 |
| Pues efectivamente, es el hijo predilecto de Figueres, Salvador Dalí. Su talento era real. Muy cotizado. Sus famosos bigotes, pues no. "Falsos, falsísimos", me dijo una señora vecina "de toda la vida", que lo conoció a él, a Ana María, a la parentela etc etc. En la foto original de Halsman se nota algo superpuesto al bigotillo auténtico. Como es "finde" les dejo el careto paranoico del artista. |
sábado, 30 de noviembre de 2013
Bigotes ilustres
Virtual (dirty) money
El presente artículo de Nadezhda Alexeeva trata de los entresijos del tráfico de dinero en la red. Un negocio floreciente que aparecera una y otra vez.
"Young digital currency Bitcoin has been gaining popularity rapidly. It is believed that it may even make the US dollar move over as time goes by. However, there is one embarrassing detail: the currency circulates on condition of anonymity, which means that it can be used for criminal purposes. Bitcoin is used in transaction of drug traffickers, casino owners and killers.
The popularity of the digital crypto-currency Bitcoin grows every day, along with its price. At the moment, the new currency has managed to establish itself as the most valuable currency in the world. The cost of one Bitcoin reached $700 in November, taking into consideration the fact that it cost only $13 dollars a year ago. Such a sharp rise occurred after many Americans rushed to the shadow network segment following scandalous revelations from Edward Snowden. As a result, Internet browser Tor that uses only encrypted data channels to confuse user's tracks on multiple proxy servers gained incomparable popularity. It is in the Tor network, where the crypto-currency circulates.
It just so happens that the formerly toy currency, like the ones used by gamers, has evolved into a formidable financial tool with the help of the American authorities. Probably, the level of surveillance and control over ordinary citizens is not so high in fact, but the strong stereotype pushes people towards "shadow." Moreover, the number of Bitcoins is strictly limited. Therefore, the growing demand on them will inevitably lead to the growth of their price".
Médicos cubanos en Haití
Un grupo de sanitarios cubanos trabajan en "Isla de la Tortuga, Haití".
reportaje de LEANDRO MACEO LEYVA, ENVIADO ESPECIAL
reportaje de LEANDRO MACEO LEYVA, ENVIADO ESPECIAL
Situada al noroeste de Haití, con una superficie de 180 kilómetros cuadrados y unos 27 mil habitantes que viven de la pesca, el comercio y del turismo alimentado por las historias de piratería, la Isla de la Tortuga debe su nombre al descubridor del Nuevo Mundo, Cristóbal Colón, quien al avistar sus costas la bautizó así por el dibujo que ofrecía su geografía.
 Barco velero camino a la Isla. |
 El enfermero-intensivista Royler Valdivia durante el viaje. |
Como en el resto del país, la mayoría de los habitantes son de raza negra, los idiomas oficiales son el francés y elcreole y la población es mayoritariamente católica.
Conocida como la isla de los piratas, pues durante el siglo XVII fue un bastión para los bucaneros y filibusteros que surcaban el mar Caribe, el territorio acogió a personajes ilustres del mundo del pillaje. Quizás, el más encumbrado fuera el británico conocido como Barbanegra, quien se afincó en sus costas.
Su reputación de albergue de los filibusteros hizo de la isla un motivo de inspiración para escritores como Emilio Salgari, Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson o Walter Scott, presentes en obras cumbres de la literatura como El Corsario Negro, La Isla del Tesoro y El Pirata, respectivamente.
La curiosidad hacia ese mundo de la piratería me llevó a indagar sobre la Isla de la Tortuga, patria y refugio de aventureros. Quería conocer de aquel pasado agitado y entender el porqué. Todos coinciden en que una vez que la habitas, es imposible no sentir que te sostienes sobre un suelo condenado a un extraño maleficio de soledad, mientras una sospechosa calma preside sus 400 metros de altura, hasta convertirla en una tierra de olvido.
"Hay médicos cubanos en la Isla de la Tortuga", exclamó con asombro en una ocasión un amigo, al intercambiar información sobre el alcance de la Brigada Médica Cubana a lo largo y ancho de la geografía haitiana. Ese también fue otro de mis móviles para visitar el legendario enclave.
El día que viajamos era tranquilo, pues los haitianos dormían, me dice Royler Valdivia, un joven enfermero-intensivista, quien ha pasado 18 meses allí y servía de guía en un viaje que comenzó en el puerto de Port-de-Paix (cabecera departamental del noroeste de Haití), sobre un barco velero que navega en pleno siglo XXI.
 Interior de la Isla. |
Todos lo conocen en el barco La Salles, un negocio que da de comer a la familia, y a bordo del cual ha debido cooperar, en ocasiones, con los ajetreos propios del desplazamiento.
