Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Japan warned the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) radiation is being released “directly” into the atmosphere from the site of an earthquake-stricken Fukushima reactor and radiation levels had become “significantly” higher around the nuclear power plant on Tuesday.
The French embassy said a low-level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within hours. The Tokyo metropolitan area is the largest city on earth with a population of 35 million residents.
IAEA sources cite dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour — exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association. The IAEA uses the unit to measure doses of radiation received by people.
Meanwhile, President Pootie Tang reaffirmed his support for the construction of nuclear energy plants in America even as Germany halts power station extensions which use nuclear power and the U.S. Navy begins to move its ships away from the crippled, leaking Japanese reactor.
Editor Update: U.S. Navy Detects Radiation 200 Miles From Japan Nuclear Plant
Editor Update: President Pootie Tang’s Surgeon General Says Buy Iodine
Editor Update: Europe’s Energy Commissioner Calls Nuclear Disaster an “Apocalypse”
From the Left 
This is bad, indeed. What happens if the radiation from these leaking nuclear plants enter the jetstream? Isn’t this the route that carried the radiation from the Chernobyl plant across much of Europe? The jetstream travels from east to west, which means the radiation from the Fukushima plants will infect Canada and the USA. This is very scary to me.
I can remember the first news reports from France announcing the radioactive contamination of the wine and cheese.
Soon after, similar reports were announced in Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Radiation is nothing to be cavalier about. President Pootie Tang is being far too laissez-faire when it comes to the construction of new nuclear plants on U.S. soil.
Hopefully this tragedy will cause people here to have enough second thoughts about nuclear power to hold us off from adding any new plants. But we need to seriously think about what to do about the ones we have already – such as Indian Point, right by NYC. Very scary. It’s also on an earthquake fault.
Everything is spinning out of control and the people we send to Washington are nothing more than Zombies.
We’re so screwed.
If the Navy is excising their ships from Japan for fear of radiation poisoning of the ship’s crew then you can be sure there’s a very serious problem underway because nothing is more protected and treasured in America than the military.
I hope the radiation cloud doesn’t enter the jetstream. If it does, we’re dead.
As far as Obama and his foolish commitment to building nuclear plants, what I read before the BP oil disaster was, the Obama administration wanting to fast track the cert process for the plants.
Pechanga hit the nail on the head.
For the Navy to take such drastic measures means they know the nuclear genie is out of the bottle.
We’ve been toggling between CNN, MSNBC and Fox since 3p.m. and not a one of them provided as much informative data and stories as you have, Chris. Thanks for your hard work on this.
Pechanga is 100% spot on. If the US Navy is withdrawing their ships from the nuke zone, then they Pentagon has advanced knowledge the civilian population doesn’t have. The U.S. Navy doesn’t act on fears or precautions.
I can offer this. If the radiation enters the jetstream, as I believe it already has, one positive note is, the isotopes will start to degrade as they hit cold air. The jetstream is very cold, so the radiation on the ground at Fukushima is much more intense than the radiation at 30,000 feet.
Obama’s surgeon general will probably lose her job over her indiscretion. She didn’t get the memo that says, “the American public must be kept calm and consuming at all costs.” Poor thing, already road kill….
I think we all knew they were lying about how serious the situation is, because they always lie. And they’re lying now. So we know that this is a hell of a lot worse than anything we’ve heard up to now, probably meaning a catastrophe of Chernobyl proportions-or worse.
This is not the time for Obama to reaffirm his support for nuclear energy in the USA. He’s lacks compassion. Almost as bad as this was the news today that he will announce his picks for March Madness tomorrow on ESPN. Unbelievable. I’m beginning to think Obama is on drugs. He’s not behaving like a normal person.
Anytime there’s an invisible threat, as is the case with radiation, people are naturally frightened. No one wants to suffer radiation poisoning. Exposure to radiation can cause cancer — which explains the run on potassium iodide but we need to remember that potassium iodide only protects from thyroid cancer. All the other cancers caused from exposure to radiation remain a very real threat.
You can’t find potassium iodide in Denver. It’s a rare commodity as drug stores and Target and K Mart can’t replenish the shelves fast enough to meet worried consumer demand. Did you guys see Obama is leaving the country Saturday for a swell, ole trip to Rio de Janeiro?
The link you posted states:
“The plan requires power companies to produce 80 percent of their electricity from clean sources including natural gas, “clean coal,” renewables like solar and wind power, and nuclear by 2035.”
Oh & black is white.
Why do they try to sell this is “clean”. Plus they like to play this “later” card- as in “by 2035”.
Well Obama will be long gone, and the toxic nuclear mess is here to stay.
Hell they can;t even agree on a nuclear waste storage because anyone w a clue knows there is no such thing a safe nuclear waste storage. One more thing– the current trend to extract natural gas by means of “fracking” is about as toxic as it gets, because Dick Cheney fanagled a deal to keep the fracking chemical process a trade secret.
All those mass fish kills & bird deaths…. likely a “safe & clean fracking natural gas extracting” side effect. Ask the people who live in areas where fracking has taken place… their groundwater is contaminated, if the light a flame by the water it bursts into flame, & cancer rates soar.
As the Middle East burns and the Libyan rebels await a decision from the U.S. to help them and Japan faces a nuclear catastrophe as serious as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we can at least cheer the news President Obama is preparing to take the wife, kids and granny to Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
He’s a smart brother: get it on the backs of the American tax payers while he can because he won’t be president after November, 2012.
TEPCO should not under any circumstances be allowed to build nuclear energy plants on US soil. They’re safety record is piss poor at best and criminally negligent at worst. What will it take for this country to wake up?
I’m old and a breast cancer survivor. I can’t have more non-medical radiation.
Also, I resent the media fools saying I’m “just crazy” for buying iodine in the event the radiation reaches the USA. Go to hell media.
Aunt Peg,
The media droids telling you that you’re “crazy” are on the payroll.
They get paid the big bucks to warble the official, government propaganda line that’s designed to keep you quiet, placated and consuming.
Rest assured, the entire White House staff and the Congress has ample iodine in the event the radioactive cloud reaches the US.
We’re in uncharted territory now. Six reactors — all failing or beginning to meltdown, three of which are as bad as Chernobyl and no apparent way of cooling them, all within 200 miles of the largest city in the world, is the stuff of a bad science fiction movie. Anyone who says we shouldn’t be worried is insane.