Revisiting Fukushima

I really miss ENENews.

Latest study shows an increase in levels of Fukushima-related contamination in Alaskan waters as Tokyo reassure the world all is well with 2020 Olympics

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the Big Wobble,

30 April, 2019

The latest study shows an increase in levels of Fukushima-related contamination off the shores of Alaska, regular readers of The Big Wobble will know Bill Laughing-Bear has been keeping an eye on fish in Alaskan waters and has warned us all of rising radioactive contamination for years now.
Recently other warnings have been published as the slow drip-drip-drop of information is slowly increasing.

In 2017, A study by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa revealed almost 50% of fish consumed on the islands of Hawai’i were contaminated with caesium 134 the radioactive finger-print of Fukushima.

The report also showed that migrating organisms can transport the Fukushima-signature (caesium 134) over significant distances as they showed detectable 134Cs (6.3±1.5 Bq/kg) in Pacific bluefin tuna caught off the California coast only a year after the incident.

Another study found caesium 134 in longfin tuna (Albacore) along the western coast of the US just one year after the Fukushima disaster.

The recent findings as you might expect are being played down and the usual sound-bites are telling us "it's nothing to worry about," something the powers that be have been saying for 8 years now.

The latest study by Alaska Sea Grant agent, Gay Sheffield claimed, a slightly elevated level of radioactive contamination connected to the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been detected in the northern Bering Sea.

The level of caesium-137, a radioactive isotope, is extremely low and not considered a health concern, according to state epidemiologists.

The sampling, conducted by residents of Saint Lawrence Island, documents the Fukushima plume’s northern edge arriving in the Bering Sea for the first time and shows levels of caesium-137 higher than they were before the 2011 nuclear power plant accident in Japan.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games perfect platform to reassure the world all is well at the Fukushima site despite leaking radioactive isotopes for the next 300 years

Photo aasarchitecture.com

• Tokyo is spending at least $20 billion to organize the Olympics.
• The 2020 Olympic Games is allowing the Japanese government to focus on the games while their unsuccessful attempt to clean-up the ongoing spread of leaking radioactivity from Fukushima approaches its first 10 years since the disaster.
• Fukushima site will be entirely cleaned and decommissioned in less than forty years, a date that will definitely slip AFTER the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are held, and one that is scientifically impossible since some radioactive isotopes will be spread across the Fukushima site and surrounding landscape for 300 years and others for 250,000 years.
• When the Olympic torch route and Olympic stadium samples were tested, we found samples of dirt in Fukushima’s Olympic Baseball Stadium that were highly radioactive, registering 6,000 Bq/kg of Cesium, which is 3,000 times more radioactive than dirt in the US.
• Last year, a study by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa revealed almost 50% of fish consumed on the islands of Hawai’i were contaminated with caesium 134 the radioactive finger-print of Fukushima.

Fifty-six years after having organised the Olympic Games, the Japanese capital will be hosting a Summer edition for the second time, from 24 July to 9 August 2020, more than 9 years after the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and triple meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi.

The 2020 Olympic Games is allowing the Japanese government to focus on the games while their unsuccessful attempt to clean-up the ongoing spread of leaking radioactivity from Fukushima approaches its first 10 years since the disaster.

According to Arnie Gundersen of the Fairwinds website, the government of Japan claims that the Fukushima site will be entirely cleaned and decommissioned in less than forty years, a date that will definitely slip AFTER the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are held, and one that is scientifically impossible since some radioactive isotopes will be spread across the Fukushima site and surrounding landscape for 300 years and others for 250,000 years.

Fukushima’s radioactive reactor cores have been in direct contact with groundwater for the last eight years, and then that highly toxic radioactive water enters the Pacific Ocean.

"When the disaster struck TEPCO wanted to build an ice wall to prevent the spread of the contamination, which I knew would fail," claimed Arnie Gundersen.
"The problem with freezing the soil is that as soon as you get an earthquake, (which is a matter of when and not if), you lose power and then your ice turns to mush and you're stuck."

Gundersen, who has visited the Fukushima power plant in the past, said a better solution would be to dig a two-meter wide trench down to bedrock level and fill it with a material called zeolite: a volcanic material that comes from Mother Nature.

TEPCO’s ice wall has not eliminated radiation from spreading via groundwater. How will Fukushima’s owner TEPCO and the government of Japan successfully clean and mitigate the damage caused by the three atomic reactors that each lost their fuel to a meltdown? These problems were never anticipated in Japan where these reactors were built and operated or in the United States where the Fukushima nuclear plants were engineered and designed and the parts were manufactured.

