Monday, April 4, 2011

Spring Cleaning: Hosing Off Japan

Also see: Dejected Over Japan Coverage 

Nothing has changed there as Japan has gotten worse.

"Contaminated water a threat to reach ocean; Japan finds plutonium levels higher in soil at crippled plant" by Hiroko Tabuchi and Ken Belson, New York Times / March 29, 2011

TOKYO — Highly contaminated water is escaping a damaged reactor at the crippled nuclear power plant in Japan and could soon leak into the ocean, the country’s nuclear regulator warned yesterday.

The discovery poses a further setback to efforts to contain the nuclear crisis as workers find themselves in increasingly hazardous conditions.

In another new finding, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power station, said late yesterday that it had detected an increase in levels of plutonium in soil samples taken from within the compound a week ago, raising fears of yet another dangerous element that may be escaping the crippled reactors.

It was unclear where the plutonium had come from. The reactors could be a source, but tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, which ended in 1980, left trace amounts of plutonium around the world.... 

Right, it was from weapons tests 30 years ago.  

I guess the outrageous lies and bullshit excuses will never cease from the AmeriKan. What will is my purchase of them.

All the reported readings are within the safe range of plutonium levels in sediment and soil given by the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.... 

American nuclear experts expressed confusion yesterday about the company’s latest report that one form of plutonium was found at elevated levels at the Fukushima plant while other forms were not, and suggested it could be a measurement error.... 

(Blog editor's chin falls to chest)

Although the source of the plutonium found at the plant was unclear, all three kinds of nuclear fuel at the complex could leak plutonium. Reactor No. 3 is fueled partly by mixed oxide fuel, or mox, which is made from plutonium and uranium. The fuel for most reactors is uranium.

But plutonium is a regular byproduct of a reactor’s splitting uranium atoms in two....  

Any of the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi could leak plutonium, as could spent fuel rods in cooling pools atop the reactor buildings.

The most abundant type of plutonium, the 239 isotope, has a half-life of 24,000 years and emits alpha rays. If deep inside the body, alphas can cause healthy tissue to turn cancerous. But the rays are so weak that outside the body they can be stopped by skin or tissue paper.

AmeriKan media is not focusing on that at all.

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"In Japan, confidence slips amid nuclear peril" by Ken Belson and Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times / March 30, 2011

TOKYO — Plutonium traces in the soil.... 

The reality that the emergency measures they have taken to keep nuclear fuel cool have themselves had a variety of dangerous side effects. And the prospect of restoring automatic cooling systems anytime soon has now faded.

The recent flow of bad news from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has undermined the drumbeat of optimistic statements by government and company officials who have at times tried to reassure a nervous public that significant progress is at hand — only to come up short....   

It is the SAME with my MOUTHPIECE MEDIA!

The setbacks have raised questions about how long, and at what cost, Japan can keep up what experts call its “feed and bleed’’ strategy of cooling the reactor’s fuel rods with emergency infusions of water from the ocean and now from freshwater sources.

That cooling strategy, while essential to prevent full meltdowns, has released harmful amounts of radioactive steam into the atmosphere and triggered leaks of highly contaminated water, making it perilous for some of the hundreds of workers at the plant to complete critical repair work.

Moreover, the discovery of radioactive elements that experts say could only come from the core of a reactor suggests that the government’s strategy may not be working and that partial fuel melting has not been completely halted.  

I'm sorry, reassuring liars of the AmeriKan media, but I believe it has been MELTED DOWN!!

The events have been a quick turn for the worse for the Japanese government....   

Yeah, never mind the PEOPLE being POISONED!

Compounding the matter, the government said yesterday that the recent discovery of plutonium in the soil at the plant provided new evidence that at least one of the plant’s reactors had experienced renewed melting of its nuclear fuel, as happened in the early days of the crisis.  

And RADIATION has been SPEWING since March 11.

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"Radiation levels rise in sea off Japan; Officials offer reassurances on eating fish" by Mari Yamaguchi and Shino Yuasa, Associated Press / March 31, 2011

TOKYO — Setbacks mounted yesterday in the crisis over Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear facility, with tests showing radiation contamination increasing in nearby sea water and tainting the air at a village 25 miles away with levels twice the UN threshold for evacuations.  

Then SAY GOODBYE to the PACIFIC as a food source!

Fears about contaminated seafood spread despite reassurances that radiation in the waters off the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility poses no health risk.

Then gorge yourselves on a big plate of sushi. 

Ready to give up on government yet?

