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O.J.'s son Jason did it, and O.J. was protecting him. Full video here: (One hour twenty minutes. Heavy handed and a little self congratulatory, but the premise and motive/narrative are Solid.)
Can you imagine the prosecution attempting to indict, much less prosecute O.J. had all this information been uncovered and disseminated during the investigation? Between Jason's rage issues, dead sibling, mental illness and institutionalization, previous assault history, hand to hand combat training, and more.. Everything presented about Jason Simpson points overwhelmingly towards his guilt. This information should have been part of the investigation, part of What We Were Told. But it wasn't.
After watching this video, I think Jason Simpson is guilty of the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, not O.J.. But don't take my word: Watch the video, then decide. The video is only up until April 29th, so hop to it..
Untrained labourers working in Japan’s nuclear industry
For decades, Japan’s nuclear power industry has claimed to be among the safest in the world, and presented itself as an icon of the technological prowess of Japanese capitalism. The radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has exposed not only inadequate safety procedures, but the industry’s exploitation of untrained and low-paid casual labourers.
Nuclear plants in Japan hire thousands of temporary and contract workers to undertake the most dangerous and physically demanding duties. In order to avoid exceeding official radiation levels, these labourers must rotate frequently as they perform tasks such as cleaning off contaminated water from reactor drywells and spent fuel pools with mops and rags, or filling drums with contaminated waste.
Citing statistics from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), the official government regulator, the New York Times reported on April 9 that contract workers made up 88 percent of the 83,000 workers at Japan’s 18 commercial nuclear power plants. At the Fukushima plant, owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), 89 percent of the 10,303 workers were contractors, subcontractors and sub-subcontractors, whose wages and conditions were generally far worse than those of TEPCO’s regular employees.
Takeshi Kawakami, a 64-year-old former worker who worked at the No.1 reactor at Fukushima in the 1980s, told the newspaper that when exposed to radiation, he usually did not last 20 minutes. “It was unbearable, and you had your mask on, and it was so tight,” he said. “I started feeling dizzy. I could not even see what I was doing. I thought I would drown in my own sweat.” (This is the kind of bullshit corporate-malfeasance-to-homicidal-negligence that unions prevent. There doesn't seem to be too much of a Government Regulatory presence here, either. Understand now, these are not hypotheticals. They happened, and happened as a matter of course. This is how unregulated corporate entities behave toward individual workers, and without any unions to stand in the way, this is how they will continue to behave. As a matter of course..)
OMG JAPAN IS SINKING!! ..APRIL 10 2011 PEOPLE ARE WAY TOO RELAXED ( ASLEEP) You Tube via Rense.
Japan Mulls to Move Capital over Disaster Worries Curious. From Sofia News Agency(Bulgaria) via Rense. Excerpts:
As powerful earthquakes continue to jolt Japan and radiation levels near Tokyo are rising, the Asian country's authorities are considering moving the capital to another city.
The most probable location for a new capital are Osaka and Nagoya, according to ITAR-TASS. Both cities are located near international airports.
Toyota to halve Japan domestic production in May
Japan's Toyota Motor Co. said Friday it would operate all its domestic plants at half normal volume from May 10 to June 3, citing problems with parts supply following the quake and tsunami disaster.
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A component supply crisis has strangled auto production in Japan and enforced a slowdown overseas in the wake of the March 11 disasters, and analysts say it will last several months amid continued power outages.
Tepco forced to compensate Fukushima evacuees Poor TEPCO, having to pay out so much hard earned cash to the thousands(Ultimately, millions) of people whose lives they've ruined. Sympathy, sympathy, sympathy.. Excerpts:
The Japanese government has ordered Tokyo Electric Power to pay compensation to 50,000 families forced to evacuate areas near the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, the first significant pay-out in what is expected to be a costly financial relief programme.
Tepco, which operates the Fukushima Daiichi plant, must pay each family Y1m ($12,000), or Y750,000 in the case of single-person households, putting the total cost of the pay-out at upwards of Y50bn. An executive said the company aimed to make the first payments in early May, after the first applications are accepted on Apr 28\
Siemens reconsiders nuclear ambitions Interesting in light of the Stuxnet conspiracy.
Store blood cells from Fukushima workers - Lancet letter
A group of Japanese doctors on Friday urged workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant to have their blood stemcells stored as a safeguard should they be exposed to life-threatening levels of radiation.
The technique entails storing so-called autologous peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs), which are immature cells that differentiate into blood cells.
PBSC transplants are often used in cancer treatment to boost depleted blood cell counts among patients who have had radiotherapy to destroy a tumour.
In a letter to the British medical weekly The Lancet, cancer specialists at four Japanese hospitals argued that it made sense to store blood from the hundreds of workers battling to save the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant from catastrophe.
You'll find this pretty exciting.. I'm looking forward to it.
