2016 February « nuclear-news

Spread of Hanford radioactive pollution is “alarming”

Hanford contamination spread across public highway

Fall windstorm spread radioactive contamination across Route 4 north of Richland

Some contamination likely spread by plants, animals

EPA requires report from DOE in April

BY ANNETTE CARY acary@tricityherald.com 23 Feb 16 The Environmental Protection Agency has called the uncontrolled spread of small amounts of radioactive waste at Hanford “alarming” after a Nov. 17 windstorm.

Surveys six miles north of Richland after the winds subsided found specks of contamination had spread beyond Route 4, the public highway from Richland out to the Wye Barricade secure entrance to Hanford.

The contamination had blown from the 618-10 Burial Ground, which is being cleaned up on the west side of the highway.

The search also turned up previously undiscovered specks of radioactive waste believed to have been spread by plants or animals outside known contaminated areas…….

EPA, in a letter to DOE, said the spread of contamination “is a matter that is alarming to EPA and requires further investigation and discussion.”

It has given DOE until the third week of April to prepare a report on its loss of control of radioactive material. DOE is required to describe for EPA, a Hanford regulator, what actions and technology it plans to prevent a recurrence.

DOE and its contractor, Washington Closure Hanford, have had problems with contamination spread at the 618-10 Burial Ground as early as summer 2014, according to the weekly staff reports of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board……..

The report required by EPA is expected to address not only issues directly related to the 618-10 Burial Ground but the spread of contamination by plants and animals. http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article61710052.html

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Cesium 137 found in 7 fish near Canada’s West Coast, but not in salmon

Radiation from Fukushima nuclear disaster not found in B.C. salmon http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/radiation-from-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-not-found-in-bc-salmon/article28846578/ MARK HUME VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail Feb. 23, 2016 Five years after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, radioactive contaminants continue to circulate across the Pacific to Canada’s West Coast, but not at dangerous levels.

A B.C. scientist monitoring fish for tell-tale traces of cesium-134 said the radionuclide, which is the fingerprint of the Fukushima disaster, has been found in seawater but not in recent samples taken from 156 salmon.

Steelhead, Chinook, sockeye and pink salmon were collected by First Nations from locations spread along the B.C. coast last year as part of an ongoing monitoring program.

In releasing the latest test results, Jay Cullen, with the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, said Monday even with the most sensitive measurements possible, no trace of radioactivity from Fukushima was detected in any of the salmon.

He said tests did find low levels of cesium-137 in seven fish, but cesium-134 was not also found in those salmon.

“Because no c-134 was detected in these fish it is not possible to say whether detectable c-137 can be attributed to Fukushima contamination, or simply normal variability in contamination owing to nuclear weapons testing fallout,” Dr. Cullen said.

“The vast majority of c-137 that’s in the environment today came from weapons testing; fallout from atmospheric weapons tests last century,” he said. “And also there is an imprint of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 in the Pacific.”

Dr. Cullen said seawater far offshore and in coastal waters continues to show low levels of contamination from 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima power plant. The accident released a pulse of radioactive material into the Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere. Debris has drifted across the ocean and for the past few years has been washing up on West Coast beaches.

Dr. Cullen said tests in recent months have shown that the levels of radioactive contamination in sea water are low, but are varied depending on where the samples are taken.

“Offshore the contamination is much more evenly distributed, from place to place.

“Along the coast, probably because of complex water circulation and freshwater inputs, we see it show up in certain places more often than in others,” he said. Dr. Cullen said none of the measurements raises any health concerns.

“It’s thousands of times below the maximum allowable [level] of cesium in our drinking water. It’s still a very trace level. In order for us to detect it, we have to use the most sensitive techniques that we have,” he said.

“The amount of radioactivity from these isotopes from Fukushima in our water or in our fish [is] a fraction of the count you’d get using a Geiger counter.”

Dr. Cullen said the level of contamination in the Pacific off the West Coast continues to rise, but that was anticipated.

“Given the time that it takes for the ocean currents to bring that contamination as it spreads across the North Pacific this is when the models predict those levels should be peaking,” he said.

