Prepare for a slow and agonizing death

Discussion in 'Blazers OT Forum' started by MARIS61, Mar 12, 2011.

  1. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em.

    Well, you can.
     
  2. BrianFromWA

    BrianFromWA Editor in Chief Staff Member Editor in Chief

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    To contrast housemoms with blogs and journalists with green agenda, here's what an award-winning nuclear engineer says (long article):

     
  3. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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  4. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    ^^^ fear factor enthusiast.
     
  5. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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  6. jlprk

    jlprk The ESPN mod is insane.

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    Did Tepco accidentally forget to educate each employee--or is an unsuspecting, untrained, dumb employee the only person who will take this great risk?
     
  7. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    The geiger counter in Maris' head goes "tick, tick, tick"
     
  8. Natebishop3

    Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

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    Is this the longest running thread on the site?
     
  9. barfo

    barfo triggered obsessive commie pinko boomer maniac Staff Member Global Moderator

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    And the most agonizing?

    barfo
     
  10. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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  11. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444772404577589270444059332

    Denver has particularly high natural radioactivity. It comes primarily from radioactive radon gas, emitted from tiny concentrations of uranium found in local granite. If you live there, you get, on average, an extra dose of .3 rem of radiation per year (on top of the .62 rem that the average American absorbs annually from various sources). A rem is the unit of measure used to gauge radiation damage to human tissue.

    The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends evacuation of a locality whenever the excess radiation dose exceeds .1 rem per year. But that's one-third of what I call the "Denver dose." Applied strictly, the ICRP standard would seem to require the immediate evacuation of Denver.

    It is worth noting that, despite its high radiation levels, Denver generally has a lower cancer rate than the rest of the United States. Some scientists interpret this as evidence that low levels of radiation induce cancer resistance; I think it is more likely that lifestyle differences account for the disparity.

    Now consider the most famous victim of the March 2011 tsunami in Japan: the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Two workers at the reactor were killed by the tsunami, which is believed to have been 50 feet high at the site.

    But over the following weeks and months, the fear grew that the ultimate victims of this damaged nuke would number in the thousands or tens of thousands. The "hot spots" in Japan that frightened many people showed radiation at the level of .1 rem, a number quite small compared with the average excess dose that people happily live with in Denver.

    ...

    —Dr. Muller is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. This essay is adapted from his new book, "Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines."
     
  12. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    That "article" is so old it's last update was over a year ago. It's few scientific guesstimations are based on fabricated info provided at the time by the plant owners, who have since been proven to be concealing the massive level of leakage which continues as I type.
     
  13. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    How's that slow agonizing death working out for you these days?
     
  14. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    As if another nuclear bomb has been dropped on Japan and the rest of the world, the MOX nuclear facility threatens the health of all living things.

    JAPAN, FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE (INTELLIHUB) — Thursday, a plant storage tank’s radiation readings spiked 6500 times above Wednesday’s mandatory daily reading after a typhoon struck the island inducing a shit-storm of deadly toxins onto the world’s populace by force. Thursday a major amount of toxic water was released into the Pacific Ocean 2–1/2 years after the initial disaster as the government can’t decide to whether close the plant fast enough.

    But with profits on the line, closure is likely not an option on the table at this time.

    TEPCO admits that the disaster is tragic, but has failed to have the plant entombed as suggested by the Russians.

    Fish in the area have been found to be contaminated with radiation. Likely anyone downwind, including the U.S. is threatened by the disaster that continues to pollute the planet.

    RT.com reported, “Experts believe that even a small earthquake could lead to more serious nuclear damage in the area.

    “They have a thousand tanks that are held together with a plastic pipe, so if there is a moderate earthquake the plastic pipes will fail and all that material will run across the ground surface and into the ocean,” nuclear power expert Arnold Gundersen told RT.

    “Facilities themselves, the four reactors that are the most damaged had a series of explosions internally, so it would not take an earthquake as big as the one they had two and a half years ago to potentially do a lot of serious damage there.”

    He added that the health risks are great and continue to increase every year. “Somewhere between 100,000 to 1,000,000 [people] will over the next thirty years get cancer from this accident…1,000 additional cancers a year from eating fish from the Pacific.”

    http://intellihub.com/2013/10/20/radiation-spike-fukushima-typhoon-damage/
     
  15. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    MATSUMOTO, Japan — A generation ago, Dr. Akira Sugenoya performed lifesaving cancer surgery on more than 100 children after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. Today, as mayor of a central Japanese city, he's trying to avoid a repeat of his own history.

