Response to the Chicago Tribune Editorial “The children of Fukushima: When medical tests mislead”
The following is the letter to the Editor for the Chicago Tribune editorial, “The children of Fukushima: When medical tests mislead.” The letter was submitted through the online form on April 19, 2016, but there has been no response from Chicago Tribune. (Brevity of the content is due to the 400-word limit for letters).
*****
Dear Editor,
The March 25, 2016 Chicago Tribune editorial, “The children of Fukushima: When medical tests mislead” is misleading on its own regarding the childhood thyroid cancer situation in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
Differences in cancer rates by distance from the accident site and contamination levels may not be obvious, but an epidemiological analysis by Tsuda et al. (http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2016/05000/The_Authors_Respond.37.aspx) found a dose response tendency with proximity to the accident site after adjusting for the length of time between the accident and the time of screening. It is also important to remember only 1,080 children had their thyroid exposure doses directly measured and that is only 0.36% of 300,000 children who underwent thyroid ultrasound examination. Taken under high background levels, the doses are far from being accurate.
Children younger than age 5 showed an increased rate of thyroid cancer beginning at 4-5 years after the Chernobyl accident, so the first 3 years after the Fukushima accident, covered by the completed first round screening, would not expect to see that age group affected. The first cancer case was diagnosed about 17 months after the accident, not within a year, and some of these early cases might have been the result of radiation exposure promoting the growth of latent cancer that might not have become large enough to be detected until much later in life if unexposed to radiation.
Comparison with three other prefectures where one cancer case was diagnosed in 4,365 subjects is invalid as its small sample size lacks the necessary statistical power. The Korean screening is in adults and should not be compared with children.
It is true that unnecessary medical testing can lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment, but the clinical information provided by Fukushima Medical University, such as metastasis and physical proximity of tumor to other vital structures, validates surgical interventions for the majority of the operated cases in Fukushima. Thyroid cancer is believed to grow slowly, but 80% of thyroid cancer cases discovered in the ongoing second round screening had no suspicious findings in the first round screening only 2-3 years earlier.
It is not just a cancer death but cancer diagnosis itself that is concerning for patients and their loved ones, and the causality should not be prematurely prejudged. A lesson of the Fukushima children may be the importance of conducting a timely and adequate collection of the exposure data and a comprehensive evaluation of data in a transparent and unbiased manner.
Yuri Hiranuma, D.O.
Member, Radiation and Health Committee
Physicians for Social Responsibility
http://fukushimavoice-eng2.blogspot.fr/2016/05/response-to-chicago-tribune-editorial.html
Fukushima: A Nuclear Story’ stands out among 3/11 documentaries
The Fukushima nuclear plant disaster has been examined in hundreds of documentaries to date, counting all media, nationalities and languages. But “Fukushima: A Nuclear Story” stands out for one simple, powerful reason: Its central figure, Italian journalist Pio d’Emilia, was among the first foreign reporters allowed on the scene after the earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant.
With his camcorder, he captured the devastation and confusion of the disaster’s immediate aftermath, as he evaded still-spotty security to travel to the plant gates. The documentary, narrated by American actor Willem Dafoe, has been distilled from nearly 300 hours of footage. This includes an in-depth interview with Naoto Kan — prime minister at the time of the disaster — who says he was seriously considering an evacuation of Tokyo when the meltdowns at the plant seemed to be spiraling out of control.
Kan was also on hand for a gala preview screening of “Fukushima: A Nuclear Story” at the MAXXI museum of contemporary art in Rome on Monday. The film has also been sold for broadcast in Canada, the United States, Germany, Norway and Mexico — but not yet Japan.
“Fukushima has already joined the many forgotten nuclear disasters,” says d’Emila; “forgetting means lying. Tepco and the Japanese government began lying from the very first hours — by hiding the already occurring multiple meltdowns — and are still lying by pretending the situation is now under control. As everybody knows, it isn’t.”
PC with Documentary, “Fukushima; A Nuclear Story”: Pio d’Emilia
(part 3) Young woman from Fukushima speaks ou
t 原発事故当時15歳女性の証言: (パート3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8_prITScZk&feature=youtu.be&a
21 May 2016
（日本語下記）
This interview was filmed on February 12, 2016, in Fukushima Prefecture. The young woman was 15 at the time of the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, and we are releasing this interview with her permission. She is one of the 166 Fukushima residents aged 18 or younger at the time of the nuclear disaster who has been diagnosed with or suspected of having thyroid cancer (as of February 2016).
