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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTEPCO detects record radiation at Fukushima’s reactor 2, new leak suspected
TEPCO has found a record 1.9 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances at its No.2 reactor. Also radioactive cesium was detected in deeper groundwater at No.4 units well, as fears grow of a new leak into the ocean.
The level of beta ray-emitting radioactivity in groundwater around the crippled Fukushima reactor No. 2 reactor has been rising since November, NHK reported.
Previous the highest level 1.8 million becquerels (bq/liter), of beta-ray sources per liter - was registered at reactor No.1 on December 13.
http://rt.com/news/fukushima-record-radiation-leak-616/
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Berlum
(7,044 posts)WowSeriously
(343 posts)malaise
(269,054 posts)The silence from governments and M$Greedia is deafening
nikto
(3,284 posts)Representatives of the Nuclear Industry insist that everything is OK, and there
are no serious problems.
So, stop worryin'!!
chervilant
(8,267 posts)of the Fukushima disaster might want to view the documentary on Chernobyl.
madokie
(51,076 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)I don't
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Why not post the original source articles, instead of the hysterical spin put out by RT?
Sid
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)If you look at the time dates the Japanese reported this a day later.
The DATA is the same for all stories
RT reported it first in English.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
99Forever
(14,524 posts)BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)what do they know?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)The story connects a few dots from the present day back to World War II.
War crime, Yakuza, Secret Government. Why not?
Japans Nuclear Industry: The CIA Link.
By Eleanor Warnock
June 1, 2012, 10:18 AM JST.
Wall Street Journal Blog
Tetsuo Arima, a researcher at Waseda University in Tokyo, told JRT he discovered in the U.S. National Archives a trove of declassified CIA files that showed how one man, Matsutaro Shoriki, was instrumental in jumpstarting Japans nascent nuclear industry.
Mr. Shoriki was many things: a Class A war criminal, the head of the Yomiuri Shimbun (Japans biggest-selling and most influential newspaper) and the founder of both the countrys first commercial broadcaster and the Tokyo Giants baseball team. Less well known, according to Mr. Arima, was that the media mogul worked with the CIA to promote nuclear power.
SNIP...
Mr. Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power, according to the documents found by Mr. Arima. Keen on remilitarizing Japan, Mr. Shoriki endorsed nuclear power in hopes its development would one day arm the country with the ability to make its own nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Arima. Mr. Shorikis behind-the-scenes push created a chain reaction in other media that eventually changed public opinion.
SNIP
Mr. Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power, according to the documents found by Mr. Arima. Keen on remilitarizing Japan, Mr. Shoriki endorsed nuclear power in hopes its development would one day arm the country with the ability to make its own nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Arima. Mr. Shorikis behind-the-scenes push created a chain reaction in other media that eventually changed public opinion.
CONTINUED...
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/06/01/japans-nuclear-industry-the-cia-link/
After President Carter was out of office, it was pretty much full-steam ahead for the Japanese bomb during the Pruneface Ronnie-Poppy Bush years. Hence, Fukushima Daiichi Number 3 and other select Japanese reactors were set up to process plutonium uranium fuels.
United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium
By Joseph Trento
on April 9th, 2012
National Security News Service
The United States deliberately allowed Japan access to the United States most secret nuclear weapons facilities while it transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of American tax paid research that has allowed Japan to amass 70 tons of weapons grade plutonium since the 1980s, a National Security News Service investigation reveals. These activities repeatedly violated U.S. laws regarding controls of sensitive nuclear materials that could be diverted to weapons programs in Japan. The NSNS investigation found that the United States has known about a secret nuclear weapons program in Japan since the 1960s, according to CIA reports.
The diversion of U.S. classified technology began during the Reagan administration after it allowed a $10 billion reactor sale to China. Japan protested that sensitive technology was being sold to a potential nuclear adversary. The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations permitted sensitive technology and nuclear materials to be transferred to Japan despite laws and treaties preventing such transfers. Highly sensitive technology on plutonium separation from the U.S. Department of Energys Savannah River Site and Hanford nuclear weapons complex, as well as tens of billions of dollars worth of breeder reactor research was turned over to Japan with almost no safeguards against proliferation. Japanese scientist and technicians were given access to both Hanford and Savannah River as part of the transfer process.
SNIP...
