Fukushima – The Latest Bad News About This International Disaster

by Robert Wilkinson

”The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said an ongoing leak had spilled some 300 tons of radioactive water into the ground - the latest in a series of embarrassing revelations involving the tsunami-struck power station.”

From NBC News, a story by Arata Yamamoto titled Crippled Fukushima nuclear plant: 300 tons of radioactive water spilled that clearly indicates TEPCO a) has no clue how to handle this ongoing disaster, b) they are not coming clean about the extent of the problem, c) they aren’t keeping the public in the loop, and d) don’t want anyone to know anything more than they want them to know.

From the story:

High levels of radiation were detected at several hot spots along the hillside section of the plant where the water was thought to have spilled onto the ground, the company said. These areas were emitting a radiation dose of 100 millisieverts an hour measured about 1.6 feet above the surface, it added.

Few people are granted access to the radioactive Fukushima exclusion zone in Japan, which remains abandoned and frozen in time on March 11, 2011 — the day a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused a triple nuclear meltdown in the city....

That is equivalent to the limit for accumulated exposure over five years for Japanese nuclear workers, Ono said. Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority classified the leak as a level 1 incident, the second lowest, on an international scale for radiological releases.

Then the article lists recent events that show us is how bad it really is:

On April 5, a cooling system at the plant failed for the second time in a month after an outage caused by construction work to keep out rats suspected of setting off the earlier blackout. The following day, the company announced that as much as 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from a storage tank.

On June 19, TEPCO said high levels of toxic Strontium-90 were been found in groundwater Fukushima.

Two weeks ago, the nation's nuclear regulator reprimanded the utility for its poor handling of containing contaminated underground water from seeping into the ocean. And on Aug. 7, the government estimated that the damaged plant was leaking about 300 tons of contaminated water into the ocean every day.

The last link takes you to my report about it at the time, and includes another link to an article by the UC Berkeley Dept of Nuclear Engineering titled Alarming report of Fukushima fallout harming U.S. infants that was buried quickly by the US media. From the ABC story, "In a study of states in the West Coast and in the Pacific, infants born soon after the nuclear disaster were 28 percent more likely to develop congenital hypothyroidism, which can lead to stunted growth. In California, that number jumped to 39 percent." When you're done here, please check out the link to my article in the previous paragraph, since it has even more links to other articles outlining just how disastrous this is for children in the Western Hemisphere.

Back to this latest report, where TEPCO now says "We believe it is still leaking at this moment," and of course TEPCO is issuing the usual apologies “for the concern we’ve caused people due to this problem.” Wow. Clueless. “Concern?” How about frustration at knowing the “experts” don’t have a clue how to handle a mess that can kill off a lot of life? How about alarm that this is affecting the ocean?

How about this killing off a lot of life in the ocean? How about this killing off life anywhere around the disaster area? How about the plants, animals, and humans whose stake in the game is a bit beyond “concern?”

This is EXACTLY why I have been openly and adamantly against nuclear anything on Earth for many decades. The price of that power is not worth the cost, in any way, shape, or form. Retire all nuclear plants and make them places of pilgrimage to reflect on the depth of human hubris and folly.

And while we’re at it, let’s retire all nuclear weapons so children collecting used radioactive metal bullet casings from war zones are not made radioactive and die horrible deaths at way too young an age, along with everyone else trading in used radioactive artillery shell casings for the metal. America and other nations who embraced the nuclear menace have unleashed hell on Earth for countless life forms, and Japan’s paying a huge price for that devil’s bargain. Nukes have no place on Earth.

I am reminded of the words of an old gospel song I once heard:

"There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief
"There's too much confusion", I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.

"No reason to get excited", the thief he kindly spoke
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late".

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Lyrics Copyright © 1968 by Dwarf Music; renewed 1996 by Dwarf Music

Article © Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Alan]

Fukushima is an extinction level event. There's no getting around it. Since Fukushima infant mortality in the western US has soared. The winds dump tons of radioactive particles all along the west coast. The entire Pacific is in danger of becoming a dead zone. Yet no one does anything. Tepco sits on their butt and tell lie after lie. Where are the governments and scientists of the world? Japan clearly does not have the expertise or the will to deal with this. If the rest of the world does not get involved the world may indeed perish. That's how serious this is. Yet its rarely covered by the MSM and most people know nothing about what is currently going on in Japan.

[Robert]

Hi all - On the heels of the previous report, here's NBC raising concerns about the fish in the radioactive zone!
Leaky Fukushima nuclear plant raises seafood poisoning concerns. Glad someone appears to care about the seafood, even if it is self-serving.

[RodJM]

This first nuclear power plants reactor is an old 1960s design, with others following in the 1970s, that should have been put out of service and dismantled years before the earthquake that caused that Tsunami to strike. The technology keeps improving for safety and efficiency reasons. The responsibility for overseeing this is the Japanese government at the time in my opinion, and not Tepco or do they run Japan? In any case, no point in crying over spilt milk so they say. How to clean this up now once and for all??
One would think relying on nuclear energy sources, especially older designs of these applications of nuclear technology in a country on the edge of the Pacific rim of fire earthquake zone should ring alarm bells of the biggest kind in the first place. What were they or are now, thinking in this geographic part of the world?

[kristy morrill]

Hey! How to clean this up now...? That is the 64 trillion dollar question! I don;t believe it CAN be cleaned up. THAT is the problem. DUH!

[Jean]

Il est très mauvais pour tout le monde :-(

[Micheline]

Ouie Jean C'est vraiment mauveau pour tous le monde. Mais ma question pour tous c'est comment arreter c'est mauvais truque! Translation. Yes this a bad thing but how do we stop this bad stuff from happening. There's a lot of denying happening as far as the government of Japan is concerned. This whole thing has brought to light many corrupted aspects of tge Japanesz Government into light. TEPCO bribed so many local governments and people into believing that they needed nuclear energy! The locals where needed to give an ok on making this hapoen when offucials from TEPCO came in to say. Lets go to the local Izakayia or onsens znd lets talk zbout this. The local people were bribed with false ideas that thus woykd be for their best interest in the long term! At least that is how I understand it. I got info from a private source that they were supposed decommision Fukushima in Febuary of 2011. Again i am not sure if that is true!!! But duhhhhh. Obviously, Japan wqs not prepared for such a situation or tge powers that be in thus Country did not care!!! When tge earthquake hapoened in Tohoku. Where were all those TEPCO people? The Executives where apparantly partying in China!!! Did they run bqck to help out. No!

[caliban]

And people are still touting that it is clean energy. That's the real duh. Why create something so nasty. Faulty risk assessment. That facility was built in the 80s? Less than 40 years. And how many years does that nuclear waste last???

[ulrika]

Yes this worries me a lot! I am glad I don´have any children..

[Tepzilla]

3/11 was Japan's 9/11. It's all documented!

http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/fukureport1b.pdf

This investigation has been endorsed by the engineers who designed and built Fukushima Diiachi

This is Japan's 911, and it's all based on official records and evidence which cannot be silenced. What is here is every bit as damning as building 7 on 9/11, while being far more important, and the fact that a large portion of even the truth movement has shunned this report will show you just how deep the conspiracy goes.