New Zealand Hemp Renaissance : Medical Hemp Proves To Be Medical Miracle For Patients

Pharmaceutical giants that have the most to loose from legalization and actively supported criminalization for decades now exposed as criminals themselves

THE 5TH ESTATE 
By Dr. Stuart Jeanne Bramhall

10/15/2013

"When the people lead, the leaders will follow..." - Ghandi

The recent resurgence of hemp cultivation – after a 5 ½ decade ban in the U.S. and its allies – is the most stunning example of this Ghandian pearl. Genetically related to marijuana, hemp contains only trace amounts of THC, the compound that gets weed users high. At the time former Congressman Ron Paul introduced his 2011 Industrial Hemp Farming Act Bill, five states (North Dakota, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Oregon, California, Montana, West Virginia and Vermont) had enacted laws authorizing industrial hemp cultivation. The U.S. is the world’s largest importer of hemp, for use in construction, clothing, paper, rope, pressed oil, and cooking. China is the world’s largest hemp producer, followed by France and Chile.

Medicinal hemp now being legalized worldwide

Despite the support of progressive Democrats, without Obama’s support, Paul’s bill died in committee. Fast forward to November 2012, when Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 to legalize hemp cultivation. Last week the Denver Post reported on the Colorado farmer who made history by harvesting the first commercial hemp crop in the US in 56 years. 

Technically growing hemp is still illegal under the 1970 federal Controlled Substances Act. However given Obama’s response back in August to the 34 states that have decriminalized marijuana use, he’s not expected to go after Colorado hemp farmers. 

On August 29, 2013, the Obama administration notified 94 US attorneys that states with recreational and medical marijuana (and hemp) laws can now let people use it, grow it under license, and purchase it from retail facilities — so long as possession by minors is prohibited and it doesn’t end up on federal property or in the hands of gangs and criminal enterprises.

John Earney speaking to Prince Charles during a visit to NZ

Growing Hemp in New Zealand

In New Zealand, hemp cultivation has been legal, under license, since 2006. We have two hemp farms here in Taranaki. 

I serve as secretary of the Douglas farm, run by John Earney, owner of Avonstour Rare Breeds organic farm. It’s the goal of New Plymouth businessman Greg Flavall to create the word’s first hemp industrial village here in Taranaki. It would center around a $500,000 hemp processing facility that would use a decorticator and process hemp from all over New Zealand. 

Greg Flavell www.hemptechnologies.co.nz

Flavell envisions hemp as a major export industry to meet growing world demand. Once the long fibers are extracted the rest of the plant can be used for pressed oil, flour, animal bedding, garden mulch, paper making, and food.

Hemp’s 12,000 Year History

Hemp, first used in 10,000 BC Taiwan, is one of the most versatile plants known to man. Hemp fiber is used in the production of paper, textiles, rope, sails, clothing, plastics, insulation, dry wall, fiber board, and other construction materials; while hempseed oil is used as a lubricant and base for paints and varnishes, as well as in cooking and beauty products. Hemp is also carbon neutral. Hemp-based paper, textiles, rope, construction materials, and even plastics are the tried and true low tech alternative to modern synthetics based on fossil fuels.

Cannabis plant was primarily used for rheumatism, gout, malaria

At the time of the industrial revolution, most textiles, clothing, canvas (the Dutch word for cannabis), rope, and paper were made from hemp. 

It was only with the industrial revolution and the proliferation of machinery run on cheap fossil fuels that more sophisticated alternatives, such as cotton, wood-based paper, and eventually petroleum-based plastics became cheaper alternatives. Before the cotton gin was invented in the 1820s, 80% of the world’s textiles, fabrics, and clothing were made of hemp. 

By 1883, hemp was still the primary source of 75% of the world’s paper. Up until 1937, when the US government passed a crippling hemp tax, most bank notes and archival papers were made of hemp (owing to its greater durability) and most paints and varnishes were made from hempseed oil.

