Britain's nuclear WMD programme: Leaked Sellafield photos reveal 'massive radioactive release' threat

The B30 pond showing a full loading
with fuel rods. Photo: unknown.

The Ecologist | Oct 27, 2014 | Oliver Tickell

"...if the ponds drain, the Magnox fuel will ignite and that would lead to a massive release of radioactive material."

The Ecologist has received a shocking set of leaked images showing decrepit and grossly inadequate storage facilities for high level nuclear waste at the Sellafield nuclear plant.

The images (right), from an anonymous source, show the state of spent nuclear fuel storage ponds that were commissioned in 1952, and used until the mid-1970's as short term storage for spent fuel until it could be re-processed, producing plutonium for military use. However they were completely abandoned in the mid-1970s and have been left derelict for almost 40 years.

The photographs show cracked concrete tanks holding water contaminated with high levels of radiation, seagulls bathing on the water, broken equipment, a dangerous mess of discarded items on elevated walkways, and weeds growing around the tanks.

Read more..

War on Multiple Fronts and No Talk of Peace - Gerald Celente Offers His Take

NextNewsNetwork | Sep 18, 2014

The world is in a very crucial point in history right now. It seems like everywhere you look, countries are on the verge of splitting apart, going to war or at the very least, economic collapse. Russia and Ukraine. Syria and Iraq. Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Even the United Kingdom could cut ties with Scotland. Public distrust here in America is at an all-time high. The future is always uncertain, but right now, it’s extremely volatile.

Every once in a while, we like to reach out to Gerald Celente and ask him to make a few bold predictions on topics all over the place. From foreign policy, the economy, even the weather, Gerald is a well-known Trends Forecaster. There’s nothing he likes more than a bold prediction. He’s not afraid of controversy either, we always know he’ll say what’s on his mind. He’s provocative. He really gets the people going.

U.S. Still Cleaning up Chemical Weapons from World War II…in 40 States

ALLGOV | Mar 26, 2014 | Noel Brinkerhoff, Danny Biederman

Bring us your nerve gases, your blister agents, your horrible weapons of warfare, your wretched refuse of World War II… This about sums up the decision of leaders in Washington after World War II when it came time for the American military to dispose of its arsenal of chemical weapons and those belonging to both the countries it fought against and alongside.

After the war’s conclusion, the U.S. government buried thousands of munitions loaded with chemical agents all across the country. These weapons of mass destruction were part of the U.S. arsenal as well as those belonging to ally Britain and enemies Germany and Japan.

The bombs and containers were simply dumped in the ground and buried, without concern for long-term environmental and health consequences.

Alabama is home to the largest of 249 such sites that are located in 40 states. Redstone Arsenal, a longtime U.S. Army base, sits atop miles of hidden trenches containing blister agents, choking agents, blood agents and more.

The 38,000-acre base is surrounded by homes, schools, churches and shopping centers—a city of 200,000 people. It was reported that few residents are aware of the toxic danger lurking nearby.

A disposal team has been working at Redstone since the 1970s trying to locate all of the chemical weaponry that is buried beneath 17 six-mile-long trenches. Once those trenches have all been located, the next step—scheduled to begin in 2019—is to remove the bombs and containers with great care, due to the uncertainty of the weapons’ condition after being held deep underground for decades. No more than six munitions can be safely removed each day.

“Even if we tried to do this as fast as anybody could ever get it done, we’re talking decades and decades,” James Watson, a disposal team member, told the Los Angeles Times. “This stuff is very dangerous to dig up. It’ll hurt you. It will blister you up. If you get that nerve agent on you, it will kill you.”

Redstone’s cleanup is expected to take until at least 2042. The quantity of weapons: 388,000. Between 20,000 and 25,000 of these are intact and, once disturbed, may be volatile.

Alabama has a second site, at former Camp Sibert (pdf) near Huntsville, with at least 13 stockpiles of mustard and phosgene gas.

Another of these sites is located in Spring Valley, Virginia, not far from the White House. Its arsenal features even older chemical munitions—possibly including mustard and arsenic—manufactured during World War I.

Several years ago, a vast supply of munitions from World War II was discovered beneath the grounds of Odyssey Middle School in Orlando, Florida. One of the weapons ignited into flames, but didn’t explode, injuring an Army Corps of Engineers contractor attempting to remove it. More than 200 potentially volatile explosives were found, most under the school and some near homes in the surrounding neighborhood. Home values, which were originally in the $600,000 range, plunged by at least 30%, while banks told homeowners their residents were worthless to lend against.

The U.S. military also dumped a huge volume of chemical weapons off both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. There are no plans to clean up those sites, although Congress has authorized studies to look into it.

In 1958, about a hundred miles offshore of California, the SS William Ralston—loaded with more than 300,000 mustard gas bombs and 1,500 one-ton containers of Lewisite, a blistering agent—was scuttled by the U.S military. To this day it sits beneath nearly 14,000 feet of water just outside of San Francisco.

Ralston believes the U.S. task of removing 1,300 tons of secured chemical weapons from Syria for destruction at sea will be something of a breeze compared to the job here at home. “In Syria, you know where the weapons are and what they are, and they can move them with a forklift,” Watson told the Times. “Here, we don’t know. We have to go out there and dig them out of the ground … The sheer mass of this stuff is overwhelming.”

TEPCO Blasted for Withholding Data as Fukushima Radiation Levels Soar

Nuclear regulators inspect Fukushima storage tanks (Reuters)

TEPCO Blasted for Withholding Data as Fukushima Radiation Levels Soar
Feb 13, 2014 | Common Dreams | Jacob Chamberlain

'This is not an appropriate way to deal with the desire of the public for transparency' 

On the same day that new measurements from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant show an unprecedented surge in one kind of radiation, new charges surfaced Thursday against TEPCO, the plant's owner, that it has been withholding vital data on a second radioactive substance.

