Wednesday, November 30, 2011

New Highs and New Lows



Phoenix hit a radiation high today according to the EPA's radnet data.

This tops 8 plus months of on-and off-exposure to fallout, dependent upon the whims of the jet stream.

Our radiological burden has grown very significantly and very rapidly.

Is it now starting to cause visible symptoms?

Many people I have spoken to recently have low-level symptoms that could be viral or could be radiation, including my family and my students.

They report no typical constellation of signs associated with viral and bacterial illnesses. 

People's throats feel scratchy, people feel run down, and many people have problems with headaches.

Yet, with all these symptoms people are not having excess mucus or sinus congestion. 

They also report no fever.

Bacterial infections cause fevers. Viral infections don't always cause fevers. However, viral infections do cause excess mucus if respiratory and it is unusual, in my experience, to have a scratchy throat with a viral infection in the g.i. system (e.g., stomach flu).

Again: Are we now at visible symptoms of radiation exposure in Phoenix? 

Are new highs testing bodies now carrying heavy radiological burdens?

Will our health be brought to new lows?


Fukushima Steaming Away This Morning


Steam is visible and is erupting from under the tent covering unit 1 and to the right of unit 4 at 11:30 23:19

No wonder radiation levels in Japan and the US are worsening.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/f1-np/camera/index-j.html

Japan Aims to Increase Nuclear Exports: Unbelievable!


Diet set to give green light for nuclear exports 

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201111300047

[Excerpted] "Despite the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis, lawmakers are expected to ratify accords in the current Diet session giving the green light to exports of Japan’s nuclear technology.

With major manufacturers desperate to find new markets abroad after the March 11 accident put a brake on building in Japan, both major parties have agreed to put bilateral civil nuclear agreements with Jordan, Vietnam, South Korea and Russia to the vote as early as December. Diet discussions started Nov. 30.

The Japanese government signed the agreements, which are necessary to allowing the export of nuclear technology, by January 2011, but Diet ratification was delayed by the events in Fukushima.

...There has been particular criticism of the government’s rush to pass the accords, instead of waiting for next summer, when it is scheduled to complete a new energy strategy...."

WSJ: French Nuclear Firm Areva in Talks to Build Wind Farm


Tue Nov 29, 2011 p. B7 print edition

" In recent years Areva has looked to diversify away from nuclear energy and build up solar, wind and biomass businesses. In particular, it has bet on demand for offshore wind power and has spent heavily on developing a powerful five-megawatt turbine."

Fukushima Diary: Even Tepco Admitted Melt-Out Occurring



NHK is also running this story here:

TEPCO: Melted fuel ate into containment vessel

"The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has announced the results of an analysis on the state of melted fuel in the plant's Number 1 unit....

...TEPCO said that in the worse case, all fuel rods in the plant's Number 1 reactor may have melted and dropped through its bottom into a containment vessel. The bottom of the vessel is concrete covered with a steel plate.

The utility said the fuel may have eroded the bottom to a depth of 65 centimeters. The thinnest part of the section is only 37 centimeters thick.

TEPCO also said as much as 57 percent of the fuel in the plant's Number 2 reactor and 63 percent in the Number 3 reactor may have melted, and that some of the melted fuel may have fallen through reactor vessels. Wednesday, November 30, 2011 20:02 +0900 (JST)"

MAJIA HERE: This story simply rewrites history. Tepco previously admitted to melt-throughs. 
Over and over, Tepco's strategy has been to release partial truths and then subsequently release "cover-up" stories that are more broadly broadcast in order to mislead public opinion.

Previous reports of melt-throughs:
Justin McCurry “Fukushima Nuclear Plant May Have Suffered ‘Melt-Through,’ Japan Admits,” The Guardian (2011, Jun3 8): http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/fukushima-nuclear-plant-melt-through?CMP=twt_gu 

 “Melt-through' at Fukushima? / Govt report to IAEA suggests situation worse than meltdown,” The Daily Yomiuri Online (2011, June 8): http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110607005367.htm  

 Julian Ryall “Nuclear Fuel Has Melted Through Base of Fukushima Plant,” The Telegraph (2011, June 9):  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8565020/Nuclear-fuel-has-melted-through-base-of-Fukushima-plant.html.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Analysis of the Japanese Government's Report of Radiation Contamination



https://survivaljapan.wordpress.com/

This analysis by the blog Survival Japan addresses many of the inconsistencies and probable falsehoods in the Japanese Government's official assessment of radiation contamination. A must read article.

