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Nuclear Hotseat #142: Fukushima Anniversary SPECIAL: Voices from Japan – English & Japanese Versions

http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/blog/

 

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DOWNLOAD HERE (ENGLISH):
http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/87dd3a27-5808-33b9-85f5-f3d0d956b3a3.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

ダウンロードをして聞く場合はここをクリックして下さい。DOWNLOAD HERE  (JAPANESE):

 

http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/4a0ea58f-d49d-b893-9281-49aa6166cfe1.mp3

 

 

 

FEATURED INTERVIEWS:

 

March 14, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fukushima Three Years Later: Myths & Misconceptions | Interview with Tim Judson and Kevin Kamps

Published on 12 Mar 2014

Abby Martin takes a look at the state of the Fukushima nuclear power plant three years after the massive earth quake and subsequent tsunami that led to the meltdown; discussing the long term impacts of continued radiation leaks with Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste watchdog of BeyondNuclear.org, and Tim Judson, executive director at the Nuclear Information and Resource Center.

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March 14, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

RIP – Tony Benn the anti nuclear advocate and friend to all !!

TONY BENN (rap obituary by Dan Bull)

Published on 14 Mar 2014

“Tony Benn had died. He is one of my favourite politicians if not my favourite, for the way he steadfastly spoke his mind with honesty, clarity and passion throughout 50 years as an MP.

He was of aristocratic blood but turned down his peerage (that would have made him a Lord) so that he could carry on serving in the House of Commons.

One of my ambitions in life was to have a cup of tea with Tony Benn and now, I never will.”

Dan Bull 14 March 2014

In 2009, Iain Dale spent two hours, over several mugs of tea, quizzing Tony Benn.

Tony Benn
Tony Benn, the longest-serving Labour MP in history, raised a few wry smiles when he resigned from 50 years in the House of Commons “to devote more time to politics”.

Image and quote source ; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/nationaltreasures/2181615/Tony-Benn-portrait.html

Question ; Keynes once said, when the facts change, I change my mind. What have you changed your mind on?

Tony Benn answers “Many things. Nuclear power, for example. In 1955 when Eisenhower said he was going for ‘Atoms for Peace’ I became a passionate supporter of it. Having been brought up on the Bible I liked the idea of swords into ploughshares. I advocated nuclear power as Minister of Technology. I was told, and believed, that nuclear power was cheap, safe and peaceful. Having been in charge of nuclear power I discovered it wasn’t cheap, wasn’t safe and when I left office I was told that during my period as Secretary of State for Energy, plutonium from our nuclear power stations went to the Pentagon to make nuclear weapons. So every nuclear power station in Britain is a bomb factory for America. I was utterly shaken by that. Nothing in the world would now induce me to support nuclear power. It was a mistake. Israel is another one. I was rowing on the Sea of Galilee in May 1945 when the war ended. I was all in favour of a Jewish homeland, but now I see what has happened and it was absolutely wrong.”  http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/1288/in-conversation-tony-benn.thtml

Former Labour MP Tony Benn on how Britain Secretly Helped Israel Build Its Nuclear Arsenal

TONY BENN: Well, of course, Mordechai Vanunu, who was arrested by — he was kidnapped in London by the Israelis — he was telling the Sunday Times what was going on — in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, recently released with restrictions. But he warned us about Dimona. And I did know later about Dimona, as an Israeli military establishment, but I never knew until yesterday, or until it came out a few days ago, that we had helped to assist the Israelis in building it.

AMY GOODMAN: And you, as technology minister, would have had to sign off on this if you had known, is this right?

TONY BENN: Well, it wasn’t put to me at all. It wasn’t put to ministers. I mean, this is the trouble with the nuclear industry, I came not to believe what I was told, and that throws a doubt on more than nuclear power: the question of democracy, if officials can operate as a state within a state. Where is the democratic control of policy? So it was a very, very serious thing to happen. And, of course, it also comes up at a time when, as you’ve been pointing out, there’s a lot of pressure now on Iran not to develop nuclear technology in any form.

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/3/10/former_labour_mp_tony_benn_on

Former British energy minister Tony Benn discusses his time in charge of the nuclear industry and why he changed his views about the controversial energy source.

