Fukushima: They Knew

[Octafish]

From Greg Palast*

Fukushima: They Knew

This month marks the 3rd Anniversary of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster.

By Greg Palast for FreePress.org
Monday, March 10, 2014

EXCERPT...

I was ready to vomit. Because I knew who had designed the plant, who had built it and whom Tokyo Electric Power was having rebuild it: Shaw Construction. The latest alias of Stone & Webster, the designated builder for every one of the four new nuclear plants that the Obama Administration has approved for billions in federal studies.

But I had The Notebook, the diaries of the earthquake inspector for the company. I'd squirreled it out sometime before the Trade Center went down. I shouldn't have done that. Too bad.

All field engineers keep a diary. Gordon Dick, a supervisor, wasn’t sup- posed to show his to us. I asked him to show it to us and, reluctantly, he directed me to these notes about the “SQ” tests.

SQ is nuclear-speak for “Seismic Qualification.” A seismically qualified nuclear plant won’t melt down if you shake it. A “seismic event” can be an earthquake or a Christmas present from Al Qaeda. You can’t run a nuclear reactor in the USA or Europe or Japan without certified SQ.

This much is clear from his notebook: This nuclear plant will melt down in an earthquake. The plant dismally failed to meet the Seismic I (shaking) standards required by U.S. and international rules.

Here’s what we learned: Dick’s subordinate at the nuclear plant, Robert Wiesel, conducted the standard seismic review. Wiesel flunked his company. No good. Dick then ordered Wiesel to change his report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, change it from failed to passed. Dick didn’t want to make Wiesel do it, but Dick was under the gun himself, acting on direct command from corporate chiefs. From The Notebook:

Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. [He said,] “I believe these are bad results and I believe it’s reportable,” and then he took the volume of federal regulations from the shelf and went to section 50.55(e), which describes reportable deficiencies at a nuclear plant and [they] read the section together, with Wiesel pointing to the appropriate paragraphs that federal law clearly required [them and the company] to report the Category II, Seismic I deficiencies.

Wiesel then expressed his concern that he was afraid that if he [Wiesel] reported the deficiencies, he would be fired, but that if he didn’t report the deficiencies, he would be breaking a federal law. . . .

CONTINUED...

http://www.gregpalast.com/fukushima-they-knew-3/

Which is why TEPCO, Japan, Nuke Inc and the USA went out of their way the other day to play up the tsunami's role:

Tsunami, not Quake, Seen as Main Cause of Fukushima Accident

by Mari Iwata
Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2014

Japan’s nuclear regulator said Wednesday that the tsunami following the March 11, 2011, earthquake–not the quake itself–was the main cause of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The conclusion matters because of the implications for other nuclear-power plants. Virtually all of Japan is prone to earthquakes, but some places are relatively protected from tsunamis. Currently all of the nation’s 48 reactors are offline, and the government is weighing whether to restart some next year.

In the March 2011 nuclear accident, three reactors melted down after the plant lost main and backup power, paralyzing cooling systems.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority studied why the No.1 reactor lost backup power and concluded on Wednesday in a report that the tsunami was the main cause, based on data about temperature, pressure and other parameters. Those data were stable immediately after the earthquake hit at 2:46 p.m., suggesting the plant didn’t suffer critical damage until the arrival of the tsunami some 45 minutes later.

A previous investigation by Japan’s parliament had left more room for the possibility that the earthquake itself did significant damage.

The regulator said it would translate the report into English and post it on its website. The Japanese-language version is here.

“You cannot say there was no damage by the earthquake at all. But you can say the major cause was the tsunami, looking at the data,” said Tamotsu Kozaki, a nuclear engineering professor of the Hokkaido University.

CONTINUED...

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/10/08/tsunami-not-quake-seen-as-main-cause-of-fukushima-accident/

Which is not what the scientists said, way back when they were warning TEPCO, which elected to take the cheapskate's way out.



Here's a bit to add to the atomic pile:

Masanobu Shishikura: The Man Who Predicted the Tsunami in 2009.

British scientist 'predicted nuclear power station problem'

Toshiaki Sakai: Utility Engineer Warned of Tsunami Threat at Japanese Nuclear Plant in 2007

Apart from venting hot air in committee meetings, TEPCO did nothing, and hoped for the best.

* Greg Palast is recovering from open heart surgery. DUers who appreciate journalism may want to send get-well wishes: http://www.gregpalast.com/.

[SomethingFishy]

1. Unbelievable... but not really..

And thanks for the info on Palast, I had no idea he was sick, he is one of the last true journalists...

[Octafish]

2. Fukushima: An Update from Japan

by Brian Covert
Project Censored, December 15, 2013

SNIP...

The Shoriki Factor

If there is one person who has stood at the nexus of nuclear power, media conglomeration, politics, and industrial development in postwar Japan, it would be Matsutaro Shoriki.

