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The mental health effects of the nuclear accident at Fukushima

they live in fear of the invisible threat in their midst. ….  there is agreement that the Fukushima case is unprecedented.

conflicting information has left them confused and fearful about the future.

“We’re being treated like lab rats. The authorities should have told us as soon as they knew the reactors had melted down and helped us leave immediately

Fukushima residents plagued by health fears of nuclear threat in their midst A year after the power plant’s triple meltdown, conflicting official information leaves families confused and fearful for their future, Justin McCurry in Fukushima guardian.co.uk,   9 March 2012  The noise levels soar inside Fukushima city’s youth centre gymnasium as dozens of nursery school children are let loose on bouncy castles and pits filled with plastic balls.

The handful of teachers and volunteers on duty are in forgiving mood: for the past year, the Fukushima nuclear accident has robbed these children of the simple freedom to run around.

Instead, anxious parents and teachers have confined them to their homes and classrooms, while scientists debate the possible effects of prolonged exposure to low-level radiation on their health. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | Japan, psychology - mental health | 1 Comment

Northern Hemisphere got Fukushima radiation for 6 weeks after the nuclear disaster

Fukushima Radiation detectable across northern hemisphere 15 days after disaster http://enformable.com/2012/03/fukushima-radiation-detectable-across-northern-hemisphere-15-days-after-disaster/   Enformable  by Lucas W Hixson  March 9, 2012  From March to June 2011, the global radionuclide network of the CTBTO, detected radionuclides emitted from the Fukushima nuclear power plant for a period of more than 6 weeks at all of the monitoring stations in the northern hemisphere. Very high concentrations were observed which in some cases even exceeded the functional capabilities of the high sensitivity monitoring systems Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, environment, Reference | Leave a comment

USA must not let Israel push it into attacking Iran

 1. There is no hard evidence that Iran is building a bomb…..

2. Bombing Iran would probably be illegal….

3. America doesn’t need another war. ….

4. Bombing Iran could destroy the citizens’ rampant pro-America feelings. ….

5. Diplomacy, not military action, is still the best option…. 

5 Reasons the U.S. Should Not Bomb Iran, Sorry, Israel. Americans aren’t ready for another war. The Philly Post, Christopher Moraff, 8 Mar 12, Less than a year after publicly lecturing  Barack Obama on the subject of Palestinian statehood, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in Washington over the weekend, determined to convince the American president and congressional lawmakers that a preemptive military strike offers the last, best hope for stopping the Iranian regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Bibi’s full-court press included a speech before the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) where—to the sound of rattling sabers—he drew parallels to the Holocaust  and insisted: “I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation.”

Pro-Israel groups, meanwhile, are using the debate over what to do about Iran’s nuclear program to delegitimize  President Obama while waging a smear campaign against critics of a preemptive strike.

They’re joined by three of the four Republican candidates for president, who interrupted their Super Tuesday campaigning just long enough to engage in a bit of politicized fear-mongering. Mitt Romney took the cake with his ludicrous assessment that, “If Barack Obama gets re-elected, Iran will have a nuclear weapon.”…

Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

India’s democracy shrinking, as government tries to stifle anti nuclear voices

India Cancels Visa for Japanese Anti-Nuclear Activist, Voice of America, Kurt Achin | New Delhi, 10 March 12,  India’s government has revoked the visa of a Japanese anti-nuclear activist who was scheduled to visit during the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster.

Nuclear energy opponents say the move fits a pattern of seeking to stifle criticism of India’s rapid push toward nuclear power…. Activists like Raina say the visa cancellation reflects a “shrinking democratic space” when it comes to discussing nuclear power in India. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

Rising radioactivity findings in Japanese fish

Radiation Findings in Japanese Fish Imports Rising The Fish Site, 9 Mar, 12 SOUTH KOREA – South Korea is more frequently finding radioactive materials in fishery products from Japan but has no immediate plans to ban imports as their levels are far below the
maximum intake limits, the quarantine office said Thursday.

In the first two months of the year, the country has detected traces of radioactive materials, such as cesium, in 32 separate shipments of fisheries products from Japan, according to the Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency. ….
http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/16655/radiation-findings-in-japanese-fish-imports-rising

March 10, 2012 Posted by | ASIA, oceans | Leave a comment

Nobel Laureate urges India to abandon harmful nuclear energy

Nobel laureate says nuclear energy can harm Times of India, TNN | Mar 10, 2012,  “… a specialist in the field, Hans-Peter Durr, director emeritus at the Max-Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, says nuclear energy poses serious threat to public health and encourages a major financial drain on national economies. Durr won the Nobel peace prize in 1995.

