CHERNOBYL AND FUKUSHIMA KILLED NUCLEAR POWER

It was 30 years ago today (1986) when the future of fission nuclear power was compromised by a human / technology accident:  the Chernobyl nuclear cataclysm.  A little more than five years ago nature caused the calamitous Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.  A hint of things to come occurred at Three Mile Island in 1979 just before I began working for the U.S. Senate, only about 100 miles away.  There were lies, of course.   Such governmental responses can be predicted for these debacles, but interestingly enough, they spurred the further development of renewable energy.  

What will be the reality of these tragedies?

• Belarus alone is expected to bear $235 billion of expenses over the next 30 years
• Nuclear organizations and governments tend to downplay the damages, and green speculations may exaggerate the effect, as for example, estimating eventual costs of $1 trillion to $21 trillion for Fukushima.  
• However, a French Federal agency reported a worst case scenario danger of $7.5 trillion from a nuclear power disaster, which is almost three times their Gross Domestic Product, so the ultimate cost of both Chernobyl and Fukushima could well reach at least the $1 trillion, each.  
• From a fiscal standpoint, that would be tens of times worse than the cumulative electricity revenues accumulated during the lifetime of those plants.

International contributors will be mostly paying the $1.5 billion for that sarcophagus over Chernobyl's ruins, said to be able to house the Statue of Liberty, and hopefully to be covered next year:

At least most of European nuclear power facilities will not be bothered by tsunamis:

The problem with U.S. nuclear power producers could well be seismic:

What worries me most about these facilities, though, is that terrorist groups (Muslim and environmental) could well by now have planted a few key personnel into some of the above sites, and the fallout of inside jobs near highly populated locales will surely kill off fossil power forever.  

Of course, every Japanese reactor is located at the coastline:

Were there any positives from Chernobyl and Fukushima?  Well, some have suggested that Chernobyl bankrupted the Soviet Union, serving as the catalyst for Mikhail Gorbachev prevailing in domestic politics to end the Cold War.  Thus, perhaps it took peaceful nuclear power to end the prospects of a nuclear winter:

Fukushima forced governments to take a close look at what it really costs to build, operate and clean-up nuclear facilities.  The current expense of a new nuclear power plants is now beyond commercial sense.  Nuclear power is on the decline in the USA.  In Europe, renewables are making nuclear unattractive, especially as a brand new one is only built at 1000 MW or larger sizes, while you can custom-fit solar options:

Yes, you get far less carbon dioxide emissions from nuclear power plants relative to coal, but just the simple economics combined with the potential for catastrophic incidents and dirty nuclear terroristic bombs have made financing new nuclear projects only possible now in a country like China.  Europe is swiftly abandoning fission nuclear, but still supports fusion, with R&D being pursued on ITER (left, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) at Cadarache, France.  Alas, ITER, created by Reagan-Gorbachev 31 years ago, is now up to $14 billion and not expected to even try deuterium-tritium fusion for at least another decade.

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TWO EXCELLENT ESCAPIST FILMS

I go to films to entertain myself.  In particular, I enjoy themes where I can safely fantasize.  Sure, vampire, zombie, Marvel Comics and animated movies are escapist too, but I can't stand them because they can't be real.  I've stopped summarizing these productions.

I went to two fantasy films this weekend (Rotten Tomatoes Reviewers' and Audience Ratings):

  A Hologram for the King    63%    94%

  Hello, My Name is Doris    82%    87%

If you didn't know, my movie summaries kind of give the whole story away, so stop reading if you plan to go see them and don't want to know what happens.

A Hologram for the King takes place in Saudi Arabia, but was mostly filmed in Morocco and Egypt.  Tom Hanks plays a failed businessman and husband who is sent to the Middle East to sell a holographic teleconferencing system...and fails again.  However, he finds love.  He had a choice of various options and chose not to return home.  The storyline could have been better woven into the screenplay, but seemed to have just been added on when someone must have said, something is missing.  If you enjoy placing yourself into an exotic environment of a different culture, with the obligatory scene of a hot disco party and background music provided by Talking Heads, Chicago, Electric Light Orchestra and Vivaldi (his Spring Season), and want to feel good at the end, this film is for you.  I liked it.  What is a hologram?

