From
Iodine
-131 on the Increase. " The concentration of iodine-131
in Gunma prefecture sewage sludge continues to increase. The
graph represents the highest value of I-131 measured at all
plants in the prefecture at the time. As you can see, the amount
is much higher than it was in May 2011 when measurements commenced.
This indicates recent dramatically increasing criticalities
in the underground coriums and spent fuel pools at Fukushima."
by Bobby1, optimalprediction.com, [h/t Iodine-131
in Japanese Sludge from Gunma Prefecture, majiasblog.blogspot.com].
Red
Forest Syndrome in Michigan 5.27.2012,
published on May 27, 2012 by ichicax4,
"Taking a drive around Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This
ginger-red color was widely observed around Chernobyl in pines,
as they are notorious for cesium uptake. Fallout tends to
occur in a leopard-spot pattern. The color change in pines
has been observed all over Michigan since May of last year.
We stopped at 3 of the worst trees, and there was no pine
beetle damage on this particular day, as well as all the other
trees we have checked in the past year."
[...]
the pool, an 11-meter deep well [...] stretches between floors
three and four [...] Radiation
spiked on the second floor at 500 microsieverts per hour [...] By
the fourth floor, near the top of the building, where an explosion
during the nuclear accident a year earlier had blown off the
ceiling and bits of walls, readings were down to 300 microsieverts
per hour.
2012-05-27Headlines
from Japan: Jiji's Believe it or NOT, majiasblog.blogspot.com,
Sunday, May 27, 2012 Headlines
from Japan: Jiji's Believe it or NOT Jiji:
EXCLUSIVE: TEPCO to Back Ex-Execs in Shareholder Lawsuit
Saturday May 26, 2012
"In their written complaint, the shareholders insist that
the TEPCO executives neglected to take safety measures, although
they were aware of the risks of accidents after the science
ministry warned in 2002 that an earthquake of a magnitude of
around 8 could occur..." Jiji:
Japan to Promote Use of Ocean Energy JIJI
(Japan) - Friday, May 25, 2012 Jiji:
Japan Industry Minister Vows to Break Pro-Nuclear Alliance JIJI
(Japan) - Friday, May 25, 2012 --Japanese industry minister
Yukio Edano said Friday that he is "making every effort"
to break the pro-nuclear alliance between the ministry and power
firms.... Edano said, "I do not think everything has changed" Jiji:
Radiation Not Cause of Deaths of Fukushima Workers: U.N. Panel JIJI
(Japan) - Thursday, May 24, 2012
"... Based on information available so far, their deaths
are attributable to cardiovascular disease or other reasons,
according to the report compiled by the U.N. Scientific Committee
on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. One
of them died of acute leukemia, but there is no correlation
between the death and radiation exposure because the time between
the start of the worker's participation in the operations and
the death is short, the committee said...." Jiji:
WHO Puts Max Dose from TEPCO Accident at 50 Millisieverts JIJI
(Japan) - May 23, 2012
"The maximum whole-body radiation dose typical Japanese
received from the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s
Fukushima No. 1 power plant is estimated at 50 millisieverts
over the first four months, the World Health Organization said
in a recent report." 2012-05-27AP:
Tepco rejects growing calls to let outside experts inspect Fukushima
plant, published: May 27th, 2012 at 10:59 am ET,
by ENENews Hosono
visits Fukushima plant to quell fears over No. 4's pool,
AP, Sunday, May 27, 2012 [...] The
pool, which is situated precariously above the reactor, is one
of the plant’s biggest risks as it is filled with spent
fuel rods that could get dumped out and combust if the building
fails during an earthquake. [...] Akio
Komori, one of the Tepco executives who escorted [environment
and nuclear minister Goshi] Hosono, said the utility will inspect
the No. 4 building to ensure its integrity while continuing
with fuel removal. Komori, however, rejected growing calls to
let outside experts to inspect the plant. “As
the party with direct responsibility, it’s our job to
carry out the necessary checks,” he said. [...] 2012-05-27 Fukushima
Daiichi Worker: I think all reactors will be in crisis after
major aftershock — We don’t have enough people to
settle down No. 4 fuel pool and other reactors,
ENENews.com 2012-05-27Asahi:
Japan Atomic Power posts profits despite plunge in electricity
sold, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Sunday, May
27, 2012 Asahi:
Japan Atomic Power posts profits despite plunge in electricity
sold Majia
here: This headline is perplexing. I don't have a subscription
so I cannot get the entire story. However,
the brief excerpt indicates that profits were 8.9 billion yen
despite a 94% cut in the amount of electricity sold to regional
utilities. http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201205260203.html 2012-05-27 More
on Japan's Proposal to Re-Start Re-Processing of Nuclear Fuel,
majiasblog.blogspot.com, Sunday, May 27, 2012 More
on Japan's Proposal to Re-Start Re-Processing of Nuclear Fuel I
posted on this a few days ago. http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/reprocessing-nuclear-fuel-to-continue.html The
story I reported on then: Asahi:
Panel backs nuclear fuel reprocessing after talks with industry
officials May 24 2012 http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201205240100 I
found this proposal extraordinarily disturbing (see my linked
blog post). Apparently,
I am not alone. An
excellent editorial at Mainichi: Yoroku: Dismantling the 'black
boxes' of Japanese nuclear power [Excerpt]
"It was recently reported that the Japan Atomic Energy
Commission (JAEC) held a secret meeting on April 24, before
a JAEC subcommittee compiled and submitted a report on the country's
policy of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to the "council
of new national energy policy" on May 23. The
discussion, dubbed a 1study meeting,' took place behind closed
doors, with only pro-nuclear parties from government and power
industry bodies invited to attend. The chief of the JAEC subcommittee
was also in attendance." As
argued here, the proposal to re-start re-processing was made
in secret by industry and government insiders. One has to wonder
what is going on here? I previously suggested several possibilities.
All are alarming. 2012-05-27 Radiation
spikes on floor below No. 4 fuel pool, ENENews.com 2012-05-27TEPCO
to Attempt Removing 2 New Fuel Assemblies from Reactor 4 SFP
at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant, ex-skf.blogspot.com,
Sunday May 27, 2012 The
original plan of the "roadmap" was to build a protective
structure over the reactor building first, and then start removing
the fuel assemblies in December 2013. From
Yomiuri
Shinbun (5/27/2012):
TEPCO
has decided to remove part of the new fuel assemblies stored
in the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 at Fukushima I Nucleaer
Power Plant in July. It
will be the first removal of nuclear fuel since the start
of the accident. There
are 1535 fuel assemblies stored in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel
Pool, including 204 new fuel assemblies. The plan was to build
a "cover" structure for the building equipped with
a crane [to remove the fuel assemblies], and start removing
the fuel assemblies in December 2013. The
new fuel has no problem of heat from the fission products
and are easier to handle than the spent fuel. TEPCO has decided
to remove a few new fuel assemblies and inspect the condition.
The
worker who tweets from Fuku-I says
TEPCO will take out 2 assemblies. Since they have never been
used, they can be lifted in the air, he says. Even
so, it doesn't seem to me to be a critical, essential task to
be done at the plant right now. It seems like an unnecessary,
risky endeavor. What
is instructive is some of the tweets in response to the worker's
tweet. "Oh is there anything left in the Reactor 4 SFP?"
or "The fuel assemblies still keeping the shape?"
