This press release was issued by TEPCO yesterday:
Discharge of low level radioactive accumulated water in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station to the sea
There is currently great amount of radioactive waste water in the turbine buildings of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and especially the turbine building of Unit 2 has extremely high level radioactive waste water.
We think it is necessary to transfer the radioactive waste water to the Central Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility in order to store it in a stable condition. However, ten thousand of low level radioactive waste water has been already stored and we have to discharge the existing low level radioactive waste water to receive new liquids.
In addition, as low radioactive subsurface water is piling up in sub-drain pits of Unit 5 and 6 and a part of subsurface water is running into buildings, we are concerned that important equipment to secure the safety of reactors will be submerged.
Based on the Section 1 of the Article 64 of the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law, we have decided to discharge to the sea approximately ten thousand tons of the accumulated low level radioactive water and a total of 1,500 tons of the low level radioactive subsurface water stored in the sub drain pits of Unit 5 and 6 as soon as we get ready.
We evaluate approximately 0.6 mSv of effective radioactive doses per year for adults as the impact on the discharge of the low radioactive waste water to the sea if they eat adjacent fish and seaweeds every day. The amount (0.6 mSv of effective radioactive doses per year) is one-fourth of annual radioactive dose to which the general public is exposed in nature.
Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami the Japanese government and TEPCO, (the Tokyo Electric Power Company) have been at an information impasse. With no direct admission of risk by TEPCO there was no risk to communicate by the government. The primary victims of the tug of war for truthful information continue to be the residents in areas surrounding the Fukushima-Daiichi Plant, and the populations in its outlying vicinities. Now add to the mix the glorious Pacific Ocean, on the day Neptune entered Pisces for the first time since it left that sign in 1862.
According to local reports, San Francisco Bay Area rainwater tests conducted last month found levels of radiation that exceeded federal standards for drinking water by 46 times. These effects were downplayed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with regard to potential health effects because the radiation was weakening rapidly, with short-term exposure bringing minimal risks. The EPA’s results issued Saturday showed rainwater tested March 22 in Richmond, CA contained 138 picocuries of iodine-131, a radioisotope that can influence thyroid activity and cause cancerous cells, per liter. According to the EPA, drinking water is only permitted to contain 3 picocuries per liter. But because iodine-131 has a ‘half-life’ of just eight days, it dissipates to half its initial radioactivity within that time frame. Similar data was made available from UC Berkeley’s Department of Engineering, which recently found instances in which milk, creek water, potable water, spinach and mushrooms carried traces of the radioactive isotope.
Seeking truth is an exercise in relativity, such as trying to gauge the danger of what is deemed ‘acceptable’ levels of released radiation. What is the likelihood of getting cancer — one in a million? One in four? The bar keeps getting raised, lowered or dismissed, depending on who you’re talking to. In its reports, MSNBC altered TEPCO’s admitted release of plant water to 15,000 tons, or 15,000 cubic meters of effluent from the crippled Fukushima-Daiichi Power into the Pacific Ocean.
What is so frustrating about the failure of the Fukushima-Daiichi plant is the opacity of the situation, the duration of which transcends bizarre into an epic environmental failure on the level of science fiction. Even though we may vehemently disagree with the approach, it’s easy to understand TEPCO’s reluctance to admit the whole truth. It means it will have to reveal four decades of quick fixes and cost cutting at the expense of human safety finally leading up to this event. It means the people who continue to use this level of antiquated nuclear power have some safety issues they need to address, to say the least. The implications are obvious to the people who need to know, and the people who should be giving us the full story aren’t.
I have always been impressed and amazed by the way airline pilots deftly navigate our airplanes through clouds, fog and blinding mists, getting us safely home. This method of flying, relying not on what you see — because you can’t — but on the instruments in the cockpit is called ‘flying blind’. With nuclear energy, we have in effect been flying this way. We have ways to measure and gauge our way through this and an inkling but not a full picture of what is possible under current best and worst case scenarios. What is the likelihood of airborne radiation over the western half of the United States? To what degree is that traveling radiation — by air or water — safe or dangerous to humans? What is even more aggravating is the time it is taking to admit the truth — any amount of it — since plutonium measures its life in the tens of thousands of years, and we measure ours only in the tens. I thought we’d never ask these question, but now we have to.
