Nothing dramatically new in the nuclear news. Nuclear waste problems are still intractable around the world, while governments continue to promote “new nuclear” – in what looks like a sad act of religious faith.
GENEVA (16 August 2018) – Japan must act urgently to protect tens of thousands of workers who are reportedly being exploited and exposed to toxic nuclear radiation in efforts to clean up the damaged Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station, say three UN human rights experts*.
“Workers hired to decontaminate Fukushima reportedly include migrant workers, asylum seekers and people who are homeless,” said the experts.
“We are deeply concerned about possible exploitation by deception regarding the risks of exposure to radiation, possible coercion into accepting hazardous working conditions because of economic hardships, and the adequacy of training and protective measures.
“We are equally concerned about the impact that exposure to radiation may have on their physical and mental health,” they added.
Contamination of the area and exposure to radiation remains a major hazard for workers trying to make the area safe seven years after the catastrophic nuclear meltdown which followed damage to the power plant from an earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
Tens of thousands of workers have been recruited over the past seven years under the decontamination programme. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare indicates on its website that 46,386 workers were employed in 2016; and the Radiation Worker Central Registration Centre of Japan has indicated that as many as 76,951 decontamination workers were hired in the five-year period up to 2016.
“The people most at risk of exposure to toxic substances are those most vulnerable to exploitation: the poor, children and women, migrant workers, people with disabilities and older workers. They are often exposed to a myriad of human rights abuses, forced to make the abhorrent choice between their health and income, and their plight is invisible to most consumers and policymakers with the power to change it,” said the experts.
“Detailed reports that the decontamination contracts were granted to several large contractors, and that hundreds of small companies, without relevant experience, were subcontracted, are of concern. These arrangements, together with the use of brokers to recruit a considerable number of the workers, may have created favourable conditions for the abuse and violation of workers’ rights.”
As part of its Universal Periodic Review, Japan recently ”accepted to follow up” on a recommendation from other States to restore radiation levels to those before the disaster to protect the human right to health of pregnant women and children, among several other recommendations. The experts strongly urge the Government to lower the allowable dose of radiation to 1 mSv/year to protect children and women who may become pregnant.
The UN experts remain available to advise on how best to address the ongoing issue of exposure of workers to toxic radiation following a previous response by the Japanese Government, and on the need to strengthen protection for workers.
In September, one of the UN experts, Baskut Tuncak, will present a report to the UN Human Rights Council, calling on States and employers to strengthen protection for workers from exposure to toxic substances, and proposing principles in that regard.
Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact Mr. Jeremy Laurence, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org)
This year is the 70th anniversaryof the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN on 10 December 1948. The Universal Declaration – translated into a world record 500 languages – is rooted in the principle that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” It remains relevant to everyone, every day. In honour of the 70th anniversary of this extraordinarily influential document, and to prevent its vital principles from being eroded, we are urging people everywhere to Stand Upfor Human Rights: www.standup4humanrights.org
Maybe they could help to also lose all those Fukushima radioactive soil bags….
August 15, 2018
The Environment Ministry said it has mislaid a 10-kilogram sample of radioactive soil and other materials sent to it after the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Officials suggested Aug. 14 it might have been mistakenly thrown away due to a lack of communication between ministry officials.
It said the soil does not pose a threat to public health.
Ministry officials said the radioactive soil and other items arrived at the ministry head office in small cardboard boxes in two deliveries from Fukushima city in November 2011.
The radiation level had been recorded at a stable and relatively safe 0.6 microsievert per hour or below, and the soil was preserved in a locked steel case.
The disappearance came to light after the ministry received an inquiry from the media this month asking about the soil.
A subsequent in-house investigation indicated that a ministry employee, unaware of what the case contained, arranged for its disposal in January this year.
Japan is still grappling with the issue of disposal of soil made radioactive by the triple meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant following the earthquake and tsunami disaster.
A law covering decontamination decrees that “radioactive soil should not be disposed of without a good reason.”
“There is no excuse for it,” said an Environment Ministry official, acknowledging the error.
The ministry said that it will consider setting measures for preventing a recurrence and punishments may be meted out to those responsible.
Scientists have for the first time been able to estimate the amount of radioactive cesium-rich microparticles released by the disaster at the Fukushima power plant in 2011. This work, which will have significant health and environmental implications, is presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Boston. The flooding of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) after the disastrous earthquake on March 11 2011 caused the release of significant amounts of radioactive material, including cesium (Cs) isotopes 134Cs (half-life, 2 years) and 137Cs (half-life, 30 years). Initially scientists thought that all Cs was released in soluble form. Now however, they have realized that a part of the released Cs was in the form of glassy microparticles, formed at the time of the reactor meltdown; these particles were thrown over a wide area, but until now there has been no reliable estimate of how much radioactive cesium-rich microparticles was deposited in the surrounding area, and how this material was distributed.
Now a group of international scientists, led by Dr. Satoshi Utsunomiya (Associate Professor of Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan) has been able to give the first accurate estimates of the amount of the radioactive microparticles in the environment. This work describes the significance of the microparticles to current radiation levels, and provides fundamental data for a future re-evaluation of health risks from the highly radioactive microparticles which remain in the local environment.
“Most of the glassy microparticles are only a few microns in size, and were spread alongside the soluble cesium. The soluble cesium is generally bound to clay minerals after wet deposition, with the clay minerals also forming particles, so it was difficult to distinguish the cesium-rich microparticles from cesium absorbed on clay.” said Dr. Utsunomiya, “However, we realized that the cesium-rich microparticle has an extremely high radioactivity ~1011 Bq/g compared with the much lower radioactivity for cesium-sorbing clay particles, and this can be used to distinguish the two types. So we have established a novel procedure to quantify the cesium-rich microparticles by applying a quantitative autoradiography method”.
