Japan Nuclear Meltdown Thread

[Michael]

Selective quotes are copied for each article. —M

Reuters
By Yoko Kubota and Kiyoshi Takenaka
Sun, 10 Apr, 2011 11:20 AM EDT

Japan fails to stop radioactive discharge into ocean

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese nuclear power plant operator TEPCO expects to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean on Monday, days later than planned, a step that would help ease international concern about the spread of radiation from a smashed nuclear plant.

China and South Korea have also criticized Japan's handling of the nuclear crisis, with Seoul calling it incompetent, reflecting growing international unease over the month-long atomic disaster and the spread of radiation.

Japan is struggling to regain control of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that was damaged by the magnitude 9 quake and 15 meter tsunami.

The nuclear plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), has been pumping sea water into the reactors to cool the nuclear core, and then discharging the water, after it has become contaminated, back into the Pacific Ocean.

TEPCO had planned to stop the discharge on Saturday, but work was interrupted by a powerful aftershock late on Thursday. The firm then pushed the target back to Sunday, a goal it failed to meet.

"We are making checks on remaining water, and the final check is scheduled for tomorrow," a company spokesman told a press briefing late on Sunday.

TEPCO was forced to start pumping sea water into the power plant after failing to restart the reactors' cooling systems after the quake. It has been pumping in nitrogen to cool the core, but officials say they are unsure of what to do next.

"We cannot say what the outlook is for the next stage," Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said on Sunday. "As soon as possible we would like to achieve stable cooling and set a course toward controlling radiation."

In Tokyo, around 5,000 people took to the streets in two separate anti-nuclear protests on Sunday. Some carried placards reading 'No More Fukushima' and 'No Nukes'; others danced and played musical instruments.

One group of demonstrators marched to the offices of the operator of the stricken plant, which has apologized to Japan, and neighboring countries, for the crisis.

Radiation from Japan spread around the entire northern hemisphere in the first two weeks of the nuclear crisis, according to the Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

Japan's economy, the world's third largest, is reeling from the triple disaster and several countries have banned or restricted food imports after detecting radiation.

More critically, the nuclear crisis and power shortages have disrupted Japan's manufacturing and electronics global supply chains, hitting computer and automakers in particular.

Power blackouts and restrictions, factory shutdowns, and a sharp drop in tourists have hit the world's most indebted nation.

Efforts to regain control of six reactors hit by the tsunami, which caused partial meltdowns to some reactor cores after fuel rods were overheated, has been hindered by 60,000 tonnes of radioactive water.

NISA said efforts to restore cooling systems were not making clear progress.

TEPCO wants to start moving some of the highly contaminated water out of the reactors and into a condenser, a key step toward restoring the critical cooling system.

"We may be able to use (electric) systems that are currently functioning for cooling, and that may speed up the cooling restoration. But there is no concrete and clear option," said NISA's Nishiyama.

Bangkok Post
Published: 11/04/2011 at 05:31 PM

New 7.1 quake hits Japan as evacuation zone widens

Japan on Monday widened the evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear plant exactly a month on from a huge natural disaster as another 7.1 magnitude quake and tsunami alert strained nerves anew.

The latest aftershock caused buildings to sway in the capital Tokyo, shortly after the nation had observed a minute's silence to remember the 13,000 people killed in the March 11 disaster and the 15,000 who officially remain missing.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.1 onshore quake hit at 5:16 pm (0816 GMT) at a depth of just 13 kilometres (eight miles). Its epicentre was 81 kilometres south of Fukushima city, near the troubled nuclear plant.

Japan's meteorological agency warned that a one-metre (three foot) wave could hit Ibaraki prefecture, one of the areas pummelled by last month's massive tsunami, before cancelling the alert less than an hour later.

Another tremor of 7.1 on April 7 -- just one of thousands of aftershocks to hit the traumatised country -- killed at least two people and cut electricity across a huge area of northern Japan.

Workers battling to contain the crisis at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant were evacuated after the latest quake Monday, which briefly knocked out power to crippled reactors before electricity was restored.

Underlining the threat of long-term health damage from radiation, the government on Monday said it was to widen the evacuation area around the atomic plant to include some towns outside the current 20-kilometre exclusion zone.

Those areas were liable to receive potentially hazardous radiation levels of 20 millisieverts per year, top government spokesman Yukio Edano said, while stressing there was no deterioration at the Fukushima plant.

Tokyo's nationalistic governor, who was re-elected Sunday, said the vast city would bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics as part of efforts to boost recovery.

Shintaro Ishihara said Tokyo -- which lost out to Rio de Janeiro in the race to host the 2016 Olympics -- "can start raising our hand now" for the games.

Kan is worried that "stagnation in consumer spending caused by excessive self-restraint would be detrimental to the Japanese economy and reconstruction efforts in disaster-hit areas," Jiji reported, citing an unnamed official.

The Telegraph
10:02AM BST 11 Apr 2011

Japan earthquake: Fukushima nuclear plant evacuated following aftershock

A magnitude 7.1 aftershock has rattled Japan a month after the magnitude 9 earthquake that spawned a deadly tsunami.

Authorities issued a warning for a three feet high tsunami after today's earthquake, which had its epicentre in Fukushima prefecture. The warning was lifted after an hour.

Workers battling to contain a crisis at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant were ordered to evacuate after the powerful aftershock, operator TEPCO said.

The earthquake briefly knocked out power to crippled reactors before electricity was restored.

"The company ordered workers to withdraw and stay in a quake-proof building," a spokesman for the operator said. "We don't know many workers were involved."

The aftershock shook buildings and briefly forced Tokyo's main international airport to close both of its runways, but there have been no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

To date, police have confirmed that 12,596 people died as a result of the earthquake and tsunami last month. A further 14,747 are listed as missing presumed dead.

