Down with TEPCO (filksong with English subtitles)

Coming across this podcast again in Twitter, I can't help my addiction to this song "Down with TEPCO" (Let's work for TEPCO) - the filksong of "Let's work for Self-Defence Force" which is legendarily told that SDF asked the composer for permission to use it for their PR without understanding the sarcasm.

Down with TEPCO

 

The word most repeated "Hairo" originally mean "(Let's) join", but it also means reactor decommissioning.  We in Japan call Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) "Toden" more often.

This video was uploaded by "greendiamondism" in September 2011 with the comment copied below.  I believe the situation surrounding nuclear power plants is the same anywhere in the world.  Our country, if not the planet, is going nowhere but the hell.

Despite the growing voices and actions for no nuke world, the vested nuke interests keep control over mainstream media, and began to even ignore the diet decisions, creating different bylaws behind the closed door.  If we can't stop them TEPCO and other electric companies will be protected, all the damages will be compensated with tax and increased bills, with no one punished for radioactively contaminated foods, cards, debris, ashes intentionally spread all over the country.

[QUOTE from YouTube:]  

The title of the song in Japanese is a play on words. It basically means "Let's go work for TEPCO", the company whose nuclear reactors blew up after the earthquake in Japan on March 11th 2011. It can also mean "Overthrow TEPCO and decommission the reactor". Over 6 months has passed since the disaster, but the company is still trying to hide it's secrets. The government is too weak to nationalize TEPCO or let it fall into bankruptcy. 

TEPCO is supported by the major banks, insurance companies and industrial companies of Japan. Particularly Toshiba which owns Westinghouse, HItachi which owns General Electric, and Mitsubishi. Hitachi and Mitsubishi recently merged their nuclear businesses together. These are the only companies with the capacity to manufacture nuclear reactors. 
The Japanese public has turned against nuclear power, so these companies are now pushing hard to export nuclear power to developing countries. Even though in "safety-first" "high-tech" Japan, their product has blown up, even now spewing toxic radioactive waste into the air, land and sea, they still can't give up this dangerous technology, and are still desperate to make a profit from Plutonium!
The previous Prime Minister was pushed out after merely suggesting Japan should reduce it's reliance on Nuclear Power. We need you - yes YOU to do something! Please don't buy a single TV, a single dishwasher, a single car, a single solar panel, a single battery... in short, please don't buy anything produced by these companies until they give up their ambition for world destruction!
Thousands of people have had to flee their homes, farmers can't sell their produce and are facing bankruptcy (some have already comitted suicide), all because these companies wanted to squeeze the last yen out of 40-year-old Nuclear Reactors!
The Fukushima disaster may have slipped out of the world's headlines, but it's still a living hell for those cleaning up the mess. The dirtiest, most dangerous work is done by homeless people, literally recruited off the street by one of hundreds of subcontracting companies, many run by the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia.
Japan is renowned for it's technology, but even the Japanese couldn't keep these reactors under control. HItachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi could make money from products that actually benifit the human race, but they still refuse to see that Nuclear Energy is dead-end, 20th century technology. Please, please, please support this campaign! If their stock drops even one yen, the children of Fukushima will love you for it!

The original version without subtitles is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9AlurAWSiM

[UNQUOTE]

After I distributed by email the YouTube video to friends, I got very interesting feedback from one of my most precious friends.  I'm not sure if he is just teasing me (he's got special sense of being sarcastic), but most probably his knowledge about nuclear power and nuclear history is just as little as my pre-311 level.

QUOTE:

Chiho, 

It is very unpatriotic of you to disseminate such emails. Any chance of you getting arrested for such behaviour? 

The Japanese government is trying to make it clear that nuclear energy is safe, and good for your health (like Popeye recharging himself with a dose of spinach).  You are undermining those efforts.  Keeping Tepco private is indeed a very good way to keep secrets a secret. In England they use the term Private-Private Partnership to describe such symbiotic structures.  If Tepco becomes nationalised, the government may be compelled to release Tepco information (an example of such information may be that nuclear reactors really aren't as safe as the government claims them to be).  What good would that do to anyone?  How would the government then recruit more people to build new reactors or (what is much more dangerous) decommission old ones?  Before distributing such irresponsible vidoes, you should answer those questions.   

Tell me, those black and white images in the video, are they from the Hiroshima/Nagasaki disasters?  How many subtle or not-so-subtle references are being made to those nuclear attacks ("Let's finish the job Uncle Sam started in 1945").

:UNQUOTE

If anyone would say the same thing, I want to have my other recent posts read, and watch The 4th Revolution - Energy Autonomy  in Facebook with English subtitles (free).

