Translate

Thursday, May 24, 2018

JAPAN'S NUCLEAR PLANTS FALLING DOWN: INSPECTORS FIND CORROSION, HOLES, LEAKS





ALL 19 OF JAPAN'S NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, ALL ITS NUCLEAR REACTORS LIE IN AREAS PRONE TO MAJOR EARTHQUAKES, TSUNAMIS, TYPHOONS AND MAN/Y ARE LOCATED NEAR ACTIVE VOLCANOES.
NUCLEAR ENERGY IS A BAD CHOICE FOR A NATION SO PRONE TO NATURAL DISASTERS.
NOW, INSPECTORS ARE FINDING THEY'RE ALSO CRUMBLING.


IN 2010 the NRC weakened the safety margin for acceptable radiation damage to reactor vessels — for a second time. The standard is based on a measurement known as a reactor vessel’s “reference temperature,” which predicts when it will become dangerously brittle and vulnerable to failure. Over the years, many plants have violated or come close to violating the standard.

As a result, the minimum standard was relaxed first by raising the reference temperature 50 percent, and then 78 percent above the original — even though a broken vessel could spill its radioactive contents into the environment.

JAPAN IS MERELY FOLLOWING SUIT...BUT ON A GRANDER SCALE. 
  



ABOVE: JUST ONE PHOTO OF THE DAMAGE TO JAPAN'S AGING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS.

AN EXAMPLE OF "Disaster by Design" .


JAPAN'S NUKE PLANTS ARE CRUMBLING, JUST LIKE ALL NUKE PLANTS ARE.
ADD THE THREATS OF MAJOR EARTHQUAKES, TSUNAMIS, VOLCANOES AND TYPHOONS AND ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD IMAGINE THAT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS CAN EVER BE SAFE FOR JAPAN.

OUR OWN "ATOMIC SCIENTISTS" HAVE HAD TO ADMIT THAT THE INITIAL 'LIFE EXPECTANCY' FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS WAS TOO LONG. THE INTENSITY OF CONSTANT RADIATION AT SUCH HIGH LEVELS SIMPLY DESTROYS ALL MATERIAL USED TO BUILD THOSE ATROCITIES.
THE CONCRETE GETS BRITTLE, THE METAL CORRODES, IT ALL FALLS APART SOONER THAN EXPECTED.

[ALSO SEE "Nuclear Pipe Nightmares" FROM THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS.]

WHETHER IN JAPAN OR HERE IN AMERICA, THE ONLY THING NUCLEAR 'REGULATORY' AGENCIES WANT TO REGULATE IS HOW LITTLE THE PUBLIC IS AWARE OF THESE HAZARDS, THREATS AND THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY'S BLATANT DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE.
IN BOTH JAPAN AND HERE, THE NRA AND NRC BEND OVER BACKWARD TO COVER UP THE FAILURES OF BIG NUKE TO OPERATE THEIR CURSED PLANTS SAFELY.
SAFETY BE DAMNED, GIVE THEM PROFIT$$$$$.

KYODO NEWS
MAY 23, 2018  

"Corrosion and holes have been found in ventilation ducts at 12 reactors at seven nuclear plants across Japan, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday, raising concerns that workers could be exposed to radiation in the event of an accident.

The governmental nuclear watchdog released the results of a nationwide survey it had ordered following a revelation in December 2016 that corrosion had left multiple holes in the air ducts of the No. 2 reactor at Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s Shimane plant in western Japan. The reactor was not included in the survey.

Serious corrosion was found at the No. 3 unit of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and this may have abnormally affected ventilation of the central control room, the watchdog said.

Corrosion or holes were found in steel or galvanized steel ducts at Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa nuclear plant, Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tokai No. 2 nuclear plant, Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, Chubu Electric Power Co.'s Hamaoka plant, Hokuriku Electric Power Co.'s Shiga nuclear plant and Chugoku Electric's Shimane plant.

If an accident occurs, radioactive materials could flow into a plant's central control room through such holes, putting plant workers in danger of radiation exposure.

At the No. 3 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, a crack as large as 13 centimeters in length and 5 cm in width was found. A total of nine holes and cracks have been discovered at the Nos. 3 and 7 units at the plant.

All the reactors with corrosion were boiling-water reactors, the same type used at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which spewed a massive amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The holes at the No. 2 unit at the Shimane plant were discovered when insulation materials covering the ducts were removed for an inspection.

The holes, the largest of which measured about 100 cm wide and around 30 cm long, are believed to have been caused by dew condensation and rainwater that seeped inside the building as well as salt deposits on the ducts, given that the corrosion extended about 50 meters from the air inlet and spread from the inner surface of the ducts."

ADD TO THE BREAKDOWN OF MATERIALS THE NUMEROUS EARTHQUAKES JAPAN HAS EVERY YEAR.

THEY KNEW THEY HAD A PROBLEM 11 YEARS AGO!


The Guardian, UK, 17 Jul 2007:

"Nuclear power officials in Japan today admitted that the world's largest nuclear power plant had suffered at least 50 malfunctions including burst pipes, water leaks and radioactive waste spillage, when it was hit by yesterday's earthquake.

Officials were investigating possible radioactive leaks from the plant after reports that several drums carrying low-level nuclear waste had tipped over and lost their lids during the earthquake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, in northern Japan.

TEPCO HAS ALWAYS LIED...

Residents were angered by Tokyo Electric Power's response to damage caused by the quake. Ten hours after it assured residents that no radioactivity had leaked during a blaze at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant - the biggest in the world - the firm said 1,200 litres (264 gallons) of water containing radioactive material had spilled from a tank

Although the leak was discovered at around noon - about two hours after the earthquake - Tokyo Electric did not confirm to ministers that the water contained radioactive material until after 6pm. The public was not informed until 9.45pm.

Anti-nuclear activists warned of the potentially disastrous consequences of a major earthquake striking a nuclear power plant. "This fire and radioactive leakage reminds us yet again of the serious threats posed by nuclear power," said Jan Beranek of Greenpeace International.

"There is a real risk in Japan, and globally, of larger earthquakes and other natural disasters, as well as of terrorist attacks that could lead to far more serious nuclear accidents."

Japan's 55 nuclear reactors supply about a third of its electricity, but the industry's reputation has suffered several setbacks in recent years, including the deaths of five workers in an accident at Mihama nuclear power plant in western Japan in August 2004 and the deaths of two people at the Tokaimura reprocessing plant in 1999.

Japan plans to increase its share of nuclear-generated electricity to 40% of the total by the end of the decade.

THE PEOPLE WANT TO MOVE AWAY FROM NUCLEAR ENERGY, SOMETHING THEY FEEL THEY WERE PROMISED 8 YEARS AGO.

FROM THE ASAHI SHIMBUN,
August 14, 2017...

FALSE PLEDGE TO LOWER DEPENDENCY ON NUCLEAR POWER


"The current Strategic Energy Plan, which was approved by the Cabinet in 2014, contains one deceptive aspect.

In response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, the plan included a passage saying that, “Japan will minimize its dependency on nuclear power,” but it also defined atomic energy as an “important base-load power source.”

Nuclear energy is falling out of favor with the times both in Japan and abroad following the Fukushima disaster.
For example, the public has grown more skeptical about the use of nuclear power, and the costs of implementing required safety measures have soared.

The question of how to dispose of radioactive waste from nuclear power reactors remains unlikely to be solved any time soon in most of the countries that have such reactors, including Japan.
Efforts are spreading, mostly in advanced nations, for seeking to scrap all, or a considerable part, of a national fleet of nuclear reactors.

The forthcoming edition of Japan’s Strategic Energy Plan should no longer define atomic energy as a mainstay source of power. Minimizing dependency on nuclear power should be designated a priority issue instead of being left as a hollow promise."

LEST WE FORGET, IT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE FOLLOWED BY A TSUNAMI THAT LED TO THE FUKUSHIMA ONGOING DISASTER.

The United States Geological Survey predicts that 500,000 earthquakes happen every year.
It is estimated by the World Nuclear Association that 20% of the world's nuclear reactors are operating in "areas of significant seismic activity" - earthquake danger zones.

