US nuclear regulator finds issues after Fukushima

* Post-Fukushima inspections found issues at US plants

* Plants must certify compliance with rules by June 10

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - Inspections on U.S. nuclear
plants following the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi
plant have raised questions about how ready they are to deal
with explosions and extreme events, the head of the U.S.
nuclear safety regulator said on Wednesday.

Gregory Jackzo, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, did not specify what issues were uncovered, but
said he told nuclear plants they will have until June 10 to
confirm they are complying with rules put in place after the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Inspection reports on the plants will be released by next
week, an NRC spokesman said. In the meantime, the NRC has
issued a "bulletin" to plants requesting information on their
strategies and disaster readiness.

"It's just a document that will ask licensees to provide
information about some of the things we found as part of our
inspections of the last several weeks," Jaczko told reporters
after a speech to the Nuclear Energy Assembly.

"As with any program we inspect, we find areas where there
are needs for improvement and the bulletin is our response to
ensure those issues get addressed," Jackzo said.

Plants will need to confirm they have a strategy and
equipment in place to deal with extreme events and have staff
trained to carry out the plan.

By July 11, plants must also certify how they are
maintaining, testing and controlling equipment, how they adjust
their strategies over time, and how they are working with local
organizations on emergency planning.

The head of the U.S. nuclear industry trade group revealed
on Tuesday that a self-regulatory body has found some U.S.
nuclear plants are not in full compliance with the rules.

The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, or INPO, found
issues with where plants store and place equipment, and said
plants with more than one reactor need to improve their ability
to respond to emergencies affecting all the units. 
[ID:nN10113035]

But an NRC spokesman said the agency's inspections and
bulletin were not prompted by the INPO findings, which were an
industry-led effort to make sure plants are prepared for
disasters after the Fukushima accident.

Senior staff of the NRC are slated to give their first
report to commissioners on Thursday on possible safety
improvements for U.S. plants in the wake of the Japanese
disaster.

(Editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

Source: Reuters.com

Haitians eat dirt cookies to survive

Thanks Clinton foundation for NOT delivering the relief money everyone donated. I'm sure the mud cookies are wonderful. Maybe when you get around to it you can ship them some irritated milk from the Fukushima fallout that's all over the U.S.

Oh wait fail government will just pretend that's not an issue and continue to sell it to us...

25 Shocking Facts That Prove That The Entire U.S. Health Care Industry Has Become One Giant Money Making Scam

The following are 25 shocking facts that prove that the entire U.S. health care industry is one giant money making scam....

#1 The chairman of Aetna, the third largest health insurance company in the United States, brought in a staggering $68.7 million during 2010. Ron Williams exercised stock options that were worth approximately $50.3 million and he raked in an additional $18.4 million in wages and other forms of compensation. The funny thing is that he left the company and didn't even work the whole year.

#2 The top executives at the five largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States combined to receive nearly $200 million in total compensation in 2009.

#3 One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#4 Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million.

#5 According to one survey, approximately 1 out of every 4 Californians under the age of 65 has absolutely no health insurance.

#6 According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

#7 Profits at U.S. health insurance companies increased by 56 percent during 2009.

#8 According to a report by Health Care for America Now, America's five biggest for-profit health insurance companies ended 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion.

#9 Health insurance rate increases are getting out of control. According to the Los Angeles Times, Blue Shield of California plans to raise rates an average of 30% to 35%, and some individual policy holders could see their health insurance premiums rise by a whopping 59 percent this year alone.

#10 According to an article on the Mother Jones website, health insurance premiums for small employers in the U.S. increased 180% between 1999 and 2009.

#11 Why are c-sections on the rise? It is because a vaginal delivery costs approximately $5,992 on average, while a c-section costs approximately $8,558 on average.

#12 Since 2003, health insurance companies have shelled out more than $42 million in state-level campaign contributions.

#13 Between 2000 and 2006, wages in the United States increased by 3.8%, but health care premiums increased by 87%.

#14 There were more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies that made over a billion dollars in profits in 2008.

#15 Each year, tens of billions of dollars is spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the United States alone.