Hemp dates back archaeologically to 5000 BC in China

Hemp has always been such a vital community resource that a long series of laws, dating back to Henry VIII (1535) required farmers to grow hemp or be fined. In 1619 Jamestown Virginia enacted a law requiring residents to plant hemp. Massachusetts and Connecticut passed similar laws in 1631 and 1632. Betsy Ross’s flag was made of hemp. The Declaration and Independence and Emancipation Proclamation are printed on it.

Henry Ford Grew Hemp

Hemp first began losing ground in 1850 to cheaper substitutes made of cotton, jute, sisal, and petroleum. 

Prior to the 1920s, hemp had to be processed by hand, involving huge labor costs incompatible with mass commercial production. Henry Ford, one of the first modern conservationists, remained a strong hemp advocate and had his own hemp plantation on his estate in Dearborn Michigan. 

After George W Schlicten automated hemp processing in 1917 with a new machine called the hemp decorticator, Ford set up the first biomass fuel production plant in Iron Mountain, Michigan. 

 

Henry Ford at his hemp plantation

Ford ran the first Model T on corn-based ethanol (alcohol), but was quick to recognize hemp as a cheaper and more efficient fuel source. 

His engineers in Iron Mountain developed processes to extract ethanol from hemp, as well as charcoal and other industrial chemicals, including tar, ethyl acetate and creosote.

"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest an mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?" - Henry Ford 

The Corporate Conspiracy to End Hemp Cultivation

All this was happening at the precise moment that the munitions company DuPont was patenting synthetic fibers (nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc) and plastics derived from petroleum. Schlicten’s hemp decoricator and automated hemp processing, posed a major threat to DuPont’s ability to market their new synthetic fibers.

Clifford Dupont

DuPont also had a commercial interest in promoting wood-based paper production (they held the patent on the sulfates and sulfites used to produce paper pulp and gasoline). As well as the patent on tetraethyl lead, which allowed gasoline to burn more smoothly in the engine Ford intended to run on ethanol.

The main co-conspirators in the plot to kill hemp included DuPont, William Randolph Hearst (who owned a logging company and paper manufacturing plant in addition to his American newspaper empire), and Andrew Mellon, president of Mellon Bank and DuPont’s major financier. 

In 1930, Mellon, as US Secretary of the Treasury, created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and appointed his nephew Henry Anslinger to run it. Between 1935 and 1937, Anslinger and a handful of DuPont’s congressional cronies secretly wrote a bill to tax hemp production. Meanwhile Anslinger and Hearst orchestrated a massive media campaign demonizing a dangerous new drug called marihuana that supposedly turned Mexicans and black jazz musicians into crazed killers. Congress was deliberately tricked into believing marihuana was a totally new drug. 

Racist nutcase Harry J. Asslinger

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was rushed through on a Friday afternoon before lawmakers had a chance to read it. Only a handful realized marihuana was the same as hemp, which was still viewed as an essential crop and vital to the paint and varnish industry.

Overseas Bans on Hemp Cultivation

Strongly influenced by DuPont, Mellon, and Hearst, in 1925 the League of Nations passed the Geneva International Convention on Narcotics Control. The British passed a law outlawing marijuana and hemp cultivation the same year. New Zealand banned it in 1927 under the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Dr. Stuart Jeanne Bramhall

Dr. Stuart Jeanne Bramhall is a 65 year old American psychiatrist, activist, and author who closed her 25-year Seattle practice to emigrate to New Zealand. This followed 15 years of government harassment for her political activities. She writes about her experiences in her 2010 memoir The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.

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The Sleaziest Things Congress Has Done During The Shutdown

Obama and his drunken Congress lackeys plumb the depths of immoral depravity, insanity, theft

HUFFINGTON POST
By Nick Wing
10/14/2013

We're now almost two weeks into the government shutdown, and there's been no shortage of outrage over the fact that Congress remains unable to figure out how to end it. Recent polling has shown record levels of support for replacing every member of Congress, and lawmakers are now less popular than witches and dog poop.