Mientras navega, Royler no olvida su condición de especialista cubano. Lleva consigo tabletas de gravinol y un pomo con agua, los cuales comparte, fundamentalmente con los niños.
Habla de la "letanía" de los viajes, de los retornos que resultan ser "más calmados", de los delfines que lo despiden de vez en vez, y de la "bondad" de los haitianos que lo transportan. Los mismos que esa tarde nos aproximaron seguros hasta la isla, aquellos que nos dieron la mano para abordar una embarcación más pequeña para alcanzar el muelle, y con quienes escalamos —sobre una motocicleta— las erguidas inclinaciones del terreno.
Una vez en tierra firme, Royler deberá no solo enfrentar cualquier urgencia médica que se presente, sino además, la ausencia de electricidad y de cualquier vestigio del mundo moderno, mientras contempla cada tarde la puesta del sol y las embarcaciones que regresan, como expresión de que el día llega a su fin. Pero él permanecerá a gusto dos años allí. Seguirá viajando impulsado por el viento y quién sabe, tal vez un día, decida escribir su propia leyenda.
miércoles, 27 de noviembre de 2013
Cuba cierra su consulado en EEUU
"La Sección de Intereses de Cuba en Estados Unidos anunció este martes la suspensión de sus servicios consulares por la imposibilidad de que un banco se encargue de sus cuentas en el país y advirtió de las «consecuencias negativas» que esta medida tendrá para cubanos y estadounidenses y los intercambios con la isla.
«La Sección de Intereses lamenta particularmente las afectaciones que esta situación causará a los ciudadanos cubanos y norteamericanos debido a la imposibilidad de que la sección consular continúe facilitando los trámites asociados a la emisión de pasaportes, visas, legalización de documentos y otros servicios», destacó la legación en un comunicado enviado a periodistas en Washington.
Esta situación, subrayó, tendrá «consecuencias negativas para las visitas familiares, los intercambios académicos, culturales, educacionales, científicos, deportivos y de otra naturaleza entre Cuba y Estados Unidos».
Según la misión cubana, el banco que operaba sus cuentas y las de sus misiones en Estados Unidos, M&T, le informó el pasado julio de que no iba a seguir prestando servicios a legaciones diplomáticas extranjeras.
Desde entonces, agrega, no ha sido posible encontrar una nueva institución financiera que esté dispuesta a gestionar las cuentas cubanas, «debido a las restricciones vigentes derivadas de la política de bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero del gobierno norteamericano contra Cuba».
Kuba por el turismo naútico
Aunque el turismo no es la primera fuente de ingresos de Cuba, que se cifra en convenios para proporcionar médicos, maestros e ingenieros (tal vez lo ignoraban), se intenta tomar medidas que favorezcan una industria para la que la isla caribeña puede aprovechar ventajosamente sus extensas costas de aguas cristalinas. Una reciente legislación abre la puerta al desarrollo de los deportes náuticos. Con posibilidad de contratar amarres en las "marinas" destinadas a tales actividades.
"Cuba actualiza regulaciones para ampliar y desarrollar el turismo náutico
En aras de incrementar las ofertas dirigidas al turismo internacional, Cuba autorizó la permanencia de embarcaciones de recreo en territorio nacional hasta cinco años, con posibilidad de prórroga.
Esta es una de las facilidades establecidas por el Decreto 314, del Consejo de Ministros, publicado en días recientes por la Gaceta Oficial de la República, y que reglamenta la organización y explotación de los servicios marítimo-portuarios en las marinas turísticas.
La normativa, acompañada también por resoluciones de los ministerios de Turismo y de Finanzas y Precios, es de obligatorio cumplimiento por los prestatarios y receptores de dichos servicios, en busca de perfeccionar los trámites de despacho de embarcaciones.
Con el propósito, además, de fortalecer la competitividad de las marinas cubanas, el reglamento recoge la definición de esos enclaves, y cómo se efectuará su planificación, desarrollo y conservación en el territorio nacional.
Entre las disposiciones aprobadas, destaca que ante la ausencia por un tiempo prolongado, el dueño de un yate debe firmar un contrato con la marina para garantizar la custodia del mismo y los servicios que requiera.
Con esta novedad legal, los interesados en anclar en la Isla podrán enviar previamente información al MINTUR sobre su embarcación, tripulantes y pasajeros, lo que facilitará su acceso a las aguas territoriales".(Con información de Granma Internacional)
martes, 26 de noviembre de 2013
Remember Fukushima
Why TEPCO is Risking the Removal of Fukushima Fuel Rods. The Dangers of Uncontrolled Global Nuclear Radiation
By Yoichi Shimatsu
Yoichi Shimatsu, former editor of the Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo, conducts independent radiation measurements and dispenses herbal therapy to local residents on his 10 journeys since May 2011 into the 20-kilometer Fukushima exclusion zone.
