14 July 2011, I tried to access the Idaho Department of Environmental EPA RadNet site. All I got was a “Server Error” message.
I then tried accessing the Idaho Falls RadNet site, directly through the Environmental Protection Agency’s web site. I got an EPA page that said “The requested item was not found on the EPA’s Web Server”.
The U.S. Department of Energy is using helicopters to take airborne radiation samples over Seattle, Washington. Officially this is to establish a “baseline” for any future nuclear “emergency”.
The operation is being paid for by the Department of Homeland Security.
The state of Washington is home to the controversial Hanford nuclear plant. Do a search for information on the plant and you’ll be concerned as well. Could officials know something about the plant’s current condition?
Do Homeland Security officials have some info about a possible terrorist attack involving nukes and the city of Seattle? Or, is the “emergency” they’re talking about one that already happened, in a place called Fukushima, Japan?
Officials claim this airborne radiation “baseline” operation was planned back in 2009. Mmmm
“Iodine level in the rain in Idaho in the United States were 130 times that standard… we are very concerned that radioactive cesium was many times above the standard as well.”–Gerry Pollet, Heart of America Northwest
When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors exploded in Japan, U.S. officials ensured the public that they would increase radiation monitoring. I’ve reported in earlier postings that most EPA RadNet sites in the western U.S. are shut down, and that other sites can give only limited results.
Now a group based in Washington, Heart of America Northwest, has done their own investigations into contaminated drinking water in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
In a previous posting I suggested that the people of concerned communities need to get together and have their own testing done, on plants, water and soil, even their own urine. This is what the Japanese have been forced to do, no thanks to the incompetence of their national government. It’s been those grass roots citizen groups in Japan that have been revealing the truth about the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Heart of America Northwest also has some warnings about current nuclear waste programs in the Pacific Northwest, like the dumping of nuke waste in unlined pits.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is ordering Tokyo Electric Power Company to improve working standards for its contracted workers. There are about 3,000 workers struggling to control the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency recently inspected the working conditions at the damaged nuke plant, after continued concerns over protection for workers against radiation exposure.
They found eight main concerns, that TEPCo still hasn’t addressed. The most pressing issue is that TEPCo is still treating contracted workers with a laissez-faire (hands off) attitude. The result is that TEPCo lacks any information on the health and safety conditions of those workers.
The agency discovered that many contracted workers have never been shown how to use protective clothing, and there aren’t enough protective equipment for all workers, like full face masks. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency ordered TEPCo to provide more protective gear, and assign more of its own safety managers to oversee contracted workers.
This issue was reported months ago, and it’s clear that TEPCo has totally ignored the problem proving that it does not care about the safety of workers.
On top of that, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says TEPCo still hasn’t tested 1,500 workers for radiation exposure, something they were supposed to do months ago.
Many Fukushima cattle farmers are about to go out of business, thanks to highly contaminated plants. After highly radioactive beef was found, and sold, in eight prefectures, it was discovered that all the plants in Fukushima Prefecture are contaminated with high levels of cesium.
Local and national government officials have found that at least eight prefectures got the contaminated beef, and it was sold to consumers. Officials are sure that most of the beef sold to consumers was eaten.
When tracing the source of cesium contamination, officials discovered that the contaminated cows were eating hay grown out in the open in Fukushima Prefecture. Some hay samples had 75,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium. The national government’s safe limit is 500.
Now cattle farmers are being told to stop using locally grown feed. Many Fukushima farmers say the warning is too little too late. Most farmers will go out of business because they can’t sell anymore cows. If fact this whole issue has caused Japanese cattle prices to crash, so cattle farmers all over Japan are being affected.
Farmers in Fukushima say local and national officials never gave any warnings to cattle farmers. Not even any advice on how they should operate with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor nearby.
Most officials were concerned mainly with the affects of the nuclear disaster on people, and crops grown for human consumption. It’s now obvious that the safety of crops grown for farm animals were ignored.
Up ’till now cattle were tested only for external radiation, but the contaminated beef came from cows that were internally contaminated, by the locally grown feed, showing no signs of external radiation contamination.
Officials also tested local water sources, but so far have not released the results.
After the realization that Japanese cattle are internally contaminated with cesium, Miniami-soma City ordered its residents to get checked for internal contamination. Now the Prefecture of Fukushima has ordered all residents to be checked. There are about 2 million people in Fukushima Prefecture.
It’s not just local governments calling for internal radiation checks. The Japanese Atomic Energy Agency has set up a check station in Tokai Village, in Ibaraki Prefecture, to test people coming from Fukushima Prefecture.
It is now apparent that food and water, in Fukushima Prefecture, are contaminated with high levels of cesium.
NHK reporting that the water decontamination system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has failed yet again.
The cause is another leak in the system. On 10 July 2011, the system failed because of a leak. Tokyo Electric Power Company is trying to figure out why there are so many leaks.
Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that cesium levels inside Reactor 2 building are shooting up. The latest measurements showed 65 times current government emergency limits for reactor buildings.
TEPCo has been monitoring airborne radiation levels inside Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor buildings, using robots, because radiation levels became too high for humans.
TEPCo says the build up of cesium-134 could be from steam and explosions from within the reactor. But they admit they’re not sure why the levels are increasing, and will continue their investigations.
Why didn’t they do what Bill Nye the Science Guy said, and pave the thing over?
Officials with Fukushima Prefecture say the hay that cows were feed in Miniami-soma City, is contaminated with 75,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.
They’re still waiting for results of well water tests.
As a result of yesterday’s test results, Miniami-soma City is ordering all residents get tested for internal radiation contamination. So far people from two areas of the city have levels of contamination that call for evacuations.
The contaminated cows got through radiation checks, before being shipped to slaughter, because only the outside of the cows were tested. It turns out they were contaminated internally, because of the highly radioactive hay they ate.
Now more beef in a far off city have been found to be contaminated. Officials in Shizuoka City, more than 300 kilometers (187 miles) from Minami-soma City, decided to check their meat packing factories. They found that beef, bought back on June 10, is contaminated with 1,998 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram (the national safe limit is 500).
To make matters worse, most of that beef went to local restaurants, or retailers. So far at least five prefectures have found contaminated beef.
A prefecture in Japan, is like a county in the U.S. A region in Japan, is like a state in the U.S.
Officials with Fukushima Prefecture announced they found the source contaminating beef cattle: Radioactive hay.
It was initially reported that beef farmers were feeding their cows with feed that was kept indoors. Turns out they were not. Farmers admitted that they quickly ran out of feed that was kept indoors, and began feeding the cows hay from outside.
Since people don’t eat hay, no one had tested hay for radiation. Now they have, and it tested positive for cesium contamination. The local government safe limit is 300 becquerels per kilogram, the national safe limit is 500.
Officials are still testing local well water.