Published: December 8th, 2011 at 10:17 am ET
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Living with Fukushima City’s radiation problem, Ike Teuling, Greenpeace radiation expert, December 8, 2011:
Left Behind
- We spent four days in Fukushima City [60km from meltdowns] doing a radiation survey in the neighbourhoods of Watari and Onami
- People there have been left to cope alone in a highly contaminated environment by both the local and national gov’ts
- Residents [...] had one government survey at their house last July, if any at all
- Detected hotspots left unmarked
- No instructions were given on how to behave in a radioactive environment
- Only 35 of the thousands of houses that need to be decontaminated have been cleaned by the gov’t
- There is no storage site for radioactive waste from decontamination work
- The waste is buried directly on people’s property, sometimes only a few meters away from their houses
Radiation Levels
- Our radiation experts found hot spots of up to 37 microSieverts per hour in a garden only a few meters away from a house
- Radiation levels in these neighbourhoods are so high
- External sources ten times the annual allowed dose
- How high their internal exposure is from eating contaminated food and inhaling or ingesting radioactive particles remains unknown
- No government program is keeping track of this
- Parks are the most contaminated areas in Fukushima City
- Some are marked with signs: “Due to radioactive contamination, don’t spend more than one hour per day in this park”
The Future
- The Japanese government doesn’t know how to deal with the massive contamination caused by the nuclear disaster
- Instead of protecting people from radiation, they are downplaying the risks
- Increasing the allowed radiation levels far above international standards
- Professors like Dr. Yamashita, who make statements like ‘If you smile, the radiation will not affect you’ are being employed as official advisors on radiation health risk
- It is clear that the situation in Fukushima is rapidly spinning out of control
Published: December 8th, 2011 at 10:17 am ET
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Government is dealing with radiation in the only possible way from their perspective … Telling their people things are OK and moving as much of it as they can into the ocean and the air and physically out of the immediate vicitinity.
Let’s call it the “out of sight, out of mind, strategy”.
Otherwise it would take massive amounts of money to contain it, and to evacuate their people – and the government would then be out of business… So they can’t do that – even if it was the right thing to do.
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Thank you, Greenpeace, for caring. You can trust them.
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ummm HELLO IN THERE :::knocks on radiation expert’s head::: it’s been spinning out of control SINCE 3/11! Where the fuck have you been?!?!?!
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Hey sworldpeas, I think Greenpeace has done a lot already, haven’t they? They were the first who took marine samples for example.
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YES they have done an extraordinary amount and I commend them for ALL their efforts.
The US has known how bad it is from the beginning. The Ronald Reagan had to high tail it outta there for as they claimed “low level” radiation LMAO yea right. I’m sure the geiger counters went off scale. We KNOW and KNEW it was out of control the day the RR was driven out and we did NOTHING. Now “radiation experts” are saying it is spinning out of control? THE WORLD lost 9 valuable months to clean this MESS up because “radiation experts” have been to WEAK to tell it like it is, SHAMEFUL.
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You are right.
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Hey B&B: About your aunt’s avacado ranch?
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There you are!!! I’ve wondered where you’re at! My mum had quite a chat with auntie – honestly, she was not too positive about the idea. Given the incredibly slow working bureaucracy in Chile, she’d prefer to sell the property locally (apparently to some real estate guy who would divide it into separate lots).
She also said that everyone wanting to move there should take into account that education costs are among the highest worldwide….
So – no good news, I’m sorry….are you still in England?
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Greenpeace at times has been the only organization able to get any press against the nuclear industry. Checkout this awesome video of Greenpeace trying to disrupt deliver of MOX fuel (plutonium) to Fukushima in 1999.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDQIdX6qEI
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i think the author is speaking relatively
by this time, prevailing thought said the situation should have been in a much place
so relative to expectations, things are spiraling out of control
after all, most everyone probably new things were OOC at the start
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They mean the coverup is spinning out of control – the facts on the ground were known in hours.
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The government did the same thing here TMI. Many people left Harrisburg during the hydrogen bubble fiasco, but I stayed because I had no car and no way to leave and luckily it did not blow up but did release a lot of radiation to the surrounding environment. Thus you just have to do the best you can, with the resources available. I will never forget that weekend and I can only imagine what Japan is going through as this is many times worse and continuing.
