By Dana Trentini I hope that every child in Japan is given comprehensive thyroid blood testing including at the minimum TSH, Free T4, Free T3 and thyroid antibodies. Their thyroid function should be regularly tested on an ongoing basis.
私は日本の子供たちを心配しています。どのような甲状腺血液検査が実施されているのでしょうか？どのような甲状腺の薬が使われているのでしょう か？TSH（甲状腺刺激ホルモン）は、西洋医学で、甲状腺の診療や治療の基本となるものです。しかし、この検査一つでは、甲状腺の状態の全体像はつかめま せん。私は、日本にいる子供たちすべてが、少なくとも、フリー T4, フリーT3、甲状腺抗体を含めた、総合的な甲状腺血液検査を受けるべきだと思っています。また今後継続して定期的に甲状腺の機能検査をするべきです。 I am concerned for the children in Japan. What thyroid blood testing has been conducted? What thyroid drug treatments are being used? TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is the gold standard for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid conditions in mainstream medicine. However this one test does not provide a complete picture of the thyroid condition. I hope that every child in Japan is given comprehensive thyroid blood testing including at the minimum TSH, Free T4, Free T3 and thyroid antibodies. Their thyroid function should be regularly tested on an ongoing basis. 甲状腺異常が私たちの健康、特に子供たちへの健康にリスクとなっていることは、多くの科学論文が証明するところであり、それにもかかわらずこの問題に対しての意識の欠如が広くみられます。甲状腺ホルモンは、子供たちの成長や発達に不可欠なものです。 The scientific literature provides ample proof that thyroid disorders are a danger to our health especially the health of our children, yet the lack of awareness is pervasive. Thyroid hormones are critical for a child’s growth and development. 甲状腺結節やのう胞を持っている子供の中には症状を呈さない子供さんもいます。中には甲状腺機能促進の症状 (体重減少、脈拍の増加、神経過敏、不眠）が出る子供もいますし、甲状腺機能低下（体重増加、疲労、脱毛、便秘）等の症状が出る子供もいます。 また、甲状腺機能低下と甲状腺機能促進と両方の症状がサイクルとなって繰り返される子供も出るでしょう。日本では、子供たちのこれらの症状に留意すべきだ と思います。 Some of the children with thyroid cysts and nodules will present with no symptoms. Some will present with hyperthyroidism symptoms (such as weight loss, fast pulse, nervousness, insomnia), others with hypothyroidism (such as weight gain, fatigue, hair loss, constipation). Then there will be others who cycle between hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism symptoms. It is important for the Japanese community to watch their children for these symptoms. 甲状腺低下ママHypothyroid Momのブログのうち、最も人気のあった投稿は、300+ Hypothyroidism Symptoms甲 状腺機能低下症の症状です。この投稿は、フェイスブックでも、3800人がいいね！ボタンを押しました。この投稿では、甲状腺の機能が、いかに私たちの健 康に影響を及ぼすかが明記されております。私は日本の方々に、甲状腺機能低下による症状を知ってしてほしいと思います。 The most popular article on Hypothyroid Mom is the post 300+ Hypothyroidism Symptoms. This post has received 3,800 Facebook Likes. It shows very clearly how low thyroid function has the power to affect our health. Unfortunately a lack of awareness about thyroid conditions is pervasive around the world. I hope this article reaches the Japanese community so that they are all aware of the potential signs of hypothyroidism. 2011年3月11日の原子炉メルトダウンの後、福島の多くの子供たちは避難しませんでした。そして今、福島で結節やのう胞が見つかっている女子では半数以上に及ぶのです。この文書を読んで私は涙が溢れました。 Many children in Fukushima were not evacuated after the nuclear meltdown in March 2011. Now the number of Fukushima young girls found to have thyroid cysts and nodules is over 50%. This documentary had me in tears. 国際甲状腺連盟では、世界中で最大3億もの甲状腺疾病を抱える人がいると見積もっています。ところが、このうちの半数以上は、自分たちの状態に気付 いていないというのです。福島原発事故での壊滅的な影響を考えれば、この見積もりよりも多くの人々が甲状腺の問題を抱えているのではないかと考えます。http://www.thyroidweek.com/ The Thyroid Federation International estimates there are up to 300 million thyroid sufferers worldwide, yet over half are unaware of their condition. Given the devastating effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, my worry is that there are many more people than estimated. I am determined to find each and every one of them. By Dana Trentini – Hypothyroid Mom is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for consulting your physician regarding medical advice pertaining to your health. Connect with me on Google+
Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money designated to decommission the UK’s nuclear waste is being guzzled by projects overrunning by years, a damning report reveals.
As much as two-thirds of the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s budget is gobbled up by decommissioning nuclear waste – a staggering £1.9billion in the last year alone.