Shoriki, in the early 1920s, was a high-ranking official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and in previous years had reportedly been involved in every major incident of police repression of social unrest.3 That included the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1923, Japan’s deadliest natural disaster up to then, in which more than 100,000 people died and tens of thousands of others went missing.4

After the earthquake’s ensuing panic and confusion and the Japanese government’s declaration of martial law, the police took the opportunity to round up ethnic Koreans living in Japan, along with leading Japanese socialists, anarchists, labor activists, and other leftist dissidents of the day—some of whom were later reported killed.5 This all happened on Shoriki’s watch, and a month after the quake he was promoted to a department head position within the Tokyo police hierarchy.6 Shoriki’s law enforcement career came to a halt a couple months later, however, when a young Communist Party supporter attempted to shoot Hirohito, the emperor-to-be, in public. Shoriki was among those dismissed from their police posts for the lapse in security surrounding the assassination attempt.

It was the end of Shoriki’s days as a hard-line police official, but just the beginning of his career as a central figure in the Japanese media world.

One month after his firing from the Tokyo metropolitan police, Shoriki—with no past media experience whatsoever—found himself serving as president of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, then a fledgling 50,000-circulation Japanese metropolitan daily paper in Tokyo.7 He had bought out a controlling stake in the newspaper through a huge personal loan from a cabinet minister then serving in the Japanese government. A rebellion immediately arose among the editorial staff of the paper, but the new owner had no regrets. “Instead of committing hara-kiri” (ritual disembowelment) over the police firing, “I bought a newspaper,” Shoriki would boast.8

The openly pro-capitalistic, anticommunistic Shoriki quickly showed himself as having a finger on the public pulse, understanding well the links between three key areas: mass entertainment, mass mobilization, and massive profits.9

His Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper company sponsored tours in Japan of major league baseball players from the US—first in 1931, then again in 1934, when the Yomiuri paid for US baseball legends Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and others to come and play in Japan. The next year, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper created its own baseball team, the Yomiuri Giants, in the exact image of the famed Giants baseball team of New York (later of San Francisco). In 1936, Japan’s first professional baseball league was started, with Shoriki going on to serve as owner of the Yomiuri Giants pro team and as the first commissioner of the Nippon Professional Baseball league years later.

By the late 1930s and early 1940s, the winds of war were blowing in Japan. All of the Japanese press was expected by the military-dominated government to support Japan’s war of aggression throughout East Asia and the Pacific, and the major news publications—from liberal to conservative—toed the line, either under government pressure or out of a sense of patriotism. Two days after the Japanese military attack on the US-occupied Pacific island of Hawaii in December 1941, the major newspapers in Japan sponsored a public rally in Tokyo denouncing the US and Britain. Shoriki, representing the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, was reportedly one of the main speakers.10

In the fifteen years since Shoriki had taken over the paper, the Yomiuri had gone from being a fairly liberal Tokyo metro daily paper to being an unashamedly conservative national daily newspaper—the third-largest daily paper in Japan, in fact—with a circulation of 1.2 million.11 The Yomiuri became the most nationalistic of Japan’s mainstream news media during World War II. For his efforts, Shoriki, like other press executives in Japan, was appointed to several key government propaganda organizations during the war, including as cabinet-level advisor in the government.12

CONTINUED...

http://www.projectcensored.org/fukushima-update-japan/

PS: You are most welcome, SomethingFishy. The record that we see shows Nuke Inc is BFF with gangsters and warmongers. I imagine life on the planet would be better if there were more journalists like Greg Palast.

[closeupready]

3. Probably. But they won't be giving back the money they made

on the deception.

[Octafish]

4. They hired the best to control the story: TEPCO Rose

This nice Lady Barbara Judge, a former SEC lawyer and now UK regulator and aristocrat extraordinaire, wants to keep the world safe for nuclear power.



The mood at Fukushima Daiichi is "fantastic."

Lady Barbara Judge: Japan's smart nuclear weapon

The head of the UK's Pension Protection Fund has been drafted in to help assure the residents of Fukushima that its reactors are safe

MARGARETA PAGANO
The Independent (UK) SUNDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2013

Lady Barbara Judge is just back from inspecting the nuclear plants at Fukushima in Japan, the ones closed down after the devastating earthquake and tsunami two years ago. She visited the control rooms at Daiichi – plant one – where three of the reactors went into meltdown and met many of the men who risked their lives by working during the emergency to cool the over-heated reactors and eventually shut them down.

It's not what she expected but the mood there was " fantastic". "What was astonishing was the optimism and hope shown by the workers that these plants can be made safe, and that they can start operating again," she says. But this was in stark contrast to the mood of the Japanese public, still in a state of shock and strongly opposed to the restoration of the nuclear programme.

