Opt-Out Options – So Cal Utilities Now Included

Resistance is Fertile - Brian Narelle - NarelleCreative.net

Skirmishes Won. Battle Continues.
Our colleagues in Southern California are cheering today at the news that ‘smart meter’ opt-out plans similar to the one authorized by the CPUC for PG&E’s service area will now apply in the Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric service areas as well. Opt-out programs still only apply to individual residences, not businesses. Still include illegitimate, extortionate fees. Still don’t include community-wide opt-out. But, hey. You have to celebrate even partial victories. These are significant wins on the road to a victory for informed democratic choice, and a Wise – as opposed to a so-called ‘Smart’ – Grid.

In this edition, we summarize FYI what we know at the moment about the opt-out state-of-play. Click here and/or scroll down for a MayDay Opt-Out Poster you can print, post and pass on. We link to Sandi Maurer of EMFSafety Network and Josh Hart of StopSmartMeters.org who weigh in with valuable advice on strategy. Other links fill out the picture, reporting on So Cal developments. Finally, an industry blogger gives his idea of how to stem the opt-out tsunami he fears is sweeping the country.

What About ‘smart’ meter Opting Out Options?
by Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle

Wondering what to do about your certified letter from PG&E about whether or not to choose a ‘smart’ meter or pay to keep an analog meter by May 1?

You have a few choices. There is no one size fits all solution. I’ll give you some broad outlines here, but you can get more details elsewhere on this blog or StopSmartMeters.org, and EMFSafetyNetwork.org.

Of course we recommend you do NOT accept a ‘smart’ meter under any circumstances because of severe health risks, serious privacy invasion, endangering national security, fire safety risk, electronic interference, accuracy problems and higher bills. And be sure to talk to your neighbors about their choice of meters too because their radiating ‘smart’ meters can effect you adversely.

Here’s the Current ‘Fee Structure’
Currently the fees to opt out for regular customers are $75 up front and $10/mo.
For CARES customers, it’s $10 initially and $5 per month.

CARE income level limit for a 1-2 person household is $31,800.

https://www.pge.com/myhome/customerservice/financialassistance/fera/eligibility/

But, it seems fair to ask…

Why Pay for Opting Out When We Haven’t Opted In As Law Requires?
The Illusory ‘Mandate’

The key on this issue is the concept of ‘time-variant pricing,’ or ‘time-of-use-metering.’ That means that utilities, according to this scheme, will be able to charge variable rates depending on (a) what time the electricity is used and (b) how much, at what price, electricity is available on the grid at that time. This is a hairy, insider-baseball topic. Here’s the essence of what we argued in our Objection to the Proposed Opt-Out Ruling that pre-dated the current decision (link to full PDF). Please pardon the brief lapse into legalese ‘proceeding lingo.’

“1.a) The proposed decision presents a false deadline for mandating choice of meters.

The proposed decision by Commissioner Peevey is premature. By law, customers do not have to decide until Jan. 2014 whether or not to opt out of time variant pricing. Customers should be allowed to have analog meters at least until they are required by law to choose whether they will use time variant pricing on Jan. 1, 2014.

For example from page 21 of the PD:
To ensure that the electric non- communicating meter is able to take advantage of smart grid benefits in the future, it must be capable of capturing interval energy consumption data. While this capability is not needed at this time, it must be available by January 1, 2014. …

The Proposed Decision does not accurately represent the relevant code;
Pursuant to Pub. Util. Code § 745(b)(2) an electrical corporation may employ
mandatory or default time-variant pricing… for residential
customers after January 1, 2014….

The relevant parts of the code read:
Public Utilties Code section 745. (d) On and after January 1, 2014, the commission shall only approve an electrical corporation’s use of default time-variant pricing in a manner consistent with the other provisions of this
part, if all of the following conditions have been met:
(1) Residential customers have the option to not receive service
pursuant to time-variant pricing and incur no additional charges as a
result of the exercise of that option…. [emphasis added)

The law states time-variant cannot be mandatory or by default, but must be offered to residential customers as an option.