Reuters
By Yoko Kubota and Yoko Nishikawa
TOKYO | Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:34am EDT

Japan expands nuclear evacuation zone as new quake hits

(Reuters) - Japan on Monday expanded the evacuation zone around its crippled nuclear plant because of high levels of accumulated radiation, as a strong aftershock rattled the area one month after a quake and tsunami sparked the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

A magnitude 7.1 tremor shook buildings in Tokyo and a wide swathe of eastern Japan on Monday evening, triggering a small tsunami alert. NHK state television said it caused the off-site power supply for two damaged reactors to shut down.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which operates the plant, said workers had stopped pouring cooling water on reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 at Fukushima.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said villages and towns outside the 20 km (12 mile) evacuation zone that have had more accumulated radiation would be evacuated. Children, pregnant women, and hospitalized patients should stay out of some areas 20-30 km from the Fukushima nuclear complex, he added.

The decision to widen the evacuation band around the Fukushima plant was "based on data analysis of accumulated radiation exposure information", Edano told a news conference.

"These new evacuation plans are meant to ensure safety against risks of living there for half a year or one year," he said. There was no need to evacuate immediately, he added.

Japan had resisted extending the zone despite international concerns over radiation spreading from the six damaged reactors at Fukushima, which engineers are still struggling to bring under control after they were wrecked by the 15-meter tsunami.

Residents of one village, Iitate, which is 40 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, have been told to prepare for evacuation because of prolonged exposure to radiation, a local official told Reuters by phone. It has a population of 5,000.

TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu visited the area on Monday for the first time since the March 11 disaster. He had all but vanished from public view apart from a brief apology shortly after the crisis began and has spent some of the time since in hospital.

"I would like to deeply apologize again for causing physical and psychological hardships to people of Fukushima prefecture and near the nuclear plant," said a grim-faced Shimizu.

Dressed in a blue work jacket, he bowed his head for a moment of silence with other TEPCO officials at 2:46 p.m. (0546 GMT), exactly a month after the earthquake hit.

Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato refused to meet Shimizu during his visit, but the TEPCO boss left a business card at the government office.

Sato has criticized the evacuation policy, saying residents in a 20-30 km radius were initially told to stay indoors and then advised to evacuate voluntarily.

Engineers at the damaged Daiichi plant north of Tokyo said they were no closer to restoring the plant's cooling system which is critical if overheated fuel rods are to be cooled and the six reactors brought under control.

In a desperate move to cool highly radioactive fuel rods, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has pumped water onto reactors, some of which have experienced partial meltdown.

But the strategy has hindered moves to restore the plant's internal cooling system, critical to end the crisis, as engineers have had to focus how to store 60,000 tons of contaminated water.

Engineers have been forced to pump low-level radioactive water, left by the tsunami, back into the sea in order to free up storage capacity for highly contaminated water from reactors.

China and South Korea have both criticized Japan for pumping radioactive water into the sea, with Seoul calling it incompetent, reflecting growing international unease over the month-long atomic disaster and the spread of radiation.

TEPCO hopes to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean on Monday, days later than planned.

The triple disaster is the worst to hit Japan since World War Two after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a huge tsunami battered its northeast coast, leaving nearly 28,000 dead or missing and rocking the world's third-largest economy.

Concern at Japan's inability contain its nuclear crisis is mounting with Prime Minister Kan's ruling party suffering embarrassing losses in local elections on Sunday.

Voters vented their anger at the government's handling of the nuclear and humanitarian crisis, with Kan's ruling Democratic Party of Japan losing nearly 70 seats in local elections.

CNN
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 11, 2011 -- Updated 1118 GMT (1918 HKT)

Magnitude 6.6-quake jolts Japan coast

(CNN) -- Fires burned in northeastern Japan Monday evening after a powerful earthquake rattled the region, triggering several landslides that trapped four people in one city.

The 6.6-magnitude quake was centered about 100 miles (164 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo and about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to the U.S. Geological Survey

It caused several landslides in the city of Iwaki, including one that buried three houses and trapped four people inside, police in Fukushima Prefecture said. Authorities were trying to rescue the four. Their condition was not immediately known, police said.

The earthquake did not cause a tsunami.

Workers at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant evacuated briefly but soon returned to resume their efforts to cool the troubled facility.

CNN Video download link, 2 min 35 sec

[Iskendar]

Michael, in regards to the contaminated drinking water -- In Tokyo, tap water was declared safe for adults and older children but not for infants. A few days later, it was "cleared" to be safe for infants as well. I wonder whether it was just government "fact-revision," or whether the tap water in Tokyo was filtered to remove radioactive particles.

Basically, they discovered radioactive iodine in the water ("Radioactive tap water: don't drink it!"), measured that the yearly dose was higher than the safety limit for infants ("Warning: babies shouldn't drink it!"), then realized that iodine doesn't stick around for a year ("Oh, right, never mind then...") Well, that or a secret Illuminati plot to create glow-in-the-dark Japanese... (reduces the ecological footprint, you know)

[Interloper]

Michael, in regards to the contaminated drinking water -- In Tokyo, tap water was declared safe for adults and older children but not for infants. A few days later, it was "cleared" to be safe for infants as well. I wonder whether it was just government "fact-revision," or whether the tap water in Tokyo was filtered to remove radioactive particles.

Basically, they discovered radioactive iodine in the water ("Radioactive tap water: don't drink it!"), measured that the yearly dose was higher than the safety limit for infants ("Warning: babies shouldn't drink it!"), then realized that iodine doesn't stick around for a year ("Oh, right, never mind then...") Well, that a secret Illuminati plot to create glow-in-the-dark Japanese... (reduces the ecological footprint, you know)

Ah. That explains it. Thanks, Iskendar. I guess I won't wait for sewer-dwelling former pet salamanders flushed down the toilets of Tokyo homes, to grow to enormous proportions and stomp around Tokyo, breathing fire.

