Why don't we send water-bombers to help Japan?

[Bar Sinister]

Considering the fact that Japan has large tracts of forest, I expect that the country already has all of the firefighting equipment it needs. And as others have pointed out, aircraft intended to splash water over an area of several hectares might not be particularly suitable. Nice thought though. It is unfortunate that Canada is not really in a position to do much more than the Japanese are already doing.

 

[darkbeaver]

Actually, the Americans have been releasing more and better information than the Japanese.

There's a big rush to make sure the problem dosn't get associated with GE and the industry is insulated as far as possible. I don't think it's remotely possible to put any effective domestic upspin on this for the industry. There's already contamination dropping on North America.

Nuclear Apocalypse in Japan
Lifting the Veil of Nuclear Catastrophe and cover-up

By Keith Harmon Snow

Global Research, March 18, 2011
ConsciousBeingAlliance.com - 2011-03-17

As the sun set over quake-stricken Japan on Thursday 17 March 2011, we learned that four of six Fukushima nuclear reactor sites are irradiating the earth, that the fire is burning out of control at Reactor No. 4's pool of spent nuclear fuel, that there are six spent fuel pools at risk all told, and that the sites are too hot to deal with. On March 16 Plumes of White Vapor began pouring from crippled Reactor No. 3 where the spent fuel pool may already be lost. Over the previous days we were told: nothing to worry about. Earthquakes and after shocks, tidal wave, explosions, chemical pollution, the pox of plutonium, contradicting information too obvious to ignore, racism, greed -- add these to the original Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine and Death. The situation is apocalyptic and getting worse. This is one of the most serious challenges humanity has ever faced.

A Japanese child on the eastern shores of Japan.
Photo c. keith harmon snow, 1993.


The U.S. nuke industry is blaming Japanese experts, distancing itself from the monster it created. Instead of sending nuclear or health experts to assistance the Japanese people in their time of desperate need, US President Barack Obama first sent teams of intelligence agents and FEMA trained military grunts with special security clearances. The Pentagon floated a naval strike force led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan off the coast of Japan: advertised as a 'humanitarian' operation, the strike force was repositioned after it was partially irradiated. Can we trust officials and the corporate news media to tell us what is happening in an honest, timely, transparent manner? Are there precedents to the nuclear crisis in Japan? What is the U.S. defense establishment really concerned with here?

Humanity now faces a deadly serious challenge coming out of Japan -- the epicenter of radiation. Intentional efforts to downplay or dismiss this catastrophe reveal the immaturity of western civilization and some of our most acute human pathologies, including our worship of technology and our psychopathology of denial. The widespread distortion and cover-ups to protect private profits, national and corporate interests, to fool and betray the people, are unacceptable. Here are some of the deeper whats and whys and hows -- some technical issues and the kinds of questions people need to ask -- about the nuclear apocalypse unfolding on planet earth. Prayers are not enough. It's time to question everything, to put politics aside, to take personal action to halt nuclear expansion and defend ourselves from this industrial juggernaut.


PRO-NUKE ANTI-NUKE NO NUKES


I know something about technology, and science: I have Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering -- with honors -- from one of America's top Engineering schools. Before 1990 I worked in classified programs for General Electric -- the maker of the nuclear reactors now irradiating Japan. I worked at GE Aerospace Electronics Laboratories: low-level classified government programs in communications, radars and missile guidance systems for Ronald Reagan's infamous Star Wars (Strategic Defence Initiative) programs.

From 1990 to 1993 I taught English at Japan's big Soga Shosa (trading houses) like Mitsubishi and Sumitomo Corporations, and meanwhile I biked the rivers, swam the beaches, hiked the mountains and studied the culture of Japan. Japanese corporations were paving the shorelines and rivers with concrete, sinking giant tetrapods off shore. One corporation even developed these giant rubber bladders -- the size of football-fields -- sunk offshore, which could be pumped full of seawater to provide a giant barrier against tsunami's. Of course, the profit margins for these corporations supplying these bags were huge, but I wonder what happened to the technology, if these were ever deployed, and where.