Autoradiography exposes a photographic film or detector to a radioactive source, which causes the radiation to show up on the film (medical X-rays is the most common autoradiography technique). The team determined the threshold radioactivity for Cs-rich microparticles in the sieved fraction based on the relation between photostimulated luminescence signal and radioactivity. They applied this method to soil samples from 20 affected areas.
Dr. Utsunomiya continued “In certain areas, these glassy particles are highly concentrated, so they are a major concern. We have found up to 318 of these particles in just 1 gram of soil, near the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Most of these particles are still in the ambient environments, indicating the high stability.
Since the Fukushima accident we have been gradually coming to understand how the microparticles were distributed, and what this might mean to health and the environment. As you would expect, there are more radioactive particles nearer the reactor: we believe that there was a proportion of cesium released as soluble material, but we have found that the area south of the reactor contains a higher proportion of glassy particles. Our estimate is that around 78% of radioactive cesium was released as glassy particles. Many of the microparticles have been washed down from roofs and from plants, and have now gathered in radioactive hot spots.
Now that we have a better idea of the quantities involved and how the radiation has been distributed, it gives our team a better idea of how to approach the effect on health, which is obviously a major concern. This work does not imply that there is any additional radiation which has been missed—the total amount of cesium released at Fukushima remains the same. However, the glassy particles have concentrated the radiation, which means that there is still much new work to be done to understand how this concentrated radiation might affect health”
Commenting on the work, Dr. Ken Buesseler (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) said:
“The idea of microparticles has not been ‘missed’ in the assessment of total cesium levels in soil after Fukushima; it has been included, although this work highlights the fraction found in cesium microparticles. So we shouldn’t think that there is additional radiation to worry about, but nevertheless in this highly concentrated form it may have different health impacts. These researchers have done a fine job of developing new tools to quantify these microparticles, and that is an important story to tell”
More information: Ryohei Ikehara et al. Novel Method of Quantifying Radioactive Cesium-Rich Microparticles (CsMPs) in the Environment from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Environmental Science & Technology (2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b06693
Yoko Shimosawa, who evacuated from Tokyo to Kobe with two children, speaks from Hiroshima on August 6th at the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the a-bomb.
Her powerful testimony is delivered in English and in Japanese.
The Japanese video and its transcription are placed below the English transcription.
“3 years ago today, many precious lives were instantly destroyed by the terrible blast and the heat from the atomic bomb. Did you know, however, that the atomic bomb has had another, lasting effects? It’s an invisible, quiet and lasting effects from the nuclear bombing, called “internal radiation exposure.”
7 years ago, Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant had an accident and the nuclear accident developed into a nuclear disaster. Today, we Japanese have to live with this invisible and quiet nuclear bombing.
It’s a kind of invisible violence that quietly invades human bodies.
I would like to talk about the violence called “the internal radiation exposure” as an evacuee from the terrible nuclear disaster.
I evacuated to Kansai three years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Where do you think I evacuated from? I evacuated from Tokyo. Do you know that Tokyo has serious radioactive contamination？ Tens of millions of people in East Japan live with radioactive contamination now.
My daughter was 5 years old at the time of the accident. She was a cheerful and active girl. But after one year since the accident, her health conditions became bad and she was troubled by strange symptoms.
She told me, “Mommy, I feel so bad, I have no power, My hands hurt, my legs hurt, my body hurts！”
In fact, my daughter became so sick that she could not live a normal life at all.
At that time, I met a doctor who was working with the issue of radiation exposure in the metropolitan area. He said, if sick children are moved to the west away from contaminated eastern Japan, some of them might recover health.
According to his examinations after the accident, the number of white blood cells of children living in the metropolitan area was decreasing. And he added that neutrophils among white blood cells were particularly badly decreasing. And as we found out later, our two children also had the same condition. Today, the doctor is saying that for every ten children in Tokyo, nine of them have below the standard number of neutrophils.
When I consulted the doctor about my daughter, he clearly stated that she was affected by the radiation exposure.
And he gave me advice to move my daughter to the western part of Japan.
In any case, I tried to move my sick daughter out of Tokyo. Whenever we stayed in a place where there was no radioactive contamination, she became very well. But when we returned to Tokyo, she became sick again. We did not have the option to stay in Tokyo any longer. We just fled from Tokyo and moved to Kansai.
Living in East Japan means living with many radioactive materials, and it is not a place where people can live in good health. So, as evacuees from eastern Japan, we are calling for evacuation to West Japan. Our existence here is not broadcasted on the radio nor published in newspapers. So, I am telling you about it here and now.
After the accident, we were told that radiation was not a problem and health damages would not occur. But it was not true. Many of us have evacuated from East to West due to various health problems. Many people are getting sick today in East Japan. People are dying without noticing that it is due to radiation. Many Japanese can not face this nuclear catastrophe.
Now my daughter is 12 years old. She’s healthy and enjoys everyday life. She has good friends and says she wants to continue living here forever.
She is very afraid that more and more nuclear power plants now will get restarted and there may be another accident. If that happens, she will have to move away from here again. If another nuclear accident happens, she knows that she can not live in this country anymore.
And accidents are not the only ones that threaten her. It is a basic issue that after the accident, our government has not confined radioactive materials to one place.
On the contrary, our government has a policy of diluting toxic radioactive waste by mixing it with water, cement or other materials, and making it look harmless.
And the Japanese government now allows incineration of highly contaminated nuclear waste of up to 8000 Bq/kg, 80 times as high as before the Fukushima accident. It’s all to reduce the enormous amount of nuclear waste. But as conscientious scientists say, we should never burn radioactive materials. It should never have been allowed.
We don’t seem to be able to stop this crazy, irresponsible way of our government.
I hope that my daughter can live in her beloved country where she was born and raised.
What the Japanese government is doing can be called a nuclear assault. This political nuclear bomb is being dropped over us slowly and penetrating into our daily lives.
We can protect precious LIFE of not only humans but also the LIFE of all living creatures from internal radiation exposure. How? By containing radioactive waste in the locations where they were made and by keeping the waste under strict control. We humans can also evacuate from contaminated areas and relocate.
