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Published on Friday, October 12, 2012 by Common Dreams
TEPCO Avoided Safety Measures for Fear of 'Adding Momentum to Anti-Nuclear Movements'
Fukushima operator admits disaster could have been avoided
- Common Dreams staff
Japanese nuclear utility company TEPCO admitted for the first time Friday that the Fukishima nuclear disaster could have been avoided had the company taken obvious and necessary precautions prior to the meltdown inducing Tsunami of March 2011.
![[Image: stricken-situation-plant-february.n.jpg]](http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imagecache/headline_image/article_images/stricken-situation-plant-february.n.jpg) TEPCO worker © explains situation of stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to the journalists on February 28, 2012 (AFP Photo / Pool /Yoshikazu Tsuno)
"When looking back on the accident, the problem was that preparations were not made in advance," TEPCO's internal reform task force said in the statement. "It was possible to take action" by implementing sufficient safety measures, the task force said, but the steps were intentionally avoided by the company.
TEPCO added in their statement that they had been afraid that public sentiment would turn against nuclear power if the company had taken public precautions against natural disasters, those which would have subsequently acknowledged the dangers inherent in running a nuclear power plant within an earthquake prone region.
"There was concern that if new severe accident measures were implemented, it could spread concern in the siting community that there is a problem with the safety of current plants," the company stated, adding that any action might have added "momentum to anti-nuclear movements."
The company also said that the safety measure would have interfered with its day to day operations.
The statement, released following TEPCO's first internal reform committee meeting, revealed the first major reversal for the company, which has denied malpractice and defended its handling of the crisis since the tsunami hit.
As the region continues to struggle with the persistent radiation from the nuclear meltdown, and TEPCO battles to maintain safety at the power plant, the company also announced this week that radiation levels have reached severe heights inside the No. 1 reactor, reaching up to 11.1 sieverts per hour of radiation -- levels high enough to cause death after about 40 minutes of exposure.
As of now, workers cannot enter the containment vessel.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/12-7
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.â€
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International Journal of Health Services: Fukushima Radiation Has Already Killed 14,000 Americans
16th October 2012
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By Washington's Blog
Global Research, December 25, 2011
Already 14,000 U.S. Deaths From Fukushima ?
170311top11 300x205 International Journal of Health Services: Fukushima Radiation Has Already Killed 14,000 AmericansA new study published in the peer-reviewed journal International Journal of Health Services alleges that 14,000 people have already died in the United States due to Fukushima.
Specifically, the authors of the study claim:
An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.
[The authors] note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 weeks.
The authors seem at first glance to have pretty solid credentials. Janette Sherman, M.D. worked for the Atomic Energy Commission (forerunner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the University of California in Berkeley, and for the U.S. Navy Radiation Defense Laboratory in San Francisco. She served on the EPA's advisory board for 6 years, and has been an advisor to the National Cancer Institute on breast cancer. Dr. Sherman specializes in internal medicine and toxicology with an emphasis on chemicals and nuclear radiation.
Joseph J. Mangano is a public health administrator and researcher who has studied the connection between low-dose radiation exposure and subsequent risk of diseases such as cancer and damage to newborns. He has published numerous articles and letters in medical and other journals in addition to books, including Low Level Radiation and Immune System Disorders: An Atomic Era Legacy.
Sherman also claims that a study in British Columbia of infants under 1 year of age allegedly corroborates the increased deaths due to Fukushima:
But a Scientific American blog post and Med Page Today slam the study as being voodoo science. However, Scientific American does admit:
Certainly radiation from Fukushima is dangerous, and could very well lead to negative health effectseven across the Pacific.
What Do Other Experts Say?
Pediatrician Helen Caldicott said recently:
May I say that North America has received quite a large fallout itself.
***
We're going to see an incredible increase in cancer, leukemia, and down the time track genetic disease. Not just in Japan but in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly North America.
