Flap Your Lips Friday
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 9th, 2013
Good morning!
Prism Princess: Thank you for posting these articles. This is just simply horrific. I HOPE that something can and will be done soon. I decided to post one of the articles for today’s write because it is such an important topic. Should this information “disappear” from the internet, at least it can still be found here. Thanks for doing the homework. I appreciate you making time in your busy day. I HOPE you are doing good.
You won’t find this on mainstream media:
Fukushima leaking radioactive water for ‘2 years, 300 tons flowing into Pacific daily’
Edited time: August 08, 2013 11:05
The rate at which contaminated water has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean from the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant is worse than thought before, an Industry Ministry official said as PM Shinzo Abe pledged to step up efforts to halt the crisis.
“We think that the volume of water is about 300 tons a day,” said Yushi Yoneyama, an official with the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, which regulates Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO).
Abe put the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in charge of the situation, while demanding that the plant’s operator, TEPCO take the necessary steps to deal with the cleanup, which is anticipated to take more than 40 years at a cost of US$11 billion.
On Wednesday TEPCO confirmed the leak but refused to confirm the quantity being emitted from the plant.
“We are not currently able to say clearly how much groundwater is actually flowing into the ocean,” Tokyo Electric Power spokesman Noriyuki Imaizumi told Reuters when asked for an estimate.
Japanese authorities are working in crisis mode, attempting to assure the public both at home and abroad that the situation will not further deteriorate into a widespread environmental catastrophe.
Yoneyama said the government plans to reduce the leakage amount to 60 tons per day by as early as December, but given the Japanese government’s progress in the cleanup to date that goal may be difficult to achieve. Removing 300 tonnes of groundwater, however, would not necessarily halt leakage into the sea, he said.
The nuclear plant was severely damaged in an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011. About 90,000 people within a 20km radius of the plant were forced to evacuate their homes due to the possibility of a full-scale nuclear meltdown.
Nearing boiling point?
Earlier, TEPCO said it detected 2.35 billion becquerels of cesium per liter in water that is now leaking into the groundwater through cracks in the plant’s drainage system. This radiation level is roughly the same as that measured in April 2011.
The normal level is 150 becquerels of cesium per liter of water.
For the past two years, TEPCO has claimed that it managed to siphon off the excess water into specially-constructed storage tanks. However, the company was forced to admit late last month that radioactive water was still escaping into the Pacific Ocean. These consistent failures are testing the patience of Japanese authorities.
“You can’t just leave it [disposing of radioactive waste at the plant] up to TEPCO,” Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) told Reuters. “Right now, we have an emergency.”
Earlier this month, TEPCO was forced to go on the defensive after a scathing first-page article appeared in The Asahi Shimbun daily criticizing the company’s cleanup efforts.
“TEPCO did nothing for more than two years despite having pledged to seal a leaking hole between a turbine building [the leakage source] and an underground pit [a trench] in April 2011 when water contaminated with radioactive materials…was found to have leaked into the ocean; and the company only began preparing for shielding tests this summer after contaminated water was found to be leaking into the sea this time,” the newspaper stated on August 1, 2013.
TEPCO fired back with its own version of events, saying that despite “technical difficulties and a severe work environment” the company has been working to implement a plan “in order to further reduce the risk of having outflow of contaminated water beyond the trench.”
Although TEPCO engineers have constructed a barrier between the destroyed facility and the ocean, it only extends 1.8 meters below the ground, thus water continues to accumulate inside the plant vaults.
“If you build a wall, of course the water is going to accumulate there. And there is no other way for the water to go but up or sideways and eventually lead to the ocean,” Masashi Goto, a nuclear engineer who has worked at several TEPCO plants, told Reuters. “So now, the question is how long do we have?“
TEPCO has pledged to begin pumping enough radioactive seepage to stop the water level from rising. But the company faces limitations, as its storage tanks are 85 percent full.
“New measures are needed to stop the water from flowing into the sea,” emphasized Kinjo, who accused TEPCO of failing to implement long-term solutions for a crisis that has been continuing for more than two years.