But people can’t move out of the contaminated areas because central and local governments conceal the facts of contamination and victimization, killing many people just like powerful bombs do. That’s a kind of national war waged against its own people.
We deeply deplore such war situation and want to stop it. That’s why I am here speaking to you.
Let us work together so we can recover our country and our earth in which our children can grow up in good health.”
I think Tepco should better sell diluted contaminated water as souvenirs. Why not If people are enough baka (dumb) to buy it and take it home. It is maybe finally a good solution for Tepco to dispose of all that accumulated radioactive water away from the plant site.
Tepco halts sale of folders with Fukushima nuclear plant pictures
FUKUSHIMA (Kyodo) — The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has halted its sale of file folders with photos showing the current conditions of the complex due to public criticism, company sources said Wednesday.
“We received many views, including favorable ones. We will consider whether we can restart their sale (which began Aug. 1),” an official of the operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said.
The folders, offered in a set of three for 300 yen ($2.70), have pictures of the Nos. 1-4 units of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, stricken by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
The operator known as Tepco said it sold them at two convenience stores on the premises of the Fukushima complex after people involved in work to scrap the plant asked the company to sell souvenirs. Tepco said it does not make any profit on the folders.
But there have been complaints from people who were offended by the folders.
A Tepco official involved in the folder sale has said, “As there are very few opportunities to show the real situation of the Fukushima complex, we wanted people to become aware of it through these goods.”
In one of the world’s worst nuclear crises, the Fukushima Daiichi plant on the Pacific coast suffered meltdowns at three of its six reactors, spewing radioactive materials in the surrounding environment.
Decontamination and other efforts are under way to enable people who lived near the disaster-stricken plant to return to their hometowns, while Tepco struggles with massive compensation payments and cleanup costs stemming from the disaster.
Tepco halts sales of souvenirs from Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant following public outcry
A plastic file folder is seen with pictures of Tepco’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The utility halted sales of the folders amid criticism it was looking to profit from the 2011 disaster at the plant.
Aug 9, 2018
Tepco suspended the sale of souvenirs at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Wednesday — just eight days after launching the products — following public outcry that it was looking to profit from the 2011 disaster.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. had been selling plastic file folders imprinted with pictures of the Nos. 1 to 4 units at the crisis-hit plant at two of the facility’s convenience stores since Aug. 1, after receiving requests for memorabilia from visitors and workers.
But the sales by the utility immediately drew criticism with many people posting angry comments on social media. One comment said Tepco was responsible for the disaster and “had no right to profit from” it, adding that the move was “arrogant and showed scant consideration for the disaster victims.” Others said the plant operator should at least donate the proceeds from the sales to local residents and charities.
“We have received a wide variety of opinions over the past week and decided to suspend sales in order to reflect on those views and consider what would be the proper way to handle such merchandise,” Tepco spokeswoman Yuka Matsubara said.
Matsubara also said the utility is unsure if sales would ever resume.
She emphasized the company never intended to take profits from the sales as the ¥300 retail price for a set of three folders was almost the same as the production cost.
“We had learned that visitors and workers had been keeping the receipts they received from the convenience stores at the complex as souvenirs to show their families,” Matsubara said. “To allow visitors a chance to share their experiences and inform everyone that Fukushima is gradually recovering, we made the decision to sell souvenirs.”
After the sales of souvenirs were reported by several news outlets, mixed comments began appearing on Twitter.
A tweet by @mtycskni_ said, “I guess it would be proper to give away such things to the visitors who wish to have them” instead of selling them, while another from @potetohakusyaku asked, “Why don’t visitors buy local products made in Fukushima instead of such goods?”
The Fukushima plant that suffered nuclear meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster is not open to the general public. Only plant workers, decommissioning support staff, media representatives, local politicians and residents are permitted on the grounds as long as they are 18 or older. Last year, 12,500 people visited the complex — up 1,800 from 2016.
Child statue in protective suit in crisis-hit Fukushima criticized
Passers-by look at Sun Child, a 6.2-meter statue clad in a protective suit, near JR Fukushima Station in northeastern Japan, on Aug. 12, 2018.
August 13, 2018
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) — The statue of a child clad in a protective suit set up near JR Fukushima station has sparked criticism that it gives the impression that Fukushima residents need such gear after the 2011 nuclear crisis.
The 6.2-meter statue called Sun Child was made by contemporary artist Kenji Yanobe to express his wish for a world free from nuclear disasters. The statue indicates the surrounding air is “clean” as the child is holding its helmet in its hand and a radiation counter on its chest reads “000.”
Yanobe apologized on his website Friday for “discomforting” some people with his artwork, which was created in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant meltdown and installed near JR Fukushima station in the city of Fukushima on Aug. 3.
“I wanted to make a work that encourages people (in Fukushima)…and made the statue of a child standing up bravely and strongly against any difficulties it faces,” he said. “The clothing looks like protective gear, but it is also armor to confront major issues and, being like a space suit, it also carries a futuristic image.”
But he admitted that his earlier explanation of the artwork — such as calling the clothing “protective gear” and the device on the statue’s chest a “Geiger counter” — may have led to misunderstanding.
Critical views were posted on Twitter and the city of Fukushima received calls demanding the statue’s removal. “The statue will encourage reputational damage because it gives an impression that people in Fukushima cannot live without protective gear,” one person said.
Others argued the statue was “unscientific” because it indicates that it would only be safe for someone wearing protective gear to take off a helmet when the radiation level falls to zero. Usually the radiation level is not zero even in areas not affected by nuclear accidents due to natural radiation.
Yanobe said in a statement, “I should have paid more attention to the fact that accurate knowledge about radiation is needed much more now than before the disaster.”
Fukushima Mayor Hiroshi Kohata called for understanding in a Twitter post saying, “Contemporary art is abstract expression unlike science.”
