What's Up With Fukushima These Days

[RobertEarl]

The three reactors at Fukushima which have melted down after March 11, 2010, are still in a state of disaster.

The cores of the three reactors are either in the basements, or have melted through the basements and into the ground. The water they are dumping on the cores to keep them cool flows past the melted cores (corium) and that water picks up corium particles and carries those particles into the Pacific.

When the event first happened, the cores were releasing into the air, and that's what was being found in the rice fields. Now that the cores have consolidated and are being covered with water, air emissions have been greatly controlled.

That means less is being deposited on the rice fields. The radioactive material that is escaping is going into the ocean, and ocean currents are carrying that contamination across the Pacific.

The officials have attempted to capture some of that water and filter it. There are now a great many tanks full of highly radioactive water populating the plant's grounds and they are running out of tanks to hold anymore water.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Really now

:LMAO:

Your the only one who knows

[RobertEarl]

11. Thanks for the confirmation

Readers will note that you're cognizant of the situation, and have no disagreement with the OP.

It's all factual. Thanks.

[riverbendviewgal]

2. very bad situation

And the msm says nothing.

[NickB79]

3. You forgot time-traveling radiation killing starfish

[RobertEarl]

7. Well, like sid posted

It (the radiation) is also lower than the levels present in the Pacific Ocean in the 1980s due to fallout from testing of nuclear weapons, the researchers point out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6042273

So what we know is that the ocean had radiation in it from the 1960's, and we all know radiation is deadly to life forms, so this specious claptrap about time traveling radiation, is, well, just claptrap. Ya'll should just stop with that?

Since nuclear weapon testing in the Pacific from the 1950's, radioisotopes have been found off the Pacific Coast. Now, after Fukushima, those levels have increased once again. So not only is there atmospheric deposition, the actual contaminated water from Fukushima is polluting the Pacific all the way from Japan to the US.

Sea stars have had some die-offs in the past, but today, is the worst die-off in history. What has changed recently?

Here is a link to the science of the sea star die-off. Note the explicitly statement that the virus is NOT THE CAUSE. And that studies are continuing.

http://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/updates.html

[caraher]

19. Note that your source points this out...

The following appeared in boldface in the original... the only text on the entire page singled out for this emphasis:

There has been substantial speculation in the media that the disease could be a result of increased radiation from the nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan. We have no evidence to suggest that radiation is a likely culprit.

To say this this virus is "NOT THE CAUSE" is argumentation by caps lock and misrepresentation. What your link actually says is that the virus is linked to the problem but is but one factor among many

... while a culprit may have been identified, we still don’t fully understand the cause. The complete story is likely a complex interaction of multiple factors, and may involve different factors in different regions.

So in a narrow sense it's right that the virus is not THE cause, but it's way up higher on the list, according to your source, than Fukushima radiation (the one hypothesis they do explicitly state carries "no evidence" in support).

[RobertEarl]

29. No evidence?

But there is evidence of radioactive contamination in the Pacific.

I would feel better if they had stated they had looked for radiation and not found any in the sea stars. But like they say, studies are continuing.

The other day I was told by a host that the mystery had been solved, case closed. Which is why I used caps: because.

[NuclearDem]

4. Maybe this one won't get locked.

[zappaman]

5. Wow.

Keep pushing...

[SidDithers]

6. C'mon, BeFree, you can do better than that...nt

Sid

[RobertEarl]

9. Three members of my fan club!!

I need a better class of fan club members.

[NuclearDem]

12. That's not very nice, Billy.

[msanthrope]

25. Add me in. Ever since this exchange about my child's autism, I've been a real admirer of yours....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5322265

[Octafish]

83. Is calling someone ''BeFree'' another way of saying ''asshole,'' SidDithers of DU?

Is it like a coded call to others who oppose criticism of nuclear power and weapons?

If so, that would seem most un-democratic, bullying.

[SidDithers]

84. ...

Sid

[Octafish]

96. No answer.

Time waster.

[SidDithers]

99. My time's not wasted. I'm wildly entertained by the stuff you post...nt

Sid

[Octafish]

100. Didn't say it was.

My time's wasted responding to your nonsense.

And you never answer why it's so important to you that you have had to follow my posts for years.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024262028#post150

[Throd]

8. So I still might get to ride the 1,000 foot long mutant squid after all?

[zappaman]

10. Dare to dream, dude.

Dare to dream....

[Union Scribe]

76. By the OP's logic you might wind up BEING that mutant squid.

I'm hoping to mutate into something that can take various shapes like the guy in Terminator 2.

[FBaggins]

13. Sigh... you just love to make things up, don't you?

The cores of the three reactors are either in the basements, or have melted through the basements and into the ground.

Nope. There's no evidence that any of the three cores are anywhere but in the primary containment vessels (with larger or smaller amounts still within the reactor vessels).

The water they are dumping on the cores to keep them cool flows past the melted cores (corium) and that water picks up corium particles and carries those particles into the Pacific.

Nope.
1 - There isn't much water being "dumped on the cores" because there's very little heat left being produced. Much of the water in the basements of the reactors has been flowing in from outside.
2 - The vast bulk of the water flowing into the basements (either from spraying or inflo) is pumped out of the basements and run through the decontaminatin equipment. Some of that is then sent back in a cooling fluid. Water levels in the basements have been falling since the latest equipment has been running, so more water is now being removed than is added.
3 - It is reasonable to assume that some water ends up in the ocean, but there's some question re: how much contamination makes it to the sea since it has to flow first through the soil. You've been pointed over and over again to tracking of measurements offshore (here for instance). Whatever amount is making it to the sea, it's nothing compared to the measurements from 2011.

When the event first happened, the cores were releasing into the air, and that's what was being found in the rice fields. Now that the cores have consolidated and are being covered with water, air emissions have been greatly controlled.

Very sloppy. What was releases initially were the more volatile elements (that is... things that release from the corium at high temperature). Some of that contamination remained within the reactors and can be washed out with water, but the corium is solid metal again. You keep acting as though running water over that "picks up" large amounts of core material. We could speculate that tiny amounts of hydrogen are still being created and that some small portion of that could make the cooling water slightly acidic which might strip off a few molecules from the corium... but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the existing contamination. Far more than that would run off of the surface of Japan and into the ocean every time it rains.

That means less is being deposited on the rice fields. The radioactive material that is escaping is going into the ocean, and ocean currents are carrying that contamination across the Pacific.

There haven't been any substantial new deposits on the fields in years, but much of the existing contamination is still there in the fields (perhaps tilled into the soil to avoid migration issues). The rice crop has been essentially clean for three years now.

[hobbit709]

14. Facts mean nothing to someone that makes up their own reality.

[MineralMan]

15. Where's the link to this important information?

Nothing new to link to? Or is this original research on your part on the scene?

[Octafish]

16. TEPCO has everything ''Covered Up'' real swell*.

Two and half of the exploded containment buildings, at least.



*As opposed to "Under Control," as Nuke Inc would say, per their paid apologists, or, "Close Enough" for too many.

[NuclearDem]

18. One million dead from Chernobyl!

[Octafish]

20. We might know that, were nuclear science accountable.

You know, to the People. As is, the story of nuclear power and the powerful connects a few dots from the present day Secret torture spy government back through the Cold War to the establishment of the national security state during and post-World War II:

Fukushima, Plutonium, CIA, and the BFEE: Deep Doo-Doo Four Ways to Doomsday



War crime, Yakuza, Secret Government. Why not?

Japan’s Nuclear Industry: The CIA Link.

By Eleanor Warnock
June 1, 2012, 10:18 AM JST.
Wall Street Journal Blog

Tetsuo Arima, a researcher at Waseda University in Tokyo, told JRT he discovered in the U.S. National Archives a trove of declassified CIA files that showed how one man, Matsutaro Shoriki, was instrumental in jumpstarting Japan’s nascent nuclear industry.

Mr. Shoriki was many things: a Class A war criminal, the head of the Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan’s biggest-selling and most influential newspaper) and the founder of both the country’s first commercial broadcaster and the Tokyo Giants baseball team. Less well known, according to Mr. Arima, was that the media mogul worked with the CIA to promote nuclear power.

SNIP...

