© Gulsah Bademci 2011Toxic Sake
"In connection with the decommissioning of Fukushima I units 1 - 4, EnergySolutions aims to handle the planning of the entire decommissioning process, including cost calculation, and win orders for multiple projects, including the treatment and volume reduction of radioactive waste and the extraction and storage of spent fuel and fuel debris (damaged fuel).
Concerning the extraction of fuel debris, which is considered the most challenging process, "There is no technology which may be directly applied," said Morant. He added, however, that knowledge concerning the extraction of damaged fuel, which was obtained through the use of research reactors, and remote underwater cutting technology, as used for the Zion nuclear power station in the United States, may be applied to some extent."
For almost 14 months now those of us who follow the Fukushima disaster closely via the alternative media have waited for someone to make a definitive statement as to how the authorities plan to deal with the ongoing meltdown of three reactors and the spent fuel rods housed there. While the main stream media all but ignores the biggest disaster of all time, alternative media sources have been weeks to as much as ten months ahead of corporate news in accurate reporting of events there. This should be the top story in the news every single day because it is the most important thing happening in the world not only right now but in all of recorded history. This is bigger than the global financial crisis, this is bigger than any election, riot, protest and every single war since the dawn of man. It is the definitive event of all human history. If we screw this up we're all toast. Every single one of us.
One thing that has been suspiciously missing in statements about Fukushima from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the Japanse government, the U.S. government or even the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is any mention of a planned response. All that is reported scant as it is, are occasional responses to one downplayed crisis after another and without any forward looking guidance or direction. No one has been willing to tell us what the plan is!
Today it has finally been admitted, a fact that many of us have known since the beginning of this nightmare, that there is no strategy and there is no real plan to deal with Fukushima. Here we sit over a year into this thing, radiation washing and raining across the globe and just now it's being revealed to the greater public that there is no technology developed to handle the situation. They are flying by the seat of their pants and hope to basically figure it out as they go along. What may be horrifying to the majority of the public left unawares is the fact that in the past year there really has been no progress made at Fukushima. Most people probably assume that since it's not in the news that everything has somehow turned out ok or that it's been taken care of. Nothing has improved and things have only gotten worse as time has gone along. The place looks like the bombed out war zone it did just following the tsunami, the melt down of three reactors and the resultant massive hydrogen explosion which basically ripped the nuclear power plant apart. That event sent tremendous amounts of radioactive substances into the air and still does with each and every passing second. It rains down on Japan, the U.S., Canada, Europe, all the way back to Asia and now there are even reports of radioactive hot spots in the Southern Hemisphere. The mix includes cesium, iodine, strontium, plutonium and now this unforeseen event has probably produced something which never existed before, endofullerene buckey balls making it possible for uranium to be carried through the air as easily as pollen.
Open wide for some toxic sake, a stiff drink of nuclear hubris because not only is there plenty to go around but everyone on the planet is getting a big drink! You see it's like this, some very arrogant members of our obscure little species have managed to create a disaster so big, so complex and so deadly that they may not be able to ever get it under control. Things are really so bad that this information is just now slowly being allowed to disseminate into the main stream media. They couldn't have the sheep panic and start running amok a year ago. If they'd told the truth at the time of the event to the general public there would have been mass panic. Now though, since the radiation is being spread everywhere, those folks that run the world through their controlled media probably figure at this point there's no where really left to run so the people even close to the source will stay put. When this event happened if things were right with the world there would have been an attempt to evacuate about 40 million people from Northern Japan. That is truly what should have been done but no one seemed to want to attempt something like that. Those closest to Fukushima have been forced to take whatever the Fates decide. It's been long enough since the initial event now that radioactive substances have been distributed to just about every surface on the planet and the concentrations grow daily. Even as early as a month after the explosion every soil sample taken in the U.S. showed fallout from Fukushima and it was measured in the air as far away as Sweden. The NORSK institute quickly took measure to hide their data from the public by changing website names. The United States Geological Service is just now releasing some information from 12 months ago. That's how forthcoming we can expect the U.S. government to be.
