Why You Should Still Be Paying Attention to Fukushima 5 Years Later

fukushimaBy Claire Bernish

March 11th marks the five-year anniversary of one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history, which triggered an unprecedented melange of disasters of human and natural causes — including the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in 1986: Fukushima.

Five years ago today, as Popular Mechanics summarized, the “earth moved more than 20 meters over a 500-mile zone and the resulting earthquake released as much energy as a 45-megaton hydrogen bomb (to put this in perspective, this is 30,000 times more powerful as the bomb that leveled Hiroshima). It was the fourth-strongest earthquake recorded since 1900 and the strongest earthquake to strike Japan in recorded history. The quake shifted the Earth’s axis by somewhere between 4 and 10 inches, altering the length of a day by nearly 2 microseconds.”

This release of energy set off an epic tsunami, reaching a height of around 40 meters (140 feet) before making landfall on the Japanese coast, obliterating nearly every building in its path; more than a million buildings were destroyed or damaged. Perched on the coast, of course, was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, whose three functioning reactors, units 1, 2, and 3, were knocked offline by the quake — as they were designed to do — and were operating under power of backup diesel generators.

A seawall, intended to shield the plant from just such a tsunami, proved to be as ineffectual as critics had previously warned. Seawater immediately inundated the emergency generators, knocking out the only source of power keeping necessary cool water circulating over the nuclear fuel rods. Though emergency crews scrambled in the ensuing chaos to find alternative means for cooling the reactors’ cores, it became clear their mission was one of containing the scope of the disaster rather than restoring the plant.

Chemical reactions from the series of events caused pockets of hydrogen to build up in support buildings — and for days after the initial disaster — resulting in a number of explosions that were captured in dramatic video by surveillance aircraft.

Government officials fumbled emergency procedures — by many accounts there were delays and misinformation in abundance immediately following the catastrophe — which arguably placed the health of the population in question. All told, the evacuation eventually comprised an area of 20 km (12 miles) surrounding the crippled nuclear plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operated Fukushima, has conducted a notoriously botched cleanup and containment effort ever since. Five years have seen even the attempt to locate the missing fuel — which heated to the point the rods ‘melted’ through their containment vessels —  become a largely fruitless endeavor. In fact, it’s not at all clear where the highly radioactive fuel is located now.

“It is extremely difficult to access the inside of the nuclear plant,” Naohiro Masuda, TEPCO’s head of decommissioning, stated in an interview, Newsweek reported. “The biggest obstacle is the radiation.”

Camera-laden, specialized robots — each taking two years to develop — sent inside the plant to locate the missing fuel have all become incapacitated once radiation interferes with their wiring.

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Water must be constantly pumped over the destroyed cores in an effort to keep them cool, but once used for that purpose, it must also be pumped out — and cannot be reused. TEPCO hastily constructed storage tanks to hold this radioactive water waste, and though some improvements have been made to their design since the early days following the calamity, there are reports of constant leaks and seepages — including into the sea.

TEPCO’s effort to contain radioactivity to the site, by manufacturing an underground wall of ice to prevent the inflow of groundwater, has been similarly futile. Though the first stages of the wall were completed in February, critics are concerned both with the amount of time the project has taken and whether it will ultimately pay off.

“The reactors continue to bleed radiation into the groundwater and thence into the Pacific Ocean,” said former nuclear engineer, Artie Gunderson, according to Newsweek. “When Tepco finally stops the groundwater, that will be the end of the beginning.”

Though the suggestion has been made to entomb the plant by encasing radioactive contaminants in a material like concrete — as was the ultimate solution for Chernobyl — officials believe Fukushima’s location next to the Pacific would endanger the environment.

So far, TEPCO and Japanese government officials have been unable to develop a clear plan of action for decommissioning Fukushima. Estimates vary for the length of time needed to effectively carry out the massive project, though they concur it will take decades.

This article (Why You Should Still Be Paying Attention to Fukushima 5 Years Later) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.


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46 Comments on "Why You Should Still Be Paying Attention to Fukushima 5 Years Later"

  1. Is HAARPs ability to make earthquakes even considered? A documented weakness in the containment and coincidentally one of the top 4 most powerful quakes ever hits it. The 1% love testing destructive technology on Japan, and I believe this is more of the same.

