Tag Archives: taxes

Fukushima

Radiation spreading in Japan, thanks to Mother Nature

NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) discovered, through random interviews with local officials throughout Japan, that cesium is showing up all over, thanks to rain.

22 of Japan’s 47 prefectures (states, or glorified counties) have been testing their soil.  16 found their soil is contaminated with cesium.  Some areas are as far south as Osaka, which is about 350 miles away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Local officials believe the cesium is being spread by clouds that sweep through the Fukushima area then rain on other parts of Japan.

The area with the highest cesium levels, in their soil, is Fukushima, currently at 447,000 becquerels per kilogram.  Tokyo has 55,000 becquerels.

NHK reported that Japan has no guidelines for dealing with radiation contamination in soil.

 

Fukushima

Strontium 90 in ground water & Pacific Ocean

For the first time, Tokyo Electric Power Company says strontium 90 is contaminating ground water, and the Pacific Ocean.

Water samples that were taken on 16 and 18 May, 2011, are positive for strontium.  Sample testing takes three weeks for results.

Three ocean inlets were tested on 16 May.  The lowest reading was 53 times safe limits.  The highest, 240 times, was taken at reactor 3 inlet.

Ground water samples were taken on 18 May.  The highest reading was 6,300 becquerels per liter near reactor 2.

Strontium 90 is created during nuclear fission. It has a half life of 29 years and causes bone cancer.

Idaho, Opinion

Idaho Education Spending Scandalous

Property taxes/fees, where I live in Bannock county, have gone up year after year, and there’s been no improvement in services, especially grade school education.

The last time I complained to the county assessor’s office (when my three kids were attending Pocatello High School) the employee told me to blame school district 25.  The employee showed me a chart that proved that the largest chunk of property taxes/fees was going to the school district 25.  The county employee also said that every time a levy is passed it increases the school district fee portion of the overall property tax bill.

That fee has gone up year after year, and is one of the reasons Bannock county has one of the highest property taxes/fees in all of Idaho.  All of Bannock county has a population of more than 82,ooo, according to U.S. Census Bureau 2010 numbers.  Compare that to Ada county, where the state capitol Boise is located, where the population is more than 390,000.

Then comes the U.S. Census Bureau report on how much each state spends on education, and surprisingly Idaho is second to last in spending (Utah is dead last).

Another surprise is that most of Idaho’s education funding comes from the state, not the counties.  66% of education spending in Idaho comes from state taxes (that’s higher than the national average of 46%).  So where’s all our county school tax/fees going to?

I am now the guardian of my children’s half sister.  She is attending Pocatello High School, and I’m amazed at how much the quality of education has gone down since my kids graduated (by the way, you also have to pay huge fees directly to the high school that your child attends, which is another reason to question the school district’s taxes/fees).  Not only that, but I finished high school in the early 1980s, and I can tell you that nothing has improved since then, as far as the quality of education.

Only since the No Child Left Behind act (aka Adequate Yearly Progress, AYP) went into effect, has school district 25 made real efforts to improve test scores, but they’re still not doing well enough: For 2009-10, one elementary school failed AYP,  all four middle schools failed and all three high schools failed.  It’s interesting that school district 25 officials are blaming the failures on “economically disadvantaged students“, as well as disabled and Hispanic students.  What is this a new kind of class/race warfare?

Decade after decade U.S. taxpayers have paid more and more money for crappy education that never improves!  What do we get for our money?  There’s been lots of paranoid new rules created: One year a high scoring student at Pocatello High School was not allowed to graduate because she dyed her hair pink (her parents sued and won)!  Also, huge school administrative bodies were created through the 1980s-90s, which suck up more money than the actual education of our children!  Do the kids get new books?  No: When my children attended Junior High they showed me their science book, which had an intro that said “One day man will walk on the moon.”!

As a parent and local taxpayer I’ve seen the funding for schools going up year after year (that might finally be over with this bad economy), and the quality of education going down year after year.  That is what makes education funding scandalous!

 

Fukushima

Fukushima Daiichi radiation levels continue to climb, workers exposed to high levels!

Stabilization work at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been temporarily halted, once again, because of high radiation levels.

Reactor 3 began emitting levels above 100 millisieverts per hour.  The government raised the safe limit from 100 to 250 millisieverts per hour, but workers at the damaged nuke plant refused to implement the higher limit.