"Mmmmfffff, the sheep will forget this by election time"

This level of unpopularity may not come as a surprise to anyone who's followed the actions of Congress. The shutdown, brought on late last month by House Republicans who insisted that any measure to fund the government must also delay or dismantle Obamacare, has taken a nationwide toll on federal workers and programs. With around 800,000 federal employees furloughed without pay and programs for veterans, women and children increasingly becoming hobbled by the congressional impasse, lawmakers have been more successful at upsetting the people they serve than at ending the shutdown.

Here are some of the sleaziest things members of Congress have done so far:

Grandstand at the World War II Memorial.

Inbred redneck pederast Lindsey Graham will burn with Obama

The government shutdown threatened to ruin the plans of a group of World War II veterans who had traveled to their memorial on the National Mall on Oct. 1. When confronted with barriers indicating that the area had been closed off to the public due to the shutdown, the veterans, along with some members of Congress, reportedly barged through and defied the order. For the next two days, members of Congress -- most of them Republicans -- flocked down to the World War II memorial to partake in photo ops and the resulting media frenzy. The lawmakers promised to fight for the elderly veterans and make sure that they could have access to their memorial, even though they were at fault for closing it in the first place.

There has since been some confusion as to who is allowed to visit the World War II Memorial and who isn't. The area was recently opened for First Amendment activities only. Demonstrators, including key shutdown architect Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), joined a veteran-led rally at the memorial over the weekend, where they protested the Mall closures and marched to the White House. Amid "Impeach Obama" signs and confederate flags, a tea party speaker called for President Barack Obama to "put down the Quran" and resign the presidency.

Berate a Park Ranger for the effects of the shutdown.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) was among those Republicans who made his way down to the World War II Memorial in the opening days of the shutdown. When he found a Park Ranger doing her job -- which, at the time, included controlling the crowd at the technically closed memorial -- the congressman blamed her for the closure he had voted for, and told her she should be ashamed of herself.

Drunken Boner truly insane if he believes he will be re-elected

Put on lab coats and chastise Democrats for not funding cancer research.

A group of House Republicans traveled to the National Institutes of Health, where they threw on lab coats and pleaded with Democrats to undo the damage the shutdown had done to services for children with cancer.


"Let us help people. Let us help children. Please," said Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), whose son suffers from a rare neurogenetic disorder.

Calls are mounting for bloodsucker Obama impeachment

In order to help, Republicans wanted Democrats to support a variety of smaller bills that would have funded the government a la carte, based on which programs they believed were most necessary or popular. Democrats declined the offer, insisting that Republicans come to the table with a clean bill to fund the government in its entirety, not just the parts that were upsetting the public.

Fund raise off the whole debacle.

 While some lawmakers were apparently not keen to be seen fundraising amid a shutdown that had left nearly a million federal workers furloughed without pay, others adopted a "keep calm and carry on" mentality. A number of Democrats attended a fundraiser for Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) in the first week of the shutdown, arguing that just because the government had closed they shouldn't be expected to change their campaign schedules.

The Democratic National Committee also used the GOP's intransigence as a highly successful fundraising tool in the run-up to the shutdown. After reports showed the DNC raised nearly $850,000 in the 24 hours before the shutdown began, Republicans like Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) accused Democrats of having pushed a shutdown simply to bring in donations. The congressman would later send out an email of his own, in which he attempted to raise funds off his allegations that Democrats were fundraising.

Rub their "nice house" in the faces of 800,000 federal employees they helped furlough.

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) has a nice house, and in an interview this month he let everyone know that it was part of the reason he wouldn't be giving up his constitutionally protected $174,000 annual salary amid the shutdown.

Spastic criminal Paul Ryan is toast in next election

"I've got a nice house and a kid in college, and I'll tell you we cannot handle it," he told the Omaha World-Herald. "Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That's just not going to fly."

More than 100 lawmakers have decided to donate their paychecks to charity amid the shutdown, which has left hundreds of thousands of people nationwide largely without control of their economic wellbeing. Terry later apologized after his comments caused an outcry, and he said he'd have his paycheck withheld.

Tell furloughed employees they shouldn't get back pay while they're prohibited from working.

Despite voting for a measure to compensate government workers for the time they spent furloughed, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) suggested that he felt differently at a recent town hall meeting.

