skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The end is nigh, bitches.. Natural News. Excerpts:
A lot of people believe the world as we know it is going to end on December 23, 2012. Nonsense, I say. The far more honest answer is that the end of the world as we know it has already begun. And it doesn't mean the end of the world; it means the closing of one era and the birth of a new one. It is a transition between the ages. This particular transition, however, promises to be the most tumultuous and costly transition humankind has ever seen.
But don't wait around for December 2012 to look for the signs. Here are 14 signs that the world as we know it is unraveling right now. We are living through the end of one era and the birth of a new one. In the future, they'll look back and call this all one moment in history, but when you're living through it, it seems to move forward at almost a snail's pace. But make no mistake: We are living through the opening chapters of the end of the world as we know it, and on the other side of all this will emerge a new world that's very different from the one we know today.
#1 - Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis
#2 - The silence of the bees (Colony Collapse Disorder)
#3 - The failure of nuclear science (In a word, Fukushima..)
#7 - The runaway destruction of the world by energy companies (Ahh.. Delicious Corexit!)
#11 - The plummeting intelligence of the masses
#13 - The ongoing pharmaceutical pollution of our world
#14 - The radioactive contamination of the global food supply
Get the whole list and descriptors at the link. It's a tad disturbing to see them all grouped together like this, but then again, maybe more people will understand the severity of our collective situation. Probably not, though..
Japan races to restart reactors’ cooling system
The Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the station 140 miles north of here, said it hoped to connect the electric cord to the cooling equipment inside the facility later today in an attempt to stabilize the reactors that were damaged by the powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan eight days ago. They were planning to start with Reactor No. 2, which was seen spewing steam, perhaps containing radioactive particles, on Friday. Engineers apparently think that reactor is better suited to test whether the pumps needed to circulate cooling water will function than other reactors that are more severely damaged.
Officials cautioned that restoring electricity to the reactor would prove fruitless if the pumps were not working. In that case, a new cooling system would be needed, leading to more delays in an emergency that has bedeviled the power company and the government, and caused anxiety and frustration overseas.
Japanese government missteps in response to disasters
One week after an earthquake and tsunami spawned a nuclear crisis, the Japanese government conceded Friday it was slow to respond to the disaster and welcomed ever-growing help from the U.S. in hopes of preventing a complete meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant.
The entire world was on alert, watching for any evidence of dangerous spikes in radioactivity spreading from the six-reactor facility, or that damage to the Japanese economy might send ripple effects around the globe.
As day broke today, steam rose from Unit 3, an unwelcome development if not a new one that signaled continuing problems. Emergency crews faced two continuing challenges at the plant: cooling the nuclear fuel in reactors where energy is generated and cooling the adjacent pools where thousands of used nuclear fuel rods are stored in water.
Turkey sends 33-member rescue team to Japan
The Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate said in a statement on Thursday that Turkey was sending the rescue squad at the request of Japanese authorities. The team, which also includes experts from the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) and the Ministry of Health, were expected to depart for Japan on Friday evening. Three vehicles, two trailers, 40 dosimeters and five sets of radiation measuring equipment are also being sent to Japan.
UR researchers search for new ways to treat radiation exposure
While experts struggle to understand the risks posed by the crippled nuclear reactors in Japan, Jacqueline P. Williams heads up research at University of Rochester on radiation exposure treatments.
Williams, who has a doctorate in radiation biology from the University of London, oversees a $36 million federally funded project at UR that is part of an initiative called the Centers for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation. Seven American research universities are part of this network funded by the National Institutes of Health.
For almost six years, UR researchers have been involved with this project and are working with a handful of drug companies to better understand the effects of radiation on tissue and to develop drugs to treat exposure.
"If the situation deteriorates further and there really is a full meltdown and breach of all the containers, there will indeed be some long-term risks to people subjected to the fallout. That's where our research would be applicable," she said.
At least somebody's been studying this..