Five months ago, measurements taken by TEPCO showed surging levels of the highly radioactive strontium-90 at a groundwater well. However, despite requests from the country's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) for all such data, TEPCO withheld that information until Wednesday.

"We did not hear about this figure when they detected it last September," Shinji Kinjo, NRA's taskforce on contaminated water issues at Fukushima, told Reuters. "We have been repeatedly pushing TEPCO to release strontium data since November. It should not take them this long to release this information."

"This is not an appropriate way to deal with the desire of the public (for transparency) and in particular, the regulator, which is now very closely regulating issues related to public health, the environment and so on," said Martin Schulz, a senior research fellow at the Fujitsu Research Institute.

Meanwhile, adding to this week's news, TEPCO also announced that samples taken from a separate groundwater well near the plant are now detecting a record 54,000 becquerels per liter of another radioactive substance, cesium.

This level more than doubles all previous records of cesium in groundwater near the plant, the last being 22,000 becquerels detected in a separate observation well in July 2013, The Japan Times reports.

In a separate bit of bad news Shanghai Daily reports that there may be a new leak at the site of the well containing cesium, which is located just 50 meters from the Pacific Ocean.

What Is Happening To Alaska? Is Fukushima Responsible For The Mass Animal Deaths?

What Is Happening To Alaska? Is Fukushima Responsible For The Mass Animal Deaths?
Dec 10, 2013 | The Truth | Michael Synder

Why are huge numbers of dead birds dropping dead and washing up along the coastlines of Alaska?  It is being reported that many of the carcases of the dead birds are “broken open and bleeding”.  The photo of some of these dead birds at the top of this article was originally posted by Alaska native David Akeya on Facebook.  You can find more photos of these dead birds right here.  And of course it isn’t just birds that are dying.  As you will see below, something is causing mass death events among various populations of fish as well.  In addition, it has been reported that large numbers of polar bears, seals and walruses in Alaska are being affected by hair loss and “oozing sores”.  So precisely what is causing all of this?  Could Fukushima be responsible?  Authorities are claiming that all of this is being caused by “disease” or “harsh weather”, but are they actually telling us the truth?  Evaluate the evidence that I have shared below and decide for yourself…

#1 Something is causing large numbers of dead birds to wash up on shores all over Alaska.  The following is a report from Alaska Public Media about just one of these incidents…

Hundreds of dead birds washed up on the shores of St. Lawrence Island towards the end of November. And though the cause of the die off isn’t yet known, the quick response demonstrates a mounting capacity for dealing with unexpected environmental events in the region.

Scientists do not know why this is happening.  Some of them are blaming “harsh weather”.

#2 Something is causing large numbers of seals and walruses to lose hair and develop “oozing sores”…

For example, while skin ulcers and other conditions — hair loss, lethargy, oozing sores, bloody mucous, congested lungs — are affecting seals and walruses, it’s not known if the two species are suffering from the same sickness. And although much studying has been done to determine whether it’s the result of a virus or radiation, and no tests have linked these origins to the illness, it’s not yet known what the root cause is. Toxins and environmental factors, like harmful algae blooms and thermal burns, are under consideration. As is whether allergy, hormone or nutritional problems might play a role.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

#3 Polar bears along the Alaska coastlines are also suffering from fur loss and open sores…

Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses.

The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had “alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

#4 The population of sockeye salmon along the coastlines of Alaska is at a “historic low”…

Aboriginal people in British Columbia who rely on Skeena River sockeye are facing some extremely difficult decisions as sockeye salmon returns plunge to historic lows.

Lake Babine Chief Wilf Adam was on his way to Smithers, B.C., on Monday for a discussion about whether to entirely shut down the food fishery on Lake Babine, something he said would be drastic and unprecedented – but may ultimately be necessary.

Authorities say that the number of sockeye salmon has dropped by more than 80 percent since last year…

Mel Kotyk, North Coast area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the department’s monitoring activities were finding one of the lowest runs in 50 years.
Only 453,000 sockeye are expected to swim along the Skeena this year, Kotyk said, compared to approximately 2.4 million last year, forcing all commercial and recreational Skeena sockeye fisheries to be closed.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.
#5 Something is causing Pacific herring to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs…

Independent fisheries scientist Alexandra Morton is raising concerns about a disease she says is spreading through Pacific herring causing fish to hemorrhage.

Ms. Morton has called on the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to investigate, saying it could cause large-scale herring kills and infect wild salmon, which feed heavily on herring.

“I’ve been seeing herring with bleeding fins,” Ms. Morton said Monday. “Two days ago I did a beach seine on Malcolm Island [near Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island] and I got approximately 100 of these little herring and they were not only bleeding from their fins, but their bellies, their chins, their eyeballs. These are very, very strong disease symptoms.”

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

#6 Some residents of Alaska are absolutely convinced that Fukushima is to blame for the rapidly declining fish populations.  For example, just check out the following excerpt from a recent editorial in one Alaskan newspaper…

We are concerned this hazardous material is hitching a ride on marine life and making its way to Alaska.

Currents of the world’s oceans are complex. But, generally speaking, two surface currents — one from the south, called the Kuroshio, and one from the north, called the Oyashio — meet just off the coast of Japan at about 40 degrees north latitude. The currents merge to form the North Pacific current and surge eastward. Fukushima lies at 37 degrees north latitude. Thousands of miles later, the currents hit an upwelling just off the western coast of the United States and split. One, the Alaska current, turns north up the coast toward British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. The other, the California current, turns south and heads down the western seaboard of the U.S.