    • Dickard, you are on the right track, see my comment above.

    • See jimstone’s website

      • Absolute rubbish. Look at his website and then good luck trying to figure out what it actually says.

        People who know nothing about Japan or nuclear power, or the history of the two in this region, might swallow that crap, but the absurdity that somehow the stuxnet virus was used to cause the meltdowns ignores:

        1. The cause of the earthquake
        2. The destruction of react 1 due to the quake and not tsunami
        3. The technical reasons the backup generators failed at Dai ichi (namely, something called a “TSUNAMI” Doh!
        4. Would the Israelis really carry out a sabotage mission to get back at Japan for acknowledging Palestinian rights even when they are involved with Japan and the US in
        the plutonium trade?

        Doh!

        • The switch gear and the pumps failed not the generators, the earthquake was minor,- you didn’t even try to argue away my fact about there being no significant earthquake damage – one of the reactors that supposedly ‘blew up’ was disassembled at the time and Japan has always been a problem for your Tribe because their culture of Honor has proved impossible infiltrate and to corrupt. The immediate cause was the Japanese agreement to enrich uranium for Iran – not your confusing bullshit.

          • “earthquake was minor”

            What is your proof of this absurdity? Millions of people experienced the earthquake on that day, and the huge tremor that occurred a few minutes after the first, not to mention the dozens of smaller ones after that. You have written many statements on this page, but none of them are sourced other than “Jim Stone” CIA disinfo agent.

            You make a lot of BIG claims none of which are backed up with links or evidence. In other words, your arguments are worthless until you can either put up.

          • I said, in context, that the earthquake was (relatively) minor – I said it was less than a 7.0 which, compared to the 9.0 richter scale they claim, IS minor. Remember a single point increase on that scale is a ten times increase in energy released. So the claimed 9.0 earthquake would release 100 times the energy of a 7.0 (actually it was smaller than a 7.0 – probably only about a 6.5) Only a lier or a fool takes a statement out of context.
            I never said that people didn’t experience an earthquake, even your people couldn’t fake that. I was taking about the effects felt. The earthquake that devastated Kobe in ’95 was a 7.2 – almost 100 times smaller than the 9.0 claimed yet the results were over 4000 people killed and:
            “Damage was extremely widespread and severe. Structures irreparably damaged by the quake included nearly 400,000 buildings,[3][12] numerous elevated road and rail bridges, and 120 of the 150 quays in the port of Kobe. The quake triggered around 300 fires,[3] which raged over large portions of the city.”

            As to my sources, perhaps you’d like to explain why the CIA would like to spread this particular ‘Disinformation” – it seems to me that the CIA would be much more likely to suppress it (like you are attempting to do).

            I find your last sentence interesting: “your arguments are worthless until you can either put up.” – you suddenly stop half way through – perhaps finishing of with the normal ending of “or shut up” would make your goal too clear.
            P.S. I note you have backed away from your claim to have actually been there at the time AND you still make no attempt to discount the single most telling thing about this incident – the lack of damage ahead of the tsunami flooding the cities. If you want ‘proof’, that video (non) evidence is that proof.

          • Beware the shill, John! Noticed the increase lately?

          • Yes, I suspect that I attract them. I often don’t bother to call them out because it gives them the opportunity to play the ‘you’re paranoid and I’m just an honest commentator’ card.
            This guy ‘Rad Man’ is definitely a professional (though not a very good one)
            The Tribe and the CIA types have alert systems to let them know when a ‘dangerous’ subject or conversation is happening so they can jump straight onto it. You can tell because they usually are not regular commentators on that particular site. Their ‘names’ are often another give-away, especially if you apply the ‘Opposites Principle’ ie ‘Rad Man’ definitely is Not ‘Radical’.

          • Totally agree, John. Sounds like you have been on the front lines for a while, too. I wonder whats on our ‘score card’ lol!

