Japan’s nuclear industry is a black hole of criminal corruption.
When asked what were the major differences between the yakuza and TEPCO the same Senator paused for a minute. “The primary difference between TEPCO and the yakuza is they have different corporate logos.” He explained, “They both are essentially criminal organizations that place profits above the safety and welfare of the residents where they operate; they both exploit their workers
The Yakuza and the Nuclear Mafia: Nationalization Looms for TEPCO Atlantic Wire, JAKE ADELSTEIN, 31 Dec 11, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the monolithic corporation that controls all electric power in Greater Tokyo, and runs the Fukushima Daichii nuclear plant that experienced a triple meltdown following the March 11 earthquake, is on the brink of nationalization according to Japanese government sources.
The official reason is that the firm may not be able to handle the massive compensation payments it owes to victims of the meltdown without going bankrupt.
Unofficially, the firm has such long-standing ties to anti-social forces, including the yakuza—that some members of the Diet, Japan’s national legislature, feel the firm is beyond salvation and needs to be taken over and cleaned up. A Japanese Senator with the Liberal Democratic Party stated on background, “TEPCO’s involvement with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security issue. It is one reason that increasingly in the Diet we are talking de facto nationalization of the company. Nuclear energy shouldn’t be in the hands of the yakuza. They’re gamblers and an intelligent person doesn’t want them to have atomic dice to play with.”
In June we reported that yakuza were working at the Fukushima nuclear power plant as cleanup crews and manual labor, but the post-meltdown yakuza ties were only the tip of the iceberg. This month, a new book was published, Yakuza and The Nuclear Industry: Diary of An Undercover Reporter Working at the Fukushima Plant (ヤクザと原発-福島第一潜入記-鈴木-智彦) in which a former yakuza fan magazine editor Tomohiko Suzuki reports on the nuclear business-industrial-political and media complex in Japan known as the “nuclear mafia” and Japan’s actual mafia: the yakuza. The book is already generating controversy and renewed examination of Japan’s “dark empire” and its ties to the underworld. It presents more solid pieces of evidence that Japan’s nuclear industry is a black hole of criminal malfeasance, incompetence, and corruption. Continue reading
Tepco’s history of crookedness culminated in Fukushima nuclear disaster
The containment vessel was never designed to withstand an earthquake. Reactor one is 40 years old, it should have been shut down ten years ago. What was the Japanese government thinking when they gave them firm permission to extend the reactor life for another ten years? And that TEPCO had the audacity to ask, should tell you how close their ties are to the Japanese government.”
TEPCO: Will Someone Turn Off the Lights?JAKE ADELSTEIN AND STEPHANIE NAKAJIMA JUN 28, 2011 “……..The meltdown began on March 11, the day a 9.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Japan. For the first day, TEPCO strongly denied any problems at the plant but by March 12, reactor one had already melted down. Each subsequent day brings more news of radiation leaking from the plant and mistakes, cover-ups, and corporate malfeasance by TEPCO. Slowly voices within and outside the Japanese government are beginning to suggest that it’s time to dismantle the company and put their nuclear plants under government supervision; books highly critical of the firmare becoming best sellers.
TEPCO has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the nation of Japan: cronyism, collusion, gentrification, corruption, weak regulation, and entropy. Despite being in the spotlight for the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, TEPCO continues to engage in questionable labor practices, and has escaped bankruptcy in closed-door meetings with politicians, and through denying culpability has shifted part of the reparations burden onto taxpayers – deeds which testify to the extent to which TEPCO still has plenty of political power, if not as much nuclear power…… Continue reading
UK government’s secret decisions on nuclear warheads
the debate remains stifled. Trident was excluded from last year’s strategic defence and security review. As part of the coalition agreement, the Lib Dems were offered a Trident “value for money” review. It is little more than a fig leaf…..
Britain, meanwhile, is also collaborating with the US on plans to replace nuclear warhead components.
How many ministers are questioning the plan to replace Trident? Guardian UK, Richard Norton-Taylor, 31 Dec 11, Two-thirds of Thatcher’s cabinet were reportedly against buying Trident. Thirty years on, debate about its replacement is stifled. In 1981, two-thirds of the cabinet were opposed to Britain buying the US Trident nuclear missile system, according to the defence secretary at the time, John Nott.
