Discussion:
40% of Europe is still radioactive, what's coming next?
(too old to reply)
Taka
2011-05-26 08:24:32 UTC
Permalink
The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Perspective

This press conference organized by Globla Research was held in the
context of Helen Caldicott's public lecture to Montreal on March 18,
2011.

First I want to present this report, produced by the New York Academy
of Sciences, a report on Chernobyl. It can be downloaded.(2) They
translated 5,000 articles from Russian for the first time into
English. It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a
result of Chernobyl, despite what the WH0(3) says and the IAEA.(4)
This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of
medicine. Because everybody should know about this.

Then we extrapolate through to Japan. Japan is by orders of magnitude
many times worse than Chernobyl. Never in my life did I think that six
nuclear reactors would be at risk.(5) I knew that three GE engineers
who helped design these Mark I GE reactors, resigned because they knew
they were dangerous.(6)

So Japan built them on an earthquake fault. The reactors partially
withstood the earthquake, but the external electricity supply was cut
off, and the electricity supplies the cooling water, a million gallons
a minute, to each of those six reactors. Without the cooling water,
the water [level] falls, and the rods are so hot they melt, like at
Three Mile Island, and at Chernobyl.

So the emergency diesel generators, which are as large as a house, got
destroyed by the tsunami, so there is no way to keep the water
circulating in the reactors.(7) Also, on the roofs of the reactors,
not within the containment vessel, are cooling pools. Every year they
remove about thirty tons of the most radioactive rods that you can
possibly imagine.(8) Each one is twelve feet long and half an inch
thick. It gives out so much radiation, that if you stand next to it
for a couple of minutes, you'll die. Not drop dead. Remember
Litvinenko, the Russian, who got poisoned by polonium?(9) You'll die
like that, with your hair falling out, and bleeding with massive
infection, like AIDS patients die.

And [the spent fuel rods] are thermally hot, so they have to be put in
a big pool, and continually cooled. The pool has really no roof.

There have been three hydrogen explosions, blowing off the roof of the
building, not the containment vessel of the core, but the roof. And
exposing the cooling pool.(10) Two of the cooling pools are dry. They
have no water in them. Meaning that the nuclear fuel rods are covered
with a material called zirconium. When zirconium is exposed to air, it
burns, it ignites. Two of the cooling pools at this moment are
burning. In the cooling pools are many times, like 10 to 20 times more
radiation than in each reactor core. In each reactor core is as much
long-lived radiation as would be produced by a thousand Hiroshima-
sized bombs. We are dealing with diabolical energy.

E=MC2 is the energy that blows up nuclear bombs. Einstein said nuclear
power is a hell of a way to boil water.(11) Because that is all
nuclear power is used for, to boil water through the massive heat,
turn it into steam, and turn a turbine which generates electricity.

Now when you fission uranium, 200 new elements are formed, all of
which are much more poisonous to the body than the original uranium.
(12) Although uranium is pretty poisonous. America used it in
Fallujah, and in Baghdad. And in Fallujah, 80 per cent of the babies
being born are grossly deformed.(13) They're being born without
brains, single eyes, no arms... The doctors have told the women to
stop having babies. The incidence of childhood cancer has gone up
about twelve times. This is genocide -- it's a nuclear war being
conducted in Iraq. The uranium that they're using lasts more than 4.5
billion years. So we're contaminating the cradle of civilization. "The
coalition of the willing!"

In the nuclear power plants, however, there is a huge amount of
radiation: two hundred elements. Some last seconds, some last millions
of years. Radioactive iodine lasts six weeks, causes thyroid cancer.
That's why people are saying, "Better take potassium iodide," because
that blocks the thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine, which later can
cause thyroid cancer.

In Chernobyl, over 20,000 people have developed thyroid cancer.(14)
They have their thyroids out, and they will die unless they take
thyroid replacement every day, like a diabetic has to take insulin.
Strontium-90 will get out, it lasts for 600 years. It goes to the
bone, where it causes bone cancer or leukemia. Cesium lasts for 600
years -- it's all over Europe. 40 per cent of Europe is still
radioactive. Turkish food is extremely radioactive. Do not buy Turkish
dried apricots, or Turkish hazelnuts. The Turks were so cross with the
Russians, they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after
Chernobyl.(15)

Forty per cent of Europe is still radioactive. Farms in Britain, their
lambs are so full of cesium they can't sell them. Don’t eat European
food.

But that's nothing compared to what's happening now. One of the most
deadly [nuclear byproducts] is plutonium, named after Pluto, god of
the underworld. One millionth of a gram, if you inhale it, would give
you cancer. Hypothetically, one pound of plutonium if evenly
distributed could give everyone on earth cancer. Each reactor has 250
kilograms of plutonium in it. You only need 2.5 kilograms to make an
atomic bomb, because plutonium is what they make bombs with.

So any country that has a reactor, works with your uranium. You
[Canada] are the biggest exporter of uranium in the world.(16) Canada
sells two things: it sells wheat for life, and uranium for death.
Plutonium is going to get out and spread all over the northern
hemisphere. It's already heading towards North America now.

Radioactive iodine, plus strontium, plus cesium, plus tritium, and I
could go on and on and on. When it rains, downs come fallout, and it
concentrates in food. If it gets into the sea, the algae concentrate
it, hundreds of times. And the crustaceans concentrate it, hundreds of
times. And then the little fish, then the big fish, then us.(17)

Because we stand on the apex of the food chain. You can't taste these
radioactive food elements, you can't see them, you can't smell them.
They're silent. When you get them inside your body, you don't suddenly
drop dead of cancer, it takes five to sixty years to get your cancer,
and when you feel a lump in your breast, it doesn't say, "I was made
by some strontium-90 in a piece of fish you ate twenty years ago."

All radiation is damaging. It's cumulative -- each dose you get adds
to your risk of getting cancer. The americium is more dangerous than
plutonium -- I could go on and on. Depends if it rains if you're going
to get it or not. If it rains and the radiation comes down, don't grow
food, and don't eat the food, and I mean don't eat it for 600 years.

Radioactive waste from nuclear power is going to be buried, I hear,
next to Lake Ontario. It's going to leak, last for millions of years,
it's going to get into the water, and into the food chains.
Radioactive waste will induce epidemics of cancer, leukemia, and
genetic disease for the rest of time. This is the greatest public
health hazard the world has ever witnessed, apart from the threat
every day of nuclear war.

Einstein said "the splitting of the atom changed everything, save
man's mode of thinking" -- very profound -- "and thus we drift toward
unparalleled catastrophe." We are arrogant, we have a lot of hubris,
and I think the reptilian mid-brain of some men's brains is
pathological.(18)

We are in a situation where we have harnessed the energy of the sun.
It is totally out of control. And there's simply nothing we can do
about it.

NOTES

1) Helen Caldicott is the founder of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, and is the author of "The New Nuclear Danger" (The New
Press, 2002).

2) "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe For the People and the
Environment," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
http://www.nyas.org/publications/annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1

3) "Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident," World Health
Organization. http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/chernobyl.asp

4) "Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident," International
Atomic Energy Agency. http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/chernobyl.asp

5) For a general description of the complex, including cross-sections
of the six reactors, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_nuclear_accidents

6) http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Three
Excerpt: On February 2, 1976, Gregory C. Minor, Richard B. Hubbard,
and Dale G. Bridenbaugh "blew the whistle" on safety problems at
nuclear power plants. The three engineers gained the attention of
journalists and their disclosures about the threats of nuclear power
had a significant impact. They timed their statements to coincide with
their resignations from responsible positions in General Electric's
nuclear energy division, and later established themselves as
consultants on the nuclear power industry for state governments,
federal agencies, and overseas governments.

7) "Japanese Scramble to Avert Meltdowns as Nuclear Crisis Deepens
After Quake," New York Times, March 12, 2011, By HIROKO TABUCHI and
MATTHEW L. WALD

8) The design manual for General Electric boiling water reactors was
posted as a PDF document on the "What Really Happened" website, and
can be downloaded at: http://whatreallyhappened.com/content/ge-manual-bwr6-reactor-design-and-operation

9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko
Excerpt: Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian
Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who escaped prosecution in
Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. He wrote
two books, "Blowing up Russia: Terror from within" and "Lubyanka
Criminal Group", where he accused the Russian secret services of
staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring
Vladimir Putin to power. On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell
ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the
first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation
syndrome. According to doctors, "Litvinenko's murder represents an
ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism".
Litvinenko's allegations about the misdeeds of the FSB and his public
deathbed accusations that Russian president Vladimir Putin were behind
his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.

10) "Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors,"
Keith Bradsher & Hiroko Tabuchi, NY Times, March 17, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18spent.html

"Radiation Spread Seen; Frantic Repairs Go On,"
David Sanger & William J. Broad, NY Times, March 17, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18intel.html

"U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant,"
James Glanz & William J. Broad, NY Times, April 6, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/asia/06nuclear.html

"Focus on preventing explosions at Japan nuke plant,"
Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press, April 6, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110406/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake_654

11) http://wisequotes.org/nuclear-power-is-one-hell-of-a-way-to-boil-water

12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_product

13) "US Accused of Using Poison Gases in Fallujah,"
Democracy Now, Monday, November 29th, 2004
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/29/u_s_accused_of_using_poison

"Evidence of Extensive War Crimes, Unprecedented
in the annals of legal history," Niloufer Bhagwat,
Global Research, December 11, 2004
http://globalresearchca/articles/BHA412A.html

"Depleted Uranium Weapons: Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No
Joke," by Dave Lindorff, Global Research, October 20, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15744

"The consequences of a US war crime:
Cancer rate in Fallujah worse than Hiroshima,"
Tom Eley, World Socialist, July 23, 2010
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/fall-j23.shtml

"Research Links Rise in Fallujah Birth Defects and Cancers to US
Assault," Martin Chulov, The Guardian/UK, December 31, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/31

14) "Chernobyl's Continuing Thyroid Impact,"
By Mary Shomon, December 15, 2003
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/nuclearexposure/a/chernob.htm

15) "Authorities lied on impact of Chernobyl in Turkey,"
Greenpeace Report
http://www.blackraiser.com/cherno.htm

16) WISE Report on the Worldwide Uranium Market
http://wwwwise-uranium.org/umkt.html

"Why is Uranium Important to Canada?"
Canadian Nuclear Association,
http://www.cna.ca/english/pdf/nuclearfacts/04-NuclearFacts-uranium.pdf

17) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioaccumulation

18) http://www.crystalinks.com/reptilianbrain.html

SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1105/S00138/the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-in-perspective.htm

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

This may be the end of mankind, destroyed by its own brain which
unleashed the atomic power by mining and concentrating the uranium
ore. Some more earthquakes as we are climbing into the next solar
cycle maximum and we are done. The next organisms prospering on Earth
could well be these fungi:

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

Taka
trigonometry1972@gmail.com |
2011-05-26 12:04:52 UTC
Permalink
I guess this explains the Ukrainian sunflower seed oil
I've seen in the Safeway food market. One of the few
food products that wouldn't be radioactive. It a fair bet
there are hot spot were the rain fell during the era of
Atomic bomb testing. I suppose a potassium fertilizer
would help some with the cesium and a limestone
fertilizer could help to some degree with the strontium.
As I recall these isotopes have about 30 year half lives.
Taka
2011-05-27 16:38:34 UTC
Permalink
Genpatsu Gypsies:
The Hidden Tragedy Of Japan's Nuclear Labor Force

Professor of Philosophy, Department of
International
and Cultural Studies, Tsuda College, Tokyo, Japan

Radiation exposure of nuclear power plant workers in Japan is a
fact
that is suppressed from public consciousness. While people sit in
their
homes and enjoy the comforts of modern living due in part to the
electricity that is supplied by nuclear energy, most remain relatively
unaware of the darker side of the process which goes into lighting
their
cozy dwellings.

In September, 1999, an accident occurred at the JCO uranium
processing
facility in the town of Tokai, Ibaragi prefecture, Japan. The accident
occurred when nuclear fuel suddenly rose to a critical temperature
because
of it's improper handling by workers. Of the three men who worked in
the
nuclear plant and were exposed to radiation, two of them, Hisashi
Ouchi and
Masato Shinohara, died several months later. The workers had not been
properly trained by their employers for the necessity of dealing with
nuclear fuel with utmost caution due its extreme danger during
processing.

This nuclear power related accident was the worst in Japan's
history
and revealed to the world that dangerous nuclear substances are
routinely
being handled by careless and unskilled employees who are often
ignorant of
the consequences of their tasks. But due to the mainstream media's
obfuscating coverage of the issue, still unknown to the Japanese
public is
the fact that the deaths of Ouchi and Shinohara were not the first
suffered
by nuclear plant workers due to radiation exposure. And they will
probably
not be the last.

Since the first nuclear power station in Japan began operation in
1966, nuclear plants have been maintained not only by engineers but
by a
variety of other workers. According to the Central Registration Center
of
Radiation Workers, the number of nuclear plant workers in Japan in the
fiscal year 1999, amounted to 64,922. About 10% of them are full-time
workers employed by nuclear companies while 90% are subcontracted
workers.
Thus, the vast majority of the nuclear industry's labor force is
comprised
of temporary employees who work at plants for between 1-3 months at a
time.
These people are mostly farmers, fishermen or day laborers seeking to
supplement their incomes or simply to get by. Some of them are
homeless.
They work mainly at nuclear power plants, but they also find jobs at
nuclear fuel facilities (refining, processing, reprocessing and using
plants), and at nuclear waste burial and storage facilities. The
workers
work twice or thrice a year at the same nuclear plant or move about to
other plants. Thus, the nickname they have been tagged with by
journalists,
"genpatsu gypsies" (ie., nuclear nomads).

The question that would immediately come to mind for most people
before working around nuclear materials is "how safe is it"?
Admittedly, as many of the workers' backgrounds are in farming or
fishing,
they are less educated as to the workings of high-tech, industrial
society,
and at any rate, they need the money. Some may be naive in regards to
trusting the government and the nuclear industry, who they think would
probably never intentionally mean to cause them harm.

Concerning the maximum permissible exposure to radiation, the
Ministry
of International Trade and Industry formerly rated safe levels of
radiation
exposure at 1 milli-Sievert a day, 30 mSv per three months and 50 mSv
a
year for nuclear plant workers while setting 5 mSv a year for the
general
population. However, it relaxed these limitations in 1990 to: 50 mSv
a
year and no limitations for the period of three months or a day for
nuclear
plant workers, while it tightened the ceiling for radiation exposure
for
ordinary citizens to 1 mSv a year. Bear in mind, there is much
controversy
about whether there is any safe dose of nuclear radiation whatsoever.

The purported reason MITI gave for changing the maximum
permissible
radiation exposure is obscure. But the hidden meaning is not hard to
decipher-- the restrictions of 30msv per three months and 1msv a day
are
too rigid and ineffective for the nuclear industry to abide by. If
they had
to record radiation exposure doses for workers at daily and tri-
monthly
intervals, it would be far more difficult to falsify data than under
the
mere limitation of exposure over a year's time.

Under MITI's new provision, a nuclear plant worker who was
exposed to
a radiation dose of 50 mSv in a short period (eg. a week) is judged as
"safe". But according to Kenji Higuchi, a photo journalist who has
investigated the situation of nuclear plant workers for nearly 30
years and
has observed the effects of low level radiation exposure, 50 mSv in a
short
period is extremely dangerous. Again, while in former times the
maximum
permissible exposure for nuclear plant workers was ten times that for
ordinary citizens (50 mSv : 5mSv), the new provision has widened the
difference to 50 times (50 mSv : 1 mSv). Higuchi stated in an
interview,
"This is an obvious policy of discrimination against nuclear plant
workers."

According to the Central Registration Center of Radiation
Workers, of
a total of 64,922 nuclear plant workers in Japan in the fiscal year
1999,
those who were exposed to radiation doses of less than 5 mSv numbered
59,319 (91.4 % of the total); 5-10 mSv, 3,280 workers (5.1 %); 10-15
mSv,
1,514 (2.3 %); 15-20 mSv, 773 (1.2 %); 20-25 mSv, 26 (0.0 %); 25-30
mSv, 4
(0.0%); 30-40 mSv, 2 (0.0 %); 40-50 mSv, 4 (0.0 %); and those who were
exposed to a radiation dose of more than 50 mSv numbered zero.
Therefore,
the maximum permissible exposure to radiation of 50 mSv set by MITI
was
observed, concludes the CRCRW. The Center has published annual reports
of
similar data every year since 1978 and demonstrated that there were no
problems about the safety of nuclear plant workers. The Center reports
that
the total number of nuclear plant workers from 1977 to March 2000
amounts
to 352,888 people.

According to Higuchi, however, the maximum permissible exposure
of 50
mSv a year is too high, though this is also the limitation of
radiation
exposure set by the International Commission on Radiological
Protection.
Since 1974, he visited many nuclear power stations in Japan. Based on
interviews with approximately 80 workers at nuclear plants as of 1993,
he
found that many of them suffered from skin inflammation, lymphatic
swelling, head balding, falling out of teeth, arthralgia (pain in the
joints), nose bleeding, rash on the skin of the whole body, cerebral
tumor,
leukemia, cataract, glaucoma, diploid, and languor throughout the
body.
These ex-employees could no longer work and could only lay in bed or
suffered from lingering illness.

In addition to the deaths of Ouchi and Shinohara that occurred at
the
JCO accident in 1999, Higuchi confirmed at least five other deaths of
nuclear plantworkers: Saburo Yamada, at age 20, by cerebral tumor in
1974;
Yoshimi Kitame, at age 49, by cerebral apoplexy in 1975; Shigeru Sato,
at
age 68, by leukemia in 1977; an anonymous supervisor at a nuclear
power
plant, at age 40, by an unknown disease in 1989; and Nobuyuki
Shimahashi,
at age 29, by leukemia in 1991.

According to an investigation report published in March 1977, by
Yanosuke Narasaki, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives,
the
deaths of nuclear plant workers numbered 106 at that time.

According to an investigation made in 1983 by anti-nuclear groups
in
Fukushima and Fukui Prefectures, the deaths of nuclear plant workers
in
both prefectures from 1970 to 1983 numbered 200. These groups and
Higuchi
estimated from this data the total number of workers in Japan's
nuclear
plants who died as a result of exposure to radiation to be between
300-400.
In 1993, the researchers drew an inference based on the same data that
workers who died as a result of exposure had grown to approximately
700
individuals. Higuchi estimates based on studies from the atomic
bombings
that anywhere from 1 to 17 persons per 10,000 subcontracted workers
"are
sure to die by cancer" due to routine radiation exposure on the job.

How is it that the reports published by the Central Registration
Center, MITI and nuclear power companies on radiation exposure of
nuclear
plant workers are at variance with witnesses of the workers
themselves? How
is it that the official position contradicts other well documented
studies
on the dangers of low level radiation exposure?

Higuchi heard nuclear power plant workers report that they worked
in
temperatures ranging from 30 degrees centigrade to 50 degrees
centigrade
inside the reactors during periods for inspection, maintenance and
decontamination. They work wearing masks and protection suits. But
since
the face-glass on the mask soon becomes clouded in the high
temperature and
humidity, they must take the mask off to finish their work in time. In
order to earn what is for most subcontracted workers-- a badly needed
daily
wage-- workers prefer bringing their task quickly to fulfillment
instead of
observing the regulations for protection against radiation exposure.
As a
result, the workers inhale air contaminated with high levels of
radiation.
This internal radiation exposure is more dangerous than external
exposure
through the skin.

Workers reported to Higuchi that they were scarcely warned about
the
danger of radiation exposure before going on the job. They carry
radiation
dose meters and pocket radiation alarm meters with them while working
inside the reactor. But they often take these off following the
direction
of their overseer or of their own accord. Ironically, due to the
insecure
nature of their jobs, they are afraid that they will be fired by their
employer if their radiation exposure dose exceeds the permitted level.
Under these circumstances, workers are in fact often exposed to far
more
radiation than the dosage level their radiation meters record.

Higuchi notes that nuclear plant workers who become sick and
consult
doctors of the hospitals nearby nuclear plants are often pronounced to
be
"not abnormal" and the doctors will not tell them their dosage level
of
radiation exposure. It proved that after the death of Shimahashi as
mentioned above, the nuclear company for which he worked had tampered
with
his medical records. Higuchi believes that such juggling of data
regularly
occurs in regards to the health inspections of nuclear plant workers
in
Japan.

When Kunio Murai and Ryusuke Umeda who suffered illnesses after
working at nuclear plants tried to bring suit against their employers,
they
were threatened by gangsters and then were offered 6,000,000 yen and
1,060,000 respectively (about 60,000 USD and 10,600 USD each) for
settlements from their subcontracting companies. In each case they
decided
to quit their law suits. Higuchi says these cases make apparent the
way in
which the nuclear industry unscrupulously hinders workers from
exposing to
the public the egregious lack of safety standards within the industry.

While the deaths of Ouchi and Shinohara caused by the JCO
accident
were from acute radiation sickness, some specialists in radio
therapeutics
believe that radiation exposure also causes diseases such as cancers
which
may arise many years after initial exposure. Higuchi decisively
states,"There is no such thing as a 'maximum permissible exposure to
radiation' for nuclear power plant workers. They are all more or less
exposed to radiation and will probably suffer from it, whether they
are
conscious of its symptoms or not."

The following month after the JCO plant accident, the Japanese
government announced that it would improve the system for emergency
medical
service for helping to save victims of radiation exposure from
accidents at
nuclear power plants. But both the government and nuclear power
industry
are still a long way off from being determined to review the safety
standards of plants and the conditions for workers. Improvements will
come
about only through public pressure. Concerned citizens from Japan and
abroad, labor unions, human rights, health care and environmental
advocates
will need to focus attention on this problem and expose these
dangerous and
inhumane policies being propagated by Japanese industry and the
government.

SOURCE: http://www.jca.apc.org/web-news/corpwatch-jp/96.html

SEE ALSO:

http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi-shukan-post/view/nuclear-cleanup-workers-being-recruited-from-societys-lowest-rungs

http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/content/dying-tepco-fukushima%E2%80%99s-nuclear-contract-workers-genpatsu-gypsies

http://enenews.com/
trigonometry1972@gmail.com |
2011-05-28 08:54:42 UTC
Permalink
Rumor has it that the Japanese (power companies?) have
put out the word the are willing to hire workers for 3 months or
50 REM/0.5 Sieverts of exposure for 200 or 300 thousand US dollars.

I guess they can put solar panels on all the contaminated ground?

Time to death is money...................Trig
Taka
2011-05-30 06:40:28 UTC
Permalink
Fukushima: How Many Chernobyls Is It?

Dr Scampa’s Lethal Doses Count Increases Dramatically

The world’s second big nuclear disaster occurred at Chernobyl Reactor
No. 4 in the Ukraine on Apr 26, 1986. Simply tagged as “Chernobyl,” it
is what the next big and well known nuke disaster, after the American
Three Mile Island, on March 28, 1979 came to be called. “Chernobyl”
ejected 30% of one 192-ton, three-month old reactor core. That’s 57.6
radioactive tons thrown into the air by fire and explosions.

The tiny radioactive and burning smoke particles have traveled around
the world many times since 1979, killing an estimated one million
people to date from radiation caused illnesses and cancers. This is
according to Editor Dr Janette Sherman’s exhaustive and widely
acclaimed book on 5,000 Chernobyl scientific papers recently published
by the New York Academy of Sciences [1].

Fukushima Daiichi Equals 50 Plus Chernobyls

As Dr. Michio Kaku, a world renowned CUNY theoretical physicist
pointed out on CNN March 18, 2011, Chernobyl involved one reactor and
only 57.6 Tons of the reactor core went into the atmosphere. In
dramatic contrast, the Fukushima Daiichi disaster immediately involved
six reactors and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN
Agency) documented 2,800 Tons of highly radioactive old reactor cores.

Simple division tells us there are at least 48.6 Chernobyls in the
burning old reactor cores pumping fiery isotopes into the Earth’s
atmosphere. It is no stretch to say Fukushima Daiichi’s six reactors
and the dry holding pools for old reactor cores are equal to more than
50 Chernobyl disasters.

Further clarification is needed, of course, and it is being worked out
now by independent physicists. Note that the lethality of radioactive
reactor cores goes up the first 250,000 years they are out of the
reactor – not down.

Looking at the current Japanese meltdown as more than 50 Chernobyls is
just the start. In addition, the fate of the four nearby reactors at
Fukushima Daini is as yet unknown by the outside world. Working at the
nearby reactors, only 10 km (6 miles away) is a quick, painful death
sentence. They are inside the mandatory evacuation zone.

This much is known. All radioactive exposures are cumulative for each
human, animal and plant. What’s more, mutated genetic codes are passed
on to offspring forever. This means all Japanese and all Northern
Hemisphere inhabitants are suffering internal radioactive
contamination from Fukushima Daiichi reactors already.
Fukushima Equals 3,000 Billion Lethal Doses

Dr Paolo Scampa, a widely know EU Physicist, single handedly
popularized the easily understood Lethal Doses concept. “Lethal Doses”
is a world wide, well understood idea that strips Physics bare and
offers a brilliant, understandable explanation for all the physics
gobbledygook Intelligence agencies and their respective governments
use to disguise the brutal truths of the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster.

Three thousand billion (3,000,000,000,000) Lethal Doses of Radiation
means there are 429 Lethal Doses chasing each and every one of us on
the planet, to put it in a nutshell. This is up from about 70 Billion
Lethal Doses March 23, 2011. It is getting worse everyday without any
intervention by the US and the other nuclear powers.

VeteransToday calls on the world’s nuclear powers to intervene sooner
rather than later. It is up to the world’s only remaining Super Power,
the United States, to get the Japan Reactor Disaster Intervention
meeting officially underway.
The Fukushima Kill

The Fukushima Kill, already underway world wide, will certainly dwarf
that of Chernobyl. All US Super Power President Obama’s delay does is
increase the numbers of The Kill. That is a clear Choice. We call on
President Obama to re-visit that Choice.

Further, the Genetic and DNA changing aspects of the radioactivity now
in the air, spreading worldwide within a year, will spawn a grotesque
new assortment of radiation-degraded mutants; both human and of other
life forms.

Many of these creatures in the animal world will not survive long
outside the womb, if carried to term. What’s more, future Human
Genetic Mutants of ever-lower intelligence and greater, more grotesque
physical deformities are the genetic legacy of Humanity forevermore.
That is the new starting point for any rational and reality-based
national or foreign policy.
What We Know Now about Fukushima

Here is what is known more than 75 days after six reactors at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor Plant started a disastrous and
lethal nuclear meltdown on March 11, 2011.

- March 11, 14:46, a One Million Kiloton Earthquake measuring 9.0 on
the Richter Scale hammered Japan off-shore near the six Japanese
reactors. The reactors attempted to shut down automatically when
electronic sensors detected the earthquake. The huge earthquake
dropped the reactors three feet, moved Japan 8 inches to the West and
altered the tilt of the Axis of planet Earth.

- March 11, about 15:30, the giant Earthquake caused a tsunami up to
30 meters (98.4 Ft) high washed away all the fuel tanks for the
reactors Emergency Generators and all the reactors’ outside electrical
feeds. This was the Death Blow to the reactors.

The six Fukushima Daiichi reactors were dead in the water and their
fate sealed. Without an external source of electricity for the water
pumps and hot reactors, they are just so much radioactive scrap iron –
good for nothing. The internal temperature of the reactors started
climbing immediately.

- March 11, about 18:00, only two and a half hours later, multiple
reactor cores started melting down as the reactors internal
temperatures skyrocketed to the melting point of uranium and beyond –
a measured 1,718 Deg C (3,124.4 Deg F) past the melting point.

Uranium melts at 1,132.2 Deg C (2,069.9 Deg F.) The internal reactor
temperatures reached at least 2,850 Deg C, (5,162 Deg F.) The millions
of 1 mm Uranium fuel pellets in the reactors and in the core pools had
no defense at all without the powerful water pumps and billions of
gallons of cooling water against those temperatures.

The Uranium pellets simply melted forming a white hot lava-like
radioactive uranium isotope blob that was and probably still is super
heated by the power of the uranium atom itself. The highly radioactive
blob then burned through the graphite seals of the General Electric
Mark 1 Reactor Control Rods at the bottom of the American submarine
based reactor design of US Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover, now deceased.

General Electric copied the US Government financed Navy nuclear
reactor design for many commercial nuclear reactors. The Radioactive
Blobs trickled out of hundreds of control rod holes instead of melting
together to form a single giant, highly radioactive, burning lava
blob like that of Chernobyl.
The Solution, Then and Now, has Changed

World famous theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku caught the world’s
attention on a March 18, 2011 CNN broadcast when he suggested the
Prime Minister of Japan immediately choose the “Chernobyl Option” for
the Fukushima Daiichi General Electric reactors.

Kaku said the Japanese PM should order the Japanese Air Self Defense
Force to bomb the reactors into submission with boron, sand, water and
concrete like the Red Army did to kill the out-of-control Chernobyl
reactor on orders of USSR President Gorbachev. Boron absorbs neutrons,
the radioactive heart of the reactors.

The time for Dr. Kaku’s “Chernobyl Option” has passed. Multiple
explosions destroyed the reactors and the swimming pools holding old
reactor cores weeks ago. Hundreds to thousands of tons of burning
highly radioactive reactor cores are scattered all over the Fukushima
Daiichi site. The reactors are releasing as much as a Tepco (Tokyo
Electric Power Company) measured 10 Quintillion (10,000 Trillion Bq)
radioactive counts per second of deadly radioactive smoke particles
into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The invisible, killing Radioactive Smoke is already all over the
Northern Hemisphere and everyone in it – each and every one – is
radiologically contaminated. The scope of Dr. Kaku’s once brilliant
former solution is unfortunately, now too small and ineffective.

Generally speaking, most Radiation cannot escape into the atmosphere
if it is covered by water. Honshu, Japan is an island and the Pacific
Ocean is conveniently located nearby.

Subsidence charges from multiple nuclear weapons buried by drilling
rigs 500 ft (152.4 meters) below and inland of the string of six
reactors must be engineered to slide the reactors into the sea. This
method works best if there is igneous or volcanic rock behind the
subsidence charges, to “bounce” the blast and pressure wave from and
“push” the trashed reactors area of the beachfront into the sea.

Specially equipped submarines can then pick up the pieces of reactor
cores from under water. The surface of the ocean blocks the escape of
radiation. The submarines must work fast to limit killing more of the
Earth’s Oceans.

Veterans Today calls on President Obama to authorize the disposal of
the six reactors at sea and the collection of the deadly radioactive
metals with submarines. We conclude there are no other options left.

The “Do Nothing Option”

The “Do Nothing Option” allows the deaths and maiming of many millions
of people to rapidly proceed. Doing nothing, by default, allows the
Fukushima Kill to ruthlessly continue unabated. Doing nothing is also
not acceptable from a practical standpoint; because, Japan does not
own the nuclear weapons to use themselves.

Nuke the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi right into the sea, Mr.
President.

SOURCE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/28/fukushima-how-many-chernobyls-is-it/
Taka
2011-05-30 08:29:21 UTC
Permalink
Japan's Nuclear Cartel
Atomic Industry Too Close to Government for Comfort

After the oil crisis of the 1970s, Japan embraced atomic power with a
vengeance. Since then, the ties between the government and the nuclear
industry have become so intertwined that public safety is at threat.
Inspections are too lax, and anyone who criticizes the status quo can
find themselves out of a job.

It was a Friday morning, and Yukio Yamaguchi had left his gray
cardigan at home and was wearing his good, dark-brown suit instead. He
had boarded the Shinkansen, Japan's high-speed train, to travel to
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa on the west coast, home to the world's largest
nuclear power plant.

The reserved physicist with horn-rimmed glasses and a gray goatee is
an anti-nuclear activist with the Citizens' Nuclear Information
Center. He was on his way to attend the meeting of a commission that
addresses earthquake safety for power plants. This meeting, together
with TEPCO, the operator of the Kashiwazaki plant, was being held to
discuss the subject of earthquake and tsunami safety.

It was the morning of March 11, 2011.

Shortly after 1 p.m., Yamaguchi sat down in his usual seat, the second
from the left in the first row, in a wood-paneled conference room at
the Niigata Prefecture administration building. But what good was it
to warn people about the dangerous tidal waves? "It was the same as
always," says Yamaguchi. "One man against a dozen TEPCO people. And
they said that everything was in perfect order." Until 2:46 p.m., that
is, when TEPCO's "perfect order" was destroyed.

The building suddenly started shaking. It was an earthquake, and
everyone ran outside. The meeting was interrupted for 15 minutes, but
then it was reconvened. A TEPCO spokesman pointed out, once again, how
well the Kashiwazaki plant was protected against earthquakes and
tsunamis.

No one in the room suspected that in those very minutes, some 200
kilometers (125 miles) farther to the east, a wave more than 14 meters
(46 feet) high was rolling toward the six-meter protective wall at
TEPCO's second-largest nuclear complex.

The meeting in Niigata ended at about 4 p.m. Just as Yamaguchi was
checking into a local business hotel (the bullet train had stopped
running, because of the earthquake), TEPCO was notifying the
government that it had lost control over the reactors at its Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Making a Farce of Safety Claims

Time and again, the new realities have revealed the nuclear lobby's
safety slogans to be a farce. Apparently the earthquake alone caused
the first tubes to crack. The fuel rods melted down into redhot clumps
of uranium, eating holes into the floor of the reactor pressure vessel
in Unit 1 at an early juncture. And not even the risk of steam
explosions has been averted.

TEPCO's and the Japanese government's reassurances have proven to be
meaningless. Tens of thousands of people have had to leave their
homes, possibly for good. Even the mountain village of Iitate, almost
40 kilometers (25 miles) from the disaster site, has begun to be
evacuated.

For a full two months, TEPCO management tried to reassure the public
and denied all responsibility, even during its ineffectual attempts to
get the damaged reactors under control. It wasn't until last Friday
that TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu and Vice President Sakae Muto
finally announced their resignations -- a decision that was driven
mainly by the company's massive quarterly loss of €10.7 billion ($15.1
billion).

The choice of Toshio Nishizawa, another top executive at TEPCO, to
replace Shimizu will hardly change the company's inept crisis
management strategy. The crisis team will continue to meet on the
second floor of the TEPCO headquarters building in Tokyo, in a large
conference room with pieces of paper taped to the inside of the
windows. The top executives sit around a semicircular table. There is
Muto, head of TEPCO's nuclear division until now, who used to chair
the meetings, with Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata sitting to his left.
Katsumata usually makes an appearance at 9 a.m. and returns between 6
and 7 p.m. Shimizu was rarely seen at the meetings recently, says
another executive.

There are several smaller, round tables scattered around the
conference table. Teams of outside experts, including specialists from
the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and France's Areva
nuclear power company, as well as Japanese scientists, sit at these
tables. Everyone stares at a large video screen showing dedicated
lines to all of TEPCO's power plants, including Kashiwazaki.

At the moment, however, they are usually looking at the bottom left
corner of the screen, where there is an image of Masao Yoshida, 56,
the head of the plant, who is reporting from the earthquake-proof room
at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. "Yoshida often has trouble getting his
message across," says one of the meeting participants. "The people at
the site have to make an effort to convey how serious the situation
really is."

Too Big to Fail

It isn't even entirely clear who is actually responsible for crisis
management. A few weeks ago, when SPIEGEL asked a TEPCO spokesman who
was running the crisis team, he replied: "Prime Minister (Naoto) Kan."
When a member of the Japanese parliament asked the government the same
question, it replied: "Primarily TEPCO." Meanwhile, the country's
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) announced: "We all support
TEPCO in a unified manner in its management of the crisis." One of the
government's contributions to this support is financial -- Tokyo is
spending the astronomical sum of €43 billion to protect TEPCO from
ruin. The axiom "too big to fail," which guaranteed the survival of
the major European and American banks during the financial crisis, is
also proving to be applicable to Japan's largest electric utility.

TEPCO, the world's fourth-largest power company, employs more than
52,000 people and most recently posted annual revenues of about €35
billion. Before World War II, the government nationalized all electric
utilities and merged them into regional monopolies. The resulting 10
companies are now private, but they have retained their regional
dominance.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has consistently
treated the electric utilities as tools with which to execute its
industrial policy. In return, the utilities enjoy guaranteed profits.
Some 45 million people in the Tokyo region get their electricity from
TEPCO. The company is ubiquitous. It pays for research and sponsors
many news programs. It even built a giant electricity museum in the
center of Tokyo's popular Shibuya shopping district.

The Fukushima disaster destroyed much more than a power plant. It has
destabilized the entire system on which the Japanese nuclear industry
is based.

In Japan, the term "The Atomic Village" refers to an isolated elite
that has formed around the country's nuclear complex. Its residents
include TEPCO's nuclear divisions and the corresponding departments at
the METI. Scientists, politicians and journalists are also members of
this exclusive nuclear club.

Activist Yamaguchi has repeatedly run up against the secure walls
surrounding this Atomic Village. "They all feel connected," he says.
"They all studied at the top university in Tokyo, and after that they
worked here at TEPCO or at the agency that's supposed to regulate
TEPCO."

Part 2: A Threat to Japan's Democracy

Both the nuclear industry and its government regulators are also
closely intertwined with the political sphere. TEPCO's management is
among the key campaign donors to the conservative Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP). Meanwhile, the union that represents workers in the
electricity industry supports Prime Minister Kan's Democratic Party of
Japan (DPJ). So far neither of the two parties has taken a position
critical of the nuclear industry.

It's as if Austrian writer Robert Jungk's horrific vision of the
"nuclear state" had become reality. In his book "The Nuclear State,"
once required reading for Germany's protest generation, Jungk
describes how a high-risk technology can erode a democracy, even
without a nuclear disaster. Many of the protesters who faced water
cannons, batons and concertina wire during demonstrations in the 1970s
and 1980s at German sites like the Brokdorf nuclear power plant near
Hamburg, already felt as if they were living in the dreaded
surveillance state.

Germany was ultimately spared Jungk's vision, but in Japan it has
proven to be prophetic. In a consensus-based society, the nuclear
industry, electric utilities, political parties and scientists have
created a sacrosanct refuge for themselves that has become a threat to
Japan's democracy.

It is clear that wheeling and dealing in the Atomic Village played a
role in the Fukushima disaster. According to TEPCO's calculations, the
maximum possible height of a tsunami in Fukushima was 5.7 meters. The
company acted on the authority of a committee made up of members of
Japan's engineering society. But a majority of the commission's 35
members had once worked for electric utilities or think tanks funded
by the utilities.

'The Japanese Public Is Partly Responsible'

Even many media organizations, as recipients of generous payments for
the electricity industry, are part of the cartel. "The Japanese public
is partly responsible for the disaster in Fukushima," says activist
Yukio Yamaguchi. Nature triggered the catastrophe, but Japan itself
created the conditions that allowed it to happen, he says.

Ironically, hardly any country on earth is more poorly suited for high-
risk nuclear technology than earthquake-plagued Japan. A folk legend
describes the islands as being perched on the back of a giant fish in
the ocean, a fish that is constantly trembling and twitching -- not a
good basis for operating the world's third-largest collection of
nuclear reactors. Only the United States and France have more nuclear
plants.

Nevertheless, until disaster struck Japan continued to forge ambitious
expansion plans. To reach its goal of producing half of all the
electricity it consumes with nuclear energy by 2030, the country had
planned to build a double-digit number of new reactors.

The oil shock of the 1970s came as a wakeup call for Japan, a rising
industrial nation at the time. It prompted the government to define
the development of a strong nuclear industry as a national goal. Since
then, Japanese politicians have inextricably linked the country's rise
to prominence and prosperity with nuclear energy.

Buoyed by the prospect of being largely independent of imports of fuel
for energy production, Japanese politicians even decided to establish
a plutonium industry. Fast breeder reactors, which produce more fuel
than they consume, seemed too tempting to pass up.

'Brainwashed'

While most of the world's nuclear nations were abandoning this risky
and expensive option (Germany turned its fast breeder reactor in
Kalkar near the Dutch border into the most expensive amusement park of
all time), Japan inaugurated its Monju breeder reactor and, in 1993,
laid the foundation for a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho on the
northern tip of the main island, Honshu. At an estimated cost to date
of more than €14 billion, the facility is one of the most expensive
industrial plants in the world, and yet it has never been in full-
fledged operation.

"Our country was literally brainwashed," says Taro Kono, a member of
the lower house of the Japanese Diet for the conservative LDP. "Atomic
energy is a cult in Japan."

Kono, 48, comes from one of Japan's major political dynasties. He has
been a member of the parliament for almost 15 years and is notorious
for his independent views. He is one of the few members of his
parliamentary group to have dared to question Japan's nuclear policy.
As a member of parliament who has one of the best election results in
Japan, Kono feels even more emboldened to express his opinion. "This
is the only reason I can afford to criticize the nuclear industry in
the first place," he says with a smile.

"Now TEPCO is saying that the tsunami was much bigger than expected,"
says Kono. "But what were they expecting?" This, he says, was the
conclusion reached by a commission dominated by the power companies,
which included almost no earthquake or tsunami experts. "It determined
how big the tsunami should be," Kono says. "That's why the electric
utilities are the ones who are mainly responsible. It's as simple as
that." But for Kono, finding allies is difficult in a country where
any criticism of the nuclear industry can end the careers of
scientists, journalists and politicians.

Scientists Keep Quiet

TEPCO's influence even extends into scientific laboratories. Many
scientists, especially at the University of Tokyo, are partial to
TEPCO. The company contributes millions to the university and supports
many associations, think tanks and commissions. This form of public
relations has been useful to the company until now.

Not a single scientist or engineer at the University of Tokyo has ever
been known to have spoken critically about TEPCO, even after the
accident in Fukushima. "If you are a critic of nuclear power, you are
not promoted, you don't even become a professor, and you are certainly
not appointed to key commissions," says Kono.

At times, doubts are indeed voiced about the system of crony
commissions. Five years ago, for example, seismologist Katsuhiko
Ishibashi resigned from the committee that had been tasked with
revising the safety regulations for Japanese nuclear power plants. Of
the 19 committee members, 11 were also members of committees within
the Japanese electricity lobby. Ishibashi criticized the decision-
making process on the committee for being "unscientific." "If we do
not fundamentally improve our technical standards for nuclear power
plants, Japan could experience a nuclear catastrophe after an
earthquake," he warned at the time.

But it is difficult to get through to the Japanese public with such
warnings, given the millions upon millions of euros TEPCO spends on
media and public relations each year. Its image cultivation campaign
even includes the sponsorship of news programs, including Tokyo
station TBS's "News 23," Fuji's "Mezamashi TV" and TV Asahi's "Hodo
Station." In TEPCO's world, everyone gets a piece of a very large
nuclear pie.

Part 3: Keeping the Media Sweet

The company also has a habit of placating journalists with luxury
trips. For example, on the day the tsunami inundated the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear plant, TEPCO Chairman Katsumata was keeping
journalists company in a nice new hotel in China -- on an "educational
trip."

"We have built the structure in such a way that everyone has an
interest in supporting nuclear power," says Kono. Stricter inspectors,
critical reporters and obstreperous citizens would only get in the
way.

There has been no lack of alarm signals, but they have never produced
any consequences. The biggest scandal to date came to light through a
disgruntled employee. In 1989, Kei Sugaoka, a US engineer with
Japanese roots, inspected Reactor 1 at the now-stricken Fukushima
Daiichi plant. He worked for General Electric (GE), the plant's
manufacturer.

Sugaoka was startled to find cracks in the steam dryer, "pretty
sizeable ones," as he recalls today. It later occurred to him that the
device had been installed incorrectly -- by a 180-degree rotation. He
notified his superiors. Then his team waited a few days for further
instructions, while receiving their full pay.

Safety Revelations

When the men were called back to the power plant, their higher-ups had
apparently agreed on the next steps. Sugaoka says that his supervisor
at GE told him to edit the inspection video and remove the sections in
which the cracks were visible. "And that was what my team did," says
the engineer, "while two men from TEPCO looked on."

Nevertheless, he felt uneasy about the whole thing. After returning
home, he wrote down what had happened and kept the documents. After
being fired from GE in 1998, Sugaoka was determined to bring the
affair to light. On June 28, 2000, he wrote a letter to Japan's
nuclear safety agency NISA, describing what had happened. He wrote
three or four similar letters after that.

Sugaoka's revelations shook the country. It soon became clear that
TEPCO had systematically falsified safety reports. The company's
president and four other senior executives had to resign over the
affair, and the government temporarily shut down 17 reactors.

About that time, it was also revealed that several Japanese TEPCO
employees had reported safety concerns to the regulatory agency. It,
in turn, promptly disclosed the whistleblowers' identities to TEPCO,
as a NISA spokesman confirmed.

Gentleman Whistleblower

The scandal had no long-term consequences in Japan. In Fukushima,
however, it brought Eisaku Sato into the arena. Sato, the former
governor of Fukushima Prefecture, is a distinguished, silver-haired
gentleman. He loves antiques and golf, and he opposes nuclear energy.

After discovering how carelessly NISA had treated the complaints from
inside the Atomic Village, he decided to get involved. From 2002 to
2006, 21 insiders contacted Sato directly, and members of his staff
met secretly with the whistleblowers. After recording and documenting
the complaints, they forwarded them to NISA.

Whenever nothing happened for a period of time after the complaints
had been submitted, Sato's staff members made more inquiries. "No one
was keeping tabs on TEPCO," says Sato, who is wearing dark-blue sports
jacket with a pocket square. "Fukushima Prefecture took on the job
that NISA really ought to be doing. The main problem wasn't TEPCO at
all, but NISA. They simply didn't pass on the complaints."

The ministries, regulatory agencies and power companies are so closely
intertwined that conflicts of interest are virtually built into the
system. One of the objectives of the powerful industry ministry, METI,
is to promote the nuclear industry. Another goal is to export Japanese
nuclear technology to emerging economies. The problem, however, is
that NISA, the agency that is supposed to monitor the nuclear
industry, comes under the authority of the nuclear-friendly METI.