Mr. Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power, according to the documents found by Mr. Arima. Keen on remilitarizing Japan, Mr. Shoriki endorsed nuclear power in hopes its development would one day arm the country with the ability to make its own nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Arima. Mr. Shoriki’s behind-the-scenes push created a chain reaction in other media that eventually changed public opinion.

SNIP…

Mr. Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power, according to the documents found by Mr. Arima. Keen on remilitarizing Japan, Mr. Shoriki endorsed nuclear power in hopes its development would one day arm the country with the ability to make its own nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Arima. Mr. Shoriki’s behind-the-scenes push created a chain reaction in other media that eventually changed public opinion.

CONTINUED...

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/06/01/japans-nuclear-industry-the-cia-link/

After President Carter was out of office, it was pretty much full-steam ahead for the Japanese bomb during the Pruneface Ronnie-Poppy Bush years. Hence, Fukushima Daiichi Number 3 and other select Japanese reactors were set up to process plutonium uranium fuels.

United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium

By Joseph Trento
on April 9th, 2012
National Security News Service

The United States deliberately allowed Japan access to the United States’ most secret nuclear weapons facilities while it transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of American tax paid research that has allowed Japan to amass 70 tons of weapons grade plutonium since the 1980s, a National Security News Service investigation reveals. These activities repeatedly violated U.S. laws regarding controls of sensitive nuclear materials that could be diverted to weapons programs in Japan. The NSNS investigation found that the United States has known about a secret nuclear weapons program in Japan since the 1960s, according to CIA reports.

The diversion of U.S. classified technology began during the Reagan administration after it allowed a $10 billion reactor sale to China. Japan protested that sensitive technology was being sold to a potential nuclear adversary. The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations permitted sensitive technology and nuclear materials to be transferred to Japan despite laws and treaties preventing such transfers. Highly sensitive technology on plutonium separation from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site and Hanford nuclear weapons complex, as well as tens of billions of dollars worth of breeder reactor research was turned over to Japan with almost no safeguards against proliferation. Japanese scientist and technicians were given access to both Hanford and Savannah River as part of the transfer process.

SNIP...

A year ago a natural disaster combined with a man-made tragedy decimated Northern Japan and came close to making Tokyo, a city of 30 million people, uninhabitable. Nuclear tragedies plague Japan’s modern history. It is the only nation in the world attacked with nuclear weapons. In March 2011, after a tsunami swept on shore, hydrogen explosions and the subsequent meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant spewed radiation across the region. Like the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan will face the aftermath for generations. A twelve-mile area around the site is considered uninhabitable. It is a national sacrifice zone.

How Japan ended up in this nuclear nightmare is a subject the National Security News Service has been investigating since 1991. We learned that Japan had a dual use nuclear program. The public program was to develop and provide unlimited energy for the country. But there was also a secret component, an undeclared nuclear weapons program that would allow Japan to amass enough nuclear material and technology to become a major nuclear power on short notice.

CONTINUED...

http://www.dcbureau.org/201204097128/national-security-news-service/united-states-circumvented-laws-to-help-japan-accumulate-tons-of-plutonium.html

Those of who have seen The World at War series on the tee vee are familiar with the black and white footage and great narrative chronicling the main events and figures of World War II. One of those episodes was entitled "The Bomb" and featured an interview with John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War to President Roosevelt and President Truman.

Here's part of what Mr. McCloy said about the Atomic Bomb – the use of which he counseled only as a last resort, after warning Japan to surrender (around 7:30 mark of Part 2):

“Besides that, we’ve got a new force, a new type of energy that will revolutionize warfare, destructive beyond any contemplation. I’d said, I’d mention the bomb. Mentioning the bomb, even at that late date, in that select group, was like, it was like they were all shocked. Because it was such a closely guarded secret. It was comparable to mentioning Skull and Bones at Yale – which you’re not supposed to do.”

After the war, McCloy was the United States High Commissioner to Germany, administering the U.S. zone of occupation, making him one of the front-line leaders of the Cold War. In that capacity, one of the questionable things he did was to forgive several NAZI industrialists and war criminals.

The great cartoonist Herb Block, HERBLOCK, depicted McCloy holding open a prison door for a NAZI, while in the background Stalin took a photo (if anyone has a copy or link to the cartoon, I’d be much obliged). About 15 years later, Mr. McCloy served the nation as a member of the Warren Commission.

While he wasn’t a member of Skull and Bones, McCloy certainly worked closely with a bunch of them, including Averell Harriman and Prescott Bush. As a Wall Street and Washington insider, "Mr. Establishment" he was called, Mr. McCloy used the offices of government to centralize power and wealth. That is most un-democratic.

Mother Jones goes into detail:

The Nuclear Weapons Industry's Money Bombs

How millions in campaign cash and revolving-door lobbying have kept America's atomic arsenal off the chopping block.

— By R. Jeffrey Smith, Center for Public Integrity
Mother Jones
Wed Jun. 6, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

Employees of private companies that produce the main pieces of the US nuclear arsenal have invested more than $18 million in the election campaigns of lawmakers that oversee related federal spending, and the companies also employ more than 95 former members of Congress or Capitol Hill staff to lobby for government funding, according to a new report.

The Center for International Policy, a nonprofit group that supports the "demilitarization" of US foreign policy, released the report on Wednesday to highlight what it described as the heavy influence of campaign donations and pork-barrel politics on a part of the defense budget not usually associated with large profits or contractor power: nuclear arms.

As Congress deliberated this spring on nuclear weapons-related projects, including funding for the development of more modern submarines and bombers, the top 14 contractors gave nearly $3 million to the 2012 reelection campaigns of lawmakers whose support they needed for these and other projects, the report disclosed.

Half of that sum went to members of the four key committees or subcommittees that must approve all spending for nuclear arms—the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and the Energy and Water or Defense appropriations subcommittees, according to data the Center compiled from the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. The rest went to lawmakers who are active on nuclear weapons issues because they have related factories or laboratories in their states or districts.

Members of the House Armed Services Committee this year have sought to erect legislative roadblocks to further reductions in nuclear arms, and also demanded more spending for related facilities than the Obama administration sought, including $100 million in unrequested funds for a new plant that will make plutonium cores for nuclear warheads, and $374 million for a new ballistic missile-firing submarine. The House has approved those requests, but the Senate has not held a similar vote on the 2013 defense bill.

CONTINUED...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/nuclear-bombs-congress-elections-campaign-donations

It isn't ironic or coincidental. It is the Establishment, the in-group, the Elite, the One-Percent that’s pretty much gotten the lion’s share of the wealth created over the last 50 years. The same group that’s pretty much had their fingers on the atomic button ever since the Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as profited from the development of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and the almost continuous state of war since then. For lack of a better term, I call them the BFEE, or War Party, owners, operators and controllers of Nuke Inc.

[NuclearDem]

21. Known what? That Caldicott used a bogus paper claiming one million deaths from Chernobyl?

And then when the paper was found to be complete nonsense, claimed a UN/IAEA conspiracy to cover it up?

[Octafish]

22. Any particular reason you have to mock Helen Caldicott?

Who else do you know who has publicly opposed nuclear power and nuclear weapons?

[FBaggins]

23. Thanks for proving the frequent criticism against you

Facts and actual credibility don't matter. Someone becomes credible simply by agreeing with your predetermined conclusions.

In Caldicott's case, there is much worthy of mockery... since she constantly makes up reality to suit her desired positions.

None of which should take away from her exceptional work opposing nuclear weapons.

[zappaman]

24. Par for the course

Sources don't matter for some.

[Octafish]

27. Besides your usual ad hominem smear, anything to say about Fukushima or Helen Caldicott, zappaman?

Or do you want people to notice how little information your post contains?

[zappaman]

56. I made my point about your "information".

And give it the respect it deserves...

[Octafish]

92. Here's what I wrote March 28, 2011 about TEPCO's boss and plutonium from Fukushima...

TEPCO: Plutonium is not dangerous. Where's the Boss?

Using GOOGLE, I couldn't find a single OP about any of that from zappaman of DU. I did find plenty of smilies in your replies, however. The thing is, your comments don't contribute much to DUers or anyone really interested in learning more about the subject.

[RobertEarl]

138. I've got to hand it to you, Octafish

How you can joust with the nonsense and keep your cool is amazing.

[Octafish]

26. You are wrong regarding Helen Caldicott.

There is nothing worth mocking her about.

