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TEPCO Director Weeps After Disclosing Truth About Fukushima Disaster
The Daily Mail has released a dramatic picture showing the emotional exhaustion of TEPCO managing director Akio Komori who is openly weeping as he leaves a conference to brief journalists on the true situation at Fukushima, following his acknowledgment that the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens. "A senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis. He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said: 'The unprecedented scale of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, frankly speaking, were among many things that happened that had not been anticipated under our disaster management contingency plans." This is precisely as Zero Hedge had expected would happen all along, following our recurring allegations of a massive cover up by the Japanese government. And furthermore as we predicted a week ago when we said that continued government lies and subversions would make the situation untenable once the population loses faith in the government, this is precisely what has happened.
A contrite Komiri crying after he discloses the truth:
And for those who believe the lies that TEPCO and the government has any control over the situation we suggest you read the following:
Deputy director general of the NISA, Hideohiko Nishiyama, also admitted that they do not know if the reactors are coming under control.
He said: 'With the water-spraying operations, we are fighting a fire we cannot see. That fire is not spreading, but we cannot say yet that it is under control.'
And Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency said workers were in a 'race against the clock' to cool the reactor.
Attempts to quell the overheating plant with waterbombs from helicopters yesterday failed and despite the army pelting the site with water cannon, radiation levels rose higher.
Engineers are also working to restore power to the coolant pumping system knocked out by the tsunami.
Also, the Mail shows a dramatic photo of a crane used to move spent fuel rodes into a now empty storage pond.
pictures emerged showing overheating fuel rods exposed to the elements through a huge hole in the wall of a reactor building at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant.
Radiation is streaming into the atmosphere from the used uranium rods at reactor number four, after a 45ft-deep storage pool designed to keep them stable boiled dry in a fire.
And some of the radioactive material could reach Britain within a fortnight, according to experts.
However they say it will not be dangerous when it reaches our shores while low levels of radiation have already hit Southern California.
And while we descrbed the worst case scenario, i.e., the Chernobyl Solution, earlier, there is still hope for a last ditch deux ex machina over the weekend.
There was a potential breakthrough when engineers succeeded in connecting a power line to Reactor 2. This should enable them to restore electricity to the cooling pumps needed to prevent meltdown.
But it is not certain the system will work after suffering extensive damage.
Unfortunately, judging by how horrendously the government and the utility have handled the crisis so far, we are extremely skeptical any further attempts to improve the situation with fail spectacularly. In the meantime, the Japanese economy is slowing grinding to a halt as more people leave Tokyo, as factories lie dormant, and as high tech supply chains are suddenly halted. Out estimate, unlike that of an increasingly less than credible Bloomberg, is that the adverse impact to 2011 world GDP will be well at least 2% when all is said and done just factoring the events to date. Should the situation continue to stagnate it will get far worse.
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There's no crying in nuclear power!
From someone who has had the experience of working with Japanese Executives and Upper Management, for a Director (or someone in a high position as his) to start crying in shame is a big fucking deal.
This incident alone is enough to tell me that this is one mega cRuster-FRUCK.
zakennayo bizunichusu!
ABSOLUTELY
IQ145 and Mathman: get on the phone and tell the poor bastard it's OK.
Brilliant. Thanks for sharing. Got me wondering what was the decade that literature died? Was it 1980? I cannot think of one seminal work that was produced/written after 1979. All that flashes on the inner eye, so to speak, is a half naked maddona, humping crosses and 'write-bytes" that went for books and "sound-bytes" that became music, ever more dissonant.
As evidenced below (and above, hallelujah), we truly are a-drift, no anchor, no keel and actually rudderless too.
The hymn of the breaking strain. Awesome.
ORI
https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/an-older-piece-pertinent/
English Literature - oxymoron
The name of the book is 'Infinite Jest' and it is a true work of genius in English Literature written by David Foster Wallace, published in 1996. I warn you though: it makes War and Peace look like a haiku.
Thanks Paul. Will check it out.
Meanwhile, September last year, rather since July last year, I have had this fore-boding about Nuclear energy, and on September 20th, 2010, had written this:
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/nuclear-revelation-a-bomb-indeed/
It's been long known that "it" would come to "this".
We are in the twilight zone, for sure.
ORI
Are you sure he's crying or did he just eat too much wasabi?
when you get time check out the before and after satellite photos of the tsunami...unreal pictures
http://nakedempire.wordpress.com/
Wow, that's harsh.
+1 for the info
What concerns me is not that a soccer field or airport has been demolished, but that agricultural fields nearby were destroyed.
