Published: May 24th, 2011 at 2:34 pm ET
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Tepco: Surprise! Two more reactors melted down at Fukushima plant, Washington Post by Elizabeth Flock, May 24, 2011:
Not one but three nuclear reactors suffered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant [...]
But Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) conveniently left that part of the story out, until now. [...]
Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University, told Reuters that the announcement was timed to minimize the impact on the public. “In the early stages of the crisis Tepco may have wanted to avoid panic,” Nakano said. “Now people are used to the situation.” [...]
Published: May 24th, 2011 at 2:34 pm ET
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It’s pretty easy to get used to something that you can’t see, hear, smell, taste or feel. Doesn’t make it any less dangerous though.
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at what point does this become murder? the sins of omission, are heavy on tepco”s shoulders.
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We are getting close to or are at the time to “expect several more deaths” from the Fukushima workers, and we are getting closer to the time frame of total evacuation of Fukushima in about mid-June by your estimates. Does this spike in the radiation coming out of #1 change your time frame for these upcoming events?
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I cant say that… Its a mystery…
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but they are already comparing the site to chernobyl, and haven’t got a clue…
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So Taco, the global powers have had the license to kill. Not a big deal, to them.
“too many useless eaters”.
Just hope that their pharma drugs for rad poisoning, don’t work so well. Looking to fight the final battles, riding earless rabbits.
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When all these Japanese start getting sick with cancer and have nothing left to lose, heads are going to start rolling in the streets. If I lived there I’d be leading the charge. These mother fuckers should be executed for what they did to their own people, and the rest of the world for that matter.
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Message to TEPCO:
** I’m NOT used to the situation at all.**
Thank you for listening.
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NATO Kan is “very sorry you feel that way.” Hah!
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I’m sorry to say it but I am sure as hell happy to not be walking in his shoes. I mean, can you imagine the nightmares he must be having if he can sleep at all? I couldn’t imagine personally being a party to those who DIRECTLY & DEFINITIVELY ruined the world and therefore civilization and history. All this with your signature at every corner. I couldn’t live with that myself.
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Hence are we seeing a duplicate, maybe even based on semiconductors? Also sorry to say that.
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No because nothing I have done can I point to elements of deceit or personal corruption. I am not mad Japan has nuke plants but I am pissed they located it with no regard to reasonable consequences. I cant get the flavor is **inconsiderate** off my palate. Kan has alot to come clean about…
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Something along these lines was on my mind since early days. Feeling like now gone through some kind of evolution on many levels. Let’s hope for the best…
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when 3 trains are going to collide at dawn,
and when trees are moderately brown,
3 things happen to excess,
when excess becomes durable and trees become fishing hooks,
those trains sleep deeper than man
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Okay, if we’re writing poetry now here’s my haiku:
Fukushima Fall
News scarier by the day
Sad for the wildlife
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Gee – A story by the local press for our data-deprived congressmen & senators. Think they will jump into action?? Nah, didn’t think so!!
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No “surprise” to those of us who have been following the situation from the beginning. And no, I’m not “used to” it yet, nor will I ever be. There is no defense for TEPCO and the Japanese government, who have further endangered the lives of their citizens and the rest of the world by their cover-up. This is truly a crime against humanity!
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I agree, the ‘used to it’ reeks of them imposing some condition on us to me. Right or wrong to feel that way it leaves me feeling resentful.
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Resentful? More like hopeless, right where the elites want you to be.
The new obibble campaign will be; “Got Hope?”
My reply is “Nope!, hope is for sissy punk queers.”
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10 tin helmets dont make a sardine can,
but 10 sardine cans make a fire burn out of control
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Concerned U.S. forced to offer support in nuclear crisis. With the Japanese government slow in responding to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, U.S forces provided it with a list of detailed support measures:
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105230133.html
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Yes, Japan really missed the boat on getting international technical assistance when it could have averted the current nightmare!…
Why they continue to refuse assistance is beyond me!!!
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If and when the reality of the Fuku tragedy is written and made known, I won’t be surprised to learn that Tepco did in fact ask for outside help, and was surprised when all the qualified international experts/agencies/corporations refused.
Realizing they have everything to lose, and very little to gain by becoming involved in a foreign disaster of historic proportion and complexity, they have stayed away in droves.
Gee, more face-saving, on a world-wide basis, by other entities not even directly involved (GE notwithstanding) and similarly more interested in preserving their corporate good-will than helping head off a world-class cataclysm.
Nuke me once, shame on you.
But we just made 2 quick trips from grocery store to storage with sale items including water, soft drinks, canned salmon dated Jun 2016, dry milk and other items.
