11.18.2013

Radioactive Pacific Tuna, Fuel Rod Armageddon, Global Contamination and TEPCO's Profits


TEPCO workers began removing the radioactive fuel rods from the roof top of Building 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant today. This highly dangerous and technically near impossible operation could release 14,000 times as much radiation as the two atomic bombs combined if it goes wrong, and that's the good news.

The bad news is ALL bluefin tuna caught in California that have been tested are radioactive with the signature isotopes from the Fukushima reactors. Do NOT eat Pacific tuna! Tuna are top predators in the ocean food web. They bio-accumulate the toxins [radioactive or not] that their prey contain, and theirs, and theirs, etc.

And the hits just keep on comin'. The even badder news is that radioactive water, like all water evaporates, and just like all other 'acid rains' it drops on to the ocean's surfaces and farmlands globally. What scientists are measuring now is cow's milk. Why? It's the ultimate in the food chain. The radioactive acid rain falls on the fields (corn, wheat, hay), gets harvested and fed to livestock. Look for this type of bio-accumulation multiplier to start making headlines soon.

None of this is bad news for TEPCO's shareholders and bondholders who continue to enjoy the rewards from the profits [net profit of $6.2 billion for the first half of 2013] as they have for decades.

Tokyo Electric Power Company's, shareholders and bondholders know that their past ill-gotten gains are protected by limited liability laws and the corporate charter. After putting profits  before the public good for decades TEPCO, who Nancy Snow of the Asia Times calls, "the most hated Godzilla among Japan's infamous nuclear village industries", can continue this Kabuki theater while its owners enjoy the legal protections of carnival capitalism and we experience the effects of the old plumber's rule about shit always flowing downhill.