Japan Update June 4, 2011

IAEA whitewashes worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl  World Socialist Web Site.  Excerpts:

On June 1, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a preliminary report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The report is a whitewash, exonerating the Tokyo Electrical Power Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government of blame. Its bland language is an attempt to suppress discussion and protect the nuclear industry from scrutiny.

The report comes as two more workers at the plant were found to have exceeded maximum doses of radiation. Two male workers, one in his 30s and the other in his 40s, have been exposed to more than the 250 millisieverts level legally allowed for nuclear workers in Japan. The government raised the limit from its previous level of 100 millisieverts after the disaster. Exposure to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation is thought to increase the lifetime risk of developing cancers.

The two men involved in the most recent incident both worked in the control rooms of reactor 3 and reactor 4. They had not been working in the flooded tunnels. Their exposure to radiation points to high levels of contamination throughout the facility. They were subject to internal exposure as a result of breathing or ingesting contaminated material. The site is covered in radioactive dust. Many workers have been sleeping on site and taking their meals in potentially contaminated areas; few of them have protective clothing. It is doubtful that many of the contract workers on site have been warned of the risks.

Workers enter Japan reactor for first time since blast

Japanese workers have entered the No.1 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for the first time since a hydrogen explosion ripped off its roof a day after a devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

High radiation levels inside the building have prevented staff from entering to start installing a new cooling system to finally bring the plant under control, a process plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has said may take all year.
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Two TEPCO staff and 10 contractors with protective suits, masks and air tanks worked for 1-1/2 hours, moving in and out in small groups to connect duct pipes to ventilators that will filter out 95 per cent of the radioactive material in the air, a company spokesman said.
And:
Under Japanese law, nuclear plant workers cannot be exposed to more than 100 millisieverts over five years, but to cope with the Fukushima crisis, the Health Ministry raised the legal limit on March 15 to 250 millisieverts in an emergency.

Japan nuclear plant gets radioactive water tanks

Ombudsman slams secrecy over Fukushima contamination  Via Rense.  Excerpts:

Following complaints from citizens, the European Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the EU's permitted levels of food contamination following the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and their communication to the wider public. Similar complaints are also being heard in France.
"Based on complaints submitted to me, it appears that a number of Union citizens perceive a lack of precise and reliable information as regards the changes made to the maximum permitted levels in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident," wrote EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros in a letter addressed to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on 19 May.
And:
Last week (25 May), a French NGO specialised in measuring radioactivity, CRIIRAD, asked the French government to investigate what it described as "serious failures" in measuring the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident in France and communicating the results to the public.

According to the NGO, the radioactive cloud from the stricken reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant reached France two days earlier than officially announced. In addition, the levels of radioactive iodine-131 were 20 times higher on 22 March than announced on 24 March, according to the NGO's findings.

Japan: green tea exports banned due to high radiation levels  Via Rense.

The Japanese government has banned shipments of green tea leaves in four regions after high levels of radioactive caesium were found.

A swathe of Japan's tea making regions including parts of Tochigi, Chiba and Kanagawa prefecture as well as the whole of Ibaraki were included within the ban, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Green tea plantations were first highlighted as suffering from potential radiation contamination last month following the results of sample tests in Kanagawa prefecture.

The authorities discovered around 570 becquerels of caesium per kilogram in leaves grown in the city of Minamiashigara – compared to the legal limit of 500 – and started a recall of tea products.

Japan Update June 3, 2011

Japan's office casual going Super Cool  Japan hasn't the electricity to cool office buildings.  It's summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, and it's going to get hotter.  So business drones can now wear polo shirts!  Hotness, right?

Do you think by mid July they'll all be down to boxers and A shirts?

French research institute finds high radioactivity  NHK via Rense.  Excerpts:

A French independent radioactivity watchdog has found radiation in Fukushima Prefecture 60 times higher than the annual reference level for ordinary people recommended by an international commission.

The measurements and calculations found an annualized amount of 60 millisieverts at a farm in Iitate Village in the prefecture.

The level is 60 times higher than the annual limit for ordinary people, except for radiation workers, of 1 millisievert, recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.



The researchers also found high radiation levels in Fukushima City. At some places in the city, the levels of radioactivity were 7 to 9 millisieverts a year.
 
TEPCO Live Fukushima Cam - With 30 Sec Delay!  According to Rense..
 
Wastewater rises, fears mount  NHK via Rense.
 