Among plants built before 1973, fully HALF did not make it to 40 years, or much beyond that, before closing down. Some of these shutdowns were for economic reasons, but in most cases the plants simply wore out, broken down, or never functioned properly.
This record of failure can be viewed in a plant closure chart.
The most common point of failure occurs in the steam generators. Nuclear steam generators are composed of thousands of small tubes that corrode and crack, leading to radioactive water leaks into the secondary cooling system and the environment. Some plants have had their steam generators replaced at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, while many others simply closed in the face of the expense.

NOT ONE nuclear plant in the world has made it to 50 years of operation, let alone the 60 years that NRC claims they are capable of.

THEY ARE ALL TICKING TIME BOMBS AND WE ARE ALL BEING EXPOSED TO THEIR INTENTIONAL AND ACCIDENTAL LEAKS AND SPILLS EVERY DAY WE LIVE.
THE AP UNCOVERED THE TRUTH

In 2011 the Associated Press completed a year-long investigation into the nuclear power industry in the United States, with some disturbing results.
Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation’s aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.

The result?
Rising fears that these accommodations by the NRC are significantly undermining safety — and inching the reactors closer to an accident that could harm the public and jeopardize the future of nuclear power in the United States.

COLLUSION, THE NRC SHIRKS ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT HUMAN BEINGS AND INSTEAD ALLOWS BIG NUKE TO BEND OR BREAK ALL THE RULES.
IT'S EVEN WORSE IN JAPAN.


Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed — up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants could meet standards.

Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered in the AP’s yearlong investigation. And all of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident.

Yet despite the many problems linked to aging, not a single official body in government or industry has studied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of such breakdowns in recent years, even as the NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of reactors.

Industry and government officials defend their actions, and insist that no chances are being taken. But the AP investigation found that with billions of dollars and 19 percent of America’s electricity supply at stake, a cozy relationship prevails between the industry and its regulator, the NRC.

Records show a recurring pattern: Reactor parts or systems fall out of compliance with the rules. Studies are conducted by the industry and government, and all agree that existing standards are “unnecessarily conservative.”

Regulations are loosened, and the reactors are back in compliance.

“That’s what they say for everything, whether that’s the case or not,” said Demetrios Basdekas, an engineer retired from the NRC. “Every time you turn around, they say `We have all this built-in conservatism.“’

The ongoing crisis at the stricken, decades-old Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility in Japan has focused attention on the safety of plants elsewhere in the world; it prompted the NRC to look at U.S. reactors, and a report is due in July.

But the factor of aging goes far beyond the issues posed by the disaster at Fukushima.

Commercial nuclear reactors in the United States were designed and licensed for 40 years. When the first ones were being built in the 1960s and 1970s, it was expected that they would be replaced with improved models long before those licenses expired.

But that never happened.
The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, massive cost overruns, crushing debt and high interest rates ended new construction proposals for several decades.

Instead, 66 of the 104 operating units have been relicensed for 20 more years, mostly with scant public attention. Renewal applications are under review for 16 other reactors.

By the standards in place when they were built, these reactors are old and getting older. As of today, 82 reactors are more than 25 years old.

The AP found proof that aging reactors have been allowed to run less safely to prolong operations. As equipment has approached or violated safety limits, regulators and reactor operators have loosened or bent the rules.

Unprompted, several nuclear engineers and former regulators used nearly identical terminology to describe how industry and government research has frequently justified loosening safety standards to keep aging reactors within operating rules. They call the approach “sharpening the pencil” or “pencil engineering” — the fudging of calculations and assumptions to yield answers that enable plants with deteriorating conditions to remain in compliance.

“Many utilities are doing that sort of thing,” said engineer Richard T. Lahey Jr., who used to design nuclear safety systems for General Electric Co., which makes boiling water reactors. “I think we need nuclear power, but we can’t compromise on safety. I think the vulnerability is on these older plants.”

Added Paul Blanch, an engineer who left the industry over safety issues but later returned to work on solving them: “It’s a philosophical position that (federal regulators) take that’s driven by the industry and by the economics: What do we need to do to let those plants continue to operate? They somehow sharpen their pencil to either modify their interpretation of the regulations, or they modify their assumptions in the risk assessment.”

TIME CRUMBLES THINGS

In a 2009 letter, Mario V. Bonaca, then-chairman of the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, warned that this approach represents “a decrease in the safety margin” and makes a fuel-melting accident more likely.
At Fukushima, hydrogen explosions blew apart two of six containment buildings, allowing radiation to escape from overheated fuel in storage pools.

CONCERNS OF LONG STANDING

Even as they reassured the public, regulators have been worrying about aging reactors since at least the 1980s, when the first ones were entering only their second decade of operation. A 1984 report for the NRC blamed wear, corrosion, crud and fatigue for more than a third of 3,098 failures of parts or systems within the first 12 years of industry operations; the authors believed the number was actually much higher.

A decade later, in 1994, the NRC reported to Congress that the critical shrouds lining reactor cores were cracked at a minimum of 11 units, including five with extensive damage. The NRC ordered more aggressive maintenance, but an agency report last year said cracking of internal core components — spurred by radiation — remains “a major concern” in boiling water reactors.

A 1995 study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory covering a seven-year period found that aging contributed to 19 percent of scenarios that could have ended in severe accidents.

In 2001, the Union of Concerned Scientists, which does not oppose nuclear power, told Congress that aging problems had shut reactors eight times within 13 months.

HIDING THE TRUTH FROM THE PUBLIC
In a 1993 report labeled “official use only,” an NRC staffer warned that electrical parts throughout plants were subject to dangerous age-related breakdowns unforeseen by the agency. Almost a fifth of cables failed in testing that simulated the effects of 40 years of wear. The report warned that as a result, reactor core damage could occur much more often than expected.

Fifteen years later, the problem appeared to have worsened. An NRC report warned in 2008 that rising numbers of electrical cables are failing with age, prompting temporary shutdowns and degrading safety. Agency staff tallied 269 known failures over the life of the industry.

Two industry-funded reports obtained by the AP said that managers and regulators have worried increasingly about the reliability of sometimes wet, hard-to-reach underground cables over the past five-to-10 years. One of the reports last year acknowledged many electrical-related aging failures at plants around the country.

“Multiple cable circuits may fail when called on to perform functions affecting safety,” the report warned.

EATEN AWAY FROM WITHIN

Few aging problems have been more challenging than chemical corrosion from within.

In one of the industry’s worst accidents, a corroded pipe burst at Virginia’s Surry 2 reactor in 1986 and showered workers with scalding steam, killing four.

In summer 2001, the NRC was confronted with a new problem: Corrosive chemicals were cracking nozzles on reactors. But the NRC let operators delay inspections to coincide with scheduled outages. Inspection finally took place in February 2002 at the Davis-Besse unit in Ohio.

What workers found shocked the industry.


They discovered extensive cracking and a place where acidic boron had spurted from the reactor and eaten a gouge as big as a football. When the problem was found, just a fraction of an inch of inner lining remained. An NRC analysis determined that the vessel head could have burst within two months — what former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford has called a “near rupture” which could have released large amounts of radiation into the environment.

In 2001-3 alone, at least 10 plants developed these cracks, according to an NRC analysis.
THAT WAS OVER 15 YEARS AGO.
HOW MANY ARE FAILING SINCE THEN?

HOW MANY MORE FUKUSHIMAS WILL IT TAKE FOR ALL THE WORLD TO WAKE UP TO THE HARSH REALITY OF
NUCLEAR ENERGY? 


IT KILLS.
IT HAS ALWAYS KILLED AND IT ALWAYS WILL.










//WW



Monday, May 21, 2018

3,000 RADIATION MONITORS TO BE REMOVED IN JAPAN DESPITE PROTESTS


ABOVE: One of the thousands of radiation monitoring devices to be scrapped by the Abe administration, via Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).

...

WHO IS MONITORING RADIATION LEVELS NEAR THESE MASSIVE PILES OF PLASTIC BAGS CONTAINING RADIOACTIVE SOIL, ETC?


