MEDIA ROOTS- Every time I read an article about TEPCO, the Japanese government and their handling of the Fukushima nuclear plant, the situation appears progressively more bleak. For months, Japanese officials refused to admit that any meltdowns were occurring. Finally, they admitted that all three reactors incurred full meltdowns in the immediate wake of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

The levels of radiation have also been substantially downplayed by corporate news outlets and government officials worldwide, putting millions at risk of radiation poisoning. The lack of accurate coverage might be due to the fact that General Electric (GE), the company that built the failed reactors, also owns 23 (near identical) sister reactors in the United States. GE also owns NBC news, which could explain why there is such little discussion in the corporate media about the extraordinarily dangerous risks involved with nuclear energy.

Disturbingly, the operator of the TEPCO plant has admitted to deliberately falsifying safety records to prevent the inspection of faulty components within the reactors at the Daiichi facility for the last decade. Just nine days before the devastating meltdown, the Nuclear Industrial Safety Industry warned TEPCO of its continued failure to inspect the critical pieces of equipment, and urged immediate repairs. Moreover, new testimony and evidence reveals that the plant’s reactors were so faulty that a meltdown was imminent regardless of whether or not the earthquake and tsunami hit.

Abby

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RT– Workers at Japan’s Fukushima plant say the ground under the facility is cracking and radioactive steam is escaping through the fissures. They also say pipes and at least one reactor were seriously damaged before the tsunami hit the area in March.

­The allegations raise concerns that the facility was doomed even before the earthquake triggered the disaster. Problems with deteriorating pipes at the plant had been reported for years. The cooling system failed to stop reactors going into meltdown after it was hit by the 40-metre-high waves. The plant has been leaking radioactive material ever since, despite efforts to clean it up.

Robert Jacobs of the Hiroshima Peace Institute says that the evidence calls into question Japan’s nuclear safety.

“There’s certainly a great deal of evidence that appears to suggest that the first reactor, reactor number one, was melting down by the time the tsunami hit,” he told RT. “So, if that’s the case that the reactor was melting down as a result of the earthquake, and not as a result of the tsunami, a nine-point earthquake is something that has the potential to happen throughout Japan, and that would put the reliability and the design safety of all of these reactors in question,” he said. 

Reports of decreasing levels of radiation at the facility, Dr. Jacobs went on to explain, are no reason for optimism. It is more likely to mean that the radioactive material is moving away, making its way through the building structures:

“When you have a fragile structure that’s already suffered a great deal of damage and when you have continual aftershocks at the level of six-point, or there’s been some even higher, what we have now is we have the radioactive core that has melted down into the basement, into the bottom of the containment vessel of these reactors, and if the radiation level is going down, where it’s been monitored inside the buildings, and if the water pressure is going down, and the temperature is going down, it’s not that the radiation is just suddenly going away, it means that the radioactive material, the melted core, is simply moving further away from where it’s been measured,” he explained.

Watch the video:

Read the full article about Fukushima in Meltdown Before Tsunami Hit.

© 2011 RT

Photo by Flickr user 3StepsCrew

RT– Did you grow up hating Barbie, envious of the darling doll’s flawless features, palatial dream house, drop-top convertible and perfect (and plastic) boyfriend?

Now you have a whole new reason to abhor the iconic American effigy that has objectified women for half a century—she’s ruining the rainforest!

Activists at Greenpeace are launching an all-out war on the 11.5 inch-tall plaything, condemning the doll’s manufacturer, Mattel, for accelerating the deforestation of a South Asian haven for wildlife.

Greenpeace contests that Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toy company, packages Barbie and other children’s products in paper that has its root in Indonesian deforestation. Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the company that provides the materials for Mattel packaging, has allegedly trashed the habitat for tigers, orangutans, tigers, leopards, elephants and other endangered species for two decades now. Now advocates are calling out the toy giant to change their ways.