A caller told Yoho that he was fine giving back pay to federal employees who continued working during the shutdown, "but the people that are home watching Netflix and whatever, I'm not sure that we should be sending them checks."

Yoho referred to the bill that passed the House unanimously in his response: "Well, when we voted on that, they were supposed to come back to work as part of that deal. I agree 100 percent with you. If they're not working, they shouldn't get paid."

Suggest furloughed employees take out loans if they can't pay the bills.

For a few brief moments last week, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) thought it would be a good idea to offer some financial advice to furloughed workers worried they might not be able to pay bills thanks to Congress. Here's his Facebook post on the matter, which was quickly taken down:

 A staffer for Pearce later said that another staffer had put up the message, and that it "was in error."
 
Keep the congressional gym and other amenities open as essential services.

"Justice" in America not blind:  It's DOA

Critical government services have been slowed or shuttered by the shutdown, but don't worry, your representatives can still get in regular workouts at the congressional gym, thanks to House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) decision to keep it open. According to Think Progress, which first reported the development, the House gym comes packed with a swimming pool, basketball courts, paddleball courts, a sauna, a steam room and flat screen TVs, and taxpayers are still footing the bill for regular cleaning and maintenance, as well as electricity to keep everything running.

Lawmakers also still have access to a Capitol subway system that shuttles them the short distance between the House and Senate office buildings and the Capitol building itself.

Complain that the gym is gross and doesn't have enough towels.

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) pointed out some real pain and suffering in a recent interview, when he deflected calls for the gym to be closed amid the shutdown by noting there weren't even clean towels in it.

"There's hardly anybody working down there. There's no towel service, we're doing our own laundry down there," he said. "And we pay a fee to belong to the House gym. So this is no different than if you're working for an employer that offers a wellness program. You pay a fee to belong, that's what we do there."

Other lawmakers have also complained about the gyms getting disgusting with only a heavily depleted staff on hand.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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Sledgehammer Politics American Style

Obama, corporate owned Congress criminals continue the rape and pillage of the poor, disabled, Seniors, Veterans of America

WORLD NEWS
By Dallas Darling
10/15/2013

When Mia, a fast-food worker and single mother of two, expressed concern over the government slowdown, being forced to spend an extra $175 per month for baby milk, it reminded me of sledgehammer politics. But before discussing how a Republican Speaker smashed through chamber doors with a sledgehammer, and then proceeded to seize the House from popularly elected Populists, sledgehammer politics always injures the most vulnerable members of society like Mia, the very people the State is sworn to protect. Working thirty hours a week at a meagerly wage of $8.03, Mia exists on a monthly income of only $600. The WIC program, that provides baby milk, has been shut down. She also worries over the Affordable Health CareAct. The least expensive plan will cost her and her children an extra $150 per month, including a deductible of $5000. 

 

 

Obama, Congress criminals move quickly to finish off the poor

For some elected officials, and on behalf of Big Business, politics means war against the disadvantaged members of society. Such was the case during the Populist-Establishment War of 1893. After winning the Kansas House of Representatives, Lorenzo Lewelling, a Populist governor, and Populist-controlled Senate charged Republicans with election fraud. Along with invalidating the election of some Republicans, Populists passed legislative laws regulating government subsidized monopolies. They also gave people greater economic opportunities. Earlier, Populists and Republicans had sat in the same chamber, agreeing they were ready to work together on behalf of the people. But arguments and fights broke out, as did a vindictive spirit. Tensions soared as both parties claimed victory, and when Governor Lewelling only recognized his fellow Populists. 

 

 

Obama, Congress criminals dismantling Social Security, Medicare

In the midst of ongoing ballot disputes and heated confrontations, Governor Lewelling decided to call out the State militia to evict Republican Speaker GeorgeDouglass. Republicans retaliated by pressuring and paying-off local authorities to arrest the clerk of the Populist controlled House. When he was jailed on trumped up charges for disturbing the peace, fellow Populists rescued him. The "peace" was further disturbed that night as both sides organized for a major conflict. The crisis reached a boiling point the next morning when Populists locked themselves in the House Hall. Speaker George Douglass and other Republican officials marched on the Capitol, demanding entry into the House hall. Using a sledge hammer and clubs, they smashed and broke through the doors and seized control of the chamber. The surprised Populists fled for their lives.