But at a time when every penny spent on energy and climate change costs is being counted, projects to decommission nuclear waste are years behind schedule and going hundreds of millions of pounds over budget, a report seen by This is Money reveals.
Soaring costs: Nuclear decommissioning at Sellafield is set to cost taxpayers more than £67biillion
Britain has an expensive legacy of nuclear waste, left over from a post-war era in which little thought was given to how nuclear weapons would be decommissioned.
Successive governments have failed to deal with the waste, the vast majority of which is at Sellafield in Cumbria, leaving current taxpayers facing a bill that has reached £67billion and is rising.
The job of decontaminating the Sellafield facility has been entrusted to a private company for the past five years – Nuclear Management Partners.
But a new report by KPMG exposes a litany of rising costs, missed deadlines and poor management.
Of 69 operating plan targets set for this year, only 77 per cent of them have been achieved on time, six per cent were behind schedule and 17 per cent were not achieved at all.
The delays represent an overspend of £180million in the last year alone, the report shows.
The report by KPMG found that 17 per cent of the operating plan targets were not achieved (Source: KPMG)
One project – Separation Area Ventilation – which was initially estimated to cost £120million and be completed by June is now expected to cost £229million and not be completed for another three years. This alone marks an extra cost of £109million and a 92.3 per cent increase in scheduled deadline.
The report also warns that Sellafield projects are being managed in the interests of shareholders – not taxpayers. It is ‘driven by the pursuit of value for its shareholders,’ the report states. ‘This is not aligned with Nuclear Decommissioning Authority objectives under current incentive structures.’
Newly-identified costs for decommissioning nuclear facilities have increased Canada’s remediation bill for contaminated sites by more than $2 billion over 2012, state public accounting records tabled October 30, 2013 in Parliament.
Published: November 15th, 2013 at 4:26 pm ET
By ENENews
The Japan Times, Nov. 14, 2013: One leak came from a rupture in a sand-cushioned drain pipe installed at the bottom of the containment vessel.
engineer, Nutrimedical Report, Nov. 14, 2013 (at 29:00 in): They did indeed find water pouring out of several locations in Reactor 1′s containment structure and basically this shows that it was ruptured, most likely during the explosion that happened […] As we discussed before, all the water that gets pumped in to cool what’s left of the core […] it goes in and it’s falling back out again and goes right into the secondary side, which is basicallly the reactor building […] Because the water level’s not going up into that part of the building, it’s flowing out into the environment. That’s not really good news.
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Canada’s nuclear industry will gain significant benefits from the signing of the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement between Canada and Kazakhstan earlier this week according to the Canadian Nuclear Association. The CNA said the agreement is an important part of the Government of Canada’s efforts to strengthen Canada’s prosperity and create employment through export trade initiatives.
“The Canadian Nuclear Association is supportive of Canada’s international trade and investment initiatives in the uranium mining sector,” said CNA president Dr. John Barrett. “This agreement will provide access for members of Canada’s nuclear industry to Kazakhstan’s growing nuclear market and allow our industry to export controlled nuclear materials, equipment and technology which will create jobs and bring economic benefits to Canada,” concluded Dr. Barrett.
The agreement is expected to come into force following respective domestic processes.
In symbolic move against nuclear weapons, students at Soka University of America have figured out how to fly 1,000 paper cranes to Japan.
Members of the Student Movement for Nuclear Disarmament club on campus canvassed their peers to contribute to the project by passing out origami packets and encouraging students to drop off their finished work at collection bins scattered around campus, said Josie Parkhouse, 22, club president and a senior concentrating on international studies.
From left, members of Soka University of America’s Student Movement for Nucelar Disarmament Tomomi Yokota, 22, Josie Parkhouse, 22, Clarisse Lee, 19, and Stuart Adams, 19 show some of their folded cranes. Students will string the cranes into 10 ropes of 100 and send them to Japan in a symbolic gesture for nuclear disarmament.
…And anyone at all serious is well aware that the idea of running an advanced, developed human civilisation on renewables is a pipe-dream….
…The Japanese government, impelled by the colossal international and domestic panic that followed the pretty much completely harmless Daiichi plant incident, has ordered all its nuclear power stations shut down…
Comment If the Fukushima crisis has proved one thing, it’s that nuclear power is safe. Everything that could possibly go wrong did, the accident was agreed to be at the top of the international scale for seriousness, and yet in decades to come scientists will not be able to attribute any deaths to radiation released from the Daiichi plant.
In that respect the incident was much like Three Mile Island, where again a nuclear core melted down under the unblinking, terrified gaze of the world’s media (though at least in that case they weren’t largely ignoring a nearby and genuine human catastrophe, as they did with the actual real damage done by earthquake and tsunami).
