People from around the world attended the recent symposium in New York, hearing expert scientific and medical speakers. These lectures encompassed aspects of the situation in Fukushima, and of the effects of ionising radiation. There was also a focus on North America, particularly on its nuclear waste problem.
Dr Hisako Sakiyama presented the most informational and moving account of research into radiation at Fukushima, and of the prospects for the irradiated population.
There was a strong Japanese presence at the symposium, and it was supported by Japanese teachers, lawyers, and religious and environmental groups.
The flavour of the conference. Far from being any kind of activist gathering, this was a very quietly professional gathering. It was understandable to the non professional – but you had to concentrate – with this volume of scientific information. Both the full video and a book will later be available, covering the symposium lectures.
The media? Well – they did turn up – yes – for a short time. That was because 2 American navy men gave their rather shocking story of their exposure to radiation on the USS Ronald Reagan. That is a story of interest to the American media. A pity their interest did not extend to the rest of the world.
This video looks at the issues of abandoned and contaminated animals left in the contaminated zones of Fukushima prefecture. There is also comment from local citizens, the Safecast monitoring group explaining the issues of young chidren. Also, there is some information concerning the situation of evacuees..
the commentry by Chris Courne on his blog is worth a read too!
Not to be construed as legal advice in anyway shape or form. We love the Police – Brave guys & gals, we also love Police Squad & Z Cars! Go get the album, dvd, etc. For entertainment purposes only – we trust this message will be received by our hardworking Constables in the manner it was intended. Big love to all…
Saturday March 9, under a beautiful blue Parisian sky, a human chain, organized through the initiative of the Sortir du Nucléaire Network with the participation of 31 humanitarian, environmental organizations, linked together.
Each organization was allocated one of the 18 key points such as the headquarter of Areva in La Défense, west of Paris, the Opera district where KEPCO’s Paris bureau is located and the Ministry of Finance in Bercy, east of Paris where they kicked off the human chain. About 20 000 participants formed a human chain between La Defense and Bercy, 36 km, connecting nuclear industry, nuclear policy makers and nuclear financing banks…..
We have some wonderful news from Claire! EDF have dropped their £5 million lawsuit against her and her friends. Here’s a message from the 21 No Dash For Gas protesters we wanted to pass right on to you:
You did it! You forced EDF – a powerful energy company – to drop its £5 million lawsuit against 21 protesters.
We received written confirmation today from EDF’s lawyers that they will not be continuing with their civil claim. We wanted so much to share this amazing news with you and thank you for signing the petition (nearly 65,000 of you!) that Claire’s parents, Russ and Barbara, agreed this email better come from us, No Dash For Gas.
Thanks to you we get to keep our homes and are safe from bankruptcy by EDF. But while this is a huge victory, climate-changing emissions are still rising every year, so there’s a lot more to fight for. As one supporter, author Naomi Klein puts it: “Our governments have been negotiating about the climate crisis for 23 years. In that time, global emissions have soared by 54%. Clearly the official, respectable, legal means of dealing with this crisis, aren’t working. That means that what used to be radical is now rational.”
On March 20th we’ll be sentenced for our part in shutting down EDF’s gas power station. EDF’s is the first in a government-sanctioned wave of 40 new gas plants that the government’s own Committee on Climate Change says would bust our legally binding carbon emission reduction targets. This would lock us into decades of rising bills, fuel poverty, dirty energy and a climate changed forever, which is why we were willing to risk jail to stop it.
This spring and summer we’ll be working hard to stop this reckless dash for gas and we would love you to get involved (don’t worry it’s not all about climbing chimneys!). But if some of us are sentenced to prison for our part in shutting down EDF’s power station, it would be great if you could show your support by spending the evening with us at EDF’s London headquarters (40 Grosvenor Square) from 5pm on 20th March – because this would be the first time that climate campaigners have been jailed in this country. Please come to the vigil and please invite your friends to join the facebook group.