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is struggling to remove pools of highly radioactive wastewater as fears of an overflow get more intense.
 
Tokyo Electric Power Company says wastewater levels rose around 6 centimeters inside the No.2 reactor turbine building, and in its utility tunnel, during the 24-hour period through Thursday morning.
 
Increases were also seen inside the No.3 and 4 reactor turbine buildings.
 
The water level in the utility tunnel is now just 28 centimeters from the surface outside the No.2 reactor, and 24 centimeters from the surface outside the No.3 reactor.
 
Magnitude 6.3 - OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN  Found it through Godlike Productions.
 
Fukushima Water Has More Radiation Than Released Into Air
 
The water level in basements and trenches at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant rose and may contain more radiation than is known to have been released into the atmosphere in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
 
The amount of contaminated water rose to about 105 million liters (28 million gallons) from 100 million liters on May 18, and may start overflowing after June 20, the company known as Tepco said in a statement today. Radiation in the water is estimated at 720,000 terabecquerels, general manager Junichi Matsumoto said at a media briefing in Tokyo.
..
"The risk of overflow is as serious as the meltdown of reactor fuel rods that's already happened," Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan, said in a phone interview. "Tepco should've acknowledged this risk weeks ago and could've taken any urgent measures."
 
What is this?  Genocidal malfeasance?  Extinction-Level-Negligence?  All the while, this Event continues to teeter on the verge of Global Disaster, as the rest of us continue to watch, and continue to wait.

Japan Update June 2, 2011

Japan PM offers to quit after nuclear crisis under control
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan offered to resign once he had dealt with the worst of the country's nuclear crisis and tsunami disaster, cutting a deal with party rebels to avert defeat in a parliamentary no-confidence vote on Thursday.

Kan's offer to step down, probably in the autumn (Yeah, right.), was made just hours before the vote was due to take place and gives him time to prepare an extra budget to pay for the rebuilding cost of the March 11 disaster.

Kyodo news agency said the no-confidence motion was now certain to be voted down.

But even if he stays in office a few more months, a weakened Kan will struggle to forge deals with a feisty opposition in a divided parliament and may not be able to make much progress on tax and social security reforms needed to contain the country's bulging public debt.

"From both Japanese and foreign investors' point of view, now is not the time for political turmoil," said Yasuo Yamamoto, a senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.

"Japan has various issues it needs to address swiftly -- not only reconstruction, but also tax and social security reform, TPP (Transpacific Partnership trade initiative) and an energy policy which requires political initiative."

#Radiation in Japan: 2 Drugs to Help Expel Plutonium from Body to Be Approved in July  From Ex-SKF via Rense.

It seems like an oblique way for the Japanese government to admit plutonium (and other transuranium elements such as americium and curium) has been released from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and dispersed in wide enough areas to warrant a very quick approval of drugs that expel them from the body.

Nikkei falls sharply on Japan political turmoil

File Under:  Angela Merkel is not an Idiot.  Merkel says Japan crisis influenced nuclear exit decision

"We 'came close' to losing Northern Japan."  Video from CNN via Rense.

Fukushima Radiated Water May Overflow Trenches  Hey!  More Unintended Consequences!  Stated again:  TEPCO is in real danger of never getting out in front of this catastrophe.  And if they don't, we all lose.

Radioactive water accumulating in Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant may start overflowing from service trenches in five days, potentially increasing the contamination from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.


Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been manually pumping water into overheating reactors after cooling systems broke down and much of that has overflowed into basements and trenches. The water is rising at a rate that means it will overflow as early as June 6, Bloomberg calculations from the company’s data show.

“There is still the risk of radioactive water leaking into the sea,” Hikaru Kuroda, an official at the utility known as Tepco, said yesterday in Tokyo. The company is seeking additional storage space to move the water from trenches to reduce the risk, he said.

Eighty days in and still no world outcry about assisting or replacing TEPCO.  Crickets on the World's Stage as Fukushima continues to silently poison our World..

You Gotta Love That HILARIOUS Drug War!

Except when it wreaks havoc on an innocent bird watcher.  Except then, of course..

Prosecutorial Immunity now trumps Prosecutorial Misconduct.  This should freak you out.

Hundreds of Palestinians cross reopened Gaza-Egypt border

Huge development.

