Fukushima

Nuclear Power’s Insanities: Taxpayer-Guaranteed

September 8, 2014 The Nader Page, www.blog.nader.org Educate! Fukushima, Nuclear Power, Radiation, Taxes

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) – the corporate lobbyist in Washington, D.C. for the disintegrating atomic power industry – doesn’t have to worry about repercussions from the negative impacts of nuclear power. For nuclear power is a government/taxpayer-guaranteed boondoggle whose staggering costs, incurred and deferred, are absorbed by American taxpayers via a supine government regulatory and subsidy apparatus. So if you go to work at the NEI and you read about the absence of any permanent radioactive waste storage site, no problem, the government/taxpayers are responsible for transporting and safeguarding that lethal garbage for centuries. If your reactors experience ever larger cost over-runs and delays, as is now happening with two new reactors in South Carolina, no problem, the supine state regulatory commissions will just pass the bill on to consumers, despite the fact that consumers receive no electricity from these unfinished plants. If these plants, and two others in Georgia under construction, experience financial squeezes from Wall Street, no problem, a supine Congress has already passed ample taxpayer loan guarantees that make Uncle Sam (you the taxpayer) bear the cost of the risk.

Fukushima Crisis Continues, Was Worse Than First Reported

September 3, 2014 William Boardman, www.readersupportednews.org Educate! Fukushima, Japan, Nuclear Waste

obody in the world knows how to dispose of radioactive waste safely and permanently. That's a given. The Japanese central government is presumably aware that anything it does with still the unmeasured but vast amount of radioactive waste from Fukushima's six nuclear power generators will be temporary. Leaving it in place is not an option. So Tokyo announced on August 29 that the Fukushima waste would be stored for 30 years in Fukushima prefect, in an "interim facility" to be built probably in nearby Okuma or Futaba (now evacuated). "We've screened and confirmed safety and regional promotion measures as offered by the state," Fukushima prefect governor Yuhei Sato said when announcing the decision. The temporary plan was proposed by the environment minister in late 2013, an offer few thought the Fukushima officials could refuse. The negotiated terms of the plan include a government lease of about 4,000 acres (16 square km) from some 2,000 landowners around the Fukushima site. No leases have yet been signed. The terms also include government subsidies to the prefect of $2.9 billion (301 billion yen) over thirty years, as well as a personal visit with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo for Governor Yuhei.

Fukushima: We’ve Opened The Gates Of Hell

August 16, 2014 Washington's Blog, www.washingtonsblog.com Educate! Fukushima, Nuclear Energy, Radiation

Preface: we’ve written thousands of articles on Fukushima and radiation. But this post will spotlight recent articles from EneNews … with which we have no affiliation of any nature whatsoever. The American media hasn’t covered Fukushima for a long time. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any news. It just means that the U.S. and Japanese governments have worked hard to cover it up. Here’s a roundup of recent news (links to EneNews; click through to see original source material … that’s how the internet works): Radiation: Experts: Fukushima ‘globally enhanced’ cesium-137 levels in air by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude — Radioactive plume that reached Europe “contaminated the land, and as a consequence the whole food chain” — Concentrations greatly underestimated. 200,000,000,000,000 becquerels/kg in fuel rod materials found near Tokyo… “the material spread globally” — Composed “major part” of worst Fukushima plume — Persists for long time in living organisms — Must reconsider disaster’s health effects (PHOTOS). Nuclear fuel found 15 miles from Tokyo suburbs — Fukushima uranium in ‘glassy’ spheres transported over 170 km — Structural materials from the nuclear reactors also present (PHOTOS).

Fukushima: Bad and Getting Worse

July 21, 2014 John LaForge, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Fukushima, Nuclear Energy

IPPNW concludes that Fukushima’s radiation disaster is “far from over”: the destroyed reactors are still unstable; radioactive liquids and gases continuously leak from the complex wreckage; melted fuel and used fuel in quake-damaged cooling pools hold enormous quantities of radioactivity “and are highly vulnerable to further earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and human error.” Catastrophic releases of radioactivity “could occur at any time and eliminating this risk will take many decades.” IPPNW finally recommends urgent actions that governments should take, because the UNSCEAR report, “does not adhere to scientific standards of neutrality,” “represents a systematic underestimation,” “conjures up an illusion of scientific certainty that obscures the true impact of the nuclear catastrophe on health and the environment,” and its conclusion is phrased “in such a way that would most likely be misunderstood by most people…”

