Pandora’s Propaganda – nuclear’s film advertisement spreads from USA
Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs
The nuclear advertising film ‘ Pandora’s Promise’ will be showing around Australia, and in Edinburgh and London in the next couple of weeks. It is largely funded by people from the pro nuclear Breakthrough Institute, including people like Bill Gates, who has his own nuclear power company Terra Power. It is directed by passionate nuclear enthusiast, Robert Stone, who does Q and A afterwards, and over-talks any critical questioners.
Weaknesses of this film include the way that it:
- mocks anti nuclear opinions as a bunch extremists and zealots. It makes no effort to portray any sensible opposing opinion.
- minimises the health effects of ionising radaiation with downright untruths, for instance, telling us only that Chernobyl killed 56 people. It leaves out that a United Nations World Health Organization agency predicts 16,000 more will die from Chernobyl cancers and that the European Environment Agency estimates 34,000 more. It omits that non-fatal thyroid cancer struck another 6,000, mostly children
- does not mention the crippling economics that is now closing nuclear plants in USA (Florida, Wisconsin and California), nor the imperative for tax-payer subsidy
- does not mention insurance: the nuclear industry, alone among industries is exempt from risk through USA’s Price Anderson Act, as well as every home owner’s insurance policy stating that this policy does not compensate you for any radiation damage from a nuclear power plant.
- avoids the economics of Small Nuclear reactors (SMRs) Even under the best of circumstances, there will be no SMR prototype for as long as a decade or more. There are serious questions over the economics of mass producing these, over their safety, and the huge costs of maintaining security over thousands of little nuclear reactors scattered around the land. None of this is discussed in the film.
- promotes Integral Fast Reactors (IFRs) – fast breeder reactors. but doesn’t mention the past failure of these, in USA , France (Super Phoenix) Japan (Monju), and their enormous cost.
- Dishonestly minimises the nuclear waste problems of IFR’s. Film does not explain that the final wastes, while smaller in volume, are far more radioactive and dangerous than existing nuclear wastes, and therefore require the same amount of storage space and security.
The gap between official information and the real news about Fukushima
Nuclear Industry Report: ‘Reduced stability’ of fuel pool in Fukushima Unit 4; Admits there’s damaged fuel inside? — Gundersen: Fuel racks moved and damaged; Fallen debris distorted tops (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/nuclear-industry-report-reduced-stability-of-unit-4-fuel-pool-at-fukushima-admits-some-fuel-inside-is-damaged-gundersen-fuel-racks-moved-from-quake-fallen-debris-distorted-tops-audio
World Nuclear News,Sept. 26, 2013 (Emphasis Added): […] Underwater inspections in the [Unit 4] pond have shown most of the fuel to be undamaged, but the pond contains a lot of dust and debris which will complicate operations. […] Its full core load of fuel, plus used fuel from previous operation, was being stored in a fuel pool at the top of the reactor building. […] The stability of the pool was then reduced by major structural damage to the building caused by the ignition of hydrogen […]
World Nuclear News is funded by the World Nuclear Association. The WNA represents the interests of the international nuclear industry. -Source
Bridging the News Gap, with Professor Matt Noyes
Fairewinds Energy Education Podcast, Sept.. 26, 2013 (at 21:15 in) – Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Chief Engineer: These racks [in the Unit 4 fuel pool] have moved, they’ve been distorted by the earthquake, there’s junk that’s fallen on top of them and distorted the tops. […] One of two things is going to happen. They’re either going to pull too hard and snap the bundle, or they’re going to be unable to pull all of the fuel out of the pool. Full podcast available here
The dying investigative journalism
He says investigative journalism in the US is being killed by the crisis of confidence, lack of resources and a misguided notion of what the job entails…….
“Our job is to find out ourselves, our job is not just to say – here’s a debate’ our job is to go beyond the debate and find out who’s right and who’s wrong about issues. That doesn’t happen enough.
Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the ‘pathetic’ American media by Lisa O’Carroll Friday 27 September 2013 theguardian.com Pulitzer Prize winner explains how to fix journalism, saying press should ‘fire 90% of editors and promote ones you can’t control’
Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism – close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists which, he says, is to be an outsider. It doesn’t take much to fire up Hersh, the investigative journalist who has been the nemesis of US presidents since the 1960s and who was once described by the Republican party as “the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist”.
