MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Julian Ryall – “Scientists from the government’s Meteorological Research Institute and the Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry announced their findings at a meeting of the Geochemical Society of Japan this week, adding that some of the cesium will also flow into the Indian Ocean and, eventually, reach the Atlantic.

The scientists estimated that some 3,500 terabecquerels of cesium-137 was released into the sea directly from the plant between March 11, when the earthquake and tsunami struck, and the end of May. Another 10,000 terabecquerels of cesium fell into the ocean after escaping from the reactors in the form of steam.

One terabecquerel is a trillion becquerels, the standard measure of radiation, and the Japanese government has set the permissible level of iodine-131 for vegetables and fish at 2,000 becquerels per kilogram (2.2lbs).

Cesium is considered a more serious threat, however, because of its relatively long half-life. Cesium has a half-life of around 30 years, can accumulate in muscles and is a known cause of cancer.” Read more.

“FUKUSHIMA — The Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) and residents of the zone between 20 and 30 kilometers from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant held an emergency evacuation drill on Sept. 12.

The drill, held in preparation for any further large-scale emission of radioactive materials from the plant, was the first involving local residents. The GSDF held a similar drill without civilian participation in July.

The scenario for the drill presupposed further meltdown of the Fukushima plant’s No. 3 reactor core, and a local accumulation of radioactive materials emitting 20 millisieverts of radiation within the next four days. A total of some 400 GSDF personnel were deployed for the drill held in the municipalities of Minamisoma, Tamura, Kawauchi, Hirono, Tomioka and Naraha. Thirty-two municipal workers and firefighters along with 18 local residents also joined the drill.” Read more.

Japanese gov’s trying to stop citizens from measuring radiation – “On this morning’s NHK ‘Sunday Debate’ program, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara stated, ‘Geiger counters costing between 40,000 and 50,000 yen ($500-600) provide patchy measurements. We have to try and stop citizens from taking their own radiation measurements.’ It seems that he really doesn’t like the fact that citizens are taking their own radiation readings. Even if the figures are patchy, the measurements still tell us correctly whether the radiation level is high or low.” Source.

By Catherine Boyle – “Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned that the global economy is entering a “dangerous new phase” on Friday, ahead of the G7 summit in Marseilles, France.

She warned that both advanced and emerging economies faced key economic challenges, and that governments must “act now” to stop further contagion.

‘Policymakers should stand ready, as needed, to take more action to support the recovery, including through unconventional measures,’ Lagarde said.

‘The world is collectively suffering from a crisis of confidence, in the face of a deteriorating economic outlook and rising concerns about the health of sovereigns and banks.’

Her speech at Chatham House in London came after a turbulent week for the markets, with the focus on sovereign debt issues in the euro zone and job creation in the US.

She welcomed President Obama’s new $450 billion jobs package, announced Thursday, but added ‘it remains critical for the United States to clarify its medium term plan.’

The British government, including Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who also spoke, was warned that ‘risk levels are rising’ in the UK and the government needs to have a ‘heightened readiness to respond.'” Read more.

Global economy looks increasingly gloomy – “From Seoul to Washington, policymakers are increasingly worried about the outlook for the global economy. Central banks in Europe and Asia took a new, more cautious stance on Thursday and Brazil said the deteriorating world economy prompted its surprise rate cut last week. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank would do what it takes to lower unemployment and boost disappointingly weak growth, but offered no details on what that would entail.” Read more.

World’s biggest economies ‘grinding to a halt’ – “Chancellor George Osborne today blamed negative international factors for the slowdown in the British economy, as a respected global think-tank predicted UK growth will stutter to a near-halt over the coming months. The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) forecast annualised growth of just 0.3% for the UK in the final quarter of 2011, in a report which painted a gloomy picture of prospects for most of the world’s biggest economies.” Read more.

BY MITSURU OBE – “The first comprehensive soil survey from areas around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed extensive ground contamination and another report warned of the continued threat to Japan’s food chain, underscoring the major challenges the country still faces in its radioactive cleanup efforts….

Nearly six months after the accident, the education ministry released Tuesday the first comprehensive survey of soil contamination within a 62-mile radius, showing that more than 30 locations spread over a wide area have been contaminated with long-lasting radioactive cesium.

Government officials said the report did not materially alter their prior understanding of the spread and extent of contamination, previously estimated through aerial surveys and above-ground radiation monitoring. They said that the highest-contaminated communities had already been evacuated, and the new data did not justify any change in the evacuation policy.

But the extent of reported contamination does raise new questions about how quickly the communities can be cleaned up, and the dangers of radioactive materials spreading to a wider area through wind or rain.

The survey of 2,200 locations—conduced by 400 researchers in June and July—found that 33 of those locations had cesium-137 in excess of 1.48 million becquerels per square meter, the level set by the Soviet Union for forced resettlement after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, Japanese authorities said.

Another 132 locations had a combined amount of cesium-137/134 of more than 555,000 becquerels per square meter, the level at which the Soviet authorities called for voluntary evacuation and imposed a ban on farming.” Read more.

“Using the supercomputer program called SPRINTARS, researchers at Kyushu University and Tokyo University created the simulation of how radioactive materials from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant may have dispersed throughout the northern hemisphere. The researcher say their simulation fit the actual measurements.

It was published in the Scientific Online Letters on the Atmosphere (SOLA) under the title ‘A numerical simulation of global transport of atmospheric particles emitted from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’ in June.

You can read the paper at this link (PDF file).

You can also view the animation, here, and the press release in Japanese here.