He delivered the TAG-VHS diabetes research speech on ‘nuclear power and energy hunger’ in the city on Friday in the presence of Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany Stefan Weckbach and an auditorium filled with scientists, doctors, businessmen and retired government officials. …  Durr said we would be able to produce adequate energy from soft sources like the sun. “No one in the world knows what they should be doing with the waste generated from the nuclear waste, except for bombs. Even hiding the waste under the sea won’t help as its half life is several hundred years,” he said.

Earlier at a press conference on Thursday, Durr said government of India and Tamil Nadu should look at alternative sources to tap energy instead of opening a nuclear power plant inKudankulam. …. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Nobel-laureate-says-nuclear-energy-can-harm/articleshow/12203134.cms

March 10, 2012 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

After a year, relatives allowed to search Fukushima zone for bodies

 video   http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/03/09/japans-crippled-fukushima-nuclear-plant-surrounded-by-desolate-no-mans-land/

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant surrounded by desolate no-man’s-land year after disaster By David Piper, March 09, 2012, FoxNews.com Nothing prepares you for entering Japan’s 12-mile exclusion zone around the crippled nuclear power plant at Fukushima. Everybody still has to wear radiation suits and face masks when entering, but within the area it is as if time has stood still.
In other areas along the coastline, a lot of the debris from the tsunamis that hit the shore a year ago, taking over 15,000 lives, has been removed and many homes have been rebuilt. But in the exclusion zone nearly everything has been left untouched….

. Walking on the beach near the plant, the scene was quite surreal or even apocalyptic.
Hundreds of people in full radiation suits and face masks were scouring the shore for the remains of the dead.
On Monday, it will have been a year since the disaster, but these people will not give up the search for the bodies of those still unaccounted for. Around 4,000 people officially still are missing, 49 from just this area of the coast, and this was their first chance to search this area
for the dead.  http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/03/09/japans-crippled-fukushima-nuclear-plant-surrounded-by-desolate-no-mans-land/#ixzz1okXpDEWG

March 10, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

SAGE Alliance calls for anti nuclear actions on March 24

New England’s SAGE Alliance has put out a call for actions across the country on March 24 to defend democracy and support the shutdown of Vermont Yankee and all GE Mark I reactors (and, for that matter, all reactors!). As you probably know, the Vermont legislature voted for  permanent shutdown of Vermont Yankee on March 22. But legal wrangling from the Entergy Corporation will almost certainly delay that. Actions already have been set up for Vermont, Massachusetts and New York. We encourage all groups, and especially all groups near Mark I reactors, to set up a support action. For more information and to help coordinate, contact Kendra Ulrich of the Sage Alliance here.

March 10, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

YouTube: Beyond Nuclear Remembers Fukushima

Remembering Fukushima nuclear disaster, Ed Asner urges an end to nuclear energy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FkWvUOn5js&list=UUs3akzqJux3pIUIczVrzf_w&index=1&feature=plcp

March 10, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

How would a regional nuclear war affect climate?

Effects of a regional nuclear war on global temperatures, Chron.com Eric Berger, 10 Mar 12, Despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts  tensions between Israel and Iran appear to be reaching a boiling point regarding the latter country’s designs on joining the nuclear club.

This is not a geopolitical blog, but rather a science one. So I want to address the question of nuclear war’s effect on climate.

Rutgers University environmental research Alan Robock  has studied this question in a meaningful way, using NASA’s climate ModelE  to study the climatic effects of the byproducts of a nuclear war. Let me be clear, its effect on climate change is down the list of problems posed by nuclear weapons, but the long-term effects would nonetheless be profound, most specifically through colder temperatures, shorter growing seasons and famine.

First lets look at the consequences of a regional nuclear war using 100 15-kT (Hiroshima-size) weapons.

In this scenario, using Pakistan and India, weapons were dropped on the 50 targets in each country to produce the maximum smoke. An estimated 20 million would die, and 5 teragrams of smoke would be pumped into the atmosphere. Such a war would encompass just 0.3 percent of the world’s nuclear arsenal.

Here is its effect on global temperatures:..[very good graphs here] …..    there would be a substantial temporary cooling, but within a decade temperatures would likely respond to 1990s levels.

