Tag Archives: japan

Fukushima

One Year Later: Unexplained extreme radiation levels above Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2!

14 June 2012, NHK (nippon housou kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) reporting that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) has discovered that on the 5th floor of the building housing Reactor 2 there is extreme levels of radiation.

The discovery was made by a robot used in the ongoing search to find where leaks are coming from.  More than one year after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster began, TEPCo officials still can not find the origin of the many radiation leaks they believe must exist in the GE designed reactors.

The 5th floor of the building housing Reactor 2 shows no sign of major physical damage, yet is flooded with 880 millisieverts (880,000 microsieverts) per hour of radiation!  It is 4.5 meters (14.7 feet) above the reactor.

To put it in perspective; many countries consider a yearly exposure of 2.7 millisieverts to be normal.   That’s spread out over the entire year, not all at once!  It also depends on the type of radiation, gamma radiation from a reactor that went critical is definitely bad.

TEPCo admits that Reactor 2 has spewed the greatest amount of radiation of all the damaged reactors, so far.

Finding leaks is of primary concern, because they must stop any radiation leaks in order to bring down lethal radiation levels, so that humans can remove the melted fuel rods and begin decommissioning the reactors.

Until TEPCo can find the leaks, and since no one in charge in Japan wants to dump sand, lead and concrete on the reactors, there is no chance of stopping the nuclear disaster reactors.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? IMF demands Japan raise taxes. It’s all about making investors happy, call it Global Vulture Capitalism!

12 June 2012, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants the Japanese federal government to raise sales taxes by a minimum of 15%.

The IMF issued a report to Japan, saying it was critical that “reforms” were made to social programs, and taxes.

Currently Japan has a 5% national sales tax, and the Diet (parliament) is considering raising it to 10%.  The IMF wants it to be 15% or more!

The IMF report reads very much like what is being imposed on people in several European countries, like Greece and Spain.

An IMF official admitted that it had nothing to do with saving governments, or helping citizens of affected countries, it was all about “investors”: “Japan must tackle its deep rooted fiscal problems. Passage of the current tax and social security reforms is thus crucial to demonstrate commitment to fiscal reform and thus to sustain investor confidence.”-David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director IMF

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Japan creates new tax collection police force! Squeezing blood from turnips! Elite Panic Syndrome

11 June 2012, the federal government of Japan announced the creation of a new type of cop, a tax collecting cop!

Being referred to as a new “revenue service agency”, the strong arm tax collectors will be put together by the Welfare Ministry and the Japan Pension Service.

It’s hoped that by 2015 the new tax busters will be under the direct control of the National Tax Agency, and full blown bōryokudan tax collecting operations will be underway by 2018.

The federal government of Japan says such a new tax collecting cop is necessary because tax revenues are way down and they want to make sure everyone is paying their fair share.

No shit Sherlock!  Tax revenues are down because unemployment is up and business are shutting down!  Maybe instead of trying to squeeze blood from a turnip, you exalted elitists leaders should be finding ways to infuse your dieing economy with new blood!   (but historically, this is typical of government systems facing crashing tax revenues due to crashing economy. You’d think the elites, with their superior breeding and education would understand that!  It’s part of Elite Panic Syndrome, when they realize they F—ed up)

 

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

What Economic Recovery? Japan to force re-start of nuclear power plants, for the sake of the economic “survival of society.” New studies suggest that power use in Japan can not be reduced much further, even if utility rates are raised!

“To protect the [economic] livelihoods of the Japanese people, it is my judgment that Reactors 3 and 4 at Ohi nuclear power station should be restarted.”-Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan

Despite that fact that local governments in Japan have the final say on the start up of a nuclear power plant, and they’ve said no, the federal government has decided to do it anyway!

Noda gave this dire warning: “Cheap and stable electricity is vital. If all the reactors that previously provided 30% of Japan’s electricity supply are halted, or kept idle, Japanese society can not survive!”

This comes as some studies on utility usage, and increased prices for power, show that most Japanese families/individuals can not reduce power usage any further, no matter how expensive the electric rates get.   Electricity rates in Japan are already among the most expensive rates in the world!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Sign the West is going down: Huge jump in suicides, even the U.S. military sees 154 suicides in 155 days! Blame the War, blame the economy!

