Franz J. T. Lee: Important Information about the Fukushima Atomic Disaster
Fukushima Meltdown Confirmed by Stephen Lendman
*On April 6, Reuters reported that "the core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear
reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel," Rep. Edward Markey told
a House hearing on the disaster, saying:*
*"I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the core
has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor
pressure vessel."*
*
*
Recklessly promoting nuclear proliferation, America's NRC is notorious for
coverup and denial of its harmful effects. As a result, their rare admission
virtually confirms a full core meltdown in one or more reactors, meaning vast
amounts of radiation are being uncontrollably released into the atmosphere,
water and soil, spreading over a vast area. It's the ultimate nightmare scenario
now unfolding, but don't expect major media reports or government officials to
explain.
Nonetheless, on April 6, New York Times writers Matthew Wald and Andrew Pollack
headlined, "Core of Stricken Reactor Probably Leaked, US Says," stating:
America's NRC "said Wednesday that some of the core of a stricken Japanese
reactor had probably leaked from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of
the containment structure, implying that the damage was even worse than
previously thought."
Far worse, in fact, because molten core material then burns uncontrollably
through the concrete foundation, meaning all bets are off.
On April 5, Times writers James Glanz and William Broad headlined, "US Sees
Array of New Threats at Japan's Nuclear Plant," saying:
/American engineers warned "that the troubled nuclear plant....is facing a wide
array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases
are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep
the plant stable, according to a confidential" NRC assessment./
Identified threats include:
-- Possible further explosions because of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater used
to cool the reactors that may have done more harm than good. According to former
GE reactor designer Margaret Harding:
/"If I were in the Japanese's shoes, I'd be very reluctant to have tons and tons
of water sitting in a containment whose structural integrity hasn't been checked
since the earthquake/," and very likely is seriously damaged.
-- Because of concern about severe reactor core damage, NRC recommended boron be
added to cooling water as a moderator to absorb neutrons.
-- Exposed/unprotected spent fuel rods in Units 1, 2, 3 and 4 pose extreme
dangers. Moreover, explosions blew nuclear material "up to one mile from the
units" into the atmosphere, indicating much greater damage than previously
disclosed.
As a result, David Lochbaum from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) believes:
/"This paints a very different picture, and suggests that things are a lot
worse. They could still have more damage in a big way if some of these things
don't work out for them....They've got a lot of nasty things to (handle), and
one missed step could make the situation much, much worse."/
Other experts believe criticality was reached, posing far greater dangers than
revealed.
Yet government and Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) officials still claim "no immediate
risk of a hydrogen explosion occurring" or serious harm to human health. In
fact, danger levels now are extreme. More on that below.
Even the NRC admitted that salt water "severely restricted" and likely blocked
circulation pathways. Moreover, inside the core, "there is likely no water level
(so it's) difficult to determine how much cooling is getting to the fuel."
Perhaps none, and three or more reactors are affected, one or more in meltdown.
*Independent Expert Opinions*
On April 4, geoscientist/international radiation expert Leuren Moret told
interviewer Alfred Lambremont Webre that Obama and Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper are concealing the effects of tectonic nuclear war on North
America from Fukushima's fallout. In fact, Norwegian Institute for Air Research
(NILU) radiation maps confirm contamination on America's West Coast, Midwest,
and Western Canada, in some areas as high as Japan's.
Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sampled near San Francisco was found to be
over 18,000 times above federal drinking water standards. Idaho, Minnesota,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts rainwater samples showed Iodine-131 up to
181 times above normal, expected to rise. It's also showing up in milk.
As a result, mobile measures in parts of America and Canada were suspended until
further notice to conceal the disaster's gravity.
Moret cited two distinguished nuclear scientists who've publicly said northern
Japan (one-third of the country) is uninhabitable and should be evacuated.
Marion Fulk is one, a Manhattan Project scientist who helped develop the
hydrogen bomb. He also was America's atmospheric fallout expert when
above-ground tests were conducted.
