Japan nuclear agency upgrades Fukushima alert level [Archive] - Page 2

panopticon

25th October 2013, 12:18

Came across this from Reuters today.
Was only talking about this a few pages ago in this thread.

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Special Report: Help wanted in Fukushima: Low pay, high risks and gangsters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/25/us-fukushima-workers-specialreport-idUSBRE99O04320131025)
By Antoni Slodkowski and Mari Saito

Oct 25 (Reuters) - Tetsuya Hayashi went to Fukushima to take a job at ground zero of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. He lasted less than two weeks.

Hayashi, 41, says he was recruited for a job monitoring the radiation exposure of workers leaving the plant in the summer of 2012. Instead, when he turned up for work, he was handed off through a web of contractors and assigned, to his surprise, to one of Fukushima's hottest radiation zones.

He was told he would have to wear an oxygen tank and a double-layer protective suit. Even then, his handlers told him, the radiation would be so high it could burn through his annual exposure limit in just under an hour.

"I felt cheated and entrapped," Hayashi said. "I had not agreed to any of this."

When Hayashi took his grievances to a firm on the next rung up the ladder of Fukushima contractors, he says he was fired. He filed a complaint but has not received any response from labor regulators for more than a year. All the eight companies involved, including embattled plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, declined to comment or could not be reached for comment on his case.

Out of work, Hayashi found a second job at Fukushima, this time building a concrete base for tanks to hold spent fuel rods. His new employer skimmed almost a third of his wages - about $1,500 a month - and paid him the rest in cash in brown paper envelopes, he says. Reuters reviewed documents related to Hayashi's complaint, including pay envelopes and bank statements.

Hayashi's hard times are not unusual in the estimated $150-billion effort to dismantle the Fukushima reactors and clean up the neighboring areas, a Reuters examination found.

In reviewing Fukushima working conditions, Reuters interviewed more than 80 workers, employers and officials involved in the unprecedented nuclear clean-up. A common complaint: the project's dependence on a sprawling and little scrutinized network of subcontractors - many of them inexperienced with nuclear work and some of them, police say, have ties to organized crime.

Tepco sits atop a pyramid of subcontractors that can run to seven or more layers and includes construction giants such as Kajima Corp and Obayashi Corp in the first tier. The embattled utility remains in charge of the work to dismantle the damaged Fukushima reactors, a government-subsidized job expected to take 30 years or more.

Outside the plant, Japan's "Big Four" construction companies - Kajima, Obayashi, Shimizu Corp and Taisei Corp - oversee hundreds of small firms working on government-funded contracts to remove radioactive dirt and debris from nearby villages and farms so evacuees can return home.

Tokyo Electric, widely known as Tepco, says it has been unable to monitor subcontractors fully but has taken steps to limit worker abuses and curb the involvement of organized crime.

"We sign contracts with companies based on the cost needed to carry out a task," Masayuki Ono, a general manager for nuclear power at Tepco, told Reuters. "The companies then hire their own employees taking into account our contract. It's very difficult for us to go in and check their contracts."

The unprecedented Fukushima nuclear clean-up both inside and outside the plant faces a deepening shortage of workers. There are about 25 percent more openings than applicants for jobs in Fukushima prefecture, according to government data.

Raising wages could draw more workers but that has not happened, the data shows. Tepco is under pressure to post a profit in the year to March 2014 under a turnaround plan Japan's top banks recently financed with $5.9 billion in new loans and refinancing. In 2011, in the wake of the disaster, Tepco cut pay for its own workers by 20 percent.

With wages flat and workers scarce, labor brokers have stepped into the gap, recruiting people whose lives have reached a dead end or who have trouble finding a job outside the disaster zone.

The result has been a proliferation of small firms - many unregistered. Some 800 companies are active inside the Fukushima plant and hundreds more are working in the decontamination effort outside its gates, according to Tepco and documents reviewed by Reuters.

Tepco, Asia's largest listed power utility, had long enjoyed close ties to regulators and lax government oversight. That came under harsh scrutiny after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a massive tsunami hit the plant on March 11, 2011. The disaster triggered three reactor meltdowns, a series of explosions and a radiation leak that forced 150,000 people to flee nearby villages.

Tepco's hapless efforts since to stabilize the situation have been like someone playing "whack-a-mole", Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshimitsu Motegi has said.

'NUCLEAR GYPSIES'

Hayashi is one of an estimated 50,000 workers who have been hired so far to shut down the nuclear plant and decontaminate the towns and villages nearby. Thousands more will have to follow. Some of the workers will be needed to maintain the system that cools damaged fuel rods in the reactors with thousands of tonnes (1 tonne = 1.102 metric tons) of water every day. The contaminated runoff is then transferred to more than 1,000 tanks, enough to fill more than 130 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Dismantling the Fukushima Daiichi plant will require maintaining a job pool of at least 12,000 workers just through 2015, according to Tepco's blueprint. That compares to just over 8,000 registered workers now. In recent months, some 6,000 have been working inside the plant.

The Tepco hiring estimate does not include the manpower required for the government's new $330 million plan to build a massive ice wall around the plant to keep radiated water from leaking into the sea.

"I think we should really ask whether they are able to do this while ensuring the safety of the workers," said Shinichi Nakayama, deputy director of safety research at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

Japan's nuclear industry has relied on cheap labor since the first plants, including Fukushima, opened in the 1970s. For years, the industry has rounded up itinerant workers known as "nuclear gypsies" from the Sanya neighborhood of Tokyo and Kamagasaki in Osaka, areas known for large numbers of homeless men.

"Working conditions in the nuclear industry have always been bad," said Saburo Murata, deputy director of Osaka's Hannan Chuo Hospital. "Problems with money, outsourced recruitment, lack of proper health insurance - these have existed for decades."

The Fukushima project has magnified those problems. When Japan's parliament approved a bill to fund decontamination work in August 2011, the law did not apply existing rules regulating the construction industry. As a result, contractors working on decontamination have not been required to disclose information on management or undergo any screening.

That meant anyone could become a nuclear contractor overnight. Many small companieswithout experience rushed to bid for contracts and then often turned to brokers to round up the manpower, according to employers and workers.

The resulting influx of workers has turned the town of Iwaki, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the plant, into a bustling labor hub at the front line of the massive public works project.

In extreme cases, brokers have been known to "buy" workers by paying off their debts. The workers are then forced to work until they pay off their new bosses for sharply reduced wages and under conditions that make it hard for them to speak out against abuses, labor activists and workers in Fukushima said.

Lake Barrett, a former U.S. nuclear regulator and an advisor to Tepco, says the system is so ingrained it will take time to change.

"There's been a century of tradition of big Japanese companies using contractors, and that's just the way it is in Japan," he told Reuters. "You're not going to change that overnight just because you have a new job here, so I think you have to adapt."

A Tepco survey from 2012 showed nearly half of the workers at Fukushima were employed by one contractor but managed by another. Japanese law prohibits such arrangements, in order to prevent brokers from skimming workers' wages.

Tepco said the survey represents one of the steps it has taken to crack down on abuses. "We take issues related to inappropriate subcontractors very seriously," the utility said in a statement to Reuters.

Tepco said it warns its contractors to respect labor regulations. The company said it has established a hotline for workers, and has organized lectures for subcontractors to raise awareness on labor regulations. In June, it introduced compulsory training for new workers on what constitutes illegal employment practices.

Tepco does not publish average hourly wages in the plant. Workers interviewed by Reuters said wages could be as low as around $6 an hour, but usually average around $12 an hour - about a third lower than the average in Japan's construction industry.

Workers for subcontractors in the most-contaminated area outside the plant are supposed to be paid an additional government-funded hazard allowance of about $100 per day, although many report it has not been paid.

The work in the plant can also be dangerous. Six workers in October were exposed to radioactive water when one of them detached a pipe connected to a treatment system. In August, 12 workers were irradiated when removing rubble from around one of the reactors. The accidents prompted Japan's nuclear regulator to question whether Tepco has been delegating too much.

"Proper oversight is important in preventing careless mistakes. Right now Tepco may be leaving it all up to the subcontractors," said the head of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, Shunichi Tanaka in response to the recent accidents.

Tepco said it will take measures to ensure that such accidents are not repeated. The utility said it monitors safety with spot inspections and checks on safeguards for workers when projects are divided between subcontractors.

The NRA, which is primarily charged with reactor safety, is only one of several agencies dealing with the Fukushima project: the ministries of labor, environment, trade and economy are also responsible for managing the clean-up and enforcing regulations, along with local authorities and police.

Yousuke Minaguchi, a lawyer who has represented Fukushima workers, says Japan's government has turned a blind eye to the problem of worker exploitation. "On the surface, they say it is illegal. But in reality they don't want to do anything. By not punishing anyone, they can keep using a lot of workers cheaply."

Economy Minister Motegi, who is responsible for Japan's energy policy and decommissioning of the plant, instructed Tepco to improve housing for workers. He has said more needs to be done to ensure workers are being treated well.

"To get work done, it's necessary to cooperate with a large number of companies," he told Reuters. "Making sure that those relations are proper, and that work is moving forward is something we need to keep working on daily."

FALSIFIED PASSBOOK

Hayashi offers a number of reasons for his decision to head to Fukushima from his home in Nagano, an area in central Japan famous for its ski slopes, where in his youth Hayashi honed his snowboarding skills.

He says he was skeptical of the government's early claim that the Fukushima plant was under control and wanted to see it for himself. He had worked in construction, knew how to weld and felt he could contribute.

Like many other workers, Hayashi was initially recruited by a broker. He was placed with RH Kogyo, a subcontractor six levels removed from Tepco.

When he arrived in Fukushima, Hayashi received instructions from five other firms in addition to the labor broker and RH Kogyo. It was the sixth contractor up the ladder, ABL Co. Ltd that told him he would be working in a highly radioactive area. ABL Co reported to Tokyo Energy & Systems Inc, which in Fukushima manages some 200 workers as a first-tier contractor under Tepco.

Hayashi says he kept copies of his work records and took pictures and videos inside the plant, encouraged by a TV journalist he had met before beginning his assignment. At one point, his boss from RH Kogyo told him not to worry because any radiation he was exposed to would not "build up".

"Once you wait a week, the amount of radiation goes down by half," the man is seen telling him in one of the recordings. The former supervisor declined to comment.

The statement represents a mistaken account of radiation safety standards applied in Fukushima, which are based on the view that there is no such thing as a safe dose. Workers are limited to 100 millisieverts of radiation exposure over five years. The International Atomic Energy Agency says exposure over that threshold measurably raises the risk of later cancers.

After Hayashi's first two-week stint at the plant ended, he discovered his nuclear passbook - a record of radiation exposure - had been falsified to show he had been an employee of larger firms higher up the ladder of contractors, not RH Kogyo.

Reuters reviewed the passbook and documents related to Hayashi's employment. The nuclear passbook shows that Hayashi was employed by Suzushi Kogyo from May to June 2012. It says Take One employed Hayashi for ten days in June 2012. Hayashi says that is false because he had a one-year contract with RH Kogyo.

"My suspicion is that they falsified the records to hide the fact that they had outsourced my employment," Hayashi said.

ABL Co. said Hayashi had worked with the firm but declined to comment on his claims. Tepco, Tokyo Energy & Systems, Suzushi Kogyo and RH Kogyo also declined to comment. Take One could not be reached for comment.

In September 2012, Hayashi found another job with a subcontractor for Kajima, one of Japan's largest construction companies. He didn't want to go back home empty-handed and says he thought he might have been just unlucky with his first bad experience at the plant.

Instead, his problems continued. This time a broker who recruited several workers for the subcontractor insisted on access to his bank account and then took almost a third of the roughly $160 Hayashi was supposed to be earning each day, Hayashi says.

The broker, according to Hayashi, identified himself as a former member of a local gang from Hayashi's native Nagano.

Ryo Goshima, 23, said the same broker from Nagano placed him in a crew doing decontamination work and then skimmed almost half of what he had been promised. Goshima and Hayashi became friends in Fukushima when they wound up working for the same firm.

Goshima said he was fired in December after complaining about the skimming practice. Tech, the contractor that had employed him, said it had fired another employee who was found to have skimmed Goshima's wages. Tech said Goshima left for personal reasons. The firm paid Goshima back wages, both sides say. The total payment was $9,000, according to Goshima.

Kajima spokesman Atsushi Fujino said the company was not in a position to comment on either of the cases since it did not have a contract with Hayashi or Goshima.

"We pay the companies who work for us and instruct those companies to pay the hazard allowance," the Kajima spokesman said in a statement.

THE YAKUZA CONNECTION

The complexity of Fukushima contracts and the shortage of workers have played into the hands of the yakuza, Japan's organized crime syndicates, which have run labor rackets for generations.

Nearly 50 gangs with 1,050 members operate in Fukushima prefecture dominated by three major syndicates - Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai, police say.

Ministries, the companies involved in the decontamination and decommissioning work, and police have set up a task force to eradicate organized crime from the nuclear clean-up project. Police investigators say they cannot crack down on the gang members they track without receiving a complaint. They also rely on major contractors for information.

In a rare prosecution involving a yakuza executive, Yoshinori Arai, a boss in a gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai, was convicted of labor law violations. Arai admitted pocketing around $60,000 over two years by skimming a third of wages paid to workers in the disaster zone. In March a judge gave him an eight-month suspended sentence because Arai said he had resigned from the gang and regretted his actions.

Arai was convicted of supplying workers to a site managed by Obayashi, one of Japan's leading contractors, in Date, a town northwest of the Fukushima plant. Date was in the path of the most concentrated plume of radiation after the disaster.

A police official with knowledge of the investigation said Arai's case was just "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of organized crime involvement in the clean-up.

A spokesman for Obayashi said the company "did not notice" that one of its subcontractors was getting workers from a gangster.

"In contracts with our subcontractors we have clauses on not cooperating with organized crime," the spokesman said, adding the company was working with the police and its subcontractors to ensure this sort of violation does not happen again.

In April, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare sanctioned three companies for illegally dispatching workers to Fukushima. One of those, a Nagasaki-based company called Yamato Engineering, sent 510 workers to lay pipe at the nuclear plant in violation of labor laws banning brokers. All three companies were ordered by labor regulators to improve business practices, records show.

In 2009, Yamato Engineering was banned from public works projects because of a police determination that it was "effectively under the control of organized crime," according to a public notice by the Nagasaki-branch of the land and transport ministry. Yamato Engineering had no immediate comment.

Goshima said he himself had been working for the local chapter of Yamaguchi-gumi since the age of 14, extorting money and collecting debts. He quit at age 20 after spending some time in jail. He had to borrow money from a loan shark to pay off his gang, which demanded about $2,000 a month for several months to let him go.

"My parents didn't want any problems from the gang, so they told me to leave and never return," Goshima said. He went to Fukushima looking for a well-paying job to pay down the debt - and ended up working for a yakuza member from his home district.

DECONTAMINATION COMPLAINTS

In towns and villages around the plant in Fukushima, thousands of workers wielding industrial hoses, operating mechanical diggers and wearing dosimeters to measure radiation have been deployed to scrub houses and roads, dig up topsoil and strip trees of leaves in an effort to reduce background radiation so that refugees can return home.

Hundreds of small companies have been given contracts for this decontamination work. Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed in the first half of 2013 had broken labor regulations, according to a labor ministry report in July. The ministry's Fukushima office had received 567 complaints related to working conditions in the decontamination effort in the year to March. It issued 10 warnings. No firm was penalized.

One of the firms that has faced complaints is Denko Keibi, which before the disaster used to supply security guards for construction sites.

Denko Keibi managed 35 workers in Tamura, a village near the plant. At an arbitration session in May that Reuters attended, the workers complained they had been packed five to a room in small cabins. Dinner was typically a bowl of rice and half a pepper or a sardine, they said. When a driver transporting workers flipped their van on an icy road in December, supervisors ordered workers to take off their uniforms and scatter to distant hospitals, the workers said. Denko Keibi had no insurance for workplace accidents and wanted to avoid reporting the crash, they said.

"We were asked to come in and go to work quickly," an executive of Denko Keibi said, apologizing to the workers, who later won compensation of about $6,000 each for unpaid wages. "In hindsight, this is not something an amateur should have gotten involved in."

In the arbitration session Reuters attended, Denko Keibi said there had been problems with working conditions but said it was still examining what happened in the December accident.

The Denko Keibi case is unusual because of the large number of workers involved, the labor union that won the settlement said. Many workers are afraid to speak out, often because they have to keep paying back loans to their employers.

"The workers are scared to sue because they're afraid they will be blacklisted," said Mitsuo Nakamura, a former day laborer who runs a group set up to protect Fukushima workers. "You have to remember these people often can't get any other job."

Hayashi's experiences at the plant turned him into an activist. He was reassigned to a construction site outside Tokyo by his second employer after he posted an online video about his first experiences in the plant in late 2012. After a tabloid magazine published a story about Hayashi, his managers asked him to leave. He has since moved to Tokyo and filed a complaint with the labor standards office. He volunteered in the successful parliamentary campaign of former actor turned anti-nuclear activist, Taro Yamamoto.

"Major contractors that run this system think that workers will always be afraid to talk because they are scared to lose their jobs," said Hayashi. "But Japan can't continue to ignore this problem forever."

Source (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/25/us-fukushima-workers-specialreport-idUSBRE99O04320131025)

panopticon

25th October 2013, 12:22

Yeah, this is bad. Why are PTB making this worse?

Also, this story about the workers makes you realise, wow, this is out of control even on an operational level at the plant:

http://enenews.com/reuters-special-workers-are-tricked-into-being-on-front-lines-at-fukushima-plant-you-cant-escape-they-kept-me-in-a-shed-theres-nowhere-else-to-go-everyone-is-s

G'day Cog,
Just saw it was the same article your link to enenews was mirroring.
Apologies.
-- Pan

Cognitive Dissident

25th October 2013, 14:10

Rocky_Shorz

25th October 2013, 23:30

panopticon

25th October 2013, 23:49

No problem, it is good to read it in full. Just awful, the conditions. How can they hope to manage the situation if they have such workers in such conditions? Really, it is insane.

And the rest of the world is still acting like it is a Japanese problem only.

Denial, ain't just a river in Egypt.

Yet again I agree with you Cog.

Under trained, under paid workers who are being ripped off by gangsters is not what's needed.

It's no wonder there are constant problems on-site.

A work force that is at best depressed, a company trying to cut corners to save money, a government missing in action and a corporate culture of lies and deceit.

As I said before if there are no accidents during the fuel rod assembly removal process it will be despite those in power not because of them.

panopticon

26th October 2013, 00:31

6 quakes and after tremors so far today offshore from Fukushima, the tropical storm is hitting it with 60 MPH winds, they had evacuated personnel, but all of them have return to man the battle stations until this passes...

TEPCO has reported that there is no evidence of damage from the quakes.

"It was fairly big and rattled quite a bit, but nothing fell to the floor or broke," Satoshi Mizuno, an official with the Fukushima prefectural government's disaster management department, told the AP by phone. "We've had quakes of this magnitude before. Luckily, the quake's center was very far off the coast."

Mizuno said the operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said no damage or abnormalities have been found so far. Since being severely damaged in the 2011 disaster, the plant has been shaken by a series of minor tremors.
Source (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/25/magnitude-7-3-earthquakehitsoffjapansfukushima.html)
Time will tell if this is true or not.

To monitor reports of radiation throughout Japan:
http://new.atmc.jp/

For just Fukushima prefecture:
http://new.atmc.jp/pref.cgi?p=07

Highest level currently at the Ottozawa three monitoring station is ~24 µSv/hr which is just above the average for that station. Unless you're an advocate of the LNT model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_no-threshold_model) this is of no danger however it doesn't indicate what isotopes are present or in what concentration. Also this is from the official monitoring station and as I've said before they were changed from the IAEA approved type to ones the NRA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Regulation_Authority) and TEPCO wanted (which coincidentally provide lower levels).

TargeT

26th October 2013, 18:11

the sea is already dead...

I live on an island in the middle of the ocean.. it most certainly is not dead....

in fact it's vibrant and full of life.

Highest level currently at the Ottozawa three monitoring station is ~24 µSv/hr which is just above the average for that station. Unless you're an advocate of the LNT model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_no-threshold_model) this is of no danger however it doesn't indicate what isotopes are present or in what concentration. Also this is from the official monitoring station and as I've said before they were changed from the IAEA approved type to ones the NRA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Regulation_Authority) and TEPCO wanted (which coincidentally provide lower levels).

I'd say it shows disturbing potential for any actual nuclear disaster that may happen in the future.. but as it is currently it's nothing to worry over.

panopticon

28th October 2013, 01:50

So who should pay for the on-going cost of cleaning up the Fukushima Daiichi site and surrounding contamination?

Seems like it's going to be the tax payers of Japan who do.

TEPCO have refused to pay some of the Governments requests as they view them as being beyond the purview of the enacted legislation. But is it right that the tax payers foot the bill when a private corporation has a problem? What about corporate responsibility?

TEPCO says it would force it into bankruptcy paying for the full cost and no-one wants that (evidently) so what is the alternative...

Here's the article from The Asahi Shimbun (ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201310270048)

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Documents show government tacitly accepts TEPCO’s refusal to pay for cleanup (ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201310270048)
by Shinichi Sekine and Toshio Tada. 27th October 2013

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the embattled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, declared early this year that it will not repay radioactive cleanup costs in Fukushima Prefecture, forcing taxpayers to shoulder the burden, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.

The government, which did not release TEPCO’s statement, apparently accepts the refusal, in a tacit understanding to prevent the cash-strapped utility from being driven into bankruptcy.

Documents obtained by The Asahi Shimbun through a freedom of information request showed that TEPCO in February made clear its intention not to pay the full cleanup costs.

Under a special measures law designed to deal with radioactive waste, TEPCO is required to pay back costs involved in the decontamination operation that the government shouldered. The government is decontaminating areas around the plant that are highly polluted with radioactive substances.

The Environment Ministry, which is in charge of the cleanup, has asked TEPCO to repay a total of 40.4 billion yen ($415 million).

The utility has repaid 6.7 billion yen to date.

In a document dated Feb. 21 sent to the ministry, TEPCO declined to pay most of the first invoice in November last year.

“The company reached a conclusion that it is too difficult to pay,” the paper stated.

In a reply to the ministry’s request for further explanation on the utility’s refusal to pay, TEPCO listed reasons why it is not repaying the money, totaling 7.4 billion yen for 95 projects, in a document dated Feb. 27.

The total sum the ministry asked the company to pay in that instance was 14.9 billion yen, including the figure in a second bill, involving 118 projects.

TEPCO also suggested that the ministry should consider settling their disagreement over the payment at the science ministry’s center for alternative dispute resolution. The mechanism was set up to mediate between parties that failed to settle compensation claims for damages from the nuclear disaster.

One of the payments TEPCO declined to make is 105 million yen to fund an Environment Ministry preliminary survey ahead of the construction of interim storage facilities to hold radioactive soil removed and other waste in the decontamination effort.

The company refused to pay, saying, “A preliminary survey and other studies are part of the projects that the government should undertake in accordance with its policy line.”

TEPCO also refused to pay 440 million yen for an experimental program that assesses the effectiveness of new decontamination technology and 960 million yen for public relations efforts.

“These steps are not based on the special measures law,” it said.

The Environment Ministry argued in a paper dated March 1 that, “How to interpret the special measures law is within the jurisdiction of the government, and TEPCO has the responsibility of paying.”

But the ministry has yet to take any steps to settling the dispute at the science ministry’s center for alternative dispute resolution. According to one estimate, the cleanup cost will total more than 5 trillion yen.

But TEPCO’s refusal so far to pay the full amount involved in cleanup, and the government's failure to force the payment, showed that there is a tacit understanding between the two parties to prevent the utility from going into bankruptcy.

TEPCO crafted its rebuilding plan on the premise of receiving up to 5 trillion yen in financial assistance from national coffers. But the plan has effectively fallen apart.

The company expects to pay a total of 3.8 trillion yen in damages to affected residents. As of the current fiscal year alone, the government has set aside 1.3 trillion yen for the decontamination operation.

Many experts say they suspect that TEPCO is waiting for the government to finally decide to inject taxpayer money into the decontamination operation by continually refusing to repay the costs the government covered.

Meanwhile, some lawmakers within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are now calling on the government to pick up the cleanup tab on behalf of TEPCO. The industry ministry welcomes the proposal.

On the other hand, the Finance Ministry wants the utility to pay the decontamination costs out of its revenues from increasing electricity rates.

Source (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201310270048)

Rocky_Shorz

28th October 2013, 02:12

I was just looking at Japan's nuke agency data

http://jciv.iidj.net/map/list

Fukushima is at 144,000?

is that the new norm for the area?

wind blowing WNW

panopticon

28th October 2013, 02:16

Here's an article from The Japan Times (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/27/national/ldp-to-seek-tax-money-for-nuke-storage/) on the proposed use of taxpayers money for recovery operations:

###

LDP to seek tax money for nuke storage (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/27/national/ldp-to-seek-tax-money-for-nuke-storage/)
27th October 2013

The Liberal Democratic Party plans to propose that public funds be used to build and manage “temporary” storage facilities in Fukushima Prefecture for radioactive rubbish tainted by the nuclear disaster, party sources said.

The move is aimed at easing pressure on the finances of beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Co. and persuading residents near the crippled plant to accept the storage sites, the sources said Saturday.

The facilities, scheduled to be built in the towns of Okuma, Futaba and Naraha, will cost several hundred billion yen. They are expected to begin storing soil and other waste in January 2015.

The Fukushima No. 1 power plant straddles Okuma and Futaba; Naraha hosts the Fukushima No. 2 plant.

Final disposal of the stored waste is supposed to occur outside Fukushima within 30 years, but a site hasn’t been chosen yet amid heavy opposition.

The LDP is set to call for the use of taxpayer money other funds earmarked for Tohoku’s reconstruction from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the sources said.

But some officials are cautious about the LDP’s plan because a law stipulating that Tepco will shoulder the expenses for the storage facilities and decontamination work will need to be revised.

The law says the government will initially pay for the storage facilities and decontamination work and later ask Tepco to reimburse it. The scheme is designed to prevent Tepco’s teetering finances from affecting the disposal work.

The utility, facing ballooning costs for compensation and for managing the radioactive water perpetually being created by cooling the plant’s melted reactors, is hoping the government will shoulder some of the cost of the decontamination work, since it has announced that it is going to take over the cleanup.

Some officials and LDP members say Tepco should cover the costs, blaming it completely for the disaster.

In Fukushima, about 140,000 evacuees have been rendered homeless by the disaster.

Source (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/27/national/ldp-to-seek-tax-money-for-nuke-storage/)

panopticon

28th October 2013, 02:41

I was just looking at Japan's nuke agency data

http://jciv.iidj.net/map/list

Fukushima is at 144,000?

is that the new norm for the area?

wind blowing WNW

Yes.

That is in the Daiichi plant surrounds.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/images/f1_lmap-j.gif

Graph over last week from mobile monitoring:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/images/2013monitoring/f1_lgraph-j.gif

Graph from last week monitoring stations:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1-rt/images-j/f1-mp-lgraph-j.png

144,000 nSv converts to 0.144 mSv/hr (readings done in nSv/Hr or uSv converted for easier understanding).

This is ambient air monitoring (ie radiation detected) and doesn't indicate surface contamination levels, concentration of various isotopes nor emission type (though I'd assume gamma as it's air monitoring).
-- Pan

Cognitive Dissident

28th October 2013, 14:13

Majia provides a pretty good round-up of the current situation. Renewed criticalities since July 2013, and increasing effects on animals. Even the MSM is finding it hard to ignore now.

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/animal-anomalies-is-fukushima-daiichi.html

panopticon

31st October 2013, 11:23

Not a bad article from Mike Willacy on the fuel removal process starting soon at Fukushima daiichi SFP #4.

This is the first time I've seen any mention in the MSM alluding to the problems in removing the melted fuel from reactors 1, 2 & 3 and how this is going to take many, many years.

Anyway the article isn't very long and covers all the relevant information so anyone who hasn't been following can catch up.

###

Fukushima decommissioning slip-up could trigger monumental chain reaction, expert warns (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-31/fukushima-nuclear-meltdown-tepco-tokyo/5059514)
by Mark Willacy, 31st October 2013

One slip-up in the latest step to decommission Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant could trigger a "monumental" chain reaction, experts warn.

Within days, Fukushima nuclear plant operators will begin what is being described as the most dangerous phase of the decommissioning process so far.

In an operation never before attempted, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will start removing 1,331 highly radioactive used fuel assemblies from a deep pool which sits high above the ground in a shattered reactor building.

The Fukushima nuclear plant's reactors were sent into meltdown by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011 in the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Experts around the world have warned ever since that the fuel pool is in a precarious state - vulnerable to collapsing in another big earthquake.

Yale University professor Charles Perrow wrote about the number 4 fuel pool this year in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

He said one pool contains 10 times the amount of radioactive caesium present in the Chernobyl disaster and warned one slip-up with the removal could trigger a chain reaction.

"This has me very scared," he told the ABC.

"Tokyo would have to be evacuated because [the] caesium and other poisons that are there will spread very rapidly.

"Even if the wind is blowing in the other way, it's going to be monumental."

TEPCO says it's prepared for delicate operation

It has taken TEPCO more than two-and-a-half years to clear away debris and get the number 4 reactor ready for the delicate operation.

TEPCO's Yoshimi Hitosugi insisted the company's engineers were prepared.

"We are going to transfer the fuel into containers while it's under water," Mr Hitosugi told the ABC through a translator.

"Then we'll use a crane to remove the containers and take them to a new pool."

Even Japan's nuclear watchdog is urging TEPCO to exercise the utmost caution.

Earlier this week the Nuclear Regulation Authority chief told TEPCO's president to proceed very carefully, warning that if TEPCO hits a problem, the risks will grow.

Mr Hitosugi said TEPCO engineers had reinforced the shattered building, propped up the fuel pool, and installed a new crane.

He said there was nothing to worry about.

"We believe it's not dangerous," Mr Hitosugi said.

"The reactor building is structurally sound.

"We don't believe there'll be any accident."

The operation is a test of TEPCO's technical prowess ahead of what will be an even more challenging task in the years to come - removing the piles of nuclear fuel at the bottom of reactors 1, 2, and 3.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/2649946-3x2-700x467.jpg
PHOTO: An earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 prompted the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. (TEPCO)

Source (www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-31/fukushima-nuclear-meltdown-tepco-tokyo/5059514)

panopticon

1st November 2013, 01:13

TargeT

2nd November 2013, 16:41

sheme

2nd November 2013, 17:16

Prayers for the people of Japan and the workers at Fukushima

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gmOcje04H4

panopticon

3rd November 2013, 01:57

TEPCO has released an animated video of the fuel removal and storage process (available here (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/library/movie-01e.html?bcpid=59368209002&bclid=347242463002&bctid=642054611002)).

Looks easy enough in the animation.

There again nothing is said about the remaining debris or the possibility of broken/deformed spent fuel assemblies.

that's pretty unlikely, uranium is one of the densest metals, the chance of them being broken or deformed is pretty low.

Sorry for the short reply TargeT, I'm really busy atm.

#4 Boiling Water Reactor (BWR).
Uranium pellets used in zirconium-alloy clad fuel rods.
Zirconium very good cladding material (high melting temp, high strength etc).
Zirconium corrosion resistant in (sea)water.
Strength only decreases at higher temperatures (1800+ C not achieved as far as we know).
Hydrogen (eg. steam) reacts with Zirconium increasing corrosion risk and lowering strength.
SFP #4 water boiled in March 2011, increased possibility of zirconium cladding reacting with hydrogen.
The reactor #4 SPF explosion caused by a hydrogen build-up (though TEPCO says it was a result of venting from #3 which appears to be consistent with observations of the pool structure).
Possibility of corrosion and some warping/damage to assemblies due to movement.

That's my reasoning.
From the footage I've seen (provided by TEPCO on their website) it appears that the fuel rod storage vessel was largely undamaged by the earthquake.
This does mean that the likelihood of damage having occurred is low.
However, TEPCO provided the footage, is trying to save money/face and is running the removal process.

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

6th November 2013, 11:07

Cognitive Dissident

6th November 2013, 14:53

The situation remains critical. The only positive development I can see is that there is an increasing awareness that this is a global emergency, not just a TEPCO problem...

http://enenews.com/former-ambassador-to-president-obama-major-global-catastrophe-if-the-worst-happens-at-fukushima-unit-4-this-is-the-most-pressing-global-security-issue

Quote:

Much reported contaminated water problem at Fukushima Daiichi is overshadowing the Unit 4 crisis which is the most pressing global security issue
If the worst happens, the total evacuation will be imposed and it will be, as top scientists of the world warn, the beginning of a major global catastrophe
It is urgently needed to set up an international task force
Conditions of unprecedented complexity
This requires the establishment of a new system based on the full assumption of responsibilities by the Government of Japan
This is the crisis of Japan as a nation, not the crisis of the management of TEPCO

And, there is more awareness that there was a nuclear explosion at Unit 3, which contained plutonium, the most toxic element ever created, and thereby blew an unknown amount of plutonium into the atmosphere...

"willful denial at the highest levels" about sums it up unfortunately.

http://enenews.com/reactor-designer-it-was-a-nuclear-explosion-at-fukushima-unit-3-plutonium-was-scattered-after-blast-abc-theres-willful-denial-and-lying-going-on-here-even-at-the-highest-levels

RMorgan

6th November 2013, 15:33

Check this new RT article, folks...

Big quake near Fukushima would ‘decimate Japan, lead to US West Coast evacuation’ (http://rt.com/news/fukushima-destroy-japan-us-290/)

The stricken nuclear plant at Fukushima in northern Japan is in such a delicate condition that a future earthquake could trigger a disaster that would decimate Japan and affect the entire West Coast of North America, a prominent scientist has warned.

Speaking at a symposium on water ecology at the University of Alberta in Canada, prominent Japanese-Canadian scientist David Suzuki said that the Japanese government had been “lying through its teeth” about the true extent of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

He attributed the cover-up to the Japanese government’s collusion with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) that administers the plant.

“Fukushima is the most terrifying situation that I can imagine,” Suzuki said, adding that another earthquake could trigger a potentially catastrophic, nuclear disaster.

“The fourth [reactor] has been so badly damaged that the fear is if there’s another earthquake of a 7 or above then that building will go and all hell breaks loose,” he said, adding that the chances of an earthquake measuring 7 or above in Japan over the next three years were over 95 percent.

“If the fourth [reactor] goes under an earthquake and those rods are exposed, then it’s bye, bye, Japan and everybody on the west coast of North America should be evacuated. And if that isn’t terrifying, I don’t know what is,” Suzuki said.

“The thing we need is to let a group of international experts go in with complete freedom to do what they suggest,” Suzuki said, adding that the only thing impeding this was the “pride” of the Japanese government that was refusing to admit this was necessary.

Suzuki referred to the current scheme of freezing the soil around the reactor to prevent radioactive leaks as “cockamany.”

TEPCO has accepted the US government’s help in undertaking the risky cleanup operation of the Fukushima site. Teams of experts will begin the removal of fuel rods from the fourth reactor in mid-November in a decommissioning process that is likely to take decades. One wrong move in the delicate operation could result in horrific quantities of radiation being released into the atmosphere or trigger a massive explosion.

Dr Helen Caldicott described the risks of removing the rods to RT as “terribly serious” because of the danger of releasing a large amount of radiation.

“Two rods could touch each other in this process which has been done before and there could be a fission reaction and a very large release of radiation.”

Suzuki, a prominent environmental campaigner and scientist from the University of British Columbia, whose television science programs and books have gained a wide international audience, has been very vocal in his criticisms of Japan in its handling of the disaster.

Despite his prominence in Canada, Suzuki has been criticized in the past by the media for double standards and his credentials as a scientist have been queried. While his television programs encourage society to consume less fossil fuel and adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, Suzuki reportedly lives in one of Vancouver’s most exclusive areas and has faced criticism over his globetrotting airplane travel.

However, with regard to the current situation at Fukushima, a number of scientists have echoed Suzuki’s concerns. Nuclear technology historian Robert Jacobs told RT that there could easily be more destruction at the plant’s fourth reactor.

“If this building were to collapse, which could happen, it would spill these spent nuclear fuel rods all over the ground which would make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics impossible and could threaten all kinds of health problems throughout northern Japan and Tokyo itself,” Jacobs said.

iTqzqoKMLEg

Raf.

TargeT

6th November 2013, 17:25

I am not upto date with this thread. Thank you for keeping it going and
its important to keep it on our mind. I just watched this item on RT

'Shut down all nuclear power plants!' Hangout with anti-nuclear
activist Dr Helen Caldicott

u-Of-3VontE

FYI Helen Caldicott has been shown to be a liar/fraud depending on false sources ( a Russian novel translated to English about Chernobyl is the source of all her scary statements) and is just a really poor, poor representation of a topic that actually has legitimate concerns.

Check this new RT article, folks...

Big quake near Fukushima would ‘decimate Japan, lead to US West Coast evacuation’ (http://rt.com/news/fukushima-destroy-japan-us-290/)

[QUOTE]
“The fourth [reactor] has been so badly damaged that the fear is if there’s another earthquake of a 7 or above then that building will go and all hell breaks loose,” he said, adding that the chances of an earthquake measuring 7 or above in Japan over the next three years were over 95 percent.

“If the fourth [reactor] goes under an earthquake and those rods are exposed, then it’s bye, bye, Japan and everybody on the west coast of North America should be evacuated. And if that isn’t terrifying, I don’t know what is,” Suzuki said.

That's like me saying if I drive my truck in to a school bus I'll take out the entire western hemisphere! and if that's not scary I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!

these types of statements are backed up by nothing, pure fear porn

panopticon

7th November 2013, 00:31

A very balanced report from the BBC on the removal process:

###

Fukushima nuclear plant set for risky operation (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24843657)

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70957000/jpg/_70957529_70955964.jpg
More than 1,000 fuel rod assemblies need to be removed from a building that was badly damaged following the tsunami

A task of extraordinary delicacy and danger is about to begin at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station.

Engineers are preparing to extract the first of more than 1,000 nuclear fuel rods from one of the wrecked reactor buildings.

This is seen as an essential but risky step on the long road towards stabilising the site.

The fuel rods are currently in a precarious state in a storage pool in Unit 4.

This building was badly damaged by an explosion in March 2011 following the Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Moving the rods to safety is a high priority but has only become possible after months of repair work and planning.

One senior official told me: "It's going to be very difficult but it has to happen."

The fuel rods are four-metre long tubes containing pellets of uranium fuel and the fear is that some may have been damaged during the disaster.

When the tsunami struck the Japanese coast, the flood swamped the diesel generators providing back up power to the reactors. Three of the reactors went into a state of partial meltdown.

By coincidence, Unit 4 was undergoing maintenance, so all of its fuel rods were being stored. But the meltdown of a neighbouring reactor led to a build-up of hydrogen which is believed to have led to the explosion in Unit 4.

In the days after the tsunami, there were fears that the blast had damaged Unit 4's storage pool and, in desperation, the authorities used helicopters and fire hoses to keep it filled with water.

A guiding principle of nuclear safety is that the fuel is kept underwater at all times - contact with the air risks overheating and triggering a release that could spread contamination.

So the operation to remove the rods will be painstaking.

A senior official in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) told me that the rods will be lifted out in batches of 22 and in casks filled with water.

This will be done with a new crane, recently installed in the wrecked building, after the original one was destroyed.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70957000/jpg/_70957584_70957530.jpg
Moving the rods has only become possible after months of repair work and planning

The task of removing each batch will take 7-10 days, I understand.

Two critically important issues are whether the rods themselves are damaged and therefore likely to leak and whether the casks remain watertight to ensure the rods have no contact with the air.

The METI official acknowledged the risks including a possible "release of radiation" from the fuel or if the casks holding the fuel are dropped.

He said that "countermeasures" have been prepared - including back-up wires to hold the loads and mechanisms to hold the fuel in the event of a power failure.

A briefing document released by the site's owners, Tepco, spells out a series of safety systems designed to minimize the dangers.

For example, the fuel pond itself has been strengthened while the new crane can handle loads of one tonne while the fuel cask only weighs 450kg.

Collision tests, it is said, have shown that even if the fuel cask is dropped, it may be deformed but its seals will not be broken.

The fuel rods will then be deposited into a new "common" pool with a cooling system.

According to the METI official, "the common pool is planned to be used over a long period, supposedly for 10 to 20 years, and will be reinforced against possible future earthquakes and tsunamis".

The Tepco document says the rods will be checked for signs of damage - large amounts of debris fell into the pool during the disaster so the risks are real.

It says that checks for corrosion have found only minor signs so far - with "no corrosion affecting fuel integrity".

But only when the operation begins will engineers get a detailed look at the rods and a chance to assess their state.

One senior figure in Japan's nuclear watchdog told me: "Inspections by camera show that the rods look OK but we're not sure if they're damaged - you never know."

He said Unit 4 presented particular dangers because its entire stock of fuel rods was in the pool at the time of the accident.

If the operation goes as planned, attention will then focus on the massive challenges posed by Units 1, 2 and 3.

According to the METI official, the latest investigations have shown that despite the meltdowns experienced by each reactor, their temperatures have now stabilised.

In Units 1 and 2, readings show the presence of water in what's called the primary containment vessel - suggesting that the melted fuel rods have not penetrated that safety barrier.

The radiation level is too high in Unit 3 for that kind of examination to be carried out but using data from the reactor pressure vessel the official assumes that water is also present in the primary containment.

Meanwhile, the site continues to be plagued by leaks of radioactive water flowing into the Pacific Ocean.

Tepco will not confirm the precise timing of the fuel rod operation but after so much public outrage at the company's handling of the crisis so far, scrutiny of this latest episode will be intense.

Source (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24843657)

Cidersomerset

7th November 2013, 16:39

The video report from above post.....They are working on
building 4, but building 1 ,2 & 3 are far to radiated to work
in.They do not know yet how they are going to tackle them.

Inside Japan's stricken Fukushima unit four nuclear reactor

cKtIlZ_Zzig

Published on 7 Nov 2013

Inside Japan's stricken Fukushima unit four nuclear reactor

Engineers at Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power station are preparing to
extract the first of more than 1,000 nuclear fuel rods from one of the reactor
buildings.

The fuel rods in reactor building four, which was badly damaged by an explosion
following an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 have been in a precarious state
ever since.

Moving them into safe storage is a high priority, but the operation has only become
possible after months of repair work and planning.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from inside reactor building four.

Cidersomerset

7th November 2013, 22:47

Dangerous Phase: Fukushima's radioactive fuel rods to move to safe storage

0kmnyNA2si4

Published on 7 Nov 2013

Japan is bracing itself for the most dangerous operation at the Fukushima
nuclear plant since it was crippled by a quake and tsunami in March 2011.
The company running the facility plans to move radioactive fuel rods to safe
storage. RT's Alexey Yaroshevsky is in Japan for us. Christina Consolo,
Founder and Host of Nuked Radio, doubts that engineers will be able to
pull this off - given the level of damage at the plant.

====================================================

Video from Fukushima: Japanese media given rare look inside stricken nuclear plant

iIS5iZJ4lPM

panopticon

8th November 2013, 14:57

Just to clarify.
A Boiling Water Reactor has fuel rods that are contained in fuel assemblies.
There are 1331 spent fuel assemblies in the #4 spent fuel pool.
There are also around 200 unused (new) fuel assemblies in the #4 spent fuel pool.
Each rod is made from a zirconium-alloy and filled with pellets (eg uranium pellets).

Each assembly contains something like 70 fuel rods.
The spent fuel pool #4 contains something like 93,000 spent fuel rods and 14,000 unused (new) fuel rods.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/uploadedImages/org/info/GE%20BWR%20nuclear%20fuel%20assembly%202.jpg

Source of image and for further information (http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclear-Fuel-Cycle/Conversion-Enrichment-and-Fabrication/Fuel-Fabrication/).

The removal process involves moving 22 assemblies (~1500 rods) into a transport container (see below) underwater and then bringing it to the surface to be moved to the common spent fuel pool (which contains 6375 spent fuel assemblies [about 440,000 spent fuel rods] at the moment).

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131101_05-e.pdf

Source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131101_05-e.pdf)

Hope this helps as media reports are often using assembly numbers and calling them rods.
-- Pan

Cognitive Dissident

8th November 2013, 15:19

One thing that is not mentioned in the current MSM reports is the possibility that SPF4 boiled dry and/or had criticalities/melting in March 2011.

http://hatrickpenryunbound.com/?p=3876 has got a load of documents via FOIA from the NRC emails and transcripts from the early days of the disaster, they are quite clear that SPF4 has boiled dry - makes you wonder if it really was a hydrogen explosion, or something more.

On balance, from that information it would appear that the rods in SPF4 are already quite damaged, but who knows exactly how much. Of course, if SPF4 is now filled with water, the melted parts would be at the bottom of the pool. So it may well be the plan that they just lift the assemblies out into the containers, leave whatever is left at the bottom of the pool, and declare that the job is done, however many tonnes of melted fuel rods are still in the water.

Unfortunately we can't believe a damn thing TEPCO tells us. They are still making a profit on their other plants, even though Fukushima should make them bankrupt! They have every incentive to lie and fake data, maybe even fake photos and video. Why is there no camera pointed at SPF 4 24/7? Even BP could put a camera on their Gulf spill...

Some recent stories from enenews.com on this subject:

http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-fuel-rods-are-in-a-jumble-at-fukushima-unit-4-pool-unclear-if-they-are-cracked-us-pressing-japan-on-removal-fears-terrorist-activity-at-plant-video

Cidersomerset

8th November 2013, 16:48

I just saw this article on the BBC web site, I have
put several articles about this on various threads.
Its of interest to me as its on aprox 5 miles away
from where I'm typing. There was a 'pretend
consultation' for the last few years, which it was
obvious the government was going to build it
as part of their basket of different energy resources.

Apart from it also being built on one of the highest
tidal estuaries in the world, where although rare
we did have a tsunami in the 1600's that caused
widespreaddeath and destruction in the local area.

What I did not realise is at present it only supplies
1% to the grid, though this will go up to 7% when
the multi Billion new reactor comes on line in a decade.
I just feel this is a backward step, as especially in the
1990's the government said they were not going to build
any more Nuclear plants, and is why the agency that
invented the nuclear industry was disposed of from the
Labour government. So its even more ironic that we
have to ask the French & Chinese to build it

===================================================

http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.54.3/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

6 November 2013 Last updated at 14:45

Hinkley firm denies fuel claimBy Rob Broomby

British Affairs Correspondent, BBC World Service

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70608000/jpg/_70608228_70608227.jpg

View of Hinkley Point C with Hinkley Point A and B in the background Hinkley
currently produces about 1% of the UK's total energy, but this is expected to
rise to 7% once the expansion is complete in 2023

Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
Hinkley nuclear deal divides opinion
Nuclear power plant gets go-ahead
Q&A: Nuclear strike price

The company building Britain's first nuclear power station in a generation has
denied a suggestion that the new plant would use controversial MOX fuel.

French state-owned utility EDF said the use of plutonium-based Mixed Oxide fuel
was not under consideration for use at the Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset.

Under questioning by the Public Accounts Committee, Mark Higson from the Office
for Nuclear Development, said MOX could be used.

Mr Higson was speaking on 4 November.

The OND chief executive told the committee that MOX fuel could be used "in power
stations yet to be built. The EPR reactor at Hinkley, for example".

MOX is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material. It often
consists of plutonium along with uranium, from either natural, reprocessed or
depleted sources.

EDF, which wants to use French reactor technology backed by Chinese money at
Hinkley, responded quickly to the statement, saying it was not correct and that
using MOX was not even a consideration.

In a statement, an EDF spokesman said: "We have not used MOX in any of our
stations and have no plans to do so in the future in our existing stations or new
nuclear stations."

Mixed oxide fuel was contrived as a method of getting rid of Britain's stockpile of
civil plutonium - the largest in the world - accumulated from years of reprocessing
foreign and UK nuclear waste.

But there is no active plan to dispose of the material, which is now seen as a
terrorism target and a proliferation risk because it can be used to make nuclear
bombs.

No certain market

Turning plutonium into MOX fuel was thought to be the answer. But the Sellafied
MOX plant built to make it failed dramatically at a cost of £1.4bn and was closed in
2011. A planned new MOX facility has a price tag of between £5bn and £6bn to the
taxpayer.