The Power of Amakudari

Not surprisingly, the controls are lax, reports nuclear engineer
Tetsunari Iida. He once designed the Japanese version of the CASTOR
containers that are used to transport highly radioactive nuclear waste
in Europe. To this day, he remembers how shocked he was as a novice in
the industry. "I was just a 20-year-old boy, but what I did was simply
rubber-stamped," says Iida.

Even 20 years ago, Iida experienced how nuclear power plant workers
would signal to each other when an inspector was approaching. A worker
would quickly wipe off a leaking heat exchanger to make it look
perfectly in order, and would then disappear. The inspector noticed
what was going on but ignored it. "Our inspections are a complete
sham," says Iida.

The close-knit relationship between the industry and regulators is so
legendary that it even has a name: "amakudari," or "descended from the
sky," which refers to the practice of government officials, after
serving out their terms at a ministry, directly switching to lucrative
positions with the electricity giants.

One of the vice-president positions at TEPCO has been reserved for an
amakudari official for decades. A man named Takeo Ishihara was once a
deputy state secretary, in a position titled "coordinator of nuclear
policy." After TEPCO hired him in 1962, he became a managing director
and then a vice-president.

In 1980, a state secretary at the Energy Ministry switched to TEPCO,
where he performed the same duties. Other senior officials followed in
1990 and 1999. In April, a member of parliament with the Communist
Party asked the government whether these industry jobs were "reserved
slots." A spokesman said: "You could call it that."

Arrogance Meets Incompetence

In terms of the hands-on work at the plants, most workers are
temporary workers and day laborers working for subcontractors and sub-
subcontractors. But even the highly qualified specialists are often
not employed by TEPCO, but by manufacturers like Hitachi and Toshiba,
or even directly by General Electric in the United States.

These experts know all too well how little the TEPCO managers know
about their own reactors. "The people at TEPCO," says Tsuneyasu Satoh,
who worked as a subcontractor in Fukushima for many years, "are
bureaucrats who stop by once in a while to tell us what to do."

TEPCO's engineers display a combination of arrogance and incompetence.
When Sugaoka went public with the scandal over falsified safety
reports, the company conducted an internal analysis and even admitted
to significant deficiencies. According to the analysis, TEPCO
engineers were "overly self-confident with regard to their nuclear
expertise." For this reason, the analysis continued, they did not
report problems to the government, "as long as they believed that
safety was assured."

However, neither TEPCO nor NISA drew any conclusions from these
insights. Even the scandal did nothing to stop the operating license
for the extremely old Reactor 1 at Fukushima Daiichi being extended
for another 10 years. Even worse, the regular intervals at which power
plants are inspected can now be extended from 13 to 16 months.

"That's the consequence of the entire scandal for TEPCO," Aileen Mioko
Smith, an anti-nuclear activist with the nongovernmental organization
Green Action Japan, says derisively, "new standards and ultimately
fewer inspections."

Part 4: 'No Commento'

When the TEPCO spokesman is asked whether the company has ever
implemented a proposal by the anti-nuclear activists, he says: "I
don't understand the question."

Even after the disaster, the company still tried to throw sand in the
eyes of journalists. Reporters with the television stations and major
newspapers have been camped out on the ground floor of the TEPCO
headquarters building for the last 10 weeks. In press conferences,
they are usually presented with a jumble of supposedly precise raw
data. But what are reporters supposed to do with hundreds of pieces of
data without any context at all, particularly as they often turn out
to be incorrect soon afterwards?

TEPCO officials like to talk about the data but prefer to avoid the
subject of responsibility. Whether it's amakudari, political
contributions or funding for scientific research, a TEPCO spokesman
has a similar response to questions on all of these issues: "No
commento."

Fired After Reporting on Fukushima

Takashi Uesugi, a television journalist, is one of those reporting on
how sensitively the electricity giant reacts when unflattering
information manages to get out. He is a popular television and radio
host in Japan, and his programs are both political and entertaining.
Uesugi is normally an affable 43-year-old who likes to play golf.
Until the Fukushima accident, he had little to do with nuclear power.

But he has always taken issue with his counterparts at the major
newspapers, who he sees as little more than the PR agents of the
ministers they report about. After the disaster in Fukushima, Uesugi
also camped out in the TEPCO lobby, because he wanted to know what was
happening in the reactor.

On March 15, at 1 p.m., Uesugi was conducting a live broadcast on the
Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). He said that radioactivity was
apparently escaping from Reactor 3 and that this was being reported
abroad. "It was an obvious thing to report," he says. After the
broadcast, however, his boss came to him and told him he was fired,
says Uesugi. He hasn't worked for TBS since then. A spokesman for the
TBS programming department says that the station had already decided
earlier to sever its working relationship with Uesugi, and that there
was no pressure from TEPCO.

Uesugi doesn't believe these claims, particularly as he also
experienced problems soon afterwards on another TV program. The
electric utility association ended its sponsorship of "Asahi Newstar"
after Uesugi had invited a critic of nuclear power to appear as a
guest on his program. The station claims that it had already planned
to end the electric utility sponsorship. A TEPCO spokesman
characterizes as "inconceivable" the notion that TEPCO would try to
pressure a journalist like Uesugi.

Intimidated

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has begun asking Internet providers
to remove "false reports" about Fukushima from the web, arguing that
the population should not be troubled unnecessarily. "This is worse
than in Egypt and China," says Uesugi. According to the government
request, all reports that "harm the public order and morale" should be
removed.

Nuclear critic Robert Jungk devoted an entire chapter to the
industry's treatment of its adversaries. The chapter is titled: "The
Intimidated."

In Japan, the insiders who talked about the abuses at TEPCO were
intimidated, as were journalists who reported on these abuses, like
Takashi Uesugi.

There are some indications that Eisaku Sato, the distinguished former
governor of Fukushima Prefecture, was also a victim of intimidation.
Sato attempted to oppose the power of the atom. He had aligned himself
with the governors of other prefectures with nuclear plants, and he
tried to establish an axis critical of nuclear power.

Sato, a relatively minor local politician, invited experts from all
over the world to formulate a new Japanese energy policy. He was
perhaps the most influential Japanese critic of the nuclear industry
-- until his political career ended abruptly in 2006, when he was
arrested on charges of corruption. He and his brother were accused of
having collected an inflated price for a piece of property from a
construction company that had worked for the prefecture.

'Same People as Always'

A court found Sato guilty, and although an appeals court in Tokyo
later reduced the sentence, it did not overturn the guilty verdict. He
has now taken his case to the Japanese Supreme Court, where he hopes
to be declared innocent.

A former Tokyo prosecutor says that Sato's brother did not make any
profit at all with the sale of the property. Besides, the public
prosecutor assigned to the case at the time has since been sentenced
to 18 months in prison for planting false evidence on a high-ranking
government official he had investigated in another case.

But who, if not critics like Sato, can hold people responsible for the
disaster? At least the statement made by Prime Minister Kan last
Wednesday offers a hopeful outlook. He announced a new plan to
decartelize the regulatory agencies, break up the regional monopolies
of the Japanese electric utilities and rethink the country's energy
policy "from the bottom up."

Aileen Mioko Smith, the activist with Green Action Japan, doesn't have
much faith in such promises. She already dreads what she expects will
be Japan's usual handling of such disasters. "A commission will be
formed to examine the accident, and it will consist of exactly the
same people as always."

SOURCE: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,764907-4,00.html

RELATED: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/
Taka
2011-05-31 16:50:14 UTC
Permalink
Actually, Tokyo radiation levels have NOT "returned to their pre-
tsunami levels". They are almost double that. According to the JAIST
site, on March 10 the level was 0.0338 micrograys. But yesterday it
was 0.0609 micrograys.

Even worse, the monitoring sensor for these readings turned out to be
18 meters above ground. In a Japan Times article three days ago, an
industry-shill expert said this was necessary to get an accurate
reading. Surprisingly, the article actually admitted that radiation
levels on the ground would be 2-3 times the official number from 18
meters above ground.

This would not have been true pre-meltdown, since radiation levels
before the Fukushima disaster were not elevated by radioactive
particles gradually accumulating on the ground. Therefore, it could be
said that as we walk around Tokyo, we are actually exposed to 4-6
times the pre-quake radiation level.

Even worse, micrograys don't give the effect on biological tissue. The
microgray reading is different for each of alpha, beta and gamma
emission. What we need is the "effective dose", which is measured in
Sieverts. I haven't seen that one listed for Tokyo. It's incorrect to
simply say it's the same number as the microgray reading.

Finally, the entire topic of internal emitters is completely ignored.
These are much worse than external emitters like an x-ray or
international flight. You don't breathe in an x-ray and have it
switched on inside you for the rest of your life.

These dose measurements are somewhat meaningless when the really
important question for people is whether they inhaled or ingested a
particle that will be with them forever, exposing cells at point-blank
range to levels of radiation much higher than the measured microgray
level at 18 meters above ground.

What we need is a volumetric measurement of contamination - that
means, becquerels per square meter of air. But nobody is even
mentioning this, let alone releasing or publishing that kind of data.
But that's the one you really want to know. They wear masks in the
Fukushima zone. Why don't people wear them in Tokyo? They release
becquerel per kg or liter data for water and foodstuffs. Why not for
air?

I doubt the Met singers are aware of this dosimetric stuff, they are
probably just going with their gut reaction. But they are right in
thinking that Tokyo is most certainly not back to normal. It isn't.
And, it continues to get worse every day as more and more radioactive
particles keep gradually accumulating on the ground.

SOURCE: http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/new-york-metropolitan-opera-stars-fearing-radiation-skip-japan-tour
trigonometry1972@gmail.com |
2011-06-01 15:38:13 UTC
Permalink
Why isn't Japan on a war footing. They should be building steel
hull(s) that can be
fit over the reactors. Are the fuddies tha pass for leaders frozen in
denial and fear?
Taka
2011-06-02 01:37:48 UTC
Permalink
Post by ***@gmail.com |
Why isn't Japan on a war footing. They should be building steel
hull(s) that can be
fit over the reactors. Are the fuddies tha pass for leaders frozen in
denial and fear?
The Japanese public will be docile unless you take the rice from
them. Wait till the next rice harvest when they find out that their
new rice is laden with Stroncium, Cesium, Plutonium etc.

“The initial protest occurred in the small fishing town of Uozu,
Toyama Prefecture, on 23 July 1918. Starting with peaceful
petitioning, the disturbance quickly escalated to riots, strikes,
looting, incendiary bombings of police stations and government offices
and armed clashes. By mid-September 1918, over 623 disturbances had
occurred in 38 cities, 153 towns and 177 villages, with over 2 million
participants.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_Riots_of_1918

And after the decrease in seafood consumption due to radiation
concentrating in the marine species the sedative effects of Omega-3
will wear out and then you will see the fully arachidonic acid fueled
Japanese. Expecting a war to break out unless the government feeds
them increased levels of Omega-3 supplements. Then we will get far
more neurodegenerative diseases ... And wait for the bystander and
transgeneration effects to show up. So much for the "cheap" nuclear
energy.

http://www.nuclearconsult.com/docs/information/risk/health/NontargetedRadiationEffects.pdf

http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v30/n6/abs/onc2010480a.html

Taka
Taka
2011-06-02 07:09:08 UTC
Permalink
Multiple Stressors: A Challenge for the Future
NATO Security through Science Series, 2007, 2007, 139-154, DOI:
10.1007/978-1-4020-6335-0_10

Radiation-Induced Genomic Instability in the Offspring of Irradiated
Parents

Yuri E. Dubrova

So far, mutation induction in the germline of directly exposed parents
has been regarded as the main component of the genetic risk of
ionising radiation. However, recent data on the delayed effects of
exposure to ionising radiation challenge for the existing paradigm.
The results of some publications imply that exposure to ionising
radiation results in elevated mutation rates detectable not only in
the directly irradiated cells, but also in their non-irradiated
progeny. Here I review the data on transgenerational instability
showing that radiation-induced instability in the germline of
irradiated parents manifests in their offspring, affecting their
mutation rates and some other characteristics. This paper summarises
the data on increased cancer incidence and elevated mutation rates in
the germline and somatic tissues of the offspring of irradiated
parents. The possible mechanisms of transgenerational instability are
discussed.

SOURCE: http://www.springerlink.com/content/mjm0751563282j12/

John B Little 2003 J. Radiol. Prot. 23 173 doi:
10.1088/0952-4746/23/2/304

Genomic instability and radiation

Genomic instability is a hallmark of cancer cells, and is thought to
be involved in the process of carcinogenesis. Indeed, a number of rare
genetic disorders associated with a predisposition to cancer are
characterised by genomic instability occurring in somatic cells. Of
particular interest is the observation that transmissible instability
can be induced in somatic cells from normal individuals by exposure to
ionising radiation, leading to a persistent enhancement in the rate at
which mutations and chromosomal aberrations arise in the progeny of
the irradiated cells after many generations of replication. If such
induced instability is involved in radiation carcinogenesis, it would
imply that the initial carcinogenic event may not be a rare mutation
occurring in a specific gene or set of genes. Rather, radiation may
induce a process of instability in many cells in a population,
enhancing the rate at which the multiple gene mutations necessary for
the development of cancer may arise in a given cell lineage.
Furthermore, radiation could act at any stage in the development of
cancer by facilitating the accumulation of the remaining genetic
events required to produce a fully malignant tumour. The experimental
evidence for such induced instability is reviewed.

SOURCE: http://iopscience.iop.org/0952-4746/23/2/304


SEE ALSO:

http://www.labome.org/topics/humanities/history/modern/20th/chernobyl-nuclear-accident-21143.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation
trigonometry1972@gmail.com |
2011-06-02 11:07:05 UTC
Permalink
And foods prices are up globally so this will be painful
to Japanese public.

It does bring the question as to the former output the
the region banned from production and the region
in the gray zone were the foods are grown but
contaminated to an "acceptable level." How large
a percentage are these of total nation food output?

Perhaps we will see the sleeping giant raise in
anger?

Some might consider immigrating to the States?
However, this nation is in decline and the leaders
(Congress and party critters) and want-to-be i.e. XXXXX
are incapable.

Beware of common sense as it often a wrong sense...........Trig
Taka
2011-06-03 16:15:44 UTC
Permalink
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Volume 243, Number 2, 473-478, DOI: 10.1023/A:1016046719243

Evaluation of the Plutonium Content in the Human Body Due to Global
and Chernobyl Fallout

O. A. Bondarenko, B. B. Aryasov and N. Ya. Tsygankov

This paper estimates the body content and excretion levels of Pu from
the combined intake from the global and Chernobyl fallout. The
approach developed allows to estimate the contributions from each
component. This approach is necessary for estimating the average and
collective doses to the population of different regions or
settlements. Verifications of this approach have been made using
autopsy data (the early stage of the accident, Kiev residents, the
late stage inhabitants of the Ovruch region) which are in good
agreement. Assessment of the dose from transuranics to the population
of the Ukraine required using bioassay data. This was achieved by
measuring the urinary excretion of Pu.

SOURCE: http://www.springerlink.com/content/k07jx6000963501h/


Carcinogenesis. 2004 Jun;25(6):1063-7. Epub 2004 Jan 23.

Plutonium targets the p16 gene for inactivation by promoter
hypermethylation in human lung adenocarcinoma.

Belinsky SA, Klinge DM, Liechty KC, March TH, Kang T, Gilliland FD,
Sotnic N, Adamova G, Rusinova G, Telnov V.
SourceLovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Lung Cancer Program,
2425 Ridgecrest Drive SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA.

Lung cancer from radon or (239)plutonium exposure has been linked to
alpha-particles that damage DNA through large deletions and point
mutations. We investigated the involvement of an epigenetic mechanism,
gene inactivation by promoter hypermethylation in adenocarcinomas from
plutonium-exposed workers at MAYAK, the first Russian nuclear
enterprise established to manufacture weapons plutonium.
Adenocarcinomas were collected retrospectively from 71 workers and 69
non-worker controls. Lung adenocarcinomas were examined from workers
and non-worker controls for methylation of the CDKN2A (p16), O(6)-
methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), death associated protein
kinase (DAP-K), and Ras effector homolog 1 genes (RASSF1A). The
prevalence for methylation of the MGMT or DAP-K genes did not differ
between workers and controls, while a higher prevalence for
methylation of the RASSF1A gene was seen in tumors from controls. In
marked contrast, the prevalence for methylation of p16, a key
regulator of the cell cycle, was increased significantly (P = 0.03) in
tumors from workers compared with non-worker controls. Stratification
of plutonium exposure into tertiles also revealed a striking dose
response for methylation of the p16 gene (P = 0.008). Workers in the
plutonium plant where exposure to internal radiation was highest had a
3.5 times (C.I. 1.5, 8.5; P = 0.001) greater risk for p16 methylation
in their tumors than controls. This increased probability for
methylation approximated the 4-fold increase in relative risk for
adenocarcinoma in this group of workers exposed to plutonium. In
addition, a trend (P = 0.08) was seen for an increase in the number of
genes methylated (> or =2 genes) with plutonium dose. Here we
demonstrate that exposure to plutonium may elevate the risk for
adenocarcinoma through specifically targeting the p16 gene for
inactivation by promoter methylation.
PMID:14742312

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

That was pre-Fukushima ... We have now blown at least several hundred
pounds of plutonium (about enough for 50 H-bombs) into the atmosphere
during the #3 reactor nuclear explosion from the dirty MOX fuel. And
50 Chernobyls are still sitting at the place in highly unstable
condition gradually releasing deadly radiation into the atmosphere.
When will the greedy bastards get the spent fuel rods off the sites
like Hamaoka, Onagawa etc? Looks like the developed countries are
"developed" and rich only because of using this extremely dangerous
"free" energy generation systems. You can breathe CO2 from fosil
fuels and the plants will happily clean it out of the atmosphere over
the time but you will be dead in notime trying to approach the nuclear
waste. Even the electronics of the robots is destroyed by ionizing
radiation.

Taka


Taka
2011-06-04 03:06:42 UTC
Permalink
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Vol
15, No 3 (2009)

Childhood Leukemia and Cancers Near German Nuclear Reactors:
Significance, Context, and Ramifications of Recent Studies

Rudi H. Nussbaum

A government-sponsored study of childhood cancer in
the proximity of German nuclear power plants
(German acronym KiKK) found that children < 5 years
living < 5 km from plant exhaust stacks had twice the
risk for contracting leukemia as those residing > 5 km.
The researchers concluded that since “this result was
not to be expected under current radiation-epidemiological
knowledge” and confounders could not be
identified, the observed association of leukemia incidence
with residential proximity to nuclear plants
“remains unexplained.” This unjustified conclusion
illustrates the dissonance between evidence and
assumptions. There exist serious flaws and gaps in the
knowledge on which accepted models for population
exposure and radiation risk are based. Studies with
results contradictory to those of KiKK lack statistical
power to invalidate its findings. The KiKK study’s ramifications
add to the urgency for a public policy debate
regarding the health impact of nuclear power generation.

SOURCE: http://www.ijoeh.com/index.php/ijoeh/article/view/1151
Taka
2011-06-05 02:01:37 UTC
Permalink
"All large nuclear power reactors, regardless of their design, produce
enormous inventories of deadly radioactive poisons. Each of the 104
U.S. commercial operating nuclear reactors – like the reactors at
Fukushima Daiichi – stores their highly irradiated spent fuel on site
in spent fuel pools; each pool holds 5 to 10 times more long-lived
radioactivity then does the reactor core. A single spent fuel pool
holds more Cesium-137 than was deposited by all
atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the Northern Hemisphere combined.
[1] Thus a catastrophic accident at one nuclear reactor has the
potential to release massive amounts of radioactive fallout, and
unfortunately, experience has borne this out."

SOURCE: http://www.psr.org/nuclear-bailout/resources/lessons-from-fukushima-and.pdf

SOME HISTORY: http://www.idealist.ws/nevada.php

What they are hiding inside the nuclear reactors is far worse that the
global warming scam ...
Taka
2011-06-05 16:31:53 UTC
Permalink
Chernobyl: Consequences of the catastrophe 25 years later

by Janette D. Sherman, M.D., and Alexey V. Yablokov, Ph.D.

Editor’s note: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists asked Dr. Sherman,
recognized worldwide for her expertise on Chernobyl, to write this
article last year, then rejected it just before deadline, probably
considering it too alarming. In it, she reports the widespread
expectation of another nuclear power plant failure and the
catastrophic consequences. Now, a few months later, the world
commemorates the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl while watching the
Fukushima meltdown.

For more than 50 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have abided by an agreement
that in essence allows them to cover each other’s back – sometimes at
the expense of public health. It’s a delicate balance between
cooperation and collusion.

Signed on May 28, 1959, at the 12th World Health Assembly, the
agreement states:

“Whenever either organization proposes to initiate a programme or
activity on a subject in which the other organization has or may have
a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other with a
view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement,” and continues: The
IAEA and the WHO “recognize that they may find it necessary to apply
certain limitations for the safeguarding of confidential information
furnished to them. They therefore agree that nothing in this agreement
shall be construed as requiring either of them to furnish such
information as would, in the judgment of the other party possessing
the information, interfere with the orderly conduct of its operation.”

The WHO mandate is to look after the health on our planet, while the
IAEA is to promote nuclear energy. In light of recent industrial
failures involving nuclear power plants, many prominent scientists and
public health officials have criticized WHO’s non-competing
relationship with IEAE that has stymied efforts to address effects and
disseminate information about the 1986 Chernobyl accident, so that
current harm may be documented and future harm prevented.

For years, concerned individuals have held vigils outside WHO’s Geneva
headquarters urging it to function as an independent agency of the
United Nations, free of influence from the IAEA because they want to
prevent another tragedy. Chernobyl has shown that societies everywhere
– especially Japan, France, India, China, the United States and
Germany – must distribute stable potassium iodide (KI) before an
accident and must provide independent, publicly available radiation
monitoring of both food and individual in-body irradiation levels with
the aim of documenting the danger and preventing additional harm.

On the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl, WHO and the IAEA published the
“Chernobyl Forum Report,” mentioning only 350 sources, mainly from the
English literature, while in reality there are more than 30,000
publications and up to 170,000 sources that address the consequences
of Chernobyl. By 2006, there had been 10 major publications concerning
Chernobyl published in England, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and
the United States, with scientists currently publishing new data.

After waiting two decades for the findings of Chernobyl to be
recognized by the United Nations, three scientists, Alexey Yablokov,
Vasily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko undertook the task to collect,
abstract and translate some 5,000 articles reported by multiple
scientists, who observed first-hand the effects from the fallout.
These had been published largely in Slavic languages and not
previously available in translation. The result was “Chernobyl:
Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,”
published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 2009.

According to the official records, the destruction of the Chernobyl
reactor was the result of both design factors and human error. Many
technocrats hope that engineering feats will provide benefits for
society, but from the sinking of the Titanic to the recent British
Petroleum oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, it is apparent that
neither technology nor humans are error-proof. To mitigate this and
any future nuclear disasters, it is critical to learn about the extent
of the Chernobyl disaster and continue research into the effects upon
the biosphere and all that live in it.

The greatest amount of radioactivity fell outside of Belarus, Ukraine
and European Russia, extending across the Northern Hemisphere as far
away as Asia, North Africa and North America, while the greatest
concentrations continue to affect the 13 million living in Belarus,
Ukraine and European Russia.

Immediately after the catastrophe, release of information was limited,
and there was a delay in collecting data. WHO, supported by
governments worldwide, should have been pro-active and led the way to
provide readily accessible information. These omissions resulted in
several effects: limited monitoring of fallout levels, delays in
getting stable potassium iodide to people, lack of care for many and
delay in prevention of contamination of the food supply.

Key to understanding the effects is the difference between external
and internal radiation. While external radiation, as from x-rays,
neutron, gamma and cosmic rays, can harm and kill, internal radiation
– alpha and beta particles – when absorbed by ingestion and inhalation
releases damaging energy in direct contact with tissues and cells.

Radiobiological science is not new, and Chernobyl’s adverse outcomes
were to be expected, but new adverse effects in humans, animals and
plants were documented for the first time by those who directly
observed the human and biologic populations exposed to the fallout.

Environmental consequences
As a result of the accumulation of Cesium-137 (Cs-137), Strontium-90
(Sr-90), Plutonium (Pu) and Americium (Am) in the root soil layer,
radionuclides have continued to build in plants over recent years.
Moving with water to the above-ground parts of plants, the
radionuclides – which earlier had disappeared from the surface –
concentrate in the edible components, resulting in increased levels of
internal irradiation and dose rates in people, despite natural
disintegration and decreasing total amounts of radionuclides over
time.

Bioaccumulation results in concentration in plants, mushrooms and
animals and can increase a thousand-fold as compared with
concentrations in soil and water. The factors of accumulation and
transition vary considerably by season even for the same species,
making it difficult to discern dangerous levels of radionuclides in
plants and animals that appear to be safe to eat. Unfortunately one
cannot see, smell or taste radioactive isotopes and, in general, they
cannot be cleaned up.

While there have been some reports of wildlife thriving in the 30-km
exclusion zone around Chernobyl, the appearance is deceptive, with
most being immigrants. According to morphogenetic, cytogenetic and
immunological tests, all of the populations of plants, fishes,
amphibians and mammals that were studied there are in poor condition.
This zone is analogous to a “black hole,” essentially a micro
evolutionary “boiler,” where gene pools of living creatures are
actively transforming, with unpredictable consequences.

The accumulation of Sr-90 into plants is greater than that of Cs-137,
but it varies by species, population and area. Thus, grazing animals
concentrate Sr-90 in their milk, and then into the food supply.

People who rely upon wild plants and game animals found their food
supplies diminished, as mushrooms, wild game and berries were
contaminated and could not be used as food.

Plants developed deformities of their roots, fruits, leaves, pollen
and spores, and land and aquatic plants show chromosomal changes and
mutations that were rare or unheard of before the catastrophe.

It may be that disappearance of one or more species in an ecosystem
may bring about the collapse of an entire system.

Radioactive contamination re-circulates through the biosphere via
rain, snow, fire and water. Seasonal growth and decay of plants
contributes to spread contamination to other plants and animals. Fires
spread plant and soil contamination via air currents, and the
spectacular wildfires in Russia that occurred in 2010 have not been
fully documented.

Adverse human health findings
Those profoundly – and expectedly – affected are the liquidators, the
young and healthy men and women who worked to stop the fires and to
contain the release of radioactivity. Miners were recruited and many
worked to tunnel under the reactor.

Of the estimated 830,000 people conscripted to do the work, by 2005,
some 125,000 – 15 percent – were dead, mostly from circulatory and
blood diseases and malignancies. Of those from Belarus who worked May
to June of 1986, versus those who worked July to December 1986, more
developed stomach or thyroid disease and had a greater incidence of
cancer. Malignancies were expected, given the liquidators’ close
proximity to intense radioactivity.

Heart disease accounted for 55 percent of deaths in the earlier
workers. The increase in non-malignant diseases was new to the world
of radiation medicine, and documented only because there were so many
victims and so many scientists and physicians who observed the
victims.

Children born to liquidator families were seriously affected with
birth defects, thyroid cancer, an increase in central nervous system
tumors – in Kiev – and generally poor health. There was also an
overall increase in juvenile morbidity, cataracts in children and
diseases characteristic of accelerated aging.

In Belarus and the area of Ukraine around the Chernobyl site, children
in general have poor health, including loss of intellect. Based upon
the research of multiple researchers, it is estimated that in the
heavily contaminated areas of Belarus, only 20 percent of children are
considered healthy, placing an enormous burden upon governmental
resources to provide medical care and education for those affected.

Significant adverse human health findings
General morbidity increased all of the contaminated territories and is
correlated with the density of radioactive contamination as documented
in “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the
Environment.”

Blood and circulatory systems:
Radioactive contamination resulted in diseases of the blood, blood-
forming organs and the circulatory system and is a major factor in
overall morbidity for inhabitants of contaminated territories,
including evacuees, migrants, liquidators and their children. It is
becoming clear that one of the common reasons for these functional
impairments is radioactive destruction of the endothelium, the
covering of the inner surface of vessels. Leukemia incidence, largely
involving the bone marrow damage, increased not only in children and
liquidators, but also in the general adult population.

Endocrine system:
All forecasts concerning thyroid cancer have been wrong. Chernobyl
related thyroid cancers have rapid onset and aggressive development,
mostly in the papillary form, affecting both children and adults.

The marked increase in thyroid disease and thyroid cancer in children
is linked to the release of radioactive iodine. Of concern is damage
to the thyroid of the unborn, with concomitant loss of intellectual
function. To date, an important finding is that for every case of
thyroid cancer there are about 1,000 cases of other forms of thyroid
gland pathology. In Belarus alone, experts estimate that up to 1.5
million people are at risk of thyroid disease.

Immune system:
The quantity and activity of various groups of lymphocytes and thus
the production of antibodies, including various immunoglobulins, stem
cells and thrombocytes, are altered. The ultimate consequences are
immunodeficiency and an increase in the frequency and seriousness of
infections and of acute and chronic diseases. The suppression of
immunity as a result of this radioactive contamination is known as
“Chernobyl AIDS.”

Respiratory system:
There was a marked increase in respiratory morbidity everywhere in the
contaminated territories. In the first days after the catastrophe,
respiratory problems of the mouth, throat and trachea in adults were
basically linked to the gaseous aerosol forms of Iodine-131 (I-131),
Ruthenium-106 (Ru-106), and Cerium-144 (Ce-144). Further damage to the
respiratory system was caused by “hot particles” – the firm particles
of uranium fuel melted together with other radionuclides. “Chernobyl
dust” has been found in liquidators’ bronchial tubes, bronchioles and
alveoli for many years.

Reproductive system:
A wide spectrum of reproductive function disorders and urogenital
morbidity exists in those living in contaminated territories. These
include abnormal development of the genitalia, sperm pathologies,
including dead sperm, low sperm mobility, disorders of secondary
sexual characteristics, degenerate changes of the placenta, delay in
sexual maturation, primary infertility, complications during pregnancy
and birth, and perinatal and neonatal deaths.

Significantly high levels of alpha radionuclides were found in bone
tissue of aborted fetuses from mothers living in the contaminated
territories in Ukraine. Changes in sex ratios at birth were documented
in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

Genetic changes:
Chromosome aberrations in peripheral blood cells were among the first
ominous signs of the Chernobyl catastrophe and revealed a correlation
between the level of aberrations and a number of pathological
conditions. Somatic chromosomal mutations were linked to congenital
malformations and protein polymorphism. Mutations in mini-satellite
DNA are only some of the genetic changes resulting from radionuclide
exposure, but the overwhelming majority of Chernobyl-induced genetic
changes will not become apparent for several generations.

Skeletal system:
Liquidators and residents of the contaminated territories often
complain of bone and joint pain. Bone function is a balance between
the formation of bone and the natural re-absorption process. Because a
number of isotopes become deposited in bone these diseases may be due
to either hormonal disorders or direct damage by irradiation to the
cellular predecessors of osteoclasts and osteoblasts. Sr-90, produced
in the splitting of uranium is deposited in children’s bones and teeth
and linked to diseases later in life. (Sherman, 2000; Mangano and
Sherman, 2011)

In contaminated Ukrainian territories, children have been born without
bones (“jellyfish children”), a condition seen previously only in the
Marshall Islands after the nuclear tests of the 1950s.

In contaminated Ukrainian territories, children have been born without
bones (“jellyfish children”), a condition seen previously only in the
Marshall Islands after the nuclear tests of the 1950s.
Cataracts:
Throughout the more contaminated territories, visual abnormalities
occur with greater frequency than in less contaminated areas and
include premature cataracts, vitreous degeneration, refraction errors,
uvitis and conjunctivitis. It is disturbing that only after 2000 did
medical authorities begin to recognize the radiogenic origin of the
large increase in cataracts among liquidators and evacuees from the
Chernobyl territories. Official recognition occurred 10 years (!)
after doctors began to sound the alarm and 13 years after the problem
was first registered.

Congenital malformations and anomalies:
Wherever there was Chernobyl radioactive contamination, there was an
increase in children born with anomalies and congenital malformations
(CMs), including previously rare multiple structural impairments of
the limbs, head and body. (Wertelecki, 2010). Analysis of more than
31,000 Belarussian abortuses revealed that the incidence of officially
registered CMs increased in all of the contaminated territories and
was especially significant in areas with Cs-137 levels of
contamination higher than 15 Curies per square kilometer (15 Ci/km2).

In Belarus, some 24 percent of the children in the territories with
Cs-137 levels less than 1 Ci/km2 were born with CMs; 30 percent had
CMs in territories with levels of 1-5 Ci/km2, and 83 percent had CMs
in districts with contamination levels above 15 Ci/km2. The Russian
State Registry, which included more than 30,000 children born to
liquidators, revealed 46.7 percent had congenital anomalies and
“genetic syndromes,” with the prevalence of bone and muscular
abnormalities being 3.6-fold higher than corresponding normal Russian
parameters.

With the passage of more than a decade, we do not know the full extent
of the health of children and grandchildren born to those who were
contaminated by the Chernobyl fallout, but research must continue to
find out. (Holt, E., 2010)

Central nervous system:
The most serious effect of the Chernobyl radiation is to the brain and
is a major medical, social and economic problem for the affected
individual, the persons’ family and society at large.

Studies of liquidators and those irradiated in utero reveal that even
small amounts of nuclear radiation, considered harmless by official
measures of radiation exposure, resulted in marked organic damage of
the frontal, temporal and occipitoparietal lobes of the brain. These
organic changes are reflected in nervous system dysfunction, including
perception, short-term memory, attention span and operative thinking
and result in behavioral and mental disorders and diminished
intelligence.

Recent studies show that schoolchildren from the most exposed areas in
Sweden who were in the sensitive gestational period during the
Chernobyl release were significantly less likely to qualify for high
school. (Almond et al., 2007) A recent study of Norwegian adolescents
revealed the adverse effect of low dose Chernobyl radiation exposure
in utero on cognitive function (verbal IQ). (Heiervang et al., 2010)

Inexplicably, WHO had a special project on brain damage in the
Chernobyl territories, which was abruptly stopped after the first
definitive results. It is becoming clear that low-dose and low-dose
rates of radiation have a profound effect upon fine structures of the
nervous system, upon higher nervous system function and upon
neuropsychiatry function.

Many pro-nuclear critics have attributed the latter to “radio-phobia,”
but documentation of disease is not limited to the human population.
With few exceptions, animal and plant systems that were studied
demonstrated structural abnormalities in offspring, loss of tolerance
and viability, and genetic changes. (Moller and Mousseau, 2010) Wild
animals and plants did not drink alcohol, smoke or worry about
compensation.

Total number of victims
The number of victims is one of the most contentious issues between
scientists who collected data first-hand and WHO/IAEA that estimated
only 9,000 deaths.

The most detailed estimate of additional deaths has been done in
Russia by comparing rates in six highly contaminated territories with
overall Russian averages and with those of six lesser-contaminated
areas, maintaining similar geographical and socioeconomic parameters.
There were over 7 million people in each area. Documentation is as
follows:

The region under study exceeded the Russian average in both over-all
mortality and increased rate of mortality. The total number of
additional deaths, calculated on the basis of the standardized
mortality rates, is estimated at 60,400 (95 percent CI: 54,880 to
65,920) – or 34 persons per 1,000. From 1990 to 2004, the number of
additional deaths represents 3.75 percent of the entire population of
the contaminated territories and agrees well with the figure of 4.2
percent for Ukraine. (National Ukrainian Report, 2006)

For the populations in all the contaminated territories together –
European Russia 1,789,000 (1999), Belarus 1,571,000 (2001) and Ukraine
2,290,000 (2002) – and based on the additional rate in Russia, the
total number of extra deaths from Chernobyl in Belarus, Ukraine and
the European part of Russia is estimated to be 212,000 for the first
15 years after the catastrophe.

While this calculation seems straightforward, it might underestimate
the real figures for three reasons according to Khudoley et al.
(2006):

1. Official data about the radioactive contamination for Belgorod and
Lipetsk provinces do not correlate with corresponding changes in
health statistics after Chernobyl, meaning that the differences in
mortality between contaminated and non-contaminated populations that
were found might actually be greater. If so, the Ukrainian mortality
rate of 4.2 percent may be more realistic than the Russian 3.75
percent.

2. It is well known that there was considerable contamination –
sometimes more than 1 Ci/km2 – not only in the six regions under
consideration but also in 10 other regions of the European part of
Russia, meaning that the total death toll for Russia may be higher.

3. The calculations cover a 15-year period (1990–2004), omitting the
years between 1986-1990.

When we apply the additional mortality of 34 extra deaths per 1,000
population for the 15 years 1990-2004, which was derived above, to the
cohort of liquidators not living in contaminated zones (400,000), to
the evacuees and to people who moved away from contaminated areas
(350,000), then we expect another 25,500 deaths in this period. The
overall number of Chernobyl-related deaths up until 2004 in the former
USSR is estimated to be 237,500.

Assuming that 10 million people in Europe, outside the former Soviet
Union, live in territories with a Cs-137 ground contamination higher
than 40 kilobecquerels per square meter, or 40 kBq/m2 (>1.08 Ci/km2),
and that the mortality risk is only half that determined in the
Chernobyl region, that is, 17 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants – and with
better food and better medical and socioeconomic status – up until
2004, we can expect an additional 170,000 deaths in Europe.

Assuming further that the other 150 million Europeans living in
territories with a Cs-137 ground contamination below 40 kBq/m2, the
additional mortality will be 10-fold less – i.e., 1.7 deaths per 1,000
in 1990-2004 – then we can expect 150,000 x 1.7 or 255,000 more deaths
in the rest of Europe.

Given that 20 percent of the radionuclides released from the Chernobyl
reactor were deposited outside Europe, with an exposed population of
190 million and with a risk factor of 1.7 per 1,000 as before, we can
expect 323,000 additional deaths outside Europe by 2004.

Data from multiple scientists estimate the overall mortality from the
Chernobyl catastrophe, for the period from April 1986 to the end of
2004, to be 985,000, similar to those of Gofman (1994a) and Bertell
(2006) and a hundred times more than the WHO/IAEA estimate.

Overall effects of radioactive fallout
While fallout was measured in many countries, multiple short half-life
isotopes were largely un-measured. Decades of research have confirmed
that radioisotopes become deposited in various parts of living
systems. In humans, I-131 and I-129 concentrate in the thyroid, Cs-137
in soft tissue, and Sr-90 in teeth and bones.

Combined effects from exposure to multiple isotopes that concentrate
in various portions of a human or animal have not been fully examined,
however, by comparing disease rates in communities with increased
levels of radiation to others with low levels, or pre-Chernobyl
levels, while maintaining similar socio-economic factors, distinct
patterns of effect emerged in those who received the Chernobyl
fallout.

Fallout deposition was uneven and remains uneven. Aerial measurements
were largely of Cs-137 fallout, which has a gamma component detectable
from a plane or helicopter, but even with monitoring, hot spots
remained ill defined. The effects of “hot particles” was first
documented when upper respiratory, skin and eye problems became
manifest soon after the Chernobyl explosions. The particles consist of
radioactive metal, largely alpha emitters that cause significant
damage when in contact with living cells.

The effects from the Chernobyl catastrophe change over time, many
ongoing and some increasing in adverse effect as, for example,
Plutonium-241 (Pu-241) that decays to Americium-241 (Am-241), with a
half-life of 432 years. Am-241 is water-soluble, moves through the
food chain, and emits both gamma and alpha radiation. The ultimate
effect upon migratory birds and sea life is not yet determined, but
such contamination could result in the collapse of significant numbers
of species and food sources.

A 2008 publication of the Ministry of Ukraine of Emergencies and
Affairs of Public Protection from the Consequences of Chernobyl
(“Atlas of Ukraine Radioactive Contamination”) shows dire predictions
for the spread of increasing amounts of Am-241 around the Chernobyl
site, westward into the Pinsk Marshes that form the border between
Ukraine and Belarus, and south into the Dnepr River where it flows
into the Black Sea near Odessa, empties through the Bosporus to the
Aegean, and ultimately reaches the Mediterranean Sea.

The westward spread is augmented by commercial canal traffic that
connects the Priyapat River to the Bug, Vistula and Oder Rivers and
finally into the Baltic Sea. Thus in addition to the atmospheric
spread immediately after the disaster, contamination continues to
spread via water routes.

To date, not every living system has been studied, but of those that
have – animals, birds, fish, amphibians, invertebrates, insects,
trees, plants, bacteria, viruses and humans – many with genetic
instability across generations all sustained changes, some permanent
and some fatal. Wild and domestic animals develop diseases similar to
those found in humans

It takes 10 decades for an isotope to completely decay, thus the
approximately 30-year half-lives for Sr-90 and Cs-137 mean it will
take nearly three centuries before they have decayed, a mere blink of
the eye when compared to Plutonium-239 (Pu-239) with a half-life of
24,100 years.

The human and economic costs are enormous: In the first 25 years, the
direct economic damage to Belarus, Ukraine and Russia has exceeded
$500 billion. To mitigate some of the consequences, Belarus spends
about 20 percent of its national annual budget, Ukraine up to 6
percent and Russia up to 1 percent. Funding from other countries and
from the U.N. is essential to continue scientific studies and to
provide help to those who continue to live with significant
radioactive contamination.

The human and economic costs are enormous: In the first 25 years, the
direct economic damage to Belarus, Ukraine and Russia has exceeded
$500 billion. Belarus spends about 20 percent of its national annual
budget to mitigate some of the consequences.
The tragedy of Chernobyl shows that societies everywhere – especially
Japan, France, India, China, the United States and Germany – must
consider the importance of independent, publicly available radiation
monitoring of both food and individual in-body irradiation levels with
the aim of documenting the danger and preventing additional harm and
to have stable potassium iodide (KI) readily available to prevent
thyroid damage.

Given profound weather effects – earthquakes, floods, tsunamis etc. –
human fallibility and military conflicts, many believe that it is only
a matter of time before there is another nuclear catastrophe. Nuclear
fallout knows no state or national boundaries and will contribute to
increase in illnesses, decrease in intelligence and in instability
throughout the world. The economic costs of radioactive pollution and
care of contaminated citizens are staggering. No country can maintain
itself if its citizens are economically, intellectually, politically
and socially impoverished.*

When a radiation release occurs, we do not know in advance the part of
the biosphere it will contaminate, the animals, plants and people that
will be affected, nor the amount or duration of harm. In many cases,
damage is random, depending upon the health, age and status of
development and the amount, kind and variety of radioactive
contamination that reaches humans, animals and plants. For this
reason, international support of research on the consequences of
Chernobyl must continue in order to mitigate the ongoing and
increasing damage. Access to information must be transparent and open
to all, across all borders. The WHO must assume independent
responsibility in support of international health.

Given the continuing and known problems caused by the Chernobyl
catastrophe, we must ask ourselves: Before we commit ourselves to
economic and technological support of nuclear energy, who, what and
where are we willing to sacrifice and for how long?

Footnotes
Almond, D., Edlund, L. and Palme, M., “Chernobyl’s subclinical legacy:
Prenatal exposure to radioactive fallout and school outcomes in
Sweden.” Retrieved Aug. 3, 2009, from http://www.nuwinfo.se/almond-edlund-palme20070811.html
2007

Bertell, R. “The death toll of the Chernobyl accident.” In: Busby,
C.C. and Yablokov, A.V., (Eds.), “ECRR Chernobyl 20 Years On: Health
Effects of the Chernobyl Accident.” ECRR Doc. 1, Green Audit Books,
Aberystwyth, pp. 245, 248, 2006

Gofman, J.W., “Chernobyl Accident: Radioactive Consequences for the
Existing and Future Generations.” Vysheihsaya Shcola, Minsk. 576 pp.,
1994 (in Russian)

Heiervang, K.S., et al. “Effect of low dose ionizing radiation
exposure in utero in cognitive function in adolescence.” Scandinavian
Journal of Psychology, 2010, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2010.00814.x

Holt, E., “Debate over health effects of Chernobyl re-ignited.”
Lancet. 375(9724): 1424-1425, 2010

Khudoley, V.V., Blokov, I.P., Sadovnichik, T., and Bysaro, S.,
“Attempt to estimate the consequences of Chernobyl catastrophe for
population living in the radiation-contaminated territories of
Russia.” In: Blokov, I.P. (Ed.), “Consequences of Chernobyl Accident:
Estimation and Prognosis of Additional Mortality and Cancer Diseases.”
Center for Independent Environmental Assessment, Greenpeace-Russia,
pp. 3-19, 2006 (in Russian)

Mangano, J.J. and Sherman, J.D., “Elevated in vivo strontium-90 from
nuclear weapons test fallout among cancer decedents: A case-control
study of deciduous teeth,” International Journal of Health Services,
41(1):137–58, 2011

Moller, A.P., Mousseau, T.A., “Efficiency of bio-indicators for low-
level radiation under field conditions.” Ecological Indicators, doi:
10.1016/j.ecolinf.2010.06.013 (pdf)

Ministry of Ukraine, “Emergencies and Affairs of Public Protection
from the Consequences of Chernobyl,” “Atlas of Ukraine Radioactive
Contamination,” Intelligence Systems GEO, Ltd., 2002, 2008

National Ukrainian Report. “Twenty Years of Chernobyl Catastrophe.
Future Outlook.” (Kiev) www.mns.gov.ua/news_show.php? 2006 (in
Russian)

Sherman, J.D. “Life’s Delicate Balance: Causes and Prevention of
Breast Cancer.” Taylor and Francis. New York. 273 pp. 2000

Wertelecki, W. “Malformations in a Chornobyl-impacted region.”
Pediatrics, 125(4): 836-843, 2010

Yablokov, A.V., Nesterenko, V.B., Nesterenko, A.V., “Chernobyl
Consequences for People and Nature.” “Nauka” Publ., Sankt-Petersburg,
367 pp., 2007

Yablokov, A.V., Nesterenko, V.B., and Nesterenko, A.V., Sherman-
Nevinger, J.D., Consulting Editor, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the
Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” New York Academy of
Sciences, 1181:1-327, 2009

SOURCE: http://sfbayview.com/2011/chernobyl-consequences-of-the-catastrophe-25-years-later/
Taka
2011-06-07 08:27:44 UTC
Permalink
Ground in Tokyo 220 km from the crippled plant is highly contaminated
- see for yourself:



5.5 uSv/hour is more than you are exposed to on a transcontinental
flight at an altitude 10km and the airplane radiation is not
absorbable into the body. Moreover this Geiger counter only measures
gamma rays not the most dangerous plutonium alpha rays which were used
to poison the Russian spy:

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

and the nuclear hell at Fukushima is still going on:

http://atmc.jp/plant/rad/?n=1

"If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding
cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area,
because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain
viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years
later, that person develops cancer…..It’s imperative that people
understand that internal emitters cause cancer, but the incubation
time for cancer is any time from two to 60 years. …
"
VIDEO Nuclear industry propaganda about low-level radiation is
“absolute rubbish” says physician who taught at Harvard Med School —
It’s all about internal emitters« Energy News Energy News, HELEN
CALDICOTT 4 April 11, : … Up to a million people have already died
from Chernobyl, and people will continue to die from cancer for
virtually the rest of time. What we should know is that a millionth of
a gram of plutonium, or less, can induce cancer, or will induce
cancer. Each reactor has 250 kilos, or 500 pounds, of plutonium in it.
You know, there’s enough plutonium in these reactors to kill everyone
on earth.