Egypt has opened its border with Gaza, letting Palestinians leave the blockaded territory, in a move seen as indicating a more supportive policy since February's revolution.
..
The crossing will open for eight hours a day, six days a week. In the four years since Hamas took control of Gaza, 18 months after winning elections, and Israel imposed a stringent blockade, the Rafah border has opened intermittently and only students, businessmen and people needing medical treatment have been allowed through.
..
All other border crossings are with Israel, which has tightly controlled the movement of people and goods. Despite easing the blockade almost a year ago, Israel continues to proscribe certain goods, such as construction materials, from entering Gaza and blocks nearly all exports. Rafah will not be open to commercial traffic.


Israel's government has expressed concern that the reopening of the border will lead to the shipment of weapons and militants into Gaza and is also alarmed at the prospect of closer ties between the new Egyptian government and Gaza. Former president Hosni Mubarak, who was forced out in February's revolution, was seen as an ally of Israel. The new government last month brokered a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, including an agreement to open the border.

"People are happy Rafah is open, they say it's the first step towards breaking the siege of Gaza," said local journalist Hazem Balousha. "They see it as a result of the Egyptian revolution and reconciliation."

This should be interesting.  Rafah is open, and Palestinians have an opening.  What happens now?  Looks like it's everyone's next move..

Japan Update June 1, 2011

OIL Now Leaking From Reactors 5 and 6

Oil was leaking into the sea from heavy oil tanks for reactors 5 and 6 at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday, adding the spill may have been ongoing since the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Tepco said workers at the site saw an oil slick floating on the sea at 8 a.m. Tuesday near the intakes of units 5 and 6.The oil slick is believed to be 200 to 300 meters long.
The total amount of oil that has leaked is still unknown, and the utility plans to set up a boom to prevent the slick from spreading.  But hasn't yet.

Update on the Japanese Nuclear Crisis: Not a Pretty Picture  Great compilation from Washington's Blog.  Read it there.

Fukushima: Three million of millions of potential lethal doses.   Via Rense.  Excerpts:

Furthermore there are three times as much fuel and four more times as many fission products in Fukushima than in Chernobyl. Considering now the cores (577 tons) together with the “dead” fuel (2.800 tons), the total amount is eight times more fission and activation products than all fission atmospheric tests and 39 times more than Chernobyl.  (Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant: Detailed inventory]
As for the potential lethal doses by inhalation (multiply each element’s Becquerel’s by the dose factor and divide by 5), calculated with the lowest OFFICIAL dose factors provided by the IAEA, they correspond to the apocalyptic figure of three millions of millions lethal doses, of which 80 % is already equitably spread out all over the northern hemisphere.

Japan 'underestimated' tsunami risk

UN atomic watchdog IAEA says the country underestimated the hazard posed by tsunamis to nuclear plants.  Because the IAEA has spoken, we know this to be true.  Not because of the two plus month's worth of evidence.

Via Rense.  Japan: Land of the rising silence.

Japan Updates: May 30, 2011

Post-disaster energy lines

The nuclear disaster at Japan’s earthquake and tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has again underscored both the need for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its limited authority and resources.

It will cost billions of dollars to stabilise the plants, close them down, decommission their reactors and mitigate the radioactive contamination. Equally important, the Japanese crisis has exposed flaws in global safety and emergency response networks, underscoring the need for urgent remedial effort.
The coming decades will likely present new safety challenges with many of the world’s aging nuclear reactors, which were built in the 1970s and 1980s, and the expected growth in the global use of nuclear power, still expected to occur despite the Japanese catastrophe. According to the IAEA, 443 nuclear reactors are operating in 29 countries. The agency reports that already 64 new reactors are under construction, mostly in China.

Tropical Storm Songda Hits Japan Region Still Reeling From Earthquake and Tsunami

Heavy rains and strong winds battered the northeast coast of Japan Monday as Tropical Storm Songda touched down on a region still reeling from a massive earthquake and tsunami, triggering mudslides and widespread flooding that forced the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor to suspend outdoor work.
The storm was downgraded from a typhoon Sunday afternoon but has still brought significant rain and winds. In the city of Ishinomaki in the Miyagi prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said winds clocked in at more than 70 miles per hour.

Japan pensioners volunteer to tackle nuclear crisis  Follow up..

A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station.

The Skilled Veterans Corps, as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of 60.
They say they should be facing the dangers of radiation, not the young.

Another example of humans behaving in a decent and realistic manner in the face of this immediate life or death situation/ unavoidable doom.

Moody's Puts Japan Bond Rating On Review For Possible Downgrade 

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday placed the Japanese government bond ratings on review for a possible downgrade on concerns about weak policy response to the faltering economic outlook.

