Radiation Sickness Treatment Shows Promise

In an increasingly nuclear world it is becoming more and more important to be able to deal with the consequences of inevitable radiological accidents and disasters.  A combination of drugs has recently been shown in mice to enhance survival by targeting the bacteria that would otherwise flood the bloodstream from the gut after radiation exposure.  Normally the immune system would take care of such bacteria but the immune system with its white cells primarily originating in bone marrow is severely affected by radiation.  Researchers found that these two drugs significantly improved the survival of mice after radiation exposure:

The fluoroquinolone antibiotic, a mouse version of Cipro, aims to kill any bacteria it comes across. And the protein, called BPI, mops up and latches onto bacterial endotoxin, a nasty molecule on the coats of many bacteria.

See the report on this new development at Science News .  The original research was published in the Nov. 23 issue of  Science Translational Medicine.

The Latest Leak

Mystery Radiation Detected 'Across Europe'

Trace amounts of iodine-131, a type of radiation created during the operation of nuclear reactors or in the detonation of a nuclear weapon, were detected as early as three weeks ago by Austrian authorities and then two weeks ago by the Czech Republic's State Office for Nuclear Safety. Today the International Atomic Energy Agency released a statement revealing similar detections had been made "in other locations across Europe."

The IAEA said the current levels of iodine-131 are far too low to warrant a public health risk, but the agency still does not know the origin of the apparent leak and an official with the agency would not say where else it has been detected.

 AGAIN somebody has caused a release of radionuclides into the environment and is hoping nobody will notice, and they're not talking.  SAME STORY that happens with every nuclear accident.  Eventually they'll run it down though, or at least let's hope they do.

So far the IAEA's assertion that I-131 detected is "far too low to warrant a public health risk" really only means in the places they've detected it, because the point of origin is unknown.  SOMEWHERE there is almost certainly a hot spot or spots where people and animals are rapidly absorbing I-131 into their thyroid glands at dangerous levels. 

The map outlines Austria and the Czech Republic where the authorities are admitting the detection of elevated radiation.  Other locations are apparently being kept secret.  Why, they're not saying.

I-131 is a fission product that's most dangerous in fresh reactor core meltdowns because it has a short half life and great quantities can be released early in such accidents.  They are saying it's probably not Fukushima fallout because (as far as we know) there are no new meltdowns going on there, any I-131 released from Fukushima has effectively decayed to nothing by now, and because the reactors have been shut down they're not creating any more I-131 to leak out.  The absence of other radionuclides detected so far suggests that the source could be quite distant (since I-131 is more mobile than most of the other fission products) but it could also suggest a problem at a reprocessing plant like perhaps somebody accidentally cut up a still-hot reactor core with significant I-131 in it.  Whatever the source, expect it to eventually be found.  Will the perps be punished?  Maybe.  Will this be the straw that breaks the nuclear camel's back?  Maybe, hopefully, but probably not.  They always find an excuse for why each new accident was a one-time thing that can never happen again with the new regulations and safeguards they've put in place.  But eventually that lie will be seen for what it is.

How close are YOU to a nuclear reactor?

Mouseover a dot to see the reactor identified.  If you click on one you may have to reload the page to get the other dots working again.

Powered by Tableau

Kinda Makes You Wonder What They're Hiding, Doesn't It?

Read the article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/10/vermont-yankee-plant-nuclear-regulatory-commission_n_894209.html and don't forget to add your comment!

Dr. Michio Kaku, Theoretical Physicist: Fukishima Daiichi Nuclear Facility is a "Ticking Time Bomb"

Theoretical Physicist Dr. Michio Kaku is a world expert on the topic with a gift for communicating clearly. In this video he explains what's going on at Fukushima perfectly and accurately, even though it is from April. He suggests that the Japanese military should be used to entomb the reactors like the Russians used soldiers to entomb Chernobyl, which seems of course just about the only thing you can do. Until a few years pass and the tomb starts leaking and you have to build another shell around it anyway. Then for every generation for the next quarter million years somebody will have to monitor and guard and build new shells from time to time, just think with enough reactors you could one day task almost every human on earth in one way or another with dealing with your deadly waste, trash you left behind even knowing how it would burden your children's children for thousands of generations. It will be necessary for every subsequent generation to continually protect themselves from your irresponsible selfishness you inflict on them, all for your few years of cheap electric power.