TEPCO's videos of the Reactor 4 SFP (here
and
here, for example) means nothing to them and many others,
though they seem to believe the worker. For
the possible locations of the new fuel bundles in the Reactor
4 SFP, see
my 4/25/2012 post (look for the darkest colored assemblies). 2012-05-28Tokyo
Reporter: Unit 4 like a “battlefield after being bombed”
— Questions Tepco’s promise that it will be OK during
big quake, ENENews.com 2012-05-28Iodine-131
in Japanese Sludge from Gunma Prefecture, majiasblog.blogspot.com,
Monday, May 28, 2012 Iodine-131
in Japanese Sludge from Gunma Prefecture Bobby1,
whose highly reliable work I've cited before, has produced a
graph representing rising Iodine-131 detections in the sewage
sludge from Gunma Prefecture http://optimalprediction.com/wp/ The
data for his graph comes from this Gunma Prefecture site: http://www.pref.gunma.jp/05/h6600049.html Readers
may also find Bobby's discussion of radiation in the Jet Stream
in the spring/summer of 2011 to be very interesting http://optimalprediction.com/wp/radioactivity-in-the-jet-stream/ 2012-05-28On
spent fuel pool 4 and the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster,
majiasblog.blogspot.com, Monday, May 28, 2012 On
spent fuel pool 4 and the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Tepco
has gone all out to demonstrate to the global public that spent
fuel pool #4 is intact. I think the best photos can be found
here: http://cryptome.org/2012-info/daiichi-12-0526/daiichi-12-0526.htm Many
observers had believed spent fuel pool 4 was indeed intact (e.g.,
Sickputer & Joy) because the incineration of the pool would
have been undeniably visible in the form of skyrocketing radiation
readings in Tokyo and huge plumes of black smoke visible in
the Tepco webcam. I
admit to have been uncertain about the status of the #4 pool
for several reasons. http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/too-late-let-us-demand-full-disclosure.html First,
the early reports indicated that there was a fire in unit 4
spent fuel pool. This is documented in NRC minutes discussing
zirconium fires in spent fuel pool 4 and early media reports
(see my posts here for source citations (http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/status-for-spent-fuel-pool-4-imminent.html
and http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/time-to-wake-up.html) More
importantly, there have been (intermittently) considerable amounts
of steam/smoke arising from the area between units 3 and 4 visible
on the Tepco webcam. I
have many screen shots of these eruptions of steam and smoke.
Quite a few videos documenting these releases are available
at You tube (see some sample links at bottom of post). Now
that Tepco has released enough photos to convince me that spent
fuel pool 4 is still there, I really wonder about the source
of the very large steam /smoke releases that have been visible
on the Tepco webcam. It
is possible that the #3 fuel pool or reactor (or both) may be
the source of these releases. In
its recent photo debut of spent fuel pool 4, Tepco neglected
to show us any photos of the inside of unit 3, which has the
largest explosion. We did not even get any close-ups of the
outside of the unit 3 building in Tepco’s most recent
photo releases. The
mainstream media have been exceedingly quiet about this reactor,
which was using Mox fuel. So,
perhaps unit 3 is the source. [For
background data on 3 please see this post http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/post-3-unanswered-questions-and-some.html
] An
observer named Tacomagroove has argued that the real danger
is unit 1, which suffered a melt-through of the reactor containment.
She contends that the melted corium is in “china syndrome”
mode. Joy,
has suggested that the corium could be moving toward the ocean
and Tacomagroove supports this thesis by noting that Tepco is
building a wall between areas of the plant and the ocean. I’ve
seen taped segments of the Fukushima webcam by Nuckechen and
others that depict vast amounts of emissions coming from the
top, right hand corner of the unit 1 building (as seen from
the Tepco webcam). Unit
1 is clearly the source of some emissions, but I don’t
think it explains the steam/smoke that erupts between buildings
3 and 4. I
wish I knew. I
suppose that the bigger issue is that the plant is still emitting
“trillions of becquerels” each day and the fall
out continues unabated (see Gunderson excerpt end of this post). I
worry that Tepco will use its latest photos of unit 4 to further
promote its absurd claims that the plant is in “cold shutdown.” I
guess the most important questions are how to stop the emissions
and what are the implications of 15-plus months of continuous
emissions? Dr.
Chris Busby reported on the Russian television network RT on
August 17 2011 that air filters from Tokyo showed levels of
Cesium-137 one thousand times higher than the levels of that
radionuclide found in the air at the peak of atmospheric atomic
weapons testing in 1963 (see references for link). He
said that almost a year ago. Fallout
has continued to bio-accumulate, shaped only by the vagaries
of uncontained contained melted fuel rods, wind, precipitation
and other atmospheric variables.
Iodine-131 levels, indicative of fission, have been rising in
Japan’s Gunma prefecture (see sources in references) How
long can that continue before people become demonstrably sickened? How
long will the fantasy of ‘cold-shutdown’ be perpetuated,
punctuated only by the occasional warning of the collapse of
a spent fuel pool. These punctuated moments of crisis will simply
be handled with more strategically designed press debuts and
the world will go back to sleep. ADDITIONAL
REFERENCES Dr.
Christopher Busby interviewed by Russia Today (RT) and uploaded
to YouTube “Christopher Busby: Chernobyl-like radiation
found in Tokyo,” [RussiaToday] YouTube (uploaded 2011,
August 17): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNzDg4O9dkw. Helen
Caldicott Interview with Arnie Gunderson: If You Love This Planet
Radio May 8, 2012 EXCERPT:
I would say there are billions, actually trillions, of becquerels
per day being released airborne, mainly from Units 2 and 3. Actually
on cold nights you can still the steam coming off those reactors,
its not just steam its radioactive steam. Something
on the order of trillions of becquerels per day… trillions
of disintegrations per second per day are being released even
now. Dr.
Helen Caldicott: So what you’re really saying Arnie Gundersen
is that the ocean will continue to be contaminated, kind of
for the rest of time. Because there’s no foreseeable way
to prevent water leaking out of containment vessels continuously
into the ocean… We’re talking about continual contamination
of the Pacific Ocean. Arnie
Gundersen: You’re right. http://www.radio4all.net/files/jazzwilliams@gmail.com/3400-1-184IYLTP_20120508.mp3 ON
RISING IODINE 131 Bobby1,
whose highly reliable work I've cited before, has produced a
graph representing rising Iodine-131 detections in the sewage
sludge from Gunma Prefecture http://optimalprediction.com/wp/ The
data for his graph comes from this Gunma Prefecture site: http://www.pref.gunma.jp/05/h6600049.html SAMPLE
YOUTUBE VIDEOS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTJRZ8CNDB4&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06sTU4k0Auk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-EDceWFovc http://news.lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/2011/06/tepco-and-tbs-cam-show-vapor-geyesers.html
For
2012: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/fukushima-videos-by-nuckelchen.html For
2012: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/fire-captured-on-fukushima-web-cam.html 2012-05-28Asahi:
High radiation levels at reactors preventing Tepco from even
preparing for start of decommissioning work — ‘Many
uncertainties could easily derail timetable’,
enenews.com Rubble
hinders decommissioning work at Fukushima No. 4 reactor,
AJW by The Asahi, Shimbun, May 28, 2012 "[...] A
crane and other equipment needed to move the fuel rods will
be installed [at Unit 4] in autumn 2013 so that technicians
can start the retrieval process. But
there are many uncertainties that could easily derail TEPCO’s
timetable, experts say. Rubble The
plan could be delayed because clearing the structure could take
more time than expected because concrete blocks and pieces of
steel frame are scattered all around in and out of the No. 4
reactor pool. Common
Pool Full TEPCO
also needs to secure a facility to store fuel rods from the
pool, as a common nearby pool has space for only 465 fuel rods
remaining. Leakage The
No. 1 through No. 3 reactors are being cooled by makeshift cooling
systems, resulting in the leakage of a large amount of highly
contaminated water at the plant. High
levels of radiation in the drainage are preventing the utility
from preparing for the start of decommissioning work. Quake
and Tsunami Risk TEPCO
will also have to proceed with decommissioning amid concerns
for possible powerful aftershocks and tsunami. It
said that the reactors will be cooled with emergency cooling
pumps even if the existing cooling systems are knocked out in
such an event. If
a tsunami strikes the plant when the decommissioning work is
under way, the makeshift cooling systems could be destroyed
and contaminated water could leak into the sea. 2012-05-28Tokyo
Reporter: Unit 4 like a “battlefield after being bombed”
— Questions Tepco’s promise that it will be OK during
big quake, Published: May 28th, 2012 at 3:53 am
ET, By ENENews Subscription
Only: Rubble
hinders decommissioning work at Fukushima No. 4 reactor
AJW by The Asahi Shimbun, May 28, 2012
Mountains
of rubble stand in the way of decommissioning the No. 4 reactor
of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, part of an unprecedented
challenge facing Japan to decommission four crippled reactors. [...] A
reporter from the Tokyo Shimbun described the scene on the
fourth floor as looking like that of a “battlefield
after being bombed.” [...] “Pipes
were severely bent,” the reporter said. “Steel
frames were also twisted and rusted. It was hard for me to
believe such a thick wall was blown off over a wide area.” [...] The
reporter said he was not entirely reassured by the utility’s
promise that the structure will be sturdy enough to remain
unscathed in another big quake despite no major, visible damage
to the wall near the pool. “TEPCO
said that the pool can withstand a temblor equivalent to the
quake last year, but I was not convinced of that,” the
reporter said. [...]