Yanobe said he wants to discuss with the city about what to do with the statue.
Fukushima residents complain over statue of child in radiation suit
Critics say artwork outside train station gives impression area is unfit for habitation
Sun Child is depicted in a yellow Hazmat-style suit. The mayor of Fukushima defended the decision to install the statue.
Mon 13 Aug 2018
Residents of Fukushima have demanded the removal of a statue of a child in a protective suit from outside the city’s railway station, saying it gives the impression that the area is unfit for human habitation as a result of the 2011 nuclear disaster.
The statue, by Kenji Yanobe, depicts a child dressed in a yellow Hazmat-style suit, with a helmet in one hand and an artistic representation of the sun in the other.
Yanobe said his Sun Child, which was installed by the municipal government after appearing at art exhibitions in Japan and overseas, was intended to express his desire for a nuclear-free world.
The artist said he did not mean to give the impression that local children needed to protect themselves from radiation more than seven years after the Fukushima Daiichi plant became the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
He pointed out that the child was not wearing the helmet and that a monitor on its chest showed radiation levels at “000”.
“I wanted to make a work that encourages people [in Fukushima] … and made the statue of a child standing up bravely and strongly against any difficulties it faces,” Yanobe said, according to Kyodo News.
But he added: “I should have paid more attention to the fact that accurate knowledge about radiation is needed much more now than before the disaster.”
His statue drew criticism on social media and in messages to the city government after it went on display this month. “It will cause damage to Fukushima’s reputation because it gives the impression that people cannot live there without protective gear,” one poster said, according to Kyodo.
Others pointed out that the monitor reading of zero was misleading, since areas that have not been affected by nuclear leaks have varying levels of background radiation.
The mayor of Fukushima, Hiroshi Kohata, defended the decision to install the statue, saying he believed the child looked hopeful about the city’s future, and the sun symbol was a reference to the need to develop clean energy sources.
However, he acknowledged public criticism of the statue and said he would take into account the opinions of residents before making a decision on its future.
Japan’s government hopes the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will help highlight Fukushima’s recovery from the disaster, despite the slow pace of the costly and complicated task of decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi, and concerns about radiation levels in nearby communities.
The city will host Olympic baseball and softball games and was recently chosen as the starting point for the Olympic torch relay.
The row over the statue comes as local authorities are trying to persuade families to return to evacuated neighbourhoods. Few residents have returned to cities, towns and villages where evacuation orders have been lifted, with families with young children most concerned about moving back.
In Naraha, about 12 miles south of the plant, only several hundred people among the pre-disaster population of 7,400 have returned since the town was declared safe in September 2015.
This file photo taken on May 21, 2018, shows Shimane Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 3 reactor in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, western Japan. (Kyodo)
August 10, 2018
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Chugoku Electric Power Co. on Friday applied to the government for safety screening of a nuclear reactor it is constructing, opening up the possibility of it becoming Japan’s first newly built reactor to go into operation since the 2011 Fukushima crisis.
Work on the No. 3 unit at the Shimane plant in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, is almost complete and safety checks by nuclear regulators may proceed faster than for another reactor in northeastern Japan that is also under construction.
The No. 3 reactor will have a maximum output of 1,373 megawatts, making it one of the largest in the country. It is a boiling water reactor, the same type as those at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Chugoku Electric was initially aiming to activate the reactor in December 2011 after starting construction in 2006. But the plan was postponed following the Fukushima nuclear crisis, triggered by a massive quake and tsunami disaster that hit northeastern Japan.
The crisis led to the introduction of more stringent safety standards for nuclear power plants. Around 10 reactors have resumed operation in Japan after clearing the safety hurdles, but there has been no case in which new reactors have been activated after the disaster.
“With existing nuclear reactors currently restarting, we thought it is possible to file for checks of the No. 3 unit (even though it is a new reactor),” Tatsuo Kitano, managing executive officer of the utility based in Hiroshima Prefecture, told reporters.
The latest development came a day after Shimane Gov. Zembee Mizoguchi officially gave the green light for Chugoku Electric’s application for government screening.
But prospects remain unclear on when the reactor will be put into service as the utility will not just have to clear the safety tests but also again seek local consent for operation.
Chugoku Electric is spending around 500 billion yen ($4.5 billion) on safety measures for the No. 3 reactor, aiming to finish the work by September 2019.
The other new reactor that is seeking to start operation is being built at Electricity Power Development Co.’s Oma nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture.
The company known as J-Power applied for government safety checks in 2014, but the process has been drawn out. The Oma reactor is expected to become the world’s first commercial reactor to run fully on plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel.
Hiroshima Police Unlawfully Arrested A Citizen to Silence Evacuees Appealing aboutOngoing Fukushima Disaster. A Serious Threats to Human Right and Free Speech.
Please share the following news and the our first statement of protest.
We demand that the Hiroshima police immediately release the arrested friend of the nuclear evacuees who participated in Aug.6 Hiroshima actions!
We, an organization of evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster and their supporters, attended various peace rallies and events held in Hiroshima on August 6th 2018, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of 1945 nuclear atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Survivors of Hiroshima atomic bombing and Fukushima nuclear evacuees are both victims of nuclear disaster and radiation. Our goal was to unite with Hiroshima and act together to end this ongoing disasters in the world.
There on the night of 6th, in front of the great number of people coming for these peace events from all over the world, we gave speeches in both Japanese and English. Our speech was for remembrance of those killed by the nuclear atomic bombing and the endless damage caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred in 2011.
A lot of Japanese and foreign tourists who visited Hiroshima for this anniversary stopped and listened to our speeches earnestly, taking our handouts explaining what the Fukushima nuclear disaster has caused : the real health damage of residents now spreading all over the eastern Japan; and the predicaments that evacuees are faced with even today. We were deeply moved by the amount of attentions and feedback we received from them. When one of the 2nd generation of atomic bomb victims gave a speech on how Hiroshima and Fukushima are connected with one straight line, radiation exposure, there was a round of applause from people including locals of Hiroshima. It became a great place of solidarity for sharing experiences and thoughts among those who were there with us.
