Chris Martenson interviewed Arnie Gundersen in “Exclusive Arnie Gundersen Interview: The Dangers of Fukushima Are Worse and Longer-lived than We Think”.
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Background: Arnie Gundersen knows what he’s talking about. He is an energy advisor with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience. A former nuclear industry senior vice president, he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in nuclear engineering, holds a nuclear safety patent, and was a licensed reactor operator. During his nuclear industry career, Arnie managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants.
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In addition to several other articles released this past week, I’ve condensed the lengthy Martenson-Gundersen interview to include the most salient points. Keep in mind that the interview took place before the Japanese government announced that three reactors had melted down. Shortly after that, they admitted that it was even worse; the nuclear fuel had melted through the reactor vessels and the highly radioactive molten mass was puddled on the concrete floors of the containment structures.

What follows is what the criminals in the mainstream media (MSM) are NOT telling you thereby keeping you in the dark and endangering your health and your life.

Fukushima is not just one nuclear power plant; it consists of six separate nuclear reactors. Three of them have exploded, and the molten nuclear fuel melted through their containment vessels. As well, four fuel pools have leaked and over-heated. No. 4 caught fire several times and exploded. Chernobyl had one reactor. Fukushima’s six reactors and fuel pools has the equivalent of about 20 reactor cores exposed and radiating lethal nuclear poisons. The corporate mass media system continues to downplay, distort, dismiss or deflect attention from the nuclear apocalypse in Japan.

Gundersen says, “We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl. The data I’m seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man’s-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can’t clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl.”

When reactor No. 3 exploded months ago, the media propagandists told us it was a steam explosion. Gundersen did some calculations “to show that the speed at which the flame traveled in order to throw particles as far as this one threw particles – the speed of that shockwave had to be in excess of a thousand miles per hour. That’s a detonation, where the shockwave itself can cause incredible damage…”

Gundersen says that far more radiation has been released than has been reported. “They recalculated the amount of radiation released, but the news is really not talking about this,” he said. “The new calculations show that within the first week of the accident, they released 2.3 times as much radiation as they thought they released in the first 80 days.”

The explosion resulted from what Gundersen calls a “prompt criticality”. A criticality is accidental increase of nuclear chain reactions in fissile material. It does NOT result in a nuclear explosion like we would get with a nuclear bomb because the heat released by the nuclear reaction will cause the fissile material to expand so that the nuclear reaction becomes subcritical again.

He cautions that these explosions could happen again if the bottom of the reactor falls out. And, that’s exactly what the Japanese reported after this interview; that three reactors had melted-through. We are now in uncharted territory. There is no science to tell us what will happen now. We do NOT have the technology to clean this up.

In a partial melt-down, most of the fuel rods would still be surrounded by cooling water. However, in a full melt-down the cooling water touches the outside of the molten blob where it instantly turns to radioactive steam.

Gundersen doesn’t think the blobs will melt through the concrete floors very soon. He says, “It may gradually over time; but the damage is already done because the containment has cracks in it and it’s pretty clear that it is leaking. So you put water in the top. And the plan had never been to put water in the top and let it run out the bottom. That is not the preferred way of cooling a nuclear reactor in an accident.” The water contacts the blob of uranium, plutonium, cesium and strontium and carries radioactive isotopes out as liquids and gases into the environment.

Normally in a melt-down, radioactive iodine is released only at the beginning of the melt-down. The fact that we are still detecting radioactive iodine long after the initial melt-down leads Gundersen to believe that one or more of these blobs is reaching criticality and then shutting itself down. Temperatures range from 3,500 degrees (all temperatures in Fahrenheit) to 5,000 degrees where expansion returns it to sub-criticality again. It is as though the blobs are slowly breathing.

Just because the MSM isn’t reporting on Fukushima does NOT mean it’s safe. It’s still spewing radiation. Last March, when it was colder, you could see the steam. Now that it’s warmer, the steam isn’t as visible but there’s just as much radioactive material being released into the environment.