Fukushima residents who were 18 years old or younger at the time of the nuclear accident have been asked to participate in the voluntary thyroid ultrasound examination which is part of the Fukushima Health Management Survey. However, 18.8% of this age group were not tested in the 1st round of testing.* While the final results for the 2nd round of testing are not yet complete, every year the number of children participating in the official thyroid examinations is decreasing; the number of children who have not participated in the 2nd round of testing is currently 50.7%** For those young people aged 18-21 (as of April 1, 2014) and who were living in Fukushima at the time of the nuclear accident, 74.5% have not yet taken part in the official thyroid ultrasound examination.**
This young woman’s reason for speaking out is to motivate the families of children who have not yet received the thyroid ultrasound examination to have their children tested. However, in sharing her story about a topic which has become increasingly difficult to talk publicly about in Japan, she faces inherent risks which may include those to her work, community life and personal relationships. I therefore ask that her privacy is respected.
Ian Thomas Ash, Director
contact : info@documentingian.com
U.S. would back a rethink of Japan’s plutonium recycling program: White House
KYODO MAY 21, 2016 WASHINGTON – The United States would back a change to Japan’s nuclear fuel reprocessing program because there are concerns it may lead to an increase in its ally’s stockpile of unused plutonium, a senior White House official said. … (registered readers only) http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/05/21/national/politics-diplomacy/u-s-back-rethink-japans-plutonium-recycling-program-white-house/#.V0I7-zV97Gj
Japan vows to cooperate in French Olympic probe
Japan vowed to cooperate with a French probe into $2 million allegedly paid to help Tokyo secure the 2020 Olympics on Monday, as the son of ex-world athletics chief Lamine Diack denied receiving the money.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had ordered full cooperation with the French investigation into the payments, sent to a Singapore bank account which has been linked to Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack.
Japanese officials have been swift to deny wrongdoing in what is the most serious in a series of problems to affect the 2020 Games, including over the main stadium’s design and the event’s official logo.
French prosecutors said last week they suspect the payments were intended to help secure the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo, which beat out competition from Istanbul and Madrid.
Japan’s Olympic chief last week insisted the payments were a “legitimate consultant’s fee”, while the top government spokesman insisted the bid was “clean”.
And Prime Minister Abe told parliament on Monday: “I have instructed the education and sports minister to fully cooperate in the investigation.”
“Education and sports minister Hiroshi Hase told the Japanese Olympic Committee and the former bid committee to cooperate in the investigation,” he added, according to Jiji Press.
French prosecutors said some 2.8 million Singapore dollars (1.8 million euros, $2 million) were paid to the now defunct Black Tidings consulting company, which Britain’s Guardian newspaper has linked to Papa Massata Diack.
Lamine Diack was an International Olympic Committee member in 2013 when Tokyo won the hosting rights for 2020. Diack and his son already face corruption charges in France.
– ‘Let them investigate’ –
The payments were discovered as part of an inquiry into allegations the Diacks organised bribes to cover up failed dope tests by Russian athletes, French prosecutors said. France became involved as the money may have been laundered in Paris.
But Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, speaking to Kyodo News agency in his native Senegal, insisted he hadn’t received any money from the Tokyo bid team.
“I haven’t got any money,” he said in Dakar. “Let them investigate… I have nothing to hide,” he added.
He added that he had been friends with Ian Tan Tong Han, formerly the sole proprietor of Black Tidings, since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But he said he didn’t know Tan’s company was contracted by the Japanese bid team.
“I’ve been in this sports business for 25 years. I know the rules,” Diack said, adding that Tokyo’s bid “shouldn’t be tarnished” and had been done “very fairly”.
Tsunekazu Takeda, the Japanese Olympic Committee president who led Tokyo’s bid, said the money was for “professional services” for consulting work.
“I never knew there was a link (between the company and Papa Massata Diack),” Takeda told lawmakers in parliament on Monday. “Anyway, if it is in the realm of acquaintance there is no problem,” he added.
“Internationally it is quite common” to have a contract with an international consultant, Takeda added.
