Tag: fukushima

Fuk-U-shima (via VA Shipbuilder)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This seems to be a day in which post after post has thoughtful comments. That makes it a good day. I appreciate thinking especially critical thinking.

This author has some thoughts and some questions. Should spent nuclear fuel rods be stored on top of currently operating reactors? I believe that is the practice in many countries including the United States.

However, I am not an expert on nuclear plants and if any of my kind readers would like to lend us a hand with this question, I will be happy to thank him and publish his thoughts.

James Pilant

Special thanks to VA Shipbuilder.

The nuclear industry (and to some extent, my small shipyard) is in the fight of its life.  This assessment is true whethere you are for or against nuclear power in general.  40 years ago, a group of people made a decision that would have lasting impacts.  For whatever reason, the Fukushima Dai Ichi plant was designed in such a way that the storage pools for spent fuel rods were placed directly above the reactor cores.  I like to call this design … Read More

via VA Shipbuilder

Fukushima Gov. Slams TEPCO, Govt for ‘Betrayal’ (via TheResistance)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

Betrayed.

Exactly right. The people of Fukushima were told those plants were perfectly safe. They were told they were the way to economic success. They were told that the power plants would bring prosperity and jobs for decades.

And what they got was a nuclear dead zone. Most will never be able to return to their homes.

They were lied to. If the nuclear industry were honest and stopped telling us how many chest x-rays their latest disaster was equivalent to, we might have an idea of how much nuclear power we want to use and where. But they are not. They are wretched lying propagandists, readily assisted by hack writers beguiled by the opportunity of turning the nuclear industry’s talking points into quick gotcha articles to persecute the tree huggers.

It gets old after a while. You get tired of seeing the same old talking points over and over again while new radiation plagues the earth.

James Pilant

InfoWars The Yomiuri Shimbun April 10, 2011 Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato has expressed anger at the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying both “betrayed” the people of Fukushima Prefecture with repeated assurances about the safety of nuclear power plants. “We feel we were betrayed [by the central government and TEPCO,” Sato said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake a … Read More

via TheResistance

The anguish people in Fukushima prefecture have to face (via Aoumigamera)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This guy is measuring his radiation and deciding on the level of risk he finds acceptable. This is from someone on the ground in the area. I’m sure if you read Japanese, you can find hundreds, probably thousands of blogs from the area, but I only speak English. I imagine more than a few of you are in the same situation.

So, get a view from near the disaster from an independent soul with his own ideas.

James Pilant

I have often had nappa cabbage and lettuce harvested in Ibaraki prefecture, which is just next to Fukushima prefecture, in the last few weeks. Some of my friends knew this and they told me I was a reckless guy. I don’t care about that. They are quite cheap now, hehe. I’m not a vegetarian but I eat a lot of veges because I love them. If there’s no meat or fish for a couple of days, it’s no problem to me. If, however, there’s no veges in one meal, … Read More

via Aoumigamera

Japan Earthquake Tragedy and its Message (via A Fool’s Wish)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’m more convinced of the toughness and resilience of humanity than this author. Nevertheless he has an interesting point of view. It is always possible to look at humans at the top of the food chain or at the very bottom. It’s a matter of perspective.

Is the glass half empty or half full? (Is that the champion cliche or what?)

James Pilant

Having no access to outside world for a month due to the mandatory military training, it’s joyous to be back in front of my laptop and catch up what I’ve missed. Facebook, Gmail and ESPN are my natural stops every morning, but I surfed away from those sites rather quickly and sought for articles on Japan Earthquake. It is extremely surreal that I still do not realize to my senses how serious of a tragedy this natural phenomenon has been. As final … Read More

via A Fool’s Wish

Hanford evacuates … (via Homeless on the High Desert)

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Courtesy of Nuclearinfo.net

There appear to be regular problems like this at nuclear plants all over the United States. But since they are considered local news, they attract only limited attention. While the difficulties associated with nuclear power are in the news in a major way, we see the small incidents.

Could a regular airing of these continual problems make a person more uncomfortable choosing nuclear power over other choices?

Is the media doing its job of informing the public? Are we being properly informed about these critical issues or shall we look at more critical subjects like Fashion friendly sunglasses for all types of faces? Is that the kind of media we deserve?

