Japan Updates: May 14, 2011

Nuclear fuel at Fukushima No. 1 unit melted after full exposure  Kyodo News, via Godlike Productions. 

Water inside the troubled No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was at an unexpectedly low level, not enough to cover the nuclear fuel, hinting that a large part of the fuel melted after being fully exposed, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday based on data obtained by adjusted gauges.

Reactor 1 Melted Down, but Osama's porn stash is more important.

Radiation Levels Higher Than Chernobyl Evacuation Limits Span Over 800 KM in Japan  Alexander Higgins Blog.  Excerpts:

The latest joint US and Japan survey shows extremely high levels of nuclear radioactive contamination, with radiation levels higher than Chernobyl evacuation limits, now span over 800 kilometers in Japan.

Fukushima Live Cam 24/7  You Tube via Rense.

THREE Nuclear Containment Vessels Leaking in Japan ... But U.S. Law Is Based on Assumption that It Is Impossible for Containment Vessels to Leak  Washington's Blog.  Excerpts:

It is newsworthy that the operator of Japan's stricken nuclear plants is finally admitting that Fukushima reactor number 1 has melted down.

But nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that the containment vessels for reactors 1, 2 and 3 are all leaking.

However, Gundersen points out, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission assumes that containment vessels cannot leak and there is a "zero probability of containment leakage". U.S.. nuclear laws are based around that obviously false assumption.

Tokyo Japan Being Hit With MASSIVE Radiation May 13th 2011  You Tube via Rense.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Radiation on 2nd Floor of Reactor 1 Exceeded 1,000 Millisieverts/Hour  Ex-SKF via Rense.  Excerpts:

When 7 TEPCO employees and 2 NISA employees entered the Reactor 1 reactor building on early hours of May 9 (JST), the act that released mere 500 million becquerels of radioactive iodine and cesium into the atmosphere, they measured the radiation level on the ground floor which was 600 to 700 millisieverts/hour at the highest spot.

Then on May 10, someone went upstairs to the 2nd floor for the first time since March 11, and measured the radiation there. It was so high that the Geiger counter couldn't accurately measure.

It’s Official: Fukushima Was Hit With a Nuclear Meltdown  Gizmodo.  Excerpts:

The possibility of a meltdown has been floating in the air since the earthquake and subsequent explosions first rocked the roof off of Fukushima, spreading radiation, confusion, and displacement across the local populace (and beyond). Since then, TEPCO workers and the Japanese government have desperately struggled to keep the nuclear fuel rods inside the reactors cool—if they don't, the scorching material will melt into a pool of radioactive lava, further damaging the facility. That's the scenario everyone's been aiming to avoid—and that's the scenario we now know had actually occurred all along. Underneath all that dumped seawater has been lying a blob of melted fuel. And it could be melting its way out.

This admittance goes against every assurance TEPCO has handed the world in the midst of Japan's nuclear crisis—that the situation was bad, but that with emergency work, the plant would be mostly stable, and could be safely shutdown within the year. The worry now, beyond the fact that the damage to the reactor is far worse than imagined, is that a hole in the facility will lead incredibly contaminated water leak out like a faucet. A scalding, radioactive faucet.

So now what? "We will have to revise our plans," Junichi Matsumoto, a TEPCO rep, told The Telegraph. To say the least.

Blogger Issues

Prohibited me from posting yesterday.  Things seem to be back to normal now.  We shall see this evening..

The Freshness, Brought To You By The Sisters Of Sorcha Faal..

Rip In ‘Space-Time Vortex’ Over Russian City Shocks Scientists  Ahh.. That's the good stuff..

Japan Updates: May 11, 2011

Temperatures Rise In Reactor 3 Camera Distortion Hides Large Amounts Of Steam From Reactor 3  Videos and pictures from Lucas Whitefield Hixon.

Japan's TEPCO to sell assets to raise compensation funds  From RiaNovosti.  Excerpts:

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will sell assets worth more than $6 billion to raise funds to compensate victims of the country's worst nuclear crisis, Kyodo news agency has said.
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Analysts say total compensation claims may be over $100 billion.
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The JP Morgan financial services firm has estimated that TEPCO faces losses of $24.7 billion in the current financial year.

Nuclear collapse looms? Fukushima No. 4 reactor 'leaning'  Found it on Rense.  Video from Russia Today.

Japan nuclear crisis under review at 2-month mark  Official Story bullshit from CNN, with this sad, but not unexpected little nugget..