"I was commissioned to write an article for the New England Journal of
Medicine about the dangers of nuclear power. I spent a year
researching it. You’ve bought the propaganda from the nuclear
industry. They say it’s low-level radiation. That’s absolute rubbish.
If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding
cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area,
because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain
viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years
later, that person develops cancer. Now, that’s true for radioactive
iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain
and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and
leukemia. It’s imperative, George, because you’re highly intelligent
and a very important commentator, that you understand internal
emitters and radiation, and it’s not low level to the cells that are
exposed. Radiobiology is imperative to understand these days. …

As it leaks into the water over time, it will bioconcentrate in the
food chains, in the breast milk, in the fetuses, that are thousands of
times more radiosensitive than adults. One x-ray to the pregnant
abdomen doubles the incidence of leukemia in the child. And over time,
nuclear waste will induce epidemics of cancer, leukemia and genetic
disease, and random compulsory genetic engineering. And we’re not the
only species with genes, of course. It’s plants and animals. So, this
is an absolute catastrophe, the likes of which the world has never
seen before. …

I’m a physician, highly trained. I was on the faculty at Harvard
Medical School. My specialty is cystic fibrosis, the most common
genetic disease of childhood. …

It’s imperative that people understand that internal emitters cause
cancer, but the incubation time for cancer is any time from two to 60
years. …

Nuclear industry propaganda about low-level radiation is “absolute
rubbish” says physician who taught at Harvard Med School — It’s all
about internal emitters"
Taka
2011-06-07 08:29:36 UTC
Permalink
How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart Disease And Stroke

A mathematical model constructed by researchers at Imperial College
London predicts the risk of cardiovascular disease (heart attacks,
stroke) associated with low background levels of radiation. The model
shows that the risk would vary almost in proportion with dose.

Results, published October 23 in the open-access journal PLoS
Computational Biology, are consistent with risk levels reported in
previous studies involving nuclear workers.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and one of the
leading causes of disability in developed countries, as reported in
the paper and also by the World Health Organization. For some time,
scientists have understood how high-dose radiotherapy (RT) causes
inflammation in the heart and large arteries and how this results in
the increased levels of cardiovascular disease observed in many groups
of patients who receive RT. However, in the last few years, studies
have shown that there may also be cardiovascular risks associated with
the much lower fractionated doses of radiation received by groups such
as nuclear workers, but it is not clear what biological mechanisms are
responsible.

The Imperial College London team, led by Dr. Mark Little, has explored
a novel mechanism that suggests that radiation kills monocytes (a type
of white blood cell) in the arterial wall, which would otherwise bind
to monocyte chemo-attractant protein 1 (MCP-1). The resultant higher
levels of MCP-1 cause inflammation which leads to cardiovascular
disease. As well as being consistent with what is seen in nuclear
workers, the changes in MCP-1 caused by dietary cholesterol that are
predicted by the model are also consistent with experimental and
epidemiologic data.

If the mechanism is valid it implies that risks from low dose
radiation exposures (e.g., medical and dental X-rays), which until now
have been assumed to result only from cancer, may have been
substantially underestimated, say the authors.

The biological mechanism has yet to be experimentally tested. Further
research is planned to investigate this.

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091022202710.htm
Taka
2011-06-07 08:32:14 UTC
Permalink
Radioactive Waste Risks to the Great Lakes: Lessons from Fukushima

"...a serious accident is not just likely but inevitable."

This stark warning came from George Galatis to TIME Magazine in March,
1996. In an article entitled "NUCLEAR WARRIORS" by Eric Pooley, the
cautionary tale of whisteblowers George Galatis and George Betancourt
was recounted. Galatis, backed by Betancourt, suffered several years
of harrassment and intimidation from nuclear utility NU (Northeast
Utilities), as he struggled to force regulatory compliance at
Millstone Unit 1 in Connecticut. For two decades, NU had routinely
flouted U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) safety regulations
regarding thermal heat loads in high-level radioactive waste storage
pools. Not only were full cores of exceedingly hot irradiated nuclear
fuel rods routinely offloaded into storage pools -- an action that's
supposed to only be taken in emergency situations -- but plant workers
actually raced the offloading, in clear violation of NRC safety rules.
Such "hot rod races" actually caused a worker's rubber booties to
melt, as he was ordered to quickly unbolt the just-operating reactor
lid to allow for irradiated nuclear fuel unloading. Such flippant
disregard for the risks at the "ass end of the nuclear fuel cycle"
risked high-level radioactive waste storage pool boiling -- or even
sudden drain down. Either way, irradiated nuclear fuel could catch
fire, with catastrophic radioactivity releases outside containment,
and nightmarish consequences downwind. The Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear
catastrophe has shown that such risks are not abstract, hypothetical,
or theoretical -- but all too real. Despite all this, NRC was entirely
complicit with NU's disregard for high-level radioactive waste storage
pool safety. Despite supposed reforms in the aftermath of Galatis's
revelations, NRC still allows high-level radioactive waste storage
pools to be packed to the gills, without emergency back up power
supplies, nor even water level or temperature gauges. As Galatis
warned TIME in 1996, "...a serious accident is not just likely but
inevitable."

Commenting on the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear catastrophe, including
large-scale releases of hazardous radioactivity from burning high-
level radioactive waste storage pools, Galatis said to Intel Hub on
April 11, 2011:

“Since the start of the Japanese nuclear crisis, I have been very
concerned about its consequences to the Japanese people, to the
general public, and about the lack of attention to what I perceive as
being the real issue...The real issue is that of nuclear safety. Right
now the true risk to public health and safety associated with the
generation of nuclear power is intentionally kept from the public.
Because of misplaced trust, these enormous risks are in effect being
enforced on the public without their knowledge or consent. People need
to know about and agree to accept the real risks involved so that when
a scenario like Fukushima—or worse—arises here, there is already a
degree of acceptance. Without this formal public acceptance, nuclear
power will never be cost effective nor will it survive.”

Galatis calls high-level radioactive waste storage pools in the U.S.
"potential timebombs," with risks greater than Chernobyl.

Despite Galatis's courageous whistleblowing nearly 20 years ago (he
effectively sacrificed his career and livelihood, and was run out of
the nuclear power industry, with no protection from NRC), NRC has
allowed nuclear utilities to continue adding 20 to 30 tons of
additional high-level radioactive waste to their storage pools each
year. By 2015, almost every pool in the U.S. will be overfilled to the
maximum extent possible. Utilities keep them full, rather than
transferring the high-level radioactive wastes to safer (although
still not safe) dry cask storage. Why? To save money in the near term
-- in order to defer the relatively minor costs of installing dry cask
storage.

Most ironically, Millstone Unit 1 -- despite having been permamently
shut down, in large part thanks to Galatis's self-sacrificing
whistleblowing -- retains a packed-to-the-gills high-level radioactive
waste storage pools, despite having an identical design -- the General
Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor -- as the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant's Units 1 to 4. Beyond Nuclear, supported by a
growing number of grassroots groups who live in the shadows of 24 U.S.
Mark 1s, has fired an emergency enforcement petition off to NRC
demanding back up power on the pools, and immediate suspension of
operating licenses until the lessons of Fukushima can be learned, and
applied in the U.S.

SOURCE: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/radioactive-waste-whatsnew/2011/5/30/a-serious-accident-is-not-just-likely-but-inevitable.html
Taka
2011-06-08 01:43:48 UTC
Permalink
Chernobyl Heart

On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history occurred when
a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine,
releasing 90 times the radioactivity of the atomic bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sixteen years later, award-winning filmmaker
Maryann De Leo took her camera to ground zero, following the
devastating trail radiation leaves behind in hospitals, orphanages,
mental asylums and evacuated villages. The Academy Award®-winning
documentary short debuts immediately after the America Undercover
special “Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable”.

Following Adi Roche, founder of Ireland’s Chernobyl Children’s
Project, CHERNOBYL HEART opens in the exclusion zone, the most
radioactive environment on earth. From there, Roche travels to
Belarus, home to many of the children she seeks to aid. The film
reveals those hardest hit by radiation, including thyroid cancer
patients and children suffering from unfathomable congenital birth and
heart defects.

Despite the fact that 99% of Belarus is contaminated with radioactive
material, many people refuse to leave their homes behind. Asked why he
would not move, the father of a radiation victim replies, “To leave
the motherland where you were born and raised, where your soul is
connected to the earth – I would not want to. To move to a new place
is difficult, especially in terms of a job in Belarus and abroad.”

In Belarus, only 15-20% of babies are born healthy. Roche comforts
children who are born with multiple holes in their heart, a condition
known in Belarus as “Chernobyl heart.” A lucky few will have their
heart problems fixed by Dr. William Novick, who heads the
International Children’s Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization
dedicated to helping children with congenital or acquired heart
disease in developing countries throughout the world. After saving the
life of a young girl suffering from Chernobyl heart and being humbled
by her parents’ gratitude, Dr. Novick affirms, “I appreciate this is a
bit of a miracle for them…but we have a certain responsibility to
these kids.”

MOVIE: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/chernobyl-heart/

RELATED: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/ff_chernobyl/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petkau_effect (low dose worst than high
dose)

The place they manufacture these deadly poisons:

http://www.jaea.go.jp/english/04/tokai-cycle/03.htm
Taka
2011-05-31 16:51:16 UTC
Permalink
The Plutonium Danger

Fukushima Daiichi's Unit 3 reactor is partially* filled with (melted)
nuclear fuel called MOX - or mixed-oxide fuel - composed of a blend of
uranium-oxide with plutonium-oxide. Plutonium oxide is a molecule that
combines the element plutonium with oxygen - its chemical form is
239Pu02, which is technically called plutonium dioxide (we will call
it just plutonium oxide for simplicity).

Plutonium oxide is not the same as metallic plutonium. The latter is
highly flammable, and combustible. When plutonium metal is in the form
of fine shavings and exposed to air it spontaneously ignites and burns
- this is called a pyrophoric explosion (a pyrphoric material
spontaneously ignites upon contact with air). Upon exploding, metallic
plutonium adheres to oxygen to form plutonium oxide particles, which
are extremely tiny (0.2-2 micron sized) and can exist sometimes as
just one molecule in size. For this reason plutonium oxide is
extremely 'mobile' - it can travel long distances on winds. Because of
accidents throughout the atomic age, the most common form of plutonium
in the environment is plutonium oxide. Plutonium oxide lingers in our
environment from plutonium that was burned (i.e. fires at Greenham
Common, Thule, Windscale, Rocky Flats, nuclear rocket testing at NRDS,
etc...) and from plutonium oxide that was deliberately or accidentally
released (i.e., Project 57, Palomares, SNAP 9A re-entry). Because
plutonium oxide is insoluble, the greatest health risk is via
inhalation - actually this is the most hazardous chemical form for the
production of lung cancer (Note however that soil funguses can change
plutonium oxide into a soluble form.)

Plutonium oxide (or dioxide), unlike metallic plutonium, won't change
its form when burned. It is already oxidized. Plutonium oxide is not a
gas - it is a solid.

So, the plutonium oxide fuel in Unit 3 won't explode upon contact with
air but as soon as it escapes from containment as a dust particle it
will travel considerable distances - this is known because if we can
conclude one thing from previous releases of plutonium oxide into the
atmosphere during the atomic age it is this: plutonium oxide ends up
traveling farther in distance than anyone ever imagines because it is
so 'mobile.' (This is the same case for uranium oxide, which is a
concern regarding the use of Depleted Uranium.) So, because (1) large
quantities of radiochemicals were ejected by the force of Fukushima's
hydrogen explosions and also from vaporization** - aka evaporation -
(from the high temperature of the melting fuel rods) and (2) plutonium
oxide can travel as easily in air as any other solid radiochemical -
it should be obvious that plutonium (and uranium) oxides landed
wherever fell radiocesiums, radiotelluriums, etc... across Japan and
the Northern Hemisphere. We can also assume that since the melted fuel
rods and the spent fuel rods, which in fact both contain metallic
plutonium (since all reactors naturally create weapons-grade metallic
plutonium in large quantities), have been exposed to air to varying
degrees, then this metallic plutonium has partially experienced
oxidization (combustion) and added to the inventory of plutonium oxide
in Japan's and Northern Hemisphere air.

This means that large sections of the Japanese public could have
already absorbed lifetime fatal doses of radiation just from plutonium
oxide - futhermore, because the crisis (and radiation releases) at
Fukushima is ongoing and Japanese society is largely ignorant of the
airborne and dietary threats posed by the environmental plutonium and
has implemented few measures for mitigating exposures, we can expect
that the total fatal cancer burden in Japan could rise theoretically
to 100% in one generation. This means that everyone in Japan who lives
to adulthood in the first half of the 21st century and doesn't
contract any other life-threatening diseases will experience premature
death due to cancer from their radiation exposures - the blame mostly
will be from Fukushima, but part of the blame will be from other
Japanese (and N. and S. Korean and Chinese) reactor emissions,
'background levels' of global fallout, and exposures to Cold War
legacy plutonium from seafood (thanks to Pacific Proving Ground
contamination) and inhalation (thanks to resuspended Lop Nor and
Soviet nuclear-site contamination).

* According to the article 'Latest find sounds scary but risk is
limited,' published on March 30, 2011 by The Japan Times, "Thirty-two
of the 548 fuel elements in reactor No. 3 use the mixed plutonium and
uranium oxide fuel, according to Tepco." The Fukushima Daiichi plant
began using MOX fuel in September 2010 and was the third plant in
Japan to go 'pluthermal' and experiment with the controversial fuel.
MOX has a lower melting point than conventional fuel - uranium oxide
pellets.

** Note that plutonium oxide has a lower boiling point than plutonium
- the boiling point of plutonium is 3,228 C whereas the boiling point
of plutonium oxide is 2,800 C

MORE AT: http://www.idealist.ws/contamination.php
Taka
2011-06-09 16:23:52 UTC
Permalink
Summer Brings New Problems Affecting Japan And World: Will Fukushima
Cause International Higher Mortality Rates?

“Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”
Albert Einstein

“There is a way of survival which will strengthen and help you.
There is also a way of destruction which will push you into
oblivion.”
I Ching

Over the last fifty years it has become apparent that nuclear energy
is full of dangers, some of which carry repercussions even greater
than those produced by a nuclear weapon. By way of their response to
the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear industry, regulatory
oversight committees, nuclear engineers, and leading scientific
experts have failed the global community. Their actions have proved
that they continually underestimated the situation, and did not fully
understand it before making crucial decisions.

The quantities of radiation released to date are unprecedented, say
the Japanese government, and they are very sorry for having withheld
important information. They will also likely claim it “unprecedented”
as people across the island nation and northern hemisphere are
subjected to short and long term exposure to radioactive materials
emitted from the power plants 3 reactors in full meltdown.

It has been known for over 20 years that it would only take one
nuclear reactor to contaminate over half of the planet. The old
criteria for measuring a nuclear accident, and acceptable levels of
radiation exposure no longer apply. There are many medical studies
whose results lay in direct contrast to the statistics provided by
international nuclear reports. While there have been many other
nuclear disasters, there has never been one at this scale. There is
rising concerns that fallout from testing during the 1950s may have
weakened the immune systems of the youth, making them more susceptible
to future biological effects of additional fallout from other
disasters.

Science has long studied the effects of stress, extreme disasters, and
imminent death on the actions and thought process of those working on-
scene, as well as those living in the surrounding area. The danger of
radiation is that it is undetectable, and when faced with a threat
that exceeds understanding and imagination, the majority of the those
affected have trouble believing the threat is real.

Radiation affects the body directly through the tissue, muscles,
bones, and other organs in the body. The most terrifying aspect of
radiation is that it destroys and mutates DNA in the human body,
destroying what makes an individual “human” -- including the unique
strand of DNA that sets you apart from all of the other carbon-based
life-forms on the earth today. Low-level radiation promotes the slow
release of ‘free radicals’, or unstable molecules. Production of the
most common, oxygen free radicals, is increased by protracted exposure
to the radioactivity of ingested fission products. Oxygen free
radicals (unstable oxygen molecules with an extra electron) are
attracted to the membranes of cells, which they then disable.
At Chernobyl, there was less than 150 tons of waste entombed in the
final sarcophagus. More than half of the Caesium-137 released in the
explosion was carried in the atmosphere to other European nations. At
Fukushima it is estimated there is close to 10,000 tons of melted
corium constantly working to escape the control of TEPCO and the
workers on-site.

There is no denying the truth of the dangers of radiation to the
workers on-site at Fukushima Daiichi, for the reality of those exposed
to high levels of radiation will peel away like their blistered skin.

Historically those workers on site have been left to deal with the
consequences of those who have initiated deceptive “security measures”
in a vain attempt to withhold the full extent of the damage. This is
the practice of “security” that has been initiated after every nuclear
disaster in history, the erroneous notion that panic is a greater
threat to the population of a nation than the dangers of exposure to
radioactive isotopes.

The Japanese government has declared an area 20km around the site of
the nuclear power plant at Fukushima Daiichi as a “no-go zone”.
Recently rises in ground level radiation outside of the evacuated zone
has been plauging health officials working tirelessly to keep the
public under control. Officials began attempting to pacify radiation
fears by equating the levels to the amounts received during trans-
oceanic flights, until nuclear experts began criticizing the
comparison considering the two types of radiation and the health
effects are not similar.

In fact, it is odd that this comparison was suggested in the first
place, after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, it was popular to
suggest the idea that the contamination caused by the Soviet nuclear
disaster exceeded the contaminating event of the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Scientific Committee on Problems of the
Environment (SCOPE) determined that a nuclear disaster and atomic
bombing cannot be directly compared, partially because of the
differences of isotopes that were produced from each event.

Governing bodies would have the public believe that even though
science cannot compare a nuclear disaster with an atomic bombing,
health officials can directly compare the effects of radiation from a
nuclear disaster to the effects of radiation received from a plane
trip.

These types of misleading comparisons have been a constant in a
otherwise ever-changing world of radiation quantification. The first
nuclear research reactors were designed to produce 100 Megawatts,
while todays industrial power plant on average produces over 1000
megawatts. As the power producing capabilities increase, so does the
legal amount of radiation exposure. Since March 11th, there have been
multiple increases of allowable radiation exposure limits to workers,
adults, and children. This is most concerning to nuclear experts,
because they know that deaths have occurred from inhaling or ingesting
just one grain of contaminated sand, or a piece of radioactive dust.

In May 2011, the Japanese Government raised the upper limit of safe
radiation expsure for children to 20 millisieverts per year, an
exponential increase over the previous limit of 1 millisievert per
year. The Japanese Government has claimed a cumulative dose of 500
millisieverts of radiation per year increases the risk of cancer.
After the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, it was found for a one year
old child that only received between 10 and 20 mSv ran the risk of
developing a fatal cancer.

According to multiple reports include the UNSCEAR report, up to 80,000
children have been born with congenital deformations in the Chernobyl
region, and up to 200,000 genetically damaged children worldwide. The
Chernobyl data is known to not be accurate, as medical workers were
limited by the government as to how many death certificates they could
file listing an effect of radiation as the cause of death. Over the
first three years after the initial accident authorities continued
falsifying medical data, rendering much of the possible research
impossible. According to a WHO prognosis, in the Belarussian region
of Gomel alone, more than 50,000 children will develop thyroid cancer
during their lives.

Questionable comparisons aside, there are some worrying correlations
linking radiation and numerous health effects and death, even as far
as the other side of the world. Scientists and health officials for
the last 20 years have debated the correlation between radioactivity
in milk and mortality rates even in low radiation conditions that are
beneath regulation ceilings. .

The seasonal patterns of mortality in developed countries is fairly
stable, so much so that the ods of a rise or fall of even 3 or 4
percent is one in one million. Anomalies are investigated and tracked
by experts and statisticians. One of the noted anomalies was the
death rate in the United States the summer of 1986.

From the Los Angeles Times, Februrary 13th, 1988

Was Chernobyl the Cause of Higher U.S. Mortality?
Over the 80 years before 1986, 31.7% of each year's deaths occurred,
on average, during the months of May to August. In 1986 that
percentage rose to 33.1%--the highest this century--up from the
1983-85 average of 32%.
The explosion of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union on
April 26, 1986--and, in particular, the ensuing radioactivity plume
that reached America 11 days later--may offer a clue. As the
radioactivity arrived, rainwater samples in America's Northwest
recorded 46 pico- curies (pc) of radioactivity per liter. By May 12,
in Washington state, the level had risen to 6,620 pc per liter.
In milk samples--a routine indicator of radioactivity--the
concentration of radioactive iodine-131 peaked at about 130 pc per
liter, compared with 1985's average of below 7. Because the 130 peak
was less than 1% of the U.S. government's ceiling (15,000 pc per
liter), no action was taken. The levels were, after all, between 100
and 1,000 times lower than those recorded across Europe after the
disaster.
The highest concentrations were seen in Pacific states such as
Washington and California, where the number of deaths in the four
months was 5% higher than it had been in May-August, 1985. In areas
recording the lowest concentrations--such as Texas and Arizona--the
number of deaths was unchanged from the previous summer. That
relationship between radioactivity and death held true across the
country. Tests showed that for these correlations, sheer coincidence
was hardly possible.

SOURCE: http://news.lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/2011/06/summer-brings-new-problems-affecting.html
Taka
2011-06-09 16:54:37 UTC
Permalink


THE STUPIDEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE THE JAPANESE ENGINEERS WHO
DESIGNED FUKUSHIMA SITE.

Millions and million of people are going to die from cancer because of
the Fukushima Catastrophe.

The engineers that designed the site that is over forty years old
placed the Emergency Diesel Generators where they could be douched if
a three meter tsunami struck the site. Four meter tsunami's are quite
common in Japan because of all of the offshore earthquakes.

They designed the sea walls for a two meter tsunami. A good rule of
thumb for the run up (on shore rush) from a tsunami is add a ZERO and
count in feet. Thus a two meter tsunami can cause a run up over 20
feet. A three meter tsunami can cause a run up of 30 feet and a four
meter tsunami can cause a run up of 40 feet. The fact that a tsunami
did not hit Fukushima in the past forty years is a miracle from God.
God, or Budda or just Luck gave the Japanese 40 years in which to
correct their mistake but they never did.

Not only did they put the Emergency Diesel Generators where they could
be douched and knocked out by a 4 foot tsunami, but they put the motor
controllers and most of the motors for the whole plant where they
could be flooded by sea water.

Not only that but they put their instrumentation wiring in underground
conduits where they could be flooded by water if the insulation had
any minor defects in it. Guess what? It did!

Not only that but they designed the reactor control stations so that
they were co-joined. In an accident in one or the other plant that
released high radiation levels they would have to abandon BOTH control
centers, which is what happened.

Not only that but they only had one source of outside electricity from
the Japanese grid to the plant. When that line went down in the
earthquake they lost power to the plant. The most serious accident you
can have with a Nuclear power plant is loss of electrical power. When
you consider that Millions of lives are at stake, how come in the past
forty years did it not occur to TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company)
to run back up lines from other sources to Fukushima? 40 Fukin years
to realize that they needed another emergency source of Electrical
Power from the Power Company (Which was TEPCO) and not one Fukin
engineer realized how Fukin stupid the original engineers were.
Taka
2011-06-16 02:04:16 UTC
Permalink
http://www.jonmwang.com/blog/2011/04/13/the-battle-of-chernobyl-documentary/

http://www.say2.org/the-battle-of-chernobyl/01.htm

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster
Taka
2011-06-16 02:07:53 UTC
Permalink

Taka
2011-06-16 11:22:56 UTC
Permalink
What to expect after Fukushima ? Fasten your seat belts at least for
this:

http://www.euradcom.org/publications/chernobylebook.pdf

http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/28/073/28073803.pdf

http://www.greenpeace.to/publications/Chernobyl_Health_Report.pdf
Taka
2011-06-16 14:54:59 UTC
Permalink
Signature of radiation induced thyroid cancer

AP READY EVIDENCE: The study was successful because the researchers
had carefully collected, documented and stored samples of thyroid
cancer tissues from the Chernobyl region in the Chernobyl tissue
bank.

It is now possible to discriminate between cancers caused by intake of
a radioactive material and those that arise spontaneously

Recently, scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen have
identified a genetic change in thyroid cancer as a signature or
fingerprint that points to a previous exposure of the thyroid to
ionizing radiation. They discovered the gene marker in papillary
thyroid cancer cases from the victims of Chernobyl; this marker was
absent in the thyroid cancers in patients with no history of radiation
exposure.

This breakthrough has profound biological significance. Now, for the
first time, scientists have been able to discriminate between the
cancers caused by the intake of a radioactive material and those that
arise spontaneously.

Cancer occurence

Most cancers occur spontaneously or when cells get exposed to certain
viruses or chemicals or a physical agent such as ionizing radiation.
So far, there was no way to identify uniquely a radiation cancer from
a naturally occurring cancer.

The researchers led by Prof Horast Zitzelsberger and Dr Kristian Unger
from the Radiation Genetics Unit of the Helmholtz Zentrums Munchen in
collaboration with Prof. Geraldine Thomas, Imperial College London,
examined the thyroid cancers from children exposed to the radioiodine
fallout from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station.

After decay

For comparison, they looked for the same genetic change in thyroid
cancers of children born more than one year after the explosion, after
all radioiodine decayed away. Iodine-131 has a half life of 8 days.

Scientists found that the number of copies of a small fragment of
chromosome 7 was increased only in the cancers from the irradiated
children.

Writing in the May 23, 2011 issue of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers noted that this is one of
the first genetic markers that indicate a radiation aetiology of
cancer.

Normally, humans have 46 chromosomes. Two copies of chromosome 7, one
inherited from each parent are present in every cell. Forty one
disorders are associated with genes on chromosome 7. Changes in the
number or structure of chromosome 7 occur frequently in human cancers.
According to National Institutes of Health (NIH), some genes in
chromosome 7 may play critical roles in controlling the growth and
division of cells.

“Without these genes, cells could grow and divide too quickly or in an
uncontrolled way resulting in a cancerous tumour”, NIH clarified in
Genetic Home Reference.

According to Professor Zitzelsberger, the availability of the genetic
marker will improve both the clinical diagnosis of thyroid cancer and
our understanding of how radioiodine causes the disease to develop
(Bioscience Technology, May 24, 2011).

Researchers will extend the study to determine if the genetic
fingerprint is able to indicate the dose required to cause cancer.

The study was successful because the researchers had carefully
collected, documented and stored samples of thyroid cancer tissues
from the Chernobyl region in the Chernobyl tissue bank, a unique
venture to establish a collection of biological samples from tumours
and normal tissues from patients for whom the cause of their disease
is known as exposure to radioiodine in childhood.

The unique collection of materials made it possible for the team to
compare for the first time tumours from children of the same age and
regional background (insciences.org, May 24, 2011)

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station led to
contamination of milk with iodine-131, a radioactive isotope of
iodine. If authorities administered stable iodine promptly during the
early phase, radiation dose to the thyroid would have been negligible.
Stable iodine saturates the thyroid so that the gland will not receive
radioactive iodine when it arrives.

Not implemented

Unfortunately, this measure was not implemented at Chernobyl. The
exposed population received large doses to their thyroid; this led to
a significant fraction of the more than 6,000 thyroid cancers observed
to date among people who were children or adolescents at the time of
the accident. By 2005, 15 of these patients died.

Thyroid cancers will not occur in Fukushima because as per emergency
plan the management at Fukushima promptly evacuated the population
from the affected regions and supplied stable iodine to the evacuees.

SOURCE: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article2107090.ece
Taka
2011-06-16 15:56:22 UTC
Permalink
Fukushima: It's much worse than you think
Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse
than governments are revealing to the public.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Radiation monitors for children

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

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

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

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph
Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in
infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima
meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken
nuclear plant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

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

Blame the US?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A problem of infinite proportions

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

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

Gundersen pointed out that the units are still leaking radiation.

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

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

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

Gundersen's assessment of solving this crisis is grim.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOURCE: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html
Taka
2011-06-17 06:53:00 UTC
Permalink
eSci: Unsafe Radiation Found Near Tokyo, Vast Area of Japan
Contaminated

Japan is dangerously contaminated by radioactivity over a far larger
area than previously reported by TEPCO and the central government
according to new reports from multiple sources. The prefectural
government of Iwate released new data that shows radioactive
contamination of grass exceeds safety standards at a distance of 90 to
125 miles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants.
The prefectural government found on Tuesday radioactive cesium
exceeding the limit of 300 becquerels per kilogram in grass collected
from pastures in four areas, including Tono and Otsuchi. The areas are
located about 150 to 200 kilometers north of the Fukushima nuclear
power plant.

Science Magazine reports that Japanese scientists have become so
concerned about the health of their children that they have initiated
their own radiation monitoring program and made their own maps. The
results are shocking.
Parents in Tokyo's Koto Ward enlisted the help of Tomoya Yamauchi, a
radiation physicist at Kobe University, to measure radiation in their
neighborhood. Local government officials later joined the act,
ordering radiation checks of schoolyards and other public places and
posting the results on their Web sites. An anonymous volunteer
recently plotted the available 6300 data points on a map. And Yukio
Hayakawa, a volcanologist at Gunma University, turned that plot into a
radiation contour map.

It shows one wide belt of radiation reaching 225 kilometers south from
the stricken reactors to Tokyo and another extending to the southwest.
Within those belts are localized hot spots, including an oval that
encloses northeast Tokyo and Kashiwa and neighboring cities in Chiba
Prefecture.

Radiation in this zone is 0.4 microsieverts per hour, or about 3.5
millisieverts per year. That is a fraction of the radiation found
throughout much of Fukushima Prefecture, which surrounds the nuclear
power plant. But it is still 10 times background levels and even above
the 1-millisievert-per-year limit for ordinary citizens set by
Japanese law. The health effects of such low doses are not clear and
are passionately debated. But it is known that children are more
susceptible to radiation than adults, and few parents want to take
chances with a child's health. Besides, $B!H(BThe law should be observed,$B!I(B
Yamauchi says. Kyo Kageura, an information scientist at the University
of Tokyo, says there should be a public discussion of the issue,
$B!H(Bbased on a scrupulous presentation of the data, including to what
extent the 1-millisievert limit can be achieved.$B!I(B

A map of citizen measured radiation levels shows radioactivity is
distributed in a complex pattern reflecting the mountainous terrain
and the shifting winds across a broad area of Japan north of Tokyo
which is in the center of the of bottom of the map.

Radiation limits begin to be exceeded at just above 0.1 microsieverts/
hour blue. Red is about fifty times the civilian radiation limit at
5.0 microsieverts/hour. Because children are much more sensitive than
adults, these results are a great concern for parents of young
children in potentially affected areas.

A very disturbing report about parents concerned about possible
radiation sickness in children appeared in a local Japanese paper.

Tokyo Shinbun (paper edition only, 6/16/2011) reports that many
children in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture, 50 kilometers from
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, are suffering inexplicable nosebleed,
diarrhea, and lack of energy since the nuke plant accident.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the report or the translation, but
given the data collected by concerned scientists reported in the map
above, it may be credible.
What's happening to children in Koriyama City in Fukushima right now?
Nosebleed, diarrhea, lack of energy - "Effect of radiation unknown"
says the doctor

Report by Ao Ideta, Tokyo Shinbun, June 16, 2011

On June 12, a non-profit organization called "The Bridge to
Chernobyl" ($B%A%'%k%N%V%$%j$X$N$+$1$O$7(B) held a free clinic in Koriyama City in
Fukushima Prefecture, 50 kilometers [west] from Fukushima I Nuclear
Power Plant.

Worried about the effect of radiation exposure, 50 families brought
their children to see the doctor.

A 39-year-old mother of two told the doctor that her 6-year-old
daughter had nosebleed everyday for 3 weeks in April. For 1 week, the
daughter bled copiously from both nostrils. The mother said their
doctor told her it was just a seasonal allergy from pollen. Her other
child, 2-year-old son, had nosebleed from end of April to May.

The pediatrician from The Bridge to Chernobyl, Yurika Hashimoto, told
the mother it was hard to determine whether the nosebleed was the
result of radiation exposure, but they should have the blood test done
for white blood cells. It was important to keep record, the doctor
advised.

The family move out temporarily from Koriyama City to Saitama
Prefecture after the March 11 earthquake, but came back to Koriyama at
the end of March.

The mother said about 10% of pupils at the elementary school have left
Koriyama. Each school in Koriyama decides whether to have the pupils
drink local milk that the school provide, which tends to concentrate
radioactive materials. In her daughter's school, it is up to the
parents to decide. But the mother said she let the daughter drink milk
with other children because the daughter didn't want to get excluded
by other children for not drinking milk with them.

A 40-year-old father of a 4-month-old baby daughter was so worried
that he never let the daughter go outside, even though she didn't
exhibit any ill effect of radiation so far. He said, "I'm so worried.
I don't know how to defend ourselves."

I [the reporter of the story] used the radiation monitoring device
over the low bush near the place where this event was being held. It
measured 2.33 microsieverts/hour. As I raised the device higher, the
radiation level went down to 1 microsievert/hour. The highest air
radiation measured in Koriyama City was 8.26 microsieverts/hour on
March 15. Since middle of May, it has been about 1.3 microsievert/
hour.

If you live one year in a place with 1.3 microsievert/hour radiation,
the cumulative radiation will exceed 11 millisieverts. [And that's
only the external exposure.]

SOURCE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/16/985938/-eSci:-Unsafe-Radiation-Found-Near-Tokyo,-Vast-Area-of-Japan-Contaminated

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

talk about INTERNAL exposures from contaminated food and the hot
particles from the air ... Taka
Taka
2011-06-18 02:23:15 UTC
Permalink
This is NO joke, the incompetent Japanese use liquid sodium to cool
plutonium reactor and it is damaged now!!!

http://enenews.com/precarious-struggle-another-plutonium-reactor-japan-6000-lb-device-crashed-inner-vessel-stuck-removing-fraught-dangers
Taka
2011-06-19 16:31:44 UTC
Permalink
"According to Kei Watabe, who distributes food, people are not
starving, 'but they are not getting enough food from the government.
Japan is not the Third World. This is not Africa. The Japanese
government are the first to send aid overseas, but when it comes to
their own people they are blind.'
If these tsunami victims have been deprived of food, the rest of Japan
has been starved of information. The Japanese are now struggling to
comprehend how their government could mislead them about the nuclear
meltdown that followed the tsunami.
When the Fukushima nuclear plant exploded on March 12, and again two
days later, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant's
operator, the government and the media, reassured the nation, and the
world, that everything was under control.
It was not until May 12 that officials conceded that there had been a
meltdown at not one, but three reactors. Even the timing of the
announcement was cynical. It happened as inspectors from the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were about to arrive.
TEPCO was able to control information through the age-old system of
Press Clubs, where the government provides information to selected
media.

But The Mail on Sunday spoke to sources inside the Japanese nuclear
industry who knew that radiation readings spiked 155 miles south of
Fukushima, immediately after the first explosion. They were told by
officials to keep the findings quiet.
A survey by Fuji Television Network last month found that 81 per cent
of the public no longer trusts any government information about
radiation.

Food shopping has also become a problem. Shops have started mixing
vegetables from different prefectures as customers are now selecting
food based on where it is grown.
In an attempt to reassure the nation, the Japanese Prime Minister,
Naoto Kan, visted Fukushima last month where he cheerfully ate locally
grown cherries and tomatoes in front of the news cameras. As he spoke,
bulldozers were removing the top soil from Fukushima school
playgrounds due to high radiation levels.

Michael Penn, president of the Shingetsu News Agency, says: 'The media
and the government share a cultural inclination to keep the people
calm. But this time the government have badly misunderstood the
public's needs.'
It is not the first time that the government and bureaucrats have
neglected public safety. In the early Nineties around 1,800 people
developed AIDS after being infected with untreated blood products.
Most victims were dead before the Ministry of Health admitted
negligence.

According to a well-known Japanese documentary maker, TEPCO paid for
the creation of a blacklist of actors and musicians who are against
the nuclear industry.
When one actor, Taro Yamamoto, joined an anti-nuclear protest, he lost
his part in a popular soap opera. Yamamoto's 'crime' was to say that
schoolchildren in Fukushima should not be subjected to the same annual
radiation dose (20 microsieverts per year) as nuclear power workers in
Europe.
One hundred days after the biggest earthquake in Japanese history,
life is certainly not back to normal. One refugee told me: 'My biggest
worry is that the people here will be forgotten as the media focus on
the nuclear crisis.'
And 'wa', the harmony, is disappearing as people feel that their
government has failed them."

MORE AT: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005289/The-toxic-truth-Japans-harmony-tsunami.html

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

And the greedy politicians want to restart the nuclear plants soon to
boost economy while secretly sending their children to "study"
overseas ...

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/kaieda-asks-local-govts-to-restart-nuclear-plants-after-safety-steps-confirmed

Taka
Taka
2011-06-19 17:30:43 UTC
Permalink
Northwest sees 35% infant mortality spike post-Fukushima
Medical professionals publish report highlighting post-Fukushima
mortality spike.

Physician Janette Sherman, M.D. and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano
published a report Monday highlighting a 35% spike in northwest infant
mortality after Japan's nuclear meltdown.

The report spotlighted data from the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report on infant mortality rates in eight northwest cities,
including Seattle, in the 10 weeks after Fukushima's nuclear meltdown.

The average number of infant deaths for the region moved from an
average of 9.25 in the four weeks before Fukushima' nuclear meltdown,
to an average of 12.5 per week in the 10 weeks after. The change
represents a 35% increase in the northwest's infant mortality rates.

In comparison, the average rates for the entire U.S. rose only 2.3%.

SOURCE: http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-northwest-sees-35-infant-mortality-spike-postfukushima-20110617,0,5968165.story
Taka
2011-06-20 01:57:06 UTC
Permalink
Chernobyl was 100 worse than the 2 bombs of WW2.

Fukushima is already worst than Chernobyl. By reading between the
lines, and knowledge of mechanical engineering on a master degree
level, and study of nuclear science and energy, I determined that
Fukushima would be 20 to 100 times worse than Chernobyl. Be advised.

I watched most of this video. These are heroes, hundreds of
thousands, throwing the entire resources of a country at a problem.

Compare this to "spin" and news effective blackout. Compare this to
an effort by a bankrupt corporation. There is trouble.

Please take the time, 10 minutes at least, to review this--skim
through sections. This is real video, of real people, at the real
scene. The commander have a grasp of the real dangers at hand, and
the dangers of lack of action in a timely manner.

VIDEO: http://oahutrading.blogspot.com/2011/06/video-on-chernobyl.html
Taka
2011-07-05 05:33:21 UTC
Permalink
Cesium and the alarm bells that never rang

Radioactive cesium that was stored in a cement plant in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, may have been sent airborne by a factory fire that began on
Monday morning. A Fox News story on the incident notes that citizens
are concerned but a local professor basically thinks it’s no big deal.

Radioactive cesium, if it's in Tulsa’s air in even small quantities,
would indeed be a big deal.

The white-metallic radioactive chemical, technically called
Cesium-137, emits dangerous gamma rays and can turn from its solid
form into a gaseous one during high-temperature fires (its boiling
point is 670C; when in a salt-state it can also evaporate but at a
higher temperature, still within the range of an industrial fire.)

If absorbed internally, Cesium-137 can replace potassium in the body
and possibly lead to cancer and other problems. Externally - if it
just floats around you, e.g. settles on your scalp, or legs, or arms -
Cesium-137 will shoot those gamma rays right through you. That’s not
good either.

Cesium-137 is found not only in factories but also hospitals and
actually everywhere in our natural environment because it is a fission
product from global nuclear weapons testing as well as an emissions
product from nuclear plant releases and also explosions, such as
Chernobyl.

Resulting from global nuclear testing by the U.S., U.K., France,
China, and USSR, Cesium-137 was littered all over the United States,
its surrounding oceans. Parts of the Intermountain West and Midwest
received a superimposed layer from Nevada Test Site fallout. That
Cesium-137 from 1950’s and 1960’s nuclear testing is still ‘hot,’
contrary to common knowledge. The presently lingering radiocesium is
now about one-quarter as radioactive as it was when it was deposited,
and it is still causing harm. Our soils, our foodstuffs, our water
supplies, and everything everywhere is contaminated, and our bodies
are constantly being 're-fortified' with this
'anthropogenic' (manmade) radiation.

Through the 1970s, we believe soil levels of Cesium-137 in some areas
in the United States exceeded current EPA 'action levels.' Since any
amount of radiation exposure carries a non-threshold level of risk, in
the 2010s we all still in danger from lingering fallout in the U.S.A.
A recent graduate student study confirmed a very basic theory that
lingering Cs137 in Utah is still detectable. However, the author
found that Cesium-137 levels from fallout seem to be higher than
projected by government estimates - ‘doses to the public from the
testing could also have been higher than earlier thought.’

Those ‘earlier thought’ levels came from two U.S. government studies.
The National Cancer Institute and Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention completed two studies on atomic fallout in 1997 and 2002
that more or less ignored Cesium-137, focusing more on Iodine-131, a
very short-lived fallout product that affects the thyroid gland. The
NCI/CDC studies concluded that, due to worldwide fallout from nuclear
testing by various Cold War powers, cesium-137 would produce an
estimated 6,000 cancers in Americans, half of which would be fatal.
That number – 6,000 cancers - should be seriously called into question
mostly because the NCI didn’t bother to even want to know how much
Cesium 137 was and is in America’s soils. They used some of the most
shoddiest data collected in modern public health medicine to base
their calculations - during the 1950s, the Atomic Energy Commission, a
U.S. governmental agency responsible for both atomic testing and its
public health impacts, focused on the former and sabotaged the latter
by refusing to collect usable data. In the late 1990s, another U.S.
agency, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), followed the same spirit
of 'downwinder' sabotage by failing to study any other radioisotope
than I-131 present in the fallout, including Cesium-137.

Dr. F. Owen Hoffman, an expert on radiation who testified before
Congress in 1998 on the issue of the NCI study, said: "In presenting
this testimony, I feel compelled to note to Congress that if its
intent was to investigate the full extent of public health outcomes
from exposure to NTS fallout, then it is important to proceed to
investigate the exposure to all radionuclides in fallout and to
evaluate potential health impacts to individuals residing beyond the
continental borders of the USA. Such an analysis would have been
readily accomplished by the NCI because the techniques developed to
estimate I-131 depositions from the analysis of gummed paper are the
same ones required to estimate deposition for all other radionuclides
in NTS fallout. Some of the radionuclides from NTS weapons testing,
such as Strontium-90, Cesium-137, and Plutonium-239/240 are still in
soil and in present-day food products. Although PL 97-414 restricted
NCI to the investigation of I-131, NCI made no attempt to request that
the scope of its study be broadened so that it could evaluate the full
public health consequences of NTS testing of nuclear weapons."

So, no one knows where Cesium-137 fallout really went and also no one
knows what were the realistic health outcomes from radiocesium
poisoning.

The risk from cumulative exposure by downwinders worldwide to global
fallout Cesium-137 and other (unstudied) radionuclides is believed to
be not as small as the NCI thinks. In 1991, a study by the
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
stated that "The long-lived radioactive residues of atmospheric
testing, such as plutonium-239, cesium-137 and strontium-90 still
pollute the Earth, increasing cancer risk.....small portions of which
are continually being incorporated into our food supply." The group
estimated that by 2000 there would be a total of 430,000 cancer deaths
worldwide - some of which already would have occurred - from the
various radioactive elements in the fallout. The IPPNW estimated that
fallout from testing at the Nevada Test Site was blamed for roughly
half that number.

But what about non-fatal cancers? Rosalie Bertell, author of the
classic book 'No Immediate Danger,’ calculated that 358 million
cancers globally would stem from nuclear bomb production and testing.
If you even take one-fifth of that tally to deduce how many cancers
would plague Americans, that number is still hundreds of times the
NCI's 2002 estimate, which was that 80,000 Americans will contract
cancer from all global testing fallout and all fallout elements (and
15,000 cancers would be fatal).

Domestic and global awareness of Cesium-137’s threat to public health
is extremely poor. In Belarus, the Cesium-137 from Chernobyl fallout
has created a horrific public health crisis. Citizens there are
farming and raising cows on contaminated lands. Since Cesium is water-
soluble, it manifests in farming products such as milk, which is being
sold across Russia and beyond - cancers are occurring at a staggering
rate. The Russian government isn’t stepping in to halt the crisis.
Meanwhile the U.S. government has, in a similar manner, tried to stay
away from the issue and refrain from studying the fallout-health link,
hoping the problem will ‘decay’ - and the downwinders will quickly
forget, or die.

Thanks to government disinformation perpetuated on a global scale, the
fact that lingering Cesium 137 is in our bodies, our food supply and
our soils is largely ignored and not common knowledge. Most people
think fallout only occurs in a nuclear war, or when you attack a city
(as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki). They’re wrong. Others think fallout
from nuclear testing is gone and decayed. They're wrong.