Already being hailed as Japan's nuclear saviour, Lady Judge was in Fukushima with the bosses of the plants' owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which was criticised for its bungled reaction to the catastrophe. It's her first trip since being appointed deputy chairman of Tepco's new Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, set up after the disaster to propose a new self-regulatory structure for the industry. If all goes well, Tepco hopes to persuade the new government – said to be more favourable than the last – to restart two of the plants later this year.

SNIP...

It's her long experience of Britain's nuclear industry that attracted the Japanese, who rarely bring in outsiders, let alone a woman. Lady Judge's credentials go back to 2002 when she became a director of the UK's Atomic Energy Authority, and was then chairman for six years until 2010. She is still closely involved with the industry so, a few days after returning from Fukushima, was able to take Tepco executives to the West Midlands' Oldbury site to show how it has been decommissioned using the strictest safety protocols.

SNIP...

Yet there's one group of people who stay stubbornly anti-nuclear – women, especially the more educated ones. Wherever you are in the world, she says, all the focus groups show that it's better-off women who don't trust fission.

CONTINUED...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/lady-barbara-judge-japans-smart-nuclear-weapon-8497747.html

It seems that government service in the United States can open doors to [s]money[/s] opportunity in the United Kingdom. From the comment section at e-news we learn:

weeman
February 17, 2013 at 10:29 am

Tokyo Rose I have named her, just like the second world war the propaganda machine is on full spin cycle and we all know the false lies that they promote and brainwashing of populace.

...

Time Is Short
February 18, 2013 at 2:09 pm

Here's a big reason she was brought in:

'Radioactive Asia: There Will Be 100 Additional Nuclear Reactors in Asia in 20 Years'

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2013/02/radioactive-asia-there-will-be-100.html

If she's working for those that control the majority of the uranium mining/processing, you can see the money involved.

Can't let the murder of 8 billion people get in the way of third-quarter profits, can we?

...

Sickputer
February 16, 2013 at 9:20 pm

Her track record has not always been so cheery:

April 23, 2010

"WASHINGTON—Massey Energy Co., owner of a coal mine where 29 workers were killed this month, on Monday said that the board member responsible for governance had resigned because of the demands of "other ongoing business activities."

Lady Barbara Thomas Judge's resignation, effective immediately, comes amid growing criticism of the management of the Richmond, Virginia, company. For months, shareholders had complained that Lady Judge was unable to devote enough time to the job because she served on too many corporate boards. The complaints about Massey's corporate governance intensified after a coal-mine explosion two weeks ago that was the deadliest in 40 years."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575195070711065984.html

Another article in 2007:

"But questions remain. Why does Lady Judge need so many jobs? How did she land her role at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, when she had no relevant experience? Is it relevant that a female friend was on the selection panel?
Lady Judge bristles. She points out that, as a lawyer, it is her job to master a subject about which she is initially ignorant. To prepare for her role at the Atomic Energy Authority, she even studied her son's physics books. She also has a strategic business role, which she is well equipped to carry out.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-452635/Is-best-connected-woman-Britain

The monied class have zero compunction about irradiating the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere or any which way they slice up their planet and protect their loot with the nukes We the People have so kindly paid for.



It's getting apparent that us renters are SOL.

[navarth]

39. let's provide her with a nice bungalow next to the reactor then. nt

[madokie]

5. I'd bet money they knew

and it there ought to be a criminal case to prove it

[Octafish]

6. Seeing how TEPCO's lied about most everything Fukushima from March 11, 2011...

TEPCO: Plutonium is not dangerous. So. Where's the Boss?



"It is not a health risk to humans," the company said.

TEPCO says plutonium found on quake-damaged plant grounds

By the CNN Wire Staff
March 28, 2011 -- Updated 1735 GMT (0135 HKT)

okyo (CNN) -- Some plutonium found in soil on the grounds of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have come from its earthquake-damaged reactors, but it poses no human health risk, the plant's owners reported Monday.

The element was found in soil samples taken March 21-22 from five locations around the plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company told CNN late Monday. The company said it was equivalent to the amounts that fell on Japan following aboveground nuclear weapons tests by other countries in past decades.

"It is not a health risk to humans," the company said. But it added, "Just in case, TEPCO will increase the monitoring of the nuclear plant grounds and the surrounding environment."

Plutonium is a byproduct of nuclear reactions that is also part of the fuel mix at the plant's No. 3 reactor. It can be a serious health hazard if inhaled or ingested, but external exposure poses little health risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Three plutonium isotopes -- Pu-238, -239 and -240 -- were found in soil at five different points inside the plant grounds, Tokyo Electric reported. It said that plutonium found in two of the samples could have come out of the reactors that were damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northern Japan.