No he dudado en publicar íntegro el artículo de Yoichi Shimatsu. La situación Fukushima sigue siendo un reto y un peligro para el medio ambiente. Y la verdad es que con las sustancias radioactivas la contaminación en los distintos ecosistemas es insidiosa. ¿Cuánto ha ido al mar?, ¿Qué filtraciones han llegado a los acuíferos?. Hay daños irreparable. Y otros que se comprobaran a largo plazo. Fukushima es un trágico banco de pruebas de la tecnología del siglo XXI. Nos atañe a todos los seres vivos, de una u otra forma.
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-tepco-is-risking-the-removal-of-fukushima-fuel-rods-the-dangers-of-uncontrolled-global-nuclear-radiation/5359188
After repeated delays since the summer of 2011, the Tokyo Electric Power Company has launched a high-risk operation to empty the spent-fuel pool atop Reactor 4 at the Dai-ichi (No.1) Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
The urgency attached to this particular site, as compared with reactors damaged in meltdowns, arises from several factors:
- over 400 tons of nuclear material in the pool could reignite
- the fire-damaged tank is tilting badly and may topple over sooner than later
- collapse of the structure could trigger a chain reaction and nuclear blast, and
- consequent radioactive releases would heavily contaminate much of the world.
The potential for disaster at the Unit 4 SFP is probably of a higher magnitude than suspected due to the presence of fresh fuel rods, which were delivered during the technical upgrade of Reactor 4 under completion at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The details of that reactor overhaul by GE and Hitachi have yet to be disclosed by TEPCO and the Economy Ministry and continue to be treated as a national-security matter. Here, the few clues from whistleblowers will be pieced together to decipher the nature of the clandestine activity at Fukushima No.1.
Accidents happen
The delicate rod-removal procedure requires the lowering of a steel cylinder, called a transfer cask, into a corner of the pool and then using the crane to lift the 300-kilogram fuel assemblies (4..5-meter-tall bundle of fuel rods held inside a metal cage) one at a time from the vertical array of rods up and then down into the cask. The container can hold 22 assemblies for transfer to a temporary cooling unit built next to Reactor 4 before these are moved to a storage building.(1)
Lifting the 1,533 fuel bundles out of the pool is fraught with danger. If an assembly breaks away and falls, the impact could shatter other rods below, triggering an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. Compounding the threat, many rods are not intact but were fragmented into loose shards by a collapsing crane. In addition, many of the rods likely lost their protective cladding during the two fires that engulfed the spent-fuel pool on March 14 and 15, 2011.
The urgency of this transfer operation is prompted by the warping of the supporting steel frame by the twin fires that followed the March 11 quake. The pool is also tilting. If the unbalanced structure topples, the collapse would trigger nuclear reactions. A cascade of neutrons could then ignite the nearby common fuel pool for Reactors 1 through 6. The common pool contains 6,735 used assemblies.(2)
The Reactor 4 spent fuel pool contains an estimated 400 tons of uranium and plutonium oxide, compared with just 6.2 kilograms of plutonium inside Fat Man, the hydrogen bomb that obliterated Nagasaki in 1945. (While predictions are bandied about by experts and bloggers, there exists no reliable method for calculating the potential sum or flow rate of radiation releases, measured in becquerel or sievert units, after an accident. The tonnage involved, however, indicates only that a large-scale event is likely and a cataclysm cannot be ruled out.)
More than 1,700 tons of nuclear materials are reported to be on site inside Fukushima No.1 plant. (My investigative visits into the exclusion zone indicate the existence of undocumented and illegal large-scale storage sites in the Fukushima nuclear complex of undetermined tonnage.) By comparison Chernobyl ’s reactors contained 180 tons of fuel not all of which melted down.
Despite the looming threat to residents in Fukushima , surrounding provinces and the capital Tokyo , the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe along with TEPCO hews to the tradition of risk denial and blackout of vital information. No contingency plan has been issued to Fukushima residents or to the municipalities of the Tohoku and Kanto region in event of a nuclear disaster during the SFP clearance effort. A concurrent drive to impose a draconian law against whistleblowers on grounds of national security is reinforcing the cover-up of data and testimony related to nuclear power plants, including the Fukushima complex.
Mystery of MOX super-fuel
A Mainichi Shimbun editorial mentions in passing that the Reactor 4 pool contains 202 fresh fuel assemblies.(3) The presence of new fuel rods was confirmed in the TEPCO press release, which described the first assembly lifted into the transfer cask as an “un-irradiated fuel rod.” Why were new rods being stored inside a spent-fuel pool, which is designed to hold expended rods? What threat of criticality do these fresh rods pose if the steel frame collapses or if crane operators drop one by accident onto other assemblies, as opposed to a spent rod?