[...] In
testimony to a panel investigating the government’s
handling of the nuclear disaster, the former prime minister,
Naoto Kan, also warned that the politically powerful nuclear
industry was trying to push Japan back toward nuclear power
despite “showing no remorse” for the accident. Mr.
Kan’s was the most closely watched testimony in the
six-month-old inquiry, which was started by lawmakers who
felt an earlier internal investigation by the government had
papered over problems. [...] he
disclosed that in the early days of the crisis he feared it
could spiral out of control, even as his own ministers were
giving public reassurances that they had the plant under control. He
said he feared additional meltdowns could “release into
the air and sea many times, no, many dozens of times, many
hundreds of times the radiation released by Chernobyl.” [...]
2012-05-28Yomiuri
Reporter: Fuel rods were not visible when looking under sheet
covering Unit 4 pool, Published: May 28th, 2012
at 1:59 am ET, By ENENews N-fuel
pool, ruined structure seen up close, The Daily Yomiuri,
May 28, 2012 Goshi
Hosono, the nuclear disaster management minister, spent half
an hour Saturday inside the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant’s
No. 4 reactor building [...] Hosono
was accompanied by four representatives of the news media. [...] On
the fifth floor, the group inspected the surface of the pool,
in which 1,535 rods are stored–equivalent to the number
necessary for three reactors. The rods are kept seven meters
below the surface. Due to poor transparency and no lighting
in the water, the rods were not visible when a sheet covering
the pool was removed. In
addition to the four members of the press accompanying Hosono,
a Yomiuri Shimbun reporter and other journalists were allowed
to look at the building from much closer than before. [...] Related
Posts [At ENENews.com]
2012-05-28TEPCO
to remove unused fuel from No. 4 reactor, 3.nhk.or.jp The
operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has
decided to remove 2 unused fuel rods from a storage pool at
the No. 4 reactor to look for damage. This
is in preparation for the removal of a large number of the 1,535
used and unused fuel rods stored in the pool, which could pose
a threat in the event of another earthquake. Tokyo
Electric Power Company intends to remove the 2 fuel rods from
the pool in July. Removal of unused fuel is not as dangerous
as taking out used fuel. If
successful, TEPCO plans to start to remove the remainder of
the fuel next year. The
No. 4 reactor did not experience a meltdown when the massive
quake and tsunami hit last year because it was off line. But
areas near the pool were heavily damaged when hydrogen from
No. 3 reactor entered No. 4 reactor and exploded. Additional
reinforcement work is being carried out inside the reactor because
of continuing concerns about the strength of the pool. On
Saturday, TEPCO allowed media representatives to visit the inside
of the No.4 reactor building for the first time. 2012-05-28Asahi:
High radiation levels at reactors preventing Tepco from even
preparing for start of decommissioning work — ‘Many
uncertainties could easily derail timetable’,
ENENews.com 2012-05-28Japan’s
ex-Prime Minister Testifies: I feared radioactive releases many
hundreds of times Chernobyl, ENENews.com 2012-05-28Yomiuri
Reporter: Fuel rods were not visible when looking under sheet
covering Unit 4 pool, ENENews.com 2012-05-28Tepco
to remove fresh fuel from No. 4 pool this summer — “Hoping
to determine how damaged unused assemblies are”,
ENENews.com 2012-05-28Tokyo
Shimbun Reporter: “The water looked too stagnant to see
the fuel rods seven meters beneath”, ENENews.com 2012-05-28 Tokyo
Professor: I couldn’t help feeling pity for the tree —
X-ray-like image shows spread of radioactivity — “Equivalent
of miscarriage, stillbirth, malformation” (PHOTO),
ENENews.com 2012-05-28NYTimes:
Fukushima Daiichi pushed Japan to brink of evacuating metropolitan
Tokyo’s 30 million residents and national collapse, says
former Prime Minister, ENENews.com 2012-05-28 On
spent fuel pool 4 and the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster,
majiasblog.blogspot.com Tepco
has gone all out to demonstrate to the global public that spent
fuel pool #4 is intact. I think the best photos can be found
here: http://cryptome.org/2012-info/daiichi-12-0526/daiichi-12-0526.htm Many
observers had believed spent fuel pool 4 was indeed intact (e.g.,
Sickputer & Joy) because the incineration of the pool would
have been undeniably visible in the form of skyrocketing radiation
readings in Tokyo and huge plumes of black smoke visible in
the Tepco webcam. I
admit to have been uncertain about the status of the #4 pool
for several reasons. http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/too-late-let-us-demand-full-disclosure.html First,
the early reports indicated directly that there was a fire in
unit 4 spent fuel pool. This is documented in NRC minutes discussing
zirconium fires in spent fuel pool 4 and early media reports
(see my posts here for source citations (http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/status-for-spent-fuel-pool-4-imminent.html
and http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/time-to-wake-up.html) More
importantly, there have been (intermittently) considerable amounts
of steam/smoke arising from the area between units 3 and 4 visible
on the Tepco webcam. I
have many screen shots of these eruptions of steam and smoke.
Quite a few videos documenting these releases are available
at You tube (see some sample links at bottom of post). Now
that Tepco has released enough photos to convince me that spent
fuel pool 4 is still there, I really wonder about the source
of the very large steam /smoke releases that have been visible
on the Tepco webcam. It
is possible that the #3 fuel pool or reactor (or both) may be
the source of these releases. In
its recent photo debut of spent fuel pool 4, Tepco neglected
to show us any photos of the insider of unit 3, which has the
largest explosion. We did not even get any close-ups of the
outside of the unit 3 building in Tepco’s most recent
photo releases. The
mainstream media have been exceedingly quiet about this reactor,
which was using Mox fuel. So,
perhaps unit 3 is the source. [For
background data on 3 please see this post http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/post-3-unanswered-questions-and-some.html] An
observer named Tacomagroove has argued that the real danger
is unit 1, which suffered a melt-through of the reactor containment.
