The people of Japan

(NaturalNews) In Japan today we are witnessing a noble people being put to the test. In fact the entire world, with all its peoples and governments, are going to be tested against the sheer power of nuclear contamination that knows little of time and space. Radiation moves rather freely through space and some forms of it stay around for so long we might as well say forever. This catastrophe comes at an especially bad moment compounding other disasters just waiting to happen in areas of finance, economics, agriculture, worldwide pollution and toxicity, massive nutritional deficiencies in vital minerals and other nutrients. Taking the first hit though are the Japanese people and they are showing us their character. One of my faithful readers KazBradly from Australia wrote, “Regarding Japan, I was meditating the other night and was sending love and appreciation to the Japanese people who were trying so hard to contain their disaster and all I could feel was the wonderful sense of love, honor and duty that the nuclear plant employees had whilst they were risking their lives for the greater good. Even in disaster, there is beauty to be found.” She also forwarded a letter that she had received from a woman named Ann who is living in Japan; “Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front doors open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, ‘Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another. Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials.’ “Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group. And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation yes, but fear or panic, no. “Somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide . My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don’t. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that is much larger than myself.” This is a good moment to remember one of the most certain facts of life. We are all going to die eventually, though depending on one’s beliefs, perhaps it is only our bodies that turn to dust. With this nuclear disaster getting worse by the moment, and with the one plutonium reactor getting completely out of hand, death is edging closer to millions of people. Things are getting seriously out of hand all over the world actually. When you calculate looming food shortages and horrendous price increases, radically changing climate, impending financial and economic collapse with revolution and government oppression, worldwide pollution and toxic poisoning of populations, we should be able to see that the quality of life for billions of people is on the downswing. Some, if not many, people are actually happy about such events as they feel that a reduction of the world population would be a good thing. They have for years been building their underground shelters. Today companies in the business of helping people dig holes in the ground are booming, yet I wonder what kind of life they will find there. A friend of mine insisted that I was wrong to be building my Sanctuary above ground and that I too should dig a hole for myself and my family. Thanks but no thanks; I would rather die above ground. I cannot even convince my wife to move out of the comforts of the beautiful coastal city we live in on the northeast coast of Brazil to the relative safety of my retreat and survival center in the interior highlands; imagine my chances of getting her to live in a hole. Life, in part, is actually a long preparation for death. How we die is important as is how we live. The Japanese are in the lead showing us that no matter how difficult things can get, one can live and die with dignity. Link to the video THE REALITY DETACHED AMERICAN . If we are not paying attention to what is going on in Japan and the rest of the world there is no chance we will prepare and no chance we will open our hearts. The news is dire and now the Japanese government is beginning to encourage people to evacuate a larger band of territory around the nuclear complex. Before you know it they will be evacuating Tokyo and the rest of northern Japan and the world’s third largest economy will go down like a rock and pull the world’s economy down with it. For all the references, sources and more articles on radiation and chemical toxicity please visit Dr. Mark Sircus blog .

A 100-year battle awaits Fukushima while suicide workers are needed to keep up the rescue efforts

(NaturalNews) The unfolding of the Fukushima catastrophe continues to worsen. Here are today’s most important developments: • A nuclear expert is now warning that it will take 50 to 100 years before the spent nuclear rods at Fukushima will cool enough to be removed from the site. In the mean time, Japan must keep pouring water on the fuel, and that creates highly radioactive water that’s being flushed directly into the ocean. So now we’re looking at the possibility of a century-long radiation leak (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/01/3179487.htm). • The groundwater underneath the Fukushima nuclear power facility is now showing 10,000 times the level of radiation normally allowed by government authorities. This is from iodine-131 measured at 15 meters below one of the reactors. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/31/501364/main20049240.shtml) • You’ve probably already heard that there have been efforts to use robots to help solve the Fukushima crisis, but those efforts have failed. Then again, who needs robots when you can just pay humans to do the same deadly work? Reuters is now reporting that a U.S. recruiting company is signing up U.S. workers to go to Fukushima and work on-site there as part of the crew that’s trying to save the reactors (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/exclusive-wanted-u-workers-crippled-japan-nuke-plant-20110331-165506-832.html). Why would anyone agree to do such a thing? Because they’re being promised extra pay , if you can believe that. You gotta wonder, of course, how these people think they’re going to be able to spend all that extra money if they’re half-dead from radiation poisoning. But hey, if they get paid one dollar for every millirem of radiation they absorb, they could soon be Fukushima’s new millionaires! • The world’s largest concrete pumping truck is headed to Japan as part of a plan that can only be the beginning of the total surrender of Fukushima (http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2011-03-31/srs-concrete-pump-heading-japan-nuclear-site). The only reason you need to pump that much concrete is if you’re building a giant Chernobyl-like entombment of the Fukushima facility. But who’s going to keep spraying the spent nuclear fuel rods with water in the mean time? (Nobody knows…) • Due to the failure of Fukushima, Tokyo will be experiencing rolling blackouts all summer long. Tokyo’s power has been reduced by roughly 20 percent due to the Fukushima catastrophe (http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/31/japan.blackouts/index.html?hpt=T2). • Fukushima workers who have been desperately trying to bring the reactors back under control have said they expect to die due to their repeated exposure to extremely high levels of radiation. Oh, but the Fukushima deniers claim radiation is safe and that no one has even been harmed by it! (Seriously…) (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8419808/Japan-nuclear-crisis-Fukushima-50-expect-to-die.html) • Remember, health authorities have been screaming for decades that sunlight exposure is potentially deadly because of the radiation exposure. But Fukushima fallout, we’re now told, is perfectly safe for you! I guess only the sun is dangerous, not nuclear fuel rod meltdowns. How’s that for public health policy? Check NaturalNews.com for even more daily reporting on the developing situation with Fukushima.

