The Feds Want Your Retirement Accounts

Quietly, behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for federal government confiscation of tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs. Slowly, the cat is being let out of the bag.

Wiki – Inflation Tax

What Is the Inflation Tax?

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Contributing writer for End the Lie and host of Nuked Radio

You know me. There are lots of us around. We sit behind concrete walls and high fences, and most of us can boast of a killer view.

Note: be sure read Christina’s two most recent articles — “a day in the life of a Fukushima researcher” and “BYOG: Bring Your Own Geiger counter and Hazmat gear“

My outside is pretty plain, but inside I have 10,000 parts. As a nuke plant, you are lucky, because you almost always get waterfront property. This is so if my insides ever get too hot, or the power goes out (oops!) it’s easy to scoop up water and dump it on me.

If my emergency diesel generators go out, which happens a lot, they can sometimes use fire hoses to cool me off, too. I’m glad the NRC spokesman brought that up the other day when Hurricane Sandy happened. A lot of people were probably worried about that. This exact same thing happened to some of my friends in Japan! Fire hoses seemed to work OK for them, but I’m not sure, because no one really talks about it. I think there might have been some explosions or something. Man do they have a nice view from there though! And I heard Pacific sushi is really good!

Some us of are right next to big cities too, so we never get lonely. When people see you a lot, it makes you seem like you belong. Sometimes they paint pretty pictures on us, to make us look more friendly! I hope they paint some birds and butterflies on me, I don’t see too many of those around anymore.

Some days I look around me and I see all that wind, water, and sun and I wonder why people haven’t used those things to generate power, too. Maybe they are just lazy. After all, they use it like crazy in third-world countries like Morocco!

I wish I didn’t vent so much steam too, because it really obscures my view. Some days its really bad, especially if we have a hot shutdown. But people have to work inside of me so I can work properly and things don’t “melt down”. Radiation in the steam is pretty small, so unless you go outside a lot, you’re probably OK. I’m not sure why so many kids around here keep getting brain cancer though. Maybe they sit too close to the TV.

Even if we don’t sit by a big city, we still aren’t lonely. There are lots of security guards around, in case a nun tries to throw blood on us or something! Lots of people don’t seem to like us, probably because they think we are dangerous. But that’s silly, there have only been a few big accidents that have happened, like Chernobyl and Fukushima, which killed lots of people, poisoned the environment forever (and made the ones that didn’t die sick!), or caused deformities in their kids. But when you think about how great nuclear power is, it all evens out!

Most of those people that live around nuclear reactors are poor anyway. The people that own me, probably don’t think they really count. And of course, the 99 other nuclear accidents that have happened most people don’t even know about, even though they’re listed on Wikipedia. They don’t like us to talk about it either. And you never ever talk about the spent fuel and nuclear waste! Or how precarious the fuel pools are, especially in the 23 Mark 1 BWR reactors in the US, the same style as Fukushima! That freaks people out a lot!

I hear some people that work inside me getting scared though, because we break down so much. All you have to do is look at the NRC event notification page to see! But it’s not my fault that I’m old! My owners don’t want to spend the money to fix me up right! They just fix stuff when it breaks. Hopefully it won’t be a big break, because then people will talk probably about us even more.

I’m actually not too worried about the election either, because it looks like both Obama and Romney are big fans of nuclear power. All of their friends are the people that own us. Their friends all own the news media too, so since we give them lots of money, they don’t talk bad about us. Now the Green Party, those people are just plain scary. They could possibly “shut us down”. But no one really listens to them. Most people are too busy watching TV I think. I should know, I make all that electricity for them!

The really funny thing is, electricity isn’t even the reason I was made… I was made to be a bomb-making factory! I kick out plutonium like a person craps after a big meal at a dirty taco stand! Then people from the government come along, scoop up this plutonium, and take it to labs all over the country. There, they figure out ways it can be used against other countries we don’t like, or the countries whose oil we want. Too bad our soldiers get sick from it too. I guess my owners must not care about them either.

Even if people got really mad at us, the NRC, who is like the babysitter that lets you get away with stuff your parents won’t, will relicense me endlessly so I can stay here forever. So I’m really not too worried about things. I would really hate to lose this view!

Maybe they will paint some fish on me too, because all the ones around here seem to be dead.

Please help Christina purchase a spectrometer in order to get the most accurate radiation readings and thus get you the most precise information possible by shopping through her Amazon link or donate directly via PayPal to fukushimafacts@gmail.com. Keep in mind, this is expensive equipment and it is the only way that specific isotope readings can be obtained from food items.

Edited by Madison Ruppert

Christina Consolo is a former clinical researcher supervisor with NIH credentialing; a former Member-at-Large for the Board of Directors, Ophthalmic Photographers’ Society; A peer reviewer for the Journal of Ophthalmic Photography; She has written, published, and contributed to numerous scientific research in retinal imaging and ophthalmogy for the past 24 years; She is also an award-winning biomedical photographer and maintains several websites to teach people about radiation, mitigation, and other nuclear issues. She is also the host of “Nuked Radio” Tuesdays & Thursdays from 1:00-2:00 pm EST on UCY.TV.

For more info including mitigation for radiation exposure, please visit FukushimaFacts.com.

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Editor of End the Lie

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) (Image credit: Google Maps/Cryptome)

Over 850 people turned out at the recent public meeting debating the plan to restart the highly contentious and potentially dangerous San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in Southern California which has remained offline for almost nine months.

A report published earlier this year revealed that there is a distinct possibility of even disasters occurring in the future which are significantly larger than the radioactive leaks discovered earlier this year which were later reviewed by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Augmented Inspection Team.

The relatively massive group that showed up to the public meeting was characterized by The Orange County Register as a “sometimes-boisterous crowd” and included “plant operator Southern California Edison, anti-nuclear activists, a union representative for San Onofre workers and state utility and energy regulators.”

The meeting was preceded by a demonstration outside the St. Regis Monarch Beach Hotel during which some activists called for a more thorough review of Southern California Edison’s plan to restart one of the two reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power station and others called for a complete shutdown of the plant.

Last week the NRC received a proposal from Edison in which they sought to restart the Unit 2 reactor at 70 percent capacity. “[Edison] expected to eliminate the vibrations among steam generator tubes believed to have caused the problems that have kept the plant closed,” according to the Register.