[Michael]

Basically, they discovered radioactive iodine in the water ("Radioactive tap water: don't drink it!"), measured that the yearly dose was higher than the safety limit for infants ("Warning: babies shouldn't drink it!"), then realized that iodine doesn't stick around for a year ("Oh, right, never mind then...")

Nothing against you, Iskendar, but first, do you happen to have a source? I certainly could have missed it, but I never read this story.

Second, this kind of thinking can be used as a rationale to dismiss any radiation dose by extrapolating it over any desired period of time and then saying that it then doesn't matter. It's utterly ridiculous. According to the definition I copied for a radiation dose, the damage occurs in singular, discrete events, so averaging over time for a single dose is not meaningful since the damage occurred during the specific exposure, not during some imaginary time period in the future.

Come on, let's not be hard of thinking and swallow the kind of rubbish that accompanies almost every mainstream article on Fukushima where they tell us massive amounts of radiation are being released, but it's only iodine, which only lasts 8 days, blah, blah, blah. When do the 8 days stop? They haven't stopped yet, so that time limit is irrevelant, not to mention that the damage can certainly happen within the 8 days. Why should we think the radiation exposure to the Tokyo water supply only happened for 1 day? There's every reason to assume a high probability that it has occurred continuously since at least the first report of detection since the radiation from Fukushima has continued. And then there's the cesium, with a half life of 30 years or more, etc.

[Iskendar]

Basically, they discovered radioactive iodine in the water ("Radioactive tap water: don't drink it!"), measured that the yearly dose was higher than the safety limit for infants ("Warning: babies shouldn't drink it!"), then realized that iodine doesn't stick around for a year ("Oh, right, never mind then...")

Nothing against you, Iskendar, but first, do you happen to have a source? I certainly could have missed it, but I never read this story.

Either the MIT guys, or The Register. Can't be bothered to check.

Second, this kind of thinking can be used as a rationale to dismiss any radiation dose by extrapolating it over any desired period of time and then saying that it then doesn't matter. It's utterly ridiculous. According to the definition I copied for a radiation dose, the damage occurs in singular, discrete events, so averaging over time for a single dose is not meaningful since the damage occurred during the specific exposure, not during some imaginary time period in the future.

Actually, what is ridiculous is your quoted definition of a radiation dose: one of the most retarded things I've yet read during the entire crisis. Basically, when a radiation particle hits a cell, 3 things can happen: cell destruction, dna damage, or nothing. In the first case, your immune system cleans up the mess, and that's that. Unless a lot of cells die at once, then you start getting similar damage to what kills burn victims: the cells' water content gets in the body causing the victim to bloat, and more importantly, the dying cells release toxins which can lead to a cascade of cell death, ultimately leading to organ shutdown and death. This is called radiation sickness, and it's obvious that dose matters here (similar to how burnt surface area matters in burn victims survival chances), and not in the cumulative sense: once the dead cells are cleaned up by your immune system, the danger's gone.

But for that, you need a lot of high energy particles, meaning direct exposure to reactors, nukes or particle accelerators. Not relevant here, IOW. When you look at the second case, dna damage aka mutation, you see something similar: the cell dies, becomes cancerous, or nothing happens. For cell death, the same as above applies: instantaneous dose matters. And you need to swallow a lot of radioactive crap to get to that instantaneous dose. The second case is where statistics come in: cells become cancerous all the time. Most of the time, your immune system catches and kills them. Sometimes, it does not, and the cancer can grow. So do the math: more radiation -> more cancerous cell formation -> higher chance one gets away and you get cancer. And this is cumulative. How anyone can claim dose doesn't matter is a mystery to me. It's also utter horseshit.

Come on, let's not be hard of thinking and swallow the kind of rubbish that accompanies almost every mainstream article on Fukushima where they tell us massive amounts of radiation are being released, but it's only iodine, which only lasts 8 days, blah, blah, blah. When do the 8 days stop?

Actually, 8 days is the half life, meaning that it takes 80 days to reduce radiation to about one thousandth the original value, so it sticks around longer than 8 days. When does it stop? Again, do the math: the duration of the contamination inflow+about 3 months. Since the reactors are shut down, there's no more production of iodine 131, so in a couple of months it'll all be gone.

And then there's the cesium, with a half life of 30 years or more, etc.

Cesium is a more serious problem. Yet that's not what they found in the tap water.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

What is dadhacker? It lit up in my status bar as i opened this up.

[Michael]

Let's say you receive 1 seivert of radiation right now from a particular source with a half life of 1 month. The damage occurs immediately. It happened. It's done. For someone to say, "That source is safe now because after 100 years it won't be emitting radiation, and the seivert you received today, divided over a hundred years, is a safe, daily dose." Do you get my point?

re: Iskendar said: Actually, 8 days is the half life, meaning that it takes 80 days to reduce radiation to about one thousandth the original value, so it sticks around longer than 8 days. When does it stop? Again, do the math: the duration of the contamination inflow+about 3 months.
Thanks for explaining the duration of radioactivity for iodine, but that's not what I meant. I was talking about the "duration of the contamination inflow" as you put it.

re: Iskendar said: Since the reactors are shut down, there's no more production of iodine 131, so in a couple of months it'll all be gone.
The reactors are shut down? Even one of the reactors that was shut down when the tsunami hit is having problems. The ones that were working blew up and three of them have melted down, the core to #2 has been broken, and they are still emitting massive amounts of radiation, which is why the water they continue pouring on them is so contaminated they have nowhere to put it and have to release it into the ocean. That's what I meant when I said "When do the 8 days stop?" The iodine, cesium, and other radioactive isotopes are continuing to be released by the melted fuel rods.

re: Michael said: And then there's the cesium, with a half life of 30 years or more, etc.
re: Iskendar said: Cesium is a more serious problem. Yet that's not what they found in the tap water.
I am curious as to why they only reported finding radioactive iodine in the water and not also cesium.

[Michael]

What is dadhacker? It lit up in my status bar as i opened this up.