But the business case is controversial. To the astonishment of MPs on the
committee, Mr Higson explained: "The value of the fuel, we would expect to be less
than the cost of operating and building the MOX plant."

In other words, it would be done purely to dispose of the plutonium, with no certain
market for the fuel.

EDF says it won't use MOX and Horizon, the other major nuclear company hoping to
build reactors in the UK, which is backed by the Japanese firm Hitachi, said it has
no plans to use MOX either.

Steve Thomas, professor of energy policy at Greenwich University,
commented: "MOX is a nuclear fuel invented by governments to address the
embarrassing problem of what to do with separated plutonium. It is expensive,
difficult to handle and increases maintenance and storage costs, so utilities will
always be very reluctant to use MOX unless forced to do so."

A spokesman for Decc said the government's preferred option for dealing with
plutonium remained MOX, but it appeared to row back on the statement made to
MPs.

"Mr Higson's reference to Hinkley was merely by way of example. The EPR is
capable of burning MOX fuel. Actual use of MOX in Hinkley or any other new build
reactors would need to be subject to commercial negotiations with operators
concerned. Such commercial negotiations are naturally some way off as the
reactors have yet to be built."

The spokesman added that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority was also
looking at alternative options.

Hinkley is already controversial. Peter Atherton of the city firm Liberum Capital
called it "the most expensive power station in the world (excluding hydro
schemes)".

Criticism has focused on the government decision to allow EDF to charge £92.50
per Megawatt-hour (MWh), twice the current market rate for the electricity which,
because it is index linked, would be nearer £121 per MWh by the time the plant
opens.

That could earn the French and Chinese state-owned firms up to £80bn over the life
of the plant. A controversy over MOX fuel could be the last thing they need.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24834932

sgRSP0-5Wxw

Cidersomerset

8th November 2013, 16:58

This is from last year, in the end 99% of
all protest are ignored by the Corporate
world. There was a lot of opposition, but
basically ignored by Whitehall.

The same has just happened in the Post
Office, the sale was stealthily put on
stock exchange.

ZfTX-zMbCG8

Published on 1 Mar 2012

Community groups from all over the UK will be forming a symbolic
chain around the EDF Energy-owned power station on Saturday
10 -- 11 March.Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station, Nr Bridgwater,
Somerset,, United Kingdom The chain will represent their battle to
stop the expansion of Hinkley Point and to halt the government's
push for seven other new nuclear power stations around the UK.

Cidersomerset

8th November 2013, 17:13

This is a very good documentary and shows the hap hazard
way contaminated waste is pumped into the sea, with no
real idea what will happen to it. It seems that relying on dilution
in the ocean and dispersal is the hope.

Also child leukemia and cancer rates are higher in these areas,
and is an excepted risk , for lower energy costs. Its an excepted
government conspiracy.

Nuclear Waste Disposal Documentary

oUYJFlObhtA

Published on 2 Jun 2013

A new documentary that examines the nuclear waste disposal
problem in just one location. We have these sites across the globe,
all over our oceans. There are even instances where pipes have
been setup in the sea, so the waste can be disposed off even
easier and unseen.

Cidersomerset

8th November 2013, 18:21

I don't know if this has already been posted ..........

Aproximately 40 years to clean up the plant, Managers speak to interviewer
identity hidden on the events of the meltdown...with reconstruction of the
tragedy....

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

Fukushima The Truth Behind the Chain of Meltdowns - NuclearAdvisor.com

VZgYmkItcqk

Published on 15 Feb 2013

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (Fukushima Dai-ichi ( pronunciation)
genshiryoku hatsudensho jiko?) was a series of equipment failures, nuclear
meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power
Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.[5][6] It is
the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, and only the
second disaster (along with Chernobyl) to measure Level 7 on the International
Nuclear Event Scale.[7]

The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by
General Electric (GE), and maintained by the Tokyo Electric Power Company
(TEPCO). At the time of the quake, Reactor 4 had been de-fueled while 5 and 6
were in cold shutdown for planned maintenance.[8] Immediately after the
earthquake, the remaining reactors 1-3 shut down automatically, and emergency
generators came online to power electronics and coolant systems. However the
tsunami following the earthquake quickly flooded the low-lying rooms in which the
emergency generators were housed. The flooded generators failed, cutting power to
the critical pumps that must continuously circulate coolant water through a nuclear
reactor for several days in order to keep it from melting down after being shut
down. As the pumps stopped, the reactors overheated due to the normal high
radioactive decay heat produced in the first few days after nuclear reactor
shutdown (smaller amounts of this heat normally continue to be released for years,
but are not enough to cause fuel melting).

At this point, only prompt flooding of the reactors with seawater could have cooled
the reactors quickly enough to prevent meltdown. Salt water flooding was delayed
because it would ruin the costly reactors permanently. Flooding with seawater was
finally commenced only after the government ordered that seawater be used, and
at this point it was already too late to prevent meltdown.[9]

As the water boiled away in the reactors and the water levels in the fuel rod pools
dropped, the reactor fuel rods began to overheat severely, and to melt down. In
the hours and days that followed, Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced full meltdown.[
10][11]
In the intense heat and pressure of the melting reactors, a reaction between the
nuclear fuel metal cladding and the remaining water surrounding them produced
explosive hydrogen gas. As workers struggled to cool and shut down the reactors,
several hydrogen-air chemical explosions occurred.[12][13]

Concerns about the repeated small explosions, the atmospheric venting of
radioactive gasses, and the possibility of larger explosions led to a 20 km (12 mi)-
radius evacuation around the plant. During the early days of the accident workers
were temporarily evacuated at various times for radiation safety reasons. At the
same time, sea water that had been exposed to the melting rods was returned to
the sea[citation needed] heated and radioactive in large volumes[citation needed]
for several months until recirculating units could be put in place to repeatedly cool
and re-use a limited quantity of water for cooling. The earthquake damage and
flooding in the wake of the tsunami hindered external assistance. Electrical power
was slowly restored for some of the reactors, allowing for automated cooling.[14]

Japanese officials initially assessed the accident as Level 4 on the International
Nuclear Event Scale (INES) despite the views of other international agencies that it
should be higher. The level was later raised to 5 and eventually to 7, the maximum
scale value.[15][16] The Japanese government and TEPCO have been criticized in
the foreign press for poor communication with the public and improvised cleanup
efforts.[17][18][19] On 20 March, the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano
announced that the plant would be decommissioned once the crisis was over.

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Rocky_Shorz

8th November 2013, 18:47

the mess from just this one power plant is 547,000 fuel rods?

isn't it time to build a brine reactor that can reuse these rods until they are spent?

GE manufacturer of the mess has the technology to build a brine reactor right now...

We need to call forward the 99% to march and camp on every GE facility worldwide until the truths are known...

Anonymous, we have a project for some Angels with Tude...

time to change GE's "we bring good things to life" logo how about "we destroy good things and life"

find info on these reactors to pass on to the white dragon society...

TargeT

8th November 2013, 18:59

Rocky_Shorz

8th November 2013, 19:10

I like Thorium I have a contact in Australia that has been working on bring a few online...

the brine reactor does a chemical reaction that brings the rod back into a usable condition that can be put back into the nuke reactor...

it moves back and forth until it is to the point it can be handled without any protection...

we had a thread on it here at Avalon somewhere

Cidersomerset

8th November 2013, 19:39

'Fukushima beyond tragic, it's a crime'

LJdrvbt-MYk

Published on 8 Nov 2013

A nuclear clean-up team in Fukushima is preparing to move
the fuel rods from one of the power plant's reactors to a safer
location. It's the most hazardous undertaking at the Japanese
facility since it was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami,
two and a half years ago. To discuss the clean-up procedures
as well as the safety situation around the Fukushima power
plant, Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist for the Beyond
Nuclear Organization, joins RT.

panopticon

9th November 2013, 01:29

the mess from just this one power plant is 547,000 fuel rods?

Closer to double that figure Rocky.

496 New (unused) assemblies.
7354 either in reactors or reactor spent fuel pools.
6375 in common spent fuel pool.

In total there are 13729 spent or partially spent fuel assemblies on site each containing 70 fuel rods.

Total spent fuel rods on site is over 960,000.
Total unused (new) fuel rods on site is over 34,000.

The condition of assemblies in reactors 1-3 is uncertain (~3000 assemblies).

This makes no difference to the situation.
I was simply pointing out misleading reporting.

Rocky_Shorz

9th November 2013, 01:55

sorry I was just adding quick from your earlier post...

that's a million nuclear rods just at Fukushima? how about all the other Japanese facilities combined, any guesstimate?

panopticon

9th November 2013, 03:01

panopticon

9th November 2013, 04:55

sorry I was just adding quick from your earlier post...

that's a million nuclear rods just at Fukushima? how about all the other Japanese facilities combined, any guesstimate?

Now, that's something I've never looked at.

Way too hard to even guesstimate.

There's length of time plant commissioned, type of plant, capacity of reactors, storage...

As an example.

The Ōi Nuclear Power Plant started operation in 1979 and uses 4 Westinghouse Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR) with each one having a capacity of around 1100MW.

Most Westinghouse PWR reactors in the 1100MW range use 193 assemblies with rod spaces @ 17 X 17 each (~290 rod spaces).
This means that each reactor while in operation uses around 50,000 rods (some spaces are left empty).
Rods are at 4m length (welded at each end).
Each reactor uses approximately 1cm X 1cm pellets of Uranium Dioxide (UO2) stacked in those rods leading to around 18,000,000 pellets per reactor.

Ōi Nuclear Power Plant has 4 reactors meaning that while operating at full capacity there are 760 assemblies in use (~200,000 rods).
This doesn't include fuel that is "cooling" in the spent fuel pool nor new assemblies waiting to be used.

However, working on a 4 years cycle per assembly (which is generous) this would mean that since the plants commissioning in 1979 it has used (using a factor of 8 instead of 9 for a lower total) ~6080 assemblies or ~1,600,000 fuel rods.

This is a guesstimate for one plant with 4 reactors @ ~1100MW.

I went for a lower estimate to include maintenance, closures and shut downs of facility (maintenance shut down September 2013 ongoing, live facility report from KEPCO here (www1.kepco.co.jp/gensi/monitor/live_unten/u_real.html)).

See the difficulty in working out even a guesstimate? :help:

That and it's a little bit meaningless as different reactors use different assemblies, different fuel rods, different fuel types and all of them have different capacities.

Might be better off looking at total weight of stored fuel in pools or maybe total processed fuel entering Japan since 1960 (though I don't know where or if that would be available).
-- Pan

For more information on these reactors see:
Training manual (basic) Pressurised Water Reactors (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/teachers/04.pdf)
The Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant (http://www4.ncsu.edu/~doster/NE405/Manuals/PWR_Manual.pdf) <-- This is a manual & very detailed.

Cidersomerset

9th November 2013, 06:31

Also child leukemia and cancer rates are higher in these areas,
and is an excepted risk , for lower energy costs. Its an excepted
government conspiracy.

The last 10 minutes really were informative and showed how government is linked/responsible to corporations.

Anyone who is interested I'm talking about from 42:30 on.
-- Pan

This is what I meant by a complicit Government/corporate conspiracy,
Acceptable statistical collateral damage. A few premature deaths is an
exceptable, deniable PR exercise. As they said and we all suspect/know.
'Government conspiracies ' are the excepted norm in all manor of
administrational departments.

The trouble is no one knows if there will be greater long term health
effects and contamination to the wider population or environment.
They are just hoping for the best and that nature will repair or
adapt to any major changes.

panopticon

9th November 2013, 07:39

Here's a report about a former worker at Fukushima Daiichi talking about how hasty the construction of the waste water storage tanks were and some information from TEPCO on how they are going to improve/replace tanks and increase capacity. For those who've been following this thread I ranted on about tanks being on slopes causing water leakage through over filling... Don't worry I'm not going to again, just quote a section of the below article for later reference:

The company has said that other tanks exceed its self-imposed 1-degree tilt limit. It also said the tanks are not anchored to the ground, but sit on a 20-centimeter-thick (8-inch-thick) layer of cement on top of a wire-mesh panel.
:faint2:

Here's the article.

#######

Japan Nuke-Plant Water Tanks Flawed, Workers Say
by Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press. November 08

TOKYO (AP) — When tons of radioactive water leaked from a storage tank at Fukushima's crippled nuclear power plant and other containers hurriedly put up by the operator encountered problems, Yo****atsu Uechi was not surprised. He wonders if one of the tanks he built will be next.

He's an auto mechanic. He was a tour-bus driver for a while. He had no experience building tanks or working at a nuclear plant, but for six months last year, he was part of the team frantically trying to create new places for contaminated water to go.

Uechi and co-workers were under such pressure to build tanks quickly that they did not wait for dry conditions to apply anti-rust coating over bolts and around seams as they were supposed to; they did the work even in rain or snow. Sometimes the concrete foundation they laid for the tanks came out bumpy. Sometimes the workers saw tanks being used to store water before they were even finished.

"I must say our tank assembly was slipshod work. I'm sure that's why tanks are leaking already," Uechi, 48, told The Associated Press from his hometown on Japan's southern island of Okinawa. "I feel nervous every time an earthquake shakes the area."

Officials and experts and two other workers interviewed by the AP say the quality of the tanks and their foundations suffered because of haste — haste that was unavoidable because there is so much contaminated water leaking from the wrecked reactors and mixed with ground water inflow.

"We were in an emergency and just had to build as many tanks as quickly as possible, and their quality is at bare minimum," said Teruaki Kobayashi, an official in charge of facility control for the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Leaks and other flaws found in several tanks have raised concerns about further and more damaging failures, particularly if another big earthquake, tsunami or typhoon hits. The plant suffered a triple meltdown after Japan's devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The plant has substantially stabilized, but decommissioning is expected to take decades, and TEPCO has suffered what Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has described as a "whack-a-mole" succession of mishaps.

The environmental effects of radioactive water pouring in the sea are unclear, though scientists generally agree that the impact so far has been minimal. With years of work ahead, TEPCO is trying to contain as much contaminated material as possible.

Kobayashi acknowledged the need to improve the design of tanks and their foundations when they are replaced with more durable welded-seam tanks.

The plant has more than 1,000 tanks and other containers storing 370,000 tons of partially treated but still highly contaminated water. About one-third of the containers are easy-to-assemble steel tanks with rubber-sponge seams tightened with bolts; they were always considered a stopgap measure. The other tanks are considered sturdier.

The company is in the process of replacing rubber-seam tanks with larger, more permanent welded tanks, and expects to phase out the temporary tanks by March 2016. It intends not only to replace tanks intended for temporary use but to increase storage capacity to 800,000 tons.

TEPCO has recently accelerated its construction of more reliable tanks, but announced Friday that the pace will continue to be stepped up. "The worst scenario is we run out of space, and we must avoid that," TEPCO President Naomi Hirose said at a news conference.

The company also announced emergency water management plans that also include additional tank maintenance. "I have never thought we needed so many people to take care of these tanks until two months ago," Hirose said.

The tank problems have captured international attention, especially since August, when a 1,000-ton tank lost nearly one-third of its toxic content. A month earlier, TEPCO acknowledged that larger amounts of contaminated underground water have been leaking into the Pacific.

TEPCO has dismantled and examined the tank that leaked, but found no obvious design or assembly flaw. Experts say that only widens the scope of the problem. The plant has to live with an imminent risk of more leaks that could spread contamination farther into groundwater and the sea.

"We should assume any tank could leak sooner or later," said Toyoshi Fuketa, a Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioner and nuclear fuel expert.

Massive amounts of contaminated water distract the plant and its workers from their primary task of reactor cooling and decommissioning preparation. Some of the water became contaminated because it was used to cool melted reactors, but some simply leaked into the wrecked plant, with portions escaping into the sea.

TEPCO will have to keep storing water for years, until the plant can create an air-cooling system for the ruined reactors or remove molten fuel out of them, and develop advanced units that can remove radioactive material from water and make it safe enough to release.

TEPCO hopes to limit the amount of water it must store and treat. It plans to pump away ground water before it reaches the reactor area, then release it untainted into the sea. But tank problems threaten those plans because the pump-out wells are downstream from the containers; leaks would contaminate the water before it could be diverted.

The plant's still-high radiation levels, particularly around the reactors and in tank areas, play a role in the quality of tank construction. Crews must work quickly to avoid prolonged exposure, and nuclear-plant veterans usually face radiation only to conduct highly skilled work, so jobs such as tank assembly typically go to contract workers who often come from low-tier subcontractors.

A worker who has been at the plant since the early days of the crisis said many senior workers have quit after their exposures have reached limits, and others are seeking better-paying jobs outside the plant. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared his employer could punish him for talking to a reporter.

In October 2012, Uechi was told to climb to the top of the 10-meter-high (30-foot-high) tanks and replace temporary covers for hose-insertion openings with disc-shaped steel covers, each the size of a dinner plate. He found that the temporary covers were nothing but masking tape that a worker could have easily stepped through.

Tales of slapdash construction are not limited to workers. A nuclear regulator, Shinji Kinjo, said water-tightness tests were sometimes held in the rain when there was no way of telling the leak from the rainwater.

The August leak led TEPCO to reveal that it had an earlier tank-yard foundation problem: The tank that leaked had been relocated two years earlier, after the ground underneath it collapsed during a water-tightness test. The company has since taken down two other tanks that were near the collapse area.

In October, when radioactive water overflowed from another tank, TEPCO said that vessel and four others connected to each other were built on a slope slightly tilting to the ocean. The tank that leaked was built without a water gauge and alarm that could have alerted workers.

The company has said that other tanks exceed its self-imposed 1-degree tilt limit. It also said the tanks are not anchored to the ground, but sit on a 20-centimeter-thick (8-inch-thick) layer of cement on top of a wire-mesh panel.

Tetsuro Tsusui, a former industrial plant engineer and a member of a civil group of scientists, said TEPCO's foundation work is insufficient. He said building tanks on slopes is "unthinkable," and that the flaws suggest "a systematic problem of quality and safety control."

Taisei Corp., Japan's leading construction company and one of the primary tank builders, declined to comment.

The maker of the tanks, TKK Co. said tank assembly is "like making a plastic model" and determines the vessels' quality. It said TKK tanks are "a temporary, emergency step to prevent crisis."

TEPCO ultimately needs to rely on tanks that can last up to 40 years, said Kobayashi, the company official. "The current situation may be the toughest, transitional phase," he said.

panopticon

9th November 2013, 12:55

We were chatting about employee wages, conditions and the low morale of employees @ Fukushima Daiichi a few pages back in this thread and the link some contractors/sub-contractors have to organised crime syndicates. TEPCO have announced an increase in employee hazard pay and improved conditions as a way of improving employee morale.

Good start TEPCO.

Now just make sure they are getting appropriate training and equipment and that those who are working for sub-contractors get their FULL PAY (ie stop them paying a commission to the Yakuza for being employed) and things might improve a bit.

Article from The Japan Times.

###

Fukushima No. 1 workers to get raise, perks (www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/08/national/fukushima-no-1-workers-to-get-raise-perks/)
By Kazuaki Nagata. November 8, 2013.

Tepco to boost amenities, indirect wages

Aiming to boost the morale of workers at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday it will raise wages and construct two new office buildings, an eight-story “rest station” and a food service center in the facility’s compound.

Tepco will double the extra pay for dangerous work at the Fukushima plant to ¥20,000 per day. The money, however, will first go to Tepco’s contractors and not the workers themselves.

Concerns have recently been raised over bad working conditions at the nuclear plant, which has seen a number of leaks of contaminated water into the nearby sea and soil.

Ahead of the announcement, Tepco President Naomi Hirose met with Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka on Oct. 28, who urged him to maintain morale at the dangerous plant.

“We have come up with measures to maintain worker motivation and improve their working environment,” Hirose told reporters at Tepco headquarters.

The “rest station,” to be built next to the plant’s main gate, will accommodate as many as 1,200 people, while the food service center will have capacity to provide meals for 3,000 people.

Both will be built by the end of fiscal 2014, the utility said.

Currently, most Tepco workers are based in an office building at the Fukushima No. 2 plant, about 10 km from No. 1.

One of the two new office buildings will be built by next June within the No. 1 plant’s compound. It will eliminate the need for Tepco employees to make the trip between the two plants, the utility said.

Tepco said it will also provide more buses for commuting as well as other amenities and additional medical supplies.

Whether these measures will actually benefit all of the workers remains an open question.

Many manual laborers are hired through multiple layers of subcontractors, which reportedly often exploit site workers by charging commissions at each stage of the multiple subcontracts.

By implementing these measures, “we are expecting that the decommissioning work will proceed more smoothly,” Hirose said.

He also said the utility will work on better measures for handling the radioactive water stored in the hundreds of tanks at the plant.

For instance, recent heavy rain caused radioactive rainwater to overflow the concrete-fenced enclosures around the storage tanks, so now Tepco will make the walls higher, he said.

Also, to prevent tank spills, the utility will be putting more caulking compounds and sealant materials on the bottoms and bolts of the flange-type tanks, of which one suffered a leak of 300 tons of contaminated water.

More than 1,000 tanks have been set up within the plant’s compound to contain radioactive water. Of them, 350 are of the flange-type.

Source (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/08/national/fukushima-no-1-workers-to-get-raise-perks/)

Rocky_Shorz

10th November 2013, 01:34

any word if the quake that shook Tokyo had any effect at the Fukishima plant?

panopticon

10th November 2013, 13:49

any word if the quake that shook Tokyo had any effect at the Fukishima plant?

TEPCO has reported that there was no damage evident.

Rocky_Shorz

11th November 2013, 02:47

sounds like a lot of questions in Japan about a "japan cartel" "black market" has supplied the employees for handling of Nuke material

Cidersomerset

11th November 2013, 12:46

David Icke – The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
Monday 11 November 2013

an7EEd2ra0s

Published on 4 Mar 2012
David Icke blames Mossad and United States for Fukushima disaster and Haiti
earthquake.

panopticon

18th November 2013, 03:32

Over the last week TEPCO has released a number of reports (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/index-e.html) in the lead up to the commencement of the fuel removal process from the reactor #4 spent fuel pool which I'll quickly summarise.

Air nuclide levels remain low with Iodine-131 below recording limit (as would be expected) and Caesium 134 & 137 negligible (sources 1 (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2013/images/kaikoubu_131113-e.pdf) & 2 (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2013/images/kaikoubu_131113-e.pdf)).
E-1 sampling hole continues to fluctuate due to rain events influencing ground water level however remains within post Typhoon Wipha levels.
An inspection of Reactor #1's lower vent pipes revealed radiation @ 0.9-1.8 Sv/h along the robots travel route (expected) with evidence of internal leakages found in a few locations (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131113_11-e.pdf)).

Finally, the preparation for the removal process has been outlined by TEPCO (with nifty illustrations and photos) in the following pdf:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131113_12-e.pdf

Source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131113_12-e.pdf)

That's it, as the Sepo's say: Have a nice day. ;)

-- Pan

Cognitive Dissident

18th November 2013, 03:46

As a further twist, now TEPCO admits that 80 fuel assemblies were damaged before March 2011:

http://enenews.com/now-revealed-that-80-spent-fuel-assemblies-are-damaged-and-leaking-radioactive-materials-in-fukushima-storage-pools-kyodo-removal-attempt-at-unit-4-starts-later-today-japan-nuclear-official

"Excerpts from Kahoku Shinpo article translated by EXSKF, Nov. 16, 2013: Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1 has 70 fuel assemblies damaged before the March 11, 2011 disaster, a quarter of the total spent fuel [...] It was revealed on November 15 [...] Technologies to remove damaged fuel haven’t been established [...] According to TEPCO, these 70 fuel assemblies had series of problems including leakage of radioactive materials [...] There are three damaged fuel assemblies inside the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool [...] Reactor 2 Spent Fuel Pool has three damaged [...] Reactor 3 Spent Fuel Pool has four, making the total of damaged fuel assemblies 80 [...]"

Mostly from SPF1, not SPF4, but even so, you do kinda wonder why they only got round to telling us about it now...

panopticon

18th November 2013, 04:26

As a further twist, now TEPCO admits that 80 fuel assemblies were damaged before March 2011

Mostly from SPF1, not SPF4, but even so, you do kinda wonder why they only got round to telling us about it now...

Thanks Cog,

I hadn't come across that yet.

Here's the translation of the Shinpo article (http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2013/11/20131116t63022.htm):

###

Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1 has 70 fuel assemblies damaged before the March 11, 2011 disaster, a quarter of the total spent fuel assemblies [in the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 1].

It was revealed on November 15 that 70 fuel assemblies in the Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant had had damages before the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami.

The damaged assemblies are about one-quarter of the 292 spent fuel assemblies stored in the pool. Technologies to remove damaged fuel haven't been established, and there are worries that [the revelation] may negatively affect the plan to remove the fuels from Reactor 1 [SFP] starting 2017 and the decommissioning work in general.

TEPCO hadn't disclosed all the facts until November 15. The company says it had reported to the national government as required.

According to TEPCO, these 70 fuel assemblies had series of problems including leakage of radioactive materials from small [pinhole-size] holes [on fuel rods]. So the company removed them from the reactor and stored in a separate location inside the Spent Fuel Pool.

There are three damaged fuel assemblies inside the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool, where the removal of the fuel assemblies will start on November 18. TEPCO has postponed the removal of the damaged assemblies as it is difficult to remove them in a normal manner.

Other than in the Spent Fuel Pools of Reactor 1 and Reactor 4, the Reactor 2 Spent Fuel Pool has three damaged fuel assemblies, and the Reactor 3 Spent Fuel Pool has four, making the total of damaged fuel assemblies 80. TEPCO will consider the measures such as building a dedicated container for transfer for these damaged fuels.

As to the reason why Reactor 1 has the largest number of damaged fuels, TEPCO says, "Reactor 1 [at Fukushima I Nuke Plant] is the oldest nuclear reactor of our company, and we hear that there were quality control issues when the fuel rods were manufactured and that there were many fuel rods with inferior quality. From Reactor 2 onward, much improvement was done on the fuel rods, and quality improved."

Reactor 1 at Fukushima I Nuke Plant is the first nuclear reactor for TEPCO, and it started the commercial operation in March 1971.

Source (ex-skf.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-tepco-admits.html)

Cognitive Dissident

18th November 2013, 07:09

Thanks. TEPCO shown to have been incompetent liars for over 30 years. I wonder how much radioactivity has leaked over the past 30 years from those fuel pools.

And let's bear in mind that no human can even get close to SPF 1 2 or 3 due to high radiation from the melted reactors.

Sigh.

sian

18th November 2013, 12:51

don't know if this has already been posted - haven't read the thread yet, so disregard if so.

http://www.naturalnews.com/042952_Fukushima_fuel_rods_inadvertent_criticality.html

Cidersomerset

18th November 2013, 22:38

http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.54.3/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

18 November 2013 Last updated at 08:12

Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant begins fuel rod removal

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71171000/jpg/_71171566_71135639.jpg

This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) on 14 November
2013 shows an operation using imitation fuel rods during an exercise to remove
fuel rods from a pool at the unit four reactor building of Tepco's Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear plant in the town of Okuma in Fukushima prefecture Tepco has been
preparing for months to remove fuel rods at Fukushima

Workers at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have begun removing fuel
rods from a storage pond at the Unit 4 reactor building.

The delicate operation is seen as a necessary step in stabilising the site.

It will take about two days to remove the first 22 fuel rod assemblies, plant
operator Tepco says.

Overall, more than 1,500 assemblies must be removed in what correspondents
describe as a risky and dangerous operation set to take a year.

Experts say hydrogen explosions after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011
have made the current storage facility vulnerable to further tremors.The fuel rod
assemblies are four-metre long tubes containing pellets of uranium fuel, and the
fear is that some may have been damaged during the disaster.When the tsunami
struck, water knocked out cooling systems to three of Fukushima's reactors, which
went into a state of partial meltdown.

Unit 4 was undergoing maintenance, so all of its fuel rods were being stored. But a
build-up of hydrogen triggered an explosion in Unit 4, damaging its structure.

'Important process'

The removal process, which has been preceded by months of repair work and
planning, began on Monday afternoon.

"At 15:18 [06:18 GMT], we started to pull up the first fuel assembly with a crane,"
a spokesman for Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) said.

A recently installed crane is being lowered into the pool and hooked on to the
assemblies to place them inside a cask.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71172000/jpg/_71172087_020035280-1.jpg

This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) on 14 November
2013 shows an operation using imitation fuel rods during an exercise to remove the
fuel rods from a pool at the unit four reactor building of Tepco's Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear plant in the town of Okuma in Fukushima prefecture Removal of fuel rods
from the storage pond is a key step in the decommissioning

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71172000/jpg/_71172089_020035335-1.jpg

This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) on 13 November
2013 shows a cask of nuclear fuel being lifted and moved by Tepco workers during
an exercise to remove fuel rods from a pool at the unit four reactor building of
Tepco's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the town of Okuma in Fukushima
prefecture Tepco has conducted trial runs of the process, which involves large
casks
The fuel rods will then be deposited into a more secure storage pool with a cooling
system.

Experts say it is vital that the casks are watertight so the rods have no contact with
air - which risks overheating and possible contamination.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's top government spokesman, said he hoped the operation
would go as planned.

"We hope that this [process] will be conducted in a manner that will not disturb
local residents, and that the removal will be done on schedule, properly and safely,"
he said.

Tepco spokesman Masayuki Ono called the operation "a very important process in
moving ahead with the plant's decommissioning".

Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has warned that rubble
from the blast in the pool could pose a problem, Kyodo news agency reported.

"The fuel has to be handled very carefully. There is a need to make sure that a fuel
assembly is not pulled out (from the fuel rack) by force when it gets stuck because
of the rubble," Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant has suffered a number of setbacks in recent
months, including a series of toxic water leaks and worker errors.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71178000/gif/_71178232_fukushima_fuel_rods_624_v2.gif

Graphic: Removing rods from reactor 4 at Fukushima
1. Small crane retrieves spent fuel rods from storage pool. A protective shell has
been built over the top of the damaged reactor building. There are 1,331 spent fuel
rods and 202 unused fuel rods to be removed
2. Fuel rods are carefully lowered into specially-constructed casks, which each
weigh 91 tonnes and can hold up to 22 rods
3. A larger crane lifts full cask out of the storage pond and lowers it out of the
building and on to a flat-bed truck. The casks will then be taken to a safe storage
pool on the Fukushima site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24958048

panopticon

19th November 2013, 02:41

Graphic: Removing rods from reactor 4 at Fukushima

1. Small crane retrieves spent fuel rods from storage pool. A protective shell has been built over the top of the damaged reactor building. There are 1,331 spent fuel rods and 202 unused fuel rods to be removed

2. Fuel rods are carefully lowered into specially-constructed casks, which each weigh 91 tonnes and can hold up to 22 rods

3. A larger crane lifts full cask out of the storage pond and lowers it out of the building and on to a flat-bed truck. The casks will then be taken to a safe storage pool on the Fukushima site

:hurt:

Notice how after such a good report they still say 'spent fuel rods', 'unused fuel rods' and 'can hold up to 22 rods' instead of 'spent fuel rod assemblies', 'unused fuel rod assemblies 'and 'can hold up to 22 fuel rod assemblies'.
:smash:

I feel much better now, thanks. :twitch:

-- Pan

Cognitive Dissident

19th November 2013, 03:05

Yesterday they told us that fuel rods/assemblies were damaged BEFORE March 2011. Today they are telling us that fuel rods/assemblies were damaged AFTER March 2011. I wonder what else they are not telling us, and I wonder what their contingency plan is if one of these assemblies is not structurally sound and breaks in transit into the cask?

http://enenews.com/top-uk-newpaper-multiple-sets-of-fuel-rods-at-unit-4-reportedly-damaged-after-disaster-explosions-to-blame-ap-assemblies-and-their-handles-may-have-been-damaged-when-big-pieces-of-debris-fell

And also:

http://enenews.com/top-japan-nuclear-official-deny-fuel-unit-4-pool-damage-scars-rods-grow-radioactive-leaks-during-removal-nhk-workers-find-undetected-damage-fuel

Nov. 18, 2013: [Tepco] said the fuel of the No. 4 unit was unlikely to have sustained major damage. [...] [Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi] Tanaka has also said the fuel assemblies do not appear to have been largely damaged, but that he cannot deny the possibility that “small scars may get bigger” when fuel is taken out and leaks radioactive gas as a result.

We know that TEPCO lies about everything, and the NRA doesn't tell the whole truth. So reading between the lines, like some sort of bizarre nuclear Kremlinology, is all we have to go on.

How about a live webcam trained on SPF4? And on the other reactors, too? Too much to hope for, we can only hope no disaster and no earthquake during the 350+ days (estimate?) it will take to remove all 1,500 assemblies at the rate of 4 per day.:pray:

panopticon

19th November 2013, 10:36

Fuel assembly process removal update report from TEPCO:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131118_03-e.pdf

Source: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131118_03-e.pdf

For reference, here's the document from TEPCO that lists the damaged fuel assemblies pre-2011 earthquake (ie the 80 assemblies that were damaged prior to the earthquake/tsunami) and the various safety measures they say they have in place:

Safety Measures etc. concerning Fuel Removal from Unit 4 in Fukushima Daiichi NPS (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131115_03-e.pdf)

-- Pan

halffull

21st November 2013, 14:46

Talks about west coast evacuation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ouvvZ8ll8

Cidersomerset

21st November 2013, 16:22

This may have been already posted ? but seemed new to me.

Fukushima and the Fall of the Nuclear Priesthood - Arnie Gundersen on GRTV

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Published on 20 Oct 2011

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds.com joins us to discuss the fallout from Fukushima
in the global nuclear industry. Arnie brings his 39 years of experience in the nuclear
industry to bear to give his assessment of what the nuclear crisis means for an
industry that has long controlled the "regulators" who are supposedly watching over it.

What is the future of nuclear power, and have the nuclear priesthood been defrocked?
Find out in this week's GRTV Feature Interview.

Cidersomerset

21st November 2013, 17:56

Talks about west coast evacuation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ouvvZ8ll8

s4ouvvZ8ll8

Published on 15 Nov 2013

Nuclear Engineer Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy
and Environmental Research, confirmed that ocean currents are carrying
the radioactive water to the West Coast."There are several hundred tons
of radioactive water that are pouring into the ocean at the site every day,
" Makhijani said.

According to a study published in the Journal Deep Sea Research 1, it will
begin arriving this March. But Makhijani says there's no need to panic. The
radiation will be diluted, and levels found on the West Coast are very low
and not considered dangerous so far. But the question is, will we really know?

Cidersomerset

21st November 2013, 18:03

FUKUSHIMA RADIATION UPDATES, Nov. 15, 2013

8rEW1rCAmZ8

Cidersomerset

21st November 2013, 18:08

Atomic Mafia? Yakuza cleans up Fukushima, neglects basic workers' rights

hHMrH3ahCs8

Published on 20 Nov 2013

Japan's mafia is reportedly cashing in on the Fukushima
disaster by running the clean-up efforts at the damaged
nuclear plant. Workers complain of being understaffed
and mistreated by contractors who think nothing of
throwing them into areas of high radiation.
RT's Aleksey Yaroshevsky reports from Japan.

Cidersomerset

21st November 2013, 18:21

Fukushima666.Arnie Gundersen talks

jqKjY0vxI2M

Published on 15 Nov 2013

Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean -- Could It Be Fukushima?
Michael Snyder
Activist Post

Why is there so much death and disease among sea life living near the west coast
of North America right now? Could the hundreds of tons of highly radioactive water
that are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day
have anything to do with it?

When I wrote my last article about Fukushima, I got a lot of heat for
being "alarmist" and for supposedly "scaring" people unnecessarily. I didn't think
that an article about Fukushima would touch such a nerve, but apparently there are
some people out there that really do not want anyone writing about this stuff.

Right now, massive numbers of fish and sea creatures are dying in the Pacific
Ocean. In addition, independent tests have shown that significant levels of cesium-
137 are in a very high percentage of the fish that are being caught in the Pacific
and sold in North America. Could this have anything to do with the fact that the
largest nuclear disaster in the history of mankind has been constantly releasing
enormous amounts of radioactive material into the Pacific Ocean for more than two
years? I don't know about you, but to me this seems to be a question that is worth
asking.

Since I wrote my last article, major news outlets have reported that large numbers
of sea stars living off of the west coast of North America appear to be "melting"...
Divers were out in Puget Sound waters Saturday to see if they can help solve a
mystery. Scientists are trying to figure out what's causing one species of starfish to
die in parts of Puget Sound and the waters off of Canada.

Seattle Aquarium biologists Jeff Christiansen and Joel Hollander suited up in scuba
gear in their search for answers. "We're going to look for both healthy and
potentially diseased sea stars," Christiansen explained. "We've got some sea stars
that look like they're melting on the bottom."

The same thing is happening in the waters near Canada and nobody's sure why.
If scientists don't know why this is happening, perhaps there is an unusual
explanation for this phenomenon.

Could it be Fukushima?

The following is what one invertebrate expert quoted by National Geographic says
is happening to the starfish...
[The starfish] seem to waste away, 'deflate' a little, and then just ... disintegrate.
The arms just detach, and the central disc falls apart. It seems to happen rapidly,
and not just dead animals undergoing decomposition, as I observed single arms
clinging to the rock faces, tube feet still moving, with the skin split, gills flapping in
the current. I've seen single animals in the past looking like this, and the first dive
this morning I thought it might be crabbers chopping them up and tossing them off
the rocks. Then we did our second dive in an area closed to fishing, and in
absolutely amazing numbers. The bottom from about 20 to 50 feet [6 to 15 meters]
was absolutely littered with arms, oral discs, tube feet, gonads and gills ... it was
kind of creepy.

Cidersomerset

21st November 2013, 19:33

Fukushima radiation so high even robots not safe

aVQJrM3bUv0

Published on 14 Nov 2013

Rocky_Shorz

21st November 2013, 22:08

quakes hitting close...

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Images/map_zoom/WEBMAPS/48H/T34_44_140_150.48hours.jpg?dt=1385071640536

Cognitive Dissident

23rd November 2013, 15:48

The latest on the SPF extraction. TEPCO have posted this video of one of the fuel assemblies being lifted out (but not moved) - you get a good view, but limited.

Anyway, it looks from this video as if most of the assemblies in view are in place OK, although of course they could be damaged out of view.

At least it's good that we get a good view of some of the process.

http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2013/201311-e/131120-01e.html

panopticon

25th November 2013, 13:08

Quick rundown of the week @ Fukushima:

TEPCO have completed the first run moving 22 unused assemblies to the combined pool from SFP #4 (source 1 (www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1232330_5130.html) [video of containment vessel removal (http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2013/201311-e/131121-01e.html); video of transfer from containment vessel @ common pool into longer term storage (photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2013/201311-e/131122-01e.html)]; source 2 (http://japandailypress.com/tepco-finishes-transfer-of-first-batch-of-nuclear-fuel-assemblies-at-fukushima-plant-2539955/)). Only 8 more trips and they can start on the used fuel rod assemblies...
The IAEA have sent a team to do a 2nd assessment of TEPCO's handling of the decommissioning process (source (http://japandailypress.com/iaea-team-to-visit-fukushima-and-evaluate-decommissioning-plan-2039807/)).
The 'Voice of Russia' are claiming that TEPCO used homeless people who weren't paid and worked unprotected at Fukushima (source (voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_11_24/Homeless-people-employed-cleaning-up-Fukushima-nuclear-plant-3421/)).
The head of TEPCO, Naomi Hirose, told the Guardian that nuclear power wasn't completely safe and he had lots of experience to share with the British nuclear industry (source 1 (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/19/uk-government-new-plant-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-warning); source 2 (http://japandailypress.com/tepco-head-says-fukushima-meltdown-should-serve-as-warning-about-nuclear-safety-2039751/)).

Other than that all the rest of the data I've seen seems to be within parameters (bit of a rise in E1 a few days ago but it's returned to post Wipha levels). Just keep an eye on them earthquakes off the coast line.

Official TEPCO background video explaining extraction/transport process (can anyone say "propaganda"):

kV6ug8Vcn3M
Cheers,
Pan

***

Just a quick reference for myself to re-read TEPCO's advisory report (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1232348_5130.html) about the dangers of information being reported by news agencies in relation to schedules of transfers etc and potential issues from this of sabotage by groups unknown...
:lazy2:

panopticon

27th November 2013, 01:42

The Government of Japan is introducing new wide sweeping "secrecy" legislation in an effort to clamp down on people talking out about a large range of topics. This is being seen by many as a way for the State to further centralise power and stop disclosure of information that may be harmful to the Government. The following reports are on that subject. Notice that the key word "terrorist" (and its derivatives) has been appearing with increased regularity in reports from both TEPCO and the Government of Japan.

###

Japan cracks down on leaks after scandal of Fukushima nuclear power plant (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-cracks-down-on-leaks-after-scandal-of-fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-8965296.html)
By David McNeill. 26th November 2013.

In April 2011, while Fukushima’s fires still smouldered, journalists scrambled to find sources who could shed any light on the nuclear crisis.

In a car park 25 miles south of the plant, a nervous maintenance worker on a rare break told The Independent that conditions onsite were chaotic and dangerous. Workers were exhausted; nobody at the top seemed to know what they were doing.

Nearly three years later, Japan’s parliament is set to pass a new state secrecy bill that critics warn might make revealing such conversations impossible, even illegal. They say the law dramatically expands state power, giving every government agency and ministry the discretion to label restricted information “state secrets”. Breaching those secrets will be punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, denies he is trying to gag the media or restrict the public’s right to know. “There is a misunderstanding,” he told Japan’s parliament today as the Lower House prepared to pass the bill (to be enacted on 6 December). “It is obvious that normal reporting activity of journalists must not be a subject for punishment.”

Few people outside the government, however, seem to believe him. The legislation has triggered protests from Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Journalists, the Federation of Japanese Newspapers Unions, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and many other media watchdogs. Academics have signed a petition demanding it be scrapped.

“It represents a grave threat to journalism because it covers such a wide and vague range of secrets,” said Mizuho Fukushima, a former leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party. She pointed out that the bill casts its net so wide it even includes a clause for “miscellaneous” secrets.

Inevitably, perhaps, debate on the new law has been viewed through the prism of the Fukushima crisis, which revealed disastrous collusion between bureaucrats and the nuclear industry. Critics say journalists attempting to expose such collusion today could fall foul of the new law, which creates three new categories of “special secrets”: diplomacy, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage, in addition to defence.

During deliberations in November, Masako Mori, the minister in charge of the bill, admitted that security information on nuclear power plants could be designated a state secret because the information “might reach terrorists.” The designation would mostly be left to elite bureaucrats.

The government has attempted to steer debate away from Fukushima and toward rising tensions in Asia. Japan’s government says the secrecy legislation has been introduced partly to head off pressure from the US, its key military ally. Washington is still struggling to put out its own diplomatic fires started by whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning.

One possible application for the new law could be seen in November, when Japan held some of its largest-ever military exercises near the southern prefecture of Okinawa.

Opponents of the bill say Japan’s mainstream media is in any case already largely compliant. The latest (2013) World Press Freedom survey, published by journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders, ranks Japan just 53rd, behind most advanced democracies and Lithuania and Ghana.

“Why do we need another law,” asks Taro Yamamoto, an independent politician. “What the government is truly trying to do is increase the power of the state.”

Source (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-cracks-down-on-leaks-after-scandal-of-fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-8965296.html)

###

At Fukushima hearing, all speakers criticize state secrets bill (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201311260068)
The Asahi Shimbun. 26th November 2013.

FUKUSHIMA--The ruling Liberal Democratic Party invited Namie Mayor Tamotsu Baba to speak about the state secrets protection bill, expecting support by a leader near the Fukushima nuclear disaster site to quell criticism against the legislation.

The party’s plan, however, backfired.

“I am afraid no clear bounds were established about what should be designated a state secret,” Baba told a hearing on the bill here on Nov. 25. He also said he cannot trust a government that tends to keep information under wraps.

In fact, all seven speakers at the hearing criticized the bill, saying its ambiguous wording leaves open the possibility of abuse and its harsh penalties could keep citizens in the dark about matters that directly affect their lives.

The ruling coalition, which railroaded the bill through a Lower House committee on Nov. 26, organized the hearing in the prefectural capital. Apart from speakers and politicians, only 50 members of the public could attend after obtaining admission tickets from Diet members.

Since the bill was submitted to the Lower House late last month, calls have grown for specific guidelines on what constitutes a state secret under the legislation.

But the ruling coalition and opposition parties failed to clearly define such state secrets in closed-door meetings and the debate at the Lower House’s special committee on national security.

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tried to reassure leaders of Fukushima Prefecture that the designation of state secrets will not concern information about nuclear power plants.

But experts at the hearing agreed there is room for officials to stretch the bounds of the legislation, and that the government has already given contradictory views about nuclear plant information.

The LDP expected Baba to show an understanding to the necessity of the legislation. The ruling party noted that nuclear power plants are not specified in the bill.

But Baba instead mentioned the government’s bungling of information in the early stages of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.

The government failed to quickly release data from the computer-simulated System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI). Much like a weather map, the system shows the predicted spread of radioactive materials following an accident.

Lacking the SPEEDI information, many Namie residents fled toward areas of high radiation levels during the evacuation.

Residents in Fukushima Prefecture are particularly worried about the concealing of information under the legislation, in light of the water leaks and other problems at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, as well as the decommissioning process that is expected to take decades to complete.

“The general public is concerned about officials’ broad interpretation of state secrets,” said Yumiko Nihei, professor of law at Sakura no Seibo Junior College who was invited by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan to give her views at the hearing.

Nihei, who called for a halt to the bill, also said the government should respect the opinions of the public. The government solicited views from the public on its website in September. Of the 90,480 comments posted, 77 percent were opposed to the legislation.

Nobuyoshi Hatanaka, a professor of the Japanese Constitution at Iwaki Junior College, stressed the importance of the government having a well-informed public before making a crucial policy decision.

“Defense and diplomacy are the central government’s sole prerogative, but how can the central government facilitate the benefit for the public without keeping the public informed?” he said.

He spoke on the invitation of New Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner.

The bill lists four areas of protection for state secrets: defense, diplomacy, the prevention of harmful activities, such as spying, and the prevention of terrorist activities.

Hiroyasu Maki, vice chairman of the Fukushima Bar Association and a speaker at the hearing, said the government has varied its language about security measures concerning nuclear power plants.

“On one day the government says ‘routine security measures are not state secrets,’ whereas on another day it says ‘a security plan drawn up in response to tips on possible terrorist activities at potentially targeted nuclear power plants may be designated as state secrets,” he said.

Maki, invited to the hearing by the DPJ, said this occurred because the bill’s clauses are ambiguous and can cover a wide range of issues.

The government bill sets a maximum 10-year prison term for violators who leak state secrets. With no clear guidelines on what constitutes a state secret, potential whistle-blowers and journalists hoping to expose government corruption may back off to avoid arrest. That, in turn, could undermine the public’s right to know.

Kiyohiko Toyama, a New Komeito member of the Lower House, stressed at the hearing that legitimate news-gathering activities will not be punished.

He said “extremely unlawful acts” by journalists, as defined in the bill, include deception, assault, blackmail, property theft, intrusion and gaining illegal access.

Maki countered that reporters may be significantly discouraged from digging for the truth because the bill can allow investigative authorities to arbitrarily determine an “extremely unlawful act” in news gathering.

Mitsugi Araki, a lawyer invited to speak by the Japanese Communist Party, said the simple act of distributing fliers to residences could be punished as an unlawful intrusion under the legislation.

Even LDP members of the Fukushima prefectural assembly expressed concerns about the bill after the hearing.

The Fukushima prefectural assembly in October adopted a statement calling on the government and the Diet to proceed with caution in discussing the legislation.

After the hearing, Shoichi Kobayashi, an LDP assembly member, echoed the criticism that the scope of designated state secrets remains blurred.

“I’m afraid that the government and the Diet themselves have not had sufficient debate over that point,” he said.

Source (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201311260068)

Rocky_Shorz

2nd December 2013, 19:04

28 signs the West coast is under extreme radiation from Japan's Fukushima...

(Before It's News)

I did not write the below, I have copied it for record keeping purposes. It is a great summary. There are so many “signs”. The goal is to sway those who are on the fence, and to get people to protect themselves, AND to mobilize to shut down the EVIL nuke industry.