The environmental activists are taking credit for a large banner that was unfurled over Mattel headquarters in El Segundo, California last week. The signage featured Barbie’s dapper boyfriend Ken projecting a frown and urging his gal pal: “Barbie: it’s over. I don’t date girls that are into deforestation.” A demonstration outside of the Mattel offices that day led to the arrest of ten protesters. A full-fledged attack on the manufacturer is now underway, as Greenpeace has taken to the Internet to blast the toy company.

Read the full article about Barbie Killing the Rainforest.

© 2011 RT

Photo by Flickr user wokka

KPFA– On this edition of Flashpoints, a nationally syndicated radio show, Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff from Project Censored and Abby Martin from Media Roots report the latest news and coverage from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

VETERANS TODAY– The Department of Veterans Affairs, May 2007, Gulf War Veterans Information System reports the following: Total U.S. Military Gulf War Deaths: 73,846

• *Deaths amongst Deployed: 17,847

• *Deaths amongst Non-Deployed: 55,999  

• *Total number of disability claims filed: 1,620,906

• *Disability Claims amongst Deployed: 407,911

• *Disability Claims amongst Non-Deployed: 1,212,995

• *Percentage of combat troops that filed Disability Claims 36%

Soldiers, by nature, typically don’t complain.  In other words, the real impact of those who are disabled from all US invasions is not fully reflected in the official Veterans Affairs numbers.  When soldiers are sent to murder women and children, they tend to not be able to live normal lives thereafter.
     
How come the government numbers of 3,777 as of 9/7/7 are so low?  The answer is simple: the government does not want the 73,000 dead to be compared to the 55,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam.  What the government is doing is only counting the soldiers that die in action before they can get them into a helicopter or ambulance.  Any soldier who is shot but they get into a helicopter before he dies is not counted.

73,000 dead amongst the U.S. soldiers for this scale operation using weapons of mass destruction is not high – we expect the great majority of U.S. soldiers who took part in the invasion of Iraq to die of uranium poisoning, which can take decades to kill.

From a victors perspective, above any major war in history, The Gulf War has taken the most severe toll on soldiers. More than 1,820 tons of radio active nuclear waste uranium were exploded into Iraq alone in the form of armor piercing rounds and bunker busters, representing the world’s worst man made ecological disaster. 64 kg of uranium were used in the Hiroshima bomb. The U.S. Iraq Nuclear Holocaust represents far more than fourteen thousand Hiroshimas.

The nuclear waste the U.S. has exploded into the Middle East will continue killing for billions of years and can wipe out more than a third of life on earth. Gulf War Veterans who have ingested the uranium will continue to die off as well. So far more than one million people have been slaughtered in the illegal invasion of Iraq, and just as the birth defects are up 600% for Iraqis – the same will apply to U.S. Veterans.

Statistics and evidence published by the government and mainstream media in no way reflect the grave reality of the situation. Those working for the government and media must wake up and take responsibility by immediately reversing this U.S. Holocaust.

Read the full story about Department of Veterans Affairs Reports 73 Thousand U.S. Gulf War Deaths.

Source: http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi/docs/GWVIS_May2007.pdf

© 2011 Veterans Today

Photo by Flickr user Hebe

NATURAL NEWS– The battle to save the Fukushima nuclear power plant now appears lost as the radioactive core from Reactor No. 2 has melted through the containment vessel and dropped into the concrete basement of the reactor structure. This is “raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site,” reports The Guardian, which broke the story. A former General Electric nuclear expert told The Guardian that Japan appears to have “lost the race” to save the reactor.

The only feasible interpretation from this analysis is that radiation emissions from Fukushima could suddenly become much greater. It is also now obvious that the radioactive fallout from Fukushima will last for decades, if not centuries.

Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan last night admitted the situation at Fukushima remains “unpredictable.” Meanwhile, the presence of plutonium in soil samples is proof that the nuclear fuel rods have been compromised and are releasing material into the open atmosphere.

Read full article about Fukushima Beyond Point of No Return.

© Copyright Natural News, 2011

Photo by flickr user Abode of Chaos