    Beginning in April, parents living in the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear disaster will be able to send their children about 300 kilometers (200 miles) away to his city, Matsumoto, to go to school. The city will pay 1.4 million yen ($140,000) a year for a six-bedroom house and caretakers; parents won't pay tuition but will cover expenses such as utilities and meals.

    "If my fears turn out to be unfounded, nothing would be better news," Sugenoya said in a recent interview with The Associated Press at Matsumoto city hall. "But if they become reality, then there is little time before it's too late."

    Sugenoya has been critical of the government's response to the three meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which exploded after the March 2011 tsunami and is still releasing radiation into the air and sea. Decommissioning will take decades, and experts disagree over how much the disaster will affect the health of area residents.

    The Japanese government has detected 44 confirmed and suspected cases of thyroid cancer among 217,000 youngsters, 18 and under, checked in Fukushima prefecture (state). Thyroid cancer among children is generally rare, estimated at only one in a million. The link to radiation is still inconclusive, and extensive testing of Fukushima children could account for the higher numbers.

    ...

    Matsumoto, in Nagano prefecture, has about 240,000 people, and has room in its schools because of the declining population common in rural areas. Sugenoya's plan, called the Matsumoto Project, will be open to Fukushima students from third grade to junior high school.

    Matsumoto officials have conducted meetings in Fukushima to explain the plan, and some parents have expressed interest, but it is unclear how many of them will send their children away to study.

    Fukushima residents most worried about radiation are already gone. Some 150,000 people have left areas in Fukushima most ravaged by the tsunami, a third of them to other prefectures.

    About 200 of them are in Matsumoto, including Hiroshi Ueki, his wife and their children, 6 and 4.

    "They ask me, 'Can I now touch the flowers?'" Ueki said of his children. "In Fukushima, they had to wear masks, and they became afraid. They were getting scolded a lot. 'Don't touch any dirt.' 'Don't touch this.' 'Don't touch that.'"

    Some who remain in areas surrounding the wrecked nuclear plant are torn over whether to stay.

    Yuri Hasegawa, a 45-year-old Fukushima mother, is so worried she has bought a Geiger counter and has a stockpile of masks. She cooks with only food that has been tested for radiation.

    She has been sending her two children, 9 and 13, to summer and winter camps in the northernmost island of Hokkaido, the southernmost island of Okinawa, and the southwestern city of Hiroshima. She is thinking about taking part in the Matsumoto Project. She said she faces opposition from her husband and other relatives, who scoff at her concerns as extreme.

    In her backyard and other areas, "The Geiger counter starts going beep, beep, beep, beep," she said. "The beeps are coming so fast. You know radiation is going through our bodies. It's because it's invisible. If we could see it, we wouldn't be living here."

    The Japanese government says it is safe to live in areas that have not been forced to evacuate, but it also has admitted errors in responding to the radiation danger.

    Shortly after the tsunami, the government could have doled out potassium iodide pills to block children's thyroids from accumulating radioactive iodine. It had the pills, but failed to deliver them in time to be effective, and it has acknowledged that it was not properly prepared.

    The government also has acknowledged that it failed to effectively use data that accurately forecast where radioactive plumes were headed. While a zone around the nuclear plant was cleared, residents beyond the zone who were in the predicted paths of the plumes were not warned.

    Sugenoya, a slightly built man with a gentle smile, said his offer is intended to help concerned families play it safe.

    "Radiation doesn't hurt. It doesn't even itch," he said. "A terrible thing has happened, but people don't realize it at all."

    http://news.msn.com/world/japan-mayor-offers-fukushima-kids-home-in-his-town
     
  16. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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  17. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    [video]http://www.thenation.com/blog/167593/legacy-chernobyl#[/video]

    [video]http://enenews.com/prepare-yourself-photographer-like-a-different-race-of-human-brain-outside-of-skull-kidneys-outside-of-torso-legs-resembling-elephant-some-doctors-felt-strongly-there-would-be-no-more-b[/video]

    “Post-Fukushima Horror”: Severe impacts on oceanic environment — An unpredictable amount of damage to Pacific — Fundamental to reproduction of humans — Japan’s simply dumping nuclear waste into sea.