Fukushima update: False radiation readings, radioactive water and anti-nuclear protesters

(NaturalNews) Here’s the latest on the Fukushima nuclear power plant situation as it is unfolding in Japan: • Yesterday Japanese nuclear power officials announced that radiation levels in Reactor No. 2 had risen to 10 million times the “normal” level. This was widely reported in the BBC and elsewhere (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12872707). Today, Tokyo Electric Power says that reading was a mistake, and they retracted it, blaming it on operator error (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/27/japan-nuclear-error-radiation-reading). • Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a New York Times article that Japan is still “far from the end of this accident” and that the fight to get the radiation under control could go on for weeks or even months. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/world/asia/27japan.html?_r=1) • The leak in Reactor No. 2 is still causing an extremely dangerous amount of radiation to escape the core. When questioned, officials explain they don’t know where the leak is actually coming from, but they admit it “almost certainly” has to be coming from the reactor core . (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7493328.html) • There is now a growing problem of where to put all the radioactive water that’s building up in the reactor units. There are currently “tens of thousands of gallons” of radioactive water to be dealt with, and not enough storage areas in which to put it all (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7493328.html). You can’t just release the water directly into the environment because it’s too radioactive. • The radioactive fallout from Fukushima has now reached northeast China, where small amounts of iodine-131 are now being picked up by sensors there (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/26/c_13799571.htm). • Huge anti-nuclear marches took place in Germany over the weekend as protesters rallied to force the nation to abandon any future plans involving nuclear power (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12872339). One protester told the BBC, “I came here to call for nuclear reactors to be stopped because I firmly intend to die of old age rather than radiation poisoning.” The bottom line in all this is that the Fukushima situation is far from stable and may yet get worse. Even in a best-case scenario, the situation will require weeks — if not months — of additional work to get under control. And that will still leave Japan with radioactive fallout and over 1700 tons of spent nuclear fuel to deal with. The impact on Japan’s food and water supply — not to mention the oceans — will remain quite serious for a long time to come. This is a crisis that will be dealt with across many generations even if things go well from this point forward. The total radiation emitted from Fukushima may yet exceed that amount emitted from Chernobyl, by the way. We won’t know until it’s really over and contained, and that will probably take several months. In the mean time, let’s all hope they can keep the spent fuel rods sufficiently cooled to prevent any further catastrophic releases of radiation. Read NaturalNews for more updates as the Fukushima situation unfolds.

