cluster fukushima. "only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. and...
TRANSCRIPT
Cluster Fukushima
"Only two things are infinite: The Universe and human stupidity. And I'm not certain about the
former." —Albert Einstein
WELCOME to Fukushima, where the radiation's so bad it can be fatal within 20 minutes. The tsunami may have
happened some 33 months ago, but the fallout just keeps getting worse.
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
The nuclear catastrophe we were all told was “no big deal,” has now escalated into the worst nuclear disaster
in the history of human civilization.
Japanese media is reporting that the intensity of radiation levels is now at its highest levels ever.
Never in the history of humankind has the planet been confronted with such a grave set of circumstances. Fukushima represents all that can go wrong when
scientific applications and technological advancement within a crude industrial context have gone awry.
Just as humankind learned from the folly of dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Fukushima
has served as an example of how not to implement nuclear power generation.
Another earthquake could cause a disaster 10 times worse than that experienced in Chernobyl.
Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind, as highly radioactive gases and
liquids continue to be released into the environment unabated. The scope of this problem is almost
unimaginable.
The radioactivity on site has been measured at 25 Sieverts (Sv) per hour. A total dose of two Sv is
regarded as severe radiation poisoning. Six Sv produces a 100 per cent mortality rate after 30 days of suffering.
The water used in a desperate bid to "cool" these fuel rods has been steadily leaking into the soil and seeping
into the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Clean-up workers have begun the process of moving 1533 fuel rods from the raised cooling pool in Reactor 4
of the crippled plant. This is considered a vital task as the weakened structure is likely to topple in any future big earthquake. If it collapses, the fallout would likely
be 10 times worse than that experienced in Chernobyl.
The process involves 36 volunteers using a crane to reach down into the pool to pluck the fuel assemblies out of the pond and lift them into a waiting protective
cask. These are then trucked to a nearby - more secure - storage facility. The process is expected to last well into
2014. And that's just for one reactor.
There are three other reactors needing similar attention. They have similar numbers of fuel rods. All were running at the time of the tsunami and suffered
differing degrees of "melt-down."
The containment and retrieval process is using vast quantities of water to keep the fuel rods "cool." So
much, in fact, there is nowhere left to store it.
Tepco has already cut down the forest surrounding the plant. In its place are 1000 massive metal storage tanks
holding 360,000 tons of radioactive water. It needs storage for a further 270,000 tons.
Radiation contamination of the harbor alongside the Fukushima plant has been steadily rising in the past
three years. Leaking groundwater and accidental spills during the clean-up operations are the most likely
contributors.
Rainwater appears to be the biggest problem. Storms have been filling the low-lying areas and basements of the wrecked nuclear plant with water. This water then
leeches through the ground to the nearby coast.
Tokyo has the largest greater metro population in the world at about 34.3 million. Tokyo has the largest GDP of all major cities in the world – larger than both New York City and London. Tokyo is the economic/financial capital of the world’s 3rd largest national economy, as
well as the primary economic engine of East Asia.
There is no discernible end in sight to this tragedy, radiation will continue to seep into the Pacific Ocean for
decades. These toxins will remain dangerous for hundreds of generations and will disperse throughout the
planet. The sickness and contamination resulting from the disaster will last for hundreds of generations.
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full melt-through. A "melt-through" is far worse than a core meltdown and is the worst possibility in a nuclear accident. Hotspots
contain up to 500-700 times what is normal.
The No.1 reactor's core began suffering damage three hours after the March 11 earthquake. Five hours after
the earthquake, the pressure vessel of the No. 1 reactor was damaged. Fuel rods at the heart of reactor No. 1
melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the disaster struck.
A "major part" of the fuel rods in reactor No. 2 melted and fell to the bottom of the pressure vessel (a melt-through) 80 hours after the earthquake and tsunami.
The same thing happened within the first 60 hours at reactor No. 3
Radioactive substances rose to about 5 kilometers when a low pressure system passed over eastern Japan on March 14-15. The substances were blown eastward
by a jet stream traveling at a speed of some 3,000 kilometers a day, arriving on the US West Coast on March 18, in Iceland on March 20, and many other
European countries on March 22.
From the great and magnificent whales to the variety of microscopic life, this entire vast ecosystem has been
poisoned. Yet, we will never know the immense extent of death and destruction that Fukushima caused to it.
Even knowing that the ocean food chain is contaminated with radioactivity, this was not reported
by mainstream media. Everything that lives near the Pacific will be at risk to some degree.
