In The News: Turmoil In Egypt, Danger From Fukushima

It is surprising that developments we see occurring at the Fukushima Reactor aren't receiving a lot more attention in the media. These developments are very real and very dangerous:

Dangerous Operation At Fukushima's Reactor No. 4 Could Ignite 'Atomic Chain Reaction'

Threatening to trigger a new—and possibly more devastating—nuclear disaster than the original or ongoing one at the Fukishima plant in Japan, a risky plan to remove fuel rods from a damaged reactor building could unleash an "unprecedented" level of radiation, according to experts, if things go wrong.

According to reporting by Reuters, the radioactive material within the fuel rods slated for removal are equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the plan to move them "has never been attempted before on this scale."

The 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel and other nuclear materials will be taken from the crippled building and moved to a safer location, but the manner of the operation should be put in serious doubt, say the experts.

"They are going to have difficulty in removing a significant number of the rods," said Arnie Gundersen, a veteran U.S. nuclear engineer and director of Fairewinds Energy Education. The fuel rods are being stored in a cooling pool, but if a reaction begins, Gundersen expressed serious concern to Reuters about the company's ability to respond.

"To jump to the conclusion that it is going to work just fine," said Gundersen, "is quite a leap of logic."

"There is a risk of an inadvertent criticality if the bundles are distorted and get too close to each other," Gundersen continued.

"The problem with a fuel pool criticality is that you can't stop it. There are no control rods to control it," he said. "The spent fuel pool cooling system is designed only to remove decay heat, not heat from an ongoing nuclear reaction."

Reuters also quoted from a recent independent report which stated, a "full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date."

Washington's Blog has been covering this story in great detail and offers this:

Ominous Developments From Fukushima

Tepco has an abysmal track record:

• Engineers warned Tepco and the Japanese government many years before the accident that the reactors were seismically unsafe … and that an earthquake could wipe them out

• The Fukushima reactors were fatally damaged before the tsunami hit … the earthquake took them out even before the tidal wave hit

• An official Japanese government investigation concluded that the Fukushima accident was a “man-made” disaster,  caused by “collusion” between government and Tepco and bad reactor design

• Tepco knew right after the 2011 accident that 3 nuclear reactors had lost containment, that the nuclear fuel had “gone missing”, and that there was in fact no real containment at all.  Tepco has desperately been trying to cover this up for 2 and a half years … instead pretending that the reactors were in “cold shutdown”

• Tepco just admitted that it’s known for 2 years that massive amounts of radioactive water are leaking into the groundwater and Pacific Ocean

• Tepco – with no financial incentive to actually fix things – has only been pretending to clean it up. And see this

• Tepco’s recent attempts to solidify the ground under the reactors using chemicals has backfired horribly.  And NBC News notes: “[Tepco] is considering freezing the ground around the plant. Essentially building a mile-long ice wall underground, something that’s never been tried before to keep the water out. One scientist I spoke to dismissed this idea as grasping at straws, just more evidence that the power company failed to anticipate this problem … and now cannot solve it.”
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Specifically – as we noted in 2012 – the greatest short-term threat to humanity is from the fuel pools at Fukushima.

If one of the pools collapsed or caught fire, it could have severe adverse impacts on the United States.   Indeed, a Senator called it a national security concern for the U.S.:

The radiation caused by the failure of the spent fuel pools in the event of another earthquake could reach the West Coast within days. That absolutely makes the safe containment and protection of this spent fuel a security issue for the United States.

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen and physician Helen Caldicott have both said that people should evacuate the Northern Hemisphere if one of the Fukushima fuel pools collapses. Gundersen said:

Move south of the equator if that ever happened, I think that’s probably the lesson there.

Former U.N. adviser Akio Matsumura calls removing the radioactive materials from the Fukushima fuel pools “an issue of human survival”.

So the stakes in decommissioning the fuel pools are high, indeed.

But – in 3 months – Tepco is going to start doing this very difficult operation on its own.

No one knows how bad it can get, but independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt said recently in their World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013: “Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date.”

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is preparing to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel from a damaged reactor building, a dangerous operation that has never been attempted before on this scale.

Containing radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima 68 years ago, more than 1,300 used fuel rod assemblies packed tightly together need to be removed from a building that is vulnerable to collapse, should another large earthquake hit the area.

Egypt's Churches Aflame As Brotherhood Targets Christians

Now, with the crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood members by the Egyptian army, Islamist fanatics are taking out their frustrations on Coptic Christians. In the past few days, there has been a spate of attacks on Christian businesses, homes, and churches. As of Wednesday morning, according to local witnesses, at least 18 churches had been destroyed, and fires and riots were continuing to spread in Christian areas, the witnesses said.