SB 695, signed by the Governor on October 11, 2009 and PUC Code 745 (b)(2) and (3) state that the Commission shall not require or permit an electrical corporation to employ mandatory or default time-variant pricing without bill protection for residential customers prior to January 1, 2014 or employ mandatory or default real-time pricing, without bill protection for residential customers prior to January 1, 2020.

Both Public Utility Code and California state law state that:
– The individual residential customer’s decision as to whether or not to opt for ‘time-of-use’ metering is meant to be totally voluntary on the basis of informed consent, and, in any case, does not need to be made until Jan. 2014
– There is no legal requirement that such a customer have a meter capable of capturing time variant data already in place by that date since the residential customer may at that time opt out.
– Unnecessary costs to PG&E will occur from rushing to install unwanted meters that will ultimately be rejected.
– Customers should not be forced to pay for PG&E’s mistake.”

So, Some Options to Consider
You can choose to: 1) opt out, keep your analog meter, (or have your ‘smart’ meter removed) and pay the extortionate fees (which compared to the risks and the increased billing for most ‘smart’ meters, is probably less in the long run) We believe that to be forced to pay to avoid being harmed in the many possible ways by ‘smart’ meters sure looks like a protection racket. So you should mark ‘paid under protest’ on your check and keep a record. For legal protection, be on the alert not to sign away any of your rights in any meter agreement with PG&E.

2) You can say you refuse to opt out because you never opted in and protest the fees if you still have your analog meter. Lock up your analog meter, don’t allow a PG&E installer onto your property and send them a certified letter saying you refuse to pay their still legally contested fees. You may need to stock up on candles for this option though, because PG&E may either force a ‘smart’ meter on you while you’re not home or cut off your power. If thousands of people do this, however, it will be far more difficult for PG&E to get away with.

3) You can opt out by calling PG&E, but wait to pay your $75 until you see what happens at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC.) PG&E gives you 3 months to pay the up front $75 charge and there are ongoing legal challenges to these fees at the CPUC. EON has been representing ratepayers interests in Phase I, arguing for no cost opt out and to allow people to keep their analog meters rather than what PG&E first wanted which was a ‘smart’ meter with the radio turned off. But we presented evidence showing that wouldn’t solve the many problems caused by digital meters. We also are insisting on Community wide opt out.
(You can read PDFs our arguments to the CPUC here and here if you want all the nitty gritty details.)

Next Phase: Community-Wide Opt-Outs
We’re now getting ready for the next phase. Phase Two of the CPUC proceeding has been ordered to happen, but hasn’t been scheduled yet. In Phase Two Community Wide opt out and the true costs of opt outs are going to be thrashed out.

4) You can support our efforts to defend our right to a Community-Wide opt out and to pay no fees. Marin County as well as Lake County and Santa Cruz County, among 50 other California cities and counties, have legally objected to forced installation of ‘smart’ meters.
Marin, Lake and Santa Cruz actually wrote ordinances and support community wide opt out.

As of now, only residences are being included in the opt out option. This problem of excluding businesses (think health clinics, day care centers, etc.), the radiating data collectors on utility poles and situations where folks and apartments have banks of multiple meters, as well as the problem with being zapped by neighbors’ meters, all make community wide refusal of this harmful wireless mesh network technology necessary.

Pushback Going Viral
The push back against this poorly thought out plan is national and international. Recently another leading cyber security expert, David Chalk, has forcefully spoken out about the incredible security dangers of a wireless grid. He joins other highly informed sources including former CIA director James Woolsey, and the US Inspector General Gregory Friedman, who clearly state the hazards a wireless electricity grid poses to national security. They point out that it’s too hackable and the electricity grid is a known target of cyber warfare. David Chalk says we’d be within three years of a total breakdown of the power grid.
(see full source articles on our blog here. )

“Smart Grid” Plans Endanger Our National Fleet of Aging Nuclear Plants
One of our main worries about all this is that a more vulnerable power grid makes nuclear meltdowns at our already rickety nuclear reactors situated on earthquake faults and in tsunami zones, much more likely since they depend on external power sources to keep the cores and fuel pools cooled. It only takes a few hours with no electricity to cause a meltdown. Back up emergency diesel power generators at nuclear reactors are notoriously unreliable, and, even if they do work, have a limited amount of fuel stored.

