Death in/of the Pacific?

Why is there so much death and disease among sea life living near the west coast of North America right now? Could the hundreds of tons of highly radioactive water that are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day have anything to do with it?
…Polar bears, seals and walruses along the Alaska coastline are suffering from fur loss and open sores…Along the Pacific coast of Canada and the Alaska coastline, the population of sockeye salmon is at a historic low…Something is causing fish all along the west coast of Canada to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs…the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada…
Read full story here

We thought that the one positive spin-off of Three Mile Island was that it would be the death-knell for nuclear power. We thought the same after Chernobyl, and Fukushima. Yet the madness continues with the UK now going to China for money to build more. The risks are so unacceptable that only the disconnected thinking of a coercive state could countenance them.extract from The State of Business, chapter 20

“‘False Legitimacy’ is often extended to businesses that would otherwise have neither the means nor any reason to exist. As mentioned earlier, this is patently the case with nuclear power, a dangerous and uneconomic activity that would never merit its existence in a free economy. Unless exonerated by the state, companies have responsibility under common law for their activities. Nuclear power companies do not take responsibility for obsolete plants that will remain toxic and need minding for many tens of thousands of years beyond their thirty- to forty-year working lifespan. No insurance company is willing to cover for the incalculable potential costs of nuclear accidents, as demonstrated at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. The state will attempt to underwrite any disaster repairs, with our money. If I keep referring to nuclear, it is because nothing else on this planet matches its potential to so permanently destroy virtually all of this beautiful thing called life.” (get the full ebook online for less than a cup of coffee)

UK plans to build more nuclear

While Germany is scrapping all of its nuclear program and France cutting nuclear back by 33%, the UK announces plans to expand its nuclear program. There have been no nuclear plants built in the UK or USA for over 20 years, with good reason, since no commercial company is prepared to adopt this dangerous and expensive approach to power generation. Now, plans to build a giant new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point have been announced, underwritten by the British, Chinese, and French governments. It is solely our tax revenues and the idiocy of the out-of-date state make this expansion of nuclear power possible – even after the disastrous experiences of Fukushima and Chernobyl.

Full story in today’s Guardian newspaper

from The State of Business, chapter 20

“Government schemes create another major distortion of the natural evolution of business in society. These are designed to protect and promote certain industries—even when they are outdated and delivering overpriced product. Nuclear power was developed for one purpose alone—to supply material for the state’s nuclear weapons. It does not make economic sense and is uninsurable. Not even the most notorious industrialist of the nineteenth century would have jeopardized his entire wealth on such a risk. What company could cover the loss of a city the size of Tokyo or London, the re-location of its residents, and their medical bills for life? That responsibility falls upon the state and we must wonder whether they will be able to cover it. We now know that the evacuation of Tokyo was considered after Fukushima, and have been told that, if all goes well, it will take over forty years to clean up the mess and stabilize the dangerously damaged reactors.”

(get the full ebook online for less than a cup of cappuccino)

What is a meltdown?

Meltdown is hot news right now but what exactly is one, other than an event to be avoided at all costs? Some will remember the immense relief the world experienced when full meltdown was averted at Chernobyl and 3-Mile Island.

There has never been a full large-scale meltdown but this is the unknown situation that it describes: The overheated reactor fuel rods melt together and become as hot as the Sun’s surface – enough to boil iron into steam. The hot metal melts down through the concrete base of its containment vessel and then continues sinking into the earth below. Very little can stop the reaction at this point.

It doesn’t sink downwards forever, because when the hot molten fuel reaches the natural water table it will quickly turn the underground water to steam. We don’t know exactly what will happen then, having never experienced a meltdown or been crazy enough to test the idea out. But it is probable that the expansive steam would vent upwards with explosive force, carrying much of the radioactivity with it.

How high and far the radioactivity would disperse depends on the force of the blast from underground. It may settle in the surrounding area, or be carried by jet streams. Large amounts of radioactivity landing in the sea will eventually be carried by ocean currents throughout the world. If oceanic contamination continues through unchecked meltdown, it does not bode well for the world’s oceans, harbouring most of the life on planet Earth. On the plus side, fish may become too radioactive to harvest and find their numbers rebounding, albeit with more mutants.

The averted meltdown at Chernobyl involved one reactor. Four reactors are currently in danger at Fukushima and two more could become involved. This is a potential disaster such as we have never faced before.

Nuclear power is an answer to nothing.