Friday, June 10, 2016

FUKUSHIMA: TO THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION

TEPCO petitioned for and received approval from the international community to pump radioactive waste water directly into the Pacific ocean YEARS AGO, citing that it was a necessity given the enormous amounts needed to cool the reactors. 
 
This came after it was discovered that water from the storage tanks had seeped into the groundwater and also into the sea.... "ACCIDENTALLY"... OR NOT?

The Japanese officials promised this would be a temporary thing, but now we see it will be done for as long as the reactors remain there, and no one has said they will ever go away.

Efforts to use a chemical barrier to prevent sea contamination have not worked.



Above: In Iwaki, a town south of the Fukushima nuclear plant, a doctor conducts a thyroid examination on 4-year-old Maria Sakamoto.
Scientists are puzzled over a high number of thyroid abnormalities observed so soon after the accident.


In 2015 a Japanese epidemiologist, Toshihide Tsuda, published a study in the journal of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology stating that the rate of thyroid cancer in Fukushima prefecture children was more than 600 per million—much higher than the 1 to 3 cases per million one would expect.

After being criticized by Japanese officials and others for the study, Tsuda pointed out that the rate of cancer incidence four years after the accident is comparable to the rate of thyroid cancer incidence in Belarus four years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which  led to 6,000 children undergoing surgery.

Findings from the initial round of screening after the meltdowns, completed in April 2015 and released in August 2015, showed that nearly 50% of the 300,476 subjects tested (adults and children) had solid nodules or fluid-filled cysts on their thyroids.

SINCE JAPANESE PHYSICIANS LEAKED TO THE PRESS THAT THEY HAD BEEN WARNED NOT TO BLAME RADIATION FOR CANCERS, BIRTH DEFECTS, RADIATION-RELATED ILLNESSES, WE MAY NEVER KNOW HOW MANY HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH THOSE IN JAPAN.  



The German media group Deutsche Welle (DW) reported in 2014 that many radiation refugees are having to watch as their family members and pets suffer gruesome fates at the hands of what appears to be radiation poisoning.
 

One elderly woman told reporters that her dog lost all the hair around his neck, his skin turned black, and he eventually died, all signs that suggest a link to radiation.
Similar symptoms were also detected in animals in Chernobyl following the nuclear catastrophe there in 1986.

One local doctor from Namie, a town located about 5.6 miles (9 km) from the Fukushima plant, has been examining patients ever since the disaster and is convinced that Fukushima radiation is causing a major public health crisis.

"Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to the uptake in radioactive iodine in their thyroid," says Dr. Shunji Sekine.

"Although comprehensive studies are missing, I see a connection between nuclear accidents and the occurrence of cancer," adds the specialist in both thyroid and breast cancer, noting that he has observed a significant increase in both conditions following the nuclear catastrophe.

The Japanese government has, perhaps not surprisingly, continued to downplay the severity of the situation, advising "further investigations" in order to avoid pinning the rise in disease on Fukushima.

But the phenomenon almost exactly matches what occurred following the Chernobyl disaster.
 

 EVACUTED KNOWINGLY INTO THE WORST OF THE RADIATION...

Only four days after the explosion of the nuclear reactor, orders were given to evacuate the town of Tsushima in the northwest.

This led to the refugees being transported through the invisible radioactive cloud, resulting in even more exposure to contamination than if they had stayed at home.
Officials in Tokyo knew this from their computer models. But they remained silent, as they feared a widespread panic.


 Everyday, four hundred tons of highly radioactive water pours into the Pacific and heads towards the U.S. Because the radiation accumulates in fish, we get that too. The U.S. government is not testing the water, not testing the fish, and not testing the ambient air. Also, people in Japan are eating radiation every day.”

TEPCO HAS BEEN BUSTED BURNING  SOLID WASTE ON A BARGE IN THE HARBOR, HAS ADMITTED TO INCINERATING THE DISPOSABLE CLOTHING WORN BY OVER 6,000 WORKERS EACH DAY WHO WORK IN THE HIGHEST RADIATION AREAS. 

ALL OVER JAPAN INCINERATORS ARE STILL BURNING TOXIC DEBRIS FROM THE FUKUSHIMA AREAS.

TEPCO HAS ADMITTED THE GROUNDWATER IS CONTAMINATED, THAT WELLS SHOW HIGH RADIOACTIVITY, THAT THEY HAVE NO REMOTE IDEA WHERE THE CORIUM WENT FROM AT LEAST 3 OF THOSE CRIPPLED REACTORS.

I HAVE WRITTEN OFTEN AND MUCH ABOUT THE ONGOING FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN NUCLEAR CRISIS, SO, WHEN I CAME ACROSS THE DOCUMENTARY FILM WHOSE TRANSCRIPT IS BELOW, I MEANT TO POST IT RIGHT AWAY BUT DIDN'T.

IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE DON'T DO AS OUR MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOES AND PRETEND THIS ISN'T A MAJOR ISSUE.
IT IS NOW AND WILL BE AS LONG AS THE LEAKS CONTINUE A MAJOR HEALTH RISK FOR ALL OF US, BUT ESPECIALLY FOR THE UNBORN, IN UTERO, AND THE YOUNG.

TO JUST IGNORE IT WILL NEVER MAKE IT GO AWAY.

THE JAPAN TIMES JUST THE OTHER DAY POSTED NEWS OF STILL MORE THYROID CANCER CASES AMONG CHILDREN NEAR FUKUSHIMA, BUT SUCH CASES ARE ALWAYS DENIED AS HAVING BEEN CAUSED BY RADIATION BY A GOVERNMENT THAT PUTS ECONOMY OVER HUMAN LIVES.