There’s even more: the FBI has recently issued an alert re ‘smart’ meters because of potential hacking. A large utility in Puerto Rico lost hundreds of millions of dollars because a criminal racket provided ‘reprogramming’ services to residences and businesses to lower their bills. [ See: FBI: Smart Meter Hacks Likely to Spread
From Krebs on Security ]

So now, many more people, even in the electrical industry, are finally realizing the problems with the green- washed and over-hyped ‘smart’ grid and ‘smart’ meters. There are much better ways to modernize our electrical grid if Big Brother snooping, ultimate corporate control and quick profit aren’t the driving motives.

PG&E opt out: 1-866-743-0263 or online:
Pge.com/myhome/customerservice/smartmeter/optout

Mary Beth Brangan & James Heddle
EON

Click here to download a PDF of the poster below, or just drag and drop the jpeg.

Emotional Victory in PUC Ruling on SDG&E Smart Meters
By Ken Stone
Blogger and activist Susan Brinchman had been lobbying for opt-out rights for 1 1/2 years.

Hacking the Grid – The 'Smart Meter' Syndrome

‘Smart’ as the New Stupid
More support for what we’ve been reporting for months: A wireless power grid mediated by ‘smart’ meters is a national security blunder of the highest order. A video and three recent articles.

From the Power Film.org
Cyber expert on SMART GRID: massive vulnerability, who’s accountable?
Published on Apr 12, 2012 by ThePowerFilm
[Thanks to John Glavis]
Cyber security expert David Chalk weighs in on the smart grid and its outright lack of security.

Hacking Expert David Chalk Joins Urgent Call to Halt Smart Grid
“100% certainty of catastrophic failure of energy grid within 3 years”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The vulnerability of the energy industry’s new wireless smart grid will inevitably lead to lights out for everyone, according to leading cyber expert David Chalk. In an online interview for an upcoming documentary film entitled ‘Take Back Your Power’ (www.ThePowerFilm.org), Chalk says the entire power grid will be at risk to being taken down by cyber attack, and if installations continue it’s only a matter of time.

“Unless we wake up and realize what we’re doing, there is 100% certainty of total catastrophic failure of the entire power infrastructure within 3 years”

“We’re in a state of crisis,” said Chalk. “The front door is open and there is no lock to be had. There is not a power meter or device on the grid that is protected from hacking – if not already infected – with some sort of trojan horse that can cause the grid to be shut down or completely annihilated.”

“One of the most amazing things that has happened to mankind in the last 100 years is the Internet. It’s given us possibility beyond our wildest imagination. But we also know the vulnerabilities that exist inside of it. And then we have the backbone, the power grid that powers our nations. Those two are coming together. And it’s the smart meter on your home or business that’s now allowing that connectivity.” Read more.

FBI: Smart Meter Hacks Likely to Spread
From Krebs on Security

A series of hacks perpetrated against so-called “smart meter” installations over the past several years may have cost a single U.S. electric utility hundreds of millions of dollars annually, the FBI said in a cyber intelligence bulletin obtained by KrebsOnSecurity. The law enforcement agency said this is the first known report of criminals compromising the hi-tech meters, and that it expects this type of fraud to spread across the country as more utilities deploy smart grid technology….

…The FBI believes that miscreants hacked into the smart meters using an optical converter device — such as an infrared light — connected to a laptop that allows the smart meter to communicate with the computer. After making that connection, the thieves changed the settings for recording power consumption using software that can be downloaded from the Internet.

“The optical converter used in this scheme can be obtained on the Internet for about $400,” the alert reads. “The optical port on each meter is intended to allow technicians to diagnose problems in the field. This method does not require removal, alteration, or disassembly of the meter, and leaves the meter physically intact.”

The bureau also said another method of attacking the meters involves placing a strong magnet on the devices, which causes it to stop measuring usage, while still providing electricity to the customer.

“This method is being used by some customers to disable the meter at night when air-conditioning units are operational. The magnets are removed during working hours when the customer is not home, and the meter might be inspected by a technician from the power company.”

