that this
is not a dangerous level.
The utility firm said it will measure uranium and plutonium, which could emit a neutron beam, as well.
Comment: Have the Japanese been caught out by spy satellites? A meltdown occurs when the control
rods fail to contain nuclear reactions in the form of neutron emission and so heat levels inside the reactor rises to a point
where the fuel itself melts. This is the level, where neutron beams can be observed. When a nuclear chain reaction occurs,
neutrons bombard atoms of the nuclear fuel, splitting them (fission), which creates a lot of energy, and more neutrons and
then the process just self perpetuates. Hence, the production of neutron beams are a clear sign of fission within the
plutonium/uranium. This announcement most certainly means that the Japanese have been forced to admit the truth that
meltdown is well underway.
Nancy Grace, Weatherman Bernie Rayno Fight About Radiation (VIDEO)
Huffington Post, 22nd March 2011 Well this women actually has some fight left in her and tells us live on CNN that a State of Emergency has been
declared in California over radiation concerns. Apparently, the media are silent, so maybe this information was just for a
few in the know...
Kyodo: NEWS ADVISORY
Kyodo News, 23rd March 2011
"No. 2 reactor power repair work halted, 500 millisievert per hr radiation found."
That's high...
About this site:
On the 11th of March 2011, the world's media reported a massive earthquake off the East coast of Japan. It turned out to
hit magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, and caused a devastating tsunami; the region's nuclear power facilities have been
experiencing major difficulties since the earthquake and tsunami triggered a series of events leading to massive overheating,
with complete nuclear meltdown still a possibility.
The Japan Quake Map on this website pesents a time-lapse visualisation of the Sendai earthquake and its aftershocks,
primarily to help those outside the affected area understand what the people of Japan are experiencing. It plots earthquake
data from USGS on a map using the Google Maps API, with the size of the circle denoting the magnitude (the higher the
magnitude, the larger the circle) and the colour showing the focal depth (see the legend below the map).
How to use the Map:
The map will start playing through the earthquakes, starting on March 11 2011, once it finishes loading. The controls to the
right allow you to play/pause the animation, jump to the start or end of the sequence, or adjust the playback speed. You
can also use the links above the map or the "Show Day" dropdown box and links to the right to view quakes from a
specific time period.
Comment: There has been nearly 700 earthquakes since the 11th March 2011. There is talk of old Edgar Cayce predictions
concerning Japan and it really does make you wonder if this could happen...
Monster aftershock could strike within days This did not happen!
The Sydney Morning Herald, 14th March 2011
"NORTH-EASTERN Japan can expect another monster earthquake large enough to trigger a tsunami within days, the head
of the Australian Seismological Centre says.
The director, Kevin McCue, said there had been more than 100 smaller quakes since Friday, but a larger aftershock was
likely.
"Normally they happen within days," he said. "The rule of thumb is that you would expect the main aftershock to be
one magnitude smaller than the main shock, so you would be expecting a 7.9.
"That's a monster again in its own right that is capable of producing a tsunami and more damage."
Comment: At the moment seismologist are reporting earthquakes that are not considered aftershocks.
So, there has been 730+ earthquakes over 4.5 (latest count) in about 12 days. This has to be more evidence that our
scientists are monitoring events that do not have a scientific precedent.
Greater levels of radioactive
materials found due to rain
Kyodo News, 22nd March 2011 Far greater amounts of radioactive iodine and cesium were found in rain, dust and particles in the air in some areas
over a 24-hour period from Sunday morning due to rainfall, the science ministry said Monday.
''Considering the results of a separate test, radioactive materials in the air and drinking water are confined to levels that
would not affect health,'' an official of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said. ''The impact on
agricultural crops needs to be examined mainly by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.'' [...]
A radiation level of 100,000 counts per minute will be introduced as a new standard for decontamination, up from 6,000
counts per minute, the government said, adding that raising the bar will not endanger health.
The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the decision was made based on advice from domestic
nuclear experts and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Comment: Here is yet another measurement for radiation, all designed to confuse people. This is
combined with the need to raise the 'safe' levels of contamination from 6,000 to 100,000 counts per minute, to spare the
Japanese authorities from taking responsibility in the short term.
High radiation outside Japan's evacuation zone, says IAEA
Sify News, 22nd March 2011
Vienna: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday that high radiation levels were measured recently
not only inside, but also outside the 20-km evacuation zone around Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. [...] "On
Sunday, one measurement 58 km from Fukushima registered 5.7 microsieverts per hour, the IAEA said in data provided to
reporters.
At that rate, people would be exposed to the IAEA's annual recommended maximum radiation of one millisievert within
about seven days.
The IAEA assumes that receiving more than one millisieverts per year, in addition to the dose from naturally occurring
radiation, raises long-term cancer risk.
IAEA radiation expert Gerhard Proehl also mentioned one site more than 30 km from the nuclear plant where 100
microsieverts per hour are being measured.
Comment: Normal background radiation is 0.1 - 0.3 millisieverts per year but that means that 1-3
people in a hundred people will be expected to die of cancer. 5.7 microsieverts per hour is basically a years worth of
exposure in only 7 days but this is the same risk as flying and the risk of exposure to cosmic rays. According to old FAA
guidelines. "At an altitude of 35,000 feet, for example, the dose equivalent rate from cosmic rays is about 6 microsieverts
(0.6 millirem) per hour (O'Brien 1978, as revised)." The 100 microsieverts per hour is 0.1 millivsieverts and that means that
people are getting a whole years dosage of what is considered normal but low background radiation every hour.
The present international unit of dose equivalent is the sievert. The sievert replaces the rem; 1 sievert = 100 rem.
Radiation Exposure of Air Carrier Crewmembers - FAA AC 120-52, National Transportation Library, : March 5, 1990
AC No: 120-52link
Pentagon: Getting the hell out of Dodge (Japan) U.S. military personnel, families could be ordered to leave areas threatened by radiation after aircraft carrier's
departure CBS News, 21st March 2011 THE PENTAGON - The Defense Department was considering Monday night ordering the mandatory departure of all American military personnel and their
families from the areas of Japan threatened by radiation, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin
reports.
The government considered such an order after distributing potassium iodide pills, which defend the body from
radioactive iodine, to service members of the USS George Washington and their families left ashore after the nuclear-
powered aircraft carrier abruptly left Yokosuka, Japan, Monday morning.
The George Washington got underway not to aid in the relief effort
but to save itself from radioactive contamination.
The decision to send the George Washington to sea, even though one of its nuclear reactors is down for repairs, came
in response to a shift in the wind, which is now blowing increased amounts of radioactivity south over Tokyo toward
the American bases at Yokosuka and Atsugi. The winds threaten to dump as much radioactivity in the next 24 hours as in
the preceding 10 days.
Navy officers decided they could not allow the George Washington to keep absorbing even low levels of radioactive
contamination for the indefinite future. At $4.5 billion, it is one of the Navy's most valuable ships, and the fear is that radiation would be sucked into the ventilation system and leave it
contaminated for the rest of its service life. Comment: The Americans do not want their expensive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier tainted by
radiation so when the wind was blowing in it's direction, they just turned the ship around and got away from the scene as
fast as possible. Just think about what that means... Just think about all those millions of human ventilation systems
belonging to people who don't have the opportunity to run, even as others are running as fast as they can...
URGENT: Radiation 1,600
times normal level 20 km from Fukushima plant: IAEA
Kyodo News, 22nd March 2011
Radiation 1,600 times higher than normal levels has been detected in an area about 20 kilometers from the crippled
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, International Atomic Energy Agency officials said Monday.
Data collected by an IAEA team show that radiation levels of 161 microsievert per hour have been detected in the town of
Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, the officials said. The government has set an exclusion zone covering areas within a 20-km
radius of the plant and has urged people within 20 to 30 km to stay indoors.
This is probably why the USS George Washington made a quick exit...
"How long does it take for a contaminated area can be inhabited again?
[Renowned radiation biologist Edmund Lengfelder:] There is a rule of thumb: For a nuclide such as cesium-137, the
half-life of 30 years. It takes ten half-lives, so you can populate an area again, making a total of 300 years. But in Japan is
still added a difficulty: the nuclear fission process, radioactive substances, it is called the radioactive inventory of a reactor.
In a boiling water reactor in Fukushima this inventory is 30 to 40 times as high as in Chernobyl, it can thus escape much
more radiation. If we summarize it: In Japan, more people are concerned because the population density is higher than in
Chernobyl and there is a higher contamination."