Radioactive fallout from Fukushima approaching same levels as Chernobyl

(NaturalNews) Despite all the desperate efforts by world governments to downplay the severity of the release of radioactive material from Fukushima, world radiation sensors are revealing the ugly truth about the Fukushima catastrophe that the nuclear industry doesn’t want you to know: The radioactive fallout is now as much as 73 percent of the daily radiation emitted from Chernobyl following its meltdown disaster. That’s the story on Iodine-131 , the radioactive iodine isotope that’s now spreading across the globe. Similarly, the amount of caesium-137 being released by Fukushima has now reached 60 percent of that released by Chernobyl (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20285-fukushima-radioactive-fallout-nears-chernobyl-levels.html). Radiation spreading across oceans and continents This is the data from the global network of radiation sensors that were originally installed to monitor the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). They were designed to detect illegal nuclear weapons testing events, but now they’re proving to be quite effective at picking up the massive release of deadly radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power complex — which is still burning, by the way. The monitoring stations are located in Alaska, Hawaii, Montreal and other cities, indicating that the radiation fallout from Fukushima now spans oceans and continents. Because Fukushima continues to leak radiation into the environment, its total radioactive output may yet exceed that of Chernobyl. There’s certainly a lot more fuel at Fukushima than there ever was at Chernobyl: 1,760 tons of nuclear fuel versus just 180 tons at Chernobyl. So Fukushima has ten times the amount of fresh and spent fuel as Chernobyl. And it’s still spewing radiation every second. The food and water in Japan is already contaminated, the oceans are radioactive, the air is radioactive, neutron beams are jetting out of the nuclear facility, it’s raining yellow water, workers are being hospitalized with radiation burns, and still the nuclear industry says stop worrying… it’s all safe! Fukushima quickly rising to the top of the list of the world’s worst nuclear disasters It only leads me to wonder: How much worse is this going to get? We were told just this week that the reactors had their power restored, that the crisis was over, remember? The mainstream media has already blown past this story and doesn’t express much concern at all over the situation. Yet this Fukushima catastrophe is quickly moving into the top position as the world’s worst nuclear power plant disaster — even as the media plays it down! Fukushima may yet out-Chernobyl Chernobyl! So where does all this radiation end up? Well, according to the Japanese and American governments, it all just magically fades away and there’s nothing at all to worry about. But NaturalNews readers know better: This radiation ends up in the food, in the water, and circulating throughout the environment. Where will this end? No one knows for sure. But if there’s one thing we’ve all learned from watching Tokyo this past week, it’s that the time to get prepared is right now! ACTION ITEMS: ? Always have at least 10 – 20 gallons of extra fresh water stored in your house or apartment. No matter what! Tokyo residents just found out the hard way that depending on tap water is a risky gambit. ? Always have extra food available, just in case. Next week on NaturalNews, by the way, we will be announcing the launch of a new line of long-term storable superfoods and organic foods packed in #10 steel cans (using BPA-free bags inside the cans). ? If you don’t yet have potassium iodide or a source of natural iodine, and you’re in an area that could be hit by radiation fallout, it’s a wise idea to have some just in case. The NaturalNews Store has potassium iodide back in stock today (as of this writing) and is shipping all orders containing *only* potassium iodide in 1-2 working days: http://store.naturalnews.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=100370 ? Don’t allow yourself to be caught unprepared by a natural or man-made disaster. Governments lie to you about disasters, almost as a rule. They always wait too long to tell people to do something, and by that time everybody’s in a panic. So to avoid all that, get prepared in advance so you’re safe, confident and not contributing to the supply shortage problems. Remember, in any given emergency, the people who prepared in advance are those who help ease the supply lines and ultimately leave more supplies available for others who didn’t prepare . So in any given city, the more people who have prepared in advance, the fewer people will panic and the lower the burden will be on emergency supplies. That’s why preparedness makes such obvious sense. Only a fool would tell Americans to avoid being prepared for the unknown — especially in a time when nuclear power plants are on the verge of catastrophic “dirty bomb” meltdown events. Stay safe, folks. Even if it means just getting the basics squared away. If you drink anything out of the 2-liter bottles, just save those bottles and fill ‘em with water. That’s a start! Watch NaturalNews for more preparedness information, strategies and solutions throughout 2011 and 2012.

Fukushima Reactor No. 3 suffers likely core breach, now leaking water at 10,000 times normal radiation levels

(NaturalNews) The Fukushima situation took a turn for the worse today as two nuclear repair workers stepped into some water at Reactor No. 3 and suffered severe radiation burns requiring immediate hospitalization. The water, it turns out, measures 10,000 times normal radiation levels , and it appears to be leaking from the core of Reactor No. 3. If confirmed, this can only mean one thing: A containment breach that now risks the spewing of enormous quantities of radiation into the environment, easily dwarfing the releases from Chernobyl in 1986. Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan had some somber words for the world press, saying “The situation today at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant is still very grave and serious. We must remain vigilant. We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care.” (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110325/D9M67MAG0.html) “Even if there has been encouraging news such as getting some power back to the site, the installation remains in an extremely precarious and very serious situation that has not yet been stabilized” said Thomas Houdre from France’s nuclear safety agency (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-03-22/nuclear-plant-s-fuel-rods-damaged-leaking-into-sea-tokyo-electric-says.html). Reactor No. 3, of course, is the reactor with the extremely dangerous MOX fuel that’s two million times more deadly than regular enriched uranium (http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_plutonium_enriched_uranium.html). This reactor is so dangerous all by itself that it hardly matters whether Reactors 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 are brought under control if Reactor No. 3 isn’t. By itself, this facility could dwarf the radioactive fallout levels caused by the Chernobyl disaster, and now it appears a containment leak is very likely to have occurred. Radiation from the Fukushima catastrophe has already been detected on vegetables 135 miles South of Fukushima, and the Tokyo water supply has been declared unsafe to consume due to high levels of radiation. Low levels of radioactive fallout has been detected across the United States and Canada, but those levels could rise dramatically if Reactor No. 3 has a sustained containment leak and begins releasing more radiation directly into the environment. As Prime Minister Kan already stated, “We are not in a position where we can be optimistic.” That is a sobering statement from a government that has done its best to downplay the severity of the situation. What will they do now? If a containment breach has occurred, how will workers be able to even access the nuclear facility to continue making repairs and try to get the cooling pumps online? Even CNN called this “a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation.” (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/25/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html) A breach in the containment vessel is a game-changer. If this leak actually exists, it would make it extremely difficult to bring the situation back under control. Stay tuned to NaturalNews for more updates as this situation develops.