She contends that the melted corium is in “china syndrome”
mode. Joy,
has suggested that the corium could be moving toward the ocean
and Tacomagroove supports this thesis by noting that Tepco is
building a wall between areas of the plant and the ocean. I’ve
seen taped segments of the Fukushima webcam by Nuckechen and
others that depict vast amounts of emissions coming from the
top, right hand corner of the unit 1 building (as seen from
the Tepco webcam). Unit
1 is clearly the source of some emissions, but I don’t
think it explains the steam/smoke that erupts between buildings
3 and 4. I
wish I knew. I
suppose that the bigger issue is that the plant is still emitting
“trillions of becquerels” each day and the fall
out continues unabated (see Gunderson excerpt end of this post). I
worry that Tepco will use its latest photos of unit 4 to further
promote its absurd claims that the plant is in “cold shutdown.” I
guess the most important questions are how to stop the emissions
and what are the implications of 15-plus months of continuous
emissions? Dr.
Chris Busby reported on the Russian television network RT on
August 17 2011 that air filters from Tokyo showed levels of
Cesium-137 one thousand times higher than the levels of that
radionuclide found in the air at the peak of atmospheric atomic
weapons testing in 1963 (see references for link). He
said that almost a year ago. Fallout
has continued to bio-accumulate, shaped only by the vagaries
of uncontained contained melted fuel rods, wind, precipitation
and other atmospheric variables.
Iodine-131 levels, indicative of fission, have been rising in
Japan’s Gunma prefecture (see sources in references) How
long can that continue before people become demonstrably sickened? How
long will the fantasy of ‘cold-shutdown’ be perpetuated,
punctuated only by the occasional warning of the collapse of
a spent fuel pool. These punctuated moments of crisis will simply
be handled with more strategically designed press debuts and
the world will go back to sleep.
2012-05-29Mainichi:
"Ex-PM Kan apologizes for not preventing Fukushima disaster",
majiasblog.blogspot.com, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120529p2a00m0na021000c.html MAJIA
HERE: It is hard to understand the subtexts of this important
story as an outsider. I've excerpted a few passages I read as
important: [excerpted
] In reference to the government's crisis management system
against a nuclear accident, Kan said, "The Act on Special
Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness was not responsive
to a severe accident. The (government's) assumption of (nuclear)
accidents was insufficient." . . . .
. .With regards to criticism that Kan overstepped his bounds
as prime minister by meddling in the response to the nuclear
disaster in detail, to the extent some described it as "excessive
intervention," the former premier sought understanding
for having taken such supra-legal responses as setting up a
joint task force of the government and Tokyo Electric Power
Co. (TEPCO) -- the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1
Nuclear Power Plant -- in responding to the disaster. "The
Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness
presupposes that an earthquake and a nuclear accident would
take place separately. Because of such an extremely insufficient
assumption, I had no choice but to meddle in and do various
things. I don't think that's the way a prime minister should
act," Kan told the NAIIC. [end
excerpt] Again,
I don't know what to make of this story but find it very strange
that Kan is being criticized for getting involved in the management
of the accident given its scale and and given that he was PM. The
internal politics implicit, but not clear to me, must be poisonous. 2012-05-29Reuters:
Cesium remains dispersed throughout water column “from
the surface to the ocean floor”, ENENews.com
2012-05-29Gov’t
Report: Urgent that effects of radiation on human health be
reduced — Experts need to investigate residents with ‘negative
health effects’ — ‘Fallout is worrying people
not only in Japan but also around the world’,
ENENews.com 2012-05-29Author
on Japan TV: It’s almost as if Tepco officials are aliens
from another planet (VIDEO), ENENews.com 2012-05-2930-minute
Broadcast on Fukushima: “If anything happens, this is
not just about the end of Japan, probably start of the end of
the world” (VIDEO), ENENews.com 2012-05-29Japan
TV: We have discovered a new hidden danger at Reactor 4 —
There’s another way fuel rods can be damaged
(VIDEO), ENENews.com 2012-05-29Latest
Update on Japan's Proposal to Re-Start Re-Processing of Nuclear
Fuel, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Tuesday, May
29, 2012 Latest
Update on Japan's Proposal to Re-Start Re-Processing of Nuclear
Fuel I
posted recently about criticism of the secret meeting that was
held to recommend re-starting processing of nuclear fuel in
Japan. The
first story I covered was this one: Asahi:
Panel backs nuclear fuel reprocessing after talks with industry
officials May 24 2012 http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201205240100 http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/reprocessing-nuclear-fuel-to-continue.html I
then examined an editorial in the Mainichi criticizing the closed
and secret nature of the committee meeting that made the recommendation: Mainichi:
Yoroku: Dismantling the 'black boxes' of Japanese nuclear power
(sorry cannot find link now, but covered at my blog) http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/more-on-japans-proposal-to-re-start-re.html Now
the plot thickens: Mainichi:
Atomic Energy panel members call for independent probe into
secret meetings http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120529p2a00m0na010000c.html [excerpt]
"Some members of a Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC)
panel working out new nuclear energy policy have called for
a third-party probe into revelations that business operators
in favor of the nuclear fuel cycle project were invited to secret
meetings before an assessment was altered to help promote the
project... ...It
has come to light that a report on a review of the nuclear fuel
cycle project drafted by a JAEC subcommittee on the issue was
presented at secret "study" meetings attended by only
members in favor of the project, and that its comprehensive
evaluation was altered to favor the project in response to utilities'
requests. The
altered draft was subsequently submitted to the subcommittee,
which approved the draft and reported it to the panel on a new
nuclear energy policy... Ban,
Keio University professor Masaru Kaneko and lawyer Mie Asaoka,
who heads the Kiko (Climate) Network, then demanded that the
scandal be investigated by a third-party organization. Asaoka
even demanded that JAEC be drastically restructured. "Instead
of discussing new atomic energy policy at JAEC, the organization
and its members should be renewed and something like a 'National
Congress on Atomic Energy' should be set up." MAJIA
HERE: The committee that approved the re-processing of fuel
to make Mox consisted of 3 university professors who had received
industry donations ranging from 4 million yen to 8 million yen.
These professors were from Univ of Tokyo, Osaka University,
and Kyoto University. Additionally,
9 of the employees who "staff the panel secretariat"
were "on loan" from nuclear power suppliers and nuclear
energy related companies. Why
did Japan hold a secret meeting stacked with paid professors
and industry insiders to ensure the re-start of Mox production? Why
does Japan need to make more Mox? Obviously,
there is an agenda here that should be public. 2012-05-30Thermometers
of reactor 2 indicate abnormal transition of temperature,
posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 30th, 2012 Following
up this article..Possible
recriticality in reactor2 From
the evening of 5/28/2012 (JST), 4 thermometers of reactor 2
have been showing abnormal temperature transition. Tepco
states recriticality is not going on, and the transition is
random, probably those thermometers are out of order again. However,
2 of them are about supply air D/W (O.P. (Onahama peil)= 12.150m),
2 are about return air drywell (O.P. = 10.750m) and the thermometers
of each pair show the same trend. 2012-05-30Possible
recriticality in reactor2, posted by Mochizuki,
fukushima-diary.com, on May 30th, 2012 Weekly
Asahi reported they obtained the email leaked from Tepco. It
was sent from a staff of engineering devision to his coworker
and a nuclear expert. It
warned the possibility of recriticality of reactor2. “From
looking at the water level (60cm), it is obvious that the PCV
and suppression chamber are severely damaged. It
is very likely that a new heating mass is generated from recriticality.
