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Six Workers Contaminated Following Latest Fukushima Radioactive Spill
It would be comical if it wasn't so tragic, and if for some inexplicable reason Japan hadn't been awarded the 2020 Olympics as a desperate measure to boost the economy with zero regard for the human cost. Following news of yet another radioactive spill taking place at Fukushima earlier this week, the latest in what is becoming a countless series if "incidents", overnight we learned that in the latest accident involving the exploded Fukushima nuclear power plant, which is now so very much out of control that even the government is considering removing Tepco from the containment effort, at least six workers were exposed to a leak of highly radioactive water on Wednesday, "the latest in a string of mishaps the country's nuclear watchdog has attributed to carelessness, saying they could have been avoided." They could have indeed, if only Japan were to formally recognize the severity of the catastrophe instead of constantly pushing it under the rug at a time when the only thing that matters for the successful, if ultimately doomed, implementation of Abenomics is the preservation of confidence at all costs.
In the latest incident, a worker mistakenly detached a pipe connected to a treatment system to remove salt from the hundreds of tonnes of water Tepco pumps over the melted fuel in wrecked reactors at Fukushima to keep them cool.
"It is serious in that it was another problem caused by carelessness, but I do not believe it is a seriously troubling dosage," Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, said on Wednesday. "But the fact that there has been a string of incidents occurring on a daily basis that could have been avoided - I think that is the large problem."
Tanaka urged Tepco to improve its handling of contaminated water, but stopped short of saying if it faced any penalties.
Tepco said seven tonnes of water were spilled in Wednesday's incident at the treatment facility but were contained within the site, adding that the leaked water had an all-beta radiation level of 34 million becquerels per litre.
Tanaka said the leaked water had already been treated to remove cesium, which emits strong gamma radiation harmful to humans.
Putting today's incident in context:
On Monday, Tepco said a plant worker accidentally halted power to pumps used to cool the damaged reactors. A backup system kicked in immediately, but the event was another reminder of the precarious situation at the plant.
Last week, Tepco said 430 litres (113 gallons) of contaminated water had spilled out of a storage tank at Fukushima and probably flowed to the ocean.
In August, a leak of 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water from a hastily built site tank was given a "Level 3" or "serious incident" rating on the INES scale.
Also in August, Tepco said two workers were contaminated with radioactive particles, the second such incident in a week involving staff outside the site's main operations centre.
And so on.
The only good news to come out of this tragic irradiation of innocent people who merely are serving a corrupt, lying government, is that it increasingly exposes the severity of the situation.
The accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 220 km (130 miles) north of Tokyo, are adding to a crisis no one seems to know how to contain, and stirring doubt over Tepco's abilities to carry out a complex cleanup widely expected to take decades.
Just last week, the regulator ordered Tepco to draft in additional workers and report within a week on its measures to tackle the hazardous clean-up.
The worst news for Abe, who obviously is oblivious to the human suffering aspect of ploughing on at all costs, is that with every passing incident the public opinion toward reopening Japan's nuclear power plants becomes ever more negative, meaning Japan's energy costs will continue to soar indefinitely, even as wages continues to implode as we reported before.
As for Fukushima: don't expect anything to change here - just like the financial system, which will be kept on life support until that is no longer an option, so the biggest radioactive catastrophe in history, by now having eclipsed Chernobyl because at least the Russians were quick to accept the severity of the cataclysm, will remain a dormant and latent Pandora's box a few hundred miles away from Tokyo, until one day not even the best, or rather worst, meaning intentions of central planners around the word, can shove the alpha, beta and gamma rays under the rug.
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Jiiiiiiist a couple more days and we'll have this thing hammered out.
Coal power is the real danger at this juncture.
For a good laugh, check out the consituents of fly ash.
Via wikipedia:
Fly ash contains trace concentrations of heavy metals and other substances that are known to be detrimental to health in sufficient quantities. Potentially toxic trace elements in coal include arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, barium, chromium,copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, radium, selenium, thorium, uranium, vanadium, and zinc.[38][39] Approximately 10% of the mass of coals burned in the United States consists of unburnable mineral material that becomes ash, so the concentration of most trace elements in coal ash is approximately 10 times the concentration in the original coal
The govenment wants to have it collected and stored to save money by using as a cheap substitute to dump out of planes as contrails.
Here's an interesting, and spectacularly depressing, perspective:
"Longtime readers will know I have a background in physics and was a zillion years ago an investigator for The Presidential Commission on the Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island. I actually know about this stuff and have written previous columns about it including what may have been the first accurate predictions of the accident’s severity and likely outcome. Only hours after the tsunami I said the plant was a goner and why — explanations that have held up with time.....
For the past couple of years I have been advising an environmental remediation startup that has excellent water treatment technology. Yes, I own three percent of the company.
Within hours of the accident I offered this technology to TEPCO, which never replied. I offered it to the Japanese Embassy, which never replied. I offered it to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, which replied, said they’d do their best, but nothing ever happened except I am now on a couple mailing lists. In the meantime TEPCO spent more than $200 million installing a French water treatment system that took months to install and then functioned for less than a day....
