Thread: Fukushima worse than Chernobly

Why the US and Russia aren't helping with this, makes no sense?

Originally Posted by Reciprocity

Why the US and Russia aren't helping with this, makes no sense?

Russia Offers Fukushima Cleanup Help as Tepco Reaches Out


By Yuriy Humber & Jacob Adelman - Aug 25, 2013 10:39 PM PT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...-for-help.html


Let the world help at Fukushima No. 1

Sep 23, 2013



Re: “Fukushima and the right to responsible government” by Colin P.A. Jones (The Foreign Element, Sept. 17):

It would be useful if the government of Japan would avail themselves of the assistance and technology that could be provided by foreign corporations with experience in the decommissioning of nuclear plants.
The United States successfully cleaned and decommissioned nuclear facilities at Hanford, Washington, Rocky Flats, Colorado, and Portsmouth, Ohio. Other projects are currently under way in both the U.S. and U.K.
Yet, American firms who have offered to help with issues at Fukushima have been repeatedly turned down by Tepco and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/communit.../#.Um_mcySQT5Y

Fukushima: Is Anyone or Anything Safe?
by Gaye Levy

12th November,2013


Recent news that thousands of fuel rods are being removed from Fukushima has raised a lot of questions and concerns across the globe. Is the extraction safe or is this the beginning of Armageddon? Does TEPCO really have the expertise to do this and are the oversight mechanisms credible. Add to this our speculation relative to the long term ramifications of Fukushima on our food supply, our health, and the health of future generations and we have cause for worry.
In early 2012, a year after a massive tsunami severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, I connected with Joy Thompson who, along with her husband Randall, worked as health physicists during the Three Mile Island clean-up. With this latest news about the extraction of the fuel rods, I felt it was time to once again reach out to Joy and get her assessment and opinion on the long term affect of Fukushima to the environment and to humanity.

Joy was gracious in providing some thought-provoking answers. Not the answers I hope for or wanted, but answers none-the-less.

What Does the Defueling of Fukushima Mean to Us?

First, the defueling operation at Daiichi unit 4 is probably among the riskiest industrial operations ever attempted, much less under emergency high-stress conditions.
While reports from concerned parties everywhere (including NRC/DoE, French and Russian and German nuclear officials and IAEA) have varied on how long the pool was essentially empty after the disaster onset, and how much burned – and for how long – there is wide agreement that a significant portion of the spent fuel assemblies in the pool are probably damaged.
Damage comes from just brittleness and corrupted by salt water all the way to broken with spilled crumbled fuel and loose rods. The Japanese government admitted last month that the boron ‘blades’ absorbing stray neutrons between fuel bundles in each of the assemblies have long since corroded away. We do not have reliable figures on how much boron is being maintained in the pool either. This is a nightmare scenario.
Alas, the many other intractable issues present at the reservation make it imperative that what fuel can be removed must be removed – quickly – if for no other reason than to be able to say they tried to do “something” to mitigate what’s going to be an extremely ugly end game. There is a 90% probability for a 7.0+ earthquake in the next three years; it could bring these unstable ruins down.
The most likely bad news events from the defueling operation will be criticalities in the pool caused by broken/dropped rods and/or fuel sludge. If these boil off too much water or include the ‘fresh’ core that was in the pool during shroud work in the containment, we could witness your basic open air meltdown. On open air meltdown would release contamination to atmosphere equivalent to thousands of Hiroshima bombs. If they have to abandon the site the rest of ‘em will go. That’s half again as much radioactive gnarl as has been released by all the bombs, all the meltdowns, all the other nuclear opposes added together from the beginning. Not good.
Perhaps this is all for show, they already know it’s a hopeless task, and are just setting us all up for the failure scenario. Guess we’ll see what Plan B entails when it’s called for.
I am not very optimistic on this, but who knows? Do I swear off Pacific seafood for the duration anyway. Contaminates concentrate up the food chain, but even the plankton and krill are contaminated. No tuna. Sardines, anchovies, squid, shellfish, crustaceans, seaweed are all contaminated as well off the northeastern coast of Japan, and soon the west coast of the Americas. None of the isotopes escaping are the same thing as potassium-40 in bananas, so don’t buy that propaganda.

Now, to your other questions . . .

Fukushima Today – An Interview with Joy Thompson

1. Some of the people on the West Coast are trying to point to jellyfish die-offs and such as being harbingers of the whole Pacific dying. Is that a realistic fear?

