7/19/2011 Dangerous Levels Of Radiation Recorded In Canada As Fukushima Radiation Dangers Continue

Source: The Intel Hub
Date: 7/19/2011
by: Alex Thomas

Multiple videos have been released showing high levels of radiation in Canada as the corporate media continues to cover up the real dangers posed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The tests were taken in multiple places in Canada including Lake Louise BC, Kelowna BC, Red Deer/Edmonton, and Hope BC.

The radiation tests that were taken near Lake Louise BC clearly showed harmful radiation levels up to 1.66 mcSv/hr.

So far Canadian and American authorities have remained silent. We must DEMAND action from local health authorities. If these levels of radiation are being picked up in Canada it seems only a matter of time before they reach the west coast of the United States.

This should be a RED ALERT to all Americans and Canadians!

CRMT- Dangerous Radioactive rain in Lake Louise,BC (1.66 mcSv/hr)


Kelowna BC receives High Fukushima Fallout Radioactive Rain on 07/16/11


CRMT- Hope BC receives High Radioactive Fukushima Fallout Rain on 07/16/11


HIGH Radiations levels found in Rain samples from Red Deer/Edmonton (1.02 mcSv/hr)

7/18/2011 Did you hear about the alert at Illinois' Dresden Nuclear Plant?

Source: examiner.com (Chicago, IL)
Date: 7/18/2011
by: Cynthia Hodges

Dresden Nuclear Plant in Illinois Credits: Google Images

July 18, 2011   On Friday, the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant located 60 miles southwest of Chicago declared an Alert at 10:16 a.m after a chemical leak restricted access to a vital area that houses plant cooling water pumps. The material leaked was sodium hypochlorite, a chemical similar to bleach which is routinely used in plants to treat water.

According to the few mentions of the incident, there was no known impact to the public health and safety and the environment.

Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Morris, Illinios is owned and operated by Exelon Corp. located in Chicago.
...
Read full article here

Editor's Note: The emergency was cleared on the same day it was issued. Per the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) event notification report:

...
* * * UPDATE AT 1626 EDT ON 7/15/11 FROM MIROCHNA TO HUFFMAN * * *

"The alert has been terminated on 7/15/11 at 1520 CDT. The conditions which caused the alert no longer exist. A press release was made for the event. Two employees were sent for offsite medical attention as a precautionary measure; neither employee was contaminated."

The licensee stated that the sodium hypochlorite had leaked from a pipe into a sump under the storage trailer near the cribhouse. The sodium hypochlorite that leaked into the sump has been pumped out. Access to the cribhouse has been restored and there are no other access restrictions at the site. Both units continue to operate at full power.
...

Below is a map of Dresden Nuclear Generating Station. Note that not all U.S. nuclear power plants appear on this map, only ones with unusual recent activity or known safety issues (that the editor knows about).

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

7/16/2011 'Unusual Event' Reported At San Onofre Plant

Source: Associated Press via San Franciso Chronicle
Date: 7/16/2011 16:31 PDT

(07-16) 16:31 PDT SAN ONOFRE, Calif. (AP) --

Utility officials say one of several redundant security systems used to monitor the grounds of Southern California's San Onofre nuclear plant stopped working for 45 minutes, triggering a declaration of the lowest level of emergency.

Gil Alexander, a spokesman for the plant's operator, Southern California Edison, said an "unusual event" was declared at 6:12 a.m.

Although the security system was restored within 45 minutes, the Orange County plant remained on unusual event status until 9:50 a.m.

Alexander said the failure was not related to nuclear operations and no part of the plant's perimeter was left unguarded.

Edison did not release details of the incident or say what kind of equipment was involved.

Officials were still trying to determine the cause of the failure Saturday afternoon.

Alexander said the unusual event declaration required immediate notification of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Editor's Note: The emergency has been cleared and the nuclear power plant is back in a non-emergency condition. Quoting the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) event notification report:

...
* * * UPDATE FROM DANIEL CRUZ TO DONALD NORWOOD AT 1255 EDT ON 7/16/11 * * *

The licensee exited the Unusual Event at 0950 PDT. The plant security safeguards systems have been returned to normal. Contact the Headquarters Operations Officer for details.