After the week that shook Japan, the nation starts to count the cost
Not surprisingly, the debate has already begun: can this battered nation ever rise again? Japan had, after all, been sliding for two decades before the Pacific tectonic plates shifted with such explosive force last Friday – its economy overtaken by China, its population ageing and its people saddled with the developed world's largest public debt. But this is also a nation that has a remarkable, perhaps unique, history of rebirth after destruction on a biblical scale. In 1923, a 7.9-quake and tsunami famously levelled much of Yokohama and Tokyo, killing at least 100,000 people; the anniversary of the tragedy, 1 September, is now an annual disaster prevention day. Quakes have regularly brought the city to its knees and even the national icon, Mt Fuji, looms threateningly 100km away, always ready to spew ash down on the world's largest metropolis.
Radiation Plume Hits Alaska
For the past week, Unalaska—the most populous island on the Aleutian Chain—has seen jaw-dropping sunrises. The snow-covered ridges have glowed pink and sherbet orange rather than their typical gray, and the unusually pleasant weather has been the most talked-about subject in this fishing town. But the radioactive cloud that could put an end to these sunny days? A close number two.
"What a beautiful morning," wrote resident Laresa Syverson on Facebook this Monday, just as anxiety over the nuclear crisis in Japan was settling in. "The mountains seem to be radiating." That post popped up in my newsfeed between links to a bogus map showing where the fallout from the failing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was expected. Alaska’s Aleutian Islands were squarely in the red zone.
global markets began to wobble uncontrollably. Billions upon billions of dollars were being hauled out of one market and dumped into others, only to be replaced within hours as conflicting reports and false reassurances served to unnerve already jittery traders.
When the world turned upside down
Stockmarkets took a hammering on Monday and Tuesday. They rebounded on Wednesday, but it was a half-hearted affair and they failed to recover much lost ground. By Thursday, the simmering uncertainty over the extent of Japan's potential nuclear meltdown had traders fearing the worst, and with good reason.
Yesterday, in an emergency telephone hook-up, leaders of the world's seven biggest economies frantically began efforts to cobble together a strategy that would restore some order to gyrating currency markets as the spectre of yet another financial crisis loomed.
..
Had the world's third-biggest economy been in robust financial health and the global financial system ticking over nicely, the disastrous events of the past week - even without the threat of nuclear catastrophe - would have put a serious dent in global growth, at least for the rest of this year.
Status of quake-stricken reactors at Fukushima nuclear power plants Full list at link:
The following is the known status as of Friday night of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture, which were crippled by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the ensuing tsunami on March 11.
Reactor No. 1 - Operation suspended after quake, cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, building housing reactor damaged March 12 by hydrogen explosion, roof blown off, seawater being pumped in.
Reactor No. 3 - Operation suspended after quake, cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented, seawater being pumped in, building housing reactor badly damaged Monday by hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation measured nearby on Tuesday, plume of smoke observed Wednesday and presumed to have come from spent-fuel storage pool, seawater dumped over pool by helicopter on Thursday, water sprayed at it from ground on Thursday and Friday.
Reactor No. 4 - Under maintenance when quake struck, no fuel rods in reactor core, temperature in spent-fuel storage pool reached 84 C on Monday, fire Tuesday possibly caused by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, fire observed Wednesday at building housing reactor, pool water level feared receding, renewed nuclear chain reaction feared, only frame remains of reactor building roof.
Live Radiation Monitoring from West LA on USTREAM (Video stream)
Japan Raises Nuclear Severity Level (Video)
Full Core Meltdown in Japan? From Rense.com
Possibly it's ongoing and concealed. All along, Japanese and Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) officials downplayed or lied about the severity of the crisis. Virtually nothing they say can be believed.
Nor from the Obama administration, budgeting loan guarantees for new reactor construction instead of decommissioning all 104 nuclear plants because operating them risks full core meltdowns. Partial or full ones gravely harm earth, air, water and food. Three hazardous Fukushima radioactive isotopes are especially problematic. University of Rochester Professor Jacqueline Williams, a radiation expert, says ingesting radioactive iodine-131 causes thyroid and other cancers. So does hazardous beta and gamma radiation from Cesium-137. Released Strontium 90 also causes leukemia and other cancers. Large amounts of all three are spewing daily.
Under a worst case scenario, millions of Japanese, Pacific rim and northern hemisphere people will be harmed, many gravely. Millions of deaths may result. The dangers of nuclear power can't be overstated. Potentially, all planetary life is threatened. What better reason to end all commercial and military use now.