 

 

While the Populists decided to meet in another room in the Capitol, the Republican-backed County Sheriff paid and deputized hundreds of citizens to maintain law and order in the city. Republicans quickly nullified Populist legislation that had regulated Big Business. Other laws protecting the people from the Establishment were either changed or stripped. Although Governor Lewelling again called out the State militia, after a three-day standoff he finally decided to negotiate an agreement with the Republican Speaker of the House. The ultimate decision of who controlled the House would be made by the Republican dominated Kansas StateSupreme Court. Governor Lewelling's negotiations amounted to a Populist surrender, ending the Populist-Establishment War. It also meant that Big Business and the Establishment could continue to smash the disadvantaged.

 

 

U.S. Seniors now eating dog and cat food to survive

Although the sledgehammer that shattered the chamber's doors is displayed in the Kansas Museum of History, its symbol of political aggression and structural violence still resonates today. For some elected officials and their privileged constituents, politics and legislative laws are viewed as ideological sledgehammers, types of violent weaponry, to be used against susceptible citizens. While enjoying multi-billion dollar taxpayer subsidies, corporate-owned medias continually espouse collectivized anger towards, and fear of, the economically downtrodden and underpaid. The Establishment and Big Business, including their corrupt practices, are deified. Where there exists unequal and unjust power sharing arrangements, economically, socially or politically, the last doors of democracy are destroyed, smashed by political insurgents armed with sledgehammers.

 

 

Another single mother nearby shared how she not only works during the day as a secretary, earning $10 an hour, but she had to apply for a second part-time job that pays only minimum wage. She too has three children to care for, but is working another job because she is too proud to ask for government assistance. The real victims in the government slowdown are not Republicans or Democrats, nor are they corporations that claim they can barely afford to pay workers minimum wage, the real victimized majority are the disadvantaged workers, those who are paid an insufficient wage. In an overly aggressive and market-oriented economy, work that is not valued, or only partially-paid, is a humiliating blow. Sledgehammer politics and economics always crush the marginalized and their spirits. They also dispose of the disadvantaged.

Just like the Populist-Establishment War of 1893, Politicians, Big Business, and the Establishment are the real victors. They will also continue to swing their tyrannical sledgehammers, smashing the doors of fairness and opportunity.

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-ZReading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some NationsAbove God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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FUKUSHIMA WATER CRISIS : Declining Worker Morale At Fukushima Plant May Be Behind Recent Mishaps

Most sane workers would be demoralized after being lied to about the amount of radiation cooking them alive

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
By Takuro Negishi, Tetsuya Kasai, Susumu Okamoto and Toshio Tada
10/14/2013

A series of recent mishaps at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant may be symptomatic of declining worker morale. 

 

 

"Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Death We Go....."

A major reason for this disturbing trend is the health concerns held by workers who still face high levels of radiation every time they enter the plant.

Workers receive what looks like a receipt at the end of each shift, which shows their level of radiation exposure. Some workers are exposed to nearly 2 millisieverts over the course of a day, which is close to double the annual exposure limit for the general population.

There are many locations within the plant site around the reactor buildings where radiation levels continue to exceed 100 millisieverts per hour.

Although work schedules are made while considering the amount of radiation a worker will be exposed to, those who have accumulated levels that exceed the annual 50-millisievert limit will not be allowed to enter the plant site for the rest of that year. 

 

 

People that lack a death-wish generally tend to get depressed when they realize they are being smoked like a salmon, and lied to about it by the very experts that are supposed to be protecting them

"If we exceed our radiation exposure limits, we will simply be disposed of as workers," said a man in his 30s who has worked at the Fukushima No. 1 and other nuclear plants for more than 10 years. 