          • Yes, I’d be interested in that scoreboard if it exists. As for my experience, I started to learn ‘debating’ internet style more than 20 years ago (I’m an old bugger) on a section of the net called UseNet. It is very obscure these days but before the www existed it was a major part of the net. Originally there was only eMail and UseNet, both text only. UseNet was a system of bulletin boards where there was a huge number of sites that you could subscribe to on every conceivable subject or interest and anyone could read posts and reply or post new threads. Most were unmoderated – it was very close to pure anarchy. Lots of fun was had.

        • I found his site fairly easy to read .

      • I don’t know if Jim Stone’s site is still reliable – last I looked he had stopped updating it – he may be dead or in a dark cage somewhere. But his information is out there, you can still find it.

    • That is what I said when it happened. They don’t care, and would obviously do their testing, and keep it an absolute secret if it was the cause. Total sociopaths are in control and it’s scary. Even if not for HARRP, GE was at fault for the reactor containment failures, and was not held responsible. Glad to see you have your tin-foil thinking cap on.

  2. Well, here we have the whole ‘official’ story, thanks Clair. The problem is it’s completely false. It was actually a relatively minor earthquake – less than a 7.0. You can confirm this by researching videos of the tsunami flooding onto the shore. Every video you will find that shows this happening shows the water flooding UNDAMAGED cities. Parking lots with the cars neatly lined up, suburbs of timber framed houses showing undamaged. If you can find it there is a video taken inside a news room close to the epicenter and one journalist doesn’t even stop typing. They upped the ‘earthquake’ to match the size of the tsunami.
    In reality it was sabotage that caused the reactors to melt down – including a stuxnet infection that confused the operators and destroyed the pumps that controlled the coolant.
    I beg you to do the research on this – it’s so hot that even the ‘alternative media’ won’t touch it. I’m just hoping that this comment is not censored. Please reply if you want more info.

    • What a lie. I was there/here on 3/11 and it was no minor earthquake, I can tell you that, it was MASSIVE. So take your nonsense and peddle elsewhere.

      This is the retarded Jim Stone thesis (feces) being repeddled, blah.

      • Yeah sure you were there. How did you survive? Have you seen the photos of the Kobe quake that was Much smaller yet totally devastated that city? Kobe killed thousands, the Fukushima earthquake killed virtually zero except for the tsunami.
        You are a lier, doing your Hasbara for your Tribe. What is your definition of Truth? What’s good for the Tribe of course…

        • I’m no fan of the Israelis, but this is a case of poisoning the well. The Israelis are evil for many reasons including using nuclear weapons as a form of blackmail against Europe (we will bomb you if you don’t do as we say). The level of ignorance of your comments is astounding, no facts, a lot of absurd pronouncements. You claim the earthquake was minor when millions of people experienced it, and it was NOT minor, the opposite. What evidence does Jim Stone present in his convoluted page of garbage that is reliably sourced? None.

          • Your admission of the conventional, political level evil of the Tribe doesn’t give you any sort of ‘pass’ to credibility – everyone knows those things – what you are trying to hide is a level of EVIL that goes off the ‘human’ chart.
            It’s interesting that you are quite familiar with Jim Stone – yet you argue as if you haven’t heard of his arguments – this fits someone who has been tasked with ‘Damage Control’.
            I think you should withdraw with whatever dignity you retain. Something like ‘It’s not worth debating with a fool’ should do the trick.

          • These shills think we are so stupid we can’t identify them! Never mess with a free thinking truther! 😉

          • Yey! Go us! lol
            I actually get lots of fun by jousting with them 🙂 The Tribe members in particular are convinced by their upbringing that us Goyim are all stupid – they are incredibly racist – and that makes them more vulnerable.

    • Look, I am also a researcher and so-called conspiracy theorist, but your comment has no basis in fact, and wouldn’t matter if it did. There is an existing dire problem now. It wouldn’t matter either, if HAARP caused the earthquake that supposedly caused the Tsunami and subsequent reactor meltdowns. The only thing that matters now, is not eating fish caught in the Pacific, and not swimming or surfing in the Pacific, and not drinking any water processed from the Pacific, and not being in the rain over North America, and not breathing the air when there is a storm that originates from Japan.

