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Currently scanning close ups on the TBS cam

Night all! Thx for the great info & conversation.

In case it hasn't been posted. World Exclusive Photos Inside Fukushima (Dead Zone) rense.com

@bo Well put on the lasting changes this will require. The ''
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@Angie good luck!

@radioguy very true. When people hear the words "genetic mutation" they don't forget.

@bo The Fallujah story was scary because of the implications. This:

"the third peculiarity to Falluja is the number of genetic deformities that has suddenly exploded since 2004... The radiation of whatever agent that was used by the "liberating forces", not only causes massive genetic deformities but also and this is very important :

- it causes structural changes at the cellular level.

- which in turns means due to the genetic make up of male infants (lack of X chromosome), male infants are more likely to die at birth, and female infants are more likely to survive birth with strong deformities. And here another example is given by Dr.Busby : prior to 2003 the birth rates in Falluja were as follows : 1050 male infants to 1000 female infants. In 2005, there has been only 350 male infants born - meaning that male infants do not survive.

- as for the female infants and this is where the tragedy lies...radiation causes change at the DNA level, which means that these same female if they do survive, and if they do reproduce will give birth to genetically disfigured females and dead male infants."

Other residents of Kawauchimura were allowed to visit their homes Tuesday, but before they left, the central government asked them to sign a written document saying: "I will enter the no-entry zone on my own responsibility." www.yomiuri.co.jp

@Majham Zazen isn't it interesting who has to take responsibility for what. These people can be robbed of their traditional homes, have their health impaired, but if they should dare want to retrieve valuable family heirlooms in a one shot deal, they must assume liability? The levels of victimization just ripple downward.

No.1 reactor is in a "meltdown" state

Tokyo Electric Power Company says the No.1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is believed to be in a state of "meltdown".

The utility company said on Thursday that most of the fuel rods are likely to have melted and fallen to the bottom of the reactor. Earlier in the day, it found that the coolant water in the reactor is at a level which would completely expose nuclear fuel rods if they were in their normal position. www3.nhk.or.jp

The Good News
(May 12 2011 Published by Karl-Friedrich Lenz under Fukushima) k.lenz.name

A closer look at Unit 1 showed that most of the fuel melted (Japan Times).

The good news however is that the temperature in the pressure vessel is down to about 100 to 120 degrees. Hydrogen explosions need about 1200 degrees to happen.

While this shutdown process has been neither fast nor elegant, even with most fuel melting a temperature at that level is close to cold shutdown.

@WolfDK, also notice that #2 had the dame exact temps as #1 does now, and we know that it was breached earlier. Plus the water levels are lower than #1. That should also mean that #2 is in the same situation as #1 is now.

With Nuclear Expansion Off the Table, What Do Japan's Energy Options Look Like?

Before March 11, nuclear power was pretty much the answer to Japan's energy supply problems. Japan currently has 54 nuclear reactors that have been producing about 30% of the nation's electricity. Last year, Kan's government announced plans to build 14 new reactors that would expand that production to meet 50% of the nation's electricity needs. Japan is world's third largest consumer of electricity, and, as the largest importer of liquified natural gas and coal and third largest consumer of oil, has long relied on non-domestic fossil fuels for the majority of its electricity production. In an island nation without its own natural resources or space, nuclear seemed like the right way forward in order for Japan to distance itself from the volatility of the oil markets and to meet its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% of 1990 levels by 2020.
ecocentric.blogs.time.com

@WolfDK, take a look at the METI stats above from yesterday after that incident. scroll down to the last page and look at the CAMS (radioactivity) Note the high levels in #2 & 3 in the S/C and D/W areas. That can only mean that corium is sitting there !!

@andrea You're totally correct that Lenz' blog is pro nuke. I've been checking his blog since the start, and he seems to be as concerned over the safety issues as he is the need for the energy.

@bo "This knowledge has a longer half-life than the GOJ or TEPCO knows, or can affect. " That is easily my favorite line that I've read this day. Thank you.

@bo - just waking up/catching up here in the UK. Thank you for that very thoughtful and prescient comment, I'm sure you are right, One of the ironies of nonstop 24/7 news channels is that because newsgathering resources are spread so thinly mainly only stories that are really showbizzy/sexy/have readymade video (think Bin Laden/Obama) make it to the top of the pile. I was a news editor at the BBC as it happens for both TMI and Chernobyl, and it was much easier then to put together a well-researched story, when reporters weren't having to do live spots every hour. On that score kudos to RT (and you) for keeping the coverage going.

@hudebnik thanks a lot for your kind words. I agree that the 24/7 news cycle has done a lot of damage to our collective ability to maintain any kind of attention span as a society. We are all very frustrated by that right now. My luxury, as a historian, is to have spent a long time studying how we look back on such events, and that is actually more encouraging than how we are able to see it in "realtime."

@bo - how do you think over time the Fukushima events will be remembered by Japanese society compared to, say, Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

@bo - that is very interesting. Maybe if you have time you could write an article for the NY Times or similar about that narrative, you are uniquely placed to see it.

@hudebnik that is awesome! Thanks. This is the kind of thing I will use in my work. Lets not forget that the Bikini was named by a French designer after he heard that an atomic bomb had blasted Bikini Atoll into two pieces.