CONTINUED...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/28/japan.nuclear.plutonium/?hpt=T2

So, if plutonium's not a health risk, why the containment building? Why the special suits? Why'd the boss decide to stay on vacation?

Vanishing act by Japanese executive during nuclear crisis raises questions

By Andrew Higgins
Washington Post
March 28, 1:51 PM

TOKYO — In normal times, Masataka Shimizu lives in The Tower, a luxury high rise in the same upscale Tokyo district as the U.S. Embassy. But he hasn’t been been there for more than two weeks, according to a uniformed doorman.

Death, devastation grip Japan following quake: A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and several powerful aftershocks struck the eastern coast of Japan on Friday afternoon, triggering tsunamis that devastated the coastline north of Tokyo.

Gallery: Death, devastation grip Japan following quake: A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and several powerful aftershocks struck the eastern coast of Japan on Friday afternoon, triggering tsunamis that devastated the coastline north of Tokyo.

In fact, nobody has seen much recently of the president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, owner of a haywire nuclear power plant just 150 miles from the Japanese capital.

He is the most invisible — and also most reviled — chief executive in Japan.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/vanishing-act-by-japanese-executive-during-nuclear-crisis-raises-questions/2011/03/28/AFDnHNpB_story.html

Here's what I think is important to convey:

DOE-STD-1128-98

Guide of Good Practices for Occupational Radiological Protection in Plutonium Facilities

EXCERPT...

4.2.3 Characteristics of Plutonium Contamination

There are few characteristics of plutonium contamination that are unique. Plutonium
contamination may be in many physical and chemical forms. (See Section 2.0 for the many
potential sources of plutonium contamination from combustion products of a plutonium fire
to radiolytic products from long-term storage.) [font color="purple"]The one characteristic that many believe is
unique to plutonium is its ability to migrate with no apparent motive force[/font color]. Whether from
alpha recoil or some other mechanism, plutonium contamination, if not contained or
removed, will spread relatively rapidly throughout an area.

SOURCE: http://energy.gov/ehss/downloads/doe-std-1128-98-0

Thanks for caring about this, madokie-san. TEPCO's bosses, their bosses in government, their gillionaire owners, and Nuke Inc knew. They just don't care if we know or not. Depending how bad things are -- and no one is sharing DOE/NRA data with the People, so, it seems to me, they also don't care what happens to us.

[JEB]

7. K&R&bookmark

Thanks for posting.

[Octafish]

15. For some reason, some think Fukushima Ecocide is news that's no longer fit to print.

?itok=VJ7_ONMS

For instance:

Fukushima radiation still poisoning insects

By Dennis Normile
Sciencemag.org, AAAS, 22 September 2014 11:00 pm 62 Comments

Eating food contaminated with radioactive particles may be more perilous than thought—at least for insects. Butterfly larvae fed even slightly tainted leaves collected near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station were more likely to suffer physical abnormalities and low survival rates than those fed uncontaminated foliage, a new study finds. The research suggests that the environment in the Fukushima region, particularly in areas off-limits to humans because of safety concerns, will remain dangerous for wildlife for some time.

The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station disaster released massive amounts of radiation, much of which drifted out to sea. Humans were evacuated to safety and their exposure to radiation was minimal. But local wildlife were exposed both externally to radiation in the environment and internally from contaminated food sources. Joji Otaki, a biologist at University of the Ryukyus in Nishihara, Japan, and his colleagues have been conducting field studies and lab experiments on how such radiation affected the pale grass blue butterfly (Zizeeria maha), a species found throughout most of Japan.

In a previous experiment, Otaki’s group fed butterfly larvae leaves of the creeping woodsorrel (Oxalis corniculata) with radiation in the thousands of becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) gathered near the power plant within a few months after the accident. (For comparison, the Japanese government set a limit of 100 Bq/kg for human consumption of rice, meat, and fish, and 50 Bq/kg for milk and infant formula.) Larvae that dined on the radiation-drenched leaves had low survival rates and high incidences of physical abnormalities such as unusually small forewings. These results corroborated field surveys by others that turned up fewer butterflies in contaminated areas than would normally be expected.

The new study shows that radiation can damage larvae even at much lower concentrations. Otaki and colleagues collected leaves 16 to 20 months after the accident, after short-lived radioactive contamination had decayed, but this time from locations ranging from 59 to 1760 kilometers from the power plant; contamination levels ranged from 161 to 0.2 Bq/kg. They found that as contamination increased, mortality rates and incidences of abnormalities increased. "These results suggest that low-dose ingestion of approximately 100 Bq/kg may be seriously toxic to certain organisms," the team writes in a paper published today in BMC Evolutionary Biology.

