Reflection & Reality ~ Making Tough Choices...

Given the state of leadership in the world today...

Hiroshima & Nagasaki ~ Atomic Armageddon...

The first use of the A-Bomb as weapon of mass destruction happened today, August 6th, 1945 over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Days later, second use over Nagasaki. Hundred thousand-plus civilians slaughtered, both directly and slowly, agonizingly by the wasting effect of burns and radiation. It was atomic-powered urban armageddon. Here's remarkable footage shot soon after both blasts...

Atomic Memoriam ~ Remembering the Civilians

Thanks to Paul Levy for reminding us of the first -- and, I fervently hope, the last -- use of atomic weapons, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, massacring 150K+ civilians this past week back in 1945...

Safecast ~ Opensource Radiation Measures...

Great to see Safecast, an opensource distributed radiation measurement and mapping system. Civic media response to fear, uncertainty, and doubt of government veracity and industry objectivity...

"The ongoing crisis in Japan has highlighted our collective need for trusted information. This site is not meant as a replacement for government or nuclear agencies. Our hope is that data sets from various places can provide additional context to the official statements in these rapidly changing events."

Nuclear Luddites ~ Euro's Abandoning Future...

In a knee-jerk reaction to recent Japanese tsunami disaster and safety malfeasance, both Germany and Switzerland have renounced nuclear power joining even more backwards Italy. This neo-Luddite move signals that incompetents are in charge and listening to the greenie-weenie protesterati. According to the AP...

"Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries. "We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power -- or not to start using it -- how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies," Merkel said. Merkel's government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany -- the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest -- by 2022"

How disgustingly stupid.

Honoring Hibakusha ~ Beyond the Unfathomable

David McNeill and Miguel Quintana write in the Independent that Atom-bomb survivors fear new generation face familiar discrimination about the Hibakusha -- survivors of A-Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- one of man's most inhumane actions in recorded history...

"Like millions of other Japanese, Hiroko Tanaka has been glued to television footage of workers frantically trying to prevent disaster at a crippled nuclear plant. She has more reason to be worried than most: as an atom-bomb survivor, or hibakusha, Mrs Tanaka knows the impact of radiation first hand, and she has faced discrimination all her life in a country where little is still known about its effects. She waited 50 years before applying for the government certificate that proves she is a surviving victim of the 1945 US atomic bombing of Hiroshima. "Radioactivity is so scary because it's invisible" [...] Japan's roughly 227,000 hibakusha have suffered higher cancer rates as a result of the fallout from the twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The drama unfolding at the Fukushima nuclear complex fills many with growing alarm. [...] "The hibakusha faced an extreme degree of discrimination based on unfounded ideas," he said. "If the public was given a clear explanation of the effects of radiation, this problem would no longer exist."

Radiation Dose Chart ~ XKCD Delivers Infobits

Richard Barbalace spots XKCD's Radiation Dose Chart...

Criminal Incompetents ~ Seppuku for Fukushima...

The criminally negligent and grossly incompetent designer-authorities who placed emergency backup diesel generators and fuel storage pools at Fukushima in positions so blindingly obviously exposed to tsunami in the very country that named this historically inexorable risk-factor should instantly commit seppuku. Their unbelievable stupidity in the face of crystal-clear evidence and repeated warnings has led to death and injury, loss and disruption, burden and pain, and threatens to set back the nuclear energy cause for another generation. This is so dishonorable and categorically evil that I wonder how could any of the perpetrators live with themselves going forward?

P.S. Truth now emerges as CNN reveals in Expert: Japan nuclear plant owner warned of tsunami threat.

Fukushima 50 ~ Strength to Frontline Operators

The Guardian's Tania Branigan and Justin McCurry write how the Fukushima 50 battle radiation risks as Japan nuclear crisis deepens...

"Between 50 and 70 employees -- now known in English as the Fukushima 50 -- all in protective gear, were left at the plant to battle myriad problems. Some are assessing the damage and radiation levels caused by the explosions, while others cool stricken reactors with seawater to try to avert a potentially catastrophic release of radiation. The workers are the nuclear power industry's equivalent of frontline soldiers, exposing themselves to considerable risks..."

And Keith Bradsher and Hiroko Tabuchi of the NYTimes write Last Defense at Troubled Reactors: 50 Japanese Workers...

"They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots. [...] Nuclear reactor operators say that their profession is typified by the same kind of esprit de corps found among firefighters and elite military units. Lunchroom conversations at reactors frequently turn to what operators would do in a severe emergency. The consensus is always that they would warn their families to flee before staying at their posts to the end."

Let's hope it doesn't come to that. P.S. It hasn't. Just announced: they were ordered to quit early... This is ridiculous. Why is there no backup control room facility offsite? Where the hell are the teleoperated hazmat robots, including aerial camerabots, repairbots, and more? Come on!

Worse Than Worst Case? ~ Fearing Fukushima...

Post-quake, IEEE Spectrum EnergyWise blogger Bill Sweet writes Japan Nuclear Accident: Worse than Worst, Again...

"Because of the explosion and the radiation leakage, Fukushima Dai-ichi already ranks as the second most serious nuclear power plant accident after Chernobyl. In terms of public impact, it may come in first because it's taking place in a country that has the world's most sophisticated earthquake prediction and mitigation systems, top-notch nuclear technology, and a pronounced national radiation phobia. Japan is not a technically backward country with notoriously poor reactor designs, the way the former Soviet Union was. Its nuclear power plants were designed and built with an acute consciousness of extreme earthquake dangers. So how is it, despite that sophistication, awareness, and preparedness, that the Fukshima Dai-ichi has nonetheless exceeded worst-case thinking? Here, the story is reminiscent of Three Mile Island and Chernob and the message seems to be the same: Worst-case scenario builders consistently underestimate the statistical probability of separate bad things happening simultaneously, as the result of the same underlying causes. [...] Every major nuclear accident has been worse than worst case, and that's a fact every nuclear advocate -- this one included -- will have to take into account."

Azamat Abdymomunov cuts to the core of the problem... Nature's Geoff Brumfiel gives Anatomy of a Meltdown...

"The key to the crisis is water. In addition to the uranium fuel rods, the fuel assemblies have channels which carry highly purified water between the fuel. The water acts as both a moderator for the nuclear reactions and a coolant for the reactor core. On top of it all, it makes the electricity: as it is heated by the reactor, it turns into steam that drives the power turbines. Once the water passes through the turbines it is cooled and re-injected into the core to do it all again. It all goes great unless the water stops flowing, and that's exactly what it appears has happened in the wake of a massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake that shook the region on 11 March. Diesel generators designed to keep feeding water to Fukushima Unit 1 apparently shutdown about an hour after the quake. Yesterday, the water supply to Unit 3 was interrupted. In both cases, the cores began to heat up."

And Steve Mirsky writes in Scientific American Nuclear Experts Explain Worst-Case Scenario at Fukushima Power Plant...

"The type of accident occurring now in Japan derives from a loss of offsite AC power and then a subsequent failure of emergency power on site. Engineers there are racing to restore AC power to prevent a core meltdown. [...] Physicist Ken Bergeron provided most of the information regarding the actual damage to the reactor."

NuclearTourist shows the flow inside a Boiling Water Reactor...