I agree that people in Japan are probably better off reading the SafeCast analysis, conducted independently by Japanese citizens

Meanwhile, radiation levels continue to be very elevated in the US as evidenced by private readings and by those EPA sites still reporting (some sites censor peaks and other sites are clearly tampering with data as evidenced by strange patterns not consistent with others in region).

It it time for US and Canadian citizens to start creating their own radiation maps in areas believed to be hard hit as a result of jet stream dynamics and precipitation patterns.

Levels hit 500CPM today in Phoenix. I had problems with my asthma again and both my son and I got headaches. Could this level of radiation, after months of low level exposure, be causing these symptoms?
The correlation exists between my asthma and the EPA levels for my area, but is it causal? 

I don't know, but I am terrified that the answer might be affirmative.

How long can this go on? 



New World Order



  Emerging in the aftermath of the financial crisis is a world order dominated by a few governments and corporations that have unprecedented control over global resources and appear to have little-to-no-regard for the welfare of the vast majority of the world’s populace, even within developed economies such as the U.S.  

 Monopoly capitalism is name of the game. During the height of the great financial crisis, secret Federal Reserve loans to the biggest banks totaling $7.7 trillion enabled them to reap $13 billion in profits[i]. As of 2010, six U.S. banks, held assets in excess of 63 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic.[ii] 

Monopolies are not restricted to finance: energy and food industries are also very consolidated. For instance, three companies control ninety percent of the global grain trade (Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, and Cargill) and Monsanto monopolizes seventy percent of the transgenic corn market and more than eighty percent of the transgenic soybean market.[iii]

While U.S. corporate profits have reached unprecedented levels, both in absolute dollars and as a share of the economy, unemployment is at its highest level since the Great Depression.[iv] Over fourteen percent, or one in six Americans, lives below the official poverty threshold.[v] The top .1% of the U.S. population, about 315,000 individuals, receive half of all capital gains on the sale of shares or property and these gains constitute sixty percent of the total income made by the Forbes 400.[vi]...
 
to be continued

[i]            Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz . Secret Fed Loans Helped Banks Net $13B. Bloomberg.com (2011, November 27): http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html.


[ii]             Bill Moyers, Simon Johnson and James Kwak Bill Moyers Journal [on-line] (2010, April 16): http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/profile.html.

[iii]              National Family Farm Coalition. “Food, Inc. and Fresh: Facts and Solutions Needed to Fix the Food System.” NFFC.Net (no date): http://www.nffc.net/Learn/Fact%20Sheets/food%20inc%20and%20fresh.pdf.

[iv]              Henry Blodget. “Here Are Four Charts That Explain What The Protesters Are Angry About...”Business Insider (2011, Oct 15): http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-four-charts-that-explain-what-the-protesters-are-angry-about-2011-10?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bi#ixzz1b3DqeIBh.

[v]              Frances Fox Piven. “The War Against the Poor.” TomDispatch.Com (2011, Nov 6): http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175463/tomgram%3A_frances_fox_piven%2C_the_war_on_the_home_front/#more).

[vi]             Robert Lezner. “Capital Gains: Top .1% Earn ½ Capital Gains. Forbes (2011, Nov 20):


Monday, November 28, 2011

Incredible Graphs of Readings for Fukushima Reactors 1-3


At Simply Info's Fukushima Project

Bloomberg: "Secret Fed Loans Helped Banks Net $13B"



[Excerpted]: Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- "The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. No one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates..."

Majia here: I've lost neighbors because Bank of America and other Too-Big-To-Fail "banks" would not refinance homes.

My neighbors may have made mistakes but they did have jobs and could have made payments if refinancing had been available.