The controversy comes after Tokyo had to scrap its original main stadium design due to its eye-watering price tag, and also had to weather plagiarism accusations over the Games’ initial logo.
Up to 10,20 µSv in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture 163km from Fukushima Dai-ichi
Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture. Way north of Sendai, adjacent to Kessenuma and Minamisanriku. 163km, (101 miles) from Fukushima Dai-ichi.
(part 3) Young woman from Fukushima speaks out
This interview was filmed on February 12, 2016, in Fukushima Prefecture. The young woman was 15 at the time of the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, and we are releasing this interview with her permission. She is one of the 166 Fukushima residents aged 18 or younger at the time of the nuclear disaster who has been diagnosed with or suspected of having thyroid cancer (as of February 2016).
Fukushima residents who were 18 years old or younger at the time of the nuclear accident have been asked to participate in the voluntary thyroid ultrasound examination which is part of the Fukushima Health Management Survey. However, 18.8% of this age group were not tested in the 1st round of testing.* While the final results for the 2nd round of testing are not yet complete, every year the number of children participating in the official thyroid examinations is decreasing; the number of children who have not participated in the 2nd round of testing is currently 50.7%** For those young people aged 18-21 (as of April 1, 2014) and who were living in Fukushima at the time of the nuclear accident, 74.5% have not yet taken part in the official thyroid ultrasound examination.**
This young woman’s reason for speaking out is to motivate the families of children who have not yet received the thyroid ultrasound examination to have their children tested. However, in sharing her story about a topic which has become increasingly difficult to talk publicly about in Japan, she faces inherent risks which may include those to her work, community life and personal relationships. I therefore ask that her privacy is respected.
Ian Thomas Ash, Director
U.S. would back a rethink of Japan’s plutonium recycling program: White House
WASHINGTON – The United States would back a change to Japan’s nuclear fuel reprocessing program because there are concerns it may lead to an increase in its ally’s stockpile of unused plutonium, a senior White House official said.
If Japan were to change course “they would find the United States to be supportive,” Jon Wolfsthal, senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, said in a recent interview.
Wolfsthal’s remark reflected concerns in President Barack Obama’s administration about the future of Japan’s large plutonium stockpiles, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.
Wolfsthal said the upcoming renewal in 2018 of a bilateral nuclear agreement with Japan “has the potential to become a very controversial issue.”
The 1988 pact authorizes Japan to reprocess used nuclear fuel when the fuel includes U.S.-produced uranium.
“There is no question that plutonium recycling in Japan has been expensive, that it is a challenging future for Japan,” Wolfsthal said.
In March, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida defended the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, saying the United States has approved it.
The United States and Japan have discussed what a decision to have large stockpiles of plutonium that “don’t have a dedicated pathway to use and disposition” means for global efforts to restrict reprocessing and enrichment, he said.
If Japan keeps recycling plutonium, “what is to stop other countries from thinking the exact same thing?” Wolfsthal said, apparently referring to concerns that other Asian countries such as China and South Korea may compete to get involved in similar projects.
Under the Japanese reprocessing program, plutonium extracted from used nuclear fuel is recycled to make plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel usable at nuclear power plants. Japan has licensed companies in foreign countries such as Britain and France to produce the so-called MOX fuel.
Japan came up with the plutonium recycling program in the face of potential international suspicion that a large stockpile of plutonium could encourage it to go nuclear.
But the plutonium recycling effort has hit a snag because most of Japan’s nuclear plants have suspended operations due to public safety concerns since the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 plant following the giant earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Obama has urged Japan and other countries to give up unused nuclear materials including plutonium as part of his efforts to strengthen control over the management of nuclear substances all over the world to prevent terrorists from obtaining them.
Japan had 48 tons of plutonium as of the end of 2014 and sent 331 kilograms of plutonium to the United States earlier this year.
The spread of particles with plutonium and cesium, from Fukushima nuclear fuel
Expert: Billions of pieces Fukushima nuclear fuel have spread pretty much everywhere — “It’s truly frightening… wherever there’s cesium, there’s plutonium” — Atomic bomb had one pound of uranium… Fukushima had hundreds of tons — TV: “Abundant quantities” of plutonium are being found (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nuclear-engineer-billions-plutonium-particles-fukushima-nuke-plant-spread-pretty-everywhere-frightening-cesium-going-be-plutonium-atom-bomb-1-pound-uranium-fukushima-reactors-hundreds-tons-tv?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29Fairewinds Japan Speaking Tour Series No. 3, Feb 24, 2016 (emphasis added):
- Maggie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education Podcast host: One of the things that you’ve talked about and [environmental scientist Marco Kaltofen, PhD, PE] have talked about is internal radiation exposures and hot particles. What’s the difference between a bomb exploding and a nuclear plant exploding in the hot particles?
- Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds’ Chief Engineer and former nuclear engineer (emphasis added): Most of the bomb exposure was from a direct flash that was over in seconds. There wasn’t a significant amount of contamination on the ground because the bomb went off 1,000 feet in the air. So there was not a lot of radiation residual left on the ground for hot particles to get into people’s lungs… That’s not what we’re seeing at Fukushima Daiichi. Everything I’m finding here is millions and billions of very, very small particles that are spread pretty much everywhere. We’ll know a little bit more about that in the future… There’s no comparison between a bomb and what happened at Fukushima. A bomb obliterated maybe a pound of uranium and it was a thousand feet in the air, so most of it went up almost immediately; whereas each of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima had 100 tons of uranium in them so that the quantity of radiation that’s spread out throughout the countryside is orders of magnitude higher at Fukushima than it was at Nagasaki.
Fairewinds Japan Speaking Tour Series No. 2, Feb 17, 2016:
- Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds’ Chief Engineer and former nuclear engineer (at 2:30 in): We found a parking lot at a supermarket [in Fukushima] that had a large radioactive source right in the middle… that people were walking over and driving over. It was loaded with black radioctive dust just wherever you go – it’s everywhere…
- AG: One of the samples that one of my fellow scientists collected showed plutonium –and significant amounts of plutonium. It was in a square meter… he was getting 19 disintegration per second [becquerels] of plutonium. That stuff is going to be around for a quarter million years…
- Maggie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education Podcast founder: That plutonium was part of the core that came out then in the explosion, correct?
- AG: Yeah, the only source it could ever have come from is inside that nuclear reactor.
- MG: And the plutonium is being redeposited at locations that where unanticipated?
- AG: Yeah, it’s everywhere.… It is everywhere, and we’re very careful, we’re wearing gloves all the time, respirators all the times…
- AG: Wherever the ground is exposed, there is a high level of radiation in the mountains around here… it’s all going to run right off and into the Pacific Ocean…
- MG: You talked about the plutonium — where was that found?…
- AG: The plutonium was found in a farmer’s field about 10 miles from the power plant, it was found because that’s where they looked. If it’s sitting out in that farmer’s field, it’s everywhere. Wherever there’s radiation — cesium — there’s going to be plutonium, and that’s truly frightening… It’s pretty clear that significant amounts of plutonium are scattered throughout the hillsides… plutonium has got a 25,000 year half-life, so it’s a quarter of a million years before it’s gone.
Discovery, Dec 27, 2015: “Although only limited areas of Fukushima are allowing residents to come back, that doesn’t mean these areas are safe. You can still find dangerous radioactive elements such as cesium, strontium, and plutonium in abundant quantities here.”
Fairewinds’ podcasts here: No. 2 | No. 3 — Watch Discovery broadcast here
Japan’s Abe government intent on 2020 Olympics, pretending that Fukushima is OK now
Fukushima Flunks Decontamination, CounterPunch, 20 May 16. by ROBERT HUNZIKER Japan’s Abe administration is pushing very hard to decontaminate land, roads, and buildings throughout Fukushima Prefecture, 105 cities, towns, and villages. Thousands of workers collect toxic material into enormous black one-ton bags, thereby accumulating gigantic geometric structures of bags throughout the landscape, looking evermore like the foreground of iconic ancient temples.
Here’s the big push: PM Abe committed to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which shall be a crowning achievement in the face of the Fukushima disaster. Hence, all stops are pulled to repopulate Fukushima Prefecture, especially with Olympic events held within Fukushima, where foodstuff will originate for Olympic attendees.
The Abe government is desperately trying to clean up and repopulate as if nothing happened, whereas Chernobyl (1986) determined at the outset it was an impossible task, a lost cause, declaring a 1,000 square mile no-habitation zone, resettling 350,000 people. It’ll take centuries for the land to return to normal.