Close-up footage of
ruins at Fukushima reactor, helicopter flyover of plant
YouTube/Russia Today, 21st March 2011
"Turning to developments in Japan, where smoke is rising yet again at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Workers have been trying to get power back to restore the cooling systems after last Friday's powerful earthquake. They
have now been evacuated from the area amid fresh concerns of a radiation leak and a potential nuclear metldown. Aerial
pictures of the quake-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant shot last Wednesday revealed the full extent of the
damage of at least two of its troubled reactors: Units 3 and 4."
Nuclear
Thriller: What if Fukushima meltdown not stopped on time?
YouTube/Russia Today, 17th March 2011
"Japan is struggling to regain control over the overheated reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant, after a series of blasts
and fires. The government's most-senior spokesman said cooling reactor number 3 is now the top priority because it's
posing the biggest danger. The prognosis doesn't look good for those risking their lives to prevent the worst from
happening at Fukushima. Paul Gunter of the Beyond Nuclear campaign group in Washington explains what they face."
Comment: I missed this... we have a nuclear expert Paul Gunter, telling us that three reactors at Fukushima are in
meltdown. Yes, it's obvious this is the case, but few are prepared to actually tell the truth. We get an explanation of
meltdown but Gunter is reticent to even voice the consequences of a nuclear chain reaction effecting all the reactors.
How bad is it really Fukushima?
Welt.de, 21st March 2011
The Germans are quite interested in specifics... I assume the thermal photo here is from a spy satellite being put to some
good use... Here is the full thermal photograph showing the situation at a nuclear power plant Unit 3 of Fukushima 1 link
FDA Will Monitor Japanese-Made Drugs as Well as Food for Radiation
WSJ Health Blog, 21st March 2011 The FDA is going to monitor pharmaceuticals made in Japan — as well as food products — for any signs of elevated
radiation levels, a spokeswoman for the agency tells us.
On Thursday we reported that the FDA would monitor future imports of fish, other food products and raw materials that
originate or pass through Japan in transit to the U.S. Pharmaceutical products will also be monitored, the spokeswoman
says.
Comment: Made in Japan? They might as well stick a 'Warning Radiation' sticker on instead... What the
media is not telling us, but honest scientists are saying is that some types of radiation are completely invisible to detection
even by Geiger counters. I would not recommend people trust the FDA or any proven corrupt government organisation, to
inform us about 'safe' products from Japan.
Double Click image for the original simulation (google translation link does not work...)
[...] Simulations of atmospheric dispersion of the plume formed by the release of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station, between March 12 and March 20, 2011 [...]
IRSN simulated atmospheric dispersion of releases estimated between 12 and 22 March, using its numerical model
applicable to long distance (scale of several hundred kilometers), using observations and weather forecasts provided by
Weather France. Based on radioactive discharges estimated by IRSN, Meteo France has simulated the dispersion of air
emissions, projected until March 26. According to this simulation, the plume would now reached the north-eastern Siberia,
the United States and western Atlantic. It should reach France from 23 or 24 March."
[Important:] This simulation was applied to the cesium 137, as a tracer of the plume during this period. The modeling
results are expressed in becquerels of cesium-137 per cubic meter of air (Bq / m 3).
Comment: The IRSN is the French
Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety and this is telling us that the Daily Mail estimate of radiation
arriving in 2 weeks (see below) is wrong, the British government have not provided any info as far as I am aware. Right
click to view full size or double click to go direct to the simulation.
All people need to do is set up the morphogenetic fields and reinforce them by
programming them with ritual and belief, that's what Big Pharma has done. It's metaphysics, but it works as evidenced by
the Placebo Effect that medical researchers tell us is currently getting much stronger on the planet...
Japan nuclear plant: Panic buyers seek
out salt, seaweed and red wine as rumour fuels fallout fears As nuclear panic began to spread around the world, pharmacies and supermarkets thousands of miles from Japan
began to run out of anything and everything that was even rumoured to prevent radiation poisoning.
The Telegraph, 18th March 2011
Russia saw a run on red wine and seaweed; in China people were buying massive amounts of salt, and chemists as far
away as Bulgaria reported shortages of iodine tablets.
No matter how many scientists were wheeled out to reassure people that radiation levels outside Japan would not pose a
threat to health, widespread distrust of official advice meant thousands placed more faith in old wives' tales.
In China, the government called for calm after shoppers bought huge quantities of salt in the belief that it contains enough
iodine to block radiation.
Potassium iodide tablets, which prevent the body from absorbing radiation, have been handed out in Japan to those living
near the stricken Fukushima power plant, and in China iodine is added to salt to help prevent iodine deficiency.
The mere mention of the word iodine was enough to prompt panic buying of salt amid fears that a change in the wind
direction could blow a radioactive cloud across China from its near neighbour.
Comment: Well, if people are buying stuff in the hope it will help them, then the fact that the placebo
effect has doubled in the least 30 years means their belief might help keep them alive. Think about that.... Well, planet Earth
is now turning into a cosmic and manmade radiation trap. All of a sudden, my effort to explain to people that the human
energy field needs to become a cosmic shield is looking more and more prescient. I am happy for those who are genuine
and have maintained high standards of searching for spiritual truth in their life and have not stamped all over others in this
pursuit. For others, I don't really have much positive to say, because it is extremely unlikely that you will have the full
requisite spectrum of frequencies required by universal consciousness. However, I am reminded about the Hathor
comment about the need to protect the innocents and I assume that refers to children. Quite frankly, events on this planet
are looking decidedly biblical in proportions.
Status of quake-stricken
reactors at Fukushima nuclear power plants
Kyodo News, 19th March 2011
Copy: The following is the known status as of Friday night of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant and the four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture, which were crippled by the
magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the ensuing tsunami on March 11.
Fukushima Daiichi plant
-- Reactor No. 1 - Operation suspended after quake, cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, building
housing reactor damaged March 12 by hydrogen explosion, roof blown off, seawater being pumped in.
-- Reactor No. 2 - Operation suspended after quake, cooling failure, seawater being pumped in, fuel rods fully
exposed temporarily, vapor vented, building housing reactor damaged Monday by blast at reactor No. 3, blast sound
heard near suppression chamber of containment vessel on Tuesday, damage to containment structure feared.
-- Reactor No. 3 - Operation suspended after quake, cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented,
seawater being pumped in, building housing reactor badly damaged Monday by hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation
measured nearby on Tuesday, plume of smoke observed Wednesday and presumed to have come from spent-fuel storage
pool, seawater dumped over pool by helicopter on Thursday, water sprayed at it from ground on Thursday and
Friday.
-- Reactor No. 4 - Under maintenance when quake struck, no fuel rods in reactor core, temperature in spent-fuel
storage pool reached 84 C on Monday, fire Tuesday possibly caused by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel
rods, fire observed Wednesday at building housing reactor, pool water level feared receding, renewed nuclear chain reaction feared, only frame remains of
reactor building roof.
-- Reactors No. 5, 6 - Under maintenance when quake struck, some fuel rods left in reactor cores, water temperatures
in spent-fuel storage pools increased to about 64 C on Thursday.
-- Spent-fuel storage pools - Cooling functions lost at reactors No. 1 to 4, water temperatures or levels unobservable
at reactors No. 1 to 4, no immediate threat to water level at common spent fuel pool.
Fukushima Daini plant
-- Reactors No. 1, 2, 4 - Operation suspended after quake, cooling failure, then cold shutdown.
Comment: Does this explain why the Akio Komiri, director of plant owners Tokyo Electric Power Company was
crying today? Does this explain why so many countries are telling their citizens to get out of Japan prompto? Maybe we
have a very dirty bomb that's about to explode.
Alert: Fukushima Coverup, 40 Years of Spent Nuclear Rods Blown Sky High
Info Wars, 15th March 2011
"The Fukushima Daiichi plant has seven pools dedicated to spent fuel rods. These are located at the top of six reactor
buildings – or were until explosions and fires ravaged the plant. On the ground level there is a common pool in a separate
building that was critical damaged by the tsunami. Each reactor building pool holds 3,450 fuel rod assemblies and the
common pool holds 6,291 fuel rod assemblies. Each assembly holds sixty-three fuel rods. In short, the Fukushima Daiichi
plant contains over 600,000 spent fuel rods – a massive amount of radiation that will soon be released into the
atmosphere."