“The heart of that contamination is just arriving offshore.”

Dr. Cullen, who works with a network of researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Health Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the University of B.C., the University of Ottawa and UVic, said monitoring of both seawater and fish will continue and shellfish will be added to the testing this year.

The research group is known as InFORM, for Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring Network.

“The goal of the InFORM project is to continue to monitor the water and fish because this information is … useful for determining what the risk might be to the ecosystem or to humans who rely on fish,” he said.

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, environment | Leave a comment

Germany struggles with nuclear waste storage problem

German nuclear exit plan fails to solve waste storage puzzle http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-nuclear-storage-idUKKCN0VW1Y9 Feb 23, 2016 FRANKFURT | BY CHRISTOPH STEITZ When Germany committed itself five years ago to phasing out nuclear power by 2022, there was one big gap in its plans — what to do with the waste that can remain toxic for hundreds of thousands of years.

That issue remains unresolved even after a government-appointed nuclear commission came up with ideas on how to ensure funding for shutting down all of the country’s atomic reactors.

According to a draft proposal, utilities E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall [VATN.UL] could be saddled with up to 56 billion euros ($61.6 billion) in costs to cover their share of the cost of the nuclear exit.

But the final bill could climb even higher and the extra cost may have to be met by German taxpayers.

The main uncertainty centres on the difficulty of finding a permanent storage site to house highly radioactive material.

Local opposition has ruled out turning an interim waste storage site in salt formations in the small village of Gorleben in northwest Germany into a final site, with the location having ultimately been excluded by law.

The nuclear commission has proposed capping the utilities’ liability for storage costs at 36 billion euros — twice the size of current provisions made by the four utilities for that part of the process.

This proposal would put a ceiling on costs for the power firms and remove a major source of investor concern.

But there is caution that this is only a draft settlement which does not settle the practical problem of finding a storage site.

Analysts at Jefferies are among those who “remain concerned about the potential for future cost escalations and the negative balance sheet implications that it may have for German utilities”.

GOING UNDERGROUND?

Underlining the tensions around the storage issue, German utilities have sued the government over the Gorleben decision, claiming a ban is politically motivated and will force them to incur additional costs.

The OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency says it is impossible to gauge the future costs of storage sites because each country’s geography is different and there are no previous projects to serve as examples.

In contrast, the dismantling of nuclear plants, for which utilities have set aside about 20 billion euros in provisions, is more predictable in terms of costs.

Several plants have already been torn down and several more are being dismantled after the German government decided to end nuclear in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

More fanciful ideas to dispose of the nuclear waste include shooting it into outer space, but underground storage remains the most feasible option.

Finland and Sweden are most advanced in their preparations for such a solution to their own waste issues, hoping to be the first countries to put high-level waste into underground caverns in the next decade. ($1 = 0.9088 euros)

(Editing by Keith Weir)

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, wastes | Leave a comment

More about Florida lawsuit over alleged unlawful nuclear fees

FPL, Duke Energy sued over alleged unlawful nuclear fees http://protectingyourpocket.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2016/02/23/fpl-duke-energy-sued-over-alleged-unlawful-nuclear-fees/

Florida Power & Light Co. and Duke Energy Florida have been hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging that millions of dollars in nuclear construction costs the companies charge their customers are unlawful, the suit filed Monday by consumer rights law firm Hagens Berman says.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida accuses Duke Energy and FPL of overcharging through alleged unconstitutional price hikes that increase customers’ electricity bills to fund nuclear construction costs.

Since 2008 the Florida Public Service Commission has authorized the two utilities to collect more than $2 billion in nuclear costs from customers. The lawsuit alleges that Florida’s nuclear cost recovery system violates the Commerce Clause and is preempted by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 under the Supremacy Clause.

“These two utilities have racked up huge expenses with nuclear power plant projects – some of which they completely abandoned – and have left ratepayers holding the bag,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman. “We believe the consumers in this instance are being forced to pick up the tab for Duke Energy Florida and FP&L in violation of their constitutional rights.”

