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China firmly opposes Japan’s discharge of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into sea

Source: Xinhua, Editor: huaxia, 2023-05-30 https://english.news.cn/20230530/5bdd921cc81744ffbcfd0eb7b76dd09b/c.html

GENEVA, May 28 (Xinhua) — A Chinese delegate on Saturday expressed firm opposition to Japan’s unilateral decision to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima into the sea, when attending related discussions at the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) held here.

Given the strong currents along Fukushima’s coast, the radionuclides will spread to waters worldwide in 10 years after a discharge, the delegate said, adding that this move is to shift the risks to all mankind, and is not Japan’s private matter, but a crucial issue affecting global public health.

Noting many countries and stakeholders have expressed serious concerns, the delegate urged Japan not to unilaterally discharge the nuclear-contaminated water before reaching an agreement with all parties.

In response to a Japanese delegate’s defense, the Chinese side said that the defense can be summed up as “the water quality is non-toxic and the discharge is reasonable,” but what the Japanese side said is completely untenable and they must give convincing answers to a series of questions.

The Chinese delegate raised three questions: First, if the nuclear-contaminated water is safe, why doesn’t Japan itself use the water? Why not use the water for domestic agriculture and manufacturing, or discharge it into domestic lakes? Second, is discharging the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea the only feasible solution? Third, what kind of long-term impact will such a discharge have on the world?

When it comes to the disposal of the nuclear-contaminated water, the Chinese delegate pointed out that Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has proposed five plans. The Japanese government’s expert committee has admitted that compared to such options as emitting the water into the atmosphere through vaporization, building new storage tanks and solidifying the water with cement, a discharge into the sea is the cheapest option with minimum risk of pollution to Japan itself.

Japan’s current choice is to save itself trouble and money by pushing the world to suffer consequences, the delegate said, emphasizing that such actions, which only serve the short-term interests of Japan but harm the common interests of all mankind, must be severely condemned and resolutely resisted, and that the Pacific Ocean is not a sewer into which Japan can dump nuclear-contaminated water.

In April 2021, Japan announced that it would discharge the polluted water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the ocean. Many countries, including China, have expressed firm opposition, and Russia also expressed serious concerns at this WHA. However, Japan has disregarded the reasonable appeals and demands of the international community.

May 31, 2023 Posted by | China, oceans | 1 Comment

Government’s nuclear-free policy remains unchanged: Cabinet

05/29/2023, Focus Taiwan, By Chen Chun-hua, Kuo Chien-shen, Wang Yang-yu, Wang Cheng-chung, Liu Chien-ling and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 29 (CNA) The government’s policy of creating a “nuclear-free homeland” has not changed, and there is no consideration of extending the service of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants, Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) said Monday.

Lin was responding to comments by Vice President and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) that Taiwan’s nuclear reactors might be reactivated in an emergency situation, seemingly contradicting the DPP’s policy.

Lin said in a post to reporters that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) are carrying out the phasing out of Taiwan’s nuclear plants in line with the original plans and are not considering extending their lifespan……

Taiwan currently has only one nuclear power plant still producing power, the third nuclear power plant near the southern tip of the island. It is scheduled to be shut down by 2025 and be decommissioned.

The first and second nuclear plants along Taiwan’s northern coast have started their decommissioning processes. The fourth nuclear plant in Gongliao in northeastern Taiwan was nearly completed but never operated, and the DPP government shipped away its unused fuel rods……………………………………….more https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202305290012

May 31, 2023 Posted by | politics, Taiwan | Leave a comment

IAEA team in Japan for final review before planned discharge of Fukushima nuclear plant water.

abc news, 29 May 23

An International Atomic Energy Agency team has arrived in Tokyo for a final review before Japan begins releasing massive amounts of treated radioactive water into the sea from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, a plan that has been strongly opposed b…

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press, May 29, 2023

TOKYO — An International Atomic Energy Agency team arrived in Tokyo on Monday for a final review before Japan begins releasing massive amounts of treated radioactive water into the sea from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, a plan that has been strongly opposed by local fishing communities and neighboring countries.

The team, which includes experts from 11 countries, will meet with officials from the government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, and visit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant during their five-day visit, the economy and industry ministry said………………………………

Some scientists say the impact of long-term, low-dose exposure to radionuclides is unknown and the release should be delayed.

Japan’s government has stepped up campaigns in Japanese media and at food fairs to promote the safety of seafood from Fukushima, while providing regular briefings to foreign governments including South Korea and members of the Pacific Islands Forum.