Not only is TEPCO running up against technical problems associated with the cleanup efforts, it must also deal with the unpredictable force of nature, specifically in the form of earthquakes.
On Sunday, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, the same northeastern region of the island country that was devastated by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in 15,000 people killed and more than 3,200 missing.
No damage or injuries were reported in the latest earthquake, but some roads and railways were temporarily closed for safety inspections.
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Zen Lill: Thanks too for your contribution.
LeTa0: I am liking you as our newbie to the blog. I HOPE that you’ll continue to share your words with us, and become a “regular”. I promise there will be no censoring here. Sending my best to you.
Peace out
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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August 9th, 2013 at 10:15 am
It is just shameful the way the governments have been hiding this information from us.
August 9th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Japan is so afraid of losing face they won’t fess up. They actually sell vegetables to their citizens advertising they are from the radioactive prefecture! people are eating it in the name of national pride.
/SB
August 9th, 2013 at 2:50 pm
The debate is whether we should revisit Japan with another 7+ earthquake. Followed by a huge Tsunami. Or just overtly destroy the island.
August 9th, 2013 at 3:03 pm
Simple Ways to Cut Your Disease Risk by 80%
Hint: Popcorn is one of them
If you were to boil down all of our medical wisdom to just a few words, you would already know them—exercise, eat well, don’t smoke and maintain a healthy weight.
But a shocking number of people are not following through. Less than 4% of adults meet any of the criteria for a healthy lifestyle—that’s right, less than 4%!
One study, which looked at more than 23,000 participants between the ages of 35 and 65, found that those who improved any one of the factors above were 50% less likely to develop a chronic disease.
Those who did all four at the start of the study had a nearly 80% reduced risk for any chronic disease.
So why aren’t we doing what we should? Because it seems too hard! Here are little ways to get started…
Stand up.
A report in BMJ Open suggests that you could gain an extra two years of life just by standing up. Researchers found that people who reduced their daily sitting to less than three hours tended to live longer than those who spent more of their days in a chair.
My advice:
Remind yourself to move. At least once an hour, stand up for a few minutes. A fast walk through the halls will get the blood moving. Better: Do high knee raises, jumping jacks or other calisthenics.
When I’m on a long car trip, I do isometric exercises by flexing my arms against the steering wheel. At home, stand up and flex your calves while talking on the phone or watching TV.
Eat popcorn.
Even if your diet is mainly healthy, you still will gain weight if you don’t keep an eye on portion sizes. This is particularly important for those who eat processed foods, which typically pack a lot of calories into surprisingly small servings.
My advice:
Eat foods with a high satiety index. Even small servings of these foods will fill you up, so you consume fewer calories. Popcorn is a good example. It contains a lot of air, which takes up space in the stomach. (But avoid chemical-laden packaged microwave popcorn.)
Other high-satiety foods include those with a lot of water (such as soup or fruits)…protein (beans, lean meats, nuts, etc.)…and low-glycemic foods (such as sweet potatoes or whole grains), which are absorbed slowly into the bloodstream.
Go caveman.
Our Stone Age ancestors probably got about half of their calories from meat. This wasn’t a problem because the meats they ate were much leaner than today’s steaks and hamburgers. You don’t have to avoid meat to be healthy. You do have to limit saturated fat.
The mass-produced beef, pork and poultry that most of us eat come from confined animals. They’re fattened with grains and manufactured foods, an unnatural diet that makes meat tender but also increases saturated fat.
My advice:
Eat meats only from animals that were given a more or less natural diet. Game meats, such as venison and antelope, are leaner than traditional beef and pork—and rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
If you don’t care for the “wild” taste of game, look for beef or pork that is grass-fed and buy free-range poultry.
Get the right fiber.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that the prevalence of diabetes has increased by 45% in the last 20 years, with the greatest increase occurring in people 65 years old and older.
Self-defense:
Studies have shown that soluble fiber—the type found in beans, lentils, berries, vegetables and whole grains, particularly oats—slows the rate at which sugar enters the bloodstream. If you eat oatmeal for breakfast, you will have a lower blood sugar response to whatever you eat for lunch.