Nearly 80,000 people have spent two months away from their homes in the 20-kilometer (12.5-mile) zone around the plant, while tens of thousands more are awaiting orders to evacuate more distant towns where radiation levels are likely to raise the long-term cancer risk.
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About 100 residents from the village of Kawauchi were allowed to return home for a short visit.

They were issued protective gear, allowed to pack one small bag and spend two hours in their homes. Some returned to find pets -- left behind in the initial confusion -- dead of starvation, Japan's Environment Ministry reported Wednesday.

NEW video Destroyed Spent Fuel Pool SFP3 of Reactor Unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi 8 May 2011  Found it on Rense.  Video.

Japan to Oversee Tepco After Nuclear Crisis  From Bloomberg.  Excerpts:

Tokyo Electric accepts conditions set by the government including unlimited liability on payments to those affected by the accident at its Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, the company said in a statement today. Japan outlined the monitoring plan yesterday after Tokyo Electric Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and President Masataka Shimizu met government officials to seek financial help.

The plan for state-supervised support comes after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government isn’t considering nationalizing the utility. Merrill Lynch estimates Tepco may face claims of as much as 11 trillion yen ($136 billion). Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday he will reconsider Japan’s plan to increase its dependence on nuclear energy following the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl.

Japan Updates: May 10, 2011

Radiation Detected At Japan Nuke Plant's Reactor Building RTT News.  Excerpts:

Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, knocked out in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has been found to have increased levels of radiation inside one of its damaged reactor buildings, reports said on Monday.

According to its operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), radiation levels of 600-700 millisieverts were detected on the first floor of reactor one building. Radiation levels though measured 280 millisieverts inside the building's southern entrance. However, radiation exposure limit for workers has been pegged at 250 millisieverts per year.

After being disabled by the catastrophe, the power station has been letting out radiation into the air and sea.

U.S.-Japan joint survey reveals high radiation beyond evacuation zone.  asahi.com.  Excerpts:

The first map of ground surface contamination within 80 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shows radiation levels higher in some municipalities than those in the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant.

The map, released May 6, was compiled from data from a joint aircraft survey undertaken by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy.

It showed that a belt of contamination, with 3 million to 14.7 million becquerels of cesium-137 per square meter, spread to the northwest of the nuclear plant.

After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, those living in areas with more than 555,000 becquerels of cesium-137 per square meter were forced to relocate. However, the latest map shows that accumulated radioactivity exceeded this level at some locations outside the official evacuation zones, including the village of Iitate and the town of Namie.

"I am surprised by the extent of the contamination and the vast area it covers," said Tetsuji Imanaka, assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.

TEPCO submits compensation aid request to govt  Yahoo.  Excerpts:

The president of TEPCO on Tuesday submitted a request for Japanese government aid in compensating those affected by its stricken nuclear power plant, as the utility said it faced funding problems.

Presenting the request to trade and industry minister Banri Kaieda, Masataka Shimizu told reporters that TEPCO would undertake bold restructuring measures to help pay for damages caused by the world's worst nuclear accident for 25 years.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said in the submitted document that the company faced "an extremely severe situation regarding fund-raising such as loans from financial institutions, not to mention bond issuance."

What will the government do when TEPCO fully implodes? 

Good news.  Make it happen Soon..  Japanese Power Company Agrees to Reactor Shutdown  Excerpts:

A power company in central Japan says it is suspending operations at the country's fourth largest nuclear power station until it makes safety improvements. Monday's announcement comes after Japan's Prime Minister asked the plant to halt operations because of concerns over the facility's vulnerability to earthquakes and tsunami.

The Hamaoka plant of Chubu Electric Power sits on the Pacific coast in an area that seismologists say is long-overdue for a massive earthquake. By one government estimate, there is an 87 percent chance that a quake of magnitude eight or higher will strike in the next 30 years.

Chubu Electric President Akihisa Mizuno announced the decision at a news conference. Mizuno says the company has decided to stop reactors 4 and 5 and postpone plans to restart reactor 3, which is currently stopped for maintenance.

Radioactive mountain tops  Natural News.  Longish article.  Worth the read.  Excerpts:

Several Japanese are crying out about what is going on in Japan. Hirose Takashi is telling us that, "The nuclear power plants in Japan are aging rapidly; like cyborgs, they are barely kept in operation by a continuous replacement of parts. And now that Japan has entered a period of earthquake activity and a major accident could happen at any time, the people live in constant state of anxiety."

Ahmadinejad To Resign; Facing Arrest? Not So Fast..