Fukushima Falling Apart. Via Rense. Excerpts:
It’s been a month since the 9.0 Earthquake, tsunami, and the first of a series of explosions at the Daiichi reactors. Since that time, Japan has received 980 earthquakes and aftershocks: a number so staggering that it is almost incomprehensible. Numerous explosions have occurred as well, and every day it seems the Japanese nuclear and government official reveal a little more about the true nature of the on-going tragedy at Fukushima.
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A second JAIF press release is more concerning and revealing. If we read the fine print, we can note that “NISA announced that the reactor pressure vessel of Unit 2 and 3 may have lost air tightness because of low pressure inside the pressure vessel. NISA told that it is unlikely that these are cracks or holes in the reactor pressure vessels at the same occasion. (What?)
Nitrogen gas injection into the Unit 1containment vessel has been continued to reduce the possibility of hydrogen explosion since Apr. 6th. The pressure of the vessel has hardly risen for the past a few days and leakage of the vessel is suspected. The same measure will be taken for Unit 2 and 3.”. It appears that the reactors are continuous leaking, not too surprising given the hydrogen explosions that have rocked the reactors, but here a first confirmation of cracks within the reactors.
While the NHK and the Japanese Educational site on the Nuclear disaster keep us updated on #1 reactor’s pressure, their perception of it is that is has flat-lined. That perception is in sharp contrast to our own view. The current reactor pressure for #1 is 0.908 Mega pascals: a number nine times atmospheric pressure. If it’s cracked, as they Japanese say it is, it may be a double-edged sword. Pressure is being released, but it’s also massively building up.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesperson for a nuclear agency seems to continue to be wildly optimistic given the circumstances. “Even though some amount of radiation keeps leaking from reactors and their containment vessels, they are not totally destroyed and are functioning” I’m glad that other Japanese are being more transparent in their assessment. I can’t imagine anyone taking the view that they are functioning. In what possible way?
Russia's nuclear chief says Japan exaggerating crisis Huh.
SANYA, China — Japanese authorities may be exaggerating the scope of the country's nuclear disaster to reduce the liabilities of insurance companies, Russia's nuclear chief said on Wednesday.
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"It is hard for me to assess why the Japanese colleagues have taken this decision. I suspect, this is more of a financial issue, than a nuclear one," Sergei Kiriyenko said on the sidelines of a meeting of major developing economies in southern China.
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"I guess that maybe it could be linked to the definition of force-majeure with regard to insurance. I would pay attention to that. It is a bit strange," Kiriyenko said without further elaboration.
And:
Several experts have agreed that Japan's new rating exaggerated the severity of the crisis and did not compare with Chernobyl, which blew the roof off a reactor and sent large amounts of radiation across Europe.
Kiriyenko said the damaged plant should have initially been ranked at a 5 or 6, a level he said still matched the severity of the leaking radiation given the current low risk of a blast.
Kiriyenko's agency, Rosatom, is building a slew of reactors at three sites in energy-hungry India, which plans to fuel economic growth with 63,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2032.
Tsunami Risk Prompts Tepco to Move Fukushima Backup Power to Higher Ground
Tokyo Electric Power Co. will move backup generators at its crippled nuclear plant to higher ground away from the sea to ensure cooling systems aren’t disrupted by future tsunamis, as aftershocks rattle Japan.
“Emergency diesel-powered generators will be moved to higher ground, and work for connecting them into the power distribution unit will be carried out around April 19,” Takeo Iwamoto, a spokesman for the utility known as Tepco, said in Tokyo today. They will be placed 20 meters (66 feet) above sea level, double the current height, according to the company.
Aftershocks Threaten More Damage to Crippled Japan Nuclear Plant Excerpts:
Aftershocks rattling Japan after the nation’s record quake on March 11 may continue for at least six months, increasing the risk of damage to a crippled nuclear plant at the center of the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
“Aftershocks as big as magnitude-7 are likely to continue hitting in eastern and northern Japan for at least six months,” said Teruyuki Kato, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute.
Japan defends holding back nuke data Excerpts:
Official says high March radiation level hidden to avoid panic.
Japan's new assessment was based largely on computer models showing very heavy emissions of radioactive iodine and cesium on March 14-16, just after the earthquake and tsunami rendered the plant's emergency cooling system inoperative. The nearly month long delay in acknowledging the extent of these emissions is a fresh example of confused data and analysis from the Japanese, and put the authorities on the defensive.
Burial of Japan reactors trickier than Chernobyl: pump firm Excerpts:
AICHTAL, Germany — Encasing reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in concrete would present much more of a challenge than Chernobyl, according to an executive of the firm whose pumps are helping cooling efforts there.
"In Chernobyl, where a single reactor was encased, 11 trucks were in action for a number of months. In Fukushima we're talking about four reactors," Gerald Karch, chief executive of the technical business of unlisted machinery maker Putzmeister, said in an interview with Reuters.
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"In my opinion, when a closed-circuit cooling system has been developed and successfully set up, there will be no other option but to encase the reactors in concrete," he said.