Japan lays power cable in race to stop radiation From Sympatico.
Exhausted engineers attached a power cable to the outside of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear station on Saturday in a race to prevent deadly radiation from an accident now rated at least as bad as America's Three Mile Island in 1979.
..
"If they can get those electric pumps on and they can start pushing that water successfully up the core, quite slowly so you don't cause any brittle failure, they should be able to get it under control in the next couple of days," said Laurence Williams, of Britain's University of Central Lancashire.
If not, there is an option of last resort under consideration to bury the sprawling 40-year-old plant in sand and concrete to prevent a catastrophic radiation release.
That method was used to seal huge leakages from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Nuke engineer: Fuel rod fire at Fukushima reactor “would be like Chernobyl on steroids”
We’d be lucky if we only had to worry about the spent fuel rods from a single holding pool. We’re not that lucky. The Fukushima Daiichi plant has seven pools for spent fuel rods. Six of these are (or were) located at the top of six reactor buildings. One “common pool” is at ground level in a separate building. Each “reactor top” pool holds 3450 fuel rod assemblies. The common pool holds 6291 fuel rod assemblies. [The common pool has windows on one wall which were almost certainly destroyed by the tsunami.] Each assembly holds sixty-three fuel rods. This means the Fukushima Daiichi plant may contain over 600,000 spent fuel rods.
So when people say the situation isn't serious, they're either ignorant, in denial, unable to comprehend the enormity of the unfolding situation, or flat out lying to you.
The moment nuclear plant chief WEPT as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people From The Daily Mail..
The boss of the company behind the devastated Japanese nuclear reactor today broke down in tears - as his country finally acknowledged the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens.
After Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Akio Komiri cried as he left a conference to brief journalists on the situation at Fukushima, a senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis.
He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said: 'The unprecedented scale of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, frankly speaking, were among many things that happened that had not been anticipated under our disaster management contingency plans.
'In hindsight, we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and coordinating all that information and provided it faster.'
As "frank" as this "disclosure" is, it's got to be sooo much worse..
Nuclear crisis: Inside Fukushima's exclusion zone. From BBC.
The video is horrible: You are looking at soon to be dead people. No one's coming for them, and they know it. For these people, it will be at once a quiet, reflective, gray, inevitable, angry, numbed, and yet, at times, a beautiful and poignant passing. But what's left of the streets will remain quiet, as they are now, as they will be when the last one goes.. Each individual, microcosm, and town shuts down at roughly the same time. Recent and terrible events have shocked them into quiet. Ultimately, the radiation will still them.
These people are the tragedy of "not with a bang; but a whimper.."
Physicist: "What They Are Doing Is Basically Using Squirt Guns Against a Raging Forest Fire" ... Japanese Should Use the Chernobyl Approach Instead From awesome sauce Washington's Blog..
It's not effective, because the workers cannot get close enough to put water here. That's why I would personally advocate the Chernobyl option. Do what Gorbachev did, call out the Japanese air force, get the army to bring a fleet of helicopters armed with sand, boric acid and concrete, entomb it, bury it in concrete.
Japan nuclear plant: exposed to the elements - nuclear fuel in meltdown
Open to the elements after its walls were blown away, this is the dried-up storage pool where overheating fuel rods are threatening a nuclear meltdown at Japan's stricken Fukushima power plant.
Close-up pictures of the devastated No 4 reactor building show the gaping hole through which radiation is escaping into the atmosphere as the rods break down.
..
A week after the Fukushima Daiichi plant was crippled by the earthquake and tsunami, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the situation remained "very serious". Graham Andrew, the scientific and technical adviser at the UN safety body, said there had been "no significant worsening" of the situation, but the No 4 unit remained "a major safety concern".
And:
Photographs taken from an aircraft by an employee of the company which owns the power station showed for the first time the full extent of the damage to the reactor units, three of which suffered explosions following a failure of its cooling system.
In unit No 4, a whole wall is missing from the area where spent fuel rods are stored while they cool to a safe temperature.
Inside the building, a green-painted crane, which is normally used to move the fuel rods, caught the daylight flooding into the hall.
Beneath the crane, just out of shot, is the pool holding the fuel rods, which should contain water 45ft deep but which has now boiled dry.