The prime minister went ahead anyway, without any proper debate.
Disclosures in hitherto secret papers released at the National Archives under the 30-year rule are extraordinarily pertinent now. Continue reading
Ugly corporate tactics to get rid of safety conscious nuclear regulator Jaczko
What’s unfolding at the NRC is a textbook example of a little-discussed corporate tactic that is employed against public officials in extreme situations.
Do what industry wants, and benefit both professionally and personally. But when carrots aren’t enough, corporations have sticks to swing, too.
“This is the ugly underbelly of large corporate lobbying,”
Nuclear Power Play: Ambition, Betrayal And The ‘Ugly Underbelly’ Of Energy Regulation Huffington Post, by Ryan Grim, 30 Dec 11WASHINGTON — A feud at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where five presidentially appointed commissioners oversee the safety of the nation’s nuclear power reactors, has broken out into full public view, with Chairman Gregory 
Jaczko’s fellow commissioners assailing his character and management style, both in a letter made public earlier this month and in the resulting testimony before Congress.
Republicans have begun calling for Jaczko’s ouster. Continue reading
Secrecy as Canada transports weapons grade uranium to USA
Canada shipping bomb-grade uranium to U.S.: memo Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press, 27 Dec 11 MONTREAL — Weapons-grade uranium is quietly being transported within Canada, and into the United States, in shipments the country’s nuclear watchdog wants to keep cloaked in secrecy. Continue reading
Australian Senator taking up the cause for Julian Assange’s human rights
Senator on mission for Assange Andrew Drummond The Age, December 26, 2011 SWEDISH officials have met an Australian senator to discuss the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. As extradition proceedings against the 40-year-old Australian continue in London, West Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam has embarked on a European mission to secure guarantees about Assange’s human rights, should he be extradited to Sweden.
Swedish prosecutors want Assange in Stockholm for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women in the capital in August 2010. Assange denies the claims and is refusing to return to Sweden, fearing that the country will hand him over to the United States, where his secret-leaking website is the subject of an investigation. During the time he spent in Sweden, Senator Ludlam met justice officials and discussed the process faced by people being
extradited to Sweden…..Assange still wore an electronic tracking device and had to report daily to police as part of his bail conditions.
From February 1, Assange will face a panel of seven British Supreme Court judges for a two-day hearing during which he will appeal against the rulings of lower courts that he should be extradited to Stockholm. Senator Ludlam plans to take the information he has gathered in
Stockholm to the Australian Parliament and seek cross-party support to do ”everything possible to prevent this extradition”. http://www.theage.com.au/national/senator-on-mission-for-assange-20111225-1p9ko.html#ixzz1hgmWKON5
Japan’s coverup of public health risk from radioactive fallout
Public health fallout from Japanese quake, CMAJ, Lauren Vogel, 22 Dec 11, A “culture of coverup” and inadequate cleanup efforts have combined to leave Japanese people exposed to “unconscionable” health risks nine months after last year’s meltdown of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, health experts say.
Although the Japanese government has declared the plant virtually stable, some experts are calling for evacuation of people from a wider area, which they say is contaminated with radioactive fallout.
They’re also calling for the Japanese government to reinstate internationally-approved radiation exposure limits for members of the public and are slagging government officials for “extreme lack of transparent, timely and comprehensive communication.” Continue reading
Cover-up of irradiated workers at Israeli nuclear plant
Dan Litai’s testimony came during a court hearing Dec. 12 in a case meant to determine whether former employees of the institute, located in southern Israel, should be recognized as the victims of work-related accidents after they were diagnosed with cancer.
Litai, who served as a radiation safety engineer at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, claimed that until the late 1990s there was no department tasked with calculating and assessing the levels of internal radiation contamination, only external contamination.
Last week, the court heard the testimony of Thelma Byrne, who headed the radiation safety department at the Soreq center.
“I worked with materials whose nature was unknown. They didn’t tell us what we were exposed to,” she said, adding that the cancer victims could have been spared if they would have undergone preventive radiation exposure tests, but such tests were not given.
