Fukushima Coverup!

By now, most readers will have watched many of the hundreds of videos of the March 11 Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami.  The destruction was catastrophic for those in the path of the tsunami that swept in as far as 6 miles, destroying everything in it’s path.  We have seen disasters before, but this one is vastly different.  The damage to the nuclear power plant called Fukushima Daiichi has been a great concern to people around the world.  If the nuclear disaster itself were not bad enough, the lack of accurate information could be considered criminal.  The Japanese government has continuously downplayed the danger associated with this event, to the potential detriment of the Japanese people.  All the while, the danger was well known, and much like the Russian government downplayed the health dangers during and after the Chernobyl meltdown, it will likely lead to serious health problems and death to many innocent people.  In our country, the dangers are said to be non existent.  But can we trust the government and main stream media to give us accurate information?  As we should all see, there is a coverup of massive proportions happening.  But we do have some information to educate ourselves with.  Let’s look at what we know.

Americans have been given very little information by our government as to what, if any, health hazards we may face as we are now getting a constant flow of radioactive material arriving and travelling across the country via the jet stream.  As four of the six damaged reactors continue to deteriorate, the amount of radioactivity entering the atmosphere will grow as well.   The earliest stages of radioactvity has appeared in the U.S., but these reports are all based on the first releases of radioactivity, which were much lower than what is being reported now.  Here’s a quick look at what has been reported based on those early radioactive releases.

In the very beginning,  authorities, and even the president himself, first claimed that any radiation from the stricken nuclear plant would completely dissipate, and would not reach the US at all.  Those predictions have proven completely inaccurate as the mainland United States has been blanketed with radioactive Xenon 133 particles and is to be exposed to more dangerous caesium-137 particles.  While the Japanese government continues its blatant cover up of the severity of the situation, the US government is literally telling Americans they are more at risk from a bag of rocks than they are from breathing in some nuclear fallout.    Nuclear energy critic and author Hirose Takashi wrote about how asinine this type of statement is:

Around Fukushima Daiichi Station they measured 400 millisieverts – that’s per hour. With this measurement (Chief Cabinet Secretary) Edano admitted for the first time that there was a danger to health, but he didn’t explain what this means. All of the information media are at fault here I think. They are saying stupid things like, why, we are exposed to radiation all the time in our daily life, we get radiation from outer space. But that’s one millisievert per year. A year has 365 days, a day has 24 hours; multiply 365 by 24, you get 8760. Multiply the 400 millisieverts by that, you get 3,500,000 the normal dose. You call that safe?  And what media have reported this?

Massachusetts rainwater has also been found to be contaminated with low levels of radiation from Fukushima, indicating just how widespread the radioactive fallout has become. It’s not just the West Coast of North America that’s vulnerable, in other words: even the East Coast could receive dangerous levels of fallout if Fukushima suffers a larger release of radioactive material into the air.   Several nuclear power plants in the southeastern US have begun to detect low levels of radioactive iodine-131 in the air, which is the same type of radiation now being found all over the place.  Reuters has indicated that power plants in both North and South Carolina, as well as one in Florida, have all detected what they say are “low levels” of the non-native radioactive substance. 

Largely absent from most mainstream media reports on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is the fact that a highly-dangerous “mixed-oxide” (MOX) fuel in present in six percent of the fuel rods at the plant’s Unit 3 reactor. Why is MOX a big deal? According to the Nuclear Information Resource Center (NIRS), this plutonium-uranium fuel mixture is far more dangerous than typical enriched uranium — a single milligram (mg) of MOX is as deadly as 2,000,000 mg of normal enriched uranium. A simple calculation reveals that one mg of MOX is basically two million times more powerful than one mg of uranium. This is clearly not a good thing when the plutonium-containing fuel rods in Fukushima may be damaged from the recent explosions and leaking into the environment. Amazingly, most mainstream reports that mention MOX discount it as a non-threat. But the truth of the matter is that the threat posed by MOX is very serious. The NIRS report explains that inhalation of MOX radioactive material is significantly more dangerous than inhalation of normal uranium radioactive particles. You can read the entire MOX report for yourself here:  http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/469-47…

Meanwhile, continued reports are trickling in that indicate a rapidly-escalating crisis at the Fukushima plant. Deadly plutonium is beginning to show up in soil samples near the plant, and dangerously-high levels of radiation are now being detected in seawater nearly a mile from where the nuclear plant dumps water into the ocean. And this is only the information that is being publicly released, sometimes days after officials have become aware of it.   The radiation level in the ocean near the Fukushima nuclear plant keeps rising. It is now 4,385 times above what is considered normal. This is a significant increase from the yesterday’s report that the I-131 isotope found in the water was 3,355 times the regulatory limit.  The IAEA said cesium 137 was measured in one village at a level exceeding the standard that the Soviet Union used as a gauge to recommend abandoning land surrounding the Chernobyl reactor. At another location not precisely identified by the agency it was more than double the Soviet standard, according to the New York Times.

