Fukushima

[SquidInk]

http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... is/257963/

KITA KYUSHU, Japan -- Disposing the more than 20 million tons of rubble caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami is proving to be a difficult problem for Japan, not least because much of the rubble has been irradiated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The government's plan -- to destroy 4 million tons of potentially radioactive earthquake debris in garbage incinerators around the country -- is dividing the nation and further delaying the country's ability to put Fukushima behind it.

More than a year after the disaster, over 90 percent of the debris from disaster-stricken areas is still sitting around, waiting for disposal. Under a government pledge to clear the rubble entirely by 2014, the Ministry of the Environment is leading an effort to distribute the rubble to municipalities around Japan for speedy incineration and burial. But people across the country have met the plan with strong opposition, objecting that it needlessly spreads radiation to unaffected areas.

[Dale O Sea]

..Under a government pledge to clear the rubble entirely by 2014, the Ministry of the Environment is leading an effort to distribute the rubble to municipalities around Japan for speedy incineration and burial. But people across the country have met the plan with strong opposition, objecting that it needlessly spreads radiation to unaffected areas.

Seems like stupid thing to do. They should keep this disaster as contained to one area as possible. In fact, they should consider moving all Japanese nuke facilities to that area. Why trash the whole country?

[Fan]

Seems like stupid thing to do. They should keep this disaster as contained to one area as possible. In fact, they should consider moving all Japanese nuke facilities to that area. Why trash the whole country?

err world... incinerators eject their waste products high in the air.

[Dale O Sea]

err world... incinerators eject their waste products high in the air.

Good point. I was talking mostly about them trucking it all over then burying it in various places - spreading the mess all over the place.

related rat-hole: 2012 is the alleged end..or a new beginning, depending on who you ask. But it's crossed my mind a couple of times: maybe radiation is what spurs the next great stage of human evolution. . It kinda' fits the meme.

What don't kill you will make you stronger..

(Shh..don't tell the energy dept or that will end up in their pitch for more US nuke plants)

Damned random thoughts..

[SquidInk]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/jap ... -CbI7WhS0p

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the restart of two idle nuclear reactors Saturday amid widespread public opposition, more than a year after a powerful earthquake and tsunami triggered three nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Power Plant, and halted all 50 reactors in Japan.

The decision to reactivate the Ohi reactors in western Japan, marks the first time the government has turned nuclear power back on, since the Fukushima accident, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Japan was rocked by a series of powerful earthquakes and a tsunami in March 2011.

Yeah - the MBAs finally won that argument. The 'numbers' need to improve by the end of Q4.

[SquidInk]

http://akiomatsumura.com/2012/04/682.html

I asked top spent-fuel pools expert Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, for an explanation of the potential impact of the 11,421 assemblies.
I received an astounding response from Mr. Alvarez:

[...]

"Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel)."

[...]

Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137 than the 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.

Not Related. At all. Not even a little.: http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120719D1907F03.htm

TOKYO (Nikkei)--A Cabinet Office council has proposed five cities -- Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya and Fukuoka -- to replace Tokyo as the seat of government should an earthquake knock out the capital.

In an interim report issued Thursday, the Central Disaster Management Council outlined steps to prepare for a major offshore quake in the Nankai Trough, which runs southwest from Shizuoka Prefecture to Kyushu, or a direct hit on Tokyo.

The government will seek funding for the most urgently needed measures in next fiscal year's budget.

The council's report is the first proposal to establish a command center outside the greater Tokyo area to replace the Prime Minister's Office in the event it becomes incapacitated by a quake. Under the current planning, the first standby option is the Cabinet Office, followed by the Ministry of Defense and the disaster base in Tachikawa near central Tokyo.

The five cities proposed by the council all have branches of the national government and the Bank of Japan. The report recommends that the government put them in order of succession.

Another concern is sheltering the capital's masses. Making houses and other buildings more resilient to shaking and fire would reduce the need for emergency shelters, according to the report, which also calls for a faster way of assessing whether damaged homes are safe enough to return to.

As for the threat of a Nankai quake, which some estimates say could kill 400,000 people, the report stresses the need to prepare for the possibility that it could spur a major tsunami.

(The Nikkei, July 20 morning edition)

[SquidInk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sendai

Wait... Sendai?

The addition of this city is a ridiculous smoke-screen attempt to make the '...should an earthquake knock out the capital...' story seem plausible. Sendai is being nuked as we speak - it is essentially 'ground zero'.

http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

[Fan]

Contractors are urging workers to put their dosimeters behind lead shielding. The coverup rages on.