Our instrumentation — our internal bullshit-detection satellite — has to get fine tuned. That includes our bodies as well. The planets in our canopy today — Uranus, Mercury, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Eris in Aries; Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn — may hold the key to what we can do, or at least want to do. You already see the results of these planets in revolutions around the world and at home. Now they are accompanied by Chiron and Neptune in Pisces.
Regardless what we’re led to believe about nebulousness and deception by the planet Neptune and the dissolution and self-undoing of its home sign Pisces, Chiron is also there. With Uranus in Aries shaking down to the Pacific seabed, Chiron in Pisces awakened us to the fact that we continue to be lied to and may be lied to again if we don’t do anything about our current situation in Japan and elsewhere. There is a price to be paid by the purveyors of lies and those lied to. One of the costs is rage stored by the victims of lies, as harmful and as toxic as radiation, that has no outlet. This rare combination of Neptune and Chiron may actually serve as an opportunity to wend our way through this difficult situation. That is, if we are aware enough to discern what is happening, to discern what to ask when the time comes, and not to be afraid to be called crazy when we do.
Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, in league with Chiron, the planet of awareness, could be a kind of fluid force, raising awareness of the capacity and fragility of our oceans — the lifeblood of the planet. The same goes for the effects of the nuclear power industry everywhere on Earth. Lets venture to begin by calling this a new era: an era of the end of lies — at least where energy is concerned. Remember, Pisces also rules oil; last April we witnessed the BP oil spill in the Gulf when Chiron briefly visited this sign.
Call me crazy, but I think Neptune and Chiron in tandem could provide the movement for truth to rock through the world like the ocean herself. We’re in a technological corner that we’ve got to climb out of, or drown. We cannot fly this planet so blindly in her orbit anymore. We need human awareness on an elevated global level to fight for her every day. Chiron raises our awareness to it like a halogen lamp on a wound. Maybe I’m an unscientific hick sitting on her porch in the Berkeley sun sucking down my kelp, chlorella, iodine and bee pollen breakfast smoothie. But I can’t take my eyes off of what’s happening in Fukushima for a minute. We are flying this airship Earth, and flying her in the dark. We need all eyes and ears open, all senses awake to discern where we’re headed. Can we wake up in time to help guide her home? Do we have what it takes?
Yours and truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
Thanks, Fe. I am going to get some of those supplements. Not the bone meal; that’s made from bovine bones and mad cow is an issue here because the US doesn’t test for it. Maybe the kids will just have to drink powdered milk for a while (it is less likely to be from contaminated cows because some was made before the quake). I hope we can afford all those things.
be,
what you post is intensely interesting as 2000 is a very large marker/milestone in the Universe “tearing my life as I knew it apart piece by painful piece”…….
….and there is distinct correlation between my (different) clarity re the world around and the free-fall which began then.
…something now about “control” but not “controlled” and not “out of control”.
Thanks, Carrie. I appreciate your sharing your perspective. So glad Uranus is about The New. We have never needed an effective New more than now, perhaps. My daughter is pregnant. I know how you feel about looking for uncontaminated milk and food for your children. She is in Canada (Ontario) and I am doing my best to stay out of her business. She is very aware of everthing…
Blessings to all of us and may the Internet’s magic help produce what we all need in collectivity and connectivity to effect The Change.
Carrie:
Do you live in CA? I am suggesting to my friends with pregnant daughters or wives to consume dairy from anywhere but here. Greek yogurt (from Greece) and kefir are good — great actually. And there’s coconut milk. I’m a little wary about recommending soy because of GMO soybeans, but that is another substitute.
Here is a link to nutrients, vitamins, minerals and foods to eat to protect your thyroid and clear out metals from the system:
http://doctorapsley.com/RadiationTherapy.aspx
The article begins with a long description of how radiation travels, and the Petkau Effect, which is the effect of accumulation of small doses of radiation, actually causing more serious damage in the long run than brief, high exposure to radiation. The other half of the article is on the foods and supplements to take, for adults and children, so I hope it helps.