My advice:
In addition to adding more fiber to your diet—the optimal amount is 35 grams or more a day—include foods with a high percentage of soluble fiber. For example, add a whole grain, an apple or avocado, raw spinach or cooked broccoli, or a bean dish to every meal.
Think movement, not exercise. Even people who exercise often approach it as a formal, and not particularly fun, activity. This mind-set might explain why lack of physical activity now accounts for nearly 10% of premature deaths in the world each year.
In my experience, most people want to exercise, but they haven’t found a natural way to integrate it into their lives. You might not realize that the accumulation of 20 to 30 minutes of daily physical activity provides up to 85% of the cardiovascular benefits of hard exercise.
My advice:
Think about what you already do—and do those things more often. Dancing is good exercise. So is a stroll through a park. An hour spent gardening counts. So does moving furniture…a bike ride…and a yoga class.
Source: David L. Katz, MD, MPH, internist and preventive medicine specialist. He is cofounder and director of the Yale Prevention Research Center and clinical instructor at the Yale School of Medicine, both in New Haven.
He is author, with Stacey Colino, of the upcoming book Disease-Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well (Hudson Street).
August 10th, 2013 at 12:31 am
michelle, my brother is so smitten with you that has blown up your picture and put it in a frame on his bedside.
August 10th, 2013 at 8:15 am
“Earlier this month TEPCO said groundwater samples taken at the Fukushima showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 had shot up more than 110 times in a few days, Australia’s ABC reported.”
And people still think this is a means of saving energy.
August 10th, 2013 at 8:21 am
This is a world wide conspiracy of silence. Because there is so little that can be done nations choose nothing over something. zit’s an economic threat that takes precedence over human life. This is world goverment at work in the modern age.
August 10th, 2013 at 8:22 am
219,000 tons of radioactive waste have leaked into our shared Pacific Ocean for two years.
Realistically, what can be expected from Tepco except for more lies and denials?
How can this disastrous situation not be Japan’s and the Pacific nations’ number one priority?
Are we going to wait until children with three heads, six arms and other deformities are being birthed in the region?
When are politicians going to put their ishi-atama and saké drenched brains together to come up with workable solutions and act on them?
If not now, when?
August 10th, 2013 at 8:33 am
1000 nuclear reactors worldwide. Like Chernobyl this was another horrific maintenance negligence. There was collusion. Coal has already killed 100,000s of people where as nuclear has the potential of destroying the world.
It makes no sense to use this as a means of energy production.
August 10th, 2013 at 8:49 am
Social Butterfly,
Yaba, You have no idea how correct you are. I am still waiting for some company here to buy the radioactive water from TEPCO, and sell it to us as a bottle of water that glows in the dark so you can never lose it.
Chiyo
August 10th, 2013 at 9:09 am
Japan rapes the sea worse than many countries.The aliens of the sea keep raping them back worse. If they don’t learn their lesson soon, eventually the Aliens will kill most of them.
Don’t believe me??? Watch, it wont be later. It will be soon.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:10 am
It’s the era of completely corrupt, power hungry, government at all levels. Lie, cheat, steal, kill, ruin; it doesn’t matter, as long as you stay in power.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:11 am
The world community is being kept in the dark scientifically about the severity and scope of the radiation leaks because TEPCO and the Japanese government want to save face.
The falsehoods and outright lies that we have been told about the status of the reactors and lack of concern for the health of their own citizens is appalling.
If they’re not going to change course then they need to be threatened financially for the contamination of the oceans and the world food supply.
This is not funny at all.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:15 am
Hafa adai Prism Princess.
I am just stunned from your blog posts. I hope the aliens do something sensible. If they just destroy the Island it will do no one any good. All the Japanese aren’t at fault. They are victims of their greed TEPCO like the rest of us.
My sympathies go out to the Japanese people.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:16 am
Damn, Soon Alaska Fishing/Sea Life will suffer, and then British Columbia, and in a year or two – California Glowing?
August 10th, 2013 at 9:22 am
Yoroshiku, This is another case of American corporate greed. Japan is too shy and scared to confront their slavemaster USA. Fukushima was an American designed reactor and filled with American-produced MOX fuel.