Across the nation and world, stocks of popular food fish are collapsing, so that more than half could be effectively
fished to "commercial extinction" by mid-century. The familiar species we have come to know at the fish counter
will no longer exist in numbers high enough to catch.
The ocean ecosystem is undergoing vast changes as whole schools of fish, whole categories of predator and prey, are being wiped out. Fisheries experts say even if
the salmon fishery remained wide open there would not be any salmon left to catch. Salmon may already be
commercially extinct.
Something is killing the starfish in record numbers on the West Coast, affecting waters from Alaska to
Southern California, causing millions of starfish to fall apart and melt away. When it strikes it kills nearly
every sea star in the area. It’s happened so rapidly that some species are just missing.
Canadian Pacific Fishermen Catch No Sardines in 2013. Commercial fishermen off the coast of British Columbia
came home this fall without having caught a single sardine! This is having repercussions all the way up the
food chain. The sardines drive the whole system, supporting virtually everything.
Pacific Herring are now dying off in record numbers as well, bleeding out from their eyeballs, faces, fins and tails. Everything eats herring—from whales to striped
bass to seabirds. Without abundant herring stocks, the ocean food web doesn’t work.
Hundreds of sea turtles are washing up dead on Pacific coast — Dogs stop breathing and die almost instantly
when eating them!
These animals are suffering from ‘beta burns,’ which are caused by significant external exposure to ‘beta
emitters’ such as radiostrontiums, which were released in copious quantities into the Pacific Ocean.
Contaminated water from Fukushima reactors could double radioactivity levels of US coastal waters in 5 years.
Scientists say the only safe level of radiation is zero. YET, governments set ‘safe limits’ for radiation in food well
above zero???
Two and a half years on and all
Tepco does is pour 100,000
gallons of water a day on the
rubble covering the three
melted nuclear cores.
Dumping sea water on them
was largely unsuccessful. We will never
know how many millions
of tons of radioactive water were
dumped into the Pacific
Ocean.
This "treading water" by Tepco brings the world no closer to a solution to the present danger of the melted
cores of three nuclear reactors represent.
The “Elephant's Foot" is a blob of corium that was cooled before it burned through the basement of the
Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor.
There is speculation that the three melted cores may have already or may in the future reach a state of criticality; meaning reach a state of nuclear chain
reaction.
The Pacific Ocean has become an enormous radioactive garbage dump of incalculable proportions that are
beyond any remediation currently known to science.
So, the fishing industry is catching and selling various fish and crustaceans that are radioactive. Profits always
trump our safety and well-being.
Fish captured just 12 miles from the Fukushima nuclear plant were contaminated with 258 times the level government deems safe for consumption. The fish
registered 25,800 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.
A study of 15 Pacific Bluefin Tuna caught off San Diego in August 2011 found radioactive cesium 10 times
higher than in fish caught in previous years.
So, the fishing industry is catching and selling various fish and crustaceans that are radioactive. Profits always
trump our safety and well-being.
While millions will develop various radiation-related illnesses (cancers and diabetes, as well as radiation-
induced miscarriages, stillbirths and birth deformities) over the next decades, the coffers of the medical
profession, pharmaceutical companies, and nuclear industry will be bursting with profits.
A new study reports that the Fukushima radiation plume contacted North America at California “with
greatest exposure in central and southern California,” and that Southern California’s seaweed tested over
500% higher for radioactive iodine-131 than anywhere else in the U.S. and Canada.
This massive and frightening crisis is the result of no precaution, no prevention, and no care or concern for
human or any other kind of life on our planet.
Most of the world community is still unaware of the extremely profound and far-reaching effects that the
Fukushima nuclear disaster has had. If the nations of the world really understood the implications of the actual
‘fallout’ – past, current and future – the current nuclear energy paradigm would be systematically shut down.
None of this is mainstream news. The dangers of the nuclear age continue to mount with off-the-scale
disastrous results to all of us.
Governments – including both Russia and the United States – have been covering up nuclear meltdowns for
50 years and covering up the dangers of radiation for 70 years.
The nuclear industry and nuclear regulators worldwide, as well as specifically in the United States, have
continually covered up disasters and radiation releases as if they never happened or posed no danger to the public.
They actually fund their regulators, The NRC in the United States and the IAEA for the world.
The NRC has long served as little more than a lap dog to the nuclear industry, unwilling to crack down on unsafe reactors. The agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
nuclear power industry.
In America today, if the mainstream media does not cover something it is almost as if it never happened.