However, as the above-linked report reveals, the problems are far too critical to treat in a less-than-serious manner.

Officials with the NRC stated that their review of Edison’s plans themselves will likely take months. The Unit 3 reactor has problems with the steam generator tubes (see above stories for more information on the problems at San Onofre) which are far more serious than those at Unit 2.

No plans to restart or even repair Unit 3 have been handed over to the NRC by Edison as of yet.

“Let me be clear,” said Gene Stone, an activist out of San Clemente, according to the Register. “We stand for decommissioning this old nuclear plant as soon as possible, before ratepayers or taxpayers spend any more money to repair it.”

However, the Register makes a point of stating that a comment in support of continuing the review to restart the reactor was met with “loud applause from supporters in the audience.”

That’s hardly surprising seeing as the large crowd “included a large contingent of Southern California Edison employees bused by the company to the site.”

In other words, the company stuffed the audience with their own employees who have a quite clear ulterior motive behind their support for the plant restart.

The Los Angeles Times, similarly, painted the issue as one which should not be of legitimate concern in writing that the original steam generator tube problem released only “a minuscule amount of radioactive steam.”

Some of those in attendance, along with the environmental group Friends of the Earth, called on the NRC to hold an evidentiary hearing to review the plant’s safety. No decision was made during the public meeting.

“That seems to me a dangerous experiment to perform for all of us who live close to San Onofre when you already have the precedent that one of the identically designed steam generators has failed,” pointed out panelist Donald Mosier, a professor at Scripps Research Institute and a Del Mar City Council member, according to the Times.

Interestingly, both the Register and the Times quoted one of the panel members, Richard McPherson, characterizing him as a “nuclear industry veteran” and someone who “worked in the nuclear industry since 1963,” respectively.

The Times and the Register both called him a “Laguna Niguel resident.” In reality, Richard McPherson is the Executive Vice President of DownRange Global Solutions, a corporation which, according to their official website, is located in Vail, Arizona.

McPherson personally confirmed in an email response to End the Lie that he is the same individual listed on DownRange Global’s website and quoted by the Times and Register. It is unclear why neither news outlet properly identified him.

DownRange Global’s website calls McPherson a “retired Naval Nuclear Engineering Officer,” a title repeated in an article McPherson penned for National Defense Magazine.

According to their official website, DownRange Global, among other things, works in various sectors including nuclear, nuclear security, small modular reactors, risk management, project design review and more.

Clearly, McPherson, like the Edison employees, has an ulterior motive, which makes his statements questionable.

“We need to get this power plant back online as quickly as we can,” McPherson said, according to the Times. “It’s a technical problem, the people involved know how to fix it. We need to get on with fixing it and get our electricity back.”

“We need to get the steam generators back so we can enjoy many more years of secure and stable energy provided by this nuclear power plant,” said McPherson, according to the Register.

The Times points out that at some points the public meeting became quite chaotic with some in the audience screaming “Shut up!” while others cheered on a women who asked, “Is there a safe level of radiation?”

“When a union representative got up to speak on behalf of employees, crowd members shouted ‘What’s your question?!’” reports the Times.

While no final decision was reached, the NRC regional administrator, Elmo Collins, promised more public meetings and a thorough review before any decision is made regarding restarting the plant.

Ultimately, Collins admitted, the NRC will decide if they carry out the full evidentiary hearing process, meaning that the public really doesn’t have a say in the matter.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

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Editor of End the Lie

The dangerous reality of nuclear power is becoming increasingly apparent in the wake of the continuing (and “profoundly man-made”) disaster at Fukushima as well as studies which project similarly devastating disasters in the future.

Yet nations including Japan continue to press forward with nuclear power in spite of the clear dangers and the widespread public opposition to the deadly technology. That being said, Japan recently announced that they will seek to phase out nuclear power generation by 2040, although how hard they will push toward this goal has yet to be seen.

The case against nuclear power just gets stronger with another study headed by Spanish researchers which identifies nuclear power plants which are especially vulnerable to suffering the devastation of a tsunami.

“In total, twenty-three plants, in which there are seventy-four active nuclear reactors, are located in dangerous areas in east and southeast of Asia, including Fukushima I,” Homeland Security News Wire reports.

The researchers found the “potentially dangerous” sites which are either already constructed or currently under construction. While scientists still cannot perfectly predict tsunamis and obviously thus cannot predict nuclear disasters as a result of tsunamis, they can identify potentially problematic sites before any real danger is present.

The study entitled, “Civil nuclear power at risk of tsunamis,” was conducted by Joaquin Rodríguez-Vidal Jose M. Rodriguez-Llanes and Debarati Guha-Sapir and was published in Natural Hazards 63, no. 2 (September 2012).

The researchers determined the world’s geographic zones which are at greater risk of being hit by large tsunamis and based on their data they determined that there are a whopping 23 nuclear plants with a total of 74 reactors in these danger zones.

Unsurprisingly, the researchers determined that one of the nuclear power plants in these high risk areas is the nuclear facility at Fukushima which continues to be shrouded in mystery thanks to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government.

Thankfully not all of the plants and reactors in these high risk zones are currently online. Of the 23 plants identified by the researchers, 13 plants and 29 reactors are currently active.

Other plants are being expanded to include even more additional reactors and seven brand new plants are under construction which will bring 16 new reactors online when complete.

“We are dealing with the first vision of the global distribution of civil nuclear power plants situated on the coast and exposed to tsunamis,” said José Manuel Rodríguez-Llanes, one of the authors of the study and researcher with the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

The researchers based their determinations of tsunami risk on a combination of factors including archeological, geological, historical and instrumental records.

While it is not just the area in Asia which is threatened by tsunamis, the areas highlighted by the study are at greater risk due to the presence of nuclear power stations.

“The impact of natural disaster is getting worse due to the growing interaction with technological installations,” said Debarati Guha-Sapir.

China is on the forefront of the expansion of nuclear power with China making up 27 out of the 64 reactors currently under construction.

“The most important fact is that nineteen (two of which are in Taiwan) out of the twenty-seven reactors are being built in areas identified as dangerous,” the researchers stated.