To read the lawsuit, go tohbsslaw.com/uploads/case_downloads/florida_energy/fpandlanddukeenergyflorida_class_action_lawsuit_02-22-16.pdf

Juno Beach-based FPL has 4.8 million customer accounts, and Duke Energy Florida, headquartered in St. Petersburg, has 1.7 million customer accounts.

The suit seeks relief for anyone who is a customer of either of the utility companies, including reimbursement from the companies for costs passed onto the customers to fund the companies’ nuclear projects, a declaration binding on defendants that Florida’s Nuclear Cost Recovery System and all nuclear cost recovery orders issued under it are unconstitutional and void, and an order enjoining defendants from further unlawful charges.

The named plaintiffs are William Newton, a Duke Energy customer who resides in Clearwater and is deputy director of the Florida Consumer Action Network and Noreen Allison of Naples, an FPL customer since 1991 and a retired U.S. National Park Service worker.

The lawsuit alleges that since Nov. 12, 2008, Duke and FPL ratepayers have been forced to pay “unlawful charges” to fund various nuclear power plant projects.

Duke abandoned all of its nuclear projects in 2013, and FP&L’s proposed expansion of its Turkey Point plant south of Miami continues to be bogged down in red tape, according to the complaint. FPL is seeking a license to build two more nuclear units, 6 and 7 at Turkey Point.

FPL operates two nuclear units at Turkey Point and two at its St. Lucie plant on Hutchinson Island.

The suit lists as an example that Duke abandoned a nuclear power plant in Levy County, which reportedly cost Florida ratepayers $1.3 billion, and that full amount has not yet been collected.

The Nuclear Cost Recovery System facially discriminates against electricity producers outside of Florida and violates the Constitution’s dormant Commerce Clause, the lawsuit contends.

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Countless Unreported Worker Deaths in the Fukushima nuclear clean-up workforce

Fukushima – Deep Trouble CounterPunch, FEBRUARY 22, 2016 by ROBERT HUNZIKER “………..The Tragedy of Countless Unreported Worker Deaths

Indeed, the question of whether Fukushima can ever be adequately, safely decontaminated is wide-open, which logically segues to question who does the dirty work, how workers are hired, and what’s their health status? According to mainstream news sources in Japan, workers are doing just fine, estimates range up to 45,000 workers all-in, no major problems.

As far as the world is concerned, the following headline sums up radiation-related issues for workers, First Fukushima Worker Diagnosed With Radiation-linked Cancer, The Telegraph, Oct. 20, 2015. All things considered, that’s not so bad. But, who’s counting?

Trustworthy sources outside of mainstream news claim otherwise, none more so than Mako Oshidori, a Japanese freelance journalist and a director of Free Press Corporation/Japan, and a former student of School of Life Sciences at Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, in a lecture entitled “The Hidden Truth about Fukushima” delivered at the international conference “Effects of Nuclear Disasters on Natural Environment and Human Health” held in Germany in 2014 co-organized by International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War.

Free Press Corporation/Japan was formed after the 2011 Great Sendai Earthquake as a counterbalance to Japan’s mainstream government influenced media, described by Mako as journalists who do not report truth, journalists afraid of the truth!

“There is one thing that really surprised me here in Europe. It’s the fact that people here think Japan is a very democratic and free country.” (Mako Oshidori)

According to Mako, TEPCO and the government deliberately cover-up deaths of Fukushima workers, and not only do they cover-up deaths, but once she investigated stories of unreported deaths, government agents started following her: “When I would talk to someone, a surveillance agent from the central government’s public police force would come very close, trying to eavesdrop on the conversation,” Exposed: Death of Fukushima Workers Covered-Up by TEPCO and Government, NSNBC International, March 21, 2014.

Mako Oshidori: “I would like to talk about my interview of a nurse who used to work at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) after the accident… He quit his job with TEPCO in 2013, and that’s when I interviewed him… As of now, there are multiple NPP workers that have died, but only the ones who died on the job are reported publicly. Some of them have died suddenly while off work, for instance, during the weekend or in their sleep, but none of their deaths are reported.”

