Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Bill Nye the Science Guy slams Experts who say this is not another Chernobyl, Bill Nye says yes it is another Chernobyl!!!

Interviewed by CNN Bill Nye the Science Guy was asked if he was calling Fukushima Daiichi another Chernobyl. His answer: “I am, yeah!”

Nye explained that the only way the reactors can be emitting such high levels of radiation is that deadly plutonium is getting out.  Plutonium is created when the uranium fuel is “jolted” during the production of electrical power.

His answer to the problem? Dump concrete on the reactors,  just like the Soviets did with Chernobyl.  Nye explained there is no way to “repair” damaged reactor cores.  This is the main problem with nuclear reactors!

I’m saying this is worse than Chernobyl, because Chernobyl involved ONE reactor.  Fukushima Daiichi has THREE reactors showing signs of damaged cores!  From the beginning of this nuclear disaster, the Russians and Ukrainians (who have first hand experience with Chernobyl) have been saying Fukushima Daiichi will be worse than Chernobyl!

Fukushima

No longer trying to get water in, now trying to get water out of Reactors

For weeks nuclear officials wanted to get water into the reactors, of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Now they’re trying to get it out.

It looks like the problem is that they used salty sea water to cool the reactors. It helped to keep the reactors cool enough, but it created pressure inside the reactor chambers. Now it looks like the three reactor cores have sprung leaks, flooding the basements of the reactors with highly radioactive water. Already 3 people went to the hospital, at least two of them had Beta Burns.

The radioactive water is flooding into the Pacific Ocean.  Any further work on the reactors is held up because of the high levels of radiation.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

Europeans surround EU Parliament, demanding to know where their taxes went to

Recently in Brussels, Belgium, the EU parliament was surrounded by about 20,000 protesters. They wanted to know where the taxes they paid went to.

“This money was made to be used for social security. It was meant to be used for social health, not to help the banks.”-Serge Monsieur, protester

Governments across Europe are dealing with what they claim is no money for their budgets. Europeans pay outrageously high taxes. Just look at their sales tax, in some countries it’s more than 20%! And now more war, this time against Libya.

Protesters say in the past few years they’ve seen the social programs, that they thought their taxes were going to, being slashed and burned.  Jobs keep disappearing. Yet, there seems to be plenty of money for bank bailouts, government bailouts and war.

Isn’t that happening here in the United States? Wake up people!

International

No more Daylight savings for Russia

“the need to adapt [to the time change] is connected with stress and illnesses.”-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

This spring is the last time Russia will change its clocks. Come October they’ll be no daylight savings to deal with. In 1981 the Soviet Union started a daylight savings program. Russia continued the program, but more and more health studies, in Russia, are pointing to daylight savings as a cause of stress. Other scientists question those studies.

That fact is that, even here in the United States, a lot of people hate daylight savings.

In the U.S. the idea of daylight savings has been around since Benjamin Franklin. Since 1916 many countries have been experimenting with it.  And many of them think it’s time to get rid of it.

Business/Economics, International

Britain facing larger and more violent protests, thanks to budget cuts and war with Libya

Thousands of people took to the streets in London, on March 26. Police were attacked with paint bombs and ammonia bombs.  Businesses were attacked, even delivery trucks.  The Cause? Huge budget cuts for schools and health care, and War.

“It’s been ten years now that we’ve been intervening in wars. We had the war in Afghanistan, then we had Iraq, now suddenly is a third theater of war. At the same time [the British government] says it hasn’t got enough money for the welfare that people in this country need. And they say everybody has to make sacrifices. Well may be we should not be spending 800,000 pounds per missile. How many libraries, how many nurseries, how many young people sent to school we could fund?”-Lindsey German, protester

CNN has incorrectly reported that the protests were organized by trade unions. The truth is that Saturday’s protests had been planned for a while. The trade unions decided to join in after the U.K. government decided to attack Libya. Saturday’s protest was made up of people from college students to health care providers to skilled laborers. What all the protesters want to know is; if the government doesn’t have the money for schools and hospitals, or to promote job growth, where is the money coming from for the war against Libya?

Police say they arrested 157 people. 35 people, including 5 police officers, were injured.

Fukushima

Diesel powered Locomotives brought back to life after Japan Disaster, Low Tech saving High Tech!

The recent catastrophic disaster in Japan, which tore up many rail lines in northern Honshu, has brought back to life retired diesel powered locomotives.

That’s because, even on the rail lines that have been fixed, there is no electric power to run Japan’s modern electric trains. Electric power is going to be an issue for long time, because of the failed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Rail officials must be glad they didn’t get rid of their old diesel powered locomotives.  About a dozen 40 plus year old engines have been brought out of retirement.

A relatively short rail line, from the west coast of Honshu, to the eastern prefectures, has been restored. The diesel engines have started running, bringing diesel fuel, and other supplies, to help people in those areas.

One of the engineers was around when they retired the diesel locomotives, and he’s glad they’re back.  Low tech to the rescue of a high tech society.

 

Fukushima

Video of Liquefaction in Action near Tokyo Disneyland, found the video on Youtube

I found the home video of liquefaction near Tokyo Disneyland, in Chiba Prefecture, on YouTube.

The two minute 39 second video shows sidewalks splitting, length wise, then moving in opposite directions. Water then begins to surge up from under the sidewalks and streets.  The person doing the videography starts running as more water comes up everywhere, even asphalt streets start to split.

People are down on the ground, screaming.  Keep in mind that Chiba Prefecture is between 137 and 200 miles from the where the 9.0 quake hit.

Tokyo Disneyland is still closed, after suffering damage from liquefaction.

 

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?