I'm thinking that there are going to be food shortages, particularly rice.
~Misstrial
I've been thinking that for days now. Fields contaminated with salt, oils, gasoline, etc. not to mention the solid materials. Stripping the top layer of soil to remove the contaminants will remove the best of the 'live' soil. The tsunami stripped the greenhouses, packing and shipping buildings, tractors and equipment, etc. Add to that the fact that a large portion of their seagoing fishing vessels, the docks and port facilities, processing centers, etc. are all gone or damaged. With the world's food supply strained by other natural disasters, weather, etc. and governments trying to stockpile food to quell unrest, leaves a lot hanging out there about future food supplies and pricing. Japan will become a much larger importer of food to feed it's people and they(and we) will be paying the price...
I don't wish this to sound flippant, but I'm sure Japan's corporate argiculture is rubbing their hands in glee about the prospect of finally being able to come in and buy all those smaller and midsized lots for pennies on the dollar after their efforts to buy were rebuffed for several generations.
All those small farms that have been in the family for generations will now be stressed to the max to rebuild if there is any family left to rebuild. Think about this for a while and you will see why large corporations find "opportunity" in disaster.
I suspect that the Japanese government will pass laws that condem large tracks of farm land in the name of the national interest of getting that land back into food production. Guess who or what will be directing this operation from the back room and who will be ready with checkbook in hand? At the same time the corporations and government will conveniently ignore insurance companies who drag their feet paying claims on the family farm equipment and buildings. It's right out of the playbook.
CD:
As someone who goes out of her way to purchase produce from non-corporate local sources and small family farms I completely get what you're posting. Surely this tragedy will exact a toll on Japanese farmers, many who've been doing this for generations on the same family-owned land held by their forebears.
A similar situation occurred in the Dust Bowl during the 1930's where small farms were bought up by single mega farms, which is how 25k+ acre farms of today originated.
My family on one side endured this loss, having come out to California in the aftermath.
Shout-out to San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market: http://www.slocountyfarmers.org
~Misstrial
Crops will include "glow carrots" that can be peeled in the dark.
krispkritter - Agree and also to mention nuclear fallout materials with various half-lifes. These radioactive materials will destroy beneficial soil bacteria and organisms for years to come.
Very tragic situation...
~Misstrial
666 comments and 666 new comments as I just opened this story. I'm just saying.
great, you gonna go all godder on us again...?
(rolls eyes)
tehehe....godder
I'm not obsessed with church and religion. Numerology is a very strange beast. I've had my fair share. I'm still trying to figure it out.
3
42
+33...liberty street
Obviously, you didn't read the linked story OR the comments before posting, for that you get one official "Sock Puppet(TM)" junking from yours truly.
I did read the article. It had no hard numbers, just an emotional outburst from a TEPCO employee who is probably a bit overstressed right now. Good theater, but no hard facts.
I think junking posts of people who disagree with you is a symptom of a narrow, closed mind. So I will not be returning your junk.
Perhaps you should go back to school and learn to read before you are allowed to use something as powerful as a "Junk" button Benny Boy.
"...Later, six fire engines and a water cannon tried to spray the building with 9,000 gallons of water from high pressure hoses. However, radiation levels within the plant rose from 3,700 millisieverts to 4,000 millisieverts an hour immediately afterwards.
People exposed to such doses will suffer radiation sickness and many will die. Today Tokyo Electric Power, which owns the plant, will try to restart the reactor's cooling systems after workers connected a half mile long power cable from the national grid to Reactor 2...."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367684/Nuclear-plant-chief-weeps-Japanese-finally-admit-radiation-leak-kill-people.html#ixzz1GzBJgl9Y
Not to mention the extensive discussion just below this dealing with the whole Sievert subject.
How's the crow today?
It said that levels within the plant were 3,700 to 4,000 mSv/hour. The people spraying would probably have been outside the plant, so they were probably exposed to much less radiation. Also, it says the radiation levels rose an hour immediately afterwards, implying the people doing the spraying were gone by that time in any case. As I recall, the company pulled workers from around the plant for a short period when radiation levels spiked, and then sent them back when radiation levels went back down.
I just heard on NHK that levels inside plants 1 & 2 were in the 20-30 mSv/hr range IIRC.
It's simply critical to distinguish between micro and milli. i have seen numerous examples of where these two were intermixed. NHK has reliably used micro.
o At 7:30PM on March 18, radiation level outside main office building (approximately 1,640 feet from Unit 2 reactor building) of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: 3,699 micro Sv/h.
o Measurement results of ambient dose rate around Fukushima Nuclear Power Station at 4:00PM and 7:00PM on March 18 are shown in the attached two PDF files respectively. [pdf1|pdf2]
micros make such a large number.
