Ready for the Sarcophagus

SUBHEAD: The developed industrial nations providing help to bury Fukushima Dai Ichi Nuclear Plant.By Staff on 31 April 2011 for MSNBC News - (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42359020/ns/world_news-asiapacific)Image above: A truck carrying a cement pump that can extend nearly 200 feet is loaded onto an Antonov 124 plane in Stuttgart, Germany headed for Japan. From original article.Some of the world's

Fukushima reactors reach criticality

SUBHEAD: Fukushima workers threatened by heat bursts from chain reactions as sea radiation rises.By Jonathan Tirone, Sachiko Sakamaki & Yuriy Humber on 31 March 2011 -(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-30/record-high-levels-of-radiation-found-in-sea-near-crippled-nuclear-reactor.html)Image above: Possible photo of blue flash during "criticality" event at Fukushima Dia Ichi Nuclear Plant. From

Peak Oil Rock & Roll

SUBHEAD: "We’re on the back-side of the peak (Hubbert’s Peak) And it’s fallin’, fallin’, fallin’ down (fossil fuel production)".By Dan Allen on 21 January 2010 in Energy Bulletin - (http://www.energybulletin.net/51262)Image above: Igor, a former reactor shift supervisor at Chernoblyl Nuclear Plant in better days. He still misses operating the reactor. From (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Fukushima Non-Containment

SUBHEAD: Tepco has indicated that three Fukushima Dai Ichi reactor containment vessels may have "holes".By Ex-Skf on 28 March 2011 for Ex-Skf Blogspot -(http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/03/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-reactor-pressure.html)Image above: Diagram from Asahi Shinbun News story apparently showing flooded space below turbine room separated from reactor containment by duct.From a story in

Fukushima Meltdown

SUBHEAD: A nuclear meltdown is a self-sustaining reaction. Nothing can stop it except stopping the reaction.By Dr. Tom Burnett on 27 March 2011 in Hawaii News Daily - (http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/03/when-the-fukushima-meltdown-hits-groundwater)Image above: What people's attention in Fukushima should be turning to this spring - cherry blossoms. From (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/19750114).

Fukushima Water Blessing & Curse

SUBHEAD: Deadly radiation in water detected outside Fukushima nuclear reactor.By Michio Nakayama on 28 March 2011 for Bloomberg News - (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-28/hazardous-radiation-levels-stall-efforts-to-cool-reactors-prevent-leaks.html)Image above: Suicide mission? Workers at Fukushima Dai Ichi Nuclear Power Station maneuver police water cannon truck normally used to spray

Radioactivity in Seawater Soars

SUBHEAD: Radioactivity levels in ocean water soars near Fukushima Dai Ichi as U.S. rushes fresh water to nuclear site.By staff on 25 March 2011 on MSNBC -(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42280076/ns/world_news-asiapacific)Image above: Wrecked reactor buildings #3 and #4 at Fukushima Dai Ichi. From (http://liberalironist.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/meltdown-at-fukushima-i-nuclear-power-plant).Japan's

Japan's Electric Bottleneck

SUBHEAD: Brownouts will continue. It is unlikely TEPCO can meet the power demand for Tokyo for several years.By John Ydstie on 24 March 2011 for National Public Radio - (http://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/134828205/a-country-divided-japans-electric-bottleneck)Image above: Buildings are seen without illumination in Tokyo's Shibuya district. Rolling blackouts are crippling the town. From original

Nuclear Myth Melts Down

SUBHEAD: Replacing coal and oil with nuclear power is like trading heroin for crack.By Chip Ward on 24March 2011 in TomDispatch - (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175371/tomgram%3A_chip_ward%2C_the_nuclear_myth_melts_down)Image above: "Buster Jangle" Atom bomb test at Nevada Proving grounds in 1951 that sought to determine effect of exposure on US fighting forces. Were these soldiers told of any

This is the Big One

SUBHEAD: Japan Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear crisis could dwarf the Chernobyl disaster.By Jan Lundberg on 24 March 2011 in Culture Change -(http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/715/1)Image above: Chernobyl nuclear power station after explosion of reactor. From (http://www.our-energy.com/gallery/chernobyl_nuclear_reactor_after_explosion.html).Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock has just produced a

Germany Backs Out of Nukes

SUBHEAD: If we had the winds of Texas or the sun of California, the task here would be even easier.By Juergen Baetz on 23 March 2011 for MSNBC - (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42239367/ns/business-world_business/#)Image above: A German nuclear power plant. From original article.Germany is determined to show the world how abandoning nuclear energy can be done. The world's fourth-largest

China on Nukes - Build Baby Build!