Hello, My Name is Doris is about a 60-ish office worker played by Sally Field who wants to fall in love with her boss John (Max Greenfield) half her age, while recovering from the loss of her mother, who she lived with all her life in a badly cluttered home.  Her best friend, played by Tyne Daly, has a 13-year old granddaughter (Isabella Acres) who assists Doris spy on John via social media.  There were bits of Mendelssohn and Boccherini, with some Platters' Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, but most of the music was contemporary, meaning I had no idea what was going on.  There was, of course, that compulsive neon electric dance sequence.   The final scene gives hope that this will be a happy ending.  I found this movie good escapist fare for old people.  I also noted that most of the people in the audience had white hair.

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THE GOLD TREE IS BLOOMING IN HONOLULU

I noticed that Gold Trees (Tabebuia donnell-smithii) are now blooming around 15 Craigside...

That is Sanju Pagoda in Kyoto Gardens of Honolulu Memorial Park.  You can only barely see it, but behind  15C is 2101 Craigside, where I lived for 32 years.

And at the University of Hawaii Law School, where my Pacific Ocean Science and Technology (POST) building can be seen in the background with the blue windows:

That second photo above, near Hamilton Library is another Gold Tree, and adjacent is a purplish tree with Keller Hall in the back.  When I first arrived on the Manoa Campus in 1972, my office was located here.   I moved to Holmes Hall when it was built a couple of years later...actually, I had three:  as an engineering faculty member, associate dean of engineering and graduate student laboratory.  In my transition to retirement, the  POST building opened in 1999, so that is where I have been now for 17 years as a retiree, with Gold Trees right at my window.  But today, these trees are only green with no flowers.  However, to the right is a June 2012 blooming.

Below is the ceremony at the Ala Wai Golf Course when 20 of them were planted for Pearl.  This plaque was placed at the tee-off of the 17th hole.  A similar number of trees was sent to the Makalena Golf Course.  Thus far, they seem to be struggling, as they do not do well in salty soils.  I was told that several more mature Gold Trees could well be moved to the Ala Wai GC, as they are in the way of the Honolulu Rail Project.

The Gold Tree can bloom anywhere from December through June, and anytime later when it feels like it.  There was already an early golding a couple of months ago and I expect more as the year unfolds.  The iconic Bachman Hall Gold Tree sometimes turns all yellow, but is today all green.  Here is what it looked like just about a year ago to the right only partially yellow.    

A few more details:

• During a dry year, they all bloom at around this time and the flowering is spectacular.
• At maturity the tree can be 100 feet tall, taking 20 years to reach half that height.
• The wood is cherished for bowls and furniture.
• Can be propagated from seeds or cuttings.
• The flowers are trumpet or bell-shaped.

You can only barely see it, but as I finish this posting, just at the left top of this cattleya, is a bank of Gold Trees:

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HOW I LOWER MY BLOOD PRESSURE

First of all, don't listen to me about your blood pressure.  Ask your doctor.  However, let me bring you up to date on my body, the white rat equivalent I have been sharing on my personal experience with blood pressure for years on this blog site.  Here is just one, posted more than four years ago:

• Provided are the details of hypertension, or high blood pressure, like what is systolic and diastolic.
• I speculated that salt or sodium was particularly bad for my body.
• Stress hurts.
• Sleep helps.
• There were indications that walking on a golf course, followed by a hot bath significantly lowered my blood pressure, from a norm of 150/90 down to 115/70.

In that article I hinted that there was a Simplicity Catheter System (also known as renal sympathetic denervation) being tested in Europe that dropped the blood pressure from 160 systolic down to 120 or so.  Five years ago Medtronic got FDA approval to test out this system, indicating;

• Hypertension was the leading attributable cause of death worldwide and affects 1.2 billion people.
• There is increased risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease and death.
• Is responsible for adding $500 billion annually to health care bills.
• Pills don't help at least 50% of people who take them.

Well, the first round of clinical trials must have worked to some degree, as Phase 2 studies were initiated a year ago.  But still, no sign of availability.  In 2014 the United Kingdom Societies did not recommend this treatment.  In other words, don't hold your breath for any instrumental solution.  Take your pills.