One example is her Nuclear Free Planet organization.

As for what you think about me, I don't care.

[NuclearDem]

28. One million people have not died nor will die as a result of Chernobyl.

That Caldicott pushed that meme is worthy of ridicule alone.

[Octafish]

30. No, that's what you say.

Caldicott and Janette Sherman stand by their report.

http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/06/janette-sherman-md-toxicologist-nuclear.html

Do you have a link to back up your assertion, NuclearDem?

[NuclearDem]

35. Alright, fine.

The report she cited tried to tie nearly every death in affected countries to Chernobyl, even when it was completely unlikely:

A devastating review in the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry points out that the book achieves this figure by the remarkable method of assuming that all increased deaths from a wide range of diseases – including many which have no known association with radiation – were caused by the Chernobyl accident. There is no basis for this assumption, not least because screening in many countries improved dramatically after the disaster and, since 1986, there have been massive changes in the former eastern bloc. The study makes no attempt to correlate exposure to radiation with the incidence of disease.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/apr/05/anti-nuclear-lobby-misled-world

When she wrote her now-retracted OP-ed for the NYT, she tried falsely attributing it to the NYAS to give it credibility when it had none:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dotearth/2013/11/06/helen-caldicott-chernobyl-and-the-new-york-academy-of-sciences/

Helen Caldicott, a physician who for decades has fought nuclear power, wrote a letter to The Times criticizing David Ropeik‘s recent Op-Ed article on outsize fears of radiation. Caldicott’s letter contained a mischaracterization of a much-criticized Russian study that attributed a million deaths to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, calling it a “New York Academy of Sciences report.” I contacted academy staff to get the organization’s view. Here’s the result:

The NYAS published a disclaimer about the study:

http://www.nyas.org/Publications/Annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1

This collection of papers, originally published in Russian, was written by scientists who state that they have summarized the information about the health and environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster from several hundreds of papers previously published in Slavic language publications. In no sense did Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences or the New York Academy of Sciences commission this work; nor by its publication does the Academy validate the claims made in the original Slavic language publications cited in the translated papers. Importantly, the translated volume has not been formally peer‐reviewed by the New York Academy of Sciences or by anyone else.

Under the editorial practices of Annals at the time, some projects, such as the Chernobyl translation, were developed and accepted solely to fulfill the Academy’s broad mandate of providing an open forum for discussion of scientific questions, rather than to present original scientific studies or Academy positions. The content of these projects, conceived as one-off book projects, were not vetted by standard peer review.

So, to summarize, she used a study that had not been peer-reviewed and falsely attributed it to a legitimate organization that itself has stated it has not been peer-reviewed. She picked something that fit her agenda, scientific method be damned.

That she stands by it is irrelevant. All that shows is that she can't be trusted to provide truthful information.

[Octafish]

38. That doesn't say Caldicott is wrong. Only that they can't vouch for the paper she cited.

Big deal. Here's Caldicott vs. George Monbiot, who has frequently criticized Caldicott and the paper reporting a million deaths due to Chernobyl radiation:

HELEN CALDICOTT: Oh, Amy, the whole thing’s nuclear madness, which is what I called my first book that I wrote in 1978. A new report from the New York Academy of Sciences has just translated 5,000 papers from Russian into English. It’s the most devastating report I’ve ever seen. Up to a million people have already died from Chernobyl, and people will continue to die from cancer for virtually the rest of time. What we should know is that a millionth of a gram of plutonium, or less, can induce cancer, or will induce cancer. Each reactor has 250 kilos, or 500 pounds, of plutonium in it. You know, there’s enough plutonium in these reactors to kill everyone on earth.

Now, what George doesn’t understand — and, George, I really appreciate your writing, and I understand your concern about global warming. You don’t understand internal emitters. I was commissioned to write an article for the New England Journal of Medicine about the dangers of nuclear power. I spent a year researching it. You’ve bought the propaganda from the nuclear industry. They say it’s low-level radiation. That’s absolute rubbish. If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer. Now, that’s true for radioactive iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and leukemia. It’s imperative, George, because you’re highly intelligent and a very important commentator, that you understand internal emitters and radiation, and it’s not low level to the cells that are exposed. Radiobiology is imperative to understand these days. I do suggest, humbly, that if you read my book Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, which I think I’ve tried to send you once, you’ll learn about that.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/30/prescription_for_survival_a_debate_on

It's like how the ultraconservatives on the Supreme Court rule that money is speech and corporations are people: Science is done by organizations and individuals with the means to fund research. That leaves most people and institutions out. So, no offense, I'll side with Helen Caldicott over you and all the pro-nuke sources around.

[NuclearDem]

39. So if I understand it, your reasoning for believing Caldicott...

...is because she's the underdog? Don't tell me, like Galileo, right?

Not exactly sound scientific reasoning, champ.

[Octafish]

82. No, as you are the person who brought her up, I came to her defense.

I think the world of Dr. Helen Caldicott for her life's work, compassion for others, and contributions to medicine and science.

http://www.helencaldicott.com/books/

As I did not mention her or her work in my post #20 connecting the history of nuclear military power and nuclear energy in the USA and Japan, you seem to have believed she would make an excellent strawman for your "argument."

[NuclearDem]

86. Hardly a strawman.

A strawman is a misrepresentation of an opponent's argument. Helen Caldicott believes one million (alright, 985,000) people have died as a result of Chernobyl. That is a fact.

You've repeatedly embraced her in the past for her anti-nuclear advocacy. That you think that completely ridiculous claim is worth anything speaks volumes about the accuracy of your information about nuclear power.

I also respect Caldicott for her advocacy against nuclear weapons. Her nonsense about Chernobyl and Fukushima, not so much.

[Octafish]

93. You misrepresented my argument.

So where did I refer to her in the post you replied to?

[NuclearDem]

108. People deserve to know about your lack of credibility on nuclear power.

[Octafish]

112. I never claimed any. That's why I use sources and links for what I post.

A Public Service Announcement about Plutonium

TEPCO - Plutonium is not dangerous. Where is the Boss?

Fukushima, Plutonium, CIA, and the BFEE: Deep Doo-Doo Four Ways to Doomsday

Before and After photo show significant tsunami damage...

On the Poet's Trail

Helicopter pictures show devastation inside Fukushima reactor towers

Governments Covering Up Nuclear Meltdowns for 50 Years to Protect the Nuclear Power Industry

Surviving Chernobyl Cleaner: 'Tell The People Of Japan To Run!'

What part of what he said wasn't true?

First thing I'd do if I were fighting this nuclear disaster is get the Team the best gear.

The Return of Nukespeak

TEPCO - Plutonium is not dangerous. Where's the Boss?

Toxic plutonium seeping from Japan's nuclear plant

Japan's Nuclear Rescuers: 'Inevitable Some of Them May Die Within Weeks'

Fukushima from Space

Absolutely. A real shame - man's hubris.

Japan Nuclear Power Plants

A more-recent satellite image of Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1-4...

The SCALE of the devastation is incredible.

Jimmy Carter, USN - Nuclear Hero

Utility Engineer Warned of Tsunami Threat at Japanese Nuclear Plant

Voyage to Fukushima Daiichi

TEPCO was warned and took the cheapskate's way out.

Fukushima owners failed to follow emergency manual - report

The people's ancestors left monuments to remind them of the dangers...

Fukushima tsunami plan a single page

Doubts deepen over TEPCO truthfulness after president's sightseeing trip uncovered

Atomic Samurai -IAEA Humbled By Worker Courage at Fukushima Daiichi

Fukushima Radiation Data Quarantined by Governments of Japan and the United States. Why?

Absolutely. And some, if not most, cancer deaths can be avoided with forewarning and knowledge.

''We never meant to conceal the information, but it never occurred to us to make it public.''

Fukushima Daiichi Mystery Man Steps Forward

The Fukushima Crisis Demonstrates how Lowly the Global Elites Hold the Common People

Plutonium detected 40km from Fukushima plant

Trivializing Fukushima

''We never meant to conceal the information, but it never occurred to us to make it public.''

In regards to Fukushima, the only thing TEPCO has successfully buried is the Truth.

TEPCO was warned and took the cheapskate's way out.

Trivializing Fukushima

Citizen Testing Finds 20 Radioactive Hot Spots Around Tokyo

Japan Fukushima plant dismantling needs over 30 yrs

Fukushima Typhoon raising radioactive water levels in contaminated buildings.