<engineering-units-police-warning-light> is lit
and gets more confusing, since Sv is dose equivalent (instantaneous rate) but instead of integrating that dose over time (Sv(t) over time period t1..t2=total integrated dose for this instance) gets displayed as Sv/hr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert
- Ned
{but it is only 14 thingiez of debt, why, I owe $23,000 on my credit card. That's almost double!}
So how many (micro's) before the average joe starts getting ill...really ill, like wearing a wig ill?
Basically at one sievert they start saying things like 'recovery is not assured' and 'more severe spleen damage'....
Spleen damage just means Bad in my book.
1 to 2 Sieverts is where you get radiation sickness (nausea, fever) a little while after exposure. Life expectancy at 1 Sv is considered 100%. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_sickness for more details.
Microsieverts is 1/1000th of a Sievert, so 1000 microsieverts/hr = 1 Sv/hr. So they're saying 4,000 microsieverts per hour in the "hot" spots, so that means 15 minutes exposure gets you to a Sievert and you're looking at illness.
Scary as this sounds, relative to Chernobyl this is practically nothing. (This is one reason I am skeptical we're getting the real radiation measurements as well.) Chernobyl's hot spots were about 3600 Sv/hr. In other words, you'd get 60 Sv exposure in a single minute -- certain death and almost instantaneous incapacitation.
Wearing a wig ill is probably somewhere around 5-10 Sv. So maybe 1 to 3 hours. And likely cancer in the long term.
Micro = 1/1,000,000 = 1E-6.
Messing up micros and millies is likely to accelerate the acquisition of the willies.
.
µSv = micro
µSv x 1000 = milli Sv or mSv
The MontyPython-SimpleScale Nuclear Radiation Code =
1 - Tis' but a Scratch
2 - Your Arms Off
3 - I'll Have Your Other Arm
4 - I Don't Want to go On the Cart
5 - What behind the Rabbit? It is the Rabbit!
6 - Jesus Christ,,,,, that Rabbit's Dynamite!
Old school basis:
1 Sv = 100 Rem
5 Sv = 500 Rem, 50% fatalities
The new limit of 250 milli Sv = 25 Rem = blood white cell count decrease
Ben you said the article had "No hard numbers." I didn't give you the sock puppet junk for disagreeing. I junked you for not reading the article, and for not reading the article's ZH Comments section where there was already a discussion underway about the possibility that the Daily Mail article contained yet another significant milli vs. micro Sievert error.
You simply waltzed in and posted yet another MSM Puff Piece cut/paste as high up in the comments section as you could. The actions of a typical Troll. Those of us who have really been following this story are very well aware of what the BBC and NHK outlets have been saying.
Your pathetic attempt at backpedalling just makes you look like even more of an ass, one with extremely poor reading comprehension skills.
I definitely will be making a contribution to the Japanese relief effort.
May God strengthen and guide the Japanese leaders in their efforts to control the nuclear plants.
Donations can be made at:
american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?5052.donation=form1&df_id=5052&idb=0
Sadly, the Red Cross happens to be one of the Scariest "non-profit" organizations in the world. Its control is fought for between a host of vampires (figurative).
Think about it, they control the "ex-human" blood supply of the world.
Want to vector a disease somewhere? hmmmm. Introduce a new virus?
Pretty scary stuff.
ORI
no, we junk you cuz you're fucking dumb
You're a fucking moron - do you work for TEPCO?
uhhhhhhhh...... right . whatever u say. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
Believe what you like. However I am a real person, not associated with the US government or the nuclear industry (and I never have been). I have no nuclear related investments, and haven't had any in the past ten years. At one time I did own a bit of stock in GE.
Then you've got more normalcy bias than Harry Wanger and RobotTrader put together.
You just keep telling yourself everything is fine, even as your world comes crashing in on your head. No need to take a few quick and simple steps to protect yourself. You go ahead and squawk like a chicken on the way to being slaughtered that they are just going to take a few of your eggs, nothing to worry about.
Well if someone had spoken up at the Salem witch trials saying that things were being overblown and that there really was no danger from witches, he probably would have been burned at the stake.
