Is Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind? A Comparison

Many pundits and supposed experts have claimed that Fukushima "is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind."


Sorry to inform you, but that is completely false. To even entertain that notion for a second is incredibly arrogant and ethno-centric thinking. It is ignorant and shows a complete lack of knowledge on human history. Be very suspicious of those who make these kinds of idiotic claims as they certainly are not steeped in factual information. In this article, I will let you be the judge of that.

SILHOUETTES - GET A JOB

Here is a list from Wikipedia on industrial disasters. This is a heavily edited list. There are many more at the Wikipedia site. I edited out many disasters as I figured that if there weren't at least a few hundred casualties, then it can't be much of a disaster (no disrespect to those who lost loved ones). Especially when you consider that, according to the International Labor Organization, at least 12,250 Chinese workers die in industrial accidents a month, every month, and an estimated 1.2 million people are killed in road crashes each year, and as many as 50 million are injured, a few dozen killed in an industrial accident seems like small potatoes. 


So far the death total from the Fukushima nuclear accident is zero. How many can you count from the list below that are much worse than that?

Chemical industry

• September 21, 1921: Oppau explosion in Germany killing 500–600 people and injuring about 2,000 more.
• 1932-1968: The Minamata disaster in Japan. Over 3,000 people died or suffered various deformities.
• April 16, 1947: Texas City Disaster at least 578 people died and another 3,500 were injured.
• December 3, 1984: The Bhopal disaster in India. Death toll range from 4,000 to 20,000. 
• April 22, 2004: Ryonchon Cargo Explosion at Railway Disaster in North Korea. 3,000 people killed or injured

Construction industry

• January 20, 1909: Chicago Crib Disaster. 100 men died. 

Defense industry

• July 17, 1944: Port Chicago Disaster. 320 people killed. 

Energy industry

• August, 1975: The Banqiao Dam flood in China. 100,000 immediately killed, plus over 150,000 died of subsequent epidemic diseases and famine, total deal toll around 250,000, making it the worst technical disaster ever happened in history.
• March 16, 1978: The Amoco Cadiz spill. An oil tanker sank spilling of 68,684,000 US Gallons of crude oil (nearly ten times that of Exxon Valdez). This is the largest oil spill of its kind (from an oil tanker) in history.
• April 26, 1986: Chernobyl disaster. At the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Prypiat, Ukraine a test on reactor number four goes out of control, resulting in a nuclear meltdown. The ensuing steam explosion and fire killed up to 50 people with estimates that there may be between 4,000 additional cancer deaths over time. 

Food industry

• January 15, 1919: The Boston Molasses Disaster. Killing 21 and injuring 150.
• September 3, 1991: 1991 Hamlet chicken processing plant fire. 25 deaths.

Manufacturing industry

• January 10, 1860: Pemberton Mill Collapse. 145 workers killed and 166 injured.
• March 20, 1905: Grover Shoe Factory explosion 58 people killed and 150 injured.
• March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. 100 garment workers died in fire or jumped to their deaths.
• May 10, 1993: Kader Toy Factory fire in Thailand. 188 workers were killed, mostly young women.

Mining industry

• March 10, 1906: Courrières mine disaster in France. 1,099 workers died, including children.
• April 26, 1942: Benxihu Colliery disaster in China. 1,549 workers died, in the worst coal mine accident ever in the world.
• May 28, 1965: 1965 Dhanbad coal mine disaster in India. 300 miners killed.
• October 21, 1966: Aberfan disaster killing 116 children and 28 adults.

There are many more disasters and accident listed at the Wikipedia site. There's thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, more that are not listed on Wikipedia. Lots of accidents and disasters. Lots of deaths. Fukushima nuclear reactor accident deaths as of today, four months after the disaster began? 0. Zero. None. Nada. Zip. 全然. 無し. ありません。


Oh, and if you want a disaster that displaced more than 1,000 people and is still going on decades later, here's an interesting one:

• May 1962: The Centralia, Pennsylvania coal mine fire began, forcing the gradual evacuation of the Centralia borough. The fire continues to burn in the abandoned borough in 2011, 49 years later (emphasis mine).

