Fukushima Radiation Spreads Worldwide

[PrisonerOfHope]

Fukushima Radiation Spreads Worldwide

by Washington's Blog


Global Research, January 17, 2012
Washington's Blog



California, Finland, Canada, Australia Hit By Radiation

The University of California at Berkeley detected cesium levels in San Francisco area milk above over EPA limits … and even higher than they were 6 months ago.

Finnish public television says that cesium from Fukushima has been detected in lichens, fungi and elk and reindeer meat in Finland.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency confirmed a radiation cloud over the East Coast of Australia.

The West Coast of Canada is getting hit by debris from Japan … and at least some of it is likely radioactive.

The authors of the controversial study claiming 14,000 deaths in the U.S. so far from Fukushima are now upping their figure to 20,000. I spoke with nuclear health expert Chris Busby about their study, and he said that mortality figures fluctuate pretty substantially in the normal course, and so it is hard to know at this point one way or the other whether their figures are accurate.

And while there is no evidence linking them to Fukushima, Bed Bath and Beyond has recalled radioactive tissue holders after they set off police radiation monitors aboard a delivery truck This may just be an example of the incredibly lax handling of radioactive materials.

And thyroid cancers are – mysteriously – on the rise in the U.S.

But don’t worry: The owner of the Fukushima plant has the plant in cold shutdown, so everything is “under control” … Although temperatures have apparently jumped inside Fukushima’s number 2 reactor, and the Japanese have no idea where the nuclear fuel has gone, so they are drilling a hole into the containment vessel to try to find it.


www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28714

[PrisonerOfHope]

Nuclear expert says Fukushima radiation coming to USA, massive cover-up under way



(Natural News) There has been a lot of disinformation regarding the Fukushima Nuclear disaster. It appears the government agencies of other nations cooperated with Japan while the international nuclear industry sided with TEPCO's (Tokyo Electric Power Company) disinformation and denial campaign.

As Mike Adams noted in his April 5th, 2011 Natural News article on Fukushima, "The government is going to turn off the radiation detectors, raise the official EPA limits of radioactive exposure, urge Americans to avoid preparing for fallout, and then pretend absolutely nothing is wrong."

Understanding the Millisievert

Millisievert figures are tossed out by the media with little attention to explaining them. Millisieverts (mSv) are measurements of ionizing radiation absorbed by a human body. Geiger counters formally measured with Rems (Roentgen equivalent man) or millirems. The figures on Geiger counters now represent mSv units per hour. There is always a low level of measurable background radiation in our environment from celestial bodies and earthly elements.

Whenever Geiger counters measure more, there is concern. Putting concerns into perspective, smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes (tobacco leaves absorb radioactive isotopes) daily causes an annual exposure level of 13 mSv per year. A 5,000 mSv single dose creates 50% likelihood of death within a month. A single 10,000 mSv dose of radiation causes almost certain death within a month.

Fukushima - Chernobyl Comparisons

Chernobyl was a one reactor meltdown. Fukushima had three reactors that melted down. Chernobyl was land locked in a relatively desolate area. The heaviest radiation was in the sparsely inhabited area near the plant, although air currents contaminated Northern Europe and Western Russia as well.

Fukushima is the small densely populated island of Japan. It seems there are going to be more cancer victims and food contamination with this disaster than Chernobyl's. The Fukushima plants are on the Pacific Ocean coast.
Millions of gallons of contaminated water are being dumped into the Pacific in addition to radiation particles floating on air streams. So ocean currents are assisting air currents, exposing the world to excessive radiation.

Sea life is getting contaminated as well. The most dangerous radiation comes from radioactive particles ingested with contaminated foods. It only takes a few ingested particles to create intense health issues or death. Seems wise to avoid northern Pacific Seafood and Japanese Teas from your diet for the near future.

The easiest sign of food chain contamination comes from high radiation readings on milk. And what little data has leaked from normally scheduled testing across the United States has shown increased radioactivity in water and milk. But the USDA is not testing organic milk since that's not part or their job description. Raw milk is another issue. There should be even more concern over Japan's food exports, especially tea.

Before the actual extent of Japan's crisis became evident, Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster weighed in with a realistic early warning. "Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan," he said. "Chernobyl went up in one go and Fukushima is worse."

Other experts noted the futility of watering down the reactors from outside and above, which was an early attempt to cool down the reactors. The cooling has to occur inside, the way radiator coolant cools auto engines. Internal reactor cooling requires pumping water generated by electric pumps. And electricity hasn't been available there. Many experts have questioned why the sarcophagus solution was not employed or even considered.

Sarcophagus means stone tomb in Russian. The Russians devised this solution almost immediately after Chernobyl's meltdown. It took several months to implement. But they got it done, thus restricting more emissions in the immediate area and throughout Western Russia and Northern Europe.

