Tag Archives: japan

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo admits lack of communication caused Reactor 1 to melt down and explode, evidence it was a man made disaster!

On 02 December 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company officials admitted that lack of communication resulted in Fukushima Daiichi’s Reactor 1 melting down and exploding, on 12 March 2011.

Former plant manager, Yoshida Masao (who recently resigned due to health problems, which might be caused by exposure to radiation, which TEPCo denies) said he, and other officials, were not told that Reactor 1’s cooling system was manually shut down.  He realized the cooling system was not working a little more than six hours after it had been turned off. By then it was too late.

Just a few days ago TEPCo admitted, after an independent investigation, that 100% of the fuel rods in Reactor 1 melted.

The irony is that Reactor 1 had the only operable cooling system after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami hit the nuclear disaster reactor plant.  Reactors 2, 3 and 4 lost their connections to electrical power, but Reactor 1 was still connected.

This could add some fuel to the conspiracy theories out there (that it was intentional, after all, look how long they’ve dragged this out!).

Fukushima

Occupy Fukushima! Residents order all nuclear reactors shut down and scrapped!

The governor of Fukushima Prefecture, Yuhei Sato, ordered all nuclear reactors in the prefecture, to be shut and scrapped.  There are ten nuclear reactors in Fukushima Prefecture.

The residents of Fukushima know that it will have a huge negative impact on their local economy, but they say it’s better than trying to live with an ongoing nuclear disaster!

The Fukushima government is working on a reconstruction plan that will try to create new jobs for those working at the nuclear plants.

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo admits fuel rods melted through reactor cores! Serious melt down of 3 reactors at GE designed Fukushima Daiichi!

Tokyo Electric Power Company has been forced to admit that serous melt downs took place in reactors 1, 2 and 3, of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Independent researchers confirmed that melt downs did occur, and were severe enough to melt through the reactor cores into the bottom of the containment vessels. Some melted fuel rods penetrated as much as 57 centimeters (22 inches) into the containment vessels.  The bottom of the containment vessel is made of thick concrete, with a steel plate on top.

TEPCo now says 100% of the fuel rods in Reactor 1 melted, all the way through the core into the containment vessel!  57% of Reactor 2’s fuel rods melted, and 63% of Reactor 3’s fuel rods melted.

Many months ago, I posted how nuclear experts, who were being ignored by the main stream media, explained that the amount and type of radiation coming from Fukushima Daiichi could only mean melt down was occurring.  Somehow the main stream news media found other nuclear ‘experts’ (including many who work for the U.S. government, and the U.S. nuclear power industry) who countered those claims.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant reactors were designed by General Electric.

Business/Economics, International

No Economic Recovery for Japan. Blame Europe

The head of Bank of Japan announced that as long as Europe struggles with a credit crisis, the value of the Japanese yen will keep going up.  That’s bad when Japan’s economy is based on exports. The more their yen is worth, the more their products will cost.

Masaaki Shirakawa said the result is that more and more Japanese companies will move their operations to other countries.  That means unemployment in Japan will only go up.

The Japanese Labor Ministry reported that there are now, officially, 2.88 million Japanese who can not find jobs.  They also said that while unemployment has been going up, the number of jobs available are unchanged.

Fukushima

Company Hero? Manager of Fukushima Daiichi resigns, major health problems!

The manager of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was forced to resign, because of major health problems.

Yoshida Masao has been directly dealing with the situation at the nuclear plant since the 11 March 2011 disasters.  Yoshida said a major health problem was discovered during a medical check up.  TEPCo officials refused to give any information, or to confirm if was the result of long term exposure to high levels of radiation.

Yoshida said there were three times he, and the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, thought they were going to die: The explosions of reactors 1 and 3, and the coolant pump failures on Reactor 2.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Tokyo Electric can’t explain the high levels of radiation from Reactor 2!

During the week that followed the March 11 earthquakes and tsunamis that hit Japan, reactors 1, 3 and 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant exploded.  Yet Reactor 2 spewed the most radiation.

Contract workers at the plant say they heard an explosion inside Reactor 2, but TEPCo officials swear no explosion took place.  Independent researchers claim that Reactor 2 has emitted more radiation than the reactors that exploded!

Scientists (not working for TEPCo) say the most probable reason is that the containment vessel around the core was breached.  TEPCo also denies that.

TEPCo officials simply state that “somehow” radioactive gas escaped Reactor 2.

Fukushima

Government & Farmer Incompetence: More cesium contaminated rice, new farms affected!

Three farms in the city of Date, Japan, harvested rice that was found to be contaminated with cesium, up to 1,050 becquerels per kilogram.

Earlier in November as many as six farms in Oonami district were found with contaminated rice.  Those farms did not sell their rice, but the farms in Date did.

Now officials are trying to track down who bought the cesium contaminated rice.

Date, and Oonami are in Fukushima Prefecture, where the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant continues to emit high levels of radiation.  Originally officials were testing rice just from the 154 farms in Oonami, but will now test more than 2,300 farms in the prefecture.

Business/Economics, International

Corporate Incompetence: Another Japanese company loses millions in cash, this time in Casinos! Call it a family affair?

The Japanese paper company, Daio Paper, is in financial trouble after it was discovered that a, now former, executive borrowed millions of company dollars to gamble in overseas casinos!

Tokyo prosecutors are investigating Mototaka Ikawa.  They say Ikawa borrowed more than U.S.$128 million from seven subsidiary companies between May 2010 and September of this year.  They believe he spent the money in casinos in Macao and Singapore.

Unnamed sources claim that Ikawa actually borrowed much more, all from subsidiary companies that are run by his relatives!  In a specific case, a Kagawa Prefecture golf club owned by the company, says $6.8 million of their money is missing.

Prosecutors say Ikawa thought it was a safe bet to borrow from his own company, because he didn’t think the missing cash would be reported!  Some gambler!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Global Sovereign Open Fund dumping European bonds

Not even a week after it was revealed that the biggest insurance companies in Japan were dumping their European bonds, a major Japanese investment firm reveals it is doing the same.

Kokusai Asset Management says it has sold off all Italian, Spanish and Belgian bonds that were part of its Global Sovereign Open Fund!

The Global Sovereign Open Fund is the largest in Japan, with about U.S.$26 billion in assets.  Kokusai Asset Management says the European bonds they sold off had already lost 8% of their value from the previous year.

Fukushima

Government & Farmer Incompetence: Yet again, more rice contaminated with cesium, lots of cesium!

Once again, rice harvests in Fukushima Prefecture are coming up contaminated with cesium.  But this time the levels are even higher than before.

Five farms in Oonami district have rice that’s contaminated with as much as 1,270 becquerels per kilogram of cesium!  At the beginning of November rice containing 630 becquerels was found in the same district. The national government safe limit is 500.

The national government already banned rice from Oonami from being shipped to markets.

In several postings (back in March) I warned that Japanese farmers (specifically those in the Fukushima Prefecture) should not plant their crops because of the radiation contamination.  They did anyway, and many said it was because no ‘government official’ told them not to.  This is a clear case of too much reliance on ‘authority’!

The prefectural government of Fukushima is in the process of testing all 154 rice farms in the Oonami district.  This is going to create a huge rice (and other agricultural products) shortage in Japan, which will only add to the coming global food crisis.