While specialists say radioactive particles are unlikely to build up significantly in fish, the seafood concerns in the country that gave the world sushi are yet another blemish for Japan....

But they do hold mercury and other toxins quite well.  

Have you HAD ENOUGH of the AmeriKan media's minimization of this historic environmental crime?

The problems at the nuclear plant have taken center stage, but the tsunami also created a more pervasive disaster: Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes after the wave drove miles inland, decimating whole towns. The official death toll stood at 11,362 late yesterday, with the final toll expected to surpass 18,000....  

At least you can rebuild from a tsunami without radiation falling on you.

Related:

"The Japanese military stopped short of saying the search would end for good after Sunday, but...."


Of course, we will never know the death toll from all the cancers the radiation deals out.

At the Fukushima plant, the fight to cool the reactors and stem their release of radiation has become more complicated in recent days....  

And WHAT WAS REWRITTEN or CUT:

Citing dilutions in the ocean, the US Food and Drug Administration has downplayed the risks of seafood contamination.  

This the same FDA that just changed the acceptability limits to they can claim everything's all right?    

The same FDA that said the oil-soaked seafood in the Gulf was safe?

But, as with other reports of radiation levels in food and tap water, fear has begun to override science.

Don't you just LOVE the INSULT? 

This is the SAME FEAR-MONGERING, AGENDA-PUSHING PAPER screaming about government-created, directed, and funded "terrorists" as well as fart-misting global warming, right? 

The same media that PROMOTES a PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY regarding WTC towers free-falling into their own footprints because of fire?  

Yeah, I can see why they gave it the axe.

 --more--"

"Japan seeks help from abroad; Many countries giving aid in nuclear crisis" by Ryan Nakashima and Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press / April 1, 2011

TOKYO — Japan is increasingly turning to other countries for help as it struggles to stabilize its tsunami-stricken nuclear plant and stop radiation leaks that are complicating efforts to recover the bodies of some of the thousands swept away by the towering wave.... 

Government officials today said they planned more tests on a cow slaughtered for beef that had very slightly elevated levels of cesium, another radioactive particle. Officials stressed that the meat was never put on the market....

Radioactive cesium can build up in the body and high levels are thought to be a risk for various cancers. Still, researchers who studied Chernobyl could not find an increase in cancers that might be linked to cesium.  

Were they looking?

It is still found in the soil of Germany, Austria and France 25 years after Chernobyl and is found in wild boar in Germany, making the pigs off-limits for eating in many cases.  

Go ahead and eat that burger, Japanese.

--more--"  

Related: Damage to reactor called severe (By David E. Sanger and David Jolly, New York Times)

"Japan reactor leaking into sea; New outflow is very radioactive" by  Ken Belson and Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times / April 3, 2011

TOKYO — Highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near a crippled reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japanese safety officials said yesterday....

“The more water they add, the more problems they are generating,’’ said Satoshi Sato, a consultant to the nuclear energy industry and a former engineer with General Electric. “It’s just a matter of time before the leaks into the ocean grow.’’ 

Related: The Silver Lining In Japan's Nuclear Cloud

Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said it was possible that water in the pit had leaked from the reactor, although it was also possible that it came from other sources, like leaking pipes. In either case, any leak would be exacerbated by the enormous amounts of water being used to cool the reactor.

Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University, said that the leak discovered yesterday raised fears that contaminated water might be seeping out through many more undiscovered sources.

He said that unless workers could quickly stop the leaking, Tokyo Electric could be forced to reevaluate the feed-and-bleed strategy, in which they flood the reactors and fuel ponds with water and then release the steam it creates.

“It is crucial to keep cooling the fuel rods, but on the other hand, these leaks are dangerous,’’ Iguchi said. “They can’t let the plant keep leaking high amounts of radiation for much longer,’’ he said....

Well, it is GOING to be MONTHS!

The crisis at the nuclear plant has overshadowed the recovery effort under way in Japan since the quake. The country’s National Police Agency said the official death toll from the disaster had surpassed 11,800, while more than 15,500 were listed as missing....
 
Effort is scheduled to end today.

--more--"

"Effort to stem Japan reactor leak falls short; Contaminated water flows from plant" by Hiroko Tabuchi and Ken Belson, New York Times / April 4, 2011

TOKYO — Workers’ desperate struggle to plug a gush of highly contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, using sawdust, shredded newspaper, and an absorbent powder, appeared to be failing late yesterday as the radiation threat from the crippled plant continued to spread.