Caldicott also wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed:
Children are innately sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of radiation, fetuses even more so. Like Chernobyl, the accident at Fukushima is of global proportions. Unusual levels of radiation have been discovered in British Columbia, along the West Coast and East Coast of the United States and in Europe, and heavy contamination has been found in oceanic waters.
Nuclear engineer Gunderson says that the Japanese will suffer one million cancer deaths from Fukushima, and that we'll see a statistically meaningful increase in cancer on the West Coast of America and Canada from Fukushima. Gundersen says that after Japan the most radioactive areas are the Cascades and Portland.
There is certainly evidence that West Coast residents especially in Seattle, Portland and other areas near the Cascades have been hit with some radiation. And there is certainly evidence that radioactive contamination has spread in the United States, and will continue to spread for some time to come.
Why Is The Science So Hotly Debated?
Why is there so much dispute about the number of deaths which Fukushima could cause on the West Coast?
Because radiation safety standards are set based on the assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20s and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body.
However in the real world radiation affects small children much more than full-grown adults. And small particles of radiation called "internal emitters" which get inside the body are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation. See this and this.
In addition, American and Canadian authorities have virtually stopped monitoring airborn radiation, and are not testing fish for radiation. (Indeed, the EPA reacted to Fukushima by raising "acceptable" radiation levels.)
So as in Japan radiation is usually discovered by citizens and the handful of research scientists with funding to check, and not the government. See this, this, this, this, this and this.
The Japanese government's entire strategy from day one has been to cover up the severity of the Fukushima accident. This has likely led to unnecessary, additional deaths.
Indeed, the core problem is that all of the world's nuclear agencies are wholly captured by the nuclear industry … as are virtually all of the supposedly independent health agencies.
So the failure of the American, Canadian and other governments to test for and share results is making it difficult to hold an open scientific debate about what is happening.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/study-fukus...cans/28347
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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Fukushima owner says plant may be leaking radiation into sea
Published: [COLOR=#999999 !important]26 October, 2012, 16:56
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) told journalists Friday they could not confirm that radiation had stopped leaking from the nuclear power plant struck by a massive earthquake in March 2011. Still, they said that radiation levels in the seawater and seabed soil around the plant were declining.TEPCO, operator of the Fukushima nuclear facility, said that radiation leaks at the plant had not fully stopped. The remarks came after a US report that irradiated fish are still being caught off the coast of Japan following the 2011 meltdown.
[/COLOR]
A recent article in the academic journal Science revealed that 40 percent of bottom-dwelling marine species in the area show cesium-134 and 137 levels that are still higher than normal.
"The numbers aren't going down. Oceans usually cause the concentrations to decrease if the spigot is turned off," Ken Buesseler, study author and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told the Associated Press. "There has to be somewhere they're picking up the cesium."
"Option one is the seafloor is the source of the continued contamination. The other source could be the reactors themselves," Buesseler added.
Radioactive cesium is a human-made radioactive isotope produced through nuclear fission of the element cesium. It has a half-life of 30 years, making it extremely toxic.
TEPCO has confirmed that the radioactive water used to cool the plant's reactors leaked into the ocean several times, most recently in April.
https://rt.com/news/fukushima-leaking-ra...n-sea-314/
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
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Fukushima owner says plant may be leaking radiation into sea
Published: 26 October, 2012, 16:56
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) told journalists Friday they could not confirm that radiation had stopped leaking from the nuclear power plant struck by a massive earthquake in March 2011. Still, they said that radiation levels in the seawater and seabed soil around the plant were declining.TEPCO, operator of the Fukushima nuclear facility, said that radiation leaks at the plant had not fully stopped. The remarks came after a US report that irradiated fish are still being caught off the coast of Japan following the 2011 meltdown.
A recent article in the academic journal Science revealed that 40 percent of bottom-dwelling marine species in the area show cesium-134 and 137 levels that are still higher than normal.
