Nuclear Expert in Fukushima: People’s feet turned black for years because radiation so high — Every time I turned around I saw someone who had radiation damage — Hair falling out, caughing up blood, bodies covered with boils… Officials keeping doctors from telling truth… Public being brainwashed (VIDEO)
Published: April 11th, 2016 at 1:10 pm ET
By ENENews
CCTV, Apr 5, 2016 (emphasis added) — Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen: [During my recent trip to Japan] I met in one of the resettlement areas… The unofficial mayor of this group – a real dynamo of a woman – she experienced hair loss, bloody nose, speckles on her skin and the doctors told her it was stress and not to worry about it. That’s not stress. It was radiation damage. But again, that’s this inhumanity that I was experiencing… Every time I turned around, I saw people that definitely experienced radiation damage. We had one woman who ran from her house to evacuate carrying her dog. About a day after the accident, they realized that she needed to be evacuated. And so she runs barefoot to her car, gets in her car, drives to the resettlement community. She’s highly radioactive. They make her – especially her feet – they make her take her socks off and take showers, wash her down before they let her in. And her feet were black for three years from radiation damage. And that’s not being spoken about in any of the medical journals… [The government wants] to get these other nuclear plants up and running. And if the population is getting ill from radiation effects, it’s a lot harder. So they have… banded together with the medical community. We had numerous doctors say that they were going to lose hospital privileges and things like that. And the people that are keeping track of deaths in Fukushima Prefecture aren’t publishing the data. So the entire government infrastructure, from the people in Tokyo to the underlings in the Prefecture, are all singing the same song: that this is stress, there’s no radiation. And it sure isn’t what I found, I’ll tell you… Were it not for the internet, they would have won. And I think the difference between the disaster at Fukushima and the disaster at Chernobyl and TMI is that now we have the internet. It still is an unlevel playing field. There’s still so much money on the other side of it that people are being brainwashed. Oh, that bloody nose you’ve had for the last 3 weeks is stress. So they are being brainwashed.
Fairewinds Japan Speaking Tour Series No. 3, Feb 24, 2016 – Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen: Today I went to a resettlement community… their unofficial mayor, the woman who sort of runs all the groups… she told us that after the disaster at Fukushima, her hair fell out, she got a bloody nose and her body was speckled with hives and boils and the doctor told her it was stress and she believes him. It was absolutely amazing.
Fairewinds Japan Speaking Tour Series No. 4, Mar 3, 2016 — Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen: The Japanese government’s position is when your hair falls out and your nose starts to bleed and you’re hacking up blood, that that’s all stress related… We had a woman back my first week that was there, the radiation levels were so high, her feet turned black for four years. And I was at the Hiroshima Museum and I saw the same thing. I saw pictures of the Hiroshima victims with their feet blackened from radiation. The government has done a very successful job of covering this up.
The Guardian, Apr 11, 2016: At first they thought it was just a fire, then the chickens started to turn black… Soviet authorities neglected to tell the people the extent of the danger they were in [from Chernobyl], for fear of causing mass panic, tell-tale symptoms soon followed. Dark marks appeared on the skin. The wattles of the local chickens turned from crimson to black.
MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture–Radioactive substances that contaminated rice paddies here in 2013 came from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, an international group of researchers said, rejecting a denial issued by Japan’s nuclear safety authority.
The researchers, led by Akio Koizumi, a professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Medicine, reached the conclusion after analyzing radioactive substances and taking spot readings of radioactivity levels around Minami-Soma.
Koizumi presented the final report of the group, consisting of 11 researchers from Japan, Europe and the United States, to local farmers and other parties at a community center in Minami-Soma on Jan. 17.
“The cause of further contamination was the radioactive particles dispersed from contaminated rubble during the cleanup effort at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant,” Koizumi concluded in the report.
Earlier, the agriculture ministry and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) gave different views on the source of the contaminated rice.
In 2013, rice crops from areas of Minami-Soma were found with unexpectedly high radioactivity levels more than two years after the triple meltdown at the nuclear plant located 20 kilometers south of the city.
One theory was that highly radioactive substances were dispersed when workers were lifting and removing contaminated rubble at the Fukushima plant on Aug. 19 that year. Two workers at the plant were exposed to high doses of radiation during the cleanup process.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the cause of the contaminated rice was “unknown” although it acknowledged “the possibility of the dispersal of contaminated dust.” The farm ministry discontinued its investigation without specifying the source of the contamination.
The NRA, however, said the contaminated rice was not related to the cleanup work at the nuclear plant.
The Minami-Soma city assembly expressed outrage over the NRA’s stance. Some in the city suspected the NRA of a cover-up.
Koizumi and the other researchers digitally recreated an accidental dispersal of contaminated dust from the plant in August 2013.
They used a new analysis system to estimate the amount of radioactive cesium that spread toward Minami-Soma based on radioactivity readings around the city and other factors.
The group’s cesium estimate was more than 3.6 times the amount initially estimated by the NRA.
The research group in September 2014 also collected soil samples from 10 locations around the contaminated rice paddies to determine the amount of strontium 90 in the area.
They confirmed that the ratio of strontium 90 to radioactive cesium in the soil samples was similar to the ratio that would be found near the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Beta-ray emitting strontium 90 is less airborne and tends to remain within close proximity of nuclear weapon testing sites or nuclear accidents. Radioactive cesium is more volatile and can easily adhere to fine dust spread by the wind.