Lethal in Japan – the real story on radiation

The headlines we wake up to Monday morning say: A new column of smoke rising from an overheating nuclear plant in Japan drove workers out of the smoldering site dented hopes for a breakthrough in the post-quake atomic crisis raising the risk of uncontrolled radiation. The World Health Organization said today that radiation in food after an earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear plant was more serious than previously thought, eclipsing signs of progress in a battle to avert a catastrophic meltdown in the reactors. The government of the world’s third-biggest economy has been insisting that there is no widespread threat of radiation but confirmed that fresh foodstuffs are now showing signs of contamination . The double speak has officially started so now we know that the trouble is real, dangerously dark and that we will be treated like cows instead of intelligent human beings. On March 19, 2011 it’s been only three short days we have gone to the brink of an unimaginable catastrophe that does not seem so bad if you read the mainstream press. Only light radioactive showers predicted for the weekend over southern California. Nothing to worry about! The Japanese government said Saturday the 19th radioactive iodine turned has already turned up in tap water in Tokyo and five other areas. Of course they add in the double speak saying that it’s only “small but safe amounts of” of some very dangerous stuff. Best way of conceptualizing this event: The largest nuclear complex in the world is now in the process of becoming the hottest radioactive emitter in the world with deadly plutonium in the mix. Very soon the showers will turn heavy and no one is going to want to be in the jet streams path. Already they are starting to measure the exposure to the people local to the disaster in terms of how many CAT scans of radiation they are being exposed to as if these medical scans were safe, which they are not. Nuclear power plants are really dangerous facilities put in practical use on stipulation that they can “completely seal in radiation,” while radioactive weapons commit an impermissible crime scattering radioactive materials in the environment. – Professor Katsuma Yagasaki At the power plant site itself, with almost all the reactors and spent fuel ponds in various stages of meltdown we have a super lethal situation that can only get worse. Representative Michael Burgess, Republican of Texas, asked for detail about the radiation levels at the Japanese nuclear plant. “Are we talking about radiation equivalent to a chest X-ray? A CAT scan?” he asked. Gregory B. Jaczko , the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission replied, ” Levels that would be lethal with a fairly short period of time .” Harold Denton, a former senior official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was faced with the Three Mile Island crisis, holding daily news conferences. Talking about the situation in Japan he said, ” This is certainly far worse than Three Mile Island .” But the Japanese are not rating it that seriously yet but we each passing day they will see and be forced to admit the more than partial destruction of the northern part of their nation, which in all likelihood include the Tokyo metropolitan area of 30 million people. There are brave men fighting what could end up being a losing battle against a nuclear Armageddon for Japan and even other large parts of the northern hemisphere. These men will certainly all die so up close they need to be to shoot their water cannon from fire and police trucks. Some of that lethal stuff is already falling down in “safe” dosages in California and everyone there is being told to not sweat about it — it’s perfectly safe. And even though it can be measured on instruments they want you to believe that your cells will not pick up on the radioactive particles. A diplomat who has access to radiation tracking by the U.N.’s Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization told the Associated Press in Vienna that initial readings show radiation has in fact reached California . But a little is good for you so really don’t worry about a thing. You better believe I am deadly serious that some people will fight for the devil, for the death principle , which is what radiation is. I have seen doctors fight for the right to use deadly mercury in vaccines and most dentists have not completely given up on mercury laden dental amalgam. Almost everyone in medicine and dentistry thinks fluoride is wonderful for the children. Once there were some psychologists who actually went so far as to publish their new philosophy that child sexual abuse really was not such a bad thing after all. No sanity is the watchword here – but yes I agree. Radiation is healthy, going out in the sun, without toxic sunscreen exposes one to healthy radiation that provides the most wonderful biochemical life-giving effects. But we are going to be talking about really nasty radiation coming from Japan and let’s see what the dosages and exposures are in the end. In principle, using the Atomic Energy Control Board’s (AECB) regulatory limits, we can calculate that 0.1 micrograms of plutonium can overdose one person while noting that maximum safe exposure limits is placed at 0.56 micrograms maximum full body exposure and 0.25 micrograms for lung exposure. “Experiments with beagle dogs suggest that about 27 millionths of a gram of insoluble plutonium would be sufficient to cause lung cancer in an adult human being with virtual certainty, with significant risks probably associated with far lower doses,” report International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. According to the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) 0.1 grams would overdose one million people, one gram, ten million people, 100 grams, one billion people and 600 grams, six billion people . “A rapid release of one kilogram of plutonium at ground level in dispersible, inhalable form would cause a public health emergency of the first magnitude. Plutonium air concentrations could be on the order of hundreds of micrograms per cubic meter of air at one kilometer from the release site. Individuals breathing this air would inhale enough plutonium to cause cancer with certainty within minutes,” said Dr. Edwin S. Lyman of the Nuclear Control Institute. This is the nightmare of nightmares. There is an incredible amount of plutonium in this plant that could very well put us all in supercritical danger. 