[Michael]

Associated Press
Apr 12, 6:25 AM (ET)
By YURI KAGEYAMA and RYAN NAKASHIMA

Japan ups nuke crisis severity to match Chernobyl

TOKYO (AP) - Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 - the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency - after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.


A broken clock sits in the debris a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)


The new ranking signifies a "major accident" that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA. But Japanese officials played down any health effects and stressed that the harm caused by Chernobyl still far outweighs that caused by the Fukushima plant.

The revision came a day after the government added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius already had been cleared around the plant.

The news was received with chagrin by residents in Iitate, one of the five communities, where high levels of radiation have been detected in the soil. The village of 6,200 people is about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.

"It's very shocking to me," said Miyuki Ichisawa, 52, who runs a coffee shop in Iitate. "Now the government is officially telling us this accident is at the same level of Chernobyl."


A survivor takes rest after she took a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., exactly a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)


Japanese officials said the leaks from the Fukushima plant so far amount to a tenth of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster, but said they eventually could exceed Chernobyl's emissions if the crisis continues.

"This reconfirms that this is an extremely major disaster. We are very sorry to the public, people living near the nuclear complex and the international community for causing such a serious accident," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

But Edano told reporters there was no "direct health damage" so far from the crisis. "The accident itself is really serious, but we have set our priority so as not to cause health damage."

Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear physicist at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said the revision was not a cause for worry, that it had to do with the overall release of radiation and was not directly linked to health dangers. He said most of the radiation was released early in the crisis and that the reactors still have mostly intact containment vessels surrounding their nuclear cores.

The change was "not directly connected to the environmental and health effects," Unesaki said. "Judging from all the measurement data, it is quite under control. It doesn't mean that a significant amount of release is now continuing."

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in a national television address, urged the public not to panic and to focus on recovering from the disaster.

"Right now, the situation of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant has been stabilizing step by step. The amount of radiation leaks is on the decline," he said. "But we are not at the stage yet where we can let our guards down."

Continued aftershocks following the 9.0-magnitude megaquake on March 11 are impeding work on stabilizing the Fukushima plant - the latest a 6.3-magnitude one Tuesday that prompted plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, to temporarily pull back workers.

Officials from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident. Other factors included damage to the plant's buildings and accumulated radiation levels for its workers.

"We have refrained from making announcements until we have reliable data," said NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said. "The announcement is being made now because it became possible to look at and check the accumulated data assessed in two different ways," he said, referring to measurements from NISA and Japan's Nuclear Security Council.

NISA and the NSC have been measuring emissions of radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137, a heavier element with a much longer half-life. Based on an average of their estimates and a formula that converts elements into a common radioactive measure, the equivalent of about 500,000 terabecquerels of radiation from iodine-131 has been released into the atmosphere since the crisis began.

That well exceeds the Level 7 threshold of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale of "several tens of thousands of terabecquerels" of iodine-131. A terabecquerel equals a trillion becquerels, a measure for radiation emissions.

The government says the Chernobyl incident released 5.2 million terabecquerels into the air - about 10 times that of the Fukushima plant.

If the leaks continue, the amount of radioactivity released in Fukushima could eventually exceed the amount emitted by Chernobyl, a possibility that Naoki Tsunoda, a TEPCO spokesman, said the company considers "extremely low."

In Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone about 19 miles (30 kilometers) around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned despite government encouragement to stay away.

In 2005, the Chernobyl Forum - a group comprising the International Atomic Energy Agency and several other U.N. groups - said fewer than 50 deaths could be confirmed as being connected to Chernobyl. It also said the number of radiation-related deaths among the 600,000 people who helped deal with the aftermath of the accident would ultimately be around 4,000.

The U.N. health agency, however, has said about 9,300 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation. Some groups, including Greenpeace, have put the numbers 10 times higher.

The Fukushima plant was damaged in a massive tsunami that knocked out cooling systems and backup diesel generators, leading to explosions at three reactors and a fire at a fourth that was undergoing regular maintenance and was empty of fuel.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake that caused the tsunami immediately stopped the three reactors, but overheated cores and a lack of cooling functions led to further damage.

Engineers have pumped water into the damaged reactors to cool them down, but leaks have resulted in the pooling of tons of contaminated, radioactive water that has prevented workers from conducting further repairs.

A month after the disaster, more than 145,000 people are still living in shelters. The quake and tsunami are believed to have killed more than 25,000 people, but many of those bodies were swept out to sea and more than half of those feared dead are still listed as missing.

---

Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa and Noriko Kitano in Tokyo and Eric Talmadge in Soma contributed to this report.

[Michael]

CNBC
Published: Tuesday, 12 Apr 2011 | 5:19 AM ET

Japan Raises Nuclear Crisis to Same Level as Chernobyl

Japan put its nuclear calamity on par with the world's worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, on Tuesday after new data showed that more radiation had leaked from its earthquake-crippled power plant in the early days of the crisis than first thought.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a news conference that Tokyo Electric Power would soon come up with an outlook for when it would get the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi plant under control.

Kan also said that radiation leaks were declining at the plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

Japan earlier on Tuesday designated the March 11 accident at the quake and tsunami-damaged plant as a level 7, on par with the world's worst nuclear calamity, Chernobyl.

Officials said it had taken time to measure radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi facility after it was smashed by March 11's massive quake and tsunami, and the upgrade in its severity rating to the highest level on a globally recognised scale did not mean the situation had suddenly become more critical.

"Our preparations for how to measure (the radiation leakage) when such a tsunami and earthquake occurred were insufficient and, as a result, we were late in disseminating information internationally," said a senior official in Prime Minister Naoto Kan's office.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said the decision to raise the severity of the incident from level 5 to 7 - the same as the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 - was based on cumulative quantities of radiation released.

