Unbelievable: MORE Nukes to be Built in the USA

Say "NO ! "  to Nuclear Plants

                                " No comment !!! ". 

Leadership in the United States of America has chosen to continue with the program of  nuclear madness. The nuclear industry has clearly been given the green light by President Barack Obama.

Perhaps the subsequent  February 9, 2012  approval of two new nuclear reactors by the  U.S.  Nuclear Regulatory Commission  is the damning evidence  so unbelievable and  outrageous  it raises the question of whether 'ordinary' citizens should even bother trying to address the issue in a reasonable manner.  


  It seems the horrific nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan already been  forgotten or is being totally ignored even though the  effects of the  melt-down, explosions, fires in the nuclear facilities and wide-spread, dangerously high radioactive contamination at Fukushima  are  not resolved, and will not be for  many centuries. 
The nuclear elite in North America have decided they can magically address those safety concerns'  therefore nuclear will become "safe".
 Approval for two new nuclear reactors to be built  by 2016 in Vogtle, Georgia has been given.
These 'brilliant people' have decided an earthquake can never happen in Vogtle, Georgia.  A nuclear meltdown can never happen in Vogtle, Georgia. A major leak of radioactive material can never happen in Vogtle, Georgia.    
The trouble is, clearly all of the above CAN happen.

  A tsunami could NEVER damage the nuclear reactors at Fukushima.  Cleverly-designed backup cooling systems AND SHUTDOWN SYSTEMS  can NEVER fail.   Three Mile Island could not OCCUR.  "IMPOSSIBLE! "     The horrific meltdown at Chernobyl  apparently could not happen either. 
We all know "THESE CATASTROPHES  can't happen" according to the nuclear industry,  but DID. 

 

Is this small, self-entitled pro-nuclear segment of humanity SO arrogant that it matters not WHAT happens to THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMANITY ITSELF? 

CLEARLY The question of competence must be brought to bear.  Read the comments in this news article and decide for yourselves.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-approves-first-nuclear-plant-since-1986-175023774.html

 Shall we now sit in silence and apathy,  and say " NO COMMENT ! "? 
Quite to the contrary.
 
We  believe this  decision to be irresponsible,  outrageous and unacceptable by any standards.

Clean, environmentally safe methods are already available to develop power. Nuclear plants are not necessary. The threat to the environment and humanity itself is not necessary.  
 With reasoning, authority, and leadership itself thoughtlessly  tossed to rabid nuclear dogs who delight in pushing their own greedy agenda for profit,  and are also clearly out of control,  ignoring the most basic tenets of common sense,  why should anyone express concern?

In fact, pushing logic even farther,  does the United States of America need the expense of governance and  "leadership"   that fails to act or understand the need for a major change of energy policy NOW ?

In jest:
  "Let us maintain silence, cast our embarrassed  gaze at our navels,  pretend ignorance,  fade into the sunset, and allow greedy corporate fools to run North America entirely so humanity can be irradiated for profit". 

Nuclear madness designed and perpetrated by greedy corporate interests must be addressed and halted.

The fact is, if a highly industrial country like Germany can go nuclear-free and use alternative, clean methods of production, so can the United States of America. It is time to recognize fact and have common sense prevail.

At Incoming Bytes we find it difficult to understand why these outrageous plans have so thoughtlessly been approved. To maintain and ensure a healthy environment for all of humanity is far more important than corporate greed.    This course of action is totally irresponsible. The blighted record of the nuclear industry is already more than apparent. It is deadly.  

Readers of Incoming Bytes are encouraged to think and decide for themselves.  

Is that incoming I hear?

100 Posts Later....

Discovery of the Light can be Blinding.....

This is a special occasion. One Hundred, count them, yes,  100 posts later, we're still here at Incoming Bytes !   We are still here.

Isn't that amazing? Why did we persist so?  Stubbornness. Foolishness, persistence,  the will to survive, no matter what?
Detractors and critics --we are sorry to disappoint you.  We didn't give up. We didn't quit. We did not run out of stuff to write about either.
Loyal friends, contributors, supporters and readers, rejoice, we clearly shall overcome!

We have become a real blog, talking about real stuff. 
From the abuse of Kakabeka Falls  to Fukushima Japan's nuclear disaster, elections and disastrous political games,  the destruction of Canada's Avro Arrow--an aircraft that has few equals even 50 years later!  We  happily digressed to  bonsai and heaps of gardening all the way to the Middle East--- and even dared to wander back home into dull, boring politics, electioneering and tongue-in-cheek political-psycho-babble, sanctions and mousy local dictatorships.
From sugar-maple  mysteries,  discussions of garden zeitgeists,   Glory Lennon our gardener  all the way from  sunflowers to oaks,  we have even migrated across  the tender economics of economic growth, global failure and the fall of nasty dictators.
Snowmobile high-marking made it to the foreground when that foolish, mindless sport caused deaths yet again last winter!   Will they never LEARN?  
Predictions of Doomsday were discussed right on time, but Harold Camping and his doomsday money-making machine  failed to make it happen.  Twice yet!  
A couple of wonderful guest posts were included,  one by  Adriana Heep, a young thinker who clearly offers hope for humanity,   and  M.J Joachim (Gum Pets on the Hill)  who stirred the hearts of  alert readers with her  distinguished voice in poetic justice. 