Their simulation also shows, like France’s CEREA, radioactive materials from March 14/15 release reached the west coast of North America on March 18. The researchers attribute the rapid dispersion of radioactive materials from Fukushima to the unusually strong jet stream. Also, on March 14/15, there was a low pressure on the east cost of Japan, which created a strong updraft that lifted the radioactive materials to the jet stream.

The relative scale is set with the density of radioactive materials at Fukushima I Nuke Plant as 1. By the time it reached North America, it was between 0.000001 and 0.00000001.” Source.

“France’s CEREA has the simulation map of ground deposition of cesium-137 from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident on its “Fukushima” page. It not only shows Japan but also the entire northern Pacific Rim, from Russian Siberia to Alaska to the West Coast of the US to the entire US.

According to the map, the US, particularly the West Coast and particularly California, may be more contaminated with radioactive cesium than the western half of Japan or Hokkaido. It looks more contaminated than South Korea or China. Canada doesn’t look too well either, particularly along the border with US on the western half…

The page also has the animated simulation of cesium-137 dispersion from March 11 to April 6, 2011. If the Japanese think they are the only ones who have the radiation and radioactive fallout from the accident, they are very much mistaken, if the simulation is accurate. (Meteorological institutes and bureaus in Austria, Germany, and Norway all had similar simulation maps.)

Radioactive materials spewed out of Fukushima I Nuke Plant went up and away on the jet stream, reaching the other side of the Pacific. When the fallout from explosions (March 14, 15) reached the US West Coast, it came with an unusually heavy rainfall in California.” Read more.

Fourteen fault lines found near Japanese nuclear plants – “There are 14 potentially active fault lines in areas near the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and other nuclear-related facilities, the Japanese government has announced. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced the results of research undertaken by power utilities following the Great East Japan Earthquake. The 14 faults discovered to be potentially active were previously considered unlikely to cause earthquakes. According to the research, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake could occur on the potentially active Hatakawa fault line in Fukushima Prefecture, the largest magnitude earthquake estimated.” Read more.

Japan is Venting Radiation High Into Atmosphere – “Radioactive cesium exceeding 8,000 becquerels/kg has been detected in the ashes from burning the regular household garbage in Kanto and Tohoku regions. The Ministry of the Environment has decided to apply the same rule as the disaster debris and allow the ashes to be buried. The municipalities will be able to bury the ashes that they have stored temporarily, but it may be difficult to obtain consent from the residents living near the disposal facilities. ‘Burning that waste and with radioactive, rain will come down again upon their own people, as well as Canada and the U.S. They’re refusing to see the seriousness of this disaster and it’s making it worse.’, says nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen.” Read more.

“… This nation has recovered from worse natural – and manmade – catastrophes. But it is the triple meltdown and its aftermath at the Fukushima nuclear power plant 40km down the coast from Soma that has elevated Japan into unknown, and unknowable, terrain. Across the northeast, millions of people are living with its consequences and searching for a consensus on a safe radiation level that does not exist. Experts give bewilderingly different assessments of its dangers.

Some scientists say Fukushima is worse than the 1986 Chernobyl accident, with which it shares a maximum level-7 rating on the sliding scale of nuclear disasters. One of the most prominent of them is Dr Helen Caldicott, an Australian physician and long time anti-nuclear activist who warns of ‘horrors to come’ in Fukushima.

Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster known for his alarmist views, generated controversy during a Japan visit last month when he said the disaster would result in more than 1 million deaths. ‘Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan,’ he said. ‘Chernobyl went up in one go. So Fukushima is worse.’

On the other side of the nuclear fence are the industry friendly scientists who insist that the crisis is under control and radiation levels are mostly safe. ‘I believe the government and Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco, the plant’s operator] are doing their best,’ said Naoto Sekimura, vice-dean of the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Mr Sekimura initially advised residents near the plant that a radioactive disaster was ‘unlikely’ and that they should stay ‘calm’, an assessment he has since had to reverse.

Slowly, steadily, and often well behind the curve, the government has worsened its prognosis of the disaster. Last Friday, scientists affiliated with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant had released 15,000 terabecquerels of cancer-causing Cesium, equivalent to about 168 times the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the event that ushered in the nuclear age. (Professor Busby says the release is at least 72,000 times worse than Hiroshima).” Read more.

Soil Contamination in 34 Locations in Fukushima Exceeds Chernobyl Confiscation/Closed Zone Level – “In one location, the contamination level is more than 10 times the Chernobyl level. What a surprise. Now that PM Kan is out, the government dribbles out the information that it withheld as it de-emphasized and even attacked the reports of high soil contamination as measured by private entities including citizens’ groups. The most contaminated location found so far is Okuma-machi, where Fukushima I Nuke Plant is located: 29,460,000 becquerels per square meter with cesium-134 and cesium-137 combined, 15,450,000 becquerels per square meter if only cesium-137 is counted. The confiscated/closed zone after the Chernobyl accident is set in locations whose cesium-137 level in soil exceeds 1,480,000 becquerels per square meter. The level of cesium-137 in the location in Okuma-machi is 10 times that of the Chernobyl confiscated/closed zone.” Read more.

Moret: “People on the west coast of the United States, and even in Arizona, have been reporting a metallic taste in their mouths, and in the pacific Northwest around Seattle they reported salty tasting rain.  These are indications of radioactive particles in the air just as they are in Japan and the salty rain, and probably the main cause of new increases in asthma reported in Japan and in the northwest, is cesium chloride which … is a compound that forms from the radioactive cesium released into the atmosphere from nuclear sources …”