The ill health legacy of nuclear testing
The legacy of nuclear testing
Physicians project that some 2.4 million people worldwide will eventually die from cancers due to atmospheric nuclear tests conducted between 1945 and 1980.
Since the dawn of the atomic age in July 1945, nuclear weapons have been tested on more than 2,000 occasions – in the atmosphere, underground and underwater. The toll on human health and the environment has been staggering. Today many of us carry in our bodies radioactive substances from the fallout of nuclear testing, increasing our risk of developing cancer. Much of the Earth’s surface has been contaminated at some point with radioactive particles. Nuclear testing enables nations to increase the lethality of their nuclear forces.
Nuclear test sites
Nuclear tests have been carried out at more than 60 locations around the globe, often on the lands of indigenous and minority peoples, far away from those who made the decisions to conduct them. While some test sites have been virtually uninhabited, others have been densely populated. The tests have irradiated people working on the programmes, the downwind and downstream communities, and the whole global population. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War has estimated that roughly 2.4 million people will eventually die as a result of the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted between 1945 and 1980, which were equal in force to 29,000 Hiroshima bombs.
A nuclear test ban
Public concern in the 1950s about the health and environmental impacts of nuclear testing, including its effect on mothers’ milk and babies’ teeth, led to the negotiation in 1963 of a treaty banning atmospheric and underwater nuclear tests. A comprehensive nuclear test ban, covering underground tests, was negotiated in 1996. Although the latter treaty has not yet entered into legal force, full-scale nuclear testing has largely come to halt. However, a number of countries continue to test their nuclear weapons sub-critically………..http://www.icanw.org/the-facts/catastrophic-harm/the-legacy-of-nuclear-testing/
Miami-Dade County threatened by excessively saline water, due to Turkey Point nuclear plants
Nuclear Plant Threatens Miami-Dade’s Water. Mayor Says, ‘This Isn’t Flint’Updated March 10, 2016 [includes audio] npr, GREG ALLEN 10 Mar 16 A study shows excessive saltwater from Florida Power and Light’s nuclear plant is threatening Biscayne Bay and the aquifer that supplies much of Miami’s water “…….
India’s Prime Minister Modi in the grip of the global nuclear salesmen
PM’s recent visits to France, Russia and Japan India Infoline News Service | Mumbai | March 10, 2016
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visits to France, Russia and Japan were aimed to bring in socio-economic and scientific development particularly in the field of atomic energy
Strong opposition to uranium mining in Kuannersuaq, Greenland
We are strongly opposed to plans to exploit minerals with uranium reserves at Kuannersuaq, Narsaq http://arcticjournal.com/press-releases/2204/we-are-strongly-opposed-plans-exploit-minerals-uranium-reserves-kuannersuaq We are strongly opposed to plans to exploit minerals with uranium reserves at Kuannersuaq, Eric Jensen, Nuka David SørensenMarch 9, 2016 By The Arctic Journal Information to citizens concerning the plans for exploitation of mineral deposits with uranium and exploitation of uranimium by Kuannersuaq at Narsaq is not sufficient and we demand that there should be a referendum on the plans for exploitation of mineral resources with uranium content. Therefore we require that plans for exploitation of mineral resources with uranium content and exploitation of uranium and all the decisions concerning these must be stopped.
By requiring that plans for exploitation of mineral resources with uranium content and exploitation of uranmium by Kuannersuaq at Narsaq temporarily stopped, we have begun planning of demonstrations against these plans on April 8, 2016, from 12:00 in the towns of Narsaq, Qaqortoq, Nuuk, Tasiilaq , Ilulissat, Qeqertarsuaq and in the settlements Qassiarsuk and Narsarsuaq. We have the following arguments against the plans for the exploitation of mineral resources with uranium content and exploitation of uranium:
- No sufficient information has been submitted regarding the potential impacts on people, the environment and wildlife, if an open mine is to be opened at Kuannersuaq;
- Citizens are not informed with clear information printed in Greenlandic concerning the plans for the exploitation of mineral resources containing uranium and exploitation of uranium.
We require the following information from the Greenland Government on plans for use of mineral resources from Kuannersuit:
1. What impacts can an open pit mine on the top of Kunnersuaq have on people’s health and the environment?
2. How can dust with different radioactive substances from the exploitation of raw materials from the mountain all year round be avoided?
3. What plans are there to ensure that waste from the mine to be thrown in the lake does not pollute the environment?
4. What can the waste from the mine placed into the lake have of impacts?
5. Is there sufficient space to the amount of waste in the lake?
6. According to the latest survey, only very small amounts of uranium, how credible are these compared to Risø’s studies?
7. How will you ensure the credibility of the EIA report as yet been presented publicly?
8. How ready is Greenland to store waste / tailings containing uranium mining and exploitation for many years without polluting?
9. There are not taken into account the next coming generations who will inherit it all?
Everybody is welcome to participate in the demonstrations on April 8 from pm. 12:00 at the following towns Narsaq, Qaqortoq, Nuuk, Tasiilaq, Ilulissat, Qeqertarsuaq, Qassiarsuk, Narsarsuaq and possible. Elsewhere.