In another experiment, the researchers divided offspring of the butterflies into two groups, feeding larvae either the same contaminated leaves their parents had eaten or uncontaminated leaves. Larvae fed the contaminated leaves had even lower survival rates and more abnormalities than their parents, whereas those feeding on clean leaves largely reverted to near-normal in both mortality rates and frequency of abnormalities.

The findings from Otaki’s group are “groundbreaking,” says Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, who also studies the effects of radiation on wildlife near Fukushima and Chernobyl. He notes that there have been “almost no studies” on how ingestion of radiation-tainted foods affect wildlife. Still, Mousseau cautions that the results should not be directly extrapolated to humans. “I think butterflies as a group are likely to be much more sensitive than humans to radiocontaminants,” he says. He adds that Otaki's findings suggest that insects that survive after eating contaminated leaves might evolve tolerance to the low levels of radiation likely to persist in the Fukushima region for decades.

SOURCE: http://news.sciencemag.org/asiapacific/2014/09/fukushima-radiation-still-poisoning-insects

PS: You are most welcome, JEB. Please feel free to do what most all successful journalists do:

"Don't avert your eyes. Plagiarize."

[arikara]

8. K&R

Thanks, Octafish.

[Octafish]

18. Fukushima: Bad and Getting Worse

Global Physicians Issue Scathing Critique of UN Report on Fukushima

by JOHN LaFORGE
CounterPunch, WEEKEND EDITION JULY 18-20, 2014

EXCERPT...

“No justification for optimistic presumptions”

The IPPNW’s report says flatly, “Publications and current research give no justification for such apparently optimistic presumptions.” UNSCEAR, the physicians complain, “draws mainly on data from the nuclear industry’s publications rather than from independent sources and omits or misinterprets crucial aspects of radiation exposure”, and “does not reveal the true extent of the consequences” of the disaster. As a result, the doctors say the UN report is “over-optimistic and misleading.” The UN’s “systematic underestimations and questionable interpretations,” the physicians warn, “will be used by the nuclear industry to downplay the expected health effects of the catastrophe” and will likely but mistakenly be considered by public authorities as reliable and scientifically sound. Dozens of independent experts report that radiation attributable health effects are highly likely.

Points of agreement: Fukushima is worse than reported and worsening still

Before detailing the multiple inaccuracies in the UNSCEAR report, the doctors list four major points of agreement. First, UNSCEAR improved on the World Health Organization’s health assessment of the disaster’s on-going radioactive contamination. UNSCEAR also professionally “rejects the use of a threshold for radiation effects of 100 mSv [millisieverts], used by the International Atomic Energy Agency in the past.” Like most health physicists, both groups agree that there is no radiation dose so small that it can’t cause negative health effects. There are exposures allowed by governments, but none of them are safe.

Second, the UN and the physicians agree that areas of Japan that were not evacuated were seriously contaminated with iodine-132, iodine-131 and tellurium-132, the worst reported instance being Iwaki City which had 52 times the annual absorbed dose to infants’ thyroid than from natural background radiation. UNSCEAR also admitted that “people all over Japan” were affected by radioactive fallout (not just in Fukushima Prefecture) through contact with airborne or ingested radioactive materials. And while the UNSCEAR acknowledged that “contaminated rice, beef, seafood, milk, milk powder, green tea, vegetables, fruits and tap water were found all over mainland Japan”, it neglected “estimating doses for Tokyo … which also received a significant fallout both on March 15 and 21, 2011.”

Third, UNSCEAR agrees that the nuclear industry’s and the government’s estimates of the total radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean are “far too low.” Still, the IPPNW reports shows, UNSCEAR’s use of totally unreliable assumptions results in a grossly understated final estimate. For example, the UN report ignores all radioactive discharges to the ocean after April 30, 2011, even though roughly 300 tons of highly contaminated water has been pouring into the Pacific every day for 3-and-1/2 years, about 346,500 tons in the first 38 months.

Fourth, the Fukushima catastrophe is understood by both groups as an ongoing disaster, not the singular event portrayed by industry and commercial media. UNSCEAR even warns that ongoing radioactive pollution of the Pacific “may warrant further follow-up of exposures in the coming years,” and “further releases could not be excluded in the future,” from forests and fields during rainy and typhoon seasons – when winds spread long-lived radioactive particles – a and from waste management plans that now include incineration.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/07/18/fukushima-bad-and-getting-worse/

PS: You are most welcome, arikara. Thank you for caring about Fukushima and our planet.

[arikara]

25. I live on the west coast of Vancouver Island

people are very aware and concerned about it here. Good news is I was told at a seaweed workshop that I attended a couple months ago that radiation hasn't reached us in this area at least. The beach where we gather the seaweed is also used by a small commercial seaweed operation run by a biologist and she monitors it all the time for pollution etc. She said there are at least 3 people in the area who aren't affiliated with teh government who are checking for radiation. Nobody believes the government.