Part of Tenner Films’ project ’13 Short Films About Atomic Power’

MINISTER from Vicki Lesley on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/3433825

March 14, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Fukushima Demonstration London 15th March: The UK Green Party joins British and Japanese campaigners to oppose nuclear power

http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/03/14/three-years-on-from-fukushima-the-green-party-joins-british-and-japanese-campaigners-to-oppose-nuclear-power/

https://nuclear-news.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/p1020187.jpg?w=607&h=455

14 March 2014

THE Green Party will join British and Japanese anti-nuclear campaigners tomorrow to commemorate the third anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Full details below.

The demonstration, organised by CND, Kick Nuclear and Jan UK, will coincide with events taking place around the world to highlight the legacy of the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and to call for an end to nuclear power.

Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, said:

“This anniversary is another reminder about the grave safety concerns presented by nuclear power, and the fact that no solution to the problem of long-term storage of nuclear waste has been found.

“The British government, in thrall as it is to giant multinational energy interests, is clinging to a failed 20th-century technology. 

“This is not only taking a dangerous path, but is a significant distraction from the need to invest in renewable energy and energy conservation which we need for a stable, secure, affordable energy future.”

Event Details

March on Parliament and Rally

12:30pm, Saturday 15th March 

Hyde Park Corner to Parliament

Meet: 12:30pm by Hyde Park Corner tube station, near the ‘Hyde Park’ exit.

March via Japanese Embassy and offices of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO – the owners of Fukushima) to Parliament.

Rally: 3:00–4:30pm at Old Palace Yard, opposite House of Lords. Attendees include Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, fashion designer Katharine Hamnett and Fukushima evacuees.

Events organised jointly by CNDKick Nuclear and Japanese Against Nuclear (UK)

More UK events here

Summary of Speakers comments at the Houses of Parliament Fukushima debate on the 10 March 2014

“there is a need for Japan to allow psychological therapeutic treatments available more widely and I hope that the UN and International community might help with this” said Geoff

“The next industrial revolution will be renewable”

“we cant evacuate children and we cant certify the safety for their return so we will not move children” Prefectoral official

Chantelle said that “Swiss energy policy hopes to see smaller decentralised methods of electricity production that would be safer and more efficient.”

https://nuclear-news.net/2014/03/12/summary-of-speakers-comments-st-the-houses-of-parliament-fukushima-debate-on-the-10-march-2014/

One of the speeches here by Dr David Lowry

Link to other videos of event

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCN9aJReHnmpcVEF-zDMSA9fTpEjedREo

March 14, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Japan puts two reactors on shortlist for restart screening

Kyushu Electric’s Sendai reactors are located about 980 kms (600 miles) southwest of Tokyo. The utility is one of the most reliant of Japan’s regional electricity monopolies that provide nuclear power, supplying about a third of Japan’s energy needs before Fukushima.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Japan_puts_two_reactors_on_shortlist_for_restart_screening.html?cid=38148814

March 13, 2014 – 04:05

By Mari Saito and Kentaro Hamada

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan put two reactors on a shortlist for a final round of safety checks on Thursday, moving a step closer to reviving the country’s nuclear industry, three years after the Fukushima disaster that led to the shutdown of all plants.

Two days after the third anniversary of the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear station, Japan’s nuclear regulator placed two reactors operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co on a list for priority screening at a meeting of officials reviewing restart applications.

No timing for a potential restart was decided at the meeting and the next stage of checks incorporates a period of public hearings, which may be a fraught process given widespread scepticism about a return to nuclear power.

Continue reading

March 14, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

This week in nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Japan is the focus, with many anti nuclear protests across the world, on the anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and in Tokyo, groups organising to work for renewable energy and against nuclear power.  But the ‘Nuclear Village’ is still in control, as Japan moves to develop the Rokkasho plutonium-making complex.  Meanwhile the government plans to restart nuclear power, though most reactors are unlikely to meet the new safety rules.

Confusing plans to return evacuees to Fukushima prefecture, with some areas clearly unable to be decontaminated for decades Fukushima radioactive material continues to leak into the Pacific,and to be detected in the North West Pacific Japan has cracked down on reporting about Fukushima.

Ukraine  is a concern, but experts advise that it is not likely to get nuclear weapons.