Fukushima owners failed to follow emergency manual - report

Fukushima and the Nuclear Establishment - The Big Lies Fly High

I've tried to make up for lack of news coverage, using DU as a news medium. Show me where I claim, even once, to be an expert. Better yet, show where they're wrong. I'll be happy to admit the mistake.

[FBaggins]

140. Oh... ok...

Then people need to know about the lack of credibility of your sources and/or your interpretation of what they say.

Better yet, show where they're wrong. I'll be happy to admit the mistake.

Sorry. That stretches credibility given your inability to admit those mistakes in the past -as with your constant false claims that tepco said that plutonium is not dangerous (as opposed to their accurate statement that a specific discovery of the material did not represent a threat).

Also - posting a long list of links does not demonstrate that you always use sources (let alone that the sources are valid). I don't, for instance, see any link to a source for your claims on the following thread that one ounce of Plutonium is enough to kill every human on the planet because it only takes a few atoms per person since it's the most dangerous substance on Earth.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4793340

[RobertEarl]

37. Problem is

There are some who are just so full of hate for peaceful anti-nuke people, that they never will accept that nukes are killing life as we know it. The industry itself, with blood on its hands, never tells the truth, and spends enormous time and effort to whitewash the blood from its hands.

And there is academia which is loath to upset the powerful nuke industry, since it gets so much funding from nuke interests.

Then, on DU, we see the pro-nukers post all kinds of bullshit while ignoring the lies of the industry, going so far as to actually claim no one has been killed by the radiation coming from Fukushima.

All-the-while the medical science is piling up about how deadly nuclear power plant radiation causes illness amongst the lifeforms which come in contact with the pollution.

[MrMickeysMom]

59. It would be one thing to argue about these things intelligently...

… but, I see the same vitriol by the same persons time after time.

I'm not interested in ignoring how soon the human race will be erased from this planet. The planet will survive, but we can learn from our mistakes… This is the quest of science.

[RobertEarl]

60. I guess it is hatred? IDK

I don't get why they carry on like they do in such deep denial of nuclear science. But then they all came from the 'nukes are safe' camp, so may be that explains why they are such ____________?

[MrMickeysMom]

61. Thanks for the long blank line...

I just made up the perfect word in my head for it.

[Octafish]

101. Hypocrisy Exposed.

Their posts mocking those interested in learning about Fukushima -- and any other subject revealing crimes of the national security state -- reveal a most un-democratic approach to science and politics.

[FBaggins]

103. Actually... the DESERVED mockery...

... is for those who show no interest at all in learning about Fukushima.

They made up their minds before it ever happened and refuse to learn even the most straightforward scientific principles because the source is pro-nuclear and therefore a liar.

[NuclearDem]

109. Science isn't a democracy.

You don't get to vote on what's reality and what's not.

[Octafish]

115. There isn't anything more democratic than truth.

And that is what science is.

[NuclearDem]

117. Except when the findings of the scientific community run contrary to your preconceived notions.

In which case, it's a UN/IAEA/industry conspiracy.

Nevermind how telepathy is actually a real thing because Randi lied to protect someone from persecution for his sexuality.

[FBaggins]

118. Truth/Science are in no sense democratic

Scientific reality is what it is even if every single person on the planet disagrees.

[SidDithers]

94. Janette Sherman has no more credibility than Helen Caldicott...

The studies done by her and Joseph Mangano exhibit some of the absolute worst selective data mining and junk science you'd find anywhere.

And their Baby Tooth Survey is a joke too.

You sure do know how to pick 'em, octafish of DU.

Sid

[Octafish]

95. She's an MD. Here's what she wrote with Joseph Mangano...

Devastation and Hope: Chernobyl at 27

by Joseph J. Mangano and Dr. Janette D. Sherman, MD
CounterPunch, April 26, 2013

The 27th anniversary of the catastrophic nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl reminds us of both a sad legacy and a positive impact on the future.

The bad news came first. Chernobyl stunned many with the first total core meltdown of a nuclear reactor. A massive amount of deadly radiation encircled the northern hemisphere, affecting three billion people, and entered human bodies through breathing and the food chain. Some of the 100-plus radioactive chemicals from Chernobyl last for hundreds and thousands of years.

How many did Chernobyl harm? Before scientific studies could be done, skeptics commonly used the number 31 – the number of rescue workers extinguishing toxic fires who absorbed a very high radiation dose and died in a matter of days.

Beginning just six years after the 1986 meltdown, medical journal articles began to show rising numbers of people with certain diseases near Chernobyl. The first of these was children with thyroid cancer. Officials at a 2005 meeting in Vienna estimated 9,000 persons worldwide had developed cancer from the meltdown. But many anecdotes and studies had piled up, suggesting the real number was much greater.

In 2009, the New York Academy of Sciences published a book by a trio of Russian researchers, headed by Alexei Yablokov; one of us (JDS) edited the book. Yablokov’s team gathered an incredible 5,000 reports and studies. Many were written in Slavic languages and had never been seen by the public. The book documented high levels of disease in many organs of the body, even beyond the former Soviet Union. The Yablokov team estimated 985,000 persons died worldwide, a number that has risen since.

Government and industry leaders in the nuclear field assured the world that the lesson of Chernobyl had been learned, and that another full core meltdown would never occur. But on March 11, 2011 came the tragedy at Fukushima, releasing enormous amounts of radioactivity from not just one, but three reactor cores, and a pool storing nuclear waste. Again, the radioactivity circled the globe. Estimates of eventual casualties are in the many thousands.

In an odd way, Fukushima triggered the positive impact of Chernobyl. The two disasters are a major reason why few new nuclear reactors are being built, and why existing units are now closing. All but two (2) of 50 Japanese reactors remain shut. Germany closed six (6) of its units permanently and its government pledged to close the others by 2022. Swiss officials made a similar vow.

In the U.S., most plans to build dozens of new reactors have been scrapped or postponed. The nation’s first two reactor closings since 1998 occurred this year. More shut downs will follow, say nuclear executives who assert that nuclear power costs more to produce than power from natural gas or wind. Reactors cost more largely due to greater dangers that require more time for construction, more staff to operate, more security measures, more regulations to comply with, and huge amounts to secure after shut down.

If Chernobyl harmed many people, it may also eventually save many lives by speeding the shut down of reactors. Fewer meltdowns would mean fewer casualties. But ending routine releases of radioactivity into the environment would also reduce the count. Studies have found that in local areas after a reactor closing, fewer infants die, fewer children develop cancer, and eventually fewer adults develop cancer. Chernobyl left a tragic impact, but eventual outcomes will be positive ones.

Joseph J. Mangano MPH MBA is Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

Janette D. Sherman MD is an internist and toxicologist, and editor of Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.

Weekend Edition April 26-28, 2013

CONTINUED...

http://janettesherman.com/2013/04/26/devastation-and-hope-chernobyl-at-27/

She and her co-author are concerned for human health and safety. If you disagree with them, show why, don't attack their character.

Almost forgot to ask: What's your degree in, SidDithers?

[SidDithers]

97. You don't know much about Sherman and Mangano, do you...

Sid

[Octafish]

98. As if you do.

Emoticon for added ignorance.

[FBaggins]

102. They're easy to understand

Heck... I could write their papers for them. It's an easily repeatable 6-step process.

1 - Take anything nuclear (let's say... a research reactor) - it doesn't matter whether there has ever been a leak/accident
2 - Look at all health statistics in every county surrounding the location - it doesn't matter whether or not the health stat in question has ever been correlated with radiation at any level. Let's say... infant mortality in the hospital
3 - Plot out all negative health events by county and over multiple time periods... looking for the high and low points of normal statistical variation.
4 - Cherry-pick the location/time combinations with the highest impact rates and those with the lowest impact rates... then weed out the high impact stats that are far away from the "source" and the low impact ones that are close by. It doesn't matter whether the selection aligns with any valid scientific purpose or not... the key is to create the largest possible numerical gap (specifically... one that it large enough to be beyond normal statistical variation if only the narrower data sets are used).
5 - Write a paper implying that the radiation caused those negative health effects.
6 - Cover rear end by adding a statement that of course correlation doesn't prove causation and more study is needed.

