Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55017

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman and former Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen has announced a proposal for a "2025 Non-Nuclear Home Plan" that will allow Taiwan to eliminate reliance on nuclear power by the end of 2025.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/03/201132722346939687.html

Anti-nuclear Greens likely to form coalition with Social Democrats in Baden-Wuerttemberg, preliminary results show. Germany's anti-nuclear Green Party has scored a remarkable state election victory, dealing a blow to the party of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, according to preliminary poll results. "This is a day that has strongly changed the political landscape in Germany," Claudia Roth, the Greens party chairwoman, said in Berlin.

Link: http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/nova-inside-chernobyls-sarcophagus/

Never. Those who think Japan’s Fukushima disaster is today’s headlines and tomorrow’s history need to take a good look at the Chernobyl disaster, which to this day is a continuing threat to the people of Ukraine. It will be hundreds of years before the area around the destroyed reactor is inhabitable again and there are disputes over whether or not Chernobyl’s nuclear fuel still poses a threat of causing another explosion. There is also a teetering reactor core cover and the deteriorating sarcophagus itself that may collapse and send plumes of radioactive dust in all directions.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/27-2

The world has anxiously watched the events in Japan unfolding this past two weeks after the horrific earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. The feelings are magnified out of a sense of helplessness in aiding the victims in Japan mixed with concerns for potential effects and implications to our own health and communities. In assessing the devastating effects of natural disasters, we must pause as we consider the potential for catastrophic effects of man made disasters, specifically from nuclear power plants.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/201132621447396828.html

Levels of radioactive iodine in seawater 30km from Fukushima nuclear plant have spiked 1,250 times higher than normal. Japanese engineers have struggled to pump radioactive water from a crippled nuclear power station after radiation levels soared in seawater near the plant more than two weeks after it was battered by a huge earthquake and a tsunami. Engineers trying to stabilise the plant had to pump out radioactive water on Sunday after it was found in buildings housing three of the six reactors. Tests on Friday showed iodine 131 levels in seawater 30 km from the coastal nuclear complex had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal, but it was not considered a threat to marine life or food safety, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Now let me try to understand this. If I eat fish contaminated with iodine 131 which causes thyroid cancer, I will somehow not get thyroid cancer? What incredible immoral liars.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03252011.html

The war on Libya now being waged by the US, Britain and France must surely rank as one of the stupidest martial enterprises, smaller in scale to be sure, since Napoleon took it into his head to invade Russia in 1812.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/03/25-3

Institute Calls for More Intensive Contingency Planning by Japanese Authorities; U.S. Should Move as Much Spent Fuel as Possible to Dry Storage to Reduce Most Severe Risks, Suspend Licensing and Relicensing During Review

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/25-0

"We are not in a position where we can be optimistic." The situation at Japan's crippled nuclear complex in Fukushima 240km north of Tokyo remains “grave and serious,” prime minister Naota Kan said today.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/2011325112137360914.html

Japan has been studying its seismic foe for years, but subsequent generations often forget the lessons of past quakes. RIKUZENTAKATA The town of 23,000 is accustomed to quakes and tsunamis, so when the twin natural disasters hit the community hugging Japan's jagged northeast coast, everyone knew what to do. "We know we have 30 minutes to move after an earthquake," said volunteer fireman Akio Kin, 51. "People who left immediately made it. And those who were late didn't." Indeed, not everyone made it - so mighty were the waves that eight of the 11 emergency evacuation points in the city were taken out by the tsunami.

Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/151657-nuclear-storm-warnings

White House Science Advisor John Holdren and Sir John Beddington, Science Advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a recent joint article "Celestial Storm Warnings" published in the New York Times, warned that a solar flare from the Sun could cause a great geomagnetic storm, with catastrophic consequences for the United States and the world. A great geomagnetic storm would generate a powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could destroy electronic systems and collapse all the critical infrastructures--power grids, communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water--that sustain modern civilization, and the lives of millions. Holdren and Beddington write reassuringly that "work to protect our societies is well underway."

Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/03/23/colorado.oregon.radiation/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Colorado and Oregon have joined several other Western states in reporting trace amounts of radioactive particles that have likely drifted about 5,000 miles from a quake and tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan, officials say.

Link: http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/715/1/

• Smoke has been reported rising from the Fukushima unit number 3. If it's from fuel-cooling pools that contain plutonium, that's a major (to put it mildly) disaster. • one millionth of a gram of plutonium ingested causes cancer.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54967

As Japan struggles to confront a nuclear disaster that could be the worst in history, it seems clear that any discussion about the safety of nuclear energy should address the independence of regulatory agencies.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/frank03232011.html

In a move that is likely to go down as one of the largest energy policy blunders of the Obama years, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday announced that his office was opening the door for 2.35 billion tons of new coal mining operations in Wyoming’s stretch of the Powder River Basin. It’s all about the money, of course and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ken Salazar pressed the green light for more dirty energy development instead of funding renewables.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110323/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_germany_abandoning_nuclear_power

BERLIN – Germany is determined to show the world how abandoning nuclear energy can be done. The world's fourth-largest economy stands alone among leading industrialized nations in its decision to stop using nuclear energy because of its inherent risks. It is betting billions on expanding the use of renewable energy to meet power demands instead.

Link: http://www.eyreinternational.com/apps/blog/show/6491716-what-price-do-you-put-on-nuclear-power-and-who-is-lying-part-6

It is clear that Nuclear Energy as a means of power generation is now dead in the water. Dr. Chris Busby verified today in an email that three spent fuel pools are totally blasted away and burned up. That puts the approximate radiation levels at 24,000 HIROSHIMAS x 3 = 72,000 times the radiation of Hiroshima now in the atmosphere. Remember, this is JUST from the spent fuel pools. Radiation escaping from the reactors is another story altogether.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8401712/Chemicals-in-plastics-linked-to-early-onset-menopause.html

Man-made chemicals found in a variety of everyday products – from food containers to clothes – may be causing early menopause in women, say scientists. A study of almost 26,000 – the largest of its kind – found those with high levels of PFCs (perfluorocarbons) were more likely to have gone through the change of life prematurely. Dr Sarah Knox, of the West Virginia University School of Medicine, said: "There is no doubt that there is an association between exposure to PFCs and onset of menopause, but the causality is unclear.

Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-civil-war-erupts-led-by-super-rich-gop-2011-03-22

Yes, “there’s class warfare, all right,” warns Warren Buffett. “But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Yes, the rich are making war against us. And yes, they are winning. Why? Because so many are fighting this new American Civil War between the rich and the rest. Not just the 16 new GOP governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and across America fighting for new powers. Others include: Chamber of Commerce billionaires, Koch brothers, Forbes 400, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform — which now has 97% of House Republicans and 85% of the GOP Senators signed on his “no new taxes” pledge — the Tea Party and Reaganomics ideologues.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42219616/ns/business-us_business/

71,862 tons, with more created every year, and no permanent disposal solution The nuclear crisis in Japan has laid bare an ever-growing problem for the United States — the enormous amounts of still-hot radioactive waste accumulating at commercial nuclear reactors in more than 30 states.

Euronews

Uploaded by Euronews on MarFears of radiation spreading have risen ten-fold after smoke was seen rising from two of the most threatening reactors at Japan's stricken nuclear plant. Technicians have however managed to attach power cables to all six reactors and started a cooling pump at one of them. "Read our news file http://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.euronews.net%2Fmedia%2Fbuttons%2Fjapan-btn2-en.jpg!%2522%3A%2Ftag%2Fjapan-disaster%2F&session_token=u56lQh8Ms00SJmm_bHFUMvqDfT98MTMwMDk5Njg3Mw%3D%3D

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/8397157/Shell-wins-approval-to-drill-new-Gulf-of-Mexico-deepwater-wells.html

Royal Dutch Shell has won approval to drill the first new deepwater oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico almost a year after a spill by rival BP halted the industry's expansion. US authorities have given the green light to the Anglo-Dutch company's plan to drill three wells to a depth of about 2,950 feet in a field 130 miles off the coast of Louisana.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/21-0

