Toyota has announced they have worked deals to secure, or substitute, 80% of the parts they are missing to build their cars.
The problem is that it’s not 100% of the parts they need. Last month Toyota officials said that it only took one missing part to shut down production.
On 17 April, Tokyo Electric Power Company issued a plan to control the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant. That plan involved 51 steps, so far as of 10 May, only one is being done; the continued pumping of water to try and cool the reactors and fuel pools.
TEPCo admitted they did not expect such high levels of radiation inside the reactor buildings, and that has been the big hold up. They can’t do much with such high levels of radiation.
Workers have finally entered the building of Reactor 1, but that is only to help with the water injection and cooling operation. In other words, still stuck on step one of their 51 step plan.
Schools near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant have found radiation contamination in the top soil of their playgrounds.
Normally you remove the top soil and have it hauled away in sealed containers, as nuke waste. But that’s not what the Japanese government is suggesting.
School officials are being told by the government to simply bury the radioactive soil deeper in the ground. They say by burying it 50 cm (19.6 inches) into the ground, it will reduce the detectable radiation by 90%. The suggestion is being made by the Japanese Education and Science Ministry (can you believe that!).
Hello, what happens when a child digs it up? Or a dog? This sounds like an expedient way to simply reduce detectable radiation levels, it’s still there waiting for someone to accidentally dig it up!
What about water soaking down through the soil, eventually hitting the ground water? It’s going to pass through the buried radiation contamination, dragging some of it along with it to the ground water.
How could a few shut down nuclear plants have such drastic affects on Japan’s industries? When it’s more than a few, try 60%.
Electrical power shortages will continue thru summer. Japan has 54 commercial nuke plants, right now 32 are shut down. Some, like Fukushima Daiichi, were shut down by the 11 March disasters. Others are down for scheduled maintenance, or government orders.
On top of that, six more plants are scheduled to shut down for maintenance this summer.
Tokyo Electric Power Company admits high levels of radiation contamination in Reactor 3 spent fuel pool, are coming from the reactor’s core!
TEPCo recently tested the water of the spent fuel pool, and found radiation that was not present prior to the 11 March disasters, which damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The readings are 140,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium-134, 150,000 becquerels of cesium-137 and 11,000 becquerels of iodine-131 per cubic centimeter. The clue that the radiation is coming from the reactor core is the iodine. Iodine is a short life radioactive isotope, and is created during nuclear fission. (don’t confuse iodine with iodide)
Starting in 2012, Florida will cut back the maximum number of weeks that unemployed people can collect benefits.
This is not to save the state money, but the corporations. Like Idaho, companies in Florida are the ones who pay into the unemployment system. Florida lawmakers said by reducing the number of weeks a person can collect benefits, it will reduce the cost to the companies paying into the unemployment plan.
In Idaho, companies actually get a refund at the end of the year, if they don’t have over a specific number of unemployment claims filed against them. The idea is to encourage companies not to let workers go, but it hasn’t helped reduce Idaho’s high unemployment, which is holding steady at 9.7%.
A study published by The Sunday Times shows that while the average Brit is struggling with a bad economy and government cut backs, the rich in the United Kingdom just get richer.
The Sunday Times “Rich List” says 1,000 of the richest Brits, not only kept their wealth, but actually increased it. In fact, the number of British billionaires has increased to 73, up from 53 the previous year.
40 of the top billionaires were born in the U.K., but many British billionaires are from other countries. Lakshi Mittal retains the number one spot, he’s Indian born and got rich in the steel industry. Russian born Alisher Usmanov is now in the number two spot. Chinese born Xiuli Hawken is the newest female billionaire, she got rich turning underground bunkers into shopping malls.
Keep in mind that money does not grow on trees, meaning there is not enough to go around for everyone, otherwise it would be valueless. Knowing that, it should be obvious to people where the money is going. The rich can only get richer because they are taking as much of the limited money/wealth supply as they can. There is less for everyone else.
The U.K.’s Security and Counter Terrorism Minister has quit. Pauline Neville-Jones is stepping down, according to the Prime minister David Cameroon.
No reason has been made public, but Neville-Jones will now serve as special representative to business on cyber security.
In a move to save government money, some British officials want to put the power of the courts in the hands of the police.
British Home Secretary Theresa May, says the plan could save the U.K. 2.5 million hours of bobby time, equating to huge savings of money for the government. The way she wants to do that is to allow bobbies to skip the patrolling, detaining and arresting phase of police work, and allow the cops to simply charge the suspects, like a hybrid police/prosecutor.
It would apply to minor offenses, but the radical changes go beyond allowing police to act as street prosecutor. Anybody wanting to file a complaint about the legal system would have to deal directly with a bobby. The intent of forcing people to deal directly with police, with legal issues, is to reduce court costs for the government. May admits this would put a lot more power with the police, and is a definite move towards a police state: “We will take a different approach, we will trust the police.”
Officials with the British Shadow government (yes, such a thing, aka Shadow Cabinet or Shadow Front Bench) say this will not only put a lot more power in police hands, but with a lot less police officers. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (May’s counterpart) says that May plans to fire thousands of bobbies under the police/prosecutor plan. The result of giving police the power to act as prosecutor, and then cutting police staff, will greatly increase the work load of the bobby. Cooper says this will act as a double whamming for security; people will feel even more threatened by the power of police, and and the cops will be stretched thin.
The closing of Hamaoka nuclear plant in Japan, because of the danger of a massive earthquake, is having direct affect on a British nuclear plant.
Sellafield MOX plant, in north west England, supplies Hamaoka with the nuclear fuel it needs to make electricity. Hamaoka uses MOX (mixed oxide) nuclear fuel, and Chubu Electric Power Company (operator of Hamaoka) has a contract with Sellafield as its only supplier.
On top of that the Hamaoka plant is the only user of MOX fuel from Sellafield.
Taxpayers in the United Kingdom shelled out 1.34 billion Pounds (U.S. $2.1 billion) for the Sellafield MOX plant, and the British government wants to build another one.
British officials are scrambling to work with CEPCo officials to figure out how to fulfill their contract. Maybe the Brits can start selling MOX to the Iranians?