IN A BRAZEN, THUMBING-HIS-NOSE-AT-THE-WORLD MOVE, SHINZO ABE HAS AUTHORIZED THE COMPLETE REMOVAL OF MONITORING DEVICES PLACED ACROSS JAPAN'S FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE AFTER THE 3/11 DISASTER.

THIS WILL LEAVE MILLIONS GUESSING HOW HIGH THE RADIATION LEVELS ARE AND WILL CERTAINLY KEEP CITIZENS OF JAPAN AND THE WORLD UNAWARE OF SUDDEN SPIKES OR GRADUAL CLIMBS IN RADIATION PRIOR TO ABE'S PRECIOUS 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES.

ABE IS TAKING NO RISKS THAT CONTINUED HIGH RADIATION WARNINGS WILL KEEP THE WORLD FROM COMING TO JAPAN FOR THOSE GAMES.
HE HAS TRADED THE SAFETY AND HEALTH OF ALL HIS COUNTRYMEN SO THAT NO ONE IS SCARED AWAY FROM ATTENDING THE OLYMPICS GAMES, WHICH SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN AWARDED TO JAPAN IN THE FIRST PLACE.

THIS IS COMPARABLE TO ANY CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY EVER COMMITTED AND ONE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT, SOMEHOW, ABE MUST PAY THE PRICE FOR THIS CONSPIRACY OF SECRECY AND WANTON DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE.
HE MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS RECKLESS ACTIONS AGAINST THE WORLD'S ENTIRE POPULATION.

I COULD NOT, AT FIRST, BELIEVE THE HEADLINES IN THE JAPAN TIMES:


May 21, 2018   

"Radiation monitors in Fukushima to be scrapped"

The thousands of radiation-monitoring posts installed in Fukushima Prefecture after the 2011 nuclear crisis have malfunctioned nearly 4,000 times, sources said Sunday as the Nuclear Regulation Authority prepares to remove them after spending ¥500 million a year on repair costs.

Around 3,000 of the monitors were installed in the wake of the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant following the March 2011 mega-quake and tsunami. The NRA, which operates the monitoring posts, plans to remove around 80 percent of them by the end of fiscal 2020 on the grounds that radiation levels in some areas have fallen and stabilized.

[WERE ANY MONITORS PLACED NEXT TO THOSE STACKS OF MILLIONS OF PLASTIC BAGS FULL OF RADIOACTIVE SOIL AND BRUSH?
ON BEACHES IN THAT AREA?
ON SITES WHERE OLYMPIC GAMES ARE TO BE HELD AND WHERE ATHLETES WILL BE HOUSED?
NO.]


But the move is being viewed by some as an attempt to cut costs because the government is also looking to terminate its special budgetary account for rebuilding Tohoku by the same year.

Some municipalities and residents oppose scrapping the monitoring posts because they will no longer be able to gauge the risk to their health. They were installed in kindergartens, schools and other places to measure radiation in the air, according to the NRA.

But in the five years since the network was activated in fiscal 2013, the system has been plagued by problems including inaccurate readings and data-transmission failures. The tally of cases stands at 3,955.

Each time, the undisclosed makers of the device and security companies were called to fix it, costing the central government about ¥500 million a year.


In March, the NRA decided to remove about 2,400 of the monitoring posts from areas outside the 12 municipalities near the wrecked power plant and reuse some of them in the municipalities.

Local citizens’ groups have asked the NRA not to remove the monitoring posts until the plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., is decommissioned.

That project is expected to take decades.

Terumi Kataoka, a housewife in Aizuwakamatsu who formed a group of mothers to petition the NRA last month to keep the monitors in place, asked the NRA to disclose information on its plans to reuse the devices, but she was told no official documents on the plans had been drafted yet.
“It’s all about the budget in the end. They can’t reuse the devices and there seem to be no concrete plans,” she said.   

On Monday, Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori urged the central government to investigate the cause of the monitor malfunctions and take measures to address the issue.

“The accuracy of the system is important,” he said.

[NOT TO SHINZO ABE AND HIS NRA!]


Safecast, a global volunteer-based citizen science organization formed in 2011 to monitor radiation from the Fukushima disaster, said some devices had to be replaced because they didn’t work or were not made to the required specifications.

Many were placed in locations that had notably lower ambient radiation than their surroundings, and so were not adequately representative of the situation, it added. 
[THIS WAS DONE ON PURPOSE!]


“Removing the units seems like a huge step away from transparency,” said Azby Brown, lead researcher at Safecast.

Brown said the public will certainly view the move with suspicion and increasingly mistrust the government, while the continuity of the database is lost.

AREN'T THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN, OF THE WORLD, WORTH ¥500 MILLION A YEAR?
THAT'S LESS THAN $5 MILLION U.S. DOLLARS.
I'M CERTAIN THAT ABE SPENDS MUCH MORE THAN THAT ON MEDIA PROPAGANDA EACH YEAR.

WHAT A LOW PRICE TO SET FOR SAFEGUARDING THE HEALTH OF A NATION'S CHILDREN, YES?

IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS NOW HOW VERY LITTLE ABE AND HIS CABINET VALUE HUMAN LIFE.
NEVER MIND THAT THE STRESS LEVEL OF THAT SMALL COUNTRY IS ALREADY SKY-HIGH, HE WANTS TO RAISE THAT LEVEL OF STRESS TO, WHAT?
TO MATCH THOSE RADIATION READINGS THAT SHOW THE NEED FOR FURTHER MONITORING?

DOES HE WANT TO SEE EVEN MORE SUICIDES AND ABORTIONS THERE AS HIS OWN PEOPLE FALL PREY TO THIS ONGOING, NEVER-ENDING DISASTER THAT WAS TEPCO'S FAULT?

IT WAS CUTTING CORNERS AND COST THAT CREATED THIS NIGHTMARE WHEN TEPCO REFUSED TO RAISE THAT SEA WALL TO PROPER HEIGHT.
NOW ABE CALLS FOR MORE COST-CUTS RATHER THAN SAFEGUARD HIS OWN PEOPLE?

WHAT SORT OF MIND WOULD DO SUCH A THING?
HAS HE NO HEART?


FROM 'THE MAINICHI', RELATED STORIES:

Low-water alarm halts Oi nuke plant reactor soon after restart

Seismologist testifies Fukushima nuclear disaster preventable


Despite ban, foreign trainees working at crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.


Contaminated water leak found at Ehime nuke plant.

AND ALSO:

"The government is expected to terminate by the same year a special budget account for rebuilding northeastern Japan areas affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear crisis.

Some local governments and residents have opposed the planned removal of monitoring posts, expressing concerns about their health."

IT'S OBVIOUS THAT NEITHER ABE NOR HIS CABINET ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S HEALTH!

THE MAINICHI HAS HUNDREDS OF ARCHIVED ARTICLES REGARDING FUKUSHIMA, SOME QUITE STARTLING.
TO ACCESS THAT LIST OF ARTICLES, START <HERE>.


WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR WORLD OUTRAGE TO KICK IN AND OUST ABE TO SAVE JAPAN AND THE WORLD FROM THIS UNENDING NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE?

LOOKS LIKE IT MAY TAKE MORE THAN WE HAVE TIME FOR.
IF THIS DOESN'T SHOW THE ENTIRE WORLD HOW LITTLE ABE CARES AND HOW UNFIT HE IS TO OVERSEE THIS DISASTER, NOTHING WILL.









//WW

170 MASS MARINE DIE-OFFS IN 49 NATIONS IN JUST ONE YEAR




23 March 2018 
Only six members of a pod have survived a mass stranding of pilot whales on the coast of Western Australia.

About 150 of the animals were found beached at Hamelin Bay, about 300km (180 miles) south of Perth.

Their discovery by a local fisherman on Friday prompted a major rescue effort to return them to deeper waters.
However, by nightfall, more than 140 of the whales had died, with deteriorating weather conditions and the threat of frenzied sharks impeding efforts.

THERE HAS BEEN A 'STRANGE' UPSWING IN MARINE DEATHS FOR THE PAST DECADE.

