Arnie Gundersen, former nuclear engineer, Mar 11, 2017 (emphasis added): The scientific impact of the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi is an ongoing disaster that was never envisioned by the engineers who created and designed these atomic reactors and countries who built them… no country in the world with nuclear power reactors was prepared for the explosive radioactive contamination of Fukushima Daiichi. Over and over, people ask me about what happened inside the plants and what is still happening inside with robots fried by radiation, corium that can’t be found, and massive amounts of radioactivity migrating to sensitive estuaries, aquifers, contaminating all the ground water, and polluting the Pacific Ocean… No one has discovered where the nuclear cores have disappeared to. The $400,000,000 “ice wall” continues to leak… Moreover, the cover-up continues, with the health effects from radiation being camouflaged as stress related illnesses… I decided to share the photographs I took last year in Japan… these photos cannot adequately convey the scientific and human impact of the worst industrial cataclysm in the history of the world… [R]adioactive isotopes will be extreme hazards for 250,000 years, of course no one knows when it will end.
BBC Newsday interview with nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, Feb 28, 2017: “As they get in [the containment vessel at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2], they’re finding that combination of hot steam — these are not just radioactive chemicals, but it’s a toxic mix of chemicals that are going to react with the steel. So there’s rust and hunks of nuclear fuel lying around, and steam, and it’s raining all the time because of the condensation. I think it’s about as close to hell as I could imagine.”
Arjun Makhijani, nuclear engineer, Feb 17, 2017: Yes, so the bottom of the reactor under the reactor there is a grating and then under the grating there’s the concrete floor, and what this robot discovered… the grating was deformed and broken. So, now it appears that some of the molten fuel may have gone through the grating… [H]igh radiation turns into heat, so the whole environment around the molten fuel is thermally very hot, and so whether it is going through the concrete, whether it is under the concrete, I don’t know that we have a good grip on that issue… Fukushima is possibly the longest running, continuous industrial disaster in history. It has not stopped because the risks are still there.
Related Posts
- Nuclear Expert: Fukushima melted fuel is drifting in ocean and onto land, lacking any containment — It ends up on coastline and blows into communities — People get an exceptional dose — Health harm will go on for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years (AUDIO) August 23, 2013
- UC Berkeley Nuclear Professor: May be impossible to get Fukushima melted fuel — Work at site to go on for ‘thousands of years’ if not removed (AUDIO) September 3, 2013
- Washington Post: It’s an environmental disaster, radioactivity levels in ocean hundreds of times above normal — NHK: Countries around Pacific worried about ongoing Fukushima leaks, gov’t wants testing up to 3,000 km offshore (VIDEO) October 22, 2013
- Video: Japanese receiving biased information — Hundreds of thousands or more may die of cancer from Fukushima disaster — It’s all hidden from view October 14, 2012
- Nuclear Consultant: They will have to maintain Fukushima ice wall for hundreds of years if ever installed (AUDIO) September 9, 2013
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) cited PLA air force aviation expert Fu Qianshao saying that Beijing would send planes near THAAD to obstruct the system’s long-range radar signals.
China has been particularly vocal in decrying THAAD, prompting US Defense Secretary James Mattis to address both their and Moscow’s complaints in February, saying, "there is no other nation that needs to be concerned about THAAD other than North Korea," according to CNN.
In August 2016, Yonhap quoted South Korean chief presidential secretary of public affairs Kim Sung-woo stating, "The fundamental reason for the decision to deploy THAAD lies in the rising nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. If such threats from the North disappear, THAAD won’t be needed."
Some South Korean officials believe that China has attempted to add pressure by imposing restrictions on businesses operating in and with Seoul. Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho has said there is no hard evidence of this, but Moon Jae-in, the politician many expect to be South Korea’s next president, has called on China to halt its economic retaliation.
During a debate with other candidates on Tuesday, Moon said, "We should complain about what needs to be complained about and we should make diplomatic efforts to persuade China," adding, "It is also not desirable for China to harm our relationship with excessive retaliation…I call on China to immediately stop."
Retired PLA general Wang Hongguang told SCMP that China could also counter the utility of THAAD by using its own anti-radar technology. "We will complete our deployment before THAAD begins operations. There is no need to wait for two months [before the election of the next South Korean president]," he said, "We already have such equipment in place. We just have to move it to the right spot."
On Mar. 11, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sources revealed to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida that the IRGC has built weapons factories for Hezbollah in Lebanon and handed them over to the Shiite organization. This comes one week after Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehqan declared that Hezbollah “now possesses the capabilities to build and produce any projectile or missile” capable of reaching any location in Israel.
However, it remains unclear how Hezbollah is acquiring the materials and domestically producing the sophisticated components necessary to manufacture advanced weapons such as ballistic and anti-ship missiles when the Iranians themselves experience difficulty in doing so at home.