We  even got to the point of  telling stories, checking out Glorious Flower Power, tales of persistence and  and  promoting the publishing  of eBooks, starting with my new Christmas classic, Morgidoo's Christmas Carol.  We have hypothesized about the new Age of Light --and recently welcomed a new website  EffectivelyHuman.com, a site that promotes human worth and dignity, something necessary to initiate the Age of Light.   We asked questions. 


I still like this question the best:  "Is willful nuclear expansion a sign of collective human insanity, insatiable corporate greed, total lunacy, irresponsible governance, --or proof positive of all of the above?"  (MUST WE Contaminate the world with Radiation? Say NO! (Mar.23rd 2011)


As a reader, what more could you ask ?   The fact is, almost any subject matter  may show up at Incoming Bytes.
Where are we going NEXT?   Wait and see.  Stay tuned.  Participate!  Enjoy!

Where do we stand after 100 posts? We still want you to  think, --if you dare. We also want you to stand and be counted.


That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

The Age of Light

The Age of Light is upon us

 The Age of Light is upon us.   The year  2012 is  almost here,-- the end of an era, the revelations of Mayan culture, strange planets are reported in "Before it's New".  Roswell revisited, all kinds of strange and wonderful sights seen,  misinterpreted, and misunderstood-some strange things are even admitted. 
  
All that in the midst of the  usual prescription of increasing economic tension, political international sabre-rattling, human failure and  failed predictions of gloom and doom, on two separate dates yet.  Let us not forget the past, the previous destruction of humanity and civility by any means, since Nov 11th Remembrance has also come and gone yet again, while the world is still at war.  

What shall we then  concentrate upon?  

I recently published Morgidoo's Christmas Carol, a new Christmas classic as an Ebook, and the subject of the Age of Light happened to be involved.
--The light from the Great Silver Bell and all that. 

A mere story, a work of fiction, a figment of a writer's imagination, ---or is it?   
Here at Incoming Bytes it always behooves us to examine such fascinating possibilities.  Weird stuff.  The unexpected, "incoming bytes " heading our way.
It is not a coincidence that one of the most interesting observations in life may be that writers not only record history and the past for posterity, but also to some degree, in fiction and literature,  imagine,create, extrapolate, project,  and somehow pen the details of the future, at times with unerring accuracy.  It is not a coincidence.


It is not a coincidence that the "age of dirty oil", pipelines, and choking greenhouse gases is not sustainable, nor is it wise to insist upon following that path .
 It is not a  coincidence that the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan occurred, with radiation spreading as we speak.
It may, therefore also not be a coincidence that the favourite heading picture of Incoming Bytes  is that of blinding sunlight in a morning sunrise.  
Sunlight is the greatest, cleanest and most powerful force in nature--one that is easily harvested. Sunlight is free, universal, and endless.  It is the ideal alternative energy.

Nor is the symbolism of the Age of Light and the Great Silver Bell in Morgidoo's Christmas Carol  lost as a guidepost to the future--and with faith and belief,  offering HOPE for mankind. 
I'm hoping you'll read it some day.  There is a reason for everything, including  coincidence, destiny, and fiction.  Perhaps one day we shall all  understand that reality. 


All we have to do is actually  be smart enough to identify the signs already pointing us in the direction of the Age of Light.  If we collectively set our minds to the job at hand, our  civilization can be reinvented and a new Age of Light shall be upon us.
Think about it.  Start now.






That's my story and I'm sticking to it

The Ball and Chain Approach might Work for THEM too....

                                             the old ball and chain trick


It's difficult to raise the flag high  these days. 

It seems to me punishment should always fit the crime. 
in troubled financial times, the big spenders,  the economic destroyers wasting our money inappropriately and creating financial havoc should be wearing a Ball & Chain award instead of the people footing the bill.   The  old "Stars & Strips"  of the  United States of America is wearing a big ball and chain--uncontrollable debt, the wall is coming, a lot faster than you think,  we already talked about that,  but the concept and that cute little picture  also got me thinking about appropriate ways to reward people who insist upon following their hearts to questionable riches and fame at the  undisciplined expense of society.  Same thing for the guys making stupid and stupider decisions and policy.

Such  treatment should always be  appropriately arranged  for crooked politicians without fail, and for  financially-challenged overpaid CEOs  filching their shareholder's funds under the guise of bonuses.  They can join other greedy CEO's seeking bailouts to save their  stained shorts,  and  other industrious  greedy-specialist types that wish to garner wealth in devious, dubious or dishonest ways. 
Other rascal knockabouts  who think they can do anything devious, underhanded or " make stinky"  in society "as they please" without moderate to severe consequences should also think twice,  yes, make that twice,   we're onto you.

NO more holidays- get-off-Scott-free happy-hotels   for you   hoodlums, fast fingered- fanatics and assorted horrible home-grown terrorist guys either--you're exiled as of yesterday, you're off to some desert island without  umbrella-decorated cool drinks, but there are  lots of sharks in the water to entertain you.   Play "count the coconuts" as you tow your ball and chain around, making creative 'B & C' tracks.     Say bye-bye.  Get your Speedos on, you're leaving for much warmer climes much sooner than you think .