Understand that I did business in Japan on almost a daily basis for more than 20 years. I have deep contacts there and know how business is done. Why is it that a guy like me can’t even get a reply?
Because Japanese industry is too busy making money at the country’s expense.
I have continued to communicate with the right parties in Japan, most recently resorting to trying to reach Prime Minister Abe directly through people I know who know him well right up to Mrs. Abe.
No luck.
Nobody on this side is trying to make money on this, we’re just trying to save lives. So if you know someone who knows someone who can get things done in Japan, let me know because I have a very viable solution to this one particular problem.
But after two years of trying to help Japan help itself, I’m losing hope."
http://www.cringely.com/2013/10/07/abe-fiddles-fukushima-leaks/
" Longtime readers will know I have a background in physics and was a zillion years ago an investigator for The Presidential Commission on the Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island. "
You know, there are ppl blogging these days who were actually AT 3 Mile Island or in the business who knew ppl at TMI ... the govt investigators were arrogant to the degree that they did not talk to a number of folk with relevent 'input' on that event.
My point? DON'T believe everything you 'read' from those purporting to be experts on commissions ...
Isn't that what's in organic fertilizer?
For a good laugh you should look at what you get when you burn oil or wood. Seriously. Are you aware of what gets ejected into the atmosphere from volcanos? From forest fires?
Did you know that Chromium, Copper, Molybdenum, Selenium and Zinc are all minerals essential to your health?
All of the elements listed above could be easily & cheaply scrubbed (removed) from the exhaust of coal and oil power plants.
Enough with the bullshit panic attacks. People need energy and have been getting it from burning stuff for thousands of years. You're going to die of something, just like everyone else.
Whew, what a relief. I started to worry about my charcoal burning Weber grill for my barbeques. Now my carcinogens can go unmolested!
Yup we are all going to die. May as well be from radiation, GMO's, vaccines, chemicals , pesticides, heavy metals, fluoride , chlorine , chem trails. Hell, I think I am going to enjoy a chem milk shake tonight right after a heavy metal shower. I am going die anyway, may as well speed it up eh?! Where's my jar of 'round up' Canola oil, my salad is looking a little boring.
Then you should have a CADD model available for the replacement of the coal fired plants with an ISO process drafted so it can be tested and implemented with all these good ideas.
Until then, it's cheap talk and in the pipe dream category. To actually have clean energy, an idea is important but worthless without the tools. Then of course the testing and polish required to make it reality.
When determining energy for 7.2 billion people everything comes at a cost and it really depends if you are willing to pay the boat man the cost of the ferry to "progress".
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/09/massive-starfish-die-...
http://www.windsorstar.com/travel/Vancouver+Aquarium+alarmed+mass+dieoff...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/9244199/Whale-meat-22-a-...
...It's okay though, someday no one will remember that starfish ever existed. Every child's book with creatures of the sea will be an epitaph to all life in the oceans and only generate questions that no one here will have a suitable answer.
Although I'm glad that you've rationalized a life without Oceans though, makes it easier. You should lease a BMW, use your house like a credit card and upgrade a perfectly good phone every six months. It'll make everyone feel better...
The (often touted) choice between coal and nuclear fission is a FALSE one. It's a distraction from what is reality. Both are obsolete, and damaging.
Please have a look at this TESTED, CLEAN, and WORKING type of COLD FUSION?
It's called a "Polywell" reactor, and it's development has been stonewalled.
15 minute technical overview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f5d-bRgieI
2 hour complete presentation with questions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhL5VO2NStU
Better yet, it could (in theory) be used to run on nuclear waste.
The scope of the problem isn't technology, we have technology coming out of our ears. We have power in abundance. What we have is a problem of scale, and not just scale in terms of population using the resources, we have a energy pig problem. A single country on this planet consumes 70% of the worlds total resources to supply less than 7% of the world population with it's daily needs. While doing this resource expansion it has co-opted various international partners to continue this position of "worlds biggest pig at the trough".
Again this is a symptom of something else other than technology options.
Believe me, technology options are not a problem. As you've stated with the complete shut down of a cleaner, cheaper more autonomous power sources. The Polywell reactor is one option and it's kind of neat. The Thorium reactors are another, I'm still not 100% of the offer, needs way more testing but on paper it looks good. Keep in mind so did current nuke plants.
In both cases the problem was never technology, it was public adoption of the technology and the ability to replace the old and dangerous power systems. To do that it required a public that has the education to understand the options and as of this point in time Earth has no described method, process or technology for turning off a Nuclear Reactor.
Add in the idea that the reactor buildings themselves only last 50 years, versus the Nuclear reaction it contains lasting 8000 years until a safe half life is reached. It has all the same sensible qualities of carrying fire in a wicker basket and hoping the basket doesn't burn down while holding it. (yeah, it's pretty stupid, but the people that sold it are long dead and gone. They already got paid and everyone else holds the bag)
Since everyone has been busy confusing social sciences and political science with real science, well, it turns into a real problem because there aren't enough people in the world that understand the situation. The world didn't need more basket weavers if it wanted to move to the stars, or expand it's civilzation, or develop the next technology platform.
