'This Is A Ticking Time Bomb!' Michio Kaku cuts through the double-talk

[bananas]

Run time: 04:58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vBb3kN7zg8   Posted on YouTube: May 14, 2011 By YouTube Member: MOXNEWSd0tCOM Views on YouTube: 1282   Posted on DU: May 15, 2011 By DU Member: bananas Views on DU: 8135

 
May 13, 2011 CNN

[jerseyjack]

1. Worth the 5 mintues.

1. Effort is directed to saving the investment, not protecting lives.

[forty6]

2. This is very frightening. n/t

[Shining Jack]

3. Meh, radiations are harmless.

It's even good for you. I put some plutonium in my Cornflakes every morning. :sarcasm:

[leeroysphitz]

4. Yep, we mutated our way into this mess so I guess we'll just have to mutate our way back out. n/t

[chervilant]

5. Because of this disaster

people have died. People will continue to die--the brave workers involved now will likely die, the thousands of people who will contract cancer from this will die. And, their deaths will be a sweet release from the inevitable pain and suffering caused by this horrific disaster.

While I appreciate Kaku's extensive education and his expertise, I assert that thirty years is low-balling the time required to 'clean up' this mess.

[ooglymoogly]

8. No matter that people are dying, no matter the danger

The corporation and the government are still trying to salvage this piece of deadly junk at the cost of how many lives.

[chervilant]

13. And

how many hectares of now uninhabitable land and sea?

[bjobotts]

15. There is no cleaning up this mess... only covering up this mess to make it look clean

[gateley]

16. +1,000,000 nt

[Taft_Bathtub]

30. Which disaster?

The Fukushima nuclear plant disaster? No one has perished from it.

[chervilant]

33. Oh, really?

Crippled Japanese nuclear plant could take months to bring under control as officials confirm deaths of two engineers at complex

Read more here.


Deaths confirmed at Fukushima Daiichi

Read more here

(Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt...)

[drm604]

6. What a disaster.

This needs to be back in the news. It's ongoing and no one is reporting this.

[virgogal]

19. I agree----there is nothing concerning it anymore.

[Enthusiast]

7. As if the actual tsunami

was not bad enough. There are no known solutions for this disaster.

[defendandprotect]

12. Agree ---

but they have something like 18 nuclear reactors on the island --

and, evidently it takes something like a year to properly shut down these reactors

given the design of them.

They are all only built to withstand 7.0 earthquakes --

[Enthusiast]

14. My fear is one day Mt. Fuji

will go off causing problems with the reactors forcing the survivors to move to Kyushu and Hokkaido.

[roguevalley]

21. Bladerunner sprung to life. I could just cry.

[defendandprotect]

24. Well ....

Global Warming is increasing chaotic weather --

and EARTHQUAKES -- both the number of them and the intensity --

and earthquakes in turn generate more volcanic activity!!


:nuke:

[sulphurdunn]

9. There is no nuclear disaster

unfolding in Japan. If there was one, it would be on cable news 24/7. So, no news no problem. Now, go watch Dancing with the Stars.

[harvey007]

10. Yet President Obama thinks nukes are just fine

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/obamas-support-nuclear-industry-questioned/story?id=13158078

[gateley]

17. Sometimes I just want to shake him and holler "what is fucking wrong

with you???" How could somebody that smart be so stupid?? :grr:

[defendandprotect]

25. Let's see ... coluld it have something to do with corporate money?

One of my favorite things to think about is this comment by a woman

who was a native of the Bikini Islands as we moved to explode nuclear

weapon's tests on her island --

Here's what she said ....

"Americans are really smart about really stupid things" --


Capitalism is suicidal --

Nukes are suicidal -- so are the reactors --

but we are here because a few among us worship money --

[Myrina]

31. that, or ...

... how the hell do you stop massive international panic when there's no known solution to the problem?
Would it be better to have everyone "Chicken Little-ing" until the worst sets in, or better to go on "as normal" and then go "Oops, my bad" in "hindsight"?

I'd prefer to know up front how bad this motherf*er really is, but I can't answer for everyone else. Definitely wouldn't want to be the keeper of all of the information that POTUS (and other world leaders) are.

[defendandprotect]

32. Japan is now saying 6 to 9 more months of leaking radiation ---

a private company can't take responsibility for the health/welfare of a nation --

governments have to take this thing over.

And, imo, the faster they declare these things total disasters and try to bury them --

or find some way at least to STOP the leaks and radiation pouring out -- the better it

will be for everyone, everywhere!


Keep in mind they have 18 of these things on the island of Japan -- all built to

withstand only 7.0 earthquakes while seismic activity is increasing --

Global Warming is bringing more and more severe earthquakes due to melting of glaciers

and pressures on tectonic plates.


The Mayor of Fukushima wanted to close these plants down more than 5 years ago because

of their age and increasing seismic activity.

I have a link to that info if you want it --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=125x309897


:)

[defendandprotect]

11. Agree -- "A ticking time bomb!" ---

And, only governments can take responsibility for this -- corporations

cannot!!