Dr. Chris Busby is the other, an ionizing radiation expert. On March 30, he told
Russia Today television that Fukushima contamination will cause at least 417,000
new cancers.
Moret called Fukushima a false flag operation to weaken an economic rival, harm
its economy, agriculture and fisheries, and compromise its detente with China.
Compared to Chernobyl, Fukushima's releasing multiple times more radiation,
perhaps amounts too enormous to imagine with potentially catastrophic global
effects.
In response, Japan, America and Canada are in denial. Permissible radiation
exposure levels have been raised. Legitimate reporting was halted. US and
Canadian atmospheric testing was suspended. State authorities told California
physicians not to give iodine to concerned patients. Measuring radiation in milk
was also stopped.
Contamination is spreading from the Arctic to the Equator. Long-lived
radioactive isotopes will cause environmental and human health havoc for
generations. Moret said life forms developed over billions of years are being
destroyed in a century.
On March 29, Chris Busby's Rense.com article headlined, "Deconstructing Nuclear
Experts," saying:
/"What these people have in common is ignorance. (Most) who appear (in the major
media) and pontificate have not actually done any research on the issue of
radiation and health. Or if they have, they....missed all the key studies and
references. (Others are) real baddies"/ who say Fukushima is nothing to worry
about, nothing like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island (TMI).
In fact, Fukushima already way exceeds both and will get increasingly worse
ahead as radiation releases continue and spread. Busby quoted Joseph Conrad
saying, "after all the shouting is over, the grim silence of facts remain."
/"I believe that (the array of) phony experts,"/ said Busby, "/are criminally
irresponsible, since their advice will lead to millions of deaths....I hope they
are sent to jail where they can have plenty of time to read the scientific
proofs (showing) their advice was based on the mathematical analysis of thin air./"
He cited the late *Professor John Gofman, a senior US Atomic Energy Commission
expert who resigned, saying:*
*/"The nuclear industry is waging a war against humanity."/*
*/
/*
So far, in fact, it's winning. It's entered an endgame that will decide whether
or not humanity will survive. "Not from sudden nuclear war," said Busby. "But
from the ongoing and incremental nuclear war which began with the releases to
the biosphere in the 60s of all the atmospheric test fallout, and which
continued inexorably since (to this day), accompanied by parallel increases in
cancer rates and fertility loss to the human race."
Busby calls it "*/the greatest public health scandal in human history..../*" Who
can disagree.
*A Final Comment*
*
*
In a personal email, environmental researcher Dr. Ilya Perlingieri explained the
dangers of Japan dumping thousands of tons of radioactive water in the Pacific,
saying:
/"We are all in grave danger! This was insanity! This radioactive water will
come here (to America). There is no question about that. The currents will bring
it to the west coast and contaminate the entire area: beaches and all sealife
between the coast and Japan. What evaporates naturally will then come on the air
currents around the rest of the US and then the rest of the planet!"/
/"This is epic, and it was not an accident."/
/
/
/Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net and to ensure
an investigation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is conducted.
Mainstream news is, however, continuing to lead the public against its best
interest by failing to advise of the looming radiation public health crisis
stemming from Fukushima.
Perhaps more efficiently than any other,* Professor Jeffery Grupp
*
has analyzed the mass confusion related to the recent reports about radiation
fallout in the United States, including information echoed by astute reporters
such as Stephen Lendman, one among many trying to responsibly piece together the
truth about Fukushima. (See: /Fukishima breakdown: Something fishy about the
reporting, / Brasscheck TV)
Lendmen wrote this week
about the NRC, the Fukushima meltdown, and mainstream news blackout on the
latest global nuclear catastrophe spreading from Japan:
"Recklessly promoting nuclear proliferation, America's NRC is notorious for
coverup and denial of its harmful effects. As a result, their rare admission
virtually confirms a full core meltdown in one or more reactors, meaning
vast amounts of radiation are being uncontrollably released into the
atmosphere, water and soil, spreading over a vast area. It's the ultimate
nightmare scenario now unfolding, but don't expect major media reports or
government officials to explain." (See: /Fukushima Meltdown Confirmed/
,
Stephen Lendman, International News, April 8, 2011)
It appears that the only bonafide Fukushima explanations are from the likes of
Lendman, Greg Palast and, of course, the leader in the field, Dr. Helen
Caldicott who is conveying that Fukushima is more devastating than Chernobyl.