In general, the amount of strontium 90 decreases the farther it gets from a nuclear plant, compared with radioactive cesium. In fact, hardly any strontium 90 has been detected far away from the Fukushima plant.
They also confirmed radioactive substances captured on equipment that keeps track of airborne radioactive particles around Minami-Soma. The researchers concluded that a highly irregular plume of radioactive cesium reached Minami-Soma on the third week of August 2013.
“Every single piece of data in the paper supports the fact that contamination by radioactive dust came from the debris at the nuclear plant,” Koizumi said.
Asked about the NRA’s conclusion, Koizumi said: “It seems they were blinded by their estimated amount of dispersed particles, and their choice for the analysis system was misguided. This kind of attitude would only increase the anxiety of residents in the affected areas.”
The group’s findings were published in the international academic journal Environmental Science & Technology last month after a peer review.
(This article was written by Masakazu Honda and Miki Aoki.)
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Michael Moore: Thank you so much for making pro-nuclear movie — What a risky, brave idea — France doesn’t seem to have problems with it — I hear ‘Solar and wind are not going to save us’ — I’m concerned about statements by environmental groups against nuclear power (VIDEO)
Michael Moore and Pandora’s Promise Director Robert Stone at The Traverse City Film Festival, July 2013:
3:00: What a kind of risky, brave idea to essentially say, there are people on the left who are questioning what has been one of the tenants of the left, which is anti-nuclear, anti-nuclear power.
6:15: There are other whispers by people who care about the environment […] I hear them and nobody wants to say it out loud, like for instance, ‘Solar and wind are not going to save us.’ […] And to completely generate electricity for a home, those two panels you can put on the top of your roof, they can heat your hot water heater, that works pretty well, but to provide electricity, I don’t know what the exact number is, but I read some crazy number like you need a half-acre of solar panels. […] Because I have such respect for you I went into it with an open mind […] I really wanted to bring this here. […] I have started to feel, I’ve started to question my own support of that, I’m not not supportive of solar and wind […] we should try anything and everything.
12:15: You’re right they [France] do, they do it quite well, they don’t seem to have problems… they live longer than we do.
17:30: Why are the professionals [environmental organizations against nuclear power]? … it’s the money? It’s money.
20:30: I’m really happy to have shown this. […] I think it’s important what you’ve done here. I think we have to have this discussion […] I’m concerned about some of the statements that are made by some of the professional environmental groups and environmentalists. I don’t know what to trust sometimes. I know now that there’s some self-interests involved. […] On those days where there’s no sun, how am I warming up my pizza? And it doesn’t store like gas. I think we all have to have an open mind and we need to start questioning these things. I think we have to have this discussion, it shouldn’t be about ideological, I think we all need to tone down our ideology about this particular thing […] We’re the ones who should lead the discussion […] we want to have that discussion because we know that something is horribly wrong […] I feel so bad for our kids and our grand kids […] they will hate us a generation or two from now. I like being liked. Thank you Mr. Robert Stone for making this movie.
You know, I try real hard not to put my two cents into the articles I re-post. I don’t feel that I really need to, most of the time, the stories say it all. But damn it! When there has been a flood of radioactive yuck pouring into our Pacific Ocean every day since March 11, 2011, I can’t help but wonder what kind of sick f__ks these people are.
Michael Moore? Well no more faith in him for anything, what a stinking moron!
Officials: “Trillions of becquerels of radioactive material still flowing into sea” at Fukushima — Map shows nuclear waste coming up from bottom of ocean far offshore — Japan TV Journalist: “Contaminated seawater will circulate around globe… disaster like a huge cloth expanding everyday”
Interview with NHK journalist Morley Robertson, by the Center for Remembering 3.11, published Jun 30, 2012 (emphasis added): I begin with the radiation leakage. Radiation leakage exerts a long term effect on the environment. It contaminates our food chain, the groundwater and the ocean. And the contaminated seawater will circulate around the globe. We never know how much this will impact on the environment… We’ll never able to study such issues with empirical certainty… [Due to nuclear testing] we have already accumulated “hidden losses” of radiation damage… how much is the [Fukushima] cesium in relation to that?… I believe we should enjoy delicious food rather than worrying about the food. I enjoyed the town’s delicacy… I didn’t mind about how the beef was produced or where it came from. As long as it is tasty, it is no problem for me. With regard to radiation, I have become more optimistic. My hypothesis is that it’s no use worrying about radiation. For people in Fukushima, they have a lot to worry about their future, like damaged reputation… One reason why we have relied on nuclear plants is because we didn’t know about the facts… We need to face the facts… Rad-waste from the nuclear cycle is said to be unsolvable even after 2.5 million years.
TEPCO, updated Mar 10, 2015: Fukushima Daiichi Contaminated Water Issue FAQ — Q1 Please explain the impact of the leaked radioactive materials on the sea. [Answer:] TEPCO announced that underground water including radioactive materials had leaked into the port… It has been implied that trillions of becquerels of radioactive materials are still flowing into the sea;
It’s heart breaking. It’s devastating. How do you clean up a dying ocean?
The predictable tragedy at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, continues to destroy fish, mammals and critically important ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean. TEPCO and the Japanese government have allowed one of the greatest crimes against humanity to spread devastation and destruction not only to the Japanese people in the area who have suffered massive cancer rates, illnesses and loss of their livelihoods, but an ocean now affecting us whether you live on the East coast or San Francisco.
Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/why-the-fukushima-disaster-is-worse-than-chernobyl-2345542.html
“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.”
“The official line is that the accident at the plant is winding down and radiation levels outside of the exclusion zone and designated “hot spots” are safe. “But many experts warn that the crisis is just beginning. Professor Tim Mousseau, a biological scientist who has spent more than a decade researching the genetic impact of radiation around Chernobyl, says he worries that many people in Fukushima are “burying their heads in the sand.” His Chernobyl research concluded that biodiversity and the numbers of insects and spiders had shrunk inside the irradiated zone, and the bird population showed evidence of genetic defects, including smaller brain sizes. “The truth is that we don’t have sufficient data to provide accurate information on the long-term impact,” he says. “What we can say, though, is that there are very likely to be very significant long-term health impact from prolonged exposure.”
That was in 2012. By 2013, Fukushima was pouring 300 TONS of contaminated water into the ocean EVERY day. I wonder what current testing shows for Bluefin tuna and other species of popular fish? The American people have the right to know, even if the news is bad.
Fukushima: 300 tons of radioactive water leak everyday (August 2013)
Tritium soaring in water at No. 1 plant (July 2013): “A Nuclear Regulation Authority official recently said contaminated groundwater from the plant, which is being fed cooling water from outside, may be seeping into the ocean and that the matter must be addressed carefully because data is limited.” Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.
There’s no maybe about it: Toxic groundwater reaching sea: NRA (July 2013) http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/07/national/tritium-soaring-in-water-at-no-1-plant/#.VqSP1vySh4m
” The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday it strongly suspects highly radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is seeping into the ground and contaminating the Pacific Ocean. “We must find the cause of the contamination . . . and put the highest priority on implementing countermeasures,” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a meeting of the body’s commissioners after they had examined recent studies carried out on groundwater samples at the plant that detected high levels of cesium, tritium and other radioactive contamination.” http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/10/national/toxic-groundwater-reaching-sea-nra/#.VqSP-vySh4n
Scientists Confirm Fukushima Radiation in California Kelp, February 7, 2014 (that’s just one month shy of three years since the melt down began)
Fukushima radioactive contamination is rapidly warming North Pacific seawater, September 2014 http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3574302-181/six-sick-sea-lions-found?gallery=3677761&artslide=0
Six sick sea lions found in Sonoma County, February 25, 2015, The Press Democrat:
“A crisis among California sea lions that has resulted in nearly 1,000 stranded pups and older animals arriving starved and sick on coastal shores has reached the Sonoma Coast, where six animals have been recovered in recent weeks, according to the Marine Mammal Center near Sausalito.” Photos of the stranded babies is absolutely heartbreaking.
“Senator Penelope Wright, Parliament of Australia, Mar 5, 2015 (emphasis added): “Like many others, I read an article in 2013 by Ivan Macfadyen called ‘The ocean is broken‘. It was published in The Sydney Morning Herald… He is an experienced sailor, so he had the ability to compare his experience then with… other trips. It was chilling. It was heartbreaking really. He had noticed changes in the last years. Basically, he was confronted by the silence that he heard, the silence on the seas, and he realised that this was attributable to the fact that they saw very, very few birds. They also caught very few fish… two fish.”
“Interview with Ivan Macfadyen, Talk Radio Europe, May 24, 2015 (at 14:30 in): “The reality was… if I would have had no spare dry food on the boat — relying on fish this time around — we would have starved to death — because, quite literally, there isn’t any fish. There’s vast tracks where they’re just all gone. Where you could fish reliably, they’re just not there… I used to fish here on exactly the same course, at exactly the same time of year… the same ocean, on the same course, into the same place — and I could catch fish everyday, and for some reason now 10 years later they’re all gone.”
“Though not discussed in the above interview, Macfadyen has attributed his statement “The ocean is broken” to the impact of Fukushima. Host: “What about sea birds and all of that”? Macfadyen: “As you get closer up to Japan they’re all gone, they’re not there anymore… Everything’s all gone, it’s just like sailing in a dead sea… there’s nothing… Host: “After Japan you headed [to] America, did you see any impact from…Fukushima?”
“Macfadyen: It’s dead. That’s where I coined the phrase, ‘The ocean’s broken’ – because, for thousands of miles, there’s nothing. No birds, no fish, no sharks, no dolphins, no turtles… they’re not there… all those beautiful creatures, they’re just all gone… We’d seen a whale, round about probably 1,000 miles [off] Japan, just lying on the surface with like a big tumor… just behind its head… it looked like it was going to die… it didn’t try to get away, it didn’t flap its tail, it didn’t do anything… It had such a profound effect on me… Just talking about it makes me feel like I want to cry.”
