Saturday, June 30, 2012

Unprecedented Fukushima Steaming From Units 1 and 2 and Then 4

Dragon Awakens

"Dénouement, Resolution, or Catastrophe"


From Wikipedia's entry on Dramatic Structure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure#Climax

[Excerpted] Dénouement, resolution, or catastropheThe dénouement (pronounced /deɪnuːˈmɑ̃ː/, /deɪnuːˈmɒn/, or UK /deɪˈnuːmɑ̃ː/; French: [denuˈmɑ̃]) comprises events between the falling action and the actual ending scene of the drama or narrative and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader. Etymologically, the French word dénouement is derived from the Old French word desnouer, "to untie", from nodus, Latin for "knot." Simply put, dénouement is the unraveling or untying of the complexities of a plot.

The comedy ends with a dénouement (a conclusion) in which the protagonist is better off than at the story's outset. The tragedy ends with a catastrophe in which the protagonist is worse off than at the beginning of the narrative.

Denouement: Resolution or Catastrophe?

WSJ: Temperature rising at No. 4 fuel pool — Safety limit to be exceeded Tuesday morning?
http://enenews.com/wsj-temperature-rising-at-no-4-fuel-pool-safety-limit-to-be-exceeded-tuesday-morning/comment-page-1#comment-266763
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fukushima-reactor-cooling-system-suspended-kyodo-2012-06-30

Temperature of No. 4 pool rising nearly twice as fast as rate reported by Tepco
http://enenews.com/temperature-4-pool-rising-fast-rate-tepco-reported

The cooling system [...] suspended operation Saturday [...] at around 6:25 a.m. [...] The water temperature of the pool was 31 C at the time of the suspension” -Kyodo

“The temperature of the pool rose 0.26 C per hour by late Saturday afternoon, according to the utility.” -Marketwatch

“Jiji reported both of the pumps stopped, UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) has gone out of order. The water temperature was 36.6 C at 18:00 of 6/30/2012.” -Fukushima Diary

Tepco: Unable to activate backup cooling system at No. 4 fuel pool
http://enenews.com/tepco-unable-to-activate-backup-cooling-system-at-no-4-fuel-pool

Resolution?

International Rescuers charge in and take command, rescuing the world from the ongoing radiological catastrophe at Fukushima that now reaches a new climax as spent fuel pool four escalates in temperature.

Catastrophe?

The spent fuel pool four crashes and burns.

OR

The spent fuel pool four is revealed as previously having crashed and burned.

June 26 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NkmSGTzzYI
also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3_Ek-NErIk&feature=plcp

Official Coverup Obscures The Collapse Of Reactor 4 See The Video Of What Is Being Demolished
At Fuksuhima Daiichi Here By Yoichi Shimatsu Exclusive To Rense.com
6-30-12 http://www.rense.com/general95/offic.html


The Stakes?

a. Japan?

b. Japan and the Pacific West Coast of North America

c. The Northern Hemisphere

d. All of humanity everywhere
 

Hat Tip: Heart of the Rose for last set of links
 

 
 

Friday, June 29, 2012

Something Went Awry: South Korea delays signing of military pact with Japan


http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201206290260.html

[excerpted] "Japan and South Korea put on hold an intelligence sharing pact less than an hour before it was to be formally signed Friday, June 29, in a major embarrassment for both countries forced by a political outcry in Seoul."

This is an update from
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-cold-war-trumps-democratic-push-for.html

New Cold War Trumps Democratic Push for Peace and Dismantling Nuclear


see update: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/something-went-awry-top-newsfeatures.html

South Korea to Sign Military Pact With Japan. By CHOE SANG-HUN June 28, 2012. The New York Times 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/world/asia/south-korea-to-sign-historic-military-pact-with-japan.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120629

[excerpt] SEOUL, South Korea — In a significant step toward overcoming lingering historical animosities with its former colonial master, the South Korean government has unexpectedly announced that it will sign a treaty with Japan on Friday to increase the sharing of classified military data on what analysts cite as two major common concerns: North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and China’s growing military might....

...The accord, the General Security of Military Information Agreement, provides a legal framework for South Korea and Japan to share and protect classified and other confidential data....

...The United States has been urging the two countries to strengthen military ties....

...In the past week, the United States, Japan and South Korea conducted a joint naval exercise in the seas south and west of the Korean Peninsula....

...The political opposition and several civic groups in South Korea warned that the new military cooperation deal would only intensify regional tensions and encourage Japan’s “militaristic ambition.”  ...

MAJIA HERE: So S. Korea aligns with Japan, against China.

It seems clear to me that Japan will not shut down its nuclear plants because it will not shut down its nuclear weapons production capacity.

And the US is no doubt fully aware and supportive of this decision.

Because the new cold war pits China and Russia against the US/Japan/South Korea/Australia. Some countries, such as India and Brazil, are not clearly aligned.
 
The people of Japan, the US, Russia, China, South Korea, Australia etc do NOT GET TO BE CONSULTED WITH CONCERNING THEIR SUPPORT OR NOT FOR WAR

It is a shadow war being fought by proxy in developing countries, particularly in Africa, and being waged using new cyberweapons and drones. http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/06/21/shadow-wars/#disqus_thread

It is also being waged on financial fronts as well. 

Thus, the Chairman of Japan's Atomic Energy Commission is quoted as saying:
"But, I do not feel the role of nuclear energy has ended. We will have to move to the next stage after deciding on the future direction of policy."
CITED IN "AEC chairman: major change needed in reprocessing nuclear fuel June 29"
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201206290123
(see my post here for more details http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/reactor-4-did-explode-and-wasnt-simply.html)

Majia here: Thus, Japan's nuclear reactors will be restarted whether the people like it or not (UNLESS THE DEMONSTRATIONS GROW EVER LARGER!)

New TEPCO leaders to push restarts of reactors in Niigata. June 29. KENTARO UECHI
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201206290043


RELEVANT POSTS ABOUT JAPAN'S NUCLEAR CAPACITIES

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-does-japans-plutonium-stockpiling.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/editorial-national-security-clause-must.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/rokkasho-reprocessing-plant-which.html

RELEVANT POSTS ABOUT NEW COLD WAR

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-cold-war-enriches-industries-of.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-cold-war-rising-update.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/peddling-death-through-nuclear.html

RELEVANT POSTS ABOUT VESTED NUCLEAR INTERESTS

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/vested-interests-in-nuclear-power.html


RELEVANT POSTS ABOUT FINANCIAL WARFARE

On the Use of High Frequency Trading and Naked Short Selling to Manipulate Markets and as Tools for Financial Warfare
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/financial-warfare-using-high-frequency.html

On Hedge Funds and Other Financial Institutions Conspiring to Take Down Companies and Countries
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/hedge-funds-attack-greece.html

If this is Stuxnet, What Does Flame Do http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/headline-from-jan-26-2011-if-that-is.html

On financial conspiracies
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/steveos-comment-on-financial.html

When conspiracy seems real
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-conspiracy-theories-dont-seem-so.html



Fascism at Your Local US Police Force


Small-Town Cops Pile Up on Useless Military Gear By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Wired Magazine 27 June 12
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/335-156/12116-small-town-cops-pile-up-on-useless-military-gear

[Excrepted] Small police departments across America are collecting battlefield-grade arsenals thanks to a program that allows them to get their hands on military surplus equipment- amphibious tanks, night-vision goggles, and even barber chairs or underwear - at virtually no cost, except for shipment and maintenance.