8 June 2012, numerous reports proving that things are not well in the Western world.  The biggest sign is the increase in suicides.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suicides by U.S. teenagers hit 7.8% in 2011. An increase from 2009’s 6.3%.

The info is found in the CDC’s 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  That survey also found the percentage of teenagers who seriously considered suicide up as well; 15.8% in 2011. 

In Japan (considered part of the Western world, it is part of the Trilateral Commission), the National Police Agency reported on 8 June 2012, that 622 people aged 19 or younger committed suicide, up 70 from 2011. The number of suicides of people in their 20s rose by 64 to 3,304.

The Japanese government says suicide by people younger than 30 years has increased every year since 2009, they blame the bad economy and the increasing lack of jobs!

Reuters reporting that suicides in the economic crisis stricken country of Greece are up; a 40% increase between 2010 & 2011!

In the United Kingdom, the latest data shows a 10% increase in suicides between 2007 & 2009.

At the end of May 2012, France saw a wave of suicide by railway: “We’ve never seen so many suicides in such a short period of time.”-Michel Pronost, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer français/National Corporation of French Railways

  In four days 12 people killed themselves by jumping in front of a train, including one man who took his 19 month old baby with him.  The causes were blamed on everything from bad relationships to the bad economy.

In India (a Western country due to it being a former British colony, and still under some influence by the British & U.S. Empire, and operating a Western style economy), a too big to fail bank (Central Bank of India) is downplaying suicides, saying “Farmers’ suicide numbers is just media hype.”  The statement was made after hundreds of farmers killed themselves when their credit was cut off by the bank (they were de-leveraged, a policy that has been pushed by the U.S. controlled World Bank and IMF)!

The amazing thing is that India’s economy is booming (they are part of the BRICS)!

South Africa (a Western country as it was established by the British Empire, and uses Western style economy) reports a “shocking” increase in suicide, especially among people who were about to lose their jobs.

Another surprise was that the sudden increase in suicides is among white males: “A lot of them have wives who have been raising kids. She has no skills, he has no job and is freaking out. People feel retrenchment [job loss] is a black mark against them, and they worry that they will be perceived as having done something wrong.”-Janine Shamos, South African Depression and Anxiety Group

About one in ten deaths in South Africa are due to suicide. The amazing thing is that South Africa’s economy is supposed to be good (they are part of the BRICS)!

For every person who killed themselves, there were 20 people who tried to do the same thing. A British sociologist says government cuts to social programs only makes things worse: “Austerity can turn a crisis into an epidemic. Job loss can lead to an accumulation of risks that can tip people into depression and severe mental illness which can be difficult to reverse, especially if people are not getting appropriate care.”-David Stuckler, Cambridge University

A psychologist says such bad economic conditions actually speeds up the process of depression that leads to suicide: “Instead of seeing a slow increase in the epidemiology of mental illness, what we’re seeing is what we predicted, that these economic impacts have rapid significance for our way of thinking about the world.”-Peter Kinderman, University of Liverpool

Back in the United States, Time.com and the Associated Press are reporting that suicides among active duty military personnel have hit almost one per day!

Pentagon data shows 154 suicides during the first 155 days of 2012, 50% more than those U.S. personnel killed in Afghanistan!

In 2008 suicide among U.S. military personnel exceeded the civilian cases: “…historically, the suicide rate has been significantly lower in the military than among the U.S. civilian population.”-U.S. Army statement, 2010

Military mental health officials blame the repeated deployments in the never ending War on Terror!

 

 

 

Fukushima

One Year Later: Japanese government incompetence; still no official nuclear disaster emergency regulations!

8 June 2012, NHK (nippon housou kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) reporting that more than one year after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi began, the federal government of Japan still has no new official policy regarding nuclear disasters!

Last year most local governments, and individuals, learned of government evacuation instructions through media, not federal government channels.  Also, it’s now known that some people actually evacuated the wrong way, into radiation plumes, and many of the emergency centers did not perform as expected.

The federal government scrapped their old policies, as they proved totally useless, and were supposed to come up with new ones by now!

About the only thing the federal government of Japan has agreed on is to expand danger zones around nuclear plants from 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to 30 km (18.6 miles).