Japan’s reactors are still far from safe with seven plants and 19 reactors at risk, one of which is still under construction. South Korea is currently expanding two plants with five reactors, all of which are at risk according to the study. India’s two reactors and Pakistan’s single reactor are also at risk.

“The location of nuclear installations does not only have implications for their host countries but also for the areas which could be affected by radioactive leaks,” said Joaquín Rodríguez-Vidal, lead author of the study and researcher at the Geodynamics and Paleontology Department of the University of Huelva in Spain.

The researchers emphasize the need for lessons to be learned from the Fukushima disaster in order to avoid and prevent similar disasters in the future.

The authors noted that we are somewhat lucky that the Fukushima disaster occurred in one of the nations with the world’s highest standards in technological infrastructure and scientific development.

“If it had occurred in a country less equipped for dealing with the consequences of catastrophe, the impact would have been a lot more serious for the world at large,” the researchers stated.

Therefore, one would expect if such a disaster was to hit China, India or Pakistan, the damage would be considerably worse.

If we do not learn from the horrific damage caused by Fukushima – much of which is still not seen and the ramifications of which likely will not be accurately determined for decades – we are doomed to repeat it.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

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Editor of End the Lie

The worst drought in the United States in a half a century has led to the destruction of roughly one-sixth of the expected corn crop in America over the past month and will likely lead to a significant rise in the price of corn in the very near future.

To make matters even worse, much of the corn crop in the United States is genetically modified and thus susceptible to so-called “superbugs” and is the same strain which has been banned in multiple countries in the European Union.

This July has been the hottest in American history and has caused major damage to the corn crops throughout the United States making some farmers actually entirely abandon fields greater in size than the nations of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Obviously such a major reduction in the corn supply will certainly lead to a rise in the price of corn, it is simple economics. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like such a surge would diminish any time soon.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that corn is not the only commodity which will be negatively impacted by this drought and heat wave.

Soybeans – which, like corn are used in a wide variety of food products, animal feed and other products – have also been hit hard by the weather. It is likely that it will be the worst harvest for five years now and will also likely impact the prices of other processed goods due to the rise in the price of vegetable oil, which just happens to be made from soy.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is not taking this lightly and has already predicted record-shattering price increases.

Some of the largest manufacturers of food in the world including none other than Kraft, Nestle and Tyson, have already made it clear that they will ultimately pass the price increase on to the customers, according to the British Daily Mail.

The USDA has also decreased their projection for corn production by a whopping 2.2 billion bushels since just last month. Now they are down to an expected production of 10.8 billion bushels although that number could go down as well if this situation does not improve.

“We’re going to see very high prices,” said Joseph Glauber, the USDA’s chief economist, to the Financial Times.

Even more troubling is the fact that this will certainly have international implications far beyond the rise in domestic food prices here in America.

Indeed, one might even say that it will likely lead to riots in impoverished nations where increased food prices make it impossible to feed oneself and one’s family.

For instance, in 2007 and 2008 alone there were riots in over 30 nations linked to high food costs, but one United Nations official claims we shouldn’t be worried about it.

Jose Graziano da Silva, the director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said that the current crisis isn’t as severe due to lowered demand from abroad.

“We do not have the demand pressure from China and India as five years ago,” he said.

I hope he is right but unfortunately that assumption is based on believing that the drought and inhospitable weather will dissipate in the very near future, which is not necessarily true.

This is reinforced by the fact that the situation has actually been getting worse since the week starting July 29, when the USDA discovered that a whopping 48 percent of the nation’s corn crop could be classified as “poor” or “very poor.”

Furthermore, the USDA reported that 47 percent of the soybean crop was in “poor” or “very poor” condition.

These ratings are the worst we’ve seen since 1988 when a drought cut production by 20 percent and resulted in billions of dollars in losses.

The impact goes beyond just the price and supply of corn and soybeans. In fact, it also hurts the meat industry because with food prices so high and with pastures used for grazing drying up due to the lack of water and heat, some are forced to bring their animals to slaughter earlier than they would normally.

The Obama administration at least appears to be attempting to help the situation by opening up protected American lands to farmers and ranchers for grazing.

They have also reportedly called on crop insurance companies to hold back from charging interest and even engaged in an emergency loan program.

Farmers working in the 31 states where disaster areas have been declared have received low-interest emergency loans from the government as well.

Just how devastating this situation will eventually turn out to be and just how much the price of food will increase remains to be seen but I think it is safe to say that whatever happens, it will not be all that great.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

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Editor of End the Lie

The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma, Japan Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011. Media allowed into Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant for the first time Saturday saw a striking scene of devastation: twisted and overturned vehicles, crumbling reactor buildings and piles of rubble virtually untouched since the wave struck more than eight months ago. (Image credit: David Guttenfelder, Pool)

Unlike other entities associated with the Japanese government, the NAIIC came to some quite damning conclusions, not the least of which is the accusation that the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, which continues to refuse to allow outside inspections of the reactor four building containing the dangerous spent fuel pool four, “betrayed the nation’s right to safety from nuclear accidents.”

The Fukushima NAIIC was formed by the statutory law enactment of Diet of Japan (the Japanese bicameral legislature made up of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors) on October 7, 2011, although the Chairman and Members were appointed in December of 2011.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Japanese peoples’ “right to safety from nuclear accidents” will likely never be respected seeing as they just restarted a reactor amidst massive public protest and that, statistically speaking, nuclear disasters may occur once every 10 to 20 years.

From a purely rational standpoint, it is impossible to recognize a “nation’s right to safety from nuclear accidents” without recognizing their right to be safe from nuclear power entirely, and the Japanese government seems unwilling to do that.

While recognizing the deadly combination of the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011, the investigatory committee concluded that the disaster was in large part actually man-made.

This is because, according to their findings, the conduct and practices which came both before and after the natural disaster aspect of the tragedy actually compounded the problem and “was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and TEPCO, and the lack of governance by said parties.”

If the report ended there in pointing to collusion between the government and industry, I would be cheering on the authors of this report. However, they don’t stop there and actually say that had the “most basic safety requirements” been addressed, the disaster would never have been of this magnitude.