    Title: World must act to stop Fukushima nuclear discharge
    Source: China Daily (China’s largest English-language newspaper)
    Author: Yu Zhirong, Shanghai Center for Japanese Studies
    Date: October 5, 2013

    World must act to stop Fukushima nuclear discharge

    [...] In July 2012, Alaskan seals exhibited inexplicable hemorrhage phenomena and signs of immunity deficiency. Scientists suspected the condition had something to do with Japan’s discharge of nuclear sewage, or radioactive water, into the Pacific Ocean. However, no evidence has yet confirmed that suspicion. [...] To this point, [Japan's] been simply dumping it into the sea. [...]

    Since the severity of the issue continues, China, along with the international community, must propose the strongest opposition to the Japanese government’s irresponsible activities. [...]

    The Pacific Ocean doesn’t belong to Japan, but is commonly owned by the international community, the environmental protection of which is fundamental to the safety and reproduction of human beings. [...] Much [of Japan's fiscal budget] should be diverted to solving the post-Fukushima horror. [...]

    [...] Currently, the oceanic environment is facing significant damage. [...]

    The safety of the Pacific Ocean is one of the most important issues internationally. [...] The polluted discharge has severe impacts on the oceanic environment; its damage is also unpredictable, and severer than an oceanic conflict or regional war. [...]

    http://enenews.com/npr-starfish-epi...ely-will-it-spread-to-other-sea-life-and-othe
     
  18. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    Trust your government to protect you?

    http://news.msn.com/us/suits-claim-love-canal-still-oozing-35-years-later



    NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Thirty-five years after Love Canal's oozing toxic waste scared away a neighborhood and became a symbol of environmental catastrophe, history could be repeating itself.

    New residents, attracted by promises of cleaned-up land and affordable homes, say in lawsuits that they are being sickened by the same buried chemicals from the disaster in the Niagara Falls neighborhood in the 1970s.

    "We're stuck here. We want to get out," said 34-year-old Dan Reynolds, adding that he's been plagued by mysterious rashes and other ailments since he moved into the four-bedroom home purchased a decade ago for $39,900.

    His wife, Teresa, said she's had two miscarriages and numerous unexplained cysts.

    "We knew it was Love Canal, that chemicals were here," she said. But when she bought the house, she said she was swayed by assurances that the waste was contained and the area was safe.

    Six families have sued over the past several months. Lawyers familiar with the case say notice has been given that an additional 1,100 claims could be coming.

    The lawsuits, which don't specify damages sought, contend Love Canal was never properly remediated and dangerous toxins continue to leach onto residents' properties.
    ...
    The latest case is all too familiar to Lois Gibbs, the former housewife who led the charge for the 1970s evacuation and warned against resettling the area. She recently returned to mark the 35th anniversary of the disaster.

    "It was so weird to go back and stand next to someone who was crying and saying the exact same thing I said 35 years ago," she said.

    Love Canal's notorious history began when Hooker Chemical Co. used the abandoned canal from 1942 to 1953 to dump 21,800 tons of industrial hazardous waste.

    That canal was later capped, and homes and a school were built on top of it. But snow melt from an unusually harsh winter in 1977 seeped into the buried 16-acre canal and forced chemical waste into groundwater and to the surface, oozing into yards and basements.

    Residents began complaining of miscarriages, urinary and kidney problems and mental disabilities in their children.

    With Love Canal getting national attention, President Jimmy Carter in 1978 issued a disaster declaration that eventually led to evacuation and compensation for more than 900 families. The crisis also led to federal Superfund legislation to clean up the nation's abandoned waste sites.

    Although complete streets were permanently bulldozed around Love Canal, those immediately north and west of the landfill were refurbished following a $230 million cleanup that involved capping the canal with clay, a plastic liner and topsoil.

    Beginning in 1990, about 260 homes were given new vinyl siding, roofs and windows and resold at prices 20 percent below market value. The neighborhood was renamed Black Creek Village.