I have been struggling with this for days. I simply can't believe the high numbers and the fact they represent hundreds
of tons of this stuff. I don't know whether this report is accurate, but it's the no. of spent rods with some official
verfication (.pdf file that can be downloaded) that is just shocking.
Plutonium in troubled reactors, spent fuel pools
Fox News, 18th March 2011
"The Fukushima Dai-ichi site has a considerable number of fuel rods on hand, according to information provided
Thursday by Toyko Electric Power Co., which owns the atomic complex: There are 3,400 tons of fuel in seven spent
fuel pools within the six-reactor plant, including one joint pool storing very old fuel from units 3 and 4. There are 877
tons in five of the reactor cores. Officials have said that the fuel in Unit 4's reactor vessel was transferred to its spent fuel
pool when the unit was temporarily shut in November."
More shocking details...
Particles spewed from wrecked Fukushima power station arrive in
California
Officials admit they may have to bury reactors under concrete - as
happened at Chernobyl
Government says it was overwhelmed by the scale of twin
disasters
Japanese upgrade accident from level four to five - the same as Three Mile
Island
Military trucks tackle reactors with tons of water for second day
These pictures show overheating fuel rods exposed to the elements through a huge hole in the
wall of a reactor building at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant.
Radiation is streaming into the
atmosphere from the used uranium rods at reactor number four, after a 45ft-deep storage pool designed to keep them
stable boiled dry in a fire.
And some of the radioactive material could reach Britain within a fortnight,
according to experts.
However they say it will not be dangerous when it reaches our shores while low levels of
radiation have already hit Southern California.
Comment: According to world experts, this incident is actually off the charts. According to jet stream
simulation, some radiation will probably arrive sooner. There is a photo here of Akio Komiri, director of plant owners
Tokyo Electric Power Company crying as he left the day's press conference.
Nuclear tomb:
Japan may bury stricken plant
CBS News, 18th March 2011
"(CBS/AP) Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that they may have to bury the crippled Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear
plant in sand or encase it in concrete to try to contain the radiation."
JAPAN NUCLEAR ALERT -
MAYOR OF MINAMISOMA "THEY ARE LEAVING US HERE TO DIE"
YouTube/BBC News, 17th March 2011
"The Mayor of Minamisoma tells of how the government never even informed them about the Fukishima nuclear
emergency and that he found out from TV. He says the japanese government have abandoned him and his people, and are
leaving them there to die."
This is heartbreaking.. The game was up after the first nuclear explosion because all those hundreds of thousands of
old spent fuel rods exploded too. Hence, the truthful experts who KNEW the facts, stated immediately that this was worse
than Chernobyl.
China's
Empty Cities
The Unconventional Economist, 15th December 2010 It's dark at the moment, but some are talking about these empty Chinese cities. It would represent a chink of light if
they were offered to Japanese refugees. The estimate is 64 million vacant homes. That's really strange isn't it?
Fukushima Crisis Worsens as U.S. Warns of a Large Radiation
Release
The New York Times, 17th March 2011
The top U.S. nuclear regulator, Gregory Jaczko, gave a dire assessment of Japan's nuclear crisis yesterday, saying that
lethal radiation from uncovered spent fuel above one of the reactors could force emergency workers to abandon their fight
to prevent meltdowns of damaged reactor cores at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said his staff in Tokyo had been told by Japanese utility officials
that cooling water that normally covers spent fuel was nearly or totally gone from an uncovered concrete pool above
reactor Unit 4. Based upon that assessment, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo advised Americans living within about 50 miles of
the plant on Japan's northeast coast to evacuate farther away. Japan has called for an evacuation within about 12 miles of
the plant.
Comment: I understand that President Obama was playing down the risk for the citizens of the United
States but the New York Times are having none of that, so what gives?
U.S. starts evacuating Americans out of Japan
USA Today, 17th March 2011 Actions speak louder than words... "WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has authorized the first evacuations of Americans out of Japan, taking a
tougher stand on the deepening nuclear crisis and warning U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to any part of the
country as unpredictable weather and wind conditions risked spreading radioactive contamination."
There is only a short clip of Capt. Eric Gardner explaining the evauation plan
U.S. ready to evacuate 87,300
Americans in worst-case scenario in Japan All Headline News, 18th March 2011
"The United States would be prepared to evacuate thousands of Americans in case of a worst-case scenario
emerging in Japan according to the top officer overseeing U.S. military assistance to Japan but he expressed cautiously
optimistic opinion that Japan will avert a worst-case nuclear disaster by preventing a full meltdown of its crippled
reactors."
Capt.
Eric Gardner Explains Evacuation Plan [9:23] Youtube, 17th March 2011
Capt. Eric Gardner, commander in charge of the Naval Air Facility Atsugi explains the voluntary evacuation procedues for
non essential Navy personnel ie women and children go first. He says: This is unprecedented, but don't panic! Plan: 10,000
people per day to be evacuated from three different sites using air force and navy planes plus domestic airlines. Pack for 3
- 5 days, all your other stuff has to be left behind... copy
Japan Nuclear Disaster Caps Decades of Faked Reports,
Accidents
Bloomberg Business Week, 17th March 2011
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- The unfolding disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant follows decades of falsified safety reports,
fatal accidents and underestimated earthquake risk in Japan’s atomic power industry.
The destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the
world’s biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked
repair records forced the resignation of the company’s chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its
reactors. [...]
¨Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismology professor at Kobe University, has said Japan’s history of nuclear accidents stems
from an overconfidence in plant engineering. In 2006, he resigned from a government panel on reactor safety, saying the
review process was rigged and “unscientific.” [...]
Back-up diesel generators that might have averted the disaster were positioned in a basement, where they were
overwhelmed by waves.
“This in the country that invented the word Tsunami,”
said Brockman, who also worked at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Japan is going to have a look again at its
regulatory process and whether it’s intrusive enough.” (Japan won't have the
opportunity because the country has been destroyed.)
The cascade of events at Fukushima had been foretold in a report published in the U.S. two decades ago. The
1990 report by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent agency responsible for safety at the
country’s power plants, identified earthquake-induced diesel generator failure and power outage leading to failure of
cooling systems as one of the “most likely causes” of nuclear accidents from an external event. Comment: This is all really sad, but I feel compelled to point out that the earthquake and tsunami are
natural disasters. Due to the high influx of energies on this planet, they are to be expected and many credible and not so
credible people are making an assortment of ongoing predictions. From my point of view, the planet is saturated with
electrical and aetheric energies and we can expect known and unknown triggers to cause more major events. However, as I
have stated, especially in my last interview with Whitley Strieber, we are not making this transition easy because of the
refusal to except change. Due to the unfolding disaster, people are demanding to know the truth and the media are now
reporting the intransigence of the Japanese authorities and their preference for maintaining the status quo regardless of the
consequences. This particular article is shocking in some of the revelations, but maybe not for campaigners who have
know some of these facts for many years. We now know that watchdogs did point out the possibility of the power being
knocked out and the diesel powered generators being inoperable, yet, apparently this was completely ignored, but it's hard
to imagine why. Personally, what I am struggling with is the concept that nuclear power plants are supposed to create
electrical power, so how could they not restore power quickly unless the reality is that all operating equipment was
completely destroyed. There is discussion in this article of scandal and lies but on a deeper level, I think it's about certain
people maintaining power regardless of the fact they don't know or even care about the facts. The lunatics running the
asylum. People with power but no wisdom. I personally think this is a fatal blow to Japan and we will have to see just how
bad it gets.
Japan's deadly game of
nuclear roulette
The Japan Times, 23rd May 2004 A nuclear disaster waiting to happen...
"The 52 reactors in Japan -- which generate a little over 30 percent of its electricity -- are located in an area the size of
California, many within 150 km of each other and almost all built along the coast where seawater is available to cool them.
However, many of those reactors have been negligently sited on active faults, particularly in the subduction zone
along the Pacific coast, where major earthquakes of magnitude 7-8 or more on the Richter scale occur frequently. The
periodicity of major earthquakes in Japan is less than 10 years. There is almost no geologic setting in the world more
dangerous for nuclear power than Japan -- the third-ranked country in the world for nuclear reactors.
"I think the situation right now is very scary," says Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist and professor at Kobe
University. "It's like a kamikaze terrorist wrapped in bombs just waiting to explode." [...]