Those living nearby Chernobyl were exposed to 450 mSv over several days. This level of exposure is sufficient to cause cancer for many within their lifetimes. Nevertheless, nearby residents were evacuated as soon as possible.
It seems Fukushima evacuation planners dragged their feet with a smaller area of no return than Chernobyl's restricted area. What kind of measurements were occurring in Fukushima by the time the Japanese government and TEPCO finally admitted that their situation was worse than originally reported?

That's difficult to answer because of the denial and disinformation during the early stages of this disaster. But it's apparent that the zone of intense radiation involves more inhabitants in Japan than Chernobyl ever did. A nearby Japanese university has tested soil samples in the area and discovered the radioactive contamination is deeper and higher than originally anticipated.

Unanticipated higher readings done by third party groups imply earlier industry and government cover ups that downgraded or withheld readings.
It was months after the initial event that the Japanese government and TEPCO raised the Fukushima danger level to seven, matching Chernobyl's disaster level.

One thing is for certain. The Fukushima radioactive leaks will continue at high amounts longer than Chernobyl did. Fukushima's radioactive fallout will be affecting more people, crops, and of course sea life than Chernobyl's disaster caused. But just like the Gulf BP oil disaster, we won't be able to count on accurate mainstream media information or government intervention to minimize the damage.

Learn more: www.naturalnews.com/033481_Fukushima_radiation.html#ixzz1kPgLGbpA

[PrisonerOfHope]

Nuclear Radiation Levels from Fukushima Are RISING

by Washington's Blog


Fukushima Operator Admits 20% Increase In Radiation

JiJi Press – one of Japan’s largest news sources – reports:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Monday reported an increase in radioactive materials leaking from damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima … plant.

The total amount of radioactive cesium that leaked from the containment vessels of the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors reached 70 million becquerels per hour, up 12 million becquerels from the December level, the power firm said.

It seems that radioactive dusts were stirred up because plant workers went inside reactor buildings and removed rubble, TEPCO officials said.

While it is possible that the increased radiation is simply due to dust being stirred up, there is some evidence that the increase in radiation corresponds with recent earthquakes.

Or it could be due to the possible escape of nuclear fuel from the nuclear container vessels.

Indeed, a Fukushima whistleblower allegedly claims that radioactive fuel is coming out from beneath the containment building:




www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28842

[PrisonerOfHope]

Fukushima Cover Up Unravels: “The Government Can No Longer Pull the Wool Over the Public’s Eyes”

by Washington's Blog


Global Research, January 23, 2012
Washiington's Blog


Too Much Radiation to Cover Up

As I’ve pointed out since day one, the Japanese government and Tepco have covered up the extent of the radiation released by Fukushima and its health effects on the Japanese and others. See this and this.

The New York Times notes:

The government inspectors declared Onami’s rice safe for consumption after testing just two of its 154 rice farms.

Then … more than a dozen [farmers] found unsafe levels of cesium. An ensuing panic forced the Japanese government to intervene, with promises to test more than 25,000 rice farms in eastern Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located.

***

The repeated failures have done more than raise concerns that some Japanese may have been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation in their food, as regrettable as that is. They have also had a corrosive effect on public confidence in the food-monitoring efforts, with a growing segment of the public and even many experts coming to believe that officials have understated or even covered up the true extent of the public health risk in order to limit both the economic damage and the size of potential compensation payments.

Critics say … the government can no longer pull the wool over the public’s eyes, as they contend it has done routinely in the past.

“Since the accident, the government has tried to continue its business-as-usual approach of understating the severity of the accident and insisting that it knows best,” said Mitsuhiro Fukao, an economics professor at Keio University in Tokyo who has written about the loss of trust in government. “But the people are learning from the blogs, Twitter and Facebook that the government’s food-monitoring system is simply not credible.”

***

“No one trusts the national government’s safety standards,” said Ichio Muto, 59, who farms organic mushrooms in Nihonmatsu, 25 miles northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The Japan Times reports:

The government buried a worst-case scenario for the Fukushima nuclear crisis that was drafted last March and kept it under wraps until the end of last year, sources in the administration said Saturday.

After the document was shown to a small, select group of senior government officials at the prime minister’s office in late March, the administration of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan decided to quietly bury it, the sources said.

“When the document was presented (in March), a discussion ensued about keeping its existence secret,” a government source said.

In order to deny its existence, the government treated it as a personal document of Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo, who authored it, until the end of December, the sources said.

It was only then that it was actually recognized as an official government document, they said.

“The content was so shocking that we decided to treat it as if it didn’t exist,” a senior government official said.

Major Japanese broadcaster NHK purportedly stopped a reporter in mid-sentence on March 12th as he was discussing the exposure of the nuclear fuel rods above the cooling pool, telling him:

They say you mustn’t read this draft.

Finally, the Economist and Boing Boing note that a Canadian journalist was grilled about who he spoke with at Fukushima, and:

Held, threatened, and shaken down for bribes before being detained without counsel or a phone call. He says he was eventually deported, though not before being ordered to sign a falsified confession and being threatened by an official at gunpoint.

(Many journalists and nuclear experts are alleged to have been monitored, harassed or blocked by the Japanese government.)

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28813