However, I'll make you a deal. If you can ever provide me solid information that even one civilian (not a worker at the plant) has died from radiation exposure from Fukushima, I will stop posting forever. I want the name, date of death, and cause of death. Or if you can provide me with solid proof that more than 5 workers at the plant died from radiation exposure, I will stop posting on ZeroHedge forever. Of course, people may have died from the hydrogen explosions or the tsunami itself, or possibly from collapsing buildings, etc. These are not included in the deal. Only people who die from radiation exposure.
Until then, you will just have to put up with me! Sorry about that!
Big Ben is correct, the fears are completely and totally overblown. There are 15k thousand people who are either dead or missing from the earthquake and tsunami, yet the doomers on ZH continue to argue that the Fukushima is much worse.... even though it is ranked the same as Three Mile Island. And guess how many people died at three mile island? Exactly Zero.
All the ZH doomers should get back to burying silver and canned hams in the backyard and stop the fear mongering.
Thanks a lot Math Man! Having solid people like you backing me up really makes me feel good!
I also promise never to post on ZeroHedge again if silver goes below $20/oz any time this year.
Having Math Man back you up is not necessarily a good thing. He is 'move on, nothing to see here' personified.
Silver? He believes silver will definitely drop below $20 this year.
Puts his money where his mouth is, supposedly... more than 100 June contracts, as I recall; let's see how they look in 3 months.
They looked pretty damn good when I sold half of them tuesday morning. I was up this week. How'd you guys do?
P.S. I bought them back today.
Silver will drop below $20
LMFAO > "Silver will drop below $20" < ROTFLMFAO
Bullshit. I bet you don't have two dimes to rub together.
Math Man you sound like one of these fund managers who always wants to tell us what they did after the event with perfect market timing (funny old thing), not what they're going to do with all the bullshit and missed opportunity it involves.
I started buying gold when the futures price hit $260. I'm still holding it and have done since, volatility and all.
I bought silver at below $10 and I'm still holding that. I have no intention to sell until both gold and silver are back in money, even if it does drop below $20... which I would bet it won't.
I do bet it won't, that's why I hold it...
Perhaps it didn't come through well in my post, but my thank-you to Math Man was intended as friendly sarcasm. I own a bunch of silver, so if it goes down to $20, not posting on ZeroHedge would be the least of my worries.
To give MM his due, if there was a big selloff on Wall Street, it might take silver down with it, at least temporarily. But I don't think we will see $20, and I still have hopes of seeing $50.
I don't think that that is his arguement.
No, it isn't. But perhaps he might get lucky and be right for all the wrong reasons. As I said, I'm not expecting to see $20 silver again.
Silver will go tp $0, papersilver that is. Physical silver will go into hiding a while paper burns.
This former Naval Nuke thinks things are much worse than is being reported.
Every day we hear "things are getting better" while in fact the next day's reports are worse. So far the damages are limited. If there is fall out over Tokyo it matters not how dangerous the problems will become more severe.
If they order Tokyo residents to stay indoors start sewing your diamonds into the liner of your coat.
I am so GLAD that I am now down here visiting in Peru with no risk of death from earthquakes and nuclear radiation. (12,000 plus deaths in Japan in earthquake and tsunamis, 1 from radiation).
Oh, wait..... Well, safe at least from fallout. I feel even better now!
Math Man, you are SO CORRECT about danger from radiation in a big quake.
...
Oro, Putaz!
I have a friend who just returned from Peru after teaching English in remote villages for two years. He told me that these villages use coca paste and gold as their primary currencies. He told me that gold in his village was selling for 400 USD / toz. I've informed my friend that he's taking me when he goes back. I plan on taking them off the gold standard (wink, wink) . . .
@Big Ben
http://www.xdtalk.com/forums/xdtalk-chatter-box/171112-50-japanese-technicians-stay-behind-try-avert-disaster.html
though we won't know the truth until much later...
I don't want to play down the heroism of the Japanese technicians. I am just betting (hoping maybe) that the company will have the good sense to pull them out if radiation levels become too high and that most of them will pull through.
Math Man is absolutely correct.
Tsunami - 10,000+ dead
Nuke - 0 dead
Fukushima Daiichi is rated a 5 by INES, the same as TMI. Also 0 dead.
The reactor cores are contained. There is no "meltdown" outside the containment vessel.
IMO, the plant design has performed well under a catastrophic event, well beyond design criteria. The major problem is maintaining water levels in the cooling ponds due to loss of all electrical power, and this problem will be alleviated in a few days.
Sure, some mistakes have been made. You get a 9.0 quake and a 10 m tsunami overrunning your ass and you won't remember to cut off the light switch on your way out the door either.
You just move those goalposts. Let's redefine "meltdown" such that it isn't really a meltdown until it hits the center of the earth.