What will it take for our world to recognize the dangers that nuclear scientists and even Albert Einstein were warning about at the “dawn” of the nuclear age? [Nuclear power and nuclear weapons have been sold to the public relentlessly, in the first instance as necessary, and the second, as safe. Rory O’ Connor and Richard Bell coined the term “Nuke Speak” to describe the Orwellian methods deployed by the nuclear industry’s PR offensive in a book length analysis of a well funded campaign that continues to this day using euphemistic language to mask its real agenda.] Nuclear power and nuclear weapons have been sold to the public relentlessly, in the first instance as necessary, and the second, as safe. Rory O’ Connor and Richard Bell coined the term “Nuke Speak” to describe the Orwellian methods deployed by the nuclear industry’s PR offensive in a book length analysis of a well funded campaign that continues to this day using euphemistic language to mask its real agenda.

Link: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8023426

Police officials estimate that the toll from the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami will exceed 18,000 deaths. View all 122 photos. Police in other devastated areas declined to provide estimates of eventual death tolls...

Link: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110320/D9M2OMAG1.html

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AP) - Technicians prepared to vent radioactive gas into the air Sunday because of a new spike in pressure at Japan's crippled, leaking nuclear complex, while a safety official said protective iodine pills should have been distributed near the plant days earlier. Radiation, a danger for days in areas around the plant, already has seeped into the food supply, with the government warning that tests of spinach and milk from areas as far as 75 miles (120 kilometers) away exceeded safety limts. Tap water farther away turned up tiny amounts of radioactive iodine in Tokyo and other areas.

Link: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/disaster-japan-live-blog-march-20

8:00pm Tokyo Fire Brigade has begun spraying water on the No. 4 reactor at 19:30 local time. This is expected to last around 3 hours. 7:37pm Radiation has been detected on fava beans imported from Japan to Taiwan, Taiwanese officials said, in what could be the first case of contamination in Japanese exports.

Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Japan-radiation-plume-reaches-US-but-poses-no-risk-Report/articleshow/7741940.cms

Japan radiation plume reaches US, but poses no risk: Report Faint traces of very low levels of radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan have been detected in Sacramento, California, the New York Times Crimes reported citing European officials. The readings, picked up by highly sensitive detectors set up to monitor clandestine nuclear blasts, indicated that the leading edge of a long radioactive plume drifting slowly across the Pacific over the last week has now reached American shores, the daily said on Friday. So if you inhale radioactive dust into your sinuses and it gets taken up into your brain or deep into your lungs don't worry, Ann Colter said on Fox news: "Radiation is good for you."

Link: http://www.irsn.fr/FR/popup/Pages/irsn-meteo-france_19mars.aspx

Terrifying French computer simulation of the spread of radiation from Fukushima in the northern hemisphere. Most of the radiation is confined above the equator.

Link: http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/breaking-report-new-huge-spill-deepwater-horizon-mc243-slick-100-miles-long-skimming-started-days

New HUGE slick confirmed. 25 miles South of Grand Isle. 12 X 100 miles. Skimming operations begun days ago. Pics coming soon. Exact source location is Matterhorn MC243

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/19/japan-fukushima-50-nuclear-plant

'A fearless band of scientists and workers trying to stop a meltdown have inspired the entire country. Exhausted engineers attached a power cable to the outside of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant on Saturday. The operation raised hopes that it may be possible to restart the pumping of water into the plant's stricken reactors and cool down its overheated fuel rods before there are more fires and explosions.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/19-0

by Ralph Nader The unfolding multiple nuclear reactor catastrophe in Japan is prompting overdue attention to the 104 nuclear plants in the United States—many of them aging, many of them near earthquake faults, some on the west coast exposed to potential tsunamis. Nuclear power plants boil water to produce steam to turn turbines that generate electricity. Nuclear power’s overly complex fuel cycle begins with uranium mines and ends with deadly radioactive wastes for which there still are no permanent storage facilities to contain them for tens of thousands of years.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608504576208840531837916-search.html