      • Why don’t you just find a video showing a Japanese suburb that was devastated Before being hit by the tsunami before claiming it was caused by natural causes? The meltdowns were Not caused by the tsunami and the tsunami was Not caused by the earthquake. It was deliberate Sabotage.
        And it’s not irrelevant what caused it, it very much matters now WHO created this problem because with such a insane group running around doing vast evils like Fukushima, undetected and unpunished, they are likely to do it again.

        • I’m not saying such a video exists or even that the quake caused massive damage before the Tsunami (though there are videos from Tokyo, in office buildings which show the strength and severity of the earthquake, even in those earthquake proofed/reinforced buildings).
          What caused the Tsunami, if not the earthquake? Where is your proof the Tsunami didn’t breach sea walls and cause the generators to fail?
          We know what caused it already. While I agree that there is an insane group of people running the world and certain world events, undetected and unpunished, there is little or nothing we can do about it (apparently). A seemingly easy place to start would be 9/11. There is tons of evidence of who perpetrated 9/11 and why, and yet, we can’t even get a real investigation. The cover up is rampant and highly organized. If you are a politician and you so much as utter a peep that 9/11 was an inside job, and be persistent, it is a potentially career ending move (and depending how far you take it, potentially life ending).

          • Your first two paragraphs make no sense. Maybe you missed my meaning – I’m saying that you need to find such videos if you believe that the tsunami was caused by an earthquake but you can’t because there was no 9.0 earthquake. The office buildings would have been destroyed by such an intense quake as they claim happened. Yet there was virtually no damage compared to the Kobe event which was much smaller.
            I don’t exactly know what caused the tsunami, perhaps it was a huge hydrogen bomb at the bottom of the Japan trench or HAARP as Dickard suggested or some other unknown technology – the important thing is it was not generated by an earthquake or other natural process.
            The tsunami DID breach the seawalls and may have flooded the generators but it didn’t stop all of them from working – it was problems with the switching gear that left the cooling pumps powerless. They even had battery backup and they did get replacement batteries there in time but couldn’t get them connected and working because of the stuxnet infection.
            Many people are so keen to see nuclear power plants as unsafe that they gladly jump to the conclusions that they want to see but those reactors were actually overbuilt compared to the GE specs and their backup safety systems would have worked except for the sabotage.
            Are you aware of the nature, origins and means of operation of the Stuxnet computer virus/worm? Among its ‘features’ are the ability to actually destroy equipment like pumps by setting up harmonic vibrations (that was used to destroy Irans enrichment centrifuges) and the ability to learn what is ‘normal’ for displays and hence prevent the operators from knowing when something is going wrong. It is designed to attack Simens industrial control systems and was co-created by the Tribe and the CIA. Japan was attacked because it had offered to enrich uranium for Iran.
            Your last paragraph I fully agree with and it shows that you are not blind. Open your eyes a little wider and you will see that 9/11 was a minor crime compared to Fukushima – truly the crime of the century if not the millenium. Only the Tribe COULD be so evil as to commit it. Apparently when you believe you have that demon ‘god’ on your side you will do ANYTHING you feel like.

  3. The numbers are a bit preposterous…, Popular Mechanics was shifted to the left by enough to have become Less POPULAR. My geology degree remains firmly planted in reality. This is, however, absolutely the worst (known) reactor accident in the history of Nuclear Power and the radiation release will be never ending, (arguably) in that it will take hundreds of thousands of years for the radio-active elements to decay to a HALF-Potency, refereed to as “half life”. Though spread out, the radiation has, essentially, permanently harmed the Bio-Sphere.

    • There is SOME hope, new developments that are related to ‘cold fusion’ better referred to as LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reactions) which are being suppressed in the normal way (ignoring it or ridicule) point to the possibility of speeding up the supposedly invariant rate of nuclear half-lifes.
      But that is only a minor help with all the pollution of the oceans and bio-sphere in general. One wonders what sort of mind could commit such a crime on the the planet and humanity.

      • Revelations 11:8 “………………..God will destroy those who destroy the earth “

        • Wow, so there IS some good in that book. Pity the Tribe hasn’t paid any attention to that bit.