“Each method causes the smart meter to report less than the actual amount of electricity used. The altered meter typically reduces a customer’s bill by 50 percent to 75 percent. Because the meter continues to report electricity usage, it appears be operating normally. Since the meter is read remotely, detection of the fraud is very difficult. A spot check of meters conducted by the utility found that approximately 10 percent of meters had been altered.”

“The FBI assesses with medium confidence that as Smart Grid use continues to spread throughout the country, this type of fraud will also spread because of the ease of intrusion and the economic benefit to both the hacker and the electric customer,” the agency said in its bulletin.

Fukushima's Teetering Unit 4: An Urgent Global Emergency

A Nuclear Sword of Damocles
Because of its importance, we are reposting below an important article from Washington Blog via Global Research in its entirety, including videos.

As the information in the article makes clear, it is not ‘alarmist’ or ‘Chicken Little’ to recognize the nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging by a thread over our species and the entire planetary biosphere.

The lopsided, two-story fuel rod-packed storage pool of Fukushima Unit 4 is 100 feet above the ground, propped up by jacks, its roof blown off by a hydrogen explosion, open to the atmosphere, in an environment too hot for robots, let alone human workers. A 7-point earthquake could knock it over or make it spring a leak. Once the water is spilled a nuclear explosion and fire would follow, potentially spewing 85 times the radiation emitted by Chernoybl around the northern hemisphere and eventually the entire planet. A 7-point earthquake is predicted for the region soon.

This is not just Japan’s problem. This is an international emergency far more immediate than Iran’s mythical nuclear program. It demands coordinated international cooperation and resources be directed at once to head off a potentially global catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. Inform yourself and spread the word. EON Eds.

[ Update: see USGS map of Fukushima fallout in US here. Also: San Francisco Bay Area milk sample has highest amount of Cesium-137 since last June — Almost double EPA’s maximum contaminant level – ENE News. ]

Global Research Editor’s Note
This detailed report by our Contributor Washington Blog must be read very carefully.

The World is at a critical crossroads. The Fukushima disaster in Japan has brought to the forefront the dangers of Worldwide nuclear radiation. The crisis in Japan has been described as “a nuclear war without a war”.

Nuclear radiation –which threatens life on planet earth– is not front page news in comparison to the most insignificant issues of public concern, including the local level crime scene or the tabloid gossip reports on Hollywood celebrities.

The implications of this report must be understood. Public opinion worldwide must be informed so that meaningful actions can be taken without delay in support of the Japanese teams.

Spread the word. Forward this report far and wide. Post it on Facebook.

It is essential to put pressure at all levels of government, nationally and internationally to take all actions necessary to avert an impending catastrophe, which in a very real sense threatens the future of humanity.

Michel Chossudovsky, April 9, 2012

The Fuel Pools of Fukushima: THE GREATEST SHORT-TERM THREAT TO HUMANITY

“Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel). It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.” (Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy)

The Greatest Single Threat to Humanity: Fuel Pool Number 4
We noted days after the Japanese earthquake that the biggest threat was from the spent fuel rods in the fuel pool at Fukushima unit number 4, and not from the reactors themselves. See this and this. We noted in February:

Scientists say that there is a 70% chance of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hitting Fukushima this year, and a 98% chance within the next 3 years.

Given that nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that an earthquake of 7.0 or larger could cause the entire fuel pool structure collapse, it is urgent that everything humanly possible is done to stabilize the structure housing the fuel pools at reactor number 4.

Tepco is doing some construction at the building … it is a race against time under very difficult circumstances, and hopefully Tepco will win.

As AP points out:

The structural integrity of the damaged Unit 4 reactor building has long been a major concern among experts because a collapse of its spent fuel cooling pool could cause a disaster worse than the three reactor meltdowns.

***

Gundersen (who used to build spent fuel pools) explains that there is no protection surrounding the radioactive fuel in the pools. He warns that – if the fuel pools at reactor 4 collapse due to an earthquake – people should get out of Japan, and residents of the West Coast of America and Canada should shut all of their windows and stay inside for a while.

