Fukushima - The Media - The Uranium Queen

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Forget about radioactive fallout... look here, the Queen is visiting Ireland


Two months on
and no end in sight, yes this is the current state of affairs when it comes to the painful issue of the ongoing nuclear radiation spills in Japan. Yet very little facts of the true extent of this global catastrophe trickles down to the forefront of the mass media and the collective consciousness at large.

Surprisingly the public who pay and will continue to pay the price with hard earned cash and the consequence to their health, seems quite content feeding on a diet of ready dished out trivia such as which Royal is wearing what hat? Who was not invited and who farts to the left... Some sense of priorities we have?!

In the same token; While too many Irish people are evacuated from their own streets to make way for a contentious Royal visit and protect the Queen, not enough Japanese people are evacuated from their own homes to protect them from the uncontrolled crisis of nuclear radiation that will plague their environment and ours for many millennia to come...

Yet the important announcement by TEPCO admitting that figures confirmed a nuclear meltdown took place at Fukushima as early as 16 hours after the earthquake on the 11 of March, paled in comparison to the world wide coverage and discussion on how elegant the Queen looked in white and which Irish public servant dared to bow before her. Some sense of priorities we have?!

When it comes to the British Monarchy Vs Nuclear Radiation competing for the headlines - British Monarchy seems to be wining hands down every time! Why is that? Is it really our warped sense of priorities? Or is there an organised, deliberate and well executed diversion of public attention a way from an issue as important as self preservation?

Fukushima - Grown Man Army Toys

Are the man in charge reading my blog?



On the 7th of April in post title  Fukushima - Is the truth being diluted in sea water too? I signed off writing: "I am surprised though, that in such technologically advanced country like Japan, remotely operated robots are not deployed to boldly go where radiation may be to high for humans to bear. Or maybe they do and we just don't hear about it."

Few days later and a US remote controlled helicopter was used to probe the nuclear plant on a mission to collect information on the buildings at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi 4 nuclear reactors.

Fukushima - Lifting the lid on radiation levels - Update

In post published yesterday titled  'Fukushima - Lifting the lead on radiation levels', I discussed how the Japanese  government and some nuclear industry companies with everything to gain or lose, have raised the bar when it comes to the levels of permitted radiation for workers, lifting exposure limit  from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts. When contested by companies contracted by TEPCO supplying workers to deal with this crisis, the government argued back justifying their action saying they are following the ‘International Commission on Radiological Protection’ guide lines, which sets the upper limit in an emergency situation to a dose of 500-1,000 millisieverts.

But it is now clearly evident that those levels are nothing but safe, and are way way too high. Workers exposed to much lower levels suffer the consequence as reported by CNN

"One worker fell ill during the work on Sunday, the company said. The man, in his 30s, was placing hoses for collecting the contaminated water from reactor No. 2 when he became ill, nearly two hours into his shift. 
 

Fukushima - Lifting the lid on radiation levels

It is funny how rulers, oops... ‘democratic leaders’ of the developed world, present themselves as defenders of FREEDOM every time they wish to drive public opinion to support going to war defending other nations’ FREEDOM. Yet for all the talk of FREEDOM, at home we are living in a society where FREEDOM is highly regulated. To illustrate how ridiculous it can get, take England for example; working in an office, you will be forbidden to change a light bulb UNLESS, you have done a training course on how to climb a ladder and have the certificate to prove it.

Yes there are laws, regulations, and guide lines for every aspect of our lives, and we are told it is for our own good and benefit, it is there to protect us from ourselves, others, and harms way in general.

However often when delving into the nitty-gritty of these regulation, one can’t but help find hypocrisy every step of the way, especially when it comes to regulations concerning people’s health and environmental pollution. We are told that such regulations are based on scientific facts, setting safe limits of exposure to harmful substances and are there to protect human health, society, and the environment we live in, but more often then not, laws, regulations, and guide lines are written in such a vague way, as to allow total disregard to those safe limits when it’s deemed suitable.