The migration patterns of Pacific salmon should also be taken into consideration. In a nutshell, our salmon ride the Alaska current and follow its curve past Sitka, Yakutat, Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands. Most often, it’s the chinook, coho and sockeye salmon migration patterns that range farthest. Chum and pink salmon seem to stay closer to home. Regardless of how far out each salmon species ventures into the Pacific, each fish hitches a ride back to its home rivers and spawning grounds on the North Pacific current, the same one pulling the nuclear waste eastward.

We all know too much exposure to nuclear waste can cause cancer. And many understand that certain chemicals, such as cesium-137 and strontium-9, contained in said waste products can accumulate in fish by being deposited in bones and muscle permanently.

We are concerned our Alaska salmon are being slowly tainted with nuclear waste. We are worried about the impact this waste could have on our resources, and especially the people who consume them.

#7 Something also seems to be causing a substantial spike in the death rate for killer whales living off of the coast of British Columbia…

A Vancouver Aquarium researcher is sounding the alarm over “puzzling” changes he’s observed in the killer whale pods that live off the southern British Columbia coast.

Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard says he fears changes in the ocean environment are prompting odd behaviour and an unusually high mortality rate.

Barrett-Lennard says the southern resident orca pod, which is found in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland, has lost seven matriarchs over the past two years, and he’s noticed a lack of vocalizations from the normally chatty mammals.

Once again, scientists do not know why this is happening.

These kinds of things are happening further south along the Pacific coast as well.

For example, the recent death of thousands of birds down in Oregon is absolutely baffling scientists…

Residents have reported groups ranging from 10 to 200 dead or dying barn and violet-green swallows in barns and around other structures where they perch. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the dieoffs appear to be worst close to rivers and standing water where the birds tend to gather.

The toll, estimated in the thousands, has stunned Fish and Wildlife specialists. “This type of mortality event is unprecedented and considered a rare and unusual event,” said Colin Gillin, wildlife veterinarian for the agency. “The effect on bird populations is unknown.”

Some scientists are blaming these deaths on “harsh weather”.
Do you buy that?

Clearly something very unusual is happening, and it should not be unreasonable to ask if Fukushima is at least partially responsible for all of this.

Without a doubt, the Pacific Ocean appears to be a much different place than it was before the Fukushima disaster.  In fact, one very experienced Australian adventurer said that he felt as though “the ocean itself was dead” as he journeyed from Japan to San Francisco recently…

The next leg of the long voyage was from Osaka to San Francisco and for most of that trip the desolation was tinged with nauseous horror and a degree of fear.

“After we left Japan, it felt as if the ocean itself was dead,” Macfadyen said.

“We hardly saw any living things. We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head. It was pretty sickening.

“I’ve done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I’m used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen.”

In place of the missing life was garbage in astounding volumes.

“Part of it was the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Japan a couple of years ago. The wave came in over the land, picked up an unbelievable load of stuff and carried it out to sea. And it’s still out there, everywhere you look.”

What in the world would cause the Pacific Ocean to be “dead” like that?

Where did all the life go?

Hopefully we will start to get some answers to these questions.

For much more on all of this, please see my previous articles entitled “28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima” and “Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean – Could It Be Fukushima?”

Meanwhile, radiation levels around Fukushima just continue to increase.  The following is from a recent RT article…

Outdoor radiation levels have reached their highest at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant,warns the operator company.Radiation found in an area near a steel pipe that connects reactor buildings could kill an exposed person in 20 minutes,local media reported.

The plant’s operator and the utility responsible for the clean-up Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) detected record radiation levels on a duct which connects reactor buildings and the 120 meter tall ventilation pipe located outside on Friday. TEPCO measured radiation at eight locations around the pipe with the highest estimated at two locations – 25 Sieverts per hour and about 15 Sieverts per hour, the company said. This is the highest level ever detected outside the reactor buildings, according to local broadcaster NHK.

And every single day, another 400 tons of very highly radioactive water gets released into the Pacific Ocean.  The total amount of radioactive material in the Pacific is constantly rising, and because many of these radioactive particles have a half-life of 30 years or longer, much of this material is going to be with us for a very, very long time.

This is turning out to be the greatest environmental disaster in modern history, and it is very far from over.

About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth.  His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

US Mainstream Media silences dissent on Syria WMD claims

US Mainstream Media silences dissent on Syria WMD claims
Dec 10, 2013 | RT America

This week Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh challenged the Obama administration's official narrative on the September chemical weapons attack near Damascus, with a report alleging the White House "cherry-picked" intelligence to justify a military strike against Bashar al-Assad's government. Both the New Yorker and the Washington Post rejected Hersh's reported, suggesting that the mainstream media still hasn't learned from the mistakes it made 10 years ago when faulty intelligence was used to go to war in Iraq. RT's Sam Sacks reports.

Radioactive water overruns Fukushima barrier - TEPCO

An aerial view shows workers wearing protective suits
and masks work at a construction site (C) of the shore barrier
to stop radioactive water from leaking into the sea at Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant on August 9, 2013. (Reuters/Kyodo)

Radioactive water overruns Fukushima barrier - TEPCO
Aug 8, 2013 | RT

Contaminated groundwater accumulating under the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has risen 60cm above the protective barrier, and is now freely leaking into the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator TEPCO has admitted.

Follow RT’s LIVE UPDATES on Fukushima leak emergency

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which is responsible for decommissioning the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, on Saturday said the protective barriers that were installed to prevent the flow of toxic water into the ocean are no longer coping with the groundwater levels, Itar-Tass reports.

The contaminated groundwater, which mixes with radioactive leaks seeping out of the plant, has already risen to 60cm above the barriers – the fact which TEPCO calls a major cause of the massive daily leak of toxic substances.

Earlier on Friday, the company announced it started pumping out contaminated groundwater from under Fukushima, and managed to pump out 13 tons of water in six hours on Friday. TEPCO also said it plans to boost the pumped-out amount to some 100 tons a day with the help of a special system, which will be completed by mid-August. This will be enough to seal off most of the ongoing ocean contamination, according to TEPCO’s estimates.

