Radiation News

1/7/2014 Why Is Radioactive Snow Falling In Missouri?

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 17:16:00 +0000

Source: The Truth
Date: January 7th, 2014
by: Michael Snyder

If radioactive snow is falling in Missouri, is it safe to assume that much of the snow that is falling on the rest of the country is also radioactive? What you are about to see is absolutely shocking. A highly respected YouTube personality known as DutchSinse has released video of himself measuring radiation levels of the snow falling on St. Louis, Missouri. What he discovered was that he got a reading that was about twice as high as he did on a sunny day when there is no precipitation. So what in the world could be causing this? Could Fukushima be to blame? Is radioactive water originally from Fukushima being picked up in the Pacific and dumped all across the country? If so, there would seem to be no way to stop this from happening. Now that highly radioactive water from Fukushima is spreading throughout the entire Pacific Ocean, it is simply impossible to put the “genie back in the bottle” again. So could this mean that we might have to deal with radioactive rain and snow storms in North America for many years to come?
...
Read full article here.

Editor's Note: POTR Blog who run both an outdoor and indoor Geiger counter from their location in St. Louis, Missouri have also reported on the issue of the radioactive snow.

12/30/2013 Yakuza Gangsters Recruit Homeless Men For Fukushima Nuclear Clean Up

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 23:11:00 +0000

Source: Forbes
by: William Pentland
Date: 12/30/2013 @ 10:08PM

Organized criminal groups have infiltrated the massive, government-backed decontamination effort underway at the defunct Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to Reuters.
...
Read the rest here.

12/11/2013 General Electric Knew Its Reactor Design Was Unsafe … So Why Isn’t GE Getting Any Heat for Fukushima?

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 18:44:00 +0000

Source: Washington's Blog [Great financial blog with insightful articles on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster as well!]
Date: 12/11/2013

GE Engineers and American Government Officials Warned of Dangerous Nuclear Design

5 of the 6 nuclear reactors at Fukushima are General Electric Mark 1 reactors.
GE knew decades ago that the design was faulty.
ABC News reported in 2011:

Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing — the Mark 1 — was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.
Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday’s earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.
“The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant,” Bridenbaugh told ABC News in an interview. “The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release.”
***
Still, concerns about the Mark 1 design have resurfaced occasionally in the years since Bridenbaugh came forward. In 1986, for instance, Harold Denton, then the director of NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, spoke critically about the design during an industry conference.
“I don’t have the same warm feeling about GE containment that I do about the larger dry containments,” he said, according to a report at the time that was referenced Tuesday in The Washington Post.
“There is a wide spectrum of ability to cope with severe accidents at GE plants,” Denton said. “And I urge you to think seriously about the ability to cope with such an event if it occurred at your plant.”
***
When asked if [the remedial measures performed on the Fukushima reactors by GE before 2011] was sufficient, he paused. “What I would say is, the Mark 1 is still a little more susceptible to an accident that would result in a loss of containment.”

The New York Times reported that other government officials warned about the dangers inherent in GE’s Mark 1 design:

In 1972, Stephen H. Hanauer, then a safety official with the Atomic Energy Commission, recommended that the Mark 1 system be discontinued because it presented unacceptable safety risks. Among the concerns cited was the smaller containment design, which was more susceptible to explosion and rupture from a buildup in hydrogen — a situation that may have unfolded at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Later that same year, Joseph Hendrie, who would later become chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a successor agency to the atomic commission, said the idea of a ban on such systems was attractive. But the technology had been so widely accepted by the industry and regulatory officials, he said, that “reversal of this hallowed policy, particularly at this time, could well be the end of nuclear power.”

This faulty design has made the Fukushima disaster much worse.
Specifically, the several reactors exploded … scattering clumps of radioactive fuel far and wide.
In addition, the Mark 1 included an absolutely insane design element: storing huge quantities of radioactive fuel rods 100 feet up in the air.
The Christian Science Monitor noted:

A particular feature of the 40-year old General Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor model – such as the six reactors at the Fukushima site – is that each reactor has a separate spent-fuel pool. These sit near the top of each reactor and adjacent to it ….

Indeed, the fuel pools have caught fires several times, and now constitute an enormous danger.
As we noted last year, the spent fuel pool at Fukushima reactor number 3 is in a heap of rubble (spent fuel pool designated as “SFP” in the lower left):

Nuclear fuel rod expert Gundersen says the pool at unit 3 is in much worse shape than at 4:

Unit 3 is worse [than No. 4]. Mechanically its rubble, the pool is rubble. It’s got less fuel in it [than unit 4, but] structurally the pool has been dramatically weakened. And, god nobody has even gotten near it yet.

He’s right. It’s too radioactive for Tepco to even get a look at what’s going on in the reactor pools at units 1 through 3, and they have no idea how to do it. Indeed, the technology does not even exist to approach those reactors, as the high radiation levels quickly destroy even robots.
Heck of a job, GE …
Postscript: Unfortunately, there are 23 virtually-identical GE Mark 1 reactors in the U.S.
This is not to say that Tepco and the Japanese government are not to blame also. They are.
But GE and the American government are largely responsible as well.