HUMAN LIFE IS BEYOND ECONOMIC VALUE. 

PLEASE, READ AND SHARE.
SOME ARE STILL TRYING TO TELL US THE TRUTH, EVEN THOUGH THAT TRUTH IS DISTURBING.

WE SHOULD LISTEN.

ABC Australia transcript excerpts,
May 24, 2016:

"It’s like a postcard of rural Japan... lush forests, waterfalls and bubbling streams; quaint villages where pink cherry blossoms festoon the streets.


But there’s a grotesqueness here. Houses which rang with the sounds of life and laughter are being swallowed by weeds and vines; inside they are choked by cobwebs and dust.

This is the countryside of Fukushima. Five years after the nuclear meltdown, it remains full of radiation, and virtually empty of people.

In the beginning I felt extremely lonely. But now I’m used to it. – Naoto Matsumura, a farmer who stayed put to care for abandoned animals – and who is described as Japan’s most contaminated person.

In contrast the stricken Fukushima plant is thronging with activity.
About 6500 courageous workers toil to contain the radiation but, as former Japan Correspondent Mark Willacy reports, it could scarcely be said that they are winning.

Willacy was one of the first journalists on the scene after the double headed tsunami and nuclear disaster in 2011, and has reported on it extensively since.

Now he has been invited on a tour of the plant courtesy of the operator TEPCO.

What Willacy discovers is truly unsettling.

The task of neutralising and retrieving hundreds of tonnes of melted nuclear fuel turns out to be far greater than previously thought.
So too might be the eventual cost, as well as the time that will be required to remedy the site –that is, if it can ever be fully remedied.

" This really is uncharted territory. Nobody really knows where the fuel is at this point, and this fuel is still very radioactive and will be for a long time. There’s no playbook - they’re making this up as they go along."FORMER CHAIRMAN, US NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Gregory Jaczko.


Mark Willacy interviews Naoto Kan, Japan’s Prime Minister at the time of the crisis. He is a convert to the anti-nuclear cause and – along with Gregory Jaczko - a sceptic about whether the clean-up will succeed.

There was a risk that half or all of Japan could have been destroyed.
So, in a way, the accident took us to the brink of destruction. – Naoto Kan



MARK WILLACY: It was the seismic rupture that spawned a tsunami up to 40 metres high, and the biggest nuclear crisis in a generation. Five years on, the fallout continues. Tonight we go on a journey into the heart of this ongoing crisis...

MARK WILLACY: Today I have come back to check whether the much publicised decontamination of this poisoned landscape has reached into Fukushima’s remote mountains.

Well, we’re a few kilometres into the no-go zone here near the village of Namie, and the higher you climb up into the mountains the higher the reading on the Geiger Counter. So it would suggest that a lot of radiation is still in the mountains, in areas that are very, very difficult to clean up.

Nestled in the valleys, or hidden away in the mountains, are hundreds of hamlets like this - irradiated, abandoned, and now overgrown. It’s doubtful anyone will return, because there’s been no attempt at decontamination here. It’s like a science-fiction movie, in which everyone has simply vanished.

While we marvel at the blossoms, the loudspeakers in this empty village crackle into life with a daily announcement from the safety affairs office. “In 30 minutes the no-go zone will close, please leave the area immediately”, it says.

All over the polluted zone thousands of workers are busy scraping up the topsoil into large black bags, and only from the air can you appreciate the sheer scale of this operation.

So far more than ten million of these bags have been filled.

They’re then stacked at thousands of separate locations across the contamination zone.

Despite the efforts so far, more than eleven hundred square kilometres of Fukushima’s forests, mountains and villages remain uninhabitable. Dozens of communities still haven’t been touched.


More than 160,000 people were forced to evacuate during and after the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns.
Now, five years on, 100,000 still have not returned.

Some remain trapped in tiny temporary apartments, while others say they’ll never return to these contaminated communities.  


Most of those forced to flee the radiation will forever remain nuclear refugees, according to the man who was Prime Minister during the disaster, Naoto Kan.



NAOTO KAN, [Former Prime Minister, Japan]: There are mothers with small children who say they don’t want to return, because even after decontamination the level of radiation is higher than before the accident.
 


MARK WILLACY: It was nearly five years before Azuma and Yumiko Hashimoto were allowed to return to their decontaminated home in Naraha town.

Mrs. Hashimoto’s family has lived in this house for eight generations, but that looks like where the line will end because her daughter is refusing to return with her one-year old son.
In fact, Naraha is now a village without children, because no-one with a family wants to come back.

YUMIKO HASHIMOTO: It’s sad when you can’t hear the voices of children. It’s silent at night time. 


MARK WILLACY: The silence is particularly haunting for Azuma Hashimoto, because for years he was in charge of disaster prevention at both of Fukushima’s nuclear plants.

AZUMA HASHIMOTO: I never imagined that such a thing would happen. So now I feel the towns that flourished from nuclear power have been betrayed. I can’t accept that.


MARK WILLACY: Foreign Correspondent has been invited by the plant operator TEPCO to spend a day touring the sprawling facility and to meet the man in charge of decontaminating and decommissioning the Fukushima plant, Naohiro Masuda.

MARK WILLACY: Has anything like this ever been attempted before?

NAOHIRO MASUDA, [CHIEF FUKUSHIMA DECOMMISSIONING OFFICER]: There has never been an accident at a nuclear plant like the one at Fukushima where three reactors had meltdowns. We are currently working on a timetable to decommission the reactors over the next 30 to 40 years.

MARK WILLACY: The former prime minister, now a fierce opponent of nuclear power disagrees.

NAOTO KAN: I think it will take longer than that. This is a major accident, which has never happened anywhere in the world. I think 40 years is an optimistic view.