Here is the source.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/28-signs-that-the-west-coast-is-being-absolutely-fried-with-nuclear-radiation-from-fukushima/5355280

The map below comes from the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center. It shows that radiation levels at radiation monitoring stations all over the country are elevated. As you will notice, this is particularly true along the west coast of the United States. Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean. That means that the total amouont of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain.
Ultimately, all of this nuclear radiation will outlive all of us by a very wide margin. They are saying that it could take up to 40 years to clean up the Fukushima disaster, and meanwhile countless innocent people will develop cancer and other health problems as a result of exposure to high levels of nuclear radiation. We are talking about a nuclear disaster that is absolutely unprecedented, and it is constantly getting worse. The following are 28 signs that the west coast of North America is being absolutely fried with nuclear radiation from Fukushima…
Fukushima Radiation
1. Polar bears, seals and walruses along the Alaska coastline are suffering from fur loss and open sores…

Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses.
The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had “alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.

2. There is an epidemic of sea lion deaths along the California coastline…

At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die. It’s gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event.”

3. Along the Pacific coast of Canada and the Alaska coastline, the population of sockeye salmon is at a historic low. Many are blaming Fukushima.
4. Something is causing fish all along the west coast of Canada to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs.
5. A vast field of radioactive debris from Fukushima that is approximately the size of California has crossed the Pacific Ocean and is starting to collide with the west coast.
6. It is being projected that the radioactivity of coastal waters off the U.S. west coast could double over the next five to six years.
7. Experts have found very high levels of cesium-137 in plankton living in the waters of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the west coast.
8. One test in California found that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna were contaminated with radiation from Fukushima.
9. Back in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada…
• 73 percent of mackerel tested
• 91 percent of the halibut
• 92 percent of the sardines
• 93 percent of the tuna and eel
• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies
• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish
10. Canadian authorities are finding extremely high levels of nuclear radiation in certain fish samples…

Some fish samples tested to date have had very high levels of radiation: one sea bass sample collected in July, for example, had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.

11. Some experts believe that we could see very high levels of cancer along the west coast just from people eating contaminated fish…

“Look at what’s going on now: They’re dumping huge amounts of radioactivity into the ocean — no one expected that in 2011,” Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California-Santa Cruz, told Global Security Newswire. “We could have large numbers of cancer from ingestion of fish.”

12. BBC News recently reported that radiation levels around Fukushima are “18 times higher” than previously believed.
13. An EU-funded study concluded that Fukushima released up to 210 quadrillion becquerels of cesium-137 into the atmosphere.
14. Atmospheric radiation from Fukushima reached the west coast of the United States within a few days back in 2011.
15. At this point, 300 tons of contaminated water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.
16. A senior researcher of marine chemistry at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute says that “30 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium and 30 billion becquerels of radioactive strontium” are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.
17. According to Tepco, a total of somewhere between 20 trillion and 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima disaster first began.
18. According to a professor at Tokyo University, 3 gigabecquerels of cesium-137 are flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every single day.
19. It has been estimated that up to 100 times as much nuclear radiation has been released into the ocean from Fukushima than was released during the entire Chernobyl disaster.
20. One recent study concluded that a very large plume of cesium-137 from the Fukushima disaster will start flowing into U.S. coastal waters early next year…

Ocean simulations showed that the plume of radioactive cesium-137 released by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 could begin flowing into U.S. coastal waters starting in early 2014 and peak in 2016.

21. It is being projected that significant levels of cesium-137 will reach every corner of the Pacific Ocean by the year 2020.
22. It is being projected that the entire Pacific Ocean will soon “have cesium levels 5 to 10 times higher” than what we witnessed during the era of heavy atomic bomb testing in the Pacific many decades ago.
23. The immense amounts of nuclear radiation getting into the water in the Pacific Ocean has caused environmental activist Joe Martino to issue the following warning…

“Your days of eating Pacific Ocean fish are over.”

24. The Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 that are constantly coming from Fukushima are going to affect the health of those living the the northern hemisphere for a very, very long time. Just consider what Harvey Wasserman had to say about this…

Iodine-131, for example, can be ingested into the thyroid, where it emits beta particles (electrons) that damage tissue. A plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children in the Fukushima area. That percentage can only go higher. In developing youngsters, it can stunt both physical and mental growth. Among adults it causes a very wide range of ancillary ailments, including cancer.
Cesium-137 from Fukushima has been found in fish caught as far away as California. It spreads throughout the body, but tends to accumulate in the muscles.
Strontium-90’s half-life is around 29 years. It mimics calcium and goes to our bones.

25. According to a recent Planet Infowars report, the California coastline is being transformed into “a dead zone”…

The California coastline is becoming like a dead zone.
If you haven’t been to a California beach lately, you probably don’t know that the rocks are unnaturally CLEAN – there’s hardly any kelp, barnacles, sea urchins, etc. anymore and the tide pools are similarly eerily devoid of crabs, snails and other scurrying signs of life… and especially as compared to 10 – 15 years ago when one was wise to wear tennis shoes on a trip to the beach in order to avoid cutting one’s feet on all the STUFF of life – broken shells, bones, glass, driftwood, etc.
There are also days when I am hard-pressed to find even a half dozen seagulls and/or terns on the county beach.
You can still find a few gulls trolling the picnic areas and some of the restaurants (with outdoor seating areas) for food, of course, but, when I think back to 10 – 15 years ago, the skies and ALL the beaches were literally filled with seagulls and the haunting sound of their cries both day and night…
NOW it’s unnaturally quiet.

26. A study conducted last year came to the conclusion that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster could negatively affect human life along the west coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska “for decades”.
27. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete.
28. Yale Professor Charles Perrow is warning that if the cleanup of Fukushima is not handled with 100% precision that humanity could be threatened “for thousands of years“…

“Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.”

Are you starting to understand why so many people are so deeply concerned about what is going on at Fukushima?
About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

link to original story (http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2013/12/28-signs-that-west-coast-is-being.html)

GreenGuy

3rd December 2013, 06:10

I'm not sure if radioactivity is as dangerous as we have been lead to believe.

Well, we blasted Bosnia and Iraq with "depleted" uranium. A little googling will confront you with some of the horrific birth defects that have resulted. And of course the wind blows this stuff all over the planet. I think the nature of radiation may be different than what we've been told in some ways, but I doubt it's good for us. Marie Curie, pioneer in radiation studies, died of aplastic anemia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aplastic_anemia), generally thought to be the result of radiation exposure. The longterm effects of the Hiroshima bombing (http://lynzy.hubpages.com/hub/Hiroshima_Bombing_Affects) included cancers, birth defects, low birth weight and reduced intelligence in children.

We have embarked on a grand experiment to see just how deadly it may be. Polar bears and seals around Alaska are losing their fur and showing bleeding lesions. Various populations of Pacific animals, from whales to starfish, seem to be collapsing. I'm aware of some positive signs that certain fungi can mitigate radiation, and without a doubt a percentage of individuals of many species will prove to be able to tolerate higher levels than others. In any event, there's no putting the genie back in the lamp at this point.

panopticon

15th December 2013, 05:22

Current status of fuel assembly removal process from Unit #4 to common pool (9th December 2013) (image automagically updates):

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/removal4u/images/img_removecs_01.jpg

Numbers of transferred assemblies:

Spent fuel: 44 assemblies out of 1,331 assemblies.
Unirradiated (New) fuel: 22 assemblies out of 202 assemblies.

Number of times of cask transportation: 3 times.
Source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/removal4u/index-e.html)

Spike in radiation detected in Well 1-16 since 28 November up to 1,300,000 Bq/l (up from ~800,000 Bq/L) (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1232723_5130.html)).
This has been put down to a combination of rain event on 26th November (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131204_07-e.pdf)) and success of the improved containment measures for contaminated ground water.

Gross Beta particle detected has continued to drop in the E-1 from a high in mid November of 710,000 Bq/l down to 12,000 Bq/l on 10th December (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2013/images/around_h4_13121201-e.pdf)). H-3 detection has also dropped from 790,000 Bq/l (mid October) to 410,000 Bq/l (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2013/images/around_h4_13121201-e.pdf)).

Report on measures to combat onsite tank leakage (due to building tanks on a bloody slope without appropriate ground works [ie they just put down a mesh and laid a pad on on it so the tanks are at a lean]) have been initiated with training of staff to recognise that tanks are on a lean and can't hold their full capacity (particularly the tank at the bottom of the series into which the up-hill tanks flow!). Also chalking has been undertaken around top seam/lip of tanks and rain gutters installed (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131206_08-e.pdf)).

Reports from TEPCO available on fish and crustacean contamination levels from within 20 k radius (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131204_05-e.pdf)) and 1-3 k area (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2013/images/fish01_131204-e.pdf)).

TEPCO reported that on investigating the exhaust stacks of Units #1 & #2 a rate of 15 Sv/h and 25 Sv/h was estimated at ground level near the gas treatment system for expelled gas from the reactors (source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_131206_09-e.pdf)).

A study has found that Typhoon's have been moving Caesium from the mountains and into Japanese waterways which of course lead into the sea (source (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-29/an-typhoons-spreading-fukushima-fallout/5124084)).

-- Pan

panopticon

15th December 2013, 05:28

From Reuters:

Fukushima contractor sanctioned by Japan labour regulator (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/13/uk-japan-nuclear-fukushima-labour-idUKBRE9BC0DK20131213)
By Antoni Slodkowski. December 13th, 2013.

Japanese labour regulators have sanctioned a construction firm involved in the decommissioning of the Fukushima nuclear power plant for improperly employing workers to repair another nuclear plant, also damaged by the 2011 earthquake.

ABL Co Ltd, based in Okuma, where the Fukushima plant is located, managed at least eight workers who had been supplied illegally by several layers of subcontractors for inspection and repair work at the Tokai Daini nuclear plant, which is managed by Japan Atomic Power Co, officials said.

The practice of having workers hired by a broker but managed by another company is banned under Japanese law to protect workers from having their wages skimmed and to clarify who is responsible for their safety.

The rare public sanction - there were only 24 such business improvement orders issued in Japan in the year to March 2013 for labour violations - covered July-December 2011, when ABL was found to have improperly employed the workers at the Tokai plant.

The Tokai plant, 110 kms (68 miles) northeast of Tokyo, automatically shut down in the March 2011 earthquake. Its turbines and other equipment were damaged, and repair work continued into 2012.

ABL said it did not dispute that it improperly employed workers at Tokai, and said it was asking regulators to inspect its operations again to verify it had tightened its compliance practices. "We were not aware these workers were employed by multiple layers of subcontractors. Our awareness was low," said Osamu Watanabe, general manager at ABL.

Takeshi Iwami, an inspector at the Fukushima Labour Standards Office, said ABL should have better understood the rules. "These were all very basic things they should have been fully aware of as an experienced contractor," he said.

Fukushima labour regulators said they were still investigating Hayashi's complaint. ABL, which employs about 200 workers in decommissioning the Fukushima plant, declined to comment on the former worker's claims.

Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has promised to improve working conditions at the Fukushima plant.

Source (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/13/uk-japan-nuclear-fukushima-labour-idUKBRE9BC0DK20131213)

panopticon

15th December 2013, 08:05

The Japan Times reports that water pumped into reactors 1 to 3 on the days following the 2011 accident did not reach the core and was a contributing factor for the meltdowns.

###

Water from fire trucks didn’t reach Fukushima No. 1 reactor cores: Tepco (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/14/national/water-from-fire-trucks-didnt-reach-fukushima-no-1-reactor-cores-tepco/)

It is extremely likely that coolant water injected by fire trucks into the wrecked reactors of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant immediately after the 2011 catastrophe did not fully reach the cores, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has admitted.

If all of this coolant water had been successfully injected into the three reactor cores, the melting of the fuel inside could have been slowed down, Tepco conceded Friday.

Tepco, which has been looking into developments at the plant in the early days of the disaster, said Friday it has confirmed that coolant water pumped in by fire trucks flowed into some pipes that didn’t lead to the cores of reactors 1 to 3, which suffered meltdowns.

It said the amount supplied by fire trucks as an emergency measure was several times that needed to cool reactor cores, but part of the coolant water was diverted to pipes not connected to the cores. Tepco also admitted workers could not operate valves to keep the coolant water from flowing into the wrong pipes due to sky-high radiation levels.

The company examined water flow in the reactor pipes after confirming the existence of a vast amount of water at a steam condenser of the reactor 2 building in late March 2011.

Tepco also said it is possible that the amount of water injected into the core of reactor 3 had fallen before workers manually stopped a high pressure coolant injection system.

As for the sharp fall in pressure of the reactor 3 pressure vessel on March 13, 2011, Tepco said it is probable that a valve opened to reduce pressure as the automatic decompression system was turned on unintentionally. The company had previously suggested the pressure vessel had a hole.

Source (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/14/national/water-from-fire-trucks-didnt-reach-fukushima-no-1-reactor-cores-tepco/)

Cidersomerset

18th December 2013, 21:55

Sending the drones to Fukushima ......

Lady Barbara Judge...The culture of Tempo was efficiency above safety....

154jVZj2mcQ

Published on 17 Dec 2013

A team from Bristol University may have come up with a tool that
can help clean up the Fukushima plant in Japan - a lightweight
flying drone that can detect radiation without putting people at
risk.Sign up for Snowmail, your daily preview of what is on
Channel 4 News, sent straight to your inbox,
here: http://mailing.channel4.com/public/sn...

Cidersomerset

23rd December 2013, 22:30

Record Radiation: Handling of Fukushima cleanup is 'comedy of errors'

nAU-zwWXVeo

Published on 23 Dec 2013

Japan is breaking its own radioactive records - as huge amounts of beta-ray
emitting substances have been discovered at another reactor at the crippled
Fukushima power plant. Meanwhile the government says the decontamination work
scheduled to be completed by March - may take another 3 years. For more we're
joined by Alex Kerr - an expert on Japan.

Cidersomerset

23rd December 2013, 22:35

U.S. Navy Sailors Sue TEPCO over Cluster-Fukushima Snafu

Monday 23rd December 2013 at 03:22 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/fukushima-explosion-2.jpg

‘“Why has this not made national headlines??? The Aircraft Carrier Ronald Reagan
is nuclear powered. Radiation detection equipment did not pick up on this?? Why
have these sailors and marines medical records been removed from permanent
tracking. Criminal implications galore. This should be all over mainstream media.
Someone please forward all these ene reports to the media…. Tepco is the lowest of
snakes. Hari Kari for the lot of em!!”’

Read more: U.S. Navy Sailors Sue TEPCO over Cluster-Fukushima Snafu

http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-navy-sailors-sue-tepco-over-cluster-fukushima-snafu/5362417

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

pine boy

29th December 2013, 12:33

I know no one on this planet wants to read this but to me its important that all the information is out in the open.It appears that reactor building 3 is venting.Here is an excerpt from the third party report.

"Nuclear energy experts have told TRN that the ONLY way this could be happening is if radioactive material previously ejected from the reactor explosion in March, 2011 has mixed together with other materials and has begun its own self-sustaining reaction(s), also known as a "criticality." Put simply, another "meltdown" may be taking place.

There are basically two possibilities if another meltdown is in progress:

1) Pellets of radioactive fuel, ejected when the reactor exploded, have mixed together and "mini" meltdowns are taking place with those small clumps of pellets. This would not be a horrific problem and may be manageable, OR;

2) Pellets of radioactive fuel, ejected when the reactor exploded, went into the spent fuel pool located above the reactor and have begun melting down so seriously they are boiling off the water in the spent fuel pool."

Read more in the link.

http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/news/146-mjt

God bless

panopticon

30th December 2013, 16:47

Hey Pineboy,

As I said in another thread the auto-translated report from TEPCO indicated that there wasn't any change in coolant temperature. This would make it doubtful that a melt-down was occurring. There's also been no change in recorded radiation levels @ the Daiichi plant over the last month:

http://new.atmc.jp/pref.cgi?p=07#d=m

I don't know what the cause of the steam reported is but I'm not thinking it's a further core problem (what's left of the core anyway). There are high levels of radiation recorded at the exhaust stacks of units #1 & #2 but you'd need to be standing fairly close to the source (for more than a couple of minutes) to receive a fatal dose. Other than that I would need to have a look at the last weeks data a bit closer (damn holidays), and wait for the TEPCO "prompt" report to come out in English on the steam inside the #3 unit, to have a clearer idea.

Hope this helps.

-- Pan

TargeT

30th December 2013, 19:53

this thread is spiraling down the logical fallacy tube of misinformation with a few interjections of actual facts to help float it a long a little...

I found this a particularly good post that summarizes a lot of what seems apparently going here:

I am against the use of nuclear energy for power, as well as weapons; however, the situation at Fukushima is a massive disinfo campaign that's designed to make people feel powerless.

Here's two links that, as far as I understand, gives the most accurate pictures of what really is going on with Fukushima:

http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=15903

http://deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/

The comments section at the base the Southern Fried Science site's article alone are worth the read.

Jim's site ... http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/ ... is also a very good source of good info about Fukushima.

I've been in email contact with Jim (a while ago, not now) and he's on the run from several alphabet soup agencies, as Jim himself is a former NSA agent, so he really knows a lot of deep, accurate info on numerous topics of which the vast majority of us are misinformed/underinformed/brainwashed.

Jim is a real deal and his information is highly accurate.

Cidersomerset

30th December 2013, 21:11

Epidemiologist back from Fukushima: ‘We’re talking about a sacrifice zone and
millions of people live in this area’ — Exceeds allowable radiation dose for nuclear
workers 40 kilometers from Fukushima plant

Monday 30th December 2013 at 04:42 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/img_483-Dec.-28-15.58.jpg

‘Epidemiologist Dr. Steve Wing, University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill,
discusses the human impacts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster based on his visit
to the area:

This reading here, just to put it in perspective, the guard there if he stood there for
a year, right where he is now in this picture, he would exceed the allowable
radiation dose for a nuclear workers inside a plant. And this is 40 kilometers away.
So we’re talking about a sacrifice zone, and millions of people live in this area.

So the guard — can you see on the ground behind the guard there’s a metal plate?
He’s supposed to stand on that metal plate, and that’s his protection. And he’s
wearing a surgical mask, and he has a helmet. It made me feel kind of bad, that
here is someone that’s working in a radiation exposed job and he’s been issued a
surgical mask and a helmet as though he’s supposed to feel protected.’

CyGQ8kVckRA

Published on 9 Dec 2013

Epidemiologist Dr. Steve Wing discusses the human impacts of
the nuclear disaster at Fukushima based on his experience visiting the area.

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

panopticon

31st December 2013, 05:34

http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=15903
http://deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/

G'day TargeT,

Those are good articles aren't they.

There is no scientific evidence that I've seen showing that the US is in any danger from a nuclear "plume", it's the Japanese that are the ones that the Fukushima Daiichi accident has affected.

From corruption in Government to Corporate cronyism, from farmers working in caesium-137 contaminated fields to leaking coolant storage tanks with concrete pads shoddily built on slopes with no ground preparation, from inadequate initial safeguards to contractors associated with criminal organisations ripping off their workers and providing sub-standard protective equipment. That's where the bloody problems are.

My other concerns at the moment, in relation to Fukushima Daiichi #4, are to do with problems occurring during the fuel removal process. However, if something were to happen, it too would be a localised event (ie relevant to Japan) and have virtually no effect on the US.

There is also the potential of a false flag operation around the removal process. The risk of terrorist strikes has been mentioned on a number of occasions in press releases from TEPCO, Japan's Nuclear Agency and Government.

I agree with you, there is way too much uninformed commentary on the dangers of radioactive particles and thank you for coming back to this thread to help keep it a balanced place for people who are interested in understanding the science.

-- Pan

panopticon

31st December 2013, 06:01

Article from Reuters on contractors recruiting homeless people to work at Fukushima and how criminal gangs control labour in the Japanese construction industry...

###

Special Report: Japan's homeless recruited for murky Fukushima clean-up (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-fukushima-workers-idUSBRE9BT00520131230)
By Mari Saito and Antoni Slodkowski. December 30th, 2013.

P85WJTGgPek
Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men.

He isn't a social worker. He's a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan's nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head.

"This is how labor recruiters like me come in every day," Sasa says, as he strides past men sleeping on cardboard and clutching at their coats against the early winter cold.

It's also how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the $35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong.

Almost three years ago, a massive earthquake and tsunami leveled villages across Japan's northeast coast and set off multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Today, the most ambitious radiation clean-up ever attempted is running behind schedule. The effort is being dogged by both a lack of oversight and a shortage of workers, according to a Reuters analysis of contracts and interviews with dozens of those involved.

In January, October and November, Japanese gangsters were arrested on charges of infiltrating construction giant Obayashi Corp's network of decontamination subcontractors and illegally sending workers to the government-funded project.

In the October case, homeless men were rounded up at Sendai's train station by Sasa, then put to work clearing radioactive soil and debris in Fukushima City for less than minimum wage, according to police and accounts of those involved. The men reported up through a chain of three other companies to Obayashi, Japan's second-largest construction company.

Obayashi, which is one of more than 20 major contractors involved in government-funded radiation removal projects, has not been accused of any wrongdoing. But the spate of arrests has shown that members of Japan's three largest criminal syndicates - Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai - had set up black-market recruiting agencies under Obayashi.

"We are taking it very seriously that these incidents keep happening one after another," said Junichi Ichikawa, a spokesman for Obayashi. He said the company tightened its scrutiny of its lower-tier subcontractors in order to shut out gangsters, known as the yakuza. "There were elements of what we had been doing that did not go far enough."

OVERSIGHT LEFT TO TOP CONTRACTORS

Part of the problem in monitoring taxpayer money in Fukushima is the sheer number of companies involved in decontamination, extending from the major contractors at the top to tiny subcontractors many layers below them. The total number has not been announced. But in the 10 most contaminated towns and a highway that runs north past the gates of the wrecked plant in Fukushima, Reuters found 733 companies were performing work for the Ministry of Environment, according to partial contract terms released by the ministry in August under Japan's information disclosure law.

Reuters found 56 subcontractors listed on environment ministry contracts worth a total of $2.5 billion in the most radiated areas of Fukushima that would have been barred from traditional public works because they had not been vetted by the construction ministry.

The 2011 law that regulates decontamination put control under the environment ministry, the largest spending program ever managed by the 10-year-old agency. The same law also effectively loosened controls on bidders, making it possible for firms to win radiation removal contracts without the basic disclosure and certification required for participating in public works such as road construction.

Reuters also found five firms working for the Ministry of Environment that could not be identified. They had no construction ministry registration, no listed phone number or website, and Reuters could not find a basic corporate registration disclosing ownership. There was also no record of the firms in the database of Japan's largest credit research firm, Teikoku Databank.

"As a general matter, in cases like this, we would have to start by looking at whether a company like this is real," said Shigenobu Abe, a researcher at Teikoku Databank. "After that, it would be necessary to look at whether this is an active company and at the background of its executive and directors."

Responsibility for monitoring the hiring, safety records and suitability of hundreds of small firms involved in Fukushima's decontamination rests with the top contractors, including Kajima Corp, Taisei Corp and Shimizu Corp, officials said.

"In reality, major contractors manage each work site," said Hide Motonaga, deputy director of the radiation clean-up division of the environment ministry.

But, as a practical matter, many of the construction companies involved in the clean-up say it is impossible to monitor what is happening on the ground because of the multiple layers of contracts for each job that keep the top contractors removed from those doing the work.

"If you started looking at every single person, the project wouldn't move forward. You wouldn't get a tenth of the people you need," said Yukio Suganuma, president of Aisogo Service, a construction company that was hired in 2012 to clean up radioactive fallout from streets in the town of Tamura.

The sprawl of small firms working in Fukushima is an unintended consequence of Japan's legacy of tight labor-market regulations combined with the aging population's deepening shortage of workers. Japan's construction companies cannot afford to keep a large payroll and dispatching temporary workers to construction sites is prohibited. As a result, smaller firms step into the gap, promising workers in exchange for a cut of their wages.

Below these official subcontractors, a shadowy network of gangsters and illegal brokers who hire homeless men has also become active in Fukushima. Ministry of Environment contracts in the most radioactive areas of Fukushima prefecture are particularly lucrative because the government pays an additional $100 in hazard allowance per day for each worker.

Takayoshi Igarashi, a lawyer and professor at Hosei University, said the initial rush to find companies for decontamination was understandable in the immediate aftermath of the disaster when the priority was emergency response. But he said the government now needs to tighten its scrutiny to prevent a range of abuses, including bid rigging.

"There are many unknown entities getting involved in decontamination projects," said Igarashi, a former advisor to ex-Prime Minister Naoto Kan. "There needs to be a thorough check on what companies are working on what, and when. I think it's probably completely lawless if the top contractors are not thoroughly checking."

The Ministry of Environment announced on Thursday that work on the most contaminated sites would take two to three years longer than the original March 2014 deadline. That means many of the more than 60,000 who lived in the area before the disaster will remain unable to return home until six years after the disaster.

Earlier this month, Abe, who pledged his government would "take full responsibility for the rebirth of Fukushima" boosted the budget for decontamination to $35 billion, including funds to create a facility to store radioactive soil and other waste near the wrecked nuclear plant.

‘DON'T ASK QUESTIONS'

Japan has always had a gray market of day labor centered in Tokyo and Osaka. A small army of day laborers was employed to build the stadiums and parks for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. But over the past year, Sendai, the biggest city in the disaster zone, has emerged as a hiring hub for homeless men. Many work clearing rubble left behind by the 2011 tsunami and cleaning up radioactive hotspots by removing topsoil, cutting grass and scrubbing down houses around the destroyed nuclear plant, workers and city officials say.

Seiji Sasa, 67, a broad-shouldered former wrestling promoter, was photographed by undercover police recruiting homeless men at the Sendai train station to work in the nuclear cleanup. The workers were then handed off through a chain of companies reporting up to Obayashi, as part of a $1.4 million contract to decontaminate roads in Fukushima, police say.

"I don't ask questions; that's not my job," Sasa said in an interview with Reuters. "I just find people and send them to work. I send them and get money in exchange. That's it. I don't get involved in what happens after that."

Only a third of the money allocated for wages by Obayashi's top contractor made it to the workers Sasa had found. The rest was skimmed by middlemen, police say. After deductions for food and lodging, that left workers with an hourly rate of about $6, just below the minimum wage equal to about $6.50 per hour in Fukushima, according to wage data provided by police. Some of the homeless men ended up in debt after fees for food and housing were deducted, police say.

Sasa was arrested in November and released without being charged. Police were after his client, Mitsunori Nishimura, a local Inagawa-kai gangster. Nishimura housed workers in cramped dorms on the edge of Sendai and skimmed an estimated $10,000 of public funding intended for their wages each month, police say.

Nishimura, who could not be reached for comment, was arrested and paid a $2,500 fine. Nishimura is widely known in Sendai. Seiryu Home, a shelter funded by the city, had sent other homeless men to work for him on recovery jobs after the 2011 disaster.

"He seemed like such a nice guy," said Yota Iozawa, a shelter manager. "It was bad luck. I can't investigate everything about every company."

In the incident that prompted his arrest, Nishimura placed his workers with Shinei Clean, a company with about 15 employees based on a winding farm road south of Sendai. Police turned up there to arrest Shinei's president, Toshiaki Osada, after a search of his office, according to Tatsuya Shoji, who is both Osada's nephew and a company manager. Shinei had sent dump trucks to sort debris from the disaster. "Everyone is involved in sending workers," said Shoji. "I guess we just happened to get caught this time."

Osada, who could not be reached for comment, was fined about $5,000. Shinei was also fined about $5,000.

'RUN BY GANGS'

The trail from Shinei led police to a slightly larger neighboring company with about 30 employees, Fujisai Couken. Fujisai says it was under pressure from a larger contractor, Raito Kogyo, to provide workers for Fukushima. Kenichi Sayama, Fujisai's general manger, said his company only made about $10 per day per worker it outsourced. When the job appeared to be going too slowly, Fujisai asked Shinei for more help and they turned to Nishimura.

A Fujisai manager, Fuminori Hayashi, was arrested and paid a $5,000 fine, police said. Fujisai also paid a $5,000 fine.

"If you don't get involved (with gangs), you're not going to get enough workers," said Sayama, Fujisai's general manager. "The construction industry is 90 percent run by gangs."

Raito Kogyo, a top-tier subcontractor to Obayashi, has about 300 workers in decontamination projects around Fukushima and owns subsidiaries in both Japan and the United States. Raito agreed that the project faced a shortage of workers but said it had been deceived. Raito said it was unaware of a shadow contractor under Fujisai tied to organized crime.

"We can only check on lower-tier subcontractors if they are honest with us," said Tomoyuki Yamane, head of marketing for Raito. Raito and Obayashi were not accused of any wrongdoing and were not penalized.

Other firms receiving government contracts in the decontamination zone have hired homeless men from Sasa, including Shuto Kogyo, a firm based in Himeji, western Japan.

"He sends people in, but they don't stick around for long," said Fujiko Kaneda, 70, who runs Shuto with her son, Seiki Shuto. "He gathers people in front of the station and sends them to our dorm."

Kaneda invested about $600,000 to cash in on the reconstruction boom. Shuto converted an abandoned roadhouse north of Sendai into a dorm to house workers on reconstruction jobs such as clearing tsunami debris. The company also won two contracts awarded by the Ministry of Environment to clean up two of the most heavily contaminated townships.

Kaneda had been arrested in 2009 along with her son, Seiki, for charging illegally high interest rates on loans to pensioners. Kaneda signed an admission of guilt for police, a document she says she did not understand, and paid a fine of $8,000. Seiki was given a sentence of two years prison time suspended for four years and paid a $20,000 fine, according to police. Seiki declined to comment.

UNPAID WAGE CLAIMS

In Fukushima, Shuto has faced at least two claims with local labor regulators over unpaid wages, according to Kaneda. In a separate case, a 55-year-old homeless man reported being paid the equivalent of $10 for a full month of work at Shuto. The worker's paystub, reviewed by Reuters, showed charges for food, accommodation and laundry were docked from his monthly pay equivalent to about $1,500, leaving him with $10 at the end of the August.

The man turned up broke and homeless at Sendai Station in October after working for Shuto, but disappeared soon afterwards, according to Yasuhiro Aoki, a Baptist pastor and homeless advocate.

Kaneda confirmed the man had worked for her but said she treats her workers fairly. She said Shuto Kogyo pays workers at least $80 for a day's work while docking the equivalent of $35 for food. Many of her workers end up borrowing from her to make ends meet, she said. One of them had owed her $20,000 before beginning work in Fukushima, she says. The balance has come down recently, but then he borrowed another $2,000 for the year-end holidays.

"He will never be able to pay me back," she said.

The problem of workers running themselves into debt is widespread. "Many homeless people are just put into dormitories, and the fees for lodging and food are automatically docked from their wages," said Aoki, the pastor. "Then at the end of the month, they're left with no pay at all."

Shizuya Nishiyama, 57, says he briefly worked for Shuto clearing rubble. He now sleeps on a cardboard box in Sendai Station. He says he left after a dispute over wages, one of several he has had with construction firms, including two handling decontamination jobs.

Nishiyama's first employer in Sendai offered him $90 a day for his first job clearing tsunami debris. But he was made to pay as much as $50 a day for food and lodging. He also was not paid on the days he was unable to work. On those days, though, he would still be charged for room and board. He decided he was better off living on the street than going into debt.

"We're an easy target for recruiters," Nishiyama said. "We turn up here with all our bags, wheeling them around and we're easy to spot. They say to us, are you looking for work? Are you hungry? And if we haven't eaten, they offer to find us a job."

Source (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-fukushima-workers-idUSBRE9BT00520131230)

TargeT

31st December 2013, 13:32

There is also the potential of a false flag operation around the removal process. The risk of terrorist strikes has been mentioned on a number of occasions in press releases from TEPCO, Japan's Nuclear Agency and Government.
-- Pan

I think the Fukushima topic has lost traction, (again, let me emphasis "think"; since I don't watch TV anymore I could be wrong) it doesn't seem to be getting play anymore and it didn't cause much of a reaction in the main stream; so much like the push to go to war with Syria it apparently has been dropped as a focal point.

I predict fukushima gets resolved (at great cost, since that's what nuclear regulation is mostly about), and slowly fades away to a "nothing to see here" situation.

panopticon

31st December 2013, 15:00

I think the Fukushima topic has lost traction, (again, let me emphasis "think"; since I don't watch TV anymore I could be wrong) it doesn't seem to be getting play anymore and it didn't cause much of a reaction in the main stream; so much like the push to go to war with Syria it apparently has been dropped as a focal point.

I predict fukushima gets resolved (at great cost, since that's what nuclear regulation is mostly about), and slowly fades away to a "nothing to see here" situation.

Yeah, I agree with you Target. That's why those who have the most to lose have been trying to make a recurrent mystery steam leak into the end of the world. I get a bit frustrated when suddenly people are running around waving their arms in the air or covering themselves in ashes talking about the end of the world. There are real problems that need to be looked at and mentioned in relation to Fukushima Daiichi and most of those have very little to do with radiation levels (though some exist because of them) and more to do with the problems we've already talked about in relation to the government, nuclear agency, corporation, contractors and workers.

At the end of all this, when the melted cores are confirmed as stabilised and water stops moving caesium etc underground into the ocean, I hope that there will be a reliable way of looking at the facts of this accident and what happened after.

I also hope that the anonymouse youtubers who have spread so much fear and disinformation are remembered and wiped from the virtual world for good. :flame:

Hey, a blokes gotta have dreams... :nod:

Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who has participated in this thread over the last 4 months and kept it on topic with only occasional moments of semi-panic interspersed with long periods of statistical reference, discussion, pertinent articles and videos. It has been a real pleasure and I hope that there will be other informative threads like it on Fukushima over the coming months and years.
Happy New Year everyone. May you all have many more. :whoo:

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

1st January 2014, 14:21

Fukushima Responders Starting To Get Sick

zaxCMsdYwcg

Published on 29 Dec 2013

"Within weeks of setting off a geiger counter and scrubbing three layers of skin off
his hands and arms, former Navy quartermaster Maurice Enis recalled being
pressured to sign away U.S. government liability for any future health problems.

Enis and about 5,000 fellow sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier
had finally left Japan, after 80-some days aiding victims of the March 11, 2011,
Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, and were about to take a long-awaited port
call in Thailand."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03...

Bob

1st January 2014, 21:25

Cidersomerset

2nd January 2014, 00:46

Quote Posted by Cidersomerset (here)
Published on 29 Dec 2013

[...]

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03...
the read more to the Huffington Post page is giving me a 404 (not found) error - do you have a revised link to the article? tnx

The link on the Young turk U/Tube seems to refer to an earlier article
I cannot find on the Huffington post main page.

There are several other links, but have not found original source.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2013/12/fukushima-responders-starting-to-get-sick-but-us-and-japanese-governments-said-not-to-be-concerned-video/

http://consciouslifenews.com/fukushima-responders-starting-sick/1169212/

panopticon

2nd January 2014, 01:47

Published on 29 Dec 2013

[...]

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03...

the read more to the Huffington Post page is giving me a 404 (not found) error - do you have a revised link to the article? tnx

Is this the one you're after Bobd?

###

Fukushima And The Navy: Sailors Sue Japan Nuclear Plant Owner, Saying Disaster Made Them Sick (www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/fukushima-navy-health-problems_n_2855529.html)
by Lynne Peeples, 11th March 2013.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1032517/original.jpg
Former Navy quartermaster Maurice Enis described the health problems, including hair loss, that he's suffered since working in radioactive plumes after the Fukushima disaster.

Within weeks of setting off a geiger counter and scrubbing three layers of skin off his hands and arms, former Navy quartermaster Maurice Enis recalled being pressured to sign away U.S. government liability for any future health problems.

Enis and about 5,000 fellow sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier had finally left Japan, after 80-some days aiding victims of the March 11, 2011, Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, and were about to take a long-awaited port call in Thailand.

But first, they were told they needed to fill out some paperwork.

"They had us sign off that we were medically fine, had no sickness, and that we couldn't sue the U.S. government," Enis told The Huffington Post, recalling widespread anger among the sailors who saw it as "B.S." but who also felt they had little choice.

On Monday, the two-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, Enis joined a lawsuit with more than 100 other service members who participated in the rescue mission and who have since developed medical issues they contend are related to radioactive fallout from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Rather than targeting the U.S. government, the federal lawsuit names plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. the defendant.

TEPCO, as the company is known, provided false information to U.S. officials about the extent of spreading radiation from its stricken reactors, according to Roger Witherspoon on his blog Energy Matters.

Among the lawsuit plaintiffs is Enis' girlfriend, Jaime Plym, who also served as a quartermaster on the aircraft carrier, a position that involves guiding the ship and spending significant time on deck. The couple had been looking forward to leaving the military and starting a family. Now, Enis said, they don't know if children will be an option due to health problems they've both developed since signing away government liability. They've both been honorably discharged from the military and don't know how they will pay for medical treatment.

Plym has a new diagnosis of asthma and her menstrual cycle is severely out of whack. Enis has lumps on his jaw, between his eyes and on his thigh. He's also developed stomach ulcers and lung problems, and is losing weight and hair.

There's a tradition of growing out your hair and beard after leaving the Navy, explained Enis, to make up for all the time spent with a buzzed head. He said at a press conference in New York on Monday that he's hesitant to comb or wash his head of black curls lest he speed up the loss.

It was more than a month after arriving off the coast of Japan -- and circling at distances of one to 10 miles from the crippled reactors -- when sailors aboard the carrier got word that a nuclear plant had been affected, according to Plym. "Even then, it was rumors," she said. And it wasn't until the USS Ronald Reagan had left Japan and sailors were scrubbing down the ship that they were offered radiation protection. Enis said the enlisted sailors were never offered any iodine. He said he later learned the "higher ups" -- officers and pilots -- had received the tablets to protect their thyroids from radiation damage.

Enis said no one collected samples of sailors' blood or urine for tests. Neither Enis nor Plym have been fully evaluated by a doctor.

In his series detailing the sailors' situation, Witherspoon highlighted questionable U.S. government decisions that followed Fukushima, such as the halt of a federal medical registry planned for nearly 70,000 American service members, civilian workers and their families who may have been exposed. The Department of Defense "concluded that their estimates of the maximum possible whole body and thyroid doses of contaminants were not severe enough to warrant further examination," Witherspoon reported.

Without the registry, Witherspoon added, there will be "no way to determine if patterns of health problems emerge" as a result of radiation exposure among military personnel stationed in Japan, or among those just offshore with the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group 7.

Enis recalled one day that convinced him of a connection.

He described at the press conference retrieving the American flag that had flown atop the carrier to give to the people of Japan as a ceremonial gesture. The wind, he recalled, caused the flag to flap around his body as he brought it down by rope. Only later did he realize the flag and the rope were probably highly contaminated with radiation.

After folding the flag, he went out to eat with his buddy. The two joked about growing extra fingers and toes, Enis said. Talk of a radiation leak had begun spreading onboard, despite being downplayed by officials. On a whim, the friends decided to get checked for radiation. His friend tested clean, but the geiger went crazy on Enis' hands.

"Instantly, we went from smiling to just being nervous and scared," Enis recalled. "No one told me at the time what was going on."

Source (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/fukushima-navy-health-problems_n_2855529.html)

###

Hope this was the one asked for.

-- Pan

Bob

2nd January 2014, 01:53

Yup - that could very well be it - it looked like the link wasn't formed in the original post. Appreciate it :) tnx

panopticon

2nd January 2014, 02:03

There's also reference made to this NY Post report:

###

Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue (http://nypost.com/2013/12/22/70-navy-sailors-left-sickened-by-radiation-after-japan-rescue/)
By Laura Italiano and Kerry Murtha. December 22nd, 2013.

http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/japan1.jpg
Crew members scrub contaminated snow off the deck of USS Ronald Reagan in March 2011 during a humanitarian mission off tsunami-stricken Japan.

Navy sailor Lindsay Cooper knew something was wrong when billows of metallic-tasting snow began drifting over USS Ronald Reagan.

“I was standing on the flight deck, and we felt this warm gust of air, and, suddenly, it was snowing,” Cooper recalled of the day in March 2011 when she and scores of crewmates watched a sudden storm blow toward them from the tsunami-torn coast of Fukushima, Japan.

The tall 24-year-old with a winning smile didn’t know it then, but the snow was caused by the freezing Pacific air mixing with a plume of radioactive steam from the city’s shattered nuclear reactor.

Now, nearly three years after their deployment on a humanitarian mission to Japan’s ravaged coast, Cooper and scores of her fellow crew members on the aircraft carrier and a half-dozen other support ships are battling cancers, thyroid disease, uterine bleeding and other ailments.

“We joked about it: ‘Hey, it’s radioactive snow!’ ” Cooper recalled. “I took pictures and video.”

But now “my thyroid is so out of whack that I can lose 60 to 70 pounds in one month and then gain it back the next,” said Cooper, fighting tears. “My menstrual cycle lasts for six months at a time, and I cannot get pregnant. It’s ruined me.”

The fallout of those four days spent off the Fukushima coast has been tragic to many of the 5,000 sailors who were there.

At least 70 have been stricken with some form of radiation sickness, and of those, “at least half . . . are suffering from some form of cancer,” their lawyer, Paul Garner, told The Post Saturday.

“We’re seeing leukemia, testicular cancer and unremitting gynecological bleeding requiring transfusions and other intervention,” said Garner, who is representing 51 crew members suing the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant.

“Then you have thyroid polyps, other thyroid diseases,” added Garner, who plans to file an amended lawsuit in federal court in San Diego next month that will bring the number of plaintiffs past 70.

Senior Chief Michael Sebourn, a radiation-decontamination officer, was assigned to test the aircraft carrier for radiation.

The levels were incredibly dangerous and at one point, the radiation in the air measured 300 times higher than what was considered safe, Sebourn told The Post.

The former personal trainer has suffered a series of ailments, starting with severe nosebleeds and headaches and continuing with debilitating weakness.

He says he has lost 60 percent of the power in the right side of his body and his limbs have visibly shrunk.

“I’ve had four MRIs, and I’ve been to 20 doctors,” he said. “No one can figure out what is wrong.”

He has since retired from the Navy after 17 years of service.

Even as the Reagan was steaming toward the disaster, power-company officials knew the cloud of steam they were releasing — in order to relieve pressure in the crippled plant — was toxic, the lawsuit argues, a claim that has also been made by the Japanese government.

Tokyo Electric Power also knew that radioactivity was leaking at a rate of 400 tons a day into the North Pacific, according to the lawsuit and Japanese officials.

“We were probably floating in contaminated water without knowing it for a day and a half before we got hit by that plume,” said Cooper, whose career as a third-class petty officer ended five months after the disaster for health reasons.

The toxic seawater was sucked into the ship’s desalinization system, flowing out of its faucets and showers — still radioactive — and into the crew member’s bodies.

“All I drink is water. You stay hydrated on that boat,” said Cooper, who worked up to 18 hours at a time on the flight deck loading supplies onto a steady stream of aid helicopters for four days, all the while drinking out of the two-gallon pouch of water hooked to her gear belt.

By the time the Reagan realized it was contaminated and tried to shift location, the radioactive plume had spread too far to be quickly outrun.

“We have a multimillion-dollar radiation-detection system, but . . . it takes time to be set up and activated,” Cooper said.

“And then we couldn’t go anywhere. Japan didn’t want us in port, Korea didn’t want us, Guam turned us away. We floated in the water for two and a half months,” until Thailand took them in, she said.

All the while crew members had been suffering from excruciating diarrhea.

“People were s- -tting themselves in the hallways,” Cooper recalled.

“Two weeks after that, my lymph nodes in my neck were swollen. By July, my thyroid shut down.”

Cooper, the single mother of a 4-year-old girl named Serenity, says her biggest worry is that she will get cancer. Her own mother died recently of breast cancer at age 53.

“This isn’t about financial gain,” Cooper said of the lawsuit. “This is about what’s going to happen while I’m sick, and then after I’m gone.”

“I worry,” she added, her voice choking, “because I have a daughter. And I’m so sick.”

Source (http://nypost.com/2013/12/22/70-navy-sailors-left-sickened-by-radiation-after-japan-rescue/)

panopticon

2nd January 2014, 03:37

For those who might be interested in the 26th November 2013 ruling on the initial 'Cooper et al v. Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. et al (http://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/casdce/3:2013cv00773/410815)' case, by Judge Janis L. Sammartino, it can be found here:

http://media.utsandiego.com/news/documents/2013/12/17/TEPCO.pdf

The refiling will extend the plaintiff list and endeavour to overcome jurisdictional problems used to dismiss the original case.

BTW, the image of "snow" that appears in the video and the article looks more like detergent used to scrub the deck. Here's another angle of the same thing.

http://images.military.com/media/news/equipment/uss-reagan-wash-600x400-ts300.jpg

-- Pan

panopticon

2nd January 2014, 04:34

Interview/comments from USS Ronald Reagan personnel & lawyers acting on their behalf:

DSz1wGc1PcU
-- Pan

TargeT

2nd January 2014, 14:59

BTW, the image of "snow" that appears in the video and the article looks more like detergent used to scrub the deck. Here's another angle of the same thing.
http://images.military.com/media/news/equipment/uss-reagan-wash-600x400-ts300.jpg
-- Pan

Kind of makes you wonder about these sources eh? (it was detergent, there was no snow.. they tried to decontaminate the deck with soap).

as to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSz1wGc1PcU

and these claims about a dozen or less people being involved in this (not even all of them from the same boat.. we don't even know the location or exposure of these other ships) and the claim that a sailor is blind and has a brain tumor, all the issues he mentions...

well he clearly outlines his use of the logical fallacy "Correlation does not equate to causation" that these medical issues (none seem to be the same) are "have to be" due to fukushima because they "don't have a family history" of them; at this point I honestly question the whole issue. The lawyers even admit that the exposure was low dose radiation,though they caviot that it was "repeated over days".

This interview, at about 6:00 really shows what this whole situation is about; there is a reservist marine telling the camera that they replaced entire engines because they shows radio active, he guessed that personally he replaced 16 engines.. that's MILLIONS of dollars.

Fukushima was a money grab for the military industrial complex, and TEPCO has offices in Washington DC as well? GEE what a coincidence..

The lawyers go on to say at 10:04 "what we do know, is that the only standard that has been accepted world wide is that there's no safe level of radiation" HOLY CRAP, SOMEONE TELL HIM HE'S STANDING DIRECTLY IN SOLAR RADIATION WHILE GIVING THIS SPEECH! (he even has sunglasses on...)

"we could tell there was a plum because there was some warm air" and "it tasted like aluminum foil" and "we were being chased by a death sentence" ..... this whole video just makes me

http://bangshift.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/facepalm.jpeg

and of course the video wraps up with the logical fallacy : Appeal to emotion.

Is this suppose to work, are we this easily manipulated?

Cidersomerset

2nd January 2014, 21:02

Thanks Targe , Pan and others for keeping this thread up to date. I don't know if
this is scare mongering or that the levels of radiation will be diluted in sea and
atmosphere, but worth monitoring the situation.

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

36 Signs The Media Is Lying To You About How Radiation From Fukushima Is Affecting The West Coast, USA

Thursday 2nd January 2014 at 04:42 By David Icke

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Fukushima-Radiation-450x270.jpg

‘The west coast of the United States is being absolutely fried by radiation from the
Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the mainstream media is not telling us the truth
about this. What you are about to see is a collection of evidence that is quite startling.

Taken collectively, this body of evidence shows that nuclear radiation from
Fukushima is affecting sea life in the Pacific Ocean and animal life along the west
coast of North America in some extraordinary ways. But the mainstream media
continues to insist that we don’t have a thing to worry about. The mainstream
media continues to insist that radiation levels in the Pacific and along the west
coast are perfectly safe. Are they lying to us? Evaluate the evidence compiled
below and come to your own conclusions…’

Read more: 36 Signs The Media Is Lying To You About How Radiation From
Fukushima Is Affecting The West Coast, USA

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/36-signs-the-media-is-lying-to-you-about-how-radiation-from-fukushima-is-affecting-the-west-coast_012014

Fukushima radiation hits San Francisco! (Dec 2013)

LcQLxT49ZP0

Published on 24 Dec 2013

This shocking video was taken December 23rd 2013 with a quality Geiger Counter
south of Pacifica State Beach (Surfers Beach) California.