11/28/2013 Quake near Iran nuclear plant kills 8

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 23:23:00 +0000

Source: Reuters via YNet News
Date: 11/28/2013 22:02

A picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency shows Iranians gathering amid rubble in the Iranian western city of Borazjan, on Nov. 28, after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck the country. AFP photo / ISNA

At least eight people were killed and 190 were injured in an earthquake in Iran on Thursday near the city of Bushehr, where the country's sole nuclear power plant is situated, state news agency IRNA reported.

The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 5.6, struck about 40 miles (60 km) northeast of Bushehr on the Gulf coast, according to US Geological Survey data. No damage to the nuclear plant was reported.
...
Read the rest here.

Editor's Note: See also 5.7-magnitude earthquake near Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant kills at least eight from
Agence France-Presse. Below is the map of the 5.6 magnitude quake.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

11/23/2013 Fukushima Nuclear Fallout Has Damaged the Thyroids of California Babies

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 17:17:00 +0000

Source: Global Research, The Ecologist
Date: 11/23/2013
by: Dr. Chris Busby

Photo Credit: Global Research

A new study of the effects of tiny quantities of radioactive fallout from Fukushima on the health of babies born in California shows a significant excess of hypothyroidism caused by the radioactive contamination travelling 5,000 miles across the Pacific. The article will be published next week in the peer-reviewed journal Open Journal of Pediatrics.

Congenital hypothyroidism is a rare but serious condition normally affecting about one child in 2,000, and one that demands clinical intervention – the growth of children suffering from the condition is affected if they are left untreated. All babies born in California are monitored at birth for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) levels in blood, since high levels indicate hypothyroidism.
Joe Mangano and Janette Sherman of the Radiation and Public Health Project in New York, and Christopher Busby, guest researcher at Jacobs University, Bremen, examined congenital hypothyroidism (CH) rates in newborns using data obtained from the State of California over the period of the Fukushima explosions.

Their results are published in their paper Changes in confirmed plus borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. The researchers compared data for babies exposed to radioactive Iodine-131 and born between March 17th and Dec 31st 2011 with unexposed babies born in 2011 before the exposures plus those born in 2012.
...
Read full article here.

There article on hypothyroidism in babies Elevated airborne beta levels in Pacific/West Coast US States and trends in hypothyroidism among newborns after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown is available online from Scientific Research: Open Access. I have mirrored the paper for your convenience as well to Scribd below.

Elevated airborne beta levels in Pacific/West Coast US States and trends in hypothyroidism among newborns a... by bearishtrader

11/27/2013 Chicago radioactive waste facility shutting down amid safety scandal

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 06:40:00 +0000

Source: Russia Today
Date: November 27, 2013 17:50

AP Photo

A radioactive waste disposal facility near a small residential neighborhood outside Chicago was found guilty of multiple, potentially hazardous violations and will reportedly be shut down.

Complaints waged by the likes of both local and federal regulators allege that Tinley Park, Illinois’ ADCO Services, Inc. inappropriately stored potentially hazardous waste for several years longer that they were supposed to, and time and time again they were warned by officials for their seemingly rampant disregard of the rules.
...
Read the rest here.

Editor's Note: Map of ADCO Services, Inc. appears below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

11/24/2013 Iran to Freeze Its Nuclear Program in Geneva Accord

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 19:38:00 +0000

Source: Gawker via Infowars
Date: 11/24/2013

Iran Geneva Accord 2013

After weeks of negotiations between diplomats from Iran, US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany, Iran has agreed to temporarily freeze its nuclear program while a larger deal is negotiated.

The international agreement would give negotiators time to iron out a deal that would ensure that Iran's nuclear program would only be used towards peaceful ends, and not in pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Over the last few years, Iran has been enriching uranium to 20%, a level close to that which could be used in a weapon. Iran has now agreed to stop enriching at 5%, and dismantle links between centrifuges (which help enrich Uranium) and it has also promised to stop building new centrifuges.

...

Read the rest here.

Fukushima News 11/21/13: 1st Round Of Fuel Transfer Complete; "Cask" Containing Fuel In Safer Pool

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 06:17:00 +0000

Source: MissingSky101
Date: 11/21/2013

Video Description

Published on Nov 21, 2013

TEPCO at final stage in 1st round of fuel transfer
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is preparing to complete the first transfer of nuclear fuel from a reactor building to a safer storage pool.
On Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Company moved the batch of nuclear fuel from the No. 4 reactor building to a nearby facility housing the safer pool.
TEPCO workers used a trailer to carry a cask containing 22 unused fuel assemblies to the building 100 meters away, then unloaded the cask inside the building.
The workers plan to transfer the fuel units from the container to racks in the storage pool on Friday.
This will mark the completion of the first transfer.
TEPCO says it will review whether there were any problems or challenges. If not, the utility says it may start removing spent fuel assemblies that are far more radioactive than the unused fuel.
The pool in the No. 4 reactor building contains more than 1,500 fuel units, most of which are spent fuel rods.