"Even before this, we had considered this a very serious incident so, in that sense, there will be no big change in the way we deal with it just because it has been designated level 7," an agency official said.

As another major aftershock rattled the earthquake-ravaged east of the country, a fire broke out at the plant, but engineers later extinguished the blaze.

However, the operator of the stricken facility appears to be no closer to restoring cooling systems at the reactors, critical to lowering the temperature of overheated nuclear fuel rods.

The official in Kan's official said that, at a news conference expected later on Tuesday, the prime minister would instruct plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) to set target dates for when it would halt the radiation leakage as well as restore the cooling systems.

No radiation-linked deaths have been reported since the earthquake struck, and only 21 plant workers have been affected by minor radiation sickness, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

"Nowhere Near Chernobyl"

A level 7 incident means a major release of radiation with a widespread health and environmental impact, while a 5 level is a limited release of radioactive material, with several deaths, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Several experts said the new rating exaggerated the severity of the crisis, and that the Chernobyl disaster was far worse.

"It's nowhere near that level. Chernobyl was terrible -- it blew and they had no containment, and they were stuck," said nuclear industry specialist Murray Jennex, an associate professor at San Diego State University in California.

"Their (Japan's) containment has been holding, the only thing that hasn't is the fuel pool that caught fire." The blast at Chernobyl blew the roof off a reactor and sent large amounts of radiation wafting across Europe.

The accident contaminated vast areas, particularly in Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus, led to the evacuation of well over 100,000 and affected livestock as far away as Scandinavia and Britain.
CNBC - Disaster in Japan - Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Nevertheless, the increase in the severity level heightens the risk of diplomatic tension with Japan's neighbours over radioactive fallout.

China and South Korea have already been critical of the operator's decision to pump radioactive water into the sea, a process it has now stopped.

"Raising the level to a 7 has serious diplomatic implications. It is telling people that the accident has the potential to cause trouble to our neighbours," said Kenji Sumita, a nuclear expert at Osaka University.

Huge Economic Damage

The March earthquake and tsunami killed up to 28,000 lives and the estimated cost stands at $300 billion, making it the world's most expensive disaster.

Japan's economics minister warned the economic damage was likely to be worse than first thought as power shortages will cut factory output and disrupt supply chains.

The Bank of Japan governor said the economy was in a "severe state", while central bankers were uncertain when efforts to rebuild the northeast would boost growth, according to minutes from a meeting held three days after the earthquake struck.

NISA said the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was around 10 percent that of Chernobyl.

"Radiation released into the atmosphere peaked from March 15 to 16. Radiation is still being released, but the amount now has fallen considerably," said NISA's Nishiyama.

[Michael]

Reuters
By Yoko Kubota | Reuters – Tue, 12 Apr, 2011 8:27 AM EDT

Slight amounts of strontium found near crippled Japan nuclear

TOKYO (Reuters) - Slight amounts of strontium, a heavy radioactive metal that could lead to leukemia, have been detected in soil and plants near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japan's science and technology ministry said on Tuesday.

Japan has already detected radioactive elements including iodine, cesium and plutonium, in areas near the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power after reactors there were crippled due to a loss of power that disabled cooling functions.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Joseph Radford)

[Michael]

Forbes Blogs
Jeff McMahon
April 9, 2011, updated 4/11

Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities, Cesium-137 In Vermont Milk


Radiation has reached the EPA's maximum contaminant level in some milk samples

[UPDATED 4/11 with FDA's Derived Intervention Level]

Radiation from Japan has been detected in drinking water in 13 more American cities, and cesium-137 has been found in American milk—in Montpelier, Vermont—for the first time since the Japan nuclear disaster began, according to data released by the Environmental Protection Agency late Friday.

Milk samples from Phoenix and Los Angeles contained iodine-131 at levels roughly equal to the maximum contaminant level permitted by EPA, the data shows. The Phoenix sample contained 3.2 picoCuries per liter of iodine-131. The Los Angeles sample contained 2.9. The EPA maximum contaminant level is 3.0, but this is a conservative standard designed to minimize exposure over a lifetime, so EPA does not consider these levels to pose a health threat.

[UPDATE: The FDA's Derived Intervention Level for iodine-131 in milk is much higher: 4700 picoCuries per liter.]

The cesium-137 found in milk in Vermont is the first cesium detected in milk since the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear accident occurred last month. The sample contained 1.9 picoCuries per liter of cesium-137, which falls under the same 3.0 standard.

Radioactive isotopes accumulate in milk after they spread through the atmosphere, fall to earth in rain or dust, and settle on vegetation, where they are ingested by grazing cattle. Iodine-131 is known to accumulate in the thyroid gland, where it can cause cancer and other thyroid diseases. Cesium-137 accumulates in the body’s soft tissues, where it increases risk of cancer, according to EPA.

Airborne contamination continues to cross the western states, the new data shows, and Boise has seen the highest concentrations of radioactive isotopes in rain so far.

A rainwater sample collected in Boise on March 27 contained 390 picocures per liter of iodine-131, plus 41 of cesium-134 and 36 of cesium-137. EPA released this result for the first time yesterday. Typically several days pass between sample collection and data release because of the time required to collect, transport and analyze the samples.

In most of the data released Friday the levels of contaminants detected are far below the standards observed by EPA and other U.S. agencies.

But the EPA drinking-water data includes one outlier—an unusually, but not dangerously, high reading in a drinking water sample from Chatanooga, Tennessee.

The sample was collected at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Sequoyah nuclear plant. A Tennessee official told the Chatanooga Times last week that radiation from Japan had been detected at Sequoyah but is “1,000 to 10,000 times below any levels of concern.” The 1.6 picocures per liter reported by the EPA on Friday is slightly more than half the maximum contaminant level permitted in drinking water, but more uniquely, it is many times higher than all the other drinking water samples collected in the U.S.