No, it’s not that realistic. While radioactive contamination can certainly weaken life forms to the point of making them susceptible to diseases they’d normally be immune or resistant to, the organisms involved have been demonstrating high stress and die-offs all over the world for some years – since well before Fukushima.
Something is certainly unhealthy in the oceans, and we humans are no doubt largely responsible with our filthy habits. It could be increased methane due to global warming, seawater ‘layers’ flipping, oxygen depletion from nitrogen run-offs, open oil gushers and Corexit, etc. Definitely disheartening developments to be paid close attention, most likely harbingers of worse things than Fukushima.

2. What about people (like my friend George) who have thought about moving back to the Pacific Northwest. Is buying a home on the West Coast a bad idea now? And if so, just how bad an idea is it?

Well, so long as you aren’t planning on living basically IN or ON the water (like as a commercial fisherman or on a houseboat), I don’t see that being there is any worse than being anywhere else. The most serious danger to humans will come from the atmospheric fallout (still circling and coming down in the rain from 3/11/2011). Which will increase again if there are criticalities during unit-4′s defueling. But the rain falls on us all, it can be as contaminated in Charlotte or Paris as it might be in Seattle.
If you’ve a choice, do try to put some mountains between you and everything west of you. It’ll help some.

3. Do you think housing prices are reflecting the radiation risks to the West Coast?

Sorry, don’t know what housing prices out there are doing right now. Could be correction [deflation] from the whole economic Mega-Scam that brought us down in 2008.

4. Do you still eat shellfish? How do you determine what’s safe to eat and what isn’t?

I never liked shellfish, actually. I do still eat occasional trout (which I love, and is abundant locally in these mountain streams). Admit to being unable to resist smoked salmon on occasion, but eat it so rarely that I truly wouldn’t miss it if it weren’t available. Haven’t eaten tuna in years due to mercury/heavy metals contamination.
I grow quite a bit of our food organically on my acreage – have half an acre in truck vegetables, another half-acre in pumpkins, melons and winter squash, apple, peach, cherry and pear trees, and a small vineyard with concord, muscadine and zinfandel grapes. I grow a large number of herbs, and manage 10 acres of forest-grown medicinals.
I should note here that wild-grown ginseng hit nearly $900 a pound this year. Some of my Mama ‘Sangs are more than 20 years old – one of those roots can go for thousands in China, and there are always Chinese buyers at the autumn exchanges. So far, however, I just keep planting seeds and only harvest what I use in tinctures. I have a healthy stand of elder that is proving lucrative. Elderberry tinctures were proven in side-by-side medical studies during the swine flu epidemic to work better to prevent infection or shorten duration than Tamiflu. Friends who are nurses will buy all I can make.
My land is bordered by state game lands and national forest, where abundant black/raspberries, blueberries, wineberries, persimmons and sloes grow wild. I also harvest acorns to leech and make flour out of it to enrich bread and cornbread. I grow only heirloom Indian corn, dry and store it whole to grind on demand. I frequent area tailgate markets in season and the regional farmer’s market.
I’ve found the trick to getting really great deals on bulk produce is to show up at the end of the day on Saturday. Many vendors bring their harvest just for the weekend, and are willing to practically give it away as they’re packing up so as not to have to throw it out. Get great ripe tomatoes, cukes, eggplant, squash and beans by the peck or bushel that way, but then you’ve got to preserve it right away.
I am able to preserve a great deal of our bounty, grown, traded for or bought. I also dehydrate most everything in my nifty solar dryer. Made it a couple of years ago out of salvaged windows and untreated boards from a neighbor’s sawmill. Can some condiments and pickles, make wines, wine vinegars, balsamic and hard cider with much of the fruit. We have a couple of pet Pekin ducks, get 2-4 very large eggs a day. Plus a neighbor with bees for raw honey. I don’t do bees (though I’d like to) because we’ve too many bears. Out here you learn to share with the wildlife, who do a very good job of cleaning out downed POM fruit that would otherwise draw hornets. Dogs do a good job of keeping them out of the compost and away from the house. Cats are great vermin eradicators – field mice, rats, moles, voles and gophers.
My best advice to those who want to commit to surviving by learning to do for themselves is to move to the country, or a small town surrounded by countryside. You can produce a lot even on two or three acres, and make friends with neighbors who produce much more. Barter is the primary means of trade for home-grown foodstuffs out here, your skills and hobbies may be more valuable than you thought!
There are small farms locally specializing in organic/free range poultry and meat if you eat meat. We could hunt if we needed to. Stay low on the food chain if you do hunt – avoid all carnivores, go lightly on the venison, stick with small animals (rabbit, etc.) and birds (turkey, grouse, etc.). Their metabolism is fast enough for biological half-life of the worst isotopes to be short. Plus, they don’t live long enough to accumulate too much.
Basically, eat locally as much as possible, get to know your farmers. When there’s plumes/fallout, avoid green leafies and berries, or build a greenroom off a south-facing wall. In the end, we’ve all got to eat. Even when we can’t avoid contamination. We’ll all die when our time comes anyway, might as well enjoy the ride. It’s a good way to live.

