Tag Archives: unemployment

Fukushima

Chubu Electric decides to shut down nuke plant, Japanese auto & electronics industries will be hit

After first saying no, CEPCo now says OK they will shut down their Hamaoka plant.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu Electric Power Company to shut down their Hamaoka nuke plant, because the plant sits on top of a convergence of fault lines, that could produce an 8+ quake.  The plant is not built to withstand such a quake, and the Japanese government wants the plant operators to reinforce the reactors.

The problem for CEPCo is that they have no way to replace the electric power that will be lost when they shut down the reactors.  The Japanese auto industry, and other manufacturers, are worried because they are already dealing with supply problems due to lack of electricity.  The shut down of Hamaoka nuclear plant will only make the supply situation worse.

CEPCo officials say that, so far, they can not come up with any practical alternative to replace the lost electrical power.

Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki have factories in the prefectures that will be affected by the nuke plant shut down.  Also, electronics makers Panasonic, Toshiba and Fujitsu have factories that will be affected by the shut down.

Fukushima

Chubu Electric refuses Prime Minister’s request to shut down nuke plant, for now

Prime Minister Naoto Kan had asked Chubu Electric Power Company to shut down their Hamaoka nuke plant, because it turns out that it is right over a convergence of fault lines, and scientists expect a magnitude 8+ quake.

Hamaoka is south west of Tokyo. Kan wants CEPCo to shut down the plant, and reinforce the reactors to withstand an 8+ quake.

CEPCo officials studied several options, including how to pay for the cost of reinforcing their nuclear plant.  They decided they don’t have the money to reinforce the plant, and it would not be feasible to raise electric rates high enough to pay for it (because customers would refuse to pay the higher rates).

CEPCo also decided that shutting down the plant would make the already bad situation, for Japanese industries dealing with lack of power, even worse.

CEPCo is not ruling out shutting down the Hamaoka plant, if they can do it with out reducing electrical power, and find money to pay for the reinforcing.

Fukushima

False Flag op? Japanese scientists knew major tsunami was going to hit Japan, at least one month prior!

A report discovered by Japan’s NHK news, shows that officials knew in February that a major tsunami could hit Japan soon.

The report was put together by the Earthquake Research Committee.  It looked at geographical evidence, and recent studies, and came up with a scenario that is exactly like what happened on 11 March.  It even named Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures as being the hardest hit!

The conclusion of the report was that the prefectures of north east Honshu needed to make preparations.  Even though the report was finish in February, the officials weren’t planning on releasing it until April.   Apparently even the experts didn’t think it could actually happen.

Fukushima

TEPCo: problems with another Japan nuke plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced early May 2, that another of their nuclear plants in Japan is in trouble.  The Tsuruga nuclear plant is having technical problems, resulting in overheating.

The plant is around 450 km (280 miles) west of Tokyo, in Fukui prefecture.  TEPCo says the problem is so bad they are considering shutting down the whole plant.  There is a possible leak of iodine from Tsuruga nuclear plant #2 reactor’s nuclear fuel assemblies into its coolant.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Federal Reserve admits inflation is a problem, new jobs could make it worse

Despite years of denial, the Federal Reserve ( a privately run bank) is now saying inflation is a concern: “If we are going to have success in creating a long-run sustainable recovery with lots of job growth, we have to keep inflation under control.”-Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman

The problem is so bad that the Federal Reserve is worried that job growth could actually make things worse: “It is not clear that we can get substantial improvements in payrolls without some additional inflation risk.”

Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke had been saying for months that inflation isn’t that much of a problem.  Now Bernanke is saying that the best way to create jobs is to keep prices down.  In other words, fighting inflation is now the main focus, jobs will come later.  As part of the fight on inflation, the Federal Reserve has decided to keep the interest rates it charges financial institutions low/unchanged.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Unemployment up, spending way down, blame it on the inflation the government denies is happening

Job analysts were shocked Thursday, April 28, when the weekly first time unemployment claims jumped by 25,000.

