When a body ingests or inhales a radioactive particle, that particle releases damaging radiation inside the body over a long period of time. New findings indicate that ongoing low levels of radiation may be more harmful than one large insult.
There are over 200 radioisotopes coming our way from Fukushima. A brief review of what just three of them can do shows that Strontium 90 lodges in the bone and causes bone cancer and leukemia. Cesium 137 goes to the brain, muscles and heart and wreaks havoc there. Iodine 131 accumulates in the thyroid gland and causes thyroid cancer.
These effects don’t happen overnight and so the nuclear industry believes it is safe – no cancer or illness will ever have “Fukushima” stamped across the forehead of the victim.
Fetuses are the most at risk to damage from radiation. Infant girls are the next most susceptible –7 times more so than a 30 year old male. Girls are twice as sensitive as boys of the same age. Fukushima is an untold tragedy for our young and most vulnerable.
Nuclear expert Arnold Gunderson of Fairewinds and Associates fears that the entire Northern Hemisphere could be uninhabitable if Unit 4 collapses. He has suggested that it may be so serious that citizens on the West Coast of North America would have to evacuate to South America.
Adding to the precariousness of this nightmare is that the Fukushima Daiichi site sits on a highly active earthquake zone. The area is subject to hundreds of earthquakes – more than usual since the 9.0 earthquake last year. These frequent earthquakes have registered between 3 and 6.4. Each one continues to weaken the building at Unit 4.
Modern Survival blog mapped all the earthquakes over 5.0 near Fukushima since the beginning of 2011 and the resultant map is covered in circles denoting these earthquakes. It would be an understatement to say that this area is not stable.
A February 2012 study by the European Geosciences Union shows that the seismic risk at the Fukushima plant has increased. The March 2011 earthquake of 9.0 jolted the plates underneath the area into a more precarious position and reactivated the seismic fault. The scientists cannot predict exactly when the next large earthquake will occur but they did say it will happen in the “near future.”
The situation is grave. But is it clearly the greatest threat to humanity?
Robert Alvarez thinks so. He is former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, and has been quoted as saying: “It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Daiichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet. It might be difficult to appreciate the actual meaning of the situation, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137 than Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival.”
TAKING CARE OF HUBRIS
TEPCO is a business corporation. It is neither motivated nor able to solve this difficult technical problem with urgency. Shocking news came out this year that within hours of the initial earthquake 1½ years ago, TEPCO was planning to evacuate all its workers from the plant and just walk away from the disaster. The then Prime Minister Kan had to order them to stay and work to contain the disaster. If TEPCO had left the scene, the scenario outlined above would have occurred last year.
This entire disaster is being handled by a company that is no longer making money at Fukushima. TEPCO’s mandate is not to save the world. Indeed, in 2011 it absconded itself for all radiation leaving its property which could potentially mean that someone breathing in Plutonium 239 from Fukushima, gets lung cancer and dies, it will not be the company’s fault because, technically, the cancer victim owned the deadly radionuclide for which the company takes no responsibility.
Recently Sumio Mabuchi, former minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism stated he had suggested building a sarcophagus over reactor 4 as they had done in Chernobyl. However TEPCO rejected it “for financial reasons.”
TEPCO does have a plan to clear all the debris around the reactor building 4 and build a structure that can hold a crane that will remove the fuel rods to a safer place.
One weakness of the plan is that they only plan to remove the rods to the common pool on the ground. This common pool already holds over 6000 spent fuel rods. This pool is still vulnerable to another earthquake, could still drain, catch fire and cause the chain of events discussed earlier.
In the March 2011 earthquake, the only fuel that was left unscathed was the fuel that had been moved to the 9 dry cask storage containers. Dry casks may be the only solution but TEPCO is not planning to put the fuel rods into dry casks. Too expensive.
Another big problem is that TEPCO is working very slowly. They take weekends off and recently took an entire week off for “Golden Week.” They say they will have the debris removed by the end of 2013. And then they can start building the structure and start the removal of the fuel rods. Estimates are that this process will be completed in five or ten years.
The Japanese government is not helping to accelerate the process, either. Prime Minister Noda has the power to order TEPCO to bring in more workers and accelerate the process of removing the fuel rods from the roof of Reactor 4.
But the Japanese government is putting its energies into trying to convince the Japanese people that the radiation that has covered their country is harmless. The Japanese government is working hard to start up two reactors in Ohi Prefecture. This is the insanity of the situation – they haven’t come near to controlling the nuclear disaster that is threatening the very life of this planet and yet they are intent on restarting aging reactors that sit on an earthquake fault and have the same design flaws as at the Fukushima reactors.
The ultimate irony is that Prime Minister Noda says he must restart the nuclear reactors for the “survival of society.” He, of course, is talking about the need he sees to restart the Japanese economy. However, these reactors are on an active earthquake fault and if an earthquake hits the Ohi reactors, there will be no “survival of society.”
What has happened and is happening at Fukushima Daiichi is an extreme and continuing nuclear disaster that is being covered up by the governments and mainstream media. This catastrophe requires an army of people working furiously 24 hours a day to get the fuel rods removed before the big earthquake comes and the worst case scenario happens. All attention needs to be put toward averting an even bigger disaster than is already happening.
TIME OUT
Japan’s former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei Murata said, “TEPCO is, after all, a for-profit company. It cannot be said to be making every possible effort. There is no time to waste. Knowledge from around the world should be gathered as soon as possible to begin the work of removing the nuclear fuel from the storage pool.”
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.)