Since the meltdowns in 2011, Fairewinds notified the world that the recovery plans for the proposed cleanup would be almost untenable, calling it a ‘long slog’.
Just this week, A report from Reuters, claimed most of that water - stored in 1,000 tanks around the plant - will need to be reprocessed before it is released into the ocean, the most likely scenario for disposal.

Reprocessing could take nearly two years and divert personnel and energy from dismantling the tsunami-wrecked reactors, a project that will take up to 40 years, (which is only an estimate as Tepco who still haven't invented the technology to fix the problem, they could still be trying to fix the problem in 2060.)

It is unclear how much that would delay decommissioning.

But any delay could be pricey; the government estimated in 2016 that the total cost of plant dismantling, decontamination of affected areas, and compensation, would amount to 21.5 trillion yen ($192.5 billion), an incredible 20 per cent of the country’s annual budget.

Tepco is already running out of space to store treated water.

And should another big quake strike, experts say tanks could crack, unleashing tainted liquid and washing highly radioactive debris into the ocean.
Last year, a study by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa revealed almost 50% of fish consumed on the islands of Hawai’i were contaminated with caesium 134 the radioactive finger-print of Fukushima.

The report also showed that migrating organisms can transport the Fukushima-signature (caesium 134) over significant distances as they showed detectable 134Cs (6.3±1.5 Bq/kg) in Pacific bluefin tuna caught off the California coast only a year after the incident.

Another study found caesium 134 in longfin tuna (Albacore) along the western coast of the US just one year after the Fukushima disaster.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be used as the perfect propaganda tool, as a symbol of hope and recovery, however, when the glitter and glam are peeled away, the reality is 300 tons of radioactive water is leaking daily into the Pacific and there is no known technology to fix it.

To determine whether or not Olympic athletes might be affected by fallout emanating from the disaster site, Dr Marco Kaltofen and Arnie Gundersen were sponsored by Fairewinds Energy Education to look at Olympic venues during the fall of 2017.

We took simple dirt and dust samples along the Olympic torch route as well as inside Fukushima’s Olympic stadium and as far away as Tokyo.
When the Olympic torch route and Olympic stadium samples were tested, we found samples of dirt in Fukushima’s Olympic Baseball Stadium that were highly radioactive, registering 6,000 Bq/kg of Cesium, which is 3,000 times more radioactive than dirt in the US.

We also found that simple parking lot of radiation levels were 50-times higher there than here in the US.

The bottom line is that to reduce cleanup costs while spending enormous funds on the Olympics, the government of Japan treats its 160,000 Fukushima evacuees as if they were radiation Guinea Pigs, forcing them to return to recontaminated areas to try and convince the world everything is ok, meanwhile making it difficult for serious scientists to accurately assess the effects of radiation on these evacuees.

The billions of dollars being spent on the Olympics would be much better used to help those displaced by the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.

Help these families find permanent homes and employment and new supportive communities far away from the contaminated areas that they are now forcibly being returned to.

Read, Atomic Balm Part 1: Prime Minister Abe Uses The Tokyo Olympics As Snake Oil Cure For The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Meltdowns

The Korean Olympics kлick off as Korean athletes unite at opening event

Reportedly V.P. Pence refused to shake hands with the North Korean delegation or stand for anyone except the Americans.

Korean athletes unite at Olympic ceremony

Radio NZ,

10 February, 2018

The Winter Olympics sparked to life in a vivid, colourful ceremony of fire and ice in South Korea - and the diplomacy was just as choreographed.

In the stadium, leaders from nations that are sworn enemies sat close together and in the stadium South and North Korean atheles marched together.

The Olympic flame is lit to a background of fireworks at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony. Photo: AFP

South Korea, which is using the Pyeongchang Games to break the ice with North Korea, seated its presidential couple alongside US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, with two of the North's most senior officials sitting in the row behind.

President Moon Jae-in, who wants to harness the Olympic spirit to pave the way for talks over the North's weapons programme, warmly shook hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's smiling sister, Kim Yo Jong, as well as the North's nominal head of state.

Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong, (2nd left) shakes hands with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in during the opening ceremony. Photo: AFP

The South is still technically at war with the North after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, and the United States and North Korea have recently swapped nuclear threats. Mr Pence vowed only this week to tighten sanctions on the North.

Underlining President Moon's efforts to re-engage with the North, the opening ceremony followed the story line of children wandering through a mythical landscape and discovering a world where people live in peace and harmony.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told the crowd that by allowing their athletes to march together under one flag at the ceremony, North and South Korea had shown sport's "unique power" to unite people.

"All the athletes around me, all the spectators here in the stadium, and all Olympic fans watching around the world ... we are all touched by this wonderful gesture," he said.

