NEVER AGAIN!! – Fukushima Nuclear Disaster/Tsunami

 

 

5 Years: 11 March 2011 -2016

 

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        Fukushima, Japan 3rd Anniversary: March 11, 2011

                             

 

 

 

Fukushima Nuclear Denial

Remember Fukushima, March 11th 2011 – Many Would Rather You Didn’t….

 

March 11^th 2011: Three years later, marking the Third Anniversary of the Japan tsunami and Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, and still the denial and suppression of information, regarding the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor continues.

 

It is information suppression on a global scale involving bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, [IAEA] formed by the United Nations in 1957, national government bodies, the all-powerful nuclear industry and nuclear based scientists, not to mention, even the media, and others who stand to gain from the existence of nuclear energy.

"Fukushima is an eerie replay of the denial and controversy that began with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the same nuclear denial that also greeted nuclear bomb tests, such as Semipalatinsk in the Kazakhstan, plutonium plant disasters at Windscale in northern England and the nuclear power plant accidents at Three Mile Island in the United States and Chernobyl in what is now Ukraine."

Furthermore, "About a month after the disaster, on April 19, 2011, Japan chose to dramatically increase its official "safe’ radiation exposure levels from 1 mSv [a measure of radiation dose] t o 20 mSv per year–20 times higher than the U.S. exposure limit. This allowed the Japanese government to downplay the dangers of the fallout and avoid evacuation of many badly contaminated areas."

~Yale University Professor Emeritus Charles Perrow in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

"To date no health effects have been reported in any person as a result of radiation exposure from the accident," the IAEA in 2011, a claim it holds to today.  

And a new State Secrets Act sanctioned by the Japanese government now endorses the right to restrict Fukushima reporting- on pain of a 10 year jail sentence.

 "It’s the cancerous mark of a nuclear regime bound to control all knowledge of a lethal global catastrophe now ceaselessly escalating."

~Harvey Wasserman, co-author of Killing Our Own, in a piece entitled Japan’s New Fukushima Fascism.

Fukushima is different because of the sheer extent of disaster; Multiple meltdowns, on-going pollution of a significant chunk of Japan, airborne radioactive fallout conveyed by the winds throughout the world, and colossal amounts of radioactivity disappearing into the Pacific Ocean, flowing with the currents and transported in the systems of the marine life unfortunate enough to consume the nuclear contaminants.

The Medical Implications of Fukushima:

"Every increment of radiation exposure produces an incremental increase in the risk of cancer." 

~ National Council on Radiation Protection.

There have already been disproportionate numbers of thyroid cancer cases suddenly arising in Japan. This is a well-known primary indication of early radioactivity damage to the human body. Likewise damaged thyroid glands in Californian children were determined, in a study by the “Radiation and Public Health Project,” to be directly attributed to radioactive Fukushima fall-out. [Study conducted by Joseph Mangano and Dr Janette Sherman of the above mentioned Project and also Dr Chris Busby]

There is no such thing as a "safe" level of radioactivity. Any amount can kill.

"The Fukushima disaster is not over and will never end. The radioactive fallout which remains toxic for hundreds to thousands of years covers large swaths of Japan will never be "cleaned up’ and will contaminate food, humans and animals virtually forever."

~ Dr Helen Caldicott, a founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility quoted from Nuclear Madness, one of her books on nuclear power.

All Bluefin Tuna Caught In California-Radioactive:

In a study by the Stanford University, every Bluefin Tuna arriving from Japan that they caught in Californian waters was without fail, contaminated with radioactive cesium-137, [large scale emissions occurring from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant]:

“The tuna packaged it up [the radiation] and brought it across the world’s largest ocean. We were definitely surprised to see it at all and even more surprised to see it in every one we measured."

~ Daniel Madigan, Study Leader.

Costs and Consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster:

~ The Environmental Health Policy Institute of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)

“Some 800 square kilometres are ‘exclusion’ zones of "abandoned cities, towns, agricultural land, homes and properties, and from which 159,128 people have been evicted."

~ PSR senior scientist Steven Starr. 

"Should the public discover the true health cost of nuclear pollution, a cry would rise from all parts of the world and people would refuse to cooperate passively with their own death."

~ Rosalie Bertell, a Catholic nun and author of No Immediate Danger, referencing “the decades of suppression of the impacts of nuclear power and the reason behind it.”