          • I sent you a follow up which was deleted.

          • Interesting, you’re not the only one, EddySachs also sent one, I saw it as a notification that an additional comment existed while I was answering another, so I clicked to download it, It was a funny comment about how I shouldn’t bother about the shills and idiots. I wrote a reply but when I clicked ‘post’ it gave me a big red message saying something like ‘You can only reply to active messages…’ I guess this confirms my opinion about this subject. Nice. I think we were lucky to get the exposure we did.

          • It will be trigger words such as a certain book I mentioned

          • Normally that is the cause – that’s why I use ‘Tribe” or ‘Chosen Ones’ or sometimes ‘Eskimos”, but this post by Eddy didn’t contain any that I noticed and it was not rejected automatically by a computer but initially got through, then was picked up within a few minutes presumably by a human. I suspect the subject of our discussion flagged it as dangerous and they didn’t want it becoming too well noticed by the ‘masses’. Eddy is a well known and popular poster and his endorsement needed to be hidden to preserve the image of us as ‘fringe’ loonies. BTW I’m curious about the book you mentioned.
            I feel I need to clarify my attitude to the bible – I would fully support a truly Christian bible but to be that it would have to exclude the ‘Old Testament’ which I regard as poison that was somehow smuggled in by the Tribe. I think that is why Christianity has managed to create so much evil in the last two thousand years – it was corrupted from the start by the usual culprits. It’s interesting that supposedly Hitler thought the same. I hope you are aware that the HoloHoax is just that, a malevolent lie.

  4. Ad hominem attack. What evidence do you have other than Jim Stone’s piece of nonsense unsourced page that the Israelis were behind the Earthquake, or was there no earthquake now? If you can’t explain your thesis simply then you are confused from the start. Start over and start using your brain. I am no fan of the Israelis, they are of the Synagogue of Satan. The truth is the truth though. Did you idiots on this page know that Japan exists in the Pacific Rim of FIre of seismic activity? Learn some basic geology before making moronic claims from the Jim Stone CIA disinfo site. Doh!

    • You need to maintain consistency at least if you want to maintain your cover ‘Rad” Man. Nobody claimed there was no earthquake. That is an example of a ‘Straw Man’ argument. And I doubt that Eddy has even seen the Jim Stone information, he was just commenting on the quality of the responses.
      The quake is not the issue, though you keep trying to make it so, I claimed the Tsunami was artificial, the exaggerated earthquake was simply cover for the tsunami and the reactors didn’t fail because they got wet – the disaster was caused by the stuxnet virus and it was done to punish Japan for being ‘anti-semitic’ and offering to enrich uranium for Iran. It’s simple really – if you are willing to admit the level of EVIL of the Tribe.

      • I am led to concur that they used HAARP or a nuclear bomb down in the Mariana Trench or one close to Japan…as this was a completely staged False Flag with the Israhell security contract that actually used a mini nuke (so-called Hydrogen explosion) at the same time their Stuxnet virus was loosed in the software …the cooling generators were never able to deploy….as another Khazarian Mafia HIT!….for Japan potentially selling plutonium to Iran & threatening to discontinue the tribute to the American Petro $$$…+ it sent out a HUGE message to anyone else attempting to break from their hegemony (IMHO).

    • actually Rad Man ….I was commenting about someone else & the juxtaposition inadvertently got You in the crosXhairs by mistake …essentially out of context….sincerest apologies for the rise in blood pressure

      • I think you are being too nice to this ‘Rad Man’ dude. In my opinion he deserves no respect.

        • To be impartial fair & open….I’ve never come across the Rad Man before…I’ll have to reserve judgement until I read him fresh off the press in a new post.

          • That’s good then – I thought you had had interactions with him before and found him legitimate. My instincts tell me he shows many signs of being a ‘damage control’ agent, doing his hasbara duties. I don’t think we will hear from him again.

    • my mistake see below

  5. Hey! They reinstated your post Eddy, maybe our mentioning it had some effect!

  6. Another big quake’s due to happen beneath another Japanese reactor. Poor Japan.

  7. Thanks encyclopedia!

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