It needed an education in how it would power the species to achieve that without killing itself off in the adoption phase.
Just like any migration project I've been on, first thing you do is throw everyone on Google for two weeks to hunt down all the annoyances of similar projects. Dogpile all the found issues online into a big pool. Then lock everyone in a boardroom for a week to see how the technology can be slipped in with minimum disruption to everyone using it while keeping a thumb on identified potential problems.
Sometimes in a migration a complete shutdown is needed though. In IT thats easy enough with sending out communication on the subject to let everyone know they should be scarce during the change. Then the service is bare metal built, old service unplugged, data migration happens and it's then forklifted into place.
With a nuclear plant, I've been looking and there is nothing like that in any process. Closest I can find to any process out there is the old 'run away' scenario which is pointless if there are multiple problems world wide. So building cleaner technology is fine if it's actually replacing something.
correct, it's not technology that's the problem.
it's a problem of the wrong peope in control of the spaceship earth. and therefore the replacement of obsolete technology by a newer, better one.
their MAIN argument is that they've convinced everyone there's no viable alternative to fossile fuel and nuclear fission. forever.
that's just pure nonsense.
it's a psychological crisis, that people believe this.
And that the USA and western europe are such energy hogs, well that's not going to last much longer. It's pretty much done deal, the way this is going.
So the problem of scale is not the issue in the future. Especially since this Polywell thing is quite efficient.
I'm hoping that this knowledge that there IS an alternative will become viral, and it will be adopted.
I've looked at all kinds of things. I'm now convinced this is the one. It's feasable, can be used to power ships, or even large planes, or entire cities.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution
The BIG selling point is that it's clean (no ionising radiation), and that it can use nuclear waste as fuel.
My idea is that the oil-fission guys have know this for a long time, but are willing to let us all croak just to keep their shit together a little while longer.
They'll be obsolete themselves, if this takes hold, so that's the reason they've stonewalled it.
Anyway, I hope you take some time to look at the presentation and study the available documentation. It's time well spent.
Thanks, CPL:
No one understands that the tech is in place and that the problem is human behavior. Under the status quo
it is a problem of overpopulation more than anything else.
Your posts are right on, but unless each of the '7.2 billion' make an effort to change his/her behavior and expectations just a tiny bit each day-------there will be no shift or salvation for humans and most other species.
I don't know about you but I was eating iodine supplements in march 2011. Many didn't. Overpopulation is already a non issue, with slow acting, silent weapons already deployed some time ago. Same goes for GMO. No more reproduciton after 3rd generation. Horizontal genetic crossover, fucked DNA. Food supply USA borked (soil bacteria completely wiped out, deadly fungi infestation, listen to what Don Huber has to say about it)
slow kill
dead men walking
can't say we didn't warn
clean conscience
good luck
Reptil:
No, you do not know about me, but I do.
I've been in this conversation since 1963 when I read Rachel's book. I am in Quito now, an old man fighting to save 500 has. of pristine watershed---18 years o this job---no pay just doing what I can do.
Everyday for each of those years I have thought deeply about what we are now in and, each day have had to consider that the problem of overpopulation.
You can write life off if you want to, but my decision has been to SPEND my life as I am. There is enough for each of us to matter---then overpopulation is not a problem---especially if each day we do just the tiniest thing we are capable of to turn the equation in all species favor----that is all that I do, anyway. This old man has nothing better to do.
Thanks for your reply and I wish everyone of us humans well.
mmmhh.. is it overpopulation? or is it mismanagement of resources?
seems to me it's the latter.
please watch this, it'll put a smile on your face (or at least.. a questionmark)?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBLZmwlPa8A
I haven't given up the human race quite yet. but the effects of what happened will be known only later. 7 billion now is a peak. it'll be half in 10 years if this continues. http://zardoz.nilu.no/~andreas/publications/219.pdf
what will happen in 40 years? a hundred? this if far from over, and this is just the first reactor to blow. (there'll be more, no doubt)
In my opinion, this is a crisis of consciousness. it's human beings on a crossroads. the idea that everything only can get better on the same course (of consumer society) has faltered.
it can go either way. devolve to dumbed down worker drones with a few fat slavemasters sitting around in their technological constructs, or a race of enlightened beings finally realising other possibillities then stupid neo-darwinism rape of natural systems.
killing as much life as possible using novel weaponry is not going to make us a more succesful species nor will it save the planet.
once this starts, it won't stop. the surviving powerful will then continue to fight amongst each other, there will be no trust, untiil there's only a smoldering ball and a few idiots in bunkers left. what a way to go >__<
please note that the population explosion happened because of developments in agriculture, fuelled by oil, and made possible by inventions from nazi laboratories (fertilliser). did those that put this in motion get from it what they wanted?
thank you, in turn, and best of luck
Thank you, Reptil:
It is a pleasure to have a discussion rather than a name-calling non-event.