5. What about salmon and other migratory fish?

See above.

6. And bottom fish like halibut?

I’d avoid halibut, flounder, and of course crabs and shellfish/crustaceans. The bottom habitat of all our coastal shelf waters are contaminated with a gross amount of pollutants chemical, heavy metal, radioactive, and just plain filth. Heck, I even avoid catfish, because a sad number of our lakes and rivers are just as polluted. The heavy stuff always sinks, ends up in whatever’s living there.

7. Would you care to speculate about how many people will die – ultimately – prematurely due to the Fukushima accident? What are you colleagues saying?

Cancer rates will rise, likely to the point where your chances of being diagnosed in your lifetime are sure if you live long enough, but treatments and cures are always possible. We can hope.
DNA-related birth defects – different from developmental issues due to exposures during pregnancy – probably will take another generation to show in significant numbers. General weakness due to constant low level and internal bombardment will probably claim as many as air pollution from burning coal does now. In fact, they’ll likely claim it comes from coal instead of Fuku. Even if we quit burning coal today.
Unless you are vaporized to a greasy shadow on the wall they will never admit radiation killed you. Or shortened your life. It’s all an academic exercise in cost-benefit analysis (premeditated random murder) and damned statistics used to deny culpability. Truth be told, there will be some millions of premature deaths worldwide just from Fukushima so far. They’ve four more Level 7 disasters lined up waiting to happen there, so the numbers could easily go up. Sad but true, take precautions where you can.

8. What’s with the positioning of nuclear power as an answer to global warming? First: Is there global warming, second is nuclear power really the solution or more of a problem? And third, what’s the Big Numbers Game on our heads about?

Yes, there is global warming. It is evident in the melting of the ice caps and glaciers, increasing droughts, floods, and severe storms. Yes, humans are contributing to it by means of our filthy industrial habits. Burning fossil fuels, mostly. We can and absolutely should cut it out – stop fouling our nest.
But the climate will continue to change anyway. We should put our energies into adapting. If it gets too warm to grow apples and cherries, plant peaches and oranges. Consider installing drip-hoses and re-routing your gray water to the crops if there’s a drought. If you’re careful of the soaps/detergents you use for bathing and dishwashing, etc., your crops will thank you.
If things need disinfecting or grease-cutting, don’t use bleach – use vinegar. Baking soda as scouring powder, etc. Investigate making your own soaps with glycerin instead of lye. And don’t forget – sunshine is the best disinfectant and laundry freshener there is!
No, nuclear power is NOT the answer to global warming. We can adjust and adapt to different ways of doing things. All we have to do is do it. The big numbers game on our heads is propaganda and Money-Talking. They aren’t satisfied to have impoverished billions of us with their stupid economic Monopoly game, they want everything else too. Everything. ****’em, I say.
Caveat: In their (small) favor, the MoneyMasters are no longer investing in nukes. Truth is, there is not enough money on this planet to build the 4,000 new nukes we’d need within the next 20 years to put a dent in anthropocentric global warming. In fact, they’re locked into a grand ‘austerity’ plan for the next 20 years that is going to seriously diminish the demand for energy everywhere. Building new nukes is a total fool’s errand, absolutely unnecessary. Not gonna happen.

9. As long as we’re talking nuclear power, do you buy Iran’s claim that they are only in it to building a nuclear power infrastructure?

Sure, why not? Israel could turn ‘em to glass if they tried to make bombs. But Iran is seismically as unstable as Japan, they need a nuclear power infrastructure like they need bullet holes in all their heads. They have plenty of sunshine and wind. They should develop those.

10. If the Israelis do, indeed, bomb the Iranian installations, how is that likely to be (compared to Fukushima or Chernobyl, for example)?