Gundersen is also concerned about unit No. 4. Although it has no nuclear fuel in its reactor; it was shut down and its fuel stored in the fuel pool which is open to the atmosphere ever since the roof exploded. All six units have open fuel pools requiring a constant supply of cooling water. No. 4 ran dry and burned and may also have melted down and is now so radioactive that the fuel cannot be lifted out. In fact, there is no known method of dealing with this large a mass of molten nuclear fuel which, because of the tremendous heat it generates, it stays molten no matter how much water is poured on it. And, they can’t enclose it in concrete because the fuel pools are at the top of the buildings and the buildings aren’t designed to take that much additional weight. He says, “I used to do this as a living and Unit 4 has me stumped”.

Another concern is the continuing aftershocks from the earthquake. On Thursday, June 23 there was a magnitude 6.7 quake. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) this was the 75th aftershock of at least magnitude 6.0 after the devastating magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11. It’s not uncommon to have so many aftershocks especially after such a large main shock. The problem is that the reactors, the containment vessels and the containment structures are filled with an enormous amount of water for which they were never designed. What happens if one or more of the buildings collapses? No. 4 is particularly dangerous. Gundersen is advising friends in Tokyo to leave Japan as soon as possible if No. 4 collapses.

Gundersen says Fukushima is already 10 times worse than Chernobyl and IT IS NOT FINISHED YET. From my previous articles you know that this will go on for a at least another year or more before the nuclear fuel has cooled down enough for the structures to be encased in concrete. In the meantime, they are spewing radioactive material into the environment 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And you know they will continue lying to us about the severity of this catasptrophe.
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CHERNOBYL UPDATE

The truth is beginning to leak out about the deaths caused by Chernobyl in the Ukraine. The World Health Organization (WHO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), UN agencies and other so-called authorities have for years downplayed the number of deaths attributed to the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Official reported deaths vary from 9,000 to 35,000.

Click on the video below and listen to the first half minute describing the number of deaths caused by Chernobyl. Then consider that Fukushima is ten times worse than Chernobyl. Now consider how many millions of deaths Fukushima will cause, primarily in Japan and secondarily in North America because that’s which way the wind blows. You won’t hear this story on the so-called news.

The effects of low-level radiation on human health are still not well understood. Radiation cannot be seen or felt yet it is a silent killer. When it causes cancer, it doesn’t leave fingerprints. You’ll never know what killed you.

Below is a lengthy Wikipedia article on Chernobyl deaths that will leave you with more questions than answers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects
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NEBRASKA FLOODING FORT CALHOUN & COOPER NUCLEAR PLANTS

As if we don’t have enough to worry about with Fukushima, closer to home the Fort Calhoun and Cooper nuclear plants in Nebraska are threatened with flood waters. They surrounded vital equipment with AquaDam berms which are holding for now. However, if electrical equipment is flooded, the cooling pumps, electrical valves etc. could be compromised and we’ll end up with a Fukushima in our own backyard. You know you can’t believe the comforting BS the authorities are trying to hand you

Photo of the flooding at Fort Calhoun.

On June 7th, there was a fire reported at Fort Calhoun in an electrical switchgear room at the plant. The facility lost power to a pump that cools the spent fuel pool, for approximately 90 minutes. There has been an almost complete media blackout on this and the FAA has designated restricted NO FLY ZONES in early June. Yet, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there’s no cause for the public to panic. In other words, we are being lied to again and the ass media is complicit in the cover-up. Click on the video below for the news you won’t see.

RT stands for Russia Today. How sad is it when we get more well-balanced news from the Russians than we do from our own Mainstream Media’s so-called news?
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HOT PARTICLES

The most dangerous contamination from Fukushima is what Gundersen calls “hot particles”. This is the radioactive dust being carried around the world by wind and the jet stream. These radioactive particles are difficult to detect unlike the noble gases Xenon and Krypton which were measured around Fukushima. You need to be close to hot particles to detect them. But, just because they’re difficult to detect with a hand-held Geiger counter doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

Seven automobile air filters from Tokyo were sent to an independent lab for testing. Two of them contained a large number of Hot Particles. This means that the radioactive plume is erratic. Gundersen says, “a plume may miss a major radiation detector by a quarter of a mile and not be detected. It doesn’t mean it’s not there, it means we just didn’t detect it.”