  McDummy hamburger-serving jobs complete with B& C benefits are awaiting all politicians that express a marginal propensity to destroy the job market by making foolish, biased decisions in a bid to to enrich themselves by building gazebos in their ridings for a million bucks each.  Let's include  dirty oil boys, and all industrialists who practice  Chinese outsourcery  or local economy downsizery too, while we're at it.  What's the matter with you guys, did you not watch Harry Potter?  Do you not know what happens to evil types?Want to see the inside of a real dungeon?
 
Oh, and about jobs?  Want to try a nice working foreign vacation ?   We shall assign you environmental   moppit   jobs in Fukushima's  Nukes and Radiation Melt-Down Department, REAL work  to pay for your vacation,  the vacation tailor-made  just for you,  if you insist on entertaining any additional  Nuclear energy in Canada.   You'll love the glowing veggies and beef  and radiated Saki.   

You will also get a glowing letter of recommendation when you leave Fukushima,  you even get to keep the radioactive mop,  and are awarded  a one-way  free pass to a Siberian work camp called Chernobyl.   They have cute little lines of  Class A  yurts there  (good idea eh, borrowed from Tibet!)    to vacation  in.   Don't forget the entertainment, it's the Gulag's "works"  Nuclear Society  Entertainment program,  the approved  'exchange-a-life-for a  glowing Siberian Honeymoon  plan' is another option.   It will be called other names by  politicians who THINK we should exchange sanity for more nuclear  power plants in Ontario, but apply soon,  most of the vacation spots are filled already.
Let's send  Dalton and the developers and nuclear financiers with him so they can become glowing water-boys too--as a rest,  right after the Ontario election,  shall we?  They'll be joining all the nice  Americans  from Nebraska.  They want a third Nuke plant down there  too, but that's justifiable, the first two are being washed away in the floods.   They're easy to spot,  they're the boys  trying to hoist the flag, --you know, the Stars & Strips,  the one with the big ball and chain on it.  

that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

And Here I thought the Silence was my Imagination.....

It never fails to surprise me how human instinct can sense differences in the atmosphere, events,  and social happenings  without really knowing why, or what is happening.
My last two posts discussed the strange  "silence" out in the media  that has raised my own curiosity level to the extreme.  I wondered if it was 'official' silence, or just perceived.
 It turns out there is much  more to come about "silence" .  It seems I am not alone.

I'll refer the reader of Incoming Bytes  to a new article in  "Before it's News"  and encourage all of our readers to think for yourselves...and  pay a lot of attention to the article:
"12 Things That the Mainstream Media is Being Strangely Quiet about Right Now". 
http://members.beforeitsnews.com/story/730/999 The "12 things"  are listed short-listed below for your convenience, but the reader really should read the article in its total form.

1)   The crisis at the Fort Calhoun nuclear facility in Nebraska 
2)   Bombing in Yemen and Pakistan and rumors of the US invasion of Libya
3)   Fukushima in Japan: the nuclear crisis is worsening, far worse than Chernobyl
4)   Christian groups are considered to be a threat to National Security
5)   Flooding in China is the worst in 55 years
6)   The Dodd-Frank Act is closing down Forex gold/silver trading by July 15, 2011
7)    Huge cracks in the earth 3km long have appeared in the earth in Peru, and a huge crack has appeared in Michigan
8)    Arizona wildfire is now over half a million acres 
9)    North Korea has tested a "super  EMP weapon"
10    "Active shooter drills"  are being conducted American public schools without notice
11)   " Emergency preparedness" initiatives for NASA employees and their families are being conducted
12    NO-fly zones--40 of them--have been declared by the FAA in the last week.

What is really  going on here?  Clearly our instincts work overtime even  when our media does not, or is ordered not to.  Why are public officials sanctioning  the media  "SILENCE"?  Are all disasters, events, and threats now on the " information based on need to know" principle? Is  "Big Brother" deciding what we shall or shall not be informed about?

Meantime, back in the fog surrounding the  garden, the beans are growing peacefully, cabbage is doing just fine, the corn is growing in leaps and bounds,  and everything else is sprouting in the finest possible fashion, with nary a news flash.
 
I have to wonder which of these two subjects is more valuable to me as a human being?  Which do I have the most control over?  I ask again, is it better to be uninformed? Big Brother seems to think so.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

The Greater the Event, the Less we Hear ?

Silence is upon us.   Let us properly call that "selective silence".  


Why?  With the media frenzy that usually accompanies major events such as the nuclear disaster at Fukushima,  one might expect to see some expression of continued in the plight of Japan, but no.  The same strange abandonment of other man-made and natural disasters seems to disappear with with the same finesse from the media.  Is it too much to ask to be informed?  Radiation from Fukushima has already crossed North America, but officialdom, like the media, keeps it hushed.   Are we  "to glow before we know"  what is happening?  Is there a  "the greater the event, the less we hear"  edict hidden somewhere in government files?
Germany is  intelligently closing down ALL nuclear plants by 2020.  North America is strangely " silent"  about it  instead,  no such plans HERE.
  We don't have to wonder why. The invoking  of common sense itself would be an earth-shattering event that would have to be silenced.
Does wild game  in North America have to become "polluted and unfit for human consumption"  with Fukushima radiation   like the wild boars ARE ALREADY  today in Germany--from 900 miles away,  --the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago--before it becomes a "news story" again? 


