"Diapers" fail to stop flow of severely radioactive water into the ocean

Kyodo News has reported that the latest effort to block the discharge of highly contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's reactor unit number 2 -- addition of water-absorbing polymers used in baby diapers -- has failed. So has the attempt to plug the crack in a flooded trench on the edge of the ocean by using saw dust, shredded newspapers, and concrete. The radioactive water is believed to be coming from damaged reactor unit 2. The cracked pit is reported to contain water contaminated with radioactive Iodine-131 at 10,000 times legal limits, which has been gushing uncontrollably into the ocean for days on end, undoubtedly impacting sea food supplies.

Japanese govt. was aware of risk of reactor core meltdowns before March 11 quake and tsunami

Kyodo News has reported that nearly a year before the March 11 earthquake of 9.0 on the Richter scale, and consequent 45 foot tall tsunami that engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Nobuaki Terasaka, the director of the Japanese government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), admitted that ‘‘It is logically possible for a reactor core to melt down if all outer electricity sources were lost, leading the plant’s cooling functions to be lost for many hours.’’ He was responding to a question from Japanese Communist Party legislator Hidekatsu Yoshii on May 26, 2010 in the Japan House of Representatives. Terasaka assured, however, that operators of Japan's atomic reactors ‘‘have ensured safety’’ by equipping the plants with multiple backup electricity sources. But the earthquake destroyed the electricity grid and the tsunami the emergency diesel generators, leaving only 8 hours of backup battery power, which was depleted on the first day of this still unfolding and worsening, nearlly month-old radioactive catastrophe.

Panel to suspend work to revise Japan's atomic energy platform

"The Japan Atomic Energy Commission said Tuesday it will suspend its work to revise the country's nuclear power platform in the wake of the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station triggered by the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan.

Commission chairman Shunsuke Kondo said the current crisis contradicts the conventional argument that nuclear power generation is safe. 'We have to admit that there has been an error in the criteria of judgment in promoting the country's nuclear power policy,' he said." Kyodo News

"If You Love This Planet"

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, and medical doctor Helen Caldicott (founding president of Beyond Nuclear) give their latest analyses of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant catastrophe in Japan on the lastest weekly episode of Caldicott's Australian radio show, "If You Love This Planet."

"No safe levels" of radiation in Japan

Dahr Jamail reports at Al Jazeera that "Experts warn that any detectable level of radiation is 'too much,'" and that “It’s only a matter of days before [Fukushima's radioactive fallout] disperses in the entire northern hemisphere.”