Posts
3/13/16
Arnie Gunderson Faire Winds Update:
Yannis Varoufakis European Economics
Brook Hines Report / Interview
Jacob Applebaum (Privacy & Encryption)
Eminem Dilek Editor/Publisher and Investigator Reporter
of TheProgressivePress.NET & Their FaceBook Site
of TheProgressivePress.NET & Their FaceBook Site
1. 5 YR Anniversary
NaturalNews) Cleanup crews trying to mitigate Japan's never-ending radiation crisis at Fukushima ran into more problems recently after sensors monitoring a drainage gutter detected a huge spike in radiation levels from wastewater pouring into the Pacific Ocean.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels were up to 70 times, or 7,000 percent, higher than normal, prompting an immediate shutdown of the drainage instrument. The first readings came around 10 a.m. local time on February 22, setting off alarms not once but twice as radiation levels spiked to extremely high levels.
"The levels of beta ray-emitting substances, such as strontium-90, measured 5,050 to 7,230 becquerels per liter of water between 10:20 a.m. and 10:50 a.m.," reported The Japan Times. "TEPCO requires radioactivity levels of groundwater at the plant discharged into the sea to remain below 5 becquerels."
2. TEPCO shut off leaky gutter, but radiation continued to spike throughout day
The gutter was quickly decommissioned to prevent further radiation emissions, but the leaks reportedly continued throughout the day, with radiation levels hovering between 10 and 20 times higher than normal. TEPCO says it doesn't know what caused the sudden radiation spikes.
"With emergency surveys of the plant and monitoring of other sensors, we have no reason to believe tanks storing radioactive waste water have leaked," stated a plant official to the media. "We have shut the gutter [from pouring water to the bay]. We are currently monitoring the sensors at the gutter and seeing the trend."
3. Multiple major leaks reported as Fukushima generates 400 tons of new radioactive waste daily
Just four days prior to the leak, the International Atomic Energy Agency congratulated TEPCO for its continued cleanup efforts at the Fukushima site. This is despite numerous other radiation leaks, some of them quite major, that have occurred in recent months at the shuttered facility.
Back in October 2013, for instance, a failed transfer of radioactive wastewater from one storage tank to another resulted in more than four tons of highly contaminated sludge being dumped into the ground. Not long before this, 300 tons of radioactive waste reportedly leaked from another nearby storage tank.
As we reported earlier in the month, a worker actually died after falling into a radioactive storage tank during a routine inspection. The 33-foot container that swallowed the man is one of many at the site that holds a portion of the 400 tons of highly radioactive water generated daily at Fukushima.
4. Fukushima workers build one new storage tank daily, but this can't go on forever
The Japan News reports that large storage tanks capable of holding up to 2,900 tons of contaminated water are constantly being built at the site, up to one new tank daily, in fact. At some point, though, other mitigatory measures will have to be implemented, as there's only so much space available to build more tanks.
According to The Ecologist, the Reactor 3 fuel storage pond also still contains upwards of 89 metric tons of plutonium-based, mixed-oxide fuel that, should the pond leak or dry up, could result in another major reactor meltdown. Reactor 3, as you may recall, experienced a full meltdown back in 2011 that resulted in the reactor core falling through the floor to the bottom of the containment vessel.
The chart at the following link, which was put together just days after the tsunami and earthquake hit Fukushima, provides a visual breakdown of radiation exposures from various sources. It can be used to quantify the threat associated with each respective leak:
5. Fracking
John,
Congratulations to all who worked so hard! I wanted to alert you to a disturbing issue. Cholla Petroleum, I learned is days away from starting their seismic testing in Calhoun and Gulf Counties. They were challenged but apparently it did no good. Cholla is a fracking company out of Texas. They will be drilling and blasting across the Dead Lakes and very close to the fragile Apalachicola and Chipola rivers. Gulf County passed a resolution but Calhoun refused, as they have close ties to the Neal Timber Company that owns most of the land in that area. Charles Foster has been fighting there, making calls and contacting people and is desperate for our help! This may be our first area to be fracked if they find oil or gas! This is the reason Bay County passed their ban, but all are in danger if fracking happens in the panhandle! Any help or ideas to stop this company would be appreciated. Charles can be contacted atfostercharles96@gmail.com. Or feel free to contact me, as I am willing to go up to Calhoun county to try anything!