Over the last five years, the top 10 beneficiaries of this “Department of Defense Excess Property Program” included small agencies such as the Fairmount Police Department. It serves 7,000 people in northern Georgia and received 17,145 items from the military. The cops in Issaquah, Washington, a town of 30,000 people, acquired more than 37,000 pieces of gear.

In 2011 alone, more than 700,000 items were transferred to police departments for a total value of $500 million. This year, as of May 15, police departments already acquired almost $400 million worth of stuff...."

Re-Starting Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant



New TEPCO leaders to push restarts of reactors in Niigata. June 29. KENTARO UECHI
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201206290043

"The new management leaders of Tokyo Electric Power Co. showed a bit of apprehension but still plan to restart reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture....

...TEPCO’s business reconstruction plan drawn up in May says the utility will have the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors back online from April 2013."

MAJIA HERE: BACKGROUND FROM WIKIPEDIA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashiwazaki-Kariwa_Nuclear_Power_Plant

[excerpted]

2002 Scandal shut downs

The reactors at the KK plant were shut down one by one after the discovery of deliberate falsification of data. The first one was taken offline September 9, 2002, and the last one was taken offline January 27, 2003.[4] The newest units, the more inherently safe ABWRs, were taken back online the quickest and suffered the smallest effect. Units  1, 2, and 3 on the other hand, generated no electricity whatsoever during the entire fiscal year of 2003.
Fuel

All reactors continue to use low-enriched uranium as the nuclear fuel; however, there have been plans drafted by Tepco to use MOX fuel in some of the reactors by the permission of the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC). A public referendum in the Kariwa village in 2001 voted 53% against use of the new fuel. After the 2002 Tepco data fabrication scandals, the president at the time, Nobuya Minami, announced that plans to use the MOX fuel at the KK plant would be suspended indefinitely.

Reactor 4 DID EXPLODE and Wasn't Simply Damaged by Reactor 3 Explosion


Majia here: Asahi Shimbun interview with Atomic Energy Chairman Shunsuke Kondo. The interview was conducted by senior staff writers Hisashi Hattori and Keiji Takeuchi.

AEC chairman: major change needed in reprocessing nuclear fuel June 29
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201206290123

Q: Explosions could not be averted.

A: I thought there was a need to consult with the Self-Defense Forces about using explosives to open a hole in the roof and wall of the No. 3 reactor building in order to release hydrogen.

However, I never made that suggestion after I learned that Tokyo Electric Power Co. was considering opening holes through the spraying of water. It is a mystery why that was never carried out. If the No. 3 reactor did not explode, the No. 4 reactor might also not have exploded.

MAJIA HERE: REPEAT:
"If the No. 3 reactor did not explode, the No. 4 reactor might also not have exploded."

THE DISCUSSION OF JAPAN'S POLICY OF RE-PROCESSING SPENT FUEL IS ALSO VERY INTERESTING:

Q: Electric power companies are calling for a continuation of policy because if the central government decides to abandon the course of reprocessing all spent nuclear fuel, the reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture will also not be able to maintain operations.

A: A nation does not enter into discussions about which blast furnaces in the private-sector steel industry should survive. Since reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel is, in the end, something handled by the private sector, the private sector should itself decide what it wants to do.

Q: Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel extracts plutonium that can be used in nuclear weapons. It is also an issue that is related to the creation of an international joint management structure for spent nuclear fuel.

A: Certainly, there is an element in the reprocessing issue of international contributions as well as nuclear nonproliferation. Time will also be required to collect on the investments made. It is normally not a business that a private-sector company would become involved in. Debate is now being conducted on reforming the electric power industry to spread liberalization. Amid such a trend, it might be appropriate to simultaneously hold discussions on a proposal to have the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, another incorporated administrative agency, handle reprocessing of fuel and processing of radioactive waste, with the central government having ultimate control over the process.

MAJIA HERE: CHAIRMAN KONDO IS A MASTER OF DEFLECTION: Repeating text above:

Certainly, there is an element in the reprocessing issue of international contributions as well as nuclear nonproliferation. Time will also be required to collect on the investments made. It is normally not a business that a private-sector company would become involved in. Debate is now being conducted on reforming the electric power industry to spread liberalization...

HE CONCLUDES INTERVIEW

"But, I do not feel the role of nuclear energy has ended. We will have to move to the next stage after deciding on the future direction of policy."

Asahi Shimbun: Japan's Most Dangerous Reactors


http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201206280297.html

"The No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at Fukui Prefecture's Oi nuclear power plant are the most dangerous in Japan, according to a cross-party group of lawmakers opposed to nuclear power."

You can read about the Oi Nuclear Plant here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ci_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Japan plans on re-starting reactors 3 and 4 at Oi. Next likely re-start on the agenda is Ikata.

"Two seismic experts publicly warned that the government is under-estimating the threat to these reactors which are located very near a seismic fault. And a group of lawmakers cutting across political parties released a danger ranking of 50 nuclear reactors in Japan calling for their phased decommissioning." (Varma http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Experts-warn-against-restarting-nuclear-reactors-in-Japan/articleshow/14473347.cms )

"The nuclear power plant in Ikata, operated by Shikoku Electric Power Co., is currently seen as a likely candidate to be the next nuclear reactor to be restarted." (Westlake http://japandailypress.com/tag/fukui)  

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Fukushima Spewing Again

Apocalypse Now


Please read Fukushima Diary's post today about a 5.6 earthquake hitting Fukushima, resulting in a large radiation spike registering at 42 microsieverts an hour. Also view the video available of the subsequent massive steam release.
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/06/m5-6-hit-fukushima-and-radiation-level-spiked-to-be-42-%CE%BCsvh-4-hours-later/

Meanwhile, a variety of government and quasi and/or pseudo scientific authorities attempt to persuade the public that little plutonium was released from Fukushima, that the plant remains under control, and that ongoing radiation releases have ceased.

I really think this is some sort of alternate universe I accidentally awakened in, which is based on George Orwell's 1984.

I always thought Huxley's Brave New World offered a more insidious and effective set of control strategies, ranging from genetic engineering to soma.

Orwell's 1984 authoritarian culture depended on "newspeak" to control thought.

You can find a list of newspeak terms here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newspeak_words

I thought that it would be easy to penetrate newspeak.

I thought people were reflexive enough to escape the bounds of officially approved language.

And the alternative media demonstrate that indeed people are capable of escaping newspeak phrases such as:

"cold shutdown," "no immediate effects," "safe level of exposure," etc.

However, the mass of the population remains transfixed and constrained by these bonds, despite the relative ease of escape.

The question is:  Could humanity obliviously experience a slowly unfolding apocalypse?

Cyber-Weapons Beyond Control


Op-Ed Contributor The New York Times
A Weapon We Can’t Control
By MISHA GLENNY
Published: June 24, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/stuxnet-will-come-back-to-haunt-us.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120625

[excerpted] THE decision by the United States and Israel to develop and then deploy the Stuxnet computer worm against an Iranian nuclear facility late in George W. Bush’s presidency marked a significant and dangerous turning point in the gradual militarization of the Internet. Washington has begun to cross the Rubicon. If it continues, contemporary warfare will change fundamentally as we move into hazardous and uncharted territory.