[UPDATE: EPA released new data Saturday revealing higher levels than reported here in Little Rock milk and Philadelphia drinking water]

The EPA released this new data through a new interactive open-data system it quietly launched on the EPA website Wednesday. The new interface is to be regularly updated, replacing EPA’s periodic news releases and pdf data charts. Here are more details of the data released Friday:

Drinking Water

Radioactive Iodine-131 was found in drinking water samples from 13 cities. Those cities are listed below, with the amount of Iodine-131 in picocuries per liter. The EPA’s maximum contaminant level for Iodine-131 in drinking water is 3 picocuries per liter.

* Oak Ridge, TN collected 3/28: 0.63
* Oak Ridge, TN collected at three sites 3/29: 0.28, 0.20, 0.18
* Chatanooga, TN collected 3/28: 1.6
* Helena, MT collected 3/28: 0.18
* Columbia, PA collected 3/29: 0.20
* Cincinatti, OH collected 3/28: 0.13
* Pittsburgh, PA collected 3/28: 0.36
* East Liverpool, OH collected 3/30: 0.42
* Painesville, OH collected 3/29: 0.43
* Denver, CO collected 3/30: 0.17
* Detroit, MI collected 3/31: 0.28
* Trenton, NJ collected 3/31: 0.38
* Waretown, NJ collected 3/31: 0.38
* Muscle Shoals, AL collected 3/31: 0.16

Precipitation

In the data released Friday, iodine-131 was found in rainwater samples from the following locations:

* Salt Lake City, UT collected 3/17: 8.1
* Boston, MA collected 3/22: 92
* Montgomery, Alabama collected 3/30: 3.7
* Boise, ID collected 3/27: 390

As reported above, the Boise sample also contained 42 pC/m3 of Cesium-134, and 36 of Cesium-137.
Air

In the most recent data, iodine-131 was found in air filters in the following locations. In the case of air samples, the radiation is measured in picoCuries per cubic meter.

* Montgomery, AL collected 3/31: 0.055
* Nome AK collected 3/30: 0.17
* Nome AK collected 3/29: 0.36
* Nome AK collected 3/27: 0.36
* Nome AK collected 3/26: 0.46
* Nome AK collected 3/25: 0.26
* Juneau AKcollected 3/26: 0.43
* Juneau AK collected 3/27: 0.38
* Juneau AK collected 3/30: 0.28
* Dutch Harbor AK collected 3/30: 0.14
* Dutch Harbor AK collected 3/29: 0.11
* Dutch Harbor AK colleccted 3/26: 0.21
* Boise, ID collected 3/27: 0.22
* Boise, ID collected 3/29: 0.27
* Boise, ID collected 3/28: 0.32
* Las Vegas NV collected 3/28: 0.30
* Las Vegas, NV collected 3/30:: 0.088
* Las Vegas, NV collected 3/29: 0.044

No other types of isotopes were found in the most recent data from air samples, even though EPA is also on the lookout for barium-140, cobalt-60, cesium-134, cesium-136, cesium-137, iodine-132, iodine-133, tellurium-129, and tellurium-132.

In older samples, isotopes of cesium and tellurium were found in Boise; Las Vegas; Nome and Dutch Harbor; Honolulu, Kauai and Oahu, Hawaii; Anaheim, Riverside, San Francisco, and San Bernardino, California; Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; Guam, and Saipan on the Marina Islands.

Some of these locations had not been previously reported in EPA news releases.

The EPA has said it will continue to monitor radiation levels in air, precipitation, drinking water, and milk even if the budget impasse shuts down the government next week.

[Michael]

Eur Activ
Published: 11 April 2011 | Updated: 12 April 2011

Radiation risks from Fukushima 'no longer negligible'

The risks associated with iodine-131 contamination in Europe are no longer "negligible," according to CRIIRAD, a French research body on radioactivity. The NGO is advising pregnant women and infants against "risky behaviour," such as consuming fresh milk or vegetables with large leaves.

Background

After the radioactive cloud emanating from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant reached Europe in late March, CRIIRAD, a French research body on radioactivity, an NGO, said it had detected radioactive iodine-131 in rainwater in south-eastern France.

In parallel testing, the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), the national public institution monitoring nuclear and radiological risks, found iodine 131 in milk.

In normal times, no trace of iodine-131 should be detectable in rainwater or milk.

The Euratom Directive of 13 May 1996 establishes the general principles and safety standards on radiation protection in Europe.

In response to thousands of inquiries from citizens concerned about fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Europe, CRIIRAD has compiled an information package on the risks of radioactive iodine-131 contamination in Europe.

The document, published on 7 April, advises against consuming rainwater and says vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant or breastfeeding women should avoid consuming vegetables with large leaves, fresh milk and creamy cheese.

The risks related to prolonged contamination among vulnerable groups of the population can no longer be considered "negligible" and it is now necessary to avoid "risky behaviour," CRIIRAD claimed.

However, the institute underlines that there is absolutely no need to lock oneself indoors or take iodine tablets.

CRIIRAD says its information note is not limited to the situation in France and is applicable to other European countries, as the level of air contamination is currently the same in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, for instance.

Data for the west coast of the United States, which received the Fukushima radioactive fallout 6-10 days before France, reveals that levels of radioactive iodine-131 concentration are 8-10 times higher there, the institute says.

Rain water and tap water

According to CRIIRAD, a huge proportion of the inquiries it has received concern the risks associated with rainwater and drinking tap water.

The institute stresses that there is no risk whatsoever, even for children, of standing in the rain without protection. But consumption of rainwater as a primary source of drinking water should be avoided, particularly among children, it said.

As for tap water, underground catchments or large rivers should not present any problem. But the institute suggests that the situation of water from reservoirs that collect rainwater from one or more watersheds, such as hillside lakes, should be examined more closely.

As for watering one's garden with collected rainwater, CRIIRAD advises watering only the earth and not the leaves of vegetables, as absorption is faster and more significant on leaf surfaces than through roots.

