“NATO are liars. They are siding with Gaddafi.”-Salem Mislat, Libyan rebel
Once again U.S. led NATO has bombed the very people they’re supposed to be supporting. Rebels say five of their troops were killed.
The latest “friendly fire” incident happened in almost the same spot as a “friendly fire” incident last week. NATO says they are investigating.
Thursday’s 7.4 ‘aftershock’ not only cut power to another nuclear plant, that was struggling to keep its reactors cool, now they have found more problems.
Tohoku Electric Power Company (not to be confused with Fukushima Daiichi’s Tokyo Electric Power Company), says they have discovered water leaks, and ‘blow off’ panels are damaged.
The blow off panels are part of a pressure relief system on Onagawa’s Reactor 3. The plant was using external power from three power lines, but the latest quake knocked down two of them. Tohoku Electric says they are maintaining cooling with the one power line.
Their inspections continue, and so far they are not picking up increased radiation levels.
Who cares if our government shuts down?
I, and many other citizens of the United States, get absolutely nothing from the Federal government. I didn’t even get a tax refund this year, or last year, or the year before that. I didn’t even get one of those extra checks from the IRS under the Bush Jr administration. I served in the military, I worked for government contractors, but I have no retirement (forget about SS).
I have not been able to find steady work for more than two years now. Yet, because of rules changes (and the fact that all my kids are adults now) I don’t qualify for Food Stamps, or AFDC.
I wasn’t even able to get Medicaid for my son when he had a hemorrhagic stroke at the age of 18! Now we’re dealing with $150,000+ in medical bills (on top of other debts, and no I don’t have $2,000 to hire a bankruptcy attorney, we don’t have free bankruptcy programs in our state [at least where we live], the only thing we can get is a waiver of Federal court fees). What were all my Federal taxes for, damn it?!
I live in a state that gets next to squat from the Federal government. Yeah, you people on the East (like New York City [get a rope]) and West (mainly California) coasts suck up most of the Federal tax moneys we all pay. California has redundant State social services programs that mirror and supplement the Federal programs. My state doesn’t, so no tears for you California! Any Federal government shut down will be barely noticed where I live.
The world has plenty of examples of countries doing fine without a government. As of March 30, 2011, Belgium had gone 290 days without any government. In fact it’s possible Belgium will now split into two countries.
But Belgium isn’t the only country that’s gone a long time without a government. Cambodia has the record of 353 days without a government, from 2003 to 2004.
So bring on a Federal shut down, it’ll save a lot of tax payer money.
A Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper has a site that tracks the success and failure of Barack Obama’s campaign promises.
The Saint Petersburg Times PolitiFact.com has posted a detailed tracking of more than 500 promises or expectations from President Obama.
Japanese charities, and central and local government officials are planning to meet to figure out how to distribute donated money.
It’s been more than three weeks since the disasters and no aid money has been distributed. Complaints have not only been filed by foreign aid groups, but by other countries as well.
Aid that has been distributed was handled by the donors themselves, such as Iran who sent officials to witness the handing out of the aid supplies. China has recently complained that the Japanese government was actually impeding their efforts to get supplies in.
So far supplies are slowly getting through, but the money hasn’t gone anywhere.
About 300 Japanese police have begun searching for missing people, inside the 20km (12.4 miles) evacuation zone. The police are wearing protective suits.
The police are from Tokyo and Fukushima cities. They are using heavy equipment.
At least 3,900 people from Fukushima Prefecture are still missing.
Tokyo Electric Power Company officials have to back off their six day plan of injecting nitrogen into the damaged containment vessel of Reactor 1. After a full day of nitrogen injection they say pressure is increasing in the reactor. The nitrogen does seem to have counteracted the hydrogen build up.
TEPCo said the latest 7 quake did not do additional damage Fukushima Daiichi, or Fukushima DaiNi plant.
TEPCo officials say they will trying injecting nitrogen into reactors 2 & 3, since they are now showing similar problems as Reactor 1 (hydrogen gas build up).
Just before midnight, Japan time, north east Honshu got hit with the biggest “aftershock” yet, between 7.1 and 7.4.
At first there were tsunami warnings, but they were canceled when it was realized it was not the type of quake that would cause tsunami. But this latest quake puts another nuclear plant in trouble.
Onagawa nuke plant, in Miyagi Prefecture, was already struggling to keep itself cool using outside power. According to NHK this latest quake cut three of the two power lines running to the plant. There are some confusing reports as to how the plant is keeping its reactors cool; NHK says Onagawa is using power from one external electrical line. Reuters says Onagawa is running off back up generators.
The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is rushing to confirm the status of the plant.
Monty Dickson, 26, teaching in Japan as part of the JET program, was swept away the March 11 tsunami.
His family in Alaska recently received an email, then a phone call, notifying them that his body has been found.
According to reports, Dickson was on the third floor of a building when the huge tsunami washed over the building. He was in Japan on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.
An Alaskan businessman gave the family a days proceeds to help them go to Japan.
“The Fukushima No. 1 plant was a practice course for Toshiba and Hitachi Ltd. to learn about GE’s design on a trial-and-error basis.”-former TEPCo executive
asahi.com reporting that Fukushima Daiichi (aka Number 1 Plant) was designed as “trial and error” experiment. This might explain why it’s neighbor, Fukushima DaiNi (aka Number 2 Plant), is not having the same problems.
Tokyo Electric Power Company officials recently compared the design plans of the two plants. Their conclusion was that the safety features of Fukushima Daiichi are so different, and weaker, than Fukushima DaiNi, that it must be the reason for the current crisis. I find it amazing that TEPCo didn’t already understand the fundamental differences between their nuclear plants.
A former TEPCo engineer said even upgrades, made to Number 1 Plant, were not sufficient: “First of all, there was the judgment that the reactor core buildings were in a safe location in relation to the expected height of any tsunami that might strike the plant. However, even if they wanted to move the generators, there was no space within the reactor building, so that would have meant a major revision in design. At the time, no one considered making such changes.”
A unnamed midlevel TEPCo official said just getting a nuke plant built was all that mattered: “The blueprints for the reactor cores at the No. 1 plant were bought ‘as is’ by Toshiba Corp. from General Electric Co., so the priority at that time was on constructing the reactors according to those blueprints.”
Remember, there are six reactors at Fukushima Number 1 Plant. So far reactors 1, 2, 3 & 4 are in trouble. Why not reactors 5 & 6? Those reactors are of a later more improved design than the 1, 2, 3 & 4 reactors.
Some TEPCo officials admit that making the decision NOT to make proper improvements was a matter of pride; it would have meant admitting that the work already done was faulty.
General Electric’s current involvement in the crisis might be due to the fact that they could be sued, under Japanese law, for their faulty design.