350 tons of uranium is equal to about a kilogram of plutonium. – Dr. Chris Busby The Pentagon has misled the world with claims that its DU is safe. They have lied about depleted uranium regardless of how many of their own soldiers become ill and die from it and from the toxic vaccines they administer in mega doses before troops are deployed into war theaters. The Pentagon has maintained that DU shells are safe because they contain only mildly radioactive uranium when in reality depleted uranium also contains small amounts of plutonium and other highly radioactive elements . Despite the authorities’ attempts at concealment, the truth is out. Since World War II, accumulated radiation has increased the radiation burden to the global community. Nuclear weapons testing, nuclear power plants, radiation accidents like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and terrible nuclear accidents from earlier years in Russia have all contributed to increasing the overall radiation contamination of the global environment. We cannot escape exposure because we breathe the air, drink the water and eat the food from contaminated soils. When uranium burns into particles, it will enter human bodies ingested with drinking water and food, or inhaled with air. In this case, the whole radiation and chemical toxicity will be released in the body. – Professor Katsuma Yagasaki According to Dr. Katsuma Yagasaki, “DU dust-like particles can enter human bodies, and once taken into the body, they will become tens of millions times more hazardous. Newly released data indicate that low-level radiation is more likely to cause biochemical abnormalities than intensive high-level radiation. It is wrong to make light of the hazard of low-level radiation .” After the “Shock and Awe” campaign in Iraq in 2003, very fine particles of depleted uranium were captured with larger sand and dust particles in filters in Britain. These particles had traveled in 7-9 days from Iraqi battlefields as far as 2400 miles away. The radiation measured in the atmosphere quadrupled within a few weeks after the beginning of the 2003 campaign, and at one of the five monitoring locations, the levels required two official alerts to the British Environment Agency. Within nine days of the start of the Iraq war on March 19, 2003, higher levels of uranium were picked up on five sites in Berkshire. – London Times The Ministry of Defense refused to acknowledge the possibility of any connection between the use of atomic weaponry in Iraq and these readings in England, saying the uranium was of a “natural origin” and there was no evidence that depleted uranium had reached Britain from Iraq. According to Dr. Chris Busby and Dr. Saoirse Morgan, who forced the British government to release the above information, “On the basis of the mean increase in uranium in air of about 500nBq/m3 we use respiration data to calculate that each person in the area inhaled some 23 million uranium particles of diameter 0.25 microns . As far as we know, this is the first evidence that uranium aerosols from battle use have been shown to travel so far.” The military, essential partners in everything nuclear, have been playing with the nuclear fires on the battlefields and the stuff is getting back home. Typical they would not tell us commoners anything about it. Will they tell us when things get completely out of control in Japan? The shattering truth of all this leads us to the conclusion that radiation travels with ease on the winds and the jet stream long, very long distances, so it’s a big mistake to assume we’re out of harm’s way. Busby and Morgan made it perfectly clear that “the evidence from the present analysis is implicit in the results; i.e., the increases found clearly demonstrate that the uranium particles are capable of long-distance travel .” Busby and Morgan continue saying, “Despite many pieces of evidence that the uranium aerosols are long-lived in the environment and are able to travel considerable distances, this is the first evidence as far as we know, that they are able to travel thousands of miles. The distance traveled from Baghdad to Reading following the wind patterns implicit in the pressure systems at the time is about 2,500 miles. Although this transport may be hard to believe at first, the regular desert sand events that occur in the UK should teach us that the planet is not such a large place, and that with regard to certain long-lived atmospheric pollutants, no man is an island .” After traveling 2,500 miles, if the exposure to the English was 23 million uranium particles, it is anyone’s guess the amount of fallout that reached the United States. Odds are that everyone in ?the northern hemisphere was contaminated to one degree or another. Special Note on Iodine: Dr. Miller says, “Radioisotopes pose an important health risk to man in nuclear accidents associated with electric power generation due to their uptake by the thyroid glands. Topical application of tincture of iodine (I) was found to be effective in blocking the thyroid uptake of orally administered 131I [131-Iodine] in humans. Abdominal skin application of tincture of I [iodine] resulted in an approximately 82 percent reduction in the uptake of 131I by the thyroid gland. The effectiveness varied among individuals and may have depended on the quantity applied and on the application site. In each study group, elevated levels of serum I were observed. This may be an attractive alternative method of mass protection from radioisotopes of I following nuclear accidents. Serum I concentrations peaked at approximately two hours after topical application of tincture of I.” Dr. David Brownstein says, “13mg/day of iodine prevents approximately 96 percent of radioactive iodine from binding to the thyroid gland. That is the approximate dosage of iodine ingested daily by the Japanese. This is over 100x the average daily dose ingested by Americans. Please keep in mind it is not just the thyroid gland that is at risk with exposure to radioactive iodine. The breasts, ovaries, uterus, prostate, skin, and other organs all bind and require iodine for optimal functioning. In fact, every cell in our body requires iodine for optimal functioning. Therefore, if we are iodine deficient, exposure to radioactive iodine can potentially result in damage to all the cells of the body. My experience has shown over 95 percent of patients are deficient in iodine. I believe iodine deficiency is one of the underlying causes of the epidemic of cancer of the breast, thyroid, ovaries, uterus and prostate. Furthermore, iodine deficiency is the underlying cause of thyroid disorders including Hashimoto’s disease, Grave’s disease, goiter, and hypothyroidism. Our iodine levels have fallen 50 percent over the last 30 years. During that time, all of the above conditions have been rising at near epidemic rates.”