No one seems to care that we have self-medicated our civilization with
radioactive Cool-Aid and virtually no doctor or scientist has the guts
to say why. Why is it that scientists, federal researchers and the
media failed to comment on or acknowledge the conclusion of a 2008
graduate thesis that Cesium 137 ‘doses to the public from the testing
could also have been higher than earlier thought.’ Don’t we want to
know how bad it really was? Don’t we want to know if fallout
estimates were too low?

When the largest fire in Utah’s history occurred in 2007 at the same
time a gamma-radiation monitoring device started recording unusually
high levels, DOE public relations staffers didn’t want to admit it was
Cold War Cesium-137 being lifted by the fires. They said the gamma
spikes were caused by radon gas being released by the Milford Flat
Fire. The DOE later couldn't prove their theory about radon gas and
later reached another conclusion: that the radiation spikes were
caused by a warped electronic component within the monitoring
equipment. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

There is plenty of evidence that radiocesium is easily evaporated by
fire, whether it is Cesium-137 from fallout or Cesium-137 sitting in a
factory. Radiocesium can induce cancer and it may be causing the
cancer of someone you love or caused the cancer of someone deceased
who you loved.

So when a fire is burning near the Nevada Test Site or a similar
contaminated area or a cement plant that stores Cesium-137, you will
now have one additional item in your survival kit: it is the fact that
you know that we don't know what Cesium 137 really does to people. And
since we all know that 'what we don't know can harm us,' we ought to
be vigilant about pressuring our governments to study the health
links, the past exposures, and the real dangers of radioactive cesium
in our environment.

SOURCE: http://www.nuclearcrimes.org/082.php
Taka
2011-07-05 15:39:56 UTC
Permalink
45% of kids in Fukushima survey had thyroid exposure to radiation — Up
to 50 millisieverts per year equivalent for 1-year-old

Around 45 percent of children in Fukushima Prefecture surveyed by the
local and central governments in late March experienced thyroid
exposure to radiation, although in all cases in trace amounts that did
not warrant further examination, officials of the Nuclear Safety
Commission said Tuesday. [...]

Among children who tested positive for thyroid exposure, the amounts
measured 0.04 microsieverts per hour or less in most cases. The
largest exposure was 0.1 microsieverts per hour, equivalent to a
yearly dose of 50 millisieverts for a 1-year-old. [...]

Babies and young children are at highest risk of developing thyroid
cancer after exposure to radioactive iodine released into the
atmosphere in nuclear accidents. In the case of Chernobyl, most
victims who developed the cancer in following years had been babies or
young children living in the affected regions at the time of the
accident.

SOURCE: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110705p2g00m0dm079000c.html


Residents forced to dump nuclear waste in parks and forests:

I scooped up all the radioactive soil and grass from my garden and
dumped it in the forest, so no one could find it,” said a mother of a
four-year-old child from Fukushima city [pop. 300,000, well outside 30-
km evacuation zone], who did not want to be identified by name.

“When I put my Geiger counter close to that mountain of soil it showed
10 microseverts per hour,” she said. [...] Others were spotted dumping
their nuclear waste in public parks and by the river, residents said.

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/residents-forced-to-dump-nuclear-waste-in-parks-and-forests


Japanese professor: “Soil contamination is spreading in the city” 60
km from Fukushima plant — “Evacuation must be conducted as soon as
possible”

Soil radiation in a city 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Japan’s
stricken nuclear plant is above levels that prompted resettlement
after the Chernobyl disaster, citizens’ groups said Tuesday. [...]

The highest reading in the city of 290,000 people far exceeded the
level that triggered compulsory resettlement ordered by Soviet
authorities following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine,
they said.

Kobe University radiation expert professor Tomoya Yamauchi conducted
the survey on June 26 following a request from the groups.

“Soil contamination is spreading in the city,” Yamauchi said in a
statement. “Children are playing with the soil, meaning they are
playing with high levels of radioactive substances. Evacuation must be
conducted as soon as possible.” [...]

I knew that they wouldn’t take this chance to shut down nuclear power.
The Japanese are terrified at doing what is not expected, and will
continue the status quo, until the entire nation of Japan is destroyed
by faulty nuclear power plants. Fukushima was their warning. Next time
will be the nail in the coffin for Japan. If Fukushima wasn’t enough
to stop this madness, then nothing will be.

This spreading of radiation in Fukushima city is also probably due to
fresh radiation releases from the power plants as well, seeing as that
the reactors are contstantly pumping radiation into the atmosphere.

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/japanese-professor-soil-contamination-spreading-city-60-km-fukushima-plant-evacuation-be-conducted-possible
Taka
2011-07-07 01:53:04 UTC
Permalink
Kyushu Electric Power Busted for Using Shills to Promote Pro Nuke
Views at Genkai Hearing

Things may be slowly changing, even in Japan.

The Japanese national government and Kyushu Electric Power Company,
both of whom are eager to restart the Reactors 2 and 3 (3 is MOX-fuel)
at the aging nuclear power plant Genkai in Saga Prefecture, held a
hearing back in June to discuss the matter with the 7 "concerned
residents" handpicked by the national government (Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry).

The hearing was broadcast via cable TV and on the Internet. Even
before the hearing (June 26), Japanese tweets were abuzz with
allegations that Kyushu Electric employees were told to participate
via emails and messages as anonymous, concerned private citizens and
speak in favor of nuclear power and restarting Genkai.

It took about 2 weeks for the MSM to catch up with the alternative
media, but now the news broke even on Yomiuri Shinbun, a traditionally
pro-nuke news outlet.

Toshio Manabe, president of Kyushu Electric Power Company, held a
press conference on July 6 and admitted that when a hearing organized
by the METI took place in June regarding the restart of the Reactors 2
and 3 at Genkai Nuclear Power Plant (in Genkai-cho, Saga Prefecture),
his company had instructed the subsidiaries and part of its own
employees to send email messages during the hearing expressing support
for re-starting the plant.

President Manabe apologized, saying "It eroded the confidence in the
hearing. I apologize wholeheartedly." In response to the Yomiuri
reporting, he indicated that he may consider resigning over the issue.

The hearing was held on June 26 in Saga City, attended by 7
"representatives" of the Saga residents handpicked by the national
government. The questions and answers session was broadcast live on
the cable TV and on the Internet. Opinions and questions were sought
via emails and faxes, and part of the emails and faxes were discussed
in the program.

According to Kyushu Electric, the instruction was sent out via email
from a manager-class employee at the Nuclear Power Generation Division
of Kyushu Electric headquarters to one employee at each of the 4
subsidiaries and Kyushu Electric's 3 nuclear operations (Genkai Nuke
Plant, Sendai Nuke Plant [in Kagoshima Prefecture], and Sendai Nuclear
Plant Office). It required the recipients to send in opinions and
questions from the pro-restart point of view that would elicit
sympathy from the Saga residents, and to connect on the net from their
private homes.

I really don't know what the national government was thinking when
they announced the hearing with 7 handpicked so-called "concerned
citizens" which would be broadcast on cable TV and the Internet. Who
did they think they were fooling? The conclusion of the hearing, not
surprisingly, was that though the "residents" (7 of them) were
somewhat concerned about the safety issues, they were assured they
would be addressed adequately enough to allow the safe operation of
the plant, and that reflected the opinion of the residents of Saga
Prefecture.

Not.
Yomiuri even has a photo of the said email instruction. And it says,
in part:

Regarding this subject [re-start of Genkai], it should be of grave
concern not only to us at Kyushu Electric but our affiliate companies.
We believe it is very important to deal with the issue by doing
everything we can.

So, we would like you to be well informed about the upcoming hearing,
and we would like you to ask [your employees] to participate in the
hearing via the Internet, as much as possible.

They should access the website for the live net broadcasting, and as
the hearing progresses, take the stance of a private citizen who
approves of re-starting the [Genkai] reactors, and send in the sincere
opinions and questions that will elicit the sympathy from the
residents in Saga Prefecture.

Since the company's personal computers have low processing capacity
and for other reasons, we urge you [and your employees] to access via
your home computers.

Note "for other reasons". Such as the company's IP address being
revealed if they use the company PC...

According to Asahi, 4 subsidiaries were Nishi Nippon Plant Engineering
and Construction, Kyuden Sangyo (industrial), West Japan Engineering
Consultants, Nishimu Electronic Industries, which have 2,300 employees
in total.

It's not known how many employees complied and sent pro-nuke, pro-
restart opinions and questions.

I wonder if any of them, as an anonymous, private citizen, voiced
concern and opposition to nuclear power and the re-start of the aging
Genkai Nuclear Power Plant.

By the way, I hear that the governor of Saga Prefecture is hiding in
the prefectural government office, instructing the government workers
to block both protesters and supporters of the plant.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/kyushu-electric-power-busted-for-using.html
Taka
2011-07-07 08:40:11 UTC
Permalink
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to Seek
Recognition of Japanese Cuisine as World Intangible Cultural Heritage

No, it's not a joke.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A government-appointed panel held its first meeting
Tuesday to consider a proposal to seek UNESCO registration for
Japanese food culture as an intangible cultural heritage with a view
to promoting food exports and Japan's tourism industry.

Many of those present at the meeting were positive about the idea,
saying Japanese food is valued around the world because it is healthy
and also because of the esthetics of the way a dish is presented, the
farm ministry said.

The panel, assembled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries, will submit its report by October with an eye toward
winning registration from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization by November 2013.

The ministry hopes the initiative will help restore trust in the
safety of Japanese food now that some 40 countries have toughened
regulations on food imports from Japan following the crisis at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

So far, French, Mexican and Mediterranean foods have been designated
by UNESCO, and Korean imperial cuisine is expected to be added to the
lists in November.

Mainichi Japanese (7/5/2011) has a bit more detail. The government
panel consists of food industry big shots including the honorary
chairman of Kikkoman and the head of a famous cooking school.

If the Japanese government wants to "restore trust in the safety of
Japanese food", the best thing it could do is to stop the radioactive
material leak from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and embark on
decontaminating the entire Tohoku and Kanto at whatever cost.

The Japanese government always wanted to create "inflation". Here's
their chance. Just print money and spend to carry out the necessary
work of restoring trust.

Instead, they operate on the cheap, calling radioactivity as "rumor"
and pushing, of all things, Japanese food as a World Heritage, as if
being recognized as such would somehow decontaminate the food in
Japan.

Or they may be promoting a unique blend of 2,000-year Japanese
cultural tradition and radioactive cesium and strontium, with a dash
of plutonium and cobalt-60. Just like that nutty Fukushima doctor
says, "Food with a bit of radiation will fetch premium!"

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/japans-ministry-of-agriculture-forestry.html
Taka
2011-07-09 01:48:43 UTC
Permalink
2300 Becquerels/kg Cesium from Beef from Fukushima

It's the first detection of radioactive cesium from beef since the
Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government announced on July 8 that 2,300
becquerels/kg radioactive cesium was detected from the beef from
Minami-Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture. The amount detected was
nearly 5 times as much as the provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/
kg). It was the first time that radioactive cesium was detected that
exceeded the provisional safety limit.

Fukushima Prefecture has requested Minami-Soma City to voluntarily
refrain from further shipping. The Ministry of Health, Labor and
Welfare has asked Fukushima Prefecture and the neighboring prefectures
to strengthen their inspection of the beef.

Radioactive cesium was detected from the meat from one of the 11 meat
cattle from a farm located in the part of Minami-Soma City designated
as emergency evacuation-ready zone. The 11 meat cattle were brought to
the Metropolitan Shibaura Slaughterhouse.

Since Fukushima Prefecture is unable to inspect all food items in
Fukushima, the Ministry of Health asked the Tokyo Metropolitan
government to do the inspection instead. The result of the analysis of
the meat from the remaining 10 cattle will be known in the afternoon
on July 9.

The meat is being kept at a facility owned by the Tokyo Metropolitan
government, and there is no chance that this meat will be sold in the
market. So far, the similar tests have been conducted by other
municipalities, and it is considered that the meat is not currently
being sold in the open market.

However, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan government and others,
the cattle passed the inspection based on the guidelines from the
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries at the time of
shipment. The inspection consisted of the radiation measurement on the
body surface, and a questionnaire about how the cattle were raised.
The guideline may be reviewed in light of the incident [of radioactive
cesium detection from the meat].

One municipal source said, "We were just doing the monitoring survey
because we were told there was no problem with the pre-shipment
inspection. From now on, the Ministry of Agriculture and other
agencies may need to review the inspection methodology."

Whatever the "monitoring survey" was, this anonymous source's words
would mean that no beef was checked for radiation before this
incident, and presumably the meat has already been sold in the market
without radiation inspection.

According to Yomiuri Shinbun on the same subject, this particular farm
had shipped 6 cows between May 30 and June 30. The meat from these
cows have presumably been long sold in the market. The Ministry of
Health is trying to track it down. Yomiuri also says this farm is
located in the 20-30 kilometer radius zone which is designated as
"emergency evacuation-ready zone". Evacuation on demand.

Poor cows.

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/radiation-in-japan-2300-becquerelskg.html

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

Tip of an iceberg? Better focus on measuring the contamination in
living human flesh than randomly picked beef ....

Taka

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/radiation-at-thyroid-gland-found-in-45.html
Taka
2011-07-10 15:50:01 UTC
Permalink
Increase In Cancer In Sweden Can Be Traced To Chernobyl

The incidence of cancer in northern Sweden increased following the
accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986. This was
the finding of a much-debated study from Linköping University in
Sweden from 2004.

Was the increase in cancer caused by the radioactive fallout from
Chernobyl or could it be explained by other circumstances? New
research from Linköping University provides scientific support for the
Chernobyl connection.

“This issue is important because the indicated increased risk may come
to influence the prevailing exposure limits for the population.
Enhanced knowledge of the risks entailed by radioactive radiation is
key to work for radiation safety and makes it possible to prevent
diseases,” says Martin Tondel, a physician and researcher in
environmental medicine who will soon be defending his doctoral
dissertation Malignancies in Sweden after the Chernobyl Accident in
1986.

In two studies using different methods, Martin Tondel has shown a
small but statistically significant increase in the incidence of
cancer in northern Sweden, where the fallout of radioactive cesium 137
was at its most intense.

The cancer risk increased with rising fallout intensity: up to a 20-
percent increase in the highest of six categories. This means that 3.8
percent of the cancer cases up to 1999 can be ascribed to the fallout.
This increased risk, in turn, is 26 times higher than the latest risk
estimate for the survivors of the atom bombs in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, whose exposure was many times higher.

The increase in Tondel’s studies came a remarkably short time after
the disaster, since it is usually assumed that it takes decades for
cancer to develop. The dissertation discusses the interpretation of
the research findings from the perspective of the theory of science.

The conclusion is that there is scientific support for a connection
between the radioactive fallout and the increase in the number of
cancer cases.

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070530080956.htm
Taka
2011-07-11 08:53:40 UTC
Permalink
The Ballad of Fukushima: In the Wake of Disaster, Japan’s True
Character Emerges

The iconic Japanese film “The Ballad of Narayama” tells the story of a
village where everyone who reaches the age of 70 is sent away to the
top of Mount Narayama to die. The old make way for the young so that
newer generations may have enough to eat.

What makes the film compelling is that it is not shocking. Instead,
the brutal practice appears entirely natural in the context of a small
and remote village in 19th-century Japan.

The world of Narayama acknowledges the reality of Malthusian laws that
protect society against overpopulation. Filial relations are subject
to the inexorable logic of survival, which demands that the old stop
being a burden on the young. The son who carries his aging mother to
the mountain groans under the emotional and moral weight of the
journey, but he is duty-bound to undertake it.

If there is any consolation, it is that his son, too, will carry him
one day. Generations must pass so that generations may arrive.
Sometimes they have to pass even before they are dead.

“The Ballad of Narayama” came to mind as news appeared about how
elderly Japanese were volunteering to replace younger workers battling
to cool tsunami-crippled nuclear reactors in Fukushima. These older
engineers, along with other specialists, offered to move into the
radioactive plant so that younger Japanese could avoid exposure to
radiation hazards that could leave them childless or even kill them.

“The Ballad of Fukushima” has yet to be penned. If it is, it will be
even more beautiful and cruel than “The Ballad of Narayama.” Unlike in
Narayama, there is no Malthusian logic at work in Fukushima. No
custom, let alone law, justifies such self-sacrifice in Japan today.
The absence of volunteers from Fukushima will not tip the ecological
balance toward disaster. Japan will not collapse if the volunteers
live out their retirement in safety.

Yet, the volunteers — aged 60 to 78 — have decided to celebrate
Japan’s future more than they care for themselves in their fading
years. This is the Narayama refrain running through their courage.

The Fukushima volunteers — “activists” might be a better word — have
given several matter-of-fact explanations for their decision. One is
that it makes scientific sense for them to venture into radioactive
territory. Since cells take longer to reproduce in older people, any
cancer caused by absorbing radioactivity would take much longer to
form. One activist declared with a touch of humor that he would be
dead from something else long before any radiation-caused cancer could
kill him.

Others take a generational view of the catastrophe itself. In
interviews with the media, they have spoken about how their generation
used its knowledge and skills to build the facility in the 1960s and
1970s. In return, they benefited enormously from nuclear power. But
the earthquake and the tsunami turned a safe and clean source of
energy into a national catastrophe. Hence, they have a moral
responsibility to deal with the aftermath of that nightmare.

Yet others note that they simply have an obligation to protect youth
in a rapidly-aging Japan. In the process, they observe that they are
losing their fear of death.

These selfless arguments reinforce the view of Japanese society as
being one with a strong sense of itself. Loyalty to the nation becomes
a way of life.

Of course, Japan is not the only nation with such a sense of itself.
Every nation displays this sense to a certain extent; otherwise, it
would not be a nation. What makes Japan exceptional is the way in
which the sense of being Japanese informs society not only in the best
of times but also in the worst of times.

This was seen in the way that Japanese society responded to the
earthquake and the tsunami themselves. There was no social breakdown.
Instead, with the social resilience accumulated over time, people
lined up calmly for help, helped one another and got through each day
with the belief that the following day or week would be better. There
was hardly any looting even though the forces of law and order had
been battered, like everything else, by the natural disaster.

This expression of the Japanese character is rather different from the
famed Bushido spirit. That is the way of the warrior, a special code
of conduct that reflects a samurai’s sense of honor and discipline.
Frugality, loyalty, the mastery of martial arts and an emphasis on
honor unto death characterize that spirit.

Some of these elements — especially loyalty — were certainly present
in the Japanese response to the crisis. However, the military
dimension was lacking entirely. The main actors in the national drama
were not warriors but civilians molded by the social democratic
culture of post-war Japan. They were civilian heroes in a war
unleashed by nature.

As Japan returns to normal, people elsewhere would do well to remember
the extraordinary stories created by the disaster. The Japan that was
the first Asian country to modernize, the Japan that is a miracle of
post-war economic recovery, the Japan that has led the latest phase of
Asian industrialization — this Japan is well-known.

However, there is another Japan of everyday heroes who make their mark
not during eras of prosperity but during times of adversity. They are
often anonymous; even when they are celebrated in the media and by
their neighbors, they often vanish from sight afterward.

It is this other Japan that is a true beacon of hope at a time when
honor and loyalty are not universally plentiful values. In
acknowledging the value of the Fukushima activists, we do no more than
celebrate the best in ourselves.

SOURCE: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/the-ballad-of-fukushima-in-the-wake-of-disaster-japans-true-character-emerges/452017
Taka
2011-07-11 08:52:30 UTC
Permalink
Censorship in Japan: The Fukushima Cover-up

Twenty years ago when I first arrived in Japan I taught English to a
Tokyo University associate professor in engineering. The young and
normally reserved man sometimes complained about his boss who was a
professor in nuclear engineering and gave him troublesome tasks at the
office. I once asked him what he thought about earthquake-prone Japan
using nuclear power and he replied, “it’s crazy.” Of course, Tokyo
University is the hub of Japan’s nuclear power industry and most
executives for TEPCO are graduates (as are many top politicians) from
Japan’s most elite university.

Today, “four out of five Japanese want to see Tokyo abandon nuclear
power in the wake of the Fukushima atomic crisis…” (3). But any
professional in industry, government or media would have no chance of
career advancement if they spoke out against nuclear power. This
problem is well documented in an article from Speigel, the German news
magazine, which details the insidious and poisonous nuclear tentacles
that penetrate the most important aspects of Japanese society (4).

As a recent Japanese news editorial points out, a small cabal of
criminals think they literally own the country and will not allow
democracy or the free market to interfere with with their aims to
control the energy system:

“In adopting a scheme for paying damages to the victims of the
accidents at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government has
ended up guaranteeing the survival of Tokyo Electric Power Co. the
operator of the stricken plant. Radioactive substances from Tepco’s
Fukushima No. 1 plant have contaminated surrounding cities, farms,
forests and the ocean….

The federation’s staunch opposition to separation of generation and
transmission was shown in its rejection of adoption of the “Smart
Grid” system that the U.S. is eager to promote — a electricity network
that can efficiently and stably deliver electricity supplies by
intelligently integrating the behavior of power generation entities
and power users. The federation quibbled, saying the Japanese
transmission system was “already smart enough.” It fears that the
Smart Grid might open the way for outsiders to enter the electricity
market, thus breaking the monopoly of the nation’s 10 utilities….

The power industry is also reluctant to build facilities to change the
frequency of the alternating currents, so that electricity generated
in the western half of the country, where electricity’s frequency is
60 hertz, can be transmitted to the eastern half of Japan where
electricity’s frequency is 50 hertz, or vice versa — even though such
interchangeability would inevitably reduce regional imbalances of
supply….This reluctance is based on a fear that the interchangeability
issue may strengthen the argument for separation of power generation
and transmission” (5).

About ten years ago I attended a press conference on the dangers of
Japan’s nuclear power stations, which was held at the Foreign
Correspondents Club in Tokyo. It was well attended due to the deadly
Tokaimura nuclear accident whichhad just occurred in 1999. An audience
member asked Kenji Higuchi (6)– a journalist and teacher who has
written several books about the dangers of nuclear power– why a
documentary film about him and the dangers to Japan’s nuke workers,
Nuclear Ginza (7), was not allowed to be shown on Japan’s government
news station, NHK. “It was squashed from the top down.” I have shown
the film many times over the years to my university students but I
can’t reach millions of people.

Fast forward to June of 2011 when Higuchi gave a lecture at a small
but prestigious college in Tokyo. One conscientious Japanese professor
at that college has been alerting his students to the nuke issue and
promoting Higuchi’s books. My contact who attended the meeting of only
10 people said that it was Higuchi’s belief that he was not allowed a
larger venue because he is too direct in his speaking manner and names
the companies that are complicit with the Nuclear Industry. The
student’s parents who work for some of those companies might not like
hearing such bold criticisms. Higuchi also surmised that the
government has implicitly threatened universities not to touch on the
nuclear issue in any critical way, such as allowing anti-nuke rallies
on their campuses.

I teach part-time at this particular college and have freely published
many articles there, but for the first time my submission which was to
be on the nuke disaster was turned down because the issue was deemed
“too sensitive.” It is noteworthy that one of the more academically
open, meaty and progressive- minded schools in Tokyo is now telling
people to keep their mouths shut. When I wrote a reply to the editor
asking that if I would submit to peer review they would still consider
my article, I received no response.

At another school which has an elite science and engineering
department, my first year students have responded well to my cynical
jokes about nuclear power. When I open the windows in the morning and
say, “hey let’s let in the fresh air and radiation, it’s good for
you,” everyone nervously chuckles while shaking their heads. The
students provide very sensible and conscientious written comments to
the articles I give them to read about the nuclear situation.

On the other hand, by second year many students realize that if they
are in certain fields of study, it will not do well for their careers
to criticize nuclear power. When we had discussions about energy
issues, many gave articulate defenses of the various forms alternative
energies available and how they should be developed– but in the end
some groups said, “but we still think nuclear is the best!”

There is another aspect to this problem, it is simply “air
headedness”. When choosing topics for presentations, some groups came
up with the uninspiring and disputatious topic of “global warming,”
while others choose “beer,” “chocolate,” “television,” and so on. Not
real substantive stuff. One teacher suggested to me the reason many
students to do not want to think about Fukushima is because Japan
previously considered itself superior to its neighbors and has now
taken it on the chin. This is sore subject for Japanese pride and
Fukushima was a rude awakening reminding Japanese that they are merely
human after all. Another explanation may be more postmodern and
universal: 3D-HDTV = Triple Dumbing – High Deafening Talmud Vision.
Too much “bread and circuses” and “dread and circumcision” has damaged
our humanity and empathy for nature and others.

The censorship of critics of the Nuke Industry can be seen at all
levels. For example, even “[a] government official who released a book
on May 20 criticizing the government’s response to the Fukushima
nuclear disaster has

been asked to leave his post….[Mr.]Koga has…pushed for changes to the
country’s energy policy, such as a separation of electric power
generation and transmission fiercely opposed by power companies…” (8).
Obviously this fellow was looking for an early retirement and was
“asked” to leave his prestigious career for telling the truth.

In the meantime, as the Fukushima nuclear reactors which have had
“corium” meltdowns continue to irradiate the nearby environment– which
ultimately puts all of Japan’s inhabitants in danger– we are being
told to “forget about it and go back to sleep.” Yet we can see many
hopeful signs of concerned citizens nationwide organizing to address
the dangers of spreading radiation and to eventually put an end to
nuclear power generation in Japan.

Notes:

(1) Mask of Zion http://www.maskofzion.com/

(2) The Jam – Going Underground


(3) Most Japanese wish to scrap reactors
http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Most_Japanese_wish_to_scrap_reactor
s_999.html

(4) Japan’s Nuclear Cartel http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,764907,00.html

(5) Power industry’s chokehold http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20110627a2.html

(6) Kenji Higuchi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Higuchi

(7) Nuclear Ginza Japan’s secret at-risk labor force


(8) Ministry official who released book criticizing gov’t over nuke
crisis asked to resign http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110625p2a00m0na016000c.html

Source: http://environmentalarmageddon.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/censorship-in-japan-the-fukushima-cover-up/
Taka
2011-07-20 12:08:17 UTC
Permalink
Japan Won't Rule Out Possibility Radioactive Fukushima Beef Was
Exported

Japan’s government said it can’t rule out the possibility beef
contaminated with radioactive material has been exported, as consumers
and lawmakers accused authorities of negligence on food safety.

The government yesterday imposed a ban on beef shipments from areas
near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after finding 637 cattle
were fed hay containing radioactive cesium. Supermarkets including
Japan’s biggest, Aeon Co., said the beef was sold in Tokyo and other
cities.

“We cannot completely rule out the possibility” contaminated beef was
also sold abroad, Yuichi Imasaki, the deputy director of the farm
ministry’s meat and egg division said by phone today. “The chances are
very low” because most countries have tightened rules on Japanese beef
imports or banned them, he said.

The ban comes more than four months after the earthquake and tsunami
wrecked the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station causing the worst nuclear
fallout since Chernobyl. Concerns about food contamination before
yesterday’s ban cut beef exports by 16 percent in the last two months,
while hotels and restaurants in the region, including Shangri-La
Asia’s luxury chain dropped Japanese seafood from their menu.

“There has to be at least an independent investigation regarding the
level of contamination to farming,” said Chris Busby, a visiting
professor at the University of Ulster’s school of biomedical sciences
and scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk,
a think-tank.

Radioactive Hay
Busby is due to speak to Japanese lawmakers later today and has been
testing radiation levels in Fukushima prefecture north of Tokyo and
other areas.

Tainted hay was given to cattle in 19 farms in Fukushima, Niigata and
Yamagata prefectures. Twelve cases of beef contamination were detected
in eight prefectures, according to a statement from the Ministry of
Health, Labour and Welfare.

Some beef from the 637 cattle contained cesium exceeding government
standards and was sold to consumers, said Kazuyuki Hashimoto, an
official at the food-monitoring division of the Tokyo metropolitan
government. Aeon, Seven & I Holdings Co., and Marui Group said this
week they had sold the tainted beef.

Seven & I traced back the origin of the beef it sold after the
government announced the cattle contamination this week, spokesman
Hiroyuki Hanamitsu said today by phone.

The danger from less than rigorous testing of produce leads to
contaminated products on supermarket shelves and that creates a lack
of confidence in all products, said Peter Burns, a nuclear physicist
and former Australian representative on the United Nation’s scientific
committee on atomic radiation.

‘Like Chernobyl’
“Like with Chernobyl, you don’t have people buying anything from
Ukraine because it might be contaminated,” he said. “I would have
thought that within two or three months they would have formed some
sort of task force who has somebody in charge,” Burns, who has 40
years of radiation safety experience, said.

Products including spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea, milk, plums
and fish have been found to be contaminated with cesium and iodine as
far as 360 kilometers (225 miles) from Dai- Ichi. Tokyo Electric Power
Co., the operator of the stricken station, said on June 14 it found
cesium in milk tested near another nuclear reactor site about 210
kilometers from the damaged plant.

“The contamination occurred because the government did not take
appropriate measures,” Yoko Tomiyama, chairwoman of the Consumers
Union of Japan, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “They should
take responsibility for their negligence.”

Cesium Beef
About 437 kilograms (963 pounds) of beef from a farm in Minami-Soma
city, 30 kilometers from the Dai-Ichi nuclear station, was consumed in
eight prefectures, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government,
which detected the first case of tainted beef from the farm earlier
this month.

As much as 2,300 becquerels of cesium a kilogram was detected in the
contaminated beef, according to the July 18 statement from the health
ministry. The government limit is 500 becquerels per kilogram. Rice
hay produced in Fukushima prefecture was found to contain as much as
690,000 becquerels, exceeding the 300-becquerel limit, according to
the local government office.

For people who have eaten the beef, “the overall long-term
implications of this are extremely minor as far as any potential
harmful health effects,” said Burns. Though the reputational damage
can end up “destroying whole industries,” he said.

Tracking Beef
Fukushima is the 10th biggest cattle-producing region in Japan,
representing 2.7 percent of the total. The nation exported 541 metric
tons of beef worth 3.4 billion yen ($42.8 million) last year,
including premium wagyu meat.

Japan exported 49.1 tons of beef in May, 50.6 tons in April and 58.6
tons in March, according to the farm ministry’s data. Vietnam, Hong
Kong and the U.S. were the biggest markets for Japanese beef in the
year through March 2010.

“We are currently tracking all beef shipped from Fukushima prefecture.
So far we’ve found no case of contaminated beef exports,” said
Tomohiro Hagiya, an official at the Ministry of Health, Labour and
Welfare’s food safety department.

Japan imported 204,543 tons of beef in the five months ended May 31,
an increase of 11 percent from the same period last year, according to
the agriculture ministry.

SOURCE: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-20/japan-won-t-rule-out-possibility-radioactive-fukushima-beef-was-exported.html
Taka
2011-07-21 01:22:07 UTC
Permalink
Radioactive Beef Bento Was Sold on Shinkansen Bullet Trains

Internal radiation spreads far and wide in Japan, as if external one
is not enough. Or I should say, "Now they are telling us", when it is
too late. Many people already ate the meat from the meat cows that
have been only discovered recently to have been fed with radioactive
rice hay.

Even the Shinkansen bullet trains were instrumental in spreading the
contamination.

JR Tokai announced that the beef from Asakawa-machi in Fukushima
Prefecture was used in bento (lunch box) sold on Shinkansen (bullet
train). Nothing left of the meat, so no way to test it.

The rice hay from Asakawa-machi has been found to contain the maximum
of 97,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

By the way, the highest level of radioactive cesium in the rice hay
was found in Motomiya City in Fukushima Prefecture, and it was 690,000
becquerels/kg. Motomiya City is located about 57 kilometers west of
Fukushima I Nuke Plant. No word yet on what happened to the meat cows
that ate the rice hay there.

The government and government-sponsored scholars say there is no need
to overly concerned even if you eat the beef that contains radioactive
cesium far exceeding the hastily-set provisional safety limit. Just
remember, they have no proof. Research on internal radiation is
sketchy at best, and was outright prohibited particularly in Japan
after the two nuclear bombs at the end of the World War II and after
the Dai-Go Fukuryu Maru incident (Bikini Atoll Operation Castle
Bravo).

(Well, that would be whole another post.)

JR Tokai Passengers (headquartered in Tokyo) announced on July 20 that
the meat from the cow fed with the rice hay found with high
radioactive cesium was used in bento (lunch box) sold on the
Shinkansen bullet trains. 34 kilograms of beef from Asakawa-machi,
Fukushima Prefecture was used in about 387 bento boxes, which were all
sold.

The bento menus for which the beef in question were used are "Beef
Sukiyaki" and "Beef Sukiyaki Onigiri (rice ball)". They were prepared
in the company's factories in Tokyo and Nagoya, and were sold from
June 17 till July 1 on the Tokaido Shinkansen, at JR stations (Tokyo,
Shinagawa, Shin-Yokohama, Nagoya) and at a kiosk at the SCMAGLEV and
Railway Park in Nagoya City.

No test was conducted on the cow, and there is no way of knowing
whether the beef contained radioactive cesium that exceeded the
provisional safety limit.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/

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

In an airplane you at least don't have to pay extra money for the
(radioactive) food ... Taka
Taka
2011-07-21 01:33:58 UTC
Permalink
Post by Taka
Japan Won't Rule Out Possibility Radioactive Fukushima Beef Was
Exported
Doesn’t Japan tested all its slaughtered cattle for Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (aka Mad Cow Disease)? And didn’t Japan ban imports of
US beef because we check only a fraction of a percent of our cattle
for same? Considering Japan’s high standard of health consciousness
and consumer protection, radiation checks on all foodstuffs, whether
destined for export or domestic consumption, would seem to be in
order.

Instead we get products including spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots,
tea, milk, plums and fish contaminated with cesium and iodine as far
as 360 kilometers (225 miles) from Dai- Ichi.

When there is a real danger, the government is unable to protect its
people. The docile nation will keep bowing to its corrupted and
greedy leaders and eat whatever food is sold to them ...

Taka
Taka
2011-07-21 05:54:32 UTC
Permalink
Radiation Induced Mutations

Definition

Radiation induced mutations are alterations in the genome - either a
change in chromosomes or individual genes. If they occur in gametic
cells then the mutation may be passed on to future generations.
Importantly, radiation induced mutations have not been shown to create
bizarre mutations (a la the Uncanny X-Men) but instead increase the
rates of hereditary diseases that occur naturally in the population.
Types of Hereditary Diseases
Mendelian Diseases

These are the 'classical' inheritable genetic disorders, either
autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive or X-linked.
Autosomal dominant conditions are expressed if a single abnormal copy
of the gene is present in the cell. They are typically late onset and
have minimal effect on fertility. Examples include Huntingdon's
Disease and adult onset polycystic kidneys.
Autosomal recessive conditions only develop if there are abnormal
copies of the gene in every cell. They may often present earlier in
life and may impact fertility. Heterozygous individuals only possess
one abnormal gene, and may be completely normal or have minimal
problems. Autosomal recessive conditions include cystic fibrosis or
beta thalassaemia.
X-linked conditions are due to mutation of genes on the X-chromosome.
In men this behaves as an autosomal dominant condition, as they only
possess a single X chromosome. In women it behaves in an autosomal
recessive manner as they possess two X chromosomes. X linked disorders
vary in severity, from colour blindness to haemophilia.

The mutations leading to Mendelian disorders may be point mutations,
where a single base of DNA is altered, to deletions of varying sizes.
Chromosomal Abnormalities

Chromosomal abnormalities are changes in the structure or number of
chromosomes. Most of these changes are fatal to the cell or in
embryogenesis, but some may be inherited.
Trisomy of chromosome 21 is one of the few viable exceptions to the
non-viable nature of aneuploidy. Trisomy 13 and 18 may survive until
birth but are rapidly fatal ex-utero.
Translocation of chromosomes occurs when part of an arm is swapped
with that of differently numbered chromosome. If only one of the
translocated chromosomes is passed on to children then there may be an
imbalance of genetic material. This frequently leads to congenital
abnormalities or mental retardation.
Multifactorial Effects

Some other conditions may have a genetic component but are not due to
chromosomal alterations or subject to classical Mendelian inheritance.
This group of conditions is broad, and includes the genetic
inheritance of common conditions such as Type II diabetes and
cardiovascular disease. Congenital birth defects such as neural tube
and cleft lip/palate problems are also multifactorial.
Aside from the congenital birth defects multifactorial conditions
present later in life.
Studies of Hereditary Effects
Mouse Studies

Large mouse studies were used to investigate hereditary effects. The
largest, the 'megamouse project', studied the increase in hereditary
effects seen following radiation exposure. In summary:
Information is limited to male mice, as female mice are rendered
sterile at very low doses
The development of mutations is highly variable due to differences in
gene size
Hereditary effects are reduced in likelihood as the gap between
exposure and conception - mature sperm seem less able to repair
abnormalities than those in earlier stages of development.
The dose required to double the rate of ordinarily observed hereditary
effects is about 1 Sv.

SOURCE: http://ozradonc.wikidot.com/radiation-induced-mutations

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

Not a good time to father a child especially in Japan. Taka
Taka
2011-07-21 08:12:33 UTC
Permalink
Letter on Fukushima Radiation and EPA Testing July 19 2011 to my
Congressional Representatives

Dear Representative
I am aghast by what is happening in Japan and the U.S. as a result of
the Fukushima disaster. Let me start with my concerns about the U.S.
I have been following the EPA’s radnet data daily since late March. I
can tell you with certainty that when the jet stream is overhead,
radiation fallout is a significant problem. I have tracked radiation
levels in my city and across the country every single day. The jet
stream correlates with radiation levels that can range upward of 10
times “background.”
Arnie Gunderson describes scientific analysis of “hot” alpha particles
found in Seattle. The average Seattle citizen inhaled/ingested 5 hot
particles a day in April (Gunderson, 5/12, Hot Particles and Radiation
Detectors http://fairewinds.com/updates).

Japan continues to emit radiation daily. The situation remains out of
control. Read NHK news for updates on the inability of Tepco to
contain the criticalities at unit #3.
Background radiation can cause cancer and genetic mutations. Radiation
played a role in evolution. So, ten times background radiation is
going to have consequences for human health and reproduction.
I am an academic. I have excellent research skills and I have spent
months looking at the accumulated evidence on the effects of “low”
level ionizing radiation. We are in trouble.
Yet our government has limited testing of water and food. The EPA has
returned to typical testing patterns and so individuals could be
consuming contaminated milk, berries, and lettuce (foods likely to be
contaminated) for a couple of months before the EPA reports their
results. Furthermore, the USDA and FDA regulate radiation levels in
milk and produce and their levels are set far higher—dangerously higher
—than EPA drinking water levels.
The EPA must increase its number of monitoring stations and the
frequency of testing. The USDA and FDA must lower their radiation
contamination intervention levels to protect human health.
Why are we repeating the pattern of denial and deception that
characterized the period of above-ground nuclear testing in the US
southwest? Why are we allowing our children to be exposed to radiation
levels that could cause cancer later in their lives? Why are we
compromising our genetic heritage? Already research has found excess
mortality for infants in California and Philadelphia.
To repeat, the EPA must step up testing and publicize results. All
products imported from Japan must be tested for radiation. All seafood
from the Pacific must be tested for radiation as contaminated waters
and contaminated large fish make their way across the Pacific to the
US and Canadian west coasts.
Furthermore, the situation in Japan is simply a case of genocide. The
US must put pressure on the Japanese government to stop pressuring
Fukushima residents to return to highly contaminated areas. We must
help stop the collective suicide that is happening in Japan. Please
think of the children who are being sacrificed in order for Japan to
present a false image of normality.
Finally, let me conclude by stating that we had better look carefully
at our own nuclear plants, as recommended by The Wall Street Journal
in a front page story dated July 19. San Onofre and Diablo Canyon
could suffer the same fate as Fukushima I. Plants on the US east coast
could suffer from a quake along the New Madrid fault line.

Heaven forbid such an event, but should it occur we will suffer
devastating health consequences. We must close plants on or in close
proximity to earthquake prone faults!
Sincerely,

Dr. Majia Holmer Nadesan

SOURCE: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/letter-on-fukushima-radiation-and-epa.html
Taka
2011-06-21 01:38:09 UTC
Permalink
Preventing radiation contamination more important than TEPCO's stock
prices

Some people have suggested that I start to write about something other
than nuclear power plants, but with the situation as it is, that's not
going to happen. The crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant
is still not over. Far from it, there are signs that it is getting
worse. I can't stand by and look at the political situation without
focusing on this serious event.

One figure who has entered the public spotlight in the wake of the
nuclear crisis is 61-year-old Hiroaki Koide, an assistant professor at
the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute and a controversialist
in the anti-nuclear debate. A specialist in nuclear power, Koide has
garnered attention as a persistent researcher who has sounded the
alarm over the dangers of this form of energy without seeking fame.

In a TV Asahi program on June 16, Koide made the following comment:

"As far as I can tell from the announcements made by Tokyo Electric
Power Co. (TEPCO), the nuclear fuel that has melted down inside
reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant has gone through the bottom of
the containers, which are like pressure cookers, and is lying on the
concrete foundations, sinking into the ground below. We have to
install a barrier deep in the soil and build a subterranean dam as
soon as possible to prevent groundwater contaminated with radioactive
materials from leaking into the ocean."

His comment captured public interest and when I asked a high-ranking
government official about it, the official said that construction of
an underground dam was indeed being prepared. But when I probed
further, I found that the project was in limbo due to opposition from
TEPCO.

Sumio Mabuchi, an aide to Prime Minister Naoto Kan who is dealing with
nuclear power plant issues, holds the same concerns as those expressed
by Koide and has sought an announcement on construction of an
underground dam, but TEPCO has resisted such a move.

The reason is funding. It would cost about 100 billion yen to build
such a dam, but there is no guarantee that the government would cover
the amount. If an announcement were made and TEPCO were seen as
incurring more liabilities, then its shares would fall once again, and
the company might not be able to make it through its next general
shareholders' meeting.

In my possession, I have a copy of the guidelines that TEPCO presented
to the government on how to handle press releases. The title of the
document, dated June 13, is "Underground boundary' -- Regarding the
press." It is split into five categories on how to handle the
announcement of construction of an underground boundary. In essence,
it says, "We are considering the issue under the guidance of prime
ministerial aide Mabuchi, but we don't want to be seen as having
excess liabilities, so we're keeping the details confidential."

Possibly the silliest response to envisaged questions from reporters
is TEPCO's suggestion for a reply to the question, "Why hasn't
construction been quickly started?" The response reads: "Underground
water flows at a speed of about 5 to 10 centimeters a day, so we have
more than a year before it reaches the shore."

Initially an announcement on the underground barrier was due to be
made to the press on June 14, but it was put off until after TEPCO's
general shareholders meeting on June 28.

In the meantime, the state of the nuclear power plant continues to
deteriorate and radioactive materials are eerily spreading and
contaminating the area around the plant.

Which is more important: upholding share prices or stopping pollution?
The Japanese political and business world has sunk to a level where it
can't even answer such a question.

One government official recently commented, "I think I can understand
now why the leaders during the war couldn't precisely and steadily
accomplish their strategies."

Today, announcements from the "imperial headquarters" -- namely
TEPCO's releases on its roadmap for bringing the nuclear crisis under
control, which nobody believes -- are still being issued.

Some people have compared Kan to former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki
Tojo, because he yells at his subordinates over the smallest details.
Tojo resigned in July 1944, after the fall of Saipan, when it had
become likely that Japan would lose the war. His successor, Kuniaki
Koiso, was in office for 8 1/2 months before being replaced by Kantaro
Suzuki. After this, two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and then
the war ended after a decision from the Emperor.

Why wasn't an armistice quickly implemented to put an end to further
wartime damage? It was because impossible solutions to Japan's
situation in the war were flying about, common sense was lost, and the
government was slow to reach a decision. Yet the same sort of
situation has arisen today.

The most important issue now is preventing contamination from
radiation. We need leaders who can focus on the core issue without
being swayed by empty theory.

SOURCE: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20110620p2a00m0na005000c.html
Taka
2011-06-21 02:05:36 UTC
Permalink
http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=dQkAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35

J Radiat Res (Tokyo). 1969 Jun;10(2):62-72.
Total ground deposition of strontium-90 in Japan (1).
Yamagata N, Chiba M, Kobayashi H.
PMID: 5348147

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

and that was much less fallout during the 60ties than at present .....

Fukushima has at lest 50x more fuel than Chernobyl on the site and the
water release already exceeds Chernobyl release by 20x(!). The INES 7
category scale is insufficient to describe this disaster. The Japs
can never get this under control with the homeless contract workers.
Poor downwinders ...

http://enenews.com/report-fukushima-reactor-water-be-144-times-radioactive-anticipated-be-20-times-radioactive-material-total-chernobyl-released

Taka
Taka
2011-06-21 05:32:24 UTC
Permalink
A "Flyjin" playing chicken in Tokyo now, a real tragic human story:

--------------------------
France 1986

The news state on TV that the radioactive cloud will not reach France.
An invisible imaginary wall …some kind of a force field that prevents
hot particles to stop at our frontier!! yeah … my dad tells me not to
worry … so I didn’t. My girlfriend did not either. Now she does … she
was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer …but that is for another story !!!

January 6th Tokyo

On a cold January morning 2011, I was watching a documentary on
Nuclear energy on National Geographic, not really paying attention to
it. Then, it hit me like a huge rock. I got up and grabbed my wife and
told her about my fears. I was always wary about earthquakes (as I
already experienced the huge Northridge quake). But I never thought of
what would happen to Tokyo nearby power plants if a big quake struck.
My wife (Japanese) told me not to worry. “i was just being silly”.

Forward to March 14th

The ground is still shaking, but that is the least of our problems.
The government is telling us to stay indoors. No panic !! But I can
feel the death approaching slowly! I know it is coming, just as it did
when I was in France in 1986. Exact same feeling. My parents in law
think I am nuts! Yes I am. I had recently opened my business and put
all my savings and energy into it. Escaping would prove fatal for my
business! But I know …. I just know. So I grab my wife and my little
girls and on that same day, as the cloud reached Tokyo, we were on a
bus down south. My scared employees are on the Shinkansen to Osaka.

