Tag Archives: fukushima

Fukushima

Government & Corporate incompetence: Increasing radiation at Fukushima Daiichi! Korea demands action!

20 August 2013 (21:16 UTC-07 Tango 19 August 2013)/13 Shawwal 1434/29 Mordad 1392/14 Geng-Shen (7th month) 4711

The Republic of Korea (RoK, aka South Korea) is demanding the government of Japan reveal the truth about what’s going on with the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.  RoK also wants disclosure on the damage being done to the environment.

This demand comes as Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) revealed more and increasing radiation leaks!

After two incidents in a little more than a week saw 12 workers contaminated with dangerous levels of radiation, while standing at a bus stop,  TEPCo officials are now realizing there must be an airborne leak of radiation.  In both cases radiation sensors sounded an alarm, meaning there was radiation in the air.  In the first incident TEPCo blamed a water mister, but that was turned off before the second incident.  The level of airborne radiation was five times more than TEPCo’s own safety standards!

In another case, someone left a check valve open on a retaining wall.  The retaining wall was built around above ground contaminated water storage tanks near Reactor 4, which are leaking.  Over the weekend it was discovered the open check valve was pouring out highly contaminated water, at least 300 tons worth!   The water contains 100 millisieverts per hour of radiation.  The safe limits for nuclear industry workers in Japan are set at 50 millisieverts per year!

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has declared the leaking storage tanks to be a Level One incident, which is considered an “incident-anomaly” on the zero to seven level international standard.  The NRA has ordered TEPCo to conduct soil sampling.

Levels one thru three are considered “incidents”, levels four thru seven are “accidents”.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate incompetence: More workers contaminated with radiation at Fukushima Daiichi! Source is a mystery!

19 August 2013 (03:34 UTC-07 Tango)/12 Shawwal 1434/28 Mordad 1392/13 Geng-Shen (7th month) 4711

Two more workers at Fukushima Daiichi have been contaminated with three times the safe limit of radiation set by their employer Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo).

The workers were standing at a bus station when radiation alarms went off.  It’s the same bus station where ten employees were contaminated last week.  Last week’s event was blamed on water spraying from cooling misters, but those misters have since been turned off.

The bus stop is located in front of a building that is being prepped for the decommissioning of the melted down GE designed reactors.  TEPCo has, yet again, another mystery source of radiation to investigate.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate incompetence: People exposed to high levels of radiation at Fukushima! From contaminated water in nearby lake?

12 August 2013 (13:28 UTC-07 Tango)/05 Shawwal 1434/21 Mordad 1392/06 Geng-Shen (7th month) 4711

Confusing reports about ten workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.  The workers were tested for contamination after radiation sensors at a bus stop went off.  Their hands and heads were contaminated with 19 becquerels per square centimeter of radiation.  Five times more than Tokyo Electric’s (TEPCo) own safety standards!

Some reports, in western main stream news media, say the workers were contaminated by radioactive dust, but that’s not what is being reported in Japan.

Japanese news media (and some U.S. media) reporting the workers were contaminated by a cooling mister located at the bus stop.  TEPCo installed misters at the bus stop, and other locations, to help keep workers cool during summer.  The misters use water collected from a local lake, located 10km (6 miles) from the nuke plant.  The same lake water is used for toilets and faucets.  TEPCo says they don’t know how the water got contaminated.  Perhaps the water in the lake is contaminated, just as several independent studies warned?

International

Government Evil: Official reveals the lies about Japan Atomic Energy Commission! Is Japan building nuclear weapons?

09 August 2013 (15:40 UTC-07 Tango)/02 Shawwal 1434/18 Mordad 1391/03 Geng-Shen (7th month) 4711

Japan’s NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) reporting that the head of Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Shunsuke Kondo, has admitted the commission is just a “formality”!

Japan’s AEC is supposed to ensure that the dozens of nuclear power plants around Japan are being used for “peaceful” purposes only.  The commission is also supposed to make sure no terrorist get their hands on radioactive materials.

Shunsuke said as far as making sure nuclear power is used for peaceful purposes, that’s just a formality.  He also stated that as far as he knows there are no standards in place to make sure terrorists can’t get their hands on radioactive material.

Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission is currently under independent review.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate evil incompetence: Confirmed; Fukushima radiation increasing in “death” rivers, pouring into Pacific Ocean!

08 August 2013 (22:12 UTC-07 Tango 07 August 2013)/01 Shawwal 1434/17 Mordad 1392/02 Geng-Shen (7th month) 4711

A new study backs claims made in January, about a Death River created by the GE designed disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi.

In January citizens groups reported that canal water in Fukushima City tested for as much as 515,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium! (as I’ve said before: Holy crap retiring Popeman, the official safe limit is only 100 becquerels per kilogram!!!)

That water comes from the Abukuma River.  The mouth of the river, on the Pacific Ocean, is 70km (43 miles) north of Fukushima Daiichi!  Citizens took maters into their own hands to do radioactive testing, because the government ordered a halt to all such ‘official’ testing shortly after the March 2011 meltdowns.  (this is why the main streamer news media didn’t report any ‘official’ radiation contamination figures)

Not only is radiation from the river getting into local canals used for farming, it then pours into the Pacific.

A new study by the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science has confirmed massive amounts of cesium build up on the bottom of the ocean floor near the nuke plant, and at the mouth of the river.

The researchers took samples as far away as 400km (249 miles) out to sea, from the nuke plant.   Of course the closer they got to the reactors the higher the levels, and they found that the cesium build up is highest in the valleys on the ocean floor.   They found that within 20km (12 miles) of Fukushima Daiichi, the cesium 137 levels in the ocean floor valleys was five times the levels on the peaks.

At the mouth of the Abukuma “death” River they found cesium levels two times higher than the surrounding ocean floor.  This is clear proof the river is being contaminated with radiation.  Remember the mouth of the river is 43 miles from Fukushima Daiichi.

Abukuma River generally flows from south to north.  It begins at Mount Asashi, flows east then turns northward until it turns eastward again, through the coastal city of Iwanuma.  Its Pacific mouth is south of the Sendai Airport, and just north of Lake Torinoumi.  If this river is contaminated then likely so is Lake Torinoumi, and the hundreds of smaller rivers that run through the area.

An older report, when compared to the newer studies, shows radiation levels are only skyrocketing.  In 2012 the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology reported extremely low levels of cesium in the Abukuma and other rivers.  However, they warned “…..it is important to monitor its level in Fukushima Prefecture over time.”

In May 2013, the Japan Geoscience Union reported the results of their 2012 study, confirming that radiation levels in rivers are increasing, with help from rain water runoff: “Total radioactivity of Cs-134 and Cs-137 in river waters was 0.016-0.27 Bq/l at normal flow conditions on April 18 and June 19 in 2012, but it increased to 3.83 Bq/l in high flow conditions by heavy rains…..These results indicate that the pulse input of radiocesium associated with suspended particles from land to coastal ocean occurred by the heavy rain event.”

Fukushima

Food shortage, as Japanese fishermen cancel operations!

07 August 2013 (11:16 UTC-07 Tango)/30 Ramadan 1434/16 Mordad 1392/01 Geng-Shen (7th month) 4711

Because of the reality of the massive radiological disaster known as Fukushima Daiichi, the fishing industry of Iwate City has canceled next month’s test fishing.

Up ’till now, TEPCo has been lying to the fishing industry, and many fishing co-operatives were planning on resuming fishing in the next couple of months.  But last month’s admission by TEPCo, that radiation is pouring into the Pacific Ocean, and the confirmation by the government, has canceled those test fishing plans.

The latest news of how bad the situation is at Fukushima Daiichi is only now hitting the fishing industry.   Nozaki Tetsu, the chairman of the Fukushima fisheries federation, was questioned by local news media and said it was news to him.

It seems obvious now that almost all fishing could be halted on the Pacific side of Japan.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate evil incompetence: 300 tons of radiation pouring into the Pacific Ocean, everyday!!! Japan government takes over?

07 August 2013 (10:41 UTC-07 Tango)/30 Ramadan 1434/16 Mordad 1392/01 Geng-Shen (7th month) 4711

“Stabilizing the Fukushima plant is our challenge….the contaminated water is an urgent issue which has generated a great deal of public attention.”-Abe Shinzo, practitioner of the understatement, and a closet Imperialist

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has ordered the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to take control of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCo) failed efforts to control the meltdowns of at least three GE designed nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi.

