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“Disaster Made In Japan”: Whitewash v. Reality, Still
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
On July 5, Japan brought its first nuclear reactor back on line, after having been nuclear-power free for two months. Its 50 functional reactors had been taken off line for maintenance but were not restarted due to a groundswell of opposition. The trailblazer is reactor number 3 at the Oi power plant owned by Kansai Electric Power Co. After stress-testing the reactor, which had been idle for over 15 months, the government had declared it safe and had given permission for the restart. It’s expected to reach capacity in a few days. Oi reactor number 4 is scheduled to start generating power later in July. The reactors will bring some relief to Osaka and surrounding areas that might otherwise get hit by a 15% power shortfall this summer.
Alas, an old pattern came to light: KEPCO concealed from the government some of its studies on faults near the Oi power plant. Scientists were ignored though they argued that a fault ran between reactor 1 and 2, and that it and two other nearby faults could be connected during an earthquake and produce far greater shaking than the government had estimated in its stress tests, raising the risk of another major nuclear disaster. And they claimed that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) hadn’t properly investigated the fault lines. Under pressure, NISA called for more studies on the faults near Oi and other power plants. But that was it.
And if there were an accident, the escape route would be “a winding, cliff-hugging road often closed by snow in winter or clogged by summer beachgoers”; and radioactivity could contaminate Lake Biwa which supplies drinking water to more than 14 million people.
Ironically, on the day that Oi started generating electricity again, the Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission submitted its report on the Fukushima disaster to the Japanese Diet—and it’s a doozy.
The accident “was a profoundly manmade disaster - that could and should have been foreseen and prevented,” wrote Chairman Kiyoshi Kurokawa (88-page summary of the 641-page report). The report found a “multitude of errors and willful negligence” that left the power plant unprepared for the earthquake and tsunami. It blamed the “ingrained conventions of Japanese culture,” such as “our reflexive obedience, our reluctance to question authority, our devotion to ‘sticking with the program’, our groupism, and our insularity.” The report laments that “nuclear power became an unstoppable force, immune to scrutiny by civil society,” where regulators and promoters were one and the same.
A “tightly knit elite with enormous financial resources” and “the collective mindset of Japanese bureaucracy” conspired “to resist regulatory pressure and cover up small-scale accidents.” A mindset that led to the “disaster made in Japan.” In 2006, for example, the government updated its standards for earthquake resistance, but when TEPCO refused to bring its power plant into compliance with seismic upgrades, NISA did nothing [Read.... A Revolt, the Quiet Japanese Way].
The report warned that reactor number one may have been severely damaged by the earthquake itself—that the shaking broke some pipes and caused a loss of cooling—before the arrival of the tsunami. TEPCO’s whitewash has so far insisted that reactors had proven their earthquake resistance, and that it was the collapse of the power supply to the cooling system that had caused the accident. And so the report cast even more doubt on the safety of the Oi reactors.
There have been critical voices in Japan, among them Koide Hiroaki, a nuclear scientist, who for forty years has been pointing out the flaws in the nuclear power industry. For that, he was condemned to remaining a lowly assistant professor his entire career, toiling without much recognition at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute.
But when the Fukushima reactors melted down, he became an instant media darling, and his new book, “The Lie of Nuclear Power,” became a bestseller. He was even asked to address the Diet. In his presentation, he spelled out how nuclear policymakers decided to deal with the possibility of catastrophic accidents: they labeled that possibility an “inappropriate assumption” and therefore considered nuclear power plants "safe under any circumstance whatsoever.”
So, as the Oi stress tests and safety declarations show, the same tricks are still being played, but they don’t work as well anymore. What has changed is that the nuclear power industry and its regulators are no longer the omnipotent entity but are on the defensive, struggling to stay relevant in face of popular opposition and protests. And Friday night, another protest against the restart of the Oi reactors erupted outside the official residence of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda—150,000 people, Japan’s largest demonstration in 50 years! Video of the protest: polite Japanese venting their anger.
And here's something ... lighter. And cynical. And in a deeper sense, very truthful.... Nuclear Contamination As Seen By Japanese Humor (mostly visuals).
To compensate for the loss of nuclear power generation, Japan has feverishly ramped up alternatives, largely fossil fuels—just as a new worldwide Cold War has broken out, this time between the US and China. Over oil. Read.... “The New Cold War” by Marin Katusa.
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THOUSANDS of tons of "treated" and untreated water are being dumped into the Pacific Ocean by tepco every day, and will continue unabatted for the next year or two or three or...it's anyones guess.
Enjoy your seafood Hillary, eat lots, you are a glowing example of an American ostrich.
Hillary Clinton signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing that the U.S. will continue buying seafood from Japan, despite that food not being tested for radioactive materials.http://seniorcitizenspublicsquare.com/2012/03/30/hillary-clinton-signed-...
"Let them eat fish"
BlackBeardz speaks the truth.
If you are unable to trust Big Bro on literally any other subject, why would you trust their statements that Fukushima's impact here is negligable? That is just f*cking stupid.