Thank you, again, for your actions. We hope you’ll keep in touch so we can do more together. You can keep up with us through our website http://www.nodashforgas.org.uk on twitter @nodashforgas and on Facebook.
We are honoured to call you friends.
Thank you
Tom, Danni, Paul, Dan, Ali G, Ali B, Danny, Ewa, Graham, Aneaka, Rachel, Tina, Ali C, Claudia, Dave, Richard, Hannah D, Riley, Hannah L, Lawrence and Claire
P.S. We wanted to share this website with you,set up by some supporters in response to the hundreds of people who said they were dumping EDF. Maybe you could share it with your friends?
As parents this is a wonderful day. Thank you so much for standing with our daughter, Claire, and all those who protested against EDF.
An amendment adopted by 315 votes to 282 highlights that stress tests are “incomplete” and risks such as secondary events, material deterioration, human errors, and specific flaws inside the reactor vessels were not taken into account. The text says that “even if it is successful a stress tests will not guarantee the safety of a nuclear power plant.”
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while stressing that nuclear operators and waste licensees should be required to have “all financial means in place, through insurance and other financial instruments to enable them to fully cover all costs for which they are liable in respect of damage caused to people and the environment in the event of an accident.”
All the safety improvements recommended following stress tests on the EU’s nuclear reactors must be carried out urgently, say MEPs in a resolution adopted on Thursday. They also insist that nuclear plant operators must pay for these improvements and bear all the costs for which they are liable in the event of an accident.
Amalia Sartori (EPP, IT), chair of the energy committee and author of the oral question to the Commission debated on Monday, asked which of the stress test findings would be incorporated into the upcoming review of the Nuclear Safety Directive and called for a clear indication of the timing and content of proposals for binding legislation on nuclear insurance and liability. Urgent implementation of safety improvements
Nils Bøhmer at the entrance to J-Village, a converted sports complex in Fukushima that now serves as the launching pad and decontamination centre for thousands of workers battling the Fukushima crisis.
Charles Digges/Bellona
TOKYO– For the past few days, I have been travelling with my colleague Charles Digges in the area surrounding the Fukushimi Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan – the site of one of the world’s largest nuclear accidents, which occurred on March 11, 2011. My impressions of this trip have been manifold, and I will try to summarize some of the most prescient ones.
One of the most indelible impressions I carry away from this experience on a professional level is the sheer geographic extent of the accident, as well as how long the fallout will affect the environment and the people who used to live here.
As yet, much of the zone within a radius of 20 kilometres from the nuclear plant remains completely evacuated because of radioactive contamination. In some parts of the zone, locals are allowed to visit their property during daytime, but are not allowed to overnight in their own homes. Nor can they cultivate their land, which previously bore high quality agricultural products.
Instead, decontamination workers now gather contaminated grass, trees and other agricultural materials in large black trash bags, which are deposited at dozens, if not hundreds, of different collection sites for low-level radioactive waste throughout the Fukushima prefecture. This brush clean up is part of the massive decontamination effort the Japanese government has initiated in an attempt to reduce the impact of the nuclear accident.
Although the Japanese government is investing a great deal of effort into the clean up process, it remains uncertain as to how the effective the travail actually is.
There are still 160,000 people who were forced to abandon their homes. And a shroud of uncertainty hovers over when, if ever, they will be able to return.
For comparison, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said that 200,000 people where evacuated from the 30 kilometre radius surrounding Chernobyl, whose 1986 meltdown and explosion has become the benchmark for nuclear accidents ever since.
In an effort to hasten resettlement of the affected area around Fukushima, the Japanese government has said that evacuees can move home when the annual radiation dosage reaches 20 milliseiverts per year.
This contrasts sharply with limits of 1 milliseivert per year for resettlement set by the Ukrainian and Belarusan governments following Chernobyl. This disparity of Japanese dose limits, if left to stand, will lead to a relatively high dose load for resettling Fukushima residents that will lead to a gradual increase in cancer statistics in the area.
