Downwind and down current of this fiasco, American and Canadian officials either don’t know better, or do and for some inexcusable reason, choose to do nothing about it. Considering the stakes on the line, that could be called treason.
A crime against humanity is unfolding in Japan due to the negligent and ill-conceived actions of a government that kowtows to Japan’s nuclear industry. The Japanese people are the first to suffer. They won’t be the last.
3/11 – THE NUCLEAR 9/11
The Great East Japan Earthquake, as it is also called, was the largest earthquake to ever hit Japan in known history. It lasted around six minutes.
The seismic shaking and subsequent tsunami waves, up to 133 feet high, killed 15,861 with 6,107 missing according to the National Police Agency of Japan. It also set off a series of events that has impacted the world and all of humanity for thousands of years to come.
Three of the six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melted down and three hydrogen explosions occurred. These events released enormous amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere, onto the land and into the Pacific Ocean.
The radioactive fallout not only contaminated Japan but also went into the jet stream over to North America.
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reported that Richland Washington had radioactive Xenon-133 levels 450,000 times above detection levels after Fukushima that persisted for weeks.
California and Oregon were also hard hit. Milk in San Francisco was found to have Cesium 137 at 160% above the Maximum Contamination Levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The atmospheric currents carried radioactive Plutonium to Lithuania. The fallout went around the Northern Hemisphere.
It also went into the Pacific Ocean and followed the Kuroshio Current that makes its way to the West Coast of North America and then splits into two – one flowing south down the California coast and the other moving north up to Alaska.
By the end of May 2012, it was reported by the Academy of Sciences that every one of the 15 tuna sampled in the previous August in the California waters were contaminated by radioactive Cesium 137 from Fukushima.
Many experts have talked about how huge a disaster this is – it was definitely rated at a 7 – the highest level of nuclear accident possible. Some have said it’s at least as big as the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident that was also rated a 7. Others have placed it at 3 to 10 times bigger. Even TEPCO, the company that runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant, estimates that the total radioactive releases were in the order of a million trillion Becquerels – that’s a lot of radioactivity when you consider that every single Becquerel represents one radioactive “explosion” of an atom every second.
This is the single greatest nuclear contamination of the oceans ever seen in history. The labels really don’t matter – it is enough to say that it is an enormous catastrophe. Chernobyl, as big as it was, was shut down in 18 days. Although the Japanese announced “cold shutdown” in December of 2011– it is now clear that that was a myth and that the reactors are still giving off trillions of Becquerel’s of radioactivity every day.
To make matters worse, the Japanese are transporting an estimated 20 million tons of radioactive debris all over Japan and having it incinerated in an attempt to reduce its volume. This incineration doesn’t reduce the radioactivity, it simply disperses it into the atmosphere all over Japan and over to North American in the jet stream.
Even though this news story is bigger than any you will read in the daily newspapers, the mainstream media rarely report on this continuing and ongoing disaster. The U.S. and Canadian governments are not monitoring their countries’ air, soil, food or Japanese imports for radioactivity. The official “line” is that “there is no cause for concern” and yet how can they know that that’s the case if they are not testing on a regular basis? .
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE THERE’S FISSION
Four of the six reactors at the plant have continuing problems but the reactor that puts the world most at risk is Unit 4.
Although the reactor at Unit 4 was not operating at the time of the disaster, the building was extremely damaged structurally by a hydrogen explosion on March 15, 2011. The roof blew off the building exposing the 1535 so-called “spent” fuel assemblies containing 460 tons of nuclear fuel that are housed precariously 100 feet above the ground in a fuel “pool.”
It is important to point out that the word “spent” belies the truth about these fuel assemblies. They contain the rods that have been previously used in the reactor but are many times more radioactive than when they first went into the reactor.
Not only was the building at Unit 4 severely damaged during the explosion but its cooling system – essential for keeping the rods cool – was damaged as well. TEPCO did do some structural work on the foundation of building 4 and “jury rigged” a temporary cooling system using fire hoses. They claim the building is safe. But the situation is nowhere near safe.
