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Guest Post: Boots On The Ground In Fukushima, Japan
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man
Boots on the Ground In Fukushima, Japan
I had to come see for myself. What does the worst radiation and natural disaster in history look like? Chaos. Devastation. Cataclysm. Right?
Actually… none of the above. Fukushima and the surrounding prefecture is as quaint and picturesque as ever. Eight months on, there are hardly any signs of a nuclear accident or major earthquake, at least on the surface.
Smiling bunny rabbit welcomes tourists to nuclear disaster.
I was half-expecting the town to have a permanent decontamination facility… with radiation detectors as far as the eye can see, and legions of workers in biohazard suits. After all, this town of nearly 300,000 is now the world’s largest dirty bomb.
But riding through the surrounding area and walking around the streets today, Fukushima looks like any other small(ish) town. Schools, temples, shops, and restaurants… everything is normal. In fact, it’s almost eerily normal, like something out of an old Hitchcock film.
Keep looking until you can see the gamma rays...
People here have moved on and even learned to joke about the incident with an untraditional sarcasm. At dinner this evening, my friend asked the waiter “How’s the eggplant?” to which the waiter replied with a dry smile, “Oh don’t worry, we source that from another location now…”
The really bizarre thing is that the radiation levels are still really high… yet everyone is staying put. Tepco, the group that operates the failed nuclear reactors nearby, has been publishing all sorts of propaganda saying that radiation levels are falling. Nobody believes it.
A group of politicians staged a recent media stunt, drinking water that was supposedly filled from a puddle outside Fukushima’s reactors, and dining on local produce. Nobody seems to care.
"Good for drinking" says my hotel bathroom sink.
The government is telling them not to worry while private studies suggest otherwise. A recent paper published by Norwegian atmospheric scientist Adreas Stohl refutes a number of claims made by the Japanese government, and it more than doubles the government’s estimate of how much radiation was released in the accident.
And yet, nearly everyone is still here. After the initial evacuation, people just came back to town and picked up where they left off. They know the government is lying to them. They know they’re in danger and that their lives and livelihoods are at risk. But they’re staying put.
Some of this is due to a lack of preparation. Most people didn’t plan for this emergency and didn’t have an action plan or bolt hole somewhere. For others, it’s just the expected thing to do– stay and suffer.
It seems crazy, but this is a familiar story.
Think about how many people are lied to on a regular basis by their politicians. They know they’re being lied to. They know their livelihood is under attack. They know the trend is bad, and it’s getting worse. But they do nothing and plan nothing, warning signs be damned.
Oh, how politicians love it when citizens are good little sheep, patiently waiting to be milked and sheared.
Look, each of us has a choice to make. Like the folks here in Fukushima, most people will simply put up with constant abuse indefinitely. Others will grab a pitchfork and join the lost souls’ convention on Wall Street. Most will pin their hopes on the next election.
Fukushima teaches us that voting with your feet is sometimes the only sensible option. After all, there are a lot of green pastures out there in the world.
It may not be a popular decision. Throughout history, societies frequently derided anyone with the foresight and fortitude to leave.
And so what? Let them complain. Our obligations are to ourselves, our families, and whomever else we choose to let into our circles. There is no natural debt to society or political servitude simply by accident of birth.
It’s time to start rejecting antiquated social expectations and think in new directions. With so much uncertainty, it makes a world of sense to have a backup plan overseas.
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isn't your daddy-provided trust fund running out?
What a complete and utter waste of 10 minutes of my life.
most of the people left must have tons of ammo and guns stockpiled and silver buried. They never anticipated that all of that stockpiling would mean they had no choice but to stay put in a highly contaminated area. Those who were mobile didn't have to leave everything they had behind
So what did you want to tell us?
Anyone remember the rabbits that lived around all the traps in Watership down? Whenever I think about the people living around the plant I can't help but think about those rabbits and how they were pretty much just waiting to die.
Smiling bunny rabbit welcomes tourists to nuclear disaster.
It looks like Pikachu.
He wants you to possess nothing and be poor and die quickly, so you don't use any of his precious oil.
enjoy your life in contaminationville, silverbugz.
Have any of you stackers ever realistically calculated how much you could carry?
You make a lot of assumumptions and pretend they are facts. This is par for the course for you, though.
See www.nukelies.com
Those who were mobile didn't have to leave everything they had behind...