James Pilant

Washington State Nuclear Plant Briefly Evacuated (Reuters) – Washington state’s only nuclear power plant briefly evacuated about 25 workers after a small amount of hydrogen sprang from a pipe and ignited in a six-inch (15.5 cm) flash, plant officials said on Friday. The incident at the Columbia Generating Station late on Thursday afternoon resulted in no injuries or equipment damage, they said. Workers are now back. “It was like a little flash, l … Read More

via Homeless on the High Desert

Fukushima Cleanup: 30 Years, $12 Billion (via Mostly Tech)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

How much alternative energy can you buy with 12 billion dollars over thirty years?

James Pilant

Fukushima Cleanup: 30 Years, $12 Billion “Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said. Four of the plant’s six reactors became useless when sea water was used to cool them after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out generators running its cooling systems. The reactors need to be decommissioned, Tepco Chairma … Read More

via Mostly Tech

Poll: Few confident US ready for nuclear emergency (AP) (via US General News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Most of America’s nuclear preparedness is based on obscene accumulations of pro nuclear propaganda and assurances that nothing bad can happen. That’s not enough.

There is simply too much profit, too many billions of dollars of influence and power to make any individual looking at the situation comfortable with the pronouncements of government and industry.

It is always the same.

We are told –
1. It can’t happen.
2. The situation is not serious.
3. Nothing like this has every happened before.
4. Radiation is not that big a deal – (at this point there must be discussion of chest x-rays)
5. The situation is under control.
6. The problem here is not the situation which is under control but the panicked response of a population not properly informed about the minimal danger of radiation.
7. That reactor was an obsolescent design.
8. Our new reactors have solved these problems.
9. Nuclear power is necessary. We cannot produce enough electricity without it.
10. Critics of nuclear power are alarmists, misinformed, treehuggers, radicals, rabble rousers, anti-industry, anti-corporate activists, etc.
11. What do you want us to do? Go back to living in the stone age!!

If you want to add some more, please do.

James Pilant

WASHINGTON – Most Americans doubt the U.S. government is prepared to respond to a nuclear emergency like the one in Japan, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. But it also shows few Americans believe such an emergency would occur. Nevertheless, the disaster has turned more Americans against new nuclear power plants. The poll found that 60 percent of Americans oppose building more nuclear power plants. That’s up from 48 percent who opposed it in … Read More

via US General News

NUCLEAR CRISIS – U.S. HEALTH CARE UNPREPARED (via INFOQUANDO)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I thought I was going to read a brief analysis of American shortcomings in regard to nuclear disaster preparedness. What I got was a lengthy detailed report dealing with the problem from many different angles.

I recommend the post.

James Pilant

NUCLEAR CRISIS - U.S. HEALTH CARE UNPREPARED U.S. Health Care System Unprepared for Major Nuclear Emergency A Los Angeles police officer in a hazard suit keeps watch in a “hazardous material hot area” after the explosion of a “dirty bomb” during a simulated attack at a Port of Los Angeles dock on Aug. 5, 2004. (David McNew/Getty Images) by Sheri Fink, Special to ProPublica U.S. officials say the nation’s health system is ill-prepared to cope with a catastrophic release of radiation, despite … Read More

via INFOQUANDO

IEMA Finds Trace Amounts of Radiation in Metro-East (via CBS St. Louis)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is alarming. Still it is within currently recognized standards of safety.

James Pilant

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KMOX) – Trace amounts of radioactive iodine has been found in air, grass, milk and rainwater samples in the Metro-East. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency said Friday the radiation found in Madison, Clinton and Bond Counties in Illinois is from the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan. However the agency stresses that these findings are still far below established limits and present no health hazard to citizens in Illi … Read More

via CBS St. Louis

Atomic Energy Regulatory Committee Constructive Criticism (via ideainvestmentinnovation)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

A very reasonable, measured analysis of the crisis and its likely effects on future regulation.

Impressive.

James Pilant

Recent events have put a spotlight on the World’s nuclear engineering board and the safety mechanisms that have been instituted since the incident at Chernobyl. There seems to be one missing piece to the puzzle. There are world standards that demand all nuclear facilities to have multiple safety mechanisms in place. Such as in Japan’s case with the first mechanism being shock sensors that immediately pushed steel rods in-between the enriched uran … Read More

via ideainvestmentinnovation