In the last 12 months the US Chamber of Commerce shelled out $51,955,000 smackeroos to key members of Congress with the National Association of Realtor’s coming in second with a paltry (snark) $25,943,435. In total for 2013, 20 different industries have handed over a whopping $441,501,321 in 2013 alone! [Read more…]
Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds has put together a virtual tour of Japan’s Fukishima Daiichi plant explaining the 2011 triple meltdown and what TEPCO has done and is planning to do to contain the radiation leaking from storage units and the basements of the four crippled nuclear silos – [Read more…]
(Editor’s Note: The T-Room is providing updates by credible and reliable news sources in the Breaking News post in the Cafe. We are bypassing the corporatist spin propaganda machine to bring you the most accurate, factual and timely information on the tragedy unfolding in Japan including the Fukushima Daiichi and Diani Nuclear Power Plants.)
By Wayne Madsen Wayne Madsen Reports
Fukushima Reactor No. 1 After Explosion
President Obama, as he displayed so ignominiously in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, has, once again, demonstrated that his first priority in the face of major disasters is the protection of corporate interests. Obama’s reaction to the post-quake nuclear power plant disasters in Japan complements what amounts to a cover-up of the danger posed by nuclear power plants in quake-prone areas. Obama has good reason to be protective of the nuclear power industry: he is in their pockets as much as he was in the pockets of BP and other oil companies after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion and subsequent oil deluge in the Gulf.
The nearly 40 year-old nuclear reactor that experienced a core meltdown and explosion, Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 1, was manufactured by General Electric and built in Japan at a time when memories of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still fresh in the minds of many Japanese. Of course, thanks to slick public relations and the support of both the U.S. and Japanese governments, the fear of the Japanese public about nuclear power plants was assuaged by guarantees that the safety of the plants was guaranteed, even during an earthquake in seismically-active Japan. [Read more…]
UPDATE 03/14/11
Attention Verizon Customers –
Japan News will be carried on Channel 1770 for free until 3/17
Verizon customers can call Japan free through 4/10
_________________
“TEPCO: 8,200 microsieverts recorded at plant
Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels reached 8,217 microsieverts per hour near the front gate of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power station at 8:31 AM Tuesday.
Anyone in this kind of environment would be exposed to more than 3 years’ worth of naturally occurring radiation within a single hour.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 09:29 +0900 (JST)”
NHK News Conference held a short while ago
All 3 Fukushima Nuclear Plant Reactors are in meltdown
General Electric Designed Reactors in Fukushima have 23 Sisters in the US
Breaking – from WNN
Serious damage to the reactor core of Fukushima Daiichi 2 seems likely after coolant was apparently lost for a period.
Tokyo Electric Power Company announced earlier today that unit 2’s reactor core isolation cooling system had failed after an increase in pressure in the containment vessel to some 700 kPa.
The Japan Atomic Industry Forum reported back statements from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) that describe Tepco’s efforts from that point.
The company prepared to pump seawater into the reactor system, but this was only started “after the water level reached the top of the fuel.” The water level continued to drop and Tepco then began preparations to open a valve to vent the containment vessel.
At 8.50pm Tepco told NISA that it presumed some of the fuel rods were broken, based on radiation detected in the environment.
Nuclear Scientist Recycled Fuel Containing Plutonium at Fukushima Plant Increases Meltdown Stakes
Cold Shutdowns at Fukushima Daini
US Navy – 7th Fleet Repositions Ships After Contamination Detected
Explosion rocks third Fukushima Reactor –
First published: 3.08am GMT
UPDATE 1: 3.25am Addition of background information
UPDATE 2: 3.49am Technical details on pressure
UPDATE 3: 4.34am Injuries, radiation rates and pressure data
UPDATE 4: 12:00pm Subsequent radiation readings
Another hydrogen explosion has rocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, this time at the third reactor unit. Initial analysis is that the containment structure remains intact.
The blast that occurred at 11.01am today was much larger than the one seen at unit 1 two days ago. An orange flash came before a large column of brown and grey smoke. A large section of the relatively lightweight roof was seen to fly upwards before landing back on other power plant buildings.