I’ve seen rioting and civil disobediance clear stores out in 1 day, and what the Japanese, U.S. and other authorities are NOT doing about the growing nuclear disaster is in my view a provocation to bring empty grocery shelves to a town near you.
Fukushima will end badly in more ways than one, and in locations far beyond what the braniac engineers have estimated.
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Decisions made by the accounting, legal and PR depts of corporations and governments.
No one asking “what is the right thing to do.”
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Your continued fatalistic responces to my and many other posters valid questions about ‘what is the right thing to do’ won’t discourage me one bit from continuing to ask and speculate about what is, or is NOT, going on.
Next time you chose to respond that ” No one is asking ‘what is the right thing to do’…” – please include me out…
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Well, it worked so well for BP.
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— time out for a little BP bashing —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM
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Did anyone read the article DuckNCover linked?
This quote from the article might solve the mystery of the media blackout:
“The Fukushima plant’s No. 1 reactor was constructed by U.S.-based General Electric Co., and Obama has taken a stance of promoting nuclear power.
“”Washington is concerned that if Japan fails to solve the nuclear crisis, the failure could have negative effects on the promotion of nuclear power generation in the United States and other countries,” an official of the prime minister’s office said.”
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105230133.html
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Since TEPCO and the Japanese Government have already admitted to lying repeatedly “to prevent panic” then one can only assume that there are many more truths that nobody will hear about, maybe ever, in the name of the greater good. There is zero credibility now. Why would they expect anyone to believe anything they say in the future? What a bunch of stupid clowns.
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And when its really crunch-time, we HAVE TO rely and turn to these very people and organizations! Even if to get information to survive or escape dangers!
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the truth never gets heard,
the lies always get told,
but when that long burning road starts to melt in the heat,
the lies slowly burn and the truth rises out of the flames to an audience of kings
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I like this one.
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That WaPo is surprised should be seen that Wapo editors are bought and paid for.
How is it that a tiny website called enenews.com knows and reports so much more than WaPo?
Can you say collusion?
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The document shows that Washington apparently had doubts about Japan’s abilities to deal with the nuclear crisis and thought it is necessary to make an all-out involvement.
This is more proof of what I’ve been saying all along and now the US military and Washington are preparing to take over Japan, arrest the Japanese government and the TEPCO swine, put them in jail for eternity and then proceed to use ALL options in order to resolve this global crisis.
They have a secret list of those options now and at the bottom of the top secret list is the Fukushima: The Nuclear Explosion Solution. This final solution will be extremely risky, but I believe that it will become necessary very soon.
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Good point, Rod. Evacuate the population then try the nuclear solution. Japan, I am praying for you every day!
“Crystal blue… you can’t go outside… we need a hero to restore the world….”
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Make that:
“Crystal blue is falling… you can’t go outside… we need a hero to restore the world.”
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Thanks Terranigma,
Of course I don’t want this final solution to happen, but there is no doubt that it is on the top secret list of options which now has everything on the table.
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Where can one learn more about what they are planning on doing about this? What solutions have been considered? Has anyone considered plasma technology? Or, some type of covering? Is there any way to nuetralize it? Like baking soda does to certain elements? What is nuclear radiations ph? Thanks!~*
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Nuke the plants? There are about 4000 tons of nuclear fuel at those plants, including a lot of plutonium. And you want nuke the plants? This would cause MORE radiation, not less. An insane idea.
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Of course I don’t want this final solution to happen, but there is no doubt that it is on the top secret list of options which now has everything on the table.
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Sorry for my impolite response.
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The nuclear solution link explains all. Anthony has been commenting that measurements are always underway at the reactor site.
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No worries Bob. I think we are all getting very stressed out and very p*ssed off about this freaking disaster. Cheers.
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Nuke the plants! I don’t believe that is a very good idea. What are the chances that the 4000 tons of fuel will ad to the intensity of the explosion?
Once the fuel is vaporized and thrown into the atmosphere we now have a larger area to clean up, like the entire world.
Lets throw gasoline on the fire and hope it burns out faster! CRAZY
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Not crazy at all. Some need to start thinking, and maybe, just maybe we will be kind enough to continue treating them as neighbours.
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>Nuke the plants! I don’t believe that is a very good idea. What are the chances that the 4000 tons of fuel will ad to the intensity of the explosion?
I think it’s still an option, or maybe conventional shaped charges. Note this is not proposed as an air blast detonation (Little Boy at Hiroshima was detonated at 600 meter altitude)or even ground level. But instead drilling underneath the artificial island the plant rests on at an angle. Maybe 10 angled drillings and 10 bombs. Blow the entire complex into the ocean which is only about 30 meters from the edge of the plant.