“Not only that, they are not included in the worker death count. For example, there are some workers who quit the job after a lot of radiation exposure, such as 50, 60 to 70 mili Sieverts, and end up dying a month later, but none of these deaths are either reported, or included in the death toll. This is the reality of the NPP workers.”

The “reality of the NPP workers… dying a month later” does not correspond very well with Abe administration insistence that nuke plants reopen, even though the country has continued to function for five years without nuclear power, hmm.

In her speech, Mako talks about problems for journalists because of government interference: “An ex-agent who is knowledgeable about the work of the Public Security Intelligence Agency (“PSIA”) said that when you are visibly followed, that was meant to intimidate you. If there was one person visible, then there would be ten more. I think that is analogous to cockroaches. So, when you do a little serious investigation about the nuclear accident, you are under various pressure and it makes it more difficult to interview people.”

Still, she interviewed Fukushima mothers, e.g., “Next, I would like to talk about mothers in Fukushima. These mothers (and fathers) live in Iwaki City, Fukushima. They are active on school lunch issues. Currently, Fukushima produce isn’t selling well due to suspected contamination. So the prefectural policy is to encourage the use of Fukushima produce in school lunches, in an attempt to appeal to its safety… the mothers claim that currently in Japan only cesium is measured and they have no idea if there is any strontium-90. They oppose the use of Fukushima produce in school lunches for fear of finding out, ten-plus years down the road, that there was actually plutonium in the food that children ate.”

Mothers who oppose the prefecture’s luncheon policy are told to leave Fukushima Prefecture, move out if they worry about contamination, pull up stakes and move on.

Mako’s full interview is found here.

All of which begs the question of who does the dirty work? According to Michel Chossudovsky, director of Centre for Research on Globalization (Canada), Japan’s organized crime syndicate Yakusa is actively involved in recruitment. Personnel who qualify for radioactive cleanup work include underemployed, impoverished, indigent, unemployed, homeless, hard up, down-and-out, and poverty-stricken individuals, as well as non-destitute people willing to undertake under-paid, high-risk work. The nameless are shoe-ins……… http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/22/fukushima-deep-trouble/

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | employment, Japan | Leave a comment

Gloom in USA nuclear industry: claim they’re ignored in Clean Power Plan

Nuclear industry bemoans Clean Power Plan stay, Power Source, February 23, 2016 For an industry that said it was ignored by the Clean Power Plan, nuclear interests sure took it hard when the Supreme Court halted the rule earlier this month.

Existing nuclear power plants didn’t get any credit for being the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the country, advocates said. There are no direct incentives built into the rule to subsidize new nuclear plants or keep existing ones from retiring early, as more than half a dozen have done or plan to do.

And yet, when the Supreme Court stayed the rule while its merits are hashed out in a lower court, it sent shockwaves through the industry that was counting on the states’ compliance plans to give nuclear energy the credit that the federal government didn’t…….

Across the country, five nuclear plants have already shut down or been put on the early retirement list…..

the nuclear renaissance that the industry banked on, that federal nuclear regulators staffed up for, didn’t happen. ….

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

China ramping up its nuclear industry, with plans for exporting reactors

China Inc.’s Nuclear-Power PushIn a shift, Chinese state-owned companies seek to roll out advanced reactors for export, WSJ, By BRIAN SPEGELE Feb. 23, 2016 SHENZHEN, China—China wants to shift from customer to competitor in the global nuclear industry as it seeks to roll out its first advanced reactor for export, a move that adds new competition for already struggling global firms.

Two state-owned firms teamed up to design the advanced indigenous Hualong One reactor with plans to sell overseas. On Tuesday, one of them, China General Nuclear Power Group, hosted dozens of business executives from Kenya, Russia, Indonesia and elsewhere, as well as diplomats and journalists, at its Daya Bay nuclear-power station to promote the Hualong One for export.

Asked how much of the global market share for new nuclear reactors CGN wants Hualong One to win, Zheng Dongshan, CGN’s deputy general manager in charge of international business, said: “The more the better.”

