Tag: nuclear disaster

Deadly Silence on Fukushima (via Udolicko’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This post discusses the defacto censorship by the Japanese government and TEPCO, the Japanese utility that owns the plants. There are also charges that dangerous levels of plutonium exist around the plant. Since No. 4 reactor ran hotter than any of the other nuclear plants because it was using a hybrid fuel of regular uranium and plutonium, it would only stand to reason that there must be some contamination.

There are also fairly lengthy discussions of Chernobyl, independent journalism and government censorship. It’s lengthy but it has to be to provide so much information.

James Pilant

Deadly Silence on Fukushima I received the following email a few days ago from a Russian nuclear physicist friend who is an expert on the kinds of gases being released at Fukushima. Here is what he wrote: “About Japan: the problem is that the reactor uses “dirty” fuel. It is a combination of plutonium and uranium (MOX). I suspect that the old fuel rods have bean spread out due to the explosion and the surrounding area is contaminated with plutonium which mean … Read More

via Udolicko’s Blog

New fire at Fukushima..pools run dry? (via Follow The Money)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

It appears that Fukushima will be generating stories for some time. It seems our old favorite No. 4 reactor is trying out a new crisis on the world.

One of the more interesting parts of the story is that the Japanese government has decided that children living near the plant can have the same exposure as a nuclear plant worker. That’s right, the local children are in the same boat as nuclear workers when it comes to radiation exposure.

Time marches on and as the disaster becomes more and more boring to the public, it slips away from view. But radiation and nuclear disaster don’t depend on publicity to function.

James Pilant

New fire at Fukushima..pools run dry? From March 15 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16fuel.html?_r=1 Even as workers race to prevent the radioactive cores of the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan from melting down, concerns are growing that nearby pools holding spent fuel rods could pose an even greater danger. The pools, which sit on the top level of the reactor buildings and keep spent fuel submerged in water, have lost their cooling systems and the Japanese have been … Read More

via Follow The Money

A Quarter of a Century Since Chernobyl (via The Truth Journal)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Twenty-five years. Twenty five years to absorb the lessons of the last nuclear disaster and it just didn’t work out. The ad nauseum repeating of the mantra, “It’s different here.” Whether they meant more modern equipment, better management, more incentives, better regulation, it turned out to be nonsense.

Going back to Chernobyl after all these years is not a comforting journey. It is a trip into a ghostly irradiated land measuring 10,800 square miles, a facet of the aftermath of a nuclear disaster carefully unmentioned by the proponents of nuclear power. That’s about a third the size of Panama or five times the size of Rhode Island. Does that make you comfortable?

How much agricultural land can we afford to lose permanently? We need a thorough intelligent discussion of nuclear power in the United States, not back rooms and lobbyists, a public discussion.

This is a good article and has an attached video.

James Pilant

A Quarter of a Century Since Chernobyl A quarter of a century has passed since the worst nuclear accident in history. On April 26, 1986, the Nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the then USSR, exploded leaking nuclear radiation about a hundred times the Nuclear explosion at Hiroshima. I cannot think of anything more but to say that the day reminds us why we should be so proud of Nuclear technology. After all, it allows us to make great changes to the way things work naturally … Read More

via The Truth Journal

ALARMING NEW FUKUSHIMA REPORTS (via PROJECT PANGAIA)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

There is a lot of interesting material in this. There is information from a half dozen articles in it. One of its messages is that the situation is getting worse not better.

I’ve been feeling more and more the same way. I think the situation is out of control. They are unable to control the leaks of radiation.

I hope I’m wrong. But they just don’t seem to be very competent. By they, I mean TEPCO. I don’t believe they could have ever stayed in operation as a utility without consistent cover-ups and other favors from the government, and this time it’s too big for the Japanese government to fix, although they tried.

James Pilant

Stephen Lendman Five weeks after Japans disaster, reports suggest worse, not improved conditions. It portends serious regional and global trouble ahead, besides whats already happened. On April 16, AP headlined, “Radioactivity Rises in Sea Off Japan Nuclear Plant,” saying: “Levels of radioactivity have risen sharply in seawater near (Fukushima), signaling the possibility of new leaks at the facility, the government said Saturday.” The announcem … Read More

via PROJECT PANGAIA

Japan:Work under way for transfer of contaminated water (via Laaska News http://laaska.wordpress.com (laaskanews.com))

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Depending on the competence or planning of the Japanese government or industry has not been a good bet in the past, and I see no reason to believe the odds have improved.

