News about Fukushima

[RobertEarl]

Recently, a robot sent in to inspect the core of one reactor failed in a matter of hours.

The first signs of nuclear waste polluted water in the Pacific were found off a dock near Vancouver.

Continued air emissions have been reported from the 3 wrecked reactors as well as continued water discharges for 4 years now.

The plan to remove spent fuel from more pools at the plant has been postponed, leading some to think it was all just a lie that they truly planned to be able to do removal anytime soon.

Other than that there is no good news at all coming from Fukushima.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Other than that?

I didn't see any 'good' news in there at all.

[RobertEarl]

3. It hasn't blown up completely.

They have managed to ... well, not put a lid on it, like they did Chernobyl.... and sure there are still over 150,000 people homeless, but the whole place hasn't blown sky-high. The cameras still work!!!

For more read ENEnews.com.. Warning: only read enenews if if you have a strong heart.

[NuclearDem]

2. ...

[Octafish]

4. Ha ha. It is to laugh.

If Fukushima wasn't a global disaster, would we be seeing the United States raising limits of "acceptable" radiation without public debate?

If things were OK, where's the radiation monitoring data the EPA was supposed to be collecting for the public?

If things were OK, why the need for censorship in Japan's media and the de-facto news boycott in the USA?

[DeSwiss]

5. +1000

[NuclearDem]

8. Four brazillion dead from Chernobyl!

[SoLeftIAmRight]

12. I do not know that number... seems you just make up stuff. I know this...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/02/cuba-chernobyl-health-children?CMP=ema_565

Eleven-year-old Olga enters the beach house in flip-flops, her hair still wet from a dip in the Caribbean. "I really like it here," she says. "The food is great, the beach is awesome. I made some fantastic friends."

A typical child's reaction to a beach holiday, perhaps – only this is no ordinary seaside break. Olga is a Ukrainian "Chernobyl child", in Cuba not for a holiday but to undergo intensive medical treatment with some of the country's best doctors. She goes to school along with 180 other Ukrainian children. "I miss some bits of my home town," she muses. "But I don't ever want to leave."

Olga is one of more than 18,000 Ukrainian children to have been treated over the years at the Tarara facility near the Cuban capital, Havana. The programme was set up in 1990 to treat the victims of the world's most devastating nuclear accident four years earlier.

A steady procession of children with bald heads, skin lesions and other malformations have since benefited from splashing in the clear blue Caribbean waters. Twenty-three years after Chernobyl, the Cuban programme is still going strong. Remarkably, children born years after the disaster still suffer physical consequences of the meltdown that irradiated large parts of Ukraine and Belarus; equally remarkably, despite isolation and economic miasma, Cuba still manages to tend to them...

[JEB]

14. Thanks for the link.

Important stuff in so many ways.

[Katashi_itto]

20. Naw not brazillions dead just "Chernobyl Death Toll: 985,000, Mostly from Cancer"

(But we all know what your response will be)

This past April 26th marked the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident. It came as the nuclear industry and pro-nuclear government officials in the United States and other nations were trying to “revive” nuclear power. And it followed the publication of a book, the most comprehensive study ever made, on the impacts of the Chernobyl disaster.

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment was published by the New York Academy of Sciences.

It is authored by three noted scientists:

Russian biologist Dr. Alexey Yablokov, former environmental advisor to the Russian president;

Dr. Alexey Nesterenko, a biologist and ecologist in Belarus; and

Dr.Vassili Nesterenko, a physicist and at the time of the accident director of the Institute of Nuclear Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

Its editor is Dr. Janette Sherman, a physician and toxicologist long involved in studying the health impacts of radioactivity.

The book is solidly based — on health data, radiological surveys and scientific reports — some 5,000 in all.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-book-concludes-chernobyl-death-toll-985-000-mostly-from-cancer/20908

[NuclearDem]

21. I didn't actually think anyone would parade that study out.

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/04/04/evidence-meltdown/

Like John Vidal and many others, Helen Caldicott pointed me to a book which claims that 985,000 people have died as a result of the disaster(14). Translated from Russian and published by the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, this is the only document which looks scientific and appears to support the wild claims made by greens about Chernobyl.

A devastating review in the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry points out that the book achieves its figure by the remarkable method of assuming that all increased deaths from a wide range of diseases – including many which have no known association with radiation – were caused by the accident(15). There is no basis for this assumption, not least because screening in many countries improved dramatically after the disaster and, since 1986, there have been massive changes in the former eastern bloc. The study makes no attempt to correlate exposure to radiation with the incidence of disease(16).

[Octafish]

22. Monbiot, the ''Liberal'' champion of nuclear power.

Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power

Closer to reality:

Why George Monbiot is completely wrong on nuclear power

Still hating on Helen Caldicott, I see. Too bad, there's a lot you can learn from her.

[NuclearDem]

23. All he did is cite Radiation Protection Dosimetry.

They're the ones that called that study out as pure crap, not him.

[Octafish]

24. Yeah. And that was in 2011. We've learned a lot since then.

Some have tried to share what they've learned. Others have tried to cover it up.

I know what side I'm on. It's not TEPCO's.

[NuclearDem]

25. Yes, because there are only two sides in this...

Either with the incompetent fucks at TEPCO, or with the liars and publicity hounds like Caldicott.

Only.
Two.
Options.

[Octafish]

26. There's also the condescension and contempt for those who oppose nuclear power.

That's a tell on DU.