There is no international treaty or agreement restricting the use of cyberweapons, which can do anything from controlling an individual laptop to disrupting an entire country’s critical telecommunications or banking infrastructure. It is in the United States’ interest to push for one before the monster it has unleashed comes home to roost.

Stuxnet was originally deployed with the specific aim of infecting the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Iran....

...Advanced cyberwar is different: a country’s assets lie as much in the weaknesses of enemy computer defenses as in the power of the weapons it possesses ...

Majia here: The danger is that cyberweapons could take down entire power grids, causing nuclear plants to meltdown everywhere affected,  producing an apocalypse.

CBS: Grass Linked to Texas Cattle Deaths


http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/12077-gm-grass-linked-to-mass-cattle-deaths

[Excerpt] A mysterious mass death of a herd of cattle has prompted a federal investigation in Central Texas.

Preliminary test results are blaming the deaths on the grass the cows were eating when they got sick, reports CBS Station KEYE.

...Abel says he's been using the fields for cattle grazing and hay for 15 years. "A lot of leaf, it's good grass, tested high for protein - it should have been perfect," he told KEYE correspondent Lisa Leigh Kelly.

The grass is a hybrid form of Bermuda known as Tifton 85 which has been growing here for 15 years, feeding Abel's 18 head of Corriente cattle.....

...Within hours, 15 of the 18 cattle were dead.

....Preliminary tests revealed the Tifton 85 grass, which has been here for years, had suddenly started producing cyanide gas, poisoning the cattle.

MAJIA HERE: This is a very odd story. Perhaps something new was on the grass that produced chemical reactions?





Wednesday, June 27, 2012

ICRP Versus ECRP


Arnie Gunderson just provided a great summary of one of the important differences between the ICRP (with the NCRP) and the ECRP:http://enenews.com/gundersen-ive-heard-numbers-high-2-million-die-cancer-because-fukushima-video

According to Arnie Gunderson, the ICRP, or International Commission on Radiological Protection, averages radiation dose over the entire affected organ and does not look at the targeted, focused effects of radiation internal to the body.

In contrast, the ECRP addresses the specific targeted effects of the radiation dose in a localized area impacted by the particle or gamma ray.

MAJIA here: I believe the ICRP model also fails to look at the relative biological effects of gamma, beta particles, and alpha particles. I'm not sure of the extent to which the ECRP model incorporates the relative effects.

The true extent of damage produced by ionizing radiation, particularly alpha and beta particles, has been hidden by complicated language and competing risk models since physicists, chemists, and geneticists started arguing about the effects back in the 1940s. 

Today the big competitors are those identified by Gunderson:
1.) the ICRP and NCRP  http://www.icrp.org/
2.)  the ECRP European Commission on Radiation Protection

What is ironic about this debate over dose effects outlined by Gunderson is that it essentially started in the late 1940s, although the exact issues have changed across time with new understandings of genetics.

The irony stems from the fact that in the 1930s, nearly everyone in American who read the papers knew that ingested radiation kills, painfully, because of some very high profile trials about people poisoned by radium.http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/interesting-tidbits-in-history-of.html

Thus, the debate about the internal effects of radiation was political from the start. 

When the AEC Chairman declared that there was no health effects from low doses of radiation, geneticists rebuked him publicly.


DETAILS
Jacob Hamblin in The Journal of the History of Biology (vol 40.1 2007 147-177)  describes how the first major study on the biological effects of radiation conducted by the National Academy of Science (NAS) in 1956, the BEAR study, was fraught with disputes between (1) geneticists who saw all levels of ionizing radiation as increasing harmful mutations and (2) other atomic scientists, especially those connected to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), who found no conclusive evidence of long term damage from atmospheric fallout (147-148) and persisted in equating nuclear fallout with natural background radiation (152).

According to Hamblin, the Rockefeller Foundation that funded the first BEAR study also helped control media dissemination of its major findings, shaping public opinion about atmospheric testing specifically, and radiation safety, more generally.

Production of the BEAR report was fraught with political infighting.  In the early 1950s, the Secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission publicly denied harmful effects from "low levels" of exposure to radiation (since in the AEC's view, radiation was essentially just sunshine--beta and gamma didn't calculate in their universe).

A prominent geneticist, A. H. Sturtevant of  California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was so irate about the idea of a permissible dose that he wrote an essay published in Science titled, "Social Implications of the Genetics of Man" (Sep. 1954 vol 120), in which Sturtevant demonstrated the fallacy of permissible dose (p. 406). The final sentence of Sturtevant's essay is a direct challenge to Chairman Strauss of the Atomic Energy Commission and reads as follows: "I regret that an official of such responsibility should have stated that there is no biological hazard from low doses of high-energy irradiation" (407). As a member of the genetics subcommittee of the BEAR report, Sturtevant clashed with Atomic Energy Commission members who persisted in the no effects mantra for low levels of exposure.

Although the study was published under the auspices of the National Academy of Science, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) controlled access to classified information on atomic effects, controlled access to the media, and indirectly controlled the final version of the report that was published in Scientific America, aimed at public consumption. There were also key AEC members in the study who influenced how findings were discussed in the final report. The presence and privileged status of AEC personnel shaped the final report in significant ways because of their insistence on a threshold for “safe exposure,” their institutional privileges, and their  access to, and visibility within,  in the public spotlight , as contrasted with NAS members, particularly the NAS geneticists who did not participate in publicizing the report’s findings....

. . . .

Even the effects of radiation on people in Japan was biased by a failure to recognize symptoms of radiation poisoning that existed in the absence of the symptoms of acute exposure.

Those representing the consensus seeking ICRP and NCRP sought ways to address internal dose, but only in ways deemed acceptable to nuclear industry advocates
 Example: NCRP MISSION "...The Council's mission also encompasses the responsibility to facilitate and stimulate cooperation among organizations concerned with the scientific and related aspects of radiation protection and measurements." http://www.ncrppublications.org/


The scientists/physicians who disagree about compromising to serve the interests of the nuclear industry and thus argue that ECRP model, which looks at targeted effects, better predicts true risk.

LESSON: CONSENSUS SEEKING IN DOSE ESTIMATES HAS ALWAYS BEEN POLITICAL.

Arnie Gunderson is making an important stand on this issue. 


BACKGROUND POSTS

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/systematic-study-in-first-bear-study-on.html

I have a very long blog post about some important differences between the models.

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/on-internal-emitters.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/debating-dose.html



Reuters: "Seismologists warn Japan against nuclear restart"


Seismologists warn Japan against nuclear restart

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E8HQ43L20120626

[excerpted] TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) - Two prominent seismologists said on Tuesday that Japan is ignoring the safety lessons of last year's Fukushima crisis and warned against restarting two reactors next month.
 
...Seismic modelling by Japan's nuclear regulator did not properly take into account active fault lines near the Ohi plant, Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist at Kobe University, told reporters...

"The stress tests and new safety guidelines for restarting nuclear power plants both allow for accidents at plants to occur," Ishibashi told reporters. "Instead of making standards more strict, they both represent a severe setback in safety standards."...

..."The expertise and neutrality of experts advising Japan's Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency are highly questionable," Watanabe said. (Mitsuhisa Watanabe is a tectonic geomorphology prof at Tokyo Univ)





OECD Report: US Inequality Will Stymie Growth


Chrittenden, Michael R. and Eric Morath. Study Cites Limits on US Growth. Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2012, p. A2.