SO FAR IN 2018, "170 Known MASS Death Events in 49 Countries (or Territories)." 


'Millions of birds, fish, crabs and hundreds of other species of marine life have been turning up dead in massive numbers from the United States, through Europe and down to South America.

Scientists and environmental officials have attributed some of the deaths to severe weather, dramatic drops in temperature -- even fireworks. However, many reported deaths remain mysterious.'

Some 'experts' blame a lack of food due to unusually warm ocean waters.
Other say it has to be some new type of virus that spreads between marine populations.
Although external and internal lesions, malformed limbs, disorientation, missing eyes, and other noticeable mutations have been present in especially the larger creatures,only a few scientists are mentioning the possibility that many of the dead and dying animals look a LOT like those that were exposed to radiation during nuclear testing in our oceans.
Some Arctic Tribes have suggested this to the scientific community since they were witness to similar during the Cold War when both Russia and the U.S. plus France were blowing nukes all over the globe.

Almost no one wants to fully examine this possibility, even though necropsy results on baby seals off California's coast showed they died of LEUKEMIA, which, in ocean populations, can only be caused by a very few chemicals NOT found in the Pacific, or else it is caused by radiation exposure.
That cesium-134 (the 'Fukushima fingerprint') and cesium-137 were found in kelp and in tuna off our west coast immediately after the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns was quickly hushed by the media.
That radioactive fallout was recorded in sea ice near the Arctic Circle just 2 weeks after those blasts and was initially thought to be the reason for so many marine deaths there later in the year was also downplayed.

In early 2011, Kristi Miller, a scientist with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, was prevented from responding to media inquiries regarding her important research into declining salmon stocks. Orders to keep Miller from speaking with journalists came from the Privy Council Office in Ottawa.

There are many more die-offs than I am listing here.

I don't list the ones in lakes and rivers, list only coastal birds and only list SOME from March, April and May of this year, beginning in March. Nations include familiar names from past die-offs: Russia, the U.S., India, France, Australia, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Chile, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico...a long list too familiar to us by now.

Many different POSSIBLE causes are given but we may never know the true facts.
Whether the deaths came from the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian or Mediterranean Seas, the

truth seems to be that the oceans of the world are all sick, something is definitely wrong out there. 


38 dead Pilot Whales, New Zealand, April 3, 2018




ABOVE: Marine advocates are calling a large number of little blue penguins washing up along New Zealand's Bay of Plenty coastline the "biggest penguin die-off in many years".

Hundreds of shearwaters, petrels, prions, shags and penguins, including dead poisonous pufferfish, were reported to have washed up along the coastline so far this year.

LARGE DIE-OFFS OF MARINE BIRDS ARE HAPPENING WORLDWIDE, HOWEVER.



Dead puffins were among the hundreds of lifeless birds that washed ashore on Scotland's east coast in late March.




ABOVE: March 28, 2018
, 61 dolphins found stranded in Puerto Medryn, an Argentinian city in northern Patagonia.

According to local authorities, 49 died on the coast of the El Doradillo Protected Natural Area, while the remaining 12 were saved and returned to the sea alive.




Over 400 dead seabirds on Jersey Beach, UK, and  'Dead seabirds littered across Chesil Beach in Dorset' in the same week NEAR THE SAME LOCATIONS.



Across the globe from England, also in the same time frame in March, more dead seabirds washed ashore in Chile. Chile has also seen marine deaths of sea turtles, sea worms, fish, dolphin and whales.



ABOVE: One of the photos from the recent die-off in the U.K.



A dead seal, one of four that washed ashore in the UK in one day, along with millions of other marine creatures.




Millions of star fish washed ashore, Kent, England.



Incredible picture above shows Fraisthorpe beach near Bridlington, UK, blanketed by tons of marine creatures, with a group of fishermen battling to save some of those still alive.
'It is still coming out of the sea; every tide is leaving a fresh batch.’



March 7, 2018
Tens of thousands of dead starfish also washed up on a beach in Ramsgate, Kent, UK, in the wake of a storm.

“There was every form of marine life, velvet crabs, lobsters, whelks, scallops, razorfish, Dover soles, cod, ling, wrasse and sand eels.

Several dead seals were among the casualties.

“There were hundreds of thousands of lobsters, millions of mussels, you can’t count the number.

“There was every form of marine life, velvet crabs, lobsters, whelks, scallops, razorfish, Dover soles, cod, ling, wrasse and sand eels. There were hundreds of thousands of lobsters, millions of mussels, you can’t count the number."


From the BBC,March 19, 2018

Hundreds of dead seabirds have been washing up on Scotland's east coast.

Scientists, who have sought reports of similar cases from across the UK, said the guillemots, razorbills and puffins died due to recent bad weather.

HOW LONG HAS THAT SEA SENT "BAD WEATHER" ASHORE WITHOUT SO MASSIVE A DIE-OFF ACROSS MARINE SPECIES?

I post the following article mainly to show how quickly a necropsy on a dead whale CAN be performed and reported, while we in America and Canada still await results from NOAA necropsies on whales and other marine life discovered dead 3, 4, even 5 years ago.

March 11, 2018   

Autopsies of beached whales in southern Taiwan reveal sickness.

Three stranded killer whales, two female and one male, died at the National Cheng-kung University Marine Biology & Cetacean Research Center (on March 11).
The whales appeared on a Kaohsiung beach March 6. As their health deteriorated much quicker than expected, the combined efforts of over 60 people moved them to the research center on March 9.
Lung problems ultimately caused the rapid deaths of the whales.

Researchers found 18 plastic bags in the stomach of the thinnest of the three whales during autopsy, reported CNA.

The other female whale had hardened plastic bags and other unidentifiable objects in her stomach as well as serious ulcers.

No objects were discovered inside of the male whale though he did have had infected lungs, parasites around the genitals, and a flushed stomach.

Finding plastic bags inside the stomachs of beached whales is becoming increasingly common, according to the researchers.

IF TAIWAN CAN ACCOMPLISH A COMPLETE NECROPSY AND ISSUE RESULTS IN DAYS, WHY CAN'T NOAA?

[Read NOAA's statement in 2017 that it can take them YEARS to determine cause of death for the whales; "
The investigation may require months, or even years of data collection, analysis, and interpretation."]


Meanwhile, back in Florida, USA, another massive fish die-off on the Atlantic coast:

It happened in this area before"
Thick clusters of dead fish drifted near neighborhoods in south Cocoa Beach and Patrick Air Force Base, blanketing canals with corpses. The death toll spans the spectrum of about 30 species, from pint-sized junk fish to plump, prize-sized sport fish.
The fish were carried ashore from Cape Canaveral south to Melbourne.


1st April 2018 - 28 dead dolphins wash up this year in Mississippi, America. Link



A PHRASE I NOTICED THAT WAS REPEATED IN MANY OF THESE REPORTS...NO OTHER ANIMALS/BIRDS WERE EATING THE DEAD:

"There are hundreds of birds around but they are not eating the fish at the moment."

MANY BEACHES ARE REPEATING SCENES FROM YEARS AGO.

Two years ago thousands of dead fish were washed up on another Cornish (UK) beach.
The fish, thought to be mackerel, stretched for "as far as the eye could see" along Marazion beach in Cornwall.

25th March 2018 - 3 dead dolphins wash up on a beach in Sinop, Turkey. Link


23rd March 2018 - 140+ whales dead after stranding in Western Australia. Link
23rd March 2018 - 140+ whales dead after stranding in Western Australia. Link


23rd March 2018 - Mass die off of fish washes ashore on the coast of Oman. Link

17 March 2018 - Dozens of dead sea birds and dead seals washed ashore in Coronado, California, America. Link

28th March 2018 - Large die off of seagulls, cormorants and swans in Lolland, Denmark. Link
The cause of death of the birds is currently unknown, but Lahrmann said that avian influenza was a possible reason.

A veterinary unit will analyze the dead animals in order to determine a cause of death, a process likely to take “a few days,” she said.

[PERHAPS THEY, TOO, LIKE TAIWAN, CAN TEACH NOAA HOW TO ACCOMPLISH THIS IN DAYS, NOT YEARS?]