These are facts. They are etched into history.


People who make claims like, "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind" are stating opinions involved with speculation and conjecture. Anyone care to debate the facts? 

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster News - Debunking Arnie Gundersen

It's really getting tiring debunking everything that clowns like Arnie Gundersen say about Fukushima. It doesn't matter how many facts or data that I link to or how much I try to fact check what this guy says, people still write really stupid (and childishly rude) stuff to me and challenge me on it. 


Of course, I can tell the rude stuff comes from ill-educated hysterical Americans. It's pretty obvious.


What's even more tiring is getting mail from fools who actually believe that things are out of control. It really reminds me of the early days of the Global Warming idiocy. People were foaming at the mouth believing that too because they believed the crap they were told. What was their rationale?


1) It was a government cover up and conspiracy 
2) "They" were lying to us


Why do people think this way?


3) Most people are illogical and cannot have an original thought if it were the last thing they ever did


It's a victory for the public education system that it churns out so many people with such a poor level of education. 


I don't really mind being challenged on what's written here, but let's stick to the points, if we can, shall we? The lunatic fringe writing stuff to me like what I received yesterday was so totally out of whack that I deleted his comments. (Note: I do enjoy every one's comments and appreciate that they take the time to write them, but please do read the rules on commenting before you write. It is foolish to take ten minutes writing something that gets immediately deleted when you could read the rules in two seconds and make sure that doesn't happen).


Some of these guys actually write comments like this:


"Mike, you are full of sh*t... Care to debate me?"


Hmm.... What an intelligent, polite and marvelous argument this guy puts forth. What a fantastic invitation to debate the points. I can tell, by the quality of his writing, it would be like debating Neanderthal man. I don't know how I can counter such an excellently structured argument... 


Perhaps by hitting the table with a crude wooden bat and saying, "Korg no like!"...


Could he possibly mean that he wants to, "debate me on the point of the contents of my body?" If so, no. I do not... If he means that - judging by the excellent logic of his argument shown in his comment - should I debate him on the same level of childish insults as he does by, say, calling his mother various unsavory names? Then, no to that one too. 


I'm sure that his mother is a wonderful woman. Most moms are like that.


So, without further ado, here's another article debunking Gundersen. I hope it will be the last, but, alas, suspect it won't. First up, let's be fair. I will show you both anti-atomic power (Gundersen's comments) and "pro"-nuclear power comments. You be the judge.


From Atomic Insights: 

Arnie Gundersen has been making money by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about nuclear energy for more than a decade. His career has received a measurable boost since March 11, when a large earthquake and powerful tsunami successfully peeled off most of the many layers of protection at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

Ever since that day, Gundersen has been giving scary interviews in a variety of media outlets that include a number of dire predictions. He claimed that the spent fuel pool for unit 4 had gone dry and that he had the video to prove it. That claim remains available on his web site, so he is apparently standing by his early evaluation despite all evidence that contradicts his claim.

(snip) 

He has been making the rounds of the advertiser supported media recently with stories about the dangers of “hot particles” that are so tiny they cannot be picked up by normal radiation detectors. (Note: Radiation can be measured at extremely low levels, far below the levels that can cause human health effects. There is a reason why doctors inject small amounts radioactive materials into their patients as tracers to assist them in diagnosing organ function – those tracers make bodily systems visible without endangering the patient. If the hot particles are so tiny and dispersed that they cannot be detected, they are nothing to worry about.)

You can read more about Gundersen here at Atomic Insights.

Of course, I also blasted Gundersen for these same ridiculous remarks on the very blog in "Wind Patterns and Rainy Season in Japan" where I derailed his ignorant and completely false claims that "the wind was turning and now blowing radiation towards Tokyo." I also dismantled his absurd claims of "anecdotal evidence" of people having a metallic taste in their mouths was proof of Iodine in the air as a byproduct of radiation in "Metallic Tastes in Mouths Proves Nuclear Disaster! Or Does it?"