We can not tell exactly what is happening inside of PCV. We
can never deny the possibility of recriticality.” 2012-05-30Fukushima
worker hunting from overseas, Posted by Mochizuki
on May 30th, fukushima-diary.com 2012 Tepco
related companies are starting to hunt Fukushima workers from
overseas. The
conditions look like typical false information for nuclear working
job. The
newspaper below is for Japanese Brazilian. 1)
30,000JPY/day 2 hours/day within 20km area. 2)
10,000 ~ 12,000 JPY / day house and 3 meals provided. within
a “safe” place, off on Sundays. 2012-05-30Shukan
Asahi: Fukushima Daini also had major damage from 3/11 —
Submerged under 4 meters of water, ENENews.com 2012-05-30Ex-Toshiba
Nuclear Engineer: How much did fire and high temperatures at
Unit 4 affect building’s stability? — Tepco has
never released confirmable data (VIDEO), ENENews.com 2012-05-30WSJ:
Cash-Rich Japanese Firms Go On Global Buying Spree,
majiasblog.blogspot.com, Wednesday, May 30, 2012 WSJ:
Cash-Rich Japanese Firms Go On Global Buying Spree Wall
Street Journal May 30, 2012, p. A1. "....Japanese
companies are in the midst of the biggest boom in overseas investment
the country has ever seen." The
article notes that a Japanese trading house, Maurbeni Corp.
is purchasing U.S. grain handler Gavillion Group LLC for around
$5.6 billion. Japanese
tobacco is purchasing Belgian tobacco maker Gryson for $600
million Japan's
Takeda pharmaceutical is acquiring a Brazilian drug maker. The
Wall Street Journal attributes this buying spree to "fear,
as a shrinking home market and stagnant economy threaten earnings." I
happen to think that it is not simply fear of domestic economic
conditions that is driving this spree. Much
of northern Japan is extensively contaminated by Fukushima. There
are areas of Japan that are not contaminated, but northern Japan
possesses rich agriculture. Fukushima may pose a problem for
domestic food production. Furthermore,
Japan's practice of incinerating radioactive debris is spreading
fallout. Recall
that Gorbachev attributed the collapse of the Soviet Union to
Chernobyl? The
worry I would have if I was Japanese is that the wealth and
power will pull out of the country leaving the rest of the population
to address contamination areas that far exceed the exclusion
zone conditions in the Ukraine after Chernobyl. Chernobyl’s
Evacuation Zone was 5 millisieverts a year. Japan has set their
evacuation zone at an incredibly high 20 millisieverts per year
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110610a6.html Japan
Times reported in June that Greenpeace measured 9 microsieverts
per hour in many public spaces in Fukushima with a high of 45
microsieverts an hour near a school yard http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110610a6.html "Whole
body doses received from external radiation from the Ukrainian
part of the 30-km exclusion zone showed an average value of
15 millisieverts.” (source OECD, 1995) http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Radiation/radsafe.html 2012-05-30Japan
TV: We’ve managed to obtain ‘revealing, eye-opening
testimonies’ from Fukushima workers — Concern over
Unit 4 is spreading — First thing I do after quake is
check reactor building (VIDEO), ENENews.com 2012-05-30Tepco
Email: Possible re-criticality in Reactor No. 2, ENENews.com,
ENENews.com 2012-05-30Cyanobacteria
and alpha radiation detected 350km from Fukushima Daiichi
(VIDEOS), ENENews.com 2012-05-31Japanese
Panel Questions Kan and Edano But No New Info on Tepco's Plan
to Evacuate Plant Altogether in March of 2011,
majiasblog.blogspot.com, Thursday, May 31, 2012
The Mainichi: Editorial: Diet panel's questioning on gov't response
to nuclear accident lacked focus http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20120529p2a00m0na009000c.html [Excerpt]
"A special investigative panel on the disaster at the tsunami-hit
Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant set up in the Diet has questioned
Naoto Kan and Yukio Edano, who were prime minister and chief
Cabinet secretary, respectively, when the crisis broke out.... ...None
of the investigative panels has got to the bottom of allegations
that TEPCO had planned to withdraw all workers from the Fukushima
No. 1 plant immediately after the accident even though 14 months
have passed since the outbreak of the crisis...." 2012-05-31Cesium
fallout spikes every 40 days posted by Mochizuki,
fukushima-diary.com, on May 31st, 2012 Cesium
concentration and fallout in Fukushima go higher than average
every 40 days regardless of the wind direction. Prof.
Watanabe from Fukushima university analyzed the data to publish
at Meteorological society of Japan on 5/29/2012. The
data is about cesium fallout from March 2011 to April 2012,
detected at environmental radioactivity monitoring center of
Japan. The
trend has been very clear especially since January of 2012. In
the daily conference of 5/31/2012, Tepco stated they are not
going to corporate with the researcher to figure out the mechanism. [See
also follow up article Radioactive
particles circulate the world taking 40 days Posted
by Mochizuki on June 2nd, 2012, which states:
Following
up this article..Cesium
fallout spikes every 40 days NHK
reported the full study of Prof. Watanabe, which Yomiuri newspaper
missed.
The researching group of Prof. Watanabe assumes the radioactive
particles circulate the world taking 40 days. They
measured 0.0048 Bq/m3 of cesium in May 2011, but it was 0.0007
Bq/m3 this March. The
radioactive particles travel around the world and fall off
to the ground to decrease its concentration. Prof.
Watanabe comments, they can trace how radioactive particles
spread over the world and how to affect each country on its
path.]
2012-05-31Osaka
Mayor Changes Mind and Now Supports "Limited" Re-Start,
majiasblog.blogspot.com Osaka
Mayor Changes Mind and Now Supports "Limited" Re-Start Hashimoto
reverses stance; OKs limited restart of Oi reactors http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/hashimoto-reverses-stance-oks-limited-restart-of-oi-reactors
Jun. 01, 2012 - 11:30AM JST ( 49 ) [excerpted]
"Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto on Thursday reversed his stance
on opposing the restart of two reactors at the Oi nuclear power
plant in Fukui Prefecture, saying he now thinks a “limited”
restart may be necessary to avert a summer power shortage. Hashimoto’s
turnabout came as a surprise as he has long been outspoken in
his opposition to the restart of the Oi reactors operated by
Kansai Electric Power Co. . . ." Majia
here: I wonder what made him change his mind?
2012-05-31 Tokyo
Professor: We are facing a nuclear winter in Japan,
ENENews.com 2012-05-31Minamisoma
official discusses black smoke when Reactor No. 3 exploded,
ENENews.com 2012-05-31Former
head of Japan’s #1 newspaper worked with CIA to promote
nuclear power, ENENews.com 2012-05-31Hmmm....