He is angry about the timidity of journalists in America, their failure to challenge the White House and be an unpopular messenger of truth……..
Snowden changed the debate on surveillance Continue reading
Small political lobbies wield huge influence through Internet trolls and apambots
(Ed Note: “trolls” – comments, put out in large numbers by a political lobby – can be by people paid to send them “Spambots” are computer generated messages – can be put out in thousands to swamp articles with supposedly genuine opinion comments by individual people)
Even a fractious minority wields enough power to skew a reader’s perception of a story.
A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again.
Why We’re Shutting Off Our Comments http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/why-were-shutting-our-comment
Starting today, PopularScience.com will no longer accept comments on new articles. Here’s why. By Suzanne LaBarre 09.24.2013
Comments can be bad for science. That’s why, here at PopularScience.com, we’re shutting them off.
It wasn’t a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former,diminishing our ability to do the latter.
That is not to suggest that we are the only website in the world that attracts vexing commenters.Far from it. Nor is it to suggest that all, or even close to all, of our commenters are shrill, boorish specimens of the lower internet phyla. We have many delightful, thought-provoking commenters.
But even a fractious minority wields enough power to skew a reader’s perception of a story, recent research suggests. Continue reading
The role in the Fukushima cover up of the BBC in supporting corrupt Science Media Centres!
At the dawn of the 21st century in a little room in the UK an idea was hatched to provide media with scientists.. this 2 woman enterprise was to be funded by Monsanto and 80 odd other organisations.. The founder and director of this service was the brainchild of Fiona Fox.
guess which is Fionna?
This is the bbc`s Rebecca Morelle who knows one of the above or maybe both?
Does this guy have the hots for Fionna or Rebecca?
The connections to the BBC and other outlets in the UK gives the UK Science media an unparalleled power to manipulate the scientific argument.
Journalism would usually be looking from the outside of the science community as a check balance to fraud, incompetence or just plain mistakes.. A trained science journalist would assimilate the technical data and make a report based on unbiased oversight (depending on which newspapers they come from ).
Fionna Fox and the UK SMC decided that this oversight was getting in the way of her preferred scientists and has had many campaigns to sideline any other independent scientists or researchers.
Not content with fully corrupting UK science discussion especially on the BBC (who she has deep connections with ), as well as other main stream outlets. Fionna decided to open another in Australia.. Killing off some good critical thinking journalists and news outlets with the help of the likes Ashursts legal corporation (A UK headquartered corporation, currently trying to silence an Australian blogger – Christina Macpherson from http://www.nuclear-news.net ), therby, silencing the last of the independent voice in Australia (nearly)
Then came the Fukushima tragedy.. Fionna Fox then came swinging into action with her nuclear contacts to counter the truth of the situation in japan along side the likes of PR corporations like WPP (PR conglomerate and think tank and employer of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson ). She opened the pre crime division of the SMC Japan to counter “illegal rumour”, though this branch of her SMC empire was to fail only a year later as some truth escaped her “science blockade” .
As most people are aware by now that there are some serious deceptions going on concerning the Japanese nuclear disaster and Fionna has been quoted as supporting the nuclear Science Media Centre lobby who says “no health implications as the dose was to low”. this SMC in Japan was supported by the Australian SMC and was further enhanced by the UK SMC “experts.. The problem occurred as the news of the thyroid cancers in Fukushima began their steady upward rise.. The Japan SMC was abandoned and now lies idle as far as its public presence is concerned. However Geraldine Thomas (imperial College Uni. and Chernobyl Tissue bank)was recently quoted once again saying ther is no health effects and that the sudden rash of thyroids cancers are not proved to be from radiation. And this is good balanced science? So, maybe Fionna still has a contract in Japan or the Empire of SMC has left licking its wounds in this case. Proving the adage that ” THE TRUTH CAN HURT”
Still supporting the Japanese in an open way is good old BBC favourite, Geraldine Thomas and the small cohort of UK nuclear advisors giving an outdated and simplistic approach to explaining nuclear events such as Fukushima.