They're finally hinting that this could possibly wipe us all off the planet if things don't get figured out quickly or if something else goes wrong. Yes it really is that dire. There's enough plutonium in the reactor #4 fuel cooling pool that if allowed to go dry or fall from it's perch 30 meters above the ground will wipe out all life on this planet. Even if that doesn't occur there will still be hundreds of millions die from all the radiation already released and with no foreseeable end to it in sight. This event dwarfs Chernobyl and makes Three Mile Island look like a birthday candle in comparison.
Let's take a look at the reactor #4 building as it stands today and the position of the cooling pool there.
© Unknown
The day before the tsunami hit, TEPCO was getting ready to load up reactor #4 with about 1,500 fresh (not spent) fuel rods which were and still are being held in that now leaky pool. Since Fukushima had recently started using MOX fuel we can assume that's what is being held there now and is just chock full of plutonium. According to Christina Consolo, the host of Nuked Radio,
"If they are MOX fuel, containing 6% plutonium, one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people. If this pool collapses, as Senator Wyden is now saying too, we would face a mass extinction event from the release of radiation in those rods."
That from the article, Fukushima is Falling Apart: are You Ready?
Speaking of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, he like many people or rather most people apparently was clueless as to what was going on in Japan. It's not like it's an issue in the news every day so he must have gotten one hell of a jolt on his trip to Japan when he got to see Fukushima for himself a couple of weeks ago. If you've heard anything recently in the news it might have been just a blurb about the senator issuing a press release shortly after his trip there and witnessing the awful truth about how bad the situation really is. Apparently the senator like the vast majority of the world population didn't get the memo that the biggest catastrophe in the known history of mankind did not just happen last year but is an ongoing situation that is deteriorating. He freaked out so badly that 10 days ago he started writing to everyone and their brother trying to get someone to move on the situation as if these people aren't already aware. I'm sorry but I have difficulty believing that the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Hilary Clinton don't have a grasp of what has been going on over there or here for that matter. It's like saying Alan Greenspan didn't know that there was a housing bubble. These people at the top KNOW the score. How can they not when there is a very small slice of the world population which has known for the last year what is going on with a greater degree of depth and accuracy than the corporate news media. People outside the main stream have been way ahead of the curve regardless of the near blackout regular television until the last few weeks. Even with what coverage they do give it, the majority of people unfortunately either don't listen or forget about it because most of humanity has been reduced to the attention span of gold fish.
Below are links to the letters which Senator Wyden sent to various departments and people last week regarding Fukushima.
- US Ambassador to Japan Fujisaki
- Secretary of Energy Chu
- Secretary of State Clinton
- NRC Chairman Jaczko
"It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on NO.4 reactor. This is confirmed by most reliable experts like Dr. Arnie Gundersen or Dr. Fumiaki Koide.
Please allow me to inform you of an initiative being taken by a former UN official who is endeavoring to have the Nuclear Security Summit take up the crucial problem. of N0.4 reactor of Fukushima. He is pursuing the establishment of an independent assessment team. I think his efforts are very significant, because it is indispensable to draw the attention of world leaders to this vital issue.
I am cooperating with him, writing to some of my Korean acquaintances that this issue deserves the personal attention of President Lee Myung-bak. I have written today to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. I asked him to consider taking the initiative of mobilizing human wisdom on the widest scope to cope with the Fukushima reactor No.4 problem, fully taking into account the above-mentioned "independent assessment team".
Can this seriously be real that we've had the world sitting on it's hands for over a year so that now the Japanese must go begging for help? Is every nuclear regulatory body in the world just ignoring what has been going on and leaving it all up to TEPCO to take care of? This whole thing is like a theater of the absurd. Whatever is going on behind the scenes remains to be seen but we know regardless that things are decidedly very, very bad.
Keep up to date on information about Fukushima and related issues at these websites;
Fukushima Facts
Nuked Radio with Christina Consolo
Fukushima Diary by Iori Mochizuki
Alexander Higgins Blog (frequent articles related to Fukushima but not a dedicated Fukushima blog)
Here is a link: [Link]
I do not know what to do. I was heading to Portland Oregon to continue my artist endeavors and get away from this Right Wing Conservative Christian south but now I do not think it is such a grand idea. I am not sure if this is all propaganda or if we are in for a future of much sickness and woe. I have asked several friends out west if they are hearing about radiation exposure but all of them have not.