The fuel pool number 4 is apparently not in great shape, and there have already been countless earthquakes near the Fukushima region since the 9.0 earthquake last March.

Germany’s ZDF tv quotes nuclear engineer Yukitero Naka as saying:

‘If another earthquake occurs then the building [number 4] could collapse and another chain reaction could very likely occur.’

(Unit 4 contains plutonium as well as other radioactive wastes.)

Mainchi reported on Monday:

The storage pool in the No. 4 reactor building has a total of 1,535 fuel rods, or 460 tons of nuclear fuel, in it. The 7-story building itself has suffered great damage, with the storage pool barely intact on the building’s third and fourth floors. The roof has been blown away. If the storage pool breaks and runs dry, the nuclear fuel inside will overheat and explode, causing a massive amount of radioactive substances to spread over a wide area. Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and French nuclear energy company Areva have warned about this risk.

A report released in February by the Independent Investigation Commission on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident stated that the storage pool of the plant’s No. 4 reactor has clearly been shown to be “the weakest link” in the parallel, chain-reaction crises of the nuclear disaster. The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to evacuate.

Former Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Sumio Mabuchi, who was appointed to the post of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s advisor on the nuclear disaster immediately after its outbreak, proposed the injection of concrete from below the No. 4 reactor to the bottom of the storage pool, Chernobyl-style.

***

“Because sea water was being pumped into the reactor, the soundness of the structure (concrete corrosion and deterioration) was questionable. There also were doubts about the calculations made on earthquake resistance as well,” said one government source familiar with what took place at the time. “[F]uel rod removal will take three years. Will the structure remain standing for that long?

Asahi noted last month that – if Unit 4 pool gets a crack from an earthquake and leaks, it would be the end for Tokyo.

Kevin Kamps said last month:

Unit 4 storage pool… The entire building is listing including the pool. What they have is steel jacks underneath the pool to try to keep the floor from falling out or the pool from flipping over.

If that cooling water supply is lost, it will be just a few hours at most before that waste is on fire. 135 tons outside of any radioactive containment. They would be direct releases into the environment. 100% of cesium-137 could be released to the environment.

Former U.N. adviser Akio Matsumura – whose praises have been sung by Mikhail Gorbachev, U.S. Ambassadors Stephen Bosworth and Glenn Olds, and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and Goldman Sachs co-chair John C. Whitehead – notes:

The unit suffered enormous damage during the tsunami—a hydrogen explosion blew the roof off, leaving the highly radioactive fuel pool exposed to the open air. If another high level earthquake hits the area, the building will certainly collapse. Japanese and American meteorologists have predicted that such a strong earthquake is indeed likely to hit this year.

The meltdown and unprecedented release of radiation that would ensue is the worst case scenario that then-Prime Minister Kan and other former officials have discussed in the past months. He warned during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that such an accident would force the evacuation of the 35 million people in Tokyo, close half of Japan and compromise the nation’s sovereignty. Such a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe is unimaginable. Hiroshi Tasaka, a nuclear engineer and special adviser to Prime Minister Kan immediately following the crisis, said the crisis “just opened Pandora’s Box.”

The current Japanese government has not yet mentioned the looming disaster, ostensibly to not incite panic in the public. Nevertheless, action must be taken quickly. This website over the last year has published a running commentary from scientists explaining why Reactor 4 must be stabilized immediately, who might be able to accomplish such a task, and why the situation has largely gone unnoticed. We believe an independent, international team of structural engineers and other advisers must be assembled and deployed immediately. Mounting public pressure would force the Japanese government to take action. We hope these resources are helpful in educating the public about the crisis that we face.

As the eminent German physicist Dr. Hans-Peter Durr said ten months ago, if the spent fuel pool spills, we will be in a situation where science never imagined we could be.