According to Al-Jarida, the IRGC source said the Revolutionary Guard began building the factories in Lebanon “after Israel destroyed an Iranian weapons factory in Sudan years ago which provided arms to Hezbollah” – likely referring to an Oct. 2012 air strike attributed to the Israelis on the Yarmouk weapons factory in Khartoum – “and targeted weapons shipments to Hezbollah from Syria.” The IRGC gradually handed over the factories to their Lebanese proxy, with Hezbollah assuming full control and oversight over them three months ago. Meanwhile, the IRGC established a special department in its Imam Hussein University – its official military college which hosts weapons research and development facilities – to train “hundreds” of Lebanese specialists in producing arms.
Ukrainian radicals keep blocking offices of the Russian Sberbank in Kiev.
Security measures have been reinforced until 17 of March. 1,400 security officers have been dispatched to the city centre.
The National Corpse and Right Sector concreted entrances to the Russian banks over, while law-enforcement bodies tolerate this.
Nataliya Vitrenko, leader of the Ukrainian Progressive Socialist Party, has commented Pravda.Ru on the situation.
Struggle against the Russian banks has been orchestrated by radicals. They also ordered to reinforce blockade of all the Russian enterprises all over Ukraine, as well as trade blockade with the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
But first of all, it is killing of the Ukrainian economy. Every day the country loses its GDP and begs the IMF for one billion dollars (while five billions have been already lost just because of this blockade).
There are a lot of police men with guns in the city center. They stop cars and check everyone. Tense atmosphere is in the air.
And they used to warn before that city councils, regional administrations will be seized further. They want Poroshenko declare a full-scale war against Russia. Namely declaration of war, not just talks about 'aggressive Russia'. One more option is it to make Poroshenko step down. Then they will take over and declare war against Russia.
More civilians have already fled Mosul than left eastern Aleppo during its liberation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, commenting on the humanitarian situation in Iraq’s second largest city.
“Those who have seen pictures from Mosul cannot help feeling anxiety… More civilians have definitely fled from there than left Aleppo during its liberation,” he said. The Syrian military liberated the Syrian city from terrorists late last year with the backing of the Russian Air Force.
Lavrov called on “journalists working in conflict zones and UN partners responsible for humanitarian issues to be more objective and more assertive in presenting what they see in the crisis areas.”
“When covering the situation in Mosul and other parts of the region where the operations are carried out by members of the anti-terrorism coalition… the journalists should feel responsible for their professional duties,” Lavrov stressed.
Allegations that the Western media is down playing the situation in Mosul were leveled earlier this week by the London-based monitoring group, Airwars.
“Since the assault, first on east Mosul and then west Mosul began, we have seen just a remarkable change at Mosul, moving from tens of civilians reported killed every week or even every month, to hundreds reported killed every week now by coalition airstrikes,” Airwars director Chris Woods told RT’s Ruptly video agency. According to Woods, the number of civilian casualties reported in Mosul exceeds those from Aleppo.
The “deep state,” an alleged shadowy network of powerful entrenched federal and military interests, has increasingly become the focus of Republicans who accuse such forces of trying to undermine the new president.
Though senior White House staff members don’t use the exact label, the notion behind it has taken hold. President Donald Trump claims his predecessor tapped his phone and America’s intelligence agencies have conspired to leak harmful information to embarrass him. His chief strategist has vowed to dismantle the permanent Washington “administrative state.” White House spokesman Sean Spicer says “people that burrowed into government” are trying to sabotage the president.
“Of course, the deep state exists. There’s a permanent state of massive bureaucracies that do whatever they want and set up deliberate leaks to attack the president,” said Newt Gingrich, a Trump confidant. “This is what the deep state does: They create a lie, spread a lie, fail to check the lie and then deny that they were behind the lie.”
Historians believe the concept of the “deep state” comes from Turkey, where the term “derin devlet” meant a clandestine network, including intelligence and military officers, which protected the ruling class in the 1920s. Similar ideas have taken hold in Egypt, where the military has allied itself with powerful business interests, and Pakistan, with its robust intelligence service.
In its current use, the concept has been twisted and broadened, encompassing a resistant bureaucracy and a regulatory regime rather than foreshadowing some sort of military intervention. Chief Trump strategist Steve Bannon has offered the loudest warnings about the opposition the president is facing from the deep state.
In his only public speech since the election, Bannon told a conservative group that the White House’s goal was the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” a reflection of his belief that the massive federal government, with its burdensome regulations, does more to hinder than uplift citizens. It also echoes Bannon’s oft-stated worldview, frequently on display at his former news site Breitbart, that a global power structure — including government institutions — has rigged the economy.
“They are fighting to keep hold of their power,” said the former House speaker, who asked a reporter not to spoil the two Homeland episodes of the season he has yet to see.
The sprawling federal government, including its intelligence agencies, has thousands of employees who predate Trump, a mix of career staffers and those appointed by President Barack Obama whose replacements have yet to be named. Some have offered leaks, including sensitive documents, to reporters that provide a critical take on the president.
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