Finally, and as an aside, one other reader complained that I bashed Gundersen for his foolish claims of radioactive air filters in cars. The reader claimed that he searched for third-party evidence of this claim by Gundersen and could find nothing. This reader then somehow concluded that this fact was proof that I was making up evidence against Gundersen and trying to discredit him (well, that's what he said. Yeah, I know. The logic is quite convuluted...) But I don't want to keep railing on the educational system of the USA. In that post about car air filters I even showed the results of a search in Japanese for what Gundersen was claiming and found nothing excepting links to his absurd claims. See it here in "Radioactive Air Filters in Cars?" 

For today here's more about what Gundersen claimed that is totally disproven by facts on the ground. Gundersen claimed in an article on Al Jazeera:

"So ten to 15 years from now maybe we can say the reactors have been dismantled, and in the meantime you wind up contaminating the water," Gundersen said. 

Is this true? You be the judge. Here's today's news from the Nuclear Energy Institute:

Contaminated Water Levels Beginning to Drop at Fukushima Daiichi

TEPCO is making headway in reducing the volume of contaminated water on site. In the last week, the new water filtration system has treated more than 13,000 tons of water. Recycling the treated water into the plant cooling systems also began last week, and the rate of water accumulation is now being reversed. The company says water levels in the basements of the reactor buildings could drop by more than three feet by next month. About 120,000 tons of water have accumulated in basements at the facility and in storage facilities. 

This seems to quite directly contradict Gundersen's claims, no? 

The article continues:

Also, the company has installed steel plates at the seawater intake structures for Fukushima reactors 1 through 4, closing off a path for leakage of contaminated water from the reactors to the ocean.

So, judging from the news these last two days, here are the facts and the timetable settled so far:

1) Radiation levels at the crippled plants are expected to be within safe limits so that human engineers can reenter the plants on July 17, 2011. That's eight days from today.

2) The contaminated water is being cleaned and contaminated water levels are dropping.

3) Radioactive water leaks have been stopped.

Of course this disaster at Fukushima is bad. But considering the claims of just a few shorts months, even weeks ago, when Gundersen was claiming:

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind. Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed. You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."

Gundersen likes to use words like "maybe" (see above) and words like "probably." That means that he is just guessing. Also, don't look now, but the reactors were being cooled months ago.

As far as being the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind, I'm sure that is debatable. I'm sure people near the BP oil disaster that has already killed at least eleven men and sickened hundreds, if not thousands, of people; as well as killing wildlife in the hundreds of millions if not more, would strongly disagree with you Gundersen.

So far the death tally from Fukushima nearly four months later: Zero. 

These are facts indelibly etched into history...Care to debate me?

Note: In my next post, I blow this, "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind" claim to pieces. That claim is pure and total nonsense. How can people be so arrogant and ignorant of history to even entertain such a thought? Read it here.

Japanese Government Incompetent Resigns Over Abusive Remarks to Disaster Area Officials

Hot on the heels of my last two posts, the first entitled; Tax and Spend, Tax and Spend, Tax and Spend, Lather, Rinse, Repeat followed by Nuclear Radiation: No News is Good News  blasting the government of Japan (all government for that matter) for gross incompetence (among others things) another scandal hits the news.

Duh!

It seems that the boss of the newly created March 11 disaster reconstruction team, Ryu Matsumoto, that was just formed by soon-to-be ex-prime minister Naoto Kan has gone and done something really stupid within the very first week on duty. Matsumoto went up to some earthquake and tsunami ravaged areas in Northern Japan and was talking down and being extremely rude to local officials there. Now, after catching some serious backlash, the guy has been forced into resignation.


What a doofus! 

FOR FULL COMEDIC EFFECT, CLICK ON

THIS VIDEO BEFORE YOU CONTINUE READING

This is hilarious. You just can't make this stuff up. A total and complete comedy of errors.