Diagram: http://www.asahi.com/national/gallery_e ... 200744.jpg

and the awful truth: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012 ... osage?lite

[SquidInk]

and the awful truth: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012 ... osage?lite

From the comments:

Similarly, no [American] nuke generator would have been built without taxpayers as the back-stop. Not a single insurance company in America wants to insure any nuke power plant. The Federal government conscripted the taxpayers as the insurance company insuring all the nuke generators in USA. That's how dangerous nuke power has always been.

As the fallouts of the financial meltdown, the Federal government bailout the WallSt FatCats and bankers with the trillions dollar bailout. LIkewise in a nuke fallout, hundreds of trillions of taxpayer money will be needed to bailout striken cities and cleanup nuke contaminated wasteland. But for taxpayers as the insurance for the nuke industry, no nuke power plant would have been built in USA. That's how risky nuke power really is.

This. Assuming Fukushima is somehow dealt with, we still have this. It can only be made possible by a population, groomed daily by it's corporate heroes & gladly wearing blinders.

Wiki Link

Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act

The main purpose of the Act is to partially indemnify the nuclear industry against liability claims arising from nuclear incidents while still ensuring compensation coverage for the general public. The Act establishes a no fault insurance-type system in which the first approximately .6 billion (as of 2011) is industry-funded as described in the Act. Any claims above the .6 billion would be covered by a Congressional mandate to retroactively increase nuclear utility liability or would be covered by the federal government.

[SquidInk]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asi ... story.html

Japan posted its biggest first-half trade deficit on record, according to government figures released Wednesday, highlighting the economic consequences for this nuclear-averse country of importing fossil fuels to meet its energy needs.

The Finance Ministry reported a 2.92 trillion yen (or .3 billion) trade deficit, which reflected not only Japan’s surging need for oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), but also weakened exports to slumping markets such as Europe and China.

The world’s third-largest economy has averted economic crisis this year largely because of a spike in domestic demand, spurred by reconstruction of the earthquake- and tsunami-devastated northeast.

[...]

Japan’s central government hopes the energy gap is temporary. But a majority in Japan, in the wake of last year’s triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, say they have doubts about the safety of nuclear power. Noda’s push to restart two reactors in western Japan has sparked a series of weekly mass-scale protests, a rare showing of social activism in a country known for its pacifist personality.

Why doesn't Japan spearhead a 'Manhattan Project' of tidal power? It's time. Throw off the monkies and do it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18096372

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

[SquidInk]

http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/03/06 ... eventable#

Good article, very long.

TL;DR:

With appropriate foresight by Japan’s authorities and industry, it appears that the accident could have been avoided or prevented.

[SquidInk]

Despite the 'terrorism' explanation, I'm putting this here because I consider it likely that existing 'safe' thresholds have been breached due to the meltdowns in Japan.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-new ... o-pacifica

Helicopters will be flying low over San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Pacifica through Saturday to record natural radiation levels, federal authorities said Monday.

The flyovers are part of research by two federal security agencies to set baselines for radioactivity in the event of a nuclear accident or terrorism.

The helicopters will fly a grid pattern about 300 feet above the ground, covering about 70 square miles for the Department of Homeland Security and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The Bay Area scans will include the areas near the Oakland-Berkeley border, along the coast in Pacifica and several areas in San Francisco.

The project will help local, state and federal authorities' measure radiation, according to an announcement by the Nuclear Security agency. It has had similar flights around the country in recent months, including in Baltimore.

The Department of Homeland Security is charged with keeping terrorists from smuggling radioactive material into the country. The Nuclear Security agency is responsible for securing the U.S. military's nuclear stockpile and monitoring international nuclear threats at border crossings and foreign airports and seaports.
One watchdog group saw the survey as useful and important but also called for better planning for accidental or terrorist release of radioactive materials.

[Dale O Sea]

A little like the Google cars did for street view and wifi, but in the air with choppers sniffing background radiation..Probably a good idea.

Drones could do this job - and will one day.

For those interested, an update on my son going to Japan for school: they raised tuition $1000 so he cancelled. I cant say I wasn't happy for him. He had planned to go, damn the radiation - but a grand stopped him. ugh

[SquidInk]

Glad he's outta there Dale - can't be any good to hang around in that environment.

[Raggedyann]

I live on the coast and the debris is starting to wash up on shore. I wouldn't touch it with 100 foot pole.

It will be the next generation that will find out the truth about the extent of contamination.