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RADIATION WATCH 2011
The global upheaval that is the Occupy Movement is hopefully in the process of changing—and saving—the world. [color=FDD017]Through the astonishing power of creative non-violence, it has the magic and moxie to defeat the failing forces of corporate greed.
A long-term agenda seems to be emerging: social justice, racial and gender equality, ecological survival, true democracy, an end to war, and so much more. [color=3BB9FF]When the power of love overcomes the love of power,' said Jimi Hendrix, [color=3BB9FF]'the world will know peace.'
Such a moment must come now in the nick of time, as the corporate ways of greed and violence pitch us to the precipice of self-extinction. At that edge sits a sinister technology, [color=Chartreuse]a poisoned cancerous power that continues to harm us all even as 3 of its cores melt and spew at [color=Chartreuse]Fukushima.
For decades, the No Nukes campaign has conducted hundreds of demonstrations involving thousands of arrests in dozens of countries. Violence has been renounced and almost entirely avoided. Injuries have been present but minimal.
There’s been at least one murder, that of the anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood. But overall, given the magnitude of the movement over more than 40 years of confrontation, individual casualties have been slight.
And the accomplishments have been historic.
Whereas Richard Nixon once promised 1000 US reactors by the year 2000, there are now 104.
These dangerous relics are now under attack, especially at Vermont Yankee and Indian Point, New York.
NukeFree.org
Worldwide, we have seen Germany renounce atomic energy and commit to renewables. Siemens, once a corporate nuclear flagship, has turned instead toward Solartopian technologies. ...
But the final fight remains to be won.
While pouring billions into cornering the global solar market, China is still poised to build some 30 reactors. India, Britain, Korea and a few others are also toying with more.
But especially in the wake of Fukushima, they are not a done deal.
In the United States, the key is to deny the nuclear industry the federal funding without which it can’t build new reactors.
[color=Salmon]And here is where the Occupy and No Nukes movements intersect.
Wall Street has actually retreated, and will not finance new commercial reactors.
I was just diagnosed with breast cancer on July 26, 2011. No family history and a very healthy eater. I live 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean in Southern Cal, south of Los Angeles.
Hot particles?
My coworker was just diagnosed with breast cancer in June of 2011, too.
Same deal. No family history, healthy eater.
We work together 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Hot particles?
Too weird if you ask me.
Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. I'm 52, she's 30.
Not good.
jsorensens2 (3 months ago)
@jsorensens2 I am sorry to hear that. My Grandmother just passed from cancer.
My Uncle was just diagnosed along with my god father too.
My family's dog had to have a cancerous tumor removed from her leg.
I live in Los Angeles too.
Scary times.
Stay away from dairy, P.I. from health food should help your thyroid, but other than that, its all a gamble.
ScamArtists33 (3 months ago)
Good video! Could humans have come up with a more idiotic way to boil water? I don't think so
NSSL1 (3 months ago)
The truth is a powerful weapon.
When it begins to sink into the minds of every American what has been done to us by this obscenity, perhaps the weather control geniuses at Haarp and in the Navy will figure out a way to slow or change the winds that are bring this poison to our shores from Japan.
How many millions are going to die from Cancer as a result of this?
It's untold and beyond guessing - heaven help us all!
PRAY! That may be our only hope to avoid death by cancer caused by radiation.
markinscottsdale (3 months ago)
I will share a scary story with ya.
I went outside last Thursday night to move some of my fish tank jugs and I got rained on heavily.
Well, I thought nothing of it and then I took a shower and grabbed a bite to eat then went to sleep. I woke up at 4 am so sick I thought I was dying.
I had nausea, blotchy skin, stomach pain and I began throwing up constantly. It got so bad that when I noticed the blood I went to the hospital with a 102 temp and severely dehydrated.
They told me they thought it was food poisoning.
Well, needless to say, here it is 3 days later and I am just beginning to feel better.
I'm now staying inside with the air conditioner off just to be safe and staying out of the rain. Scared the crap out of me.
It was probably something I ate but [color=Chartreuse]It could have been a particle I swallowed.
