Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 - 1716)

Thursday Morning EDT/
Thursday Evening Japan Time
Japan Disaster Update

With an Assist From the Words of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 


"I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity being of the essence of substance in general."

Radioactive iodine in the sea near the Fukushima Daiichi complex has reached a new high.

Authorities insist that the danger is localized because radioactive iodine has a half life of just eight days. 

One is led to the inevitable question: "What other radioactive substances are in the water?"

There is a plan to put underwater cameras in the water near the fried reactors to determine just how bad the damage is. 

There may be a problem getting through debris to see anything.
Debris has already prevented radiation hardened robots from entering the plants reports PC World.

Many of the refugees from the radioactive areas are now bitter about the fact that TEPCO assured the residents that the plants were safe. 

It just goes to show you can't believe a corporate man in a suit. 

"It is a good thing to proceed in order and to establish propositions. This is the way to gain ground and to progress with certainty."

Bar owners in Fukushima are complaining about lack of business. 

People are too afraid of radiation to go out at night they believe. 

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that TEPCO's disaster plan was woefully inadequate. 

There is nothing in it to give guidance in the event of a major catastrophe. 

It addresses minor accidents only.

"The disaster plan didn't function. It didn't envision something this big." cried a former TEPCO Official quoted in the Wall Street Journal

"Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting."

Meanwhile reports continue that unsafe radiation levels are rising beyond the reactors' exclusion zone. 

Authorities have not decided to order  further evacuations despite radiation levels above accepted evacuation criteria beyond the present range. 

There is speculation that spontaneous fission reactions are still occurring at the plant complex. Last week there were reports of "neutron beams" being detected at some distance from the plants. This is considered evidence by some of uncontrolled fission or "localized criticality". Such events have killed several nuclear workers in the past.

"I also take it as granted that every created thing, and consequently the created monad also, is subject to change, and indeed that this change is continual in each one."


A man described as a right wing activist drove a truck through the gates of the Fukushima Daini plant and into the compound after being turned away from the Fukushima Daiichi plant. His motive was unclear.
He eluded authorities for two hours.

"Indeed in general I hold that there is nothing truer than happiness, 
and nothing happier and sweeter than truth."

It is estimated that TEPCO may be facing as much as $130 billion in claims for damages as a result of their poor preparation for nuclear disaster. That sounds low to me. And it also tells me why the government does not want to extend the exclusion area around the plant. The farther that goes, the more damages there will be.
Here in the United States we have something known as the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act, a gift from Congress to the nuclear power corporations which indemnifies them from damages over $12.6 billion dollars. In other words, if something like what happened in Japan, happened in the good old USA, the taxpayers would foot most of the bill. The nuclear industry also has a slush fund to cover that first $12.6 billion. In other words, there is very little incentive for the nuclear industry to be as safe as possible because it knows it has very limited liability and no deductible!
Oh, what a feeling!
And of course, no one would dare prosecute any nuclear executives for gross reckless behavior.
Suits never go to jail.
TEPCO is expected to ask the Japanese government for "assistance" in this matter.

"...whatever renders us more capable of reflecting on more perfect objects and in a more perfect manner, also makes us naturally perfect. But the present condition of our life forces us to have a great number of confused thoughts which do not make us naturally perfect. Such is the knowledge of customs, genealogies and languages, and indeed all historical knowledge of facts both civil and natural."