Fukushima

Japanese gamble Armageddon in Last Ditch Fukushima Effort

White-Out Press,

20 August, 2013

Contrary to what most people think, the 2011 nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima, Japan is not under control. In fact, the danger to mankind is quietly and rapidly rising as the Japanese desperately try to stop the massive radiation contamination still spreading around the globe. Now, officials are taking one drastic step to save the Earth from catastrophe. And it’s so dangerous, they may wipe out half of mankind in the process.

The first casualty of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown was the truth. Most of the devastating revelations exposed over the past two years were first vehemently denied by Japanese, American and corporate leaders. The truth is, within days of the four nuclear meltdowns, western North America was slammed with a massive dose of radiation that contaminated everything in its path as the world slowly spun and the invisible radiation cloud moved eastward.

Radiation spreading

As detailed by two Whiteout Press articles, one in 2012 and one in 2013, the effects of the Fukushima meltdown are still being felt across the US. Just days after the March 2011 disaster, I-131 radioiodine isotope levels in the United States were already testing 211 times higher than normal. Within one week of the earthquake, its resulting tsunami and subsequent meltdowns, cases of congenital hypothyroid in the five western-most US states spiked. Other testing showed that fish caught in the Pacific near Japan have radiation contamination at 380 times the government’s safety limit, while fish caught off the California coast have radiation levels 250 times higher.

Additional tests have shown grass, hay and milk in the US contaminated with radiation at double the legal limit. Three random samples of milk purchased in San Francisco proved all three to be contaminated with radiation. And rainwater across America is testing positive for radiation at 131 times the federal safety limit. Scientists point out the radioactive rain is coating the grass which the cows eat, transferring into America’s milk supply.

Americans getting sick

Quietly left out of most news headlines is the fact that 70,000 US military personnel and their families have been invited to join a class action lawsuit against the Fukushima utility company (TEPCO) that owned the power plants and reactors that broke-down after an earthquake struck Japan. The suit seeks $2 billion in damages, most especially for the thousands of US first responders who were stationed in Japan and South Korea at the time. On top of that, hundreds of Alaska Airlines flight attendants have file a complaint citing rampant and mysterious skin lesions and numerous cases of their hair falling out. There have been 280 documented cases of sickened attendants already.

Two of the more eye-opening revelations being disclosed lately include the accusation by environmental activists that independent measurements smuggled out of Fukushima have shown radiation levels ten-times higher than the numbers being released by the US and Japanese governments. Authorities are also hesitant to remind Americans that 100 million tons of radioactive debris continues to wash up on America’s shores. Most heartbreaking were the findings published in March 2013 by the Open Journal of Pediatrics. Test results showed a spike in hypothyroidism in newborns across the western United States.

For complete details, read the Whiteout Press articles, ‘Fukushima Radiation Poisoning infecting US’ and ‘US Babies suffering Radiation Poisoning from Fukushima’.

Japan gambles the world

For the past two years, there have been varying and sporadic reports, some official and some unofficial, describing how the Fukushima nuclear meltdown is anything but under control. In fact, millions of gallons of radioactive wastewater continue to spill out into the Pacific to this day. And while the reactors and their safety mechanisms continue to break down, the world comes closer and closer to global Armageddon.

To stop the complete and total meltdown of Japan’s nuclear reactors, authorities have proposed a dangerous plan. The biggest problem is Fukushima’s Reactor Number 4. The reactor’s cooling pool for spent nuclear rods is located on the top floor of the TEPCO building. And that building was heavily damaged by the 2011 quake. Due to its instability, authorities say they must move the 400 tons of spent fuel rods right away.

Spent fuel rod transfers occur on a fairly regular basis, but always under the most secure and controlled setting due to the potential nuclear catastrophe that would happen if just one spent rod is mishandled. In the case of Fukushima’s Reactor 4, officials will attempt to remove 1,300 spent fuel rods from a structurally unsafe building in a highly contaminated environment.