M.Twain... (loosely remembered...) it doesn't matter how much money or love you made, you can always make more...
...seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly...
It took you 10-minutes to read that? Gee, a public school education isn't what it used to be? Be thankful that there was no math or the shoes would have to come off.
read it twice, just to see if I'd missed anything of any meaningful worth...
No such luck...
It took you 10 minutes? I'm sending you an Eveyln Wood Gift Card
Let me guess, check's in the post...
You sound like MF Global...
Important hot particle scientific study cited at Fairewinds/Gundersen:
http://fairewinds.com/
Lots of folks will be getting cancer in Japan in next 10 years, in the US there will be some increased cancer cases.
yes, and cancer isn't the only thing, ALL THE CHILDREN WILL BE SICKLY PERPETUALLY TIRED, IMMUNE SYSTEM, AND DNA SHOT TO HELL.
Would YOU do that to your children? Even when poor, and clueless about the rest of the world? It's all so strange!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e_O2j_f43P4
Prof. Christopher Busby argues there's going to be a LOT of heart problems (heart cells die in children, but are not renewed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Kkuo-IK-A
well, my friends, if that's not depopulation, I'm the fucking pope.
he's not popular (obviously), but credit where credit's due; kudos to mister Simon for actually going there. Ehmm did you actually drink the tapwater?
US there will be some increased cancer cases.
Just mostly us left coast to start, another time I'm glad to be old.
And the rest of us can deal with the estimated 20 million tons of trash from the tsunami now near Hawaii and soon to be on the west coast. Milestones
Well, unless he's popping iodine like breath mints, it doesn't matter how much is left...
Fucked, bitchez.
In more ways than one. Seals dead and dying of mysterious disease in western Alaska reminds me alot of radioactive poisioning.
Pass on that tuna fish shall we?
If it makes you feel any better dolphins are still washing up in the Gulf from the continuous oil spill.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Now that the internet is here, I thought all the problems were solved. </humor>
drink the brownish water and take a bright green piss .. hows that for a magic trick.
The line between stoicism and just plain blind faith and stubbornness is a thin one.
God help us all.
Like the folks in Montgomery County, Texas, where the Sheriff's Office just took receipt of a Fed-Funded drone with weapons capability.
Video after the jump: http://www.click2houston.com/news/29619788/detail.html
Wouldn't you feel so much safer knowing your local law enforcement officers have this new capability?
PULL!
Classic..., and how fun!
lol thats what i was thinking, thats one expensive clay pidgeon.
Going long on 10 gauge magnums and ultra recoil shoulder pads for Big Bird. 00 Buck? Often wonder why the kids in the UK don't take out the street video cams with air rifles.
What a dumb ass article. Japan is an over crowded island in a 20 year depression. Where the fuck are these people suppose to move too? Nevada? Also, there is mounting evidence that the real increase in radiation in the USA is being surpressed, Keep popping that KI.
KI is a prophylactic, and can only be safely taken for two weeks. It won't give you permanent immunity to radiation.
Lugol's for protection against radiation? at Iodine ...
Radiation Exposure and Zeolites - Healthy Natural Solutions
Healing Clay for People and Animals - radiation detoxification
Natural Remedies for Radiation Exposure ~ Natural Cures
Radiation detox bath, Detox bath benefits, Epsom bath detox, Clorox ...
Combatting radiation poisoning tips: Chelating (detoxifying) excess ...
N-acetyl cysteine protects against ionizing radiation-induced ... - NCBI
Chlorella, Kelp, FIR Sauna, Ionized Water - Combating Radiation ...
Guanosine and inosine as natural antioxidants and radioprotectors ...
Radiation Therapies | Dr Carolyn Dean MD ND
Yea, boy, that blowed up real good!
It should be easy to clone his frequency and turn it around to zap old Rosco P. Coltrane.
Do I need a 50 cal for that or will an AR or AK get the job done. A girl must be prepared.
My guess is that an AK or AR will do unless it is flying really high.
MsCreant,
I just got a spam from Best Buy in Bani Walid, Libya and they're having an Eid Special on SA-7s. Limit ten per customer. Free delivery and end user certificate from Viktor Bout. Be the first on your block....
Now I know who the real experts are and I will fear no more. I need to get a really good pick up truck and I will be in business:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/06/diy-weapons-of-the-libyan-rebels/100086/
Recycle, reuse. What's not to like?