This option is not off the table I would be willing to bet. If things get worse and the workers all flee…what would you do? Let it burn the whole payload? Let’s look at the numbers:
I discovered a serious math error TEPCO presenters made in the November 2010 TEPCO presentation (a PowerPoint file saved as a PDF). I reveal it below.
First a little nuclear terminology to help our understanding. I am not a nuclear scientist or technician so this is just in my layman’s terms. Please feel free to offer corrections.
Nuclear fuel rods at Fukushima are skinny 12-foot metallic tubes made of zirconium alloy and are loaded with small bullet-sized cylindrical ceramic pellets of uranium or for the Unit 3′s mixed fuel (MOX) reacto, plutonium and depleted uranium pellets. The rod size is about 12 to 13 feet long and a hair over one centimeter in diameter. A fuel rod “assembly” is a bundle of many fuel rods.
How many fuel rods are inserted into each fuel rod assembly depends on the type of nuclear reactor (boiling water or pressurized). Three Mile Island was a pressurized water reactor (PWR), Fukushima is a boiling water reactor (BWR). TMI reactor types have 264 fuel rods in each assembly. Fukushima plant types have 63 nuclear rods in each assembly.
For illustration purposes: Nice schematic of a rival Japanese company fuel rod assembly here:
http://www.mnf.co.jp/pages2/pwr2…
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So…initial questions…how many active or fissile fuel assemblies and fuel rods are in the TEPCO General Electric nuclear reactor vessels (NRV) at Fukushima? The NRV is the bell-shaped structure made of stainless steel that actually produces and tries (usually successfully) to contain fission for normal operation of the plant. Each of the six Fukushima reactors has one NRV and on March 11, 2011 all six had fuel assemblies loaded in them except for Unit 4.
For the number of active fuel assemblies at Fukushima I reference the information from Japan Times March 20, 2011 written by staff writer Alex Martin: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110320b1.html
“Reactors 1, 2 and 3 contain 400, 548 and 548 fuel assemblies, while No. 5 and No. 6 have 548 and 764 fuel assemblies.”
Sickputer: By my math that is 2,808 active or fissile fuel assemblies. Unit 4 had zero assemblies in its reactor vessel as it had been pulled for maintenance a few months earlier.
2,808 times 63 equals 176,904 fuel rods in the reactor vessels of 5 units.
OK…now how about the spent fuel rod assemblies? How many assemblies in the spent fuel rod ponds and how many rods are in those assemblies? From the Tepco PDF presentation November 16, 2010: http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/accidents/6-1_powerpoint.pdf
Spent Fuel Pond Fuel assemblies 3,450 at each of the six Units; Dry Cask 408 assemblies; 6291 assemblies at Common Spent Fuel Pond. Total: 10,149 Page 9
Sickputer: TEPCOs math was wrong for the totals of fuel assemblies on Page 9 in the PowerPoint! They only added ONE of the units for the Spent Fuel Ponds! The single unit value 3,450 times 6 units = 20,700!
Add to that the dry cask and common pool numbers and you get the true total: 27,399 Spent Fuel Assemblies!
27,399 times 63 rods= 1,726,137 individual fuel rods just in the storage ponds and dry cask!
Add the 176,904 fissile fuel rods in the Nuclear Reactor Vessels and you get the grand…
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Sorry…maybe this link will work to the Mitsubishi diagram of a fuel rod assembly:
http://www.mnf.co.jp/pages2/pwr2.htm
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It is the only option, there is no other. The longer the wait the higher the cost. Evacuate and Initiate.
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Add the 176,904 fissile fuel rods in the Nuclear Reactor Vessels and you get the grand total:
1,903,041 fuel rods at Fukushima. That’s a lot of 12 foot nuclear rods any way you count them.
In weight we see another gargantuan figure:
TEPCO says there was/is 1,760 tons of the spent fuel rods at Fukushima out of 2100 tons total capacity (84% of space utilized). Page 5
Also the same data at this link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51284815/TEPCO-Storage-Status-of-Spent-Fuel-6-1
That is 3.5 million pounds.
Add in the fissile fuel and it adds up to well over 2,000 tons of fuel at the plant.
In 1986 Chernobyl ejected about 57 tons (30%) of its 192 ton nuclear core. Fukushima has the potential to eclipse that by many times.
Time will tell if anyone has an answer for this runaway nuclear power plant. Every day it smoulders and belches is another day of death for many poor creatures of the earth. And every day it is uncontrolled is another indictment against the nuclear industry.
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Ah, come on now. At least TEPCO has the decency to admit they have our interest at hand, by issuing a slow motion panic release.