The things that you wrote above were the revelations, fo me, of the problem-----these are not so obvious without a great deal of serious thought. These are the leads that come to cul-de-sacs of frustration----over the years one begins to understand or, at least, wonder whether or not humans have a capacity to manage their own affairs.
What I have found as a student of human society---and still an ignoramus of same----is that up to certains densities of population, we seem to have sufficient capacity, but beyond that we get lost in the activity of planning a future that requires a greater development of human consciousness---and too many people seem to thwart the one-on-one 'teaching' that is required.
But, I truly know nothing of this----ignoramus again.
My choice has been to try and take care of a piece of natural habitat where all species live together in harmonic accord, fully respecting our positions in the natural food chain between one and another. I have been most privileged to have had this opportunity to do the little that is possible----and cursed that privilege as often.
Some individuals of most species will likely mutate and carry on with life, but Profeesor Wilson of Harvard wrote for awhile about signs of overpopulation among mammalians and the symptoms------loss of fertility, increase in territoriality, aggressivess increasing to the ultimate point of cannabalism----I forget the others at this moment----because each of these symptoms has been exhibited by humans throughout the 70+ years of this oldman's life.
It is obvious, intellectually, though not emotionally that we can live together in large numbers, but It seems at the moment we may have reached a temporary limit due to a lack of capacity to do so.
And----I hope that I turn out to be just a crazy old man-----there is no pleasure in contemplating the end of one's species or the others that will accompany its demise.
Thanks, and keep working on the problem, please.
BTW---the John Liu piece is one of the most inspirational documentaries that I have ever seen. I first watched three times over six moMy six year-old grandson and I and his mom watched it together---even he understood how the Earth could be made whole again.
It seems that we are on the same page, so I am happy to know you, Reptil!
7.2 billion requirements, no common goal, no common language, treats their home like a cat box, deluded in thinking what's on TV is important and arguing about regional and melanin counts.
Broke, filthy, sick and stupid is not a good place to be as a planet. It's embarrassing.
Gee, what happened to that 'pursuit of happiness' thing? Are all you population planners really eugenicists in thin disguise?
Weren't you like born into the wrong century (eugenics being so last-century and Hitlerian.)
What fucking population planning?
There is no population planning!! Does it look like there has been ANY population planning? Use your eyes. Count the data moving at a steady clip in a rising line straight up.
1 billion to 7.2 billion in one century. Again...does it look like ANY planning has been done? Fuck. No. Jack.
Tired and retarded delusions about restricting people's people's junk. All of it is complete and total horseshit. No one fucking cares about who's doing what with their junk. Not a wit. Not for half a thought. Not for two seconds. But if the biped population on Earth want to fill every corner of this world with people then UNDERSTAND THE COST OF YOUR JUNK. Nothing is free. You make a baby. You have to feed that baby. Clothe the baby. Love the baby. Resources and time over time eventually make an adult. What did it cost to get there? Any clue?
So you don't get life offered on a silver plater with sprinkles without that costing something and, again, WHAT FUCKING POPULATION CONTROLS?
Show me the drop...show me proof that the human race's numbers have adjusted so rapidly with all these 'secret projects' happening trying to kill us over 50 years. If they exist...then they are doing a terrible job. So I wish just once the population ramblers would really question the message they are regurgitating. And again nothing wrong with having 7.2 Billion people. You just better be able to afford them all. So instead of lining up an excuse/lie to mask the real reason of the coming population collapse, why not honestly ask yourself the question.
What is the message you are trying to deliver when all evidence points to the contrary of the proposal?
A wandering, non-specific and un-directed sort of reply not citing ONE precept handed down by anyone of the 'learned' that preceded us ... I rank that as a FAIL.
Treating the 'human' problem the same way one handles an oil leak on a car ALWAYS ends in slaughters, and I mean that literally, not figuratively.
Thanks, CPL,
For an explosion of frustration at the ignorance that is human. Bravo, in fact!
There has been no thought of population control with the exception of the Chinese. Unfortunately, many prefer to moralize in this time of survival for the species. It is simply too late for moralizing, but most do not believe this----they know the sun and the moon and the tides will continue as always and believe that animal life/human life is not endangered.
Well. I hope they are right, but I cannot share their optimism---and, besides-----we are not the only species to be concerned with----the entire web of animal life is threatened by human actions on a local basis--the planet earth.
If anyone thinks that I am incorrect-----it is just as well----none of this is certain.
" it is a problem of overpopulation "
Ummm, You first, Paul Ehrlich, Clubber of Rome ...
(Or, did you mean instead 'copulation'?)
olto et al....
am not too certain of the overpopulation argument as all of the world's population could fit into Texas and density would still be less than NYC is today. CPL has it correctomundo in that it is the biggest pig at the trough muscling out would-be feeders. So much for our vaunted Christian values. One huge hole in the American psyche is that we are too enamored of tech and tech toys. We have this love affair with a magic bullet approach to all of our problemmos. And we lack a passion for history, so we make stupid mistakes. Obama would've launched cruise missles into Syria, but how does one target an idea? This is what we are all up against.
" So much for our vaunted Christian values. "
Please, speak for yourself ... oh, you were? That's fine then ...