The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a nuclear reservation in the United States in the state of South Carolina, located on land in Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell Counties adjacent to the Savannah River, 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Augusta, Georgia. The site was built during the 1950s to refine nuclear materials for deployment in nuclear weapons.
It covers 310 square miles (800 km2) and employs more than 10,000 people.
A major focus is cleanup activities related to work done in the past for the nation's nuclear buildup. Currently, none of the reactors on-site are operating (see list of nuclear reactors), although
two of the reactor buildings are being used to consolidate and store nuclear materials. more
...As the Obama administration and Senate leaders move to scuttle a proposed repository for the waste in Nevada, the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state — along with federal facilities in Idaho and South Carolina — could become the de facto dump sites for years to come.
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher said on Monday, September 19, 2011, that high-level nuclear waste once destined for the Yucca Mountain repository will be sent, instead, to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
Currently, millions of gallons of high-level nuclear waste are stored in 49 leaking tanks on the site as well as [color=Chartreuse]huge amounts of surplus plutonium.
[color=Cyan]Deadly chemicals and radiation will contaminate the facility for thousands of years.
'The Bomb Plant,' as locals refer to the site, is uniquely unsuitable for a permanent nuclear waste repository, according to leading geologists. It sits on an earthquake fault and one of the most important aquifers in the South. The sandy soil and swampy conditions make it highly vulnerable to waste seepage.
The Obama Administration has spent more than $1 billion in Stimulus Act funds cleaning up legacy Cold War nuclear and chemical waste at the site. Despite this effort, [color=Chartreuse]there is now more radioactive waste at SRS than when the clean-up started.
The idea of bringing nuclear reactor waste and surplus weapons plutonium from around the world to SRS only exacerbates already chronic problems.
The 312 square mile site near Aiken, South Carolina, was once the home of five reactors that churned out nuclear materials for H-bombs. The last reactor at SRS had to be shuttered for safety reasons during the Reagan Administration. Tritium, which is needed for nuclear weapons, is produced by Tennessee Valley Authority reactors and processed into gas for nuclear weapons at SRS.
The $4.8 billion MOX facility, scheduled to open in 2016, is designed to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium by using small amounts to make fuel for commercial reactors. (...)
After spending $10 billion to $12 billion over the past 25 years studying a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, President Barack [color=3BB9FF]Obama is fulfilling a campaign promise to kill it as a site for the repository.
...
If Yucca is closed, a search for a new site for a national repository likely would start with the 31 states on the original list of potential locations. In addition to Hanford and the Idaho National Laboratory, the states with possible sites include Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
Scrapping Yucca Mountain also could have national security ramifications. The Navy would have no place to permanently store the used reactor fuel that's powered its aircraft carriers and submarines.
...
In a report late last year to Congress, the department (DOE) warned that by not providing adequate and timely storage for the defense nuclear waste, it would be "unable to honor" its commitments to the states where the waste is currently stored, including Washington, Idaho and South Carolina.
more
SRS was never intended, nor is it equipped to be, a final nuclear waste repository, [color=8AFB99]but through redefinition of legal terms and the closing of the Yucca Mountain site, [color=3BB9FF]it has become one.
SRS, with all its nuclear ruins and more curies of radioactivity than any place in America,
is now the storage site for the world’s most dangerous materials.
SRS is also home to the Savannah River National Laboratory and the nation's only operating radiochemical separations facility.
Its tritium facilities are also the United States' only source of tritium, an essential component in nuclear weapons. And, the nation's only mixed oxide fuel (MOX) manufacturing plant is being constructed at SRS. When operational, the MOX facility will convert legacy weapons-grade plutonium into fuel suitable for commercial power reactors.
... will convert legacy weapons-grade plutonium into fuel suitable for commercial power reactors.
Future plans for the site cover a wide range of options, including host to research reactors,
a reactor park for power generation, and other possible uses. (...)
RADIATION WATCH 2011
"[color=3BB9FF]Such items must not be kept in an enclosure when doing a pressure test," Peter Gango, head of nuclear power at energy company Vattenfall, said.
[color=8AFB17]'It was human error and such a thing should not occur in our power plants.'