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd696.htm
“A record 2,250 sea lions, mostly pups, have washed up starving and stranded in Southern California, a 20-fold increase in the level of strandings averaged for the same three-month period over the past decade, and twice the number documented in 2013, the previous worst winter season recorded for Southern California sea lions.” Natural News, April 22, 2015
“According to two University of Washington scientific research papers that were recently released, a 1,000 mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean has warmed up by several degrees, and nobody seems to know why this is happening. This giant “blob” of warm water was first observed in late 2013, and it is playing havoc with our climate. And since this giant “blob” first showed up, fish and other sea creatures have been dying in absolutely massive numbers. So could there be a connection? And what is going to happen if the Pacific Ocean continues to warm up? Could we potentially be facing the greatest holocaust of sea life in the Pacific that anyone has ever observed? If so, what would that mean for the food chain and for our food supply?…
“Meanwhile, while this has been going on, scientists have also been noticing that sea creatures in the Pacific have been dying in record numbers. In fact, last summer I wrote an article entitled “Why are massive numbers of sea creatures dying along the west coast right now?” Since then, things have continued to get even worse. For instance, it was recently reported that the number of sea lions washing up on Southern California beaches is at an all-time record high…
“A record 2,250 sea lions, mostly pups, have washed up starving and stranded on Southern California beaches so far this year, a worsening phenomenon blamed on warming seas in the region that have disrupted the marine mammals’ food supply. “The latest tally, reported on Monday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, is 20 times the level of strandings averaged for the same three-month period over the past decade and twice the number documented in 2013, the previous worst winter season recorded for Southern California sea lions. “And of course fish are being deeply affected as well. Sardines have declined to their lowest level in six decades, and National Geographic says that a whole host of tiny fish species at the bottom of the food chain are dying off rapidly.”
“Anand Naidoo, CCTV anchor: From what we know about what is going on at the plant right now, is this going to get worse?
“Dr. Janette Sherman, radiation expert: I hate say this, but yes I think it will. And my concern is the enormous amount of radioactive material flowing with the water into the Pacific Ocean. And we know that the ocean flows northward along Alaska and down the coast of Canada and the United States. And I think it probably will imperil the entire Pacific Ocean, and the the sea life that’s in it.
“Naidoo: What you’re saying here is that this water can actually reach other shores, can reach other countries as well?
“Sherman: Oh absolutely, we already know that.
“Naidoo: The radioactive content in this water — does it dissipate, or does it just stay in the water all the time?
“Sherman: Well both cesium and strontium have a half-life about thirty years. It takes 10 half-lives for each of these isotopes to decay down to nothing. We contaminate the plankton, and that’s eaten by shrimp and oysters and fish and mammals. And as most of these move up the food chain they get concentrated. Particularly strontium-90 gets concentrated in the bones.”
CBS: Millions of dead blanketing miles of coastline, “…like a red carpet… 12-16 inches thick… never seen anything like this” — ABC: We wonder if they’re sick, or it’s something in ocean? Scientists don’t have an explanation.
“NBC (Weather Channel) transcript, Jun 16, 2015 (emphasis added): “From San Diego to San Francisco, creatures from the sea are swarming ashore… large slugs are showing up on Bay Area beaches… In the San Diego area, local beaches have taken on a reddish tint… crabs have washed ashore.”
“NBC (Weather Channel), Jun 16, 2015: A pair of bizarre invasions have left California beachgoers perplexed… Large purple blobs… known as sea hares [and] hundreds of miles to the south… tuna crabs washed ashore.
ABC News transcript, Jun 16, 2015: “Like something from a science fiction movie, the invasion of the purple blob… [Experts] tell us it’s unusual to see these slugs show up [over] an extended period of time. Morgan Dill: “We’ve been seeing them wash up since September, going all through winter, and now even more in spring. Perhaps it’s because of the warmer water?”… The slugs are among the creatures that have been mysteriously showing up on land. A number of whales have been beached in the area recently.”
10 giant whales found dead in Pacific off US coast — Victims of ‘mysterious affliction’ — Mass die-off of walruses and seabirds reported nearby — Experts: “Something out of the ordinary is happening” — “Really perplexing… We’re at a loss… Maybe whales ran into a toxin”.
Kodiak Daily Mirror, Jun 19, 2015: “At least nine fin whales have been found floating dead… the exact numbers are still unknown… Daily Mirror columnist Zoya Saltonstall also photographed a dead fin whale at the mouth of Afognak Bay around the last week of May. She said she was told that a “very young fin whale calf” was also found dead, floating nearby. “There were long black and white stripes along the whale’s body and it was bloated and swollen,” she said.
Prof. Kate Wynne, Univ. of Alaska marine mammal specialist: “It is an unusual and mysterious event… We rarely see more than one fin whale carcass every couple of years… It is really perplexing… They appear to have all died around the same time… We are asking people to watch for, report and photograph dead birds, fish or anything that seems unusual… So far there is no ‘smoking gun’ in this environmental mystery.”
Wynne: “The fact that the carcass are intact, it rules out killer whale predation — but other than that, we’re at a loss… It suggests that there’s something, maybe a feeding group of fin whales ran into a toxin or bio-toxin. It is hard to trace a source when dealing only with evidence in the aftermath.”
Deborah Mercy, communications coordinator at the University of Alaska Fairbanks: “They don’t know exactly how many (whales have died). It’s a big mystery.” Bree Witteveen, UAF Sea Grant marine mammal specialist: “It is enough to raise a concern that something unusual, something out of the ordinary is happening.” Andrea Medeiros, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: “You don’t usually see large mortality events in that area… I don’t know if there’s a connection or not [between all the bird, walrus, and whale deaths].”
OCEAN HEALTH – “In the storm debris littering a Washington State shoreline, Bonnie Wood saw something grisly: the mangled bodies of dozens of scraggly young seabirds. In the storm debris littering a Washington State shoreline, Bonnie Wood saw something grisly: the mangled bodies of dozens of scraggly young seabirds. Walking half a mile along the beach at Twin Harbors State Park on Wednesday, Wood spotted more than 130 carcasses of juvenile Cassin’s auklets—the blue-footed, palm-size victims of what is becoming one of the largest mass die-offs of seabirds ever recorded. “It was so distressing,” recalled Wood, a volunteer who patrols Pacific Northwest beaches looking for dead or stranded birds. “They were just everywhere. Every ten yards we’d find another ten bodies of these sweet little things.”