New explosion at Fukushima strikes No. 2 reactor, containment vessel damaged

(NaturalNews) A new explosion rocked the Fukushima No. 2 reactor today, says Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). That explosion caused new damage to the containment vessel, resulting in a rise in radiation being leaked into the environment (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/15/c_13778928.htm). This news of the worsening situation comes on the heels of some good news in the nuclear catastrophe: TEPCO has been able to restore grid power to buildings 5 and 6, which also house enormous quantities of stored fuel. Neither of these buildings was considered the primary threat in the first place, but it is at least a hopeful sign that TEPCO might have a chance at preventing a meltdown (http://www.smh.com.au/world/headway-as-fukushima-pumps-restart-20110320-1c2b4.html). Japanese crews are now working on an attempt to restore the functionality of the pumps that circulate water to cool the fuel rods. Those pumps are reportedly working in buildings 5 and 6, but no one even knows if the pumps are functional in buildings 2, 3 or 4. (They may have been damaged in the explosions that rocked the site.) To make matters even worse, it appears that the cooling pool in reactor No. 4 has a leak and won’t hold water. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, “The pool at reactor No.4 has the hottest spent fuel and is thought to have either holes in the pool or another leak that is allowing water to run out. It is thus imperative to cool those heat sources first.” Japan’s government raises “safe” limit of radiation exposure Japanese workers who have been at the forefront of all these efforts are dwindling in numbers as they’re pulled off the front lines due to excessive radiation exposure. In order to cope with this, the Japanese government simply increased the allowable dose of radiation it now considers “safe” for workers. It used to be that 100 millisieverts was considered the maximum allowable level, but Japan has now arbitrarily raised that number to 250 millisieverts for no justifiable reason. (Radiation didn’t suddenly become less dangerous overnight, unless the laws of physics suddenly changed and nobody told us about it…) About the overall status of the situation, Hidehiko Nishiyama, the deputy-general at Japan’s Nuclear Safety Agency, said “We are making progress … [but] we shouldn’t be too optimistic.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/20/japan-nuclear-crisis-fukushima-workers) Today Japanese officials also announced that the Fukushima nuclear power plant would have to be “scrapped” and could never be restarted. The official plan now is to eventually bury the entire plant in sand and concrete — a plan that will of course be laughed at by the next tsunami to strike the northeast coast of Japan. On the food side of the issue, Taiwan has now confirmed that it is importing radioactive fava beans from Japan, but says the radiation level is too low to cause concern. Other Asian nations that import food from Japan are all scanning those imports for radiation. Where do we stand with Fukushima? The bottom line in all this? The Fukushima catastrophe is nowhere near resolved, but there are hopeful signs that progress may yet be made. The restoration of grid electricity to reactors 5 and 6 is a step in the right direction, but the real question is whether it can be restored to reactor No. 3, where the extremely dangerous “MOX” fuel resides (http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_plutonium_enriched_uranium.html). That’s the nuclear fuel known to be 2,000,000 times more deadly than enriched uranium. Even a miniscule release of material from that facility (just a few grams) would pollute the region for literally tens of thousands of years. Reactor No. 3 is still in an extremely dangerous emergency situation. TEPCO officials have said they may have to vent radioactive steam from it in order to relieve the mounting pressure. This action was narrowly averted today but could be invoked at any time. Also today: The Japanese government openly admitted it should have distributed potassium iodide earlier to protect people from the cancers caused by radiation exposure. But instead of handing out the KI pills, Japan’s government did nothing for three days following the initial explosion and tried to downplay the situation. That’s what governments do these days, it seems: Instead of helping their people cope with disaster, they pretend there’s no problem and leave people to die. The Ostrich Syndrome appears to be an international problem, as the U.S. government suffers from it, too. Stay tuned to NaturalNews for more updates as the Fukushima situation unfolds. We remain hopeful that a fuel rod meltdown can be avoided, but right now there is no evidence-based reason to conclude that will be achieved. It’s still a desperate, hour-by-hour effort that is nowhere close to being under control.

Total information blackout on Fukushima Unit 4 reactor raises serious questions about truth of situation