#16 Nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis according to a CDC report that was just released. According to the report, approximately one-third of all Americans use two or more pharmaceutical drugs, and more than ten percent of all Americans use five or more prescription drugs on a regular basis.

#17 According to the CDC, approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.

#18 The Food and Drug Administration reported 1,742 prescription drug recalls in 2009, which was a gigantic increase from 426 drug recalls in 2008.

#19 Lawyers are certainly doing their part to contribute to soaring health care costs. According to one recent study, the medical liability system in the United States added approximately $55.6 billion to the cost of health care in 2008.

#20 According to one doctor interviewed by Fox News, "a gunshot wound to the head, chest or abdomen" will cost $13,000 at his hospital the moment the victim comes in the door, and then there will be significant additional charges depending on how bad the wound is.

#21 In America today, if you have an illness that requires intensive care for an extended period of time, it is ridiculously really easy to rack up medical bills that total over 1 million dollars.

#22 It is estimated that hospitals overcharge Americans by about 10 billion dollars every single year.

#23 One trained medical billing advocate says that over 90 percent of the medical bills that she has audited contain "gross overcharges".

#24 It is not uncommon for insurance companies to get hospitals to knock their bills down by up to 95 percent, but if you are uninsured or you don't know how the system works then you are out of luck.

#25 According to one recent report, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries on health care.

Source: endoftheamericandream

Qwest Bandwidth Limit vs Xfinity / Comcast

I like how Qwest states that 1 to 3GB is the "normal" amount of bandwidth that customers use.  No where in this entire document labeled "Understanding the Excessive Use Policy (EUP)" does it state an actual limit on the amount of bandwidth you can actually use.

I know from experience that the limit is much higher then what is not listed, if that makes any sense.  When you reach your bandwidth limit on Qwest you get a web page that pops up and tell you that you have reached your limit and to click the button to continue using the internet / more bandwidth.  Which would be my reasoning for switching from Xfinity to Qwest.

Maybe this is a good thing and allows people to use more bandwidth then on Comcast or Xfinity or what ever stupid name they changed to after they won in Federal Court to not be labeled as a telecom so they did't have to abide by the same rules as a  DSL provider under the guise that they aren't a phone service provider.

I also really like how they falsely lead you to believe how much video you could actually stream in order to make their service more appealing.

Lets do some math.

3GB = 3,000 MB

3,000 MB / 3000 30min Streaming Videos = 1MB per video

Since when did even the wost quality YouTube videos only use 1MB to watch?

I think it would be a better estimate to use an HD streaming video from somewhere like Netflix or Amazon Video On Demand .  Where 1 movie would use about 1GB to stream / watch.

Three movies a month is what Qwest states as "normal use"?

We're all getting scammed!

Be sure to keep a look out for bandwidth caps to keep getting lower and lower so ISP can make more money while not having upgrading their system to handle the speeds they advertise and should be providing.  This is exactly what is going on in Canada now, offer an inferior product which stifles innovation in the name of a few people "bandwidth hogs" ruining it for everyone so they don't have to upgrade their systems to handle the streaming video fad that's sweeping the world.  Nice move guys, this is actually a really sinister way to offer an inferior product and hide behind a vale of poor us the bandwidth hogs are causing all the problems, please helps us Federal Government.

Come on United States of Corporate America  There are better ways to deal with bandwidth hogs besides penalizing all your customers.  For example throttle bandwidth to 30% for a day for customers who use more then 70% of their potential speed for more then 24 hours.   Ahh, but those other methods aren't as profitable, I'm starting to get the bigger picture.

I guess at least Comcast has a 250GB limit which you might consider better but good luck getting descent speeds during peak hours like the weekend from 9am to 12am or during the week from 3pm to about 11pm.  Oh come to think of it  those times slots are when almost everyone wants to play video games, watch streaming video, and surf the net.  Hence the reason why Comcast sucks most of the time when you go to use it.

But watch out!  If you hit that 250GB limit you could be kick off of Comcast service for a year!  At least Qwest says they will work with you if you are determined to be an excessive bandwidth user.

Seems to me like the term "excessive use" means someone who actually uses the product they pay for verses most customers who pay for a product and don't really use it.

Link to the Document:
Understanding the Excessive Use Policy (EUP)