Today a cloud of nuclear material from the Japan Disaster will pass over where I live in Southern California.
The government of course claims that there is absolutely no danger.
The main question on everyone's mind is, can we trust the government?
Why wouldn't we? Those on the right have spent the last few years trying to convince us that we can't trust anything coming from Obama or the Democrats. The right wing has specialized in fear mongering so conservatives should be terrorized right now.
On the other hand Conservatives are the strongest cheerleaders for Nuclear Power and sometimes when hearing them talk about nuclear fuel, you get the sense that you could safely brush your teeth with the stuff.
The owners and sponsors of Fox News are afraid that people will push for clean renewable alternative energy sources, and so their minions including Bill OReilly and Glen Beck were sent out to attack the media for discussing possible dangers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...The government officials in Japan have asked people within 12 miles of the plant to evacuate and people within 19 miles to stay indoors. The Americans told all of their people to evacuate to outside 50 miles and are beginning an airlift of Americans out of the country.
Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, described the situation in Japan as "very serious."
The chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, said Wednesday that the high radiation levels could prevent workers from halting the rise in temperatures.
Tokyo Electric spokesman Hajime Motojuku denied the report and said the "condition is stable" at the Unit 4 reactor. But then TEPCO has a history of deception.
http://dirtdiggersdigest.org/Meanwhile, the governor of Fukushima prefecture, Yuhei Sato, said the anxiety and anger felt by people living around the plant has reached a "boiling point." The people feel the government is not being honest with them.
They are probably right. Now we have learned that the fuel in the #3 reactor is MOX fuel. This fuel is a combination of finally ground Plutonium and reprocessed uranium oxide. It has a lower melting point and is also considerably more dangerous than regular fuel rods, which may be why they are now concentrating on getting water to that reactor.
Plutonium is the most dangerous material in the world, and if evenly dispersed and breathed in, could give everyone in the world cancer. It has a half life of 25,000 years, and if a meltdown disperses plutonium across the country, large parts of the country will be uninhabitable essentially forever.
Why on earth would they use this dangerous material? It is considerably more expensive and is much more radioactive when it comes out of the plants than regular fuel, so it is harder to handle and dispose of. Perhaps it is being used because the plutonium can easily be processed into weapons grade material for bombs.
"The United States gave up on reprocessing fuel in the 1970s because of the dangers of weapons proliferation."
"The CIA has reported that Japan's nuclear power program was not limited to the peaceful production of electrical power. The program had its roots in a secret weapons program that caused the CIA to conclude as far back as 1964 that Japan could assemble within months a nuclear weapon."
"Because of the Japanese public's fear of nuclear weapons, the various subsequent Japanese governments have kept the program secret and have repeatedly denied its existence when news organizations made inquiries."
http://www.dcbureau.org/201103151304/Nat...Did the Americans detect this plutonium, and is that why they are flying Americans out of the country? Fortunately Plutonium is very heavy and will settle out fairly close to the plant so I don't have to worry about that in California.