News Flash: Fukushima Is Still A Disaster

June 5, 2014 Harvey Wasserman, www.truthdig.com Educate! Fukushima, Japan, Nuclear Energy, Radiation

The corporate media silence on Fukushima has been deafening even though the melted-down nuclear power plant’s seaborne radiation is now washing up on American beaches. Ever more radioactive water continues to pour into the Pacific. At least three extremely volatile fuel assemblies are stuck high in the air at Unit 4. Three years after the March 11, 2011, disaster, nobody knows exactly where the melted cores from Units 1, 2 and 3 might be. Amid a dicey cleanup infiltrated by organized crime, still more massive radiation releases are a real possibility at any time. Radioactive groundwater washing through the complex is enough of a problem that Fukushima Daiichi owner Tepco has just won approval for a highly controversial ice wall to be constructed around the crippled reactor site. No wall of this scale and type has ever been built, and this one might not be ready for two years. Widespread skepticism has erupted surrounding its potential impact on the stability of the site and on the huge amounts of energy necessary to sustain it. Critics also doubt it would effectively guard the site from flooding and worry it could cause even more damage should power fail.

Video: Fukushima Three Years Later – Who is Responsible?

March 12, 2014 The Real News, www.therealnews.com Educate! Fukushima, Nuclear Energy, Video

March 11 marks the three-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. It's considered the worst nuclear accident on record since the 1986 meltdown at Chernobyl. Many questions remain unanswered, not the least of which is: did the Japanese government participate in a coverup on the true nature of the accident; and the power plant's operator, TEPCO, whether or not their ability to repair the damage was done effectively. Nuclear power engineer Arnie Gunderson and journalist Chiho Kaneko discuss a lawsuit to hold General Electric and other reactor manufacturing companies responsible and the Japanese public's attitude toward nuclear energy.

Leaked Emails Expose NRC’s Cover-Up of Safety Concerns Days After Fukushima Disaster

March 10, 2014 Brandon Baker, ecowatch.com Educate! Energy, Environment, Fukushima, Nuclear Energy

When an earthquake and tsunami struck Fukushima, Japan leading to a nuclear disaster three years ago, U.S. residents wondered if the aging nuclear facilities in their own country were at risk. What they didn’t know is that the federal government’s nuclear arm worked actively in the days after the incident, trying to cover up the perils that existed in the states. According to a report from NBC, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) campaign to reassure people about nuclear safety standards coincided with agency experts consistently presenting similar questions behind the scenes. Through a Freedom of Information Act request,NBC acquired a string of March 2011 emails that clearly show the cover-up. “While we know more than these say, we’re sticking to this story for now,” Scott Burnell, an NRC public and media relations manager wrote in one email.

Tokyo: Hundreds Rally Against Dropped Fukushima Charges

March 2, 2014 AFP-JIJI, www.japantimes.co.jp Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Fukushima

Hundreds rallied Saturday in Tokyo to protest a decision by prosecutors to drop charges over the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns, meaning no one has been indicted, let alone punished, nearly three years after a calamity ruled “man-made.” Official records do not list anyone as having died as a direct result of radioactive fallout after tsunami unleashed by the 9.0-magnitude quake of March 11, 2011, crashed into the Fukushima No. 1 plant, swamping cooling systems and causing three reactor meltdowns. Excluded from those records are Fukushima residents who committed suicide owing to fears about the fallout showered on their hometowns, while others died during the evacuation process. Official data released last week showed that 1,656 people have died in the prefecture from stress and other illnesses related to the nuclear crisis.

50 Reasons We Should Fear the Worst from Fukushima

February 4, 2014 Harvey Wasserman, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Fukushima, Nuclear Energy

12. When the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Gofman, urged that reactor dose levels be lowered by 90 percent, he was forced out of the AEC and publicly attacked, despite his status a founder of the industry. ... 24. Children born in downwind Ukraine and Belarus still suffer a massive toll of mutation and illness, as confirmed by a wide range of governmental, scientific and humanitarian organizations.

