The troubles at the Fukishima nuclear facility have all but disappeared from the US media and I believe it’s intentional.  Public opinion in the US is already turning against nuclear power and the corporate media doesn’t want to do anything to encourage that trend.  I’m sure that the situation in Japan is much worse than the Japanese are saying but even what they are saying is dire. There...

Note: This post got somewhat mangled for some reason but has been updated and corrected. One of the major events of US military policy in the last part of the 20th century was the passage of the War Powers Act of 1973. In brief the act requires that if a President is going to commit US forces that he must obtain the consent of Congress. This would seem to have been an unnecessary action since the Constitution...

While natural or man-made disasters rarely have a lasting impact on the global economy, Financial Times Deutschland columnist Thomas Fricke warns that there is a good chance that, as with the tremendous loss of confidence in the banking system in 2008, the tragedy in Japan could trigger an extremely damaging loss of confidence in the global energy supply – leading to yet another global recession. For...

UPDATE, March 28 Yokota Air Base, just outside Tokyo, has become the nerve center and logistical hub for “Operation Tomodachi,” the U.S. humanitarian assistance efforts to help earthquake/tsunami/nuclear-power-plant-disaster-ravaged Japan. In the weeks that have followed the disaster, some 1,300 military and government workers have converged on Yokota, and “[s]uddenly, this usually sleepy airlift base...

This alone is reason enough to oppose nuclear power: TOKYO — The operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant told safety regulators less than two weeks before disaster struck that it had failed to carry out some scheduled inspections at the facility. The equipment missed in scheduled inspections included a motor and a backup power generator for the No. 1 reactor, the firm said in a report...

Days ago, the countries of the G-7 stepped in to rescue the yen from its counter-intuitive appreciation since the great earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis struck. According to this editorial from Japan’s Akita Sakigake Shimpo, such prompt action from American, British, Canadian and European central banks was a very positive sign not only for Japan, but for the entire global economy. The Akita Sakigake...

How dramatically will Japan’s nuclear catastrophe affect the rest of the world? According to this editorial from Germany’s Die Welt, to address the ever-growing dangers and fears of nuclear power will require at least as much time, dedication and money as the developed world has spent on securing itself from terrorism since September 11, 2001. The Die Welt editorial says in small part: The earthquake...

Japan of all countries should have understood the dangers of nuclear energy.  It was the only country to be on the receiving end of Nuclear Weapons, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and had 23 crewmen of the fishing boat Daigo Fukury? Maru.contaminated when the first hydrogen bomb was tested by the United States at Bikini Atoll.  In spite of all this Japan had 54 reactors which supplied 30 percent of the country’s...

As the struggle continues at Japan’s malfunctioning nuclear plants, this news item from Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun looks at the challenges being faced by Japanese and international rescuers as they scramble to save as many lives as possible in the aftermath of last week’s incredible tsunami. The article from Japan’s Mainichi Shimbum says in part: In the earthquake-affected areas of northeastern...

This is a fascinating YouTube clip – subtitled in English. Shared with me by a friend in Seattle who learned about it from a friend in Egypt … another reminder of how small the world has become.

I’m a professional engineer. I love building roads and bridges. I tell people I never got past building them in the sandbox. I understand how blessed I am to be able to combine passion with a vocation. Truth is, I would probably do it for free. Being a pro engineer, however, I get paid to do it. I get paid a lot. People don’t have to tell me how lucky I am. Well, maybe lucky is not a good choice of words....

Cable reaches Japan nuclear plant But is there anything to plug in? Why do I get the feeling this is just another PR stunt? Engineers at Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant have managed to lay a cable to reactor 2, the UN’s nuclear watchdog reports. After at least three explosions, several fires and days of salt water baths do they really expect anything to work?   And they ran it to...

After three disasters of such monumental proportions, Japanese newspapers are urging people to bind together to help those most in need, and expressing thanks to people around the world for coming to their aid. This editorial from the Akita Sakigake Shimpo, from Japan’s main island just south of the disaster zone, urges people to help others and take heart that they are not alone. The editorial from the...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

What’s the connection between the women of Rio’s Carnival and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg? For Brazil’s O Globo, Mônica Geraldi Valentim writes that even if women have become more financially independent in recent decades, the lengths to which they’ll go to look attractive is proof that catching a mate still requires good old-fashioned thin waists, full lips and silky hair; and...

In the wake of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami, the challenge facing Fukushima has been keeping the nuclear cores covered with water, which is needed to cool the fuel rods, the heart of a reactor. The most serious damage is at the Unit 2 reactor, where there was a hydrogen explosion on Tuesday; the suppression pool has been damaged. Only 50 employees remain on site, and they have been exposed to high...

Things have gone from really bad to much worse at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex as the radiation levels reached such high levels that all worker were withdrawn. FUKUSHIMA, Japan – Japan suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said work on...

Half a century ago, Americans feared atomic weapons of a nation that long longer exists, the Soviet Union, and its potential to destroy us. Now, as devastation spreads in Japan, anxiety arises about the original Faustian bargain to unleash a power that can’t be fully controlled. If this sounds like the start of a Luddite tract, not so. Nuclear power will be not be disinvented but, as we now know, can not...

There are serious problems at all reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. But, as of 10.00 pm PDT Monday, there has been no “nuclear explosion” even though you may have seen headlines or tweets that imply or say that. The challenge facing Fukushima is keeping the nuclear core covered with water, which is needed to cool the fuel rods, the heart of the reactor. The most serious damage...

Talk about sticking my foot in my mouth. It now looks almost certain that the containment for Unit 2 has been breached and that the core may be in or close to full meltdown mode. I am being told second hand that my fears that the core will create a massive steam explosion that compromise the whole structure are not unfounded by still “unlikely.” This is by a friend of a friend who works at a nuclear...

While I’m not so happy about how the odds of disaster are presented, I think it is imperative that we put the safety of nuclear power in context. The truth of the matter is that coal power plants release much more destructive pollution into the environment than even the worst nuclear accident. This article in Slate cites 1 million annual premature deaths [or "500 Chernobyls"] from particulate pollution....

The paradox of material and technological progress is that we seem to become more risk-averse the safer it makes us. Thus begins the close of a must-read op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. It’s not a surprise that the WSJ would lament risk-aversion. What was a surprise is that many of the arguments put forth are the same ones I have been making for two days: There is no “clean”...

The situation in Japan is serious. But, as of 1.30 3.00 9.30 pm PDT, there has been no “nuclear explosion” even though you may have seen headlines or tweets to that effect. Officials assume, but have not confirmed, a “partial meltdown” which does not appear to be either a “China Syndrome” (thank you, Hollywood) or a “Chernobyl” (thank you, media). Four nuclear...

What a difference 66 years makes! In 1945, the Japanese homeland was devastated, not by Nature, by my country dropping atomic bombs to save lives of soldiers like me in what surely would have been a bloody invasion. Now, an earthquake and tsunami have set off scrambling in that unwarlike nation to avert another nuclear catastrophe, and reports show the 8.9 magnitude seizure has shifted the Earth off its axis. The...

The New York Times today has an “Op-Chart” purporting to depict “The Pentagon’s biggest boondoggles.” According to the Times, the list of “boondoggles” is “just a sampling of what systems could be ended without endangering America; indeed, abandoning some of them might actually enhance national security.” Some of the alleged “boondoggles” whose abandonment, according to the Times, would...