nuclear-news

Nuclear disaster’s effect on humans has been underestimated

 WHO statistics and studies on how the Fukushima disaster may have already, and will continue to affect human beings must be re estimated. The outcome based on the new information will obviously be much worse.

Germany’s Solar Success and Fukushima’s Crisis: Intelligent Energy Priorities, HUFFINGTONPOST, Vivian Norris   06/01/2012  “…….Fukushima is far from over, and to emphasize this, new information coming from testimony from Japanese leaders who were making decisions during the early days of the crisis, force us to accept that virtually no one had correct information, no one was in control, and the
situation was far worse than the public was told.

Yet nuclear physicists, engineers and safety specialists were at work on the internet trying to tell anyone who would listen that the situation at Fukushima was bordering on a worldwide catastrophe.

The amounts of radiation which flowed into the Pacific, the weather patterns which carried radioactive particles across the Pacific, and frankly around the world, were far higher than TEPCO admitted. This has led to a mistrust not only of the industry, but of the mainstream media and regulators as the Japanese government appeared to put saving face before informing the public.

Nils Boehmer, the chief Information officer and a Nuclear Scientist
for the Norwegian foundation, Bellona, confirmed that both the US and
French intelligence had information from inside Japan within days,
that the situation was far worse than was being reported. They
recommended that their expatriate citizens evacuate from a much larger
radius away from the Fukushima Daichi plant than was being suggested
by Japanese officials. “That is how we knew that the situation was
much more serious than the media was telling people,” Boehmer added,
“Both the U.S. and France have very good intelligence inside Japan and
on nuclear issues.”

With TEPCO’s admission earlier this week that the estimates for
radioactive releases in the atmosphere, ocean, and ground
contamination were much higher than they had previously claimed, they
effectively undermined the WHO report which came out at virtually the
same time. It means that WHO statistics and studies on how the
Fukushima disaster may have already, and will continue to affect human
beings must be re estimated. The outcome based on the new information
will obviously be much worse. This in itself has furthered the
Japanese public’s erosion of trust in TEPCO and their government and
has led to major protests against the burning of radioactive debris,
as well as the restarting of nuclear reactors.

Boehmer confirmed that the intelligence information supports the
recent admissions that the government did indeed consider evacuating
Tokyo during the initial event at Fukushima. And this could again be
the case, as the reactors containment has been seriously breached, or
in some cases rebuilt quickly, though the initial cracks and leaks
have not been contained fully. If a powerful earthquake were to strike
again in this heavily seismic region, the releases asserts Boehmer,
would be much worse than that which entered the atmosphere, ocean and
covered the ground as a result of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and
tsunami.
“Still in Norway over twenty-five years since Chernobyl, we have
serious problems from fallout from Chernobyl.” This underlines the
fact that as Fukushima continues to release radioactivity, and, in
fact never stopped in the past fourteen months since the accident.
Sadly, Japan will be dealing with this crisis for generations to come.
“But if there is one positive thing that comes out of Fukushima, it is
that it will make nuclear more expensive and renewables less
expensive. It has sped up the move towards developing cheaper
renewable energy.” It will be harder to argue for subsidies for the
nuclear industry to build new reactors and bring older reactors up to
safety standards. In fact, safety is one of the major problems.

Bellona’s Boehmer insists that,

After Fukushima, countries and the IAEA, have been revealed to not be
up to speed in terms of security and safety. This means that new
nuclear programs in countries such as Saudi Arabia, which plans to
export its valuable oil and gas and use nuclear at home, could become
nuclear threats as there is no common safety standard and no good
policy for stopping nuclear for being used for military apllications.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-norris-de-montaigu/germanys-solar-success-an_b_1563735.html

June 2, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, spinbuster