Radiation Refugee?, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Thursday,
May 31, 2012 Princess
Mako to study at British university. NHK http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120601_16.html [excerpt]
"Princess Mako, the eldest daughter of Prince and Princess
Akishino, will study fine arts at a British university starting
in September. The
Princess is in her junior year at International Christian University,
or ICU, in Tokyo. She is a member of the university's ski team." MAJIA
HERE: She is leaving her junior year. She is a student athlete,
a skier, and she is going to Britain. Very strange. Hmmm. 2012-05-31A
Good Editorial at Kyodo, majiasblog.blogspot.com,
Thursday, May 31, 2012 OPINION:
Japan must seize chance to reflect on energy, reform power system,
By Tetsuji Ida TOKYO, May 16, Kyodo [Final
2 sentences of editorial]: "Unbundling
or the separation of power generation and transmission as well
as other organizational reforms are prerequisites for supplying
energy safely while minimizing the impact on the environment. What
is important at this moment is to demonstrate a political will
to eliminate resistance from vested interests and hammer out
such reforms." Well
said. 2012-05-31CNN:
Japanese say gov’t “will simply flat out lie”
about Fukushima — Adviser to Prime Minister Kan: People
can not trust gov’t (VIDEO), ENENews.com 2012-05-31Marine
Chemist: ‘The reactors are still leaking’ —
‘Why aren’t the fish getting cleaner?’,
ENENews.com 2012-05-31 Stanford
Publication: Were TV experts paid to say Fukushima Daiichi had
a small leak when it was the largest in the world?,
ENENews.com 2012-05-31Japanese
Professor: Where did all that plutonium contaminated water disappear
to? Into the Pacific Ocean or the ground, of course —
Who can comprehend the magnitude of radioactive contamination
that threatens never to end?, ENENews.com 2012-05-31Japan
Times: Lead investigator says Tepco internal documents may be
seized, ENENews.com 2012-05-31Back
ground:Incineration of Radioactive and Mixed Waste,
posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 31st, 2012,
[Editor's Note, this links to "Incineration
of Radioactive and Mixed Waste" by the Institute
for Energy and Environmental Research, which provides good background
information to help us better understand the hazards the Japanese
government is taking by sending radioactive waste to all parts
of the country to be incinerated] 2012-05-31Fukushima
city rents dosimeter to pregnant women (for 1 week),
posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 31st, 2012 Having
found numbers of hot spot, Fukushima city is going to rent dosimeter
to pregnant women to reassure. It’s
starting on 6/1/2012, the lending-period is one week . They
distributed glass badges last year, but it didn’t represent
the dose in real time. They
reinvented the dosimeter. The new model with digital display
lets them know the total external dose in real time. Fukushima
city has no plan to let pregnant women evacuate yet. 2012-05-31Former
president of Tepco, Shimizu got the golden parachute
posted by Mochizuki on May 31st, 2012, fukushima-diary.com Shimizu,
former president of Tepco is going to be an outside director
of Fuji Oil company, ltd to belong to Arabian Oil Company holdings
on 6/25/2012. The
largest shareholder of Arabian Oil Company holding is Tepco
(8.7%)... 2012-06-01Water
contamination reached west Kanagawa, posted by
Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on June 1st, 2012 100
Bq/Kg of cesium was measured from largemouth bass on 5/26/2012.
The bass was taken from Ashinoko lake (300km from Fukushima
plant) in west Kanagawa. Kanagawa prefectural government assumes
it was because of biological concentration. There
is Sagamiko lake at 40 km north east to Ashinoko lake. This
is the headwater area of Yokohama and Kawasaki. Because it is
closer to Fukushima, tap water of Yokohama and Kawasaki is likely
to be contaminated as well. 2012-06-01It
Ain't Fog! Tepco Emissions Massive Today, majiasblog.blogspot.com,
Friday, June 1, 2012 At
9:00 a.m. this morning I opened a web-browser to the Tepco cam
trained on the Fukushima plant. I
look at the plant every morning and take screen shots of emissions. This
morning I noticed barely visible emissions could be detected
streaming out of the right hand corner of unit 1, the top of
unit 2, and from the vicinity of unit 3. My
first screen shot had the Tepco webcam time stamp of 6:2 1:53
(Japan is 1 day ahead of the US) Emissions
can barely be seen in this screen shot, but they are visible. By
2:28 the emissions were visibly accumulating on the screen.
The emissions appeared to be moving from the left of the screen
to the right. By
2:54 the emissions were thick over units 1 and 2 (but immediately
over units and did not extend up into the sky extensively) and
in the vicinity of unit 3. By
3:14 the plant was being obscured by the emissions. At
3:32 dawn begin to break and the emissions resembled a blotchy
dark cloud visible against the dark blue sky. Plant was largely
obscured, but outline visible behind emission cloud. At
3:47 daylight breaks and emission cloud that is still largely
obscuring plant appears as a dirty, brownish mauve. At
3:58 plant completely obscured by bluish-brownish cloud. At
5:53 plant emerges, but is still encased in gray-brown emissions.
Blue sky visible in the upper, right hand corner of screen. At
6:36 plant finally visible again. Emissions from units 1 and
2 are no longer visible but it is still possible to see emissions
coming up from area of unit 3 in terms of pulses of distortions. I
have screen shots for each of these observations The
webcam link is here: http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/f1-np/camera/index-j.html I
cannot post my screen shots here but a video is available, courtesy
of Nuckelchen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S9xFzkeF8A&feature=youtu.be 2012-06-01Japanese
Nuclear Expert: ‘When I try to figure out the true magnitude
of damage, I am overwhelmed’ — Almost all of Fukushima
Prefecture would be abandoned if gov’t regulations were
applied (VIDEOS) , ENENews.com June 1st, 2012 2012-06-01‘Even
if the Japanese gov’t goes into bankruptcy, it still won’t
be enough to compensate all the damages that will be produced’
from Fukushima Daiichi, ENENews.com, 2012-06-01New
photos show what remains of No. 4 reactor building’s eastern
wall, ENENews.com, June 1st, 2012 2012-06-01Report:
We’ve started to see the black substance in Soma City
— Please be careful! — Very high radiation levels,
ENENews.com, June 1st, 2012 2012-06-01Japan’s
Nuclear Industry: The CIA Link, by Eleanor Warnock,
blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime. In
the 15 months since the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan’s
relationship with nuclear power has changed dramatically. Once
the world’s third-largest producer of nuclear energy,
the country faces the prospect of electricity shortages this
summer as all 50 of its plants remain offline. Restarting reactors
— a step the government says is necessary to support the
economy — is proving to be politically tricky as a skeptical
public questions the safety of atomic energy. Rewind
almost 60 years and the government had a similar problem: how
to persuade the public to support its ambition to become a nuclear
nation only nine years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki? According
to one Japanese university professor, that ambition was achieved
with help from an unlikely source: the CIA. Tetsuo
Arima, a researcher at Waseda University in Tokyo, told JRT
he discovered in the U.S. National Archives a trove of declassified
CIA files that showed how one man, Matsutaro Shoriki, was instrumental
in jumpstarting Japan’s nascent nuclear industry. Mr.
Shoriki was many things: a Class A war criminal, the head of
the Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan’s biggest-selling and most
influential newspaper) and the founder of both the country’s
first commercial broadcaster and the Tokyo Giants baseball team.
Less well known, according to Mr. Arima, was that the media
mogul worked with the CIA to promote nuclear power. In
1954, Japan saw widespread anti-U.S. and anti-nuclear demonstrations
after Japanese fishermen were exposed to radiation due to the
U.S.’s testing of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll. Mr.
Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles
in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power, according
to the documents found by Mr. Arima. Keen on remilitarizing
Japan, Mr. Shoriki endorsed nuclear power in hopes its development
would one day arm the country with the ability to make its own
nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Arima. Mr. Shoriki’s
behind-the-scenes push created a chain reaction in other media
that eventually changed public opinion. “Shoriki
wasn’t alone in what he did. He just had the power and
the influence to bring together the U.S., the Japanese business
community and politicians, and he was a smooth talker,”
Mr. Arima, who went on to write two books about his findings,
said in an interview with JRT... (h/t
Former
head of Japan’s #1 newspaper worked with CIA to promote
nuclear power, by ENENews,published:
May 31st, 2012 at 10:11 pm ET
The
Stanford researchers think the fish were in the Japanese water
about a month after the accident started. Daniel Madigan, who
led the study, said they were surprised to find cesium at all,
and that it was found in all samples they collected and tested. Wall
Street Journal says the added radioactivity is about 3% of the
naturally occurring radioactivity in the fish, and Reuters converts
becquerels into curie to put things in perspective saying "It
takes 37 billion becquerels to equal 1 curie". Well,
at least the Japanese media, MSM or alternative, has gotten
comfortable over the last year quoting the measured numbers
instead of trying to put them in perspective without mentioning
the numbers. From
Wall
Street Journal (5/28/2012; emphasis is mine):
Tuna
Carried Fukushima Radioactivity to U.S. Coast by
Robert Lee Hotz Pacific
bluefin tuna migrating last year from coastal Japan to the
waters off Southern California contained radioactive cesium
isotopes from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, scientists reported
Monday. The
amount of radioactivity in the fish was one-tenth the level
the U.S. and Japan consider dangerous, and likely posed no
public health hazard or risk to people who ate the seafood,
the scientists said. But the study showed for the first time
that migrating sea life rapidly brought traces of radioactive
elements from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors
across vast distances. "The
tuna packaged it up and brought it across the world's largest
ocean," said marine ecologist Daniel Madigan at Stanford
University, who led the study team. "We were definitely
surprised to see it at all and even more surprised to see
it in every one we measured." Their
findings raise the possibility that other wide-ranging sea-life
that foraged near Japan, such as turtles, sharks and seabirds,
may also have carried low levels of radioactive cesium from
the accident around the Pacific basin. The scientists expect
to conduct more tests on migrating bluefin tuna as well as
albacore tuna, sea turtles, and several shark species this
summer. Their
research was published Monday in The Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. Prized
as a sushi delicacy in Japan and around the world, Pacific
bluefin tuna spawn in the Sea of Japan, among other locales.