“Cassin’s auklets are tiny diving seabirds that look like puffballs. They feed on animal plankton and build their nests by burrowing in the dirt on offshore islands. Their total population, from the Baja Peninsula to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, is estimated at somewhere between 1 million and 3.5 million. Last year, beginning about Halloween, thousands of juvenile auklets started washing ashore dead from California’s Farallon Islands to Haida Gwaii (also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands) off central British Columbia. Since then the deaths haven’t stopped. Researchers are wondering if the die-off might spread to other birds or even fish. “This is just massive, massive, unprecedented,” said Julia Parrish, a University of Washington seabird ecologist who oversees the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST), a program that has tracked West Coast seabird deaths for almost 20 years.”
– KTVZ, Jul 16, 2015: Restricting fishing in Oregon streams and rivers for the first time ever… Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife announced it’s taking drastic measures… they’ve never had to do this before… ODFW: “We’re starting to see fish kills in more places than we typically do. This is a pretty extreme set of conditions.”
– Statesman Journal, Jul 16, 2015: “[ODFW is taking] an unprecedented step… The move comes on the heels of multiple fish die-offs… “We’ve never had to do anything like this before — we’re in new territory,” said [ODFW’s] Bruce McIntosh.”
– Mail Tribune (Oregon), Jul 16, 2015: Emergency fishing closures go statewide
– Spokesman Review, Jul 17, 2015: “Washington Fish and Wildlife Department officials are enacting fishing restrictions involving 38 rivers… emergency rules take effect on Saturday.”
– AP, Jul 9, 2015: “Fisheries biologist Rod French said [dead salmon] appeared to have been infected with a gill rot disease”
The Oregonian, Jul 10, 2015: “Scores of dead salmon are washing ashore… mortality rates are rapidly rising for juvenile fish near John Day Dam… [French] said it appears the fish are dying from a bacterial infection… “It’s very alarming that we’re seeing them this early,” he said… [Paul Wagner, NOAA fisheries biologist] called it a head scratcher. The die-offs seem to be associated with disease, he said.”
Siskiyou Daily (Calif.), May 19, 2015: “Klamath Fish Health Assessment Team has raised its level of alert… due to an increased detection of a deadly disease…. Chinook salmon tested in two reaches of the Klamath River… reached a 100-percent prevalence of infection [for] one of the deadliest salmon diseases… [Juveniles] have been found with… distended bellies, pale-colored gill and gill erosion… [N]ear the Scott and Klamath rivers confluence… 86 out of 120 showing distended bellies and 87 out of 114 showing pale gills…”
OPB, Jun 9, 2015: “More than half of the 3-inch long Chinook in the [Klamath River] trap are either dead or showing signs of a serious parasitic infection… nearly 100 percent of Chinook caught in this fish trap in early May were infected.”
KATU (Portland), Jul 10, 2015: “Salmon and trout, even sturgeon, are dying like never before… on the Deschutes, Santiam, Mackenzie, Clackamas, and other rivers.”
KGW (Portland), Jul 7, 2015: “It just seems like it’s getting worse… the issue certainly hasn’t improved since we reported on it 2 weeks ago… Chinook salmon, even some sturgeon, continue to wash up… Several fishermen I spoke with down here today, well they’re worried… Pretty much everywhere you look… dead fish… Starting last month, Chinook salmon began washing up… far short of their spawning grounds… It’s all the talk among local fisherman, “I’ve lived here about 25 years, and I’m an avid fishermen. I’ve never seen any fish like this on the bank as much as I’ve seen this year.”
KOIN (Portland), Jun 19, 2015: “Is this a really big concern right now? Very much so… “I’ve never seen it like that before“… The Chinook are on their way back from the ocean… Fishermen are coming up empty and are worried.”
I lived in California 40 years. Through earthquakes and droughts. Scientists are saying all this could be because of the big drought in California, others are saying warming water in the Pacific Ocean. Can’t be Fukushima, oh, no.
“When the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011, Navy sailors including Quartermaster Maurice Enis gladly pitched in with rescue efforts. But months later, while still serving aboard the aircraft carrier, he began to notice strange lumps all over his body. Testing revealed he’d been poisoned with radiation, and his illness would get worse. And his fiancé and fellow Reagan quartermaster, Jamie Plym, who also spent several months helping near the Fukushima nuclear power plant, also began to develop frightening symptoms, including chronic bronchitis and hemorrhaging.
“They and 49 other U.S. Navy members who served aboard the Reagan and sister ship the USS Essex now trace illnesses including thyroid and testicular cancers, leukemia and brain tumors to the time spent aboard the massive ship, whose desalination system pulled in seawater that was used for drinking, cooking and bathing. In a lawsuit filed against Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plaintiffs claim the power company delayed telling the U.S. Navy the tsunami had caused a nuclear meltdown, sending huge amounts of contaminated water into the sea and, ultimately, into the ship’s water system.”
As of July 21, 2015, three sailors have died. In an interview with the attorney presenting 250+ sailors, Charles Bonner says: “We had one of the sailors who came home and impregnated his wife. They gave birth to a little baby born with brain cancer and cancer down the spine, lived for two years, and just died in March of this year.”