The SMC`s and the chosen ones of the science community will not allow other points of view concerning the dose arguments that are raging across the planet. They also spread rumours to usurp any faults in their corporate backed view of radiation risk assessments. A good example of this is attacks on the likes of independent researcher and scientist Prof. Chris Busby, or even attacking a huge research paper such as the New York Academy of Science (NYAS) released “http://www.globalresearch.ca/chernobyl-consequences-of-the-catastrophe-for-people-and-the-environment/17571“
The NYAS book review was taken up by the BBC and their SMC friends and a rumour was spread that the book (a research of Chernobyl of staggering importance to the dose argument) was flawed and not reliable. This was an outright lie perpetrated by science “experts” from the BBC then onto the rest of the media. Dr Yablakovs book will NOT be seen in any of the 3 UNSCEAR meetings set for October 2013. No balanced research allowed there.
Below are some links and quotes. There is also some critiques of the SMC and Fionna Fox. Also, there is links to the impact of SMC`s on science journalism (and its not a good effect)
More on the BBC as i connect the dots. I will be posting more on the above issues in detail in the near future.
Here are some of my preliminary findings on the dodgy global Science Media Centres/Centers
https://nuclear-news.net/2013/07/11/fukushima-science-media-centres-and-their-part-in-corrupting-truth/Japanese part translated
Fukushima – Science Media Centres and their part in corrupting truth. 福島－科学Ｍｅｄｉａセンターとその腐敗してしまった真実について
I dont know why i would want to connect Ashursts with Imperial college University.. hmmm??? watch for the rabbit hole here https://nuclear-news.net/?s=imperial+college+university 🙂
And heres the connection
Ashurst advises Imperial College London of Science, Technology and Medicine on £140 million rights issue and placing of warrants
Ashurst is advising Imperial College London of Science, Technology and Medicine as a major shareholder of Imperial Innovations Group on a £140 million rights issue and issue of warrants by Imperial Innovations Group. Imperial College London of Science, Technology and Medicine was issued with warrants to subscribe for new convertible shares in consideration of the undertaking not to take up rights under the rights issue.
J.P. Morgan Cazenove placed the whole of the warrants allocated to the College with Invesco, another major shareholder of Imperial Innovations Group plc.
The Ashurst team was led by corporate partner Anthony Clare, assisted by associate Karin Kirschner.
Mayer Brown International LLP advised Imperial Innovations Group plc and Macfarlanes LLP advised J.P. Morgan Cazenove.
Hey!! Christina, I think Ashurst are being paid by someone to nobble your blog!! 😦
And this from a survivor from the Australian Thought Crime Purge, a dedicated independent science journalist cutie called Christina MacPherson 🙂 makes some relevant points.
https://nuclear-news.net/2013/07/26/sloppy-science-writing-in-australias-media/
And finally some of the links and articles that inspired me to put together this article.. sorry about the clutter but i am too busy to tweak.. please feel free to change, reblog or disseminate in any way.. i am a great believer in free crowd sourced news, so feel free to improve, correct or copy… The public is being fooled by the science and its up to us bloggers to unfool the public.. imo.. Arclight2011
Media blackouts and the health risks of GM food exposed
September 17th, 2013
The Mail, Telegraph and Financial Times were the only papers to publish the story in their print editions. According to our source, who wished to remain anonymous, the BBC had two programmes lined up to cover the study on the day it went public but mysteriously pulled the broadcasts.
Fiona Fox, chief executive of the pro-GM Science Media Centre (SMC), which receives funding from biotech companies including Monsanto, publicly claimed credit for killing media coverage of Séralini’s work in the UK.1 The SMC enjoys an exceptionally cosy relationship with the broadcaster: it has pocketed cash from BBC Worldwide and BBC staff are on both its advisory board and board of trustees. Fox has her own BBC blog.
http://gmoseralini.org/media-blackouts-and-the-health-risks-of-gm-food-exposed/
17 June 2013
By Sandy Starr
Appeared in BioNews 709
The director of the Science Media Centre (SMC), a charity that seeks to improve public trust in science, has been awarded an OBE. Fiona Fox, who has been given the award for services to science, founded the SMC in 2002 following a House of Lords report that called for better communication between scientists and the media.
http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_313767.asp
and another version of the OBE story
Genocide-denying director of the SMC awarded an OBE
More rabbit hole past this point…… you have been warned…
Formal complaint from Japan, over French cartoons about Tokyo Olympic Games
Japan voices anger over French cartoons that use Fukushima disaster to mock Olympics decision ABC News, By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy, wires 12 Sep 2013 ,Japan says it will lodge a formal complaint with France over newspaper cartoons that poked fun at the decision to award the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo despite the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine has published a cartoon depicting two sumo wrestlers, each with an extra leg or arm, facing off with the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in the background.