Against the official silence and disinformation, a few whistleblowers have come forward with clues to answer these questions. Former GE nuclear worker Kei Sugaoka disclosed in a video interview that a joint team from Hitachi and General Electric was inside Reactor 4 at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquake. By that fateful afternoon, the GE contractors were finishing the job of installing a new shroud, the heat-resistant metal shield lining the reactor interior.(4)
TEPCO inadvertently admitted to the presence of foreign contractors at Fukushima No.1 up until March 12, 2012, when the management ordered their evacuation in event of a massive explosion during the rapid meltdown of Reactor 2. So far, leaks indicate the presence of the GE team and of a Israeli nuclear security team with Magna BSP, a company based in Dimona.(5)
Another break came in April 2012, when a Japanese humor magazine published a brief interview of a Fukushima worker who disclosed that radioactive pieces of a broken shroud were left inside a device-storage pool at rooftop level behind the Reactor 4 spent-fuel pool.(6) This undoubtedly is the used shroud removed by the GE-H workers in February-March 2011.
A curious point here is that the previous shroud had been in use for only 15 months. Why would TEPCO and the Japanese government expend an enormous sum on a new lining when the existing one was still good for many years of service?
Obviously, the installation of a new shroud was not a mere replacement of a worn predecessor. It was an upgrade. The refit of Reactor 4 was, therefore, similar to the 2010 conversion of Reactor 3 to pluthermal or MOX fuel. The same model of GE Mark 1 reactor was being revamped to burn MOX fuel (mixed oxide of uranium and plutonium).
The un-irradiated rods inside the Unit 4 spent-fuel pool are, in all probability, made of a new type of MOX fuel containing highly enriched plutonium. If the frame collapses, triggering fire or explosion inside the spent-fuel pool, the plutonium would pulse powerful neutron bursts that may well possibly ignite distant nuclear power plants, starting with the Fukushima No.2 plant, 10 kilometers to the south.
The scenario of a serial chain reaction blasting apart nuclear plants along the Pacific Coast, is what compelled Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of the 311 disaster, to contemplate the mass evacuation of 50 million residents (a third of the national population) from the Tohoku region and the Greater Tokyo metropolitan region to distant points southwest.(7) Evacuation would be impeded by the scale and intensity of multiple reactor explosions, which would shut down all transport systems, telecommunications and trap most residents. Tens of millions would die horribly in numbers topping all disasters of history combined.
Fires last time
The rod-transfer operation from Unit 4 is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014. That estimate is optimistic since it does not take into account the obstruction posed by fragments of shattered fuel rods that were overheated in the two fires that swept through Unit 4 spent-fuel pool on March 13 and 15, 2011, according to NHK television news.(8) Another factor for uncertainty is the impact of the explosion that rocked the roofline of the reactor building.
Basing its analysis on corporate information releases thus far, the Simply Info website states:
“TEPCO has changed their story on Unit 4 multiple times but eventually admitted to a very obvious explosion occurring at Unit 4 (on March 15). No video of Unit 4 exploding exists to date and it is assumed the explosion took place before dawn. One of TEPCO’s later admissions regarding unit 4 is that they think hydrogen leaked into unit 4 from unit 3 via the venting pipes and a faulty valve. No reason was given as to why unit 4 did not then ignite when Unit 3 exploded.”(9)
Soon after the Reactor 3 blast, an explosion occurred on the roofline of Reactor 4, blowing two 8-meter-wide holes through the outer wall. Although tattered, the spent-fuel pool survived the nearby explosion along with the device-storage pool containing the shroud. Photos of the building show holes and damage to a large section of walls and roof slabs on the northeast side of the upper structure (opposite the spent-fuel pool. Hydrogen gas, despite its high combustive energy per kilogram, lacks sufficient density to inflict such damage to reinforced concrete, as would a carbon-bonded gas like acetylene. A logical deduction then is that a cask of new fuel rods left on the roof during the GE-H refit was ignited by neutrons emitted from the SPF fire.
As for the spent-fuel pool, the first blaze broke out on March 14 and died down after several hours. On the following day, the pool reignited and had to be extinguished by firefighters. The nagging question is why the raging fires burned so long, since much of the hydrogen was dissolved in the remaining water at the bottom of the pool or would have burned off within a few seconds. While TEPCO conjectured that hydrogen gas pumped from Reactor 3 to 4, that scenario is a long stretch since most of the volatile gas would dissipated before arrival or ignited along the way.
An alternative possibility is of a tritium-plutonium reaction creating gas plasma inside the spent fuel pool. The condition of the cladding on the rods, which would have been melted by plasma, can indicate the heat source during those two fires. None dare mention are tritium-plutonium inter-reaction because that is the formula for a thermonuclear bomb, that is, the H-bomb. MOX fuel does have the potential to generate sufficient tritium for a thermonuclear, and that is what so rattled Naoto Kan by March 12, 2011.
