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)
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 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?
The U.S. Department of Energy, and the Japanese Science Ministry, have put together a map of the fallout pattern of cesium. The damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been spewing cesium.
The map shows the cesium fallout extends north west of the plant, in a large area. It is depicted with the colors yellow and red. NHK has a report.
Official say radiation levels from the Fukushima Daiichi plant have dropped enough that it is time to conduct more testing of soil for levels, and types, of radiation contamination.
Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating, downward 2 points, after Greek officials announced they needed more bailout money.
The S & P’s rating now puts Greece below investment grade. S & P’s also says that Greece will need a waiver on repaying most of its current loans (that means they don’t think Greece can pay).
Argentina is demanding help from the United Nations, in helping to fight slave trades, run mainly by organizations from the United States.
Argentina claims that U.S. organized crime is using Argentina as a recruiting grounds, and transit point, for human trafficking. Poor people are promised well paying jobs in the U.S., but end up working for little pay, if any, and long hours.
The workers, men, women and children, not only work in industries like textiles, but, according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics 80% end up as sex workers in the United States.
Other countries that are destination points for human trafficking are Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Japan and Thailand.
Greek officials announced that the 110 billion Euro (U.S. $160 billion) bailout money they got from the European Union is not enough.
Officials say they need another two to four years of bailout funding. They are willing to cut even more from social programs to satisfy lenders.
China is the number one exporter, which country is number two? Germany.
Germany continues to do well when it comes to exporting its products to other countries. So well, that it’s hit a record of 98.3 billion Euros (U.S. $140.9 billion) in exports for the month of March: “That was the highest monthly figure recorded for both exports and imports since the collection of foreign trade statistics had started in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1950.”-Destatis, German National Statistics Office
In another sign of who’s got the money, for the second year Chinese tourists have topped the list of biggest spenders in France.
The study was done by the UN World Tourism Organization. Recently the Japanese, in their own study, found that Chinese tourist were the biggest spenders there.
The study showed a 60% increase in Chinese visiting France, from 2009 to 2010. Spending also went up by 35%.
Russian tourists are the second biggest with number of visitors, and spending, in France.