Some of these safety requirements, which, “The operator (TEPCO), the regulatory bodies (NISA and NSC) and the government body promoting the nuclear power industry (METI), all failed to correctly develop,” include, “assessing the probability of damage, preparing for containing collateral damage from such a disaster, and developing evacuation plans for the public in the case of a serious radiation release.”

All of this and more is included in a brief but incredibly important “Conclusions” section, which I highly encourage everyone to read. Some of the conclusions are generally surveyed in a BBC report, although I would exhort people to actually do the reading for themselves instead of having it fed to them, especially by the BBC.

The chairman of the commission, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, former head of the Tokyo University Department of Medicine, noted in the introduction, “It was a profoundly man-made disaster that could and should have been foreseen and prevented. And its effects could have been mitigated by a more effective human response.”

This is no baseless claim, mind you. Their investigation included interviews with some 1,167 people and over 900 hours of hearings.

Unsurprisingly, most of the conclusions and facts dug up by the investigators are in completely contradiction to the version of reality spun by TEPCO and the Japanese government. It is no surprise that they had to actually pay people to disseminate their misinformation.

However, the report did note that in order to pass down a truly comprehensive assessment, the team would have to gain increased access to the inner workings of the various reactors, which is not likely any time soon.

The investigators determined that the earthquake – which was “more foreseeable” than the tsunami – did a great deal more damage than TEPCO and the government would like us to believe.

This is of vital importance because the constant line we’ve heard is that this was never accounted for because no one would expect such a massive earthquake and tsunami to hit at once.

Indeed, the report notes, “Fukushima Prefecture’s emergency response system was also built on the assumption that a nuclear disaster would not occur at the same time as an earthquake and tsunami”

If the report’s findings are accurate, this means, “the very assumptions informing the building codes governing reactor construction in Japan are open to question,” as Homeland Security News Wire pointed out.

The report is far from flowery in its language, pointing out that TEPCO, the government and regulators all “betrayed the nation’s right to safety from nuclear accidents.” Furthermore, TEPCO, “manipulated its cozy relationship with regulators to take the teeth out of regulations,” according to the report.

The commission also found that the government – especially Prime Minister Naoto Kan – TEPCO and the nuclear regulators were bumbling, inept, ill-informed and incapable of sharing information properly.

“What must be admitted, very painfully, is that this was a disaster ‘Made in Japan,’” said Kurokawa.

“Its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to ‘sticking with the program;’ our groupism; and our insularity,” added chairman Kurokawa.

It’s incredible to see the quite hideously ugly truth finally emerging. This wasn’t pure accident. This was the product of cover-ups and corporatist relationships which should never exist in the first place.

Hopefully this will serve as the impetus for greater scrutiny and reform of the nuclear industry in every nation which still maintains these types of tight-knit and corrosive relationships with the industries they are supposed to keep in check in order to protect their people.

At least one politician in another country, in this case the United States, is stepping up to the task: Congressman Ed Markey. All we can do now is show our support, speak out, spread this information and hope this trend continues.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

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Editor of End the Lie

A worker wearing protective suit and mask works atop of destroyed unit 4 reactor building of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, Monday, Feb 20, 2012. (Image credit: Issei Kato)

TEPCO, the company operating the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station which has been the site of an unrelenting disaster since March of last year, has reportedly been able to restart the cooling systems for spent fuel pool four.

Spent fuel pool four has become a major concern due to many factors, not the least of which is the fact that there was bulging of one of the walls of the building housing the pool which TEPCO refuses to allow outside experts to inspect.

For those who are not aware, spent fuel pool four is a disaster waiting to happen. The potential collapse of spent fuel pool four could even dwarf the earlier Fukushima meltdowns but another issue was raised when it was reported that the cooling system for the pool failed.

Kyodo News out of Japan reported yesterday, “The cooling system for a spent fuel pool at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant’s No. 4 reactor automatically suspended operation Saturday morning after an alarm issued a warning at around 6:25 a.m.”

This information was gathered from a statement from the TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company.

According to TEPCO, there was no confirmed leakage of water with radioactive materials and the water temperature of the pool when the operations were suspended was 31 Celsius or 87.8 Fahrenheit.

It was also reported yesterday by Kyodo News that TEPCO was unable to bring the cooling systems back online for reasons which were left unaddressed. Furthermore, the backup cooling system failed to activate for reasons which are also left unaddressed.

However, TEPCO did say that they were “looking into the cause of the trouble” and that the temperature was unlikely to rise rapidly.

Rapid temperature rise could lead to the small amount of water left in the pool to boil off and thus leave the nuclear fuel rods exposed to open air.

Indeed, if the pool were to collapse – which TEPCO claims it will not, of course – it could very well “spark a catastrophic nuclear fire, which would release 10 times more radioactivity than at Chernobyl,” according to a recent report from Radio Australia.

Thankfully, today it was reported that TEPCO was able to get the cooling system back online and that the temperature in the pool only reached 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit), a mere 22 degrees Celsius short of the maximum safe temperature of 65 Celsius (149 Fahrenheit).

TEPCO claims that since the cooling systems are back online, the temperature should return to normal fairly soon.

However, TEPCO’s track record is far from reliable and the reason(s) behind the failure of the main cooling system and the backup system are still not known.

The times the causes are addressed, if they are at all, it is left so ambiguous that absolutely nothing can be determined.

For instance, take Australia’s ABC which reported, “TEPCO says a fault caused the cooling system to shutdown and then a back up system failed to activate.”

A fault? Is that really as specific as they could get? Even if everything is absolutely fine and there is nothing to worry about, TEPCO is not inspiring confidence.

To make matters even worse for the Japanese, the massive anti-nuclear protests which have occurred across Japan have done nothing to stop the Kansai Electric Power Company from restarting their 1,180 megawatt No. 3 unit at the Ohi nuclear power plant.

The Japanese government approved the restart of reactors three and four “despite public safety concerns,” according to Reuters.

Reuters also reports that some 100 protesters blocked a road near the Ohi plant with vehicles, part of a larger group of around 650 individuals who were protesting the move.

However, “a Kansai Electric spokesman said the protest did not affect the restart.”

Apparently the roughly 7,000 protesters demonstrating against the continued use of nuclear power in the streets of downtown Tokyo, as reported by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, didn’t affect the restart either.