Nuclear Emergency - Fukushima nuclear reactor - JAPAN LIES !!!! 15-03-2011 WE WANT THE This guy shows the media blackout happening in Japan. He did a good job holding his anger, but it's there, and he's correct: The Japanese deserve the truth, whatever that truth is. He asks that you spread his video, so help me spread it, please..
The Ongoing Events at the Fukushima Dai'ichi Nuclear Plant No. 1 Two days old now, so outdated, but a great background for understanding how the situation has grown and mutated.
VIDEO: TEPCO Releases New Aerial Footage of Crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors From Bradblog.
New aerial footage released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) today details even more of the extensive damage to numerous reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following explosions at reactor Units 1 through 4 which occurred in the days following last weekend's record earthquake and tsunami.
Radioactivity found in airline passengers landing in U.S. From The Examiner.
The New York Post reports that passengers who deplaned flights that had originated in Tokyo triggered radiation detectors in two major U.S. airports.
The flights, which arrived yesterday in Dallas and Chicago, both had passengers who showed low levels of radiation. This was detected when the individuals passed through customs.
Swedish Government: Radiation To Cover Entire Northern Hemisphere From Prison Planet. Found it on Before it's News..
Suggesting that levels of radiation leaks from the stricken Fukushima plant are being grossly under reported by Japanese authorities, a Swedish government agency told Reuters today that not only will the radiation reach North America, but it will subsequently cover the entire northern hemisphere.
..
“Stressing that the levels were not dangerous for people, he predicted the particles would continue across the Atlantic and eventually also reach Europe.”
..
Experts are correct in assuming that the initial waves of radiation will be low, but expect levels to rise in subsequent days as the effects of the three blasts to impact the Fukushima facility, which occurred on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, manifest themselves in the form of increased radiation injected into the atmosphere.
Radiation Spread Seen; Frantic Repairs Go On From The New York Times.
The first readings from American data-collection flights over the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan show that the worst contamination has not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.
But another day of frantic efforts to cool nuclear fuel in the troubled reactors and in the plant’s spent-fuel pools resulted in little or no progress, according to United States government officials.
Japanese officials said that they would continue those efforts — including spraying one of the reactors with water cannons on Friday afternoon — but that they were also racing to restore electric power to the site to get equipment going again, leaving open the question of why that effort did not begin days ago, at the first signs that the critical backup cooling systems for the reactors had failed.
The Corporate Spin begins.. General Electric Defends Nuclear Reactor Design Amid Japan Crisis
*Surprisingly*, from Fox 5, originally from the Wall Street Journal. Excerpts:
General Electric defended the design of a now-stricken reactor it supplied to Japan 40 years ago, saying its containment system was safe and reliable, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Fukushima No. 1 plant's reactor No. 1, which experienced a dramatic explosion Saturday, is equipped with a GE boiling water reactor with a so-called Mark 1 containment system. There have been concerns about that particular design for years, with critics saying it is not as robust as later models.
And:
GE dismissed that criticism, in what appeared to be its first comments about equipment it supplied Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).
"The BWR Mark 1 reactor is the industry's workhorse with a proven track record of safety and reliability for more than 40 years," Michael Tetuan, spokesman for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, said Monday. "There has never been a breach of a Mark 1 containment system."
Until Now. And there are how many now? Also not the wording "design for years." Also note the 1971 was 40 years ago. Continue on..
Reactors At Heart Of Japanese Nuclear Crisis Raised Concerns As Early As 1972, Memos Show
In the early 1970s, just as a number of reactors were about to be licensed, Stephen Hanauer, a senior member of the Atomic Energy Commission staff, suggested banning "pressure suppression" methods to contain radiation in the event of a meltdown -- methods built into General Electric's Mark I and Mark II containment designs as well as Westinghouse's ice condenser design. The advice was considered and disregarded.
"Steve's idea to ban pressure suppression containment schemes is an attractive one in some ways," Joseph Hendrie, then a deputy director with the AEC, wrote in a Sept. 25, 1972, memo. Hendrie acknowledged that alternative, "dry" containments -- featuring the towers or domes commonly associated with nuclear plants -- had the "notable advantage of brute simplicity in dealing with a primary blowdown, and are thereby free of the perils of bypass leakage."