Background radiation reading is 30 CPM. Near the ocean it's 150 CPM. The moister
coming from the ocean waves seems to be what makes the Geiger Counter jump up
5X. This is not normal at all. More thorough readings need to be done. Where is the
useless government/media? Thanks to rense.com for originally publishing this video.

Location:
https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Half+Mo...

more details on U/Tube

Cidersomerset

2nd January 2014, 21:10

Fukushima: Global Elite Political Theater

Thursday 2nd January 2014 at 04:42 By David Icke

http://theglobalelite.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Shhh-600x250.jpg

‘Something is far beyond contaminated and glow-fishy about the Fukushima
meltdown. For two years it has been discussed and swarming with expertise, but
with no limiting or actual efforts to stop the radiological contaminants from being
released into the Pacific and all other connected oceans, the largest food and
oxygen sources on the planet. Yet, surfers are surfing, swimmers are swimming,
children are playing on beaches, and restaurants all over the earth are eating
Pacific fish and also contaminated Atlantic fish according to multiple reports.

Also never actually disclosed or addressed is that perhaps as many as 1500 nukes
have been tested in the world’s oceans, which also might have
produced “contamination” since nuclear pollution doesn’t ever really go away. So,
at this juncture I ask myself, where is the left hand and what might it be doing?
Politics, as we know, has new meaning in the global world of corporate-political
elites. Their political intentions were always based in deceptions from the earliest
planning stages to today, for one hundred if not two hundred years. The UN Agenda
21 blueprint has never been fully disclosed in truth or in the open.’

The 47 U.S. Biosphere Reserves are still completely under the veil for 90% of
American people who have still never heard of them; same with the World Heritage
Sites, and they are totally in the dark regarding the 620+ global reserves.
Stratospheric Aerial Geoengineering and Solar Radiation Management
(chemtrailing) are only just now kind of/sort of acknowledged as “possibly”
damaging the planet for 35 years or more as well as the super-secret global HAARP
facilities, which happen to super-heat the atmosphere, while aerial spraying traps
the “warming” on the ground beneath the artificial, metallized, and very noxious
and debilitating clouds and haze that laid across the skies, globally. And suddenly,
we have another global crisis, publicized, with people sick, dying badly, and with
sea life really, really sick and dying, and with worsening news and contamination
pouring into the Pacific every day. Instead, a handful of “experts” are studying,
having meetings and press conferences, pondering, coordinating thoughts and
ideas, kicking the dirt, etc., etc. What we are witnessing is political theater. The
problem is we, too, are getting sicker and sicker. Fukushima is, after all, not just an
oceanic problem. Radioactive ocean water evaporates and rains down…on
everything…over the entire planet, and it just so happens that the nano-particulates
of aluminum, barium, strontium and other concoctions sprayed from jets and
commercial planes, globally, also rain down, blow in the wind…nano-sized mind
you…which means their ingredients are wholly and completely unavoidable. Even
your N95 masks, coats, gloves, hats and safety glasses cannot protect you, and
these nano-particles are in your homes, your cars, all over your children, stores,
pets, possessions, lawns, trees, forests, in all watershed systems, and all over the
nation and world’s crop fields (think Monsanto “aluminum resistant” seeds).
Consider well the over 1400 global seed vaults. I fear we are experiencing a double-
whammy. I am also thinking that a “global” crisis or crises are forthcoming, which
will put “global” power centers front and center and in full-force all over the entire
world. I equally think that global health may be collapsing as we speak, as global
nature is demonstrating. Billions of fish and sea creatures dying, billions of birds,
hundreds of trillions of insects and amphibians, and even large sea and forest
mammals, far larger than human beings, are dying all around the world…and badly.
Hundreds of millions of forested acres are burning, annually and globally, while
global aquifers are being privatized and locked down from most of humanity.
Depopulation was always part and parcel of the original plan by globalism’s
authors, and certainly a mass die-off of humanity cannot appear as genocide or
democide in a mass-media whistleblowing world, not when the orchestrators are so
terribly few, but a left-right punch from global catastrophic “events”, especially
ones we choose to ignore with our best ignorance, could be our undoing. When we
choose to ignore Fukushima and allow governments to ignore mass-
extinction “events”, and when we steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that we are
sprayed like insects for 35+ years, seeing it above our heads for days and weeks
on end, because we “don’t want to think about it,” well…maybe we prove what
elites have always believed, that we are “useless”, “ignorant”, “costly”, and “too
common” for their many bottom lines. As history has demonstrated century after
century after century, when there are too many poor people, human culling occurs,
which means they are murdered. I fear history, once again, is upon us. When
whales, dolphins, deer and trillions of other animals and mammals and plants are
biting the dust and all at the same time, we’re next…especially because we eat
these plants and animals, actually resulting in a third-whammy to humankind.
Truth is, folks, we are being in-toxic-acted from every direction humanly possible.
What is happening to the world is not an accident. We are getting hit from all
angles. - See more at: http://govtslaves.info/global-elite-political-
theater/#sthash.lnaqwZLS.dpuf

Read more …

http://govtslaves.info/global-elite-political-theater/

Hervé

2nd January 2014, 21:19

Posting it here as well:

U.S. government orders 14 million doses of potassium iodide (https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=5cd0c1800435272c80ad292aeb9d1ba7&tab=core&tabmode=list&)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
FBO.gov (https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=5cd0c1800435272c80ad292aeb9d1ba7&tab=core&tabmode=list&), Fri, 06 Dec 2013 15:35 CST

http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/163505/medium/potassium_iodide.jpg (http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/163505/full/potassium_iodide.jpg)

© Seerpress, Potassium Iodide

Solicitation Number: 14-284-SOL-0015A

Notice Type: Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Synopsis:
Added: Dec 06, 2013 3:35 pm (i)

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for a commercial item prepared in accordance with FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information in this notice.

This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.

(ii) The solicitation number is 14-284-SOL-0015A. This solicitation is issued as an Request for Quote (RFQ).

(iii) The corresponding NAICS code is 325412 and the small business standard size is 750 employees.

(iv) The contract line item number, item, quantity and unit of measure is:

Line No. 001; potassium iodide tablet, 65mg, unit dose package of 20s; 700,000 packages (of 20s)

(v) Delivery is required on or before February 1, 2014.
Delivery will be made to:
DHHS, SSC
Bldg #5 Receiving Dock
Perry Point,MD 21902

(vi) The provisions of FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors - Commercial Items; 52.212-2, Evaluation - Commercial Items; and FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial items apply to this acquisition. The Government will awad a contract resulting from this synopsis/solicitation to the responsible offerror whose offer conforms to the solicitation and provides the best value to the Governemnt - price and other factors considered.

(vii) Quotes are due Tuesday, December 23, 2013 by 3:30 pm, EST, electronically to the Contracting Officer at timothy.bouchelle@psc.hhs.gov.

(viii) Contact Timothy R. Bouchelle, Contracting Officer, at timothy.bouchelle@psc.hhs.gov regarding this solicitation number 14-284-SOL0015A.
Phone inquiries can be made at 410-642-1382.
Contracting Office Address:
Building 14
Perry Point, Maryland 21902
Place of Performance: DHHS
SSC, Bldg #5 Receiving Dock

Perry Point, Maryland 21902
United States
Primary Point of Contact:
Timothy R. Bouchelle timothy.bouchelle@psc.hhs.gov
Phone: 4106421382

_____________________________

Alarmist title of "14 million doses", that's 1 pellet inside a bag of 20... reduces to 7ooK bags... let's say 2 bags per individual... that's for only 350,000 people...

Cidersomerset

2nd January 2014, 21:21

US Government Orders 14 Million Doses of Potassium Iodide

Thursday 2nd January 2014 at 04:42 By David Icke

http://static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/january2014/010114pot.jpg

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
January 1, 2014

‘The Department of Health and Human Services has ordered 14 million doses of
potassium iodide, the compound that protects the body from radioactive poisoning
in the aftermath of severe nuclear accidents, to be delivered before the beginning
of February…

… Potassium iodide helps block radioactive iodine from being absorbed by the
thyroid gland and is used by victims of severe nuclear accidents or emergencies.
Under current regulations, states with populations living within 10 miles of a
nuclear plant are encouraged, but not required, to maintain a supply of potassium iodide.

A search of the FedBizOpps website returns no other results regarding the purchase
of potassium iodide from any government agency, suggesting that the DHHS bulk
buy of the tablets is unprecedented in recent times.’

Read more …

http://www.infowars.com/us-government-orders-14-million-doses-of-potassium-iodide/

Cidersomerset

2nd January 2014, 21:29

This may have all ready been posted, I just saw it on info wars link, so posted it.
Again , if's , whats and maybes, and its impossible to evacuate the west coast
unless there is real evidence, or warning by then it will be probably to late.

===================================================

Top Scientist: Another Fukushima Quake Would Mean US Evacuation, ‘Bye Bye Japan’

The Alex Jones Channel Alex Jones Show podcast Prison Planet TV Infowars.com Twitter Alex Jones' Facebook Infowars store

Award winning scientist says another 7.0 earthquake hitting Fukushima would mean US evacuations, ‘bye bye Japan’.

Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
November 6, 2013

Award winning scientist David Suzuki has gone on record in a public talk
posted online just days ago in saying that in the event of another seven
or above earthquake, which he says has about a 95% chance of occurring
over the next three years, it would mean a complete evacuation of North
America and ‘bye bye Japan’.

iTqzqoKMLEg

http://www.infowars.com/scientist-another-fukushima-quake-us-evacuation-japan/

Octavusprime

3rd January 2014, 00:00

I posted similar stuff on another thread but there are supplements that can be taken to protect yourself. This link has a very large collection of such foods/supplements.

http://www.safespaceprotection.com/Healthy-Tips-Article/healthy-tips-anti-radiation-diet.aspx

I bought some icelandic kelp recently very cheaply. $5 for 1000 doses. As with all things don't over do it, especially if you already have thyroid problems.

panopticon

3rd January 2014, 02:51

G'day Steve,

Thanks Targe , Pan and others for keeping this thread up to date. I don't know if this is scare mongering or that the levels of radiation will be diluted in sea and atmosphere, but worth monitoring the situation.

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

36 Signs The Media Is Lying To You About How Radiation From Fukushima Is Affecting The West Coast, USA

No worries Blue. I'm having a bit of a problem with the "36 Signs" though...

I posted about it yesterday in another thread:

There are so many inaccurate or misleading statements in the above quote that it's hard to know where to start...

Take this:

#15 According to an absolutely shocking report put out by the National Academy of Sciences, it has been proven that Pacific Bluefin tuna have transported radioactive material “across the entire North Pacific Ocean”…

“We report unequivocal evidence that Pacific Bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, transported Fukushima-derived radionuclides across the entire North Pacific Ocean.”

This is quoting a journal article titled 'Pacific blue fin tuna transport Fukushima-derived radionuclides from Japan to California' (source (http://micheli.stanford.edu/pdf/Madiganetal_PNAS_2012.pdf)).

Simple enough, except it doesn't pass mention that the report indicated that naturally occurring radionuclides were of a higher concentration than the combined Caesium 134 & 137. To quote the same scientists in a report titled 'Evaluation of radiation doses and associated risk from the Fukushima nuclear accident to marine biota and human consumers of seafood':

PBFT captured off California in August 2011 contained activity concentrations below those from naturally occurring radionuclides. To link the radioactivity to possible health impairments, we calculated doses, attributable to the Fukushima-derived and the naturally occurring radionuclides, to both the marine biota and human fish consumers. We showed that doses in all cases were dominated by the naturally occurring alpha-emitter 210 Po and that Fukushima-derived doses were three to four orders of magnitude below 210 Po-derived doses...
... doses are comparable to, or less than, the dose all humans routinely obtain from naturally occurring radionuclides in many food items, medical treatments, air travel, or other background sources.
Source (http://www.pnas.org/content/110/26/10670.full.pdf#page=1&view=FitH)

So yes, detected levels were higher (up from 1.5 Bq kg-1 in 2008 to 6.0 Bq kg-1 in 2011) but this is no-where near even the levels of naturally occurring polonium-210 in the same fish samples...

From the same report:

Dose to Humans. Consumption of 200 g (a typical restaurant-sized serving) of PBFT contaminated with 4.0 Bq·kg -1 dry weight of 134 Cs and 6.3 Bq·kg -1 dry weight of 137 Cs (mean values for PBFT caught off San Diego in August 2011) resulted in committed effective doses of 3.7 and 4.0 nSv, respectively (Table 1). To put this into perspective, the combined dose of 7.7 nSv from these two Cs isotopes is only about 5% of the dose acquired from eating one uncontaminated banana (assuming 200 g weight) and absorbing its naturally occurring 40 K (28), and only about 7% of the dose attributable to the 40 K in the PBFT (Table 1). More strikingly, the dose from both Cs isotopes is only 0.2% of that attributable to the naturally occurring 210 Po from ingesting the fish (Table 1). Furthermore, in August 2012, PBFT off California were found to have less than half the levels of radioactive Cs than were found in August 2011 (29), which would result in even lower doses to human consumers.
Source (http://www.pnas.org/content/110/26/10670.full.pdf#page=1&view=FitH)

So, to be clear, if you sat down and ate a 200 gram serving of tuna with the quantity of Caesium 134 & 137 mentioned in the first article that would be about 5% of the equivalent dose from an average banana (ie eat twenty 200 gram servings of "contaminated" Tuna in one sitting and you've got the same equivalent dose as you'd get from eating one banana).

To be crystal clear I repeat: 'More strikingly, the dose from both Cs isotopes is only 0.2% of that attributable to the naturally occurring 210 Po from ingesting the fish.'

There are some parts of the "36 Signs" etc that are almost valid but when the sort of logic and obvious misrepresentation of the research is used to justify it how can anyone take it seriously?

Take the reference to the personnel from the USS Ronald Reagan who are taking action against TEPCO.

#4 71 U.S. sailors who assisted with the initial Fukushima relief efforts have developed serious diseases such as testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, Leukemia, “unremitting gynecological bleeding” and brain tumors since that time as a result of exposure to radiation coming from Fukushima.

They were within one to ten miles of the Fukushima Daiichi plant during the explosion of #3. The water they drank and washed in was desalinated sea water that would have been contaminated by radionuclides. The fact that radiation levels were low is really meaningless as it is the consumption of high emission alpha & beta particles that cause the most problems. If the water consumed by the personnel contained higher than normal quanitities of alpha & beta emitting particles and the personnel were not able to gain access to clean (uncontaminated) water to flush their system with (ie make use of the biological half-life of most radionuclides that we've mentioned before on this thread) then there would likely be an increase in cellular mutation amongst the personnel so affected. This also applies to particles on the deck area being inhaled and why personnel should have been given respirators if particle concentration was as high as claimed (the fact they weren't seems odd if air-borne concentration was actually high enough to register concern).

Note that my above statement has nothing to do with the US coast line and was only possible because of the close proximity of the USS Ronald Reagan to the source of the radionuclides (ie Fukushima Daiichi).

Target made some excellent points in his post above and while I disagree on aspects of some parts of it I would like to see the medical information on the USS Ronald Reagan personnel effected presented (if anyone has seen a link to that I'd appreciate it). I admit an audible groan when the lawyer mentioned correlation and causation in the same sentence... Truly amazing stuff...

-- Pan

panopticon

3rd January 2014, 03:16

and of course the video wraps up with the logical fallacy : Appeal to emotion.
Is this suppose to work, are we this easily manipulated?

Well said Target. The tactics used were very transparent.

I admit a shaking of the head and audible groan in places.

Again the argument used is "all radiation is bad" because they will be using the LNT model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_no-threshold_model) in any case that gets to be heard. Wise tactic as it relies on accepted precedence and industry standards.

The main problems facing the case is attributing these cases to TEPCO not providing sufficient information to the US government and this being the only reason that the personnel were not withdrawn from the area sooner. If TEPCO can show that they gave reasonable warning of levels, or that the US government would have in all likelihood not withdrawn the vessel & personnel even if the level reported was higher than what was recorded, then (as far as I can tell) there appears to be no case.

-- Pan

panopticon

3rd January 2014, 03:51

Alarmist title of "14 million doses", that's 1 pellet inside a bag of 20... reduces to 700K bags... let's say 2 bags per individual... that's for only 350,000 people...

Well said Amzer Zo.

14 million is magically transformed, by calmly thinking about it, to 350,000...

I would imagine that would be a fairly normal purchase amount from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Though of course there is always the chance that a false flag operation could be run with "terrorists" attacking the Daiichi NPS (this has been backgrounded already by TEPCO, the NRA & Japanese Government) and all the associated misinformation & fear being channelled into any number of scenarios.

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 16:02

Study: Dead sea creatures cover 98 percent of ocean floor off California coast; up from one percent before Fukushima

Friday 3rd January 2014 at 03:45 By David Icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/Images/May2012/Masthead-v6.jpg

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Ocean-Dead-Zone.jpg

‘The Pacific Ocean appears to be dying, according to a new study recently published
in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists from the
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California recently
discovered that the number of dead sea creatures blanketing the floor of the Pacific
is higher than it has ever been in the 24 years that monitoring has taken place, a
phenomenon that the data suggests is a direct consequence of nuclear fallout from
Fukushima.

Though the researchers involved with the work have been reluctant to pin
Fukushima as a potential cause — National Geographic, which covered the study
recently, did not even mention Fukushima — the timing of the discovery suggests
that Fukushima is, perhaps, the cause. According to the data, this sudden explosion
in so-called “sea snot,” which is the name given to the masses of dead sea
creatures that sink to the ocean floor as food, has skyrocketed since the Fukushima
incident occurred.’

"In the 24 years of this study, the past two years have been the biggest amounts of
this detritus by far," stated Christine Huffard, a marine biologist at MBARI and
leader of the study, to National Geographic.

At an ocean research station known as Station M, located 145 miles out to sea
between the Californian cities of Santa Barbara and Monterey, Huffard and her
colleague Ken Smith observed a sharp uptick in the amount of dead sea life drifting
to the ocean floor. The masses of dead sea plankton, jellyfish, feces and other
oceanic matter that typically only cover about 1 percent of the ocean floor were
found to now be covering about 98 percent of it -- and multiple other stations
located throughout the Pacific have since reported similar figures.

"In March 2012, less than one percent of the seafloor beneath Station M was
covered in dead sea salps," writes Carrie Arnold for National Geographic. "By July
1, more than 98 percent of it was covered in the decomposing organisms. ... The
major increase in activity of deep-sea life in 2011 and 2012 weren't limit to Station
M, though: Other ocean-research stations reported similar data."

No more sea life means no more oxygen in our atmosphere

Interestingly, Arnold does not even make a peep about Fukushima, which by all
common sense is the most reasonable explanation for this sudden increase in dead
sea life. Though the most significant increases were observed roughly a year after
the incident, the study makes mention of the fact that the problems first began in
2011.

"Forget looking at global warming as the culprit," writes National Geographic
commenter "Grammy," pointing out the lunacy of Arnold's implication that the now-
debunked global warming myth was the sudden cause of a 9,700 percent increase
in dead sea life.

Backing her up, another National Geographic commenter jokingly stated that
somehow "the earth took such a huge hit in a four-month timeframe of a meltdown
via global warming and we as a people didn't recognize this while [it was]
happening; while coincidentally during that same time frame the event at
Fukushima took place."

It is almost as if the powers that be want us all to forget about Fukushima and the
catastrophic damage it continues to cause to our planet. But they will not be able to
cover up the truth forever, as human life is dependent upon healthy oceans, the life
of which provides the oxygen that we all need to breathe and survive.

Learn more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/043380_Fukushima_radiation_ocean_life.html##ixzz2pLshfy1l

Read more: Study: Dead sea creatures cover 98 percent of ocean floor off California coast; up from one percent before Fukushima

http://www.naturalnews.com/043380_Fukushima_radiation_ocean_life.html#

TargeT

3rd January 2014, 16:30

Study: Dead sea creatures cover 98 percent of ocean floor off California coast; up from one percent before Fukushima

Friday 3rd January 2014 at 03:45 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Ocean-Dead-Zone.jpg

‘The Pacific Ocean appears to be dying, according to a new study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California recently discovered that the number of dead sea creatures blanketing the floor of the Pacific is higher than it has ever been in the 24 years that monitoring has taken place, a phenomenon that the data suggests is a direct consequence of nuclear fallout from Fukushima.

Though the researchers involved with the work have been reluctant to pin Fukushima as a potential cause — National Geographic, which covered the study recently, did not even mention Fukushima — the timing of the discovery suggests that Fukushima is, perhaps, the cause.

HUGE logical fallacy here...
CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION

I'd bet National Geographic didn't mention Fukushima because.... FUKUSHIMA wasn't involved!

No more sea life means no more oxygen in our atmosphere

Really? Do you know that phytoplankton are what produce the majority of the 50-80% of the 02 in the earths atmosphere (not all, but a significant amount) and there was zero mention of that in the article...

the "dead stuff" you are talking about actually take 02 OUT of the water and produce C02... so even your logical fallacy here (firstly assuming there will be no sea life based on this one data point, second that the sea life they are talking about equates to ALL sea life)

Interestingly, Arnold does not even make a peep about Fukushima, which by all common sense is the most reasonable explanation for this sudden increase in dead sea life. Though the most significant increases were observed roughly a year after the incident, the study makes mention of the fact that the problems first began in 2011.

again, huge logical fallacy there... if "all common sense" points to fukushima, then "all common sense" is untrustworthy and heavily flawed.

"Forget looking at global warming as the culprit," writes National Geographic commenter "Grammy," pointing out the lunacy of Arnold's implication that the now-debunked global warming myth was the sudden cause of a 9,700 percent increase in dead sea life.

Backing her up, another National Geographic commenter jokingly stated that somehow "the earth took such a huge hit in a four-month timeframe of a meltdown via global warming and we as a people didn't recognize this while [it was] happening; while coincidentally during that same time frame the event at Fukushima took place."

It is almost as if the powers that be want us all to forget about Fukushima and the catastrophic damage it continues to cause to our planet. But they will not be able to cover up the truth forever, as human life is dependent upon healthy oceans, the life of which provides the oxygen that we all need to breathe and survive.

Please show me 1 example of the catastrophic (or even just "regular) damage that fukushima is causing and has caused in the last 2 years.

or are you just guessing?

what you are doing here is furthering the huge disinfo campaign surrounding this topic, posts like this are detrimental to anyone who reads them and quite frankly I feel obligated to point this out.

I see a disturbing lack of due-diligence to this topic, a disturbing amount of logical fallacy in play (deception, in other words) and I feel like saying "shame on you".

if you want to believe in the tooth fairy, go for it, but spreading that belief does not help anyone.

BE RESPONSIBLE WITH YOUR POSTS, OTHER PEOPLE READ THEM.

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 18:37

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 18:51

This is the National Geographic take inferring global warming and ocean acidification .....

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS82EDGKa4VK2eg4RgqPhgw8w70pY3Ow26mZFooaiWKEloRpnhO

Posted by Carrie Arnold in Weird & Wild on November 22, 2013
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/01/carrie_cuckoo2-58x58.jpg

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2012/11/weird-wild-blog-header.jpg

News Watch Home
Explorers Journal
Water Currents
Ocean Views

It’s a feast of epic proportions. Storms of “sea snot”—a mix of dead plankton and
gelatinous sea creatures, and their feces—drift to the ocean floor, where deep-sea
organisms gobble up the sudden windfall.

But these snotty blizzards aren’t just an occasional bonus to life at the bottom of
the ocean—new research shows they depend on it to stay alive.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/11/26538-cb1285707343-600x398.jpg
Image courtesy Arne Diercks“Sea snot” seen in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Image courtesy Arne Diercks

The scientists found that not long after sea snot blooms drift to the seafloor, the
activity of these deep-sea critters accelerated. (See “Giant, Mucus-Like Sea Blobs
on the Rise, Pose Danger.”)

Global warming and ocean acidification, however, may be increasing the frequency
of these sea snot storms, which could have unforeseen effects on marine life by
altering how nutrients move around the oceans.

“In the 24 years of this study, the past 2 years have been the biggest amounts of
this detritus by far,” said study leader Christine Huffard, a marine biologist at the
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

Marine Banquet

With lead author Ken Smith, Huffard and colleagues were interested in learning how
deep-sea marine life uses carbon and other elements, so they turned to Station M,
which is located 145 miles (220 kilometers) west of the coast of California (map)
between Santa Barbara and Monterey.

Although it sounds more like a secret CIA hideout than an ocean-research area,
Station M has been giving scientists data on ocean productivity for two decades.

The ocean is most productive at the surface, where algae and phytoplankton use
the sun’s energy to photosynthesize, creating a large portion of our atmosphere’s
oxygen. Other animals, like slimy sea salps—barrel-shaped, jellyfish-like
organisms—feed on the phytoplankton. (Related: “Huge Swarm of Gelatinous Sea
Creatures Imaged in 3-D.”)

Somewhat regularly, large blooms of phytoplankton cover large areas of the
ocean’s surface, which in turn boosts populations of sea salps that gorge on the
giant marine banquet.

Eventually, however, all good things come to an end. The phytoplankton eventually
dies off, and so do the hordes of sea salps.

“Anything that was once living or breathing or had been eaten at the surface makes
its way to the bottom of the ocean,” Huffard said. “The sea salps sink pretty quickly
because they’re very dense, but even fecal pellets from zooplankton fall to the
seafloor.” (See pictures of deep-sea creatures.)

Tracking Oxygen

All of this feasting—and the digesting that follows—requires significant amounts of
oxygen. So, using a special deep-sea robot, Huffard and colleagues measured the
oxygen used by this deep sea life and the subsequent carbon it produces (as
proteins and cells) to determine its activity level.

Their data revealed small seasonal increases in the activity of deep-sea organisms
after spring and fall phytoplankton blooms.Huffard points out that the use of
oxygen and carbon levels to measure deep-sea productivity does have limitations.
Perhaps the biggest one is that the method can’t tell whether the number of deep-
sea organisms has increased, or if they’re just more active and thus producing
more carbon.

Mysterious Explosions

Global warming may also be influencing the rhythm of sea snot explosions. For
instance, warmer oceans may encourage the growth of more phytoplankton. The
scientists observed the largest spikes in deep-sea productivity in 2011 and 2012,
corresponding with massive phytoplankton blooms. (Also see “‘Sea Snot’ Explosion
Caused by Gulf Oil Spill?”)

In March 2012, less than one percent of the seafloor beneath Station M was
covered in dead sea salps. By July 1, more than 98 percent of it was covered in the
decomposing organisms, according to the study, published this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The major increase in activity of deep-sea life in 2011 and 2012 weren’t limited to
Station M, though: Other ocean-research stations reported similar data.

Although climate change is a leading contender for explaining the major increases
in 2011 and 2012, Huffard says that these spikes could be part of a longer-term
trend that scientists haven’t yet observed.

She hopes to continue gathering data from Station M to try and figure it out.

Follow Carrie Arnold on Twitter and Google+.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/22/sea-snot-explosions-feed-deep-sea-creatures/

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 19:12

I don't think the local fisherman would agree...

Please show me 1 example of the catastrophic (or even just "regular) damage that fukushima is causing and has caused in the last 2 years.

http://www.kidco.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/logo_cbsnews.jpg

Japanese fishermen face new setback with latest Fukushima leak

(CBS News) FUKUSHIMA, Japan -- There's been another leak at the Fukushima
nuclear plant in Japan. Operators said Tuesday that 80,000 gallons of highly
radioactive water escaped from a storage tank. That's on top of a massive leak that
was discovered last month. All of this has devastated Japan's fishing industry.

Hiroaki Adachi

Hiroaki Adachi/ CBS News

The fishermen's haul on the day we met them was a good one -- good, at least, for
fishermen in Fukushima.Octopus is among the only seafood deemed safe enough to
eat from these waters. For more than a year after the March 2011 earthquake and
tsunami that destroyed Fukushima, they weren't allowed to fish at all.

In late July, they learned the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was leaking
radioactive water. Seventy-five-thousand gallons a day poured into the Pacific near
where they'd just begun to fish again in June 2012. Most of the fish was considered
too dangerous to eat.

"It seems like we took one step forward and as soon as things were getting
brighter, the leakage put a damper on it," Hiroaki Adachi told us.

Japan opens beaches near damaged power plant

Fukushima nuclear plant shutdown may take Japan longer than predicted 40 years
Water, rats, outages: Japan nuke plant precarious.Two years later, Japan seethes
at tsunami recovery

Before the earthquake, there used to be 400 fishermen in this association. Today
there are just 130. But the really surprising number is they used to haul in around
19,000 tons of fish a year. Today they bring in just 300 tons -- that's just two percent of the catch.

Kazuko Matsui

Kazuko Matsui/ CBS News

With much of the catch still off limits, Hiroaki Adachi says he earns 10 percent of
what he used to. To survive, he's relied on compensation payments from the Tokyo
Electric Power Company, which owns the nuclear plant.

"Now, after the announcement of the leaking," he told us, "I have doubts that our
fish is 100 percent safe to eat."

But the fishermen's collective in this prefecture, or county, of Japan tests all the
fish they catch for radioactive cesium and other contaminants. So far, in one type
of octopus, none have been detected.

Watch: Japan fishing crippled 2 years after nuclear meltdown, below.

yrjlFR6kT60

Play Video

Japan fishing crippled 2 years after nuclear meltdown

Those test results are displayed along with the octopus at the local supermarket.
Shopper Kazuko Matsui said she was confident enough to feed it to her
grandchildren.

"I think it's safe to eat, and I want to get rid of the bad rumors," she told us. "I'm
local, so we should eat it to prove how safe it is."

But the dangers are far more evident. Today only 16 types of fish are considered
safe to catch here, compared with 150 types they caught before the disaster.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/japanese-fishermen-face-new-setback-with-latest-fukushima-leak/

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 19:28

http://rt.com/static/img/static/logo.jpg

‘Fukushima fish ends in garbage’: Radioactive fears blight Japan’s seafood industry

YRKtaAaNsy4

Published time: December 25, 2013 13:58
Edited time: December 27, 2013 09:33

Trends
Fukushima nuclear disaster
Tags
Aleksey Yaroshevsky, Biology, Food, Health, Human rights, Japan, Natural
disasters, Nuclear, Psychology, Scandal, Tsunami

Due to radiation fears, Fukushima Prefecture fishermen have to dump most of their
catch. Two years into the nuclear disaster, the world is growing weary of Japan’s
seafood, with South Korea even banning Japanese fish and seafood imports.

Fish has traditionally not only been an integral part of Japanese food culture, but
also one of its prized exports. In 2011, before the Fukushima disaster, Japan
maintained one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounted for almost 15
percent of global catches, according to Forbes.

However, there are serious concerns now, although the industry seems to be on a
slow, but sure recovery route.

The concerns mainly arise over catches made in the waters close to the Fukushima
nuclear power plant. After it was established that the hydraulic system at the
Fukushima nuclear power plant was severely irradiated, fears grew that the
contamination could spread into the Pacific.

“There is significant contamination in the bottom segment, especially in the pond
and the river system, where we can find a very high amount of radioactive cesium
accumulated,” Yamashike Yosuke, Environmental Engineering Professor at Kyoto
University, told RT.

Many Japanese seafood firms are under threat as there are five prefectures possibly
affected by contamination in the sea, accounting for almost 40,000 tons of fish per
year, RT’s Aleksey Yaroshevsky reports from Soma, a coastal town in the
Fukushima prefecture.

Fish factories around the Fukushima prefecture now have to take radiation
measurements.

“We’re taking samples from every catch we make and if we ever find even the
slightest trace of radiation, we’ll destroy the whole catch. So far there has been
none, this fish is safe,” Akihisa Sato assured RT, a worker in a fish laboratory in
Soma, Japan.

But Japanese fishermen can’t convince customers that their fish is safe, even
though the authorities insist they're doing their best to show they've got a grip on
the problem. In September, South Korea became the first country to ban seafood
imports from Japan.

“The situation is pretty much under control. We’ve built fences [so as] not to let
polluted ground waters leak into the ocean,” maintained Youshimi Hitosugi, a
Fukushima nuclear plant operator in TEPCO’s Corporate Communications
Department.

But despite lab workers assurances that the fish was free of any harmful particles
and TEPCO standing firm that the nearby waters are clear of radiation, Yaroshevsky
learnt that most of the seafood he personally saw at the port of Soma will never
make it to the shelves of fish markets or restaurant tables.

“Most of the fish caught within the 30 kilometer radius is thrown into the garbage
because it is radiated. And TEPCO is paying to local fishermen for it, so that they’re
happy and keep silent on that. Some of it though makes it to stores, but only
locally,” economist Hirokai Kurosaki revealed to RT.

So far work hasn’t stopped in Soma, despite the port being in the heart of the area
ravaged by the 2011 tsunami and just a few kilometers from the Fukushima
nuclear power plant heavily contaminated by radiation. Seafood of all shapes and
sizes continues to land in Soma several times a day, only to end up being thrown
away.

http://rt.com/news/japan-fukushima-seafood-dangers-775/

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 19:56

there is still potential threat especially if hit by another Quake....

ABC NEWS - West Coast Evacuation Due To Fukishima Radiation Possible

h-rMIrOAHBU

Published on 15 Nov 2013

Nuclear Engineer Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research, confirmed that ocean currents are carrying the radioactive
water to the West Coast.
"There are several hundred tons of radioactive water that are pouring into the
ocean at the site every day," Makhijani said.
According to a study published in the Journal Deep Sea Research 1, it will begin
arriving this March. But Makhijani says there's no need to panic. The radiation will
be diluted, and levels found on the West Coast are very low and not considered
dangerous so far. But the question is, will we really know? Fukushima radiation hit's
westcoast.

===================================================

Fukushima Nuclear plant is COLLAPSING - Ocean life extinction maybe near

SR5gbAbEK1A

Published on 11 Nov 2013

Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear, joins Thom Hartmann. There are new concerns
coming out of Japan - as the stricken Number 4 reactor at the Daichii nuclear power
plant is on the verge of collapsing. How is TEPCO responding to this newest threat -
and can they stop a complete nuclear disaster?

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 20:10

This is a summery of events from the Tsunami onwards....

December 17 2013 Breaking News Fukushima worldwide Nuclear C

-a_gIuYvQGE

Published on 18 Dec 2013

December 17 2013 Breaking News Fukushima worldwide Nuclear Crisis
not contained and now over 2 years later Japan asking superpowers for
help as Nuclear Radiation still keeps pouring into the Pacific ocean
contaminating mankind's seafood food chain - Last Days Final Hour
prophecy News update

Cidersomerset

3rd January 2014, 20:34

I watched the above documentary and was astonished that the lack of batteries contributed to the disaster 'unbelievable' !!

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

This article explains it........

October 27, 2012 · 12:33 am

↓ Jump to Comments

Fukushima: For Want Of A Battery, A Nation Was Lost

vpA0TOgB9-o

Fukushima The Truth Behind the Chain of Meltdowns – YouTube is a NHK Japanese
TV report that discusses the now-unfolding scandal of why several of the reactors
blew up. That is, the SRV, safety release valves, which remove gases accumulating
like in a pressure cooker and thus, lets more water into the chamber to cool the
rods, were inoperative after the tsunami and the only way to open these valves was
to find 12 volt batteries. Which Tepco refused to give.

http://emsnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/screen-shot-2012-10-24-at-3-21-45-pm1.png?w=500&h=410

Reactor #2 released the most toxins in the meltdown horror show. 39 minutes into
the show, reactor #3 meltdown. 32 hours before it had its hydrogen gas explosion,
a day and a half after the tsunami. They were running out of batteries that ran
pumps and opened and closed valves.

http://emsnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/screen-shot-2012-10-26-at-8-01-43-pm.png?w=500&h=364

The nuclear power workers called Tepco headquarters and they sent 2 volt batteries
to Fukushima with the help of a Japan Defense Force helicopter. But these were
the wrong batteries! They needed 12 volt batteries. 10 were needed for each SR
valve that released buildup of vapors which prevent water from entering the
containment unit.

http://emsnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/screen-shot-2012-10-26-at-8-04-13-pm.png?w=500&h=393

Why didn’t the Fukushima get these batteries? The interview of the Tepco
executive who screened the requests that day was, he was TOO BUSY to prioritize!
So he IGNORED the urgent demand for batteries to turn the valves.

http://emsnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/screen-shot-2012-10-26-at-8-05-23-pm.png?w=500&h=384

Tepco had the batteries. But these were kept 50 miles away, 1,000 batteries.

http://emsnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/screen-shot-2012-10-26-at-8-08-05-pm.png?w=500&h=332

The storage site had no delivery trucks. The brave workers stuck in this hellish
disaster area connected their car batteries to the valves and it was too late by this
time and the reactor blew up. The scandal of the batteries is making news in Japan
because it turns out the calls to headquarters for urgent batteries be brought to
Fukushima were bogged down with paperwork demands by the headquarters staff.

That is, they argued with the nuclear workers stuck in Fukushima and didn’t want
to release the batteries and even asked the staff at the nuclear power plant to go to
a store and buy some. The end of this scandal has yet to run its course and
probably will end with someone killing himself.

ALL nuclear power explosions have human incompetence as a key element.
Humans are not trustworthy guardians of these dangerous nuclear dragons. Any
disruption or natural event can cause a chain reaction that never really ends. As
we see in the Chernobyl crypt which still seethes with radioactive madness. The
same is true of Fukushima: it is not finished, it continues to evolve and destroy.

More proof that the contamination is continuing and spreading like a cancer in our
once-health oceans: Fish Off Fukushima, Japan, Show Elevated Levels of Cesium –
NYTimes.com

http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/fukushima-for-want-of-a-battery-a-nation-was-lost/

TargeT

3rd January 2014, 23:30

HUGE logical fallacy here...
CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION

I'd bet National Geographic didn't mention Fukushima because.... FUKUSHIMA wasn't involved!

I thought you would like this post Targe .... I posted it as it is was on Davids site .At least it gives you
a chance to refute it....LOL

I noticed the main insinuation to Fukishima was the timing. I'm presuming the author at Natural News
is not stupid so added it to the debate. But you know more about this than me, so if its a load of
old 'sea snot' so be it , but its recorded for others to consider....

“In the 24 years of this study, the past 2 years have been the biggest
amounts of this detritus by far,” said study leader Christine Huffard, a marine
biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

This is the coincidental bit .........

that is a coincidence, but the ocean is a literally a sea of variables... connecting the two with out some sort of substantiating data, I mean they didn't even take a radiological reading before jumping to this conclusion? That would have been a "freebie" since there would have been radiation (as everything has some level) and they could have at least tossed that up in an attempt to correlate the two topics.

your use of quotes didn't make it very clear what was your comment and what theirs.

the article probably should be up and seen, but it's flaws need to be pointed out; D. Icke has really lost his "luster" in my eyes of late, and his large media push is starting to slide him into the "alex jones" category as well (I mean we KNOW CO-INTEL-Pro is real, we know its been done for years... we have to apply that to reality and especially this Icke situation with his "truth TV" (or what ever its called)).

I guess my faith in humanity (mostly their ability to critically think) has hit an all time low, I wouldn't even propagate dis-info of this caliber as unfortunately many people will not see past the logical fallacies and conclusion jumping that is going on (we just aren't taught to do this, it took me a long time before I stumbled onto the Trivium and Quadrivium and Critical thinking)

TargeT

3rd January 2014, 23:39

Shane

4th January 2014, 00:42

Both sides of this debate seem to be employing the same. Logical fallacy. Correlation equalling causation. Disinformation on both sides. They are hiding something and promoting something else all the while the truth is behind door number three. It's valuable to look at both sides, and consider a "hidden" option as well.

Great to see this debated.. On either side. People are learning, finally, or so it seems.

panopticon

4th January 2014, 02:35

I haven't done an update on the data from TEPCO in a little while because there hasn't been any released (in English) since the 27th December. Here's the main pages I use to get data from:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/index-e.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/index-e.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/index_ho-e.html

However there has finally been a report from them (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1233338_5892.html) about the steam coming from #3:

###

Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report (Jan 03,2014) (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1233338_5892.html)
Steam emanating from the top of Unit 3 Reactor Building indicates no abnormality

MONITORING AT ALL UNITS CONTINUED 24/7 AT FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI,STEAM CONTINUES TO BE CONFIRMED AT THE TOP OF UNIT 3 REACTOR BUILDING INTERMITTENTLY SINCE SUMMER WHEN DEBRIS REMOVAL WAS CONDUCTED ON THE TOP FLOOR ACCUMULATED RAINWATER ASSUMED AS THE CAUSE OF STEAM NO SAFETY CONCERNS INDICATED

FUKUSHIMA, January 3, 2014 -Unit 3 Reactor Building at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, where steam continues to be confirmed at the top, is monitored 24/7 as well as other reactors, and indicates no abnormality, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced today.

Since July 18, 2013, steam has been intermittently observed at the top of the Unit 3 Reactor Building. It was observed on days with comparatively low temperature and high humidity and, upon almost all occasions, when rain had fallen before.

The steam has been observed around the edge of the shield plug of the Primary Containment Vessel (PCV), which is the upper structure of the reactor. No significant changes were found in either the main parameters related to the plant (temperature, pressure and xenon density of PCV/RPV) nor the monitoring post readings, which indicates no abnormality of the cooling of the reactor, nor dangers to human health, the company explained.

The company assumes rain which accumulates inside the edge of the PCV as the main cause. The following is the mechanism.
1. Generally, steam is generated when warm, moist air meets low-temperature, high-humidity air and falls below the dew-point temperature.
2. Water particles generated by saturation become visible as a steam.
3. The source of the aforementioned steam is considered to be evaporated water from rainfall etc. around the relatively hot PCV, emerging from the shield plug and becoming steam.

There has been no significant change in the radiation dose and nuclide analysis results (dust sampling data) compared to those from before the steam was observed.

With regard to the top of the Unit 3 Reactor Building, as the radiation dose is still high, the company says it will continue to decontaminate the area.

The current situation of Fukushima Daiichi may be seen via Fukuichi Live Camera at
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/f1-np/camera/index-e.html

Latest radiation dose monitoring results are posted at
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/index-e.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/surveymap/index-e.html

Explanation materials are available at below page (Please see from PDF page 19. We apologize it is only in Japanese.)
http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/roadmap/images/d131031_04-j.pdf

Source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1233338_5892.html)

###

Hopefully there will be more information forthcoming and the data shall start to be released in English again after the weekend.

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

4th January 2014, 02:42

Fukushima MORE Leaks, TEPCO's Lame Attempt to DeContaminate Update 12/22/13

5K-GlxFImOs

This is an update of the area and the worry about the woodland that covers
the prefecture has not been dealt with and other local problems. It ends with
the people trying to rebuild their lives and community and hope for the future.

panopticon

4th January 2014, 02:56

we just aren't taught to do this, it took me a long time before I stumbled onto the Trivium and Quadrivium and Critical thinking.

Here, here. Well said.

This is one way people are controlled. They are never introduced to it, unable to understand it or simply don't have time to spend working on gaining this knowledge.

It is rare to actually meet someone who has this base upon which all else is built...

Sometimes I despair.

-- Pan

panopticon

4th January 2014, 04:48

Study: Dead sea creatures cover 98 percent of ocean floor off California coast; up from one percent before Fukushima

Friday 3rd January 2014 at 03:45 By David Icke

‘The Pacific Ocean appears to be dying, according to a new study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California recently discovered that the number of dead sea creatures blanketing the floor of the Pacific is higher than it has ever been in the 24 years that monitoring has taken place, a phenomenon that the data suggests is a direct consequence of nuclear fallout from Fukushima.

Though the researchers involved with the work have been reluctant to pin Fukushima as a potential cause — National Geographic, which covered the study recently, did not even mention Fukushima — the timing of the discovery suggests that Fukushima is, perhaps, the cause. According to the data, this sudden explosion in so-called “sea snot,” which is the name given to the masses of dead sea creatures that sink to the ocean floor as food, has skyrocketed since the Fukushima incident occurred.’

"In the 24 years of this study, the past two years have been the biggest amounts of this detritus by far," stated Christine Huffard, a marine biologist at MBARI and leader of the study, to National Geographic.

At an ocean research station known as Station M, located 145 miles out to sea between the Californian cities of Santa Barbara and Monterey, Huffard and her colleague Ken Smith observed a sharp uptick in the amount of dead sea life drifting to the ocean floor. The masses of dead sea plankton, jellyfish, feces and other oceanic matter that typically only cover about 1 percent of the ocean floor were found to now be covering about 98 percent of it -- and multiple other stations located throughout the Pacific have since reported similar figures.

"In March 2012, less than one percent of the seafloor beneath Station M was covered in dead sea salps," writes Carrie Arnold for National Geographic. "By July 1, more than 98 percent of it was covered in the decomposing organisms. ... The major increase in activity of deep-sea life in 2011 and 2012 weren't limit to Station M, though: Other ocean-research stations reported similar data."

No more sea life means no more oxygen in our atmosphere

Interestingly, Arnold does not even make a peep about Fukushima, which by all common sense is the most reasonable explanation for this sudden increase in dead sea life. Though the most significant increases were observed roughly a year after the incident, the study makes mention of the fact that the problems first began in 2011.

"Forget looking at global warming as the culprit," writes National Geographic commenter "Grammy," pointing out the lunacy of Arnold's implication that the now-debunked global warming myth was the sudden cause of a 9,700 percent increase in dead sea life.

Backing her up, another National Geographic commenter jokingly stated that somehow "the earth took such a huge hit in a four-month timeframe of a meltdown via global warming and we as a people didn't recognize this while [it was] happening; while coincidentally during that same time frame the event at Fukushima took place."

It is almost as if the powers that be want us all to forget about Fukushima and the catastrophic damage it continues to cause to our planet. But they will not be able to cover up the truth forever, as human life is dependent upon healthy oceans, the life of which provides the oxygen that we all need to breathe and survive.

The full paper the above is based on 'Deep ocean communities impacted by changing climate over 24 y in the abyssal northeast Pacific Ocean' can be found here:
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/49/19838.full

The authors clearly state that the measurements prior to 2011 were not as detailed (or accurate) as the measurements taken from the Summer of 2011 onwards. Prior to 2011 the measurements were taken seasonally as opposed in the reported period used in the above article being on a more frequent basis (in some instances photos were taken hourly).

Yet another misrepresentation of a paper by people wanting to point at something which just isn't presented.

So where is Station M?

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=24358&d=1388810273

What does the sea floor look like there?

http://www.mbari.org/pelagic-benthic/images/Seafloor%20Bottom%20at%20Station%20M.jpg

Want more information on Station M and the area of study being undertaken there?
Try here: Abyssal Time-Series Studies at Station M (http://www.mbari.org/pelagic-benthic/deepsea.htm).

-- Pan

panopticon

4th January 2014, 06:42

I came across an interesting article, by Winifred Bird and Jane Little from March 2013, titled 'A Tale of Two Forests: Addressing Postnuclear Radiation at Chernobyl and Fukushima (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621180/)', that compares the actions of government/agencies in the post-nuclear accident periods at Fukushima and Chernobyl. While aspects of the report may be criticised by those with a different view of the Chernobyl post-accident contamination levels the main reason for me posting it here is that it mentions the different approaches adopted and the reasons they were.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621180/pdf/ehp.121-a78.pdf

Source (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621180/)

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

4th January 2014, 11:10

The full paper the above is based on 'Deep ocean communities impacted by changing climate over 24 y in the abyssal northeast Pacific Ocean' can be found here:
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/49/19838.full

The authors clearly state that the measurements prior to 2011 were not as detailed (or accurate) as the measurements taken from the Summer of 2011 onwards. Prior to 2011 the measurements were taken seasonally as opposed in the reported period used in the above article being on a more frequent basis (in some instances photos were taken hourly).

Yet another misrepresentation of a paper by people wanting to point at something which just isn't presented.

Thanks Pan that's a good point, what we must remember, I and most people would have not known
much about these subjects, other than the odd documentary. That's why its important to
separate the wheat from the chafe , without missing info, and being wary of misdirection from both sides.

TargeT

4th January 2014, 22:55

Cidersomerset

5th January 2014, 18:51

Japan enacts strict state secrets law despite public protests

'Last month the Japanese government has passed a harsh state secrets law that
threatens to reduce or eliminate reliable information about Fukushima'.