Matsumura was told that if the fuel pool at unit 4 collapses or the water spills out, so much radiation will spew out for 50 years that no one will be able to approach Fukushima:

Even more dramatically, Matsumura writes:

“Japan’s former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei Murata, was invited to speak at the Public Hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on March 22, 2012, on the Fukushima nuclear power plants accident. Before the Committee, Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4—with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground—collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4. In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air. This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced. He stressed that the responsibility of Japan to the rest of the world is immeasurable. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries. Ambassador Murata informed us that the total numbers of the spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site excluding the rods in the pressure vessel is 11,421 (396+615+566+1,535+994+940+6375).

“I asked top spent-fuel pools expert Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, for an explanation of the potential impact of the 11,421 rods.

“I received an astounding response from Mr. Alvarez [updated 4/5/12]:

“‘In recent times, more information about the spent fuel situation at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site has become known. It is my understanding that of the 1,532 spent fuel assemblies in reactor No. 304 assemblies are fresh and unirradiated. This then leaves 1,231 irradiated spent fuel rods in pool No. 4, which contain roughly 37 million curies (~1.4E+18 Becquerel) of long-lived radioactivity. The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.

“‘The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors. Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks.. As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters. Despite the enormous destruction cased at the Da–Ichi site, dry casks holding a smaller amount of spent fuel appear to be unscathed.

“‘Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel).

“‘It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.’

“Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137 than the Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival.

“There was a Nuclear Security Summit Conference in Seoul on March 26 and 27, and Ambassador Murata and I made a concerted effort to find someone to inform the participants from 54 nations of the potential global catastrophe of reactor unit 4. We asked several participants to share the idea of an Independent Assessment team comprised of a broad group of international experts to deal with this urgent issue.

“I would like to introduce Ambassador Murata’s letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to convey this urgent message and also his letter to Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda for Japanese readers. He emphasized in the statement that we should bring human wisdom to tackle this unprecedented challenge.”

Ambassador Murata’s letter says:

“It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on NO.4 reactor. This is confirmed by most reliable experts like Dr. Arnie Gundersen or Dr. Fumiaki Koide.”

Anti-nuclear physician Dr. Helen Caldicott says that if fuel pool 4 collapses, she will evacuate her family from Boston and move them to the Southern Hemisphere. This is an especially dramatic statement given that the West Coast is much more directly in the path of Fukushima radiation than the East Coast.

Will humanity rise to the occasion, and figure out how to stabilize fuel pool number 4 before catastrophe strikes?

Or will modern civilization win a Darwin award for failing to pay attention to the real threats?

For further background analysis, see

GLOBAL RESEARCH’S ONLINE I BOOK ON FUKUSHIMA

Fukushima: A Nuclear War without a War: The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation
– by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – 2012-01-25
GR ONLINE READER. The dumping of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean constitutes a potential trigger to a process of global radioactive contamination… Eventually all major regions of the World will be affected.

Persistant Resistance is Fertile – CA's 'Smart' Meter Pushback Chronicles

Two defiant mothers are arrested for blocking 'smart' meter installation trucks in Inverness, CA.

Boulders (or at least rocks) in the Path of the ‘Smart Grid’ Juggernaut
[Scroll down for video]
Northern California – in the service area of energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) – is one of a growing number of epi-centers of ratepayer resistance to the wireless ‘smart’ meter deployment by electric, gas and water utilities in this country and around the world.

Wireless so-called ‘smart’ meters are just one component of the international ‘smart grid’ project: a top-down, technocratic profit-making plan originating from the elite Davos-based World Economic Forum, and being promoted by the world’s largest consulting firm, Accenture – ‘a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company headquartered in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.’

It should be noted that Accenture is a spin-off of the discredited, and now virtually defunct, accounting firm Arthur Anderson, which helped the infamous Enron cook its books.

[ Ed. Note: Mr. James E. McAvoy of Accenture contacted us in response to the above sentence. His e-mail said in part “Accenture does not now, and has never, engaged in the practice of public accounting, and was not involved in the Enron scandal.

From its establishment in 1989 until its incorporation in 2001, Accenture was a separate legal entity and operated independently from Arthur Andersen. In 1990, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission recognized that Accenture¹s predecessor, Andersen Consulting, was a legal entity distinct from Arthur Andersen.