However, Japan’s Ministry of Industry has recently estimated that some 300 tons of contaminated groundwater have been flowing into the ocean daily ever since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the disaster.

TEPCO also promised it will urgently reinforce the protective shields to keep radioactive leaks at bay. The company has repeatedly complained it is running out of space and has had to resort to pumping water into hastily-built tanks of questionable reliability, as more than 20,000 tons of water with high levels of radioactive substances has accumulated in the plant’s drainage system.

Water samples recently taken at an underground passage below the Fukushima nuclear plant showed extreme levels of radiation comparable to those taken immediately after the March 2011 catastrophe. The tested water, which had been mixing with ground water and flowing into the ocean, contained 2.35 billion Becquerels of cesium per liter – some 16 million times above the limit.

Related:

American Nuclear Industry Suffers a Meltdown

© Dees Illustrations

American Nuclear Industry Suffers a Meltdown
Aug 4, 2013 | Washington's Blog

American Nuclear Power Fizzles

Even though the American government has done everything possible to encourage nuclear power – by wholly subsidizing nuclear power, reducing safety standards after Fukushima, forcing Japan to re-start its nuclear program, covering up the severity of the Fukushima accident, raising acceptable radiation limits and agreeing to buy radioactive Japanese seafood – the so-called “nuclear renaissance” is over in the U.S. (and worldwide).

Duke Energy charged its ratepayers $1.5 billion dollars to build a nuclear power plant in Florida, and then pulled the plug … and refused to refund the money to its ratepayers.

An attempt to secretly ramp up production at the San Onofre plant in California caused massive problems at the plant.  An internal letter reveals that the plant operator knew of defects at the crippled reactors … but misled federal regulators to get and expedited license.  A judge has now permanently shut down the plant.
Virtually all other American nuclear rectors have suffered problem after problem, and plans for new plans have been mothballed.

The problem is that America’s nuclear reactors are old … and are falling apart piece by piece.

But – even after the Fukushima meltdown – regulators have reduced safety standards.

The Nuclear Regulator Commission say that the risk of a major meltdown at U.S. nuclear reactors is much higher than it was at Fukushima (and Fukushima is worse than ever.)

And an accident in the U.S. could be a lot larger than in Japan … partly because our nuclear plants hold a lot more radioactive material.

Indeed, nuclear is expensive and bad for the environment.  Nuclear is wholly subsidized by the government … and would never survive in a free market…. and it doesn’t really reduce global warming.

And it’s not helping inspire confidence in the our ability to safely handle radioactive materials that the former governor of Washington said that the Hanford Nuclear reservation is leaking 1,000 gallons a year, and that there is “no available technology to plug the leaks”.  And see this.   60 of the 177 underground tanks have already leaked and all of the tanks are at risk, which threatens the Columbia River.   There is a chance that the place may explode.

And it’s not helping that a “mass release of floating radioactive particles in metro St. Louis” may be released by the inferno at a landfill containing 8,700 tons of nuclear waste (and all efforts to stop it have failed so far).

Nuclear energy can be cheap, or it can be safe … but it can’t be both. If we want safe nuclear plants, we have to demand that the plant operators spend real money to maintain their reactors, and prevent easy-to-prevent risks.

And – instead of staying with an archaic design chosen solely because it helps to make nuclear bombs – we must decentralize, to more economical and environmentally friendly energy sources … nuclear or otherwise.

31 Percent Of U.S. Honey Bees Were Wiped Out This Year – Who Will Pollinate Our Crops?

© TheTruthWins.com

 31 Percent Of U.S. Honey Bees Were Wiped Out This Year – Who Will Pollinate Our Crops?
Aug 4, 2013 | The Truth Wins | Michael Synder

If bees keep dying off at this rate, we are going to be facing a horrific agricultural crisis very rapidly in the United States.  Last winter, 31 percent of all U.S. bee colonies were wiped out.  The year before that it was 21 percent.  These colony losses are being described as “catastrophic” by those in the industry, and nobody is quite sure how to fix the problem.  Some are blaming the bee deaths on pesticides, others are blaming parasites and others are blaming cell phones.  But no matter what is causing these deaths, if it doesn’t stop we will all soon notice the effects at the supermarket.  Bees pollinate about a hundred different crops in the United States, and if the bees disappear nobody is quite sure how we will be able to continue to grow many of those crops.  This emerging crisis does not get a lot of attention from the mainstream media, but if we continue to lose 30 percent of our bees every year it is going to have a cataclysmic effect on our food supply.

The frightening thing is that the bee deaths appear to be accelerating and they appear to be even worse in the UK and Canada…

This past winter was one of the worst on record for bees. In the U.S., beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies, compared to a loss of 21 percent the previous winter. In Canada, the Canadian Honey Council reports an annual loss of 35 percent of honey bee colonies in the last three years. In Britain, the Bee Farmers’ Association says its members lost roughly half their colonies over the winter.

“It has been absolutely catastrophic,” said Margaret Ginman, who is general secretary of the Bee Farmers’ Association. “This has been one of the worst years in living memory.”

Scientists have been scrambling to figure out what is causing this, and one study that was recently conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture may have some answers…

The study, published July 24 in the online journal PLOS ONE, is the first analysis of real-world conditions encountered by honey bees as their hives pollinate a wide range of crops, from apples to watermelons.

The researchers collected pollen from honey bee hives in fields from Delaware to Maine. They analyzed the samples to find out which flowering plants were the bees’ main pollen sources and what agricultural chemicals were commingled with the pollen. The researchers fed the pesticide-laden pollen samples to healthy bees, which were then tested for their ability to resist infection with Nosema ceranae – a parasite of adult honey bees that has been linked to a lethal phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.