For the first 34 years of my life I was in favor of nuclear power. This changed when I saw young people in the United States put their bodies on the line to protest the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Station operations in Tennessee (1994). The commitment and integrity of these young people made me rethink my nuclear bias.

Nuclear Apocalypse in Japan

 

[petros]

Why won't they use water bombers? Water is ****ing heavy. Think about it for a second. What happens when you drop heavy things from airplanes?

 

[taxslave]

Having spent some time under both bombers and choppers fire fighting I would have to agree with the choppers. They can pinpoint the drop whereas a bomber litterly carpet bombs the area. Also bombers take a lot of waterfront to load in as well as distance to gain altitude.

 

[petros]

My God man!

 

[Stretch]

US Stores Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods at Four Times Pool Capacity


Monday, 28 March 2011 09:07

'In a recent interview with The Real News Network, Robert Alvarez, a nuclear policy specialist since 1975, reports that spent nuclear fuel in the United States comprises the largest concentration of radioactivity on the planet: 71,000 metric tons. Worse, since the Yucca Mountain waste repository has been scrapped due to its proximity to active faults (see last image), the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has allowed reactor operators to store four times more waste in the spent fuel pools than they’re designed to handle.

Each Fukushima spent fuel pool holds about 100 metric tons, he says, while each US pool holds from 500-700 metric tons. A single pool fire would release catastrophic amounts of radioactivity, rendering 17-22,000 square miles of area uninhabitable. That’s about the size of New Hampshire and Vermont – from one pool fire.'
Read more: US Stores Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods at Four Times Pool Capacity

 

[MHz]

Those bombers might have to be filled with sand and it won't be just a few flights.

That's a culture thing I would say.

Who else can have 3 explosions at a Nuke Plant live on TV and say that there is nothing to worry about...the Japanese.

They must be more delicate than Americans also, at 3-mile Island there was only a 5 mile evac zone (proposed), for Japan the US was calling for a 50 mile evac zone (proposed in the early days)

Nice thought though. It is unfortunate that Canada is not really in a position to do much more than the Japanese are already doing.

There might still be a few 100 million people looking for long-term accommodation (if this event is years long)

http://forums.canadiancontent.net/h...uclear-fuel-rods-at-four-times-pool-capacity-: 71,000 metric tons.

HHO gas can be used to reduce the radioactivity of nuclear waste to negligible levels.

(in part)
Yull Brown was the first to discover that hydroxy gas could be used to transmute elements. Yes, transmute, change, an element into another element…. This wild claim sounds not so bizarre when looking at the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency's (CEAA), and the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s (AECL) studies on the use of Brown’s Gas to neutralize radioactive waste. Canada is seriously considering treating her radioactive waste with Brown’s Gas to remove the radioactivity. Tests have shown that exposing a radioactive substance to an HHO flame for a period of time can remove up to 99% of the dangerous radiation. Brown first discovered this, and patented the process more than 20 years ago. There are rumors that China is using this technique now to treat nuclear waste. The process seems quite effective, and relatively easy and safe considering the alternatives (incineration at ultra-high temperatures, or underground /undersea storage). One would imagine that citizens living near Yucca Mountain in Nevada (proposed site for storage of the U.S.’s nuclear waste), would be very interested in hearing more about this technology…. However, like anything else having to do with Brown’s Gas / HHO, the public has not been informed.

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Article:More_on_Brown's_Gas_("HHO")

 

[Nuggler]

8O Is it safe for me to use my microwave today??

 

[MHz]

Depends if you want to be inside or outside the machine.

 

[petros]

EM radiation is a completely different.

 

[jgarden]

The bottom line is that the Japanese government isn't being particularily forthright and doesn't seem interested in asking for help - as far as the reactors are concerned.

There appears to be a real disconnect between Tokyo Electric, the Japanese government and the Japanese people.