But regulators ultimately decided that the technology developed by General Electric and Westinghouse was "firmly embedded in the conventional wisdom." Banning it, Hendrie wrote, "would generally create more turmoil than I can stand." His memo was obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists through a Freedom of Information Act request.
..
Today, three of six GE reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan are in danger of meltdown after a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. And 31 aging GE reactors of the same design -- 23 of them with Mark I containment systems and eight of them with Mark II--continue to operate in the U.S., raising concerns among both politicians and scientists. The Mark I containment is rectangular, the Mark II cylindrical. This NRC document explains the two in more detail.
..
NRC Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko told reporters Monday that all U.S. nuclear plants "are designed to withstand significant natural phenomena like earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis. We believe we have a very solid and strong regulatory structure in place right now."
..
But industry watchdogs see the fateful decision regulators made almost 40 years ago -- to choose political and economic pragmatism over tougher safety standards -- as endemic in the culture of the NRC as it deals with the prevention of low-probability, high-consequence accidents.
..
They were designed to withstand a pipe break, not a meltdown," he said. It wouldn't take a major earthquake or a tsunami to knock out primary and backup power and push the systems to the breaking point; a hurricane or tornado could suffice.
..
A 1975 report for GE by a team of scientists and engineers found that the company's boiling water reactors were more vulnerable to seismic events than pressurized water reactors -- such as Three Mile Island -- designed by Westinghouse and other firms.
"The PWR [pressurized water reactor] design is inherently more seismic resistant because of lower reactor vessel placement and the need to design for larger LOCA loadings," the report said. LOCA is an acronym that stands for loss of coolant accident -- the type of accident triggered by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. GE's research team said it would push to make the company's newer reactors more able to withstand earthquake-related stresses.
..
In 1986, former NRC official Harold Denton told a group of utility executives that, according to commission studies, GE Mark I reactors had "something like a 90 percent probability of that containment failing" under accident conditions.
Read the whole article.
Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant
Japan ordered emergency workers to withdraw from its stricken nuclear plant Wednesday amid a surge in radiation, temporarily suspending efforts to cool the overheating reactors.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers, who have been dousing the reactors with seawater in a frantic effort to stabilize their temperatures, had no choice but to pull back from the most dangerous areas.
"The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," Edano said, as smoke billowed above the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. "Because of the radiation risk we are on standby."
This is happening, and it's rapidly spinning out of control..
Health risks of radiation depend on dose, duration Frequently Asked Questions.
People are stocking up for the long term..
Magnitude 6.0 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
69 km (42 miles) SSE of Mito, Honshu, Japan
95 km (59 miles) E of TOKYO, Japan
112 km (69 miles) ENE of Yokohama, Honshu, Japan
117 km (72 miles) SE of Utsunomiya, Honshu, Japan
NHK World TV streaming here.
What will spark the next Fukushima?
The gung-ho nuclear industry is in deep shock. Just as it and its cheerleader, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were preparing to mark next month's 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident with a series of self-congratulatory statements about the dawning of a safe age of clean atomic power, a series of catastrophic but entirely avoidable accidents take place in not one but three reactors in one of the richest countries of the world. Fukushima is not a rotting old power plant in a failed state manned by half-trained kids, but supposedly one of the safest stations in one of the most safety-conscious countries with the best engineers and technologists in the world.
Chernobyl blew up not because the reactor malfunctioned but because an ill-judged experiment to see how long safety equipment would function during shutdown went too far. So, too, in Japan, it was not the nuclear bits of the station that went wrong but the conventional technology. The pumps did not work because the power supply went down and the back-up support was not there because no one had thought what happened was possible.
Even though Japan had been warned many times that possibly the most dangerous place in the world to site a nuclear power station was on its coast, no one had taken into account the double-whammy effect of a tsunami and an earthquake on conventional technology. It's easy to be wise after the event, but the inquest will surely show that the accident was not caused by an unpredictable natural disaster, but by a series of highly predictable bad calls by human regulators.