27th March 2018 - Thousands of sea birds and fish dead due to oil spill in northern Colombia. Link

27th March 2018 - Thousands of sea birds and fish dead due to oil spill in northern Colombia. Link

14th March 2018 -
7 dead dolphins found along the coast south of Chennai, India. Link


News 13 Florida, March 7, 2018
Algae Bloom Warns of Another Massive Fish Kill

Officials warn of potential fish kill at Indian River Lagoon
This current bloom pattern mirrors what happened in 2016, when a massive fish kill began. It's not the blooms that kill fish — it's the lack of oxygen.

4th March 2018 -
Hundreds, maybe thousands of dead fish wash up on a beach, 'a mystery' in Marseillan, France. Link


6th March 2018 - 12+ dead dolphins wash ashore along the coast of Galicia, Spain. Link

The number of dolphins stranded and dead in Galicia in the last two days rises to at least a dozen. But there could be many more. The strong storm at sea during the last days threw these animals to the coast in places as distant as Muros and Vigo, but also in Ribeira, Porto do Son, A Illa de Arousa and O Grove.

Most belong to the common dolphin species ( Delphinus delphis ), typical of tropical and subtropical waters that do not abound in the interior of the Galician estuaries.


26th March 2018 - Dozens of dead sea birds found on a beach in Novorossiysk, Russia. Link

1st April 2018 - 28 dead dolphins wash up this year in Mississippi, America. Link

2nd April 2018 -
UPDATE: 200+ dead dolphins found during past few months in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Link

Scientists there have discovered more than 200 dead Guiana dolphins, or Sotalia guianensis, a quarter of what was the world’s largest concentration of the species. The deaths, caused by respiratory and nervous system failures linked to a virus, have subsided, but scientists are working to unravel the mystery behind them.How, they ask, did a virus that might ordinarily have claimed a handful of dolphins end up killing scores of them?

3rd April 2018 - Hundreds of dead fish wash up on a beach, 'a mystery' in Safety Bay, Australia. Link

4th April 2018 - 5 TONS of dead fish wash up in Bio Bio, Chile. Link

6th April 2018 - 38 pilot whales dead after washing up on a beach in Westland, New Zealand. Link
Resident and local iwi member Helen Rasmussen said she had lived in the area for 42 years, but never encountered such a large stranding.


9th April 2018 - Thousands of dead fish washing up in Irondequoit Bay, New York, America. Link

The state Department of Environmental Conservation.said that stress combined with a confirmed low-level infection of the so-called VHS virus to do in the fish.

The agency said fish die-offs had been reported in Irondequoit Bay and a section of the Erie Canal at Newark, Wayne County.

The county will not provide cleanup.


9th April 2018 - 21 dead turtles found on the coast of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Link




ABOVE: 23rd April 2018 - TONS of dead sea worms wash ashore in Los Lagos, Chile. Link

14th April 2018 - 10 dead turtles found on the coast of Uruguay. Link


18th April 2018 - Hundreds of dead catfish, eels and seahorses found on a beach in Kailua, Hawaii, America. Link


24th April 2018 - Mass die off of penguins continuing along the coast of New Zealand. Link


1st May 2018 - 30,000 dead fish wash up in a harbor in Baltimore, America. Link


30th April 2018 - 6.4 TONS of dead fish washed up on beaches in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Link



ABOVE: 6th May 2018 - Millions of jellyfish wash up around the coast of Malta. Link


4th May 2018 - 100 dead sea birds found, 'never seen anything like it', on Navarre beach, Florida, America. Link


4th May 2018 - Dead sea birds found washed up on the coast of Mariupol, Ukraine. Link


7th May 2018 -
Thousands of dead fish wash up on a beach in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Link

The cause of the mass death was unknown, and the Ras Al Khaimah Environment agency said they are investigating possible causes.

7th May 2018 - Hundreds of dead salmon found washed up on a beach in Port Lincoln, Australia. Link


FROM BOTTOM-DWELLING CRUSTACEANS TO SURFACE SKIMMING

SEA BIRDS, FROM TINY JELLYFISH TO HUGE WHALES, THE DEATH COUNTS GO ON AND ON. 
AGAIN AND AGAIN WE READ THAT "SCIENTISTS ARE BAFFLED", THAT NO ONE IS 100% CERTAIN WHY ALL THESE CREATURES ARE DYING IN SUCH HIGH NUMBERS OVER SO LONG A PERIOD OF TIME.
IT ISN'T LOCALIZED, IT'S WORLDWIDE, IN EVERY OCEAN, AND ALGAE BLOOMS AND ALL THAT 'EXPERTS' HAVE GUESSED AT DON'T SEEM TO FIT THE OVERALL PICTURE OF THESE MASS DEATHS.


WE MAY NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH, NEVER FIND THE ANSWERS, BUT IT IS CRYSTAL CLEAR THAT OUR OCEANS ARE DYING, THAT LIFE DEPENDENT ON THEM CAN NO LONGER HANG ON IN THE SEWERS THOSE OCEANS HAVE BECOME. 

WE DUMP RADIOACTIVE WASTE, CHEMICALS, PLASTICS, EVERY KNOWN FORM OF GARBAGE AND TOXINS INTO THEM EVERY DAY, EVERY YEAR, MAKING THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT NO LONGER LIVABLE.

WE'VE CREATED A DEATH TRAP FOR ALL THAT LIVE IN THE SEA...BUT WE'RE NEXT.

AS THEY GO, SO GO WE ALL. 











//WW

Sunday, May 6, 2018

RADIATION TOPS TENS OF MILLIONS CPM ACROSS AMERICA



ABOVE: Chernobyl 2012: the highly radioactive graphite crane claw.
166-200+ CPMs.

REMEMBER THESE NUMBERS, 160 TO 200 CPM.
RADIATION'S EFFECTS ON THE HUMAN BODY EXTEND INTO FUTURE GENERATIONS, THE DAMAGE IS PASSED ON BY THE EXPOSED PARENTS, AS WE HAVE SEEN FROM  NEVADA AND PACIFIC ISLANDS ATOMIC BOMB TEST SITES, FROM CHERNOBYL AND FROM RETURNING VETERANS WHO WERE EXPOSED TO DEPLETED URANIUM.



STOCHASTIC EFFECTS:
Stochastic effects have been defined as those for which the probability increases with dose, without a threshold. Nonstochastic effects are those for which incidence and severity depends on dose, but for which there is a threshold dose.

Effects produced at random without a threshold dose level, the probability of their occurrence being proportional to the dose and their severity being independent of it. In radiation safety, the main stochastic effects are carcinogenesis and genetic mutation.




BECAUSE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE INVESTED IN THE 'NUCLEAR INDUSTRY', BILLIONS OF HUMAN LIVES NO LONGER MATTER TO INVESTORS.


THE GENERAL PUBLIC'S UNDERSTANDING OF RADIATION HAS BEEN COMPLICATED, PERHAPS INTENTIONALLY, BY THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY SO WE DON'T WORRY OUR LITTLE HEADS ABOUT IT.
IN A SINGLE ARTICLE ABOUT RADIATION, IT IS NOT UNCOMMON TO SEE AT LEAST FOUR OR MORE METHODS CITED WHEN SPEAKING OF RADIATION.
CONFUSION IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS.

LET'S LOOK AT THE COMMON GEIGER COUNTER READINGS FOR THIS PAST WEEK ACROSS AMERICA, IN TERMS OF COUNTS PER MINUTE (CPM) LEVELS, AS REPORTED BY THE EPA, IF YOU CAN CALL IT REPORTING.

BUT LET'S FIRST TRY TO GET A GRIP ON WHAT THESE NUMBERS MEAN.

[MY NOTE: IF YOU JUST WANT THE READINGS, SCROLL DOWN TO THE TRIPLE ASTERISKS IN RED, WHICH WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW,  THUSLY, ***


Both CPM and CPS are the RATE of detection events registered by the measuring instrument, NOT the rate of emission from the source of radiation.