Nuclear officials said it could take months to bring the Fukushima Daiichi plant under control....

Then this planet is ruined.

--more--"

Nothing to worry about here though

"Crisis in Japan raises fears in US; Worries about radiation ingrained since Hiroshima" by Carolyn Y. Johnson,  Globe Staff / March 29, 2011

Dr. Eva Guinan was cheering on her son at a basketball game Sunday when the conversation in the bleachers turned to uncertainty about the risks of radiation exposure from the nuclear disaster in Japan.

Were the trace amounts of radioactive iodine being detected in Massachusetts rainwater, carried here by the wind, a cause for concern? As the situation keeps changing in Japan, how could anyone know whether to trust official statements about the level of the threat?

Short answer: no.

State public health officials and radiation specialists have been firm: People should not be fearful or change their behavior after small amounts of radioactive iodine were detected in rainwater. But the grip that the evolving nuclear crisis in Japan has had on the public imagination illustrates just how deep-seated our anxiety is about anything “nuclear.’’  

Sigh.  

The obfuscating and insulting paper says we are the ones being hysterical? 

These the same guys that blared war lies on their front pages, right?

The public’s sensitivity about radiation is so acute that state officials called an unusual Sunday press conference to let people know there was no health concern. The very low levels of radioactive iodine detected in rainwater would not be a threat even if rainwater were to be directly ingested, health officials stressed. It will be further diluted before it enters the drinking-water supply, and radioactive iodine has been undetectable so far in samples from reservoirs.

“There is a general concern to be as transparent as possible, and I think that’s part of what we’re seeing . . . that the public has a right to be honestly informed of these things,’’ said James Connell, a physicist at the University of New Hampshire. “But I hope the public will also take the trouble to be informed of what it really means, rather than overreacting.’’

High doses of radiation exposure like those received by the workers and emergency responders during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster can be deadly. But in daily life, people experience low-level radiation exposure from natural sources....  

Some are even saying it is good for you.

Images of the destruction and suffering caused by the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in World War II have powerfully shaped the perception of nuclear risk. Although many people may not know how fission works, nuclear energy and radiation exposure are part of the popular consciousness, shaped by cultural references that range from “The Incredible Hulk’’ to the nuclear power plant in “The Simpsons.’’  

I'm having a hard time getting through this insulting s***, readers.

“Nuclear things carry a historical freight that is not carried by other technologies that people are more familiar with,’’ said Spencer Weart, a science historian and author of the book “Nuclear Fear.’’ “We are worried about radioactive things because they can cause cancer and genetic defects, and so can chemicals. . . . But chemicals are familiar; radiation is mysterious, scary.’’  

Yeah, like DEPLETED URANIUM MUNITIONS the U.S. uses!

As a result, the cancer risk from radiation is often overestimated by people.  

Like the threat from government created, funded, and directed "terrorists" or the global-warming gas spew promoted by the mouthpiece media?

For example, according to Dr. John Boice, a radiation epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, even among 86,000 survivors of the atomic blasts that ended World War II, just 500 of the eventual 10,000 cancer deaths are attributed to radiation exposure.

Radiation can also seem more exotic and frightening than chemicals or other harmful substances because it is invisible and odorless. Still, it can be detected by sensitive technology at levels that cause no harm....

--more--"   

Related:

New tests find no fallout from Japan

Yes, even the "liberal" government of Massachusetts lies to you.   

Good thing government is looking out for your health:

"Remedies for overexposure lacking; Scientists hunt for treatments" by Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press / March 29, 2011

WASHINGTON — “Thinking of terrorist events is what drives us. Mother Nature can be much of a terror, too,’’ says Dr. Robin Robinson, who heads the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, that funds late-stage research of products the government deems most likely to pan out.  

Now NATURE is a TERRORIST, too?!!! 

SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BARDA has invested $164 million for research into antiradiation treatment candidates since 2008, and $44 million for radiation testing in hopes of adding such products to the nation’s emergency medical stockpile soon. That is in addition to research dollars from the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department.... 

Moreover, previous emergencies have shown that sheer stress can cause nausea and diarrhea that mimic some early symptoms of radiation sickness in people who were not exposed, medical physicist David Brenner, director of Columbia’s Center for Radiological Research, added.  

Yeah, it is ALL in YOUR HEAD, readers.

--more--"  

Someone needs to hose off the AmeriKan media because they stink.  

Update: Rainwater in California Measured 181 Times The Acceptable Limit For Drinking Water, Corporate Media Continues Criminal Coverup