 

		Remember Fukushima 11.3.11 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Sources:

opednews.com – Karl Grossman

theecologist.org

zerohedge.com

topinfopost.com

counterpunch.org

iaea.org

thebulletin.org

psr.org

ecowatch.com

Solar-Sharing…Fukushima Farmers Solar Rays of Hope

 

Japan’s Renewable Energy Village

Fukushima Farmers Solar Rays of Hope in a Dark Land

 

Radio-active farmland in the Japanese prefecture of Minamisoma, a coastal city contaminated by nuclear fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi N-Plant in March 2011, is now leading the way in building a blueprint for modern Renewable Energy Villages.

Construction has already begun on this community run project to build the foundations of its Renewable Energy Village.

Roughly two-thirds of the Minamisoma farmland is located inside of Fukushima’s radio-active exclusion zone.

• To date the Renewable Energy Village (REV) prides itself on 120 photovoltaic panels, generating 30 kilowatts of power which is sold to a local utility.
• Locating wind turbines on some of the land is another innovative idea currently in the planning stages.
• Recreational and educational facilities as well as an astronomical observatory are also being aspired to depending on the availability of further funding.

The basis of this project is known in Japan as "solar sharing" – growing crops beneath raised solar panels. Most other large-scale solar parks in Japan whether already operational or still in the planning stages have/will have solar panels resting on the ground itself, which makes growing crops impossible.

The largest solar park to be built in Japan of this nature will also be located in Minamisoma causing Project Leader Ryozo Hakozaki for the Renewable Energy Village (REV) some concerns; "If farmers decide to sell up their land, entire communities will be wiped off the map." However Sohei Takahashi, Project Chairman believes the Renewable Energy Village project offers a workable solution to this problem. "Through the project we can protect farmland and communities, and with two parallel revenues create increased prosperity compared with before the disasters."

 

Takahashi also plans to conduct research into crops that can tolerate radioactive contamination. One crop, rapeseed, has already been planted, as its oil is contaminants-free, although the actual plants do absorb a percentage of radioisotopes such as those of caesium. The project is supported by generous ‘feed-in tariffs’ the government set and which were introduced in mid-2012.

All proceeds from the crops and energy will go back into the REV project, the hope and aspiration is that the model will inspire and be copied by farmers whose livelihoods were decimated by the nuclear disaster. "People evacuated from areas closer to the plant have given up ever farming their fields again. There might be an amusement park feel to the project, but we’re trying to show them what the future could hold." Project leader Ryozo Hakozak

Source: New Scientist

Reactor Explosions and Fires

Japan Nuclear Disaster And Earthquake-Tsunami 2011~2013

“I bowed and begged them to stay…”

Two years ago today the Japanese people were reeling from the nightmare of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake – the most powerful one ever recorded in Japan, and the 30-foot wave tsunami that crashed as much as 6 miles inshore on March 11 2011; It was a nightmare that killed in the region of 20,000 people and triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster 27 years ago.

Whilst the atomic accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant did not actually claim any lives it has left tens of thousands of people driven from their homes in a mass evacuation and reduced whole towns to an uninhabitable state as a consequence of the dangerous radiation levels. A situation that will probably last for many decades to come.

                        

A report compiled by America’s Institute of Nuclear Power Operations highlights the heroism of workers at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the disaster’s aftermath, which saw three reactors go into full nuclear meltdown…

“The plant’s back-up generators also failed, leaving most of the facility with no power. Workers struggled to cool the overheating reactors in ‘complete darkness’ while hundreds of aftershocks rocked the area, including two of greater than 7.0 magnitude. The workers persisted in their efforts despite ‘elevated and continuously changing dose rates and contamination levels,’ the report said. Food shortages meant they were given only a biscuit for breakfast and a bowl of noodles for dinner. Many slept on the floor. Some of the workers had lost their homes and families to the tsunami, but continued to toil at the crippled nuclear plant. Some operators volunteered to perform dangerous jobs, the report notes, while many had no formal training for the tasks they were attempting. They relied on "creativity" and "unconventional or unique methods to deal with ‘conditions that were beyond the design basis for the station.’ “ ~ America’s Institute of Nuclear Power Operations

No. 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered an explosion when cooling systems in the Unit failed and pressure inside the reactor soared. Reactor Units Nos. 1 and 3 were blasted by hydrogen explosions which blew the roof off No. 1 unit and tore No 3 reactor apart, and a fire broke out in reactor No. 4 spent fuel storage pond.

                  

   

Masao Yoshida then Fukushima Daiichi plant chief told state broadcaster NHK: "In the first week immediately after the accident I thought a few times ‘I’m going to die.”