Chief cabinet secretary Yukiyo Edamo appeared on television shortly afterwards to identify the blast was a hydrogen explosion. He said contact had been made with the plant manager whose belief is that the containment structure, important to nuclear safety, remains intact. The rationale for that statement, Edamo said, was that water injection operations have continued and pressure readings from the reactor system remained within a comfortable range.
Read the rest of the updates HERE
UPDATE 03/13/11
Impact on North America:
The Pacific jetstream is currently flowing due east directly toward the United States. In the event of a major meltdown and continuous large-volume radioactive release, airborne particles will be carried across the ocean in bands that will cross over the southern halves of Oregon, Montana and Idaho, all of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, northern Nebraska and Iowa and ending in Wisconsin and Illinois, with possible further eastward drift depending on surface wind direction.
Most of the particles can be expected to travel high in the atmosphere, with fallout dependent on low pressure zones, rainfall and temperatures over the US. If a meltdown can be contained in Fukushima, a small amount of particles would be dispersed in the atmosphere with little immediate effect on human and animal health.
Another climate factor to be taken into account is the potential for an El Nino Variable bulging the jetstream further northward, causing fallout over western Canada and a larger number of American states.
Seasonal rainfall over Japan does not normally begin until mid-April and does not become significant until early June.
If very high radiation releases are detected at some point, a potential tactic to lessen contamination of North America is for the US, Canadian and Russian air forces to seed clouds over the northwest Pacific to create a low pressure front and precipitation to minimize particle mass reaching North America.
h/t Kim
Potential contamination of the public is being studied by Japanese authorities as over 170,000 residents are evacuated from within 20 kilometres of Fukushima Daini and Daiichi nuclear power plants. Nine people’s results have shown some degree of contamination.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa) – part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti) – said that out of about 100 residents evacuated from Futaba by buses, nine people were found to have been exposed. The pathway of their exposure is currently under investigation.
One person was measured to have an exposure of 18,000 counts per minute (cpm); another had a measurement of between 30,000 and 36,000 cpm; while a third evacuee had an exposure of 40,000 cpm. A fourth person initially gave a reading of over 100,000 cpm, but a second measurement taken after the person had removed their shoes was just under 40,000 cpm. Another five people were said to have “very small counts”.
Read the rest of the update HERE
See SATELLITE IMAGERY OF JAPAN BEFORE AND AFTER QUAKE AND TSUNAMI
From World Nuclear News
Earthquake impact on Fukushim Daiichi
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 were in operation at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco’s) east coast Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant when the earthquake struck. Three other reactors were already shut for inspection but all three operating units underwent automatic shutdown as expected. Because plant power and grid power were unavailable during the earthquake, diesel generators started automatically to supply power for decay heat removal.
This situation continued for one hour until the plant was hit by the tsunami wave, which stopped the generators and left the plant in black-out conditions. The loss of power meant inevitable rises in temperature within the reactor system as well increases in pressure. Engineers fought for many hours to install mobile power units to replace the diesels and managed to stabilise conditions at units 2 and 3.
However, there was not enough power to provide sufficient coolant to unit 1, which came under greater and greater strain from falling water levels and steady pressure rises. Tepco found it necessary yesterday to vent steam from the reactor containment. Next, the world saw a sharp hydrogen explosion destroy a portion of the reactor building roof. Prime minister Naoto Kan ordered the situation brought under control by the injection of seawater to the reactor vessel.
UPDATE 03/12/11
Breaking News – Two Nuclear Reactors May Go Through Meltdowns-
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTzr3SbZv0c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMEV-_X5b_8&feature=youtu.be
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhSA0BjpYZk
Video taken by private citizen – lives on reclaimed land aka old Tokoyo Bay – films the earth around his home literally opening up w/water forcing its way up –
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6K6JcAB9T0
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRur7HwKzAM
NHK World Tsunami Hits Video
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZhO65q9E3M