Radiation Levels in California Rain Recorded at 506% Above Normal
A radiation test carried out after a storm swept through Southern California has recorded radiation at 506% above normal background levels.
The EnviroReporter, through their Inspector Alert nuclear radiation monitor, has conducted over 1,500 radiation tests with the most recent one being by far the highest levels seen. A radiation test carried out after a storm swept through Southern California has recorded radiation at 506% above normal background levels.
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I had so many friends and readers sending me information about what supposedly was going on that I got all worked up and started to collect all of the scary articles to put in this piece. Then I noticed that some of the sources that everyone was quoting were saying things like: each of the 1200 spent fuel rods in the number four reactor could kill 2.3 billion people. I thought about that and started to dig and found, that like my automobile example above, in order to make that case one had to assume that each rod decomposed to the smallest particles, each of which was distributed, one particle to each human all across the planet. That, of course, is not how things work and therefore I found some of those “facts” more than a little disingenuous.
Then they were also saying that 14,000 babies died from the Fukushima fallout in the first month after the disaster, not in Japan but on the U.S west coast. The reports I have been reading say that no one in Japan – not even the workers who have been inside of the destroyed reactors – have died from radiation, but here are “experts” saying that many thousands of American babies did. It didn’t sound right to me. So, I turned to a dear friend and extraordinary researcher and asked her to look into it. Here’s what I got back.
John, I’m a bit embarrassed to send you this rushed, surface-skimming overview of the free-floating miasma that is the “nuclear wars” topic. In the limited time I had to drill down into so vast a field, I tried to distil what seems to me to be the salient aspects of the vast subject, and then I cherry-picked the most representative (if not most authoritative – no such thing in 2012) or at least noteworthy or useful source(s) to each aspect. This barely scratches the surface, needless to say. And my assumption is, as always, that you already know all of what’s below, and more than I do, anyway, and will spot the obvious gaps --
Current known situational status in Japan – broadest overview. See a summary by Greenpeace here (factual while not agenda-free, of course – none such exists). See also here about protests in Japan, now that the last reactor is shut down (and, just by the way, here about current status of quake-tsunami debris removal), and here for running daily updates. Latest: TEPCO has just been effectively nationalized (taken into “protective custody” by the Japanese government).
Massive controversy and a myriad of voices. Quantification of topic info providers: For an interesting and useful (though limited) mapping mashup of the post-Fukushima radiation debate online, see this graphic aggregation and analysis of the many spheres and categories of actors involved. Using Navicrawler to scrape, refine and structure official data, the resultant graph depicts websites taking part in the radiation issue – producing and using info, and debating the nature, location and level of radiation – as nodes. The project also provides a list of the websites utilized, with the data sets ranked according to a hits algorithm - numerically and cluster-wise. The mapped topology shows the highly polarized nature of the issue, mainly between official sources (Japanese ministries, prefectures, industries, international organizations, and universities) and civil society (delineated here as anti-nuclear activists, independent bloggers, citizen and neighborhood defense group, and the “mother and children defense organization”).
Excluded from this exercise: global debates raging in discussion groups, personal/grassroots Web commentary, alternative news outlets – and, of course, all “unconventional” info sharing. Though these info outposts constitute minefields for discernment, my own opinion/bias is that this fact shows up the real limitations and partial-only nature of this project. Still pretty interesting to me, though.
Note, especially: The above mapping project also provides only a temporary snapshot of the ongoing great online debate – this one harnessed in August 2011, but published with a brief update in March 2012. Another beautiful version of the graph here, published in Der Freitag. (If you want me to translate the German text, just let me know.)
Two aspects to the global debate. One year on, the debates seem to have settled into a) a fiercely renewed disagreement globally about the general/theoretical need for and wisdom of nuclear power. One article (from a great many) summing up the four main global polarizing perspectives and a number of international stances here. And b) an acute info war, spanning the entire voice spectrum from “Crisis? What crisis? Utter nonsense!” on the one end to “End of the world – we’re already dying and everything is being hushed up” on the other – between the establishment actors and the activists/radical concerned counterculturals.
