"Japan has opened the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to journalists for the first time since the disaster of last March. RT has obtained a video of the inside of the crippled complex.
On Saturday, representatives of the Japanese and international media – more than 30 reporters, photographers and cameramen – were taken on a tour of the facility which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.
Despite TEPCO’s assurances that the radiation leaks pose much less danger now, the visitors had to wear a full set of protective gear during the tour."
They have rendered a vast swath of their country uninhabitable. Think that word over. Uninhabitable. How long until we have our own? It's anyone's guess.
That said, try and picture this scene in Ohio. Or Illinois. Or California. Ask yourself, is it worth it?
There isn't really an issue in foreign policy that should currently concern us more than the potential insecurity of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Except, of course, the prospect that a President Perry would have to deal with the situation. Gov. Perry has been legitimately savaged for his response to a question on that topic during last night's debate.
Kevin Drum writes that the answer was little more than a "Palinesque bit of word salad." I think this is unfair to Palin. So obtuse was his response that it should end his candidacy. First of all, Perry is wrong on the facts of our strategic arms agreements with India. Second of all, what the hell good does a "relationship" with India do in the event that the Taliban actually gains control of one or more warheads? Lastly, trying to score points with his party's old school hawks by bringing up arms sales to Taiwan simply made no damn sense.
One of Romney's advisors is quoted by the Weekly Standard as having described the statements as "completely unintelligible." That didn't stop Perry's biggest backer, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, from piling on in his defense
"You gotta have a relationship to know what’s going on. I’ve worked with the Pakistanis, and particularly in Pakistan you need a relationship, because the country’s a pretty unstable place, and it’s run by the army. You gotta know the guy that’s the head of the place."
Mkay. Except the "relationship" Perry discussed was with India.
Team Perry, mired in stunning yokelism, has no business running an American state much less the Armed Forces.
"Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have discovered a radioactive hot spot far more lethal than anything previously recorded at the damaged facility, the plant's owner reported Tuesday.
The reading at the base of a ventilation tower between the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors Monday afternoon was 10,000 millisieverts per hour, the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced -- high enough that a 60-minute exposure could kill a man or woman within weeks. A U.S. expert told CNN that radioactive particles most likely concentrated in that area in the first days of the disaster, as plant operators tried to vent the damaged reactors.
By comparison, the average resident of an industrialized country receives 3 millisieverts of background radiation per year, while the highest level reported in the days following the disaster was about 400 millisieverts."
By F. Grey Parker
I have received hundreds of e-mails over the last several days from readers wondering "where" I had gone and, more pointedly, why I had "stopped covering" the events at TEPCO's Fukishima Dai-Ichi and Dai-Ni facilities. I have been right here.
Let me start by saying this: I believe the concepts of nuclear power make perfect sense. Surprised? Don't be. We're dealing with provable physics. It's not subject to whim or ideology. Science does what it does.
Science is verifiable, it is repeatable and it is consistently obedient to elemental laws. What I don't believe in is man. The limits of each cannot achieve parity. Bottom line.
I oppose nuclear energy as an option more fervently now than ever before. My long-time, two-fold argument against it not only remains unchanged but has been utterly affirmed by the events in Japan. The question of workable spent fuel storage and the limits of human discipline render the pursuit of this thing we can do extremely unwise. The profit motive as we tend to demonstrate it also renders our species nearly unworthy of the knowledge itself.
The atom doesn't lie. Industrialists seeking the shortest path to the largest treasure do.
At times, immediate safety was secondary to the steady flow of favorable quips about "growth" by the CEO. These are the obvious risks when unbridled greed is improperly regulated in capital driven systems. We have dealt with this flaw in our nature in arguably every endeavor where a few sought to enhance their wealth by enticing the many.
Sometimes, though, the stakes really are just too high.
Meet "the spent fuel rod":
There is no question that the energy demands of world society are at the breaking point. But know this. The disaster of failing to meet the future has already happened. What I have described before in this space as "Hoover Dam Thinking" is no longer possible as the global economy is presently defined.
Now that we have a new Middle Eastern theater of military action to be afraid of, let's just forget all about the the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.
In all seriousness, Please give to Japanese Relief HERE, HERE,HERE,HERE and HERE
Mar 13th, 2011 11:50pm CST UPDATE 3/14/11 7:10am CST Please CLICK HERE to find information to donate to Japanese relief efforts.
We reported earlier on the possibility of serious danger at Fukushima reactor #3. There has been an explosion event but the core's containment structure is reportedly intact at this time.
Business Week reports: "The vessel containing the radioactive core of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi No. 3 reactor is intact after a hydrogen explosion at 11:01am local time, Chief Cabinet Secretary Ykio Edano said.
The possibility of a large radiation leak is very small, even as radiation levels at the reactor are rising, Edano, the government's main spokesman, said at a press conference. Tokyo Electric said one worker was injured and seven are missing after today's explosion at the station 220 kilometers (135miles) north of the Japanes capital."
International Business Times reports: "Japanese officials had been injecting seawater into overheating nuclear reactors on Sunday, in an attempt to relieve pressure at the plant.
The number 3 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant may have been deformed due to overheating, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said earlier in the day. He denied that there had been a "meltdown" at the plant."
"Tokyo Electric Power Co. said a meltdown is possible at its Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 3 reactor where a hydrogen explosion occurred, injuring six workers."
Below is raw video of the event. I hesitate to post untranslated feeds, but this is the only footage available at this time.
March 13th, 2011 5:23pm CST UPDATE 3/14/11 7:10am CST Please CLICK HERE to find information to donate to Japanese relief efforts.
A short time ago, the Guardian published this update of the nuclear emergency in Japan: "Fears of a major nuclear accident in Japanhave intensified as authorities scramble to bring under control several overheating reactors at one power station, and declared a state of emergency at another, where radiation levels soared above normal limits.
Workers at the Fukushima 1 nuclear powerplant in the north-east of the country pumped seawater into three reactors in a last-ditch attempt to make them safe after emergency cooling systems failed to stabilise the radioactive cores.
More than 200,000 people were evacuated as officials imposed a 20km exclusion zone around the power station and a 10km zone surrounding the Fukushima 2 power plant nearby. Japanese officials told the International Atomic EnergyAgency they would distribute potassium iodide pills as a precaution against an increased risk of thyroid cancer from radiation."
