6/13/2011 | Victory! It's official. Nuclear power banned in Italy

Source: Beyond Nuclear
Date: June 13, 2011

Enjoy this exciting report from our colleague and "correspondent," Michael Leonardi: L'ABBIAMO FATTO WE DID IT!!!!! After an amazing mass mobilization of people all across the country with demonstrations, banner drops, critical mass bike rides, workshops, information booths, film screenings, an incredible use of the social networking and facebook, people running nude through the streets, die-ins, and a door to door neighbor to neighbor grassroots storm, the Italian people have won a historic vote to ban the construction of Nuclear Power plants now and forever!!!

A Vote to keep and return Water resources to public ownership and Prosecute the criminal behaviour of political leaders -- first and foremost Silvio Berlusconi. We managed to overcome the daunting task of a quorum of 50 % of all Italian voters + 1 in the face of a mass media completely controlled by Berlusconi and a government that was encouraging voters to go to the beach instead of vote on the first weekend of summer vacation for Italian grade school, middle school and high school students. This quorum had not been reached for over a decade on any referendum. This time the Italian people responded with 57% of the voters turning out to the polls and the Quorum being surpassed in every region of the country!!! 94% of the voters have voted SI to say NO to NUCLEAR POWER, This evening we'll be dancing and singing in the streets and celebrations have already started!!!! This vote on NUCLEAR ENERGY and WATER is not only a vote against the nuclear lobby and government here, but also a resounding rejection of the attempts by the US government and its NATO allies to force Italy into the nuclear arena. Let's hope that this victory can act as a boost to the anti-nuclear movement Internationally and in the United States that seems slowly coming to life in some hotspots.

6/12/2011 | Fukushima Update–Three Meltdowns and Cooling Pool #4 in Peril

Source: The Paltry Sapien
Date: June 12, 2011
by: Matthew Payne

This is an excellent summary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis by Matthew Payne in case you do not have the time to parse through a dozen or so articles:

 Fukushima Schematic; The Fuel Storage Pool is #5 (c/o Wikipedia)

Folks in the establishment media seem far more interested in congress-critters crotch shots or the violence in Syria (Yemen, not so much. . .), but some retrospectives at the three-month mark of the Fukushima FUBAR have been published and some clarity is possible on these events.

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Read full article here

6/13/2011 JST | High concentration of radioactive strontium found at Fukushima plant

Source: Kyodo News via Japan Today
Date: Monday 13th June, 06:30 AM JST

TEPCO workers set up tanks to be used  as part of the radioactive water processing  facilities at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Sunday. AP/TEPCO

TOKYO — Radioactive strontium up to 240 times the legal concentration limit has been detected in seawater samples collected near an intake at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co said Sunday. TEPCO said the substance was also found in groundwater near the plant’s Nos. 1 and 2 reactors. The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it is the first time that the substance has been found in groundwater. Read full article here

6/11/2011 | Japanese stage antinuclear protest in New York+

Source: AP via Breitbart
Date: Jun 11 10:27 PM US/Eastern

NEW YORK, June 11 (AP) - (Kyodo)—An antinuclear protest organized by Japanese people took place in New York on Saturday, three months after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami triggered a nuclear crisis at an atomic power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northwestern Japan.

About 60 people, around half of them Japanese, participated in the gathering, holding up large folded paper cranes and banners, while calling for the closure of nuclear power reactors in Japan and the United States.

New Yorkers who took part said they want to express their solidarity with the people of Japan and Fukushima.

Yuko Tonohira, a 31-year-old from Hokkaido and one of the organizers of the event, said, "There are also dangerous nuclear power plants near New York. I want to tell the local people about such fears and ask them to work together to eliminate nuclear plants."

6/11/2011 | Former adviser says government worsened radiation exposure

Source: m&c (Monsters and Critics)
Date: Jun 11, 2011, 7:43 GMT

Tokyo - A former adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan accused the government of having aggravated the problem of radiation exposure during the nuclear crisis, news reports said Saturday.
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6/12/2011 JST | Water treatment system testing at Fukushima plant hits snag again

Source: Kyodo News via Japan Today
Date: Sunday 12th June, 04:30 PM JST

TOKYO — Tokyo Electric Power Co’s preparations to begin testing a newly installed radioactive water treatment system at its troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant hit a snag again as the piping may be clogged, company officials said Sunday.
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6/12/2011 | Tepco vents No. 2 reactor while U.S. surveys ocean

Source: The Japan Times
Date: Sunday, June 12, 2011

Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday it began filtered venting of the No. 2 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to reduce radiation levels to the point where workers can go inside.

If the airborne radioactivity inside drops enough after three days, Tepco plans to open up the doors and send workers in to make repairs.

The No. 2 unit's high radioactivity and humidity have prevented workers from checking gauges and pipes, hampering the beleaguered utility's efforts to guide the reactor into a cold shutdown.