For radioactive decay measurements it must not be confused with disintegrations per unit time (dpm), which represents the rate of atomic disintegration events AT THE SOURCE of the radiation.
[SOURCE: Radiation Detection and Measurement, third edition 2000. John Wiley and sons]




ABOVE: DECAY, IONIZING RADIATION TRANSMISSION AND DETECTION.
[VERY LARGE IMAGE <HERE>]



REMEMBER THE READINGS/NUMBERS IN THE VIDEO AT THE TOP OF THIS BLOG ENTRY... 160-200+ CPMs.


What Are Counts Per Minute (CPM) in Radioactivity?

When/If you get a Geiger counter , you’ll need to know about CPM, which is the counts per minute that you’ll see displayed on the analog meter in addition to the corresponding level of radiation.

Once you get your CPM reading from your device, you then need to figure out what that reading means.
What are normal radiation levels CPM and what are dangerous ones?

If you have your Geiger counter calibrated to Cs137, which most are, 1 milliRad per hour would equate to 1,200 CPM on your counter.

At the same time, 1 microSievert per hour would equate to 120 CPM on the reading. These are more universal units of measurement that can help you better understand your radiation exposure.

A CPM reading of at least 100 is considered a warning level by the Radiation Network, although the length of time you’re exposed to the radiation is an important factor.

If you’re concerned about staying within safe radiation levels, it would take 432 days at a CPM of 100 to up your chance of getting cancer to odds of 1 in 1,000.

At higher exposure rates, it would take less time.

For instance, it would only take four days to increase your rate to those odds if you’re exposed to a level of 10,000 CPMs PER DAY.

KEEP THOSE NUMBERS IN MIND, PLEASE.


Radiation Units


Radiation units are confusing. If you remember just one thing, remember that the "badness" in an area can be expressed as micro-Sieverts/hour (uSv/hr) -- i.e., how much "badness" per hour people in that area are getting.

It's cumulative, so if a person is in a 2 uSv/hr area for 6 hours, that's a 12 uSv dose they've accumulated.

Generally a person gets around 4 milli-Sieverts per year from natural sources (i.e. 4,000 uSv).
HOWEVER, the EPA limit for the general public for exposure per year ABOVE background level is "JUST" 1 milli-Sievert per year.

A 100 milli-Sievert dose (i.e. 100 x the EPA limit) is associated with a measurable increase in cancer.



A chest CT scan is about 7 milli-Sieverts of exposure.
ON THAT WEBSITE, NOTE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT:


"Some scientists believe that low doses of radiation do not increase the risk of developing cancer at all, but this is a minority view."

THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION STATED DECADES AGO, AND THIS HAS NOT CHANGED, THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HARMLESS DOSE OF RADIATION.

THE FDA ALSO HAS A SHORT SUMMARY PAGE THEY TITLED
"RADIATION PROTECTION TERMINOLOGY", BUT IT DOESN'T EXPLAIN MUCH.
MUST NOT PANIC THE SHEEP, RIGHT?
DO NOTICE THIS STATEMENT, THOUGH:

"Gamma rays are similar to X-rays, but are usually more energetic. It travels at the speed of light and is the most penetrating type of radiation. "

In the US, a radiation worker is permitted to get 50 milli-Sieverts per year of exposure. So we're ased to swallow hard and accept that exposure up to 1 milli-Sievert is quite safe, and up to 10 or 20 is "nothing to worry about" (lots of people get CT scans for example).

See the Free Radiation Unit Chart from XKCD


A BIG THANK YOU TO 'MAJIA'S BLOG' FOR THE FOLLOWING:


Converting CPM to MicroSieverts
"There is no direct equation because beta CPM (counts per minute) is an electron count and (micro and milli) sieverts is an account of bodily damage.


Still, in the post below I site an EPA guideline dictating an intervention level at 300 CPM or 10 microsieverts an hour


So, let us for a moment presume that the two are roughly equivalent in a hypothetical scenario that allows us to speculate on the health implications of our current levels of exposure.

If that were the case, exposure to 700 CPM would be roughly 23 microsieverts an hour. That would mean that we in Phoenix yesterday would have hypothetically received 552 microsieverts in a 24 hour period.

In 18 days at 700 CPM we would be at approximately 10 millisieverts of exposure (there are 1000 microsieverts in 1 millisievert) just from exposure to air alone.

We also are exposed to radiation from the machines in our environment, radon gas, food, etc.

These numbers are not looking good.

The EPA recommends that our exposure to background radiation should not exceed 100 millirem a year, which is 1 millisievert, although we ordinarily are exposed to about 300 millirem in the US from background (3 millisieverts). Considerable background radiation derives from nuclear power plants, past nuclear weapons testing and radon gas.

There is no "immediate" health risk from 18 days of exposure of 700 CPM in the sense that people not will develop radiation sickness at this level. However, cancer rates and other diseases have been proven to increase at every 3 millisievert increment over 10 millisieverts."               

BE AWARE THAT MANY ARE "DEBUNKING" THE FOLLOWING READINGS FROM ACROSS THE U.S., STATING THAT THE EPA DOESN'T USE 'NORMAL' GEIGER COUNTERS.

FROM POPULAR MECHANICS, A GOVERNMENT-INFLUENCED CALMING MOUTHPIECE ("Don't worry, be happy!" is what they do best.) , WHICH ACTUALLY ADMITS THAT, "Japanese officials are surveying people leaving the affected areas, and anyone with more than 100,000 cpm of contamination is asked to change clothes (which removes up to 90 percent of the contamination) and possibly to shower."

ABOVE 100,000 CPMs?
HOW ABOUT A MILLION CPMs, 10 MILLION?

THEY NEGLECT TO TELL US WHAT WE SHOULD DO WHEN RADIATION SURROUNDS US EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY.
FROM THIS PAST WEEK, THE READINGS, "A LA EPA":  


***HERE ARE LAST WEEK'S CPM READINGS.***
YOU DECIDE IF THIS SHOULD BE OF CONCERN TO US.


Published May 5, 2018
Gamma and Beta CPM by City and State in the US
YTD GAMMA RAD 4/28/20182018 YTD BETA CPMDATECITYST.2010 Census Target Population
YTD GAMMA RAD 4/28/2018
2018 YTD BETA CPM
DATE
CITY
ST.
2010 Census Target Population
3,394,520

4/28/2018
MaxNormalSafeLevel
US

27,314,896Withheld4/28/2018Colorado Springs,CO.645,613
24,246,108Withheld4/28/2018Little Rock,AR.699,757
24,199,642Withheld4/28/2018Raleigh,NC.1,130,490
22,699,778Withheld4/28/2018Portland,ME.514,098
22,445,047Withheld4/28/2018Navajo Lake,NM.Transient
21,279,986Withheld4/28/2018Spokane,WA.527,753
20,219,005Withheld4/28/2018Fresno,CA.930,450
20,068,236Withheld4/28/2018St. George,UT.138,115
19,618,543Withheld4/28/2018Riverside,CA.4,224,851
19,437,835Withheld4/28/2018San Diego,CA.3,095,313
19,201,280Withheld4/28/2018Atlanta,GA.5,286,728
19,014,184Withheld4/28/2018Worcester,MA.916,980
18,828,649Withheld4/28/2018Denver,CO.2,543,482
18,230,282Withheld4/28/2018Tucson,AZ.980,263
18,204,494Withheld4/28/2018Los Angeles,CA.12,828,837
18,069,619Withheld4/28/2018Phoenix,AZ.4,192,887
17,629,266Withheld4/28/2018Idaho Falls,ID.133,265
17,454,461Withheld4/28/2018Grand Junction,CO.146,723
17,375,606Withheld4/28/2018San Bernardino,CA.4,224,851
16,701,423Withheld4/28/2018Boston,MA.4,552,402
16,648,546Withheld4/28/2018Casper,WY.75,450
16,607,028Withheld4/28/2018Yuma,AZ.195,751
16,576,586Withheld4/28/2018Concord,NH.146,445
16,446,672Withheld4/28/2018Bakersfield,CA.839,631
16,384,602Withheld4/28/2018El Paso,TX.622,263
16,003,798Withheld4/28/2018Oklahoma City,OK.1,252,987

..........