[SidDithers]

105. Oh, I certainly do...

I deconstructed their junk science about an alleged spike in baby deaths on the West coast of the US following Fukushima in June 2011.

I've been a "fan" of their work since a poster named Liberation Angel promoted their baby teeth nonsense on DU back in 2009.

Sid

[zappaman]

114. Yeah but she's an MD!

[SidDithers]

116. So was Andrew Wakefield....

and the comparison is appropriate.



Sid

[FBaggins]

104. Nope

There is nothing worth mocking her about.

There's plenty. Let's pick some easy ones:

Her classic claim that if you inhaled a microgram of plutonium is a lethal dose.

That the Cassinni mission Saturn (because it carried plutonium as fuel) "threatens the health of millions" because plutonium is so toxic that one pound of it (if distributed and inhaled) could induce lung cancer in every person on the planet (ignoring that many many tons of it have been effectively distributed and inhaled all around the planet over many decades)

She claimed that Tepco workers had such high doses that many had radiation sickness and that some had died from it. The only reason we don't know about it is that Tepco and the government of Japan are lying about it

She claimed that it was "the end of Japan (financially)"

She said that they would have to evacuate Boston if Unit 4 collapsed

She constantly misuses "hot particle" (sometimes to the point of calling individual atoms by that name).

She regularly makes up ways that radioactive particles will lodge in the testicles (a favorite target because she thinks it causes men to pay attention to her now that she can't use her sex appeal) and mutate genes that get passed from generation to generation - despite all science to the contrary

Her lies re: thyroid nodules in children have been simply unconscionable.

Her constant arrogation of competence in fields for which she has no education at all (a few years as a pediatrician - decades ago - provides no expertise in health physics at all).

[SidDithers]

119. The poster also cites Mangano and Sherman in this thread...

another prime example of giving credibility where it's not deserved.

Sid

[FBaggins]

120. Which goes nicely with the "truth is democratic" theme/ nt

[FreakinDJ]

54. they mock Helen Coldicott because she fabricated LIES

[Octafish]

81. Where?

Here are her books:

http://www.helencaldicott.com/books/

From what I can find, they are based on fact, sourced, and well-written.

So, where does she lie?

[zappaman]

122. Ooooh, she wrote a book!

Here's a good article breaking down her bullshit.

She claimed that isotopes of krypton, xenon and argon "can mutate the genes in the eggs and sperm and cause genetic disease". When I asked her for a source, she told me, "This is also described in my book." In fact her book says (p55): "There have never been any epidemiological studies performed on the effects of exposure to the noble gases xenon and krypton." This flatly contradicts her own claim.

When I pressed her for better sources, her publishers wrote to me and said she did not have time to find them. Now she has had time – time enough to write an article for the Guardian attacking me – but still hasn't supported the claims I questioned.

Instead, she compounds the damage. First she invents a quote, which she attributes to me. She says: "It is inaccurate and misleading to use the term 'acceptable levels of external radiation' … as Monbiot has done." I have never used this term, and never would.

Then she appears to suggest that iodine-131 can "continuously irradiate small volumes of cells … over many years". As it has a half life of eight days, this seems unlikely. Again, a source would help to clear the matter up..

more at http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/apr/13/anti-nuclear-lobby-interrogate-beliefs

She invents quotes.
Hmmmm.sounds familiar.

[yuiyoshida]

17. Last recommended evacuation warning lifted in Fukushima, but many remain wary

By MASAKAZU HONDA/ Staff Writer Asahi Shimbun

MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--The central government lifted on Dec. 28 the last recommended evacuation advisory for several districts in this city, saying radiation levels from the nuclear accident fell below the annual exposure limit.

However, many of the residents of 152 households within these districts voiced their opposition to the lifting.

The central government designated areas that registered high radiation levels outside the zones under mandatory evacuation orders as specific recommended evacuation spots following the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The residents living within these locales were encouraged to evacuate from their homes.

The districts in Minami-Soma were designated as such because they were at risk of exceeding the annual accumulated dose limit of 20 millisieverts, or 3.8 microsieverts per hour.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201412290040

[RobertEarl]

32. Just to be clear

There are many, maybe as many as 150,000 people who used to live in the mandatory evacuation zones?

I feel awful for those people whose lives have been affected by Fukushima blowing sky-high.

[JEB]

42. I'm sure all the defenders of Nuclear Power

will be rushing to Fukushima to buy up the land at bargain prices. I'm sure they will be taking their children and grandchildren to play in the "safe" levels of radiation.

[Octafish]

113. TEPCO Rose Salutes You!

This nice Lady Barbara Judge, a former SEC lawyer and now UK regulator extraordinaire, wants to keep the world safe for nuclear power.



The mood at Fukushima Daiichi is "fantastic."

Lady Barbara Judge: Japan's smart nuclear weapon

The head of the UK's Pension Protection Fund has been drafted in to help assure the residents of Fukushima that its reactors are safe

MARGARETA PAGANO
The Independent (UK) SUNDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2013

Lady Barbara Judge is just back from inspecting the nuclear plants at Fukushima in Japan, the ones closed down after the devastating earthquake and tsunami two years ago. She visited the control rooms at Daiichi – plant one – where three of the reactors went into meltdown and met many of the men who risked their lives by working during the emergency to cool the over-heated reactors and eventually shut them down.

It's not what she expected but the mood there was " fantastic". "What was astonishing was the optimism and hope shown by the workers that these plants can be made safe, and that they can start operating again," she says. But this was in stark contrast to the mood of the Japanese public, still in a state of shock and strongly opposed to the restoration of the nuclear programme.

Already being hailed as Japan's nuclear saviour, Lady Judge was in Fukushima with the bosses of the plants' owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which was criticised for its bungled reaction to the catastrophe. It's her first trip since being appointed deputy chairman of Tepco's new Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, set up after the disaster to propose a new self-regulatory structure for the industry. If all goes well, Tepco hopes to persuade the new government – said to be more favourable than the last – to restart two of the plants later this year.

SNIP...

It's her long experience of Britain's nuclear industry that attracted the Japanese, who rarely bring in outsiders, let alone a woman. Lady Judge's credentials go back to 2002 when she became a director of the UK's Atomic Energy Authority, and was then chairman for six years until 2010. She is still closely involved with the industry so, a few days after returning from Fukushima, was able to take Tepco executives to the West Midlands' Oldbury site to show how it has been decommissioned using the strictest safety protocols.

SNIP...

Yet there's one group of people who stay stubbornly anti-nuclear – women, especially the more educated ones. Wherever you are in the world, she says, all the focus groups show that it's better-off women who don't trust fission.

CONTINUED...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/lady-barbara-judge-japans-smart-nuclear-weapon-8497747.html

It seems that government service in the United States can open doors to [s]money[/s] opportunity in the United Kingdom. From the comment section at e-news we learn:

weeman
February 17, 2013 at 10:29 am

Tokyo Rose I have named her, just like the second world war the propaganda machine is on full spin cycle and we all know the false lies that they promote and brainwashing of populace.

...

Time Is Short
February 18, 2013 at 2:09 pm

Here's a big reason she was brought in:

'Radioactive Asia: There Will Be 100 Additional Nuclear Reactors in Asia in 20 Years'

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2013/02/radioactive-asia-there-will-be-100.html

If she's working for those that control the majority of the uranium mining/processing, you can see the money involved.

Can't let the murder of 8 billion people get in the way of third-quarter profits, can we?

...

Sickputer
February 16, 2013 at 9:20 pm

Her track record has not always been so cheery:

April 23, 2010

"WASHINGTON—Massey Energy Co., owner of a coal mine where 29 workers were killed this month, on Monday said that the board member responsible for governance had resigned because of the demands of "other ongoing business activities."

Lady Barbara Thomas Judge's resignation, effective immediately, comes amid growing criticism of the management of the Richmond, Virginia, company. For months, shareholders had complained that Lady Judge was unable to devote enough time to the job because she served on too many corporate boards. The complaints about Massey's corporate governance intensified after a coal-mine explosion two weeks ago that was the deadliest in 40 years."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575195070711065984.html

Another article in 2007:

"But questions remain. Why does Lady Judge need so many jobs? How did she land her role at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, when she had no relevant experience? Is it relevant that a female friend was on the selection panel?
Lady Judge bristles. She points out that, as a lawyer, it is her job to master a subject about which she is initially ignorant. To prepare for her role at the Atomic Energy Authority, she even studied her son's physics books. She also has a strategic business role, which she is well equipped to carry out.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-452635/Is-best-connected-woman-Britain

The monied class have zero compunction about irradiating the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere or any which way they slice up their planet and protect their loot with the nukes We the People have so kindly paid for.