Fukushima Update (Collection of Latest Videos 4/17/2012)

I found this collection of English news videos, wondering how old they are... most (esp. after 3min) are very new, though many of us on SNS knew the truth of madness and the ridicule of the Government, TEPCO, MITI, etc. already.

Fukushima #4 SFP Cover, #2 Robot, Ohi, Population drop, Economic Demise update 4/17/12

Here's copy of "description"

Published on Apr 17, 2012 by MsMilkytheclown

-Putting a cover on Spent Fuel Pool #4 in order to eventually retrieve the spent fuel rods (technology invention pending)

-Sending in another robot (previous ones failed) into reactor #2 suppression chamber.

-still pushing the agenda of restarting the Ohi nuclear power plant, but still need residents support...

-*surprise* population drop largest since the 50s or so and implications

-impending economic demise for Japan and Japanese government

-Oregon Senator says HELP JAPAN and Fukushima Critical especially spent fuel pool #4, meanwhile dodging questions of food safety and health effects. Typical political dodgeball about 8 minutes into video.

Latest Headlines: http://enenews.com/

Japan Times: The Titanic and The Nuclear Fiasco — "Catastrophic effects of Fukushima fiasco are more far-reaching and long lasting" — "Name has already become synonymous with disaster"

special thank you to flippycat domino fall and MrGeorgeJettison for the Murphy's law comment.

Senator on National TV: I'm so concerned about Unit 4 fuel pool — Tepco's plan must be sped up — "It's very clear there are substantial health questions that have to be addressed now" (VIDEO)

Japan Times: 28 of every 100 Fukushima pregnancies resulted in miscarriage or abortion — "Of course we didn't believe the rumor, but we just wanted to confirm that it was groundless" says survey leader

WSJ: Very dangerous situation at Fukushima Daiichi says Senator — Taking years to remove fuel "carries extraordinary and continuing risk" — No comment from Tepco, Japan gov't — Quake could send buildings tumbling down, resulting in "an even greater release of radiation"

Colbert Report NOT Selling Out to Nuclear Industry? Mentions "no nukes" — Has Bonnie Raitt on as guest (VIDEOS)

Confirmed: 35-ton machine "sitting on top of the spent fuel rack in the pool" of Reactor No. 3 — Extent of damage not yet known (VIDEOS)

UPDATE: No moving spent fuel at No. 4 until 2014 at earliest — Up to 10 years for removal of fuel from all pools — Reactor building to be demolished (VIDEO)

Tepco releases footage of No. 3 Spent Fuel Pool — Shows debris, fuel racks, crane... More (VIDEOS)

Reuters Alert: "Fukushima damage leaves spent fuel at risk" -US Lawmaker — "Far worse than he expected" — Bags of rock only protection from tsunami

US Senator Issues Press Release on Fukushima Spent Fuel Pools — Urges Japan to accept international help — Warns situation worse than reported after touring plant

Tepco: "Foundation improvement work" begins tomorrow at Reactor No. 4 (PHOTOS)

Report: Tepco will start covering No. 4 Spent Fuel Pool tomorrow

Reactor-4-Covertt

Asahi: Gov't admits for 1st time "all nuclear reactors will be shut down in Japan" — 45 years since no plants were operating in country

Alaska's #2 Newspaper: Spring brings fallout — Cesium-137 believed to cause malevolent genetic mutations, says reprinted editorial

Book: Reactor No. 4 deformed in front of our eyes, says Fukushima worker — Walls morphed like special effects from movie — No large explosion, yet building destroyed

Revealed: "Refrain from saying things that may weaken Tepco" -Prime Minister Noda in March 2011

Kyodo: Move to restart reactors blasted as misinformed haste — Gov't under fire from public, experts

All nuclear power in Japan may come to a halt — Gov't failing in effort to restart Oi reactors before final plant shut down — Chances "remote" says Edano

We'll Never Give Up! No Debris! No Restart of Ohi Nuke Plant!!

This Friday was a busy day - I couldn't complete this post before the date changed.

Till late in the morning, I was still struggling to send out a few messages with source links to Kobe, Akashi, Kakogawa mayers and Hyogo Pref. Governor, to request them to stop accepting radioactive contaminated debris that they plan to reach the conclusion on Monday.

The evidences of deaths or hospitalizations obviously from breathing in the fume of burnt debris are increasing, even though the mass media neglect reporting on these facts.  (We get information from quite reliable independent sources including real insider friends.)