It is not a question of whether or not a nuclear disaster will occur
in Japan; it is a question of when it will occur. Comment: As regulars will know, I like to understand the historical context. Here we have further
evidence that some 'sane' insiders have been waiting for this disaster to happen. Read the article... back in 2004, they knew
that the potential for disaster would be greater than Chernobyl but there were still no effective plans in place to deal with
any disaster. Presumably, the magical thinking was that placing 52 nuclear reactors on fault lines in one of the world's most
seismically active regions was a smart thing to do and nothing would ever go wrong... It really makes you wonder about
the mental health of these decision makers...
French minister: 'Let's not beat about the bush, they've essentially lost control'
Radioactive steam
spews into atmosphere from reactor number three
Experts warn that crisis is 'approaching point of
no return' as officials run out of options
Officials commandeer police water cannon to spray
complex
Attempts to dump water on reactors by helicopter fail
Two more previously
stable reactors begin to heat up
Rich scramble to book private jets out the country as fleeing passengers
pack Tokyo airport
Workers battling nuclear meltdown evacuated for hours today after radiation
levels increased
The UK government is urging all British nationals to leave Tokyo as soon as possible amid fresh safety fears.
Comment: Best pictures of the 'nuked' reactors yet.... The situation is off the charts with world experts
telling us that this is Chernobyl on steroids. I can't help thinking that maybe this is our Atlantis moment. Japan is no more,
they will have to evacuate the whole country. Here is the quote:
At the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi unit 1, where an explosion Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor,
the spent fuel pool, in accordance with General Electric’s design, is placed above the reactor. Tokyo Electric said it was
trying to figure out how to maintain water levels in the pools, indicating that the normal safety systems there had failed, too.
Failure to keep adequate water levels in a pool would lead to a catastrophic fire, said nuclear experts, some of
whom think that unit 1’s pool may now be outside.
“That would be like Chernobyl on steroids,” said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds
Associates and a member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is identical to the
Fukushima Daiichi unit 1.
People familiar with the plant said there are seven spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi,
many of them densely packed.
Gundersen said the unit
1 pool could have as much as 20 years of spent fuel rods, which are still radioactive.
'Fukushima nuke crisis -
Chernobyl on steroids'
YouTube/Russia Today, 16th March 2011
This is an excellent explanation of what is going on by Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates and a
member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
This is all because the electricity supply was knocked out by the earthquake/tsunami and was
simply not restored. Diesel generators were *%&"+&? useless as they were only meant to last for 8 hours when it takes
24-48 hours to cool the reactors down. This is piled onto top of outdated nuclear technology where the original designs
caused 3 engineers to resign in disgust because it was obvious that in an emergency the system would not be able to cope.
We also know that in 2008 there were concerns that Japanese nuclear facilities could not withdstand a 7.0+ earthquake and
the authorities just blew off concerns, despite the fact that it had only been a few years since the devastating 9.1 Sumatra,
Indonesia earthquake and tsunami which killed 250,000+ people, not that far away from Japan. So, when Japan was stress
tested by galactic forces, at least 3 different nuclear power plants did not cope and it looks like all 6 reactors at Fukushima
Daiichi will go into meltdown. We don't know what is happening elsewhere, but the world is shocked to hear that each
reactor has 20 years worth of festering old spent radiation rods ready to catch fire too... Now I have been going on for
years about people needing to protect their energy fields due to Space Weather, but I did not realise that there was going
to be a severe stress test, but it seems that moment has now arrived.
Japan earthquake: Japan warned over nuclear plants,
WikiLeaks cables show Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants
were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.
The Telegraph, 15th March 2011
An official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in December 2008 that safety rules were out of date
and strong earthquakes would pose a "serious problem" for nuclear power stations.
The Japanese government pledged to upgrade safety at all of its nuclear plants, but will now face inevitable questions over
whether it did enough.
While it responded to the warnings by building an emergency response centre at the Fukushima plant, it was only designed
to withstand magnitude 7.0 tremors. Friday's devastating earthquake was a magnitude 9.0 shock. [...]
Panic started to spread throughout Japan yesterday following the news that a third explosion at the plant might have
damaged the protective casing around the reactor core, increasing the threat of radioactive leaks.
Comment: Shocking revelations... This whole article is very interesting and Wikileak US cables have
certainly proven very useful in this instance.
Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest
Damaged Japanese Nuclear Plant Has Five Mark 1 Reactors
ABC News, 15th March 2011
Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after
becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it
could lead to a devastating accident.
Well, there has been discussion on the blogs, but the mainstream media are also now revealing the major design issues
that caused engineers to quit in protest. I can see the conflict between yellows vs reds, blues & oranges here, it's very
clear.
Tokyo governor apologizes for calling quake divine retribution
CNN News, 15th March 2011
The governor of Tokyo apologized on Tuesday for saying the earthquake and resulting tsunami that left thousands dead
were divine punishment for Japanese egoism, the country’s official news service reported.
"I will take back (the remark) and offer a deep apology," Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said at a Tuesday news
conference, according to Japan’s official Kyodo News.
On Monday, Ishihara had told reporters, "I think (the disaster) is tembatsu (divine punishment), although I feel sorry for
disaster victims," according to Kyodo News, which translated Ishihara's remarks from Japanese.
Comment: Wow.... this takes your breath away... I can understand what this person is saying, but I still
think that while the situation is so terrible, this is a very insensitive thing to say. I think that yes, there is human egotism, but
it's at a collective level. There has not been much of a serious search for truth and understanding of universal cycles but it's
obvious that a new universal directive is kicking in hard. So, the fact that humans are still mostly oblivious is a collective
problem. Look, we had a warning shot in December 2004 with the Sumatra earthquake. Despite 250,000+ people dying, it
did not change policies like the placement of nuclear power plants on seismically active earthquake zones. Now, there is a
real possibility that the whole of Japan will have to be abandoned due to reactors in various locations blowing sky high
with the nastiest radioactive materials imaginable. Will this have an impact on human consciousness, you bet! Will it stop
more catastrophic events occuring, probably not. We are in a time of rapid evolutionary change and humans need to
understand there are mightier forces than us and they mean business! Earth is under reconstruction. For those who might
be new to what I have been saying and have not read my essay The Greatest Transition in the History of Mankind I
talked about Earth undergoing "Cosmic Housekeeping", a process that I compared to being like a car going through a car
wash. If the car has the windows down then during the process, the interior is going to get wet but the outside structure of
the car will be just fine. Humans have failed to take note of the rising energy levels on the planet and have choosen to carry
on like nothing is happening, when it is clear that the planet is under a massive cosmic bombardment. The universe has a
variety of apocalyptic ways of creating change, but for various reasons, as bad as things are going to get, I don't think we
will have to endure the worse, but of course, I could be wrong.
Official:
Japan's nuclear situation nearing severity of Chernobyl
CNN News, 15th March 2011
(CNN) -- The explosion Tuesday at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has elevated the situation there to a "serious
accident" on a level just below Chernobyl, a French nuclear official said, referring to an international scale that rates the
severity of such incidents.
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale -- or INES -- goes from Level 1, which indicates very little danger
to the general population, to Level 7, a "major accident" in which there's been a large release of radioactive material and
there will be widespread health and environmental effects.
"It's clear we are at Level 6, that's to say we're at a level in
between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl," Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of France's
nuclear safety authority, told reporters Tuesday.
Comment: The headline probably does not reflect the severity of the crisis, but we are not being
provided with all the facts. On the forums there is great concern about the spent fuel rods. The idea that hundreds of
thousands of old radioactive fuel rods have been stored on site but actually ABOVE the existing reactors is shocking
beyond belief. The following article talks about the spent fuel rods.
Reactor Cooling Pools May Pose Greater Danger
CNBC News, 14th March 2011
"Were the spent fuel rods in the pools to catch fire, nuclear experts say, the high heat would loft the radiation in clouds
that would spread the radioactivity.
“It’s worse than a meltdown,” said David A.
Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists who worked as an instructor on the kinds of General
Electric reactors used in Japan. “The reactor is inside thick walls, and the spent fuel of Reactors 1 and 3 is out in the
open.”
The truth is really horrible, it's beyond belief...
Workers
Strain to Retake Control After Blast and Fire at Japan Plant (4th Explosion)
New York Times, 15th March 2011
TOKYO — Japanese officials and safety workers struggled to reassert control over badly damaged nuclear reactors on
Tuesday after the situation at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant appeared to verge toward catastrophe, with a huge spike
in radiation levels after a new explosion and fire.