Seismic Disaster, Nuclear Catastrophe, Continuing, Immediate, and Short-Range Dangers, Global Implications
Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes Excerpts:
A special feature of the Mark 1 design is that the used fuel, also called spent fuel, is stored within the reactor building in a swimming pool-like concrete structure near the top of the reactor vessel. When the reactor is refueled, the spent fuel is taken from the reactor by a large crane, transferred to the pool, and kept underwater for a few years. This spent fuel must be kept underwater to prevent severe releases of radioactivity, among other reasons. A meltdown or even a fire could occur if there is a loss of coolant from the spent fuel pool. The water in the spent fuel pool and the roof of the reactor building are the main barriers to release of radioactivity from the spent fuel pool.
An explosion associated with Unit 1 occurred on March 12, at 3:36 p.m.2 At first the authorities stated that this was in the turbine building next to the reactor building. However, it is the reactor building roof and part of the walls near the roof that were completely blown off leaving only a steel skeleton at the top of the building. This indicates an explosion inside the reactor building – probably a hydrogen explosion, since hydrogen is much lighter than air, it would accumulate near the top of the building. The explosion therefore seems to have occurred near the level where the spent fuel pool would be located in a Mark 1 reactor.
..While Japanese authorities have stated that the reactor vessel is still intact, there has been no word regarding the status of the spent fuel pool structure, except indirectly (see below). Is it still intact? This is a critical question as to the range of potential consequences of the reactor accident.
The Idiocy and Hubris of Engineers: Will GE Get Whacked for the Catastrophic Failure of its Nuke Plants in Fukushima?
GE, the company that boasts that it “brings good things to life,” was the designer of the nuclear plants that are blowing up like hot popcorn kernels at the Fukushima Dai-ichi generating plant north of Tokyo that was hit by the double-whammy of an 9.1 earthquake and a huge tsunami.
The company may escape tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in liability from this continuing disaster, which could still result in a catastrophic total meltdown of one or more of the reactors (as of this writing three of the reactors are reported to have suffered explosions and partial meltdowns, and all could potentially become more serious total meltdowns with a rupture of the reactor container), thanks to Japanese law, which makes the operator--in this case Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) liable. But if it were found that it was design flaws by GE that caused the problem, presumably TEPCO or the Japanese government could pursue GE for damages.
In fact, the design of these facilities--a design which, it should be noted, was also used in 23 nuclear plants operating in the US in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Vermont--appear to have included serious flaws, from a safety perspective.
Remember: Any ONE of these events would be catastrophic. Combine them, then throw in some secondary economic impacts. The micro to macro perspective of this unfolding event is staggering, even if the best possible-ending occurs.
Wind patterns have changed,Tokyo in direct wind of Fall out, Rad levels rising Wind direction simply explained.
VIDEO: Now There's A Volcano Erupting In Japan
Global Jet Stream Forecast (March 13-21st)
Fukushima Reactor 2 Hit By Loud INTERNAL Explosion
At 6:14 a.m. a loud thud rocked Reactor 2 of Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, quite unlike the previous two blasts that blew apart the surrounding structures. This time the explosion occurred inside the steel containment chamber that surrounds the core reactor. The containment chamber captures and holds runoff water and condensed steam that escapes from the core reactor.
TEPCO and the nuclear safety agency have not explained the process that led to the blast.
In Monitor 3, the chemistry of splitting water molecules into hydrogen gas and supercharged oxygen was explained. In the first two blasts, these volatile gases recombined outside the reactor unit and blew apart the concrete rooms.
This third and latest blast is one of internal combustion.
At Japanese nuclear plant, a battle to contain radiation (Video)
Japan's prime minister says radiation has leaked from damaged reactor (Video)
Radiation Leaps After Reactor Fire; Tokyo Gets Warning
Japan warned radioactive levels had become "significantly" higher around a quake-stricken nuclear power plant on Tuesday after explosions at two reactors, and the French embassy said a low-level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within hours.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility north of Tokyo to remain indoors, underscoring the dramatic escalation of Japan's nuclear crisis, the world's most serious since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.
Other than some random human interest stories, there seems to be no good news coming from anywhere in Japan.
Winds at Japan Power Plants Should Send Radiation out to Sea. From Accuweather.com. IF this were to happen, then it would take this amount to reach the West Coast.
The wind direction may impact where the radiation goes both at a local level and even across the globe. The wind direction at both of these locations are similar since the Onagawa power plant is located just to the northeast of Fukushima power plant.