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Yup, every government would do the exact same thing. Part of it is lack of information. No one knows for sure what is happening inside the reactor. Part of it is fear – if we tell people to evacuate and are wrong, then it’s a huge expense. Part of it is simply disbelief…
The one thing about Japan is that they have had time to do the financial calculations and this is there decision.
Bottom line – in a nuclear disaster you are 100% on your own.
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2000 counts per second INSIDE the car, 40 kilometers from the Fukushima plant, and no evacuation.
In Toshima, radiation levels, maximum annual safe dose received in four days. They should be evacuated, but they are not… The government is telling everyone to move BACK INTO these areas, plus closer to the plant.
Insanity is as insanity does.
Maybe the government and TEPCO waved a magic wand after Greenpeace did this survey and the radiation all disappeared, by magic… POOOFFFF. It is gone, totally, completely GONE…
Wow, we need to give all of our problems to these people.. like the huge debts all countries have, particularly Japan, and all of our other pollution problems, and the sky high disease rates.. Work some magic on all of these problems… Wave your magic wand.
Declare them ALL GONE…
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This video is from last April.
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over 9999 counts/second at toshima.horrible!
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You can say that again. 9,999+ cps measurement at 1 meter above ground equals 6,000+ microsieverts per hour. And that measurement was taken 35 kilometers from the reactors- outside the exclusion zone. Crazy.
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Japan is counting on people smiling to rid the nation of the radiation problem.. Smiling is free, and costs no one anything.
Japan now has an official radiation medical spokesperson and expert. Dr. Yamashita says; “If you smile, the radiation will not affect you”.
Ann Colter says that the more radiation you get, the healthier you will be.
With spokespeople like this, the problems in Japan all disappear.
Massive debt? Unemployment? Sky high Radiation?
No problem! Just smile! All those things disappear. They are actually very good for you. According to Ann Colter of Faux News we would all be better off if we breathe deeply, drink heartily, and roll around in this health promoting radioactive dirt, water, and contaminated food.. Presto, no more problem.
If you get diseases or have other problems normally caused by radiation… that is YOUR problem, cause you probably did not SMILE enough…
You probably did not BELIEVE enough in the Ann Colter theory… so the diseases are YOUR FAULT, not the government, not TEPCO, and certainly not this innocent, completely harmless radiation.
Those that do not believe in smiles, Peter Pan, pixie dust, magic, tooth fairies and these experts will most likely have to be punished from now on.. cause we cannot allow people to NOT smile at this point.
We need to pass a law FORCING people to believe..
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Ann Coulter sent me an email saying how wonderful Neut Gingrich is for President. I would hope that this will be his kiss of death.
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I like the idea of the mitt/newt ticket. Cause puppets should have silly names.
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You can not enforce awareness or beliefs. Anyone that believes an Ann cuntsler, is too far gone.
Ignorance is choice. Too many choose money over morals.
The bozo that says smile away the radiation, needs his teeth kicked in.
A month ago, I met with my US congressman. I bitched him out good, mostly about financial fraud and he was the biggest deflective fucktard you would ever meet.Boy, are we all on our own. Prepare and act accordingly.
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(M)Ann Coulter is a typical nuclear industry cheerleader who knows absolutely nothing in regards to nucleonics. In short he’s an idiot.
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First of all these plants were never designed for 9.0 earthquake. The jury is out on that issue. The tsunami did not cause the melt down.
If the time between the earthquake and the tsunami arriving at the site was about 30 minutes, this would IMO be time enough at the temperatures of the corium to heat the reactor to red hot. Since there is a large amount of water in the reactor, the heat from the corium would cause the pressure in the reactor to increase almost to the bursting point-boiling water off to steam. Apparently, the reactor, due to the high safety factor, was able to contain the high pressure. IMO all this occurred because of loss of cooling water and piping systems and equipment tossed about because of the earthquake. There is an eyewitness account where he observed the piping falling off of the supports inside the building.
Then sometime later the tsunami arrives and douses this red hot reactor with north pacific cold water and KABOOM. I don’t have my steam tables but one pound of water flashing to atmospheric pressure will cause a huge amount of steam….