After some sleep, in the evening, I prepared for watching live videos/tweets/photos of the people gathering in Tokyo (Prime Minister's Official House), Osaka (Kansai Electric's Main Building) and Kyoto to protest against the Noda administration's crazy instant decision to resume Ohi Nuclear Plant operation.  They even decided to neglect local prefectures' opinions such as Kyoto and Shiga (if Lake Biwa is contaminated, at least 12 million people will be immediately affected).  Well, I would welcome neglecting local opinions if for not building or operating any nuclear power stations that can affect anyone not just in this country but all over the world, indeed.


Video streaming by Ustream
Video streaming by Ustream
We must stop Ohi Power Plants by all means to prove that Fukushima Disaster gave us enough lesson of how much risks we had for almost no benefits.  The pro-nukes are even more desperate to re-operate Ohi as the starting point to make other nuke plants such as Ikata and Genkai plants follow it.

The notification of gatherings was distributed quite late in the evening/night after we saw the 4/5 ridiculous news that the four crazy men in the Government with no radiation expertise decided (obviously under pressure from the Electric vested-interest groups) the newly introduced safety rules were going to be applied to Ohi Plant for reopening.

Silly, huh? The new safety measures were fixed (with lots of loopholes) in two days by non-experts who have never taken any responsibility for Fukushima catastrophe yet.  Not even one victim has been rescued yet.  Kids in Fukushima are still exposed to incredibly high radiation.  School children all over Japan have been subject to unchecked school lunches (except a few as some school began monitoring albeit with quite a loose benchmark - as the budget and time are limited).

The Goverment's referees were Nuclear Safety Commission that proved its inability to prevent, or rather caused the Fukushima explosions, but haven't been arrested yet.  Neither arrested yet are TEPCO's management who historically neglected countless essential safety measures.  Both the management and the permanent employees are enjoying reduced-but-still-much-higher-than-average income levels including "BONUS" in June and December.  On the other hand, many residents in (or evacuees from)  Fukushima are suffering for e.g., double loans for lands and houses where they won't be able to live forever.  Some committed suicide already.  Though the media ignores, we know of quite a few Fukushima radiation-related deaths in the past year.

Embedded above are the videos of Tokyo Actions against the four men in Prime Minister Office (wish there were English subtitles as every speech was worthwhile while our initiatives are slowly growing the way it never happened in the modern history - people from every level/generation/class/industry stood together in the cold wind without much preparation but by very short notice.

The rest of us in Twitter/Facebook/Ustream members sent our spirit there by commenting/communicating to realize we are together indeed.

We take this opportunity to change this rotten country for the first time that began last year without knowing till when we will have to fight the nuclear mafia.  Certainly the civil war between money-seekers and life-protectors are going on.  Some have been already killed and reported as sudden deaths or unconvincing "suicide".  The court is on the pro-nukes side just as most other countries which operate nuclear power plants.

Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History - Fairewinds Update of 6-May-11

At this point, most of the Japanese - even many active Twitter members haven't seen the true picture (video) of the explosion of Reactor #3 in Fukushima Daiichi.  Those few of us thought it was nuclear explosion, but Mr Gundersen thinks it is kind of hydrogen explosion.  (Later, his explanation changed slightly.)

(ref with Japanese subtitles: #福島原発 3号機即発臨界爆発! 地下水汚染史上最悪5/6ガンダーセン )

[Quote from Vimeo:]
A report from the Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission Ex-Secretariat, Dr. Saji, credits the current status of the accident to "luck". Gundersen discusses what could have happened if the wind had been blowing in-land.

[Unquote]

I just found a link to an article of May 9, 2011 regarding media coverups.  Below is its copy.

[QUOTE from http://www.huffingtonpost.com]

Vivian Norris

Phd, Based in Paris-Globalization Studies

Deadly Silence on Fukushima

Posted: 05/ 9/11 05:05 AM ET

I received the following email a few days ago from a Russian nuclear physicist friend who is an expert on the kinds of gases being released at Fukushima. Here is what he wrote:

About Japan: the problem is that the reactor uses "dirty" fuel. It is a combination of plutonium and uranium (MOX). I suspect that the old fuel rods have bean spread out due to the explosion and the surrounding area is contaminated with plutonium which means you can never return to this place again. It is like a new Tchernobyl. Personally, I am not surprised that the authority has not informed people about this.

I have been following the Fukushima story very closely since the earthquake and devastating tsunami. I have asked scientists I know, nuclear physicists and others about where they find real information. I have also watched as the news has virtually disappeared. There is something extremely disturbing going on, and having lived through the media blackout in France back in April and early May 1986, and speaking to doctors who are deeply concerned by the dramatic increase in cancers appearing at very young ages, it is obvious that information is being held back. We are still told not to eat mushrooms and truffles from parts of Europe, not wild boar and reindeer from Germany and Finland 25 years later.