Also, scientists using air traps in Tokyo calculated that the people of Tokyo inhaled an average of 10 Hot Particles a day for several months. Note: that’s 10 Hot Particles EVERY day.

People in Seattle, Washington were inhaling 5 to 10 Hot Particles every day during testing in April. Automobile air filters examined in Seattle contained Hot Particles. No doubt the same conditions occurred all along the West coast. No testing has been done further inland and it is assumed there would be fewer Hot Particles further inland. Note: fewer does NOT mean NONE. All it takes is one to cause cancer. Remember, there is NO safe level for radiation.

If a Hot Particle is inhaled or ingested and ends up in your lung or intestine or muscle or bone; the result is a constant and concentrated radioactive bombardment of tissue. Sometimes our bodies can fight this and sometimes they can’t and then the result is cancer. You cannot use a detector to detect Hot Particles inside the body. The Hot Particle’s rays don’t travel outside the body; they do their damage to the local tissue.

FYI – Maggie and Arnie Gundersen’s “Fairewinds” blog address that you can cut & paste into your search engine.
http://www.fairewinds.com/
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HALF-LIFE – this is the period of time it takes for a radioactive substance undergoing decay to decrease it’s radioactivity by half. For instance, the half-life of Iodine-131 is a very short 8 days. The rule of thumb for a safe level of Iodine – 131 is ten half-lifes so in 80 days, Iodine-131 is considered safe.

However, other radioactive substances have very long half-lives so they remain dangerous for a long time. In terms of a single human life-span, many of these substances are essentially dangerous forever when you multiply their half-lives by ten to reach a safe level.

Cesium …………… 30 years
Cobalt–60.………….5 years
Plutonium…………24,000 years
Strontium…………28 years
Uranium 235……704 million years
Uranium 238……….4 billion years
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WHAT CAN YOU DO?

There are many things you can do to protect yourself. The key to avoiding Hot Particle contamination is to NOT TO GET IT IN YOUR BODY.

Here are some recommendations. Some of these were listed in the April 17 article “Japan Nuclear Disaster and What You Can Do to Protect Yourself”.
https://geroldblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/japan-nuclear-disaster-and-what-you-can-do/

RECOMMENDATIONS – in alphabetical order

Air filters – on air conditioners, car engines and passenger compartments, the filters should be changed or cleaned now because they’ve accumulated Hot Particles for the last three months. Wear a face mask when handling them, dispose the filter promptly and wash your hands afterwards.

Air purifiers – buy HEPA air filters for your furnace and run the blower continuously to turn your furnace into a giant air purifier. If you don’t have a furnace, buy a HEPA air purifier for each major room. Wear a face mask when cleaning or changing filters. Avoid candles and incense as they rapidly clog filters.

Apartment doors – if you live in an apartment – apartment doors are very leaky. Seal the area where the door contacts the frame with foam tape. This may be difficult to find in southern areas but in northern areas it’s used for cold weather insulation, also called weather stripping.

Canned fish – I’ve seen tuna with Best Before dates of 2014, herring at 2015 and salmon at 2016. If you like fish and they should be included in a healthy diet, start buying them now, stockpile them and rotate them (use the oldest first). It may be the last canned fish you can safely eat. Fish from the Pacific close to Japan are already radioactive. Ocean currents spread the contamination. Gundersen thinks our Pacific fisheries will be contaminated by 2013. Start stockpiling now until the end of 2012.

Duct tape – hey men, is it possible to have too much duct tape? Ask Red Green 🙂 You’ll need tape to seal windows in the event one of the Fukushima buildings collapses, loses cooling water and explodes, or if we have a nuclear disaster closer to home. When you need tape, the stores will be sold out.

Exercise – the heavier you breathe outdoors, the greater the likelihood of inhaling Hot Particles so limit heavy outdoor work and outdoor exercise. Consider exercising indoors but make sure you vacuum and wet dust regularly.