The Haiti  earthquake disaster may as well have occurred  a hundred years ago;  the "live"  victims may be healed, but they still live in tent cities,  the city, reduced to rubble  is NOT yet rebuilt,  the aid  "disappearing" into the strangling, secret pockets  of the bureaucracy.  Has that story, too, been "worn out" by the media, no longer worth contaminating a news page or computer screen?
Strange silence is emerging over the  Iraq war,   --"winding down", is it?   Or is it in fact really just another very expensive military failure that will be glossed over,  the new government just as corrupt as Saddam himself, with all the facts hidden from the public?
Never mind that war, we have NEW ones. We line them up, one after the other. 

The New Normal: Expect the Unexpected

Yes, it is May the 1st today,  yet it is not warm by any stretch of the wishful imagination.   Cold and windy, steady as she goes.   Here in NW Ontario the sky is bright, but still tending to be overcast after yesterday's rain.   The sun will come out eventually.  We hope. 

Somehow it seemed gratifying yesterday to get rain instead of  snow.  Much better. We got the shoveling kind  ungraciously bestowed upon us a couple of days ago.  Complaining?

No, not really, -- but...but........C'mon,  a couple of inches of snow wasn't that bad, but it's supposed to be spring, isn't it? My crocuses are in bloom, after all.  Beautiful, too, down there in the snow. 

Regardless, our luck of the draw  here  seems a lot better than the treatment  Mother Nature has been bestowing upon other areas of North America. Vast areas of Manitoba are flooding, farmer's fields are lakes, literally,  basements full of water, and the water isn't even crested yet --with more to come.
I'm feeling lucky and blessed at this point, -- but  I'm guessing we, too,  have to expect the unexpected,  as the new normal.

Internationally,  with radiation still spewing from Fukushima,  a disaster of proportions  that perhaps now exceeds that of Chernobyl, the end of that disaster is nowhere  in sight.   Who would think that an earthquake coupled with a mere tsunami  could eventually endanger the whole of Japan  and other countries as well ?  The nuclear didn't think so.     Expect the unexpected,  it's not a matter of IF disasters will happen, but when. 

In the Southern US, over 340 fatalities--and still counting, with many people missing -- have been caused by perhaps the worst tornado season on record.  Total destruction, a swath of damage that looks a lot like the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan.
Still,  a tornado or two,  perchance a dozen, or three dozen ---but 130 or more in one day?
Isn't that just a bit overdone, Mother Nature?   
Heavily populated areas were hit badly.  Expect the unexpected. 

At Incoming Bytes, our hearts go out to the families of those lost in these terrible tragedies. May they find comfort in their faith.

In Canada, our unwanted  election is May 2nd .   It was a pretty dull campaign, a real yawner, and  the  Harper Conservatives were expecting to garner a majority government.  Guess what. "Were "  is the key word.

Surprise, surprise.  Jack Layton's  New Democratic Party has surged past the Liberals in the last few official polls --  not only moving into 2nd place  to threaten the Conservative majority, but  perhaps .....the unthinkable, could they end up in 1st place?

Maybe  there is some  historical stuff coming up tomorrow.     Surprise, people,-- just  expect the  unexpected.

South of the border again,  Donald Trump, yes, that smiling Donald,  the one and only  Donald --seems to be running for the Presidency of the United States?  Why not, isn't politics a reality show anyway?  
 Maybe he'll bring a whole roster of  "apprentices" to the White House, cute little Presidential trainees. ...I wonder.
If an ex-actor can be successful  president,  why can't  a successful entrepreneurial showman be President?  The Terminator  got to be governor, didn't he? Anything is possible.
  The Donald knows how to fire people. " You're fired" he says, pointing his finger at the unlucky outgoing soul.   Sighs of relief all around the table.  Gary Busey, was the latest statistic,  he was apparently too likeable but just a bit crazy and not a Leader, so  no apprenticeship at the White House for him, --but think about it, a White House with  glitz and spangles and "you're fired! "  ---and big hair.     
Barack, better expect the Unexpected there too.  Maybe it will snow. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Unlimited Contamination but only Limited Hope ?