The fire in the reactor near the western city of Gothenburg cost the plant's operator hundreds of millions of dollars...
The global upheaval that is the Occupy Movement is hopefully in the process of changing—and saving—the world.
[color=FDD017]Through the astonishing power of creative non-violence, it has the magic and moxie to defeat the failing forces of corporate greed.
A long-term agenda seems to be emerging: [color=Salmon]social justice, racial and gender equality, ecological survival, true democracy, an end to war, and so much more.
Such a moment must come now in the nick of time, as the corporate ways of greed and violence pitch us to the precipice of self-extinction.
At that edge sits [color=Chartreuse]a sinister technology, a poisoned cancerous power that continues to harm us all even as 3 of its cores melt and spew at [color=Chartreuse]Fukushima. more
In the United States, the key is to deny the nuclear industry the federal funding without which it can’t build new reactors.
[color=Salmon]And here is where the Occupy and No Nukes movements intersect.
Wall Street has actually retreated, and will not finance new commercial reactors.
Originally posted by this_is_who_we_are
reply to post by Aircooled
It's been raining heavily/steadily most of the afternoon here.
Perhaps the radioactive rain everyone says doesn't exist spiked the reading temporarily.
Radioactive cesium exceeding the legal limit has been detected in four tea products that reached the market and were made with tea leaves from Saitama and Chiba prefectures, a recent health ministry inspection showed.
One of the products, using tea leaves from Chiba Prefecture, contained [color=3BB9FF]2,720 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, far above the government-set limit of 500 becquerels, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday. (...)
(...) Fukushima rice all cleared for shipment, radioactive or not because in the "main" test administered by the Fukushima prefectural government, none exceeded the stringent national provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.
The highest was from a district in Nihonmatsu City, 470 becquerels/kg. But not to worry, rice farmers of the particular district.
The Fukushima prefectural government will buy up all your rice, according to Kyodo News English (10/12/2011), probably using the money from the national government (i.e. nation's taxpayers' money).
No information on what the prefecture is going to do with the rice it buys up, but I suspect it will find its way to the market eventually. [color=3BB9FF]It's a lose-lose for a minority of conscientious farmers in Fukushima who chose not to grow at all this year - no sales, no compensation.
Now that the rice from all districts and cities in Fukushima Prefecture are declared “safe” (i.e. below the provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium), the Fukushima prefectural government is gearing up for the PR campaign it plans to mount to promote Fukushima rice in restaurants and school lunches and to consumers in the Tokyo metropolitan area. (...)
Did anyone say in the comment section that it was a duty of adults to protect children?
I guess not in Koriyama City, which is located in high-radiation “Nakadori” (middle third) of Fukushima Prefecture and where 500,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found in the rice hay.
The city will start using this year’s rice harvested in the city in the school lunches, starting next Tuesday.
Since the new rice harvested in Fukushima is all cleared for shipping as the sampling test has proven it is “safe,” it is just a matter of time 'til it’s fed to the most vulnerable and without voice – children.
Just as the Fukushima government, headed by THAT governor, has been pushing ever since declaring “safety” on October 12. Koriyama City has decided to use the new rice harvested in the city for school lunches starting next week. Today, the city explained the radiation detection system to the parents.
Koriyama City will require JA Koriyama, who will ship the rice, to conduct voluntary testing of radioactive materials, and will start using the city’s newly harvested rice in school lunches starting Tuesday November 8. (...)
...voluntary testing of radioactive materials...
For consumers outside Fukushima Prefecture, there is no way of telling whether a bag of new rice contains Fukushima rice, if it is a bag of “blended” rice. There is no requirement to list the places of origin if the rice from different locations are blended.
All the label will say is “made in Japan."
While consumers can still avoid, if they want to, Fukushima rice by avoiding “blended” rice and avoiding buying bento at convenience stores, school children cannot.
A nation is utterly broken when the leaders think nothing of using children as propaganda tools, and excoriate those citizens who dare raise their voices.
It’s not just Fukushima Prefecture either.
No end in sight of Japanese nuclear horror.
For those of you who wrote to me that Fukushima rice was “safe” because it all “tested” well below the safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, sorry. NHK has a piece of bad news for you.