MARK WILLACY: So this is the tank area, so here we’ve got over a thousand tanks on this site.
TEPCO is removing about 62 nuclear substances from the water.

[WRONG! TEPCO MERELY CLAIMS IT IS REMOVING THESE 62 RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS FROM WATER. THE TECHNIQUE ITSELF IS DUBIOUS, THE PURE PROOF NONEXISTENT.]

The only one they can’t remove is tritium.
But so far they’re taking at least 62 elements out, but still there’s about a thousand tanks on site that they’ve got to deal with.


[62 ELEMENTS!
HOW OFTEN HAS AMERICAN MEDIA MENTIONED THAT THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHER ELEMENTS BESIDES TRITIUM AND MAYBE PLUTONIUM AND STRONTIUM
IN THE UNENDING FALLOUT AND THE UNENDING CONTAMINATION OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN?

I COULDN'T FIND EVEN ONE MAINSTREAM AMERICAN MEDIA THAT LISTS THEM ALL. ]


Tritium goes directly into the soft tissues and organs of the human body, potentially increasing the risk of cancer. 

The site has nearly reached its capacity, with more than half a million tonnes of contaminated water, much of it pumped in to keep the melted reactor fuel from heating up again. 


 

NAOHIRO MASUDA: If we leave it stored, there’s a danger it will leak into the sea. So it’s important that we treat it.

MARK WILLACY: But on top of that, every day 150 tonnes of groundwater flows into the plant, and some believe this poses the biggest threat of all.

GREGORY JACZKO: What concerns me is the volume of water that exists at the site. This water contamination problem is not under control, and it’s not really controllable. There really isn’t any way to stop it.

MARK WILLACY: Particle physicist Gregory Jaczko was the chairman of the United States atomic watchdog, when Fukushima melted down. He was getting real-time information as the disaster unfolded. He warns that the task of keeping three melted reactors stable and then cleaning them up will take decades.

GREGORY JACZKO: It’s a very, very difficult situation. There is no simple solution, there is no silver bullet that is going to put a stop to everything and make this just go away overnight.


MARK WILLACY: The radiation spikes the closer we go to the reactors, where deep inside lies the melted nuclear fuel and TEPCO’s greatest challenge, according to the man with possibly the toughest job in Japan, Decommissioning Chief, Naohiro Masuda.

NAOHIRO MASUDA: This is a job we’ve never done and there is no textbook. It’s a huge challenge to balance carrying out the work while limiting the radiation exposure for the workers. It’s the most difficult problem.


MARK WILLACY: I’m just metres away from the main reactor buildings here at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Behind me, Reactor 3. Now, we saw what happened there, there was a hydrogen explosion right after the nuclear fuel melted. Next to it, Reactor 2. It’s still a problem today. 
There was no hydrogen explosion, but what happened inside there no-one really knows because the radiation is so high no-one to this day has been able to get inside.

 And there is Reactor 1, and it could present particular problems for TEPCO because that is where probably the worst meltdown occurred. They don’t know where the nuclear fuel is and it could take TEPCO several years to even work that out.  

NAOHIRO MASUDA: We haven’t actually seen where the melted fuel fell, so it’s important to find it as soon as possible.

MARK WILLACY: For the first time, Foreign Correspondent can reveal just how vast the amount of melted nuclear fuel is, the three molten blobs that lie somewhere deep within each of these buildings.

NAOHIRO MASUDA: It’s estimated that 200 tonnes of debris lies within each unit so in total about 600 tonnes of melted debris fuel and a mixture of concrete and other metals are likely to be here.

TEPCO EMPLOYEE: This area has very high exposure.

MARK WILLACY: Very high exposure?

So it’s creeping up, the closer we get to the buildings - the reactor buildings?
We can’t stay here?
Okay.

And the most daunting task – one the nuclear industry has never faced - is getting the melted fuel out.
TEPCO admits the technology it needs hasn’t been invented yet. 



GREGORY JACZKO, FORMER CHAIRMAN, US NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION: They’ve sent in some robots. All the robots have been disabled because of the high radiation fields. It may be possible that we’re never able to remove the fuel. You may just wind up having to leave it there and somehow entomb it as it is. I mean that’s certainly a possibility. There is no playbook, they’re making this up as they go along and that’s in a lot of ways the best they can do.

MARK WILLACY: Back on the bus, we head closer to the base of the reactor buildings. We hop off at Reactor 4 and start to move down the line. Immediately the radiation level begins to rise.

[Alarm goes off]

MARK WILLACY: What’s happening?
Okay, so we’re just between Reactor 4 and Reactor 3, but the radiation level has gone up to a point where our TEPCO guides are not comfortable going any further, so we’ll head back.

After a day inside the nuclear plant it is time to strip off our gear and submit to routine testing. It’s a process the workers here go through every day, and it’s a reminder of the decades-long task ahead of TEPCO.

NAOHIRO MASUDA, [CHIEF FUKUSHIMA DECOMMISSIONING OFFICER]: We don’t believe TEPCO can do this on its own. We now have experts from around the world looking at the current status, checking on what we are doing and making decisions with us.


NAOTO KAN: [FORMER PRIME MINISTER, JAPAN] So far the government is paying $70 billion to support TEPCO. But that is not enough. It will probably cost more than $240 billion.

MARK WILLACY: For others, the cost of the disasters can never be measured in dollar terms.

MARK WILLACY: Well, we’ve just crossed into the no-go zone just a couple of kilometres north of the nuclear plant.
We’re heading to Norio Kimura’s house, or what remains off it.