The licensee notified State and local authorities and the NRC Resident Inspector.
...

Map of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, not all nuclear power plants in the U.S. are included, only ones with known safety issues or recent unusual activity (that the editor knows about).

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

7/17/2011 Residents of Fukushima trapped in dangerous radiation contaminated areas due to lack of government evacuation order/aid

Date: 7/17/2011

Last month, the parents of 14 students sued the Koriyama Municipal Government in order to get their schools moved to safe areas. This is the first of its kind lawsuit brought against the Japanese government. Quoting from the article Radiation scare prompts lawsuit to move Fukushima schools from Majorix News:

...
In a suit filed at the Koriyama Branch of the Fukushima District Court, parents of 14 pupils attending either elementary or junior high schools in the city sued the Koriyama government, demanding schools be moved as blocs into safe areas.


“Our aim is to make sure all children in Fukushima Prefecture can take classes in safety,” Kenichi Ido, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said.


Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they had calculated that of the 266 elementary or junior high schools located within cities in Fukushima Prefecture, merely five recorded radiation levels below the safe average annual radiation exposure level of 1 millisievert as outlined by the International Committee on Radiological Protection (ICRP). In nearby Aizu, where radiation exposure is comparatively low, only one school falls below the ICRP guideline.[1]
...

Back in May MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) announced it would increase the safe exposure limit by 20 times from 1 millisievert per year to 20 millisieverts per year but parents pushed back and now MEXT said it would abide by the old safe exposure limit as specified by the ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection).[1] Thanks to whomever signed the petition from Green Action Japan, apparently you did help make a difference!

Putting public pressure on politicians can be effective. Residents in Fukushima City are calling out for the world's assistance in persuading the Japanese government to issue an official evacuation order for them so that they can evacuate themselves and their children from dangerous radiation contaminated areas. Following is a video translated from Japanese to English (and French):


The video was made by representatives of Moms To Save Children from Radiation. You can show your support by sending an e-mail to mscrjp@gmail.com or passing on the video or this article.

A recent saddening development is that the Japanese government is actually thinking about lessening its evacuation zone and sending residents back in to previously evacuated areas. According to yesterday's AFP article Japan PM visits Fukushima amid talk of cut in zone:

...
The government is now looking at resettling people in evacuated areas outside the plant's 20-kilometre (12-mile) no-go zone, although it has declined to give a specific timeframe.

The mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun on Saturday said the situation has improved enough for the government to consider narrowing an emergency evacuation zone, imposed between 20 and 30 kilometres from the plant, in August.[2]

...

This is quite bad news, because it means that financial assistance to help people evacuate will be lessened as well.[2]

Presently financial assistance is only available to evacuees who were living within a certain radius (20 km) of the Fukushima I nuclear power plant when the accident occurred. This is already keeping people from leaving contaminated areas who might otherwise be able to evacuate (if given an official order by the Japanese government along with financial assistance), as per the plea from Moms to Save Children from Radiation above.

I thought the following video by political activist and talk show host Alex Jones summarized the plight of those living in radiation contaminated areas quite well.


This is an impromptu video made by Mr. Jones before he went in for an interview with RT News concerning the topic of Bohemian Grove. The Bohemian Club includes several thousand of the Western power elite and they meet once a year in Bohemian Grove to engage in ritual sacrifice (to the ancient Babylonian god Moloch via the Cremation of Care ceremony), cavorting/debauchery and, some would argue, plotting world domination.

Sources:
[1] Radiation scare prompts lawsuit to move Fukushima schools, Majorix News
[2] Japan PM visits Fukushima amid talk of cut in zone, AFP

7/17/2011 Women's World Cup was more than a game for Japan

Source: Los Angeles Times
Date: July 18, 2011
by: Kenji Hall and John M. Glionna

A joyful, nearly disbelieving Tokyo bursts into celebration over the soccer victory, a symbol of hope and resilience for the earthquake-devastated country.

Soccer fans celebrate on the street in Tokyo after Japan's Women's World
Cup victory. (Kim Kyung-hoon / Reuters / July 18, 2011)

Reporting from Tokyo and Seoul—As Japan's Saki Kumagai prepared for her decisive penalty kick in the shootout that ended Sunday's Women's World Cup final, a wounded nation held its breath.