I do not believe that a sane rational person can wish such danger and harm upon their own children, but that it takes a psychopathically criminal mentality to actually know how dangerous and long-lived plutonium and many other radionuclides are, and STILL favor inflicting nuclear power's legacy upon them.

Germany is awake and paying attention: HERZLICHEN GLÜCKWUNSCH DEUTSCHEN

German Parliament Approves Nuclear Power Shutdown 

BERLIN -- German lawmakers overwhelmingly approved on Thursday plans to shut the country's nuclear plants by 2022, putting Europe's biggest economy on the road to an ambitious build-up of renewable energy.

The lower house of parliament voted 513-79 for the shutdown plan drawn up by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government after Japan's post-earthquake nuclear disaster. Most of the opposition voted in favor; eight lawmakers abstained.

Lawmakers sealed for good the shutdown of eight of the older reactors, which have been off the grid since March. Germany's remaining nine reactors will be shut down in stages by the end of 2022.

By 2020, Germany wants to double the share of energy stemming from water, wind, sun or biogas to at least 35 percent. Until this year, nuclear energy accounted for a bit less than a quarter of Germany's power supply. 

Germany joins the short list of socially responsible countries that explicitly reject nuclear power.  At this time the only other ones I know of are New Zealand and Switzerland; please leave a comment if you know of any more.

Full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/germany-nuclear-power-shutdown_n_887590.html

Americans are still the world's biggest energy hogs

World Bank figures for CO2 emissions in metric tons per capita:

Carbon dioxide emissions are those stemming from the burning of fossil fuels and the manufacture of cement. They include carbon dioxide produced during consumption of solid, liquid, and gas fuels and gas flaring.

Source Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, United States.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC/countries/US--XS-FR-DE-CN-IT?display=graph

Nuclear power is often cited as "necessary to our energy needs" but the data charted clearly indicate that if America got responsible like other countries and were less piggish about their "energy needs", we probably wouldn't need nuclear at all.  It is a dissembling argument based on the assumption that our energy gluttony is itself a necessary thing, except that those making the argument never point out that American energy consumption is vastly excessive.

Santa Susana Meltdown COVERED UP FOR 20 YEARS

The video discusses the proximity of the Santa Susana plant to Simi Valley almost as if Simi Valley is the only place likely to be heavily contaminated, but most weather flows from northeast to southwest so the San Fernando Valley is probably worse off in that regard. That is the only nit I have to pick with this excellent documentary from the History Channel:

Flooding Brings Worries Over Two U.S. Nuclear Plants

 Much of the attention has been focused on the Fort Calhoun plant because of recent concerns about its preparedness and the dramatic images of the structures surrounded in all direction by water, as if rising out of a lake. Earlier this month, the plant briefly lost power needed to cool the spent fuel pool after a fire that remains under investigation. 

Last year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited the Fort Calhoun plant for not being adequately prepared for floods and rated the safety violation in the “yellow” category, the second most serious. The agency ordered changes because it said that under the plan in place at the time, a major flood could cause core damage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/21flood.html

Radioactive Tritium Has Leaked From Three-Quarters Of U.S. Nuclear Plants: AP Investigation

This is nothing new and has been going on for years.  Tritium is EXTREMELY mobile and hard to contain.  I read a study once about tritium being detected in the blood of subjects who wore diving watches that had tiny little glass tubes on the watch hands with tritium in them so they would glow and could be seen in the dark.  Tritium leaked out of the sealed glass tubes, out of the sealed diving watches, and diffused across the skin of the experimental subjects wearing the watches, THAT's how mobile it is.  So we shouldn't be surprised to see it showing up in groundwater under and near nuke plants, just another reason why nuclear energy is so irresponsible and even criminal in its intent. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/21/radioactive-tritium-leaks-us-nuclear-plants_n_881090.html

G-8 Energy Ministers Pledge Support for Stricter Nuclear Safety Tests

By MATTHEW SALTMARSH

Published: June 7, 2011

PARIS — International energy ministers and officials of nuclear agencies pledged support Tuesday for a global push to improve safety tests at nuclear power plants.

The pledge emerged from a meeting in Paris that also highlighted divergent national approaches to the sector following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.

The meeting, described as an “informal seminar,” was suggested by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France at a Group of 8 leaders’ meeting last month.

 Full story at www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/business/global/08nuke.html

 Sure, the French are sweating bullets, having committed to a nuclear economy that is increasingly obvious to have been a bad decision.  So Sarkozy's driving this thing, having a meeting where everyone agrees "There was a general, uncontested agreement from everyone at the meeting that nuclear safety must come first — whether it’s a question of more or less nuclear power. And that depends on international cooperation." AND NOW they can all say they're doing something.  But they can't change the laws of nature and they can't eliminate natural disasters and crime and terrorism and insanity and stupidity and accidents so nuclear power is always going to be dangerous UNTIL ALL THOSE THINGS GO AWAY WHICH THEY NEVER CAN SO NUCLEAR POWER IS INHERENTLY UNSAFE.  That is what should have been concluded at that meeting and even though some governments are smart enough and responsible enough to do the right thing (Switzerland and Germany for starters, and the Italian people at least if not their government) and end nuclear power in their countries, period.  So this meeting is nothing but window dressing designed so that Sarkozy can assure his constituents that he is doing something about the issue, even though by not ending nuclear power in France he is doing the wrong thing.  Shame on you Mister Sarkozy, are you for sale too like the American government?

Japan Nuclear Crisis: TEPCO, Operator Of Damaged Plant, Confirms Meltdowns At 2 More Reactors Early In Crisis

"How many casualties occurred at Chernobyl as compared to Fukushima?­" is the wrong question to ask because radionucli­des especially plutonium-­239 released into the environmen­t will be causing cancers, birth defects, life shortening­, mental retardatio­n, and other major problems for everyone who inhales or ingests the slightest speck of it for the next quarter of a million years. So it's too early to know how many of the thousands upon thousands of people in all those generation­s are going to be 'casualtie­s' of today's nuclear stupidity, but one thing's for certain and that's that our distant descendant­s will consider world culture at this time as consisting of barbaric subhuman psychopath­s for crapping up the entire world with radioactiv­ity at their expense, and doing so knowingly, for nothing more than a selfish desire for cheap electric power.
About Japan
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

TEPCO: Fukushima nuclear meltdown actually occurred just 16 hours after earthquake, more meltdowns on the way

"The truth has finally come out, as officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) now admit that fuel in Reactor 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex melted just 16 hours after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the area on March 11, 2011. When asked why it took more than two months to reveal this critical information, TEPCO officials claim that a lack of data left the company unaware of the core's true condition until only recently -- and new reports indicate that other meltdowns could soon follow."

Full Story: http://www.naturalnews.com/032437_Fukushima_nuclear_meltdown.html

Radioactive fallout from Fukushima will last for decades

Fukushima beyond point of no return as radioactive core melts through containment vessel.

No American or Japanese news agency is accurately reporting the ongoing problems at Fukushima as well as several other Japanese nuclear plants, you have to find news from objective sources like Al Jazeera or the UK's Guardian:

"The battle to save the Fukushima nuclear power plant now appears lost as the radioactive core from Reactor No. 2 has melted through the containment vessel and dropped into the concrete basement of the reactor structure. This is "raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site," reports The Guardian, which broke the story (). A former General Electric nuclear expert told The Guardian that Japan appears to have "lost the race" to save the reactor."

Rense & Yoichi Shimatsu - Shredding The Deadly Lies Of Fukushima

Some interesting commentary on the Japanese attempts to control the media to minimize the disaster.  Other reactors are having problems too that they're not even talking about yet!

NRC Changes Tune On Plant Safety

"Critics of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission received fresh ammunition on Thursday when the agency revealed that many of the nation's aging nuclear power plants would be ill-equipped to withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters."
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/nrc-changes-tune-on-plant_n_861722.html

Obviously they've been maintaining a denial state for years and are finally being forced to admit the truth.  Thank God it's about time.

Robots give us some closeup views on the damage

Robots sent into the reactor buildings at the Fukushima nuclear plant have found massive radiation levels, preventing workers from entering. TEPCO also announced a new 9 month plan to stabilize the situation, proposing to cover the reactors with a Chernobyl-like sarcophagus. The situation at the nuclear complex remains critical, with high radiation and difficult access hampering progress.




















From May 10: NEW video Destroyed Spent Fuel Pool SFP3 of Reactor Unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi 8 May 2011:



In the comments to the video above user 'Rep0007' says "That's blasted cement and tangled REBAR, not fuel racks. It's debris that fell back into the hole after a FAST CRITICALITY blew the melted spent-fuel rods through the reactor roof 1,000 feet into the sky. ANY QUESTIONS?? Spent fuel pile #3 WENT CRITICAL, IT BLEW IN A NUCLEAR "FLASH" in milliseconds--not a full "confined" nuclear explosion, probably only a half-kiloton inefficient "fizzle". That's what you're looking at in the blast video--not a tame little "hydrogen explosion"."

If that's true the contamination will be MUCH higher than TEPCO or even our agencies are letting on, and they should know by now simply by radiation forensics -- detecting the downwind composition and quantities of radionuclides.

Nuclear collapse looms? Fukushima No. 4 reactor 'leaning'

Fukushima groundwater contamination worst in nuclear history

Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Chernobyl exclusion zones showing "hot spots" of nuclear contamination

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chernobyl_radiation_map_1996.svg

The deposition of radionuclides is almost always uneven as this image shows. Eventually we'll have a similar map for Japan but fortunately for the Japanese most of the radioactive material was carried by the wind over the Pacific Ocean toward North America. The takehome lesson here is if you find yourself near a nuclear disaster, make sure you're not downwind of it.

America's Aging Nuke Plants

From http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/20/20greenwire-as-nuclear-reactor-fleet-ages-engineers-ask-is-94897.html

The oldest commercial plants in the United States reached their 40th anniversary this year, and the average plant has operated for 30 years. Already, more than half of the nation's more than 100 reactors have seen their initial licenses extended for an additional two decades. Nearly all the country's plants are expected to eventually win such extensions.

Designed for 40 years, plant operators are saying they can treat nuke plants like used cars and replace parts to keep them running, maybe as long as 100 years!  Now THAT inspires confidence in the nuclear industry, does it not? 

NOT

Percentage of World's Reactors In Operation

From http://www.mcnucprojects.com/FAQs.htm

The United States is clearly the biggest offender, the head of the nuclear beast.  Makes sense because that's where the technology was largely invented and then promoted as a panacea ("e.g. too cheap to meter"), coupled with psychopathic capitalism seeking easy billions it's easy to see why the pie chart reflects it: 

The nuclear industry is proving itself contaminated with incompetence and stupidity

There's been some interesting discussion at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuclear-Power/46528750288 between Dr. Simanonok and a fellow calling himself Justin Forro, who claims to be a graduate student in Nuclear Engineering and says he got his initial nuclear training in the Navy in an "accelerated program".  Justin believes quite strongly in the safety of nuclear power despite the abundant and obvious evidence ruling against it, but the scary part is that he is being taught gross absurdities by whoever's been instructing him, and the last thing we need in the nuclear industry is EVEN MORE stupidity and ignorance bringing disasters like Fukushima down upon us.  Justin clearly shows that many of the educators for the nuclear power industry are grossly incompetent through their failure to understand & teach the real hazards of radioactivity and their apparent desire to NOT want to understand & teach them either!  OF COURSE nuclear power makes sense to them in the fantasy world they fabricate by ignoring and dismissing the real dangers!  This is what we're up against folks: incompetence and stupidity believing they know it all.  Observe Justin's easy dismissal of reality, his arrogance and desire for his opinions to be forced upon others, his childish habit of personal attacks (not shown: he's advocated the murder of Dr. Helen Caldicott), and ask yourself: is this the kind of person you want running nuclear reactors?  Because he is what we have going for us. Not a very good prospect, I know:

Please note the blue-highlighted text above; Justin makes several other errors too but what's highlighted is just SO wrong and SO ignorant that I corrected him thusly:

@"Know-it-all Justin" Let's start with your own faulty analysis: "With a half-life of 24,000 years the probability of any particulate plutonium alpha decaying inside the lungs is near impossible. Even still, you would have to near (sic) an extremely large quantity of particulate plutonium in order for it to even be probable." Let's say we're talking about a smoke or ash particle of pure Pu-239 too small to readily see with the naked eye weighing only one microgram. Of course in the real world we know the stuff blasted out of the Chernobyl and Fukushima reactors wasn't pure and each tiny particle didn't necessarily weigh exactly one microgram, but we'll take this simple example to its logical conclusion..  Pu-239 has a specific activity of .063 Curies per gram where a Curie is a unit of radioactivity equalling 3.7 * 10e10 disintegrations per second so one microgram of plutonium-239 will be decaying at the rate of 2300+ disintegrations per second! 

@"Know-it-all Justin" so much for your "probability of any particulate plutonium alpha decaying inside the lungs is near impossible" even for much smaller quantities of plutonium-239 than the one microgram used for this example, and if you really understood even the basics of radioactivity you wouldn't make such asinine and misleading statements, would you?  So my only question is, are you just an ordinary run of the mill dumbass shooting off your ignorant mouth Justin, or are you deliberately shilling for the nuclear industry, spreading disinformation knowingly?

@"Know-it-all Justin" of course there's plenty of room to quibble: we don't know yet how many Curies of plutonium-239 have been released at Fukushima SO FAR, we don't know the size distribution of particles released SO FAR in the explosions and fires, we can't know how much of it has blown over to the U.S., we don't know how pure those particles are or how many people have inhaled any of them and we don't know how many of those extremely dangerous particles will find their way into human bodies in the future through resuspension in air and water or through food contamination.  So we are not really talking ONLY about Pu-239, and ONLY about alpha emitters, but whatever unknown toxic mix of radionuclides has come from Fukushima so far and hasn't yet decayed.  Despite these MAJOR UNKNOWNS however we can still expect apologists for the nuclear industry to issue calm assurances that everything is fine, no danger, nothing to see here move along now please. Only a fool would believe them.

@"Know-it-all Justin" what we do know without any question is that a microgram is in the ballpark of reasonable weights for a dust particle, and that almost every person who is unfortunate enough to inhale or ingest a plutonium-laden dust particle from Fukushima (or even Chernobyl dust for that matter, there's lots of it) is very likely to get cancer from it and die unless they die of something else first. That's an ALMOST GUARANTEED CANCER SITUATION Justin, meaning you only need to inhale ONE TINY LITTLE DUST PARTICLE of plutonium and it's essentially a death sentence.  THAT is the truth of nuclear power Justin, that the guy in the white shirt and tie at your nuclear orientation class didn't tell you. Or that you don't want people to know.  Which is it?

Radiation risks from Fukushima 'no longer negligible'

Published: 11 April 2011 | Updated: 12 April 2011

The risks associated with iodine-131 contamination in Europe are no longer "negligible," according to CRIIRAD, a French research body on radioactivity. The NGO is advising pregnant women and infants against "risky behaviour," such as consuming fresh milk or vegetables with large leaves.

The document, published on 7 April, advises against consuming rainwater and says vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant or breastfeeding women should avoid consuming vegetables with large leaves, fresh milk and creamy cheese.

The risks related to prolonged contamination among vulnerable groups of the population can no longer be considered "negligible" and it is now necessary to avoid "risky behaviour," CRIIRAD claimed. 

However, the institute underlines that there is absolutely no need to lock oneself indoors or take iodine tablets.

From http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/radiation-risks-fukushima-longer-negligible-news-503947

If you read French the full report in its original form is here

Japanese Risk Radiation to Save Stranded Dogs

TOKYO -- When Etsumi Ogino saw a news photo of a pack of shelties wandering through an abandoned town near Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, she thought of her own 13-year-old canine Kein and jumped into action.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/14/japanese-save-stranded-dogs_n_849081.html

A Meltdown Is Forever

Japan (FINALLY) raises nuclear alert

Radiation Explained by Lena Groeger

From Lena's blog at http://lenagroeger.blogspot.com/
(double-click on image to enlarge)

Radioactivity Reports

The Japanese power company TEPCO which runs the Fukushima plants releases frequent status updates of radiation detected, which is apparently read at their property gates.  At least they're giving out real numbers but where are the readings for water draining the site and going into the ocean, where are the measurements taken inside the plants?

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/monitoring/

Censorship at the Huffington Post -- Part of the Problem Rather Than Any Solution

The following comment has previously been CENSORED by somebody with an axe to grind at the Huffington Post, but they don't tell you what they find objectionable they just act like Nazis ever since being sold to AOL and they censor whatever they feel like.  So not knowing WHY there is only left guessing, and I'm guessing it's either they don't tolerate criticism aimed at them or they didn't like the link I posted along with (though it's been fine in other posts) so I have taken those out and just posted the comment below.  Let's see how badly HuffPo is part of the information bottleneck regarding the Fukushima meltdowns, will they even tolerate this mild post?

The original article titled "Homeopathy For Radiation Poisoning" is at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathy-for-radiation-poisioning_b_842664.html

This article is misleading and potentiall­­y dangerous to anyone unwise enough to take it seriously. The author seems to imply that small doses of radiation might actually be good for you, an old concept called "hormesis" which was never scientific­­ally validated and does not make sense because ionizing radiation only induces damage to biomolecul­­es and cells, never any kind of healing or cleansing or anything good. It's a little like saying small doses of arsenic or lead might be good for you, which the author actually attempts to support above in the case of arsenic! Some of his proposed homeopathi­­c remedies even contain radioactiv­­e elements like radium and uranium! This reflects an astounding disconnect with the medical knowledge gained since the pioneering days of radiation when people used to think it was good for them and exposed themselves to harmful radiation as a tonic. We know better nowadays.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Extreme views?

I'm not sure how accurate the reporting is out of Great Britain even on a good day but this article suggests some very "grim" outcomes at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371793/Japan-nuclear-crisis-Fukushima-plant-entombed-concrete-radiation-leak.html

The 100-year battle to make Fukushima safe: Grim prediction as brave workers expect to 'die within weeks'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:57 AM on 2nd April 2011

• Workers warned they're facing a 100-year battle to make fuel rods safe
• Those battling to stop nuclear meltdown are expected to die in weeks
• American recruiter asked to hire technicians to help
• World's largest concrete pump is being flown from U.S. to assist
• Evacuation zone refugees won't be able to go home for months, admits Japanese minister
• Joint Japanese-U.S. mission recovers bodies from sea
• Man arrested after crashing car through gate of stricken N-plant
• TEPCO releases video showing damage inside Fukushima's Unit 4

Radiation Dosage Charts

Sometimes it can be difficult to understand the wide scale of radiation exposures that are possible, from miniscule (i.e. eating a banana) to huge (i.e. exposure to reactor cores) especially when the terminology sometimes jumps from rads and rems to grays and sieverts. These excellent images are from
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/radiation-dosage-chart/ and http://xkcd.com/radiation/

Please double-click on the images to view them full size:

Japan Earthquake 2011: 'Fukushima 50' Details Emerge In Email Correspondence

"radiation within 12 miles of the leaking nuclear plant has prevented the recovery of about 1,000 victims" = the contaminat­ion is INTENSE in certain areas.



I wrote the book Antinuclea­r Nutrition about radiation protection especially from internally deposited radionuclu­des, and I sure hope whoever manages the radiologic­al education for the Fukushima 50 (even if they are 300+) knows all it contains (http://ant­inuclearnu­trition.co­m). We should all be thankful the disaster hasn't been worse and we should be especially thankful that of all the hundreds of aging nuclear power reactors there are around the world that more of them haven't blown up by now.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Censorship #2 at the Huffington Post

An article titled "Homeopathy For Radiation Poisoning" at the Huffington Post is SO bad and received SO much criticism (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathy-for-radiation-poisioning_b_842664.html ) that the comments below it are apparently being watched over very closely by someone with an axe to grind.  The following comment was CENSORED TWICE SO FAR!  Although there are many other comments there with a similar tone, perhaps this one was censored because it takes HuffPo to task for letting such a poor article slip through to publication:

This article is misleading and potentiall­y dangerous to anyone unwise enough to take it seriously. The author seems to imply that small doses of radiation might actually be good for you, an old concept called "hormesis" which was never scientific­ally validated and does not make sense because ionizing radiation only induces damage to biomolecul­es and cells, never any kind of healing or cleansing or anything good. It's a little like saying small doses of arsenic or lead might be good for you, which the author actually attempts to support above in the case of arsenic! Some of his proposed homeopathi­c remedies even contain radioactiv­e elements like radium and uranium! This reflects an astounding disconnect with the medical knowledge gained since the pioneering days of radiation when people used to think it was good for them and exposed themselves to harmful radiation as a tonic. We know better nowadays.

I am all for any homeopathy that works but its treatment in this article doesn't pass the simplest sniff test and should never have been approved for HuffPo. Anyone serious about protecting themselves from radiation should avail themselves of the best that modern science can offer, and avoid quackery like this from the 1800's. My book Antinuclea­r Nutrition, available at http://Ant­inuclearNu­trition.co­m , reflects the state of the art in the SCIENCE of radiation protection­. If you have any friends who live in Japan, please let them know about it because it could really help them.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Atomic Forensics

Because the Japanese government has been withholding information about the severity of reactor damage, some of the best estimates of reactor damage at Fukushima have come through mathematical modeling based on what has been made public and what radionuclide releases have been measured, in a process called atomic forensics.

Censorship at the Huffington Post

 This comment was CENSORED on 4.3.11 at the Huffington Post below a truly terrible article titled "Homeopathy For Radiation Poisoning" at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathy-for-radiation-poisioning_b_842664.htm

This article is misleading and potentiall­y dangerous javascript:void(0)to anyone unwise enough to take it seriously. The author seems to imply that small doses of radiation might actually be good for you, an old concept called "hormesis" which was never scientific­ally validated and does not make sense because ionizing radiation only induces damage to biomolecul­es and cells, never any kind of healing or cleansing or anything good. It's a little like saying small doses of arsenic or lead might be good for you, which the author actually attempts to support above in the case of arsenic! Some of his proposed homeopathi­c remedies even contain radioactiv­e elements like radium and uranium! This reflects an astounding disconnect with the medical knowledge gained since the pioneering days of radiation when people used to think it was good for them and exposed themselves to harmful radiation as a tonic. We know better nowadays.

I am all for homeopathy that works but its treatment in this article doesn't pass the simplest sniff test and should never have been approved for HuffPo. Anyone serious about protecting themselves from radiation should avail themselves of the best that modern science can offer, and avoid quackery like this from the 1800's. My book Antinuclea­r Nutrition, available at http://Ant­inuclearNu­trition.co­m , reflects the state of the art in the SCIENCE of radiation protection­. If you have any friends who live in Japan, please let them know about it because it could really help them.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Three Weeks After Japan's Disaster, What Are the Real Risks in the U.S.?

This is an excellent article and there should be much more good solid informatio­n like this available to people, especially those now dealing with the radiation in Japan, which will be a problem for a very long time.



A fuller treatment on the subject of radiation protection after nuclear disasters with much more background informatio­n and practical measures is available in my printable ebook Antinuclea­r Nutrition at http://Ant­inuclearNu­trition.co­m. If you have any friends in Japan please let them know of it because it could really help them!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Reactors at Fukushima

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_Nuclear_Power_Plant (Dai-ichi = "Number 1") 6 reactors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_II_Nuclear_Power_Plant (Dai-ni = "Number 2) 4 reactors, less affected by the events of 3.11.2011

Click on the image below from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/update-japan-nuclear-meltdown-fukushima-1-tsunami-earthquake-nukes.php to expand it and view the Fukushima 1 status on 3.16.11, indicating there was a lot more core damage than they were admitting to the public at the time:

It's Official: Tokyo Electric Power Company Downplayed Dangers

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/japan-radiation-widen-evacuation-zone_n_842905.html

TEPCO could face compensation claims of up to 11 trillion yen ($133 billion) -- nearly four times its equity -- if Japan's worst nuclear crisis drags on for two years, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch wrote in a report.

A Reuters investigation showed Japan and TEPCO repeatedly played down dangers at its nuclear plants and ignored warnings, including a 2007 tsunami study from the utility's senior safety engineer.

It's only going to get worse; Huffington Post 4.2.2011

Well DUH they've been pouring water onto open partially melted reactor cores with pumps and firehoses and helicopters for weeks now and we should be surprised that large quantities of radiation have run off into the adjacent ocean?  Next we can expect biological processes to begin concentrating certain radioactive elements in different ways.  Stock up on seaweed while it's still in the stores from pre-Fukushima supplies.

Finally they're talking about Fukushima radionuclides detected in the U.S. and even Iceland!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/28/threat-japanese-radiation-spread/

 HOWEVER they're still not giving out dose rates, instead dumbing down with statements like "amounts continue to be far below levels that would cause health problems" which are too vague. 

Looks like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't trust the Japanese hazard reporting either

How Far from Fukushima Will Fallout Pose a Health Risk?

Amid conflicting evacuation recommendations, radiation experts say that exposures to date have been relatively low outside the power plant and that people in the U.S. will not face any danger

By John Matson 
March 18, 2011

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=japan-nuclear-plume

The NRC's McIntyre says that the recommendation for additional evacuations in Japan is not incompatible with the standard 16-kilometer evacuation plan for a U.S. accident. "The 10-mile [16-kilometer] zone was always conceived as something that could be expanded as the situation warranted," he says. McIntyre notes that the NRC's shift—from publicly backing Japan's handling of the accident to publicly recommending a much stronger response—stems from the fact everyone is reliant on the Japanese authorities for accurate, up-to-date information on the situation. "Part of this is the difficulty in obtaining and assessing data. We're dependent on the Japanese for the data, pretty much," he says. "We're trying to get the information and assess it. Yesterday the information we had led our team to conclude that it was time to take action."

This tells me that the NRC isn't trusting the Japanese assurances of little risk from spreading radioactivity and is making their own assessment of the situation taking that into account.  It's certainly seemed that the Japanese officials have been less than honest and this is validation of that.  Perhaps if and when radiation arrives in Alaska, Hawaii, or the West Coast of the United States, the NRC will be more honest than their Japanese counterparts.  For now though my recommendation is DON'T DRINK FRESH MILK until it's known that no "hot spots" of radiation deposition have reached us.

AOL assimilation of the Huffington Post

So now instead of two different versions of the news we have mirror images:


Radiation in Seawater May Be Spreading in Japan

A) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/japan-radiation_n_841260.html

B) http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/28/radiation-in-seawater-may-be-spreading-in-japan/

Reactor Core At Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant May Have Been Breached

According to the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/reactor-core-breach-japan-fukushima-daiichi_n_840449.html:

Japanese nuclear safety officials said Friday that they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have breached, raising the possibility of more severe contamination to the environment.

"It is possible that somewhere at the reactor may have been damaged," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency. But he added that "our data suggest the reactor retains certain containment functions," implying that the damage may have occurred in Unit 3's reactor core but that it was limited.

Now I could be wrong but I sure have been getting the impression that the "Japanese nuclear safety officials" are trying very hard to not alarm the public by not revealing any more information than they feel they absolutely must.  A reactor core breach isn't the kind of thing that they're likely to be at all uncertain about, but they are qualifying it as if they're not sure.  And saying "our data suggest the reactor retains certain containment functions" sounds like they're trying to make the case that it's not so bad because gee at least SOME of the core hasn't gone up in radioactive smoke yet.

Eventually we will learn of course what was really going on and when.  I just hope we are warned appropriately beforehand by SOMEONE along the way for example when our nation's dairy supply becomes contaminated with radioiodine and maybe even radiostrontium.  As it certainly will, it is only a question of how much.

Internal radiation exposure versus external

From How Far from Fukushima Will Fallout Pose a Health Risk?
 

Outside the immediate vicinity of the nuclear site, the primary danger is not radiation emitted directly from the plant as high-energy photons or subatomic particles but airborne radioactive material released from a damaged reactor into an atmospheric plume. The material in that plume, as it undergoes radioactive decay, gives off dangerous radiation in the form of gamma rays and can pose additional hazards if inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through the skin to emit radiation from inside the body.

"Internal exposure is very different than contamination you can walk away from," says Jerrold Bushberg, a health and medical physicist at the University of California, Davis. "If there's a plume that passes overhead and some of the material precipitates down, you may be externally contaminated, but it's nothing that a change of clothes and a shower can't take care of."

Hello World

Just opening up to share my knowledge with Japan and the rest of the world: how to protect yourself from internally deposited radionuclides. See the Antinuclear Nutrition homepage for the ebook that will answer all your immediate questions and bring you up to speed on this important information.  Your health and even your life may one day depend on how effectively you deal with a nuclear catastrophe like the one the world is watching with horror right now in Japan.