Tag Archives: GE

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japanese officials decide to check beer & wine for radiation!

27 September 2011, Japan’s National Tax Agency has just now realized that all alcoholic drinks coming from the Fukushima area are probably contaminated with radiation.  Even so, testing on beer, wine/sake will not take place until next month!

Mandatory testing will be done at all beverage factories within 150 km (93 miles) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  Random testing will take place at factories outside the 150 kilometer radius.

Along with the national government, six major cities, including Tokyo, will test water meant for use in making beer and wine.

Rice and barely, used in beer and sake, have already tested positive for cesium contamination.

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Typhoon Roke comes ashore, heading for direct hit on damaged nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi, 4 dead!

21 September 2011, Typhoon Roke is moving up the Pacific coastline of Japan, after coming ashore south of Tokyo at Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Sustanted winds are 144 km (89.4 miles) per hour, with gusts up to 155 km (96 miles) per hour recorded at Hachioji City, near Tokyo.

During the past 24 hours, more than 400 millimeters (15.74 inches) of rain has fallen in Tokai region and Yamanashi Prefecture, and more than 200 mm (7.87 inches) of rain fell in northeastern Japan.

At least four people have died, three are missing.  More evacuation orders have been given to at least a half million more people.

The damaged nuclear plant, Fukushima Daiichi, has escaped typhoon damage from previous storms, but Roke looks like it will make a direct hit.

Roke is moving fast and should be approaching the northeastern Honshu prefecture of Fukushima. Already 200 mm of rain has fallen in Fukushima since September 20.  The nuclear plant is already flooding with rain water.

Work to stop the further spread of radiation, like the steel wall around the ocean intakes, and specially treated tarps over the exploded reactor buildings, has been halted.  Tokyo Electric says their workers have tied down everything they could think of that might get blown away.

TEPCo says reactor 1 and 2 have rain water pouring in from the roofs, and Reactor 6 basement is totally flooded.  TEPCo officials insist that none of the radioactive water will leak out.  Yeah right, how many times now have they made such promises?

 

 

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Corporate Incompetence: Heavy rain from Typhoons & Tropical Storms are flooding Fukushima Daiichi

Nine months later, and the radiation just keeps pouring from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  Now its Mother Earth who’s to blame.

Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that the heavy rains from typhoons and tropical storms are flooding reactor buildings, greatly increasing the chance of massive flooding of highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

The nuclear plant is already flooding the ocean with radiation, but this would be on a massive scale.

Here’s why it’s so bad: TEPCo is already pumping 550 tons of water per day to cool three of its damaged reactors. About 80,000 tons of highly radioactive water has already accumulated in the buildings.  Now add the flooding from the storms. TEPCo says it has found 200 to 500 tons of rainwater entering every day into the basements of reactor buildings.

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Corporate Incompetence: Officials say nuclear disaster could have been avoided!

16 September 2011, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency says the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could have been avoided.

They say if water injection began four hours sooner there would have been no melt downs.

Anyone who’s been following the situation from day one knows that Tokyo Electric Power Company has dragged their feet on just about everything connected to dealing with the disaster.  Especially at the beginning when it seemed that TEPCo officials just refused to believe that anything was wrong!

Of the plant’s six reactors, reactors 1 and 3 suffered meltdowns after losing cooling functions.

Reactor 2 suffered a hydrogen explosion on 15 March, which caused the release and spread of massive amounts of radioactive isotopes.

 

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Government Incompetence: Radiation still being found at garbage incinerators across Japan

16 September 2011, ever since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster began, waste incinerator sites across Japan have reported high levels of radiation in the ashes of burned garbage and sludge.

The latest tests show three Prefectures still with levels of cesium contamination exceeding safe limits: Iwate, Fukushima and Chiba.

The highest measurement was 144,420 becquerels per kilogram at one facility in Fukushima!

The Japanese Environment Ministry realized that the incinerators reporting high levels of radiation contamination, are storing the garbage outside, where it can be contaminated by airborne cesium.  This is also an indicator of just how much airborne radiation is being spread across Japan.

The Environment Ministry has now decided to test all incinerators sites, that store the garbage outdoors.

Read more about incinerator contamination:

Cesium levels skyrocketing

Japanese waste incinerators

Mysterious radiation found

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Government Incompetence: Japan’s wild animals and plants highly contaminated with Cesium!

Gakushuin University Professor Yasuyuki Muramatsu, says radioactive cesium on soil and fallen leaves in forests is easily absorbed by mushrooms and edible plants.

On 03 September 2011, wild mushrooms found in a forest in Fukushima Prefecture contained 28,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, far above the national safety limit.  A wild boar was also found to have radiation amounts about 6 times the safety limit.

Professor Muramatsu is urging the Japanese government to conduct tests on wild animals and plants.

FUKUSHIMA TO EUTHANIZE ABANDONED LIVESTOCK AND PETS!

FOOD CRISIS: HALF MILLION LIVESTOCK STARVING TO DEATH IN JAPAN!

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Sunflowers absorb radiation!

A Kobe, Japan, private-sector group announced the results of their studies on sunflowers in the contaminated areas of Japan.

They grew sunflowers in 4 fields in Minamisoma City, within 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

They found that soil contamination was reduced between 20% and 50%.  Radiation was absorbed by the sunflowers’ roots.  The problem is that the sunflowers are now considered nuclear waste.

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Corporate Incompetence: Radiation pouring into Pacific Ocean three times greater than reported! Airborne radiation not monitored!

Researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Kyoto University and other institutes say the actual radiation pouring into the Pacific Ocean, from Fukushima Daiichi, is at least three times what Tokyo Electric Power Company is officially reporting.

The researchers say that at least 15,000 terabecquerels (1 terabecquerel = 1.0 × 10+12 becquerels) of radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137 has entered the ocean!!!  They say TEPCo is not monitoring airborne radiation that falls into the ocean.

 

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Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo to build giant 2,625 feet long Iron Wall around Fukushima Daiichi?

05 September 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company says it is growing concerned (finally) about the amount of radioactive water still building up in the basements of the reactor buildings.

TEPCo officials say even if they keep it from running off into the Pacific Ocean, it will eventually soak into the groundwater, which eventually runs into the Pacific Ocean.

To try and stop anymore contamination from hitting the ocean, TEPCo proposes to build a 800 meter (2,625 feet) long wall!  The wall will be made of huge iron pipes.

Each pipe, 22-meters (72 feet) long and 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide, will be installed deep below the sea bed to stop the flow of groundwater.

TEPCo says they will also attempt to use pumps to pump out contaminated water.  They hope to start building the wall by the end of the year, and think it will take two years to complete.

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Government Incompetence: 70% of Japanese Prefectures say they can not prepare for nuclear disasters due to lack of standards

An NHK survey revealed that 70% of Japan’s prefectural governments can not hold nuclear disaster drills, because there are no national nuclear standards.

13 prefectures were surveyed.  They’ve held nuclear disaster drills before.  The problem is that the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi has literally erased previous guidelines concerning nuclear disasters.

Most of the prefectures are waiting for the national government to come up with new standards. However, four prefectures says they will come up with their own temporary guidelines, and hold their nuclear disaster drills anyway.