630 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium has been detected from the rice grown and harvested in Onami District of Fukushima City in Fukushima. It was discovered only because one farmer asked the local JA to test his rice. (...)
I used to think canned food was ok, but even that was an illusion.
Greenpeace measured canned fish.
The samples were taken from 15 branches of 5 major super market chains from North Japan to Kanto area. The measurement was conducted in October.
As a result, they measured cesium from 27 of 75 canned fish.
They announced it on 11/16/2011.
Eg,4.6 Bq/Kg from canned chub mackerel.
This seems to be merely a beginning of the huge food problem. (...)
(...) Authorities in Fukushima prefecture say rice produced near the stricken atomic power plant contained caesium they measured at 630 becquerels per kilogram. The government safety limit is 500 becquerels. (...)
A team of international researchers this week said elevated levels of caesium in soil in the region would “severely impair” food production in eastern Fukushima.
The study, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, suggested farming in neighbouring areas could also suffer because of radiation. (...)
Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
Thomas Paine
RADIATION WATCH 2011
'Atoms For Peace'
For as long as there has been federal control of nuclear research and materials, there has been an interest in using commercial nuclear reactors as a source of materials to make weapons. In the early 1950's, it was recognized that the weapons program would require more plutonium than could be furnished by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
One suggestion, made by Dr. Charles A. Thomas, then executive vice-president of Monsanto Chemical Company, was to create a dual purpose plutonium reactor, one which could produce plutonium for weapons, and electricity for commercial use.
(...) Miamisburg was the site of one of the first post-war U.S Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) facilities, beginning in 1947. The Dayton area had supported numerous secret operations for the War Department during World War II.
As the war ended, the majority of these operations were moved to the Miamisburg Mound Laboratory, which was operated by the Monsanto Chemical Company.
[color=Cyan]The Mound Labs were to monitor all aspects of the US nuclear defense stockpile. source
A 1951 study undertaken by the AEC concluded that commercial nuclear reactors would not be economically feasible if they were used solely to produce electricity; they would be, however, if they also produced plutonium which could be sold.
Utilities themselves were only mildly intrigued with the notion of being able to produce "too cheap to meter electricity," and [color=Chartreuse]only so long as someone else took over the responsibility for the waste products, and indemnified them against catastrophic nuclear plant accidents.
(...)
By "dual-purpose" we mean that the plants would be primarily for the production of power but would also would produce plutonium for military purposes as a by-product. In our judgment, these plants...would be justified from an economic standpoint only if a substantial value were assigned to the plutonium produced."
Each year a typical 1000 mega-watt (MW) commercial power reactor will produce [color=Chartreuse]300 to 500 pounds of plutonium -- enough to build between 25 - 40 Nagasaki-sized atomic bombs. ... source
(...) It takes about 15 pounds of plutonium-239 or uranium-235 to fashion a crude nuclear device. The technology to enrich the isotopes is available for about one million dollars.
(...)
In an inventory taken between October, 1980, and March, 1981, the U.S. government could not account for about [color=3BB9FF]55 pounds of plutonium and 159 pounds of uranium from its weapons facilities.
The explanation given for this Missing material was "accounting error" and that the materials were "stuck in the piping." (...) source
Originally posted by thorfourwinds
Folks, you just can't make this stuff up!
Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
Thomas Paine
RADIATION WATCH 2011
• TEPCO has revealed “that melted nuclear fuel has nearly reached the bottom steel wall under the concrete”
• “If the erosion expands another 37 centimeters, it would be hitting the steel wall”
• “If the fuel melts through the remaining concrete embedment, which is only some 30 centimeters, it is bound to seep into the soil”
• “Experts say TEPCO must find a measure to prevent fuel leakage“
• “Experts stress TEPCO must promptly find a way to put a stop to the fuel erosion inside the reactor“
However, TEPCO's analysis is rough at best because it is [color=Chartreuse]a prediction of the current situation inside the reactor based on its temperature change and injection of cooling water.
..."I think they must install a 5 to 10 meter barrier in the basement to prevent the worst case scenario."