His is one of the more tragic stories to come out of the tsunami. Not only did he lose his father and his wife, but he also lost his little daughter Yuna. And every now and then he comes back to Fukushima and he still searches for her remains, because she’s the only person still listed as missing from Okuma town just north of the plant.

I first met Norio Kimura several years ago.


NORIO KIMURA: The probability of finding her is quite low and very difficult. I know that. But if I stop searching, Yuna will never be found. I can’t say that there is no hope, so I will continue on.

MARK WILLACY: Norio Kimura’s community inside the fall-out zone will never be rebuilt.
In fact, it’s destined to be the site of a dump for contaminated waste and soil. But further north, outside the zone, there’s hope. 


I’ve returned to Rikuzentakata, which was wiped out by a 13-metre high tsunami.

I arrived here in 2011 right after the waves to be greeted by scenes of devastation and death.
No survivors are being pulled out of here, just hundreds and hundreds of bodies.
Five years on I’m back in this exact same spot.

And in the end, one in every ten of Rikuzentakata’s residents would die in the tsunami.
The debris is all gone now, replaced by five million cubic tonnes of earth, scraped off a nearby mountain and put in the city centre.
That’s in the hope that this community can be raised by up to 13 metres to protect itself from future tsunamis. 


Rikuzentakata is a fishing town, and Yoshiharu Yoshida is one of its shrewdest sea dogs. And when the earth shuddered five years ago, the fisherman was one of those who jumped on their boats and headed straight out into the Pacific, riding over the tsunami as it rolled towards the coast.

YOSHIHARU YOSHIDA, [FISHERMAN]: After one night out on the boat I came back after dawn. The sea was full of debris. I came back here, but it was so full of rubble I couldn’t get in. So I went back out.


WE WERE WARNED.... IN THE BEGINNING.... THEN, SILENCE.


Time Magazine, Aug 22, 2013:
“It’s time we faced the danger, ” said Takashi Hirose, a writer shocked by the under-reported radiation levels he found on recent trip into the evacuation zone.
“So many terrible things are not being reported in the news.”

At the Tokyo International Forum, an unlikely cast gathered to vent fears now gaining traction in Japan.

The panel included a bank president, investigative journalist, world-renowned symphony conductor, teenage pop star and the mayor of a radioactive ghost town.  

 
For all their obvious differences, this motley crew agreed on one thing: that the damage being caused by the crippled No. 1 nuclear plant is far worse than government officials cared to acknowledge. 


On Wednesday, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Shunichi Tanaka, ominously told reporters that “more surveillance won’t be enough to keep the accidents from happening.” 

Tsunehiko Kawamoto of Green Cross Japan, an environmental group working to phase out all nuclear power in the country, says the staggering price of a clean up with no end in sight, along with the indefinite loss of farmlands, property, and jobs, should act as a “wake-up call” for those who have taken official pronouncements at face value.

“There are a lot of hidden facts that are now being revealed,” he says.  


Tsuyoshi Yoshihara, president of the Johnan Shinkin Bank, stood on stage and made a similarly passionate appeal to practicality. 

Today nuclear power provides just two percent of Japan’s electricity, down from thirty percent at full capacity pre-Fukushima.
While supporters say it’s the only option given rising energy import costs, the dapper executive said an honest analysis must take into account the long-term costs of Fukushima, which continue to multiply. 

Addressing the notion that country’s economy will fail without nuclear energy, he boomed into the microphone:

“This is a kind of mythology, and it must be defeated before we defeat ourselves.”
EVEN TEPCO ADMITTED IT WAS INCAPABLE AND INITIALLY ASKED FOR HELP...

The crippled nuclear plant at Fukushima is losing its two-year battle to contain radioactive water leaks and its owner emphasized for the first time it needs overseas expertise to help contain the disaster.   

The call for help from Zengo Aizawa, a vice president at the utility, follows a leak of 300 metric tons of irradiated water.
Aizawa said at a press conference last night in Tokyo, “There is much experience in decommissioning reactors outside of Japan. We need that knowledge and support.”

Japan’s nuclear regulator labeled the incident “serious” and questioned Tepco’s ability to deal with the crisis.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made similar comments earlier this month." 

ABE CHANGED HIS TUNE AND SO DID TEPCO, BUT THEY ARE RECORDED AS HAVING STATED THAT THIS IS TOO BIG FOR THEM TO HANDLE.

WHY HASN'T THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RUN WITH THAT AND FORCED THEM TO ACCEPT OUTSIDE HELP TO END THIS THING?

WHY ISN'T MAINSTREAM MEDIA SCREAMING FOR A SOLUTION?


EVER SO BRIEFLY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL RAISED THE ALARM OVER STRONTIUM, BUT OTHER MEDIA BARELY MENTIONED IT AND DON'T MENTION STRONTIUM AT ALL ANYMORE.



Wall St. Journal, Jan. 21, 2014:  
‘Potentially lethal’ Strontium-90 moving deeper into groundwater at Fukushima, levels rising.
 
"Among the radioactive materials that were dispersed at the site, the potentially lethal alkaline earth metal [strontium] poses the biggest immediate concern, because, unlike cesium, it doesn’t get trapped in soil and tends to accumulate in bones of fish and animals if ingested.
 
Japan’s International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning received 780 suggestions from around the world last year in response to its call for solutions of the contaminated water problem.  
 


THEY SIT ABOUT ALL OVER NORTHERN JAPAN, HUGE BLACK GARBAGE BAGS OF CONTAMINATED SOIL AND COLLECTED VEGETATION, ETC, ALL FROM FUKUSHIMA'S NUCLEAR MELTDOWNS.