Radioactive materials detected in more Chinese vegetables
China's Ministry of Health said Wednesday that "extremely low levels" of radioactive isotope iodine-131 had been detected in various kinds of vegetables in 12 provincial regions.
The radioactive isotope was found in spinach, asparagus, lettuce, cabbage, Chinese cabbage and other vegetables in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, according to a statement from the ministry.
"The detected amounts pose no threat to public health," said the statement, adding that a sample survey indicated no abnormality in drinking water. On both counts: Of course not.
Shock as Japan admits nuclear leak could be worse than Chernobyl
JAPANESE officials have admitted that the nuclear crisis in Fukushima could become worse than Chernobyl.
Officials said the total leak from Fukushima so far amounted to a 10th of the radiation emitted from Chernobyl, but could yet (Read: will soon.)eclipse the Ukraine disaster.
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The decision to upgrade the accident to the highest threat level was the subject of international criticism after Japan admitted delaying the announcement.
Workers at stricken Japan nuclear plant make a little progress
Workers Wednesday were a step closer to emptying highly radioactive water from a crippled reactor, which would allow them to start repairing the cooling system crucial to bringing one of the world's worst nuclear crises under control.
U.S. Nuclear safety regulator Gregory Jaczko described the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant as "static" rather than stable, because of the continuing struggle to cool the reactors badly damaged by a 15-meter tsunami on March 11, which was triggered by the biggest quake in Japan's recorded history.
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It is expected to take months before the damaged reactors will be cool enough. Some officials have speculated that the authorities may have to entomb the plant if the crisis drags on too long, the solution that was eventually used to close off Chernobyl.
High radiation levels in sea off Fukushima coast Via Rense. Excerpts:
The science ministry says radiation levels in seawater off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture are the highest since it began monitoring them about 3 weeks ago.
The ministry says the level of iodine-131 was 88.5 becquerels per liter in a sample taken on Monday in the sea about 30 kilometers east of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The figure is 2.2 times the government's upper limit for waste water from nuclear facilities.
And:
Radiation levels are higher in the sea to the north of the crippled plant.
The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says radioactive substances seem to be flowing and diffusing northward.
File Under: Are you shitting me? Edano: No need to change Fukushima response. Via Rense.
Japan's top government spokesman says there will be no change in the way the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is being handled.
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Edano stressed that raising the crisis level does not mean the situation is worsening. He said the upgrade was not due to a new emergency, but is based on the latest analysis of data.
Aftershocks Continue to Pummel Japan
It's not unusual, then, to read about the aftershocks of an earthquake; what's unique about the aftershocks in Japan, however, is their severity. Even a month later, quakes measuring greater than 5.0 on the Richter scale continue to be felt. While many of them are occurring well off of the coast of Japan, enough of them have been close enough to cause injuries, fatalities, damages and power outages. The beleaguered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, for one, was temporarily evacuated after a large aftershock on Monday caused extensive power outages.
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Due to the intensity of the original earthquake, exceptionally powerful aftershocks could continue for several months. Minor aftershocks, including ones that aren't even perceptible to humans, could keep happening for many decades to come. For the earthquake- and tsunami-wary people of Japan, the continuing geological activity is doubtlessly stressful and upsetting. Search and rescue missions are also ongoing, although hope is fading fast for any additional would-be survivors.
Chernobyl and Fukushima: a tale of two disasters
Categorisation can sometimes have a dramatic effect on how we perceive the world, and to learn yesterday that the nuclear debacle at Fukushima now officially ranks alongside that of Chernobyl in terms of seriousness appears to be an ominous worsening of the situation in Japan.
And:
How do the two incidents compare? Although Fukushima has spilt a lot of radioactivity into the environment, the full amount is still thought to be far below the amount released in the accident at Chernobyl 25 years ago.
Using the common measure of "terabecquerels", it is thought that about 500,000 to 600,000 terabecquerels of radiation has so far been released from the damaged Fukushima reactors, whereas Chernobyl is thought to have released between five and six million terabecquerels, about ten times as much. (Again, an Apples and Oranges argument. Chernobyl: One reactor; contained. Fukushima: Four--potentially six-- reactors, ongoing.)
Japan economy to take hit from quake, nuke accident
Japan cut the outlook for its economy on Wednesday for the first time in six months, saying last month's devastating quake and tsunami would hurt growth, with no sign yet when the nuclear crisis they triggered might be brought under control.
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After recent fears of possible contamination in the region, neighboring China said that the impact there had been small, noting the amount of radiation was about one percent of what it had experienced from the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.
The total cost of the March 11 triple disaster has been estimated at $300 billion, making it the world's most costly natural disaster.
Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen demonstrates how Fukushima's fuel rods melted and shattered
Video
Pakistan Tells U.S. It Must Sharply Cut C.I.A. Activities
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan has demanded that the United States steeply reduce the number of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and Special Operations forces working in Pakistan, and that it halt C.I.A. drone strikes aimed at militants in northwest Pakistan. The request was a sign of the near collapse of cooperation between the two testy allies.