Iran: No Sorcery But A Constitutional Struggle  Like others, I took this story at face value.  According to Moon of Alabama, the rumors of Ahmadinejad's political demise have been exaggerated.  Excerpts:

So there is sorcery within the Iranian government of president Ahmadinejad, allies of him have been arrested for it and he will step down?

Today Yves Smith links to a Raw Story piece which is headlined Iranian president may resign after allies arrested, charged with sorcery. Raw Story has no sources for that claim but a link to a Guardian piece which claims:

Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits).

Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".

The Guardian provides no source for its report but that Iranian website Ayandeh it links to.
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But back to the Guardian's source, the futurist Iranian/Swedish/Norwegian website ayandeh.nu. I can not find (google translate link) any article that would fit this as a source for the "sorcery" and "arrests" the Guardian reports. The website is a mix of futurology including from Vahid V. Motlagh, Iranian human rights stuff and a few news items about Iran. It is neither really Iranian nor a reliable source.

The whole sorcery and arrests claims are likely nonsense invented to make a little reported constitutional crisis within Iran's ruling class look more mysterious than it is.
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What astonished me was how little this whole issue was reported on in the "west" over the last weeks. That may well be because the "western" distorted viewpoint of Ahmedinejad as a "hardliner" who "lost the elections" and as the Iranian judiciary branch as "clerics" gives the wrong frame of reference to understand simple politics in Iran. Not understanding what was going on let reporters turn to nonsensical claims.

Having assumed the journalist who wrote this story did due diligence regarding its claims, I'm just as guilty as the others who passed this story on.  If it happens again, I will offer a correction as opposed to letting bogus information pass.  A fundamental struggle here in the beginnings of The Age of Aquarius is Discernment of Stimulus/Data.  Bad information should be addressed whenever it occurs.The Guardian provides no source for its report but that Iranian website Ayandeh it links to.

Japan Updates: May 9, 2011

Workers Prepare to Enter Fukushima Reactor as Radiation Level Falls

Tokyo's main electric power company is preparing to send workers inside a crippled nuclear reactor to begin rebuilding the unit's cooling system. Power company officials say a ventilation system has lowered radiation levels in the reactor building damaged in March by a massive earthquake and tsunami.

The Tokyo Electric Power company is to open the doors on the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 1 containment vessel, the thick concrete shell around the reactor core.

Its air has been so radioactive, a worker could be exposed only five hours before exceeding a safe limit. But an air filtration system installed Thursday has brought radiation down to a high, but more acceptable, level.

Workers are scheduled to enter it as early as Monday.

And:

In a related matter, Tokyo Electric reported a sharp rise in temperature at the nearby Reactor 3. It was at 202 degrees Celcius early  Sunday, up 40 degrees in less than a day, but still less than the normal operating temperature. Tokyo Electric plans to monitor the reactor closely.


Fukushima Daiichi Possible Reactor Fires - May 7th 2011  From You Tube via Rense.

How many days can the reactor temperature rise 40 degree Celcius and still be considered safe?

Yeah..  They're not gonna do that..  Japan lawmaker: Move parliament to Fukushima

CURRENT SECOND MASSIVE nuclear Reactor EXPLOSION JAPAN Fukushima 1 年3月14日 March 14th  I had not seen this footage before.

Wow..  Leaked Japanese religious document: "Radiation is a priceless spiritual gift."  Found it on Godlike Productions.  Excerpts:

The basic rhetorical tact is to demonstrate to the layman the fact that radiation gives rise to a conjunction of extremely powerful spiritual opportunities. The layman will ideally see resonances with familiar Buddhist concepts such as calm surrender to the inevitable, understanding birth and death as illusory, embracing the ultimate provisional nature of self, and so on.

As will soon become apparent, most people will be unable to leave Tokyo after the aquifer information is released next week. Your behavior as a holder of our lineage seal will be instrumental not only in helping laymen prepare themselves spiritually for this difficult reality,  but also to assist the authorities and His Majesty the Emperor in securing a  calm and orderly national polity. To this end, full cooperation with Shinto officials as well as Buddhist monks from other lineages is also necessary and this assumed. This will be the most difficult challenge of your religious career. Please exert your utmost efforts for the sake of national calm and order.
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Radiation is a form of extremely high-frequency vibration, containing massive amounts of energy. The layman can be led to understand that, as ultimately there is no separation between the spiritual and the physical, confronting radiation is a chance to confront and work with a form of vibration that contains more energy and power than the more familiar oscillations of daily life (night-day, winter-summer, happiness-sorrow, etc). Thus, by accepting this energy, the seeker has a chance to accomplish much more in a single lifetime than would be possible in many incarnations of lower-energy incarnations. Radiation presents a precious spiritual opportunity.