March 16th Nagoya

Things are turning for the worse. Decisions to be made. Despite
looking totally ridiculous to the eyes of many, I grab my family and
evacuate to France. Quick trip to Seoul and travelling with the French
Air Force.

March 18th Paris

I settle my family in a temporary house. But my business and all our
livelihood is here in Tokyo. I will loose everything if I stay.

March 31st Tokyo

I fly back to Tokyo, amidst all my family and friends begging me not
to go back! Yes, I know my wife’s entire family is in Japan. So, I
tell my wife I will take care of them shall the situation worsen. Went
to the embassy to get Iodine pills for my girls and wife, but gave
them to my in laws instetad as they would probably not get some in
time of crisis. As a matter of fact, Gifu prefecture only has a
200,000 stock pile. Ridiculous ! I know they probably discarded those
pills by now … but I tried!

April 2sd Tokyo

I am a Flyjin … people don’t get it ! They still don’t know the
radiation estimated between March 14th and March 23rd is probably
double …perharps triple that amount. Hell, I don’t know ….wait …yes I
know! My instinct tells me so … So the hell with all of you!!!
Despised as a *flyjin* and countless arguments on Facebook! I actually
could not care less. I don’t even love Japan that much! Back to
business !!

May 3rd Tokyo

Life goes on. I should not worry … nobody does. Everyone is working,
shopping and dining. Awesome. Not really … my instinct! Darn
instinct!!!! I feel totally useless, unheard and alone with …my
instinct. YES … I found a few awesome blogs from a friend of mine on
Facebook ! I am so happy. Ex skf, Enenews, Huffington Post,
radioactive.eu and Lucas Whitefield. Now of course, those blogs
confirm my fears that things are indeed very bad …. But … I am no
longer alone! Thank you to all ! I am not going crazy !

June 10th Tokyo

I miss my girls more than everything in the world. I must assume my
responsibilities. I have lots of money invested, lots of friends
involved and employees to take care of. Block your emotions … learn
from Japanese people! Remain stoic and keep your head straight. Do not
associate to collective fear. Wait … I am not Japanese !!

June 20th Tokyo

I am glued to the TEPCO webcam. Reactor 4 has been vomiting its
atrocity for 2 weeks straight … and it is getting worse! Despite the
comfort zone I recently been in (thx to you all wonderful bloggers), I
still DO NOT understand why people around me seem to live in complete
denial. Am I paranoid? Are all those blogs just a niche for hard core
conspiracy theorists ? Is my instinct completely off ? I think not !!
Remember … I know … I just know! And the hell with all of you.

June 21st Tokyo

I will not allow my little girls to ever come back to Tokyo … and I
cannot live without them. I need to take care of them. If I close my
business, I will loose all. Given the hundreds of people that I cater
for in my business (most of them personal friends), I will surely be
scrutinized if I decide to leave. It will surely ricochet big time in
the expat communities in Tokyo. I had been interviewed on CNN on that
subject once before, a couple of weeks back. I told them what I had to
do in the first weeks of the crisis and ultimately, I should do it
again …. But this once for good ! Call it a day! Decisions must be
made … NOW ! I know ! Some of my friends are already escaping
discretely in the light of school holidays. I know they won’t be
back ! Why should they ??? Why should I? Why are all the people around
me blind ? How on earth do they keep people calm and unaware of the
dangers that 4 blown up nuclear reactors are ? 220km away is far …. No
it is not. I must remember 1986 …. They are lying and this will turn
out to be a genocide.
What to do … As *Alex* from youtube begged to all of us; WE WANT THE
TRUTH !!
Well … there is one more thing I know …Whenever we get the truth, it
will be too late. That I know … I just know !

Peace !
-----------------------------------

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/japans-recovery-fukushima-be-measured-centuries-judging-chernobyl-video/comment-page-1#comment-96674
Taka
2011-06-21 07:46:04 UTC
Permalink
Should US West Coast residents be worried?

While people like Arnie Gundersen have tiptoed the answer to whether
west coasters should be worried about Fukushima fallout, Dr. Sircus
answered more bluntly:

"I am afraid I will have to be brutally honest and be the bearer of
really terrible news. The information coming out about hot particle
concentrations near Fukushima, Tokyo, and now Seattle tell us that not
only should all those populations be worrying but their governments
should have been issuing evacuation orders months ago."

"Because of the jet stream in April, after the large explosions that
destroyed three reactor buildings, it was as dangerous in Seattle and
much of the west coast of North America as in Tokyo." (Emphasis added)

According to Dr. Sircus, the average Tokyo resident is thought to have
inhaled 10 “hot particles” per day throughout April 2011. Inhabitants
of Fukushima were estimated to have inhaled 30-40 times more than that—
up to 400 hot particles per day every day that month.

In Seattle, WA, it is estimated that the average person absorbed five
“hot particles” per day during April 2011, or 10 “hot particles” per
day if athletes working out.

"These invisible atomic particles become lodged in your lungs,
intestines, bone or muscle."

Being very conservative and saying this has dropped to even one a day
"would still be 30 of these death particles a month, approximately 200
radioactive particles into their lungs and other tissues by now.

"When you think that if even one of these 200 is plutonium," states
Dr. Sircus, "we have to think in terms of millions of eventual cancer
deaths."

SOURCE: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/prestigious-doctor-japan-us-nuclear-valley-of-death
Taka
2011-06-22 05:37:49 UTC
Permalink
“Massive releases of radiation are ongoing every single day into the
air and the water from the Fukushima site. And there is no evidence
when or if it will ever be stopped. Also, they are now finding curium
244 around the reactors, which is many times more dangerous than
plutonium by orders of magnitude as well as the deadly plutonium. Many
such dangerous isotopes are being released with impunity.
“As Arnie Gunderson said yesterday, this accident is equivalent to 20
radioactive cores melting. And the three cores in units 1, 2 and 3
have actually melted through their containment vessels, not just
melted down. This is called a melt-through by the industry.”

“Unprecedented! An absolute total disaster of biblical proportions,”
Caldicott concludes.

I asked her about Gundersen’s concern about the impact of the
saltwater on Unit 3 because of its effect on iron. He has said that
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is afraid that the reactor bottom
will literally just break right out and dump everything because of
corrosion. Then, the entire core could fall out suddenly and a “steam
explosion” could occur – or in other words, a violent hydrogen
explosion – although he concedes that this may be only a one in a
hundred chance.

Dr. Caldicott is, likewise, concerned about the possibility of another
explosion – either steam or hydrogen – and/or another major
earthquake, which would release huge amounts of radiation, much more
than has already occurred.
“Building No. 4 [which is leaning at an angle about to topple],
containing a damaged fuel pool with highly radioactive material, could
collapse or the melted larval radioactive cores of units 1, 2 or 3
could hit the concrete floor of the containment building having melted
though the reactor vessel, where the molten core would react with the
concrete floor to produce a hydrogen explosion, or hit huge amounts of
water causing a massive steam explosion. These three events separately
would release huge amounts of radiation, like Chernobyl.”

THE HEALTH DANGERS

In my interview with Dr. Caldicott on May 13, she made the point that,
so far, the rest of Japan had been lucky as the wind was blowing from
the west. The plume of radiated cloud was blowing out to sea (to the
not so lucky residents of the west coast of USA). Caldicott predicted
that the wind would change and seasonal rains would come. This would
prove disastrous for cities like Tokyo, south of Fukushima.

The wind change was confirmed by Arnie Gundersen. The plume was
heading south toward Tokyo. Remember, the plants are still omitting a
lot of radiation mainly cesium and strontium. The issue, according to
Gundersen, is not the total radiation you might measure with a Geiger
counter in your hand, but hot particles.

Hot particles are being picked up in air filters in Tokyo, showing
strontium, cesium and americium.

Gundersen is advising people in Tokyo to take their shoes off at the
door and use wet dusters to dust the house. Contamination inside
houses is higher now than outside because it has been tracked in over
the past couple of months. He is also urging friends there to buy
HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filters and change the filters
in their air-conditioning frequently. Likewise the filters in the car.

I asked Dr. Caldicott about Gundersen’s advice for residents living in
Tokyo.

“If I lived in Tokyo, I would leave if I had children or was a young
woman who wanted to become pregnant. It is medically contra-indicated
for people to live there. Fetuses and children are extraordinarily
sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of radiation.

The Wall Street Journal also reported this week on the highly toxic
levels of strontium detected in seawater and groundwater at Japan’s
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. The Strontium-89 and Strontium-90
isotopes are believed to have been released from the damaged reactors.
Environmental experts fear the risk of contamination entering the food
chain, a risk increased by the arrival of the wet season (again, as
predicted by Dr. Caldicott in her interview with me of May 13).

According to Gundersen, the contamination to worry about in cow’s milk
is iodine. This has an 8 day half-life. But he’s worried that iodine
is still being found 3 months out which could be the “re-criticality”
that he, Caldicott, Osawa and Fairlie mentioned earlier. So, he is
advising friends to avoid milk and dairy products for the time being.
Washing vegetables is a no-brainer, says Gundersen. Caldicott
disagrees, as it only gets rid of external radiation. Best to avoid
fish caught in the Pacific as well.

One of the high profile casualties from the hotspot phenomenon has
been the green tea crop in Kanagawa and neighboring Shizuoka where
cesium was found at a level that exceeded the government’s legal limit
by as much as 35%. Shizuoka represents 40% of Japanese green tea
exports.

Gundersen has concerns about radiation in the US. The US Food and
Drug Administration is not monitoring fish entering the US. One day, a
tuna might set off a radiation alarm. People could think it was a
dirty bomb. It hasn’t happened yet because the tuna haven’t migrated
across the Pacific. But he thinks that by 2013 you might see
contamination of the water and in those fish at the top of the food
chain.

Air contamination has now also reached Europe. CRIIRAD (the Commission
for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity in English)
is the French research authority on radioactivity; whilst it declares
that radioactive air contamination is 10 times worse in the USA, it is
warning Europeans – particularly pregnant or nursing mothers and
children – to:
“avoid the regular consumption of rain water and excessive consumption
of vulnerable foods such as leaf vegetables, fresh milk and ricotta /
cream cheese)”

And in our direction? Hawaiian farmers have started feeding goats and
cows with sodium boron to reduce radiation in milk. It seems we are
all at the whim of the winds.

Generations to come will wonder at the greed and stupidity of their
forebears. Mine it, build it, make the money and run is the credo of
our generation. Leave the problems to future generations who will foot
the bill — if they and the planet survive.

Here’s the uranium industry’s plan:
Mine the uranium, sell the uranium, repeat until rich

Dr Caldicott clearly despairs of our straying off the moral path:
“We are so morally bereft, it’s beyond my imagination. My country is
not discussing the fact that much of the uranium in those reactors is
probably Australian uranium which is now polluting much of Japan and
indeed a large swath of the northern hemisphere — inevitably over time
inducing millions of cancers and genetic disease.
“Martin Ferguson is running around saying we must sell uranium like
there’s no tomorrow – and there may not be a tomorrow. What has
happened to the moral base of Australia? We used to be so adamant
about moral issues. Have we totally lost our moral compass”

Meanwhile, the units at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are still
leaking and emitting radioactive gasses. According to Gundersen, you
can see the steam on a cold day. He believes it will take a year or so
before this radioactive material cools down and stops boiling. Until
then, he says, the units will continue to crank out their deadly steam
and radioactive liquids.

This month, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will
begin to cover the No.1 reactor building with polyester sheets to try
to prevent the dispersal of radioactive substances.

No-one has any idea whether this might be the beginning of the end —
or just the beginning…

FULL TEXT: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/environment/the-truth-about-the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-and-cover-up/
Taka
2011-06-22 12:35:19 UTC
Permalink
100 years cleanup at best, single big aftershock and we are in March
again ... Japanese government lying to the World:

http://enenews.com/they-lied-to-us-radiation-release-comparable-to-chernobyl-total-core-meltdown-in-all-3-reactors-worst-industrial-catastrophe-in-world-history-cnn-video

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/06/21/exp.arena.michio.kaku.fukushima.cnn
Taka
2011-06-22 13:56:58 UTC
Permalink
Fukushima leaks: thirty years of accidents, and lies

Except that one can not but feel discouraged by reading this litany of
errors, mistakes, lies, but also complaints, denunciations, the
efforts of citizens rejected the audacity of Association pro-nuclear
state that everything is perfect …

At least we have something to meet all these pro-nucs who absolutely
want to force us to gradually lose our land, land irradiated,
contaminated land, contaminated land, species destruction, and killed
men gnawed

Type “Fukushima leaks” on Google and you’ll have all the press
review.

Speak, sign petitions, write to your MP!

November 5, 1979: The No. 2 reactor stopped due to failure on a pump

September 17, 1980: Japanese plants employ workers without proper
training

October 3, 1985: Fire on the reactor 1

August 27, 1986: shutdown No. 5 for a breakdown of the water

December 4, 1986: a reactor shutdown due to a failure of air
conditioning

April 23, 1987: An earthquake causes shutdown of three reactors

22 June 1987: IAEA warning about the risks of fire

January 21, 1988: fire in the air conditioning system of the reactor
1

August 16, 1988: The Japanese anti-nuclear movements warn about the
risks of aging reactors in Fukushima

December 12, 1988: shutdown of the reactor 2 for a breakdown of a
steam valve

January 2, 1989: TEPCO is still unclear why the earthquake of April
22, 1987 approved the reactors

January 30, 1989: Some employees of the plant have chromosomal
disorders

February 3, 1989: a seal failure could cause a core meltdown in
reactor No. 2

February 9, 1989: research to understand accidents on pump seals

February 28, 1989: fragments of metal found in the reactors

April 20, 1989: TEPCO public apology for the failure of a pump

June 3, 1989: reactor shutdown after a water leak

June 19, 1989: a series of accidents in central Japan

October 20, 1989: safety measures in the central Japanese “are able to
prevent a serious accident”

October 26, 1989: Alert on the aging of Japanese plants

November 30, 1989: ACS says that despite the accident, Japan will not
abandon nuclear energy.

January 8, 1990: an accumulation of accidents in 1989

February 23, 1990: 2 reactor shut due to a failure on a pump

March 20, 1990: the Sendai High Court rejects demand for stopping the
central Fukushima

March 29, 1990: The Sendai High Court says that the plants are well
designed and can not cause disasters

April 14, 1990: nuclear accidents are doubting the Japanese

June 28, 1990: Anti-nuclear demonstration at the annual shareholder of
TEPCO

July 12, 1990: The Japanese Ministry said that the reactor 3 is up and
running

August 9, 1990: TEPCO expects the restart of Unit 3 due to high
electricity demand,

September 6, 1990: postponement of restart of reactor 3

October 11, 1990: NSC approved the restart of reactor 3

October 23, 1990: “Japanese engineers believe that their plants are
virtually immune to earthquakes”

October 25, 1990: concerns in the neighborhood for restarting the
reactor 3

November 1, 1990: AEC calls for a nuclear development

April 4, 1991: lawsuit to demand a cessation of reactor No. 3

May 23, 1991: 23 reported accidents in central Japan in 1990

October 29, 1991: French building blocks for dam Fukushima

July 8, 1992: a reactor shutdown in the wake of increased pressure

September 29, 1992: reactor shutdown after a power failure on a pump

September 30, 1992: shutdown 2 following a human error

September 30, 1992: Complaints against TEPCO because of bad
information on accidents

October 1, 1992: Japan questions the safety of its nuclear power
plants

October 29, 1992: Two anti-nuclear groups rejected their lawsuits

October 31, 1992: a reactor stopped due to failure on a pump

November 5, 1992: Supreme Court decides that the courts can not
determine questions of nuclear safety

November 10, 1992: 1 to shutdown following an engine failure on a
valve

April 7, 1993: TEPCO plans to build two new reactors

May 10, 1993: prosecution following the death of a worker in the
central

June 20, 1994: ANRE calls for investigation into the accident of May

August 1, 1994: recognition of irradiation on two plant workers

August 22, 1994: TEPCO hopes to build two new reactors

September 14, 1995: An earthquake accelerates nuclear reaction three-
engine

November 27, 1995: 6 reactor shutdown due to abnormal pressure

May 1, 1996: a “plethora of accidents” in Fukushima

September 30, 1996: Construction of the reactor No. 8

October 24, 1996: TEPCO buys English machines to repair its
containment

November 27, 1996: Delay in restarting the reactor after the discovery
of cracks

TEPCO

December 12, 1996 requesting permission to build two new reactors

December 20, 1996: shareholder of TEPCO rejected an application for
plant shutdown

January 17, 1997: A small fire at reactor No. 2

January 21, 1997: delay in restarting a reactor after discovering
leaks

April 29, 1997: shutdown No. 2 following a leak of radioactive gas

April 30, 1997: The No. 2 reactor will remain off until an unspecified
date

May 7, 1997: Case No. 1 reactor due to a decrease in coolant

May 20, 1997: Proposed restart the reactor No. 2

June 9, 1997: Radioactive leak at reactor No. 1

June 12, 1997: sharp increase in accidents in the central Japanese

October 14, 1997: Discovery on a crack pipe

December 5, 1997: reactor shutdown as a result of a failure

January 20, 1998: TEPCO plans to replace 144 control rods due to poor
workmanship

January 24, 1998: Residents living around the plant are concerned
about the use of plutonium

July 30, 1998: Case No. 6 reactor after a steam leak

August 18, 1998: TEPCO asks local authorities permitted to use
plutonium (MOX)

August 26, 1998: Case No. 1 reactor after a failure

November 2, 1998: Fukushima Prefecture accepts the use of MOX

December 6, 1998: 75% of residents of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant opposed
the use of MOX

January 25, 1999: Fire on the reactor No. 1

February 8, 1999: TEPCO said his oldest reactor (28 years) can still
work 32 years

April 27, 1999: Japan plans to develop its civilian nuclear

June 28, 1999: Anti-nuclear groups call on Japan to withdraw from the
plutonium processing

June 30, 1999: France will send MOX in Japan

July 16, 1999: second French cargo of MOX to Japan

September 10, 1999: expected arrival of the French MOX in Fukushima

September 28, 1999: Japan protests against the arrival of French MOX

October 8, 1999: Radioactive leak in a waste disposal plant in
Fukushima

January 1, 2000: the “2000 bug” hits a few facilities in the central
Japanese

January 10, 2000: TEPCO pushes its plans to use MOX fuel in reactor
No. 3

July 21, 2000: reactor shutdown after a leak resulting from an
earthquake

July 24, 2000: closure of reactor No. 2 because of an oil leak in a
turbine

July 24, 2000: The Japanese government recognizes the public concern
due to recent nuclear accidents

July 25, 2000: a third reactor closed due to an abnormal increase of
iodine

August 2, 2000: Case No. 6 reactor due to a ruptured line, damaged
during the recent earthquake

September 30, 2000: Chronology of major nuclear accidents in Japan

October 31, 2000 Fukushima should be the first plant to use MOX

February 9, 2001: TEPCO continues to want to build new reactors

February 26, 2001: the governor of Fukushima refuses to authorize the
use of MOX

February 26, 2001: TEPCO announced a freeze of its construction of new
reactors. Wrath of local

March 26, 2001: anti-nuclear rejected their lawsuits to ban the use of
MOX

April 2, 2001 TEPCO defer the use of MOX in its power plants

April 3, 2001: A Mayor demands accountability to the governor of
Fukushima that banned the use of MOX

May 15, 2001: planned shutdown of reactor No. 6 after the discovery of
radioactive leaks

August 24, 2001: METI order an audit of 28 reactors

August 30, 2001: installation of four-bar linkages to repair a crack
in the reactor 3

November 1, 2001: automatic shutdown of reactor No. 2 for unknown
reasons

June 17, 2002: Fukishima prefecture plans to increase the tax to 13.5%
nuclear

June 21, 2002: Minister of Economy opposes the tax increase nuclear

July 4, 2002: approval of the Prefectural Assembly for the tax
increase nuclear

August 10, 2002: Concerns about the strength of power in case of
earthquake

August 22, 2002: cracks discovered in some lines

August 29, 2002: TEPCO has concealed several nuclear accidents since
the 80s

August 30, 2002: TEPCO falsification challenge nuclear safety

August 31, 2002: Some leaks have been overlooked by employees of
TEPCO

September 2, 2002: new revelations about the falsification of TEPCO

September 2, 2002: scheduled shutdown of four reactors using damaged
parts

September 2, 2002: Suspects reactors continue to operate

September 3, 2002: Case No. 2 reactor due to a radioactive leak.

September 4, 2002: Radioactive gas leak: a hundred times the normal
dose

September 4, 2002: TEPCO freeze the construction of four new reactors

September 6, 2002: TEPCO disguised cracks large for four years

September 13, 2002: TEPCO had falsified records video

September 16, 2002: TEPCO has used unauthorized parts in a reactor

September 26, 2002: numerous cracks discovered on the reactor No. 3

September 30, 2002: the governor of Fukushima withdrew his consent for
the use of plutonium

October 4, 2002: New cracks discovered on the reactor No. 2

October 11, 2002: A fifth reactor will be shut down to check for
cracks

October 14, 2002: discovered new leaks in the reactor No. 4

October 25, 2002: reactor shutdown ordered by the authorities

October 25, 2002: new discoveries falsifications in Fukushima

November 1, 2002: TEPCO delays construction of new reactors

November 11, 2002: Fukushima Prefecture delaying the implementation of
its increasing nuclear charge

November 19, 2002: The Japanese are scared of their nuclear industry

December 11, 2002: Publication of report on the falsification of TEPCO

December 26, 2002: The government accepts the tax increase in nuclear
préféceture of Fukushima

January 15, 2003: Fukushima prefecture does not know if TEPCO will
restart its reactors

January 16, 2003: New cracks discovered on two reactors

February 10, 2003: TEPCO plans to restart three reactors late March

February 14, 2003: TEPCO plans to shut down all its reactors in April
for security checks

February 18, 2003: TEPCO is unable to specify the date for restarting
its reactors

February 24, 2003: The government imposes TEPCO to improve its
security procedures

March 6, 2003: Fears of a shortage of electricity due to the closure
of 17 reactors

March 11, 2003: the government allows, under certain conditions, the
restart of the reactors

March 12, 2003: TEPCO publishes its rehabilitation plan of its
reactors

April 14, 2003: Stopping all TEPCO reactors fears of power cuts

May 29, 2003: TEPCO expects permission to restart its reactor No. 6

June 16, 2003: discovery of a missing piece on the reactor No. 3

July 10, 2003: the governor of Fukushima authorize the restart of
reactor No. 6

August 18, 2003: Restarting the reactor No. 3

September 25, 2003: A worker exposed to radiation center

September 26, 2003: Concerns about the strength of nuclear power
plants after a major earthquake

November 18, 2003: IEA recommends that Japan restore public confidence
in the nuclear industry

January 27, 2004: water leak at reactor No. 6

March 4, 2004: public distrust delaying the restart of nuclear power
plants

March 17, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 4

June 3, 2004: central storage of radioactive waste resumed its
activities

June 29, 2004: TEPCO will restart three of its reactors and wants to
use plutonium

August 5, 2004: Case No. 3 reactor due to “technical problems”

August 6, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 2

August 9, 2004: Case No. 2 reactor after a water leak

August 17, 2004: explosion of a steam line

August 26, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 2

September 27, 2004: Japanese plants will close in 2016 if they can not
recycle their waste

September 29, 2004: Case No. 2 reactor for “technical problems”

October 6, 2004: abnormal erosion of water pipes on engine No. 1

October 7, 2004: The government ensures that the erosion of water
pipes do not pose a problem

October 14, 2004: Case No. 2 reactor after a pump failure

October 18, 2004: postponement of restart of reactor No. 4 due to a
problem with the cooling system

October 20, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 5

October 20, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 4 after repairs

October 28, 2004: shutdown of the reactor No. 4 due to the failure of
a valve

October 29, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 2

November 2, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 4

November 4, 2004: Restarting the reactor No. 6

November 30, 2004: Government’s investigation of the reactor at
Fukushima No. 1

December 8, 2004: Case No. 2 reactor due to a leak of radioactive
water

December 17, 2004: Case No. 6 reactor due to a leak of water

December 17, 2004: TEPCO will stop all engines to find the source of a
leak of radioactive water

January 7, 2005: Stop all engines due to a leak of radioactive water

February 9, 2005: Restarting the six reactors

February 14, 2005: The No. 3 reactor will not start until March

February 22, 2005: Restarting the reactor No. 2

March 17, 2005: The No. 3 reactor can be restarted due to a failure on
a pump

March 18, 2005: Case No. 3 reactor due to a failure on a water pump

April 21, 2005: Restarting the reactor No. 1

May 26, 2005: Case No. 1 reactor due to a “technical problem”

June 3, 2005: Restarting the reactor No. 1

August 11, 2005: Case No. 1 reactor after a radioactive leak

August 17, 2005: An earthquake causes a leak of radioactive water

August 22, 2005: Case No. 5 reactor after a problem with the cooling
system

September 16, 2005: shutdown of the reactor No. 1 for a pump repair

October 10, 2005: Case No. 2 reactor due to a failure on a pump

December 12, 2005: Case No. 4 reactor due to a leak of water

December 21, 2005: reduced activity of reactor No. 2 at the following
“technical problems”

January 19, 2006: discovery of cracks on control rods of Unit # 6

February 6, 2006: Toshiba falsified data from a meter of reactor No.
6

February 20, 2006: Case No. 3 reactor due to a leaking pump

March 17, 2006: Case No. 4 reactor due to a failure on a pump

April 28, 2006: The security procedures in the event of an earthquake
must be improved

May 15, 2006: shutdown of the reactor No. 4 due to an oil leak

May 18, 2006: confidential information about the security of the plant
were mistakenly released on the Internet

May 22, 2006: Radioactive leak at reactor No. 4

May 23, 2006: reactor shutdown after a leak of radioactive steam

May 30, 2006: Case No. 6 reactor due to a leak of radioactive steam

June 12, 2006: Case No. 3 reactor for repairs

June 22, 2006: Case No. 1 reactor due to a leak of radioactive steam

July 24, 2006: Radioactive water leak at reactor No. 1

August 1, 2006: The company that built the plant No.2 prosecuted for
corruption

August 11, 2006: Leakage of radioactive steam

September 29, 2006: Case No. 4 reactor for repairs

November 6, 2006: shutdown No. 5 following a failure

December 5, 2006: TEPCO falsifications discovered new data in the
reports of its central

January 17, 2007: shutdown No. 2 because of “problems”

February 1, 2007: new revelations about the falsification of data
February 18, 2007: Case No. 4 reactor due to excessive radioactivity

March 1, 2007: discovery of falsification in new plants of TEPCO

March 1, 2007: the discovery of falsified TEPCO should not interfere
with the operation of its plants

March 12, 2007: TEPCO has concealed an emergency shutdown of one of
its engines in 1998

March 20, 2007: TEPCO has concealed that control rods are dropped
reactors in 1993 and 2000

March 22, 2007: Companies that operate nuclear power plants do not
communicate with each other

March 22, 2007: TEPCO has concealed critical accident in 1978 and
1999

April 5, 2007: Companies that manage nuclear power in Japan have
committed over 10,000 crimes

April 20, 2007: Government calls for more stringent checks

April 27, 2007: Alert on the air conditioning on the reactors 2 and 4

June 14, 2007: Case No. 3 reactor due to a leak of water

July 16, 2007: “The Japanese nuclear power plants designed to
withstand the worst earthquakes”

August 19, 2007: Fears over the strength of Japanese plants in case of
earthquake

August 21, 2007: The government allows TEPCO postpone safety
inspections of its reactor No. 3

September 20, 2007: radioactive leaks after an earthquake of magnitude
6.8

October 4, 2007: TEPCO to improve its communications following the
earthquake

October 12, 2007: Case No. 2 reactor due to a failure on the heat
exchanger

March 24, 2008: TEPCO asks the government to extend 10-year operation
of reactor No. 4 which has been operating for 29 years

March 31, 2008: Nuclear power plants must be prepared to cope with
earthquakes larger

April 10, 2008: TEPCO plans to grow by 1% annually until 2017. Project
to build two new reactors in Fukushima

May 25, 2008: A plant worker, who suffers from cancer resulting from
radiation, dismissed his claim

June 4, 2008: miners used to carry out inspections of nuclear power
plants

June 4, 2008: Restarting the reactor No. 5, stopped due to “technical
problems”

June 10, 2008: Case No. 5 reactor due to a turbine malfunction

June 14, 2008: radioactive leak after an earthquake

July 11, 2008: slowing down of the reactor 5 for repairs

July 18, 2008: TEPCO authorizes the government to postpone the
maintenance on the reactor No. 3

July 20, 2008: A long list of lawsuits against nuclear power plants in
Japan

August 6, 2008: Case No. 3 reactor for “repairs”

October 21, 2008: French officials involved in an exercise alert
reactor No. 3

February 17, 2009: creation of 7 crisis centers near nuclear power
plants

February 24, 2009: Case No. 1 reactor after a “technical problem”

March 10, 2009: the use of plutonium could finally be topical

August 6, 2009: Case No. 3 reactor following the discovery of an
“anomaly”

November 23, 2009: What future for nuclear power in Japan

February 16, 2010: Fukushima Prefecture is willing to accept the use
of plutonium

February 28, 2010: Japanese plants have not suffered from the tsunami

March 3, 2010: Case No. 6 reactor due to a faulty pipe

June 2, 2010: Case No. 1 reactor after a failure of the cooling
system

June 13, 2010: The earthquake did not affect the central

June 17, 2010: shutdown No. 2 following an “anomaly”

August 9, 2010: Introduction of a judicial remedy to prevent the use
of plutonium

August 18, 2010: The No. 1 reactor must be arrested following the
discovery of a radioactive leak

August 23, 2010: Nuclear energy is an opportunity for Japan

September 14, 2010: The No. 3 reactor will be restarted and use of MOX
fuel for the first time

September 16, 2010: TEPCO hopes to increase the share of nuclear and
renewable energy

September 18, 2010: start of operation of the MOX

October 25, 2010: Areva believes that the use of MOX does not present
a danger to people

November 5, 2010: shutdown of reactor No. 5 because of “problems”

December 13, 2010: Projects and Challenges of TEPCO

December 24, 2010: Restarting the reactor No. 5 arrested following a
crash on a pump

January 12, 2011: TEPCO decided to extend the period of three months
between inspections of reactor No. 3, to produce more

February 7, 2011: NISA authorized to use the TEPCO reactor No. 1 (40
years) for 10 more years

March 7, 2011: draft TEPCO to increase nuclear

March 9, 2011: Following in the earthquake, TEPCO “confirms” that the
plant in Fukushima was not damaged

March 11, 2011: an “anomaly” reported on Units 1 and 2

March 11, 2011: IAEA says that the reactors have been stopped safely
when the earthquake

March 11, 2011: State of emergency declared in Fukushima.

SOURCE: http://economicsnewspaper.com/economics/fukushima-leaks-thirty-years-of-accidents-and-lies-12638.html
Taka
2011-06-22 13:59:09 UTC
Permalink
The Japanese Press and TEPCO

From lapdog to pit bull
By Jake Adelstein

Reporters are often idealized as watchdogs for the social good, but as
many Japanese citizens already know, Tepco has deftly turned many of
our major news sources into lapdogs. As a major sponsor of several
media outlets, Tepco buys the goodwill and, ultimately, the powerful
silence of reporters, their editors, TV producers and publishers. Only
because of the gravest of recent events has that begun to change.

According to the 2011 edition of the Nikkei Advertising Research
Institute’s “PR Funding By Major Companies,” Tepco spends close to ¥24
billion per year under the guise of “normalization and development
expenses.” So why does a default monopoly need to spend what amounts
to over $294 million every year in advertising? To give you an idea of
the scale, Sharp spent ¥28.4 billion in 2009 – and they were the 10th
largest spender on advertising in the country.

Tepco has two primary instruments of media subjugation. The first is
advertising funds: the promise of, as well as the threat of
withdrawal. It’s well known that Tepco pays huge advertising fees to
most media outlets. It’s not as well known that Tepco President
Masataka Shimizu (who recently resigned) was, until the earthquake,
also chairman of the Japan Society for Corporate Communication
Studies, which includes former and current top executives from Asahi
Beer, Toyota, and Dentsu, Japan’s largest advertising agency. The
board of directors also includes a representative of Nihon
Television’s economic news section.

Shimizu was the chairman of what is whispered to be the equivalent of
a lobby group that wields the tremendous power of advertising revenue
over anyone who crosses their path. “It’s the most powerful lobby in
Japan in some ways,” a government adviser says. It is ostensibly a
group of scholars, executives, advertising agency bosses, mass-media
representatives and businessmen who gather together to study more
effective means of communication. Veteran reporters assert that the
society also functions as a powerful consortium of large corporations
who know how to use the threat of taking away advertising as a whip to
keep the media muzzled.

You don’t have to be too bright to figure out it would be financially
devastating if Tepco, Toyota, Asahi Beer and Dentsu banded together
and pulled advertising from your newspaper, TV channel, or radio
station. In the April edition of the Asahi Geino weekly, noted
journalist Takashi Uesugi claims that on March 15, after repeatedly
lampooning and criticizing Tepco on TBS Radio, the producer asked him
to leave the show, claiming that the program was being “revamped.” TBS
Radio refuses to comment on the issue.

Shimizu is still listed as the chairman of the society (at the time of
writing), but on April 1 his “greetings” were taken down from the site
and replaced with the words of the vice-chairman. The current page
expresses condolences to the victims of the recent disasters. No
mention is made of the problems at the Fukushima reactor, only that
Shimizu is now too busy dealing with the disaster to fully devote
himself to the organization.

These “normalization and development expenses” are not only spent on
millions of dollars worth of ads; the second weapon in the Tepco
arsenal is settai, or “business entertainment”, which basically
amounts to wining and dining all those who might report on the firm in
an unfavorable light.

When the earthquake knocked out Tepco’s Fukushima reactor, setting off
a chain reaction of disasters, Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata was
nowhere to be found. Where was he? He was on a tour of China with
members of some of Japan’s largest media outlets – with Tepco footing
the bill.

On March 30, Tepco not only admitted that the chairman had been taking
mass-media power brokers on the trip to China, but also that Tepco
paid the majority of their travel fees. On April 7, a reporter asked
Tepco to reveal the names of the media firms that had executives or
former executives joining the chairman on his trip, but Tepco dodged
the question. They still have not answered.

According to a mainstream Japanese media reporter, the China tours
have been going on for over 10 years. “The trips have a token amount
of study, such as visiting a factory, or whatever has been scheduled
to justify the event for that year,” the reporter says. “In reality,
most of the day is devoted to sightseeing. At night the Tepco
executives wine and dine the reporters, editors, or mass-media
representatives. And of course, the obligatory karaoke.”

When not spending lavishly on these international trips, Tepco also
courts the media domestically. Dinners at expensive sushi shops with
Tepco executives or PR flacks, are, of course, paid for by Tepco. Or
Tepco may ask you write an advertorial, the honorarium usually
starting at about ¥100,000. The writer may or may not be credited. And
then there are the “nuclear power plant tours.”

According to a reporter for one daily, the journalists actually do
spend the day touring the plants in question; the company explains how
safe nuclear energy is and how well the plants are run. But the tour
is cursory. In the evening, the reporters and Tepco workers stay at a
luxurious Japanese inn or hotel, and have an elaborate dinner
together. Sometimes “companion girls,” basically local hostesses, are
provided to pour the beer, flirt with the reporters and perform other
social functions. Tepco pays for everything.

The reporter I spoke with says he has heard that sometimes the
executives of TV stations join the Tepco crew for golf the next day.

Tepco does not ask for favors on these junkets. There are no requests
to the reporters for them to write articles praising nuclear energy,
nor are they told to refrain from criticizing Tepco. Japan is a
country where that’s understood without anyone needing to spell it
out.

And once a reporter has been on a few of these junkets, and perhaps
had a dalliance with one of the “companion girls” – they may find that
Tepco knows more about them than they know about Tepco, or would like
anyone else to know.

It’s unsurprising that much of the mainstream media has been less than
critical of Tepco up until now. It’s very hard to raise your voice
loud enough to be heard from inside the pocket of your sponsor.

There have been some attempts to expose the culture of corporate
malfeasance at Tepco. In 2007, Katsunobu Onda, a former reporter for
Shukan Gendai weekly wrote Tokyo Denryoku: Teikoku no Ankoku (Tepco:
The Dark Empire) which chronicled the numerous accidents and cover-ups
at Tepco facilities. It sank without a trace, printed only once. It
was finally reprinted in April of this year. Onda says: “There are
three huge taboos in the Japanese press: Tepco, Toyota, and Soka
Gakkai, a religious group. Of them, Tepco is probably the most
untouchable because of the huge amount of advertising revenue they
wield like candy and a whip.”

The foreign media, which was excoriated by the Japanese press for
sensational reporting, was the first to bring up troubling questions
about the missing Shimizu. On March 29, The Washington Post wrote an
article headlined: “Vanishing act by Japanese executive during nuclear
crisis raises questions.” No Japanese publication would have had the
guts to write this. However, they did report on the Washington Post
coverage of the issue.

In Japanese newspaper slang, this is called tenden. It comes from the
words tenso (to forward) and denpo (telegram). It’s the practice of
summarizing a foreign news article, crediting the publication, but
without doing any independent verification. It’s a convenient way to
report on thorny issues without risking any legal liability and it
allows the media to save face by simply saying, “Oh, we are just
reporting on what the Washington Post wrote. Sorry. They brought it
up.” At times, reporters consciously pass on stories they can’t report
to weekly magazines or foreign press out of civic duty or to create an
opportunity to follow up on a story they are interested in writing.

I’ve had the experience myself when writing about the liver
transplants at UCLA received by four yakuza in 2008. I ran the story
past several Japanese news agencies and weekly magazines all of which
declined to report it. Only one of them admitted to killing the story
for financial and safety concerns. Only after The Los Angeles Times
followed up on my Washington Post story on its front page, did the
Japanese press report on the issue, in classic tenden style.

What is interesting to see is that as public anger towards Tepco takes
a steep climb, the Japanese media, which has functioned as a lapdog,
is acting much more like a pit bull. This is not uncommon once the
scent of blood is in the air; it’s the media scram. Increasingly
critical reports are being written in the major newspapers, but the
weeklies, of course, are the most unrestrained. Shukan Shincho
recently ran a piece with a provocative title that loosely translates
as “The Resumes of The Tepco Class War Criminals,” which focused on
the career history of Tepco’s top executives.

Surprisingly, of all the major newspapers, only two have been vocally
critical of Tepco from early on in the news cycle – the far-right
Sankei Shimbun and slightly left, Tokyo Shimbun. One may not like
their political views, but the papers have done some excellent
journalism in their coverage of the Fukushima reactor crisis. The
Japanese media is often criticized as a lapdog to the powers that be.
However, there have always been and continue to be some lone wolves in
the herd that function like the watchdogs they are supposed to be.

SOURCE: http://no1.fccj.ne.jp/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=351:top-story-master&catid=64:june-2011&Itemid=101
Taka
2011-06-23 01:37:48 UTC
Permalink
30 Nuclear Power Plant Subcontractors Come Up Missing

The whereabouts of about 30 subcontractors who helped deal with the
crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is unknown,
the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said on June 20.

The workers are among some 3,700 who worked to control the disaster in
March, the month the plant was struck by the Great East Japan
Earthquake and tsunami.

The workers’ names were listed in records showing that they had been
loaned dosimeters, but when the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power
Co. (TEPCO), contacted the companies they were associated with, the
companies replied that there was no record of those workers.

The ministry has branded TEPCO’s administration of workers “sloppy”
and ordered the company to conduct an investigation to identify the
workers.

“We don’t know why there is no record of the workers. The records and
dosimeters were managed by TEPCO and its administration can only be
described as sloppy,” a representative of the ministry’s Labor
Standards Bureau said.

Ministry officials said that 3,639 emergency workers were enlisted to
handle the nuclear crisis in March. As of June 20, TEPCO had reported
provisional radiation exposure figures for 3,514 workers to the
ministry. The other 125 had not undergone tests for internal radiation
exposure as of June 20. TEPCO has asked cooperating companies to have
69 of these 125 workers tested. The remaining 56 were either about to
undergo tests or could not undergo tests due to illness.

Officials said that TEPCO managed records of workers who had been
loaned dosimeters between the outset of the disaster and mid-April.
When workers were loaned dosimeters at the base isolation structure of
the power plant and another area, the serial numbers of the
dosimeters, the names of the companies involved in the work and the
workers’ names were recorded in handwriting. But when TEPCO contacted
the cooperating companies there was no record of some 30 of the 69
workers.

All of the workers who were not found on company records have returned
their dosimeters. Records of their external radiation exposure
remained, but none of the workers was exposed to radiation exceeding
the limit of 250 millisieverts, officials said.

Since mid-April, records have been managed with bar codes and other
means of identification, but the only way to identify workers at the
plant before then is through handwritten records.

SOURCE: http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/22/30-nuclear-power-plant-subcontractors-come-up-missing/

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

Homeless people are cheap but I wonder how much they would need to pay
the moms of deformed babies born at the end of this year to keep them
silent?

Taka
Taka
2011-06-23 06:21:59 UTC
Permalink
Genocide in Japan with nuclear explosion of the dirty MOX fuel reactor
#3:



and the measured consequences:



to see the genetic consequences on fetuses we have to wait till
December and for the cancers even more ...

Taka
Taka
2011-06-23 08:31:40 UTC
Permalink
"The coolant of this reactor is sodium, which burns on contact with
air. The reactor uses MOX-fuel."

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/monju-they-will-try-to-pull-out-in.html

Total insanity, who gave the Japs. this technology? Better call some
competent "gaijins" before another disaster happens!

Taka
Taka
2011-07-12 00:52:46 UTC
Permalink
Radioactive Beef from Fukushima Update: Already Been Sold in At Least
9 (not 5) Prefectures

Beef from 6 cows from the same cattle farmer in Minami Soma City in
Fukushima Prefecture have already been sold at least in 9 (not 5)
prefectures, according to Mainichi Shinbun Japanese latest update
(1:28AM, 7/12/2011).

Unlike the 11 cows whose meat all tested cesium exceeding the
provisional limit of 500 becquerels/kg, the meat from these 6 cows had
never been tested and allowed to circulate in the market.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is in charge of
testing live cattle, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is
in charge of testing meat. They do not talk with each other.

And as usual, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare assures us
that "it won't affect health unless you eat it on a continuous basis."
The Ministry conveniently forgets that the radiation is everywhere -
air, soil, water, sludge, garbage, tea, vegetables, fish, meat. If
people can just eat this contaminated beef and not breathe, not eat
and drink anything else, it still may not be "safe".

From Mainichi Shinbun latest update:

The beef has been confirmed sold in: Hokkaido, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba,
Shizuoka, Aichi, Osaka, Tokushima, Kochi.

Not confirmed: Ehime

It was discovered by the Tokyo Metropolitan government that the meat
from 6 cows sold by the same cattle farmer earlier had been sold to
wholesalers and retailers in 5 prefectures. Further, it had been in
the market in additional 4 prefectures (total of 9 prefectures). Over
148 kilograms of meat have been sold. The Ministry of Health, Labor
and Welfare says, "There is no effect on health unless it is consumed
continuously in large quantities."

The Shizuoka City Public Health Center announced on July 11 that 1,998
becquerels/kg cesium was found in the meat purchased by a wholesaler
in the city, who purchased 27.8 kilogram of this beef. Part of the
meat has already been served to customers in restaurants. The Tokyo
Municipal government detected 3,400 becquerels/kg cesium from the meat
that a wholesaler in Tokyo had kept. That is 6.8 times the provisional
safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg.

The Osaka government also announced on July 11 that the meat from 2
cows from the cattle farmer had been sold, mostly within Osaka.
Several kilograms of the meat had been given as gifts and probably
been consumed already. In Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture, 52
kilogram of this meat was sold in retail stores. According to the
Ehime government, a wholesaler in Ehime sold 17.6 kilograms of the
meat to supermarkets in Kochi and Tokushima Prefectures, who then sold
the meat to consumers. It is not known whether any has been sold
within Ehime Prefecture.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/
Taka
2011-07-12 01:44:09 UTC
Permalink
"Stress Tests Could Halt Nuclear Power Output"

SOURCE: http://news.vcgoo.jp/news/stress-tests-could-halt-nuclear-power-output.html

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japans-nuclear-power-plants-to-undergo-stress-tests

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

Note that a kind of "stress test" cooling experiment was what caused
the Chernobyl disaster in the first place. Letting the Japanese do
any experiments/tests with their nuclear plants is pretty risky
business. Human errors are unavoidable and these people are not
intellectually competent for such a dangerous technology ... Short
interruption in cooling the devil and we go boom again ... All the
reactors are loaded to their roofs including the ones in so called
cool shutdown.

Taka
Taka
2011-07-13 02:31:21 UTC
Permalink
Beef from Fukushima to Be Tested (Somehow) in Fukushima from Now On,
But It's Too Late For School Kids in Yokohama

Children from nursery schools and kindergartens up to junior high
schools in Yokohama City had already been fed the beef from Fukushima
since late April. Then the news of radioactive beef from Minami-Soma
City broke a few days ago.

The news, which had been dismissed by many as "baseless rumor" and
some sort of "urban legend" in Yokohama and elsewhere, has finally
been reported on Mainichi Shinbun Japanese more or less (less) on July
12.

An anonymous reader of my Japanese blog, who turned out be a
councilman (no party affiliation) of the Yokohama City Council,
commented on my blog entry on July 9 that discussed the contaminated
beef and radiation exposure of children.

He said in the comment:

Regarding your post, I'd like to alert you to the fact that a large
quantity of beef from Fukushima Prefecture has been used in school
lunches in Yokohama City, without citizens and parents informed. We
are living everyday trying to protect our lives, and with bitterness
and regret at our powerlessness. Please spread the news.


