TEPCO says contaminated water may overflow
I'm not getting why they can't build storage for this stuff.
Gee, is 720,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances a big number?
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I'm not getting why they can't build storage for this stuff.
Gee, is 720,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances a big number?
Their "container" is the
Their "container" is the Pacific Ocean.
If they let it flow in there they don't have to take care of it.
The contaminated water will go directly to Alaska and from there on down the coast past Canada and the US.
Only in the very long run will Japan feel the effects of it through increased cancer rates.
But they'll only see the same increase as the rest of the world because what they get will be as diluted as what the rest of the world is getting.
It'll be about 20 times the worldwide contamination dose from Chernobyl, just more widespread, less localized in the Ukraine and Europe.
I think TEPCO has a deal with the Japanese government to not collect the water. It's much harder to deal with if it stays in Japan.
Yes... I think I agree with this perspective...
...For Japan, right now, the Pacific might as well be a great, big toilet; or, perhaps more correctly, a Wild West town's main thoroughfare, stinking full of shit and piss and refuse and making the entire population ill. Japan's "share the danger" strategy may even make a certain amount of sick, twisted sense; I bet.they feel fortunate to be able to have so very much of the plant's radiological potential "dissipate", theoretically harmlessly, and certainly tracelessly, into the "big empty", only returning on future tides much diluted, and having first and most consequentially afflicting their nearby neighbors, Russia and the U.S. So THIS is what "open borders" REALLY means: the globalization of death, freely exported and apportioned to all.
More evidence that this Administration has NO IDEA what it's doing, what it's faced with or what to do about it. Not that I think the last Guy would've done appreciably better; I remember Katrina, and the N'Awlins now lost to us forever.
Rick Cromack.
Allen, Texas
Rick, while I usually agree
Rick, while I usually agree with you I completely disagree with your blaming the US government. I think you're not doing this because you're ignorant (I know you're not), but I think you're desperate. If you're not just desperate, can you tell us what the US government should do about this?
The only thing it can do that will have real lasting effects for the planet and us humans is to invest into education and alternative energies, especially solar. And this is what the current administration is trying to do against a tsunami of pressure from the cooperate dictatorship that is represented by the sort of politicians that ruled during Katrina, while they were selling a large fraction of federally protected land to the cooperations.
I agree with you that there could be more of an acknowledgement by politicians from all parties that what is happening will affect not only Japanese, but all of us. Perhaps Obama would say more if there wasn't so much distraction happening that he has to permanently combat, by forces threatening to take away health insurance and education from the American people on a daily basis. But to be honest I don't know what beyond acknowledgment can be done by the US, as long as Japan is not inviting the support.
If you have any suggestions, please mention them and if I agree they are good I will share them with my representative, and you should do the same.
I wonder if....
Well, I do wonder IF the US President had made a clear and public statement about this debacle and insisted that we would NOT stand by and allow all this radioactivity to be poured into the ocean (as opposed to merely agreeing to help Japan stabilize its economy)whether that would have made a difference.
Also, if this was ON THE MAIN NEWS (and you can ask yourselves why it wasn't!), and the average US citizen was watching this disaster unfold on CNN, and its ilk, whether US citizens would be putting pressure on the US government to take a harder line with Japan regarding polluting the ocean.
So, I do not rule out Rick's sentiments.
German government has
German government has announced that all nuclear reactors will be shut down by 2020 and the focus will be on solar, wind, etc. If the worlds second largest economic power can do it so should we. However, we the people allow our government to do as they please. The people in Germany by the tens of thousands stood up after fukushima to let the government know what they wanted and obviously their government listened. What are we doing? Nothing! Europeans are good at this and we are not. We need to mobilize, use social media and get out on the streets and demand stop to nuclear power not just calling our representatives.
They don't fluoridate their
They don't fluoridate their water in Europe. They have fluoridated salt but very few use it. I wonder what effect this has as I've done some reading about the ability of chronic fluoridation to subdue populations.
fluoridated water
I believe they do fluoridate the water in many parts of Europe especially in France. In case you have not noticed, water has become a commodity. The more polluted the water the more we have to "buy" clean water. Anyway, most countries have privatized water. In S. America the water is not full of fluoride, but instead they put the fluoride into "powdered milk" products, just to ensure they get their fair share of the "fluoride" I mean poison.
I power my home just fine
I power my home just fine with one puny solar panel. No one needs these enormous power plants.
