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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Sad Story of Japan & Why We May All Eat Less Fish (Or Light Up Like Christmas Trees)

We have all been following the horrific tragedies in Japan and our hearts go out to the Japanese people. 

But we have also watched in frustration and horror as the situation at the Fukushima nuclear reactors seems to become worse with each day.  This latest story from Zero Hedge sets out some shocking realities.  From Zero Hedge:
This time nobody will be blamed for not carrying the decimal comma. While a few weeks back TEPCO scrambled to lie to the public that a reading 10 million times higher than normal was really just 100,000 times above threshold, today TEPCO, whose stock hit an all time low in overnight trading, finally admitted the truth that radioactive Iodine 131 readings taken from seawater near the water intake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's No. 2 reactor reached 7.5 million times the legal limit. This means Godzilla is most likely very close to hatching. But it gets worse: "The sample that yielded the high reading was taken Saturday, before Tepco announced Monday it would start releasing radioactive water into the sea, and experts fear the contamination may spread well beyond Japan's shores to affect seafood overseas." In other words, as TEPCO was dumping 11,500 tons of radioactive water in the sea, it already knew, but kept away from the public, the radiation was nearly ten million times higher than legal limits. At this point we truly marvel at the stoic ability of Japanese people, and most certainly its east-coast fishermen, whose jobs are finished as nobody will want to buy any fish in the foreseeable future for fear of radioactive toxicity, to accept such lies, very often with an intent to hurt, day after day, without anger spilling over in some form of violence.

We all know the saying "this just can't be good."  Have we (us humans) now polluted the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf Of Mexico to the point that both and no and future generations (our children) may have to question the very safety of eating fish? 

PS: Fish are just part of the food chain.  If it gets to fish, then .........

7 comments:

  1. Today I received my monthly subscription of Noseweek, "The news you're not supposed to know" SA magazine. Inside this Noseweek, there is an article written by a guy who has spent a lot of time around Nuclear Power Plants, and is now an 'investigative' writer.

    The article brings to light some uncomfortable questions - and answers.
    Basically: It is not uncommon for Nuclear plants to fake their "Seismic Qualification" certifications - which should be a certification that all components are designed for the "maximum conceivable shaking event". - The reason for companies lying in this regard: Money. One company that was caught in the act (Stone & Webster, of the Shoreham plant in New York) did it because it would have cost them $1billion to correct the problem - so they told their engineers to change the "fail" to a "pass".
    Stone & Webster is now the nuclear unit of Shaw Construction. Shaw Construction is teaming up with Tokyo Electric to build a new plant in Texas.

    You know the diesel pumps that were supposed to cool down the Japanese plant reactors after last month's quake? They are Emergency Diesel Generators (built by Toshiba). They are supposed to work in extreme conditions.
    The reality is that most emergency backup generators are not properly designed to deal with real emergency situations - most didn't even pass the test of running on high power for more than a few hours and died.
    Japan does not have the same feeling of freedom of speech that allowed at least on American plant's deception to come to light - so who knows what the real condition of the equipment was at the Fukushima plant.

    All this could have been avoided if the bigwigs hadn't been stingy with the money.

    Vote for an Equal Money System to stop budget cuts in the industries that could destroy the planet.
    Join the Desteni I Process - join the World Solution

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  2. On the other side of the pacific we are in no better shape. High levels of radiation are already being reported in the rain all over the US. It is in the rainwater, the milk and our drinking water. Just as Green Peace measured high levels of radiation in Japan and urged people to evacuate beyond the 30km evacuation radius, Greenpeace HAS WARNED THE WHOLE WORLD THAT THE JAPAN NUCLEAR DISASTER IS THREE SEPARATE CHERNOBYL LE…. [...]

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  3. Green Peace tells us the situation in Japan is much worse, that the Japan Nuclear disaster is THREE separate Chernobyl Level 7 incidents. Independent scientists have also warned some time ago ath Japan’s nuclear radioactive

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  4. Radiation Readings 5. MELTDOWN: Plutonium Found In Soil At Fukushima As Cover Up Continues 6. Greenpeace: Japan Nuclear Disaster Is THREE Separate Chernobyl Level 7 incidents 7. WRAPUP 3 – Disaster-hit Japan faces protracted nuclear crisis 8. Japan may have lost race

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  5. Will the current emission of millions of contaminated water affect Canadian and Californian coast? Water in Vancouver shows increased radioactivity, this prior to releasing millions of litres of cooling water into the ocean. This must have an effect. How do you value the risk?
    Thanks for your answer.
    Maria

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  6. "The significant problems of our time cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them."

    There are lessons here about more sustainable sources of energy. I think that a more sustainable future starts with yourself. Please read more about this at my favourite blog that i visit for my daily inspiration

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  7. There's already small amounts of radiation in the air here in Massachusetts . Considering that the oceans of the world are connected we can expect contamination on out coastline. The only question is how much. You have to feel sorry for the Japanese people who are in so much greater danger.

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