He sent me the link to the simple message board he keeps for his
constituents. So I went, and the following is my rough summary of
posts and happenings since May, as posted by the councilman and
concerned residents of Yokohama. It may change the impression you may
have about Yokohama City; it has changed mine:

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

In mid May, Yokohama announced it would measure radiation in food
items that go to school lunches, but the only food items tested would
be those grown in Yokohama [i.e. none or close to none]. For
vegetables and meat from Fukushima Prefecture, the city considered
"safe" because they were tested in Fukushima Prefecture.

In late May, the councilman and many of the people who commented on
the board were afraid that the city was using radioactive food stuff
for school lunches. But there were many posts from people who said "Oh
come on, it's just a rumor, and without a solid data from the
government officials we shouldn't speculate. You're all over-
reacting." There was even a post from a teacher (as revealed by the IP
address, apparently using a school computer) who trashed people who
were worried about the food safety for children, with a vulgar, yakuza-
like language.

There were messages from parents who had their children carry their
own lunches and water bottles to schools and kindergartens, and the
schools denied their children to consume those homemade lunches and
water.

The mayor of Yokohama and the Board of Education president answered
the councilman in a meeting that they considered the food items used
for school lunches "are safe, because they are sold in the market",
and that they had instructed the school principals to answer the
parents that way when they asked about the safety of school lunches.

Then, in early June, the City of Yokohama relented to mounting
complaints from the parents and people like this councilman, announced
that it would conduct sample testing of the food items for school
lunches. At the same time, though, it announced that it would use food
items from the disaster-affected areas (i.e. Fukushima) to show
support.

Some parents went to ask their school principals and teachers. "Why
aren't you doing something to find out if the food is safe?" Their
answer? "Well, everyone's eating it."

In the meantime, schools started to prepare for swimming classes in
their swimming pools, and not to waste pool water that had been in the
pools, they used it to water the school gardens and yards, to the
horror of parents who were called "monster parents" for worrying "too
much" about radiation.

Then a bombshell.

On June 5, an insider leak to the coucilman from a concerned food
stuff dealer. The dealer provided the unique identification numbers
for the cows whose meat was used in Yokohama's school lunches.

They were all from Fukushima.

Why would Yokohama City use Fukushima beef for children? Because it
was cheap. Because consumers didn't want to buy Fukushima beef if they
see it on the supermarket shelves, the price of Fukushima beef had
plummeted by 40 to 50 percent. No one wanted it, price went down, a
cost conscious city and schools and kindergartens and nursery schools
bought it to feed small children, without telling them or their
parents the meat was from Fukushima.

The city continued to do absolutely nothing. In mid June, the
councilman got another piece of information: prior to the Fukushima I
Nuclear Plant accident, there was NO USE of Fukushima beef in school
lunches in Yokohama. After the accident, the price of Fukushima beef
plummetted. Meat dealers got the cheap meat, sold it to the city,
pocketed the very fat margin. Schools, both private and public it
looks like, fed small children with the potentially contaminated beef,
with the tacit approval of the mayor and the Board of Education.

Aside from the radioactive school lunches, the city also planned to
send city's children to a summer school in Ibaraki Prefecture, where
the air radiation was more than 10 times the "official" Yokohama
number (measured on the top of a 5-story building). The personnel at
the summer school privately told the councilman, "I wouldn't recommend
it..."

The councilman and concerned parents continued to push for radiation
survey of food items for school lunches, but the only items tested by
the city were those grown anywhere but Fukushima.

Then, in late June, the councilman reported the result of the meeting
at the Board of Education. All the beef from Fukushima that went to
school lunches in Yokohama from April 23 to June 7 came from the
planned evacuation zone in Fukushima. There were 916 cows from the
zone. None of them exceeded 5,000 cpm in surface radiation, but none
was tested zero. All were contaminated. The information was obtained
by tracing the unique identification numbers for the cows.

On July 9 in Japan, the news broke that the meat from a meat cow from
Minami Soma City was found with radioactive cesium of 2300 becquerels/
kg, almost 5 times the provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/
kilogram).

The councilman's post on July 9:

All Fukushima-grown beef that was served in school lunches in Yokohama
City was contaminated. The contamination that was checked at the time
of shipment from Fukushima Prefecture was only the surface radiation
of a live cow, and there was no information as to the contamination
after the cow was processed into meat. School children have already
ingested this meat.

There was a leak from some school nutritionists of this fact. But the
city, the city's Board of Education and the school principals "lied"
by saying "food items for school lunches are safe, because they are
sold in the market." As the result, elementary school children in
Yokohama City have been internally irradiated.

Finally on July 11, Yokohama City decided to stop using beef in school
lunches.

Caveat? They will stop for the month of July, and they will use pork
instead, as if pork is safe. The last lunch will be on July 15, then
it's summer break.

The city's Labor Union (which includes city workers who prepare school
lunches) has issued a statement protesting ... (don't hold your
breath) ... the city's decision to stop using beef, as it "will spread
the baseless rumor".

One or two detractors on the councilman's board who have been the
apologists for the government seem to have disappeared after the news
of 78,000 becquerels/kilogram cesium in the hay fed to the cows.

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

My superficial image of Yokohama as upscale, cosmopolitan city on the
Tokyo Bay waterfront was just that: superficial.

The councilman's own website is here (Japanese only).

The Mayor of Yokohama is a 65-year-old woman who was the CEO of Daiei,
with many top positions mostly in auto industry before and after, with
only her high school diploma. Quite an achievement. Too bad she has
been totally tone-deaf on things that doesn't make money, like testing
for radiation for the sake of children.

Parents of Yokohama City, please do consider home schooling. Don't
even bother sending your children to schools that clearly care more
about their bottom lines than children.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/beef-from-fukushima-to-be-tested.html

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

Brace for childhood leukemia epidemic in Japan ... This is just a tip
of an iceberg, they are not testing the Japanese food thoroughly and
covering up things to "protect" the economy. All researchers there
should stop working on useless projects and involve in massive testing
of ordinary food items, especially dairy, meat, vegetable and fruits
produced there, or at least help the nation to save electricity by
closing the institutions "researching" things not directly related to
resolving the present nuclear crisis affecting the whole northern
hemisphere.

Taka
Taka
2011-07-14 01:46:40 UTC
Permalink
Powerful nuclear clique opposes Japan Prime Minister’s renewable
energy push

Kan told reporters yesterday. “We should reduce nuclear dependency in
a planned, step-by-step manner and eventually we can do without atomic
energy.”

“Japan’s nuclear village is worried and they’re extremely well
connected,” Kingston, head of Temple University’s Asian Studies
program at its Tokyo campus, said in a phone interview. “They’re out
to get Kan and it’s not because he’s that incompetent. What worries
them is that he’s been making provocative statements that trample on
very powerful toes.”….“All these things hit at the heart of the
nuclear village and they’re not going down without a fight,” said
Kingston,

Kan Takes on Japan’s ‘Nuclear Village’ in Renewable Energy Drive,
Bloomberg, By Stuart Biggs and Kanoko Matsuyama - Jul 14, 2011
Toshinobu Hatsui’s protest against construction of a nuclear power
plant split friends and families in his hometown. After the biggest
atomic accident in 25 years, resentment has turned to gratitude.
“Those of us who opposed the plant can finally be proud of what we
did,” said Hatsui, a 62-year-old fisherman, recalling the anger among
nuclear supporters in Hidaka, south of Osaka, who missed out on an
economic windfall when the town rejected the plant in the 1970s.
“Since the accident, people called to express their relief that it
wasn’t built.” Opinion polls show more Japanese agree with Hatsui in
demanding a future less reliant on atomic power, a pillar of energy
policy for five decades. Getting what they want may depend on Prime
Minister Naoto Kan surviving the backlash from the so-called “nuclear
village” of politicians, bureaucrats and power utilities that promoted
the industry’s rise, academics including Jeff Kingston said. “Japan’s
nuclear village is worried and they’re extremely well connected,”
Kingston, head of Temple University’s Asian Studies program at its
Tokyo campus, said in a phone interview. “They’re out to get Kan and
it’s not because he’s that incompetent. What worries them is that he’s
been making provocative statements that trample on very powerful
toes.”….

Abandon Plan
After the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling
systems at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s plant in northern Japan and
caused three reactors to meltdown, Kan said Japan should abandon plans
to build 14 new reactors by 2030. He wants to pass a bill to promote
renewable energy and questioned whether private companies should be
running atomic plants. “When we consider the risk of nuclear energy,
I’ve come to strongly feel that this is a technology that cannot be
controlled by our conventional thinking of securing safety,” Kan told
reporters yesterday. “We should reduce nuclear dependency in a
planned, step-by-step manner and eventually we can do without atomic
energy.” Other plans include separating Japan’s nuclear regulator from
the industry’s chief promoter, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry, and ending the monopoly that utilities have over power
production and transmission. “All these things hit at the heart of the
nuclear village and they’re not going down without a fight,” said
Kingston,…..http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-13/kan-takes-on-
japan-s-nuclear-village-in-renewable-energy-drive.html

SOURCE: http://nuclear-news.net/2011/07/13/powerful-nuclear-clique-opposes-japan-prime-ministers-renewable-energy-push/
Taka
2011-07-14 01:48:24 UTC
Permalink
FUKUSHIMA = 2,000 Atomic Bombs

Killer Contamination Spreads Worldwide Without Opposition

(San Francisco) – Radioactive contamination equivalent to the
Fukushima, Japan disaster in terms of the hated “Mushroom Cloud”
Atomic Bombs is two thousand (2,000) 500 Kiloton Atomic Bombs.* Each
500kt Atomic Bomb is 33 times bigger than the American Bomb that
destroyed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

President G. Bush often referred to the well known “mushroom cloud” as
a terrorist signature. Nope, just standard operating procedure (SOP)
in the stationary nuclear weapons biz-ness, otherwise known worldwide
as “Nuclear Power Reactors.” Except, in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Weapons, the biggest ever, the “mushroom” portion is invisible and has
engulfed the whole world with 70 Billion Radioactive Lethal Doses* –
so far. There’s more on the way.

Truly, it is as if the entire world is At War! The dreaded all-out
nuclear war that would happen if Russia or the United States
accidentally “Pressed The Button” is going on right now; it is a done
deal. Imagine that! The same thing as detonating 2,000 big Atomic
Bombs and not even one “BOOM!” Not a shot fired, yet we could all die!

No giant forest fires, no burning cities creating their own hellish,
uncompromising firestorms. None of that; but, every bit of the
radioactive contamination such an Atomic World War would create; and
probably more. For unbelievably, there are more Japanese reactors
about to blow. It’s a chain reaction.

It remains a thinly veiled secret of the nuclear powers that it only
takes about 300 One Megaton nukes to target the entire world.
Typically, the world’s nuclear weapons arsenals were originally built
with a 350 year shelf life for major components. In fact, the
radioactive materials are “safer” locked away securely in heavily
guarded Atomic Bombs, than in loosely managed reactors run by utility
companies for supposedly “peace time” purposes. The worldwide nuclear
war we’ve got is not the war we feared.

For now, we all wait and try to avoid the 10 radioactive particles set
free for each of us on Earth, from Fukushima’s triggered stationary
nuclear weapons. Feel free to figure out how to dodge lethal, airborne
particles you can’t see.

So far, the Fukushima disaster for Planet Earth is by no means
resolved. The Powers That Be at TEPCO (the Tokyo Electric Power
Company) and General Electric, makers of the reactors that created
this killer, worldwide, invisible mist, say that they might get a
handle on the situation in “six to nine months.[1]”

The seven billion people on Earth don’t have “six to nine months.”
Every single day that goes by the radioactive Fukushima Volcano
slaughters more of us – silently with deadly radiation now or, years
from now, with the inevitable cancer pandemic that will follow.

The ten thousand trillion counts[2] of radiation gushing forth per
hour bring mortal illness to many of us. Aye, maybe even for most of
us our own deaths are written on the Fukushima Radioactive Volcano
Wind.

Make no mistake about it. Many of us will die from the Fukushima
Nuclear Weapon. Go ahead; try to read the wind. You must have a
Radiation Monitor to even start. A good one costs $400.00. The price
excludes most of us.

About $400.00, give or take, is the price of admission to the
exclusive club that will be able to chart the disaster at home, and
take measures accordingly to protect themselves as much as possible.

The oft foretold Nuclear World War just happened; many of us are
walking dead already. Do you want to take an action before you or
someone you know is dead from the Fukushima Nuclear Weapon?

Theoretical Physics Professor and noted author Dr. Michiu Kaku already
told CNN and the world what the solution is to the Fukushima disaster.
It is pretty simple really, not rocket science. After all, it is
already completely worked out, we have seen this before. It is
Chernobyl on a grand scale.

If you control an Army or Air Force, “Kaku the Reactors!” Yea, count
on it, those people do read VeteransToday.

If you are just a working stiff waiting your turn to do the Fukushima
Nuclear Shuffle off this planet, then tell your neighbors:

“Let’s Make Them Chernobyl the Reactors!”

Remember, as Albert Einstein famously said “There are no secrets.” The
facts of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima are all known.
There is no mystery; there are no excuses; in short, there is no other
way. Bomb the fuck out of The Fukushima Killing Machine. Get off your
asses and do it. It takes aircraft, sand, boron, water, concrete, and
the simple will to “Chernobyl the Reactors.[3]”

Politicians world wide will either kill the reactors or they won’t.
Talk is cheap. Life is even cheaper. We must kick their asses at the
first and every opportunity; we must punish them and not let up until
we see the reactors dead.

Go for it.

SOURCE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/22/fukushima-2000-atomic-bombs/
Taka
2011-07-14 01:19:20 UTC
Permalink
#Radiation in Japan: As It Is Being Spread Almost Willfully, The
Country Is Getting Unhinged

I have a distinct feeling that Japan is getting totally unhinged.

Consider these news summaries. Consider them together. Do they make
sense to you? Yes they do, don't they? The combined message is this:
Let's all rejoice in the radiation, it's good for you and your
children. If we all have it everywhere, millions of becquerels of it,
that's only fair and equitable.

4,320 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium found from the beef from
Minami Soma City, Fukushima: the cattle farm that shipped cows found
with radioactive cesium far exceeding the already loose provisional
safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg is located in the "emergency
evacuation-ready zone" - not even "the planned evacuation zone" or
plain "evacuation zone", both of which do exist in Minami Soma City.
(Various posts at this blog)

The PM assistant and the current Minister in charge of the nuclear
accident at Fukushima I Nuke Plant Goshi Hosono is going to announce
the abolition of the "emergency evacuation-ready zone", because "the
1st step in TEPCO's "roadmap" has been mostly successfully
implemented".

Fukushima Prefecture has announced it will shut down the official
shelters within Fukushima, which will force them to go back to their
own homes.

Minami-Soma City has issued notice to all 32,000 city residents who
have been living in the shelters, temporary housing outside Fukushima
Prefecture that they must return to Minami-Soma, high radiation or
not. (Mainichi Yamagata version, 7/12/2011)

The national government will spend 100 billion yen (US$1.26 billion)
to observe the health of 2 million Fukushima residents for 30 years,
instead of evacuating them ASAP. About 1600 yen (US$20) per year per
resident. Life is cheap. Since the national government is utterly
broke, it will be ultimately paid for by the taxpayers of Japan.
Remember, Dr. Shunichi Yamashita will be the vice president of the
Fukushima Medical University who will do the observation and research.

Matsudo City in Chiba Prefecture found 47,400 becquerels/kg of
radioactive cesium in the ashes from the city's garbage incinerator,
but the city simply mixed with other ashes with low radiation to bring
the final number to 5,660 becquerels/kg. Since the final mixed ashes
measured LOWER than the provisional limit for burying the ashes (8,000
becquerels/kg), the city already buried the ashes and will continue to
do so. (Mainichi Chiba version, 7/13/2011)

On the other hand, Nagareyama City in Chiba Prefecture simply sent 30
tonnes of its radioactive ashes (27,000 becquerels/kg) from its
incinerator by cargo train to Odate City in Akita Prefecture in
Tohoku. Nagareyama City has a contract with a private waste disposal
company in Odate City in Akita. This waste disposal company is not a
nuclear waste disposal company; as far as I could tell from the
description of the company, it is just a regular waste disposal
company. (Sponichi, 7/12/2011)

By the way, Matsudo City in Chiba is simply doing what the Ministry of
the Environment has decided - mix and match. If the garbage or debris
is likely to exceed the 8,000 becquerels/kg limit, burn with other
stuff and lower the number. If it's already in ashes, mix them up to
lower the number. When the Ministry of the Environment decided this
policy, the Minister was Ryu Matsumoto, who's now in hospital after
resigning from his post as the Minister of Recovery and
Reconstruction.

Fast and furious. Shock and awe. I think most people in Japan still
cannot fathom how their elected officials and government workers with
high education from distinguished schools (Tokyo University, Kyoto
University, Oxford University...) could do such things to them. Better
wake up really, very quickly.

People say that the Japanese are law-abiding citizens. The Japanese
say that to themselves. The truth, as has been slowly revealed over
the past 4 months, is that they are followers of the arbitrary and
capricious orders, as long as the orders are given to them from the
government sources. Never mind if those orders are very much counter
to the law itself or the natural law or the common sense.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/radiation-in-japan-as-it-is-being.html

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

Well if they put people like the "Doc Shitin’ya" aka Angel of Death in
charge of the Fukushima health issues things may get pretty scary over
the time ...

Taka

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele
Taka
2011-06-23 06:09:37 UTC
Permalink
Plutonium fallout in the US:

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/4718
Taka
2011-06-27 07:38:07 UTC
Permalink
Monju reactor unclogged for restart

Tsuruga Fukui Pref. — A device that fell last August into the vessel
of the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui
Prefecture, was finally retrieved Friday, paving the way for resumed
test runs by fall, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency said.

But due to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant,
triggered by the March earthquake and tsunami, it is unclear whether
the country's nuclear fuel recycling project, in which the troubled
Monju prototype would play a key role, can move ahead as planned.
Because it is meant to produce plutonium, were it to experience a leak
accident, the danger would be grave.

The agency hopes to resume test runs of the reactor at 40 percent of
its output capacity by the end of March, aiming for full operation by
the end of March 2014.

In a procedure that took about eight hours, a crane was used to remove
the 12-meter-long, 3.3-ton device together with part of a vessel lid
where it got stuck.

The cylindrical device, used to load fuel, fell inside the reactor
vessel while it was being lifted out after completing a fuel exchange.

Attempts made in October to grab the device failed after it had become
deformed and was caught against the vessel's upper lid.

It was a delicate and potentially dangerous operation at the plant on
the Sea of Japan coast, because part of the device was soaked in a
sodium coolant that can catch fire when it comes in contact with air.

The retrieval work, which started Thursday, was delayed several hours
when a rubber part attached to a tube at the lower part of the
container was found to be damaged after workers discovered that argon
gas was leaking from the tube, the agency said.

SOURCE: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110625a2.html

SEE ALSO: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monju_Nuclear_Power_Plant



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

These "kids" never learn from what happened and quit playing with
fire. The problem is they not only destroy their land but also take
the whole northern hemisphere with them to the hell .... Much worst
than any NK nukes in Asia IMO.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110627p2g00m0dm002000c.html

Taka
Taka
2011-06-30 01:20:05 UTC
Permalink
http://enenews.com/air-seattle-loaded-hot-particles-april-very-high-concentrations-pacific-nw-different-tokyo-audio

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/4459

"Thanks to the jet stream air currents that flow across the Pacific
Ocean, the U.S. is receiving a steady flow of radiation from Fukushima
Daichi. And while many scientists say that the levels of contamination
in food pose no significant threat to health, scientists are unable to
establish any actual safe limit for radiation in food. Detection of
radioactive iodine 131, which degrades rapidly, in California milk
samples shows that the fallout from Japan is reaching the U.S.
quickly."

SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/06/29/radiation-in-our-food/

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

Anyone got the fuel fleas/hot particle counts from the pre-Fukushima/
Chernobyl or pre-nuclear bomb testing era? I suppose they were 0 ...

Taka
Taka
2011-07-21 08:23:08 UTC
Permalink
Nuclear Nightmare

For almost three months the bad nuclear news has been shouting at us,
warning us, but even the professionals in the area of toxicity are not
abandoning their lives or homes. Is it an everyone-goes-down-with-the-
ship paradigm that has a hold on these people? The invisible but hot
magna of nuclear toxicity is our latest inheritance and few will
escape it though there are many things we can do to diminish
radiations nasty effects.

It is the young who have the most to lose in all of this and it seems
some are already losing their lives over it. For some, evacuation
orders are already too late but no official word will ever be said
about this silent tragedy.

In this video we are looking at nuclear hell on earth, a night film of
the radioactive steam that continues to rise from Fukushima 24 hours a
day. Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear power industry executive, is
one of the experts who has been saying from day one that the nuclear
crisis in Japan was much worse than they were telling us.

He was absolutely correct. Finally, three months later we are getting
some numbers on what the real dangers are. And finally we can begin to
understand the enormous cover-up of the nuclear doom that is reaching
lungs all over the west coast of America, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and
at least half of Japan! For infants it’s a terrible valley of death we
have created for them. As we shall see for years all of them have been
born with already polluted bloodstreams and now the very young ones
are dying in greater numbers on the west coast of the United States
since Fukushima blew up.

After the first week, officials had enough information to call for
evacuation of a wide area in Japan and also Hawaii, Alaska and the
entire west coast of North America. They really should have evacuated
all of northern Japan and also the west coast but that was almost as
impossible as evacuating the entire planet or the entire northern
hemisphere.

Evacuation of planet earth might be the best way for humanity to avoid
the terrible nuclear, heavy metal and chemical toxicity we are now
facing all at the same time. Avoiding exposure is always the best plan
but there is no way to avoid breathing in air contaminated with tiny
hot particles. Inhalation issues are much more frightening than
ingestion issues because you can pick and choose what you eat and
drink but you can’t buy bottled air.

Nuclear Toxicity Syndromeis about how to survive in nuclear and
chemical hell. But one cannot do what is necessary to survive hell if
a person doesn’t know they are living in one. It just keeps getting
worse by the day and now we have Fort Calhoun nuclear plant outside
Omaha, Nebraska on emergency alert as first fire and now flooding
threatens to overwhelm yet another nuclear facility. With Mother
Nature now angry (in a most bitter sense) we are really in more
serious trouble than any of us would be comfortable imagining. We knew
nuke power plants were bad news but who would think they would build
them on fault lines or in flood zones?

On CNN Arnie was asked, “So should people on the west coast be
worried? Gundersen side-stepped just a bit saying, “Well, the average
person breathes in about 10 cubic meters a day, and the filters out
there for April show that they were breathing in, per day, about five
particles. Now these are charged, which is why we call them ‘fuel
fleas’ since they latch onto lung tissue. We’re at a point now where
you just can’t run from the particles that are still in the air. We
call them ‘fuel fleas’ also because they’re incredibly small, smaller
than the thickness of your hair.”

That’s Mr. Gundersen’s way of saying, yes, there are definite risks
tied to these “hot particles.” But that really does not answer the
question. I am afraid I will have to be brutally honest and be the
bearer of really terrible news. The information coming out about hot
particle concentrations near Fukushima, Tokyo, and now Seattle tell us
that not only should all those populations be worrying but their
governments should have been issuing evacuation orders months ago.

CNN’s John King interviews Arnie Gundersen about the Hot Particles
discovered in Japan and the US.

They did not of course except in a too-tight circle around Fukushima,
which is getting 40 times more than in Tokyo or Seattle. Because of
the jet stream in April, after the large explosions that destroyed
three reactor buildings, it was as dangerous in Seattle and much of
the west coast of North America as in Tokyo.

It only takes one of these particles to trigger a cancer.

A new report from independent scientists in Japan found a much greater
release of “hot particles” from the Fukushima power plant than
originally estimated. These include radioactive isotopes of cesium,
strontium, uranium, plutonium, cobalt-60 and many others.The average
person in Tokyo is thought to have inhaled 10 “hot particles” per day
throughout the month of April 2011. The inhabitants of Fukushima were
estimated to have inhaled 30-40 times more than that — or up to 400
hot particles per day every day thatmonth.In Seattle, WA in the
Northwestern U.S., it is estimated that the average person absorbed
five “hot particles” per dayduring the month of April 2011, or 10 “hot
particles” per day if they are athletes who are working out. These
invisible atomic particles become lodged in your lungs, intestines,
bone or muscle.

Professor Christopher Busby, scientific secretary of the European
Committee on radiation risks, says that fuel rods at Fukushima got
blown sky high, that concentrations of uranium and plutonium particles
had been detected in air filters in Hawaii and the Marianas Islands by
the end of April. So people knew about this but they were not talking.

Gundersen says, “Well, the radiation initially comes out as a big
cloud of gases, and that’s what you can measure with a Geiger counter.
But now what we’re finding are these things called ‘hot particles,’and
in the industry it’s interesting because in Seattle it didn’t go down
much. It was about five particles a day, because most of the time, as
we talked about in April, the wind was blowing toward the west coast.“

A hot particle is defined as an alpha-emitting particle that contains
sufficient activity to deliver at least 1000 rem/yr to the surrounding
lung tissue.

Severe damage and disruption of tissue in the lungs are associated
with exposure to these types of nuclear particles. The most relevant
lung experiment is Bair’s Pu 23902 inhalation study with
beagles.Twenty of the 21 dogsthat survived more than 1600 days post
exposurehad lung cancer.

The government recommends that the maximum permissible lung particle
burden for members of the public be 0.2 hot particles, and the average
lung burden for members of the public be 0.07 hot particles, a factor
of 3 less than the maximum.

Let’s say that the official numbers were five “hot particles” per
day(10 if one is physically active outdoors) for everyone on the west
coast for the month of April. Now let us be very conservative and say
that this has dropped from the initially high post-explosion levels at
Fukushima down now to one a day. At one a day that would still be 30
of these death particles a month. So perhaps the average person has
already absorbed in these three months approximately 200 radioactive
particles into their lungs and other tissues. When you think that if
even one of these 200 is plutonium, we have to think in terms of
millions of eventual cancer deaths!

Arnie Gundersen – Nebraska Nuclear Plant: Emergency Level 4 & Getting
Worse.

All of these hot particles will burn the local tissues. They will
compromise health in a myriad of ways. But doctors will stand by not
having a clue what to tell their patients to do except receive more
radiation diagnostic scans and more radiation treatments for cancer
patients. The allopathic paradigm will not survive Fukushima because
it is utterly ignorant about the approaches that stand a chance of
helping us get through this.

Gundersen says, “That’s why we were warning you to wash your lettuce
and things like that. Now what that means is that these hot particles
can lodge in your lung or in your digestive tract or in your bone and,
over time, cause a cancer. But they’re way too small to be picked up
on a large radiation detector.” This is one of the reasons many people
felt something wrong in the first weeks after the radiation started
pouring out of Japan. Sensitive people will register such an invasion
of hostile chemical and radioactive toxicity even though radiation
detectors will not.

Gundersen understandably would have a hard time telling people how bad
it really is. He is not a doctor but he knows full well what only one
particle of plutonium will do to surrounding lung tissues. How does
anyone tell 200 million people to get out of Dodge or tell them it’s
already too late since health-damaging contamination has already taken
place?

Evacuation is the only way to avoid continued exposure but hardly
anyone perceives it this way. I received a letter from someone in
southern California today asking if it was okay to go to Hawaii for a
vacation. My real answer to her was you should abandon not only your
travel plans but also your home in L.A. and move to the southern
hemisphere.

“Geiger counters simply cannot measure whether or not someone has
ingested a hot particle but we know they’re here because the air
filters have measured these radioactive particles and they’ve been
found in the topsoil, in water supplies and in the milk produced on
both coasts of the U.S. This suggests that the same would be true of
the meat of any livestock raised outdoors — and of the vegetables
grown outdoors,” says Gundersen.

Hot Particle

A photograph of a monkey’s lung is shown, with a major depression at
its center where a “hot particle” is embedded in the tissue. This is a
photo of a “hot particle”, in this case a one-micron particle of
plutonium, and it shows the alpha tracks emitted from that particle in
one year. This particle has bombarded the surrounding tissue with
radiation and damaged it quite dramatically — just one particle.
Gundersen says the body will fight off an irritant such as this and it
will usually win but sometimes a hot particle will cause cancer. They
will all put wear and tear on infected people’s immune systems.

You really do not want even one of these hot little pieces of sun
burning in your tissues.

Plutonium in Lung Tissue: The dark, star-like image in the above
photograph (magnified 500 times) shows tracks from alpha particles
radiating from a speck of plutonium lodged in the lung tissue of an
ape. Alpha radiation from plutonium and other alpha-emitting
radionuclides can be blocked by skin or even a piece of paper but it
is the most biologically destructive form of ionizing radiation when
the alpha-emitting substance is deposited in the soft tissue of
internal organs like the lung. The alpha tracks shown above were
captured over a two-day period.

These hot particles result in an intense but highly localized
irradiation.

The damaged number three reactor was in its first fuel cycle using MOX
nuclear fuel with plutonium. If this MOX reactor goes into full
meltdown spewing plutonium dust across Japan and everywhere else, it
is lights out via cancer for anyone who breathes the stuff. The half-
life of various plutonium isotopes ranges from minutes to 80 million
years. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,100 years meaning it takes
that long to lose half of its radioactive potency — nothing compared
to depleted uranium, which counts its time in billions of years.
Uranium-235 has a half-life of 700 million years. And caesium, which
tends to go airborne easily, has a half-life of 30 years.

The fuel rods at all six reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi
complex contain plutonium. Only six percent of the fuel rods at the
plant’s unit 3 were a mixture of plutonium-239 and uranium-235 when
first put into operation. The fuel in other reactors is only uranium,
but plutonium is created during the fission process. This means the
fuel in all of the stricken reactors and spent fuel pools contain
plutonium. Plutonium is super nasty stuff, especially damaging to
lungs and kidneys. Inhaling or ingesting only one radioactive particle
of plutonium can cause cancer.

Valley of Death

In Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome you will read about the dangers we are
all facing, especially for those billions who live in the northern
hemisphere. If you have not noticed, things are getting real dangerous
out there and the media is going to make sure you are blindsided by
events they will not inform you of until it is too late.

This is a tough book and it’s going to face you with some very
frightening information. Though the main thrust is nuclear radiation,
we also will look at mercury as an invisible chemical cloud that has
contaminated everything. Lead too is still a problem but they don’t
inject lead into babies or plant it in people’s mouths like they do
with mercury, a heavy metal more toxic than lead.

Would you believe they are just now finally stopping the use of a drug
(another heavy metal actually) that farmers have given to chickens for
decades. Arsenic is being pulled off the market after federal
scientists found a potentially carcinogenic form of arsenic in the
livers of animals treated with the substance.

In the past two and a half years thousands of workers, villagers and
children in at least nine of mainland China’s 31 province-level
regions have been found to be suffering from toxic levels of lead
exposure, mostly caused by pollution from battery factories and metal
smelters.

In many areas of the world people are already at death’s door from
chemical and heavy metal pollution. Pollution has reached a zenith and
has gone even higher with huge forest fires that have released huge
amounts of radioactive and chemically contaminated soil into the
atmosphere. Then we added mega oil disasters and now nuclear hell on
earth. Is there any nice way to refer to this disaster? Look at that
video again above that is a vision of what human darkness can conjure
up.

We might as well have shot ourselves in the head. There is nothing for
us humans to be proud of if we honestly sweep our minds across reality
as it is presenting itself to us this year. For infants it’s a
terrible valley of death we have created for them. As we shall see for
years all of them have been born with already polluted bloodstreams
and now the very young ones are dying in greater numbers since
Fukushima blew up.

SOURCE: http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2011/07/18/nuclear-nightmare/
Taka
2011-06-30 02:08:34 UTC
Permalink
NISA Removes Hidehiko Nishiyama from His Spokesman Job

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has removed Hidehiko
Nishiyama from his position as the spokesman for the agency on June 29
and sent him packing back to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry (METI), because his love affair with a young woman (almost
his daughter's age) has become a distraction, hindering the proper
function of the agency. The woman also works at METI.

At the press conference on June 23, Nishiyama, 54-year-old career
elite bureaucrat (Tokyo University Law School - Harvard Law School)
married with 2 adult children (the daughter works for TEPCO, I don't
know about the son), expressed regret that his private life was
revealed in a major weekly magazine Shukan Shincho, but denied that he
would resign his post as the NISA's spokesman.

He has been the familiar face of the Fukushima I Nuke Plant Accident,
ever since he became the third NISA spokesman on March 13. The first
spokesman was quickly removed from the job after he said during the
March 12 press conference that the fuel inside the Reactor 1 was
probably melted. The second spokesman was also quickly removed when he
said on the March 13 morning press conference, "I don't want to do
this but I was told to do it so here I am."

Well, Nishiyama is gone now. His successor is Yoshinori Moriyama.

Ah, the end of an era.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/nisa-removes-hidehiko-nishiyama-from.html

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

Well this is just a tip of iceberg. THESE people are handling the
nuclear crisis in Japan NOW. But I'm not surprised here because they
feed them seed oils + sugar/rice + long days of eternal summer +
AKB48 ... We are the "slaves" of our reproductive program which has
not been designed for the modern world.

Taka
Taka
2011-07-01 02:38:44 UTC
Permalink
2,700 Becquerels/Kg Cesium from Teas Picked by Elementary School
Children in Itabashi, Tokyo

Children from 3 public elementary schools in Itabashi-ku in Tokyo did
the tea picking in early May, the tea leaves were roasted and made
into the final blend tea and was about to be given to the children.
For some reason, the municipal officials decided to test the tea, and
found radioactive cesium to the tune of 2,700 becquerels/kilogram,
more than 5 times the loose national provisional safety limit of 500
becquerels/kilogram.

The public elementary schools and junior high schools in Itabashi are
run by the Itabashi Board of Education. There are 53 elementary
schools in Itabashi.

Itabashi-ku (special ward) in Tokyo announced on June 30 that 2,700
becquerels/kilogram of radioactive cesium were detected in the final
blend tea grown and processed in Itabashi, exceeding the national
provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kilogram.

The tea farm is not a commercial operation but for people to
experience how it is like to pick tea leaves. The final blend tea was
made from the tea leaves picked by elementary school pupils. There is
no other farm that produces and ship tea in Itabashi-ku.

In response, the Tokyo Metropolitan government has decided to test
radioactive materials in 5 types of vegetables produced in Itabashi-ku
and Nerima-ku.

According to Itabashi-ku, 300 pupils from 3 public elementary schools
picked the first-pick tea ("ichiban-cha") on May 9, from which 20
kilograms of the final blend tea was made and ready on June 15. Before
giving it to the pupils, Itabashi-ku tested the tea for radioactive
materials to ascertain the safety. There was no radioactive iodine
detected, and the amount of radioactive cesium in the second-pick tea
was below the provisional limit.

Itabashi-ku plans to dispose the entire tea without giving it to the
pupils, and says "there is no effect on health by having them pick tea
leaves."

The famous last word in Japan since March 11, "There is no effect on
health." At least, an increasing number of Japanese people now know
that it simply means "there is no immediate effect on health."

According to the Itabashi-ku official website, cesium-134 was detected
at 1,300 becquerels/kilogram, and cesium-137 was detected at 1,400
becquerels/kilogram.

I wonder how they are going to dispose the tea, though. I hope they
just don't throw it in the garbage that gets sent to the waste
disposal plant in Itabashi, which then burns the tea in the ordinary
incinerator and spread cesium in the neighborhood.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/2700-becquerelskg-cesium-from-teas.html

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

I tell you how they are going to dispose the tea - just mix it with
nonradioactive leaves to dilute it under the loose national
"provisional safety limit" and serve it in the cafeterias. Well
consider it a kind of preemptive cancer radiation therapy, could
induce some apoptosis in those who get lucky ...

Taka
Taka
2011-07-02 15:22:50 UTC
Permalink
Japanese Cancer Expert on the Fukushima Situation

Matthew Penney

Japan's leading business journal Toyo Keizai has published an article
by Hokkaido Cancer Center director Nishio Masamichi, a radiation
treatment specialist. The piece, entitled “The Problem of Radiation
Exposure Countermeasures for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Concerns
for the Present Situation”, was published on June 27 and is consistent
with the critical coverage of the Fukushima crisis that has appeared
in independent weekly magazines, notably Shukan Kinyobi, which have
taken a strong anti-nuclear stance since the March 11 earthquake-
tsunami-meltdown, and have repeatedly focused on the dangers of
radiation exposure while calling for far-reaching measures to protect
those at risk.

Nishio begins by asserting that the Fukushima crisis has caused
Japan’s “myth of nuclear safety” to crumble. He has “grave concern”
for the public health effects of the ongoing radiation leak.

Nishio originally called for “calm” in the days after the accident.
Now, he argues, that as the gravity of the situation at the plant has
become more clear, the specter of long-term radiation exposure must be
reckoned with.

Lamenting the poor state of public knowledge of radiation, Nishio
writes, “Japan, with its history of having suffered radiation exposure
from the atomic bombs, should have the most [direct] knowledge of
radiation, but in fact, in the approach to the nuclear accident, has
simply fallen into confusion.” He places blame on a number of groups:

1.TEPCO executives, who he accuses of having hidden the truth and
prioritized the survival of the company over public health.
2.Bureaucrats who were unable to put together an accurate body of
information about radiation effects from which to formulate policy.
3.A prime minister and cabinet lacking both leadership and an
appropriate sense of urgency.
4.Politicians who sought to use the crisis in intra- or inter-party
struggles.
5.Nuclear industry lobbyists and “academic flunkies” (goyo gakusha) of
the government who built up the myth of nuclear safety in the first
place.
Looking at these groups, he writes, “I just cannot feel any hope for
Japan’s future. These circumstances are simply tragic.”

He leaves the press out of his main list of culprits, but points to
the poor state of scientific knowledge among journalists as a major
factor behind what he views as their inability to bring essential
information to the public in a timely manner. He also accuses the
media establishment of prioritizing “avoiding a panic” over
“communicating the truth”.

Nishio provides a blunt and hard-hitting specialist perspective on
major government decisions. Here is a summary of some of his major
points:

Workers:

1.He accuses the authorities of prioritizing their own convenience
over the lives of nuclear workers. Nishio argues that raising the
exposure limit from 100 mSv to 250 mSv can have serious health
effects. He also states that reports of poor food and sleeping
conditions for workers show that “… they are not even being treated
like human beings.”
2.The JSDF helicopters that dropped water on the Fukushima Daiichi
reactors and spent fuel pools in the days after March 11 were
outfitted with the types of radiation shields used in hospital x-ray
rooms. Nisho says that this was akin to “putting on a lead helmet in
order to protect yourself from radiation from space”. The planners, he
argues, did not even understand the difference between airborne
radiation from a nuclear accident and radiation used in the controlled
environment of hospital treatment.
3.Referring to “protective” suits is a misnomer bordering on fraud in
Nishio’s view since nothing can offer total protection from radiation
exposure.
4.A lack of nutrition and rest can make workers more susceptible to
radiation symptoms. Nishio speculates that having the workers sleep
together in gymnasium-like barracks with no privacy is simply designed
to keep them from running away. Just 30 minutes from the site, he
points out, there are empty hotels which could offer those on the
front line a quiet, secure place to rest and recuperate.
5.He accuses TEPCO of being up to the old tricks of the nuclear
industry: giving dispatch and temporary workers broken radiation
monitors, only giving them monitoring devices when they are working
despite high levels of radiation throughout the site, and so on.
6.Without accurate assessment of internal radiation exposure through
“whole body monitoring”, there is no way to tell how much exposure
workers are actually suffering.
7.Measures must also be taken to gauge different types of exposure
(i.e. alpha rays from plutonium and beta rays from strontium).
8.Around 5000 workers have worked at the site since March. This number
is high, but if radiation release continues, 100 or even 1000 times
that number may be needed over time.
9.The MOX fuel in reactor number 3 is particularly dangerous but
Nishio doubts that special measures to protect workers are being
taken.
10.“Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Harvest” treatment has been put forward
by doctors as a way to minimize the chances of bone marrow
deterioration among workers, but this was turned down by the Nuclear
Safety Commission of Japan. Nishio asserts that this is evidence that
they simply do not grasp the severity of the situation.
11.Apart from the iodine that they are being given, workers should
also be taking Radiogardase (Prussian blue insoluble capsules). Not
working to bring together the best preventative medicine, Nishio
asserts angrily, is an example of “graveyard governance”.

Fukushima Residents:

1.The threat to public health is not simply a matter of distance from
Fukushima. Wind patterns and topography are even more important.
2.The release of data from the expensive SPEEDI system, was delayed
until March 23. This delay resulted in unnecessary radiation exposure.
“It is only conceivable that the high rate of radiation released was
not reported because of fears of a panic.”
3.Former Minister for Internal Affairs Haraguchi Kazuhiro has alleged
that radiation monitoring station data was actually three decimal
places greater than the numbers released to the public. If this is
true, it constitutes a “national crime”, in Nishio’s words. He follows
with, “Giving us the truth once is much more important than saying
‘hang in there Japan!’ a million times.”
4.According to Japanese law, the rate of radiation exposure permitted
for ordinary citizens is 1 mSv / year. This has been raised to 20
mSv / year in a “time of crisis”. Such a dramatic increase in
permitted exposure is akin to “taking the lives of the people
lightly”. Nishio believes that 20 mSv is too high, especially for
children who are far more susceptible to the effects of radiation.
5.Even more important than a permitted 20 mSv exposure rate, however,
is the lack of adequate provision for measuring internal radiation
exposure among the Fukushima population.
6.The American Academy of Sciences 2008 “Biological Effects of
Ionizing Radiation” report claims that there is no safe level of
radiation exposure. Despite this and other examples of leading
research, however, the Japanese government has moved on the assumption
that there is no evidence for increased cancer risk at under 100 mSv
of exposure. The European Committee on Radiation Risk argues that
existing risk models do not take internal exposure into account. High
rates of internal exposure will mean a dramatic increase in cancer
risk for Fukushima residents, with as many as 400,000 cases predicted
by 2061. Nishio argues, however, that these calculations rest on some
shaky assumptions and that the number is too high. He believes
strongly, however, that internal radiation exposure must be taken
seriously by the Japanese government.
7.Comparing the 6.9 mSv exposure from a CT scan to a similar amount of
radiation exposure outside of a controlled environment is misleading.
Long term exposure and internal exposure can have unpredictable
effects on the human body. Comparisons with radiation used in cancer
treatment are also scientifically shaky.
8.The large amounts of radioactive waste water at the Fukushima
Daiichi site will contaminate the soil and water supplies,
significantly increasing the risk of internal radiation exposure.

Necessary Countermeasures:

1.Among people living in the same area, rates of exposure can vary
greatly based on lifestyle and movement patterns. As a result, it is
important that every resident in at risk areas be given a device to
monitor personal radiation exposure. Apart from protecting individuals
and allowing them to make informed decisions about their safety, the
data gathered can be used in future medical research and in court
cases that will no doubt originate from the Fukushima Daiichi
accident.
2.There is little conclusive scientific data on the risks of low level
radiation exposure. The government, however, must not let this turn
into a case of “we don’t know so we can assume it is safe”. On the
contrary, Nishio argues that it is necessary to proceed under the
assumption “we don’t know so we must assume that it is dangerous”.
3.Residents must be given real time radiation data as well as the best
possible advice about how to decrease their exposure.
4.While there are limits to what this can achieve, dirt from
schoolyards should be regularly removed and replaced.
5.Strontium 90, which has a half-life of 28.7 years and can have a
serious impact on child bone development, must be carefully measured.
6.In planning of future solutions, radiation effects on the body
should take priority over the potential stresses associated with
relocation.
7.The government should buy houses and land in irradiated areas at pre-
crisis market value and provide additional aid for resettlement.
Cleanup measures should be undertaken and when the areas become safe,
the government should sell property back at reduced rates. A respect
for both present necessity and the deep attachment that many have to
land that has been in their families for many generations is necessary
if the government wants to convince nuclear refugees that they are
being treated fairly.
8.The government should make every effort to provide accurate
information, but should not forcibly remove elderly residents who wish
to remain in their homes.

Some Radical Thoughts:

1.The current crisis has called the very foundation of Japanese
society into question. An unprecedented crisis calls for new ideas.
2.Dependence on nuclear energy, which was slated to fulfill 50% of
Japan’s energy needs in the future, must be rethought.
3.Nuclear energy and energy policy have never been adequately debated
in Japan. Those with a vested interest in nuclear energy were able to
build up the “myth of nuclear safety” virtually unchallenged and they
continuously covered up “inconvenient facts”.
4.Energy demands will continue to increase and simply trying to
convince the public to reduce energy use will not be enough. Now is
the time for new debate about how to meet Japan’s energy needs while
moving away from nuclear power.

Nishio’s article provides a realistic, nuanced portrait of the
problems currently facing Fukushima and Japan. The Japanese government
has addressed some of them on a limited scale, but serious
deficiencies remain. Nishio’s powerful statement, however, appearing
in a major establishment outlet, is indicative of a shift in public
discussion of radiation issues as more critical Japanese scientists
outside of the circle of “academic flunkies” (goyo gakusha) make their
voices heard.

SOURCE: http://japanfocus.org/events/view/100#
Taka
2011-07-03 11:17:23 UTC
Permalink
#Radiation in Japan: Professor Kosako: "Come the harvest season in the
fall, there will be a chaos"

Professor Toshiso Kosako of Tokyo University, who resigned in protest
against the Kan Administration's policy to allow 20 millisieverts/year
external radiation exposure for children which he called unacceptable
and unconscionable, gave an interview for the first time since his
resignation to Wall Street Journal (or so it looks).

Kosako says:

•There will be chaos and scandal when the rice is harvested in the
fall, as it will contain radioactive materials;

•Japan is looking like a developing country in East Asia without
democracy;

•The government uses the high ceiling for radiation in schools so that
it doesn't need to spend money to ameliorate the situation;

•The government hasn't done enough to investigate ocean contamination.