"The exact direction of the winds would have to be known at the time of the release of a large amount of radiation to understand exactly where the radiation would go," according to Expert Senior Global Meteorologist Jim Andrews.
It is unknown when a large release of radiation would occur, if at all, at this point.
Military Crew Said to Be Exposed to Radiation, but Officials Call Risk in U.S. Slight
The Pentagon was expected to announce that the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, which is sailing in the Pacific, passed through a radioactive cloud from stricken nuclear reactors in Japan, causing crew members on deck to receive a month’s worth of radiation in about an hour, government officials said Sunday.
The officials added that American helicopters flying missions about 60 miles north of the damaged reactors became coated with particulate radiation that had to be washed off.
This would be why wind direction is important: Tokyo nuke cloud crisis From The Sun. Excerpts(Emphasis theirs):
JAPAN is teetering on the brink of nuclear catastrophe amid fears a radioactive cloud could envelop Tokyo's 13million residents.
The Foreign Office warned Brits to avoid the capital as it was feared a SECOND nuclear reactor was heading for meltdown after Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
And there were heightened concerns early today following a hydrogen blast 170 miles north of Tokyo at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. (That one's mine..)
About that fallout map from yesterday.. An opposing opinion. Japan nuclear fallout map - HOAX
Man found alive two days after being swept 15km out to sea
A Japanese man who was swept 15 kilometres out to sea in the tsunami was plucked to safety yesterday after being spotted clinging to wreckage, officials said.
A Maritime Self-Defence Force destroyer rescued Hiromitsu Shinkawa, 60, after discovering him floating on a piece of roof in waters off Fukushima prefecture two days after the disaster struck.
The man, from the city of Minamisoma, which was destroyed, was swept out along with his house after the tsunami.
Explosion rocks another Japanese nuclear reactor building
Fresh white smoke rose again Monday from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, caused by an explosion at a building tied to the facility's No. 3 reactor.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that, according to the head of the nuclear facility, the container vessel surrounding the reactor is still intact. Initial reports suggest that radiation levels rose following the explosion late Monday morning, but Edano said he does not believe there has been a massive leak.
"We are now collecting information on the concentration of radiation," he said.
..
The secretary said that water continues to be injected into the plant's No. 3 reactor. That fact, and the pressure levels, has led authorities to believe that the reactor itself remains intact.
Japan's nuclear crisis and Chernobyl: key differences Articles of this nature will be later looked upon as the Voice of Reason during an irrational time, or hopelessly naive. At the moment, that is no one's call..
CNBC Anchor Grateful No More Money Was Killed In Japan
Even Gawker was astonished..
Wow! This must be seen to be believed. CNBC's Larry Kudlow talked about Japan's earthquake yesterday: "The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that." It's hard to say if this was a blooper or just a horrible thing he actually believes?
Japan Earthquake: before and after
Aerial photos taken over Japan have revealed the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
Note how scoured everything is..
Gosh, when you put it that way, it really does sound kinda serious.. Possible Fukushima Nuclear Fallout Projections For the U.S, Two Plants Meltdown Underway
Piers Corbyn: Massive Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Were Triggered by Solar Action From Infowars.com.
Weather Action owner Piers Corbyn says “The massive Japan Earthquake and Tsunami were triggered by massive events on the Sun and there are more to come in the next two years”
Incredible swarms of fish form off coast of Acapulco: But was surge caused by tsunami thousands of miles away?
The shores of Acapulco's beaches were this weekend teeming with masses of fish packed so tightly they looked like an oil slick from above.
Thousands of sardines, anchovies, stripped bass and mackerel surged along the coast of the Mexican resort in an event believed to be linked to the devastating Japanese tsunami. The Pictures are really cool, and since it's Mexico, there's no quake damage.
Nuclear plant blast 'appears to have caused meltdown' Reprinted courtesy of Stratfor Global Intelligence. Linked from TheAge.com.au..
A meltdown occurs when the control rods fail to contain the neutron emission and the heat levels inside the reactor thus rise to a point that the fuel itself melts, generally temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing uncontrolled radiation-generating reactions and making approaching the reactor incredibly hazardous.
A meltdown does not necessarily mean a nuclear disaster.