SHOULD THE ABOVE IMAGES GO MISSING, THERE IS ALSO A VIMEO VIDEO OF THE ABOVE AT <THIS SITE>.

MR. BOB NICHOLS' INFORMATION FOR THIS WEEK MAY BE FOUND AT

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/05/05/million-a-week-club-yrtw-16/



PBS ALSO HAS A RADIATION DOSE CHART <HERE>.

CONSIDER THIS:

"Dose limits alone are not enough to ensure adequate protection. They function in combination with the fundamental principles of justification and optimization.

These limits apply only to doses received above the normal local natural background radiation.

Limits on effective dose, combined with optimization of protection, are designed to avoid a risk of stochatic effects that would be considered intolerable in a planned exposure situation.

Limits on equivalent dose to an organ, combined with optimization of protection, are designed to prevent the occurrence of deterministic effects.

Dose limits apply ONLY in planned exposure situations.
In other situations, restrictions on individual dose are called reference levels. They provide the additional flexibility needed in emergency and existing exposure situations to make sure protection is optimized.

Dose limits do not apply to medical exposures. If they did, the effectiveness of diagnosis or treatment might be reduced, doing more harm than good for the patient. The emphasis is on justification of medical procedures and optimization of protection."


ALSO CONSIDER THIS:

How Much Radiation Is Dangerous?

It depends on whom you ask. Some people will say no amount is safe, but that doesn’t really help us understand the relative dangers. Here are some basic numbers to use as a guide (μSv means microSieverts):


10 μSv – The average radiation you received today

40 μSv – The radiation you receive by taking a flight from New York to L.A.

100 μSv – The radiation you receive during a dental x-ray

800 μSv – Total radiation dose at Three-Mile Island for the duration of the accident

3,000 μSv – Radiation dose from a mammogram

3,600 μSv – Average radiation a US citizen receives in a year from all sources

50,000 μSv –
Maximum allowable yearly occupational dose (USA)

100,000 μSv – Lowest yearly dose likely linked to increased cancer risk

2,000,000 μSv – Severe radiation poisoning (sometimes fatal)


One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts (mSv). One millisievert is 1,000 microsieverts.
SO THE RECENT READING OF 530 SIEVERTS AT ONE REACTOR IN JAPAN,
530 SIEVERTS, NOT MICROSIEVERTS, SIEVERTS per hour, and could be as high as 690 sieverts per hour, MEANS THAT IT WAS EMITTING AT LEAST 530,000.000 MICROSIEVERTS PER HOUR.


AND TEPCO ADMITTED THEY "FORGOT" TO TAKE THE COVER OFF THE MEASURING DEVICE!
THEY JUST ADMITTED THE SAME 'ERROR' 2 DAYS AGO WHEN ANOTHER HIGH READING WAS TAKEN INSIDE THE GROUNDS OF THE PLANT.

"Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, says that while the readings are not reliable, they still “demonstrate that, seven years after the disaster, cleaning up the Fukushima site remains a massive challenge — and one that we’re going to be reading about for decades, never mind years.”

Mycle Schneider, independent energy consultant and lead author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, criticized Tepco, saying the power company has “no clue” what it is doing.

“I find it symptomatic of the past seven years, in that they don’t know what they’re doing, Tepco, these energy companies, haven’t a clue what they’re doing, so to me it’s been going wrong from the beginning. It’s a disaster of unseen proportions.”

In observing the poor maintenance of plant radiation leaks, Schneider also pointed out that the company stores nuclear waste at the site in an inappropriate way.

“This is an area of the planet that gets hit by tornadoes and all kinds of heavy weather patterns, which is a problem. When you have waste stored above ground in inappropriate ways, it can get washed out and you can get contamination all over the place.”



CHERNOBYL TOPPED OUT AT 300 SIEVERTS PER HOUR, IS READING 34 SIEVERTS TODAY.
FUKUSHIMA'S DAIICHI PLANT HAS AT LEAST TWO OTHER HEAVILY LEAKING REACTORS. 
DO THE MATH...

The level of radiation detected at the Fukushima plant immediately after the third explosion in 2011 was 400,000 μSv/h–a level that would be extraordinarily dangerous for humans.
By comparison, that level of radiation is 33,000 times higher than recorded about 750 yards from the containment facility at reactor 4 in Chernobyl.



Here’s the data from Fukushima in 2011:
"Live: 196 locations by crowd-sourced Geiger counters


Futaba, Fukushima, Japan

Median reading in this area is approximately328.000 µSv per hour ( 2873280.000 µSv per year ).


4049.38272 times the average public space Geiger counter reading for Japan (0.081 µSv per hour)*
328.000% the radiation dose you would receive from a chest x-ray (100 µSv)*


Current reading: 328.000 µSv per hour Time: 2011-07-14 13:06:3 "

DOES ANYONE ELSE GET SICK OF HEARING ONLY ABOUT CESIUM, AND SOMETIMES TRITIUM AND STRONTIUM FROM FUKUSHIMA?
THERE ARE A LOT MORE RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THAN THOSE TWO.

THIS is full list of MAN MADE radionuclides:
http://www.life-upgrade.com/DATA/inventory-reactor-beznau2.jpg


Trillions and trillions of Becquerels are emanating from only ONE reactor at Fukushima today.

"At a ratio of 1:1, Plutonium-239 releases are also 7.6 x 10^13, or 76 tera(trillion)becquerels.
23,000 higher than previous gov’t estimate. 
[…] According to the June 6 estimate by the NISA [see chart below]: Plutonium-239: 3.2×10^9 [3.2 billion becquerels] […]
The amount of plutonium-239 has increased 23,000-fold. […]

Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 154 Terabecquerels Per Day, Every Day of radioactive iodine and cesium still spewing out of the plant, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission now admits.
[…] From Yomiuri Shimbun (9:15PM JST 4/23/2011)

"The Nuclear Safety Commission under the Prime Minister’s Office disclosed on April 23 that the amount of radioactive materials being released from the TEPCO Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was 154 terabecquerels per day (1 tera is 1 trillion) as late as April 5 when the amount being released was considered stabilized.
On April 5, the estimated amount of radioactive materials released from Fukushima I Nuke Plant was 0.69 terabecquerels/hour for iodine-131 and 0.14 terabecquerels/hour for cesium-137. When the numbers were recalculated according to the INES method (converting cesium amount into iodine equivalent), the amount released turned out to be 6.4 terabecquerels/hour (which was 154 terabecquerels per day. Previously, the Nuclear Safety Commission had simply added the numbers for iodine-131 and cesium-137, and announced it was less than 1 terrabecquerel per hou."

WHAT WOULD BE THE TOTAL IF TEPCO/THE ABE REGIME HONESTLY REPORTED ON ALL REACTORS, ALL HOLDING TANKS, ALL WATER BEING DUMPED INTO THE PACIFIC ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, ALL THOSE MILLIONS OF BAGS OF CONTAMINATED SOIL AND UNDERBRUSH, ETC, SCATTERED ACROSS JAPAN, AND ALL THE INCINERATORS BURNING RADIOACTIVE WASTE EVERY SINGLE DAY?

LIES THE MEDIA AND BIG NUKE'S "EXPERTS" TELL US...

1- SOME RADIATION IS SAFE AND MAY EVEN BE 'GOOD FOR YOU'.
THAT'S A LIE.

2- CHERNOBYL WAS WORSE THAN FUKUSHIMA.
THAT IS A BIGGER LIE.  


In 1970 it was proven that a human fetus is 500 times more vulnerable to radiation than anyone else. And in 1978 this was released in the bulletin of atomic scientists:

"CANCER AND LOW-LEVEL IONIZING RADIATION"
THERE IS NO SAFE LEVEL OF RADIATION.



