Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 1 springs mysterious leak, fuel rods fully exposed, melting!

Tokyo Electric Power Company says contaminated water is pouring from Reactor 1.  This after workers were finally able to enter the building and check gauges.  The gauges showed that despite hundreds of tons of water being injected, the water levels were low.

TEPCo suspected faulty gauges. Workers checked the gauges again, after more water was pumped in, and they discovered the water levels actually dropped.

Now officials are worried that the water could be pouring from a hole in the reactor itself.  When checked on the morning of 12 May, workers discovered the fuel rods fully exposed.   Water levels are a full meter (3.2 feet) below the rods!

TEPCo is pumping in water, but the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency believes rods have started melting.

Business/Economics, International

Argentina warns South Africa: WalMart will destroy your economy

“WalMart does not take ownership of the goods until a product is sold.”-Sofia Scasserra, FAECYS

At a labor conference in South Africa, the Argentine Federation of Commerce and Service Workers ( FAECYS ) warned of allowing WalMart to set up shop.  The warning wasn’t about labor issues, but supply issues.  They claim that since WalMart was allowed to operate in Argentina, the affects on business supply has almost destroyed the business middle class.

In Argentina WalMart operates a “spot sale” deal with its suppliers.  Basically WalMart doesn’t pay anything for the products it stocks, until they sell.  On top of that, WalMart takes three months to pay suppliers.

Another trick WalMart plays; it ships its own products in from China.  First the the products go to Brazil, then Argentina, thus avoiding tariffs.

In the case of home appliances is was discovered that WalMart forced suppliers to sell below their cost, and even give them to WalMart for free.

The result is that Argentine suppliers are going out of business.  And the result of that, is that small manufacturers in Argentina are going out of business as well.

 

International, Opinion

France learns hard leason: Tax breaks for the Rich do not work

One of the things pushed through by President Sarkozy, at the beginning of his term, was tax breaks for the French Elites.  Four years later those breaks have proven to be an economic failure.  Now Sarkozy’s own UMP political party wants to stop it: “This government has a tax policy which benefits only a minority, and tries to tax the larger sections of the society. I am against such taxes.”- Herve Mariton, UMP Ruling Party

The French elites got huge tax breaks and exemptions, while the average taxpayer saw their taxes increased.  The French pay more taxes than taxpayers in Korea, or the United States, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

One of the breaks for the rich is a cap on the percentage of tax they pay, no more than 50%.  The average French taxpayer pays more than that.  On top of that, the French elites were actually paid by the government, a kind of Earned Income Credit for the rich: “While 8 million French live on less than 10,000 Euros per year, the Law was helping the rich. Not only their taxes were reduced, but each of them, all 1,700 of them in total, each one was given 30,000 Euros as tax compensation.”-Roland Muzeau, Communist Opposition Party.

President Sarkozy sold his tax plan to the French people, as a way of energizing the French economy.  It didn’t happen.  Pro-elitists, and pro-corporationists here in the United States don’t think Sarkozy did enough.  They actually accuse him of being too socialist!

French officials say they will reform the tax laws by the end of this year, but critics point out that the rich will still end up paying less than the average worker.  Is it time for another “French Revolution”?

Fukushima, U.S.

U.S. nuclear plant under NRC scrutiny

The Brown’s Ferry nuke plant in Alabama, is under investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Investigators say a cooling system failure is of “high safety significance”.

Last October the plant had a cooling valve problem, in reactor 1, that cause it to shut down.  Operators say the valve is fixed.  But there are concerns especially since the Brown’s Ferry plant is similar to the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.

Also, Brown’s Ferry Reactor 1 had been shut down for 22 years before being put back into operation in 2007.

 

 

 

Fukushima

TEPCo finds out hard way that it’ll take much longer to get control of Fukushima Daiichi

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.

Fukushima

Government instructs schools to simply bury their radioactive top soil! government experts have their head up their a…

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.

 

Fukushima

More than half Japan’s nuclear plants down!

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.

 

Fukushima

Radiation contamination in fuel pool coming from reactor core!

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)

Business/Economics, International, Opinion

Not only are the rich getting richer in the U.S., but in the U.K.

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.