As they grow, the fish usually travel around the southern
tip of Japan and follow the Kurishio Current up the country's
east coast, past the scene of the nuclear accident, before
migrating over 6,000 nautical miles to the eastern Pacific.
The fish eventually return to their birth waters to spawn. nIn
their study, Mr. Madigan and his colleagues tested tissue
from 15 young Pacific bluefin tuna caught by recreational
fisherman off the coast of San Diego in August 2011, about
five months after an earthquake and a tsunami severely damaged
the Fukushima reactors, triggering the largest known accidental
release of radioactivity into the ocean. For
weeks after the accident, levels of radioactivity were up
to 10,000 times normal in the coastal waters off eastern Japan,
where the bluefin tuna spend their early life before migrating
across the ocean. In
the young bluefin tuna that reached California, the researchers
found slightly elevated levels of cesium-137 and cesium-134,
two primary products of nuclear fission that tend to concentrate
in muscle tissue. The amount of cesium 137 was five times
as much as the background level, leftover from nuclear weapons
testing decades ago. Prior to the Fukushima accident, cesium-134,
which has a half-life of about two years, was undetectable
in seawater or marine life. Overall,
the levels were just enough to raise the naturally occurring
radioactivity of the fish by about 3%, the scientists said. "We
found that absolutely every one of them had comparable concentrations
of cesium-134 and cesium-137," said marine biologist
Nicholas Fisher at Stony Brook University in New York state,
who was part of the study group. "It is crystal-clear
data." For
comparison, the researchers also tested tissue from yellowfin
tuna caught at the same time last August and tissue preserved
from bluefin tuna caught in 2008, three years before the nuclear
accident. Yellowfin tuna typically spend their entire lives
in the sea off the coast of California. In
both the yellowfin and the tissue of the 2008 bluefin, the
scientists didn't find any cesium-134 and detected only the
expected background levels of cesium-137. Write
to Robert Lee Hotz at sciencejournal@wsj.com
2012-05-29Forbes:
Source says radiation detected in fish oil samples,
ENENews.com
2012-05-29BBC:
Public health hazard from fish arriving in California waters?
May be considerably more contaminated than radioactive tunas
(VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-29 Top
Cancer Doctor: Irresponsible to say cesium in California bluefin
tuna is nothing to worry about — You have radioactive
material in fish, which is being eaten by people (VIDEO),
ENENews.com 2012-05-29ABC
News: Fukushima may show up in your next plate of sushi —
“The finding should be reassuring to the public”,
ENENews.com
2012-05-30TV:
Incredibly, it takes this long for the truth to come out about
radiation in California bluefin — “So people who
have been eating tuna for the last half a year have been eating
cesium?” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-30 Full
California Tuna Study Now Online: Possibility of radioactive
contamination raises public health concerns — Spent less
than a month in waters near Japan — Turtles, sharks, birds
also at risk?, ENENews.com
2012-05-31 Forbes:
Radiation in California bluefin tuna may be a blessing —
Lead Scientist: My first thought was this will do more for conservation
of this animal than nearly anything else could,
ENENews.com 2012-05-31Head
Scientist on NBC: ‘We almost didn’t believe it to
tell you the truth — Every single fish was significantly
contaminated with cesium’ (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-31CNN:
Clearly the radiation has not dissipated — Cesium in seafood
off California ‘raises a lot of alarm bells’
(VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-06-01 California
Nuclear Professor: Radioactive tuna may raise cancer risks (VIDEO)
, ENENEws.com, June 1st, 2012 2012-06-01US
Gov’t Memo: Nuclear fall-out in ocean does NOT gradually
spread out — ‘Streams of higher radioactive materials’,
ENENews.com
2012-06-01Nuclear
Expert: ‘It is not advisable to eat bluefin tuna’
— Fukushima radiation deposited over 600,000 sq. miles
of Pacific — Cesium crosses placental barrier of animals,
ENENews.com
2012-06-01 Fukushima,
Washington Hides Black Swan Of Economic Collapse
Friday, June 01, 2012, Posted by Dominique de Kevelioc
de Bailleul on May 25, 2012 As
the sovereign debt crisis in Europe dominates media coverage
of both financial and main street news, Washington’s deliberate
cover up of a far more serious threat to the global economy
stemming from the continuing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima
nuclear power plant (beginning on Mar. 11, 2011) is now seeping
out more rapidly from sources outside the captured and complicit
mainstream news outlets. “You
can’t stop the truth from leaking out about Fukushima,
and [President] Obama actually came out with a statement at
the start of this disaster and said that their nuclear experts
did not feel that harmful levels of radiation would reach our
shores,” Nuked Radio host Christina
Consolo told TruNews. Due
to increasing reports of nuclear contamination found in pollen
across the U.S. West Coast, babies with elevated becquerel levels
of nearly 10 times normal (presumably from mother’s milk),
and a statistically unusual number of children with flu-like
symptoms who won’t respond to conventional medical protocol,
the truth about Fukushima could easily break out into a national
panic significant enough to trigger an economic collapse of
the U.S. economy and dollar, according to Consolo. That’s
“what we found from Freedom of Information Act requests
. . . transmissions between the U.S. government, the Chinese,
the Russians and the Japanese from the beginning of the disaster
until now, and that includes NRC (National Regulatory Commission)
transcripts of phone calls,” Consolo explained. “They
were well aware of high the levels were, and that they were
coming over here,” she added. “In fact, infants
in California were exposed to 40,000 becquerels (symbol Bq:
the human body has 4,400 Bq, on average, from decaying potassium)
of iodine 131—that causes thyroid cancer—from Mar.
17 to the beginning of April.” And
the threat to U.S. national security as well as the implications
to the global economy a nuclear contamination multiple-times
more devastating than Chernobyl poses to America may have been
the impetus for President Obama’s rapid-fire signing of
the Executive Orders of the National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA) in January and the National Defense Resources Preparedness
Act (NDRPA) in March, possibly suggesting that President Obama’s
motives for these pair of politically catastrophic actions (during
an election year) were, in a sense, mischaracterized as a executive
branch power grab by media instead of an unpredictable dialogue
that could trigger an immediate crisis of panic if the rational
for an obvious abrogation (suspension) of the Constitution were
made public. In
essence, complaints that an Executive Order of the magnitude
of the NDAA going much beyond an old-standing EO exception to
the rights granted the American people by the U.S. Constitution
(only in times of nuclear war can the U.S. Constitution be suspended)
may be surprisingly unreasonable, if, in fact, Fukushima’s
nuclear radiation contaminating U.S. soil was indeed the reason
for such a politically inflammatory act by a sitting U.S. president.