ICRP, 
 International Commission on Radiological Protection , which is very PRO-Nuke, confirmed in 1966 that natural radiation is harmful.
ICRP Publication Number 8 from 1966 on page 60: "... in relation to the health damage caused by natural radiation for the bulk of the world’s population is a risk of sixth order (1 to 10 dead per million per rad / gray); in a few areas with high natural background radiation the risk fifth order. 10 to 100 dead per million and rad (gray). and in 1977 the ICRP publication number 26 said, that, in this sense, regional differences of the natural radiation are so regarded, that the corresponding differences include the damage. and in the ’80s the natural radiation was simply doubled. and in 2011 it became the twentyfold in japan: 20 mSv/a. Natural radiation is used as an excuse to increase artificial radiation with radionuclides from reactors.

They call that radiation-protection?

       
Prof. Ernest Sternglass and his studies about infant mortality near reactors showed how little it takes to damage a human fetus/babies;: http://www.ratical.org/radiation/inetSeries/ejs1192.html


"JUST" 17 milliSieverts per year means:
16,000 – 32,000 additional cancer deaths AND 150,000 – 1,5 million deaths by genetic diseases:
by John W. Gofman (one of the original scientists who gave us nuclear bombs) , Ph.D., M.D and Arthur R. Tamplin, Ph.D. quote:

“If we use the most optimistic Russell mouse genetic data, and even if we give full credit for slow delivery of radiation, we reach the conclusion that 100,000 extra genetic deaths per year would occur for the allowable average exposure of 170 millirads to the population. This can hardly be construed as an “optimistic” outlook, or a “safe” dose of radiation.”

Professor Yuri Bandazhevsky, a pathologist, Rector of the Medical Institute of Gomel, on the ingestion of radio caesium includes – he said: “Clinical checks on children between 1996 and 1999 show that at levels greater than 50Bq/kg there are pathological changes in vital organs and systems – cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, immune, reproductive, digestive excretory and eyes. Caesium concentrations in the placenta reveal a relationship with nervous system defects in the foetus. The health condition of the population is a disaster but being a physician myself I cannot accept it as hopeless. With all my faith in God and life I appeal to anyone who can influence it: do your best to improve the situation. There is nothing more precious on this planet than life. And we should do everything possible to protect it.”
See: http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/Spokesman/PDF/91Gifford.pdf


Clause 12 of the Executive conclusion of the Recommendation of the European Committee for radiation risks declares: “…Total maximal permitted dose from all human-caused sources should not exceed 0.1 mSv for population and 5 mSv for personnel”.

This publication is declared by the European Committee for radiation risks as “regulating”. It is only common sense that we should follow the recommendations given in this publication by the scientists from Canada, Norway, Great Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, the USA, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, France, India, Belarus, Finland and Russia.
See: page 16
http://independentwho.org/media/Documents_IW/Forum_Radioprotection_English_Abstracts_IW_2012.pdf


“…To provide an adequate safety standard the dose limit of 1 mSv/y have to be reduced to 0.02 mSv/y or 20 µSv/y.”Page 9: http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~kunih/all-doc/stoakuni.pdf by Dr. Horst Kuni, Nuclear Medicine, University Professor.


“European Parliament hears criticisms of radiation protection standards, but don’t publish findings” Brussels 1998: page 35 for example: Childhood leukemia caused by normal reactor operation: http://www.llrc.org/health/subtopic/stoaabstracts.pdf


DOSE AND DOSE RATE , from Geiger Counter Bulletin

There is a lot of confusion going on these days about Dose and Dose Rate. Japan data are generally reported in mSv/hr (milliSieverts per hour) or just plain mSv. When data is properly communicated mSv/hr indicates rate. It’s like driving a car at 50 kilometers per hour. In an hour you will have driven 50 kilometers. If you are exposed to 1 mSv (one milliSievert) per hour for one hour, you will get a dose of 1 mSv.

The amount of radioactivity in a given volume of air, water or tissue is generally expressed in becquerels (Bq). One becquerel means one disintegration (radiation event) takes place every second. So when you hear a sample of water contains 10,000 becquerel of a certain isotope per cubic centimeter it means every second 10,000 radioactive events are happening in that sample.

When translating from Bq to dose or dose rate, it is important to understand the capabilities of the detector and the characteristics of the radiation. Alpha radiation is considered to be 20 times more harmful than beta, gamma, x radiation. It is also not detected by many instruments. The same holds true for beta and neutron radiation. So dose and dose rate can be under-reported if the capabilities of the instrument are not understood. In an emergency situation, confusion and danger can often lead to misinterpretation, or improper reporting of data. It is important to know how to ask the right questions about the data.

Here’s a quick guide to understanding the terminology:

Activity (quantity)
is measured in Becquerel (Curies in the U.S.)

Absorbed Dose is measured in gray (Gy) (Rads in the U.S.)

Dose Equivalent is measured in sievert (Sv) (Rem in the U.S.)

Converting between Conventional Units (used in U.S.) and SI Units (used in Japan and Europe)

To convert millirems (mrem) to microsieverts (uSv) multiply by 10.

To convert microsieverts to millirem multiply by 0.1

Caution: Geiger Counters that are energy compensated do not detect alpha and beta radiation, so any dose rate or dose information will not include alpha or beta dose (only energetic gamma).

Geiger Counters with mica windows will detect alpha and beta, but calibration accuracy in mR/hr or uSv/hr will be affected by the mix of radioactive materials present.  


Scientists: Far more cesium released than previously believed
Source: Asahi AJW
Author: By AKIKO OKAZAKI / Staff Writer
Date: February 29, 2012


"A mind-boggling 40,000 trillion becquerels of radioactive cesium, or twice the amount previously thought, may have spewed from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the March 11 disaster, scientists say.

Michio Aoyama, a senior researcher at the Meteorological Research Institute, released the finding at a scientific symposium in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Feb. 28.

The figure... is twice as large as previous estimates by research institutions both in Japan and overseas. […] While the latest study said 15-20 quadrillion becquerels of cesium-137 was released into the atmosphere, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency [under-] estimated the amount at 8.8 quadrillion becquerels."   

AS I SAID, WE EACH WILL DECIDE HOW MUCH RADIATION IS ACCEPTABLE TO US, AND WE'LL ALSO DECIDE IF READINGS 7, 8, 10 TIMES BACKGROUND RADIATION POSE NO THREAT OR POSE TOO GREAT A THREAT..

WHAT IS CERTAIN IS THAT FUKUSHIMA RADIATION IS WITH US FOR AT LEAST 100 MORE YEARS, AND SOME OF THE FALLOUT WILL REMAIN TO PLAGUE US FOR MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS.


FOR ME, FOR THOSE I LOVE, A READING OF 0.0000000000000001  MICROSIEVERTS PER YEAR IS TOO MUCH.

AND A READING OF OVER 10 MILLION CPMs SIGNIFIES AN ACT OF WAR.
BEFORE 2011, BEFORE THE DISASTER IN JAPAN, WE DID NOT SEE READINGS THAT HIGH HERE.

BEFORE WE BEGAN TO CREATE THE NUCLEAR BOMB AND WITH IT, NUCLEAR ENERGY/POWER PLANTS, WE DID NOT SEE THE HIGH NUMBERS OF BIRTH DEFECTS AND CANCERS WE SEE TODAY.




________________________________


ADDENDUM:
FUKUSHIMA IS WORSE THAN CHERNOBYL.   
Counterpunch 27th April 2018:
"
The radiation dispersed into the environment by the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan has exceeded that of the April 26, 1986
Chernobyl catastrophe, so we may stop calling it the “second worst”
nuclear power disaster in history. Total atmospheric releases from
Fukushima are estimated to be between 5.6 and 8.1 times that of Chernobyl,
according to the 2013 World Nuclear Industry Status Report. Professor Komei
Hosokawa, who wrote the report’s Fukushima section, told London’s
Channel 4 News then, “Almost every day new things happen, and there is no
sign that they will control the situation in the next few months or years.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/27/move-over-chernobyl-fukushima-is-now-officially-the-worst-nuclear-power-disaster-in-history/



BELOW IS JUST ONE SMALL AREA OF JAPAN WITH MILLIONS OF BAGS OF CONTAMINATED SOIL, BAGS THAT ARE CURRENTLY BREAKING APART, BAGS THAT DON'T CONTAIN THE RADIATION WITHIN.







//WW