Tag Archives: GE

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: More Rice contaminated with Cesium!

The Fukushima Prefectural government says rice from a field in the Oonami district, in Fukushima City, are contaminated with 630 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.

The rice came from one farm.  There are 154 farms in the Oonami district in Fukushima City, they will now test all the farms.

Officials claim the contaminated rice is still in the warehouse and none was shipped to market.

Until now most contaminated rice, in Japan, was just under the government limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.  This is the first time rice was found over the limit, and national government officials are now considering banning the sale of rice which comes from Oonami district.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Radiation levels increasing in Japanese Rivers!

Japan’s Environment Ministry reports that radiation levels in rivers, downstream of the radiation spewing Fukushima Daiichi, are only increasing.

The latest official readings come from samples taken back in September.

In northern Fukushima Prefecture, the cesium levels were 3,200 becquerels per kilogram in the upstream Niida River.  The cesium levels in the downstream side of the same river were 13,000 becquerels!  That’s triple the levels reported in May!

Cesium levels in the Mano River have doubled!

Kinki University Professor Yamazaki Hideo says the government should step up radiation monitoring in all rivers.

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Global Economic War: Japanese industry moving to China

Since the 11 March 2011 disasters, Japanese industries moving to China has increased 65%.  That’s according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

There are two big factors why Japanese industries are moving to a mortal enemy’s territory: Money and Electrical Power.

Since the March disasters, including the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, about half of Japan’s nuclear power plants are shut down.  The problem is that Japan built it’s current industries around nuclear power.  There just isn’t enough alternative electricity sources to power Japan’s factories.

Also since March, the Japanese yen has been going up in value.  This makes it more expensive to build things in Japan; Japan has no significant resources so it must import everything.

Japanese media are finally getting concerned about the growing unemployment there, mainly because so many factories have shut down and moved out of the country.

I wounder how this will affect the plans to create a TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership), especially since one of its goals is to block out China.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence meets Investor Vengeance: TEPCo stockholders sue Nuclear Disaster Reactor company for $71 billion!

42 major Tokyo Electric Power Company stockholders are demanding that auditors for the company sue the 61 current, and former, corporate executive members of the nuclear disaster reactor company.

They claim the executives failed to keep their promise to make the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant earthquake and tsunami proof.  Japan has been suffering from the ongoing radioactive emissions for more than eight months.

The shareholders want more than 5.5 trillion yen (U.S.$71 billion), the highest ever demanded in a lawsuit in Japan.

The investors said if the TEPCo auditors did not file a lawsuit against the executives, within 60 days, they would do so themselves.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Occupy Wall Street, Class War: Latest study says Big Corporations do not pay their fare share of taxes

Not only are many of the biggest corporations reporting big profits, they’re paying small taxes.  The official tax rate for corporations is supposed to be 35%, but the latest study shows the average effective tax paid is about 18.5%.

Some corporations pay no taxes, and a handful actually have negative taxes!

280 companies in the Fortune 500, that were profitable for all three years between 2008 and 2010, were studied.

111 companies paid effective tax rates of less than 17.5% over the three-year period.  98 paid a rate between 17.5% and 30%.

The average rate is 18.5%.  But wait, there’s more.  Some companies paid zero taxes!  30 actually owed less than nothing over the three years!

Two of those corporations are Pepco Holdings and General Electric.  Over the 2008 to 2010 period Pepco made $882 million in profits, but had a tax rate of -57.6% (yes, put a negative sign in front of that)!   But here’s a bigger shocker: GE earned $10.5 billion, with a tax rate of –45.3%!   How do you make big corporate profits, and then effectively have the government owe you money?

Lobbyists hired by Corporate America convince your elected lawmakers to create more corporate tax breaks.

The study was done by Citizens for Tax Justice, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo retracts Fukushima melt down claim!

On 02 November 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company said Reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was in melt down, again. Now they changed their mind!

TEPCo now says the level of xenon radiation they detected is too low to be from spontaneous fission.  Can these guys get anything right?

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima Reactor 2 going Critical, TEPCo pouring Boric Acid into reactor!

02 November 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that melt down has re-started in Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2.

TEPCo detected radioactive xenon-133 and xenon-135, in the reactor’s containment vessel on 02 November.  They are produced during nuclear fission.  TEPCo poured a boric acid solution into Reactor 2 to suppress the nuclear fission (melt down).

Analysts are speculating that the other reactors at Fukushima Daiichi could also go critical.  Professor Okamoto Koji, of the University of Tokyo Graduate School, says the presence of xenon in the reactors leaves open the possibility that localized and temporary fission could still occur.

TEPCo claims that using the boric acid has cooled down the reactor.

 

 

 

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: More radiation in Yokohama, this time school lunches!

Shiitake mushrooms used in school lunches have tested positive for 350 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium.  That’s below the government limit of 500 becquerels, but Yokohama school officials are getting rid of them anyway.

Yokohama is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

At a Ibaraki Prefecture mushroom farm, 830 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium were found on the mushrooms there.  The farm is about 170 km (106 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Earlier in the week mushrooms in Chiba Prefecture were found to be contaminated with cesium, higher then the government safe limits.  Clearly, after almost seven months, radiation is still spreading from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Radioactive Strontium found on Yokohama roof tops!

Yokohama City officials are testing their soil for strontium, after a private testing firm said they found high levels of strontium on some roof tops.

The company said they detected 195 becquerels of strontium per kilogram, more than six times the government safety limit.  Yokohama has already suffered cesium levels at 80 times the government limits.

Yokohama is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Once again, Plutonium contamination found in Japan, this time outside the Fukushima Daiichi compound!

30 September 2011, for the first time since the March nuclear disaster, the Japanese government has found plutonium contamination outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant compound.

There have been at least three other times plutonium was found. A couple of times it was found within the perimeter of the nuclear plant’s compound, but, in June a university team found plutonium outside the Fukushima Daiichi compound.

This latest (government confirmed) plutonium contamination was found 45 km (28 miles) outside the nuclear plant.  It was detected in samples taken from six locations in the towns of Futaba, Namie and Iitate Village in Fukushima Prefecture, all northwest of the nuclear plant.

The isotopes included plutonium 238, 239 and 240.