Photo Book – Wilderness to Wasteland: the downfall of a nuclear city
David T. Hanson: Wilderness to Wasteland Published by Taverner Press
Foreword by Joyce Carol Oates. Introduction by David T. Hanson. Afterword by Miles Orvell.For 30 years, David T. Hanson (born 1948) has made photographs that are widely celebrated for their powerful depictions of the American landscape and its dramatic transformation and despoilment by humans. His newest collection, Wilderness to Wasteland,presents four series of previously unpublished and unexhibited photographs from Hanson’s early work, made between 1982 and 1987. Atomic City documents the former nuclear boomtown in Idaho, site of the world’s first nuclear power plant and first reactor meltdown. The Richest Hill on Earth is a study of the vast copper mines, housing and surrounding wasteland of Butte, Montana. The eponymous series is a dynamic group of aerial and ground-view photographs of hazardous waste sites, while the final series, Twilight in the Wilderness, comprises spectacular night views of industrial sites for power production. Together, these photographs constitute a haunting meditation on a ravaged landscape.
Featured image is reproduced from David T. Hanson: Wilderness to Wasteland.
Malfunction at Taiwan nuclear power station. Anti nuclear demonstration for March 12
Malfunction triggers nuclear plant closure By John Liu ,The China Post March 11, 2016, TAIPEI, Taiwan — A safety mechanism triggered by a high level of feed water shut down one of the two reactors in the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant — or the First Nuclear Power Plant — on Thursday, the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower, 台電) said. The exact cause of the incident is still under investigation, Taipower said, while stressing that there had been no radioactive leak.
At 1:10 p.m., the safety mechanism reportedly caused a steam turbine freeze, and then the boiling water reactor’s automatic shutdown……..
Anti-Nuclear Demonstration to Take Place
Many in Taiwan still oppose the use of nuclear power. An anti-nuclear march has been staged for this coming weekend on March 12. It will mark the sixth large-scale demonstration of such a kind since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Residents along Taiwan’s north coast, where the First, Second and Fourth Nuclear Power Plants are located, are inviting members of the public to their neighborhoods, not only to understand the natural and human landscapes there, but also to better understand why nuclear abolition would be good for the area.
Due to the facilities’ older parts and components, there have been more malfunctions in the First and Second Nuclear Power Plants, the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (綠色公民行動聯盟) said, adding that the power plants ought to be retired without delay.
Lin Chuan-neng (林全能), head of the Economics Ministry’s Bureau of Energy (能源局), said that whether the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant will be put into service hinges on the state of power use in the next three years. It may be decided by a public vote, Lin said………http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2016/03/11/460395/Malfunction-triggers.htm
No real fix in sight for Fukushima’s wrecked nuclear power station
A Long Road Ahead For Fukushima’s Crippled Nuclear Plant [Video] http://www.ibtimes.com/long-road-ahead-fukushimas-crippled-nuclear-plant-video-2334077 BY REUTERS ON 03/10/16 Thousands of workers at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi are still working to contain the damage, five years after the country’s worst nuclear disaster. Natasha Howitt reports. Japan’s worst nuclear disaster took place on March 11, 2011: A 10-meter high tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake, crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing multiple meltdowns.
Now, five years on, efforts to contain the damage are still ongoing.Thousands of workers are involved. plant operator Tepco says they still don’t know how bad the situation is at three of the fourcrippled reactors. Akira Ono, the chief of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said, “It is kind of difficult to say how much we have achieved in terms of percentage, but thinking of the project in mountain climbing terms, If the peak is the 10th station, then, we have probably just passed the first station. ”
Water is needed to keep the clean up going, but the tanks storing the contaminated water are almost full.
There’s a danger that surrounding groundwater may become radioactive too.
Japan is seeking international advice, but decommissioning the reactors is still expected to take 30 to 40 years, and cost tens of billions of dollars.
Japn now has only one nuclear station in operation
Japan Is Down To One Nuclear Power Plant, Gizmodo, BRYAN LUFKIN 10 Mar 16 Japan has closed one of its two remaining operational nuclear plants. The shutdown comes just days before the fifth anniversary of a catastrophic earthquake that triggered a tsunami and the biggest nuclear meltdown since Chernobyl.
On Wednesday, a Japanese court ordered the shutdown of Takahaka Nuclear Plant in western Japan, citing poor safety measures. This same plant was restarted back in January after it was shut down post-Fukushima, along with the rest of Japan’s nuclear reactors. The swift re-shutdown hints at just how divisive and worrying nuclear energy has become in Japan.
The court said Takahaka’s reactors never should have been rebooted in the first place, citing “points of concern in accident prevention, emergency response plans and the formulation of earthquake models”. The reboot was problematic: a mere week afterwards, radioactive water started leaking from a pipe at the facility, while one reactor suddenly shut down with no explanation, the New York Times reports.
Of the 43 nuclear reactors in Japan, only two at that one remaining plant are still operational: they’re at Kyushu Electric Power’s Sendai plant, on the southern tip of the archipelago. It was restarted back in August………
t among widespread public protest, Wednesday’s court ruling might be a welcome development among citizens who fear another megaquake and meltdown. Nuclear is a clean and powerful energy source, sure — but when it comes to power plants, Mother Nature can make this manmade fuel a very dangerous thing. http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/03/japan-is-down-to-one-nuclear-power-plant/
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