"Cask" containing fuel moved into safer pool
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant says it has removed the first batch of nuclear fuel from the reactor 4 building to a safer storage pool.
Footage released by Tokyo Electric Power Company on Thursday shows workers lowering a steel cask containing 22 unused fuel assemblies from the 5th floor of the reactor building. Engineers used a huge crane to lower the cask, 5.5 meters long and two meters across, onto a trailer on the ground.
The container was transferred slowly to a separate pool in a building 100 meters away, and lowered into water to store the fuel more safely.
TEPCO plans to begin on Friday plucking the fuel assemblies out of the cask and placing them in storage racks inside the pool. The utility says it will review the process before starting a second round of fuel transfer.
Thursday's transfer involved unused fuel units. The reactor's storage pool has 1,511 fuel assemblies left, including 1,331 highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies.
TEPCO says the building housing the separate pool can withstand an earthquake as strong as the March 2011 disaster that badly damaged the plant.
Nov. 21, 2013 - Updated 11:07 UTC

Trial run of last ALPS line at Fukushima resumed
The operator of Japan's damaged nuclear plant has resumed trial operation of the last of 3 lines of a key water decontamination system.
Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Company restarted the 3rd line of the Advanced Liquid Processing System, or ALPS, at the Fukushima Daiichi plant on Thursday.
The system is designed to remove from contaminated water 62 kinds of radioactive substances, excluding tritium.
But its test operation was suspended in June following leaks of unprocessed water from a tank due to corrosion.
The utility restarted the lines one by one after working to prevent further corrosion.
The officials say test runs so far have shown that the system is failing to fully remove 4 types of radioactive substances, including cobalt and antimony.
They say they will work to fix the system and confirm the effects of anti-corrosion measures before making it fully operational next year. ALPS was originally to be in full operation this autumn.
Tokyo Electric plans to add more lines to the system so that it will be able to process all radioactive water in the plant's storage tanks by March 2015.

http://enenews.com/professor-fukushim...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljzXFx...

Oregon Official: Reports coming in of seafood with radioactive contamination, "They're kind of secretive, they don't want to give up their sources" — Locals concerned about impact Fukushima disaster is having on area fish (VIDEO)
http://videos.oregonlive.com/oregonia...

The Radioactive Ocean
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marbl...

Radionuclides in fishes and mussels from the Farallon Islands Nuclear Waste Dump Site, California.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/86...

Fish Anyone? Farallon Islands (and other) Oceanic Radioactive Waste Dumps
Long before Fukushima dumped millions of gallons of highly radioactive water into the sea, the oceans have been designated repositories for radioactive waste and fallout according to reports from the USGS and articles in the SF Weekly and Mother Jones. -
http://www.defyingdisaster.com/2011/0...

America's Nuclear Waste Is Now Even Farther from Finding a Home
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/us-n...

Senator Boxer Says Records Possibly Missing On San Onofre
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/nov/21/...

EPA Radnet
http://www.epa.gov/radnet/radnet-data...

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry
http://nuclear-news.net/
http://www.youtube.com/user/MsMilkyth...

11/18/2013 Dr. Chris Busby Appears on Alex Jones Show to Discuss Nuclear Fuel Rod Removal at #Fukushima I Unit 4 Spent Fuel Pool

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Source: The Alex Jones Show
Date: 11/18/2013

Video Description

Published on Nov 18, 2013

Alex welcomes chemical physicist Dr. Christopher Busby to discuss what the removal of nuclear fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant entails, and to examine the tsunami-battered nuclear reactor's persisting radiation threat.
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http://www.greenaudit.org/
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Editor's Note: See Dr. Busby's article Fukushima Fallout Damaged the Thyroids of California Babies for his discussion of the thyroid study he co-authored. I have embedded Dr. Busby's Fukushima worst case scenario paper mentioned in the interview below for your convenience.

The potential worst case at Fukushima by bearishtrader

11/18/2013 Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant [Uranium Enrichment Facility] Hit by Tornado, Damage Reported

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 15:14:00 +0000

Sources: MsMilkytheclown1, ENENews
Date: 11/18/2013

Damaged Cooling Tower at Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant Credit: USEC Twitter Feed

I spotted this initially on MsMilkytheclown1's YouTube feed. There is a lot of profanity in this video, so be warned.

See ENENews Tornado hits U.S. nuclear facility – Uranium enrichment building damaged — Parts of cooling towers destroyed — Alert declared for ‘emergency condition’ (PHOTOS) for their usual good collation of articles.

A map of Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant appears below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

Video Summary of Fuel Transfer in Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool at #Fukushima I NPP on 11/18/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 14:42:00 +0000

Source: EX-SKF Blog
Date: 11/18/2013
In this, I don't blame TEPCO for not having posted a video of the entire work (9 to 10 hours) on November 18, 2013.

The preparation for submerging the cask started in the morning, with the cask submerged completely at 12:30PM. The removal of unused (new) fuel assemblies into the cask started at 3:18PM, and by 6:45PM 4 unused fuel assemblies were transferred into the cask.