Buttmint:
I don't know about any of this, but for fifty years after each new reason given for human behavior-----I always return to the population density problem.
Now, with 50% of the human population it has become a simple control issue, if there are forces who want to downsize the species. I am not so pleased with this, only pointing out how convenient the problem has become to resolve. The more the merrier? I think not.
There has been only a single species that has had the opportunity to consume an entire planet and we have nearly done it.
I find this an amazing thought.
"It has all the same sensible qualities of carrying fire in a wicker basket and hoping the basket doesn't burn down while holding it."
-Great Analogy
You must read from the same book Ann Coulter reads from.
Or are an industry mouth piece.
"Radiation is good for us". LOL
And really, because it comes out of volcanos and forest fires means it is no big deal? LOL.
And wow....I feel much better now that I know chromium (Love Canal) copper, molybdenum, selenium and zinc are good for me so I should sit back and enjoy the higher doses.
Jack, you need to read up on so-called 'Love Canal' and see how it was the GREEDY land developers that poked and punctured that 'sealed' burial site which then proceeded to leak and leaech chems all over tarnation ...
The Japs should just ask Godzilla to pick up those damaged reactors and dump them in the deepest trench in the ocean and then bury them there.
Problem solved.
Yeppers. Well, fuck those workers.
This radioactive dog will come is coming back to bite the world.
Can I quote you when it doesn't (and I will quote you regardless)?
YEN = WORTHLESS
Yen = single ply toilet papaer
Dollar = 2 ply toilet paper
Dollar = single ply toilet paper with a patriotic flag pattern printed on it, and endorsed by Mr. Whipple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUGroVDEVfQ
Govt living in denial
I wonder if they get paid triple overtime for this work...probably not...
Foreign workers, probably illiterate, couldn't read the sign that said "Do not touch this hose". They will be shipped ack home when their hair begins to fall out. More where they came from.
Well when they do get paid they've got about two days to spend it before they are dead. Although I've read four hours in some places. They'll just sort of fall to pieces in jello chunks like the ocean wildlife is doing around Japan right now and off the coast of British Columbia
I'm guessing tepco execs spend a lot of time supervising the clean up on-site bitchez. [/sarc.]
Obviously, the Kamikaze spirit still lives in Japan. Unclear why the rest of humanity has to buy into it. It is certainly getting to the point when all the criminal psychos in power have to be eliminated on a global scale.
Yep. Wrong pipe. Been there, done that....less the catastrophic consequence. It's one thing to get a little turd on ya.
But to end up glowin' in the dark........ouch!
no problem they all signed up for ACA (obuma don't Care), so it's all good
Obamacare is a pretty solid deal if you just acquired a preexisting condition and have just days to live.
...Fukushima may in fact turn out to be our Planet's "Mother of all Black Swan Events". Live in the moment because it may be our last sooner than we think.
This situation is slowly spiralling out of control. However, a small earthquake, or yet another Typhoon may very well push it over the ledge, and it can become an even greater catastrophe. This precarious situation has been recognised by hired engineers who told TEPCO and the government there that they don't know what they're doing (which they apologised for, and did not deny).
There are many bright minds reading ZH, and YOU CAN HELP.
Here's Emanuel Pastreich laying out a plan to create a collaboration of scientists, organisers, investors, software engineers.. everyone to come up with a solution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZxNmKxGfb4
It is admirable of you to want to harness international efforts but this is a man made Mt Vesuvius that cannot be harnessed unless the world puts its idiotic differences to one side and instead focuses on this modern day Armagedon.
Somehow I suspect that conjuring up more schemes on Wall Street and killing more people with the latest technology takes precedence.
Nope, disagree.
At any other moment in my life I would've agreed with you.
But we're nearing a breaking point. Those that, through a string of bad descisions and investments (since 1913 thereabouts) have led us to this point, where our COLLECTIVE SURVIVAL is at risk, do not have complete control over the situation, or even some control. They just use the system that is already in place, and rely on man's inherent reluctance to change his (personal) situation. They rely on the IDEA that they're in control, and for us to believe that. As you know, as a ZH reader, you know it's based on trust, and fear that the house of cards will collapse.
On arriving at this breaking point, those that made these mistakes (to build fission plants everywhere, and keep competing systems under wraps) that relatively small group want to retain the initiative. They hope to "gain even more" while they're attempting a "soft landing" and that we're all confused and that they hold all the strings, going into the next cycle.
But we're not. We know where this is heading. There's a growing number of (intelligent) people that are turning their backs to the broken system, or are about to. It's IMPERATIVE that we must NOW take the initiative, instead of waiting for some saviour that will not come, or just give up. THE ONLY THING REQUIRED IS TO PUT YOUR ENERGY INTO SOMETHING POSITIVE.
Discuss this idea with people, draw ideas, plans. I'm sure with only a tenth of the regulars here, something can be set up. There's technical expertise needed, but also logistics, and BRIGHT IDEAS.
You'll be surprised, what is actually possible. We still have global, unhindered communication (apart from Japan itself, where the bungling idiots try to restrict) and what is needed is a positive catalyst.