When it ends, this alliance will not end well..
Japan raises nuclear alert level to seven Found it on Rense. Excerpts:
Japan is to raise the nuclear alert level at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to a maximum seven, putting the emergency on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Nuclear safety officials had insisted they had no plans to raise the severity of the crisis from five – the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 – according to the international nuclear and radiological event scale.
But the government came under pressure to raise the level at the plant after Japan's nuclear safety commission estimated the amount of radioactive material released from its stricken reactors reached 10,000 terabecquerels per hour for several hours following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country's northeast coast on 11 March. That level of radiation constitutes a major accident, according to the INES scale.
The scale, devised by the international atomic energy agency, ranks nuclear and radiological accidents and incidents by their severity from one to seven.
Japan orders extra nuclear safety step as aftershocks jolt Excerpts:
Japan has ordered nuclear plant operators to put in place new safety measures by April 28 in addition to steps imposed late last month that are soon due for checks by authorities to confirm implementation, the trade ministry said, as another series of aftershocks on Monday jolted the eastern region.
There has so far been no serious damage reported at five nuclear plants in northeast Japan, including the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, as a result of Monday's magnitude-6.6 earthquake.
The ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) on Saturday ordered nuclear power companies to install at least two emergency diesel engines even at reactors that are not in operation and are kept at low temperatures, such as at the Higashidori plant.
All reactors, whether being operated or shut for maintenance or other reasons, need power to run their cooling functions for fuel rods located in pressure vessels and spent-fuel pools.
More Obstacles Slow Crews In Japan Nuclear Crisis Excerpts:
Emergency workers continue to run into problems at Japan's stricken nuclear complex. Workers are trying to remove the radioactive water from the tsunami-ravaged compound and restart the regular cooling systems for the dangerously hot fuel.
Officials still don't know where the radioactive water is coming from, though government spokesman Yukio Edano (YOO'-kee-oh EHD'-ah-noh) has said some is "almost certainly" seeping from a damaged reactor core in one of the units.
Explained: rad, rem, sieverts, becquerels A guide to terminology about radiation exposure
Chilling example of liquefaction's effect on reclaimed land.. under a portion of a megalopolis. Imagine walking around on land you knew was recently created where water once flowed, conscious of the hundreds of thousands of people around you, also unsure of what's next, walking on, near, and though untold tons of concrete, large, continuous cracks forming everywhere..
And you know for sure: The ground has begun to give.
Another earthquake strikes northeast Japan Excerpts:
Another powerful aftershock struck near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Tuesday afternoon, shaking buildings in Tokyo.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at 2.47pm local time (1547 AEST), had a magnitude of 6.0 and hit less than 11 kilometres below ground.
Japan has experienced more than 400 major aftershocks stronger than 5.0 in magnitude since the 9.0 earthquake which unleashed a devastating tsunami on March 11.
One Month After Disaster, American Red Cross Donations To Japanese Red Cross To Reach $100 Million
Magnitude 7.1 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
23 km (14 miles) SW (223°) from Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
65 km (40 miles) NNE (19°) from Mito, Honshu, Japan
94 km (58 miles) SSE (166°) from Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
164 km (102 miles) NNE (32°) from TOKYO, Japan
7.1 Earthquake Fukushima Japan april 11 2011 TSUNAMI WARNING Video from NHK. Found it on Godlike Productions.
Breaking news: 7.1 intensity quake hits Japan
Sendai, Japan: A magnitude-7.1 aftershock has rattled Japan on the one-month anniversary of a massive earthquake that spawned a deadly tsunami.
It is exactly a month since the killer quake and tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and unleashed a persistent nuclear crisis.
BREAKING NEWS: Exactly a month on, another earthquake strikes off Japan's coast as nation holds memorial services (Photos)
Japanese Experts: Effort is in danger of failing… and reactors too hot to cover in concrete — TEPCO admits there is no end in sight Found it on Rense.
Excerpts taken from sourced material from CNN:
Satoshi Sato, a Japanese nuclear industry consultant, called the current line of attack a “waste of effort.” Plant instruments are likely damaged and unreliable because of the intense heat that was generated, and pumping more water into the reactors is only making the contamination problem worse, he said.
“There is no happy end with their approach,” Sato told CNN. “They must change the approach. That’s something I’m sure of 100 percent.”
After the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst to date, the Soviet Union encased the plant’s damaged reactor in a massive concrete sarcophagus. Iida said Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors remain too hot to pour concrete, but he suggested pouring a slurry of minerals and sand over them to carry away heat before encasing them.
TEPCO uses unmanned equipment to remove rubble NHK via Rense.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun using unmanned heavy equipment to remove radioactive rubble at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Hydrogen explosions blew off the ceilings and walls of the Number One and Number Three reactor buildings. The debris is emitting hundreds of millisieverts of radiation per hour in some places, hindering the restoration work.