Though the situation remained perilous, there were signs that workers had, at least for the moment, contained some of the
danger. The higher radiation levels of earlier in the day — possibly from a fire in the No. 4 reactor — stabilized and
then declined toward evening, according to the Japanese authorities.
Comment: Catastrophe! Here are some expert opinions:
The drawings of the plants in question, called Mark I Reactors, provide no way for venting hydrogen gas from the
containment buildings, despite the fact that one of the first things that happens in the event of a cooling failure is the
massive production of hydrogen gas by the exposed fuel rods in the core. This is why three of the nuclear generator
buildings at Fukushima Dai-ichi have exploded with tremendous force blasting off the roof and walls of the structures, and
damaging control equipment needed to control the reactors.
One would have thought that design engineers at GE would have thought about that fact, and provided venting systems for
any hydrogen gas being vented in an emergency into the building. But no. They didn’t."
Worst Nightmare? Nuclear
meltdown threat as Fukushima fuel rods 'fully exposed'
YouTube, 14th March 2011
Comment:15th March 13:50 UT. This is an interview of Shaun Burnie, an independent atomic energy
consultant from Scotland, who discusses the 'faith in technology' by Japanese authorities. He talks about what is going to
happen with the fallout, but this is only based on his knowledge of the 2nd explosion, but now I believe there have been
FOUR explosions (see above). He tells us that the French government have advised their citizens to leave the Canton of
Tokyo but there is 42 million people that live in this region. This is the point where he was abruptly cut off by the RT
News interviewer.
FUKUSHIMA:
FUEL RODS AT THREE REACTORS ARE MELTING (Video)
Business Insider, 14th March 2011
THE LATEST: The nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima power facilities continues, with 3 reactors fuel rods now melting
down, according to Sky. TEPCO has admitted that rods are again exposed at reactor 2.
EARLIER ON DAY 4: 11 people were injured in an explosion at Reactor #3, according to the BBC. This was
somewhat expected and warned about yesterday. A wall at one of the reactors collapsed.
Meanwhile, according to Kyodo Wire, the cooling function has been lost at a third reactor -- reactor #2. TEPCO
disagrees, and says that both reactors 1 and 2 are likely safely cooled down, per FT Alphaville.
Comment: There are at least 6 nuclear reactors that are in danger of meltdown, officially we are being
told about three, but the rumours have been circulating for maybe 24 hours already. I had not heard about this 2nd
explosion either, there is video. This webpage is being continously updated.
How Black Is The Japanese Nuclear Swan?
Business Insider, 14th March 2011 Comment: This is NOT a Black Swan event, this was highly predictable. 55 nuclear reactors in a earthquake
region with three major faults that rattle the region virtually every day and where residents of Tokyo have been waiting for
the long overdue Big One. Here is the definition:
The Black Swan Theory or Theory of Black Swan Events is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept that The event is a
surprise (to the observer) and has a major impact. After the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight.
Source: Wikipedia: Black Swan
Theory
How can this be considered to be a Black Swan? It's only a Black Swan for people who refuse to accept reality and in my
opinion, that is a lot of people.
Japan crisis: third explosion raises spectre of nuclear
nightmare New explosion at Fukushima plant, as engineers fought to prevent a meltdown in the second worst nuclear
accident in history.
The Telegraph, 14th March 2011 Unbelievable! The blast was heard at 0610 local time on Tuesday (2110 GMT Monday). Seriously bad news for
Japan and the world. Radiation levels rising steeply.
Military Crew
Said to Be Exposed to Radiation, but Officials Call Risk in U.S. Slight
New York Times, 13th March 2011
The Pentagon was expected to announce that the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, which is sailing in the Pacific, passed
through a radioactive cloud from stricken nuclear reactors in Japan, causing crew members on deck to receive a month’s
worth of radiation in about an hour, government officials said Sunday.
The officials added that American helicopters flying missions about 60 miles north of the damaged reactors became coated
with particulate radiation that had to be washed off.
There was no indication that any of the military personnel had experienced ill effects from the exposure. (Everyone is
exposed to a small amount of natural background radiation.)
Comment: At least we know that the Japanese authorities have been hiding the extent of the problem
and that the wind is blowing radiation out over the Pacific. Hmmm... It does seem like an Atlantis moment to me.... Total
failure to acknowledge and understand the issues facing planet Earth that is being swamped by galactic and cosmic
energies. We cannot continue business as usual because it won't work in a high energy cosmic environment. Some folks
are getting really upset and blaming the greedy and stupid folks in charge for building these reactors in a seismically active
region, but quite frankly, I believe we are seeing the result of a collective failure. Space Weather has been getting worse for
over 20 years, but who exactly has been paying attention to the consequences? Well, I did and a few others, who truly
understood that this is about energy driven evolutionary change. As far as I concerned, there is no sense in trying to fight
the tide like metaphorical King Canutes.
Emergency at Onagawa nuclear
plant, radiation 700 times over normal
YouTube/Russia Today, 13th March 2011
Please note: the Russians are paying very attention to what is happening in Japan. This Onagawa and Tokai nuclear plant,
are also having problems despite the media staying quiet. Discussion of the storage of spent fuel rods here by expert.
Tokyo Geiger Counter Live
There are adverts! Is this being done by some business minded person even in this time of crisis?
Info: CPM = counts/clicks per minute. Higher is worse. Lower is better. Normal background is approx. 10-20 CPM
1000 CPMs = 1 Mr Normal is about 2Mr or 2000 CPM. Update: I think this geiger counter is misleading as it's inside
someone's property.
Yokoso News - Live Broadcast from
Tokyo
Yokoso News, March 2011
English Yokoso News is an online social media about travel, lifestyle, study and entertainment in Japan. There are archived
summary reports too.
"A typical wind trajectory across the Pacific is westerly, since there is often a large dome of high pressure over the central
Pacific and an area of low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska."
Calculated time for radioactive particles to cross the Pacific from the power plants in Japan to big West Coast cities if
the particles take a direct path and move at a speed of 20 mph:
Cities
Est. Distance (miles)
Est. Time to Cross Pacific (days)
Anchorage
3,457
7
Honolulu
3,847
8
Seattle
4,792
10
Los Angeles
5,477
11
Experts: Move to protect nuke plants from
solar flare damage
Scripps News, 4th March 2011 --flashback-- WASHINGTON - It has happened before and it will happen again: an Earth-bound electromagnetic pulse from the sun
that disrupts the power grid by burning out high-voltage transformers.
It happened in March 1989 at the Hydro-Quebec system in Canada, tripping transmission lines, burning out a high-voltage
transformer in New Jersey and causing the failure of 12 others within months, all blamed on the solar blast. It happened
again in October 2003 over South Africa, frying 15 high-voltage transformers. [...]
Thomas Popik, an economic researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology mechanical engineering graduate and
a former Air Force expert on unattended power sources at radar sites, and his New Hampshire-based Foundation for
Resilient Societies, think they have a solution to one sobering consequence of a grid failure.
They filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this month addressing a dire concern: If the spent fuel rod pools at the country's 104 nuclear power plants lose
their connection to the power grid, they believe current regulations aren't sufficient to guarantee those pools won't boil
over, exposing the hot, zirconium-clad rods and sparking fires that would release deadly radiation.
Their solution is a relatively inexpensive, $152,800-per-plant arrangement to keep the coolant pools operating
unattended in the wake of such an event. The foundation's members are not anti-nuclear, he insists, and their evidence
comes from existing government studies, not advocacy groups.
"The amount of attention we're gotten so far is moderate and the reason is that, considering what would happen if the
electric grid were to come down is an emotionally upsetting topic," he said. "In this kind of event -- if large transformers
were to become damaged -- the major cities would become uninhabitable and the United States would not be able to
support its current population," he said. "
The NRC is taking his petition seriously and will consider the possibility of new regulations after an extensive review
of the petition, said spokesman Scott Burnell.
But he added: "Today there are requirements in place for both emergency power sources and spent fuel pool
operations that the NRC feels are appropriate for assuring the public's health and safety going forward."
Nuclear power plants are not themselves self-powered and require a tie-in to the electric power grid to operate. They
are also required to have back-up alternatives, such as diesel generators, and the ability to operate their safety systems off
the grid for at least 30 days.
"The agency is well aware of a lot of scenarios that can cause what we call a loss of offsite power -- in other words,
the grid goes down and you don't have any more electricity coming into the plant," Burnell said. "Even if you lose power
at the plant, you still have an extended period of time before you even get to the point that you're losing enough water from
the pool to be concerned."