Using the hashtag #EgyChurch, Egyptian users of Twitter and other social networks broadcast messages like “Can't keep up with the number of churches, Christian businesses, and affiliates being attacked by 'peaceful' Muslim Brotherhood,” “It's clear the Copts are having their churches burnt,” and “This is quickly becoming the worst sectarian catastrophe we've seen in our lifetimes.”

Dramatic photos showed churches on fire, with smoke billowing out of buildings and people trying to escape blazes taking refuge on rooftops. In one image, a group of long-cloaked Muslims stand in front of a church, arms linked, in order to prevent Muslim Brotherhood rioters from approaching the building.

Muslim Brotherhood Calls Cairo Protest March As Egypt Death Toll Reaches 525

 Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood called on followers to march in protest in Cairo on Thursday, after at least 525 people were killed in a security crackdown on the Islamist movement that has left the most populous Arab nation polarized and in turmoil.

The Muslim Brotherhood said it plans to hold a march in Cairo, one day after the violent crackdown on its members that killed hundreds.

"Marches are planned this afternoon from Al-Iman mosque to protest the deaths," the Islamist group said in a statement.

Bloodied Egypt At A Dead End

By Wednesday evening, the Egyptian army, along with the police, had managed to accomplish what in the morning seemed like mission impossible: it forcibly cleared all the protesters from Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in eastern Cairo. Earlier, the army cleared the smaller A-Nahda Square, facing Cairo University in the heart of the Egyptian capital. However, the price of the evacuation of the larger square was heavy, perhaps even too heavy, for the fledgling government.

The big question now is how the Muslim Brotherhood will react after this first battle ended in military defeat. It is doubtful that the movement intends to alter its plan to keep demonstrating.

Egypt's Darkest Day

One of the blackest days in Egypt’s history unfolded on Wednesday as Egyptian security forces raided Muslim Brotherhood protest sites in Cairo with sniper fire, live ammunition, tear gas and bulldozers, according to reports. In the ensuing mayhem, hundreds, or possibly thousands, of people were killed, leading Egyptian President Adly Mansour to declare a month-long state of emergency, all the Arab media outlets report.

“The security and order in the territory of the Egyptian republic are at risk due to acts of deliberate sabotage on public and private enterprises. A significant loss of life has been caused by members of extremist organizations groups and organizations,” Egyptian President Adly Mansour said as he declared martial law for the next month.

Inside Egypt's Terrorist (Muslim Brotherhood) Camps: Torture, Rape, Mass Murder

Now that the Egyptian military has finally begun to neutralize Muslim Brotherhood terrorist bases, the so-called mainstream media are doing what they do best—twist reality to the Islamists’ benefit by casting them as innocent victims merely “holding vigil” only to be slaughtered, while calling for the prosecution of the military for “human rights abuses.”  They essentially follow the pro-Brotherhood Al Jazeera’s lead of portraying these bases in Rab‘a al-Adawiya and elsewhere as peaceful “sit ins.”

What the mainstream media have failed to report is that for over two months in these “sit ins”—or more appropriately, mini-emirates in Egypt—many Egyptians have been tortured, mutilated, raped, and mass murdered in the name of Islam and/or Brotherhood rule.  (Of course, this is unsurprising considering how the media also failed to report on the nonstop and heinous attacks on the nation’s Christian minority and its churches, all validated by Brotherhood leadership.)

Women are also easy prey in the Brotherhood camp.  According to a recent report, women are being abused for refusing to have sex with Brotherhood supporters.  One woman was reportedly tortured to death and another critically injured and hospitalized.  An Egyptian organization concerned with female rights said it “will expose in the coming days the extent of the violations and crimes against humanity which our sisters have been exposed to by the orders of the General Guide [Muhammad Badie] to coerce women to engage in sex-jihad, with torture to death for those who refuse.”

Still, there is one positive side to all this.  Because so many Muslim Brotherhood members and their Islamist allies had congregated in Rab‘a and elsewhere, turning them into mini Islamist states where Brotherhood rule is enforced—torturing, chopping fingers off, sexually abusing women, and murdering dissenters—we have gotten a glimpse of exactly what sort of state they wish to see Egypt become.

But just as it took several months before even Fox News told of the Muslim Brotherhood torture chambers—despite the fact that any number of Egyptian media had for months been disseminating pictures and videos of those tortured—no doubt it will take a while before news of the Brotherhood torture camps is ever disseminated in the West.

Also see:

What Can Israel Do About Egypt?

Brotherhood Vows To Continue Protests As Death Toll Breaks 500

Brotherhood Plans Cairo March After Crackdown