Ah. Back on the MF Global thread, someone wanted a photo of the Corzine rectal suppository. That would be photo # 1. (Be sure to stock up on plenty of KY.)
Must be a coordinated effort with balaclava installed. Look down cameras and all that, you know.
My new camera- and FLIR- seeking missile should take care of that.
Some teenager will hack it within weeks.
Some teenager from China/Iran will hack it within a week.
fixed it.
[Napolitano and Murphy have watched Blue Thunder perform a selective firepower demonstration]
JANET NAPOLITANO: Well, look at that, all the red dummies are blown to hell.
FRANK MURPHY: And a few white ones!
JANET NAPOLITANO: One civilian dead for every ten terrorists. That's an acceptable ratio.
FRANK MURPHY: Unless you're one of the civilians!
mongomery county texas. ah, my, in a time of rebellion and internal conflict, the life span of such a thing will be very short...........
Hmmm....$300K that can be taken down w/a rifle or shotgun costing one thousandth as much? Sounds like good ole govt cost/benefit accounting. Well, it aint the county's money, is it? And Im sure the trough-feeding-pigs at Vanguard Industries are happy too.
It's wasteful now but if this tech follows Moore's Law, by the end of next decade the pigs will have robotic killer bees that cost $100 (in current value). Their sensitive antennae will enable them to home in on any reefer plume or any wireless connection to Zero Hedge. Infrared cameras and sophisticated AI will guide them in for the kill. Protests won't even happen because thinkcrime will be eliminated almost as it happens. The drones will also be able to sting with tranquilizers when the pigs need to collect someone for interrogation or relocate them to a FEMA camp to work off their unpaid debts.
That's the new Bernankcopter!! It's designed after Greenspans nose. The Square black box between the skids is a high velocity fiat printer. To the front of that is a direct feed, ink-cooled reciprocating fiat cannon. High tech shit.
oh... is this the new tool to shoot the OWS protesters?
check for the drone-virus first, otherwise it might hit some Goldman Sachs banksta.
what the fuck use could a sheriff's office POSSIBLY have for such a thing.
911 changed this nation into a nation of fucking idiots
does it come with a "Hellfire missile"? "That'll teach ya' to speed phucker!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nx-ikJsHgA&feature=player_detailpage
This place is really densly populated, you can see it from his photos.
Check it out guys:
http://vimeo.com/user6415562
Occupy Fukushima is labeled an astounding success!
They were all irradiated years ago, so they are immune. Why bother leaving?
if the government says dont worry then STFU and DONT WORRY...BE HAPPY...SOAK IN THE SIEVERTS.
this boy sure gets around. who is supporting his ass?
Those who get suckered into his articles and subscribe to his newsletter.
what people subscribe to that???
fuckin stupid...
um, gamma rays are like invisible, right? so, what good are pictures? where are the two headed babies and poison milk cows and dead fish? this is another lame TinTin goes on internet and does phoney travel log...
Here's a picture!
Only a cat for now; shorter gestation period for cats than humans.
My backup is Peru. And we have a little start there.
Personally, I will move to Australia or England as soon as I can afford the move and finish school. Forex trading regs are far more favorable to the small investor outside of the US.
You don't want to move to England it's a shit hole .
Thanks to it being the NWO's guinea pig.
The Japanese are good at denying stuff... denying their crimes in WW2... denying radiation, things like that... they are almost as good as those Germans that lived near the concentration camps during WW2 and ``never knew they were there``...
And here's their soundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oDAkmfoAgA&feature=player_detailpage
I'm long cancer care centers in Japan.
you'll be short a pretty penny when the cure gets revealed
A cure? You're funny. Do some research on what happens to the birth/death model when cures are introduced.
It's more likely that a Japanese think tank has engineered a nucleotide that it will release into the population. The nucleotide will bind with the DNA of the host and cause even more advanced cancers. Cancers that prolong your life while big pharma and Dr.Cohen(cancer specialist) drains your life savings and charges your socialist healthcare millions for treatment.
They'll blame it on Fukushima. Flu shots for everyone!
The words "Japanese" and "Think tank" just don't belong in the same sentence.
cure for cancer was covered up - www.rife.org
Budwig Diet Center - Natural Alternative Cancer Treatment
BAKING SODA AND MAPLE SYRUP CANCER TREATMENT ...