It’s quite unfortunate to see that the Japanese government cares so little about the opinions of the Japanese people and their health, not to mention the potentially global effects which could come as a result of continued nuclear power in Japan.

As far as I can tell, it appears to be the case that the Japanese government will push forward with restarting their nuclear power plants regardless of what anyone – even the Japanese people – have to say about it.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

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Contributing writer for End the Lie and host of Nuked Radio

Normal spiderwort

I had no idea when I started learning about the Fukushima disaster that it would turn into, at times, a 16-hour-a-day gig, leading me through a winding path of several thousand research articles, research papers, historic evidence, political cover-ups, and a radio show to try to help others learn about it too.

Now I am writing articles for End the Lie, doing the show twice a week, doing interviews, fallout forecasts (latest here), fielding questions, assuaging fears, encouraging camaraderie, and creating an image database of mutation pictures.

And little did I know my days would be spent answering emails, phone calls from the sick and scared, talking to the occasional industry insider who wants to chat, and investing in expensive radiation monitoring equipment.

And, I would do all this for free, because it’s that important.

But the “Fukushima experts” I’ve mentioned before know exactly what I’m talking about. Because we see the same numbers, listen to the same interviews, read the same articles, and miss the occasional good night’s sleep when the reactors are steaming or the radiation levels go up.

Fasciated spiderwort from Lake Michigan dunes

But the nuclear-corium rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than any of us thought.

Take for instance, last Thursday when the radiation levels in South Bend Indiana went up to 7,000 cpms. Ouch.

4 ½ hours later I shut my laptop to get some sleep and thought to myself, okay, get some rest now because who knows what will happen tomorrow. We have to pace ourselves, because we are going to be at it, well, forever really.

That whole previous day had been a cluster of TEPCO-camera weirdness and debris of megalithic proportions.

It started at 8:00 am when I came across a video in my YouTube feed of steam or smoke pouring out of the area around reactor 3 and 4 that morning in Japan. This led to a rapid check of radiation levels around Japan, and wind maps and precipitation forecasts for Tokyo. All was clear at the moment, I made a mental note to go back later and check again. It’s not like the Japanese government is going to put out an alert, they never do. I made a big pot of coffee.

When I opened my email I had 4 new submissions from people finding mutations in their gardens, even some from Croatia. I started the downloads to put them on Mutation Watch and Tumblr. When I went to post on Facebook, I had 56 new questions, comments, private messages overnight. How long had I been asleep? 8 hours. Good. Need to keep the immune system healthy.

I start to go through the emails. A number of them were people who had seen the recent forecast I did about tsunami debris. It was apparent this was the first real news they came across on Fukushima in a year. “What can I do?” Wrote a young mother who had just recently learned about radioactive tuna and the tsunami debris in the past week.

The last thing I ever want to do is scare people, the topic is scary enough. I spent the next hour writing back to her, in the most basic, non-threatening way I could. Which is basically something along the lines of, “All radiation is bad, and anyway you can cut down on it is good.” Because that really is what it boils down to.

You don’t have to be a scientist, physicist, or have any special education outside of knowing how to mitigate, with a basic understanding of why you need to do it. This makes the fact that this has been hidden from us even more frustrating.

I sent her a couple videos, and told her she was much more in control of this than she thought. The scary part is having to find this out from a total stranger on YouTube or Facebook, instead of our government, your public health nurse, your doctor or the major broadcast media outlets.

I told her what I tell everyone, to feel free to share any of my stuff, anytime, anywhere on social media. Last week one of my Facebook pages alone reached 42,000 people this way. And that is just one Facebook page run by one person.

An email from a pre-Fukushima friend caught my attention next. 7000 tonnes of radioactive waste was buried under the London Olympic site. I thought, you have be f–king kidding me. Some days it feels like you just can’t get away from this stuff, no matter where you are.

I read the article (twice) and checked some references. I was going to need to get this information out somehow, and decided to work it into the next forecast. Kill 2 birds with one stone. It’s a time-management issue at this point, and the day is ¼ over already.

The next article sent to me was about a 66-ft long dock that washed ashore in Oregon overnight. This was the largest piece of tsunami debris yet. For more info on the tsunami debris which will continue to hit the west coast see my last article for End the Lie.

My concern was that volunteers for the cleanup would be possibly subjected to harmful substances or radiation, and they would not be provided with the proper equipment of Hazmat training (just as was the case with the 9/11 first responders).

Sure enough, the first image I see with the article is of people climbing on the dock and rubbing it or touching it with bare hands, and no masks. Tragic, really.

I posted this story on Facebook, which started a thought provoking yet humorous discussion. Sometimes us Fukushima experts need to have a little fun, blow off a little steam, after all this is heavy stuff to deal with day in and day out.

The comments quickly turn to DU contamination on Navy ships and shooting ranges. I find a video of Leuren Moret checking high geiger readings of one of these ranges in Hawaii where DU is supposedly never used. Onto the next item.

I pull up the Fukushima camera to make sure it’s not still smoking, steaming, or something even worse. It’s not. I then remember that I have to recheck the levels in Tokyo at some point.

I post a few news stories, answer some comments, and post the rest of the mutation pictures. Then I answer some questions from Jules, my co-host on Nuked Radio, about tomorrow’s show.

We have a confirmed guest, who we both adore: Drew Lamb (who has also appeared on End the Lie Radio). Drew lives in Oregon and is one of the people that randomly wrote to me a few months back out of the blue.

He has been monitoring radiation levels religiously. He has a friend that works at Hanford who clued him into some things. He is greatly disturbed by what he found.

He is also from a family with farming background and the newest mutation images are bothering him a lot. But Drew is way ahead of the game, because he realized he could do something.

He is starting an aquaponics business, and since the last time we had him on the show he bought a warehouse, got the permits, brought together some friends with ideas and began research into farming in fallout. In the past few weeks he has been building 4000 gallon fish tanks, harvesting seeds with good genetics, and researching. He is also buying bugs and baby fish for the massive operation.

Furthermore, he is selling his other business, which was property management, to do this full-time. Fukushima has changed his life as well, but he is happy. He works in his greenhouse, finds content in his new direction, and constantly learning, creating, and sharing as he goes.