Here it is. A non political, sincere attempt to prove we're a species worth surviving. YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU PUT IN.
I suggest you all take it, and quit whining, goddamnit?
Your dead on, dead on. If the elite where actually in complete control, it would be a done deal decades ago. It's really hard to move millions of people with handfuls of people. So what they do is use divide and conquer tactics with hate and rumor and greed and other things that can make these "heards" of people to do their bidding. Also I think that we are heading to a critical point in our society where the US will finally have to face the fact that they are broke and the Japanese will have to face the fact that they will have to abandon the Japanese country in mass emigration from a contaminated land. Are we doomed, no but what will happen is that everything will come to be seen and the decisions made or not made once it can't be hidden will decide if we are doomed or what. And the change will be difficult and may totally change the way our country will look or be goverened. I'm talking now about the US, we may end up being broken up into 4 to 6 regions that will be their own country and we may end up being the shadow of ourselves.
The next typhoon is due today about noon, right over the top of Fuku. Lets see if the mucslides can topple whats left of the reactor buildings. Print your way out of this mess JanBen.
I've got a two week supply of Potassium Iodide... Do you? That will give me enough time to wrap things up and get out of Dodge. The only question will be 'to where?'
I've had 400 doses (85mg) of KI03 Potassium Iodate and 430 doses (50mg) of KI Potassium Iodide on hand for about 15 years. Still do. Not liking to be pressured into snap decisions the "where" becomes less of an urgent issue but an important issue none the less. There are still some good places in Alaska and BC that havent been totally screwed up yet.
Newfoundland or PEI looking good out East.
Total nonsense.
BC is fucked and so is Alaska.
Already.
Get with the program. If this goes pear-shaped we'll lose the northern hemisphere of the planet and after two decades the southern one as well.
Really! Now, the last time (4th) I drove the AlCan ~'96 there were places along the way that looked pretty good. And flying as well as horsebacking all over AK from `91 - '96 I gotta say that there was and I imaging still a lot of elbow room. Once you get off the Anchorage, Fairbanks, Delta Junction loop there is a whole lot of "out there". Of course there are significant signs here and there of those who came and tried to stay and left. The north is no place for pussies and those who are unprepared.
Been looking at Ecuador for some time now. At 71 a couple of decades more is all i have at best anyway. Been increasingly concerned observing the negative trends in the enviornment globally and acceleration of our political nightmare since the early '60s. It became clear to me then that all we could do was to take care of ourselves and those close to us because we are past the tipping point and there is no way out that ends well. But then - "this time is different" - we have nukes.
PacOps:
Ecuador is not an option at 71, unless you are comfortable being beaten in your home and robbed over and over again----this is not Costa Rica or Switzerland.
I am older and have been here over twenty years and know what this beautiful place is like for old people.
Or just listen to the real estate pimps and come on down!
The writing is all over the wall and this is evident from the fact that the Japanese PM has been publicly asking for advice and expertise from international experts on how to deal with the disaster.
This is the nuclear version of the GFC which the press and politicians gloss over but which they cannot deal with.
We are in a world of extend and pretend.
Fukushima was an attack. Japan is being held hostage. Look at the videos, there was no tsunami wave damage. There's absolutely no way a tidal wave could have shut down the system. The cooling/containment systems on nuclear power plants have a tertiary back up system that needs NO generators NO power and can function autonomously. They can operate under steam powered by the very heat created by the runaway reaction... it's self balancing. They are paralized with fear right now under threat of another attack.
More information please and if there was one attack why not another?
He is hinting at Jim Stone's angle that a jewish owned company that was in charge of security for Fukushima Dai-chi (based in Dimona) planted nukes in the building and/or the actual reactors and blew up the plant whilst in the same time fed the japanese false data via previously implanted stuxnet. Although the story is sexy i don't believe it and instead go for media fakery (the accident didn't happened at all and the hype was generated via green screen and CGI + actors, just as 9/11 was done).
We are all under continuous attack by our own stupidity, greed and other sins.
This poor planet will not hold on for long.
Oh, the planet will hold on. After all, it created the plutonium and uranium in the first place. Surface dwelling life forms, well........
It will look more like Venus and aliens will have to change its name. Mercury, Venus, Penis, Mars...
Plutonium is a man-made element
George Carlin salutes your comment....
More like poor planet will kick us in the stomach like it did so many times before. Case in point Fukushima itself: with all the methodology to mitigate worst case scenarios, all smart projections went out the window when earthquake first shut down reactors and then tsunami wiped out reserve generators that were supposed to cool reactors down after shutdown. Oh, no worry Earth will hold on for much longer than we are around and I bet if it could laugh it would do so hysterically as we speak. We tend to overestimate our significance and most damage we inflict upon ourselves.
If the planet were self-aware it probably wouldn't even be aware of us. We're the equivalent of microbes on skin.
Got some radiant yen coins in your back pocket?