Fukushima: Living with a Disaster
Still and all, is it really truly possible to cleanse the Fukushima countryside? Already, workers have accumulated enough one-ton black bags filled with irradiated soil and debris to stretch from Tokyo to LA. But, that only accounts for about one-half of the job yet to be done. Still, in the face of this commendable herculean effort, analysis of decontamination reveals serious missteps and problems.
Even though the Abe government is encouraging evacuees to move back into villages, towns, and cities of Fukushima Prefecture, Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Heinz Smital claims, in a video – Fukushima: Living with Disaster d/d March 2016: “Radiation is so high here that nobody will be able to live here in the coming years.”
Greenpeace has experts on the ground in Fukushima Prefecture March 2016, testing radiation levels. The numbers do not look good at all. Still, at the insistence of the Abe government, people are moving back into partially contaminated areas. In such a case, and assuming Greenpeace is straightforward, it’s a fair statement that if the Abe government can’t do a better job, then something or somebody needs to change. The Olympics are coming……
Throughout the prefecture, decontamination is only partially carried out. For example, decontamination is confined within a 20-meter radius of private plots and along the roads as well as on farmland, leaving vast swaths of hills, valleys, riverbanks, streams, forests, and mountains untouched. Over time, radiation contamination runoff will re-contaminate many previously decontaminated areas.
Alarmingly, Greenpeace found large caches of hidden buried toxic black bags. Over time, it is likely the bags will rot away with radioactivity seeping into groundwater.
At Fukushima City, 60 km from the plant, Greenpeace discovered unacceptable radiation levels with spot readings as high as 4.26, 1.85, 9.06 μSv. According to Greenpeace: “These radiation levels are anything but harmless.”…..http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/20/fukushima-flunks-decontamination/
Thailand’s “Nuclear Energy for Peace Bill” – George Orwell would love it!
Cheers, doubts as nuclear energy bill gets NLA nod PRATCH RUJIVANAROM PRAPASRI OSATANON
THE NATION May 21, 2016 Move seen as facilitating the construction of nuclear power plant in the country.
“We have cases of radioactive material and nuclear waste smuggling into Thailand and we need the regulatory body to control this activity. Moreover, the information disclosure about nuclear energy is still a problem,” Tara said.
He noted that the bill would also help facilitate nuclear power plant construction in Thailand, despite the nation still not being ready yet for this kind of energy.
“We have a very low budget compared to European countries to build nuclear power plants, so I’m afraid our nuclear power plants will have a safety problem and may cause harmful effects to the environment and people,” he said.
Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Science lecturer Jessada Denduangboripant said he was pleased the bill had passed.
“We have cases of radioactive material and nuclear waste smuggling into Thailand and we need the regulatory body to control this activity. Moreover, the information disclosure about nuclear energy is still a problem,” Tara said…..
Authorities hide the truth about illnesses from Fukushima nuclear radiation
Fukushima Flunks Decontamination, CounterPunch, 20 May 16. by ROBERT HUNZIKER J
“………In a 2014 RT interview, Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, said: “It’s a real shame that the authorities hide the truth from the whole world, from the UN. We need to admit that actually many people are dying. We are not allowed to say that, but TEPCO employees also are dying. But they keep mum about it.”
Alas, two hundred fifty U.S. sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan, on a Fukushima humanitarian rescue mission, have a pending lawsuit against TEPCO, et al claiming they are already experiencing leukemia, ulcers, gall bladder removals, brain cancer, brain tumors, testicular cancer, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, thyroid illness, stomach ailments and other complaints extremely unusual in such young adults. Allegedly, the sailors were led to believe radiation exposure was not a problem.
Theodore Holcomb (38), an aviation mechanic, died from radiation complications, and according to Charles Bonner, attorney for the sailors, at least three sailors have now died from mysterious illnesses (Third US Navy Sailor Dies After Being Exposed to Fukushima Radiation, Natural News, August 24, 2015.) Among the plaintiffs is a sailor who was pregnant during the mission. Her baby was born with multiple genetic mutations.
Reflecting on 30 years ago, Adi Roche, chief executive of Chernobyl Children International, care for 25,000 children so far, says (2014): “The impact of Chernobyl is still very real and very present to the children who must live in an environment poisoned with radioactivity.”