Raising the levels of permitted radiation for workers

This is why, I made the following comment in a previous post : “Are we going to see permissible radiation levels elevated to fit a reality of growing radiation with no end in sight?” As it happened I was not wrong, it came as no surprise when I spotted the Kyodo News headline yesterday: “TEPCO contractors reject higher radiation dose limit for workers”

Fukushima - Is the truth being diluted in sea water too?

"Arnie Gundersen discusses inconstancies between what the NRC, TEPCo, and the Nuclear Industry are saying privately and publicly. Documents from the French nuclear firm, Areva, and the NRC reveal what the industry knows about the Fukushima disaster."

Fukushima - 'low level' radioactive water damped into the sea = 500 time permitted level

In a CNN interview today John King talks to Arnold Gundersen of fairewinds. Gundersen explains how the hydrogen explosion in reactor 2, caused a breeched in containment leading to radioactive water filling the trenches and leaking into the ocean.

Gundersen puts into perspective the level of radiation being released into the ocean. He said the 11,500 tonnes of 'low level' radioactive water being damped into the sea, was 500 time higher then the permitted level. "They had to clear these tanks so that more radioactive liquid could come behind it."

Fukushima- Is reactor no 1 undergoing periodic Nuclear Fission?

As reported in an earlier post some evidence emerging from few sources has lead experts to speculate that the reactor core in Unit 1 is still undergoing periodic Nuclear Fission.

Today Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced they are to inject nitrogen into reactor unit 1 at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, aiming to reduce the risk of a hydrogen explosion.

Fukushima - Radioactive Sea Radioactive Fish

Stopping the leak in reactor 2 but discharging radioactive water from reactor 5 & 6 into the sea

  The photo published by kyodo news shows radioactive water leaking to the sea from a crack in the wall at reactor No. 2 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant on April 5, 2011.

Plant operator finally managed to halt the leak where radioactive water is believed to have been seeping through. (Photo courtesy of Tokyo Electric Power Co.)(Kyodo)

However Japanese authorities have confirmed to the IAEA that they began to discharge 11,500 tonnes of low level radioactive water into the sea on 4 April. The operation is being conducted to create storage capacity for highly radioactive water pooled in parts of the reactor facility, hindering efforts to restore electrical power from the grid to the facility.

“It will take months before radiation stop leaking” says top Japanese government spokesman

What is really going on In Fukushima? Nuclear Fission & Radiation 101

Radiation Stacks

Have you ever wondered what are those towers next to each reactors building in the Fukushima plant? These are the ‘Radiation Stacks’ looking like transmission tower they are there to vent radiation fumes for better dispersion in the event of an accident. Those stacks are designed to send radioactive emissions higher up into the atmosphere.

More images of Japan before and after the 11.3.11 Earthquake and Tsunami can be be seen here

The radiation stacks in Fukushima were not used this time, as they need electricity to push the emissions up the stacks. And electricity was gone once the tsunami hit. Another problem is that radiation stacks are designed to suck the air out of the containment buildings and as we could clearly see from pictures and footage there are not much of the building left to suck the air of.

Fukushima - While we look the other way

Arnold Gundersen -  an energy advisor with 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience. For more expert comments on the Fukushima nuclear power station visit his website

I had a dream

On the 3rd of March 2011, I woke up recalling a vivid dream, I felt that this dream was significant, so while rubbing the web of sleep from my half opened eyes, I recounted the dream to my partner, partly so I don’t forget it and partly so that there is another soul knowing I had that dream.

I told him - “I was taking part in a rescue mission, which took place within a ‘radiation zone’, I was aware that I didn’t have any protective clothing, or mask, but at the same time I knew with unexplained confidence, that I am not going to be effected by the high radiation.”

On the 3.3.11 a week before the 11.3.11 Japanese Earth Quake, Tsunami, and the Nuclear disaster that followed, the likelihood of me taking part in a rescue mission in a radiation zone was as remote and unrealistic as spaceships landing on the white house loan.(Not because I believe they don’t exist, but because I don’t believe they will be stupid enough to land in that location.) But still it felt significant enough for me to make a mental note of it.