The problems and dangers

One nuclear fallout expert, Christina Consolo, spoke to RT News to answer the outlet’s questions regarding the situation in Fukushima. She detailed a list of potential problems authorities might encounter when they attempt to move the spent rods. Those potentially catastrophic hurdles include (from RT News):

• The racks inside the pool that contain this fuel were damaged by the explosion in the early days of the accident.
• Zirconium cladding which encased the rods burned when water levels dropped, but to what extent the rods have been damaged is not known, and probably won't be until removal is attempted.
• Saltwater cooling has caused corrosion of the pool walls, and probably the fuel rods and racks.
• The building is sinking.
• The cranes that normally lift the fuel were destroyed.
• Computer-guided removal will not be possible; everything will have to be done manually.
• TEPCO cannot attempt this process without humans, which will manage this enormous task while being bombarded with radiation during the extraction and casking.
• The process of removing each rod will have to be repeated over 1,300 times without incident.
• Moving damaged nuclear fuel under such complex conditions could result in a criticality if the rods come into close proximity to one another, which would then set off a chain reaction that cannot be stopped.

What is most likely to go wrong?

When asked what the biggest potential dangers are in removing the damaged spent fuel rods, Christina Consolo replied, “The most serious complication would be anything that leads to a nuclear chain reaction. And as outlined above, there are many different ways this could occur. In a fuel pool containing damaged rods and racks, it could potentially start up on its own at anytime. TEPCO has been incredibly lucky that this hasn't happened so far.”

She also expressed concern for the human workers that will have to submerse themselves into a highly radioactive environment and then perform extremely precise movements. Not only might their senses and thinking be affected, but their protective gear will make the entire operation somewhat clumsy.

“My second biggest concern would be the physical and mental fitness of the workers that will be in such close proximity to exposed fuel during this extraction process,” Consolo told RT News, “They will be the ones guiding this operation and will need to be in the highest state of alertness to have any chance at all of executing this plan manually and successfully. Many of their senses, most importantly eyesight, will be hindered by the apparatus that will need to be worn during their exposure to prevent immediate death from lifting compromised fuel rods out of the pool.”

Money over mankind, Fukushima vs Chernobyl

As if the situation in Japan wasn’t terrifying enough, RT News and nuclear fallout expert Christina Consolo expose a couple additional horrifying revelations regarding the Fukushima meltdowns, subsequent clean-up, and the desperate plan to stop Armageddon. She begins by describing the response by TEPCO and Japanese authorities as “temporary fixes”. The account describes some of the measures taken as the equivalent of duct tape and band-aids.

Consolo warns that cost-cutting and profits will also play an ominous part, “Cost always seems to be an enormous factor in what gets implemented and what doesn't.” Comparing Fukushima to Chernobyl, the researcher points out that the Chernobyl meltdown involved a single reactor that had no spent fuel rods stored at the facility.

Each of the Fukushima reactors is also four-times the size of the Chernobyl reactor. And whereas no spent fuel rods were stored at Chernobyl, the Fukushima plants house six roof-top storage pools, two of which are structurally damaged from the earthquake and resulting explosions, fire and saltwater corrosion.

Illustrating the problem with cost-driven safety decisions, the report explains that on-site cooling pools used to be only for temporary storage of spent fuel rods and as a temporary option to help in their transfer to permanent facilities. But as documented by various sources, nuclear power plants around the world now store their own spent rods using unsafe methods to avoid the costs associated with their transfer and permanent storage in a safe environment.

Summing up where mankind is right now in the fight to save humanity from global devastation, the report leaves readers with this final warning, ‘We have three 100-ton melted fuel blobs underground, but where exactly they are located, no one knows. Whatever barriers TEPCO has put in place so far have failed. Efforts to decontaminate radioactive water have failed. Robots have failed. Camera equipment and temperature gauges…failed. Decontamination of surrounding cities has failed. If and when the corium reaches the Tokyo aquifer, serious and expedient discussions will have to take place about evacuating 40 million people.’