Candice Burgess
6. FRONT LINE GROUPS REACT TO COAST GUARD DECISION TO DEREGULATE FRACKING WASTE SHIPMENTS ON NATION’S WATERWAYS
On February 22, front line community groups throughout the Ohio River valley received notification that the U.S. Coast Guard has determined that no new rules are needed to barge shipments of toxic, radioactive hydraulic fracturing waste. The Coast Guard instead decided to proceed using 40-year-old regulations that fail to address unconventional oil field waste from hydraulic fracturing.
Fracking wastes contain such toxic chemicals as benzene and are laced with radioactive materials like water soluble radium-226, which is linked to leukemia and bone cancers. The Coast Guard will instead allow shipment of waste fluids from hydraulic fracturing to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
The proposal being considered by the Coast Guard would have required new rules and guidelines to transport highly flammable, explosive hazardous waste on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to currently undisclosed locations.
Members of frontline organizations living along the Ohio River in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois have been voicing opposition concerns for several years about the Coast Guard allowing barges carrying 5 million gallons of liquid fracking wastes each to sail without procedures in place to address the hazards.
“We cannot allow the shipment of toxic, radioactive fracking waste fluid on our nation’s drinking waste sources. The risk to public health and safety is too high,” said Teresa Mills of the Buckeye Forest Council, based in Athens, Ohio. “It is not safe even on a case-by-case basis as is now being propose by the Coast Guard. This is not the waste stream from your 60 year old mom and pop wells. The industry will not tell us what is in this waste, and that is just plain wrong.”
Organizer Leatra Harper from Fresh Water Accountability Project of Grand Rapids, Ohio expressed “dismay and disbelief that the coast Guard would enable the unnecessary risk of floating toxic and radioactive frack waste on the Ohio River. This is purely to enhance corporate profits and is another way the fracking industry has found to cut costs at public risk.” She continued, “Even more suspect and reprehensible is that any test results obtained by the Coast Guard for hazardous chemicals and water-soluble radium in these shipments will not be shared with the public. Once again with fracking and its waste, the public is not allowed to know to what toxins and in what amounts they are being exposed.”
“As a resident of the lower Ohio River Valley, and as a staff member for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, I am appalled that the Coast Guard would disregard nearly 70,000 comments from citizens and experts who opposed the plan to bring potential catastrophe associated with the barging of toxic and radioactive frack waste on our river,” observed Robin Blakeman. “The city of Huntington, of which I am a resident, is entirely dependent for its tap water from the Ohio River. Our water company is not prepared for such pollutants as may come from frack waste barges. There are numerous water systems along the river's course that are similarly at risk if major leaks, explosions, or spills occur in the process of loading, unloading and shipping these barges. This is definitely not the same kind of waste as has been shipped for 4 decades from more conventional gas drilling operations. It seems the Coast Guard has abdicated their responsibility for regulation and oversight of highly toxic substances with this decision.”
“Some groups have voiced concern about the lack of expertise and current federal loopholes pertaining to the hydraulic fracturing industry which eliminate the ‘Right to Know’ and chemical disclosure and fail to protect workers and citizens downstream.” commented Tabitha Tripp, Chair of Heartwood from Indiana. “The lack of oversight and regulation of shipments containing radioactive hydraulic fracturing waste should be a concern to all those living downstream of barge operations who will be handling this industrial waste.”