The ocean around Fukushima,  Japan is contaminated with radioactivity levels almost unheard of,    at  5,000,000 times the legal limit,(read 5 MILLION times the legal limit)   and even 7,000,000 times the legal limit, the numbers,  which are unbelievable,   change daily depending upon the "engineer's solution to pollution, which is dilution".  
     Water, seaweed, fish,  the --whole works is contaminated, throwing a very large potential  wrench into the future of  the Japanese fishing and seafood industry for many years to come.  Countries are already banning Japanese sea products.
     Clearly fish that are contaminated to the point they are not fit for human consumption  will not only be unsafe for humans, but  unfit for the natural food chain, and in turn,  unfit  to produce and support  offspring, which may undergo mutation; the further up the food chain the contamination goes, the higher the concentrations shall be. 
    Realistically, at  this sad  point in history  there is  no predictable, safe end for this tragedy, there is literally no end in sight to this problem.  We shall undoubtedly  praise God when brave men risking life and limb  stop nuclear leaks, and the world flinches, but looks away as Japan dumps 15,000 tons of radioactive water into the ocean, and will do so again, repeatedly if necessary. Dumping contaminated water will make more room for more cooling water  required, which will in turn become contaminated, ad infinitum,  and we shall be reluctantly  obligated to turn face when they  have to dump THAT too. Humanity will clearly "look away" again and again.
    If such an occurrence happened in the middle of the United States of America, or for example, in Canada, along Lake Ontario, at Pickering, where would WE dump 15,000 tons of radioactive water?  Into Lake Ontario while nobody is looking?  How about at Darlington?  
     Let's face it, it might be a one in 20 MILLION chance of anything happening, but people DO win lotteries.  It therefore becomes a BET, a sickening gamble,  where the nuclear industry bets their safety record against the lives of MILLIONS of Canadians and Americans.   
     Can the the nuclear industry world-wide guarantee there will never be another nuclear incident? Clearly not, therefore they have no moral authority to put our lives on the betting table.  
End of story.
      It seems this should be the final death knell of the nuclear industry, three strikes, you're out;  the only logical, viable, and sensible strategy is to source  energy from clean, renewable sources, wind, solar, hydrogen, and other clean technologies, --but we will not do that, clean technology is not exciting enough or  daring enough to lure big money,  it is not challenging enough to revered, arrogant scientists who pride themselves in challenging, big scientific feats.     Being closer to fools,  sheep that follow  and lemmings that race to jump to their deaths over high cliffs, civilization  will likely continue to ALLOW the dirty nuclear industry to keep polluting, more, and more.    The question is why?  in the old west,  reckless, dangerous people were quickly dealt with by frontier justice.
     There is facing us,  therefore, unlimited contamination at this point, coupled with very limited hope. Why? A lesson has not been learned,  there is already grumbling "commentary" suggesting that a  return to coal and other technologies would "damage the environment" by contributing to global warming, the old 2 degree change in world temperature argument.  Such proponents of nuclear energy suggest shall exploit that myth and  conveniently "save us all"  and avoid that problem by keeping the nuclear industry "alive and well"  even if it is as dangerous as hell."  . 
     At Incoming Bytes we believe building any more nuclear reactors is not a reasonable option under any circumstance; it is not a reasonable option under any terms of reference, since all nations receive sunshine; all nations have winds. 
     Who would be  glaringly  foolish enough  to resurrect coal technology when SOLAR and WIND technology is so easily available?  Who can ignore the fact that Spain, as an example, gets the majority of it's power from solar sources?   
     We can complain endlessly that it takes large amounts of money to build wind generators and solar stations.  It costs money to build a  solar system on your roof  that will run your home and pump clean solar energy into the grid,  and it costs about a million dollars to build a very large wind generator. Shall we conveniently ignore the proven fact that it costs many $BILLIONS to build an unsafe nuclear reactor that is virtually guaranteed to fail at some point in the future? 
The NEW questions for the day are: 
" Where are WE going to dump OUR radioactive, contaminated water?"   Where are we going to dispose of spent fuel bundles?  

       Ans:    NOT in MY back yard, you're not.  

It is not a matter of  "if" we will have to dump some radioactive water, and dispose of thousands of highly radioactive fuel rods.   It's just a matter of WHEN.   
You'll have to figure it out.  The Japanese people have proven that to be the ultimate truth. 
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Which Does Humanity need worse: A Bucket List or Mop and Bucket?

The Light of Hope

   Yes, we are contemplating human folly yet again, as we read more about the ongoing disaster at Fukushima, Japan. Why?   Because as global citizens we are obliged to make ourselves aware what is happening, and not allow ourselves  to be misled or distracted by less than honest propaganda,  red herrings, elections and politics, or manufactured war.


    We have been reading  that scientifically, carefully-measured  radiation levels around the damaged  nuclear reactors continue  to rise  in spite of best efforts  of our  "world-class nuclear community" and others  to contain the problem.  Radiation levels from the four  seriously damaged nuclear reactors, it turns out, are already  more than a bit disconcerting. 
    At over 4300 times the maximum allowable  limit, local sea water is  unimaginably contaminated,  but will optimistically be "diluted",  --or so advises the informed nuclear establishment.  Yet another "out of sight, out of mind" solution is the temptation; dilution, the engineer's dream.  Is everyone  deluded enough to imagine sea life wouldn't  mind a little radiation after all, --is that the message we shall pass to our grandchildren ? 
    Well, all right. Let's  stop it quickly and clean it up instead....  A traditional mop and pail isn't exactly going to do the trick.  How about some wishful thinking, a bucket list ?  All human beings need a bucket list of wonderful plans and objectives to be completed and achieved prior to heading into the Great Beyond.  
    Now "jumpers", brave souls -- volunteers from around the globe, Europe and North America, dedicated, serious men seemingly with a death wish to save humanity itself -- are volunteering to work on  the reactors  to attempt to stem the flow of radiation and clean up.  Reportedly,  water in the tunnels under the reactor is far too dangerous to step  into.  Brave men struggled in Chernobyl, valiantly trying to do the same thing.  They died trying, too.      
In this tragedy, which does humanity need worse, a bucket list or a very large high-tech  mop and pail?  It seems both, but  perhaps a miracle would be more appropriate.  I wonder;  since scientists and technology created the problem,  are creationists obligated to solve it ?  There will be plenty of opportunity to hope and much reason to pray.
  Over in Europe,  wild boars  harvested in the forests of Germany--  over 1500 kilometers (950 miles) from Chernobyl  are now found to be contaminated with Cesium-137,  a radioactive isotope originating from the disaster at  Chernobyl  that  still remains a serious problem after a "mere"  25 years . The mushrooms and plant life eaten by the wild boars are highly contaminated. Radiation levels in the meat of the animals and the plants are reportedly thousands of times higher than normal.  What does that tell us?  Should we  close our eyes to that statistic?  Play ostrich?   Radiation from Fukushima  has already been detected in Canada and the United States. Should we believe our "officials" that say, "nothing to worry about".   Should we allow "officials", unknown to us,  to silently raise "allowed radiation levels" in consumable products, protecting the nuclear industry using a blank cheque written on the health of all of humanity?  At Incoming Bytes we think not. The time for truth has come.