In the foreground an announcer says: “Thanks to Fukushima, sumo is now an Olympic sport.”
Another cartoon shows two people standing in front of a pool of water while wearing nuclear protection suits and holding a Geiger counter, saying water sport facilities had already been built at Fukushima………
“This kind of journalism gives the wrong impression about the waste water problem.” [ -Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga]
The government has repeatedly claimed the accident and its waste water problem are under control and should not affect the Olympics.
Mr Suga says Japan will formally complain to the French embassy in Tokyo……….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-12/japan-protests-french-fukushima-cartoons/4954462
Rupert Murdoch’s role in installing Australia’s puppet Prime Minister
In 1975, the USA – with it’s secret militaristic plans for Pine Gap, in the Central Australian desert – played a critical part in the removal of Australia’s Prime Minister Gough Whitlam
In 2010 multinational mining companies were behind the push to remove Kevin Rudd, and his Mining Super profits tax. I don’t buy the argument that Kevin Rudd was such a difficult personality that Labor had to kick him out. Anyway, Julia Gillard replaced Rudd’s mining tax with a weak as water mining tax. But the corporate powers still weren’t happy.
How were these foreign owned companies, like BHP, able to prevail? Predominantly by promoting the message of climate change denial. And how did this message prevail in Australia, where in 2007, Kevin Rudd was swept to power on a wave of public enthusiasm for action on climate change?
Despite some well informed coverage on climate change, by the Fairfax media, the ABC and SBS, the denialist message, taken up by the right wing politicians and friends of polluting industries, was steadfastly pushed to the public by Rupert Murdoch’s media, with its 70% ownership of Australian media.
There was an easy puppet waiting there for them. Tony Abbott has but one over-riding value – and that is To Be Topp. There might be a few very right-wing Catholic religious themes in there – (ones which many Catholics would be ashamed of) But as for other trifling subjects like climate change, – well they don’t bother Tony Abbott, as he doesn’t understand them.
Nobody seems to notice the fact that Australia is now President of the United nations Security Council. And the UN has not sanctioned an attack on Syria. But the USA might very well attack Syris unilaterally, with out waiting fir the UN. And what will Australia do?
And how confident do you feel about all this, with the vacuous Tony Abbott at the helm of thegood ship Australia?
Ashurst Australia responds to article criticising it
27 August 2013
Dear Ms Wauchope
Thank you for giving me ths opportunity to respond to the article which you have posted on your websites. I trust that you will post this letter with equal prominence. Fairfax is no longer publishing it, has accepted that I and Ashurst acted ethically and competently at all times, and has withdrawn and apologised for the suggestions in the article to the contrary.
Your article contains a number of errors and says anumber of false and damaging things about me. In particular, when I sent you the letter on 10th December 2012, I had no way of knowing who you were, as we were sending it to you as a domain name registrant. Your site appeared to be published by an organisation. Further, I at all times acted in accordance wit proper legal practise, and my professional obligations to my client.
I hope that you will rethink your decision to continue to publish incorrect and harmful allegations about me.
Kind regards
Ashurst lawyer
Editor’s note: I don’t understand why Fairfax withdrew the article from their online publication, as I thought that the article was true. I understand that the journalist who wrote that article stands by the story and has not accepted the claims made by Ashurst. I am posting below , the article in question, published earlier on this website.
Fukushima’s most dangerous problem is ignored by mainstream media
Glowing Green with Outrage By Adam Smith OpEdNews Op Eds 8/27/2013 ”………Unfortunately the reality has been that the media have simply not been doing their job. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has been allowed to dictate the narrative of what is occurring with basically no oversight. It turns out that the site was never actually contained and radioactive water has been leaking with “no accurate figures for radiation levels.” You may say that since this issue is being reported by all major news organizations now, the media is doing their job albeit in a very tardy fashion.