In b) above, a few voices carry (perhaps) more viral influence than others.
* Most often quoted/reposted source on the mainstream concerned/pessimist side: Gunderson and Robert Alvarez, IPS, ex US DOE (Why Fukushima Is a Greater Disaster than Chernobyl and a Warning Sign for the U.S.) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) (After Tour of Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, Wyden Says Situation Worse than Reported). As expected, Wyden drew much criticism for “politicking without being a knowledgeable scientist” – see, e.g., Steve Skotnik (Overheated rods & rhetoric). French sociologist Paul Jobin’s concerns are also often quoted/reposted, including his reference to Japanese Minister of Health Kosako resignation (in tears on TV).
The enormous controversy around the details of actual and “allowable” radiation levels (specifically in Japan, in the USA, and generally elsewhere) is too huge to touch here. See just one recent example here of the ongoing tests and claims and investigations.
* Recent typically quoted/reposted source on the mainstream unconcerned/optimist/pro-business side – the usual suspects – from too many to mention: TIME (“it appears now that the disaster wasn't as serious as many experts first believed — with even the Fukushima emergency workers spared dangerous exposure to radiation”); WSJ (“Fukushima Health Impact: Minimal?”); MediaCorp Asia Channel News (“Fukushima Prefecture: Unfounded fears over radiation contamination has badly affected the whole of Japan's northern Tohoku region.” ‘These are levels that are comparable to major cities like Singapore and New York. The measurement is even lower than in Seoul.”)
* The independent, more “radical” view: Most notable for me, this report (FOIA accessed NRC meeting transcript) in March on EneNews, the outing/activist site for all things Fukushima-related (Controversy after US gov’t estimate showed 40,000 microsievert thyroid dose for California infants from Fukushima — Data not released to public — “Very high doses to children”). An insightful, while not surprising, read!
This *seemingly* lends support to the most prevalent conspiracy claims around the Web that the NRC projected a possible maximum thyroid dose at that lethal level and suppressed their intel; that they did not issue even a cautionary advisory pending plume arrival and actual West Coast measurements; and that they issued an "all clear," crossing their fingers. Consensus in more radical/activist circles: Just because “we lucked out” doesn't eliminate the NRC's gross dereliction of duty.
Note: The argument here that “we lucked out” (re plume arrival) seems to contradict the ongoing claim in the same circles that “the worst is yet to be.” Or does it?
(Regarding “plume arrival” and subsequent claims, see, just for example, AN UNEXPECTED MORTALITY INCREASE IN THE UNITED STATES FOLLOWS ARRIVAL OF THE RADIOACTIVE PLUME FROM FUKUSHIMA: IS THERE A CORRELATION? here – quoted on/linked to from countless alt sites; see also alt report on the so-called “Plume-gate”/FOIA NRC transcript here.)
My usual favorite alt website (note my own bias/worldview herewith), ZeroHedge, had a representative summary here, also quoting Wyden, titled Fukushima Fuel Pools Are an American National Security Issue, among regular posts on the topic.
I no longer follow the worst of the tabloidy alt sites, the content of which are IMO just too unsubstantiated or sensationalism-driven, such as NaturalNews, infowars.com/Alex Jones, and many similar ones – but Jones did have a rather useful issue summary here a few weeks ago.
Recent and ongoing studies and tests. Random examples: Highest Estimate Yet: Fukushima about equal to Chernobyl, says US gov’t funded study (Enenews report) – actual study here; Washington fish tested for tsunami-related radiation (report); in Japan, latest on schools tested civil groups by: Nuclear 'hot spots' detected at 20 schools in Fukushima, also reported here.
Related issues beyond Fukushima as such. The disaster triggered renewed debate (and political infighting) across the entire energy landscape, not limited to but most notably in these areas:
*The global nuclear waste disposal conundrum: See, for example, here, and here (in 2 parts).
*Nuclear vs. fossil and other forms of energy: Examples here, and here.
*What comprises “clean energy?”: Here. Important and interesting to me!
*Developing nuclear policy in the US (expanding evacuation policy, etc.): Example here.