Making reference to the explosion of hydrogen that ripped the buildings around rectors 1 and 3 to shreds, he added: "I thought it was all over.”

In a provisional report released by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) Masao described how he was forced to face the fact that they had a full blown disaster on their hands “When lights flickered and went out, including those on the control panels.”

"I came to realise a tsunami had hit the site as one of the workers rushed into the room, shouting ‘Sea water is gushing in!’ I felt totally at a loss after losing power sources. Other workers appeared anxious. They argued, and one asked: ‘Is there any reason for us to be here when there is nothing we can do to control (the reactors)?’ I bowed and begged them to stay.”

As immobilised electrical and cooling systems at the nuclear power plant ground to a halt the largely unsung heroes – the heroic plant workers – in a terrifyingly high risk situation took life-threatening health risks in a desperate, punishing bid to prevent a worse nuclear disaster.

The beleaguered, under fire operator of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant released accounts from the plant workers’ themselves describing some of their most desperate moments as they struggled and fought to bring the stricken nuclear plant under control…

                   

• Overwhelming challenges as workers endeavoured to manually open a ventilation valve in a vital effort to discharge pressure from a reactor container.

"We put on the full protection gear but couldn’t possibly let young workers do the task, as we had to go into an area where the radiation levels were high. When I got to the place to open the valve, I heard eerie, deep popping noise from the torus (a donut-shaped structure at the bottom of the reactor). When I put one of my feet on the torus to reach the valve, my black rubber boot melted and slipped (due to the heat).” one worker recalled.

• Dire working conditions as they strove relentlessly to combat the dangerously unstable and crippled nuclear plant.

"We experienced big aftershocks, and many times we had to run up a hill in desperation (fearing a tsunami) with the full-face mask still on,” one worker said.

• Race against time to set down power cables and reinstate the electric supply:

"We finished the work (in one section) in several hours, although it usually requires one month or two. It was an operation we had to do in puddles, fearing electrification,” the worker said.

• Explosions and fires at the plant give a free rein to the release of critically hazardous radiation levels, compelling TEPCO to evacuate all but a handful of brave and desperately needed workers, out of a nuclear workforce of hundreds.

                      

Those workers became known as the "The Fukushima Fifty”, but the final numbers of workers risking lives and health to join the battle increased by thousands who were also joined by partner company technicians, the likes of Toshiba and Hitachi.

They undertook the commission of ensuring the steady flow of cooling water streaming into the six plant reactors, three of which none-the-less were later to undergo overheating and ultimate melted down.

Cooling System Failures at Japan’s Power Plants

“Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full meltdown in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March” ~ Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters (Japan}

“Nuclear fuel rods in reactors 2 and 3 probably melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis whilst fuel rods at the heart of reactor No. 1 melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the disaster struck.”

“We Came Close To Losing Northern Japan”

~Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Risk of Seismic Activity to Turbines

                                               

Fukushima N-Disaster Puts Wind Up Japanese Government!

 

                                              

Following the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor, due to earthquake and tsunami damage, The Japanese government’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy intends to replace the crippled nuke plant with the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

                                              

The site is ideal for this purpose because the set-up is already in place to convey power when the Daiichi N-plant was still operational.

                                                    

Construction of 143 wind turbines on buoyant stands fixed to the ocean floor 16 kilometres (10 miles) off the coast of Fukushima is expected to be complete by 2020.

                         

The wind farm will generate 1 gigawatt of power once completed, and is part of Fukushima’s plan to become completely energy self-sufficient by 2040, using renewable sources alone. It is also planning to build a Solar Farm which when construction is complete will be the largest in the country.

The closest rival to this planned Japanese wind farm – the Greater Gabbard farm off the coast of Suffolk, UK — currently the world’s largest farm, will surpass the has 140 turbines which generate 504 megawatts.

Initially a 2-megawatt turbine, a substation and deep-sea cable system beneath the ocean will be constructed. More turbines would be assembled as and when they became affordable. It is hoped that suspended steel supports which would be attached to the ocean floor can be used as stands for the turbines rather than attaching them straight onto the bed of the ocean. Standing at a height of 200 metres the first turbine would have Ballast below it to ensure it stayed upright and stable.

According to Takeshi Ishihara, the Project Manager, of the University of Tokyo Seismic activity risks will not be an problem.

The project’s tests including computer simulations and testing of water tanks have proved that in the event of earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons etc the turbines will be safe.