Face masks – unfortunately they are hot and uncomfortable. However, it’s the best protection you have to minimize inhaling Hot Particles. Fukushima is still emitting Hot Particles from the fuel pool that exploded and it’s still contaminating water. Fukushima’s Hot Particles have already circled the globe for three months now. They are in the air, on the ground and in the water. Until rain washes them away, they pose a danger when inhaled. If you don’t have face masks yet, what are you waiting for? When you really need them the stores will be sold out.

Food stockpile – have several weeks of food stored for emergencies. This is a MUST HAVE for any disaster whether it’s an epidemic, ice storm, power outage, earthquake, terrorist attack, etc. For more detailed information, see the article “Stockpiling” in Category “Survival & Emergency Preparedness” on this blog or cut and past the address below

https://geroldblog.wordpress.com/category/survival-emergency-preparedness/

Fruit & vegetables – if you aren’t already washing fruits and vegetables, why not? You cannot rely on food producers to wash all the dirt, chemicals, pesticides and bacteria off fruit and vegetables. That includes Hot Particles. Don’t use dish soap as the residue is not healthy. Most health food stores carry liquid soap for fruits and vegetables. Wash them in lukewarm water and double rinse in cold water. Even wash the outside of fruits and vegetables that you are going to peal. If the outer skin is contaminated, the knife becomes contaminated when it slices through the skin and then the knife contaminates the inside.

Gardening – wear a face mask if you’re working with dry soil. Essentially, Hot Particles are dust. Always wear a face mask with any activity where you stir up dust. If you use gardening knee pads, avoid bringing dirty knee pads inside.

Handbags, grocery bags, other containers – it’s common knowledge that the bottom of handbags are filthy from resting on floors. The same applies to other containers. Be careful in handling them so they don’t pick up dirt that might contain Hot Particles and damp-wipe the bottoms before setting them on tables or counters.

Hawaii – do you remember hearing about those radioactive plumes safely “blowing out to sea” from Fukushima? First stop: Hawaii. Do you really want to vacation there?

Japanese products – You can probably trust large manufacturers to ensure their products and containers are not contaminated but without some government monitoring programs you should be concerned about small manufacturers like pottery and china that’s made of clay or wood. On second thought, given government’s propensity for cover-up, even a monitoring program isn’t to be trusted. Avoid small manufactures’ articles made from clay or wood that might contain Hot Particles.

Lawn care – raking or cutting the lawn on a dry day stirs up dust. You guessed it: wear a face mask. Neighbors wondering about the face mask? Tell ‘em you got allergies.

Milk – reduce or better yet avoid milk and milk products. Their radioactive iodine levels aren’t coming down yet.

Pets? – you know Fido is filthier than you care to admit. Wash your best friend more often.

Pineapple – if it’s from Hawaii, do you want to risk it?

Potassium Iodine – buy Potassium Iodine pills when they’re available at health food stores. They’ll protect your thyroid from cancer when another nuclear disaster strikes close to home. Again, buy them NOW. When the stores are sold out, it’s too late! However, they’ll protect ONLY your thyroid from Iodine-131; they won’t protect your other organs or from other forms of radiation.

Renovations – renovations raise dust. Outside renovations may stir up more Hot Particles than inside renovations so avoid outside renovations. And, inside? Wear a face mask as a precaution.

Seaweed – although it’s healthy, find out where it came from. Seaweed absorbs radioactive Cesium. If it’s from Japan, forget it. If it’s from our Pacific coast, you’ve got about a year before it’s contaminated.

Shoes – it’s not just the soles that pick up Hot Particles. Shoes are an article of clothing closest to the ground and they get dusty. Take them off and don’t wear them in your home. If you have a mud-room or an entrance area for footwear, when’s the last time it was thoroughly cleaned?

Spring clean your car – your car interior has had three months to collect Hot Particles. Now is the time to vacuum the carpets and upholstery.

Supplements – check the ingredients of supplements such as calcium, glucosamine, etc. If they are made of shellfish, they are ok for now but in future all seafood including shellfish will be radioactive. Many of these supplements can be made from other ingredients. Also, look at other supplements you regularly use to determine if they are seafood-based such as Salmon oil and begin a stockpile program.