That said, if I had young kids I would seriously consider moving.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Rec and kick

and book marked.

[Octafish]

19. The Giant Lie About Fukushima

Nuclear Denial

by KARL GROSSMAN
CounterPunch, MARCH 03, 2014

With the third anniversary of the start of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe coming next week, the attempted Giant Lie about the disaster continues—a suppression of information, an effort at dishonesty of historical dimensions.

It involves international entities, especially the International Atomic Energy Agency, national governmental bodies—led in Japan by its current prime minister, the powerful nuclear industry and a “nuclear establishment” of scientists and others with a vested interest in atomic energy.

Deception was integral to the push for nuclear power from its start. Indeed, I opened my first book on nuclear technology, Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power, with: “You have not been informed about nuclear power. You have not been told. And that has been done on purpose. Keeping the public in the dark was deemed necessary by the promoters of nuclear power if it was to succeed. Those in government, science and private industry who have been pushing nuclear power realized that if people were given the facts, if they knew the consequences of nuclear power, they would not stand for it.”

SNIP...

The IAEA-WHO deal has meant that “WHO cannot undertake any research, cannot disseminate any information, cannot come to the assistance of any population without the prior approval of the IAEA…WHO, in practice, in reality, is subservient to the IAEA within the United Nations family,” explained Alison Katz who for 18 years worked for WHO, on Libbe HaLevy’s “Nuclear Hotseat” podcast last year.

On nuclear issues “there has been a very high level, institutional and international cover-up which includes governments, national authorities, but also, regrettably the World Health Organization,” said Katz on the program titled, “The WHO/IAEA—Unholy Alliance and Its Lies About Int’l Nuclear Health Stats.” Katz is now with an organization called IndependentWHO which works for “the complete independence of the WHO from the nuclear lobby and in particular from its mouthpiece which is the International Atomic Energy Agency. We are demanding that independence,” she said, “so that the WHO may fulfill its constitutional mandate in the area of radiation and health.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/03/the-giant-lie-about-fukushima/

PS: Thank you, dixiegrrrrl. This story affects everyone on earth, yet the United Nations WHO and global media ignore it. Why would that be?

[OnyxCollie]

10. K&R. nt

[Octafish]

22. Yakuza Gangsters Recruit Homeless Men For Fukushima Nuclear Clean Up

William Pentland
Forbes, Dec 30, 2013

Organized criminal groups have infiltrated the massive, government-backed decontamination effort underway at the defunct Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to Reuters.

SNIP...

Reuters revealed that the Yakuza, the notorious criminal syndicates that control Japan’s underworld, are filling a manpower void created by Japan’s aging populations and a legacy of tight labor-market regulations.

More specifically, they are filling the void with homeless men they’ve recruited off the streets.

Per Reuters:

The sprawl of small firms working in Fukushima is an unintended consequence of Japan’s legacy of tight labor-market regulations combined with the aging population’s deepening shortage of workers. Japan’s construction companies cannot afford to keep a large payroll and dispatching temporary workers to construction sites is prohibited. As a result, smaller firms step into the gap, promising workers in exchange for a cut of their wages.

Below these official subcontractors, a shadowy network of gangsters and illegal brokers who hire homeless men has also become active in Fukushima. Ministry of Environment contracts in the most radioactive areas of Fukushima prefecture are particularly lucrative because the government pays an additional $100 in hazard allowance per day for each worker.

This is outrageous.

SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/12/30/yakuza-gangsters-recruit-homeless-men-for-fukushima-nuclear-clean-up/

PS: Thank you, OnyxCollie! Besides its founder being conservative, Forbes magazine has great quotes.

[grasswire]

11. kick nt

[Octafish]

24. New research suggests even low-level radiation in Fukushima negatively impacting wildlife

Here's what Fukushima is all about.



Dr. Timothy Mousseau, professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina and researcher for the Chernobyl and Fukushima Research Initiative, presented new findings to the International Ornithological Congress in Tokyo last week that suggest radiation contamination around Fukushima Daiichi, even at low levels, is negatively impacting biodiversity and wildlife populations.

Mousseau and his collaborators have been monitoring radiation levels at 1,500 sites and bird populations at 400 points across Fukushima over the last 3 years. The lay of the land and dispersal patterns of radioactive matter have created a very heterogenous situation in the Fukushima exclusion zone, meaning areas of high radiation lie right alongside areas of low radiation. By controlling for other environmental factors, the scientists can apply a rigorous statistical analysis to predict what the population in a particular area should be.

Using this method, Mousseau et al have found both the number of birds and the variety of species drop off as radiation levels rise, and more importantly, that there is no threshold under which the effect isn’t seen.