UK does a deal to buy Russian nuclear technology even as it is hosting a summit about putting sanctions on Russia due to the crisis in Crimea!

USA. Nuclear is not faring too well. A nasty radioactive leak at a nuclear waste facility in New Mexico. The government has stalled costly plans to build a Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication (MOX) plant  More news that nuclear power is dying, for economic reasons

China – some encouraging news  Wind Leaves Nuclear Behind

March 14, 2014 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Are the people of Japan, especially the children, OK?

water-radiationGundersen: Fukushima will be bleeding into Pacific for next 100 years — Such a worldwide catastrophe — Molten cores being released into groundwater and moving off site — ‘Radioactive lake’ developing beneath reactors — New Yorker: “Human disaster that may never end” (VIDEOhttp://enenews.com/gundersen-fukushima-wil-lbe-bleeding-into-pacific-for-next-100-years-such-a-worldwide-catastrophe-molten-cores-being-released-into-groundwater-and-moving-off-site-radioactive-lake-develo?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Fairewinds Energy Education, Mar. 12, 2014:

Arnie Gumdersen, Fairewinds chief engineer (at 0:45 in): Is most of the cleanup complete? Are the people of Japan, especially the children, OK? Are the Japanese evacuees returning home? And, are the oceans OK? Sadly the answers are no.
Gundersen (at 5:15 in): The aftermath of this catastrophe remains as hazardous as ever. The power plant site itself, entire sections of the surrounding Fukushima Prefecture and the Pacific Ocean are contaminated in ways that humans never imagined, so no method of mitigation exists. The Fukushima catastrophe will continue to be life-threatening and continue to cause extreme hardship for Tepco employees and cleanup workers,the former Fukushima residents, who and the Pacific ocean — its habitats and its on the ecosystem […] The reactors continue to release the radioactive remnants from the molten cores into the surrounding groundwater that’s migrating off site. […] Tokyo Electric appears to have little control over the deteriorating environment, and it behaves like the victim, rather than the perpetrator of the greatest industrial mishap of all time. What will the future bring? The Fukushima Daiichi site will continue to bleed radiation into the Pacific Ocean for 100 years. As contaminated water beneath the site slowly evolves into a radioactive lake. […] Most likely the cleanup of the entire site is at least a century away, if ever. How has this calamity evolved into such a worldwide catastrophe? It happened because the Japanese government chose to protect Tepco, its financial interest and the goals of the nuclear power industry.

The New Yorker, Mar. 11, 2014: “A story of human disaster that may never end.”  Seattle Weekly, Mar. 11, 2014: “The 3/11 snowfall was the beginning of Japan’s nuclear winter.”

Watch the Fairewinds presentation here

March 14, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014, Japan | Leave a comment

In Fukushima region, people are radiation guinea pigs

text-radiationOfficial: Japan will be ruined if public doesn’t realize they’re being exposed to Fukushima radiation — “99.99% of the people are being sacrificed” — Rest of world will be taken down too (AUDIOhttp://enenews.com/lawmaker-if-japanese-cant-face-truth-thattheir-exposure-could-be-ruined-by-fukushima-radiation-will-take-rest-of-world-down-with-it-99-99-of-the-people-are-being-sacrificed-audio?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=em

Forum with Michael Krasny  on KQED, Mar. 10, 2014 — Kenji Kushida, Stanford University (at 43:00 in): This crisis doesn’t stop, it keeps on going, there’s no easy solution in sight. […] This current situation is basically unprecedented.

Message from Arao Shunsuke, Fukushima resident, , Mar. 10, 2014: […] Fukushima Daiichi is nowhere near under control, there are still massive problems […] we must be prepared for a long term battle which will go beyond the present generation. […] in Nakadori and other places in Fukushima, a million people are being forced to live exposed […] Many citizens of Fukushima mutter “we are guinea pigs.” […] Meanwhile TEPCO has not taken any responsibility for spreading radiation not just throughout Fukushima, but throughout the world. […] From the point of view of disposal of the radioactive waste also, people are realizing that we are nearing the point of collapse. […] We are continuing our journey on this small but beautiful planet, through the limitless universe. All of us must join our strength so that this delicate vehicle, which we are riding, which we have borrowed from our children and grandchildren, can be protected and handed over to them intact.