Yahoo Japan reports:

TOKYO – Japan's embattled government received a fresh blow Tuesday when the new disaster reconstruction minister resigned a week after his appointment because of criticism he was rude to officials on a trip to the tsunami-ravaged coast.

Hint: Japan. Rude. No.

The teary-eyed minister, Ryu Matsumoto, apologized and stepped down after a weekend trip in which he berated a local governor for being late to a meeting and threatened to withhold aid.

The guy was teary eyed? Bwa! Ha! Ha! 

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who created the new Cabinet position last week, had hoped it would help fend off critics who have questioned his leadership in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that wiped out much of the country's northeast coast.

Oh, this episode is really going to help out Kan. Dear Mr. Prime Minister, who hired this Matsumoto guy?

Kan has been under intense pressure to step down himself, but has said he will do so only after putting Japan on a solid recovery path. 

He will resign after "putting Japan on a solid recovery path"? Like how he's handled the debt problem and the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami? That means never.

Seriously, folks. I haven't laughed this hard in a loooooong time.

His government faces deep rifts in the ruling party and an increasingly emboldened opposition, which has denounced his response as dithering and poorly coordinated.

Poorly coordinated? Nah! Rubbish! I won't have it!

Matsumoto's brief performance is unlikely to help.

It may have been brief but it was a damned good show while it lasted.

In meetings with local governors over the weekend, the minister's words were regarded as arrogant and uncaring, angering local residents and political opponents. He told the governor of Iwate, one of the hardest-hit prefectures, that the government would not help municipalities that did not have good ideas about rebuilding.

Ah! Now we're getting to the nitty gritty. This idiot Matsumoto told the governor of Iwate that the government would not help unless the municipalities had good ideas? Yes. I see. Translation: "Yeah. We don't have a fricking clue as to what we're doing so someone has got to have a good idea. How about you guys?"

Gee, come to think of it, this is a representative of the same government who claims that they need to raise Sales Tax to pay for reconstruction of northern Japan! No one said that the people of northern Japan had to score at least 80% on a multiple choice quiz before they got the money!

To Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai, Matsumoto expressed irritation that he was made to wait for the tardy governor. Matsumoto refused to shake Murai's hand when he entered the room and scolded the visibly surprised governor.

Maybe Murai was late as the roads are all shot and the trains all fell off a cliff during the earthquake or something.

"When a guest comes to visit, do not call up the guest until you have arrived in the room," he told Murai. "Do you understand?"

Oh! Goody! He even yells at the people who were victimized by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster! I hope he steeped on their feet, farted and slammed the door on their butts on the way out too!

He then warned journalists in the room not to report his words. 

He then warned the journalists not to repeat his words!? Sensational! This is funny! Is this the same guy who was teary eyed when he resigned? Is this guy for real?

However, they were widely reported in the media, and a video of the exchange was posted on the Internet.

Oh! Juicy! Where's this video? I gotta see this... Oh lucky me! Here it is:

Pardon my French, ladies and gentlemen, but what an asshole this guy is. It may not sound like he is being rude because Japanese is such a very polite language, but if that we me on the receiving end, I'd probably tell this jerk to "get out!" What an arrogant worm!

Jin Sato, the outspoken mayor of badly damaged Minami Sanriku, said the minister's comments deeply upset disaster victims already frustrated with the recovery process.

Think so? Nah!

"I have been saying all along that this government has no sense of speed," he said on public broadcaster NHK. "My frank opinion is that this resignation drama is another misstep."

I'm beginning to think that this Naoto Kan guy is the best prime minister we've had since Mori. The mistakes these people make are hilarious and they give me a good hearty laugh every morning. Seriously, folks, this is unbelievable.

I'm going to be sorry to see Kan go. That guy and his posse make great  entertainment.

Radioactive air filters in cars!?