It's getting apparent that us renters are SOL.

[JEB]

125. The cold hearted greed and wanton disreguard

for life now and in the future is truly astounding. Still no workable plan for dealing with nuclear waste for a very long time. Let someone else worry about that. Just be sure and attack anyone who points out how dangerous and irresponsible the Nuclear industry is behaving.

[seveneyes]

31. the death metal spawning has subsided

All that is left is life beyond the tragedy. Energy equals mass times velocity squared is real, no joke.

[Logical]

33. For the NON-BELIEVERS see this picture!!!!! This was taken off the coast of Japan!!!! nt

[Octafish]

34. Here are better images showing the devestation at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The image above shows three wrecked reactor containment buildings at Fukushima Daiichi NPP, something I remember hearing pro-nuclear types swear would never happen.



Satellite photo from March, 2011. Note the sheen on the water. That's the Pacific Ocean.

[NuclearDem]

36. That's so scary!

I'm sure you'll be telling us what any of those photos mean, rather than just trying to shock people into accepting your fear mongering about Fukushima.

[Octafish]

41. Resorting to condescension shows you don't have the facts to back you up, NuclearDem.

The images were taken from satellites. I've written about them on DU, starting two days or so after the meltdowns.

Here's where they begin on my DU2 Journal, March 13, 2011:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/?az=archives&j=1247&page=13

For some reason, the link to the OPs from the DU2 Journal entries aren't working at the moment. Here's the main link from my first Fukushima OP:

Before and After photo show significant tsunami damage...

ETA: Link to before and after Fukushima Daiichi NPP:

http://www.theasiasun.com/japan-before-and-after-the-quake-and-tsunami/92247/

[NuclearDem]

43. "Resorting to condescension shows you don't have the facts to back you up" - Every creationist ever.

Your reporting on Fukushima has been utterly ridiculous and full of hyperbolic nonsense since day one, completely devoid of any actual knowledge about the field and filled with conspiracy theory argle bargle. It deserves every ounce of ridicule. That you continue to embrace an idiot like Caldicott doesn't help your case much either.

[Octafish]

46. Better than anything you've posted.

And that's a fact.

[NuclearDem]

47. Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5970336 - Wherein you shame a gay man for lying to protect the man he loves, because that man had the gall to expose some of the ridiculous pseudoscientific bullshit you rally behind as nonsense.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2079919 - One of many times you cite white nationalist Paul Craig Roberts.

So if my sources don't live up to your standard, I'll take that as a badge of honor.

[zappaman]

58. Anyone who stands with Paul Craig Roberts should not be at DU.

And the homophobia inherent in that Randi article is very clear.

[Octafish]

90. Anyone who defends smear artists shouldn't be on DU.

Nor should smear artists.

Here's an example of why I get smeared, I write about subjects that the nation's mass media don't cover:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022194573

You sound like someone who resents that, zappaman.

[zappaman]

121. Here's an example from the racist you promote here on DU

Demography is destiny. In 1960 people of European stock comprised one-quarter of the world population. Today white people make up one-sixth of the world population. By 2050 people of European descent will comprise only one-tenth of the world population.

Whites are shrinking into a minority even within their own countries. Massive uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration, together with collapsing fertility rates of whites everywhere, foretell a vanishing race.

In the U.S. whites are no longer a majority in California. Many are now leaving the state looking for a place to live that bears some resemblance to the country they grew up in. Before a lifetime passes, there will be no place. In 1998 President Clinton boasted to a cheering Portland State University audience that by 2050 whites would be a minority in America. “No other nation in history,” he said, “has gone through demographic change of this magnitude in so short a time.”

A changing racial composition would not mean the death of the West if immigrants from Third World countries were assimilating. But the “melting pot” no longer exists. Discarded as racist and hegemonic, the “melting pot” has been replaced by the multicultural “salad bowl.” As Jacques Barzun wrote in his recent history of western civilization, From Dawn to Decadence, not even native born whites are being assimilated to their culture.

A case can be made that the situation is worse than Buchanan says. In the U.S. native-born whites already are second-class citizens in their own country. Unconstitutional group privileges have arisen based on race, gender, and disability. White males no longer have equal rights. As the current chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission says, “Civil rights laws were not passed to protect the rights of white men and do not apply to them.”

The protections in our legal system that make law a shield of the people, not a weapon in the hands of government, have largely been eroded.

But the most fearsome fact is that the demonization of white people in the universities today is more extreme than the demonization of the Jews that was a prominent feature of German university life for 60 years prior to the rise of National Socialism.

Demonization of whites is the weapon used by multiculturalists to breakup western civilization. But teaching hatred has other consequences. Demonization has already demoralized some whites, making them ashamed and fearful of their skin color.

By the time whites become political minorities, decades of demonization will have prepared the ground for legislation prohibiting their propagation and, perhaps, assigning them to the gulag as a final solution to “the cancer of human history.”

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2002/01/08/that-buchanan-book/

Not sure why you stand with Paul Craig Roberts when you've been told numerous times he is a racist, homophobic, former Reagan flunky who hates the Jews.

I guess you have your reasons.

[Octafish]

129. Smearing me for posting about Gov. Don Siegelman exposes you for what you are, zappaman.

PC Roberts' comments were posted on AlterNet and CounterPunch, two of the left/progressive sites DUers often link to.

Going to Jail for Being a Democrat: How Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman Got Roved

Once a popular governor of Alabama, Siegelman was framed in a crooked trial and sent to prison by the corrupt Bush administration.

By Paul Craig Roberts
CounterPunch, via AlterNet
March 2, 2008

Don Siegelman, a popular Democratic governor of Alabama, a Republican state, was framed in a crooked trial, convicted on June 29, 2006, and sent to Federal prison by the corrupt and immoral Bush administration.

The frame-up of Siegelman and businessman Richard Scrushy is so crystal clear and blatant that 52 former state attorney generals from across America, both Republicans and Democrats, have urged the US Congress to investigate the Bush administration's use of the US Department of Justice to rid themselves of a Democratic governor who "they could not beat fair and square," according to Grant Woods, former Republican Attorney General of Arizona and co-chair of the McCain for President leadership committee. Woods says that he has never seen a case with so "many red flags pointing to injustice."

The abuse of American justice by the Bush administration in order to ruin Siegelman is so crystal clear that even the corporate media organization CBS allowed "60 Minutes" to broadcast on February 24, 2008, a damning indictment of the railroading of Siegelman. Extremely coincidental "technical difficulties" caused WHNT, the CBS station covering the populous northern third of Alabama, to go black during the broadcast. The station initially offered a lame excuse of network difficulties that CBS in New York denied. The Republican-owned print media in Alabama seemed to have the inside track on every aspect of the prosecution's case against Siegelman. You just have to look at their editorials and articles following the 60 Minutes broadcast to get a taste of what counts for "objective journalism" in their mind.

The injustice done by the US Department of Justice (sic) to Siegelman is so crystal clear that a participant in Karl Rove's plan to destroy Siegelman can't live with her conscience. Jill Simpson, a Republican lawyer who did opposition research for Rove, testified under oath to the House Judiciary Committee and went public on "60 Minutes." Simpson said she was told by Bill Canary, the most important GOP campaign advisor in Alabama, that "my girls can take care of Siegelman."

Canary's "girls" are two US Attorneys in Alabama, both appointed by President Bush. One is Bill Canary's wife, Leura Canary. The other is Alice Martin. According to Harper's Scott Horton,a law professor at Columbia University, Martin is known for abusive prosecutions.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/78407/going_to_jail_for_being_a_democrat%3A_how_alabama_gov._don_siegelman_got_roved

Here's the original post, nothing to do with Paul Craig Roberts:

Know your BFEE: Siegelman Judge is a big-time War Profiteer

Smearing me into acquiescence is a form of censorship, zappaman. That also is most un-democratic.