Food chain

Spinach, salads, cabbage and other vegetables with large surface areas are among those food products that are particularly sensitive to iodine-131 contamination, if they are cultivated outside and exposed to rainwater. Washing vegetables does not help, as iodine-131 is quickly metabolised by the plants, CRIIRAD notes.

Fresh milk and creamy cheeses, as well as meat from cattle that have been outside eating grass, are categorised as foods that may have been indirectly contaminated and must also be monitored. Contamination of milk and cheese from goats and sheep may be of a greater magnitude than that of produce from cows.

Level of a risky dose

The Euratom Directive of 13 May 1996 establishes general principles and safety standards on radiation protection in Europe.

According to the directive, the impact of nuclear activity can be considered negligible if doses of radiation do not exceed ten micro sieverts (mSv) per year. Beyond this value, possible measures should be considered to reduce exposure, it says.

While radioactive iodine-131 is mostly present in the air in the form of gas, CRIIRAD notes that in the case of the Fukushima fallout, the main issue is to limit ingestion of iodine-131.

CRIIRAD notes that the amount of iodine-131 capable of delivering a dose of 10 mSv varies greatly depending on the age of consumers. Children up to two years old are the most vulnerable and ingestion of 50 becquerel (Bq) is enough to deliver to the body a dose of 10 mSv, according to the institute.

If the foods (leafy vegetables, milk etc.) contain between one and 10 Bq per kg or more, it is possible that the reference level of 10 mSv may be exceeded within two to three weeks, the institute added.

Radioactive iodine-131 values measured by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) in recent days show the following, varying levels of contamination: 0,08 Bq/kg in salad, spinach and leeks in Aix-en-Provence, 0,17 Bq per litre in milk in Lourdes and 2,1 Bq per litre in goats milk in Clansayes.

Contamination to continue over coming weeks

CRIIRAD notes that "huge amounts of radioactive material have been released by the Fukushima Daiichi plant since Saturday 12 March 2011. On Tuesday 5 April, 24 days after the accident, the releases continue. This means that the contaminated airborne masses in Europe will last just as long, with a delay linked to the movement of radioactive aerosol gases over some 15,000 km."

It also cited a technical report from the operating company (TEPCO) and the Japanese nuclear safety authorities (NISA) which "fear releases over several more days, even weeks".

If more fires are reported or if the operators are forced to release more steam in order to prevent hydrogen explosions, new massive waste releases will occur, the institute warned.

[Michael]

Infowars.com
April 12, 2011
Kurt Nimmo

Top Scientist: Fukushima Meltdown Could Trigger Atomic Explosion

A British professor and expert on the health effects of ionizing radiation told Alex Jones today evidence points toward a nuclear explosion occurring at the Fukushima Daiichi complex. Two explosions at the plant in March were described as hydrogen gas explosions by Japanese officials and the corporate media.

<link to mp3>
Professor Chris Busby on the Alex Jones Show, April 12, 2011.

Citing data collected by two Russian scientists, Professor Chris Busby told Alex Jones and his audience the explosions at Fukushima were nuclear. The Russian scientists, Sergey A. Pakhomov and Yuri V. Dubasov of the VG Khlopin Radium Institute in Saint Petersburg, examined data related to the explosion at Chernobyl.

Using ratios of the radionuclides Xenon 133 and Xenon 133m which they measured by gamma spectrometer, the Russians demonstrated that the Chernobyl explosion was a fission criticality explosion and not principally a hydrogen explosion as has been claimed.

“I believe that the explosion of the No 3 reactor may have also involved criticality but this must await the release of data on measurements of the Xenon isotope ratios,” he writes in a statement on Fukushima and Chernobyl emailed to Infowars.com.

Busby further notes that the surface contamination and of dose rates 60 kilometers out from the Fukushima site on March 17 exceeded that released at Chernobyl.

He explains in his statement that the damaged reactors at Fukushima “are now continuing to fission. It is hoped that there will be no separation of plutonium and possible nuclear explosion. I feel that this is unlikely now.” Short of an actual plutonium explosion, the reactors remain open to the air and will continue to “fission and release radionuclides for years unless something drastic is done.”

Dr. Busby noted a precedent for the dire scenario now unfolding – a nuclear explosion at a plutonium production reprocessing plant in the former Soviet Union in 1957.

The incident at the Mayak facility was the second-worst nuclear accident in history after the Chernobyl disaster. The explosion released 50-100 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste and contaminated a huge territory in the eastern Urals. The Soviets kept the explosion secret for 30 years. According to a report on the accident, about 400,000 people in the region were irradiated following the explosion and other incidents at the plant.

Dr. Busby told Alex Jones that short of actual isotope readings, he cannot definitely state that the explosions at Fukushima were nuclear, although he believes they were. “We don’t have evidence of that,” he concluded, “we would need to have the Xenon isotope ratios.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x415Io8umIs
1 min 21 sec

Japanese nuclear safety agency raises crisis level of Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7.

[Michael]

Natural News
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
by Mike Adams

Fukushima raised to level 7 Chernobyl event, Japan admits more radiation escaped than we were told

(NaturalNews) The title of this article probably should have been "TOLD YA SO." After all the downplaying, all the denials, all the disinfo and deceptions by both the nuclear industry and the mainstream media, it finally emerges that the amount of radiation released by Fukushima was far, far higher than what we were told. How high? So high that the Fukushima catastrophe has now been raised from a level 5 event to a level 7 event on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (http://www-ns.iaea.org/tech-areas/emergency/ines.asp). They just skipped right over level 6 because they know even a 6 would be laughable at this point.

A level 5 event is an "accident with wider consequences." A level 6 event is a "serious accident," and a level 7 event is a "major accident." If you really do the math, however, Fukushima should be a level 28 event because there are four reactors each at level seven (4x7 = 28). Chernobyl only had one reactor, and it stored far less fuel than any one of the Fukushima reactors.

