The crisis is on a knife’s edge. The media has moved on to the Libyan bombing. Unfortunately, the reactors have not gotten all better. In fact, they’re like drunk, old former professional baseball pitchers throwing curve balls all over the park.
Keep an eye on this stuff, guys. Everyday is a guaranteed surprise.
James Pilant
via markellis4
Is there a point at which your public pronouncements are so far out of line with reality that not only does no one believe you but there is no remaining benchmark for truth left?
How do you get enough radiation to get hospitalized when you haven’t been near the Fukushima reactors?
Unless there’s a problem at another reactor?
I’ll keep watching.
James Pilant
From BBC –
In another development, two Japanese tourists who arrived in China on a flight from Tokyo are being treated in hospital for high radiation levels.
It remains unclear how the two may have become contaminated as neither traveller is reported to have been within 240km of the Fukushima plant, says our correspondent.
Meanwhile, Chinese news agency, Xinhua, has reported that abnormal radiation levels have been detected on a ship arriving from Japan to Xiamen port in Fujian province.
From The State –
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham was home Tuesday, talking about one of his favorite subjects: nuclear energy and why it’s the best way to power South Carolina and America.
Aware that events in Japan have increased concern about nuclear safety, Graham took the media on a tour of Duke Energy’s Oconee atomic power station to show why he thinks nuclear energy needs to be expanded.
Graham said the visit reinforces his belief that a nuclear disaster like that in Japan could not happen at Duke’s three reactors. Graham said the U.S. will learn some lessons from Japan but should not slow the push to develop new reactors.
A few weeks ago Congress just guaranteed all loans made to finance nuclear reactors and agreed to indemnify the owners if they have a meltdown.
Graham said the plant “cannot explode like a nuclear bomb.”
It might be better if it did. A meltdown at a nuclear plant throws hundreds of times more radiation into the environment than a nuclear explosion.
Further down in the article –
“If you showed me a reactor site where there was never a safety concern, I’d be suspicious,’’ Graham said. “The fact that we’re identifying safety concerns independent from the company itself, and the company is getting on top of it, is reassuring.’’
We are “identifying safety concerns independent from the company?” He’s reassured that they don’t have a handle on all their safety concerns? What does he thinks these things are, Easy Bake Ovens?
The senator faced criticism Tuesday from anti-nuclear activist Tom Clements, who disputed that all of the problems were resolved. Clements also said the press event was little more than an attempt to advance an industry on which Graham relies for campaign funds.
Clements gave reporters data showing that Graham has received in the past two years about $40,000 in campaign contributions from those sympathetic to the nuclear industry, such as major power companies. Clements, who is with Friends of the Earth, raised those questions during a press briefing after the tour.
“The reason people in the nuclear power industry support me is because I believe in what they do,” Graham told Clements. “I don’t get any money from your organization because I disagree with you.”
And we close with the basic philosophy of American government. If you give me money you get what you want.
Nuclear energy should not be a major factor in the future of American energy production. Do you know why? It’s too expensive and it requires massive subsidies and insurance from the government. Did I surprise you?
Look at the dollar amounts. Look at the incredible amounts of federal money necessary to launch these giant white elephants. Notice how little discussion is taking place about disposing of nuclear fuel or taking care of shut down plants.
These things are a budgetary disaster of the first magnitude.
Why are we buildng them? The corporations building nuclear power are better organized and have given more money than their competitors. In our government, the decision is almost always determined by campaign contributions not rational analysis.
James Pilant
Americans voting with their “shovels?” This is hardly a statement in favor of nuclear power or disaster preparedness in the United States. Of course, it is probably the American idea that if you throw enough money at a problem you can fix it. (We only believe that now about certain subjects.) It might be better to have a FEMA that we can trust but after the disaster in Louisiana, that kind of trust is never coming back.
James Pilant
A devastating earthquake strikes Japan. A massive tsunami kills thousands. Fears of a nuclear meltdown run rampant. Bloodshed and violence escalate in Libya.
And U.S. companies selling doomsday bunkers are seeing sales skyrocket anywhere from 20% to 1,000%.
Northwest Shelter Systems, which offers shelters ranging in price from $200,000 to $20 million, has seen sales surge 70% since the uprisings in the Middle East, with the Japanese earthquake only spurring further interest. In hard numbers, that’s 12 shelters already booked when the company normally sells four shelters per year.
“Sales have gone through the roof, to the point where we are having trouble keeping up,” said Northwest Shelter Systems owner Kevin Thompson.
From Reuters –
The release of two types of radioactive particles in the first 3-4 days of Japan‘s nuclear crisis is estimated to have reached 20-50 percent of the amounts from Chernobyl in 10 days, an Austrian expert said Wednesday.
That’s not encouraging. The numbers 20 and 50 percent are not as wide a variance as might be thought. They are referring to two different kinds of radiation.
The Austrian institute’s Dr Gerhard Wotawa stressed the two isotopes from Fukushima he had sought to estimate — iodine-131 and caesium-137 — normally make up only one tenth of total radiation.