More than 130 municipal governments are supposed to create their own nuke disaster regulations, but, they’re supposed to be based on the, so far, non-existent federal regulations.

A new federal nuclear regulatory body was supposed to be up and running in April 2012, but it never happened.

Fukushima

One Year Later: GE designed Fukushima Daiichi Reactors still leaking cooling water! No decommissioning until it stops!

8 June 2012, Tokyo Electric (TEPCo) said that employees inspected the basements of Reactors 2 & 3, for the first time since the March 2011 nuclear disaster began!

Now, more than a year later, TEPCo officials say it is clear that the reactor vessels are damaged and still leaking! Really, after all this time?

The basement of Reactor 2 has 5.33 meters (17.3 feet) of contaminated water, and Reactor 3 has 5.43 meters (17.7 feet)!

Rather than dump sand, lead, boric acid and concrete on the thing (as the Soviets did with Chernobyl), the Japanese government, and TEPCo, have decided to shut down the GE designed disaster reactors, as if they were functioning normally!

The problem is that it requires the cooling down of the reactors, and the removal of melted fuel rods.  And that can only be accomplished by stopping any leaks and removing all contaminated water.  Here’s the thing, more than one year later, TEPCo still does not know where the water is leaking from!!!

Fukushima

One Year Later: Incompetence continues at Fukushima Daiichi, cooling pumps fail, again!

6 June 2012, Tokyo Electric revealed that a cooling pump for the spent fuel pool, above Reactor 4, failed on Monday, 4 June.  Japanese media says the pump was burnt.

A back up pump was used the next day, but it failed as well.  TEPCo finally got it working today, however, temps in the spent fuel pool have hit 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit)!

TEPCo says it will take 12 to 24 hours to cool down the spent fuel pool.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Emergency meeting Group of 7! “Impossible” to save Spain! Major credit freeze coming, just as Toyota warned!

“It is really hard in Spain to get a job right now because there are no jobs, and if somewhere you might have a chance, they do not want to pay what is more or less normal. Plus, everything is so expensive: supermarkets, food… Everything is really difficult now.”-Ada Adon, unemployed in Madrid, Spain

 

It has been revealed that the seven top industrialized countries (Group of 7, aka G7) had been in an emergency phone conference since late last night Japan time, early morning U.S. time!

Finance and banking officials from Japan, United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Italy were discussing the global economic situation, a sign that things are getting worse!  The focus is on the European Union (EU).

No joint statement was issued, but Japan’s Finance Minister, Jun Azumi, said all efforts at the moment will focus on preventing a total collapse of the EU.

A German analysts said many investors are on the verge of giving up: “History is repeating itself, we are again in full crisis mode. Last year: crisis; this year: crisis.  The politicians have learned nothing. It would be so easy though. The ECB [European Central Bank] should massively intervene and buy time for countries like Italy and Spain so that they can pursue reforms. Nobody can bear this cacophony, this waiting, this riding out any more.”-Robert Halver, Baader Bank

This comes before the G20 meeting, and it comes on the same day Spanish officials announced a possible second credit crisis.

Spanish Treasury Minister, Cristobal Montoro, admitted on Spanish radio that it was “technically impossible” to save Spain’s economy!

It turn’s out that the recently created EU European Stability Mechanism (a bailout fund) doesn’t have enough money to bailout Spain, let alone other EU members!

Montoro blames high interests rates for crashing the Spanish economy, as well as other EU economies. He says the result will be another huge credit crunch.  On 31 May 2012, Toyota of Japan signaled such an international credit crisis by announcing it was selling $2.5 billion USD in bonds, to raise cash in order to ride out a second coming credit crisis (of course the U.S./British media misreported it).

 

 

 

 

International, Technology

Extraterestrial radiation found in 1,900 year old Japanese Cedar tree!

4 June 2012, Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory of Nagoya University has been studying amounts of radioactive carbon contained in rings of a 1,900 years old cedar tree.  The tree is on Yakushima Island.

When they got to the rings which represent the year 775 AD, they discovered 20 times the normal level of radioactive carbon!

Associate Professor Kimiaki Masuda, believes the radiation came from an extraterrestrial event, such as a super nova, or massive solar flare from our own star.   The study was published by Nature.com.