For Japan, this was more than a soccer game. It was an opportunity to prove on a global stage that a country devastated four months ago by a killer earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe still possessed the heart and soul of a fierce competitor.
...
Read full article here

Editor's Note: Video below is from Al Jazeera

Japan become the first Asian nation to win the women's World Cup after a thrilling final against the USA in Frankfurt.

Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer has this report from the German city of Frankfurt.

7/14/2011 Illegal immigrant working inside nuke plant arrested

Source: KVOA.com News 4 Tucson (NBC affiliate)
Date: Jul 14, 2011 3:28 PM

PHOENIX - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies arrested an illegal immigrant working inside the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant, the nation's largest nuclear plant and one of the most closely monitored in the country.
...
Read full article here

Editor's Note: Map shows only nuclear reactors in the U.S. which have had recent unusual activity or known safety problems (that I know of).

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

7/15/2011 Sharapova, Wozniacki, Li Na to Help Japanese Disaster Victims

Source: 10sBalls.com
Date: 15th July 2011
by: Erin Frauenhofer



Caroline Wozniacki, Maria ShaCaroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, and Li Na will soon begin working to help tsunami and earthquake victims in Japan. The three tennis talents will participate in charity events before headlining the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September.
...
Read full article here

7/15/2011 Japan Geiger Counter Demand Spurs "Grey Market"

Source: Bloomberg
Date: 7/15/2011


July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Margaret Conley reports on demand for Geiger counters, also known as dosimeters, since the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan in March. Li Jinglei, chairman of Shanghai Ergonomics Detecting Instrument Co., a maker of the devices, said Japanese demand has spurred a grey market of "illegal" products that use faulty parts and shoddy designs or are fake. (Source: Bloomberg)

Editor's Note
The Geiger counter shown in the video is a DP802i. A review of the device can be found at the following website: http://blog.gslab.net/geigercounter-battle/dp802i/.

7/15/2011 New U.S. Regulations Proposed in Response to Fukushima

Source: MIT Technology Review
Date: 7/15/2011
by: Kevin Bullis

A task force calls for safety upgrades, but the nuclear industry worries about their cost.
Shortly after the nuclear disaster at power plants in Fukushima, Japan, the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that U.S. reactors are safe. Now a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) task force created in response to the disaster is recommending extensive safety upgrades to deal with problems like the ones seen in Japan, although it also said that nuclear plants pose "no imminent risk."

One of the biggest problems at Fukushima was extended loss of power at the plant that shut down cooling systems, requiring plant operators to take extreme measures such as pumping seawater directly into the reactor, which in turn resulted in the release of radioactive seawater into the environment.
...
Read full article here

7/16/2011 Japan Operator Shutting Down Nuclear Reactor After Malfunction

Source: New York Times
Date: 7/16/2011
by: Hiroko Tabuchi

TOKYO — Japan’s second-largest nuclear operator said Saturday that it was manually shutting down a reactor in central Japan after a technical malfunction.

No radiation had leaked from the No. 1 Reactor at the Oi Nuclear Power Plant, on the Japan Sea coast, about 250 miles west of Tokyo, said Yoshihiko Kondo, a spokesman for the plant’s operator, Kansai Electric Power.

Mr. Kondo said that a loss of pressure had been detected late Friday in an accumulator tank needed to cool the reactor core in an emergency, forcing the utility to shut down the reactor. Workers will begin the shutdown at 1 p.m. Saturday in Japan, and shutdown will be complete by 9 p.m., he said.

The shutdown at Oi just four months after the devastating accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant comes as a blow to an industry struggling to regain public confidence. It also worsens an electricity shortage that has forced several utilities in Japan to require companies to reduce their use by at least 15 percent.

Only 19 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors are operating, because units shut down for regular maintenance have not been given permission by local governments to restart after the disaster at Fukushima, operated by Japan’s largest nuclear operator, Tokyo Electric Power. In the meantime, more reactors have been closing for scheduled maintenance, reducing the number in service across the country.

The 1.17-million-kilowatt Oi No. 1 Reactor, built in 1979, had been in the last stages of a trial run at full output after undergoing scheduled maintenance this year. At Kansai Electric, only four of its 11 reactors are now operating.