Japan Risks Chernobyl-Like ‘Dead Zone’ as Fukushima Soil Radiation Soars  Well, yeah.  And Fukushima will far surpass Chernobyl in size and scope.  When will journalists start acknowledging this?

Japan Updates: May 29, 2011

Typhoon Songda Nearing Tokyo Weakens to ’Extratropical Cyclone’  Bloomberg, via Rense.  Excerpts:

Typhoon Songda, the storm last week forecast to pass over Japan’s stricken nuclear plant, weakened to an "extra tropical cyclone" after its forecast trajectory earlier moved south of Fukushima prefecture.

The storm was moving at a speed of 55 kilometers per hour (34 miles per hour) at 3:50 p.m. local time, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website. The eye of the storm was about 80 kilometers south-southwest of Murotomisaki, part of Japan’s Shikoku island west of Tokyo, and moving northeast at 65 kilometers an hour at 2:40 p.m., the agency said.

Songda, which strengthened to a super typhoon after battering the Philippines, weakened to a Category 3 storm from Category 5 as it passed Taiwan on May 28. The typhoon’s path also shifted south compared with the earlier projections, lowering the risk of heavy rain or winds affecting the nuclear plant.

Not that this is a bad development at all, but that typhoon really lost its momentum quickly.  Really quickly.  Huh.

Cooling systems restored for fuel pools  NHK World via Rense.  Excerpts:

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has now successfully restored cooling systems to the spent fuel pools of reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4.

On Saturday, TEPCO injected about 5 tons of water to the spent fuel pool of reactor 1 on a test basis. It was the last system to be restored.
The power company is also working to install new water-circulating systems that will more efficiently cool all the fuel pools. The new systems for reactors 1 through 4 are scheduled for completion by July.

Two bits of Good News today! 

Deluge could spread Fukushima radiation

There are fears a tropical storm off the coast of Japan could wash radioactive material from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the air and sea.

Now downgraded to a tropical storm, former Typhoon Songda is still expected to bring strong winds and torrential rain to Tokyo later this morning, with the Fukushima area also forecast to experience a deluge.
..
TEPCO and the Japanese government both fear contamination could be washed out of the uncovered reactor buildings.

Well, One and a half pieces of good news..  And then there's this close call..

Pump failure nearly brings No. 5 to a boil  via Rense.

The seawater pump in the cooling system for the Fukushima power plant's No. 5 reactor broke down Saturday evening, prompting repair crews to install a backup pump 15 hours later on Sunday afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Tepco discovered the pump had stopped at 9 p.m. Saturday but didn't announce it to the public until Sunday morning.
..
The pump had been taking in seawater for the RHRS's heat exchanger, which uses it to cool down fresh water being used to regulate the temperature of the reactor and its spent fuel pool.



The cause of the pump's failure was not immediately known but was likely caused by seawater fouling some of its parts, Tepco spokesman Junichi Matsumoto told a news conference Sunday morning.

Japan detects high radiation levels off coast: report  Reiteration from yesterday..

Japan has revealed radiation up to several hundred times normal levels has been detected on the seabed off the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, a report said Saturday.

The science ministry announced late Friday highly radioactive materials were detected in a 300-kilometre (190-mile) north-south stretch from Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture to Choshi in Chiba Prefecture, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The ministry warned that the contamination could affect the safety of seafood, the report said, without giving figures for the radiation levels detected.
The science ministry said it detected iodine and caesium on the seabed at 12 locations 15 to 50 kilometres from the coastline between May 9 and 14.

High radioactivity found in two Japanese workers

TWO workers from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been contaminated by high levels of radioactive iodine, the operator said.



The workers, reportedly men in their 30s and 40s, may have already been exposed to radiation levels higher than the recently boosted official annual limit, Japanese media suggested.
..
The two men were working at a variety of locations at Fukushima Daiichi, including the central control room, in March and April, including on March 11 and during the following days.

And some long term good news..  Germany to close all nuclear reactors..  By 2022.  Fairly quick, by nuclear safety procedure standards..

Get It Together And GET READY Already!

Crippled nuke plant not prepared for heavy rain, wind  The Mainichi Daily News via Rense.  Excerpts:

The crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds forecast due to a powerful typhoon moving Saturday toward disaster-affected areas of northeastern Japan, according to the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Heavy rain has been forecast for the areas from Sunday to Monday due to the season's second typhoon, Songda, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Tokyo Electric, or TEPCO, has for the last month been spreading anti-scattering agents around the troubled Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings to prevent radioactively contaminated dust from being carried into the air and sea by rain and wind.