"The US economy is likely to grow moderately this year, but is limited by stagnant wages, relatively high income inequality and an education system that provides few resources to those likely to need them, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said...

Of the 34 OECD countries, only three -- Turkey, Mexico and Chile -- had higher income inequality that the U.S. at the end of the last decade. The U.S. also had the fourth-highest relative poverty rate..."

Majia here: And inequality has grown rapidly over the last 12 years, particularly during the recession.

Americans saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, Federal Reserve says. By Ylan Q. Mui, Published: June 11The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-americans-wealth-dropped-40-percent/2012/06/11/gJQAlIsCVV_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines_Tue







1% Controls 43% of Financial Wealth
http://www.mybudget360.com/financial-elite-dismantled-american-middle-class-average-banking-bonus-goldman-sachs-record-homeless/?source=patrick.net#content

 BACKGROUND READING

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/income-inequality-growing.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/neoliberla-government-and-origins-of.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/despotism.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/downward-mobility-for-americans-and.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/on-why-conard-is-wrong-and-gross.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/neofeudalism-book-prospectus.html

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (Which Produces Plutonium) Vital for Japan's "National Security"?


Mainichi: Atomic energy law's sly alteration is abuse of legislative process
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20120626p2a00m0na004000c.html

[excerpted] "The Atomic Energy Basic Law was amended in the shadows of the hoopla surrounding the three-party agreement on a tax hike. The new clause allows the possibility of nuclear armament open to interpretation. It was an underhanded deal, in which an amendment to the Atomic Basic Law was merely incorporated into the appendix of a law on the establishment of a nuclear regulatory panel....

....Only at a meeting of an upper house environmental committee on June 20, when a DPJ lawmaker questioned whether nuclear arms development was the purpose of passing the bill, did it become public that a clause in the Basic Law had been revised.....

....the appendix in question adds a sentence stating Japan's atomic energy policy should contribute to national security.

What constitutes "national security?"....

....A deputy press secretary of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has also said that the ministry is "watching the situation closely."....

...."It probably comes down to the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant," said a bureaucrat with whom I've been acquainted for years. "If the country moves toward the abandonment of nuclear power, that facility will lose meaning. If it is legally granted legitimacy as a facility for the military use of nuclear materials, then it can continue to exist. I believe that there were LDP lawmakers who thought of that, and bureaucrats who supported them...

...The Atomic Energy Basic Law went into effect in 1955, the same year that the LDP was founded. Fifty-seven years have since passed, and we are moving further and further away from democratic, independent and public disclosure principles. (By Takao Yamada, Expert Senior Writer)

[end excerpt]

Majia here: As of 2010, Japan had more than 46 tons of separated plutonium stored domestically and in Europe. 

As mentioned previously Joseph Trento claims the inventory actually ranges upward to 70 tons of plutonium. Japan’s Mox recycling program has been limited.

Japan’s newly completed Rokkasho reprocessing plant enables even greater stockpiling of plutonium.

Japan seems to have more plutonium stored than needed for its limited Mox program given the decision to discontinue the breeder reactor program.

CONCLUSION

New cold war is alive and well with Japan feeling very much like it needs a nuclear blanket.

Japan needs a nuclear blanket while its population is being poisoned by nuclear radiation.


Sick irony.


(Of course, we in the US have a government that promotes nuclear, and enforces rules that benefit the most powerful nuclear powers, while our population is being poisoned by radiation, as well.)

PREVIOUS RELATED POSTS

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-does-japans-plutonium-stockpiling.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/editorial-national-security-clause-must.html


SOURCES

Piers Williamson Japan’s Nuclear Waste Problem: International Scientists Call for an End to Plutonium Reprocessing and Closing the Rokkasho Plant.  The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol 10, Issue 24, No 4, on June 11, 2012.

Suzuki, Tatsujiro. Japan’s Plutonium Breeder Reactor and its Fuel Cycle. In Thomas B. Cochran, Harold A. Feiveson, Walt Patterson, Gennadi Pshakin, M.V. Ramana, Mycle Schneider, Tatsujiro Suzuki, Frank von Hippel Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status: A research report of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (53-61). February 2010.  http://fissilematerials.org/library/rr08.pdf

Trento, Joseph. United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium, on April 9th, 2012 National Security News Service http://www.dcbureau.org/201204097128/national-security-news-service/united-states-circumvented-laws-to-help-japan-accumulate-tons-of-plutonium.html


Robert Alvarez: Radioactive Conflict of Interest


A Radioactive Conflict of Interest With Tragic Dimensions By Robert Alvarez, Institute for Policy Studies 26 June 12 http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12107-a-radioactive-conflict-of-interest-with-tragic-dimensions

 Having the Energy Department control radiation health research makes as much sense as giving tobacco companies the authority to see if smoking is bad for you.

It's quite a leap to claim that evacuation zones around nuclear power plants might not be needed based on the chromosomes of 112 irradiated mice. In a devastating critique, blogger, Ian Goddard points out that the MIT study excluded extensive evidence of genetic damage to humans living in a radiation-contaminated environment. Although doses in a peer-reviewed study of 19 groups of children living near Chernobyl were consistently lower than the MIT mouse study, most showed lasting genetic damage from radiation. "MIT's presentation of its study as the first scientific ever examination of the genetic risks of living in a nuclear disaster zone is pure science fiction, not fact," Goddard concludes.

...the government's low priority for radiation protection is underscored by the Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General, who recently reported as radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear site drifted over the U.S., 20 percent of EPA's radiation monitoring stations were out of service for more than 6 months...

...Given this well-documented history of deception, why is the government reducing nuclear emergency preparedness and claiming no harm from radiation exposure, right after a major nuclear power disaster? The answer lies in the fact that since the 1940's, the United States remains a major pillar of nuclear support here and around the world. Currently, about 70 percent of the Department of Energy's $26.3 billion budget goes for nuclear activities - not including $18.5 billion in loan guarantees for new U.S. power reactors being sold by Japan's failing nuclear industry....

MAJIA HERE: Excellent essay! read the entire essay linked above




Privatizing Profits and Socializing Losses (including Genocide)


Japan lower house approves doubling sales tax to 10 percent despite ruling party rift. By Chico Harlan, Updated: Tuesday, June 26, 2:18 AM The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japan-lower-house-approves-doubling-sales-tax-to-10-percent-despite-ruling-party-rift/2012/06/26/gJQAfaDj3V_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

[excerpted] "...Once the tax legislation becomes law, Japan’s consumption tax — currently among the world’s lowest — will rise from 5 percent to 8 percent in 2014, then to 10 percent in 2015.

Japan’s government says that such an increase will generate 13.5 trillion yen (or roughly $170 billion) per year. But that only begins to cut away at the country’s fiscal problems, which include soaring public debt, decades of low growth, and little chance for expansion as its population ages...."
[end excerpt]

Japan’s nuclear victims seek compensation, but not their day in court By Chico Harlan, Published: June 25 The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japans-nuclear-victims-seek-compensation-but-not-a-day-in-court/2012/06/25/gJQAe8GO1V_story.html

[excerpted] "...But for all the damage and despair it wrought, the disaster has unfolded without one conventional element: a widespread and contentious legal fight by those who say they should be compensated for their losses.