Can not wait to see what lies lay beneath headstone #3.
I feel so much better knowing that I was treated to the “avoided panic” scenario, and to the betterment of all our health. Can we go outside and play now, mommy?
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Using a nuclear fission devise on a 4 reactors in nuclear fission..
Fission+fission=bigger explosions
Faster in the all and all I suppose.
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So scared of a Mega tsunami generated and headed to North American coast! I am MUCH more terrified of dying by tsunami than radiation to be honest!
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Well at least the Tsunami would be quicker.
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But all the SHARKS!!!!!!!! Jaws literally ruined fun in the sea for me. I cant stand not knowing whats beneath me like in ocean water. There a confession.
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And to think “they” are afraid of those asking for simple mercy for the people.
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someone asked earlier why steam isnt coming out of number 1 reactor and 3.i think we need to maybe get some facts rightthat steam is coming from the spent fuel pools in 2 and 4 not the container.no one knows whats happening in the container and i doubt anyone ever will as i cannot for the life of me see how anyone can get close enough to fix or do anything.
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Classic Radiation Antidotes – How to Protect Yourself From Radiation Exposure
Also includes kelp, daikon radish and burdock root, sulfur (DMSO), shitake mushrooms, bathe in Epsom salts (1 lb)and a bit of baking soda 2 times a week.
http://pubsub.com/3-2011-Radiation-Exposure-Protection_Health-Joseph-Maresca-Radiation-c60qfhGjEzQ,ZZnQc1YOsJE
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if that were true you wouldnt be on this website scared out your wits your gona die would you? i know another cure for radiation,rub yourself in horse shit and jump 3 times,bathe yourself in black pepper while wearing a green hat and shouting wazuuuuuuuuuupppppppppppp.i mean really
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Thanks, Anne! Many natural remedies and supplements have been clinically proven to counteract radioactive poisoning ever since Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl….It’s amazing that humble little herbs and pills actually have cured lost cause, nuked people. It’s good to keep in mind!! And it’s all we’ve got at this point.
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Don’t forget to film yourself, and post it on You tube, so we can all benefit …
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I thought mushrooms absorbed radiation and hence I’ve been avoiding all mushrooms. Can you drink a pinch of baking soda in a small glass of unfiltered tap water to purify yourself? If you eat bamboo root, will that help?
Best veggies — well washed potatoes, carrots, turnips, corn?
Best fruit — honeydew melons, cantaloupe, watermelons?
I’ve noticed that the supermarket has more produce from Florida like sweet corn and watermelons.
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yes, mushrooms are problematic (as bad as dairy) unless you can find them pre-311 or from a distant country/S. Hemisphere, or you can grow them indoors with fun kits… Let the games begin!…
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You’re best to look at other websites posted in blogs already at this site. I stick to recommendations given by medical doctors. Dr. Cousens, e.g. I don’t give out recommendations myself.
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yes, Baking Soda is your friend with filtered water, preferably. Try 1/2-1 teaspoon in a full glass, if you took a hit. Check out prior threads for more suggestions.
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Thanks anne, I did not know about the daikon radish and burdock root.
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When almost dying of cancer 22 years ago, I drank tea every day made with burdock root, dandelion root, echinacea angustofolio, and yellow dock root. I also drank bancha twig tea which unfortunately comes from Japan. I also drank tea made with Pau D’Arco. I used for herbs, this book:
Natural Healing With Herbs
http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Healing-Herbs-Humbart-Santillo/dp/book-citations/8124202508
I’ve heard a lot of good things about DMSO to cure cancer and will try it some when I can affort it.
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Sorry, afford
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Anne, I think DMSO is used to transport other compounds
through your skin?
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Here is an article on DMSO when used on cancer:
http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/DMSO.html
See also: “DMSO: Nature’s Healer” a book by Morton Walker
http://www.amazon.com/DMSO-Natures-Healer-Morton-Walker/dp/0895295482
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Here is another article:
“Current Status of DIMETHYL SULFOXIDE (DMSO)”
http://www.dmso.org/articles/information/jacob.htm
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Here is another medical doctor who recommends DMSO for radiation poisoning.
“DMSO: The Antidote for Radiation Poisoning”
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/225895-DMSO-The-Antidote-for-Radiation-Poisoning
There are also at the bottom links to more information
Treatments for Nuclear Contamination
Iodine Treatments for Radiation Exposure
Greenmedinfo.com – Radioprotective
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Will anybody be held accountable? Or was withholding done for our own good?