But some of the reactor buildings have been left uncovered after they were damaged by hydrogen explosions following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. TEPCO plans to launch the work to put covers on the destroyed buildings in mid-June.(Which will help NOW..).
..
Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told a press conference Friday that the current measures "cannot be said to be appropriate."

File Under:  How the Nuclear-cane (or Nuke-phoon) was born..  Again:  I know these things take time, but they'd go a lot faster if there were more than a thousand people working on it.  One thousand people working on an inevitable global disaster.  It's a God-damned shame is what it is..

Hackers penetrate U.S. defense contractors’ security networks

From Raw Story  Excerpts:

Reuters is reporting that unknown hackers have broken into the networks of Lockheed Martin and other major defense contractors and may have gained access to sensitive information on present and future weapons systems.

Reuters had reported earlier on Friday that "Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier, is experiencing a major disruption to its computer systems that could be related to a problem with network security." The disruption began last Sunday, when security experts detected an intrusion.

According to an anonymous source with knowledge of the attacks, the hackers used data stolen in March from the RSA security division of EMC Corp. to duplicate security keys which gave them access to the networks.

"You have no idea how many people are freaked out right now," one security expert told Reuters, explaining that the RSA keys could no longer be considered fully secure.

I'm sure that last statement is a major understatement.  This article is just a tiny peek into the Cyber War, already in progress..  Will this endgame involve a massive explosion, or prevention of a massive explosion?  Another scary as hell, yet fascinating scenario.  Damn this Information Age and it's would be controllers and their silly deadly games..

Japan Updates: May 28, 2011

Let's check in with our latest potentially-catastrohic cataclysm heading towards our next-to-latest catastrophic cataclysm..  Nuclear Hurricane?  If this were a movie, it would be made by and shown on SciFi..  Typhoon Strengthens, May Hit Fukushima Nuke Plant.  Fucking Really?  (Found it on Rense.)

Fukushima I Nuke Plant: High Concentration of Radioactive Cesium in the Ocean Soil in 300-Kilometer Strip Along the Coast  From Ex-SKF via Rense.  Excerpts:

Radioactive materials in concentration that was up to several hundreds of times the normal level were detected from the soil on the ocean floor in the 300-kilometer strip along the coast from Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture to Choshi City in Chiba Prefecture.

Oh what a surprise. Who could have known?

The Ministry of Education and Science, who did the survey, even goes to contradict the oft-repeated statement by the chief cabinet secretary and says "the marine products may be affected."

Tepco Failed to Disclose Scale of Fukushima Radiation Leaks, Academics Say Bloomberg via Rense.  Excerpts:

As a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (!!)visits Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled nuclear plant today, academics warn the company has failed to disclose the scale of radiation leaks and faces a “massive problem” with contaminated water.

The utility known as Tepco has been pumping cooling water into the three reactors that melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. By May 18, almost 100,000 tons of radioactive water had leaked into basements and other areas of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. The volume of radiated water may double by the end of December and will cost 42 billion yen ($518 million) to decontaminate, according to Tepco’s estimates.

“Contaminated water is increasing and this is a massive problem,” Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist in isotope analysis and radiation detection at Nagoya University, said by phone. “They need to find a place to store the contaminated water and they need to guarantee it won’t go into the soil.”

Flip-flopping government shoots self in foot  Asia One

Contradictory statements about emergency efforts to cool the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's No. 1 reactor have damaged the government's credibility as a source of information, and will do nothing to improve Prime Minister Naoto Kan's standing in the international community.

Last Saturday, the government said the injection of seawater into the No. 1 reactor had been temporarily halted on March 12, but altered its account Thursday after Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the seawater injection had continued uninterrupted.
This reversal follows a correction issued by the government Sunday that amended a quote it had attributed to Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission.
"We haven't been conscientious about checking where information has come from," Goshi Hosono, an adviser to Kan, said Thursday evening at a press conference held by the Government-TEPCO Integrated Response Office.

