Video Fwd: VOICES FROM THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER

Organizing Notes
HTTP://SPACE4PEACE.BLOGSPOT.COM/2011/04/VOICES-FROM-CHERNOBYL-NUCLEAR-DISASTER.HTML

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011
VOICES FROM THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER

Video Fwd: "Chernobyl: A Million Casualties" Fukushima Deja Vu

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* Video informed from FC Farkle and Frank Cordaro with the below words on March 26, 2011:
"Just listen to this 29 min. Youtube interview. If you need to get a perspective on where we are at in the whole nuclear power debate, mindful of what is happening in Japan take the time and listen to this
Youtube...." __________________________________



A million people have died so far as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, explains Janette Sherman, M.D., toxicologist and contributing editor of the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment. Published by the New York
Academy of Sciences, the book, authored by Dr. Alexey Yablokov, Dr. Vassily Nesterenko and Dr. Alexey Nesterenko, examined medical records now available--which expose as a lie the claim of the International Atomic Energy Commission that perhaps 4,000 people may die as a result
of Chernobyl. (Enviro Close-Up # 610 (29 min))

Text Fwd: Nuclear disaster: a bitter pill for humankind

Hankyoreh
[Column] Nuclear disaster: a bitter pill for humankind
By Kim Sun-woo, poet and novelist
Posted on : Mar.22,2011
　
My first response to news of the Japanese earthquake was fear and horror. This was followed by pity and distress. There was an old woman who, the moment she was rescued from the scene of the disaster, said, “I’m sorry, I have caused you trouble.” Those words struck against my heart, which had been blocked with such an intense fear, and it was at that point that my tears began to flow. I saw my image reflected back in that old woman. Composure, consideration for others, kindness - all at once she awakened me to all the things I wanted to learn.

It seems that what makes a person cry is another person. In good times and bad, people cry and laugh through people. As individuals who come into this world with nothing and leave with nothing, the greatest asset we could be said to possess is our capacity for love, compassion, and sympathy. I believe this may be the most unyielding strength that has allowed human history to continue on this planet even amid a never-ending stream of disasters both natural and made by humans.

Now we need to take another step forward from this disaster. However unpleasant an experience this enormous disaster has been for all of humankind, I believe now that it could also serve as truly good medicine, depending where we go united in this pain, and how. The time has come for us to put a powerful check on a world environment and human avarice that take us closer to crisis every day. The pain Japan is enduring right now may be the cross that prompts an awakening in humankind. An earthquake, a tsunami, and then a nuclear disaster. This is something that could happen anywhere on Earth. Had it happened in South Korea, we would have suffered even greater devastation, given how ridiculously underprepared we are.
I recall the words of Franz Alt, the ecological economist who asked, “Does there need to be another major nuclear accident for us to change our atomic energy policy?”

Today, in the 21st century, we find ourselves in the midst of tremendous environmental catastrophes, racing toward the crisis of codestruction. Within this troubling ecological crisis, there are places on this planet where people are living next to potential atomic bombs. Yet because they are cheap and convenient right now, we go on about “developing nuclear energy that is absolutely safe no matter what happens,” even going so far as to attach the deceptive descriptor of “green energy.”

It was Japan, in the early spring of 2011, that stripped away all of this fanciful myth amid tremendous suffering. As the scales fell away from our eyes, discussions toward the halting of nuclear development began to ferment in every corner of the world. In point of fact, these discussions should have taken place a long time ago, and nuclear development should have long ago disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Essentially, Fukushima happened because we failed to take any lesson from Chernobyl. If we cannot learn anything from the situation today in Japan, a country that created and fostered the myth of “the world’s best nuclear power plant safety,” where will the next catastrophe strike? Will there be any future left for humankind afterward?

Embarrassingly, the Korean government, amid all of this, has been focused on loudly proclaiming that there is no problem with any of the country’s nuclear power plants and that they are utterly safe. It has announced its intent to spur on the exportation of constructing more nuclear power plants. All around us we see an ignorance that fails to grasp any of the inner meaning for the future in this disaster.

The reason people all of the world are eager to help Japan right now is probably because they sense that the catastrophe is not Japan’s alone. We must turn it into an important turning point. The decision is ours: codestruction or coexistence. One also gets the sense that amid the order of the universe, there are some tormented individuals who are pondering how to awaken an ignorant humankind suffering the profound illness of technology worship and digging its own grave.

It is not about Korea helping Japan, but about humankind helping humankind, and about helping our future selves and other children. One thing exists because of the presence of another - if the latter is annihilated, so too is the former. We are neighbors living right up against one another, linked together on the pale blue dot that is the Earth. We must show our strength. I can see the pure face of hope that comes after a great sadness. Do not forget. Together we can.
　　
The views presented in this column are the writer’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Hankyoreh.

Text Fwd: NUKE PLANT EXPLODES

Bruce Gagnon's Organizing Notes
Saturday, March 12, 2011
NUKE PLANT EXPLODES



Explosion rocks Fukushima nuclear power plant!

Our government and Tokyo Electoric Power Co. are delaying telling people truth.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyv4KrQpmtY

A famous pro-citizen physicist, whom many anti-nuclear power plant citizens deeply trust, says that the containment vessel has already broken and that the next problem is how badly the pressure container inside has been broken. He says this situation is beyond a simple meltdown, and that second criticality is nearing. He says the ultimate problem is how they can contain the situation, which is between Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

He says citizens living nearby should go far away, desirably outside 30 km radius from the accident site, though our government has only extended it from 10 to 20 km radius as to No.1 plant.

And another disaster may be coming at No.2. Let me remind you once more that our government had anticipated this late last night. Citizens around the power plants were not told about the true situations which politicians had been informed of.

Makiko Sato

Text Fwd: Reply to Cordaro International Day of Action for a Nuclear-Free Future, 25th Chernobyl Anniversary - 4/26/11

* Text sent from Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa and Frank Cordaro on Nov. 30, 2010

please share on websites, with listserves, in newsletters

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR A NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE
April 26, 2011, 25th Chernobyl anniversary

It's time for groups and activists all over the world to plan protests and actions to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

Each year, the French anti-nuclear network Sortir du nucleaire has issued a call to action on Chernobyl Day. In support of this call, U.S. organizations Nukewatch and the Nuclear Resister invite you to organize public protest and/or nonviolent direct action/civil resistance in your area, or participate in other events or actions being planned on or around April 26. It will be a day to declare, together with millions of others around the world, NO to nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear testing, uranium mining and radioactive waste and YES to a nuclear-free future!

Whatever you plan, please post your event on the international roster of actions hosted by Sortir du nucleaire:

http://www.chernobyl-day.org/?lang=en,

and let Nukewatch and the Nuclear Resister know what you are planning, for inclusion on websites and in media outreach. When the action is over, please post and send reports and photos. Together let's work for a nuclear-free future.

For more about Chernobyl

Nukewatch: http://www.nukewatch.com/, Email nukewatch1@lakeland.ws

Nuclear Resister: http://www.nukeresister.org/, Email nukeresister@igc.org

Sortir du nucleaire: http://www.chernobyl-day.org/?lang=en , Email
charlotte.mijeon@sortirdunucleaire.fr