"Particularly worrisome is the large amount of cesium-137 in fuel ponds, which contain anywhere from 20 to 50 million curies of this dangerous radioactive isotope. With a half-life of 30 years, cesium-137 gives off highly penetrating radiation and is absorbed in the food chain as if it were potassium.
In comparison, the 1986 Chernobyl accident released about 40 percent of the reactor core's 6 million curies " a major release of cesium-137 from a pool fire could render an area uninhabitable greater than created by the Chernobyl accident. "
Tuesday afternoon, after Chu and Obama made what should be
impeachable statements of utter incompetence, we have confirmation of the
unthinkable:
--USA Today
The USA Today piece predictably avoids the cesium-137, the 20-50 million Curies and the comparison with Chernobyl, opting instead for the vague term "radiation," which apparently sells better. It's better not to know, huh?
Another facet to this disaster is that the pumps began failing, which means failing to provide cooling water to the reactors. If the reactors are not cooled constantly then they melt down and burn through their concrete containment vessels down into the earth, until they reach the water table below and the radioactive steam beneath explodes and spews radioactive gases uncontrollably: the China Syndrome.
Fools masquerading as "experts" were hyper-confident about the Japanese reactor situations as simultaneously we learned:
"Here [at the No. 2 reactor] pumps feeding in seawater failed, causing water levels to drop.
--The Australian
So, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions, dangle on the reliability of a couple of water pumps and valves that have just been through an earthquake, a tsunami and a hydrogen gas explosion. Yet, the so-called "experts" who are called up by the corporate press to provide information to the American masses can easily rattle off their 100% assurances that it's all fine and well. And they do it with a straight face.
Is there an acting school the "experts" go through? A training course of some sort? What's the pay?
The next imbecile who tells you that we cannot manage without nuclear power, punch the jerk in the face.
Unnecessary?
Yes. Just like nuclear energy. But I guess it has its own rewards.
Joe Giambrone is a novelist and filmmaker who moved to Redding Ca to
hopefully get away from all this nuclear insanity. He's at polfilmblog -- a t -- gmail -- dot -- com.
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