The move marks a turnaround for China and the nuclear-power industry. For three decades, China served as a big market for nuclear giants including U.S.-based, Japanese-owned Westinghouse Electric Co. and France’s Areva SA. …….

turning promotion into sales takes time, and there is no guarantee the Hualong One will find success abroad. Discussions over building the reactor overseas in many cases remain preliminary, and the first of Hualong One model reactor won’t enter service in China for several more years……

Regulatory approvals are among the challenges China Inc. faces as it seeks to sell homegrown reactors abroad. CGN executives said obtaining needed regulatory permits in the U.K. and other countries for the Hualong One would still take several years, a process that would need to conclude before construction gets under way……..

At the heart of its sales pitch for potential customers overseas, CGN touts itself as a “one-stop shop” for nuclear needs—from nuclear design to construction, financing and other services.

“If you choose the HPR1000, it’s like you’re joining a big family,”Yang Maochun, a deputy general manager of CGN’s international business department, told the visiting foreign executives on Tuesday…….

Political concerns over Chinese nuclear investment in the West could also pose hurdles, though these may be overcome through jointly investing with local partners.

While acknowledging CGN’s deepening competition with Western nuclear companies, Mr. Zheng said the company remains eager to cooperate with them too. He cited joint investment with France’s Électricité de France SA in the U.K.’s Hinkley Point C project as a model for cooperation, and said CGN would be willing to help market non-Chinese reactors in the future as well. http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-inc-s-nuclear-power-push-1456251331

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, marketing | Leave a comment

Australian Aboriginal people oppose expansion of nuclear industry

Traditional owners in the Flinders Ranges say nuclear waste dump threatens cultural heritage ABC NORTH AND WEST MICHAEL DULANEY Traditional owners in the Flinders Ranges say a Federal Government nuclear waste dump could destroy significant cultural heritage and countless sacred sites around a permanent spring. The lush vegetation and birdlife along Hookina Creek, 30 kilometres north of Hawker in South Australia, stands out even among the imposing space and scale of the central Flinders Ranges. Its permanent waters are fed by aquifers that bubble up to feed ‘an oasis’ of reeds and large eucalypts bursting from the dry heat and dust of the pastoral landscape.

It is an area integral to the lives of the Adnyamathanha people for generations and whose presence has left a rich cultural and archaeological record along the creek.

These waters are also just a few kilometres from Wallerberdina, a cattle station near Barndioota partly-owned by former Liberal senator Grant Chapman.

It is also one of six sites nominated to host Australia’s first nuclear waste dump.The Adnyamathanha people, who manage the Yappala Indigenous Protected Area which shares a boundary with Barndioota, said they were “shocked” by the prospect of storing Australia’s low and intermediate level nuclear waste so close to a significant cultural site.

Traditional owner Regina McKenzie said the facility would jeopardise their links to a place important for the present — a place where her children have learnt to swim and the family comes to camp — as well as the past, as seen in the tools, paintings and storylines that mark the area.

“The emotional stress we’re feeling is off the charts,” Ms McKenzie said. “We’re still the custodians here; we’ve always looked at it that way.”

The Adnyamathanha people are also worried about the risk from large floods known to hit the area, and elder Enice Marsh pointed out damage around the creek caused by the last flood a decade ago.

Ms Marsh said she feared the loss of her people’s heritage in the region if rising flood waters mixed with radioactive waste. “If we’re going to have that poison stuff here, even if it’s a low-level situation, it’s just absolute madness to put something like this near somewhere that’s so special,” she said.

“It’s everything; it’s a type of importance that you would never be able to describe. “The connection to this land for Adnyamathanha people is their culture, their customs; it’s their identity.”…….

With a final decision from the Government due by the end of the year, Ms McKenzie said the Adnyamathanha people would continue to oppose the expansion of the nuclear industry into their traditional lands.