Victims of the worst nuclear crisis in a quarter-century have filed about 20 lawsuits against plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., according to the company. That compares with the several hundred suits filed against BP within weeks of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including the near-finalized settlement of a class-action suit that will pay 120,000 plaintiffs upward of $7.8 billion. BP also paid out about $6.2 billion to victims via a neutral claims settlement process, administered by a lawyer appointed by the Obama administration.

Victims and lawyers here in Japan say the dearth of nuclear-related lawsuits reflects both a national mind-set — a distaste for confrontation — and a stunted judicial system that doesn’t allow for class-action cases or punitive damages. Japanese people think the court system is more likely to deliver frustration than vengeance, and jobless evacuees who urgently need money have little appetite for long trials with uncertain outcomes....

Without the threat of legal action, said Hiroyuki Kawai, a Tokyo-based lawyer handling one of the few lawsuits filed against Tepco, “the state and companies can take advantage of victims.” Tepco spokesman Hiroki Kawamata said that is not the case....
[end excerpt]

Majia here: Although I hardly think the BP oil spill litigation illustrates justice, especially given the suppression of scientific information about the extent of the spill and its effects on animals,

...the situation experienced by the Japanese is beyond unjust.

Indeed, I would describe it as genocide given the suppression of information about massive ongoing radiation releases, the unwillingess to force decontamination, the promotion of unsafe seafood, etc.


I really need a break from this horror. I am going to see Madagascar 3 with my kids today.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Demolition of Fukushima Unit 4 Visible on the TBS-JNN Webcam


RESOURCES

TBS-JNN Webcam
http://www.youtube.com/user/tbsnewsi/featured

Tepco Webcam http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/f1-np/camera/index-j.html

The story is being covered by Fukushima Diary http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/06/live-tepco-is-removing-the-upper-part-of-reactor4/#comment-259639

I'm sure the video captured of the event will be posted tomorrow on youtube. I'll post the link when I see it.

I would like to remind readers of the criticality event that Nuckelchen captured and posted:
The early morning hours from 24.06.2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3X-aFxx4JE&feature=youtu.be

OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS

The demolition was awesome. The crane seemed to be eating the pillars of building #4.

Huge plumes of dust were emitted. 

Sometimes there were massive sparks of light. Someone at Enenews suggested that a plasma blade was being used (or something like that).

The rapid speed of the demolition was shocking.

However, after watching the demolition for a couple of hours I noticed that the ocean breaks were not occurring “normally.”

The ocean movement seemed accelerated (I lived near the beach in college and grew up swimming in the ocean).

When people started moving around when the demolition stopped, their activity seemed extraordinarily rapid, just like the demolition.

I don’t think this is a live event.

I think it was taped before hand–maybe yesterday–and we are now watching the taped version, slightly fast-forwarded.

If I am correct, then this is a grand photo op for Tepco.

I learned one thing for sure and that is that the Tepco webcam is PURE FABRICATION during the day. There was no correspondence at all between the images. I've saved lots of screen captures to prove it.

There is no way that type of activity could occur and not be visible on the Tepco cam (yesterday, today, the day before, or ever).

The cranes (probably) and huge clouds of dust (certainly) would be visible from miles away.

And that cloud is the tragic thing about this demolition.

Remember that alarmingly high radiation spike that occurred yesterday in Japan?

http://new.atmc.jp/#p=07b606bf92456e9be9

You can read about the spike at Bobby's blog: http://optimalprediction.com/wp/

Enormous radiation spike in Fukushima prefecture.
"A huge radiation spike of 20,557 uSv/hr occurred today at a high school in Fukushima prefecture, east of Koriyama…."

THIS DEMOLITION could have been the cause. 

The footage from this demolition event could have been taken yesterday (or before) and played today.

The alarmingly high radiation spike in Fukushima yesterday could have been from the dust!


(Or it could have been from the criticality)

In both cases, the public could have been warned in Fukushima. Why didn't they warn people to stay inside???????????

So, the possibility that neither cam is "real," raises questions about when the events that we do see were filmed?

When did the criticality occur? Did it occur before or after the demolition of unit 4's upper structures?

What a miserable and deadly labrynth.

Those in Hawaii and on the Pacific west coast had better prepare for fallout from that billowing radioactive concrete dust.

Those in Japan downwind of Fukushima should consider sheltering.


Signs of Exodus?


Toyota to move Yaris North American production to France. Reuters
Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:33pm http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/23/business-us-toyota-france-us-idUKBRE85M07B20120623

(Excerpted) - "Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said it will transfer its Yaris compact car production for North America to France from Japan in May next year, marking the first time the company will export cars from Europe to that market....

The move by Toyota follows plans by domestic rivals Honda Motor Co (7267.T), Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) and Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) to open new factories in Mexico to serve North America and reduce loss-making exports from Japan...."

Translation Problem?


I hope this is a translation problem. My concern is a statement in a report about contamination found in a Tokyo park:

NHK: Radioactive hot spots found in Tokyo park
 http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120625_29.html

[Excerpt] "According to science ministry guidelines, decontamination is required when radiation is at least one microsievert higher than surrounding areas. Based on these guidelines, 9 of the 14 surveyed places in Mizumoto Park will be decontaminated."

Majia here: I hope this does not mean that extreme hot spots alone will be decontaminated.

Consider a headline from a couple of weeks ago:

Shoji Nomura. Radioactive 'black soil' patches: A scourge or a solution? Asahi Shimbun Weekly Area (2012, June 14), http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201206140067

[excerpted] "...There have also been locations in the greater Tokyo area with high radioactivity levels. For example, Kawajima in Saitama Prefecture had a level of about 420,000 becquerels per kilogram. The area in front of the Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, in the Kitanomaru Park of Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward had a reading of about 90,000 becquerels per kilogram while Shinbashi in Minato Ward had a reading of about 70,000 becquerels per kilogram...."


Majia here: The NHK article about the Tokyo park indicates that even highly contaminated areas like these documented in the Asahi Shimbun Weekly would not be de-contaminated unless they measured one microsievert higher than surrounding areas.

I suspect that there must be a base level of contamination in Japan over which everything is de-contaminated. At least, I hope there is....

I know that the exposure level for adults from "external" radiation is 20 millisieverts....at least 19 millisieverts too high!


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Isn't This a Lot Like Insider Trading?


Washington Post: Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms By Dan Keating, David S. Fallis, Kimberly Kindy and Scott Higham, Published: June 23
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/members-of-congress-trade-in-companies-while-making-laws-that-affect-those-same-firms/2012/06/23/gJQAlXwVyV_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

[Excerpted] "One-hundred-thirty members of Congress or their families have traded stocks collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies lobbying on bills that came before their committees, a practice that is permitted under current ethics rules, a Washington Post analysis has found.

The lawmakers bought and sold a total of between $85 million and $218 million in 323 companies registered to lobby on legislation that appeared before them, according to an examination of all 45,000 individual congressional stock transactions contained in computerized financial disclosure data from 2007 to 2010..."

read the entire article linked above

Heads Up!


Enormous radiation spike in Fukushima prefecture.
http://optimalprediction.com/wp/

"A huge radiation spike of 20,557 uSv/hr occurred today at a high school in Fukushima prefecture, east of Koriyama...."