However, that would be missing the reality that this leaking radiation water is the least of our worries vis-a-vis the plant. Much less reported by the media is what will be required by the clean-up crew to end this whole saga. Reliable old Reuters often provides the on-the-ground breaking scoops that our local media then report to us. Despite their well-deserved reputation, it seems that most media organizations have chosen to ignore their recent scoop about the dangers involved in the clean-up process.
Essentially, Tepco needs to remove 1300 spent fuel rods, containing 14,000 times the amount of radiation dropped onto Japan in WWII, from a dilapidated, flooding, and collapsing power plant that still sits in an earthquake-prone location. The whole process will take about 40 years and cost about eleven billion dollars. Each rod weighs 660 pounds, is 15 feet long, and cannot get too close to each other or will trigger a chain-reaction. If exposed to air, they may also trigger a chain-reaction. Usually, when these rods are moved as part of normal operations, a sophisticated robot is used to guide the work and ensure accuracy down to millimeters. Due to the damage caused by the earthquake/tsunami, this is not possible and the cranes will be operated in a poisonously radioactive area by scared human hands with all of their limitations. These rods will be removed individually, one at a time, and a mistake on any of them could trigger an unstoppable chain-reaction…….. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Glowing-Green-with-Outrage-by-Adam-Smith-Cancer_Energy_Energy_Energy-130827-96.html
Digital change in the advertising world
World of advertising undergoes digital change By Chris Betros EXECUTIVE IMPACT AUG. 19, 2013 Takahiro Uchinaga, CEO of Isobar Japan TOKYO —
The world of advertising has seen many innovations in recent years as the media landscape changes. The changes are being driven by digital communications.
One of the companies at the forefront is the Aegis Media Group, a global communication agency established in 2003 (and bought by Dentsu), that operates in over 30 markets with digital at its heart. One of the group’s subsidiary companies is Isobar, a professional full support digital marketing group working on strategic planning, creative system planning, media planning, analytics, consulting and application service, to support clients with technology all over from the world.
Isobar’s global clients include Kellogg’s, adidas, Reebok, Disney and P&G, while its Japan-based clients include Panasonic, Fujitsu, Casio, H.I.S., Jetstar and Pernod Ricard. Continue reading
Contrary to mainstream media propaganda, renewable energy is growing fast
national media sentiment towards the renewable energy industry is overwhelmingly negative and neglects the voice of the industry. I should imagine similar findings are likely in Australia.
Fundamentally, a green future is inevitable and the next industrial revolution will be low carbon. Why? Because clean technology is fast becoming recognised as lower cost financially, socially and environmentally than carbon dense alternatives. The sooner it’s recognised as the low cost political road too the better.
Has Europe pulled the plug on renewables? http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/8/21/renewable-energy/has-europe-pulled-plug-renewables#ixzz2cjFBwgch
First, Peiser is incorrect to say that green growth is dwindling. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Continue reading
BBC Radio shuts up Fukushima Diary author
“The expert” kept on talking. Said, “Fukushima is much much smaller than Chernobyl. You can’t compare.” then I heard the ending music. I was given 0 question to answer.
[Column] The reason why I published only one article today -Invited by BBC and given 0 sec to talk on the radio show http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/column-the-reason-why-i-
published-only-one-article-today-invited-by-bbc-and-given-0-second-to-talk-on-the-radio-show/ Iori Mochizuki August 21st, 2013 In the quiet morning of 8/21/2013, I was communicating with my readers on Twitter.
Suddenly a lady talked to me if I can be on BBC at 19:30 in JST. After nearly 2 years blank, BBC and some other international media are coming back to cover Fukushima. Since this morning, BBC has been featuring the latest leakage of 300m3 water.
I talked to her on the phone and we arranged the schedule. She was supposed to call me in 2 hours from that time.
She was nice and professional. She asked me what I think about the leakage. I answered this is only the beginning.When she asked me if I trust what government says, I laughed and said obviously no. She asked me why.
I was “Because the government has been saying no meltdown, no meltout was going on. There is no short term health effect etc. Then last year, the chief cabinet secretary of Japan said they didn’t announce Fukushima was having meltdown because he thought everyone was already aware of it.”.
She said, “Sure.”.
It was the radio show “World Have Your Say [URL]“.
We had 30 mins. Japanese commentators found each other on Twitter and we waited for them to call me.
I was supposed to talk on the phone.