Even though TEPCO says it has reinforced the foundation of Unit 4, it admits the wall is bulging. The building is leaning precariously and its seismic capability has been rated at zero. It would take very little to cause this building to collapse.
Experts have stated that an earthquake of 7, an explosion or even a storm could cause the building to crumble and the cooling system to be lost.
This would set off a fire in the spent fuel pool that contains the 460 tons of fuel. The radioactivity released would be so high that workers would not be able to get close to the other reactor units at the site and so the ongoing work of keeping those units cooled would end. The water in all the units would evaporate and the hot fuel rods in these units would also ignite. The 6291 fuel rods in the common pool on the ground would also be set on fire.
The type of fires that would be created could not be put out by water. The fires would just have to burn until all the stored nuclear fuel was burned up.
In all, the Fukushima Daiichi site holds 10,893 fuel assemblies. Those fuel assemblies hold a total of 3,488,000 lbs. of radioactive nuclear fuel including highly toxic Uranium, Plutonium and Cesium 137.
The fires would cause an unprecedented amount of radiation to be released directly into the atmosphere.
The nuclear fallout released would be at a level higher than the amount of radioactive Cesium 137 that was released in all the 700 atomic bomb tests ever conducted in the world in the above ground testing that was carried out in the 1940’s, 50,’s 60’s and 70’s.
It would release 85 times more Cesium 137 than was released at Chernobyl in 1986. Chernobyl is still uninhabitable 36 years later. Recent studies of Cesium 137 at Chernobyl, which has a half-life of about 30 years, didn’t show any decrease in the radioactivity of the isotope, puzzling scientists and possibly foretelling an even more extended period before Fukushima will be anywhere near inhabitable.
It would contaminate Japan, cause the evacuation of Tokyo, plus go directly into the jet stream and over to Canada, the United States and all around the Northern Hemisphere.
This catastrophic amount of radiation would affect people’s health for generations. It would cause irreversible contamination of crops, water and land. It would contaminate the Pacific Ocean – to a much greater extent than has been happening over the last year and a half. It would cause great harm to all marine life.
And it would do great harm to all the people of this planet. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has determined that there is no safe level of radiation. Zero. Every exposure to radiation increases the risk of cancer, spontaneous miscarriage, stillbirths, childhood mortality, birth defects and many other diseases.
One need only to look at Chernobyl 26 years later to see what awaits. After Chernobyl, in all the areas affected, hundreds of scientific studies have proven that there was a significant increase in heart attacks and cardiovascular diseases, thyroid cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, diseases of the central nervous system, increase in stillbirth rates, increase in miscarriages, increase in infant deaths and a decrease in birth rates. Consider an 85-times-worse scenario. No wonder many experts are saying that this is an issue of human survival.
After reading most of the news here especially the unforgettable fire, I have come to an absolute final conclusion to save Japan and the rest of us the planet world, just as a lay person who wants life not death , is to have Japan declare Fukushima a national sacrifice zone after evacuating all population. Once the whole plant sinks under the ground or partly in the ocean which is already contaminated anyway beyond repair, then start pouring from the air tons and tons of Boron and cement etc. day and night until the crater is completely filled. Just maybe we can save our breathing air this way and people simply don’t eat any more seafood. Any better solution and I urgently want to know! Thanks.
As a species, we seem to be the only one foolish enough to invent things beyond our abilities to control them….This disaster, and the subsequent denial of the truth by all media is amazing. If this isn’t fixed, a good part of the planet will be uninhabitable. Our food chain has already been destroyed by the radiation of fish, soil, crops and air.
I am a historian, and have often wondered if illness, disease, war, plague, etc. is what destroyed the ancient civilizations causing them to vanish overnight. Perhaps it is this same insane denial of the truth (whatever it might have been) that caused it.
