I was asked a question yesterday in a diary not about the subject of nukes and Fukushima, and figure it must be time to log another diary of my own that is to that topic. This will be fairly short, a run-down on what's happening now while I'm working on follow-ups to the Home Health Physics articles about protecting yourself and your family, about reported remedies for exposures in addition to potassium iodide and Prussian Blue. Then I'm planning yet another installment about decontamination of the environment once the dumping's done, which isn't feasible yet in Japan and won't be for the foreseeable future. It will be helpful to people outside Japan, especially to those who homestead and/or farm the land.
The run-down:
1. Another Exelon Executive Admits Non-Viability of Nukes
Following on the heels of ex-CEO of Exelon John Rowe's statements last week that nukes are a bad investment, the current Exelon executive chairman Mayo Shattuck III (sounds like a character from Hitchhiker's Guide) came out a few days later with the not-surprising information that nukes are still entirely incapable of competing in a free market or paying for their own costs and risks. Take-away quote:
"…the sovereign support of the state [is necessary], which really means it's on the backs of the ratepayers, not the backs of shareholders."
Exelon being the biggest nuclear outfit in the United States, people need to pay attention to what these insiders have to say.
2. Many Nuclear States Have No KI Stockpiled
Here's a good one. Turns out that 11 U.S. states hosting nuclear plants - including Illinois, which has more nukes than anybody else - have no stockpiles of potassium iodide on hand in case of accidents. Since KI needs to be taken as soon as possible when iodine-131 is released, this bodes ill for populations living nearby. Who, by NRC reckoning, don't need to be evacuated no matter what. Tough titty, all you 116 million Americans who live within 50 miles of a reactor. You're part of the "National Sacrifice" nukes and our government are willing to make in order to have lots of plutonium in their stockpiles and lots of cash in their pockets.
3. New AEC Released Documents Cast Doubt on GE's Analysis
Newly released documents detailing an exchange between Japan's AEC and DOE highlight the glaring incongruity between GE's insistence that its 'hardened' pressure venting systems at Fukushima "operated as designed" and the fact that four reactor buildings blew up from hydrogen released into THEM instead of out the stacks. Well, DUH. Best part of the highlighted pages are the mention of reactor head bolt "stretching" as an avenue of hydrogen release to the building atmosphere, something Arnold Gundersen outlined early on to explain why the buildings blew sky high. Looks like both the US DOE and Japan's AEC knew the same thing before the end of March, 2011.
4. Japan Polling: 3 of 5 Oppose Nuclear Restarts
A bit of good news in the wake of the massive din of propaganda and Yakuza-enforced arm-twisting in Japan as the last of their reactors nears its scheduled shut-down date. Seems that despite the faith of the crooks in the Japanese government and nuclear industry, the people are displaying a "radical shift" away from nuclear power that will not be so easy to overcome. Good for them! Now we need to do the same thing in this country, only louder because unlike in Japan, our government and nuclear industry doesn't bother to ask us citizens whether or not we want nukes. In Japan they need community approval. Here, they need only enough government subsidies to impose it on whoever's in the way.
That's all I've got for the moment, the floor is yours...