I found the program relatively fair in the beginning except for the “coughing” on the background. (Is it normal to catch someone’s coughing on the radio show of BBC ?) and they started leaning to the “safer” side as it went toward the end. Continue reading
UK press under government pressure
Conspiracy to commit journalism Jay Rosen’s Press Think, Aug.20
“If sunlight coalitions are to succeed, they won’t succeed by outwitting surveillance. Not better technology, but greater legitimacy is their edge.”
The mood toughened just over a month ago, when I received a phone call from the centre of government telling me: “You’ve had your fun. Now we want the stuff back.” There followed further meetings with shadowy Whitehall figures. The demand was the same: hand the Snowden material back or destroy it. I explained that we could not research and report on this subject if we complied with this request. The man from Whitehall looked mystified. “You’ve had your debate. There’s no need to write any more.” —Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian
That’s the government telling the editor of a national newspaper: Time’s up, no more of that journalism stuff! We’ll decide when there’s been enough debate. Stop now or we’ll make you stop. Rusbridger’s response: We will continue our careful reporting of the Snowden material. “We just won’t do it from London.” (The Guardian has a U.S. operation based in New York.) FromReuters:
The Guardian’s decision to publicize the government threat – and the newspaper’s assertion that it can continue reporting on the Snowden revelations from outside of Britain – appears to be the latest step in an escalating battle between the news media and governments over reporting of secret surveillance programs.
This battle is global. Just as the surveillance state is an international actor — not one government, but many working together — and just as the surveillance net stretches worldwide because the communications network does too, the struggle to report on the secret system’s overreach is global, as well. It’s the collect-it-all coalition against an expanded Fourth Estate, worldwide……. http://pressthink.org/2013/08/conspiracy-to-commit-journalism/
Mainstream media’s deliberate lies and misinformation about renewable energy
Actually, Germany gets only about as much annual sun as Seattle or Alaska; its sunniest region gets less sun than almost anywhere in the lower 48 states. This underscores an important point: solar power works and competes not only in the sunniest places, but in some pretty cloudy places, too.
A pervasive pattern
The Fox Business example is not a singular incident. Some mainstream media around the world have a tendency to publish misinformed or, worse, systematically and falsely negative stories about renewable energy. Continue reading
Film” Pandora’s Promise” spews out a stream of untruths,
The movie also illustrates that none of its five layman “converts” to pro-nuke views knows enough about nuclear plants or other energy solutions to evaluate them fairly. They only know the Nuclear Dream.
A Nuclear Submariner Challenges a Pro-Nuclear Film NYT, By ANDREW C. REVKIN, 16 Aug 13 John Dudley Miller, a former nuclear engineering officer in the Navy with a doctorate in social psychology and a long career in journalism, sent this “Your Dot” critique of “Pandora’s Promise,” the new documentary defending nuclear power,
When I saw “Pandora’s Promise,” I didn’t believe a word of it. I served as a submarine nuclear engineering officer for my four-year stint in the Navy years ago. I qualified as an Engineering Officer of the Watch (a guy who’s in charge of the plant and its other technicians during four-hour shifts) on two different sub reactors. I know the truth about reactors, and the movie replaces it with the demonstrably false Nuclear Dream, a just-so mythical story claiming that nukes are safe, clean and cheap…..
the movie – It spews out a stream of untruths, for instance, telling us only that Chernobyl killed56 people. It leaves out that a United Nations World Health Organization agency predicts 16,000 more will die from Chernobyl cancers and that the European Environment Agency estimates 34,000 more. It omits that non-fatalthyroid cancer struck another 6,000, mostly children
Even the movie’s two reactor designers distort truth. Physicist Charles Till claims that fast-breeder reactors are inherently safe. Actually, they’re riskier than ordinary reactors. Hans Bethe, Manhattan Project scientist and Nobel laureate, calculated in 1956 that if a breeder’s liquid sodium coolant leaked out, it could melt in 40 seconds, become a small unintended atom bomb and spontaneously explode. (Modern designers believe breeders are more likely to melt down like Three Mile Island than to explode like Chernobyl.)
The breeder reactors EBR-1 in Idaho and Fermi-1 near Detroit partially melted. Several breeders have suffered sodium coolant fires, because sodium automatically burns in air and explodes in water. Continue reading
1 This Month
23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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