Majia here: This post at Bobby's blog links the criticality taped by Nuckelchen that I posted earlier today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3X-aFxx4JE&feature=youtu.be

with a recent significant radiation spike in Fukushima prefecture
http://new.atmc.jp/#p=07b606bf92456e9be9

It seems that conditions will deteriorate ever more at Fukushima.

I wonder whether anyone will be left to see the plant cool enough to dispose of the leftovers...


Fukushima Criticality?


The early morning hours from 24.06.2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3X-aFxx4JE&feature=youtu.be

Work of Nuckelchen

(Bobby1 brought to my attention)

I believe my husband is now ill from the radiation because he travels by air so frequently.

This is obscene.





Sociopaths Run the World and Nuclear Energy is a Cover for Their War-Mongering



APEC ministers to agree on importance of nuclear energy use: draft
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120624p2g00m0dm009000c.html

[excerpt] TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Energy ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will agree at their two-day meeting from Sunday in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the importance of using nuclear energy to reduce carbon dioxide emission and to meet the growing demand for energy, a draft of the joint declaration obtained by Kyodo News showed Saturday.

The draft showed that the declaration, to be adopted Monday, will largely reflect the views of countries promoting nuclear power plants, led by Russia and the United States, while urging Japan to share the lessons it has learnt from the Fukushima crisis....

Majia Here: Here are the lessons I've learned from Fukushima.

Nuclear power exists so that countries can have access to the resources needed to make nuclear weapons. That is the number 1 reason for nuclear power.

Nuclear power was promoted by a small group of physicists in the 1940s and 1950s who believed it was possible to solve the world's energy problems with nuclear. Many of their colleagues disagreed, arguing that nuclear was not efficient and not safe as an energy source.

In the US, Governments enabled nuclear power to develop by essentially socializing most costs directly through huge incentives to corporations like GE and Westinghouse that sold the plants to public utilities.

When government subsidies waned, public utilities were often reluctant to invest in nuclear because of its costs. When utilities did adopt nuclear, they socialized the costs to utility users who had little to no choice about the source of their power.

Nuclear energy has been a huge money pit and cost overruns for nuclear plants typically came in during the 1960s and 1970s at twice expected costs.

Nuclear plants routinely leak tritium into the environment; as a beta emitter, tritium can cause biological harm to your body (see Stagner, 2011; Caldicott, 2006).

Nuclear fuel rods have to be replaced every couple of years and they are so toxic and so hot that storage has been an ongoing problem. The world has more toxic waste than can be managed safely.

Nothing is more capable of breaking DNA than ionizing radiation.

Ionizing radiation comes in three forms: gamma, beta, and alpha. Ingestion of a single particle that emits beta and alpha can kill you. This fact has been known since the 1940s (see Langley)

Nuclear power plant accidents, such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, emit far more alpha and beta particles than nuclear bomb explosions.

Governments today KNOW that nuclear power is inefficient, costly, and deadly.

Governments today PERSIST in nuclear power so that they can join or remain within the nuclear weapons club.

Industry leaders such as the US, Russia, France, the UK and now S. Korea, promote nuclear power so they can sell nuclear plants and exert leverage upon nations that buy these plants (in an elaborate game of chess within which people are less than pawns).

Nuclear power is GREED DRIVEN and COUNTER TO HUMAN SURVIVAL. This is the most important lesson of Fukushima.

The second most important lesson is that governments will prioritize their greed over human survival.

Fukushima is not the only nuclear plant in Japan that was damaged and emitted radiation.

The amount of radiation released already could be population threatening. Radiation is released daily into the atmosphere and ocean from the Fukushima plant.


Sources

Caldicott, Helen. Nuclear Power is Not the Answer. The New Press: New York. 2006, 124.

“Cesium Leak Equal to 168 '45 A-Bombs: NISA Compares Contamination to Hiroshima Blast,” Japan Times (2011, August 27): http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110827x3.html.

Freedman, Man “Dangers of Nuclear Radiation: U.S. Plans for Public Protection.”
     The Manchester Guardian ( Jul 15, 1955): ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003) page 9. Retrieved: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/479866824/136B74FF0E260A4EEE8/3?accountid=4485


Makhijani, Arjun and Scott Saleska The Nuclear Power Deception: A Report of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. New York: The Apex Press, 1999. P 84.

Kenichi Ohmae (BBT University President) “Lessons of Fukushima Dai-ichi” (2011, October 28): Full report index available here:  http://pr.bbt757.com/eng/. Full report here http://pr.bbt757.com/eng/pdf/finalrepo_111225.pdf. In Japanese available here:  http://pr.bbt757.com/2011/1028.html. Appendix of conditions at various plants around Japan http://pr.bbt757.com/eng/pdf/apdx_chronology_and_power-loss.pdf.

Langley, Paul has provided readers of his blog with research from the Manhattan Project on the effects of internal emitters. Langley’s post is The Metabolism of the Fission Products, Hamilton 1942. Available here: http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/the-metabolism-of-the-fission-products-hamilton-1942-on

Low-level radioactive water leaks at Tokai nuclear plant” Kyodo News (2012, March 19): http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/03/147881.html and “Research Reactor Ceiling Catches Fire,” Japan Times (2011, December 21): http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111221b3.html

Nadesan, Majia Lessons from Fukushima http://asu.academia.edu/majianadesan/Papers/1506315/Lessons_From_Fukushima_Powerpoint_Presentation_on_Media_Censorship_and_Crisis_Communication

William F. Morgan. Non-targeted and Delayed Effects of Exposure to  Ionizing Radiation: I. Radiation Induced Genomic Instability and Bystander Effects In Vitro. Radiation Research, 159, 567-580

Pringle, Peter and James Spigelman. The Nuclear Barons. New York: Discus Books, 1981, 173.

Stagner, Clyde. Hidden Tritium http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Tritium-Clyde-Stagner/dp/1618631594/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340555839&sr=1-1&keywords=hidden+tritium


Confidence Builder


Alarm erroneously issued at Oi nuclear plant
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120624p2g00m0dm063000c.html

"The central control room for the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at the Oi power plant in Fukui Prefecture registered two alarms indicating trouble with electric power cables"

Majia here: but the operator found the alarm was in error.


Saturday, June 23, 2012

Editorial: National security clause must be deleted from law on atomic energy


The Mainichi: Editorial: National security clause must be deleted from law on atomic energy
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20120623p2a00m0na009000c.html

[excerpted] An addition to the Atomic Energy Basic Law stating that Japan's nuclear energy should contribute to national security has stirred controversy.

The amendment has fueled speculations about its true aim. Some wonder whether the interpretation of the clause could be stretched to open the way for nuclear weapons development. Others question whether the clause is aimed at underscoring the effectiveness of the development and use of atomic power for nuclear power plants and other purposes....

....The Atomic Energy Basic Law was amended by incorporating the clause into the appendix in the law on the establishment of a nuclear regulatory panel, which was passed into law on June 20.

...The clause was not in the original government-sponsored bill. However, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito subsequently agreed to modify the bill and enact it as lawmaker-initiated legislation. At the time, the clause in question was incorporated into the appendix at the request of the LDP.

Some LDP legislators insist that Japan should maintain its high-level nuclear technology and demonstrate to the world its capability to develop nuclear weapons as a potential deterrent, linking atomic energy to national security...

Majia Here: Interesting editorial.

