Text Fwd:Releases: children and fetuses must be well protected

* Text and image fwd from M.Sato on April 30, 2011

Friends,
I've just happened to find this website below, so I wanted to let you know, just in case some of you don't know.
And below that, I'll put some additional information as well.
(I must have missed some more names. )

I'm terribly sorry, especially to those in the Pacific, specifically to those in Hawai'i,
which must be the most badly affected area out side of Japan
by the on-going and the forthcoming long-term releases of radiation from Fukushima.
The situations of radiation in the U.S.west coast and Vancouver seem to be bad as well.
I do hope children in other areas are well warned and protected;our future generations--children here in Japan-- are not.
It must be that IAEA, WHO, NRC,... above all, Japanese consecutive governments...
are currently and have been colluded
to conceal the consequence reports of the present one as well as
the past nuclear disasters, including, perhaps, those in Hiroshima, Nagasaki.
That matter should be delved into as well later, but so many problems have been surfaced now here,
and more than anything, Japanese citizens have to stop some nuclear reactors here,
which are still shaking, sometimes. Thank you for your concern. Sorry to interrupt.
Makiko

__________________________________

Additionally, four pieces of information:
。。。。。。。。。。。。
(* from Junko Abe)
Friends,
Japanese citizens, especially those in the Fukushima nuclear disaster area and those who are trying to help them in many ways respect you all and your concern on our nuclear problems. You would not realize it but voices from overseas are strong support for us all. We are very thankful about it.
I am sure many of you are concerned about schools. We do have to save children. Here is an example of how the power hinders the school from protecting children. Junko Abe

( * below was translated by Junko Abe )..............
From School Home Page in Koriyam city, Fukushima, Japan

＊Radioactivity level at the east entrance of Koriyama Building for Prefectural Offices, 58km west of Fukushiam nuclear plant, was 1.57μsv/h (2011-04-29, 15:00)


Tachibana Elementary School, Koriyama city, Fukushima, Japan

Emergency information 2011-04-26 10:31 up
・We have been posting results of radioactivity measurement we made independently at points at school buildings and grounds. We inform you that we suspend our posting starting this week. It was prohibited (by the ministry and the prefecture) because posting radioactivity results on the web is restricted to those that were made by public institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and prefectures.
Yet, we will continue independent measurement we have carried on so far. We will inform parents how the results change on the school bulletin. We would like to ask you for your generous understanding.


emergency information 2011-04-28 11:50 up
・Concerning publication of our radioactivity measurement results
Formerly, we put on notice in our home page about suspending the publicity of our radioactivity measurement results there that we had continued. Reasons for this are: 1. Correct measurement is publicized by the Government and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The radioactivity measurement at this school is basically made by the hands of the teachers, therefore, it would be more appropriate to send it to parents through letters rather than posting on the Home Page. 2. Seeing that parents come first as receivers of our information, they will rather get it surely by letters than posted on Home Page.
We will continue the measurement and inform the results regularly by letters. We would like to ask you for generous understanding. (writer: Sato Morihiro, Principal, Tachibana Elementary School)


emergency information 2011-04-28 13:25 up
・ Concerning Introducing radioactivity measurement results.
We continue the measurement of radioactivity level at school. From now on, we will send the parents the results of radioactivity measurement through “School Bulletin”. Furthermore, in response to local demands, we will publicize the results in our Home Page in PDF.
Presently, we use radioactivity counter we borrowed from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, “Counter Boy 2” . It is for the range 0.001μsv/h～9.999μsv/h.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sent to me by Junko Okura this morning:
。。。。。。。
Extra! The Magazine of FAIR The Media Watch Group
May 2011

Cover Story

Downplaying deadly dangers in Japan and at home
After Fukushima, Media Still Buying Nuclear Spin

by Karl Grossman

Ever since the start of nuclear technology, those behind it have made
heavy use of deception, obfuscation and denial--with the complicity of
most of the media. New York Times reporter William Laurence, working
at the same time with the Manhattan Project, wrote a widely-published
press release covering up the first nuclear test in New Mexico in
1945, claiming it was nothing more than an ammunition dump explosion.
The Times and Laurence went on to boost nuclear power for years to
come (Beverly Deepe Keever, News Zero: The New York Times and The
Bomb).

A central concern of nuclear promoters, as Rosalie Bertell writes in
her book No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth, has
been: "Should the public discover the true health cost of nuclear
pollution, a cry would rise from all parts of the world and people
would refuse to cooperate passively with their own death." In the
U.S., nuclear industry and government nuclear agencies lied after the
accident at Three Mile Island. In the Soviet Union, government lies
flowed after the catastrophe at Chernobyl. There have been cover-up
after cover-up of the smaller accidents in between (Harvey Wasserman
and Norman Solomon, Killing Our Own, The Disaster of America’s
Experience with Atomic Radiation; Jay M. Gould and Benjamin A.
Goldman, Deadly Deceit; Low-level Radiation, High-level Cover-up).

The nuclear enterprise, with its army of PR people, has had little
trouble through the years manipulating a largely compliant media, a
major component of which it has owned: Westinghouse owning CBS for
many years, and General Electric, NBC. And this continues in the
still-unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan.

Media coverage of the Fukushima nuclear power facility disaster has
ranged from dreadful to barely passable. Much of the reporting about
the threats of nuclear power and the impacts of radioactivity has been
outrageously poor, as journalists and their talking-head experts have
parroted the assurances of Japanese and other officials that the
amounts of radioactivity being released were low and thus posed "no
health threat" to people (e.g., AP, 3/21/11).

Decades ago, there was the notion of a "threshold dose" of radiation,
below which there was no harm. That’s because when nuclear technology
began and people were exposed to radioactivity, they didn’t promptly
fall down dead. But as the years went by, it was realized that lower
levels of radioactivity take time to result in cancer and other
illnesses--that there is a five-to-40-year "incubation" period.

Now most scientists acknowledge that any amount of radioactivity can
lead to illness and death, especially in fetuses and children whose
cells are dividing more rapidly than in adults. As the National
Council on Radiation Protection (No. 136, 2001) has said: "Every
increment of radiation exposure produces an incremental increase in
the risk of cancer." Or the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ("Fact
Sheet: Biological Effects of Radiation"): "Any amount of radiation may
pose some risk for causing cancer.”

Much coverage reassured the public that, even if there was some risk,
potassium iodide pills being distributed in Japan "block
radioactivity" (CNN, 3/18/11). In fact, potassium iodide pills work
only on the thyroid, filling it with "good" iodine so radioactive
iodine-131, which causes thyroid cancer, cannot be absorbed. But there
are hundreds of other fission products--including cesium-137 and
strontium-90, both of which were discharged when the Fukushima nuclear
plants erupted--and there are no magic pills for any of them.

Fox News took its coverage to another level, with Geraldo Rivera
declaring (3/18/11): "I love nuclear power." And right-wing firebrand
Ann Coulter on the O'Reilly Factor (Fox News, 3/17/11) asserted that
"radiation [amounts] in excess of what the government says are the
minimum amounts we should be exposed to are actually good for you and
reduce cases of cancer." Even fellow right-wing firebrand Bill
O’Reilly was taken aback. "You have to be responsible," he told her.

Coulter's comment stems from a wild theory of some nuclear scientists
called "hormesis," which holds that radioactivity is good because it
exercises the immune system. Coulter challenged media for not pursuing
the radiation-is-good hypothesis. They should--they'll find that it's
been dismissed by national and international agencies involved with
radiation protection, including the U.S. National Research Council,
the National Council on Radiation Protection and the U.N. Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.

There have been huge scientific errors, even by people who
acknowledged the seriousness of the disaster­such as the
explanation for cesium-137 by "expert" Bill Nye, aka "The Science
Guy," on CNN (3/12/11). "We hear about this substance called cesium,
which is being released," anchor John Vause said to Nye. "What's the
significance of that?" The "Science Guy" responded: "Cesium is used to
slow and control the nuclear reaction, the fission of these very large
atoms of uranium. And so when cesium can’t get in there to slow things
down, it gets hotter and hotter."

In fact, cesium-137 has absolutely nothing to do with slowing or
controlling fission (that's boron); it is one of the deadliest
radioactive products created by fission, and one of the main reasons
there's still a 1,660-square-mile Exclusion Zone around the site of
the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. "The Science Guy" flubs a high-school
physics exam question, and one that is crucial to understanding the
health effects of nuclear accidents.

