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| Let us see the Light |
After any huge disaster when desperate rescue efforts must be conducted to rescue the general population there is understandably worry, confusion, fear, and hurried misunderstanding --caused by intent or not.
By the very nature of such events, the disruption or destruction of infrastructure and communications, reports from different authorities and agencies may not always coincide. Decades ago, that used to be the case only because it was problematic or impossible to communicate when transportation, services and "land lines" were destroyed, but modern society now has cell phones and portable satellite communications systems for news services.
Why is more accurate information not available?
Is that glaring contradiction one of the main causes of the public distrust of "officialdom" and the media?
Within the media there always remains a responsibility to report responsibly and avoid the creation more fear and panic, but it seems logical that with a major nuclear story seemingly headed in the direction of and even exceeding Three Mile Island (even Chernobyl ? ) , a current major event such as Japan's ongoing nuclear dilemma should require information be directed accurately to the public at all times.
With ever more serious consequences developing, the horrific catastrophe unfolding in Japan quickly captured the attention of the whole world, and understandably so. The Japanese catastrophe has unfolded to be clearly an exceptional and dangerous historical event with very long-term implications.
Unbelievable damage caused by the quake and ensuing tsunami now has implications that remain virtually incalculable .
Six operating nuclear power generating plants, one of them containing plutonium-enriched fuel, suffered major damage, including damage to critical power systems that provided necessary cooling not only for the active reactors themselves, but for a huge water-pond storage system that stores thousands of "spent" fuel rods (or did ?)--at least until recently. For the uninformed, spent (used) fuel rods remain highly radioactive for years and must be stored carefully to avoid overheating and exposure to air, which can cause radioactive materials to be released into the air.
At the nuclear plants, there have already been 3 major hydrogen explosions, storage pond fires, and failure to cool the melting reactor cores in spite of last-ditch emergency flooding with sea water, water bombing using helicopters, fire trucks and water cannons. Dangerously overheated reactor cores have been exposed, dry, partially melted. A partial meltdown or meltdown(s) have already occurred.
We already know there has been major releases of radioactive materials, but reports of the official "danger" and levels of radiation being measured differ substantially. With world Atomic Energy associations, why should there be any question?
Although already having evacuated more than 500,000 people and are advising staying more than 20km from the nuclear hot-spot, Japanese officials have finally admitted it is far more serious than previously thought.
U.S. and other nuclear experts were advising a range of more than 80 km and countries are advising their nationals to leave Japan.
Why the big discrepancy? Why is it so difficult for officials everywhere to come clean, correlate data with one another, and admit the true nature of the problem immediately?
Do owners and officials of operating nuclear power plants not want to accept responsibility for bad design and failure? Now that the disaster is unfolding, and they are in charge of a dragon that escaping their control, will they now deny culpability, and admit lack of capability to control the potential disaster in it's entirety?
Who shall we believe? The greedy, the frightened, or the media? Perhaps we should take careful note that it is the greedy and powerful that build and operate these potential disasters.
To be clear, we at Incoming Bytes shall not point fingers at the Japanese as a nation. Japan is far from alone in this phenomenon; around the world, nuclear plants have had leaks, accidents, and failures and will continue to do so because that is what they do. They are mechanical systems; it is not IF they will fail, but WHEN.
The world must now face that reality and change course.
When clean solar energy and wind energy is freely available, what has compelled humanity to ignore common sense and use problematic, dangerous and dirty nuclear plants that produce dangerous, dirty waste products that must be stored forever? The answer is simple. Greed.
I offered a comment following the previous post:
"Where big money is concerned, it seems there is little genuine concern for the results of their money-making schemes, no matter how much pollution or how many potential problems they may cause."
An immediate response from a very astute reader summed it up perfectly:
"Selfish motives impact whole civilizations. And its time we wake up to defending our lives that are at the mercy of a handful".
As the world turns, it is becoming more apparent that civilization in it's entirety may now be forced to forever pay the gargantuan and endless economic and human costs of these disasters, --and only now at the very last moment in civilization, try to discourage and disengage a foolish energy policy that was followed only to satiate the endless greed of "a handful".
So be it. We CAN do it. We HAVE to do it.