Terry Lodge, a Toledo attorney for the Fresh Water Accountability Project, was blunt, “This is disastrous. The Coast Guard proposes to regulate shipment by shipment, and they will do no such thing. They have very limited scientific staff, the lab testing of cargoes will not become Coast Guard records (if they do testing at all), and the information will remain the proprietary property of the shipper. The Coast Guard backed down and accepted an alternate means of classifying the shipments based on an oil and gas waste cargo definition that was implemented decades before horizontal hydraulic fracking was invented.”
“The public fought the Coast Guard’s proposed blanket approval of the barging of toxic and radioactive frack waste on the nation’s rivers, resulting in a withdrawal of the policy. But the struggle to keep this hazardous waste out of our water and off our waterways is far from over because the Coast Guard will now consider individual applications, making it very difficult to stop and essential that the fight continues,” said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
The groups urge citizens to contact their state and federal elected representatives to demand that our rivers and drinking water are protected from being exposed to hazardous and toxic waste from hydraulic fracturing.
7. NEW DOE RULES ON CLASSIFIED HUMAN SUBJECT RESEARCH
The Department of Energy last month issued new guidance on the conduct of classified scientific research involving human subjects.
While all human subject research is governed by federal regulations, the new DOE policy imposes several additional requirements whenever such research is to be performed on a classified basis.
For example, the proposed classified research must be reviewed and approved in advance by an Institutional Review Board, and the Board must include a non-scientist member and a member who is not a governmental employee (though he or she must hold a security clearance for this purpose). Also, the normal requirement for informed consent by the human subject cannot be waived.
See Protection of Human Subjects in Classified Research, DOE Notice N 443.1, approved January 21, 2016.
The nature of any such classified human subject research was not described. Speculatively, it might include certain types of research related to polygraph testing or other deception detection techniques. In the past, the Atomic Energy Commission notoriously carried out radiation experiments on unwitting human subjects, and the Central Intelligence Agency conducted behavior modification experiments involving drugs and other stimuli.
It seems that DOE today does little classified human subject research at its own initiative. Rather, "Almost all of the classified [DOE] human subjects research is done on behalf of other Federal sponsors under full cost recovery," according to a related 2015 DOE memorandum.
The new DOE guidance was prepared after Department attorneys determined last year that a 1997 policy issued by President Bill Clinton was still in effect and applicable to DOE and its contractors. See Strengthened Protections for Human Subjects of Classified Research, March 27, 1997.
Department of Defense policy on classified research involving human subjects is set forth in Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD-Supported Research, DoD Instruction 3216.02, November 8, 2011.
Of possible related interest, the National Declassification Center announced today that 37 cubic feet of classified subject files from the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) had been declassified and made available to researchers.
8. Appendix M the Torture Loop Hole
sleep deprivation (OK) + other sensory “techniques”
Activists want to see the entire 10 page section “M” removed from the Army Manual
Human Rights First Activist - yet Trump wants to bring back the “Big T”
Interrogator explain the information received is unreliable - www.HumanRightsFirst.org
9. Leaking Turkey
in Florida, the Turkey Point nuclear power station appears to be leaking radiation into the waters off the coast of Miami. A recent study by scientists at the University of Miami found tritium levels up to 215 times higher than normal in the water of the Biscayne Bay. Tritium is a radioactive isotope produced by nuclear reactors. The site’s cooling canals, which are the part of the facility that appear to be leaking the radiation, are currently permitted to operate at 104 degrees—the hottest in the nation.
10. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is facing a new round of questions about her handling of the 2009 coup in Honduras that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Since the coup, Honduras has become one of the most violent places in the world. Last week, indigenous environmental activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated in her home. In an interview two years ago, Cáceres singled out Clinton for her role supporting the coup. "We’re coming out of a coup that we can’t put behind us. We can’t reverse it," Cáceres said. "It just kept going. And after, there was the issue of the elections. The same Hillary Clinton, in her book, 'Hard Choices,' practically said what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates the meddling of North Americans in our country. The return of the president, Mel Zelaya, became a secondary issue. There were going to be elections in Honduras. And here she [Clinton] recognized that they didn’t permit Mel Zelaya’s return to the presidency." We play this rarely seen clip of Cáceres and speak to historian Greg Grandin.