SUBHEAD: Fukushima has put nuclear power on the radar for a populace that was previously focused on enjoying its benefits.By Kari Huus on 24 March 2011 for MSNBC -(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42219006/ns/world_news-asiapacific/#)Image above: Qinshan nuclear power plant starts expansion near Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang Province in 2008. Two reactors operational by 2014. From (http://www.china.org.cn/

Nothing Is Happening

SUBHEAD: Instead of Hello Kitty they have to think Chernobyl, and then marshal tens of thousands of 'volunteers'.By Steve Ludlum on 23 March 2011 in Economic Undertow -(http://economic-undertow.blogspot.com/2011/03/nothing-is-happening.html)Image above: Hello Kitty fabricated with a Hello Kitty Biker tattoo patterned fabric. From (http://www.kittyhell.com/2009/11/06/hello-kitty-tattoo-plush).The

Radioactive seawater enters ocean

SUBHEAD: Radioactive runoff from damaged nuclear fuel rods leaking back into sea from reactor buildings.By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Yuji Okada on 22 march 2011 in Bloomberg - (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-22/nuclear-plant-s-fuel-rods-damaged-leaking-into-sea-tokyo-electric-says.html)[Editor's Note: It has become obvious that sea water pumped over damaged radioactive fuel rods are is making

Nuclear Meltdowns 101

SUBHEAD: If it turns out that the way you've been generating electricity is criminally negligent, then you shut it all down.By Dmitry Orlov on 18 March 2011 in ClubOrlov - (http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2011/03/nuclear-meltdowns-101.html)Image above: The A. C. Gilbert Atomic Energt Lab play set that included 3 very low-level radioactive sources and 4 samples of uranium-bearing ores. From (http://

NRC part of Nuclear Industry

SUBHEAD: The NRC's job has become protecting the industry instead of protecting the public.By Justin Elliot on 19 March 2011 for Salon.com - (http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/index.html?story=%2Fpolitics%2Fwar_room%2F2011%2F03%2F19%2Fnrc_history_captive_agency)Image above: President Jimmy Carter visits Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979. From (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/

Radiation found in Japanese food

SUBHEAD: Contamination from Japan's stricken nuclear complex had seeped into the food chain.By Shino Yuasa & Eric Talmage on 19 March 2011 for Huffington Post -(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/19/japan-elevated-radiation-_n_837919.html)Image above: Children in Kawamata, Japan, taking preventative doses of potassium iodide on 3/14/11. From (http://wwe.wgbh.org/News/Articles/2011/3/14/

Japan nukes faked reports

SUBHEAD: Japan nuclear disaster caps decades unreported accidents and faked safety reports to regulatory agencies.By Jason Clenfield on 18 March 2011 for Bloomberg News - (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/japan-s-nuclear-disaster-caps-decades-of-faked-safety-reports-accidents.html)Image above: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station showing damaged reactors #1, #3, and #4. Exterior of #2

Radioactive Bitz and Piecez

SUBHEAD: What happens over the next 24 hours is likely to be critical.By Steve Ludlum on 16 March 2011 in Economic Undertow - (http://economic-undertow.blogspot.com/2011/03/radioactive-bitz-and-piecesz.html)Image above: Uranium pellets on assembly line for use as nuclear fuel. From video below.The pitiful, inexorable slide of the Japanese nuclear station at Kurushima continues as radioactive

Limits to Complexity

SUBHEAD: It seems we are witnessing the time when increasing technological complexity is obviously costing more than we gain.By George Mobus on 14 March 2011 in Question Everything -(http://questioneverything.typepad.com/question_everything/2011/03/limits-to-complexity.html) Image above: Computer devise as doorstop. From (http://craze001.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/computers-a-lifetime).Three Mile