While I have posted the following links before, they lead to mostly FREE resources and services well worth exploring:
http://www.RadTest4U.com FREE testing of auto and home air filters for radioactive materials (hot particles). Know what you are breathing.
http://ThreatJournal.com FREE weekly newsletter covering a variety of threats to the U.S. including Fukushima. Mouthpiece of the RadTest program. (Download, print and store their 3 free reports).
http://ENEnews.com FREE website covering all things Fukushima. Check the little links at the top. Outstanding resource. Visit daily. Perhaps one of the best sources for regular news.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/ FREE website providing ongoing, insightful analysis of the Fukushima disaster. Another outstanding resource. The moderator speaks and reads Japanese and English fluently, thereby scaling the language barrier TEPCO uses to hide some of their BS.
http://fairewinds.org/ This is the House of Gunderson. Former nuclear exec and engineer turned whistle-blower of sorts. One of the few truth speakers from within the industry. He and his wife are good people and worthy of your support if so moved.
http://AlertsUSA.com NOT FREE SHTF alert service. Our firm has used them for over a decade. No bullshit. They broke the news of the Fuku disaster here in the U.S. Check out their customer list. There is a reason they all use the service. Even the MSM uses them to find out what the hell is going on.
There are also a myriad of websites, blogs, university homepages and the like providing even more information.
For instance
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling UC Berzerkly is monitoring milk, water and some veggies for contamination.
Far more is available out there on the net. Strongly encourage readers to take some time and get smart on this subject.
Skip the shills. They are easy to spot. They are the ones in the MSM saying that everything is fine, Big Bro is on the situation and here is the latest Nicki Minaj tour schedule.
Be safe. Enjoy.
The congress just passed a bill to purhase a 50 foot stainless steel fork. When it arrives, they are going to stick it in our ass and turn us over - we're done.
ENENews.com is a Shill site.
A shill site? How? That was a nice post by Divine Wind.
The rest of the post is fine. I am only pointing out ENENews.
Try posting a Stuxnet discussion on ENENews. All they care about is fear mongering, not the truth. They delete all comments and then censor you. If you rant about how afraid you are of Nukes, you can post all day.
Ask the Admin at ENENews.com why this site is banned on their site?
http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/fukushima1.html
Hmm, I looked at that (Stuxnet) and since I'm not that versed in hacking, I consulted a friend of mine who knows a bit more about it.
Instead of focussing on what I didn't know (if there was ANY evidence of Stuxnet in the Fukushima computers, while these were about the only things that did work there) I tried to deduce a (preliminairy) conclusion from a large collection of reports, articles (from the industry itself) and a bit of studying into the subject. (not that I claim to know as much as an engineer, I have other things on my "to do" list, but it's possible to form a reasonably informed opinion about this.
I think it doesn't matter. The japanese gov and TEPCO willingly built nuke plants all over the place, on fault lines. They simply ignored the possibillity of an earthquake, and the "safety" of these facillities was "guaranteed" by them up to 7 on the Richter scale (direct hit). That turned out to be bogus since MOST reactors were damaged severely, by the earthquake, not just Fukushima Daiichi. And those were/are significant damages to those other reactors. There was a large team of american engineers on site on 11-3-2011, as extensive maintenance was taking place. NO where in any document, or description I found that the computers malfunctioned. This isn't evidence per se, that there was no Stuxnet, but they simply didn't malfuction. The type reactor of Fukushima Daiichi and Daini was designed in the sixties. They proved to be a very cost effective way of building a containment, since it was much smaller. However, even then there were serious objections from within the industry, and tests showed that the reactor containment was likely to BURST in case of a (partial) meltdown. A full meltdown with a melt through (core leaving reactor vessel and containment) they didn't even consider. Because if they had (considered) they wouldn't have been able to build and run these plants with any outlook on profit. (not that they ever did, but that's besides the point)
Now this may seem kind of inherent to the japanese problem. Alas, it isn't. The NRC skipped fire-permits on old reactors in the USA, the french have been laying off skilled french engineers to replace them with unskilled, foreign workers who don't even speak french. And of course the russians, yes. While Putin thinks a "closed fuel cycle" means it really is a closed cycle, he's misinformed, since it isn't. They're about to run a reactor on 104% of maximum safe capacity. Why? Argument given was that "nuclear industry people know how to spend their leasure time".
No, something far more strange and sinister is going on, than the (romantic) idea of a sabotage, and has been going on as long as they've had nuclear fission. The only rational conclusion that I can draw is that an unknown part of the nuclear industry has gone insane. They disregard the issue of radiation hazards as much as they're allowed to do. They knew Fukushima Daiici was built on a fault line. They knew that a tsunami would never be stopped, they knew the whole thing was an old design and sub par. But they didn't write it down in the rapports and risk assesments and so the problem didn't exist. Chernobyl blew up because of an experiment with the nuclear reactor on full capacity. And the next nuclear reactor the japanese are going to put online (built on multiple fault lines) is the experimental fast breeder reactor, which never worked for longer periods of time, caught fire in the nineties (sodium as coolant), and contributes a negligent amount of energy (if it ever should work, which is doubtful according to many inside the nuclear industry). It's that this planet is threatened because we as a species have embarked on a potentially dangerous technology that we do not fully control or even comprehend (we're in "uncharted waters" on Fukushima Daiichi) and worse, that we have given control over this technology to men of power who are detached from the human experience, and to technicians who do not take any moral responsibillity for their actions, since that's not their job.