11. Documents Show Obama Lobbied Strongly Against Transparency Reform
By Mario Trujillo, The Hill
11 March 16
The Obama administration strongly opposed a bill to overhaul the government's open-records laws and lobbied behind the scenes to prevent it from getting to the president's desk last Congress, according to emails and talking points obtained by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The records include a particularly revealing set of 2014 talking points used by the Department of Justice that raised about a dozen major and minor objections to the broadly supported legislation. The document says the changes in the bill are "not necessary" and would "undermine" the success of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
"The Administration views [the bill] as an attempt to impose on the Executive Branch multiple administrative requirements concerning its internal management of FOIA administration, which are not appropriate for legislative intervention and would substantially increase costs and cause delays in FOIA processing," according to the opening paragraph of the talking points.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation obtained the documents through a FOIA lawsuit. It first shared them with Vice News, which has reported extensively using open records. The Justice Department told Vice it is not uncommon for the department to share the "potential unintended consequences" of legislation.
The House and Senate passed slightly different versions of the legislation, but despite late scrambling, the two bills were never merged and died when the last legislative session ended.
This Congress, both chambers acted quickly to move their respective FOIA reform bills out of committee. And the House passed its version earlier this year. The Senate Judiciary Committee acted quickly last year to advance its proposal, but it had not received floor time in the ensuing year.
The White House has been publicly mum on the reform bills. When the House bill passed this January, the White House simply said it would "take a close look at this legislation." Other agencies have also lobbied against the bill.
The documents released Wednesday show that GOP leadership last March "hotlined" its FOIA bill, meaning it looked to move the legislation through unanimous consent unless there were objections. But Sen. Jeff Sessions put a hold on the legislation, according to an email from a Sessions aide to the Justice Department.
Sessions's office did not respond to a request for comment about the bill.
The largest piece of the FOIA reform legislation would codify a so-called presumption of openness, which requires federal agencies and other parts of the government to adopt a policy that leans toward the public release of documents. President Obama instructed agencies to adopt a similar model when he first entered office. But critics say agencies have not lived up to that promise.
Under the legislation, agencies would have to point to a specific "foreseeable harm" when withholding documents unless disclosing them is specifically barred by law. The legislation would do a number of other things, including creating a single FOIA request portal for all agencies and limiting the amount of time that certain documents are exempt from disclosure. The bill would also make more documents available online.
In the 2014 talking points, the Justice Department raised four "major concerns" with the legislation. Among them were the "foreseeable harm" proposal.
"The bill effectively amends each and every one of the existing exemptions in a manner that is fatally vague and subjective. This addition would vastly increase FOIA litigation and would undermine the policy behind each of the existing exemptions," according to a section of the talking points criticizing the foreseeable harm provision.
Other major objections centered on the creation of a single FOIA request website and the bill's requirement that agencies do a comprehensive review of existing records to see if they should be proactively released.
PNN - RADIOACTIVE PRIVACY
News Director Rick Spisak and Associate Producer Brook Hines bring you another in our series of SHOWS about the Twin Threats of RADIATION and uncontrolled Nuclear Power Plant pollution and the Constitutional Threats to Privacy by one administration after another. We have seen more prosecutions of WHISTLEBLOWERS by the Obama Administration that by all past presidents in American History and ironic legacy for an Administration that had promised the most transparent political processes ever seen.
We will hear a special report on the TRUMP SPEECH DISRUPTION by Progressive News Publisher and Investigative Reporter Emine Dilek.
We also will hear a speech by Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gunderson of Faire Winds.
International Privacy Advocate Jacob Applebaum will speak on the issue of censorship and privacy for cyber-citizens.
Yannis Varoufakis will address the deeper problems of the both the European & Greek Economics.
We will also here a brief piece on the fallacy of the very minimal impact of what has been called "MetaData" & the American Revolution
TUNE IN LIVE Sunday 7pm Eastern / 4pm Mountain Time
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