[zappaman]

130. So, why do you promote a racist anti-semite on DU?

I don't give a shit what articles he wrote about Siegelman.
Why do you excuse his racism and anti-semitism?
You can whine all you want about "smears", but you're the one who keeps promoting a racist, anti-semite even when told you are promoting a racist, anti-semite.

Why is that?

"But the most fearsome fact is that the demonization of white people in the universities today is more extreme than the demonization of the Jews that was a prominent feature of German university life for 60 years prior to the rise of National Socialism.

Demonization of whites is the weapon used by multiculturalists to breakup western civilization. But teaching hatred has other consequences. Demonization has already demoralized some whites, making them ashamed and fearful of their skin color.

By the time whites become political minorities, decades of demonization will have prepared the ground for legislation prohibiting their propagation and, perhaps, assigning them to the gulag as a final solution to “the cancer of human history.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20110719200202/http://www.vdare.com/roberts/west_future.htm

[Octafish]

134. Why do you misrepresent what I wrote? That is disinformation.

Where did I write that? You posted that, zappaman.

[zappaman]

135. No, Octafish. You continuely use Paul Craig Robert's writings on DU and he is a racist, anti-semite

Not sure why you think he is appropriate for DU.
In fact, his nasty bullshit has been banned here before.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=437x1149

So, why do you continue to link to him?

[Octafish]

136. Show ''continuely.''

Your link to a post to the Administrators was from 2010.

I didn't see it then, but will soon.

[zappaman]

137. Easy to show, Brad.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4504297

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2079919

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4984187

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024498737#post25

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5544142

There's more.
Do you want those to?

Now, since I posted proof of "continually", maybe you will tell us why you do it?

[Octafish]

89. Sophisticated smears.

I criticized the Amazing Randi and his followers, not his lifestyle or sexuality.

I quoted Paul Craig Roberts to criticize what Karl Rove and Co. did to Gov. Don Siegelman; I did not support where PCR had been published.

Stating I did what I did not do is the mark of a smear artist, NuclearDem.

[NuclearDem]

106. Here, maybe you missed this then.

I mean, I don't know why you would, considering you've been shown it constantly:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070208212620/http://www.vdare.com/appeals/072506_pcr.htm

Peter has focused VDARE.COM on the immigration issue and what he calls the "National Question"—whether the U.S. can survive as a nation-state, the political expression of a particular people. I wholeheartedly endorse these objectives and applaud the compelling facts and analysis that VDARE.COM delivers because the Mainstream Media will not.

...

There are many ways to lose a country. One is to be overrun by excessive immigration. Too many immigrants who do not assimilate change the culture and the language. VDARE.COM is the premier site that addresses this issue.

And this:

Whites are shrinking into a minority even within their own countries. Massive uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration, together with collapsing fertility rates of whites everywhere, foretell a vanishing race.

In the U.S. whites are no longer a majority in California. Many are now leaving the state looking for a place to live that bears some resemblance to the country they grew up in. Before a lifetime passes, there will be no place. In 1998 President Clinton boasted to a cheering Portland State University audience that by 2050 whites would be a minority in America. “No other nation in history,” he said, “has gone through demographic change of this magnitude in so short a time.”

...

Cultural Marxists assault not only our history but also the family, the chastity of women and Christianity, important pillars of our civilization. Cultural Marxists use education, entertainment and the media to create a new people that shares their values.

...

By the time whites become political minorities, decades of demonization will have prepared the ground for legislation prohibiting their propagation and, perhaps, assigning them to the gulag as a final solution to “the cancer of human history.”

Both of those published on VDARE.com, a white nationalist website that PCR has not only done solicitation letters for, but also seems to agree with the paranoid racist fantasy about whites becoming a persecuted minority at the hands of immigrants, thanks to "cultural Marxists."

That's not an issue of where he was published, but what he published. You've been shown these links time and again, and you continue to cite his nonsense.

As far as Randi goes, you know goddamn well the deception to protect the man he loves has no fucking bearing whatsoever on his other work. LGBT members here called you out on that disgusting attack, and you slinked away, probably to go whine about being "smeared" somewhere else. Don't make the mistake of thinking I'm fucking stupid and don't know a pathetic borderline homophobic attack when I see it.

[Octafish]

107. I never called you fucking stupid, NuclearDem.

Those are your words.

[NuclearDem]

110. And I never said you did.

Judging by your replies, though, you seem to think that I was born yesterday.

[zappaman]

124. That Randi article reeked of homophobia.

Disgusting.

[kydo]

40. So how long before Godzilla attacks Tokyo

Sorry couldn't resist.


But seriously, its rather scary. Fukushima, not that that we are getting another Godzilla movie - sometimes I like them. What kind of mutations might really come out of the water?

[RobertEarl]

44. It's a serious problem

The thing is the contamination lasts a long, long time. So it can alter the genes and chromosomes of many life forms for a long time.

There was a bird study done after Chernobyl that found the pacific seabird populations was reduced by that radiation release. I've been a birder for 30 years and have been wondering why there are fewer and fewer birds anymore. I think I now know why.

A butterfly study in Japan relates how second generations have mutated since Fukushima.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/caterpillars-eat-even-small-amount-radioactive-plant-material-might-develop-abnormal-butterflies-die-young-180951466/?no-ist

[JEB]

45. So what is the "Official" plan

to clean this up? Just let it dissipate and hope that is good enough? As long as there is clean water someplace, I guess this pollution is just hunky dory? How many deaths, how many years of shortened lives, how many thousands of years must this waste be tended? All just fine as long as TEPCO and GE keep making money?

[RobertEarl]

49. I wished I knew the plan

Best I can figure is they are faced with something they never planned for, so they are winging it. Japan, has, afaict, been trying to do this own their own and spending a minimum. Outsiders would charge money, ya know?

They figure in maybe 10 years they can get to the melted corium and begin removing it. I think they have tried to reduce water flow, and when they did, the corium heated up and caught fire sending smoke and steam into the air. So I think that in order to minimize airborne emissions they have just kept the water flowing.

In the US, our NRC - Nuclear Regulatory Commission - was presented with plans to make sure if one of our plants ever went sky-high they would be better prepared. But those recommendations have been shelved. Because of costs.

We sure have a mess on our hands, what with all the waste - present and future - and no real plans on what to do, mainly because of costs, but also because of a lack of technology. Like the lack of tech to fix Fukushima.

[JEB]

62. I suspect the plan is

keep making as much money as possible for as long as possible no matter what the costs or damage left behind for future generations.

[Ramses]

48. While Tepko execs certainly lied and covered up

I cant get into this Fukushima killing the whole planet nonsense.

Radiation poisioning is serious and Im sure locally its HAS been a very major problem thats been covered up and minimized, the Pacific Ocean is not going to undergo radical effects from a local disaster.

This is not to minimize the seriousness of this disaster

[RobertEarl]

50. There is no science that backs up that assertion

Being as there has never been an occurrence of such magnitude, the only available science is that of lab work.

The lab work clearly details death by radiation to be a real possibility. A small dose to some is inconsequential, but to other lifeforms can be a matter of mutation and death.

Trust me, it gives me no pleasure whatsoever to post such items. But I care for the future and present life on this little blue ball, so it is my duty to convey what I have learned.

It is my hope there is never another Fukushima type blow-up. But the only way to make sure there is not, is to close down and safely store away all such plants. That is my ulterior motive.

[NuclearDem]

51. ...

[RobertEarl]

52. You could say I am an...

Anti-NuclearDem?

[NuclearDem]

53. ...

[Kennah]

55. I'm guessing Millirems?

[RobertEarl]

57. What do millirems do to say, plankton?

Last edited Wed Jan 7, 2015, 01:06 AM - Edit history (1)

And other small lifeforms that are living constantly in the soup?

That are then taken up up and bio-accumulated, right on up the food chain?

We are going to find out, eh? The pacific from Japan to the N. American coast is soupy with millirems, like never before.

ETA; Looks like, Kennah, you have kicked a hornet's nest and invited a swarm-below. Why don't you tell them what you mean by millrems?

[NuclearDem]

64. You're aware a millirem is a unit of measurement, right?

Not a specific thing?

And that specifically the rem is used to measure the effects of radiation on humans (man being the "m" in rem), not plankton?