THEY SIT IN SCHOOL YARDS, PARKS, NEAR LOCAL WATER SUPPLIES, IN BACKYARDS AND PARKING LOTS.
THOSE PICTURED ABOVE SIT IN WATER, AS DO MANY, ESPECIALLY AFTER RAINS.  

 BUT THE JAPANESE AND AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS TELL PEOPLE NOT TO BE CONCERNED.
JAPANESE OFFICIALS SAY THERE IS NO DANGER FROM THESE MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF BLACK BAGS THAT WERE NEVER DESIGNED TO CONTAIN NUCLEAR WASTE FOR YEARS ON END. 

UNGUARDED, LEFT IN THE OPEN, THEY BEG TO BE TAKEN AND USED BY ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE A LITTLE RADIOACTIVE WASTE TO USE AGAINST OTHERS. 

ONCE IN THE WATER SUPPLIES, IT WOULD BE A SILENT NUCLEAR WEAPON THAT NONE MIGHT RECOGNIZE AS CAUSE OF ILLNESS AND DEATH FOR A DECADE OR MORE, AFTER PEOPLE BEGAN TO GET 'UNUSUAL' CANCERS.



BIGGEST COVERUP IN HISTORY?

Fukushima will likely go down in history as the biggest cover-up of the 21st Century.

Governments and corporations are not leveling with citizens about the risks and dangers; similarly, truth itself, as an ethical standard, is at risk of going to shambles as the glue that holds together the trust and belief in society’s institutions.

Ultimately, this is an example of how societies fail.


Radiation is insidious because it cannot be detected by human senses. 
People are not biologically equipped to feel its power, or see, or hear, touch or smell it. 

Not only that, it slowly accumulates over time in a dastardly fashion that serves to hide its effects until it is too late.

According to Japan Times as of March 11, 2015: “There have been quite a few accidents and problems at the Fukushima plant in the past year, and we need to face the reality that they are causing anxiety and anger among people in Fukushima, as explained by Shunichi Tanaka at the Nuclear Regulation Authority. 
Furthermore, Mr. Tanaka said, there are numerous risks that could cause various accidents and problems.”  

 
Even more ominously, Seiichi Mizuno, a former member of Japan’s House of Councillors (Upper House of Parliament, 1995-2001) in March 2015 said:

 “The biggest problem is the melt-through of reactor cores… We have groundwater contamination… The idea that the contaminated water is somehow blocked in the harbor is especially absurd.
 It is leaking directly into the ocean. 

There’s evidence of more than 40 known hotspot areas where extremely contaminated water is flowing directly into the ocean… We face huge problems with no prospect of solution.” 


(Source: Nuclear Hotseat #194: Fukushima 4th Anniversary – Voices from Japan, March 10, 2015, http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/2468/)

Units 1, 2, and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant had meltdowns within days. There were four hydrogen explosions. 
Thereafter, the melting cores burrowed into the container vessels, maybe into the earth. 


 “One hundred tons of terribly hot radioactive lava has already gone into the earth or somewhere within the container vessels, which are all cracked and broken.” 

Nobody really knows for sure where the hot radioactive lava resides. 


The unanswered question: Is it the China Syndrome?

Even so, AFTER the Fukushima disaster, AMERICA signed an agreement with Japan that the U.S. would continue importing Japanese foodstuff...[EVEN AFTER THE FDA HAD WARNED US OF THAT PREVIOUSLY!]
.
As the disaster happened, enormous levels of radiation hit Tokyo. 

The highest radiation detected in the Tokyo Metro area was in Saitama with cesium radiation levels detected at 919,000 becquerel (Bq) per square meter, a level almost twice as high as Chernobyl’s “permanent dead zone evacuation limit of 500,000 Bq.” (source: Radiation Defense Project).
 

HOW MANY NEWS AGENCIES ACROSS THE WORLD HAVE REPORTED ON CURRENT OR EVEN SPIKED RADIATION LEVELS IN TOKYO?

HOW MANY MENTIONED THAT NUCLEAR EXPERTS PLEADED WITH THE LEADERS OF JAPAN WHEN THIS DISASTER STRUCK TO EVACUATE TOKYO TO SAVE LIVES YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, LIVES THAT WILL BE LOST TO THE EFFECTS OF THE INITIAL DANGEROUSLY HIGH RADIATION AND THE INCESSANT RADIATION LEAKING STILL JUST NORTH OF TOKYO FROM THE FUKUSHIMA DEBACLE?

HOW MANY HAVE  POSTED ANY READINGS AT ALL OF TOKYO WATER, SOIL, AIR, THE CONTINUED RADIATION FOUND INSIDE HOMES THERE?

THAT'S A TABOO SUBJECT....ABE MUST HAVE HIS OLYMPICS IN 2020, AFTER ALL.
MUSTN'T FRIGHTEN AWAY THE OLYMPICS VISITORS, EVEN IF IT ENDANGERS THEIR LIVES TO GO THERE AND SPEND DAYS OR WEEKS.
 

FROM THE BEGINNING, THE PRIME CONSIDERATION HAS BEEN THE ECONOMIES OF JAPAN AND THE U.S. --- TWO NATIONS WHICH RELY HEAVILY ON HAVING NUCLEAR REACTORS AS SOURCES TO PRODUCE ENRICHED URANIUM, "MOX", PLUTONIUM FOR USE IN NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

JAPAN JUST RECENTLY TRANSFERRED HUGE AMOUNTS OF PLUTONIUM TO THE U.S. FOR "DISPOSAL".

Japan already removed 331 kg (730 pounds) of plutonium and hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the Fast Critical Assembly, a research facility located in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, in line with the 2014 pledge.