Based on measurements made at monitoring stations in Japan and the United States, Wotawa said the iodine released from Fukushima in the first three-four days was about 20 percent of that released from Chernobyl during a ten-day period.
For Caesium-137, the figure could amount to some 50 percent.
As someone who on occasion has taught criminal justice classes, one of the more difficult problems you deal with teaching is the misconceptions about police work. Everyone knows all police work. They think. After all it’s on television, dozens of movies. You could even add in a few mystery novels.
Police work is the most dangerous work you can do. There are shoot outs and constant danger.
No, there aren’t. Half of all sworn officers never pull their gun on the job for any reason whatever.
The numbers are straightforward.
Read below.
James Pilant
From MSNBC –
Miners and police officers face many dangers. In 2009, the most recent year for which we have statistics, 101 miners and 97 police officers and security guards died on the job, making for a roughly similar fatality rate of around 13 deaths per 100,000 workers.
From further down in the article.
Still, it does matter what career path you choose. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) database, the 10 most dangerous industries to work in are anywhere from six to 60 times as dangerous as the average workplace.
First on the list is fishing, as anyone who’s seen Deadliest Catch on Discovery might guess. In the last year on record, 56 fishermen died, a colossal fatality rate of 200 per 100,000 workers, or 0.2 percent. Loggers and pilots are the only other jobs that come close to being that dangerous, each with 0.006 percent annual death rates. Construction (800 deaths) and transportation and warehousing (586 deaths) registered the largest number of deaths per sector, though their occupational fatality rates hovered around 0.002 percent.
The crisis continues. As I said yesterday, the Japanese utility company and the government are unwilling to give an accurate view of the disaster. So, one day we hear encouraging news which will be partially or totally dispelled by the next day’s news.
From the Associated Press –
(AP) Tokyo’s utility company says black smoke has been seen emerging from Unit 3 of the crippled nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, prompting a new evacuation of the complex. Officials with Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that workers from the entire Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been temporarily evacuated. Operators of the power station have been desperately trying to cool the reactors and spent fuel pools at the plant after it was damaged by this month’s tsunami, which knocked out power to the cooling systems.
I have become concerned at the language of corporate ethics and white collar crime. It is not precise enough for what we are doing. I have talked many times about banks often very critically. But very seldom was I speaking of the local banks, the small banks. Generally, the despicable actions of the 24 large investment banks were what was motivating my anger. We don’t have the right words. Multi-national corporations shifting jobs overseas are not the same as close corporations composed of a single family running a large farm. We speak of corporations and banks but we mean only a few. We need a new language in business ethics. We need a new precision. Those small banks, those small businesses would be allies in the fight for morality and justice if not lumped in with the others everytime criticism is made.
We need a new language.
James Pilant
From MSNBC –
Small banks have expressed concern the new agency, set to open its doors in July, will add regulatory costs, making it harder for them to survive.
Warren told a gathering of community bankers that the opposite will happen as the agency simplifies regulations on products such as mortgages and seeks to crack down on non-bank lenders that went largely unregulated during the 2007-2009 financial crisis and are accused of shady lending practices.
“I know that you want a regulatory structure that doesn’t require an army of lawyers,” she said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Independent Community Bankers of America annual convention. “Big banks may be able to afford to hire all those lawyers, but you cannot.”
The good news is that electric power is available at the six nuclear plants. The bad news is that some of the plants are so damaged the pumping systems no longer function. And the further bad news is that the sea water used to cool the plants apparently ran back into the ocean with a high level of radioactivity.
You must recall, of course, that the Japanese have been unfailing optimistic when anything went their way in this mess. So, I strongly suspect that things have not improved as much as they imply.
But I very much want to say how grateful I am that a meltdown is more likely to be avoided now.
James Pilant
From Al Jazeera –
Power lines to all six nuclear reactor units at Japan’s quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi complex have been connected, its operator said, but electricity has not yet been turned on.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) warned on Tuesday that equipment still had to be checked before power could be properly reconnected, which would mark a significant step in bringing the reactors back under control.
Engineers have also been able to cool a spent fuel pool that was nearly boiling, bringing it back to 105 degrees after dumping 18 tonnes of seawater into a holding pool.
However fears have been raised over the possibility of radiation in seawater near the reactors in northeastern Japan, with reports that some radioactivity has been detected in the sea.
Experts are concerned about sea water that has been used to cool the reactors and their spend fuel ponds after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11.
Radioactive iodine in the sea samples was 126.7 times the allowed limit, while caesium was 24.8 times over, Kyodo news agency said. But TEPCO said that still posed no immediate danger.
“I’m interested to know how this water is being disposed… if it is being disposed or just allowed to drain to sea,” Najmedin Meshkati, a nuclear and environmental expert at the University of Southern California, told the Reuters news agency.
A few stories of the banking industry and how it plays the public for every last extractable fraction of a cent!
I’ll let the stories speak for themselves of the constant danger of being a consumer in America.
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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