Basically what happened here was seedy American companies sold Japan faulty goods. Thus Japan should confront USA on this… but they never will as they are USA’s slave.
USA is liable 100% responsible for Fukushima disaster.
Deadbeat USA should be forced to close down one of their many hyper-expensive illegal wars or genocide/depop programs to free up USA’s budget to afford paying 100% of containment project costs of Fukushima.
Kumiko
August 10th, 2013 at 9:24 am
Doesn’t that proposed 60 tons a day sound good! (Boy oh boy.) And even then, they don’t reckon it will be easily achievable.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:24 am
Why is the entire world not working to stop this environmental holocaust? Because they don’t want to, this is all going according to plan.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:26 am
“Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority time=’07.08.2013 17:27′]Right now, we have an emergency. New measures are needed to stop the water from flowing into the sea”
Won’t be long before JAXA gets involved and starts disposing of the radioactive waste into outer space.
(JAX A = NASA= Obama)
August 10th, 2013 at 9:30 am
Kumiko#16, why should the US pick up the tab? Japan spent the last couple of years using funds sent to help in the tragedy building a large Yamato-style warship, instead of cleaning up the spill.
Before you ask my government to help try using some of the charity money my friends and I sent.
Obviously you have learned to live comfortably with radioactivity since August 1945, and a reincarnated Tojo is in charge.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:33 am
All TEPCO executives should be lined up and executed. I’m serious. The company should be dissolved, and those even partially responsible for this catastrophe should be jailed.
A dead-serious message needs to be sent to all nuclear outfits: get safe, or shut down!
August 10th, 2013 at 9:34 am
The Nuclear power industry was based on a lie. The first lie was a clean alternative to coal. The second was that it somehow was safe.
The power of propaganda may finally have destroyed planet earth!
August 10th, 2013 at 9:36 am
Mark19, I knew the anti Obama nuts would be out there waiting to stick it to him.
Give it a rest creep.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:38 am
Connie#20, really, do we need racism at a time like this? How will that solve anything?
Mai
August 10th, 2013 at 9:41 am
To everyone panicking in the comments section; don’t. There is nowhere near enough information released to determine whether this is a threat or not.
The becquerel measurement is essentially irrelevant. The information we need is the amount of seiverts being released, and the type of radioactive decay going on.
If it’s beta decay, which is most likely given where the damage to the reactor core was, then this is quite literally a non issue and poses no danger.
Beta radiation is blocked by a sheet of paper, and a few feet of water is equivalent to a few inches of lead when it comes to radiation shielding.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:49 am
Ditto Irene. The haters are always a comment away from spilling their vile comments toward Obama.
August 10th, 2013 at 9:51 am
Hey, Pryor – why don’t YOU have a bite of that tuna or mackarel fish from Japan?
Then you can report to us – whether it was beta or gamma nuke or whatever you chewd and swalloed…
“don’ t panic, don’t panic…” He shouts when 200,000 (!) tons of radioactive shit has been dumped into the Pacific.
And all we heard was – “everything is under control, kids…”
August 10th, 2013 at 10:10 am
It’s irradiated water, not radioactive material. There’s a huge difference. And no mention of the type of radiation – not all radiation is created equally (In fact, you have gamma decay going on in your body right now)
I would not hesitate to eat japanese fish at this time.
August 10th, 2013 at 11:14 am
Actually Pryor, at the top of the article it said Cesium, and leaking at 2.35 billion Becquerels per liter.
One Becquerel = 1 disintegration per second. So 1 liter of water is radioactive at a rate of 141 billion disintegrations per minute =63.5 milliCuries.
Since 3.5 microCuries = 1 milliRem dose rate on contact we get 1815 mIlliRem per hour contact dose rate per liter. As a comparison the average American receives a dose of 400 milliRem per year.
In TEPCO’s defense, this is the activity going into the ground water, not necessarily the activity of the ground water itself where it is going out into the sea.
August 10th, 2013 at 11:45 am
Robert, the truth is poisoning the water on the planet, poisons the planet. The planet is 75% water. Get a clue!