Even with the realization that his life may be shorter because of Fukushima, he is now living a better quality of life, which he knows will greatly help other people as well, even if most of them don’t know it yet. His phone, however, has been ringing off the hook since the tuna reports came out on mainstream news, and I expect this trend will continue.

I finish up the emails and make the daily earthquake map check, which is a huge issue with the reactor #4 situation. I notice two big ones in the last hour in Japan. Crap.

I post it in a few places and put on another pot of coffee. The kittens sit in the kitchen lined up waiting to be fed. The orange kitten, which had a mutated twin, is almost twice the size of his brother and sister. I wonder what’s going on there. Other than that he seems like a happy a goofy ball of fluff.

I remember I need to email the researcher who wants the mutated kitten in my freezer, about transport issues. It’s not every day you find yourself mailing a frozen possibly radioactive mutant kitty somewhere.

The kitten clearly exhibited the same mutations seen in Chernobyl and DU children in Iraq (quoting Leuren Moret), deformed feet, no eyes, an extra appendage growing out of its face.

I worry humans are next. The sense of urgency about this drives me to push on.

It’s a beautiful 80 degree sunny day, and my youngest daughter wants to go to the pool. I forget, sometimes, that I have a family. I grab my notebook, Geiger counter, and a pen. I remember I need to buy more baking soda for the girls to wash up with after they swim.

An hour and a half later, we are back, and its 6:30 pm. I get back on the laptop. I have to do a forecast, and upload it to the radio station and YouTube.

Every weather map I open is bleak: rain, storms, hail, and high readings again in St. Louis in dry air.

This is going to take longer than I thought. I download some London footage. Write out the forecast. Find some music (500 Days of Summer to offset the complaints I got two days prior for using the Beastie Boys) and drop everything into Camtasia.

While it is loading, I check Facebook again. 36 messages in the past two hours alone. One email that catches my eye is an enormous fish kill that happened a few hundred miles from St. Louis the days previous to high readings. Interesting.

Chiba, Japan has a huge fish kill too. Officials are saying possible high radioactive contamination for that one. I don’t hold out hope that the DNR will make any such correlation here in the US. If anything, it would probably be the last thing they consider, or ever admit to. The Tokyo fish kill is termed “Apocalyptic” by the Japanese news agency that reported it.

When I post it on Facebook, a reader carelessly responds, “Is this really apocalyptic?” I write back, “Well, if you are a sardine, then yes.”

Patience. I have to fight the urge to want to grab people by the shoulders sometimes and scream, “Wake up!”

The instinct of self-preservation is not as prevalent as one would think. They will know eventually. We are in big trouble from a multitude of things: Corexit, oil-contaminated seafood in the Gulf, Synthia, radiation, fracking, and GMOs, to list a few.

Instead, I post the mass animal deaths link for 2012 so far. There are over 100 cases. Enough said.

I finish editing the forecast 2 hours later. It turns out pretty good. I’m hoping it will go viral with “radioactive Olympics” in the title, to reach more people.

Sometimes I can’t believe it’s been 15 months and it’s still the same group of people trying to warn about this, along with a few more recruits.

As the video uploads, my back starts beginning to spasm. It’s been a long day. The pool helped, even though it was only for a little while and I had my Geiger running the whole time, you have to take a break from this stuff once in a while. Otherwise, it will eat you alive.

My inbox flashes, something urgent. I remember the steaming reactor from earlier. But it’s not that. It’s a new problem.

The message says, “7000 cpms in South Bend, Indiana.” Typo? No. I see it on the page for myself. Malfunction? Usually they only last a few minutes. This one has been going on for half an hour already. The video is finished uploading, I post it around, check the radiation network: 5325 cpm. This is going on a long time.

I open a few windows and start chatting with other people watching this. No one can reach the station. 3040 cpms. Then 1,340 cpms.  I start looking through the NRC event notification page, nothing posted from any nuke plants in the area. The wind direction suggests it could be Palisades. I make my first ever call to the NRC hotline.

“May I ask how often you check these readings?”

“Daily.”

Silence.

“Is this for work, or is this a hobby of yours?”

“You could say that.”

“What, that it is for work or a hobby?”

Is this guy for real?

I tape it, make an alert video, and then hold it for 2 hours while I watch the levels. It goes back up to 7,000 cpms. This is nothing to screw around with. I post the video. “Just in case, stay inside, shut your windows.”

I start thinking since I am only a few hundred miles from there, what if the wind blows my way? Do we bug out, even if we don’t know where it is coming from?

Is there a connection to the high numbers emerging from St. Louis? The fish kills? Trouble is, there are so many nuke plants around me unless one fesses up to a problem, you aren’t going to know which direction to run. So, we would have to stay put.

By now its 3:30 am, and although the numbers are still high, they are decreasing overall. I decide to go to bed, but by the time I finish up with the other concerned Fukushima experts, its almost 4:30 am. Someone takes the station offline.

The next day, I find out the alert was “probably” a false alarm. Although its humorous to me that the same day I found out there were 7000 tonnes of radioactive waste buried at the Olympic site, there is a 7,000 cpm alert.

I realize I never checked the radiation levels in Tokyo.

Hopefully someone else did.

The first email I see is that Davis-Besse sprung a radioactive coolant leak yesterday, which is just south of me. The wind direction wouldn’t have reached South Bend, or me. The statement that is released says “There was no release of radiation that would be harmful to the public.”

Of course, that’s what TEPCO always said.

It’s going to be a long day.

Please help Christina purchase a spectrometer in order to get the most accurate radiation readings and thus get you the most precise information possible by shopping through her Amazon link or donate directly via PayPal to fukushimafacts@gmail.com. Keep in mind, this is expensive equipment and it is the only way that specific isotope readings can be obtained from food items.

Edited by Madison Ruppert

Christina Consolo is a former clinical researcher supervisor with NIH credentialing; a former Member-at-Large for the Board of Directors, Ophthalmic Photographers’ Society; A peer reviewer for the Journal of Ophthalmic Photography; She has written, published, and contributed to numerous scientific research in retinal imaging and ophthalmogy for the past 24 years; She is also an award-winning biomedical photographer and maintains several websites to teach people about radiation, mitigation, and other nuclear issues. She is also the host of “Nuked Radio” Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12-1:00 pm EST on the Orion Talk Radio Network.