    In addition to Occidental, defendants include the city of Niagara Falls and its water board and contractors enlisted by Occidental to maintain and test the site today.
    ...
    But Reynolds and others say danger continues to brew beyond the 70-acre fenced-in containment area, pointing to the discovery of chemicals during a 2011 sewer excavation project. According to the lawsuits, crews worsened the contamination by using high-powered hoses to flush the chemicals through the streets and storm drains.
    ...
    The Reynoldses are unconvinced that the containment system ever really worked and believe chemicals have been spreading for years, noting their home is just outside the original emergency zone.

    Around the time of the sewer repair, waste backed up into their basement, they said, leaving behind an acrid black residue that tested positive for dangerous chemicals.

    Gibbs said that when she returned recently, she was surprised the containment site no longer is posted with "danger" signs and that someone house hunting in the neighborhood wouldn't know there are toxins there.

    "It says private property," she said. "It's like a gated community for chemicals."
     
  19. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/11/29/is-it-safe-radioactive-japanese-wave-nears-us/

    So what do independent estimates say? The first measures come from the U.S. government. The FDA has stepped up its monitoring of radiation in seafood due to the Fukushima incident.

    Since the time FDA began its targeted testing of Japanese imports following the Fukushima incident, FDA has only found one sample of food -- a ginger powder -- that contained detectable levels of cesium, but those levels were far below FDA’s [safety levels] and posed no public health concern,” FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman told FoxNews.com.

    “We are actively watching for information that could implicate U.S. food and are always ready to take further action,” she said.

    Meanwhile, the EPA keeps track of radiation within U.S. borders and presents the data online in nearly real time through RadNet, a nationwide system of monitors.

    “RadNet sample analyses and monitoring results of precipitation, drinking water, and milk provide baseline data on background levels of radiation,” the EPA said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

    The agency does not monitor radiation levels at sea, however, and in a statement pointed to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which relies on Japanese government data.

    Independent estimates confirm that radiated particles at sea are relatively low. One measurement comes from researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

    “I stood on a ship two miles from the Fukushima reactors in June 2011 and as recently as May 2013, and it was safe to be there (I carry radiation detectors with me),” Ken Buesseler a Senior Scientist at the WHOI, has reported. He also tested radioactivity in the water.

    “Although radioactive isotopes in the samples and on the ship were measurable back in our lab, it was low enough to be safe to handle samples without any precautions,” he has said.

    In Japan, more than 100 volunteer-run radioactivity testing sites have also started up, which would likely notice a sharp uptick in radioactivity.

    Doug Dasher, who studies radioecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said it remains possible that there will be minor effects for people on the U.S. West Coast, despite the low test results.

    “No acute effects resulting in mortality or damage to organs … would be expected,” he told FoxNews.com. But he added that more subtle effects might occur.

    “Longer term chronic effects, cancer or genetic effects… odds are statistically low, if the concentrations in the models remain within the projections, [but] cannot be said to be zero.”

    Additional leakage from Fukushima could increase the odds, he said.

    “The estimates [of radiation] vary substantially and do not, at least so far, account for the continued leakage from the Fukushima site to the marine environment,” he said.

    Scientists also warn that if an another earthquake or other natural disaster occurs while the Fukushima nuclear plant is still being decommissioned, that could have catastrophic consequences. To help the decommissioning happen smoothly, the U.S. government has supported the cleanup by sending 34 experts and over 17,000 pounds of equipment to Japan.

    In the end, some experts say, Japanese near the Fukushima reactor have reason to worry -- a World Health Organization report found that the likelihood of a Japanese infant living near Fukushima getting thyroid cancer over her lifetime is expected to increase from the standard 0.75 percent to 1.25 percent -- but Americans do not.

    “There should be no concern among Americans, of any age or location,” Gilbert Ross, executive director of the American Council on Science and Health, told FoxNews.com.

    “If you want to list health concerns that Americans should worry about, start with the real killers -- drunk driving and smoking,” Ross said.

    “If you went down a list of things people really should worry about, you would never even get to a concern about radiation leakage from Fukushima.”
     
  20. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    The Feds rolled out the same lies back in the day for Love Canal Exxon-Valdez oil spill, the recent BP annihilation of the gulf, and Chernobyl. In those cases, and in every other instance of Americans being threatened by the ravages of industry, our government has lied to protect industry.

    If you don't learn from history you are doomed to repeat it.
     

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