"The numbers aren't going down. Oceans usually cause the concentrations to decrease if the spigot is turned off," Ken Buesseler, study author and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told the Associated Press. "There has to be somewhere they're picking up the cesium."
"Option one is the seafloor is the source of the continued contamination. The other source could be the reactors themselves," Buesseler added.
Radioactive cesium is a human-made radioactive isotope produced through nuclear fission of the element cesium. It has a half-life of 30 years, making it extremely toxic.
TEPCO has confirmed that the radioactive water used to cool the plant's reactors leaked into the ocean several times, most recently in April.
https://rt.com/news/fukushima-leaking-ra...n-sea-314/
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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Magda Hassan Wrote:Fukushima owner says plant may be leaking radiation into sea
Published: 26 October, 2012, 16:56
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) told journalists Friday they could not confirm that radiation had stopped leaking from the nuclear power plant struck by a massive earthquake in March 2011. Still, they said that radiation levels in the seawater and seabed soil around the plant were declining.TEPCO, operator of the Fukushima nuclear facility, said that radiation leaks at the plant had not fully stopped. The remarks came after a US report that irradiated fish are still being caught off the coast of Japan following the 2011 meltdown.
A recent article in the academic journal Science revealed that 40 percent of bottom-dwelling marine species in the area show cesium-134 and 137 levels that are still higher than normal.
"The numbers aren't going down. Oceans usually cause the concentrations to decrease if the spigot is turned off," Ken Buesseler, study author and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told the Associated Press. "There has to be somewhere they're picking up the cesium."
"Option one is the seafloor is the source of the continued contamination. The other source could be the reactors themselves," Buesseler added.
Radioactive cesium is a human-made radioactive isotope produced through nuclear fission of the element cesium. It has a half-life of 30 years, making it extremely toxic.
TEPCO has confirmed that the radioactive water used to cool the plant's reactors leaked into the ocean several times, most recently in April.
https://rt.com/news/fukushima-leaking-ra...n-sea-314/
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I was reported it was leaking radioactive water into the sea about day two of the accident and ever since......slow reaction time on the 'report'..... Fisherman have reported a dead zone and freak fish near the plant....and far from the plant! There was enough radioactives put into the sea to effect the entire Pacific for decades to come...and all oceans interconnect and ocean water sprays into the air and onto the land and radioactive fish and plankton are eventually brought into birds and land animals and onto the land by rain, spray and droppings of birds, the planetary food chain, etc. Fukushima is a world-wide catastrophe that keeps on giving. It is predicted that it will take about 30 years to disassemble the plant....and where to put it? Likely some poor third world nation...where it will be dumped and pollute further!
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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By William Boardman (about the author) Permalink (Page 1 of 3 pages)
OpEdNews Op Eds 11/26/2012 at 20:48:44
Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, June 2011 by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The likelihood was very low that an earthquake followed by a tsunami would destroy all four nuclear reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but in March 2011, that's what happened, and the accident has yet to be contained.
Similarly, the likelihood may be low that an upstream dam will fail, unleashing a flood that will turn any of 34 vulnerable nuclear plants into an American Fukushima. But knowing that unlikely events sometimes happen nevertheless, the nuclear industry continues to answer the question of how much safety is enough by seeking to suppress or minimize what the public knows about the danger.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has known at least since 1996 that flooding danger from upstream dam failure was a more serious threat than the agency would publicly admit. The NRC failed from 1996 until 2011 to assess the threat even internally. In July 2011, the NRC staff completed a report finding "that external flooding due to upstream dam failure poses a larger than expected risk to plants and public safety" [emphasis added] but the NRC did not make the 41-page report public.
Instead, the agency made much of another report, issued July 12, 2011 -- "Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century," sub-titled "The Near-Term Task Force Review of Insights from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Accident." Hardly four months since the continuing accident began in Japan, the premature report had little to say about reactor flooding as a result of upstream dam failure, although an NRC news release in March 2012 would try to suggest otherwise.