EXyx_BT2eNE

6 Dec 2013

In Japan, thousands of people have held a demonstration to denounce the
government's decision to enact a state-secrets law to toughen penalties for
whistleblowers and journalists.

Thousands of protesters, who braved Tokyo's cold weather, gathered across from
the parliament building, chanting anti-government slogans. Under the state-secrets
law, anyone who leaks information about the Fukushima nuclear disaster or the
country's tense relations with China could face a long prison sentence. Journalists
and others in the private sector convicted of encouraging such leaks would be put
behind bars up to five years if they use inappropriate means to solicit the
information. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the law is needed to persuade
allies like the U-S to share intelligence. The ratification of the law came as a
worldwide debate on secrecy is underway, sparked by U-S whistleblower Edward
Snowden's leaks of classified documents.

====================================================
Fukushima Meltdowns: A Global Conspiracy of Denial

Sunday 5th January 2014 at 07:26 By David Icke

https://store.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/logo_store.png

Fukushima Meltdowns: A Global Conspiracy of Denial
By William Boardman
Global Research, January 05, 2014
Reader Supported News

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/fukushima-radiation-wind-trajectories.jpg

‘Does anyone in authority anywhere tell the truth about Fukushima?

If there is any government or non-government authority in the world that is
addressing the disaster at Fukushima openly, directly, honestly, and effectively, it’s
not apparent to the outside observer what entity that might be.

There is instead an apparent global conspiracy of authorities of all sorts to deny to
the public reliably accurate, comprehensible, independently verifiable (where
possible), and comprehensive information about not only the condition of the
Fukushima power plant itself and its surrounding communities, but about the
unceasing, uncontrolled release of radioactive debris into the air and water,
creating a constantly increasing risk of growing harm to the global community.

While the risk may still be miniscule in most places, the range of risk rises to lethal
in Fukushima itself. With the radioactive waste of four nuclear reactors (three of
them in meltdown) under uncertain control for almost three years now, the risk of
lethal exposure is very real for plant workers, and may decrease with distance from
the plant, but may be calculable for anyone on the planet. No one seems to know.
No one seems to have done the calculation. No one with access to the necessary
information (assuming it exists) seems to want to do the calculation.’

There is no moral excuse for this international collusion. The excuses are political
or economic or social, but none of them excuses any authority for withholding or
lying about information that has potentially universal and destructive impact on
everyone alive today and everyone to be born for some unknown generations.

Japanese authorities may be the worst current offenders against the truth, as well
as the health and safety of their people. Now the Japanese government has passed
a harsh state secrets law that threatens to reduce or eliminate reliable information
about Fukushima. The U.S. government officially applauded this heightened
secrecy, while continuing its own tight control on nuclear information. Japanese
authorities are already attacking their own people in defense of nuclear power: not
only under-measuring and ignoring varieties of radioactive threat, but even
withholding the iodine pills in 2011 that might have mitigated the growing epidemic
of thyroid issues today. Failing to confront Fukushima honestly, the Japanese are
laying the basis for what could amount to a radiological sneak attack on the rest of
the world.

Just because no one seems to know what to do about Fukushima is no excuse to go
on lying about and/or denying the dimensions of reality, whatever they might be.

There are hundreds, probably thousands of people with little or no authority who
have long struggled to create a realistic, rational perspective on nuclear threats.
The fundamental barrier to knowing the scale of the Fukushima disaster is just
that: the scale of the Fukushima disaster.

Chernobyl 1986 and Fukushima 2011 are not really comparable

Chernobyl is the closest precedent to Fukushima, and it’s not very close. Chernobyl
at the time of the 1986 electric failure and explosion had four operating reactors
and two more under construction. The Chernobyl accident involved one reactor
meltdown. Other reactors kept operating for some time after the accident. The
rector meltdown was eventually entombed, containing the meltdown and reducing
the risk. Until Fukushima, Chernobyl was considered the worst nuclear power
accident in history, and it is still far from over (albeit largely contained for the time
being). The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone of roughly 1,000 square miles remains one of
the most radioactive areas in the world and the clean-up is not even expected to be
complete before 2065.

At the time of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, the Fukushima plant
had six operating reactors. Three of them went into meltdown and a fourth was left
with a heavily laden fuel pool teetering a hundred feet above the ground. Two other
reactors were undamaged and have been shut down. Radiation levels remain lethal
in each of the melted-down reactors, where the meltdowns appear to be held in
check by water that is pumped into the reactors to keep them cool. In the process,
the water gets irradiated and that which is not collected on site in leaking tanks
flows steadily into the Pacific Ocean. Within the first two weeks, Fukushima
radiation was comparable to Chernobyl’s and while the levels have gone down, they
remain elevated.

The plant’s corporate owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), in turn
effectively owned by the Japanese government after a2012 nationalization, began
removing more than 1,500 fuel rod assemblies from the teetering fuel pool in
November, a delicate process expected to take a year or more. There are additional
fuel pools attached to each of the melted down reactors and a much larger general
fuel pool, all of which contain nuclear fuel rod assemblies that are secure only as
long as TEPCO continues to cool them. The Fukushima Exclusion Zone, a 12-mile
radius around the nuclear plant, is about 500 square miles (much of it ocean); little
specific information about the exclusion zone is easily available, but media
coverage in the form of disaster tourism is plentiful, including a Google Street View
interactive display.

Despite their significant differences as disasters, Chernobyl and Fukushima are
both rated at 7 – a “major accident” on the International Nuclear Event Scale
designed in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). That is the
highest rating on the scale, a reflection of the inherent denial that colors most
official nuclear thinking. Designed by nuclear “experts” after Chernobyl, the scale
can’t imagine a worse accident than Chernobyl which, for all its intensity, was
effectively over as an accident in a relatively short period of time. At Fukushima, by
contrast, the initial set of events was less acute than Chernobyl, but almost three
years later they continue without any resolution likely soon. Additionally Fukushima
has three reactor meltdowns and thousands of precarious fuel rod assemblies in
uncertain pools, any of which could produce a new crisis that would put Fukushima
clearly off the scale.

And then there’s groundwater. Groundwater was not a problem at Chernobyl.
Groundwater is a huge problem at the Fukushima plant that was built at the
seashore, on a former riverbed, over an active aquifer. In a short video, nuclear
engineer Arnie Gunderson makes clear why groundwater makes Fukushima so hard
to clean up, and why radiation levels there will likely remain dangerous for another
hundred years.

Fukushima Unit #3 activity led to some panic-driven reporting in 2013

The Japanese government and nuclear power industry have a history of not telling
the truth about nuclear accidents dating back at least to 1995, as reported by New
Scientist and Rachel Maddow, among others. Despite Japan’s history of nuclear
dishonesty, Japanese authorities remain in total control of the Fukushima site and
most of the information about it, without significant objection from most of the
world’s governments, media, and other power brokers, whose reputation for
honesty in nuclear matters is almost as bad as Japan’s. In such a context of no
context, the public is vulnerable to reports like this from the Turner Radio Network
(TRN) on December 28:

** NEWS FLASH – URGENT ** STEAM SUDDENLY EMANATING FROM FUKUSHIMA
REACTOR # 3 – WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA SHOULD BEGIN PREPARATIONS
FOR POSSIBLE RADIATION CLOUD WITHIN 3 TO 5 DAYS

Five days after this story was posted, the “radiation cloud” had not developed
despite the story’s assertion that: “Experts say this could be the beginning of
a ‘spent fuel pool criticality (meltdown)’ involving up to 89 TONS of nuclear fuel
burning up into the atmosphere and heading to North America.” The story named
no “experts” and provided links only to TEPCO announcements in Japanese. The
bulk of the story reads like an infomercial for “protective” gear of various sorts that
TRN makes a point of saying it does NOT sell. Despite such obvious warning signs,
others – such as The Ecologist and Gizmodo – reported the threat of “another
meltdown” at Fukushima Unit #3 as imminent.

Clarification and reassurance quickly started chasing the “new meltdown” rumor
around the Internet. ENENEWS (Energy News) promptly posted the TEPCO reports
in English, demonstrating that there was nothing “sudden” about the steam
releases, they’ve been happening more or less daily since 2011, but condensation
caused by cold weather makes them visible. At FAIREWINDS (Energy Education),
Arnie Gunderson posted on January 1:

“… the Internet has been flooded with conjecture claiming that Fukushima Daiichi
Unit 3 is ready to explode…. Our research, and discussions with other scientists,
confirms that what we are seeing is a phenomenon that has been occurring at the
Daiichi site since the March 2011 accident…. While the plants are shutdown in nuke
speak, there is no method of achieving cold shut down in any nuclear reactor. While
the reactor can stop generating the actual nuclear chain reaction, the atoms left
over from the original nuclear chain reaction continue to give off heat that is called
the decay of the radioactive rubble (fission products)…. constantly releasing
moisture (steam) and radioactive products into the environment.” [emphasis
added]

In other words, Fukushima Unit #3 continues to leak radioactivity into both air and
water, as Units #1 and #2 presumably do as well. But as Gunderson explains, the
level of radioactivity has declined sharply without becoming benign:

“When Unit 3 was operating, it was producing more than 2,000 megawatts of heat
from the nuclear fission process (chain reaction in the reactor). Immediately after
the earthquake and tsunami, it shut down and the chain reaction stopped, but Unit
3 was still producing about 160 megawatts of decay heat. Now, 30 months later, it
is still producing slightly less than 1 megawatt (one million watts) of decay heat….
1 megawatt of decay heat is a lot of heat even today, and it is creating radioactive
steam, but it is not a new phenomenon.”

Reassurances about Fukushima are as misleading as scare stories

The reassuring aspects of the condition of Unit #3 – radioactive releases are not
new, they’re less intense than they once were, the nuclear waste is cooling – while
true enough, provide only a false sense of comfort. Also true: radiation is released
almost continuously, the releases are uncontrolled, no one seems to be measuring
the releases, no one seems to be tracking the releases, no one is assessing
accumulation of the releases. And while it’s true that the waste is cooling and
decaying, it’s also true that a loss of coolant could lead to another uncontrolled
chain reaction. (“Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 is not going to explode,” says Gunderson
in a headline, but he can’t know that with certainty.)

For the near future, what all that means, in effect, is that the world has to accept
chronic radiation releases from Fukushima as the price for avoiding another
catastrophic release. And even then, it’s not a sure thing.

But there’s another aspect of Fukushima Unit #3 that’s even less reassuring. Unit
#3 is the one Fukushima reactor that was running on Mixed oxide fuel, or MOX fuel,
in its fuel rods. MOX fuel typically uses Plutonium mixed with one or more forms of
Uranium. Using Plutonium in fuel rods adds to their toxicity in the event of a
meltdown. In part because Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 240,000 years and can
be used to make nuclear weapons of “dirty bombs,” its use in commercial reactors
remains both limited and controversial. Because it contains Plutonium, MOX fuel is
more toxic than other nuclear fuel and will burn at lower temperatures. As Natural
Resources News reported in 2011:

“The mixed oxide fuel rods used in the compromised number three reactor at the
Fukushima Daiichi complex contain enough plutonium to threaten public health with
the possibility of inhalation of airborne plutonium particles…. Plutonium is at its
most dangerous when it is inhaled and gets into the lungs. The effect on the human
body is to vastly increase the chance of developing fatal cancers.”

Reportedly, TEPCO plans don’t call for the removal of the MOX fuel in Unit #3 for
another decade or more. Fuel removal from Units #1, #2, and #3 is complicated by
lethal radiation levels at all three reactors, as well as TEPCO’s inability so far to
locate the three melted cores with any precision.

There is ample reason to hope that Fukushima, despite the complex of
uncontrollable and deteriorating factors, will not get worse, because even the
Japanese don’t want that. But there is little reason to expect anything but
worsening conditions, slowly or suddenly, for years and years to come. And there is
even less reason to expect anyone in authority anywhere to be more than
minimally and belatedly truthful about an industry they continue to protect, no
matter how many people it damages or kills.

The perfect paradigm of that ruthlessly cynical nuclear mentality is the current
Japanese practice of recruiting homeless people to work at Fukushima in high level
radiation areas where someone with something to lose might not be willing to go
for minimum wage.

Read more: Fukushima Meltdowns: A Global Conspiracy of Denial

onawah

7th January 2014, 15:59

As Fukushima radiation makes landfall on California beaches, Natural News announces lab to test foods for radioactive cesium-137
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
by Mike Adams

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043409_Fukushima_Cesium-137_radiation.html#ixzz2pjFjHOYj

We have also announced a new initiative in our lab to use atomic spectroscopy in conjunction with mass decay radiation meters to test foods from the Pacific Ocean for trace levels of radioactive Cesium-137, the most dangerous element resulting from nuclear catastrophe:
http://www.naturalnews.com/043409_Fukushima_Cesium-137_radiation.html

(NaturalNews) Radiation from Fukushima has reached the shores of California. This has been confirmed by county officials in Half Moon Bay, California, who conducted radiation tests and found a 500% increase in radiation on the beaches there.

Alarm has been raised over the past few days thanks to amateur videos like this one showing alarmingly high Geiger counter readings on the beaches. "The videos follow other alarming news last month that starfish were mysteriously disintegrating along the West Coast, a trend that has not been linked yet to any cause," writes the Half Moon Bay Review.

It has been confirmed that TEPCO lied about radiation readings at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plants. Actual radiation releases were as much as 18 times higher than "official" reports.

It is now widely believed by nuclear experts that radioactive elements such as Cesium-137 have entered the food chain in the Pacific Ocean and have begun to arrive on the shores of California. This means seafood caught in the Pacific Ocean must now be tested for radiation.

Natural News announces atomic spectroscopy lab to test for radioactive isotopes such as Cesium-137

Today Natural News announced the launch of its new laboratory project and the food science subdomain http://labs.naturalnews.com

Using high-end atomic spectroscopy instrumentation and working in partnership with the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center, Natural News is now publishing elemental analysis data on a large number of foods, superfoods, groceries, herbs and even nutritional supplements.

The elements currently being published at Natural News Labs are:
• Aluminum
• Copper
• Arsenic
• Cadmium
• Mercury
• Lead
• Uranium (atomic mass of 238)
• Cesium (atomic mass of 133)

In addition, Natural News is also publishing the Metals Retention Factor (MRF) and Metals Capturing Capacity (MCC) numbers pioneered by Mike Adams. These numbers describe the ability of foods to either retain toxic elements contained in their composition or attract and bind with toxic elements found in digestive acid (gastric acid).

Testing foods for radiation

Radioactive Cesium-137 is the most prominent and dangerous element found in foods in the aftermath of nuclear catastrophes or nuclear weapons. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years, and it persists in soils for 200 - 300 years. Cesium-137 mimics potassium in plant and human biology, so it goes everywhere that potassium goes (i.e. every single cell of your body).

Directly testing foods for radioactive Cesium-137 is extremely difficult with atomic spectroscopy because Cesium-137 has the same atomic mass as Barium. Thus, atomic spectroscopy instrumentation is unable to distinguish between the two. However, Adams has combined atomic spectroscopy analysis with laboratory-grade benchtop timed radiation decay meters to arrive at a highly accurate methodology which can determine both a food's current level of radioactivity as well as that food's natural affinity for absorbing the Cesium element. These two numbers detail the "radioactivity profile" of a particular food substance.

Natural News is now testing fish products harvested from the Pacific Ocean for their radioactivity and Cesium affinity profiles. Results will be published and made freely available at Labs.NaturalNews.com

In addition, Adams is also searching through hundreds of botanicals and dietary substances to identify substances which have strong ionic affinity for Cesium atoms. This research is well underway, and results will be published on Natural News.

"We have already documented the fact that Hawaiian Spirulina has an extremely high natural affinity for Uranium, capturing over 89% of the free Uranium in our digestion simulation tests. The Metals Capturing Capacity of Hawaiian Spirulina for Uranium-238 is 15.2, meaning each gram of Hawaiian Spirulina binds with 15.2 micrograms of Uranium."

Spirulina's affinity for Cesium, however, was much lower, clocking in at an MCC of only 2.6. "We are confident we can identify other dietary substances with higher affinity for Cesium, but the search is tedious and expensive," Adams explained.

To stay up to date on the search for Cesium-binding substances, stay tuned to Natural News and the Natural News Forensic Food Lab.

SunSea

8th January 2014, 14:26

Hi! Is it possible this radiation is coming from the dump 50 miles off the San Francisco coast? This was mentioned in the other Fukushima thread.

panopticon

15th January 2014, 17:58

Came across this the other day from the scientists whose research was manipulated to say that a large amount of sea life was dead in the Station M area and thought it worth while referencing. This false reporting has been mentioned before in this and other threads and the original research papers referenced and quoted from to disprove the veracity/accuracy of the "news article" supposedly based on the research.

This short video shows that there is not some sort of radioactive dead zone, caused by leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, near the Station M site, which is located here:

http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2013/feast&famine/station-m-map-400.jpg

###

Time-lapse video showing a pulse of algae at Station M

The video below shows a time-lapse view of a small patch of muddy seafloor at Station M. This video consists of still images taken once an hour for several months during Fall 2012, documenting one of the biggest naturally occurring "food drops" at Station M since measurements began in 1989.

The video starts with sea cucumbers, urchins, and other animals crawling around the gray deep-sea mud. Over a period of weeks, the mud becomes covered with a brownish-green coating of dead algae that sank down from the sunlit surface waters. By half way through the video, this dead algae covers so much of the sea floor that the bottom looks dark. After the fall of algae, pinkish-orange sea cucumbers and other small animals move around the seafloor eating this algae. Any "leftover" algae is buried in the sediments and can be eaten years to decades later.

bxL3Q3kVMt4

###

For more information see:

MBARI debunks misleading stories related to the MBARI News Release (http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2013/feast&famine/feast&famine-clarification.html)
Feast and famine on the abyssal plain (http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2013/feast&famine/feast&famine-release.html)

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

16th January 2014, 18:46

I think this is an update of an earlier article.....

Radioactive fish continue to be caught near Fukushima

Thursday 16th January 2014 at 03:39 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Seafood-Contaminated-Fish-Lobster.jpg

‘Japan used to account for 15 percent of global fish catches, but now, nearly three
years after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami which struck Fukushima’s
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011, sales are plummeting in Fukushima and
the surrounding prefectures, as the world focuses intently on radiation levels
mounting in the Pacific Ocean’s sea life.

The Japanese government-affiliated Fisheries Research Agency just announced on
January 10th that it had caught a black seabream fish contaminated with 12,400
becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium – an amount 124 times higher than
the safety standard. Two other black seabreams were found to breach the 100
Bq/kg limit at 426 Bq/kg and 197 Bq/kg.

Stories like this only confirm that Fukushima radiation is not decreasing but
continuing to accumulate. Five prefectures which catch some 40,000 tons of fish
every year appear to be directly affected by Fukushima, and taking radiation
measurements after a catch has become just a routine part of fishing there now.
Fish being caught in the waters around Fukushima are still dangerously
contaminated with high levels of radiation, and the majority of these catches get
destroyed rather than end up in a market or a restaurant.’

Read more: Radioactive fish continue to be caught near Fukushima

http://www.naturalnews.com/043531_radioactive_fish_Fukushima_radiation_contamination.html

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

panopticon

19th January 2014, 02:51

Ken Buesseler from WHOI (http://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/fukushima-radiation) has launched a new crowd sourcing website aimed at "citizen scientists" collecting ocean samples for analysis. It's got some interesting information on it and very good explanations on the effect of different types of radiation:

http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/

Here's a good article on it:

###

Ocean Radioactivity from Fukushima Leak to be Tracked (http://www.livescience.com/42630-fukushima-ocean-radioactivity-to-be-tracked.html)
By Tanya Lewis, January 16, 2014.

http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/061/368/i02/KBuesseler_Fukushima750_320713.jpg
WHOI senior scientist Ken Buesseler has collected and analyzed the seawater surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant since the 2011 disaster. As the low-level radiation travels across the Pacific, Buesseler has launched a crowd sourcing campaign and website to monitor radiation levels along the West Coast of North America.

Since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011, concerns have spread among the public that water with traces of radioactive material might be traveling in a plume across the Pacific Ocean toward the west coast of North America.

Experts say the radiation levels reaching the U.S. coast and Hawaiian Islands will be too low to threaten human health (http://www.livescience.com/39329-fukushima-water-leak-human-health.html) or marine life, but no U.S. government or international agency is actually monitoring radiation in these places.

Now, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts is launching a new citizen science project to measure levels of radioactive cesium in water washing up along the West Coast.

"The levels of cesium in the ocean we expect of the west coast of North America are not of concern for our own exposure or fisheries," said WHOI marine chemist Ken Buesseler, who is leading the project. But whether people agree with these predictions or not, radiation levels should be monitored to confirm them, Buesseler told LiveScience.

A recent study (http://www.livescience.com/39340-fukushima-radioactive-plume-reach-us-2014.html) suggests the radioactive plume from Fukushima will reach U.S. coastal waters this year, peaking in 2016. But ocean currents off Japan's eastern coast have most likely diluted the radioactivity to well within safe levels set by the World Health Organization, said study leader Vincent Rossi, an oceanographer and postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems in Spain.

Buesseler started sampling the seawater around the Fukushima plant — sometimes from as close as a half mile away — three months after the disaster. His team has dozens of water samples from the coast of Japan to the middle of the Pacific, but needs samples spanning the rest of the Pacific to the West Coast.

He launched a website Jan. 14 called "How Radioactive is Our Ocean?", where the public can make tax-deductible donations to support the analysis of existing samples or propose and fund new sampling locations along the West Coast.

Collection and analysis of a seawater sample costs $550 to $600, depending on the site's location. The scientists are asking individuals or communities to donate a minimum of $100 in seed funding, and WHOI will create a fundraising website for each location that is selected for sampling.

When a person or group raises enough money, WHOI will send a sampling kit so volunteers can collect about 5 gallons (19 liters) of seawater and ship it back to WHOI for analysis.

The scientists will use a $75,000 instrument to detect levels of biologically hazardous gamma-rays, produced by the decay of radioactive cesium (http://www.livescience.com/37578-cesium.html) in the samples. The results of the analysis will be posted on an online map, showing cesium concentrations and the names of sponsors.

The oceans already contain naturally occurring radioactive chemical elements, as well as remnant radiation from nuclear-weapons testing during the 1950s and '60s. Scientists can take a fingerprint of the Fukushima radiation by precisely measuring the ratio of the chemical variant cesium-137 left by weapons testing, which has a 30-year half-life, to the chemical form cesium-134 from Fukushima, which has a two-year half-life. (Half-life is the time it takes for half of the material to radioactively decay.)

The U.S. safety limit for cesium levels in drinking water is about 28 Becquerels (Bq), the number of radioactive decay events per second, per gallon (7,400 Bq/cubic meter). For comparison, uncontaminated seawater contains only a few Bq/cubic m of cesium, and much higher levels of other, naturally occurring radioactive elements.

In a separate project, known as Kelp Watch 2014 (http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2014/01/15/new-fukushima-radiation-study-will-focus-on-west-coast-kelp-forests/), researchers plan to monitor radiation in California's kelp forests.

"Part of the reason for doing this is because the public is very freaked out by all this talk of radioactivity,” the study's leader, biologist Steven Manley of California State University, Long Beach, told KQED Science. “If they can actually see the numbers and a commentary as to what they mean, hopefully that’ll put them at ease."

Source (http://www.livescience.com/42630-fukushima-ocean-radioactivity-to-be-tracked.html)

###

So there's more information going to become available fairly soon on ocean radiation levels at the coast/surface. Curious about how deep the samples will go and if there will be more fish sampling undertaken to allay some of the concerns being expressed.

-- Pan

mojo

19th January 2014, 03:39

this is crazy...

9pBUyOAr3Co

MargueriteBee

19th January 2014, 07:26

Pull up Google Earth, center the Pacific Ocean in the middle of your screen. Now, take a look at Japan, now look at the Pacific Ocean again. Compare that to 80k gallons.

panopticon

19th January 2014, 12:48

panopticon

20th January 2014, 12:54

So there I was going through the latest video out from TEPCO on the Daiichi NPS.

It's good to know that a high tech company like TEPCO, with more than a couple of dollars to rub together, can save a bit of time and money on video editing by filming the monitor showing the video of the insides of one of their crippled reactor buildings ... :cell:

Evidently this is a video of a water leak on the First Floor of the reactor 3 building, near the main steam isolation valve, taken on the 18th January 2014.

None of that HD, high tech gizmo's for them, oh no, just a tech with a mobile phone filming the monitor screen... Lovin' it. :rolleyes:

r5vk68oreF0
Original available here:
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2014/201401-e/140118-01e.html

-- Pan

TargeT

20th January 2014, 14:02

panopticon

20th January 2014, 14:48

I'm a little confused.

The infowars video briefly showed a fish and said the radiation reading was 60 cpm.

What sort of particles were they? What was the source of the radiation (eg Caesium 134/137, etc)?

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm genuinely confused as to what the video was trying to say about radiation levels on the West Coast of the US (ie the Pacific)...

60 cpm is so low it falls into the "background" radiation number (granted the higher end).

I know! Totally bizarre. :wacko:

I just don't understand what was trying to be said in the video.

Maybe it was about the level of radiation from going through the airport detectors being much more than the fish. I dunno...

It seemed more like an advert than anything else. :twitch:

"Buy my magic concoction to fix what ails ya, my family uses it every day".

I wasn't being smart, sarcastic or funny. I really was/am bewildered by it. :noidea:

-- Pan

panopticon

25th January 2014, 01:44

Latest radiation results of fish and basement water in reactor buildings 1 & 2.

Fish:

High levels of caesium 134 & 137 found in some fish in port area (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/fish01_140123-e.pdf) (maximum level found in Jacopever (http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=23857&AT=Fox+jacopever) caught around the Fukushima Daiichi NPS port entrance @ 244,000 Bq/Kg), variable lower levels found in fish off shore (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/fish02_140123-e.pdf) (maximum level found in Schlegel's black rockfish (http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=6534&AT=Schlegel%26%2339%3Bs+black+rockfish) caught 2km offshore of Kido River @ 400 Bq/Kg).

Radiation levels detected in basement water of reactor 1 & 2 buildings:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/tb_water_140124-e.pdf

Source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/tb_water_140124-e.pdf)

-- Pan

panopticon

25th January 2014, 22:29

IAEA press release on final report on remediation efforts @ Fukushima & final report.

###

IAEA Delivers Final Report on Remediation in Fukushima to Japan

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) handed Japan the final report from an expert mission that reviewed remediation efforts in areas affected by the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

The IAEA report, which is available online (http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/fukushima/final_report230114.pdf), describes the findings of the Follow-up IAEA International Mission on Remediation of Large Contaminated Areas Off-Site the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, held on 14 to 21 October 2013. The report highlights important progress in all areas to date, and offers advice on several points where the team feels it is still possible to further improve current practices.

Juan Carlos Lentijo, Director of the IAEA Division of Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, led the 16-member mission team, which comprised international experts and IAEA staff working in a range of disciplines including radiation protection, remediation approaches and technologies, waste management and stakeholder involvement.

"The Mission Team was impressed by the amount of resources allocated and by the intense work that Japan is carrying out in efforts to remediate the affected areas and promote the return of evacuees to their homes, together with efforts for reconstruction of those areas," he said.

The team welcomed progress achieved following the first IAEA remediation mission in October 2011, including the remediation of farmland and forest areas. The team also welcomed significant progress by municipalities and the national government in the development and establishment of temporary storage facilities for contaminated materials generated by on-going remediation activities. In addition, the mission team noted the progress made towards the national Government's creation of interim storage facilities, with the cooperation of municipalities and local communities.

The mission observed that comprehensive implementation of food safety measures is in place to protect consumers and improve consumer confidence in farm produce, reflected in an increase in the economic value of the crops.

Japanese authorities were encouraged to sustain current public communication efforts and enhance these whenever necessary, especially with a view to explaining to the public that, in remediation situations, any level of individual radiation dose in the range of 1 to 20 mSv per year is acceptable and in line with the international standards and with the recommendations from the relevant international organisations such as ICRP, IAEA, UNSCEAR and WHO.

The team recognized the efforts to reduce residual doses to less than 1 mSv per year, but stressed that this target is a long-term goal, and that it cannot be achieved in a short time - for example, through decontamination work alone. The IAEA is ready to continue to support Japan in its remediation efforts, at its request.

The Mission was in line with the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety, which was unanimously endorsed by the IAEA's Member States in September 2011 and defines a programme of work to strengthen the global nuclear safety framework.

--by Gill Tudor, IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/fukushima/final_report230114.pdf

Source (http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/fukushima/final_report230114.pdf)

###

Mostly seems the IAEA recommends a wait and let the caesium decay away, let nature cover it up and farmers add more potassium to fields. In other words give it 5 years and see what it's like then.

-- Pan

panopticon

28th January 2014, 03:42

I made reference to a leak found in the #3 building @ Fukushima Daiichi NPS in post 390 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?62507-Japan-nuclear-agency-upgrades-Fukushima-alert-level&p=786715&viewfull=1#post786715). The data to go with that water leak showed high levels of Caesium 134 & 137 as well as Co-60 and a higher temperature than expected (+13 degrees). Here's the video (no, it's not very exciting) and the statement from TEPCO (below):

r5vk68oreF0

###

Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report 2014 (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1233734_5892.html)

Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report (Jan 21,2014)
Recent topics:Water Leakage was identified at First Floor of Unit 3 Reactor Building at Fukushima Daiichi NPS

· WATER LEAKAGE WAS IDENTIFIED FOR THE FIRST TIME BY A ROBOT WHICH WAS REMOVING DEBRIS AT FIRST FLOOR OF UNIT 3 REACTOR BULDING.
· REACTOR STEADILY COOLED AND NO LEAKAGE TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING.
· TEPCO WILL CONTINUE INVESTIGATING THE CAUSE AND THE SPOT OF THE LEAKAGE.
· CONTINUOUSLY, TEPCO WILL STEADILY ADDRESS THE DECOMMISSIONG WORK.

FUKUSHIMA, January 20, 2014 - Since July 2013, TEPCO has been using robotic devices to remove the debris, inside the Unit 3 Reactor Building.

On January 18, 2014, one of TEPCO's workers, who was monitoring the device's screen found out that water was leaking to the drainage ditch at the northeasts area of first floor, where the main steam isolation valve is located.

The area has proceeded with removing the debris and this was the first time inspecting the place.

The water is assumed to be flowing out from the Primary Containment Vessel and it is confirmed to be flowing to the basement of the Reactor Building where accumulated water exists and not flowing out of the building. No significant changes in the monitoring results at the power station are confirmed and the reactor is steadily cooled.

TEPCO will continue investigating and identifying the cause and the spot of the leakage.

The monitoring video is posted at
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2014/201401-e/140118-01e.html

The result of radioactive analysis and the temperature are listed below.
[radioactive analysis: Date / January 19, 2013]
· caesium134 :7.0×102Bq/cm3
· caesium137 :1.7×103Bq/cm3
· cobalt60 :2.5×101Bq/cm3
· all beta :2.4×104Bq/cm3

[temperature: Date and Time / January 19, 2013, around 5:00 P.M.]
· Aprroximately 20 degrees celsius
*Temperature at surrounding area was approcximately 7 degrees celsius.
*Temperarure in water for coolant injection was also 7 degrees celsius.

Source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1233734_5892.html)

###

So, after converting to Litre from cm3 we get:

Caesium 134 was detected @ 700,000 Bq/L.
Caesium 137 was detected @ 1,700,000 Bq/L.
Cobolt 60 was detected @ 25,000 Bq/L.

Finally the reading for all Beta detected was 24,000,000 Bq/L.

In addition this seems to indicate a possible failure of the main steam isolation valve (MSIV) during the accident which, from what I've read, appears to be very peculiar.

-- Pan

TargeT

28th January 2014, 14:44

JUST an FYI, the becquerel (Bq) measurement is a very very small number.

1 curie = 3.7 x 10^10
disintegrations per second

1 becquerel =
1 disintegration per second

Bequerel

The becquerel (Bq) is the unit used to measure radioactivity in a substance, without consideration for the type of radiation it is or what its effects may be. One becquerel is equal to one nuclear disintegration per second. Since this is a very small unit, other units are often used, including the kilobecquerel (kBq: thousand Bq), megabecquerel (MBq: million Bq), and gigabecquerel (GBq: thousand million Bq). The name recognises the scientific contributions of French physicist A-H. Becquerel.

1 curie = 37 thousand milion Bq (or a GBq).

so all the numbers in the last few posts are: insignificant.

panopticon

29th January 2014, 15:23

Yes, thanks for pointing that out Target. I didn't mean to imply that they were dangerously high readings or that a disaster was imminent so if that was the impression apologies. I wouldn't go so far as saying that the readings are insignificant though either.

It does show that the water probably moved through the containment vessel on its way to the first floor through the MSIV (which I think was supposed to be shut), or cracks in the containment vessel, and that is quite significant.

I didn't think anyone was interested in figures and comparative data (that's why it's after the rest of the post) but did the conversion to show the values detected in the water leak in comparison to what has being found in the various drainage ditches, observation holes, port and ocean samples in, around and near the site. Most of the readings from TEPCO have been in Bq/L, not Bq/cm3, so it made sense to do that to show that this water had a higher measurement than the water leaked from the containment tanks by converting the Bq/cm3 in the TEPCO update notification to Bq/L. This was more for me than anyone else and I only added it to the post because I've been having trouble finding silly things like that of late and thought that adding it to a post with one of the Youtube clips I uploaded would make it easier to find later with the forum search facility.

For those interested in what a Curie is (not the lovely spicy dish nifer :P ) try Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie) or the US EPA (http://www.epa.gov/radiation/understand/curies.html). 1 curie is not an insignificant amount of radioactive activity and measurements in this legacy format are usually in mCi, µCi or nCi (unless were talking about radiotherapy machines, nuclear fuel rods and assemblies, nuclear bomb detonations etc).

So, for the sake of completion (but completely irrelevant to anything to do with my posts or measurement from TEPCO etc), here's the readings converted into micro-curies (sound like it's just a tiny vindaloo) :)

Caesium 134 was detected @ 18 µCi/L.
Caesium 137 was detected @ 45 µCi/L.
Cobolt 60 was detected @ 0.675 µCi/L.
Finally the reading for all Beta detected was 648 µCi/L.

Remember that Caesium-137 has an activity of around 3.2 TBq per gram (which converts across to around 85 Ci per gram) so when looking at the figures above from TEPCO, as Target rightly pointed out, we're talking about very small amounts (eg Caesium-137 ~0.0000005 grams per litre).

Mayhap the water moved past the entire core, mayhap the melted part of the core has moved somewhere else, I dunno. Maybe an alien beamed in and the measurement is of its equivalent of urine. I have no idea. In all likelihood, the increased water temperature (+13 C/+23 F) indicates that it went somewhere warmer and the concentration of Caesium 134/137 & Beta emitters says that the warm spot was probably the core (or part thereof). In particular (pardon the pun) the detection of Caesium-134 (with a half life of 2 years) in comparison to the Caesium-137 (half-life around 30 years) kind of indicates that the water may have moved past a semi-active core on its way to the basement. If it hadn't then the levels would have been lower for everything, including the water temperature recorded at that point (which would probably have already cooled some unknown amount due to travelling in a cooler environment then the one from whence it came).

Does this mean anything terrifying? Nope. Just that the water coming out had a higher temperature and that the contamination level was higher than most of the water elsewhere on site. :)

-- Pan

TargeT

29th January 2014, 16:03

panopticon

30th January 2014, 12:12

Article from examiner.com including a short video featuring the WHOI's Ken Buesseler.

Buesseler briefly explains Becquerels and then goes on to chat about how the different isotopes released during and after the Fukushima accident act in the ocean environment. Then Buesseler mentions the natural occurring radiation that is part of the oceans background radiation level.

The ~4 min video is worth the effort if you are interested.

###

Woods Hole detects only 1950's A-bomb radiation, Fukushima plume yet to arrive (http://www.examiner.com/article/woods-hole-detects-only-1950-s-a-bomb-radiation-fukushima-plume-yet-to-arrive)
By David Herron, January 29, 2014.

HJSrChfznIw
Search online for information on Pacific Ocean radiation from Fukushima, and the search results fill up with fear filled claims the Ocean is burning up from the radiation, and we're all about to die. On Tuesday, initial results were announced by an effort organized by the Woods Hole Institute showing trace amounts of Cesium-137 and other radioactive elements in the Pacific, at levels scientists say are what's left over from atomic bomb testing in the 1950's.

In March 2011, a Tsunami off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture crippled a nuclear power plant, leading to multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and explosions, and large releases of radiation into the surrounding area. TEPCO has been unable to regain control over the nuclear reactors and, despite best efforts, radiation is continually leaking into the Pacific Ocean. The big question is whether this will cause serious harm to the Pacific Ocean, rendering it and the seafood we all depend on unsafe for human consumption. And, there are websites aplenty telling us the whole Pacific Ocean is already dying from Fukushima radiation, such as the sea floor is supposedly littered with dead animals, or 4,300 workers dying while cleaning up the Fukushima reactors but nobody knows because of collusion between TEPCO and the Japanese Government. Both of these are untrue, but that doesn't stop the spread of misinformation.

Seeing this, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is hoping to organize dozens of seawater sampling sites along the western coast of North America. They've launched a website, Our Radioactive Ocean, which is crowdfunding an an organization which will do the necessary radiation monitoring necessary to bring the light of truth to this problem.

The current funding has supported seawater sampling at 8 sites from the Seattle area down to San Diego.

In all cases the level of Cesium-134 is below detection, and while Cesium-137 is detectable its concentration is about 1.3 Bq per cubic meters. That Cesium-137 concentration is exactly the level that's left over from atomic bomb testing in the 1950's. Meaning the scientists have yet to detect any radioactive material from Fukushima on the US West Coast.

It's known a "plume" of radioactive material is in the Pacific Ocean, and is heading to the US West Coast. The best estimates of the Woods Hole Institute scientists are that the plume will reach Alaska and coastal Canada first, in April 2014. It is being carried by the Kuroshio Current across the Pacific. Afterward it is expected to circulate southward along the coast, and then to Hawaii. It's expected radiation levels in the plume will be minor, due to dilution (the Pacific Ocean is pretty big).

Cesium-137 (CS-137) is one of the uranium fission byproducts, it has a half-life of 30 years, and is known to cause cancers. It does not occur naturally on its own, therefore all CS-137 is a byproduct of uranium nuclear reactions. Cesium-134 (CS-134) is another uranium fission byproduct, with a half-life of two years, which scientists say would indicate contamination from Fukushima.

Detecting no CS-134 and trace levels of CS-137 is what the scientists expect, at this moment, because the plume has not yet arrived. As they continue to take samples they'll be able to see the arrival of the plume. The radiation levels in the samples will validate, or not, as the case may be, the scientific model by which they've claimed the plume will not bring significant quantities of radiation to the west coast.

“The reason why we see such low levels of radiation in these samples is because the plume is not here yet. But it’s coming. And we’ll actually be able to see its arrival,” Ken Buesseler, marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), says. “That baseline data is critical. “We expect over the rest of 2014, levels will become detectable starting first along the northern coastline. But the complex behavior of coastal currents will likely result in varying intensities and changes that cannot be predicted from models alone. Optimally, we’d like to be able to sample and analyze about 20 sites from Alaska to San Diego at regular intervals every few months. We even have had interest from the public as far away as Japan, New Zealand, Guam, and one sailing vessel traveling from Hawaii to Japan this summer, but the West Coast time series is our highest priority.”

According to the WHOI, no U.S. government or international agency is monitoring the spread of low levels of radiation from Fukushima along the West Coast of North America and around the Hawaiian Islands. That leaves no real information to counter disinformation, and as a result fear is running rampant among many.

Source (http://www.examiner.com/article/woods-hole-detects-only-1950-s-a-bomb-radiation-fukushima-plume-yet-to-arrive)

panopticon

30th January 2014, 12:17

Short AP article doing the rounds about a class action against the Fukushima manufacturers (GE, Toshiba, Hitachi).

###

Hundreds Sue Makers of Fukushima Nuclear Plant (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hundreds-sue-makers-fukushima-nuclear-plant-22294761)
TOKYO January 30, 2014 (AP)

About 1,400 people have filed a joint lawsuit against three companies that manufactured Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, saying they should be financially liable for damage caused by its 2011 meltdowns.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the lawsuit, filed Thursday at Tokyo District Court, is a landmark challenge of current regulations which give manufacturers immunity from liability in nuclear accidents. Only the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has been held responsible for the accident, triggered by a powerful earthquake.

The plaintiffs, which include Fukushima residents and nearly 400 others from around the world, say the manufacturers — Toshiba, GE and Hitachi — failed to make needed safety improvements to the four decade-old reactors at the Fukushima plant. They are seeking compensation of 100 yen ($1) each.

Source (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hundreds-sue-makers-fukushima-nuclear-plant-22294761)

panopticon

30th January 2014, 12:36

Update on the "Ice Wall" being built to stop contaminated water moving through the ground into the ocean.

###

Fukushima Operator Building Frozen Wall to Prevent Radioactive Water Contaminating Sea (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fukushima-operator-building-frozen-wall-prevent-radioactive-water-contaminating-sea-1434309)
By Hannah Osborne. January 29, 2014.

http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1356614/fukushima.jpg?w=500&h=320&l=50&t=40

The Japanese firm in charge of the Fukushima nuclear plant has started building a frozen wall to prevent radioactive waste from contaminating the sea.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has started building its frozen wall of soil to stop waste escaping at the Number two and Number three reactors.

Since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima three years ago, masses of radioactive waste have contaminated the nearby area. In September last year, the plant dumped over 1,000 tons of polluted water into the sea after a typhoon hit the facility.

Prior to this, the Japanese government pledged 47bn yen (£28.4m) to build a frozen wall around the Fukushima nuclear plant to stop radioactive water from leaking out.

http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1358039/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant-no-3-reactor-building.jpg?w=500&h=351&l=50&t=40

Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at the time: "[The government] felt it was essential to become involved to the greatest extent possible."

The plan involves a wall of frozen earth being created around the reactors using pipes filled with a coolant, which stops the groundwater coming into contact with the contaminate water.

However, many voiced doubts about the technique, as it has only ever been employed on a small scale to control non-radioactive pollution.

Japanese TV station NHK said huge amounts of water are currently being poured into the reactors to prevent melted nuclear fuel from overheating. Some of this water is leaking from the damaged reactor.

http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/454067/iaea-says-situation-fukushima-remains-very-complex.jpg?w=500&h=281&l=50&t=50

Tepco says the water is leaking from tunnels, seeping into the ground and ending up in the sea.

Engineers have started erecting the frozen wall by digging vertical holes where the tunnels meet the turbine buildings, where pipes will be installed for the liquid coolant.

However, the project is already problematic, as engineers cannot visit the site of drilling because of the radioactive water. They are currently relying on cameras being remotely controlled.

Tepco is also digging wells to see whether water is leaking directly from the buildings. It hopes to have finished installing the popes by March.

Source (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fukushima-operator-building-frozen-wall-prevent-radioactive-water-contaminating-sea-1434309)

TargeT

30th January 2014, 12:56

a frozen wall... nice bandaid, are they now going to excivate all that earth (massive $$$) due to fears of ultra low radiation levels?

this seems like a huge money grab, watch the contract awards, follow the money..... what a scam, maybe that's why they are being so inept, to just further the contracts and widen the scope of work; is it being subsidized by the government at all?

panopticon

31st January 2014, 03:04

First results are back on radiation levels in the Pacific (West Coast US) from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutes (WHOI), Center for Marine and Environmental Radiation, 'How radioactive is our ocean? (http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/index.html)' project -- which uses crowd sourcing/funding to get results (as I mentioned in this post (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?62507-Japan-nuclear-agency-upgrades-Fukushima-alert-level&p=786286&viewfull=1#post786286)).

Results (overview available here (http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/results.html)) indicate that the plume anticipated from Fukushima has not arrived as of yet. All samples were at normal levels and there was an absence of Caesium-134 which indicates that any radioactive isotopes [Caesium-137] found are not from Fukushima but are remnants of the 1960's atmospheric testing and possibly Chernobyl.

Here's the media statement from the WHOI.

###

Radioactive Ocean Website a Success (www.whoi.edu/news-release/our-radioactive-ocean-website-update-release):
No Fukushima radionuclides detected yet, baseline key to future detection
January 28, 2014

With concern among the public over the plume of radioactive ocean water from Fukushima arriving on the West Coast of North America and no U.S. government or international plan to monitor it, a new project from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is filling a timely information gap.

Just two weeks after launching the crowdsourcing campaign and citizen science website, “How Radioactive Is Our Ocean,” WHOI marine chemist Ken Buesseler’s project has received more than 70 individual donations from the concerned public. New data on seawater radiation levels will be posted on the website today.

“We’ve received a lot of interest from the public so far, which has been great. Right now we’re gathering important baseline data, but we need continual support in order to monitor the plume over the long-term,” says Buesseler, who conducted the first major sampling off shore of the Fukushima plant in June 2011 and again in 2013.

Through “How Radioactive Is Our Ocean,” the public can support the monitoring of radiation in the ocean with tax-deductible donations to fund the analysis of collected seawater samples or by proposing new locations and funding the samples and analysis of those sites at Buesseler’s lab in Woods Hole, Mass.

The project aims to inform and include the public in the process of gathering information about radiation levels in the ocean. The website has garnered more than 18,000 visits to-date.

Although Buesseler does not expect levels to be dangerously high in the ocean or in seafood as the plume spreads 5,000 miles across the Pacific, he believes this is an evolving situation that demands careful, consistent monitoring to make sure predictions are true.

One community activist in Point Reyes, Calif., has already raised enough funds to sample the seawater in his coastal community at four intervals throughout this year.

“We need to know the actual levels of radiation coming at us,” Bing Gong says about what motivated him to get involved. “There’s so much disinformation out there. We really need actual data.”

In addition to the Point Reyes site, thus far, funding has been secured for bi-monthly sampling at the Scripps Pier in La Jolla, Calif., and goals have been met for at least single samples at Ocean Shores, WA, Santa Monica, Calif., and Mendocino, Calif.

Dr. Roger Gilbert, a radiation oncologist in Mendocino, Calif. raised funds to support analysis of his coastal community’s seawater.

“My motivation was concern over fear-mongering on the Internet about allegedly high levels of Fukushima radiation in the coastal waters of California. I am a radiation oncologist, more familiar than most with radioactivity, and it seemed highly likely that the vast dilution of radioisotopes from Fukushima by the Pacific Ocean would result in a barely (if at all) measurable rise in counts,” he says.

Community activist Bing Gong raised $2,200 from friends and neighbors and plans to continue to raise enough funds to sample the seawater off Point Reyes over the next three years.

“What we really need is support to sample the same sites multiple times over the next couple of years, like the support coming from the community in Point Reyes, where we will be able to fully monitor the plume’s arrival and movement over time,” Buesseler says.

The plume of radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is forecasted to be detectable at the Pacific coast in April 2014, according to a scientific model developed by Vincent Rossi, a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems in Spain.

Rossi’s model projects that traces of Fukushima’s radiation will reach Alaska and coastal Canada first because of the trajectory of the powerful Kuroshio Current that flows from Japan across the Pacific. The plume will continue to circulate down the coast of North America and back towards Hawaii.

Fukushima contamination can be “fingerprinted” from precise measurements of the relative amounts of two cesium isotopes: The long lived cesium-137 isotope with a 30-year half life that has been in the ocean from 1960s weapons testing, and cesium-134, with a 2-year half life that can only be a result of the more recent 2011 Fukushima accident. Today new data will be posted on the website from four funded sample sites: La Jolla, Calif., Point Reyes, Calif., Grayland, WA, and Sequim Bay, WA.

No traces of Fukushima’s cesium-134 have been detected in Buesseler’s analyses yet. And, the level of cesium-137 is what's expected from the 1960s sources (1.5 Bequerels per cubic meter).

“The reason why we see such low levels of radiation in these samples is because the plume is not here yet. But it’s coming. And we’ll actually be able to see its arrival,” Buesseler says. “That baseline data is critical.”

Having samples from before the plume reaches the coast is important for building a complete data set that measures changing radiation levels over time and improving scientists’ ability to model plume behavior.

“We expect over the rest of 2014, levels will become detectable starting first along the northern coastline. But the complex behavior of coastal currents will likely result in varying intensities and changes that cannot be predicted from models alone,” Buesseler says.