Here's a hint: the coolant systems are shot, and the spent fuel storage facilities are dry. Japan is fucked. Get over it.
It is obvious that you are misinformed about TMI. I challenge you to take your pregnant wife over there and raise your children, or try to grow vegetables at TMI and eat them. In my years I have seen patsies that work for nuclear plants, mines, and toxic waste dumping factories actually drink water from contaminated rivers and lakes in an attempt to tell the public that everything is fine. One of my college mates visited TMI for two months while he conducted research. He was diagnosed with cancer at 36 and passed away. I also met a photographer that visited Chernobyl after the fall of the Soviet Union. Diagnosed with cancer as well. Died only a month after his return. Would you like to move to Fukushima?
God you are so stupid. TMI WAS a big deal. It froze the nuclear industry in this country. What do you think is going to happen now?
What the fuck do you think is going to happen when Tokyo is irradiated? You think it'll be business as usual again next week?
And any comparison to TMI is bullshit. There has already been UNCONTROLLED venting of radioactive material into the atmosphere. That never happened at TMI. We are one single explosion away from Chernobyl. We are two explosions away from Chernobyl x 2, three away from Chernobyl x 3, etc.
So why don't you take your loser ass and go on a vacation to Japan. I'll pay for your ticket, douchebag.
So a 100x higher incidence of cancer 10 years down the road is OK with you?
NHK reporting current radiation levels
#1 reactor - 10 milliSv
#2 reactor - 15 milliSv
Tepco workers exposed to 100 milliSv
Wikipedia says radiation at West Gate peaked at 10Sv
100 milliSv is not life threatening. You can get 90milliSv from a single CT scan. (But most CT scans might be in the 10-30milliSv range.)
10Sv whole body exposure over a short period of time would almost certainly kill you. Let us hope that no one was at WestGate then.
How about sources? You are just spouting off shit like you have the trutch tucked in your pocket.
The WHO has this little paper which says a FULL BODY CT SCAN is 12mSv. Your "90" is just a little off ... and far closer to what "liquidators" who "cleaned up around chernobyl" had to absorb.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs303/en/index.html
Regards,
Cooter
My original post has been removed. Perhaps TPTB at ZeroHedge didn't like it.
But in my original post, I referred to an article in Science magazine (I think it was February 24 or 25 of this year. I could be off a few days on the exact date.) The article said that even though manufacturers quote a dose of 8 to 10 milliSv per CT scan, when the researcher actually measured the dosages at a number of hospitals they were typically much higher, up to 90 milliSv per scan in some cases. It appears that the calibration was way off in many cases. And doctors sometimes programed scans to give higher doses.
I am sorry that I don't have a link to the article. But it also said that 67 million CT scans were performed in the US in the last year and that one researcher had calculated that these would result in tens of thousands of extra cancers, just for those 67 million scans. His claims are controversial, however.
Edit: I found this link to the article:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6020/1002.summary
However, you only get a summary and I don't think you can read it without a subscription.
100 milli Sv is 10 Rem/hour. After 50 hours in this field you have a 50% chance of survival if you are in a hospital. Are you volunteering for a weeks duty?
My understanding is that the Japanese health ministry set a total exposure limit of 250 milliSv and that TEPCO had a lower limit of 100milliSv which recently raised to 150milliSv. And they said that they would not send anyone back to the plant once that 150milliSv limit is reached. That is 150milliSv total. So if a technician spends 10 hours in a 15milliSv/hour field, he is out of the plant and he is not coming back. So if they keep to that promise, then no one would be exposed to dangerous levels.
And it would be extremely silly for them to leave workers in the plant to be exposed to lethal levels of radiation. They have enough bad publicity already.
I think that the danger would be that there would be an unexpected explosion or something that would cause radiation levels to spike to extremely high levels, before anyone had time to evacuate.
And no, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that plant. I have nothing but admiration for the workers there.
Hmmm, I can't find the names of any Africans who died of starvation, therefore no-one in Africa has died of starvation therefore Africa is just super. Can't find any dead Zimbabweans either, so I guess hyperinflation is no big deal.
This isn't about Japanese dropping dead from radiation. This is about contamination of one of the few remaining great industrial bases on the Earth. I don't know if you have been paying attention, but pretty much all the manufacturers in Tokyo have shut down.
Your normalcy bias is simply staggering.
The news media is virulently anti-nuclear. You can be sure that if anyone dies from radiation exposure, we will see pictures of the funeral, interviews with the grieving family members, and so on.