Meh. Just another bomb. Somebody’s exploding one somewhere every year or so, sometimes more. Even the Israelis aren’t dumb enough to bomb a site stuffed with already-enriched fuel. If they bomb, they’ll bomb before there’s fuel (or bomb facilities outlying that would cripple the project), and they’ll use bunker-busters, not nukes. Israelis talk tough, but they aren’t suicidal.

11. Is nuclear terrorism inside the US a real threat, or is it a sales job on the American people?

Heh. You can answer this one.
Since Fukushima we are told the worst case of radioactive pollution the planet’s ever seen is no big deal, right? So we’re supposed to be terrified of some disgruntled teenager blowing an IUD/pressure cooker with an X-ray source mixed in? I wish they’d make up their damned minds.
This used to be the “Home of the Brave,” strange as that seems these days. Our own government is doing most of the terrorizing lately far as I can see, and no. They are not really serious about anything but keeping people terrified (dead people aren’t afraid). And while they don’t care when or how we die, they won’t kill themselves just to kill us. They don’t have to help us stay alive, so probably won’t.
Caveat: If de ebil terrier-ists blow the hell outta my little town tomorrow, I will stand corrected. Unfortunately for the terror-mongers, if they blew the hell outta my little town, nobody would miss it.

12. As an expert in nuclear affairs, do you ever get the sense that you (and your colleagues) are more subject to government surveillance than regular people? Do/should nuclear scientists be more alarmed about government surveillance than anyone else?

Not any more!!!
I and my colleagues left the nuclear industry decades ago. But yeah, they’ve been tapping our phones since submarine days. You learn not to say things they might take the wrong way. Or say ‘hi’ to them, especially on holidays when you’re waiting for Mom to come to the phone.
The assumption of constant surveillance is given for whole classes of people in this (and other) countries. Welcome to our world!

13. If you were a regular working stiff in Japan, would you still be there?

Most likely not. But then, I’m not Japanese. If I were in the southwest of that country I might stick around. If I were Tokyo-north, I’d have bugged out two and a half years ago.
_______________________________

About Joy: Joy Thompson was part of a 3-person investigatory team with her husband Randall and colleague David Bear during the immediate recovery operation at TMI-2 in 1979. As health physics personnel, the team monitored on-site radiation levels, releases of radioactive contamination into the environment and doses to workers. The Thompsons went on to establish a family entertainment business with their children, and took up homesteading in the mountains of North Carolina. Joy maintains a blog about homesteading, self-sufficiency, current issues and organic gardening, Wise Living Journal.
For an informative, fascinating and somewhat shocking account of Joy and Randall’s experience at TMI, I recommend that you read the article Investigation: Revelations about Three Mile Island disaster raise doubts over nuclear plant safety.

The Final Word

As good as I am about reaching out to people, I sometimes struggle with just the right questions. For assistance with this article, I asked George Ure (Peoplenomics) to help formulate questions using his investigative nose for news. He was, after all, the news director at a leading Seattle radio station for years and years.
I would also like to thank Joy for her willingness to publicly share her thoughts with us. She has endured much as a result of her frankness over the TMI cover-up and is a great friend to Backdoor Survival when it comes to being honest and forthright.
As I said at the onset, the answers to these questions are not what I had hope for and yet they are not unexpected. May God help us all as we navigate around the fallout from Fukushima in the ensuing years.
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye
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http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/fuku...2ed2-314931469

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

What Is Happening To Alaska? Is Fukushima Responsible For The Mass Animal Deaths?


Michael Snyder
Activist Post

Why are huge numbers of dead birds dropping dead and washing up along the coastlines of Alaska? It is being reported that many of the carcasses of the dead birds are “broken open and bleeding”. The photo of some of these dead birds at the top of this article was originally posted by Alaska native David Akeya on Facebook. You can find more photos of these dead birds right here. And of course it isn’t just birds that are dying.

As you will see below, something is causing mass death events among various populations of fish as well. In addition, it has been reported that large numbers of polar bears, seals and walruses in Alaska are being affected by hair loss and “oozing sores”. So precisely what is causing all of this? Could Fukushima be responsible? Authorities are claiming that all of this is being caused by “disease” or “harsh weather”, but are they actually telling us the truth? Evaluate the evidence that I have shared below and decide for yourself….