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Track record for occupants of earth re:
today is 5-24-2011
Fukushima multi-cataclysmic event abatement and correction success level, score = 0
So – here on planet earth, what group or individuals will lead the charge to avert what is clearly becoming a potential foreseeable outcome with a daily higher probability of manifestation ??
The remaining plants in Japan need to be placed in “cold” ( accurate term correct ? :-/ ) shut down as quickly as possible. Takes time so better start NOW. All of them. If the body count and rate of expiration continue to increase at the current rate – the available willing or forced talent needed to baby sit the other nukes will no longer be a forgone available resource.
The planet’s engineering talent needs to tackle and solve this thorny issue:
Come up with a way to shut down all the plants and keep things “safe” and cool to prevent domino failures at these other nuke plant sites scattered all around the periphery of the island(s). Mechanism must be in place to achieve this even if the (Mercy!) entire region is un-inhabitable by humans – or – a case where even the strongest coercion fails to provide the staff personnel to be on the sites and keep everything patched up, safe and cool for the next five or ten or ? years ….
Do-able ?? Better safe than sorry…..
For those in the industry that may read this,
Is it not reasonable to expect an expedient and effective stoppage plan is in place for the herein described unfolding scenario ? Is there a contingency plan oh kind honest and benevolent pro nuker / nuker guys ? Not time to address this issue yet ? Wait until decay products dissipate first? Couple quick questions – Are you willing to take on the personal liability that will result from inaction? and curious – How are things just down the coast at the sister plant – been quiet lately ?
Help me – I am plagued by this puzzling question:
WHY ?? why wasn’t the biggest badest most quickly available tunnel boring machine not barged / shipped in by sea, off loaded, assembled and immediately put in action – like couple months ago ? This could have been done somewhat remotely from the hot areas immediately around the blown up facility. Surely by now the entire facility could have been tunneled under at an appropriate depth and entry distance even if the thing started boring at an entry point a mile or more away. Had that been done surely by now a variety of contingency operations could be in place, for example- tunnel could have been pumped dry under reactors and filled with concrete and moderating materials to avert what is now likely to occur – steam explosions from corium entry to the water table. Small vertical shafts could have been drilled by now ahead of this unfolding gravity sinking eats everything corium flow by drilling operations largely in a safe environment within the larger tunnel to form many dispersal paths for the fuel glob corium to flow into – disperse into smaller threads and more likely cool down. Various dissipating and moderating materials could have been brought into play.
At the least,a tunnel would have given opportunity and better hope for implementing a variety of options to dissipate the corium flow, reduce criticality, opportunity to cool and entomb this unprecedented multiple source global disaster. A tunnel would have availed opportunity for rail or conveyor applications that may have had some application in this uncertain unpredictable event progression – you guys are smart – I expected something like this to be immediately put into action if you all knew melts had occurred and topside options were non-existent. Most people in the world think things are fine and under control, were are you going to hide when the whole truth is revealed to everyone?? Words fail this unspeakable …….
google tunnel boring machine if unfamiliar .. too much to link here
sorry – difficult to remain civil under circumstances – I know there is no excuse for such an attitude
Blessings to all the selfless, compassioate, generous and kind of humanity.
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No worries 1111. As I previously wrote, we are all quite stressed out and angry about this ongoing disaster. You made a good point in asking why they didn’t do the drilling. That is a very good idea, but now they are running out of time and options. As each day passes TEPCO’s inability to handle this disaster becomes more and more clear. They will have to surrender to the US or UN soon. Let’s hope that it is not too late when that happens.
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1111
My friend, it is too late, it was the day it happened. The area is too hot now, you can’t get there to work. It was too hot within a few days time. I am of the opinion there has never been anyone on site with any knowledge for a long, long time, just a few unfortunates to make it appear something is being done. All info issued to the public has been coming out of Tokyo, and is all guessing.
I sincerely believe Mr. Gunderson was telling us this with his “worst groundwater” video. It had all happened months ago (the melt). Get it… “groundwater”?
Just my humble opinion.
I really enjoy everyone’s comments here.
Peace.
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News about huge amounts of contaminated water to deal with, that continued to pop, also the news of rising water level at #5 & #6 suggest there was some work being done to my understanding. The point probably is denying the extent of the event and not requesting help asap, with all the consequences to scientific, political and business figures involved.
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Re last sentence, I can’t express how much I am thankful to all the concerned bla-bla’ers of this website.
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Bonz, I know, I wanted to go on record here to help make clear that not all the unwashed masses are as stupid as the controllers believe.
Time to stop paying any attention to staged media events.
Please, somebody better FIGURE THIS OUT !
You did not comment on the other dominoes needing cool shut down ..
:-/ ? any positive hopeful thoughts ?