The order came after the Ministry conducted its own investigation, which revealed that highly radioactive water has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean at a rate of 300 tons per day!!!

The Ministry said about 1000 tons of groundwater from the hills above Fukushima Daiichi flows through the area everyday.  300 tons become irradiated as it passes through the Fukushima Daiichi ground, on its way to the ocean.  Another 400 tons flood into the basements of four reactor buildings, damaged during the the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami.  TEPCo has been struggling to pump out and store that water, but, has had nothing but problems with massive leaks from the storage tanks, and the filtration systems.  The Ministry said it is likely the contaminated groundwater began pouring into the Pacific just days after the meltdowns began!

For the past two and a half years TEPCo has said they didn’t know where the water was coming from!

The Ministry also estimates it will take at least 40 years to tackle the nuke disaster, at a cost of at least $11 billion (far more than what TEPCo said it would cost).  Here’s the rub; there is nothing that can be immediately done to stop 300+ tons of radiation from pouring into the Pacific Ocean!   This is more than incompetence, it seems almost intentional, evil!

Oh but wait, there’s more!  Guess what they’re going to attempt now?  They want to freeze the ground.  They think that’ll stop the contaminated water from getting to the ocean.  Experts have pointed out that it will be ridiculously expensive to do that, and there’s no guarantee it’ll work.  A groundwater expert asked the obvious; why don’t they divert or pump out the ground water before it reaches the reactors: “It is incredibly difficult to completely block the groundwater like this. It would be better if they could pump clean water before it reaches the plant.”-Ohga Kotaro, Hokkaido University

Because the ground around Fukushima Daiichi is contaminated, the only sure thing is to divert as much groundwater as possible before it passes through the area.

Fukushima

Government incompetence: More than two years later Japan declares nuclear emergency!!!

05 August 2013 (14:11 UTC-07 Tango)/28 Ramadan 1434/14 Mordad 1392/29 Geng-Shen (6th month) 4711

“Right now, we have a state of emergency.”-Kinjo Shinji, Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority

A Japanese government regulatory agency has declared the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi disaster an “emergency”, more than two years after the General Electric designed reactors melted down!!!

The Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) basically called Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) the biggest failure in Japan’s history!  NRA officials said all of TEPCo’s efforts since the end of March 2011 have only failed to stop intense levels of radiation from escaping into the Pacific Ocean.  The NRA said TEPCo’s “sense of crisis is weak” at best, and has informed the Japanese government that “you can’t just leave it up to TEPCo alone”.

The NRA says their latest investigation shows that contaminated water with even higher levels of radiation is about to escape Fukushima Daiichi!  The latest reports reveal that TEPCo has been pumping 400 tons(!) of groundwater per day(!) into the nuke site’s building basements, where it mixes with highly radioactive water.  That water is then used to cool the China Syndrome reactors.  Up ’till recently TEPCo denied that any of that water was spilling into the ocean, although they couldn’t explain where much of the water was going.

I’ve speculated that much of that water is ending up right back in the ground, pouring through the bottom of the melted reactors.  This can be the only explanation for what TEPCo has repeatedly called unexplained highly contaminated groundwater showing up near the coastline.

Since admitting that the strontium, tritium and cesium contaminated water is  pouring into the Pacific, TEPCo has tried injecting the ground with a hardener to stop the outflow.  The NRA has declared all of TEPCo’s efforts to be failures!

The NRA says that the amount of contaminated groundwater is reaching saturation and will soon surface, then rush into the Pacific as a radioactive river.   The main Pacific current eventually brings that contamination across the Hawaiian Islands and to the west coast of North America.

Fukushima

Corporate Evil: TEPCo reveals no change in radiation contamination levels at Fukushima! Still as high as the melts downs in March 2011!!! More proof of China Syndrome!

28 July 2013 (00:36 UTC-07 Tango)/20 Ramadan 1434/06 Mordad 1392/21 Ji-Wie (6th month) 4711

More than two years after at least three GE designed reactors melted down at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric (TEPCo) reveals that radiation contamination levels are just as high now as they were in 2011!