“We’re feeling as though we’re being forced to do something we don’t want to do,” she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/traditional-owners-flinders-ranges-fears-on-nuclear-waste-dump/7195030

February 26, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | Leave a comment

S. Korea rejects calls for nuclear armament

South Korea on Tuesday rejected public calls for the country’s own nuclear armament, saying it remains firmly committed to the global nonproliferation regime. – Korea Times, 23 Feb 16

February 25, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | South Korea, weapons and war | Leave a comment

New UN Talks on Nuclear Weapons Start

Stigmatize and Prohibit: New UN Talks on Nuclear Weapons Start Today http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beatrice-fihn/stigmatize-and-prohibit-n_b_9287144.html Beatrice FihnExecutive Director, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

When North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in January, condemnation from all around the world flowed within minutes. A week later, the United States carried out a mock nuclear weapons test of a new type of “more usable” warhead in the Nevada desert. Aside from a small number of civil society organizations, the international community was silent.

Just two weeks ago, North Korea carried out a rocket launch and thereby tested the capability to launch long-range missiles, capable of delivering nuclear weapons on targets far, far away. The world once again rose up and criticized this, with statements by the United Nations Security Council and condemnations from Foreign Ministers all around the world.

Early this morning, the United States tested its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, a missile that is intended for launching nuclear bombs on Russia or any other target on the other side of the world. Again, few seem to care.

The United Nations Secretary-General has said, “There are no right hands for the wrong weapon”. But many in the international community often act with implicit acceptance of American, British, French, Russian, and Chinese nuclear weapons.

The “Humanitarian Initiative”, however, is challenging this implicit acceptance. Through a series of international conferences on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and a formal pledge to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons” endorsed by 123 governments, non-nuclear weapon states are working to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

By stigmatizing nuclear weapons — declaring them unacceptable and immoral for all — the international community can start demanding and pressuring the nuclear-armed states and their military alliances to deliver what they’ve actually promised: a world free of nuclear weapons.

Negotiating a new international treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, even without the participation of nuclear-armed states, would be one of the most effective toolsfor achieving such stigmatization.

And that work starts now. Far removed from headlines regarding North Korea’s recent tests or other non-proliferation issues like the Iran deal, a new UN Working Group in Geneva, Switzerland, will start today.

In true UN-style, the Working Group has a blurry and bureaucratic mandate, wrapped inside a Resolution of several pages from the UN General Assembly. However, its task is to work on new legal measures for nuclear disarmament.

Through this Working Group, the 123 states that have endorsed the humanitarian pledge to “fill the legal gap” have an opportunity to start work on a new, legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons.

The Working Group might not cause big headlines like the Iran deal, but judging by the strong reaction from the nuclear weapon states and those under the nuclear umbrella, it is clear that they do not see it as just another talking shop.

The nuclear weapon states seem genuinely dismayed about the efforts to stigmatize and prohibit nuclear weapons. They are all boycotting the Working Group and are strong-arming allied states under the US nuclear umbrella and NATO members into representing their interests whilst pretending to be disengaged.

The nuclear weapon states are doing everything they can to stop the process to stigmatize and prohibit nuclear weapons – as they know it will challenge their self-proclaimed right to keep these weapons of mass destruction around for as long as they wish.

70 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it’s time to see nuclear weapons for what they really are. Not a sign of power and prestige. But as a weapon created to ensure as much destruction and human suffering as possible.

The use of nuclear weapons would cause an instant vaporization of huge numbers of civilians, followed by an even larger number of excruciatingly painful death caused by fires, blasts and immediate radiation. First responders and medical personnel — if they survive the immediate, devastating impact – would be unable to provide adequate relief to survivors. Those that despite this would survive would be faced with the medium and long-term consequences of radioactive fallout, contamination, and environmental devastation.

No matter which country possess them, be it North Korea, United States, Russia, Pakistan or the United Kingdom – nuclear weapons are inhumane, indiscriminate, and should be unacceptable for any state to possess.

It’s time to start working on an international prohibition of nuclear weapons.

Follow Beatrice Fihn on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BeaFihn

February 25, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Tragedy of Countless Unreported Nuclear Worker Deaths

Fukushima – Deep Trouble, CounterPunch, FEBRUARY 22, 2016 by ROBERT HUNZIKER “………Indeed, the question of whether Fukushima can ever be adequately, safely decontaminated is wide-open, which logically segues to question who does the dirty work, how workers are hired, and what’s their health status? According to mainstream news sources in Japan, workers are doing just fine, estimates range up to 45,000 workers all-in, no major problems.