Not only are corporations trying to protect themselves, governments are trying

to protect corporate profits -- but also MIC profits in the national security

state --

These nuclear reactors were invented to protect against "Ban the Bomb!" campaigns --

a lie of atomic power as being useful - friendly!


So far, $300 billion in damages to Japan -- and what are the lives of the people worth --

What's the Pacific Ocean worth? Our air, water, food, ground soil, below ground water?

There is no dollar bill which can replace food, or water, animal-life -- oceans!!


As I recall it, Japan has THREE areas of nuclear reactor sites -- with a total of about 18.

ALL built to withstand only 7.0 earthquakes -- while Japan's scientists know that the

seismic activity is only increasing -- this earthquake was 9.0 or more -- with 350 or more

aftershocks all in fairly high numbers!


US nuclear reactors take something like 6 months to properly shut down --

Evidently, these reactors in Japan require something like 1 year to properly shut down!!

They should begin doing it now -- and we should all be doing the same!!


And we need to turn Obama around from any support for the nuclear industry here in US --

he's been working giving loans to the nuclear industry for a new generation of nuclear reactors

in US!! Yikes!!


Some of our reactors in US are built on "faults" --

In Ohio, there are two nuclear reactors built on Lake Erie -- a source of drinking water!!!

How nuts are we?

And why isn't everyone here asking the same thing?

[barbtries]

18. thank you for posting

i was happy to see it had been on cnn.

[DeSwiss]

20. K&R n/t

[izquierdista]

22. Worried about milk?

If you are concerned, you may want to switch to the super-pasturized stuff that comes in boxes and has a LONG shelf life. By letting it sit on the shelf for several weeks, you can be SURE that any I-131 in the food chain has had time to decay. It's not as common here as in the EU, but here is one supplier: http://www.gossner.com/home/gossner/admin.php?do=ipage&pageid=3&mid=2

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Better choice at this point

Soy Milk, almond milk rice milk, if you can find POWDERED that was produced BEFORE the accident.

Once we run out of the shelf stable we are no longer drinking milk... it is not just iodine... will take six weeks to degrade to xenon, but also cesium and strontium which have a MUCH LONGER half life

[MrMickeysMom]

26. Instant image of what management has been - Homer Simpson!

Of course, you get this picture right away when regardless of how hard working and dedicated the WORKERS have been.... the management!

30 years to clean up this, and hope like Hell they don't have another earthquake.... Jesus.

[LAGC]

27. .

self-delete

[Roci]

28. It"s high time

People with more than a few IQ points began speaking out on this problem. Most of the news media are well-intentioned, but for the most part they are technically underinformed, and have no basis in science for most of their pronouncements.
Dr. Kaku is precisely correct. This is a much greater problem in terms of magnitude the Gulf oil spill ever was. Left unchecked, as is its current condition, 30 years (or more precisely, 27.79 years-the half-life of Strontium 90) is at best a generous estimate as to when the problem might reach some phase of resolution. The world needs very badly to awaken to the prospect that for the first time since Chernobyl, we have what might be a generational problem here on planet Earth.

The resources mobilized thus far have been admirable, as have the efforts of countless brave and sacrificing workers at Fukushima. But the political machinations that have accompanied these brave and unstinting efforts are something else.

The current government of Japan has come to a point where it has decided to protect its own image and investment in corporate well-being rather than the well-being of its population.

I wish to stress from my perspective this is not now and should never be a political issue of any shade. It is time to stop thinking in limited political terms of the life of any government, or any political party.

Japan is one of the most densely populated countries on the face of the earth. It is also one of the most dependent upon nuclear power. I do not propose to debate herein the wisdom of that choice. Now, the only thing that remains is the only thing which must be tantamount in the thinking of scientists, politicians,political parties, and governments.

The tantamount concern must be the welfare of not only the population of Japan, but the population of the planet Earth.

We have already seen trace amounts of radioactive fallout reaching far places on this globe from its point of origin, which has been proven to be Fukushima.

It is therefore no longer a question of this problem being purely a Japanese domestic and political matter. As with Chernobyl, the incident has, and will continue to bear international consequences. These consequences must be met not by one nation, nor by one people. They must be met, dealt with, and resolved by the entire people of the planet Earth.

The media, and the population which they inform must undertake new and different ways of thinking, perception, and coping with the disastrous events which continue to unfold by the hour in Japan.

It is ironic that for most of its early history, Japan was isolated by her culture, and by her oceans. Now, that same isolation seems to play somewhat in reverse, as people of other nations who do not wish to confront the ongoing problem in Japan use the remoteness and distance from the home islands to distance themselves from a problem which will eventually knock on their own front doors, as surely as the wind and the rain which flow from the oceans that seem to insulate non-caring people from a problem which all of us must face sooner or later.


It is just a question of time.

for all the people of planet Earth.

[snagglepuss]

29. It has been since the start incompressible that the UN has not convened a

scientific panel of international experts to monitor if not direct the response. It is incompressible that neighboring countries at the very least are not demanding a say in the response. Utterly absurd that TEPCO gets to control all aspects of the response and dissemination of information.



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