…………………. Japanese officials say the water stored in the tanks needs to be removed to prevent accidental leaks in case of another disaster and to make room for the plant’s decommissioning. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/iaea-team-japan-final-review-planned-discharge-fukushima-99669696

May 31, 2023 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, oceans | Leave a comment

A Mothers Day protest: Activists blockaded the entrance to the US 2 Navy’s west-coast nuclear submarine base

No survivors. Protestors bring their annual message for peace to the gates of hell

By Leonard Eiger  by beyondnuclearinternational

Activists blockaded the entrance to the US Navy’s west-coast nuclear submarine base, which is home to the largest operational concentration of deployed nuclear weapons, in a nonviolent direct action the day before Mother’s Day.

Eight peace activists from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, holding banners reading “The Earth is Our Mother Treat Her With Respect”  and “Nuclear Weapons are Immoral to Use, Immoral to Have, Immoral to Make,” briefly blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington as part of a May 13th Mothers Day observance. 

Traffic was diverted as the 15 member Seattle Peace Chorus Action Ensemble, facing the Navy’s security detail, sang “The Lucky Ones”, an original composition by their director, Doug Balcom of Seattle, to the assembled guards and Navy personnel. 

The song describes the different stages of personal, regional and global destruction that a nuclear war would inflict on humanity and the earth’s biosphere, and posits whether survivors to later stages of the devastation would wish they’d perished earlier; it ends with a call to save us from this fate by eliminating all nuclear weapons.  …………………………………

Tom Rogers, a retired Navy captain and former nuclear submarine commanding officer, stated: “The destructive power of the nuclear weapons deployed here on board Trident submarines is beyond human imagination. The simple fact is, that a nuclear exchange between the great powers would end civilization on our planet. I understand this. If I fail to protest the existence of these evil weapons, then I am complicit.”

The civil disobedience was part of Ground Zero’s annual observance of Mothers Day, first suggested in the United States in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as a day dedicated to peace.  Howe saw the effects on both sides of the Civil War and realized destruction from warfare goes beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. …………………………………….

The Navy is currently in the process of building a new generation of ballistic missile submarines — called the Columbia-class — to replace the current OHIO-class “Trident” fleet. The Columbia-class submarines are part of a massive “modernization” of all three legs of the nuclear triad that also include the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, which will replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the new B-21 stealth bomber. 

The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action was founded in 1977. The center is on 3.8 acres adjoining the Trident submarine base at Bangor, Washington. We resist all nuclear weapons, especially the Trident ballistic missile system.

Leonard Eiger is with Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action.

May 31, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Israel’s New Minister for Nuclear Absurdity

Yossi Melman, HAARETZ, 28 May 23

Shortly after the cabinet approves David Amsalem’s appointment as minister in charge of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, which will happen soon, he’ll head south to visit the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona.

Amsalem will be accompanied by Dr. Gil Dagan, the research center’s director, and Moshe Edri, the IAEC’s director general. They will go down a few floors, to an underground level, and arrive at the “Golda Balcony.”

Based on what nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu told the Sunday Times in 1986, this balcony is located two floors below ground level, in the research center’s Building 2. From it, senior Israeli officials can observe the center’s production facilities, which are commonly known as the Dimona nuclear reactor. Ever since Prime Minister Golda Meir visited the reactor roughly half a century ago, reactor workers have called this observation platform the Golda Balcony.

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to appease and flatter Amsalem, who is constantly angry and bitter, by appointing him as minister in charge of the Holy of Holies of Israeli security.

………………………………….. It’s impossible to understand Netanyahu’s decision to appoint one of his most loquacious, loudmouthed and irritable ministers to Israel’s most sensitive position, thereby making him privy to the country’s most classified secrets. Dealing with Israel’s nuclear program requires someone with very fine tuning, who walks on tiptoe and scrupulously maintains maximum secrecy. All these are traits seemingly far beyond Amsalem’s ability. He acts like a bull in a china shop.

………………..Way back in 1952, Ben-Gurion set up the IAEC and put chemistry professor Ernst David Bergmann in charge of it. Bergmann is considered the father of Israel’s nuclear program, which, according to foreign reports, is primarily a military nuclear program.

………………..According to foreign reports, in 1966, Israel became the sixth country in the world to acquire nuclear weapons, following the five big powers. It did so thanks to France, which provided it with a nuclear reactor, the equipment needed to run it and the uranium needed to fuel it between 1958 and 1962.

According to those reports, Israel has at least several dozen nuclear bombs based on both uranium and plutonium, as well as planes, missiles and submarines capable of launching them. Israel, which initially agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but later backtracked on this promise, also refuses to allow international supervision of the Dimona reactor.

………………… Other agencies include the air force, whose planes, according to foreign reports, are supposed to carry the bombs, and the navy, whose submarines can also be armed with missiles carrying nuclear warheads.