The project currently has sponsors interested in collecting samples from 16 unique locations from San Diego to British Columbia and one in Oahu, Hawaii. However, none have been proposed yet from Alaska, where the plume is predicted to be detected first.

“Optimally, we’d like to be able to sample and analyze about 20 sites from Alaska to San Diego at regular intervals every few months. We even have had interest from the public as far away as Japan, New Zealand, Guam, and one sailing vessel traveling from Hawaii to Japan this summer, but the West Coast time series is our highest priority,” says Buesseler.

Source (http://www.whoi.edu/news-release/our-radioactive-ocean-website-update-release)

TargeT

31st January 2014, 03:54

not "yet" eh?

so they revise the model of the predicted "plume" and keep the fear game goin for a bit longer?

panopticon

31st January 2014, 08:49

not "yet" eh?

so they revise the model of the predicted "plume" and keep the fear game goin for a bit longer?

G'day Target,

The WHOI has made use of a number of predictive models for the movement of radionuclide's ex-Fukushima and I don't recall Buesseler ever saying that the plume would arrive pre-April 2014. His has been the voice of reason amongst some very loud doom-mongers.

The 'How radioactive is our ocean? (http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/index.html)' project is designed to show the level of contamination that is in the Pacific and accurately report results that, while they may vary considerably across the region, are predicted to be not that much above 2010 levels (that are the result of atmospheric nuclear bomb testing in the region). At the moment levels are predicted to be much less than the Rossi model, which while seemingly accurate in predicting plume movement hasn't been as accurate in relation to nuclide concentration in samples taken so far.

What's very good about Buesseler's project (http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/index.html) is it provides a base level that can be used as a measure to indicate how much increase there is in nuclide concentration when detectable levels of Caesium-134 do start to appear in samples. This should be able to be used to stop the panic that will inevitably arise upon reports that "The Deadly Fukushima Radiation Plume Is Here!!!". Wait and see. We know there will be people mis-reporting this to scare others.

Hopefully Buesseler's work will make it just that bit harder for them when it happens.

I posted this in another thread but will add it here as it may be useful to others:

For those who might be concerned about the effect that the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPS has had on ocean radiation levels I might suggest a quick read of Marine Chemists blog over at Dailykos (http://www.dailykos.com/blog/MarineChemist). The PICES presentation (above) was mentioned there a few weeks ago:

About 93% of radioactivity in seawater results from the presence of primordial, naturally occurring potassium-40 (K-40) and rubidium-87 (Rb-87). The remaining 7% are radioactive elements deposited to the ocean from past atmospheric nuclear testing. The sum of these activities is about 14 Bq/L on average though there are regional differences that scale with ocean salinity.

Ongoing time series measurements are being carried out by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to determine when and how much radioactivity from the Fukushima disaster will arrive along the west coast of North America.

Results of the Line P Time Series Program thus far can be summarized as follows:
1) Cs levels in June 2011 were consistent with pre-Fukushima levels present from atmospheric nuclear test fallout
2) In June 2012 surface waters ~1500 km offshore had detectable Cs-134 from Fukushima and associated Cs-137 of 0.0003 Bq/L or roughly 0.002% of naturally occurring background radiation
3) Fukushima derived Cs was detected all the way to the coast in June 2013 with the highest levels of Cs-137 farthest offshore (0.0009 Bq/L or roughly 0.006% of background radiation) and lower levels of 0.0003 Bq/L toward the coast.
4) The timing of the arrival of the plume agrees with the modeling study of Rossi et al. (2013) published in the peer-reviewed journal Deep-Sea Research (link) but the concentrations are lower than predicted
Source (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/04/1267252/-Update-on-Fukushima-Radionuclides-in-the-North-Pacific-and-Off-the-West-Coast-of-North-America)

BTW, the PICES presentation had 2 misleading images at the beginning. The hoax "Nuclear Fallout Map" that circulated just after the accident and was supposedly from ARS (it wasn't, as can be seen from the ARS disclaimer at the time (https://web.archive.org/web/20110429213737/http://www.australian-radiation-services.com.au/)) and the widely posted but misleading graphic from ASR showing a computer animation of projected dispersal pattern of free floating material in the ocean. To quote ASR:

THIS IS NOT A REPRESENTATION OF THE RADIOACTIVE PLUME CONCENTRATION.
Source (http://www.asrltd.com/japan/plume.php)

For a number of different models on dispersal/transport patterns of radionuclides at different depths try the bottom of this page (nifty short movie for each one):
http://fvcom.smast.umassd.edu/research_projects/FVCOM_Tsunami/

Rossi's model seems to be the best available but as with any model only observations will confirm it. That's why it's important that samples should be getting taken in Alaska to show when Caesium-134 appears.

Check out the little movies (based on some predictive models of nuclide movement) at the end of this page (they're pretty cool if you're into that sort of thing :P ):
http://fvcom.smast.umassd.edu/research_projects/FVCOM_Tsunami/

-- Pan

TargeT

31st January 2014, 13:46

That's why it's important that samples should be getting taken in Alaska to show when Caesium-134 appears.

or, IF

yes, a baseline sample is good (though an average of 3 sampling would be MUCH better); hopefully this will put to rest the fears. I doubt there will be a "plume" reaching Alaska, the ocean isn't just a large body of water, it's the most massive ecosystem on the planet.

panopticon

13th February 2014, 03:28

TEPCO found to not be reporting measurements correctly and presenting misleading information by Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Authority.

Strontium was detected at 5 million Bq/L but not reported in the all Beta detected figure (which was reported @ 900,000 Bq/L).

TEPCO says that this was due to a calibration fault in the Strontium detection device and that the measurement was inaccurate. However, their not reporting it at the time is evidence of them at the very least presenting misleading (massaged) information yet again (no huge surprise with their track record). We already know that they have changed radiation detectors in surrounding areas to ones that record lower measurements than the IAEA sanctioned devices. I just say thank goodness for the people who are measuring and reporting the levels themselves. It's the only way we can be sure that the situation isn't a lot worse...

Q. Why isn't there an independent body responsible for these official measurements given TEPCO's track record? :tsk:

###

Japan's nuclear regulator raps Fukushima operator over radiation readings (http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/japan-nuclear-fukushima-radiation-idINL2N0LH02Y20140212)
By Mari Saito. February 12th, 2014.

Nuclear regulator to strengthen oversight
Tepco to recheck radiation readings for groundwater wells
Record strontium-90 reading was x5 previous all-beta measurement

TOKYO, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Japan's nuclear regulator has criticised the operator of the stricken Fukushima plant for incorrectly measuring radiation levels in contaminated groundwater at the site.

Almost three years since the reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi station, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) still lacks basic understanding of measuring and handling radiation, Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said on Wednesday. The utility has been widely criticised for an inept response to the March 2011 disaster.

Tepco said last week that groundwater drawn from a monitoring well last July contained a record 5 million becquerels per litre of dangerous radioactive strontium-90 - more than five times the total beta radiation reading of 900,000 becquerels per litre recorded in the well, which is around 25 metres from the ocean.

Tepco said there was a calibration mistake with one machine measuring strontium levels of well water at the plant, and it had also found an error with devices that decipher all-beta radiation.

"Something like this cannot happen ... This (data) is what becomes the basis of various decisions, so they must do their utmost to avoid mistakes in measuring radiation," Tanaka told reporters, though he added the mistake did not pose a serious safety risk at the plant.

The legal limit for releasing strontium 90, which has a half life of around 29 years, into the sea is 30 becquerels per litre.

A Tepco spokesman said the utility will re-check all-beta radiation readings of groundwater in light of the record strontium levels.

Last year, radiation leaks, power outages and other mishaps sparked international concern and prompted Japan's government to step in with more funds and support. As part of a turnaround plan approved by the government last month, Tepco hopes to re-start its biggest nuclear station, Kashiwazaki Kariwa, this summer.

Tepco in November began the hazardous process of removing hundreds of brittle spent fuel rods from the damaged No. 4 reactor building at Fukushima. It said last week it had removed about 9 percent of more than 1,500 unused and spent fuel assemblies in the reactor's storage pool. (Editing by Aaron Sheldrick and Ian Geoghegan)

Source (http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/japan-nuclear-fukushima-radiation-idINL2N0LH02Y20140212)

panopticon

13th February 2014, 04:09

More on the misleading reporting of radioactive isotopes levels from TEPCO.

###

TEPCO revises strontium data at Fukushima plant to record level (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201402070096)
The Asahi Shimbun. February 07, 2014.

https://d13uygpm1enfng.cloudfront.net/article-imgs/en/2014/02/07/AJ201402070096/AJ201402070097M.jpg

Tokyo Electric Power Co. corrected its radioactivity readings for groundwater from a well at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to a record-high 5 million becquerels of strontium per liter.

TEPCO officials said the strontium levels were gauged again because the previous data was wrong. They also said radioactivity readings for water taken from other wells before September were also likely erroneous.

The company had said 900,000 becquerels of beta-ray sources, including strontium, were detected in water taken on July 5, 2013, from the observation well near a water intake for the No. 2 reactor turbine building.

The new strontium data indicates that the concentration of all beta-ray sources totals around 10 million becquerels per liter of water, according to the company.

TEPCO did not announce radioactivity levels of 140 samples of groundwater and seawater taken between June and November after it found strontium readings that were higher than measurements for all beta-ray sources.

The company attributed contradictory data to malfunctions of analytical equipment.

The utility also said Feb. 6 that 600 liters of contaminated water, containing 2,800 becquerels of beta-ray sources per liter, leaked from piping leading to a tank at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Source (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201402070096)

panopticon

13th February 2014, 04:19

Now, I'm not a grano expert but I reckon that if massive water tanks are put on concrete that doesn't have proper foundations (especially on a bloody slope) then there's gonna be a few problems. Right? Doesn't seem TEPCO has a bloody clue...
Mind you at least they seem to know that concrete will crack when water freezes in it. Well done! :clap2:

###

Cracks found in floor near Fukushima radioactive water tanks (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201402120042)
The Asahi Shimbun. February 12, 2014.

https://d13uygpm1enfng.cloudfront.net/article-imgs/en/2014/02/12/AJ201402120042/AJ201402120043M.jpg

Two cracks were discovered in a concrete floor near radioactive water storage tanks on the grounds of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the plant operator said Feb. 11.

Officials with Tokyo Electric Power Co. said some of the contaminated water from the melting snow blanketing the area may have seeped into the ground through the cracks.

Workers on patrol discovered the cracks, stretching 12 meters and 8 meters, respectively, near a group of storage tanks where 300 tons of highly radioactive water was found in August last year to have leaked. The tanks hold contaminated water generated in the process of cooling the crippled reactors.

TEPCO detected up to 58 becquerels of radioactive cesium and up to 2,100 becquerels of radioactive strontium per liter of melted snow in the area. Freezing temperatures may have cracked the concrete, the TEPCO officials added.

Source (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201402120042)

panopticon

13th February 2014, 04:30

More information on the investigation into Thyroid cancer levels and causes in Fukushima.

###

Thyroid cancer cases increase among young people in Fukushima (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201402080047)
The Asahi Shimbun, February 08, 2014.

https://d13uygpm1enfng.cloudfront.net/article-imgs/en/2014/02/08/AJ201402080047/AJ201402080048M.jpg
Evacuees take cancer-preventing iodine tablets in Kawamata, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 12, 2011, a day after the nuclear disaster started. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The number of young people in Fukushima Prefecture who have been diagnosed with definitive or suspected thyroid gland cancer, which is often associated with radiation exposure, has risen to 75, prefectural officials said Feb. 7.

That is 16 more than in November, when figures were last released. The number of definitive cases rose by seven, from 26.

The 75 are among 254,000 individuals for whom results of thyroid gland tests have been made available to date.

Only residents of Fukushima Prefecture who were aged 18 or under at the time of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster are eligible to receive the thyroid gland tests administered by the prefectural government.

The latest figures include the results from 28,000 more individuals compared to the numbers released in November.

Medical and government officials in Fukushima say they do not believe the cases of thyroid gland cancer diagnosed or suspected in the 75 young people in the prefecture are linked to the 2011 nuclear accident.

Hokuto Hoshi, who chairs a panel that discusses matters related to the prefectural survey on the health impact from radiation on Fukushima’s residents, referred to the fact that cases of thyroid gland cancer in children who lived near Chernobyl only began to increase four to five years after the 1986 nuclear accident.

Doctors at Fukushima Medical University said they will start analyzing genes in cancerous thyroid glands surgically removed from children to try to ascertain if radiation played a role in the pathology of their cancer.

"We hope to look for unknown types of gene mutations, other than those known to be associated with the generation of thyroid gland cancer, to study if they could serve as markers for determining if the cancers were induced by radiation," said Shinichi Suzuki, a professor of thyroid gland surgery with the university.

Even if exposure to radiation does increase the occurrence of thyroid gland cancer, it will take years before such a relationship can be established, whereas no method is currently available to determine whether individual cases of thyroid gland cancer were induced by radiation, Suzuki added.

The 75 young individuals with confirmed or suspected thyroid gland cancer, including one who was later diagnosed with a benign tumor, averaged 14.7 years in age when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.

(This article was written by Teruhiko Nose and Yuri Oiwa.)

Source (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201402080047)

Carmody

13th February 2014, 04:40

take about a 1:1 ratio of microscopic iron,and microscopic aluminum. mix the powders together. If mixing the powders together is a problem..which it will be (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite)...mix it into water, each at a time, into water. maybe 10:1 with water, have the micro iron and the micro aluminum mix thoroughly in the water. then fully dilute into maybe 100:1 via mass.

100kg of water, 1-2-3 kg of 1:1 micro aluminum/micro iron mix. It has to be micro, so it suspends in the water.

Pour this into a mixture of the radioactive water. about 100kg of rad waste water, per 100 kg of water/iron/aluminum mix. (total mass of the mix is now 202kg (approx)

Run a Rhodes gas flame (aka :"brown's gas", aka "HHO gas") THROUGH the radioactive water. repeatedly. over and over. Repeatedly, in a continual run, ie, maybe 3-4-5 runs through.

This will require a maybe 4000L/Hr browns gas generator. You want lots of browns gas bubbling through the mixture, lots of browns gas reacting with the water.

Measure the residual radiation after a few cycles.

It Should drop to near unmeasurable levels.

That's the recipe for decontaminating the radiated waste water.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Scale it up, for a few million dollars... and in a few months, all of that radioactive waste water should be treated, and have zero residual radiation.

Another potential way to do it, is to put the micro aluminum and the micro iron mix in the water and go for Ultrasonic cavitation, micro implosions in the water, which are electrical, and same-same as the brown's gas effect, in this case.

This mess has been solvable for a LONG time, ways of doing so have been known long before this mess even began.

it makes you wonder.....

panopticon

13th February 2014, 05:43

I agree Carmody, it certainly does make me wonder.

It's totally stunning to me that basic things like doing ground work before laying concrete wasn't done or that they never realised that putting tanks on a slope that feed into each other would overflow the bottom tank. That's right, they put the measuring device on the top tank and then wondered why the one at the bottom of the slope overflowed.

There again they're not rocket surgeons... :)

Then there's reports like this one from NHK World:

7kKQAOoBNpU
Not to mention all the fear mongery about radiation going to imminently cause problems in the US of A.
Come on, there's a bloody ocean in between! Never ceases to amaze me.

This has always been about Japan (and nearby countries) and the incompetence of TEPCO, the NRA and the Japanese Government.

Did you all know that TEPCO is set to record a massive profit this year?

That's right, the Government (ie the tax payers of Japan) subsidise operations and TEPCO increase prices to consumers so that it can make a profit for its shareholders. No need to worry about a pesky nuclear reactor melt down or possibly MOX in #4 during the tsunami. Very interesting reading about Strontium levels vs Caesium in the period following the accident. Then there's the "black goo" that was found in surrounding areas not to mention that there is still no idea where the Corium is...

Remember the old mantra from the 60's? "The solution to pollution is dilution".

There's no need for Brown's Gas for water treatment, the present treatment options would work fine if they can get the bloody things working! Incompetent... That's why there's so much water stored on site, they aren't processing the treated water fast enough and even once it's treated they aren't allowed to pump it into the ocean, even though the levels of tritium in the water is below US drink water standards...

Simply stunning.

-- Pan

Roisin

13th February 2014, 05:48

In the predictions thread in this forum, last Thurs., Feb. 6th, I posted a inner eye vision of seeing an Asian man standing in front of a power plant where a radiation symbol rolled into that scene.

My interpretation of that vision was that something was going to happen at Fukushima and the next day on Friday, 12:18 GMT, 2 back to back moderate (5.1 and 5.0) EQ's occurred near that plant. The first one happened on friday and the second one occurred on Saturday morning.
Prior to that, the last EQ they had near that plant that was over 4.0 happened on Oct. 26th. That one was 7.1.

That vision popped into my mind out of nowhere and like all of my visions that I get like this, they are inserted into my mind by outside intelligences. So it was not me who made the prediction... it was "them".

Because I got that vision, it's telling me that "they" are very concerned about the Fukushima situation and that we should be concerned about it too. Should I get any more information from them, I'll be reporting here in this thread.

Also, the TEPCO report that the radiation there was 5x's higher than what they reported before in their last report on that was first published on the internet on Saturday, Feb. 8th.

Below is info on those 2 moderate EQ's that just recently occurred there. The last EQ that occurred that was near that plant that was over 4.0 occurred on Oct. 26th.

Now I got it straight:
http://i932.photobucket.com/albums/ad164/A99_x/two-earthquakes-fukushima-coastsi.jpg (http://s932.photobucket.com/user/A99_x/media/two-earthquakes-fukushima-coastsi.jpg.html)

Two Quakes Strike Near Fukushima

Two magnitude-5 earthquakes struck off the coast of Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, the site of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake that killed more than 18,000 people and sparked the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The first quake hit 34 kilometers off the coast of Namie, Japan at 21:18 GMT on Friday. The US Geological Survey (USG) measured its magnitude at 5.1. The tremor caused no serious damages, and no tsunami warning was issued in its wake, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The second quake, measured magnitude 5.0, and struck 34 kilometers from Iwaki, Japan at 6:34 GMT on Saturday. Like the previous quake, no tsunami warning was issued, though they posed stark reminders of the chronic insecurity at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 megathrurst earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. The quake triggered a massive tsunami, which inundated the nuclear power plant causing three reactors to melt down.

Nearly three years later, authorities have failed to cap radioactive leaks, and Tokyo Electric Power Co. [TEPCO], the plant’s operator, was recently forced to admit they had underestimated radiation levels by five times.

Meanwhile, ongoing seepage of contaminated water used to cool the damaged reactors continues to hinder cleanup efforts, which will probably take years to complete.

Source: http://rt.com/news/two-earthquakes-fukushima-coast-167/

panopticon

13th February 2014, 05:59

Roisin

13th February 2014, 06:11

Also, the TEPCO report that the radiation there was 5x's higher than what they reported before in their last report on that was first published on the internet on Saturday, Feb. 8th.

Thanks for pointing that out Roisin. The February 7th report date above (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?62507-Japan-nuclear-agency-upgrades-Fukushima-alert-level&p=796544&viewfull=1#post796544) was taken from the original website (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201402070096).
Probably the date difference is to do with the US being a day behind Australia, Japan etc. :P

-- Pan

It was first posted on the internet on Saturday, Feb 8th, not on Friday, the 7th.
And I'm EST time and Japan is 14 hours behind me. :)

I know that because I didn't find out about those 2 earthquakes that occurred near that plant until Saturday and that's when I also saw that article about TEPCO's saying that they under reported the radiation rate at that plant by 5x's.

panopticon

13th February 2014, 06:39

It was first posted on the internet on Saturday, Feb 8th, not on Friday, the 7th.
And I'm EST time and Japan is 14 hours behind me.

I know that because I didn't find out about those 2 earthquakes that occurred near that plant until Saturday and that's when I also saw that article about TEPCO's saying that they under reported the radiation rate at that plant by 5x's.

In both Tokyo and New York it is currently the 13th of February.

It's around 1.40 am in New York (EST) atm.
It's around 3.40 pm in Tokyo.

Tokyo is 14 hours ahead (ie further into the day than New York).

Here's how I worked out the date of the article being published:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=24905&d=1392272697

If the date of article submission on the website is incorrect, or different by geo-location, then that's beyond my control.

Best of luck.

-- Pan

Roisin

13th February 2014, 06:49

When I saw that TEPCO report online on Saturday, I then searched to see if it has been posted anywhere prior to that date so your article was apparently posted on the 7th and not the 8th like the one that I saw.

Anyway, thanks for the posting that information!

panopticon

13th February 2014, 06:51

More information on Brown's Gas for water treatment here:
http://www.eagle-research.com/cms/node/456

Tootles.

-- Pan

RichD

13th February 2014, 07:27

It's all about the money!

KYT6X0EuSHE

Cheers

Rich

Roisin

13th February 2014, 07:48

I'm watching this video again because it's very informative where he highlights those important points about what's going on there. Thanks for posting it here!

Roisin

13th February 2014, 07:55

More information on Brown's Gas for water treatment here:
http://www.eagle-research.com/cms/node/456

Tootles.

-- Pan

Fascinating information! It would seem that they would give this one a try and I don't know why they are not doing everything humanly possible to remedy some critical issues at that site.

RichD

13th February 2014, 07:56

No worries, it almost seems everyday things are getting worse at Fukushima with new cracks appearing/more radiation/where are the core's?

Secrecy and lies until something so serious happens that suddenly the ruling elite let the population know something serious has happened and "sorry your all going to die." Reminds me of the Courtney Brown Atlantis story.

Cheers

RichD

13th February 2014, 09:18

e6CIcnnrHDU

Cheers, Rich

Roisin

13th February 2014, 13:54

It's more than just the freezing weather that contributed towards the formation of those cracks because the plant itself, the buildings, are sinking into the ground at a significant rate each year due to water saturation from water running from the mountain onto and under that plot of land they are located on. That would effect any concrete on the surface too causing water to seep through the concrete and cracking it. The ground is soft and getting moreso each year that goes by for that reason. It's never ending....

panopticon

13th February 2014, 15:08

It's all about the money!

KYT6X0EuSHE
Cheers
Rich

G'day Rich,

Interesting vid though some of the articles quoted have errors/bias in them and the presenter has an obvious bias (he's entitled to his opinion in his video so good on him). I agree with him though when he says follow the money.

To show that I'm not talking out my arse about some of the articles having errors.

Take the very first part of the first statement taken from Enenews.com:

Newspaper: U.S. scientists worried about Fukushima radioactive plume — Expert: West Coast our top priority, even over Japan
Source (http://enenews.com/alaska-newspaper-u-s-scientists-worried-about-fukushima-radioactive-plume-expert-west-coast-is-our-top-priority-even-over-japan-hunter-we-are-concerned-about-our-own-health-senator)

Now if we look at this Enenews.com article we find that it's based on an article from The Nome Nugget newspaper (6th of February, 2014 -- available here (http://www.nomenugget.net/archives/2014/02.06.14%20NN.pdf)) titled: 'Lack of radiation monitoring irks scientists, public'.

In the Enenews.com article it quotes Ken Buesseler from WHOI as saying:

There is a disconnect what the government is saying that there are no concerns, but the public is still concerned [...] We even have had interest from the public as far away as Japan, New Zealand, Guam, and one sailing vessel traveling from Hawaii to Japan this summer, but the West Coast time series is our highest priority (Source pg. 4).
What isn't quoted (by Enenews.com) is what else Buesseler said in the Nome Nugget article:

Dr. Buesseler has sampled radiation levels in the water at the reactor site and elsewhere in the ocean. While there were high levels of Cesium in the water near the reactors initially, they have since fallen below levels of concern for human health. He believes these will be further diluted as they spread across the ocean.
Source (http://www.nomenugget.net/archives/2014/02.06.14%20NN.pdf) pg. 4

Also Buesseler was talking in the Nome Nugget article about the new crowd sourced project (How Radioactive Is Our Oceans (http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/index.html)) he has undertaken through WHOI that I've mentioned quite a bit on this and other threads. What he is actually quoted as saying in the Nome Nugget article is:

Optimally, we’d like to be able to sample and analyze about 20 sites from Alaska to San Diego at regular intervals every few months. We even have had interest from the public as far away as Japan, New Zealand, Guam, and one sailing vessel travelling from Hawaii to Japan this summer, but the West Coast time series is our highest priority.
So it's a case of Buesseler (the "Expert") being misrepresented in the Enenews.com article to serve whatever purpose they wanted. In this case it was to make it look as though he was more concerned about a sea-borne radioactive plume arriving on the West Coast of the USA than radiation levels off the coast of Japan.

Buesseler's not and, to the best of my knowledge anyway, never has been.

BTW, the Enenews statement 'Expert: West Coast our top priority, even over Japan' is never mentioned in the newspaper article. Certainly nothing about the West Coast being a higher priority than Japan, that is unless we're talking about measuring radionuclides arriving on the West Coast of the US in which case yes, it is where you're going to be measuring the radionuclides after all (though, again that is never said in the article). Kind of a silly statement really.

Why is the West Coast time series the highest priority? Well that's where the radioactive nuclides that are left will probably start arriving from around April (according to the Rossi et al. model and others) and where they will be measured. Just as in 2012-2013 the mid-Pacific was a higher priority for measuring (than the West Coast of the USA for example) because that's where the particles were...

Ok, so that's that one lil bit.

The Enenews.com article also uses an image from the Smith et al. 2013 Pices paper (available here (http://pices.int/publications/presentations/PICES-2013/2013-MEQ/MEQ-1700-Smith.pdf)). The image used by Enenews is:

http://enenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DoF_AKmap.jpg

Now the actual image in the Smith paper doesn't look like that:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=24906&d=1392297644

Maybe the Enenews.com article should have quoted the end of the Smith paper:

Fact is: radioactivity frightens people, almost always disproportionately to the actual threat: government must recognise this and provide sound, science based knowledge (and wisdom?) on human and environmental risks.
Source (http://pices.int/publications/presentations/PICES-2013/2013-MEQ/MEQ-1700-Smith.pdf) pg. 28

That was just the first statement in the above video. Yes, Fukushima Diaries is a good site though again be careful to watch the way the data is presented.

BTW here's a few models I referenced on the previous page.

Predicted movement of 100 particles released March 12, 2011 @ fixed depths over transport:

Qkx2S1Y3oko
Predicted movement of 100 particles released March 12, 2011 @ variable depths over transport:

8BqeR72ztyU
Original videos sourced from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth's Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM):
http://fvcom.smast.umassd.edu/research_projects/FVCOM_Tsunami/

BTW, the dumped radioactive waste off the West Coast is likely more of a threat than the "Fukushima Plume". It has been there for decades with the barrels quietly corroding and no-one has paid it no never mind. Maybe that's something that some industrious individual should be asking more questions about?

Hope this was useful to someone.

-- Pan

RichD

13th February 2014, 15:38

panopticon

14th February 2014, 01:11

Thanks Pan for going over the video. Most agencies/people have bias to one side or the other depending on any number of factors. I guess here Magik (his youtube alter ego) is just reporting on what he see's through his various feeds and is doing his best with the information he has to give a view of is happening in Fukushima. Not many people are taking any interest so I give him credit for 'putting it out there'.
Again thanks for pointing out the discrepancies Pan. As you say, other sources of 'stored' radiation dotted around the planet maybe require closer attention from people who live close to or could be affected by them.
Cheers
Rich

G'day Rich,

No worries mate.
His video, he can do whatever he bloody wants. :)

I was more pointing out problems in the articles mentioned and chose the first one merely because it was first. I'm neither "pro-nuclear" nor "anti-nuclear" (radionuclides are used in cancer and other treatments, for CT scanning etc plus many areas outside medicine), I just don't think it does anyone any good if things are altered to push an agenda. That just makes it harder to present the actual facts because people are expecting drama.

Truthfully, the main problems for the US from Fukushima were probably from mid-March to Mid-April 2011. That's when there were levels recorded from Daiichi's atmospheric venting (ie explosion). If there are no further accidents or mishaps at Daiichi (no more Mag 8+ earth quakes and tsunami's for example) then that's probably it for the US (there's likely more radiation in the US from on-shore nuclear bomb testing than will wash up on beaches from the Pacific - though I don't have any data to confirm that so I could be wrong).

Japan however has at least a decade before it becomes clearer what problems may arise. The article I presented on the previous page about testing for thyroid nodules (and cancer) clearly states this. Thyroid cancer, as a result of exposure to I-131, occurs predominantly in children and younger persons (under the age of 30) as the cells replicate more readily in younger persons. So for at least a decade Japan will need to continue to measure the prevalence of thyroid cancer in Fukushima and surrounding prefectures. That means a heightened stress level for persons who were living in that area during the accident. Iodine tablets were given out following the accident however the high natural Iodine content of the average Japanese diet (from, for example, fish, shell fish and kelp) would probably have limited I-131 uptake anyway.

As shown by Chernobyl, social dislocation and lack of contact with country could have a more dramatic influence than the long term effect of low-level radiation exposure. That's not to say that there is no danger from low-level radiation exposure (ingestion or inhalation of alpha or beta emitters always increases risk of mutagenic cells developing) just that it could (and I emphasise could) actually be worse for those who leave than those who stay. Here's the journalist Holly Morris, who explains this extremely well, talking about her tour of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and her visits with the Babushka's of Chernobyl:

93hbqLBp_HI
Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

Roisin

14th February 2014, 14:19

panopticon

15th February 2014, 06:42

My training and work background in x-ray technology allows me probably more comprehension of any information about Fukushima's radiation and safety issues than most at least on a bare-bones technical level.
So just saying that I know what I'm reading and based on that, it's very clear that the suppression of information on whats been going on at that plant is criminal and that's an understatement.

TEPCO just recrently came out and admitted that the radiation situation at at that plant is a whopping 5x's greater than what they reported before.

So ANY information prior to the date than that TEPCO report that was just released is based on the previous information that UNDER REPORTED the radiation problem there by a WHOPPING 5 X'S. But they still may be under-reporting in this most recent report too and any conscientious consumer of information coming out of there knows that too. Especially now. You can't even make this stuff up, Those who are running TEPCO are psychopaths.

But the bottom line is this, when it comes to anything information about Fukushima, it's best to error on the side of caution and go consider those reports that seem to present things as a little more critical and urgent there than what most others opinions are on the same thing who are basing their information on what's being pumped out by TEPCO.

I agree Roisin,

Remember that the reported discrepancy is to do with strontium-90 & beta radiation levels in a liquid taken from well-points near the ocean (ie down hill from the reactors). It is not to do with ambient radiation levels as far as I can tell. Ambient levels are still the same and there have been a number of independent readings that confirm TEPCO's onsite readings (TEPCO automatic ambient readings here (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/index-e.html)).

What has been shown, and confirms what many already suspected, is that there is a higher level of radionuclides present in the water table than was being reported by TEPCO (reports archive here (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/index-e.html)). The reason why this was suspected is because we have no idea where the cores are, yet do know that coolant water from around the remaining fuel in the containment vessels has been leaking into the water table. That's where all the water reported the other day (http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2014/201401-e/140118-01e.html) from #3 was going. With all this coolant water moving through the system it made no sense that levels at the ocean barriers/wells were so low.

BTW, none of this is a surprise to anyone who understands how TEPCO, the NRA and Government of Japan have operated in the past.

We've talked a lot in this thread about TEPCO's shady past (pre-March 2011) and that it is impossible to believe the data coming from them as accurate without secondary sources to verify them (eg safecast.org for ambient readings & WHOI for ocean readings). I am unsure as to the level of distortion in the results at other areas of the plant or the extent to which the data was inaccurate in relation to other radionuclides (eg. Caesium-134 & Caesium-137). We do know that TEPCO, with the assistance of the NRA, changed radiation detectors in surrounding areas to non-IAEA sanctioned ones (ie changed to ones that report lower readings). This latest report of ineptitude is no huge surprise to anyone who has followed this sorry state of affairs at TEPCO.

For anyone who might be interested here's a few quick references on that past:

http://timshorrock.com/?p=1113
http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/top-lies-tepco-sound-bp

Here's a short article from 12th March 2011 published by Reuters that references past lies and cover ups done by TEPCO.

###

Japan's nuclear power operator has checkered past (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-nuclear-operator-idUSTRE72B1B420110312)
Written by Jonathan Thatcher, edited by John Chalmers. March 12th, 2011

(Reuters) - The company at the center of a nuclear reactor crisis following the biggest earthquake in Japan's recorded history has had a rocky past in an industry plagued by scandal.

The Japanese government said on Saturday that there had been radiation leakage at Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi plant following an explosion there.

The blast came as TEPCO was working desperately to reduce pressures in the core of a reactor at the 40-year-old plant, which lies 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

In 2002, the president of the country's largest power utility was forced to resign along with four other senior executives, taking responsibility for suspected falsification of nuclear plant safety records.

The company was suspected of 29 cases involving falsified repair records at nuclear reactors. It had to stop operations at five reactors, including the two damaged in the latest tremor, for safety inspections.

A few years later it ran into trouble again over accusations of falsifying data.

In late 2006, the government ordered TEPCO to check past data after it reported that it had found falsification of coolant water temperatures at its Fukushima Daiichi plant in 1985 and 1988, and that the tweaked data was used in mandatory inspections at the plant, which were completed in October 2005.

And in 2007, TEPCO reported that it had found more past data falsifications, though this time it did not have to close any of its plants.

Source (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-nuclear-operator-idUSTRE72B1B420110312)

###

I have no idea why anyone thought that TEPCO's corporate culture would change just because there was a major disaster.

No idea at all.

Hope this is useful.

-- Pan

Bob

21st February 2014, 00:23

Fukushima again.. Leak more toxic than previous Fukushima Dai-ichi incidents; TEPCO says it's contained
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS ON FEBRUARY 20, 2014 6:37AM - that's the origination of the report.

Understood there are leaks and leaks, but please look at this article closely..

"TOKYO — Highly radioactive water has overflowed from a storage tank at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant, but the operator says it did not reach the Pacific Ocean.

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the leak involved partially treated water from early in the crisis, meaning it was more toxic than previous leaks. Three reactors melted at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, with radioactive water partially recycled and stored in more than 1,000 tanks.

TEPCO says about 100 tons of the contaminated water overflowed through a rainwater drainage pipe, where plant workers attached a garbage bag to contain the leakage.

TEPCO says the leak has since stopped after workers closed the valves and did not escape into the Pacific."

I know of no garbage bag in history that can contain 100 TONS of radioactive water, that workers could easily attach a garbage bag to (a drain pipe), and then go close a valve.. eh?

http://www.minapacific.org/userfiles/images/P6240041.JPG

ref: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

ref: http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/fabrication/news/japan-nuke-plant-reports-new-leak-of-highly-radioactive-water-133275?utm_source=CMO&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CMO-EN02202014&e=1v1M3s0q27W6x08yM2vx

25th February 2014, 00:41

Now some of the evacuated residents are to be allowed home...?

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/24/world/asia/japan-fukushima-residents-return/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Roisin

25th February 2014, 01:43

Those who are running Japan are evil. If anyone from Japan is reading this leave Japan NOW. If you love your family... MOVE.

Roisin

25th February 2014, 01:55

Fukushima radiation levels underestimated by five times – TEPCO

TEPCO has revised the readings on the radioactivity levels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant well to 5 million becquerels of strontium per liter – both a record, and nearly five times higher than the original reading of 900,000 becquerels per liter.

Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission with a half-life of 28.8 years. The legal standard for strontium emissions is 30 becquerels per liter. Exposure to strontium-90 can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. originally said that the said 900,000 becquerels of beta-ray sources per liter, including strontium – were measured in the water sampled on July 5 last year.

However, the company noted on Friday that the previous radioactivity levels had been wrong, meaning that it was also likely reading taken from the other wells at the disaster-struck plant prior to September were also likely to have been inaccurate, the Asahi Shimbum newspaper reported.

The Japanese company has already apologized for the failures, which they said were a result of the malfunctioning of measuring equipment.

TEPCO did not mention the radioactivity levels of other samples of both groundwater and seawater taken from between June and November last year – which totaled some 140.

However, the erroneous readings only pertain to the radiation levels measured in water – readings taken to measure the radiation levels in air or soil are likely to have been accurate.

In the basement of the station, the drainage system and special tanks have accumulated more than 360,000 tons of radioactive water. The leakage of radioactive water has been an ongoing problem in the wake of the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant.

TEPCO also said on Thursday that 600 liters of contaminated water – which had 2,800 becquerels of beta-ray sources per liter in it, leaked from piping leading to a tank at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

A record high level of beta rays released from radioactive strontium-90 was detected at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant beneath the No. 2 reactor’s well facing the ocean, according to the facility’s operator who released news of the measurements mid-January.

TEPCO measured the amount of beta ray-emitting radioactivity at more than 2.7 million becquerels per liter, Fukushima’s operator said as reported in the Japanese media.

In March 2011, an earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit Japan’s coast, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The catastrophe caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the facility, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The water used to cool the reactors has been leaking into the soil and contaminating the ground water ever since. Some of the radioactive water has been escaping into the Pacific Ocean.

Source: http://conservativeread.com/fukushima-radiation-levels-underestimated-by-five-times-tepco/

Roisin

25th February 2014, 02:16

Former Leader of Japan: Fukushima disaster is “most severe accident in the history of mankind” — Top Regulator: Drastic steps needed due to growing problems at precarious plant

Former Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan, Oct. 28, 2013: The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was the most severe accident in the history of mankind. [...] I had pushed the policy of utilizing nuclear power [...] my view is now changed 180 degrees. [...] there are no other events except for wars that would require the evacuation of tens of millions of people. [...] it is technically impossible to eliminate accidents, especially if human factors such as terrorism are taken into account [...] to eliminate nuclear power plant accidents. All we need to do is to eliminate nuclear power plants themselves. [...] we are leaving the huge problem of nuclear waste for future generations to care for. There is no other way but to go down in the path toward achieving zero nuclear power, for the sake of our children and grandchildren. It is possible for mankind to get enough energy without relying on nuclear power — by using natural energy such as solar, wind, and biomass. To help curb global warming, we need to stop the use of not only nuclear power but also fossil fuels. [...]

Source: http://enenews.com/former-leader-of-japan-fukushima-disaster-is-most-severe-accident-in-the-history-of-mankind-not-hard-to-stop-future-accidents-all-we-need-to-do-is-to-eliminate-nuclear-power-plants

Cidersomerset

27th February 2014, 21:15

http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.60.1/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

25 February 2014 Last updated at 11:36

North American scientists track incoming Fukushima plumeBy Jonathan Amos

Science correspondent, BBC News

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73203000/jpg/_73203536_73203535.jpg

Model simulation Models are used to forecast the likely progression of radionuclides from Fukushima Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
Fukushima leaks radioactive water
US tuna show Fukushima pollution
Cruise finds Fukushima pollution

The likely scale of the radioactive plume of water from Fukushima due to hit the
west coast of North America should be known in the next two months.

Only minute traces of pollution from the beleaguered Japanese power plant have so
far been recorded in Canadian continental waters.

This will increase as contaminants disperse eastwards on Pacific currents.

But scientists stress that even the peak measurements will be well within the limits
set by safety authorities.

Since the 2011 Fukushima accident, researchers from the Bedford Institute of
Oceanography have been sampling waters along a line running almost 2,000km
due west of Vancouver, British Columbia.

And by June of last year, they were detecting quantities of radioactive caesium-137
and 134 along the sampling line’s entire length.

Although the radioactivity concentrations remain extremely low – less than one
becquerel per cubic metre of water – they have allowed the scientists to start to
validate the two models that are being used to forecast the probable future
progression of the plume.

One of these models anticipates a maximum concentration by mid-2015 of up to 27
becquerels per cubic metre of water; the other no more than about two becquerels
per cubic metre of water.

Bedford’s Dr John Smith told BBC News that further measurements being taken in
the ocean right now should give researchers a fair idea of which model is correct.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73203000/jpg/_73203534_73203533.jpg

Water sample Citizen science project ourradioactiveocean.org is collecting water
samples And he emphasised again: “These levels are still well below maximum
permissible concentrations in drinking water in Canada for caesium-137 of 10,000
becquerels per cubic metre of water – so, it’s clearly not an environmental or
human-health radiological threat.”

Dr Smith was speaking at the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2014 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

He was joined on a panel discussing Fukushima by Dr Ken Buesseler from the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Whoi scientist described the citizen science effort now under way to record
radioactivity in beach waters of the western United States.

Members of the public are being recruited to regularly gather water samples from
California to Washington State and in Alaska and Hawaii.

No caesium-134 has yet been detected. Caesium-137, which was also released by
the damaged power plant, is in the environment already as a result of the A-bomb
tests in the 1950s and 1960s. However, Dr Buesseler expects a specific Fukushima
signal from both radionuclides to be evident very shortly in US waters.

The sampling project, which is organised at the website ourradioactiveocean.org, is
having to be funded through private donation because no federal agency has picked
up the monitoring responsibility.

“What we have to go by right now are models, and as John Smith showed these
predict numbers as high as 30 of these becquerels per cubic metre of water,” he
told reporters.

“It’s interesting: if this was of greater health concern, we’d be very worried about
these factors of ten differences in the models. To my mind, this is not really
acceptable. We need better studies and resources to do a better job, because there
are many reactors on coasts and rivers and if we can’t predict within a factor of 10
what caesium or some other isotope is downstream - I think that’s a pretty poor job"

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26329323

Cidersomerset

27th February 2014, 21:21

This seems to be an update of an ongoing story......

Documents Say Navy Knew Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated the USS Reagan

Thursday 27th February 2014 at 04:00 By David Icke

http://www.essentialprepper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/USS-Ronald-Reagan.jpg

‘A stunning new report indicates the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-
powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic
power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago.

If true, the revelations cast new light on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by the sailors
against Tokyo Electric Power. Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating
health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy.

The Reagan had joined several other U.S. ships in Operation Tomodachi
(“Friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami.
Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on March 12, 2011
the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to
melt and explode.’

Read more: Documents Say Navy Knew Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated the
USS Reagan

http://files.cdn.ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ussreaganfukushima.jpg

Sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan wash down the flight deck to remove
potential radiation contamination while operating off the coast of Japan providing
humanitarian assistance in support of Operation Tomodachi, March 22, 2011. - See

more at: http://www.essentialprepper.com/documents-say-navy-knew-fukushima-dangerously-contaminated-uss-reagan/#sthash.8jLT31J8.Nis0MMsZ.dpuf

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Cidersomerset

11th March 2014, 11:52

http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.60.1/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

11 March 2014 Last updated at 04:54

Fukushima: Is fear of radiation the real killer? By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes

BBC News, Fukushima, Japan

3C4tLrCcl5s

I went back to the little Japanese town of Namie this week. It lies just 5km (three
miles) north of the sprawling complex that was once the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant.

You can see the tall white chimneys of the plant peaking over a low hill. I've been
to Namie before. Each time I go back is like the first, so arresting is the scene that
confronts you.

For three years, time here has stood still. An old wooden house brought down by
the earthquake still lies in the middle of a road. Through the broken window of a
noodle shop I can see used bowls and chopsticks still lying on tables.

I look through the windows of an old people's home. Beds lie unmade; laundry
hangs from a drier. It's as if the residents have gone off for breakfast and at any
moment they'll be shuffling back in.

But no one is coming back. When explosions hit the nuclear plant the pall of
radiation was blown right across this town. And so Namie remains utterly deserted,
its residents scattered far and wide.

In their exile they live in constant fear and anxiety. Fear of what the radiation may
have done to their children and anxiety that they will never get their old lives back.

Read more...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26483945

TargeT

11th March 2014, 13:04

panopticon

11th March 2014, 13:07

Fukushima: Is fear of radiation the real killer? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26483945)
By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC News, Fukushima, Japan

3C4tLrCcl5s

That was an excellent report and a good find there Steve.

It's a balancing act working out where the duty of care stops, isn't it.

Using the precautionary principle if there's a perceived danger, no matter how small, then it is usually viewed as appropriate to shift people and separate them from their homes/country. What if the shifting of people causes more damage than the radiation contamination ever would? Look at the anecdotal evidence from Chernobyl for an idea on that. Meanwhile, there are ample cases of people not being shifted following chemical spills etc and their health being damaged. If there hadn't been the mass evacuations (@ Fukushima) then there would have been claims that the Government was in the power industries pocket (not necessarily unfair to say that anyway).

So for the Government its kind of damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Guess that's why they get the big dollars...

I really think the fear has been hyped by the media (all sorts) to sell advertising. The situation is horrific there and I've no idea how there hasn't been a more serious incident on site. I've got no idea how TEPCO thinks it will be able to work with the melted cores in the other 3 reactors. There's no technology for that as far as I know. Only upside is its only another year before the #4 reactor has had all its assemblies shifted to the pond so "whoopie"...

Happy Anniversary.

-- Pan

Rocky_Shorz

14th March 2014, 22:09

11 March 2014 Last updated at 04:54

Fukushima: Is fear of radiation the real killer? By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes

BBC News, Fukushima, Japan

The first thing to understand is that the amount of radiation released from Fukushima was much lower than at Chernobyl," he said. "Second, the number of children in Fukushima who got a radiation dose above 50 millisieverts is very few, maybe as low as zero."

In other words the highest level of exposure children at Fukushima are thought to have received (50 millisieverts) is at the very lowest end of exposure for children in Chernobyl.

In that case how does Professor Suzuki explain the 33 confirmed cases of thyroid cancer his team have found?

"In Japan there has never been a survey on this scale done before," he said. "Once you start using very sensitive equipment to check for thyroid cancer in a very large group of children then you will inevitably find an increase in the number of cases. That is why we are seeing the increase now. These cases are not related to the nuclear disaster."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26483945

Fear is very powerful, it is ruining the country of Japan for no real reason, people here on this very forum are helping continue this fear... fear can be leveraged as a weapon and it almost seems like it is being done in this case.

Conspiracy forums actually do the opposite, the Worst possible scenario, on every possible event, so anyone searching for it, will come across the fear porn...

Then experts of different specialties dissect the misinformation to calm fears...

creating invisible boogy men does nothing for anyone, we have people involved who are excellent at keeping current and accurate information updated on this thread...

and Mr Radiation Nugget on his neck does a great job at dispelling fears... ;)

remember when the Norway underground base was exposed, everyone was afraid, because no one was talking about it...

once the discussion started, and other conspiracies started to flow, it was a rock n roll roller coaster...

as a vet I can wear my Avalon No Fear pin proudly... ;)

Cidersomerset

14th March 2014, 22:20

James Corbett and Ryan Dawson on Fukushima

Friday 14th March 2014 at 04:00 By David Icke

part of a longer interview.....

_z06L3207O0

Published on 13 Mar 2014

James Corbett of http://Fukushimaupdate.com and Ryan Dawson http://ancreport.com
talk about Fukushima, Global Warming, Thorium, TEPCO the press, alarmists, and TPP

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

http://www.courthousenews.com/homepage/banner.jpg

If Successful, Fukushima Class Actions Could Wipe Out General Electric

‘General Electric faces two multibillion-dollar class actions from people hurt by the
Fukushima nuclear disaster and its aftermath, who say GE and GE-Hitachi failed to
properly design and maintain the power plant.

One 2-page summons and notice in New York County Supreme Court demands
compensatory damages of at least $3 million per plaintiff, but does not estimate
the size of the class.

No one died in the radiation leak set off by a tsunami, but more than 100,000
people were evacuated.
At $3 million apiece, damages would come to $300 billion.

If granted, such an award could wipe out General Electric, which Forbes calls the
second-largest company in the world.’

Read more …

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/03/12/66052.htm

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Rocky_Shorz

17th March 2014, 20:04

was there any changes after the 5.0 quake?

111 km SE of Fukushima-shi, Japan / pop: 294,237 / local time: 18:02:50.0 2014-03-17

panopticon

18th March 2014, 06:05

Interesting article on the continued pressures placed on Japanese scientists following the Fukushima accident.

###

Concerns Over Measurement of Fukushima Fallout (www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/concerns-over-measurement-of-fukushima-fallout.html)
By David Mcneill, The Chronicle Of Higher Education, March 16th, 2014.