Operators are using cameras attached to the equipment as well as 6 fixed cameras at the site to carry out the work from hundreds of meters away.
Planting marijuana in Fukushima could help eliminate radiation Thread from Godlike Productions. Is there anything Weed can't do?
Japan marks one month since quake From Al Jazeera. Excerpts:
The country is still struggling to calculate the losses from the 9.0 magnitude quake on March 11. Over 13,000 people are confirmed dead and 14,000 more are still missing, while more than 150,000 remain homeless in emergency shelters. Key infrastructure in several towns is battered, and it seems that reconstruction can be months, if not years, away.
In addition to flattening communities along hundreds of kilometres of coastline, the government has estimated the cost of the damage at up to $310bn.
And:
Engineers at the damaged plant north of Tokyo said on Sunday they were no closer to restoring the plant's cooling system, which is critical if overheated fuel rods are to be cooled and the six reactors brought under control.
They are hoping to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean on Monday, days later than planned.
Four weeks after the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, a quarter of a century ago, the government was moving to extend a 20km evacuation zone due to high levels of radiation, the Asahi newspaper reported.
The Japanese government has so far refused to widen the zone, despite being urged to do so by the International Atomic Energy Agency and countries like the United States and Australia. The IAEA and the two countries advised citizens to stay 80km away from the plant.
The Asahi newspaper said the government would extend the zone to 30km in certain areas, depending on wind direction, and residents would be given a week to prepare for evacuation.
TEPCO boss visits nuclear disaster zone to say sorry This really isn't enough. The protocol of "Going down with the ship" needs to return to practice. Put the TEPCO executives in the Exclusion Zone for the duration of the disaster. If that were to happen, we'd see some world class ass bustin' when it comes to fast and thorough disaster response...
Minister defends Japan’s crisis response
A top government official defended Japan’s response to the humanitarian and nuclear crises set off by last month’s natural disasters, saying yesterday that the scale of the earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands and damaged a nuclear power station far surpassed what specialists had planned for. ("Nobody told us it was gonna be that big! What do our Safety Experts know?")
Responses to disasters are rarely perfect, said Yukio Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary. But given the enormity of the catastrophe, which included the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan and a historic tsunami, the government has done all that it could, he said.
“I believe we have selected the best option every time’’ a new decision had to be made, he said in an interview with several foreign news outlets.
Edano said the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is “a stable situation, relatively speaking,’’ but that much work remains before the damaged reactors, which are emitting high levels of radioactivity, are fully under control.
Japan continues grim search for the dead in earthquake, tsunami ruins [PHOTOS]
With thousands of bodies yet to be found, Japanese troops on Sunday launched a new search. 22,000 Japanese troops were also joined by 100 US troops in the search in the Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, CNN reported.
Japan Orders Nuclear Plant Operators to Obtain More Emergency Generators
Radiation readings spiked sharply in one reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after a powerful aftershock late Thursday, according to data released by the government, a development that might indicate new damage to the already compromised reactor.
But the plant owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the gauge used to measure radiation was most likely broken.
The high radiation was measured in the drywell of Reactor No. 1, directly below the reactor pressure vessel and part of the primary containment that is a crucial barrier preventing the escape of radioactive materials. The drywell reading raised the worrisome possibility that highly radioactive water had escaped, and perhaps even material from the nuclear core, although this was far less likely.
New Video Shows Disaster at Fukushima Nuclear Plant; Japan Tightens Regulations Excerpts:
Newly released video of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami is giving the world a better look at its devastating impact on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The brief clip put out by the Tokyo Electric Power Company Saturday shows a wall of water slamming into the plant, easily overwhelming the facility's protective seawall.
The release of the video clip comes the same day Japanese officials announced they were requiring the country's nuclear facilities to take additional precautions.
Heartening. These additional precautions are the game changer we've been waiting for! Wait.. No..
Yeah.. Where are the robots? Robots absent from Japan’s radiation battle
In the battle to contain radiation spewing from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, Japanese authorities have deployed helicopters, riot-police water cannon and a 58-metre steel hose-arm normally used to spray concrete into high-rise construction sites.
Yet one sort of equipment has been notably absent from the effort: robots.
The four-week-old nuclear crisis would seem like a perfect showcase for Japan’s advanced robotics industry. Human technicians at Fukushima are suffering from injuries and exhaustion, and have been prevented from carrying out critical repair work by dangerous levels of radiation. What, then, would be more welcome than a fleet of remote-controlled mechanical drones?
Yet in reality, robots capable of responding to nuclear accidents are thin on the ground in Japan – a reflection, experts say, of both the limits of current robotics technology and of power-plant operators’ reluctance to invest in improving it.
Japan’s own small compliment of nuclear-response robots – two remote-operated devices that can take video and measure radiation – have been sent to the site but have not been used..