So far, I am unable to find the equivalent Japanese article in the
Japanese version of WSJ. Interesting by itself, but not surprising as
the paper has put out dramatically different versions of the same news
in Japanese and in English.

From WSJ (Yuka Hayashi, 7/1/2011):

TOKYO—A former nuclear adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan
blasted the government's continuing handling of the crisis, and
predicted further revelations of radiation threats to the public in
the coming months.

In his first media interview since resigning his post in protest in
April, Toshiso Kosako, one of the country's leading experts on
radiation safety, said Mr. Kan's government has been slow to test for
possible dangers in the sea and to fish and has understated certain
radiation dangers to minimize what it will have to spend to clean up
contamination.

And while there have been scattered reports already of food
contamination—of tea leaves and spinach, for example—Mr. Kosako said
there will be broader, more disturbing discoveries later this year,
especially as rice, Japan's staple, is harvested.

"Come the harvest season in the fall, there will be a chaos," Mr.
Kosako said. "Among the rice harvested, there will certainly be some
radiation contamination—though I don't know at what levels—setting off
a scandal. If people stop buying rice from Tohoku, …we'll have a
tricky problem."

Mr. Kosako also said that the way the government has handled the
Fukushima Daiichi situation since the March 11 tsunami crippled the
reactors has exposed basic flaws in Japanese policymaking. "The
government's decision-making mechanism is opaque," he said. "It's
never clear what reasons are driving what decisions. This doesn't look
like a democratic society. Japan is increasingly looking like a
developing nation in East Asia."

Specifically, Mr. Kosako said the government set a relatively high
ceiling for acceptable radiation in schoolyards, so that only 17
schools exceeded that limit. If the government had set the lower
ceiling he had advocated, thousands of schools would have required a
full cleanup. With Mr. Kan's ruling party struggling to gain
parliamentary approval for a special budget, the costlier option
didn't get traction.

"When taking these steps, the only concern for the current government
is prolonging its own life," Mr. Kosako said.

Mr. Kan's office referred questions about Mr. Kosako's remarks to a
cabinet office official, who declined to be identified. The official
said the government is making "utmost efforts" to improve radiation
monitoring in the sea and working closely with fishermen and others.

"Particularly close attention is paid to the safety of rice as Japan's
staple food," the official said, adding that the government would
suspend the shipment of crops if radiation exceeding a set standard is
detected.

As for schools, the official said the government was working to lower
the ceiling for acceptable radiation, and "is also considering
additional steps. "

Mr. Kosako, a 61-year-old Tokyo University professor who has served on
a number government and industrial panels, stepped down from Mr. Kan's
nuclear-advisory panel on April 30, fueling concerns about the
government's handling of the accident. Saying that many of his
recommendations were ignored, the scientist described the government's
ceiling on schoolyard radiation levels as "unacceptable." The image of
him wiping tears at a press conference as he said he wouldn't subject
his own children to such an environment was widely broadcast.

Having spent the past two months focusing on teaching radiation-safety
courses at his university, Mr. Kosako said he is now ready to begin
speaking his mind again, starting with foreign audiences. Over the
coming weeks, he will be giving speeches in the U.S. and in Taiwan.

He said he is especially concerned with contamination of the ocean by
the large amounts radioactive material from the damaged reactors
dumped into surrounding waters. The government has released only
sketchy information about what's drained into the sea as a result of
efforts to cool the smoldering Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Mr. Kosako
has urged more seawater monitoring, more projections of the spread of
polluted water and steps to deal with the contamination of different
types of seafood, from seaweed to shellfish to fish.

"I've been telling them to hurry up and do it, but they haven't," he
said.

As he resigned, Mr. Kosako submitted to government officials a thick
booklet that contained all the recommendations he had offered during
his six-week tenure. A copy of the booklet was obtained by The Wall
Street Journal from an independent source.

From the time of his appointment on March 16, Mr. Kosako and some of
his colleagues were offering recommendations touching on a broad range
of topics. It was weeks before the public learned of some of them,
such as a March 17 call for using the government's SPEEDI radiation-
monitoring system to project residents' exposure levels using the
"worst-case scenario based on a practical setting."

On March 18, they urged the government's Nuclear Safety Commission to
re-examine the adequacy of the government's initial evacuation zones,
based on such simulations by SPEEDI.

The SPEEDI data weren't released to the public until March 23, and the
evacuation zones weren't adjusted until April 11. Critics say the
delay in the adjustment may have subjected thousands of Fukushima
residents to high levels of radiation exposure.

Professor Kosako had been considered a pro-nuke "government scientist"
until his resignation. Maybe he is still pro-nuke, but it was during
his press conference at the end of April when he announced resignation
that many people were made aware of this thing called WSPEEDI, which
can predict radioactive fallout dispersions globally, not just Japan.
Only after that revelation by the professor, the government decided to
quietly sneak in the WSPEEDI simulation results sometime in mid May on
the Ministry of Education website. They showed a very extensive
contamination in Tohoku and Kanto.

For WSPEEDI simulation maps from the early days of the accident when,
if disclosed, they would have mattered, see my posts here and here.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/radiation-in-japan-professor-kosako.html
Taka
2011-07-03 17:40:17 UTC
Permalink
Leaked Emails Reveal Government Conspiracy To Downplay Fukushima
Nuclear Disaster:

GET IT HERE:
http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/07/03/leaked-emails-reveal-government-conspiracy-to-downplay-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/
Taka
2011-07-03 17:42:46 UTC
Permalink
Radioactive cesium detected in tea leaves grown in Tokyo

Radioactive cesium was detected in processed tea that was made from
leaves that elementary school children picked in Tokyo as part of
their school curriculum, it has been learned.

The Itabashi Ward Office announced on June 30 that 2,700 becquerels of
radioactive cesium -- in excess of the government's provisional limit
-- was detected in processed tea that used leaves picked at a
plantation in the ward by some 300 students of local elementary
schools.

The processed tea is set to be disposed of, while none of the children
have suffered any health problems. The tea plantation is dedicated to
providing visitors with opportunities to pick leaves and does not ship
its harvest to the market.

According to the ward office, the tea-picking class took place on May
9, and fourth- and fifth-grade students from three public elementary
schools in the ward participated in the event. When the approximately
20 kilograms of processed tea -- made of some 80 kilograms of first-
harvest leaves that the students had picked -- was screened, 1,300
becquerels of cesium 134 per kilogram and 1,400 becquerels of cesium
137 per kilogram were detected.

Following the revelation, ward officials picked second-harvest tea
leaves at the plantation on June 22 and detected 350 becquerels of
cesium from raw tea leaves.

The ward office will conduct screenings of locally-grown agricultural
products but will not regulate the shipment of tea leaves as there is
no other tea plantation in the ward.

It is the first time that radioactive cesium has been detected in tea
leaves grown in Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's survey had
previously detected no radioactive substances exceeding the government
limit in agricultural products grown in the capital.

SOURCE: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110701p2a00m0na005000c.html

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

Current Cesium-137 measurements in Japan similar to amounts seen in
April !

http://enenews.com/current-cesium-137-measurements-in-japan-similar-to-amounts-seen-in-april-chart
Taka
2011-07-03 17:45:01 UTC
Permalink
Daily life in Fukushima: 'It was like visiting another universe'

Jan Beranek, who is with a team of Greenpeace activists investigating
the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, says Japanese are
encouraged to return to their normal lives unaware of the dangers they
face in the contaminated area. "I personally find it very disturbing,
because on the one hand you see the Japanese authorities forcing
people and society to get back to normal... And yet at the same time
there are still extremely high levels of radiation and the
contamination of the soil, and also potentially in the food," the
activist told RT. "This is just unbelievable because at those levels
of exposure it certainly poses a risk to the lives and health of the
people. If you draw a parallel to the Chernobyl disaster, then
actually the Soviets decided to evacuate everyone living in the place,
where radiation was three or four times lower than what we see in
Fukushima City today," added Beranek, who personally visited the
Chernobyl area after the 1986 disaster.

Greenpeace is putting pressure on the Japanese government to gather
and provide more information about the contamination in addition to
doing its independent effort, Beranek said. "We've actually forced the
government to, for example, extend the monitoring of the sea. And we
also hear that the government is now revising at least some of the
protective measures for children, which is definitely good to see. Yet
the government is too slow and doing too little actually [compared to]
what the situation would deserve," he said. The activist hopes the
consequences of the Fukushima disaster will make Japan and other
nations change their stance on nuclear energy and phase it out. There
is such change already in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. "Nuclear
power, as we have seen, is inherently unsafe. There is always an
unpredictable combination of natural catastrophe, technological
failure, human error that can result in a situation when a reactor
gets out of control very fast. It's a question of a few hours before
full meltdown happens. It's unsafe to take the bets and continue with
nuclear power," Beranek believes.

SOURCE:
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/230978-Daily-life-in-Fukushima-It-was-like-visiting-another-universe-?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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

Radiation monitoring station data was actually three decimal places
greater than numbers released to public, says Japan’s former Minister
for Internal Affairs:

http://enenews.com/radiation-monitoring-station-data-was-actually-three-decimal-places-greater-than-numbers-released-to-public-says-japans-former-minister-for-internal-affairs
Taka
2011-07-04 03:09:30 UTC
Permalink
"Now They Tell Us" Series: Depleted Uranium Storage Facility Next to
Cosmo Oil Refinary In Chiba Burned after Earthquake Hit on March 11

The facility belongs to Chisso Petrochemical, and it contained 765
kilograms of depleted uranium at 0.3% concentration. It caught fire
when the adjacent Cosmo Oil LPG tank caught fire and exploded. Not a
problem, the Chiba government now says, and Chisso hasn't said
anything about the facility.

There was a "baseless rumor"(link in Japanese) that circulated on the
Internet on March 12 that said "Harmful substance will come down with
the rain after the Cosmo Oil fire. Do not expose your skin." Cosmo Oil
and the government dismissed the rumor vehemently. Maybe the "baseless
rumor" was not about Cosmo Oil's tank but about Chisso's depleted
uranium...

Depleted Uranium Storage Facility Also Burned when Cosmo Oil's Gas
Tank Exploded

On June 30 Chiba Prefectural Assembly held meetings of 2 standing
committees, "general affairs and disaster countermeasures" and
"planning and water". In the general affairs and disaster
countermeasures committee, it was revealed that the LPG (liquefied
petroleum gas) tank fire and explosion at Cosmo Oil Refinery in
Ichihara City, Chiba also burned the adjacent depleted uranium storage
facility. There was no leak of radioactive materials, according to the
committee.

The Chiba prefectural fire department disclosed that the depleted
uranium storage facility's roof was burned down because of the fire
and explosion of the LPG tank at Cosmo Oil. The depleted uranium
storage facility belongs to Chisso Petrochemical [subsidiary of Chisso
Corporation].

According to the fire department, the storage facility is licensed by
the national government as "nuclear fuel usage location", and had 765
kilograms of depleted uranium that contained 0.3% of radioactive
material [uranium]. The depleted uranium is used as catalyst for gas
production.

Looking at Chisso's press releases, there is no mention of the
depleted uranium storage facility at this plant location. The
explosion and fire at Cosmo Oil Refinery was finally put out on March
21, at which point Chisso was able to go inside their plant to assess
the fire damage.

Ichihara City is on the west side of Chiba Prefecture, facing the
Tokyo Bay, and there are many industrial plants and petrochemical
facilities on the reclaimed land on the Tokyo Bay. Chisso
Petrochemical is marked with a Yellow balloon with a dot:

A minor detail, but Chisso Petrochemical is NOT adjacent to Cosmo Oil,
by the way. There is Maruzen Oil in between the two. Hmmm. How would
Chisso's facility catch fire when Maruzen's did not?

Here are some video of Cosmo Oil explosion on March 11, in case you
missed:
(Asahi Shinbun footage)
(explosion that darkens the sky after 1:40
into the video)

By the way, Chisso is the same company that caused extensive mercury
poisoning in the Minamata Bay in Kyushu by dumping methylmercury in
the wastewater from the company's chemical plant, and the company has
been kept "alive" so that it makes profit to pay compensations to the
victims. TEPCO's likely future.

(By the way, turning gossipy, Japan's crown princess is the
granddaughter of the Chisso president who fought and fought the
"allegation" in the 1960s that his company's plant caused mercury
poisoning.)

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/now-they-tell-us-series-depleted.html
Taka
2011-07-04 05:56:07 UTC
Permalink
Cranes used to move radioactive "debris" on Mega - Floats

As we have previously reported a new champion crane has come in
perspective on TBS / JNN. As NHK reports "One of the largest cranes in
Japan has been brought to the site for the construction. It has a 140
meter-long arm that can lift up to 750 tons."

The article by NHK dated 28 june 2011 further elaborates:

"The crane will be used to install a fabric cover around the reactor
building. Before that, it will be used to remove debris from the top
of the building... "

Hum, wait a minute. That crane has been doing that for over a week and
we got pictures, videos and huge columns of smoke that follow to prove
it.

Its exactly what we were saying all along! We have speculated, that
all the various webcam discrepancies are a consequence of Tepco trying
to hide what is being removed from the reactor buildings. And this
official report actually casts another doubt on what and how is being
moved and relocated at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, beacuse
we have noticed the above mentioned crane one week earlier than NHK
reported its arrival. Please look at the article Is Tepco Dumping
Spent Fuel Rods into the Sea for details - published on 21 june 2011.

We are seeing this one week silence as nothing short but confirmation
of all of our speculations, especially with all the mounting failures
at Fukushima Daiichi, where such mammoth crane giving a "helping hand"
is a welcome sight. Why hide its presence for a week? Perhaps to hide
all those columns of smoke we have presumed are the consequence of
spent fuel rods being cooled directly in the water-filled steel
containers floating in the sea?

It is clear that TEPCO can not cover the reactor building no.1 as they
want to present in the mentioned article, before removing not only
debris but also any and ALL shattered spent fuel rods and other
radioactive debris found in abundance around the power plant.

Of course the logical question arrises on where all this debris is
going and we allready offered a viable explanation on 24 june with the
article Tepco has been storing radioactive materials at the sea for a
month when we remember the long forgotten Mega Floats for which we
have speculated are the temporary resting place for all the
radioactive debris and other HOT materials that Tepco might want to
get rid off in a sense, that they would store them in floating
containers directly in the sea, which provides abundant cooling
medium.

And here it is... Another confirmation to our fears, this time from
Kyodo. Todays article title on their webpage reads " Tepco starts
using megafloat to store low radioactive water. Excuse us, but we
have heard the same title over a month ago. Was the megafloat just
sitting in the bay emtpy, while radioactive water is overflowing? We
dont think so.

It was being used intensively, we were following and recording it,
along with vast amounts of approx 50m tall columns of smoke lasting
for hours, right after the cranes and floats have left the scene.

Aditionaly we also find it very troubling that in todays article
Progress in cooling Fukushima Daiichi spent fuel by NHK they seem
almost to optimistic and reasuring regarding the decontamination
process of no. 3 reactor spent fuel pools that is about to start. The
work of censored cranes around reactor no.3 was the first thing that
triggered our thoughts in direction, that they might be removing spent
fuel rods. If there are no rods left to cool, the decontamination
system may actually work. At least a bit longer than an hour or so.

We believe countries most affected by Japans nuclear crisis,
especially those in vicinity affected the most by radioactive water
being dumped into the sea, should take a very very close look at what
TepCo and Japans government are doing. Beacuse it is becomming more
and more clear, that they are cleaning their house by dumping their
garbage over the neighbours fence.

MORE AT: http://radioactive.eu.com/
Taka
2011-06-29 02:21:05 UTC
Permalink
The Health Effects of Radiation
"There is no safe threshold"

John William Gofman is professor emeritus of Medical Physics at UC
Berkeley, and lecturer for the Department of Medicine, UCSF. While
getting As PhD in physics at Berkeley in the 1940s, Gofman proved the
slow and fast neutron fissionability of uranium-233. At the request of
J. Robert Oppenheimer, Gofman helped produce plutonium (not even a
quarter-milligram existed at the time) for the Manhattan Project. He
got his MD from UCSF in 1946 (winning the Gold-Headed Cane Award,
presented to the senior who most fully personifies a "true physician")
and began his research on coronary heart disease. In 1963 the Atomic
Energy Commission asked him to establish a Biomedical Research
Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to evaluate the
health effects of all types of nuclear radiation. By 1969, however,
the AEC and the "radiation community" were downplaying his warnings
about the risks of radiation . Gofman returned to full-time teaching
at Berkeley, switching to emeritus status in 1973.

This interview was conducted by Shobhit Arora and Fred Gardner. It
began with discussion of a recent item from the Wall St. Journal that
read, "The White House was surprised and chagrined — by Energy
Secretary O'Leary's comment about paying compensation to atomic-
testing victims. With a super-tight budget, the White House is now
scrambling to head off a costly new entitlement."



Gofman: Secretary Hazel O'Leary is undoubtedly the first breath of
fresh air that we've seen in the atomic era. I think what she's doing
is great and I hope millions — hundreds of millions of people back her
— because she's going to face a ferocious opposition. It's going to be
like a nuclear firestorm in opposition to her, because she's doing
something constructive. I have for 25 years been an intense critic of
the Department of Energy. I say this because Hazel O'Leary stands for
compassion, candor, and credibility — not because I've changed my mind
about the DOE, which I think is one of the worst organizations in the
history of our government. Unless it's cleaned out we're going to have
worse things in the future. The human experimentation that has been
done is bad, and it's good that that's being cleared away. But for 25
years the DOE has not shown any concern for the health of Americans.
Their concern has been for the health of the DOE. Their falsehoods
concerning the hazards of ionizing radiation have put not thousands of
people at risk, not millions of people, but billions of people.

Synapse: What if Clinton doesn't back O'Leary in the days to come?

Gofman: The worst-case scenario is this. Ever since its inception, the
Atomic Energy Commission — then called ERDA, then called DOE — has had
one thing in mind: "Our program is sacrosanct." And they recognize, as
I've recognized, that their entire program will live or die based upon
one thing. If the public should come to learn the truth about ionizing
radiation, nuclear energy and the atomic energy program of DOE is
going to be dead. Because the people of this country — and other
countries — are not going to tolerate what it implies. The key thing —
it's everything in the DOE program — is: "We must prove that low doses
of radiation are not harmful." They have been conducting a Josef
Goebels propaganda war, saying there's a safe dose when there has
never been any valid evidence for a safe dose of radiation. Yet the
DOE and others continue to talk about their "zero-risk model."

After Chernobyl, I estimated that there were going to be 475,000 fatal
cancers throughout Europe — with another 475,000 cancers that are not
fatal. That estimate was based on the dose released on the various
countries of fallout from Cesium-137. The DOE put out a report in 1987
and I don't think it's any credit to the University of California that
part of this report was done in the Livermore Lab, where I once
worked, and part in Davis — saying "our zero-risk model says that at
these low doses, nothing will happen, because low doses are safe."

How would a safe level of radiation come about? It could come about in
theory if the biological repair mechanisms — which exist and which
will repair DNA and chromosomes — work perfectly. Then a low dose of
radiation might be totally repaired. The problem, though, is that the
repair mechanisms don't work perfectly. There are those lesions in DNA
and chromosomes that are unrepairable. There are those where the
repair mechanisms don't get to the site and so they go unrepaired. And
there are those lesions where the repair mechanisms simply cause
misrepair. We can say that between 50 and 90 percent of the damage
done by ionizing radiation is repaired perfectly. What we are then
seeing is harm done by the residual 10 or 40 or 50 percent that is not
repaired perfectly.

The evidence that the repair mechanism is not perfect is very solid
today. What we wanted to have was evidence that as you go down to very
low doses — a rad, or a tenth of a rad — is that going to produce
cancer? Determining the answer by standard epidemiological studies
would take millions of people, and we don't have that. So it creates a
field day for the DOE to say, "Well, we don't know." But I looked very
carefully in 1986 for any studies that could shed light on that all-
important question. And I presented that evidence at the American
Chemical Society meeting in Anaheim.

The lowest dose of ionizing radiation is one nuclear track through one
cell. You can't have a fraction of a dose of that sort. Either a track
goes through the nucleus and affects it, or it doesn't.

Synapse: That the lowest doses will produce cancer?

Gofman: The answer is this: ionizing radiation is not like a poison
out of a bottle where you can dilute it and dilute it. The lowest dose
of ionizing radiation is one nuclear track through one cell. You can't
have a fraction of a dose of that sort. Either a track goes through
the nucleus and affects it, or it doesn't. So I said "What evidence do
we have concerning one, or two or three or four or six or 10 tracks?"
And I came up with nine studies of cancer being produced where we're
dealing with up to maybe eight or 10 tracks per cell. Four involved
breast cancer. With those studies, as far as I'm concerned, it's not a
question of "We don't know." The DOE has never refuted this evidence.
They just ignore it, because it's inconvenient. We can now say, there
cannot be a safe dose of radiation. There is no safe threshold. If
this truth is known, then any permitted radiation is a permit to
commit murder.

What other things does the DOE use as crutches? "Well, maybe if you
give the radiation slowly it won't hurt as much as if you give it all
at once." Now if you have one track through a cell producing cancer,
what is the meaning of 'slowly?' You have the track or you don't. It
comes in on Tuesday or it comes in on Saturday. To talk about slow
delivery of one track through the nucleus is ludicrous. But they do it
anyway.

There is a more radical fringe that says, "A little radiation is good
for you. And all this stuff about radiation causing harm is bad for
society because it's going to prevent the program we think should be
instituted, and that program is to give everybody in the country
radiation every day as a new vitamin." This program is called
hormesis. "A little radiation will give your immune system a kick and
help you resist cancer and infectious disease." The chief exponent is
a man named Thomas Luckey, formerly of the University of Missouri. He
bemoans the fact that we can't get this program into high gear.

Synapse: Is anybody taking him seriously?

Gofman: The idea is manifestly absurd. But that didn't prevent the DOE
from helping to sponsor a conference in 1985 in Oakland on the
beneficial effects of radiation, hormesis. And the nuclear enterprise
is really at it all the time. They had another such conference in
1987, and another in 1992.

Synapse: What are the implications of there being a safe dose of
radiation?

Gofman: They don't have to worry about nuclear waste. No problem —
there's a safe dose, nobody's going to get exposed to more than the
safe dose. The clean-up and disposal of waste has been estimated to be
in the billions, if they're really going to clean up Hanford and
Savannah River and all the rest. Recently, Dr. Robert Alexander in an
exchange of letters in the Health Physics Journal — he was with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and former president of the Health
Physics Society — said there's no proof that low-level radiation is
harmful... Anybody who gets half a rad a year from waste disposal
shouldn't be counted, they don't matter. They don't matter for
somebody who's apologizing for the nuclear industry. But they matter!
And they're going to matter in the millions, tens of millions and
hundreds of millions if, because of statements like Alexander's, it
becomes okay to give people 10 rads. You won't have to bury things in
these fancy vaults. You won't have to worry about transport. You can
even dispose of it in ordinary landfills. That will be the result.
That's what the future will be. If low doses don't matter, the workers
can get more and their families can get more by being in the vicinity.
That's what we face.

Synapse: What are the limits for lab technicians and other workers
wearing badges? What's the limit now?

Gofman: 5 rems per year. That's going be cut down to one or two rems
per year. By the way, medical radiation, from x-ray machines, is
roughly twice as harmful per unit dose as Hiroshima-Nagasaki
radiation.

Synapse: Why is that?

Gofman: It's the effect of linear energy transfer. When gamma rays or
x-rays set electrons in motion, the electrons are traveling at a lower
speed than the electrons coming out of Cesium-137. And as a result,
when they're traveling at a lower speed, they interact much more with
each micrometer of path they travel. Therefore the local harm is much
greater. So medical x-rays set in motion electrons that are traveling
at a lower speed and hence producing about twice the linear energy
transfer, and hence twice the biological effect. That's why alpha
particles from radium or plutonium are so much more devastating than
beta rays set in motion from x-rays. The alpha particles, with their
heavy mass and plus-2 charge, just rip through tissue so strenuously
that they don't go very far. A deception of the crassest sort are the
lectures by pro-nuclear people showing a plutonium or radium source
and putting up a piece of paper and showing that the alpha-particle
radiation on the other side is zero. "You see, a piece of paper will
stop those alpha particles, folks, there's no problem with plutonium."
Except when that alpha particle is lodged next to an endosteal cell in
the bone and producing a horrendous amount of interaction. Or that
alpha particle is lodging on the surface of the bronchi — that's why
we've got an epidemic of lung cancer among the uranium miners! The
fact that they don't travel far is because they interact like hell!

Synapse: Do you think medical professionals really appreciate how much
potential there is for damage? Regardless of who you are, you go into
the hospital and you get a chest x-ray as a routine diagnostic
procedure.

Gofman: I'm sad to say, I don't think 90% of doctors in this country
know a goddamned thing about ionizing radiation and its effect.
Somebody polled some pediatricians recently and said, "Do you believe
there's a safe dose of radiation?" And 45% said, "Yes." They weren't
asked, "What papers have you ever read on this subject that led you to
conclude there's a safe dose?" I think medical education on the hazard
of radiation is atrocious. What have they taught you in radiology?

Synapse: Basically, whenever it's not necessary, don't do a
radiological procedure. But they have qualified that with the
implication that most radiological procedures really aren't that
dangerous — a tenth of a rad here really isn't too bad. It's better to
get the information from a procedure than not.

Gofman: Part of that is okay. If you ask me, "Do you stand against
medical x-rays?" the answer is no. And I've written a book with Egan
O'Connor on the health effects of common exams. We take the position:
if there's a diagnostic gain for you — something that can really make
a difference in your health and your life — then don't forego the x-
ray. But there's another part of the picture. Up until recently — it
may be a little better now than it was — government studies show that
most hospitals and most offices of radiologists didn't have the
foggiest notion of what dose they were giving you for a procedure. Nor
did they know that the procedure could be accomplished with a third or
a tenth of the dose. Joel Gray, a health physicist at the Mayo Clinic,
said there are places giving you 20 times the dose needed for a given
picture. And, he said, "If you ask those people and they can't answer,
you can be fairly confident that they're giving you a bigger dose than
necessary." So Egan and I, in The Health Effects of Common Exams, took
the data on what the average doses were in the United States, versus
what has been accomplished by some elegant work in Toronto to reduce
the dose to one-third of what was the average practice in 1984, and
found that about 50,000 fatal cancers per year could be prevented.
That' s a million and a half in a generation! So what is this stuff
about "Most procedures don't hurt you, they're small?"

Let me say one more thing about the medical profession. It's my view
that we have a really crazy situation with respect to x-rays. You go
to a physician — your internist, or a GP, or an obstetric
gynecologist, or an orthopedic surgeon — these are the people who send
you out for an x-ray. They represent, or should, your ombudsperson.
And they, not you, should have to find out whether the facility
they're sending you to uses five times the dose needed, or a decent
dose of radiation. But if you ask that so-called ombudsperson, "Where
you're sending me, do they know how to keep the dose down? What dose
will I get?" He'll mumble, "Don't worry about it, no problem." That's
the fault of medical education in our universities. If we turn out
physicians who don't have the attitude that they're the ombudsman for
things like that, I think they're not doing the job.

Synapse: A friend who had a melanoma was told there had been a 20-fold
increase in the past 50 years, but "We don't really know what's
causing it." It's as if many in the medical profession don't want to
make the obvious connection between radiation, pollution, pesticides
and the cancer rates.

Gofman: The medical profession is implicated directly. I've spoken to
Andre Bruewer, who practices in Tucson. He's a first-class radiologist
who does nothing but mammography. And he said, "John, I shudder to
think of what we were doing 20 years ago." We were touting mammography
when the dose was four to five rads, and in some cases 10 rads. Now if
you give enough women four to five rads, at something of the order of
a 2 percent increase in breast-cancer rate per rad — that's what my
analyses show, and I've analyzed the world data on x-rays very
carefully with respect to breast cancer in particular — it has to be
that women irradiated 15, 20 years ago got horrendous doses from
mammography compared to now. And therefore, some of the present
increase in breast cancer has to be from the radiation they got; but
they don't like to talk about it.

Women irradiated 15, 20 years ago got horrendous doses from
mammography compared to now. And therefore, some of the present
increase in breast cancer has to be from the radiation they got.

There was a time, 20 to 30 years ago, when there were mobile x-ray
units that gave x-rays of the chest. They didn't give the 20 millirads
[a 50th of a rad] that is possible today. They gave about five rads.
Children went through those things by the thousands. And we just say,
"We don't know why this cancer epidemic is taking place now." Nobody's
taken account of it. It's hard to know how many children got it and
who they were and follow them up. But you know that a certain number
of people are having cancers now as a result of what was done 15, 20
years ago.

Back in the '50s one woman brought a child in in the middle of the
night having real difficulty breathing, and a resident said, "Maybe
the thymus gland is enlarged and pressing on the trachea. Let's give
this child 100 or 150 rads of radiation in the neck." And as with many
disorders, the child got better by morning. And so this resident put
two and two together and said, "I gave the radiation, the child got
better, therefore I cured him." And so this became the rage and all
kinds of hospitals were using radiation to treat an enlarged thymus.

Synapse: What' s the danger from an enlarged thymus?

Gofman: There have been careful studies now of these kids that had the
irradiation for enlarged thymuses — which, by the way, is no longer
believed to have been a disease that existed in the first place — and
they're having an excess of thyroid cancers, an excess of salivary
gland cancers. One hospital in Pittsburgh said, "Why should we wait
till these children come into the emergency room at night with croup?"
And they, for a period of over a year, gave x-rays to every child
leaving the nursery...

There is this wall that prevents us from relating past experience to
the occurrence of cancer. The full effects are not known. It's not
just what the average dose was back then, some places were giving
horrendous doses. Sometimes they'd get a picture that was too faint.
So they'd take another one, with a longer exposure — when the problem
was that their developing solution was getting spent. And all they had
to do was change the developer. But instead of that they gave the
person an extra x-ray with a bigger dose.

Synapse: What general principles should a patient bear in mind when
considering a procedure?

Gofman: If I were a member of the public, knowing what I know: if the
establishment told me that something had a certain risk, I'd assume
that the true risk was at least 10 times worse. Part of the problem
comes from the patient. If a patient goes to a doctor — especially if
he's covered by a health plan — and the doctor doesn't give him any
procedures, they feel cheated. "You didn't even take an x-ray!" But
the medical profession has to be regarded as culpable, along with the
DOE. They both have the same conflict of interest: their work exposes
people to radiation. For the DOE there have been all kinds of people
of shady character in all kinds of government posts. But damn it, the
medical profession shouldn't be shady and corrupt. I'd like to see
them really apply the Hippocratic oath to this field.

Synapse: Could you describe your work regarding the retroactive
tampering with databases?

Gofman: For years I've tried to believe that what was going on in
Hiroshima-Nagasaki in what was called the Atomic Bomb Casualty
Commission — subsequently renamed the Radiation Effects Research
Foundation — was the only place where we had a huge body of data that
addressed the question of what happens to people who have been exposed
to varying doses. If there is an event like Chernobyl, or Hiroshima,
we have to insist on the sacred meaning of collecting an honest
database concerning what happens to people — (A) doing the very best
job of determining what dose they got, and (B) doing a follow-up study
that is beyond reproach. That is an obligation to humanity that is
virtually sacred. If you do anything less than the best in that kind
of endeavor, you're a scoundrel. So all this time I wanted to believe
in the work that was being done in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki studies. In
1986, because of some questions about what the neutron dose was
relative to the other forms of radiation — gamma rays, primarily —
they did a revision of the doses. Now I don't have any objection to
the revision of doses, provided that you obey the cardinal rules of
medical research. The first cardinal rule of medical research is:
never, but never change the input data once you know what the follow-
up shows. So because they had this idea of changing the doses, they
didn't just change the doses, they shuffled all the people from one
dose category to another, with a new dose. So there was no continuity
with everything that had been done up to 1986.

The first cardinal rule of medical research: never change the input
data once you know what the follow-up shows.

Synapse: Who's 'they?'

Gofman: The Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan. The
director is Itsuzo Shigematsu. The associate director is a guy by the
name of Joop Thiessen, who's from the DOE. It's a DOE-sponsored
endeavor — DOE and the Japanese Ministry of Health. There couldn't be
a worse set of sponsors.

Synapse: The Japanese have the same kind of commitment to nuclear
energy?

Gofman: Absolutely. So I said, "You can't do this. You want a new
dosage, keep the old groupings and just assign the new dose and study
[the results]." I call that "constant cohort, dual dosimetry." So I
wrote a letter to Shigematsu and said, "This is a violation of the
cardinal rules of research. There is a way to do this correctly, and
you can keep changing doses all your life, provided you just stick
them alongside what you've done originally." Shigematsu's reply is in
my book. [Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure, 1990] It's
simple. He said, "Trust us." Well, the reason for the cardinal rule of
research is, nobody ever has to say, "Trust me." Because you set
things up with blinding, with appropriate procedures, so that your
database is immaculate. You don't go changing things and say, "Well we
did it objectively." I said, "Report in the old way — the old dosage —
and the new way." They said, "We won't do that. But we'll consider it.
And we will give you the data in the old way for three more years."
What's the shape of the cancer curve with the latest data from
Hiroshima-Nagasaki? If I use the old data, it's like this (diagonal,
rising line). What's the shape of the curve with their new dosimetry?
It's like this (slowly rising line that then goes up abruptly).

If a crook makes the database, Einstein will get the wrong answer out
of it.

Synapse: Making it look as if the low-level of radiation is
acceptable?

Gofman: Exactly. Their ultimate goal is fulfilled.

Synapse: How did they determine who received what dosage at the time
of the explosion? Was it based on how far away people were from ground
zero?

Gofman: Distance was the biggest factor, but also whether you were
outdoors or indoors, whether you were in a concrete or wooden
structure. They tried to do a lot of that. And they shouldn't keep
changing the placement of people! You take people with cancer and say,
"Well, I guess the dose they originally got must have been a lot
higher. We'll put that person here [in this dose category] and this
one there." And with that sort of approach, you can make truth
whatever you want it to be. And there's a very important additional
lesson. Humanity needs to insist on the immaculate construction of
databases concerning any accident or major event. If a crook makes the
database, Einstein will get the wrong answer out of it. And then what
happens? The Einsteins, with the best credentials, using this lousy,
fabricated, false database, will put their findings in the medical
journals. And then they get into the textbooks. And then it's taught
to medical students for the next 100 years. And what happens? Hundreds
of millions of people will suffer from cancer and genetic diseases
because the answer will be wrong. The key thing is getting an honest
database.



Interview with John Gofman. continued:

Challenging The Nuclear Establishment

This is part two of an interview with John Gofman, lecturer emeritus
for the Department of Medicine. On the day part one appeared (Jan.
21), the Chronicle ran a story about "that dependable fellow, Mr.
Pluto" a perky little cartoon character created by the Japanese Power
Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. In the Mr. Pluto video, a
youngster drinks a plutonium-laced soda and declares himself
refreshed. Gofman comments on Mr. Pluto: "This is their opening salvo
in a huge campaign of `A little radiation is good for you, and
besides, most of the plutonium goes through your gut.' Never mind the
fact that as it goes through the large intestine, it gives the colon
cells a dose of alpha radiation. The Japanese are the biggest
promoters today of nuclear breeders and reprocessing. Reprocessing
increases the hazard of nuclear power by a thousand. If you do it just
leaving it as fuel rods, the possibility of an accident is bad enough.
If you reprocess, you have to dissolve the fuel rods, and then you've
got to handle the plutonium chemically."

Synapse: How did you make the transition from being a respectable
member of the `radiation community' to being an independent critic?

Gofman: I was criticized and denounced by the Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC) for one thing. I said that radiation was more harmful than was
previously thought.

Synapse: When was that?

Gofman: In 1969 — after they had given me $3 million a year for seven
years to take time off from my teaching and set up a biomedical
division at Livermore. One week after I gave the talk! If you say
something they don't want to hear, they make a pariah out of you.

Synapse: They certainly managed to marginalize Linus Pauling. Way back
in the 1950s he was describing the effects of fallout, Strontium-90 in
the milk, the dangers to the people of Nevada and Utah.

Gofman: Linus's 1954 estimates were all pretty near to the mark...

Synapse: Are we getting honest data about Chernobyl?

Gofman: Evgeny Chasov, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, made a
public statement that nobody has been harmed in the population at
large. He obviously wasn't referring to the people who got killed
immediately. There've been all kinds of statements to the that effect.
Alla Yaroshinskaya, a journalist in Zhitomirsk, a small city in the
Ukraine, became very suspicious of the sort of things that were being
said. She found out that some of the people who were being moved had
been moved to a place that was even hotter sometimes — it was all just
for show! Her paper wouldn't publish her investigation, and they told
her she'd be in big trouble... But she persisted, and she got Izvestia
to publish it, and she became well known. She got elected to the
Supreme Soviet. And she demanded to see the protocols of government
meetings on the Chernobyl situation. She managed to get all 40
protocols, and she wrote an article, which is now in book form in
Russian and, there's a French edition: "The 40 Protocols of the Wise
Men of the Kremlin." And it shows that at every one of their meetings,
what they were saying internally was the exact opposite of what they
were saying publicly...

[Yaroshinskaya is now vice minister of mass media in Russia and a
personal advisor to Boris Yeltsin. Gofman has written the introduction
to an English-language edition of her book. For their work on the long-
term health effects of Chernobyl, Gofman and Yaroshinskaya shared the
1992 "Right Livelihood Award," given by a Swedish foundation. In his
acceptance speech, Gofman proposed that a network of scientists who
don't have to answer to government serve as "watchdogs" and
participate in every stage of the construction of the Chernobyl data
base.]

Synapse: Did anybody pick up on the watchdog idea?

Gofman: I met with Yuri Shcherbak, the minister for the environment
for the Ukraine. Yuri was a journalist and a physician, who also had
revealed some of the things that had been going on with the Chernobyl
data. In the new government in Ukraine he was made minister of the
environment. He liked the watchdog concept, but he said, "If I'm going
to propose that to the Ukrainian government, could you get some more
scientists who would endorse it?" So I wrote letters to about 50
people around the world, and about 47 said they would serve on a
commission to set this up in Ukraine. And I sent this off to Yuri, but
I never heard back. One of his aides was in town and called me up with
a message from Yuri. He said, "As soon as Yuri got back from seeing
you, the Ukrainian government set up a special division to handle
Chernobyl, and that was moved out of Yuri's environmental department."
And a little later Yuri was moved over to become the ambassador to
Israel — it might have been to the North Pole. So that died. I have
some hopes that Alla might be able to get the idea through in Russia,
but the nuclear mafia in Russia is very strong. They're proposing to
go gung ho on nuclear power. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them
are members of the nationalist group around Zhirinovsky.

Synapse: How would the watchdog concept work in the United States?

Gofman: What I'm proposing is that if the Department of Energy spends
$100 million on health-related activities — and they have their
fingers in every university department of statistics and radiology —
$10 million should go to a grass roots organization of scientists to
make sure that the studies being carried out are honest.

Take the worker population in America. Do you believe what the DOE
says about the doses workers are getting? I don't. I think a lot of
scientists would be interested and willing to do that work, if it were
honored rather than — you know, you get thrown out for saying
something. The scientists who were funded by the DOE at Los Alamos,
Livermore, Berkeley, Brookhaven — they're self-censored. They know
what's okay to say, and they know what's not okay. They know my
history. And they're not about to repeat it. Which brings us back to
where we started. When I saw Hazel O'Leary come an the scene, I just
got the impression that this lady is for real. She faces a tremendous
task — just on the human experimentation, the suggestion that people
be made whole and receive apologies. I'd like to see this lady get 100
million Americans behind her so that she can't be weakened. I think
there's a chance that in her administration the watchdog idea could
fly. If we don't get it through in her administration, I thinly DOE
will go back to just what it was before. And then there's not much
hope for humanity.

Synapse: Could you comment on the human experimentation that was
conducted?

Gofman: I think it was unethical. And I think that any statements such
as, "But the doses were low" — that's a fraud. The doses in Cal 1, Cal
2, and Cal 3 [the three people who received injections of plutonium at
UC Med Center] were very high — 11,000 rems to the bone for Albert
Stevenson [Cal 1]. Albert Stevenson was injected with a huge dose of
plutonium at UC Hospital because he had a supposed cancer of the
stomach. Now some are saying, "Well, we didn't know whether plutonium
could hurt anybody." They should watch out, because they're going to
be caught in a lie of profound proportions.

The radiations that we have are x-rays, gamma rays, beta rays, alpha
particles, and neutrons. Neutrons you only get near a bomb or a
reactor. Alpha particles are emitted by many elements high in the
periodic table as you get up above lead: uranium, thorium,
protoactinium, neptunium, plutonium — all are alpha particle emitters.
An alpha particle is a plus-2 charged helium atom in high-speed
motion. We describe them by how much energy they're carrying off from
the emission. Four and a half million electron-volts — 4.7, 5.2 — the
various alpha emitters are all in that range. And you can say that
what one alpha emitter does, any alpha emitter will do if it gets to
the same place. So for somebody to say, "We didn't know about the
alpha particles from plutonium." It's the same as saying "We know how
it works in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, but what about Peoria?"

In the '20s we had a radium-dial painting industry to paint the dials
of wristwatches and clocks. Women sat at tables with a little pot of
radium paint, painting these dials by hand. Their brushes would get
diffuse and they'd take the brush and twirl it in their mouths to get
a fine tip to paint with. And these women came up with the most
horrible bone destruction due to the alpha particles from radium in
their bone. Osteogenic sarcomas. It was all written up by 1929, by
Harrison Martland, the coroner in New Jersey who examined their
bodies. The whole world knew that alpha particles from radium had done
this to humans. Now an alpha particle, really, doesn't ask who its
mother or father was. An alpha particle is an alpha particle.

In Germany and Czechoslovakia there are regions where it was long
known that 50 to 75 percent of the miners died of what was called
"mountain sickness." In the late 19th century Hartung and Hesse
discovered that this mountain disease was lung cancer. In the 1930s,
Peller and another group determined that the reason for the lung
cancer in the miners was breathing radon with alpha particles from the
uranium in the mines. So alpha particles had been proven to produce
cancer. So to say that the effects of alpha particles from plutonium
were unknown — it's just not true. The AEC, which approved of some of
that experimentation, knew precisely what the results would be. Merril
Eisenbund, a pro-nuclear environmentalist, was working for the AEC in
1947. He went out west to inspect what was going on in the uranium
mines in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. He came back and wrote a
report saying the mines are not being ventilated, and if we don't get
them ventilated, we're going to have a lung-cancer epidemic worse than
Germany and Czechoslovakia. He was told to move over to another
division, never to say anything more about the mining situation in
Colorado. The mine operators were not informed, the mine workers were
not informed, and we had the lung-cancer epidemic that had been
predicted. The AEC knew all this. Can you tell me there's any evidence
that the AEC, ERDA or DOE ever gave a damn about human health? They
were the same people who approved the human experimentation. And to
try to justify it in the name of the Cold War and things like that,
that's ridiculous. The Cold War did not require knowing where
plutonium went in people's bodies!

Synapse: Do you think the mechanisms that are in place today, such as
the human subject committees, are sufficient to keep this kind of
research from taking place?

Gofman: I think they're better than having no committees, and that
[unethical experimentation] is not as likely now. But it just seems to
me that when grants are involved, and the prestige of the institution
is involved, if some research is exciting but maybe off-color, I
wouldn't be surprised if some of the committees would overlook it. I'm
not impressed by the integrity and forthrightness of the medical
establishment. I wouldn't have said this 10, 15 years ago, but today,
when I look at an article in a medical journal — peer review means
nothing to me, that's just an old boys' club — I say to myself, "Why
should I believe this?" I've watched stuff get in that was peer
reviewed that was absolute rubbish, and they had to know that it was
absolute rubbish.

I just have lost my confidence in their integrity. A case in point. I
recently read a study that if you treat breast cancer by lumpectomy
and radiation, that's better than without the radiation. How carefully
was that study set up? Who oversaw the choice of people and the
outcomes? It's a very important issue. If you irradiate the chest of
women who've had lumpectomies, with the kind of doses they're giving,
you will produce a lot of cancers in the future. Not necessarily the
cancer they had, but you're going to produce new cancers. Those new
cancers are going to come 10, 15 years from now. If indeed the
radiation prevents [patients] from dying of the original cancer, which
would have killed them in a year or two, then I say, with their fully
informed knowledge, they may choose to take the radiation therapy. But
I really want to be sure that the data collected on this benefit is
right. So my answer to your question is: I hope it's better; I think
it's better than it was; I would like to see better mechanisms still,
that didn't involve grants and the prestige of the university when the
university passes on whether research is okay.

Synapse: What do you know about the release of radiation at Hanford,
Washington that, it now turns out, was many times worse than Three
Mile Island?

Gofman: When it became known that there had been these big releases,
the government finally promised to own up. So a big study is in
process now, it's called the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction
Project, fully funded by the government. And they're trying to involve
the Indian tribes, and various downwinders. The amount of iodine
released at Three Mile Island was estimated at 15 curies — Iodine-131.
The amount of iodine first estimated on this Hanford reconstruction
was 425,000 curies. The most recent estimate has it up to 725,000
curies. I calculated the true release of radioiodine from Chernobyl at
12.3 million curies. So the amount that was released at Hanford can
cause a lot of trouble.

Synapse: What kind of trouble? What does radioiodine do?

Gofman: In big enough doses it produces thyroid cancer and severe
hypothyroidism. In 1992, Kazakov, Demidchik, and Astaskhova of Minsk
put out a paper in Nature saying, "We have 131 cases of thyroid cancer
in Byelorus alone (since Chernobyl). The curve started up in '89-'90,
and the curve is staying up there." This has now been confirmed in
Ukraine. After the paper in Nature came out, a UN team went there to
check their diagnoses, and confirmed that they were right in 102 out
of 104 cases. And still, Shigematsu and Thiessen (of the Japanese-DOE
Radiation Effects Research Foundation), had a letter in the next issue
of Nature saying "We can't really trust this, these cases are coming
up too soon, they're not really thyroid cancer. Maybe they're looking
harder now..." And in the Journal of Nuclear Medicare some of the
nuclear pundits ridiculed the word from Byelorus. These people never
stop!...