The Cause and Cure of Cancer - Bamboo Delight Company
Breast Cancer and Jewish Bras - Bamboo Delight Company
http://www.google.com/trends?q=drug+shortage
Notice when it started and yes go long cancer treatment/cancer pharma
I spoke with Wm. Saito, the founder of IO Systems, a few years ago. His company did a lot of work with 3 letter government agencies. Anyway, I thought that some of the medical technology was worth investing in. His comment was that no one wants to pay for someone else's healthcare. Governments will buy weapons and weapons systems much more willingly than pay for someones' cancer treatment.
Truth to that sadly...
now cancer is a weapon
Seen any earless rabbits hopping around?
BTW, if you start combing out a few more locks of hair than normal, it's too late.
the solidarity of the Japanese sheeple is what's toxic here
p.s. be careful there, we don't wanna lose the Tyler
scratch that> brain lapse> missed the name of the author, thought it was you> all good
I usually enjoy your articles from around the world, but I'm kind of questioning your sanity at the moment
You need to ask a simple question: whom is he kidding? Sure, Japanese are familiar with Geiger counter. Does he presume that people in Fukushima are not capable of using this device? Or even simpler: Do you believe for a moment that such a narcissistic
character as Simon Black would ever go to Fukushima if there was a slightest danger to his precious health? The truth is that the whole incident in Fukushima was non-event from global viewpoint and it was indicated by experts from the day one that contamination will not spread beyond 50 miles zone around the plant in the worst case scenario. By now the whole area is pretty safe. Those who are stating otherwise (including this website) are either ignorant or have something against nuclear energy industry. One should take into consideration that the plant survived devastating earthquake and the damage was due to gigantic tsunami wave (pretty rare event) only. Even under this drastic circumstances the damage was manageable.
This Simon Black's propaganda is so primitive and untruthful that one should ask yourself what kind of people he is trying to entice
in his web of lies and useless "products" he offers...
Who are you kidding? It takes quite a troll to hop on the Simon-bashing bandwagon and use it to lie about Fukushima. For example, it's been well established now that the plant was taken out by the quake, long before the tsunami made it there.
WRONG.
Plenty of sushi to be had 50 miles down the coast from Fukushima.
Are you going to eat it?
Hell, even I won't eat sushi or vegetables that isn't imported after that March debacle.
The Japanese are long sand for sticking one's head into.
The Japanese people have been successfully lobotomized.
At least the Japanese did not vote for a african Muslim to destroy and loot their country. The Jap politicians and Yajuza did the job.
Yakuza dumbass.
But I still love you.
I think he's trying to spell jacuzzi
"j" is next to "k", and the spellcheck is disabled by default now. What a pain in the ass. It even overrides my system spellcheck.
I thought he was making an religious/ethnic statement by engaging wordplay on the word "Jew" with regard to who got Obama elected.
so his point is everyone in Japan should move? where?? Black's BioDome Chile? or just the under 18 year old girls for future repopulation.
Did you know that from 1992 to 2007 the number of 18-year olds in Japan decreased by 40%? That place will be a Chicom colony before long. Okinawa fall back position is the base getting built on Guam.
very useful information, thank you so much.
They've been talking about a buildup on Guam for years, but almost nothing's been done and now Congress is balking at the cost. If it gets done it will truly be as a fallback - either the Japanese kick the Navy/Corps out or the nuclear situation becomes recognized as being worse than is reported. So far the only thing "going up" on Guam are the real estate prices as locals speculate where the extra 15,000 Marines will want to live. But no one's moving in yet.
YES! With so much uncertainty, I'm walking out of my bank and into my coin dealers!!!
They need a dose of Obama care. Thank you for the update, and the great commentary! Unfortunately, it's very difficult for people to " BUG " out. I wish them all the best.
Imagine you invented a machine that revolutionized travel. You know your invention could cut local and long distance travel time substantially and vastly improve the ability for business to deliver freight efficiently. The invention would add trillions to global GDP. If released, your invention would no doubt be universally used and admired. However, based on the initial safety assessments, analysts predict that if used widely your invention would cause the deaths of 300,000 Americans per year and countless more around the globe. Would you still release it?
If not, imagine a world without cars.
It turns out that car accidents are among the leading causes of death in the US, and yet few of us would give up the luxury, convenience, and autonomy of owning an automobile. We've decided the benefits are worth the risk.