Getting rid of Japan's stricken nuclear plant will take decades, vast sums of money
Once Japan's leaky nuclear complex stops spewing radiation and its reactors cool down, making the site safe and removing the ruined equipment is going to be a messy ordeal that could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Radiation has covered the area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and blanketed parts of the complex, making the job of "decommissioning" the plant — rendering it safe so it doesn't threaten public health and the environment — a bigger task than usual. (Understatement, much?)
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That timeline is far faster than those for other nuclear accidents and contains a big caveat: The reactors must first be stabilized and cooled, goals that have eluded emergency teams struggling with cascading problems in the month since the devastating tsunami damaged their cooling systems. Omori said the extent of damage to the reactors and other problems still need to be assessed.
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Though an avid user of nuclear power with 54 plants, Japan has little experience in decommissioning and none involving problematic reactors. The first, the Tokai Power Station's No. 1 reactor, is 13 years into a 22-year process. Its fuel rods have been removed, and its turbines and other equipment are being dismantled while the reactor is isolated, its vents and ducts closed.
And: Why Fukushima will ultimately be much worse than Three Mile Island and Chernobyl combined..
Unlike Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, where problems were confined to one reactor each, Fukushima has three active reactors that are not cooling properly and at least one of which may be leaking, and four storage pools for spent fuel which have overheated, some to dangerous levels.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Watchdog or Lapdog?
Internal government watchdogs and outside experts alike say the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is too lenient on the industry it is charged with regulating, often making decisions based on the industry's profit margins rather than public safety.
The charges are similar to complaints leveled against the Mine Health Safety Administration and the Minerals Management Service over the past year, after high-profile tragedies -- the Upper Big Branch Mine collapse and the Deepwater Horizon spill -- in the industries they are responsible for regulating.
In the wake of the events in Japan, there is a heightened sense of concern throughout the United States that a similar meltdown could occur, particularly in New England where reactors similar to those in Japan remain in operation.
It's not so much a Public Relations disaster as it is death pangs from a huge segment of Japan's export portion of their economy. The neighbors are nervous and will find the necessary excuses to block much more Japanese food in the very near future..
Powerful Aftershock Rocks Japan New problems at a new nuclear power plant. Excerpts:
Measuring 7.1 (one or more other reports said 7.4), rocked northeast Japan, causing more damage and disruption to a devastated area. It cut electricity to four million homes, disrupted power at two nuclear facilities, and according to Kyodo News:
"Radioactive water spilled from pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods at the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi Prefecture," according to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).
For up to 80 minutes, power was lost at Onagawa and the Higashidori nuclear facility. "A small amount of contaminated water spilled on the floor (inside) all three (Onagawa) reactors....In all, water spilled or leaked at eight sections of the plant," also run by Tokyo Electric (TEPCO). In addition, blowout panels designed to control pressure were damaged in reactor number three's turbine building, TEPCO saying a complete damage assessment was ongoing.
And:
As always, they say damage, new or earlier, poses no dangers. Already, in fact, Fukushima caused potentially apocalyptic ones, covered up to conceal their gravity, extending far beyond Japan and the Pacific rim.
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His main conclusion was that "the full accident hazard of each type nuclear power reactor has not been scientifically established, even for the most likely of serious accidents.
"Specifically, "the theory underlying the industry's safety calculations has not been experimentally verified, nor are the necessary experiments planned....This shortcoming is one of the two chief concerns of this book."
"The other, and more important, concern is that there are accident possibilities not considered for licensing which are more severe than the design basis accidents and that these have not even been theoretically investigated for the course they each could take...."
In other words, reactor containment systems aren't designed for the worst potential accidents. As a result, each operating reactor anywhere "appears to have an enormous potential for public disaster."
Large aftershock hits northern Japan Excerpts:
The aftershock highlighted the vulnerability of Japan’s nuclear plants to further tremors. While Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported no change in the state of its crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, other nuclear facilities in northern Japan suffered power losses and were compelled to rely on emergency diesel generators.
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Yesterday evening more than 450,000 households were still without power. The region’s nuclear plants were already offline, and the available electricity supply fell further after five conventional power plants automatically shut down when the aftershock occurred. The outages were compounded by damage to the power grid. Fires and gas leaks were reported in Sendai and other areas of Miyagi and Iwate prefectures.
TEPCO’s statement (Following the aftershock) simply means that it has observed no change to what the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continues to describe as a “very serious” situation. The TEPCO comment is doubly deceptive because the means for observing changes—the instrumentation that normally monitors the reactors—has been compromised by the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
And:
Conditions at the Fukushima plant are anything but normal. The conventional cooling systems of three of the six nuclear reactors—units 1, 2 and 3—were put out of action on March 11, resulting in the heating up of the reactor cores. A meltdown was only prevented by continuously pumping salt water, subsequently replaced by fresh water, into the reactors. Hydrogen explosions have badly damaged the reactor buildings of units 1 and 3 as well as unit 4, where the reactor core had been placed in the spent fuel rod pool to allow for reactor maintenance.