WASHINGTON—U.S. government officials, in private sessions on Capitol Hill Friday, repeatedly declined to give details of radiation measurements at the stricken Japanese nuclear complex, saying the situation is shrouded in a "fog of war." Separately, the Obama administration said Friday "miniscule quantities" of radiation from the Japanese nuclear accident were detected Friday at a monitoring station in Sacramento, Calif., a day after similar traces of radiation were detected in Washington state. The administration said the levels of the radioactive isotope xenon 133 were approximately equivalent to one-millionth the dose received from the sun, rocks or other natural sources.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/201131823117439114.html

Nuclear safety agency raises severity rating of accident at Fukushima plant, signifying higher risk of radiation. Japan has raised the severity level of a nuclear crisis at a quake-hit nuclear power plant, the UN nuclear watchdog has reported. An entry on a monitoring website on Friday gave the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi site in the northeast of the country a level 5 rating, up from level 4 previously on a 1-7 scale. The hallmarks of a Level 5 emergency are severe damage to a reactor core, release of large quantities of radiation with a high probability of "significant" public exposure or several deaths from radiation.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/18/why_are_we_playing_russian_roulette

Former presidential candidate and longtime consumer advocate and nuclear critic Ralph Nader strongly advocates phasing out nuclear power in the United States by calling for public hearings on the status of every single nuclear power plant. "What we’re seeing here is 110 or so operating nuclear plants in the United States, many of them aging, many of them infected with corrosion, faulty pipes, leaky pumps and combustible materials... Why are we playing Russian roulette with the American people for nuclear plants whose principal objective is simply to boil water and produce steam? ... This is institutional insanity, and I urge the people in this country to wake up before they experience what is now going on in northern Japan."

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03182011.html

Americans read the increasingly panic-stricken reports of deepening catastrophe at Fukushima Daichi, speed to the pharmacy to look for iodine and ask, “It’s happened there; can it happen here?” They already know it can, and almost certainly will.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/18-6

Despite six years of study, industry collaboration, and a missed deadline, no decision on reactor fixes. Nearly six years before an earthquake ravaged Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, U.S. regulators came to a sobering realization: seismic risks to nuclear plants in the eastern two-thirds of the country were greater than had been suspected, and engineers might have to rethink reactor designs.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/environment/150300/officials_are_%22underestimating_the_seriousness_of_the_problem%22_with_japan%27s_nuclear_reactors/

Japan raised the nuclear alert level from a four to a five, on par with Three Mile Island. This decision has shocked many nuclear experts who thought it should be higher. The Japanese nuclear crisis continues to worsen as authorities race to find a way to cool the overheating reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Earlier today, Japan raised the nuclear alert level at the crippled plant from a four to a five, which is on par with Three Mile Island. Japan’s prime minister, Naoto Kan, described the situation as, quote, "still very grave."

tpmtv

War is peace.

Freedom is slavery.

Ignorance is strength.

Radiation is good for you.

Link: http://goldsilver.com/news/reports-of-harmless-radiation-reaching-california-are-a-whitewash/

Exactly as we predicted would happen, authorities have cited “miniscule” levels of radiation reaching California as an excuse with which to downplay the threat to Americans of fallout crossing the Pacific from Japan, completely ignoring the fact that the bulk of the radiation from the two blasts at the Fukushima power plant will not reach the west coast until Monday.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kesP0IZggww&feature=player_embedded

► http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteworld/pacificoceansatellite_larg...
► http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Hurricane/PacificSatellite.aspx?animate=true
► http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1766
radiation monitoring realtime usa:
http://www.blackcatsystems.com/RadMap/map.html
secondary radiation monitoring site:
http://www.radiationnetwork.com/

Link: http://theintelhub.com/2011/03/17/cover-up-in-canada-radioactive-leak-into-lake-ontario/

With all the focus placed on the Japanese radiation leak as well as the toxic plume of radioactive particles (possibly containing uranium and plutonium) heading for the United States, another potential disaster is receiving virtually no attention.