Fukushima is Forever – Nuke Digest 11-6-2011

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Facing the Fallout Facts
by James Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan – Eds.

This edition looks at emerging data showing that past and on-going Fukushima fallout is far more serious than heretofore acknowledged by ‘official’ government and industry sources.

Are you surprised?

Bumped from the headlines by deliberate nuclear industry blocking, by the escalating global financial crisis and ‘Occupy’ movement developments around the planet, is the cascade of new revelations about the extent of the pollution, the attempts at a cover-up, and and the rising tides of public awareness, outrage and push-back regarding the continuing planetary Fukushima nuclear disaster.

As we write, TEPCO has admitted that nuclear reactions are still happening at Fukushima. Lethal radiation is still being released.

The French Nuclear Safety Institute, Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) has reported From March 21 to mid-July, 27.1 peta becquerels of cesium 137 was dumped from Fukushima Daiichi into the ocean. One peta becquerel is a million billion bequerels, or 10 to the power of 15. This is twenty times the amount estimated by TEPCO.

The Fukushima nuclear accident dispersed airborne dusts that are contaminated with radioactive particles. When inhaled or ingested, these particles can have negative effects on human health that are different from those caused by exposure to external or uniform radiation fields, such as from x-rays or cosmic radiation from or airplane flights. Rains across the U.S. and the rest of the world wash these radioactive particles out of the jet stream down onto our soil and water supplies.

Our genes will never be the same. What about our children and the other species?

Despite the denial and mandated inattention by the Obama administration of official monitoring agencies, evidence continues to mount that ‘a hard rain is falling’ across the northern hemisphere and beyond of nuclear contamination. Measurements of elevated levels of radiation here in the west coast as well as in Boston have been reported recently at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA).
Beyond Nuclear reports that ‘Hot radioactive particles from Fukushima found in the US, new study shows; children’s shoes in Japan contaminated with cesium.’

UC Berkeley School of Nuclear Engineering (UCBSNE) reports finding above normal levels of cesium 134 and 137 in San Francisco Bay area milk as late as Oct. 11. Elevated levels have also been recorded in topsoil. Cesium 137 has a half life of 30 years and a hazardous life of approximately 300 years.

Though the levels of radioactive particles detected by the UCBSNE team in California food and water may appear low at first glance, it is now understood that chronic exposure to low levels of radiation can be as damaging, or more so, per unit dose, than a single exposure to a high level of radiation.

Last month we joined efforts on Capital Hill pushing for official U.S. agency monitoring and Congressional hearings on the risks posed by continuing Fukushima fallout to U.S. public health and our food supply – especially on West Coast growers.

A group of us friends that includes Beyond Nuclear, NIRS, Citizen’s for Health, EON and concerned mothers, have formed a network to raise awareness of Fukushima Fallout. We call it the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network, FFAN. We want to help the suffering Japanese residents, spread the understanding of how they are being mistreated, increase public awareness in California and in the US about our Fukushima fallout contamination and to help shut down our own nuclear reactors and safely store the radioactive waste.

FFAN is now taking action to support Japanese mothers in stopping the intentional burning of millions of tons of radioactive rubble. The Japanese government plans to spread the burning throughout Japan and to dump it into Tokyo Bay and other parts of the ocean. The government wants all of Japan to share Fukushima’s pain. But they will also be sharing radiation-caused disease. This burning may also add more radiation to the jet streams circling the planet.

Thousands around the world have signed a petition to oppose this disastrous plan. This is the link to the website with the petition focused on stopping the burning and spreading of the radioactive rubble throughout Japan. Please watch their great short video of their visit to the Japanese Consulate.

We hope that you might be able to join us Monday morning to present the petition to the San Francisco Japanese Consulate, despite the short notice, and also to spread the word to your networks. We will meet at the Japanese Consulate, 50 Fremont St., San Francisco, at 9:00 am. It will be short and sweet.

Please read the following posts, share them with your networks and join our movement to stop this radioactive insanity! Close down all our reactors on fault lines and in tsunamis zones – that’s all California nuclear power reactors!

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Delivering the Petition to the Japanese consulate in NYC–Stop Spreading the Contaminated Rubble
By Heidi Hutner – Ecofeminist and Mothering Ruminations

Oh the things we can do. I stood there with a bull horn on the streets of NYC saying that the children of Fukushima need to be evacuated and the transporting, burning and dumping of contaminated waste into Tokyo Bay must be halted. I’ve never imagined doing such a thing before, but it sure felt right. Right on the steps of the Japanese Consulate!

