Pandemic Meltdowns

Mayan scholars say we are experiencing karmic acceleration in these profound times.  Given the domino spread of crises at the Fukushima, Fort Calhoun, and Perry nuclear power plants--as well as the nuclear weapons lab fire hazard in Los Alamos--perhaps the cosmos is trying to tell us something about this form of energy.

Over a month after the flooding of the Missouri River crippled the cooling power at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station (FCS) in Nebraska that resulted in a fire that forced the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no fly ban” over the area, government nuclear pundits continue to obscure truths and placate the public with benign vagaries.  Based on information supplied to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an alarming report was issued by Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) stating that the U.S. Government ordered a total and complete news blackout relating to any information in connection with the teetering ruinous meltdown of the Nebraska plant.  The report went on to label Calhoun in the “Level 4” emergency category.  Initially, a similar stance of downplay was held by the Japanese Government regarding Fukushima – yet truth finds its avenues.

Currently the FCS states there has been no release of radiation at the plant due to the flooding, and none is expected as the reactor sits in a state of normal and safe “cold shutdown”.  Spokespersons for the FCS claim that flight restrictions set up by the FAA were a result of Missouri river flooding.

A similar incident occurred a few months earlier at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant near Cleveland, Ohio on April 22nd when workers were evacuated from the facility as radiation levels rose dangerously high during a shutdown for a refueling outage.  Here too the public was told everything was fine and no risks were at hand; yet the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has refused to divulge how high the radiation levels are.  As of July 8th, a report by the NRC declared the plant violated a number of rules, putting workers in danger during the refueling shutdown.  The findings were that the workers were given faulty instructions for the job and used equipment that could have interfered with a quick escape, exposing them to high levels of radiation during the shutdown.  The document stated that the employees were less than two minutes – and as close as two seconds – from a radiation overdose.  The operating company of the plant, Parent First Energy Corp., has been a recurring target of regulatory inspections for over three years because of “human performance issues” – mistakes that could be catastrophic in such a setting, the report indicated.

The fourth nuclear domino fell in late June when New Mexico fire crews scrambled to protect one of America's top nuclear weapons production centers, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  Believed to have been started by a downed power line, the Las Conchas Fire has devoured nearly 61,000 acres of pine woodlands in the Santa Fe National Forest surrounding the lab complex and the adjacent town of Los Alamos.  The conflagration burned to within a few miles of a dumpsite, where purportedly some 20 – 30,000 barrels of plutonium-contaminated waste is stored – mostly above ground – at the facility.  On June 27th, the blaze invaded the lab grounds, burning nearly an acre before it was extinguished.  Once again, representative officials claimed the situation was nothing to be concerned about; but the reality is that the 10,000 residents of the town of Los Alamos as well as the 12,000 person work force of the lab, had to be evacuated on that last Monday in June, bleeding in stark contradistinction to the way the situation had been officially portrayed.

Though the fire continued to burn, residents began returning to their homes on July 3, and the LANL reopened to employees on the 6th.  Currently, air quality data, measured by Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT) reports that no dangerous levels of radiation were found in the surveyed areas.  Yet these pander along similar assurances given to the Japanese people until the truth inevitably found its way; and it is healthy to consider that the NRC and its regulatory appendages are financially tied to this failing industry.

Protests to this overarching situation have coalesced in the U.S., including myriad calls for stricter regulations on the industry; complete overhauls on plants that have far outlived their prime and should have been decommissioned long ago (the majority); and a public campaign for an end to loan guarantees that could put an end to the scourge once and for all.  Many are demanding the outright decommissioning of the entire radioactive industry, such as was recently announced by Germany.  Sometimes it takes the profoundly negative to bring forth a Golden Rebirth into harmony.  The Earth, and human survival, demand a conscientious euthenics.