The sad fact of the matter is,  if Chernobyl is any example, neither "bucket list" or high-tech mop & pail  treatment, no matter how well applied, will offer a quick fix for the growing problem in Japan. 
     Let us jest  and contemplate briefly the commandeering of a fix,  a solution, smiling, brave jumpers,  a couple of garden hoses, sprinklers,  a few  helicopter water drops  --and a few more brilliant-devised systems to pump ever more water into the reactors  to keep things cool.   Water IS required for cooling so the damaged reactor cores  won't  overheat, melt down further, releasing ever more radiation in the process of melting and burning.   Burning  releases radiation into the atmosphere rapidly as the nuclear fuel  burns merrily away, hot enough to melt holes in zirconium fuel tubes, casings and steel containment. 
    Pumping more water obviously introduces  more water into the reactor, which  ultimately  becomes contaminated.  More contaminated cooling water.   We don't have to ask where the water will go, do we ?   If it does not evaporate into atmosphere as contaminated steam boiled off from the extreme  heat, it  will  leak out into the sea, and contaminate an even larger volume of  seawater, spreading ever further. 
 An engineered disaster with catastrophic results.  Nature may not forgive.  Salmon  and killer-whales, mollusks and seals, sea-cucumber and starfish alike may be easy to see, glowing in the dark as they mutate to the last individual, for many years. 
 "The deadliest catch" is already being harvested.  The "knowledgeable, educated, wise and informed global nuclear community is harvesting precisely the crop they cultivated.  Out-of-control radiation.  Water or not, at best, it is  a catch-22, and a deadly one.


     What ultimately may be a far darker harbinger of things to come than mere sea-water, radioactive numbers and glowing sea-cucumbers  --is the stark, cold,  right-now, in-your face reality rescuers are dealing with  in the contaminated zone ;  radiation levels in the  exclusion zone are so high that rescuers, in protective gear and equipped with radiation alarms,  cannot remain in the area for long enough to be efficient,  even to do the necessary and grisly job of recovering  now-contaminated bodies of the victims from the endless rubble of that horrific earthquake and tsunami. Cremation of such bodies releases further radiation into the atmosphere.  
    The area may ultimately be so contaminated with radiation that it could be a "no man's land"  for a very long time to come.  The beautiful lands will longer produce milk, agricultural products or  any food fit for human consumption as they have done for centuries.  Fish and seafood from the area will no longer be fit for human consumption.  
 Tokyo is only a couple of hundred kilometers from Fukushima.  Let us not even contemplate that potential future health risk and disaster. Ultimately, humanity must pay the piper for arrogance.

     There is ONE genuine solution for the problem of damaged nuclear reactors and the inevitable nuclear crises that develop from them, but globally, humanity must have the resolve and ingenuity to change  direction, and become hopeful and clever enough to adapt change  universally --and immediately.   
The correct solution is to actually learn from the disasters at Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima--and  NEVER build another one. 
--Not in Japan, not in Darlington, Ontario, and nowhere else on the globe either. The price is too high in terms of potential danger, terms of health, and in terms of cost to humanity.  

The truth always comes out.   Nuclear reactors are NO LONGER an option under ANY TERMS OF REFERENCE. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

Fukushima Disaster : Will Humanity Learn ?