Leakage of melted fuel may invite a host of difficult problems such as safe removal of the fuel in a cold shutdown of the nuclear reactor in the future.
CHIBA -- Radioactive xenon-133 some 400,000 times normal levels was detected in the atmosphere here immediately after the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, a radiation survey organization said.
It took three months before the volume of radioactive substances returned to normal levels...
The average amount of xenon-133 in the atmosphere was 1,300 becquerels per cubic meter of air in Chiba between March 14 and 22, as compared with zero to 3.4 millibecquerels before the crisis.
The volume reached 400,000 times normal levels shortly after the nuclear crisis was triggered by the March 11 tsunami, according to the center.
[color=Salmon]Since xenon-133 hardly reacts to any other substance, there is no fear of internal exposure to radiation even if inhaled, experts say.
... When the application for the Rokkasho project was filed in 1989, construction expenses were predicted to reach 760 billion yen.
However, a series of problems including water leaks from a spent nuclear fuel storage pool assured that the construction cost would end up being over 2 trillion yen.
If the plant reached full operation, another 1 trillion yen would become necessary to cover future demolition costs. TEPCO and other utilities began voicing concerns about the viability of the Rokkasho project, leading METI to set up the meeting in May 2002.
... .
...Three months later, however, when TEPCO's cover-up of cracked equipment and other damage was exposed, Araki and Minami resigned. As a result, a second meeting to negotiate the details of the Rokkasho withdrawal never took place.
Then TEPCO Chairman Araki, who is currently an advisor to the utility, refused to be interviewed about the case, saying that his "[color=Cyan]memories (about it) are vague."
Former TEPCO President Minami said that he "[color=Cyan]has no recollection" of the 2002 meeting, but added, "We were talking with METI about whether to withdraw from the reprocessing project, and
I discussed it with Araki and (then Vice President and current Chairman) Katsumata."
Katsumata also refrained from saying whether the meeting had taken place, but said, "We had about five management meetings within our company about whether or not to go forth with reprocessing." Meanwhile, former METI official Hirose said, "[color=Cyan]I absolutely have no recollection."
..."When I got to the place to open the valve, I heard eerie, deep popping noise from the torus (a donut-shaped structure at the bottom of the reactor)," he said.
"When I put one of my feet on the torus to reach the valve, my black rubber boot melted and slipped (due to the heat)..."
...because it was out of power, workers had to go to the actual point to open the lid (to vent the reactors).
However, it was extremely hot because of the exposed fuel inside of the reactor.
A worker states, once they stepped on the ladder, the shoes got melted like glue immediately.
It was not just the heat, [color=Chartreuse]radiation level was also extremely high...
CNN has listed the world's top seven winterland marvels as chosen by Lonely Planet authors.
And among the winners is a Korean winter festival, involving the Sancheoneo.
Sancheoneo, a species of trout, dwell in the rivers around Hwacheon in the mountains northeast of Seoul.
When winter arrives, the rivers freeze over and the fish disappear under 40-centimeters of ice. Sancheoneo Fest gives visitors a chance to try their hand at ice-fishing.
The festival may have made it on the list because some visitors shed their thick, outer layers and end up in just T-shirts and shorts before [color=Salmon]plunging into a pool of near-freezing water to catch the fish in primal fashion...
The fresh catch are cooked on the spot.
● Slogan: Unfrozen Hearts, Unforgettable Memories
Visitors can try out ice fishing, and those who are feeling brave can try to catch mountain trout with their bare hands. As well as fun activities and performances, there is also an exhibition of ice sculptures that took 20 weeks to prepare. Visitors can sample raw and grilled mountain trout, both of which are delicious.
narafestival.com
SEOUL: Officials say traces of radioactive material from Japan's stricken nuclear power plant have been detected in South Korea.
Local media reports say South Korea's 12 detection centers have identified traces of iodine-131, cesium-137 and cesium-134, but added that the materials are not dangerous to people or the environment at current levels.
It may be recalled that Seoul first confirmed the existence of radioactive particles in the air on March 28, 17 days after the Fukushima nuclear power plant was damaged by a tsunami that followed the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake that struck Japan.