Arnie Gundersen says something really stupid again. Now he claims that there is dangerous radioactive "Hot Particles" in Tokyo car air filters and that this radiation is deadly yet it cannot be detected. This is getting really ridiculous. Seriously, is this old age, dementia or Alzheimer's with this guy?


His most recent idiocy is on Al Jazeera with an article entitled, Fukushima: It's much worse than you think.


Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.


No. Gundersen, besides normal levels, there no "common" radiation finding in car filters in Tokyo. Fukushima is not much worse than we think. Your wild imagination and fast progressing senility is much worse than we, or even you, think. 

BRAZILIAN TROPICAL ORCHESTRA - FOOL ON THE HILL

"Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common"!? That's just total and complete bullsh*t. Jeez Louise, Gundersen, the ground around us emits natural radiation all the time! So does the sun! I'm sure that all cars emit some levels of radiation. It is a course of common sense. 


Are these levels of radiation dangerous or something to be concerned about? Not according to the University of Washington. But facts haven't stopped Gundersen yet from auditioning for the lead role in the new Chicken Little movie...


Well, I think, Arnie, you are failing miserably. If anything, the more you talk, the dumber you look. The only ones who look stupider are the mass and alternative media who blindly pass on your nonsense without taking a few minutes to research (or even think about for a moment) what you say. 


Just to show you what a crock of sh*t this idiocy Gundersen is saying is, I just did a Japanese language Google search looking for "車のエアフィルター　放射能." (In English this is "Automobile air filter + radiation"). There are zero results for this search excepting articles that refer to Gundersen as a source. Get that? Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Gundersen, you are caught red-handed! You are making up sh*t again.


Here's a screen capture of all results:

Are there any readers and Gundersen fanatics who do not believe me? Here's a shortened URL to the Google search: http://bit.ly/lUUYH0. I hope that, by now, dear reader knows how to use Google Translation.


The Al Jazeera article continues with more fluff about dangers:

According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."


The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.


"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant," he explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure them with a Geiger counter. 


Wait a minute, Grandpa! You just put your foot in your mouth again... What's this? You are quoted as saying at least three stupid things in one breath here: 


In one part you say about "Hot particles" that:


"Scientists are finding these everywhere."


Yet, you do not name these scientists. All the while you say that these "Hot Particles" are dangerous you also claim: 


"...you can't measure them (hot particles) with a Geiger counter."


Riiiiiiight. They are radioactive and dangerous but we can't measure them witha Geiger counter!? Earth to Gundersen! Earth to Gundersen! According to Wikipedia about "Hot Particles", under the heading "Attributes" it clearly states:


Hot particles can be identified by a Geiger counter, or by autoradiography. Their age and origin can be determined by their isotopic signature.


In a previous article, Gundersen makes another unsubstantiated claim. It is an audio interview with him. Here's a snippet from an interview with another fool named Chris Martenson who needs a convenient slap right up side the head too:


“Arnie Gundersen said he received 7 used auto air filters that came from Tokyo, probably from a repair shop. Five of them had no traces of radiation, but two of them were heavily irradiated. He said the fallout will be patchy..."


OK. I'm game, Arnie, old boy. Just how did you detect these Hot Particles in air filters "from Tokyo" (by the way, do you have a receipt and proof they are from Tokyo?) when you claim that the radiation, which is normally detected with a Geiger counter, is not detectable with a Geiger counter? Are you using some sort of sodium iodide crystal device or Ion chamber? Or is it just alchemy or some sort of magic potion? 


If your results would stand up to scrutiny, then why don't you make these results public (a Youtube video would be great - you seem to like being on Youtube) and also why can't you make these claims available for confirmation by other scientists (and no, I don't mean the "scientists" that you always refer to but never name) using the Scientific Method? 


Or do we all have to go and take your word for it?... The word of a guy who makes claims about all sorts of things using "anecdotal evidence" mysterious "sources" and other claims as proof?