Thus, the seeker's energy merely transitions from one state to another within the same system. Ultimately, there is nothing to fear from being swept away by the high-energy tide of radiation.

I'd like to see more of this.  It..  Resonates.  Since the beginning of this year, the world vibe has been full tilt NO EXIT, and that was even before this nuclear madness.  Now, everything has a vaguely surreal feel as the doom situations multiply, pile up, fall, and crash into each other.  The whole world is being metaphorically and literally cornered, and yet we continue on, acknowledging nothing.

There will come a day soon when we are unable to continue our denial, and only then will we look for solutions and for strength.  This philosophy will provide comfort to many, many people who will need comfort.

Anonymous To Sony: We Didn't Hit You. But When We Do Hit You, You'll Know It..

"SONY, I AM DISAPPOINT"  (Anonymous via Godlike Productions)  Aww..  Sony just made a friend..  Excerpts:



For Immediate Distribution
Press Release
May 7th, 2011
A 'HiveMind Effort' from
Anonymous Holdings LLC (Bermuda)

Yesterday, an article appeared in Financial Times, alleging Anonymous' involvement in the data and identity theft of some hundred million users of Sony's Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment. This crime is now being investigated by the Homeland Security Agency (HSA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and other legal entities.

Once again Anonymous has been blamed for a security breach, this time by the  journalist Joseph Menn, in his article "Hackers point finger over Sony incursion" [1].  Here, Anonymous wishes to lay out our case against these allegations and false assumptions:
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Third, in the primary article, Menn claims that a "member" of Anonymous, Kayla, made comments as an apparent admission of guilt from the "leaders". Kayla reportedly said, "If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it". This statement is inherently weak; an equivalent statement would be that "I confess to being human. Humans performed the attack".
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Sony has been accused of false billing, especially in the repairs department: customers who provided credit card details for an MMORPG are charged $150 for repairs to PS3s that they don't own; repairs are double billed and then referred to retailers; equipment is charged $150 multiple times (2-4) for repairs that aren't performed. [7 and Further Reading]

And:

Outraged about the blatant cover up and shameful misdeeds, other Internet hacker groups will apparently proceed with attacks [9] over Sony's mishandling of the matter. These reactions prove that requesting legislation to cover up corporate crimes and the abuse of law is frowned upon by all online communities, not just the Legion of Anonymous. Apparently Sony will have to learn the hard way that corporate malfeasance will not go unpunished. When the dust settles Sony may have more to fear from a massive class action lawsuit by their user base than the brief actions of the Global Hacker Nerd Brigade, Anonymous... Let THE GAMEs begin. :>

UhBAM!

I Hope This Doesn't Become A Trend..

Flight diverted after man tries to open door in air  From chron Business.  Excerpts:

An unruly passenger forced a Continental pilot to divert his Chicago-bound flight from Houston to St. Louis on Sunday, after the passenger made an attempt to open an emergency exit door during the flight.

Twenty-minutes after Continental Airlines Flight 546 left Houston's George Bush Intercontinental, witnesses told authorities the 34-year-old passenger from Burbank, Ill., walked toward the front of the cabin, claiming he had to get off the plane.

There were loud screams on board as men throughout the cabin dashed toward the disturbance, said Sara Olkon, a former Chicago Tribune reporter who was on the flight.

"It was the sound of terror," she said.

The passenger attempted to open a door, said Lynn Lunsford, an FAA spokesman.

He did not succeed, as opening a pressurized aircraft door during flight is unlikely.
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There was no indication that the incident was related to terrorism, Continental Airlines spokeswoman Julie King said.

Police removed the unruly passenger's bags and "they didn't find anything in the luggage that was anything they had to investigate further," Lea said.

"There was no indication of anything different about this passenger until the actual incident, 20 minutes into the flight from Houston," Lea said.

None of the 160 passengers aboard the flight were injured.

Spectacular KRAZY from  people that you'd least expect.  This oughta spice up every day life..

Is The Pakistan/India Crisis Re-heating?

Pakistan troops along LoC put on high alert  From The Times of India.  Excerpts:

NEW DELHI: An embattled Pakistan Army has put its troops along the Line of Control (LoC) on a high state of alert as it scrambles to emerge from the embarrassment of having been caught unawares by the US troops, who raided the cantonment town of Abbottabad to take out Osama bin Laden.