We seem to be able to progress only so far before our progress destroys us. I think our demise started with the splitting of the atom. It was a technology that should never have been revealed. If we could have stopped somewhere before WW I in development, we might have been able to go on for centuries. From 1800-1920 We went from candlelight to electric lighting, horse and buggy to autos and aeroplanes. We developed the telephone, telegraph, railroad….so many things that will be remembered as as golden era. Now, we face disaster, and our leaders deny it as if by pretending it doesn’t exist, it won’t hurt us.
We may well be experiencing our own extinction.
Thanks for a great article not seen elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Marilyn Gjerdrum
@nateobie: We included your nitwiticism as another glaring example of the anonymous ‘experts’ that like to goo up the works by insulting folks here. We don’t explain how “fission works” rather use the word twice in this long piece to refer to the unfortunate process of uncontrolled radioactive goo going critical once again achieving fission outside the (semi) controlled space of an intact and functioning reactor. Professor nateobie here ought to stick to looking at the neat photos.
@nateoble – Could you please educate all of us “uneducated” on how fission really works? If you know something we don’t it would be great to know. I, for one, would love to know that we really don’t have a problem here. Then I could go back to my old easy life and stop worrying.
p.s. great pics tho.
Wow…This author is seriously uneducated on how fission actually works. Go back to school buddy. Stop freaking people out because you are ignorant. All you readers, try getting a second opinion before you believe any one man’s claims. Wow…you must be one of those believers in dihydrogen monoxide.
We will all be dead men walking if reactor #4 becomes the cause of a world-wide nuclear catastrophe. And, if it were not for your amazing articles, Michael, it really would be almost a totally dead silence….with emphasis on “dead”.
Why are not ALL of the major newspapers putting articles like this on their front page, and in the headlines? This is surely denial on steroids!
I thank you again and again, Michael, for your knowledge, your writing and for having the strength and bravery to keep at it, no matter what. If any lives get saved here, it will be thanks to you!
IRRESPONSIBLE, TREASON TO HUMANITY, INCOMPETENCY,TOTAL NEGLECT. THE WORLD IS IN DIRE STRAIT.EVEN YOU THAT PUT THE HEALTH OFF THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN CANNOT ESCAPE THIS DISASTER THAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. GET WITH IT PICK IT UP GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD BEFORE ITS TO LATE.
cant they just nuke the thang?
Exactly! Excellent article.
“We are on our own. But we are not helpless…”
– Michael Collins
“I want to live free, free of contaminated air, water and food.” – Chase
Why and how, did this basic right of existence get corrupted, stolen and forever changed and possibly destroyed?
Does it matter now?
Do the masses really care?
Do most people really understand?
I cannot answer these questions directly, because none of this makes any real sense to me. Corporations and militaristic governments playing God I guess.
from a comment elsewhere:
“The reactor that is my soul has reached criticality.”
– user johnnyo enenews
“Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, I believe we have arrived at the late twentieth century.”
–Spock in ‘The Voyage Home’
Sub in ‘radioisotope pollution’ for ‘pollution’ and ‘early twenty-first century’ for ‘late twentieth century’, and I think he’ll have it about right.
Those with huge IQ’s in the industry, or remotely tied with the industry knows these things, yet nothing is done to prevent this outcome? Have we overstepped technology? The powers of magical thinking have brought us to this point. It says a lot about how our psyche’s choose to perceive ultimate destruction. If we could only step out collectively of our current illusion and be adult enough to face and tend to reality. Has television corrupted our minds to this extent? Or is it the brains attempt to calm our unsteady nerves?
The 60 ton lid placed on #4 SRP is protecting it from the structure to be built that will facilitate the eventual removal of the rods for dry cask storage. This cover will ensure any construction debris that could fall, will not hurt the remaining condition of the rods.
Funny how unit 4 exploded when it was out of service for refueling – you even have a picture of its containment lid sittting in its holder. So do tell how did the reactor explode? Also how come no mention of reactor 3 the real story it did explode and it was full of plutonium mox fuel? You know the most toxic substance known to man.