There will inevitably be thyroid cancer from the releases at Hanford,
Washington. Whether they'll be able to reconstruct it and admit it I
don't know...

There's an investigator named Holm at a Swedish hospital. They've done
38,000 radioiodine scans to test thyroid function. He wrote a series
of papers showing that even though people got 50 rads to the thyroid,
there was no excess of thyroid cancer. When I first heard about it I
thought, "Wow, you can give 50 rads to the thyroid and cause no
cancers? Does it mean I'm wrong?" And this was trumpeted an over the
United Nations Atomic Effects Committee and everybody in the
establishment cites it. Well, I analyzed those papers — I devoted a
chapter to it in my 1990 book (Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose
Exposure). And you know what I this guy did? He threw 135 cancers out
of the study, because they occurred before five years had elapsed. He
said, "We know they can't occur before five years." The evidence in
Byelorus is that they're coming in four, five, six years after the
exposure. If you take the 135 cases and add them back, you've got a
big effect from radioiodine. That's what's being said about
radioiodine: not to worry, no problem.

Synapse: How do they refute your analysis?

Gofman: They're smart — they don't refer to it.

SOURCE: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Radiation-Threshold-Gofman20jun94.htm
Taka
2011-07-16 17:12:32 UTC
Permalink
More on radioactive meat, mushrooms, rice paddies and green tea in
Japan:

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/

Loading Image...

this is going to bioaccumulate in human flesh especially because these
are just randomly found picks, more radioactive food is being consumed
without any testing done on it ... You cannot trust the establishment
which behaves like this:

http://news.lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/2011/07/japanese-utilities-and-regulators.html

I wonder, will they print enough money to silence the mothers of
deformed children born from 9 months after the accidents on or will it
finally scrape the corrupted government?

Taka
Taka
2011-07-17 16:55:53 UTC
Permalink
Fukushima is Worse than Chernobyl – on Global Contamination

Introduction

Chemical physicist Chris Busby is at the forefront of scientists who
are challenging the radiation risk model propounded by ICRP, the
International Commission on Radiological Protection, whose standards
for allowable radiation doses the Japanese government has adopted for
its citizens affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident.
1 Busby, Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation
Risk (ECRR), points out that the ICRP model “deals with radiation
exposure from all sources in the same way, as if it were external to
the body,”2 and then takes this dose and multiplies it by a risk
factor based on the high acute external doses of the atomic-bomb
survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ICRP method thus fails to
take into account a number of ways in which certain internal
radionuclides can deliver very high doses to critical targets in
cells, particularly the cell DNA. One of these is from “inhaled or
ingested hot particles, which are solid but microscopic and can lodge
in tissue delivering high doses to local cells.”3 As a result,
internal radiation exposure can be “up to 1,000 times more harmful
than the ICRP model concludes.”4 In his calculation based on the ECRR
model that considers such internal radiation risks,5 Busby has
estimated that within 100 km of Fukushima Daiichi, approximately
200,000 excess cancers will occur within the next 50 years with about
half of them diagnosed in the next 10 years, if the 3.3 million people
in the area remain there for one year. He estimates over 220,000
excess cancers in the 7.9 million people from 100 to 200 km in the
next 50 years, also with about half of them to be diagnosed in the
next 10 years. By contrast, the ICRP model predicts 2,838 extra
cancers in the 100 km population.6 “The eventual yield will therefore
be another test of the two risk models,” Busby contends,7 pointing out
that many studies of the Chernobyl disaster showed much higher cancer
yields than the ICRP model had predicted.8
The effect of the nuclear disaster, moreover, extends well beyond the
200 km radius. It has been reported in Japan that “traces of
plutonium” have been found in the proximity of Fukushima Daiichi.9
This is no surprise, since unusual amounts of plutonium and uranium
have been detected in Hawaii, Guam, Alaska, and on the West Coast by
the US Environmental Protection Agency in the wake of the 3.11
earthquake and tsunami.10 CTBTO, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
Organization, has reported that radioactive materials had dispersed
throughout the Northern Hemisphere within two weeks of the Fukushima
accident, and that it had even reached the Southern Hemisphere by mid-
April.11 Shukan Kin’yobi, a weekly magazine, interviewed Chris Busby
on the issue of global contamination at a time when the Japanese media
have maintained silence on the issue. This is a complete original
English text of the interview, published simultaneously with the
Japanese version on Shukan Kin’yobi (July 8 edition).
Norimatsu Satoko

Interview with Chris Busby

Unusual amounts of plutonium have been found on the west coast of the
United States and elsewhere. Radioactive materials have also been
found in milk and water in the US. What is your view of these facts?

Plutonium has also been found in the UK in air filters.12 This means
that particles are now being globally dispersed. There will follow
increased rates of ill health, including cancer and birth defects,
which will be proportional to the overall air concentration. High in
Japan, low in USA, and very low in Europe. I do not think plutonium is
much more dangerous than the other alpha emitters, particularly
Uranium, on a dose for dose basis. I think the danger is in Uranium,
Tritium, Strontium-90, Carbon-14, Tellurium-132. I have found Te-132
in car filters from Japan.

If plutonium dispersed so widely, it only makes us wonder and fear how
it's been dispersed in the immediate proximity of Fukushima Daiichi,
Fukushima as a whole, and beyond... Tokyo and all Japan. What is your
view of the seriousness of this issue?

I have car air filters from Fukushima and Tokyo. We have found high
levels of radioactive particles in these. In my March/April paper13 I
predicted more than 200,000 additional cancers in the next 10 years
within a 200 KM radius of Fukushima.14 I have seen nothing to change
my mind. In fact it is worse than I thought then and said on TV. I
have been hoping all along that I was wrong, and even now there may be
some good development that I had not expected or foreseen, but the
situation is bad and I am very sorry. I have been helping some lawyers
who are making a legal case to have the children evacuated.15 The
problem is that dose rate, MicroSieverts per Hour, cannot be used to
reassure on the basis of comparisons with annual natural background.
The exposures are internal and the risk model of the ICRP, which is
based (ironically) on the external exposures at Hiroshima, cannot be
used. This is the key issue. There is a more accurate model, the ECRR,
one which has now been translated into Japanese and is available on
the internet. (Link)

What will be the effects of the Fukushima meltdown outside of Japan –
the US, and beyond? Asia? Europe? What is the current situation and
what further effects are expected?

I think the effects in Europe will be rare and undetectable. There
will probably be detectable effects in the USA, Korea, Hawaii,
Marianas and China.

Dr. Janette Sherman reported an increase in US infant mortality rate
in the ten weeks after the Tohoku earthquake in her Counterpunch
article. What is your view of possible causality from the Fukushima
crisis?

It’s possible. I have applied to get data from Seattle King County to
check on this, also the sex ratio, since genetic damage causes a
change in the ratio of births of boys and girls. The normal ratio is
1,055 boys to 1,000 girls. This is a sensitive indicator. We should
wait for a few months for results. There were increased rates of
infant mortality after the 1960s weapons tests. But the exposures were
higher then.

What do you see as the similarities between Fukushima and Chernobyl,
and what are the differences between them?

The similarity is that in both cases the operators and/or the
authorities lied about what was happening. In fact the Soviets reacted
more quickly than the Japanese and got the people out from 30km much
faster. There were buses taking everyone out on the Sunday after the
explosion on Friday night at Chernobyl.
I believe that they were both nuclear explosions. In fact we now know
that Chernobyl was a nuclear explosion; but there were also hydrogen
explosions. The Reactor 3 explosion at Fukushima, I believe, was a
nuclear explosion. Not that it makes a lot of difference in terms of
fallout.
The other difference is that the Fukushima disaster involved a lot
more material than Chernobyl where only 200 tons of fuel was involved.
I believe that in the explosions at Fukushima Daiichi, huge amounts of
spent fuel were blown sky high. The ground contamination out to 100 km
at Fukushima is worse than Chernobyl, the dose rates higher. And
Fukushima has contaminated Tokyo with 35 million people. The
population of the 200 km radius is also enormous, about 10 million.
Most of the Chernobyl stuff fell away from big population centers.
Luckily it went north and west and not to Kiev which is south.
Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan. Chernobyl
went up in one go. So Fukushima is worse.

What are the prospects that the Fukushima Daiichi accident will be
brought under control or come to an end – when, how, or will it ever?

I do not see any way out of this. Here are some possibilities.
1.The units are just left alone. If this happens it will quickly get
hotter and hotter and quickly vaporise most of the maybe 2,000 tons of
reactor fuel and spent fuel. This material will contaminate northern
Japan but probably not USA and Europe to any great extent. It may also
explode. Whatever other scientists say, I believe that there were
nuclear explosions involved, especially in Reactor 3. I believe that
there was a criticality on June 14th. You can see it happening on the
video and also there was a sudden increase in radiation in Ibaraki
detectors just after it happened at about midnight on June 14th.2.The
units continue to be cooled by pumping sea water and fresh water. This
means that so long as the surfaces of the melted fuel are cooled, the
surfaces will not vaporise but will just contaminate the water. This
will then find its way to the sea and contaminate the whole of the
East coast of Japan. Concerning the recent development on the system
installed to cool the reactors by water circulation, it may be that
they have managed to sort out the cooling in a way that will keep the
contamination in the cooling water, but I would have to know exactly
what they have done before I accept that this will not contaminate the
environment. I cannot see how they could have done this. It is my
understanding that fuel has breached the containers, which have holes
in them. A big problem is that we do not get sufficient information to
draw conclusions.3.They put a sarcophagus of some sort over the
reactors. This will reduce the amount of fission products leaving the
site. But unless they dig canals around the site and recycle the
cooling water, it will get into the sea. This is maybe the best option.
4.Whatever happens, northern pacific fish and seafood will become
contaminated. All individuals within 200 km of the site should be
evacuated if the local air dose is greater than 1microSievert per
hour. If they stay and the air dose is higher than 0.5uSv/h, have food
and water imported from elsewhere. All food and water should come with
a certificate saying what radionuclides are in it.What can the world/
the international community do to help Japan cope with the crisis and
support the victims of Fukushima Daiichi?

I believe that the international nuclear industry is responsible and
should be forced to pay.

Chris Busby is Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on
Radiation Risk (ECRR), Visiting Professor in the School of Biomedical
Sciences, University of Ulster, and Guest Researcher at the Federal
Institute for Crop and Soil Research, Julius Kuehn Institute, Federal
Research Centre for Cultivated Plants in Braunschweig, Germany.

SOURCE: http://www.zcommunications.org/contents/179843
Taka
2011-07-19 01:09:02 UTC
Permalink
Business as Usual for Nuke Industry as Hitachi-GE Won Negotiating
Right with Lithuanian Government for Nuke Plant in the Country

As the cattle farmers despair over radioactive hay and cattle, and
more locations found with very high radiation (hot spots and hot
areas), the Japanese government plans to shrink the planned evacuation
zone as it pushes a nuclear power plant in Lithuania.

The Hitachi-GE joint venture has won the right to negotiate with the
Lithuanian government to build a nuclear power plant in the country,
beating Toshiba/Westinghouse. Another successful government-industry
joint effort to push super-large "infrastructure" projects in
developing countries throughout the world.

Nuclear accident? What accident? Have you heard of a nuclear accident
recently, which happened on Hitachi-GE reactors? Lithuanians?

Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano commented on the success of Hitachi-GE
during the press conference on July 15 as follows (according to J-Cast
News, 7/15/2011):

"Despite the Fukushima accident, the Japanese technology is still
highly valued by other countries. It is very positive."

Asked about PM Kan's remark that the nuclear technology is an
"uncontrollable technology", Edano said:

"I don't remember the context of his remark, so I cannot comment."

Edano, Kaieda (Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry) and Hosono
(PM's assistant and Minister in charge of the Fukushima accident) have
been very close these days as if they were identical triplets (just
look at this great shot from NHK the other day; from left, Edano,
Kaieda, Hosono), planning for the "stress test" for the nuclear power
plants so that they can be re-started ASAP and seemingly going around
the prime minister if not avoiding him.

The Mitsubishi-AREVA JV has won the right to negotiate with the
Jordanian government for their first nuke plant in the country.
Toshiba, who owns 100% of Westinghouse Electric, has been pushing for
the Mongolian fuel processing plant.

Business as usual for the world's nuke industry.

SOURCE: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/business-as-usual-for-nuke-industry-as.html
Taka
2011-07-19 01:12:35 UTC
Permalink
Report: Air sample in Tokyo 270 times more contaminated with
Cesium-137 than global weapons fallout peak (VIDEO)

Cesium-137 Content From Air Filters

734milliBecquerels/cubic meter of Cesium-137 for Tokyo air filters
sampled

In comparison, the 1963 global weapons fallout 2.7milliBecquerels/
cubic meter for Cesium-137

Chernobyl fallout was 8milliBecquerels /cubic meter for Cesium 137

And the Fukushima filters 2.7Becquerels/cubic meter
(2700millibecquerels)

Implications

Air in Tokyo contaminated more than the global weapons fallout peak by
a factor of 270

If the filters were people, their external dose would be .2 micrograms
per hour just from Cesium-137

If the filters were people, their internal dose would .3-.5
millisiverts just from Cesium-137 isotopes

MORE AT: http://enenews.com/report-air-in-tokyo-270-times-higher-level-of-cesium-137-than-global-weapons-fallout-peak-video
Robert W. McAdams
2011-06-09 22:36:51 UTC
Permalink
Post by Taka
“Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”
Albert Einstein
When did Einstein say this? Do you have a source?


Bob
Taka
2011-06-11 02:13:32 UTC
Permalink
http://news.lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/2011/06/tepco-cam-blocked-out-by-vapor-event.html

This will go on for months if not years at best. Worst than the
atmospheric nuclear testing in the 60'ties ... Other nations
including US are hopeless to terminate this radioactive volcano. All
they can do is a media blackout.

Taka
Mark Thorson
2011-06-11 03:32:24 UTC
Permalink
Post by Robert W. McAdams
“Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”
Albert Einstein
When did Einstein say this? Do you have a source?
Of course not. If he did have a source, it would be
Post by Robert W. McAdams
The Cachexia Treatment Hydrazine Sulphate
What is Cachexia
"The 1931 Nobel laureate in medicine, German Otto Warburg, Ph.D.,
first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different
energy metabolism compared to healthy cells. The crux of his Nobel
thesis was that malignant tumours frequently exhibit an increase in
anaerobic glycolysis - - a process whereby glucose is used as a fuel
by cancer cells with lactic acid as an anaerobic by-product - -
compared to normal tissues. The large amount of lactic acid produced
Total baloney. His Nobel lecture doesn't even mention cancer.
You can download it here:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1931/warburg-lecture.html
Taka
2011-06-12 03:36:43 UTC
Permalink
Head of Fukushima health study: 100 mSv/yr OK for pregnant moms —
“Effects of radiation do not come to people that are happy… They come
to people that are weak-spirited”

"Dr “Ya-I’ma-shittin-on-ya” : “The effects of radiation do not come to
people that are happy and laughing. They come to people that are weak-
spirited, that brood and fret.”

I doubt he believes his own lies, but it would be true justice if he
did. It plays upon eastern religious thinking – mind power. There will
be many Japanese who believe him to some extent, and he knows it. Sure
keeping a positive attitude is good, and “a merry heart doeth good
like a medicine” (proverbs), but in an eastern religious world view,
people believe their amazing “mind powers” will change the physical
world around them. Its that Hindu/New Age “maya” concept where people
claim if you can just “believe” something then it will magically be
that way. It effectively makes a person a little “god” who through
their mind power will change the world around them.

Dr Ya-Im-a-Shitin-on-ya and the PR team behind him have carefully
tailored his message to a Japanese audience. In any western nation
people would be calling for the guy to be put in jail. In Japan there
will be people who take his lies seriously. It fits with their
religious belief system.

As other posters have said, his comments effectively shift the blame
for the disaster off the culprits and onto the victim. By that new age
logic, those who now get sick or have a still birth, just “weren’t
thinking positively”. Their “negative thoughts” about wanting to avoid
radioactive fallout made them get sick. By that logic, every victim of
a crime bought it upon themselves!!!

If a Japanese women has a deformed child, then the “good” Doctor
ShittinOnYa would say its the mothers fault. Its just evil."

SOURCE:
http://enenews.com/head-fukushima-health-study-100-msvyr-pregnant-moms-effects-radiation-people-happy-laughing-people-weak-spirited-brood-fret

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

Well, if I had to believe this Jap Doc then I would also believe the
911 & 311 conspiracy theories meaning that the Zionists are now
blackmailing Jap Government with additional nukes lying on the bottom
of Tokyo and Sagami bays.

http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/fukushima.html

+ insider action was noticeable a week prior to the earthquake on some
construction stocks at TSE; the quake struck at 14:45 just 15 minutes
before the closing of TSE what is just enough time for the informed
people to sell all their stocks while not being suspected to be
insiders.

Taka
Taka
2011-06-12 03:56:05 UTC
Permalink
Deadly Levels of Radiation Detected in Tokyo at Ground Level:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread714320/pg1

... and this doesn't measure the most dangerous hot particles of
plutonium from the #3 MOX blast because it's an alpha emitter
Taka
2011-06-12 15:15:17 UTC
Permalink
Post by Taka
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread714320/pg1
... and this doesn't measure the most dangerous hot particles of
plutonium from the #3 MOX blast because it's an alpha emitter
The hot particles we are breathing NOW:

http://fairewinds.com/content/cnns-john-king-interviews-arnie-gundersen-about-hot-particles-discovered-japan-and-us
Taka
2011-06-13 01:01:12 UTC
Permalink
A Quarter Century after Chernobyl
Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany

By Charles Hawley

As Germany's wild boar population has skyrocketed in recent years, so
too has the number of animals contaminated by radioactivity left over
from the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. Government payments compensating
hunters for lost income due to radioactive boar have quadrupled since
2007.

It's no secret that Germany has a wild boar problem. Stories of
marauding pigs hit the headlines with startling regularity: Ten days
ago, a wild boar attacked a wheelchair-bound man in a park in Berlin;
in early July, a pack of almost two dozen of the animals repeatedly
marched into the eastern German town of Eisenach, frightening
residents and keeping police busy; and on Friday morning, a German
highway was closed for hours after 10 wild boar broke through a fence
and waltzed onto the road.

Even worse, though, almost a quarter century after the Chernobyl
nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, a good chunk of Germany's wild boar
population remains slightly radioactive -- and the phenomenon has been
costing the German government an increasing amount of money in recent
years.

According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost €425,000
($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild
boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for
consumption. That total is more than four times higher than
compensation payments made in 2007.

'Boar Boom'

The reason for the climbing payments, of course, has more to do with
Germany's skyrocketing wild boar population than with an increase in
radioactive contamination. "In the last couple of years, wild boar
have rapidly multiplied," a spokesman from the Environment Ministry
confirmed to SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Not only is there more corn being
farmed, but warmer winters have also contributed to a boar boom."

Numbers from the German Hunting Federation confirm the population
increase. In the 2008/2009 season, a record number of boar were shot,
almost 650,000 against just 287,000 a year previously.

Many of the boar that are killed land on the plates of diners across
Germany, but it is forbidden to sell meat containing high levels of
radioactive caesium-137 -- any animals showing contamination levels
higher than 600 becquerel per kilogram must be disposed of. But in
some areas of Germany, particularly in the south, wild boar routinely
show much higher levels of contamination. According to the Environment
Ministry, the average contamination for boar shot in Bayerischer Wald,
a forested region on the Bavarian border with the Czech Republic, was
7,000 becquerel per kilogram. Other regions in southern Germany aren't
much better.

Germany's Atomic Energy Law, which regulates the use of nuclear energy
in the country, mandates that the government in Berlin pay
compensation to hunters who harvest contaminated animals.

Contaminated Wild Pig

Wild boar are particularly susceptible to radioactive contamination
due to their predilection for chomping on mushrooms and truffles,
which are particularly efficient at absorbing radioactivity. Indeed,
whereas radioactivity in some vegetation is expected to continue
declining, the contamination of some types of mushrooms and truffles
will likely remain the same, and may even rise slightly -- even a
quarter century after the Chernobyl accident.

"In the regions where it is particularly problematic, all boar that
are shot are checked for radiation," reports Andreas Leppmann, from
the German Hunting Federation. There are 70 measuring stations in
Bavaria alone.

In addition, for the last year and a half, Bavarian hunters have been
testing ways to reduce the amount of caesium-137 absorbed by wild
boar. A chemical mixture known as Giese salt, when ingested, has been
shown to accelerate the excretion of the radioactive substance. Giese
salt, also known as AFCF, is a caesium binder and has been used
successfully to reduce radiation in farm animals after Chernobyl.
According to Joachim Reddemann, an expert on radioactivity in wild
boar with the Bavarian Hunting Federation, a pilot program in Bavaria
that started a year and a half ago has managed to significantly reduce
the number of contaminated animals.

Government compensation payments to hunters remain a small part of the
€238 million recompense the German government has shelled out for
damages relating to Chernobyl since reactor IV exploded on April 26,
1986. Furthermore, there is some relief in sight. Even as wild boar
continue to show a fondness for making the headlines, the recent hard
winter has had its effect on population numbers. So far this year,
Berlin has only had to pay out €130,000 for radioactive boar.

But radioactivity in wild boar isn't likely to disappear soon. "The
problem has been at a high level for a long time," says Reddemann. "It
will likely remain that way for at least the next 50 years."

SOURCE: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,709345,00.html

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

Soon to come - radioactive Japanese monkeys and ravens, not speaking
of the fish. They are already becoming pretty aggressive.

Taka
Taka
2011-06-13 01:05:22 UTC
Permalink
Bulgarian Authorities: Radioactive Mushrooms Isolated, Not Chernobyl-
Related

The shipment of Bulgarian mushrooms destroyed in the UK due to
excessive radioactivity is an isolated case that has nothing to do
with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, according to the head of
the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency.

Saturday the Daily Mail reported that UK border authorities had
discovered and destroyed a ton of dried Bulgarian wild mushrooms that
exhibited levels of radiation from cesium 137 10 times higher than the
allowed norm.

The Daily Mail further quoted UK agencies linking the radiation nature
of the shipment with the aftermath of the Chernobyl NPP disaster back
in 1986.

"The mushrooms in question have been harvested in an area in the
Rhodope Mountains nearby the site of shut-down uranium mines. Thus the
radiation found in them is not caused by Chernobyl," said Bulgarian
Food Safety Agency director Yordan Voynov for Darik Radio.

Voynov clarified that the shipment amounted to 600 kg, rather than a
ton. It has been shipped first to the Netherlands and then on to the
UK. The mushrooms are from the Hydnum repandum species, known as Wood
hedgehog or Hedgehog mushroom.

The Food Safety Agency director assured that this is an isolated case
and no radioactive mushrooms are sold on the Bulgarian market.

SOURCE: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=129193

SEE ALSO:

Taka
2011-06-13 01:15:28 UTC
Permalink
Fukushima - The Elephant in the Room

Remember Chandra Levy? Her disappearance following an affair with
her congressman was the national obsession in the summer of 2001 -
until we awoke one Tuesday morning to see the World Trade Center
towers on fire In the summer of 2011 the nation, or at least the
nation's media, seems similarly obsessed with the murder trial of
Casey Anthony and the twitter account of a New York congressman.
Meanwhile, the crisis at the Fukushima Daichi plant rages on with no
resolution in sight and a cold shutdown now projected to be years
away.

Until last week there was an apparent media blackout on the crisis,
although some Americans, this writer included, have followed the
status of the reactors daily at Energy News and Fairewinds, the
website of nuclear energy expert, Arnie Gundersen. The Fukushima
reactors were built by General Electric, which also owns Comcast, NBC,
CNBC and MSNBC, so the absence of timely information is not
surprising. One article early on in the crisis suggested that the
reinsurance on Fukushima was held in part by AIG and Warren Buffet's
Berkshire Hathaway, a supposition I cannot substantiate, but that may
be true. There is no doubt that we live in a time when corporate
profits trump human safety and well-being, and we are seeing that
manifest in this current crisis. The best MSM sources for
information over these last months have been Bloomberg, online and on
television, and The Wall Street Journal, which have tracked the crisis
primarily because it affects investment in Japanese companies.

Last week the Japanese government made startling announcements. Three
of the five reactors experienced total meltdowns on March 11th, the
day of the initial earthquake, and all three reactors have "melted
through" leaky containment vessels, molten masses of melted fuel rods
now fissioning on the basement floors of those reactors. The
statement further confessed that levels of radiation released from the
explosions were actually twice as high as initially reported, blaming
the miscalculation on bad math. (Indeed in the days after the March
explosions plutonium was discovered on the ground in northern
California and tritium in Vermont.) In light of these revelations
Arnie Gundersen did an interview on CNN last week, recommending that
Americans wash produce thoroughly and stop drinking milk and eating
dairy products. He also suggested that any Americans wealthy enough
to relocate to the southern hemisphere consider doing so, adding that
Seattle residents were inhaling 5 "hot particles" or "fuel fleas" per
day in the weeks following the explosions. Democracy Now, Amy
Goodman's radio and television news program, which has not ignored the
story over these months, did an extensive update on yesterday's
broadcast.

Should we all be constructing fallout shelters and stockpiling food
and water? Should we be shipping our children to South America until
the crisis ends? I have no idea, but neither does anybody else,
including the nuclear experts. They know that the crisis is more
serious than Chernobyl. The world has never experienced a "china
syndrome" event, and there is no way to calculate the potential
outcome. One nuclear physicist who posts regularly at enenews.com
suggests that another explosion is unlikely given the current status,
but warns that reactor 4 is in danger of collapsing on itself from
even a minor earthquake or aftershock. A collapse would negatively
alter the scenario and could cause another major release of
radioactive particles into the jet stream. Chronic low-level
radiation produces a myriad of diseases in animals and humans, and
even the IAEA recently admitted that no level of radiation is safe, as
radiation is the prime cause of cancers. In any event, radiation
exposure from a cross-country flight is in an entirely different
category from a "hot particle" that would become an internal emitter
once inhaled or ingested. Of the isotopes released in nuclear
accidents, the most dangerous are plutonium, strontium 90, which
attacks bone tissue, iodine 131 which attacks the thyroid gland, and
cesium 137 which attacks soft tissue, including the liver, kidneys and
lungs. Of these plutonium is the most lethal -- 1/10,000th of a
micron will kill a human. Fukushima's reactor number 3 illegally
used MOX fuel, which is a mixture of uranium, depleted uranium, and
plutonium. (The MOX fuel was sold to Japan by the United States during
the Reagan administration).

The Norwegian Institute (NILU), a Scandinavian organization that
measures air quality, akin to our EPA, had, for the first six weeks
following the explosions, issued forecast maps for the northern
hemisphere which tracked fallout clouds containing radioactive iodine,
cesium and xenon, a gas. Those maps were disturbing to all who saw
them, as they showed North America literally blanketed in radioactive
fallout at levels that vastly exceeded normal background radiation.

The EPA announced in early May that it would cease testing air,
rainwater, tap water and milk, as iodine 131 levels, the isotope with
the shortest half-life, had fallen to normal atmospheric levels (EPA
test results here). It has been reported at several websites that
both NILU and the EPA were pressured to discontinue testing -- or at
least to discontinue publication of the test results. The "pressure"
has been variously attributed to the U.S. government, the Japanese
government and the United Nations, although I have seen no hard
evidence to substantiate any of those claims. NILU began to publish
more recent and updated historical maps in an alternate hidden file it
code-named Zardoz, after the 1970's sci-fi film about a post-
apocalyptic future. The previously hidden maps, showing emergency-
level fallout contamination across North America, were subsequently re-
published by two 20-something bloggers, here (scroll down the page)
and here. The Nuclear Engineering Dept at U.C. Berkeley has
continued to test rain water, tap water, raw and commercially made
milk, topsoil and an assortment of vegetables. While radiation
contamination has dropped significantly since the explosions of March
11, recent tests show new highs in contamination levels of topsoil and
milk for cesium 137 and cesium 134. Since only UCB is publishing
test results, we cannot know for certain what levels persist in other
areas of the country. In early April, the government of France advised
that pregnant women and young children avoid milk, soft cheeses and
leafy vegetables. No such missive came from the U.S. government -
and Western Europe has been receiving only 5% of the fallout that has
blanketed North America. Last week Food Processing.com, the website
for the U.S. food and beverage industry, published a very informative
article entitled "Fukushima in Our Food," a good overview of
contamination that has been recorded in North America since March
11th . Greenpeace, which conducted tests on marine life outside of
Japan's 12 mile limit last month, found levels of contamination in
fish and seaweed to be above legal limits.

Yesterday Counterpunch published an article by two doctors on the
spike in infant deaths in the U.S. since the explosions at Fukushima,
a spike which mimics infant deaths in Europe following the Chernobyl
disaster. In North America the contamination comes largely in
rainwater, which will, in turn, affect tap water, topsoil, vegetables,
meat and dairy products over time. The most vulnerable populations
are pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant, infants and
young children, the elderly and any person suffering from an immune
system-compromising illness, such as AIDS. The most logical
preventative measures Americans can and should take are these: Avoid
going out in the rain and always carry an umbrella, avoid fresh dairy
products, wash all produce, increase intake of potent antioxidants,
such as CoQ10 and alpha lipoic acid, and buy a reverse osmosis water
filtration system for your home or at least for your kitchen faucet.
If you want to be prepared for a possible emergency down the road,
also look into N95 face masks, which are widely available, HEPA air
filters, and stockpile at least a few weeks of canned and dried food
and filtered or spring water sufficient for your household. (Well
water and spring water are safe as they are filtered by the clay in
the soil.) Consult the links below for methods of protection from
and detoxification of radio isotopes. (These methods are also
valuable to protect against radiation exposure from x-rays and CT
scans).

Resources for news on Fukushima and results of testing :

Energy News.com http://enenews.com/

Fairewinds, Arnie Gundersen http://www.fairewinds.com/home

EPA test results http://opendata.socrata.com/Government/RadNet-Laboratory-Analysis/cf4r-dfwe

UC Berkeley Dept of Nuclear Engineering test results air and water
monitoring team http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling

American Nuclear Society twitter page http://twitter.com/#!/ans_org

NILU historical maps http://www.woweather.com/weather/news/fukushima?LANG=us&VAR=eurad2500

NILU Zardoz file http://zardoz.nilu.no/~flexpart/fpinteractive/plots/?C=M;O=D

Radiation network. Live radiation ground level readings from citizens
with dosimeters. Readings over 100 are alert level; over 50 cause for
some concern. (Fuel fleas or hot particles are too small to register
on a dosimeter and will not show up in these readings)

http://radiationnetwork.com/

Information on supplements that prevent absorption of isotopes and
remove contaminants from the body :

http://chemtruth.ning.com/profiles/blogs/supplements-shown-to-help

http://www.geronova.com/content/question-there-any-evidence-r-lipoic-acid-can-protect-us-damaging-effects-radiation-if-so-wh

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50834201/Treating-Radiation-Exposure

http://www.natural-health-home-remedies.com/radiation.html

http://farmwars.info/?p=6062

http://www.remm.nlm.gov/int_contamination.htm#blockingagents

http://www.herbsofgrace.com/Blog/tag/high-pectin-food/

http://www.remm.nlm.gov/DMAT-Adm_Decorp_Drugs_Int_Rad_Contam_12-01-0311.pdf

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=8838

SOURCE: http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Fukushima--The-Elephant-i-by-lila-york-110611-262.html
Taka
2011-06-13 13:23:11 UTC
Permalink
http://fairewinds.com/content/hot-particles-japan-seattle-virtually-undetectable-when-inhaled-or-swallowed

The establishment is ignoring this problem so far and no one will
compensate you for lung cancer which may appear 10 - 20 years later.
Prevention? Can plutonium hot particle induce cancer in an EFAD
individual?

Taka
Taka
2011-06-15 06:35:16 UTC
Permalink
Here are some relevant excerpts from the above quoted report (dated
from the 1970s but still seems relevant)
http://www.hss.doe.gov/healthsafety/ihs/marshall/collection/data/ihp2/2968_.pdf
Seems to indicate that inhaling 5 or more “hot particles” (as defined
below, and including Plutonium, for example) is a huge amount compared
to the maximum recommended dose based on research at the time. Cancer
risk is extremely hig.

“a hot particle is defined as a [n alpha-emitting] particle that
contains sufficient activity to deliver at least 1000 rem/yr to the
surrounding lung tissue. For isotopes having half-lives greater than
one year, this would correspond to particles containing at least 0.07
pCi of alpha activity.” (p.51)

“we recommend that the MPLPB for members of the public be 0.2 hot
particles, and the average lung burden for members of the public be
0.07 hot particles, a factor of 3 less than the maximum.” (p. 45)

[it is recommended that...] For accidental releases exposure (10 CFR
100.ll(a) (l)) MPLI’B (2 hours exposure) = 10 hot particles” (p. 52)

“[...]the existinq biological evidence strongly sugqests
that an insoluble particle of respiratory tissue represents a risk of
cancer induction of between 1/1000 and l/10,000.” (p.41)

[regarding experiments with Beagles exposed to Pu 239]:
“All of these experiments involved intense exposures
and a significant level of carcinogenesis. Severe damage
and disruption of tissue were associated with the exposures.
The most relevant lung experiment is Bair’s Pu
23902 inhalation study with beagles. Exposure was to
particulate of 0.25 u or 0.5 u median diameter; burdens were
in the uCi range. Twenty of the 21 dogs that survived more
than 1600 days post exposure had lung cancer. Many of these
cancers were multicentric in origin. The cancers again
appeared in conjunction with severe lung injury. Since the
natural- incidence of the disease is small, it appears that
at this level of exposure the induction of lung cancer is a
certainty durinq the normal beagle life span. At the same time,
time, since the pathological response is saturated in this
experiment, it is inappropriate to draw any inference about
the magnitude of the response at smaller burdens. The smallest
burden (at death) in a dog showing lung cancer was 0.2 uCi.
Presumably this would correspond to a particle burden of
about 10^7 particles. Burdens which are smaller by orders of
magnitude may still induce a substantial incidence of cancer.
Indeed, the cancer risk may, as for skin and soft tissues,
correspond to a risk per particle in the neighborhood of
1/1000 to 1/10,000.”

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/4459

SOURCE: http://enenews.com/discussion-thread-june-10-june-16-2011/comment-page-1#comment-92630
Taka
2011-06-15 08:24:11 UTC
Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_particle
Taka
2011-06-12 04:06:30 UTC
Permalink
Am women pay highest price for Fukushima cover-up: 35% more dead
babies

Baby death rate spike since Fukushima radiation cover-up

Babies are dying at a 35% increased rate in eight northwest U.S.
cities since the Fukushima meltdowns, evidence supporting radiation
expert Joseph Managno's assertion that Americans will pay a high
price for government and media cover-up and deception related to
Fukushima radiation, such as telling women that there are only trace
levels of radiation from Fukushima and that these are harmless.

A report by Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public
Health Project and co-authored by Janette Sherman about increased
infant morbidity since the Fukushima catastrophe, highlights that
although the United States spends billions on medical care, as of
2006, the US ranked 28th in the world in infant mortality, over twice
that of the lowest ranked countries. (DHHS, CDC, National Center for
Health Statistics. Health United States 2010, Table 20, p. 131,
February 2011.)

Friday's Counterpunch article by Mangano and Sherman emphasizes that
the recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates
northwest U.S. cities, Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus
northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco,
San Jose, and Berkeley have each reported data on deaths among those
younger than one year of age including:

4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 - 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)
10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 - 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week)

"This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S.
rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant. Of further
significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the
ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster."

As Mangano told the Examiner, warning Americans about Fukushima
fallout, unborn and babies are more vulnerable because their cells are
rapidly dividing and the delivered dose of radiation is proportionally
larger than delivered to adults.

Why should we care if there may be is a link between Fukushima and the
death of children?

"Because we need to measure the actual levels of isotopes in the
environment and in the bodies of people exposed to determine if the
fallout is killing our most vulnerable," the experts say.

But that research is not being conducted, against best interest of the
public according to Mangano.

"The research is not technically difficult – the political and
economic barriers may be greater," he and Sherman report.

Bandshevsky and others conducted such research as it related to the
Chernobyl meltdown, confirming the connection.

Dr. Helen Caldicott has also cited the recent New York Academy of
Sciences report that stated over 1 million people died as a direct
result of the 1986 Chernobyl melt-down, mostly from cancer.

"The situation is very grim and not just for the Japanese people,"
said Caldicott.

Only days after the Fukushima meltdowns began, it took a group of
Japanese grassroots volunteers to rescue babies and pregnant women
from the Fukushima Nuclear power plant fallout, since the Japanese
government told everyone within the 20-mile radius danger zone of the
leaking plants to remain indoors where people are being radiated.

The Radiation and Public Health Project is one of the only non-
government organizations in the U.S. consistently warning the public
about the Fukushima dangers for Americans.

As in the nation's Gulf coast region where, due to the April 20, 2010
oil-rig explosion, radiation from BP's oil plus chemicals and
biological agents from Corexit are linked to harm of pregnant women
and babies, the government is making little effort to prevent American
women and babies from suffering due to Fukushima meltdowns.

New research has shed light on sharp increases in both Gulf
miscarriages and Gulf dead baby dolphins.

Mangano and Sherman state, "Low birth weight babies, born too soon and
too small, face a lifetime of health problems, including cerebral
palsy, and behavioral and learning problems placing an enormous
physical, emotional and economic burdens on society as a whole and on
those caring for them."

While "death of a young child is devastating to a family," it is most
devastating to the mother.

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

Just wait for the Autumn when the first Japanese babies conceived
after Fukushima start coming out ...

Taka
Taka
2011-06-13 07:44:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Taka
http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/fukushima.html
http://www.reformation.org/nuclear-tsunamis.html
Taka
2011-06-13 13:16:44 UTC
Permalink
"Within 48 hours of the earthquake, officials from the United States
Nuclear Regulatory Commission arrived in Tokyo, but they were unable
to get information or even arrange meetings with Japanese
counterparts. Meanwhile, Washington became convinced that Tokyo was
understating the damage at the plant, based on readings that the
Americans were getting around the plant from aircraft and satellites
normally used to monitor North Korean nuclear tests, said one American
official, who asked not to be named.

According to this official, the Obama administration made a decision
“to lean on the Kan government” to share more information. On March
16, American officials, including the ambassador to Japan, John V.
Roos, informed their Japanese counterparts that the United States
would advise its citizens to evacuate an area 50 miles around the
plant — much larger than the 18-mile voluntary evacuation zone then
established by Japan.

The Americans also began voluntary evacuations of nonessential
personnel at their bases, and hinted at more drastic steps, even
pulling out some essential military personnel, if Tokyo did not share
more information, said this American official and Japanese officials,
including Mr. Terada.

To show Washington and an increasingly anxious Japanese public that
utmost efforts were being made, Mr. Kan deployed military helicopters
to drop water into the reactors, Mr. Terada and other Japanese
advisers said, adding they knew this would have only a limited effect
on cooling them. On March 17, on live television, the helicopters
dropped water from the air, though strong winds clearly blew much of
the water off course.

Still, Mr. Terada said that Mr. Kan personally called President Obama
to tell him the operation was a success."

SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/world/asia/13japan.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1&hp
Taka
2011-06-29 08:52:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by Taka
“Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”
Albert Einstein
When did Einstein say this?  Do you have a source?
Bob
Whales killed for nukes: Nuclear power plants – like nuke bombs have
seals. These seals crack if they are not protected. The only
protecting substance is oil from whales. Thus whales must be
massacred. First for the nuke bombs… next to the nuke plants which are
only running to burn the bomb nuke materiel; no other reason for
Nuclear Power. This is why Einstein claimed that “its a hell of a way
to boil water with uranium.”

MORE AT: http://preparator.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/japan-tsunami-reactor-gallery/
Robert W. McAdams
2011-06-29 12:08:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by Taka
Post by Robert W. McAdams
Post by Taka
“Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”
Albert Einstein
When did Einstein say this? Do you have a source?
Bob
Whales killed for nukes: Nuclear power plants – like nuke bombs have
seals. These seals crack if they are not protected. The only
protecting substance is oil from whales. Thus whales must be
massacred. First for the nuke bombs… next to the nuke plants which are
only running to burn the bomb nuke materiel; no other reason for
Nuclear Power. This is why Einstein claimed that “its a hell of a way
to boil water with uranium.”
MORE AT: http://preparator.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/japan-tsunami-reactor-gallery/
The question I asked was not why Einstein said this but when he said
this. The site you have referenced does not even address this question.
If Einstein really said it, he said it at a particular time, in a
particular place, and anyone who has established that he really did say
it can tell you where and when this was.


Bob
Taka
2011-07-05 05:27:47 UTC
Permalink
The Extraordinary Hidden Costs of Boiling Water, Cheaply

How much will the Fukushima nuclear power disaster cost the Tokyo
Electric Power Company, the Japanese economy, and the Japanese
taxpayer?

A rough estimate based on current conditions is something around $50
billion. TEPCO's salable assets are only worth about half of that.

$50B in economic damages and the company is worth half that --

Tokyo, you have a problem!
Certainly something like that could not happen here in the USA, could
it?

Certainly the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must make sure that
Nuclear companies have enough assets, enough insurance, to cover any
damage that would happen if God-forbid, such a Fukushima-type event
happened here? (Say during one of those every-other-year 100-year
floods, or something ...)

You might think so -- but you would be wrong.

Fukushima nuclear accident could cost tax-payer $Trillions
by Christina MacPherson nuclear-news.net -- May 6, 2011

"In America, where no new reactors have been planned and completed
since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, the necessary insurance for
nuclear operators is capped at just $375 million by law, with further
claims funded by the utilities, up to a maximum of $12.6 billion."

Ultimate costs from accidents can be difficult to predict, but many
estimates place total damages, including economic loss, in the
Trillions. You can read more on this discussion here, and also access
a 1982 report to Congress that estimated the public health impacts and
financial damages if a severe accident were to occur at an existing
nuclear reactor site.

An industry-wide Liability maximum of $12.6 Billion -- But, but, in
Japan the Economic Fallout alone, of from Fukushima is calculated to
be $50 Billion -- nearly 4X the US Damages Fund ceiling.

Who picks up the difference, if say the Missouri River keeps rising?
Or the San Andreas keeps, faulting?

Hello US Taxpayers! Get out your checkbooks ...

Imagine our surprise when we one day start getting those bottomless
bills ... it could leave one speechless ... like this ...



As I wrote in a piece earlier today ...

Here's an idea, if Nuclear Corporations continue to insist on
"squeezing every last drop of juice" out of their aging, creeky, old
clunkers ... for Boiling Water.

Then those very same Nuclear Corporations should have to pick up their
own Liability Insurance on those shelf-life-expired "Steam Engines" of
theirs ...

-- and Quit sticking the American People with the Final Costs and the
Damages, if ever one of their Steam Engines suffers an unforeseen
breakdown ... like most Engines will eventually do, if you keep
running them 'into the ground'.

Say, IF keeping those aging Nuclear Power Plants running, were such a
great bet, wouldn't Wall Street be "jumping in" on that investment
action?

There is a reason why Insurance Underwriters won't get within 10-miles
of a Nuclear Power Plant -- and that's the same reason we have the
"Price–Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act", codified into
law ...

Some Risks are just TOO Great to Take -- for ordinary Corporations
that is.

Those are that kind of systemic Risks that Society and Taxpayers must
ultimately absorb, if God-forbid, one of those Passed Life-expectancy
Power Plants, somehow manages to blow a gasket or something.

But that would "Never Happen" -- just ask Wall Street or Swiss
Reinsurance Company Ltd.

Never, in a Million -- strike that -- in a hundred years! {er, ...
the next dozen years, if your lucky that is ...}

Never happen, people. Just Trust Them.

They're the adults, in the room, afterall.

SOURCE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/03/991140/-The-Extraordinary-Hidden-Costs-of-Boiling-Water,-Cheaply
Taka
2011-06-27 00:01:42 UTC
Permalink
Residents' urine now radioactive Fukushima

More than 3 millisieverts of radiation has been measured in the urine
of 15 Fukushima residents of the village of Iitate and the town of
Kawamata, confirming internal radiation exposure, it was learned
Sunday.

Both are about 30 to 40 km from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, which
has been releasing radioactive material into the environment since the
week of March 11, when the quake and tsunami caused core meltdowns.

"This won't be a problem if they don't eat vegetables or other
products that are contaminated," said Nanao Kamada, professor emeritus
of radiation biology at Hiroshima University. "But it will be
difficult for people to continue living in these areas."

Kamada teamed up with doctors including Osamu Saito of Watari Hospital
in the city of Fukushima to conduct two rounds of tests on each
resident in early and late May, taking urine samples from 15 people
between 4 and 77.

Radioactive cesium was found both times in each resident.

Radioactive iodine was logged as high as 3.2 millisieverts in six
people in the first survey, but none was found in the second survey.

The data indicate accumulated external exposure was between 4.9 and
13.5 millisieverts, putting the grand total between 4.9 to 14.2
millisieverts over about two months, they said.

"The figures did not exceed the maximum of 20 millisieverts a year,
but we want residents to use these results to make decisions (to
move)," said Kamada.

SOURCE: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110627a2.html

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

The f*cking responsible government really needs to start testing the
residents of Tokyo and the food they are ingesting for radioisotopes
NOW and make the data PUBLICLY available !!! Instead they are
covering things up while the resigning Tepco president is cashing his
600,000,000 yen retirement bonus. Hope people would become aware if
the Gaga chick comes back radioactive ... They are keeping people
from revolting with TV, smart phones, Internet games etc. these days.

Taka

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/tepco-presidents-golden-parachute-over.html
Taka
2011-07-01 02:41:26 UTC
Permalink
Post by Taka
Residents' urine now radioactive Fukushima
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/radiation-in-japan-radioactive-cesium_29.html

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/cnn-has-most-details-in-radioactive.html
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