(NaturalNews) The status of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s Unit 4 reactor is one of the most critical aspects in determining the severity of the impending nuclear meltdown. After all, the most recent temperature readings available showed that the rods there were three times hotter than they should be, which was far worse than the other reactors at the time. And yet for several days, basic information like whether or not there is actually water left in Unit 4′s cooling pool, or what the current temperature is of the spent fuel rods there, is no longer being supplied and reported, at least not accurately. On Thursday, NaturalNews reported that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had announced the cooling pools in Unit 4 had run dry, and that the temperatures were spiking out of control (http://www.naturalnews.com/031734_nuclear_fallout_fuel_rods.html). As NRC made this announcement, though, Japanese officials and spokesmen from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), owner of the Fukushima plant, insisted that the pools were not dry and that the situation was stable. Besides this conflicting and confusing information, there is the other disturbing fact that on-the-ground temperature readings of Unit 4 immediately stopped being taken the day of the NRC announcement. And since that day, there has been no official update on the temperature of the rods at Unit 4, or an actual verified account of the water status in the cooling pools. Oddly enough, there are now early reports beginning to emerge from TEPCO claiming that operators may be able to reconnect power to Unit 4 and several other units by Saturday (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/18/japan-nuclear-reactor-power-idUSLHE7EF00820110318). The temperature readings have mysteriously ceased, and nobody can verify whether or not there is actually water left in the cooling pools, but somehow workers are going to reconnect power to the damaged reactor? Something seems very out of place here. That so much of the available information on the situation is conflicting is questionable in and of itself. And the continual downplaying of the threat, despite the fact that the disaster as we currently know it to be is already the second largest nuclear catastrophe in history, is also highly suspect. There have been numerous fires, explosions, and other unknowns taking place and crews have largely had to evacuate the site to avoid radiation poisoning, but officials insist everything is just fine. Clearly everything is not fine, especially for the Japanese people. If you have been paying attention to the many other reports here on NaturalNews about the situation, you will quickly recognize the many serious factors at play and their numerous inconsistencies. There is an extremely dangerous plutonium-based fuel in one of the damaged reactors that may have already been, or eventually could be, released into the environment (http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_plutonium_enriched_uranium.html), an allegedly empty cooling pool exposing thousands of highly volatile fueling rods to the open air (http://www.naturalnews.com/031734_nuclear_fallout_fuel_rods.html), and a US president telling everyone to chill out and do nothing other than watch television for further information (http://www.naturalnews.com/031735_Obama_radioactive_fallout.html). The people of Japan, and especially those located within close proximity to the Fukushima nuclear plant, are obviously the most threatened by the radiation situation. Many reports indicate, however, that the Japanese government is still downplaying the situation to the Japanese people even more than the US government is downplaying it to Americans. A recent report explains that the Japanese government deceived and withheld pertinent information from the mayor of a city 12 miles downwind of the nuclear plant — the mayor literally had to take matters into his own hands and bravely urge an evacuation of his city just last night for the people’s own protection — and he did this in direct opposition to the official government position (http://www.naturalnews.com/031747_nuclear_fallout_disinformation.html). And you can be sure that if the situation gets worse for the US, the US government will likely take a similar position and continue to insist that there is nothing to be concerned about. This is why individuals must think for themselves — rather than let the government think for them — and be prepared for whatever may come. Remember, preparedness has nothing to do with fear-mongering, and everything to do with simply being smart and staying informed about a situation. Taking practical steps to protect you and your family from potential threats is the only natural response to a situation of this magnitude. Sources for this story include: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-18/japan-unit-4-pool-s-heat-exceeded-three-times-normal-iaea-says.html

Food, water now radioactive in Japan; sales halted while governments play the radiation doublespeak game