The corporate-owned mainstream media is not interested in looking out for us. Rather, they are going
to tell us whatever fits with the agenda that their owners are pushing.
A contentious bill for protection of state secrets — being deliberated in the Upper House — even keeps secret what pieces of government information have been designated as special secrets and could punish
people who try to obtain them.
Citizens — including journalists and members of civic groups, for example — could be punished up to 10
years imprisonment for trying to access government-designated secrets even if it is done in a casual manner.
They could be accused of “conspiracy” for discussing approaching government officials for pieces of
information that happened to have been designated as special secrets, or “incitement” for just asking officials to release such information. Even if they have no way
of knowing beforehand whether the information they’re seeking is a designated secret.
For those of us who are in the know, it is incumbent upon each of us to disseminate the relevant
information/data necessary to forever close down the nuclear power industry around the globe.
Ever since the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan, Barack Obama has struggled to get congressional funding for the construction of a whole new generation of nuclear
power plants—a $54 billion cash cow that will be levied upon the already broken backs of American taxpayers.
Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation
has been among Barack Obama's
biggest campaign donors, and is one of
the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was
senator.
The main trade group for the nuclear power industry spent $545,000 in the first quarter lobbying financial
support for new reactors and safety regulations.
The disaster continues to contaminate the surrounding environment and upper atmosphere with large doses of
radioactivity.
The disaster at Fukushima will be seriously affecting our environment and the health of millions of people for decades to come. Large numbers of people living in
northern Japan now have radioactive urine and researchers in Fukushima are uncovering higher than
expected rates of thyroid cancer in children.
Fukushima is now the worst nuclear disaster in history. Sadly, our politicians and those that control the media apparently believe that it is better for us “not to panic”
than to receive the truth.
The Soviets decided to evacuate everyone that was living in areas where radiation was 3-4 times lower than
what is found in Fukushima City. The way that the Japanese authorities have handled Fukushima has been
a complete and total nightmare.
The situation in Japan is unprecedented, unappreciated, unmanageable and it remains out-of-
control: it is the worst industrial accident that humanity has ever faced.
Massive amounts of anthropogenic radionuclides were, and are still being, released! Little dissipation occurred
between 12 and 16 March 2011 due to the nature of the rapid global air circulation system, and the Fukushima radioactive plume contaminated the entire Northern Hemisphere during a relatively short period of time!
THESE 3 BLOWN-UP REACTORS ARE STILL LEAKING INTO THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE PACIFIC OCEAN, OVER
TWO YEARS LATER!
Astronomical amounts of highly fissile radioactive material have been spewing out of Fukushima unceasingly since three reactors melted down
March 15, 2011.
Fukushima is upwind of the United States and regions like the Northern California, the Northwest and Midwest
have been hammered by high radiation. Testing in St. Louis has repeatedly shown rainwater coming in at 62 times background radiation, a level that is dozens of
times more than what the EPA considers harmful.
Radionuclides that could have only come from the ongoing triple meltdowns 5,000 miles upwind and up-current in the Pacific Ocean, are making their way into
California crops. The fallout continues unabated at extremely high levels in rainfall across North America
and now in the Southern Hemisphere.
The radiation is continuing to contaminate parts of Korea, the Philippines, Hawaii, North America and even
Western Europe.
As the nuclear radiation is exported around the Asian Ring of Fire, genetic mutation will begin to affect every
form of life — from phytoplankton to whales, from seabirds to mangroves, from dolphins to krill.
The Japan gov’t discontinued radiation monitoring program, that had been operating for over 50 years,
weeks after meltdowns.
The amount of radioactive cesium that has leaked from a tsunami-hit nuclear plant is about equal to 168 of the atomic
bombs dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
Radioactive xenon-133 some 400,000 times normal levels was detected in the atmosphere in the U.S.
immediately after the initial crisis.
Uranium-239, whose half life is about 24 minutes, decays into neptunium-239 through beta-decay.
Neptunium-239, is a gamma-emitter whose half-life is about 2.4 days; it decays into plutonium-239, whose
half-life is 24,200 years. The amount of plutonium-239 has increased 23,000-fold.
The contaminated water from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident reached the international date line, about 4000
kilometers east of Japan, within 4 to 5 months after the accident. That would be in the July-August 2011 time frame.
The US government at the highest levels of the State Department, as well as other departments who made a decision to downplay Fukushima. Hillary Clinton signed a pact with Japan that she agreed there is no problem with Japanese food supply and we will continue to buy them so we’re not sampling food coming in from Japan.