Why now is Japan changing the Atomic Energy Basic Law?

Background
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-does-japans-plutonium-stockpiling.html

Friday, June 22, 2012

Weather Modification? Other Strange Phenomena. . .


Weather Modification? Haarp????

This interview with Dr. Rosalie Bertell is rather astonishing. She is the author of No Immediate Danger, an excellent book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=170gbkx6JDk

Headline from Jan 26, 2011: If that is Stuxnet, What does Flame Really Do?


Russia says Stuxnet could have caused new Chernobyl

(Reuters) - "Russia said on Wednesday that NATO should investigate last year's computer virus attack on a Russian-built nuclear reactor in Iran, saying the incident could have triggered a nuclear disaster on the scale of Chernobyl.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, said the virus that hit the computer system at the Bushehr reactor had caused centrifuges to spin out of control.

"This virus, which is very toxic, very dangerous, could have very serious implications," he said, describing the virus's impact as being like explosive mines.

"These 'mines' could lead to a new Chernobyl," he said,

Majia here: The Reuters report states that Iranian "officials have confirmed" that the Stuxnet virus impacted computer systems at the Bushehr plant but did not compromise important systems.

One has to wonder what the Flame virus does to nuclear reactors given they are its target?

Common Dreams US, Israel behind Flame Virus Cyber-Attack on Iran, US Officials Confirm - Common Dreams staff June 20 http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/20-3

[excerpted] "Flame Virus part of larger, sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage
 
Officials have now confirmed that the US and Israel worked together to develop the Flame computer virus that collected Iranian intelligence as part of a larger cyber attack on Iran, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The virus, which is designed to covertly control everyday computer functions and send secrets back to its creators, was discovered by Iranian officials last month...."


Washington Post: U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say By Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Julie Tate, Published: June 19 The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-israel-developed-computer-virus-to-slow-iranian-nuclear-efforts-officials-say/2012/06/19/gJQA6xBPoV_story.html

Majia here: This entire shadow war exercise is apocalyptic

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/sojourners-shadow-wars.html

Michael Collins: The Unforgettable Fire

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Sojourners: Shadow Wars


by Duane Shank June 21

http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/06/21/shadow-wars/#disqus_thread

[Excerpted] A series of recent news stories, largely based on anonymous sources, reveals an emerging new U.S. military strategy. After more than 10 years of long, bloody ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama administration is turning to what one report called “shadow wars.”  

Rather than large numbers of troops on the ground, these wars involve covert intelligence and action, special forces units, cyberwar against computers, and a greatly expanded use of unmanned drones. They are undeclared, still largely secret and unaccountable....

In Pakistan and more recently in Yemen, drone strikes are moving to what are called “signature” attacks, not aimed at specific individuals but at what are considered suspicious behavior “signatures” of al-Qaeda activity based on vehicles, facilities, communications equipment and patterns of behavior.  And the president has adopted a new method of counting civilian deaths – all military-age males in the area of a strike are considered militants, unless there is posthumous evidence they were civilians....

Read the entire article linked above



This is fascism.

There is no consensus building about the necessity of war.

War is a profitable enterprise for an empire that rules with a stick and through electronic manipulation, whether it be in the area of finance or whether it be through cyber weapons like Flame.

There is no due process for victims.

There is no justice only arbitrary death and endless greed.

I reject this system; it violates all legal and religious principles of right, good, and justice.


Poisoning One of Our Most Precious Resources: Fresh Water


Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath US  Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, June 21, 2012, Propublica http://www.propublica.org/article/injection-wells-the-poison-beneath-us

[Excerpted] "Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation's geology as an invisible dumping ground.

No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.
There are growing signs they were mistaken.

Records from disparate corners of the United States show that wells drilled to bury this waste deep beneath the ground have repeatedly leaked, sending dangerous chemicals and waste gurgling to the surface or, on occasion, seeping into shallow aquifers that store a significant portion of the nation's drinking water.

In 2010, contaminants from such a well bubbled up in a west Los Angeles dog park. Within the past three years, similar fountains of oil and gas drilling waste have appeared in Oklahoma and Louisiana. In South Florida, 20 of the nation's most stringently regulated disposal wells failed in the early 1990s, releasing partly treated sewage into aquifers that may one day be needed to supply Miami's drinking water...." 
 
read the entire article linked above

Radiation Remediation Link


Feel like a radiated sitting duck? Things you can do to mitigate the problem.
http://farmwars.info/?p=6062

Hat Tip Sam Stone at Enenews
Feel like a radiated sitting duck? Things you can do to mitigate the problem.

ProPublica: The For - Profit Detention Industry


By the Numbers: The U.S.’s Growing For-Profit Detention Industry by Suevon Lee ProPublica, June 20, 2012, 3:41 p.m.
http://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-growing-for-profit-detention-industry

[Excerpted] The growth of the private detention industry has long been a subject of scrutiny. A recent eight-part series in the New Orleans Times-Picayune [1] chronicled how more than half of Louisiana’s 40,000 inmates are housed in prisons run by sheriffs or private companies as part of a broader financial incentive scheme. The detention business goes beyond just criminal prisoners.

As a Huffington Post investigation pointed out last month, nearly half of all immigrant detainees [2] are now held in privately run detention facilities. Just this week, the New York Times delved into lax oversight [3] at industrial-sized but privately run halfway houses in New Jersey.

General Statistics:

1.6 million: Total number of state and federal prisoners in the United States as of December 2010, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics [4]

128,195: Number of state and federal prisoners housed in private facilities as of December 2010

37: percent by which number of prisoners in private facilities increased [5] between 2002 and 2009

...33,330: Estimated size of detained immigrant population as of 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security [7]

Corrections Corporation of America...

Go to link above to read entire article....

Good Links


Welcome to the Dark Ages byJohn Atcheson http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/18-2

[Excerpted] "...Now, we seek to operate by revealed truths, not reality.  Decrees from on high – often issued by an unholy alliance of religious fundamentalists, self-interested corporations, and greedy fat cats – are offered up as reality by rightwing politicians...."

Common Dreams US, Israel behind Flame Virus Cyber-Attack on Iran, US Officials Confirm - Common Dreams staff June 20 http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/20-3

[excerpted] "Flame Virus part of larger, sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage
 
Officials have now confirmed that the US and Israel worked together to develop the Flame computer virus that collected Iranian intelligence as part of a larger cyber attack on Iran, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The virus, which is designed to covertly control everyday computer functions and send secrets back to its creators, was discovered by Iranian officials last month....

...Two leading computer security firms - Kaspersky Lab and Symantec Corp - have confirmed that the software code in the Flame virus matches an earlier detected virus, Stuxnet, which was widely believed to have been used by the United States and Israel to cause Iran's nuclear program to malfunction.

"This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action,” said one of the sources, reported to be a high-ranking U.S. intelligence official. The official told that the Flame and Stuxnet viruses were part of a larger cyber attack that continues today, the Post reported...."


Washington Post: U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say By Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Julie Tate, Published: June 19 The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-israel-developed-computer-virus-to-slow-iranian-nuclear-efforts-officials-say/2012/06/19/gJQA6xBPoV_story.html

[excerpted] The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.
The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military, has included the use of destructive software such as the Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran’s nuclear-enrichment equipment....