Media have betrayed a lack of understanding about the hydrogen
explosions that blew the roofs off the Fukushima plants as well. It
was reported that this had to do with fuel rods, and sometimes
zirconium was mentioned. (e.g. LA Times, 3/16/11). But missed was a
huge issue: Zirconium, which is used to make nuclear fuel rods because
it allows neutrons to pass freely, is extremely volatile. It explodes
at 2,000[o] F with the explosive power, pound for pound, of
nitroglycerin. (A tiny speck of zirconium produces the flash in a
flashbulb; a typical nuclear plant contains 20 tons.) With lesser
heat, it emits hydrogen, which itself can explode, and this is what
occurred at Fukushima. Using zirconium in a nuclear plant is like
building a bridge out of firecrackers. It’s not hard to explain, but
that didn’t happen.

Then there were the reports about three GE nuclear engineers who
resigned because of defects in the GE Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor
used at Fukushima (ABC News, 3/16/11). This was in line with the spin
that the problem is not nuclear power in general, but merely one
flawed plant design.

While the Mark 1 design was, indeed, a factor in why the three GE
nuclear engineering supervisors, Dale Bridenbaugh, Richard Hubbard and
Gregory Minor, left the nuclear industry, their broader point went
missing in media coverage: As they declared in a statement to the
Joint Committee on Atomic Energy in Congress in 1976,

We did so because we could no longer
justify devoting our life energies to the
continued development and expansion
of nuclear fission power--a system we
believe to be so dangerous that it
now threatens the very existence of life on
this planet.

Meanwhile, disinformation about the impacts of previous nuclear plant
disasters has served to downplay the potential impacts of the
Fukushima disaster.

U.S. media regularly reported that only a few thousand people died as
a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant
catastrophe--commonly used as a baseline of comparison (e.g. New York
Times, 3/27/11). These numbers ignore the most comprehensive study
done on the effects of Chernobyl, a book published in 2009 by the New
York Academy of Sciences titled Consequences of the Catastrophe for
People and the Environment. A team of scientists from Russia and
Belarus studied health data, radiological surveys and scientific
reports--some 5,000 in all--from 1986 to 2004, and estimated that the
accident caused the deaths of 985,000 people worldwide. More deaths,
they wrote, will follow. That’s the real baseline for a major disaster
at one nuclear power plant.

Indeed, the senior scientist in that study, Dr. Alexey Yablokov, at a
March 25 press conference in Washington, D.C., pointed out that
because of the multiple nuclear power plants and spent fuel pools
involved in the Fukushima disaster, and "because the area is far more
densely populated than around Chernobyl, the human toll could
eventually be far worse." The New York Times did not cover or run a
story on that press conference at the National Press Club--or the New
York Academy of Science's book.

There were also declarations that "no one died" as a result of the
Three Mile Island accident in 1979 (e.g., O'Reilly Factor, 3/16/11).
NPR (3/28/11) went so far as to claim that "relatively small amounts
of radiation had escaped from the plant. No one was even injured."

That myth was long ago long exploded by the book Killing Our Own,
which includes a chapter called "People Died at Three Mile Island,"
detailing infant and adult deaths. I wrote and narrated a TV
documentary on the impacts of the TMI partial meltdown, Three Mile
Island Revisited, that focused on the cancers and death in the area
around the plant, and how its owner has quietly given pay-outs, many
for $1 million apiece, to settle with people who suffered health
impacts or lost family members because of the accident.

Meanwhile, media didn't mention that Japan in recent years has become
a global giant in the sale of nuclear power plants. GE and
Westinghouse have long been the Coke and Pepsi of nuclear power plants
worldwide, historically manufacturing or designing 80 percent of all
nuclear plants. In 2006, Toshiba bought Westinghouse's nuclear
division and Hitachi entered into a partnership with GE to run its
nuclear division. How might this huge Japanese stake in selling
nuclear plants worldwide affect what Japanese officials were saying
about Fukushima? This area was ignored by U.S. media--many of which
have links to the nuclear industry themselves. (See FAIR Blog,
4/12/11).

A pioneer journalist on nuclear technology, Anna Mayo, had one word to
describe U.S. media coverage of the Japanese disaster: "grotesque."
From 1969 to 1989, Mayo worked for the Village Voice, writing a column
titled "Geiger Counter." She once said (Karl Grossman, Cover Up), "I
built a full-time career on covering nuclear horror stories that the
New York Times neglected." Mayo was forced out after changes of
ownership at the Village Voice, with "nuclear industry pressure"
having much to do with her ouster: "The nuclear industry went after
me. It was very obvious."

The nuclear industry on the disaster in Japan, said Mayo, "is trying
desperately to conceal the extent of radiation exposure, and they’ve
wheeled out the same old lies." And media, as usual, have bought the
deadly nuclear deception.


Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New
York/College at Old Westbury, is the author of books on nuclear
technology, including Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know
About Nuclear Power, and is the writer and host of many TV programs on
the issue (Envirovideo.com).
_______________________________________________________________________
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)

Un/subscribe or change your settings at:
http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(*I cannot help suspecting that chem trail, which has been for some time being released into the sky in my hometown as well,
must have something to do with nuclear radiation from such plants.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9062737295949774810#
Rosalie Bertell tells about Chem Trail
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(* Bruce told about this below issue to some Japanese citizens in Fukuoka, Japan,
two years ago, and I later read about it in his book. I happened to find this pdf last year.
This shows how mercilessly these mere soldiers were used as scientific test samples,
maybe just as those victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)

http://www.energy.gov/media/NTS_History.pdf
P.16/258pages : After the Charlie shot, members of the 82nd Airorne Division parashute into the
area near ground zero.
(p.15)They were met on the north side of the blast area by 120 paratroopers who had been air
dropped by C-46 aircraft. Thirty paratroopers failed to show up when they jumped early, landing as far
as 13 kilometers from the designated drop zone.5]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

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

Fwd: Urgent Petition Against 20mSv Radiation Exposure onto Children in Fukushima

* Petition fwd from Makiko Sato on April 24, 2011
Friends,
Let me forward to you the below email.
If you can help with endorsing and spreading this, they'd very much appreciate it.
In two days, 16,000 endorsements have been collected.
As our government may make little of such domestic petitions,
we need some endorsements from the outside of Japan as pressure to our government.
Thank you in advance.
Makiko Sato
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear all,
This is urgent request from Japanese civil societies for children in
Fukushima. Japanese Government decided the level of 20mSv per year (mSv/y)
as a Radiation Safety Standard for schools in Fukushima Prefecture. It
is also comparable to the maximum dose allowed for nuclear power plant
workers in Germany.

==================================
Urgent Petition Against 20mSv Radiation Exposure onto Children in Fukushima
http://blog.canpan.info/foejapan/daily/201104/24
==================================

[Date will be date of submission: April or May 2011]
[Emergency Statement and Demands]

We urgently demand the withdrawal of the Japanese Government's inhumane
decision to force 20mSv per year radiation exposure onto children

Sign the petition http://blog.canpan.info/foejapan/daily/201104/24

Preliminary deadline: Tue. April 26, 2011 at 23:00 in Japanese time
(UTC/GMT +9 hours)
Final deadline:Sat. April 30, 2011 at 23:00 in Japanese time

On April 19th, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (MEXT) notified the Board of Education and related
institutions in Fukushima Prefecture the level of 20mSv per year (mSv/y)
as a Radiation Safety Standard for schools in Fukushima Prefecture. This
is the standard to be used for school grounds and buildings. The
Government has indicated that 20mSv/y is equivalent to 3.8mSv per hour
(mSv/h) measured outdoors.

3.8 mSv/h is roughly 6 times [the 0.6mSv/h] of “Radiation Controlled
Areas” (0.6 mSv/h or more). The Labour Standards Act prohibits those
under the age of 18 from working under these conditions. Forcing
children to be exposed to such radiation doses is an exceedingly
inhumane decision. Therefore, we condemn this in the strongest terms.

20 mSv/y is comparable to the [legally] recognized dose for inducing
leukemia in nuclear power plant workers. It is also comparable to the
maximum dose allowed for nuclear power plant workers in Germany.

In addition, this 20mSv standard [for Japanese children] does not take
into account the fact children have higher sensitivity to radiation than
adults, nor does it take into account any internal radiation exposure.

Currently, according to the radiation monitoring conducted at elementary
and middle schools within Fukushima Prefecture, more than 75% of these
schools have contamination levels comparable to "Radiation Controlled
Areas" (0.6 mSv/h or more). Further, roughly 20% of the schools fall
within "Individual Exposure Controlled Areas" (2.3 mSv/h or more) and
are in an extremely dangerous situation.