However all things were changed when a suspicious passerby wearing military fashion, pointing his camera, started shouting complaints at us, and took photos of us, apparently aiming to disturb our speeches. We ignored him but when we were finishing it up and packing our stuff, he screamed saying, ‘Someone just broke my camera’ and called the local police even though we did not go near him or made any physical contact with him or whatsoever.
The local police officers rushed to us and blocked us from going anywhere. The officers started to question us and we explained many times that we did nothing to him, it was totally a false accusation and we needed to go back because some of us got very sick from the summer heat. However, the police officers refused to let none of us go.
The officers were talking something with their supervisor by wireless telephone all the time. Then suddenly they said “The police have had an eyewitness who saw your member break that man’s camera. So now take this person to the police station.” We told them that none of us did such a thing, however the officers put handcuffs on one of our members, saying “You are under suspicion of escape!! You are under arrest!! Let you know the reason of arrest when you are brought to the police station.” The police officers lifted that person’s body violently and then threw into their police car and took our member to the main police station in Hiroshima. This is clearly illegal abduction and confinement by the police using a false accusation.
The police officers physically held us down, trying us not to approach to the suspicious camera man or ‘eyewitness’. Witnessing a whole situation, some citizens there shouted to the police officers “how dare you doing such a thing on the memorial day for war dead!” and “How come? They have done nothing wrong!” The officers withdrew to the police station right after they made the arrest as if they themselves are fugitives.
The reason for this arrest was, we suspect, that the upper-level of police department judged our speeches and handouts politically and they ordered those police officers at the site to arrest our member.
This fact shows how the current Japanese administration is terrified of their biggest skeleton in the closet, the actual health damage due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, coming to light. They are also making desperate efforts to hamper the voices of Fukushima nuclear victims and the concerns and resentment against atomic bombings from spreading among people in Japan and around the world. So they use whatever means to stop those real pictures being known to the public, domestically and internationally.
It was late at night, we have not been able to send lawyers with our member still confined at the police station of Hiroshima. It will be notified by Aug 9th whether our member will be released or continue detained for ten more days. We need your help and cooperation for us to make every effort to realize an earlier release.
A participants in the peace memorial events in Hiroshima, who gives a speech against radiation exposure gets arrested by a completely false accusation. Such an unlawful illegal arrest shall not happen.
In order to protect freedom of speech and human rights, please give us your attention to the protest against the police request for detention.
Please share this information with anyone you know.
When I purchased a commonly available radiation detector right after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 I never would have dreamed how it would impact the way I saw the world. Since then I would periodically test the level of radioactivity around my home here in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Nothing was ever out of the ordinary, and my own readings were generally in the 30 to 50 counts per minute (cpm) range. Perfectly safe, or so I thought.
That all changed this Spring, when by chance I happened to remember that testing on an air filter could show the presence of “hot” particles. Since I happened to own two air cleaners with HEPA air filters, I got out my detector and laid it down on one of the HEPA filters. Immediately the detector went into a wild frenzy of clicking punctuated by the flashing of the red light each time it was bombarded by ionizing radiation. Thinking something had to be wrong, I tried again only to have the same result. I tried again on the other air cleaner and found an even higher result of over 800 cpm.
Since I had at that time been working with Akio for about a year, and had been introduced to several of his nuclear experts by email, I reached out to them asking what could possibly be causing this disturbing result. All agreed this was a high result, and the prime suspect was radon gas. Radon gas is common in this area, and can be threat to health. I promptly obtained test kits for my indoor air and well water, sent them in, and within a week I had the results – – all completely negative. At this point, concerned for the health of my family, I began testing everything I could think of to try to determine the source. Floor tiles, countertops and a few other things registered higher than the ambient level, but I was assured that this wouldn’t contribute more than about 30 cpm to the total.
After about a week or so, I remembered reading that many years after the Chernobyl disaster, people living there who heated their homes with wood, like we do, released radiation into the atmosphere once again in the burning process. We have two woodstoves in our home, one large one in the living room and a smaller one in the master bedroom. Since the fine particulate material of the ash might contaminate my detector, I laid down some sheets of paper towels on the ash below the stove in the bedroom, and switched the detector on. Immediately it registered far higher than ambient levels and beyond. Same in the living room. Same at a neighbor’s house. The source apparently was the fire wood – – mostly cut on my own land. Most of my neighbors heat with wood too, at least as a backup. Wood smoke, as I was well-aware, is composed of extremely small particulates that are easily breathed into the body and absorbed.
The implications of this discovery were disturbing. There were radioactive particles in the air that we were all breathing, apparently in large quantities. These particles had apparently been bio-accumulating in the woods around my home for many years, and were re-suspended when burned.
I immediately began monitoring my indoor air regularly, and took a reading on the HEPA filters whenever I could, generally hourly when I was home. Since the level of radiation was much lower without wood smoke indoors, I decided to put one air cleaner outdoors and leave the other indoors. I got out a fresh legal tablet and started a protocol where I would take a reading on each filter, take a picture of the result on my radiation detector with my smartphone, and write down the results. This quickly showed that there was not a much difference between the readings indoors or outdoors.
What I did not know at this point was if this was a localized problem, or whether it was more widespread. With fire season approaching, I abandoned taking two readings, and focused on carefully taking readings outdoors, recording them, and taking a picture of the sky when smoke or clouds were present. Knowing that a fire event was likely going to happen in the upcoming months, I wanted to be ready to see if smoke from wildfires outdoors would result in similar levels of radioactive particles as I had found indoors.