                                                    

And if the wind farm was to be damaged although a power loss would occur, the problem of radioactive waste would not.

“All extreme conditions have been taken into consideration in the design. This project is important — I think it is impossible to use nuclear power in Fukushima again,” ~ Takeshi Ishihara

                                                 

The wind farm will be paid for using money currently being collected via a feed-in tariff scheme for wind projects set up by the government – Effective from July 1, 2012 money had been collected by a government wind project scheme, and it is this money that will be paying for the wind farm. According to Japan’s Wind Power Association there has already been an 8.2 percent increase in the energy producing capacity of these sort of plants.

Sources:

hindubusinessline.com

 NewScientist

dvice. com

Ref: Images:

Unless otherwise stated all images are royalty free and available for non-commercial public use. Non-credited images with no watermark contained no info’ source to indicate any copyrights.

Japan Nuclear: Exclusion zone dogs

12 Months later…

   

 

On the first anniversary of the March 11 Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster Japan’s nuclear exclusion zone dogs are dying on the streets of Fukushima’s ghost towns from starvation and hypothermia. Fighting to stay alive in freezing sub-zero temperatures 20-30 pets are now dying on a daily basis. They huddle in ravaged remains of abandoned homes, burying themselves in anything they can find, battling to keep the cold at bay.

Gaunt and starving some are now too weak to move, and can only wait helplessly in desperate hope that rescuers will find them in time.

 

       

The fallout from the stricken reactors has turned the 20-kilometre (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant into a dangerously radio-active no-man’s wasteland, the new “Land Of Wolves”.

        

The eerie silence is absolute when you stand in the centre of the exclusion zone, chillingly reminiscent of Chernobyl’s exclusion zone, of ghost towns such as Pripyat…Come -Walk with Me in the Land of Wolves… There should be people but there are no-one, there should be life and activity but instead there is only a strange silence and the occasional sighting of gaunt livestock roaming the empty streets. Thriving towns that only one year ago were home to 80,000 people are now ghost towns, frozen in time.

One year on, animal carcasses lie spoiling in the exclusion zone. Cows and pigs have starved to death, and there is no-one left to attend to their bones still lying in the pens. Cats and dogs have died from disease their bones bleaching on the empty streets where cows and ostriches roam, and frogs and snakes supply the occasional meal to the lucky few cats who venture between the eerily flashing traffic lights, on the deserted streets of Japan’s nuclear ghost towns.

    

Bicycles lie where they have fallen seeming simply forgotten by careless owners. Nearby bus stops stand silent and empty waiting for the next busload of people that will never come. In a deserted shopping centre, rows of cars waiting soundlessly for the return of heavily laden food shoppers…but there is no-one there. Everyone is gone. There is only the mournful whispering of the wind eddying through a small local store its shelf stock scattered across the floor, the consequence of the March 11 earthquake.

        

Local Japanese groups have been very keen to be involved in helping to rescue the animals but with so much confusion surrounding the issue re the safety aspect of handling animals in the radiation hot spots, and the unanswered question of how they should be tested for radio-activity, this has not been an easy task.

With the appropriate cleaning and quarantine period, they should be safe to handle and adopt, according to Timothy Mousseau, a professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina, who has conducted extensive studies on animals exposed to radiation in the Chernobyl region.

Tragically, in the meantime the lost animals of the new Japan exclusion zone are “Dying in the Land of Wolves… “

In Futaba town centre; a sign marking the entrance to the main shopping district. It read, "Nuclear power – the bright future of energy."

		Japan Nuclear Exclusion Zone VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Fukushima’s Radio-Active Pacific Marine Life??

 

 

Following the 8.5 tons of radioactive water which has already leaked just recently at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant (originally estimated at just a few gallons…yes…well…TEPCO would say that…) when a pipe became detached at reactor Unit 4 and caused a temporary suspension of cooling operations at a spent-fuel pool – (a collapse of its spent fuel cooling pool could cause a worse disaster than the three reactor meltdowns), a further leak at a water reprocessing unit released enough beta rays to cause radiation sickness. TEPCO said no one was injured and after the bolts on a tank were tightened the leak stopped …

Hmm….well of course it did…nothing to worry about then…

But there have been at least 30 other locations within the N-Plant where radio-active leaks have occurred since late January!!

Naturally the official report is that no signs of radioactive water from the leaks have been detected leaking into the ocean surrounding the stricken reactor, but as a precaution problem areas have had sandbag walls built around them…

Well that’s alright then! Everything’s nicely under control…no problem at all…just be VERY careful about what you go fishing for in the Pacific Ocean!! After all…who knows what “hot stuff” you might find lurking down there in the now, decidedly radio-active depths!!

Threat to Canadian Fish Consumers from Japanese Radiation ?

In the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, the Canadian government wasted no time reassuring the resident population that they would be safe and sound and there was no danger to their health from Fukushima fallout.

After all there was a nice big ocean for all that escaping Japanese N-plant radiation to fall into, where it would all be safely watered down and therefore be thoroughly harmless and benign, not in the least bit dangerous.

Nothing to worry about…nothing at all…

Not too surprisingly and contrary to claims by the Canadian government anti-nuclear groups highlight the fact that the government has not exactly drawn attention to the radiation risks from Fukushima, in fact quite the opposite, and neither is it doing much to keep an eye on them either.

“We suspect we’re going to see more cancers, decreased fetal viability, decreased fertility, increased metabolic defects — and we expect them to be generational,” ~Dewar, the executive director of Physicians for Global Survival, a Canadian anti-nuclear group.

CONTAMINATION OF FISH IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Given that the largest source of the world’s fish is in the Pacific Ocean, and if these fish are contaminated by radiation and it’s notably serious consequences for millions of marine life consumers, it is surely a reckless disregard of public health and safety that there has been next to nothing done in the way of oceanic sea life testing in the Pacific.

“Fukushima caused history’s biggest-ever release of radiation into the ocean — 10 to 100 times more than the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.” ~oceanographer Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the non-profit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, October 2011

“It’s completely untrue to say this level of radiation is safe or harmless,” said Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. “The reassurances have been completely irresponsible. To say there are no health concerns flies in the face of all scientific evidence. There is no safe level of radiation. They should be making every effort to monitor food.”

 

TESTING AND RESULT REPORTING

But not to worry, even if nobody else is bothering, it would appear that Japan is reassuringly busy thoroughly testing and analysing fish for radiation and is even going so far as to actually report the results in the public arena. It is just rather unfortunate that it saw fit to then go on to sell radiation contaminated food to the Japanese public, who understandably responded with a barrage of criticism.

CFIA stopped doing the tests by CIFA in Having decided, in their great wisdom, June last year, that there was absolutely no need to continue testing, CIFA have agreed to the testing, this year and next, of Pacific salmon and tuna that return to B.C. fishing grounds, but that is all, and this is largely because of the risk of their possible close proximity to Japan.

EVIDENCE THAT THE IMPACTS OF THE DISASTER ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN ARE WORSE THAN EXPECTED.

60 to 80 per cent of Japanese fishing catches each month have consistently tested positive for radioactive Caesium by the Japanese Fisheries Agency. With a half-life of 30 years the most common configuration of radioactive Caesium is a very long-lived radionuclide capable of long term environmental poisoning, topped off with the added bonus of its cancer increasing factor.

According to The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, “The majority of exported fish to Canada are caught much farther from the coast of Japan, and the Japanese testing has shown that these fish have not been contaminated with high levels of radionuclides.”

Japan has announced that in April 2012 it will reduce its current limit for radiation in food from 500 Becquerel’s per kilogram to the new limit of 100 Becquerel’s per kilogram. In contrast Canada’s limit is set at 1,000 Becquerel’s per kilogram. Presumably Canadians have a much higher tolerance to the Caesium radionuclide and don’t suffer the effects the same as everybody else…

BUT !!!

In November 2011 of the 1,100 tested Japanese catches one in five have already managed to exceed Japan’s new up and coming reduced lower limit.

This included:

•   18 % of cod,
•   21 % of eel,
•   22 % of sole
•   33 % of seaweed

Fish catches also exceeded the current Japanese limit for radioactive food contamination- 500 Becquerel’s per kilogram stand at approximately 2.7%, a 1% increase from October.

April 2011 food contamination levels climbed to 373 Becquerel’s per kilogram. Although by November the contamination level had reduced it was still up from the 78 Becquerel’s per kilogram average for October.

Not the greatest of results then.

STUDY OF EFFECTS ON MARINE LIFE

There are hardly any studies into how Fukushima affected marine life.

Of the ones that do one of those studies found that fish and crustaceans caught in the vicinity of Fukushima in late March had:

•   10,000 times more than so-called safe levels of radiation
•   Macroalgae had 19,000 times the safe level

The results of these studies look even worse when it is taken into account the statistics do not include the later dumping of before 11,000 tonnes into the Pacific in April by TEPCO, nor does it include further hundreds more tonnes of radioactive water released that has also leaked.

 

October studies indicated Caesium levels in the Pacific had:

• Shown a shock increase of 45 million times above levels began.

July studies showed:

• Caesium levels ceased to decline.
• Levels persistently at 10,000 times higher than before the Daiichi crisis.

The most likely reason for this are:

•   Contaminated groundwater still leaking radiation from the Daiichi plant
•   The possibility of “biomagnification.”
  •   where radiation concentrations are disposed to intensifying the farther up the food chain the species happen to be.

This conclusion seems to be supported by data from the Japanese fisheries. Far from declining, contamination levels in some species did not reduce at all or at best actually rose last autumn. This applied also to Japanese exports to Canada, and included species such as:

•   Skipjack
•   Tuna
•   Cod
•   Sole
•   Eel

 

CAESIUM AND SPECIES

MOST

AFFECTED

Some Caesium was found in 16 of 22 species in November, the last full month for which data were available. Caesium was especially prevalent in certain of the species:

•   73 % of mackerel tested
•   91 % of the halibut
•   92 % of the sardines
•   93 % of the tuna and eel
•   94 % of the cod and anchovies
•   100 % of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish

Some of the fish were caught in Japanese coastal waters. Other catches were made hundreds of kilometres away in the open ocean.

OCEAN DEBRIS

In mid-December, a year earlier than predicted by scientists and authorities, debris the tsunami swept into the sea has reportedly begun washing on shore along the West Coast.

Exactly what impact on the Pacific the debris will have remains to be seen. The most likely scenario is its joining with the existing garbage floating in the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” of the North Pacific Gyre.

The impact of the debris on the Pacific marine life still has a large question mark hanging over it.

Fukushima Fallout

Radiation on the Nation – The Truth and the Lies

“The story that the world forgot, and that everyone wishes could just be buried under a 10 foot lead plate, not only refuses to go away but is getting worse by the day. “

“The Fukushima, Japan nuclear disaster has 5 nuclear reactors burning, 2 in partial meltdown and 3 in full meltdown- and they’ve all been uncontrollably burning since March 11th. It’s been over 3 months and this nuclear disaster remains completely out of control.”

Fukushima Fallout–Radiation on the Nation

 

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the ‘federal environmental safety agency arm of the US government’ fearing that the American people will learn the TRUTH as regards the exact amount of lethal radioactive fallout afflicting them, has hurriedly shut down the vast majority of its radiation detection monitors. But the food chains and water tables of the nation have already been contaminated by significant amounts of plutonium, strontium, cesium, uranium along with a wide range of other highly radioactive particles. Best not to let onto US residents about that though.

Reports from Japan including one by the Ministry of Science ~ The ABC quoting NHK news, say that concentrations of radioactive strontium 90 has been found in soil samples from 11 sites in Fukushima prefecture, including in Fukushima City, with a citizenship of 290,000 residents, about 60 kms from Japan’s stricken nuclear plant far exceeded the level that triggered compulsory resettlement ordered by Soviet authorities following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.

Strontium 90 is the result of of uranium fusion in nuclear reactors fuel rods. It has a half life of 29 years. It builds up in bone and bone marrow, causing cancer and leukaemia.

Four locations in Fukushima city, outside the nuclear evacuation zone, showed that all soil samples contained caesium exceeding Japan’s legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kilogram (4,500 per pound). . “Soil contamination is spreading in the city… Children are playing with the soil, meaning they are playing with high levels of radioactive substances. Evacuation must be conducted as soon as possible.” ~ Kobe University radiation expert professor Tomoya Yamauchi

Plutonium from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 reactor has been detected in the town of Okuma, about 1.7 km away from the plant’s front gate. It has a half-life of 24,000 years and some other radioactive elements such as uranium have a half-life of 4.47 billion years. So let’s hope that you’re not one of the statistical 1 in 2 unfortunates who will contract cancer in their lifetimes…

The latest news from Fukushima is that the highly radioactive water has started leaking from Reactor #2, into a trench which is located just 180 feet away from the sea. The Telegraph reports: “The water seeping into a trench outside the Number two reactor at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeast Japan had a radiation level of more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour.” (100,000 times the normal level)

TEPCO, is of course here to remind us that this is perfectly normal and 1 sievert water is nothing to be at all worried about:

“We do not believe it is leaking into the ocean. We are now working out where the cause of the leak is and finding ways to remove the water as soon as possible.”

Luckily, nobody believes the lies out of Japan anymore: Too bad they still believe the lies out of the US government.

“In terms of radiation leaking into the sea, this would be diluted very quickly and there would be no particular risk to fish for example ” ~Yoshiaki Oka, a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University, told The Telegraph.

Besides the 22 samples of seaweed tested in May, 10 of which were contaminated, with five times the legal limit of iodine 131, and 20 times of caesium 137, high levels of radioactive caesium (half life of 30 years, making it extremely toxic) have been found in fish off Japan’s east coast, in Ibaraki prefecture about 80 kilometres south of the Fukushima plant.It is believed to have its origins in the overheated fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Also found, radioactive iodine 7.5 million times above the legal limit in seawater near the facility.

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Daily Yomiuri reports: “Fukushima Prefecture began checking the internal radiation dose levels of selected residents Monday, the first step in its plan to examine the health of all its 2 million residents amid the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. About 28,000 residents of Namiemachi, Iitatemura and the Yamakiya district of Kawamatacho were to receive the initial checks.”

120 randomly chosen people will receive examinations by the National Institute for Radiological Sciences in Chiba. The remainder will be checked via questionnaires which will be used to estimate suspected dosages of internal radiation in their bodies.

Estimates naturally being infinitely preferable to knowing exactly.

And just to add insult to injury:

Germany announced it was going nuclear-free. Days later Charles Hendry, the Energy Minister, said the UK will build a new generation of power stations. Very nice of him…Even nicer:

“Government officials launched a PR campaign to ensure the accident at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan did not derail plans for new nuclear power stations in the UK”. ~ The Guardian

“This highlights the government’s blind obsession with nuclear power and shows neither they, nor the industry, can be trusted when it comes to nuclear,” ~ Louise Hutchins, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace

But nevermind…

Radiation from Fukushima? Don’t worry they’re taking care of it. Nothing to worry about. Just walk on by…..

Dogs at Minami Soma, Fukushima Rescued by Japanese Volunteers

Japanese volunteers from a Sheltie Rescue, some in radiation suits, and others in only vinyl raincoats for protection ventured into the nuclear exclusion zone to rescue stray dogs left behind in the empty streets of the abandoned town, Minami Soma in the City of Fukushima, near the nuclear plant, who were still waiting for their owners to return.

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Photos of the pack of Shelties wandering the abandoned streets were displayed on Asahi.com, the website of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper from which information regarding their whereabouts were obtained by Estimi Ogino, a 56 year old volunteer at an animal shelter in the Chiba prefecture. “My heart trembled. They looked just like my dog (13year old Kein) I started searching for them right away.” Estimi passed on the details to the Sheltie Rescue Team who had been receiving emails from dog lovers around the country about the abandoned pack.

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The group contacted the Fukushima city branch of the Japan Collie Club, and via emails and internet research they were able to track down the owner, a breeder in Minami Soma. She was contacted by phone at a shelter and gave her go-ahead to rescue the dogs.

Seven volunteers left Tokyo early Sunday morning driving over wrecked roads and past ruined houses to meet three other volunteers in the ghost town that Minami Soma has become. Some had prepared radiation suits and others wore simple vinyl raincoats. The first two to arrive found the pack around the Odaka train station, near the owner’s home, where Associated Press writer Eric Talmadge and accompanying photographer Hiro Komae last saw the dogs in Minami Soma on April 7. The dogs had been left some dry food, and weren’t starving. It took a while to entice them with snacks, and six or seven were bundled into each car. The group saved 20 dogs in all.

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They were reunited with their happy owner, who did not want to be identified, after being taken to a veterinary clinic in Kanagawa prefecture just west of Tokyo. Others are being cared for by individuals in other areas. But one volunteer Tamika Nakamura said that despite their best efforts there are still dogs out there also waiting for their owners, not yet rescued. Some of the dogs in the Sheltie pack ran away and countless others are still stranded in the evacuation zone. These they are concerned about and it is these the animal rescue team wish to return for.

Minami Soma Exclusion Zone Rescue Dogs VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Remember Chernobyl 1986-2011–World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster

The world marks a quarter of a century since the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine.

Ceremonies were held around the world on Tuesday 26 April to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. But haunted by a strange, eerie resonance and fears over the safety of atomic energy sparked by the Japanese earthquake -created troubles at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear.