Aren't you sick and tired of this circle jerk? We always hear that the situation will keep worsening and lead to Japan being uninhabitable, Hawaii and the west coast of central and north America and the rest of the world shortly. However, despite the catastrophic situation TEPCO is still able to maintain workers on site after 3 (or 4) reactors went south and at least one spent fuel pool burnt. How the hell do you reconcile the supposed high radiation on site with people working there. If it isn't too "hot" yet to be there (30+ months after the accident) where is the problem? Maybe those Russians at Chernobyl were crazy to rush like they did as judging by the way things go at Fukushima they could have waited at least 2 and a half years to entomb the reactor.
As i said it dozen of times, this disaster is fake, either exaggerated by numerous orders of magnitude or it didn't happened altogether (I incline towards the second scenario as it was used to smoke-screen the Libyan invasion and theft of oil and gold).
Cheers bitchez!
Is that you Abe?
Yeah, you cought me...God forbids someone go against the current meme that the Fukushima accident is real and is going to kill us all, any time now...
Regarding these meltdowns that they say they don't know the location of, can Tepco and the Japanese government tell us where they know the cores aren't? By a process of elimination, we may be able to deduce the location of the cores. Have they looked in the Wet Wells? Have they looked in the Dry Wells, etc? Have they seen where the cores passed through when they melted? Are there holes in concrete were the meltdowns passed through? Have they traced the path of the meltdowns to a place where there is now standing water? What is the temperature of the water? Is the water boiling or is there steam coming off of the water in places? Is the water they pump keeping those water levels at current levels and if they stop pumping does the water drain away? If the water drains away, does it drain from known places or is it draining under the building through crushed rock, or rock, or through cracks?
If "Elvis" hasn't left the building, you would think that it would be easy to see and know the corium whereabouts. If it melted a hole through the concrete then what is under that? Bedrock? Soil? Crushed rock? Water table layer? Do they know if there was any bedrock melting? If so then would that mass keep melting down until enough impurities from the melted bedrock churned into it such that the heat from ongoing fission was no longer enough to melt any more rock? Impurities in a great enough quantity will act as control rods and slow the fission and heat generation, but once melting stops the addition of impurities would seem to stop too. Were there any seams in the underground material that the melting could have more easily followed? Is the reason they keep pumping water at this thing to "effectively" give the corium a kind of spent fuel pool of water to be submerged under in order to keep it from melting further and/or keep gaseous releases down? Would the corium smoke and give off radiation in a similar way to a runaway spent fuel rod pool fire with a lack of cooling water to dissipate heat?
I suspect that it stopped melting further only when that mass got just below the melting point of whatever it sits on or in. The remaining level of fission may be keeping the corium's temperature close to the melting point of whatever it is sitting in and it may stay that hot for a long time as there are fissile materials in it that will continuously generate heat. So the temperature may be near that of molten rock which is lava.
They still haven't found the cores from Chernobyl, and that was decades ago.
Why? Because the damn things MELT. They fuse with other materials. At Chernobyl, they fused with sand and started pouring through all kinds of cracks. They have no idea where the "cores" are exactly, they just know which rooms they can't enter (the radiation doses in some rooms would be instantly fatal within a couple of hours).
The same situation applies at Fukushima. The cores have melted and dissappeared into the cracks.
They know where some of it went....
Like Micheal Engineer said above, it mixed with the sand which was once surrounding the containment vessal which kind of acted like control rods. It's now rather stable. Although extremely radioactive.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=elephant+foot+chernobyl&qpvt=elephant+foot+chernobyl&FORM=IGRE&adlt=strict
If some of Chernobyl solidified there while in what looks like in mid drip into the elephant foot shape, then I think that the majority of that mass didn't go too much farther away from there. My guess is less than 100 yards. A lot of mixing can occur with the mass from a 100 yard sphere of earth, rock, sand, concrete and stuff. Stare across a football field. Now image going down 100 yards deep too. That's a lot of stuff. 25 yards might be a lot closer to reality. I imagine the mass would head down in general unless it found a layer that would allow for easier spreading in the horizontal direction.
TEPCO is not an engineering corporation, they lack the people with skill, and they lack leadership that can do anything except for what they're doing now, which is running behind the facts and splashing water on the crumbling mess.
It's not correct to just blame TEPCO. The japanese government has underfunded them since they were nationalised. And the militairy industrial complex (CSIS) gave them notice to "stay the course" about a year ago.
So it's the wrong people in control. You seem intelligent enough to see what's going on with the coriums. Please contact this guy, to discuss more, if interested?
http://www.linkedin.com/in/asiainstituteculturetech
I linked in and looked at your suggestion. Thanks. I suspect their people have better info than even my educated guesses. I've seen some commentary here at ZH that indicates some people with a little inside knowledge or understanding have been commenting. Some comments indicate that some out of the ordinary methods have been considered but not followed for reasons. I've put in my 2 bits worth of opinion on possible courses of action in the past and dropped a few hints, just in case the seriousness of the matter gets to be that bad. There are downsides and risks to most courses of action.
Starting from the top...yes, yep, and yeppers
about a mile underground at this point...
"They could have indeed, if only Japan were to formally recognize the severity of the catastrophe instead of constantly pushing it under the rug at a time when the only thing that matters for the successful, if ultimately doomed, implementation of Abenomics is the preservation of confidence at all costs."...