Lebanese Fear Collateral Damage From Syrian Crisis

Lebanese Fear Collateral Damage From Syrian Crisis.  NPR.  Excerpts:

The unrest in neighboring Syria has the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on edge. Thousands of refugees have poured over the border, the demand for weapons is skyrocketing, and the pro-Syrian Alawite minority is warning of chaos if Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime falls.
Though Hezbollah is the best known of the pro-Syrian actors in Lebanon, residents in Tripoli are more worried about the Alawites, members of the same minority that has ruled Syria for more than 40 years. Their numbers may be small, but they are well-armed and fiercely loyal to Damascus
The Alawite community of Jabal Mohsen stands on the hill above Bab al-Tabbaneh, a poor Sunni neighborhood in Tripoli. Three years ago, it was the scene of intense armed clashes that left dozens dead and hundreds of families displaced. Nobody here wants to see that repeated.
..
Rifaat Eid, who heads the Alawite Arab Democratic Party, agrees with Syria's argument that chaos will erupt across the region if Assad's regime is threatened.
"If anything happens in Syria, all the Middle East will be divided," he says. "The serious danger in this is that all the minorities will end in the Middle East, especially the Christians, OK? And I will tell you, as minorities the Jewish will — can't — afford to stay in the Middle East."
..
Sunni leaders see the situation differently. Lawmaker Khaled Daher says the catastrophic warnings from Syria and its supporters are simply a tired replay from the Arab dictator's playbook: Back me or face chaos.
"The Syrians are very good at putting fear into people," he says. "I mean, their problem is with their people. They want rights, democracy; this is what they should be working on, their problems with their people. Instead, what are they doing? From the beginning, you know, the Syrians have tried to move the focus from their problem to others."

Kansas nuclear plant closest to deadly tornado in Joplin, Mo., not fully prepared for storm

Comforting.

The closest nuclear power plant to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., was singled out weeks before the storm for being vulnerable to twisters.

Inspections triggered by Japan's nuclear crisis found that some emergency equipment and storage sites at the Wolf Creek nuclear plant in southeastern Kansas might not survive a tornado.
Specifically, plant operators and federal inspectors said Wolf Creek did not secure equipment and vehicles needed to fight fires, retrieve fuel for emergency generators and resupply water to keep nuclear fuel cool as it's being moved.
..
Those instances, along with the situation at Wolf Creek, highlight a larger problem at the nation's 104 nuclear reactors: While reactors and safety systems are designed to withstand a worst-case earthquake, flood, or tornado, that doesn't necessarily mean all emergency equipment or the buildings that house such equipment are disaster proof.

Wolf Creek's location in Tornado Alley means that it was designed to handle the maximum tornadoes possible for the United States, with wind speeds up to 360 miles per hour and a maximum rotational speed of 290 miles per hour.

But its fire truck is parked in a sheet-metal building "not protected from seismic or severe weather events," according to the NRC inspection conducted after the Japanese disaster.

As the old saying goes:  A chain is only as strong as its weakest link..

Japan Updates: May 27, 2011

Summary:  The Implications continue to expand while retaining almost no chance of a successful outcome:


Japan: elderly engineers want 'final mission' to Fukushima   Nuclear Free Planet.org via Godlike Productions.  Excerpts:

"We shouldn't leave the work only to young engineers... Young people, especially those who have children in future, should not be exposed to radiation." Yasuteru Yamada, 72. Retired engineer.

Nuclear activist calls for mass evacuations in Japan via Godlike Productions.

Anti nuclear activist Helen Caldicott says thousands of people living outside the no-go zone around the power plant should be evacuated.

Fukushima melt-down worse than Chernobyl  The Voice Of Russia, via Rense.  Excerpts:

The situation at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan appears to have fit into the worst predicted scenario. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operates Fukushima, has officially admitted that fuel rods at the Fukushima reactors have partially melted, with a melt-down registered at one of the reactors. Remarkably, the announcement came on Tuesday when IAEA delegations arrived in Japan to inspect the power plant.

Certainly, in the first hours after the tragedy happened the operators were too shocked to unveil any details to the public. However, things did not get clearer with time. Deputy Director at the Russian Institute for Nuclear Engineering, Chernobyl clean-up worker Igor Ostretsov commented on the situation in an interview with the VOR…

"The Fukushima disaster has proved that nuclear industry should be controlled only by the state and not by private companies. The outcome of this tragedy has turned even worse than it was in Chernobyl. Graphite which was part of the reactor`s core, burnt out and vanished in the atmosphere. But at Fukushima the reactor`s core melted."

 Meanwhile, nuclear safety will be high on agenda at the G8 summit in Deauville, France, on 26-27 May. According to the Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich, the G8 leaders won`t come up with a separate declaration on the Fukushima disaster but will discuss the issue in every detail.