Editor's Note: Oi Nuclear Power Plant shown in map below

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

7/12/2011 "During April, The People In Seattle Could Have Just As Easily Been In Tokyo For The Amount Of Hot Particles That Were There"

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 7/12/2011

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen said recently:

During April, the people in Seattle could have just as easily been in Tokyo for the amount of hot particles that were there.

(For background on "hot particles", see this and this.)

Of course, radiation monitoring in Seattle may be kept secret. As that Washington Department of Health notes:

A helicopter flying over some urban areas of King and Pierce counties will gather radiological readings July 11-28, 2011. [Seattle is in King County.] The U.S. Department of Energy’s Remote Sensing Laboratory Aerial Measurement System will collect baseline levels of radioactive materials.
**
Some of the data may be withheld for national security purposes.

Indeed, the EPA has drastically reduced its radiation reporting to the public (which was never great), and has tried to raise acceptable radiation standards.

But isn't the amount of radiation Seattle residents are being exposed to safe? No, say many top experts. See this, this, this, this, this and this.

As David J. Brenner, a professor of radiation biophysics and the director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, wrote recently in The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists:

Should this worry us? We know that the extra individual cancer risks from this long-term exposure will be very small indeed. Most of us have about a 40 percent chance of getting cancer at some point in our lives, and the radiation dose from the extra radioactive cesium in the food supply will not significantly increase our individual cancer risks.
But there’s another way we can and should think about the risk: not from the perspective of individuals, but from the perspective of the entire population. A tiny extra risk to a few people is one thing. But here we have a potential tiny extra risk to millions or even billions of people. Think of buying a lottery ticket — just like the millions of other people who buy a ticket, your chances of winning are miniscule. Yet among these millions of lottery players, a few people will certainly win; we just can’t predict who they will be. Likewise, will there be some extra cancers among the very large numbers of people exposed to extremely small radiation risks? It’s likely, but we really don’t know for sure.

Hat tip: ENE News and Forbes' Jeff McMahon, two of the best energy-related news sources on the web.

7/14/2011 Los Alamos National Lab prepares for monsoon flash flooding

Date: 7/14/2011

Los Alamos National Lab, America's premier nuclear weapons research and development facility/factory, seemed to weather the Las Conchas wildfire without a major nuclear incident (e.g. the potential threat of fire releasing dangerous levels of radiation in to the air from various Material Disposal Areas or lab facilities). A new threat exists now, but this time from flash floods potentially washing contaminated soil in to the Rio Grande river, the source of drinking water for many New Mexico communities including the capital Sante Fe. [1] According to a July 11, 2011 article by Reuters:

...
The soil in the canyons above Los Alamos National Laboratory, the linchpin of American's nuclear weapons industry, contains materials with trace amounts of radiation and hazardous chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that were dumped there decades ago, said Fred deSousa, spokesman for the lab's environmental control division.

Over the weekend, about 1,200 cubic yards of contaminated soil was removed primarily from two canyons -- Los Alamos and Pajarito -- that run through lab property, deSousa said.

The erosion control effort, which included the installation of 600 feet of water diversion barriers, will continue this week, he said.[1]
...

In a recent PressTV interview (below), Willem Malten of the Los Alamos Study Group states "there is a frantic community effort under way with mainly Native Americans sandbagging their own homelands while the [The Los Alamos National] Laboratory just removed 12,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the canyons."

PressTV: 'Monsoon rain could flood Los Alamos with contaminants'


Some key points were raised in the interview. Approximately 4 minutes in to the interview Malten states that a year long Associated Press investigation has found that the NRC (Nuclear Regulator Commission) has allowed aging nuclear power plants to run beyond their natural lifespan by relaxing previously set safety standards. Also of note is the segment of the interview starting at 7 minutes 7 seconds. Here Malten says that there has been "too cozy of a relationship between the nuclear industry, regulators and politicians for too long." The Obama administration received $210,000 in campaign contributions from the nuclear industry according to Malten.

Sources:
[1] Contaminated soil a concern at Los Alamos lab, Reuters
[2] 'Monsoon rain could flood Los Alamos with contaminants', PressTV