On average, the pollen samples contained 9 different agricultural chemicals, including fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and miticides. Sublethal levels of multiple agricultural chemicals were present in every sample, with one sample containing 21 different pesticides. Pesticides found most frequently in the bees’ pollen were the fungicide chlorothalonil, used on apples and other crops, and the insecticide fluvalinate, used by beekeepers to control Varroa mites, common honey bee pests.

The particular parasite mentioned above, Nosema ceranae, is extremely destructive to honeybees, and this study found that some pesticides and fungicides make it much more likely that bees will become infected by these parasites…

When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite called Nosema ceranae. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.

Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples.

“There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the study’s lead author, told Quartz.

So are these pesticides and fungicides the cause of Colony Collapse disorder?

The authors of the study stated very clearly that they were not making that conclusion.

But it does seem more than coincidental that continental Europe is not seeing bees die in the same kinds of numbers and they have banned many of these pesticides and fungicides.  The following is from a recent article by Christina Sarich…

A study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has labeled one pesticide, called clothianidin, as completely unacceptable for use, and banned it from use entirely. Meanwhile, the U.S. uses the same pesticide on more than a third of its crops – nearly 143 million acres. Two more pesticides linked to bee death are imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam. These are also used extensively in the US, while elsewhere, they have been taken out of circulation.

There are others that are not entirely convinced that pesticides and fungicides are the primary cause of the mass bee deaths that we are seeing.  In some cases, tens of millions of bees are dying all at once.  How could that be caused by pesticides and fungicides?  The following is from a recent article by Arjun Walia…

It’s not just the United States, Elmwood, Canada also recently reported a discovery of over  30 million dead bees. The massive bee deaths in Elmwood came shortly after approximately 50 thousand bees were found dead in an Oregon parking lot.

No matter what the true cause is, we need to find a solution quickly because if we start running out of honey bees we will rapidly be facing a nightmarish agricultural apocalypse.

Just check out the following list of crops that are pollinated by honey bees…

• Apples
• Mangos
• Rambutan
• Kiwi Fruit
• Plums
• Peaches
• Nectarines
• Guava
• Rose Hips
• Pomegranites
• Pears
• Black and Red Currants
• Alfalfa
• Okra
• Strawberries
• Onions
• Cashews
• Cactus
• Prickly Pear
• Apricots
• Allspice
• Avocados
• Passion Fruit
• Lima Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Adzuki Beans
• Green Beans
• Orchid Plants
• Custard Apples
• Cherries
• Celery
• Coffee
• Walnut
• Cotton
• Lychee
• Flax
• Acerola – used in Vitamin C supplements
• Macadamia Nuts
• Sunflower Oil
• Goa beans
• Lemons
• Buckwheat
• Figs
• Fennel
• Limes
• Quince
• Carrots
• Persimmons
• Palm Oil
• Loquat
• Durian
• Cucumber
• Hazelnut
• Cantaloupe
• Tangelos
• Coriander
• Caraway
• Chestnut
• Watermelon
• Star Apples
• Coconut
• Tangerines
• Boysenberries
• Starfruit
• Brazil Nuts
•  Beets
• Mustard Seed
• Rapeseed
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Cabbage
• Brussels Sprouts
• Bok Choy (Chinese Cabbage)
• Turnips
• Congo Beans
• Sword beans
• Chili peppers, red peppers, bell peppers, green peppers
• Papaya
• Safflower
• Sesame
• Eggplant
• Raspberries
• Elderberries
• Blackberries
• Clover
• Tamarind
• Cocoa
• Black Eyed Peas
• Vanilla
• Cranberries
• Tomatoes
• Grapes

Can you imagine life without those foods?

I can’t either.

But if bees keep dying off like this, first those crops will start becoming extremely expensive and then they will start disappearing from our store shelves altogether.

About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth.  His new novel entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

Decimating the Community: Shocking Truths about Wal-Mart

Decimating the Community: Shocking Truths about Wal-Mart
Jan 4, 2013 | breakingtheset

Abby Martin goes over how Wal Mart is swallowing up the world, citing examples of sexual discrimination, environmental pollution, disregard for workers' safety, and costing tax-payers millions of dollars.

Watch Free - Seeds of Death - Unveiling the Lies of GMO's

Seeds of Death - Unveiling the Lies of GMO's
May 24, 2013 | Gary Null

In preparation of the global March Against Monsanto, you are invited to watch our award-winning documentary Seeds of Death free.


http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

The leaders of Big Agriculture--Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta--are determined that world's populations remain ignorant about the serious health and environmental risks of genetically modified crops and industrial agriculture. Deep layers of deception and corruption underlie both the science favoring GMOs and the corporations and governments supporting them.

This award-winning documentary, Seeds of Death, exposes the lies about GMOs and pulls back the curtains to witness our planet's future if Big Agriculture's new green revolution becomes our dominant food supply.

A Question and Answer fact sheet deconstructing Monsanto's GM claims and Big Agriculture's propaganda to accompany the film is available online:

http://prn.fm/2013/05/24/gary-null-an...

Watch Free: A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees

Watch Free: A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees
Apr 28, 2013 | Food Freedom News | Rady Ananda

Produced by Global Justice Ecology Project

  
2010 review by Rady Ananda Excerpt:

Imagine our declining pollinators – bees, moths, butterflies and bats – coming upon thousands of acres of toxic trees, genetically engineered so that every cell in the tree exudes pesticide, from crown to root. Imagine a world without pollinators. Without seed dispersers. Without soil microbes.

It would be a silent forest, a killing forest, an alien forest. No wonder Vandana Shiva scoffs at the moniker, biotechnology. “This is not a life technology. It’s a death science.”