There was yellow rain that fell in Tokyo and surrounding cities , including the yellow residue left behind. This caused some concern to many citizens and  the Japanese authorities, much like the authorities of Russia after a similar yellow rain event, told it’s citizens that it was pollen.  While I’ve seen the very yellow rain and residue left behind, it always occurred in late spring.  It is currently winter in Japan, and like the U.S., pollen is a non issue at this time of year.  If people cannot see the coverup after this,  I don’t know what further proof one would need. 

Japan has rejected the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) advice to expand the evacuation zone around the quake-striken nuclear plant where radiation hit 4,000 times legal limits in the nearby sea. “We have advised (Japan) to carefully assess the situation,” said Denis Flory, a deputy director general of the IAEA, reiterating warnings that radiation in Litate village, 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from the plant, has reached the evacuation level, Reuters reported on Thursday.  A mother of one the Fukushima fifty was recently interviewed:

Speaking tearfully through an interpreter by phone, the mother of a 32-year-old worker said: “My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation. “He told me they have accepted they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long-term.” The woman spoke to Fox News on the condition of anonymity because, she said, plant workers had been asked by management not to communicate with the media or share details with family members in order to minimize public panic.

The readings  taken by the Japanese science ministry, MEXT, and reveal high levels of caesium-137 and iodine-131 outside the 30-kilometre evacuation zone, mostly to the north-north-west.  After the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the most highly contaminated areas were defined as those with over 1490 kilobecquerels (kBq) of caesium per square metre. Produce from soil with 550 kBq/m2 was destroyed. People living within 30 kilometres of the plant have evacuated or been advised to stay indoors. Since 18 March, MEXT has repeatedly found caesium levels above 550 kBq/m2 in an area some 45 kilometres wide lying 30 to 50 kilometres north-west of the plant. The highest was 6400 kBq/m2, about 35 kilometres away, while caesium reached 1816 kBq/m2 in Nihonmatsu City and 1752 kBq/m2 in the town of Kawamata, where iodine-131 levels of up to 12,560 kBq/m2 have also been measured. “Some of the numbers are really high,” says Gerhard Proehl, head of assessment and management of environmental releases of radiation at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

With all that now on the table, how could this nuclear disaster affect us?  Let’s start here:  Cesium-137 undergoes radioactive decay with the emission of beta particles and relatively strong gamma radiation. Cesium-137 decays to barium-137m, a short-lived decay product, which in turn decays to a nonradioactive form of barium. The major dose from cesium-137 is from the barium-137. The half-life of cesium-137 is 30.17 years. Because of the chemical nature of cesium, it moves easily through the environment. This makes the cleanup of cesium-137 difficult.  Like all radionuclides, exposure to radiation from cesium-137 results in increased risk of cancer. Everyone is exposed to very small amounts of cesium-137 in soil and water as a result of atmospheric fallout. Exposure to waste materials, from contaminated sites, or from nuclear accidents can result in cancer risks much higher than typical environmental exposures. http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/cesium.html#environment

Radioactive iodine can cause thyroid problems, and help diagnose and treat thyroid problems. Long-term (chronic) exposure to radioactive iodine can cause nodules, or cancer of the thyroid. However, once thyroid cancer occurs, treatment with high doses of I-131 may be used to treat it. Doctors also use lower doses of I-131 to treat overactive thyroid.  Low doses can reduce activity of the thyroid gland, lowering hormone production in the gland. Doctors must maintain the fine balance between the risks and benefits of using radioactive iodine. On one hand, this small, additional exposure may tip the balance in favor of cancer formation. On the other, this small additional exposure can restore health by slowing an overactive thyroid and improve health conditions.  http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/iodine.html#environment  The information on Plutonium can be found here :  http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/Plutonium.pdf

While the information above gives you a picture of the earliest reports here in the U.S., there have been “new” reports as the higher levels of radiation enter the atmosphere from the reported meltdown(s) at Fukushami Daiichi.  What can the American people really do to protect themselves?  We have no accurate, up to date information, much less a plan of protection.  Is there a way of protecting yourself, outside of locking yourself in your home till the threat is gone?  The government will not tell us if we are in danger from the nuclear fallout from Fukushima.  The MSM will follow suit and tell us that we are in no danger and to keep living our daily lives.  I guess those that are truly fearful can wrap themselves in heavy duty tin foil for the next month or so.  But, there is nothing we can truly do to protect ourselves from any danger that this may present.  Each reactor at Fukushima is 400 times more powerful than Chernobyl, that don’t count the 600,000 spent fuel rods in storage above the reactors. 

Without accurate scientific evidence of when and where any nuclear fallout may be a health hazard to the American people,  there is not much we can do.  The coverup by the Japanese government is appalling.  The silence of our government is equally appalling.  Americans deserve the truth when they may be indirectly affected by events across the globe.  This nuclear disaster is unprecedented, so it may be understandable that there is little understanding of what the severity may be now and become as things worsen.  I don’t believe the American people are in any serious danger, but I’m no nuclear scientist, the best I can do is offer my prayers to everyone who is and may become affected by this event.  Shame on the Japanese government.  Shame on our government as well, they are not doing enough to reassure those they represent. 

Live Free!

G!