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It was not as it appears – it is far worse than we’ll ever imagine.
It was NOT a 9.0 earthquake, it was a nuclear device used.
http://www.abeldanger.net/2011/05/japan-earthquake-registered-only-667.html
All of this is cover-up and masquerade…
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No, no, no… It wasn’t a nuclear device. It was actually caused by a UFO from Planet Niburu that went out of control due to electronic interference from HAARP while spraying chemtrails over Japan. It crashed into the facility which started an uncontrolled nuclear reaction in all the operating reactors causing all of them to melt down.
Nuclear device? Don’t be ridiculous.
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Now the reaction from the explosion would be IMO be similar to a balloon rocket-the steam going out the top and the reactor and corium going down. I don’t think the reactor could sustain such an explosion and IMO the corium exited the reactor not long after the explosion.
The corium I think is in small baby blobs that destroyed the concrete structure and sometime later entered the ground. The corium IMO is burning its way through the ground and I think it probably resembles tree roots. The tree root tubes extending away from the trunk or reactor.
Now TEPCO started pouring water on the units to cool the corium. The tubes have limited capacity and all that was accomplished was generation of steam which has been venting to the surface. The water filled the building and the excess ran off into the sea.
If the corium hits the water table, now we have an almost unlimited water supply and an almost unlimited heat source. A small mass of water creates a large volume of steam. The tubes cannot flow enough to get rid of the massive amount of steam. As the burner is turned up, the whistle on the kettle makes louder and louder hissing noises but eventually the lid will open to vent that steam….
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The only thing that will keep the steam in the ground is the weight of the ground above the corium and the weight of the site. The pressure will increase and increase until something has to give and KABOOM. The hydrogen is another issue. Hydrogen does not like to be alone and will unite with almost anything and KABOOM along with the steam.
If I have made any bogus assumptions, please correct.
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Makes no difference if the meltdown was from the earthquake or tsunami – meltdown occurred.
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A melt down means the corium is still inside, these were melt-thrus.
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TEPCO has been trying to blame this on the tsunami. These plants are old. They were never designed for this loading. TEPCO should have through the years re-analysed these plants from the most critical systems down. Hurricanes and earthquakes are getting more violent.
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It’s irrelevant. The nuke plant melted down and is spewing radiation. We need to deal with it.
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It might be irrelevant to Fuku, but not to the other nuke plants situated along fault lines. Personally, I think they all need to be shut down. Stupidly dangerous idea to start with. But regardless, earthquake vs. tsunami is the sort of argument that makes nuke-heads nervous, because they can argue tsunamis like this are very rare, but 9.0 EQs, while not common, have much more potential to affect many more plants.
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Relatively speaking the reactors may have held up well to both wave and shake.
The generators failed to restore cooling operations and emergency shutdown.
Still haven’t figure out why there isn’t a type feedback loop of power control to the operation.Battery Back-ups?
“geez wilbur, what the generator for?”
“I don’t know billy ray, I guess I need it to power it up, to run my power generator.”
The 64 thousand question is why did the generators fail.
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Didnt they fail because they were submerged under water or washed away? Hence tepco saying the tsunami is at fault.
The 64 thousand dollar question is why didnt they design a BWR in the manner of the ESBWR? It has natural circulation through its core. Meaning it needs way less pumps. And can continue to remove decay heat, in a station black-out.
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For the sake of argument then the workers would of been washed away, all control rooms flooded etc. Were cars and stuff washed away. So some might of been.
unless the gensets were in a hole and out in the open.
Sumthin doesn’t sound right , here.
“why didnt they design a BWR in the manner of the ESBWR?” because it would cost more than $64,000.
“cut a little corner for me, please.”
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For the sake of the arguement, japan has one of the most sophisticated early warning systems for tsunamis. So no, I dont believe that to be the case.
Perhaps you have not seen any of the videos, at 0:07 ,
you can see a break from a wave, almost as tall as the exhaust stacks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwroEpdODWY
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workers got the tsunami warning they were on the roofs when the wave hit.
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what a goofball.
1) 12 of 13 DGs on site drowned.
2) There were backup batteries, they lasted an hour.
Rated for 8, died in 1.