Japan will give up highly enriched uranium, including some at the weapons-usable level, and transport it from the Kyoto University Critical Assembly in Osaka Prefecture to the United States, in a new commitment highlighted in their joint statement released Friday. 

The amount of highly enriched uranium to be removed from [JUST] the Osaka facility is some 45 kg (99 pounds).

However, the materials recently transferred from Japan are only the tip of the iceberg.


Currently, Japanese utilities possess over 47 metric tons of separated plutonium, which is equivalent to about 6,000 nuclear bombs.The government does not disclose the amount of nuclear materials to be transported, citing security reasons." 


THAT JAPANESE NUCLEAR MATERIAL WAS HEADED FOR THE WIPP FACILITY IN NEW MEXICO, BUT, ODDLY, THAT FACILITY IS BARRED FROM RECEIVING SUCH HIGH-GRADE MATERIAL SINCE ITS SERIES OF "ACCIDENTS" IN 2014-2015. 


SO WHERE DID THE JAPANESE MATERIAL GO? 

HOW DO WE KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH JAPAN HAS?
SINCE THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT AND TEPCO HAVE BEEN BUSTED DOZENS OF TIMES OUTRIGHT LYING ABOUT THE RADIATION LEVELS AND CONTAINMENT OF THE RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES IN THOSE FAILED REACTORS, WHY TRUST THEM TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT ANYTHING?


HOW MUCH PLUTONIUM TO MAKE THE SAME TYPE BOMB?
NOT EVEN 10 POUNDS (4kg)!
IN FACT, ONLY 4.5 TO 9 POUNDS
WOULD DO JUST FINE, THANKS.



A
s reported in The Canadian on August 15, 2011: “The US government has come up with a decision at the highest levels of the State Department, as well as other departments who made a decision to downplay Fukushima. [Because of the deal struck between America and Japan for the U.S. to continue to buy Japanese foods], America is NOT SAMPLING FOOD FROM JAPAN ANYMORE. " 


I
n stark contrast to the United States, in Europe Angela Merkel, PhD physics, University of Leipzig and current chancellor of Germany is shutting down all nuclear reactors because of Fukushima. 


After the Fukushima blow up, ambient levels of radiation in Washington State went up 40,000 times above normal, but the EPA shut down or "lost" many of its monitoring stations."

NOTHING from the U.S. mainstream media about THAT!
 
So, who would really know what HONEST current radiation levels are in Japanese foods or if radiation levels across the U.S. are sky-high in our American-grown foods and our drinking water? 

EPA said that was up to the FDA, FDA didn't think so.

No reporters of any mainstream media seem to care.
No one is doing any "investigative journalism" about Fukushima, even after it leaked that cancers in Japanese children was spiking and every rain there is washing new radiation into the Japanese environment.

JAPANESE FARMERS FEEL GUILTY FOR SELLING RADIOACTIVE RICE


The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition)
,, Oct. 10, 2013:


Rice Grown Near Fukushima Cleared for Sale. 

Rice grown in some areas within a 30 km radius of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant will be cleared for sale this year, but concerns remain. 

MOST samples have tested positive for radiation well above the permitted level.

So far only test farming of rice in the region was allowed.
Fukushima Prefecture on Wednesday said 44 out of 52 sacks of 30-kg rice harvested in Minamisoma, 20 to 30 km from the power plant, likely exceeded the permissible levels of radioactive materials when tested with a conveyer-belt detector.

The prefecture carried out thorough test of the 44 sacks, and detected 120 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, way over the permissible level of 100 becquerels.

Farmer: “I would not dare eat it… We feel guilty about growing it and selling it.”

 THEN DON'T GROW IT AND SELL IT! 


 IN A VIDEO INTERVIEW IN 2013:
 

Fukushima Farmer:  After the nuclear accident, all over Iitate village, plutonium and strontium were detected 40km (25 miles) from nuclear plant.

Professor: “Something terrible, dreadful happening.”

Mayor: "Please don’t tell this to the residents."
MAINSTREAM MEDIA HELPS HIDE THE FACTS AND SERIOUSNESS OF THE SITUATION.
 
"The mainstream media, for its part, appears to be complicit in a cover-up of the effects that Fukushima radiation is already having on our environment and on human and animal health, and instead insists on omitting most news on the matter, or seriously dumbing down reports of the fallout.


CNN 

For example, at CNN.com, a search for ‘Fukushima’ yields only 6 unique related stories for the entire calendar year of 2015 so far.

Two of these stories focus on sensationalized footage of underwater robots assisting in the detection of radiation.
A third story is ironically about the failure and loss of a first underwater robot.

On April 14th, CNN ran a video report with 11 short segments entitled ‘New look inside Fukushima,’ which focused primarily on the lifestyle impact [NOT THE HEALTH IMPACT] the disaster has had on Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. 

On February 24th, 2015 CNN ran a very short snippet entitled ‘Highly Radioactive Water Spill Sets Off Alarm at TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant,’ which included this quote:


FOX  
At the home page of FoxNews.com, you might see embarrassing photos of presidential candidates and stories about ISIS, shark attacks, motel shootouts and murder investigations, but very little pressing news about the impacts of Fukushima on public health. 

A search of their coverage of of Fukushima for 2015 includes a June 30th story about a cool looking new robot called the ‘Scorpion’ that promises to soon get a look at melted fuel inside the reactor. ‘Fukushima’ was tagged and mentioned in a Fox News video report on June 18th, 2015 covering the upcoming robot olympics, which included the quote, ‘who isn’t excited about Terminator or Genesis?’


A Fox News story about $1.6 billion in wasted cleanup funds in Japan was featured on March 24th, with a retraction published the following day to correct a misprint about whose funds were allegedly squandered. 