Fukushima children forced to drink radioactive milk at school [click title, not picture, to view]

EPA admits to glitches in radiation monitoring equipment
Fukushima Update – MSNBC
We have more tonight on that disaster in japan. a lot of developments to report, in fact. a government official out and out said there is no end in sight to this disaster. radiation levels in nearby sea water spiked again to more than 3,000 times the normal level. the president of the company that owns the plant now awe total write-off is in the hospital currently with high blood pressure. and today japan’s emperor and empress made a rare public appearance trying to comfort those who lost all their worldly possessions in the earthquake and tsunami.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“Gone Fission” – Rachael Maddow on Nukes

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Invisible Bomb みえないばくだん えいご
A beautiful artfully done story about nuclear power in Japan


[Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant, March 14, 2011 DigitalGlobe via Getty Images]

Fukushima Fallout Was Almost Twice as Bad as Official Estimates, New Study Says
by Rebecca Boyle

This spring’s nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant released almost double the amount of radiation the Japanese government has claimed, according to a new analysis. The authors say the boiling pools holding spent fuel rods played a role in the release of some of the contaminants, primarily cesium-137 — and that this could have been mitigated by an earlier response.

Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Air Research examined radiation monitoring stations throughout Japan and the rest of the globe, extrapolating their findings from initial radiation-release estimates. They say the amount of cesium-137, a long-lived isotope that persists in the atmosphere, was about twice as high as the Japanese government’s official estimate.


An aerial view of San Onofre (SONGS). File photo by Andrea Swayne

Ammonia Leak Contained at SONGS, Alert Lifted

An ammonia leak that forced a partial evacuation of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Tuesday was contained within hours but still required the plant to issue an alert and prompted the county to initiate its Emergency Operations Center.

Plant owner Southern California Edison announced the containment shortly before 6:30 p.m. although the alert, continued, according to a news release from SCE. Read more.

Find out true reactor conditions
Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced Wednesday that there is the possibility that criticality, a sustained nuclear chain reaction, had occurred “temporarily” and “locally” in the No. 2 reactor of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. It detected radioactive xenon-133 and xenon-135, products of uranium or plutonium fission, in gases collected Tuesday from the reactor.

Because the half life of xenon-133 is 5.25 days and that of xeon-135 is 9.14 hours, criticality is very likely to have occurred just before the gases were analyzed.
Although more than seven months have passed since the start of the nuclear fiasco, clearly the reactor has not yet been stabilized. Tepco’s plan to achieve “cold shutdown” of the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors by the end of this year may face difficulty.
The fact that Tepco cannot deny the possibility of criticality irrespective of its scale is a grave situation.

NEW NIRS BRIEFING PAPER:

ATOMIC RADIATION IS MORE HARMFUL TO WOMEN[Download PDF here.]
NIRS has released a new paper that shows that exposure to radiation causes 50% greater incidence of cancer and 50% greater rate of death from cancer among women, compared to the same radiation dose level to men.

We’ve long known that children are much more susceptible to the effects of radiation than adults; now we know that women are more susceptible than men. Yet the world’s radiation standards are determined using a “reference man” as the guide for assessing radiation risk.

The paper was written by NIRS’ Mary Olson, director of our Southeast regional office. She, along with NIRS Radioactive Waste Project Director Diane D’Arrigo, internationally known radiation expert Dr. Rosalie Bertell, and Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, will hold a telebriefing for activists on this new paper on Thursday, October 27 at 10 am eastern time. Please contact maryo@nirs.org for more information and the call-in number if you’d like to participate.

The paper is based on underreported information contained in the National Academy of Sciences 2006 BEIR-VII report, which also concluded that there is no “safe” level of radiation exposure.

You can download the eight-page paper here. A press release about the paper is here–we encourage you to download and send to your local media.

Summary of Findings at Three Mile Island: 1979-2005 – Three Mile Island Alert

On March 30, 1979, Governor Richard Thornburgh recommended an evacuation for preschool children and pregnant women living within five miles of Three Mile Island (“TMI”). Data collected since the meltdown clearly demonstrate a significant nexus between radiation exposure and adverse health impacts to women and children.

A great deal of radiation was indeed released by the core melt at TMI. The President’s Commission estimated about 15 million curies of radiation were released into the atmosphere. A review of dose assessments, conducted by Dr. Jan Beyea, (National Audubon Society; 1984) estimated that from 276 to 63,000 person-rem were delivered to the general population within 50 miles of TMI. David Lochbaum of the Union of Concern Scientists, estimated between 40 million curies and 100 million curies escaped during the Accident. Read more.

Fukushima OKs petition to decommission reactors – Japan Times
Kyodo Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

FUKUSHIMA — The Fukushima Prefectural Assembly has adopted a petition calling for all 10 reactors at the prefecture’s two nuclear plants to be decommissioned.
The petition to shut down the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant, where four of the six reactor units were wrecked in the March 11 disasters, as well as the four reactors at the Fukushima No. 2 plant, was passed Thursday.
Among the 13 assemblies whose prefectures host nuclear power stations, Fukushima’s is the first to approve a request to decommission nuclear plants.

Where Occupy & No Nukes Merge and Win!!
Harvey Wasserman

The global upheaval that is the Occupy Movement is hopefully in the process of changing—and saving—the world.

Through the astonishing power of creative non-violence, it has the magic and moxie to defeat the failing forces of corporate greed.

A long-term agenda seems to be emerging: social justice, racial and gender equality, ecological survival, true democracy, an end to war, and so much more. “When the power of love overcomes the love of power,” said Jimi Hendrix, “the world will know peace.”