I'd be interested to hear what is being said by G8 members about Fukushima, although that will never happen.  How far will their "official statement" go?

Japan slammed as new leak found at stricken nuke plant

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday detailed a new leak of radioactive water as Greenpeace slammed the country's “inadequate response” to a growing threat to sea water and health.
And in an embarrassing reversal, Tokyo Electric Power officials changed a key element of an account of the early response to the crisis it had given on Saturday as part of a government investigation into the accident.

Tokyo Electric said up to 57 tons of highly contaminated water had leaked from a storage facility into a trench. It vowed to step up monitoring of groundwater.

The disclosure raises the stakes in a race to complete by next month a system to decontaminate a massive pool of radioactive water at the site that critics see as a growing risk to both the Pacific and groundwater.
..
Environmental group Greenpeace said seaweed had been found with radiation levels 60 times higher than official limits, raising concerns about risks from contaminated sea water more than two months after the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was hit by an earthquake and tsunami.


“Our data show that significant amounts of contamination continue to spread over great distances from the Fukushima nuclear plant,” a statement quoted Greenpeace radiation expert Jan Vande Putte as saying.
..
“The concentration of radioactive iodine we found in seaweed is particularly concerning, as it tells us how far contamination is spreading along the coast, and because several species of seaweed are widely eaten in Japan,” Vande Putte said.

One more example of how regional events can influence the global economy:  Toyota, Honda global output halved after quake  Also:  Japan disaster's impact reaches far beyond slow-down in auto exports


Damage from the disaster at Japanese chemical plants that produce raw materials for the electronics components, although modest in itself, has had some of the most severe impacts in history on the global electronics industry.

Nuclear Super Typhoon? Massive storm may approach Fukushima this weekend — Current gusts of 195 mph  Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

A very special election: Dems win NY-26

“Kathleen Courtney Hochul, the Erie County clerk and longtime Democratic figure who defied political experts who had given her little chance of success, ground out a stunning and surprisingly comfortable victory Tuesday in the special election for the House seat in the predominantly Republican 26th Congressional District,” the Buffalo News says. “The results marked a stunning defeat for the GOP in a contest that garnered intense national attention as the first competitive race following the Republican takeover of the House in last November's elections.” She said in her victory speech: "We had the issues on our side. We can balance the budget the right way and not on the backs of our seniors.”

Republicans frequently accuse Democrats of thinking too much in the abstract, or of dreaming if they think their proposals would actually work.  Republicans are guilty of a variant of this line of thinking:  Budget cutting in the abstract; not thinking of the emotional impact those cuts to Medicare would have, and how those genuinely dependent on such programs might react to this proposition.

Republicans seem genuinely Shocked that the public(especially the voting public) would freak out over them wanting to destroy Medicare!  And yes, to privatize Medicare with a voucher system will dilute each person's purchasing power(as profit considerations are ALWAYS considered), destroying the system on a spectacular, yet individual basis.  They really had no idea that people might get really angry when Wall Street financial thieves are reaping record profits, or that the oil industry gets massive subsidies and faces no consequences for the cataclysmic fuck ups they incur, while they, their children, or their parents/grandparents have to pay even more for services they already paid for!  Or that that program might be dismantled by people who'll never have to worry about their health care ever again!

They really thought things were cool..  They are so entitled, so out of touch with a majority of those depend upon for support, this was bound to happen, sooner or later.  They are so dependent on monies from the aforementioned corrupt and bloated entities, eliminating subsides for them isn't even a consideration.  By wanting to gut Medicare and leave Oil and Wall Street intact, Republicans have shown whose allegiance they serve. This is a big deal for both parties. 

And this will Not Go Away. 

Music For The Moment(s)..

I feel the need for music.  Thanks for indulging me. 

The Flaming Lips - "All We Have Is Now."

 Radiohead - "Lotus Flower."

Flying Lotus - "MmmHmm."

Timmy Thomas - "Why Can't We Live Together?"

 Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Round and Round."
Best Headphone Song Ever.  Maybe Best Song Ever.  Bonus:  Progressively engaging, trippy-ass video. 

Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks."

Sleigh Bells - "Riot Rhythm."

The Tension Is As Palpable As The Humidity..

This is some serious/intense bullshit.  Branson remains, so far, "unscathed," but these tornadic systems are CHARGED with electricity, the likes of which I've never experienced.  And they are relentless.  Denning, Arkansas was hit by mile-wide tornado earlier this evening.  It's probably gone. 

