Fukushima: Enough Radiation To Kill With A Single Exposure

 

With Libya and then the debt ceiling taking center stage over the course of the last couple of months, the Fukushima nuclear crisis effectively disappeared from view.

But what’s going on in Japan may be even worse than when it became a global panic in March of this year. Bloomberg News is finally reporting what alternative news media like The Intel Hub and Rense.com have warned about for weeks – that radiation levels have skyrocketed and Japan is unable to contain the meltdowns. In fact, the radiation readings are so high that the Geiger counters used to measure them have reached their limits:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its second deadly radiation reading in as many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo.

The utility known as Tepco said yesterday it detected 5 sieverts of radiation per hour in the No. 1 reactor building. On Aug. 1 in another area it recorded radiation of 10 sieverts per hour, enough to kill a person “within a few weeks” after a single exposure, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Radiation has impeded attempts to replace cooling systems to bring three melted reactors and four damaged spent fuel ponds under control after a tsunami on March 11 crippled the plant. The latest reading was taken on the second floor of the No. 1 reactor building and will stop workers entering the area.

…

The 10 sieverts of radiation detected on Aug. 1 outside reactor buildings was the highest the Geiger counters used were capable of reading, indicating the level could have been higher, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said at a press conference.

…

Radioactive soil in pockets of areas outside the exclusion zone around the plant have reached the same level as in Chernobyl following a reactor explosion in the former Soviet Union, the report said.

In terms of nuclear accidents, this meltdown is about as bad as it can get, unless you consider the possibility of a “nuclear melt through,” which some experts have speculated may be the case in at least three reactors. Though they have been trying for nearly five months, Tepco and the government of Japan have been totally ineffective at cooling the fuel rods or capping the reactors like the Russians did with Chernobyl.

Nearly 200,00 have been evacuated so far, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission maintains all is well:

Gregory B. Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in mid July that the catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NRC), caused by an earthquake and tsunami in March, appears to have resulted in “no immediate health impacts.”

Source: The Intel Hub

Based on today’s reports, it’s likely that people across not just the Fukushima region, but all of Japan and to some extent other countries down wind from the fall out, will experience significant health impacts. Japan has already banned the export of beef and other foods from the Fukushima region as a result of high radiation levels, suggesting that if animals have been exposed, so too have humans.

The impact on the Japanese people with respect to their health remains an open ended question, but if Chernobyl is any guide we can expect an increase in the cases of cancer related illness and death over the next two decades. At this point, it is impossible to estimate how much radiation has been released and what the exposure levels across different parts of Japan may be. Tepco, the Japanese government, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the International Atomic Energy Agency have been less than forthcoming with accurate date, refusing to release readings at the onset, and then making adjustments to the baseline radiation safety levels to prevent mass hysteria in the country.

In the US, the Surgeon General issued a warning to West coast residents about the nuclear threat, going so far as to recommend they acquire anti-radiation potassium iodide supplements. To ensure that no health alerts needed to be issued in the US, the EPA quickly moved to raise safety limits for radiation and even argued that the millions of gallons of radioactive water being dumped into the ocean were safe.

As Mike Adams of Natural News points out, Fukushima is a massive dirty bomb, and it is contaminating our air, water and food – and according to the latest measurements it cannot be contained!

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/fukushima-enough-radiation-to-kill-with-a-single-exposure_08032011