#1 Something is causing large numbers of dead birds to wash up on shores all over Alaska. The following is a report from Alaska Public Media about just one of these incidents…

Hundreds of dead birds washed up on the shores of St. Lawrence Island towards the end of November. And though the cause of the die off isn’t yet known, the quick response demonstrates a mounting capacity for dealing with unexpected environmental events in the region.

Scientists do not know why this is happening. Some of them are blaming “harsh weather”.

#2 Something is causing large numbers of seals and walruses to lose hair and develop “oozing sores”…

For example, while skin ulcers and other conditions — hair loss, lethargy, oozing sores, bloody mucous, congested lungs — are affecting seals and walruses, it’s not known if the two species are suffering from the same sickness. And although much studying has been done to determine whether it’s the result of a virus or radiation, and no tests have linked these origins to the illness, it’s not yet known what the root cause is. Toxins and environmental factors, like harmful algae blooms and thermal burns, are under consideration. As is whether allergy, hormone or nutritional problems might play a role.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

#3 Polar bears along the Alaska coastlines are also suffering from fur loss and open sores…

Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses.

The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had “alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

#4 The population of sockeye salmon along the coastlines of Alaska is at a “historic low”…

Aboriginal people in British Columbia who rely on Skeena River sockeye are facing some extremely difficult decisions as sockeye salmon returns plunge to historic lows.

Lake Babine Chief Wilf Adam was on his way to Smithers, B.C., on Monday for a discussion about whether to entirely shut down the food fishery on Lake Babine, something he said would be drastic and unprecedented – but may ultimately be necessary.

Authorities say that the number of sockeye salmon has dropped by more than 80 percent since last year…

Mel Kotyk, North Coast area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the department’s monitoring activities were finding one of the lowest runs in 50 years.
Only 453,000 sockeye are expected to swim along the Skeena this year, Kotyk said, compared to approximately 2.4 million last year, forcing all commercial and recreational Skeena sockeye fisheries to be closed.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

#5 Something is causing Pacific herring to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs…

Independent fisheries scientist Alexandra Morton is raising concerns about a disease she says is spreading through Pacific herring causing fish to hemorrhage.

Ms. Morton has called on the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to investigate, saying it could cause large-scale herring kills and infect wild salmon, which feed heavily on herring.

“I’ve been seeing herring with bleeding fins,” Ms. Morton said Monday. “Two days ago I did a beach seine on Malcolm Island [near Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island] and I got approximately 100 of these little herring and they were not only bleeding from their fins, but their bellies, their chins, their eyeballs. These are very, very strong disease symptoms.”

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

#6 Some residents of Alaska are absolutely convinced that Fukushima is to blame for the rapidly declining fish populations. For example, just check out the following excerpt from a recent editorial in one Alaskan newspaper…

We are concerned this hazardous material is hitching a ride on marine life and making its way to Alaska.

Currents of the world’s oceans are complex. But, generally speaking, two surface currents — one from the south, called the Kuroshio, and one from the north, called the Oyashio — meet just off the coast of Japan at about 40 degrees north latitude. The currents merge to form the North Pacific current and surge eastward. Fukushima lies at 37 degrees north latitude. Thousands of miles later, the currents hit an upwelling just off the western coast of the United States and split. One, the Alaska current, turns north up the coast toward British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. The other, the California current, turns south and heads down the western seaboard of the U.S.

The migration patterns of Pacific salmon should also be taken into consideration. In a nutshell, our salmon ride the Alaska current and follow its curve past Sitka, Yakutat, Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands. Most often, it’s the chinook, coho and sockeye salmon migration patterns that range farthest. Chum and pink salmon seem to stay closer to home. Regardless of how far out each salmon species ventures into the Pacific, each fish hitches a ride back to its home rivers and spawning grounds on the North Pacific current, the same one pulling the nuclear waste eastward.

We all know too much exposure to nuclear waste can cause cancer. And many understand that certain chemicals, such as cesium-137 and strontium-9, contained in said waste products can accumulate in fish by being deposited in bones and muscle permanently.

We are concerned our Alaska salmon are being slowly tainted with nuclear waste. We are worried about the impact this waste could have on our resources, and especially the people who consume them.

#7 Something also seems to be causing a substantial spike in the death rate for killer whales living off of the coast of British Columbia…

A Vancouver Aquarium researcher is sounding the alarm over “puzzling” changes he’s observed in the killer whale pods that live off the southern British Columbia coast.

Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard says he fears changes in the ocean environment are prompting odd behaviour and an unusually high mortality rate.