“Only one reactor blew at Chernobyl and it was only 3 months old, with new cores
holding relatively little radiation; these ones have been operating for 40 years
and would hold about 30 times more radiation than Chernobyl’s,” Dr. Caldicott
recently explained in an interview with /The Independent,/ Australia
/ >.
Dr. Caldicott cited the New York Academy of Sciences report that stated over 1
million people died as a direct result of the 1986 Chernobyl melt-down, mostly
from cancer. This is contrary to reports by nuclear energy proponents that lead
the public to believe "stress" caused more Chernobyl deaths than its leaked
radiation.
"She said authorities had attempted to 'hush up' the full scale of the Chernobyl
disaster," according to the /Independent/ that cited the official 2005 figure
from the International Atomic Energy Agency being just 4,000 fatalities.
*Fukushima War*
The Fukushima Nuclear War is better understood by viewing THE BATTLE OF
CHERNOBYL film that is embedded on this page at the left of this article. This
documentary dramatically chronicles the harrowing efforts that started on the
26th of April 1986 to stop the northern Ukraine nuclear power station chain
reaction and prevent a second explosion, to "liquidate" the radioactivity, and
to seal the ruined reactor under a mammoth "sarcophagus."
The BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL film provides the viewer visuals of some of the
operation segments being attempted at Japan's Fukushima reactors that are
destined to measure far worse than Chernobyl according to Dr. Helen Caldicott
/ >,
the most influential environmental activist over the past 35 years. This film
that analyzes the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine explosion
is receiving renewed interest since Japan's nuclear power catastrophe that is
said by some researchers to dwarf Chernobyl.
Dr. Helen Cladicott has called the Fukushima nuclear power plant situation in
Japan an “absolute disaster” that could be* many, many times worse than Chernobyl.*
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant was the most significant reactor failure in
the history of nuclear power, a Maximum Credible Accident (MCA). The plant, only
20 km away from the town center, was made of four reactor units each generating
an output of 1,000 megawatts. One of the reactors exploded due to operational
errors and inadequate safety measures. The meltdown was directly linked to
routine testing on the reactor unit’s turbine generators.
In the documentary, the nerve-racking events are recounted through newly
available films, videos and photos taken in and around the plant, computer
animation, and interviews with participants and eyewitnesses, many of whom were
exposed to radiation, including government and military leaders, scientists,
workers, journalists, doctors, and Pripyat refugees.
According to the THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL documentary filmmakers:
More than 200 people died or were seriously injured by radiation exposure
immediately after the explosion. 161,000 people had to be evacuated from a
30 kilometer radius of the reactor and 25,000 square km of land were
contaminated. As time went on millions of people suffered radiation related
health problems such as leukemia and thyroid cancer and around 4,000 people
have died as a result of the long-term effects of the accident.
Nobody was prepared for such a crisis. For the next seven months, 500,000
men will wage hand-to-hand combat with an invisible enemy – a ruthless
battle that has gone unsung, which claimed thousands of unnamed and now
almost forgotten heroes. Yet, it is thanks to these men that the worst was
avoided; a second explosion, ten times more powerful than Hiroshima which
would have wiped out more than half of Europe.
This was kept secret for twenty years by the Soviets and the West alike.
Advertisement
*Fukushima syndrome to begin*
Consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe continue today. Thousands of disabled
survivors suffering from the "Chernobyl syndrome" of radiation-related
illnesses, and the urgent need to replace the hastily-constructed and now
crumbling sarcophagus over the still-contaminated reactor.