A Puzzled Civil Engineer
In July 2012, inside the exclusion zone about 14 kilometers south of Fukushima No.1 plant, I had a discussion with a manager with a major construction contractor, whose large team was working at the damaged nuclear facilities. The civil engineer said that the Reactor 4 building was of serious concern because the structure was split, with the halves leaning onto each other. He added that the tilt indicates “structural damage” to the ferroconcrete foundation. Even a 9.0 earthquake could not cleave the strong footing, he stressed.
When asked about what then could crack the foundation, the manager responded: “I am a civil engineer, not a nuclear expert.” Nudged a bit more, he implied that a meltdown of nuclear fuel may have seared through the concrete. The intense heat can reconvert concrete into loose hydrated lime powder and sand, while cutting through rebar steel like a hot knife through butter.
The upgrade of the Reactor 4 shroud may well have involved the test-fitting of some MOX rods, which abandoned on the floor next to the reactor when the tsunami reached shore. In other words, in early March 2011 crane operators completely filled space inside the spent-fuel pool with new MOX rods and then simply left casks of assemblies on the roof and lowered more into the basement. That is the simplest explanation for the damage to the structural integrity of the reactor building. GE is not about to disclose its role in this disaster.
Notes
Tokyo Electric Power Company, press release, 18 November 2013
Former Ambassador Mitsuhei Murata, quoted by the Asahi Shimbun, “Doomsday scenarios spread about No.4 Reactor at Fukushima plant” 10 May 2012.
The Mainichi Shimbun, editorial “TEPCO must put safety above all else in Fukushima atomic fuel removal project.”
“GE Nuclear Plant Inspector/Whistleblower Kei Sugaoko Speaks” youtube.com, 40 minutes
Israeli surveillance at Fukushima plant, Sarah Press, Israel21c, March 20, 2011 http://israel21c.org/news/israeli-surveillance-at-fukushima-plant/
Datsutte-miru magazine, Interview of a Fukushima worker by Oshidori Mako, April 15, 2012.
This writer attended the June 2013 seminar at the San Diego Board of Supervisors and issuedthe most detailed news report on Naoto Kan’s remarks, “Japan’s leader during Fukushima meltdown opposes nuclear power”, posted athttp://rense.com/general96/jpleader.html
NHK World news broadcast, 15 March 2011, reported by Platts ( Sydney )
By Yoichi Shimatsu
Yoichi Shimatsu, former editor of the Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo, conducts independent radiation measurements and dispenses herbal therapy to local residents on his 10 journeys since May 2011 into the 20-kilometer Fukushima exclusion zone.
No he dudado en publicar íntegro el artículo de Yoichi Shimatsu. La situación Fukushima sigue siendo un reto y un peligro para el medio ambiente. Y la verdad es que con las sustancias radioactivas la contaminación en los distintos ecosistemas es insidiosa. ¿Cuánto ha ido al mar?, ¿Qué filtraciones han llegado a los acuíferos?. Hay daños irreparable. Y otros que se comprobaran a largo plazo. Fukushima es un trágico banco de pruebas de la tecnología del siglo XXI. Nos atañe a todos los seres vivos, de una u otra forma.
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-tepco-is-risking-the-removal-of-fukushima-fuel-rods-the-dangers-of-uncontrolled-global-nuclear-radiation/5359188
After repeated delays since the summer of 2011, the Tokyo Electric Power Company has launched a high-risk operation to empty the spent-fuel pool atop Reactor 4 at the Dai-ichi (No.1) Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
The urgency attached to this particular site, as compared with reactors damaged in meltdowns, arises from several factors:
- over 400 tons of nuclear material in the pool could reignite
- the fire-damaged tank is tilting badly and may topple over sooner than later
- collapse of the structure could trigger a chain reaction and nuclear blast, and
- consequent radioactive releases would heavily contaminate much of the world.
The potential for disaster at the Unit 4 SFP is probably of a higher magnitude than suspected due to the presence of fresh fuel rods, which were delivered during the technical upgrade of Reactor 4 under completion at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The details of that reactor overhaul by GE and Hitachi have yet to be disclosed by TEPCO and the Economy Ministry and continue to be treated as a national-security matter. Here, the few clues from whistleblowers will be pieced together to decipher the nature of the clandestine activity at Fukushima No.1.
Accidents happen
The delicate rod-removal procedure requires the lowering of a steel cylinder, called a transfer cask, into a corner of the pool and then using the crane to lift the 300-kilogram fuel assemblies (4..5-meter-tall bundle of fuel rods held inside a metal cage) one at a time from the vertical array of rods up and then down into the cask. The container can hold 22 assemblies for transfer to a temporary cooling unit built next to Reactor 4 before these are moved to a storage building.(1)
Lifting the 1,533 fuel bundles out of the pool is fraught with danger. If an assembly breaks away and falls, the impact could shatter other rods below, triggering an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. Compounding the threat, many rods are not intact but were fragmented into loose shards by a collapsing crane. In addition, many of the rods likely lost their protective cladding during the two fires that engulfed the spent-fuel pool on March 14 and 15, 2011.
The urgency of this transfer operation is prompted by the warping of the supporting steel frame by the twin fires that followed the March 11 quake. The pool is also tilting. If the unbalanced structure topples, the collapse would trigger nuclear reactions. A cascade of neutrons could then ignite the nearby common fuel pool for Reactors 1 through 6. The common pool contains 6,735 used assemblies.(2)
The Reactor 4 spent fuel pool contains an estimated 400 tons of uranium and plutonium oxide, compared with just 6.2 kilograms of plutonium inside Fat Man, the hydrogen bomb that obliterated Nagasaki in 1945. (While predictions are bandied about by experts and bloggers, there exists no reliable method for calculating the potential sum or flow rate of radiation releases, measured in becquerel or sievert units, after an accident. The tonnage involved, however, indicates only that a large-scale event is likely and a cataclysm cannot be ruled out.)
More than 1,700 tons of nuclear materials are reported to be on site inside Fukushima No.1 plant. (My investigative visits into the exclusion zone indicate the existence of undocumented and illegal large-scale storage sites in the Fukushima nuclear complex of undetermined tonnage.) By comparison Chernobyl ’s reactors contained 180 tons of fuel not all of which melted down.
Despite the looming threat to residents in Fukushima , surrounding provinces and the capital Tokyo , the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe along with TEPCO hews to the tradition of risk denial and blackout of vital information. No contingency plan has been issued to Fukushima residents or to the municipalities of the Tohoku and Kanto region in event of a nuclear disaster during the SFP clearance effort. A concurrent drive to impose a draconian law against whistleblowers on grounds of national security is reinforcing the cover-up of data and testimony related to nuclear power plants, including the Fukushima complex.
Mystery of MOX super-fuel
A Mainichi Shimbun editorial mentions in passing that the Reactor 4 pool contains 202 fresh fuel assemblies.(3) The presence of new fuel rods was confirmed in the TEPCO press release, which described the first assembly lifted into the transfer cask as an “un-irradiated fuel rod.” Why were new rods being stored inside a spent-fuel pool, which is designed to hold expended rods? What threat of criticality do these fresh rods pose if the steel frame collapses or if crane operators drop one by accident onto other assemblies, as opposed to a spent rod?
Against the official silence and disinformation, a few whistleblowers have come forward with clues to answer these questions. Former GE nuclear worker Kei Sugaoka disclosed in a video interview that a joint team from Hitachi and General Electric was inside Reactor 4 at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquake. By that fateful afternoon, the GE contractors were finishing the job of installing a new shroud, the heat-resistant metal shield lining the reactor interior.(4)
TEPCO inadvertently admitted to the presence of foreign contractors at Fukushima No.1 up until March 12, 2012, when the management ordered their evacuation in event of a massive explosion during the rapid meltdown of Reactor 2. So far, leaks indicate the presence of the GE team and of a Israeli nuclear security team with Magna BSP, a company based in Dimona.(5)
Another break came in April 2012, when a Japanese humor magazine published a brief interview of a Fukushima worker who disclosed that radioactive pieces of a broken shroud were left inside a device-storage pool at rooftop level behind the Reactor 4 spent-fuel pool.(6) This undoubtedly is the used shroud removed by the GE-H workers in February-March 2011.
A curious point here is that the previous shroud had been in use for only 15 months. Why would TEPCO and the Japanese government expend an enormous sum on a new lining when the existing one was still good for many years of service?
Obviously, the installation of a new shroud was not a mere replacement of a worn predecessor. It was an upgrade. The refit of Reactor 4 was, therefore, similar to the 2010 conversion of Reactor 3 to pluthermal or MOX fuel. The same model of GE Mark 1 reactor was being revamped to burn MOX fuel (mixed oxide of uranium and plutonium).
The un-irradiated rods inside the Unit 4 spent-fuel pool are, in all probability, made of a new type of MOX fuel containing highly enriched plutonium. If the frame collapses, triggering fire or explosion inside the spent-fuel pool, the plutonium would pulse powerful neutron bursts that may well possibly ignite distant nuclear power plants, starting with the Fukushima No.2 plant, 10 kilometers to the south.
The scenario of a serial chain reaction blasting apart nuclear plants along the Pacific Coast, is what compelled Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of the 311 disaster, to contemplate the mass evacuation of 50 million residents (a third of the national population) from the Tohoku region and the Greater Tokyo metropolitan region to distant points southwest.(7) Evacuation would be impeded by the scale and intensity of multiple reactor explosions, which would shut down all transport systems, telecommunications and trap most residents. Tens of millions would die horribly in numbers topping all disasters of history combined.
Fires last time
The rod-transfer operation from Unit 4 is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014. That estimate is optimistic since it does not take into account the obstruction posed by fragments of shattered fuel rods that were overheated in the two fires that swept through Unit 4 spent-fuel pool on March 13 and 15, 2011, according to NHK television news.(8) Another factor for uncertainty is the impact of the explosion that rocked the roofline of the reactor building.
Basing its analysis on corporate information releases thus far, the Simply Info website states:
“TEPCO has changed their story on Unit 4 multiple times but eventually admitted to a very obvious explosion occurring at Unit 4 (on March 15). No video of Unit 4 exploding exists to date and it is assumed the explosion took place before dawn. One of TEPCO’s later admissions regarding unit 4 is that they think hydrogen leaked into unit 4 from unit 3 via the venting pipes and a faulty valve. No reason was given as to why unit 4 did not then ignite when Unit 3 exploded.”(9)
Soon after the Reactor 3 blast, an explosion occurred on the roofline of Reactor 4, blowing two 8-meter-wide holes through the outer wall. Although tattered, the spent-fuel pool survived the nearby explosion along with the device-storage pool containing the shroud. Photos of the building show holes and damage to a large section of walls and roof slabs on the northeast side of the upper structure (opposite the spent-fuel pool. Hydrogen gas, despite its high combustive energy per kilogram, lacks sufficient density to inflict such damage to reinforced concrete, as would a carbon-bonded gas like acetylene. A logical deduction then is that a cask of new fuel rods left on the roof during the GE-H refit was ignited by neutrons emitted from the SPF fire.
As for the spent-fuel pool, the first blaze broke out on March 14 and died down after several hours. On the following day, the pool reignited and had to be extinguished by firefighters. The nagging question is why the raging fires burned so long, since much of the hydrogen was dissolved in the remaining water at the bottom of the pool or would have burned off within a few seconds. While TEPCO conjectured that hydrogen gas pumped from Reactor 3 to 4, that scenario is a long stretch since most of the volatile gas would dissipated before arrival or ignited along the way.
An alternative possibility is of a tritium-plutonium reaction creating gas plasma inside the spent fuel pool. The condition of the cladding on the rods, which would have been melted by plasma, can indicate the heat source during those two fires. None dare mention are tritium-plutonium inter-reaction because that is the formula for a thermonuclear bomb, that is, the H-bomb. MOX fuel does have the potential to generate sufficient tritium for a thermonuclear, and that is what so rattled Naoto Kan by March 12, 2011.
A Puzzled Civil Engineer
In July 2012, inside the exclusion zone about 14 kilometers south of Fukushima No.1 plant, I had a discussion with a manager with a major construction contractor, whose large team was working at the damaged nuclear facilities. The civil engineer said that the Reactor 4 building was of serious concern because the structure was split, with the halves leaning onto each other. He added that the tilt indicates “structural damage” to the ferroconcrete foundation. Even a 9.0 earthquake could not cleave the strong footing, he stressed.
When asked about what then could crack the foundation, the manager responded: “I am a civil engineer, not a nuclear expert.” Nudged a bit more, he implied that a meltdown of nuclear fuel may have seared through the concrete. The intense heat can reconvert concrete into loose hydrated lime powder and sand, while cutting through rebar steel like a hot knife through butter.
The upgrade of the Reactor 4 shroud may well have involved the test-fitting of some MOX rods, which abandoned on the floor next to the reactor when the tsunami reached shore. In other words, in early March 2011 crane operators completely filled space inside the spent-fuel pool with new MOX rods and then simply left casks of assemblies on the roof and lowered more into the basement. That is the simplest explanation for the damage to the structural integrity of the reactor building. GE is not about to disclose its role in this disaster.
Notes
Tokyo Electric Power Company, press release, 18 November 2013
Former Ambassador Mitsuhei Murata, quoted by the Asahi Shimbun, “Doomsday scenarios spread about No.4 Reactor at Fukushima plant” 10 May 2012.
The Mainichi Shimbun, editorial “TEPCO must put safety above all else in Fukushima atomic fuel removal project.”
“GE Nuclear Plant Inspector/Whistleblower Kei Sugaoko Speaks” youtube.com, 40 minutes
Israeli surveillance at Fukushima plant, Sarah Press, Israel21c, March 20, 2011 http://israel21c.org/news/israeli-surveillance-at-fukushima-plant/
Datsutte-miru magazine, Interview of a Fukushima worker by Oshidori Mako, April 15, 2012.
This writer attended the June 2013 seminar at the San Diego Board of Supervisors and issuedthe most detailed news report on Naoto Kan’s remarks, “Japan’s leader during Fukushima meltdown opposes nuclear power”, posted athttp://rense.com/general96/jpleader.html
NHK World news broadcast, 15 March 2011, reported by Platts ( Sydney )
No gays in the Persian Gulf
 |
| "Hombre árabe" según CanStockfotos |
"Homosexuals will not be accepted in the countries of the Persian Gulf (PG). Kuwait and other Arab countries of the region launched a campaign to protest against the promotion of homosexual lifestyle on their territories. Those willing to visit the territory of these countries will have to go back, if airport employees find that the visitors practice homosexual relationships. Therefore, the entry to PG countries for homosexual individuals will be denied.
The list of such countries, in addition to Kuwait, includes Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Most likely, the list will soon have Qatar and Bahrain. It is possible that the new rules will save many lives for those representing the LGBT community, as in some Arab countries, homosexual relationships are not only banned, but are punishable by death.It is not clear, though, how it will be possible to establish the sexual orientation of foreign visitors".
La verdad es que han rizado el rizo. No me imagino cómo se las van a arreglar para practicar semejante discriminación. Todo el mundo y su hermano menor sabe que las mujeres vienen a ser su mercancía reproductora bajo la égida del padre primero, del marido después, que puede hacer con ellas lo que le de la gana, hasta aburrirse legalmente cuando se pongan un poco viejas. Y claro, si no les dan tanta descendencia como ellos desean las repudian y asunto terminado.Es decir, que odian oficialmente a las mujeres. Claro que su fobia a la libertad sexual, al derecho de ciudadanos y ciudadanas a hacer con su cuerpo y mente lo que al le apetezca, siempre entre adultos (que niños y niñas son sagrados) se extiende de forma maligna a homosexuales y lesbianas. En fin, que da vergüenza que países tan influyentes por sus recursos petrolíferos, y frente a los que la muy democrática Europa mira para otra parte, sean machistas, homófobos y fanáticos capaces de matar por cuestiones de creencias, sin paliativos, vamos.
lunes, 25 de noviembre de 2013
Odio contra las mujeres
 |
| Hoy se celebra el día contra la violencia de género. El que exista un día conmemorativo contra el maltrato machista indica que algo va muy mal. En España ya van más de cuarenta víctimas mortales, en 2013, de una plaga que no cesa. Y las actuales condiciones socio económicas del país no favorecen nada que las mujeres en situaciones límites puedan librarse del maltratador que con frecuencia es el sostiene el hogar. La crisis económica ha puesto a las mujeres en peores condiciones que hace unos años. Pese a lo que intenta hacer el actual gobierno, falta mucho para una mínima igualdad de oportunidades laborales. Para que las mujeres alcancen una formación que les permita competir en el mercado laboral. El maltrato se ejerce en todas los estratos sociales y no reconoce edades. Pero cuando una mujer tiene su independencia económica, un trabajo digno y suficiente cualificación, se librará de mejor manera de alguien que seguro la odia, aunque un día la amara. No deberíamos olvidar que hay países que maltratan a las mujeres como parte de sus superestructuras. Y otros en los que se celebra una cultura machista y dominadora. Es triste que se apele a las costumbres o las religiones para encubrir abusos, violaciones de derechos elementales y tratos vejatorios. |
domingo, 24 de noviembre de 2013
Concluye "Bastión 2013" en Kuba
El General de Ejército Raúl Castro Ruz, Presidente del Consejo de Defensa Nacional de Cuba, afirmó durante una videoconferencia sobre "Bastión 2013" al concluir dicho ejercicio al mediodía del viernes pasado:
"Evitar la guerra equivale a ganarla, pero para ganarla evitándola, hace falta gastar no pocos recursos que pudiéramos destinar a otras cuestiones vitales de la población y el desarrollo del país. Hacen falta ríos de sudor y de esfuerzo para evitar ríos de sangre, sufrimiento y lágrimas de nuestro pueblo", afirmó Raúl Castro al tiempo que llamó a prepararse "desde ahora para el próximo Ejercicio Bastión que se desarrollará en el año 2016.
En nombre del Consejo de Defensa Nacional felicitó al pueblo de Cuba por la realización satisfactoria de las actividades desarrolladas".
Katy Perry: she is a pop champion
 |
| Pues como es finde, hace mucho frío, "bufa" la tramontana, les dejo una sugerencia higiénica: que en casa muevan el esqueleto con Katy Perry, una diva del pop que está pegando fuerte con su RRRROar and I´m a champion. Aunque ya saben que mi blog no va exactamente de celebrities y listas de éxitos comerciales, la verdad es que mis gustos musicales son amplios y puedo disfrutar con casi cualquier ritmo. Con la empedernida excepción de rancheras y mariachis, trasiego toda buena melodía. Perry se ha marcado un trabajo decoroso en 2013. A ver si sobrevive. |
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)