The names of the companies and the names of the workers are blurred in the video. They could be TEPCO workers, but most likely from one of the primary contractors.

From TEPCO's photos and videos library (11/19/2013):

...
Read the rest of this great blog here.

11/18/2013 Removal of nuclear fuel rods begins at Fukushima I

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 10:17:00 +0000

Fukushima I Unit 4, Spent Fuel Rod Removal Training Photo Credit: NHK World

Removal of the unit 4 spent fuel pool nuclear fuel rods has begun today (11/18/2013) at Fukushima I. The process will take more than a year to complete. See NHK's Removal of nuclear fuel begins at Fukushima article for video and Asian Gazette Blog by Joël Legendre-Koizumi for further details.

8/9/2013 Taiwan says nuclear plant may have leaked toxic water

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 04:10:00 +0000

Source: Reuters
Date: Fri Aug 9, 2013 2:09am EDT

An employee inspects a water-gate, which is designed to block a tsunami, during a safety drill at the First Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen, northern Taiwan in this September 4, 2012 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Pichi Chuang/Filers

(Reuters) - A nuclear power plant in Taiwan may have been leaking radioactive water for three years, according to a report published by the government's watchdog, adding to uncertainty over the fate of a new fourth nuclear power plant.
...
Read the rest here.

Editor's Note: Map of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant appears below.
View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

11/10/2013 What You Should Be Doing NOW to Protect Yourself from Radiation

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 18:25:00 +0000

Source:

Washington's Blog

[Editor's Note: Great financial blog with many insightful Fukushima articles as well.]
Date: 11/10/2013

Easy, Inexpensive Ways to Help Protect Your Family from Radiation

It is well-known that potassium iodide works to protect against damage from radioactive iodine by saturating our body (the thyroid gland, specifically) with harmless iodine, so that our bodies are unable to absorb radioactive iodine from nuclear accidents.
For example, the World Health Organization notes:

The thyroid gland is at particular risk from irradiation from radioactive iodine because the thyroid uses iodine to produce hormones that regulate the body’s metabolism. The thyroid gland does not differentiate between non-radioactive and radioactive iodine.
***
When taken at the appropriate dosage and within the correct time interval around exposure to radioactive iodine, KI [i.e. potassium iodide] saturates the thyroid gland with stable (non-radioactive) iodine. As a result, radioactive iodine will not be taken up and stored by the thyroid gland.

However, KI only protects against one particular radioactive element, radioactive iodine, which has a half life of only 8.02 days.* That means that the iodine loses half of its radioactivity within 8 days. For example, after the initial Fukushima melt-down, radioactive iodine was found in California kelp.

But the longer-term threat lies elsewhere. As the New York Times noted – in addition to iodine-131 – the big danger is cesium:

Over the long term, the big threat to human health is cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years.
At that rate of disintegration, John Emsley wrote in “Nature’s Building Blocks” (Oxford, 2001), “it takes over 200 years to reduce it to 1 percent of its former level.”
It is cesium-137 that still contaminates much of the land in Ukraine around the Chernobyl reactor.
***
Cesium-137 mixes easily with water and is chemically similar to potassium. It thus mimics how potassium gets metabolized in the body and can enter through many foods, including milk.
***
The Environmental Protection Agency says that … once dispersed in the environment … cesium-137 “is impossible to avoid.”

Cesium-137 is light enough to be carried by the wind a substantial distance. And it is being carried by ocean currents towards the West Coast of North America.
Fortunately – while little-known in the medical community – other harmless minerals can help “saturate” our bodies so as to minimize the uptake of other harmful types of radiation.
The U.S. Department of Defense’s Army Medical Department Center and School explained in its book Medical Consequences of Radiological and Nuclear Weapons (Chapter 4):

One of the keys to a successful treatment outcome is to reduce or eliminate the uptake of internalized radionuclides before they can reach the critical organ.
***
The terms “blocking” or “diluting” agent can, in most cases, be used interchangeably. These compounds reduce the uptake of a radionuclide by saturating binding sites with a stable, nonradioactive element, thereby diluting the deleterious effect of the radioisotope. For example, potassium iodide is the FDA-recommended treatment to prevent radioactive iodine from being sequestered in the thyroid…. Nonradioactive strontium compounds may also be used to block the uptake of radioactive strontium. In addition, elements with chemical properties similar to the internalized radio-nuclide are often used as blocking agents. For example, calcium, and to a lesser extent phosphorus, can be used to block uptake of radioactive strontium.

The American Association of Physicists In Medicine agrees:
As does the book published in 2006 by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, called Weapons of Mass Casualties and Terrorism Response:

After the U.S. military conducted above-ground nuclear tests on Bikini Island, scientists found that adding potassium to the soil reduced the uptake of radioactive cesium by the plants:

The first of a series of long-term field experiments was established on Bikini Island during the late 1980s to evaluate potential remediation techniques to reduce the uptake of cesium-137 into plants (Robison and Stone, 1998). Based on these experiments, the most effective and practical method for reducing the uptake of cesium-137 into food crop products was to treat agricultural areas with potassium fertilizer (KCl).