The tsumami was absolutely a major disaster. No argument there! There will certainly be major consequences.
But I think that manufacturers have shut down due to tsunami damage (not being able to get things in and out because of damaged roads, lack of electrical power, etc.), not because of radiation from Fukushima. I think that Fukushima is being massively over-hyped, and other more serious problems are actually being under reported.
It is curious that there can be a famine in Africa with hundreds of thousands starving, and you might see one or two articles about it (not on the front page). Whereas Fukushima has been front-page news for a week. It would seem that the news media is not very concerned about Africans.
Africa isn't the world's third largest economy, not even collectively.
We are economists, not humanitarians. We care about facts, and discuss the impact of world events on the markets. You and Methhead don't seem to understand that. You try to shut down all discussion by labeling us. "Doomers".
Go fuck yourself.
First you accuse me of not being concerned about starvation in Africa. Then you turn around and argue that Africa is not important because it doesn't affect markets.
I am not calling ZeroHedgers "doomers". Actually I think that a lot of the economic analysis on ZeroHedge is spot-on. My beef is with the news media, not ZeroHedge or ZeroHedgers.
I also don't subscribe to Math Man's silver to $20 thesis. I think that Math Man just jumped in because he was jealous that I might exceed his record for junks.
I need a good Melville quote here .
I need a bigger boat! ;-) - Ned
So basically you have no clue about what the fuck you are talking about but since you read that this is no big deal then it isn't - fucking brilliant.
BBC = British Brainwashing Corporation
Right BigBen! Im sure its always safe to side with the media story on things, theyre so truthfull and all.
The vast majority of the media is claiming that this is a huge danger. I have always wondered whether Big Oil might be somehow responsible for funding anti-nuclear groups and placing stories in the media in order to make people afraid of a potential competitor. I have no proof of this whatever.
I have always wondered whether Big Nuclear might be somehow responsible for funding anti-Global Warming groups and placing stories in the media in order to make people afraid of a (putative) rise in temperature of 1 or 2 degrees... over a century.
The vast majority of the media is claiming that this is a huge danger. I have no proof of this whatever.
You guys are both thinking like Zero Hedgers. Don't forget to sleep.
I don't really understand. Could you please tell us more about 'how Zero Hedgers think'?
They don't. They just say 'fuck' a lot.
Yeah. Fuck a lot!
I don't think that Big Nuclear is all that big. How many new nuclear plants have been constructed in the last couple of decades? I think Big Nuclear is a dwarf compared to Big Oil.
Also, if you believe the media is hyping global warming, why wouldn't you also consider the possibility that they are also hyping nuclear radiation?
I think that they just like a good doom-and-gloom story, particularly if the doom is coming from anything remotely related to technology or industry.
It's fairly common knowlege that the whole global warming scam got started when Margaret Thatcher went looking for a way to turn around the British public's opposition to nuclear power. Nuclear was supposed to be the form of energy least responsible for global warming right up there with solar and wind power. So no, big nuclear is not funding anti global warming groups.
Up to now I was letting you slide but if you think oil companies have anything to do with anti nuclear propaganda you're really full of shit. Go away.
Remember the offer that I made above. If Fukushima is as big a disaster as you are all claiming, I'll be gone soon enough.
anyone who relies on zionist controlled BBC for their news is a moron. That broadcaster lost all credibility years ago.
You are a sad, dejected, moron.
Look, dickhead - let's try this one more time -
Dental X-rays & scans take just a few seconds of exposure to ionizing radiation. Fallout is forever, or at least several half-lives, depending on the elements involved. For a limited mind such as yours, visualize that scanner or X-ray machine running 7/24/365, aimed at you - then tell me the radiation exposure is safe.
It appears Einstein was correct - the only infinites are the universe and human stupidity. Thanks for setting such a great example.
Actually, exposure to radiation over a short period seems to be a lot more harmful than exposure to exposure to the same amount of radiation over a long period of time.
For example, someone could go out and sunbathe for 15 minutes every day for a year with no harmful effects. Perhaps it might increase the chances of coming down with skin cancer very slightly. But suppose that the sun somehow became 365 times brighter. Then going out for 15 minutes would be fatal. Same amount of radiation, fatal if absorbed in a short period of time, but harmless over a long period. Same with nuclear radiation. The body has mechanisms to deal with radiation and as long as you don't overwhelm them, little harm is done.
There is also some evidence that low levels of radiation are actually beneficial, reducing your chances of coming down with cancer. This claim is controversial, but it has been speculated that low levels of radiation may increase the DNA repair mechanisms in cells and reduce the number of cancer mutations. It is known that there are places in Brazil and India where the background radiation levels are around 100 times larger than normal. People live their entire lives in these places, and there has been no documented increase in cancer rates in these populations.