As the Pentagon pivots to the Asia-Pacific, North Korea is a godsend in its ability to provide Washington with a legitimate pretext to bolster its forces in China’s backyard…..
There is little doubt that civilians on both sides of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) are weighed down with anxiety as both countries carry out provocative large-scale military drills amid threats of nuclear war.
North Korea has recently announced that it will no longer abide by the UN-brokered armistice that ended the Korean War with a ceasefire in 1953 and authorities have severed its communications hotline with the South, the only diplomatic channel of contact between the two countries. Pyongyang has imposed no-fly and no-sail zones off both its coasts as part of comprehensive military drills that may see the test firing of short-to-medium range missiles. The US-South Korea joint command forces have launched their Foal Eagle field training exercises that will be ongoing until end of April. 200,000 South Korean troops and 10,000 US troops will take part in the exercise, which will include land, air, sea, and special operation drills. North Korea’s state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, has reported that the North’s army, navy, air force, and anti-aircraft units were “just waiting for the final order to attack.”
Following Pyongyang’s recent threats that it would engage preemptive nuclear strikes against any aggressor, Seoul shot back with its strongest rhetoric yet, stating, “If North Korea attacks South Korea with a nuclear weapon, then by the will of the Republic of Korea and humanity, the Kim Jong-un regime will perish from the Earth.” South Korea’s newly inaugurated President Park Geun-hye has been in office for less than one month and in the current scenario, it has become politically impossible for her to stick to her campaign pledges of taking a softer line on North Korea.
Taiwan’s geographical location, which sits on the boundary between two converging tectonic plates, is indeed cause for concern. Additionally, the country is in the proximity of a volcano group. Opponents also cite the fact that Taiwan’s three existing plants are all located in one area, New Taipei City, which makes it even more vulnerable to natural disaster that could lead to a series of chain reactions.
There is a storm brewing in Taiwan. But this time it’s not a killer typhoon blowing in from the South China Sea or even an earthquake, which often plagues this island country. It’s the fight over the future of nuclear power.
In one corner are environmentalists, academics, an alarmed populace and even Taiwanese celebrities. In the other corner are politicians, government planners and Taipower, the country’s state-owned power utility.
In fact, public outcry against the county’s proposed fourth nuclear plant has reached a fever pitch, prompting a referendum to be held later this year. At stake is a new nuclear plant already about 90 percent completed in New Taipei City. The plant is scheduled to come online by 2015.
However nuclear power is not new in Taiwan. Taiwan currently has three nuclear power plants, and six nuclear power reactors operating. The country’s first reactor, Chin Shan 1, became operational in 1978 and is licensed to 2018. The other five reactors are licensed from 2019 up to 2025, according to the World Nuclear Association.
The latest uproar over nuclear power stems from fears that a disaster like Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown could also happen here. Following Fukushima, Taiwan initiated a comprehensive nuclear safety review, which was completed in September. In addition, Taiwan strengthened its radiation protection capacity and contingency mechanisms, since Taiwan is prone to seismic activity.
People wave slogans during the anti-nuclear demonstration for the anniversary of Japans March 2011 earthquake-tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis in Taipei, Taiwan, China, 9 March 2013.
And, it’s this seismic activity that has many Taiwanese up in arms over nuclear power, with protests all over the country.
as published by NOAA on March 1, 2012.
In the model below, the highest radioactivity (in red) starts to appear in Fukushima after about 0 UTC on March 14, 2011, and it continues until around March 21, 2011. Japan is nine hours ahead of UTC. On March 14, 2011, TEPCO was attempting the vent of Reactor 2 and Reactor 3. The explosion of Reactor 3 building happened at 11:01 AM that day.(Much More) http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/
Radiation detection pods attached to the wing of a drone supplied by the Border Patrol for a test flight (Photo by Joe Sanders, Sandia National Laboratories)
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed radiation-detection pods that can monitor airborne radiation using drones, without endangering human flight crews.