For more info including mitigation for radiation exposure, please visit FukushimaFacts.com, where you can sign up to receive Fallout Forecasts on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

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Contributing writer for End the Lie and host of Nuked Radio

It has been 6 weeks since I wrote my first piece for End the Lie about the potential Fukushima reactor number four end of the world scenario. Numerous nuclear experts, ambassadors, former Fukushima Daiichi workers, and senator Ron Wyden of Oregon have warned about as well. And still, no progress to report.

If TEPCO looked at what we learned from the example of Chernobyl, they should have had hundreds if not thousands of workers fortifying the structure and removing the spent fuel 24/7 for the past 14 months. But no, there does not seem to be any sense of urgency whatsoever.

Editor’s note: as I previously reported, TEPCO will not even start moving the spent fuel rods from this endangered pool into a joint pool for all six reactors next to the crumbling reactor four building until late next year. I would love to know why exactly this is the case but unfortunately I have yet to receive any explanation whatsoever.

Even the UN received an urgent request to enact international help from numerous nuke experts, since the demise of reactor four would have global effects. But still, nothing.

It has been difficult, if not nearly impossible, to get people to realize the extent of Fukushima and its effect on our lives. Part of that reason is because radiation is invisible. Another reason is because the media isn’t talking about it.

Editor’s note: I would like to put forth another possibility as well: a combination of normalcy bias and cognitive dissonance. If you are unfamiliar with these concepts, please listen to the below embedded recent episode of End the Lie Radio wherein Curt Williams of Room 101 and I discuss these concepts and just how they are manifesting in today’s world.

But this ignorance of the danger of Fukushima is about to change in a very big way.

The change, or “Mass Awakening to Fukushima” as I like to call it, began a week ago when Stanford University released its bluefin tuna radiation test results and lo and behold, it was radioactive. In fact, every single fish they tested showed contamination from Fukushima. And they were all caught off the coast in California.

This came as no surprise to the Fukushima experts that I talked about in a previous article, everyday people who have been following this story since March 11^th and know how extensive this radiation threat is. Most of us haven’t touched pacific seafood for a year.

This is because just 2 weeks after the Fukushima disaster, North American kelp was already showing contamination. And so were the salmon being tested by the Canadians. Radiation works fast, due to bio accumulation, and bio magnification. And it gets stronger as it moves up the food chain.

In fact, in the 60′s Russia detonated the largest bomb ever, the 100 megaton Tsar Bombe, or “King of Bombs.” Without getting overly technical, the yield of this bomb was actually reduced by 97% due to the addition of lead for its second and third stages, to reduce fallout potential across the northern hemisphere. Still, within a week, researchers in the US found radioactive iodine in the thyroids of mammals in the US, before it was even detected in water or plants. Yes, it happens that quickly.

So when Stanford published its data from the tuna testing, which was actually tested from tuna caught in August 2011 they were surprised, even “shocked” were their words and they also speculated (correctly I might add) that the numbers are probably much higher now, 9 months later.

What is so ironic though about the results of these tests is not that the fish were radioactive, it’s that the Stanford researchers were so surprised and shocked.

I mean, seriously? Did not a single one of these research scientists ever study Chernobyl? Radiation? Nuclear energy? Or even pay attention to what has been going on in Fukushima for the past year? Sounds like a few people have had their heads buried deep in the sand.

In fact, while the research scientists have been hitting the snooze button repeatedly the Fukushima Experts I previously mentioned have been trying to warn people this was coming, because they took their own initiative to pay attention. And we are doing all this for free. On our own dime. On our own time. Meanwhile, researchers at NOAA, the EPA, FDA, and USDA sit back and pretend everything is okay and collect a handsome paycheck courtesy of the US taxpayer in the process.

Well, the tuna results started the ball rolling. And pretty soon we should start seeing real numbers as far as the sick seals and polar bears go. And if it’s in the tuna, it’s in everything. Tuna are a large, deep water fish that should have been contaminated last.

But it’s starting to show itself in another big way too, and that is the tsunami debris. No one will be able to ignore that. It will be a catalyst for a mass awakening of gigantic proportions.

And here’s why: approximately 200,000 houses and businesses were washed out to sea during the tsunami that hit Japan. The debris field is estimated to be about roughly the size of Texas or California. That’s big. It just started to hit Alaskan shores a few weeks ago. This was just the first wave, just the leading edge. There is much, much more behind it, and it’s going to be horrendous to manage.

It will be so difficult to manage because it’s not just going to be wood and pieces of houses. It’s not just fishnets and the occasional stray fishing boat.

“In my opinion, this is the single greatest environmental pollution event that has ever hit the west coast of North America. The slow-motion aspects of it have fooled an unwitting public. It far exceeds the Santa Barbara or Exxon Valdez oil spills in gross tonnage and also geographic scope.”

A few months after 9/11, I went to the World Trade Center site in New York City. The debris field was confined to a few city blocks in size. Dump trucks went in and out of the site 24 hours a day for months carting away the debris.

Later, we learned this debris was loaded with substances detremental to human health. I won’t even begin to describe the biological effects this had on volunteers working on the site. They weren’t given appropriate protection. A lot of them now are very sick, or dead. In fact, if you look at films of the cleanup effort, the volunteers were all given paper masks, while EPA representatives are wearing full-on nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) masks.

Oregon has put out a request for volunteers now to help in the tsunami debris clean up. They haven’t said yet what kind of Hazmat protection or equipment these volunteers will be given.

Who will sort through and test the debris? Will Geiger counters be provided? NBC masks? Hazmat suits and gloves? Dump trucks? Cranes? What happens to the beach where this stuff lands on? Will it be contaminated, and with what exactly? And how do we decontaminate, if the tsunami debris is ongoing for years? Will the beaches be closed?

Who will collect, photograph, test and store body parts? How will they be returned to Japan? What about mementos from the thousands of deceased Japanese? How will these mementos be cataloged and returned to the rightful owners?

