Japan′s Nikkei ends with a weekly gain of 7% while the Japanese Yen collapses. In the race to the bottom, the Bank of Japan has been printing so much Yen that it has now passed the 100 Yen to one U.S. Dollar. Once more, we see how massive currency manipulation by central banks spell wonder for stock markets while average citizens succumb to more financial insecurity. Just as with the U.S. Federal Reserve and its policy of quantitative easing, very few benefit from currency debasement.
Just one year ago, Japan was struck with a devastating earthquake, followed by a tsunami. March 11, 2011 will be remembered for for many years to come. Over 20,000 people were killed, many missing and are presumed dead, after the seas retreated carrying away their bodies. A massive floating debris field is still making its way across the Pacific Ocean. Hundreds of square miles of the remains of people′s homes and businesses. Remains of their very lives. Then there is one more lasting legacy from this tragic event, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Owned by Tokyo Electric Power, TEPCO, the plant became the worst nuclear crisis Japan had faced since World War Two. The accidents, explosions and meltdowns not only cost the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan to be tossed out of office, but shook apart the fabric of life in Japan. Radiation fallout has rendered parts of the region unlivable, perhaps for centuries.
The government in Japan has finally re-designated the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant as a Level 7 event, putting it on par with Chernobyl. They now share the top of the international nuclear event scale. Something I’ve been saying for over 3 weeks now! The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company, TEPCO, has been trying to pass off Fukushima as a Level 5 event, equal to that of Three Mile Island. Damaged during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Fukushima power plant has three reactors that have experienced core meltdowns, as well as spent fuel rods being exposed at a fourth building′s storage pool. A great deal of radiation has been released, both in the atmosphere by smoke and debris from three explosions as well as over 11,000 tons of highly radioactive water dumped into the Pacific Ocean.
Engineers sent by the U.S. government to assist in stabilizing Japan’s embattled Fukushima Nuclear Plant have found several alarming faults that could spell disaster for the recently stabilized facility. Despite a complete meltdown being averted, the engineers insist that much could still go wrong at the ailing plant.
We all suspected it, but it turns out the Japanese company in charge of Fukushima covered up some of the more disturbing aspects of the disaster during the initial crisis. Now, it’s those very apsects a that are posing the most dangerous threats.
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Spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Company, TEPCO, confirm that the No.2 reactor at the Fukishima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan has had a core meltdown that has leaked through the containment vessel. Water from the reactor used in efforts to cool the core′s fuel rods is highly radioactive, some 3,300 times more than legal limits. Also, more evidence of plutonium released from the No.3 reactor was also confirmed. TEPCO officials have finally admitted that they see no alternative but to shutdown and seal the four damaged reactors.
According to the government in Japan, radiation levels of seawater near the Fukushima Dia-Ichi nuclear power plant are 1,250 times higher than normal. On Sunday, the plant′s workers were evacuated, for the fourth time in 10 days, as radiation detectors at Reactor No. 2 showed a spike 10 MILLION times higher than normal! The government and officials from TEPCO, Tokyo Electric Power Company, immediately consider this alarm to be erroneous. Meanwhile concerns over the No. 3 reactor vessel being breached were raised this week when two workers were hospitalized for radiation burns as the men were subjected to high levels of Beta rays as they stood in water inside the reactor’s containment building. Several times this past week, plumes of smoke rose, spreading more fear and concerns over radioactive contamination.
After things appeared to be stabilizing Sunday, workers at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant evacuated the facility again Monday. A think gray cloud of smoke emerged from Fukushima reactor No.3. The same reactor that contains a plutonium mixture in it′s fuel rods. Workers had been using water cannons from a fire truck to cool the No.3 reactor. So far, there is no word on any increase in radiation levels from this new cloud.
In Japan, government officials issued two separate warnings. Radioactive contaminated spinach and milk was discovered on farms, some as much as 90 miles away from the Fukushima Dia-ichi nuclear power plant. Another advisory was issued to those living with 18 miles of the plant to begin taking their potassium iodine pills. Radiation levels of tap water in Tokyo indicate the presence of iodine-131, but are still well below that which could be a health risk.