The “Harvester” system is designed to detect detonations of nuclear weapons. It can guide a drone to the site of a nuclear explosion by following the plume of gamma radiation where no onboard pilot could safely venture.
The system could also be used to monitor fallout from accidents at nuclear reactors, Sandia officials said.
Two years ago, on March 14, 2011, the National Nuclear Security Administration sent flight crews to Japan to monitor airborne and ground contamination from the still developing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant.
The crews arrived four days after the 24-foot tsunami had swept the plant, and in the ensuing 10 weeks they logged 507 flight hours crisscrossing the skies over Japan in a Beechcraft C-12 twin engine turboprop out of nearby Yokota Air Base.
The crews produced vital maps of the plume of radiation escaping from the crippled reactors.
Had Sandia’s Harvester system been available then, the NNSA might have flown drones instead.
Having seen charges dropped against them during a hearing in Plymouth District Court early Wednesday afternoon, a group of anti-nuclear protesters immediately hopped in their cars and headed back down to Pilgrim Nuclear Station in the hopes of being arrested once again!
Anti-nuclear activists make their way towards the main entrance of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station,.
They didn’t want to be forgiven for their trespasses.
Having seen charges dropped against them during a hearing in Plymouth District Court early Wednesday afternoon, a group of anti-nuclear protesters immediately hopped in their cars and headed back down to Pilgrim Nuclear Station in the hopes of being arrested once again.
This time they made it almost to the power plant’s main parking lot before being confronted by security and Plymouth police. Almost a year ago, 14 people were placed under arrest after trying to deliver a letter to Pilgrim station management calling for the facility to be shut down down.
They group wanted to stand trial on trespassing charges in the hopes of furthering their case against the continued operation of Pilgrim Station. They hoped to invite a number of noted anti-nuclear activists to testify about the dangers of nuclear power.
Those hopes were dashed when Judge Katherine Hand accepted a prosecution motion to drop the charges. The assistant district attorney argued that holding a trial would tax the DA’s office limited resources and that the defendants only wanted a trial to make a political point. A position the defendants and their attorneys did not dispute.
Police are warning of possible travel disruption caused by a planned protest in the Aldermaston and Burghfield area on Saturday.
Protesters are expected to march between the two Atomic Weapon Establishments between 1pm and 4pm.
Superintendent Robin Pickard, local area police commander, said: “Measures are already in place to notify local residents and those who might be affected by protests of this nature.
“Our aim is to ensure that there is minimal disruption caused to local residents.
“We respect the right to protest and will respond if necessary in a proportionate and appropriate way to minimise any negative impact on communities in the area.”
Police have created a twitter account to keep people up to date with the protest at @WBprotestinfo
This year on April Fools’ Day (April 1st),we will highlight the on-going development of the government’s Trident nuclear weapons programme at AWE Aldermaston. We will gather around the base in our thousands with music, colour, and speeches.
Why protest at Aldermaston?
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston is the bomb factory that designs and manufactures nuclear warheads. The warheads for the current Trident system were built at Aldermaston. Since 2002, the government has invested in building new facilities at AWE, and recruited new staff to test, design and build the next generation of nuclear weapons…..
Only five years ago, industry executives and leading politicians were talking about an American nuclear renaissance, hoping to add 20 or more reactors to the 104-unit U.S. nuclear fleet.
But today those companies are holding back in the face of falling natural gas prices and sluggish and uncertain electricity demand. Only five new plants are under construction, while at least that many are slated for permanent closure or shut down indefinitely over safety issues.
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But Caren Byrd, executive director of Morgan Stanley’s global power group, said at the same conference that, on an economic basis, “it is hard to make the case for nuclear.”
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Dominion, the owner of the Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin, and Duke Energy, owner of Crystal River Unit 3 in Florida, recently announced plans to permanently close these reactors because of economic factors, even though the plants have licenses extending well into the future. Wind and natural gas are cheaper…..
Jeff McMahon Contributor 
nuclear-news 