Now, the bigger question: why isn't this same measure used when judging nuclear energy?
http://www.safehaven.com/article/20591/the-symptoms-of-nuclear-hysteria
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention - we're all gonna die. No, really.
'...if used widely your invention would cause the deaths of 300,000 Americans per year and countless more around the globe. Would you still release it?'
Course I would, I'm not an American...
Bring me the money, die fuckers...
When a solar flare produces a EMP and disables the power grid, we can watch all our nuclear power stations melt down when the generators run out of deisel after 3 days . Where do you live?
Where do you live
Doesn't matter a few yrs later it will all look the same.
Your figure of 300,000 American deaths per year by car is WAY out.
The 2009 figure is 30,797 http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811401.pdf
BTW You have a great name to use on the Sovereign Man's blog ;O)
yes japanese go on with their lives and play the game of pretend. heck , i can't see anything so everything must be ok right.. and they go right along and raise their crops and raise their cattle and then sell their products on the open market to other japanese to eat and everybody is just moving right along and ignoring fukushima. i saw a report that the japanese are allowing green tea grown in the affected areas to be sold to the world as good. japanese holistic medicine my friends is now a thing of the past. i would not under any circumstances buy anything made or sold in japan.......let us not forget the japanese love of fish and how they continually dump radioactive water in the pacific......oh how nice of them to help out the world like this......fools they are , and fools they will always be.............
good little sheep, patiently waiting to be milked and sheared.
I have found Simon's problem he thinks sheep can be milked. Those aren't udders Simon!! Uh huh, oh ok carry on.
The sheep HATE that. It's so annoying when he tries to milk them.
You can milk the ewes, sure.
You a city-boy?
Simon is milking the rams. He's a country boy.
Hmm. And there I thought Roquefort might be famous enough for rubes to have eaten it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sheep%27s-milk_cheeses
The yen is worthless. Debt is so far out of control it will never be paid back, yet people keep buying government debt. A small tic up in rates and they are hosed.
So it does appear they are very good at putting their heads in the sand. Then again, Chernobyl was the same. People just didn't believe what they could not see.
What are the radiation levels in Fukushima currently?
good question, thought that's what this post would have been about!
Would enough suffice?
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LU10Q56KLVS101...
TEPCO Fukushsima Live Cam
Fukushima Reactor 2 May Have Gone Critical - Vid
Reactor 2 100 Fold Increase Of Krypton 85 In ONE Day
Fukushima Cesium 134, 137 Already 95% Of Chernobyl
Gunderson - Fukushima Hot Particles Proven In The US - Vid
Nuclear Fission Reignites At Fukushima Reactor 2
New Video Tour Of Destroyed Fukushima 1 Nuke Plant - Vid
Radioactive Cesium In Japan Pollen Being Breathed
8 Yr Old Japanese Girl Has 2,915 Bq Of Cesium
US Topsoil 10,000% Higher Cesium Than Found By UC Berkeley
Wasn't Ron Paul castigated recently by some guy on Fox for suggesting this same thing about leaving?
The koolaid was spiked, he drank it, and darned if he didn't put aside several hundred gallons to refresh himself as needed. Hunter Thompson, no.
Next year you can write the poor little people's story called; "My pet Tumor" I have heard that the former president will read books like these if he can understand the connection you make between the pictures and the big print. Maybe he has someone read him your work? Aaaa, you've found your audience again, that dutiful but dumb, #1 per sense.
"The Hills Have Eyes II"....now in the making....
Night of the Earless Lepus is going to be popular.
Giant 40 foot earless rabbits attacking the local population for cabbage.
Yea. Those Japanese should all move to Sudan where the prospects are bountiful. Brought to you by Simon Black – sovereign asshat extraordinaire.
South Sudan.
The place to make a fortune if you are brave and have an eye for opportunity.
saw the title of this post and thought "oh cool, it says boots on the ground, must mean someone's there taking some current radiation readings, getting some real intel on the situation"
wait. what? nothing? some platitudes about a sideways joke in a restaurant? as with most (all?) posts from SB; useless.
Simon, I highly recommend the back-alley vendor puffer fish shashimi. Even if it's cut correct it will still kill your ass.