“This is a major disappointment because it’s another move in the wrong direction. This is more than just a misstep for the job market. It’s a signal that the robust job growth we’ve seen recently is poised to lose momentum.”-Tim Quinlan, Wells Fargo

Total number of initial jobless claims jumped to 429,000 in the week ended April 23, analysts were expecting it to drop to 390,000.

The government is reporting that overall unemployment numbers show a drop in unemployment, but, more and more analyst think that’s because unemployed people have simply exhausted the time limit for unemployment benefits, NOT because they found work.

“We can’t be certain it’s a positive trend yet. The Labor Department doesn’t specify whether these people are rolling off their benefits or if they’ve found jobs.”–Tim Quinlan, Wells Fargo

Another factor is that each state has its own limits on unemployment benefits, so the federal reporting is not accurate state by state. For healthy improvement in the job market  the economy needs to add between 150,000 and 200,000 jobs every month, which it has not been doing.

Add to the jobs loss shock, the GDP shock.  The U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday, April 28, that Gross Domestic Product percentages fell to 1.8% (it’s funny, some media reports are calling it an increase, maybe compared to last April).  At the end of 2010 GDP was at 3.1%, so April’s numbers are definitely a drop.

The Department of Commerce is blaming the drop on decreased consumer spending, due to, guess what, inflation.  The drop shocked analyst who were expecting GDP to hit 4.3%.

“Undoubtedly, consumers are cutting discretionary spending to compensate for rising food and energy prices.”-Jim Baird, Plante Moran Financial Advisors

Retail prices were up 3.8% from a year earlier.  Add to that the slow housing market, decreasing government domestic spending (even though the government continues to spend money outside the country), and even bad weather are taking a toll on any “recovery”.

 

 

Fukushima

School 50km from Nuke Plant must remove top soil!

The city of Koriyama is 50km (31 miles) away from Fukushima Daiichi, well out of the evac zones, yet the soil at their schools are so contaminated they have get rid it.

Starting this weekend, they will remove the top 2 centimeters (.78 inches) of soil from 28 schools.  Even after the soil removal, school officials say they will not allow the children to play in the yards for more than one hour per day.

 

 

 

Fukushima

Female TEPCo employee contaminated 3 times safe limit!

A female employee, working at the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, is contaminated with three times the safe limits for women.  She was working at the damaged plant, directing emergency crews.

Tokyo Electric Power Company thinks she was contaminated when taking off the protective suit.  They say most of her contamination is internal, so they think she inhaled the radiation. TEPCo is now testing all female employees at the nuke plant.  Safe exposure limits for women are set lower than men.

Fukushima

Toyota has better idea of how bad the parts supply problem is

Toyota officials claim they have a better idea of the parts supply problem, but they refuse to go into any detail.

Supplies of microchips, rubber materials and paint additives are the main problems (affected by the loss of electrical power by the shutdown of nuclear plants, most of Japan’s electricity comes from nuclear power).  However, Toyota officials refuse to discuss how many parts they might have, or if there are going to be anymore production delays.

One Toyota official said they normally have two and a half months of inventory on hand, but did not elaborate.

Fukushima

Japan still issuing confusing radiation reports!

Reports are being issued saying emitted radiation levels, from Fukushima Daiichi, are going down.  At the same time reports are being made about increasing radiation levels in water.

Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission estimates the amount of radioactive emissions are down at around 1 terabecquerels per hour as of Sunday.  They compare that to 154 terabecquerels per day on 05 April.  But they are talking about emissions into the air.

Tokyo Electric Power Company is reporting skyrocketing radiation levels in water coming from Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged reactors.  A survey done on 21 April,  found an increase of radioactive substances in the flooded basement of Reactor 4’s turbine building.

TEPCo says the levels of cesium-134 and 137 increased about 250 times, compared to last month.  Radioactive iodine has also increased.

A possible reason for the decrease in air borne radiation, and an increase in water born radiation, could be due to the amount of water being pumped into the reactors.  However, the over all result is not a decrease in radioactive  emissions, it’s just shifted from the air to the water.