In my case I have for a decade now been taking the equivalent of Irbesartan-HCTZ, a combination that not only treats high blood pressure, but, apparently also delays the onset of type-2 diabetes, a concern of mine, as my blood sugar has been rising.  More recently, my current doctor added Amlodipine Besylate, which widens blood vessels.  I have not followed through with this second pill, but will consider taking this during trips.

So, anyway, a week ago I returned from a three-week trip to Japan, a period when I overdid sakura, salt, sake and shochu.  I knew I was gaining weight, but purposefully did not take my blood pressure machine, for that would have spooked me out.  My thinking was that, if I survived, on return I would go back to walking on a golf course.

Normally, before the first hole, my blood pressure is in the range of 145/85, with a pulse rate of 70.  By the 6th hole, the pulse rate goes up to 100, and my pressure drops to the low for the round:  80-110/55-65.  Then the pressure slowly rises to around 125/80 by the 18th hole.  When I return home and take a hot bath with a drink, the typical measurement is 110/65.  Of course, when I get really hungry after missing a lunch, the pressures jump to 180/100.  I'm also at 165/95 when I first wake up.  If I spend the morning on a computer, the pressures average 155/90.

The Monday after I returned, walked 18 holes at the Ala Wai Golf Course, and my blood pressures at the beginning was a scary 170/95.   They never dropped below 155/85, and, even after the bath, remained around 150/85.  I weighed 163.4 pounds.  I had gained seven pounds on the trip.  The plus part about this high blood pressure was that I was strong through the round and could have walked another nine.

I walked another 18 holes on Wednesday, and after the first hole read 140/85 at a pulse rate of 96.  At the 6th hole:  121/70 at 103 pulse rate.  18th hole:  115/72 at 123 pulse rate.  After the bath, 139/71 at 66 pulse.  My weight?  159.8 pounds.  I had already lost 3.6 pounds and my blood pressure was normalizing.

Friday, after the first hole I was already down to 103/66 at 98 pulse rate.  At the 7th, up to 119/66 at 100 pulse.  Dropped to 103/63 at 105 after the 10th, but up to 119/80 at 117 pulse after the 18th.  Following the bath with drink, 119/69 at a pulse rate of 71.  But the shocker was that my weight had dropped in a week by 9.6 pounds to 154.2.  I had never seen 154 for at least a quarter century. 

So, in summary, my blood pressure:

• Jumps when I go on a trip.
• Part of this is that my body is like a camel.  Knowing the journey will be stressful, it tends to store water.
• I also tend to eat a real breakfast if it is free, as in Orient, so I gain weight.
• My blood pressure increases when I store water and gain weight.
• Drops when I walk 18 holes of golf.
• Drops when I take a hot bath with a drink.
• Jumps when I'm hungry.
• Stays high (155/95) when I sit, as when watching TV or work at the computer.
• Tends to get lowered (145/85) when I make myself busy just walking around.

Unfortunately, next month I take back to back trips, both sure to increase weight and sodium:

• One week golfing with my annual group in California, where it will be cart golfing and we then spend all afternoon drinking and eating mostly junk food.
• One week in Seoul and Tokyo.  

To help preserve my life I have chosen to fly first class on my way to California, for this will be an overnight flight, and to Seoul and back from Tokyo.  I will also begin taking that second blood pressure pill.  Maybe I'll avoid some salt and eat healthier foods:

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Tropical Cyclone Amos at 105 MPH went right over Samoa and will at least brush American Samoa:

This was the strongest ocean storm in three years.

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AT RECORD RATES, PLANET EARTH IS GETTING HOTTER AND SEA LEVELS ARE RISING

I'll write THE VENUS SYNDROME soon, but for now, you can heed the warnings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which just reported that the past eleven months have each been the hottest months in recorded history.  Among the evidence:

• Greenland ice sheet melting earlier than ever.
• The Arctic had its smallest winter maximum for sea ice.
• March 2016 was 2.2 F warmer than the 20th century March average.
• The first three months this year were 2.07 F warmer than normal.
• All signs point to April also joining the past eleven months.

So today, International Mother Earth Day (since 2009, but also known as Earth Day in the USA, beginning in 1970), the United Nations headquarters in New York City will host a signing ceremony to begin implementing the 12 December 2015 Paris Agreement.  Read the details.  How big a deal is this?  I wouldn't quite say meaningless, but certainly something pretty close.