John Harte – Professor at the University of California at Berkeley in Energy and Resources and Ecosystem Sciences, a PhD physicist who previously taught physics at Yale, a recipient of the Pew Scholars Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, the Leo Szilard prize from the American Physical Society, and who has served on six National Academy of Sciences Committees and has authored over 170 scientific publications, including six books - notes:

Marine fish are usually about 100 times lower in cesium-137 than are freshwater fish because potassium, which is more abundant in seawater, blocks uptake of cesium by marine organisms.

The same is true in mammals. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry notes:

Cesium is a close chemical analogue of potassium. Cesium has been shown to compete with potassium for transport through potassium channels and can also substitute for potassium in activation of the sodium pump and subsequent transport into the cell.
***
Elimination rates of cesium may be altered by potassium intake. Following the intraperitoneal injection of 137 Cs in rats, a basal diet supplemented with 8–11% potassium resulted in cesium clearance of 60 days compared to about 120 days for rats receiving the unsupplemented basal diet that contained 1% potassium
(Richmond and Furchner 1961). After 20 days on the diets, rats receiving supplemental potassium had body burdens of 137 Cs that were one-half those of the rats not receiving supplemental potassium. This finding shows that supplemental potassium reduces the uptake and increases the elimination of ingested 137 Cs.

Dr. Ingrid Kohlstadt – a medical doctor with a master’s of public health, on the Faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, editor of the best-seller Food and Nutrients in Disease Management – says that the same is true for humans:

Plutonium is treated like iron by our bodies. So getting enough iron will help reduce absorption of plutonium. And see this. (Plutonium is a very heavy element, and so normally cannot travel too far. Therefore, adequate iron intake is primarily important for those living in Japan.)
Here are the recommended daily allowances (RDA) for various minerals (data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture):

You can buy calcium, potassium, iron supplements. You can also buy non-radioactive strontium supplements. Or incorporate foods high in calcium, potassium, and iron.
(Selenium also helps protect our bodies from radiation. See this, this and this.)
In addition to these minerals, getting enough of certain vitamins is helpful.
A number of scientific articles conclude that Vitamin A helps to protect us from radiation. See this, this and this.
Numerous studies show that Vitamin C helps to protect the body against radiation.
Vitamin D can help repair damage to DNA, and may help protect against low-level radiation. As Science Daily reports:

Radiological health expert Daniel Hayes, Ph.D., of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene suggests that a form of vitamin D could be one of our body’s main protections against damage from low levels of radiation. Writing in the International Journal of Low Radiation, Hayes explains that calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D, may protect us from background radiation and could be used as a safe protective agent before or after a low-level nuclear incident.
***
“Vitamin D by its preventive/ameliorating actions should be given serious consideration as a protective agent against sublethal radiation injury, and in particular that induced by low-level radiation,” concludes Hayes.

It takes a couple of weeks or months to build up our body’s levels of Vitamin D. You cannot just pop a bunch of pills and raise your Vitamin D level. You should never take more than the recommended dose, and – even if you did – it wouldn’t raise your vitamin D level all at once. As such, we should start now …
Vitamin E has also shown promise in protecting from low-level radiation, at least in animal studies. Here and here.
Here are the RDAs for vitamins (data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture):
You can buy vitamin supplements, or eat foods rich in vitamins A, C, D and E.
Antioxidant-rich foods also help protect you against low-level radiation. See this for the science behind antioxidant protection from radiation, tips on inexpensive, anti-oxidant rich foods … and other valuable tips on how to protect yourself from radiation.
The bottom line: starting to saturate your body now with the right types of healthy vitamins, minerals and antioxidants can help protect you against radiation if it hits in the future.
Postscript: We only advocate taking the RDA for various nutrients, which is healthy for you anyway. We are not talking about mega-doses.
We have spent hours looking through medical journal articles for other foods which help protect against radiation. Here are the results.
For a more complete discussion of commonly-accepted scientific consensus on different prevention and treatment options, please review the Army’s Medical Consequences of Radiological and Nuclear Weapons and the The American Association of Physicists In Medicine’s Medical Management of Radionuclide Internal Contamination.
* You should not take potassium iodide supplements unless you are exposed to high doses of radioactive iodine, because it can damage some people’s health. These supplements are only for short-term, high-dose radiation protection, not for years of low-dose exposure. For chronic low-dose exposure, a daily, baseline level of iodine is much healthier.
Potassium iodide is found in most common table salt. However, levels are not uniform, and a lot of “iodized” salt has less than advertised.
Here is RDA for iodine:
And here are some iodine-rich foods.
Click here for a discussion by two medical doctors about preventative iodine doses.
Disclaimer: We are not doctors or health professionals, and this should not be taken as medical advice. Nothing contained herein is intended to diagnose or treat any condition.

11/11/2013 Radioactive water leak shuts down SC reactor.