It gets even more silly... Gundersen goes on to compare the dangers of "Hot Particles" in car filters to to the dangers of... are you ready for it?... Cigarette smoking!!! Laughable!


"One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time they do."


So, what you are saying Gundersen is that, besides not being able to keep your  story straight, with all the pollutants in our foods, water, industrial contaminants in the air and chemicals in our over processed foods, you think that this most recent news from your "sources" (Guffaw!) is cause enough for you to scare people and cause hysteria because the level of radiation is comparable to smoking cigarettes over a long time? 

This guy looks well over 75, maybe 80. Is anyone surprised when 

an over 75-year-old guy says some pretty wild stuff?

Oh please! Someone make sure Grandpa Gundersen gets his rest and makes sure he properly takes his meds everyday and on time. This guy is losing it quickly.


Grandpa, why don't you warn people about heart disease or high blood pressure? That kills tens of thousands more times the numbers of people annually than cigarette smoking does. From the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention here's the numbers for deaths of the leading causes of deaths (2007):

• Heart disease: 616,067
• Cancer: 562,875
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706

From the same site, in 1990, deaths attributed to smoking were, get this... 5,619! That's the most recent information I could find. Sales of cigarettes and tobacco products keep declining every year so I imagine that they've found it a waste of money to keep track of this anymore.


But Gundersen wants to compare the big bad "Hot Particles" to the evils of smoking when you have over a 200,000% higher chance of dying from heart disease or cancers (food preservatives, chemicals, too much salt, and car accidents). I also showed the relative dangers of this in a previous post entitled: For Every One Death Due to Nuclear Power, 4,000 Die Due to Coal in which the title of the post speaks for itself.


Gee, Arnie, why don't you do something more useful with your 15 minutes of fame and urge people to slow down and drive more safely? That would save a hell of a lot more lives than this nonsense you keep saying... 


Oh, but then again, I forgot. You work in the nuclear industry advising people on how to decommission nuke plants and not as an adviser to automobile safety organizations. But, nah! You don't have any conflicts of interest.


You are a REAL scientist!


Gundersen is a joke. I've already blasted Arnie for saying stupid stuff before. In Metallic Tastes in Mouths Prove Nuclear Disaster in Japan! Or Does it? I wrote:

Once again, Arnie Gundersen and a bunch of illogical panic stricken fools say something stupid about Fukushima and radiation. 

They are now saying that there is "anecdotal evidence" of people having a metallic taste in their mouths and, from this, they draw the wild conclusion that this means there is an uncontrollable nuclear chain reaction going on at Fukushima. This nonsense has no basis in science, reality, nor does it have any evidence backing it up. It is fantasy.. 


"Anecdotal eveidence!" Isn't that hilarious? I already showed you how he has motivation for saying this and a possible conflict of interest (making him no more credible than, say, George Bush)... And speaking of "air" and "filters" I ripped him a new air-hole when he claimed that "the winds have now shifted and are blowing from Fukushima to Tokyo." 


This most recent rubbish is just plain embarrassing. I guess the mass media is now latching onto Gundersen because they realize (as I demonstrated) that their last "expert" Michio Kaku was definitely a few CDs short of a boxed set. But, they'll soon see that Gundersen isn't any better.


I suspect, one day soon, people are going to realize that, when it comes to Gundersen, we are talking about a senior citizen here who seems to be losing his grip on reality. Anyone who has a father or mother over 75 or so, may have had  this experience. 

But I guess I shouldn't be too hard on the old guy. I mean, think about it, they say that radiation causes all sorts of damage to the body and to the human brain. There's no argument there. Gundersen also claims that he worked in the nuclear industry for over 38 years (something that has been proven as a gross exaggeration along with his claims of many of his other "qualifications" here)... If anything, I suppose that means that the nonsense he says is the best proof so far that radiation is damaging to humans. 


OK. Let's say that he did work at nuke plants for 38 years... That and Gundersen repeatedly spewing out unconfirmed, hysterical nonsense is a great argument that radiation does cause brain damage.