For one, the Supreme Court (which still has a carryover Republican-controlled mentality) effectively shelved President Obama's Clean Power Plan.  Further, if either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz becomes president, they have officially indicated they will thumb their noses at the agreement.  In other words, it is one thing for the head of a country to acknowledge approval.  It is an entirely different matter for their Parliament or Diet or Congress to ratify the treaty, and any new leader to acquiesce.

If the next American president is Democratic, and Congress remains controlled by Republicans, this charade will continue, with the White House doing everything possible to sidestep the legislative process.  Of course, the U.S. Senate probably will probably never approve the agreement anyway, as they ignored the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, even when the Democrats had full control of the House and Senate in the first two years of Obama's reign.

(I might add that 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement.  Practically every representative, including Secretary of State John Kerry, indicated that they would gain legislative approval this year.  Good luck, America.  If the Republicans remain in control of the Senate, it will become a repeat of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, for 192 countries ratified, with the exception of the United States, Afghanistan and Sudan!)

Meanwhile, the latest issue of Nature Climate Change reported that as many as 13 million Americans, nearly half in Florida, living along our coastlines, will face flooding by the end of this century.  The cost of relocation could cost $14,000 billion, or $14 trillion.  More precisely, sea levels are rising faster since the time of Jesus Christ.  Here is an interesting historical perspective of our global temperature, which makes you wonder what is the big deal about our temperature today:

You can click on that graph to actually read it.  However, I did further research on the above visual, and found several articles going as far back as a decade ago debunking this work.  So why do I show it?  Well, it is entertaining.

So, on with THE VENUS SYNDROME.

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Tropical Cyclone Amos, now at 105 MPH, could storm through Samoa this weekend as a Category 4:

American Samoa might escape some of that wrath.  Meanwhile, once Super Tropical Cyclone Fantala in the Indian Ocean is still at a powerful 105 MPH, will strengthen, and hit the northern tip of Madagascar, on its way to Tanzania:

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THE LATEST UPDATES ON SOLAR IMPULSE 2 AND ZIKA

After a nine month vacation to fix flawed batteries and waiting for more sunlight, following a farewell hula by Miss Hawaii 2013 Stephanie Steuri, Solar Impulse 2 finally took off from Hawaii, and is expected to land at Moffatt Field in Mountain View, California Saturday night.  I'm quite familiar with this NASA airport, for I spent a summer on a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project here, where my office was next door to the Blackbird.  The trip began more than a year ago on 9 March 2015 when the plane took off from Abu Dhabi.  

The most trying leg was the nearly five day flight from Japan to Honolulu.   Here are pilots Bertrand Piccard (who piloted the departure today) and Andre Borschberg (he flew the SI2 to Hawaii) when the aircraft landed in Hawaii.   The original goal was to complete the trip within the first year, so now to Plan B.

On a related energy matter, the U.S. Senate passed an all-inclusive energy bill yesterday.  Leading the effort were Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski and ranking Democrat, Senator Maria Cantrell (on the left).  The House version is mostly about fossil fuels, but there are reasons to believe that the measure will remain broad through the negotiation process, partly because this appears to be a bipartisan effort.  If Congress eventually passes this measure, this will be first energy authorization bill in a dozen years.

Since my original posting on Zika earlier this year, the situation has become more serious:

• Males with Zika can infect a pregnant female through sexual intercourse. 
• Mothers to be must be infected with Zika in the first three months of pregnancy.
• Up to 30% of babies born from mothers who contract this mosquito-caused disease suffer from some kind of birth defect.
• However, microcephaly (shrunken skull) might perhaps occur in  only 1% of births.
• In addition, Zika has been linked to a nerve disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

Zika was brought into Brazil, it is suspected, by Polynesian spectators to the 2014 World Cup.  Now with the upcoming Summer Olympics and the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, the leader of the government by the time of the Olympics could be Michel Temer (wife Marcela to his right).  How's this for a particularly frightening catastrophe:  visitors and athletes returning home to infect the world.

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Tropical Cyclone Fantala has weakened to 105 miles per hour, will soon roll over the northern tip of Madagascar, then head towards Tanzania.

In the Pacific, Tropical Cyclone Amos has formed west of Samoa, and could attain Category 2 strength by the time he threatens Samoa and American Samoa:

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