In 2000, in an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration decision, the ICC recognized that the partnership then named Andersen Consulting was a legally separate entity from Andersen Worldwide and the Arthur Andersen firms. The arbitrator also agreed that Andersen Consulting was not a subsidiary or division of Arthur Andersen or Andersen Worldwide. The decision confirmed that Andersen Consulting was never owned by Arthur Andersen — so there was no spin-off or parental link.

Under the terms of the ICC ruling, Andersen Consulting was given until December 31, 2000 to adopt a new name. We began operating under the Accenture name in January 1, 2001. Accenture went public on the New York Stock Exchange in July 2001.

Regarding the Enron scandal, and Arthur Andersen’s role in it, the matter became public in the fall of 2001. According to the Grand Jury Charges filed against Arthur Andersen, “on or about October 16, 2001, Enron issued a press release announcing a $618 million net loss for the third quarter of 2001.

That same day, but not as part of the press release, Enron announced to analysts that it would reduce shareholder equity by approximately $1.2 billion. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which investigates possible violations of the federal securities laws, opened an inquiry into Enron the very next day.”https://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/enron/usandersen030702ind.html

This timing makes clear that Accenture was not in any way involved in the Enron accounting scandal.

In addition, on November 7, 2003 the federal court in Houston approved the settlement of the class actions on behalf of shareholders and employees of Enron. Accenture was not a party to the settlement agreement, and under the terms of the final settlement with the class plaintiffs, Accenture was released from all claims that were brought by these plaintiff groups. This was final and conclusive proof that there was no connection between Accenture and either Arthur Andersen or Enron.”

We thank Mr. for this clarification and are happy to make this correction and retraction. Eds. ]

Despite the utilities’ outrageous assertion that wireless ‘smart’ meters – with all their proven risks to safety, security, privacy, billing accuracy and human health – can be installed on people’s homes without their consent, ratepayer rebellion has been strong and is growing.

This video post is an impressionistic montage – not meant to be definitive – of just some of the people and actions so far contributing to the establishment of an ‘opt-out’ program in the PG&E service area. It should give viewers in other states and service areas empowering evidence that ‘Persistent Resistance is Fertile.’ It carries the still-unfolding story through January 2012.

Since then, the movement is turning its attention to a ‘Fight the Fees’ campaign – why should people have to pay not to be harmed by a plan about which they were not consulted, and to which they have not consented? Stay tuned…

For more info
StopSmartMeters.org
EMFSafetyNetwork.org
SmartMeterHelp.com
SmartMeterDangers.org

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To help keep EON’s work going, please check out all the support options on our Donation Page or you can also send a check made out to EON to EON, POB 1047, Bolinas, CA
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Building Japan-U.S. Nuke Free Solidarity – The 3/11 Truth Movement Grows

This original sketch of Prof. Akira 'Lazy Cat' Murakami by StuArt was published in the Bolinas Hearsay News. https://hearsaynews.org

Uncensored Fukushima Report Direct to West Marin, CA
Reprinted from: Guest Column – Pt. Reyes Light – March 22, 2012
By Rachel Gertrude Johnson & Mary Beth Brangan – EON

“The planet can’t endure another Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima.” Prof. Akira Murakami

Immense releases of radioactivity from Fukushima were at first blown eastward from Japan towards the West Coast of North America. In 1986, Chernobyl radiation caused a spike in bird, human elder and infant mortalities. After Fukushima, a similar spike in infant mortality was observed in Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Oakland, according to Center for Disease Control numbers.

Chernobyl was a single-reactor explosion estimated to have caused one million excess deaths since 1986. By 2000, fewer than 20 percent of Belarus children were considered healthy. Fukushima has already seen three melted reactor cores and 3,108 intensely radioactive fuel rods. It’s all still emitting radiation into the air and ocean, with no end in sight.

Tokyo, with a population of over 32 million, has radioactive hot spots at a distance of 150 miles from Fukushima. A professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus, Katsuma Yagasaki, said on November 12: “Children, pregnant women and those wanting children in the future should be evacuated from Tokyo.”

Yet the government has hardly taken any protective measures. Racehorses were evacuated, but children were not. People are still living within a 19-mile radius from the stricken reactors because they can’t afford to move without government help. Russia evacuated everyone from the more sparsely populated Chernobyl area.