Meanwhile, a U.S. private research institute is conducting a survey of waters off Fukushima to assess the radiation's impact on the ecosystem.

An international team of experts led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution began the 15-day survey June 4. It is being carried out on a research ship from the University of Hawaii, with permission from the Japanese government, government officials said.

6/11/2011 | Japan: No Evacuation For 4 New Areas With Radiation 4 Times Higher Than Chernobyl Limits Over 50 KM From Fukushima

Source: Alexander Higgins Blog
Date: June 11, 2011 at 12:33 pm

Japan has added 4 news areas over 50 kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear plant, with radiation levels of over 20 millisieverts a year or 4 times higher the the Chernobyl evacuation threshold, to the list of radiation affected areas, but will not be evacuating those areas.

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6/10/2011 | Physician and Epidemiologist Say 35% Spike in Infant Mortality in Northwest Cities Since Meltdown Might Be the Result of Fallout from Fukushima

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 6/10/2011

As I've previously noted, infants are much more vulnerable to radiation than adults. And see this.
However, radiation safety standards are set based on the assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20s.
Now, a physician (Janette D. Sherman, M. D.) and epidemiologist (Joseph Mangano) have penned a short but horrifying essay asking whether a spike in infant deaths in the Northwest are due to Fukushima:

The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:

4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 - 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)
10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 - 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week)

This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster. In 2001 the infant mortality was 6.834 per 1000 live births, increasing to 6.845 in 2007. All years from 2002 to 2007 were higher than the 2001 rate.

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Data from Chernobyl, which exploded 25 years ago, clearly shows increased numbers of sick and weak newborns and increased numbers of deaths in the unborn and newborns, especially soon after the meltdown. These occurred in Europe as well as the former Soviet Union. Similar findings are also seen in wildlife living in areas with increased radioactive fallout levels.
(Chernobyl – Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, Alexeiy V. Yablokov, Vasily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko. Consulting Editor: Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger. New York Academy of Sciences, 2009.)

Levels of radioisotopes were measured in children who had died in the Minsk area that had received Chernobyl fallout. The cardiac findings were the same as those seen in test animals that had been administered Cs-137. Bandashevsky, Y. I, Pathology of Incorporated Ionizing Radiation, Belarus Technical University, Minsk. 136 pp., 1999. For his pioneering work, Prof. Bandashevsky was arrested in 2001 and imprisoned for five years of an eight year sentence.

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Why should we care if there may be is a link between Fukushima and the death of children? Because we need to measure the actual levels of isotopes in the environment and in the bodies of people exposed to determine if the fallout is killing our most vulnerable. The research is not technically difficult – the political and economic barriers may be greater. Bandshevsky and others did it and confirmed the connection. The information is available in the Chernobyl book. (Previously cited.)

The biological findings of Chernobyl cannot be ignored: isotope incorporation will determine the future of all life on earth – animal, fish, bird, plant and human. It is crucial to know this information if we are to avoid further catastrophic damage.

6/9/2011 | America’s Nuclear Spent-Fuel Time Bombs

Source: Eastern Group Publications
Date: 6/9/2011
by: Robert Alvarez

Now that many Americans have stopped paying attention to Japan’s nuclear catastrophe, shocking new details about its severity are finally coming to light.
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6/10/2011 | (VIDEO) Japanese watchdog demands radiation inquiry

Source: Al Jazeera
Date: 6/10/2011 upload date

Japan's nuclear safety officials have reprimanded the operator of the country's crippled Fukushima nuclear and demanded an investigation into how two workers were exposed to radiation more than twice the legally
permitted level of radiation.

Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas reports from Minamsanriku, Japan

6/10/2011 | Earless Fukushima Bunny Rabbit Makes Prime Time Appearance on CNN

Source: CNN via MoxNews.com
Date: 6/10/2011 upload date


Dr. Michio Kaku makes a return appearance on the Elliot Spitzer show, where the lead in is the famous ear-less bunny rabbit discovered in Fukushima Prefecture. Dr. Kaku feels the ear-less rabbit is most likely just a normal mutation, but that it will become a symbol of the Japan Fukushima nuclear disaster. According to Dr. Kaku, there are real concerns for cancer, as increased rates of leukemia should manifest in 5 years based on studying the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Dr. Kaku slams TEPCO (and the cowardly leader of the utility who checked himself in to a hospital apparently to avoid responsibility, and has since stepped down) for disseminating scant information to the public as well as even covering up the seriousness of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, forcing physicists to engage in forensic reconstruction based on detected radiation. Japanese kindergarteners have been issued dosimeters to measure their radiation exposure and additional areas have been identified as radiation hot spots beyond the initial evacuation zones. It is refreshing to hear so many truths told on national television.