Now their houses stand empty.

My kids feel destitute by the loss of trusted neighbors.

The home values in our upper-middle-class Scottsdale neighborhood continue to fall with each foreclosure. 

I am sickened by the confirmation of what I suspected: The greedy and corrupt banks that caused this crisis benefited from it while continuing to extract ever more resources from the wider population.

Personal Comments About Japan's Tragic Willingness to Sacrifice its Children: We in the US and Canada Are No Different


Kelly Ann Thomas made this remark at Enenews in a forum about the death of a young journalist in Fukushima and I asked her if I could re-post her comment because it so thoughtfully expressed the feelings so many of us are struggling with at Enenews. She provided permission after my comment below.

This is the thread where she made the comment.

I am having a hard time focusing on words because all I can think of are bodies of the walking dead. I am so sad for Japan and for humanity. I wonder how many more people have already died from radiation poisoning and we just haven’t been told the truth.
I don’t want to get used to the idea that this is only the beginning of the first wave. 

I look at the radiation maps and I just cry. There is a certainty about Japan’s future. Sadness, despair, melancholy, anger, frustration…and there isn’t anything I can do. Sometimes I wonder why I keep coming back to Enenews a dozen times a day (probably more) because the new gets worse and worse and there is all beyond my control. 

In the end there isn’t anything we can do, is there? Is that why Edgar Cayce said Japan MUST fall into the ocean? 

Is shutting down the other reactors before there is no one else left alive to shut them down our only option?

As it gets worse, the resources will dwindle and the remaining population will be left to fend for themselves in a radioactive wasteland. 

More than anything, it is the children that make me lose it. I cannot stand the thought of millions of dying orphans, but that’s what will happen, won’t it? What hope do any of those children have for a beautiful future? It’s just so unfair – and the government and Tepco sit in shamed silence, abandoning the children, abandoning their future. 

The first wave is just beginning. What will we see a year from now? I cannot begin to fathom this layer of darkness that will envelope the world.

I hate that there isn’t anything I can do to stop millions of people from dying from this catastrophe. I don’t want to get used to this reality.

Majia: Kelly Ann, may I re-post your comment here on my blog using your name as posted here?

I feel exactly the same way you do.

I have tried to get people I know to pay attention, but few will–and I hang out with academics.

I cannot believe the world would let this happen to the Japanese children without demanding evacuation.

Basically, it seems that if a country wants to slaughter their own, the world’s most powerful nations are content to let that happen without raising a word of concern.

Americans and Canadians better look closely because they are next.

Horrible Weapons Used in Fallujah

 DU, White Phosphorus and the Story of Fallujah By Hannah Gurman, Foreign Policy in Focus 27 November 11

[excerpted]

"Two recent studies led by Dr. Christopher Busby, a chemistry professor at the University of Ulster who specializes in environmental toxicology, have attempted to document and explain Fallujah's health crisis. 

The first was an epidemiological study conducted by a team of 11 researchers who visited 711 households in Fallujah. Published in the December 2010 issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, it found that congenital birth defects, including neural tube, cardiac, and skeletal malformations, were 11 times higher than normal rates, and rose to their highest levels in 2010. 

The study also found a seven-to-38-fold increase in several site-specific cancers, as well as a drastic shift in the ratio of female-to-male births, with 15 percent fewer boys born in the study period.

"In a follow-up study, Busby and his team tested hair samples from 25 mothers and fathers of children with genetic abnormalities in Fallujah. In addition to normally occurring elements, they found uranium. 

The study, published in the October 2011 issue of the Journal of Conflict and Health, concluded that this was a "primary" or "related cause" of the increase in birth defects and cancer in Fallujah. In a recent interview on Russia Today, Busby explained that, although the research team expected to find depleted uranium, they actually found a slightly enriched form of the element. 

This has led him to speculate that a "whole new set of anti-personnel weapons" was secretly deployed in Fallujah and possibly elsewhere...."

read the entire article linked above
A few days ago I linked to a video of Dr. Busby explaining his findings on this new weapon that uses slightly enriched uranium. Here is the video link