This is counter to what both the Japanese government and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation have said regarding low-level radiation. In a report on the situation in Fukushima released in April, UNSCEAR said, “Exposures of both marine and terrestrial non-human biota following the accident were, in general, too low for acute effects to be observed,” although the report goes on to hedge that “changes in biomarkers cannot be ruled out.” Indeed, Mousseau and the Wild Bird Society of Japan report seeing partial albinism in Fukushima birds, a condition rarely seen outside of Chernobyl (see photo above).

Citing years of research in Chernobyl and meta-analysis of studies on areas with naturally occurring radiation, Mouseau says, “Contrary to government reports, there is now an abundance of information demonstrating consequences, in other words, injury, to individuals, populations, species, and ecosystem function stemming from low-dose radiation.”

-- Jessica @ RocketNews24.com

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/08/27/new-research-suggests-even-low-level-radiation-in-fukushima-negatively-impacting-wildlife/

More on Dr. Timothy Mousseau: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2014/9/17/dr-timothy-mousseau-fukushima-impacts-on-wildlife.html

[WillyT]

12. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[Octafish]

31. Japanese authorities ignored US warnings over Fukushima water leaks

Operators of Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant dismissed plans two years ago to build a barrier to stop radioactive water leakages as too expensive.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10319430/Japanese-authorities-ignored-US-warnings-over-Fukushima-water-leaks.html



NUKE Inc USA told TEPCO about an "Ice Wall" a few months after the disaster. TEPCO realized at once it was stupid and expensive idea that would not work. When nothing else they tried over the next three years to contain radioactive releases into the ocean and groundwater, the Ice Wall plan was dusted off and brought back. They tried to build it earlier this year, it did not work, and they quit in August.

TEPCO Concedes Failure of Fukushima Ice Wall

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/08/20/tepco-concedes-failure-fukushima-ice-wall/

[bananas]

13. k&r, and a "get-well" to Greg Palast!

From the very end of your OP:

* Greg Palast is recovering from open heart surgery. DUers who appreciate journalism may want to send get-well wishes: http://www.gregpalast.com/

[Octafish]

37. The guy is a great reporter -- stands for truth, no matter who's ox gets gored.

Newer DUers may not know about the GOP CONSPIRACY to steal votes in Florida that Mr. Palast chronicled for his BBC audience, a story under-reported in the United States, to say the least. He wonders what do we "move on" to past Democracy?

Thank you for caring about this stuff and this great human being, bananasito!

[joanbarnes]

16. Of COURSE they knew! I Knew and I'm no engineer.

[navarth]

17. Righteous as always, Brother Octafish

and thanks for the heads-up on Greg. The least I can do is send a get-well.

Re: TEPCO: Sadly, I am not surprised.

[Octafish]

29. We Almost Lost Detroit

Title of 1975 book by John G. Fuller, became subjects of song and the name of a popular band, IIRC. The Kirkus review shows us Fuller's book was a warning ignored by the Greedhead-MIC Complex set:

This is the heaviest broadside against the Atomic Energy Commission in years, and it ought to find a wide audience. Fuller's argument is designed to rock his readers. It may seem like only another doomsday book (a Fuller specialty) but he makes use of AEC reports to show how a government agency's forked tongue can damn itself. We now have 50 atomic reactors in the U.S. and half of them were closed down in the past year because of radiation leaks. AEC plans to have a thousand reactors pouring out energy by the year 2999, requiring 700,000 pounds of plutonium to fuel them. It takes only 1/30-millionth of an ounce of plutonium to kill you--and a particle of this new element has a hazardous life-span of 480,000 years. What's worse, plutonium is erratic under any conditions, and Fuller describes four hair-raising incidents during which runaway melt nearly brought Hiroshima to Idaho, Canada, England and Detroit. All near-disasters resulted from faulty materials and instantly multiplying human errors. Once a reactor goes amok, nobody knows what to do with it. Runaway melt, by the way, is when plutonium liquefies, and may either drop straight through the reactor bottom and head for China--or blow up. The AEC can't get its plants insured by any company on earth--no underwriter could handle the losses. Meanwhile, AEC publicity men create euphemisms for atomic holocaust (""sunshine units"", ""energy release""--those fuckers are talking about the Big Sleep!) but they can't begin to cope with evacuation problems--Greater New York City's 16 million people have four reactors nearby. With a light hand on the panic.button prose. Are you still there?

SOURCE: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-g-fuller-3/we-almost-lost-detroit/

Old news that somehow never gets mentioned much, if at all, on tee vee or in school in Detroit or anywhere else where people might think it important. Like you, I live in Detroit -- Almost no one here knows this story.

[navarth]

40. Oh yeah, I remember. Fermi II. The Gil Scott-Heron recording.

And of course I don't expect it to be talked about in the corpo media here in The D or anyplace else. We'll just keep shouting it on the street corner.