Blessings
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Bonz:
Wait! There is a chance, a small one. And no, I do not have fuku delusional disorder. Really.
According to a small minority of learned folks on this site, there is a possibility that the coring will not explode when it hits the water table. But will cool perhaps instead, and plunge deep into the earth. Where the whole mess can be concreted over.
The water table is not full of water, like a lake or river, but moisture filled rocks and probably all kinds of other material since it is back filled marsh. Which could mitigate explosive potential of the cores.
(A cynic my entire life, I have decided to latch onto this possibility like a child with a lollipop.)
There Bonz, is your hope, dear.
Cassie
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That’s some information I would like to know more about…how complex, convoluted, and extensive is the groundwater aquifer under Fukushima (the man-made island it rests on). Does the aquifer extend under the coastline? How far and how deep does it go inland? Those questions should be answered by geologists to help in cleanup efforts.
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another very good post!
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In spain site:
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Japan’s deadly game of nuclear roulette
By LEUREN MORET
Special to The Japan Times
Of all the places in all the world where no one in their right mind would build scores of nuclear power plants, Japan would be pretty near the top of the list.
An aerial view of the Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, “the most dangerous nuclear power plant in Japan”
The Japanese archipelago is located on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, a large active volcanic and tectonic zone ringing North and South America, Asia and island arcs in Southeast Asia. The major earthquakes and active volcanoes occurring there are caused by the westward movement of the Pacific tectonic plate and other plates leading to subduction under Asia.
Japan sits on top of four tectonic plates, at the edge of the subduction zone, and is in one of the most tectonically active regions of the world. It was extreme pressures and temperatures, resulting from the violent plate movements beneath the seafloor, that created the beautiful islands and volcanoes of Japan.
Nonetheless, like many countries around the world — where General Electric and Westinghouse designs are used in 85 percent of all commercial reactors — Japan has turned to nuclear power as a major energy source. In fact the three top nuclear-energy countries are the United States, where the existence of 118 reactors was acknowledged by the Department of Energy in 2000, France with 72 and Japan, where 52 active reactors were cited in a December 2003 Cabinet White Paper.
The 52 reactors in Japan — which generate a little over 30 percent of its electricity — are located in an area the size of California, many within 150 km of each other and almost all built along the coast where seawater is available to cool them.
However, many of those reactors have been negligently sited on active faults, particularly in the subduction zone along the Pacific coast, where major earthquakes of magnitude 7-8 or more on the Richter scale occur frequently. The periodicity of major earthquakes in Japan is less than 10 years. There is almost no geologic setting in the world more dangerous for nuclear power than Japan — the third-ranked country in the world for nuclear reactors.
“I think the situation right now is very scary,” says Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist and professor at Kobe University. “It’s like a kamikaze terrorist wrapped in bombs just waiting to explode.”
Last summer, I visited Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, at the request of citizens concerned about the danger of a major earthquake. I spoke about my findings at press conferences afterward.
A map of Japan annotated by the author, showing the tectonic plates, areas of high (“observed region”) and very high (“specially observed”) quake risk, and the sites of nuclear reactors
Because Hamaoka sits directly over the subduction zone near the junction of two plates, and is overdue for a major earthquake, it is considered to be the most dangerous nuclear power plant in Japan.
Together with local citizens, I spent the day walking around the facility, collecting rocks, studying the soft sediments it sits on and tracing the nearly vertical faults through the area — evidence of violent tectonic movements.
The next day I was surprised to see so many reporters attending the two press conferences held at Kakegawa City Hall and Shizuoka Prefecture Hall. When I asked the reporters why they had come so far from Tokyo to hear an American geoscientist, I was told it was because no foreigner had ever come to tell them how dangerous Japan’s nuclear power plants are.
I told them that this is the power of gaiatsu (foreign pressure), and because citizens in the United States with similar concerns attract little media attention, we invite a Japanese to speak for us when we want media coverage — someone like the famous seismologist Professor Ishibashi!
When the geologic evidence was presented confirming the extreme danger at Hamaoka, the attending media were obviously shocked. The aerial map, filed by Chubu Electric Company along with its government application to build and operate the plant, showed major faults going through Hamaoka, and revealed that the company recognized the danger of an earthquake. They had carefully placed each reactor between major fault lines.
“The structures of the nuclear plant are directly rooted in the rock bed and can tolerate a quake of magnitude 8.5 on the Richter scale,” the utility claimed on its Web site.
From my research and the investigation I conducted of the rocks in the area, I found that that the sedimentary beds underlying the plant were badly faulted. Some tiny faults I located were less than 1 cm apart.