One solar panel !
Excellent my friend. I applaud you for sharing the facts about how you get by with your solar panel !
The big secret here is that no one is supposed to know you can get by with solar panels.
Why because the only people that need these nuclear power plants are the military industrial complex, to build war equipment, rockets and bombs, ect. and the huge f---ing corporations that suck up all the power, like GE and so on. Yeah, the companies that make all the crap we don't really need !!!!!!! And we have to suffer so they can get their power by skinning us alive.
My thought is that the companies and industries that use the majority of power should be paying more for the power, the taxes, the clean up and storage of their dirty energy, and should also pay general taxes. Did you know GE paid zero dollars in taxes this year ??? I had to pay more than $1,000 dollars in taxes and I am single and unemployed. How is this possible ? We are being raped and tattered by industries and large corporations.
It is saddening that people
It is saddening that people still continue to fall for the two-party charade. That's where you lost me.
Lost me at the political intersection too
It's not a Dem/Rep or Bush/Obama thing. As far as the direction the US is going, anyway.
See how Obama is going for clean energy to avoid this kind of mess in the future. And this is after previous budgets of similar structure.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/143861-obama-budget-request...
Wow!!! Was that an elephant or donkey? Kind of hard to tell the two apart these days. Let's just have one party and have a Donkephant as the symbol.
You're way over-simplifying
You're way over-simplifying the issues at stake. Compared to fossil fuels nuclear energy is healthy. At least it causes orders of magnitude less cancer per year and doesn't contribute as much to global warming. That doesn't mean one should seek nuclear energy as best alternative, but as temporary one. Most importantly we should all stop wasting energy we don't need.
You are right
Nuclear energy is a temporary solution. Just as it was for Fukushima.
It's kind of like a person with a liver problem saying that wine is a temporary solution to their whiskey problem.
The elephant being ignored
The elephant being ignored that is far stronger an influence than is minor energy reduction: 7 billion people and growing.
The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8), starring physics professor Albert Bartlett.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY
The current global village policy encouraging heavily overpopulated regions to immigrate to North America and Europe has given startling fuel to this fire.
That is what you get, it seems, when the only thing that really matters is money and the profitability of the global economy.
Better the world cut its
Better the world cut its energy needs while investing in and gradually unveiling proper earth-friendly technologies. The temporary solution of nuclear reactors is leaving a long-lasting legacy of the most saddening kind.
I just do not get why the
I just do not get why the international community is so idle. It's not any wonder to me that people have gone all "conspiracy" on this. It is all really, really strange in the worst ways possible.
It is time for the
It is time for the "international community" invade and annihilate these criminal incompetents and bring peace and resolution at long last to this abject abomination. The world needs courageous, extreme action, not WORDS, SPECULATION, and AVOIDANCE.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Not dispersing as promised plankton bioaccumulate
It seem dilution has not been occurring as promised by tepco and Japan contaminants have been sinking locally adding to this dilemma .
Originally stated///Radioactivity is quickly diluted in the ocean, and government officials said the dump should not affect the safety of seafood in the area.
Truth or consequence
The ministry collected samples from 12 locations along a 300-kilometer stretch off Fukushima prefecture's Pacific coast between May 9th and 14th. It hoped to get an idea about the spread of nuclear contamination caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Radioactive substances were found in all locations, including those off Miyagi and Ibaraki Prefectures, which had not been previously investigated.
Radioactive cesium 134, measuring 110 becquerels per kilogram or about 100 times the normal level, was found in samples collected from the seabed 30 kilometers off Sendai City and 45 meters beneath the surface.
Samples collected from the seabed 10 kilometers off Mito City and 49 meters beneath the surface measured 50 becquerels or about 50 times the normal level.
Professor Takashi Ishimaru of the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology says plankton most probably absorbed the radioactive substances carried by the current near the sea surface, and then sank to the seabed.
He said monitoring must be stepped up over a larger area, as radioactive materials in the seabed do not dissolve quickly, and can accumulate in the bodies of larger fish that eat shrimp and crabs that live on the seafloor.
It was just preposterous for
It was just preposterous for them to say that it wouldn't affect the safety of seafood, but considering they detected levels of 120 million Bq/l of Cesium-134 in the seawater near reactor No. 2 back at the beginning of April, it would seem there has been some dilution.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11040506-e.html