(NaturalNews) As the situation in Fukushima continues to deteriorate, radiation levels keep rising. Now the food and water near (and inside) Tokyo is becoming irradiated. Reuters reports that the water in Tokyo is now contaminated with radioactive iodine (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/19/us-japan-water-idUSTRE72I29J20110319). AP is also reporting that both spinach and milk from Fukushima is radioactive, and a few officials are slowly admitting that the level of radioactivity is “beyond safe levels” for human consumption. The IAEA is also confirming now that Japan has halted the sale of food products from the Fukushima area (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/19/japan-nuclear-food-idUSLDE72I08C20110319?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews&rpc=22&sp=true), although official seem to be saying that the food will be safe to eat if you just “wait a little while” for the radiation levels to fall. Sounds scrumptious. The radiation game What we’re seeing now with the food reports, the radioactive water and even news from the Fukushima nuclear plant itself is a desperate attempt to downplay the dangers from radiation. The Japanese government, for starters, has maintained a complete blackout on reporting accurate radiation levels from Fukushima. Those levels are obviously too high for the public to see, and that alone should be worrisome. (http://www.naturalnews.com/031758_Fukushima_nuclear_reactor.html) As radiation recently started falling on California, U.S. authorities practically stampeded over each other to see who could say “No danger!” the quickest. It’s a line straight out of the Mad Max films: “What’s a little fallout, eh?” Now in Japan, they’ve been playing the radiation game with their descriptions of danger there, too. At first, when the early radiation became detectable, it was described as the same amount as “a chest X-ray.” Don’t worry! It’s just like going to the doctor’s office. Now, in a charming quote published this morning, chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano is upping the ante from chest X-rays to CT scans, saying: “Even though you continue to consume these [foods] for a year, a total radiation level that will be taken inside the body will be comparable to one run of CT scan.” What he’s not saying, of course, is that a CT scan can deliver from 100 – 600 times the radiation of a chest X-ray . And CT scans actually cause 29,000 cancers a year (http://www.naturalnews.com/028621_CT_scans_cancer.html). To now say that Japan’s radioactive food is “as safe as a CT scan” isn’t exactly comforting. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to compare the radiation to next. “Don’t worry, eating this food is as safe as getting twenty mammograms!” Or better yet, when the radiation levels get really high, they might say, “It’s as safe as a radiation treatment for cancer!” You know, the kind that makes your hair fall out and leaves burn marks across your skull. The radiation all adds up The truth is, anybody comparing the radiation in Japan to the “safety” of medical radiation is being intentionally deceptive. Even medical imaging procedures are extremely dangerous to your health (http://www.naturalnews.com/027648_CT_scans_radiation.html). And thanks to modern (western) medicine, most people are already over-irradiated even before they’re exposed to radioactive food, water or dust particles in the air. You see, radiation is cumulative . You get some from the mammograms, some more from the CT scan, a little more from the TSA naked body scanners, a little more from background radiation, and so on… and pretty soon you’ve got DNA mutations from the total cumulative load. They don’t tell you that. It makes no difference if “the food is as safe as a CT scan” because now we’re talking about the food radiation exposure on top of all your other medical imaging exposures. And that’s on top of all the EMF exposure and other electropollution in our modern world, which has been proven to cause type-3 diabetes, by the way (http://www.naturalnews.com/028967_electropollution_diabetes.html). Yes, type-3. That’s not a typo. It’s the new designation for diabetes caused by electromagnetic pollution. Type-1 is autoimmune, type-2 is mostly related to diet and exercise, and type-3 is caused by electropollution. The complete lack of intellectual honesty from governments on all this is just astonishing. Governments never seem to take the health and safety of their own citizens seriously. Heck, Obama doesn’t even want Americans to prepare! (http://www.naturalnews.com/031735_Obama_radioactive_fallout.html) And Japan’s government is blatantly lying to the people there, endangering the lives of tens of millions (http://www.naturalnews.com/031747_nuclear_fallout_disinformation.html). For all we know, a huge radiation explosion might have already occurred in Fukushima and we’re just not being told about it . When the Geiger counters start going red hot in California, the government will say something like, “Oh, that’s just a solar flare, no need to worry.” One thing that has become apparent in all this is that both the Japanese and American governments really don’t think radiation exposure is a problem for you. So why would they warn you about it anyway? Only a massive, Chernobyl-scale event that’s impossible to cover-up will be admitted by either of these governments, it seems. And that’s why so many people are turning to alternative media sources to stay informed on this issue. It’s the only place where you can get honest analysis of the available information. And by the way, we also urge people to take basic precautions and be prepared with your spare food, water, emergency medicine, radio, flashlight, duct tape, camping knife and whatever else you might need in an emergency evacuation situation. It’s an age-old bit of wisdom that still rings true today, even if Presidents have abandoned the idea: It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Widespread nuclear fallout edges closer as spent fuel pool runs dry, says NRC

(NaturalNews) The situation in Japan seems to be going from bad to worse, as officials from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently came forward saying that water pools used to cool spent fuel rods in Unit 4 have run dry, and that temperatures are rising rapidly in several of the other reactor units. “There is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures,” said NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko before the US House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the six-unit Fukushima Daiichi reactor complex, and the Japanese nuclear safety agency conflictingly deny that the water is gone, and that conditions at Unit 4 are “stable.” But NRC and its staffers believe their information is reliable, and that the situation may very quickly divulge into a very serious meltdown. Temperature readings from the reactor units seem to confirm that the situation is spiraling out of control, with Units 4, 5, and 6 showing significant temperature rises in recent days. And Unit 4 is of particular concern because it has already registered much hotter than the other units, clocking in at 183 degrees Fahrenheit (84 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday. Wednesday readings from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna for Unit 4 were strangely unavailable. On Monday, a large explosion occurred at Unit 4, and radiation readings near the site jumped to around 400 millisieverts/hour, which is highly dangerous to humans. The yearly average for background radiation from natural sources is roughly three millisieverts (http://my.firedoglake.com/scarecrow/2011/03/14/japan-nuclear-watch-ministry-press-conference-on-third-explosion-and-fire-at-unit-4/). The large amount of spent fuel rods present at Unit 4, the allegedly depleted water supply used for cooling, and the ever-escalating temperatures all clearly indicate a recipe for massive disaster. And since remediation teams have largely been evacuated due to escalating radiation levels around the plant, it remains unclear whether or not the situation can feasibly be contained. Japanese authorities are currently urging people within 12 miles of the plant to evacuate the area, and those within 20 miles to remain indoors. However the US Embassy in Tokyo has taken a more severe approach, advising those living within 50 miles of the site to evacuate immediately. If you live in western North America, particularly in Southern California, you may want to begin taking precautionary preparedness steps, should the situation escalate into a serious threat. A recent UN analysis indicates that radiation plumes may begin hitting Southern California by Friday (http://www.naturalnews.com/031733_radioactive_plume_California.html). Since radiation levels from the initial plumes are still relatively low, there is no need to panic. However, based on what continues to develop it is best to be aware and prepared as early as possible. NaturalNews has provided some practical steps you and your family can take to protect yourselves from radioactive fallout should it affect the US: http://www.naturalnews.com/031731_radiation_preparedness.html Also, be sure to stay tuned to NaturalNews for regular updates of the situation in Japan as it develops. Sources for this story include: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=134600420#commentBlock

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