North and South Korean flagbearers wave to the crowd. Photo: AFP

The Olympics have provided some respite from years of tense relations between 

Seoul and Pyongyang, though just hours before the ceremony hundreds of anti-North Korean protesters scuffled with riot police outside the stadium, burning North Korean flags and pictures of its leader, Kim Jong Un.

South Korea's freezing February, where temperatures have plummeted to minus 20 degrees Celsius at night, has come as a shock to the system for athletes and visitors alike in the leadup to these Games, prompting concerns about hypothermia at the opening ceremony.

The weather was a little milder than feared on Friday, but spectators still huddled near heaters, holding hot packs and slurping down steaming fishcake soup to ward off the chills.

According to Olympic tradition, the Greek contingent headed the parade of athletes into the open-air stadium, followed by the other delegations in order according to the Korean alphabet.

Mr Pence stood to welcome the US athletes as the Korean pop hit Gangnam Style blared around the stadium, sparking the 'Horse Dance' in the crowd and among the volunteers.

The moment failed to elicit even a smile from the two senior North Korean officials in the VIPs box, however, as they sat stony-faced in black fluffy hats and long coats.

Tonga's flagbearer Pita Taufatofua leads his country's delegation. Photo: AFP

New Zealand freestyle skier Beau James Wells, clad in the flagbearer's traditional cloak Te Mahutonga, led a 32-strong Kiwi contingent of athletes and officials in the stadium

As the athletes made their way around the track, one of the biggest cheers was reserved for muscle-bound Tongan Pita Taufatofua, who repeated his famed Rio Games entrance by marching in shirtless, oiled up and wearing a traditional skirt -- this time in sub-zero temperatures.

Later, the crowd erupted as athletes from North and South Korea marched together under the unification flag for the first time at an Olympics since 2006.

"It was incredible," spectator Eim Young-joo said.

North Korean cheerleaders greeted the athletes by waving a controversial version of the flag depicting disputed islands known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.

Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Norio Maruyama said he had not seen the flag so he did not want to comment.

Elsewhere in the stadium, a Kim Jong Un impersonator was not made as welcome as the North Koreans in the VIP box and was ejected by security. "Well is my sister getting the same treatment?" he demanded to know.

As the ceremony neared an end, the Olympic flame was carried by a succession of Korean sporting heroes including 2016 Rio Games golf champion Park In-bee and soccer player Ahn Jung-hwan, who scored the winning goal against Italy at the 2002 World Cup.

It finally found its way to figure skating star Kim Yuna, who won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games and silver in Sochi four years later.

Kim, who travelled the world as a Games ambassador in the run-up to Pyeongchang, performed a short skating routine before sending flames shooting up to light the cauldron.

Will the Olympics provide an opportunity for a False Flag attack

Olympic Games In South Korea – Perfect Opportunity For A False Flag Attack?

Activist Post,
18 January, 2018

By Brandon Smith

The war rhetoric surrounding North Korea on both sides of the Pacific has never been more aggressive than it has been the past year (at least not since the Korean War). There are some people that see the entire affair as a “distraction,” a distraction that will never amount to actual conflict. I disagree with this sentiment for a number of reasons.

North Korea is indeed a distraction, but still a distraction in the making. That is to say, the chest beating and saber rattling are merely a prelude to the much more effective distraction of live combat and invasion in the name of regime change and “national security.” As I noted in my article “Korean War Part II: Why It’s Probably Going To Happen,” the extensive staging of military assets to the region that has not been seen in over a decade, the extremely swift advancement of North Korean missile technology to include ICBMs capable of reaching the mainland U.S., the strange andunprecedented language by China indicating that they will not intercede against an invasion of North Korea by the U.S. “if Pyongyang attacks first….” All of this and more shows a clear movement of chess pieces into place for a sudden action.

According to these factors, I am led to believe that a false flag event blamed on North Korea, or a prodding of North Korea into taking an attack posture, is likely. The purposes behind such a war would be many-fold. Primarily, the final implosion of the vast financial bubbles created by central bank stimulus measures could be undertaken while the banks themselves escape public blame or prosecution.

A geopolitical crisis large enough would provide a perfect scapegoat for an economic crisis that was going to develop eventually anyway. And, if this geopolitical crisis were initiated by a “rogue state,” along with the poor decisions of a conservative “populist” president (Trump), then the historical narrative would be complete. Future generations would talk about the “great blunder” of sovereign states and nationalists and how hubris and greed and ego led to a global fiscal disaster and unnecessary destruction. The rationale for a one world governmental authority would be planted in the minds of the populace.

Will a war in North Korea be the trigger event for this narrative? It’s hard to say, as there are so many potential geopolitical powder kegs around the world. However, ample assets to initiate this kind of event are present around North Korea. And, unlike hot spots like Syria and Iran, North Korea offers the most immediate and tangible threat in the minds of many people with its nuclear arsenal.

The pure panic and mindless reactionary thinking that can be provoked in the unprepared when the danger of nukes is present is quite powerful. This could not have been made more clear than this past week when an “accidental” warning of a live ICBM launch occurred in Hawaii.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency now claims that this false alarm was started by a single employee, who has not been named.  How? They somehow “pushed the wrong button” …twice!

I find this explanation absurd. I can only find one example of a false alarm similar to the one in Hawaii, and this took place way back in 1971 with a mix-up of tapes leading to a broadcast warning of imminent attack on the U.S. After this event, the alert system was subject to streamlining and stopgaps designed to prevent it from ever happening again. During the false alarm of 1971, over six attempts were made for cancellation broadcasts, the first one within about ten minutes of the initial false alarm. In Hawaii, no cancellation was attempted for nearly 40 minutes.

To add to the overall strangeness, there was yet another false missile alarm in Japan within the same week!  Yet again, this alert was immediately attributed to North Korea, but at least this time the alert was corrected 5 minutes later instead of 40.

To me, this smells of a psyop; a test to gauge public reactions to a threat, as well as planting preconceived notions of a particular bogeyman. The public did not disappoint.

Eyewitnesses described people “running and crying in the streets,” completely bewildered as to what to do. An associate of mine (who is also experienced in preparedness) was in Hawaii at the time of the event. She related to me that her family decided to shelter in place because there were no indications that fallout shelters were available anyway. Other people tried to lower their children into the sewers in an effort to escape a nuclear blast. Here is a video showing the false missile alert causing hysteria in Hawaii:

(As a side note, sheltering in a sewer during an actual nuclear event is the height of stupidity. Nuclear blasts send irradiated particulates into the air. These particulates then settle in the streets or are washed out of the air by rainfall. This water becomes a highly concentrated dose of irradiated particulates which are then drained down into the sewers. You might survive the initial blast, you might not, but you are certain to die from radiation if waiting out the attack in a sewer. Shelter in a dry basement instead with as much matter density between you and the outside as possible. Keep in mind that whatever place you choose to shelter is where you will likely have to stay for at least two weeks, or until the nuclear half-life of the particulates has run its course.)

Obviously the average American is completely unprepared for a real attack of a minor magnitude, let alone the magnitude of a nuclear blast. Perhaps this reaction in Hawaii was so prevalent because Hawaii tends to be left leaning to the extreme, and leftists are generally poorly prepared for anything beyond a cancellation by their manicurists. That said, the fact that this “mistake” happened to take place in Hawaii  and Japan which are already under stress due to the ballistic missile tests of North Korea is an interesting coincidence indeed.

Seeing what the reaction in Hawaii was like, a real attack presents an alluring opportunity for the establishment. The pure terror involved in just the potential of a nuclear attack is palpable, and this fear makes the masses easy to manipulate. Should a real attack take place, either by North Korea or by other agencies through false flag, when is the most advantageous time?

The history of Korean conflict suggests a surprise attack is a probable strategy. North Korea is a nation trapped in time, and North Korean authorities remember the success of the surprise attacks they used to launch the first Korean war in June 1950. These attacks allowed North Korea communists to overrun South Korean forces within days.

In terms of a false flag event, these seem to occur in the midst of other “training exercises” or distracting events. I can’t think of anything more distracting for South Korea than the Winter Olympics, set to take place February 9-25 in Pyeongchang.

I would note the sudden friendly demeanor between North Korea and South Korea just before the Olympics, including the offer by North Korea to participate in a joint women’s hockey team during the games (something that has never happened before). Would it not be a shame if this ember of goodwill was snuffed out by a North Korean missile test or attack of some kind? The “betrayal” would be excellent war fuel, like a new Pearl Harbor.

As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated recently, the threat of war with North Korea is “growing” despite the recent “thaw” in relations due to the Olympic Games.  The thaw is partially predicated on the North Korean demand that all South Korean and US military exercises be cancelled during negotiations.

The typical response by skeptics will be that any attack by North Korea would be met with massive nuclear response. I would point out that a full-scale nuclear response is unlikely in the region. First, a nuclear onslaught on North Korea also puts its neighbors (our allies) at risk of considerable radiation exposure. The argument may be made that only a conventional assault would be safe for the surrounding countries, not to mention the Pacific U.S., which could see radiation exposure as well.