‘Nuclear Hotseat’ hosted by Libbe HaLevy,, Mar. 10, 2014 (at 49:30 in) — Taro Yamamoto, celebrity and lawmaker elected in 2013 to represent the Tokyo district in Japan’s Upper House: “Idiotic ideas — like restarting the nuclear plants — are being considered here in Japan. It really boils down to exposure to radiation. Why is nuclear dangerous? Because it exposes people to radiation […] in Japan you can talk about nuclear energy, but the subject off radiation is taboo. You almost never here the subject discussed on TV or the mass media. In various places the true situation about radiation exposure is being hidden. If Japanese people can’t face up to this problem then this country will be ruined. It will take the rest of the world down with it. […] I think it is wrong that people’s lives are being sacrificed because of money and the company profits. […] 99.99% of the people are being sacrificed.”

Full interview with Yamamoto here

March 14, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014 | Leave a comment

Science finds damage to plants, animals, in Chernobyl and Fukushima

Chernobyl and Fukushima Radiation Reduces Animal and Plant Numbers, Diversity, Lifespan, Fertility, Brain Size, Increases Deformities and Abnormalities http://www.globalresearch.ca/chernobyl-and-fukushima-radiation-reduces-animal-and-plant-numbers-diversity-lifespan-fertility-brain-size-increases-deformities-and-abnormalities/5373292 By Washington’s Blog Global Research, March 13, 2014
text-Mousseau-Chernobyl 

Radiation Facts and Myths

Many have claimed that wildlife is thriving in the highly-radioactive Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Some claim that a little radiation is harmless … or even good for you.

One of the main advisors to the Japanese government on Fukushimaannounced:

If you smile, the radiation will not affect you.   If you do not smile, the radiation will affect you.

This theory has been proven by experiments on animals.

Are these claims true?

We Ask an Expert

To find out, Washington’s Blog spoke with one of the world’s leading experts on the effects of radiation on living organisms: Dr. Timothy Mousseau.

Dr. Mousseau is former Program Director at the National Science Foundation (in Population Biology), Panelist for the National Academy of Sciences’ panels on Analysis of Cancer Risks in Populations Near Nuclear Facilities and GAO Panel on Health and Environmental Effects from Tritium Leaks at Nuclear Power Plants, and a biology professor – and former Dean of the Graduate School, and Chair of the Graduate Program in Ecology – at the University of South Carolina.

For the past 15 years, Mousseau and  another leading biologist – Anders Pape Møller – have studied the effects of radiation on birds and other organisms.

Bird-eyes-Chernobyl

Mousseau has made numerous trips to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Fukushima – making 896inventories at Chernobyl and 1,100 biotic inventories in Fukushima as of July 2013 – to test the effect of radiation on plants and animals.

On the third anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, we spoke with Dr. Mousseau about what he discovered regarding the effects of radiation on plants, animals … and people.

Question] How did you get into this field? Is it because you are an anti-nuclear activist?

[Mousseau]  No.

I’m an activist, but not an anti-nuclear scientist. I’m an activist for evidence-based science policy. Continue reading

March 14, 2014 Posted by | environment, Reference | 1 Comment

Dispelling the false story that Germany imports nuclear power

since the nuclear phaseout of March 2011, power exports in Germany have boomed. Germany remained a net power exporter in 2011 (PDF). 2012 was a record year. So was 2013. 2014 in shaping up to be a fierce competitor for the title (PDF).

So no, Germany has not imported more nuclear power from abroad during its nuclear phaseout.

flag_germanyGerman imports of nuclear power – the myth revisited REneweconomy, By Craig Morris on 13 March 2014 Energy Transition When Germany shut down nearly half of its nuclear capacity in the week after Fukushima, critics charged that the country would only be importing more nuclear power from its neighbors as a result. Craig Morris says it is a physical impossibility.

Perhaps the best example of such claims is an article published in September 2011 by Der Spiegel. The opening paragraph sums up the argument well: “the country is now merely buying atomic energy from neighbors like the Czech Republic in France.” Later, we read that “the Czech nuclear industry went into the export business. These days, it’s sending roughly 1.2 gigawatts-hours of electricity across the border every day.”