A heartbreaking Interview – do Americans care? ‘Our’ government does not I can assure you.
Of course they were lied to; they were told it was safe and sailors are now dead. It wasn’t safe and now our sailors along with all those poor souls over there in Japan who have been suffering and will for decades just to keep the true extent of that disaster from the world. You can watch the interview with Bonner here: USS Reagan Sailors Sue for Nuclear Justice
“Although nobody knew the amount or exact location of melted fuel in the reactors, the old road map indicated the “flooding method” of removal, meaning the containment vessels of the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors were to be filled with water. This method is similar to the usual removal method. But probing the conditions of the containment vessels by various means revealed the difficulties of stopping the water leakage and problems regarding earthquake-proofing. It is only natural that the new road map proposes to reject the flooding method for the time being and study other removal methods over the next two years. What we do not understand is why the government and TEPCO continued to reject the recommendation of outside experts to study the matter more broadly.
“Last month, TEPCO announced the “completion” of processing a massive amount of highly contaminated water that had collected in clusters of storage tanks. But work is still continuing on separating radioactive substances from about 300 tons of highly contaminated water, which is generated every day. Any water still contaminated by unremoved tritium continues to remain in the tanks.”
Over four years into that disaster and still no one over there seems to know what they’re doing. All that contaminated water sitting in an earthquake zone. Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan lines on what’s known as the “Ring of Fire” — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim. Good place to build a nuclear power plant where 90 percent of the world’s quakes occur in that region. On October 15, 2015, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit Fukushima. Wait until another 9.0 hits. It will.
WUS 2015 Impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident: 4 years later. Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, World Uranium Symposium, April 2015 (21:15 in): “[Chernobyl’s] core never hit groundwater, that core stayed in the building and remained dry. We have 3 nuclear cores in contact with groundwater.”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/06/west-coast-of-north-america-to-be-slammed-by-2016-with-80-as-much-fukushima-radiation-as-japan.html
West Coast of North America to be Slammed by 2016 with 80% As Much Fukushima Radiation As Japan, June 10, 2015. “A professor from Japan’s Fukushima University Institute of Environmental Radioactivity (Michio Aoyama) told Kyodo in April that the West Coast of North America will be hit with around 800 terabecquerels of Cesium- 137 by 2016. EneNews notes that this is 80% of the cesium-137 deposited in Japan by Fukushima, according to the company which runs Fukushima, Tepco…And we’ve noted for years that there is no real testing of Fukushima radiation by any government agency.”
What’s being done over here in the U.S.? The California Coastal Commission is involved in clean up for which the Japanese government and TEPCO should foot all the bills for cleaning up Fukushima debris where ever it’s found. Alaska, Canada, Hawaii, you name it, tons and tons of debris has washed up so far. Tragically, it appears the worst predictions are underway:
“Mind-blowing” die off of seabirds underway from California to Alaska — Experts: “This is unprecedented… Worst I’ve ever seen… Why they’re dying, I’m still baffled” — “Every bird we’re seeing is starving to death… Basically withering away” — “Catastrophic molting” due to unknown cause – a small sampling.
“San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 15, 2015 (emphasis added): [T]housands of common murres… have been found dead… “all signs point to starvation from a lack of forage fish,” [Marine ecologist Kirsten Lindquist] said, adding that the same problem has been documented along the Oregon, Washington and Alaska coastlines… many endemic marine birds and mammals are suffering.
“International Bird Rescue, Sep 22, 2015: An unprecedented number of exhausted, hungry seabirds continue to flood International Bird Rescue’s San Francisco Bay Center… The sight of so many starving seabirds has raised red flags among seabird scientists…
“Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sep 25, 2015: A troubling number of starved and weak seabirds are washing ashore on beaches from the Monterey Bay to Alaska… “There’s been die-offs in the past, but this is one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen,” said Lupin Egan, an animal technician… “it’s been really crazy,” said spokesman Russ Curtis. “They’re really sick — just feather and bone.”… “At Waddell and Greyhound (Rock) beaches, I saw the most murres I’ve ever seen in 10 years,” said Cori Gibble, seabird health coordinator with the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center in Santa Cruz. “You see them on the tide line. They’re kind of strewn all over the beaches… It’s been a really strange year“…
“ABC San Francisco, Sep 22, 2015: The number of birds being delivered to the rescue center daily is the number that usually comes over the entirety of a month, center officials said. “The sheer number of birds we’re seeing is pretty mind-blowing“… Curtis said. “This is unprecedented. Sometimes we get spikes and it dissipates. But it has not stopped.”
“Sacramento Bee, Sep 24, 2015: Rescue center overwhelmed with starving seabirds… Fairfield rescue center has seen 25 times more common murres than normal… Across Northern California… malnourished seabirds have been appearing in alarming numbers, some shrunken to little more than feather and bone… The murres’ presence is significant to scientists because they’re considered a marker species, whose movements and numbers signal changes in the ocean’s food supply… “Our gut tells us there is something going on in the marine environment.”… Some of the birds that are being brought into the center are showing symptoms of catastrophic molting, where large patches of their bodies are missing feathers, said Kelly Berry, wildlife manager with the center. The cause is unknown…
“Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sep 2, 2015: A huge influx of weak, starving seabirds have been overwhelming a Fairfield bird rescue center… “They’re like the canaries in the coal mines,” Curtis said… “the first ones to tell us if… there’s something wrong with our environment.”
“KTVU, Sep 25 2015: Up and down the West Coast, thousands of starving sea birds are washing up… [The murres] resemble penguins, but can fly… “They are washing up extremely skinny… They’re starving to death,” lead rehabilitation technician Isabel Luevano told KTVU… “they’re basically withering away“… More heron and egret hatchlings have needed care this summer as well.”
I have no doubt some testing is going on at universities up and down the Pacific Coast.
Private organizations are doing what the U.S. government should be doing: “The release of radioactive contaminants from Fukushima remains an unprecedented event for the people of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. Help scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reveal the ongoing spread of radiation across the Pacific and its evolving impacts on the ocean.” http://ourradioactiveocean.org/
According to the State of Alaska’s Environmental Health: “The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is the lead agency on food safety. Both FDA-regulated food products imported from Japan and domestic food products, including U.S. seafood, have been tested. FDA has found no evidence that radionuclides of health concern from the Japanese nuclear power plant disaster are present in the U.S. food supply.” Really?
According the much of the mainstream press, radiation from Fukushima has shown up in Canada and the Pacific Ocean but the levels are so low, you shouldn’t worry about it. Nothing to see, move on. Really?
“A record-setting toxic algal bloom off the West Coast of North America, that has impacted marine life and fisheries since the spring, has delayed the start of California’s commercial Dungeness crab season. On Nov. 3, The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) advised consumers not to eat Dungeness and Rock crabs that were caught in waters between the Oregon border and the southern Santa Barbara County line after dangerous levels of toxins produced by the algae were discovered in the shellfish. “Recent test results have shown persistently high levels of domoic acid in Dungeness crab and Rock crab, which have been caught along the California coastline. The levels have exceeded the state’s action level for the crabs’ body meat as well as the viscera, commonly referred to as crab butter, and therefore pose a significant risk to the public if they are consumed,” the CDPH said.
It’s also spread to Washington. That article also goes on to say: “The size and duration of the bloom, which extends from Alaska to Southern California, has been attributed to the ‘warm blob’ in the Pacific, where water temperatures have been above normal. Algal blooms along the West coast are not uncommon, but they typically have dissipated by the time the Dungeness season starts.”
Blame it on anything but Fukushima. My heart breaks for our fishing families, which I have always supported. A lot of people have read the truth about Fukushima and will not eat any fish coming out of the Pacific even as far away as Alaska. They just don’t feel it’s safe. Here and there I can find wild Atlantic salmon; I NEVER eat farm raised fish.
Our oceans provide us with so many wonderful things besides beautiful mammals, heavenly beaches and delicious fish of all kinds for consumption. Many native American tribes depend on fish like salmon as a food staple. Our oceans also provide critical plant life. Too many do not appreciate the importance of all sea life. TEPCO and the Japanese government are guilty of a monstrous crime against humanity and still they haven’t taken responsibility.
Thousands of sea pups, sea lions, countless whales are starving to death as I write this. What they eat is contaminated and disappearing so those mammals are starving to death. But, oh, no, it’s not Fukushima. Every scientist with a resume two miles long is wrong. It’s only government mouthpieces and lawyers for TEPCO and Japanese government officials are right. Same damn thing as ‘smart’ meters only this time it’s killing an entire ocean.
How do you clean up an ocean? For the love of God, remember this link above? West Coast of North America to be Slammed by 2016 with 80% As Much Fukushima Radiation As Japan, June 10, 2015. More is coming our way. I was out at Monterey Bay two years ago and interviewed fishermen there and in San Diego; mostly crabbers.
Most had never heard of Fukushima or didn’t remember such a monstrous event. Some laughed at me when I told them what was underway and some time in the near future would affect their crab hauls. As I stood there watching those guys it was kind of sad they didn’t seem interested in something that was going to hurt them down the line. I doubt they are laughing now. That means all those fishing families who catch dungeness crab are suffering bad because their season is pretty much dead.
How about all the other fish like salmon, abalone, cod and more that come out of the Pacific? Hundreds, if not thousands of restaurants all up and down the West coast from San Diego to British Columbia are going to feel this financially in a bad way.
“Many have heard about some of the die-offs occurring in our oceans, but most have no understanding of how catastrophic the actual reality is. Fukushima is where all the fingers point as the source of the carnage along the coast, but there is much more to the story. Those who control the US military have virtually no regard for any of the destruction they are wreaking on the entire web of life, including marine life. The US Navy has long since been using live depleted uranium ammunition and devastating sonar devices along the Pacific coast (the US Navy is now also waging electromagnetic warfare along our forests and our coasts). The US (and other nations) have also routinely dumped nuclear waste into our oceans. The excerpt (shown below) from the US Navy’s “Environmental Impact Statement ” is beyond shocking. Their position is this, if there are no studies to prove the harm they are causing, then no harm was caused.”
I want you to go to Rense.com and look at the big photo. It speaks for itself. In Canada, blow the whistle and they arrest you. If you scroll down the right side of the page you’ll see an entire section on nothing but Fukushima. Jeff has been out there from the beginning keeping this deadly issue at the forefront.
This is nothing to smirk at and it’s certainly not some ‘flaky’ issue cooked up by conspiracy nuts. There’s been a conspiracy all right and it’s to keep the American people in the dark. Out of sight, out of mind might seem like a good idea, but a lot of suffering has been going on since that earthquake. As scientists have said, Fukushima is unprecedented. Only a fool or someone who benefits from keeping the truth from the American people would have the audacity at this point to say all of this is not a result of Fukushima.