Popik's petition says that extended period is not long enough. Replacing the 350 high-voltage transformers that could
fail and bring down the grid east of the Mississippi and in the Pacific Northwest, as envisioned by a recent report by the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, could take two years. He proposes regulations requiring back-up safety procedures so
that spent fuel pools could operate unattended until grid power is restored.
Comment: It does seem that more folks are waking up to the reality of what will happen if we have a huge
geomagnetic storm caused by a once in a hundred year coronal mass ejection from the sun. Solar scientists are comparing
the current strange solar cycle to other solar cycles in the past that have generated historic geomagnetic storms and many
people are starting to think there is a strong possibility of a quiet overall sun still generating a huge outburst. It's a surprise
to read here that the US does not even manufacture it's own transformers, so we read:
"Right now, the kind of high-voltage transformers that might fail with a solar pulse aren't manufactured in the U.S. That will
change in April 2013 when a Mitsubishi Electric plant begins operations in Memphis. Its general manager, Kenneth
Badaracco, said the plant will turn out "something less than 100" transformers a year costing between $3 million and $5
million each.
With Earth's weaking magnetic field, strange solar behaviour and general Space Weather, we are going to need electrical
engineers breathing down more necks of decision makers to get some common sense decisions made.
Comment:11th March 2011 20:33 UT Well, we know the
Japanese are having problems with some of their nuclear reactors because the Earthquake struck and knocked out the
electricity supply and some of the backup systems failed to kick in. (How long will those generators last is another issue
too.) Now we hear that they have decided to let out some of the radioactive vapours to force
cooling, I guess that means a controlled radioactive leak. It seems that on some assessment, we have engineers in
the US concerned that in an emergency, some backup systems are not good enough, but maybe, this should be a
worldwide concern? Well, imagine this happening on a large scale due to a knock out blow from deep space. At the
moment, only a few understand what awaits our world, but we could be more prepared.
Workers
scramble to cool reactors; official says 2nd blast possible
CNN, 13th March 2011 Updated 1248 GMT (
(CNN) -- Workers continued efforts to cool down fuel rods inside two nuclear reactors Sunday as a Japanese government
official warned that a second explosion could occur at the plant.
The aftermath of the devastating earthquake -- from the scores of casualties to the nuclear concerns at the plant in
Fukushima prefecture -- marks the "toughest and most difficult crisis for Japan" since the end of World War II, Japanese
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Sunday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said an explosion could take place in the building housing the No. 3 reactor at the
Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan.
Comment: There seems to be two sets of news, the 'official' sources and then the 'real' experts who tell
us what is really happening whilst debunking the official stories, CNN has tried to offer both sides. I have also linked the
article below that offers an environmental perspective as we become aware that Japan has 55 nuclear reactors in a region
that is extremely seismically active.
Nuclear Meltdown in Japan
OpEd News, 13th March 2011
"According to anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman, Japan's quake fallout may cause nuclear disaster, saying:
"This is a very serious situation. If the cooling system fails (apparently it has at two or more plants), the super-heated
radioactive fuel rods will melt, and (if so) you could conceivably have an explosion," that, in fact, occurred.
As a result, massive radiation releases may follow, impacting the entire region. "It could be, literally, an apocalyptic event.
The reactor could blow." If so, Russia, China, Korea and most parts of Western Asia will be affected. Many thousands
will die, potentially millions under a worse case scenario, including far outside East Asia."
Japan
Earthquake: before and after
ABC News, 13th March 2011
Aerial photos taken over Japan have revealed the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of
homes and businesses. Hover over each satellite photo to view the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami.
There are before and after images of the Fukushima nuclear plant. We know the electricity was knocked out, due
to the earthquake and then the on site generators failed, probably due to the tsunami, but here we have evidence that some
of the facility was completely destroyed by the tsunami.
Meltdown Caused Nuke
Plant Explosion: Safety Body
Nikkei.com, 13th March 2011 TOKYO (Nikkei)--The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said Saturday afternoon the explosion at the
Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core.
The same day, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), which runs the plant, began to flood the damaged reactor with seawater
to cool it down, resorting to measures that could rust the reactor and force the utility to scrap it.
Cesium and iodine, by-products of nuclear fission, were detected around the plant, which would make the explosion the
worst accident in the roughly 50-year history of Japanese nuclear power generation.
An explosion was heard near the plant's No. 1 reactor about 3:30 p.m. and plumes of white smoke went up 10 minutes
later. The ceiling of the building housing the reactor collapsed, according to information obtained by Fukushima
prefectural authorities.
At a news conference Saturday night, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano discounted the possibility of a significant leak
of radioactive material from the accident. "The walls of the building containing the reactor were destroyed, meaning that
the metal container encasing the reactor did not explode," Edano said.
Comment: This confirmation is for those who are in any doubt about what has happened. The lesson
that has to be learned immediately is that this was caused primarily by the disappearance of the electricity supply. On site
backup generators failed too and then batteries that were brought in ran out before the reactor was cooled sufficiently,
hence the meltdown of at least one reactor. There could be other reactors in different locations with the exact same
problem, but the Japanese now appear to be hiding the complete truth from the world, even as they are handing out iodine
to help people deal with the radiation.
Well, it has seemed really obvious to me for a long time that out world is not adequately prepared for the massive energetic
shifts taking place. My focus has always been how the bombardment of energies from so many sources mean that humans
need to develop their own energy fields to act as a shield, but this is spiritual science, grown-up metaphysics mostly
shunned by people who prefer the childish stuff. I will even go as far as saying that I am not particularly convinced by
some who claim to be world experts on the human energy field, because they cannot justify their own teachings. You have
to pay thousands of dollars to find out you have been taught some dubious energetic practices by people who at best can
only be described as magicians. In the metaphysical world, too much is based on trust, but unfortunately there are too
many unevolved people who can't be trusted. Self interest overides the need for the greater good. Meanwhile, evolutionary
change and the associated energetic bombardment continues, regardless of whether we are prepared or not.
Fears of a nuclear meltdown intensified in Japan after an explosion at Fukushima power plant, which was damaged by
Friday’s earthquake in the northeast.
Japan’s Emergencies Ministry has ordered the evacuation zone to be expanded to 20km (12 miles) from the Fukushima
plant.
Four workers are reported to have been injured in the blast, which also caused the collapse of four of the building’s walls.
[...]
The cooling system also failed in three reactors at the quake-hit Fukushima No.2 nuclear power plant Saturday, the
operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said.
Japan’s government has convened an emergency meeting to discuss the quake-hit nuclear power plant.
Around 3,000 people living nearby have been moved from their homes, while several other nuclear power plants have also
been shut down.
The possibility of radiation emission in Fukushima would put in danger not only Japan, but the whole Russian Far
East, large areas of China and the Korean peninsula. Comment: Of course the Russians are very interested as any radiation fallout will be hitting them very
quickly. There are lots of video here and interviews with experts with environmental concerns. Lets say, I am with the
environmentalists here who don't believe building nuclear plants on or near major earthquake faults is a clever idea.
According to Dr Richard Philips from the School of Earth and Environment at Britain's University of Leeds interviewed by
RT News suggests that the 8.9 Japan earthquake was about 8000 times more powerful than the 6.3 earthquake that hit
Christchurch, New Zealnd and 700 times more energy released than the January 2010, 7.0 Haiti earthquake. See the
following graphic for energy comparisons:
Battle to stabilise earthquake reactors Important status update ????
World Nuclear News, 12th March 2011 UPDATE 7: 1.35 pm GMT We have the status of 6 units at Fukushima Daiichi and 4 units at Fukushima Daini, only 2/10 are in trouble.
Japanese nuclear reactor in peril
Washington Post, 11th March 2011
Japanese authorities and the U.S. military on Saturday were racing to find ways to deliver new backup generators or
batteries to a nuclear power reactor whose cooling facilities have been crippled by a loss of power as a result of the
earthquake.
The reactor, owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co., is currently drawing on battery power that may last only a few hours.
Without electricity, the reactor will be unable to pump water to cool its hot reactor core, possibly leading to a meltdown or
some other release of radioactive material.
The cooling problem is with the second of six reactors at the plant, located on the east coast of Japan about 200 miles
north of Tokyo and south of the heavily damaged town of Sendai. Separately there were reports of elevated radiation
levels inside the control room of one of the other reactor units, which was built 40 years ago. Sources said that the
authorities were contemplating venting from that unit.