I never could have suspected that the wildfires in California would be as epic as they have been this year. We live in an area vulnerable to fires, and we take them seriously. We had been evacuated in 2014 as a fire approached to within a half mile of our home driven by strong winds, and were only saved by a massive air attack from a virtual fleet of air tankers lined up dropping water and fire retardant. This left a deep impression on us. My stepson has since become a fireman, and has just returned from a deployment to several fires, and after nursing an injury and getting clearance from his doctor, will be back on the fire lines.
As horrific as this season’s fires have been so far, with all the destruction of homes and loss of lives, what disturbs me most is what I have just recorded in my logs, photos and readings. At the peak of the fires and smoke just a few days ago, the readings were significantly higher – – and not by just a little. I recorded a peak reading of 1,333 cpm on the morning of July 31st, and had multiple readings above 1,000 cpm during that period. And, none of the fires is even close to us this time. The likely source of much of the smoke here is a fire near Yosemite National Park, over a hundred miles away. I suspect heavier concentrations of smoke would yield higher results.
Has the vast bulk of the 40 million population of California just been unknowingly exposed to high concentrations of radioactive particles? What are the constituents of these particles? How hazardous are they? It was recently widely reported that radiation from Fukushima, in the form of Cesium-137, was detected in small quantities in California wines. There can be little doubt that Cesium-137 from Fukushima has also been absorbed by all the vegetation here, and when burned, is re-released.
This situation cries out for serious study. I have no experience or academic training in this field. There may well be alternative explanations. I can see from what I have recorded that there are nuances and variances over the course of the day that probably reflect complex processes. All I know is that what we have been breathing shows indications of being contaminated with radioactive particles. It is strongly implied that this radioactivity has been silently concentrating in the plants around us, and is presumably in the food we eat, and in what we drink as well.
If that is correct, this is a situation far worse than we have ever been told. It is likely a global problem, as the exotic and unnatural particles that never existed on this planet previously until the dawning of the nuclear age have now found their way into the air, the oceans, and every living thing. With California on fire, my hope is for all of us to burn away our own complacency, and reignite our own passion to serve life itself in each moment. We can all do something to help according to our abilities, as Akio has selflessly done for many years using his gifts in bringing together international leaders for important common goals. Time is short, and the problem is measured in lifetimes. And potentially for some of us, shortened lifetimes at that.
Gregg Lien is an environmental and land use attorney practicing at Lake Tahoe in California. He is a former prosecutor, and was a former assistant county counsel specializing in land use issues before moving to Lake Tahoe in 1980. He was a participant in the first Presidential Summit on the Environment, hosted by then President Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, and has been interviewed over the years in various media, including National Public Radio. He has been a frequent participant in regulatory negotiations and battles over resources in the Sierras. He lives with his wife, Heidi, and whichever of their children needs a place to stay now that the youngest has turned 18. He is fascinated by electronics and has a collection of meters and gadgets for his amateur radio and musical hobbies, some of which are actually useful in practical application – – or so he claims.
The Trump administration is pushing hard on its scheme to create a Space Force. Last week Vice President Pence, chairman of a newly reconstituted National Space Council, in a speech at the Pentagon declared: “The time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield.”
Pence claimed—falsely: “Our adversaries have transformed space into a warfighting domain already and the United States will not shrink from the challenge.”
Trump, who in June announced he was “directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces,” following Pence’s address Thursday promptly tweeted: “Space Force all the way!”
At the same time, signaling that the Space Force drive will be used politically, the Trump campaign organization sent out an email asking supporters to choose between six Space Force logos that were depicted. “President Trump wants a Space Force—a groundbreaking endeavor for the future of America and the final frontier,” wrote Brad Parscale, campaign manager of “Donald J. Trump for President, 2020.” “To celebrate President Trump’s huge announcement, our campaign will be selling a new line of gear.” He asked backers pick “your favorite logo.”
“THIS IS A CRUCIAL MOMENT WHERE THE PUBLIC MUST STAND AND SAY ‘HELL NO!” SAID BRUCE GAGNON, COORDINATOR OF THE GLOBAL NETWORK AGAINST WEAPONS & NUCLEAR POWER IN SPACE, ON HIS BLOG. “STAR WARS” ISN’T “AFFORDABLE, IS AN INSANE IDEA, AND WOULD VERY LIKELY LEAD TO WW III—THE FINAL WAR,” SAID GAGNON.
THE GLOBAL NETWORK, BASED IN MAINE AND FOUNDED IN 1992, DECIDED AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING, IN JUNE IN OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM, TO HAVE THE SPACE FORCE SCHEME BE THE TARGET OF ITS “INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF PROTEST TO STOP THE MILITARIZATION OF SPACE.”
IT WILL BE HELD BETWEEN OCTOBER 6 AND 13 WITH PROTESTS AND OTHER ACTIONS AGAINST THE SPACE FORCE PLAN HAPPENING THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONALLY. WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM, U.S. CHAPTER, IS THE CO-SPONSOR.
“HOW IN THE WORLD CAN OUR BANKRUPT NATION AFFORD TO PAY FOR STAR WARS WHICH THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY HAS LONG CLAIMED WOULD BE THE LARGEST INDUSTRIAL PROJECT IN HUMAN HISTORY?” SAID GAGNON. “THE ONLY WAY IS TO COMPLETELY DESTROY SOCIAL PROGRESS—CUT SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, MEDICAID AND WHAT LITTLE IS LEFT OF THE WELFARE PROGRAM. ARE YOU GOING TO STAND FOR THAT?” Continue reading →
Paul Richards 17 Aug 18 ‘The San Onofre’ transport/storage cask, was, and remain placed next to the ocean, in a high-risk area for a Tsunami. In a state that has over 75% of the seismic activity in North America, within close proximity of the well-known earthquake fault line in California.
The citizens of Orange, & San Diego County along with Los Angeles were assured these casks were guaranteed for a hundred years. As opposed to the many thousands of years needed in guarantee for future generations, yet there were and still are signs of cask breakdown in under twenty years.