In the case of Chernobyl, the only other notable nuclear accident, the total death toll that you can actually attribute to the accident – including children who got cancer as a result of radioactive emitted from the plant – and it is 56, not at all a large number for an industrial accident. Anti-nuclear activists like to claim that there will be thousands more cancer cases, based on the idea that hundreds of thousands of people who were affected may suffer a tiny increased chance of cancer, but this will be impossible to verify as the fact is people very often die of cancer anyway. The lives of these “Chernobyl victims” will not be noticeably different to the lives they would have lived anyway.
If we were to close down industries on such grounds, we would not have any industry left and we’d have to live in mud huts and die like flies from disease and malnutrition. Other industries have accidents in which scores (or hundreds, or even thousands) of people are directly measurably killed all the time, and most of them emit huge quantities of stuff into the environment which a keen scientist could easily point to and say they are causing thousands of deaths. Yet they are not closed down.
EDF (Euronext: EDF) has awarded Areva a service and solutions contract to support it in the maintenance of eight nuclear reactors in France.
The utility is to provide its services at the Chinon, Nogent, and Belleville nuclear power plants (NPP), and the contract includes a five year performance period, and an option for two additional years.
According to Energy Business Review, the specific services to be provided will include the coordination and performance of logistical, facility maintenance, handling, and lifting operations.
The contract is expected to lead to the creation of more than 200 jobs, according to the company.
A large semi-autonomous drone capable of monitoring radiation levels after a release of nuclear material in the environment has been developed by Bristol University researchers.
The unmanned aerial system (UAV), called the ARM, can also measure surface temperature and provide photographs of the affected area.
The team believes the system could be very valuable in situations such as the Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster.
“By using light-weight and low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles systems, we can immediately and remotely determine the spread and intensity of radiation following any such event,” said Dr Tom Scott, the project lead and Director of the Interface Analysis Centre in the University’s School of Physics. “The systems have sufficient in-built intelligence to deploy them following an incident and are effectively disposable if they become contaminated.”
Teams operating in high-risk areas would thus be able to obtain accurate information about the radiation levels they would be exposed to if they entered the area.
The project was jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and nuclear decommissioning company Sellafield.At the same time, the Bristol University team has been developing a similar drone, capable of flying inside buildings.
The ARM drone was successfully tested in various weather conditions including snow, rain and high winds. The sensitivity of its sensors and accuracy of on-board computers was verified during field trials at radioactively contaminated sites in southwest Romania and naturally occurring anomaly site in Cornwall.
The University of Bristol is now working closely with the National Nuclear Laboratory to offer this technology to Japan as a helpful tool for environmental surveying during the on-going Fukishima clean-up operations and in the surround prefecture. The team is also developing a UAV mapping system and exploration algorithms for projects relating to the detection of buried explosives and depleted uranium ordnance.
(Source) http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20131112-00000160-jij-soci 福島県は12日、東京電力福島第1原発事故を受け、当時18歳以下の子供を対象に行っている甲状腺検査について、胎児の影響への不安が大きいことから、事故当時の胎児も2014年4月から対象に加えると発表した。 同日の県民健康管理調査の検討委員会で示した。甲状腺検査の新たな対象は、原発事故後の11年4月2日から12年4月1日に生まれた約1万5000人。対象者総数は約38万5000人となる。 Fukushima prefecture is going to examine unborn babies at the time of the accident in 2011 for thyroid check from next April. There are going to be extra 15,000 children. In total number of the children in the Fukushima survey will then be 385,000 children.
if Hirose and others like him outside of the ‘‘nuclear village’’ are right in their warnings, then we in other countries will need more information, not less, as Japan debates putting its reactors back online
GREG RAY: Beware nuclear village Newcastle Herald, By Greg Ray Nov. 14, 2013 “I’M a Japanese woman from Kyoto,” last night’s surprise email began…..
….I bought a copy of Japan-based Australian journalist Mark Willacy’s book, Fukushima, hoping it would help me cut through some of the myths and lies about the nuclear accident. It did that, and more, alerting me to much wider issues in Japan’s nuclear industry.
Willacy criticised Japan’s “nuclear village”, a club of politicians, scientists, journalists and business people who tightly control information about the atomic energy industry in Japan. Journalists and others who dare to disagree with the village-approved line risk being ostracised and ridiculed, Willacy wrote.
So I sought books by Japanese writers from outside “the village”, and found Fukushima Meltdown, by Takashi Hirose.
Even allowing for the possibility of a certain amount of overstatement – Hirose’s book is rather emotional behind its facts and figures – the descriptions of Japan’s 50-plus nuclear power plants make scary reading. Hirose itemises their locations relative to geological faults and volcanoes, their various levels of preparation for predictable disasters and their histories of accidents and problems.