Hey doesn't 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. have one of these? While I would have anticipated immediate U.S. involvement after the disaster considering the builder of that technology and those facilities and a press that refuses to make it front page news every consecutive day for that last 940 days reward there client instead with an upcoming Olympics and to continue a no holes barred treaty for agricultural and fishing trade without the hindsight and benefit of restricting those goods considering the fallout -we instead are given business as usual nothing wrong here move on. I'm old enough to remember how our media was relentless in ostracizing the Soviets day after day for months when Chernobyl happened and now when the shoe is on the other foot the most responsible productive Western Nation in that technology who started it all sits back and does absolutely nothing!
Make no mistake this is what an Apocalypse looks like.
And just to sweetin this pot this is what is going on in Washington on a Federal Government that continues to run roughshod over it's people.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/members-of-congress-seen-partying-drinking-on-capitol-hill-all-week-during-shutdown/77181/
nuked from within
It must be absolute fucking mayhem at that site. I can't see a way you would be able to have long- term on the ground supervision of the place. The guys who are running the workers must be getting over-exposed if they even remotely know whats happening minute by minute on - site. You need a guy to say "herer,fix this" etc. or "we need this " . To do this correctly, you need intimate knowledge of continually changing circumstances on the site. On the ground supervisory turnover will maintain this chaos.Its just an amazingly complicated problem that cant be solved from the confines of an ivory tower
Especially in this situation, tokenism will severely BITE you in the ass....
Welcome to hysteria land.
The water which spilled had had its cesium removed, so it had in it a large amount of tritium and a small amount of Strontium 90. Both of these isotopes are Beta particle emitters which can be stopped easily by the radiation suits which the workers wear. The spilled water could have had an enormous count of becquerels per liter and still be safe.
Of course, there will be accidental spills. If this was Cesium contaminated water I would be concerned, because Gamma radiation can go through the suits to harm the workers.
I noticed that there was no mention of an increased radiation dose gained by the workers. This is probably because there was none. The cigarettes which Japanese workers often smoke will kill them sooner than the radiation will.
Tritium, by itself, has a half life of 12 years.
Every spill that occurs means that the insides of some stupid animal is going to get irradiated. Those "harmless" yet "enormous" counts of becquerels may mean nothing to humans, but it certainly means something to the wildlife. Not for just 12 years either - that's just the HALF LIFE. So your looking at 20+ years of tritium contamination alone, not counting any other mishaps with the more harmful isotopes.
This disaster will go on for decades. How many accidents have we had in two years?
UrbanBard, I spent an entire career in nuclear safety and recognize you as knowledgeable on the subject. My focus was the consequences of nuclear accidents. Under Bio here you, or others who are not anti-nuke zombies like the rabble, can find my PGP key. Please email me using that key because it''s very rare to find intelligence on this subject. If you haven't used PGP recently, look up GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard) which is freeware PGP for modern computers.
H-3 is not as harmless as you suggest, but most of what you say is entirely correct.
Trying to educate people here is throwing pearls at swine.
Yes, we of the rabble are not nuclear physicists or in the biz. The main story is not the level of any certain radiation, but the level of ineptitude by the Japanese government. Keep educating us swine please. There is a lot of doomed porn lovers and this plays into it here, but the fact is the Japs are going way too Shakita Ga Nai on us and IT COULD BE HELPED IF A PROPER RESPONSE WAS ROLLED OUT.
There's no need to argue about Fukushima. It's revealing itself in its huge horror every day.
People, animal life is experiencing the consequences of radiation. It's becoming undeniable in a tragic crescendo pace.
The diagnose for the northern hemisphere is already been done. About the southern hemisphere, there's a number of opinions: The World has never faced such a situation so it's all acknowledging and learning ahead and a lot of uncertainty.
On time, radiation is gonna reach the south too, anyway.
if they admit to 6 it must be 6000
Fukushima is orders of magnitude worse than what is generally believed. First it has 14,000 times as much radioactivity as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
It also has something like 20 times the radioactive material as Chernobyl.
Building #4 is sinking into the ground yet has tons of radioactive material stored in the attic!
That problem means they need to remove the fuel rods that weigh about 440 pounds a piece.
But they are also damaged! Which means they are likely to be stuck together.
A single mistake in attempting to remove them would cause a chain reaction. When that happens, it's all over, folks!
To make matters worse, workers will need to be replaced daily due to their exposiure levels exceeding an annual dose in a matter of hours. That means the workers will be inexperienced. The radiation itself can affect vision and thinking, so the risk of error is extremely high.
The US will be bathed in lethal doses of radioactivity within ten days of a chain reaction.
Hey, Kelley,
Thanks for this post. I have sort of been considering returning to California if I can find a spot in the wilderness, and this nuclear threat thing is sort of an interesting challenge for an oldtimer like myself-----I could spend my last years playing 'canary in the coalmine'.
But, I can't hang with the people, so being in a remote wilderness location is mandatory.
Thanks for the idea