This is a switch. Usually the MSM is way behind ZH, but the utter futility of this post in the realm of useful information actually makes MSM look like they are trying to stay on top. (Yahoo had something this morning about Fukishima xenon, lame report in total, but at least they tried)
Perhaps Simon's point was that the Japanese are fully prepared to die to preserve thier Illusion of Security. All the public stunts of drinking water do not overcome the fact that radioactivity is present and probably causing harm. But like the Bugblatter beast of Troth, if you cover your head with your towel you are safe. It assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you.
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. In this case, a much more informative source to have.
double post
Dear Simon,
I never know what the hell it is that you are trying to say. Is there anyway that you can be more direct in your pieces.
Like many others have stated before me, I always read your none-opinion-opinions with a scepticism born from the confusion of your text.
Could you simply say what it is that you want to say?
Thanks for posting here om
do you really think Simon Black will read your post here? He won't.
He's saying "be ready, be prepared, and don't be bound to a single country.
Of course, the soulless, witless bastard could never express that in less than 3000 words.
But I still subscribe (to the free newsletter, thanks).
National Academy of Sciences did THE comprehensive report on Chernobyl, first translation of many docs plus a comprehensive look at the health effects. For the first three years doctors were prohibited from diagnosing any illness as "radiation-related" to avoid alarming people. Tons of thyroid cancers, babies with no arms etc etc. Estimated that Chernobyl affected >150 million people with 60 different radioactive isotopes, most of which have NO acceptable exposure levels. They were shooting wild boars in Germany that literally glowed in the dark from eating so many radioactive mushrooms.
To mitigate the disaster they needed guys to shovel sand into the hole, problem was they could only be in there 2 minutes before receiving their lifetime dose. So they went to 18-year-old conscripts, told them they could do two years in the army or 2 minutes shovelling sand in the hole. How many took it? An estimated 800,000. Where is Japan going to come up with 800,000 willing fools?
Chernobyl was one reactor, Fukushima is 3. This story is not over yet.
Well Simon, you convinced me with that post. I'm going to give you lots of money now so you can tell me how to move to another country. Well done.
Fukishima is on river Da Nile
@Sovreign Man
That advice about having backup overseas... hmmm... doesn't sound easy or cheap. Even if everyone could afford it (most can't), if even 30% of people tried to do it, the natives in their new host country would probably start getting pissed off - that's if there is any host country that can be guaranteed invulnerable from the economic and social problems that plague so many countries.
The option of "running to sunnier climes" is reserved for those who have money and connections.
I do not have the resources to act on your advice - like most people, I think.
Your advice is useless except to people with money and connections. You must know this.
So what's the point in your articles? What audience are you trying to reach?
...or is this just an amateur journal about your exotic holidays with a bit of gloating that you have enough resources to shit your pants and run as soon as trouble starts?
How about sticking around and trying to be part of the solution?
Keep thinking that. It'll keep the expatriot population from getting so big that they start blocking new immigrants from coming in.
"So what's the point in your articles? What audience are you trying to reach?"
Like when Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, "That's where the money is." Same deal for our Sovereign Man.
They didn't want to relocate to those empty cities in China?
Going to Fukushima City, 60 kilometers from the nuke plant, to look for chaos and devastation from nuclear disaster. You gotta be kidding me, Simon.
Wow.
For the first time, Simon visits a place that ISN'T better than where you are right now...
Now I can finally afford my own Mc Mansion in a nice gated community called Fukushima.
One of the amazing things about Fukishima is that after getting crushed, the people aren't laying around wailing and crying for handouts and screaming about the 'unfairness of it all' like in some certain *cough* OWS *cough* places you see today.
+1
oh man, you've gone and run over the sacred cow now!
Ever watch "On the Beach" ? This applies: http://www.amazon.com/Beach-Gregory-Peck/dp/B00004SGB5/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=i...
I appreciate Simon's effort to go someplace relevant and actually look around and take some pictures. I've been pounding the table here on ZH that Fukushima City is THE untold scandalous story within the Fukushima disaster tale. A city of over a quarter million reaches evacuation level radiation and is not evacuated! The city government, getting next to no help from Tokyo, announces a plan to WASH 100,000 HOMES as a radiation countermeasure! 'Hey, we hosed you down, sorry that's all we have for you, best of luck with the exposure/cancer statistics'. Standard dose-response science suggests thousands will die here.
Just consider that for a moment.