A special thanks to people like European Representative Michele Rivasi, who has followed this issue since Chernobyl: Rivasi, a Green MEP and founder of France's Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity, told EurActiv that she was worried the tests would cover up nuclear risks and reinstate business as usual.

"It's very important to have scientists who are not already paid by the nuclear power industry," she said. "If they are the same people from Euratom and national authorities they use today, why would they say anything different to what they say all the time?"

One resource for information on Chernobyl deaths and cancers/illnesses was only just recently translated and can be found online: "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment" by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko, and Alexey Nesterenko.

Another very good report on Chernobyl is this one, which also outlines the disturbing relationship between WHO and the nuclear industry.

The best site I have found for up-to-date information by nuclear industry experts is here.

Arnie Gundersen was a high-level executive for years and analyzes the information he has been receiving in a calm and scientific way. His latest update is entitled, "Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History." Gundersen is in touch with senior members of the Japanese nuclear establishment. What is highly disturbing is that the main reason Japan does not appear to be as bad a Chernobyl is that the wind was blowing out to sea and not for the most part towards land. But all this has done is spread the cancers out into the worldwide population as opposed to concentrating it all in Japan. It will be very difficult to tell, as it was in France, Scandinavia and other places, where the Chernobyl cloud traveled in the days following the disaster. I will summarize some of Gunderson's very disturbing and important information here:

1. There was a hydrogen explosion, and it was a detonation, not a deflagration -- in other words the fire burned up not burned down.

2. A frame-by-frame analysis shows a flame that confirms that the fuel pool is burning as a result of an explosion which started as a hydrogen explosion but that could not have lifted the fuel into the air so there must have been a violent explosion at the bottom of the fuel pool. But more data is needed.

3. Gunderson speaks about past criticalities in other nuclear reactors around the world, and I find it odd we are not hearing about these and how they can teach us about what is going on now at Fukushima.

4. Radioactive water is being pumped out and groundwater is contaminated, so there must be a leak or leaks, and this disaster is in no way contained. There will be contamination for a long time to come and this groundwater contamination is moving inland. One town is reporting radioactive sewage sludge from ground water or rainwater.

5. The Greenpeace ship Rainbow water has requested the Japanese government to test the waters near Japan, and Japan has refused this independent data request. The EPA has also shut down all inspection centers and is NOT inspecting fish. (Why the silence?)

Since Gunderson made this latest video, just a day or so ago new photo evidence seems to be showing burning and new fires taking place at Fukushima (from TBS JNN Japan):

Why is this not on the front page of every single newspaper in the world? Why are official agencies not measuring from many places around the world and reporting on what is going on in terms of contamination every single day since this disaster happened? Radioactivity has been being released now for almost two full months! Even small amounts when released continuously, and in fact especially continuous exposure to small amounts of radioactivity, can cause all kinds of increases in cancers.

One reason no one is reporting on this nor allowed to go inside the exclusion zone nor even measure the waters off of Japan is because of the following compiled by Makiko Segawa, a staff writer at the Shingetsu News Agency. She prepared this report from Fukushima and Tokyo for www.japanfocus.org:

Freelance journalists and foreign media are pursuing the facts, even going into the radiation exclusion zone. However, surprisingly, the Japan government continues to prevent freelance journalists and overseas media from gaining access to official press conferences at the prime minister's house and government.

Uesugi stated that since March 11th, the government has excluded all internet media and all foreign media from official press conferences on the "Emergency Situation." While foreign media have scrambled to gather information about the Fukushima Reactor, they have been denied access to the direct information provided by the government and one consequence of this is that "rumor-rife news has been broadcast overseas."

In fact, access has been limited in two ways. First, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio holds twice daily press conferences for representatives of the big Japanese media, registered representatives of freelance and internet media are limited to a single press conference per week. Second, in contrast to Japanese media who are briefed regularly by Edano and periodically by Prime Miniser Kan, foreign media are briefed exclusively by administrative staff.
Uesugi also notes that at TEPCO press conferences, which are now being held at company headquarters, foreign correspondents and Japanese freelancers regularly ask probing questions while mainstream journalists simply record and report company statements reiterating that the situation is basically under control and there is nothing to worry about. One reason for this, Uesugi suggests, is that TEPCO, a giant media sponsor, has an annual 20 billion yen advertising budget. "The media keeps defending the information from TEPCO!" "The Japanese media today is no different from the wartime propaganda media that kept repeating to the very end that 'Japan is winning the war against America,'" Uesugi exclaimed.
There is one particularly telling example of the media shielding TEPCO by suppressing information. This concerns "plutonium." According to Uesugi, after the reactor blew up on March 14, there was concern about the leakage of plutonium. However, astonishingly, until two weeks later when Uesugi asked, not a single media representative had raised the question of plutonium at TEPCO's press conferences.