Barrett-Lennard says the southern resident orca pod, which is found in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland, has lost seven matriarchs over the past two years, and he’s noticed a lack of vocalizations from the normally chatty mammals.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

These kinds of things are happening further south along the Pacific coast as well.

For example, the recent death of thousands of birds down in Oregon is absolutely baffling scientists…

Residents have reported groups ranging from 10 to 200 dead or dying barn and violet-green swallows in barns and around other structures where they perch. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the dieoffs appear to be worst close to rivers and standing water where the birds tend to gather.

The toll, estimated in the thousands, has stunned Fish and Wildlife specialists. “This type of mortality event is unprecedented and considered a rare and unusual event,” said Colin Gillin, wildlife veterinarian for the agency. “The effect on bird populations is unknown.”

Some scientists are blaming these deaths on “harsh weather”.

Do you buy that?

Clearly something very unusual is happening, and it should not be unreasonable to ask if Fukushima is at least partially responsible for all of this.

Without a doubt, the Pacific Ocean appears to be a much different place than it was before the Fukushima disaster. In fact, one very experienced Australian adventurer said that he felt as though “the ocean itself was dead” as he journeyed from Japan to San Francisco recently…

The next leg of the long voyage was from Osaka to San Francisco and for most of that trip the desolation was tinged with nauseous horror and a degree of fear.

“After we left Japan, it felt as if the ocean itself was dead,” Macfadyen said.

“We hardly saw any living things. We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head. It was pretty sickening.

“I’ve done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I’m used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen.”

In place of the missing life was garbage in astounding volumes.

“Part of it was the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Japan a couple of years ago. The wave came in over the land, picked up an unbelievable load of stuff and carried it out to sea. And it’s still out there, everywhere you look.”

What in the world would cause the Pacific Ocean to be “dead” like that?

Where did all the life go?

Hopefully we will start to get some answers to these questions.

For much more on all of this, please see my previous articles entitled “28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima” and “Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean – Could It Be Fukushima?”

Meanwhile, radiation levels around Fukushima just continue to increase. The following is from a recent RT article…

Outdoor radiation levels have reached their highest at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant,warns the operator company.Radiation found in an area near a steel pipe that connects reactor buildings could kill an exposed person in 20 minutes, local media reported.

The plant’s operator and the utility responsible for the clean-up Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) detected record radiation levels on a duct which connects reactor buildings and the 120 meter tall ventilation pipe located outside on Friday. TEPCO measured radiation at eight locations around the pipe with the highest estimated at two locations – 25 Sieverts per hour and about 15 Sieverts per hour, the company said. This is the highest level ever detected outside the reactor buildings, according to local broadcaster NHK.

And every single day, another 400 tons of very highly radioactive water gets released into the Pacific Ocean. The total amount of radioactive material in the Pacific is constantly rising, and because many of these radioactive particles have a half-life of 30 years or longer, much of this material is going to be with us for a very, very long time.

This is turning out to be the greatest environmental disaster in modern history, and it is very far from over.

About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/12/...alaska-is.html

Fukushima Unit 4 Is Tilted And Buckled, Could Collapse At Anytime

Wednesday, November 13, 2013 7:05



Reuters, Nov. 12, 2013: The urgency to clear Reactor No. 4 of the fuel assemblies is because of the risk in having spent fuel stored at such a height – some 18 meters above ground level – in a building that has buckled and tilted and could collapse if another quake strikes. Also, if the pool housing the fuel assemblies is punctured and the water drains away, there could be a fire [...] threatening Tokyo […] As the water used to cool the rods has had to be pumped in from the ocean, there is a risk that some may have corroded from the seawater. […] [The fuel rods] contain plutonium, one of the most toxic substances known [...]

Bloomberg, Nov. 8, 2013: Engineers have been examining the stability of the reactor building to make sure no new vulnerabilities have developed that could lead to accidents during removal. Quarterly tests have also been conducted to ensure the building isn’t sinking because of soil subsidence, [Akira Ono, head of the Fukushima Daiichi plant] said.