As long as the reactor core, which is specifically designed to contain high levels of heat, pressure and radiation, remains intact, the melted fuel can be dealt with. If the core breaches but the containment facility built around the core remains intact, the melted fuel can still be dealt with — typically entombed within specialized concrete — but the cost and difficulty of such containment increases exponentially.
However, the earthquake in Japan, in addition to damaging the ability of the control rods to regulate the fuel — and the reactor’s coolant system — appears to have damaged the containment facility, and the explosion almost certainly did.
Tsunami warning center raises magnitude of Japan quake to 9.1
The Japan earthquake was the fourth most powerful ever recorded with a magnitude of 9.1, twice more powerful than the initial estimate of 8.9, Gerard Fryer, geophysicist of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said this morning.
..
The new magnitude was adjusted based on the impact of the quake throughout the Pacific, he said. ”It fits all measurements, including in Hawaii,” Fryer said.
Will The Japanese Earthquake Be The Straw That Breaks Europe's Back?
So what will happen? Why a scramble for liquidity of course, just like we saw back in September 2008, when cash stricken companies sold all their liquid assets first, resulting in a toxic loop of self-fulfilling prophecy selling which almost tobbled(toppled?) the $25 trillion shadow banking system. And what will said Japanese insurance companies sell first? Why the very same Eurozone bonds they acquired with so much pomp and circumstance, by the minions of the insolvent Eurozone, back in January of course.
Every potential worst case scenario continues to spread wide, and rapidly..
If the totality of this experience wasn't intense enough..
Nuclear emergency declared at quake-damaged reactor
Japanese authorities are venting radioactive steam into the air after the earthquake on Friday critically damaged a nuclear reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The Japanese government on Friday declared a nuclear emergency at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station after the reactor's cooling system failed. The government ordered thousands of people living within 6 miles of the plant to evacuate. Early Saturday, it declared a nuclear emergency at a second power plant where a cooling system had also failed.
"It has the potential to be catastrophic," said Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and a former senior policy adviser to the Energy Secretary during the Clinton administration.
West Coast USA Danger IF Japan Nuclear Reactor Meltdown
Why would the west coast USA be in danger?
The prevailing jet stream winds are blowing from Japan directly across the Pacific ocean to the west coast of the United States. Any airborne radiation would make its way across with the jet stream, reaching the U.S. in approximately 36 hours, depending on the actual speed of the jet.
And:
Update,
Clarification from NHK World News Japan… a second location, Fukushima II, not far from the Fukushima I nuclear power plant, is also experiencing cooling problems. The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said equipment failures have made it impossible to cool 3 of the plant’s 4 reactors. (Translation: ‘impossible’ is not a good word).
And:
Update,
Reuters is now reporting that Tokyo Electric Power Company has lost ability to control pressure at some of the reactors at its Fukushima II (Daini) plant nearby the Daiichi power plant (Fukushima I), both suffering from core cooling problems. If battery power at Fukushima II is depleted before AC power is restored, the plant will stop supplying water to the core and the cooling water level in the reactor core will drop.
And:
Update,
Kyodo news reports, “the operator of the two plants in Fukushima Prefecture is set to release pressure in containers housing their reactors under an unprecedented government order, so as to avoid the plants sustaining damage and losing their critical containment function.” …”the action would involve the release of steam that would likely include radioactive materials”
Emergencies at 5 Japanese Nuclear Reactors; Radiation Levels Spike at Most-Affected Site
Radiation inside a Japanese nuclear reactor surged to 1,000 times its normal level after today's 8.9-magnitude earthquake knocked out power to a cooling system, and tsunami floods have hampered efforts to get it restored.
It reportedly was one of five Japanese nuclear reactors that lost cooling ability, prompting a race against the clock to install fixes.
In the worst case, at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's No. 1 reactor, heat-induced pressure built up inside the crippled reactor, prompting widespread evacuations within a 10 kilometer radius and stoking fears of a potentially catastrophic radioactive event.
Japan Issues Nuclear Evacuation Video.
High probability Fukushima reactor core melting down-cesium detected UPDATED
THIS could be very bad.. URGENT: Concerns of core partially melting at Fukushima nuke plant
Potential Nuclear Fallout Map
"Radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident, 1986"
This disaster now has Global implications.
Posts