[panader0]

20. Kick

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. I am sure am glad we have not built nuke plants in earthquake zones here.

Oh.......wait......

[truedelphi]

23. Facebook meme popular this week: Are you noticing how elbola and ISIS are

mentioned all the time by the Mainstream Media, while Fukushima and its legacy are not mentioned at all.

Thanks for posting this, Octafish.

[Enthusiast]

27. The MSM just plain sucks.

[Enthusiast]

26. K&R! Designers of nuclear power plants cannot take into account every contingency.

There are better alternatives.

[nenagh]

28. K&R..

and bookmarked... thanks Octafish... It's just so painful to read...

[a kennedy]

30. and I'm sick......sick to death this sh*t happens.....

[ctsnowman]

32. Thanks for the post.

[locks]

33. One report this week

said Typhoon Vongfang the largest hurricane in ten years is forecasted to make a direct hit on Fukushima. There has been very little since though the cyclone will hit Okinawa today and Japan hard in a couple days.
Japan still wants to open nuclear plants.

[rhett o rick]

34. Damn you. You just won't let us live in denial will you? Maybe we don't want to know the

truth, did you ever think about that. Maybe we want some of that blissful ignorance.

Well, since you went to the trouble of posting it I guess I will read it (bookmark of course).

Why would anyone think that nuclear power plants are good. They are terribly risky, terribly expensive, and we have yet to figure out what to do with the tons of highly radioactive waste that is "temporarily" stored on lots in containers that are corroding away.

Thanks Octafish for all your posts. Trying to keep up keeps me out of trouble.

I am surprised that the nuclear power fans haven't shown up yet.

[Octafish]

36. WIPP it good went bad -- don't know as there seems to be a news void.

Not much on the tee vee, but the good folks at the national desk of the LA Times thought it'd be a good story.

Cause of New Mexico nuclear waste accident remains a mystery

By Ralph Vartabedian
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 23, 2014

A 55-gallon drum of nuclear waste, buried in a salt shaft 2,150 feet under the New Mexico desert, violently erupted late on Feb. 14 and spewed mounds of radioactive white foam.

The flowing mass, looking like whipped cream but laced with plutonium, went airborne, traveled up a ventilation duct to the surface and delivered low-level radiation doses to 21 workers.

The accident contaminated the nation's only dump for nuclear weapons waste — previously a focus of pride for the Energy Department — and gave the nation's elite ranks of nuclear chemists a mystery they still cannot unravel.

Six months after the accident, the exact chemical reaction that caused the drum to burst is still not understood. Indeed, the Energy Department has been unable to precisely identify the chemical composition of the waste in the drum, a serious error in a handling process that requires careful documentation and approval of every substance packaged for a nuclear dump.

SNIP...

The 15-year-old plant, operated by a partnership led by San Francisco-based URS Corp., "does not have an effective nuclear safety program," the investigation found.

CONTINUED...

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nuclear-waste-accident-20140824-story.html#page=1

Which is weird, because this should be all over the news, just as a public safety thing. And yet I keep thinking this is a democracy (thanks, Bill Moyers!), yet I don't remember voting for anybody standing for this crap. It really is like Twilight Zone, Rhett-san, the atomic nightmare next door:

[rhett o rick]

38. What is the "permanent" storage plan for tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste?

There is no plan for the permanent storage of nuclear waste. Without a plan, the waste is apparently going to be stored "temporarily" forever around the country on what are called parking lots.

From the EPA:

Nuclear Energy
Every 18 to 24 months, nuclear power plants must shut down to remove and replace the "spent" uranium fuel.3 This spent fuel has released most of its energy as a result of the fission process and has become radioactive waste.

All of the nuclear power plants in the United States together produce about 2,000 metric tons per year of radioactive waste.4 Currently, the radioactive waste is stored at the nuclear plants at which it is generated, either in steel-lined, concrete vaults filled with water or in above-ground steel or steel-reinforced concrete containers with steel inner canisters. In addition to the fuel waste, much of the equipment in the nuclear power plants becomes contaminated with radiation and will become radioactive waste after the plant is closed. These wastes will remain radioactive for many thousands of years.

Is there nuclear waste in your state?

Taking the lead on a major problem for many states, South Carolina and Washington state went to court Tuesday demanding that the Nuclear Regulatory Committee provide a place to permanently store radioactive waste.

"I think the problem is demonstrated by the recent events in Japan in that storing it near communities is great while it works, but if something goes wrong, people are exposed to great risk," said Andrew Fitz, assistant Attorney General, Washington state.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-there-nuclear-waste-in-your-state/

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. bookmarking entire thread.

With a sick feeling in my stomach.

[JEB]

41. K&R for the original post and subsequent informative posts and links.

So much good information.