 
On March 9th, Fox News also ran a very concise anniversary piece on the disaster, mostly focusing on the prospect of new earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions that could potentially cause more damage to Japan’s nuclear infrastructure.
In this article they did mention the ongoing fallout.

MSNBC  
The most recent report on Fukushima to be found at MSNBC.com is over a year old, and covers the 2014 anniversary of Fukushima in a short 186 word (including author bio) piece.


CBS  

CBSNews.com featured one article in 2015 about the impact of radioactive fallout on birds in the vicinity of Fukushima, which is actually the most thorough report on Fukushima’s environmental impact to be found so far in the mainstream media for 2015.   

Even at the ever-popular DrudgeReport.com, 2015 coverage of the Fukushima catastrophe is light and fails to bring attention to the impacts on human and environmental health.
A search on their site reveals 10 links (with 2 duplicate links) about Fukushima for 2015, with one link about the arrival of Fukushima contamination on the U.S. Pacific Coast, and another linking to an Independent.UK story about the importation of radioactive Japanese products into Great Britain

Hiding behind the glaring omissions of the mainstream press regarding Fukushima is the pressing reality that contamination from the event is severe, continual, on the rise, and already affecting North America

Many bizarre ecological "events" are taking place as we speak, such as massive marine life die-offs on the Pacific Coastline of the U.S. and Canada, and the detection of radioactive material from Fukushima in OUR food supply, yet there is no connection between these events and Fukushima in the mainstream news. 


 
There is, however, plenty of news coming out about Fukushima and plenty of conversation taking place about the impact on the environment and on human health. 
It’s just not to be found in the mainstream media, which is unquestionably strongly influenced by the nuclear energy industry and the government, and apparently involved in one of the greatest media cover ups of all time.


We know that the mainstream media has the power to rally the "golden hordes" into action, as is evident in their promotion of a race war and sensationalized coverage of ISIS and other government-created threats. 

In fact, recent news events in the US prove just how malleable public outrage is when the elite wish to make a major pubic policy change or cause a major stir in our social fabric. 

Take for example the media’s efforts to shove non-issues like the Bruce Jenner sex change in our face.



When it comes to nuclear radiation and the impact it is having on life and our food supply, the dumbing down of events in the mainstream media is exceptional, suggesting that they simply do not wish for the public to know the severity of the crisis, or that they don’t care for us to be forewarned enough to take precautionary measures."

BBC News, Aug 22, 2013:
"The “worsening situation” at Fukushima has prompted a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland to call for the withdrawal of Tokyo’s Olympic bid.

In a letter to the UN secretary general, Mitsuhei Murata says the official radiation figures published by Tepco cannot be trusted. He says he is extremely worried about the lack of a sense of crisis in Japan and abroad."  


A nuclear expert [Mycle Schneider] has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.

 He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels

 Irish Times, Aug 21, 2013:
  “The situation is getting worse,” Michiaki Furukawa, a nuclear chemist told reporters.

Many experts believe Japan’s government continues to underestimate the cost and complexity of the decommissioning, and that Tepco has been systematically covering up problems.
 The news follows the recent admission that the complex is leaking 300 tonnes of radioactive water per day into the Pacific. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said it could not rule out the possibility that the leak had been going on since the disaster started 30 months ago. Tepco had denied the leak for months.

 The leaks have become a diplomatic issue: Japan’s neighbour South Korea again publicly expressed concern this week about the impact of the contamination on fishing stocks."

AND YET, 5-PLUS YEARS HAVE PASSED AND JAPAN'S GOVERNMENT IS STILL PRETENDING ALL IS WELL. 

ALL IS NOT WELL. 

ALL WILL NEVER BE WELL UNTIL SOMEONE, SOMEHOW STOPS THAT DAMNABLE MONSTER FROM LEAKING. 

WE ALL DECIDE WHAT WE CHOOSE TO BELIEVE. 

I DECIDED LONG AGO TO BELIEVE WHAT THOSE FIRST ATOMIC SCIENTISTS LIKE OPENHEIMER TOLD US....

UNLEASHING ATOMIC ENERGY CREATED ONGOING DEATH.

WE NEVER NEEDED IT, WE DON'T NEED IT NOW AND IT SHOULD BE DESTROYED AS MUCH AS WE CAN DESTROY IT.


3 comments:

  1. Again I am in ashamed of the USA, we have a president that is the biggest joke of all the previous presidents combined. He has put more time into his golf game than any other. Seems to me his ultimate goal is to sit back and help push the world into dinmay. He should be tried in court along with the corrupt United Nations and jailed for neglect of duty. Utterly disgusting...