In addition to the “normal” nuclear power plants (off-line since the Fukushima melt-downs), Japan also has a fast-breeder reactor with a terrible accident history, some reactors that use deadly plutonium as well as uranium for fuel and the Rokkasho Village nuclear fuel reprocessing facility. Continue reading →
Japan and nuclear power High alert The riskiest part yet of the Fukushima clean-up is soon to begin The Economist, Nov 16th 2013| FUKUSHIMA AMONG the twisted metal and random debris that litter much of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the fourth reactor looks in relatively good condition. A new structure covers the damage from a hydrogen explosion that blew its roof off days after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the plant in March 2011. But the building is still unstable, and its spent-fuel storage pool highly dangerous. This month Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) will start plucking out over 1,500 radioactive rods from the pool in order to store them more safely. Over the pool a crane waits to start the procedure, and a yellow radiation alarm stands at the ready. Experts call the operation the riskiest stage of the plant’s clean-up so far.
Removing spent fuel is a routine task at all nuclear facilities, says Akira Ono, the plant’s manager. Engineers will have to take out each fuel assembly one by one without mishap, and overcome the risks of fire, earthquake and the pool boiling dry. The fuel rods can ignite if they lose coolant, or explode if they collide.
The rods are being moved just when trust in the utility that owns Fukushima Dai-ichi is at a low point. …… some are calling for the removal of spent-fuel rods from reactor four to be closely monitored by foreign experts.
Even the pro-nuclear ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wants to take TEPCO in its current form out of the decommissioning process, which will take 40 or more years. A new entity, including the utility’s staff but separate from its commercial side, would take charge……..Junichiro Koizumi, a popular LDP former prime minister, has stepped in, calling for an immediate end to nuclear power. After he broadcast his views at a press conference, a poll showed that three-fifths of those who were surveyed backed his plan.
Mr Koizumi still knows how to rouse the public, says Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo, but there is little chance that Mr Abe’s commitment to nuclear power will change. His government’s links to the “nuclear village” are too strong. Big business is clamouring for the power stations to restart. Mr Koizumi’s style is certainly more orthodox than Taro Yamamoto’s. At a garden party, the new member of parliament dared to hand a letter to the emperor, Akihito, about the impact of the Fukushima catastrophe. Such direct contact with a near-divine was considered an outrage by everybody in the establishment (except Akihito, who carried on chatting with him). Japan’s nuclear-energy drama is far from over. http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21589912-riskiest-part-yet-fukushima-clean-up-soon-begin-high-alert
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Strips Whistleblower Protection by grtv 14 Nov 13, In sworn testimony in Monroe, Michigan, the NRC admitted that it has stripped whistleblower protection from the licensing of new nuclear power plants.
By flip-flopping on what it means to be an applicant, the whistleblowers who are truly looking to protect the public health and safety are having their lives and livelihoods jeopardized.
NHK WORLD, , Nov. 13, 2013: A robot at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has for the first time identified exactly where highly radioactive water is leaking from a reactor […] the lower part of the No.1 reactor’s containment vessel. […] A camera on the robot captured images of water leaking from 2 holes in the containment vessel […] TEPCO engineers […] say one of the leaks looks as if tap water is gushing out. Radiation levels in the area were extremely high at 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts an hour. Engineers suspect that damage to containment vessels at the No. 2 and 3 reactors is also causing similar leaks […]
Join the mobilisations to Strasbourg, where the European Parliament will vote on the new taxonomy, in the week of the 4th of July.
Where? A base camp is planned in GUNDERSHOFFEN (exact address: 1 chemin de la Scierie, 67110 GUNDERSHOFFEN) from Saturday the 2nd until Thursday the 7th of July in the region.
It is a meadow on which commodities will be set up and with a barn, so make sure to bring camping gear, sleeping bags and mats, as well as toiletries and other camping gear you may need. There will be possibilities for public transport as well as shuttle buses between the camp and Strasbourg.
If you are coming in a larger group, let the coalition know by emailing mobi-strasbourg@riseup.net so that they have an overview of how many people will be coming. This will help the logistics team make sure to provide enough facilities, such as tent space, food, etc.
When? Action days will take place between July 4th and 6th, depending on when the vote and debate about the taxonomy will take place; this will be announced the week before. It is advised to arrive at the very latest on Sunday the 3rd of July afternoon, and plan your travel back for Thursday, July 7th after noon or in the evening ideally.
How to get there?
There will be buses coming to Strasbourg and the base camp from different parts of Europe. Otherwise, the GUNDERSHOFFEN local train station is situated a mere 5 minutes by foot from the campsite.
Are you and your groups interested in organising a bus? Please get in touch with the mobilisation team via mobi-strasbourg@riseup.net.
nuclear-news 