[Recursion]

65. What do kilograms do to plankton? Or amperes? (nt)

[NuclearDem]

66. I've always been suspicious of those kelvins.

[Kennah]

69. And Hobbes is very shifty

[RobertEarl]

72. They want to know

What do you mean by millirem?

[Kennah]

139. Searching for humorectomy survivors

[Rex]

73. You should be more worried about radon then a high millirem number.

We already know what millirems do to people, we live in that soup and have been for decades. Radon is a bigger concern imo.

[JonLP24]

63. The Vice documentary on Fukishima is really good

Japan is really keeping a lot of the info secret from the local public.

[Octafish]

91. No One Wants You to Know How Bad Fukushima Might Still Be

by Johnny Magdaleno
Vice, August 19, 2014

EXCERPT...

This negligence can be traced back to the Fukushima plant's meltdown. Just three months after the plant was crippled, the Wall Street Journal came out with a report culled from a dozen interviews with senior TEPCO engineers saying its operators knew some reactors were incapable of withstanding a tsunami. Since the Daiichi plant's construction in the late 1960s, engineers had approached higher-ups to discuss refortifying the at-risk reactors, but these requests were denied due to concerns over renovation costs and an overall lack of interest in upgrading what was, at the time, a functioning plant. In 2012, it came to light that one such cost-cutting measure was the use of duct tape to seal leaking pipes within the plant.

A year after the Wall Street Journal report, TEPCO announced that the Daiichi plant's meltdown had released 2.5 times more radiation into the atmosphere than initially estimated. The utility cited broken radiation sensors within the plant's proximity as the main reason for this deficit and, in the same statement, claimed that 99 percent of the total radiation released from the Daiichi plant occurred during the last three weeks of March 2011. That last part turned out to be untrue—a year later, in June 2013, TEPCO admitted that almost 80,000 gallons of contaminated water had been leaking into the Pacific Ocean every day since the meltdown. As of today, that leak continues.

This year marked the disaster's third anniversary, but new accounts of mismanagement and swelling radiation levels continue to surface. In February, TEPCO revealed that groundwater sources near the Daiichi plant and 80 feet from the Pacific Ocean contained 20 million becquerels of the harmful radioactive element Strontium-90 per gallon (one becquerel equals one emission of radiation per second). Even though the internationally accepted limit for Strontium-90 contamination in water hovers around 120 becquerels per gallon, these measurements were hidden from Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority for nearly four months. As a response, the national nuclear watchdog agency censured TEPCO for lacking a "fundamental understanding of measuring and handling radiation."

And last month, TEPCO told reporters that 14 different rice paddies outside Fukushima's exclusion zone were contaminated in August 2013, after a large piece of debris was removed from one of the Daiichi plant's crippled reactors. The readings were taken in March 2014, but TEPCO didn't publicize their findings until four months later, at the start of July—meaning almost a year had passed since emissions had begun to accumulate at dangerous levels in Japan's most sacred food.

The list, unfortunately, goes on. This is merely the abridged account of TEPCO's backpedalling and PR shortfalls. It begs many questions, but the most perplexing one is: Why? Why has a crisis that is gaining traction as the worst case of nuclear pollution in history—worse, emission-wise, than Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or Chernobyl—being smothered with internal censorship? If omission of information isn't intentional, like Dr. Klein suggests, why haven't these revelations led to a stronger institutional effort to contain Fukushima and reduce the chance that irregularities go unnoticed or unreported?

When I asked past Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Helen Caldicott these questions, she was quick to respond: "Because money matters more than people."

CONTINUED...

http://www.vice.com/read/no-one-wants-you-to-know-how-bad-fukushima-might-still-be-666

I found the above via GOOGLE. Do you have a link to the documentary?

[Union Scribe]

67. "Japan’s coal binge stirs international climate fears"

Here's your nuclear-free utopia:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2014/12/12/environment/japans-coal-binge-stirs-international-climate-fears/#.VKLOP3Dw

Carbon emissions in Japan rose 1.6 percent in the year through March to a record.

Encouraged by eased environmental rules, companies are planning to install about 14.8 gigawatt of coal-fired capacity, an increase of 37 percent, in coming years.

Japan’s appetite for cheap coal, to counter a soaring oil and gas bill after the nuclear shutdown, saw it import a record 109 million tons of coal in 2013.

This is what countries do when the reactors are taken offline, including Germany--they turn to more cheap coal. That's the reality of the energy world. Nuclear is not replaced by electrical unicorn farts powering love factories. It's just more dirty damn coal sickening another generation of people. But hey at least it isn't scaaaary nucular stuff right?

[RobertEarl]

68. We could have used you way back

Way back when some of us were fighting coal and nukes and asking for wind and solar and geothermal. We could have electricity today that was clean and renewable and cheap if we had ALL asked for it about 30 years ago when Carter told us that we needed to alter the way we produced electricity.

But no, the unions and other centrists didn't like that idea so they voted for rayguns and now we're fucked.

[Union Scribe]

70. "the unions and other centrists"???

So now it's the durn unions' fault all this radiation is going to kill us all

[RobertEarl]

71. Centrists

I know a few union people. I know they love the money that comes from building and working on nuke plants. And yeah, they pretty much all preferred raygun over that liberal anti-nuke Carter.

[RobertEarl]

74. PS

Interesting that you say the radiation is going to kill us all.

One reason I keep harping on this is because we can certainly avoid such a scenario. But the first step is admitting the danger. Only then we can begin to make choices to avoid such an awful outcome.

[Union Scribe]

75. Think about going to bed, dude.

You've said some absurdly unscientific and anti-worker nonsense in this thread, maybe it's time to call it a day. I promise you we won't die off from radiation in the meantime.

[RobertEarl]

78. Another bs post from you?

Y'know, you keep casting BS at me and never get into a discussion. All you do is cuss. Bad example, dude. You should quit using the union moniker if you're gonna keep acting like this. You make unions look bad.

You think radiation doesn't kill? You ever seen the pacific as radiated as it is? You ever see a nuke plant blow up like Fukushima did?

Why, no, you haven't. So quit talking like you know what's going to happen, ok?

[FBaggins]

88. Wrong as usual

Radiation in the Pacific (either total or just "man-made&quot is not higher now than in the past. It has been on a downward slope since weapons testing ended.

No doubt there was an upward blip in 2011, but it's tiny compared to the overall trend.

[NuclearDem]

77. You keep a sharp eye out for those millirems. Who knows when they're coming for us?

[LanternWaste]

85. Wouldn't an admission of danger be better served by valid science rather than what you serve?

Wouldn't an admission of danger be better served by valid science rather than what you serve?

[RobertEarl]

111. We look forward to your report

Until then.... Thanks for reading.

[MohRokTah]

79. From all reports, cleanup is proceeding very well. eom.

[RobertEarl]

80. If you consider washing it away

They can't even get to the cores for another 10 years at least.

This is the most massive, most deadly, and most costly industrial fuck up ever. And we could have another one any day now.

[Orrex]

87. What's the current kaiju threat level?

It's important that week monitor these things very closely.

[JEB]

123. Wow! What a revealing thread.

Octafish posts links to studies and a group of posters responds with sneers and derision, but very little substance. It seems this group of pro-nuke posters will brook zero criticism of Nuclear Power, nuclear waste, nuclear catastrophes.

[NuclearDem]

126. I know, just like Galileo.

Amirite?

[JEB]

127. What is the plan and cost of storing nucleasr waste?

It stays dangerous for a very long time.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/green_room/2009/11/atomic_priesthoods_thorn_landscapes_and_munchian_pictograms.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-weighs-options-for-handling-nuclear-waste-in-asse-mine-a-884523.html

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/apr/24/nuclear-waste-storage

Do these articles bring up legitimate concerns or is all opposition or concern simply playing victim?

[NuclearDem]

128. There are legitimate concerns about fission power.

A million deaths from Chernobyl and seastar die offs are not among them.

[JEB]

131. I would expect both the Soviets and Nuclear proponets

would minimize death toll and other adverse effects. One death is a waste and extreme sacrifice.

[NuclearDem]

132. Except that it was a Russian study that produced the million figure.

And the international scientific community that says otherwise.

[RobertEarl]

133. They are awesome!!

They go on and on like the energizer bunny. Fueled, one supposes, by the awesome power of nuclear fission and the money and big corporate interests that have lied to the public.

Other than that I can't fathom why they would spew like they do.