Arnie Gundersen interview: The dangers of Fukushima are worse and longer-lived than we think

“I have said it’s worse than Chernobyl and I’ll stand by that. There was an enormous amount of radiation given out in the first two to three weeks of the event. And add the wind blowing in-land. It could very well have brought the nation of Japan to its knees. I mean, there is so […]

Fall of the Wild: California’s disappearing state parks

By TIMOTHY EGAN2 June 2011 For a few months, still, you can see the sunlit room where the author of “Call of the Wild” wrote his daily thousand words before noon, and walk under redwoods and wild oaks on his 1,400-acre Beauty Ranch, where he pioneered “sustainability” before anyone was pushing $20 plates of arugula […]

Radiation in Fukushima water estimated at 720,000 terabecquerels

With assistance from 小笹俊一 in Tokyo. Editor: Aaron Sheldrick June 3 (Bloomberg) – The water level in basements and trenches at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima plant rose and may contain more radiation than is known to have been released into the atmosphere in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. The amount of contaminated water […]

U.S. West braces for flooding as huge mountain snowpack melts and reservoirs fill

GRAND COULEE DAM, Washington, June 2 (Associated Press) — The giant concrete dams of the Pacific Northwest are overflowing with water. Wyoming has deployed National Guard troops to pile up sandbags. A federal official compares the impending situation to a bucking bull ready to storm out of his chute. States across the West are bracing […]

Video: Venting radioactive steam inside Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1

This video was released by TEPCO on 4 June 2011. It shows radioactive steam venting somewhere in the Unit 1 reactor building. [Update: Ex-SKF has the scoop] Packbot video was taken on 3:30PM on June 3. It looks as if the water was boiling. From Yomiuri Shinbun (1:14PM JST 6/4/2011): 東京電力は4日、福島第一原子力発電所1号機の原子炉建屋1階南東部の床を貫通する気体輸送用の配管周辺の隙間から湯気が上がっているのを、調査に入った米国製ロボット「パックボット」で確認、撮影したと発表した。 On June 4, TEPCO […]

Fukushima Unit 1 reactor building radiation up to 4,000 millisieverts per hour

TOKYO, June 4 (Kyodo) – The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Saturday it has detected radiation of up to 4,000 millisieverts per hour at the building housing the troubled No. 1 reactor. The radiation reading, taken as Tokyo Electric Power Co. sent a robot into the No. 1 reactor building on […]

Fukushima radioactive water may breach plant’s storage trenches in 5 days – Level plunges in Unit 1 reactor

By Tsuyoshi Inajima2 Jun 2011 Radioactive water accumulating in Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant may start overflowing from service trenches in five days, potentially increasing the contamination from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been manually pumping water into overheating reactors after cooling systems broke down and much of that has […]

Maplecroft: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and USA rated ‘high risk’ for short-term energy security

June 2 (Maplecroft) – New research that evaluates worldwide energy security, has identified the G7 economies of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA as being at ‘high risk’ in the short-term, whilst China and countries from the oil producing MENA region are highlighted as facing increasing challenges in the future. Risk analysis and mapping […]

Hospitals hunt substitutes as drug shortages rise

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer30 May 2011 WASHINGTON — A growing shortage of medications for a host of illnesses – from cancer to cystic fibrosis to cardiac arrest – has hospitals scrambling for substitutes to avoid patient harm, and sometimes even delaying treatment. “It’s just a matter of time now before we call for […]

Water level in Fukushima reactor basement rises dramatically as rain and groundwater leak in

BY TAKASHI SUGIMOTO, STAFF WRITER31 May 2011 Water levels in the basement of the No. 1 reactor building at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant increased dramatically on May 29 and 30, raising fears of radioactive water leaking from the site. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), said the water level […]

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