The level set by the Japanese Government at this time amounts to
coercion of this dangerous situation upon children, and, can interfere
with voluntary measures by schools to minimize exposure.

MEXT states that 20mSv/y is based on the recommendation Pub.109 by the
International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) as well as on
the reference levels in the band of 1 to 20 mSv/y as "Post Emergency
Situation" Standards from the ICRP statement released on March 21st. The
latter means MEXT has adopted the maximum level.

As of March 21st, there has been no substantive information disclosure
by the Japanese Government on the decision-making process for
establishing these standards. Moreover, no explanation has been given
concerning why the Government has neither taken the sensitivity of
children into consideration nor internal radiation exposure into account.
The contents of the consultation held between MEXT and the Nuclear
Safety Commission (NSC) are not disclosed, and the situation remains
extremely opaque.

We demand the following of the Japanese Government:
-Retraction of the "20mSv/y" standard for children.
-Disclosure of the names of experts, who deemed "20mSv/y" for children
to be safe.

Note:
At the governmental negotiation held on April 21st, it became evident
that the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) concluded the 20mSv/y standard
for children as "Permissible" without undertaking any formal
consultation. Moreover, on April 22nd, the Commission reported to the
office of Mizuho FUKUSHIMA, member of the Japanese Diet, House of
Councillors that no minutes (records) exist of the 5 Nuclear Safety
Commission members' deliberation leading to the 20mSv/year standard.

References:
Expert comments cited from the articles on the establishment of the
20mSv/y standard ("Fukushima-Katastrophe - Japan legt hohe
Strahlengrenzwerte fur Kinder fest" or "Japan's MEXT sets High Exposure
Limits for Children"), Der Spiegel, April 21st, 2011.
(See comparison to German workers.)
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,758410,00.html

Edmund Lengfelder (Otto Hug Radiation Institute),
"The cancer risk will visibly rise in the future. By setting these
standards, the government will steer clear of any liability legally,
however not morally."
-------
This petition is being organized by:
Green Action, Greenpeace Japan, Citizens' Nuclear Information Center,
Citizens Against Fukushima Aging Nuclear Power Plants (Fukuro-no-Kai),
Osaka Citizens Against the Mihama, Oi, and Takahama Nuclear Power Plants
(Mihama-no-Kai), Friends of the Earth Japan

For further inquiries, please contact:

Green Action
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8203 Japan
Tel: +81-75-701-7223
info@greenaction-japan.org

Friends of the Earth Japan
3-30-8-1F Ikebukuro Toshima-ku Tokyo 171-0014, Japan
TEL: +81-3-6907-7217
finance@foejapan.org

[English translation of Japanese original: FoE Japan / Green Action]

http://fukushima.greenaction-japan.org/2011/04/23/save-the-fukushima-children-japanese-citizens-meet-with-government/
Fukushima Update

Text Fwd: Kan's Hint at New Nuclear Plant Moratorium and the Choice Facing Korea

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan holds an emergency meeting to cope with the unparalleled earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Kan said recently that "As long as the safety of nuclear plants remains uncertain, we cannot continue as before with plans to build more." His statement is interpreted to mean that he will freeze the existing plans to build more nuclear power plants. File photo by Yonhap News/ Caption by Seol Wontai


http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201104201441077&code=790101
Kan's Hint at New Nuclear Plant Moratorium and the Choice Facing Korea
2011-04-20 14:41

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has hinted that his country may freeze plans to build more nuclear power plants. At a budget committee meeting in the Diet's upper house, Kan stated: "As long as the safety (of nuclear plants) remains uncertain, we cannot continue as before with plans to build more."

Kan's statement was not an official declaration of abandonment of plans to build more nuclear plants. Coming at a time, however, when the myth of safe nuclear power is in a state of utter collapse, his comments have drawn attention by referring to a major revision to Japan's nuclear power policy.

In the case of Japan, this is the natural direction to adopt. Japan is a typical nuclear dependent nation. It had planned to build at least 14 new reactors, in addition to the 54 that it currently possesses, by 2030, thereby increasing nuclear's share of the country's total power generation from 30% to 40%.

Now, however, with a nuclear disaster of a level equivalent to that of Chernobyl still in progress, we think that withdrawing this plan in its entirety is the right thing to do.

Kan said on the same day that this issue had to be re-examined from square one, but we believe that Japan needs to be even more positive and produce a "nuclear exit strategy." Japanese public opinion, too, is rapidly turning in this direction.

Korea must carefully read the message sent by such movements in Japan. South Korea's level of dependency on nuclear power, like that of Japan, is high. It has 21 nuclear power plant reactors, the fifth highest number in the world after the USA, France, Japan and Russia.

Last year, the South Korean government confirmed its fifth basic plan for electric supply and demand (2010-2024), which involves increasing the number of reactors to 35, thus raising nuclear's share of electricity generation from the current 23% to 48.5%.

In a 2008 national basic plan for energy, the government also stated that this share would be increased to 59% by 2030. The Fukushima nuclear accident, however, has given a clear and ample reason for this plan to be fundamentally reconsidered.

President Lee Myung-bak emphasizes that "Korean-style nuclear plants are the best in terms of safety and efficiency," but such optimistic arguments do not equate to safety. Japan's example illustrates this.

The timely shutdown incident that occurred last week at the No. 1 reactor of Korea's Kori Nuclear Power Plant, despite Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP)'s explanation that it was of negligible importance, exposed several problems.

KHNP is refusing opposition party demands to reveal data from safety inspections. The company says the incident was no more serious than a fuse box breakdown in a family home, but there is no way of knowing when things will be back to normal.

The Kyunghyang Daily News reporter visited Chernobyl recently on the 25th anniversary of the disaster. A technician in his 50s, who was deployed to sort out the situation at the time, told the reporter: "In view of Fukushima, scholars and governments must change their minds. Since Korea is an intelligent country, it will think of a wise way to do this."

There is no way of telling if his judgment was correct. What is clear is that nuclear power policies are matters of great national importance that go beyond the dimension of single governments. (Editorial, The Kyunghyang Daily News. April 20, 2011)

Text Fwd: Kori Nuclear Power Plant Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of Fukushima

Gori Nuclear Power Plant. File photo taken March 16, 2011.


Kyunghyang
http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201104141616397&code=790101
Kori Nuclear Power Plant Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of Fukushima April 10, 2011

Kori Nuclear Power Plant Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of Fukushima


A few days ago, there was an accidental shutdown at the No. 1 reactor at Kori Nuclear Power Plant, the subject of recent controversy over extended lifetime.

Authorities at the Kori plant explained that the incident was simply an automatic shutdown due to the breakdown of electricity supply equipment, and that there are no problems regarding the safety of the reactor. Such explanations, however, no longer provide us with the sense of trust that they once did.

It so happens that, a few hours before Kori 1 shut down, the Japanese government suddenly acknowledged that the danger level of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident was equivalent to that of Chernobyl, while the Busan Bar Association applied for a court injunction to have Kori 1 taken out of operation.

At a time when trust in nuclear power has collapsed, the accident at Kori 1 is not something that can merely be disregarded as inconsequential. Kori 1's planned lifetime expired in June 2007, but the government decided to extend it for a further 10 years, starting in 2008.

It is said that at the time, one of the grounds for claiming that Kori 1 should not be closed down and should be run for longer was the successful lifetime extension of Japan's Fukushima Plant.

No reports from safety inspections regarding the lifetime extension of Kori 1 have been made public, however, and it has never been made known which or how many of its components have been replaced.

This is what makes it difficult to believe that the recent shutdown accident was simply due to equipment failure. It is highly likely that this accident was related to overall decrepitude. Parts that have surpassed their planned lifetime but not been replaced can go wrong at any time.

Japan's nuclear accident provides two lessons. Firstly, when an accident does happen, its results go beyond the imaginable; and secondly, that there is no use in believing that nuclear power plants can be managed safely.

Japan, which excels in management, increased distrust by responding in a flustered manner to the nuclear accident. Only the other day did the Japanese government finally raise the danger level of the Fukushima accident by a whole two grades to level seven, a level that can have serious effects on neighboring countries too.

It is not only the people of Japan who are surprised and disappointed. Until that point, the government and nuclear experts had been saying that the Japanese accident would not correspond to the worst possible scenario, and that there would be no problems when it came to Korea's safety.