Let that sink in, U N D E R 2 0 Y E A R S.
It was the typical, nuclear industry message when this plant was phased out as economically and environmentally unviable, demonstrating the nuclear energy experiment had failed:
“Trust us, we know best, these casks are world best practice…”
What are the probabilities after over 70 years of using the same line of logic others in the Nuclear State have;
* that this industry has solved its spent nuclear fuel cask containment problem, or ever will?
Even without going into the long-term storage issues, of a final dump site, as a repository for the indefinite cost of backdoor waste, the IAEA acknowledges has no solution; the whole concept of nuclear energy looks far more trouble, in terms of cost, wasted development and risk to life on earth be relied on.
However, that’s subjective, to whether an individual or group actually considers emerging and future generations life of value.
A premise where a win at all cost, tailors into the mantra of efficiencies, and ROI – profit, for senior executives, shareholders, stakeholders, and financiers, is put before ‘social responsibility’.
American weapons makers have dominated the global arms trade for decades. In any given year, they’ve accounted for somewhere between one-thirdand more than one-half the value of all international weapons sales. It’s hard to imagine things getting much worse—or better, if you happen to be an arms trader—but they could, and soon, if a new Trump rule on firearms exports goes through.
But let’s hold off a moment on that and assess just how bad it’s gotten before even worse hits the fan. Until recently, the Trump administration had focused its arms-sales policies on the promotion of big-ticket items like fighter planes, tanks, and missile-defense systems around the world. Trump himself has loudly touted US weapons systems just about every time he’s had the chance, whether amid insults to allies at the recent NATO summit or at a chummy White House meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose brutal war in Yemen is fueled by US-supplied arms.
A RECENT PRESIDENTIAL EXPORT POLICY DIRECTIVE, IN FACT, SPECIFICALLY INSTRUCTS AMERICAN DIPLOMATS TO PUT SPECIAL EFFORT INTO PROMOTING ARMS SALES, EFFECTIVELY TURNING THEM INTO AGENTS FOR THE COUNTRY’S LARGEST WEAPONS MAKERS. AS AN ANALYSIS BY THE SECURITY ASSISTANCE MONITOR AT THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY HAS NOTED, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND EVEN NATIONAL-SECURITY CONCERNS HAVE TAKEN A BACK SEAT TO CREATING DOMESTIC JOBS VIA SUCH ARMS SALES. EVIDENCE OF THIS CAN BE FOUND IN, FOR EXAMPLE, THE ENDING OF OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ARMS SALES SUSPENSIONS TO NIGERIA, BAHRAIN, AND SAUDI ARABIA. THE FIRST OF THOSE HAD BEEN IMPOSED BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT REPRESSED ITS OWN CITIZENS; THE SECOND FOR BAHRAIN’S BRUTAL CRACKDOWN ON THE DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT THERE; AND THE LAST FOR SAUDI ARABIA’S COMMISSION OF ACTS THAT ONE MEMBER OF CONGRESS HAS SAID “LOOK LIKE WAR CRIMES” IN ITS YEMENI INTERVENTION.
FUELING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, HOWEVER, TURNS OUT NOT TO BE A PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE JOB CREATOR. SUCH MILITARY SPENDING ACTUALLY GENERATES SIGNIFICANTLY FEWER JOBS PER DOLLAR THAN ALMOST ANY OTHER KIND OF INVESTMENT. IN ADDITION, MANY OF THOSE JOBS WILL ACTUALLY BE LOCATED OVERSEAS, THANKS TO PRODUCTION-SHARING DEALS WITH WEAPONS-PURCHASING COUNTRIES LIKE ITALY, JAPAN, SAUDI ARABIA, SOUTH KOREA, TURKEY, THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, AND OTHER US ALLIES. TO CITE AN EXAMPLE, ONE OF THE GOALS OF SAUDI ARABIA’S ECONOMIC REFORM PLAN—UNVEILED IN 2017—IS TO ENSURE THAT, BY 2030, HALF THE VALUE OF THE KINGDOM’S ARMS PURCHASES WILL BE PRODUCED IN SAUDI ARABIA. US FIRMS HAVE SCRAMBLED TO COMPLY, SETTING UP AFFILIATES IN THE SAUDI CAPITAL, RIYADH, AND IN THE CASE OF LOCKHEED MARTIN’S SIKORSKY UNIT, AGREEING TO BEGIN ASSEMBLING MILITARY HELICOPTERS THERE. MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE SUMMED UP THE SITUATION IN THIS HEADLINE: “TRUMP’S HISTORIC ARMS DEAL IS A LIKELY JOBS CREATOR—IN SAUDI ARABIA.”
FOR MOST AMERICANS, THERE SHOULD BE SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF OVERSEAS ARMS SALES, BUT IF YOU’RE A WEAPONS MAKER LOOKING TO PUMP UP SALES AND PROFITS, THE TRUMP APPROACH HAS ALREADY BEEN A SMASHING SUCCESS. ACCORDING TO THE HEAD OF THE PENTAGON’S ARMS SALES DIVISION, KNOWN EUPHEMISTICALLY AS THE DEFENSE SECURITY COOPERATION AGENCY, THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HAS BROKERED AGREEMENTS FOR SALES OF MAJOR SYSTEMS WORTH $46 BILLION IN THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2018, MORE THAN THE $41 BILLION IN DEALS MADE DURING ALL OF 2017.
AND THAT, IT SEEMS, IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
SLOW MOTION WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
Yes, those massive sales of tanks, helicopters, and fighter aircraft are indeed a grim wonder of the modern world and never receive the attention they truly deserve. However, a potentially deadlier aspect of the US weapons trade receives even less attention than the sale of big-ticket items: the export of firearms, ammunition, and related equipment. Global arms control advocates have termed such small arms and light weaponry—rifles, automatic and semi-automatic weapons, and handguns—“slow motion weapons of mass destruction” because they’re the weapons of choice in the majority of the 40 armed conflicts now underway around the world. They and they alone have been responsible for nearly half of the roughly 200,000 violent deaths by weapon that have been occurring annually both in and outside of official war zones.