What the Japanese government did do was raise the legal allowable radiation exposures to levels higher than those used for adult male nuclear workers. This when children, especially young girls, are up to seven times more sensitive than adults. Already 30 percent of children in the Fukushima area have nodules on their thyroids—a rate unheard of by doctors.

Food is spot-checked, loosely regulated, and residents have caught the government lying about radiation measurements. A campaign of “Buy Fukushima, Eat Fukushima” pressures people everywhere with the charge that they are traitors if they choose not to “eat Fukushima.”

Japan is a conformist society and its people are being ordered to stay silent. The government, the media, compliant college professors and medical doctors are down-playing the dangers and hiding facts.

But increasing numbers of mothers, aided by the Internet, independent media and international activists, are becoming engaged. A network of volunteers in Japan is working with MIT professors to take radiation measurements and provide the data to the public. Many residents and grocery store owners have invested in high-tech devices to provide reliable information about radiation levels in foods to concerned mothers.

Despite having suffered the devastation of being nuclear-bombed, Japanese residents in past decades bought into an “Atoms for Peace” campaign, illustrated with cartoon characters with reactors in their chests. The country wanted to emulate the superior technology of its American vanquisher, but years later it’s clear to many Japanese people that the campaign’s real purpose was to provide business opportunities for GE and Westinghouse as well as a cover for the production of weapons materials. (In 2006, Tochiba bought the nuclear power section of Westinghouse.)

Still, as Professor Akira Murakami from Japan’s Akita University puts it: “The planet can’t endure another Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima.”

Last week the Ecological Options Network (EON) hosted Murakami for a series of events and media interviews as part of a U.S. tour to report the uncensored news from post-Fukushima Japan.

The EON team, a Bolinas-based nonprofit, has a long history of anti-nuclear activism. Responding to the ongoing nuclear disaster has been a big part of our work for the past year. On November 7 we visited the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco, where we presented an international petition of 7,000 signatures asking the Japanese government to stop its plan to distribute and incinerate radioactive rubble all over the nation.

Mary Beth Brangan (left) and Rachel Gertrude Johnson (center) of EON and Kimberly Roberson (right), founder of the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN) meet with Japanese embassy officials.

We had been asked by Japanese activists to help ask their government to stop this unconscionable plan of spreading radiation to even uncontaminated areas of the country instead of containing it as much as possible.

Jim Heddle, co-director of EON, videotaped us at the consulate. The video was posted on YouTube and was translated into Japanese, garnering over 15,000 views in the first week. [See viewers below. ] As result, Murakami contacted us and asked if he could visit while he was here for events related to the anniversary of Fukushima. We were honored and hosted him at successful events in Bolinas and Berkeley.

Now Professor Akira Murakami and other Japanese citizens are pleading with us to shut down our nuclear reactors. Twenty-three U.S. reactor stations have the same defective design as those in Fukushima and California’s Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear reactors are surrounded by multiple earthquake faults and lie in tsunami zones.

Professor Akira 'Lazy Cat' Murakami from Japan's Akita University has traveled to South Korea, Viet Nam, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area working for international solidarity for a nuclear free future. Photo: Rachel Gertrude Johnson

Artist, photographer, and long-time nuclear free activist Rachel Gertrude Johnson is an EON team member. Media activist Mary Beth Brangan is EON Co-Director. Reach them both at Info@EON3.net.
Professor Murakami prefers his friends call him ‘Lazy Cat’ because “Cats are never too busy doing unethical and destructive things like building nuclear reactors. And the jazz artists Fats Waller and Cab Calloway I admire called themselves cats.”

Fukushima Solidarity Movement Grows – A Planetary Issue, link to the video on YT: Fukushima Solidarity in San Francisco

The video in Japanese translation – with over 15,000 views is here:
【海外市民団体の見る日本の汚染瓦礫受入問題】制作：EON

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To help keep EON’s work going, please check out all the support options on our Donation Page or you can also send a check made out to EON to EON, POB 1047, Bolinas, CA
Or…just: