Fukushima is in the mainstream news again, and it is not good.

 

The damaged nuclear power plant in Japan came a lot closer to a full meltdown last spring than first thought. The company that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant said Wednesday that the radioactive core inside Reactor 1 burned through a concrete containment barrier and nearly reached the soil below.

The nuclear plant was heavily damaged by an earthquake and tsunami back in March. And as CBS News correspondent Lucy Craft reports, many in Japan are worried about what all of this is doing to their food.

Suburban housewife Toshiko Yasuda lives 170 miles away from the nuclear plant. Worried about radiation, she buys little at the grocery store nowadays.

She said: "Radiation-contaminated beef has turned up on the market. Broccoli, spinach and shiitake, too -- all discovered after they were already on sale. So I don't trust the government anymore."

CBS update says it like it is

Airborne Radiation Spread From Fukushima & Hanford

Interview with Marco Kaltofen, PE, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, about his research studying airborne radioactive particles from Fukushima and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Nuclear Power = Insanity!

TEPCO: New Details on Reactor Damage

November 30, 2011

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Translator

The likely state of Fukushima Daiichi 1

via NHK / November 30, 2011 /
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has announced the results of an analysis on the state of melted fuel in the plant’s Number 1 unit.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, and several research institutes made public their analyses on the melting of fuel rods at 3 of the plant’s units at a government-sponsored study meeting on Wednesday. The analyses were based on temperatures, amounts of cooling water and other data.
TEPCO said that in the worse case, all fuel rods in the plant’s Number 1 reactor may have melted and dropped through its bottom into a containment vessel. The bottom of the vessel is concrete covered with a steel plate.
The utility said the fuel may have eroded the bottom to a depth of 65 centimeters. The thinnest part of the section is only 37 centimeters thick.
TEPCO also said as much as 57 percent of the fuel in the plant’s Number 2 reactor and 63 percent in the Number 3 reactor may have melted, and that some of the melted fuel may have fallen through reactor vessels.
RELATED:
US media only mentions report about melt-through at Reactor No. 1, not melt-outs at No. 2 and 3 – ENEnews.com
New analysis of Fukushima core status – World Nuclear News
Melted nuclear fuel eroded reactor container by up to 65 cm: TEPCO – Daily Mainichi
Study Shows Deeper Meltdown at Japan Nuke Reactor – ABC News
Tepco Details Nuclear Fuel Damage – Wall Street Journal

"The earth and myself are of one mind." ~Chief Seattle, Nez Perce

"The earth and myself are of one mind." ~Chief Seattle, Nez Perce

The Circle Stands For Togetherness

"With us the circle stands for the togetherness of people who sit with one another around a fire, relatives and friends united in peace, while the Pipe passes from hand to hand. Once all the families in the villages were in turn circles within a larger circle, part of the larger hoop of the nation. The nation was only part of the universe, in itself circular circles within circles, within circles, with no beginning and no end. “To us this is beautiful and fitting; symbol and reality at the same time, expressing the harmony of nature and life. Our circle is timeless, flowing; it is new life emerging from death – life winning out over death.” “Our circle is timeless, flowing it is a new life emerging from death-life winning out over death. When we look at the world in the manner which the Great Spirit designed it, we can see why it makes sense to live in harmony with Great Nature: the trees grow and bear fruit, the fruit has seeds, the seeds fall to the ground, the ground grows new trees, old trees die to make way for the young. Any time we think we can interrupt this cycle or change it we will experience turmoil and confusion. The Human Cycle exists as the baby becomes the youth, the youth becomes the adult, the adult has children, the adult becomes the Elder, and the Elder teaches the youth. Elders go on to the Spirit World. Spirit comes into babies to produce new life. -Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions

A Nuclear Issue; Trust But Verify

So the folks who run San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station are seeking permission to bill you the ratepayers for a souped-up, $64 million earthquake fault study of the area around the aging nuke plant.

But who should oversee this study? Experts working directly for Southern California Edison (the company that runs San Onofre)? Or independent types, not directly beholden to SoCal Edison?

Hearings on this question were held in San Francisco last week, before an administrative law judge for the California Public Utility Commission.

“In a post-Fukushima world—the stakes are too high to let the utility police themselves." Click for more...

NUKEFREECAL Call Gov Brown!

Action plan with #NukeFreeCal a new phone campaign to Governor Brown no relicensing of Ca nuclear power plant's 916- 445-2841 gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php stand for and with the people's for safety governor. California does not need to be the next Fukushima! Call today and often. One of the reasons to encourage them not to relicense is that neither of these two plants could be built under today's rules and guidelines for earthquakes and tsunamis, and the NRC will not force them to meet the standards of today but yet they will overlook and easily relicense them. Please share this with your friends and call 3 times a week or more.