“Children rocking back and forth for hours on end, hitting their heads against walls, grinding their teeth, scraping their faces and putting their hands down their throats… This is what I witnessed when I volunteered at Vesnova Children’s Mental Asylum in Belarus (February 2014),” How my Trip to a Children’s Mental Asylum in Belarus Made me Proud to be Irish, the journal.ie. March 18, 2014 (Cliodhna Russell). Belarus has over 300 institutions like this hidden deep in the backwoods.
Chernobyl is filled with tear-jerking, heart-wrenching stories of deformed, crippled, misshaped, and countless dead because of radiation sickness. It’s enough to turn one’s stomach in the face of any and all apologists for nuclear power……http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/20/fukushima-flunks-decontamination/
Russia aims to set up a nuclear sales empire, now pushing nuclear power to South East Asia
Putin Pushes Nuclear Power To Southeast Asia, Forbes, Kenneth Rapoza 20 May 16 Russian president Vladimir Putin did some lobbying for state owned Rosatom in Sochi on Friday, telling southeast Asian countries there that it was time to go nuclear.
“The level of cooperation between Russia and ASEAN in the fuel and energy sphere needs to be taken to a new level,” Putin was quoted as saying in the local press today. ASEAN stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “Moscow is ready to cover the market and is ready to offer member countries projects on the construction of next generation nuclear electrical power stations,” he said during the Russia-ASEAN Summit in Sochi.
None of the 10 ASEAN nations are currently hooked up to nuclear power…..Rosatom is the world’s third largest developer of nuclear reactors. Its subsidiary TVEL producers fuel assembly rods, the technology that holds the uranium used to power the reactor and generate electricity. It competes with Westinghouse Electric Company, AREVA Inc. and now Chinese companies are starting to get in on the action, primarily in China but also in Eastern Europe, an historic strong hold for Russian utilities…..
No reactor deals between Rosatom and ASEAN nations have been signed at this time. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/05/20/putin-pushes-nuclear-power-to-southeast-asia/#6ec263f32e0a
Russia runs pro nuclear workshop in Vietnam
Workshop promotes nuclear power A workshop to enhance the understanding of nuclear power among people and media alike was held on May 19 in Hanoi. The event, part of activities of the “2016 Nuclear Science Day in Hanoi ,” was jointly organised by Russia ‘s State Nuclear Energy Corporation (ROSATOM), the Vietnam Atomic Energy Agency under the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Information Center on Nuclear Energy (ICONE) and the Hanoi University of Technology.Speaking at the event, Andrey Stankevich from ROSATOM Vietnam attached significance to publicity work to promote the development of nuclear energy…….
Communication work is crucial to raise public awareness of the development of the nuclear sector and get people’s approval of nuclear power, said Deputy Director of the Agency Nguyen Thi Thu Trang
According to the representative from ROSATOM Asia, the press and media need to be a reliable source of basic information on radiation, nuclear science and the safety of nuclear power plants.
They should also promote the benefits of the sector in terms of socio-economic development, health care, agriculture and industry.
Numerous activities will also take place during the “2016 Nuclear Science Day in Hanoi” programme, which runs until May 20, including a lecture by a professor from the Russia National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI) and an awards presentation for the recent Physics Olympiad winners. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/science-it/156747/workshop-promotes-nuclear-power.html
India rejects China contention for entry into nuclear suppliers group
Live Mint, 20 May 16
India cites example of France to contend that it needn’t sign nuclear non-proliferation treaty to get membership of nuclear suppliers group. New Delhi: India on Friday rejected China’s contention that it must sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to get membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), citing the example of France, which was part of the NSG without being a signatory to the NPT.
India’s comments followed China’s reported blocking of India’s entry to the NSG earlier this month on grounds that it had not signed the NPT…..
Last week, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang had said all the multilateral non-proliferation export control regime including the NSG have regarded NPT as an important standard for the expansion of the NSG.
“Apart from India, a lot of other countries expressed their willingness to join. Then it raised the question to the international community—shall non-NPT members also become part of NSG?” he said, adding, “China’s position is not directed against any specific country but applies to all the non-NPT members.”…..http://www.livemint.com/Politics/3A2dMOnJXti1RaSmoPa7LO/India-rejects-China-contention-for-entry-into-nuclear-suppli.html
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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