The damages suit was submitted by 44 employees of the Dimona-based reactor and the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in the mid-1990s. Some of the plaintiff have since died. — ynetnews.com http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/63739/expert-claims-nuclear-plant-cover-up/
USA crashed drone was spying on Iran’s nuclear sites
Crashed drone was looking at Iran nuclear sites CNN By Tim Lister, with reporting by Kathleen Johnston and Pam Benson, 15 Dec 11 The Sentinel drone that crashed in Iran last week was on a surveillance mission of suspected nuclear sites in the country, U.S. military officials tell CNN.
Previously, U.S. and NATO officials had said the drone was on a mission to patrol the Afghan-Iran border and had veered off course. Continue reading
USA nuclear lobby aims to oust Gregory Jaczko, safety conscious head of Nuclear Regulatory Commission
it’s also clear that the nuclear industry is using the conflict to attempt to neutralize or remove Jaczko from the NRC, where he has been a consistent advocate for tighter safety controls
Commissioner William Magwood, who is leading the charge against Jaczko, has deep [nuclear] industry ties. His appointment was opposed by over 100 watchdog groups for that reason. Notably, Magwood did consulting work for Tepco—the company that runs the Fukushima plant.
Action and dysfunction in the Beltway swamp. Republicans Intensify Attacks on the Nuclear Safety Chief The Nation George Zornick on December 14, 2011 If there was any doubt that an imbroglio around the leadership of Gregory Jaczko, [at left] chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, would be used to try to force his ouster from that agency, a Wednesday
hearing before a House panel removed it.
All five members of the NRC appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is chaired by Representative Darrell Issa. Four commissioners publicly aired their grievances about Jaczko’s leadership, which include charges of bullying and intimidation of staff, along with refusing to share information with fellow commissioners.
Jaczko said he did nothing wrong, and cited a report from the NRC inspector general clearing him of legal wrongdoing when it came to sharing information among his colleagues. But Republicans went directly for the jugular. Continue reading
Secrecy caused delay in dealing with Fukushima nuclear disaster
Secret Weapons Program Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant? U.S.-Japan security treaty fatally delayed nuclear workers’ fight against meltdown Global Research, 12/4/11 by Yoichi Shimatsu “….Death of Deterrence …. in 2009, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a muted warning on Japan’s heightened drive for a nuclear bomb— and promptly did nothing. The White House has to turn a blind eye to the radiation streaming through American skies or risk exposure of a blatant double standard on nuclear proliferation by an ally. Besides, Washington’s quiet approval for a Japanese bomb doesn’t quite sit well with the memory of either Pearl Harbor or Hiroshima.
In and of itself, a nuclear deterrence capability would be neither objectionable nor illegal— in the unlikely event that the majority of Japanese voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to Article 9. Legalized possession would require safety inspections, strict controls and transparency of the sort that could have hastened the Fukushima emergency response. Covert weapons development, in contrast, is rife with problems. In the event of an emergency, like the one happening at this moment, secrecy must be enforced at all cost— even if it means countless more hibakusha, or nuclear victims.
Instead of enabling a regional deterrence system and a return to great-power status, the Manchurian deal planted the time bombs now spewing radiation around the world. The nihilism at the heart of this nuclear threat to humanity lies not inside Fukushima 1, but within the national security mindset. The specter of self-destruction can be ended only with the abrogation of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, the root cause of the secrecy that fatally delayed the nuclear workers’ fight against meltdown. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24275
Secrecy in Fukushima reports raise possibility of hidden nuclear weapons program
Secret Weapons Program Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant? U.S.-Japan security treaty fatally delayed nuclear workers’ fight against meltdown Global Research, 12/4/11 by Yoichi Shimatsu Confused and often conflicting reports out of Fukushima 1 nuclear plant cannot be solely the result of tsunami-caused breakdowns, bungling or miscommunication. Inexplicable delays and half-baked explanations from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) seem to be driven by some unspoken factor.
The smoke and mirrors at Fukushima 1 seem to obscure a steady purpose, an iron will and a grim task unknown to outsiders. The most logical explanation: The nuclear industry and government agencies are scrambling to prevent the discovery of atomic-bomb research facilities hidden inside Japan’s civilian nuclear power plants.
A secret nuclear weapons program is a ghost in the machine, detectable only when the system of information control momentarily lapses or breaks down. A close look must be taken at the gap between the official account and unexpected events.