The Fukushima Secrecy Syndrome – From Japan to America

January 27, 2014 Ralph Nader, www.nader.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Fukushima

Last month, the ruling Japanese coalition parties quickly rammed through Parliament a state secrets law. We Americans better take notice. Under its provisions the government alone decides what are state secrets and any civil servants who divulge any “secrets” can be jailed for up to 10 years. Journalists caught in the web of this vaguely defined law can be jailed for up to 5 years. Government officials have been upset at the constant disclosures of their laxity by regulatory officials before and after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster in 2011, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Week after week, reports appear in the press revealing the seriousness of the contaminated water flow, the inaccessible radioactive material deep inside these reactors and the need to stop these leaking sites from further poisoning the land, food and ocean. Officials now estimate that it could take up to 40 years to clean up and decommission the reactors.

New Leak Found In Fukushima Plant’s Wrecked No. 3 Building

January 19, 2014 Toshio Kawada, www.ajw.asahi.com Educate! Environment, Fukushima, Nuclear Energy

A new water leak, possibly from the effort to cool a crippled reactor, has been detected on the first floor of a reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Jan. 18. TEPCO said workers discovered by a video feed that water was leaking on the first floor of the wrecked No. 3 reactor building earlier in the day. If the leak is from water being used to cool the reactor, it would be highly contaminated and a new headache for TEPCO and the government. A series of leaks from storage tanks of water that had been used to cool the damaged reactors and problems with groundwater entering reactor buildings and mixing with radioactive water there has hampered the plant's decommissioning process.

Fukushima, A Global Conspiracy Of Denial

January 6, 2014 William Boardman, www.readersupportednews.org Educate! Fukushima, Nuclear Energy

f there is any government or non-government authority in the world that is addressing the disaster at Fukushima openly, directly, honestly, and effectively, it's not apparent to the outside observer what entity that might be. There is instead an apparent global conspiracy of authorities of all sorts to deny to the public reliably accurate, comprehensible, independently verifiable (where possible), and comprehensive information about not only the condition of the Fukushima power plant itself and its surrounding communities, but about the unceasing, uncontrolled release of radioactive debris into the air and water, creating a constantly increasing risk of growing harm to the global community. While the risk may still be miniscule in most places, the range of risk rises to lethal in Fukushima itself.

Cutting Corners At Fukushima With Duct Tape

January 5, 2014 Staff, www.rt.com Educate! Environment, Fukushima, Nuclear Energy

When he climbed to the top of the 10-meter-high tank Uechi found white adhesive tape covering an opening of about 30 centimeters. After using a blade to remove the tape he applied a sealing agent on the opening and fit a steel lid fastening it with bolts. According to instructions he was to use four bolts, though the lid had eight bolt holes. According to the employee, his colleagues later told him that the use of adhesive tape was a usual practice to deal with the problem of sealing in radioactive water. “I couldn’t believe that such slipshod work was being done, even if it was part of stopgap measures,” Uechi told The Asahi Shimbun. Among other makeshift cost-cutting measures was the use of second-hand materials. Uechi also said that wire nets were used instead of reinforcing bars during the placement of concrete for storage tank foundations. In addition, waterproof sheets were applied along the joints inside flange-type cylindrical tanks to save on the sealing agent used to join metal sheets of the storage tanks. Rain and snow had washed away the anti-corrosive agent applied around clamping bolts, reducing the sealing effect, Uechi added.

Update: Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 Not Going To Explode

January 1, 2014 Arnie Gundersen, www.fairewinds.org Educate! Fukushima

Beginning on Monday December 30, 2013, the Internet has been flooded with conjecture claiming that Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 is ready to explode. Fairewinds Energy Education has been inundated with questions about the very visible steam emanating from Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3. Our research, and discussions with other scientists, confirms that what we are seeing is a phenomenon that has been occurring at the Daiichi site since the March 2011 accident. It is winter and it is cold through out much of the northern hemisphere. Hot water vapor has been released daily by each of the four Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants since the accident. We believe that is one of the reasons TEPCO placed covers over Daiichi 4 and 1. Sometimes the steam [hot water vapor] is visible and sometimes it is not.

71 US Navy Crew Sue TEPCO, Half Have Cancer

December 29, 2013 Brandon Baker, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Corporatism, Fukushima, Health Care, Nuclear Energy

After U.S. Navy sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan for four days, many returned to the U.S. with thyroid cancer, Leukemia, brain tumors and more. At least 71 sailors—many in their 20s—reported radiation sickness and will file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant. The men and women accuse TEPCO of downplaying the danger of nuclear radiation on the site. The water contaminated the ship’s supply, which led to crew members drinking, washing their bodies and brushing their teeth with contaminated water. Paul Garner, an attorney representing 51 sailors, said at least half of the 70-plus sailors have some form of cancer.

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