The Light can be Blinding

At times I cannot believe my eyes. The light from the west   is blinding.  I thought I misread the numbers.  
To report to readers of Incoming Bytes  that the  latest news from Fukushima  in Japan  is  good  or getting better  would be deceit,  dishonest and a lie.   To shout "the news is bad"  could be inflammatory, but would probably be a substantial understatement and closer to the truth.  The escaped nuclear dragon in Japan has become even more problematic and dangerous. 
    Levels of radioactive iodine  have been recorded at 3,355 times the legal limit in the sea water close to the failed  Fukushima nuclear reactors.  You know the story, the Magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the tsunami, the reactor system failures. The hydrogen explosions.   Lack of cooling, partial meltdowns,  fuel ponds catching on fire. Radiation. Brave men trying to stop it, reminiscent of Chernobyl 25 years ago.  Dead men walking.  Plutonium was also found. Four of the reactors will have to be scrapped.  The long-term environmental, potentially mutating and death-dealing damage caused by this event may actually be incalculable.  The core of at least one of the six reactors has  partially melted through the containment vessel,  and the reactor  continues to leak highly radioactive water.  The radiation will spread;  the 'engineer's solution to pollution is dilution",  and yes, ultimately it may  be "diluted"  giving lower  readings,  but the fact is, it will still spread far and wide, causing untold damage with  "See no evil" applied.
    Meantime, authorities seem to pretend not to know where the radiation "might be" coming from.   Perfect.  See  no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil.   Problem is, radiation from that source has already reached North American shores.  
  No gamesmanship  is offered here, let us not be gullible and foolish enough to pretend that masked, dignified and profuse  apologies from engineers, specialists,  nuclear facility owners, operators, global nuclear associations or the elected  will ever be enough to reverse the damage from  what is progressing to be one of the worst, if not THE worst  nuclear events in history.  The die is cast. The fat lady is singing horribly. 
    It goes without saying this unbelievable disaster could have been totally avoided by not building these reactors in the first place, let alone engineering and building them in one of the most unstable geological damage-prone areas on the globe. We'll undoubtedly hear about apologies for that, too.  --And about the engineers knowing that a Tsunami could overwhelm the plants.... and...and....ad nauseum.  
    Words are not enough to describe that  arrogant insanity,  but, "wink wink" will take care of it,  everyone politely agrees, it will be 'fine' , after all,   "What do average people know,  they're  just  people, the uninformed,  the 'workers',  the quintessential global citizen more interested in shopping than science,  and they and their opinions certainly don't belong up there in the elite nuclear echelon, --do they?     
 I imagine it is thought behind closed doors that ordinary folk  should clearly have no  say in what happens in their world, the reason being that the impoverished  homo sapiens,  the same  disenfranchised unfortunate once called a hunter-gatherer,  but now  "ordinary citizen "  -- is considered to  lack enough information, knowledge or any ability necessary to  question, interpret, validate,  condemn or criticize  ideas  fabricated and  revered  by nuclear "authorities" as they  brazenly  hold out  " PROOF of Nuclear Infallibility, PROOF of Knowledge", PROOF of Guaranteed Nuclear Safety,  --and thereby being not obligated,  dismiss  any genuine expressions of concern from the common masses. 

The nuclear "elite" further assign grandiose purpose to their treacherous, elitist  billion-dollar  projects as they present circular, incontrovertible justification for doing what they, the  " Elite-Deemed-Knowledgeable and Infallible " arbitrarily choose to do to the environment for profit,  without regard to the potential disasters they and their pet dragons inevitably create for all the world to see, --for all the world to fear--and for all the world to ultimately suffer from.  

That the elite themselves  and their progeny will eventually  become victims of their own greed seems to have been totally overlooked and irrelevant  in the pursuit of greed and technological misadventure.  "No matter". they say.  
    Let us resist the incredible desire to reduce ourselves to name-calling or the use of choppy, unacceptable four-letter invectives, although observing  the seemingly unstoppable,  arrogant stupidity always tempts one to revert to such phraseology, to  point fingers angrily, and to generally raise hell.
    Shall we instead, meekly look forward to the future, hope and pray,  and gently  observe  there is an
"unnecessary, inexplicable, inherent  tendency"  for us  "public know-nothings"  to  criticize  large corporations,  government authorities and their fine projects?   Is that our  Achille's heel, a weakness  in the model we must keep foremost in our minds?  Should we be ashamed of ourselves for condemning that which will destroy us?      
     Nuclear  shakers & movers suggest,  even  insist nothing can go wrong, nothing can go afoul, never a mistake shall be made with their "safe"  poison-bearing projects,  and  loquaciously offer their scientific  reassurance and reasoning, when all evidence glaringly proves  otherwise.  They similarly and simultaneously proffer indignity and wounded demeanor if criticized, however meekly, -even by one of their own, who may have fortuitously  "seen the Light" and realized one can indeed  become blinded by staring into the sun,--the largest nuclear reactor close at hand.  The parallel should not be overlooked.   Never fly too close  to the sun with waxed feathers either. 
     Are the meek and "uninformed"  ever  right? It doesn't matter. They are this time,a  fact clearly demonstrated loudly  yet AGAIN, that in the nuclear industry,if cold, bitter fact is faced, disasters can happen, another incredibly horrific nuclear disaster has happened, and more  nuclear accidents, leaks,  and incidents, both minor and those major "improbable events " will continue to happen.
   Who is listening?  Who shall learn? Will humanity learn? 
  Not to allow ourselves to raise the collective blood pressure of humanity too high,  but current events are bound to be "the PROOF of the Pudding"  when human arrogance becomes a dominant, persistent and uncontrollable factor.  It seems some segments of humanity  must learn everything  the hard way. Apparently Human beings   are not that clever ,  highly educated in nuclear physics and the "art of other nuclear stuff" or   not .   It becomes ever more obvious  that if there is  any way possible to engineer idiocy,  accident and mayhem, environmental catastrophe and hypocrisy,  those seeking profit at the expense of humanity and the environment -- inevitably will do a fine job of screwing things up-without fail. 
    That's enough of that.  The pointed question must  be: 
"Will North Americans  learn from this catastrophe?  Apparently not.
     It is already clear that  Ontario has not learned, and has no intention of halting the nuclear agenda,   for they are still actively holding  the foolish, yet oh-so-classic  'public  pseudo-hearings" on expansion of Darlington. 
  The agenda?   " We're so generously listening to all of you uninformed people  here today who know nothing ..oops,,,,well, it's time for lunch,  this  hearing  is closed now, that should keep all of you environmentalist  idiots quiet now,  --and for the record, we intend to build anything we want, no matter what you said anyway, and no accidents will happen, we guarantee it..."  
Having  met  their social obligation and "justified" their existence with such finesse,   they will then proceed to hatch more death-dealing nuclear reactors at Darlington merely  because they can get away with doing so.   
To wit: Demonstrators objecting to the hearings were  arrested.  Not surprising, and totally predictable.
The radiation contaminating Japan is unacceptable .  Taking ANY chance on contaminating North America  is unacceptable.  Risking the lives of our children, our grandchildren and THEIR grandchildren and all generations to follow is unacceptable, and always HAS been. 