Altogether, 11 Japanese nuclear reactors shut down automatically as they are designed to do in case of an earthquake.
"The multi-reactor Fukushima atomic power plant is now relying
on battery power, which will only last around eight hours," said Kevin Kamps, a specialist in nuclear waste at
Beyond Nuclear, a group devoted to highlighting the perils of nuclear power. "The danger is the very thermally hot reactor cores at the plant must be continuously cooled for 24 to 48
hours. Without any electricity, the pumps won't be able to pump water through the hot reactor cores to cool
them." Comment: 21.12 UT. Backup generators for a nuclear power plant that only last 8 hours when they
need 24 to 48 hours to cool them down? Are these people joking? Well, we have some clarity here about why some
electrical engineers have started to make noises about these backup generators not being adequate in the event of ANY
serious natural disaster.
[...] Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the nuclear power plant developed a mechanical failure in the system which
cools the reactor after it was shut down in the earthquake.
He said the measure was a precaution, there was no radiation leak and the facility was not in immediate danger.
Plant workers are now scrambling to restore cooling water supplies, but warned there was no prospect of an immediate
success.
The nuclear plant's owners confirmed that water levels inside the reactors at its Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant were
falling but it was working to maintain water levels to avert the exposure of nuclear fuel rods.
Tomoko Murakami, leader of the nuclear energy group at Japan's Institute of Energy Economics, said there did not appear
to be an imminent danger of a radiation leak.
'Even if fuel rods are exposed, it does not mean they would start melting right away,' she said.
'Even if fuel rods melt and the pressure inside the reactor builds up, radiation would not leak as long as the reactor
container functions well.'
Comment: 21:43 UT This does not sound good at all....
TEPCO went on to state the shutdowns were caused by the loss of off-site power “due to malfunction of one out of
two off-site power systems.” This loss of power triggered emergency diesel generators, which automatically started to
provide backup power to the reactors.
However, at 3:41 p.m. local time (1:46 a.m. EST), the emergency diesel generators shut down “due to malfunction,
resulting in the complete loss of alternating current for all three units,” according to TEPCO. The failure of the diesel
generators was most likely due to the arrival of the tsunami, which caused flooding in the area. The earthquake was
centered 240 kilometers from Japan, and it would have taken the tsunami approximately an hour to reach the Japanese
islands.
This power failure resulted in one of the most serious conditions that can affect a nuclear plant—a “station blackout”—
during which off-site power and on-site emergency alternating current (AC) power is lost. Nuclear plants generally need
AC power to operate the motors, valves and instruments that control the systems that provide cooling water to the
radioactive core. If all AC power is lost, the options to cool the core are limited.
Comment: 12th March 00:40 UT. All this information is highly pertinent to what would happen if we get
a knock out blast from the sun. By the way, according to spaceweather.com, it's geomagnetic storm conditions and the
already released highly toxic nuclear radiation that has managed to bind to our DNA, is being photo-electrically enhanced
by the increase in background radiation as Earth loses her cosmic shielding. We are like the proverbial frogs in the pan of
water that is being slowly heated accept for the fact that bombardment has started to get serious but most people are like
the frogs who have not noticed they are being boiled alive. Now, this is all too surreal....
Orgeon officials said highways were congested with residents evacuating low lying ares near Florence.
Coastal communities were bracing for possibly damaging waves of up to 6 feet. The waves are expected between 7 a.m.
and 8 a.m. local time.
The tsunami reached Hawaii around 3:30 a.m. local time. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says Kauai was the first
island hit early by the wave, which was quickly sweeping through the Hawaiian Island chain.
Comment: I asume the 88,000 dead is an international mayday distress signal and code for total
devastation. The video here is completely shocking
US Air Force
transports coolant to nuclear reactor hit by giant Japan earthquake (video) Move comes after state of emergency declared at two nuclear facilities MSNBC News, 11th March 2011 ????? "Officials in Japan declare a nuclear emergency at the Tokushima nuclear reactor after cooling generators failed. No
radiation leakage has been detected. NHK World reports."
Conflicting reports, see below:
Tsunami Hits Japan After 8.9 Megaquake (Videos)
UK Yahoo News, 11th March 2011
The 8.9 magnitude megaquake caused a huge wave that hit the port of Sendai city, sending ships crashing into the shore
and carrying cars and buildings through streets.
News agencies report a ship carrying around 100 was swept away by the tsunami.
The quake also rocked the capital, Tokyo, which was among the cities shaken by at least 19 subsequent aftershocks.
Mass evacuations are taking place after tsunami warnings were issued for the entire Pacific basin.
And the tsunami set off by the quake is currently higher than some Pacific islands it could wash over, the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. Comment: With, the recent solar activity combined with the largest moon approach in two decades on
the 19th March, this huge earthquake and tsunami was to be expected by some, but it seems to have arrived earlier and
might be a signature that Earth energies were already highly primed. However, at the moment, I have not checked for an
external trigger like a GRB or magnetar blast. This is an interesting quote:
This phenomenon has reportedly heightened concerns about 'supermoons' being linked to extreme weather events -
such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. The last time the moon passed close to the Earth was on 10 January
2005, around the time of the Indonesian earthquake that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was also associated with an unusually large full moon.
Previous supermoons occurred in 1955, 1974 and 1992 - each of these years experienced extreme weather events, killing
thousands of people.
However, an expert speaking to Yahoo! News today believes that a larger moon causing weather chaos is a popular
misconception. [...]
But according to Dr Victor Gostin, a Planetary and Environmental Geoscientist at Adelaide University, there may be a link
between large-scale earthquakes in places around the equator and new and full moon situations.
He said: "This is because the Earth-tides (analogous to ocean tides) may be the final trigger that sets off the earthquake."
The expert talking about slightly higher tides has not mentioned the frequent reports of freak waves and reports of
unusually high tides, so there are other factors that this expert is not taking into account. I think there will be great loss of
life but it has been expected by those watching the signs of the times and there have been people reporting dreams of a
tsunami on popular forums in the last few days too.
Nuclear power plant crippled by Japan earthquake
Herald Sun, 12th March 2011
"ABOUT 2000 residents living near a nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan have been urged to evacuate, Kyodo News
Agency reports. Engineers were unable to pump water to cool the nuclear reactor at the Fukushima plant crippled by fire
caused by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. Earlier, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said there was no radiation leak
after the cooling system failed. He added that the plant had automatically shut down following the quake and there was no
immediate danger."
Live Internet Seismic
Server
At 13:25 UT most of the seismic stations are black which I have never seen before, so presumably, seismic activity is
ringing the planet hard.
“Space weather has the potential to simultaneously affect and disrupt health and safety across entire continents. Successfully preparing for space weather events is an all-of-nation endeavor that requires partnerships across governments, emergency managers, academia, the media, the insurance industry, non-profits, and the private sector.”
Recommended!
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- More than two months after Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima nuclear plant started leaking radiation, manufacturers in northern Japan are still trying to dispel rumors their industrial products are tainted.
With radiation still seeping from Fukushima, TEPCO is taking an odd step: installing enormous polyester tents around the cores. Each steel-framed tent will be "will be 55 meters high, 47 meters long and 42 meters wide," Dow Jones reports.
"Famed physicist Michio Kaku says the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan was worse than originally thought."
It appears Unit 1 is in complete Meltdown.
GENEVA — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant suggested that there were large gaps in international systems to deal with safety breaches. Ban also announced a high-level international meeting on the issue in New York on September 22 during the UN General Assembly session.
ISHINOMAKI, Japan (AP) --
When water begins to trickle down the streets of her coastal neighborhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry home.
WASHINGTON — A Japanese lawmaker said Friday that his country should move its parliament to Fukushima to provide an economic boost and show confidence in a region struck by a nuclear crisis after a massive earthquake.
As critical repairs continue at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, its operator is finding it difficult to find people willing to work at the plant.
The tally of workers at the plant as of May 3 was 1,312 people. Many of them are employed by subcontractors hired by operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Bulletin: "Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano on Thursday urged Tohoku Electric Power Co. to ensure safety measures at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture so that it would be acceptable to people living near the facility, officials of the utility said."
Furious parents in Fukushima have delivered a bag of radioactive playground earth to education officials in protest at moves to weaken nuclear safety standards in schools.
TOYKO, Japan, May 2, 2011 (ENS) - Radioactive substances may be leaking from fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, noting a rise in the level of radioactive substances in the reactor's coolant water.