A year ago a natural disaster combined with a man-made tragedy decimated Northern Japan and came close to making Tokyo, a city of 30 million people, uninhabitable. Nuclear tragedies plague Japans modern history. It is the only nation in the world attacked with nuclear weapons. In March 2011, after a tsunami swept on shore, hydrogen explosions and the subsequent meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant spewed radiation across the region. Like the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan will face the aftermath for generations. A twelve-mile area around the site is considered uninhabitable. It is a national sacrifice zone.
How Japan ended up in this nuclear nightmare is a subject the National Security News Service has been investigating since 1991. We learned that Japan had a dual use nuclear program. The public program was to develop and provide unlimited energy for the country. But there was also a secret component, an undeclared nuclear weapons program that would allow Japan to amass enough nuclear material and technology to become a major nuclear power on short notice.
CONTINUED...
http://www.dcbureau.org/201204097128/national-security-news-service/united-states-circumvented-laws-to-help-japan-accumulate-tons-of-plutonium.html
Those of who have seen The World at War series on the tee vee are familiar with the black and white footage and great narrative chronicling the main events and figures of World War II. One of those episodes was entitled "The Bomb" and featured an interview with John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War to President Roosevelt and President Truman.
Here's part of what Mr. McCloy said about the Atomic Bomb the use of which he counseled only as a last resort, after warning Japan to surrender (around 7:30 mark of Part 2):
Besides that, weve got a new force, a new type of energy that will revolutionize warfare, destructive beyond any contemplation. Id said, Id mention the bomb. Mentioning the bomb, even at that late date, in that select group, was like, it was like they were all shocked. Because it was such a closely guarded secret. It was comparable to mentioning Skull and Bones at Yale which youre not supposed to do.
After the war, McCloy was the United States High Commissioner to Germany, administering the U.S. zone of occupation, making him one of the front-line leaders of the Cold War. In that capacity, one of the questionable things he did was to forgive several NAZI industrialists and war criminals.
The great cartoonist Herb Block, HERBLOCK, depicted McCloy holding open a prison door for a NAZI, while in the background Stalin took a photo (if anyone has a copy or link to the cartoon, Id be much obliged). About 15 years later, Mr. McCloy served the nation as a member of the Warren Commission.
While he wasnt a member of Skull and Bones, McCloy certainly worked closely with a bunch of them, including Averell Harriman and Prescott Bush. As a Wall Street and Washington insider, "Mr. Establishment" he was called, Mr. McCloy used the offices of government to centralize power and wealth. That is most un-democratic.
Mother Jones goes into detail:
The Nuclear Weapons Industry's Money Bombs
How millions in campaign cash and revolving-door lobbying have kept America's atomic arsenal off the chopping block.
By R. Jeffrey Smith, Center for Public Integrity
Mother Jones
Wed Jun. 6, 2012 3:00 AM PDT
Employees of private companies that produce the main pieces of the US nuclear arsenal have invested more than $18 million in the election campaigns of lawmakers that oversee related federal spending, and the companies also employ more than 95 former members of Congress or Capitol Hill staff to lobby for government funding, according to a new report.
The Center for International Policy, a nonprofit group that supports the "demilitarization" of US foreign policy, released the report on Wednesday to highlight what it described as the heavy influence of campaign donations and pork-barrel politics on a part of the defense budget not usually associated with large profits or contractor power: nuclear arms.
As Congress deliberated this spring on nuclear weapons-related projects, including funding for the development of more modern submarines and bombers, the top 14 contractors gave nearly $3 million to the 2012 reelection campaigns of lawmakers whose support they needed for these and other projects, the report disclosed.
Half of that sum went to members of the four key committees or subcommittees that must approve all spending for nuclear armsthe House and Senate Armed Services Committees and the Energy and Water or Defense appropriations subcommittees, according to data the Center compiled from the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. The rest went to lawmakers who are active on nuclear weapons issues because they have related factories or laboratories in their states or districts.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee this year have sought to erect legislative roadblocks to further reductions in nuclear arms, and also demanded more spending for related facilities than the Obama administration sought, including $100 million in unrequested funds for a new plant that will make plutonium cores for nuclear warheads, and $374 million for a new ballistic missile-firing submarine. The House has approved those requests, but the Senate has not held a similar vote on the 2013 defense bill.
CONTINUED...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/nuclear-bombs-congress-elections-campaign-donations
It isn't ironic or coincidental. It is the Establishment, the in-group, the Elite, the One-Percent thats pretty much gotten the lions share of the wealth created over the last 50 years. The same group thats pretty much had their fingers on the atomic button ever since the Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as profited from the development of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and the almost continuous state of war since then. For lack of a better term, I call them the BFEE, or War Party.