The world leaders are sociopaths! They always end up in control inevitably causing death, misery and suffering. We sheeple just follow along like the blind fools that we all really are.
Greed and stupidity do not make answers for why we are being continually poisoned and tortured in just so many ways. Look all around you and ask why are we continually be subjected to out and out negative scenarios in every way shape and form as we go along here?
The time is now to wake up people! Wake up from the dream they are creating for you, or shall i say nightmare! This is our only chance to change what awaits or future. I will assure you that it will not be pleasant unless we wake up now!!
The people of Japan are “Dead Men Walking” thanks to TEPCO and Government politics….Lies Lies Lies… and soon they might take down the whole world.
Here’s my article that analyzes the likelihood of another big quake, the topic of the last section of your dynamite article:
Humanity at the Height of Folly
Nuclear Power and Earthquake Zones
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/05/humanity-at-the-height-of-folly/
Michael, Great article. I had not kept up on the lid issue. That is very freaking weird to be sure. Arnie Gunderson keeps telling them to get the fuel rods out of there as soon as possible, but since their logic is so opaque at best we cannot know what Tepco thinks and at worst your speculation may be correct: THESE PEOPLE ARE COMPLETELY BONKERS.
I live in Japan and have written a number of articles about this (see below). Most people here are in complete ingnorance/denial of the seriousness of it all. A professor I know even said an article by Mr. Muramatsu, the diplomat who has done so much to expose the Unit 4 crisis, as “tabloid journalism”! And I am afraid this is typical of the silly pride/stupidity of people in general. Thanks for your great work Michael, we love you, Concrete man
Tokyo Electric Power
Company’s Radioactive Lies
The Arsonist Investigating The Fire
http://www.rense.com/general95/tokyoars.html
6~20~5993
We are fighting the radiation by taking Iodine drops in water, Boron, Green Tea Extract, VitC, D3, Magnesium, and other liquids, capsules. Replaced cows milk with Almond milk because Almonds help kill cancer. Please keep informed!
We are also sealed in the Names of the Father and Son (Yahweh and Yahshua), Revelation 14:1. Now we know WHY!
Yahshua returns SOON!
Please, people, make a positive difference in this worst tragedy ever…
Where is Superman when you really need him ????
Me thinks the nationwide burning of rad debris is to purposely raise the overall background in the country, the same old modus operandi of the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission witnessed here stateside. After all, this Fukushima is an American-esque Chernobyl: created, engineered, and continually educated by American professors — whether we yanks like it or not. Higher background measurements equals less money spent on cleaning up radionuclide contamination as we have learned from your marvelous coverage of the Rocketdyne mess. Higher background also lulls one into a sense of complacency in mistakingly believing food tested on an Inspector device near background is safe to consume; the news is in, IT IS MOST DEFINITELY N-O-T!
‘GENERAL ELECTRIC’ does not have any Japanese in the name. What is going on in Japan today was gleaned from their allies, the Americans — plain and simple. Investigate the authoring of the Japanese Constitution, see for yourself just how postwar Japan came to be…
Next they will declare National Sacrifice Zones in Japan, just like guess where? The good ol’ USA. Gee, thanks so much DOE!
If you are a responsible male, I implore you: get a genetic test before going about creating any new life (ie., baby making). Cesium-137 concentrates in the testes. FYI, UCLA has the capability to run this test. Write Planned Parenthood and teach them the problem please, then maybe free testing for couples will become the norm.
http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=7B5D3A49-96BF-57FE-A849-E369E6196A27
Boycotting General Electric though? Yes, by all means. Let’s start today. Ostracizing Jeffrey Immelt? The President already has, FWIW. Nailing idiots who pursue nuclear anything? As long as we start with the fat cats with deep pockets first (USA, France, Russia, China, UK, Israel, India, Pakistan, Koreas, and et al.)