TOKYO — In the chaotic, fearful weeks after the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, in March 2011, researchers struggled to measure the radioactive fallout unleashed on the public. Michio Aoyama’s initial findings were more startling than most. As a senior scientist at the Japanese government’s Meteorological Research Institute, he said levels of radioactive cesium 137 in the surface water of the Pacific Ocean could be 10,000 times as high as contamination after Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear accident.

Two months later, as Mr. Aoyama prepared to publish his findings in a short, nonpeer-reviewed article for Nature, the director general of the institute called with an unusual demand — that Mr. Aoyama remove his own name from the paper.

“He said there were points he didn’t understand, or want to understand,” the researcher recalled. “I was later told that he did not want to say that Fukushima radioactivity was worse than Chernobyl.” The head of the institute, who has since retired, declined to comment for this article. Mr. Aoyama asked for his name to be removed, he said, and the article was not published.

The pressure he felt is not unusual — only his decision to speak about it. Off the record, university researchers in Japan say that even now, three years after the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, they feel under pressure to play down the impact of the disaster. Some say they cannot get funds or university support for their work. In several cases, the professors say, they have been obstructed or told to steer clear of data that might cause public “concern.”

“Getting involved in this sort of research is dangerous politically,” said Joji Otaki, a biologist at Japan’s Ryukyu University who has written papers suggesting that radioactivity at Fukushima has triggered inherited deformities in a species of butterfly. His research is paid for through private donations, including crowdfunding, a sign, he said, that the public supports his work. “It’s an exceptional situation,” he said.

The precise health impact of the Fukushima disaster is disputed. The government has defined mandatory evacuation zones around the Daiichi plant as areas where cumulative dose levels might reach 20 millisieverts per year, the typical worldwide limit for nuclear-power-plant workers. The limit recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection is one millisievert per year for the public, though some scientists argue that below 100 millisieverts the threat of increased cancers is negligible.

In an effort to lower radiation and persuade about 155,000 people to return home, the government is trying to decontaminate a large area by scraping away millions of tons of radioactive dirt and storing it in temporary dumps. Experts at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology put the cost of this project at $50 billion — widely considered an underestimate.

The chance to study in this real-life laboratory has drawn a small number of researchers from around the world. Timothy A. Mousseau, a professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina who has written widely on Chernobyl, studies the impact of radiation on bird and insect life. He has published papers suggesting abnormalities and defects in some Fukushima species. But he said his three research excursions to Japan had been difficult.

In one case, a Japanese professor and two postdoctoral students dropped out of a joint research paper, telling him they could not risk association with his findings. “They felt it was too provocative and controversial,” he said, “and the postdocs were worried it could hamper their future job prospects.”

Mr. Mousseau is careful to avoid comparisons with the Soviet Union, which arrested and even imprisoned scientists who studied Chernobyl. Nevertheless, he finds the lukewarm support for studies in Japan troubling: “It’s pretty clear that there is self-censorship or professors have been warned by their superiors that they must be very, very careful,” he said.

The “more insidious censorship” is the lack of funding at a national level for these kinds of studies, he added. “They’re putting trillions of yen into moving dirt around and almost nothing into environmental assessment.”

Long before an earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima meltdown, critics questioned the influence of Japan’s powerful nuclear lobby over the country’s top universities. Some professors say their careers have been hobbled because they expressed doubts about the nation’s nuclear policy and the coalition of bureaucrats, industrialists, politicians and elite academics who created it.

Mr. Aoyama, who now works at Fukushima University, sees no evidence of an organized conspiracy in the lack of openness about radiation levels — just official timidity. Despite the problems with his Nature article, he has written or co-written eight published papers since 2011 on coastal water pollution and other radiation-linked themes.

But stories of problems with Fukushima-related research are common, he said, including accounts of several professors’ being told not to measure radiation in the surrounding prefectures. “There are so many issues in our community,” he said. “The key phrase is ‘don’t cause panic.”’

He is also critical of the flood of false rumors circulating about the reach of Fukushima’s radioactive payload.

Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s department of marine chemistry and geochemistry, in Massachusetts, who has worked with Mr. Aoyama, said he has spent much of his professional energy fighting the rumor mill. The cause is not helped, he added, by institutional attempts to gag Japanese professors.

“Researchers are told not to talk to the press, or they don’t feel comfortable about talking to the press without permission,” Mr. Buesseler said. A veteran of three post-earthquake research trips to Japan, he wants the authorities to put more money into investigating the impact on the food chain of Fukushima’s release of cesium and strontium. “Why isn’t the Japanese government paying for this, since they have most to gain?”

One reason, critics say, is that after a period of national soul searching, when it looked as if Japan might scrap its commercial reactors, the government is again supporting nuclear power. Since the conservative Liberal Democrats returned to power, in late 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has begun trying to sell Japan’s nuclear technology abroad.

Much of the government funding for academic research in Japan is funneled through either the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science or the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Proposals are screened by government officials and reviewed by an academic committee.

Yusuke Shoji, a spokesman for the ministry, cannot say how many proposals for studying the impact of radiation had been greenlighted, but he insists that the application system is fair. ‘‘The screening is conducted by peer review, so we don’t direct or don’t favor one particular research field,’’ he said. ‘‘We assess applications purely from the scientific point of view.’’ The Japan Society also says its applications process is not politicized.

Professors, meanwhile, say that rather than simply defend what is a piecemeal approach to studying the disaster, the government should take the lead in creating a large, publicly financed project.

“If we’ve ever going to make any headway into the environmental impact of these disasters, statistical power, scientific power, is what counts,” said Mr. Mousseau of the University of South Carolina. “We get at it with massive replication, by going to hundreds of locations. That costs money.”

Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/concerns-over-measurement-of-fukushima-fallout.html)

Cidersomerset

23rd March 2014, 18:53

This article is similar to the one Pan posted above...

http://www.naturalnews.com/Images/May2012/Masthead-v7.jpg

Scientists studying radiation in Japan are subject to ‘insidious censorship’
Sunday 23rd March 2014 at 07:13 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Man-Mouth-Zipper-Face-Censorship.jpg

‘In order to appease the fears of the public and maintain order, leaders of
government institutions often restrict valuable and alarming information from
broadcast or publication. This censorship keeps the masses unaware but
cooperative, as the truth is picked through and decimated. Such leaders are often
timid and tend to uphold the status quo. They will typically refrain from riling
people up so as not to disturb the powers of special interest that could shutter their
career and livelihood.

While vital information is picked apart and wrought with censorship, people may
suffer from the consequences of not knowing and not being able to take action.’
Scientist finds alarming initial Fukushima cesium-137 measurements but is censored
When the Fukushima nuclear crisis began in March 2011, much censorship was
placed on scientists and researchers who set out to measure the radioactive fallout
that was silently affecting the public.

One scientist, Michio Aoyama, recorded initial findings that were too startling for
the Japanese government. As a senior scientist working within the Japanese
government's Meteorological Research Institute, Aoyama reported dangerous levels
of radioactive cesium-137 in the surface water of the Pacific Ocean. His reports
estimated that levels of cesium-137 could be 10,000 times higher than nuclear
contamination measurements from Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear accident.

When Aoyama reported these alarming radiation levels in an article for a
publication called Nature, he was met with criticism and publication restrictions.
The director general of the institute called Aoyama and asked him to remove his
name from the paper. Apparently, he did not want to startle the public with
Aoyama's findings. When Aoyma asked to have his name removed, the article was
suddenly halted from publication.

Aoyama is not the only one placed under this kind of pressure and censorship.
Various university researchers in Japan report that their respective universities will
not give them funds or support for the work they conduct involving the Fukushima
Daiichi plant. Professors report off the record in many cases that they are either
obstructed or told to steer clear of data that might cause public "concern."

The result so far has been three years of downplaying the Fuskushima disaster,
leaving people unaware of the dangers of high levels of radiation that adversely affect their health.

Politically dangerous research

Joji Otaki, a biologist from Japan's Ryukyu University, has written several papers on
how Fukushima radiation triggers inherited deformities in butterflies, but
said, "Getting involved in this sort of research is dangerous politically." Otaki, says
the public supports his work through crowdfunding donations.

American professor obstructed from research, cites "insidious censorship"
The Japanese government hopes to persuade 155,000 people to return home as
they invest $50 billion in a large decontamination project that involves scraping
away millions of tons of radioactive dirt and placing it in temporary dumps. These
dumps make a great real-life research laboratory and are drawing the attention of
researchers from around the world.

Timothy A. Mousseau, a professor of biological sciences at the University of South
Carolina, has tried to conduct three research projects, but the Japanese
government has made his research difficult.Upon further investigation, one
Japanese professor and two postdoctoral students involved in Mousseau's research
dropped out, because they could not risk being associated with his findings. "They
felt it was too provocative and controversial," Moussea said, "and the postdocs
were worried it could hamper their future job prospects."

"It's pretty clear that there is self-censorship or professors have been warned by
their superiors that they must be very, very careful," he said. Mousseau referred to
the lack of funding at the national level as some of the "more insidious censorship"
measures. He added, "They're putting trillions of yen into moving dirt around and
almost nothing into environmental assessment."

Japan's government institutions promotes nuclear power and controls academia
As the Fukushima reality is downplayed, nuclear power continues to be promoted
by the political elite parties in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying to
sell Japan's nuclear technology abroad since he came to power in 2012.

With nuclear power as a priority, dissenters are silenced and propaganda is pushed
through Japan's government-controlled academia structure. In fact, government
funding for academic research in Japan mostly funnels through the Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology. Academic committees and government officials are in charge of
screening and reviewing the pro-nuclear energy propaganda.

Mr. Mousseau, eager for solutions, says, "If we [are] ever going to make any
headway into the environmental impact of these disasters, statistical power,
scientific power, is what counts."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nytimes.com

http://science.naturalnews.com/

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044414_insidious_censorship_radiation_Japan.html#ixzz2woUZ759u

http://www.naturalnews.com/044414_insidious_censorship_radiation_Japan.html

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Cidersomerset

3rd April 2014, 18:35

Fukushima radiation ‘unlikely’ to increase cancer rates – UN report

new Thursday 3rd April 2014 at 05:36 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/3989850473_c6fcc786ef.jpg

Fukushima radiation ‘unlikely’ to increase cancer rates – UN report

Published time: April 02, 2014 13:44
Edited time: April 02, 2014 15:37

http://rt.com/static/img/static/logo.jpg

‘Fallout from the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown is unlikely to increase
cancer rates in Japan, a UN study has found. Nevertheless investigators say that
children most exposed to radiation could run a greater risk of contracting thyroid
cancer.Dispelling fears of an increase in cancer cases similar to the aftermath of the
Chernobyl disaster in 1986, UN investigators claim cancers levels will “remain
stable” in Japan.

http://cdn.rt.com/files/news/24/94/50/00/fukushima.si.jpg
A view of the central operating control room of the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant at Fukushima prefecture (Reuters / Koji Sasahara / Pool)

“No discernible changes in future cancer rates and hereditary diseases are expected
due to exposure to radiation as a result of the Fukushima nuclear accident,”
UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation)
said in a statement accompanying its nearly 300-page study.’

The report, entitled ‘Levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the nuclear
accident after the 2011 great east-Japan earthquake and tsunami’, attributes the
limited impact of the nuclear disaster on the Japanese public to “prompt protective
actions on the part of the Japanese authorities following the accident.” Additionally,
the study’s authors ruled out a rise in hereditary diseases and babies born with
birth defects.

Read more: Fukushima radiation ‘unlikely’ to increase cancer rates – UN report

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-report-cancer-radiation-829/

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Cidersomerset

6th April 2014, 21:26

TEPCO relies on destitute alcoholics to clean up Fukushima; workers bathed in radioactive waste

Sunday 6th April 2014 at 04:48 By David Icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/Images/May2012/Masthead-v7.jpg

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Hazmat-Suit-Cleanup-Nuclear-Power-Plant-Radiation.jpg

‘Officials with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have shifted attention
away from the energy producer’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in recent
months, leaving a poorly trained, often unskilled and demoralized workforce to take
care of the dangerous radiological cleanup there, multiple reports say.

Meanwhile, as reported by The New York Times, TEPCO continues to pour a wealth
of resources into Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, another plant that the company hopes to
restart later in 2014 as part of the government’s plan to begin using nuclear-
generated power again some three years after the world’s second-worst nuclear
disaster – a move that some on the country’s nuclear regulatory board have
criticized.’

The shift in focus, the paper noted, has resulted in lower-paying jobs at Fukushima
that are much more sporadic, which has resulted in a flight of qualified workers. In
their wake, according to laborers and others at the crippled plant, "is a work force
often assembled by fly-by-night labor brokers with little technical or safety
expertise and even less concern about hiring desperate people," the Times
reported, adding that police have said some of the most dubious labor brokers even
have ties to organized crime.

'Workers at the Fukushima plant have been forced to do unreasonable tasks'

From the Times:

Regulators, contractors and more than 20 current and former workers interviewed
in recent months say the deteriorating labor conditions are a prime cause of a
string of large leaks of contaminated water and other embarrassing errors that
have already damaged the environment and, in some cases, put workers in danger.
In the worst-case scenario, experts fear, struggling workers could trigger a bigger
spill or another radiation release.

"There is a crisis of manpower at the plant," Yukiteru Naka, founder of Tohoku
Enterprise, a contractor and former plant engineer for General Electric, told the
paper. "We are forced to do more with less, like firemen being told to use less
water even though the fire's still burning."

In recent days, frustration over the plant's working conditions has boiled over. On
March 14, for instance, about 100 workers at the plant rallied outside TEPCO's
headquarters in Tokyo, complaining that they have been forced to work in a harsh
environment for meager wages, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"Workers at the Fukushima plant have been forced to do unreasonable tasks with
no decent safety measures," said one man in his 30s who did not give his name.

The man said he had been laid off from the plant after several months there due to
inordinate radiation exposure.

"Workers are forced to handle contaminated water in such grim working conditions,
where any human being should not be put to work," he told AFP. "They tend to
make easy mistakes under the pressure, but it's not they who are at fault -- it's the
conditions that force them to do terrible tasks."

Exposures should be avoided 'at all costs'

As the Times noted, such incidents took the shape of a particularly hazardous event
one morning last October. At the time, a crew of contract workers had been sent to
remove hoses and valves as part of a long-overdue upgrade to the Fukushima
plant's water purification system:

According to regulatory filings by Tepco, the team received only a 20-minute
briefing from their supervisor and were given no diagrams of the system they were
to fix and no review of safety procedures -- a scenario a former supervisor at the
plant called unthinkable. Worse yet, the laborers were not warned that a hose near
the one they would be removing was filled with water laced with radioactive cesium.

The crew shuffled off in their bulky protective gear. As they left, their supervisor,
who was managing several responsibilities at once, left them to check on another
crew. When they arrived on the site, they chose the wrong hose and released a
rush of radioactive water. In a panic, some of the workers shoved their gloved
hands into the water in a bid to cut off the leak, spraying themselves and others
who ran to assist in the process, the Times said.

Shigeharu Nakachi, an expert in the health effects of pollution, said that, though
the workers received significant radiation exposure, it wasn't enough to cause them
to be sick. Nevertheless, he told the Times, the goal is to avoid those kinds of
exposures "at all costs."

AFP reported that the decommissioning process at Fukushima will take decades.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com

http://enenews.com

http://www.scmp.com

http://www.rawstory.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044598_TEPCO_Fukushima_radioactive_waste.html#ixzz2y8z5B6YE

Read more: TEPCO relies on destitute alcoholics to clean up Fukushima; workers bathed in radioactive waste

http://www.naturalnews.com/044598_TEPCO_Fukushima_radioactive_waste.html

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Cidersomerset

6th April 2014, 21:35

Fukushima: Radioactive Cancer Causing ‘Hot Particles’ Spread all Over Japan and North America’s West Coast

Sunday 6th April 2014 at 05:39 By David Icke

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSNRBLNbQWwUgkqFm8gqsWLuZKptyNH4hvIJrFbfT8Edap-bF7A

Vimereo vid on link...http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Rocky_Shorz

6th April 2014, 22:15

MIT Professor & US Experts: Japan “must act now to seal Fukushima reactors, before it’s too late” — Concern US to be affected by “explosions – a chain reaction, engulfing reactors one to four” — “Situation is dynamically degrading and unstable” — Aircraft can likely entomb plant in 6 months... Published: April 4th, 2014 at 1:40 pm ET

Ernst G. Frankel is emeritus professor of ocean engineering at MIT — Jerome A. Cohen is co-director of the US-Asia Law Institute at NYU Law School — Julian Gresser is chairman of Alliances for Discovery — Dick Wullaert also contributed to the article

Headline: Abe must act now to seal Fukushima reactors, before it’s too late
Dear Prime Minister Abe, the Fukushima crisis is getting worse.
The key assumption [...] is that you still have a safe window of time, at least two or three more years, and possibly longer, to deal with Fukushima’s four damaged nuclear reactors
What if this assessment is unrealistically optimistic? What if the safe window of time is less than a year? What if the very concept of a safe window is inappropriate for Fukushima? The fact is, we really don’t know what might happen.
According to [Tepco's] published engineering reports, the most severely damaged reactors are only secure to the level of a magnitude 7.9 earthquake.
The crucial question is: how secure is the facility against any number of dark scenarios?
There is a high probability that, if a quake of magnitude 7.9 or above, or some other serious event, strikes Fukushima, a “criticality” will occur.
The least dangerous would be the local release of strontium-90, caesium 134/137, or nano-plutonium.
Far more dangerous would be an explosion, or a series of explosions – a chain reaction, engulfing reactors one to four – that would spew this contamination over much broader areas of helpless populations. The next criticality may be far more serious [...]
The jet stream will transport airborne contamination to the U.S. and other parts of world
Fukushima may be far more dangerous [than Chernobyl] because the risks are continuing, and the situation is dynamically degrading and unstable.
The formidable problems of access to reactors one to three make accurate assessment of the true extent of the damage, hence the level of risk and vulnerability, extremely challenging.
We urge that you commission a 30-day independent assessment by a multidisciplinary international team of experts on the feasibility of entombment of reactors one to four, addressing the following specific scenario among others: Use helicopters mounted with telescopic nozzles, and, after reinforcing the spent fuel pool in the target reactor, spray it with special lighter-than-water concrete, dissolved in water solution; let the pool harden, along with the remainder of the facility, which is also sprayed until it becomes impervious to radiation or explosion.
Reactors one to four can probably be entombed within six months. Entomb them.
link (http://enenews.com/mit-professor-us-experts-japan-must-act-now-to-seal-fukushima-reactors-before-its-too-late-concern-us-to-be-affected-by-explosions-a-chain-reaction-engulfing-reactors-one-to-four)

Sidney

9th April 2014, 18:41

Latest from Alfred Webre and Dr Lauren Moret- Don't go to Hawaii and more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bypk6b9VJY

Rocky_Shorz

10th April 2014, 18:31

"US service members who took part in cleanup efforts after the Fukushima nuclear disaster have since been diagnosed with ailments like cancer. Now, in a class action lawsuit, they allege they were misled about radiation risks, RT’s Ameera David reports.

Dozens of US sailors and marines who provided humanitarian assistance following the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in March 2011 have been diagnosed with illnesses such as leukemia, testicular cancer, and thyroid disease.

The service members – many of whom were aboard the aircraft carrier USS Reagan – are now part of a class action lawsuit against the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). They allege TEPCO provided false information to the US Navy about the extent of radioactive contamination in the surrounding air and water.

While TEPCO is the main focus of suspicions, the service members are also pressing the US Navy to reveal whether or not it knew about the radiation, particularly considering the kind of equipment aboard the USS Reagan, a nuclear-powered ship. .."
link (http://rt.com/usa/navy-fukushima-nuclear-radiation-504/)

Cidersomerset

14th April 2014, 18:45

Fukushima Sue-nami: US Navy first responders in court over radiation exposure

nHPYPzcrI1w

Published on 14 Apr 2014

TEPCO is struggling to contain radioactive waste, 3 years after the disaster.
Tons of highly contaminated water has been mistakenly pumped into crippled
Fukushima power plant. A new report suggests US servicemen who helped with
clean up were misled about radiation risks and now have serious health problems.
RT's Ameera David has more.

Cidersomerset

14th April 2014, 19:07

Tepco NOT to analyze for Plutonium or Uranium in Fukushima bypass water before
discharging to the Pacific

Sunday 13th April 2014 at 05:18 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/criminals.gif

http://www.fukushima-diary.com/wp-content/themes/Vertony/images/live-950-230-header.jpg

‘Tepco is not going to analyze / put the safety limit on α nuclides including
Plutonium-238/239/240 and Uranium-235/238 in bypassed groundwater to
discharge.

They are planning to discharge the pumped groundwater to the Pacific from this
coming June. They are supposed to analyze the contamination though they won’t
filter the pumped water.

However from their answer to the local fishery cooperative, α nuclides will be
excluded from the checking list. No matter how contaminated by Plutonium,
Uranium, or / and Americium the water is, the pumped water will be discharged
limitlessly.’

α nuclides, which are the highest risk for the health and environment, are hardly
checked in fishery products either. Potential Plutonium or Uranium of Fukushima
plant will be discharged to the Pacific without any checking, and it can be
transferred to the body of the fishery products consumers with no control.

Read more: Tepco NOT to analyze for Plutonium or Uranium in Fukushima bypass water before discharging to the Pacific

http://fukushima-diary.com/2014/04/tepco-not-to-analyze-plutonium-or-uranium-in-bypass-water-before-discharging-to-the-pacific/

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/2014/04/13/

bennycog

20th April 2014, 02:15

Interesting article from December 2013,

http://www.huntingtonnews.net/79100

Fairewinds chief engineer Arnie Gundersen interviewed by Prof. Harvey Wasserman, Nov. 18, 2013 (at 22:00 in): The boron between the nuclear fuel has disintegrated. It was never designed for the temperatures it's seen and it was never designed for saltwater. So there's no assurance that you've got boron neutron absorbers between the nuclear fuel rods. So you've got what we call an inadvertent criticality — you've got the chance of the nuclear fuel pool becoming a nuclear reactor when it didn't want to be, as they pull these rods out. So they have to be extraordinarily careful that they dont snap a rod and extraordinarily careful that as they're pulling these rods, that the dont get an inadvertent criticality.
uimjWYYqg-0

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

Arnold "Arnie" Gundersen (born 4 January 1949, Elizabeth, New Jersey[1]) is a former nuclear industry executive and engineer with over 30 years of experience who became a whistleblower in 1990.[2]

http://fairewinds.org/csi-fukushima/

"And from march this year"

http://vimeo.com/88879136#t=0

http://beforeitsnews.com/health/2014/03/new-arnie-gundersen-on-fukushima-the-story-of-human-disaster-that-may-never-end-2526748.html

According to nuclear energy expert Arnie Gundersen in the newly released video report below, Fukushima will continue to bleed into the Pacific Ocean for the next 100 years, continuing to be life threatening to our entire ecosystem due to the Pacific Ocean poisoning . The New Yorker isn’t so optimistic, calling Fukushima ‘the story of human disaster that may never end…’

Cidersomerset

22nd April 2014, 10:32

The Japanese Government Hides the Truth: Fukushima Radiations are Killing Children and TEPCO Employees

Tuesday 22nd April 2014 at 04:36 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/F002.jpg

https://store.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/logo_store.png

The Japanese Government Hides the Truth: Fukushima Radiations are Killing
Children and TEPCO Employees

http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/radiation-fukushima-400x224.jpg

radiation fukushima

Students walk near a geiger counter, measuring a radiation level of 0.12
microsievert per hour, at Omika Elementary School, located about 21 km (13 miles)
from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Minamisoma,
Fukushima prefecture.(Reuters / Toru Hanai)

‘Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba, a town near the disabled Fukushima
nuclear plant, is warning his country that radiation contamination is affecting
Japan’s greatest treasure – its children.

Asked about government plans to relocate the people of Fatuba to the city of Iwaki,
inside the Fukushima prefecture, Idogawa criticized the move as a “violation of
human rights.”

Compared with Chernobyl, radiation levels around Fukushima “are four times
higher,” he told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze, adding that “it’s too early for people to
come back to Fukushima prefecture.”’

“It is by no means safe, no matter what the government says.”

Idogawa alleges that the government has started programs to return people to
their towns despite the danger of radiation.

“Fukushima Prefecture has launched the Come Home campaign. In many cases,
evacuees are forced to return. [the former mayor produced a map of Fukushima
Prefecture that showed that air contamination decreased a little, but soil
contamination remains the same.]“

http://rt.com/files/news/25/8e/c0/00/7.jpg

According to Idogawa there are about two million people residing in the prefecture
who are reporting “all sorts of medical issues,” but the government insists these
conditions are unrelated to the Fukushima accident. Idogawa wants their denial in writing.

“I demanded that the authorities substantiate their claim in writing but they
ignored my request.”

Once again, Idogawa alludes to the nuclear tragedy that hit Ukraine on April 26,
1986, pleading that the Japanese people “never forget Chernobyl.” Yet few people
seem to be heeding the former government official’s warning.

“They believe what the government says, while in reality radiation is still there. This
is killing children. They die of heart conditions, asthma, leukemia, thyroiditis… Lots
of kids are extremely exhausted after school; others are simply unable to attend PE
classes. But the authorities still hide the truth from us, and I don’t know why. Don’t
they have children of their own? It hurts so much to know they can’t protect our children.

“They say Fukushima Prefecture is safe, and that’s why nobody’s working to
evacuate children, move them elsewhere. We’re not even allowed to discuss this.”

The former mayor found it ironic that when discussing the Tokyo Olympics,
scheduled for 2020, Prime Minister Abe frequently mentions the Japanese
word, “omotenashi,” which literally means that you should “treat people with an
open heart.”

In Idogawa’s opinion, the same treatment does not apply equally to the people
most intimately connected with Fukushima: the workers involved in the cleanup
operations.

“Their equipment was getting worse; preparation was getting worse. So people had
to think about their safety first. That’s why those who understood the real danger
of radiation began to quit. Now we have unprofessional people working there.

http://rt.com/files/news/25/8e/c0/00/2.jpg

They don’t really understand what they’re doing. That’s the kind of people who use
the wrong pump, who make mistakes like that.

“I’m really ashamed for my country, but I have to speak the truth for the sake of
keeping our planet clean in the future.

Idogawa then made some parallels with one of the most tragic events in the history
of Japan: the use of atomic bombs on the industrial cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki by the United States at the end of World War II.

“The authorities lied to everyone (about the effects of the atomic bombings)…They
hid the truth. That’s the situation we are living in. It’s not just Fukushima. Japan
has some dark history. This is a sort of a sacrifice to the past.”

When pressed on the details of a United Nations report that says there have been
no radiation-related deaths or acute diseases observed among the workers and
general public, Idogawa dismisses it as“completely false,” before providing some of
his own experiences at the height of the crisis.

“When I was mayor, I knew many people who died from heart attacks, and then
there were many people in Fukushima who died suddenly, even among young
people. It’s a real shame that the authorities hide the truth from the whole world,
from the UN. We need to admit that actually many people are dying. We are not
allowed to say that but TEPCO employees also are dying. But they keep mum about it.”

When asked to provide solid figures on the actual number of people who died under
such circumstances, Idogawa refrained, saying “it’s not just one or two people.
We’re talking about ten to twenty people who died this way.”

Asked about other options that Japan has for providing energy sources to its 126
million people, he responded that despite having many rivers, the government
neglects to promote hydro energy.

Why? Because it’s not “profitable for big companies!”

Idogawa goes on to provide a blueprint for fulfilling Japan’s energy needs that
sounds surprisingly simple.

“We can provide electricity for a large number of people even with limited
investment, without taxes. Just use gravity, and we may have so much energy that
there’ll be no need for nuclear plants anymore.”

Read more: The Japanese Government Hides the Truth: Fukushima Radiations are
Killing Children and TEPCO Employees

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-japanese-government-hides-the-truth-fukushima-radiations-are-killing-children-tepco-employees/5378586

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Cidersomerset

29th June 2014, 08:02

Sailor who served on USS Ronald Reagan dies after radiation exposure

new Sunday 29th June 2014 at 05:21 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/World-News-Japan-Nuclear-Radiation.jpg

‘The first death has occurred among US Navy sailors who were exposed to radiation
from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, news outlets reported on June 11.

In March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered multiple meltdowns at
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northern Japan. At the time, the Navy
vessel USS Ronald Reagan was on maneuvers off the Korean Peninsula. The
Reagan is considered one of the newest and most technically sophisticated nuclear-
powered supercarriers in the entire naval fleet.’

Read more: Sailor who served on USS Ronald Reagan dies after radiation exposure

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

http://www.naturalnews.com/045764_radiation_fukushima_sailors.html

Cidersomerset

29th June 2014, 08:12

After years of denial, mainstream media now admits Fukushima core meltdowns actually happened

new Sunday 29th June 2014 at 04:48 By David Icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/640/Radiation/Nuclear-Power-Plant-Smoke-Radiation.jpg

‘As experts continue to search for feasible ways to enter the stricken Fukushima
nuclear facility in Japan without causing further damage or exposing workers to
deadly levels of radiation, the mainstream media is finally admitting that the plant’s
reactor cores did, indeed, experience meltdowns.

After years of denial and coverup, it is now being openly but quietly admitted that
the three damaged reactors cores are most likely completely destroyed. But
because of the level of damage involved, workers still have no idea just how bad
things really are, and it could be months or even years before anyone has any solid
answers.’

Read more: After years of denial, mainstream media now admits Fukushima core
meltdowns actually happened

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

http://www.naturalnews.com/045737_reactor_core_meltdowns_Fukushima_mainstream_media.html#

Sidney

29th June 2014, 18:08

[QUOTE=Cidersomerset;848494]After years of denial, mainstream media now admits Fukushima core meltdowns actually happened

new Sunday 29th June 2014 at 04:48 By David Icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/640/Radiation/Nuclear-Power-Plant-Smoke-Radiation.jpg

‘As experts continue to search for feasible ways to enter the stricken Fukushima
nuclear facility in Japan without causing further damage or exposing workers to
deadly levels of radiation, the mainstream media is finally admitting that the plant’s
reactor cores did, indeed, experience meltdowns.

After years of denial and coverup, it is now being openly but quietly admitted that
the three damaged reactors cores are most likely completely destroyed. But
because of the level of damage involved, workers still have no idea just how bad
things really are, and it could be months or even years before anyone has any solid
answers.’

Read more: After years of denial, mainstream media now admits Fukushima core
meltdowns actually happened
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"" workers still have no idea just how bad
things really are,"".......................yea right. He He

Cidersomerset

30th June 2014, 08:46

Fukushima: No End in Sight for Nuclear Meltdown

1oj4g8d61Fk

Published on 27 Jun 2014

Abby speaks with Paul Gunter, reactor oversight director at Beyond Nuclear,
discussing the many unanswered questions surrounding the ongoing nuclear crisis
at Fukushima Japan, including the construction of a massive underground 'ice wall'
and the rate at which contaminated water continues to pour into the Pacific Ocean.

panopticon

9th July 2014, 14:17

panopticon

9th July 2014, 14:49

Quite a good presentation from Buesseler on the spread of Fukushima radiation through the ocean towards the US:

Ptqsr_x7zMo
As of March there was no Caesium-134 recorded in Kelp samples (source (https://kelpwatch.berkeley.edu/results-1)) which means there had been no radiation from Fukushima reaching the West coast. There were high levels of I-131 detected in a few samples which was probably due to medical disposal (source (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/10/1305950/-Update-New-Results-From-Kelp-Watch-2014-Looking-for-Fukushima-Isotopes-Off-West-Coast-of-N-America)).

Again, given the massive amount of water that the contaminants have to travel through and the distance they need to be carried by oceanic currents (which we've covered in this thread previously) the likelihood of high concentration levels of contaminants staying together is pretty slim.

Remember the mantra: The solution to pollution is dilution...

I might not like it but in this instance it will probably be the one thing that works in all our favour.

BTW, while I'm nattering about pollution dumping, in Buesseler's presentation were some interesting figures to do with radioactive contaminants off the UK as a result of dumping during the 1960's. Maybe Naturalnews should be writing about that and giving Buesseler & co the credit for reporting it. There again the title wouldn't be very exciting if it was "Old 44 gallon drums leak in ocean" maybe something like "Governments Cover Up Poisoning Of Europe Through Radiation Dumping, Radiation Levels At Dangerous Levels Near London and Paris".

:faint2:

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

9th July 2014, 15:03

Thanks Pan I'm not up to speed with this thread as I'm tied up else where,
though I post what articles come up to keep the thread upto date....

This one is from Natural News that usually do some good article......

Fukushima ‘ice wall’ can’t get cold enough to stop radioactive water flow

Wednesday 9th July 2014 at 07:42 By david-icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Logo-April-2014.gif

http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/640/Radiation/Fukushima-Radiation-Earthquake-Tsunami.jpg

Wednesday, July 09, 2014 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: Fukushima, ice wall, radioactive waste

(NaturalNews) A Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) project to freeze radioactive
water to prevent it from further contaminating surrounding areas and the Pacific
Ocean has hit a major snag: the water won't freeze

‘A Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) project to freeze radioactive water to prevent
it from further contaminating surrounding areas and the Pacific Ocean has hit a
major snag: the water won’t freeze.

In March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered multiple meltdowns at
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. One of the major obstacles to
decommissioning the failed reactors and removing their spent fuel rods is the large
quantities of radioactive water that have been accumulating at and beneath the
plant. This water not only poses a safety threat to workers on site, but has also
been leaching into groundwater and flowing into the ocean.’

Not freezing, and behind schedule

Recently, TEPCO launched two related programs to contain existing contamination
and limit the flow of new water into the contaminated area. Both consist of digging
trenches for pipes, then filling the pipes with an aqueous solution of calcium
chloride cooled to -30°C (-22°F). The goal of the first, smaller project is to freeze
11,000 metric tons of radioactive water that has pooled beneath two of the failed reactors.

This project is widely seen as a pilot project for the much larger, more ambitious
plan to use pipes to actually freeze the soil and create a 1.4 km (0.9 mile) "ice
wall" to prevent more groundwater from infiltrating down into the underground
reactors and becoming radioactive.

But on June 17, TEPCO announced that even the smaller project was having
difficulties.

"We have yet to form an ice plug because we can't get the temperature low enough
to freeze the water," a company spokesperson said.

The company also said that fluctuating water levels were making it difficult for the
water to actually freeze.

"We are behind schedule, but have already taken additional measures, including
putting in more pipes, so that we can remove contaminated water from the trench
starting next month," the spokesperson said.

Cleanup plagued with gaffes and errors

The recent setback added weight to criticisms of the larger ice wall plan by
scientists, environmentalists and politicians. Although the ground-freezing
technique has been successfully used before in the construction of tunnels near
waterways, critics have noted that the technology has never been tested on a
geographic or time scale as large as that needed for TEPCO's plans.

Meanwhile, TEPCO continues with other plans designed to slow the buildup of
radioactive water. The company has been pumping radioactive water out of the
basements of the reactors and into giant temporary containment tanks. It has also
been dumping both radioactive and non-radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean -
the former pumped out of the basements, and the latter out of the ground upslope
from the nuclear plants, to prevent it from reaching the reactors and becoming
contaminated.

Even with all of these measures, an estimated 300 tons of water still flow into the
plant and become radioactive every single day.

A complete decommissioning of the failed plant is expected to take decades, and
experts have warned that some previously residential areas may have to be
permanently abandoned due to persistent radioactive contamination.

Recently, Japanese environment minister Nobuteru Ishihara came under public fire
after making comments that critics interpreted as downplaying the plight of people
who are still unable to return their homes. The minister had suggested that most
people would be willing to accept permanent storage of radioactive waste in their
communities, as long as the government paid them enough money.

"It was extremely regrettable," Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato said. "The remarks
rode roughshod over the feelings of residents who are longing for their hometowns."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp

http://gizmodo.com

http://www.zerohedge.com

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL2N0OY08A20140617

http://www.ibtimes.com

http://rt.com/news/166412-fukushima-ice-wall-failing/

http://www.focus-fen.net

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045914_Fukushima_ice_wall_radioactive_waste.html##ixzz36z3wgnVW

Read more: Fukushima 'ice wall' can't get cold enough to stop radioactive water flow

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

http://www.naturalnews.com/045914_Fukushima_ice_wall_radioactive_waste.html

Cidersomerset

26th August 2014, 12:55

Physicists Say Fukushima Reactors Pose Eternal Threat to Humanity

Tuesday 26th August 2014 at 04:30 By david-icke

http://en.ria.ru/i/eng/rian.gif

Physicists Say Fukushima Reactors Pose Eternal Threat to Humanity

http://en.ria.ru/images/19170/26/191702663.jpg

MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) - The three molten cores at Fukushima plant,
each weighing a hundred tons, are so radioactive, that no one can approach them,
including robots, which melt down immediately, Dr. Helen Caldicott, the 1985
Nobel Peace Prize nominee, physician and anti-nuclear advocate, states in an
interview to Radio VR:

“And no one ever will, and the contamination will go on for hundreds of years,
” Ms. Caldicott cites top physicists as saying.

Initially, TEPCO, the Japanese power provider wanted to erect an ice wall around
the perimeter of the Fukushima complex, as ground water underneath the
reactor is absorbing radiation and then flowing into the ocean.

An ice wall is a silly idea given the circumstances, remarks the expert, as it would
have to last at least a hundred years. Moreover, you would have to have electricity
running all the time to keep the ground frozen, explains Ms. Caldicott.

Surprisingly enough, TEPCO is not consulting with anyone, says the expert, neither
with Russia, after it survived the Chernobyl catastrophe, nor Bechtel, a US major
engineering company. It is, conversely, “saving money, using paper coming from
homeless shelters”, and the Japanese mafia Yakuza is hiring people to do this work.

The expert stresses they are witnessing an absolute catastrophe: 300-400 tons of
radioactive water pour daily into the Pacific, and this has been going on for over
three years now contaminating the ocean and its ecology.

Radiation cannot be diluted, as many isotopes, namely strontium, are concentrated
in food chains, in algae for instance. The contamination then passes on to bigger
fish typically caught on the east coast from Fukushima. Radiation in the ocean and
its ecology has been detected as far away as the America West Coast. TEPCO has
stated more than once, the expert says, that they know radioactive water is seeping
into the ocean, however, they keep assuring that it is not at levels high enough to
cause a significant threat.

Another VR expert, Thomas Drolet, who is Chairman, CEO and President at GreenWell
Renewable Power Corporation, sounds less pessimistic, stating the radiation can
essentially be done away with as time passes:

“As a technician and nuclear reactor engineer I can say that they will eventually succeed.”

Conditions on the site are difficult, though, he adds. Two big problems arose from the
very start: for one thing, there’s water that originated in the reactor, which flowed
through the damaged fill and went to the lower levels. Secondly, there is the ground
water that naturally flows from higher elevations to the west, through the ground
system, picks up radioactivity around the basement areas of the damaged reactors
and flows on to the sea and to the bottom parts of the damaged reactors, Mr. Drolet says.

“The way it can eventually be solved is that of removing the water that is in the basement
areas of the turbine building (and they are working on unit 2 right now) and getting it
pumped out,” points out Mr. Drolet citing sophisticated filtration systems now being employed.
“They can absorb the radiation and hold it.”

Engineer brigades are currently aiming to block a particular pass so that work could be done
inside the building to get the contaminated water sucked out.

Still, the complex radiation fields make the surrounding environment hard enough to handle,
with people at all times wearing thick suits to protect them from “external radiation inhalation”.
This further complicates specialists’ day to day life on the site. Mr. Drolet clearly differentiates
between the site as is and the exclusion zone, comprised of small towns and roads lying nearby,
within 18 kilometers from the place. The latter can be cleaned up in the next several years, the
expert argues. The work consists in finding hot spots in terms of increased radiation, taking
off the top layer of the soil, in other words, “taking down some of the radioactivity near the
surface and on the surface” and rehabilitating that exclusion zone.

The reactor itself is by far “the most difficult issue,” Mr, Drolet states. Each of the three d
amaged reactors has two main areas of broken fuel: in the spent fuel base, which is up high,
and the reactor core. “Slowly and identically they have to remove that fuel, some of it damaged,
some of it whole”, using the robotic equipment to a great extent, and move it off site to the
repository. Only once the excessive fuel is removed can they move to what the expert calls
“nitty gritty of decommissioning” of the reactors themselves, which might span for another
decade, before the engineers could turn the site to the so-called brown field condition.
As compared to the green field condition, it means the area is safe, clean and cannot be
reused, the expert concludes.

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake swept across the Japanese coast in March 2011, triggering a
devastating tsunami and killing more than 15,000 people and injured 6,000. The Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant consequently faced meltdowns at three reactors heavily damaged
in the tsunami, which led to masses of contaminated water pouring into the ocean.

http://en.ria.ru/analysis/20140823/192281175/Physicists-Say-Fukushima-Reactors-Pose-Eternal-Threat-to.html

Cidersomerset

29th August 2014, 20:09

Fukushima court rules against Tepco in suicide case

Thursday 28th August 2014 at 04:33 By david-icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Fukushima-Radiation-Earthquake-Tsunami.jpg

‘The Fukushima District Court ruled Tuesday that Tokyo Electric
Power Co. was responsible for a woman’s suicide following the
March 2011 nuclear disaster, ordering the utility to pay ¥49
million in damages in a landmark ruling that could set a
precedent for other claims against the utility.’

=====================================

http://jto.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/n-suicide-a-20140827-870x633.jpg

Lawyers representing the family of a woman who committed
suicide in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster show
off banners saying 'Victory' and 'Tepco is guilty' after a court
ruling in favor of the plaintiffs Tuesday in front of the
Fukushima District Court. | KYODO

National

Fukushima court rules against Tepco in suicide case
Kyodo, Reuters
Aug 26, 2014
Article history

FUKUSHIMA – The Fukushima District Court ruled Tuesday
that Tokyo Electric Power Co. was responsible for a woman’s
suicide following the March 2011 nuclear disaster, ordering
the utility to pay ¥49 million in damages in a landmark ruling
that could set a precedent for other claims against the utility.

It was the first ruling on a lawsuit in which compensation has
been sought over a suicide linked to the disaster that created
serious radiation contamination. Some 125,000 Fukushima
residents continue to live as evacuees.

Mikio Watanabe’s civil suit claimed that the plant operator
was to blame for the July 2011 death of his 58-year-old wife,
Hamako, who doused herself in kerosene and set herself on
fire after falling into deep depression.

The district court in Fukushima ruled in favor of Watanabe,
a court official told reporters.

The husband of the woman and three other relatives had
filed the lawsuit with the district court, requesting about
¥91 million in compensation.

In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Naoyuki Shiomi
said Watanabe’s mental anguish was “huge,” citing the
despair she felt in the face of an uncertain future as an evacuee.

Tepco said it will study the content of the ruling and
respond to it “sincerely.”

The court decision is the latest blow for the utility, which was
bailed out with taxpayer funds in 2012 and expects to spend
more than $48 billion in compensation alone for the nuclear disaster.

Tepco has settled a number of suicide-related claims through
a government dispute-resolution system, but has declined to
say how many or give details on how much it has paid.

According to the written indictment, the area in the town of
Kawamata where Watanabe’s home stands was designated
as an evacuation zone on April 22, 2011, about a month after
the crisis was triggered by a huge earthquake and tsunami
that struck the Tohoku region.

The home was located about 40 km away from the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

Watanabe and other family members evacuated to an apartment
in the city of Fukushima in June, but she burned herself to death
with gasoline on July 1 when she temporarily returned to her home.

The plaintiffs said Watanabe’s mental state deteriorated because
she was not able to foresee when she could return home and the
chicken farm where the couple was working closed in June.

Tepco has admitted the nuclear accident had placed a severe
psychological burden on Watanabe. But the utility also noted that
other factors could have affected her, citing that she had trouble
sleeping before the accident and was on medication.

After the ruling, Mikio Watanabe said he was “very happy” that
the court showed understanding of the family’s struggle.

An attorney for the plaintiffs called the ruling a “full victory” and
added, “This is going to be extremely significant for future
nuclear compensation issues.”

Tepco had previously agreed to pay damages to the bereaved
family of a farmer who committed suicide at age 64 on March
24, 2011, through an out-of-court settlement.

==========================================

A Fukushima-Sized Problem

Friday 29th August 2014 at 05:24 By david-icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/fukushima_radiation_nuclear_fallout_map5-400x221.jpg

‘As aftershocks of the 6.0 Napa earthquake that occurred Sunday in
California continued, the Associated Press revealed a secret government
report pointing to major earthquake vulnerabilities at the Diablo Canyon
nuclear plants which are a little more than 200 miles away and sitting
amid a webwork of earthquake faults.’

Read more: A Fukushima-Sized Problem

http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/47763?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EnvironmentalNewsNetwork+%28Environmental+News+Network%29

Cidersomerset

31st August 2014, 19:58

How Badly Is Fukushima Radiation Damaging the Pacific Ocean?

Sunday 31st August 2014 at 09:09 By david-icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_2901.jpg

‘Over the past year we’ve read many news stories about mass die-offs of marine
species in the Pacific Ocean and other regions. One hypothesis in the alternative
media is that the massive radiation released from the Fukushima nuclear disaster
is the cause. Others blame over-fishing, pollution or climatic events.

My opinion is that if the die-offs are unusual and “man made” then it is a combination
of factors, but Fukushima is probably one of them. The Earth is under many human
threats — we are an industrious species — Fukushima is doing the ocean only harm,
and following that logic, at a minimum the health of local species and perhaps wider
ecosystems are being affected in a reverse synergy whereby organisms have
surpassed the limits they can endure.’

Read more: How Badly Is Fukushima Radiation Damaging the Pacific Ocean?

http://www.activistpost.com/2014/08/how-badly-is-fukushima-radiation.html

Snowflower

31st August 2014, 20:23

At Chernobyl, life is continuing. Birds, insects, animals continue to live; some changing, some developing tumors and surviving or not. But, overall, they are adapting and surviving. Humans? Well, either we adapt or we don't.

Sidney

1st September 2014, 00:29

Cidersomerset

4th September 2014, 22:22

The Fukushima Disaster Continues to Worsen

Thursday 4th September 2014 at 04:27 By david-icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/get-attachment-170-587x403.jpg

‘Nobody in the world knows how to dispose of radioactive waste safely
and permanently. That’s a given. The Japanese central government is
presumably aware that anything it does with still the unmeasured but
vast amount of radioactive waste from Fukushima’s six nuclear power
generators will be temporary. Leaving it in place is not an option. So
Tokyo announced on August 29 that the Fukushima waste would be
stored for 30 years in Fukushima prefect, in an ” interim facility” to
be built probably in nearby Okuma or Futaba ( now evacuated).

“We’ve screened and confirmed safety and regional promotion measures
as offered by the state,” Fukushima prefect governor Yuhei Sato said
when announcing the decision. The temporary plan was proposed by
the environment minister in late 2013, an offer few thought the
Fukushima officials could refuse.’

Read more: The Fukushima Disaster Continues to Worsen

http://www.alternet.org/world/fukushima-disaster-continues-worsen

TargeT

5th September 2014, 15:14

My personal belief is that thr big F is the elephant in the room that not too many people will acknowledge, until they are tripping over their own thyroid tumors.
By seeing the track of the radiation on that map, it seems to me that it was deliberately aimed at the U.S. Not that it matters at this point because this catastrophe IMO will be the eternal nail in the coffin(planet). It is obviously at this point, the gift that keeps on giving. It simply cannot be stopped.
Earthlings, big and small, will continue to sicken and die. Yet, nobody is talking about. Its really very strange,sad, surreal.

you know why no one is talking about it?

because this entire issue (in its current form ) is a complete NON-ISSUE I have a piece of uranium ore that is polished and I have worn around my neck 24x7 for a year and a half now, this rock is more radioactive than the water being released into the ocean, its more radio active than ANYTHING on the fukashima compound that isn't with in 100 feet of the actual reactor.

Radiation and the level at which it becomes an issue is one of the biggest "conspiracies" out there, I can't believe threads like this continue to go on when there is conclusive proof that low levels of radiation are GOOD for you (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?46819-A-video-they-won-t-want-you-to-see--Galen-Winsor-nuclear-scare-scam-&highlight=nuclear+scam), that radiation; like everything else is beholden to the commonly known saying "toxicity is dose dependent" and this applies to E V E R Y T H I N G.

so, if you read that and are still wondering why no one is talking about this situation; then your belief in this situation is strong enough that you will ignore evidence, facts and logic. This makes the group that will talk about it rather small.