The virus is among the most sophisticated and subversive pieces of malware to be exposed to date. Experts said the program was designed to replicate across even highly secure networks, then control everyday computer functions to send secrets back to its creators. The code could activate computer microphones and cameras, log keyboard strokes, take screen shots, extract geo­location data from images, and send and receive commands and data through Bluetooth wireless technology.

Flame was developed at least five years ago as part of a classified effort code-named Olympic Games





Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Monsanto as Disease


Great Essay!

Monsanto: A Modern Day Plague By Lisa Cerda, City Watch Los Angeles, June 12 http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/11997-focus-monsanto-a-modern-day-plague

[Excerpt]

Here's a bullet point history.

Contributed to the research on uranium, for the Manhattan Project, during WWII.


Operated a nuclear facility for the U.S. government until the late 1980s.


Top manufacturer of synthetic fibers, plastics and polystyrene (EPA's 5th ranked chemical production that generates the most hazardous waste).


A top 10 US chemical company.


Agriculture pesticides producer.


Herbicide producer - herbicides 2,4,5-T, Agent Orange, Lasso, and DDT.

Systematic Bias in the First BEAR Study on the Effects of Ionizing Radiation



What I learned today in my research from an excellent historical analysis by Jacob Darwin Hamblin titled "'A Dispassionate and Objective Effort': Negotiating the First Study on the Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation, Journal of the History of Biology, 40(1), 147-177, 2007:

1. The first BEAR (Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation) study on the effects of radiation published in 1956 was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation

2. Although the study was published under the auspices of the National Academy of Science, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) controlled access to classified information on atomic effects, controlled access to the media, and indirectly controlled the final version of the report that was published in Scientific America, aimed at public consumption. There were key AEC members in the study.

3. There was a strong conflict in the genetics sub-committee for the report because two prominent scientific members - Hermann J. Muller and A. H. Stuttevant -- felt that there is no safe threshold for exposure and therefore the idea of a permissible dose, as set by the government, was unconscionable. These scientists' concerns were greatly tempered and censored in the derived versions of the report that showed up in Scientific American and The New York Times (and in the final version of the report, as well).

4. A trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation owned The New York Times when the report was completed. The trustee could thus dictate what information from the report showed up in the paper. The New York Times' version of the report only featured 6 of the scientists and the two strongly dissenting geneticists were not included, nor were their concerns. It was titled "Text of Genetics Committee Report Concerning Effects of Radioactivity on Heredity" July 13, 1956 and stated that all fallout that had occurred from atmospheric nuclear testing was safe, despite considerable discussion of the damaging effects of ionizing radiation on DNA and the dangers of inherited mutations. see http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/burdening-species-with-genetic.html

5.  Despite the report's acknowledging the role of DNA in producing mutations that can be transmitted across generations, the Secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission went on to deny harmful effects from "low levels" of exposure to radiation (since in the AEC's view, radiation was essentially just sunshine--beta and gamma didn't calculate in their universe).

 6. One of the dissenting scientists, A. H. Stuttevant, was so irate about the idea of a permissible dose that he wrote an essay published in Science titled, "Social Implications of the Genetics of Man" (Sep. 1954 vol 120), in which Stuttevant demonstrated the fallacy of permissible dose (p. 406). The final sentence of Stuttevant's essay is a direct challenge to Chairman Strauss of the Atomic Energy Commission and reads as follows: 
 "I regret that an official of such responsibility should have stated that there is no biological hazard from low doses of high-energy irradiation" (407)


Narrative Version (based on my reading of Hamblin's essay)

The history of research on radiation exposure may be among the most politicized body of public health research because both the nuclear industry and governments with nuclear weapons’ programs have a shared vested interest in trivializing the effects of ionizing radiation. Indeed, Jacob Hamblin describes how the first major study on the biological effects of radiation conducted by the National Academy of Science (NAS) in 1956, the BEAR study, was fraught with disputes between (1) geneticists who saw all levels of ionizing radiation as increasing harmful mutations and (2) other atomic scientists, especially those connected to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), who found no conclusive evidence of long term damage from atmospheric fallout (147-148) and persisted in equating nuclear fallout with natural background radiation (152). The Rockefeller Foundation that funded the study also helped control media dissemination of its major findings, shaping public opinion about atmospheric testing specifically, and radiation safety, more generally.
Hamblin explains in his essay the conflicts within the committee between those who promoted the idea that fallout was safe and those who saw it as posing long term health risks to human populations. The NAS group was more concerned about effects, but had less access to classified AEC data on fallout and secret studies and had less access to the media. The study’s geneticists were particularly divided on whether they accepted a threshold of safety for radiation exposure, with several rejecting as safe any level of exposure (156), in direct contradiction to the AEC appointees and to Shields Warren, the Chairman of the Committee on the Pathological Effects of Atomic Radiation.
The presence and privileged status of AEC personnel shaped the final report in significant ways because of their insistence on a threshold for “safe exposure,” their institutional privileges, and their  access to, and visibility within,  in the public spotlight ,as contrasted with NAS members, particularly the NAS geneticists who did not participate in publicizing the report’s findings. The summary report published in Scientific American was written by the committee chairman with no other members having a role in its production (165). Thus, the thesis “no harm done” prevailed.
The Rockefeller Foundation, which financed the BEAR study, controlled news media accounts of findings. A Rockefeller Foundation trustee owned the New York Times and thus influenced reporting in that news outlet.  None of the geneticists who supported the no threshold position, especially Alfred H. Sturtevant and Hermann J. Muller, contributed to The New York Times story, which will be discussed in the following section. The “no effects” message from nuclear fallout thus dominates the final report and in its dissemination, although threaded with concerns about genetic mutations.
The conflict persists today between geneticists (and epidemiologists) who see no threshold for the damaging effects of ionizing radiation and those scientists, often funded by Department of Energy grants, who see no effects below particular thresholds. Today the idea that there is no safe threshold for exposure to ionizing radiation is referred to as the linear, no threshold model. Although it has come to be widely accepted, Department of Defense funded research persists in arguing that thresholds exist for gamma exposure.  
Part of the ambiguity in the issue of threshold stems from the type of radiation at issue. Although the AEC scientists argued that all ionizing radiation is equivalent to “background” radiation, or sunshine units, other scientists strongly disagree, arguing that the high speed electrons and atomic beta particles emitted by elements such as cesium, uranium, and plutonium  have specific dose effects that are not equivalent to gamma (electro-magnetic radiation), especially when the emitters (e.g., plutonium) are ingested or inhaled....

ADDITIONAL SOURCE FOR FURTHER READING

Paul Langley on his website has described as the “two hidden debates” in US radiological research (June 7, 2012) http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/there-are-two-hidden-debates-going-on-in-the-usa-related-to-radiological-safety/
a. The Linear No Threshold model (risk proportional to dose) vs hormesis and its “good” and “bad” thresholds.
b. Internal emitters and hot particle impact vs external dose as the only predictor of harm.
The politicization of these debates can be demonstrated by contextualizing  historical understandings of ionizing radiation and by looking at dose-effect findings across a variety of research contexts.

Nuclear Controversies by Vladimir Tchertkoff; Released in 2003, 51 minutes
30:20 – According to Professor Yury Bandazhevsky (former director of the Medical Institute in Gomel), "Over 50 Bq/kg of body weight lead to irreversible lesions in vital organs" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8746168177815160826# 
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