Embarrassingly, it gets worse from there: Continue reading

March 14, 2014 Posted by | ENERGY, Germany | Leave a comment

Los Alamos’ huge nuclear waste problem, with New Mexico facility shut

wastes-1New Mexico nuclear repository mishap leaves Los Alamos waste quandary KFGO, Thursday, March 13, 2014   By Joseph J. Kolb ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) – The Los Alamos National Laboratory is evaluating how to meet a June deadline to permanently discard plutonium-tainted junk in light of a prolonged shutdown of a New Mexico nuclear waste dump after an accident there last month, a lab official said.

Los Alamos, one of the leading U.S. nuclear weapons labs, has been forced to halt shipments of its radioactive refuse some 300 miles across the state to the nation’s only underground nuclear repository, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, according to lab spokesman Matt Nerzig.

The repository has remained closed while the U.S. Department of Energy investigates the origins of a radiation leak that occurred there on February 14, exposing at least 17 workers at the facility to radioactive contamination. It was the first such mishap since the facility opened in 1999.

Nerzig said about 1,000 temporary storage drums of the waste remain at the Los Alamos National Laboratory awaiting shipment to the repository near Carlsbad. The lab faces a strict June 30 deadline to permanently discard of the waste…….

“We intend to hold LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) to the deadline,” said Jim Winchester, communications director, for the New Mexico Environment Department………

Established during World War Two as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the world’s first atomic bomb, the complex remains one of the leading nuclear weapons manufacturing facilities in the United States.

A massive wildfire that raged at the edge of the complex in 2011 burned to within a few miles of a collection of radioactive waste drums temporarily stored at the site. Since then, Energy Department and state officials have made the removal of transuranic waste from the lab to the repository a top environmental priority. http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2014/mar/13/new-mexico-nuclear-repository-mishap-leaves-los-alamos-waste-quandary/

March 14, 2014 Posted by | USA, wastes | 1 Comment

Wind power racing ahead of nuclear in China

Why is Wind Power Generation Surpassing Nuclear? One of the reasons why nuclear power has not kept up with wind in China is the relative time it takes to get a project up and running. Whereas the typical Chinese nuclear reactor takes roughly six years to build, a wind farm can be completed in a matter of months.

wind-turb-smWind Leaves Nuclear Behind In China http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/13/wind-leaves-nuclear-behind-china/By J. Matthew Roney In China, wind power is leaving nuclear behind. Electricity output from China’s wind farms exceeded that from its nuclear plants for the first time in 2012, by a narrow margin. Then in 2013, wind pulled away—outdoing nuclear by 22 percent. The 135 terawatt-hours of Chinese wind-generated electricity in 2013 would be nearly enough to power New York State. Once China’s Renewable Energy Law established the development framework for renewables in 2005, the stage was set for wind’s exponential growth. Wind generating capacity more than doubled each year from 2006 to 2009 and has since increased by nearly 40 percent annually, to reach 91 gigawatts by the end of 2013 (1 gigawatt = 1,000 megawatts). Over 80 percent of this world-leading wind capacity is now feeding electricity to the grid.

Wind generation in 2013 could have been even higher, by an estimated 10 percent, but for the problem known as curtailment—when wind turbines are stopped because the grid cannot handle any more electricity. To help reduce curtailment and reach the official 2020 goal of 200 grid-connected gigawatts, China is building the world’s largest ultra-high-voltage transmission system. The raft of projects now under construction will connect the windier north and west to population centers in the central and eastern provinces. Continue reading

March 14, 2014 Posted by | China, renewable | Leave a comment

Former nuclear chief Gregory Jaczko lobbies for closing nuclear power

Jaczko,-GregoryThree Years After Fukushima, Ex-Nuclear Chief Lobbies For Worldwide Phase-Out  HUFFINGTON POST,  | by  YURI KAGEYAMA TOKYO (AP) 13 Mar 14, — As radiation spewed from Japan’s nuclear disaster three years ago, the top U.S. atomic energy regulator issued a 50-mile evacuation warning for any Americans in the area, a response some found extreme.

Gregory Jaczko, who stepped down as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012, still believes he was right, and says the events at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant show that nuclear power should be phased out in Japan and worldwide.

“The lesson has to be: This kind of accident is unacceptable to society. And that’s not me saying it. That’s society saying that,” he said in an interview this week in Tokyo, where he is giving lectures and speaking on panels marking the third anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that overwhelmed the Fukushima plant.