So, what's SidDithers -- the first to respond to the June 12, 2012 OP from which the above is taken -- have to say?
Thank you for this post...
It's all kinds of awesome.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002794278#post1
SidDithers wants DU to LOL about Fukushima, nuclear power or the Powers that control it. I don't see why. Not only are nuclear power and nuclear weapons dangerous to humanity, they are un-democratic in the extreme.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
Octafish
(55,745 posts)"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." -- Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC (ret.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6150066
Notice how SidDithers never criticizes the Bush family, longtime business partners of Brown Brothers Harriman and their attorneys, Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles of Sullivan & Cromwell.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Someone must be proud of you.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Doesn't register on DU GOOGLE.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Instead, you criticize me, one who does shed light on the warmongers and banksters of the Bush crime family.
You know, you're on the wrong board, SidDithers.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)You should try it some time. You'd feel right at home.
Sid
Octafish
(55,745 posts)That's why I use so many links to the original sources, so DUers can see for themselves. Here's an example:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022073759
You still have not explained why you never criticize the BFEE, SidDithers.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Dude, that's all you post. You've never met a CT or bit of woo that you didn't think was legitimate.
Sid
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)you were talking to him. And I'll bet in his history here, he has posted on other topics. Hmmmmf.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Since you can't, all you got are smears, threats, ridicule, and all manner of diversion.
Here's another example:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2416498
Your responses, for some reason, don't make me think you understand the difference between good Democrats like Robert F. Kennedy and his son and the for-crap friends of traitors, warmongers, mass murderers, drug dealers, banksters and election thieves that are the BFEE.
Why that is, SidDithers, is your business, not mine.
rgbecker
(4,832 posts)I've read a few of the these posts about the Fukushima reactors but they go right through one ear and out the other and then over my head. I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to understand the situation.
Are there people being exposed to the high radiation? Do those little white suits protect the workers from the radiation? What are people actually doing to keep the radioactive water from getting into the ocean or the ground water? I know Chernoble is abandoned and all around it, but it wasn't located on an ocean coast....will Fukushima continually pollute the ocean from now to eternity?
Would filling the entire site with concrete keep the radiation contained?
Just wondering if there is a kid's guide to Fukushima somewhere.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)with their disaster, so I expect that in the future, but not until gets more under control.
Soundman
(297 posts)Ignore the parts you may already know.
Nuclear reactors use radio active material to boil water that in turn makes steam that is used to turn turbines that drive the electric generators. Primitive really.
When Japan experienced the earth quake and ensuing tsunami the plant lost the capability to cool the reactors.
Three of the reactors that are at the center of this story were in operation at the time of the earthquake . One was ready to receive new fuel which was being stored within the reactor in a cooling pool. (The rods that are taken out of service still maintain a great deal of energy, they just are no longer efficient for boiling the water. So they have to store them. In this case they are stored above ground in the reactor building itself (pure genius)).
Three of the reactors lost enough cooling water that the radioactive rods were exposed to air. The temperature became so great the the material began to melt, hence the term melt down.
This molten mass now called corium is what is causing the problems.
Nobody knows for sure where this stuff is. Some say it has melted through containment and is now in the earth. It is far to radio active for humans or even cameras to enter them so no one knows for certain where it is. The utility company Tepco, claims that this (corium) is still contained and they have it in "cold shutdown" so essentially the are saying there is a partially melted ball of radio active metal that they now have under control as they are able to recirculate cooling water around it, and no further melting is taking place. Okay now the problem they are facing.
The cooling system is a closed loop. Meaning the water should never be exposed to the atmosphere. Unfortunately they have to keep adding water to make up for loss, this loss is the problem. They don't know where it is going, or where it is leaking from. At this point in time they have no short term plan to fix this.
They have drilled wells around the plant site and monitor the groundwater. They are reporting the results of samples taken in the article.
These results are totally open to interpretation. While they tell you the concentration of the contaminates, it does not tell you the quantity. Kind of a gross example but, if you took a dump in a coffee cup and put a little water in the cup you would probably say that cup is full of crap. Take the cup and dump it in the ocean, eh not so much. So the debate really comes down to how much is making it into the ocean.
So one camp is saying doom devastation. The others say due to being diluted it is not an issue.
At any rate, avoiding anything that comes out of the pacific ocean between California and Japan would probably be prudent. At this time that is about the only worry the average person has. Remember the pools where I said they put the used fuel? Many people worry that there could be a collapse because of building damage, if that were to happen, very, very bad news for humanity.