My personal opinion, for what it’s worth. As you know, in this and all political wars I accept/believe barely a word coming from official and mainstream sources, though I follow the strategic developments and try to discern where the partisan/vested/moneyed interests lead. I always lean towards the alternative info sources, bearing in mind that they’re far from being paragons of virtue, either. I really don’t know, John. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, when I was going through my (typical) youthful save-the-world developmental phase, I was quite active in the anti-nuclear movement in the then fledgling nuke industry – and it saddens me now to see how little the strategies and arguments and claims and statistics quoted on both sides of the nuclear divide have changed – let alone advanced - (beyond some structural-related detail updates due to the changed times): in most ways, we’re fighting the exact same wars, making more or less the same claims, using the same forms of argumentation and claims, as three decades ago. (Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.") I just can’t think the extremes on either side regarding (post-)Fukushima is correct – but I do suspect, from all I’ve read and followed, that the fallout (in every sense of the word) is probably much worse than any official authority lets on – or even knows. The end of the world, though? What does that even mean?
Then this piece came out about a week ago:
Nuclear Cheerleaders Use Voodoo Science to Pretend Low Levels of Radiation Are Safe Or Even Good For You
My friends who have PhDs in nuclear engineering scoff at the notion that low levels of radiation are harmful, saying that we live in an intrinsically (low level) radioactive environment. They talk about concrete structures all having low levels of radiation and walking across the yard on a sunny day and flying in aircraft exposing you. One very credible friend who had worked with nuclear power generators all of his life told me that he had, on a number of occasions been exposed to amounts of radiation that the “experts” were now saying were dangerous but he was in good health and approaching 90 and knew that these assertions were unfounded.
So, I don’t really know what is really real here -- what is true. This could be bad or might not be. It’s hard for find anyone who is truly objective. In any case, I’m not certain what to do about it right now.
But here’s my bottom line: For those of us who believe that we exist is a benign reality that is moving us all through the end of one era (that of course must necessarily end) toward a new world that has every indication of being quite wonderful, these kind of events will not be the end of the world – at least our world. Something extraordinary is going on and there are a lot of moving parts in play and, by definition, it’s too complicated for mere mortals to fully understand what really is happening and what it means.
Furthermore, many “unconventional” sources that we have quoted here and recommended to you, very specifically say that there will be great trying events during this period and our job is not to get caught up in all of the drama and give energy to the dystopian possibilities that will continue to swirl around us for the coming months. In fact, it will probably get worse, with big earthquakes and other solar-engendered events on the horizon, (to say nothing about the global financial system that is clearly not doing well), so we might think of this Fukushima situation as just a dry-run for a growing series of increasingly impressive events.
I don’t think we came this far in our evolutionary process to all die before the new world could emerge. We’ve done better than that.
A Rather Interesting Angle to the Issue
What isn’t mentioned much in the attempt to fan up a catastrophe is the very interesting story bubbling around underneath all of the high-profile stuff – the possibility that Japan has nuclear weapons and that part of the lack of transparency is their (and the U.S.’s) attempt to see that that secret is not exposed. Here are a couple of pointers to that possibility.
United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium
The United States deliberately allowed Japan access to the United States’ most secret nuclear weapons facilities while it transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of American tax paid research that has allowed Japan to amass 70 tons of weapons grade plutonium since the 1980s, a National Security News Service investigation reveals.
Missing' plutonium leaves nuclear industry red-faced
About 200 kilograms of plutonium produced by a Japanese nuclear plant - enough to make 25 nuclear bombs - have technically gone "missing", Japanese authorities have revealed. Secret Weapons Program Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant?
U.S.-Japan security treaty fatally delayed nuclear workers' fight against meltdown
The smoke and mirrors at Fukushima 1 seem to obscure a steady purpose, an iron will and a grim task unknown to outsiders. The most logical explanation: The nuclear industry and government agencies are scrambling to prevent the discovery of atomic-bomb research facilities hidden inside Japan's civilian nuclear power plants.
That’s it for now. Back to you in a couple of weeks.