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:20:00 +0000

Source: Reuters via The State
Date: November 11, 2013

Oconee Nuclear Station, Seneca (Oconee County, South Carolina) Credit:Wikipedia

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A small radioactive water leak prompted Duke Energy to shut down a reactor Monday at the Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina.

Utility officials said the leak in Unit 1 poses no danger, but it is the second time in less than three weeks a problem has shut down a reactor at the nuclear plant near Seneca built 40 years ago.

Engineers first noticed the possibility of the leak Friday in the airtight, steel-lined concrete containment building designed to prevent any radiation from leaking into the air or ground. They spent the weekend trying to pinpoint its location and severity, Duke Energy spokeswoman Valerie Patterson said.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/11/11/3092094/radioactive-water-leak-shuts-down.html#storylink=cpy

...
Read the rest here.
Editor's Note: Map of Oconee Nuclear Station appears below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

11/7/2013 Saudi Arabia said to have bought nukes from Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 22:57:00 +0000

Source: The Times of Israel via TruNews
Date: November 7, 2013, 10:10 am


Test launch of a Pakistan-made Shaheen ballistic missile (screen capture: Youtube/Al Jazeera English)

Saudi Arabia may be prepared to field nuclear bombs it has purchased from Pakistan in response to Iran’s alleged military nuclear program, and may already have deployed missile systems capable of delivering the bombs, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
...
Read the rest here.

Editor's Note: Infowars also had an article from the BBC linked on their site titled Saudi nuclear weapons 'on order' from Pakistan.
Below is a map of the Saudi Arabian Al Watah Command and Control Complex which has two large DF-3 (a Chinese missile) launch pads as per IHS Jane's 360.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

11/4/2013 Island of debris the size of TEXAS from 2011 Japanese tsunami is headed straight for the U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 18:05:00 +0000

Source: MailOnline via TruNews
Date: 22:41 EST, 4 November 2013 | UPDATED: 05:32 EST, 5 November 2013

Gigantic: A floating island of debris the size of Texas is floating toward California coast after washing into the Pacific in Japan's horrific 2011 tsunami Photo Credit: MailOnline

Part of the over one million tons of debris dispersed in the Pacific, the trash island is located northeast of the Hawaiian Islands
The first documented tsunami debris to reach California arrived in April 2013
Boats, a dock, a soccer ball, and motorcycle have all been identified on the West Coast as confirmed tsunami debris

A floating island of debris the size of Texas has been crossing the vast Pacific Ocean to the western shores of the Americas since a devastating tsunami inundated Japan in 2011, says a new study.

Five million tons of wreckage - the remains of homes, boats, and other remnants of shattered lives in eastern Japan - were swallowed by the ocean that day in March, and more than one million tons of flotsam continues to head towards the west coast of the US.

While the first documented debris from the tragedy has already been found in California, scientists fear these new findings mean there could be a lot more to come and it might arrive all at once.
...
Read the rest here.

10/17/2013 Toxic flush: Typhoon causes radioactive leaks at Fukushima

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 05:40:00 +0000

Source: Russia Today
Date: 10/17/2013 15:34

AFP Photo / Japan Pool via JIJI Press Japan out

A powerful typhoon which swept through Japan led to highly radioactive water near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant being released into a nearby drainage ditch, increasing the risk of it flowing into the sea.
On Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, said it had detected high levels of radiation in a ditch leading to the Pacific Ocean, and that it suspected heavy rains had lifted contaminated soil.

Workers say that Strontium-90 – a radioactive isotope of the alkaline earth metal strontium produced by nuclear fission – along with other isotopes that emit beta rays measuring 1,400 becquerels (Bq) per liter were detected in the ditch, which is located about 150 meters from the ocean, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
...
Read the rest here.

Editor's Note: See more video reporting below concerning Typhoon Wipha and the radioactive water.

Video Description

High radioactivity found in Fukushima Daiichi well
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says that it has detected a sharp rise in radioactivity in a well near a storage tank.
The tank leaked more than 300 tons of contaminated water in August. Some of it is believed to have poured into the sea via a ditch.
Officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company say that they detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances, including strontium, at the well on Thursday.
The level is 6500 times higher than the readings on the previous day.
The well was dug to monitor the impact of the leakage and is located at about 10 meters from the tank.
High levels of radioactive tritium, which tends to be transferred easily in water, had been already detected.
TEPCO officials believe Thursday's findings show that radioactive substances such as strontium, which are transferred relatively slowly, have reached the ground water.
There is another well about 100 meters from the tank near the seaside. It's for pumping up groundwater before it seeps into the reactor building and vicinity so as to contain the increase of contaminated water.
TEPCO will remove the contaminated soil around the tank and continue to closely watch radioactivity levels of the groundwater at the monitoring well.
Oct. 17, 2013 - Updated 22:48 UTC