Specifically, contaminated water that’s been flooding the tunnel under Reactor 2 ever since the melt downs, is still just as deadly as it was in April 2011.  The latest water sample showed cesium levels almost unchanged!  And TEPCo officials still aren’t sure where the water is coming from!  Here’s a clue: How about Reactor 2 is suffering China Syndrome, the melt down breached the bottom of the containment vessel, and all the water used to cool it, along with the nuclear fuel, is flooding into the tunnels under the nuclear plant?

TEPCo is trying to downplay the findings by saying it’s the same water from two years ago, it somehow never drained despite the evidence that contaminated water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean.  Another problem with TEPCo’s claim that it’s stagnant water; since April 2013 TEPCo has detected increased cesium, strontium and tritium contamination in newly dug water test wells around the reactors.  Also, TEPCo has constantly been fighting radioactive water flooding from what they say is an unknown source.

Just three days ago TEPCo had to halt an experimental water treatment system on Reactor 1, because it to began to leak.   They discovered holes in the weld seams of the massive water tanks used on the new Alps multi-nuclide removal system.  Officials suspect chloride ion and hypochlorous acid in radioactive water corroded the welds.

Fukushima

Corporate Evil: Evidence of China Syndrome at Fukushima!!! After months of denial, TEPCo admits strontium & tritium contaminating Pacific Ocean! Don’t eat the fish! Run!

23 July 2013 (00:02 UTC-07 Tango)/15 Ramadan 1434/01 Mordad 1391/16 Ji-Wie (6th month) 4711

“We would like to offer our deep apology for causing grave worries for many people, especially for people in Fukushima.”-Ono Masayuki, current general manager of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant

Back in May 2013, Tokyo Electric Power Company revealed that test wells dug near the GE designed reactors 1 and 2 at Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant were contaminated with strontium, tritium and cesium.  But TEPCo swore it was not getting into the Pacific Ocean, even though Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said it was.

Today they’ve admitted that indeed the deadly radiation is spilling into the ocean, since April 2013.  That still contradicts with officials from the NRA who say that radiation has been flooding the ocean since the nuke melt downs back in March 2011 (as I’ve been warning)!!!

TEPCo also revealed that radiation levels in the Pacific Ocean had indeed been increasing since 2011, and are still increasing!

But wait, there’s more!  TEPCo even held an emergency meeting with area fishermen, telling them to stop fishing!  Sato Hiroyuki, a member of the fisheries cooperative in Soma City, told the news media that the meeting was “substantially different” than past meetings with TEPCo.  He said it was the worst news he ever heard, essentially the area’s fishing industry has been destroyed.  Nozaki Tetsu, chairman of Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations, said simply “It was quite shocking…”

Here’s the amazing thing, TEPCo still doesn’t know, for sure, where the contaminated ground water is coming from. With today’s announcement they suspect Reactor 1 is the source.  Here’s a clue, it’s called China Syndrome: The GE designed Reactor 1 not only melted down, but melted right through the ground into the local aquifer!

TEPCo is so desperate to stop the now deadly groundwater from getting into the Pacific Ocean they are now injecting a chemical resin 14 meters (46 feet) deep into the ground.  They hope the chemical will solidify the ground, making a subterranean wall 90 meters (295 feet) long.

Get this, the area where they’re trying to inject the underground wall is so radioactive that workers are exposed to 200 microseverts per hour.  That means that in five hours a person is exposed to the equivalent of one year’s worth of radiation!  Last week TEPCo revealed that at least 2000 employees have been exposed to enough radiation to cause thyroid cancer!  TEPCo hopes to get their resin underground wall completed by the middle of August.

On 18 July 2013, steam was observed coming from the damaged Reactor 3.  TEPCo employees said the steam was noticed for several hours.  A rain storm had gone through during the night, and TEPCo officials admitted that even two years later, the reactor containment vessel is still hot enough to turn rain into steam!  Radiation levels are so high in and around Reactor 3 that TEPCo has to use robots to remove tsunami debris.

The situation has upset Japan’s newly elected nationalistic parliament.  Senior vice industry minister, Akaba Kazuyoshi, criticized TEPCo for being always one step behind: “TEPCo’s actions seem too slow, and they don’t live up to our expectations.”

Ignorant TEPCo officials are still publicly insisting that the impact on the environment is minimal (even after what they told local fishermen)!