First they found radiation in milk in Spokane, Washington. Then they found radiation in milk in San Luis Obispo County, California. Now they have found radiation in milk in Arizona as well. Should we just start assuming that all of our milk is going to have nuclear radiation from Japan in it until further notice? Of course federal authorities insist that the levels of radiation being detected are completely safe and that nobody should start worrying about the milk that they are drinking. In fact that there are even some crackpots out there that are attempting to claim that nuclear radiation from Japan is actually good for us. Yes, let’s all run out and guzzle as much of that “nutritious” radioactive milk as we can. Of course it isn’t just milk that the radiation is getting into. It is showing up in water supplies from coast to coast and it is inevitable that it is going to get into most of our food products. Not that there is much that we can do about it.
Hopefully our authorities are right and that the radiation from Japan is not a very serious threat. But having to think twice before drinking a glass of milk is not very comforting.
Sadly, the nuclear crisis in Japan only seems to be getting worse.
Hundreds of tons of water a day are being poured into these reactors. All of that very highly radioactive water has to go somewhere. What we are finding out is that in addition to being released into the air as steam, it is also getting into the groundwater at Fukushima and into the ocean off the coast.
The radiation level in the ocean near the Fukushima nuclear complex was recently measured to be 4,385 times above what is considered normal.
So what is this going to do to the Japanese seafood industry?
And what is going to keep that highly radioactive water from circulating all over the Pacific?
The groundwater under Fukushima is even worse. TEPCO has confirmed that the level of radiation in the groundwater underneath the Fukushima nuclear complex is 10,000 times above the legal limit.
Ack!
But of course since Barack Obama (one of the great con men of our generation) has promised that the nuclear radiation being released at Fukushima is “no danger” to the United States we should all be able to sleep really well at night, right?
Well, I don’t know about you, but when I hear that it is being reported that the University of California at Berkeley has found that rainwater in San Francisco contains significant levels of nuclear radiation I start getting a little bit concerned.
So just how long is this nuclear crisis in Japan going to last?
Well, there is at least one nuclear expert that claims it will be 50 to 100 years before any of the spent nuclear fuel rods at the Fukushima complex will cool down enough to be removed from the facility.
So what are they supposed to do for now?
Well, there are some hints that the Japanese are starting to think about implementing the “Chernobyl solution” and encase the entire area in massive amounts of concrete, but there are also quite a few experts that believe such a solution will not work in this case.
Hopefully something can be worked out. For the moment, the folks over in Japan will just have to keep pouring massive amounts of water on those buildings. Of course that will continue to create huge amounts of very highly radioactive water that is going to go into the groundwater and into the ocean, but what else are they supposed to do?
When this crisis initially began, not too many nuclear experts were all that concerned, but now some of them are really sounding the alarm. Just check out the video below….
Amazingly, U.S. workers are actually being recruited to go over to Japan and work at Fukushima.
The pay is apparently going to be very good, so those that volunteer could end up with a lot of extra cash.
They just might not live long enough to spend much of it.
What a crazy world we live in.
So far, most of the attention in the mainstream media has been focused on the radioactive iodine-131 that is being released at Fukushima.
But iodine-131 only has a half-life of about 8 days.
The radioactive cesium-137 being released at Fukushima could end up being a much larger long-term threat.
As I wrote about recently, radioactive cesium-137 is being released at 60% of the level that it was being released at during the Chernobyl disaster.
Considering the fact that Cesium-137 has a half-life of approximately 30 years, that is a very sobering statistic.
So will cesium-137 be showing up in our water, milk and food for many years to come?
Most of us would rather not have to worry about that.
Hopefully the authorities in Japan will find a solution to this crisis very soon. The damage that has already been done has been bad enough.
The truth is that if this nightmare continues long enough, things could get much, much worse for Japan.
Residents of Japan were alarmed recently when the government declared that the tap water in Tokyo was not safe for infants to drink. That sparked a massive run on bottled water and it prompted many residents of Tokyo to start bracing for massive radiation exposure.
One day later, the government in Japan said that the tap water in Tokyo was suddenly completely safe and that caused most people living in Tokyo to settle down a bit.
However, what is going to happen if at some point the water in Tokyo is deemed unsafe for all humans for an extended period of time?
There are over 30 million people living in and around Tokyo. You simply cannot evacuate that many people.
But if it gets to the point where Tokyo residents cannot drink the water, bathe in the water or use the water to prepare food, what in the world are they supposed to do?
Without water, life becomes very difficult very quickly. Just try it some time. Take one day and try to get through it without using any water. You will quickly find out how precious water is.
If we ever do get to the point where some or all of Tokyo must be evacuated, that is going to be an absolutely devastating blow to Japan and to the global economy. Let us hope that it does not happen.
But the truth is that if I had been living in Tokyo I would have gotten out of there already. This nuclear disaster at Fukushima is rapidly becoming worse than Chernobyl. The health impact of this nuclear nightmare is going to last for decades, and one can only imagine how many people will eventually develop cancer and other illnesses as a result of all this.
So what do all the rest of you think about all of this? Should we be concerned about radiation in milk? Should the residents of Tokyo be preparing for the worst? Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….