TEPCO reports another tank leak
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says radioactive water has overflowed from a tank storing pumped-up groundwater.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says an employee found water spilling from the top of the tank Thursday morning.
TEPCO says it has stopped drawing up groundwater. The leakage has been contained within a barrier set up around the tank.
The utility says it is investigating how much water spilled from the tank and why. It says a pump used to send the water from the tank to its storage place in the reactor building had stopped due to a diesel generator failure. The pump resumed operation later in the day.
The tank is located on an embankment facing the ocean and near the badly damaged No. 1 and 2 reactors.
TEPCO began pumping up groundwater near the reactors in August to reduce the amount of contaminated water flowing into the sea. The groundwater flows from the mountains and becomes tainted as it passes through the plant premises.
Oct. 17, 2013 - Updated 05:10 UTC

new article about the test fishing just uploaded but not in video form yet
Radiation checks for Fukushima fish
Fishing cooperatives in Fukushima Prefecture will voluntarily check their hauls for radioactivity before shipment.
The national standard for radiation in marine products is 100 bequerels of cesium per kilogram.
The co-ops have set their own standard of 50 bequerels per kilogram and say that only fish below that level will be shipped to markets.
They say that they will dispose of all of a day's catch of a particular species if they detect radiation exceeding their limit.
The co-ops say that so far levels in the species they checked have been under 50 bequerels or undetectable.
But according to the government's Fisheries Agency results released this month, some bottom-dwelling fish such as flounder and cod off Fukushima Prefecture still have radiation levels higher than 100 bequerels per kilogram.
Oct. 18, 2013 - Updated 03:00 UTC

ANOTHER big storm headed towards Japan!

Pushing Japanese "safe" food in Singapore
Media in Singapore are reporting the leakage of radioactive contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Officials say that, despite the accident, Japanese food exports to Southeast Asia are growing, and the number of visitors to the fair is up 30 percent from last year.

Former PM (liked) anti Nuclear stance! :)

Abe: No change in stance on TPP

Insight on Iran Nuclear Talks

http://enenews.com/
Alert: Top Japan nuclear official suggests Fukushima reactors "leaking directly into sea"

TV: Nuclear report warns of apocalyptic scenario at Fukushima in weeks ahead — Ambassador: This could one day be considered start of "the ultimate catastrophe of the world and planet"

Biologist finds pink salmon that are canary yellow on Canada's Pacific coast

TV: "Typhoon appears to have affected Fukushima Daiichi plant" — Giant spike in radioactivity after #Wipha

Japan Journalist: Plutonium escaped Fukushima reactors as gas, it was a colossal 9,000ºF inside — Can't be detected with Geiger counter — Terrible things are looming for the children, they must be evacuated yet nothing's done... This is a "criminal nation" — I'm worried (VIDEO)

"It's a time bomb and clock's still ticking" — Ex-Fukushima

Documentary: Plutonium detected "all around" mountain in town 20 kilometers from Fukushima plant — "Everyone knows that... We use the water that comes from those mountains" (VIDEO)

3 recent studies report multiple fires at Fukushima Unit 4 — "Occurred in spent fuel cooling pool"

10/8/2013 S. Korea confirms North's Yongbyon plutonium reactor restart

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 18:55:00 +0000

Source: AFP (Agence France-Presse) via Infowars.com
Date: October 8, 2013 08:53

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament that the five megawatt reactor at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex had resumed operations, according to a joint briefing by ruling and opposition party lawmakers.

South Korea's spy agency confirmed Tuesday that the North has restarted an aging plutonium reactor that could help boost its nuclear weapons programme.

Read the rest here from AFP.

The 5 MWe experimental reactor (Credit Wikipedia)

Editor's Note: Map of Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center appears below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

9/19/2013 Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake hits near Fukushima I Nuclear Plant Area

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 18:22:00 +0000

Source(s): ENENews, USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Date: 2013-09-19 17:25:09 UTC (2013-09-19 11:25:09 CST)

M5.3 - 19km ESE of Ishikawa, Japan 2013-09-19 17:25:09 UTC

I grabbed the earthquake report off of the ENENews feed which collates several articles together, which are available here from ENENews. In summary TEPCO has been checking for earthquake damage and leaks but state they have not found anything (yet). Below is a map of the M5.8 Earthquake.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

9/17/2013 Russia Warns of 'Catastrophe' If N. Korea Restarts Reactor

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 20:38:00 +0000

Source: The Jewish Voice
Date: Tuesday, 17 September 2013 20:35
by: Anna Malpas

Commercial satellite images taken in recent months had indicated preparations for restarting the reactor were progressing rapidly Photo: IHS JANE'S/DIGITALGLOBE

On Thursday, September 12, Russia warned of a potential “man-made catastrophe” if North Korea restarts an aging plutonium reactor to boost its stockpile of nuclear weapons, after US experts spotted steam rising from the Yongbyon facility.
...
Read full article here.

Editor's Note: See also articles by AFP, AP and Bloomberg.
Map of Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center appears below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

9/16/2013 Typhoon hits Japan as Fukushima operator releases water into sea

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 23:20:00 +0000

Source: AFP via Yahoo News
Date: 9/16/2013 ~5 PM CST

Typhoon Man-Yi in Kyoto overturns sightseeing boat on Katsura River which is now stuck on a bridge. Photo Credit: AP/Kyodo News

Typhoon Man-yi hit Japan Monday, leaving three people dead and forcing the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to release rainwater with low levels of radiation into the ocean.
...
Read full article here.