Some even went as far as to suggest conspiracy theories when it came to those expressing doubts about the safety of nuclear power. Confidence in nuclear power, however, has already collapsed due to what happened in Japan.

When it comes to Kori 1, this is not just a matter of fixing the electrical equipment and hurrying to restart the reactor. There is no questioning the danger of decrepit nuclear plants.

Kori 1 produces no more than one percent of the total electricity consumed in Korea, and it is said that total electricity generation exceeds total demand by around 10%.

In other words, Korea's electricity situation is not so critical that we must place ourselves in danger. The decision on whether to restart Kori 1 must be taken through public debate and consensus. (Editorial, The Kyunghyang Daily News. April 14, 2011)

Text Fwd: GLOBAL NETWORK STATEMENT ON JAPANESE NUCLEAR DISASTER

Organizing Notes
Friday, April 08, 2011
GLOBAL NETWORK STATEMENT ON JAPANESE NUCLEAR DISASTER

The Global Network mourns for the people of Japan following the recent disastrous chain of events that began with the earthquake, tsunami and then the nuclear power plant. Sadly Japan is now the victim of three gargantuan nuclear disasters: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan tragically demonstrates, again, the dangers of nuclear power, an energy source that must be abandoned--as a clear and present threat to life. Instead there must be full implementation of safe, clean energy technologies --- which are here today.

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space has long challenged the use of atomic energy in space. The network has emphasized that there are safe alternatives to energize space devices. In recent times, NASA, at long last, has begun substituting solar energy for nuclear power in space. Indeed, in coming months NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft will be launched on a five-year mission to Jupiter. It was not long ago that NASA emphatically insisted that solar power could not substitute for nuclear beyond the orbit of Mars. Suddenly, it now can be done.

Likewise, as numerous studies have documented, safe, clean, renewable energy technologies now here can provide all the power we need on earth. Nuclear power and its deadly dangers are unnecessary. As the conservative scientific magazine, Scientific American, in its October 26, 2009 cover story, "A Plan for A Sustainable Future," declared, "Wind, water, solar technologies, [and conservation] can provide 100 percent of the world's energy needs."

The issue of switching to safe, clean energy is not technological -- it's political.

The problem involves vested interests: the government agencies which push nuclear power, notably in the United States the national nuclear laboratories and the entity that owns them, the Department of Energy (headed currently by a former national nuclear laboratory director), and the nuclear industry as it seeks to profit from selling nuclear technology despite the cost in people's lives.

These same entities are pushing nuclear power world-wide as evidenced by GE’s involvement in the construction of Japanese reactors and the recent U.S.-India Nuclear deal. China and other emerging nations are also expanding plans for nuclear power despite the horrific memories of Chernobyl and now Fukushima.

A disgrace in demanding nuclear power on earth and space has been President Barack Obama. As president, he has reversed the critical position he espoused as a candidate and now, even in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, is seeking to "revive" the nuclear industry with the building of new nuclear plants using billions of taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, his administration has been pushing to also "revive" the use of nuclear power in space by restarting U.S. production of Plutonium-238 for use on space devices.

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space calls for:

* The end of nuclear power on earth. Although the nuclear establishment claims this is impractical, it is not. In the U.S. where nuclear power provides 20% of the electricity, there's a 20% reserve capacity in the electrical system. All 104 U.S. nuclear plants could -- and must -- be immediately shut down. The reserve capacity can deal with their absence.

And, meanwhile, a concentrated effort could -- and must -- be made to swiftly bring the safe, clean energy technologies on line. Instead of promoting nuclear power expansion globally the nuclear power industry should be dismantled or converted to a green technology industry.

* The end of nuclear power in space. Accidents such as the 1964 SNAP-9A disaster in which a plutonium-powered satellite fell from orbit, disintegrating and spreading the plutonium widely -- a plutonium release long seen as causing an increase in lung cancer on earth -- have demonstrated the folly of using nuclear power overhead.

* The closure of all national nuclear laboratories. They have been breeding grounds for developing lethal atomic energy -- on earth and in space. There's an effort now underway in Washington to cut back on the federal government spending. Here is a federal government activity that must be cut back -- a string of national nuclear laboratories, including Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore, Idaho, Sandia, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Argonne, spending billions upon billions in taxpayer money annually while developing deadly nuclear technology.

Unless the nuclear juggernaut is stopped, we all live in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima.


Global Network Board of Directors & Advisors:

Bob Anderson (Stop the War Machine, New Mexico)
Dr. Helen Caldicott (Pediatrician/Anti-nuclear activist, Australia)
Sung-Hee Choi (Artist/teacher/activist, South Korea)
MacGregor Eddy (Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, California)
Stacey Fritz (No Nukes North, Alaska)
Atsushi Fujioka (Professor of Economics Ritsumeikan University, Japan)
Bruce Gagnon (Global Network Coordinator, Maine)
Holly Gwinn Graham (Singer/songwriter/activist, Washington)
Karl Grossman (Professor of Journalism SUNY/College of Old Westbury, New York)
Regina Hagen (Darmstadter Friedensform, Germany)
Matthew Hoey (Military Space Transparency Project, Massachusetts)
Filip Ilkowski (Lecturer Political Science/History Warsaw University, Poland)
Helen John (Peace activist, England)
Dr. Michio Kaku (Professor Theoretical Physics CUNY, New York)
Tamara Lorincz (Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada)
Dr. Hannah Middleton (Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition, Australia)
Agneta Norberg (Swedish Peace Council, Sweden)
Lindis Percy (Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, England)
J. Sri Raman (Movement Against Nuclear Weapons, India)
J. Narayana Rao (All India Peace & Solidarity Organization, India)
Tim Rinne (Nebraskans for Peace, Nebraska)
Makiko Sato (Anti-nuclear activist, Japan)
Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck (Friedenswerkstatt Mutlangen, Germany)
Alice Slater (Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, New York)
Koji Sugihara (No to Nukes & Missile Defense Campaign, Japan)
Bill Sulzman (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado)
Jan Tamas (Humanist Party, Czech Republic)
Dr. Dave Webb (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, United Kingdom)
Carol Urner (Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, Oregon)
Loring Wirbel (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado)
Lynda Williams (Physics teacher/activist, California)
Wooksik Cheong (Peace Network, South Korea)
Hibiki Yamaguchi (People’s Plan Study Group, Japan)

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. ~Henry David Thoreau

Text Fwd: NO MORE FUKUSHIMA: GLOBAL CALL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTIONS AGAINST NUCLEAR PLANTS

* Text sent from Makiko Sato on April 5, 2011

APRIL 10th "NO MORE FUKUSHIMA":
GLOBAL CALL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTIONS AGAINST NUCLEAR PLANTS

We took big risk depending on nuclear energy in exchange for creating unlimited prosperity. Then we are now facing assumed danger. Human being seems to take wrong choice. We have to make sure. No more nuclear plants.


We individuals living in Tokyo are planning an demonstration against nuclear plants on 10th April in Koenji, Tokyo. We also would like to call for global solidarity actions on the same day. We believe that the global response and action will be significant support for all disaster victims and movements against the current nuclear policy in general.


CALL FOR ACTION:
This is a global call for actions on 10th April.
We sincerely hope that you will take any actions, like demonstrations, media actions, street performances or benefit lives, together on that day.
Work with us in solidarity against all nuclear plants worldwide!



PLEASE SEND US:
Plans for actions and Records of actions.
Please send us the texts, documents, footage, images and/or anything else relating to your actoins to:
http://410nonuke.tumblr.com/


PLEASE SPREAD:
to your local Indymedia, Mailing List, Individuals, Facebook and so on.
We are glad if you forward this message.



in strong solidarity,

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
・If you have some friends who reside in Japan who still don't know about this below website of Gernman Weather
Forcaset Bureau, please let them know. This regards simulated radiation dispersion depending on winds direction
from Fukushima Daiichi, every 6 hours for current time till 3 days ahead. Presently radioactive winds cover
half or most of areas of Japan, except for Okinawa. Internal exposure to very low-level radiation,
to thyroids, immune systems, gene, through eating, drinking, inhaling air, is dangerous to minors, infants, fetus,
pregnant women or would-be in middle or long-terms.
http://www.dwd.de/bvbw/generator/DWDWWW/Content/Oeffentlichkeit/KU/KUPK/Homepage/Aktuelles/Sonderbericht__Bild5,templateId=poster,property=poster.gif

・Talk by Dr. Arnest Sternglass regarding radiation and health in Japan, 2006 (with interpretation by Yumi Kikuchi)
http://fujiwaratoshikazu.com/2011disaster

・http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4411946789896689299#
　Nuclear Ginza ( produced by BBC 1995 ) --the reality of risky labor and laborers at nuclear power plants--

Video Fwd: PLEA FROM LOCAL MAYOR NEAR FUKUSHIMA

Organizing Notes Sunday, April 03, 2011 PLEA FROM LOCAL MAYOR NEAR FUKUSHIMA
Message from the Mayor of Minami-Soma City; filmed on March 24, 2011. The mayor talks about how the city lacks supplies and that there is no means to deliver supplies to the citizens stranded at home. See a news article with more info here

Petition Fwd: Sign Petition to Support Japanese People, Expand Evacuation Zone

* Text fwd from Martha Duenas on April 3, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


April 1, 2011
2:00 PM

CONTACT: Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)Email: nirsnet@nirs.org

Sign Petition to Support Japanese People, Expand Evacuation Zone
WASHINGTON - April 1 - More than 168 citizens organizations in Japan submitted a petition to their government March 28 calling for an expanded evacuation zone near the Fukushima nuclear disaster site and other urgent measures to protect the public health and safety.