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nobody can deal with such high radioactivity.THATS the main problem…
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Quick people say something before Yahoo yanks it
http://beta.finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-considers-bailout-stricken-nuclear-070726105.html
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When will Japan authorities admit they are in deep shit ?
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It is not in their nature. But soon they will announce that all the reactors have reached temperatures associated with the cold shutdown they promised. Of course that’s because all the scorching corium has done an Elvis but it would not be Japanese to include that. Have some tea.
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I remember a time after baking a cake and left my three small children watching TV while I showered, coming out into the kitchen, I saw the chocolate cake had been ravaged with finger marks all over, asking the three… Who eat the cake ? … As I could see all the children had chocolate on the fingers and faces,…they all pronounced, … Not Me !!
: D
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“the scorching corium has done an Elvis”
LOLed!
Priceless!
(And the truth!)
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{ownership?] seemed without emotion. I almost feel that they are distancing themselves (possible blame deferral) but almost really seem unaware / removed from truths which we know and are speaking on. In some cases .clearly. unable to own this grave reality.
Just post elsewhere… many high level management in my company, were poker faced, without much visible concern
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Thank God for Greenpeace. Sure don’t hear it on Fox News!
Japan is a tiny little island with the worlds worse nuclear disaster a few hundred miles or kilometers from the largest metropolis in the world, Tokyo city and suburbs population is 35,000,000. They don’t have the land supply to evacuate like Chernobyl. There is simply not enough money to compensate everyone. No way to relocate all those farmers. They are lying because that is all they can offer the people. Just a matter of time before the lynching mobs are organized.
The simple fact is that nuclear power has some very bad pollution issues that last for generations. If something goes wrong and it seems that no team of scientists and engineers can prepare for every possible situation, a huge amount of money for clean up relocation and medical is required. No insurance company wants that liability.
It is unfortunate that common sense is hobbled by greedy politicians and shady scientists who have been bought by nuclear power ghouls. These people are anti life. But I am ever hopeful that the truth shall prevail. Several countries have already decided to scrap nuclear and anti nuke protests abound throughout the world. Face it, nuclear is soon to be dead in the water. The only good thing to come out of Fukushima.
God Bless
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bring them to Cleveland
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after all that happened the JapGov’s next intelligent move is this
Japan’s lower house has approved four international nuclear cooperation agreements in a sign of commitment to nuclear exports.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP_Nuclear_exports_remain_Japanese_priority_0712111.html
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Hi, Whoopie shared my blog earlier last week, which is how I found your excellent site. I am trying to get the truth about Fukushima out there to break through mainstream news media blackout. Roseanne Barr, the celebrity/activist, is helping to get my postings out to her fans and twitter followers. I am researching to find out what all this might mean. One Nuclear Physicist, a respected University professor, hypothesized that it is indeed a possibility that melt-through could penetrate to Earth’s core. Does that seem impossible / improbable to most of you? Your thoughts appreciated. My blog: http://thetruthabout1111awakeningcode.blogspot.com/ If you can’t access it, let me know here and I will post my wordpress blog that mirrors it. Peace, Rob Mann
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KUDOS,
very nice work, will share / have
I posted link to my Facebook page
earlier today.
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Thank you and Roseanne. We need her help.
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There is no ‘dealing’ with this. There is evacuation which includes everything in a 200 mile radius. Yes, Tokyo included. Thats how you deal with this. Wanna get mad, don’t get mad at tepco. Get mad at the British who intentionally placed those reactors there.
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The words: [impossible] …GLOBAL CLEAN UP EFFORT…
*I sincerely feel for the Japanese people, working for a fortune 100 global Japanese giant, even speaking frankly with very high level management, many that I go back nearly 25 years working closely along side, …are tight lipped…, almost without visually embodied concern, appear mild about this… (trusting, almost at peace) with pride / poker faced charm?
Bottom line: we are ALL in this together
globally – internationally – ALL people as one
we are and will ALL dearly pay for this…
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I wonder if it is possible to make some CITIZEN ARRESTS?
If a thousand people all file arrest warrants for these officials that keep downplaying and covering up, maybe something will change?
What if millions took them to court, via small claims court, or via one massive court case representing everyone harmed by the radiation?
There is some precedent for this already…
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