Genetically engineered forests are a holocaust on nature. An award-winning documentary, “A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat, Genetically Engineered Trees” (2005, 46 mins) details the appalling effects. (You can buy the full length film at Amazon.)

(You can read my full review here.)

Fracking debris considered too radioactive even for waste site

Protestors hold signs against fracking during
a demonstration. (AFP Photo / Justin Sullivan)

Fracking debris considered too radioactive even for waste site
Apr 26, 2013 | RT

A truck carrying drill cuttings from a fracking site set off a radiation alarm at a landfill in Pennsylvania. Emitting gamma radiation ten times higher than the permitted level, the waste was rejected by the landfill.

After the alarm went off, the MAX Environmental Technologies truck was immediately quarantined and sent back to the Marcellus Shale fracking site it had come from in Greene County, Va. The 159-acre Pennsylvania landfill site accepts residual and hazardous waste, but the cuttings were too radioactive for the site to safely dispose.

The Pennsylvania landfill, located in South Huntingdon, rejects waste that emits more than 10 microerm per hour of radiation. The fracking materials were found to emit 96 microerm per hour of Radium 226 – a rate that is 84 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s air-pollution standard and ten times higher than the landfill’s permitted level, Forbes reports.

Exposure to the materials taken from the fracking site can have serious health consequences, including the risk of developing cancer. The high level of radiation emitted by the materials serves as alarming news for environmentalists and residents located near hydraulic fracturing sites across the US.

“Long-term exposure to radium increases the risk of developing several diseases,” the EPA writes. “Inhaled or ingested radium increases the risk of developing such diseases as lymphoma, bone cancer and diseases that affect the formation of blood, such as leukemia and aplastic anemia… External exposure to radium’s gamma radiation increases the risk of cancer to varying degrees in all tissues and organs.”

The drill cuttings have been sent back to the well pad where they were extracted. The production company, Rice Energy, must now apply to have the waste discarded at other landfill sites that accept materials with higher levels of radiation.

DEP spokesperson Jon Poister told The Tribune-Review that the cuttings emitted “low-level radiation, but we don’t want any radiation in South Huntingdon.” He said it was not typical for the landfill to reject waste based on radiation levels, but this case provides reassurance that the radiation detection system functions properly.

“It’s not too frequent that this occurs, but it’s not totally infrequent either,” he told the local newspaper. “There are all kinds of sources for that type of material, including medical materials, and this is a huge safeguard we have in place.”

But environmentalists remain concerned about the effects of the radiation produced by hydraulic fracturing sites. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) this year began analyzing wastewater from fracking sites and testing waste products for radioactivity. The investigation is ongoing.

“We are sampling the wastewater and wastes, the treatment equipment used to treat it, the trucks used to transport it, the tanks and pits used to store it and the landfills or treatment plants used to dispose of it,” DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday told shalereporter.com.

The consequences of long-term exposure to Radium 226 are known, but the effects of specially formulated chemicals used at US fracking sites still remain widely unknown. With the Obama administration overlooking environmental concerns and distributing oil drilling rights without a comprehensive review of fracking, it is difficult to know just how much radiation the sites produce.

But with landfill sites rejecting drill cuttings based on high levels of radiation, the waste produced is not an insignificant matter.

No OSHA Inspections at Texas Plant in 5 Years: Are We Doing Enough to Protect Workplace Safety?

No OSHA Inspections at Texas Plant in 5 Years: Are We Doing Enough to Protect Workplace Safety?
Apr 17, 2013 | democracynow

http://www.democracynow.org - In the wake of the deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant, reporter Mike Elk of In These Times magazine joins us to discuss the plant's safety record and the troubling regulatory environment for workplaces in Texas and nationwide. more..

Texas explosion: Ruins, smoke, burning homes filmed shortly after blast (VIDEO)

screenshot from youtube video by user Paul Lannuier

Texas explosion: Ruins, smoke, burning homes filmed shortly after blast (VIDEO)
Apr 18, 2013 | RT

Residential houses ablaze, women and children crying, people running in panic, struggling through thick smoke blanketing the town. Taken by an accidental witness, a horrifying video reveals the chaos caused by the catastrophe in West, Texas.
Local resident Paul Lannuier was driving with a companion when they suddenly became witnesses to the devastation as many surrounding homes and buildings were destroyed in the blast at the West Fertilizer plant.

Follow LIVE UPDATES on Texas plant explosion

“Oh my God, Andrea lives in those apartments!” says the woman suddenly in the background as the car approaches the smoke and fire.

screenshot from youtube video by user Paul Lannuier

Many people were feared trapped in buildings.

n the video, the town is engulfed by fumes of toxic smoke, while residents try to reach through it to find out about their friends and relatives.

“Let’s see if anybody needs help,” the man who’s filming says, jumping out of the car and going towards a group of people gathered on the road.

Debris and shattered windows are seen thrown all across the neighborhood. A row of residential houses is partially or completely destroyed.



 As they park his car to observe the ruined community, he films children and women crying in despair as they stand watching the pluming smoke and flames in the distance. As he starts asking them, it becomes clear people just did not know what happened.

First guesses are that a plane crashed into the community.

“Everything blew up,” one of the witnesses tells him. “I thought something fell on my house!” one of the locals tells the man through tears.

West, Texas, is some 30km north of the town of Waco, and about 50km north of the small community of Crawford, where former President George W. Bush owns a ranch.

screenshot from youtube video by user Paul Lannuier

Related:

Caught on video: Fertilizer plant explosion near Waco, Texas

Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima, Japan may be harming local infants

Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima, Japan may be harming local infants
Apr 17, 2013 | libertylover522

A 2-Minute History Of Monsanto

A 2-Minute History Of Monsanto
Apr 11, 2013 | Green Med TV

All Nuclear Reactors Leak All of the Time

Nuclear valve leak

Treat the Nuke Boys like
the Mad Dogs They Are

All Nuclear Reactors Leak All of the Time
Apr 6, 2013 | Veterans Today | Bob Nichols

(San Francisco) Reportedly Americans widely believe in God and lead the world in the percentage of citizens in prison and on parole. That is actual reality from an imaginary character in a TV show. The Gallup Poll also says it is true and has been for years.