Foreign reports about Israel’s nuclear program also describe a facility called Kanaf 2, located west of Beit Shemesh, where Jericho surface-to-surface missiles armed with nuclear warheads are stored deep underground.

Amsalem, in his usual offensive language, called demonstrators against the government’s planned legal overhaul “anarchists.” These “anarchists” include reservist pilots and submariners, reservists from the air force’s special operations unit, and scientists from Rafael and the Dimona reactor who are responsible for Israel’s nuclear program. Now, when there’s no limit to absurdity, at least the official kind, he will be the minister in charge of them.

Clearly, ultimate responsibility was and remains in Netanyahu’s hands, and the powers he has granted his irascible minister are limited. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi and everyone else privy to the secrets of Israel’s nuclear program will continue running it in practice.

Nevertheless, Amsalem’s addition to the elite circle of people in the know sends a symbolic message:…………………. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-05-28/ty-article-opinion/.premium/this-is-israels-new-minister-for-atomic-absurdity/00000188-638e-dde3-abf9-fb8fa1570000

May 31, 2023 Posted by | Israel, politics | Leave a comment

Belarusian president offers nuclear weapons to those willing to join his alliance

29 May 23

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is offering nuclear weapons to countries willing to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus. CNN’s Laila Harrak reports. https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/05/29/exp-nuclear-weapons-belarus-lukashenko-putin-laila-harrak-fst-05292aseg3-cnni-world.cnn

May 31, 2023 Posted by | Belarus, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A reader is fed up with this website’s defence of Joe Biden – and tells us why !

As Biden admitted, the fake fight over the Debt Ceiling was really fight over the budget, in which there were 2 sides making demands: rightwing GOP and far right GOP. The Dems asked for nothing & got less. The Far Right demanded all they could think of, got it & now wants more

The point is. The debt ceiling only exists to provide BIDEN an excuse for imposing austerity on social & environmental programs while funding an ever-expanding defense budget.
Both Trump and Biden are old right wing warmongers. Biden supported the Iraq war. Biden made it so poor people could not declare bankruptsy on stupid hi interest credit card debts. Biden sold out poor Americans just this week when we were promised more over trump.Biden said he protested for Nelson Mandela in 1980 which is a total lie. Biden openly affiliated with racists while in congress. We expected more when he promised to help us after Trump’s reign of terror. Trump says African Americans are inferior and Biden African Americans corn pops. We can see his true colors now and he has sold America and the world down the sewer. Biden was Great friends with arch kulkluxklan member byrd and strom thurmond from 1973 on . Biden just sold several disabled friends of mine down the sewer by taking away their medical benefits and ability to buy food. 3 of my friends will not be able to buy insulin anymore and they will die. Biden is paving the way for fascist devil Trump to win in 2024. It is so grotesque
Biden and his fellow neoliberal masters of Hollow Resistance and inauthentic opposition always have good reasons for engaging in their favorite hobby: caving.

Are we supposed to be surprised that Biden has recently weakened his supposed firm line on the debt-ceiling crisis? His whole long Senatorial and Vice-Presidential career was a deeply conservative monument to corporate and imperialist collaboration “across the aisle.” His 2021 infrastructure bill was an epic cave: Biden accepted a watered down $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal with Republicans which coldly slashed trillions of dollars originally designated for climate action and social programs. He sold this miserable surrender as a vindication of his longstanding commitment to “reach across the political aisle.” Never mind that the party to his right had gone fascist and that many Republicans in Congress had absurdly voted against the certification of his election on January 6.

Joe Biden is 80 years old.  When he runs for reelection in 2024 he will be 81.  If he is elected again he will be 82 years old when he is sworn in and 86 years old when his new term comes to an end.  Joe Biden is well beyond the competence needed to be president physically and mentally  As someone who has is close to passing both of those milestones,  I can tell the president from my own experience, that,  his self-confidence notwithstanding, age takes its toll and it will affect him just as it affects  all the others who have passed those milestones. He has been a creepy rightwing democrat since he got into congress in 1973 with borderline competence even caught plagiarizing speechs several times when younger. He is responsible for stricter sentencing guidelines for petty drug offences with his idol Ronald Reagan that ballooned the prison population of young black me in the 80s . 

Why should people in the USA only have the choice of two incompetent old rightwing devils Trump and Biden Sadly, the price to be paid for the toll age takes on Joe will be paid not only by Joe and his family, but by the United States of America. So sad.

Biden went into Ukraine wholeheartedly with Repuplicans like Lindsay Graham. My friend is disabled and on food stamps – her kids will not have health insurance or enough food for her kids because of what this cowardly sell out has done so that 1.1 trillion can be allocated for more nukes and hell and destruction around the world and possible WW3 in Ukraine with China what the hell is the matter w u Christina?

May 31, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment