Our inventions are wont
to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things.
They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
~ Henry David Thoreau
The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing,
self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology.
~ E.F. Schumacher
Since March 27th the Fukushima region has experienced three medium sized
earthquakes not to mention a typhoon to boot (1; 2; 3; 4). This is important
because a Japanese engineer recently admitted that the situation at
the Fukushima No. 1 power station is still dangerous and the unit four
fuel pool is vulnerable to earthquakes (5). Due to unit four’s fragile
condition--the building is said to be leaning to one side--Tokyo Power
Company (Tepco) is “working to fortify the crumpled outer shell of the
building” in order to prevent collapse (6; 7). After the most recent
earthquake Tepco announced there was no problem but the “Fukuichi live
camera” which records activity at the site was shifted slightly to the
left by the tremor (8).
An accident to the fuel pool could set off a chain of events involving
“a total of 1760 metric tons of fresh and used nuclear fuel” among the
six reactors at the disaster site (9). According to Takao Yamada, Expert
Senior Writer at the Mainichi Daily News, Tepco dismissed the idea of
injecting extra concrete to reinforce the unit four building just after
3/11.
“Former Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Sumio
Mabuchi, who was appointed to the post of then Prime Minister Naoto
Kan's advisor on the nuclear disaster immediately after its outbreak,
proposed the injection of concrete from below the No. 4 reactor to the
bottom of the storage pool, Chernobyl-style. An inspection of the pool
floor, however, led TEPCO to conclude that the pool was strong enough
without additional concrete. The plans were scrapped, and antiseismic
reinforcements were made to the reactor building instead.
‘Because sea water was being pumped into the reactor, the soundness
of the structure (concrete corrosion and deterioration) was questionable.
There also were doubts about the calculations made on earthquake resistance
as well,’ said one government source familiar with what took place at
the time. ‘It's been suggested that the building would be reinforced,
and spent fuel rods would be removed from the pool under those conditions.
But fuel rod removal will take three years. Will the structure remain
standing for that long? Burying the reactor in a concrete grave is like
building a dam, and therefore expensive. I think that it was because
TEPCO's general shareholders' meeting was coming up (in June 2011) that
the company tried to keep expenses low.’ ” (10).
Let’s get this straight: because of an upcoming share holders meeting
Tepco could not be bothered to go the extra five yards and spend necessary
money to solidify the building with a stoop from below (excluding the
idea of the sarcophagus)? What kind of blunder is this (and it continues),
putting the inane greed of money junkies in their boardrooms over the
welfare of millions of people and the environment? Life on Earth will
be permanently affected or destroyed if the Fukushima power station
goes up in a radiological blaze, potentially setting fire to 1760 tons
of fuel. This could result in tens of times more radiation than was
released in 1986 in the Ukraine.
Thus we have Tepco, the limited liability corporation par excellence--
privatize profits and externalize costs. But nuclear engineer Arnie
Gunderson noted that “the clean up is going to cost around a half a
trillion dollars” (11). This will wipe out any savings that came from
using nuclear energy in the first place.
This news comes on the heels of learning of revised estimates of the
initial Fukushima disaster which put the amount of cesium released into
the air and water as high as 90% of Chernobyl releases. This is a far
cry from original assessments by the Japanese government that radiation
was just 10 or 15% as much.
“Table S2. Estimated 137Cs releases and inventories....Total air deposition
36 Far €eld air deposition and air transport model Stohl et al....Total
direct release to ocean 27 by July 18 (22 by April 8) Assessment of
ocean 137Cs within 30 km of shore Bailly du Bois et al.”
* Highest estimates by foreign researchers: Fukushima 63 quadrillion
becquerals;
* Japanese government highest estimate: 40 quadrillion bq;
* Chernobyl estimate after two decades of study: 70 quadrillion bq
(12; 13; 14).
* (Special thanks to enenews.com for bringing technical literature on
the Fukushima disaster to public attention.)
Nuclear Fission Fueled By Political Corruption and Financial Terrorism
Yamada offers this blistering critique of Japan’s profoundly dysfunctional
political system:
“The government continues to take regressive steps in spite of the torrent
of criticism it has received and the lessons that should have been learned
since the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear
disaster.
This is evidenced in the fact that starting this week, which marks the
beginning of a new fiscal year, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
(NISA) and the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan (NSC) have no budget.
The new nuclear regulatory agency that was supposed to begin operations
on April 1 in NISA's stead is now floundering amid resistance in the
Diet from opposition parties. In other words, government agencies overseeing
nuclear power now have an even more diminished presence....The situation
doesn't do much for morale, however. Back-scratching relationships between
government ministries, the indecision of both the ruling and opposition
parties, and the unchanging fact that much of the current crisis is
still left in the hands of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)
remains the same” (Ibid.).
The stockholders won’t pay, they get bailed out by taxpayers. We will
all pay through the sweat of our brows and loss of life and health from
the radioactive fallout. The financial terrorists in London, New York
and Tel Aviv don’t care who loses as long as the Global Debt Slavery
System (GDSS) keeps filling their bank accounts at the expense of humanity
and the environment. As a curious aside, it is worth noting that the
infamous Rothschilds dynasty is alleged to be major players in uranium
mining and the promotion of nuclear power, not to mention having their
hands in much of the world’s wealth (15; 16; 17; 18).
Arnie Gunderson Reports
For the first time our top nuclear expert, the intrepid Arnie Gunderson,
has publicly acknowledged that at least some of the destruction at Fukushima
was caused by the earthquake, and not the tsunami as is so often reported
by the mainstream media. This fact was first enumerated by Jake Adelstein
and David McNeil in the Atlantic Wire (19). Gunderson believes the core
is still inside the No. 2 reactor and not causing a China Syndrome,
and says it will be another five years before the Fukushima reactor
cores cool down to the point where they can be dealt with.
The volume and insightfulness of his analysis is worth extensively reviewing.
Despite my hearing from someone in the mainstream science community
derisively refer to Arnie as an outlier, if I had the chance to buy
Gunny a cup of coffee I surely would. While it would be better to have
a wider array of experts who can speak in laymen's terms in order to
compare and contrast their views, most scientists are bought and paid
for by their employers in the University and Military research world.
I have not read of any serious refutation of Gunderson’s Fukushima analysis.
I’ve quoted and paraphrased the following points he made in two recent
interviews (20; 21):
* “It’s pretty clear that unit one at Fukushima Daiichi was in trouble
before the tsunami hit....It was the first one to meltdown, the first
one to explode, first one to run out of water. So, something happened
in unit one before the tsunami hit, I don’t know what it is but obviously
its seismically induced. So that throws a monkey wrench into the industry’s
seismic analysis. These plants were designed to withstand the earthquake
that hit that site....on land a 7.9. The plant was designed to withstand
something that severe, and yet unit one failed and that should be a
major concern.”
* “All of the people of the planet have a deep debt to the thousand
or two thousand men who risked their lives” to tackle meltdowns at both
Fukushima power stations No. 1 and No. 2. These brave men and women
were exposed to high levels of radiation in order to prevent the situation
from worsening, while Tepco and the government just stood by and downplayed
the dangers.
* There are institutional problems in the nuclear industry to keep reactors
that have safety issues running despite the dangers. “Tepco has actually
created this problem by trying to minimize the problem” whereas in fact
“this is a fifty year battle.” From now until 2062 it is “going to cost
a lot of radiation exposure to workers” as well as a half a trillion
dollars.
* The reactors will require five more years of “throwing water on them”
until they physically cool down; cost to dismantle will be 15 billion
dollars per reactor.
* In Unit 2 they were expecting to find water in the container at 5
meters but did not find “any water until until they got to 60 centimeters
(2 feet)...in the bottom of the containment....The core is in the bottom
of the reactor and
containment which definitely indicates a meltdown.” Tepco is pouring
5 - 10 tons of water per day into unit two but the water is disappearing
out of the containment vessel and leaking into the other buildings.
This is due to damage in the suppression pool from the explosion that
occurred after the earthquake. Without the 5 meters of water for shielding
“it will be very difficult to remove any nuclear fuel.” With such high
radiation levels, over 70 sieverts per hour, electronic systems that
control devices such as robots that could remove the fuel, are destroyed
by the radiation.
* The unit 3 fuel pool is just as bad as unit 4 but because of radiation
“no one has ever gotten near it yet....The biggest problem that I see
is the seismic risk because we’ve got fuel pools in Units 4 and 3 and
2 and 1 that are exposed to the atmosphere now and if there is a major
seismic event - especially in Units 3 and 4 - if those fuel pools crack,
we...risk destroying the nation of Japan.”
* Gunderson measured noble gases from Fukushima three times greater
than Chernobyl; he is unsure of cesium but it is definitely higher than
government estimate of 4 petabecquerals and may be up to three times
higher than Chernobyl.
* 78% of the radiation from Fukushima “wound up in the Pacific Ocean”
and the rest on Japan; biomagnification of seafood will lead to radioactive
salmon and tuna in a few years; 2% of Fukushima radiation went to North
America, namely the American and Canadian Cascade Range on the West
Coast.
* 7,000 becquerals per sq kg of soil from Tokyo was measured in five
samples by Gunderson. This exceeds 5,000 which is Japan’s limit for
agriculture. However, “a lot of the land crops over time will gradually
decrease in concentration [of radioactivity].”
* Japanese are treating radioactive waste by diluting it with clean
waste, thereby sweeping the problem under the rug as if the radioactivity
is not significant. What would be treated like radioactive waste in
the US is being diluted and treated as normal waste in Japan, and being
spread all over the country for incineration. This practice may lead
to biomagnification in the food supply-- wild “rabbits are already radioactive!....The
Japanese ‘solution’ is to raise the radioactive standard so high that
the standard is effectively meaningless.”
What Goes Around Comes Around
In Japan there is a media blackout on the topic of burning the 25 million
tons of radioactive debris from the northeast tsunami zone (22; 23).
I’ll bet if you walked around Tokyo and asked people whether they thought
the debris should be burned in public facilities, and that the government
does not publish data on effluent toxicity, they would not agree to
the policy. But since most people “know nothing” it is no problem. People
no longer read newspapers and TV news is superficial, not to mention
that most people don’t watch the news because it’s considered too “boring.”
However, Japan’s decision to ship radioactive debris around the country
in order to share the burden of the disaster has met with some resistance.
In Kyoto there have been vocal protests against receiving the debris.
Maybe lack of data on effluent contamination explains why the government
does not want to tell residents whether they will burn debris or not
(24; 25). I put the question to Iori Mochizuki of the Fukushima Diary:
Q: How can we find out about the about of effluent from chimneys that
will occur from burning of radioactive waste?
A: “That’s now everyone’s question. MEXT says they can filter it out
100% but there is no data, even no official [data]. Only insiders of
those filter makers [have leaked information that] the filters don’t
work at all. Now we are all trying to find out the source” (26).
In other words, although the government reassures the public that no
radioactive effluents will escape incinerator chimneys, there is no
data published to verify this. Rumors that the filters do not block
radiation add to doubts. Even if the filters do block most of the radiation,
considering the huge tonnage being burned, the amount of radiation will
add up. The apparent fact that there is no published data is a logical
fallacy that proves either the government is lying or that they deem
the citizenry to be little more than troublesome cockroaches.
In the past Junichi Sato of Greenpeace Japan told me that incinerators
were 90% more efficient than older models in blocking toxic effluents
(27). But even this means there is a ten percent margin of error on
effluents that can escape, relative to less efficient incinerators.
I assume the government feels this is such a small amount that it is
nothing to worry about, but given municipal incinerators were built
for household waste and not radioactive debris, it is worrying.
When I called the Greenpeace Japan office they referred me to their
website but I could not find any stories on the incinerator issue. I
asked the person over the phone about it and they said that while they
don’t entirely trust the government they have no plans to monitor the
incinerators. I sent an email with questions on this matter but have
not yet received a response.
References
1. Mar 2012 Iwate-ken Oki M6.4
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_local_index.html
2. 30 Mar 2012 Fukushima-ken Oki Magnitude 5.0
Intensity: 3
http://enenews.com/magnitude-5-0-hits-fukushima-multiple-other-quakes-near-same-strength-hit-northeast-japan
3. Magnitude 5.8 - EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
2012 April 01 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0008twh.php
4. Japan Meteorological Agency's Highly Unusual Storm Warning on TV:
"Don't Go Outside"
http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/04/japan-meteorological-agencys-highly.html
5. The Fukushima Lie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFqhKhtB7Q&feature=channel
6. Fukushima...radiation so high - even robots not safe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwO3MDfUeRo&feature=related
7. Japan Nuclear Plant May Be Worse Off Than Thought
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/world/asia/inquiry-suggests-worse-damage-at-japan-nuclear-plant.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
8. Fukushima live camera moved
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/04/fukushima-live-camera-moved/
9. How Much Fuel Is at Risk at Fukushima?
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/03/how-much-fuel-is-at-risk-at-fukushima.html?rss=1
10. In light of further nuclear risks, economic growth should not be
priority
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20120402p2a00m0na002000c.html
11. Russia Today: Gundersen: One Year Anniversary of Fukushima Daiichi
http://www.fairewinds.com/content/gundersen-one-year-anniversary-fukushima-daiichi
12. Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/03/26/1120794109.full.pdf+html?with-ds=yes
13. Scientists: Far more cesium released than previously believed
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201202290025
14. Chernobyl: Assessment of Radiological and Health Impact
2002 Update of Chernobyl: Ten Years On
http://www.oecd-nea.org/rp/chernobyl/c02.html
15. Reasons why the Rothschild Controlled Governments and Media Lie
about the Japanese Nuke Crisis.
http://www.analysis-news.com/Gdetailfolder/Goldsmiths-195.htm
16. Rothschild Bank International, Leading the Push for "New Nuclear"
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rothschild_Bank_International
17. Rothschild World Domination Plan Via Private Nuclear Weapons
http://www.rense.com/general90/roth.htm
18. How the Rothschild Dynasty Operates
http://www.realzionistnews.com/?cat=331
19. Meltdown: What Really Happened at Fukushima?
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/07/meltdown-what-really-happened-fukushima/39541/
20. Interview: Arnie Gunderson, Nuclear Engineer
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1965&category=Environment
21. Podcast with Arnie Gunderson
http://solarimg.org/shows/SolarIMG_podcast_Arnie_Gundersen_280312.mp3
22. Tokyo Starts to Burn Onagawa Debris in Earnest at Incineration Plants
for Regular Household Garbage in 23 Special Wards
http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/03/tokyo-starts-to-burn-onagawa-debris-in.html
23. Disaster Debris Is Radioactive, Ministry of the Environment's Own
Data Shows
http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/03/disaster-debris-is-radioactive-ministry.html
24. Intense protest against sharing radioactive debris policy in Kyoto
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/03/intense-protest-against-sharing-radioactive-debris-policy-in-kyoto/
25. Governor of Kyoto on Disaster Debris: "We May Not Tell Residents"
http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/03/governor-of-kyoto-on-disaster-debris-we.html
26. 50,000 tones of radioactive wastes are over 8000 Bq/Kg
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/03/50000-tones-of-radioactive-wastes-are-over-8000-bqkg/
27. The Ecology of Hope
http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~aslan/ecohope.pdf
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