Well, that and the scale of the radiation releases. This morning I bothered to catch up to the recent studies showing how much radiation was released, focusing on cesium. One study was on atmospheric releases and the other on ocean releases. Together they have Fukushima putting out 90% of the Chernobyl disaster, which as you know continues to have off-limits territory and international impacts to this day. Neither study considers what is still in the wastewater on site--the wastewater that exists in such vast and highly irradiated amounts that it's filling up every conceivable place they can think of to put it.
So the estimated off-site release is 90% of Chernobyl, and what's on site is clearly many times that. If anyone remembers, back in April I worked up an estimate that said Fukushima could be emitting one Chernobyl's worth of cesium every ten days. It's been nearly eight months since the disaster; if the cesium in the fuel is leaking at a rate such that 20% of it will come out over 50 years, the on-site water now contains something like 10-20 Chernobyls, minus the continuing small air and ocean releases. Remember, the damaged units' cores and storage pools originally contained over 100 Chernobyl releases worth of cesium as they were keeping all the waste pools full and irradiating fuel longer to economize on storage. Lots would come out in 'burst release' as it heated up--high end estimate 30%--with another 20% subject to longer release pretty much regardless of temperature. Since we don't know what percentage of fuel rods got hot enough for burst release, we don't know the overall cesium release rate still ongoing under status quo conditions at the accident site. But that's the ballpark.
The recent lack of press coverage keeps the international public from realizing that this is, in fact, the worst nuclear accident in history by a wide margin. Unless you only count air releases--then Chernobyl still gets the soiled crown. Maybe.
I appreciate all your contributions since the beginning. Nice information. Thx.
I think Dees has illustrated the fukushima situation quite well:
http://www.sl-webs.com/deesillustration/home.asp
SM. If they leave Fukushima they will be quite unwelcome elsewhere. For one, in schools outside Fukushima, their children will be teased and bullied in school as radioactive zombies.
Same thing happened after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Entire populations turned into "untouchables" overnight.
This is already quite a serious problem for some who have evacuated their children.
Solidarity, my ass.
For a while, I thought you were talking about US equity market post financial crisis.
For a while, I thought you were talking about US equity market post financial crisis.
This just goes to show how people are attached to their worldly physical possesions. Theyre not just going to walk away from it. even if it kills them. Slowly. A lot of devalued property over there that nobody is going to buy unless its $.01 on the $1
The japanese thinking on disease and accidents is very much like it was in the 12'th century's Europe.
The people from the radiation zones can't go anywhere in Japan. They are now officially lepers, shunned, hated and despised by everyone. Nobody will let them stay because they might bring either the radiation disease or at the very least Bad Luck with them.
There was surprisingly enough a two-page spread in the Sunday newspaper (jp.dk) about it. According to that, they even found Plutonium 40 km away - there will be a biblical amount of rococco cancers, wierd immune system diseases, deformed animals and children, heart disease and childhood leuchemia. This disaster will top Chernobyl by a magnitude or more. Old Testament-style punishment for seven generations.
Thanks to globalisation, people would be wise to screen all foodstuff for radiation. The japanese will deny there is any problem and dump the contaminated produce into the least regulated markets they can find to erase the "Made In Japan"-stigma. Once there it will join the regular flows of "stuff" and end up "Here". Yummy.
I have been keeping my ear very close to the ground on this one in the English and vernacular press and have seen almost nothing about the ailments you describe. Care to link it?
Japan exports almost none of its food. Even seafood is freighted in and domestic production is used for domestic consumption except for some specialty foods that make it out to other East Asian high-end markets.
So stop with the ill-informed scare mongering already. There's enough to worry about here without maligning the Japanese people as medical primitives.
Maybe Mr. Simon is confusing Fukushima City with Fukushima Prefecture.
"this town of nearly 300,000 is now the world’s largest dirty bomb"?
I don't think so. The towns of Okuma and Futaba on the Pacific coast, 60 kilometers east of Fukushima City, are that, because Fukushima I Nuke Plant is located in these two towns, but not in Fukushima City.
"After the initial evacuation, people just came back to town and picked up where they left off" ??
What initial evacuation? People from the coastal area evacuated TO Fukushima City but people in Fukushima City never evacuated. In those coastal areas, people still cannot just come back and pick up where they left off, as there are evacuation zones still in place.
This was a tip-off to me that maybe he wasn't actually there. His dialogue was too general and vague to convey any real important details.