At this stage, the extent of the damage to the reactor cores can only be estimated, as no direct observation is possible. Nor is the state of the reactor cooling systems known, as deposits of salt are likely to be impeding water circulation. The danger of further hydrogen explosions was underscored by TEPCO’s decision this week to start pumping inert nitrogen into unit 2 to flush out hydrogen and oxygen from the primary containment vessel.
And:
Thursday’s tremor and associated power blackouts impacted on three other nuclear facilities in northern Japan. A fuel reprocessing plant at Rokkasho and a power plant at Higashidori, both in the Aomori Prefecture, were temporarily cut off from the electricity grid and had to rely on backup emergency diesel generators.
Radioactive ocean water sparks worry From Asia One. Excerpts:
Beijing on Friday expressed its concern over Japan's massive dumping of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from a quake-crippled nuclear plant.
"Being Japan's neighbour, it is natural for us to express concern about this," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement. "We hope the Japanese side acts in accordance with relevant international laws and takes effective measures to protect the ocean environment."
He noted that Japan has informed the Chinese side about its moves and China is closely following developments.
"At the same time, we are conducting a professional assessment and will continue to keep contact with the Japanese. We require Japan to report comprehensive and accurate information in a timely fashion," Hong said.
I'm sure he's serious.
From Safe Distance, U.S.-Japanese Team Draws Up Plan to Demolish Reactors
Hydrogen explosions. High levels of radiation. Thousands of gallons of contaminated water dumped into the sea. With the drumbeat of bad news, including another powerful aftershock on Thursday, it will take months, if not years, to stabilize the reactors and spent fuel pools that were damaged in last month’s earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Yet it is not too soon for a team of engineers from Japan and the United States to begin working on the thorny task of how to dismantle the reactors, four of which are so badly damaged that the plant’s operator has said they will be scrapped.
Already, dozens of engineers from Toshiba, which helped build four of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, have been joined by experts from the United States to prepare for the decommissioning work, a job so big that the planning needs to start even now, in parallel with the efforts to contain the crisis.
IAEA chief says Japan's crisis extremely serious
The International Atomic Energy Agency chief says he views Japan's nuclear crisis as an extremely serious accident requiring international cooperation.
Thursday's quake damages Onagawa nuclear plant Understand, this is ANOTHER nuclear power plant. From NHK. Plus video.
Tohoku Electric Power Company says Thursday night's strong earthquake caused water to overflow from spent fuel storage pools at one of its nuclear power plants.
The power company reported on Friday that water had spilled onto the floor at all 3 reactors at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture. The amount of water spilled was 3.8 liters at the most.
Why isn't TEPCO doing simultaneous damage assessment? Why aren't they beginning to construct some contingency containment structures and systems? I know you don't do this overnight, but if the already-damaged containment structures go, Doom will most assuredly prevail.
Inside report from Fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone Video from Journalist Tetsuo Jimbo driving, then walking towards Fukushima. A sad and creepy trip into the recently created Zone of Ghosts, where the few people that remained were leaving, and the only ones left behind were the animals.
Water radiation levels rise north of nuke plant From NHK, via Rense. Excepts:
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says seawater radiation levels continue to rise in areas north of the plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says it detected on Thursday 110 becquerels of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in seawater samples collected 30 meters from outlets in the northern part of the complex.
The figure is 2,800 times higher than the maximum allowed under government standards. Measurements at the same spot were 600 times the standard on Tuesday and 1,000 times on Wednesday.
From The Daily Mail. Excerpts:
Earth has found a new companion that has joined its orbit around the sun, scientists have revealed.
It may not have the most romantic of names, but Asteroid 2010 SO16 could pursue Earth for anywhere between the next 120,000 to a million years.
And at a few hundred metres across, it is the largest space rock ever discovered so close to earth.
A huge, powerful star explosion detonated in deep space last week — an ultra-bright conflagration that has astronomers scratching their heads over exactly how it happened.
The explosion may be the death cry of a star as it was ripped apart by a black hole, scientists said. High-energy radiation continues to brighten and fade from the March 28 blast's location, about 3.8 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco.
Astronomers say they've never witnessed an explosion so bright, long-lasting and variable before, according to NASA officials.
The explosion looks like a gamma-ray burst — the most powerful type of explosion in the universe, which usually mark the destruction of a massive star — but the flaring emissions from these dramatic events never last more than a few hours, researchers said.
"We know of objects in our own galaxy that can produce repeated bursts, but they are thousands to millions of times less powerful than the bursts we are seeing now," said Andrew Fruchter, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement today (April 7). "This is truly extraordinary."
And:
"The fact that the explosion occurred in the center of a galaxy tells us it is most likely associated with a massive black hole," said Neil Gehrels, the lead scientist for Swift at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in a statement. "This solves a key question about the mysterious event."
Also:
Astronomers have detected stars disrupted by supermassive black holes before, but none have shown the X-ray brightness and variability seen in GRB 110328A, which has flared repeatedly. Since April 3, for example, it has brightened by more than five times.