According to authoritative sources, all units of Pakistani Army along the entire 740-kilometer LoC and the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line in Siachen were on Friday put on a "higher state of alert". Accordingly, "active deployment" has been beefed up along forward posts, said a senior official of Indian Army.

The officer said Indian Army has been careful not to respond to the high state of alert by Pakistan and "would not respond to it." Traditionally, the two sides are used to tit-for-tat responses to military actions.

Pakistan Army's move came a day after its corps commanders met with Army chief General Pervez Kayani to warn India against any misadventure. The statement was meant to be retaliation for remarks of Indian Army and Air Force chiefs that India has the capability to carry out an operation like the one executed by the US Seals in Pakistan

Great.  World War Three has a better than 50 percent chance of being started by shit talkin'.

Japan Quake: Latest Updates, May 8, 2011

Photos of fire at Fukushima on the night of may 8 japan time.

Official: Japan Won't Abandon Nukes Despite Crisis.  Ahh, but Fukushima's not over yet.  As it is, we're in the process of a global re-think regarding nuclear power.  If we're able, let's review statistics and mutations after this event's conclusion..

Anti-nuke protesters rally in Japan    From bdnews24.  Excerpts:
Several thousand Japanese anti-nuclear protesters marched in the rain on Saturday, welcoming a call from the prime minister to shut down a plant in central Japan and urging him to close more to avoid another nuclear crisis.

The surprise call from Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday to shut down Chubu Electric Power Co's Hamaoka plant followed pressure on the government to review nuclear energy policy after a Mar 11 quake and tsunami damaged another plant and triggered the worst disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Not surprising:  Bleak year predicted for Toyota, Nissan, Honda after Japan quake

Doors of No. 1 reactor building to open soon  Video from NHK via Rense.

There MAY Be A Two Year Window IF No More Big Quakes Hit  From Tom Burnett on Rense.  Excerpts:

The reactors can NEVER be placed in 'cold shutdown' because the cores are partially melted together. We are talking about hundreds of tons of fissile material inside reinforced concrete containment vessels. The containment vessels are cracked. They are releasing radiation. Fission excursions are still occurring and no one can go inside those containments for hundreds of years - even if they could crack one open.

They can continue to pour water on them and drain it off into the ocean because there is nothing else they can do. If they stop pumping water, the genie comes out. If they keep pumping water, it has to go somewhere and that somewhere is the ocean. It is still stop gap. Those reactor cores cannot be put into 'cold shutdown' or dismantled or entombed. Never.

In Japan, it's already May 8th.  Did this indeed happen?

Forgotten About Libya? Short Answer: Gaddafi's Winning..

So Much For Libyan Rebel Oil Exports: Gaddafi Forces Destroy Last Fuel Tanks Under Rebel Control; NATO Land Offensive Now Unavoidable

And so the badly thought out experiment to supply Libyan rebels with a central bank, to be used to fund an "alternative" fuel industry comes to a prompt and fiery end. Reuters reports that "Libyan government forces destroyed four fuel storage tanks and set several others ablaze in rebel-held Misrata, dealing a blow to the port city's ability to withstand a government siege, rebels said on Saturday." Not surprisingly this fits in perfectly with the assumption first postulated by Zero Hedge that Gaddafi will destroy his entire oil infrastructure before letting it fall into "enemy" hands. This likely marks the end of the Libyan rebellion and will force NATO to launch a land offensive or suffer a crushing blow to its already shaky reputation as globocop, especially now that the US is in theory at least, out of the air campaign against Gaddafi. Which means that the boots on the ground are soon coming.
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And while NATO ponders how to best break to the world that it has failed in Phase 1 of the Libyan offensive, it appears that 1.6 million of barrels of oil will be out of the supply system for a long time. Furthermore, with developments in Syria and Yemen getting worse by the day, we are confident that geopolitical worries will once again trump margin hikes, and crude will promptly return in the triple digits within a week.

Tunisia warns Libya over shelling of border town

Tunisia warned Libya that it considered the shelling of a border town Saturday "extremely dangerous" and said it would take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty.

Close to 100 shells or mortar rounds fell on or near the Tunisian border town of Dehiba Saturday, causing no injuries but doing damage to one house, a Reuters witness said. The shelling sent residents scurrying for safety.

The town has been hit repeatedly by stray shells in recent weeks as forces loyal to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi battle rebels for control of the Dehiba-Wazzin border crossing.

Just because the news isn't covering Libya anymore doesn't mean the Libyan rebels themselves aren't forgetting their countrymen, because they are..