I hope that helped some.
rgbecker
(4,832 posts)1. So are people actually working there trying to do something (Like find and stop the leaks) or is it just people in an office just monitoring the gauges?
2. I know they are trying to move the spent rods to a different storage area. Is that for fear of the building collapse you mentioned? Have there been any reports of the success of the transfer?
3. I'm really interested in the hands on work that is being done. How do they find people willing to work in these radioactive areas? Certainly those suits don't offer fool proof protection...or do they?
4. The collapsing building syndrome: Besides the spelt cooling water, the uncovered rods would continue to react...it that the major concern or is there something else? Once again, I'm wondering about the actual workers exposure and if they are doing any work there like rebuilding the buildings...supporting damaged areas etc. or is it too "hot" to send anybody in?
Thanks again.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)the Yakuza used people who owed them debt to do some of clean up
The Russians offered help as did the EU and US but the japanese turned them down as they did all international offers..
The Japanese have a huge denial guilt thing in their culture that underplays the situation and under reports it. Notice the time stamp.
The energy company in Japan has repeatedly lied, misrepresented, denied, underestimated. to the public and government but are a huge corporate entity on the world stage .
I believe world technology can find solutions but not with lying, denial and bullshit
rgbecker
(4,832 posts)How long did it take them to finally admit something was causing those cars to over rev and take off on their own?
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)The Japanese have a politeness that permeates into a denial of what is really going on.
Got to go... leaving on a road trip for Xmas family stuff.
Last edited Mon Dec 23, 2013, 12:10 PM - Edit history (1)
1: Yes they are. They have built a sea of storage containers. They have also brought in treatment equipment to try and treat the waste water. So,they are storing what they can find and get too. They have also wrapped the reactors in a materiel to help isolate them from the atmosphere. They have also made some fairly substantial structural repairs to shore up the cooling pools.
2: Yes that is the most immediate problem. They did remove a few rods then had a photo op and declared victory. As far as I know they haven't mad any real progress. Synod that. They are still in the proceed with caution phase.
3: No the suits afford little protection. They are more for keeping any particulates off of the workers and they can be disposed of so the contamination isn't spread. I have read they are starting to have some trouble finding workers. The workers wear dosimeters that measure their exposure. Once that limit is reached they are done, no more work period. And as you can imagine, depending on what you are doing that limit could come pretty quick.
4: Yes it is far too hot. Which does make it scary. You know, you see the people milling about and working etc, but the monster that is lurking just below the surface is untouchable. There is no known technology to deal with this. A lot of people said they should encase it like Chernobyl. That was not a fix. That is a band aid. A band aid that is going to need changed and soon. And the real reason there was and is containment isn't so much cease of the building, it is because they lucked out and the material combined with the sand and created what they call the elephant foot. So it is somewhat encased on its own. Anyway that is why no experts that I know of are for the encasement approach.
As to the safety. The meltdown (that I believe is still ongoing) isn't creating much danger in the day to day activity of the workers. The debris removal is the most dangerous part. You might have a dump truck of relatively safe material, and you may have a penny sized piece that is lethal within minutes. I believe at this point they have identified the majority of the very "hot stuff and removed it". The pools are the problem though. If one collapses it is game over. No human will be able to get close enough to do anything. And some scientists believe the rods would actually catch fire, a fire that wouldn't be able to be put out. This would spread radioactive particles through the air and more than likely make a great deal of the northern hemisphere uninhabitable as well.
Hope that helps. I'm not really an expert.
broiles
(1,367 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)rgbecker
(4,832 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)and ended up working with the joint chiefs for plans and policy. I remember him coming home from Nevada with
radiation badges, I thought they were cool and we talked about it after the underground tests he was to observe.
I do think the data in this story is semi accurate but because of the time factor of 30 years of radiation exposure was alarming you do have to put into context however, I do think the time factor of this story has decades of fallout for planet earth.
PCIntern
(25,556 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)PCIntern
(25,556 posts)before it's over...if it's ever over.
madokie
(51,076 posts)No one knows what to do and if they did they can't get anyone close enough to do it. robots go kaput so they can't be used
Nuclear energy as its done today Sucks, big time
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)plutonium for decades, to feed that micro reactor in his nose.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Being as there is no sign that Tepco can handle this situation, and with increasing levels of radiation, the whole place may just go critical.
At the least, for maybe hundreds of years, the ocean will be polluted 24/7.