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In reply to the discussion: Plutonium from Fukushima is a global catastrophe. [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)92. Fukushima is all over the news?
Up until it wasn't, which seems to have been around two and a half years ago.
What Happened to Media Coverage of Fukushima?
ANNE LANDMAN
PR Watch on June 23, 2011
While the U.S. media has been occupied with Anthony Weiner, the Republican presidential candidates and Bristol Palin's memoir, coverage of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster has practically fallen off the map. Poor mainstream media coverage of Japan's now months-long struggle to gain control over the Fukushima disaster has deprived Americans of crucial information about the risks of nuclear power following natural disasters. After a few weeks of covering the early aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami, the U.S. media moved on, leaving behind the crisis at Fukushima which continues to unfold. U.S. politicians, like Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, have made disappointing and misleading statements about the relative safety of nuclear power and have vowed to stick by our nuclear program, while other countries, like Germany and Italy, have taken serious steps to address the obvious risks of nuclear power -- risks that the Fukushima disaster made painfully evident, at least to the rest of the world.
Problems Multiply
News outlets in other countries have been paying attention to Fukushima, though, and a relative few in this country have as well. A June 16, 2011 Al Jazeera English article titled, "Fukushima: It's much worse than you think," quotes a high-level former nuclear industry executive, Arnold Gunderson, who called Fukushima nothing less than "the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind." Twenty nuclear cores have been exposed at Fukushima, Gunderson points out, saying along with the site's many spent-fuel pools, this gives Fukushima 20 times the release potential of Chernobyl.
Efforts to bring problems at Fukushima under control are not going well, either. Japanese authorities only just recently admitted that nuclear fuel in the three damaged Fukushima reactors has likely burned through the vessels holding it, a scenario called "melt-through," that is even more serious than a core meltdown. Months of spraying seawater on the plant's three melted-down fuel cores -- and the spent fuel stored on site -- to try and cool them has produced 26 million of gallons of radioactive wastewater, and no place to put it.
After a struggle, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), finally managed to put in place a system to filter radioactive particles out of the wastewater, but it broke down soon after it started operating. A filter that was supposed to last a month plugged up with radioactive material after just five hours, indicating there is more radioactive material in the water than previously believed. Meanwhile, TEPCO is running out of space to store the radioactive water, and may be forced to again dump contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. TEPCO already dumped some water into the ocean weeks ago, amid protests from fisherman, other countries and environmental organizations. And even if TEPCO does successfully filter the contaminated water and manage to bring its radioactivity down to acceptable levels, the utility will still have to deal with the pile of radioactive sludge the process will produce. The plan they've come up with to deal with the sludge is to seal it in drums and discard it into the ocean, which may cause even more problems. Greenpeace has already found levels of radiation exceeding legal limits in seaweed and shellfish samples gathered more than 12 miles away from the plant. The high levels of radiation in the samples indicate that leaks from the plant are bigger than TEPCO has revealed so far.
CONTINUED...
http://prwatch.org/news/2011/06/10851/what-happened-media-coverage-fukushima
So, besides your personal angst, Logical, anything to add about the plutonium or Fukushima?
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Thanks, Cleita. That's why I posted. Few who know are talking about Fukushima in public.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#3
Maybe when people start discovering they have polluted a whole food supply chain, they will
Cleita
Jan 2014
#6
Stephanie Miller isn't all that smart. She means well, but she's not one to go to for info.
cui bono
Jan 2014
#97
1 Millionth of One Gram of Inhaled Plutonium Will Give You Cancer -- Helen Caldicott, MD
Octafish
Jan 2014
#9
our granddaughter wanted to spend this summer in Japan... that was nixed in a heartbeat
secondwind
Jan 2014
#11
You first, (in the hug your plutonium for real department with no shielding)
nadinbrzezinski
Jan 2014
#35
Something like 80% of the mass of the core of the reactor at Chernobyl
AtheistCrusader
Jan 2014
#131
They must not like the smell of plutonium and stapelia gigantea. Sucks the breath right out of them
lonestarnot
Jan 2014
#147
EDIT: Original line here contained statistics I pulled out of my ass. It was wrong, and I apologize.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#33
That is the stupidest thing I've read all day! Just how the fuck can you say that? You have
ChisolmTrailDem
Jan 2014
#44
"Octafish, is there anyone who disagrees with you that isn't a COINTELPRO operative? "...
SidDithers
Jan 2014
#61
If you want honest discussion, don't attribute to me what I didn't write then.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#62
For the record, I enjoyed the DU Mail back and forth just a few minutes ago.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#76
Again, at levels far, far below levels that would cause even minor health risks.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#91
Except that study indicated the plutonium, americium, and uranium levels corroborated with pre-2000
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#144
As a child in the 1950s, I got lots of propaganda about the "promise of the peaceful atom."
LongTomH
Jan 2014
#78
It's a disaster on a planetary scale and yet Corporate Media pretend it isn't.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#94
I try not to dwell on this because, frankly, there's Jack Shit that I can do about it.
Electric Monk
Jan 2014
#99
I feel that way too, Electric Monk. Problem is, TEPCO also feels that way, too.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#107
Here's a report on plutonium from Fukushima: only detectable very close to the reactor
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#103
How Dangerous Is 400-6000 Pounds Of Plutonium Nano Particle Dust Liberated By Fukushima?
Octafish
Jan 2014
#148
What does Helen Caldicott's position on transparency have to do with the validity of her claims?
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#151
No. Caldicott made a mistake, based on what was then known. A lot different than what you call her.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#159
No, she took a study that fit her preconceptions despite its numerous known flaws
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#161
Release of plutonium isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident
SidDithers
Jan 2014
#163
It may have to do with clouding the central issue: Fukushima is a global catastrophe.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#171
You continually claim the plutonium from Fukushima is a 'global catastrophe' without any evidence
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#173
I gave you science from sources independent of TEPCO, or governments, in #103
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#176
Great. And I gave you sources in #105 that showed where it was found 25 miles away from FNPP.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#177
Right. But it's plutonium and found 25 times further from the plant than you reported in #103.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#181
I'd rather people get the facts and use them to set policy. The phrase is democracy.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#184
For the cost of Iraq War, we could've built National 100% Renewable Clean Energy Grid.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#224
Don't worry. The situation may even be worse than what's posted on this thread.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#188
Unfortunately, the facts say otherwise: Plutonium from Fukushima is a global catastrophe.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#185
I read the article where the scientist from NMSU said they detected plutonium on March 14, 2011.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#207
There's a big difference between depleted uranium and the nearly-undetectable cesium in tuna.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#216
An Admirable Ability. Here's what Physicians for Social Responsibility said back in March, 2011...
Octafish
Jan 2014
#223
Did they ask: 'What if the Fukushima nuclear fallout crisis had happened here?'
Octafish
Jan 2014
#221