It doesn’t appear at this point that the Federal government is going to assist in the effort, monetarily or otherwise. In fact, they are doing everything they can to wash their hands of the matter. It will be up to the surrounding communities to deal with it and make all these decisions. And like us Fukushima Experts, they will probably be doing it on their own time and dime. To me, it sounds like a job for FEMA, but they apparently have their hands full building camps around the country.

At least this debris field won’t be invisible. In fact, it will be impossible to ignore, unlike the ongoing radiation threat in our air, rain, and food supply. The tsunami debris will be a huge biological and radioactive nightmare that has the potential for ruining the west coast of North America for years to come. That means beaches, tourism, and recreation. To say it will severely impact every seaside community from Alaska to Mexico and Hawaii is probably an understatement.

We have big problems headed our way, and no solutions. No money. No help. We are on our own. And this is just the tsunami debris side of things. At the very least, it will undoubtedly wake a few people up. I assume some of these people are also going to be very pissed off.

Welcome to the multifaceted Fukushima disaster. We’ve been waiting for you to join us. And by the way, where have you been for the past 14 months?

Please help Christina purchase a spectrometer in order to get the most accurate radiation readings and thus get you the most precise information possible by shopping through her Amazon link or donate directly via PayPal to fukushimafacts@gmail.com. Keep in mind, this is expensive equipment and it is the only way that specific isotope readings can be obtained from food items.

Edited by Madison Ruppert

Christina Consolo is a former clinical researcher supervisor with NIH credentialing; a former Member-at-Large for the Board of Directors, Ophthalmic Photographers’ Society; A peer reviewer for the Journal of Ophthalmic Photography; She has written, published, and contributed to numerous scientific research in retinal imaging and ophthalmogy for the past 24 years; She is also an award-winning biomedical photographer and maintains several websites to teach people about radiation, mitigation, and other nuclear issues. She is also the host of “Nuked Radio” Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12-1:00 pm EST on the Orion Talk Radio Network.

For more info including mitigation for radiation exposure, please visit FukushimaFacts.com, where you can sign up to receive Fallout Forecasts on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

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Editor of End the Lie

Japanese environment and nuclear minister Goshi Hosono visiting Fukushima

If the nuclear disaster that has befallen the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant is absolutely nothing to be concerned about, as some have nonsensically maintained despite the evidence to the contrary, why on Earth would Akio Komori, an executive at Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), refuse to allow outside experts to inspect the facility?

It is quite a simple question which should be able to be easily answered by those who continue to maintain that those who point out the continuing dangers and potential disaster with spent fuel pool number four are blowing the situation out of proportion.

Of course, it would only be easy to answer if they are right. Unfortunately for them, there is no indication that they are and a new study revealed that we can only expect similar incidents in the future – even here in the United States – if we don’t begin to question the legitimacy of nuclear power generation (especially given the viable alternatives).

I truly wish that I could say that you should ignore what is going on at Fukushima and the real potential for the disaster to get significantly worse, but I would be lying to you.

Even the Japan Times notes that the spent fuel pool in reactor number 4 is “situation precariously above the reactor” in their May 27 article which revealed the disturbing position of Komori.

Goshi Hosono, the Japanese environment and nuclear minister recently visited the Fukushima Daiichi plant in order to inspect the spent fuel pool which has, according to the Japan Times, “been raising safety concerns,” although Hosono claimed that it “appears to have been properly reinforced.”

Personally, I don’t think that inspires too much confidence in the safety and stability of the spent fuel pool, especially given the word choice in saying that it “appears” to be reinforced properly.

The Japan Times notes that the visit appears to have been an attempt to inspire confidence in the safety of the facility, especially since reports recently emerged detailing a bulge in the building’s wall, which was confirmed by TEPCO.

Japanese nuclear regulators responded to this report by ordering a new probe and seismic tests of both the reactor four building and the spent fuel pool.

For those who aren’t aware, the spent fuel pool is absurdly dangerous because it could dump out, exposing the fuel rods, likely causing a combustion.

The sheer number of earthquakes in the region as of late is yet another reason why the situation hardly inspires confidence.

The entire reactor four building sustained significant damage after a major explosion and fire which followed the tremendous earthquake and tsunami in March of last year.

While a select, small group of journalists were allowed entry into the reactor building for the first time along with Hosono, who was wearing a protective suit and full face mask, TEPCO continues to resist calls for outside expert analysis.

Journalists observed broken wall panels lying in piles, pieces of cement and mangled equipment inside the reactor four building.

Interestingly, while Hosono reportedly partially viewed the spent fuel pool when TEPCO officials partially lifted the tarp covering the pool, he was not able to see the wall bulge.

However, he did call on TEPCO “not to take an optimistic view and instead deal with it carefully in order to ensure safety.”

For some strange reason, TEPCO will not begin moving the spent fuel rods from the pool at reactor four to a joint pool for all six reactors next to the reactor four building until late next year.

While this joint pool already has a whopping 6,000 rods in it, it is supposedly safer because it is at ground level.

Furthermore, it will take a whopping 40 years to decommission the reactors completely.

Komori claimed that they will inspect the number four building “to ensure its integrity” which, yet again, hardly inspires confidence given TEPCO’s behavior throughout this tragedy.

His justification for refusing to allow outside experts to inspect the plant makes so little sense that it is nothing short of laughable.

“As the party with direct responsibility, it’s our job to carry out the necessary checks,” Komori said.

Sure, but it is also their responsibility to ensure that it is safe and clearly they are not disinterested enough to do that.

Experts have been pointing out the immense danger posed by the spent fuel pool at reactor number four for some time now.

This is hardly a mystery as it is indeed precariously placed and there are over 1,500 fuel rods in the pool, which is more than any of the other six Fukushima reactors.

Even worse is that the fuel which would normally be in the reactor core is in the pool as well as number four was being refurbished.

According to the Japan Times, nuclear officials in the U.S. were also concerned because they “feared the rods would overheat and melt as water evaporated from the pool, releasing massive radiation.”

With all of this evidence showing just how dangerous this situation is, can we really accept Komori’s justification – if you can even call it that – for refusing to allow outside experts to assess the situation?

If we can accept it, why? I would love to hear those who believe that the continuously developing situation at Fukushima is being blown out of proportion respond to this with a reasonable answer. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that they will be able to do so.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

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