Thousands of parents living near Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant have condemned a government decision to lift radiation limits for schools in the area by 20 times, saying the move is based on incomplete science and could put children in danger.
The decision, which has also prompted the resignation of a government adviser, has been condemned as political expediency. Toshiso Kosako, the adviser who resigned on Friday, denounced the Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, for his "whack-a-mole" policies on the crisis. A tearful Mr Kosako said: "The government has belittled laws and taken decisions only for the present moment."
A comprehensive timeline of the unthinkable natural disaster that triggered a nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi. Paula Zahn takes us inside the dramatic story in Japan, and explores out what it will mean for nuclear power in the United States.
TOKYO—A special advisor to the Japanese government on radiation safety resigned Friday, saying that he was dissatisfied with the handling of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
A hydrogen gas explosion at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 15 may have helped prevent spent fuel rods from melting down by causing a flow of water into the pool the rods are stored in, according to research by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
In a rare interview on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl on Monday, Col-Gen Nikolai Antoshkin said he was shocked at how poorly Japan had coped with its own nuclear disaster.
Japanese researchers who study space agriculture believe growing sunflowers will remove radioactive cesium from contaminated soil around the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, and are planning a project to plant as many of the yellow flowers as possible this year.
A citizen's group concerned about the impact on mothers and babies of the radioactive leaks from a crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture said Wednesday that small amounts of radioactive iodine have been found in the breast milk of four women living east or northeast of Tokyo.
TOKYO (AP) — A pair of thin robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside Japan's crippled nuclear reactor came back Monday with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun placing a mineral in the sea to absorb radioactive materials contaminating the seawater around the plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Friday dropped sandbags containing the mineral zeolite into the sea near the plant's water intakes. Zeolite is widely used to absorb contaminating materials.
The No. 1 reactor of the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture on April 7 sustained a jolt greater than what it was designed to withstand during a strong aftershock from the powerful March 11 earthquake, according to nuclear safety officials.
As powerful earthquakes continue to jolt Japan and radiation levels near Tokyo are rising, the Asian country's authorities are considering moving the capital to another city.
Previously, the damage to reactors at the plant, 137 miles north of Tokyo, has been rated at level 5 on the scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979. The government elevated the disaster by two notches, a rating that has previously only been applied to the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
Soil liquefaction on reclaimed land around Tokyo Bay because of the March 11 earthquake caused damage in at least 11 Tokyo wards and cities in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, according to tallies by local authorities.
About 17,500 people gathered Sunday for two rallies held in Tokyo against nuclear power plants amid the prolonged crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station some 220 kilometers to the northeast.
The Agency said volcanic explosion occurred after earthquake several times in history and people should maintain vigilance against this tendency.
The following is the known status of nuclear power facilities as of Friday night following the aftershock that rattled Miyagi Prefecture and elsewhere late Thursday night, the strongest since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11. [...]
MIYAKO, Japan—Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan's destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.
A leaked confidential NRC document on the Japan nuclear disaster reveals the situation in Fukushima is worse than anyone expected.
Thanks to the unfamiliar but sophisticated art of atomic forensics, experts around the world have been able to document the situation vividly. Over decades, they have become very good at illuminating the hidden workings of nuclear power plants from afar, turning scraps of information into detailed analyses.[...]
In Japan, where the Fukushima nuclear crisis is three weeks old, the question is: Where are the robots?
Studying data acquired on 19 February and 21 March, scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have detected a
ground shift of about 2.5 m eastwards and a downward motion of Honshu Island’s east coast.
Jacob Namminga, one of our radiation safety advisors, spoke to Brian Fitzgerald at our international office, about the
radiation monitoring that began on Saturday March 26, in a rural area of Japan to the north west of the Fukushima nuclear
plant.
Yoichi Shimatsu is the editor of the Japan Times, his first question by Jeff Rense is about the opinion of senior political figure Ichiro Ozawa who suggested that Tokyo might become off limits. The response was to specify the extent of radiation, 1/3rd of the Japanese people will be effected, a major economic catastrophe and human health problem...
CNN Host: No one ever suspected that we had three simultaneous core meltdowns, 100 percent core damage and that sea water of all things stopped a tragedy from taking place. The media if anything, we now realize downplayed the real impact of the accident.
Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan’s crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, where a “dead zone” remains
25 years after the reactor in the former Soviet Union exploded.
FUKUSHIMA CITY, Japan — The accusations flew on Wednesday at the local school board meeting, packed with parents worried and angry about radiation levels in this city at the heart of Japan’s nuclear crisis.
In Fukushima prefecture Namie City a rabbit missing its ears was recently born. According to the video poster the rabbits are being fed outdoor grass possibly contaminated by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Namie City is outside of the 30 kilometer exclusion zone.
The situation at the Fukushima plant is currently out of control, says Professor Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risks, who gave RT his insight into the recent developments in Japan.
“Of course, it’s time for the Japanese government to take control. But having said that, it’s very hard to know how you could take control of the situation. The situation is essentially out of control,”
The huge sea wall and floodgates took 12 years to build and had been widely regarded as a £20million folly. But today one former Japanese mayor is being hailed as a saviour after the grandiose construction allowed his small town escaped the devastation wrought by the March 11 tsunami.
"Gundersen says Fukushima's gaseous and liquid releases continue unabated. With a meltdown at Unit 1, Unit 4 leaning and facing possible collapse, several units contaminating ground water, and area school children outside the exclusion zone receiving adult occupational radiation doses, the situation continues to worsen. TEPCO needs a cohesive plan and international support to protect against world-wide contamination."
Kuniko Tanioko: Japan must tell world how it dealt with the nuclear runoff into the ocean
"Fairewinds' founder Maggie Gundersen interviews environmental scientist and professional engineer Marco Kaltofen about his ongoing analysis of radioactive fallout from Fukushima."
"How can non-scientists assess the risk associated with the various levels of
contamination being reported? I will address this question here."
"A South Korean environmentalist with umbrellas march in a rally demanding South Korean government to stop expanding nuclear power plants in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Fears over possible radiation contamination are growing in South Korea, the country closest to Japan, after Japanese nuclear power plants were damaged by earthquakes last month."
Some perspective: "1983: Four Greenpeace divers were contaminated by an oily radioactive slick, whilst attempting to block a discharge pipe at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. The pipe was releasing more than 10 million litres of radioactive water into the sea every day."
"Yellowcake is used in the preparation of uranium fuel for nuclear reactors, for which it is smelted into purified
UO2 for use in fuel rods for pressurized heavy-water reactors and other systems that use natural unenriched uranium."
Hirose Takashi has written a whole shelf full of books, mostly on the nuclear power industry and the military-industrial
complex. Probably his best known book is Nuclear Power Plants for Tokyo in which he took the logic of the nuke
promoters to its logical conclusion: if you are so sure that they're safe, why not build them in the center of the city, instead
of hundreds of miles away where you lose half the electricity in the wires?
The FDA is going to monitor pharmaceuticals made in Japan — as well as food products — for any signs of elevated
radiation levels, a spokeswoman for the agency tells us.
Capt. Eric Gardner, commander in charge of the Naval Air Facility Atsugi explains the voluntary evacuation procedues for
non essential Navy personnel ie women and children go first. He says: This is unprecedented, but don't panic! Plan: 10,000
people per day to be evacuated from three different sites using air force and navy planes plus domestic airlines. Pack for 3
- 5 days, all your other stuff has to be left behind... 
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- The unfolding disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant follows decades of falsified safety reports,
fatal accidents and underestimated earthquake risk in Japan’s atomic power industry.
An official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in December 2008 that safety rules were out of date
and strong earthquakes would pose a "serious problem" for nuclear power stations.
The governor of Tokyo apologized on Tuesday for saying the earthquake and resulting tsunami that left thousands dead
were divine punishment for Japanese egoism, the country’s official news service reported.
TOKYO — Japanese officials and safety workers struggled to reassert control over badly damaged nuclear reactors on
Tuesday after the situation at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant appeared to verge toward catastrophe, with a huge spike
in radiation levels after a new explosion and fire.
Tsunami waves racing across the Pacific Ocean crashed through the Hawaiian Island, and California, Oregon and Alaska
braced for waves that could be as high as six feet, officials said today.
Warning sirens have begun blaring in some Oregon coastal communities and residents are being urdged to seek higher
ground.