The Fukushima Disaster Continues to Worsen

‘Nobody in the world knows how to dispose of radioactive waste safely
and permanently. That’s a given.
Read more: The Fukushima Disaster Continues to Worsen

http://www.alternet.org/world/fukushima-disaster-continues-worsen

So when the very first sentence of an article is completely wrong, do you continue reading?

we DO know how to dispose of radioactive waste safely and permanently........ and it's not just a theory, in fact Hitachi is developing a reactor (http://www.gizmag.com/hitachi-reactor/33585/) to do this very thing right now..

In popular imagination, nuclear waste is a wildly radioactive goo that glows like the back end of a lightning bug. But in real life, the real problem of nuclear waste isn't the "hot" stuff, but the mildly radioactive elements with atomic numbers greater than 92. That’s because highly radioactive elements have short half lives. That is, they burn themselves out very quickly – sometimes in a matter of minutes or even seconds.

On the other hand, mildly radioactive elements, such as plutonium, have half lives measured in tens of thousands or even millions of years. That makes storing them a very long-term problem, and is a particular difficulty in countries like the United States that don’t recycle transuranium elements by fuel reprocessing or fast-breeder reactors.
http://www.gizmag.com/hitachi-reactor/33585/pictures#2

Mildly radioactive.... remember that Toxicity is dose dependent, and low level/mild radioactive radiation has been shown to be good for people.

so.....

Roisin

5th September 2014, 15:28

TargeT

5th September 2014, 15:35

Is anyone here watching that show "Manhattan"? What I have found so amazing about that show is that back in the 40's, even the top scientists in the world were ignorant of the real dangers of radiation. And here I'm talking about the ones who were working on the Manhattan Project. And one of the wives of those scientists, who's a biologist, was scratching her head on why all of the bee's died in her bee hive and why her crysanthiums were white instead of red regardless that those scientists on the base where they all lived were working on the bomb and doing experiments with plutonium.

but they did know about the dangers, they knew about high dose exposures. the ONLY thing that changed was the low dose regulation... nuclear power plants have less radiation than central park, they have less radiation than 1/3 of the united states has NATURALLY out doors due to the extreme regulation.

the world has adopted a no-safe-limit policy on radiation that has D R A M A T I C implications.... did you know that taking a long air plane flight is the same as getting a chest Xray?

Air line workers are routinely exposed to more radiation than the people in Japan are experiencing.

Cidersomerset

5th September 2014, 16:18

So when the very first sentence of an article is completely wrong, do you continue reading?

we DO know how to dispose of radioactive waste safely and permanently........ and it's not just a theory, in fact Hitachi is developing a reactor to do this very thing right now..

up to you mate, I'm not an expert on this so I'm just really updating the thread
with articles from David Ickes site. I understand your point and I hope they can
store radio active waste,as I only live 4/5 miles from Hinckly point nuclear power
station which is on the River severn estuary coast.......

===================================================

http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.66.0/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456932/img/1129198010.gif

Graphic shows how high-level waste is stored in a cooling tank for several years,
then mixed with glass and poured into metal cannisters to solidify, then stored
above ground and may finally be buried indefinitely 300m - 2km deep underground.

Spent nuclear fuel is stored in a cooling pond at Sellafield
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456932/img/1129229566.gifhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456932/img/1129225386.gif
1. High level waste: Waste from reprocessing spent fuel.

2. Spent fuel: Mix of uranium, plutonium and fission products.

3. Plutonium: Radioactive element, by-product of uranium fission. Can be used in
bombs.

4. Intermediate wastes: Nuclear fuel casing, reactor components, sludges.

5. Uranium: Radioactive element used as reactor fuel. Must be enriched using hi-
tech process to be used in bombs.

Spent nuclear fuel is stored in a cooling pond at Sellafield

Nuclear waste

Radioactive waste is one of the biggest problems the nuclear industry faces.

The greatest concern is the small proportion of nuclear waste that is "high-level
waste" - waste so radioactive that it generates heat and corrodes all containers,
and would cause death within a few days to anyone directly exposed to it.

In the UK this accounts for less than 0.3% of the total volume of nuclear waste but
accounts for about half the total radioactivity.

No man-made container could survive the tens of thousands of years it will take for
high-level waste to decay to safe levels.

No country has yet implemented a long-term solution to this problem, although
Finland and the US have plans to build repositories deep underground in areas
identified for their geological stability. This solution is one of those under
consideration in the UK.

Spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive, but can be reprocessed to extract the
remaining usable uranium and plutonium, a process which reduces the need to
mine fresh uranium and cuts the volume of waste.

In countries where reprocessing takes place, high-level radioactive waste is the
waste left behind after the uranium and plutonium have been extracted. In the UK,
this is treated as shown in the graphic above.

In these countries, spent fuel, uranium and plutonium are not currently categorised
as wastes (because they can be used), although they must be stored like
radioactive wastes - and there is the added security concern that plutonium can be
used to make nuclear bombs.

If reprocessing is not part of the cycle, the spent fuel itself is high-level waste.
Intermediate level wastes are mixed with concrete and stored in tanks, drums and
vaults at the sites where they are created.

If the UK's reactors all operate to their current shutdown dates and no more are
built, there will be an estimated 36,590 cubic metres - enough to fill 14 Olympic-
sized swimming pools - of intermediate and high level waste in the UK.

Most of the country's low-level waste is stored in sealed concrete vaults at a
purpose-built store in Drigg, Cumbria, although some is considered safe enough to
go into hazardous waste landfill sites.

The Drigg store currently contains 960,000 cubic metres - equivalent to 384
Olympic swimming pools - of waste.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456932/html/nn3page1.stm

TargeT

5th September 2014, 16:46

Sidney

5th September 2014, 18:10

TargeT

5th September 2014, 19:03

I do understand your point TargeT, but it is clear to me that it is no coincidence of the enormous ocean dead zone,sea life die offs happening SINCE the FUKU disaster.
Im sorry, but maybe some radiation is harmless, and some is. The planet is in trouble, and it is my opinion that fukushima is a killer.
I respectfully agree to disagree with you.

Let me correct you on one thing, then let me know what you think.

Ocean die offs have been happening for millions of years (as far as we can tell), they are a natural phenomenon of an ecosystem we are CLUELESS about.

Death due to natural causes is far more common than human negligence or intentional polluting. Oxygen depletion and natural life cycles occur much more often than other causes such as a release of toxins into the water.
http://aquaviews.net/ocean-news/3-massive-fish-dieoffs/

Is the sea floor littered with dead animals due to radiation? No.
http://deepseanews.com/2014/01/is-the-sea-floor-littered-with-dead-animals-due-to-radiation-no/

cientists have been working for months to find out what’s causing the massive die-off and now Harvell and others have evidence that an infectious disease caused by a bacteria or virus may be at the root of the problem.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/scientists-zero-whats-causing-starfish-die-offs/

etc etc etc....

Information processing/parsing and critical thinking are key here

panopticon

6th September 2014, 05:19

Just an update on the fuel transfer process from SFP of #4 to the common pool and general information.

The transfer process resumed on 4th September 2014 and now stands at 1188 assemblies having been transferred:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/planaction/images/R4_FuelTransfer_1188_02e.jpg
Source (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/index-e.html)

Current radiation levels @ Fukushima are consistent with past levels and official levels are available here (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/index-e.html), here (http://new.atmc.jp/pref.cgi?p=07#d=m) and here (http://jciv.iidj.net/map/list) (there is no indication that these ambient measurements are overly inaccurate and have been mostly verified by civilian non-government testing, the problems to do with testing have largely been related to onsite water/soil testing procedures [which were very inaccurate allegedly due to a machines calibration fault] and TEPCO/Japanese governments choice of ambient sampling devices that lowered the results by a very small amount).

So far any level of Cs-134 detected in the North Eastern Pacific Ocean (not that I've heard of any) is not consistent with a plume from Fukushima having arrived on the West Coast of the US. Investigations appear to indicate that much of the surface water contaminant sank to the 300 metre level during the winter of 2011-2012 and has been further diluted due to current movements at that depth (source1 (http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140304/srep04276/pdf/srep04276.pdf) & source2 (http://libgen.org/scimag/get.php?doi=10.1016%2Fj.chroma.2014.02.066)).

This is not a quote, just attracting Roisin's attention
Roisin, you're a radiographer (if I remember correctly) and I'd appreciate if you can have a look at a journal article for me if you get a chance:
BABYSCAN: a whole body counter for small children in Fukushima (http://iopscience.iop.org/0952-4746/34/3/645/article)

From the papers conclusion:

BABYSCAN, a whole body counter for small children was developed, and the first unit has been installed at a hospital in Fukushima. The radiocaesium detection limit of BABYSCAN is better than 50 Bq/body, which has been realized by a careful ergonomic design, optimized detector geometry and reinforced shielding. Even with this low detection limit, radiocaesium was not detected in any of the first 100 Fukushima children, while, as expected, 40K was detected in all subjects. The results of larger-scale measurements with the BABYSCAN will be reported in our forthcoming publications.

Curious for your opinion on this device and results indicated.

-- Pan

panopticon

6th September 2014, 15:11

For an interactive map of "dead zones" from the period 1850 - 2010 try here:
http://www.wri.org/media/maps/eutrophication/fullscreen.html

It's a very informative tool which shows hypoxic (http://water.epa.gov/type/watersheds/named/msbasin/hypoxia101.cfm) and eutrophic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication) zones as well as areas that are in recovery (due mostly to human intervention or rather by limiting negative human interaction).

It also shows that marine dead zones existed long before nuclear radiation and are largely due to fertilizer run-off & other pollutants.

Very short video explaining marine dead zones (particularly Gulf of Mexico) here:
8jjN36nwXzU
More on dead zones and a short segment on New Zealand's recovery:
UZgcQoXmu9Y
Low level alpha & beta emitting radionuclides are likely harmless if they are not ingested/inhaled or otherwise introduced to the internals of organic life. The main danger is from alpha & beta high emission radionuclides that are inhaled/ingested or from being near an unshielded high level gamma emitting source.

For an interactive animated run down on the varying effects of different types of radioactive particles and how differing levels of radiation exposure can effect organic systems try:
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/heath-risks

For a bit more information on radionuclides try:
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/abcs-of-radioactivity

I hope this is useful.

-- Pan

TargeT

6th September 2014, 18:13

sheme

6th September 2014, 18:30

Deep sea Methane gas bubbles- the release of massive proportions will replace the oxygen in the water and cause die off of marine life in the area of release. As the warming atmosphere causes the release of methane gas plums sea life is inevitably destroyed, what a shame we cannot find a way of harnessing this vast energy resource.

panopticon

6th September 2014, 19:54

It also shows that marine dead zones existed long before nuclear radiation and are largely due to fertilizer run-off & other pollutants.

-- Pan

no that's just completely incorrect. Dead zones existed long before fertilizer run offs and other pollutants; I literally just posted this:

I do understand your point TargeT, but it is clear to me that it is no coincidence of the enormous ocean dead zone,sea life die offs happening SINCE the FUKU disaster.
Im sorry, but maybe some radiation is harmless, and some is. The planet is in trouble, and it is my opinion that fukushima is a killer.
I respectfully agree to disagree with you.

Let me correct you on one thing, then let me know what you think.

Ocean die offs have been happening for millions of years (as far as we can tell), they are a natural phenomenon of an ecosystem we are CLUELESS about.

Death due to natural causes is far more common than human negligence or intentional polluting. Oxygen depletion and natural life cycles occur much more often than other causes such as a release of toxins into the water.
http://aquaviews.net/ocean-news/3-massive-fish-dieoffs/

Is the sea floor littered with dead animals due to radiation? No.
http://deepseanews.com/2014/01/is-the-sea-floor-littered-with-dead-animals-due-to-radiation-no/

cientists have been working for months to find out what’s causing the massive die-off and now Harvell and others have evidence that an infectious disease caused by a bacteria or virus may be at the root of the problem.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/scientists-zero-whats-causing-starfish-die-offs/

etc etc etc....

Information processing/parsing and critical thinking are key here

Hi Target,

I'm referring to marine dead zones (caused by hypoxia) which in almost every instance in the modern period is due to nutrient rich run-off from farm lands, city sewage and industrial pollutants.

For more on dead zones see here:
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/deadzone.html

Of course there are non-human related reasons that dead zones can occur (which is why I said 'are largely due to fertilizer run-off & other pollutants.') but the vast majority of examples where these dead zones occur (in the present age) is from human created nutrient rich pollutants moving through water ways. This leads to an algae bloom (much bigger than normal blooms due to the increased nutrient), the algal bloom eventually dies (mostly eaten and excreted) and falls to the ocean floor leading to a lack of oxygen because of decomposition processes.

That is the nature of many (but probably not all) dead zones around the world.
5cj0JK_sipg
Please visit the interactive map I linked to. If you click on one of the many dots on the map (each one represents either a dead zone or an area with high nutrient levels being watched for signs of hypoxia) the reason for the hypoxia/eutrophication is given. The vast majority are due to nutrient rich run-off of fertilizer, industrial waste (including groundwater run-off from industrial areas entering waterways), sewage waste or a combination of the above.

Here's the link again to the interactive map I was talking about:
http://www.wri.org/media/maps/eutrophication/fullscreen.html

This hasn't got much to do with chemical pollution, bacterial or viral infections leading to marine die-off's. That really is a separate issue and while they can be linked it kind of muddies things a bit. Also, I notice the MBARI research being mentioned in one of your links. Good to see it back again. We were talking about the alleged die-offs @ Station M in the North East Pacific Ocean back in January (see my posts here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?62507-Japan-nuclear-agency-upgrades-Fukushima-alert-level&p=780096&viewfull=1#post780096) and here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?62507-Japan-nuclear-agency-upgrades-Fukushima-alert-level&p=784798&viewfull=1#post784798)). At the time I thought we had all thoroughly debunked the claims of a 98% die-off in the North Pacific Ocean. For those who missed it here are the links to the MBARI articles that say it's rubbish (it was the misrepresentation of their research that led to the widely held incorrect belief that the entire Pacific is poisoned, so they have a right to set the record straight):

MBARI debunks misleading stories related to the MBARI News Release (http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2013/feast&famine/feast&famine-clarification.html)
Feast and famine on the abyssal plain (http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2013/feast&famine/feast&famine-release.html)

Maybe this video from Fall of 2012 (this is where nuclear fisharggedon was supposed to have occurred) will help those who missed it:
bxL3Q3kVMt4
I hope this was useful.

-- Pan

TargeT

6th September 2014, 22:13

Hi Target,

I'm referring to marine dead zones (caused by hypoxia) which in almost every instance in the modern period is due to nutrient rich run-off from farm lands, city sewage and industrial pollutants.

For more on dead zones see here:
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/deadzone.html

Of course there are non-human related reasons that dead zones can occur (which is why I said 'are largely due to fertilizer run-off & other pollutants.') but the vast majority of examples where these dead zones occur (in the present age) is from human created nutrient rich pollutants moving through water ways. This leads to an algae bloom (much bigger than normal blooms due to the increased nutrient), the algal bloom eventually dies (mostly eaten and excreted) and falls to the ocean floor leading to a lack of oxygen because of decomposition processes.

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree then.

from what I've found on this topic I would confidently state that dead zones occur largely (almost always) due to natural causes; every time a deadzone is given a real look (due dilligence, core samples from the ocean floor etc... REAL science) this is what they find.

when the EPA funds a study with a "we are looking for the anthropomorphic causes" approach of COURSE the data can be aranged to look like it by only looking for that data, yet it is proven wrong over and over, like in the Gulf of mexico (where we thought for years that the run offs were the cause, but it was shown that it's been happening for 1000's of years before modern agriculture). It MAY be getting a boost from agriculture, but since our documented records on gulf algae blooms only go back to 1985 how would we know?

again, this is an eco system we BARELY understand....

but then, I don't see humans as the big bad wolf either; and I'm not a self hating one trying to blame every problem on us either.

Cidersomerset

7th September 2014, 10:28

I though this was synchronicity to my last post...LOL

----------------------------------------------------------------
Britain’s nuclear clean-up bill to soar by billions ‘because of Government incompetence’

new Sunday 7th September 2014 at 10:51 By david-icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/get-attachment-471-587x293.jpg

‘The cost of cleaning up Britain’s toxic nuclear sites has shot up by £6bn, with the
Government and regulators accused this weekend of “incompetence” in their efforts
to manage the country’s legacy of radioactive waste.

Anti-nuclear campaigners and union leaders have been incensed by the increase,
which was highlighted by Labour after a report by the Office for Budget Responsibility,
which is charged with independently analysing public finances.

Gary Smith, the GMB union’s national secretary for energy, said last night that
“the blame lies squarely at the door of government” for the cost increases.’

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sellafield-nuclear-cleanup-bill-will-soar-by-billions-9716610.html

TargeT

7th September 2014, 17:09

Cidersomerset

7th September 2014, 17:55

a perfect Hegelian dialectic example.

cause a problem (fear of low levle radiation and wide sweeping regulation to re-enforce that fear; even if it's based on zero evidence)

Wait for a reaction (yes, we are predictable)

Provide a solution (nuclear clean up, which costs billions, who owns these clean up companies, who's profiting due to the excessive regulatory requirements?)

That's what I thought, and when I saw this report on a different
subject , but the same Prob'Act'soll'...this time with nukes....

US nuclear arsenal feared in dire straits amid army scandals

Y5_qHAFk3eA

Published on 7 Sep 2014

US has been spending hundreds of billions of dollars on its nuclear arsenal.
But the spate of scandals surrounding those responsible for the thousands
of warheads and the infrastructure raise questions over the security of the
world's deadliest weapons. RT's Gayane Chichakyan reports.

Cidersomerset

30th September 2014, 07:20

Data proves Fukushima has exceeded Chernobyl in radiation release

new Tuesday 30th September 2014 at 04:39 By david-icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/get-attachment-3401-587x357.jpg

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

http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Logo-April-2014.gif

Data proves Fukushima has exceeded Chernobyl in radiation release

Monday, September 29, 2014 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: Fukushima, Chernobyl, radiation

‘The cumulative amount of radiation released from Fukushima already exceeds that of
the infamous 1986 Chernobyl disaster, says a new study published in the journal
Nature — and the damage, of course, is still ongoing.

Scientists from Japan, after testing radiation concentrations in various spots throughout
the Pacific Ocean and on land, found that at least 120 petabecquerels (PBq), or 120 quadrillion
becquerels (Bq), of radioactive cesium-134 (Cs-134) and cesium-137 (Cs-137) have been
released by Fukushima just into the world’s oceans.’

Read more: Data proves Fukushima has exceeded Chernobyl in radiation release

http://www.naturalnews.com/047053_Fukushima_Chernobyl_radiation.html

Source.....

http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140304/srep04276/full/srep04276.html

http://triblive.com/news/editorspicks/5850937-74/radiation-chernobyl-tefflenko#axzz376Rt6jO6

http://enenews.com/japan-govt-funded-study-fukushima-released-120-quadrillion-becquerels-radioactive-cesium-north-pacific-ocean-include-amount-deposited-land-higher-total-amount-released-chernobyl

Cidersomerset

3rd April 2015, 13:02

TEPCO under fire after hiding massive radioactive waste leak at Fukushima for a full year

Friday 3rd April 2015 at 07:46 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/fukushima-extinction-587x440.jpg

‘A major bombshell has dropped concerning the failed cleanup efforts at the stricken
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. The shuttered plant’s operator, the
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has apparently been hiding for an entire year
the fact that radioactive waste has been quietly pouring into the ocean from an onsite
drainage ditch.

Sputnik News reports that TEPCO, which is also managing remediation efforts at the
site (with guidance from the Japanese government), concealed from the public the
fact that highly contaminated radioactive water has been flowing from the drainage
ditch directly into the ocean. Local fishermen and others have since expressed
outrage over the news.’

Read more: TEPCO under fire after hiding massive radioactive waste leak at Fukushima for a full year

http://www.naturalnews.com/049226_TEPCO_radioactive_waste_Fukushima.html#

Cidersomerset

5th April 2015, 09:22

Fukushima – the world’s radiation nightmare

new Sunday 5th April 2015 at 07:08 By David Icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Logo-April-2014-v2.gif

Fukushima - the world's radiation nightmare

Saturday, April 04, 2015 by: Natural News Editors
Tags: Fukushima, radiation, nuclear power

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Fukushima-Radation-Plume-Ocean-587x330.jpg

‘Fukushima is Japan’s and the world’s radiation nightmare that
will not go away in our lifetimes nor our children’s or grandchildren’s.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant is hemorrhaging radioactive
toxic waste into the ocean and though we are told not to panic,
nor even to be casually concerned, the situation is dangerous
and critical to future life on earth.

Ever since March 11, 2011, the damaged plant has been leaking
tremendous amounts of radiation. Now Tepco, the operator of
the damaged facility, says they have recorded spikes between
50-70 times above average readings in the gutters that pour
water into a nearby bay.’

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said February 22, 2015, that an
alarm went off at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant signaling high
radioactivity levels in drainage ditches. According to the NRA and
plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., the first alarm sounded
at around 10 a.m., and another alarm 10 minutes later indicated
much higher levels.

The levels of beta ray-emitting substances, such as strontium-90,
measured 5,050 to 7,230 becquerels per liter of water between
10:20 a.m. and 10:50 a.m. Tepco requires radioactivity levels of
groundwater at the plant discharged into the sea to remain below
5 becquerels. However, it was revealed that Tepco knew about the
problem all the way back in May of last year and did not report it.

An official at the plant apologized, saying that, "the trust of the
people in Fukushima is the most important thing," and that
"we've been working with that in mind, but unfortunately, we
have damaged that trust this time," according to Digital Journal.
The situation at Fukushima is obviously much worse than
authorities are leading us to believe. Newsweek reported on
the continuing disaster saying, "The fallout from the Fukushima
disaster is far from over. A staggering number of accidents
has plagued the plant."

Strontium mimics calcium making it extremely dangerous to all
life forms once it is absorbed. Local, national and international
fury once again rises against TEPCO as this latest indication that
the crisis at the plant is far from under control. Japan's top
government spokesperson reiterated the government's
long-standing mantra, "The situation is completely under control.
Any negative impact of radioactive water on the environment is
completely blocked." TEPCO was aware since April of last year
and did nothing to prevent contaminated water from leaking
directly out to sea.

http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Fukushima-Worker-Radiation-Water-Tanks-500.jpg
A worker walks past storage tanks of radioactive contaminated
water at Fukushima (EPA/Kimimasa Mayama)

Read the entire article at DrSircus.com.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/049241_Fukushima_radiation_nuclear_power.html#ixzz3WQPiQtC9

Read more: Fukushima – the world's radiation nightmare

http://www.naturalnews.com/049241_Fukushima_radiation_nuclear_power.html

Cidersomerset

6th April 2015, 10:36

Tepco: Technology To Decommission Fukushima Needs To Be Invented

Monday 6th April 2015 at 07:26 By David Icke

Sunday, April 5, 2015

ACTIVIST POST.....

Tepco: Technology To Decommission Fukushima Needs To Be Invented
Source
Richard Wilcox, PhD
Activist Post

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/timthumb.php_1.jpg

Anyone with a brain could have told you back in 2011 at the time of the
Fukushima nuclear triple meltdown that Tokyo Electric (Tepco) was lying
about the true condition of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant No. 1
(“Dai-ichi”). Four years later, Tepco officials have finally admitted that
it may not be technologically possible to decommission the plant.

The long history of the criminal insanity and negligence of the nuclear
industry is revealed in our book, Fukushima: Dispossession or
Denuclearization? (edited by Nadesan, Boys, McKillop & Wilcox) which
was published last year, and includes detailed chapters from a number
of writers who document the nuclear crimes.

In the case of Tepco (Tipkill), the facts are overwhelming that not only
was Fukushima an “accident waiting to happen” but rather “a foregone
conclusion.” The location of the plant on soft fill soil at a low altitude
near the ocean in a tsunami zone was the first big mistake of the planners,
who must have graduated from the Homer Simpson school of donutology.
Cost-cutting, corruption and incompetence is part of the well-documented
history, which ultimately led to the triple meltdowns.

Read more: Tepco: Technology To Decommission Fukushima Needs To Be Invented

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/04/tepco-technology-to-decommission.html

Cidersomerset

6th April 2015, 10:42

Nuclear waste related article from UK......

UK Law changed so nuclear waste dumps can be forced on local communities

new Monday 6th April 2015 at 08:13 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Untitled5-587x390.jpg

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

THE GUARDIAN...........

Law changed so nuclear waste dumps can be forced on local communities

Legislation rushed through in the final hours of parliament allows local
planning laws to be bypassed, seriously alarming anti-nuclear campaigners

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/2/11/1423671104368/28b17f99-91b5-4e93-b677-d52ef9ef29cf-620x372.jpeg
Radioactivity symbol
Objectors worry that ministers are desperate to find a solution to the
current radioactive waste problem to win public support to build a new
generation of nuclear power stations. Photograph: David Woodfall

‘Nuclear waste dumps can be imposed on local communities without their
support under a new law rushed through in the final hours of parliament.

Under the latest rules, the long search for a place to store Britain’s stockpile
of 50 years’ worth of the most radioactive waste from power stations,
weapons and medical use can be ended by bypassing local planning.

Since last week, the sites are now officially considered “nationally significant
infrastructure projects” and so will be chosen by the secretary of state for
energy. He or she would get advice from the planning inspectorate, but would
not be bound by the recommendation. Local councils and communities can
object to details of the development but cannot stop it altogether.’

Read more: UK Law changed so nuclear waste dumps can be forced on local communities

Snowflower

6th April 2015, 11:13

The more I read about Fukushima, the more I suspect that Credo Mutwa's story about reptilian humanoids from another dimension, invading ours, mating with human women to create hybrids that they could control from their own dimension, with the purpose of changing this earth into a planet they could live on, is true. And that quite possibly, this earth did not have a high enough radioactive presence to make them comfortable. And that it took 5000 or so years to get stupid humans to develop enough science to change this earth's atmosphere into one they could breathe.

And then I find myself desperately hoping for alien intervention to stop the radiation because it's a cinch we can't.

And I find myself praying that the Biblical verse that says something like, if God did not shorten those days (of calamity) none would survive, is true, and some kind of divine intervention will take place.

But what is more likely is that there will be generations of horrible mutations until adaptation settles in and the animals, both human and otherwise, that emerge will be different, but will still be life.

panopticon

6th April 2015, 12:55

UK Law changed so nuclear waste dumps can be forced on local communities

Legislation rushed through in the final hours of parliament allows local
planning laws to be bypassed, seriously alarming anti-nuclear campaigners

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/2/11/1423671104368/28b17f99-91b5-4e93-b677-d52ef9ef29cf-620x372.jpeg
Radioactivity symbol

Objectors worry that ministers are desperate to find a solution to the
current radioactive waste problem to win public support to build a new
generation of nuclear power stations. Photograph: David Woodfall

‘Nuclear waste dumps can be imposed on local communities without their
support under a new law rushed through in the final hours of parliament.

Under the latest rules, the long search for a place to store Britain’s stockpile
of 50 years’ worth of the most radioactive waste from power stations,
weapons and medical use can be ended by bypassing local planning.

Since last week, the sites are now officially considered “nationally significant
infrastructure projects” and so will be chosen by the secretary of state for
energy. He or she would get advice from the planning inspectorate, but would
not be bound by the recommendation. Local councils and communities can
object to details of the development but cannot stop it altogether.’

Read more: UK Law changed so nuclear waste dumps can be forced on local communities

I read the article:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/05/law-changed-so-nuclear-waste-dumps-can-be-forced-on-local-communities

It seems that the local councils are approving the development but county councils are against them.

I've also read a few people talking about these and some of them seem to indicate that the problem is to do with wealthy areas not wanting to have land prices lowered because of an underground storage facility.

Other than that there seems to be a lot of NIMBY going on.

I have no problem in agreeing that storage of highly radioactive material is dangerous (article says that is around 1,100m3 in the UK).

Mid level (290,000m3) and low level (making up the remainder of the UK's 4.5 million cubic metres) radioactive material would also need to be stored...

As nuclear power is still being used in the UK and these figures are just going to keep going up, where should this waste be put?

Has to be secure and capable of long term storage so geologically stable underground vaults make a bit of sense...

Anyway, here's some data on where the UK's radioactive waste is being stored at the moment:
https://www.nda.gov.uk/ukinventory/the-2013-inventory/2013-site-data/

-- Pan

Cidersomerset

18th April 2015, 10:32

Hinkley Point near Bridgwater Somerset.......

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8906404.ece/alternates/w620/p17greenpeaceGETTY.jpg

http://sedgemoor-consult.limehouse.co.uk/events/12208/images/web/1684795_0_1.jpg

http://www.areva.com/globaloffer/liblocal/images/en/notre-offre/energie-nucleaire/reacteurs-nucleaires/reacteurs-puissance/reacteur-epr-1600-mwe/Hinkley-Point/bandeau-hinkley-point-uk.jpg
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UK nuclear strategy faces meltdown as faults are found in identical French project

new Saturday 18th April 2015 at 10:55 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/get-attachment-4711-587x293.jpg

========================================================

http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/assets/images/redesign/masthead/indy-masthead-small.png

UK nuclear strategy faces meltdown as faults are found in identical French project

The faults could also scare off the Chinese state investors who are supposed to
cover part of the cost of the £14bn Hinkley project

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10186107.ece/alternates/w620/7-nuclear-afp.jpg

John Lichfield Author Biography
Paris
Saturday 18 April 2015

‘A “very serious” fault has been discovered in a French nuclear power station which is at
the heart of David Cameron’s strategy to “keep the lights on” in Britain in the next decade.

The future of two nuclear reactors planned for Hinkley Point in Somerset has been thrown
into doubt by the discovery of a potentially catastrophic mistake in the construction of an
identical EPR power plant in Normandy.

“It is a serious fault, even a very serious fault, because it involves a crucial part of the
nuclear reactor,” said Pierre-Franck Chevet, head of France’s nuclear safety inspectorate.’

A second investigation has been ordered into the quality of the steel used to make a
50ft-high safety casing, or “pressure vessel”, which encloses the groundbreaking new
reactor at Flamanville, near Cherbourg. If the steel proves to be defective, the completion
of the prototype EPR plant – already behind schedule and nearly three times over
budget – could be delayed for several years.

Mr Chevet also revealed that the same manufacturing techniques had been used in the steel
for the identical safety casings destined for Hinkley Point, which “have already been manufactured”.

Read more: UK nuclear strategy faces meltdown as faults are found in identical French project

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-nuclear-strategy-faces-meltdown-as-faults-are-found-in-identical-french-project-10186163.html

Cidersomerset

18th April 2015, 11:05

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEWS .............

Business news

Saturday, April 18, 2015 As of 6:58 PM HKT

Fukushima 3 Years Later: England Continues To Build Nuclear Power Plants

By David Kashi @David_Kashi on January 16 2014 5:24 AM EST

Hinkley Point

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2013/10/22/hinkley-point.jpg

A sign is seen outside Hinkley Point B Power Station in Bridgwater, southwest
England in this file photograph dated Dec. 13, 2012. Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett

England will soon have an extra three nuclear power plants as Japan’s Toshiba
(TYO:6502) looks to buy 60 percent of a nuclear venture with NuGeneration,
according to the BBC.

The deal, worth $167 million, comes as the nuclear energy industry has seen
many projects scaled back or killed outright after the Fukushima nuclear power
plant was destroyed by Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Three years later
Japanese authorities still face critical problems with radiation leaks.

Toshiba and England's NuGeneration will construct three nuclear plants at the
Moorside site in West Cumbria, about 300 miles northwest of London.

The deal "represents a major investment in the future, and in supporting the UK
to meet the challenges of securing a stable, affordable, future energy supply and
cutting CO2 emissions," Toshiba said in a statement.

Governments worldwide are skeptical about developing nuclear energy due to
political and safety concerns. But they also have ambitious goals of reducing
carbon emissions, and nuclear power is an effective choice in that regard.

Britain faces that same dilemma as it tries to diversify its energy mix and cut
its carbon footprint by 80 percent by 2050.

In November the U.K. awarded France's state-owned Electricite de France SA (
EPA:EDF) a contract to build the first nuclear power plant in Europe since Fukushima.

The French company and the British government have agreed in principle on key
commercial terms for the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, located
in southwest England, adjacent to an existing nuclear power plant that is also run by EDF.

The new project is expected to generate about 5 percent of England’s generating capacity.

British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the deal, saying it will create 25,000
jobs and bring in billions of dollars in investment.

“This also marks the next generation of nuclear power in Britain, which has an important
part to play in contributing to our future energy needs,” Cameron said. The prime minister
was referencing warnings by regulators that England risks electricity blackouts if it does
not begin replacing old power plants.

http://www.ibtimes.com/fukushima-3-years-later-england-continues-build-nuclear-power-plants-1541948

Cidersomerset

18th April 2015, 11:46

Parts of West Somerset is built on reclaimed flood plain first drained by the
Romans and refined by the Dutch in the 16th century and managed since by
dredging the waterway and intelligent flood management. In the mid 1990's this
was ' improved and updated ' , and the dredging machines were sold off and the
emphasis was on saving money and going back to nature ? ...Which all the
locals pointed out this was a recipe for what happened in 2014.

Then all of a sudden money was no option and the flood defences and flood
management has been revised and it will never happen again. Famous last
words ...LOL or until cuts are needed and a new government has different
environmental priorities. What is also worrying is that we had a Tsuanami
along the river severn in the early 1600's which devested the area when
it was much more rural. So they can never make these sites totally safe,
especially on the coast.

====================================================

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Somerset.gif/300px-Somerset.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Channel_floods,_1607

The 1607 Severn Tsunami? Mike Hall

_WAs9jheE4s

Published on 19 Mar 2014

Mike Hall has just published 'The Severn Tsunami of 1607' which looks at the extraordinary
event that year when a giant wave came out of 'a clear blue sky' covering the lowlands right
along the Welsh and Somerset coastlines of the Bristol Channel. Mike explains the various
theories and looks at the possible dangers of something similar happening again.

On 30 January 1607 a huge wave, over 7 meters high, swept up the River Severn, flooding
the land on either side. The wall of water reached as far in land as Bristol and Cardiff. It
swept away everything in its path, devastating communities and killing thousands of people
in what was Britain's greatest natural disaster. Historian and geographer Mike Hall pieces
together the contemporary accounts and the surviving physical evidence to present, for the
first time, a comprehensive picture of what actually happened on that fateful day and its
consequences. He also examines the possible causes of the disaster: was it just a storm
surge or was it, in fact, the only recorded instance of a tsunami in Britain.
http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/inde...

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sites/default/files/images/bridgewater%20mercury.JPG

UK floods: anger in Somerset at 'damn people in London'

A7Adby_QHl8

Published on 1 Feb 2014

Flood warnings are still in place and more tidal surges are expected tomorrow, but
in Somerset residents are angry at the Environment Agency.
.Sign up for Snowmail, your daily preview of what is on Channel 4 News, sent
straight to your inbox, here: http://mailing.channel4.com/public/sn...

Cameron visits Somerset flood scene

gMWoj6w-gUE
Published on 7 Feb 2014

David Cameron's decision to see for himself the devastation in Somerset caused by
weeks of flooding coincided with a trip by beleaguered Environment Agency
chairman Lord Smith to the area, where he faced furious residents and calls to quit.

Prince Charles visits Somerset's flood victims

RNqcx7QVScU

Published on 4 Feb 2014

The heir to the throne took to a tractor and what looked like a wooden throne today
- as he toured the Somerset villages which have been cut off by floodwater for
weeks. .Sign up for Snowmail, your daily preview of what is on Channel 4 News,
sent straight to your inbox, here: http://mailing.channel4.com/public/sn...

=============================================================

One of the iconic photos of the flood was one house owner playing King Canute ,
and as with the 11th century English monarch he failed in the end ......

kv2KgpCFa70

Published on 11 Feb 2014

More Flooding Video: http://bit.ly/1eqzJ17
The floods in Somerset have been no match for Sam Notaro in Moorland. He has
spent £10,000 building a makeshift barricade to protect his home. Aerial pictures
of Mr Notaro's isolated home in the village of Moorland on the Somerset Levels
were broadcast across the country last week. Currently his house remains dry
despite water reaching the outskirts of his property. But the water is set to rise
by a around a metre in the next few days. Report by Ashley Fudge.

====================================================
====================================================

Cidersomerset

18th April 2015, 12:11

An alarming article although they do not link it to Fukushima , they do not know
what is causing the problem ?

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

Food Chain Catastrophe: Emergency Shut Down Of West Coast Fisheries: ‘Populations Have Crashed 91 Percent’

new Saturday 18th April 2015 at 09:12 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Untitled-59-587x434.jpg

‘Earlier this week Michael Snyder warned that the bottom of our food chain is going through a catastrophic
collapse with sea creatures dying in absolutely massive numbers. The cause of the problem is a mystery to
scientists who claim that they can’t pinpoint how or why it’s happening.

What’s worse, the collapse of sea life in the Pacific Ocean isn’t something that will affect us several decades
into the future. The implications are being seen right now, as evidenced by an emergency closure of fisheries
along the West coast this week.

On Wednesday federal regulators announced the early closure of sardine fisheries in California, Oregon and
Washington. According to the most recent data, the sardine populations has been wiped out with populations
seeing a decline of 91% in just the last eight years.’

Read more: Food Chain Catastrophe: Emergency Shut Down Of West Coast Fisheries: 'Populations Have Crashed 91 Percent'

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/food-chain-catastrophe-emergency-shut-down-of-west-coast-fisheries-populations-have-crashed-91-percent_04162015

from article above...

http://shtfplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ocean-food-web.jpg

Cidersomerset

18th April 2015, 12:54

Nuclear Waste: Drone buzzes Fukushima temporary storage facility

UCP7PFT9coU

Published on 17 Apr 2015

Millions of tons of radioactive soil and debris can be seen packed in
black bags in a temporary storage site at Tomioka, Fukushima prefecture.

COURTESY: RT's RUPTLY video agency, NO RE-UPLOAD, NO REUSE - FOR LICENSING, PLEASE, CONTACT http://ruptly.tv

Cidersomerset

20th April 2015, 00:09

Fukushima Tap Water Wins ‘Gold Quality Award,’ Officials Claim Safe to Drink

Sunday 19th April 2015 at 10:25 By David Icke

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Sheeple_2_I1.jpg

================================================

http://static.infowars.com/p/prison_planet_logo2.jpg

Fukushima Tap Water Wins ‘Gold Quality Award,’ Officials Claim Safe to Drink

Water was previously deemed unfit to drink in weeks following nuclear disaster

Adan Salazar
Prison Planet.com
April 17, 2015

http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/fuku-water-620x320.jpg

‘Officials in Fukushima, Japan, are touting a recent “gold medal” award as
evidence that their tap water is safe to drink.Japan Today reports city
representatives recently had the area’s tap water tested, attempting to
allay concerns that food products emanating from the region around the
crippled Fukushima-Daiichi plant are still contaminated with radioactivity.

Samples of bottled tap water taken from the afflicted area reportedly
received a “Gold Quality award” from Belgian consumer quality testing
company Monde Selection.’

The report claims the tap water was collected near the Surikamigawa
Dam, about 66 miles from the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant.

In the days immediately following the Fukushima, Daiichi, March 11,
2011 nuclear meltdown, government officials in the nation’s capitol of
Tokyo, 163 miles away from the plant, warned residents not to give
tap water to infants or use it in baby formula due to high levels of
radioactive iodine.

“The government has said that, due to the high radiation levels, tap
water should not be given to children 1 year old and younger,” CNN
reported at the time.

In the aftermath, the Japanese health ministry also instructed residents
near the plant to avoid drinking the local tap water.

lLEvaCc9Lg8

Other prefectures in Japan suspended shipments of products from Fukushima,
as officials also recommended that residents avoid eating leafy vegetables.

At the same time, the US also announced alerts for milk, milk products,
vegetables and fruit imported from the regions in and around the nuclear plant.

Despite the frantic response to the crisis, The Japan Times reports that “No
radioactive material has been detected in Fukushima’s tap water since April
2011, as in any tap water in the country.”

Last month, the Taiwanese government recalled over 290 food items after it
emerged they were illegally imported from one of the five blacklisted Japanese
prefectures, from which imports were banned in 2011.

Concerns that the radioactive isotopes released by the meltdown may span the
Pacific Ocean were substantiated earlier this month when scientists working off
the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia, detected small amounts of cesium-134
and cesium-137, indicating irradiated water originating from the damaged reactor
has reached the eastern North American shoreline.

Run by the commercial International Institute for Quality Selections, Monde
Selection awards are requested from a panel of judges, who conduct tests and
analyses on products ranging from cosmetics and beer to diet and health products,
awarding bronze, silver, gold and “grand gold” medals accordingly.

This article was posted: Friday, April 17, 2015 at 6:38 pm

Read more: Fukushima Tap Water Wins ‘Gold Quality Award,’ Officials Claim Safe to Drink

http://www.prisonplanet.com/fukushima-tap-water-wins-gold-quality-award-officials-claim-safe-to-drink.html

t2016

25th April 2015, 05:46

We need to pay attention to such thing, not only Japanese, but also Taiwanese and Korean.

'High level' of radiation detected in Tokyo park
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32443450

Cidersomerset

14th May 2015, 08:45

Fukushima plant springs another radioactive leak; radiation 600 times higher than ‘safe’ levels

new Thursday 14th May 2015 at 06:13 By David Icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Logo-April-2014-v2.gif

Fukushima plant springs another radioactive leak; radiation 600 times higher than 'safe' levels

Thursday, May 14, 2015 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: Fukushima, radiation leak, nuclear disaster

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Fukushima-Japan-Nuclear-Radiation-Disaster-587x330.jpg

NaturalNews) On May 1, a worker at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
discovered a storage tank leaking radioactive water, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power
Company (TEPCO) announced the following day.

In March 2011, a major earthquake and tsunami triggered three separate meltdowns at the
Fukushima plant. Large quantities of water have been rendered radioactive from being used
to cool the crippled reactors. In addition, groundwater has been leaking into the basements
of the reactors, mixing with contaminated water there and also becoming radioactive. TEPCO
has been frantically pumping this water out and concentrating it into onsite storage tanks in
an effort to minimize how much radioactive water spreads beyond the plant as groundwater.

The leak was found on the same day that TEPCO resumed tests for its beleaguered plans to
construct a nearly mile-long "ice wall" of frozen soil to prevent more groundwater from
infiltrating into the plant.

Second leak in weeks

‘The leak was the second one reported in the last few weeks. In late April, a still-unexplained power
outage caused water transfer pumps at the plant to shut down. The pumps were being used to move
radioactive water from one drainage channel into another after it was revealed that water had been
spilling from the first channel directly into the Pacific Ocean.

When the power to the plants shut down, radioactive water resumed flowing into the sea. Approximately
100 tons of contaminated water — also exceeding the legal limit — are estimated to have escaped before
power was re-established.’

Cleanup could still be centuries away
More than four years after the Fukushima disaster, 70,000 people are still unable to return to their homes
due to high levels of radioactive contamination. The local agricultural economy has been devastated.

Meanwhile, TEPCO's efforts to clean up the plant are plagued with failures and missteps. Radiation levels
inside the failed reactors are still so high that scientists believe that any human entering would die almost instantly.

As a result, TEPCO has struggled to find ways to locate the reactors' radioactive fuel rods, let alone remove
them. These problems caused the company to announce last year that removal of the fuel would not begin
until 2025, five years earlier than previously announced. The company expects the full cleanup to take 40
years, though the head of the plant has admitted that the technology for the cleanup does not actually exist
and may not come into existence for centuries.

An example of this technological limitation was seen in late April, when a high-tech robot designed to withstand
high levels of radiation died just three hour into its mission.

The "transformer" robot, a snake-like device designed to be able to change its shape to adapt to its surroundings,
was supposed to be able to withstand the heat and radiation levels inside the reactor for ten hours.

Following the device's failure, TEPCO announced that it was severing the cables used to control the robot and
postponing its plans for robotic inspection of the reactors.

"Radiation levels in these structures is higher, and working inside them is problematic," said TEPCO adviser Dale Klein,
a former chairman of the U.S. nuclear regulatory commission. "This is a challenge that has never been faced before."

(Natural News Science)

Sources:

http://latino.foxnews.com

http://ajw.asahi.com

http://www.zerohedge.com

http://rt.com

http://sputniknews.com

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.thetimes.co.uk

Read more: Fukushima plant springs another radioactive leak; radiation 600 times higher than 'safe' levels

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/049702_Fukushima_radiation_leak_nuclear_disaster.html#ixzz3a6I8CRaA

Cidersomerset

20th May 2015, 14:12

Area around Fukushima is now a radioactive wasteland that will be uninhabitable for decades

Wednesday 20th May 2015 at 07:09 By David Icke

http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Logo-April-2014-v2.gif

Area around Fukushima is now a radioactive wasteland that will be uninhabitable for decades

Wednesday, May 20, 2015 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: Fukushima, nuclear meltdown, radioactive waste

http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Fukushima-Japan-Nuclear-Radiation-Disaster1-587x330.jpg

‘A foreign correspondent whose career consists of traveling to dangerous regions around the
world has called the area around Fukushima, Japan, one of the most hopeless places he has
ever visited, likening it to a “post apocalyptic ghost town.”

“I have seen abandoned villages before; most times there is a sense of finality to them,” writes
Arglit Boonyai, host of the weekly Channel NewsAsia show Danger Zone. “It is as though the
town’s time is up and the people have moved on. Fukushima is nothing like that. It’s like time
just stopped.”

Danger Zone is a show about Boonyai’s visits to some of the world’s most dangerous places in
order to try to understand of how ordinary people cope with living there. In addition to Fukushima,
he has previously traveled to Iraq and into the heart of the Liberian Ebola epidemic.’

Herculean cleanup effort

In March 2011, Japan was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, which then triggered
multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Explosions at the plant sent a
massive plume of radioactive material spreading across the surrounding countryside.

Four years later, 70,000 people are still unable to return to their homes due to radioactive
contamination. Local agriculture has been hobbled due to concerns over radioactive crops.

While filming the show, Boonyai and his crew visited the town of Tomioka, which was littered with
signs of how abruptly the town had been abandoned, such as wedding albums and children's toys
scattered everywhere.

"If the tsunami had not destroyed most of the shops and houses in the area, there would be no
explanation as to why the people there ever left," he writes, "or why nature had slowly begun
reclaiming the land covering collapsed buildings and the local train station."

While some areas around Fukushima felt like ghost towns, others bustled with activity. The Japanese
government has set a goal of completely cleaning up the radioactive waste from the disaster, even
though radioactive material has infiltrated everything from the soil under people's feet to the dust in
the air they breathe.

"Workers work tirelessly to remove [radioactive fallout] inch by inch, mostly with the help of machines,
but in some cases I witnessed clean-up crews scrubbing the side of buildings with steel tooth brushes,"
Boonyai writes.

He notes that many locals have joined the effort as volunteers, particularly elderly residents who believe
they are too old to worry about health effects from radiation.

"Lack of hope"
"But despite this shared sense of duty and extraordinary effort to return Fukushima to normal, I fear that
here, more than anywhere else, has a distinct lack of hope," Boonyai writes.

"Refugees living in temporary housing do not expect to return to their homes. Scientists and radiation
specialists do not expect the land to be free from danger any time soon."

Based on his visit to the region, Boonyai agrees with the assessment that the region will remain largely
uninhabitable for decades.The problems become more severe as one gets closer to the plant itself. In J
uly 2014, Kyoto University assistant professor Hiroaki Koide described the area directly around the plant
as a radioactive swamp. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been stockpiling
radioactive water on the site -- water used to cool the reactors and groundwater leaking into the failed
reactors both become radioactive and build up rapidly -- but numerous leaks have rendered the entire
area highly dangerous.

Meanwhile, TEPCO has pushed back the timeline to begin decommissioning the crippled reactors themselves
to 2025 due to technical difficulties. The company claims the project will be finished by 2051, but the head
of the plant has publicly disputed this claim.

He says the technology does not yet exist to clean up Fukushima Daiichi, and it might not exist for centuries.

(Natural News Science)

Sources:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com

http://www.channelnewsasia.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

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