Despite soothing words from nuclear energy industry promoters in the ongoing
Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, "each update has signalled fresh disaster and
even more drastic warnings" writes David Donovan.
Over the past week, Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sampled near San
Francisco was over 18,000 times above federal drinking water standards; Idaho,
Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts rainwater samples showed
Iodine-131 up to 181 times above normal; and Iodine-131 has also been found in
milk in the U.S.
Asked whether the Fukushima Japan disaster could be, say, 30 times worse than
Chernobyl, Dr Caldicott said it could be even most catastrophic than that.
Lendman wrote that in a personal email, environmental researcher Dr. Ilya
Perlingieri explained the dangers of Japan dumping thousands of tons of
radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean:
"We are all in grave danger! This was insanity! This radioactive water will
come here (to America). There is no question about that. The currents will
bring it to the west coast and contaminate the entire area: beaches and all
sealife between the coast and Japan. What evaporates naturally will then
come on the air currents around the rest of the US and then the rest of the
planet!"
*Solutions*
Sustaining nuclear energy is a human rights violation. The entire nuclear fuel
chain involves releasing radioactivity, contaminating the environment, and
damaging human health.
"Most often, communities of color, indigenous peoples or those of low-income are
targeted to bear the brunt of these impacts, particularly the damaging health
and environmental effects of uranium mining," states Beyond Nuclear.
The nuclear power industry inevitably violates human rights and the solutions
involve halting these violations.
While anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott says Fukushima could spell the
end of the nuclear industry worldwide, further public action is required to
counter the stranglehold of nuclear lobbyists and the industry insiders who
financially benefit from it.
Dr. Caldicott recently stated that the human rights violation involved in a
nuclear disaster has been been needed to stop the nuclear madness.
“I have said before, unfortunately, the only thing that is capable of stopping
this wicked industry is a major catastrophe, and it now looks like this may be it.”
Rather than spending trillions of dollars on unproved wars and bailing out banks
that made unwise gambles, money could be spent on clean renewable energy that
would solve the energy problem, create jobs, increase tax revenue, and end the
need for wars for oil. These were all been presented in the multi-award-winning
movie, /*FUEL PhysOrg.com
reports that
the new research shows it is possible and affordable for the world to achieve
100 percent renewable energy by 2030 - if there is the political will to strive
for this goal.
Achieving 100 percent renewable energy would mean building approximately four
million 5 MW wind turbines, 1.7 billion 3 kW roof-mounted solar photovoltaic
systems, and 90,000 300 MW solar power plants.
The public is urged to petition to "End Nuclear Industry Subsidies." Only days
before the Japanese earthquake, nuclear power company Duke Energy extended a $10
million loan to Obama’s re-election convention committee. Duke Energy operates
three nuclear plants and is negotiating with federal officials on subsidies to
build a fourth.
President Obama needs to reject the $10 million loan from Duke Energy according
to renewable energy and human rights defenders. They are urging the public to
sign the petition for Obama to call for an immediate review of the safety
measures at each of the more than 100 nuclear reactors in the United States at:
http://tinyurl.com/69qecbu.
"The nuclear emergency in Japan is an unfortunate reminder that nuclear
power is inherently dangerous. Instead of sinking billions of dollars more
into this fatally flawed technology, we must deploy safe and clean energy
alternatives."
While NRC continues looking the other way on reactor safety concerns and
routinely renews licenses for aging reactors, the White House is pushing for
even more money for toxic loan guarantees for new reactors.
Beyond Nuclear reports this week:
"The latest news is that the Obama administration wants to triple the
already $18.5 billion appropriated for new reactors. That's a cool $54.5
billion, a tab that will end up being paid by us, American taxpayers. We
can't let this happen. Please help prevent this needless and obscene giveaway."
Act now to stop President Obama from using American taxpayer money to foster
nuclear energy. / > (See:
www.beyondnuclear.org/actnow/
Saturday 9 April 2011
Fukushima Atomic Disaster
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