Conflicting Reports TEPCO, Japan’s nuclear power operator, initially reported three reactors were operating at the time of the March 11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Then a hydrogen explosion ripped Unit 3, run on plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (or MOX). Unit 6 immediately disappeared from the list of operational reactors, as highly lethal particles of plutonium billowed out of Unit 3. Plutonium is the stuff of smaller, more easily delivered warheads.
A fire ignited inside the damaged housing of the Unit 4 reactor, reportedly due to overheating of spent uranium fuel rods in a dry cooling pool. But the size of the fire indicates that this reactor was running hot for some purpose other than electricity generation. Its omission from the list of electricity-generating operations raises the question of whether Unit 4 was being used to enrich uranium, the first step of the process leading to extraction of weapons-grade fissionable material.
The bloom of irradiated seawater across the Pacific comprises another piece of the puzzle, because its underground source is untraceable (or, perhaps, unmentionable). The flooded labyrinth of pipes, where the bodies of two missing nuclear workers—never before disclosed to the press— were found, could well contain the answer to the mystery: a lab that none dare name.
Political Warfare In reaction to Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s demand for prompt reporting of problems, the pro-nuclear lobby has closed ranks, fencing off and freezing out the prime minister’s office from vital information. A grand alliance of nuclear proponents now includes TEPCO, plant designer General Electric, METI, the former ruling Liberal Democratic Party and, by all signs, the White House.
Cabinet ministers in charge of communication and national emergencies recently lambasted METI head Banri Kaeda for acting as both nuclear promoter and regulator in charge of the now-muzzled Nuclear and Industrial Safety Commission. ….
The Manchurian Deal The chain of events behind this vast fabrication goes back many decades……. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24275
Nuclear sabotage likely, as Iran suffers third explosion
Third explosion fuels talk of nuclear sabotage, N.Z. Herald, By Abraham Rabinovich Dec 14, 2011 Another mysterious explosion in Iran this week, the third in a month, has stirred speculation that a mysterious hand was once again striking at Iran’s nuclear programme.
The blast on Sunday occurred at a steel plant in the city of Yazd, killing seven people and seriously wounding 12 others. A number of the victims were foreigners, according to Iranian officials….
Ron Ben-Ishai, an Israeli military analyst, wrote yesterday in the newspaper Yediot Achronot that the explosion might have been a simple accident, but in view of the other recent explosions “it is hard toreject the possibility that this was intentional sabotage”.
Ben-Ishai noted that Sunday’s blast had happened at a time not usually considered a work hour and that the mention of foreigners among the dead could have been a reference to North Korean experts who had come to train Iranians in processing the steel.
Ben-Ishai suggested that sophisticated American unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as the one which fell into Iranian hands last week, might be closely tracking all aspects of the Iranian nuclear programme, including this.
A huge explosion at a missile testing base near Tehran on November 12 killed 17 people, including the general heading Iran’s missile
programme….http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10773027
Disappearance of secret files on Australia’s nuclear weapons plans
Treasures of Australia’s past lost from the National Archives by:Herald Sun Patrick Lion From:The Daily Telegraph December 13, 2011 HUNDREDS of rare files – including secret plans for nuclear weapons and personal files of prime ministers – have gone missing from the library responsible for preserving Australia’s history.
Over the past two decades the National Archives has lost at least 748 historic items, some dating back more than 150 years, from its official collection of documents, government files, letters, recordings and photographs.
Among the missing files on nuclear weapons and uranium from the middle of last century is a 1956 report, The Clandestine Introduction Of Nuclear Weapons In Australia…… http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/treasures-of-australias-past-lost-rare-items-missing-from-the-national-archives/story-fn7x8me2-1226220439496
Four radioactively contaminated Minstry of Defence sites in Scotland
the MoD had offered the site to the Scottish Government for £1. The offer was refused, largely because of serious impediments related to the site, all of which had significant
financial implications.
The MoD is institutionally incapable of transparency for security reasons – but that has invaded its corporate culture and it is now constitutionally incapable of honesty..
Four new MoD sites identified with radiation contamination – including Machrihanis ForArgyll.com, December 12, 2011 Four new sites in Scotland – all owned by the Ministry of Defence, have been identified as radiation contaminated, with an immediate call from MSPs for urgent action to ensure public safety. Continue reading
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
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