Vacuum often – but wear a face mask when doing so because vacuuming also stirs up dust. In Tokyo they are finding more Hot Particles indoors than outdoors because it has been tracked inside for the past three months. Also, keep you mask on when changing vacuum filters and wash your hands afterwards.

Water – Buy water containers such as 25 litre (5 gal U.S.) used for camping. Rinse them before you use them. Calculate a bare minimum of 1 litre (quart) per person per day just for drinking then double that for cooking. Remember this is still a bare minimum and doesn’t include water for washing. Fill them, store them, drain them after 6 months and re-fill. Again, this is a MUST HAVE for any disaster.

Water Filter – consider buying a good quality portable water filter. You want it portable in case the electricity goes out and you need to operate it manually. Once the Hot Particles are “washed away” by the rain, where do they go? If they end up in the municipal water supply, do you want to trust your life to municipal filters? Katadyn make one of the best but they are expensive. On the other hand, the filter is permanent (porous ceramic, back-flow washable) so you don’t need to buy replacement filters.

Wet dust – do not dry dust (home, car, boat, RV, etc.) as that stirs up dust. Wet dust instead.

Wind – also stirs up dust especially during dry conditions. Avoid the outdoors on dry windy days. Yeah, I know, it’s summer and you want to get out. But, you want to stay alive don’t you?

Windows – many of us were raised to believe sleeping with a window cracked open a little for fresh air was healthy. Not anymore. Also, keep vehicle windows rolled up when driving. If it’s hot, use the air conditioner.
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Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field-day with the Fukushima disaster. They’ll argue that this is a deliberate “accident” designed to increase cancers world-wide in order to reduce population.

Regular readers of this blog know I’m NOT inclined to believe most conspiracies. The Fukushima disaster is likely a case of incompetence and cover-up.

In any case, it matters little if it was a real accident or staged. We know that it is a nuclear apocalypse. We know that it is the worst industrial accident in history. And we know it won’t be finished for a very long time. The important thing is to understand what is happening and know what we can do to minimize the harm and prevent additional cancer deaths.

Remember: the life you save may be your own or a loved one’s.

Gerold
June 26, 2011

Precaution update – Aug. 7, 2011

Geiger Counters – Geiger counters detect Gamma radiation. They do NOT detect Alpha and Beta particles. Alpha and Beta particles are ONLY dangerous if they are ingested either through inhalation, eating or drinking, or through a cut in the skin. Radioactive iodine, Cesium. Strontium, Uranium and Plutonium are examples of Alpha and Beta particles. Once inside the body, they irradiate the surround tissue but their rays are not detectable outside the body. The best prevention for Alpha and Beta particles is to avoid ingesting them. It takes only a one microgram particle to cause cancer. If a dollar bill is one gram and you cut it into one million pieces, each piece is a microgram.

Revised safety standards – Beware, some authorities are trying to revise allowable levels of nuclear contamination. Be aware that if new so-called ‘safe’ levels are higher than the old ones, they may not be safe to consume. If a level of contamination was internationally recognized as ‘unsafe’ before the Fukushima disaster then it is still unsafe regardless what some so-called expert tells you on TV. Remember, the National Academy of Scientists say, “There are no safe levels of radiation exposure” and many scientists believe current radiation standards are 1,000 times higher than what is really safe for our bodies.

Stay out of the rain – Fukushima is still spewing radioactive contamination into the atmosphere. Rain washes it out of the atmosphere so avoid being outdoors when it’s raining. If you have to go out in the rain then wear a rain jacket or use an umbrella. If you get wet, shower as soon as you can and treat your wet clothing as though they’re contaminated. In other words, launder them before they dry otherwise you’re introducing hot particles into your home. Don’t let kids and pets drink rain water. If you collect and use rain water for whatever reason, consider it radioactively contaminated.

Rainwater tests in California weeks after the Fukushima melt-through measured 18,100% above safe levels or 20.1 Becquerel / liter. In South Korea, schools were closed and people wore rubber gloves when rainwater was measured at 2.0 Becquerel. Yet, here in North America, we heard nothing about such commonsense precautions.

Zeolite – This can attract and capture some radioactive contamination in your home or fridge. See “Fukushima disaster update, July 16, 2011” in this Category for more details.

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