Most Americans believe that nuke reactors are safe and quite sound, too. Wonder why they do that?

Most people at one time in their lives watched as steam escapes from a pressure cooker and accept it as real and true. A reactor is very much the same thing. The “cooks,” called “Operators,” even take the lid off from time to time too.

A nuclear reactor is just an expensive, overly complicated way to heat water to make steam. Of course all reactors leak!

All nuclear reactors also actually manufacture more than 1,946 dangerous and known radioactive metals, gases and aerosols. Many isotopes, such as radioactive hydrogen, simply cannot be contained. So, they barely even try. It is mostly just a show for the rubes.[1]

The four exploded reactors, still burning in Japan after two years, are like dropping four radioactive GBU-39 Bombs[2] down a Bunker vent guaranteeing an astonishing 100% Cancer & Heart Disease rate in surviving personnel. Except, in this case, the whole planet gets zapped.

The US reactors – embrittled, decrepit and crippled – are run about 20% harder than their nameplate capacity, thanks to an always obliging and ever-so-helpful Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC.) The “Commission” likes to act as if they monitor public health; but, the NRC never met a little nuke reactor UpRate Request they did not like.

That means the aging nukes are run hotter and harder at higher temps and pressures while the “Commission” aggressively monitors the resulting decline in public health.

Predictably, these devious snake oil salesmen are amping up to Approve the Restart of FukuUSA, the badly broken big San Onofre Nukes in San Diego, California. The San Onofre Nuke Reactors are built on land leased from Camp Pendleton.
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and serves as its prime amphibious training base for Assault Craft Unit 5.

About 21 million people are in the San Diego/Tijuana-Los Angeles areas. Do the Pro-Nukers care? Of course not. Attention Marines: See Sources and Notes Item No 13 below.

The radioactive San Onofre steam and smoke is guaranteed to add to the radioactive particles from Fukushima’s six trashed reactors and a thousand and one other nuclear “accidents.” Plus, there are daily leaks from all reactors. Have you ever heard of anything more idiotic or FUBAR?[3] Does anybody see a pattern here?

This persistent routine has been repeated again and again for 66 years. Veterans and other troops, these nuke Psychos are taking shots at your back! What the hell do you normally do when a confirmed, blood thirsty Psycho who’s also a very good sniper draws down on you and Fires? This is the exact same thing.

The Pro-Nuker snipers shoot tiny, invisible machine guns that crash through your skin and never stop firing. In fact, you will be dead long before that. A good ole U238 machine gun fires 850 rounds a minute for an eternity of majestic proportions – up to Ninety Billion Years. [4]

All your cells within range die and turn to dead puss filled spheres inside you. There is no medicine, no treatment, certainly no cure. Demand an autopsy after you pass to count your internal levels. Leave instructions to file Murder charges against GE, other manufacturers and your local reactor personnel. Strike back from the grave.

Isotope weapons never jam, either, unlike human invented machine guns that run out of rounds or jam. Even if our machine guns could fire continuously, the barrels would melt from the friction and heat buildup.
No way – that doesn’t happen with the very powerful nuke rounds. To make it even worse for us, the muzzle velocity on some rounds approaches 3,000,000 Meters per second.

Amazingly enough, in the US alone, there are currently close to 40,000 State and local prosecuting attorneys.[5] In addition, there are the 50 States’ Governors – all of whom have an Army that works for them with tanks and millions of other weapons and sidearms.

Master-Sergeant
John C. Woods, 3rd Army

Governors and prosecuting attorneys, get off your butts and take down all the nuclear reactors. Do your Jobs!

The nuke reactors are just great big stationary nuclear weapons that all leak and are aimed squarely at American voters, your major donors included.

Then Perp Walk the criminals to Court, all fair and square legal like, and hang them till very dead in front of TV cameras.

Of special note: Master-Sergeant Woods, the Hangman for the 3rd Army in the European Theatre during WWII was extremely good at his job.
He was tasked to execute a slew of high-ranking Nazis after the Nuremberg Trials in 1946 at the end of WW II.

Master-Sergeant Woods enjoyed a large audience of top allied Generals; yet he was solely in charge. It took 26 minutes for one of those snakes to finally croak. That was a job well done. We must do no less.

Editing:  Jim W. Dean

______________________________________

Copyright 2013 by Bob Nichols. All right reserved. Distribute with Sources and Notes and credit. Bob Nichols can be reached at duweapons@gmail.com

Sources and Notes.

1. Rube. Source, Google Search, April 3 2013.

a. Rubes Comic Strip on GoComics.com www.gocomics.com/rubes
b. Talking cows, less-than-bright kids and multiple varieties of flora and fauna make their appearance in the witty offbeat cartoon panel, Rubes by Leigh Rubin.
c. Rube – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rube
d. They treated us as if we were a bunch of rubes. <rural voters were tired of being treated as rubes by state officials, who showed interest in them only at election …
e. Rubes – definition of Rubes by the Free Online Dictionary …  US and Canadian slang an unsophisticated countryman. [probably from the name Reuben]. rube (rub) n. Informal. an unsophisticated person from a rural area; … www.thefreedictionary.com/Rubes

2. GBU-39 “Kill One Kill Twelve Kill Millions Kill Billions ,” Jun 9, 2012, Bob Nichols, VeteransToday dot com, http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=210465

3. FUBAR. Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.

4. U238 Machine Gun. GI’s Brains Fried by Military Dispensed Nose Candy Bob Nichols, October 2, 2010, http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=52531

5. 40,000 State and local prosecutors. The National District Attorneys Association  http://www.ndaa.org/

6. Photo of Master-Sergeant Woods, 3rd Army.

7. Facebook Pages, Walls and Events. Apr 6, 2013, “The over One Billion Members of Facebook and others can and should routinely check the following Fb Pages and Blogs for accurate information about this on-going Extinction Level Event.” – Bob Nichols, VeteransToday Columnist.