The official evacuation zone remains only 20 kilometers (12 miles), while the government has encouraged people within 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) to evacuate. Yet levels of cesium-137 in the village of Iitate, for example, have been measured at more than twice the levels that prompted the Soviet Union to evacuate people near Chernobyl. Iitate is 40 kilometers (24 miles) northwest of Fukushima. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommended a 50-mile evacuation zone for U.S. citizens in Japan.

The people of Japan are now asking for international support for their petition. NIRS supports this effort wholeheartedly: these are our colleagues and friends. We hope you'll sign by going to the Green Action site here: http://fukushima.greenaction-japan.org/petition/

Sign the Petition!

This petition is from concerned Japanese citizens, who would appreciate an international show of support.

Radiological Impact of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

On March 11th, Japan was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunamis. A nuclear disaster followed.

Please support this petition by Japanese citizens. It was submitted to the Japanese government on March 28th at a meeting backed by 168 citizen organizations. It addresses the radiological impact of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster and the need to extend the exclusion zone around the plant.

Your voices will be delivered to the Japanese government.

What the petition says:
1. Immediately issue a directive to evacuate and enlarge the evacuation zone.
2. Calculate and publicize regularly the total cumulative radiation dose local residents receive collectively.
3. Repeal the upward revision of the maximum permissible radiation dose (250 milliSieverts) for emergency-response workers at the Fukushima plant.
4. Expand the scope of radiation monitoring and publicize the results.
5. Undertake immediately a comprehensive survey of the radiation exposure and current state of health of local residents and provide for their long-term health care.
6. Do not relax the provisional standards governing the maximum permissible levels of radionuclides in food.
7. Provide compensation for damages to farm and dairy producers and to people who are forced to relocate.
8. Generally, take all measures necessary to ensure that members of the public do not receive radiation doses greater than 1 milliSievert per annum.

_____________________________________________

Please fill out the form below - with your name, email address, and in the box "Please enter an optional comment" - add your organization, city, and country.


When done, click the button "Sign the petition". You will receive an email from Green Action (Japan) info@greenaction-japan.org. Please check your email and click the link in your signature confirmation message. If you don't see the email, check your spam or junk folder.

Thank you for your interest!

Text Fwd: Radioactive Substances Detected Throughout Korea, Lee Government's Response 'Belated'

* Image source: Kyunghyang Shinmun, March 30, 2011 경향 신문(클릭)
http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?code=710100&artid=20110330154834A&medid=AP
South Korean environmentalists stage a rally demanding halt of expansion of nuclear power plants by the government in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 29, 2011.
Fears over possible radiation contamination are growing in South Korea, the country closest to Japan, after the latter's nuclear power plants were damaged by the March 11 tsunami. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)


* Image source: Kyunghyang Shinmun, March 30, 2011 경향 신문(클릭)
http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?code=710100&artid=20110328173354A&medid=AP
South Korean environmentalists stage a rally to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in the United States, in front of the Myungdong Catholic Church in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 28, 2011

______________________________________________


Marking 32nd anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident---"Stop nuclear power plant." Environmentalists such as activists at the Coalition of the Environmental Movement stage a performance in front of Myungdong Cathedral, downtown Seoul demanding the Lee government to repeal the nuclear power - centered energy policy on March 28, 2011. The nuclear accident in Japan seems to have raised the level of sense of unease around the world.
Photo by Seo Sung-il/ Caption by Seol Wontai

Kyunghyang Shinmun
http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201103301648577&code=710100
Radioactive Substances Detected Throughout Korea, Lee Government's Response 'Belated'
March 30, 2011


It has emerged that radioactive iodine and cesium released from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have traveled on the wind and been spread all over Korea.

Although the amounts of the substances detected have been minute, their combination with the Korean government's belated response is increasing the Korean people's sense of unease.

At a briefing on March 29, Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) president Yun Choul-ho stated that "the result of analyses of air samples gathered at all of Korea's 12 radioactivity measuring stations on March 28 showed minute amounts of radioactive iodine to be present at each station."

Levels of radioactive iodine detected ranged from 0.049mBq/m3 (millibecquerels) to 0.356 mBq/m3. In terms of exposure of the human body to radioactivity, this is equivalent to between 1/200,000th and 1/30,000th of the annual maximum dose of 1mSv (millisievert).

At one of Korea's measuring stations, in Chuncheon, cesium was detected in addition to radioactive iodine. The radioactive exposure represented by this amount of cesium, too, was equivalent to around 1/80,000th of the annual maximum dose of 1mSv.

"There is no need to link these discoveries to any possible risk to human health, in as much as they are minute quantities," said Yun.

KINS, however, has incurred distrust for its "belated response," including only starting nationwide radioactivity measurements two weeks after the Fukushima accident, despite the anticipated influx of radioactive substances, and delaying announcement of the fact that such substances had been detected.

The Korea Meteorological Association has also changed its stance, having previously just repeated that "westerly winds mean Korea is the safest country [from Japanese radiation] in the world."

President Lee Myung-bak said at a cabinet meeting on the same day that "Examination results must be made public swiftly and transparently in order to bring the people peace of mind. When it comes to amounts [of radioactivity] detected, experts must explain them to the people in an easily comprehensible manner and use specific illustrations."

Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan, meanwhile, at an upper house budget committee meeting on the same day, said that "the unpredictable emergency situation at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant continues. We will respond to it with the greatest urgency." (General News, Major story on the front page. The Kyunghyang Daily News. March 30, 2011)

Story by Jung Yu-jin and Tokyo correspondent Seo Eu-dong

____________________________________________

See also

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/470621.html
No More Fukushima: a poem for Yuko TsushimaMarch 30, 2011

[Hankyoreh Editorial] Radioactive risks in Northeast Asia

Hankyoreh
[Editorial] Radioactive risks in Northeast Asia
Posted on : Mar.28,2011 13:00 KST

Radioactive material apparently leaked from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant has been detected in South Korea. According to the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), a minute quantity of xenon was detected by a radioactivity measurement site in Gangwon Province a few days ago, and it is surmised that some of the radioactive material from the Fukushima plant traveled to the Kamchatka Peninsula, rounded the polar regions, and returned south by way of Siberia.

While it was only an exceedingly small quantity incapable of having any negative effects on South Koreans’ health or environment, it still raises grave concerns. Contrary to government’s statements that the country is safe because of the westerlies, it has now been proven that radioactive material can arrive anywhere on the branches formed in the different regions.

With the detection of material in other areas affected by westerlies, including not only the United States and Europe but also neighboring China, the sense of alarm is heightening all over the world. Depending on how the analysis results turn out, there is a possibility that other radioactive materials besides xenon will be discovered. While xenon is relatively harmless to the human body, prolonged exposure is said to lead to lung ailments.

The Lee Myung-back administration must abandon its laid-back assessment of the situation and prepare far-ranging measures in consideration of a potential worst-case scenario. While the possibility of other radioactive materials besides xenon being detected is slight, infants and pregnant women can suffer harm from even small quantities, a fact that is prompting growing concerns.

Above all else, it needs to conduct thorough monitoring and notify the public in advance about the quantities and routes of any material that could enter the country. Nuclear power authorities reportedly discovered xenon in a sample collected on Mar. 23 but delayed the announcement for four days because the quantities were small and they were attempting to determine a connection with a possible North Korean nuclear test. This is untrustworthy behavior in light of concerns and anxieties among the South Korean public.