Editor's Note: More details from NHK World on the Rainwater released from Fukushima plant into sea caused by Typhoon Man-Yi. Maps of Typhoon Man-Yi's progress appear below.
Map via GDACS (Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System)

Visit Green Tropical Cyclone alert for MAN-YI-13 in Japan, Russian Federation from 13/09/2013 00:00 UTC to 16/09/2013 00:00 UTC at GDACS or click here for interactive map.

Map via Weather Underground

Visit Tropical Storm Man-yi or the Weather Underground interactive map here.

9/14/2013 Japan to switch off nuclear power, may be some time before it's on again

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 04:41:00 +0000

Source: Reuters
Date: Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:17pm EDT
by: Osamu Tsukimori

Fukushima prefecture panel examines leaking radioactive water tank (C in back) at Fukushima Daiichi, photo released Septermber 13, 2013 Credit: Reuters/Kyodo

(Reuters) - Japan is set to be nuclear power-free, for just the third time in more than four decades, and with no firm date for re-starting an energy source that has provided about 30 percent of electricity to the world's third-largest economy.

...
Read full article here.

Editor's Note: Map of Ohi Nuclear Power Plant appears below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

9/13/2013 Dealing With Air Travel Radiation Exposure

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 13:54:00 +0000

Source: Care2.com
Date: 9/13/2013 9:30 am
by: Dr. Michael Greger

Doctors appear to be causing tens of thousands of cancers with CT scans and dentists may be causing a few brain tumors with dental X-rays (see my last two videos Cancer Risk from CT Scan Radiation and Do Dental X-Rays Cause Brain Tumors?), but what about these new-fangled airport full-body scanners that use so-called backscatter technology to reduce X-ray exposure? A thousand times less radiation exposure than a chest X-ray, though they’re still being phased out. In fact, flight passengers may get 100 times more radiation during the flight every hour, because they’re so high up in the atmosphere and exposed to more cosmic rays. Does that mean a round-trip cross-country flight is almost like getting a chest X-ray? Yes. Anyone who’s seen my speaking schedule knows I’m totally screwed. But what can you do? As is the answer to so many health questions, you can eat healthily.

Video Description

Subscribe for free to Dr. Greger's videos at:
http://bit.ly/nutritionfactsupdates

DESCRIPTION: Based on studies of atomic bomb survivors, Chernobyl victims, and airline pilots exposed to more cosmic rays at high altitudes, fruits and vegetables may decrease radiation-induced chromosome damage.

For more on the cancer risk associated with CAT scans and dental X-rays see my last two videos Cancer Risk from CT Scan Radiation (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/cance...) and Do Dental X-Rays Cause Brain Tumors? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/do-de...). Wednesday I'll review interventional studies where plant foods are actually put to the test in Reducing Radiation Damage With Ginger And Lemon Balm (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/reduc...).

Those who want to count my chest X-ray equivalents can view my speaking schedule here (http://www.DrGreger.org/dates.html)—just don't tell me!

USDA keeps a nice list (http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/food-composi...) of phytonutrient resources. Cryptoxanthin sources listed here (http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter...). Healthy Pumpkin Pie (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/healt...) anyone?

Lutein and zeaxanthin can help us Prevent Glaucoma and See 27 Miles Farther (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/preve...). Are these eyesight-saving phytonutrients also found in eggs? You might be surprised: Egg Industry Blind Spot (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/egg-i...).

For more on why produce is generally preferable to pills, check out:

• Can Folic Acid Be Harmful? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/can-f...)
• Lutein, Lycopene, and Selenium Pills (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/lutei...)
• Produce, Not Pills to Increase Physical Attractiveness (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/produ...)
• Risk Associated With Iron Supplements (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/risk-...)
• Some Dietary Supplements May Be More Than a Waste of Money (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/some-...)
• Update on Juice Plus+® (http://www.netflix.com/Queue?lnkctr=m...)
• Update on Vitamin E (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/updat...)

Why might eggs be harmful even if not radioactive? See Egg Cholesterol in the Diet (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/egg-c...) or my other 57 videos on eggs (http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/eggs/). I cover natural and artificial radioactivity in fish in Fukushima and Radioactivity in Seafood (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/fukus...) and explore concerns about other pollutants in my 89 fish videos (http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/fish/).

Have a question for Dr. Greger about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/http:... and he'll try to answer it!

...
Article continues here.

9/11/2013 Russia to build second nuclear plant for Iran, deliver S-300

noreply@blogger.com (Bearishtrader) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 16:50:00 +0000

Source: Israel Hayom
Date: 9/11/2013
by: Amir Mizroch

The Bushehr nuclear plant. Photo credit: AP

Russia will supply Iran with a modified version of the vaunted S-300 anti-aircraft system as well as build a new nuclear reactor for the Ayatollah's regime, the Russian daily Kommersant business newspaper reported Wednesday.
...
Read the rest here.

Editor's Note: Map of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant appears below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map