Then, the research group looked at the consequences of a full-scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia. While highly unlikely, the results of such a war on global temperatures live up to the nuclear winter  of which Carl Sagan warned.  ….. http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2012/03/effects-of-a-regional-nuclear-war-on-global-temperatures/

March 10, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Shutdown soon for Japan’s nuclear industry

Japan nuclear industry nears shutdown TOKYO, Outcome Magazine, March 9 (UPI) — The nuclear energy industry that once supplied a third of Japan’s electricity has nearly shut down amid safety concerns and public opposition, officials say.

Nearly a year after an earthquake and tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown all but two of Japan’s 54 commercial nuclear reactors have gone off-line, with no indication when they’ll restart, and the last operating reactor is scheduled to go off-line next month, The New York Times reported.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says he supports restarting the plants as soon as possible but phasing out nuclear power over several decades in a country that was once a world leader in use of atomic energy. And Noda said he will not allow reactors to restart without the backing of local community leaders.
The dramatic move away from nuclear energy provides an indication of how much attitudes about safety have shifted in Japan since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami.

“March 11 has shaken Japan to the root of its postwar identity,” said Takeo Kikkawa, an economist at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. “We were the country that suffered Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but then we showed we had the superior technology and technocratic expertise to safely tame this awesome power for peaceful economic progress. Nuclear accidents were things that happened in other countries.”…. http://outcomemag.com/world/2012/03/09/japan-nuclear-industry-nears-shutdown/

March 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Evacuation plans last year, as Fukushima crisis occurred

Mr McLean revealed that Australia and other nations began compiling elaborate evacuation plans amid growing concern and uncertainly as the Fukushima plant began to explode.

The former ambassador confirmed Australia had evacuation plans in place but voiced the uncomfortable truth that, in reality, greater Tokyo (population 35 million) would have been almost impossible to evacuate.

Ex-ambassador frustrated by post-tsunami silence BY: RICK WALLACE, TOKYO CORRESPONDENT   The Australian March 10, 2012 AUSTRALIA’S former ambassador to Japan has told of his frustrations with the Japanese government for keeping its close partners in the dark about the extent of the damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant at the height of the crisis almost one year ago. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Germany closing nuclear, France divided on the subject

Sarkozy’s main rival, Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande, wants to reduce France’s dependence on nuclear energy but not end it altogether. 

But Yannick Rousselet, who heads nuclear issues at Greenpeace France, believes this is the beginning of the end.

Year After Fukushima, Nuclear Energy Divides Europe, Voice of America, Lisa Bryant March 09, 2012 Paris Last year’s accident at Japan’s Fukushima-Daichi nuclear power plant has intensified divisions in Europe over the safety and future of nuclear energy. Perhaps nowhere are the differences more apparent than between the region’s biggest powers – France and Germany. . Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

North Korea’s unsafe nuclear reactor

Shortcuts to another nuclear disaster   SF Gate, Philip Yun, 9 Mar 12, “……Fukushima cautions us that nuclear technology is inherently dangerous. It also reminds us that accidents are always possible, despite the best of precautions. Right now there is a potential nuclear disaster in Asia that is under the radar: the construction of an unsafe light-water reactor in Yongbyon, North Korea. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | North Korea, safety | Leave a comment

Rising oil prices – a compelling indicator for renewable energy growth

Increasing Oil Prices could Trigger Renewable Energy Growth, March 9, 2012 by Jason Staeck ProspectingJournal ,  “……The Energy Information Agency recently released its “Annual Energy Outlook 2012”. It reported that renewable energy production was set to double by 2035 even if all government tax breaks had expired. Electricity demand is expected to grow by just under 1 percent each year, with the outlook also suggesting a growing reliance on renewable sources in electricity consumption.

California has set a precedent, with regulators issuing rules that will require 1 in 7 cars produced in 2025 to contain either zero-emission or plug-in hybrid technologies. Many analysts are bullish other markets will follow suit.
Regardless, oil prices are likely to remain the decisive factor in advocating such changes. With global reliance on oil growing there is little reason to believe prices will decrease in the near future. ….  higher prices may be realized very rapidly. If that were the case, we
are likely on the brink of compelling many to restructure their consumption habits in favor of renewable energy sources. And history tells us that there will be more oil shocks to come.
http://www.prospectingjournal.com/increasing-oil-prices-could-trigger-renewable-energy-growth030912/

March 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

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