It is fortunate, at least, that the administration made the belated decision at an Atomic Energy Commission meeting presided over by the prime minister yesterday to examine the safety of all nuclear power plants in South Korea and confirm their security under worst-case scenario conditions. However, it also needs to set up thorough measures to prepare for the eventuality of radioactive material entering the Korean Peninsula from one of the surrounding countries.

China, which has thirteen nuclear power plants in operation, is planning to build 77 more in the future, which will make East Asia a high-density region for such plants. Should radioactive material leak from central China, it is said that it will enter the West Sea area two days later, and that all of South Korea will fall in a high-concentration impact zone after four days. If we imagine a situation like the Fukushima disaster occurring in China, the northwest and southeast winds would place the peninsula smack in the middle of a danger zone the likes of which are too terrible to contemplate. We hope to see the administration holding close discussions with China and Japan over the nuclear power plant safety issue.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Text Fwd: SAD NEWS on Maine, Japan, and Libya

During March 20 protest at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia in support of Bradley Manning

Organizing Notes
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
SAD NEWS

The governator of Maine took down the mural from the Department of Labor office sometime over the weekend. Was probably during the dark of night. He has hidden it and won't disclose the location. Even the artist of the mural had no idea her work was being removed nor does she know what was done with it. The Union of Maine Visual Artists is planning a news conference on Friday in the state capital Hall of Flags to demand the return of the mural and have invited me to speak on behalf of the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign. Things will start at noon.

The latest faux pas from the governator was his statement about prisoners in the Maine jail system getting "health care and some education" while old ladies go without. “If it were up to me, I’d find a dungeon very cheaply and house them all," he grunted as his divide the public against one another strategy continues to play out.

The National Police Agency in Japan announced today:

It gave up transportation of a man’s body found in Okuma-town, Fukushima prefecture within 10km from Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. The body showed such a high level radioactive contamination that there is no way to carry it. There is possibility that more bodies are left in this 10km area. The agency says it has to plan “a measure to counter this”. The agency says the man's body was found by the Fukushima Prefectural Riot Police men and others who had been informed of it, in the open lot of a workshop 5 to 6 km from the nuclear plant.

The surface of the body counted radioactivity level of “over 100,000 CPM (count per minute) ” for which a whole body decontamination is required. There is possibility that while carrying it, the body will contaminate the men at work. The agency gave up moving the body because it will contaminate the recipients and the surroundings, too. The body is contained in a sack and laid in the nearby building for the time being.

Washington Post reports: The military intervention in Libya has cost the United States “about $550 million” in extra spending so far, a Defense Department spokeswoman said Tuesday, providing the first official estimate of the mission’s price tag. Almost 60 percent of the total cost has been for munitions — the most expensive of which are Tomahawk missiles, which cost more than $1 million each to replace.

Text Fwd: [Korean civic organizations] Joint declaration for recovering Japanese earthquake·nuclear accident, and for society safe from Nuclear

* Image source: Click HERE

On March 28, the Hankyoreh and civic organizations in Korea had an evening event for condolence and solidarity for Japan being in the crisis of nuclear plant explosion in Fukushima, at the Boshingak, Seoul (7pm)

* Image source: Korea Times No to nuclear power plant: Members of the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements call for the government to stop expanding nuclear power plants in front of Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral, Seoul, Monday, the 32nd anniversary of the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the U.S. 03-28-2011 ___________________________________________________ Peace Network

Joint declaration for recovering Japanese earthquake·nuclear accident, and for society safe from Nuclear

Today, we are here, feeling miserable and tragic. The massive earthquake which hit Japan on the last 11th totally changed the lives of Japanese citizens. Official casualties and missing people have reached as many as 20,000 and approximately 400,000 people evacuated their home and are suffering from anxiety in the temporary shelter. We would like to express our condolence to those Japanese who have passed away and are still suffering from the natural disaster. Apart from the problems regarding the past history, we feel sincerely sorry for our neighboring country Japan with which we have a lot of economic and cultural exchanges. Not only the enormous damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami, the explosion accident of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is also another disaster indeed. As radiation-contaminated materials are spreading even currently, the fear that this accident might develop into an huge nuclear disaster is increasing. We wish this Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant explosions come to settlement as soon as possible so this accident does not have any negative influence on the entire humanity and the nature as well as Japanese citizens. Therefore, Korean civil social groups and parties are planning an aid program for the Japanese earthquake and the nuclear accident. Though our help might be minute, in comparison to the huge scale of the damage, we believe that it would be of a great help if all nations including us cooperate in order to help Japan to overcome the tragic accident. In addition to this, we have also realized the importance of constructing a safety net from the nuclear power. This is because even though natural disasters such as earth quakes are unpredictable and unavoidable, we are able to prevent following explosion of nuclear facilities. Japan has more than twice as many nuclear plants as Korea. However, the number of nuclear plants per unit area is larger in Korea. Moreover, we cannot rule out the possibility that similar disaster recurs in Korea and thus, a shift of the nuclear-oriented energy policy is urgently required. Today, we, civil social groups and parties, declare that we will take wide and diverse joint actions in order to build safe society from nuclear power and to support Japanese people suffering from the earthquake and the nuclear plant explosion. Furthermore, we encourage all Korean citizens to share Japanese people’s sorrow and call upon the shift of a nuclear development policy so this disaster is not to be repeated. Beginning from this declaration, we, civil society, religion groups, and parties, proclaim Joint Action Period for supporting victims of Japanese earthquake and the nuclear accident and for the shift of nuclear development policy, from 28th March, the day of Three Mile Island Nuclear accident to 46th April, the day of Chernobyl accident. As a first action, a memorial event for commemorating the victims and supporting rapid restoration will be held at 7pm, 28th March, the first day of Joint Action Period with the citizens. During this period, joint civil social groups and the press is going to organize a charity fund-raising campaign. Secondly, we will take actions promoting a shift of nuclear plant-expanding policy and security inspection on nuclear generating stations. Though current government is conducting security scrutiny over nuclear plants with civilians, the examination and inspection is highly likely to be unfair since it only includes personnel who would like to maintain or expand nuclear generating stations. Only can this be impartial when civil social groups are included. We call for Joint Civil Inspections. As seen from the disaster in Japan, there is no such a thing as completely safe nuclear plants. Thus, in order to build society free from nuclear disaster, we will lead activities urging government to reexamine nuclear-expanding policy with other parties. Not only this, we will take actions against nuclear-development and -expansion policy with those who are living in the area where nuclear plants are under operation and in candidate areas for new nuclear plants. Civil society of Korean and Japan will cooperate and implement various measures in order to stop the competition of the nuclear power development, and carry out activities to march toward a society without nuclear power. Thirdly, we will organize campaign alerting citizens to notify how dangerous nuclear power is and how closely intertwined it is with our daily lives. In addition to this, we will also implement programs informing emergency behavioral instructions for possible nuclear disaster. Through these actions, we will, with our citizens, make society safe from nuclear power. March 22, 2011. Joint action for supporting victims of Japanese earthquake·nuclear accident, and for shift of nuclear development policy (사)에너지나눔과평화, YWCA, 경주핵안전연대, 기독교환경운동연대, 나눔문화, 녹색교육센터, 녹색교통운동, 녹색연합, 다함께, 문화연대, 민주노동당, 민주당, 민주사회를위한변호사모임, 민주언론시민연합, 보건의료단체연합, 부안시민발전소, 사회당, 사회진보연대, 삼척핵발전소유치백지화위원회, 생명살림연구소, 생태지평, 시민사회단체연대회의, 시민평화포럼, 에너지기후정책연구소, 에너지전환, 에너지정의행동, 여성민우회, 여성환경연대, 영광군농민회, 영덕핵발전소반대 500인결사, 전국민주노동조합총연맹, 전국철거민연합중앙협의회, 진보신당, 참교육학부모회, 참여연대, 초록교육연대, 카톨릭환경연대, 평화네트워크, 한국노동조합총연맹, 한국미래연대, 한국진보연대, 한국YMCA전국연맹, 핵으로부터안전하게살고싶은 울진사람들(핵안사), 환경과공해연구회, 환경을 생각하는 교사모임, 환경재단, 환경운동연합, 환경정의. KYC

_______________________________________

See also Hankyoreh

S.Korea to rank 1st in nuclear plant density by 2024

:Some say the Lee administration’s plans for 34 plants by 2024 are without public consensus