Nuke Ignorance Busters
facebook page
ASK ABOUT FUKUSHIMA NOW
blog
ALL REACTORS LEAK ALL THE TIME   The About Page…..
blog
All Reactors Leak All The Time
facebook page

8. Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature, written by A. V. Yablokov, V. B. Nesterenko and A. V. Nesterenko, published by the New York Academy of Sciences in December 2009, translated and edited into a book by Dr. Janette Sherman.

Download a pdf here: Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for … – StrahlenTelex
www.strahlentelex.de/Yablokov%20Chernobyl%20book.pdf  File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Chernobyl Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment ….. contrary to elementary observations about the nature of the primary interactions … 

9. “Day 532 Post Fuke Blues,” by RosyHeart, Artist, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrAHn3Ox0YU http://tinyurl.com/agk9n4l

10. “Chronic inflammation, mutation and cancer,” Stephan Christen, Tory Hagen, M K Shigenaga, and Bruce N Ames, pages 35 to 88 in book. 319 references in one article.

11. C E Finch, Biology of human longevity. 182 pages of references.

12. Microbes and Malignancies, Infection as a cause of human cancers, edited by Julie Parsonnet.

13. Attention all United States Marine Vets, remember this pamphlet when you were at Camp Pendleton?

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

Marine Corps Base

Camp Pendleton, California 92055

MEMORANDUM FROM

THE

COMMANDING OFFICER

http://www.pendleton.marines.mil/Portals/98/Docs/Supplement_Emergency_Instructions_SONGS.pdf

More than 250 employees axed from Washington nuclear power facility leaking 1,000 gallons per year of radioactive waste

image

More than 250 employees axed from Washington nuclear power facility leaking 1,000 gallons per year of radioactive waste
Mar 28, 2013 | Natural News | Jonathan Benson

Federal budget cuts have prompted the layoff of at least 235 workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southern Washington, a massive 586-square-mile storage site for radioactive waste located near Richland. But according to the Associated Press (AP), aging underground storage tanks at the facility are estimated to be leaking some 1,000 gallons of radioactive waste into the ground every single year, a serious environmental threat that has many questioning why the government would cut funding for this important mitigation project.

As reported by Tri-CityHerald.com, the cuts were made as part of sequestration by the federal government, or the automatic budget trimming of certain federal programs, and include primarily union positions. But some 27 non-union positions were also cut, and several thousand other contracted workers could also lose their jobs soon as a result of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contractors cutting back on the work they assign to their subcontractors.

The Hanford facility was originally created by the federal government back in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop and build the atomic bomb, according to the Associated Press. But after the facility stopped producing nuclear weapons after the Cold War, Hanford became the nation's largest and most complex environmental clean-up project, costing American taxpayers roughly $2 billion a year, or one-third of the country's entire budget for nuclear clean-up efforts nationwide.

"You can't furlough 20 percent of the workforce without having an impact on the work," Gary Petersen from the Tri-City Development Council is quoted as saying to AP. "There's no question that the longer you delay clean-up, the longer it's going to take and the higher the cost."

More than a dozen Hanford nuclear waste storage tanks believed to be leaking 

image

The situation hardly bodes well in light of more recent discoveries that at least 1,000 gallons of nuclear waste are seeping from several of the underground nuclear waste storage tanks at Hanford. Early assessments have pinned six of the 177 underground tanks, most of which are now dangerously antiquated, as having leaks. But a more recent report from OregonLive.com explains that DOE may have identified at least 14 others that are also seeping nuclear waste.

In a letter to Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Daniel Poneman from DOE warned that the furloughs and layoffs could severely delay progress towards fixing the leaking tanks -- according to the latest estimates, nearly 5,000 Hanford employees, both permanent and contracted, are being either laid off or put on temporary furlough. Inslee and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber are both recommending that new storage tanks be installed to stop the leaks and prevent further problems.

"It all illustrates more and more clearly that we need to get the waste treatment plant completed and operating," said Ken Niles, director of the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) division that manages clean-up efforts at Hanford, about now-delayed efforts to construct a $13.4 billion waste treatment plant that will be used to safely store nuclear waste at the site.

"We do need some additional storage capacity," he added, "and we certainly need more money than Congress is at the moment willing to spend on Hanford."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com

http://www.oregonlive.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://abcnews.go.com

Fukushima Meltdown's 2nd Anniversary Brings Protests Against Japan's Reliance on Nuclear Power

Fukushima Meltdown's 2nd Anniversary Brings Protests Against Japan's Reliance on Nuclear Power
Mar 11, 2013 | democracynow


http://www.democracynow.org - Japan stands at a crossroads over its reliance on nuclear power as the country marks the second anniversary of one of the world's worst atomic disasters. On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami that struck Japan's northeast coast, killing more than 20,000 and leaving at least 150,000 homeless. The twin disasters also triggered a meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, stranding more than 315,000 evacuees. Japan responded by halting nearly all nuclear-related projects. But two of the Fukushima nuclear power complex's existing reactors are now operational again, and construction has resumed at the Oma Nuclear Power Plant. Over the weekend, thousands of Japanese marched in opposition to nuclear power. We are joined from Kyoto by Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Green Action.

To see additional coverage of the disaster, see the Democracy Now! news archive: http://www.democracynow.org/topics/ja...