As I ask earlier: How do you clean up an ocean? What about all those mammals starving to death and not reproducing, all the dead fish?
Gov’t Scientists: “Something very unusual occurring” off west coast of US, Canada — “Unprecedented in historical record” — “Will dramatically reduce productivity” in 6,500 sq. miles of ocean — Anomaly extends “across Pacific to Japan” — “Who knows what will happen?” (MAP)
Published: September 17th, 2014 at 12:07 pm ET
By ENENews Email Article
171 comments
Fishletter Issue 335, July 24, 2014 (emphasis added): There is a massive pool of warm water in the Gulf of Alaska, NOAA scientist Nate Mantua said in an email. It is unprecedented in the historical record, he added… the past year is way out of the historical range — “so who knows what will happen?“
NOAA Fisheries, Sept. 2014: Scientists across NOAA Fisheries are watching a persistent expanse of exceptionally warm water spanning the Gulf of Alaska that could send reverberations through the marine food web. The warm expanseappeared about a year ago and the longer it lingers, the greater potential it has to affect ocean life… “Right now it’s super warm all the way across the Pacific to Japan,” said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with NOAA… “it’s a very interesting time because when you see something like this that’s totally new you have opportunities to learn things you were never expecting.” Not since records began has the region of the North Pacific Ocean been so warm for so long… The situation does not match recognized patterns in ocean conditions such as El Niño Southern Oscillation or Pacific Decadal Oscillation… “It’s a strange and mixed bag out there,” Mantua said… warm temperatures are higher and cover more of the northern Pacific than the PDO typically affects… cold near-shore conditions in the Pacific Northwest also don’t match the typical PDO pattern.
North Pacific Marine Science Organization (pdf), Summer 2014: In March 2014 there was something very unusual occurring in the Northeast (NE) Pacific that might have substantial consequences for biota in the Gulf of Alaska and southward into the subtropics… we see SST departures of 4.5 standard deviations… The anomaly field covers a large region of the N.E. Pacific… The authors of this article have never seen [such] deviations… Something asextraordinary as a 4.5-sigma deviation requires corroboration… Argo data verify the very large temperature departures… and similar large deviations in salinity… the event is primarily restricted to the upper 100 metres of the water… In most years, a winter region of high productivity is created by this Ekman transport… Without nutrients from the subarctic, theproductivity of subtropical waters must decline… Between 30–40°N, surface chlorophyll dropped to 60% of the average values… weakened nutrient transport from the subarctic into the subtropics this past winter will dramatically reduce the productivity of the eastern subtropics over an area of ~17,000 km² [~6,500 miles²].
Productivity refers to “the rate of generation of biomass in an ecosystem. Productivity of autotrophs such as plants is called primary productivity… Almost all life on earth is directly or indirectly reliant on primary production… the base of the food chain.”
Japan Times: Fukushima plant plagued by problems as radioactive material bleeds into Pacific — Radiation level in groundwater now 25,000 times higher than when year began
Published: September 20th, 2014 at 8:47 pm ET
By ENENews Email Article
19 comments
Japan Times, Sept 19, 2014: Tainted water problems still plague Fukushima, despite some positive signs — More than three years since [3/11] the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is still bleeding tons of toxic radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean… [It’s] developed into a wider problem that is stoking public concern… [Tepco] is still trying to find a way to deal with the plant’s utility trenches, which are filled with highly contaminated water. The trenches, which run beneath the plant, were built to house cables and pipes… installed to bring in seawater for cooling purposes… Leaving the tainted water in the trenches is risky. For instance, if another major quake hits and damages the trenches, the toxic water will escape and contaminate the groundwater. Tepco said the trenches… can’t be drained until the leaks from the buildings are plugged…
Asahi Shimbun, Sept 19, 2014: Local fishermen are crying foul over [TEPCO’s] latest plan to discharge processed contaminated water… into the ocean. TEPCO and the central government held the first explanatory briefing… Their explanation was apparently unconvincing. “I can’t believe anything TEPCO says,” one of the attendees said after the meeting… many members of local fisheries associations opposed the plan on the opening day of the briefing sessions… [Others] expressed concern over the plan’s safety. “If a critical problem should occur, (local fisheries) would be severely damaged,” [fisherman Yoshinori Sato] said. “They wouldn’t be able to recover.” Another member criticized the utility for burdening local fishermen with such proposals, asking, “How many times will we have to make a similar painful decision?”
While Japan’s media outlets are focused on the meetings between government/Tepco and the fishermen over the whether to allow ‘processed’ contaminated water releases, new Tepco data published September 18 reveals strontium-90 concentrations are at record levels in groundwater just 100 feet from the ocean. Gross beta has risen to 720 million becquerels per cubic meter (Bq/m³) — and according to Tepco’s most recent strontium-90 tests released September 10 (4 months after the samples were taken), strontium-90 comprises over 95% of the total gross beta at this location — resulting in a Sr-90 concentration of 695 million Bq/m³. At the start of 2014, 28,000 Bq/m³ of gross beta was detected in groundwater from the same well — now 8 months later, the levels are over 25,000 times greater.
would be severely damaged,” [fisherman Yoshinori Sato] said. “They wouldn’t be able to recover.” Another member criticized the utility for burdening local fishermen with such proposals, asking, “How many times will we have to make a similar painful decision?”