Run Your Ad Here
Censored Report May Be Crime by NRC
That 2012 news release accompanied a highly redacted version of the July 2011 report that had recommended a more formal investigation of the unexpectedly higher risks of upstream dam failure to nuclear plants and the public. In its release, the NRC said it had "started a formal evaluation of potential generic safety implications for dam failures upstream" including "the effects of upstream dam failure on independent spent fuel storage installations."
Six months later, in September 2012, The NRC's effort at bland public relations went controversial, when the report's lead author made a criminal complaint to the NRC's Inspector General, alleging "Concealment of Significant Nuclear Safety Information by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission." In a letter dated September 14 and made public the same day, Richard Perkins, an engineer in the NRC's Division of Risk Analysis, wrote Inspector General Hubert Bell, describing it as "a violation of law" that the Commission:
has intentionally mischaracterized relevant and noteworthy safety information as sensitive, security information in an effort to conceal the information from the public. This action occurred in anticipation of, in preparation for, and as part of the NRC's response to a Freedom of Information Act request for information concerning the generic issue investigation on Flooding of u.s. Nuclear Power Plants Following Upstream Dam Failure ".
Portions of the publically released version of this report are redacted citing security sensitivities, however, the redacted information is of a general descriptive nature or is strictly relevant to the safety of U.S. nuclear power plants, plant personnel, and members of the public. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has engaged in an effort to mischaracterize the information as security sensitive in order to justify withholding it from public release using certain exemptions specified in the Freedom of Information Act. "
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff may be motivated to prevent the disclosure of this safety information to the public because it will embarrass the agency. The redacted information includes discussion of, and excerpts from, NRC official agency records that show the NRC has been in possession of relevant, notable, and derogatory safety information for an extended period but failed to properly act on it.
Concurrently, the NRC concealed the information from the public.
The Inspector General has not yet acted on the complaint.
Most Media Ignore Nuclear Safety Risks
Huffington Post picked up the story immediately as did the Union of Concerned Scientists and a number of online news sites. The mainstream media showed little or no interest in a story about yet another example of the NRC lying to the public about the safety of nuclear power plants.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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if it takes 40-50 years to 'decomission' [disassemble and bury] the plant...the chances of either another spontaneous meltdown/explosion and/or major earthquake and/or tsunami destroying the remaining brittle, damaged and fragile plant are very great.....it isn't over....not even close! The worst could yet be to come and it is already many, many times worse than Chernobyl. [how much is not know, as the Japanese are keeping many facts close to their chests....and as the report above states, NO ONE KNOWS what is going on in the three damaged reactors and one has not even been approached for measurements nor to look at the damage....... Need some high pay....learn Japanese and join the crews there....it pays well....it should, as you won't live long. 
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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There was just a complete power outage at Fukashima.....hope not for long...as workers will be unable to manage the pumps, cooling efforts and monitoring...it is now a very dangerous situation...only flashlights and hand-held radiation meters are working!
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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Peter Lemkin Wrote:There was just a complete power outage at Fukashima.....hope not for long...as workers will be unable to manage the pumps, cooling efforts and monitoring...it is now a very dangerous situation...only flashlights and hand-held radiation meters are working! Oh, great....:what:
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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Magda Hassan Wrote:Peter Lemkin Wrote:There was just a complete power outage at Fukashima.....hope not for long...as workers will be unable to manage the pumps, cooling efforts and monitoring...it is now a very dangerous situation...only flashlights and hand-held radiation meters are working! Oh, great....:what:
No problem...'everything is under control' [they say]. No one has given a reason for the power failure and it is hard to speculate. I don't think [but am NOT sure] that none of the less damaged reactors are providing local power, but rather the power is coming from outside - other plants. If this lasts more than a day....things could go 'critical' and another meltdown occur. Oh, as an aside, they now believe the date the locals will be able to move back to the exclusion zone is never - and that zone will soon be expanded. All over Japan, radioactive sushi is all the rage!
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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