And the Trump administration is now moving to make it far easier for US gun makers to push such wares around the world. Consider it an irony, if you will, but in doing so, the president who has staked his reputation on rejecting everything that seems to him tainted by Barack Obama is elaborating on a proposaloriginally developed in the Obama years.
The crucial element in the new plan: to move key decisions on whether or not to export guns and ammunition abroad from the State Department’s jurisdiction, where they would be vetted on both human rights and national security grounds, to the Commerce Department, whose primary mission is promoting national exports.
The Violence Policy Center, a research and advocacy organization that seeks to limit gun deaths, has indicated that such a move would ease the way for more exports of a long list of firearms. Those would include sniper rifles and AR-15s, the now-classic weapon in US mass killings like the school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Newtown, Connecticut. Under the new plan, the careful tracking of whose hands such gun exports could end up in will be yesterday’s news and, as a result, US weapons are likely to become far more accessible to armed gangs, drug cartels, and terrorist operatives.
President Trump’s plan would even eliminate the requirement that Congress be notified in advance of major firearms deals, which would undoubtedly prove to be the arms loophole of all time. According to statistics gathered by the Security Assistance Monitor, which gathers comprehensive information on US military and police aid programs, the State Department approved $662 million worth of firearms exports to 15 countries in 2017. The elimination of Congressional notifications and the other proposed changes will mean that countries like Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as various Central American nations, will have far easier access to a far wider range of US firearms with far less Congressional oversight. And that, in turn, means that US-supplied weapons will play even more crucial roles in vicious civil wars like the one in Yemen and are far more likely to make their way into the hands of local thugs, death squads, and drug cartels.
As sea levels rise due to climate change, so do the global hazards and potential devastating damages from tsunamis, according to a new study by a partnership that included Virginia Tech.
Even minor sea-level rise, by as much as a foot, poses greater risks of tsunamis for coastal communities worldwide.
The threat of rising sea levels to coastal cities and communities throughout the world is well known, but new findings show the likely increase of flooding farther inland from tsunamis following earthquakes. Think of the tsunami that devasted a portion of northern Japan after the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, causing a nuclear plant to melt down and spread radioactive contamination.
These findings are at the center of a new Science Advances study, headed by a multi-university team of scientists from the Earth Observatory of Singapore, the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University, and National Taiwan University, with critical support from Virginia Tech’s Robert Weiss, an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences, part of the College of Science.
“Our research shows that sea-level rise can significantly increase the tsunami hazard, which means that smaller tsunamis in the future can have the same adverse impacts as big tsunamis would today,” Weiss said, adding that smaller tsunamis generated by earthquakes with smaller magnitudes occur frequently and regularly around the world. For the study, Weiss was critical in helping create computational models and data analytics frameworks.
At Virginia Tech, Weiss serves as director of the National Science Foundation-funded Disaster Resilience and Risk Management graduate education program and is co-lead of Coastal@VT, comprised of 45 Virginia Tech faculty from 13 departments focusing on contemporary and emerging coastal zone issues, such as disaster resilience, migration, sensitive ecosystems, hazard assessment, and natural infrastructure.
For the study, Weiss and his partners, including Lin Lin Li, a senior research fellow, and Adam Switzer, an associate professor, at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, created computer-simulated tsunamis at current sea level and with sea-level increases of 1.5 feet and 3 feet in the Chinese territory of Macau. Macau is a densely populated coastal region located in South China that is generally safe from current tsunami risks.
At current sea level, an earthquake would need to tip past a magnitude of 8.8 to cause widespread tsunami inundation in Macau. But with the simulated sea-level rises, the results surprised the team.
The sea-level rise dramatically increased the frequency of tsunami-induced flooding by 1.2 to 2.4 times for the 1.5-foot increase and from 1.5 to 4.7 times for the 3-foot increase. “We found that the increased inundation frequency was contributed by earthquakes of smaller magnitudes, which posed no threat at current sea level, but could cause significant inundation at higher sea-level conditions,” Li said.
n the simulated study of Macau – population 613,000 – Switzer said, “We produced a series of tsunami inundation maps for Macau using more than 5,000 tsunami simulations generated from synthetic earthquakes prepared for the Manila Trench.” It is estimated that sea levels in the Macau region will increase by 1.5 feet by 2060 and 3 feet by 2100, according to the team of U.S.-Chinese scientists.
The hazard of large tsunamis in the South China Sea region primarily comes from the Manila Trench, a megathrust system that stretches from offshore Luzon in the Philippines to southern Taiwan. The Manila Trench megathrust has not experienced an earthquake larger than a magnitude 7.8 since the 1560s. Yet, study co-author Wang Yu, from the National Taiwan University, cautioned that the region shares many of the characteristics of the source areas that resulted in the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, as well as the 2011 earthquake in northern Japan, both causing massive loss of life.
These increased dangers from tsunamis build on already known difficulties facing coastal communities worldwide: The gradual loss of land directly near coasts and increased chances of flooding even during high tides, as sea levels increase as the Earth warms.
“The South China Sea is an excellent starting point for such a study because it is an ocean with rapid sea-level rise and also the location of many mega cities with significant worldwide consequences if impacted. The study is the first if its kind on the level of detail, and many will follow our example,” Weiss said.
Policymakers, town planners, emergency services, and insurance firms must work together to create or insure safer coastlines, Weiss added.
“Sea-level rise needs to be taken into account for planning purposes, for example for reclamation efforts but also for designing protective measures, such as seawalls or green infrastructure.”
He added, “What we assumed to be the absolute worst case a few years ago now appears to be modest for what is predicted in some locations. We need to study local sea-level change more comprehensively in order to create better predictive models that help to make investments in infrastructure that are or near sustainable.”
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