I got this from my friend, who was born 300 miles from Chernobyl and a child at the time of the plant accident there. She is perfectly healthy because her parents have monitored her since that time, and she takes her anti-oxidant and metals-clearing foods seriously.
Fe,
I might have missed seeing here at PW the birthchart for Fukushima I (3/26/71 12N) so I risk repeating some startling comparisons to that chart and the one for the explosion on 3/12/11. For example:
*Sun at 4+ Aries in birthchart was conjunct Mercury 4+ Aries in explosion chart
*Moon in Pisces was opposed Pluto 28+ Virgo rx in birthchart and conjunct Black Moon Lilith 28+ Pisces in explosion chart
*Chiron at 9+ Aries in birthchart was conjunct Jupiter at 10+ Aries in explosion chart
*Nessus and Juno were exactly conjunct at 15+ Gemini in the birthchart and conjunct the Moon at 12 Gemini 59 in the explosion chart.
*Saturn at 19+ Taurus, Hades at 18+ Taurus and Ceres at 17+ Taurus in the birthchart were very close to the midheaven of the explosion chart at 22 Taurus. The last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in 2000 was at 22+ Taurus.
* Mars at 8+ Capricorn in the birthchart was conjunct Pluto at 7+ Capricorn in the explosion chart.
In a previous comment I mentioned the corollaries between the 2000 Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, including the conjunction in Gemini between the south node of the explosion chart and Mercury in the 2000 chart. In the Fukushima plant’s birthchart Pluto is opposite them at at 28 Virgo 11 rx.
Studying these 3 charts further could, IMO, possibly prevent additional accidents in Japan and elsewhere. I’m particularly interested in the role that Mercury seems to play. What does it represent? A failure to communicate? A mistake in the construction plans? A component in the hydrogen/nuclear formula?
be
Burning,
You mention a leader and I can tell you why none has presented themselves. Many of us in the USA grew up as the “Assassination Generation;” we KNOW the gnosis always gets murdered (MLK, Bobby Kennedy, JFK, Jesus, Malcolm X, Ghandi) so most adults these days are afraid to be the front person. We have families, kids that need us, so we sit back and use the internet to get things going because we feel safe within the anonymity of the ‘net.
Fe, excellent article. I am right now having to figure out how to get milk for my kids to drink that isn’t contaminated. I am not kidding. They are still growing and need calcium but the leafy greens and milk which supply that are now suspect. The kids are already complaining that their lives have been altered because of the greedy, profit-driven (their words) decisions of the adults that run this world. They feel like they are paying for those choices and they are fucking mad as hell about it. They tell me they feel powerless because they have no money or power to fight things. How awful for them to be in this position.
Anyone here have any ideas as to how to protect them from radiation poisoning? I buy the food and feed them; how can I do that if what I feed them may harm them?
It is all well and good to talk of “we” coming together but in the right-now moment, I have to feed my family safely. That is what I have to deal with now. Seems to me keeping everyone running from one greed-inspired disaster after another is exactly where we are wanted to be by those who wish to control things. I know I sound like a negative conspiracy nut but things seem to point that way for now.
Thank you fantastic Fe. xx
Fe,
I have been called and placed where I have been called and placed to do what I do – naturally. Just as you write with clarity and passion, I like to take it to the streets (and phone banks, and lobby our elected officials, etc.) or I would probably end up doing some stupid Trotzskiite thing that would effect no change but only relieve me temporarily of my frustration with the process of working IN time WITH people.
As I see it, we all have our gifts. Great gifts. So, if anything, let us humble ourselves mutufally in appreciation of one another and evey other contributor to Planet Waves and to the hidden ones who are also doing their work. May OUR tribes flourish and prosper in connectivity, collectivity, solidarity, joy and fun while we take care of our Earth Mother’s business.
Big Hug to you, who has embarassed me, but thank you
Burning River:
You have it turned around. I humble myself to you and everything you do.
Dearest Fe, dearest articulate, brilliant Fe,
Yes. Yes. Yes.
And it is the several billion Indira’s who are needed to express their Collectivity.
In 2005 , I was with a group of what ended up being 300 nurses who were sent by the California Nurse’s Association to help with Disaster Relief after Hurricane Katrina devastated the coasts of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
Since then I have been actively (among other things) on the streets around the country, with CNA or NNOC or (now) NNU (the morphing of the CNA into a national nurse’s union), calling attention to the need for health care reform. National Nurses United helped take the lead on the streets to call attention to the Labor crisis this winter in Wisconsin (the ones wearing red). (I was not involved in that action.)
History indicates that the “we” usually needs leadership of some sort for their strength to be assembled and made effective. Perhaps the influx into Aries is going to produce an “I” that represents and loves the “WE.” Can Neptune and Chiron in Pisces help with that chore?
According to the polls, the majority (63%) of the American public KNOWS what is going on and what is good and bad (concerning health care reform, at least). (I hope their heads are on straight in the areas of energy and water, also. Haven’t heard about those polls). To me, it seems the we (as apathetic as “we” can be) are waking up. The situations are getting bad enough for the “we” to become alert and hopefully alarmed. But Who is going to lead? Direct? Shepherd? Is there another Martin Luther King or Mahatma Ghandi on the horizon? If I would pray, it would be for that.
FE!. Maybe its you. I mean it , girl I’ll follow you anywhere. We can all wear some of Jere’s T-Shirts! (I am only slightly tongue-in-cheek.)
In solidarity and Hope,
BPRN,R
Hey kyla:
Thank you so much. 7.5 million is beyond comprehension. What the aftermath is is anyone’s guess, but I hope you’re taking your sea veggies and most especially kelp.
Aries is about the individual. The “I Am”, which in this case has to be beyond our selfish needs–which has defined over 20 centuries here on the ground, and, which Neptune and Chiron are giving us the pathway to breathe ourselves into a new consciousness of what that means through the water.
We are a world of “I’s” struggling to find the “We”. Maybe by joining together unified by Earth’s peril, we see the billion Indras who inhabit this world, honoring each, respecting all, working for each other.
This is at least what I dream, my 8th house Neptune in Libra showing her hem….
Patty:
How very amazing and such a complete turnaround that people of faith are praying for people of science to do right in this instance. Such polarity that leads to unity, as Len has described it before in recent columns, does really exist. May it be so.
sent in by Carol Van Strum:
Very good rebuttal to Monbiot — backed up with data!
http://www.alternet.org/story/150459/why_climate_activist_george_monbiot_has_gone_nuclear_–_and_why_he%27s_wrong?page=entire
WSJ reports that as of a little while ago, the release of radioactive water has been stopped:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576245071686973298.html
Before it stopped, though, levels were measured at 7.5 million times the limit considered acceptable.
Fe, thank you for your gorgeous clear article. Being clear about exactly where we lack clarity. Letting that crystal ocean water show just where the obscuring currents flow…..
Prayers for us all as we navigate this new territory….. where, I agree, yes, the fundamental issue is Truth coming to light and lies being exposed…. and how we can find our way, those of us who wish to live in harmony, to something more like a wholesome world and life.
That sensation of the truth being just out of reach, and one story contradicting the previous one, and wondering who to trust, and how to find out the truth for ourselves….. Ah! Ah.
Thank you.
Amen Fe. I think Chiron can destroy before the healing begins. Conjunct Neptune – i think there is anger about the way we’ve taken care of the waters entrusted to our care. Every time transiting chiron was conjunct in my chart, I was either injurred badly, or rewarded. Somehow I don’t think there are gold stars waiting for our crowns.
Big beautiful illusive blue Neptune – heaving his last breaths right in front of our eyes. I have been completely up-ended by the change of Neptune to Pisces. something is dreadfully wrong. We really must pull together, spiritually speaking. My Prayers are for the scientists and all the workers trying to come up with a fix for this disaster.