Tag Archives: war

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.

International, U.S.

U.S. to stay in Afghanistan until 2017

“We won’t complete doing what we need to do until about 2016, 2017.”-USA Lieutenant General William Caldwell

General Caldwell made his statement at the Brookings Institute on June 6.  His reasons are that only one in six Afghans, who join the Afghan government forces, can read and write.  Caldwell says that means it will take longer than expected for the U.S. military to train up Afghan troops to a level U.S. officials will feel secure with.

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.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japanese government will NOW test soil for radiation

According to NHK(Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation), there has not been any official soil sampling since the nuclear disasters following the 11 March 2011 quake/tsunami.  Tokyo Electric Power Company has done periodic samples, but only within the area of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear compound.

The Japanese Science Ministry is now taking actual soil samples outside the nuclear facility.  What I mean by ‘actual’ is that up ’till now they’ve been conducting soil samples from the air!  NHK didn’t explain how you do soil sampling from the air, but it’s clear the government has realized they need to actually get down on the ground to properly test the soil.

The Science Ministry will join with universities and private laboratories around Japan, to do the soil sampling.  Samples will be taken every 4 square km (2.4 miles) in areas within 80 km (49.7 miles) of the nuclear plant and every 100 square km (62 miles) in areas further away.

 

Fukushima

Japanese University Students find Plutonium!

University students, concerned with the fact that there is no official government soil testing around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, took some samples of their own.

They found plutonium-239 and 240, making up a total of 0.078 becquerels per kilogram.  The samples were taken on 21 April 2011.  Immediately after they took the samples the Japanese government declared the area an evacuation zone.

International

Former Israeli Mossad boss says attacking Iran a mistake

“An attack on Iran would mean regional war…consider all options and not to run straight for the war option.”-Meir Dagan, former Mossad Chief

Dagan said the only reason Israel should go to war, is if it was attacked first.

He downplayed the U.S. rhetoric against Iran’s nuclear program as sabre rattling: “We do not have the ability to stop Iran’s nuclear program. In the best case scenario we can push it off a bit.”

Dagan is also advising the Israeli government to make war plans that would take into account attacking several countries at the same time.


 

International, U.S.

War on Drugs officially a failure

“Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won.”-Drug Policy report

The Global Commission on Drug Policy has declared the War on Drugs a failure.  The 19 member commission includes former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Anti drug policies are to blame for the failure, especially in the United States.  The report points out that while huge efforts are made to stop drug trafficking, most people who end up in prison are the users of drugs, not the sellers.  The report said studies show that users “do no harm to others.”  So why is so much time and money being spent to put them in jail?

The Global Commission on Drug Policy wants anti-drug policies to focus on health and human rights issues, and even consider making some illegal drugs legal.