Posted on : Mar.28,2011 14:49 KST

Yonhap News

Seoul to shut problematic nuclear reactors after month-long tests

2011/03/28 17:33 KST

Kyunghyang Shinmun

Nuclear Power: A Turning Point Arrives; The Safety Myth Collapses and Fantasy Turns to Horror

Posted on : 2011-03-28

Text Fwd: Data from S.N.: radioactive composition of No.3 water that injured 3workers, and Nuclear Safety Commission of radiation exposure simulation

__________________________________

See also Peace Philosophy Center
IEER Press Release: "This accident has long since passed the level of Three Mile Island"
March 27, 2011
__________________________________

* Text fwd from Makiko Sato on March 27, 2011

Friends, Please share critial information from Satoko Norimatsu . If you haven't look at this, please look at the map in the URL below, which shows the radiation dispersion into the Pacific and the US mainland.

http://www.irsn.fr/EN/news/Documents/irsn-simulation-dispersion-en.pdf

p2/3pages 4- Modelling the dispersion of radioactive releases into the atmosphere on a global scale The lower one is a bird-eye picture of Fukushima Daiichi facilities.

http://www.irsn.fr/EN/news/Documents/IRSN_Fukushima-plant_situation-24032011.pdf

State of the buildings Present contamination is terrible in the sea near the plant, 1850 times more radioactive iodine than the legal limitation, with releases from the plant to the sea still going on, probably.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ocean_surface_currents.jpg

ocean surface currents

Makiko Sato ___________________________________________________________________________ Original Message from Satoko Norimatsu on March 27, 2011

Data from Satoko Norimatsu - radioactive composition of No.3 water that injured three workers, and Nuclear Safety Commission of radiation exposure simulation

Colleagues, Sharing an email I just sent to Arjun Makhijani, head of IEER. You might benefit from the information here. Satoko

Forwarded by Satoko Norimatsu: Original Message on March 26, 2011
from: Satoko Norimatsu to: "Arjun Makhijani"
---- ----------------------

Thank you Arjun.

Government (Edano) announced radioactivity exceeding standard in milk from Fukushima and spinach from Ibaraki, on March 19th. Then government put a ban on shipping those produce on March 22. In my understanding, nobody knew about milk and food contamination until March 19th. It was already a week after the quake.

I just spoke to somebody at Nuclear Safety Commission. He did not sound like an expert on the issue, but he said from the reading of the document (which you have), this calculation did not consider radiation intake through food, milk, and water.

It sounds like this SPEEDI system is administered by MEXT, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. NSC staff I spoke to said that all they do is to receive information from MEXT and interpret it. This is the reality of the function of the government that is responsible for nuclear safety.

Now, I will present different data sets and analyses. Prepared by different organizations and individuals, but all based on data provided by TEPCO and the government.

The MEXT website does provide good amount of information in English. http://www.mext.go.jp/english/

This site has prefecture-by-prefecture radiation level update. This is Fukushima, areas surrounding Fukushima Daiichi.
http://www.mext.go.jp/component/english/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/03/27/1304318_2710.pdf

Also, University of Tokyo's Hayano Ryugo does a lot of analysis with the government data. Does this mean anything to you? This is an analysis of contaminated water at the turbine building of No.3, which injured three workers.

http://plixi.com/photos/original/87213302

Hayano says "this analysis is only for people in field." This one is more straightforward, by NISA. This is the analysis of water at the bottom of turbine buildings of reactors No.1, No.2, No.3, and No.4.
http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20110327001/20110327001-4.pdf
Where you see lots of Chinese characters just means "under detectable amount." The rest are numbers and alphabets, which should make sense to you without translation.

This was made by MIT's Kotaro Kawajiri. It is a relationship between CS-137 contamination in spinach and the distance from Fukushima Daiichi. Based on data provided by Ministry of Health.
http://plixi.com/p/87149538 This one is in English. Radiation in Kanto area (South of Fukushima, including Tokyo) http://plixi.com/p/87011386

See how how those were around the time when lots of fire, smoke, explosion incidents were happening... I don't remember if governments were producing those data at that time. At least I don't remember seeing reports. They typically report something only when the situation gets better.

Radiation level change in Tohoku/Hokkaido area (except Fukushima and much of Miyagi ) in English too. http://plixi.com/p/87011613

Now, this is ISEP (Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies) analysis of the data of radiation at different monitoring posts inside Fukushima Daiichi. The English version is only available up to 20th.

http://hmatsuba.air-nifty.com/Fukushima1F20110320Eng.pdf

But once you see the English version, you can make more sense out of this latest Japanese version (up to 26th).

http://hmatsuba.air-nifty.com/fukushima1F20110326.pdf

Citizens and press have been complaining how inconsistent TEPCO (probably deliberately) has been in monitoring radiation at Fukushima Daiichi - especially since around March 17, they frequently change monitoring points and produce incomparable data. But again, see how strikingly high radiation levels there were from the onset of quake until March 16/17...

I am sure I have given you way more than you want. I hope this gives you an overview of what is going on. Some latest news. (don't worry about links.. they are in Japanese. I am only placing them for my own record.)

http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0326/TKY201103260412.html

From 1 kilogram of soil in Iidate Village, 40 km away from Fukushima Daiichi, 163,000 Bq Cs-137 and 1,170,000 Bq of Iodine 131 were detected. Devastating news for farmers. Prefecture advised farmers to postpone agricultural activities.

http://www.j-cast.com/2011/03/25091382.html

Asahi newspaper on March 25 reported in the top news "Fukushima reached Level 6." This is based on NSC's calculation of I-131. Asked about the possibility of raising the level, METI spokesperson said they were considering it. According to the Asahi article, NSC's calculation has it that from March 12 to 24, radioactive iodine was released 30,000 to 110,000 "terra-Bq" per hour.

Arjun, I have no idea how this number compares to the French estimate. Is it close?


This article indicates that NSC has no power over Japanese government's decision on the level of accidents. It is METI, which overseas NISA, which seems to have that power. Ridiculous. Arjun, please bear with me on one more important latest news.

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201103/CN2011032701000084.html

NSC's Nishiyama said from the water at No.2, radioactive iodine that has a half life of 53 minutes was detected... 2,900,000,000 Bq/cubic centimetre. Most likely to come from the reactor, through the piping. NISA's Nishiyama said, "this is a terrible number that I can't bear to see." I have never heard him making such a strong statement.

Seawater contamination is rising too. On 25th, iodine 1,250 times of standard was detected at seawater near reactors. On 26th, it was 1,850 times. Please only use what you find useful.

Thanks so much,

Satoko

................................................................

I saw the English map first and responded before reading this.

The thyroid is affected also when food and water are contaminated. If milk is consumed from the area that was produced after the accident started, then this would give the greatest dose to children. The authorities did prohibit milk after a certain time, but I wonder whether contaminated food, especially milk was consumed before. What was the date when the government announced that milk should not be consumed?

Best wishes

Arjun

Poster Fwd: An evening event for condolence and solidarity for Japan

* Poster image source: Peace Network

On March 28, the Hankyoreh and civic organizations in Korea will hold an evening event for condolence and solidarity for Japan, hoping prompt settlement of the problems caused from the Fukushima nuclear plants and non-nuclear safe world in the Boshingak, Seoul (7pm)

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

___________________________________________________
* 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: Steven Leeper: "We need to be working together, trying to help each other

Ten Thousand Things
Steven Leeper: "We need to be working together, trying to help each other, trying to find the truth & sharing it honestly & openly with each other."
March 25, 2011

Leeper, the director of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, which manages the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, told Democracy Now! on March 17, “In Hiroshima, we are pretty sensitive to radiation issues, and we’re very sensitive to disaster issues. We are known as a place that knows about radiation. We have a team of doctors. They left yesterday to go up into that area with their equipment to try to figure out what kind of radiation is up there."

The doctors have returned to Hiroshima, but haven't yet released their report. Today, he shared this follow-up:

In your Democracy Now! interview, you said that we need to know exactly what kind of radiation is out there, which kinds of isotopes are being emitted. What have your doctors found?

This information is not available. If the doctors know, they are not saying anything right now. We do know that iodine and cesium are out there at high levels. The TV is saying all you have to do is wash your vegetables. But the government is making a lot of farmers throw away a lot of product.

Do the risks lessen the further away one is from the Fukushima plant? What are the risks for people in Fukushima; the adjacent prefectures, and beyond?

The risk lessens rapidly with distance from Fukushima. The people within 20km have been evacuated, within 30km people are being asked to stay indoors as much as possible and to wear masks etc when they go out.