70 percent of fuel rods in reactor core at Fukushima nuke plant damaged Found this on Godlike Productions. Excerpts:
About 70 percent of the 400 fuel rods (Approximately 280 fuel rods. Why not say that?) in the No. 1 reactor at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant are damaged, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has revealed.
In addition, some 30 percent of the 548 fuel rods (Approximately 165..) in the No. 2 reactor core and 25 percent of those in the No. 3 reactor core (Unknown variable, eh?) are also thought to be damaged, the power company stated on April 6. The figures are based on analysis of radiation data collected from the side of the reactor pressure vessel between the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and March 15.
Big aftershock rattles Japan disaster zone Excerpts:
A powerful aftershock rocked Japan's tsunami disaster zone, killing at least three and triggering new concerns over nuclear power plants in a region still grappling with an atomic emergency.
Electricity was cut across a huge area of northern Japan, forcing cooling systems at three nuclear plants to switch to emergency power and plunging more than 3.3 million households into darkness late Thursday night.
At least one back-up supply remained online at all three plants, but the aftershock highlighted the potential risks of nuclear generation in an earthquake zone amid a battle to stabilise reactors at tsunami-hit Fukushima.
Massive pumps departing U.S. for Japan nuclear plant Excerpts:
Two of the world's largest concrete pumps will depart the United States later this week as part of the effort to resolve the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, officials said.
Each pump weighs 190,000 pounds and has a boom reach of over 227 feet, and can pump water and concrete at massive rates. They will be loaded aboard enormous Russian cargo jets Friday.
The pumps' manufacturer, Putzmeister, said in a release the devices are normally used to pour concrete for bridges and high-rise construction projects, but can offer pinpoint accuracy "to directly target hotspots within the reactors" and help with cooling.
There are only three such pumps in the world, said Putzmeister spokeswoman Mary Roberts.
Water leaks found at Onagawa nuke plant after Thursday quake
Water leaks were found Friday at Onagawa nuke plant in Miyagi prefecture after the quake measuring 7.4 on Richter scale shook Japan's northeast Thursday night, Kyodo News quoted the plant's operator as saying.
The report didn't say where the water came from or whether it contains radioactivity.
Onagawa was the nearest nuclear power plant from the focus of the March 11 earthquake and the aftershock on Thursday.
State of Japan's stricken nuclear reactors From Terra Daily. Excerpts:
To stop a catastrophe, crews have pumped thousands of tonnes of water into the reactors and pools, urgent work now creating a massive amount of radioactive water and sparking a fresh fear of contamination in the Pacific Ocean.
Emergency workers have found turbine buildings and trench tunnels outside submerged in highly radioactive water, also discovering water leaking from a cracked pit into the ocean.
In order to find safe storage space for the most radioactive water -- so dangerous that it is halting crucial repair work -- operator TEPCO has been forced to empty containers with lower-level radioactive water into the ocean.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has released 11,500 tonnes, or more than four Olympic pools-worth, into the sea, despite protests from local fishermen.
Fishermen: Utility's actions in Japan nuclear crisis 'unforgivable'
Japanese fishermen have taken the offensive in their fight against the owner of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant, angrily calling the utility's actions insulting, incompetent and "unforgivable" over the course of the weeks-long nuclear crisis.
The National Fishery Corporative Joint Association, a trade group for Japan's fishing industry, issued a scathing statement Wednesday just hours after its members met with officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the crippled plant.
In it, the group demanded that the utility and the Japanese government "compensate all parties (that have) indirectly or directly suffered" as a result of the situation.
"Tokyo Electric has not been capable of understanding the damage at the plant and (contaminated) water. That led to this serious situation," the group said in the statement.
"Tokyo Electric and the government (share) responsibility for this situation. It is unforgivable," the message continues. "All those who are living and sustaining their lives on the sea are feeling strong rage against (the utility and the government's) irresponsible behavior."
Grab Your Chopsticks and Geiger Counters Wall Street Journal. Excerpts:
At Gyotaku, a Japanese restaurant in Hong Kong, business is bad and money is tight. But that didn’t stop owner John Liang from splurging on a new tool last week: a Geiger counter, for 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (about US$1,300).
Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami set off Japan’s nuclear crisis, many diners in Hong Kong have steered clear of sushi restaurants for fear of radiation poisoning from food, particularly fish, that’s come from Japan. As business spirals down, some Hong Kong eateries have chosen to stay the course and use fish from Japan. But others have switched to suppliers from other countries — or turned creative.
Hence Mr. Liang’s hand-held radiation-reading device. It will be available next week for customers who want extra assurance. “They can point the gun at their meal and get a reading before taking a bite,” says Mr. Liang.
But actually Mr. Liang has also eliminated Japanese food from his kitchen, switching to fish from Spain, Brazil, Australia, Canada and Taiwan. Even the pork at Gyotaku, once sourced from Japan, now comes from Spain and Australia.
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