[NuclearDem]

27. Yes, because you and Robert are the bastions of the anti-nuclear movement here.

[Octafish]

33. It's the democratic thing to do.

Someone has to do it, seeing how nuclear news is censored by the governments of the USA and Japan and others with nuclear power and weapons. Take Israel, I mean India, they don't talk much about their program:

Cancer behind 70% deaths in India's atomic energy hubs

V Narayan & Malathy Iyer, TNN (The Times of India) | Sep 7, 2014, 01.32AM IST

MUMBAI: Cancer caused almost 70% of the 3,887 health-related deaths in the atomic energy hubs across the country over the last 20 years, an RTI reply has revealed. In all, 2,600 succumbed to cancer in 19 centres between 1995 and 2014.

The query to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which, like the others, is under the Department of Atomic Energy, had another shocking revelation: 255 employees took their own lives while in harness in the same period, meaning an average of almost one every month over 20 years. Investigations showed they were mostly over prolonged illness or family problems.

Cancer is among the top ten killers in India, and accounts for around 7% of the roughly 9.5 million annual deaths, as has been estimated by the Centre's ongoing Million Deaths Study.

"But such high cancer mortality (as in the DAE centres) is alarming and needs to be analyzed further to check if it occurred among people who were in touch with radioactive material or among the non-scientific staff," said Dr Altaf Patel, a senior physician and former teacher at J J Hospital, Byculla, about the data.

The data was procured by activist Chetan Kothari. TOI repeatedly tried to contact BARC's head of media relations R K Singh, but could not get a response.

CONTINUED...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cancer-behind-70-deaths-in-Indias-atomic-energy-hubs/articleshow/41895908.cms

When it came to Fukushima, a matter of global impact, RobertEarl and made a point of sharing what we know and learn. Why do you find that objectionable?

[NuclearDem]

35. Right, that's what I find objectionable about these posts.

Not that they're, you know, completely baseless and ridiculous.

[Octafish]

36. Show where I've posted anything ''baseless and ridiculous'' regarding Fukushima.

Otherwise, you are just stating, you know, your opinion.

[NuclearDem]

37. It's been pointed out to you countless times, Octafish.

I'm not going to play this game with you, because you and I both know you'll never actually admit to being wrong--instead, it'll just be a "smear" or some variation on "TEPCO propaganda" or "anti-democratic."

[RobertEarl]

32. Yeah, there is that, Octafish

But people who fight for environmental rights have learned to expect such treatment from Big Business supporters.

'Twas ever thus.

[Octafish]

34. Weird isn't it?

Rather than shed light on Fukushima and atomic power, those with money and resources have done all they can to confuse the issues. Take hired PR gun TEPCO Rose. Once a big shot US SEC lawyer and now a UK regulator extraordinaire, Lady Barbara Judge 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.



I don't recall writing that I was an expert. I've tried to make it clear where I got my information so DUers can learn more or, if it's wrong, show why. Instead, some posters write like they've put us on a list to be monitored. How fascist is that?

[RobertEarl]

38. Yeah fascist like

I think Fukushima scares some people senseless and then they re-actively post on DU. Might be they feel if they can censor it, it will all just go away?

Obviously they are not wise to environmental studies. Were they, they would understand the natural links being broken by the excessive radiation and join in in ending nuclear power.

[RobertEarl]

6. And: The Blob: Pacific Warm Patch Baffles Scientists

A gargantuan blob of warm water that’s been parked off the West Coast for 18 months is part of a larger pattern that helps explain California’s drought, Washington’s snow-starved ski resorts and record blizzards in New England, according to new analyses by Seattle scientists.

The researchers aren’t convinced global warming is to blame, which puts them at odds with other experts who suspect Arctic melting upset the “polar vortex” and contributed to the misery on the East Coast the past two winters.

University of Washington climate scientist Nick Bond coined the term “The Blob” to describe the pool of water, up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than usual, that blossomed offshore in the fall of 2013. It’s still there, hundreds of miles wide and stretching from Alaska to Mexico.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112783963

******************

I am not sure that the polluted water from Fukushima is the cause of the Blob, but since what has transpired from Fukushima is unprecedented, it could be a factor.

[hobbit709]

9. Once again you believe in things that aren't related.

Next you'll blame time-traveling radiation.

[RobertEarl]

11. Not related? Pacific ocean is a relation.

Nuke plants are made to heat water, right?

And nuclear spent fuel, when contained {but it so happens much Fukushima material is in the Pacific, see the cesium found at Vancouver?} create heat for years and years.

Not only that, but when the earthquake tore up the piping and the 3 active cores puked their guts, that puke went right into the ocean. Hot stuff, man. Hot stuff.

[hobbit709]

16. Do you know any science at all?

The volume of water involved is way beyond our pitiful attempts. But then you've never let science get in the way of the crap you spout.

[RobertEarl]

29. You remind me of 20 years ago

20 years ago when I would talk about climate change I would get almost the exact type of response from the deniers as you present here.

[hobbit709]

30. Every time I see one of your nonsensical claims I think of what Olbermann said about Palin.

[RobertEarl]

31. Yet you follow me?

You present no science, no explanations, no nothing but harping on me in any of your replies. That is an obsession you have and you give hobbits a bad name in the process. Please, just stop.

While you are pondering your next reply, check wikipedia for what cesium does when placed in water.

[zappaman]

10. "I am not sure that the polluted water from Fukushima is the cause of the Blob"

Understatement of the year!

[Orrex]

18. Steve McQueen will save us from The Blob!

[DeSwiss]

7. K&R

- As my Daddy used to tell me: ''Nobody gets out of life alive anyway, so you might as well laugh!''

The last vid is especially for you RobertEarl.....
[center]

[/center]

[JEB]

15. "You can't see it, and you can't smell it either "

[malaise]

17. K & R

What a freaking mess

[Pooka Fey]

19. K&R

[n2doc]

28. Here's some good news

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112784020

Japan court halts reactor restarts