Second, a nuke attack is not necessarily going to prevent the need for a ground invasion. North Korea has more than 8,000 underground facilities that we know of and has been preparing for bombardment for over 60 years. Its mountainous terrain also presents serious doubts as to the effectiveness of bombardment. This is not just my assessment but the assessment of the Department of Defense. The idea that one big nuke button is going to solve the problem is childish delusion by people who watch too many movies.

Hopefully, the Olympics will conclude without incident and the skeptics are proven correct on North Korean tensions being nothing more than a sideshow amounting to a lot of bluster. But for now the level of conflict staging over the past year should be taken seriously, and the panic that could develop if a war does erupt should be concerning to us all. In times of crisis, people act stupidly and they beg for help from anyone offering, even if it is someone with malicious intent. Fearful individuals will give up almost anything to escape uncertainty, including their freedom and their common sense. And nothing causes fear quite so much as thoughts of war and mushroom clouds.

The Rio Olympics

Rio Declares State Of "Public Calamity", Warns Of Total Collapse In Security, Health And Transport

Zero Hedge,

17 March, 2016

Earlier today, the IAAF announced that Russian track and field athletes would be banned from the Rio Oympics due to allegations of systematic doping. Rune Andersen, who heads the IAAF task force overseeing Russia's attempts to reform, said that a "deep-seated culture of tolerance, or worse, appears not to be materially changed". "No athlete will compete in Rio under a Russian flag," he said.

Perhaps instead of fighting this decision, Putin's response should be a simple "thanks" because just hours later, and just 49 days before the start of the Olympics, the Rio state government declared a state of "public calamity" (yes, that's the technical term) warning of a risk of total collapse in public security, health, transport and virtually everything else, because as the local government explained, the financial crisis is preventing it from fulfilling its requirements for the Games.

 

juliana barbassa‏@jbarbassa

'State of calamity' decreed in Rio; the state is broke. #Rio2016 #Brazil

 

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8:56 AM - 18 Jun 2016

In other words, the money is gone... all gone, and as we jokingly predicted some time ago, as a result of the ongoing economic and now political catastrophe in the country, the 2016 Oympics may never even happen in the country gripped by what may be the worst depression in its history. Oh, and then the whole Zika thing.

As Bruce Douglas adds, the Rio state government fears "total collapse in public security, health, education, mobility, education, environment" due to financial crisis, and that Rio de Janeiro "will adopt exceptional necessary measures to rationalize all public services, with the aim of realizing the [Olympic] Games."

It was not clear what would happen if the rationalization fails. Finally, by declaring a state of public calamity, the state government of Rio de Janeiro aims to get access to federal cash.

The question is whether there is any left.

And then, on the background of this dire assessment, some humor:

 

Bruce Douglas‏@bruceecurb

I would like to ask the Rio de Janeiro state government what exactly declaring a state of public calamity means, but website's down #Rio2016

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8:28 AM - 18 Jun 2016

The silver lining: no matter how bad Brazil's economy gets, it will always remain rich in natural resources

IAAF votes to keep Russia banned, Rio participation in balance

Reuters,

17 March, 2016

Russian athletes' hopes of competing in the Rio Olympics are now at the mercy of the IOC after world athletics' governing body unanimously upheld its ban on the country for systematic doping on Friday, saying not enough progress had been made in reform.

Russia, a superpower of track and field, had lobbied furiously to avert the prospect of a Summer Olympics athletics program taking place without its athletes, and argued that it was taking all the steps required of it to dispel charges of state-sponsored drug abuse.

But after a meeting of the Council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Vienna, its president Sebastian Coe told reporters: "Some progress has been made, but not enough ... The decision was unanimous - politics did not play a part in that room today."

Rune Andersen, who heads the IAAF task force overseeing Russia's attempts to reform, said that a "deep-seated culture of tolerance, or worse, appears not to be materially changed".

"No athlete will compete in Rio under a Russian flag," he said.

President Vladimir Putin told reporters in St Petersburg that the wholesale ban on Russian athletes rather than individuals was unfair and "does not fit into any framework of civilized behavior".

"We'll talk to our colleagues at the anti-doping body, and I hope there'll be an appropriate response from the International Olympic Committee," he said.

The IOC, concerned about innocent athletes being punished, has not ruled out granting Russian athletes a special dispensation.

But Coe said the question of athletes' eligibility to compete at the Olympics was "entirely a matter for the IAAF".

He did, however, suggest that a way would be found for some Russian athletes to go to Rio as neutral competitors if they had undergone proper drug testing in other countries.

RT coverage HERE