It is difficult to say how much contamination there will ultimately be, but I suspect that most of the evacuated people will be able to return to their homes in a few months to a year when radiation levels drop to the point that excess radiation dose from Fukushima over an entire lifetime would be less than one dental x-ray.
The radiation risk that I would worry about would be from CT scans, but most people don't give them a second thought and there is nothing about this danger in the news media. There were 67 million CT scans in the US last year, many of them unnecessary. There is an article in Science magazine where a scientist calculates that 67 million scans would cause 28,000 extra cancers. That claim is also controversial, but I saw nothing about it in the news media.
Science magazine, wow, ok then.
dupe.
Oh, how silly of me! Those scientists who have been studying radiation and cancer for years obviously know nothing. The author of the article is a radiologist, by the way. Not someone associated with the design of nuclear reactors. There is a link to a summary of the article in one of my other posts.
And here I thought that I was passing along a bit of information that might help prevent a ZeroHedger or one of their family members from coming down with cancer. Please by all means disregard the warnings about CT scans. Have as many as you like.
Maybe if you mentioned "radiation hormesis" some of the bright boys here could look it up.
Wow. You need to return to school.
There is a difference between "light" radiation (which is absorbed by the melanin in your skin), and "decay" radiation. When you turn up the light radiation such that it overwhelms the melanin, you literally start oxidizing--burning. There is NO method for defense against the various products of decay radiation. The decay products simply zip through your body until they hit some DNA and cause damage. NO AMOUNT of this type of radiation will cause you to oxidize. Well, no reasonable amount. Maybe if you got within a few miles of the surface of a star with a perfect heat shield that let such decay products through. Instead, it will simply destroy all of the DNA in all of your cells until your cells no longer function and you die. This is a cumulative process. The methods our body has to repair such damage are extremely limited.
Further, you are nuts if you think this radiation is going to drop off in a year. The shortest lived species has a half life of about 8 years. That means that the radiation level from said species gets cut in half every 8 years. If levels are 1000 times acceptable levels, that means you couldn't move back for 80 years. Others have much longer half lives. God forbid any plutonium gets out. If it does, the sun will die before that area becomes habitable again.
But hey, feel free to continue spouting off your uninformed bullshit that you read in a second rate popular magazine, where you have fully misinterpreted what was written by people who misinterpreted the source material.
"Over-hyped" or not the costs are fuking awesome (stock market collapse, clean up, property now radioactive etc etc)
This is a series of political mistakes from 'going nuclear' for electricity generation (expensively financially dumb) to siting them on a coastal high risk tsunami zone (tragically geographically dumb).
And let's not forget GE who redesigned these submarine units for electricity generation (clever eh?) ...and slippery little shits that they (GE) are slinkered away from all future liabilities too (bend over Japanese politicians for a 3rd time).
I don't think you can over-estimate the mess here
he needs to pull it fucking together
" Sat Mar 12, 2011. Dear Mr President and Officials of the US Military. Please send a C5b with mobile generators at once. One of our reactor facilities is out of electricity and although we are trying everything in our power to correct the situation we find it prudent to ask our American Friends for some help in this most pressing situation. -- Singed: Tepco Director"
"Dear Tepco Director, This is the Presicent of the USA. My associates in the US military strategic command have notified me of the gravity of the situation of your power plant being out of electricity. The needed electrical generators will be there within hours as I have directed SAC to to send them out of Travis AFB in California. My associates inform me that the roads are not passable and have left it to their discretion as to how to best get you these generators by air, by land or by sea. -- Signed, Pres USA
What is this???
What should have happened.
"... -- Singed: Tepco Director"
Are you trying to be funny?
Are you looking for missing persons? Tepco? You are joking?
Honorable Seppuku in his future.
If that effeminate creature has any honor, I would be shocked.
GET A GRIP MAN!!
SMAK SMAK SMAK + free one: SMAK!
Right-on, Haywood.
A cultural difference is missed by most of the cybermacho respondents here. This is a profoundly powerful statement. The only cultural equivalent for us would be suicide. This is a BFD!
Also, TEPCO does not operate in a vacuum. He is taking the fall for the government and military, too.
The Emperor is where? Will the Emperor stay in Tokyo and glow in the dark? It would be the Emporor-kind-of-thing to do, most honorable. A month from now, when the Emperor sets off radiation detectors at O'Hare, there will be a lot of senior officials, including the Prime Minister, standing and crying in public humiliation.