 

Before the Fukushima nuclear accident, the man was responsible for leading a team that worked within the reactor building. Immediately after the accident, he volunteered to return to work at the plant from where he had evacuated. One task he performed was to carry a hose to the reactor building so water could be pumped into the reactor. Dose levels exceeded 10 millisieverts per hour. 

 

 

"Follow me you bastards, do you want to live forever?"

"I thought I would die," the man said.

Media reports about Fukushima tend to focus on the problems that have arisen, and the voices of workers at the plant site are rarely reported. Whenever celebrities visit the disaster site to encourage victims, they never meet with any plant workers.

"Right now, I do not feel that our efforts are being recognized by society," the man said. "My motivation to work is gradually disappearing."

Among the recent blunders at the plant have been storing too much contaminated water in storage tanks, leading to leaks. In another instance, workers were showered with contaminated water after piping was inadvertently removed. 

 

 

Please click to enlarge map

At the building workers must pass through to enter and leave the plant site, another male worker feels with the increase in problems related to radiation-contaminated water this summer, there has also been an increase in workers whose skin or underwear has become contaminated with radiation.

Although workers are required to wear protective clothing and full face masks, some workers touch the back of their necks with their contaminated gloves when removing their masks. 

 

 

"The workers brought in by the construction companies after the accident do not have much work experience or knowledge," the male worker said. "They cannot even skillfully remove their protective clothing."

Moreover, unlike other nuclear plants, the landscape of the Fukushima No. 1 plant is constantly changing with the removal of rubble and the installing of storage tanks to hold the massive volume of contaminated water left over after cooling the reactors. There are some areas of the plant where work experience from before the accident is of no use at all. 

 

 

"Come on guys, all you have to do is smile to beat radiation...."

A worker in his 20s feels that more people are choosing to become involved in the decontamination efforts. One reason may be that those who do decontamination work receive an additional 10,000 yen ($102) a day in the form of hazard pay, which comes from public funds. In 2011, when the accident occurred, the man received close to 30,000 yen a day in wages, but now he receives under 20,000 yen. That means there is almost no difference in pay with those doing decontamination work.

"The dose levels workers at the Fukushima plant can be exposed to are several hundred times that for those doing decontamination work," the man said. "I feel more workers have come to think it is not worth it." 

 

 

"Quit snivelling you little whiner, you're not glowing yet..."

Although such factors make it difficult to find good workers, there are some from the local community who continue to return to the Fukushima plant.

A man in his 30s was scolded by his mother for his decision to continue working at the Fukushima plant. He has with him a tablet computer on which he keeps an image of a person who died after being exposed to a large dose of radiation during the 1999 criticality accident at the JCO Co. plant in Ibaraki Prefecture.

"I work while thinking that is how I might end up," the man said. 

 

 

"I... need... a... vacation......"

One reason for the low worker morale is because a large percentage are employed by subcontractors. Only 10 percent of those working at the plant site are employees of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator.

The central government and TEPCO estimate that about 12,000 workers are needed over the course of a year. However, workers who exceed their annual radiation exposure limit cannot continue to work, meaning new workers have to continually be found.

Inexperienced workers are recruited from around Japan, many by the subcontractors. The multi-layered structure of the companies involved in the work at the Fukushima plant means there is ambiguity about who is actually the employer, and that has left open the possibility of illegal hiring practices. 

 

 

Animals in Fukushima "exclusion zone" already mutating

Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, raised concerns about TEPCO's tendency to leave things up to subcontractors.

"Efforts must be made to maintain the morale of each and every worker at the plant," Tanaka said on Oct. 9. "Careless errors cannot be corrected simply through regulations."

At an Oct. 11 news conference, Masayuki Ono, acting general manager of TEPCO's Nuclear Power and Plant Siting Division, said, "We will improve the situation after determining whether it is a structural problem or simply a careless error."