How should we read the measurements published by the Japanese government? The top priority for the government and even the scientists right now is to prevent panic. You should read the measurements as extremely conservative.

People are concerned about the use of MOX fuel. ?Would you speak to this?

Reactor 3 runs on MOX, which means it has a lot of plutonium in it. Plutonium is one of the most toxic substances on Earth. A tiny bit inside you will cause cancer. That is why it is very important to know if this plutonium is in the air. At this moment, most people do not think it is.

Should we be concerned about the smoke arising from the plant?

Yes, for two reasons. One is, it is surely radioactive to some extent. The second is that it indicates some sort of fundamental instability that they have yet to control.

Will Fukushima prefecture be able to "come back" eventually like Hiroshima did? Is a a nuclear plant disaster different from an atomic bombing disaster?

There is still an area 30km in radius around Chernobyl where no one can live.

At this moment, my understanding is that the radiation in Fukushima is fairly superficial and will be washed clean by a few big storms (except for right around the plant).

However, it is still possible that we will have a Chernobyl type meltdown, or even four such meltdowns. If we do, we will lose a big chunk of Fukushima Prefecture for a very long time.

A nuclear power plant is tens of thousands of times dirtier (more radiation) than any bomb. The main thing to know is, this is not over, not at all. We are still in terrible danger of a major nuclear disaster.

Do the HPF physicians recommend iodide supplementation for people throughout and outside Japan?

The people I have talked to do not recommend potassium iodide at this point. They don’t think it’s good for you and they don’t think it is necessary. Also, from what I have heard, no one can buy it anyway because the government has bought it all up and is planning to distribute it in the event of a real emergency. This has not been confirmed, but I heard it from a reliable source.

Conflicting information in the media is creating cognitive dissonance. At the Kyoto Journal Facebook page, there was a long discussion about which sources to trust. How do you advise lay people on how to obtain and evaluate information?

In general, the government is trying to prevent panic. The power company and the nuclear industry is trying to minimize the danger and maximize the appearance of control.

The anti-nuclear folks are maximizing the danger and lack of control.

In Kyoto, you have a guy name Koide-sensei. I trust him. Here we have Kamata-sensei. I trust him. However, neither of them have access to the real raw data from the site.

The doctors I was hoping would tell us the truth around here seem to be taking the position that they do not want to cause panic, which causes me to panic.

Hoshi-sensei, who has been on TV, says that right now we are not in great danger, but that the situation is extremely serious and could turn very very bad. He is deeply worried, but not about what’s happened so far, only about what might happen.

I think we all need to listen very carefully to all the information coming to us, then do what our own intuition tells us to do. No one really knows what is happening. No one knows what will happen.

Besides which, the situation is so extremely complex that no one, even with the best of neutral intentions, can possibly know what is happening. What is in the air? Where is it going? Where is it falling? What will it do to you if you breathe it or eat it? All of this is complex beyond any scientific ability to say anything.

We all need to listen and use every reference point we can, be we all need to understand that our guesses are as good as anyone else’s.

What do you advise us on how to deal with the collective psychological trauma we are experiencing?

I think I answered that in the previous question, but in addition, I would say that the key is in the word "collective." We are all in this together.

We need to be working together, trying to help each other, trying to find the truth and sharing it honestly and openly with each other.

We have to avoid taking our stress out on each other and turning this into a blame game filled with anger and hatred and fear. That will only make the situation worse and keep people from being able to make their best contributions. We need to keep calm, at least until the situation with the reactors is resolved.

Then we can start investigating the causes and who to blame and all that accountability stuff, but right now, we need TEPCO people going in there risking their lives to save us, and we need to be grateful that they are doing so.

Love will help us more than anger. Courage will help more than panic.

- Posted by Jean Downey

Text Fwd: LATEST ON CONTAMINATION IN JAPAN

________________________
See also Ten Thousand Things
"Rise like Tsunamis after the Earthquakes" — An open letter speaking to grief, hope and sharing resources for healing, March 23, 2011

Peace Philosophy Center
Fukushima - As of March 25 AM (Japna Time)

DMZ Hawai'i
“When nuclear reactors blow, the first thing that melts down is the truth”; What They’re Covering Up at Fukushima, March 24, 2011
________________________
Organizing Notes
LATEST ON CONTAMINATION IN JAPAN
March 24, 2011



The Japanese and U.S. governments continue to lie about contamination levels released by the Fukushima power station. Why do the people have to suffer at the hands of these corporate fools? Is it because they don't want the people to demand the closer of all existing nuclear power plants throughout Japan and the rest of the world?

Aileen Mioko Smith of Kyoto-based Green Action, one of Japan’s leading voices challenging the production, commerce and transport of nuclear material, and calling for sustainable energy policies is interviewed by Democracy Now.

Let the truth be known about the Fukushima Nuclear Plants
-- An urgent demand to the mass media and the Government of Japan

People's Plan Study Group
17 March, 2011

Developments at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant could cause a catastrophic situation, aggravating damage brought by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami which hit Japan on March 11. This is a serious emergency which is equivalent to what happened in Chernobyl, but should also be regarded as the first-ever incident of its kind since multiple nuclear reactors malfunctioned simultaneously. The released radioactivity could spread out beyond a 20 or 30 kilometres radius and cause an irreparable damage to human health, the environment and society.

The Government of Japan has met this crisis only with stop-gap measures and tried to abdicate its responsibility, thereby letting the situation to take an even more serious turn. But at this moment we are not taking the government to task on the whole range of its neglect because the situation is too urgent.

At this critical moment, we demand that the Japanese Government and the mass media tell us the whole truth about what is happening at the Fukushima reactors. The Government of Japan has only released a fraction of the necessary information and has refused to let people know what the worst case scenario is, leaving us completely unprotected. The Government of Japan has not taken any measures to minimize possible damage caused in this scenario. Instead of giving us the truth, the Government, the mass media which follow it blindly, and self-proclaimed “experts” are trting to play down the severity of this situation by, for example, suggesting comparisons with exposure to medical X-rays or radioactivity during an international flight, making the entire situation appear close to what normally happens in daily life. Data about the measured level of radiation is disclosed at random, but it does not contain information about what kind of nuclear materials are being released. Reporters attending the Government's press conferences don't dare to ask questions about this. There is also a lack of systematic warnings about internal exposure to radiation. Meanwhile, most foreign organisations, experts and media have already classed the Fukushima accident close to level seven in the International and Radiological Nuclear Event Scale, and foreign governments have accordingly asked their nationals to evacuate Japan. Where does this huge gap in their acknowledgment of the situation come from?

A favourable interpretation is that the Japanese Government have tried not to cause social panic. But the best way to avoid panic is to give people access to a correct understanding of ongoing events, let them know how to minimize the damage and allow them a variety of methods to do so. Panic occurs when a patient who has been told by their physician that they only have a stomach ache suddenly discovers that they actually have a severe tumour.

The accident at the Fukushima facility requires urgent and coordinated action. We demand that the Government of Japan acknowledge the severity of this situation, make people aware of it, and clarify how this emergency is to be dealt with without delay.

Text Fwd: 3 nuke workers hospitalized in Japan

Japan's critical situation stays alarming as a number of around 26,000 people have lost their lives or are presumed dead.
_______________________
* Informed at the CLG news

Press TV
3 nuke workers hospitalized in Japan
March 24, 2011

Three workers at reactor 3 of Japan's Fukushima Prefecture have been taken to hospital for radiation, while the nuclear crisis keeps high the life-threatening concerns of the disaster.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said the workers of the Fukushima Daiichi plant were hospitalized after being exposed to radiation, AFP reported Thursday.

March 11 witnessed an extremely fatal earthquake followed by a gigantic tsunami in northeastern Japan, while so far at least 26,000 people have died or are presumed dead according to the National Police Agency.

The National Police Agency said on Thursday that 9,700 people have so far been killed and over 16,500 more are presumably dead.

There are fears of a much higher death toll from the disaster that has displaced hundreds of thousands of Japanese.

The mega-quake has also affected the presumably quake-proof Fukushima nuclear plant. Efforts are underway to cool down overheating reactors at the plant.

The Japanese government has ordered the evacuation of about 200,000 people living in a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) area around the nuclear power plant, and told people living between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the plant to remain indoors.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan's main island, unleashed a 30-foot (10-meter) tsunami wave and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours.

The quake is now considered Japan's deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which claimed the lives of more than 142,000 people.