The fact IS, Nuclear reactors are now unacceptable under any term of reference .  

Take that to your "hearings".  

MUST WE Contaminate the World with RADIATION? Say NO!

Leading to the Light

      The drinking water supply  in TOKYO,  hundreds of kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, has now been found to be contaminated with radioactive iodine.   Food and milk produced in the disaster area is also  contaminated.  Shipments of all vegetables and farm produce from the agricultural  area have been halted.  The reactors are still spewing radioactive materials. 
      In spite of the   blatant, horrific evidence facing the rich "nuclear industry" in Japan, the North American industry  continues to insist upon building more nuclear reactors as if nothing has happened.

     We believe that any further development of nuclear generating stations  is  not only morally reprehensible but may well be a crime against humanity.   Clean, safe alternatives and technology  ARE available.  If the same billions of dollars were directed at alternative energy sources, much cleaner energy would be harvested without danger or economic loss.

     Must we contaminate the whole world with radiation ? The "industry representatives"  so  innocently  holding the current  "hearings"  to build yet more nuclear reactors at Darlington, Ontario  seem to think so.  Trouble is, they apparently have not been paying attention to the growing disaster in Japan. 
      Greenpeace protesters  holding a demonstration  at the pseudo "hearings" were arrested and will be charged.  
      Is Ontario a police state?  What is wrong with protesting against proliferation of  technology that has the potential to destroy humanity?

                                                   Think about it!  

     There are 11,000,000 human beings  in southern Ontario within range of the  Bruce/Darlington and Pickering reactors and their potential leaks, failures and inevitably, their catastrophes.   What will the "owners and operators " do when that happens?  "Apologize profusely?"   NOT good enough !

      At Incoming Bytes  we object strenuously to any expansion or building of new  nuclear reactors.  The current hearings,  apparently sanctioned by our "leaders"  will clearly be continued with deaf ears,  so let the pointed questions BE:

" Why are hearings for expansion plans in Darlington  being held NOW, at this period of utmost distraction globally, with major disasters world-wide?"  --So nobody NOTICES them?
" Who has GENUINE moral authority to even CONSIDER building  nuclear reactors? " 
" Given the recent accidents, why would ANYONE be  foolish enough to build more nuclear reactors?" 
" Which authority has authorized  GREEDY CORPORATE INTERESTS to  threaten the lives of every human being alive?"
      I really like this question the best :       " Is willful nuclear expansion  a sign of collective human insanity, insatiable  corporate greed, total lunacy,    irresponsible governance, -or proof positive of all of the above ?" 
and finally:  
     " WHICH REFERENDUM has EVER been held to allow such a foolish energy policy to be followed  --and proceed nonchalantly with it, as if "nothing will happen" ? 
 Murphy's law says otherwise.  If it CAN happen, it will.
     Clearly  "something" can happen; let us now ask the people of  Tokyo,  a  " highly responsible,  highly technologically-advanced society that has "SAFE" nuclear reactors, --and  who can NOW, today,   no longer allow their infants to drink the water in TOKYO,  hundreds of kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, because it has been found to be contaminated with radioactive iodine.   It is unfit for infants.  In fact, it is more likely  unfit for human consumption.  Food and milk produced in the disaster area is contaminated with radiation and shipments from the area have been halted.   To make matters worse, the damaged reactors CONTINUE TO LEAK MORE RADIATION. 
       Shall greedy corporate interests and individuals  be allowed destroy our civilization?   MUST we contaminate the world with radiation? Where ARE our political "leaders"  today? Are they leading us, or are they sitting smugly in the pockets of the nuclear industry?
     At Incoming Bytes   we  shall continue to express our opinion and protest blatant foolishness  where discovered  at every possible opportunity.
     Given that the recent nuclear disasters in Japan have proven that nuclear reactors cannot be made fail safe,   we hereby politely and insistently request  that:
       *NO MORE NUCLEAR REACTORS  be built IN      DARLINGTON.  

       *NO MORE NUCLEAR REACTORS be built IN  ONTARIO.

     *NO MORE NUCLEAR REACTORS be built IN NORTH AMERICA.

     The reader is encouraged to post this and similar protests to the nuclear industry's  persistent and reckless assault on civilization in every forum possible.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.