But we can hope that the government forces the industry to solve the problem, the industry decides that competence rather than PR is the best way to go, maybe we will just get lucky.

I think some good luck is out best hope.

James Pilant

Japan:Work under way for transfer of contaminated water Laaska News April 17,2011 The level of radioactive water that has accumulated on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant keeps rising amid concern that the water might overflow, further polluting the ocean. The radioactive water is believed to originate from water injected to cool the Number 2 reactor, which was seriously damaged by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. In the utility tunnel outside the reactor, the contaminate … Read More

via Laaska News http://laaska.wordpress.com (laaskanews.com)

Fukushima Power Plant (via maitreyahc)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is a Commonweal Editorial. It says a lot of things about nuclear power and its future.

Public opinion is in flux right now. With the decision in Germany to give up nuclear power, we can expect more movement among peoples all over the earth to question the viability of nuclear energy. It can be hoped that other nations will reduce their dependence on these kinds of plants and turn to other forms of energy.

I have frankly stated that the United States government is almost a subsidiary of the nuclear energy industry and have predicted that nuclear power plant building will proceed as planned. I have no reason to believe that anything has changed or could change. There is no disaster big enough to deter the government from its plans.

Currently, the American obsession is with profit over all other values. Because of this we can no longer make rational decisions or apply a modicum of thinking to problem solving.

We live in a parched wasteland of the mind. In the public form thinking has ceased to be an important quality. I tell you truly that an intellectual wasteland often results in catastrophe or the creation of real wastelands like those around the Fukushima or Chernobyl nuclear plants.

James Pilant

Commonweal Editorial, April 22, 2011 The Editors of Commonweal Magazine In the weeks since Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has spewed contamination and displaced thousands. It has also rekindled fears across the globe about the risks of nuclear power and at least temporarily slowed the industry’s revival in the United States. Overnight, U.S. public opinion turned from cautious support to renewed skeptic … Read More

via maitreyahc

NHK World – Germany to Abandon Nuclear Power after Fukushima 15Apr2011.avi

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Germany’s decision to abandon nuclear power is bound to send shock waves around the globe. The German public was shocked by the Chernobyl disaster and nuclear power has been viewed with great suspicion.

I am not so curious about what Western governments will do as I am about the governments of India and China. They are presented with competing concepts of how to provide electricity to a large society. When presented with this new evidence, what will they choose?

James Pilant

NHK World – Germany to Abandon Nuclear Power after Fukushima (via VITALFREEDOM.net)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Events in Japan are having an effect on national policies. I am surprised by the totality of the response.

Do not for one tiny moment believe that the United States will change course on building new reactors. Public opinion means a lot in Europe. It means little here. The beltway is largely immune to the fears and concerns of Middle America. This is a limited democracy. Most public concern and beliefs are filtered before becoming newsworthy or politically important.

We will have the nuclear plants and there is no stopping them.

James Pilant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UwR-n3AIko&feature=feedf Germany to end reliance on nuclear power – NHK World News German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her government will end its reliance on nuclear power as soon as possible by increasing energy generation from renewable sources. Merkel spoke to reporters about the plan on Friday after meeting with ministers and all 16 state governors to discuss the energy issue. Earlier, she had suspended a … Read More

via VITALFREEDOM.net

Japan’s Evacuation Zone Deserted (via RonPaulFriends)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Here we follow one man returning to his home to pick up a few things. We all go home sometimes to get things but not for the last time. This is probably his last trip home. Home is now a nuclear dead zone. Cattle roam the highway. Dogs are still tied up. Earthquake damage is unrepaired and never will be.

And there is anger. He says, “They said that the nuclear power plants were safe.”

Guess not.

James Pilant

Japan gov’t expands Fukushima evacuation zone (via CBS News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

It would appear more land will be lost to nuclear catastrophe. The radiation like some infection is spreading across Fukushima claiming more and more geography. And while this is happening, the government and the utility companies do their public relations and hope that somehow, someway, that events will mirror their rosy prognostications.

James Pilant