I was describing to an American friend about what's been happening at an accelerating pace in Japan after the now-infamous "cold shutdown state and end of Fukushima accident" declaration by the hapless Prime Minister Noda, who now wants to bring pandas to Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture to cheer children.
He said, "Dr. Demento Show!"
Things are indeed getting more hilarious by the hour.
This is one of the most hilarious from yesterday's news: Fuku-I accident "docu-drama"
Nippon Television, the close affiliate of Yomiuri Shinbun which has been pro-nuke ever since Matsutaro Shoriki bought the paper in xxxx, will air a "docu-drama" of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident on December 23 Friday from 6:45PM to 8:55PM Japan Time, titled "87 Hours when Japan was on the verge of destruction", using popular actors to play the part of PM Kan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano, TEPCO's Fuku-I plant manager Yoshida, etc.
Comments on the news from Japanese twitterers:
See how they take us for fools
The title of the drama cannot get more demented.
So the nuke accident is just one form of entertainment. Great.
Controversial dam construction (Yanba Dam) in Gunma Prefecture given green light, benefiting TEPCO, again:
Yanba Dam has been in the works ever since 1950s, but the project was suspended two years ago when the Democratic Party of Japan took power. It was in the DPJ's party "manifest" to stop the project. Now, under the same DPJ but led by PM Noda, it has been formally declared that it is good to go. The local politicians and interest parties in the small town of Naganohara are ecstatic. They greeted the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport with three cheers (banzai) yesterday (Yomiuri Shinbun 12/23/2011).
Well, it turns out that TEPCO has been diverting water from upstream to run its hydroelectric power stations along the Agatsuma River. If the dam is built, TEPCO cannot draw as much water as it likes for these power stations and therefore has to be compensated. To the tune of 1.7 billion yen per year.
From what I've read, it doesn't make any sense geologically and economically, other than to benefit certain parties connected to construction work with taxpayers' money. I once drove through the area. It was deep in the mountains, rapid river. An excellent and ancient (first discovered in 1193) hot spring town along the river, which will be lost under water if the dam is built.
Money speaks, it always has been, and always will in the "dango" Japan. The government always wins by wearing the small citizens out.
Radioactive ash disposal in Chiba Prefecture in the middle of rice paddies:
Meanwhile in Chiba, where northwestern corner of the prefecture is highly contaminated with radioactive materials, the prefectural government wants to move those highly radioactive ashes from incinerators in Kashiwa City whose radioactive material density far exceeds the national provisional safety limit for ashes (8000 becquerels/kg) to a final waste disposal facility in Teganuma, west of Kashiwa City. (Mainichi Shinbun 12/22/2011)
Looking at the satellite photo of Google, the facility is right on the Tega River, which feeds water to the rice paddies surrounding the final waste disposal facility. The Tega River flows to the Tone River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean.
Smart move, Chiba.
And about the Panda loan from China to Sendai City:
Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture wants to "borrow" pandas from China to cheer children in the city. So the vice mayor of Sendai visited PM Noda on December 22 with two TV celebrities to press Noda to ask for panda loan when he visits China on December 25. Sure, says Noda.
The celebrities, Masahiko Kondo and Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, vow they will support the city by providing money for panda housing and protection, which is estimated to be 1 billion yen over 5 years. Kondo says the money comes from donations that his office has collected from citizens for the people in disaster-affected areas. (Yomiuri Shinbun Miyagi local version 12/23/2011)
Kuroyanagi is one of the actors who scolded Japanese people who don't want to buy produce from Fukushima for fear of internal radiation exposure as selfish and unpatriotic.
1 billion yen would buy many, many dosimeters or stoves for people in temporary housing that lacks insulation for the cold winter. But building a brand-new, state-of-the-art panda house in the city's zoo will bring more business to building contractors favored by the city.
In the meantime, ex-PM Kan is blasting TEPCO's management as basically a "fool on the hill" (Yomiuri Shinbun 12/22/2011). The gall of him to say that.
30-Day free trial by following the link.
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9 comments:
Seems to me that all this is related somehow with the massive propaganda that the accident is part of the past and all is back to normality...
Here the latest nuclear market news from the US:
Now as the Fukushima "cold shutdown" is official and got blessed by a Jaczko under pressure, the NRC today granted design certification to Westinghouse AP1000™ !
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2011/11-226.pdf
The nuclear lobby jubilates!
