All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
Fukushima, International

Official Tsunami evacuation point was Death Trap, warnings were made

In an area of Sendai city, in north east Honshu, Japan, there are survivors who are glad they refused to go to the official tsunami evacuation point, an elementary school.  They are alive, but most of the people at the elementary school are not.

Based on computer modeling, disaster officials designated the elementary school as safe from tsunami.  The computer model said tsunamis would not reach so far inland, so the school was safe.  One survivor said he never understood that because the school is near sea level, he ran to a road that was much higher than the school, and survived. He says the tsunami went over the school’s second floor, people were inside.

A scientist, named Otomo (? think that’s his name), has been warning people for at least a year about the faulty claims by disaster officials.  Otomo uses geologic evidence, which shows that tsunamis did indeed reach far inland, past the school.  Officials ignored Otomo’s warnings.

This is an example of high tech ignorance, and arrogance.

Fukushima

Without control room power, Nuclear plant operators flying blind, water building up like “swimming pools”!

An analyst interviewed by NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation), says until the reactor control rooms are turned  on at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, plant operators will not know what is going on inside the reactors.

They are trying to get electric power to reactor 2 control room, because reactor 2 is still intact (reactors 1, 3 & 4 blew up).

Reactor 2 is leaking radioactive water, and emitting smoke. Restoring power to the control room will allow them to use the control room’s instruments and gauges to find out what is wrong with the reactor. In other words they are flying blind right now.

Another problem is that it looks like the reactor cores are leaking highly radioactive water.  The analyst says the basements, under the reactors, are so full it’s like “swimming pools”.

Fukushima

Electricity shortage will affect Car makers (and other industries) well into summer

Did anyone think that one nuclear disaster can adversely affect the economy?  Fukushima Daiichi is one of the biggest nuclear plants in Japan, all its reactors are down.  Even if efforts to control the nuclear disaster are somewhat successful, Fukushima Daiichi is done, its toast, ain’t no more electric power coming from that plant.

This is causing a huge electricity shortage in Japan.  On top of that, there is not an emergency back up system in place, in Japan, to deal with the loss of such a large power plant.  Again, one more thing the highly educated leaders felt sure they would never need to prepare for.  That’s right, in a country like Japan, so addicted, and dependent on electrically operated things, no one believed that “what if” could really happen?

Japan has become the electronics/auto parts supplier to the world, but those companies run on electricity.  Eventually there are going to be more companies shutting down, around the world, because they can’t get their parts from Japan.

How long will this last? Japan’s Economic Ministry said well into summer. The Ministry expects peak demand to hit 55 million kilowatts.  Even if Tokyo Electric (TEPCo) gets other sources of electrical generation going, Japan will still be short 10 million kilowatts.  This guarantees ‘rolling’ blackouts, which can only have a bad effect on industry.

As a result, Japan’s Prime Minister, Kan Naoto, has ordered emergency planning to come up with a way to counter the huge electricity shortage. Kan wants the plan complete by the end of April.  Either way, we’re talking months of production shut downs around the world, meaning more people out of work.

As I’ve said in other articles, no more economic recovery.  Could this be the start of a Global Great Depression?

 

Fukushima

Disaster directly affecting Electronics makers directly affecting Auto makers

Many of the parts needed to produce cars now, are electronics.  The big electronics suppliers for the automotive industry are still shut down after the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Renesas Electronics, a maker of semiconductors used to control vehicles, has still not resumed operations.

Hitachi Automotive Systems, does not have full production capacity of electronics parts that control engines.

Another company, which makes parts for brakes and rubber products, suspended operations because their plant is located by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Fukushima

11 March 2011 Tsunami flooded 300 square miles, 70% still underwater!

A satellite imaging (geospatial) company in Japan, PASCO, has looked at the tsunami hit areas of north east Honshu.

The images show that at least 470 square kilometers (292 square miles) of land is affected by the March 11 tsunami.

Fukushima Prefecture suffered 110 square km (68 square miles) of tsunami damage, while Iwate Prefecture has about 50 square km (31 square miles) of damage.

Miyagi Prefecture is the hardest hit: 300 square kilometers (186 square miles) of damage, and, 70% of the land is still underwater.

 

International

Major Earthquake fault line shifts 98 feet

The 9.0 quake and tsunami that hit north east Honshu, on March 11, was the result of the fault line shifting 30 meters (98.4 feet).

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the event started off Miyagi Prefecture with activity stretching 200km (124 miles) north, and then 150km (93 miles) south of Iwate Prefecture.  Next, a 100km (62 miles) section moved off Ibaraki Prefecture.

More simply put: 450km (279.6 miles) of fault line moved a distance of 30m (98.4 feet) in 3 minutes.

Fukushima

Iodine-131 in water near Nuclear Power Plant, more evidence that Reactor Cores are leaking!

The water along the shore line of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has high levels of iodine-131.

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that iodine 131 in excess of 1,250 times regulated standards was found in the ocean 330 meters (1082.68 feet) south of a plant water outlet on Friday.

Iodine-131 has a short half life span of 8 days (radioactive strength reduced by half within 8 days).  It is the product of nuclear fission.  Finding so much iodine-131 in the ocean near the nuclear plant, is another indicator that the reactor cores are leaking.

Fukushima

Japanese government names new people for Nuclear Power Plant and Disaster control, says nuclear power companies not honest with government!

Japan’s Prime Minister, Kan Naoto, named new people to take over the nuclear plant control and disaster control, within his cabinet.  I didn’t hear the translation clearly, as to who is taking over,  I think the names are Hosono and Magachi.   The reason for the changes is that prior officials in those cabinet posts are not experienced for a “…disaster of unprecedented scale.”

Also, some of the prior cabinet officials have brought lots of complaints to the government.

Cabinet Secretary, Edano Yukio, said they were also getting tough on the companies running the nuclear power plants.  The companies have failed to provide the government with necessary information.  Edano says it is clear that TEPCo withheld critical information from the government at the beginning of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Edano says there is no way the government can take proper action if the corporations running nuclear plants are not honest about disaster situations.

International

Iran delivers food to Miyagi, Japan

Iranian Ambassador to Tokyo, Abbas Araqchi, announced that the first cargo of Iran’s humanitarian aid for Japan has arrived.

The aid consists of 50,000 canned fish and beans. Araqchi says he and the Iranian Deputy Head of International Red Crescent Society, Mahmoud Mozaffari, will be on hand when the food is delivered to Miyagi Prefecture.

Iran will be sending another shipment next week.