You will never see that from the thugs who scornfully run our peasant asses.
Excellent analysis Newsboy. I wonder if the benbernank will shed public tears when he finally realizes that he has ignored and denied the most widespread and catastrophic financial meltdown in the history of mankind?
Domo Arigato, Rogan San...
Excellent analysis Newsboy. I wonder if the benbernank will shed public tears when he finally realizes that he has ignored and denied the most widespread and catastrophic financial meltdown in the history of mankind?
No. He has fully adopted situational ethics as his life philosphy. This coupled with his messiah complex and actually being in charge of something that has widespread impact on the world makes him the most dangerous man in the universe. I wonder, is he satan or someone who really likes the idea of the torments of hell?
Satan's poolboy.
Good one 777. Missed you this week. Although my disgust of things forced a couple of days off.
LOL lip-quiver boy almost cried on 60 mins! I think he is crying now....
very well put
He has the same cowed body language as the high-level Soviet and Chinese officials after they had confessed to counterrevolutionary or running-dog type sentiments and were heading to Siberia or some reeducation camp.
+1 Breaker an astute observation. If Seppuku was still an option (and I'm not sure it isn't) that would be the next logical step.
This revelation has returned the Dread to my mind. Wednesday evening, walking through Union Square in S.F. and not hearing any of the crowd talking about Japan, I felt perhaps I was just a little paranoid...
Seppuku is an option, and televised would be the most effective way to give an embattled nation a little catharsis for its travails.
Geesh guys, take it easy on him. It was the result of a natural disaster after all.
Maybe I don't get it but I'm sure they tried their hardest to keep it under control.
This is epic disgrace. I wish our US leaders had this type of integrity.
? I thought TEPCO had a pretty bad record
Respectfully Judy. This little prick hid what was happening for a week! Look at those containment buildings. Notice the rod loading crane/palate (green) venting from the containment vessel. I live on the West Coast!
That nuclear engineer could have spoken up! This isn't a Godzilla FLIK. Transparency is a good thing. Hence the Roman Empire!
Actually the Japanese tend to be jumpers. Usually from a parking garage at least 4 stories up.
+1 TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU.
There is no Japanese Emperor, did you see that poor quality CGI speech? Some second division FX guys got the head totally out of proportion to the body.
Indeed...and you don't see any looting, theft, or gangs roaming the streets after the Tsunami (at least none that is reported)....
The Japanese seem considerably superior to us in that regard.
Mind you, there wasn't much left to loot, was there?
"us"? Are you black?
LOL. Call 'em like you see 'em.
Mr. Tepco is not a public servant.
He is a mercenary whose only ambition was profit and to cut as many costs as possible for TEPCO.
TEPCO will pay no damages as this was the agreement with the government.
He, and his ilk, should just take deep breathes as close to the reactors as possible.
My only concern is for the homeless, those that are ill, starving, cold, and suffering.
it's not "cybermacho" to want the guy responsible for a shit ton of people's lives to hold it together in front of the cameras and not cry like an 8 year old girl, this is when you need strong leadership, if he's crying he's probably not thinking how to best handle the situation, need some people to take fucking charge and man up in dire, stressful situations
The Director needs to be dumped into the reactor buildings with a bucket and mop to fix things. The f**ker should commit hari-kari. He helped f**k his country.
Still the corrupt Japanese govt is less corrupt than the USA.
looka t it this way, at least he had the balls to spill the beans and fess up to it. The directors at BP still to this day deny the truth...
+100
When was the last time we heard any high level public or private individual 'fess up for anything. They may come out and say "I take full responsibility for....xxx" and that's it. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. The crisis PR firm who advised and wrote the 8 se cond speech, takes their check and winks and it's back to business
Japanese government is just as corrupt as the rest, no more, no less.
But he and his "board" must be dumped into the reactor buildings. After that, Hari-Kari!
Hand him a wakizashi. If he takes it, it's an even bigger deal.
And yeah those tears of shame say more than any NRC, CNBC, Presidential press conference ever could.
You think the Japanese people watching just noticed that they are fucked?
SilverRhino, in some countries the antiquated, atavistic notion that there are worse things than death, such as shame, still persist. Most Western people in power shed that debilitating discernment long ago.
Oh I know. That's why we're going to have to kill off the banksters manually one day. Shame, morality, ethics .... they have NONE.
Seppuku was and still is atonement and a release.
++
Yup along with all of their morals
S U P E R m o_o n
people getting stretched and pulled.