On March 26, in response to Uesugi's query, TEPCO stated, "We do not measure the level of plutonium and do not even have a detector to scale it." Ironically, the next day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano announced that "plutonium was detected."

When TEPCO finally released data on radioactive plutonium on March 28, it stated that plutonium -238, -239, and -240 were found in the ground, but insisted that it posed no human risk. Since TEPCO provided no clarification of the meaning of the plutonium radiation findings, the mainstream press merely reported the presence of the radiation without assessment (link). Nippon Television on March 29 headlined its interview with Tokyo University Prof. Nakagawa Keiichi, a radiation specialist, "Plutonium from the power plant--No effect on neighbors."

On March 15, Uesugi criticized TEPCO for its closed attitude toward information on a TBS radio program. For this, he was immediately dismissed from his regular program. The scandal involving TEPCO's silencing of the media took an interesting turn two weeks later. At the time of the disaster on March 11, TEPCO Chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa was hosting dozens of mainstream media executives on a "study session" in China. When asked about this fact by freelance journalist Tanaka Ryusaku at a TEPCO press conference on March 30, Katsumata defended the practice.

"It is a fact that we traveled together to China," he said. "[TEPCO] did not pay all the expenses of the trip, but we paid more than they did. Certainly they are executives of the mass media, but they are all members of the study session."

When Tanaka requested the names of the media executives hosted by TEPCO in China, Katsumata retorted, "I cannot reveal their names since this is private information." But it is precisely such collusive relations between mainstream media, the government and TEPCO, that results in the censorship of information concerning nuclear problems.

Now the Japanese government has moved to crack down on independent reportage and criticism of the government's policies in the wake of the disaster by deciding what citizens may or may not talk about in public. A new project team has been created by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, the National Police Agency, and METI to combat "rumors" deemed harmful to Japanese security in the wake of the Fukushima disaster."

We need to demonstrate and write to our representatives and demand that measuring be done around the world continuously. Fukushima's nuclear disaster is still going on. People need accurate information to protect themselves. Here is how after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Chernobyl doctors worked with those who had been contaminated to decontaminate them (Sources: Tatsuichiro Akizuki, M.D., Nagasaki 1945 (London: Quartet Books, 1981); Tatsuichiro Akizuki, "How We Survived Nagasaki," East West Journal, December 1980):

Macrobiotic Diet Prevents Radiation Sickness Among A-Bomb Survivors in Japan - In August, 1945, at the time of the atomic bombing of Japan, Tatsuichiro Akizuki, M.D., was director of the Department of Internal Medicine at St. Francis's Hospital in Nagasaki. Most patients in the hospital, located one mile from the center of the blast, survived the initial effects of the bomb, but soon after came down with symptoms of radiation sickness from the fallout that had been released. Dr. Akizuki fed his staff and patients a strict macrobiotic diet of brown rice, miso soup, wakame and other sea vegetables, Hokkaido pumpkin, and sea salt and prohibited the consumption of sugar and sweets. As a result, he saved everyone in his hospital, while many other survivors in the city perished from radiation sickness.

I gave the cooks and staff strict orders that they should make unpolished whole-grain rice balls, adding some salt to them, prepare strong miso soup for each meal, and never use sugar. When they didn't follow my orders, I scolded them without mercy, 'Never take sugar. Sugar will destroy your blood!'...

This dietary method made it possible for me to remain alive and go on working vigorously as a doctor. The radioactivity may not have been a fatal dose, but thanks to this method, Brother Iwanaga, Reverend Noguchi, Chief Nurse Miss Murai, other staff members and in-patients, as well as myself, all kept on living on the lethal ashes of the bombed ruins. It was thanks to this food that all of us could work for people day after day, overcoming fatigue or symptoms of atomic disease and survive the disaster" free from severe symptoms of radioactivity.

People need answers, data and honest information to help them deal with what is going on. Media blackouts, propaganda and greedy self-interested industries, of any kind, who allow human beings' health to be affected, and deaths to occur, must be stopped now. That senior TEPCO man and the leading nuclear academic in Japan did not break down crying and resign their positions because all was well at Fukushima. Think about it world, and act now before it is too late.

 [UNQUOTE]