When I held up samples of the rocks the plant was sitting on, they crumbled like sugar in my fingers. “But the power company told us these were really solid rocks!” the reporters said. I asked, “Do you think these are really solid?’ and they started laughing.
On July 7 last year, the same day of my visit to Hamaoka, Ishibashi warned of the danger of an earthquake-induced nuclear disaster, not only to Japan but globally, at an International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics conference held in Sapporo. He said: “The seismic designs of nuclear facilities are based on standards that are too old from the viewpoint of modern seismology and are insufficient. The authorities must admit the possibility that an earthquake-nuclear disaster could happen and weigh the risks objectively.”
After the greatest nuclear power plant disaster in Japan’s history at Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, in September 1999, large, expensive Emergency Response Centers were built near nuclear power plants to calm nearby residents.
After visiting the center a few kilometers from Hamaoka, I realized that Japan has no real nuclear-disaster plan in the event that an earthquake damaged a reactor’s water-cooling system and triggered a reactor meltdown.
Additionally, but not even mentioned by ERC officials, there is an extreme danger of an earthquake causing a loss of water coolant in the pools where spent fuel rods are kept. As reported last year in the journal Science and Global Security, based on a 2001 study by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, if the heat-removing ******** of those pools is seriously compromised — by, for example, the water in them draining out — and the fuel rods heat up enough to combust, the radiation inside them will then be released into the atmosphere. This may create a nuclear disaster even greater than Chernobyl.
If a nuclear disaster occurred, power-plant workers as well as emergency-response personnel in the Hamaoka ERC would immediately be exposed to lethal radiation. During my visit, ERC engineers showed us a tiny shower at the center, which they said would be used for “decontamination’ of personnel. However, it would be useless for internally exposed emergency-response workers who inhaled radiation.
When I asked ERC officials how they planned to evacuate millions of people from Shizuoka Prefecture and beyond after a Kobe-magnitude earthquake (Kobe is on the same subduction zone as Hamaoka) destroyed communication lines, roads, railroads, drinking-water supplies and sewage lines, they had no answer.
Last year, James Lee Witt, former director of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, was hired by New York citizens to assess the U.S. government’s emergency-response plan for a nuclear power plant disaster. Citizens were shocked to learn that there was no government plan adequate to respond to a disaster at the Indian Point nuclear reactor, just 80 km from New York City.
The Japanese government is no better prepared, because there is no adequate response possible to contain or deal with such a disaster. Prevention is really the only effective measure to consider.
In 1998, Kei Sugaoka, 51, a Japanese-American senior field engineer who worked for General Electric in the United States from 1980 until being dismissed in 1998 for whistle-blowing there, alerted Japanese nuclear regulators to a 1989 reactor inspection problem he claimed had been withheld by GE from their customer, Tokyo Electric Power Company. This led to nuclear-plant shutdowns and reforms of Japan’s power industry.
Later it was revealed from GE documents that they had in fact informed TEPCO — but that company did not notify government regulators of the hazards.
Yoichi Kikuchi, a Japanese nuclear engineer who also became a whistle-blower, has told me personally of many safety problems at Japan’s nuclear power plants, such as cracks in pipes in the cooling system from vibrations in the reactor. He said the electric companies are “gambling in a dangerous game to increase profits and decrease government oversight.”
Sugaoka agreed, saying, “The scariest thing, on top of all the other problems, is that all nuclear power plants are aging, causing a deterioration of piping and joints which are always exposed to strong radiation and heat.”
Like most whistle-blowers, Sugaoka and Kikuchi are citizen heroes, but are now unemployed.
The Radiation and Public Health Project, a group of independent U.S. scientists, has collected 4,000 baby teeth from children living around nuclear power plants. These teeth were then tested to determine their level of Strontium-90, a radioactive fission product that escapes in nuclear power plant emissions.
Unborn children may be exposed to Strontium-90 through drinking water and the diet of the mother. Anyone living near nuclear power plants is internally exposed to chronically low levels of radiation contaminating food and drinking water. Increased rates of cancer, infant mortality and low birth weights leading to cognitive impairment have been linked to radiation exposure for decades.
However, a recent independent report on low-level radiation by the European Committee on Radiation Risk, released for the European Parliament in January 2003, established that the ongoing U.S. Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Studies conducted in Japan by the U.S. government since 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors underestimated the risk of radiation exposure as much as 1,000 times.
Additionally, on March 26 this year — the eve of the 25th anniversary of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history, at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania — the Radiation and Public Health Project released new data on the effects of that event. This showed rises in infant deaths up to 53 percent, and in thyroid cancer of more than 70 percent in downwind counties — data which, like all that concerning both the short- and long-term health effects, has never been forthcoming from the U.S. government.