Now a lecturer at Princeton University, Jaczko, 43, has become a hit on the speaking circuit in Japan, where all 48 nuclear plants remain offline as the country debates what role nuclear power should play in its future……..

Jaczko said he had always been concerned about nuclear safety. But so much unfolded at Fukushima that experts were unprepared for, that it changed his view, and that of the Japanese public, on nuclear power.

Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were major accidents, but for Jackso, Fukushima definitively undermined industry assumptions such as multiple accidents were unlikely or hydrogen leaks would be controlled………http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/fukushima-gregory-jaczko_n_4954621.html?utm_hp_ref=green

March 14, 2014 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Exciting innovations in wind energy

wind-turb-smA Peek Into The Astonishing Future Of Wind Power CLIMATE PROGRESS, BY ARI PHILLIPS ON MARCH 13, 2014 “WHAT IF YOU COULD SCOOP THE AIR? SCOOP IT AND MOVE IT DOWNWARD, AMPLIFYING ITS KINETIC ENERGY ALONG THE WAY, CONCENTRATE IT TO A SINGLE POINT OF INTENSITY, THE WAY A MAGNIFYING GLASS CONCENTRATES SUNLIGHT TO A SINGLE INCENDIARY POINT?”

Dr. Daryoush Allaei, an engineer and founder of Sheerwind, an innovative wind power company, is concentrating his unique thought process on harnessing wind energy in new ways.

“And assuming you could do this technically, could you do it on a large enough scale to make it economically feasible?” Allaei writes in his company description. “More to the point, could you generate energy so inexpensively that it stages a renaissance?”

Sheerwind is pushing the boundaries of wind power innovation with its bladeless wind turbine, called INVELOX. The turbines funnel wind into ground-level generators through a tapering passageway that squeezes and accelerates the air. The units are about half as tall as traditional wind towers, which rise up to 260 feet into the air, and the ground-based turbine blades are more than 80 percent smaller than conventional wind turbine blades, which are about 115-feet long. The device resembles a giant gramophone that sucks in wind instead of blurting out sound.

Sheerwind represents a small point in the larger picture of wind power development, itself part of the story of renewable energy technology. The entire history of power generation, from Ben Franklin’s kite experiments 250 years ago to deep sea drilling for oil and gas is a complex tale of imaginative inventiveness riding up against economic realities. As wind power takes hold across the world, developers are constantly looking for new ways to make the technology lighter, faster, and more efficient but some of the most inventive ideas are often stymied by a lack of financial support during early stages…….http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/13/3366401/future-of-wind-power/

March 14, 2014 Posted by | renewable | Leave a comment

The role of genes in susceptibility to ionising radiation

text ionisingGenes Determine People’s Susceptibility to Radiation, Prison Planet, Washington’s Blog March 10, 2014

highly-recommendedChildren are much more vulnerable to radiation than full-grown adults.

And yet standards for “acceptable” levels of radiation exposure are based on the ridiculous assumption that everyone is a healthy man in his 20s … and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body.

Similarly, there is a lot of variation between adults in terms of susceptibility to radiation.

For example, Howard Hughes Medical Institute – the second-best endowed medical research foundation in the world – reported in 2009:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a group of genes that influence a person’s sensitivity to radiation……..

he most widely-accepted and prestigious publication on radiation – the U.S. National Academy of Science’s 2006 report on Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR VII Phase 2 – includes an 11-page discussion on genetic vulnerability to radiation, concluding: 

At the level of whole populations it is feasible that certain inherited combinations of common low-penetrance genes can result in the presence of subpopulations havingsignificantly different susceptibilities to spontaneous and radiation-associated cancer.

***

The key issue is … the extent to which genetic distortion of the distribution of this risk might lead to underprotection of an appreciable fraction of the population.

While the commonly-accepted, mainstream scientific consensus is that even low levels of radiation can cause cancer and other injury, governments world-wide have reacted to the Fukushima crisis byraising “acceptable” radiation levels. And see this

http://www.prisonplanet.com/genes-determine-peoples-susceptibility-to-radiation.html

March 14, 2014 Posted by | radiation, Reference | Leave a comment