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 



 

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AFP : Powerful Typhoon Wipha Heads For Fukushima, Tepco Bracing For ‘Inflows Of Water’ — Experts Say Huge Flood Potential For Area Around Plant : VIDEO

Forecast for storm to grow and strengthen, 40 foot waves predicted

AFP VIA ENENEWS
10/15/2013

Kyodo News, Oct. 15, 2013 at 8:46a JST: Typhoon Wipha, the 26th typhoon of the year, was traveling northward around 260 km east of Minamidaito at a speed of 25 kph as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to [Japan's Meteorological Agency]. It had an atmospheric pressure at its center of 940 hectopascals and was packing winds of up to 216 kph.

Fukushima looks down the barrel of another hit

AFP, Oct. 15, 2013 at 12:00a ET: Strong typhoon heads for Japan’s nuclear plant [...] A powerful typhoon was closing in on Japan on Tuesday, heading towards the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Typhoon Wipha, packing winds of up to 144 kilometres per hour near its centre, was in the Pacific south of Japan early this morning. It has been forecast to reach an area off the Tokyo metropolitan area by early Wednesday and then head toward the coast of Fukushima [...] TEPCO says it is bracing for the winds after a series of leaks of radiation-polluted water. “We are making preparations for proper management of contaminated water… we will patrol places that could have inflows of water (from the storm),” a company spokesman said. [...]

Kitsap Sun, Oct. 14, 2013: [...] a hybrid storm, with characteristics of both a tropical storm and an extratropical system [...] similar to some of the features that Hurricane Sandy had [...] Wipha could bring an expanded area of high winds and pounding surf along with several inches of rain to [...] the vulnerable nuclear plant [...] Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at WeatherBell Analytics [...] told Climate Central that the storm poses a “huge flood potential” for the Fukushima area. [...] “Wipha is extra-large size-wise,” Maue said, predicting it will grow and strengthen as it makes its closest pass to Japan [...] A major storm with high surf, strong winds, and heavy rainfall likely would complicate cleanup efforts, or possibly pose an even greater danger to the facility. [...] hybrid storm systems may not be good news for Tokyo and Fukushima [...] can cause storms to intensify and expand in size, resulting in a broader wind field and a higher potential for storm surge. Computer models show the potential for 40-foot waves off the coast of Japan [...]

See also: Pro-Nuclear Expert: Typhoon collapsing Fukushima fuel pool "a very real concern -- I don't know what it is they’re doing about that" (AUDIO)

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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Tens Of Thousands Of Protesters Attend Anti - Nuclear Events In Tokyo

Japan finally begins to face the truth

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
By Katsuhei Kawamura and Daisuke Shimizu
10/14/2013

With all the nation's 50 nuclear reactors offline, an estimated 40,000 people attended a series of demonstrations in central Tokyo on Oct. 13 organized by three anti-nuclear civic groups to express their opposition to the government's push for restarts.

Typhoon Wipha roars towards Japan, Fukushima

In the events called "One for No Nukes,” participants raised their voices in protest, saying, “No to restarts.”

The Metropolitan Coalition against Nukes organized the protests along with two civic groups “Sayonara Genpatsu 1,000 mannin Action” (Good-bye to nuclear power through action by 10 million people) and “Genpatsu wo Nakusu Zenkoku Renrakukai” (National conference on abolishing nuclear power plants).

At a rally held in the early afternoon at Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Public Hall in Chiyoda Ward, Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe, a member of Sayonara Genpatsu 1,000 mannin Action, appealed for more efforts to stop the first restart of any of the reactors.

“If an opportunity to restart the nuclear reactors is given at some point in six months or a year, it will be impossible to push back the momentum to the restarting of the nuclear plants,” he said.

After the rally, protesters marched nearby to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry office as well as the head office of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the devastated Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Mayuko Mizuno, an office worker, brought her 3-year-old daughter to the demonstrations.

“I am concerned about my daughter's future as I am afraid that the operation of the nuclear reactors will restart little by little,” said Mizuno, 39. 

She added, “I’d like to keep raising my voice (against the restart of the reactors).”

No nuclear reactors have been operating since the only reactor running at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture was taken offline Sept. 15 for routine inspections.

However, five electric power companies, including TEPCO, have applied to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for safety examinations required for restarting 14 of the 50 nuclear reactors. The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says it will approve restarts of the reactors that are deemed safe by the NRA.

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