Why Japanese government is telling us lies

Posted by Mochizuki on September 26th, 2011
9/28,Japanese government is lifting the mandatory area in Fukushima.

Obviously nothing has been improved.

They say, the temperature of the reactors are going under 100C, so it is not the dangerous level any more.

However, they also admit all the inspectors are broken in reactor 1,2,3. Only God knows what is going on in reactor 4.

so, what do they measure ??

CPUC Stuck In Culture of Corruption
CalWatchDog OCT. 17, 2011
It is shameful to punish the puppy when the pack leader is at fault. It is no different in the workplace and the corporate world — failure and corruption are usually the fault of the top dogs.

Two recent examples are Pacific Gas & Electric and the California Public Utility Commission. The utility company and the state regulator have talented employees, but problematic corporate big-dogs.

In fact, the entire utility regulatory system in California needs a new pack leader.

The first in line for the overhaul is Michael Peevey, the president of the CPUC since 2002. Politically well connected, Peevey is a former senior executive with Southern California Edison. His wife is State Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Canada-Flintridge.

It was on Peevey’s watch that a succession of deadly events took place, including the horrific 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, which killed eight, injured more than 100 and destroyed 38 homes (pictured at right). Peevey was CPUC President when a gas line exploded in Rancho Cordova on Christmas Eve 2008, destroying a home and killing the occupant, as well as the very recent September pipeline explosion at a Cupertino condominium, which did not receive much press coverage.

Nuclear Disaster in the US: How Bechtel Is Botching the World’s Costliest Environmental Cleanup
By Joshua Frank, Seattle Weekly
Posted on October 21, 2011, Printed on October 25, 2011

Razor wire surrounds Hanford’s makeshift borders while tattered signs warn of potential contamination and fines for those daring enough to trespass. This vast stretch of eastern Washington, covering more than 580 square miles of high desert plains, is rural Washington at its most serene. But it’s inaccessible for good reason: It is, by all accounts, a nuclear wasteland.

Nevada Utility regulator calls for Smart Meter health and privacy investigation, ” before it unravels further.”

NV Energy’s smart meters to be investigated
By Cy Ryan (contact) Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011
After hearing several complaints about possible health hazards and invasion of privacy, the state Public Utilities Commission has opened an investigation into smart meters installed in more than 500,000 homes in Las Vegas.

Commissioner Rebecca Wagner said there was misinformation or a lack of information when the commission approved NV Energy’s application to begin the project.

She said she wants to look into allowing customers to refuse the installation of the meters and the implications. And she says the investigation should address the health issues and the privacy and security fears.

This should be started now, she said, before “it unravels further.”

“Commissioner Rebecca Wagner said there was misinformation or a lack of information when the commission approved NV Energy’s application to begin the project.”

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Released Far More Radiation Than Government Said – Scientific American – October 25, 2011

Global radioactivity data challenge Japanese estimates for emissions and point to the role of spent fuel pools
By Geoff Brumfiel and Nature magazine

The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the shattered plant.

The study also suggests that, contrary to government claims, pools used to store spent nuclear fuel played a significant part in the release of the long-lived environmental contaminant caesium-137, which could have been prevented by prompt action. The analysis has been posted online for open peer review by the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The Lessons Of Fukushima-Interview Of Aileen Mioko Smith

The Japanese government along with TEPCO are a bunch of real liars and murders. They have no concern of what is happening to everyone in Japan. If they continue on the path that they are on, a lot of people will either get very sick or die from radiation in about 20 to 30 years from today.

Yes, there is no immediate effects, but what about the long term effects!

There is so much cover up`s that is taking place in Japan today, from the media to the political arena.

VIDEO UPDATE: October 31, 2011
Scientist Marco Kaltofen Presents Data Confirming Hot Particles

Washington, DC – October 31, 2011 – Today Scientist Marco Kaltofen of Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) presented his analysis of radioactive isotopic releases from the Fukushima accidents at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Mr. Kaltofen’s analysis confirms the detection of hot particles in the US and the extensive airborne and ground contamination in northern Japan due to the four nuclear power plant accidents at TEPCO’s Fukushima reactors. Fairewinds believes that this is a personal health issue in Japan and a public health issue in the United States and Canada.

Scientist Marco Kaltofen Presents Data Confirming Hot Particles from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Michael Collins tests LA air at 216 % of normal background radioactivity, reviews Fukushima fallout data.
2 HEPA filters RAD DUST aggregate 10-03-11
Uploaded by EnviroReporter on Oct 4, 2011

Burn 200,000 metric tons of radioactive rubble to ride the Jet Stream to the US?

After just 53 days of air cleaning at Radiation Station in Santa Monica, California, two HEPA filters’ dust aggregate comes in at a worrisome 216.0% of background higher than normal. Even in drier climes like Southern California, which hasn’t been hit (yet) by jet stream-carried storms suffused with radioactive fallout from the triple Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns in Japan, there is measurable radiation in dust particulates breathed by millions in the Greater Los Angeles area.

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