It is not a question of whether or not a nuclear disaster will occur in Japan; it is a question of when it will occur.
Like the former Soviet Union after Chernobyl, Japan will become a country suffering from radiation sickness destroying future generations, and widespread contamination of agricultural areas will ensure a public-health disaster. Its economy may never recover.
Considering the extreme danger of major earthquakes, the many serious safety and waste-disposal issues, it is timely and urgent — with about half its reactors currently shut down — for Japan to convert nuclear power plants to fossil fuels such as natural gas. This process is less expensive than building new power plants and, with political and other hurdles overcome, natural gas from the huge Siberian reserves could be piped in at relatively low cost. Several U.S. nuclear plants have been converted to natural gas after citizen pressure forced energy companies to make changeovers.
Commenting on this way out of the nuclear trap, Ernest Sternglass, a renowned U.S. scientist who helped to stop atmospheric testing in America, notes that, ‘Most recently the Fort St. Vrain reactor in Colorado was converted to fossil fuel, actually natural gas, after repeated problems with the reactor. An earlier reactor was the Zimmer Power Plant in Cincinnati, which was originally designed as a nuclear plant but it was converted to natural gas before it began operating. This conversion can be done on any plant at a small fraction [20-30 percent] of the cost of building a new plant. Existing turbines, transmission facilities and land can be used.”
After converting to natural gas, the Fort St. Vrain plant produced twice as much electricity much more efficiently and cheaply than from nuclear energy — with no nuclear hazard at all, of course.
It is time to make the changeover from nuclear fuel to fossil fuels in order to save future generations and the economy of Japan.
Leuren Moret is a geoscientist who worked at the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory on the Yucca Mountain Project, and became a whistle-blower in 1991 by reporting science fraud on the project and at Livermore. She is an independent and international radiation specialist, and the Environmental Commissioner in the city of Berkeley, Calif. She has visited Japan four times to work with Japanese citizens, scientists and elected officials on radiation and peace issues
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Good perspective – from 2004. I found the original source:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20040523x2.html
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Is time travel possible? Is Time Linear? What is Time! One thing I do know is that this is our “TIME”
Question 1. How did one of the most successful bands in the world “The Killers” write and release a song about the Tiger Woods saga well over a year before the story broke???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBDncB-AGuc
Question 2. How did the biggest band in the world, “U2″ write a song over 20 years ago about Tokyo Electric Co?
“Earthquake 4. Nice and Slow. Useless scenes in old Tokyo. Useless scenes near Tokyo”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrlPoiv8TrU
After the Rain the Sun comes out!!!!
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Now, if they will just release he truth about the Zombies.
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well it’s too late to say you’re sorry,
How should I know?
Why should I care?
Please don’t bother trine ta find her
She’s not There….
Cool
Stranglelove
Hey jed,
what about the band that made the WTC-Plane-crash cover Art?
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Jack
Zombies
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CSNY Deja Vu album
….
It’s been a long
Time Comin’
It’s going to be a Long-ong
time Gone.
And it appears to be a long
appears to be a long-ong
Time
such a long, long, long, long time,
before the Dawn.
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Anne,
You sharp gal.
Thanks for all the good info you post here.
I remembered that the user of skin-topical DMSO needed tobe careful not to allow any contamination with anything, because this
compound easily penetrates skin and takes whatever is there into the bloodstream.
Huggies,
I gotta go lie down now. Perchance to Dream…
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I sort of remember that it crosses the blood brain barrier also.
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Good info sites for radiation exposure supplementation: “Prescription for Nutritional Healing” book; look up ‘radiation exposure’ and you’ll see lots of info; good starting point. Take chlorella and spirulina, milk thistle, garlic tablets, extra vitamin C, ingestible bentonite clay like Zeolite. Hint: you can buy aged cheeses now and fill up your freezer while it is still uncontaminated! My freezer is packed full of cheese aged 3-6 -2 years. I no longer buy milk. Mila, a form of high propensity Chia, has 6 times the calcium of dairy, is high in omega 3 and 6, which protect against free radicals, and much more. Buy it from a distributor or buy your own chia seeds, sprout them for 10 minutes by just soaking them in some water or juice and drink it throughout the day. Great source of energy, fiber, potassium, selenium, magnesium and more. Naturalnews.com is another source of info on what to eat and what is going on. Love the guy, he tells it like it is! Also, I have been adding clay to my wash that has come in contact with rain and in my kids baths. Clay attaches to radioactive isotopes and carries them out; also why it is good to eat ingestible clay too, like zeolite etc..
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