Tokyo Electric Power Company sent nine workers into Reactor 3 on 10 June 2011.  TEPCo said they are trying to limit workers to just 9 millisieverts per hour.  After only 20 minutes the radiation levels far exceeded the original 100 millisieverts limit!

High radiation levels have made stabilization work almost impossible.  TEPCo has acknowledged that it will take much longer to get the plant under control.

Two workers have tested positive for as much as 678 millisieverts of radiation.  The National Institute of Radiological Sciences confirmed the exposure.  The two men were in the control rooms of reactors 3 & 4, when Reactor 1 blew up on 12 March 2011.  A third man is undergoing testing.

Fukushima

Cesium contamination building in Japan, tea harvests contaminated!

In Shizuoka Prefecture, about 300 km (186 miles) away from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, cesium contamination has continued to build up.  Now tea production has been halted.

On 10 June 2011, cesium levels on tea leaves hit 679 becquerels per kilogram.  The official limit is 500 becquerels.  The local government ordered a halt to tea shipments.  Tea is Shizuoka Prefecture’s main industry.

Last month cesium levels were 460 becquerels.  The latest readings show cesium is continuing to be spewed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant.

 

 

Fukushima

Strontium 90 more widespread than first thought!

Japanese Science Ministry has finished a survey of Fukushima Prefecture.  They were looking for evidence of strontium 90, they found plenty.

Strontium 90 is created during nuclear fission.  It has a half life of 29 years, and can cause bone cancer.

Samples were taken at 11 locations, all 11 tested positive.  The furthest location from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, that tested positive, is Fukushima City at 60 km (37 miles) away.  The highest reading was 250 becquerels per kilogram, at Namie City.

Fukushima

Radiation spreading in Japan, Evacuation Zone could be expanded

Two Japanese cities outside the current evacuation zone, now have radiation levels above safe limits.

Date and Minamisoma cities show increasing radiation levels, prompting calls for evacuation by the residents.  Government officials say they are working quickly on the possible expansion of the evacuation zone.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Greenpeace & IAEA say radiation levels in Pacific Ocean too high

The nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi has resulted in hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive water being spilled into the Pacific Ocean, and it hasn’t stopped.

Greenpeace says they’ve found ocean species with unsafe levels of radiation, 50 km (31 miles) from the nuke plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced they will begin monitoring the Pacific Ocean for radiation contamination.  Australia, South Korea and Indonesia will make up a team that will sample water from the Pacific Ocean, and the East China Sea.  They expect the process to take four years.

The contamination of the Pacific Ocean would not have reached this level, if Tokyo Electric Power Company, and the Japanese government, took the nuclear disaster more seriously at the beginning.  Chernobyl was handled in a matter of weeks, not ongoing after many months like Fukishima Daiichi.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Radiation levels far higher than first “thought”!

As proof that the Japanese government, and Tokyo Electric Power Company, were just wild ass guessing about the radiation levels being released from Fukushima Daiichi, a new report says the levels are more than double.

The governmental Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is now saying the initial radiation release from the damaged nuke plant was 770,000 terabecquerels.  The independent Nuclear Safety Commission said they put the amount of radiation released, in the first month, at 630,000 terabecquerels.

The level of radiation being spewed from the plant has not let up.  On Saturday, 04 June 2011, radiation emitted from Reactor 1 hit 4,000 millisieverts per hour!

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japanese Nuclear Emergency Response teams “dysfunctional”!

The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Ministry maintains ‘off site centers’ near nuclear plants.  The centers are government run emergency response units based ‘off site’ of the privately run nuclear plants.

The public news station, NHK, got hold of a NISA report that admitted that almost all of their off site centers were dysfunctional at the beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

NISA operates 22 nuclear emergency response centers throughout Japan.  On 11 March 2011, seven hours after the 9.0 quake, only three of those centers were staffed.  The off site response unit for Fukushima Daiichi had been shut down by the earthquake.  NISA claims all power generating capabilities, communications and other critical functions had been lost, making the off site response unit ineffective.

But, surprisingly, after it became clear there was a problem at the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, NISA decided to move the emergency response unit away from the stricken plant.  Hello, what’s the purpose of the ‘off site centers’ emergency response units then?  NISA officials said they were afraid their off site center building was not radiation proof!  More proof of lack of planning and foresight by government officials.