I can't imagine having to deal with damage caused by these storms.  It's like a gigantic circular saw blade boring into the earth.  The destruction is so..  Thorough..  So complete.  I can't imagine what these people are feeling right now.

If you live in the four state region, the implications of this particular recurring, savage system have now become very, very real..  There is no real safe place, and suddenly, life holds no guarantees.  Also, the horror of another Joplin-style catastrophe becomes more mockingly random, as total destruction can now come clothed as a rain wrapped tornado within a storm system that's really not all that impressive.  Not that that couldn't have happened before, but it never did.  Now it has.

This is not normal weather, and these are not normal times.  Everything is changing, or is about to change.. 

This is but one manifestation of that change..

Japan Updates: May 24, 2011

 Tepco Confirms Meltdown of Reactors  The truth, after a 70 day delay.  What will they admit next?

Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed a meltdown of fuel rods in two more reactors at its Fukushima nuclear plant, which has been emitting radiation since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out power and cooling systems.

Fuel rods in the No. 3 unit started melting on March 13 and those in the No. 2 reactor on March 14, Junichi Matsumoto, a spokesman at the company known as Tepco, told reporters in Tokyo today. The fuel dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel after melting although the damage to the vessel is “limited,” he said.
Tepco raised the possibility of more extensive damage than assumed at the reactors when it announced last week, more than two months after the disaster, that fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor had melted within 16 hours of the quake on March 11. Tepco’s analysis is catching up with U.S. assessments in early days of the crisis that indicated damage to the station was more severe than Japan officials suggested.
The meltdown of the cores is the “greatest at the No. 1 reactor, followed by the No. 3 unit and then No. 2,” Matsumoto said. The analysis of the damage became possible “after data from the central control room was retrieved,” he said.

UN atomic watchdog experts arrive in Japan  They are JUST NOW arriving?  This can't be right, can it?

A team of specialists from the UN atomic watchdog arrived in Japan on Monday to join other international experts investigating Japan's nuclear crisis.

A six-strong delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) flew to Tokyo's Narita airport from Vienna in preparation for a fact-finding mission from May 24 to June 2.
In all, a 20-member mission will compile a report on the emergency to be presented to IAEA member states next month at a ministerial-level conference in Vienna.
Tokyo has said the IAEA team is likely to visit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 and has leaked high levels of radiation into the environment.
But Jim Lyons, director of the IAEA's division of nuclear installation safety, said the itinerary was not finalised.
"We are going to be mostly in Tokyo but I think we're going to try to visit the site," Lyons told reporters ahead of their departure from Vienna. "That's the plan."

The next time a plane crashes, a plane carrying, say, six nuclear reactors worth of fuel and spent fuel, imagine the FAA showing up 72 days after the crash, not do anything, as this is a "fact finding mission," state that it's "likely" they'll visit the crash site, and the only action taken will be a presentation at a ministerial level conference.  You think they'd get away with it?

The IAEA is less a "watchdog," and more of a "watchin' dog," as in "He just sits there, watchin' it happen.."

The Implications of the Fukushima Accident on the World's Operating Reactors  Video from Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds.com via Rense.

Japan reports more radiation leakage

At least 250 tons of radioactive water spilled into the Pacific Ocean from Japan's earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials said.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the radiated water leaked for 41 hours beginning May 10 from the No. 3 reactor at the site, where four of six reactors were damaged in the magnitude-9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, Kyodo News reported.

Nuclear plant workers suffer internal radiation exposure after visiting Fukushima  The Mainichi Daily News, via Rense.  Excerpts:

The government has discovered thousands of cases of workers at nuclear power plants outside Fukushima Prefecture suffering from internal exposure to radiation after they visited the prefecture, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Most of the workers who had internal exposure to radiation visited Fukushima after the nuclear crisis broke out following the March 11 quake and tsunami, and apparently inhaled radioactive substances scattered by hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
The revelation has prompted local municipalities in Fukushima to consider checking residents' internal exposure to radiation.
Nobuaki Terasaka, head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told the House of Representatives Budget Committee on May 16 that there were a total of 4,956 cases of workers suffering from internal exposure to radiation at nuclear power plants in the country excluding the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, and 4,766 of them involved workers originally from Fukushima who had visited the prefecture after the nuclear crisis. Terasaka revealed the data in his response to a question from Mito Kakizawa, a lawmaker from Your Party.