 

The Japanese in placing the disaster on the maximum Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the same level as Chernobyl prompted further public fear with almost cosmic timing. reactor with the resulting radiation leak it is an event the world is unlikely to forget.

A service was held by Russian Orthodox, Patriarch Kirill, in the Keiv region in the early hours of Tuesday, striking a bell at 1:23 am – the time the explosion happened. This formally marked the start of the Remembrance Ceremonies.

   

The explosion sent a plume of radiation across Ukraine, Belarus, western Russia and other parts of Europe in 1986. Two workers died in the explosion and twenty eight other rescuers and staff died of radiation exposure in following months. Between 1986-1987 five thousand rescue workers (liquidators) were sent in to clear up the Chernobyl plant, and to decontaminate surrounding areas. Many were not fully aware of the scale of the disaster or the true risks of their exposure to such high levels of radiation.Hundreds received radiation injuries, while thousands of cases of child thyroid cancer in the region may be linked to Chernobyl. Tens of thousands were evacuated and fears still remain and the verdict is still inconclusive on the damage to human health.

 

For some mothers the memories of “bubbling and foaming” bright yellow puddles are still vivid, whilst children born years later are reminded by their cancer-ravaged bodies. In Belarus which received about 70% of the radioactive fallout thousands of children have been treated for cancers. The stricken Fukushima Daiichi has re-lit their fears and they are horrified. They have been through it and wish for no-one else to suffer in the same way.

 

                                      

 

He (Patriarch Krill) then went out to the affected zone to hold an Easter Service at a chapel in the Chernobyl settlement ,to which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made an unprecedented visit alongside Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, to mark the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident.The two men attended a commemoration ceremony at the recently (December 2000) shut-down nuclear power station itself where a reactor exploded in 1986.

Tribute to Chernobyl disaster–Sleeping Sun–April 26 1986

 

Mr Medvedev made his first visit to Chernobyl for Tuesday’s commemoration. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko did not take part in events at Chernobyl.

“The crisis at the Fukushima DaiIchi Plant reminded humankind that we shouldn’t relax” ~ Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

“The events of this day showed that nobody, no matter who they are, can be assured of their safety….and the recent events at Japan’s Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant only confirmed this bitter truth.” ~ Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukowich

 

Mr Yanukovych also stressed the need for global co-operation in nuclear safety, saying: "Chernobyl was a challenge of planetary dimensions. The answer to this challenge can be provided only by the world community." Soviet engineers encased the damaged reactor in a temporary concrete casing (sarcophagus) to limit the radiation but the existing sarcophagus is dilapidated and could leak. Or even worse collapse altogether triggering a large scale radiation release, consequently a new shield is now needed. A donor conference in Kiev, Ukraine, last week raised 550m euros (£486m; $798m) of the 740m euros needed to build a new shelter and a storage facility for spent fuel. The new containment shelter large enough to encase an area the size of “Madison Square Garden” and should be able to completely enclose the old casing and the Chernobyl Reactor 4 by 2015.

 

They also placed the first stone of a monument to clean-up workers and laid flowers at another monument. Officials unveiled a monument dedicated to victims from Belarus.

 

Mr Medvedev has called for new international rules covering safety at nuclear plants. Such rules would permit the "necessary" development of nuclear energy, he said.

"Today, I sent proposals to [world] leaders… aimed at guaranteeing the necessary development of nuclear energy in the world while preventing at the same time catastrophic global consequences [of accidents]," Mr Medvedev said in remarks as he stood in spring sunshine in front of the hulk of the disused plant, according to Reuters. He did not specify what the proposals were.

Soviet officials held off reporting the accident for several days, and Mr Medvedev said the disaster had taught nations of the importance of telling the truth to their people. "The duty of a state is to tell the truth to its people. It must be acknowledged that the [Soviet] state did not always behave correctly," he said." In order for such tragedies never to be repeated we must all be honest, we must provide absolutely exact information about what is going on."

The call for honesty was welcomed by some 3,000 Chernobyl victims who joined a memorial service at a monument in Kiev. They complain that benefits packages for workers made ill by participating in the clean-up have been cut in recent years.

The crisis at Japan’s Fukushima plant has triggered renewed protests over the safety of nuclear power.

 

The legacy of Chernobyl will be remembered for much, much longer than anyone would wish. According to estimates this area of Northern Ukraine will be uninhabitable for at the very least, decades, if not centuries.

                                                

Nuclear Ghost Town: The Reality of Nuclear Accidents and Relocation aka Chernobyl