Japan has amassed 70 tons of weapons-grade plutonium since the 1980s.
Radiation is likely being induced into falling out from the atmosphere from the thousands of mysterious and officially denied aerosol trails streaked across this and
other nations’ skies worldwide.
The food supply is becoming contaminated by Japanese radiation and the U.S. government and the mainstream media
is ignoring the massive health problem that one nuclear expert claims is 70 times worse than the Ukraine nuclear
disaster at Chernobyl.
Living at higher altitude and the farther West, exposes one to more of this deposition from the radionuclides riding in the jet stream compared to living at sea level.
California almonds, dried prunes and pistachios test high for Cesium-134 and Cesium-137. Grass-fed
Missouri beef shows presence of likely Fukushima-originated Cesium-134, Cesium-143, Neptunium-237, Antimony-124, Cobalt-60, Silver-110m, Actinium-228, Barium-140, Strontium-01, and other radionuclides.
As of 10/23/2012, America restarted importing beef from Fukushima. They are being sold at high-end
restaurants. However, US has been importing fishery products from Japan right along, as before.
The plant continues to release massive amounts of radiation into the environment. As of December 27, 2012, according to
TEPCO, the company that is running the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 10 MILLION BECQUERELS OF CESIUM 134 AND 137 IS
STILL BEING RELEASED EVERY HOUR from reactors 1, 2, and 3!
The situation on the ground at the crippled reactors remains precarious with present conditions being far beyond what has ever been imagined or planned for.
The ground around the plant is getting hotter and the ocean more contaminated each day. The Fukushima
disaster caused by far the largest discharge of radioactivity into the ocean ever seen.
Roughly the same amount that went into the atmosphere.
The airborne radioactive contamination rides the jet streams, circling the Northern Hemisphere every 11
days.
The radioactive particles get more lethal during the first 30 years as one radioactive metal changes to Plutonium 239, the
more lethal bomb-making isotope grown in reactors.
Men, women and teens will die in seven minutes in the wrecked reactor buildings; robots croak in about two hours
from the intense neutron flux. It is not enough time. This will continue for at least ten years; more likely much longer.
As of December 2013, no one has yet stepped into reactor buildings 1, 2, or 3! No one knows what is
happening inside.
Tepco is scheduled to run out of Fukushima workers and industrial robots long before then. Then all bets are
off.
Japan has clearly shown that this disaster is way beyond their ability to manage and capacity to address
in any meaningful way. Only a fully represented international think tank and implementation team has
any chance of formulating a strategy that might be successful at fixing Fukushima.
What does the future hold in store for the largest body of water on Earth. One that circulates more water than any other ocean and possesses more coastline than all
the others put together?
We need a Manhattan Project-type of intensity. If such a serious project was established in the interest of creating an
atomic bomb, surely a similar endeavor can be initiated in the interest of saving the same country, that was ravaged by
nuclear war, from Fukushima-generated radiation.
The radioactive particles have to stop coming out of the ground beneath the melted reactors in Japan before those
radioactive particles will stop coming down all over the Earth.
The Mark 1 reactors, built by General Electric, have design flaws. There are many of these same-designed
reactors in the US.
One of the latest scandals that puts profits over people is the decision to send radioactive earthquake/tsunami
debris all across Japan to be burned in incinerators.
Instead of containing the problem to the
already affected area, radioactive effluents
and fly-ash are spreading to landfills
as far away as Okinawa.
The method of burning the debris is fraught with danger since it is being done in normal waste disposal facilities not equipped to handle radioactive materials.
It is going up the tall smokestacks and is carried into the jet stream and circulating and depositing globally,
with the American West Coast being the first stop.
Initial reports suggest that some 32.6% of the radiation contained in the tsunami debris was released into the atmosphere, and the government is allowing fly waste
to be recycled into building materials.
This is extremely dangerous to human dwellers living in proximity to such toxic materials, as well as people
downwind.
We all breathe and eat the deadly isotopes in our food, and drink them in our water. Plus, the lethal metal isotope
particles are so small that they go right through our clothes and skin from the air.
Currently there are 440 nuclear power reactors in operation and 59 under construction. There are an
additional 250 so-called “research reactors” in existence, making a total of roughly 700 nuclear
reactors to be dealt with.
There are 493 new nuclear reactors planned or proposed globally as of Aug 10, 2010.
Nuclear power is not worth this. If you’re alive and breathing
there should be no way you STILL support
nuclear energy.