The amount of released radiation required to quality for a level 7 event is "several tens of thousands of terabecquerels." For example, 50,000 terabecquerels.

How much radiation has already been released from Fukushima? 500,000 terabecquerels -- and that's just from iodine-131 and doesn't even count the other isotopes that are also being released (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110412/D9MI2HB00.html). In other words -- and here's the real shocker -- the amount of radiation released from Fukushima is over TEN TIMES the amount needed to qualify for a level 7 event!

With the arrival of this new designation, Fukushima is now OFFICIALLY a Chernobyl-class event, and nuclear officials are now openly and publicly admitting that the total radiation release from Fukushima could soon exceed Chernobyl -- although they're desperately trying to claim it somehow won't, if only due to the power of their own imaginations.

Meanwhile, we're being treated to an ever-expanding lesson in the table of elements as yet more radioactive materials are being detected in the Fukushima releases. Today, strontium was found in the soils near Fukushima, adding to the impressive list of other elements that were blown into the environment by the explosions there: Plutonium, Iodine and Cesium. (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/slight-amounts ... 2-802.html)

If only Fukushima had blown gold out of its core, Japan might actually have a way to pay for all this, by the way. But sadly, the byproducts of nuclear fission are not the precious metals we would all wish for. Rather, they are the radioactive elements determined by the laws of physics -- the very same laws of physics that the nuclear industry once thought it had smugly conquered.

Murphy, that clever little bastard, seems to crop up everywhere these days.

Far worse than we were originally told

With this new designation of a level 7 event, the massive cover-up has melted down. Although Japan has tried desperately to withhold radiation data, shut off the gauges, explain away the extremely high sensor readings and assure everybody that it was only a "miniscule" amount of radiation being released into the environment, the sad but undeniable truth of the matter is that Fukushima is a global-scale nuclear disaster that's now unleashing radiation across the world that's showing up in our milk and food.

The excuse behind raising the event to level 7 right now instead of earlier is laughable but predictable: Authorities claim they just didn't know how to measure the radiation!

"Our preparations for how to measure (the radiation leakage) when such a tsunami and earthquake occurred were insufficient and, as a result, we were late in disseminating information internationally," said a senior official working for Prime Minister Naoto Kan. (http://www.cnbc.com/id/42542704)

In other words, the nuclear industry didn't know how to measure radiation, they claim, and even when they did figure out how to take measurements, they withheld the resulting data.

The clever disinfo campaign marches on. NISA is now saying that the radiation released into the atmosphere is only 10 percent of Chernobyl's release. But what they don't readily admit is that they're releasing massive quantities of radioactive water into the ocean, and that doesn't count as "atmosphere," you see.

They also don't want you to remember that Fukushima is engage in an ongoing release of radiation with absolutely no end in sight. It is only a matter of weeks, in other words, before Fukushima does exceed the total Chernobyl release levels.

How do we know that? For one, that same senior official quoted above also says the Japanese government is now telling TEPCO to "set target dates for when it would halt the radiation leakage as well as restore the cooling systems" (http://www.cnbc.com/id/42542704).

Set target dates? It's like being stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare. Let's all have a committee conference, and we'll put together an "actionable game plan" so that we can "accentuate our positive accomplishments" while we all "facilitate going forward with team players" and other such nonsense corporate speak that often flows from the mouths of business suit morons who have no idea what to do but somehow want to take credit for it.

If there's a target date to set for halting the radiation, it should be TODAY. If there's a target date to restore cooling to the spent fuel rods, it should be YESTERDAY. Does anyone really believe these are things to be slapped onto a calendar like your best friend's birthday?

Oh, and by the way, we're now supposed to believe the Japanese government is telling us the truth from here forward, I suppose. Sure, they lied about the radiation releases in the past. They downplayed the seriousness of the event; they withheld data and explained away the broken gauges as flukes. But now they're suddenly going to be up front with all of us and tell us the truth, you see. Now we're going to get honest and accurate information out of Japan, if you can believe that.

Still, nuclear industry shills can't help themselves from continuing to downplay the situation. "Judging from all the measurement data, it is quite under control," says Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear physicist at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110412/D9MI2HB00.html). He also said that raising Fukushima to a level 7 event was no cause for worry, and that "...it doesn't mean that a significant amount of release is now continuing."

It seems that Unesaki didn't receive the memo that says, "Stop lying to the public." He's still operating from the previous official memo which instructed everyone to, "Deny and Downplay."

Remember when Fukushima was only a level 4 event and all the nuclear industry experts and government experts were saying "this is nothing like Chernobyl?" Then it was raised to a level 5 event and they repeated, "It's still nothing like Chernobyl." And now with the official designation at level 7, they're screaming, "We swear! It's nothing like Chernobyl!"

Except that it is. It's a lot like Chernobyl. All the elements are the same, after all: The toxic iodine-131 and cesium-137 being released into the environment. The strange but persistent government cover-ups. The lying to the public. The downplaying of the human fatalities caused by the event. The outrageous ineptitude of the nuclear industry "experts" who told us these power plants were safe.

It sound almost exactly like Chernobyl, come to think of it. And if you read the news archives from 1986, you'll find extremely harsh words from the USA condemning the Ukranian officials for withholding data and downplaying the situation there. And yet, just 25 years later, the tables are turned. Now Japan and the USA are in full-on cover-up mode, playing the part of the Soviet officials who lied to their own people about the severity of the disaster.

If there's one thing we've all learned from history, it's that you can always count on your government to lie to you in times of trouble. At precisely the moment the People need honest, accurate information about the severity of a disaster or crisis, government leaders will take to the podium and calmly announce that everything is fine and people should take no precautions whatsoever. And then immediately after these speeches are given, they scurry off to their underground command bunkers.

Here's a video of Obama telling Americans there's no problem with the radioactive fallout from Fukushima. It's hilarious (in a sad sort of way): http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=61EFA...