Independent (UK), Nov. 8, 2013: Engineers must remove the fuel assemblies one by one, without incident, and each time deal with the risk of fire or the cooling water boiling dry. The building lists slightly but Tepco says it has been reinforced [...] Tepco had built an alarm system that would warn workers to evacuate if radiation climbed dangerously high. […]


Unit 4 is where the immediate problem is, maybe. If you have been following this closely you would have seen by now the testimony of many doctors and experts and such that they will not allow people to even see or be near the other 3 reactors. Why? Its going to take years to clear Unit 4 let alone the other 3 too. This is the worst calamity in human history potentially. I cannot, off hand, think of anything else that will be so far reaching into the future and so devastating to those that will be affected by it. We are talking thousands of years if something goes wrong. Japan will not exist and the Japanese people might not either. -Mort

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative...rticalresponse

Fukushima's two worst-case scenarios explained by Arnie Gunderson

Wednesday, December 04, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes

(NaturalNews) Recently, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the Tokyo Electric and Power Co., or TEPCO, to decommission two more reactors at its Fukushima power plant, which was heavily damaged following an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

The reactors, 5 and 6, were not in operation at the time of the tsunami and have been in cold storage since then. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 were heavily damaged and suffered meltdowns; there remains concern about the spent fuel rods in reactor 4.

As Japan prepares to take on the expensive and hazardous task of removing more than 400 tons of irradiated spent fuel rods from the entire plant, nuclear expert Arnie Gunderson, chief engineer at Fair Winds Energy Education, was interviewed by WBEZ's "Worldview" about the process and described a pair of worst-case scenarios.

Gunderson said that the easiest part of the process would be removing the fuel rods from the 5 and 6 reactors, but that only highlighted how "truly frightening" the entire removal process would be.

The nuclear expert explained that the fuel rods are stored in a water-filled container that is not much different than an ordinary swimming pool, other than the fact that it is "50 feet deep." At the bottom of the pool, the nuclear fuel is stored on racks, he said.

During the earthquake in 2011, the plant shook so violently, he said, that nearly four feet of water sloshed out of the pool at reactor 4. At the same time, the fuel racks at the bottom of the pool were damaged.

Worse, he continued, shortly after that, the plant suffered some explosions, which caused the roof over the container pool to collapse in on the pool itself.

Three-pronged problem

"Now, I used to build fuel racks, and the tolerances are very, very high precision," Gunderson said. "If the fuel is in them, and the rack is distorted, it becomes extraordinarily difficult to pull the fuel out. It's almost like a pack of cigarettes. You can pull the cigarette out easily unless you distort the pack, in which case it becomes really hard."

So, he continued, the problem facing engineers at Fukushima - particularly with reactor 4 - is major rack distortion.

At this point, the fuel rods which were the easiest to reach and pull out have been removed. But the job gets much more difficult from here on in.

He described a three-pronged problem.

"First off," he said, "these racks are no longer as designed. They've been beat up by sliding side to side in the earthquake. [Secondly,] they have rubble in the rack. The third piece had to do with the building."

Gunderson said the building housing reactor 4 was "structurally compromised. There was at least two, if not three, explosions in the building," leaving no "envelope over [the] top of the fuel pool."

In order to begin the process of removing the rods, Gunderson said TEPCO constructed a containment building and a sort of "esophagus" surrounding a crane system, so that removal can be effected without spreading radiation.

Two worst-case scenarios

He then went on to describe the two worst-case scenarios:

"First off... [the removal of fuel rods from reactor 4] has to be done. The building is structurally compromised. And unit four [is] worse the than others because it has more nuclear fuel in it. So it's not something that can be delayed by 10 years or something like that, because the threat of [another] earthquake is significant. And in a compromised building, it could really cause a serious radiation release if the building were to collapse...

"The two problems are snapping the fuel [bundle] as they lift it out - and that's happened here in the states. Periodically, when you go to pull a bundle out, it gets distorted and it breaks. And inside are radioactive gasses... that are released into the atmosphere.

"The other problem though - and this is unique to the Fukushima site - modern fuel racks have boron in the, um... surrounding the nuclear fuel. And the boron at Fukushima... likely leached out over the past two years, for two reasons. Its water was very hot, it was boiling, and this boron was never designed for boiling water. And on top of that, because they ran out of normal cooling water, they had to add salt water. So, the boron wasn't qualified for salt water, and especially hot salt water..."

Gunderson said Tokyo Electric has had to add boron to the No. 4 reactor fuel pool, because the company cannot be sure that the boron coating the fuel rods is still there.

"If the fuel gets too close to each other, it could cause a chain reaction in the fuel pool," he said.

If workers trying to remove the fuel rods noticed boiling in the water, they would have to quickly put the fuel rods back in place, which could, of course, prove tricky. "That assumes that the rod can even be pushed back in," he said.

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