The debate, then, would be: do the American people still have
the right to know if that right would include the likelihood
a dangerous and unpredictable level of panic? “And
there was an actual letter that came from the FDA (Food and
Drug Administration) telling physicians in California not to
put people on potassium iodide (KI),” Consolo continued.
“And the only thing that I can draw from that is they
didn’t want to panic people; they didn’t want them
to know how bad the situation is. But the problem is that the
situation is ongoing. From
the U.S. FDA Web site. The
United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends
that all children internally contaminated with (or likely to
be internally contaminated with) radioactive iodine take KI,
unless they have known allergies to iodine. Children from newborn
to 18 years of age are the most sensitive to the potentially
harmful effects of radioactive iodine. Consolo
also noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suddenly
stopped testing rainwater, soil and milk for contamination two
weeks following the disaster. But private tests conducted after
the EPA stopped its testing, including ones performed by the
University of California at Berkeley, in particular, reported
“in November, that the levels of cesium in cow’s
milk are actually 150 percent higher than they were in April
of last year,” she paraphrased. Consolo
intimated that the EPA stopped testing because its reports would
eventually become available to the public through the inevitable
Freedom of Information requests, giving rise to the speculation
for the stoppage among many others in the nuclear community
as a possible reason for the EPA’s withdrawal and the
progressively worsening data it would need to conceal through
time. “Those
reactors are steaming constantly. . . They’re dumping
nine tons of water on each reactor and spent fuel pool all day
long and that water is going into the ocean.” Consolo
continued. “Our storms are generated out of this huge
radiation slick off the coast of Japan and this all gets rained
out over the West coast of Canada and the United States.” She
goes on to say that rumblings within the nuclear safety community
include strong recommendations for enacting the protocol of
evacuation of Tokyo and other major cities of Japan. With a
total population of approximately 35 million people affected
by an evacuation within the world’s third-largest economy,
the already-highly-fragile global economy would immediately
drop to free fall as currency and bond traders would predictably
sell their holdings at any price to get out of the way of a
total collapse of the financial system. “There
are a lot of people who have left Tokyo and they’ve moved
with their children and one spouse has stayed behind to work,”
Consolo said. “We’re
talking about an end to a nation,” TruNews host Rick Wiles
interjected. “Yeah,
which I think is part of the reason, like I said from a global
economic prospective is, why it’s not being talked about,”
Consolo continued. “It’s a very serious situation
that’s going to have very serious ramifications for Japan”
and the world. Full
interview and suggestions for protection from nuclear radiation,
from TruNews
Radio., www.beaconequity.com.
2012-06-02Top
20 US Newspaper: The world’s food chain could be compromised
— Japan’s radiation seems inescapable,
ENENews.com 2012-06-02Congressman
to FDA: Unknown how radioactive fallout in US affected marine
environment — Wants ‘a listing of all instances
of species found to have elevated levels’,
ENENews.com 2012-06-02BYOG:
Bring Your Own Geiger counter and Hazmat gear by
Christina Consolo, Contributing writer for End
the Lie and host of Nuked
Radio, Edited by Madison Ruppert It
has been 6 weeks since I wrote
my first piece for End the
Lie about the potential Fukushima reactor number four end
of the world scenario. Numerous nuclear experts, ambassadors,
former Fukushima Daiichi workers, and senator Ron Wyden of Oregon
have warned about as well. And still, no progress to report. If
TEPCO looked at what we learned from the example of Chernobyl,
they should have had hundreds if not thousands of workers fortifying
the structure and removing the spent fuel 24/7 for the past
14 months. But no, there does not seem to be any sense of urgency
whatsoever. Editor’s
note: as I previously reported, TEPCO will not even start moving
the spent fuel rods from this endangered pool into a joint pool
for all six reactors next to the crumbling reactor four building
until
late next year. I would love to know why exactly this is
the case but unfortunately I have yet to receive any explanation
whatsoever. Even
the UN received an urgent request to enact international help
from numerous nuke experts, since the demise of reactor four
would have global effects. But still, nothing. It
has been difficult, if not nearly impossible, to get people
to realize the extent of Fukushima and its effect on our lives.
Part of that reason is because radiation is invisible. Another
reason is because the media isn’t talking about it. Editor’s
note: I would like to put forth another possibility as well:
a combination of normalcy bias and cognitive dissonance. If
you are unfamiliar with these concepts, please listen to the
below embedded recent episode of End the Lie Radio wherein Curt
Williams of Room 101
and I discuss these concepts and just how they are manifesting
in today’s world. But
this ignorance of the danger of Fukushima is about to change
in a very big way. The
change, or “Mass Awakening to Fukushima” as I like
to call it, began a week ago when Stanford University released
its bluefin tuna radiation test results and lo and behold, it
was radioactive. In fact, every
single fish they tested showed contamination from Fukushima.
And they were all caught off the coast in California. This
came as no surprise to the Fukushima
experts that I talked about in a previous article, everyday
people who have been following this story since March 11th and
know how extensive this radiation threat is. Most of us haven’t
touched pacific seafood for a year. This
is because just 2 weeks after the Fukushima disaster, North
American kelp was already showing contamination. And so were
the salmon being tested by the Canadians. Radiation works fast,
due to bio accumulation, and bio magnification. And it gets
stronger as it moves up the food chain. In
fact, in the 60's Russia detonated the largest bomb ever, the
100 megaton Tsar Bombe, or “King of Bombs.” Without
getting overly technical, the yield of this bomb was actually
reduced by 97% due to the addition of lead for its second and
third stages, to reduce fallout potential across the northern
hemisphere. Still, within a week, researchers in the US found
radioactive iodine in the thyroids of mammals in the US, before
it was even detected in water or plants. Yes, it happens that
quickly. So
when Stanford published its data from the tuna testing, which
was actually tested from tuna caught in August 2011 they were
surprised, even “shocked” were their words and they
also speculated (correctly I might add) that the numbers are
probably much higher now, 9 months later. What
is so ironic though about the results of these tests is not
that the fish were radioactive, it’s that the Stanford
researchers were so surprised and shocked. I
mean, seriously? Did not a single one of these research scientists
ever study Chernobyl? Radiation? Nuclear energy? Or even pay
attention to what has been going on in Fukushima for the past
year? Sounds like a few people have had their heads buried deep
in the sand. In
fact, while the research scientists have been hitting the snooze
button repeatedly the Fukushima Experts I previously mentioned
have been trying to warn people this was coming, because they
took their own initiative to pay attention. And we are doing
all this for free. On our own dime. On our own time. Meanwhile,
researchers at NOAA, the EPA, FDA, and USDA sit back and pretend
everything is okay and collect a handsome paycheck courtesy
of the US taxpayer in the process. Well,
the tuna results started the ball rolling. And pretty soon we
should start seeing real numbers as far as the sick seals and
polar bears go. And if it’s in the tuna, it’s in
everything. Tuna are a large, deep water fish that should have
been contaminated last. But
it’s starting to show itself in another big way too, and
that is the tsunami debris. No one will be able to ignore that.
It will be a catalyst for a mass awakening of gigantic proportions...[more
here]. [Editor's
Note: Here is an interesting readers' comment to this article
that provides some good leads for additional references].
Guest
June 2, 2012 at 12:05 PM It
does seem unfair that RadChick and many others sacrifice so
much of their time getting the truth out for free, while well-paid
agencies aren’t giving us the truth. Many
great folks and websites working hard to get the truth out
are kept going by scant donations and ad-clicking. Here
are just a few sites trying to get the truth out:
Just
to name a few. Feel free to add to the list. They’re
going up against well-funded nuclear lobbyists and the main
stream media. Not
all of them take donations, but at least support their hard
work by reading their blogs, listening to their interviews,
Facebook “LIKE” them, spread them around to everyone
you know, and if you have an extra dollar or two, think of
donating.
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