They are already queuing up to start building four of these legendary radiation spewers ASAP in the USA!
http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2011/12/22/cert-ap1000/
I wonder if this all is connected to the interests of very influential people that are coming over Japan like grasshoppers in Egypt:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/11/21/2795537/warren-buffett-visits-fukushima.html
And one sad link for the killjoys of you:
If you want a good explanation why this reactor concept is almost as dangerous as a Russian RBMK, read Arnie's presentation and you'll be happy that the reactors in Fukushima were no AP-1000's!
http://fairewinds.com/content/ap-1000-press-conference-%E2%80%93-technical-statement
Aren't these guys "elected officials?" So vote em out if you don't like them, impeach them or whatever it is you do over there in Japan when a govenment offical is thumbing his nose at your requests.
Pathological liar Noda won't last a year in office. A no confidence vote will force him out within a few months.
"Just Vote them out"
I take it you are in elementary school, so excuse me for being pedantic, but when special interests buy politicians they buy the SEAT not the PERSON. Once they own the SEAT, and the SEAT is pro nuke, it doesn't matter who you elect because that PERSON only 'sits' in the SEAT
No Pandas in Fukushima. They are almost as endangered as fukushima babies.
They can hire Mickey Mouse or Donald duck from the US.
Japanese kids will be very happy and I am sure Disney war machine could have special bargains for contractors in Japan.
At this point with all these TV shows, and nonsense speeches by officials I am afraid Japan it has been under attack, some how, and this is a more sophisticated revolution that is happening as the one in Egypt.
Is just they are really well to hide and masking things. Another new war on citizens has been declared.
Seriously with all these evidences daily shown thanks to this blog, more than half of population even cant see the war that has been declared on them, this is all well planned!
(like always happen in politics)
If people do not do their homework they will fail...in this case citizens future is in their own hands.
laprimavera, an article from NikkeiBP by Prof Eichi Yamaguchi, from the Fukushima project, about the early response by Tepco and the government:
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/COLUMN/20111215/202630/
Now it gets even more demented. Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Edano (with "no immediate effect on health" refrain as chief cabinet secretary) wants to pay compensation to Fukushima residents with gift certificates that can be only used inside Fukushima Prefecture.
I just have a 4-year degree in soil science, so I defer to those who have more specific knowledge on the soils of Japan...
However, with soil and groundwater basins facing radiation contamination, a moratorium should be declared on alterations of the watersheds. This is especially true if there is an artesian spring on the site.
Land formed by volcanic activity, especially relatively recent(in geological time-span reality) activity, can have very complex, interlinked groundwater basins. Until the groundwater basins are mapped, there can be no prediction as to the extent the massive disruption of a watershed will contribute to spreading groundwater basin radioactive contamination.
Large-scale earth movement, loss of vegetation that holds the soil in place, accumulation of massive amounts of water in one place (contaminating the noncontaminated water that flows into the reservoir), and the highly toxic sediments that will accumulate in a relatively small place (on the reservoir floor, close to the dam)...these are all reasons the soils and vegetation of a waster shed should not be disturbed until more is known about the extent of the Fukushima-D impacts on the watershed and Japan's groundwater basins.
A soil scientist with knowledge of Japan's soils and groundwater, especially in the area of the proposed reservoir, would be able to provide more definitive information.
I will say, however, that there should be no major disruption of soils and vegetation in a watershed. No one likes the fact that the "black-rain" phenomenon will spread the radioactive contamination. However, if Japan's grondwater basins become widely radioactively contaminated, it may make large portions of Japan uninhabitable.
In addition, dams don't last forever. Eventually (in decades) they will need to be abandoned as silt/soil builds up behind the dam. In a dam built post Fukushima-D, it is a good bet that the silt/soil will be basically a huge concentration of radioactive material.
This will have to be dealt with and, as Japan is already finding out with their attempts to dispose of contaminated soil, this will be highly problematic.
What are Japanese soil scientists saying in their technical journals? Japan needs to look to their soil scientists now for guidance. Without viable soil, the economy and health of the nation will be hard-pressed to even meet the basic needs of its people.
Japan has taken a huge hit, thanks to the avarice and greed of its corporate structure and government leadership.
Things cannot just go on as usual. Nothing will ever be the same in Japan. The best that can be done is to take aggressive steps to limit the secondary damage to the most important aspects of human life: water and soil to grow food.
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