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    1. I'M NOT ASHAMED OF THE USA, NOR OF THIS PRESIDENT OVER ANY OTHER, BUT I AM ANGRY THAT THE AMERICAN VOTERS KEEP ELECTING THE SAME CALIBER OF DISHONEST POLITICIANS AND SOLD-OUT WHORES THAT I'VE SEEN IN OFFICE SINCE 1950. IF YOU GO BACK AND LOOK AT PRESS RELEASES WHEN IKE WAS IN OFFICE, HE SEEMED TO ALMOST LIVE ON THE GOLF LINKS. ONE OF THE MAIN PROBLEMS WITH THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM IS THAT AMERICANS BLINDLY FALL FOR WHATEVER THEIR DAMNED PARTY TELLS THEM, ARE MORE DEDICATED TO THEIR PARTY BEATING THE OTHER PARTY THAN THEY ARE TO SELECTING HONEST, WELL-QUALIFIED PEOPLE. ALL "PARTIERS' HAVE BECOME ADDICTED TO PARTYING, NO LONGER EDUCATE THEMSELVES ABOUT WHAT MAKES A GOOD CANDIDATE, NO LONGER DEMAND TO BE TRULY REPRESENTED BY THOSE COOKS & LIARS ON CAPITOL HILL AND IN THAT OVAL OFFICE. MOST VOTERS ARE IN DENIAL WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR CANDIDATES, SEE ONLY THE BAD IN THE "OTHER SIDE". HAVING BEEN MOST ACTIVE IN GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS SINCE THE AGE OF 10, HAVING SCRUTINIZED EVERY PRESIDENT'S PERFORMANCE AND ALWAYS DIVING DEEPLY INTO HOW HONEST EVERY SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE IS, HOW QUALIFIED, TO WHOM THEY OWE THEIR CAMPAIGN FUNDS, WHAT PROMISES ARE MADE(AND HERE, AMERICAN VOTERS ARE SO STUPID AS TO THINK ANY POLITICIAN CAN DELIVER ON THOSE WILD, WILD CAMPAIGN PROMISES...IT TAKES A MAJORITY OF CONGRESS TO PASS BILLS AND NO PRESIDENT HAS MUCH INDIVIDUAL POWER BEYOND VETO AND THOSE DAMNED EXEC ORDERS)AND TO WHOM THEY HAVE "PAID BACK" ONCE IN OFFICE, I ASSURE YOU THAT NEITHER PARTY HAS FIELDED A SINGLE 100% OR EVEN 50% HONEST CANDIDATE, NOR HAS THERE BEEN ANY WHO HAVE NOT SOLD OUT TO WALL STREET, WHO DOES NOT KISS THE ASSES OF THOSE WHO FUND THEM, WHO DOES NOT SEEK TO GATHER MORE SUPPORT FOR THEMSELVES RATHER THAN FOR THE GOOD OF AMERICA. THEY ARE VILE, REPREHENSIBLE LIARS, ALL, EVEN RON PAUL, WHO, TO ME, CAME CLOSER TO BEING A DECENT INDIVIDUAL, AN HONEST POLITICIAN THAN ANY I'VE SEEN IN MY 70 YEARS OF LIFE. OBAMA IS NO PRIZE, BUT THAT AMERICA DID NOT TRY AND HANG GEORGE W. BUSH AND HIS CABINET FOR HIGH TREASON SHOWS HOW AMERICAN VOTERS HAVE TOO LONG BEEN PARTY ANIMALS RATHER THAN THE DEMANDING SOVEREIGNS OF THIS NATION THAT WE ALL ARE, EACH OF US. THAT AMERICANS CONTINUE TO ALLOW REINTERPRETATION OF ONE OF THE SIMPLEST CONSTITUTIONS ON EARTH AND ALLOW POLITICIANS TO NEGLECT THEIR OATHS OF OFFICE TO UPHOLD THAT ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION, NOT PARTY PLATFORM, SHOWS ANYONE FROM ANYWHERE HOW CRAZY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE. AMERICAN VOTERS ARE INSANE. THEY VOTE FOR THE SAME ILK OF LIARS AND CRIMINALS AND TRAITORS OVER AND OVER AGAIN. AND WHEN THEIR PARTY WINS AND THINGS STILL GET WORSE, STILL GO TO HELL, THEY STILL MANAGE TO BLAME "THE OTHER SIDE" RATHER THAN SEE THE WRONGS OF THEIR CHOSEN CANDIDATES. CONCENTRATING ON HOW MUCH GOLF A LOUSY PREZ PLAYS INSTEAD OF ON THE ISSUES FACING THIS NATION IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE OF THAT DUMBED-DOWN PARTY LOYALTY. WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF HOW CONGRESS WORKS, OR WHY IT DOESN'T WORK FOR US, THE BOSSES OF AMERICA, THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING OUR ELECTEDS RESPONSIBLE? WHAT DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT HOW GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK? HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU GOT INVOLVED IN DEMANDING YOUR ELECTEDS VOTE AS THEY SHOULD, OR CALLED THEM UP TO BITCH ABOUT ANYTHING?
      PARTY ON, AMERICA! YOUR TWO-PARTY SYSTEM HAS SCREWED THIS NATION INTO THE GROUND AND BECAUSE OF PARTY LOYALTY YOU DON'T SEEM TO GIVE A DAMN ENOUGH TO STOP ELECTING CROOKS & LIARS! YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE. EAT IT & SMILE, RIGHT? BE GOOD LITTLE MINDLESS UNQUESTIONING SHEEP & RUN ALONG AFTER ALL YOUR WOLF SHEPHERDS. ALL POLITICIANS ARE THE SAME SORT, JUST WEAR DIFFERENT LABELS...DEMONCRAT OR 'PUBLICAN....ALL ARE LOWER THAN WHALE DUNG IN THE MARIANA TRENCH, BUT THE MAJORITY OF AMERICAN VOTERS ARE JUST TOO STUPID TO SEE IT. AND THAT, NOT GOLF, IS WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICA. THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM DESTROYED MY GREAT NATION, THE VOTERS DID NOT DEMAND SHE BE ATTENDED TO PROPERLY. SHE DIED FROM NEGLECT AND VOTER APATHY AND IGNORANCE WAS THE MAIN CAUSE OF HER DEMISE.

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    2. Rather than delete the above because of a typo, let me correct "cooks & liars" to read CROOKS AND LIARS" here, & also add....LIKE I SAY OFTEN HERE, PARTY ON, AMERICA, SELF-BLINDED "PARTY" SHEEP FOLLOWING YOUR WOLVES TO SLAUGHTER. PARTY RIGHT ON! YOUR CURSED "PARTIES" HAVE KILLED AMERICA!

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