What needs to be done is this:
It must be brought to light that low level of radiaton does cause changes in people's health. Also must be brought to light that the microscopic and nano particles that are alpha emitters are very damaging to one's health and can never ever be cleaned up. Then the conclusion must be drawn that the nuclear industry does produce significant amounts of these particles, be it in "accidents" or in the use of DU munitions, depleted uranium shells and now also anti personell bombs. Again: these alpha emitters do not disappear from our breathable atmosphere, as long as the solar system exists. NEVER in the history of this planet have there been these contaminations of alpha emitters.
I.o.w. a full, worldwide paradigm shift and new course in energy strategy is needed. If this isn't initiated very soon, we can logically conclude more accidents like Fukushima are bound to happen (since nothing changed) within the next say... 10 years, and that the use of DU (which is spread throughout the planet's atmosphere) will continue; so increasingly our biotope becomes hostile to our species. The following deduction MUST therefore be that if we are to survive, we have to persuade or attack the group that has had control over militairy and civillian nuclear, to not only stop this, but turn this around and start cleaning up the mess. One billion it costs, per plant. Ten, Twenty years it will take, at the very least. The seriousness and irrevocable nature of this requires a pro-active stance. "Learning on the job" like the nuke cowboys have been doing isn't an option. Transferring wealth in the form of taxpayer contributions, and pumping these into a faulty financial system, where it "disappears"; is not an option. Those contributions must be used to put this cleanup on the map, right now. A chaotic system, a corporative state, in a war for resources, will not be suitable societies to do this. It MUST happen now, while the momentum of the consumer industry still has some gyration.
I'd rather have this paradigm shift occurr in a peaceful way, but if push comes to shove, a fight is preferred above doing nothing and the certainty of damaged DNA and birth defects in children or grand children that follows. Simply because the latter option doesn't solve the problem. See Japan or Belarus for an example.
Whoever reads this, pro or anti, I don't give a shit: Look it up, don't "believe" me, "believing is what you do in a church"; we say here. Do your own research. Crosscheck sources, or do on site research or your own interviews if possible. Check for conflict of interest by doing a background check on a person.You'll reach the same conclusion. The system is proven to be malfunctioning and the people serving it (and profiting from it) have lost touch with their priorities as human beings. In case of a financial system this is criminal, and has grave consequences for large groups of people (who die as an indirect result). But this parallel and connected system of nuclear industry and militairy is threatening the species (and everything else, living)
THERE IS NO PLACE TO HIDE ON THIS PLANET. The "southern hemisphere" argument is bogus. This MUST be made clear to the people controlling it, and their families.
A last observation: Someone hired "The Jackal" to fire anti-tank missiles at the (only) french fast breeder. This fast breeder was subsequently shut down. Another plant in the Bretagne region was sabotaged as well. (source: wikipedia (which is a CIA thing, I know)
thank you
no, thank you. it's posts like this, thoughtful, thorough, with humanity and depth, that kept me reading ZH when I first came across the site years ago. . . becoming increasingly rare, but still respected when encountered.
peace Reptil.
Agree, summed it up very nicely.
Ocean's pretty big, most coastal cities have been dumping thousands of tons of hazardous waste into it every day for centuries. Fallout from all the nuclear bomb tests drifting into the ocean provided much more radioactivity than Tepco will.
mjko259
Go back to the third grade and start working on addition again. When the teacher signs off on you, then come back and post. You are one ignorant dude.
Reasoning such as yours kills ecosystems and environments. You should run for public office. Try thinking deeper than the superficial, because what you find may surprise you.
Dude, seriously, you're actually suggesting that we should maintain a keen detatched sense of proportion and respond according to known facts?
You provocative SOB!
I know what your problem is pal, you need to read more ENENEWS, as then you too would quickly become a self-professing expert moron on seismology and nuclear reactor design, while speaking reactive emotive misinformed crap from a pit of deeply-entrenched boofheaded pure ignorance.
Away with you ... you steeenking shill!
LOL! Thank Dog at least a few are awake to the ongoing manipulation of public sentiment.
.
Nuclear fallout from a blast is not the same as the material in a nuclear accident.
Yeah, the half-life of a hydro blast is something like 1/1000 of that of slow burning uranium. On the other hand, I'm becoming more convinced each day that the hubris and sheer stupidity of the collective mind will bring about our demise long before any "natural disaster" will. And yes, I know that sounds contradictory in this context.
So that makes it okay.
Of course.
We all know two wrongs make a right.
correction:
Two wongs make a light...
oops, thats Chinese
...and racist
stupid goat
yeah it's growing like an oilspill ...
back to operation; the new normal is the old normal. Aircond humming. All is well !!!
Bullish for medicals.
Yeah, as long as the japanese ignore the black organisms that bioaccumulated radiation, and they don't breathe in the content of the vacume cleaner at home, they'll be able to work a few more years no problem.
Bullish for abortion clinics.